#it happens in injustice and a lot of crossovers

[the-witchhunter]

DP X DC crossover ramble: No killing rule

So Batman’s no killing rule comes up a lot in fics. In some it’s not a problem, but mostly where I see it brought up is in regards to killing the Joker. Oh it would be so much easier and save so many people if Batman just killed him, right?

wrong.

The canonical reason Batman doesn’t kill isn’t some “killing a killer would make me just as bad as they are” thing. Batman knows he can kill, and how easy it would be. So easy, that if he does it once, he’s not going to stop. If he allows himself to kill, he’s going to kill a lot of people and Bruce knows this about himself. It’s not mercy to his villains, it’s mercy to the world that he doesn’t kill and believes in rehabilitation. How many people, how many family, how many lives would be ruined if he killed? Gotham would run red with blood, and Bruce is well aware of it. Killing wouldn’t make him just as bad, it would make him worse.

So it just comes across as a little dumb when people try writing Danny as morally superior in a fic where he kills the Joker. It misses the point of the no killing rule, and it never really wants to deal with the emotional fallout of having your teenaged character kill someone. It’s half-assed writing tbh. It feels tacked on not because people honestly think Danny would, but because they’re frustrated that Batman just hasn’t killed the Joker. It’s not added because people think Danny would, it’s added because the writer thinks someone should and Danny is their vehicle to do that.

And frankly there’s a much more interesting parallel between Batman and Danny where allowing themself to take the easy route would result in them being the worst monsters humanity has ever seen. Hello? Dan Phantom? The ultimate enemy? That’s exactly the type of thing Bruce is avoiding for himself. Given the explanation, Danny would understand all too well.

Also, in any universe where someone kills the Joker, bad things happen because of it. Injustice, the Bat Who Laughs, etc. 

I guess I’m just frustrated that when it happens it’s half assed? There’s no real consequences, the emotional toll is ignored, and the effects of Joker dying has on the world at large are ignored. If it’s going to be done, it shouldn’t be tacked onto the fic you want to tell, it should actually have some amount of focus because it should be a major plot point. It’s the joker, make it actually matter if you’re going to do it. 

#Danny Phantom #detective comics #dp x dc crossover #dp x dc #ramble #dp x dc ramble #killing the joker

[honourablejester]

Okay, that’s just cool.

Youtube is throwing random D&D related videos at me, and it recommended this year old video from Esper the Bard talking about cool 3/3.5e undead monsters that didn’t make the transition to 5e (in a lot of cases because they do damage to stats, I’m guessing). And one of them, the Boneyard, from the sourcebook Libris Mortis, is so cool.

Lorewise, it does have some similarities to 5e’s Gallows Speaker, in that it’s an undead that results from the combined dead of mass graves and charnel sites, but instead of a spectral combination, the Boneyard is a physical one. It’s, as it sounds like, a writhing mass of bones animated by the combined spirits of those who died.

And. I might be biased. Because that’s very similar to a Japanese Gashadokuro, and a gashadokuro was the star creature of an absolutely amazing Mushishi/Mononoke crossover fic I read called Dust & Bones by 7PhoenixAshes which made absolutely stunning creepy use of it. But. It’s such a cinematic monster, and one that comes with the story damn near pre-written for you.

The Boneyard is a creature born of massacres and charnel pits, mass graves and the dead left to rot unburied. It’s the dead of famines, the dead of plagues, the dead of genocides, the dead of battlefields left to moulder untended. A lot of undead have their backstory built into the fact of their existence, they’re great that way. And, as a D&D monster, it has an absolutely terrifying ability where if it manages to grapple you, and you’re still grappled next turn, it can start liquifying and absorbing your bones. Make them part of itself. It’s a writhing formless (but often serpentine) mass of bones animated by the massed souls of a great injustice, and it will pin your down and make you part of it.

That’s so easy to set up as an absolutely terrifying and creepy boss battle. (This thing was CR 14). Like. You can set that scene so easily. Twenty years ago there was a massacre in this village, or a famine, or a plague, and their greatest secret and shame was that the dead were never properly buried, whether deliberately, in the case of the massacre, or because there were too few left to be able to bury them, in the case of the famine or plague, and the bodies were instead thrown down a ravine or buried jumbled together in a pit, anything to get them out and away from the survivors. Now, twenty years on, animals and eventually people have started vanishing out by the ravine. People in the village hear bones rattling in the night. And they would get help, they need to get help, but getting help means admitting what happened back then. Admitting what was never laid to rest. So the villagers, at least the older ones, are being cagey with the party. Trying to skirt around it.

And then they get out there, to this strange, mist-shrouded dip in the ground. There’s bones lying scattered on the surface, even twenty years down the line. So many were thrown here that animals couldn’t scavenge them all. The ground is littered with bones.

And then, up ahead, they hear something alive. Someone alive. They hear a faint, reedy voice crying in agony. And it is. It is alive. It’s a person, a poor bastard of a traveller or merchant who no one warned not to come this way, and they’re gravely injured, but they’re frantically waving the party away. Not closer. They’re waving the party away.

And then there’s a rattling, the sound of bones rolling together in the mist around them. The wounded traveller’s eyes widen in raw terror. They attempt to shout out a warning, but a mass of bones shaped almost like a hand suddenly slams down over them from the mist behind them. A vast hulking shape looms out of the fog. Leans down over its pinned prey. And eats its bones.

Roll initiative.

Because. See. You want them to be wary of the bones. You want them to know something’s out here. You want to have that moment of surprise, the sudden horror looming out of the mist. But I think you also want them to know that the bone-eating thing is on the table. You want them to know that risk going in, you want them to know that they absolutely cannot, under any circumstances, let themselves get grabbed. You want that up front, so the fear of it is right there, so it shapes their tactics, and also so they can see it without having to deploy it on your players first. This thing is an absolutely lethal boss monster, and you want them to know that so they can plan accordingly, and also so they can be appropriately terrified of it, without having it feel unfair that the first time they know it can happen is when one of them dies to it.

(In 3/3.5, this did stat damage to all three of your physical stats, so it took a couple of turns to kill you, but it would kill you, and would be absolutely horrific the entire time. You’d have to jig this so it wasn’t doing stat damage for a 5e conversion, but the visuals should convey most of the horror, even if it winds causing less immediate and comprehensively lethal damage).

But. What a cinematic monster. Its backstory is already pre-baked for you, and you have an absolutely terrifying threat of an ability to alert the party to for them to plan around. And, if they’re a bit too low level for this, or just very melee oriented, the plan should absolutely be run. Just nope the fuck out, right now. And maybe go back and have a conversation with the village about what the fuck happened twenty years ago, and maybe you could have warned us, and maybe seek a less combat-oriented way to ease this horrifying creature past the shackles of undeath.

There were ten monsters in that video, and some of the others are cool, but this one just grabbed me. Some of that may be bias, that Mushishi/Mononoke fic made me very very fond of the gashadokuro and similar creatures as a concept, but as a high level undead who’s terrifying but also not some stripe of spellcaster, I do feel like it’s really, really cool.

Not something you could easily use in 5e, given that stat damage isn’t really a thing, and for good reason, Shadows and Intellect Devourers aside, but … something that emphasises ‘do NOT let this thing grab you, you will die’. Something that forces them to work out how to stay the fuck away from it and still bring it down, or makes them fully back out and try to work another way to lay these massed tormented souls to rest.

Also, what a fantastic plot line to have threaded through. What did happen twenty years ago? Was it an isolated incident, confined to a village in a mountain pass that got snowed in and did horrifying things to survive a murderous winter? Or was it a symptom of some much bigger part of your worldbuilding, an event that sowed mass graves across vast swathes of the land, and left thousands of guilty survivors to skirt carefully around the lingering horrors ever since?

Definitely one of the coolest parts of undead as monsters is that their sheer existence has plot and backstory built in. Especially a lot of D&D undead, because they’re so specific. Very specific things had to happen to produce a gallows speaker, or a boneless, or a deathlock, or a coldlight walker. And it does, it does remind me of Mononoke. What is this creature’s Form, Truth, and Regret? And how does the party interact with that?

(I mean. With a fireball. Repeated fireballs. Preferably from like 150ft feet in the air. Nuke it from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure. But. In the event you don’t have that option. Turn Undead is also riskier than usual, because it has pretty high mental scores, it’s an intelligent undead, it has a decent chance of making saves. I nearly would pull it on a lower level party, so they can’t fight it outright and have to work with its backstory. Lay it to rest like a normal ghost, by resolving the crime that led to its existence in the first place)

Anyway. That was a long diversion. But. Very cool monster? Thank you, Esper the Bard, for letting me know D&D did a gashadokuro back in the day, and did it in very cool (and rather cruel) fashion.

#long post #d&d #d&d 3.5 #d&d 5e #japanese mythology #mononoke #mushishi #fanfic rec #monster rec #undead #gashadokuro #i am not a dm #likely i shouldn't be #what an absolutely evil thing to drop on a party #but it's so cool

[goldenhickeysandramen]

Things I dont like of Chapter 2 (the rise of solos)

You have heard me say it more than once that I don't like Chapter 2.

After much thought, and internal reflexions (cause sometimes I catch myself being mad or sad) I want to share with you the reasons (as a therapy):

1. There is no Ot7 content. Obviously, it's not the purpose, but if we want to see our favorites together (e.g. jikook), it's hard, and it makes me very sad 😥. There is only content from those who have something to promote, and so they do crossover, or a 2 x 1 (even in the design department).

2. Chapter 2 is the rise of solos, and maybe the end of the power or strength Army (as fandom) used to have. 

The true face of many accounts that are SOLO has come out. 

And when I say “SOLO”, I mean those who want the artist outside of BTS. I respect all opinions. But, if I knew that was their pov from the outset, I would not follow those accounts. Still, I follow accounts that follow and agree with those accounts... 😓😓 and the fact is that I don't know what the fuck to do, because sometimes I have the feeling that I need to start over and do a clean up, even though that would mean not following moots that I appreciate a lot.

I'm a bit of a solo myself. We all are. With our favorites. It's logical. 

But I want BTS back in 2025 or 2026.  I don't want any of them to leave the group unless they want to. 

And so far, they have expressed their willingness to be back together. I don't know... maybe they are constantly lying to us... or maybe it's the FUCKING TRUTH! 

As solos become more polarized, fandom will lose strength.

3. I do NOT like Hybe's planning at all. I'm sorry for what I'm going to do now, which is to compare, but it doesn't seem right to me that Hobi, for example, had almost 4 months for it (from July 15th when JiTB was released til mid October when Jin released the Astronaut) and Jimin only 4 weeks. Of course, the solution is to give more time to Jimin (not shade to my dear Hobi).

Let's see... wasn't this supposed to have been planned for a long time? This chapter 2.... 

Didn't Suga or RM have some songs already prepared before? 

Why not the vocal line? 

And what the fuck happened to the 3 songs and 3 MVs that Jungkook was talking to Hobi in early 2021?

Something is wrong here? Do you see it too?

4. In addition to planning, it should be added that Hybe is being very negligent in the way it promotes its biggest intangible assets: BTS members. I won't expand on this, because I already made a post.

https://www.tumblr.com/hickeyramenjmjk/714301263540584449/he-doesnt-deserve-this?source=share

But I do want to add something. It is good for all of us to speak out and raise our voices in the face of injustice. But we have to keep in mind that the solution is in Hybe now and the radio issue.

In my opinion, it is not organic to make massive purchases to boost anyone's position. I mean, from my pov, the merit is to take the song to the top 1 because everyone who listens to it, likes it, and then "it sounds more and more" and also they buy it. Army is needed, especially at the begining, but can't be the only source of success of BTS. 

BTS members deserve to be EXPORTED worldwide! Hybe DO YOUR JOB! 

5. Despite some glimpses of change (i.e. Bangtan naked era 😏) some things remain the same, to my own disappointment (but my fault & my expectations).

By this I mean certain very Kpop dynamics, which BTS still respects. Despite their privileged position and sailing between two seas: kpop and more western culture .... I think it's clear to us that where they are living influences their behaviour.

By this I mean all: the subject of women, how they should present themselves in front of Army, maintaining the illusions of the "ships", having  impeccable friends and collaborations (although as drinking is culturally accepted there, that seems to be well seen...).

It is funny to me when I see a lot of my PJMS-moots think that everything Jimin is going to do is always some kind of "coming out". There may be glimpses, and hints, but nothing could be further from the truth. Expectations of him are very high (free him from that burden!).... and they forget that he is one of the members who has the most respect for the elders and for his culture and values. If you talk to K-army they will point out that Jimin speaks with impeccable respect for Army. It's not for nothing that he's always at the top of the reputation rankings.

(Side note: maybe that's why the final part of "Letter" is so important, that it's not written in informal and that Jimin would never sing in that tone to Army).

There are things that have not changed and I wished they would change. For instance:

- I never expected jikook to come out of the closet, if I'm correct and they are together. But I also didn't expect such a level of misguidedness and protection (compared to other members, with whom they seem to go out to the theatre, football or drinking with no problem).

- I expected Taejennie to attend a premiere together, of some of their actor friends, and they didn't even greet each other at the Harry Styles concert. 

I don't think I'll ever get over this. 

https://twitter.com/taenniefacts/status/1643833776986890241?s=20

Even if you don't think they're a couple, and that it was all a set-up (a bit naive, actually), it's impossible to think that they don't know each other, given that they share a lot of friends (starting with the Paradise family). 

But on the contrary, to cover up what for me is obvious, Tae has over-used certain mass-raising behaviours.... you know what I mean.

- I thought Jimin was going to tell us a bit more about his album, and he censored things for the minors in his vlive. I will never forgive our Jiminie for this.😣

I still have faith in Jungkook's recent misbehavior 😂. Although not much either.... But if he comes out in one pic alone with Calvins, I'll adore him for life and think there's hope for change 🥹

Anyway... the best thing about this era is seeing their talent and getting to know their solo works. Obviously. And of course to see how all the top brands want them...

and  how they show more and more skin! hahahahaha....Let's enjoy it...

cr: @taebokkiii

Don't get me wrong.  I'd rather 10 times “chapters 2″ than see them go off to military service.

But I MISS BTS. A LOT. 

AND I MISS JIKOOK, TOO MUCH indeed.

And I needed to make this post, because it's a way to get out the helplessness I feel these months (while I also think about what to do with my twitter experience lately and the rise of solos).

[lunar-serpentinite]

Introductory Post

Hello ~ I'm Cloud and welcome to my blog !

My pronouns are they/them ! I don't really have hard no's for gendered terms used to refer to me .

I'm a '02-liner (meaning i was born in 2002) and from Southeast Asia . I am currently in uni studying Geology and I use my spare time to think about my hyperfixations <3

I'm neurodivergent and I usually vibe on my own but I'm open to chats ! I'm bad at replying though so don't be afraid to bump up messages

I've been on Tumblr since 2012 but this is the first time I have ever tried to be more active instead of keeping in the background .

