#or a misunderstanding that made the seas monsters seem evil | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

accio-victuuri · 3 years

Note

Hi can you provide the link to read manhuas you prefer?

Hello Anon! OMG Manhua/Manhwa Rec! Here we go! I’ve only been reading for 2-3 months (consistently), so this will be pretty limited. I will link to the legit sites. A google search will direct you to others.

Most of these are WIPs and some, sadly, are discontinued. I won’t add TGCF or MDZS here cause those are already a given. 👇🏼

• Body Electric by Dong Ye ( completed, supernatural, lots of trigger warnings and plotty )

Ba Song is the hotshot cop who’s been handed an open-and-shut case: the suicide of a young woman. Except… who commits suicide by stabbing their own body and strangling themself? There's only one man who can help him with this mystery — Bo Shan, the renowned forensic pathologist with a severe and cold personality. What's more, his body produces bioelectricity, allowing him to acutely sense bodily injury with his touch. There's an electric current between them, and each touch sizzles with energy

If you like crime dramas and stories where they solve mysterious cases then this is for you. The romance is subtle, and their relationship is not insta-love. strangers to colleagues to friends to lovers trope. This also discusses alot of issues the society has that will make you stop and think. Ba Song is really the honorable MC in here who always wants to help people and do good. While Bo Shan is the reluctant one but deep inside, he wants to make a difference too. I wish they would make a donghua or live action out of this.

• 30 year old by S-Monkey - ( ongoing, age difference, blind dates, slice of life)

Charlie Wei is a single and handsome executive. He’s also a closeted gay guy who’s been on way too many bad blind dates with women. Charlie’s still hung up on his ex-boyfriend James and is… gasp, 30! Charlie’s family thinks he’s straight and too old to be without a wife! During another bad blind date, Charlie meets the flirty Ethan, who both annoys and intrigues him. Can Charlie finally come out and find true love with Ethan or will he continue on his streak of bad blind dates?

The cover looks melodramatic but it’s really not. This is so funny! I read this because people were saying it reminded them of BoXiao. And yes, there are moments here that remind me of them, but it’s more like an AU of BoXiao. I stayed up late trying to get caught up in the chapters and you won’t realize it cause it’s just that good. I love seeing the older MC loosening up and being more of himself. and the younger one being more responsible in his career. They just become better versions of themselves because of each other. It’s so sweet!

• I ship me and my Rival - by Pepa ( ongoing, comedy, reads like a meta )

This follows the adventures of Wei Yanzi, a third-rate actor in the Chinese entertainment industry, stumbles onto a shipping fandom for himself and another actor (Gu Yiliang) while trying to escape from the flame wars and negativity. He's so taken with this group of fans who actually see him as a good guy instead of an enemy/rival of Gu Yiliang that he falls head-first into fandom and becomes actively involved in trying to provide shipping fuel and the fans' daily dose of fluff.

IF THERE IS ONE thing you will read here, let it be this. It is hilarious. If you are a CP fan you will relate so much and it’s a good time. It just shows how people who think are rivals can actually be really good friends in real life. What we see is not always what it seems. and people will interpret things based on their bias. The MC here is so dramatic! how his inner feelings/reactions were drawn will make you laugh.

• Path to You - by Sinran (completed, slice of life, age gap fluff and comedy )

When almost college dropout Jensen attempts to drink away his problems, unemployed Nathaniel suddenly pukes on him and ruins his night. As an apology, Nathaniel offers to help Jensen with his studies. Despite Jensen's difficulties in getting along with people, the two become friends and something deeper begins to grow between them

The story is so soft. If you want something with mild angst/misunderstandings— then pick this. I love the progression of their relationship and how they take care of each other. There are other themes showed here other than the romance.

• Red Candy - by Hanse (completed season one with a cliffhanger, explicit scenes, assassins )

Shihyeon, aka “Red Candy,” is a secret agent whose code name comes from bathing in the blood of his marks on dangerous missions. Shihyeon’s tasked with seducing and obtaining intel from Hajun, a hot college professor. Shihyeon can disarm enemies, but didn’t expect to be disarmed himself by Hajun’s own tight body. Now Shihyeon’s caught between loyalty to his spy agency and Hajun. Can Red Candy survive the incoming wave of enemies and still indulge in the sweet ecstasy of Hajun’s embrace?

THIS STRESSED ME OUT MAAAN. Wow. I loved this. That season one cliffhanger. It’s definitely up there as my favorite. If you think about it, the tropes are really not original. An assassin is sent to shadow a person and they develop a relationship. That simple. But NOOOOO! There are so many things going on. The Main mystery plot, Their relationship, their shared past plus you have other sketchy secondary characters. And did i mention explicit scenes? Lots of them. I want this two to have a happy ending!!!

• Lone Swan - by Chu Man (discontinued, cultivation, star crossed lovers)

After losing his memory, Yiqiu Shen, a disciple from the decent sect meets a very special man named Luofeng Yan, who is the leader of the evil Divine Wind Cult. When escaping and conflicting with Yan, Shen gradually finds his original self as well as his previous love back. Together they rip off the facade of the martial world and reveal the hidden true

I didn’t want to add a discontinued story here, with no novel as a source material but this one made an impact on me. so. yeah. THE ART. breathtaking. The plot = layered. There are times I don’t even know who is telling the truth. It had so much potential and i hope it will get picked up again at some point. People rec this to those who enjoyed TGCF and MDZS, and they are right. 👍🏼

• Dragon in Distress by Si Wang Wen Hua - ( ongoing, dragons, past life, lost power, fantasy )

This is a story about a little Eastern green dragon and a little Western black dragon playing together.

The synopsis is pretty simple if you look at it but this one is pretty interesting. and surprisingly funny. tinie AoAo is so cute! 🤍 the other MC has tsundere tendencies tho. Lots of lore and more truths to uncover as the story progresses. I’m not giving it enough justice with how i’m reccing it, but if you like dragons and fantasy — give this a go.

• Breaking through the clouds 2: Swallow the Sea - Huaishang (ongoing, based on a novel, crime, drama, cases)

Wu Yu, a newcomer of the Public Security Bureau, is gentle and frail. He doesn’t care about the difficulties posed by Bu ZhongHua, his strict boss, and only wants to stay in the background to be paid on time with enough for food. However, no one knows that this young man’s head is targeted by top drug traffickers for a large bounty or that this courageous young man has once slaughtered the dragon of the abyss. With a chain of interlocking cases, a series of troubles come one after another. Can the two people work together to survive through the difficulties?

Do you see a pattern with me? lol. I like crime themes. This one is the same and by the looks of it, the cases they solve will take longer to unravel. I haven’t read the novel it’s based on yet so i’m just going with how the manhua is progressing. I like it when Wu Yu turns full on action-mode and when ZH takes care of him. Plus it helps that they are both gorgeous. I’ll get back this with a proper link.

• Where the Wind Stays - by Yusa (completed season one, curses, demons, possession, timeskip, explicit scenes)

To break an ancient curse that plagues the royal bloodline, young Prince Tasara is destined to be sacrificed in death. Nara is enlisted as a palace servant to carry out the prince’s execution when the time comes. But he develops a soft spot for the cursed prince, and after committing an atrocious and unforgivable act against Tasara, Nara is desperate to right his wrongs. Soon, their lascivious relationship that had been kept under wraps tests his resolve. Will Nara be tempted away from his original mission? There’s no telling how far he would go to earn Tasara’s forgiveness.

This story broke my brain, in a good way. I don’t wanna say much cause it will spoil the story. It’s the type that you gave to see and suffer through yourself. I am excited for what happens in season II!!!

Honorable Mentions:

I’m placing these here cause I have only read a few chapters and tho I liked them, I wanna read more before reccing it in full. 👍🏼

• I accidentally saved the Jinghu’s enemy

• Global Examination

• Monster entertainment

• Demon Apartment

And that’s it! Hope enjoy Anon! 😊

#ask response #rec #manhua rec #manhwa rec

85 notes · View notes

blue-lothus · 3 years

Text

Breathe

Summary: It was a misunderstanding, really. But because of it, Akira found himself banished to work at the ship of the terrible captain Kamoshida. But before he could start serving his time, he met a merman, and somehow got both of them thrown in the brig, with a death sentence on their heads.

Or, how Akira saved a merman, got a best friend, fell in love a little bit, and went on an adventure.

Or how it’s @grapeflavoredorange ‘s birthday, and I wanted to write something nice for this amazing person, who wrote amazing things for my favorite pairing. I took the idea from one of our conversations, about how in the sims 4 a mermaid’s kiss gives you the ability to breathe underwater for a few hours.

It was an odd day, the atmosphere felt charged and unnatural. It was raining softly, but the grey clouds were dense, looming over his head. A young man with a mop of rebellious black hair sat at the bay, passively watching the horizon, and the sea.

The rain started to fall harder, and that was the only thing that made him move from his spot.

Akira wasn’t really sure how he even ended up there. The last weeks of his life felt like a bad dream, all disconnect feelings and sudden events that made no sense at all.

How did he end up convicted and then condemned to serve his time on a poacher’s ship?

A year on the sea, for a boy who should have just continued his family business and run a farm.

He sighed under the small shelter he found from the rain.

There was movement in the water, something bright and golden flashing quickly and then vanishing. Gone almost as soon as it appeared, a flash of colour in the white haze of the copious rain. It was pouring at this point, and it was impossible to tell what was that, from where he stood.

Akira had always been too curious for his own good.

He approached, silent as a cat, and leaned over the wooden plates of the pier. For his absolute shock, he found someone staring back at him.

It was beautiful. It looked like a he. His hair was golden and unnatural. But his eyes were a gentle brown, almost human, if his teeth weren’t so sharp. If his hair wasn’t so odd. There weren’t any humanoid creatures around these parts of the ocean, except for merfolk.

This one was surely pretty enough to be one of them. And then, the fact that he was still swimming in that weather was surely proof that he wasn’t afraid of drowning. It was just… a weird place to see one of them. They usually hid from humans, since they started being hunted.

“What were you doing so close to the ship- wait, sorry. You probably have no idea what I’m saying.” Akira shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. It was a well known fact that merfolk didn’t speak human language.

The creature frowned, seemingly deeply offended.

“I’m not dumb. I can speak your dumb language.”

“I didn’t- I mean…” Akira blinked, startled. The creature sounded a bit strange, but he was fluent enough.

“You can stop the bullshit, ok? Kamoshida knows I can speak, and anyone from his crew knows it too.”

“I don’t even know this Kamoshida person. I’m not a poacher. I just got assigned here today.”

The aggression immediately left those brown eyes.

“Oh. I guess it makes sense then.” The blond looked around, swimming in place. “I was just passing by and saw his ship and I thought of throwing some rocks at this stupid thing so it might stall him a bit.”

Akira leaned closer, trying to hear the blond through the thunderous noise of the rain splattering hard around them.

Later, Akira would want to smack himself in the head for being so stupid. It should be so obvious what was going to happen. But they were both distracted, and the rain was too loud to allow them to hear fickle things like footsteps. Akira just noticed when something blocked the partial daylight, a shadow just behind him.

“Who do we have here?”

It was a man’s voice, but Akira didn’t recognize it. The blond, however, seemed to do. His brown eyes got wide, and he immediately yelled:

“It’s Kamoshida, run!”

Akira did turn to run away, but he was a bit too late for that, and the blunt handle of a saber came down hard on his head.

He was too dizzy to see how the merman stopped a second too long when it heard him crying out.

He did hear a pained scream not long after, and then something heavy being brought on board of the ship, still trashing.

“This damned monster, now I finally got him.” Akira heard, and he felt his chest tight with worry. Of course. The captain hunted merfolk. He noticed the hat, and the nicer clothes. Kamoshida was the name of the captain of the ship he had been assigned to.

Kamoshida’s eyes turned to him. “And of course this scum here would turn out to be a mutineer. I knew he was bad news, when my friend asked me for him to join this crew.” And Akira was fairly certain Kamoshida wasn’t ever going to give him a chance.

“I was invited to an important event at the next port so I’ll wait to hand you over to the authorities in the next town.” Kamoshida went on, and Akira’s head was pounding already, and he wished he wasn’t so dizzy otherwise he’d have decked the captain’s stupid face just to get him to shut up.

“And you… I might already have a buyer in potential. If you live that long that is.”

It was clearly a petty vengeance coming from a pitiful man who cared more about humiliating others than he could care about money. He cared about having power over others, and he’d enjoy watching them squirm in place.

Akira was thrown in the brig, and heard the lock clicking heavily. He cursed under his breath, looking around.

There was a metal container there, filled with water and fixed to the floor with screws. It was occupied, unfortunately.

The merman he saw earlier looked in agony, his breathing shallow and fast. The harpoon had caught him by a few inches, and had been torn free of him as he struggled. What remained was an open wound on the side of his tail, ragged edges bleeding a startling red blood.

His scales were a gentle shade of gold. It seemed to gleam faintly in an ethereal way even under the dim light. It was this bit heartbreaking to see something this beautiful with a wound like that.

“I just wanna help.” He held his hands up, in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture.

The creature bared its teeth, snarling. He had very sharp teeth, indeed. Clearly made to tear flesh.

“It’s okay,” he said, trying to calm himself down, because if the merman was going to survive, Akira would have to do something to help. Kamoshida would clearly enjoy watching the specimen die slowly.

Akira reached a hand out.

The merman snapped his mouth, threatening a vicious bite.

The venom was known to paralyze its victim in a few seconds. Painful. Probably deadly, but as far as Akira knew merfolk liked to eat its food while it was still alive, so no one really knew if the venom was fatal.

Those who bought merfolk as exotic pets usually had them muzzled most of the time. Sedated when not. Some pulled off all of their teeth and used it as decoration.

A few tried to get rid of their vocal chords, because they hated the shrills merfolk made.

“C’mon, we need to get that treated. You don’t wanna give Kamoshida the satisfaction of actually killing you.”

That earned him a startled blink from the merman, followed by a resentful glare pointed at the door, where he last saw the captain.

“You’re right.” He seemed to deflate, and allowed Akira to come closer.

“So… if you don’t wanna hunt merfolk, why are you here?” The blond asked in a voice that trembled in pain, but he was bravely pretending otherwise.

Akira found himself telling it all. Maybe because it was the first friendly contact he had since he got arrested. Maybe because the blond made him feel oddly at ease. But as Akira tried his best to stop the bleeding using his own shirt, he started talking about before.

His tale had the merit of distracting the merman from the pain. When the blood stopped overflowing, and as he finished tying off the cloth around the wound, the blond was entirely caught up with the story.

“That’s horrible! It wasn’t fair. I can’t believe they did that to you. And now you got caught up with Kamoshida’s shit.”

Akira blinked, feeling a curious pressure on his throat. It was the first time anyone told him that. It was the first time anyone really looked at him after he was labeled a criminal.

But it made some sense, that another one that was seen as inherently evil and wicked would understand him. They both knew what humans could do to those they deemed too different.

“So… I’m guessing you’ve met Kamoshida personally before this.” Akira was curious about the merman’s reaction at seeing the man, and the disgust in his face at just uttering his name.

“Yeah. He kinda got me once already. He almost caught me and a group of my friends. But I stayed behind and gave them the alarm, and Kamoshida caught me and broke my tail. Sent me back just so all the others would see what happened to those who tried to save one another. He’s trying to divide us, so he can have an easier time catching us.” And he had already broken that one specimen, it wouldn’t be worth that much in the market. But it’d kept the others afraid enough.

“That’s... that’s horrible,” Akira breathed out.

The merman fell silent, and it was just then that Akira noticed how quiet everything was. The late afternoon had probably turned into night without him realizing it. The ship was rocking slightly, a bit differently from when they were at the shore. With a pang of anxiety, Akira realized they had set sail.

There was no way out, and the ship was silent as a tomb as the night grew late. Akira was glad for having company.

Until the next port at least. And then the merman would be sold off, and Akira would be handed over to the authorities and arrested.

They had little to occupy their days, but they had each other, at least. Theyplayed games, and talked, about nothing and everything.

“What do you miss the most, from back home?” Akira asked, one day.

“My mom. You?”

“I don’t think I have anything to go back to.”

Over the days, Akira learned that his new friend’s name was a couple of whistles he had no idea on how to pronounce. He was feeling a bit self conscious about his inability to say it, but the blond looked very frustrated as well as he tried saying his own name.

“Air is so weird,” the merman complained, trying saying his name again and just ended up producing some hisses.

Since he couldn’t tell his proper name out of the water, the blond insisted on Akira suggesting some human names that would fit him. He got into his head that it’d be cool to have another name. He was also extremely picky, and wanted something that sounded cool enough, and that had a relevant meaning.

After many names were discarded, one day, he settled on one.

“Ryuji. I like the sound of that. And I like that it was a warrior’s name. Ok, I’m Ryuji!”

