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daniel306gaming · 1 year

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¿What if Peter Parker asked Wanda for help in Spider-Man No Way Home?

To: Tom Holland, Elizabeth Olsen, Jon Watts, Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios

Intro

¿What if events went differently in the MCU? ¿What if Peter asked Wanda for help in Spider-Man No Way Home? In today’s fan fiction we’re going to be exploring what would have happened if Peter Parker would ask Wanda for help in erasing everyone’s knowledge of his identity as Spider-Man instead of Doctor Strange in No Way Home. ¿How can this affect the multiverse going forward? This is my own take of events taking inspiration from the 2007-08 One More Day and 2014-15 Spider-Verse story arcs with elements from the 2010 One Moment in Time comic while following the mythology of Spider-Man and Scarlet Witch and the timeline of the MCU. Without wasting anymore time sit back and relax and enjoy this dark fan fiction.

Prologue

There are several parallel universes each separated by a certain occurrence in the mainstream of time. These universes come together to form the multiverse in which each one of them is unique for its own specific event. In the end it is only I the Watcher who oversees the happenings of all these worlds but I must not intervene as the principles of my existence will put the multiverse at risk. In our universe there existed a certain name. A kid named Peter Parker. The young man had spent a great deal of his life being a vigilante famously known as Spider-Man. But the burden of saving a populated world proves difficult for one child to bear. This became very evident when Peter was outed as the Spider-Man by the villain known as Mysterio. To fix the mistake he had caused Peter had met with the former Sorcerer Supreme to erase the recent happenings and grant him the peaceful life he had wanted. However, this fractured the multiverse itself. Nevertheless today’s story will take a very different format as we will explore a world where Peter met another to help him undo his evident damage. A woman whose only darkened her soul. I am the Watcher. I am ur guide to these vast new realities. Follow me and pounder the question. What If…

