#i have reworked them though. a lot. that might make them mine right? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

trashboatprince · 3 years

Text

Since I’m still in a sci-fi mood (along with, like, monsters and romance stuff too, but that’s always there), and I haven’t been able to really... make any new written content recently, I decided to rework an old one-shot I wrote for the space pirate au with how my Henry, Hugo, met Bendy in it.

I honestly don’t remember if I ever posted it here, I know I posted it on discord for my friends to read, but I’m posting up a better version here. Plus, rewriting an old drabble might help me get back into the swing of things when it comes to writing! Especially since I’ve got a zine entry to work on.

As always, Hugo is a half human/half alien (Asterian), and he’s fourteen in this. Bendy is a being from another universe or dimension, it’s unclear where Bendy’s from, but he’s a demon.

Asterians are a race of aliens that have the ability to travel through the vacuum of space with no need to breathe and have bioluminescent skin, but because Hugo is part human, he can’t last as long in space as he should.

On with the fic!

Hugo had lost count of how long he had been left on this stupid hunk of space rock, but he knew that he would probably be dead in due time.

He considered that he’s probably got about an hour or two left, and knowing the Butcher Gang, they’ll either show up last minute to watch him suffer before putting him back on the ship, or they’ll just let him perish. They’re real jackasses like that.

At least he took his sketchbook with him after they threw him off the ship for their own enjoyment, but still, not much to draw when all around him was just inky darkness and a weak light source from a distant star.

He sighed, soundless, his skin gently flashing a neon green, starting from his face down to his fingertips.

“Dat’s a real fancy trick ya can do, kid.”

Hugo’s eyes widened and he turned, shocked to have heard a voice, when he normally couldn’t hear anything in the vacuum of space. He was surprised to see something moving in the darkness of space around him. Something shifted, specks of lights moving around in front of him, before something formed. It looked like a wide, cartoon-ish smile, and from there a whiteness started to spread, forming an odd shape. Then two black, nearly full ovals, with little cuts in them, appeared in the white. It was a face!

“Hiya!” The face greeted in a childish voice, though clearly accented. The shape got closer and as it stepped onto the rock with Hugo, the half-human saw a shape form.

The darkness of space took on legs, oddly shaped, along with a long tail, them a small body that was sorta shaped like a bean. Arms with clawed hands followed, and the face seemed to have more of a head shape to it, though clearly shaped like a strange crescent form. The blackness of the body was covered in what looked like stars, twinkling and flashing, a variety of colors.

“What?” The strange creature asked. “Ya not gonna greet me?”

Hugo frowned, gesturing to his throat and then opened his mouth before shaking his head, his skin flashing involuntarily.

“Ah, right,” The creature nodded, frowning, “ya guys in dis universe can’t talk in da vacuum of space. Hold on.”

He snapped his fingers, the snap actually made a sound, and a bubble surrounded the whole rock. Hugo let out a surprised laugh, before slapping a hand over his mouth, blinking. “W-what?”

“Just a li’l trick, super easy to do!” A grin formed on the other’s face. “It’s made outta natural gases dat drift around us, can’t just make it all, ya know, willy-nilly, but it’s super simple! So, what’s yours dat mine’s Bendy!”

Hugo had to take a moment to register what this guy, Bendy, has said. “It’s, uh, it’s Hugo.” He replied, coughing, trying to sound deeper than he naturally was.

“Hugo, huh?” Bendy grinned brightly. “Nice to meet’cha! So, whatcha doin’ out here in an asteroid belt? Not really a social spot fer ya... what are you?”

“I dunno.” Hugo shrugged. “Human and somethin’ else, I reckon. What exactly are you?”

“Demon!”

“Demon? You mean, like, those human monsters?”

Bendy snorted loudly at this. “Pah-lease! Nonononononono- weeeellll... yes? No? Maybe so! Hard to tell, I mean, demons an’ angels aren’t technically natural to dis dimension, but we exist! We’ve been to Earth! I’ve been there, a number of times, really nice, an’ kinda bad, but it’s got lots of fun stuff there! Ya ever been?”

Hugo shook his head. “No, never really been in that area of the galaxy. Been, uh, stuck in situations were I don’t get to pick where I go.”

The grin slipped on Bendy’s face, as if he was reading the situation and figured out what Hugo was referring to. “Ah, I getcha. Still, maybe you’ll get to see it! It’s pretty neat!” The grin returned and cosmic eyes glanced to the sketchbook resting next to Hugo. “Oh! Ya draw?”

There was a nod, and Bendy asked to see. Hugo let him and Bendy started to look at the sketches and drawings Hugo’s done over the past few months. He seemed rather excited and giddy about them, chatting and pointing out what he loved, or pointed out what was good but could use some improvement.

It was... kinda nice, Hugo thought as he sat there, listening to Bendy ramble on and on. He hadn’t really had anyone to talk to in ages, not since his escape from his previous life and being cabin boy on the Butcher Gang’s ship didn’t give him much respect from anyone onboard, so having a strange being this excited to talk to him was like a breath of fresh air.

“So, why are ya sittin’ on this floatin’ rock, Hugo?” Bendy asked after a while, when their conversation had turned into small talk and such.

“I got left behind for no good reason by the Butcher Gang, they’re the pirates I ‘work’ for.” Hugo stuck out his tongue, making a face. “They’re a bunch of lowlife bastards, is what they are! I bet I could be a better pirate than them any day!”

“You wanna be a pirate?”

“Yeah!” Hugo got to his feet, grinning. “I wanted to be a ranger when I was a kid, but I think a pirate would be cooler! Better! I can make a name for myself, I can rule the skies in my own ship! One day, I’ll have my name known across the galaxy! People will fear the name Hugo, no more lookin’ down on me and thinkin’ I’m just some freak or useless mutt!”

Bendy stared at him for a moment, quietly, and Hugo suddenly felt self conscious, before Bendy’s grin grew even bigger than it had before, nearly face splitting. His eyes sparkled with stars, brightly, it was so strange. “That... SOUNDS AMAZIN’! Can I join!? Can I be part of yer crew, Hugo!?”

Hugo was a bit caught off-guard by this. “You... you wanna be part of my crew? Why?”

“Cause dat sounds like so much fun! Look, I’m a drifter, I explore wherever I drift to, but dat gets so borin’ after so long! An’ bein’ a space pirate sounds like a blast! I’ll help you escape, an’ you an’ I can go on a bajillion adventures together!”

Bendy shoved his hand out at Hugo, smiling. “I’ll make yer dreams come true, Hugo. If ya want mah help.”

“...” Hugo looked at the offered hand. “What do you get outta this? No offense, but from what I know about demons, they like to make deals.”

“None taken.” Bendy shrugged, casually. “I getcha, not easy to trust a demon, we do have a rep fer deals an’ da like, kinda ruins it fer the honest demons like me. But listen, all I want outta this is a fun life! An’ I think yer just da guy to make dat happen.” He winked and Hugo chuckled.

“Alright, you’ve got a deal, Bendy!” Hugo took the offered hand with manic glee.

“Wait, you just... took the deal? Just like that?” Harrison asked, raising an eyebrow. “Did you not consider that it could have been a trick?”

“Honestly?” Hugo shrugged. “I considered that, yeah, but Bendy sounded honest, and somethin’ about him screamed ‘he’ll be the most important friend you’ll ever have’. And I was right.”

Hugo chuckled, rubbing at his right palm, where black mark was in his skin, like a tattoo. It was Bendy’s mark, meant for protection and connection. Harrison had asked about it, had asked how Hugo had even met Bendy, and the pirate decided to tell him.

“Do you regret it?” Harrison asked as he looked at the mark.

“Nope, never have, never will. Bendy and I are friends till the end.”

“I see... wait, how the heck did you two become father and son then?”

“Oh, see, now that’s a really funny story! So, when I was fifteen...”

It had been a slip from Bendy, by the way, he has accidentally called Hugo ‘dad’ and then it sorta just stuck around. Hugo has embraced the role of dad with his whole being, especially since he can get away with dad jokes now.

But yeah, here’s how these two met in this au!

Harrison is my friend inkspottie’s Henry, by the way.

#bendy and the ink machine #batim #batim bendy #henry stein #hugo #space pirate au #john's drabbles

23 notes · View notes

kiaradimari · 3 years

Text

Hello and welcome to Kiara’s corner of the World...

I thought I already did this once, but I apparently can’t find it so I will post an official welcome to my writeblr. This Tumblr/writeblr is a cross between a personal blog and a writing blog with a touch of my artblr all rolled into one. I try not to get into anything political because I really have no place for it here. That said, I do have an artblr and a writeblr that is specifically designed for my current WIPs.

Those can be found here and here. However, I can, and do still have conversations about my WIPs here, just because it is a bit easier to stay connected to everyone and most information can be more easily found anyway. I will share any writing tips that I have and some personal victories as well. That’s just how this will work.

Now, I’d like to cover just a few things regarding this particular writeblr while I have you here.

Real Name

No, my real name is not Kiara DiMari. That is a pen name. A creator name for all of my projects. I almost never use my real name anywhere I share my work at. Sorry.

My sexuality is mine. It’s hard to give it a name with everything changing on a daily basis. When I first came out, I came out as bisexual. Now, it all is just too confusing. So I find beauty and attraction to many people. I am happily married and have a preference to my husband. We have 3 daughters. I listen to all sorts of music, love Broadway and Opera, and many forms of art. I’m pretty open-minded for the most part. I am Wiccan, a solitary practioner. Yes, I dabble in witchcraft. I read tarot and have translated the meaning of dreams. I am an Empath. It’s kind of draining.

I use She/Her pronouns, thank you.

Tarot Readings and Dream Interpretations

And now that I have brought this up, I need to include this. Yes, I will give readings and dream interpretations. There is a cost, however. I do have them listed here in my Ko-fi Comissions list. You can send me an ask, but the commission cost is still the same. These readings can take a lot of time and energy, so this is just to be fair. Thank you for understanding.

WIP

My current WIP is my Eudorian Chronicles series. Volume 2 was written and published years ago but has since been pulled down and reworked. While reworking it, I realized I had the makings for a better Volume 1 so that is the WIP I can currently working on. The writeblr for those WIPs is listed above.

I have written fan fiction for fan fiction.net and AO3 (Archive of Our Own) and Wattpad. A link to those works will be shared below. I am a wife and mother. I work part time right now so I depend on on commissions for extra cash.

My Ask box Is Open

This means that, yes, you may ask me questions about pretty much anything and I will answer them for you here. I don’t get a lot of questions, but my ask box is always open. This means, though, that some respect is to be given. Extremely personal questions will not be answered if I deem them inappropriate.

Now, if you choose to be rude and a bit obnoxious, I will gladly answer those questions for you, but you will, first, need to visit my Ko-fi page and donate a small fee. Make sure you leave a little note so that I know what it is for and I will gladly come back here to answer your question.

Any other questions regarding me, my writing, my art, my OC’s, anything, free of charge, please feel free to ask away and I will gladly answer.

Can I Tag you in Writing Challenges and Tags?

OMG, Yes! By all means, PLEASE do! I gladly welcome such challenges. It can be a really nice break when I have been sitting for hours plugging away at my chapters. So, by all means, please feel free to tag me and include all the necessary rules for the tag so that I can correctly post the response to each tag.

Do I Offer Commissions?

Short answer is yes. Everything related to my commissions can be found on my Ko-fi page with lists and prices. If you are looking for something a little different than what I have displayed, please, by all means contact me and let me now what you are looking for. I will gladly work with you on a fair price for what you are wanting.

Looking For Me In Other Places?

Honestly, I’m all over the place. So I have tried to make it a little easier to find me if you are wanting to see what else I am doing and how you can support me or make special requests.

Here’s a Carrd with almost all my links .

Now, this link also includes things like my Ko-fi page, my Venmo and Paypal links as well as my merch store where you can purchase things like T-shirts and travel mugs, pillows, and phone cases with my art on them. I will be adding new designs every week for a while so feel free to check back often to see if there is something there you might like. Don’t forget, I am also on TikTok so you can follow me there as well to see/hear some other ways I can be creative.

#writeblr #writeblr community #writeblr intro #pinned post #send me asks #ask box open #commissions #commissions open #ko-fi #carrd link #art #link share

27 notes · View notes

ill-skillsgard · 4 years

Text

Good Manners - Henry Deaver x Mistress

Warning: 18+ smut/mentions of cheating/mature themes/strong language/spousal conflict. **Dominance, some bum stuff and mega fluff in this part**

Note: I kind of hate to say this, but I think I will retire HxM after a couple more parts. I’ll tie it up nicely, and answer all the burning questions before I do so, but I just wanted to warn you guys now instead of springing it on you without notice. I just have so many projects I want to get underway and tying up some stories is necessary for me to direct my focus. Don’t hate me! I know we’ve had a lot of fun with this series, but I see it winding down, and I hope you understand!

Read past Henry x Mistress imagines here > Masterpost

Henry threw open the door, taking long strides as he shed his jacket, dropped his keys on the kitchen island and zipped through to the living room where he found her channel-surfing in her pyjamas. From the corner of her eye, the tall man's sudden appearance startled a gasp from her.

"Henry! I didn't expect you home so quickly. How did it go?" She said, sitting up straight.

"It doesn't matter," he muttered.

Henry swept her off the couch, attacking her mouth with his to stifle any further questioning. Fresh with anger and the residual adrenaline of finally admitting he had taken a mistress during the downfall of his marriage, Henry had grown tired of explaining himself. He was hungry and eager to display his dominance—the dominance that evaporated in Mary's shadow no longer.

When he was with her—his true love—there was nothing he wasn't allowed to do, no act she forbade. If he wanted to take her hard and fast, she welcomed the rush. If he wished to have her take care of him, that was also permitted. Tonight he wanted nothing more than to make her moan and squeal, proving to himself that he wasn't a pawn in a grand-scale game of manipulation. Henry was powerful, and it had been too long since he acknowledged his prowess.

"Oh my gosh, Henry. Where is this all coming from?" She asked, breathless as Henry toted her to the bedroom and tossed her onto the king-sized bed.

"Quiet. No more questions," Henry said as he unbuttoned his shirt and pulled the fabric from underneath his belted trousers. "Tonight, you're mine. Your body is mine to do with what I please.

"Yes, sir."

He took hold of her chin, smiling. "Oh, yes. That's exactly what I want to hear. Yes, sir. More, sir. Harder, sir. And anything I ask for, you'll provide."

She nodded as he shed his undershirt and undid his belt. The glint of the buckle in the light caught her eye, and Henry noticed the way she squirmed and bit her lip. He looked down at the leather in his hand, and instead of discarding it like he usually would, he folded it in half, snapping the material together with a crack. She flinched.

"What? Does the thought of getting whipped with my belt make your pussy wet?" He asked.

"Yes, Mister Deaver, sir," she said, turning about and bending over.

"I bet everything I do makes that pussy wet."

She smiled, wiggling her hips until Henry climbed onto the bed and pulled her bottoms up, cheeks peeking out from under the flimsy material. Henry tapped one cheek and then the other with the folded belt, a light warning of undeserved but wanted punishment.

While Henry teased her skin, she thought about what might have happened with Mary to set him off. He wasn't the type to take control without significant reason. The first time Henry had dominated her had been in his office after a day of training and mutual teasing. She remembered it clearly; everyone had gone home, leaving the floor empty. Yet even as high up as they were, she got off on the thought of someone seeing them through the window, an intern walking in to ask Henry a question, or an after-hours janitor happening upon them in the throes of ecstasy.

Henry wedged the material of her bottoms even higher, leaning over to first kiss the area he meant to slap. Then he raised the belt and whipped her. It wasn't a harsh blow. He could have hit much harder, but she still mewled and thanked Henry.

"Good manners," Henry praised, yanking the bottoms down around her knees. "And I see no panties. Only bad girls forget to put on their panties. Are you a bad girl?"

"Yes, sir. But I want to be a good girl for you," she said.

"You're well on your way, darling. Hold still."

She yelped from the firm smack of the leather across her bottom. An angry red welt rose, spanning both cheeks. Even Henry winced as he ran his hand over the reddening mark, feeling the warmth radiating from her skin.

"That was a good one," he said, chuckling.

"Thank you, sir," she whispered.

Henry dropped the belt and got on his knees before the edge of the bed. Framing her rear, he licked one half of the most recent strip of buzzing punishment, and then the other, providing cooling relief with his saliva. He pulled back, simpering and admiring the fullness of her ass, the disciplinary marks and the moan that left her when he trailed his tongue close to her openings.

"Do you remember the first night I fucked you? How much fun we had at the bar before I invited you up? Gosh... It took me so many drinks to find the balls to ask you. I thought I'd be too drunk to perform when I finally got you naked. But you looked so hot that night. Even in your little server's uniform, the white button-up blouse... Your hair all twisted up in a bun where you used to stick your pencil. I had already imagined fucking you so many times before then, too."

Henry kissed the crease between thigh and cheek, then gave her a satisfying smack. Grabbing her thigh, he guided her legs open, and her pussy came into view, but he wasn't ready to touch her quite yet.