Ryuji had a lot of scars. As if he had cut his back hitting his back on a sharp rock. A slightly crooked finger. A cut next to his eyebrow. Akira had expected for merfolk to have smooth and unblemished skin, but Ryuji wasn’t like that.

Akira wondered why he couldn’t find the blond any less pretty because of that. It was probably the smile. Ryuji had a beautiful smile, and a cute laugh.

Akira had never heard him singing, and he wondered if it was true their voice could put spells on people. His breathless laughter seemed to have a similar effect.

On that day, Ryuji started on the measly breakfast Kamoshida deemed to offer the prisoners, namely, a portion of fish.

“So… does your kind eat humans?” Akira asked, while he was gently washing the wound with what he could spare of the small supply of fresh water they were offered. Fortunately, merfolk seemed to have a much better time recovering from wounds, because it didn’t look infected. Could it be the seawater? Akira had so many questions. It was partially because he had never met a merman before, but it was also a lot just because he wanted to get to know Ryuji better.

The blond hummed as he acknowledged his question. Akira wondered if he should’ve started from another topic. He didn’t mean to sound judgemental. He really should try to improve his social skills...

“Some of us do,” Ryuji answered easily, seemingly unbothered by Akira’s bluntness. “Well, we’re all carnivores, and we are kinda similar to fishes, and humans, but we’re not those things. We wouldn’t eat another merfolk, but humans and fishes ain’t merfolk,” he reasoned. “Oh, but I’ve never eaten a human.”

He was born and raised on that specific part of the ocean, where hunting merfolk was pretty common, so it wasn’t really worth it to any of them to go after humans while in their original form. But they still learned human language so they could trick sailors into thinking they didn’t capture a mermaid, it was just that drunk lad over there who thought he saw a fishtail but he was wrong can’t you see my human legs and how I speak? Please let me go. “That’s kinda those poachers’ fault, tho.”

Akira looked thoughtful, but not afraid, and he didn’t stop treating his wound. Ryuji felt a swell of affection for that boy, so human and fragile, but so daring. So reckless. He’d probably try to befriend anything partially capable of understanding his words. And get his kind hand bitten by the creature. Mangled beyond recognition. Ryuji felt an uncomfortable twinge in his chest.

“I’d never eat you, tho.”

Akira tilted his head, apparently surprised.

“Why not?”

“Well, it’s like if you had a friendly... what do you guys eat for meat?”

“Fish as well. Duck. Pig. Rabbits.”

“Well imagine you had a fish as a pet. Or this pig you said. You think of it as your friend right? You wouldn’t eat it. You wouldn’t wanna.”

Akira huffed a laugh.

“What?! I’m being serious here, y’know?”

“Thanks.”

“What the hell…” he said, but he was laughing too, and Akira felt his heart beating a little too fast inside his chest.

At night, the chilly wind from outside passed through the gaps of the wood, dropping the temperature to an uncomfortable amount. Ryuji ran colder anyway, used to the water temperature of that region, so it took him a few nights to notice Akira wasn’t fairing very well. He woke up in the middle of the night to a small wound.

Akira’s naked torso shuddered as he drew in a breath. His shirt was being used as a makeshift bandage for the merman’s injured tail, and his ragged pants were made of a cheap and too thin fabric.

Ryuji gets out of the water then, lying down next to Akira.

“Will you be okay out of the water?”

Ryuji startled a little at hearing Akira’s voice, not having expected him to still be awake at that hour. But he supposed it was hard to fall asleep when he was that cold.

“If it dries up, after half an hour or so, my tail just changes into legs and I look like a human. I only need a few minutes in the water for it to come back, though.” The blond shrugged, coming closer and blocking a bit of the wind. “I’ve heard not all merfolk can do that, but our species around here can. My grandma says back in the day we used that to charm humans and trick them into falling in love with us. But I don’t know if it’s true.”

Akira considered the concept for a while, then made the very important math that soon enough Ryuji would be naked. Human naked. Of course Ryuji was kind of naked before, but that was different. Akira considered his options. Under his pants he was still using loose shorts as underwear. He could perfectly do without his pants, since his shorts came down to almost his knees. It wasn’t that proper, but who was he trying to impress anyway? It was more important not to have his attractive friend walking around naked.

“What you doing?” Ryuji curiously asked as he saw Akira getting up and taking off his pants.

“You can wear this when you get your legs. I-it can get a bit cold when you have legs,” he said, even if it was an excuse.

Ryuji shrugged, but seemed to believe his words, and kept the clothing in his hands.

They stayed close together, Ryuji trying to trap in a bit of Akira’s body heat. He’d probably be more comfortable in the water, which made Akira feel a bit guilty.

If the blond could make it to water, he could get away. Merfolk could swim miles, and too fast for any ship to pursue if they started running away, which was why they were mostly caught by using traps and other underhanded methods.

“What if I thought of a way to return you to the sea?” Akira asked quietly. “I could make a distraction and buy you a few minutes to swim away.”

Ryuji hesitated for a moment. It wasn’t something he liked to talk about, but then again, he trusted Akira.

“... I don’t think I’d get very far.”

“Why not?” Akira asked softly.

You know you can tell me anything.

Ryuji knew it. It felt a bit shameful anyway.

What’s a merman worth if he cannot even swim properly?

“I’m not… I mean, I can still swim, but I’m really slow. After… Kamoshida broke my tail, I couldn’t swim as before. I’m slow and I tire easily,” he admitted, looking away, missing the crushed look on Akira’s eyes as he realized the extent of the damage Kamoshida had inflicted on his friend. “Sometimes I think I should give up on the sea.”

“But you love it, right?”

Ryuji wasn’t used to anyone being able to look at him and… see him. It was incredibly nice, even if it made his heart hurt a little.

“Yeah, I do.”

They were silent for a few more minutes. The tiniest window on the opposite side of their cell allowed for a stream of moonlight. Akira contemplated it for a bit, until he heard Ryuji hissing, and he turned to look.

His hair was still messy and spiky, but it was tinted a common black, and his teeth were rounded and human. His canines still looked a little too sharp, but it was mostly imperceptible.

Akira very firmly didn’t look down.

Ryuji noticed him staring at his face, and he half smiled, making a valiant effort into putting on that piece of clothing Akira offered. It felt weird on his skin. He put one leg in one hole, and the other in the other hole, and pulled the cloth up. Then, he tied again the bandage around his newly formed leg. The wound looked more gruesome on his human skin, located somewhere close to his shin.

“So… how do I look?” he asked as he finished putting on the ragged clothing, and dressing his wound on his leg.

“You look like a thug.”

“Hey!”

Akira huffed a laugh, and Ryuji laughed back.

He took a moment to look at Akira’s eyes, the gentle curve of his nose, the pale pink of his lips. Ryuji’s heart did a funny thing in his chest when he did that last thing. Akira wetted his lips after a moment, and Ryuji looked away as quick as he could, his heart jackrabbiting against his ribs.

When he thought he had escaped that weird feeling in his chest, Akira’s deep and smooth voice sounded again, and Ryuji’s heart continued racing. It started doing that lately, when Akira did or said some things.

“I barely know how to swim,” Akira offered with a shrug. “I mean, I don’t think I’d drown if I fell in the water, but I wouldn’t last much there.” He could dog paddle and that was about it. Did it work? Yes, but that surely as hell wasn’t meant to be done for more than a couple of minutes.

Swimming wasn’t something he was expecting to need in his life, since his parents owned a farm, but then again since when his life went according to the plan?

Ryuji perked up at the information, though.

“I could teach you! You may need it someday! It’s… everything is so heavy outside of the water. You can’t go up, you have always to walk on the stupid ground and it’s…” He just couldn’t find words to tell. “Swimming is just the best thing. And the fastest you go, the better it feels. It can be useful even when you go back home.”

“I’d like that.” Akira’s gaze was far away, and he sounded oddly melancholic.

“Yeah… anyway, after we get out of here, we could travel the world together.”

“You… Will you want to stay with me? Even after you’re free to go?”

“‘Course. We’re friends, and I think it’d be awesome to go on an adventure, and help people on our way.” And he would have a chance to finally feel worthy, and to make his mom proud of him.

And there was no one else he’d rather go with on an adventure than with Akira. The realization hit him all at once.

“You’re my friend. And… Y’know how I told ya swimming made me feel? Being with you is kinda the same. I feel free.”

Ryuji aimed a bright smile at him, and Akira felt his heart skipping a beat, tripping over while doing something it should know how to do.

“I know a mermaid,” Ryuji continued, excited about the idea of their new adventure. “She’s travelled to other seas, she might know her way around. After we break out of here, maybe at the next stop for supplies, we could ask her for directions and then when Kamoshida notices we escaped, we’ll be far from his stupid ship.”

Akira nodded, thoughtfully.

“Sounds good.”

“Awesome! Then we have a plan.”

It was the thinnest skeleton of a plan, but it was enough for them. They could always wing it from there.

The day their lives really started to change started off as any other. Ryuji was restlessly sitting on his small container of water as he told stories about his life in the sea. Akira had started teaching him how to properly walk on two legs, in exchange of being taught on how to swim at the next chance they got. They had just stopped their training when they heard a commotion outside.

And then a small tuxedo cat gets thrown in the brig with them, screeching bloody murder. One of the poachers used one side of a manacle to put around its neck, and chained it to the wall just outside their cell. The crewmate looked warily at the animal, and threw the keys inside, hoping that the monster the captain caught would dissuade the cat from trying to get to the keys. Akira found it particularly odd, that anyone would put that much effort into capturing a cat. And found it even more odd that the crewmate somehow thought the cat could escape if he got the key.

The cat screamed well after the crewmate left, and it needed a minute before noticing there were more people in the room.

“Woah! A huge tuna! Looks yummy…” the cat actually talked.

“Gah! Aki, what is that thing?!”

Ryuji grabbed Akira’s arm, hiding slightly behind him and glaring at the newcomer. Just in case- he had never seen this cat thing before, but apparently it thought he was food because he had a fish tail- the blond leapt off the container, hoping to get his legs back soon.

“Huh… a cat. But I’ve never seen a talking cat before.”

“And I’ve never seen a talking tuna before.”

“Cat, stop saying my friend looks like a tuna.” Akira didn’t know enough about fish to tell, but Ryuji’s tail didn’t look like a tuna's tail.

“I’m not a cat and I have a proper name.” The cat tried to stand a little taller, but the metal of the manacles was suffocating him a bit. “I’m Morgana.”

They blinked at him. Akira knew he should have started to expect the unexpected since he befriended a merman, but seeing a talking cat was still weird.

“So… will you two let me out? Please, I can help you two as well!”

Ryuji hesitated.

“I dunno… Should we trust him, Aki?”

The cat looked quite miserable, and Akira pondered his options. He hated to see how they trapped such a small animal, and if the cat was imprisoned like them, he probably was an enemy of Kamoshida. Something in his guts told him it was an important decision, and that he kind of knew what he would be choosing from the start.

He really hoped he didn’t regret that choice.

He freed the cat, who took his time to stretch its lean spine and flex his legs. But, true to his word, Morgana leapt up and started trying to pick the keys to their cell from the hook where they hung. He had to insist for a few minutes, but he eventually got them and picked it up with his mouth, treading to their cell.

“There! It wasn’t a bad deal, was it?” He preened, while Akira made a quick job of opening the cell.

“But now what, cat?” Ryuji sullenly asked.

“There’s a storm coming pretty soon, you dumbasses. I’ve been roaming this ship since we left the port, I know the crewmate’s schedules, so we can sneak around them. And then you two can swim to the shore, we’re not that far away, but they won’t notice you’re gone, and they wouldn’t go after you in this weather.”

“What about you?”

“I still have some business here, but I can get out when we reach land. I can hide, I just got caught this time because the stupid captain got up at night out of nowhere…”

“Whaddya think, Aki?”

“Well, I think it’s the better shot we’ll have. I think we can manage to swim, if we’re that close to land. You can swim as slow as you need, and I won’t have to swim a big distance, I think it’s doable. After that, we can hide for a bit, and then go after your friend and ask for directions, and then we’ll see what happens.”

Ryuji nodded, and they all waited until he got his legs again and dressed up, and then they were on the run.

They parted ways with the cat somewhere along a corridor, with instructions about how to get on the deck.

The storm was fierce, having picked up in a matter of minutes, and Akira barely managed to keep upright as the ship lurched to the side. They emerged from below deck to the howling wind and thundering skies. Ryuji faltered, his leg still hurting from the wound, and from using muscles he wasn’t used to.

When the blond crashed into a few crates, they swayed to the side and slid downstairs just to crash into a door. The captain’s door, by the look of it, but they were sprinting on the slippery wood of the deck and running for their lives.

But of course, they weren’t alone above deck.

“They’re running away!”

The storm was sending huge waves that were washing over the wooden floor, tilting the ship in absurd angles, making it absolutely impossible to run. Akira froze in place, and whirled around to look at any possible weapons. Maybe if he took down that group of sailors, before anyone else noticed, on the off chance no one heard the alarm over the roaring of the storm-

It was then that Kamoshida showed up.

“Shoot them!”

Ryuji collided against his side, and the world tilted off its axis as they plunged into the water.

Akira tried to keep his head above the crashing waves, but he only managed to swallow an entire mouthful of seawater. As another wave passed above his head, his body was thrown to the side.

As he tried to swim up, he realized he couldn’t tell up from down even with his eyes wide open. The water was too deep and his lungs burned for air. Everything was salty water that burned his eyes and constricted his lungs from the outside.

The stormy sea at night was every bit as terrifying as he had heard about, and he was lost.

Ryuji’s voice was forming a series of shrills and clickings but everything was drowned out by the roaring in his ears.

Akira shook his head desperatedly, not understanding a single sound out of Ryuji’s mouth, his lungs spasming as he couldn’t hold his breath anymore.

His panic was suddenly cut off by soft lips on his mouth, strong hands framing his face gently. His heart swelled, and it was the sweetest thing he had ever tasted.

It was entirely like a breath of air.

Akira instinctively closed his eyes and let himself savour it, feeling a sudden rush of life running down his whole body.

There was a gentle thumb caressing his cheek, and suddenly Akira forgot entirely about menial things like air. His hands cradled the hands on his face, and he kissed back because he had sort of been wanting to do that for weeks.

It felt absolutely amazing.

They pulled apart, and Akira remembered again he was still underwater.

Ryuji’s lips mouthed human words for him, gesticulating his meaning.

Breathe.

Akira realised then and there that he really trusted Ryuji with his life. He tried to breathe.

It was the weirdest sensation ever. He shouldn’t be able to do that. But somehow as the water rushed into his mouth, his lungs stopped hurting as if he had taken a breath of fresh air.

Ryuji pulled him along, swimming slower than ever with his still human legs, away from the ship. After a minute or two, he got his tail back, and then he started to swim more easily. He brought them away from the eye of the storm, and away from Kamoshida, deciding to take the longer way to the shore, just in case.

They slowly made their way back to the surface, and when they emerged, Akira immediately turned to look at the merman. He felt a lot conscious of the fact that Ryuji’s strong arms were keeping him afloat. They were also really close, and Akira felt his cheeks flushing.

“W-what? How did I…?” It was raining softly over their heads, but he barely noticed.

How am I alive?

“A-a mermaid kiss can make you able to breathe underwater for some hours.”

“O-oh.” So Ryuji was just trying to help. Akira felt oddly disappointed. “Thanks.”

“A-anytime?” As soon as the words left his lips- that felt like they were still tingling with the kiss- Ryuji realised how much he meant it.

“Really?”

And Ryuji wondered if he imagined the small spark of hope in Akira’s voice. On the off chance he had been right, he decided to push it a little bit.

“Yeah. I liked it.”

Akira’s lips curled into a small smile, but he looked a little embarrassed, a blush still high on his cheeks.

“... You know, I think I’m still feeling a little out of breath.”

“For real?!” Ryuji blinked, confused. It should have worked! Maybe he didn’t kiss him right?

Akira huffed a laugh.

“No.”

“Then what- oh. Oh.” Realization dawned on him all at once, and Ryuji felt his heart soaring.

“Ok?” Akira asked.

Ryuji excitedly jumped him, and his kiss tasted like the sea.

Akira couldn’t stop himself from smiling throughout that kiss and the next one, and the next one.

If they kept that up, he’d have enough in him to spend his whole life living in the sea and never come up for air ever again.

27 notes · View notes

crimsonkingart · 3 years

Text

Reflection on Founder Ymir, Eren Yeager and trauma processing

Or alternatively because I'm Eren Apologize (but not a Yeagerist) Or second alternative: a strange theory about Founder Ymir

Forgive any spelling errors, I'm not a native english speaker.

I thought long before to write this thought, some person will think it is weirdo, some have probably already taken the pitchforks and want to light the fire and burn me. That's okay. XD

I've been following AoT for several years and reading this ending has stirred a great wave of mixed feelings in my heart, but something, about this ending, doesn't convince me. In the fact many things do not convince me. Translating my thoughts from Italian to English is really complicated, but I want try.