Story

The events of No Way Home were playing out the same as in our universe. Peter sat in his house biting his lip as he looked out the window. He could not believe that he was outed as Spider-Man. He could not believe that he was an infamous superhero. Now of course his pasts deeds of heroism had brought him into the spotlight. However, a certain villain named Mysterio had ensured the opposite happened when he framed Peter for his death. He had previously gone to Ned and MJ hoping they had gotten acceptance letters into their colleges. However, just like him they had been rejected. It was evident that this rejection was a result of their affiliations with Spider-Man. Peter knew that he needed to change everything. He would be able to endure everything that happened to him but he would not be able to endure the pain and the circumstances inflicted on his friends. Now it was time to meet a friend. He spotted Strange cleaning up the snow filled Sanctum with Wong. Peter instantly hoped that his prayers were now answered. He smiled as he approached the former Sorcerer Supreme requesting a favor from him. Or course this favor was a huge one as Strange had to cast a forbidden spell erasing the memories of everyone who knew Peter Parker as Spider-Man. It was a spell that even Wong advised against. It was a surprising turn of events. Strange looked into Peter’s eyes and told him that he would be unable to cast the spell as he now respected the laws of nature and balance. Peter would have to find another way to salvage his current predicament. A frustrated Peter walked out of the tower cursing beneath her breath. Wanda sat on her chair with her eyes buried into the deep mess of the Darkhold. She could feel her magic expanding as red expressions of energy shadowed the entire room. She knew what she needed and that was the power of the multiverse. With this power she would find a world her children were alive in and be with them but she could not find the power she sought. A situation frustrated her even more as her mind wandered in the deep trenches of the Darkhold. She began to sense feelings of frustration digging deeper. She realized that she had felt these feelings before coming from a certain young man who she had once befriended. A man who fought against her when she assisted Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. She would have to find Peter Parker and would have to render assistance to him. Peter then sat on his couch hoping his door was locked properly. He would not have another person coming to see and comfort him. Aunt May had down her very best but she could see that it was not working. Nothing could change the truth. Peter had ruined the lives of his friends. If only Peter knew he would ruin the lives of several others. There was a knock on the door and May opened it surprised to see it was a red-haired woman stepping into the building. She had a wonderful smile and some gorgeous eyes. She also had a cake in her hand. May knew she had seen this woman before. Then it hit her. “¿You’re the woman who blew up that building in Lagos right?” May asked. Wanda smiled ensuring she kept her magic in check. If she wanted to win Peter’s trust she would have to play nice. Wanda responded positively saying that she had assisted Peter in the fight against Thanos. She added that she had seen the news and wanted to make sure if Peter was alright. May smiled and pointed her hands at Peter’s room but May felt that something was amiss. She could not place it as the human heart is as weak as it is confused in some circumstances. Peter was surprised to see his door opened and Wanda stepped in smiling. As she approached him he jerked up from his bed embarrassed as he only had her underwear on. With a flicker of her fingers Peter found himself fully dressed. Wanda immediately asked him how he was feeling as she had heard the news. A frustrated Peter went ahead to spell out the recent events allowing his mind to be opened to Wanda. She could see the fear and guilt he had in his heart. He was susceptible enough for her. Before Peter could realize that he had talked too much he had noted the fact that he had gone to obtain assistance from Doctor Strange which Wanda chuckled to Peter. Peter seemed surprised to see that Wanda possessed no type of anger at his last concluded act. Then it hit him. He could ask her for assistance as she was sort of a sorcerer too. If only he knew that she was counting on his desperation. Of course Wanda tried to play the safe way. Knowing that performing a spell would be too dangerous and she did not want her powers to get out of hand. Peter responded by telling her that there was no need for her to worry ensuring that he included every possible expectation he needed to do. All Wanda needed was the spell to perform and he had to get it for her. Peter knew that he would have to steal it from Strange himself. Peter arrived at the Sanctum Sanctorum pleased that Strange was nowhere in sight. He hoped that he would be able to access the library that he had spotted earlier and get that spell from Wanda. As he moved he was quietly surprised to bump into Wong. “¿What are you doing here?” He asked stuttering. Peter said that he came to apologize to Strange for his earlier actions and that he really needed a friend to talk to him saying that it was something about what he said. This made Wong smile and Wong moved to get them a drink so that they could talk. Of course Peter used the moment to access the library when Wanda inquired on why Peter returned so late. He appealed that they shouldn’t talk about it which seemed fine by her. Peter handed over the pages to her which was engraved in a rather old piece of paper. Wanda collected the spell smiling to herself as she prepared to perform her magic. “¿Are u ready for this?” she wandered. A hint of concern showed instantly in her eyes. Peter noted that he would do anything to help MJ and Ned. Wanda smiled and began to cast the spell. Fortunately Peter was no sorcerer. He would not know the changes she had made to the spell and she made neigh changes to shatter the fabric of space and time. Strange sat in his chamber closing his eyes while he let his mind to wander. He was engaged in a meditation exercise that the Ancient One once taught him before she passed away. Suddenly, he felt chills go up his spine as he opened his eyes in shock. At that moment he knew something was wrong. The first name popped into as he heaved a frustrating sigh. “¿Peter, what