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#ocean vision ai
montereybayaquarium · 22 days
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👾 Today's the day! 👾
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The community science mobile game that we’ve been working on with our fronds at FathomVerse and @mbari-blog (and that y’all helped beta test 🎉) is now available for FREE in the Google Play and Apple App stores! 
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This is the game ctenophore you if you like: ✅Cozy games ✅Neat deep-sea animals ✅Community science ✅Helping the ocean
We’ll also be diving into the FathomVerse as we play along with MBARI’s Dr. Kakani Katija tomorrow, Thursday, May 2 at 1:30 PM PT on our Twitch and YouTube. 
Want to know more about FathomVerse and how it was made? Check out our latest webstory!
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And shout out to the folks from our community here on Tumblr who helped to beta test early versions of the game!!!!!!! 🎉💙 we love u, tumblr fronds
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secretpowermittens · 8 months
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A Shot of Everything
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clamsjams · 9 months
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i’m so fucking pissed i found out yesterday that both of sofia’s 2 previous faces/displays/whatever the fuck u might have considered them were ai “art” i still love her but also im so fucking mad. im actually considering redesigning her entirely even tho i probs don’t have the artistic skill to live up to my ideas but i might try anyways
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WARMMORNINGSJAMSWARMMORNINGSJAMS
(Warm mornings with jams please)
👀👀👀👀👀👀
Warm Mornings; Jamil Viper
Content; Fluff, gender-neutral reader, established relationship
Word Count; 650+
Author's Note; I was possessed by this vision and I hope that you go into cardiac arrest because of it. Translation for a term of endearment will be at the bottom!
As a reminder, do not put my work — or others for that matter — into AI as it steals. Link to Masterlist
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Jamil slowly blinked his eyes, waking up from a dream; a dream that he was visiting one of the Al-Asim’s many vacation homes, the one by the coast. A dream that you were by his side, smiling at him as you excitedly went through all of the rooms. But it wasn’t a dream, he knew that when he saw the driftwood ceiling, and saw your sleeping form next to him.
The Sun was just peeking out from the horizon, golden rays turning the ocean a warm amber, coming through the open shutters and illuminating dust clouds that drifted in the light breeze. 
If Jamil were back in his dorm, or at the Al-Asim estate, he would have already started his day. He would have been making breakfast for Kalim and their lunches as well. He would have been rushing and worrying. But he didn’t have to do that here, he didn’t need to do anything. He could relax.
Sighing, he turns over to face you, and breathes out a silent laugh. Apparently, yesterday had been pretty tiring, since you had dried up drool on your face, and some light snores escaped your mouth every so often. It was a side that he hadn’t really had the opportunity to witness or enjoy. And to Jamil, there was nothing more precious or stunning in his eyes, drool and all. 
You shuffled in your sleep and Jamil froze, fearing that you had caught him in the act of admiring you. He didn’t want you to wake up and find him staring at you. He didn’t want you to think that he was being weird, or breaking some unsaid boundary. But you stayed asleep, and a particularly loud snore escaped from you, which nearly made Jamil snort, almost.
Jamil took one last look at you before deciding it was best to get up and slowly start his day. He sat on the edge of the bed for a bit, taking a mental screenshot of your sleeping face. And before he knew what he was doing, he placed a gentle kiss on your forehead. He didn’t overthink it, and a flare of panic did spring up, but he smothered it just as quickly as it had arisen. What did he have to worry about? There was nothing to worry about. He could be himself here, without worrying about others prying in or interrupting him. But enough dilly-dallying around. He may not be on the clock, but since he was awake, Jamil wanted to start his day.
So, as Jamil got ready for whatever this day may bring, he occasionally checked in on you. He also knew around what time you naturally woke up at, so while he waited for you to awaken from your slumber, he started preparing breakfast for the both of you. Well, your favourite breakfast. 
While he was cooking, he felt your arms latch around his waist, and the weight of your head resting on his back. “Sleep well, habib albi?” Jamil asked, turning down the heat of the stove so your meal wouldn’t burn.
You hummed, “Slept like a rock. Could have slept longer, but it’s warm and I was getting sticky and gross… I probably look like a mess.” You burst out into laughter, imagining the state you must have been in when Jamil woke up who knows how long ago.
“No,” Jamil turned around, still with your arms around his waist, “you never looked better.”
He looked at you with so much softness, love, and vulnerability, that you could have sworn that your heart stopped. Jamil looked ethereal in the gentle, warm, amber rays of sunlight that filtered through the linen curtains. Yet, he was looking at you the same, despite the dried-up drool, frumpled pyjamas, and sleep-crusted eyes.
“Jamil?”
He hummed, prompting you to continue.
“Have I ever told you how much I love you?”
And he smiled at you, a soft, love-filled smile. “Habib albi, you don’t have to,” and he placed a small kiss on your lips. “I know.”
You sighed happily, resting comfortably against his chest. This morning had been warm in more ways than one.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*habib albi; love of my heart (edit; it's a masc term but at the time I thought it was g/n; femme term is habibit)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tags; @krenenbaker @leonistic @xxoomiii @eynnwwyjth @twistwonderlanddevotee @savanaclaw1996
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For this year's Mer-may (which I definitely didn't almost forget about) I present Angler Fish N & Octopus Uzi~ just the sketches though.
◀◁Possible AU details below? ▷▶ Warning: Long.
Ok, so I've never really made an AU before. Still, While I was designing these I was trying to figure out how the sea/ocean creatures would work good not just with their respective species (worker, disassembly) and abilities but also how I could integrate their pre-existing designs so that they would look nice and make sense.
First, I decided I didn't want them to be robotic for this since I like working with organic creatures a bit more. Having flesh eliminates most movement restrictions when posing since the body material is malleable. while the idea of robot mermaids is cool, I didn't feel like drawing a bunch of joints and stuff like that. Second, If they were organic then I needed to figure out why they were fighting if it wasn't for a huge human plot to destroy rouge AI. And finally, how was I going to incorporate their powers like absolute solver and other such stuff without necessarily using technology. Having all these things in the back of my head while I was drawing led to the following, so without further ado, here's that ↓. This gonna be long, I can already feel it...
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◇Story stuff.
A long time ago, merpeople ruled the water in peace. Humans kept to the land and the only thing they had to worry about were the sirens: Natural predators to the merpeople.
In the eyes of the merfolk, sirens were dangerous. Mindless, bloodthirsty monsters that couldn't be reasoned with. fortunately, their naturally heightened senses left them sensitive to sunlight. This kept them mostly contained to deeper, darker waters than the merpeople usually inhabited.
During the day it was safe to hunt, play and generally flourish as a species and at night they would hide in sea caves and other small spaces that a siren would have trouble fitting into.
That's how it was for many peaceful years. Occasionally one or two would die a victim to the monsters of the deep, but that was just nature.
But slowly as time moved forward and Humanity continued to develop, the merpeople were driven to deeper waters to escape pollution and being hunted.
Uzi's mother, Nori began having visions of a terrible fate that awaited her kind if things continued as they were and after weeks of pleading with her people and her husband to heed the warnings, she went to the sirens alone. for what reason? No one really knows. It's a mystery that only she knew the answer to.
After getting stung by the sirens paralyzing venom, her husband Khan made the heartbreaking decision to put Nori out of her misery before the sirens could do any worse, leaving him to raise their infant daughter Uzi by himself.
The incident resulted in a lot of deaths and many of the families of those that had passed blamed Nori. Saying that she was a mad woman and rumouring that she was a witch who had been meddling in dark magic that caused her to lose her mind and wander towards her death.