Ymir: Her character appears little, we know her for a few chapters and she is presented as thw victim wife of King Fritz. Fritz is absolutely disgusting, a horrible man and Ymir obviously had stockholm syndrome, ((it is real clear how Fritz abuses on her physically and mentally)), but why then is it revealed that Ymir had really opened the fence? Why had Ymir opened the fence? Obviously, death and torture as a punishment for opening a fence is unfair, but why did she open the damn fence? Curiosity: in old Norse fence is "Utgard" In Norse mythology, Útgarðr (from Old Norse "outer enclosure") is the part outside of fence that encloses Miðgarðr, the Earth. Utgard is covered in ice and snow, and is the home of the ice giants. Furthermore, the term Utgard was used as a suffix for Loki, ((Útgarða-Loki)) precisely to indicate the concept that it came from beyond the borders of Midgard. And Loki is also a notorius trickster...

Ymir have the name of the first ice giant too, the one who created the earth and every species; always Ymir opens a fence; Ymir opening the fence breaks an order, a law. Ymir, on a symbolic way, this represents the breaking of a balance and perhaps represents Loki, and his dualism between good and evil. We will never know why Ymir opened the pig pen, but she did. But she did it.

Eren:

Eren inherits the attacking giant, the only one with the ability to see into the past and into the future. For this giant, time does not exist, he sees everything, but if this giant was a part of Ymir, maybe does this mean that Ymir, when she was a Titan, could see the future? It is said explicitly, clearly, that Ymir was omnipotent, so she could see the future?

And now the million euros question: why do you want to forgive Eren? Because Eren's behavior is that of a traumatized child, and yes, I know that many AoT characters have traumas and that they have not become genocidal monsters. But I'm not done explaining, so I go ahead: chapter 139 starts with Eren explaining his plan and the reasons for his plan to Armin, but after a few scenes Eren says he doesn't understand / he don't know what he's doing, is everything confused for him. Why does Eren seem so sure first and then confused? And why in the scene where he marches on the sea does he see himself as a child? Eren reveals that he had never felt free and he was somehow envious of Armin. For me, everything is explained in one word: dissociation. Explaining dissociation is difficult, but I try to explain it in a simple way: a dissociated person sometimes perceives reality in a distorted way, does not react in a healthy way to stimuli such as sadness and joy. Dissociation sometimes occurs as a result of trauma. Eren, in fact, has trauma, and I repeat, it's true, many AoT characters have trauma, but why did Eren become a genocide? Because Eren has a trauma never exceeded. Because Eren saw the future and only saw death. In the future Eren saw all his friends dead after reaching, finally and after many years, the sea and the free. Eren was, literally, crushed by these visions of death; that's enough to push someone have an extreme choice. I condemn Eren's gesture, but I forgive him as a person because he was afraid, and none of us know what he would have done in Eren's place to save his home and his friends. Eren also did not hate the Marlean, Eren hated himself because he did not see a way out for that shitty situation.

After these reflections on Ymir and Eren, I have other questions: Why did Ymir wait for Mikasa? Did Ymir want to free the Eldians? Did Ymir want to take revenge on King Fritz? Ymir, since she was omnipotent, could he have manipulated Eren by showing him only death deeply visions? We will never know. Yes, I have this theory, that Ymir may have fooled Eren. Why does Ymir smile seeing Eren beheaded? The answer might be “finally there are no giants anymore”, but why did she seem happy with Eren's death? Eren had saved Ymir, she cries for joy when someone finally understood her pain; but then why does she seem happy with Eren's death?

Many questions, few answers. In summary, for me, Ymir has an unclear behavior, and Eren seems to me clearly dissociated, not very lucid in some moments, maybe he even manipulated by Ymir. I'm sorry for him, for the future he saw, for having given up hope, because a person without hope is a person who feels dead. I'm sorry for Eren. I feel sorry for him. Eren wanted a better world, and he became an executioner and all because no one really escaped his fate, a destiny, perhaps, seen and wanted by Ymir.

Little "technical" note:

I like the Aot ending, very much, because it wasn't the classic black and white ending, it wasn't the classic happy ending. I loved Mikasa and Levi, and Erwin, I loved Reiner's journey, Jean's evolution, Sasha and Connie's sympathy. I loved many characters. I laughed and cried. I thanked Isayama for this courageous work. But despite this, I also have reservations about this last chapters; at the plot level, Ymir is clearly a Deus Ex Machina, literally a divinity, that is, a way to resolve an unsolvable plot according to the classic principles of cause and effect. A sometimes serious flaw in a story, but this is depends on how an author uses it. Ymir was a character with a lot of potential, but we don't know anything about she and Isayama, in my opinion, he preferred to finish the manga with chapter 139 because it was cool symbolically. 13 the number of years of life of a holder of giants and 9 the number of Titans. 13 in numerology symbolizes death and / or change. And much more could be said about the meaning, the plot, the emotions that he gave me, but the post was really long and I don't want to bore you. Writing such a long post is really a rare occurrence for me XD I don't like to talk, but I was too flustered about the AoT ending and the mixed feelings I had about Ymir.

Ps: for sure someone could misunderstand my words, so I repeat it here too, yes, I like Eren, I appreciate him as a character, I like that he made certain choices at the plot level because he felt, literally, like a rat in a trap, but no, I'm not a yeagerist and his actions, on a human level, are reprehensible. I hope it is clear.

#attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #snk #aot #meta post #spoiler cap 149 #theory #eren yeager #founder ymir #sorry not sorry #I'm eren apologize #eren deserves better

10 notes · View notes

adrunkgiraffe · 3 years

Text

I have been through this journey before, so I get to be actually frustrated about it.

IUnder a read more because im not subjecting y’all to this. Also: I should caveat I haven’t watched the episode cause I’m waiting till its on Netflix but I have watched way too many other episodes of Supernatural so I have a right to say these things.

TL;DR: I mean you all knew Cas’ confession was fucking bullshit and that SPN is...hm. But I’d like to actually express my genuine frustration, for a moment? I’m going to say things you already know, but I have too much knowledge of this show and too much stupid meta in my brain about a series I haven’t genuinely enjoyed for at least 5 years which makes this not just blandly bad but disgustingly insulting to me not even as a gay just as like. A writer?

Or, even shorter: Cas’ confession is just a Charlie Bradbury Speedrun

So. As some of you may know if, for some reason, you followed me back in 2013 (and till...okay fine 2015), I used to be, uh. Really into SPN. Really, I was into Destiel. Like, as in, I slogged through seasons 1-3 to get to Cas and am also really vulnerable to the Sunk Cost Fallacy and projecting onto characters. (I was in 8th grade in 2013, okay? Get off my back)

Also, because I monopolised use of the TV, I kind of...also got my parents into it? In a “this is silly but fun” kind of way.

Over time, critiques of the show from viewers, learning what queerbaiting is at all, fatigue with how long it was going, and also fatigue from how characters I enjoyed, like Rufus, or Crowley, or Ellen, or Jo, or Kevin, or Charlie, or Cas a few times, kept getting killed off. As time went on, it didn’t escape my notice that, aside from Cas, all of these characters fit one or more of the following criteria:

They were a woman

They were a person of color

Were Queer or Queer-coded in some way (listen Crowley was bad rep but at least Mark Sheppard actually kissed a man on screen)

I also just...generally got tired of the way the show treats women and sidelines people of color.

The final straw really came with Charlie’s death. It got us all excited, because she hadn’t been back in a bit! And it was interesting to see how reuniting with her dark side from Oz had changed her! (yeah remember the fucking Wizard of Oz storyline? The writers sure don’t!) And maybe she’d get developed! Because at this point, Charlie and the fairly good writing of her character was a major upside for the series! Charlie was cool, fun, gay, and morally complex in a way...none of the female characters had been before her, in large part because by definition, her relationship with the boys would always be platonic.

And then. Offscreen. She is violently murdered. For no damn good reason. Like, literally, her being brought back in this episode after fucking off to europe after having returned from fucking off to Oz seems to have filled two purposes in total.

The codex is solved (but Sam doesn’t know till next episode)

Charlie is dead, which means Dean can be angry, specifically at Sam, and kill more people because he’s the big bad this season.

That’s it. Two things. Twooooo whole reasons to do this episode. Whoopee.

But you didn’t come here for this, you came here for me to rip this reveal to shreds. Don’t worry, I’ll get there. What I want in your minds is that Supernatural already had a really good anddynamic queer character. And then they killed her off to make Dean angry. No, it doesn’t matter that they brought her back in season 13 or whatever. They made that decision.

After the rage this incited, I started realizing general flaws in the writing (I had probably already noticed them but now I was angry enough to complain.) Every conflict is born of Sam and Dean not communicating/taking on burdens and Dean being angry at Cas for reasons that ranged from good to ridiculous, but in a way that always went way too fucking long, (which...yes, does make the “you do it for love” gifs fucking hilarious). It didn’t help that seasons 11 and 12 were next, which meant Demon Dean and GOD’S FUCKING SISTER, plus the decision to resurrect Mary, which, while I do like her later scenes, as a season 12 finale it...well I’ll be honest it kinda sucked. It undercut the majority of the Winchester’s’ arcs and their slow and painful journey out of their father’s toxic vengeance quest and knowing Mary as a person when it’s too late to know her was one of the last semi-compelling grounders of the narrative.

By this point it was a hate-watch for my parents and I.

So then, I’m at college, and I’m not watching anymore cause I don’t have the motivation or access to Hulu to continue, and SPN is bad. I watch the Scooby Doo crossover when it comes out and my friend and I make fun of it, and we also continue making jokes about Dean and Cas and queerbaiting because we’re queer, but I don’t keep up. My Dad does though, so when I return, I watch some with the fam and lads. It’s even more tiring without context.

So flash forward to Quarantine, my sister, the only one with taste, has left, and we have run out of netflix to watch. So we return to the well, and seasons 13-14 are. I’m gonna say it. Bad. Really fucking bad. The cycle of bad communication continues, season 14 has like seven antagonists and the way it’s structured makes it so I literally cannot remember the timeline of a season I watched 3 months ago. Oh also, they have a queer coded cannibal snake monster for...well I guess Jack’s snake bud was cool but like. Huh wow it’s almost like these writers don’t handle queers well.

Our one saving grace is Cas, but he’s barely in any episodes, though I did note that his deal with the empty, being happy completely for one moment killing him, that struck me as “this has potential and I know they’re gonna half-ass it somehow.” Also Jack and Mary, but then oh...plot….The most compelling it gets is literally the finale.

But then, 3 days later, the first half of season 15 comes out on Netflix and it’s...actually kind of acceptable. The new character they give Jack’s actor is fun to watch him play until they make him evil. Exploring just how toxic Chuck can be gave the series direction again. The alternate future was genuinely scarring, and Eileen’s return was genuinely moving. Most of all, though, Cas got the opportunity to tell Dean no, that Dean was being unfair to him, had always been unfair to him, and he was sick of it. I had no illusions, I knew Destiel was never gonna happen, and Cas was gonna die, but giving him that bit of agency, letting Cas grow and be self-sufficient, and be angry with Dean not for existential reasons but interpersonal ones, was such a good sign for me, and Dean grew too! Dean fucking apologized for being horrible and Jensen Ackles had a...yknow what, ill give it to him, he had a good acting moment.

But the thing. About. The “I love you.”

Let’s take it in parts.

What was good: I’m gonna admit it, lads, “Wanting what I can’t have” - AS A LINE - is good, and, structurally, there is something to the Empty Deal that could have been an interesting aspect of Cas’ arc when it comes to self actualization and being on even footing with Dean. The problem is, this is Supernatural, and that arc only comes up when I bring it up because character study, even in bad media, is fun for me.

What was bad:

I mean. Like. All of it? All of it.

Okay. Fine. I’ll be specific.

Cas dies immediately when - possibly because- he is revealed as having feelings for Dean. They kill him as they queer him, that’s a Bury Your Gays Speedrun right there.

Like the least they could have done is have him mention it to someone in another scene or something to establish some romantic feelings on the part of canon a full episode beforehand. That would have been the literal bare minimum.

When Cas starts praising Dean, for some reason both the writing and Misha’s acting take a bit of a downswing (from...where it already was). Cas, whose most powerful moment this season was acknowledging that Dean’s anger at him is cruel and unfair, flatly praises him for doing everything out of love and it reads with a misunderstanding of both Dean as a character and Cas’ understanding of Dean. Dean is angry! VERY ANGRY! And it’s a problem he needs to work on and rarely does.

Talking out of my ass, a better speech would have been about how Dean is angry because of his love for Sam, family, and the people around him, how, for better or for worse, he can’t help but be angry on behalf of others, and that his journey of moving that tendency towards the better is what made Cas care so much. Guys this alteration to the metaphor took 2 minutes to write tops I am an Art History student and these are TV WRITERS WITH YEARS OF EXPERIENCE CAN YOU TELL THEYRE NOT TRYING YET?

A better speech would, of course, have come out of a better series. My point: this part was half-assed. Poorly written. Wow it’s almost like the series is also poorly written.

Also, Misha is the better actor of the three(***OF THE THREE), but his choices in that scene are jarringly out of character which. Makes the bad writing worse. It doesn’t help that they cut to the same fucking shot of Dean 3 times. The chemistry in that scene makes it feel so fucking hackneyed. Because it is.

This combines lead me to the point: (wait there was a point to this?)

As someone who does not have the luxury of watching this capsized ship fall into boiling seas from a distance, it is less insulting to me that they did this so last minute and then sent Cas to the Void than it is how they did it. They had ingredients for something that could have been compelling enough to me as a former fan of the show to think that they had put effort into it, that they had decided months, perhaps even years ago to do this, and had crafted a storyline around it. That this was an intentional decision they cared about. It wasn’t. It was barely even pandering, because it’s almost insultingly blatant.

SPN kinda proved to me that it didn’t care about queers when Charlie was killed off. It proved it to me again when Cas, not only died in confessing his love for Dean but did it in the weakest result of what could have been a surprisingly strong story.

#destiel #i don't fucking care im tagging it #bury your gays #queerbaiting #homophobia #also: i should say there are a lot of moments where i refer to aspects of the writing as good #this either means i was 14 when I watched it #or #it's something that i find compelling #that #IN ANOTHER SHOW #OR IN A HYPOTHETICAL WHERE THE WRITING ISNT LADEN WITH HOMOPHOBIA #could be fun to explore #like there are these structural motifs #and themes #which could have made the show good #could have made that confession...passable #but they didn't even write it well by supernatural standards #is my point #My other point is i get to actually be mad about this because I actually watched and put emotional energy towards this show #i shouldnt have but i did #so now I get to write about it #and if you reply we been knew to this post #youre correct #but also #wow do you maybe think I was already aware of that?

7 notes · View notes

marryat92 · 3 years

Text

The Phantom Ship, the wrap-up

If it seems like it has been an extraordinarily long time since I have posted a book review here, I’ve been reading The Phantom Ship at a glacial pace. Other books and projects have occupied my time; and one of the perils of tearing through Marryat’s complete works is that I keep wanting to re-read my favourite ones, like Frank Mildmay and Jacob Faithful.

It doesn’t help that The Phantom Ship is a deeply mediocre book. If I had to rate it, I’d give it two-and-a-half stars out of five: don’t read this one unless you’re a Marryat completist or tracking down every version of the Flying Dutchman story. As usual with Captain Marryat, the quality is uneven, and a few moments really shine. One of these is the chapter that contains the story “The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains,” which is also the first appearance of a female werewolf in Western literature. The monster is brilliantly ghoulish, and one theme that I enjoyed throughout the book is that supernatural beings can mingle unnoticed in human society. Sensitive individuals might find them creepy or foreboding, but they are otherwise unmarked.

Although the Flying Dutchman story feels like an ancient myth, in Frederick Marryat’s lifetime it was a more recent development. Wikipedia credits the first print reference to the story to a book published in 1790— only two years before Marryat was born. Numerous versions of it were published in the early part of the 19th century, or made into popular theatrical productions. I was frankly surprised by how many Flying Dutchman variants were made, many even using the title “The Phantom Ship.”

Marryat published his version of the tale in disjointed installments, first serialised in the New Monthly Magazine in March 1837, then in February 1838, and finally from February to August, 1839. Alan Buster suggests that the hiatus was probably caused by Marryat’s American trip that produced Diary in America (Buster, Captain Marryat: Sea-Officer Novelist Country Squire). It probably didn’t help the cohesiveness of what is already a very derivative story, even if the character of Amine is, as Buster describes her, “Marryat’s most spirited and independent heroine.”

Rather randomly, I came across a competing penny dreadful version of the story that was published in approximately the same year as Marryat’s adaptation.