have u done?” He said in his head. Ned and MJ could not believe her ears as Peter narrated everything to them including how Wanda had successfully made everyone in the entire universe forget that he was Spider-Man except the expectations he had mentioned to her. Ned made a comment about getting married to this Wanda eventually and Peter replied that she was not her type. As Peter turned to MJ he could not help but notice that MJ was definitely uncomfortable with the situation. “¿Are u okay?” He asked her hoping she was indeed alright. MJ noted that while she was glad at the extent of the sacrifice he made. She would have preferred he had met with the colleague administrators. Peter stopped her mid-sentence and promised that everything would be alright now and that everyone had forgotten about the events with Mysterio. However, MJ was not finished. Apparently she had already contacted the college and after a few favors the administrator agreed to put them on the consideration list. Shocked at MJ’s lack of trust in him Peter looked at Ned and realized that Ned was fully aware of MJ’s plans. Hurt by his friends he stepped out of the restaurant only to be knocked out by a large tentacle. Before Peter could recover from his brutal attack the tentacle came again striking him down with force. Then the tentacle grabbed and lifted him up. Apparently he applied a lot of force crushing his bones. Only then did Peter have a good look at his attacker. This was a man who had a lot of machines attached to his body. He seemed dangerous and moreover ready to kill Parker. The surrounding civilians had already fled with MJ and Ned taking a hiding position. As the tentacled man prepared to strike again a piece of metal flung towards his neck. The metal had made contact with that soft spot causing the being to fall crashing down. Ned and MJ looked in shock as the famous Wanda Maximoff came out of a corner and carried Peter’s unconscious body away. Strange could not hide his surprise when his attempt to teleport the madman who has attacked the restaurant and civilians including Spider-Man himself ended up bringing 2 high school kids to him. They had coming with the already deceased man appearing in the Sanctum with him. Strange listened in shock as he heard everything. The kids said that if Wanda had taken Peter then there was something very wrong truly. He intended to sent these beings back to their dimensions but right now they had a priority which was to bring Peter home but as he thought about Wanda he knew that he couldn’t be too careful with the kind of magic he possessed. He was going to have to bring backup. He closed his eyes and began to chant. Wanda smiled as she let her magic flow out of her system. With the multiverse now broken thanks to the spell that Peter had given to her she could manipulate this to get what she wanted but inside she knew she would need another source of power and she would do everything possible to find that power and use it to her advantage. For now she celebrated as the broken multiverse only made it much easier for her. Then, she began to sense a strange presence in her room. She lifted herself up as she was preparing herself for battle. The former sorcerer supreme came to have a little chat. Seeing her fighting stance Strange assured Wanda that he was just here to talk. Wanda laughed as she knew that their conversation would most likely end in more than just a talk. When Strange asked her why she casted the spell for Peter she said that she did it for a personal reason and he would not understand as he was too busy protecting the balance of the multiverse. Strange assured her that whatever was the issue that they could fix it together. However, what did she gain in casting the spell and abducting Parker. Wanda chuckled and noted that she had met Doctor Octopus a few minutes after he appeared in their world. Using her magic she spelled him to attack Peter ensuring he was weakened enough. Of course Peter would think she tried to save him and after the amount of anger that he just read from her mind it made the spell that she could cast a lot easier. Strange was shocked to see a red-eyed Peter step out of the shadows. He looked vile and ready to kill. At that moment Strange placed himself in a fighting stance. To Wanda’s shock she saw 2 new Spider-Men drop aside Strange. Strange noted that Wanda was not the only one who could ignore the rules of the space-time continuum to suit her agenda. Wanda snapped her fingers forcing Peter to attack his fellow counterparts. Peter-Two and Three shot webs at Parker occasionally eventually hoping to circle and put him down for good. However, Peter seemed like he was stronger and faster than the both of them combined. Of course he had been boosted by Wanda’s dark magic. Strange on the other hand battled Wanda and they fought viciously until Wanda used her magic to pin him to the ground. Wanda turned around to see that Peter-Two and Three were having a hard time with her minion. With a smile she waved her hands and pinned the 2 Spider-Men to the floor as well. She smiled to Peter and he smiled back with his red eyes still glowing. As Strange laid on the floor he casted one more spell. There was a pin drop of silence. Aunt May’s voice echoed in the chamber mentioning that Peter had more than enough goodness to fight off Wanda’s spell. He was a hero no matter what the world tried to think of him and it was time he started acting like one. He had a responsibility that he had to fulfill and he had to save his friends. Peter’s eyes hit wet as a teardrop fell. Aunt May had always known the right things to say. Wanda was mad as she turned to Peter. She was shocked when the young man shot a web flying towards her. In response she used her magic to fling him across the room. Peter landed on a sharp piece of metal crying out in the process. Wanda yelled in frustration with Peter injured. The spell that would shattered the multiverse had been broken. She quickly used her magic to fly anyways. Strange got up from the floor and rushed towards Peter. He looked up at Strange and apologized for everything. He should have trusted his friends more indeed. MJ kneeled beside Peter’s grave. Her eyes showed no emotion. She had been like this for the past 2 hours and she had no intentions of leaving. Strange stood beside her and she held her breath. She was going to avenge Peter’s death. She would join Strange and they would start searching for the Scarlet Witch…