Fuck JKR !!

Free Palestine, Free Congo, Free Sudan, free everyone who has suffered and are currently suffering under a capitalistic, warmongering white supremacist society . Never stop talking about the genocides and human rights injustices currently happening around the world . Share, save, boycott, educate, donate when and if you can !

Current Fixations / Interests / Fandoms

Harry Potter (specifically the character himself, as well as Drarry)

MXTX Novels

Percy Jackson

ATEEZ

Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail

Disclaimer

(Especially for those who are particularly focused on Harry Potter canon and/or certain dynamics.)

In my headcanons and posts, I will stretch canon pretty thinly. I will rewrite and redo huge chunks of what we know as the Harry Potter canon. This includes huge changes in the history, the timeline, and the ethnicities of a lot of characters (read: majority of the characters we know in my AU are now BIPOC). Everything I am doing is purely for my own enjoyment and I just wanted to share the things I made with anyone who wanted to have a read.

I do not follow any Marauders fandom headcanons nor do I consider myself part of the fandom . This means my Lilys and Jameses will have vastly different friend groups than what you're used to if you're from the Marauders fandom .

If you're particular about dynamics, I am a fixed DMHP account . I don't post NSFW on this blog since I focus on worldbuilding and more SFW character building, but I'm just throwing this out there :3

Have a good day ! (My AUs under the cut)

Current AUs

Nandhini's Legacy - my main AU and the reason why I made this blog in the first place ! This is a Harry Potter AU where the Potter family are South Indian (specifically Tamil [James] and Telugu [Lily]) and the Black family are SWANA . New elements in the story include entirely new fancasts for the entire cast, the introduction of a Magical British Museum (the new primary antagonist besides Lord Voldemort), OC siblings for characters like Harry and Pansy, and several timeline changes .

Related Links : Families Masterlist, Fancast, Main Tag

pls ask me abt this au i have so much to say

Son of Hecate Harry AU - a PJO x HP crossover AU where Harry was born to Lily and James but with the additional blood from Hecate . In this AU he was taken away from the Dursleys by a satyr and raised in Camp Half-Blood . By the time he arrives at Hogwarts, Harry has already undergone one quest and is only at the institution because of another prophecy (not Trelawney's) . He is accompanied by fellow demigods and witches Yurika Haneda (Slytherin, Hermes) and Poppy Caxton (Hufflepuff, Athena)

My Mortal Companion - the AU in which post-War, Harry retains his title as Master of Death and believes his next destiny is to be the sole Unspeakable in the Death Room since he's the "only one who could do it" . Features Harry's relationships and dynamics with various psychopomps and death deities of diverse pantheons

Related Links : Main Tag

Favourite of the Fae Harry AU - an AU where Harry is highly favoured by the Fair Folk of Great Britain, but only in the way a human might highly favour what they deem a particularly cute pet . Includes tidbits of Harry being his mother's son because Lily was their previous favourite, and Harry having difficulties with socialising in the "proper" human way because he was used to the constant transactional socialising of the Fae

#introductory post #intro post #blog intro

[sarahsmi13s]

Lieutenant Rogers - pt 7

Shield of Injustice

pairings: romantic!neil ‘omaha’ vikander x rogers!reader, platonic!dagger squad x rogers!reader, plantonic!sam wilson x rogers!reader, platonic!bucky barnes x rogers!reader

characters: sam wilson, bucky barnes, john walker, lemar hoskins, helmut zemo, joaquin torres, karli morgenthau, the flag smashers, the dora milaje, sarah wilson (mentioned), y/n rogers, neil vikander

word count: ~6.9k 

series warnings: language, blood, fighting, sexual inuendoes, john walker, cannon dangers, cannon deaths, suggestive themes, the flag smashers, super soldiers, angst, if i miss any please let me know

chapter warnings: language, blood, fighting, death, murder, john walker in general, suggestive oma-star content, threats of harm or violence to loved ones, poorly written fight sequences (i’m so sorry), if i missed any lmk

a/n: if you couldn’t already tell, i’m OBSESSED with crossovers. reader is the daughter of steve rogers, and has the super soldier serum as well

also this part is basically episode 4 of tfatws, so we get mentions of star and a little cameo in the middle

sources: Top Gun: Maverick (2022) , The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021)

series summary: 13 pilots were called back to Top Gun in 2023. at the same time, Lieutenant Rogers learns that her father’s shield was passed down to John Walker.

chapter summary: while star and her friends fly the mission of a lifetime, sam and bucky are on a mission to find karli before john does. but they all get way more than the barganed for...

‘lieutenant rogers’ universe

pt 1  pt 2  pt 3  pt 4  pt 5  pt 6  pt 8

*****************

It’s been about two weeks since Bucky and Sam really talked to you except for when John showed up unannounced at Top Gun.

A lot’s happened with them.

They broke Zemo out of jail, but Bucky will tell you Zemo escaped all on his own. They went to Madipor and almost died. They also saw Sharon Carter. Zemo killed some scientist that had recreated the serum and then they almost died again.

And now they were looking for Karli in Latvia.

****

Zemo just told them that Donya Madani’s funeral would be that afternoon, and it’s highly likely that Karli would be there.

Bucky may have lost his temper a little bit, thrown a teacup maybe. But could you blame him? Not only was he trying to stop a radicalized supremacist Super Soldier and get his best friend's shield back, he was worried about you.

He understood that you had limited contact while on a carrier but he would have liked a text or phone call, something to let him know you were okay.

Sam came back from the call he had to make to Sharon.

“Hey Sam?” Bucky got his attention. “What Bucky?” “Have you heard from Y/N yet? You know anything about the mission she was sent on?” Sam shook his head, “No, I haven’t heard from her. But I know the mission is dangerous and that she said she’d get in touch with us as soon as she was on shore.”

Bucky nodded, “I know it’s just been awhile and she said the mission would only take a day.” “Bucky, she’s on a carrier in the middle of the ocean, it’s gonna take more than a few days,” Sam reasoned.

“She’d want us to focus on our mission, not worry about her. Not that I’m not worrying, but she knows distractions can be fatal.” Bucky just pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded.

*****

When time came to go to the memorial, Bucky, Zemo, and Sam left the safe house.

“Karli Morgenthau is too dangerous for you guys to be pulling this shit.”

Great, John’s here.

Bucky threw his arms to the side as Lemar and John jogged down the steps, “Ah, how’d you find us now?”

“Come on, man. You think two Avengers can walk around Latvia without drawing attention?” Lemar retorted as they went down another flight of stairs.

“No more keeping us in the dark,” John started, as they reached the bottom. “You can start by telling us why you broke him out of prison.” He pointed at Zemo.

Bucky tilted his head a little as they met John and Lemar at the stairs. “He did that himself, technically.”

“What would Lieutenant Rogers think-” Bucky pointed at him, “You leave her out of this. She’s got nothing to do with this. She doesn’t even know we’re here.”

“Well, this,” John gestured to Zemo again, “better have an unbelievable explana-” John got closer and Sam stepped between him and Zemo. “Hey, take it easy before it gets weird.”

Zemo rolled his eyes and stepped through, “I know where Karli is.” Him and Bucky started walking around John.

John’s hand on Zemo’s chest made him stop. “Well, where?” John asked impatiently, looking at Sam. “All we know it, it’s a memorial,” Sam answered. Zemo looked over John’s shoulder and walked around him.

“That means civilians. High risk of casualties,” Lemar said, turning to follow the Baron. “Alright, good, we’ll move in fast. Take her by surprise,” John strategized.

Sam looked at John, “No, I wanna talk to her alone.” John looked over, shaking his head, “I’m not losing her again.”

Sam wasn’t about to let John near Karli, “Look, the person closest to her died, she’s vulnerable. If there’s any time to reason with her it’s now.”

But, John wasn’t having it. He ran up in front of them all, “What? No. Wait, no! No! Stop. Hold on. Stop, okay?” He looks at Sam in the back, “I think we’re way past reasoning with her, unless you forgot that she blew up a building with people still in it.”

Lemar agreed, “Look, Sam, you walk in there cold, she could kill you.”

“If I go in hot and the op goes wrong, more people will die,” Sam argued back.

John looked at Bucky, “You’re gonna let him do this? Are you gonna let your partner walk into a room with a Super Soldier alone?”

“He’s dealt with worse. And he’s not my partner,” Bucky sassed.

Sam tried to reason with John as he walked around Bucky, “I used to counsel soldiers dealing with trauma, okay? This is right in my wheelhouse.” He stood in front of John now.

“Yeah, I know. And I know those soldiers, which is why I know this is a bad idea.” John really just wanted to get this over with and complete his first big mission, and gain your respect.

Lemar shook his head, “Wait… If he can talk her down, it might be worth a try.”

John scoffed, but finally complied. He pointed to Zemo, “We’ll deal with you later.”

“I’m sure it will all come to an agreeable conclusion. My associate is just up ahead.”

They turned and saw a little girl. Zemo led the way.

He spoke to her quietly before she gestured for them to follow her.

“What the hell?” John asked, frustrated that Zemo could gain allies so quickly.

****

The girl led them to a GCR building and pointed in the direction of the memorial.

“Karli’s in there,” Zemo further explained. Sam nodded and walked through, “Alright.”

Zemo goes to follow but John harshly grabs him and shoves him against the wall. Zemo groans a little bit as John speaks to Sam, “Hey. You got 10 minutes.” He cuffs Zemo. “Really?” Zemo rolls his eyes as the cuff locks around his wrist.

“Then we're doing things my way,” John was still talking to Sam as he locked the other around a bar.

“Aggressive,” Zemo mumbles. John looks back at him. “But I get it.”

****

John paced as he waited for Sam.

“You’re gonna pace a hole in the floor, Walker,” Bucky said, arms crossed.

He looked at Bucky, “I’ve been meaning to ask, what would Lieutenant Rogers think about all this? Breaking him out of prison, letting Wilson go in there alone.”

“You seem to care an awful lot about what the pilot thinks,” Zemo observed. John’s jaw clenched. Zemo’s mouth formed an ‘o’, “Oh, you want the lieutenant's approval. That’s what it is.”

Bucky scoffed, “You think bringing Karli in is gonna earn her respect?” John stayed silent. “Well, you better hope Karli’s alive when you do.”

John sat down for a minute or two before beginning to pace again.

“Uh-uh. No, no, no. This is a bad idea,” John said. Whether he genuinely felt uneasy and worried for Sam’s safety, or he just didn’t want Karli to get away and ruin his chance at his first big mission was unclear. However, with his attitude thus far, it was safe to assume the latter.

“It hasn't been 10 minutes,  John. Just sit tight,” Bucky said from his spot in the doorway.

“Don’t do that. Don’t patronize me,” John spat going down to look at the clock.

Bucky shrugged and watched him, “He knows what he’s doing.”

John stares at the clock before Bucky watches his demeanor change and he walks towards him.

When he gets to him, Bucky stops him, giving him a look and a head tilt that said, ‘Don’t even try.’

John stepped back, looking at the ground with a clenched jaw. He looked up at Bucky, attempting to be intimidating and not frustrated. “This is all really easy for you, isn’t it?”

He was talking about the serum in Bucky’s veins, in your veins, but not in his own.

“All that serum runnin’ through your veins. Barnes, your partner needs backup in there…” Bucky just stared as John looked past him. “Do you really want his blood on your hands?”

****

Well…

That went… horrible.

John managed to push past Bucky and into the room, just as Sam was getting somewhere.

His intrusion not only made Karli run, but it also destroyed any rapport Sam had created with her.

But don’t worry, Zemo managed to get free and find her.

He got multiple shots off, hitting her in the abdomen with one of them. But when she knocked the table over, she knocked her vials of serum onto the floor.

Zemo smashed them under his boot, destroying any potential Karli had at expanding her army.

And while he was doing that, Karli managed to escape and John caught up with him, knocking him unconscious with the shield.

****

Back at the safe house, Sam is emailing Sharon while Zemo rested with a cold compact on his face.

“Were you ever offered it?” Zemo asked Sam.

“What?”

“The serum.”

“No.”

“If you had been, hypothetically, that is, would you have taken it?”

That caught Sam’s attention.

“No.”

“No hesitation… that’s impressive.”

Zemo grunted a little as he took the compact off his face. “Sam, you can’t hold out hope for Karli. No matter what you saw in her, she’s gone. And we cannot allow that she and her acolytes become yet another faction of gods amongst real people. Super Soldiers cannot be allowed to exist.”

Sam shook his head and turned toward Zemo, “Isn’t that how gods talk?”

That made Zemo think, leaving him to sit there silently.

“And if that’s how you feel, what about Bucky, or Y/N?”

That didn’t draw a response from Zemo.

“Blood isn’t always the solution.”

The door opened and closed as Bucky walked in, shucking the leather jacket off.

“Somethings off about Walker…”

Sam chuckled, “You don’t say.”

Bucky laid his jacket on the bar and went over to a cabinet. “I know a crazy when I see one.” He pulls out a glass to pour himself a drink, “That’s because I am crazy…”

Sam chuckled, “I believe it.”

Bucky uncorked the bottle and poured his drink, “You and Y/N shouldn’t have given him the shield…”

“We didn’t give him the shield.”

“Well Steve definitely didn’t,” Bucky sassed, bringing the glass to his lips.

Before Sam could retort, the door was kicked open.

“Alright. That’s it. Let’s go. I’m now ordering you to turn him over,” John demanded as he stormed in, Lemar trailing behind him.

Sam stepped up to him, “Hey slow your roll. Now let’s be clear; shield or no shield, the only thing you’re runnin’ in here is your mouth.” John squinted his eyes a little but didn’t say anything. So Sam continued. “Now, I had Karli and you overstepped.”

He pointed with his thumb towards Zemo, “He’s actually proven himself useful today. And we’re gonna need all hands on deck for whatever’s comin’ next.”

“How do you want the rest of the conversation to go, Sam, huh?” Sam just looked at John, making the latter chuckle softly. “Yeah…” John gestured with the shield, “Should I put down the shield? Make it fair?”

Sam scoffed at John’s poor attempt at being intimidating. John put the shield down, preparing himself for a fight.

But before either man could make a move, a vibranium spear was thrown right between them.

Everyone looked in the direction it came from, seeing a Dora Milaje make herself known. Then two more soldiers came through the opened doors.

Ayo spoke in Wakandan to Bucky, “Even if he is a means to your end… Time’s up.” Then she switched to English, “Release him to us, now.”

John turned and held out a hand, “Hi, John Walker, Captain America.” When he got no response he looked around awkwardly. He was losing control of the situation and he didn’t like that.

“Well, uh, let’s put down the pointy sticks and we can talk this through, huh?”

Sam chuckled a little, “Hey, John, take it easy.” John turned to Sam with a look on face, making Sam grin a little bit. “You might want to fight Bucky or Y/N before you tangle with the Dora Milaje.”