"Even though I wanted things to work out with my wife, every morning I saw you, I wished I'd gotten the divorce underway so I could pull you onto my lap and squeeze all your beautiful curves. Some nights I'd argue with her, then come into that café just to get a glimpse of a woman who smiled every time she saw me. Such a little thing shouldn't have been so erotic, but it was, and God, I just wanted you so bad. I even masturbated to the thought of taking you at that bar long before you and I ever hooked up."

Henry's admissions made her cheeks turn pink, and her heart raced. She dropped her tailbone, encouraging him to touch her, but he only slid his hand up and down her ass, petting her while he spoke.

"Let me ask you something, gorgeous... Did you ever think about fucking me?"

She scoffed, not from embarrassment but from the absurdity of Henry not realizing how much she flirted with him during the times they had been strangers. "Of course, I did. How could I not? You always came in looking so handsome. I thought you were a model. And you were the kindest gentleman I'd ever met. I wanted to serve you much more than just coffee and scones," she giggled.

"Really?" He asked, kissing the small of her back as he squeezed her cheeks again.

"Yes, sir. Even though I knew you were married, I still thought of having those big, strong hands touching my body."

Henry chuckled under his breath. "And what else?"

She blushed. "Well, sir... I often wondered if you were as nice as you looked. Most of the men who dressed like you were entitled, rude... But you always smiled at me, and I couldn't help wanting to kiss you. I wanted to climb on your lap in the middle of that café and ride your cock. Sometimes, I even snuck away just to touch myself a little after you came in. I'd watch your hand gripping your pen, watch you purse your lips when you were lost in thought. Once, I even dropped something on the floor near you just so I could bend down and hope you were staring at me."

"Oh, that's naughty. Have you always been such a naughty girl?" Henry asked.

"Yes, sir. I think so. But you help bring it out of me," she said.

"I do, do I? I make you want to be bad?"

She nodded her head. "Yes, Mister Deaver. Can I tell you something else?"

Henry purred as he popped the button of his pressed trousers and pushed them down his thighs, readying himself to tease her even more. "You may."

"I had a feeling you were married. That first night, after you asked me to go upstairs with you to your room... You weren't wearing your ring, but I saw it many times before. I knew you must have had a wife, but I chose to play dumb because I wanted your cock so badly. It didn't even matter to me. I thought we'd just fuck once to get it out of our systems... But you were so amazing. I knew right after that I'd come back for more. I wanted to be mad at you for being a bad man, but I couldn't help myself."

Henry's groin roiled with excitement, blood shooting down to harden him. He disrobed and climbed onto the bed behind her, goading her pussy with the head of his swollen cock. "There's no other pussy in this world I'd ever want to be inside, baby. You're so perfect for me. My nasty little girl."

Playing confessions helped ease away the panic gripping Henry's heart. The reworked settlement and Mary's promise to drain him meant nothing as he pushed inside of her. The private investigator—if what Mary said was true—following them around to catch them in a lover's embrace only strengthened his need for her. He wanted to be seen touching her, kissing her. Henry looked down at the woman groaning from his penetration and bristled with affection.

"Oh, Mister Deaver, your cock feels so good inside me," she languished.

"Fuck, I love you, baby. I love your tight little pussy. Your beautiful face. This gorgeous body. Mm, I'll never get enough of you. My perfect girl."

She bent her spine, pressing into his hips until she completely enveloped him. Henry clutched her thighs and began pumping into her, picking up speed until she whined from the harsh punctures.

He ground his teeth, unable to stifle his pleasure. "Fuck, I love your cunt baby. Love when it makes my cock all soaking wet. It's so much tighter than hers. You're absolutely perfect."

"Thank you, sir," she murmured.

Henry pressed his chest to her back, snaking his arm around her collarbone to bring her close. "You belong to me. You're all mine. This pussy right here? This sweet little hole belongs to me. Only me."

Each thrust knocked a bit of air from her lungs until she gasped. Henry touched her clit with two fingers, rubbing it sparingly as he pinched her nipples with the other hand.

"I fucking love you, baby. You know that? Not an hour goes by, I don't think of being with you, being inside you... I want you forever."

"I'm yours," she said.

"Do you love me?" He asked.

His strong pulses knocked the words out of her until he sat back on his haunches, bringing her with him to stir his hips. She moaned from the change in sensation.

"I love you," she whispered.

"Yeah? You really do?"

"Yes, Henry. I love you more than anything."

His hand squeezed gently around her neck as he leaned in close. "That's good, baby. I'll never tire of hearing you say that."

She smiled as he touched her clit again. His body pressing against hers made her feel small, chest and long arms enveloping her top half as he worked himself inside. Henry must have felt powerful that day, for he pulled out and toppled her onto her back, knocking her legs apart to hone in on her slick opening. He towered above, throwing her legs over his shoulders and driving her into the bed with his entire weight.

"Fuck, that pussy is so goddamn wet for me," Henry said with a gasp. "Can't believe all that delicious pussy juice belongs to me."

"Mm, can I taste it?" She asked.

Henry cocked his head as he continued slamming into her. "What?"

"Pull out and fuck my throat."

It took Henry a moment to reconcile with her request. Any other day, he might deny her, or cower from the idea of shoving his cock in her mouth. But today was different. She wanted him in all the ways Mary never did. The delight in her eyes still surprised him, and he gave her what she wanted because it was what he wanted, despite all the times he'd fashioned himself as too gallant. Too long were his intimate perversions denied that when he met her, he couldn't believe she languished in being treated like a plaything.

As he used her mouth and moaned from the swirling of her tongue, her hands travelled up his thighs and didn't stop until she gripped his cheeks. The pad of her thumb met the expanse of skin underneath his balls, and the sweet pressure caused a stirring of sensation that was still foreign to him. He shuddered, dropping his chin to find her staring up at him with an evil glint in her eyes. Henry nodded.

"Oh, fuck yes, I love it when you do that."

His encouragement lit a fire beneath her. All this time, she assumed Henry only humoured her when she wanted to play extra dirty and touch his ass, but he secretly loved the feeling. The tension against his prostate ignited hundreds of dormant nerves that lit the way toward a powerful orgasm. Henry recalled the first time he allowed her to finger him, how nervous he'd been and how intense the sensation felt when she penetrated him.

Careful not to intrude too hard or too fast, she circled his hole a few times, assessing by the magnitude of his moans it was okay to press a little further. If her mouth weren't full of his cock, she'd ask, but Henry didn't flinch or whine the way he had the first time.

He opened his legs wider and sat back on the digit teasing his entrance with a low, lustful groan.

"God, yes, baby, finger my fucking asshole while I fuck your throat. That's what I like."

The duelling pleasures had Henry bucking fast and coming faster. He didn't want the bliss to end, but her expert fingers and well-versed tongue pushed him to the edge and didn't stop there. Henry unsheathed his cock from her throat and spilled an impressive amount of cum over her chest. She even pulled him back in to drink the lazier stream of fluid that followed the many bursts that had him writhing and singing his pleasure.

"Jesus... You're such a dirty girl. I love it. Fuck, I love watching you lick up all my cum." Henry collapsed beside her, then gasped when he realized she hadn't orgasmed. "Oh, fuck! I almost forgot about you."

"It's all right, darling. How about you just rest and you can do me later? You look like you need a break."

Henry wanted to decline, but she was right. His ears rang, and his fingers and toes were numb from the recent climax. All he wanted was to hold her close and kiss her face while he came down.

"That was so good. You're amazing," Henry murmured.

"Feel better now?" She asked.

"So much better," he sighed. "But I have a question I need you to answer before we do anything else."

She propped her head up, disregarding the stickiness still dripping down her chest. "Oh, yeah? What's that?"

Henry took in a long, steadying breath. He blinked a few times until the haze in his vision subsided, then looked at her with seriousness burning in his mismatched eyes. "When we finalize this divorce, and I'm no longer married to that evil fucking succubus of a woman... Would you marry me?"

"What?" She gasped. "Henry! You can't be serious."

"I am serious. Very serious."

"You want to get hitched right away?"

"Baby... I've known for a long time that I want to marry you. It just seemed so... distant, impossible. Like it would never happen. But I promise, if you marry me, I'll be the best husband ever."

She hugged him close, squealing into his neck. "I know! I know you'd be the best husband."

"The moment I walk out of the court, I want to marry you. It's not enough to just be your boyfriend. I want to put a ring on your finger and have a wedding and go on a honeymoon. I want it all. Ever since I was young, I wanted to be a husband and—"

Henry bit his lip. She pulled back and searched his eyes, still gripping him tightly.

"And?" She pressed.

"A father. I want to be a dad so badly."

Tears sprung in the corner of her eyes. When he saw the watery pools reflecting him, a similar wave of emotions overtook him. She blinked, and two streams fell down her cheeks. Henry pulled her close, kissing her as his own tears fell. When he pulled back, she was smiling.

"Is that okay? Is that... too much?" Henry asked, voice trembling.

She shook her head. "It's not too much, Henry. I love you. God, I love you more than anything. You deserve to be happy. And of course, I'd marry you. I want nothing more than to be a good wife to you."

"Really?" He asked as more joyful tears washed out his vision.

"Yes!"

"That's wonderful," he whispered, pulling her close again.

She rested her cheek on his chest, feeling the thumping of his heart as he sniffled and wiped the tears from his face.

"Henry?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"I know you’ll be an amazing father."

#henry x mistress #henry deaver x mistress #Henry Deaver #bill skarsgard fanfiction #bill skarsgard smut #bill skarsgard imagine

131 notes · View notes

popculturebuffet · 3 years

Text

New X-Men Xtrospective Part 1: E is For Extinction “They Will Need Us”

I am SO fucking excited for this one. As might not be obvious to ALL of my readers but should be obvious to some, I fucking love the X-Men. They are one of my favorite superhero teams period as are several of their spinoffs such as X-Factor (All versions), New Mutants, and Marauders. I love the wide cast, the hugely vast universe within the already vast and wonderful marvel universe, and the sheer amount of GREAT stories. I own all 11 movies, have several action figures, and two posters from Jonathan Hickman’s current and utterly dynamite run right above me right now as I work, as well as a marvel 80′s themed poster behind me that’s at least half x-men for good reason. I love this gang of mutants and I have not talked about them enough.

I”ve done some X-Men stuff sure: I’ve talked about hickman’s time as head writer of the books a year in earlier this year, I did a few scattered reviews back when I did single issues of comics, and then we get to the one I beefed big time: covering ALL of X-Men evolution. While it’s a noble endeavor I freely admit to overexerting myself: I recapped the episodes way too closely, gave myself no real schedule and did so while I was already covering two shows a week at the time. My point is it was a good idea, but the timing was REALLY fucking bad and if I do it again, I intend to do it right and iwth a proper place in my now properly paced schedule. I also planned to do the movies which, unlike evolution, I have solid plans to do once I clear out some of my projects. Point is I burned bright and then exploded and took a whole projecet with me phoenix style.

I had until this moment yet to do a really big x-men project, something digging into the comics, something that could help fans both of the comics and not get familiar with something really good, and help me dig into both the good and bad of something. I jsut needed the right start.

Then Christmas gave me that spark, that project that gave me the idea for a butload more x-men content on here and was the perfect starting point for some. See my friend Marco lives in Honduras, and so since i couldn’t afford to send him anything for christmas in the mail, as i’m not exactly rich, I instead offered him three reviews of anything.l He still hasn’t taken up two of them, nor one I gave him for graduating college, but the first one was a doozy, something he hadn’t read due to not liking the art, which is fine as I have some art in comics I don’t like everyone has diffrent tastes, at least for the first arc, and something VITALLY important to x-men as a whole and that’s the backbone of hickman’s current run: the first arc of new x-men, e is for extinction. And given New X-Men is one of my faviorite comics of all time I not only lept on it.. but decided fuck it I’m covering the whole thing. So every so often on here from now until I finish, i’m going to be covering Grant Morrisons ground breaking, mind shattering, status quo destroying run on the children of the atom. This.. is going to be fucking awesome. Buckle up.

New X-Men came about in 2001. Stop me if you heard this one: The X-Men, once marvel’s best selling title and one of i’ts most beloved, had been set adrift in a seal of editorial bullshit, bad writing, bad storylines and a stale continuity where not much could change or grow and things always reset to about the same place it was last week. If this sounds familiar it’s because it somehow happened AGAIN thanks to Ike Perlmutter’s bullshit, hence the current hickman run, but we’ll get into all of tha tsome other time. Point is as it was in 2018, so it was in 2001: The x-men were in bad straits and marvel reached out to a host of various creators to swing for the fences and find a new direction, something to bring sales and life back to the book. To my shock they actually took a LOT of diffrent pitches in before Morrisons won and from huge names: Geoff Johns, who had not yet returned to DC never to leave, Alex Ross, Keith Giffen.. all huge creative types. but in the end the best man won.

For those unfamiliar with him, Grant Morrison is a gloriously batshit scotsman with a long, storied and delightfully insane history in comics, mostly at DC before and after this comic. This is for good reason: DC scouted Morrison specifically because of his early work at 2000ad. See at the time Alan Moore had hit it really big with Swamp Thing, taking a d list, so so book and making it into an utter masterpiece and giving it thoroughly interesting mythology. Given it was a blockbuster hit that’s still widely loved and discussed, as it should be today, DC decided to repeat the strategy of asking British indie comics creators to come do the same to another property. This same experiment is why Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman exists, so.. yeah it was actually a great strategy and naturally Grant had their first big hit with Animal Man, a metafictional take on a b-list hero that made him a loveable family man, while also putting him through hell and playing with the medium and dc’s vast history, the last two being Morrison’s trademark from then on out.

They’d next go on to reinvent one of my other faviorite teams: THE DOOM PATROL! The patrol are a bunch of victims of strange accidents who got powers out of them that are basically curses... and Morrison solidified that concept, taking over after a weak run that ironically enough was trying to imitate the x-men’s success at the time. Instead Morrison just went all out with his weird shit for the first time and made them a team of broken but likeable people with weird powers fighting just the weirdest most incomprehensible shit, a run i’ll likely be digging into eventually along with the team as a whole. It’s also, along with Gerard Way’s recent run, the bedroock for the current and utterly masterful doom patrol series I need to catch up on. They also apparently once wrote a satrical comic starring and lik mocking hitler... a fact I somehow JUST learned but naturally doesn’t surprise me at all.

Morrison’s career at dc, after doing some creator owned stuff there when Vertigo opened up, hit it’s peak in the late 90′s as they were given the go ahead to reinvent the Justice League, with the wildly successful and awesome JLA, another book I probably need to take a look at that put the big 7 back into the team. And by now your probably getting the point of me covering his career pattern.. besides giving morrison the praise they deserve, and they’d have some really great runs after this.. and some terrible ones but no one’s perfect. My point is that at this point in their career Morrison’s greatest skill was taking something that had grown stagnant or been forgotten, blowing it up and reworking it into something glorious and new. Taking what worked, scraping away what didn’t and on the whole making something fucking glorious out of it. So here we are. The X-Men needed a new coat of paint and uncle grant had their lcd laced psycadelic paint bucket and brush shaped like a pidgeon at the ready. And for better, way better and admitely sometimes here and there worse,they changed the x-men for good. Some changes were rolled back out of spite, others finally got their chance after said rollback recently, and some were just outright thrown on the grown and smashed with a hammer. But for the most part Grant left a huge impact on the x-men and i’m here to show you why, warts and all. To me my x-men, this is new x-men. Now naturally there’s even more exposition but i’ts more in what COULD’VE been. Originally while Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey and Professor X were all part of the team the other two members of the slim roster for this run, Beast and Emma Frost.. weren’t. Originally Morrison was going to have Colossus and Moira Mactaggert, long time team ally, token human until very recently, and now thanks to hickman one of the most important x characters peirod and long before that a fan favorite of mine, on the team, with Moira taking over for beast.

This.. didn’t pan out since Marvel apparently either didn’t give a shit about their plans or already had things in motion as the climax of the longtime legacy virus storyline killed both off. Colossus until Joss Whedon, bastard he may be, brought him back for his terrific Astonishing X-Men, and Moira SOMEHOW stayed dead until House/Powers of X. See this speaks to one of the big roadblocks morrison faced: Jonathan HIckman currently has absolute power and all his writers working in concert, a new way of doing things comic companies shold honestly copy en masse as it’s really working wonders. Grant.. was just one of many writers and one of three main x books the others being Chris Claremont’s XTREME X-MEN, basically “let the legend do what he wants since he can’t get freedom on the main book” and another writer on uncanny... before eventually chuck austen took over and I will tackle that horrible mess some other time. Point is while Morrison was setting the tone, costume style and making the big waves, they still didn’t have full power and thus had to play nice with eveyrone else. So their next idea was Rogue, making mer more like her x-men evolution version.. except Chris wanted her, so that was out, though being a decent enough guy he willingly gave up Beast since the moira thing meant Morrison needed a science person. As for Colossus replacement, as it turned out a fan had suggested Grant do something with Emma Frost since Gen X was canceled and while Morrison had zero intention for it clearly Emma clicked with hthem and she was soon both a main part of the cast and one of their biggest contributions to X-Men as a whole.