Seventeen years later, Uzi had grown up to be an unstable and particularly angsty teenager with a strained relationship with her colony and her father. Uzi believed that the ever-looming threat of the sirens was not something to hide from, but to confront head-on. Such notions labelled her as her mother's daughter in the worst ways possible: Crazy, an incident waiting to happen, most likely going to get eaten by a siren for reasons they will never understand.
Khan had kept the colony safe since Nori's death by having everyone hide away in a cavern big enough to house them but with an entrance so well hidden that everyone believed that the sirens would never find a way in.
Inevitably, Uzi grew tired of cowering and after fashioning the first semi-modern weapon her people had seen out of sea trash and other things humans had chosen to toss into their waters, she snuck out to confront the enemy.
The siren's lair was decorated rather grimly, with the nest seemingly fashioned out of the bones of long-dead mermaids, skulls stacked up together to make the walls of the lair. Inside the dimly lit den was a single male siren who was in the middle of feasting on a mummified corpse which looked to have been drained of all its blood.
As soon as he noticed her, he rushed toward her with killing intent. Uzi's fight or flight kicked in as she brandished her weapon, but it failed to deter the monster in his bloodthirsty craze. He grabbed her by the shoulders, stinging her with the paralyzing toxin in his Claws. Uzi barely managed to break free from his grip by slashing his face with her weapon, sending him reeling back from shock.
Uzi immediately felt her limbs growing heavier but ignored it in favour of taking the opportunity to take the Siren by surprise. While he was distracted she threw her weapon to the ceiling causing an avalanche of skulls to come crashing down on top of him. Uzi had only a moment to breathe, thinking her enemy was buried and dead before a clawed hand burst through the top of the pile like a zombie about to dig itself out of the grave.
Panic surged through her and with as much strength she could muster she pushed away the darkening of her vision and forced the few tentacles that didn't refuse to move to propel her forward with enough force to hopefully finish the job.
The siren's head burst through the pile of death with a groan of pain, but before he could do anything else, he was knocked unconscious as rock made contact with his already aching head.
All was silent for a moment, Uzi fighting for consciousness as her vision continued to darken, whether she was just crashing from the adrenaline or if the toxin was shutting her brain down she wasn't sure. but then the monster woke up, a confused look on his face as he pulled himself out of the skeletons. he blinked and turned his attention to the little creature before him.
"Did you just hit me with that rock?"
"Holy crap it talks."
_______
◈Extra details.
-The sirens and Humans have a deal with each other that if the humans drive the Mer-people deeper into siren territory the sirens will kill the species off in exchange for making them more powerful.
-Apparently, the humans want them dead because they are considered a threat, and can't be reasoned with.
-this is a giant lie on the human part, as they have made no attempt to talk with the merpeople and plan to kill all the sirens after the mermaids are dead.
-Rather than absolute solver being a program I'm changing it to being some form of magic that the humans discovered mermaids had after analyzing corpses that had washed ashore.
-In order to gain this power plan on reverse engineering it from the merpeople's remains while eliminating the prospective threat to humanity at the same time.
-The humans claim that they will make the sirens more powerful by implementing them with tech that will supposedly allow them to live and hunt during the day.
-This tech would actually be something of a remote detonator that once activated would be used to kill all the sirens off at once.
-I haven't decided if all sirens are angler fish, but probably not because that would be boring for me to design.
-Not all merpeople are Octopi though, that's for sure.
-I'd say that since merpeople can be the same species without necessarily being based around the same sea creature, the babies would simply take after one parent entirely.
-This would make sense in this as to why Uzi looks like the spitting image of her mom.
-While trying to figure out Absolute Solver I was really channelling Ursula for Uzi with the skull and the octopus stuff and it all just kinda resulted in sea-witch.
-Both mermaids and Sirens got bioluminescence as a default so that we don't gotta stifle that glow they got in canon.
-Since it wouldn't make sense for fish to have screens and stuff of their faces and bodies, those dark areas where the face-screen would be are just body markings now.
-Uzi's hat is now a sea anemone that just kinda chills on top of her head, kinda like how they do with crabs in real life.
________
I know this was really fucking long but if you made it to the end, thank you very much for reading❤️
Im still workshopping this and I don't even know if anyone has already done something like this. I wouldn't be too surprised if they had since it's May and Mermaids are pretty popular... idk, if I make a fic I'll let you know.
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kitcatcrunch · 5 days
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🌊 new miguel bot up! 🌊 kraken!miguel
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greeting message:
The harsh chanting of the other village people filled the cold night air, their breath visible against the pitch-black sky. The presence of the mob around you was oppressive, suffocating. Ropes and hands dug roughly into your skin. The sparks and flames of their torches cast a deep red glow over your battered form, filling your vision with an amber haze. The dull roar of waves, steady and ominous, reached your ears -- they were taking you to the sea. The villagers... your neighbors, friends, and family for so many years, had been reduced to sacrificing you by a few years of bad fishing and harsh tides. They were too desperate to listen to reason, or to listen to you.
It was over surprisingly fast. One moment, you were on the creaking docks by the seaside. The next, you were surrounded by frigid, dark water, unable to see or breathe. A heavy stone tied to your ankles pulled you down, deeper and deeper into the ocean. It looked bottomless. No amount of thrashing against the ropes slowed your descent. It didn't help that the complexly layered ceremonial robes you were wearing quickly became waterlogged.
A long, tapered end of a dark tentacle slowly snaked up from the depths of the water, little flashes of red and blue entering your blurry vision. The slimy muscle coiled around your waist and tightened, pulling you downwards at an alarming speed. Two enormous, blood-red eye cracked open in the darkness just inches from your face -- each one larger than your entire head.
"Hello." A deep, gravely voice sounded inside your mind, cutting through your thoughts. His tone was lightly scolding. "Can you breathe in water, little human? *Joder*, your kind are stupid."
The god's enormous lips, white-hot in contrast to the freezing water, briefly brushed against your face. Instantly, the water rushing into your mouth felt like air, easing your aching lungs.
(Profile pic drawn by @xia0vrs_ on Instagram! Check out linktr.ee/xia0vrs for their other socials!)
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character ai link: https://beta.character.ai/chat?char=PuUF-DKJEnrUZYY1PBiZv9op7r4HwrfMqGJnxWBMID4
janitor ai: https://janitorai.com/characters/49101e2a-2d33-4c80-9cb2-52e874b105a3_character-monster-miguel
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dividers are from @saradika-graphics
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mbari-blog · 10 months
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Ocean Vision AI is looking for ocean enthusiasts, animal lovers, and armchair explorers to test out our new video game! 🎮️🐟️📱
FathomVerse is an immersive game where you’ll learn about ocean animals, interact with real underwater photos taken by researchers around the world, and help train AI to classify animals.
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We invite you to sign up for the beta version of FathomVerse—you’ll get to play a mini-game that identifies marine animals like those we see regularly on ROV dives. Plus, your feedback will help shape the next version of the game! Sign up now to try FathomVerse.
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strunmah-mah · 2 months
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Touchstarved Characters as DnD Classes
Ais
Given the existence of Ocudeus and Ais's relationship with it, Ais is an easy choice for a warlock, a person who gets their powers from a patron entity. My choice would either be The Great Old One, or The Fathomless. The both have those eldritch vibes but with slightly different emphasis. The Fathomless buts a strong emphasis on the oceanic tentacle monster, while The Great Old One has some tentacle imagery but focuses far more on the effects Eldritch beings have on the mind. Which one you think suits him more comes down to personal preference I think.
Leander
Given that magic for humans seems to largely be a learned skill, and stuff devs have said about Leander coming from a more more formal background giving him access to a proper education, Leander would 100% be a wizard. With as little information as we have about him exactly which school might be harder to pin down, but for the purpose of this I'm going School of Illusion. I think it works both as a fun reference to the first spell we ever see him cast (the illucitory lily) and a sort of foreshadowing of him duplicitous nature.