According to the British Library, this was published circa 1839 by Thomas Peckett Prest (1810–1859), a prolific writer of penny dreadfuls. Marryat is not only a clumsy writer of historical fiction, best at retelling events from his own life and times, he had to compete with a cut-rate version of the Flying Dutchman saga.

If there’s one overarching villian in Marryat’s story, it’s not demon ships or werewolves, it’s the Catholic Church. He takes a forgiving view of pagan sorcery but wicked and corrupt Catholics seem to grow more obnoxious and harmful throughout the narrative, eventually resulting in death and ruin for the main characters. The horrors of the Inquisition in the Portuguese colony of Goa are memorable, and I found myself raging against the unfairness of it all, as much as I’m aware that Marryat is definitely biased.

The colonial practices of the Dutch East India Company are not shown in a favourable light, and it occurred to me that the huge popularity of the Flying Dutchman story in the English-speaking world in this time period could be interpreted as a way of criticizing the abuses of the British Empire. A cursory search shows that there is a lot of scholarly analysis basically saying this exact thing. The doomed Captain Vanderdecken is a figure of imperialist greed, and in some versions of the story that make him irredeemably evil he’s a slave trader.

The plot hook of Vanderdecken’s living son searching for his cursed father to rescue/redeem him seems like it would be ideal for Marryat, who loved to explore troubled father-son relationships, but the opportunity is wasted. We get very little Phantom Ship and a whole lot of meddling priests, Dutch East India Company business, colonial warfare, supernaturally annoying cursed pilots, and a tedious amount of shipwrecks and gales. (Normally when Marryat writes about storms at sea his verisimilitude is compelling, but it happens so often in this book as to be groan-worthy).

Whenever Marryat writes about southeast Asia I have to wonder if he’s drawing from his experiences in the First Anglo-Burmese War, and there are a lot of Indonesian locales in the book including Ternate and Tidore. Malay people use kris daggers in The Phantom Ship (spelled phonetically as ‘creezes’), just like in The King’s Own, and in another bizarre similarity they dip the daggers in “the deadly poison of the pine-apple.” (The King’s Own states that “the creeses of the pirates had been steeped in the juice of the pine-apple, which, when fresh applied, is considered as a deadly poison.”)

Surely Marryat knew that pineapples are edible?! European peoples had been aware of pineapples for centuries before his time, and eating them too. Looking into this poison pineapple story, the most I could find was an 1899 book by Rounsevelle Wildman, Tales of the Malayan Coast, from Penang to the Philippines. Wildman describes a process of creating poison kris daggers that involves pineapple juice, but the pineapple juice is not the poisonous agent (that would be arsenic dissolved in lime water). I can only assume that Marryat heard some tale about forging a kris, and due to poor translation or another misunderstanding, he came away with the impression that pineapple juice is deadly. (This still doesn’t explain how he reconciled this knowledge with people eating the fruit).

Marryat is no long-hauler like Charles Dickens, and he can only get so many hundreds of pages into a story before you can almost viscerally feel him getting bored with it. He was obviously eager for The Phantom Ship to end, and not going to expend any more energy giving the characters a more peaceful and happy conclusion. His next novel, Poor Jack, is one of his best, which makes The Phantom Ship feel even more like a half-hearted attempt to cash in on a trend in Flying Dutchman stories while Marryat was preoccupied with travel writing and personal affairs (like his legal separation from his wife, which was also finalized in 1839).

#frederick marryat #captain marryat #the phantom ship #the flying dutchman #19th century literature #book review #reading marryat #amine deserved better #the poison pineapple saga continues

5 notes · View notes

loyalflutist · 5 years

Text

Just a Dream - Part 1 (F!Byleth x Edelgard)

Rating: General Audiences Archive Warning: Major Character Death Words: 2,173 Summary: The war is finally over and it was the Adrestian Empire's win. Most everyone moved onward from the conflict at their own pace. For Edelgard, she has a surprise coming from Byleth one night.

A/N: Obviously due to Tumblr’s layout, I doubt I can leave my author’s note to the bottom like I intend to. Oh well. This is a fun side project I was working on! The second half should be out next week or so... depending on how my school load is going and, god forbid, if my PI isn’t a jerk. Hope you enjoy this! I enjoyed writing this fluffy piece, heh.

-----

The atrocious conflict that lasted for more than five years came to a roaring conclusion.

What should have been a magnificent creature in legends stayed as a legend, its real counterpart far crueler than any villain in history. Two brave leaders swung their relics at the formidable white dragon. In one strike, the beast pierced the fiery battlefield with its shriek. An axe and a sword plunged its sharp edges into its thick scales. Bloodied, battered, and bruised, the large monster wildly tossed its head left and right. Another inhumane squeal tore from its elongated throat as it dug its massive claws on the cracked pavement.

Byleth and Edelgard plopped back on the ground simultaneously. Sweat gleamed on their foreheads, their breaths bated, and eyes trained on the foul beast. Their weapons were deeply ensnared in its moist flesh. No matter how much the dragon shook, it won’t remove the powerful blades. Amidst the flames in the background, their surviving comrades and troops watched in awe.

“It’s… finally over,” the emperor breathed. “We won.”

Just as she uttered that confident statement, the white dragon collapsed to the side, its jaw jutted open. Black blood pooled underneath its large head as its last light flickered out. Everyone kept their limbs locked in place, their respiratory system temporarily paused. Byleth and Edelgard eventually straightened their posture. Although they were out of breath, they exchanged glances. Then, a worn smile broke out from their face.

“Thank you… Byleth.”

This war’s victor was none other than the Adrestian Empire.

Peace draped over the united land after five, long miserable years. Although there were plenty of sacrifices and regrets from Byleth and Edelgard, they marched forward with their heads held up high. After all, the emperor must reign over their new country and people with persistence and conviction. It was a worthy offering for the next chapter in Fodlan.

As for the leaders of the Black Eagle Strike Squad? Many of their comrades retired from the battlefield. Some of their comrades worked under or alongside with Edelgard.

Petra returned to Brigid with the songstress shortly after the final battle to build a diplomatic relationship between the two nation. Eventual news about a new theatrical show in Brigid starring none other than Dorothea spread across the sea. Its popularity skyrocketed as many nobles desperately scrambled onto the next boat to catch a glimpse of the beautiful opera singer. Lest to say, many were disappointed to hear that she was already taken. The Brigid queen made sure to make it clear.

Linhardt resumed his activity as a researcher, eager to chew on anything that perks his interest. Whenever Edelgard and Hubert visited the man’s estate, he would greet them with a piece of toast, their much-need answers, and a slam of a door. Hark, it was not from malice! Disturbance of a slumbering prince would present a predictable reaction. This led to a small stack of apologetic, handwritten letters from the green-haired to the emperor.

Bernadetta slithered back to her life as a noble— Well, it would have been more peaceful had it not been for Caspar. That young man made sure to take her out every month to sightsee a new scenery during his service with Edelgard. Safe to say, Bernadetta both did and did not appreciate his way of carrying her high up the mountains or through the fields in plain view. (How embarrassing!) Their laughter could be heard from miles away as the couple bloomed in the vast, green field.

Ferdinand and Hubert continue to maintain a close relationship with their new emperor’s activity at the castle. Of course, many of the guards and Byleth would spot them sharing a moment of tranquility over tea with each other. Suffice to say, they knew how to take care of each other in ways not even Edelgard knows.

Shamir and Catherine broke off from the group and traveled the country. No one knew where they were. The only clues they’ve left behind were the occasional, unaddressed letters delivered to Byleth at the castle. That didn’t include the rumors of famous fight scenes that broke out throughout Fodlan. (It appears they were mostly self-initiated by the troublesome duo.)

Overall, the turbulent times simmered down to a lazily, wafting steam. Those Who Slither in the Dark were still a danger to society, but Edelgard, Byleth, Caspar, Ferdinand, and Hubert were on top of their game. It was a lengthy session of chess, but so far, they’re nearing the endgame. Hubert, Ferdinand, and Byleth approximated about five more years until this evil is squashed for good. Five more years until Edelgard can retire.

“Edelgard?”

At the emperor’s patio of her grand bedroom late at night, the woman in bright red glanced over her shoulder. Edelgard released her hold on the concrete railings and approached the older female. The moon’s soft rays of light lit Byleth’s entrance into her vision. Her ex-professor had both hands behind her back, her hues sparkled like the stars. It would almost seem out of character had they not been dating!

Edelgard tried to resist an amusing chuckle as Byleth slowed her steps.

“Professor, what brings you here?”

Both females stood in front of each other. The close approximation allowed their breaths to tickle each other. They shyly giggled. Byleth soon leaned down to plant her lips on the shorter’s forehead. Pleasant warmth grew in the noble’s chest as she rested her hand on the other’s chest. She lowered her head and felt the corner of her lips curve upward.

“Okay, Byleth, what is it that you have to tell me?”

“You’re always straight to the point.”

“That’s just who I am.”

“Well… I have a surprise for you.”

Byleth began to back away from the emperor. The ex-mercenary got down on one knee. Her hands that were once behind her back were brought forward. There was a small object pinched between her thumb and index. It was a silver ring ornamented with bits of fine gemstones and diamonds; a precious gift that her father, Jeralt, had once given to her mother. He bestowed it upon his daughter before the incident that transpires afterward.

“Will you marry me, El?”

Her cheeks flushed. Those were the words Edelgard would never expect to hear from anyone in her life. Commitment to ending the Hresvelg line and isolating herself from politics once her duties were complete was all that filled her mind. She and Byleth had fallen in love, but they never exchanged anything more than a simple peck or tender embrace. Honestly, Edelgard held low expectations for their relationship to deepen. The fact that her partner in battle would become her lifelong partner increased her heartbeat’s pace.

' Is this a dream? It's too good to be true! '

The noble’s violet hues searched for an object other than Byleth to fixate. Happiness was an understatement. It was a complete understatement. No terminology in any living dictionary would be able to describe the euphoric sensation that threatens to burst from the seam of her epidermis. She failed to completely remove her gaze from Byleth as her reply tumbled out of her mouth like a rockslide.

“I— Wow, yes… Yes!” She finally diverted her attention back to the teal-haired. Hidden ears as rosy as her cheeks, she grinned from ear to ear. “Yes, I want to marry you, Byleth!”

No time was wasted in slipping the ring onto Edelgard’s finger. She cautiously removed the armored glove. Scars and permanent engravings from her surgical procedures were exposed to the open air. A shudder ran down Edelgard’s spine; she had to resist the temptation to rip her hand away. Besides, when her tactician inserted the precious band, all forms of negativity eroded away in a flash. The ring’s surface glimmered in the moonlight as Byleth brought her lips on her soon-to-be-official-wife’s knuckles. The sensitive flesh brushed upon the marked hand.

“We’ll always be together in spirit.”

“Just in spirit, though?”

Edelgard chuckled as her professor rose from the crouch. Hands now holding each other, they exchanged a kiss. At her lips’ touch, the vermillion girl blossomed like a flower. Sweet nectar dripped from her lover’s whispers as they went in for a second round. They repeatedly kissed, the one after another becoming briefer and more playful. Their eyes were closed as giggles emitted from their direction. From a distant, it would be to no one’s surprise if literal heart shapes sprouted from the couple.

“Once we finish ridding Those Who Slither in the Darkness, we shall find an appropriate person fit for the throne.”

“Mm… Five years is long, isn’t it?”

“We cannot help it. We have to stay focused on our goals.”

“It would be nice if five years were to hurry, don’t you think?”

“I agree.”

Edelgard placed a hand on her hip once their hold broke away. She looked downward, the smile lingering.

“Still, I have you by my side. To think that I would be walking down this path on my own… I was mistaken. I wouldn’t know what to do if you weren’t with me.”

“You should learn how to be independent without me, El.”

“Oh, hush! I doubt that would ever happen now that we’ve promised to be with each other.”

“…in spirit.”

“Why do you keep saying that? I hope you are misunderstanding the original phrase—”

A faint, but warm, yellow light glowed on Edelgard’s face. Stars. Tiny, little stars twinkled before the shorter female.

“?”

Particles of light began to grow brighter around the emperor. Edelgard raised her head; her violet eyes widen at the newfound sight.

“Byleth…?”

The older woman tilted her head, eyelids closed and smiled. Those particles grew in its number as Byleth became transparent. Their gentle nature floated near her face, almost as if they tried to hug her. Alas, these creations were not permanent. They were meant to fade away into nothingness… just like her Byleth.

“Byleth!”

She reached out towards her lover with the same hand that received the ring.

That was right… How could she have forgotten?

During the final battle, the two emerged victoriously… but at a heavy cost. Byleth had collapsed after the dragon’s death. Edelgard immediately dashed to her girlfriend; she ignored the throbbing aches from her bruises and stings from her cuts. The noble flipped over the instructor. A quick examination told her of the bad news. Confirmation was needed, and it was a confirmation Edelgard wished she had never done.

Byleth’s heart stopped beating. No matter how many times she pressed her ear against her chest, pressed her fingers upon her wrist, and shook the older woman, Byleth would not crack open her eyelids. Not a single peep came out of her mouth.

Did she die peacefully?

She didn’t know. She won’t know. She will never know.

“Are you leaving me again?”

Tears stained Edelgard’s cheeks as she witnessed her professor nod at her direction.

“This is farewell.”

Farewell? There was no need for farewell when the noble glanced down at her hand again. The ring… it was still there. Yes! It was still there! That same ring that she had slipped onto her ring finger! It… No— it has always been there. Byleth had given it to her and proclaimed her proposal right before the final mission. It was the last gift her girlfriend— her wife had given to her before the untimely demise.

She felt her throat become dry and lips tremble. Edelgard grabbed at the bright lights that encompassed her significant other. They went through her fingers. But she repeated her actions. It became frantic and wild as dizziness seeped into her skull. The tears continued to pour from her lacrimal glands as Edelgard shook her head with slanted eyes.

“No… NO!”

This isn’t right!

“Don’t you dare—!”

Her heart squeezed until it physically caused pain. Streams flowed down her face as her fingers curled inward at the golden clumps. Another outcry burst in-between her sharp exhales.

“I’ve already lost you once!”

No no no no no—!!!

Why can’t she grab her?!

Why?!

WHY?!

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!

“Don’t leave me again!” she wailed at the disappearing woman. “Please! I don’t know what to do anymore!”

Byleth reached her illuminated hand out. Though contact was not felt, she began to smooth the crying noble’s head. Particles from her legs began to dim as she tilted her head. Despite the anguish from her lover, she still smiles. How could she still smile…? No, that smile was only because she was an illusion. Edelgard’s blurred vision deluded her of a Byleth she finds solace in. Her lips trembled violently as another choking sob blubbered out of her.

Her professor, her friend, her lover, her only one closed her eyelids.

“Open your eyes, my dear Edelgard. This was only just a dream.”

This delusion has to end… and the first step to it is acceptance. As Byleth vanished, Edelgard crumpled to her knees. She cried hard into her hands, her weeping echoed into the lonesome night.

#loyalflutist #one shot #os #fan fiction #fan fic #edeleth #edelgard #edelgard von hresvelg #byleth #f!byleth #f!byleth x edelgard #just going to grab some armor just in case #fire emblem #fire emblem three houses

33 notes · View notes

evilsupplyco · 5 years

Text

The Witch & Vampire Begin Dating

Married now, this is a story from Penny and Zelda’s courtship.

Standing beneath the foxfire lamppost, the vampire needlessly touched up her black lipstick. Her makeup, far more stylish and put together than the normal patrons Sludge entertained, a dive restaurant in Grimwood Swamp, was flawlessly applied. A ruse to draw the approaching witch’s attention to the vampire’s lips.

Penny P. Post kissed at the air in greeting to the witch, whose green-hued happy blush was lost to the swamp light. Penny handed her a black rose.

“Waiting long?” Zelda K. Arcadia smiled at her friend, accepting the gift, happy but a bit confused by it.

“Just got here. I tried to reserve us a table but the troll on the phone just kept growling at me?” Penny said, similarly confused.

Editor’s Note: Today’s story is a bit long so I’m closing the rest under a link. Evil Supply Co. stories center around ghosts, monsters, witches, and sea creatures in a utopian Netherworld.

More stories are here (link) and weekly story emails have resumed! (sign up here)

Sludge, said troll, loved cooking and hated talking. He named his restaurant after himself so he would only ever have to introduce it or himself, never both. Sludge, both restaurant and troll, were rough hewn, full of warts, and fit comfortably in the noxious, cursed swamp.

Zelda was glad her familiar had recommended her blazer choice. It elevated her casual outfit — not nearly to Penny’s level, who was wearing a black dressed piped with lavender and soft green, making her look like a poison garden in moonlight — but it certainly helped.

“You look… stunning,” Zelda said a bit quietly as Penny browsed the menu. “But is this place okay? We can go somewhere else if you like. Sludge does not seem… like… a normal place… you would pick?”