As for what I think of the needed changes.. they ended up being for the best. I do like Moira... but Hank ended up being a much better fit for the team dynamic wise and power set wise, while Emma was the same. While Colossus, Rogue and Moira are all fantastic characters, I think what we ended up with was just a better mix overall. I DO think the team is incredibly white, but that’s a general x-men problem, even with having an assload of diverse and intresting characters, so it’s not entirely his fault. All in all it’s a fantastic roster: four of the x-men’s best, their leader in the field for the first time in forever, and a new and intresting wild card. IT’s a nice ballance of characters and we’ll get more into it as we go. Now all the expositions done, we can finally dive head first into new x-men. I hope you survivie the experince under the cut.

After an utterly gorgeous and striking cover, the one used up top, we get one solid page to introduce us to Morrison’s mission statment, how they feel and how good Frank Quitely’s art looks

I cropped it best i could for tumblr but this one image immidetly says a lot. Our heroes are just.. easily taking down this sentinel, an old model... the same one we’ve seen a dozen times. What were once the grim, possible destroyers of an entire race of beings in days of future past and devistating killing machines in the present.. had become stale easily defeated murder bots There had been noble attempts to really make the sentiinels work again like the horrifying omega sentinels, humans forcibly converted into sleeper agent killing machines, during operation: zero tolerance, but otherwise they were mostly just a prop for the x-men to knock down. And that.. really is morrison’s whole point. Lampshading and mocking the fact the x-men had grown stale, things hadn’t really progressed.. and that it was time to move on. But to Uncle Grant’s credit, they not only uses this as a mission statment but it’s plot relevant: this mission will both be explained soon and explains why Logan and Scott are out and about enough to end up where the plot will soon need them. It also helps, via the sight of the syndey opera house establish something Morrison made a staple of their run: the X-Men going global. While the x-men were never really NOT global post claremont, Morrisons run has them handling rescue missions and what not worldwide far more often than most runs before it sans Claremont, and really made it feel like they weren’t just another super team but a global force of good with a specific goal and mission. More on the global aspect next time, as that’s where it really comes in but I felt it was important to show it was there for minute one.

So yeah before we move onto the first full scene of the run, let’s talk about the costumes.

We’ll talk about Emma’s later since she’s not introduced to the story for a while but yeah. There’s a sharp, obvious and immediate change just in the outfits, which take after the movie’s more military look, having the x-men not only look more like a unit but more like a professional orginization. Someone to come and help when needed. While this would take on more siginifigance in a bit, we’ll get to it, it also fits Morrisions own views that the x-men were less of a traditional superhero team and more something different on the edges that fought things out there, sorta what like he did with doom patrol. And it’s honestly a valid interpretation as the x-men are often seen as outlaws and misfits by society for beingn well.. mutants. Not as trusted as the avengers. So having them adopt this look played into that: Having them look more professional and focused as The X-Men have a less blanket mission statement than the avenger.. but also mildly threatning. Something to alarm the humans. It’s an utterly brilliant look thrown best together by the big yellow x’s, still giving it a nice flash of color to show off and show this is still a comic and this is still damn colorful.. this just isn’t your AVERAGE supherhero comic or the x-men your used to. IT’s a real shame the only fox x-men movie to use it was fucking dark phoenix.. a film where it didn’t even fit as xavier was getting flashier and more reckless so why wouldn’t he have more garish and colorful and more traditional superhero outfits. They did look good in their variants in first class though. Props there. Point is this is a classic, utterly stunning look, and tha’ts coming from someone whose fine with goofy superhero outfits and perpetually bitter hawkeye is almost never allowed to wear his actual comic outift and is instead stuck with shades instead of you know.. a mask. Or anything resembling an actual good looking costume. This though this is how you do a less superheroy costume: practical and realistic, but still cool looking and comic book friendly.

We cut to a mysterious lady, we’ll come to know her as Cassandra Nova and while I know her origin... i’m saving it for later as the comics themselves explain it eventually, and a simpering dolt she brought with her, Donald Trask, a distant relative of the creators of the sentinels who, via holograms she’s showing cro magnons slaughtring the neanderthal. Her point is that Mutants are going to do this and she’s clearly fearmongering him and trying to talk him into genocide: to wipe them out before they wipe out humanity. And it’s here we get one of hte most important plot points of Morrisons run and one of the most intresting: according to cassandra’s research Humanity will be no more in 4 generations. Mutankind is on it’s way to overtaking them at last.. i’ts still a few decades off.. but it’s coming. It’s sometihing that the whole decimation nonsense sadly snuffed.. and John Hickman has thankfully brought back. I’ll get to his run once i’ts complete in a few years, but point is it’s an utterly marvelous plot hook: Humanity, whose already attempted genocide a few times, is now in real danger of what their petty, racist, fearful attacks have been about: being replaced. It’s one of the central themes of the work the other two being “Just what IS mutantkind and what will it be”. WHat are they as a people? We’ll dig into these as we go but the threat of exctincion is the backbone of this arc... and will lead to something truly ghastly.

It’s then we get our title page.. which nothing really to add it just looks really good and helps show off who are cast is and what they can do with striking simple art.

And since we’re already talking the art of the book, let’s take a moment to discuss an intresting detail of this run: despite it’s short length there’s quite a few diffrent artist, who we’ll talk about of course as we get to each one. The most common and notable though is Frank Quitely. Frank Quitely is one of Morrison’s closest and best creative partners, having a unique, squishy art style.. i.e. the one my friend didn’t like which is why i’m covering this. And while I like the art style quite a bit, I do get why it’s not everyone’s cup of tea: His art is squashed, weird, and admitely some faces can be good god no incaranate. But it’s also why I like it: his characters feel unique, each body and figure feels like it was custom made and thus feels.. real. Like this is a person before you. And given comics can often surrender to having everybody look the damn same, this is nice. His faces may sometimes look similar but his bodies are where the action is. But while having a realistic feel his work also has a weird alien quality that perfectly fits Morrison, and thus his run on x-men. I will say while I love All-Star Superman, his art fits less there in the more hopeful silver agey story, so he’s not an artist for EVERY STORY OF EVERY TYPE.. but when it comes to sci fi weridness, he fits it like a glove so i’ts unsuprising he and morrison are practicaley soul mates, nor that his art sets the tone perfectly for the run: this is something new, diffrent and strange.. and what says x-men at it’s best more than that?

So after our opening titles we cut to the mansion where Hank is showing off his latest and greatest invention: Cerebra. Cerbebra is a massively upgraded version of Cerebro, aka Professor Xavier’s iconic helmet that allows him to track mutants to help them out.. and covertly backup their conconousness for his long game plan, but shhhh, don’t tell anyone yet that’s not going to be retconned in for a few decades. Though i’m damn certain if Morrison has heard about the current era of x-men and how it both builds on what he built, shatters the status quo and is incredibly weird, he’d be damn proud. As for how it’s diffrent Cerebra not only has a large dome around it but said dome allows the machine to amply Charles powers to a global reach. He can now see mutants all over the world anywhere in the world, something I didn’t realize wasn’t ALWAYS a thing because it seems so simple. It’s also likely to bring it more in line with the movies. And while marvel has done TERRIBLE with bringing things in from the movies or in line with them in recent years, i.e. making star lord more like his movie self while forgetting that’s how he already used to be in canon before later writers thankfully did hte better step of merging the two, Hawkeye’s outfit, Cap’s outfit or Nick Fury Jr. But for every mistep there’s also been tons of times it’s worked out really well such as here, as well as bringing hulk into the avengers for the first time since the founding, making tony stark more like the mcu version and less like a nightmarish self righetous dicktator who rightfully gets beat up and called out a lot, making Scott Lang prominent since he became prominent in the MCU, Wakanda being a major force in the marvel universe as it always should have been and various titles that have popped up to tie into movies, often bringing back a team or property that hadn’t had a book in some time like Ant-Man, Black Panther, and Shang Chi just to name a few. It’s not always hawkeye looking all jeremy renner is what i’m saying.. though thankfully comics clint isn’t that uninteresting. Hopefully the series will change that.

So yeah along with a bigger shinier cerebro we’re also introduced to a big change in Hank whose taken on his lion form rather than his classic gorilla with a weird haircut or his return to that except bald. Here he’s more like aslan in a human body and I.. love it. It looks great, helps sell hanks delima of being brilliant while looking like a beast and makes sense: he kickstarted what was likely his own secondary evolution by drinking the potion that made him bestial, so it only makes sense his body wouldn’t be all that stable even if it took years to change again. And even that makes sense as hank was breifly turned back to his original hairless ape mutation during x-factor, easily one of the books.. worse decisions honestly and one that louise simonson thankfully later undid. That probably bought him some time hence why it’s only mutating further now. It also adds an intresting wrinkle which the run will explore further: how far does this go? Will he regress? and how much hank will be left? And how will society treat his new form?

For now he’s actually extatic. While he’s going through hormonal changes, and giving out some excellent banter with Jean

Which also includes one of the greatest lines in comic book history, one that’s been in my head for decades and made me absolutely love henry mccoy.

He’s just great is what i’m saying. As you can tell it’s stuff like this why i’m glad Moira fell through. While I love her.. Morrison’s hank is just a delight and one really questionable subplot aside, we’ll get to that, he’s one of the highlights of this run with an intresting internal struggle, and great chemistry with EVERYONE. And that is the main reason i’m glad Moira fell through as his history with everyone but Emma, who he still has a great raport with, means each interaction has weight. He’s close friends with both scott and jean and thus serves as their needed confidant, while still being able to buddy and banter iwth good old weapon x, and speak with his mentor charles as an equal. While I love moira... Beast just fits into the cast too perfectly and I 100% suspect Morrison was only using her because, while she’s awesome, Claremont wanted her and thus gladly snapped her up when he no longer had a science person. I’ll get into his Jean soon enough but she’s likewise fantastic and easily my faviorite version of the character.. not that until very recently there was much honest competition.

So Cerebra fires up showing a massive cloud of mutants, showing just how much of a huge spike theirs been with Xavier wondering what it all means.. and Hank seeing a weird flare on the mointor for just a second with his special eyes. But since Xavier isn’t stupid and isn’t the kind of idiot who just dismisses it as a fulke, and since Scott and Logan are in the field, he decides to confrence call them in to see if they can go take a look.

And naturally we get to see what their up to and get context for what the hell happened in the first page. Our heroes were on a rescue mission to save Ugly John, tha’ts what people called him, a three faced mutant who ends up passing out as they head out of the atmosphere for a second. Wolverine is regenerating and smoking out of his neck becaue he could still smoke back then before marvel decided “he’s setting a bad example”.. in a comic meant for teens and adults.

I mean I get it on some level as the x-men cartoon was a huge thing in the 90′s and Ben Grimm is basically a giant children’s toy with the mind of a surly 40 year old jewish man from yancy street, but stilll it’s just.. why. I may not like smoking but it’s not like it was SPIDER-MAN saying

It’s a grown man.. whose not a sterling roll model and who Claremont went out of his way to have Logan point out his healing factor means it really dosen’t hurt him in the long run and when Kitty, an actual teenager, tried one of his cigars she choked. I know it’s a weird thing to get hung up on but while i’m all for keeping kids from smoking, this was a really clumsy way to try and hehlp that that made no sense and will never make any sense.

One tangent later we find out that Cassandra was showing Trask a simulation on a flight to, unsuprisingly, south america, to a sentinel blacksite. Between covertly funding civil wars as they do, the US Goverment naturally founded an experimental sentinal project, and a second master mold during the production of the first line... when larry trask asks where it could possibly be well...

Subtly was not the trasks strong point.. or common sense... or.. not realizing their creations would dominate humanity too or not dying.

Anyways we then cut back to the x-men, as their having a psychic zoom meeting with Charlie giving one of his patnted big speeches.. and like a lot of this comic it’s too damn good not to use

The reason I couldn’t should be obvious: This one speech sums up the x-men, why their great and why their necessary in a nutshell: in a world full of prejucided morons.. there’s plenty of scared kids who NEED the x-men to protect and guide them, and with a surge in the mutant population, their needed now more than ever. We also get a good explanation in universe for the uniform change: Charles had them in the superhero outfits hoping humanity would accept them if they were packaged as something they know. Since that clearly hasn’t worked he’s trying new ways to reach out and thus going with a diffrent more rescue team approach to the uniforms. He assigns Wolvie and Cyke to go check out the flair as you’d expect and the meetings over. On the blackbird we get our first hint at a subplot as Logan noticed Cyclops couldn’t wait to get out of there, and is being a tad distant to his wife. He actually has reasons for being kind of cold for once instead of just bad writing as he just came back from being possed by apocalypse. Yeah that happened. So the experience has rattled our boy some what. More on that as we go. But Jean ducks the subject with hank but does breach the fact that Charles has been going kind of crazy with the spending, new uniforms and ambition lately. Hank explains it perfectly: After all the death, suffering and misery the x-men have endured lately, the aforementioned deaths I talked about that took Colossus and Moira off the roster, have lionzed Charles to make sure it was all worth something and look towards the future.

But enough hope time for horror as Cassandra makes her first direct move, trying to take over Charles brain , make his body her own and use cerebra to kill lots and lots of mutants. We then get one of the best moments of Morrisons run with Charles response to a horrifying monster trying to take his brain

While it is shocking to find out Charles has a gun..it’s a grim but kind of understandable precaution. The guy once got fully taken over by a brood, assembling the New Mutants in part because the brood wanted to create more of i’ts kind with more super powers. You’d be paranoid too if some of your beloved students were brought together partly due to your good intentions and partly because a space monster wanted to make more space montsters out of helpless teens, and even horribly gaslighted one of them. We’ll get to that some day. Point is Charles brain is one of the greatest weapons on earth and if the wrong person got a hold of it, it’d be the end of said earth. Thankfully Charles does not need plan gun, as Jean yanks Cerebra off him but the sheer HATE Charles felt from Cassandra, the sheer power has rattled him.. and also told him she’s in Ecuador and his X-Men need to be warned NOW. It’s a great way to set up just HOW powerful Cassandra is. Speaking of which as our first issue of the arc ends, we find out two things: Cass faked being int he government but really just used dead soldiers as prop.. and just what kind of sentinels are out there.. wild sentinels. Easily my faviorite variant of the old killing machines and one that’s barely used despite being really damn awesome. Their adaptive killing machines, designed to mutated just like their pray and take tech from around them, as a result they look like a jumble of guns and parts.. but not only does it give them a unique, cool look.. but it makes them ten times deadlier as instead of being big bricks of robots that while intimidating, the x-men know how to kill... their unpredictable variable killing machines. You can figure out how to kill one sure.. btu the next might be entirely diffrent. They are one of morrisons best creations and I hope someone uses the idea again.. aka hickman. Please use it jonathan I know your focused on nimrod but come on.

And we end on one of the best lines of the entiire run as we close out the issue

Yeah it goes without saying but i’ll say it anyway; Morrison is really damn good with dialouge and being damn quotable.

So we open with another great quote “When I got up today I didn’t expect to kill 20 million people”... and Cassandra being aware Wolverine and Cyclops are on their way and sending the Wild Sentinels to dispatch them. Also our heroes brought Ugly John along while while a dumb move, Wolvie does point out how dumb it was to divert to Ecuador with a civlian in tow.. after the plane crash of course. As for “wait what plane crash’, the sentinels attack and start picking it apart... and since letting them have such good tech is a terrible idea, Scotty blows up the damn plane. So to recap our heroes are stuck in ecuador, surrounded by murder machines, and oh look their there and knock off cyclops viser. Fantastic. So yeah our heroes are fucked. And naturally captured by the enemy.

The rest of the x-men are doing SLIGHTLY better. While beast makes a note for his girlfriend, more on that later on, Charles is in bed, half alive, explaning the rationale I gave for why he has the gun with Jean refusing to let him get back out of bed and you know.. put on the device that just nearly killed him. But when beast announces they lost contact with our boys.. yeah that ceased being an option.

Back in the Ecuadorian Genocide Factory, Cassandra does the obvious and kills donald trask as his real purpose..was to stick around and be stupid for a bit while she copied his dna so she could have full control of her new murder toys.She soon uses them, having a horrifying death chamber slaughter john.. or at least flash fry him. Wolverine takes it how you’d expect and since the sentinels need to “perserve trask dna”.. they can’t fire on him without killing her. Scott escapes.. and in a heart wrenching scene mercy kills john.. before getting badass.

To anyone who says Scott Summers is boring, unintersting, or a stupid asshole idiot head I present exhbit shut the fuck up. Morrison gets scott just right, deconstructing his emotional suppression, while showing him off as a dedicated, companionate man who gets the job done and who seconds after tearfully having to mercy kill an innocent mutant whose death was partially his fault, wastes no time making it painfully clear to the person responsible she WILL die if she tries that again. Logan however realizes she’s already won in some fashion as she’s grinning.. and yeah never a good sign when a genocidal madwoman is grinning like a loon.. and when we find out why.. it’s even less good> We cut to Genosha. A lot of you probably know what happned to Genosha but in case you don’t know what it is it was once a horribly racist country that genetically enslaved mutants and used them for slave labor. It was freed, but still struggled to truly move on.. till Magneto showed up, took the country for himself and made it a home for all mutants. When we last saw him he once again tried to take over the world leading to Logan seemingly killing him. Right now though Emma Frost finally enters the scene teaching some mutants.. when a young one named Negasonic Teenage Warhead.. yes that one and yes she was entirely chosen for deadpool for her name, reveals, via precognition, that their all going to die.. right as the sentinels attack.