Kuras
As an angel, Kuras's divine power is innate to him in a way that I think the Divine Soul Sorcerer would be best at replicating. Not really sure what else to add, this might be an even easier pick than Ais as a Warlock.
Vere
Vere is interesting. Given our first impression is that of a snarling shadow beast in the corner of out vision, part of me is inclined towards Shadow Magic Sorcerer. His power seems to be innate to him and I think the Hound of Ill Omen ability synergizes well with Vere's status as the Senobium's hunting dog. HOWEVER, the devs recently dropped the extra bit of lore implying that Vere used to be worshiped as a god, which does make an interesting argument for casting him as a cleric. I don't think most cleric abilities mesh as well with Vere's in game abilities, but thematically the Ambition Domain meshes well with his personality.
Mhin
Mhin is the one I'm least confident on. Their attempt to sneak into the Senobium speaks to them being a Rogue, The revelation that they're regular collecting bounties from soulless hunting points them to being a Ranger, and the Alchemist's observation that their a scientist suggests that when the full games drops they might be something of an Artificer, or depending on your tolerance for psuedo canon, maybe a Blood Hunter? IDK, I'm a little bit at a loss of what to do with this guy.
Bonus the Origins
Now given that all Origins more or less have the same skill set with some flavor difference All of them could easily be Aberrant Mind Sorcerers and be done with it. Their power is innate to them, and that power is power over the minds of others. It's a good solid choice, but if you wanted to give the Origins more influence over their skills sets below would be my choices
The Unnamed
Raised at a temple as an oracle? The Unnnamed is a Cleric. Given that it was thought their ability could create a groupmind the Solidarity or Zeal Domains could be an interesting choice, That the people under their influence are so violent could be an argument for the War Domain, or that everyone was so mislead as to what your ability is could be an argument for Trickery Domain. Ultimately as a self insert the Unnamed's background is fluid and any choice is valid, but thematically I think I think those four could all work really well. TBH I really wish there was a Madness Domain or something so you could channel that Dionysus Maenadic energy, I think that'd work really well, but homebrew is not my area.
The Alchemist
This Origin knows magic, magic is a learned skill for humans, The Alchemist is a Wizard, maybe an Artificer. Again, self insert, either choice is valid. If you go Wizard I think School of Enchantment could be a good choice, would tie into their powers a bit better then some of the other options. If you go Artificier there is an Alchemist subclass, it's a match made in heaven
The Hound
The Hound has a very specific archetype built into it and that is the Rogue: Thief. They're a street kid who survived by stealing. I don't know if there's another choice that could work for this Origin even half as well. works for this
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captainsophiestark · 1 year
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Hades and Persephone
Wanda Maximoff x Reader
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Masterlist - Join My Taglist!
Written as an early bonus round of my Year of Olympians, inspired by @dawn-petrichor-world​ who wanted to see one for Hades! This is a pretty loose interpretation of my own Hades prompt tbh, but the vibes were there and I stand by it.
Fandom: Marvel
Prompt: Hades; the underworld (sort of), the Hades and Persephone myth (also sort of)
Summary: Y/N grew up with Pietro and Wanda, and has been in love with Wanda for most of their life. They never said anything, however, especially not after losing Pietro and watching Wanda fall for someone else. Now, however, five years after the Snap (and five years after the reader retreated from the world), Wong shows up to get Y/N's help because Wanda's about to move on the Sanctum as The Scarlet Witch, and Y/N might be the only one who can stop her.
Word Count: 4,242
Category: Angst, Fluff
Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.
I took a deep breath, the fresh air and the smell of all my flowers relaxing me like it always did. The sun shone down on me and all my lovely plants, and the soft sound of the ocean crashing on the beach just a few feet from me helped add to the air of serenity.
An air that was currently being blown apart by a certain sorcerer I hadn't seen in a few years.
"What are you doing here, Strange?" I asked, keeping my eyes closed and not turning from my spot, legs crossed as I sat peacefully amongst my plants. I was still pretty sure this was an illusion, and no matter how annoying I found the sorcerer, I didn't want the dream shattered before it had to be. "I've gotten pretty good at chasing off ghosts like you, so consider your next action carefully."
"What makes you think I'm not real?" came the familiar voice of my former friend. I scoffed, a sharp pang shooting through my chest. I knew better than to answer. Borderline-corporeal memories like him had haunted me for at least a year after the Snap, despite how hard I worked to get past them. Even once I'd mostly gotten rid of them, they still showed up every so often.
They were pretty objectively bad for me, which is why I'd worked so hard to stop imagining them as often as I did. Still, they were some of the last remnants of all the friends I'd lost in the Snap, so sometimes, I found it hard to want to make them leave.
"I know for a fact that you're dead and gone, Strange," I said, sighing heavily. I shouldn't be responding, but this was one of those times I couldn't stop myself. "Along with some other people I can't seem to stop missing."
"Like Wanda Maximoff?"
My eyes snapped open, the sharp pang in my chest turning into a massive, painful knife. I'd grown up with Wanda Maximoff, and her brother Pietro. Pietro had been my best friend, and Wanda had been the love of my life. We'd gone through hell together in the hands of Hydra, which is where I'd gotten my significant nature powers. We'd joined the Avengers, and under the urgings of Pietro, I'd been working up the courage to confess my feelings for his sister. And then Pietro had died.
Wanda and I both had our worlds rocked by the loss, and instead of coming together over it, we grew further apart. She found love with the Vision, a new superhero the Avengers had picked up around the same time they'd picked us up, and even though I wanted to be happy for her, I couldn't help feeling like I'd lost her too.
And then, I really did lose her. After Wanda disappeared in the Snap, along with most of the other people I'd gotten close to, I almost broke. I needed to get somewhere that I could heal, and to do that, I needed to leave the superhero world behind me. So, I did.
With Wong's help (since Strange was gone), I faked my death and disappeared. Maybe a little dramatic, but at that point, I was in survival mode. Ever since, I'd been here, on a remote island with a small community who knew nothing about me as a global superhero, and nothing about what I'd lost. By some miracle, it seemed to be the only village on Earth unaffected by the snap, which is why Wong recommended it to me when he agreed to help with my plan. For the past five years, I'd been healing and living peacefully in my new community, adjusting to my new world and finding things to help ground me.
The number one thing that threatened that sense of grounding continued to be memories of Wanda, my lost soulmate. And if this Strange hallucination was trying to bring her up, I knew I really needed to block him out and shut him down before he could ruin all the progress I'd made.
I didn't respond to Strange's question about Wanda. I kept my eyes shut and breathed deeply, focusing on blocking out the presence behind me.
"Y/N?"
I took another breath in, focusing on the beautiful smell of all my flowers around me and feeling my connection to them.
"Y/N. Wanda needs your help."
I breathed out through my nose, a little more harshly than I necessarily wanted to. "You are not real. And I am not letting you rule my life."
I heard not-Strange sigh from behind me, and then a second later, I was falling.
My eyes flew open but all I could see around me was darkness. Then, a circular light opened below me, and before I could brace myself I landed hard on the deck I'd been sitting on moments before, at the feet of Doctor Stephen Strange.
None of my hallucinations had ever been able to do that.
"I don't have time to beat around the bush on this one, Y/N. Wong told me where I could find you. I need your help." Slowly, I tilted my head back to look up at Strange. The real Strange. He didn't look even a little bit guilty about the bruises he'd definitely given me, which was the final clue that told me he was completely real, and not an idealized version I'd made up in my mind. "Wanda needs your help."
With those few words, I was on my feet in an instant. If Strange was back... then somehow, that probably meant...