“They have a dish named after you?” Penny asked in joyous surprise. “Should we get it?” she asked in a conspiratorial tone. A small and secret pact to be made together, kept from the world at large.

“I come here a lot — yes —” Zelda’s words ran together.

“Two ‘Zeldas’ please,” Penny said, immensely pleased, to the ghost waiter. She turned back to the witch, and looking deep into her eyes for a moment before speaking, “I want to become your girlfriend. We have been spending a lot of time together, I really like you, I want to know more about you — everything about you — so I chose this place because of you, and I think we should date. We have so much in common, we have so much fun together.” Penny picked up a claw from the table’s appetizer bowl and bit it. Her eyes widened, “Delicious!”, as if she had not just semi-formally requested a major adjustment to their relationship status.

And so much made sense, suddenly.

The beautiful, if over the top, dress Penny wore tonight. The rose. Scented cards and letters, the “good morning” and “good night” texts to her scrying mirror. Books shared, stories where Penny laughed just a bit too long or too loudly or both. Open availability over the last few months — for a meal or coffee or just a few quick words whenever Zelda contacted her first.

“You have been flirting with me?!” Zelda asked in raw embarrassment.

“I honestly didn’t know if you didn’t know or were simply uninterested,” Penny said with a soft sigh but a genuine smile. She wanted more and would be content if it was never offered.

The waiter ghost returned at that moment with a large pumpkin full of eerily glowing yellow-green moss and slime. A second ghost set down two small stone graves laden with eels, night crawlers, bones, and a variety of poisonous fruit slices.

“Thank you,” the witch and vampire said to the ghosts as a third brought torn rags for napkins and two skewers. This ghost lit a candle beneath the pumpkin, enhancing the mossy glow. The slime began to boil, the moss began to melt.

“I’d like that,” Zelda offered meekly in belated reply.

Penny grinned, “I thought you might seeing as they named it after you — ” she said, intentionally misunderstanding.

“No, no!” Zelda returned, flustered, her green skin darkening in embarrassment. “I want to date. Girlfriend. You, me.” She paused to collect the debris of her thoughts. Penny patiently waited with a smile. “I want to be your girlfriend, too,” Zelda said as her mind finally sorted itself out.

Happy to her core, Penny closed her eyes for a moment, a beaming smile on midnight lips.

And just like that, they began their journey as a couple. They toasted each other with glasses of ectoplasm and star struck smiles and the first of many kisses.

54 notes · View notes

mst3kproject · 6 years

Photo

605: Colossus and the Headhunters

I usually find the Hercules/Maciste episodes of MST3K to be pretty good fun, and as you could probably tell from the number of similar films I’ve used as Episodes that Never Were, I do enjoy the genre. It was therefore a surprise to realize I hadn’t seen Colossus and the Headhunters in literally years, and I wondered why not. The answer? I think it’s because it’s honestly kind of dull.

As the movie begins, some unfortunate cave people are crushed when a volcano showers them in styrofoam boulders. Whether they have anything to do with the more Greco-Roman folks we see in the speaking roles, I don’t know – but mere moments after young Ario’s dying father charges him with finding their people a new home, Maciste shows up! He leads them to his raft on the beach, and they set sail as the whole island falls apart. I hope that wasn’t supposed to be Atlantis. It wasn’t nearly impressive enough to be Atlantis.

Anyway, they decide to head for the land of the Uriels, where there’s supposed to be a city of gold. Some undetermined amount of time later, they get there, but there’s no golden city waiting for them, just a tribe of guys in kerchiefs who shoot Maciste and take everybody else prisoner. This is merely a misunderstanding, however – these are the Uriels, whose city of gold was taken over by the evil Kermes with the help of his following of Headhunters! At first Maciste isn’t interested, since he doesn’t want to take on a new project until he’s done saving the island people, but when the Headhunters attack the Uriel camp, he can’t just leave them to be slaughtered.

I love the name Kermes. It sounds like something you’d get if The Muppet Show put on a sketch about Greek mythology. Mighty Gonzeus rules Olympus, with his brother Fozzeidon and his messenger Kermes! Actually, there are a lot of amusing names in this one. If the hero is My Cheesesteak, then the deposed king is Honey Badger, and IMDB insists there’s a character named Gunk.

There are a number of other rather cynical observations I find myself making while watching this movie. One is that, despite the fact that nearly all the cavemen we saw killed in the opening were male, there seem to be at least twice as many men as women among the refugees – both the island people and the Uriels. This could be a problem for both groups.

Then there’s the fact that the movie can’t make up its mind just how strong Maciste is. When he’s shot by an arrow he pulls it out and then just walks away despite the blood pouring down his chest, and in scenes no more than a day or so later, he’s completely healed. Yet just two or three opponents can keep him busy enough to allow Kermes and his toady to escape? But wait, in the final battle he takes on ten at a time with ease? He couldn’t bend the metal bars of a portcullis, but he finds his way into the prison chamber beyond by punching through a stone wall? And how the hell did he miss the giant lever that raises the portcullis, anyway?

The dialogue is remarkably inane. Most of the lines seem to be things like, “don’t worry, it’ll be all right,” “we’re being defeated,” and “be quiet.” The English dubbing is half-assed at best, never matching the lip movements and voiced without enthusiasm. The costumes are ridiculous. Most of the island people wear brightly patterned loincloths. The Uriel priest wears a diaper on his head and Amoa sports a series of silly costumes, some of which she has visible trouble walking in.

When I reviewed Goliath and the Vampires, I noted that Maciste movies were rarely in continuity with each other – this is a fine example. It was made by the same director as Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules just a year later, and in fact the opening volcanic eruption is lifted from the earlier movie. In Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules, Maciste was played by a guy named Reg Lewis, who walked off into the sunset with Princess Moa at the end. In Colossus and the Headhunters, our hero is Kirk Morris, who leaves at the end with a different girl. No attempt is made to even pretend the two stories happen in the same universe. Indeed, Colossus and the Headhunters might almost be a remake!

Consider: both stories concern a group of refugees who aren’t much welcome in their new home. The locals are ruled by a usurper, aided by members of a third tribe rather more savage than the other two, while the deposed queen quietly refuses to marry him. Maciste is able to bring about peace between the two groups by saving them both from disaster, and at the end the queen runs off with him instead of taking her place as ruler, I guess because girls would rather give blow jobs than orders.

If Colossus and the Headhunters is just a second stab at Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules, then we should probably ask if it’s any better. Well… sort of. There are no terrible felt monsters in this one, and the things that go on are slightly less ridiculous, but in a way that actually hurts the movie. If you read my review of Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules, you’ll remember that it was bad enough to be downright hilarious. Colossus and the Headhunters has significantly less in it that’s over-the-top enough to be funny. There are breathing corpses, plastic skeletons, and a cosmetology class’ mannequin head on top of a pole, but it’s not quite corny enough to get a laugh. People topple off a rope bridge into a river, but they’re not dramatic enough to be funny (though Maciste’s reaction to getting hit with an arrow is pretty close). The dubbing is bad, but not amusing-bad, and so on.

In a couple of others ways, Colossus and the Headhunters is significantly worse, for example in its portrayal of cultures. In Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules, the Sun and Moon tribes were quite simplistic but they were internally consistent and you could sort of see how each one worked. In Colossus and the Headhunters we meet three different peoples, none of whom even come close to that. The island people, of course, we barely see – they flee their homeland and then most of them vanish while only Ario accompanies Maciste to save the Uriels. The headhunters are stock savages in briefs and warpaint, so the only ones we get to see very much of are the Uriels themselves.

We don’t exactly see them at their best, of course – their golden city is in ruins and the remnants of their people are hiding in the woods or living in tents in a field. What we do see, however, is a weird mix of motifs that never manages to gel. There are Grecoey-Romany elements, particularly in the costumes, but the artefacts range from the pseudo-medieval to the pseudo-Aztec, while many of the names (such as Amoa) sound almost Polynesian. Then there’s stuff like the ridiculous purple tutu Amoa’s handmaiden (her name is Moana, and the last time I watched this episode was so long ago that wasn’t funny yet) wears to dance at her mistress’ wedding, which doesn’t belong in any sort of ancient past.

Also, Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules was actually about its two peoples and what happened when they found themselves competing for resources. In Colossus and the Headhunters, the island people who are first to be introduced are ultimately irrelevant. For most of the story they’re off hiding somewhere while Maciste takes time out to help the Uriels. Only Prince Ario sticks around, and he never does anything of importance. Why are they even in this movie? The only thing that would be missing without them is about fifteen minutes of screen time.

There’s no shortage of things that time could have been better spent exploring. For example, they could have thrown in some actual development to the romance between Amoa and Maciste, which comes out of nowhere. He is captured and brought to her tent, where she tells him about the prophecy that a man will come from the sea to solve all the Uriels’ problems. Maciste protests that he can only save one civilization at a time, and Amoa calls him a coward. The next time she sees him is after he came back to save her father, and she immediately confesses her undying love. I guess he’s been kind of heroic by then, but even before that she’s talking about him to her handmaiden and implying she’s already in love with him.

At the end, Amoa swims out to Maciste’s little raft and heads off to sea with him, even as he begs her to stay behind. This isn’t the ending we want for Amoa – after Kermes earlier mocked her by telling her he was the only one who could give her a throne, and that the ‘delicate shoulders of a woman’ could not bear the burden of rule, we want to see her take her rightful place as Queen of the Uriels. Other characters nod sagely and say she might be back someday, but it’s still kind of a letdown, as if Kermes was right and girls just aren’t up to the job of politics.

My overall feeling about Colossus and the Headhunters is that it’s pretty blah. It’s neither good enough nor bad enough to be entertaining – the MST3K commentary livened it up a lot, but without it, it’s not really worth the effort. This one really needed a couple of guys in cheap monster suits to liven it up.

#mst3k #reviews #colossus and the headhunters #my cheese steak #60s

25 notes · View notes

ramajmedia · 5 years

Text

5 Disney Henchmen Who Are Truly Evil (& 5 Who Aren't)

It’s not easy being a Disney villain, and as such most diabolical dude or dudettes tend to enlist a little extra help to fulfill their dubious plots. Some baddie sidekicks help their master's evil schemes because of stupidity and ignorance. Others do it because they are horrible cretins themselves, some even more so than their boss!

RELATED: 5 Disney Villains That Are Better Live-Action (& 5 That Work Better As Cartoons)

So in this list, we are going to count down five Disney classic animation henchmen (or women, or animal or…something else) who are truly evil and five who truly aren’t. Spoilers ahoy!

10 Evil: Anastasia & Drizella, The Wicked Step Sisters

Anastasia and Drizella are utterly abusive to their step-sister, Cinderella. On top of forcing her to do all the housework and chores, they degrade and bully her whilst doing so, and this is before they even have anything to gain from it!

Clearly jealous that young Cinders may show them up with her beauty at the prince's ball, their most heinous act is taking turns to tear their orphan step-sibling's ball gown to pieces whilst simultaneously verbally abusing her. The sequence is actually quite nasty, especially for old school Disney!

9 Aren’t: The Hyenas

OK - technically, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed, collectively know as the hyenas from The Lion King, did play their part in the assassination of a monarch and the attempted murder of his infant son, and they do enjoy the odd Nazi-style goosestep during a passionate speech (that Scar sure knows how to work a room), but you need to see things from their perspective. They have been banished to live in an elephants graveyard. Their home is literally made up of the rotting corpses of giants.

One could hold a little resentment towards a power that imposes such a fate, so when a sassy British Lion comes along proposing a plan that will grant food, water and hygienic living you can see why they side with him. Then when it turns out that leader wasn’t all he appeared to be, you tear him apart in one of the most brutal Disney fatalities of all time! Hyenas gotta eat!

8 Evil: Fidget The Bat

Basil, The Great Mouse Detective is a rodent rendition of Sherlock Holmes and every Holmes needs their Moriarty! Basil’s comes in the form of Ratigan, whose right-hand bat is Fidget, a beer-drinking, baby dressing, child stealing creepy so and so. Thanks to a peg leg and deteriorated wing, Fidget can’t fly and this factor, plus his most heinous attempted act, proves to be his undoing.

RELATED: 10 Most Underrated Disney Villains

Suggesting they chuck young child mouse Olivia off an airship so he and Ratigan can make a speedier escape, Ratigan responds by giving Fidget the boot instead. Crime doesn’t pay kids.

7 Isn't: Sir Hiss

Disney’s Robin Hood came about during a weird time where Disney characters were kind of played by other Disney characters. Balloo is clearly Little John, and Kaa is clearly Sir Hiss, complete with hypnosis powers.

A voice in the ear of Prince John (the phony king of England), Sir Hiss may appear to be quite vile, however his reaction of horror when John suggests murdering Friar Tuck shows that Hiss does have a limit to the dirty deeds he is willing to do, and slaughtering peaceful church folk isn’t one of them!

6 Evil: Iago

Most animal henchmen can claim ignorance when it comes to being wicked. For example, Hayabusa from Mulan, despite being a nasty piece of work, can be forgiven as he is a pet Falcon and was probably trained in his vicious ways by his master Shan Yu. Jafar’s feathered friend Iago cannot claim the same ignorance.

The loudmouth parrot shouts and screams all through Aladdin and not in the same way as a normal scarlet macaw. Iago is sentient and desires gold and glory, not a cracker! Gilbert Godfrey screaming voice provides the perfect tone for his obnoxiousness. Iago actually does a Vader and turns to the light-side at the end of the Aladdin sequel, Return Of Jafar; however, in the original, he is pure evil until the end.

5 Isn't: Mr. Smee

Mr. Smee is the first mate of the Jolly Roger and quite the bumbling, lovable soul. Although he is loyal to his Captain, James Hook, he does try to divert his commanding officer away from his life of self-destructive vengeance towards the Lost Boys of Neverland. Smee would much rather be sailing the seven seas living the pirate's life than murdering children.

RELATED: 10 Disney Villains Who Were Kinda Right

Yes, whilst Smee does worryingly bring up “slitting peoples throats” a few times during the film, one of those times is as a suggestion of a more humane way of killing Peter Pan rather than blowing him up, so he can’t be all bad.

4 Evil: Flotsam & Jetsam

Flotsam and Jetsam are two evil eels and sidekicks to The Little Mermaid's main antagonist Ursula. They don’t have a cute song or jovial “schtick.” They are just two evil, sinister, spooky sea creatures who float in and out of the shadows performing their mistress’s sinister wishes and scaring the living bejeezus out of any child watching the film. Most adults as well, to be fair. Pure nightmare fuel.

3 Isn't: LeFou

Short and dumpy LeFou’s only real crime in Beauty and the Beast is having a man-crush on the most popular guy in town, despite being punched and smacked around the head with gun-barrels in return. In fact, the entire town seems to be in love with Gaston singing his praises to the point they even have a song and dance routine worked out around his neck muscles, cleft chin and hunting abilities.

LeFou does storm the Beast's castle with the rest of the townspeople, but that's because they believe that the monster has kidnapped Belle and is forcing her to live there as some kind of sadistic prisoner. Actually, there is no misunderstanding here. Let’s be honest here people, that is exactly what the beast did!

2 Evil: The “Friends On The Other Side”

The Princess And The Frog’s Dr. Facilier is probably one of the most underrated Disney villains, and as such, has one of the best villain songs “Friends On The Other Side.” As well as own mischievous shadow Facilier’s aforementioned “friends” aren’t dopey short rotund men, comical animals or misguided creatures.

They are literal demons who possess voodoo masks and dolls, transform into snakes and are intent on nothing more than feasting upon human souls. You can’t get more evil than that!

1 Isn't: Kronk

Topping the list for bad guy besties with a heart of gold, to nobodies surprise, is Kronk from The Emporer's New Groove. Kronk isn’t evil, in fact, he is far from it. He cares for the elderly, is great with kids, is an awesome chef and has the muscles of a god.

Konk would be the perfect man if he wasn’t thicker than Winnie The Pooh’s honey! Kronk is so lovable, he is the only Disney henchperson to receive their own feature-length spin-off in the straight to video Kronk’s New Groove. That’s gotta be saying something for his likability!