To be continued in ¿What if Another Multiversal War happened in the MCU?

THE END!

And that is going to be it for what if Peter asked Wanda for help in Spider-Man No Way Home. Now this could setup a possible part 2 but I’m gonna leave that cliffhanger to u guys as you’ll will decide what will happen next and see how this could lead to an alternate version of Multiverse of Madness. ¿Will they be able to defeat the Scarlet Witch and avenge Peter or become Wanda’s next victims? Be on the lookout for more what ifs coming soon. Take care guys and have a fantastic day. Peace out!

#marvel studios #multiverse saga

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joan-does-stuff · 3 months

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INTRO POST

Hi hello, I'm Joan.

18 years old

Non-Binary, AroAce

Any Pronouns [Neos: e/em, star/stars, ze/zero]

Shows symptoms of ADHD and Dyslexia/Dyscalculia

This is my main/perosnal Tumblr blog. Everything goes here and it's a mess that I refuse to fix.

This one's just a basic SWF general thing.

I don't have an actual DNI list, but I will not tolerate Homophobia, Transphobia, Ableism, or anything of the sort on this page.

Feel free to interact and send asks, I like talking about my interests.

This is my Rad arc, I want to tell you about the Transformers! /ref

I do not mind interacting with older or younger users. Just be decent human beings, that's all I ask.

Other Blogs:

[TBA]

Other Socials:

[TBA]

Current Fixations/Fandoms + older ones

Transformers [Animated, Armada, Prime, Earthspark, Shattered Glass, and the Ghostbusters crossover comic]

Portal [Portal 1, Portal 2, Portal Stories: Mel, Meet the Cores, and Portal 2 the (Unauthorized) Musical]

The Amazing Digital Circus

Detroit Become Human

Twisted Wonderland

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Lego Monkie Kid

Undertale

Lackadaisy

Pokemon

Five Nights at Freddy's

Bendy and the Ink Machine

Cuphead

The Ace Attorney Trilogy

Cookie Run?

Genshin Impact?

Honkai Star Rail

Owl House

Amphibia

Hilda (Netflix)

Lucifer (Netflix)

The Devil is a Part Timer

Spooky Month

Team Fortress 2

Dialtown: Phone Dating Sim

Halo

Red vs. Blue

The Stanley Parable

Stardew Valley

Hollow Knight

Doki Doki Literature Club

Star Wars

The Marvel Cinimatic Universe

X-Men

Into the Spider-Verse/Beyond the Spider-Verse

I may or may not put those in alphabetical order later.

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seigibathala · 4 years

Photo

I C O N I C

Thank you Sorachi Sensei for this splendid artwork.

#gintama #gintoki x tsukuyo #gintsu #gintama power couple #gintama couple #sakata gintoki #tsukuyo #red spider arc intro #gintama manga caps #I know I should be doing something else

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i-can-even-burn-salad · 2 years

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Thorns and Jasmine: Masterlist

It has been fifty years since the appearance of the first kalani; peaceful plant people, born from the fruits of a colossal tree. Now there is a darkness growing deep in the jungle, abducting their siblings and turning them into cruel, vicious creatures.

This is the story of Caldyn, a healer. He finds himself in a world of trouble when he wakes up in one of their cages, without a memory of how he got there. They want him to join their ranks, to give up his magic and his soul — and they will stop at nothing to get what they want.

The Story

Playlist

What if it was a real book

Warnings are listed/tagged on each individual chapter. Let me know if I’m missing anything, or if you need any clarification.

Arc 1: Captivity

Warnings: Captivity (not long term), betrayal, torture (broken bones, burns, cuts, whips, magical, all of it), wishing for death, dehydration/starvation, blinded

Before: Happier Days [Image]

Day 1: Captured - Running

Day 2: Healing - Why are you doing this? [Image]

Day 5: Reasons

Day 6: Failed

Day 7: Thorns

Day 8: Awakening - Bound

Day 9: Time - Betrayal

Day 10: Silence

Day 11: Attempts

Day 12: Water

Day 13: Fire

Day 14: Darkness

Day 15: Cruelty - Can you still smell the fire? [Image]

Day 17: Terror

Day 18: Rescue

Housekeeping, Part 1 A short outlook to where this is going, mild spoilers ahead.

Arc 2: Recovery

General Warnings: Obviously recovery from *gestures at arc 1 warnings*, painful healing magic, blinded, and flashbacks to lab whump with captivity and dehumanization

Unidentified

Mentor

Intuition

Throwback: Stars

Recognition

Memories

Runes

Reading

Rest

Panic

Hands

Sitting

Vigil

Holding

Throwback: Visit

Moving

Gone

Reunion

Considerations

Replacement

Housekeeping, Part 2 Another short outlook

Arc 3: Learning

General Warnings: Chronic pain, blinded, some bad mental health trying to deal with grief and loss

Searching

Lily

Twig

Truth

Support

Trigger

Sunlight

Dropped

Webby

Lessons

Decisions

Farewell

Arc 4: Murkside

General Warnings: Chronic pain, nightmares, some angst

Just a Scratch

Stranded

Welcome to Murkside

Healer Again

All Alone

Looking for Help

Bedside Vigil

The Next Morning

Finding Peace

Second Hand Lesbian Household Goods

Other

General Warnings: Please just check the individual pieces.

These are additional pices or alternate povs of the events during the events of the novel.