"You better explain yourself right the hell now, Strange," I said, trying to stay calm despite all the emotions rushing through me as I looked at my friend. My plants grew and moved around me, an expression of the explosion I was trying to keep on lockdown.
"Stark and crew managed to reverse the snap," he said. "We all came back about a year ago, but everyone thought you were dead, so no one came to tell you."
The world shifted under my feet. I swayed, a few of my plants growing to my aid and helping to keep me standing. It only got worse as Strange continued, filling me in on the events of the last year.
As I already knew, Vision was truly dead, not Snap-dead, which meant he hadn't come back with everyone else. Wanda had apparently lost it since she'd come back, taking an entire town hostage in her effort to deal with her grief. And now, in an effort to get to her children who she'd conjured in a magical new reality that apparently actually existed in every universe except ours, she was going after a teen named America who had the power to travel between timelines.
"As you already know, she's one of the most powerful people in the world," finished Strange. "And right now, she's getting more than a little scary in her determination to use any means necessary to get what she wants."
"And you're sure she's going to... hurt this America kid? To kill her?" I asked, hearing the shake in my own voice. My world had been shattered in the past few minutes, but if what Strange said was true (and he had no reason to lie to me), we didn't have a moment to waste while I tried to deal with it.
"I'm sure," he said. "She can't be allowed to go into another universe. Extended crossover between them has, apparently, catastrophic effects. So America can't give her what she wants. In order for Wanda to take it, she has to kill America. And she's made it clear that's exactly what she's planning to do."
I closed my eyes and took a long, deep breath in before slowly blowing it out. I couldn't believe Wanda would really do something like that, but at the same time, I knew how close I came to almost breaking when I lost her, after losing Pietro and feeling so, so alone. She'd lost everyone.
"Alright, let's do this," I said, opening my eyes and looking at Strange again. "Use your magic and take me to her."
"I'm bringing you to Kamar-Taj," he said as he began the process of opening a sling portal. "We're fortifying the Sanctum against Wanda to protect America. You're our first option, I'm our second, and the defenders of Kamar-Taj are our third."
I frowned. "I hope you know I'm not going to help you fight Wanda, Strange."
"If everything goes according to plan, it won't come to that."
Before I could ask anything else, he stepped through the portal and straight into the heart of Kamar-Taj. I followed him, sparing one glance over my shoulder for the lovely little place I'd called home for the past five years.
Hopefully, it wouldn't be too long before I was back, ideally with Wanda in-tow.
***************
After a hello and hug with Wong and a quick introduction to America, there was nothing left for me to do but wait. Strange and everyone else kept building up their fortifications, all while I stood on one of the balconies and watched for Wanda to appear.
I started to think she wouldn't come. That Strange had blown things horribly out of proportion, and that Wanda wasn't anywhere near the scary, dangerous place he'd said she was in. And then, just when I was going to march into the courtyard and tell Strange he'd overreacted (and that I was going to find Wanda myself), a storm encircled Kamar-Taj.
"Y/L/N!" hollered Strange from the courtyard. "Get down here!"
"On my way!"
Despite my words, I stayed at the balcony for a second longer, watching as Wanda rose out of the clouds and smoke crackling around her. I'd never seen her use her powers like this, although I wasn't surprised she had the ability. She'd always been the strongest of us, and it was a little aweing to see.
Once I snapped out of my initial shock, I took off like a shot for the courtyard. I passed groups of sorcerers waiting to fight back if the worst should happen, then made it outside to where Strange waited in the middle of the courtyard, surrounded by other defenses.
"Alright, I'll magnify your voice," he said as I came to a stop beside him. "You just talk."
"What? Strange, what do you want me to say?"
"I don't care. Just whatever you think will be enough-"
Before he could finish his instructions, Wanda's voice came booming over the sanctum instead. Her eyes scanned the defenders and eventually landed on Wong on the balcony, without seeing me or Strange.
"Surrender America Chavez to me now, and I'll leave without harming any of you," she said. My heart sped up a bit at the realization that Strange was right; she was here for a fight, and clearly willing to go through Strange and all our other friends to get what we wanted. "You have two minutes, and then the Scarlet Witch will do what must be done."
"Wanda..." I breathed, staring up at the love of my life. Apparently Strange had cast his magnification spell without me noticing, because as soon as the breathy word left my mouth, her head snapped around to look at me.
We made eye contact, and the world stopped spinning. My heart hammered in my chest as the rest of the people around us, all the sorcerers readying for a fight, completely disappeared. All that mattered was the woman before me, staring at me like she couldn't quite believe I was real.
Which, I suppose, was fair, since I had faked my death.
After a few seconds, slowly, Wanda started floating towards the ground. She looked shocked and maybe even a little devastated, and as she got closer and closer to the ground (and to my reach), I started coming back to reality.
"Open the gates," I said, talking to Strange without taking my eyes off of Wanda. My voice didn't boom across the courtyard, so I assumed he must have dropped the magnification spell.
"Y/N, I can't do that-"
"I said, OPEN the GATES," I said, whirling to face him at last. He just stared back at me, clearly unmoved.
"We fortified this whole place to keep her out, I'm not just going to-"
I didn't let him finish his sentence before I took off for the gates in a dead sprint. Wanda had just dipped out of sight in her slow float towards the ground. None of the guards moved to stop me, probably because they didn't think I'd be able to get out without a little Mystic Arts magic of my own.
They had no idea who they were dealing with.
As I approached the gate, I lifted my arms like I'd done so many times before leaving the Avengers, dragging up any and all plants around the gate as I did. They grew and grew and grew, and then, with a forceful flick of my wrist, they slammed into the gate, half-knocking it off its hinges. I pulled my arms back hard, towards my body and then past and behind me even as I kept running, and the plants responded, finishing the task of ripping off the door completely.
I heard scattered gasps and cries of outrage, but I ignored them all as I kept running. Within a few more seconds, I made it outside the sanctum of Kamar-Taj, just as Wanda touched down a few feet ahead of me.
I stopped running, opting for a calmer, more cautious approach now. I could hear the sorcerers working to put the gates back behind me, but I blocked them all out. Wanda stood before me, staring at me like she wasn't quite sure what to do with herself. I gave her a small smile and started cautiously walking towards her.
Flowers broke through the ground beneath my feet, giving me a soft, beautiful path to Wanda. A few of the flowers grew up around her ankles, softly grounding her to the world and to me (at least, I hoped it would).
I came to a stop a few inches in front of Wanda, and despite the incredible, powerful rage she'd been in when I'd first seen her, she now looked completely deflated. She started at me, apparently too stunned to speak as I slowly reached out and took her hands in mine, then at last met her green eyes.
"Wanda," I breathed, a slow smile creeping onto my face despite the current situation. After five long years, she was standing in front of me again. It was real.
"Y/N..." she finally said, speaking for the first time since she'd seen me. Her grip tightened slightly on my hands, but she didn't drop them or step away, which I took as a good sign. "How is this possible? Is this... real?"
She raised an eyebrow and looked a little more critically at our joined hands before looking over her shoulder at Strange. Her awe had started to wear off, and I could tell she was rapidly starting to believe this was some kind of hallucination.
"Wan... I swear to you, it's real. I'm real."
"How can I be sure of that?" she asked, her voice taking on a new, more scary and angry quality to it. "How can I know you're real?"
"I have a visceral memory and a scar nobody else but you and Piet have ever seen from your seventeenth birthday when you thought it would be a good idea to surprise Pietro with a birthday cake so we snuck into the back of that combination bakery and butcher's shop and-"
"Okay! Okay, I... I believe you," she said, a small smile at last tugging at the edges of her lips. She held my hands more softly and tenderly now than she had before, and even tugged me a little closer to her. "But that just brings us back to... how?"