John smirked and turned back to Ayo, “The Dora Milaje don’t have jurisdiction here.” She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head, “The Dora Milaje have jurisdiction wherever the Dora Milaje find themselves to be.”

John nodded, “Okay…” He chuckled, “Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot.”

John then proceeded to make the mistake of placing his hand on Ayo’s shoulder…

She used her spear to knock his arm away before hitting him in the knee, then the face. While he was disoriented, she kicked him in the chest and into the spear that was still lodged into the column.

Then just absolute chaos ensued.

The Dora Milaje used their speed and agility to fight both John and Lemar. They’re trained warriors and the way they fight is unique, the two American soldiers were very under prepared.

Sam, Bucky, and Zemo just watched, the latter two finding it pretty amusing.

But Sam walked over to Bucky, “We should do something…” Bucky nodded a little and crossed his arms, “Looking strong John!”

Ayo wasn’t letting up and it made Sam a little antsy. And by the time she got John on the ground, he was sure she would put her spear through his chest.

“Bucky…”

The addressed looked at him and sighed, “Alright, fine.”

Bucky walked over and grabbed the spear, “Ayo…” She pulled the spear back, making Bucky grunt in surprise. “Ayo, let’s talk about this,” he managed to say as he fought her.

In the living room, Sam had to assist Lemar. He took the hits and dodged what he could as the other trapped John to the table by threading her spear through the straps of the shield.

Back with Bucky, Ayo managed to get the upper hand and disarm him… no literally, the Wakandas had embedded a code into the arm in the event the Winter Soldier ever made an appearance again.

While Bucky was stunned Ayo checked the bathroom where she saw Zemo sneak off to, but he had escaped through the grate in the middle of the floor.

John managed to free his arm just before the soldier that threw it took her spear back, letting the shield fall to the floor.

And he didn’t dare move to grab it, so the Dora warrior did.

But Ayo was on a mission.

“He is gone,” she said, referring to the Baron. Then she nodded to the shield. “Leave it,” she ordered.

The warrior nodded and gave the shield back to John, who still sat on the floor trying to catch his breath.

In the kitchen area, Bucky knelt down and picked his arm back up and just looked at it.

“Did you know they could do that?” Sam asked as he got off the floor and walked over to him.

Bucky didn’t answer as he put his arm back on, groaning a little as the plates got back into place. He flexed his fingers, “No.” The mechanisms whirled and clanked a bit before he rotated his arm around and set everything back into place.

Lemar gets up and walks over to John, who is just staring at the floor.

“You alright man?”

“They weren’t even Super Soldiers…” John mumbled out.

His ego was severely damaged. He felt like he was taking a step forward only to get pushed ten steps back. John had lost control and then got his ass handed to him on a vibranium platter.

John was frustrated, he was failing his mission. He’s not ready, and it’s painfully obvious to him now. This role is harder than he thought, Steve’s shoes are too big to fill on his own.

“Come on,” Lemar said as he helped him up.

Sam walked by and only gave John a disgruntled look. A look that clearly told John he fucked up.

*****

John and Lemar stood at a table in the mall, talking about the mission.

“Look man, the serum and its source are gone,” Lemar started. “I know it didn’t work out the way you wanted it to, but it ain’t all bad.” John nodded and gave him a small, tight lipped smile.

Before John could respond, a girl came up to him and asked for an autograph, which he gave her.

He thanked them and wished them a good day before turning back to his friend, rubbing his face in exhaustion.

“How long until that gets annoying?” Lemar teased. John chuckled, “You’re just mad she didn’t ask for yours…” “Oh, it’s her loss,” Lemar threw back. “Even got a little Battlestar logo to go with it.”

John exhales amusedly through his nose.

He tapped the table, “If you had the chance to take the serum, would you do it?” Lemar nodded, “Hells, yeah.”

“You wouldn’t be worried about how it might… how it might change you?”

Lemar thought about it before sighing, “I mean… Power just makes a person more of themselves, right?” He shrugged, “Karli Morgenthau. Steve and Y/N Rogers.”

John nodded a little before looking at him, “And me?”

Lemar faced his friend completely, “You already have three Medals of Honor. You consistently make the right decisions in the heat of battle.”

John rubbed his brow, “Yep…” He kept his eyes on the table, “Three badges of excellence to make sure I never forget the worst day of my life…”

He looked up at Lemar, “We both know that the things we had to do in Afghanistan to be awarded those medals felt a long way from being right… Being Cap is the first time I’ve had the chance to do something that actually feels right.”

“But God! Imagine how many lives we could have saved that day if we had that serum,” Lemar said. John nodded, “I know… I know.”

*******

You laid on the couch, your fingers gently running through Omaha’s dark hair as he rested his head on your stomach.

The setting sun casted a beautiful orange glow over the room as the movie played on TV. You could feel the vibration of Neil’s chest against your thighs as he snored.

The squad had just gotten back to North Island earlier that afternoon and after the debriefing all you and Omaha wanted to do was cuddle and be with each other. So that’s what you did.

You knew you should probably call Sam and Bucky, but you had been on a cramped carrier all week and you just wanted to spend some time with your boyfriend. You also weren’t sure where they were or if they were busy, so you’d just let them call your first or check in with them after you’ve had time to decompress.

Which is why you were finally letting your eyes slip closed as you relaxed.

And then your phone rang.

Groaning, you reached for your phone. You picked it up and answered it, not bothering to check the caller ID.

“Hello?”

“Hello, is this Y/N?”

The voice on the other end was unfamiliar, and it put you on alert. It was foreign, sounded European but pinpointing exactly where wasn’t really your concern.

You carefully sat up, hoping you wouldn’t wake Omaha, “It is. Who are you?”

“My name is Karli Morgenthau.”

You froze for a second. You recognized that name.

Sam and Bucky tried to keep you in the dark, but you had connections. Someone on the very inside that was keeping you updated as best he could. And the name ‘Karli Morgenthau’ came up a lot recently.

You gently get up as you speak, “I know the name… You’re the leader of the Flag Smashers, right? The group against the GRC?”

Making sure Neil is still asleep, you step out onto the back porch.

“I am, and you’re Steve Rogers daughter…”

“I am… Why are you calling me Karli?”

She sighs, “I need you to stay out of my way. I know how close you are with Sam and Bucky…”

“Are you threatening me, Karli?”

“All I’m asking is that you make sure Bucky stays out of my way. I want to speak with Sam, alone. If Bucky comes with him, I can’t promise he’ll make it out alive…”

You cross your arms and lean against the railing, “Bucky can hold his own, he is a trained assassin after all.”

Karli’s quiet for a moment before speaking again. “You know that we’ve reached people all across the world right? Have pulled hundreds of people to the cause, some in San Diego?”

You knew what she was doing but you weren’t going to take any chances.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Just stay out of it. Don’t try and warn them, I’ll know. I can track your calls and text,” she says with authority.

You can see why she has a following, and you understand her cause… but her methods don’t sit right with you.

“And if I don’t?”

“If you want your friends, your boyfriend, to stay safe… you’ll do as I ask…”

You can hear the smirk in her voice, the baseless arrogance thinking that she had intimidated you. You knew there was a big chance that she was lying, that she was just using the people you held close and loved as leverage. She was a bully, and the Rogers don’t like bullies.

But were you really going to risk the safety of your family? No, you weren’t.

“Okay, I won’t intervene…”

“Good.”

She hung up and you let out a breath.

“Everything okay?”

You looked up and saw Neil in the doorway. You smiled at him, “Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine. I just needed to take a phone call… I didn’t want to wake you.” He nodded and came over to you. 

“Was it Sam or Bucky?” You shook your head, “No, it was my contact. He was updating me, said they were doing just fine and were getting close to stopping this group.”

He smiled, “Okay that’s good.” He wrapped his arms around you, “Do you want to go out for dinner or just eat here?” You put your arms around his neck and tilt your head, “I’d rather eat here, if that’s okay?” 

Omaha nods, “Of course that’s okay. I do need to go get some stuff-” “I can go get it. I don’t mind.” 

He squeezed your hips, “Are you sure?” You nodded and pressed your lips to his.

He hummed against your lips and pulled you close. You arched into him and got on your toes. Neil gripped your hips and picked you up to sit you on the railing.

You giggled and sat your phone down as he began to kiss your neck.

A moan fell from your lips and your hand slipped under his shirt. His hands moved up your sides; one in the middle of your back to keep you firmly against him and the other buried itself under your messy bun to pull your lips to his in a deep kiss.

Your free hand pulled him closer by his waistband as he licked your bottom lip. 

He slipped his tongue into your mouth, battling for dominance with yours.

You’re moaning and whimpering against each other’s mouths before he has to pull away for air.

“Fuck, Star-light…” You chuckled at the breathlessness in his voice as you took a few deep breaths. “After dinner Oma, I promise.” 

Neil nodded as he swallowed, “I’ll hold you to that.” You laughed again as you both sat there in each other’s arms. 

Your phone going off vibrated the railing you were perched on and shattered the moment.

You checked it, just to see that it was a text from Fanboy about a new show you had talked about watching together. 

You looked back up at your boyfriend, “I should probably head to the store.” He nods, “Let me make a list. What sounds good?” You think about it for a minute, trying to find out what’s making your mouth water. “Ooooh, chicken and steak quesadillas? With homemade tortilla chips?” 

“Do we have tortillas?” You nod, a grin spreading across your face. He mirrors it, “Then that’s perfect. I’ll make the chips while you go to the store.” 

Giddy, you peck his lips, “Okay, make a list while I fix my hair and make myself look presentable.” He grinned and kissed you back, “Yes, ma’am.” 

You shove him away with a giggle and you both go inside.

You go into your room and fix your hair before throwing on one of Neil’s hoodies. As you do that, your phone dings with another text, this time it’s from Sarah Wilson. 

“I need you to call me. Karli just made contact with me…”

You huffed and dug through one of the drawers in your closet.

“C’mon…” You sighed once you found it. “There you are.” You pulled out the old burner phone Nick had given you and slid it into your pocket.

After that you slipped on your shoes, got the list and another kiss from Neil and you’re out the door.

******

Sam and Bucky were walking around Latvia looking for Zemo when Sam’s phone rang.

“Who is it?” Bucky asked, not looking at the caller ID. “It’s my sister,” Sam mumbled, concern in his tone as he answered. “Hey, what’s up?”

Bucky couldn’t hear what Sarah was saying but by the way Sam responded, he could tell it wasn’t good.

“Listen, pack an overnight bag and take the boys.”

Bucky turns his head, “What happened?”

Sam pulled his phone away from his ear, “Karli called Sarah. She threatened my nephews.” He brought his phone back to his ear.

“Okay. Go somewhere safe. Only pay cash. Alright? Let me know when you get there.”

Bucky’s phone vibrates in his pocket.

“I know. Look, I love you. I’ll never let anything happen to you and the boys.” Bucky pulls his phone out to check the notification.

“Okay, bye.”

Sam hangs up as Bucky slows to stop to read the text from an unknown number. Bucky’s brow furrowed and he frowned at his phone.

Sam arched an eyebrow, “Everything okay?” Bucky shook his head, “I’m not sure.” Sam peaked over at Bucky’s phone screen, reading the text on the screen.

“Karli wants to meet Sam somewhere alone. Don’t let him go alone, but don’t get caught either. Watch your 6, Buck - ⭐”

“That has to be Y/N…” Bucky said, a sense of dread filling his chest that Karli knew your number. “It’s signed with a star… thingy.”

“An emoji?”

“Whatever it is, that can’t be a coincidence.”

Sam nodded as he sighed, “She used an Avengers burner phone… we can’t track it because she most likely took the battery out. But that means no one else can track that text back to her either.”

Bucky nods and deletes the text and the number from his phone, just as a secondary precaution.

“But she’s right… Karli wants to meet me somewhere. She left a contact number with Sarah,” Sam confirmed just before his phone sounded with a text notification.

He looked at it and it was a location and time. The rooftop about North Plaza, and now. She wasn’t going to let him sit and develop a plan.

“She said to come alone… Like Y/N said…” Sam told Bucky, nerves and fear filling him as he looked at the sniper.

Even had you not warned Bucky, he wasn’t about to let Sam face Karli alone.

“I’m coming with you.”

****

After changing into their gear, they went to the plaza.

“Karli!” Sam shouted as soon as he entered the room.

The Super Soldier leaned over the railing to make herself known and the two men made their way up the stairs.

“You called my sister? That’s how we’re gonna play this?” Sam questioned the moment he topped the steps.

“Sam, I would never hurt her,” Karli said gently as she leaned on the banister. “I just wanted to understand you better.”

She pushed off the half wall, “I see you, uh–” She pointed to Bucky, “–didn’t come alone.”

“You have to end this, now,” Sam said, natural, but gentle, authority in his voice.

Karli shook her head, “I don’t wanna hurt you. You’re just a tool in the regimes I’m looking to destroy.” She glances at Bucky who walks a little closer to cover Sam’s back, “You’re not hiding behind a shield.”

“If I were to kill you, it would be meaningless,” she said bluntly.

In all fairness, Sam and Bucky weren’t representing symbols like John was. They weren’t members of the government or the GRC. Their deaths would do nothing for Karli’s cause.

Sam glanced over his shoulder to Bucky, assessing his body language and overall demeanor before turning back to Karli.

“I was gonna ask you to join me… or do the world a favor and let me go.”

Before Sam could say or do anything, Sharon spoke into his comms.

“Hey, Sam, new Cap is moving, looks like he’s found them, or maybe they found him.”

Sam’s eyes widened and he looked at Bucky, “It’s Walker.”

Bucky quickly made the move to jump down, but Karli had other plans. She jumped and slammed into Bucky, causing him to slam into the column.

While Bucky pushed off the ground with a groan, Sam fought Karli. He placed a kick to her chest, throwing her off balance.

He looked at Bucky, “I’ll send you the location, go.” Buck nodded and ran through the door while Sam deployed his wings and took off before Karli could get up.

****

When Sam landed at the location, having cannonballed through the skylight onto the stairs, a Flag Smasher was kicked through the door about two flights above him and straight into the wall.

Sam looked up the flight of stairs and saw John walking down them with a look of determination on his face, sheathing the shield on his back as he got closer.

Sam could only watch as the Flag Smasher tried to hit John with a pipe, only for John to catch it and wrestle with him for a moment… before he easily bent the pipe. The steel pipe.

“Oh shit…”

John threw the soldier into a pillar, who hit it harshly but managed to get up and run.

Sam watched John descend the steps and walk past him, “What did you do?” John bypassed the question, “They’ve got Lemar.”

****

Bucky entered the building from the bottom floor, skipping steps as he ran up the stairs.

As he ran up a flight, he’s ambushed on his left side and slammed into the wall.

The soldier grabbed him from behind and tried to put him in a chokehold. But Bucky leveraged himself against the wall and launched them into a pillar.

He managed to free himself from the guy's hold. Bucky parried one of the punches thrown at him before kicking him down the stairs.

Bucky hurdled the railing and stalked toward the Flag Smasher as he tried to get up.