Numb

Sleeping Arrangements

... as mentioned in my intro post, I’m a sucker for happy ends, so there will be one. Eventually. Also it’s probably gonna be long.

Yeah. Turns out it got long :’)

The World

The Kalani

The Cast

All links lead to portraits, unless noted otherwise.

Main Characters

Caldyn

Bio

Moodboard

Portrait [Begin Arc 1]

Portrait [Begin Arc 2]

Portrait [Begin Arc 3]

Art by synchros

Art by whump-in-the-moonlight

Fanpost by dont-touch-my-soup

Caldyn and Seyonna by synchros

Caldyn’s staff

Breannan

Bio

Portrait

Moodboard

Art by synchros

Lily

Portrait

Moodboard

The Good Guys

Gwyneth

Raindrop

Corrie

Leon

Marian

Cecelia

The Bad Guys

Firethorn

Craig

Gawyn

Tags

Other things (ask games, pictures, whatever) for my characters can be found under their tags:

Caldyn insists he's fine

Breannan really likes books

Lily makes the best cake

Seyonna talks a mile a minute

Come on I can't give Aska a tag

Leon is more of a spider person

[ID: The top image is a banner showing red, glowy plants. Across it is written the title of the story, Thorns & Jasmine, in a bright to dark green gradient. The letters are slightly thorny looking. All other images in this post are purely ornamental lines. The same is true for all Thorns & Jasmine story posts. End ID.]

#Thorns and Jasmine #Tumblr is being weird so I'll make a post for it #masterlist

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naoyas90dayfiance · 3 years

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Ghosthunting gone wrong | Naoya Zen'in

SFW but Spooky! (I think)

Naoya Zen'in & GN!Reader

Characters: Naoya Zen'in, Chad (whoever you want him to be), and you.

Summary: Naoya and his team go to a hospital looking for some scary footage for his YouTube channel but it quickly turns into a race for survival.

Word count: 4.3k

Author's note: this is a piece for ChaoticYuna's Summerween collab! I hope it spooks you ♥

Naoya abruptly closed his eyes as the shining white light of the camera hit his iris. The lens of the device adjusted itself to focus on his funny face with a wrinkled nose and eyes pressed shut.

"What a face, boss." Chad laughed at the microphone from his trailer. The image on his left monitor distracted him from focusing on the one in the center.

"Shut up, fuckface." Naoya replied to the discreet microphone attached to his earpiece. "Y/N, you almost made me fucking blind." Naoya turned his back to you while you kept adjusting the camera so it'll have a good take on Naoya's body. Chad couldn't help but giggle at the live video that got to his computer.

"Who the fuck thought it was funny to come to an abandoned hospital?" Naoya said when looking at the building that was in front of him.

"Haunted hospitals are trending right now. Chad's projections show we could get up to 100k subscribers with this video along."

"I hope he's fucking right or else-"

"Gotcha, boss," Chad replied; now, his gaze focused on the monitor at the center of the desk. The blue light washed off the color of his face, and the sounds of clicks filled the small cold office.

"Let's record the intro while he does his thing," Naoya walked around the hospital with you. He found a place that looked creepy enough and stood patiently in front of it. He waited for you to get a good angle of him and the infrastructure he had behind.

"And action." The red light beeped from the camera when you finished the sentence.

Naoya's face lit up. He showed his perfect teeth as his features gracefully expressed his acted cheerfulness; his hands articulated perfectly his introduction, on which he explained that he was in a haunted hospital to search for some evidence of paranormal activity.

"Cut." Naoya's face dramatically changed, his once-raised brows now lied flat, his hands went to his side, and his smile was gone. He turned around and faced the hospital that Chad had picked for his video. It was a significantly tall building.

"Make sure to change the building for the thumbnail. This one isn't scary at all." Naoya told his assistant through the discreet microphone.

"It looks exactly like my gradma's hospital," Naoya smirked at your remark.

"Roger that. Boss, did you read the history of the hospital that I sent you?" Chad asked him.

"I read it, and it was stupidly fake."

"It's what I found, boss. People here said that it happened."

"If you keep believing liars, I'll fire your ass."

"People will love it, boss. Don't worry."

"You're going to be the one worried if we don't get the 100k."

"Boss, it'll be cool if we record you walking around the building," you told Naoya.

Naoya agreed with your comment. He fixed his hair and let his face go numb and expressionless. He hid his hands on the pockets of his jeans.

The young man heard you giving him the sign that the camera was recording. And so, the crackling of the autumn leaves and dried branches under his feet sounded throughout the landscape of the abandoned proximity.