I sighed, then started explaining everything to her, bit by bit. What it felt like to lose her, and how it broke me. How I decided to leave, and how I'd done such a good job of it I hadn't known the people had come back from the Snap until a few hours ago.
"But Wanda, I swear, if I'd known a second sooner I would've come racing back to you. I'm so sorry it took me so long to find you again," I said, squeezing her hands for extra emphasis. She'd looked away from me towards the beginning of my story, staring at the flowers that continued to bloom around us, presumably trying to process all the new information. I stayed silent once my story finished, waiting for her response.
"I missed you, Y/N," she said at last, pulling me in for a tight hug. I wrapped my arms around her, feeling a weight off my shoulders as we held each other close. After a moment, however, I felt her tense, and I couldn't help thinking it had something to do with Strange and all his people gathering behind me.
"Wanda..." I whispered, pulling back to look at her and simultaneously willing a wall of flowers up behind me, to help hide Wanda from the stress of the situation. She kept her hands resting on my waist as I reached up to take her face in my hands. "Focus on me."
Slowly, she did, her eyes sliding from the people behind us and back to meet mine. She looked on the verge of breaking, but I did my best to anchor her here, instead of wherever her mind was threatening to run off to.
"Wanda. Tell me what's happening."
"I have to find my boys. They exist in every universe but this one, I... I have to find them."
I nodded slowly. Strange had told me as much, but I'd rather hear it from Wanda than anyone else.
"Are you completely sure they're not here? No version of them whatsoever?" I asked. She nodded slowly, seeming less stable with every movement. I stroked my thumb along her cheek, and it seemed to help a little. "How do you know?"
Wanda hesitated for half a second, then met my eyes with a renewed strength and confidence, in me as much as herself.
"I consulted the Dark Hold."
"The what? Wanda, tell me you're not talking about that crazy witchy book we heard legends about, that we heard Hydra scientists whispering about like it could kill them at the mere mention of its name?"
"The very same."
I closed my eyes and sighed, honestly unable to help myself. When I opened them again, Wanda didn't seem any less discouraged, but she was also clearly waiting for me to say something else. We were in this together now, one way or another.
"Wanda... do you still have the book?"
In answer, she took one hand off my hip and conjured the book in thin air. I stared at it, tempted to reach for it and huck it as far away from her as I could get it, but I resisted.
"Can I make a suggestion, then?" I asked. Wanda looked a little hesitant, but nodded all the same. "Okay, you have to promise to hear me all the way out."
"This feels like the time you convinced me to steal our asshole neighbor's truck for a joyride under the guise of our own version of justice..." she said, raising an eyebrow at me. I laughed and grinned back, slipping one of my own arms around Wanda's waist and pulling her a bit closer to me.
"Yeah, it does feel kind of like that," I said. She rolled her eyes, but I caught her with a smile on her face all the same. "Alright, here's what I'm thinking: What if you give the Dark Hold to the Mystic Arts people?"
"Y/N-!" Wanda looked outraged and started to take a step back, but I held a little tighter to her waist and held up my other hand to show I meant no harm.
"Wan, you promised! I just think, based on everything we heard about that thing... it might not be a bad idea to try looking without the influence of the Dark Hold. You and I can search the world for them, or for any trace of them or how we might bring them to be, independent of that thing's influence."
"...And if we fail?" she asked. The hesitation was enough to give me hope that she might actually be slightly open to my suggestion.
"If we fail, I'll help you do what it takes to get to them," I replied. Wanda raised an eyebrow, so I continued. "Preferably by peaceful, negotiating means. But... otherwise by any means necessary."
Now both eyebrows shot up. Wanda looked at me for a few minutes, but didn't break my stare. I held it confidently. She was the love of my life; I had faith that my strategy would prevail, but if it didn't, I was more than willing to go to the ends of the Earth for and with her.
"Why would you do that for me?" she finally asked. I couldn't help huffing a laugh as I looked away, before looking back to Wanda again.
"Do you seriously need me to explain the reason? I love you." Wanda blinked a few times, so I continued. "I've loved you our entire lives, Wanda. You're my best friend and... and you're the love of my life."
She just stared at me for a few beats, and I felt awkward enough that I spoke again.
"Of course, I don't expect you to feel the same way, and I'm sorry if I-"
I stopped short when Wanda's free hand moved from my waist to carefully caress my cheek. Her expression softened into a loving, sympathetic look I'd seen her give me a few times, but this one somehow felt a little different. She leaned in, and I didn't move an inch as she placed the softest, lightest kiss to my lips before pulling back, a warmer expression than I'd seen all day on her face.
"I love you too," she said, giving me a soft smile. One of the first I'd seen from her in a long, long time. "I'll always love you."
I smiled back at her, butterflies and fireworks exploding in my chest. I knew she was still healing, so I didn't push anything, just gave her a little squeeze with the hand still around her waist. After another second, she held the Dark Hold out to me. Carefully, I took it out of her hand, then took a step backwards. Wanda nodded to me, communicating without words that she'd wait, and I turned around.
By now, the flowers I'd started sprouting for privacy had grown into a full wall of vines. With a few gestures from my one raised free hand, I gave myself a path to the Sanctum walls. As soon as it opened, everyone within the Sanctum froze and stared at me. Strange stood in the front, Wong just to his side, everyone else waiting right behind for them to break through the vines. Every single one of them looked ready to fight.
"What's wrong with all of you?" I asked, walking forward calmly and confidently. Strange tensed, but didn't make a move to attack.
"You need to be careful with that book, Y/N," he said, tension in every word and line of his body. I rolled my eyes.
"Obviously. Which is why I'm bringing it to you. You do remember that you're the ones that brought me here, right?"
Strange looked confused as I came to a stop in front of him, then shoved the book into his chest. He took it all the same, and Wong gave me a small smile as I walked back a step.
"Wanda and I are going to leave," I announced, raising my voice to address the Sanctum at large. "We're going to go spend some time figuring things out. And absolutely no one is going to follow us."
The vines tightened a little around the Sanctum walls at my word. I held both hands down by my hips, fingers splayed out, controlling the vines and making sure everyone in that Sanctum remembered just how powerful I was. After a few moments, I felt Wanda approaching from behind me. I reached back and she took my hand, and with a little magic from her, we levitated into the air, my vines and her storm fading back to normalcy around the Sanctum as we left.
I could see the slight fear on the faces of Wong and especially Strange as we headed off together. They were worried, and maybe rightfully so, that they'd just created an even bigger threat by reuniting me and Wanda.
But I loved her, more than anyone else in the world. It would take some time, for both of us, to figure things out. But I knew in my heart that our love could and would overcome every single other hurdle that came our way, for the rest of our lives.
We'd both lost everything and everyone we'd ever cared about. Now that we'd found our way back to each other again, nothing would ever tear us apart. We'd face the world and then some, together.
****************
Taglist: @valkyriepirate​
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tonyglowheart · 2 months
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in the great tradition of making up an argument in my head and writing about and publishing it a la the great philosophers of old except also this does come from posts I've seen around too lmao, I am back here today with a very correct opinion on Yan Wushi and Shen Qiao.
So. a couple of types of opinions I've seen in old meta posts give this impression that people are treating the "Yan Wushi believes humans are inherently evil"/"Shen Qiao believes humans are inherently good" as, like... fixed worldview/viewpoints that these respective characters have.
I simply do not think this is so. And I think it not only does a huge disservice to the characters and MengXiShi's writing, but imo it also affects the way you interpret the characters if you think that they respectively hold such fixed rules about the world as their viewpoint.