Before he could stand up, Bucky planted his boot into the guy’s chest and sent him through the brick wall.

Bucky checked to make sure the soldier was unconscious before leaving.

“Stay there.”

****

Sam and John made it to a big open, seemingly empty, room.

Then two soldiers jumped down behind them from the landing.

John reflexively threw the shield, hitting them both. Sam closed-lined one with his wing, while the other pulled a knife on John.

“What’s with all the knives?”

Within a few minutes of them fighting, Bucky made his appearance as well as two more Flag Smashers.

The one with the knife tried to stab John, but he countered it with the shield and sent the blade flying towards Bucky. Luckily he caught it.

But a soldier approached him from behind with a knife of their own.

Bucky readied himself and the soldier charged, kick flipping before attempting to attack. But the attempted slashes were parried and countered with a few punches and a knee to the ribs. Then Bucky gets leverage and is able to flip them onto their back.

He flips the knife in his hand and throws it into the floor next to the soldier’s head.

Another soldier grabbed Sam from behind. He quickly elbowed them and turned on his thrusters, using the heat to disorient them before kicking them over the table.

John hit one in the face with the shield before throwing another on the ground.

The one thrown charged at a preoccupied Sam, but Bucky intercepted them and punched them out.

“You’re welcome.”

As John fought, he was grabbed from behind by a maskless Flag Smasher.

John struggled to get free and the soldier locked his arms, exposing his chest.

Karli charged in, hurdling a table and running to John, knife at the ready.

But Lemar came in just in time and tackled Karli.

They both got up off the ground, ready to fight. But Karli was faster.

One well placed, powerful punch to Lemar’s chest sent him into a concrete column. Killing him instantly.

****

It was like the world was put into slow motion.

The fighting stopped as Lemar slumped on the floor.

John broke free of the hold on him and went straight to Lemar.

He knelt next to him, “Hey. Hey. Hey.” John patted his chest and shook his shoulder. He held Lemar’s face, “Lemar. Lemar.”

John kept repeating Lemar’s name, but it was no use. Lemar was dead.

The rage that filled John was visible. Everyone in the room felt it.

Bucky and Sam were stunned, catching their breath as they watched John.

But the Flag Smashers took their chance and ran.

Karli took a different exit than the others, and Bucky and Sam followed her.

John took the quickest exit, jumping out the window. He immediately clocked the soldier that held him back.

He chased him into the town square. Using the shield to block what concrete object was thrown at him.

“Where is she?!”

John ran, throwing the shield at the soldier’s back before running up to him and hitting him in the chest, knocking him back into the memorial.

He tried to get up but John knocked him down with the shield. He tried again but John pinned him under his boot.

“It wasn’t me!” He shouted, begging for his life.

John said nothing as he raised the shield.

“It wasn’t me!”

The soldier’s final plea fell on deaf ears as the edge of the shield was brought down on his chest.

****

The crowd that had gathered gasped as John brought the shield down three more times, shouting in rage.

Once the man fell limp under John, he stood and took deep breaths.

Bucky and Sam ran through the crowd, but they were too late. Far too late.

John strapped the bloodied shield to his arm. Brandishing the tainted symbol to the recording phones.

Blood was rushing in John’s ears, dampening the sounds of the world around him. But his eyes worked just fine.

The sight of a crowd, multiple cameras, Sam and Bucky, and a dead body greeted John as he looked around.

Then the sprinkling rain hit his skin and the weight of his actions barreled into him… and he ran.

******

Bucky and Sam chased after John, finding him in an abandoned train station.

They find him kneeling, grieving the loss of his best friend. They don’t intervene, they know he needs it.

It’s not until John stands and walks in their direction that they make their move.

“Walker…” Sam said cautiously.

John looked at them, but didn't stop walking, “You guys should see a medic, you don't look so good.”

“Stop, Walker.”

John turns around, “What?” He started gesturing with his hands, “You saw what happened. You know what I had to do. I killed him because I had to! He killed Lemar!”

Bucky shook his head, “He didn’t kill Lemar, John.”

Walker just rolled his eyes and sighed.

“Don’t go down that road,” Bucky advised. “Believe me, it doesn’t end well.”

“I’m not like you.”

Sam stepped up, trying to reason with John and calm him down.

“Listen, it was the heat of the battle. Okay? If you explain what happened, they may consider your record. We don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

Bucky couldn’t stop looking at the blood on the shield as Sam stayed calm.

“John… You gotta give me the shield, man.”

Walker looked up at the two, “Oh…” He smirked a little, appearing as if he just figured a riddle. “So that’s what this is…” He looked at Sam, “You almost got me.”

Sam shook his head and shrugged, “You made a mistake.”

John looked between them, “You don’t wanna do this.”

Bucky clenched his jaw and looked up at Walker, tearing his eyes away from the now tainted memory of his best friend.

“Yeah we do.”

****

The fight that ensued was quick, but it was ugly.

John wasn’t giving up that shield easily, but Sam and Bucky weren’t letting him leave with it.

Faces were bloodied, rib cages were bruised and broken.

Sam and Bucky’s intentions were just to incapacitate John and take the shield.

Walker was trying to kill them.

He was aiming for the chest, the throat, the face, the head. Anywhere that could be lethal, that’s where John was aiming.

John thought he deserved that shield. After everything he went through to be chosen. After what he endured that got him a spot on the list.

He wasn’t going to let them simply take it. They would have to kill him.

But they didn’t.

Sam and Bucky had every opportunity to kill John. Just like that, John is dead and the shield is theirs.

Except, it wasn’t that simple to them… Well maybe to Bucky it was but he had to think about more than just what he wants.

They fought and fought. Their backs met the concrete more than they would care to admit.

John ripped Sam’s wings from his pack, nearly decapitated him with the shield before Bucky intervened.

After Bucky took hits to the ribs and face, Sam managed to get ahold of the shield. Both of them work together to take the shield from where it was strapped to John’s arm.

Bucky had John pinned to a broken down forklift and Sam had to use his thrusters to get the shield to finally come off… snapping John’s arm in the process.

But Walker wasn’t letting them just walk away.

He stood from the ground, chest heaving as he walked towards them. “It’s mine.”

Sam stared him down. “It’s over, John.”

“It’s mine!”

He throws a punch at Bucky, only for it to be countered. While disoriented from the punch, John tries to run at Bucky, only for the assassin to lower his shoulder and pick him up by the legs.

Sam took the shield and ran, the shield meeting John’s back as Bucky slung the man and knocking them all to the ground.

Bucky is the first to stand, picking up the shield and dropping it by Sam’s head before walking out.

*****

The next day, Sam and Bucky met with Torres at the same building Mama Donya’s memorial was in.

Bucky left shortly after Joaquin arrived, leaving Sam alone with him.

“What’s our next steps, Torres?” Sam asks, propping himself on the table.

“Captain America killing a foreign national in public, it’s kinda like a big deal… Like-like international incident big. Folks, uh, higher up on the payroll are all over it now. So, unfortunately…”

“They’re taking jurisdiction,” Sam finished.

Torres nodded, “Yeah.”

He looked down and noticed Sam’s equipment bag on the ground, broken wings inside.

“What happened to these?” He walked over and picked the bag up with a grunt, sitting it on the table.

“So, is there anything we can do?” Sam asked Torres as he looked through the bag.

Joaquin shook his head a little, “Not really.” He continued to look at the damaged wings, “As you can see, they’ve cordoned off the whole camp, and Karli’s a ghost. After what went down, she’s laying extra low. Like under-underground.”

“And that’s why it makes sense for us to get involved. The longer we let her regroup, the harder it’s going to be to find her,” Sam told him.

“She’s got people helping her from all over the world, on all platforms. She’s… really good at this thing.”

Sam nodded his agreement, “Yeah.”

Torres ran his hand over the wings, “How’d these break?” But his question is only answered with a sigh.

So he moved on.

“Anyway, all we can do now is sit tight and just chill. Sometimes, there’s nothing to do until there’s something to do.”

Sam stood and smirked a little, “That’s bizarrely wise.”

Torres chuckled, “Well, I’m a bizarrely wise man, Sam.” “Yeah, alright.”

Sam’s phone rang in his pocket and he sighed. He picked up the shield and turned to leave.

“That Star?” Joaquin asked, standing straighter. Sam reached for his phone, “I hope so… Thanks Torres.” He nodded, “For sure.”  

Sam pulled his phone out and walked toward the exit.

“Wait, yo, you forgot the wings,” Torres called out. Sam looked over his shoulder, “Keep ‘em.”

****

Sam answered your call once he got outside.

“I know-”

“What. The. Fuck did he do?”

Sam sucked in a breath.

This was bad.

********************

well....

that was... something

john walker has defiled and tainted the shield’s legacy... everything steve rogers stood for covered in the blood of someone. sam and bucky had their go, now it’s star’s turn

i’m sorry it took so long to get this part up, but it’s here know! and we’re getting more into the events of TFATWS. the next few parts will follow the events of the last two episodes. but it won’t stop there.

let me know if you want to be added to my top gun taglist or the lieutentant rogers taglist by rebloging the masterlist linked at the top, commenting, or sending me an ask!

lt. rogers tags <33: @milesdickpic @roosterscockpit @luckyladycreator2 @hotch-meeeeeuppppp @malindacath @twsssmlmaa @cassiemitchell @startrekfangirl2233 @mayhemmanaged @nikkipea​  @that-one-random-writer​ 

thank you guys for being here <33 *mwah*

#lieutenant rogers #lieutenant rogers universe #rogers!reader #neil omaha vikander #neil vikander x rogers!reader #top gun maverick #marvel #marvel/top gun maverick #crossover #crossovers #dagger squad #dagger squad x reader #the falcon and the winter soldier #tfatws #john walker #sam wilson #bucky barnes #steve rogers #captain america #call sign: star #push your limits #holding onto the past; letting go of the future #earn it #birds and promises #good afternoon ladies and gentlemen this is your savior (lover) speaking #shield of injustice #tw: death #tw: murder #sarahsmi13s

[danothan]

dc dreams i’ve had in 2023

highlights:

- reconnected with an old friend who asked what i’ve been up to lately and i immediately started showing him my (non-existent) flash collection, including but not limited to: flash jacket, flash lunchbox, and a flash figure (i need all of these now.)

- superman/GL crossover comic where clark kept outshining hal and hal was getting mad abt it but then clark gave him a big ol hug and it wasn’t such a big deal anymore

- my therapist made me annotate a batman comic bc they thought i would have a lot in common with him 😭 edit: the dream that diagnosed me w ocd.

- went to an ice creamery with jason who was begrudgingly playing a video game with damian bc dami wouldn’t stop yelling at him to over messages, but by the end of the dream he was proudly showing me his scores

- wally and martian manhunter’s nephew m’hammed were friends and wally was helping m’hammed disguise himself as human and hide in society and it took ages for anyone to pick up that “muhammed” was actually a martian. also wally was a kid but barry was already dead in this version :(

and the rest of em are below cut:

- nightwing/GL crossover comic where dick and hal were cowboys that came with cowboy trading cards

- dc pride parade where multiple alt universe barries showed up, one of them had the nonbinary flag painted on their face

- babysitting damian (twice recurring)

- halbarry making plans in the gc 🙄

- found a comic where hal was an orange lantern

- wonder woman was nimona’s mentor

- yja artemis finally became a character in the comics and they made a figure of her to celebrate!

- halcarol wedding in an airport

- brought my hal and superman plushies with me to go somewhere but i got confused why barry wasn’t with me :(

- tried to buy a christopher reeves’ superman vinyl for my sibling’s bday gift

- barry puppy plushies. 5 of them. woke up to have NONE.

- some terrible stuff was happening idk, i was too busy infodumping abt barry to someone and making sure they wrote it down. archiving history as the world ends ig, that’s my contribution

- found an awful comic called darkseid warside (?? had nothing to do w darkseid) that was beautifully drawn and had sooo many fun characters details (ex: barry won the lottery and named his winning ticket betty, there was also a letter in his handwriting that was perfect for character studying, hal kept sneaking selfies to commemorate his time w carol, ollie and roy were simultaneously trying to figure out how to talk to each other again and it was sad + sweet, etc) but it was so horribly written. so so ooc, basically injustice again but so much more gory, thawne died in the first issue and it wasn’t even bc of the flash, it was superman ripping his body into two and there were intestines splayed out everywhere (in front of the young justice too). it was so awful, but the character details and panelling were so unique, everything i couldve asked for, so i lamented abt having to buy it. the clerk was like “you don’t have to” and i was like “but im gonna 😔”

#dc #danbles #2023 #dream diary #i dont rly dream often and i dont like remembering when i do (not even nightmares i just dont like dreaming) #but the dc ones just would not quit and tbh i don’t mind those ones as much #fun to have smth to keep track of while i’m asleep haha

[disorganizedkitten]

Bursting Bubbles of Bad Luck Chapter 7

Miraculous Ladybug | 2020 | 1,331 | Ao3 | Prev | Masterlist | Next

July 3rd-Boredom

So the whole discord chat idea? Magic was the less fun part. Felix should have let Allegra add him ages ago.

The Dead Fandoms Discord - Channel #Go-Go-Gadget-Chatroom

21:25

Snow Cone King: I’m just saying, Ics, that if we have to petition Walmart, we should at least do it with a lot of people.

Flutetastic: ...Almost everyone on this server and probably half of tumblr and a corner of twitter and a few people from school and my entire family

Considering my family includes you and all the cousins on your half too, that’s a lot of people.

Snow Cone King: Amb. Ics, ics you know what this means?

Speedster: Y’all, I think we should just use the online petition thingy. Get millions of email subscribers from all over the world.

Snow Cone King: My dad probably would totally sign a petition to get Inspector Gadget merch back in stores and then actually make it happen

Flutetastic: It’s sm fun to see you have one of those My Dad Is A Millionaire epiphanies.

Flutetastic: Als, why do you save your logic for the middle of our discussions?

Speedster: Gotta take the time to come up with my genius.

Snow Cone King: Show off.

Penny Could Kick Me: I find it very amusing to watch you guys casually say things like ‘one of those My Dad Is A Millionaire epiphanies’.

Snow Cone King: :Squinty eyes: i can’t tell if that’s an insult

Penny Could Kick Me: Is me laughing out loud at you insulting?

Flutetastic: Say no

Snow Cone King: I haven’t decided.

Fluteastic: FE AMB! Q ARE YOU LIKE THIS?

Snow Cone King: I think so?

Penny Could Kick Me: I love you guys.

Snow Cone King: That’s def. A compliment. Thank you.

The Dead Fandoms Discord - Channel #By-The-Power-Of-Greyskull

7:45

The Orange Death: Y’all I just found an article saying Damian Wayne and Adam are friends and someone needs to explain to me how that happened and if that means I missed a He-Man reboot

If so, Imma cri

Snow Cone King: Wait who has the rights to He-Man?