NEXT: The 10 Best Disney Villain Songs

source https://screenrant.com/disney-henchmen-truly-evil-not/

#screenrant

0 notes

catsthirdeye · 7 years

Text

I usually find it frustrating , stressful and boring and a waste of time to talk to stupid ppl who can’t think for themselves aka ppl i refer to as sheep. My grandma and her sister along with the rest of my so-called family and most of humanity being these type of ppl. My aunt said recently she isn’t like everyone else because she helped with the groceries i got instead of just letting me handle it. Grandma will usually help me with one or two bags when i get going and put the bags in the kitchen so what her sister meant by she isn’t like other ppl i have no clue. I mean as far as i know she is exactly like everyone else excluding myself , a brainwashed idiot who can’t think for herself. Today she got on me about not liking to talk because she was talking about something i didn’t care about and had no interest in and i’m not so ignorant to think you don’t need to talk to ppl to get around in the world. So she tells me I have a lot to learn when it is her who also has a lot to learn and probably won’t learn. Yes i hate to talk to stupid ppl and that includes her and grandma , they don’t listen to me anyway and always misunderstand me so it’s really a waste since i’m way smarter than them and they are not on my level of intelligence. It’s like a Cat trying to communicate with a ant to me. In this scenario i don’t give a shit about how they feel and what is happening in their daily lives , and etc. They certainly don’t give a shit about my health , wellbeing and happiness and my feelings so why should i care about theirs? And why would she assume i give a shit about the fact she didn’t eat anything today and that she skipped lunch? The only human i care about is myself because i only have myself and i’m the only one i can trust. Sure if I manage to find other wolves like myself then i might care about them but as that is unlikely the only other option to bring them into the world myself via my harem of course and two surrogate females to have them for me. It’s funny that grandma and her sister act like they and everyone else they know besides me just knows everything and i don’t know anything. These are the type of ppl who die and think they deserve to go to some paradise after they die and they think they are good ppl , good natured and good hearted because they can’t see how much of a monstrous stupid evil parasite they actually are. Is it because i realize how much of a evil monstrous parasite i am along with the rest of humanity that i cannot see ppl as good or good hearted ? If humans were not pure evil things would be so much better or if the monsters that is humanity was just extinct . Anyway , back to what i mentioned yesterday my aunt finally i think is going back to sleeping in her own room. It honestly made no sense why she was sleeping in my room and grandma’s room because we had bed bugs in there. Since she refused to believe the bugs she saw in her room were not bed bugs and would rather sleep in the room that did have bed bugs instead of the room that doesn’t. Almost made me believe she actually wanted to get bed bugs which could be arranged if i find one and put it in her bed or grandma’s bed so she will be forced to sleep in her own room instead of ours. I don’t understand the logic of stupid ppl , their rationality just doesn’t make sense to me. I’d hate myself even more if i stooped down to their level , if i was as stupid as most ppl i would have killed myself sooner. For that reason i’m grateful i’m so different and unique and sometimes i see it as a blessing i’m a wolf and not a sheep like most ppl. The drawbacks often outweigh the advantages though ( it’s more of a curse than a blessing most of the time ), because i’m always a outcast and misunderstood and i have gotten use to being a loner since my general hatred of humanity and social anxiety just makes it comfortable. I hate/dislike most ppl and describe myself as not being a people person. Anyway i’m getting some spiritual help to get out of my current living situation and move forward in life to be where i want to be so hopefully things work out this year. Best case scenario is i finally get my own place this year and escape these morons i feel trapped with and i’ll never have to talk to them or see them again once i’m gone. Worst case scenario is things don’t work out again and i’m still trapped with them and end up killing myself for real this time. And i really don’t want that to happen next year . I have had years to think about how i would do it when and if i did it and i think i’ve settled on drowning. I’m a water sign , scorpio and water rooster for chinese zodiac so it would make since i go out with something water related. And i highly support eco/eco-friendly and natural burial , even looked up eco cemeteries and eco cremation which is called hydro something and seems kinda cool. Looked at natural burial at sea and found a eco ocean casket made of natural materials where you sink to the bottom of the ocean with weights. I found natural burial shrouds including mushroom ones and looked into human composting. I want to be eco-friendly and animal friendly even when i die so it means a lot to me that such alternatives are even available. I even thought about like just being buried naked , we came into the world naked so why not go out the same way. I’m not sure if i want a funeral or if i’m even going to get buried so open casket doesn’t matter right now.

#so-called family #I hate my so called family #Suicide #natural burial

1 note · View note

greenflamedwriter · 3 years

Text

Angel rejected Notes

Hunk was nervous

"Guys what do we do?"

"Calm down, we just have to think-"

"-Well think quick, they're going to out us out there in the arena."

..."Shiro you fought in there, what do we do? Shiro...?

-Shiro is currently freaking out-

"Well fuck."

"Paladins…"

-Reveal lotor and antok who talk to the others-

"Who are you?"

"The reighning champion after shiro. I’ve been fighting here since I was a boy."

"I meant You're name?"

"I am Lotor and this is antok."

"Shit a guards coming- shiro!"

Lance shoves himself forward with a growl. He is pissed and will murder everyone for hurting shiro. Years....Shiro was here yearsfighting and starving to death he lost his arm and it takes a lot to scar a demon. Lance was going to kill them.

"Shiro snaps out of it when Lance is take .

"Lance!"

Shiro slames against the gate-

"Don’t attack first- evade and find its weakness!"

(Lotor) "He’s a lost cause he’s facing Urak the worst galra here.

"Goddamit let him out."

-Hunk is freaking out and keith consoles him since Shiro ignored him-

"Oh god they’ve taken lance."

"He’ll be fine Hunk- he flew out a ship to save shiro, remember."

"But this- he can’t fight- he’s terrible at combat."

Lance barely panting breathless with his eye shut to stop blood from dripping into it. Then smirks. Oh he was only messing around waits until the robo beast runs at him. Then uses his grace and wigs out his anger at everythkng shiro’s been through.

I'll become a demon if I have to. (Dissonates)

Shiro was the champion they found another one. He screamed and the tortured him and lance was pissed.

Shiro runs out on the arena lance heveggaze fixated on him burning hatred and disdain and a gun aimed at lance.

"Look out!"

-Lance stared and for a moment Shiro thought he was going to use his grace on him. That did not detour him from running. -He clips lance and they tumble to the ground lance snaps out of it-

"Shit!"

- They run in the panic towards their lions. -

Shiro backhands a galra lance looks impressed -nice one!- and they get their bayards and shit.

The other paladins are outside in space and fly around Lance leaps over dhiros shoulders and flips over Shiro blinks up at lance upside down then grabs his arms- Lance squaks when Shiro pushed him backwards and Lance spins below him and yells when Shiro dives after him then they’re chasing each other diving and swooping and just olain showing off.

Date with pools and stars

faceed with the same choice again of letting lance go with the celestiels or staing with voltron.

Lotor Keeps his identity a secret.

He is actually oart of the mamoura and was undercover in the arena being a double agent to zarkon as his champion. And letting the paladins and the prisoners go.

“But what about you.”

Lotor smiled smug and it made lance grind his teeth into dust especially when lotor kissed alluras hand.

“I’ll be fine princess, our oats may meet again.”

Lotor helps them and others escape and thankfully no galra are aware they left the paladins and the mamoura help the rebels to a planet to settle down and join the rebellion.

The manourian soies keiths blade and question him Keith tells the truth and te blade tell keith he needs to talk to their leader.

Later keith’s blade activates when Hunk is in danger, and Keith realised he’s a galra.

Only in highly stressful situations does keith galra out and Hunk is able to calm him down.

Lotor and allura get together he’s actually really sweet and always surprised by allura.

Until she finds out he’s the son of zarkon.

She fumes Lance takes her side and shiro takes lotor.

“Look I’ve besn where you are, I felt betrayed it’s cold and hot at the same time because you feel as if your hearts been ripped out.” Allura blinked tears in her eyes.

“Lotor is a jackass and you din’t need that in your life.” Allura shook her head.

“I really liked him.”

“I know.”

“Allura I can’t change who my father is, but everything I’ve said was not a lie. I like you and I want to get to know you, please give me a second chance I can prove I’m nothing like my father.”

Allura bit her lip “I-”

“Allura can I talk to you a sec?” Lance asked and took her hand leading her away.

Shiro’s shoulders sagged, there went any hope Lotor had, Lance had allura wrapped around his fibger she’d believe anythkngbhe had to say

Both shiro and Lotor saw the pair arguing back and forth, Allura looking more upset as Lance finalky crossed his arms and nodded. Thats it, it was over.

Before shiro can even begin the talk of more fish in the sea.

Although in his case none coukd compare and everything after when you’re sure you met the right one was justsetyling.

(I hibestly don’t believe this I’m jus pairing characters up- life is hard to find the right one maybe you did or maybe the person your with isn’t for you. But if you know it’s not right and the situation feels wrong trust your gut.)

and takes them to the mamoura whom call Lotor a traitor and even call out on Keith-His mother is there and they end up escaping the gladiator ring lotor reveals information about a certain area and thats where we find shiro clones.

Which makes shiro unable to pilot black and keith has to take over. As keiths break up-black-clones plus one ptsd flashback shiro is just done.

He snaps at everyone even lance but later on lance is able to coax him out and they bond. Lance shows shiro dnd and they make out accidently.

Lovely sexual scene bit groping here and there.

After they leave for their mission to take down Zarkon and their alliance with the Mamoura they decide they need advanced technology and minds to beat him (Sam holt+ Slav)+Oriande

On the way their SHiro admits he loved Lance and Lance admits it too and he still did but what Shiro did hurt too much to forgive.

On their way Lotor admits they need to cripple Honerva and they follow him to find the shiro clone place now shiro has an exestetial crises weather he's a clone (Finds footage of Shiro blood loss from having his arm ripped off) Lance saves him by awakening his sword to save Shiro

Lance takes the first step and admits what happened to him with Keith and Shiro and what happened to Ryou (Lance accidentally killed him) Here Keith hugs Lance and tells him that he and Shiro aren't like that- It's an open relationship humans did it all the time it wasn't feeding or even dating it was just friends with benefits.

(Have mission where Keith calms down Hunk they have moments before that also and Lance admits why Keith would make a good leader) Finds clues to celestie by honervas notes and barely escape alive, Keith breaks up with Shiro because the more they were in space they didn't grow closer the mutual pining between shiro and lance made Keith feel like he was second place. He needs someone to treat him better.

After this Lance and Shiro play D&D they get close and personell Lance freaks out (And instead of a misunderstanding) SHiro admits to breaking up and says it's because he's saw Lance shine grow evolved and even now he's still advancing before Shiro's eyes (Basically laying it on thick) And admits how he feels like he's useless) (Since I think the reason the show failed was because Shiro was forced to come back)

Introduce Crux. Anti-Quintescence and see that celsestia hordes Alteans and Galra/Hybrds to make them warriors to fight the greatest threat ever. (The monster Zarkon and Alfor fought the very thing that's contaminating the Galra)

Lotor absorbs it (When Allura was going to) And turns evil knowing she will save him Honerva and Zarkon take him back and he becomes the prince of the Galra and a full out war begins, while Keith turns evil and Lance has to fight him. Then Shiro fights Sendek and defeats him.

Then have celestials come into it and see Allura remember a lesson her other taught her- purification and she saves Keith then Lotor and even Honerva the two work together and manage to save Zarkon but the expelled crux warps together and becomes bigass monster that Voltron takes down.

Celestiel then want voltron destroyed (To close he rift and stop any crux from leading out into the world,) and for Lance to return to celestiel since he's still an angel and could be 'saved.'

They think they're being welcomed then get cast inside a cell (You've been exposed to the quintescence of your lions and voltron. You can be causes of Crux yourself (Full metal alchemist give or take if you make quintescence to balance it out crux is made)

They saw the planet and the others gasped "It's so beautiful." Pidge turned "Right Lance- uh, Lance?" Both Shiro and Lance looked pale both breaking in a cold sweat. It had the others worried.

"Guys, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." Lance trembled and without thinking Shiro's hand moved and even Lance's arm clasped around his shoulder as both seemed to graviatate towards one another.

It seemed freaky but honestly it was kinda reminiscint of Scooby jumping into Shaggy's arms, Keith thought.

"The wings- they- how?"

Both of them were locked onto something- something the others couldn't see. "Guy's you're freaking me out here." Hunk admitted even Keith's hand latched around Hunks and squeezed it once.

"There are wings wrapped around the world." Coran said and showed a visual of a pink outline showing five pairs of angelic wings covering the globe.

"What does that mean?" Pidge asked glancing to Shiro and judging his hand being wrapped tight around lance's.

"It means, that whoever possesses those wings has to be powerful, and wise. They have to be older than time itself and faced so many enlightenments to reach that point but usually with wings that large their mass soon follows. A Celestiel will be born."

"A celestiel?"

Lance swallowed "Remembeer that giant floating decapitating head in space and thousands of ships could fit inside the nose?" Allura nodded then paused.

"No."

The others stared at one another horrified.

"Wait didn't someone say that the giant head was evil and was defeated!?" Hunk cried out "Celestiels can turn evil, like how angels can become demons." Lance said and it was something he was always warned off. Falling and even if you achieve great heights you can still fall. There is no final form or chapter, you simply carry on until you cannot any longer.

Lance fly with me.

Hesitates,

oh right I forgot, *Looks understanding* you're afraid of heights.

Shiro *tenses* What?

the other angel looks up "Oh yeah some demon flew Lance past the earths atmosphere and dropped him. Can you believe that?

Keith looked startled "That really happened?"

"Who would do that?"

"What an asshole." Hunk growled even the others couldn't be surprised by his choice words, Lance practically tried to make himself smaller.

Shiro was sweating buckets.

"Oh what was that demons name again? hmm....Kevin- no Kiero- oh yeah Kuro! That's it it was defiently Kuro."

There was a beat of silence at slowly all eyes turned to Shiro. He looked ahead, no sign he was affected except for the tell sale sign of sweat rolling down his cheek.

The angel kept talking "But honestly Lance, you can still fly- you don't have to go far, just glide and you'll be up there in no time." Lance shook his head "Nah, I'm good. Flying just reminds me that I can't go back to celestia that's all."

Shiro couldn't even look at Lance. He told him he liked heights because it made him forget he had even fallen.

Shiro had no idea he took that away from Lance, he couldn't even look at the others or even know how to fix it, the more he and Lance became closer the more the gap between them grew wider.

__________________________

0 notes

awriterstransition · 7 years

Text

Gifts And Goodbyes

If you find any of the sections of stories I write interesting, I’ve tagged every story with “Isen” so if you search for Isen’s name you get every part I wrote. If you have any questions about my stories, or want to tell me anything, go ahead and send me a message.