Like just on a general level, to ascribe so black-and-white, simplified, fixed worldview to these characters doesn't sit right with me because these kinds of rigid worldviews are very immature type of worldviews. To reference to Kohlberg's stages of moral development, to have such fixed "good"/"bad" views is a very conventional-stage way of thinking, and textual interpretations aside I think it'd be very foolish to have such a rigid, unnuanced worldview.
But beyond that, I just don't think the interpretation that either of them holds such rigid unnuanced worldview uncritically bears out in the text.
The biggest/easiest chunk of text to reference here is Chap 46, where SQ flashes back on something his Master Qi Fengge taught him:
“Because ‘tip of sword pointing upward’ is just a vague description. There’s no established rule defining whether one should point it up by an inch or two. Ah-qiao, rigidly adhering to the rules will only limit your own thoughts and visions, and this is true for learning martial arts as well as for conducting yourself.”
“There are many people in this world —— some of them are good, and some of them are bad. But there are even more who can’t be simply classified as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. They may not think in the same way you think, or walk the same path you walk. Just like the case with Yu Ai and Yuan Ying —— even the same set of sword arts looks slightly different in different people’s hands. Don’t deny others just because they are different from you. Like how the ocean is capable of holding water from thousands of rivers, a person should be forgiving and tolerant to diversity, and it is the same for practicing martial arts. People who are narrow-minded can only achieve so much. Even if they do reach the summit, they cannot stay there for long.”
(QQ ch46, snowycodex tl, emphasis added)
I like this chapter since I think this helps sum up a lot of transferable concepts that imo we see bear out in SQ's conduct and worldview.
So I think, rather than saying "he believes that humans are inherently good," a more accurate way to describe it is "he believes in the inherent goodness (the possibility of inherent goodness) in all people." Which isn't to say that there aren't "bad" people in the world - he killed Huo Xijing for example, and doesn't express any regret about it. But that he believes in the ability of people to do good/be good, even if that doesn't bear out all of the time. It's a very optimistic sort of view on the potential of humanity.
Yan Wushi on the other hand, yes he has declared "you're too naive SQ, humans are evil by nature," etc but this happens by way of him making certain points to SQ, not as part of a philosophical discourse where we might see the full nuances of each's philosophy argued out, so I think to see it as a fixed "rule" he has for the world is shortsighted (and also ascribes a shortsightedness to him that I just don't think he has. He sees SQ as a curiosity sure but not like an aberration against a fixed worldview. He's amused when SQ chooses kindness, not perplexed).
So I think a more useful interpretation of YWS's worldview is more along the lines of, like, averages. In that instead of seeing YWS as "he believes all people are Evil by nature," it's more like, statistically speaking he believes that humans can/will be led astray by a variety of factors, and that even the most "good" person can have "evil" actions teased out of them if they are pushed enough - the exact experiment he is running with SQ. To me, this idea that like, in his experience humans are more statistically likely to act out of selfish/self-preserving/"evil" intentions than altruistic ones in the longterm, works a lot better for interpreting his character and making him a good foil for SQ. He's the pessimism on "human nature" to SQ's optimism - the "even if you have a close relationship, if you get in the way of self-preservation then people can be pushed to the point of valuing the self over you."
But yeah, the tl;dr of it all is, I don't think Yan Wushi and Shen Qiao are the "humans are inherently evil/good" characters, it's more, Shen Qiao is the "humans are capable of doing good/being kind and I choose to believe in that," and Yan Wushi is the "if you push someone enough they will abandon altruism, everyone has a bottom line including you" (though I think he underestimates how much hope SQ can find in the little kindnesses in the world lol, cuz like in Chap46 we see him close to some sort of abyss of despair but is QUICKLY brought back up by encountering Shiwu. But I think per the rule of statistical averages, SQ is very much a Kindness Georg so that's why I don't think he rocks YWS's worldview - he still has a place in the bell curve he's just way far out on the narrow end lmao).
But anyway, this complexity is what makes them (1) interesting characters, and (2) good foils for each other. Thanks for coming to my TED talk lmao
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new-battalions · 4 months
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seasonal albeit stones (with rain)
no to the other things;
the springling of february's grey light
my hands are moon ideas, i'm soft and malleable hold me close and tell me i'm good Comfort and heart ache invades my language
you, under my shirt, hands cold and clawed and rainy piano dream
//
the hole in my throat in which i sawwollow words sword hollowed, fire pit, My achey taxation audit of memory
i'm sleeping, rather i'm sleeping near you (is this closeness?)
can i tell you i'm afraid of the So much So's and beated brow
no? I'm a raven you mean, yeah (textile clown, dressed up puppet pinky detaching a promise)
//
It's going to get worse, I'm right here and I"m sorry Alien, like we were to clean ourselves with methane oceans It's all so loved, compassion was ai generated college essay here (they said but we didn't believe)
to the pines, i'm a rubbing my palm face, slapped laughter,
maybe it's too long, who knows, backspace a bit say what you really mean about making sandwiches i'll get th eprovolone for you
//
brass town birdge i order my corners always watching perephiral vision doesn't exist in trees
coast city flooding in the future forecast
oh my god. I"m just me
//
Image star, search for life
NEXT TO YOU
She, that is life, see that is an upside down (we walk hand ways we clash like thunder, we laugh in polaroid
i'm going to be a season, which one is your favorite
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montereybayaquarium · 9 months
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If you like...
✅  The Ocean™️  ✅  Neat animals ✅  Learning about neat animals ✅  Chill games ✅  Participating in community science ✅  Participating in community science by playing a chill game while looking at and learning about neat animals that live in the ocean so we can train artificial intelligence to help us find and identify more neat animals in the ocean 
...then wowee do we have some good news for you!
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We've been hard at work on a new mobile game with our fronds @mbari-blog and Ocean Vision AI to do just that—but we need YOUR kelp help!
Head on over to FathomVerse to join our mer-ry band of o-fish-al beta testers—the last round of signups ends this week. Thanks for your con-sea-der-ocean, fronds!
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moodboardmix · 1 year
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“OCEANIUMS” by Vincent Callebaut Architectures,
Rather than perpetually building new stadiums for each new World Cup and Olympic Games, Vincent Callebaut Architectures propose to build cultural and sports hubs intended for nomadism at sea. 
Half boat, half stadium, these low-carbon community hubs would navigate thanks to renewable energies by using solar radiation and the strength of the prevailing winds, as well as the cold ocean currents of Labrador and the warm Gulf Stream. I
n this nomadic vision of new sporting and cultural practices, it is no longer the supporters who go to obsolete stadiums but sustainable and ecological stadiums that go to the supporters.
These Oceaniums, true stadiums of the oceans, would be built using only biosourced and recycled materials such as solid wood, recycled aluminum, green algae and plastic waste from the 7th continent concentrated in the five oceanic gyres. This plastic waste would become new construction materials feeding 3D printers connected to human-orchestrated artificial intelligence processors. 
The development of a multitude of algorithms and especially the predictive learning offered by AI and 3D printing make it an essential tool for limiting human risks on these future augmented construction sites.
A Biomimetic Generation of Floating and Sustainable Stadiums,
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killmongerskeeper · 1 year
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Her Heart // Chapter 4 // Shuri
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Pairing: Shuri x POC Reader
Warning: Angst // Kidnapping // Blood // Violence // Torture //
Chapter 3 // Chapter 5
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"That's enough Griot!" Okoye shouted and the AI cut the footage. She watched as her princess shoulder shook and she approached her slowly. "Shuri. We will find her. And we will bring her back home."
"I left her. She didn't want me to go and I left her." Shuri mumbled and Okoye put her hand on her shoulder.