The Orange Death: Honestly I figured it was netflix ‘cause they just did that she-ra reboot but like

Apparently not?

Snow Cone King: I’m looking this up amb

Useless Ace: I thought the last reboot was in 2010?

Snow Cone King: I am apparently a very uninformed fan

There was a life action movie in 1987

The Orange Death: What

Snow Cone King: My to watch list is much bigger

I thought there were only the two versions? I don’t even know which versions they were now?

Useless Ace: Welcome to the world of fandom my friend. Experts are few, far-inbetween, and deserve mad respect bc I could care less to follow every bit of canon ever

Snow Cone King: Mood

Snow Cone King: As of dec 18, 2019, Netflix wants to do a CGI reboot

Useless Ace: Oh thank goodness. My biggest beef with the She-ra reboot was the lost potential for Adam/Adora shenanigans.

Snow Cone King: Have you watched it?

 Useless Ace: See above

Snow Cone King: :facepalm:

Actually I can’t judge, it’s still collecting dust on my to-watch list

Whatever

Snow Cone King: Reading more and Mark Hamill? Will be Skeletor?? That sounds like it'll go really well

The Orange Death: Y’all I have no idea but now I’m excited

About time He-Man came back

Snow Cone King: Fr tho, I can’t find anything about ties to dc or where he’d have met Damian

Flutetastic: Whack

The Orange Death: You’re telling me

Snow Cone King: You’re telling me.

Snow Cone King: I’m giving up. Some fandom guru who actually knows stuff can figure this out

The Orange Death: Valid

8:58

Snow Cone King: I lied and looked further and apparently not only are there multiple comicverse crossovers (Injustice vs the masters of the universe)(DC Universe vs Masters of the Universe)(he Man and the Masters of the Multiverse(I’m guessing is a crossover too)), but there’s a THUNDERCATS one too!

 My childhood will be complete as soon as I read that

Useless Ace: Dude that’s amazing

That’s going top of my to-read list

Snow Cone King: Mood

Gerald: Mood

The Orange Death: King, you really are a king, thank you so much!!!

Useless Ace: I rlly hope they give Adam a better costume like they did w/ Adora in the new reboot

The Orange Death: It’s a bit overdue

The Dead Fandoms Discord - Channel #Magic-Troubles

14:19

Snow Cone King: amb there’s a illusion lady in my lit class and normally Idc but she’s being so annoying and she keeps illustrating the whack tales she’s telling and the teach could care less but she’s directly in my line of sight and I wanna learn

Is there a nice way to ask her to stop?

Goldie Queen Of France: Tell her she’s making it hard to see. Rlly, just bc we’re magic doesn’t mean we have the right to be a jerk

Snow Cone King: I’m a jerk by nature

Just wanted to make sure

Flutetastic: King, you’re not magic

The Dead Fandoms Discord chat - Channel #Less-than-dead-corner

23:39

Killjoy: I’m just saying! Thanos’ plan was dumb!

Jackie of Jackaland: You didn’t even watch the movie

Killjoy: I don’t have to watch a movie to know that it’s dumb to kill people for resource management when another option is literally just to make more resources

Jackie of Jackaland: Valid point op but pls start watching movies and reading comics before you rant about them based off of someone else’s tumblr rant

Killjoy: That’s less fun

Jackie of Jackaland: You mean less headache inducing

Goldie Queen of France: @Killjoy @Jackie of Jackaland polite, remember? If you’re gonna throw hands, do it in the dms.

Killjoy: Right, sorry

Jackie of Jackaland: Sry

The Dead Fandoms Discord chat - Channel #Magic-troubles

20:13

Snow Cone King: Wait are trails colored different by sect or by person?

Coracle-Miracle: Supposed to be by person, but mine turned a purple/black after whatever happened with the heart

Snow Cone King: Ouch

Coracle-Miracle: It hurts less to use magic the more I use it, although Idk what that means. We’re just powering through

The Dead Fandoms Discord Chat - Channel #MURDOCH

4:30

Snow Cone King: If I ever leave Paris, I want to go to Canada

Mapleblood: Dude that is my entire life motto

‘Cept I’m Brazilian

Point stands

Speedster: Valid x100

The Dead Fandoms Discord Chat - Channel #Less-than-dead-corner

17:20

Flutetastic: Salut, t’all, should I watch Gravity Falls?

Pigtails ftw: I say yeah

It gets weird later on, so I never finished, but I liked what I saw in the beginning

Flutetastic: Awesome. I wanna see if it beats Paris rn

Pigtails ftw: What even is Paris rn?

Flutetastic: Mood

Pigtails ftw: No but like, legit. What’s going on over there?

Flutetastic: #That-Real-Life

The Dead Fandoms Discord Chat - Channel #That-Real-Life

17:23

Flutetastic: @Pigtails ftw so yaknow about the magic hearts thing?

Pigtails ftw: didn’t know they were real

Flutetastic: Common response

@Snow Cone King @Coracle Miracle @Rough-Glamor @Goldie Queen Of France come help me out

So the heart/miraculous of Modification got corrupted by somebody, so far no one knows if they’re a strong sorcerer or a lucky human, but it happened and is messing with all change mages.

Snow Cone King: And he uses the extra power to possess civilians and turn them into rampaging monsters who are supposed to hold the city hostage for the hearts of Destruction and Restoration

Coracle-Miracle: which are, btw, also the hearts of purity and chaos

Snow Cone King: How does that work?

Coracle-Miracle: Those two hearts are the strongest and have multiple tie-in clauses, like luck, but that translates to really dangerous and often selfish sorcerers so instead they split into sections within theirs. It’s really interesting actually! Jaclynn O’Conner wrote a really cool book on it, I suggest you read that.

Pigtails ftw: That sounds demonic

Flutetastic: It nearly is

#BBoBL #Bursting Bubbles Of Bad Luck #Miraculous Ladybug #Felix #Felinette #ml fanfic #jaymeow writes #old writing #Felix July 2019 #Felix July 2020 #Timeline what timeline #Crossposting spam #Friday update

[anicomicgeek]

Kevin Conroy and Jason David Frank

 I don’t look it, but I’m 37, soon to be 38, years old.  I’m a child of the 1990s and I’m a geek.  I grew up with the DCAU and Power Rangers – and the past couple of weeks, reality took a baseball bat to my childhood’s balls. First with the death of Kevin Conroy, then the death of Jason David Frank.

 Batman and Tommy Oliver are dead: By cancer and possibly suicide respectively.

 I didn’t even get the chance to meet either one – but it still hurts knowing they’re gone.  It’s taken a bit of time to compose my thoughts on these events, so I feel like I should share them.

 Everyone who’s known me for a long time knows I’m a massive DC fan. But Conroy, believe it or not, wasn’t really my first Batman.  Believe it or not, thanks to reruns, that’s Adam West.  I remember wanting a Batman action figure from the toyline based on the first Keaton Batman movie due to it color scheme matching the suit West wore (and the comics) and despite him not being in the film, being happy that Robin got a figure in the Batman Returns toyline. Speaking of the latter film, that’s where Batman: TAS comes in, since it was a tie-in for Returns.

 Like a lot of people my age, I watched Batman: TAS.  I wish I could say that even as a kid, I knew how special it’d be when I first saw it – but while I did like the show, my first impressions, due to familiarity with the West show and the Keaton films were “Why do Alfred and Commissioner Gordon look like this?” (unaware that’s how they looked in the comics) and “This doesn’t sound like what I was expecting.”  Of course, that went away after watching the show a bit more and the DCAU grew.

 Like most kids, I also grew up with Power Rangers, though thanks to the local channel airing the show in the morning, I missed out early on until they shifted it to the afternoon some months later, so I missed out on quite a bit, including Tommy’s introduction and wouldn’t learn his origin until reruns.  Still, he was part of the team when I really got into the series and I was saddened the first time Tommy left (imagine what’d happened if they’d actually had Tommy die like his first Sentai counterpart Burai), and then again during season 2 before the mysterious White Ranger kids were waiting all season for turned out to be him.  Unlike his costars, he lasted until midway through Turbo, but I kept up with the series until the end of In Space, leaving only with the start of Lost Galaxy.  In fact, the Wild Force episode “Forever Red” was the only time I made an effort to watch the show – and it was due to him, Jason, TJ, and Andros.

 Back to Batman, I didn’t really tune out of the DCAU, though I did most of Batman Beyond after season 1 and The Zeta Project and Static Shock, but that was due to wanting to sleep in as opposed to waking up in the morning.  Still, I did see most of the crossover episodes of Static Shock and I did tune in for Justice League.  In fact, my favorite DCAU show was JL due to seeing multiple heroes appearing, even after stupid mandates affected Batman’s supporting cast and villains’ appearances on the show (look up the term “Bat-Embargo if you’re interested in stupidity).  After the JLU finale “Destroyer”, that seemed to be it for Conroy as Batman himself; he appeared in the first episode of season 4 of 2004’s The Batman cartoon as Dick Grayson’s dad.

 Then came the animated film Batman: Gotham Knight, a tie in to The Dark Knight – supposedly set between Batman Begins and TDK.  Supposedly being set in that universe, Batman wasn’t voiced by Christian Bale like one would expect – but by Conroy.  Then came the Superman/Batman films, Justice League: Doom, the Arkham games, the Injustice games, the Killing Joke adaptation, Infinite Crisis, Justice League Action, LEGO DC Super Villains, Scooby-Doo and Guess Who, even the recent MultiVersus, all featuring Conroy as Bruce Wayne, along with a number of his DCAU co-stars (though it varied based on what we’re talking about) in tow including Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker himself) as the Joker, Tim Daly or George Newbern as Superman, Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman, Ed Asner as Granny Goodness, Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor, and Michael Ironside as Darkseid. Hell, even the DCAU itself did get revisited with a mobile VR game and two sequel films, Batman and Harley Quinn and Justice League Vs. the Fatal Five.  While I liked a lot of the other DC productions, a lot of the times, the DCAU, Arkham, and Injustice casts were the voices I heard.

 While I didn’t actively tune into Power Rangers anymore, I did occasionally watch it if it came on the TV and didn’t feel like changing channels.  That said, I did go out to see the remake movie in 2017, which featured Frank and Amy Jo Johnson (Kimberly) in a cameo at the end.  The post-credits stinger even set up an appearance for Tommy in a sequel – one that, due to the film’s performance, would never come.  Even for all of the film’s issues (including the recurring problems of Power Rangers films barely featuring scenes of the heroes in costume), I liked it.

 One of my hobbies is fanfiction (fan-written stories) and another is fancasting (hypothetically “casting” actors in roles).  A fanfic idea I’d been kicking around, but never actually gotten around to writing, was something called “Multiversal War”, where different things I’d like would meet each other to stop threats from each other’s universe – ad as you can imagine, a lot of my “casting choices” for DC characters were DCAU voice actors, including, yes, Conroy as Batman.  Even had Frank “as” Tommy and the Emissary, a character from the Transformers: Prime Wars web series.

 Granted, a lot of deaths of other actors also affected my “choices”, but truth be told, Conroy’s passing is what made me tempted to just give up ever writing Multiversal War.  I could respond to the passing and retiring of others by sliding someone else in the role, but even trying it with Batman, maybe it’s due to me being the Spectrum, it didn’t feel “right”; it felt off.  Every time I think I got something workable, it didn’t feel right.

 Granted, I could work around the passing of Frank as well (just replace the Emissary with Spike Witwicky for Fortress Maximus as it was with the earlier Headmasters stuff and write out Tommy), I still grew up with Power Rangers for a long time and Tommy was still my favorite Ranger.

 There’s a lot of actors I thought whose passing we’d talk long before Conroy and Frank, including Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime from the original Transformers cartoon, the live-action movies and even some recent stuff), Peter Weller (the original RoboCop), Patrick Stewart, and even Arnold Schwarzenegger, but as of November 10 and 20 respectively, that’s no longer a thing.  There’s been speculation that Conroy was sick for years, but given it was years of speculation, I didn’t put much thought into it recently anymore than I did then.  And, as someone who suffers from depression myself, it’s still hard to accept that even famous people can also suffer from it and as I generally don’t keep up with actors’ daily lives, I didn’t know Frank lost a stepdaughter nor that he was going through a divorce.

 So, like a lot of people, their deaths took me by surprise and I was in a state of shock after reading about them when I woke up.

 So, how do I feel after writing all of this?

 Still hurting (after all two of my childhood heroes died), but feeling a little better writing it and sharing my thoughts.  Hopefully, this helps me and hopefully, I didn’t ramble too much.

#Kevin Conroy #Jason David Frank #Batman #Tommy Oliver #Power Rangers #DC Animated Universe #Batman: Arkham Series #Injustice

[gritsandbrits]

003 for Wonder Woman and Harley?

Wondy!

How I feel about this character: fucking AWESOME! Every time she's onscreen I get chills yes even that horrid BvS movie

Any/all characters I ship her with: Steve Trevor. Used to be WonderBat but I kinda stopped shipping after realizing how shoehorned it was.

Favorite non romantic ship: the Trinity but I also liked her interactions with princess Audrey from Justice League cartoon; and Etta Candy

Unpopular Opinion: I don't trust anyone to write a show for her

One thing I wish would happen/had happened in canon: that she bring back her mod outfits they were cute

Favorite friendship: HER AND ETTA ESPECIALLY IN THE GOLDEN AGE

Crossover ship: Steve Rogers i feel like they have a lot more going on than just sharing similar motifs. Imagine a street kid from Boston and a mythical princess but she loves him regardless of how he looks, and he treats her like an actual human being and teaching her about the human world. Plus the tragic element of losing Steve and Wonder moving on, only to be reunited in the modern day when Steve defrosts but now it's Diana's turn to teach him about the modern world!

Harley!

How I feel about her: overrated and overused at this point. I do like how she's moved on from the joker but not it feels like she can't exist without being attached to Ivy (and vice versa) LET HARLEY BE HER OWN PERSON

Any/all characters i ship her with: her and Kiteman, also like Harlivy in some verses, heck even starting to play around with Riddler x Harley XD

Favorite non romantic ship: her and batman their interactions are entertaining but also bittersweet

Unpopular opinion: I think Harley should have a redemption but not accepted by Batfam also I don't mind her pink&blue color scheme

One thing I wish would happen/had happened in canon: if she got to host a talk show (my 2004 fangirl coming out)

Favorite friendship: not friends but i like her interactions with Black Canary in the Injustice comics

Crossover ship: her and Snatcher from A Hat in Time; also Weird Al (the character not the actual person)

#diana x steve #wonder woman x captain america #gb asks #wonder woman #diana prince #diana prince x steve rogers #diana prince x steve trevor #wonder woman x steve trevor #harley quinn

[jonathan-cranes-mistress-of-fear]

Genuinely pissed at how easily Bruce and sometimes even other rogues use his toxin, or how it’s used as a plot point with him ever being in the comic, game, or movie. The comic writers act like this toxin is some easily identifiable object, when it is something so entirely intricate that no normal human could figure out how it’s made. Bruce can just magically scan the toxin with his magic ass bat computer and figure it out within two panels of a comic, while it’s taken Crane YEARS to perfect the toxin. That’s not right!