As the recording continued Naoya kept making surprised faces, which were composed of raised eyebrows and parted lips. He also pointed to random broken windows of the hospital with his black-manicured index finger.

"I don't know if Y/N can catch this for you guys," Naoya stopped and turned his whole body to face the camera. He pointed to his left side. "But this hospital is in the middle of nowhere. Behind all of those trees, there's nothing. It's all forest. This was supposed to be a hospital for local factories that are about 26 miles from here; but as you can see, it was abandoned." You slowly moved the camera to film the forest Naoya was talking about, but you only got dark shots, as the sun was almost gone.

"And I'm not sure if you noticed it while we were walking around this building," The camera focused on Naoya. "But there's only one entrance door and an exit door. Not the optimal architectural choice for an important hospital such as this one was meant to be."

"No wonder why this place was abandoned," you mocked behind the camera the poor architecture. Chad chuckled at your comment from his desk, but then went back to his task when you finished walking around to the old medical center.

"Done," Chad muttered to himself and changed windows on his main screen. The red light that filled his office turned green when he clicked on the main button.

"Boss, we're ready," Naoya heard Chad’s notice through his earpiece.

"Let's go inside," he told you.

Naoya stepped on the metal steps of the hospital. You remained two steps down as Naoya positioned himself in the middle of the shot with the entrance door behind him.

"Alright, guys. We're about to enter this haunted hospital. If you are enjoying the video thus far, make sure to press the like button, subscribe and ring the bell. The team and I appreciate it very much. Especially for this might be the video where we might not come out ali-"

As Naoya was speaking, the door behind him slightly opened. The sound of rusted metal against itself made Naoya visibly shake his body and almost bite his tongue. He felt an electric sharp going through his spine. The frontman turned around, and gave a brief look back to the camera, then bravely placed his hand on the door. He lightly pushed it to open further. This time Naoya established eye contact with the camera and winked at it.

"Let's go."

You went up two steps to catch up with Naoya, who held the door open for you after he had gone into the hospital first.

Before your right foot could take the final step, a hand with claw-like nails came out of the spider-web-filled space in-between of the steps; it took the seam of your jean and pulled it towards it. The front of your foot hit the metal staircase. You let out a sudden gasp as your skin got goosebumps for the unexpected move; you instinctively directed the camera to your sports shoes.

"Something grabbed me by the foot, boss," you said in a tense and low voice. Your camera was still exploring the vicinity of the staircase, but you only caught on tape leaves and branches, confirming that the area was clear.

"Better get out of that staircase then," Naoya smiled when you pointed the camera to him. He invited you into the hospital once again. He held the door opened wider so you could go inside. Once the both of you were in the building, Naoya let go of the door that hit with a loud bang the steel frame. Your nerves made you shake the camera when you heard the loud sound. But, in contrast, Naoya kept walking with an expressionless yet beautiful face into the main hallway that led to the reception.

You strolled three steps behind Naoya, catching his left side that showed so well his piercings and his lined eyes that were looking at the lack of decoration in the building. Naoya turned his face towards the reception desk, leaving you to record the back of his bleached hair.

You took the cue and moved the camera around to show how the hospital had two long hallways, one at the right and another at the left. Both of them met at the center, which was the reception center.

"Y/N, light over here," Naoya instructed you. He had gotten behind the reception desk. You rapidly moved towards where your employer was.

"It seems nothing's here," Naoya said to the camera once you were filming his long fingers opening the drawers of the desk.

"Probably the people that have visited this place," Naoya paused as he opened another screeching drawer, "took each document."

"By the way, if you didn't know, we chose this building for a particular reason," Naoya was fully facing the camera; his back was to the dirty white wall of the reception center. "It's said that on October 31st, 1991, this whole building was on fire. The victims of the incident: some patients, doctors, and other members of the staff said that they were being burned alive. And people outside of the building recall having called the firefighting department because everyone was screaming in agony, from little children to the grown men of the factories. Hell broke loose here," Naoya left his position behind the front desk and began walking towards the left hallway of the hospital. You followed his movements with the recording device.

"But, there's another side of the story,” Naoya kept talking to the camera as he was walking. “when the firefighters, ambulances, and the police arrived here they saw nothing. There was no fire, no people with crispy burned skin, not even cigarette smoke," Naoya paused. "A firefighter that we interviewed said that when they got inside, they only saw that everyone in the hospital had passed out," Naoya’s gaze set itself in an arc made of shiny letters that welcomed them to the kid’s area. He took his hand out of his pocket and pointed to it so you could film it.