Gifts and Goodbyes

I met Lynn and Mrs. Ring later in the morning and they had just as equally cleaned up, they smelled fresh, but their clothing had a hint of musk to them, the same guard from yesterday was more than happy to follow along beside us after what happened yesterday. Apparently Gavin the Adestrian guard, carried me back to the embassy over his shoulder, and thankfully dressed me before doing so. This scared me though because I didn’t like doing being a mess in public, sexual things were fine with me, but I didn’t like the idea of others seeing me with fur matted with cum and smelling of male and female sex. To ease my mood Davin, the guard told me there was hardly anyone on the road when he carried me to the embassy. Davin also explained that he was a long term resident of Cadara, he knew some fun locations to visit and even gave us the grand tour of the Noble Quarter of the city, showing us historical monuments, like the Orphanage of Wolfric Von Clarence one of the older Kings of Mincara, apparently King Wolfric’s mate the old queen of Mincara, couldn’t bear children so he adopted three children at random. It was said that one of those he adopted was human. Which caused a huge three day riot because that meant the human could be a king of Cadara. Though at the mention of humans, I had to ask about humans on Ecorein, because Lynn had never told me there where humans once on Cadara. Lynn told me about the massive war that was caused because of some kind of misunderstanding. Apparently the human king was killed by a Mincridarn assassin. The king obviously countered this but the confusion and anger drove the humans of Ecorein to hate Mincridarins, so humans would abuse the Mincridarins and treat them like feral animals. War was the only option in the end, and the Mincridarins won that war, but in the end it turned into a slaughter. The humans lost their country, and there homes, and humans spread to the wind and slowly died out. There hasn’t been a living human seen in a hundred years. Lynn explained that this is why Mincridarins had such a hard time trusting the humans from Earth, and why there were so many that didn’t want the royal government involved with them. After that war all the mistreatment and abuse brought about by humans, Mincridarins expected Earth humans to be no different so everyone expected another war to bloom, and with how advanced these modern humans were, Mincridarins were scared that a war would lead the Mincridarins to extinction. This history was never stated because Mincridarins feared that if humans found out their past, that they wouldn’t even talk to the Mincridarins. After this simple brief history I understood why Mincridarins had to be so heavily regulated when it came to who could live on earth. They had to prove that they weren’t monsters, and try to provide a stable peaceful relationship. After that history lesson, the three of them kept telling me more about the history they couldn’t share on earth, talking about magical dangers, problems with demons and beings of shadows, and monsters in general. Most of the world beyond the city gates was populated with strong and dangerous beasts, Giants the size of castles, spiders the side of houses, chimeras, and wild feral dragons. Ecorein was a dangerous world, and it wasn’t meant for humans on earth, because it had taken years to coordinate some mutual understanding with the beasts, or at least the ones that had enough intelligence to speak properly. Though Davin cut in making a simple comment. “And that’s not even talking about the ones in the sea.” Which wasn’t a very reassuring thought. “Then what about Matra, what are the monsters like there?” I asked looking up at Lynn who seemed to understand more about these monsters than anyone. “Matra has giant insects, there are bees and wasps the size of your for arm. Crow fiends, which are giant black birds that make nests in some of the trees in Matra. They have thick Bone armor and three eyes on their head. Though as long as you don’t cross into their territory you’ll be fine. Then there are fruit spiders, that make nests in the branches of the Iron Bark trees and that live on the juices of the Gogen fruit, which is a giant water melon shaped seed that hangs from tendrils in the Iron Bark Trees. The fruit spiders are about the size of an average dinning chair, but their normally docile unless you provoke them. They kind of act like pigeons and you can scare them away if you want, and the fruit spider’s webs make great threads for fabric when treated properly, but their venom isn’t toxic but it’ll defiantly hurt for month.” Lynn explained and I was kind of dreading Matra because of my bad relationship with insects. “Then there are Dragon sprites that live off of the vast amount of magic in the region, they aren’t evil but they do like to play pranks, and tease Mincridarn tree dwellers by stealing things and casting simple illusions. But on the forest floor there are beasts too dangerous to naturally fight.” “Like the Ancient wolves?” Davin added and Lynn just looked at the dragon who fell silent under Lynn’s firm gaze. “Yes like the Ancient wolves, which are ten times the size of the wolves on earth, they can grow to the size of large trucks. Then there are Black Queen Snakes, which can sometimes climb the Iron Bark Trees if there large enough, you can think of them as basilisks just without the ability to turn people into stone. Then there are also Chimera’s, and that’s only a few of the tangible beasts. That’s not even talking about the elementals and spirits that are born from the pools of magic around Matra. Spirits are normally not a problem and they just tend to be playful but it’s the corrupted spirits you have to watch out for, those ones will not hesitate to try and cause you physical harm. The Elementals as well, they’re normally calm unless provoked or corrupted. A lot of new beginner mages live in Matra to train in their fields of magic, so these mystical problems aren’t normally a problem.” Lynn explained and that was reassuring, but now it made sense why the people Matra found shelter near the top of trees. Davin led us around the town till the early afternoon, where we made our way to the beach, it may have been a cold day but there were a few Mincridarins relaxing and laying on the beach enjoying the sea’s cool air. The sea was a shimmering blue, nothing like the ocean on earth. We walked across the protected beach, enjoying the wet sand underneath our hooves, paws and scales. “Isen I’m going to transfer to Matra?” Lynn said looking at me, and I looked at him and Lynn pulled me close and capped my muzzle closed with his hand. “Isen so help me, if you try and say anything against it I will hurt you.” I pulled his hand off my mouth and looked at him. “The New York Sanctuary needs a mage, and you’re perfect Lynn.” “Isen I’m warning you say anything against me again and I’ll beat your ass again… and not in the sexual way.” Lynn had to add because of the excitement the guard showed. He then capped my muzzle again and looked down at me. “Isen I nearly lost you, please stop fighting me, because I’m not going to listen to you. I will keep my promise, I won’t try and kill anyone if you die, but at least let me stay close to you. I love you even if you don’t love me. I want to protect you.” Lynn looked off towards the sea when he spoke and then back down to me. His words were simply and I felt bad for abusing him and leading him on, allowing them to think I had died when I hadn’t. “Will you not counter me again if I find a mage to take my place?” I gave into Lynn’s words, he was a bull when he wanted to be and nothing I was going to do was going to stop him. So I nodded in agreement, because it’s not like I had the right to refuse him, I had hurt him enough and he was trying to be with me. Lynn smiled happily and held me a bit tighter, allowing his tone and tEnder arm to surround me in his warm and soft touch. I could smell that familiar Irish soap that still clung to his fur even though it was a bit muskier than it was yesterday, as we continued to walk along the beach until Mrs. Ring spoke up. “I’m thinking about coming back to Ecorein as well.” Mrs. Ring stated and Lynn and I looked at her, the hyena seemed nervous and she didn’t seem to want to talk about, but it seemed like she needed to get this off her chest. “I don’t want to stay on Earth.” Mrs. Ring finally stated as if she finally got a weight off her chest. “I hate it, Earth, it’s all too much. The technology, the weapons, I can’t even get a fair job beyond the sanctuary. Even military contractors won’t let Mincridarins join them, because of the view of the American government and other governments. They don’t want too much of their military information leaked to us. But the schooling system, it’s so good and I know Andrew loves it there. I want to give him a better life, he deserves it, I can’t take that away from him…. I don’t know what to do!” Mrs. Ring called out in anger looking at me, and her form slumped, ever since he had gotten more personal with me she had become more emotional and expressive. “A mother’s duty is to her child Mrs. Ring you know that.” “I know dammit.” Mrs. Ring groaned pushing back her ears as she looked at me sadly. “I’ll ask Sir Baal about it, there have been a few talented individuals that came through the portal maybe one was a teacher, but I doubt it, and if there is, they probably went to North Arc. But Mrs. Ring you should stay on Earth for Andrew, that little cub deserves a better education…” “I know but I’m not sure what to do anymore, things have just been happening to him ever since you’ve been gone Isen. He’s just tired all the time, he doesn’t want to go to school, and he doesn’t even want to spar with the other cubs in his class. He kind of just sits in the corner. The teacher is worried about him because his grades are falling and he doesn’t play with anyone in his class anymore. I don’t know what to do, the doctors say he’s fine, but that’s it. I can’t figure out what’s wrong with him because he hardly talks to me anymore.” Mrs. Ring explained frantically, she was truly frightened and I could see why, but I think I also knew why Andrew was acting the way he was. “Mrs. Ring he’s probably depressed?” I simply stated and Mrs. Ring looked at me confused. “Depressed?” “He’s sad, he’s lost two male figures in his life. You’re moron of Mate, and Me. You’ve told me before he thinks of me as a father. To him I’m dead.” I explained and I looked at her and she seemed lost in a few emotions, angry, sad and confused. “Isen, would you please talk to him?” Mrs. Ring asked and my heart felt weak, because if I was right then Andrew’s depression was my fault, but I couldn’t talk to him the contracts I had signed prevented that, and I couldn’t go back to earth, not anymore it would create chaos, and now knowing Mincridarn history I understood why. “I can’t Mrs. Ring you know that, I’d be breaking the contract I signed, and you can’t either. You know Andrew couldn’t keep something like this a secret.” “Then what do I do?” Mrs. Ring protested rather annoyed with me, her muzzle curled up in anger, and I fell silent, and turned away from her harsh gaze. “Mrs. Ring move to Matra with me, Andrew just needs to know Isen is alive, and Isen won’t have the balls to tell you to do that, even though he knows that’s what you need to do.” Lynn countered flicking my snout creating a hollow thump that made me flinch. I looked at Mrs. Ring sadly, because Lynn was right, it was either Andrew came to live in Matra or he moved on an forgot about me. “Lynn’s right, but Andrew should stay on Earth and learn from humans, it would give him a better life. He could do so much if given the chance.” I countered and Mrs. Ring took hold of my arm and pulled me close and wrapped her own arm around my shoulders. “First I think it’s important to think about Andrew’s opinion, and I’m sure he’d give up leg just to see you alive again.” Mrs. Ring countered roughly, still relatively annoyed with me about beating around the bush, but she shifted the conversation, just as quickly as she shifted her gaze to Lynn who was very unamused with Mrs. Ring stealing me away from him. “Hey he’s mine too.” She simply countered, and I didn’t counter her, because I didn’t want an my rear smacked raw again, so I just let the two glare at each other as we walked. After a few hours on the beach we walked to Lynn’s and Mrs. Ring’s shared room in the Inn, where we had some farewell sex, and we of course made sure to include the dragon. This time however I was conscious when I walked back to the Embassy during the early night. “I’m so jealous, I wish I could find a female like you Isen.” The dragon simply stated scratching his loins, where his cock was still somewhat exposed in his pants, and hard from our shared sexual escapade. “Well why are you looking for a female? I’m a male.” I simply countered and the Dragon laughed at this and knocked me in the shoulder, which hurt even with my new Mincridarn form. The Davin took me back to my room and wished me a good night’s rest. The female slave was tidying up my room when I entered, and when she saw the state I was in, she came to me and simply told me to wait while she started a bath. The next day, I met Lynn and Mrs. Ring on not so good terms, I was going to leave for Matra today, we already preplanned for a week of fun, but I had to move on and they understood this. They didn’t debate it and they simply asked that I wait for them to return; they wanted to give me something. I wasn’t sure what they had planned, and I was half expecting them to return with a chest full of dildos, not that’d mind a chest full of dildos, but still wasn’t expecting them return with what they had. I was waiting in my room while the female slave was brushing my fur down, when Davin opened the door and let them inside. IN their hands were gift wrapped boxes, a small and a medium sized one. The slave took her leave and the two sat down with me on the bed. Apparently they come up with the idea and split the cost of the gifts. I tore open the largest first, and was rather stunned by what was in my hands, an entirely new laptop, a full on gaming laptop specially made for massive amounts of storage. In total Lynn told me the laptop had one and half terabytes of usable storage space. The laptop had this wonderful dark blue and black color pattern. He even told me he enchanted it to be nigh unbreakable, and weather resistant. He proved this by slamming the laptop on the ground and jumping on it. I wanted to scream because it was an amazing gift, and I was scared he had truly broken it. But in the end Lynn’s enchantments held and the laptop was perfectly safe. Though the box wasn’t empty, inside there was a tall and thick blue plastic zipper case of CD’s, containing human shows and movies of all kinds, organized by genre. They told me they had ransacked a DVD store, but they made sure that most of them were new because they didn’t want the CD’s ruined, they wanted them to make sure they lasted as long as possible and Lynn aided once again with his enchantments and rune writing abilities, by making the CD’s resistant to damage. They tied it all together with large laptop bag and small wireless mouse. Lynn opened up the mouse and reveal a small glowing vial containing a yellow crystal, it was a crystal fragment that could contain magical energy, and then turn that magical energy into electrical energy, so the crystal powered the wireless mouse. This was all so much I wanted to counter them, all of this, must have taken a few thousand dollars. They told me not to care about the price, it was set of celebratory gifts wrapped up into one, A full recovery gift, with welcome to our world, welcome to your new home, and finally a happy birthday gift because they knew they’d miss my birthday this year, which was in just a few weeks. The last gift was creation of Lynn’s, it was a magical energy converter much like the battery in the mouse, but this one was larger and could store and handle much more than the small crystal. It was made to recharge the laptop, so I could properly use said laptop. The gifts were amazing and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. I hugged them both happily and kissed them just as much. Lynn told me about special charms on all the items which protected from all kinds of damages, and theft. The bag was enchanted to only be used by me so no one could open it or pry anything open. It was also enchanted to lighten the load of items it contained. So the shoulder bag was near weightless, but only to me. It was enchanted like Thor’s Hammer, only I could lift and use it. I owed them big time for everything they had given me, and the accepted this happily and planned to hold this over me, but in the end Davin came to collect me. We all had to say our goodbyes, and I kissed them both goodbye, and they deserved nothing less.

#Mrs. Ring/Lynn/Isen #Part 34

0 notes

greenflamedwriter · 3 years

Text

Angel part five. Final

Lotor found something. Something called oriande and Lance laughed it off, the whole Allura being his distant cousin thrice removed and Lotor being part altean whatever. Until they travelled to the outer solar system Lance sucked in a sharp breath.

"no way."

"Is that a floating skull!?" Hunk cried out

"It's the size of jupitar! what the hell!?"

"It's not really a skull it's just a planet that looks like one."

Later keith’s blade activates when Hunk is in danger, and Keith realised he’s a galra.

Only in highly stressful situations does keith galra out and Hunk is able to calm him down.

Lotor and allura get together he’s actually really sweet and always surprised by allura.

Until she finds out he’s the son of zarkon.

She fumes Lance takes her side and shiro takes lotor.

“Look I’ve besn where you are, I felt betrayed it’s cold and hot at the same time because you feel as if your hearts been ripped out.” Allura blinked tears in her eyes.

“Lotor is a jackass and you din’t need that in your life.” Allura shook her head.

“I really liked him.”

“I know.”

Allura bit her lip “I-”

“Allura can I talk to you a sec?” Lance asked and took her hand leading her away.

Shiro’s shoulders sagged, there went any hope Lotor had, Lance had allura wrapped around his fibger she’d believe anythkngbhe had to say

Both shiro and Lotor saw the pair arguing back and forth, Allura looking more upset as Lance finalky crossed his arms and nodded. Thats it, it was over.

Before shiro can even begin the talk of more fish in the sea.

Although in his case none coukd compare and everything after when you’re sure you met the right one was justsetyling.

Which makes shiro unable to pilot black and keith has to take over. As keiths break up-black-clones plus one ptsd flashback shiro is just done.

He snaps at everyone even lance but later on lance is able to coax him out and they bond. Lance shows shiro dnd and they make out accidently.

Lovely sexual scene bit groping here and there.

After they leave for their mission to take down Zarkon and their alliance with the Mamoura they decide they need advanced technology and minds to beat him (Sam holt+ Slav)+Oriande

On the way their SHiro admits he loved Lance and Lance admits it too and he still did but what Shiro did hurt too much to forgive.

Celestiel then want voltron destroyed (To close he rift and stop any crux from leading out into the world,) and for Lance to return to celestiel since he's still an angel and could be 'saved.'

They saw the planet and the others gasped "It's so beautiful." Pidge turned "Right Lance- uh, Lance?" Both Shiro and Lance looked pale both breaking in a cold sweat. It had the others worried.

It seemed freaky but honestly it was kinda reminiscint of Scooby jumping into Shaggy's arms, Keith thought.

"The wings- they- how?"

Both of them were locked onto something- something the others couldn't see. "Guy's you're freaking me out here." Hunk admitted even Keith's hand latched around Hunks and squeezed it once.

"There are wings wrapped around the world." Coran said and showed a visual of a pink outline showing five pairs of angelic wings covering the globe.

"What does that mean?" Pidge asked glancing to Shiro and judging his hand being wrapped tight around lance's.

"A celestiel?"

Lance swallowed "Remembeer that giant floating decapitating head in space and thousands of ships could fit inside the nose?" Allura nodded then paused.

"No."

The others stared at one another horrified.

Lance fly with me.

Hesitates,

oh right I forgot, *Looks understanding* you're afraid of heights.

Shiro *tenses* What?

the other angel looks up "Oh yeah some demon flew Lance past the earths atmosphere and dropped him. Can you believe that?

Keith looked startled "That really happened?"

"Who would do that?"

"What an asshole." Hunk growled even the others couldn't be surprised by his choice words, Lance practically tried to make himself smaller.

Shiro was sweating buckets.

"Oh what was that demons name again? hmm....Kevin- no Kiero- oh yeah Kuro! That's it it was defiently Kuro."

There was a beat of silence at slowly all eyes turned to Shiro. He looked ahead, no sign he was affected except for the tell sale sign of sweat rolling down his cheek.

Shiro couldn't even look at Lance. He told him he liked heights because it made him forget he had even fallen.

Shiro had no idea he took that away from Lance, he couldn't even look at the others or even know how to fix it, the more he and Lance became closer the more the gap between them grew wider.

"Oh he always talked about you."

"hmm? Who?"

"Kuro. That's what he said that last time we went for a flight-"

"Kinkade," Lance hoped he would stop.

"He said you were beautiful when you flew and he was right, that's how he got me to come over, you were so fast and elegant he said and would never shut up." Lance blinked.

He always compared me to some guy who was fast and a beutiful flyer it's like I was living in his shadow. You're shadow. Keith said that as well- he wasn't lying.

"When he dropped you I thought you both were playing the other angels did it all the time," Lance swallowed. "I...I didn't know..."

Shiro goes with adam and Curtis because they look like Lance.

Lance goes with Ryou because he looks like Shiro.

Show Shiro's arena fights and the stuff he's went through to make it less one sided. (Arena fight where they meet Lotor and the blade! we can go to the confession scene in the lions fro there then after have Keith break up with Shiro because Hunk has been his tability."

Have Lance and Shiro exposed in an arena fight as they both fight together against a robo beast.

Have Keith and Lance have a post break up singing my chemical romance welcome to the black parade and destory shit.

Hunk was nervous

"Guys what do we do?"

"Calm down, we just have to think-"

"-Well think quick, they're going to out us out there in the arena."

..."Shiro you fought in there, what do we do? Shiro...?

-Shiro is currently freaking out-

"Well fuck."

"Paladins…"

-Reveal lotor and antok who talk to the others-

"Who are you?"

"The reighning champion after shiro. I’ve been fighting here since I was a boy."

"I meant You're name?"

"I am Lotor and this is antok."

"Shit a guards coming- shiro!"