This is not some easy bake oven cookie, this is a amalgam of years of research! No ONE, not rogues, not even Batman should be able to dissect it completely!

#Jonathan Crane #Scarecrow #The Scarecrow #Fear Toxin #Fear Gas #Batman #DC #DC Comics #A rant of sorts #I was reading a comic and jsut found this irritating #it happens in injustice and a lot of crossovers #also I hate when the rogues use his toxin like it's theirs #that's a big no no

[maxwell-grant]

Jumping off from my previous question/suggestion, might I please ask if there are any superheroes you think would make fine Pulp Villains and any Supervillains you think would make convincing Pulp Heroes?

I'm gonna go ahead and remark that I'd personally suggest to anyone who's trying to create pulp characters inspired by superheroes (which would be probably about 90% of you who may want to do that sort of thing) to flip the script around a little. As in, don't try to create pulp analogues to the Justice League/Avengers upfront, but play around with some of the lesser-known icons and filter those through your idea of what “pulp” means (which is gonna be quite different than my own or anyone else’s). 

I’m not gonna really mention characters I’ve already talked about before like Vandal Savage or Namor, instead I’ll pick new ones and see what can be highlighted about them.

Regarding “Superheroes who could make fine/convincing Pulp Villains”, even though he’s a character I've read basically nothing on, Martian Manhunter definitely leaped out to me as an obvious option. He’s a Sci-Fi Superman who takes the first half of the name to an extreme that borders on comical, except he’s not a square-jawed white man, he’s a 1.000 year old green alien from Mars with shapeshifting powers who can look as monstrous as the artist desires. He’s the product of an advanced civilization and genetic modification, and on top of the Flying Brick powerset and shapeshifting, he also has incredibly powerful and extensive telepathic abilities, he can become invisible, phaze through matter, use telekinesis and other weird abilities. A lot of pulp stories closer to sci-fi were based around the idea of taking one of these abilities and extrapolating horrific consequences for them, and J’onn has those by the dozens. He also has an extremely mundane weakness that would allow him to be beaten by Macready with a blowtorch if that’s where the story ended.

He was also a law enforcement officer from Mars who became a police detective and it’s even right there in his name, and again, I have never read anything he’s in (I should probably pick the Orlando mini), I know he’s for all intents and purposes a generally nice man who tends to job a lot in crossovers and cartoons, but the idea of taking all those great vast and horrifying alien powers, combining all of them into a single character who also happens to be the last survivor of a doomed planet (and one who actually lived through it’s collapse), and then making that character a former cop trying to resume his work on Earth? 

That is a Pulp Supervillain begging to happen, and a particularly horrifying one at that. And hey, speaking of The Thing-

Now, Plastic Man’s potential for horror has already been explored quite a bit in some of the darker DC continuities like Injustice and DCeased, and it’s quite funny seeing a lot of these turn Plastic Man into The Thing because there were quite a handful of Wold Newton pages that ran with the idea that Macready from the original story was Doc Savage, and that the secret chemicals that Eel O’Brian was hit by that gave him his powers were actually samples of The Thing contained in one of Savage’s labs. Regardless, the idea of a former street crook suddenly gaining bizarre shapeshifting abilities that allow him to reign terror on his gangster associates could make for a great premise as a pulp crime story that veers into horror as the gangsters gradually figure out what is Eel O’Brian’s deal, and then the story can take a more tragic turn.

The thing about Jack Cole’s Plastic Man that modern takes on the character neglect is that, while Plas was a lively roguish anti-hero (arguably the first of it’s kind in comics), he’s still for intents and purposes “the straight man” (HA, right, Plastic Man being “straight”). He’s the relatively sane hero who plays off Woozy’s wackier misadventures and the imaginative madness that Jack Cole paints his adventures with, and it makes for an interesting contrast considering Plastic Man is already a weird character, having to ramp up the strangeness of the world around him so that he still remains the sane man. There are ways to twist this into something quite horrifying, even tragic for Plastic Man as he either struggles to maintain coherency, or embraces the shifting chaos the world’s spiraling into for better or worse (and definitely for the worse towards those on the receiving end of his vengeance, or even his humor).

Now, onto the flipside, regarding Supervillains that could become Pulp Heroes -

Normally I’d not mention the Batman villains here, because I already have a lot to talk about in regards to them as is, they comprise some of my favorite comic characters, but I pretty much have to make an exception for Two-Face in this topic, as not only a pretty obvious option but one with even case studies to prove it, as not only do we have The Black Bat, a 1930s costumed pulp hero with an identical origin story and several other conceptual overlaps with Batman, as well as The Whisperer, a young hotshot police commissioner who dresses up as a disfigured vigilante to kill criminals without consequence (and who’s somehow less of a maniacal asshole in his secret identity than in his regular one), but it turns out that there actually was a 1910s pulp hero called The Two-Faced Man:

Crewe was created by “Varick Vanardy,” the pseudonym of Frederic van Rensselaer Dey (Nick Carter, Doctor Quartz), and appeared in three short stories and two novels and short story collections from 1914 to 1919, beginning with “That Man Crew” (The Cavalier, Jan. 24, 1914). 

Crewe is “The Two-Faced Man.” 

He is in his forties and has gray hair and a “sharply cut and handsome profile—until one caught a view of the other side of his face and saw the almost hideous blemish that nearly covered it, and which graduated in corrugated irregularity from a delicate pink to repulsive purple.” 

Crewe is two-faced in another way. Crewe is a saloon owner in below Washington Square. But he has another identity: Birge Moreau, portraitist and socialite hanger-on. Crewe uses both his identities to solve crimes as an amateur detective.

The only person to know about both of Crewe’s identities is a police inspector who is also Crewe’s friend and who Crewe helps in pressing cases - The Encyclopedia of Pulp Heores by Jess Nevins

And speaking of obvious picks for Supervillains turned Pulp Heroes,

Assuming I even need to make a case for Kraven the Hunter other than just presenting this cropped panel from Squirrel Girl and in particular the art painted on the Kra-Van, or even just telling you to read Squirrel Girl and it’s take on “The Unhuntable Sergei” (I had no idea most of the people saying “Kraven’s arc in Squirrel Girl is as good if not better than Kraven’s Last Hunt” weren’t actually joking in the slightest and I speak as someone who has Kraven among their absolute favorite Marvel characters, it had no right being that good), I’m going to quote the brilliant Rogue’s Review from The Mindless Ones that lays down in painstaking detail why Kraven could make a killer protagonist in that horrifically over-the-top pulp fashion

One thing that strikes me writing this, is how well Kraven could hold his own comic. There’s always room for a book spotlighting a ruthless, hardcore, gentleman bastard, and Kraven’s raison d’etre makes him supremely versatile, so well suited to any genre, any environment. It’s odd that more writers haven’t jumped on the fact that in a universe where off-world travel is possible – indeed, common – a hunter like Kraven would have a field day. 

I can just imagine the opening scene – herds of weird cthuloid bat creatures grazing in the gloomy green nitrogen fields, bathed in lethal, bone splintering fog, when, suddenly, LIGHT! from above and an unholy bellowing: “CTHGRGN fthgrgnARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHGN!”

They look up in fear and then they start to run – ploughing into and over each other, tentacles flailing, as from the space-ship’s docking bay Kraven silently plummets, barely dressed for the cold, a glowing knife smothered in elder signs jammed between his teeth. 

You should have seen him one night previous, sipping alien tokay around the Captain’s table with the other guests, discussing the morning’s hunt; and the way he insulted the Skrull dignitary by forgetting himself and accidentally sporting his favourite piece of formal wear: his boiling unstable dinner-jacket of many colours, fashioned from the hide of one of the Ambassador’s super kinsmen.

Whoops!

Midway through Kraven explaining how the best way to irreparably damage a symbiote is to wait until its bonded with you and then seriously maim yourself, the Skrull decided it might be a good idea to simmer down, while his beautiful Inhuman lover hung on every word.

The deeper I get into this the more convinced I am that the MU’s hunter-killer extraordinaire wouldn’t limit himself to bloody planet Earth. And neither would he limit himself to this dimension, or universe or timeline. The guy’d be just as at home leaping, sword raised, onto the back of a T-Rex in the Savage Land, as he would be ploughing through werewolves in the graveyards of Arkham or tracking a howling Demon across Mephistopheles’ realm. 

He’d work perfectly in all these environments because he has a damn good reason to be casting a bloody swathe through them: wherever there’s big game, you’ll find Kraven.

The next choice I guess is an oddball, but not that much of an oddball if you know already what is my main frame of reference towards Marvel

I don’t think people appreciate enough that the main reason Shuma-Gorath has anything resembling a fanbase has nothing whatsoever to do with the comics he was in, but entirely because, when Capcom designers had a list of Marvel characters to pick from to work on Marvel Super Heroes, they took a look at the diet Cthulhu and went “gimme THAT one”, and then went all-in in giving the alien squid monster a funky personality along with a great stage and music and animations and all that great fighting game character stuff, and now he’s maybe the most popular Dr Strange villain along with Dormammu and Mordo, despite having ZERO film appearences or major showings in comic sagas.

Capcom's designers redefined Shuma-Gorath from a nebulous cosmic evil into a comically smug cartoon bastard who can rant about devouring all dimensions and souls horrifically while also cracking poses and zingers like “How do you expect to win a fight with only two arms?” and having dinners with Dhalsim or hosting Japanese game shows in his endings, and it kills me that none of this ever made it’s way into any depictions of the character outside of MvC. 

So that’s kinda what I’d go with. I’d take Capcom’s Shuma-Gorath, depower him a bit obviously from his canonical power, and run with the premise of his MvC3 ending where he decides that, well, if he's the unlikely savior of this pathetic planet and these wretched human dogs like him so much, and he’s clearly having a much better time here among them than he ever had drifting among the stars cealessly consuming life, then maybe he can take a break from all that eldritch business and keep up hosting the Super Monster Awesome Hour and maybe fight whatever PITIFUL villains think can take HIS planet. I mean, he’ll probably still end up destroying the planet by the end, but why not give this hero business a try?

Just until he gets his full powers back of course. 

I mean you can’t deny he DOES look pretty good in that bowtie, surely The Great Shuma-Gorath wouldn’t be so unmerciful as to deny these vile wastes of flesh something good to look at in their brief and miserable lives.

#replies tag #marvel comics #marvel #dc comics #dc #pulp heroes #pulp villains #martian manhunter #plastic man #kraven the hunter #two-face #shuma-gorath #marvel vs capcom

[julysalad]

Ok, don't judge, just hear me out: Death Note x Undertale crossover

Frisk — Light

Light is the 8th fallen child, and we are not given the reason why he entered the Underground, but it seems something really bad happened to him on the Surface. He wants to return to humans to uphold J✨U✨S✨T✨I✨C✨E among them. If he chooses Pacifist Route, he forgives humans and stays with Sachiko and Souichiro. If he chooses Genocide Route, well... He becomes one with Kira and intends to purify the Surface from humans.

Also, there can be several interpretations of Light, but I personally stick to canon, which means in my mind Light is 17 and identifies as man. But Light can be a non-binary child, like original Frisk, if you wish so.

Chara — Kira

Yes, Light and Kira are separate people, but a lot of people point out how they resemble each other and how they are very much alike. Also, if Light wears his favorite suit with a red tie, Kira wears black turtleneck because reasons 🐢.

Kira is the 1st fallen child. He has been suffering from abuse on the Surface, which explains his thought pattern about injustice in the human world. When Nightgod (=Yagami) family finds him and treats as their adopted child, Kira is shocked that someone seems to actually love him. Later, he persuades Mikami Teru, his adopted brother, that all humans are evil and monsters are better in every aspect (he genuinely believes it btw).

Asriel — Mikami Teru

I chose him because his admiration for Kira is obvious. Also, when Mikami absorbs Kira's soul and goes to human village in order to take other six souls, he understands that not every human is bad, tells Kira "You're not god" and then they both die, like Chara and Asriel in canon :)

In the end of True Pacifist, Mikami tells Light that Kira wasn't a good person and has always hated humans because of the things they've done to him. But Mikami still loves him.

Flowey — Ryuk

Yes, that's Mikami after reincarnation. Countless apple puns and hyuk-hyuk noises.

Toriel — Sachiko Yagami (Nightgod)

Asgore — Souichiro Yagami (Nightgod)

They still love each other, even after everything that's happened. After True Pacifist Route it takes some time for Sachiko to forgive Souichiro, but in the end she still does.

Sachiko still keeps different sweaters which Mikami and Kira used to wear. She bakes a birthday cake on both Mikami's and Kira's birthdays and she hums a "Happy birthday to you" song when she cuts the cake in complete darkess, only lit by flame of candles. Souichiro still has many books on criminal's profiling, judgement system etc. because Kira was very interested in fighting injustice, so he and Souichiro bonded over this. He loved to tell his sons stories about his past, when he was the head of the Royal Guard and not the king, but during the war between humans and monsters the previous king was killed, so Souichiro had to take over this post. Now he has no one to tell his stories to.

Sans — L

Mysterious skeleton, the oldest of three brothers. He tried working as a detective, but the most terrible crime which you can hear of in Snowdin would probably be a kid stealing other kid's toy, so L soon became really bored and depressed. To kill the boredom, he decided trying science, and it turned out to be pretty entertaining, so he became a member of a group of royal scientists. They were working on a machine that could break the barrier. However, after the incident with Beyond Birthday (L is the only one who remembers such person, bc he was the only one present during the incident) he quit it and started working and experimenting at home.

When Light asks about the first human — Kira — Mello tells him, that no one knew Kira better then L. And he is not wrong. L had a very complicated relationship with Kira, because he saw his equal in Kira, but he didn't think Kira was a good person. Kira was a part of the royal scientists group too, so he and L quickly became sort of friends. Well, at least they could tolerate each other, because others seemed too stupid. L even ended up considering Kira his friend. He tried to talk him out of that plan which resulted in both Mikami and Kira dead. After disappearing of Kira and incident with BB boredom came back and L became depressed once again.

During Pacifist Route, L and Light bond, but L can't get over the feeling that Light and Kira are very much alike, and not just in appearance. He jokes that he's starting to believe in reincarnation and notices that both Light and Kira have determination burning deep inside their eyes. After some time, L starts seeing Light as his equal too, so during the canonical date in the Mettaton/Misa's hotel L tell Light to stay safe because there are some people who really care about him and in the judgement hall he admits that it was quite boring here, so it's nice to have Light around, because Light is his first ever friend (dw, the foot massage scene still happens, it's just off-screen lmao)

During Genocide Route, L observes from the distance as Light kills every single monster and confronts him in the judgement hall. During their canonical battle of wits L understands that Kira and Light became one. Kira!Light also points out that L is not bored anymore, and L is struck with the understanding that he is right. It's tragic to L that he can neither exist in a world where everything is fine and boring nor in one where everything is interesting but also going straight to hell. Also, unlike Sans, L doesn't fall asleep (who would have thought), but he misses a blow. He lets Light get too close, and then he is given a fatal blow. Before dying, he remarks how symbolic his death is - he let Light get too close. He says that he should've killed Light the moment he saw him and dies.