"The people that were outside of the hospital when everything happened insisted they saw this place on fire. And when the police tried to calm them down and told them that there was no fire, they kept insisting that there was a fire. It seemed like they were the only ones that could see it," Naoya had passed three doors with children's paintings on them. "And when some of those people finally got reunited with their family member that was in the hospital, they broke down into tears," Naoya stopped. You circled with your camera around him and took a spot in front of him. "That day a woman was screaming at the paramedics that her kid was dead, that she couldn't see his face, it was all burned. The only thing remaining was a black goo that covered his bones," Naoya shuddered for the camera and stopped next to a door, which had pink foamy letters, and it read: Playro m, the second "o" was missing.

Naoya grabbed the golden handle covered with grey dust and turned it downwards. He opened the door that made a squeaky sound as Naoya opened it slowly. His eyes went from the camera to the entrance. "You can look it up if you don't believe me," Naoya finally said and pushed the door open; microscope spores of dust traveled through his nostrils and almost made him sneeze.

Naoya found inside the room a plastic blue table with many toys on it. The light of the camera was capable to catch on tape their worn-out state.

"It is said that her kid was here when the paramedics arrived," Naoya added, giving his back to the camera. He got near the table and took one of the toys, closely inspecting it.

"Witnesses said she was a crying mess. Her whines could be heard throughout the whole building and the outsides. She kept saying that her kid's body was decimated, but the paramedics saw that none of that was the truth," Naoya showed a dirty teddy bear to your camera. He put the toy down and kept talking to the device. He was browsing the room with his gaze, and you slowly followed it to catch nothing on the footage. "Her kid had fainted, but he was breathing and didn't have a single scratch on his body."

"Creepy, ain't it?" Naoya suddenly locked eyes with the camera and quirked his eyebrow; then he turned on his heels. You exited the room, but neither closed the door of the playroom. You kept your position in front of Naoya and walked backward as both walked to the next room.

"People don't know the motive of the group hallucination, some say it was some chemical in the wind, others are convinced that the victims were lying, and some of the people that knew the staff swear it was a curse the hospital has. As it was founded by a doctor that took ill people and offered them as sacrif-," Naoya's sentence was cut short. "FUCK," He shouted. He had bitten his tongue as a reaction to the loud bang that almost burst your eardrums. You jumped in fear and pointed your camera light to the room you had just visited.

"Don't leave me in the dark for fuck sake," Naoya's hand was in his mouth, trying to soothe his pain as he walked next to you.

"Boss, the door," you said in a whisper as you zoomed into the door of the kid's playroom. It was shut.

"I guess the rumor was true," Naoya removed his hand from his lips and played out a cheeky smile that you caught once you had taken the shot of the now-closed door.

"Everyone at home. It's 7.30 PM," Naoya gazed at his smart-watch. "We only have the moonlight coming from these windows," Naoya pointed to the windows on the opposite side from where the rooms were. They gave enough light to distinguish walls from nothingness; however, the details were left in the dark. "And we have found a haunted place to do our investigation," Naoya looked at the lens of the camera and winked at it.

"Let's go, love," Naoya commanded, and you followed your boss' steps deeper into the left hallway.

"It is said that the doctor had worshipped a God, but no one knows which one was. Maybe we can get some info about it if we go into his office," Naoya gave a brief look back to the camera and stopped his strolling next to a door with a golden plaque that read "Director". Naoya placed his hand on the handle and turned it. The metal door separated from its frame and let out a cloud of dust that had Naoya coughing. He pulled the neck of his black t-shirt to his nose.

He pushed the entrance open, but he only found a wooden desk in the middle of the room, with no chair behind it. There was graffiti with an unknown symbol for Naoya on the wall.

He entered the room, and so did you to get a 360 shot of the room, showing how the many shelves in there were empty. Naoya looked at the camera from his side angle when it focused on him again; his nose was still covered with his t-shirt. Dust was accumulating on the camera.

"People that leave nothing behind are more suspicious than those that do, don't you think? Was he trying to hide something?" Naoya's steps headed to the exit of the room, and you were in front of him once again, walking backward.