"Shiro snaps out of it when Lance is take .

"Lance!"

Shiro slames against the gate-

"Don’t attack first- evade and find its weakness!"

(Lotor) "He’s a lost cause he’s facing Urak the worst galra here.

"Goddamit let him out."

-Hunk is freaking out and keith consoles him since Shiro ignored him-

"Oh god they’ve taken lance."

"He’ll be fine Hunk- he flew out a ship to save shiro, remember."

"But this- he can’t fight- he’s terrible at combat."

I'll become a demon if I have to. (Dissonates)

Shiro was the champion they found another one. He screamed and the tortured him and lance was pissed.

Shiro runs out on the arena lance heveggaze fixated on him burning hatred and disdain and a gun aimed at lance.

"Look out!"

-Lance stared and for a moment Shiro thought he was going to use his grace on him. That did not detour him from running. -He clips lance and they tumble to the ground lance snaps out of it-

"Shit!"

- They run in the panic towards their lions. -

Shiro backhands a galra lance looks impressed -nice one!- and they get their bayards and shit.

The other paladins are outside in space. Lotor Keeps his identity a secret.

He is actually oart of the mamoura and was undercover in the arena being a double agent to zarkon as his champion. And letting the paladins and the prisoners go.

“But what about you.”

Lotor smiled smug and it made lance grind his teeth into dust especially when lotor kissed alluras hand.

“I’ll be fine princess, our paths cross again.”

Lotor helps them and others escape and thankfully no galra are aware they left the paladins and the mamoura help the rebels to a planet to settle down and join the rebellion.

The manourian soies keiths blade and question him Keith tells the truth and te blade tell keith he needs to talk to their leader.

Keith keeps the blade but has a deadline if he cant activate it then the blade gets taken from him moreso to prove he desevrs it and hunk is there every step of the way even Lance and oidge say they can just 3-d the thing Nd give the fake to the mamoura. Keith is against it and wants to prove himself. Lotor finds Keiths mother and helps reunite them then we get an indepth into his story of an abused child then his secret gets exposed Allura and the others are hurt but the mamoura sticks up for him and it slipts the alliance with Keith unable to choose who to side with.

Allura fumes Lance takes her side and shiro takes lotor to the side.

“Look I’ve besn where you are, I felt betrayed it’s cold and hot at the same time because you feel as if your hearts been ripped out.” Allura blinked tears in her eyes.

“Lotor is a jackass and you din’t need that in your life.” Allura shook her head.

“I really liked him.”

“I know.”

Lance glanced back at Shiro and took a breath "But for what it's worth, I think Lotor is a good guy."

"What?"

"I'm an angel I can tell, he really cares and he wasn't lying about the cause."

"You're saying I should forgive him?"

"What no. Well not straight away make him sweat a little, but believe me Allura it's a leap of faith." Allura saw Lance glance back at Shiro and pursed her lips.

"I think you're a hypocrite." Lance blinked "What?"

"If you want me to try, why don't you try with Shiro?" Lance flushed "I-uh...it's...it's really hard." He slumped back and Allura joined him "I know it really is scary."

Lance laughed "How do people do this? like all the time?" Allura shook her head "I don't know how my father did it. But for the people who fall in love are stupidly brave." Lance glanced her way.

"Well I'm stupid, and I think you're pretty brave...want to give one final leap?" Allura pressed her lips together.

"Not yet, not until I know someone will catch me first." Lance glanced back to Shiro and Lotor.

Could he do it again?

Allura bit her lip “I-”

“Allura can I talk to you a sec?” Lance asked and took her hand leading her away.

Shiro’s shoulders sagged, there went any hope Lotor had, Lance had allura wrapped around his fibger she’d believe anythkngbhe had to say

Both shiro and Lotor saw the pair arguing back and forth, Allura looking more upset as Lance finalky crossed his arms and nodded. Thats it, it was over.

Before shiro can even begin the talk of more fish in the sea.

Although in his case none coukd compare and everything after when you’re sure you met the right one was justsetyling.

"no way."

"Is that a floating skull!?" Hunk cried out

"It's the size of jupitar! what the hell!?"

"It's not really a skull it's just a planet that looks like one."

Later keith’s blade activates when Hunk is in danger, and Keith realised he’s a galra.

Only in highly stressful situations does keith galra out and Hunk is able to calm him down.

Lotor and allura get together he’s actually really sweet and always surprised by allura.

Until she finds out he’s the son of zarkon.

She fumes Lance takes her side and shiro takes lotor.

“Look I’ve besn where you are, I felt betrayed it’s cold and hot at the same time because you feel as if your hearts been ripped out.” Allura blinked tears in her eyes.

“Lotor is a jackass and you din’t need that in your life.” Allura shook her head.

“I really liked him.”

“I know.”

Allura bit her lip “I-”

“Allura can I talk to you a sec?” Lance asked and took her hand leading her away.

Shiro’s shoulders sagged, there went any hope Lotor had, Lance had allura wrapped around his fibger she’d believe anythkngbhe had to say

Both shiro and Lotor saw the pair arguing back and forth, Allura looking more upset as Lance finalky crossed his arms and nodded. Thats it, it was over.

Before shiro can even begin the talk of more fish in the sea.

Although in his case none coukd compare and everything after when you’re sure you met the right one was justsetyling.

Which makes shiro unable to pilot black and keith has to take over. As keiths break up-black-clones plus one ptsd flashback shiro is just done.

He snaps at everyone even lance but later on lance is able to coax him out and they bond. Lance shows shiro dnd and they make out accidently.

Lovely sexual scene bit groping here and there.

After they leave for their mission to take down Zarkon and their alliance with the Mamoura they decide they need advanced technology and minds to beat him (Sam holt+ Slav)+Oriande

On the way their SHiro admits he loved Lance and Lance admits it too and he still did but what Shiro did hurt too much to forgive.

Celestiel then want voltron destroyed (To close he rift and stop any crux from leading out into the world,) and for Lance to return to celestiel since he's still an angel and could be 'saved.'

They saw the planet and the others gasped "It's so beautiful." Pidge turned "Right Lance- uh, Lance?" Both Shiro and Lance looked pale both breaking in a cold sweat. It had the others worried.

It seemed freaky but honestly it was kinda reminiscint of Scooby jumping into Shaggy's arms, Keith thought.

"The wings- they- how?"

Both of them were locked onto something- something the others couldn't see. "Guy's you're freaking me out here." Hunk admitted even Keith's hand latched around Hunks and squeezed it once.

"There are wings wrapped around the world." Coran said and showed a visual of a pink outline showing five pairs of angelic wings covering the globe.

"What does that mean?" Pidge asked glancing to Shiro and judging his hand being wrapped tight around lance's.

"A celestiel?"

Lance swallowed "Remembeer that giant floating decapitating head in space and thousands of ships could fit inside the nose?" Allura nodded then paused.

"No."

The others stared at one another horrified.

Lance fly with me.

Hesitates,

oh right I forgot, *Looks understanding* you're afraid of heights.

Shiro *tenses* What?

the other angel looks up "Oh yeah some demon flew Lance past the earths atmosphere and dropped him. Can you believe that?

Keith looked startled "That really happened?"

"Who would do that?"

"What an asshole." Hunk growled even the others couldn't be surprised by his choice words, Lance practically tried to make himself smaller.

Shiro was sweating buckets.

"Oh what was that demons name again? hmm....Kevin- no Kiero- oh yeah Kuro! That's it it was defiently Kuro."

There was a beat of silence at slowly all eyes turned to Shiro. He looked ahead, no sign he was affected except for the tell sale sign of sweat rolling down his cheek.

Shiro couldn't even look at Lance. He told him he liked heights because it made him forget he had even fallen.

Shiro had no idea he took that away from Lance, he couldn't even look at the others or even know how to fix it, the more he and Lance became closer the more the gap between them grew wider.

"Oh he always talked about you."

"hmm? Who?"

"Kuro. That's what he said that last time we went for a flight-"

"Kinkade," Lance hoped he would stop.

"He said you were beautiful when you flew and he was right, that's how he got me to come over, you were so fast and elegant he said and would never shut up." Lance blinked.

He always compared me to some guy who was fast and a beutiful flyer it's like I was living in his shadow. You're shadow. Keith said that as well- he wasn't lying.

"When he dropped you I thought you both were playing the other angels did it all the time," Lance swallowed. "I...I didn't know..."

________________________________________________________________________

Chapter Last one.

“Lance- Don’t go with them!” Pidge cried out but was held back by the angels that covered their face. Lance glanced back and smiled softly “It’s okay, you guys don’t have to pretend anymore.”

Keith brow furrowed “Pretend?” Lance shrugged taking a step back, his voice tight “You guys don’t really need me. I’ve never contributed anything to the team and look- Keith’s back! And Shiro can fly the blue lion, so it’s all okay isn’t it?” The others were stunned stupid, the fact that Lance believed this crap honestly made them speechless.

But their silence only confirmed Lance’s suspicions. He let Kinkade take his arm “Come on-”

Shiro finally snapped out of his thoughts, Lance was leaving him- them.

He stepped forward side stepping the guard.

“That’s bullshit!” Shiro yelled out. Lance flinched surprised and Shiro bold, took another step.

“You’re the fucking reason we’re even out here right now! Why we both found Celestie- because you trusted Lotor,”

“Trust is a strong word.”

“You saved my life countless times,”

“I think you saved me a couple times too-”

“You jumped in front of a freakin bomb and protected all of us- and you were the one to pilot the blue lion first and then the black lion second!” Lance blinked as Shiro took a long breath.

“The lions chose you for a reason. And...I’d like to believe,” Shiro flushed “That is, it was fate that we met again after all of those years, I mean what are the odds that I happen to crash my ship right where you were?” Shiro asked and Lance suddenly stopped breathing.

Shiro wasn’t saying what he thought he was saying- no. He gave up trying to figure out Shiro’s thought process long ago. Which was why he was caught of guard by what the demon said next.

“All this time I made decisions on what you’ve wanted but I’ve never asked you what you wanted. Lance please, we all want you to stay- and I do too.” Lance swallowed, his hands crossing unconciously “Why?” He asked still wary.

Shiro smiled, it wasn’t any different from his usual smiles and yet it made Lance feel his insides turn to goo.

“Because I love you. I always have, it hasn’t changed since I first saw you.”

Lance’s eyes widened before he could say anything else the guards slammed there staff and pushed Shiro back “Enough!”

Lance was suddenly pulled back as more Angels intervined.

“Now we see. You can tempt this Angel no more Demon. All of you manipulating him to fall- now we see he is not to blame.”

“What!?” Pidge yelled outrage even Allura tried to push through “That is not our intention-”

“Enough!” With one snap of the angels finger Lance felt his stomach plummet as his whole world warped and shot towards the sky he panicked grabbing onto the closest thing to steady himself.

Kinkade chuckled “Don’t worry- they won’t hurt you anymore.” Lance’s eyes widened

Shiro looked up as the earth lunged towards the sky the others fell back in a cry as the angelic city suddenly levitated towards the sky and they were now falling into a crater as the earth spilled and they all fell Shiro cried out grabbing onto the others and used his wings to bank their fall a little but it did nothing, the planet swallowed them hole.

“Kinkade, I have to go back.” Lance pleased and saw the surprised look on the angels face “I don’t belong here anymore. I don’t think I fit in.” Lance said self conciously, he noticed the other angels looking at him. Aware of what transpired down below, they knew he consorted with a demon and their looks seemed to convey that he was dirty or broken. He knew where he wasn’t wanted and he’d take his leave but falling from that height would probably deal with a broken arm or something.

Kinkade looked shocked “You can’t go back- look they were like that with me, but once you’re settled down it’ll be before.” Lance frowned glancing at the others he doubted it…

He couldn’t help but feel...off about these angels. Almost as if they were detatched from it all like how he used to be. After being closed of from life and seeing how fleeting it is it’s no different than caring for insects, they eat they live they die. Circle of light that is non impactful. Lance had slowly began to be aware that he did it with help from Shiro he’s able to be grounded. And the angels here...he had a feeling he might lose himself again.

The thought made him panic.

“I need...I need some fresh air.” “Oh...okay.” Kinkade let him go and Lance stumbled towards the other balconies and took a large gulp of air.

Okay- think of earth, Cuba, the beaches the language garlic knots...Shiro and the others, being a family-

But their gone now.

He heard a noise and gasped instantly hiding behind a flower pot as two angels moved outside.

“How long before he forgets about them?”

“Not long, a few years he’ll not care about Voltron.”

“Such a little thing compared to the grand scheme of things.”

Lance blinked, they were talking about him?

“We need warriors to fight the Negative where the numbers come from is irelevent their only collatoral damage anyway.”

“But one’s that are loyal is hard to come by.” The other one had a cold cruel tone “But the desperate ones would give anything to be back in our good graces even if it’s to die by the negative.”

“Not all of them are useless the Negative has weakened over the milenia. If only we had more…”

They began to move their conversation and Lance gasped covering his mouth. What the hell?

He had to get out of there, it was a mistake- if Shiro hadn’t blindsided him with that confession he would’ve figured it out!

Lance finally manages to escape and holds a hand to his halo the fracture still there, after all this years he waited to be welcomed back with open arms by Celestia. But taking away the choice that he couldn’t be with Shiro or the others? It was another cage. Lance had no idea that he outgrew the principles of Celestia and that returning would be impossible but he hoped...he teeters over the edge of the floating palace and gazes down below the clouds floating underneath he shivered and took a breath. He lifted his foot over the edge.

“Lance!” He turned to see Kinkade and felt almost sorry for him, but hey at least some angels can be redeemed he was wrong to think he was a bad guy. Lance smiled as he took a step back and fell his only glimpse of Kinkade running towards him in a panic then the rocky terrain of the floating palace then sky.

What was he thinking!?

Pure terror made him scream and flap like an idiot, why did he could do this the third time!?

The air whipped past as he plummeted he could barely breathe or get any sound in at all. He shut his eyes waiting for the inevitable.

Shiro looked up towards the sky his eyes straining at the someone thing falling from the floating palace and gasped.

Lance.

He had no idea how he knew, but he could feel it, like how he felt the Black lion in his mind and the calming presence of Blue to calm his anxiety.

“Move!” He lunged forward grappling against the guards and they held firm their staffs glowing and Shiro could only snarl as he fought them their holy staffs burning as they slammed against his pelvis.

The more the fought the more demonic he became his horns grew and his bat like wings flapped erratically like a caged animal he began to fly forward and slammed an angel into the wall and the slumped unable to move. At this point, rational thought escaped him. Another angel growled then cried out as more of the outcasts, the nephilm roared and followed Shiro but he couldn’t care less for a revolution his focus was to get to the surface. He began to claw his way through the dirt as the gates would only open for an angel. And Shiro lost his grace long ago.

His hands began to crack and go bloody as he clawed and screamed as he dug his wings catching on rocks and his own body bruised and bloody as he clawed his way through the ground snarling as his hand finally broke free.

Keith kicked an angel back and cried out as another one lunged on top of him until they suddenly slumped with a surprised expression on their face. Keith glanced back to see Hunk with a grim expression on his face. Keith smiled gratefully and both continued to fight covering Shiro’s getaway from angels that would drag him back. If what he said was true, Lance didn’t have much time.

Shiro rips through the ground and claws through bloody fingers

He looked up sharply and gasped to see Lance falling plummeting with one beat of his wings Shiro shot into the skys his hands outreaching and desperate.

Why? Why would Lance fall from heaven from Celestia when he could have everything he wanted?

But he knew someone had to be their for him- he never was not in the way Lance wanted...but he was beginning to understand.

Lance was afraid to fall in love again, Penelope, Ryou and then Shiro who wouldn’t be apprehensive?

With a beat of his wings Shiro flew faster plucking Lance out of the sky. For a moment they were suspended in time as they floated in between heaven and earth. Lance looked surprised and Shiro had to laugh at the dumb look on his face. Until Lance’s expression crumpled his his hands wrapped tightly around Shiro’s neck.

Shiro would think he was disappointed until he heard Lance’s voice breath against his neck.

“Oh thank god!”

They float for a moment slow gazing looks turning soft, and then they plummet. Shiro gasps his own wings beating weakly but unable to hold them both, he was so focused on getting there he didn’t think what would happen after.

He cried out as he and Lance fell towards the ground as it grew closer he felt Lance’s arms “don’t worry,” Shiro gasped as he suddenly felt feather light and saw Lance’s wings flap once and they shot through the sky the clouds disturbed into a swirl as they both curled and swooped into an arc and saw Lance glide towards the ground where the others were waiting. Lance gave a whoop and Shiro clung tighter it was completely weird being the passenger but Lance’s beaming face as they descended swerving side to side he had to share the enthusiasm.

You may be afraid to fall in love, and you may not want to ever try again, but when it comes to love it’s finding the right person.

...To fall for.

0 notes