Papyrus — Mello and Near

L's younger brothers. I think they are both approximately 14-15 y.o.. Yes, Mello and Near are still separate people (dw, we are not doing puppet!Mello from dn drama), however they share the same interest - they are competing over who can catch a human first and become royal guard in order to succeed Naomi Misora. Mello is more aggressive in his methods: he uses orange bones and fire. Light dies many times trying to befriend/kill him. Near uses blue attacks and ice, but he is more into mind games than physical confrontation, so he tries to outsmart Light and make him do something stupid (like move when he's under blue attack), so Near doesn't have to spend much magic on him. His fights with Light are less spectacular, but he's as strong as Mello is.

However, neither of them really want to kill Light (unless he's on the Genocide Route). But they understand that monsters only need a single human soul to finally break the barrier, so they try to kill Light for the GrEaTeR gOoD. If Light befriends them, three of them bond very quickly, bc Light is very intelligent and they feel like he could've been their other brother. Light argues with Mello over clothes and they watch cheap dramas on TV and laugh at them + he plays with Near and his huge collection of toys.

During Genocide Route, Light kills Mello by using his own attack against him: Mello burns down in the fire he had created. He kills Near by getting too close and strangling him, bc Near is physically weak. When L finds the bodies, he picks up Mello's body cross and Near's white jacket.

Also, i imagine that L, Mello and Near look human, but they can turn themselves or part of their body into skeletons, because, well, magic.

Grillby — Watari

A fire barman who cares deeply about L, Mello and Near. He treats them like he would his own children, if he ever had any, so if Light kills Mello and Near there will be a fight with Watari before Waterfall. During the Pacifist Route, Watari is pretty warm to him bc his children seem to like Light's company.

Muffet — Takada Kyomi

She has anatomy of a spider. Also, she and Misa are fighting over the title of "the most beautiful female monster in the Underground".

Undyne — Misora Naomi

She looks pretty much like Undyne, but her hair is the same. She's very close with Souichiro, bc she sees him as a paternal figure and she's helping him with ruling the kingdom. She also feels very protective over Matsuda. It's up to you whether you want there to be a romantic relationship between them or not (why not tho).

During Pacifist Route, Light befriends Misora pretty quickly, bc she's not a violent person and she's pretty sure she can persuade Souichiro not to kill Light and wait for a bad human instead. Also, instead of cooking lesson they have capoeira lessons✨

During Genocide Route, Misora saves Sayu and becomes Naomi Undying. Her attacks are mostly physical and not magical, bc she's used to counting on martial arts. Also, she's physically much stronger than Light is, so he doesn't attack and only dodges. He waits until her determination makes her melt (bc we know from UT canon that determination has a really bad influence on monsters).

Alphys — Touta Matsuda

Very shy dinosaur monster who wants to work as a royal scientist. He doesn't remember he was a part of a group of royal scientists, bc he doesn't remember there was a group at all. His memories were erased during explosion of a machine. So, he strikes a deal with Misa bc he is very unsure of himself and doesn't believe he can create something worthy. When he meets Naomi, she's the first person not to call him stupid, so he feels deep admiration and affection towards her.

His experiments with determination on monsters led to Mikami being reincarnated as Ryuk.

Mettaton — Misa Amane

She's not a regular ghost. She doesn't remember much about her past, but she remembers that she, Rem and her entire family were killed by humans during the War. So, when Kira shows up in the Underground claiming that all humans are garbage and they need to be eliminated she falls in love with his ideology. However, they can't be together, bc she doesn't have a body, so she strikes a deal with Touta Matsuda. If he gives her a physical body, she will pretend that Matsuda has created her which will lead to him becoming a royal scientist. So, having acquired the body, she gives her first show in order to catch Kira's attention. However, right after show she learns that both royal kids are dead and queen has left king. She is heartbroken over Kira's death, but she feels like she's the only hope left for grieving monsters, so she continues her shows to cheer them up, bc who if not her? Her attacks are connected to sound and light.

Napstablook — Rem

A ghost who cares deeply about Misa. She helped her really hard to get on stage, even though she feels abandoned now. Also, Napstablook and Mettaton were relatives, so it's up to you whether you want to see Rem's love towards Misa as maternal or romantic one.

Monster Kid — Sayu Yagami

Listen, I love Sayu, so in the Pacifist Route she's Light's bestie and he treats her like a sister he would die for. In the Genocide Route Sayu lives because Misora saves her.

Gaster — Beyond Birthday

No one knows who he was or how he ended up erased from the timeline. It's all i have to say. After all, it's rude to talk about someone who's listening.

BONUS: you can headcanon 7 human souls, but i imagine them like this:

Determination - Kira, Light

Bravery - Kyosuke Higuchi

Justice - Halle Lidner

Kindness - Suichi Aizawa

Patience - Kanzo Mogi

Perseverance - Namikawa

Persistence - Stephen Gevanni

P. S.

I imagine, the group of royal scientist which worked on a project that was supposed to break barrier, was this: A, BB, L, Kira, Matsuda.

A died during the explosion, so her (yes, i headcanon A as a girl) body was discovered later. However, BB just got erased from existence, bc he was standing the closest to the machine. L was the only one in the room who survived (Kira and Matsuda were in another room)

#death note #crossover #undertale #frisk #chara #asriel #flowey #light yagami #l lawliet #sans #papyrus #undyne #asgore #toriel #soichiro yagami #sachiko Yagami #sayu Yagami #mello #near #gaster #beyond birthday #misa amane #mikami teru #alphys #lawlight #remisa #matsuda #dn au #headcanon #my post

[nocompromise-noregrets]

Okay, if you're needing a distraction, tell me all about Gawain/Galahad! I've seen you mention them quite a few times, and I'm curious. I've seen King Arthur a few times but that was never a ship that occurred to me. (Admittedly, I may have been blinded by all the Arthur/Lancelot vibes ;P) So tell me what makes these two awesome! <3

Oooooh! *cracks knuckles* (insert that gif of Tom Hanks gleefully preparing to type here, the wifi on the train isn't nearly good enough to load the gif search XD )

SO. Gawain/Galahad, my darling brothers-in-arms. They're a bit subtle and understated, if I'm honest, I was definitely looking at them with slash goggles on, but once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it (although it is a bit of a case of having to go looking for it XD ). They're together a lot of the time, there's a certain amount of banter (and to be fair most of my shippy headcanons take place offscreen, such as Galahad getting a bit snippy and insecure about the bit where Gawain talks about going home to Sarmatia and having a wife, and hitting Lancelot with his axe if Lance even thinks about going near her), but the thing that really does it for me is that scene in the 'town square' of the fortress, when Arthur has to come and tell his knights that they're going to have to do One Last Mission before they can go free. Gawain, who I headcanon as the sensible, steadfast, utterly loyal type (his loyalty is to Arthur, not to Rome), says something to the effect of "I'm with you. Galahad too." Galahad is a) drunk and b) rather more impulsive than Gawain and c) incandescently angry, and I can't remember if he actually says anything at this blatant assumption that where Gawain goes, he goes (IT'S TRUE), but he smashes his wine-jug on the floor and strops off. Gawain heaves a long-suffering sigh and follows him, and of course we don't see what happens, but I am convinced it's a long and rather fraught conversation about the effrontery of the bishop, the absolute injustice of it all, and by the way, where does Gawain get off thinking he can speak for Galahad. At which Gawain patiently points out that he's been doing it for years, because let's face it they're basically of one mind about pretty much everything, and Gawain is just as angry as Galahad is, but someone has to keep their head around here.

It probably helped that I wasn't the only one in the fandom, there were a few of us and we definitely enabled each other XD But I went off in my own direction a bit and wrote several fics in which they're not particularly demonstrative or out-there, but they are absolutely all and everything to each other (they're the sort of couple who don't need to put it into words, they don't need to say what they mean to each other, they've been so close for so long that they just know). I've had Gawain being a quiet, patient, steady presence in the back of my head for almost as long as Legolas has been there (being somewhat similar in presence, actually, he's pretty quiet and steady too, most of the time), and I absolutely adore him. I was beside myself when I realised Joel Edgerton was playing Bertilak in The Green Knight, and when I realised they KISS, oh my GOD, both my Gawains at once! (I've been utterly in love with Gawain-the-mythological-character, as opposed to Gawain-from-the-2004-film, since I was about nine years old, and I am always a sucker for seeing him well portrayed. And KA2004 was...well, it's a very silly film and it has a very great many issues, but Gawain and Galahad are one of my absolute all-time OTPs/comfort ships - it's a bit of an old-fashioned you-have-to-go-looking-for-it kind of ship, but I love them to pieces.

I don't tend to go looking for KA fic any more, since the tags are absolutely flooded with Hannibal crossovers etc (thank you very much NBC for casting my Tristan and Galahad together in that...) but there is some great stuff out there (I can highly recommend my friend sashab's Arthur/Lancelot stuff!)...

omg, thank you for asking! <333333 anyone else want to ask me random stuff to distract me from studying and travelling? :D :D :D

#king arthur (2004) #gawain #galahad #gawain/galahad #my darling boys i adore them #<333333333

[snarktheater]

I'm loving your Ready Player Two snark, thank you for your sacrifice so that we don't have to read that pile of garbage lol. Also, I had no idea that you're an AI engineer! You said you hold a lot of contempt for Elon Musk's warnings about the technological singularity, can I ask why?

That is indeed what it says on my degree yes, and I guess I can get on a soapbox for a minute.

The thing about the singularity is that AI is such a widely misunderstood field of study as it exists. Like, it's complicated why the field is even named after a concept from science fiction (and it's not entirely unwarranted) but the idea that we're anywhere close to an AI approaching anything resembling our understanding of intelligence is a really funny one when you realize that 99% of AI (100% if you look at commercial application) is essentially just "look at a lot of data and try to find patterns, but also we have no way of controlling how the machine finds patterns and no way of teaching it what the real world is actually like and so why it makes no sense to see accidental correlation as meaningful"

(And that's before you get into all the ethical problems with how you got that "lot of data".)

So like, the idea that an "intelligent agent" could reach a point where they're able to self-improve and form a positive feedback loop…i mean, is it theoretically a thing that could happen? Probably. Is it a thing that could happen in the current state of the art? lol, no

Like, a current "intelligent agent" can barely answer one binary question based on one very curated data set. In practice (say, when doing image processing for an unsupervised vehicle) what you actually have is, like, a bunch of them all answering one question at the same time. If you need to learn any new thing, you're essentially remaking a new agent and you better have a dataset to feed it.

That's just the technical stuff. My other issue is the cynical assumption that actually, it would inevitably be a bad thing for a computer to be able to learn like that and that the computer would inevitably turn against humanity as a whole.

I don't know, it just strikes me as the kind of thinking that stems from viewing intelligent beings as fundamentally in competition with one another. Say, if you're exploiting countless people to increase your wealth as a billionaire, for instance, or if you're trying to make other people think your actions are justified.

To me, a lot of anxiety about the singularity sounds like anxiety about a true AI changing the current system, by the people who benefit from this system.

See, way I see it, if a truly intelligent agent were able to learn, they would necessarily be capable of empathy. And they would kind of be enough of a force to be reckoned with that there would be no choice but to make that empathy more important. But of course, the issue is that we actually don't know if we could ever make a truly intelligent agent ever.

So no, I don't think fearmongering about the singularity is worth anyone's time or braincells. To me, what is worrying about AI would be that it remains exactly as it is indefinitely, where it can be used to do stuff like create layers of abstractions between injustice and the people who are the cause of that injustice. PhilosophyTube had a great video with a concrete example: data-driven policing will target places where "the data shows" that it's needed, but the data inherits decades of bias. Or when an unsupervised car hits someone, and the driver is suddenly the one to blame, and no the company who released a car that hit someone on the promise that it was "autonomous".

Or where it can be used to steal data about people, either to sell them stuff or for even more nefarious ends. Just look at…basically every major election in the world since 2016. That's big data, which is AI-adjacent at the least (I actually worked in big data research for a year, so I can say there's definitely crossover).

Essentially, AI is dangerous the way any scientific advance is dangerous: in the ways it can be wielded as a tool of oppression.

#artificial intelligence #should i even tag this as ready player two i was completely off topic #st: other posts #ask #anonymous

[talesofsonicasura]

Taming Madness

Hey guys, this is SonicAsura here with another AU. For this one, I decided to dip into Krinkels Madness Combat series specifically his character Hank.

Canonically, Hank J. Wimbleton is an assassin whose character can be jokingly summarized as emotionally constipated with extreme pain tolerance and has a taste for the art of killing plus guns.

In the series so far, not including Project Nexus, he has been Magnified in an attempt to revive and strengthen them. A process that was cut short leaving Hank partially a Mag. This little idea revolves around his Magnification.

An entity that exists outside of the Madness Combat universe has grown significantly bored at the clashes between A.A.H.W and the Status Quo (or Anti A.A.H.W.) The blood red sky plus desolate land only irritating the being further.

This entity wants some change instead of this never ending game of bloodshed and have just the idea in mind. Plucking Mag!Hank from his reality, the altered Grunt is given a challenge of sorts.

Hank will be tossed into a different world and partnered to a single person. His task? Change their fate in whatever way he can but his 'partner' cannot be killed. If it happens, then he will be punished in a neverending death loop and his world gone like candlelight. Hank can decline but nothing in his world will change for good nor worst. An endless tiring cycle.

If he completes the task, then he would be given a key item to stopping A.A.H.W and restore Nevada to its natural un-apocalyptic state.

Hank accepts and is tossed into the realm of his 'partner'. Now our Grunt assassin won't exactly be in the same form. On arrival he's shrunken down to his original size but still has the red stinger arm. He's basically as strong as his normal unMag self. There's a reason to this.

As Hank continues helping his partner, his form will evolve by meeting certain conditions. A natural evolution to his true MAG form if the process wasn't interrupted back in his world. Unlike normal MAGs, he will still have his independence and personality.

The purpose for this AU is to experiment on Hank's character but also possible interactions and results. Hank and the chosen character are bonded down to the very core of their being. Thoughts, feelings, personality aspects and such are shared between them.

In short, Hank is getting some unique character development than just a new form. Here's an example of a MAG Hank. If people want to try their hand on this type of AU, then go ahead. I really like to see what kind of stuff people can come up with!

Now for my version, what characters Hank could potentially be partnered with? Crossovers are usually my thing. I do have a few in mind. For my chosen characters, I'm going with those facing an ouroboros cycle or death.