Genosha.. is gone. In an eyeblink 16 million mutants are dead, a possible future gone, and one of their greatest leaders is no more. Yeah Magneto WAS alive.. but paralyzed so he could do nothing when his island was utterly slaughtered. Only a handful of mutants will be revealed to survive. Humanity had done a lot to mutants before .. but for once.. they’d succeeded in wiping a massive chunk out. What was an x-men location for DECADES at this point.. was now a smoldering crater. A what could of been that would hant the x-men ever after, even now into utopia it remains the darkest day in mutant history outside of hte decimation. It is a truly horrific moment.. and if the changes already hadn’t made it clear this is morrison saying “NO character is safe, nothing is safe, and nothing will be the same and I damn well mean that”. In one act of hate the world has changed. And it hasn’t finished changing yet.

Issue Three opens hammering in things, as Jean and Beast are in the ruins of genosha, with Xavier having found ONE surivor among the rubble, and our heroes sturggling to find even them, though Jean eventually picks them up and uses her TK to sift through the rubble.

They find Emma who emerges from a bunker in shock, clutching NTW... and not realizing she’s dead until later and revealing she now has diamond skin, her own secondary mutation. Secondary Mutation was a birlliant idea, new powers sprouting up within established mutants.. it’s just morrison barely used this great idea as did hardly anyone else. Only X-Men Blue ever really dug into it and those were artifical at that. IT’s a great idea..it’s just barely used and at most heavily implied to explain changes in powers like Jamie Madrox Multiple Personalities later on or Doug Ramsey’s vast increase in power. Disapointing.

While Charles takes in the tragedy and the fact his old frienmie is dead, the x-men wonder what the fuck Cassandra is and what to do with her.. why did she kill 16 million people, and what the fuck is she. I mean I know, but as I said i’ll explain that when the story does. IN the other room Beast tends to Emma who wants none of not fucking killing Cassandra.. and is utterly right. Bitchy, because i’ts Emma, but right: she killed 16 million people. Say what you want but while it may not be up to the x-men to kill her.. she shoudln’t be living much longer. She commited genocide. Emma decides fuck that and prepares to leave summoning a cab and making peace with being a glorious living fabrige egg. Emma did apparelty change in generation x.. but Morrison is responsible for returning her not only to being a bitch, but a gloriously delightful one And really I don’t think they reset her character entirely: she’s not the heartless monster she started out as: she has empathy, grace, and caring.. she just buries it under a lair of absolute bitch and after you know, surviving a fucking genocide who can blame her? And honestly.. I love their verison of her. She provides a nice contrast to the more idealistic, even logan, x-men and a nice contrarian voice in the room without being obnoxious and her style and sacrastic swagger makes her endlessly entertaning. Thanks to morrison she’s stuck around to this day and went from a pretty good character.. to a great one. And what makes her this way, or as jean puts it “such a bitch?”

With that settled, Hank explains what Cassandra is: a competing species. As he puts it sometimes evolution takes a quantum leap forward.. and Cassandra is the result. Thus she wants to wipe out the compettition and is so far above humanity, she dosen’t need them... especially since she knows what Hank now knows: humanity is at an end. As hank puts it we have an E Gene, one that basically shuts off a race.. and thus the x-men now know what we learned earlier and that cassandra wasn’t lying: in 4 generations there are no more humans and something has to repalce htem. And Cassandra wants it to be her.

Before Logan can do what he does best, and asks why she looks like charles, Cassandra escapes, and Scott briliantly urges them to fight only on instict as she’s a telepath. A damn awesome fight insues including Cassandra donning Charles Psoonic battle armor, Scott being put in his black bug room and the general good looking chaos you’d expect from a superhero fight. While this goes on Emma has an ephinany and realizes she likes to teach, the x-men have a school.. and she shoudln’t give up on helping kids just because of what happened and turns around.

Cassandra is near victory, slipping her way to Cerebra.. and planning to kill only one mind before getting to the millions she wnats, a horrifying slug manifesting around her.. only...

So the x-men accept this and cassandra rises.. seemingly saying “I am charles” Huh... and then charles uncaracteristiacally shoots her saying things must change

We’ll get to what all of that means next time as we close on Jean and Scott in bed. Scott explains why he’s been so distant as what I said earlier: fighting off apocalypse stripped away a lot of illusions about himself and he’s having a hard time walking back from that but Jean is willing to help.. but before they can resolve their issues.. charles has an annoucnment to make and grant has one last whopper of a suprise to end his opening arc on, and just like genosha...it’s a game changer of titanic proportions

No longer is Xavier’s School hidden. Their walking into the light now and so is charles. Hope they surivive the experince. Obviously this move is brilliant: while it removes the veil of saftey the x-men had it also brings on tons of new possiblities and unlike secondary mutation, this one not only stuck but would impact the x-men for good: no longer would they hide and cower.. their mutant and proud.. and their here to stay. E For Extinction is one of the best x-men stories period. Blisteringly paced, full of great character, great concepts and utterly terrifying and terrific moments that would impact the x-men all the way to present day. It’s beautifully drawn, well paced, and a masterwork. I highly recommend it and it’s a great kickoff to a great run. Shame the run couldn’t of ended on this kind of high but.. we’ll get to that. For now this is a masterclass in how to start a run and if you haven’t read it do so NEXT TIME ON NEW X-MEN: A bunch of weirdos try to harvest mutant organs, the x-men get a brain in a jar and a new teamate, and Scott maybe cheats on his wife. Until then, goodbye goodbye goodbye.

25 notes · View notes

official-alan-dabiri · 3 years

Link

First and foremost, we have some exciting new changes that everyone can get behind. Absolutely nobody has a problem with the new experience globe mechanics. New experience globes are only at full value for six seconds, and after that are worth 25% exp. And then they last for thirty-nine seconds. Nobody finds this objectionable in any way. This change was not on the PTR due to public outcry from Reddit when it was leaked early, but it’s here live with all of its zero problems fixed.

Another change about which we have received zero complaints is a new tag system behind the scenes. People looking for just the right hero for the situation can easily find it by searching for such keywords as “CC” “Silence” “Sustain” and “Double soak” and find extremely useful and not absolute garbage results. Don’t worry about checking it ahead of time, just get right into draft mode and use it to find the perfect pick!

In addition to those minor and unobjectionable changes, we have removed Volskaya Foundry from the ranked queue, and added everyone’s favorite quickmatch map, Warhead Junction. We have also done this simultaneously with an Overwatch-themed event.

Hero changes below the cut, because this patch is another doozy, with fiiiiiive herooooo rewoooooorks, Four buffed assassins, three nerfed offlaners, two nerfed tanks and we also nerfed the looost viiiikiiiings!

Anduin is the first of our reworks and with him taking a more prominent role in Shadowlands we want to be able to welcome WoW players with open arms. He, uh, doesn’t have a new skin or anything, we just want people to play this game. The central goal of the buff is to improve his healing output in line with other heroes without removing the largest strength in Leap of Faith. As such, we’re just touching literally every part of his kit and talent try and praying that it goes the way we want.

People keep mistaking Johanna for the best tank in the game. This is factually untrue, since Muradin exists. As such, we are just gutting the absolute pants off of Johanna’s talent tree and making it weird and clunky.

For too long has Raynor been the scourge of draft play. Too good to skip, but not scary enough to ban. Perfect macro contributions, with respectable hero damage. Enough self-sustain to take weight off your healer, and self-peel for when tanks are bad. The perfect killing machine. As such, we’ve nerfed his damage into the ground. Start playing Greymane, bitches.

Stitches has proven to be a mediocre bruiser in the eyes of the community. After all these years, I think I know why. We accidentally categorized him as a tank. As such, he needs some serious changes to make him fit that label. This whole time we’ve been balancing him as a bruiser and nobody said anything? This is as much your fault as it is mine.

The average damage output of a ranged assassin has been steadily climbing for a while now. As a result, for a hero to actually be a glass cannon, they need some serious firepower. Valla now has the gunpowder to match her glass. And she’s the glassiest cannon there is. Don’t get me wrong, she still evaporates like a drop of water in California when an enemy hero looks at her. But when she has a solid tank and three healers behind her, the world is your oyster.

Oh my god they didn’t break down the heroes by category. Jesus Christ what the fuck Blizzard? You just decided that this is the line? This is the day you stop caring? Well, congratulations, you’ve made reading your patch notes mildly more inconvenient. I’m still doing this. Ya bunch of jack-offs.

Mei has been grossly overperforming, and we have no idea how that happened. We certainly didn’t buff her over and over again for an entire year. Anyway, we’re just going to roll some stuff back. Definitely probably fine.

It turns out - and bear with me here because this might be hard to follow - Hogger, D.va, and Sonya were all overtuned? For six months? So we’re just gonna tippy tappy them down the smallest little bit. And then slap them around a little for good measure. D.va’s mech form is no longer indomitable, Hogger can no longer solo any merc camp in the game in 12 seconds, and Sonya is now... Basically fine still, honestly. We kinda gave her just a slap on the wrist in comparison. But honestly after gutting Hogger like that, I just didn’t have the heart. One of the benefits from being a little later, alphabetically.

After riding the TLV train up through the ranks, I think it’s about time to recognize that I’m not actually good at them. They’re just overtuned. So it’s time to come back to earth, Icarus. Don’t be fooled by the seemingly-small HP nerf, though. The real nerf is buffing Longboat Raid. People are going to have to pick it to test it and it’s gonna murder their winrate.

Someone told me that Lucio is a problem and needed to be addressed this patch, but my cat came into the home office being adorable so I didn’t hear exactly what they said. So we had to kinda wing it. Hopefully these minor adjustments to his talent tree will solve whatever they were talking about!

Even we know Uther is a problem. Being first pickable and filling three different unique roles was what we wanted to do with Varian not Uther. So we’re going to try and make him incrementally worse at tanking until he just goes away. First up: Shaving off some of that personal armor.

AFK splitpush trash Azmodan is dead. Long live teamfight artillery mage Azmodan. Really glad I made the last HotS Content post about Nova instead of Azmodan because boy howdy do these changes invalidate the entire playstyle that post would have discussed.

W build Falstad has obviously become a problem. Not only was he riddled with bugs after the rework - don’t worry, we learned from our mistakes and made sure there were no bugs with our new reworks - but also he had the ability to point and click on an enemy hero and force them to run all the way to the next lane over in order to stop taking buckets of free damage. It turns out that ability was more powerful than anticipated, and required adjustment.

Q build Falstad has obviously become a problem. Not only was it completely overshadowed by a build that did more damage in every situation with less skill requirement, but we overestimated the value of macro power on a build that demands PvP for stacking. As such, we’ve doubled the amount of power each stack gives him! That’ll do.

AA build Falstad... Stay the course, buddy. Doin’ fine.

Junkrat has been underperforming, which is surprising for a hero with his level of power. As such, we’re going to make a few small buffs to hopefully draw attention, and then we can roll things back once the pickrate reflects his actual power. Hopefully then WE CAN FINALLY MAKE THE MANDATORY CHANGE I PUT IN EVERY MEMO. TYRE. WITH A Y. THAT’S HOW THEY SPELL IT IN AUSTRALIA. KAEO I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU- wait, did Kaeo leave? Who the fuck is still here? Kinnabrew? Adam? Jason? JASON! JASON!?

Tassadar has also fallen off a lot without us having done anything at all whatsoever to nerf him. Entirely undeserved treatment. I’m disappointed in all of you. As such, we’re going to tweak his numbers up just a little tippy tap so that you all remember who killed the Overmind. It wasn’t James Raynor or Sarah Kerrigan. It was Tassadar... Tassadar Bassadar. That’s his last name. Don’t look it up, just trust me.

In the bug fix department, we’ve had a nice sit-down with the Mountain Giants on Alterac and told them that if they have time to lean, they have time to clean. Reaching the end of their lane and expecting the core to come to them is putting undue stress on an already overtaxed position. The core is a very stressful job, and if the mountain giants could just do their part to walk into the core pit when they arrive, that’s a huge load off their shoulders. Drek’thar and Vanndar really needed this expectation taken off them right now, and I’m hopeful it will lead to a better work environment.

#Heroes of the Storm #patch notes #Don't message me telling me Tassadar's real last name #I know it's De La Cruz

8 notes · View notes

lady-divine-writes · 4 years

Text

Good Omens - I Was Given Four Rules to Follow ... I Broke Every One: Chapter 1/3 (Rated PG13)

Summary: When Warlock Dowling is summoned to the old South Downs cottage of Aziraphale and Crowley to help clean out their attic, presumably after their deaths, he is given four rules to follow.

... He breaks every single one.

Notes: For @silver-colour

Written for the @tricketyboo2020 prompt "Creepypasta format story (like a found footage or witness statement kind of thing)" by silver-colour. It is a mild reworking of an older fanfic of mine, but that goes tongue in cheek with the ending of this story sort of. XD I would put this between Spooky Level 2 and 3, with 3 being "major and minor character death, disturbing images or concepts, major dark themes, major violence, etc." But there's only minor mentions of blood/body horror. But the whole undead thing is a trigger for some people and I lean into that imagery a bit. I wanted this to be a sort of leveled up Goosebumps tale. Tl;dr proceed with caution <3

Chapter 1

I am going to die.

I’m going to die, I’m going to die, I’m going to die.

I have to keep repeating it because I have to come to grips with it.

I am going to die.

Not in sixty years.

More like sixty minutes.

Oh, Amanda. I am sorry.

If you ever hear this … I never meant for this to happen.

My name is Warlock Dowling and I am 34 years-old. Devoted son and husband, I’ve spent over a decade working towards achieving my dream of following in my father’s footsteps and entering politics one day.

It’s a dream I don’t think I’ll be seeing through to the end.

I am telling you this because after reading what I’ve just read … and hearing what I’ve just heard … I am not certain I’m going to make it through the night.

I broke the rules.

There were four. Only four. And I broke them.

I didn’t break them by accident. I absolutely did it on purpose. I’m not suicidal or anything, but you only live once - am I right?

For the record, I don’t regret a single thing.

…

That’s not entirely true.

I’ll regret dying before morning if that’s the way things play out.

Today happens to be October 31st - Halloween night. I’d been tasked with clearing out the attic above a cottage in The South Downs which once belonged to a pair of old family friends. Technically, they were ex-employees of my parents from back when I was young, but I thought of them as surrogates. They practically raised me, educated me, taught me everything I know about coping in this cruel, pathetic world.

I held them in the highest regard.

They were the only people in my life who treated me as if I could become more than what I had been born into, that fate had something else in store for me. Because of them, I met the best friends a boy could ever have.

I will forever be grateful for that.

Cleaning out this attic was the least I could do to repay them, but to be honest, I don’t know who summoned me here. I assumed it was the executor of their estate, but now I’m not so sure. Looking over the letter in my hands, there is no legible signature. And the gold embossed emblem at the top that I took for granted as belonging to some upscale legal firm is, on closer inspection, gibberish - a mess of fleur-de-lis underscored by Latin words that roughly translate to “the cows shall rise”.

Ludicrous, right?

How did I miss that?

But more ludicrous - and confusing - are the rules.

I had been given rules about cleaning this attic.

The first rule on the list was to touch only what I could see. Under no circumstances was I to open any of the boxes or chests.

So, naturally, I opened every single one.

The second rule was not to put anything on. Fine by me. The only clothes up here are old lady outfits and a pair of white satin shoes.

But …

There was an awesome vintage leather jacket hanging on a dressmaker’s dummy in the corner and … well … it had my name written all over it! I had to try it on, see if it fit.

And it does.

Rule number three - keep to my torch. Don’t light any candles.

Nuh-uh! It’s Halloween! And torches are lame. So on the candles went. Jeez, there are a lot of them. Enough to burn down the whole place if I’m not careful. It actually seems like they’ve multiplied since I’ve been up here.

I won’t lie - it’s unsettling.

But according to the list, rule number four is the most important:

Don’t read any books I find. And definitely not out loud.

The first thing I saw when I entered the attic was a stack of leather-bound books. I scoffed at the sight of them, piled up to my chin, right inside the entryway. Isn’t that a bit like putting a huge bowl of candy front and center on your dining room table in the middle of dinner with a huge sign saying, “Do not eat?” If the most important rule about going into the attic is, “Don’t read anything!” why not put all the books on a high shelf?

Or the moon?

I’m not a book lover. I read hundreds of pages a day for work. I definitely don’t do it for fun. So this shouldn’t have been a hard one for me to follow.

But they looked like diaries.

And diaries hold secrets.

That made them a different matter all together.

I couldn’t resist.