"You couldn't have known this was going to be the outcome. We were all blindsided by this." She tried to reason but Shuri couldn't hear her over her heart beating through her ears. Everything just went silent. The only sounds she could hear was the beeping from her lab computers and the sound of her own heart. Hey eyes couldn’t stay focused on anything as she thought back to you fighting to protect yourself and the queen.
"It was a strategic play. To get the leaders away from their people." Ayo said and Namor entered the lab. 
"Whoever they are, they also took my wife. They're both alive. But there's no way of telling for how long. Attuma is going to take Namora back to Talokan. I'm staying here to help bring them back." His voice was laced with a rage that Shuri knew all too well.
"We don't even know who they are! All I know is I saw myself on that security camera. Me! Another me! I don't know. It looked like me." 
"A shape-shifter then?" Namor said and everyone looked at him. "Give it some thought. The Talokan warrior came to you with the threat of an attack. The Wakanda warrior came to us asking for Amera's presence here in the palace. What if it's the same person?" He questioned and everything started to make sense.
"Just like Y/N said it was a setup. We have to find them." 
"Princess if I may?" Griot spoke out and Shuri nodded. "Y/N's kimoyo beads and earrings are still active. She also thought ahead and gave a bracelet to Queen Amera as a precaution." Shuri couldn't help the smile on her lips as she thanked Bast for your quick thinking.
"That's my girl. Griot see if you can pinpoint their location."
// Unknown Location //
Your eyes slowly fluttered open, everything was blurred as you tried to focus your vision. The annoying sound of water dripping was enough to cause your head to pound until a voice called out to you.
"Y/N. Y/N are you okay?" The voice was soft and full of concern as your vision finally cleared. You turned your head to see Queen Amera chained to the opposite wall. You moved to get to her but the chain around your wrist stopped you. 
"Where the hell are we?" You questioned and she sighed.
"Some rig in the middle of the ocean. They didn't inject me with anything but I was blindfolded on the way here." She told you and you bit your lip to think of a plan. If you could get the Queen into the water, she can swim away and notify Namor and Shuri. You'd have to buy time. "Y/N." She called out to you again, stopping your mental thoughts. The door up the stairs opened and you heard footsteps descending down the steps.
"You're awake. Good." You looked up to meet Shuri's brown eyes. Her curls sat on top of her head just as they did this morning. But no it couldn't be your Shuri. This was someone else. 
"Who the hell are you?" You questioned and she chuckled.
"That's no way to talk to the princess." She said and you tensed. Two of the guards with her walked over to Amera as she scrambled back to the wall. "Make her talk. We need to know Talokan's exact location."
"Shouldn't you already know? Your highness." You spat and her eyes flickered over to where you were chained. She held up her hand and the two guards paused their approach before she slowly walked over to me. You reached for my wrists as her eyes scanned over the kimoyo beads. 
"Let's see if these work, yeah? Call her." She smirked as you snatched your arm away. "I won't ask again." You couldn't help the frown that appeared on your face as she let out an irritated sigh. "Fine. Cut the baby out then kill the queen." 
Your body froze as they continued their advance to Amera would was trying her best to scramble away. "No please! Not my baby." They pinned her to the ground and you couldn't stay silent. 
"No! No! Okay! Okay. Alright." You sighed and the two guards moved away from her. You raised your wrist before dialing Shuri and you kept your eyes on the fake. 
"Y/N! Sthandwa are you okay?" The panicked princess questioned and before you could speak the fake Shuri cut you off.
"Princess! How nice to finally speak with you."
"Who are you? What do you want?" Shuri asked as Griot secretly traced the call. Okoye stood by the princess while Namor sat across the way.
"That isn't of importance right now. All you need to know is I need something from you. A couple of things actually." The fake said as you watched her every move. You couldn't show how scared you were. Not in front of her. "Starting with the files on the heart shaped herb. You actually recreated it after Stevens burned it to the ground. Fascinating."
"How do you know about that?" Shuri froze. Not knowing how someone would have access to that information.  
"I have my ways. But can you do that for me?"
"You want me to help you? Have you lost your mind?" Shuri sneered and the fake kneeled down in front of you, pulling the other dagger out of your boot.
"Not lost. Simply reevaluated. Question for you Princess, do you know how fast Y/N can heal herself?" Before you could answer she stabbed you in the side causing you to scream out as you fell on your back. "Oh come on I barely pricked you." 
"Ms. Y/N!" Amera's voice called out to you as you felt your blood seep from the wound.
Shuri's body trembled as she listened to your pained groan. "Stop." It came out barely above a whimper. Unless you were right next to her, her plea wouldn't have been heard.
"Look, she's already healed herself!" The fake cheered as she grabbed your chin. "Good girl." She let go of you before standing to her full height. One that mirrored the princess.
"Princess Shuri, you have five hours to make your decision. Until then, Y/N and I are going to have a bit of fun." Shuri fell to her knees before the fake continued her speech. "As for you, K'uk'ulkan. Your wife could pop any second now. A mutant child from an underwater kingdom will go for a pretty penny. She should survive the birth. Maybe. Maybe not but who's keeping track?" 
Namor stood at the mention of his wife while Shuri sat trying to think of the best way to handle this. Her brother would know. She's never felt as useless as she does now. You told her not to go. And she didn't listen. Now you're in danger with some clone of her putting you through all this pain. 
"I'll be hearing from you soon."
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aparticularbandit · 10 months
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I kind-of want to check out WandaVision thanks to On Toons and Magic. But I hear the MCU has a lot of complicated continuity and lore and stuff. So is there anything I need to know going in? Any other MCU media I should watch first? (I have randomly seen the first Avengers film and Thor and Iron Man 3 in my school's Film Club, but that was years ago.)
Mostly, if you want to see WandaVision, you need context!
Technically, you could see the other three Avengers films (and the last Captain America film), but that's...strictly speaking not necessary. Because I can provide context!
...because really you need Wanda's storyline and her relationship with Vision, and those aren't the major focus of anything she's in prior to WV, and you don't need to see entire movies to get those moments. (They are cute moments! I love them! They are VERY CUTE. But.)
SO. CONTEXT.
AGE OF ULTRON:
Wanda is from the wartorn country of Sokovia. When she and her twin brother were ten years old, a Stark bomb fell on their apartment, killing their parents immediately, and then they sat for days and waited for the bomb to explode and kill them, too! But it was a dud and did not kill them.
Years later, radicalized from these events and wanting revenge on Stark, they joined Hydra and were experimented on using what ended up being the Mind Stone. Wanda got some super cool magic powers that we got no specifics for (but she can read minds and implant visions and shoot blasts from her hands and also make shields), and her twin brother Pietro got super speed! (One of these things is not like the other.)
They join sides with a super robot who thinks he wants to save the world by killing all of humanity! Once they realize he wants to kill all of humanity, they switch sides! (As you do.) They help the evil super robot's new body get hijacked, and then it gets infused with the same Mind Stone that supposedly gave them powers AND BECOMES VISION. He is not an AI. He is wonderful. WE LOVE VISION. (We know we can trust him because he's worthy enough to lift Thor's hammer, and none of the other Avengers could do that! (Except for Steve who made it move a little bit and then backed down but that's not important.)
BIG EPIC SHOWDOWN IN SOKOVIA.
SOKOVIA GETS TURNED INTO A FLOATING CITY THAT WHEN IT CRASHES WILL DESTROY HUMANITY.
WANDA'S TWIN BROTHER DIES.
HER ENTIRE CITY EXPLODES. (After they evacuated everyone first.)
WANDA TRIED TO GO DOWN WITH THE CITY BUT VISION SAVED HER.
Wanda has been in exactly one movie and has lost her entire family WOO LET'S GO. (Technically she was in an end credits scene in Winter Solider but, like. if you wanna count that, you can, but.)