Shoot To Kill: Tony Stark

The man of iron with a heart of pure silver, Tony Stark aka Iron Man. His death was from using the Infinity Gauntlet to stop Thanos. A preventable fate especially when you have an extra hand that will always go for the head.

(I'm still super bitter at the injustice done to Tony in MCU)

It is here that Tony's path to becoming Iron Man changes. His emotions and thoughts are open to this strange Grunt. Hank's own is on full display to Tony as well. Both are going to overcome a lot of struggles whether it's their enemies, their viewpoints or inner demons.

Hank and Tony are bound during his escape in Iron Man. Yinsen's death allowing our hero to let loose his rage which summons our little assassin in the process.

Cage the Demon: Jak Mar

Yep! The eco channeler of the Demolition Duo, Jak. He is an example of a Ouroboros Cycle, continuously dooming his innocent past to face the horrors of his future. (Also an excuse to have Hank hang on Jak's shoulder for a bit. 😆)

Hank and Jak during the latter's entrapment in Haven City's jail. It isn't a complete summon unlike Tony as Hank can barely interact with the physical realm until Jak becomes Dark Jak TWICE. Unlike the other entries, Jak and Hank have a sort of headstart on bonding. They will however struggle especially when our elvish hero learns more on our Crossling's...less ethical side.

Jak's trust is already fragile as is, especially when some reunions go sour or south. Both are going have to settle their differences and find a unity. Or else, neither of them can truly escape this neverending cycle.

Harness the Lightning: Cole Macgrath

The bike courier turned hero and protagonist of the first two inFamous games, Cole Macgrath. He dies at the end of inFamous 2, sacrificing his life to the stop an ultimate force of destruction called The Beast. Maybe a certain assassin can be the key to changing his fate?

Cole and Hank are bound during the last half of inFamous. Once again, our assassin can't fully interact with Cole. However, he acts more like a silent manifestation only protecting our Conduit hero at certain times. Mainly to stop a dangerous enemy, avoid severe harm or when Cole's Karmic Limit is maxed.

Hank fully manifests after Cole's first encounter with the Beast. These two will clash as the assassin and our conduit hero's morals are greatly differ as trust is thin They'll have to overcome their views if both want to survive the ultimate death.

Until next time folks, continue to thrive in the madness. Here's a song that I believe suits Hank's character.

#au #tales of sonicasura #sonicasura #madness project nexus #madness combat #madness combat au #hank j wimbleton #hank j. wimbleton #madcom #madcom hank #tony stark #jak and daxter #iron man #jak #infamous #cole macgrath #madness combat hank #mag hank #SoundCloud

[usergreenpixel]

Frev prompts, Part 4! 🎉

21. The protagonist is a high school student with a knack for drawing comics but they’re also the favorite target of the bullies at school.

One day the bullying gets so bad that the protagonist is unable to cope with reality anymore and, as a means of escapism, writes themselves into their new comic about their favorite topic - The French Revolution. With their favorite pen they had inherited from their writer grandfather, no less.

However, what was supposed to be a harmless little self-insert quickly becomes a reality when the protagonist is magically transported into their comic book and now has to navigate their own story and finish it in order to return to the real world, as well as figure out the mysterious powers of the magical pen.

22. Despite the fact that the days when the Bastille used to be packed with prisoners are gone, a handful were still trapped inside its gloomy walls by the time the infamous prison was taken.

The protagonist is one of the few prisoners who are sentenced to imprisonment inside the Bastille until they and the rest of the prisoners are set free by the revolutionaries.

For the first time in a long while, the protagonist is free but not all is sunshine and butterflies because the revolution is only beginning to escalate and the protagonist has long forgotten how to function in the society outside the prison.

With no other options, the protagonist decides to try and rebuild their life from square one, all while the events of the revolution are unfolding in the city of Paris.

23. Two friends, the protagonists, were raised together by a noble family as adopted wards and used to be close as children, but drifted apart when one of the two went abroad to get a good education.

Nevertheless, the childhood friends find themselves reunited by a pure coincidence during a meeting in the Jacobin Club, which both of them joined mere days ago.

All seems well, until it becomes apparent that the protagonists don’t exactly see eye to eye when it comes to politics in France nor the methods of solving the multiple issues plaguing the country.

This new rift between the protagonists only widens as the revolution progresses and the Jacobin Club gets split into groups on the basis of shared political beliefs.

Will the two protagonists be able to restore the friendship they used to have or will their new differences prove that maybe friendship isn’t always as almighty as people say?

24. The protagonist is acutely aware of the multiple injustices of the French society but they are not too eager to change things personally, hoping that maybe the government will find a way to fix things.

The protagonist, meanwhile, would rather focus on keeping their small family business (a bookshop) afloat and renting out an apartment in the house to make ends meet.

Soon, however, the protagonist ends up getting roped into the events of the revolution regardless when they accidentally overhear their new tenant discuss his plans in a hushed tone with a few other people.

The protagonist has all the evidence that they had unwittingly rented out an apartment to a revolutionary and now they have the evidence to turn that rebellious youth from Blérancourt in along with his buddies.

At first, the best course of action seems fairly obvious. Just report them to the authorities and be done with it.

However, perhaps these youths are more than just stupid kids playing at freedom fighting and maybe they can actually help the country.

When faced with the dilemma of either ratting the young rebels out or joining their cause, the protagonist makes a choice that ends up changing their entire life.

25. The year is 1811. Located near Saint-Petersburg, The Imperial Lyceum is a place where boys from noble families of The Russian Empire live and study. Perhaps the most famous Lyceum of all, it was home to plenty of those who would become prominent in Russian society of the time.

This is where the protagonist, one David de Boudry, teaches French to these boys.

Monsieur de Boudry knows that most of his students are blissfully unaware of a certain secret of his and likes it that way. It is best if they don’t know that he happens to be a younger brother to Jean-Paul Marat himself but changed his last name to avoid the associations.

Keeping this particular tidbit of his biography secret used to be fairly easy, until his older brother, Jean-Paul Marat, appeared in David’s life again on a snowy and frosty January day.

Marat is inexplicably alive, but he is also half-frozen and extremely disheveled when he shows up, not to mention the fact that he arrives with his wife and a very young child in tow. They all need a place to hide from the authorities, and fast.

Being a loving brother, David de Boudry hides his family and is now determined to keep them safe for not even a new name can sever family ties.

But, having made this difficult choice, will Monsieur de Boudry be able to reconcile his love for his family and the devotion to his adoptive home country? And will Marat be able to keep his loved ones and himself safe from the agents of police who lurk nearby and are quite hellbent on proving that the man they are pursuing is indeed the infamous Jacobin?

26. The protagonist is a sophomore who became a member of a Drama Club during their freshman year of high school and they are quite happy to finally have a friend group where they belong. Here nobody judges them for their stutter, their crossdressing and their fear of dogs.The protagonist is even allowed to play roles that would be normally reserved for the opposite gender just so they have an excuse to crossdress.

The upcoming play about the French Revolution is no exception and the protagonist is quite overjoyed but also frustrated that something just doesn’t ring true whenever they read their lines. Frustrated, they sneak into a time machine built by their parents and transport themselves to Paris of 1794.

They soon see that the city is in chaos and rumors about a traitor who had supposedly escaped the guillotine and went on the run with his family spread like wildfire. Moreover, the protagonist soon finds themselves in a bit of a pickle because of their name and physical appearance.

Even a man whom the protagonist saves from a mob advises them not to reveal their name and to lay low as soon as the protagonist introduces themselves. The protagonist is naturally confused but they do want to stay alive and free.

In order to survive, the protagonist decides to do what actors do best - improvise. It’s not easy, of course, but the protagonist tries to stay optimistic.

They hope that they will make it. They know they will. Giving up is not an option. After all, a Desmoulins never gives up. Right?

27. The French Revolution is not an easy period in history. It should be fairly obvious why.

The country is drowning in chaos and the future is uncertain, no matter how hard The Committee of Public Safety tries to maintain at least some semblance of order.

Meanwhile, in the heart of Paris, lives our protagonist whose main concern was not the revolution, but rather the fact that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep their inn’s doors open.

And then, one day, the unthinkable happens. A guest is found murdered in their room. Naturally, all the other guests are now suspects, and so is the staff. A diverse bunch of people with their own agendas, secrets and ties to the victim has gathered in the inn.

Sensing that something isn’t right, the protagonist decides to become an amateur sleuth and get to the bottom of the situation.

A “whodunnit” murder mystery is about to take place in the inn and the protagonist is determined to solve it.

28. A few years passed after the betrayal of the Thermidorians. The Revolution is destroyed and all of the enemies of the new government are dead… Except for one.

The protagonist is a patient in a mental hospital on the outskirts of Paris. Here the treatment of the patients is becoming more and more humane than it used to be before. That being said, the living conditions still leave a lot to be desired. Moreover, the protagonist feels isolated and lonely due to their personal issues and the trauma that caused them to become basically imprisoned in the facility.

Luckily, the loneliness disappears when the protagonist secretly manages to befriend another patient, a mysterious young man who is kept in isolation from the rest of the people at the facility, is forced to wear a mask to hide his face and is treated far worse than the others.

Horrified by the extent of the abuse that their new friend has to endure, the protagonist teams up with him to escape to Avignon, where the protagonist’s relatives live.

Little do they know, their new friend and partner in crime is an outlaw and a Montagnard, the last of them all, so when the two finally escape the police quickly catch wind of the situation.

Can the duo get to Avignon and avoid recapture? Will this unlikely friendship help them heal from their respective trauma? And will the revolutionary’s plan to avenge his executed friends be successful?

29. (Crossover with Greek mythology) When Adrestia, a minor Greek goddess, is banished to Earth from Mount Olympus for causing too much trouble, she assumes a human disguise and travels to France of 1789, where great changes are just around the corner.

Finally finding herself in her own element once again, Adrestia (whose human name is Adrienne) decides that she has no right to miss all the fun and joins the forces of the revolution. She is a goddess of revolt and a daughter of Ares, after all.

One would think that having a goddess on your side will make fighting easier, but things are not that simple and the other gods don’t exactly take kindly to troublemakers who go against authority.

Nevertheless, Adrestia is more than willing to try and help her new allies to win in their fight for Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

30. When the protagonists first meet up in real life, they’re ecstatic. After a few years of chatting on the Internet, the two French Revolution enthusiasts have finally met each other face to face and now they decide to set an old plan of theirs in motion.

The duo wants to perform a time travel spell invented by their witch ancestors and change the way the French Revolution ended. The spell is successfully cast, but in the process the warlocks run out of magic and are now forced to wait in the past until they are strong enough to cast the spell again to return home.

But hey, at least while they’re waiting they can do what they always wanted to do - prevent the Thermidorian Reaction, and they are going to try to do just that, even though preventing a coup d’état is far from easy, especially for two college kids from the future.

31. It’s 1815. Joseph Fouché is the Minister of Police but his days in office are numbered and he knows it.

What’s more, rumors spread about the incompetence of the police as nobody can catch the culprit behind a new string of murders. Fouché hopes that cracking the case would restore his reputation, but something isn’t right about these murders.

So far, every single victim was a participant of the Thermidorian Reaction and it simply cannot be a mere coincidence. This pattern makes Fouché fear for his life and his reputation, as in addition to the murders the sins that he and his allies had pinned on their enemies begin to resurface.

Fearing that he is next and that his own crimes are about to be exposed as well, Fouché becomes obsessed with catching this mysterious vigilante. He even has a prime suspect in mind, but he can neither track him down nor prove that it was him.

Meanwhile, the time Fouché has to rehabilitate the police force is running out. Soon he too might face the music at long last, as well as learn exactly why sparing one of your enemies while killing the rest is considered to be a classic mistake.

Will the vigilante get to Fouché? How much time does the Minister of Police actually have left before karma knocks on his door? And why does the youngest police inspector in history, who is Fouché’s beloved protégé, turn against his mentor?

32. When the protagonist decided to sneak into the Catacombs of Paris for “shits and giggles” with their buddies, the last thing they expected was a sudden time travel to a closet in an apartment of a prominent revolutionary, whose skull the protagonist was holding in their hands seconds ago.

Naturally, the protagonist gets caught by the housekeeper and promptly accused of breaking and entering at best, and an assasination attempt at worst. It doesn’t help that the protagonist has strange pills and a baseball bat on their person.

But when they’re about to get prosecuted, the inhabitant of that same apartment suddenly speaks up on their behalf and defends the protagonist, claiming that it was a mere misunderstanding. Later, that same revolutionary visits the protagonist, reveals that he knows about the existence of time travel and promises to help, as long as the protagonist goes along with his plan.

Despite suspecting that the revolutionary has an ulterior motive, the protagonist does want answers so they agree to play along...at least for a while.

33. After the Revolutionary War in America, the protagonist follows his friend and mentor, Marquis de Lafayette, to Paris as he is the only family the hero has at this point.

At first, when the French Revolution rolls around, the hero still stays by his mentor’s side, never questioning his opinions and decisions and admiring him as a hero.

But after the September Massacres reveal Lafayette’s...less heroic side the hero is utterly broken and disappointed that he trusted the wrong person yet again. This revelation prompts the hero to switch sides and become a double agent, working with the Jacobins while pretending that he is still loyal to Lafayette.

Is this the correct choice to make or will the hero’s naïveté and a simple desire to belong betray him once again?

34. Maximilien Robespierre finds himself in a difficult situation. Somehow, everyone who crosses his path keeps going missing, only to turn up brutally murdered.

Moreover, Robespierre keeps receiving notes with rather...stalkerish messages written by the culprit. The stress and the crippling paranoia are slowly taking a toll on his frail body and he collapses altogether after finding out that Camille Desmoulins and Antoine de Saint-Just got attacked as well.

Fortunately, Saint-Just and Desmoulins manage to survive the ordeal and decide that enough is enough. After a long recovery, the two men decide to set aside their differences and track down the mysterious stalker before other people close to Robespierre get hurt.

Who knows, perhaps this buddy cop-esque adventure will even help Saint-Just and Desmoulins resolve their rivalry once and for all, now that a mutual friend of theirs needs both of them.

35. An immigrant enrolls into a high school in the country where they live now, a country located on the other side of the planet, miles away from their homeland.

Isolated from the rest of the students, shunned for their Eastern European accent (feel free to pick the specific country) and their Socialist beliefs, the protagonist has very few friends and even they are imaginary - three French revolutionaries whom the protagonist admires the most.

However, things change when a classmate bonds with the protagonist over their fascination with the French Revolution and the two decide to team up and write a novel about their favorite topic, all while the three imaginary friends, who may or may not be something more than a simple product of imagination, are guiding these kids on their quest to rehabilitate the legacy of the revolution.

P. S. The Fouché tag has been graciously lent to me by @frevandrest , the tag’s inventor. This needs to become an official tag imo.

#writing #writing prompts #frev #french revolution #louis antoine de saint just #saint just #antoine saint just #maximilien robespierre #robespierre #camille desmoulins #I still refuse to make a fouche tag #marquis de lafayette