But once I opened the top one, I knew I’d made a mistake.

These weren’t just any diaries.

They were the diaries of my two friends - Aziraphale and Crowley.

There had always been something odd about those two. I didn’t believe for a second that they were a proper nanny or gardener, not even when I was a young, impressionable child. But they were funny - a distraction from the dull as dishwater life of an attache’s son.

Yes, I was a spoiled little rich kid with everything I could ever ask for handed to me and, on top of that, diplomatic immunity.

Woe was me.

I realize how much of a douche whining about that makes me sound.

My life was still dull.

I was still lonely.

I never knew for sure what happened to them after they left us. I made assumptions - erroneous assumptions. I thought they lived happily ever after at least.

Now I know … that wasn’t the case.

I’m recording this in the hopes that someone will find it, so that you might know the true story of what happened to them …

… and why you might not be hearing from me again.

***

The Diary of Aziraphale Fell - Reluctant Widower

January 14th-

“Please, sir,” the decrepit woman hissed, but not unkindly. She came about her speech impediment by a mixture of symptoms - her thick accent coupled with her indeterminable old age caused her to talk that way. “Please, reconsider this decision.”

I glared at her regardless. I knew my eyes were bloodshot; my hair a mass of tangled, wayward strands; my lips quivered from constant, unrelenting crying.

“You said you had it!” I screamed, bypassing her arguments. “You said you would sell it to me! Wh---why else would I come here!?”

“You need to understand,” the woman implored, opening her hands in a pleading gesture. She fixed me with one clear blue eye, the other eye clouded – a useless, milky white lump of tissue bulging inside its socket, “what you ask for … it is unnatural.”

“But your granddaughter said it was a done deal!” I persisted, shooting a steely glare at the simpering young woman who ducked behind her grandmother to hide from my volatile stare. I wasn’t about to leave without the item I came for. At this point, I was willing to tear the place apart and everything inside - including the two of them - to get it.

They must have sensed that.

Even as the woman continued to defy me, she looked slightly more afraid than she had a minute ago.

“My granddaughter is foolish!” The woman directed the comment over her shoulder to the girl cowering there. “But she means well. We need the money. She was thinking with her head and not her heart.”

“I can pay you twice what you’re asking!” I reached into my back pocket for my wallet. “Three times! I’ll give you whatever you want!”

The girl, intrigued by my proposal, peeked over her grandmother’s shoulder, but the woman turned and barked sharply at her in a language I could not understand.

That was when I began to think I might be in danger.

I’d spent my entire life studying languages, so hearing one I didn’t comprehend, not even an inch, sent a shiver down my spine.

“Mr. Fell …” The old woman reached out, I presumed to comfort me, and took my shaking hand in hers “… your husband is dead. And I am more sorry than I can ever express at your loss. You carry your love for him like a beacon. I see it in your eyes. It shines from every part of you. With him gone, it is up to you to carry it. It will never fade as long as you remember him.”

Those were, without a doubt, the kindest words anyone had said to me since my husband passed. I crumbled, new tears falling hot down my cheeks. But regardless of her sympathy, sincere though it might be, I refused to relent.

I refused!

“I don’t want to remember him!” I whimpered, my anger renewed at the sound of my voice fracturing. “I want him here with me! I need you to help me bring him back!”

The woman sighed in pity but shook her head.

“The effects of life are varied, Mr. Fell. Our fate … it changes every day, with every choice that we make. But the effects of death should remain permanent.”

I flinched at that word as if she’d struck me across the face.

Permanent.

Crowley dead … my husband gone … and nothing for me to look forward to in life but emptiness. We’d had every moment of our lives planned together.

One arsehole drunk driver later and now I was alone.

I literally had no one.

I had lost contact with my mum early in life, never knew my father, didn’t have children of my own. My boss and mentor was an abusive prick who tormented me throughout the span of my career until I found a way out from under his thumb.

Until Crowley helped me discover a life where I didn’t need the man’s guidance or control.

But now I was going to lose him!? The only one who had stuck by me, who defended me, loved me through thick and thin!?

No! That was beyond cruel! And I wasn’t going to roll over and accept it!

I let the sorrow within me curdle, turn sour as I yanked my hand out of the old woman’s grasp.

“Your granddaughter said there are other methods of getting what I want!” I snarled. “Dangerous methods. Methods that might require payment in sacrifice … even blood. And not necessarily my blood. Innocent blood, if you catch my meaning.”

Both women gasped.

Despite the conversation at hand, I smiled.

Good, I thought. We were finally all on the same page.

Up until a few days ago, I never considered violence to be the answer to anything. But I had since come to a crossroads where an exception had made itself clear.

I was prepared to annihilate my humanity to get my husband back.

The old woman snapped her head over her shoulder, scolding her granddaughter in a harsh, guttural voice. The girl, who had started to brave coming out of hiding, shrank down once again.

“Be reasonable,” the woman begged, “please, and think about what you are saying. What you are willing to do.”

“No,” I said, my calm more potent than my anger … or so my husband used to say. “The time for me being reasonable is over. I will get what I want, no matter what the cost. The question is whether or not you will be the one to give it to me.”

The woman looked down at her gnarled hands and sighed a long, exhausted sigh. “Alright, Mr. Fell. I will sell the potion to you at the promised price.”

I stared at her for a moment in shock. I was relieved, of course. I hadn’t thought I would get this far. It frightened me how much I had begun looking forward to throttling her with my bare hands, imagined her neck snapping within my grasp, effortlessly like a twig.

That couldn’t be me though. I wasn’t that kind of person. It was this place - this shop and all of its trinkets, their age and professed magical abilities amplifying my grief, turning every rational thought I had into rage.

I had to get out of here and fast before I did something I might regret.

I opened my wallet with the onset of happier tears and thumbed through the bills, pulling out extra for the joy of getting what I wanted. I handed the money over, but the woman refused to touch it. She waved it away, her granddaughter popping up long enough to grab the money and then scurry off again. The woman reached into the folds of her skirts and retrieved a leather pouch that hung from a thin belt around her waist. From it she fished out a tiny blue bottle with a cork stopper sealing the mouth. She gave it a long, troubled look, then handed it to me.

For the first time, her hand trembled.

“Pour the contents of this bottle into your husband’s mouth, Mr. Fell,” she instructed, “and your husband will return.”

I held the bottle up to the dim candlelight of the musty Soho shop. The blue glass glimmered, a thick liquid inside swaying back and forth, shimmering like sun-tossed sparkles across a dark, foreboding sea.

“There are some rules that go along with that potion,” the woman said, her voice weeding into my head, summoning me back from my momentary trance, “and a few warnings you must heed as well.”

I sighed. I had hoped it would be a simple matter of giving my husband the liquid and living happily ever after, but I knew in my heart that nothing was ever that simple.

“Okay,” I said, slipping the bottle carefully into my pocket and patting over it twice to ensure its safety. “Tell me. What are the rules?”

“First of all, you will give that to your husband, but what will come back …” she paused, swallowed hard “… will not entirely be your husband.”

I nodded. I had expected her to say something along those lines, like a scene straight from an old time-y horror movie.

The woman locked both eyes, one clear and one clouded, on my face as I waited for her to finish her speech, eager to go back home and get on with my life. She realized, with regret, that I had every intention of going through with this, and took on the heavy burden of allowing this to continue.

“Be there to look into his eyes when he wakes,” she said.

I hadn’t dreamed of leaving his side, but since the woman made such a point of it, I asked, “Why?”

“He is being reborn, in a sense. And like other simple-minded creatures, he will imprint on the first person he sees.” She took my hands and squeezed them. “That person needs to be you!”

My gulp was audible, the weight of her words and of my plan suddenly settling within me. They pressed in on me, like that moment when the police came to my door. Their words – “Mr. Fell? I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but … it’s about your husband …” had turned me inside out, left my heart out in the cold.

I felt that cold now.

“Once the potion absorbs into his tissues, it will restart his heart,” she continued. “Then the potion will replicate. It will begin to take the place of his blood. It will make him calm, easier for you to control.”

I nodded again. I wanted to say something, assure the woman that I understood, but she didn’t pause long enough for me to speak. It wouldn’t have mattered. I saw the trepidation in her one, clear eye. I had no clue what to say to make this better.

“It will be a slow process, and you must learn to be a patient man!” She raised her voice, letting go of one hand to waggle an emphatic finger in front of my face. “You will be teaching him, raising him as you would a child. Remember, even if only a small portion of his soul returns, that soul belongs to your husband, and you must love him or this will not work!”

The woman stepped back, out of breath from her outburst, and her granddaughter (whom I had forgotten about) returned, pushing forward an ornate but dusty antique chair to catch her in. I held the woman’s arms gently and helped her into it, feeling strangely protective. The woman sat and waved us both off, not wanting us to make a fuss when she still had more to say.

“But most importantly,” she labored on, barely missing a beat in her speech, “do not let him taste blood.” I knelt down so that she didn’t feel the need to yell for her words to reach me. “He cannot eat meat, but most of all, don’t let him bite you or lick your wounds. Or anyone else’s – human or animal.”

“Will … will I become a zombie? If he does bite me?”

I’m not quite sure why the word ‘zombie’ leapt to my mind. In every interaction I had had with the woman’s granddaughter before tonight, she had been so careful not to use that term. She used other, more romantic euphemisms such as ‘bring back to the land of the living’, ‘re-associate with life’, and the most used - ‘rebirth’. But that’s what he would be, right? When we moved past the flowery vernacular and got right down to it? This potion I had pocketed would turn my husband into the walking dead, - a simple-minded creature that was once deposed from this Earth.

And that meant ‘zombie’.

As if I had nothing more pressing at hand, I suddenly recalled the Walking Dead marathon Crowley had convinced me to watch (against my better judgement). Crowley thought the show was hilarious, but I could barely make it to the middle of the first season. I had started watching with my hands over my eyes, then with my arm locked around Crowley’s, anxiously smacking his shoulder, and finally with most of my body lying over his lap and my face buried in his shirt.

It wasn’t just the gore in the show that skewered me, made me nauseous, unable to breathe. It was the fear and the pain those characters felt, being chased by a relentless enemy that needed no rest, constantly running into people they couldn’t trust, people who were so out for themselves they no longer believed in the sanctity of life, with nowhere to hide, nowhere safe at all, even behind thick, concrete and metal walls.

Watching your loved ones get turned into soulless monsters - still there, but everything about them that you had once loved out of reach.

And this ‘illness’ or whatever these people had - it spared no one. Even children had become zombies. And in the game that was survival for the remaining uninfected, children had become pawns.

Everything about it seemed so horrendous.

And while I suffered through my existential crisis, Crowley laughed at my antics.

I fought not to smile at the sound of his teasing voice.

“Uh … a little squeamish there, are you, angel?”

Angel.

From the first day we met, that’s what he called me.

Oh, what I wouldn’t give to hear him call me that again!

The old woman chuckled, bringing me reluctantly back from my daydream. “No. Not in this case. That’s not the nature of this spell. No, blood will give him back his memories.”

I looked at the woman, bug-eyed, and shook my head. “I … I don’t …”

“It will ignite his brain. He will begin to feel. In many ways, he will become more the man you married than in any other.”

“Wha---?“ I stuttered, baffled as to how that could be a bad thing. If drinking blood could make Crowley more Crowley, I’d set up an IV drip the minute I got home! I would serve him cups of blood with every meal! I’d make donating blood a requirement for entrance into my bookshop! (That one would definitely kill two birds with one stone. In fact, I might consider doing that anyhow.) “And why wouldn’t I want that again?” I asked, trying not to sound like turning my husband into a blood-sipping fiend was the greatest idea in known history.

The old woman smiled, but it wasn’t fond. It was shrewd, as if she could read every one of my thoughts.

And she didn’t approve.

“Once he has his memories back, he will start to crave it. Soon, drinking blood won’t be enough for him. It won’t work as well. It won’t keep the memories as fresh. He will have to go further, do more. He will become a killer.”

My face must have gone as green as I felt because the woman laughed again, this time with a touch of wickedness. A killer? My Crowley? My sweet, kind, compassionate Crowley?

Okay, maybe I was going too far with the endearments. He’d been a bit of a bastard, after all. Which was why I could picture Crowley becoming a full-fledged bad boy. With that leather jacket he wore like a second skin and his gleaming classic car, he’d been well on his way.

But a killer? No.

Then again, I was willing to become one myself a second ago, so maybe I wasn’t in the best position to judge.

“You are playing with the laws of nature, Mr. Fell,” she said, patting me on the cheek. “You are responsible not only for your own life, but for the lives of those around you.” The woman leaned in close, those eyes – one alive, one dead - more menacing than when I had walked into the shop; her face no longer that of a frail old woman but of a powerful witch.

This time, it was my turn to feel afraid.

“So don’t fuck it up.”

#good omens #good omens fanfiction #ineffable husbands #tricketyboo2020 #crowley x aziraphale #aziraphale x crowley #aziraphale #Crowley

42 notes · View notes

vgckwb · 3 years

Text

P5R: Rebel Girl (A FeMC Story/P5R Rework) Chapter 46: Sunset, Sunrise

On the final day of Madarame’s exhibition, a surprise press conference was called by Madarame himself. As it started, Madarame was crying his eyes out. “People of Japan! I have to apologize!” He cried out. “I am not worthy of your admiration. The artist Madarame is nothing more than a sham. Most of my masterpieces, including the Sayuri, are not my own. I robbed my students of their art, and claimed it as my own. To keep this all under wraps, I intimidated my students, and I sometimes even abused them.”

Everyone present at the press conference was shocked. Meanwhile, Madarame’s eyes continued to flow like faucets left on. He continued speaking. “In fact, the real author of the Sayuri died before they could claim it as their own. I took it in an act of desperation, and jump-started my meteoric rise to the top of the artwork on the backs of my students, who are more deserving than I am.” He continued to cry his eyes out. Members of the press tried to ask further questions, but Madarame had lost control of himself and continued bawling.

Meanwhile, several people were watching the press conference on the big TV in the Shibuya crossing. It cut to a reporter reporting from a desk. “This shocking confession comes soon after Madarame’s home was broken into. The burglar in question was a former student of Madarame’s. However, as part of this confession, Madarame has decided to drop all charges against said student.

Furthermore, a little while after the break in, Madarame’s exhibit was the target of this message; A letter supposedly sent by The Phantom Thieves. This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened. While there are many who still are skeptical of the existence of these thieves, some are beginning to think that such a group may be real.

Needless to say, Madarame has been put under arrest. Due to Madarame’s age, he is being taken to the hospital for a full assessment of health. Once complete, he will be tried and sentenced.”

Among those watching at the Shibuya crossing was a boy in a coat and shoulder-length brown hair. “Phantom Thieves.”

Makoto was also watching. “The Phantom Thieves. Again. Hm.”

Another person in the crowd was Nakanohara, the person who led the Phantom Thieves to Madarame in the first place. He let out a single tear, as he quietly said “Thank you, Phantom Thieves.”

Meanwhile, the thieves were at their hideout. “Alright! Another success!” Ryuji shouted.

“Ryuji!” Ann said. “Not so loud!”

“Sorry” Ryuji said. “But more people are talking about us, eh.”

Yusuke looked onward. “Are you doing OK Yusuke-senpai?” Sumire asked.

Yusuke snapped out of his stupor. “Huh? Oh. Yeah.”

Everyone looked at him. “What’s up?” Ryuji asked. “I thought you’d be more excited.”

“Well… How do I put this?” Yusuke asked. “I’m glad that Madarame is finally paying for his crimes...but…” He sighed. “Living with Madarame, and everything that came with it is everything I’ve ever known. It’s just weird is all. I feel like what’s in front of me is this blank empty space.”

“Oh, uh, sorry” Ryuji said.

Sumire placed a hand on his shoulder. “I get it. That kind of thing can be hard. But it can bring about new good things too.”

Yusuke smiled. “You’re correct. In a way, that blank empty space is much like a canvas just waiting for a masterpiece.”

“I hope there’s room for us in that masterpiece you call life” Ren remarked.

“Hm. Of course” Yusuke said. “I cannot thank you enough for everything you did. Therefore, I humbly request to be a permanent member of the Phantom Thieves.”

Everyone else was surprised. “You don’t have to request anything,” Ren answered, smiling.

“Yeah, as far as we’re concerned, you’re already one of us,” Morgana added.

“I thank you,” Yusuke replied.

“So, ummmm” Ann said. “Do you still want to paint me?”

“Hm?” Yusuke said. “Well, I wouldn’t say that’s out of the question, but I don’t think now’s the best time to do that.”

“Right,” Ann said. She smiled. “Well, if you need me, you just have to call.”

“Just make sure you don’t do too good a job,” Ryuji said. “Otherwise the professional photographers she deals with will have your head.”

“Ryuji!” Ann said, shoving him playfully. Ryuji laughed.

“My, what a marvelous couple” Yusuke said.

Ryuji and Ann looked at him and turned cherry red. “What are you talking about?” Ryuji said, nervously.

“Y-Yeah. We’re just friends” Ann insisted.