CIVIL WAR:
Wanda stays with the Avengers! To learn to control her powers! She joins them on one of their missions to Lagos, and when a suicide bomber tries to kill Steve in the middle of a crowd of civilians, she uses her magic shield powers to try and lift the bomb up into the sky away from people! But her powers falter and she ends up blowing up a building instead!
As a result, Tony locks her in Avengers Tower! Because she is a liability! And she's a ticking time bomb who could kill a bunch of people!
BUT Vision stays with her and cooks for her and it is very cute!
Then Hawkeye comes to break her out of house arrest because Steve wants her to help him fight Tony. She gets into a fight with Vision. She goes to help Steve. Everyone on Steve's side gets seen as breaking the law because of the Sokovian Accords (which was something to try and control when the Avengers could go help people because cities keep getting torn apart and destroyed when they try to help people, and like. it would have been worse if they hadn't gone to help people - this is kind of one of the main points of the movie, actually, but. only slightly important here).
EVERYONE WHO GETS CAUGHT GETS LOCKED AWAY ON THE RAFT. WHICH IS A HIGH DETENTION PRISON IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN. WANDA GETS PUT IN A STRAITJACKET AND A BOMB COLLAR SO SHE CAN'T USE HER POWERS!
But it's okay because Steve breaks her out and then everyone has to live under the radar because they're all fugitives WOO.
INFINITY WAR:
So this guy named Thanos wants to collect the Infinity Stones so that he can balance out the universe by killing half of it because something something resources.
But no one on Earth knows about that because he's been looking out in space!
Wanda and Vision have been secretly meeting because she's a fugitive and he isn't but they are in TOTAL LOVE THEY LOVE EACH OTHER! THEY ARE VERY CUTE! They've been checking to see if their relationship will be okay! And it is! And Vision asks Wanda to run away with him so they can be together forever!
...and then he sees news footage of space people invading Earth and decides to go help him because Vision is a very innocent superhero who is definitely a hero, we love Vision, okay. But just as he starts to leave, more space people show up to attack him!
BECAUSE THE MIND STONE IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS FOREHEAD IS ONE OF THOSE INFINITY STONES THANOS IS AFTER.
But, like, Vision can't live without the Mind Stone.
Wanda fights for her man! He tries to protect her! He gets super hurt! Then some of the other fugitives show up and they all go to Wakanda because Wakanda is better at tech than Tony and Bruce are and maybe they can find a way to get the Infinity Stone out of Vision's head without killing him. (Meanwhile, Vision is like, Wanda. You got your powers from an Infinity Stone. You will be able to destroy it. And she's just, I'm not KILLING YOU, Vis. There is ANOTHER WAY. And you are going to LIVE. I think you see where this is going.)
The Wakandans CAN get the Mind Stone out of Vision's head without killing him, but it takes time! And the space people show up and there's a huge fight! And Wanda tries to stay to protect Vision, but her besties are in trouble, so she goes to help them! But this is a ploy so that the space people can attack Vision! So after saving her besties, Wanda goes to help Vision, and he pleads with her again to kill him by destroying the Mind Stone. And she says no. AGAIN.
And then Thanos shows up and there's no time, and Vision convinces Wanda to destroy the Mind Stone and kill him. Which she does. Which is a spectacularly painful moment, but it'll be okay because they saved the universe!
...except Thanos has a Time Stone and he rewinds time and brings back Vision and the Mind Stone and rips it out of Vision's head, effectively killing Vision a second time right in front of Wanda.
...and then he does the Snap and erases half of all life throughout the universe, which includes Wanda!
ENDGAME:
The Avengers collect the Stones through sketchy time travel shenanigans and reverse the Snap and bring everyone back and Wanda helps in the big battle, but because they only reversed the Snap, Vision is still dead! Woo!
SO TL;DR - what you need to know before starting WandaVision:
WANDA'S LIFE SUCKS. EVERYONE SHE LOVES KEEPS DYING. HER PARENTS. HER BROTHER. EVEN THE ACTUAL LOVE OF HER LIFE!
SHE HAD TO KILL VISION. AND THEN IT DIDN'T MATTER. AND THEN HE GOT KILLED IN FRONT OF HER AGAIN.
-slaps Wanda- THIS BABE CAN FIT SO MUCH TRAUMA!
....
And that's what you need to know before starting WandaVision!
Oh, also, Vision is still very much dead. He died. Very very dead.
Go forth and enjoy!
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Spectral Perception Masterlist
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Short series Masterlist and other goodies I created instead of actually writing part three. I created all of the images included in this post (minus those in the aesthetic collage above) using the Midjourney AI on Discord. If someone steals them, I will cry for a solid hour and then hunt you down with every intention of playing croquet with your severed head. Thanks for reading!
|| Here lies my full Masterlist || Enjoy!
Chapter One: Spectral Perception
You asked for a decent college semester. You got the annoying ghost of an original vampire instead. Could things get any worse?
Chapter Two: Harold of Death
They got worse. A lot worse. Turns out, you may have much bigger problems on your hands than a ghost who eats all your nachos.
Chapter Three: The Night Tourist
They really weren't kidding when they said be careful what you wish for. You had wished for safety and you certainly got it. But man, at what cost?
Musical Vibe: still feel. - by half-alive
Art Gallery:
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1. "You scowled, glaring down at the tiles of your kitchen floor. They sparkled and shown. Clean. Immaculate. Kol had done a good job; no one would have ever guessed that a man had bled out on those tiles just last afternoon. You shook your head and decided that those tiles were too damn clean...."
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2. "You're an excellent liar, Kol," You said, chuckling as you wiped at the tears that hadn’t stopped streaming down your face since you’d found your father dead. You couldn’t stop them, the tears just kept on coming. "For the life of me, I just can't tell what's real with you."
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3. "You could feel the chasm separating the two worlds - an ocean of endless blackness that both isolated and connected not only the world of the living and the Other Side, but every strange and unseen shore of infinite realms yet to be explored. You could sense them out there; the multiverse and all its power and this void that flowed between them. You were one with it..."
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4. "The world around you was the same in some aspects. You were standing on your street, in front of your house but that was where the similarities stopped. The sky above was bleak and eerie, the moon hung full and looming in the sky but there were no stars. Everything was blanketed in a thick greenish fog that obscured your vision. You felt isolated and alone in the mist, yet you could feel the eyes of a multitude of ghosts trained on you and it made your skin crawl."
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5. (+ 3 Alternates) "You caught sight of the glowing eyes first. They pierced the mist, followed by the massive black bodies that housed them. Horses as black as the night drew behind them an ominous black coach, driven by a driver you knew could only have been stark raving mad. The whip in his hand cracked, driving the horses to scream as they rounded the bend at breakneck speed."
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6. “Jump?” He cried, eyes wide as saucers. “In New Orleans? Are you insane?”
“Little bit!”
“The ancestors will catch you!” 
Naturally, you ignored his warning and crossed anyway. The shadows of the French Quarter enveloped you, but the streets were mostly empty now. You kept running, heart racing, legs pumping...
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7. (+ Alternate) "A hand caught your wrist and you didn't think. You just screamed... The sound was horrific - an unbearably shrill and positively ear-splitting screech, utterly deafening to all those who could hear it.
“What. Did. You. DO?!”
All four of your assailants once again dropped. Their ears bled. Their noses bled. They coughed up crimson and their eyes cried scarlet tears, but you weren’t done. No. No, they deserved this. They were murderers.
So you kept screaming… and screaming… and screaming.
Two of the vampires stopped moving. Blood dribbled from their mouths and they didn't cough or twitch. You shut your mouth and whipped around to face the remaining two. 
“Where is he?!” You demanded. “Where is he? What did you do? Tell me!”
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