“Really?” Yusuke said. “Huh. I guess I’m seeing the world in new ways. I apologize.” Ren and Sumire shared a snicker. Meanwhile, Morgana was frazzled. Jose noticed this and started scratching his ears. As much as Morgana didn’t want to enjoy it at that moment, he couldn’t help but smile.

After Morgana was placated, Jose stopped, turned to Yusuke, and said “So, do you need help moving into the dorms?”

“Hmmm” Yusuke thought. “Well, there’s a swath of police over at Madarame’s as we speak, collecting evidence. I assume that whatever’s left will be ‘my’ stuff, and I don’t know how much that is for sure though.”

Well we can go over and check it out” Jose said, optimistically.

“I’d like that,” Yusuke said.

“Wait!” Sumire interrupted. “If the police are there, will they find the treasure?”

Everyone was alerted, as no one had thought of that. Well, aside from Yusuke. “While I don’t know what on the periphery is mine versus Madarame’s, I know for certain a few things are, and the real Sayuri is hidden among them. We should be fine.” Sumire sighed a sigh of relief.

“So, what’s gonna happen to Kosuke?” Ann asked. “The news said that Madarame had dropped all charges against him.”

Yusuke nodded. “He actually contacted me soon after that, but before we all met up here. He said he was going to move to Sendai to start over.”

“I’ve been there before for some gymnastics competitions, '' Sumire said. “It’s quite lovely.”

“But, uh, what’ll he be doin’?” Rji asked.

“Apparently, another one of Madarame’s former pupils lives there,” Yusuke said. “He’s going to move with him, and he’s talking about this with the boss of his security company for a possible transfer.”

“I see,” Ann said.

“So, what do you think about the Phantom Thieves’s popularity now that we took down another baddie?” Ryuji asked.

“Hmmm” Ren thought. “Well, I think we can get deeper into Mementos now,” she remarked. “But as for what people think, it’ll take time.”

“Huh,” Ryuji said.

“So, how does this work now?” Yusuke said. “Do you have another target in mind?”

“Not really,” Morgana said. “Finding people to change their hearts requires legwork. And there’s no guarantee that the person would have a palace.”

“Meaning he pushes that onto us” Ryuji snided.

“Hey I found one person,” Morgana said.

“By almost getting kidnapped!” Ryuji retorted.

“That’s not the point!” Morgana said.

“Morgana stays with me most of the time” Ren said, trying to cool tempers. “So while he could go off and find leads, he’s better off staying with me in case anything happens.”

“Yeah!” Morgana said, only mostly confident in himself.

“...I guess that’s fair,” Ryuji relented.

“We wouldn’t want anything to happen to you, senpai,” Sumire said, giggling. Yusuke noticed Sumire’s slight blush, but decided not to make another remark, on the chance that it would spark another awkward moment.

“So” Jose interjected, “while we’re waiting, do you want to head over to the shack to grab your things now?”

Yusuke nodded. “Unless we have other business to attend to.”

Ren shook her head. “I just wanted us to meet up to make sure the confession went smoothly.”

“I certainly think it did,” Yusuke said.

“Oh yeah” Ann said. “Did Madarame ever say anything about the people he’s worked with?” Ann said.

“Sadly no” Yusuke said. “He was more caught up in his own dealings, rather than this apparent group.”

“I see,” Ann said. Ann was shaking a little, hesitant to ask what else was on her mind. “Well, did he give a reason as to why he said he let your mom die when according to the Will Seeds he didn’t?”

Yusuke grew more serious. “No, but I’ve been thinking about that. I think it has something to do with Madarame’s vanity. He has to be the most of whatever he’s embodying. He’s either the best artist of the modern age, the most heinous man he can be, or, as evidenced by the confession, the most remorseful. Him saying he let my mom die is his way of aggrandizing his own villainy.”

“Woah,” Ryuji said. “That’s...a lot.”

“Indeed,” Yusuke said. There was an awkward silence. “Well, we should get going, I guess.”

“Yeah,” Ren said.

“Hey, maybe we can find out if the police know anything,” Jose said, shifting the conversation. “Either about Madarame’s contacts, or any possible future targets.”

“My, you’re quite the thinker,” Yusuke said. “Very well. Let’s head off. Until next time!”

“Later” Jose said. The two of them headed to Madarame’s shack. The rest headed home for the evening.

Once the police left, Yusuke and Jose messaged the group.

Yusuke: I’m afraid we’ve had no such luck.

Ryuji: Wha?

Jose: While we were with the police, we didn’t hear anything about Madarame’s contacts.

Yusuke: We did hear some mumblings about drugs getting passed around Shibuya, but that’s about it.

Jose: No name, no nothing.

Ann: Well, that kind of stinks.

Ryuji: Do you think the police might be involved with the people Madarame was talking about?

Ren: As someone who was wrongfully arrested, I wouldn’t put it past them.

Yusuke: Hmmm.

Yusuke: Well, I don’t know if it would have come up much anyway.

Yusuke: Nothing about Madarame's palace was about this cabal anyway.

Sumire: So, stealing his treasure wouldn’t reveal much about it?

Yusuke: Precisely.

“That’s not a bad call, actually,” Morgana said.

Yusuke: And if the police are in on it, that part might get swept under the rug.

Ryuji: So, we’re basically back to square one?

Ren: Not quite.

Ren: We’re still the Phantom Thieves. So long as we’re out and about, we have the power to undermine whoever is abusing the metaverse.

Ryuji: I see. So we’ll be a constant thorn in their side! I love it!

Ann: But maybe we should be careful.

Ann: I mean, if these people are causing the mental shutdowns, and possibly have the police in line, then we’re dealing with some really heavy hitters.

“That’s true…” Morgana said. “Lady Ann’s so smart.”

Ren: Morgana says you’re smart Ann.

“What?!” Morgana said, panicking.

Ann: Tell him thank you. Morgana started blushing and muttering unintelligibly.

Yusuke: While that may be true, there are a lot of people who still don’t believe in us yet.

Yusuke: I’m sure if we can play our cards right, we can use that to our advantage as well.

Ryuji: I hear that. We gotta make sure that they'll never see us comin’!

Ren: We can’t forget about Eris and her deal as well.

Ann: Right.

Jose: Isn’t Eris’s whole thing to build us up to either side with her or fight with her?

Ren: Well, yeah. But it’s still important to remember that.

Ren: Besides, Eris is the emissary of chaos. She won’t hesitate to disrupt anyone’s plans so long as it suits her needs.

Ann: Yeah.

Ann: So the best thing to do is keep a steady head.

Ren: Yeah.

Yusuke: Well, sorry we couldn’t find anything useful.

Ryuji: Nah, it’s fine. It was probably a long shot anyway.

Jose: We should head to Kosei and get you settled in.

Yusuke: You’re right.

Yusuke: Good night.

Ryuji: G’night.

Ann: Good night.

Sumire: Good night.

Ren: Good night.

Ren set her phone down and laid in her bed.

Meanwhile, at the prosecutor’s office, the woman who was intimidating Sojiro was working on a laptop. As she was, the young man in the coat came in. “Ah, Niijima-san,” he said. “Working late again, I see.”

Niijima looked up from her computer and glared at the boy. “Akechi-san. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I was just hoping for some friendly chit-chat,” Akechi responded.

Niijima continued working away. “Those Phantom Thieves stuck again.”

“I saw that,” Akechi noted. “I believe your sister was in the crowd at the Shibuya Crossing when the confession was airing.”

Niijima glared at him once again. “Do you WANT to irritate me?”

“Not at all,” Akechi said. “Like I said, I want this to be friendly.”

Niijima continued to glare for a bit, and then relented. “So, what did you wish to discuss?”

“Well, I’m assuming that you believe that these so-called ‘Phantom Thieves’ are the ones behind the mental shutdowns,” Akechi surmised.

“I do,” Niijima answered. “The M.O. matches up.”

“Well, about that,” Akechi said. Niijima was curious. “While it’s true that the Phantom Thieves cause a change in behavior, as do the mental shutdowns, the examples we have from the Phantom Thieves don’t match the examples we have from the mental shutdown cases. Besides, why start signing their work now?”

“Maybe they think they can get away with it,'' Niijima answered.

“Well, I guess that’s one way of thinking,” Akechi said.

“And you think that these two are unrelated?” Niijima asked.

“Well, not entirely,” Akechi said. “I believe the tactic used is similar, but I think they’re being used by two different groups.”

“Hm” Niijima grunted. “No matter. Even if your hypothesis is true, it’s still worth investigating them. If they know how to operate similarly, they might have an inkling who’s behind the shutdowns.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Akechi relented. “Still, you are awfully focused on this.”

“Your point being?” Niijima snapped back.

Akechi smiled. “With such a one-track mind, you might not be able to see what’s going on elsewhere.”

Niijima glared at him once more. “You’re one to talk.”

“Harsh. But true” Akechi said. “Maybe it’s time we find some life preservers before we both drown in our work and insecurities.”

“Maybe,” Niijima said. She went back to clacking away on her laptop.

“Well, good night Niijima-san,” Akechi said.

“Good night Akechi,” Niijima replied. Akechi started leaving. Before he fully left, he looked over Niijima once more. He was concerned, but couldn’t do much. He left.

The next day, after school, the announcements came on. Principal Kobayakawa began speaking. “Ahem. Attention students of Shujin Academy. Please meet in the gym for an assembly.”

“I wonder what this is about?” Morgana pondered. Ren shrugged and headed over with the rest of her class.

When everyone assembled, Kobayakawa took the stage once more. “As you may know, recently one of our faculty was caught up in a scandal.” There was some muttering about this, mostly about the disingenuousness of the principal. “However, the school wishes for you to continue learning, and to continue to have the best possible education. So, while we are looking for a permanent staff member, someone has agreed to be the interim gym teacher here at Shujin Academy.” There were some more murmurs. “Please welcome, Coach Chika Hiraguchi!”

Kobayakawa moved away as Coach Hiraguchi took the stage. Students were confused, but clapped anyway. “Thank you, Principal Kobayakawa,'' she said. She turned to address the students. “I know how difficult things have been here recently. That is why I don’t expect to have your trust right away. However, I do wish that for the time I am here I can prove worthy of your trust. I look forward to working with you, and making sure your school life is as good as it can possibly be.” She bowed. “Thank you.” The students clapped. From some of the mumblings Ren heard, they seemed to be impressed with her professionalism.

Kobayakawa took the stage again. “Yes. And thank you, Coach Hiraguchi.” He faced the students. “Please make sure to help Coach Hiraguchi feel welcome. You are dismissed.”

After the assembly, the Shujin-based Thieves met up. “So, your gymnastics coach is teachin’ here now?” Ryuji asked.

Sumire nodded. “Remember that day the principal called me to meet with him. It was decided then. As long as she’s here, I can continue as an honors student with all that brings.”

“You feeling alright?” Ren asked.

“Yeah,” Sumire answered. She sighed. “I don’t know. I mean, it’s nice, but… it just feels weird. It seems more and more apparent that the world is moving without Kasumi, and that…” Sumire didn't have to finish the sentence. Ren wrapped one arm around her shoulder and pulled her in, rubbing her arm in an effort to calm her down. “Thanks. … I think I’m going to go practice with Coach today.” Ren nodded and let go. Sumire headed off.

“I should go too,” Ann said. “Shiho and I made plans for some one-on-one time today.”

“Really?” Ryuji said. “Well, I can’t complain, I guess. Have fun.”

“Thanks,” Ann said. She left to meet up with Shiho.

“I should get going too,” Ryuji said. “I’ve got something I need to do. Oh, but maybe you should buy some gym clothes.” Ren was confused. “I found a good place for a workout, now that our secret area isn’t so secret anymore.”

Ren nodded. “I’ll be sure to do that.”

“OK. Thanks” Ryuji said. “Seeya!” He rushed off. Ren decided to take Ryuji up on his offer and shopped for some workout clothes. After which, she headed to one of her jobs.

As she was wandering about Tokyo, she began to notice some things. The people, the buildings, the sounds. Ren had just moved here about two months ago, but everything changed so suddenly. To her, Tokyo was starting to feel like home. Ren smiled at that notion and continued walking with a spring in her step.

4 notes · View notes

theatregaymer · 3 years

Text

You need to Relax~ SuzaLulu sfw tickle fic

Here is a pairing I’ve long been a fan of. Suzaku was my first muse back when I started roleplaying on here and enjoying it. A friend of mine @ticklish-v-93 and I got together for a sfw tickle fic since we know a lot of us like sfw as well as nsfw. I’ll upload one or two of those later but this one is more for everyone!

As the bugs sang to the evening sky, Suzaku Kururugi was making his way...or rather slugging his way home. Having just finished another group cram session, he'd long since passed when he thought he would be home. But when the groove hits ya, you just have to ride it...right? He'd been preparing for these final exams like his life depended on them, his work taking up a lot of his time though, thus resulting in his stress levels and fatigue being higher than they were even back in midterms.

College life really was exhausting, though he did know he was luckier than most, having someone to come back to amidst all his internal exhaustion.As he opened the door to the apartment they shared, the man left his size eleven shoes at the door before calling out. "Lelouch? You still up? Mmph sorry I took so long, you got my text though right?" He'd sent word ahead as they agreed, when he would likely be home late and not to wait up for him to eat dinner, he usually got by on vending machine ramen or something depending on if the cafe on campus was still open. He came out of the entryway and felt his shoulders relax slightly, his lover seated on the couch with the television showing some kind of film he hadn't really seen before. He let his bag rest along the side of the couch for now, knowing he'd be hitting the books first thing in the morning while he ate breakfast to save time. "Hey, you could have gone to bed ya know?"

Lelouch had dozed off with the tv on as he waited up for his boyfriend. It being finals he saw how Suzaku cramed for his exams and overworked himself. Lelouch himself had one more paper to turn in. Yet since he was almost done he could give his boyfriend tlc.He rubbed his eyes and perked up as he smiled at his boyfriend. "Su, welcome back." he beckoned him over, wanting to greet him properly. "I know but I felt bad and decided to wait up for you. So how did it go? Today was your last day finishing everything right?" He asked as he watched him make his way tiredly to the couch.

The brunet wavered for only a second, having his own mind somewhat sluggish at the moment. Suzaku undid the few buttons on his top, part of his chest being revealed as he let himself relax around his best friend, roommate and partner in life. "I hope you at least ate something...mmph yeah the big stuff is done but..." He knew Lelouch wouldn't like it, but he couldn't rest on his laurels yet. As one of the only Japanese students here at their university it was almost like he felt he had to excel in all his scholarly aspects in order to show any of his peers or even teachers that he was not just some lucky transfer student. "I still have some minor things to go over before next week. Nothing that will keep me out late but, I won't be puttin the books down just yet." He said with a smile, trying to keep their soft and loving mood going rather than get a lecture at this hour. His rear end finally sinking into the cushions, the boy reclined somewhat instantaneously with a groan as he could have sworn he felt a pop in his back after having been hunched over all day.

Lelouch listened, and with each word he had a concerned and disapproving expression before he finally sighed and shook his head as he settled beside him. He understood why his boyfriend worked so hard, he knew of some of the professors and students who didn't believe he earned his place in the school. So to prove them wrong he go back over his completed assignments before final submission, being meticulous as he searched for any error he missed or reworking. "Haa Suzu...I won't lecture you, because I understand why." He shot him a soft yet loving scolding look. "So I'm gonna use a different method...you can lay on my lap and rest properly or I make you." He let his eyes narrow as he patted his lap. "If you don't at least break properly you won't be in tip top form." He wasn't upset but didn't like the way his lover would overwork himself because idiots couldn't get over the fact that he was a genius.

Suzaku smiled initially, the warm words of understanding coming from Lelouch and washing over him. He could kiss him right now, sloppy as his tired kisses could be. However he caught the look in those eyes right away and knew he was still in trouble, even without a lecture. "Eehehehe...s-seriously? I mean I'm grateful and all, I mean...I accept...thanks." He was too tired to defend himself right now anyways, and an argument usually ended with him getting outwitted anyways. He grunted and stretched out, a grunt eeking out of his throat as he took a second to find a comfy position with his head resting on Lelouch's thighs, his legs being long enough that his ankles rested on the arm of the couch. "Mmm this is actually...kinda nice, heh. If your legs get numb though you need to let me know." He could just study tomorrow once he woke up right? Lelouch wouldn't mind that...he hoped.

Lelouch rolled his eyes at the adorable doofus of a boyfriend flicking him teasingly on the forehead with a smirk. "Yes, and you should be." when he was comfortable he leaned down pecking his forehead. "Sure sure, I will but first." he squeezed his cheeks. "I hope you aren't thinking about studying..." he could tell when Suzaku was making plans in his head. His brow would lightly furrow in the cutest of ways and his eyes would slightly darken in thought. Completely unnoticeable if you didn't grow up with him. "Suuuzaakuu~" he drawled out his name as he smooshed his cheeks. "If you are I’m going to take matters into my own hands...literally." he smirked as his fingers started playing with his ears.

The brunet was caught red handed, how was Lelouch able to see what he was thinking so easily!? Well then again, the two had been friends since childhood, even after so much time apart they'd gotten right back into their friendship so quickly. And developing that relationship further into what it was now...well there were bound to be things they knew about one another after all that time. Through squished cheeks and the teasing of his ears, Suzaku attempted to explain himself...or at least lie. "No noho hehe I pwomishheheh hehey oomph come on Lelouch Ihi'm too tired for that." He said, not even thinking of where it might lead his boyfriend since there were certain things about him Lelouch liked to exploit to gain an advantage. That was his style after all, exploit a weakness and turn it into your own strength.

He knew it! Well at least he can distract him from such thoughts. "Ohhh, I can't tell, you must not be that tired if you can think of plans, so you can handle this!" he chirped fingers moving to his neck. "I think this is just what you need. Proper punishment for overworking yourself." he said over him. "I bet you even planned to sleep for a certain amount of hours then waking up early to finish whatever things you had left to do." he said alternating between tickling his ears and neck.

"Pffthehehehaha oh ohoh noho come ohohonahah!" Lelouch was nothing if not thorough, sometimes overly so. His thought processes moved at a staggering rate leaving Suzaku little room to mentally maneuver around whatever he could say. "HAha nah no please Ihi swearhahaha ack come ohon mercy you knohow how it tickles!" Suzaku weakly began trying to curl up, being comfortable enough to not want to leave this spot as he turned his face into the other's stomach to laugh his heart out.

Lelouch cooed at the action trying not to laugh himself. Because it was finals the two didn't really have that much quality time together besides a kiss here and there. With how much their schedules kept them separated and busy. So now here he was, tired as they both were he couldn't wait until they were done. It was time to collect!! "Awww nope let me feed off that sweet laughter!" He snickered and moved his fingers to his ears. "Ahh mercy? Nono how bout some food, likeeee raspberries!" He chirped with out warning attached his lips to his exposed neck and blews light raspberries and nibbling at the exposed skin.

Suzaku was completely at the other's mercy now, those exploratory fingers wreaking havoc on him even with only these light attentions. "HAha ah wahaha noho nono KYAAHAahha!" The raspberry, dear god why was he still so vulnerable to those things at his age? Lelouch's lips were soft, perfect to vibrate against his neck and make the poor guy buck and squirm around some more. "MMhmhmhmhmph! Looohouch meheanie!" He complained, letting out a bit more of an undignified and childish side of himself while trying to curl up.

At the comment Lelouch growled playfully then delivered another loud raspberry. He giggled himself as his lover squirmed around, it was nice to hear his laughter, if anything he was addicted. So to gain more he shot his hands to his sides poking and squeezing. "Mnmnm pbbttt..mhuaahh!" He lifted his head. "Not nice to call names mister tease!" He chimed grinning down at him. "Mean would be me cuffing you to the bed and tickling you until sun up." He snickered. "Plus, I can't trust you to stay still enough before you dash out that door again!" He said finding an unprotected spot and digging his fingers in.

Suzaku moved like a man possessed. Lelouch choosing to target his poor sides had him twitching and wriggling about in that lap, only slightly managing to not fall off the couch at this point. "BWHAHAh ahah AH staha no no that's haha not fahahirhah! Youhu wouldn't!" The only time they'd actually done cuffs with tickling was one of Suzaku's birthdays, definitely a wake up call he never forgot. "HIhihehehaha AH AHAHA I WIHIHLL Pleehehasehaha just move somewhere eleehehehse!" The brunet pleaded, knowing and accepting that this sort of punishment was inevitable. He didn't hate it, liked it sometimes in fact, but Lelouch knew that and always tended to keep him in suspense as to when he would strike.

"Hmmm?" Hummed playfully as he heard his words. "Completely fair love." He said over his laughter. "Ohhh think I won't when I will...hehe this time I won't buuuuttt. Next time when you least expect it." He told him thinking maybe once their exams were over he would reward him in his own special way. "Huh? Move?" His smile turned downright evil. "You said it...not me!" He changed his position a little and stretched over him and went for his hips.

The ideas for such a wild night were not completely lost on the brunet, but at the same time his entire being wasn't really in on any conversations right now. He barely caught a glimpse of Lelouch's wickedly playful smirk before his lithe hips were seized. "Whahat are you GYAAHAHAA aAH AHA NONONONHIOHOHHAHAIHIHI!" One of his top three spots no doubt, the hips had never been somewhere Suzaku thought himself to be vulnerable until Lelouch got ahold of them. Something about his delicate fingers, his touch almost like an artist molding a masterpiece...Suzaku had no chance at preventing such embarrassing and rapid paced laughter from bursting forth.

"There we go! Wow!" He chuckled himself as he squeezed his hips, digging his thumbs into the groves then moving up to his sides then his ribs and with some struggle was trying to get to his armpits " Yes! Let me get your armpits!" He said giddy from the situation. "Let me in Suzu!" He said sweetly and he focused on his ribs since his arms were clamped down. They should be sleeping after all but did not want to pass up this chance of physical affection. "This is helping both of us! You look so refreshed!" He grinned as he continued to assault him with tickles as he became more drunk off his laughter.

High pitched cackling, soft moments of silent laughter in between louder fits of uncontrollable giggles, Lelouch had him right where he wanted him to be sure. "HAhaha...eheh ah no nohoh please no aharmpihihitshshsheheha!" The poor brunet was writhing, desperately trying to think of what he could do to defend himself even in the slightest as his arms stayed as closely tightened as possible. He bent them at the elbow though, trying to lean into Lelouch and tickle with his hands where he could as payback, despite knowing that in this situation he definitely couldn't be as effective, nor get at the really good spots.

"Dont worry I'll get them eventually! Maybe I should go for your fe-eheheehet!" Lelouch jumped a laugh as he felt his hands get active below him and pulled back just to clasped both hands. "Oh you little sneak hehe!" he grinned down at him as he allowed for a brief breather keeping their hands clasped. "Maybe I should go for your neck again for that little stunt." It was no secret that he was just as ticklish as his boyfriend. Just he was better at hiding it and getting the upper hand on Suzaku.

Grinning as he at least got a bit of a breather, Suzaku knew he made the right call after hearing Lelouch's next targets. "Heheh...mmmhmhmhm, Maybe instehead, we can work out a deal?" He asked, not to get more studies after, but to make sure he could obtain some payback when his own torment was ended. "I'll let you get one of the spots...heh the pits or the feet. But in return...I'm gonna get you back, on your back." He grinned widely, knowing the other boy had quite the sensitive spine...and he loved playing him like a piano. Sure he was at a disadvantage, but if his own hands were in check now, that meant Lelouch couldn't keep tickling him either.

Lelouch listened to his offer with an amused smirk, usually he was the one planning and making deals that would give him the upper hand. Yet as he stared down at his boyfriend he couldn't help but shake his head with a small laugh. "Striking a deal huh? You drive a hard bargain!" he thought about it and almost wanted to decline and go back to tickling him. This was suppose to be a 'punishment'...Thaaat quickly turned into self indulgence. Plus his back was his worst spot and he hated his laughter when he was tickled their. "Haha alright, it only fair," he leaned down capturing those lips briefly. "Mmnn lets see," he thought about what he wanted and decided to target the spot he was closest too. "Give me those pits Mr.Tease." he grinned down at him.

He was glad Lelouch was so understanding and willing to deal with his bit of selfishness at least in this regard. Of course, even though he knew one of those spots would be subjected to torture, he still struggled for a moment to lower his guard as he looked up at Lelouch while getting comfy again. "Mmhmhmhm crap. I swehear you better be ready for my turn." Arms tentatively moving at a snail's pace, he jerked a little out of fear a couple times before reaching up and gripping the armrest of the couch for support, his pits wide open and practically wearing a sign that said kill me now.

"Oh dont worry I will be." he chuckled booping his nose. "Now arms up Suzu!" he said showing him his hands, snickering at the flinches and hesitation before he finally yielded. "Aww that's cute," he giggled at his expression. "Don't worry I won't be long!" He dug in before he could clamp his arms. "Tickle tickle Mr.tease!" He taunted with a grin. He was most likely gonna get it worse for the teasing but at least it was worth it just to see that gorgeous smile.

Though his arms did jerk a bit, Suzaku kept his hands holding firmly to the couch, even when his legs bucked into the air at the sudden and intense feeling of his poor pits falling under fire. "GWAHAHah haah ahah AH AHAH LELOHOHOUCHEHEHAH Oh MY gahahadhahaha!" The brunet's laughter continued unhindered, his vocals rising up an octave on occasion as he certainly didn't feel tired anymore, though that would probably hit him later after things calmed down.

Lelouch happily indulged himself as he continued scribbling his fingers in the spot. To futher mess with his boyfriend he gasped. "Woah Suzu I think I feel a hair trying to come in!" He pinch and clawed switching between hard and soft tickles just enjoying the sight and sound he continued for a moment more before stopping and simply rubbing his hands down his side. "See was that so bad?" He cooed moving bangs from his forehead.

"HEHEHAAAHAHA AHAHA AH NOHOHO You HEHEHAHAha! LeLOUHUHUHUCH!" The poor boy squealed, legs flopping about again until his love seemed to finally take some pity on him. Suzaku was panting groaning as his arms came down and tried rubbing the feeling away. He looked up at Lelouch, playfully pushing out his lower lip with a huff. "Mmph...i'm so gonna get you double time." He declared with a pout, having another spot in mind that he knew would put Lelouch in a similar state.

"Hehe I know you will!" He kissed those lips again. "But was it really that bad?" He cooed as he scratched through his scalp. "You look better too." He tapped his forehead. "And not as grimy like earlier...well you could use a shower and some shampoo." He teased just to mess with him. "Maybeee I should continue and get those cuffs." He strecthed moving to stand.

Suzaku huffed in a joking manner, sitting upright and stretching himself before blinking slightly and turning to snatch Lelouch around the waist. Just like that, his strength was practically fully functional as he pulled the boy back onto the couch with him. "Ooohoho no, I think you're gonna stay right here mister tickle monster." His superior athleticism gave quite the advantage here as once he was in control it would be nigh impossible for his more intellectual partner to escape him. And thus he playfully pushed Lelouch down face first, cackling like a playful villain before he shoved his hands up the back of his shirt and began doodling different lines, circles and swirls along his bare skin.

Lelouch shrieked with a laugh as he was pulled back down. "W-wahahait pft Suzaku!" He flailed as they wrestled and he was maneuvered on his back, he should have worked more on gaining muscles along with his intellect. "Nononono pfthehee kyaha mnff." He bit his lip and covered his mouth as he grabbed a pillow tossing it at his boyfriend. His legs kicked as one of his most ticklish areas was exposed.

"Pffthahah hehey now I didn't use weapons!" Suzaku complained playfully, using claw motions to crawl up his boyfriend's back and then down along his ribs and flanks, giving him squeezes all the way down. The whole time he was shifting his weight, dodging as much as he could while feeling Lelouch writhe in agony underneath him. He may be rather ticklish himself, but his dainty partner was for sure much more wild and unstable when you got him in a good spot. "I wonder if your feet are worse than your back Lelouch, what do you think?" He teased, not even really pausing as he continued to work his thumbs into the other's waist.

“Pfahahaaa!" He bucked with a pitchy laugh as he felt those fingers making him arch out of control. "Hahaha arhghahaha Suzakahahahaha!" He tried to roll onto his back to escape the feeling but his body was heavy and had all his weight on top him. Plus the tickling was taking all the fight out of him. "Nohohoohohoho! Oh my gohohohosh!" He clamped his arms down to his sides as some form of protection.

"Oh? No you say? Noooo? Not here then, well we might as well try the other spot." Suzaku happily announced before pulling his hands back and turning around. Seated on Lelouch's butt now, the brunet reached down and, after a bit of struggling, grabbed both of Lelouch's ankles and hoisted them towards him. He made a habit of drawing out this particular torture, starting to scratch and scribble his fingers along both soles with one hand.

"Thahahahats nohohoht what I meantehehehe!" he cackled with a squeal and groan, he tried to keep his feet hidden and out of his lover's grasp and shreiked as he was caught. "Nononoooo Suzuhuhuhu pft I hahahahate you so much!" he pounded at the couch as the worse torture began. Oh this was war! if he could reach back and get him he would.

Suzaku giggled wickedly, having an almost sinister cackling sound to his voice as he eagerly stripped the boy's socks away and went doubletime over both feet. Heel to toe, back and forth, he didn't really let up until he was suddenly rubbing each toe instead, cooing his boyfriend to calm him down. "Hahaha there there, gosh your feet are so ticklish Lulu~" He teased with the nickname their friends came up with, knowing that if he wasn't blushing from his undignified response, that would get him heated in a hurry.

"Nohohoho GAHAhahahaaha!" he laughed out as he struggled to try and get free but could only laugh and toss and turn. "Ahahaaha...ahh haa pft hehehe ahh haha..." He gave a laughing glare to his boyfriend as he all but melted and laid there blushing heavily at the nickname he groaned hiding his face in the cushion. "Thahahats not my fault you ass." came the muffled response. Though he was happy Suzaku was in better spirits. "Your just as t-ticklish there too!" he said still refusing to show his heated face.

Suzaku couldn't stop smiling at how cute Lelouch was with his guard down, his normal walls no longer preventing his real self to shine through. The muffled protests were mostly easy to make out, Suzaku gathering there was some return taunts as well as accusations. "Sorry what was that?" He said playfully, fingers digging into the soft balls of the other's feet for a second to get a renewed reaction. "Hehhe not my fault you didn't take advantage." The brunet couldn't help but enjoy this ticklish little time they had together, the stress almost wiped completely from his mind due to Lelouch's influence.

"Kyahaha! Hehehehe!" Lelouch bucked with a shriek flushed face coming out of hiding as he laughed. Only Suzaku could bring this side out of him, making him break through all that regal and mature persona to the wind and be as immature as he wanted. He was more than happy to be able to act like this around him. "Ahahaha! I saihhihihid you're j-just as ticklish too youhuhuhu ass!" He giggled out covering his face as he struggled to reach back and aimed a squeeze at his knee. If he wanted him to take advantage more he would as much as he could.

Suzaku saw this coming, the inevitable countermove by his chess loving partner. But he was ready, quickly snatching said arm and holding it out so he could in turn reach in and reintroduce the vulnerable armpit to tickles again. "Ooohohoho bad moove Lulu~ Oooohohoho tickle tickle tickle hehehe. Oomph!" Suzaku grunted as he let up and laid down on top of the other's back, making sure to hug him from behind and prevent any further tickle attacks. "But you win, no studying, no stress....yawn aaaall relaxation...mmm starting with a nap here."

"OH SHIHIHIT! Suhuhuhuahahaha!GAhahahaha!" He tried to clasp his arm down yet all he could was lay there and take it. "Hahaha ahh hngnn." He panted and flinch as those arms wrapped around him, thinking he was going to go for his stomach yet relaxed when that wasn't the case. "Uhng Suzaku get off so we can at least cuddle in the bed! Dont crush me hereeee!" he whined playfully trying to turn in his arms. "I know you aren't asleep that fast!"

Suzaku playfully make snoring sounds, exhaling and blowing into Lelouch's ears once or twice before he giggled and got up. "Cuddles sound good to me hehe. You gonna make me breakfast tomorrow?" He asked teasingly, offering his hand with that casual smile that Lelouch no doubt fell for a long time ago.

"Nyahaha Suzahahaha...hgn hahaha..ahh!" He rubbed at his ears before taking his hand with a laugh face still flushed as he stood. At the breakfast comment he pinched his sides. "Wise guy...psh it was going to be a surprise. Now im not sure." He smirked walking past him into the room. "But if you get yourself a full eight hours then maybe I'll think about... now shower and come to bed. If you start working I swear to tickle you again until you pass out!" He beckoned him with a finger. " But if you want I'll keep you company in the shower and wash you hair~" he purred.

Suzaku nodded, feeling the alert status he'd gained from the tickles begin to wear off. Of course as he rubbed the back of his head and stretched, he couldn't help but hear the subtle meaning behind Lelouch's words as he walked away. "Huh? H-hey Lelouch! Wait a sec, together! I want you to wash my hair!" He quickly chased after him, knowing what that kind of tone meant for the tactical genius that never failed to put him in check. He'd get that sleep, but the night was clearly still young...

#tickles #sfw #boyfriend tickling #suzaku kururugi #lelouch lamperouge #code geass #rp #fluff

12 notes · View notes

twdmusicboxmystery · 3 years

Text

Revolution Theme, Part 4 - The Governor’s Episodes

What led me to wanting to rewatch the Gov’s episode was a discussion with @galadrieljones. She talked about Lenny from 4b being an anti-Daryl, and that sparked something for me. I totally agree about Len, but it made me remember that, a long time ago, I remembered that Mitch (guy who operated the tank for the Gov and helped bulldoze the prison) was also an anti-parallel to Daryl.

Now, back when I first realized that, I didn’t have anywhere to really go with it. I mean, we had the leader (Governor) pitted against Rick and his right-hand guy (Mitch) pitted against Daryl. Mitch operated the tank, which Daryl blew up. And then of course Daryl ends up shooting Mitch in the heart. The thing that first made me realize Mitch was a Daryl parallel was the fact that he had no sleeves, lol. I know that’s goofy, but I think it’s intentional.

Anyway, I hadn’t thought about it in a long time. And while we’ve talked about Gov parallels to Beth in these two episodes lots of times before (like the stigmata walker in the yellow wheelchair) it suddenly occurred to me that there’s probably a LOT more to it than that.

Recently, especially since the bonus episodes, I’ve been big on looking at entire sequences and multi-episode arcs from a broad, bird’s eye view because I think they’re templates for future story lines. (It’s totally Find Me’s fault. Lol.) Anyway, I just realized I hadn’t done THAT with the Gov’s episodes, and I probably should.

Long story short, I was right.

Long story long, here we go:

So we start by seeing the end of 3x16 again, right after the Gov kills all his own people and takes off with Martinez and that other guy whose name I don’t remember. He doesn’t show up again and Martinez says he pretty much gave up and got eaten by walkers.

(We’ll skip the discussion about how Karen was a Beth proxy at this part in 3x16, because she was left for dead and even pretended like she was. In other words, she played possum. Then she returned to Tyreese and eventually became romantically involved with him. But that’s beside the point, right? ;D)

Okay, so we see the Gov and the two guys at a camp site and a very Beth-ish walker stomps through his fire, trips, and starts burning before Martinez kills it. I’ve always thought that was a Beth hint, and I still do. I think it’s just the writers’ way of signaling that this is a Beth template for the future.

When the Gov wakes up, his guys have abandoned him and he’s alone in this bright yellow tent that stands out against the bleak landscape. (Yellow.)

Then he goes and burns Woodbury. I’ve always tried to connect that to Beth, particularly because of the Moonshine shack. But looking at it now, there’s just something else entirely going on here. Emotionally, I mean.

We know Bethyl burning the moonshine shack symbolized something positive. Letting go of their pasts and moving forward. When the Gov does this, you don’t get that vibe at all. It’s more bitter and resentful. He’s angry and grieving over losing his leadership, the town he built up, and his people. It almost feels like a “if I can’t have it no one can” sort of thing.

So, this is total conjecture on my part, but I feel like there will be a Beth parallel to this. Probably not quite as destructive, but I’ve always had a head canon that somehow, after waking up, she’ll end up at Terminus, find the riot gear and Daryl’s poncho, and assume they all died there. That may be where the bitterness and sadness will come from. Just my head canon, though.

After that, the Gov starts on his long, lone journey (another thing we’ve always theorized Beth would do). Oh, and the song that plays over this part, which I’ve always thought was very pretty, is called The Last Pale LIGHT in the WEST (emphasis mine). I think the Gov goes west when he leaves.

youtube

Then we get voice overs, and this part is SUPER interesting and makes me very happy. We heard two women talking to the Gov about where he comes from and where he used to be. We now know those voices to be Tara and Lilly, but at this point in the episode, he hasn’t met them, yet. So, what’s interesting is that neither of them are named in the subtitles. They are just “woman.”

And where have we seen that lately? In 9x05, every voice (like Lori and Abraham, for example) was named, but Beth wasn’t. We immediately recognized her voice, but she wasn’t named in the subtitles as “Beth.” It just said “woman.” So, what does this mean? We wouldn’t have recognized Alanna’s voice yet at this point, unlike Emily’s, but we had yet to meet Tara yet. So, on a basic level, I think it shows that the unnamed “woman” will soon be a character on the show.

And why would they do that with Beth when, like Lori and Abe and the others, we’ve already met her? I think it’s probably in line with the theme about her being a different person when we see her again. In a good way. “Meet the new Beth Greene.”

The next important thing about this part is what is actually said. I’m paraphrasing here, but Tara and Lily ask where the Gov was before and he says something about having been in a town. Tara asks if the monsters were there. He says no. It was a good place, with walls. But “he” lost it. She asks, “who?” And he says, “the man in charge.” So clearly, he’s talking about himself in the third person, and Woodbury.

But.

If this is a Beth template, then Gov = Beth, right? We always wondered why they would use him, being evil and stuff, as a Beth proxy. But keep in mind that Gimple took over as official head honcho and completely reworked a reportedly terrible 3x16. They were basically done with the Woodbury/Gov storyline, and they needed a good sendoff for him. In a way, this was Gimple’s first Sirius arc. Someone who leaves, is presumed dead, but then comes back. We know Daryl (and Michonne) searched for him, but lost the trail (kinda like losing Beth’s body) and the Gov is even down one eye. Siriusly.

So, my point about the voice over is that everything said there could be applied to Rick, especially during the S4/S5. He lost it. He screwed up. Beth was left behind/separated from them.

Okay, now I’ll jump forward a little faster. For the rest of 4x06, there are really only two big things of note. 1) Tara and Lilly = two sisters who eventually lose their father. A foreshadow of the Greene family dynamic. And even though Tara’s father dies of natural causes (lung cancer), the Gov does end up bashing his face in to keep him from biting Tara. I think that was supposed to be kind of like him “killing” the dad, and therefore a foreshadow of him killing Hershel by taking his head.

The second thing, in terms of future Beth arcs, is that he lost everything, was left behind/abandoned by his people, went on a long journey, and eventually found people that he came to care about and protect. And I think the same will happen with Beth. In fact, it actually works in line with the Charleston template I laid out. Just a community of people she cares about and protects/takes care of.

And I’m sure some people will wonder about the fact that the Gov finds a love interest in Lilly, and if that will translate to Beth. Well, it’s possible. She might have had boyfriends over the years. We’ve discussed this. But it’s also important that her *true* love interest, Daryl, is already back with TF. And that wasn’t true of the Gov. He was never going to return to the prison and have some beautiful relationship with…anyone. The closest thing would have been Andrea, and she’d already died by this point.

There are, of course, small clues in 4x06 that I haven’t gone over, and of course I’ve skipped the rest home with the stigmata walker, because we know about that. But a few highlights: At one point, Tara says, “Ray Charles could have seen it” about their truck out front. Blindness mention. Lilly used to be a nurse, which ties to Grady. And she even talks about being bored, which is a direct link to Edwards being bored.

Pirate theme, of course. I do think Megan represents Beth, though perhaps not directly in the template. She wears a lot of pink and yellow, blond hair, etc. And I think she’s just another way to say that this template is about the blond girl who, apparently, dies.

We should also probably appreciate that the way the Gov’s arc ends (the situation in 4x08) is a prisoner exchange situation where a Greene dies, and both directly ties to and foreshadows Grady.

But let’s move on. The end of 4x06/beginning of 4x07 is where they fall into a pit and meet Martinez. Let’s be real. In the show they call it “the pit” and it’s just used to keep walkers from overrunning their camp, but it’s clearly a grave. So, we have the Gov and Beth—I mean Megan—falling into a grave with a bunch of walkers (death) but surviving and eventually getting out (resurrection). Side note: we also saw the Gov kill one of the walkers that went after Megan by ripping it’s jaw off. (Speak no evil.)

So, here’s where we get to talk about Mitch and Pete a little bit. And it’ll be fun. I promise. :D

Watching this with an eye toward them representing Daryl and Merle, a lot of the symbolism became a lot more obvious. Keep in mind that they’re anti-parallels, not parallels.

See, between the two, Pete, who actually represents Merle, is the more sweet, compassionate one. While Mitch is the more brutal one. But again, they’re anti-parallels, so in this case, Mitch, the brutal one, is Daryl’s antithesis and Pete, the kind one, is Merle’s.

In fact, the first time we meet them, Mitch doesn’t want to let the Gov’s group in because they already had too many mouths to feed, and Pete says, “come on, man. They have a kid.” Just reminded me a lot of Daryl’s “they had a baby” in 3x10 after saving the family on the bridge.

So, they come back to the camp and start living in a trailer. The Hole in the Roof theory is huge here. The roof of the trailer keeps leaking water and, I shit you not, it looks like it’s dripping from a bullet wound. So, clearly….

And while I stand by it being a symbol of Beth being shot in the head, I also think it represents toxicity of a sort. Things that are wrong and it’s just a matter of time before the crap hits the fan. That sort of thing.

Okay, obviously the most important part of this episode is when they go to the cabin, but let me mention a few things that happen along the way.

Mitch, Pete, Martinez, and the Gov go out looking for supplies for the camp. And they had a really interesting conversation that may give some insight into the spearfishing in Find Me.

They walk by the lake and the Gov asks if there are fish in the lake. They reply, no. The lake is totally dead. Mitch then adds that there are rabbits, skunks, and possums. Obviously, some symbolism in those animals. But it occurs to me that fish = life. Something they can eat, subsist and even thrive on. The lake is dead because there are no fish.

Now, clearly this is a foreshadow of the Gov killing Pete and putting him in the lake. And of the Gov already being kind of dead in his soul. And “dead water” might also foreshadow the poisoned water theme. Water that can cause death if you drink it.

But in thinking about Daryl’s reaction to both Leah and Carol finding fish in FM, it’s kind of interesting. Both times, he says, “no way,” and is pleasantly surprised that they caught the fish (life). So, I’m wondering if this is meant to be him being surprised that someone he thought was dead was really alive. And what if all the fish symbols we’ve seen represent life in some way?

Of course, it could also be that a mounted fish, like we saw near Dwight in S8 is technically a dead fish. So, it might have symbolized the death of his and Sherry’s relationship. Or that it would live again. I’m not sure how granular to make this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Okay, so then they come upon a camp that seems to be doing well. Mitch wants to take all their supplies, but Pete refuses and they leave. Later, they come back to find the camp overrun, most of its people dead, and the supplies gone. Here, Mitch is just pissed that they didn’t take the supplies before someone else got them. (Very anti-Daryl.)

But I do think this points to some future arc. I don’t know for sure what it will be, but again, I think it works with the Charleston template. Like, Beth is in a community. She goes out looking for supplies, and when she comes back, the community has been knocked on its butt by the CRM. And this is one of those things that was never really acknowledged or explained in the show. Who killed off the camp? And why wasn’t anyone in the Gov’s group at all concerned that their camp might be next? Gotta be symbolism for sure. :D

Oh, and the Gov says it must have “just happened.” Just like Daryl said about the wolves and the girl on the tree in 5x15. And again, the wolves are very tangled up in the Native American symbolism.

Then there’s the cabin bit. Again, I’m not at all sure how this will fit into Beth’s arc, but I’m sure it foreshadows SOMEthing. So, we have two headless corpses, one of which says LIAR and the other that says RAPIST. And then a third that still has his head, but killed himself with a shotgun. He is, presumably, the guy who lived in the cabin and killed the first two, and he’s labeled himself MURDERER.

Now, on the one hand, all of these words describe the Governor. He says “Liar” just before taking Hershel’s head, which is what that first one points to. And it’s not too hard to figure out that he’s a murderer. We didn’t actually see him rape anyone in the show, but there were suggestions of it, especially as he attacked Michonne and manipulated Andrea. And I’m pretty sure in the comic books, he does actually rape Michonne. They just didn’t want that to be the case in the show. So, these do all work for his story line.

But I also think these may be things Beth encounters at some point in her arc. Maybe someone will lie to her (or even betray her, Lone Ranger-style) and she’ll have to take them out. We already saw her dealing with rape at Grady, and have long thought that it foreshadows a bigger, potential rape situation that she’ll have to deal with. You get the idea. So, it’s very vague and I don’t have any great inspirations about what these point to, but in general, I’m sure they’ll apply to her.

It's also important to note that all these guys are dressed in military clothing. So, we might be able to tie them to CRM, symbolically if not literally.

I didn’t find anything massive inside the cabin that we haven’t already discussed. You asked me to look for revolution/George Washington pictures, @wdway, and I didn’t notice any. I didn’t try overly hard to see every single picture in the background, but most of them looked too blurry to tell much detail anyway. The major one is of Abraham Lincoln, and I think that’s important. But I’ll come back to it.

Of course, we have all the Native American symbols in this cabin. So, here’s the thing. Because of Tonto in TLR, I feel like whoever the Native American symbolism points to, whatever group that is, good or bad, it represents the group that Beth found after she woke up/lived, who nursed her back to health. And the reason I say good or bad is because the Claimers do theoretically fall under this same symbol theme for Daryl. The first group of people he ran into after he lost Beth. After the big disaster.

And here, I think Martinez’s group works in that regard for the Governor. He wasn’t hurt badly but he was in need of help after falling into the pit. You could say the same of Daryl after losing Beth. He just needed people to pull him out of his slump.

Now, here’s the other thing I’m not entirely sure how to interpret, but it does lend credence to the idea of the guy who lived in the cabin, who took out the two headless corpses, being representative of Beth. Once they’ve cleaned the walkers out of the cabin and are all sitting down talking, the Gov finds a picture of the guy who lived their and his family. The guy’s left eye has been colored over with read. Like red pen or marker. But it’s clearly a Sirius symbol and the red looks like blood.

So, I thought about what must have happened in this cabin. I kind of thing it might have been sort of like what happened with Abraham’s family. We were told after 5x05 that he killed the people who were actually part of his group. People he trusted. That’s because while he was out on a supply run, they raped his family. They just couldn’t show that in the show.

So, for the cabin guy, taking out a rapist and liar who might have harmed his family is straight forward enough. But why would he kill himself if his family still lived? And the Gov’s group found them as walkers in the house. Why would they continue to live there if the husband/father had shot himself on the porch? So, I’m thinking that these two headless corpses not only raped but perhaps murdered his family. So, he beheaded them and, in his grief, took himself out.

Or, because he labeled himself a murderer, maybe something happened where his family went crazy, or just got bitten, and he had to put them down. And that made him feel like a murderer. Because I don’t think justly taking out bad guys would have made him feel that way.

This may feel largely irrelevant, but it’s in the episode for a reason. Once again, I think this probably points to some part of Beth’s future arc. I mean, this sort of thing, the kind of thing Abraham went through, since it happened at the hands of people that were part of his community and that he trusted, is the ultimate betrayal, right? So maybe it will be a matter of someone in her community that she trusts betraying them to the CRM or something. IDK.

I keep saying it’s the west/lone ranger stuff that = betrayal, but the Native American theme always seems to be tangled up with it, doesn’t it?

Some minor details.

They find *beer* in the cabin.

We find out that Mitch and Pete were in the army before the turn happened. And in this case, I don’t necessarily want to link that to the CRM. We could, but given that both of them are now dead, it doesn’t really matter.

But it occurred to me that this is more evidence of them being anti-Daryl and Merle. Daryl and Merle were nobodys and drifters before. So, their opposites were in one of the most disciplined professions one can enter. Daryl started in an unproductive place and evolved. Mitch started in a disciplined place and devolved.

Of course, they’re playing GOLF when he kills Martinez. After doing so, he sits like Daryl at the crossroads. Then when Lilly finds him in the RV, he says he had a bad dream. He doesn’t remember. (Memory loss mention.)

They tell the camp he was hitting golf balls, got drunk, and fell into the grave/pit. *coughs Bethyl*

There were some interesting mushroom mentions. I noticed that before they met up with Martinez’s group, they were talking about Tara’s ex girlfriend (who was named SAM, btw) who lied to her about her feelings for Tara. Lilly says, “Yeah, then you went camping, ate mushrooms, and the rest was history.” Or something like that. I wasn’t sure what to make of that, but then later, we see the same mushrooms on the trees around the Gov that we saw in Still. Hmm.

I’m also a little unsure of what to make of the walker pit they reach when they try to leave the camp. Remember they all take off in a car, including Tara’s girlfriend, but they have to stop because the road is impassible. It’s turned to mud and is full of walkers. I’m sure that’s symbolic of something, but I don’t know what.

Of course, the Gov kills Pete and recruits Mitch. You could say he has a very Negan approach, ruling through fear. He kills Pete specifically BECAUSE he’s the compassionate one and Mitch is the brutal one. Very different to how Rick ever approached things.

Okay, that’s most of what I have for the Gov. Except that at the beginning of 4x08, after he takes Michonne and Hershel prisoner, he says, “they’re the key.” (Key Theory).

#beth greene fan art #Beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional for the win #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

5 notes · View notes

incomprehensiblelentils · 3 years

Text

@dollsome-does-tumblr does this and opened it up to anyone and I am feeling chatty today SO!

Because I co-write a lot with my lovely wife, I might answer some questions including those co-written stories, or I might not, depends on how I feel when I get there.

name:

Megan but I go by Lentils most places on the internet, Shadowcrawler over on AO3

fandoms:

at the moment: MCU, especially Agents of SHIELD and Daredevil; Terminator: Dark Fate; Halt and Catch Fire. Oh and I wrote Dollhouse fanfics a thousand years ago. Sometimes I will watch a movie/show and think “those two girls should be gay” and bang out 2k of fic about it and then never write for that fandom again. (I THOUGHT this was going to be HACF but as it turns out, no, it’s not done with me yet.)

where you post:

AO3, at Shadowcrawler. I also have a tumblr @lentils-writes where theoretically I post links to fics/advertise them in the tags, because I used to be real precious about not putting porn on this blog, but fuck it.