"You'll have to find out in the next part of this video series," Naoya was standing in the hallway now. "where we are going to go to the right hallway of the hospital," Naoya pointed to the hallway on his right. "It is said that the Emergency Room was there, and it was where the sightings of the fire started that day," The camera centered on the darkness of the unexplored hallway and closed its shot when it caught a small shadow standing in the middle of it. A few seconds of silence reigned in the hospital.

"Okay, I got it," you said.

"Boss, I'm still trying to synchronize the rest of the stunts. My computer is having issues connecting with them."

"How did I look in those scenes?"

"Wonderful job as always," you replied. Naoya winked at you.

"Sorry, boss. Did you say something?"

"I asked how I looked in those scenes," Naoya heard a sudden static sound on his earpiece. He immediately took it off. "That idiot, I almost lose my hearing," Naoya grunted between his teeth. He pocketed his device.

"What is it?"

"That fool lost connection with the earpiece; I bet he kicked the cable or some stupid shit like that."

"Don't worry, boss. When that little light there turns green," you pointed to an emergency light that had a weak beaming red light. Naoya had to squint his eyes to see it. "it means that everything is ready to go."

"What the fuck?" Naoya replied in a low tone. He shrugged off the technological nonsense and pulled out a handkerchief from his back pocket to wipe off the sweat on his face. "Whatever, that piece of trash better have it ready before I quit this shit. You talk to him. I can't stand this," Naoya handed you the earpiece.

"Hey, boss. Look we're ready to shoot," you turned on your camera and set it up to record the empty right hallway. Naoya squinted his eyes again when looking at the emergency light and noticed the green beam discretely coming from it.

The host of the show stepped forward, placing himself in the middle of the shot. He audibly cleared his throat and put his hands in front of him, ready to help him articulate the introduction of the new episode.

"Hey, guys. It's us again. We're here at the haunted Saint John's Hospital. You can check out its back-story on our first video, and watch what we just experienced in those rooms," Naoya pointed at the children's room on his right. You followed his movement with the camera before focusing on the fake blonde again. "This time, we're going to explore th-."

In less than a second, Naoya had lost his balance and loudly fell. The palm of his hands landed after his knees on the floor. His good reflex saved him from hitting his face against the dusty floor by less than an inch.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?" Naoya shouted facing the floor. His eyes became watery for the dust had entered them, his inhalations became deeper, and the wings of his nose were flaring up. He prompted himself up with his feet and looked at the camera in front of him, his face was completely red, as were his eyes, and the tip of his nose had some visible dust on it.

"Boss, I don't know. Let me rewind the video," you nervously said.

"That piece of trash. He'll know what's good now," Naoya demanded the earpiece back from you. His grip on it made the soft plush on the sides mold to every line of his fingers.

"Chad, fucking son of a bitch," Naoya said on the mic after he put his piece back on. "I'll fucking show you what's funny after we're done filming," Naoya let out a loud shout of pain as he slammed the device on the floor. You tried to hide your neck with your shoulders as you also heard an insufferable screeching sound coming from the earpiece. Naoya walked towards the communication tool and stepped on it harshly until the sound stopped and the device was nothing but small pieces of broken plastic.

"Boss, check this out," you handed Naoya the camera, and he played the clip on the tactile screen. He saw himself standing in the middle of the shot, and how a hand with nasty long nails grabbed his shoulder. The next second of the film showed when it pushed him to the ground.

"What stupid stunt is that? It’s so fucking cliché. I look like a fool," Naoya said between his teeth. His jaw bone was visible through his skin.

Naoya's anger didn't last long, as he let out a loud yelp for he heard deafening bangs coming from every room of the hospital. He dropped the camera, which turned itself off and left you in the dark.

Naoya covered his ears with his hands and tried to adjust his eyes to the dim moonlight coming from the windows. He tried to look for the source of the sound, but it was too dark.

You quickly crouched down once the camera hit the floor and picked it up. You tried to cover your ears from the loud noise, but your right hand was occupied with turning on the device.

As the welcome ringtone played from the camera device and joined the bangs, a ear-piercing scream came from the right hallway. You dropped the camera once again while Naoya visibly shook his body. You firmly clenched your jaw and felt tears rolling down your face for the immense stress that the continuous screeching made your bodies felt.

Naoya sprinted towards the entrance door, and you followed his steps. The camera was far gone as it wasn’t your priority anymore.

When you got to the entrance, Naoya pushed and pulled the door repeatedly; you joined him in forcing the other door. The sounds of the maddening bangs and the ear-shattering scream almost made you start desperately screaming yourself.

"How the fuck did that bitch think this was funny?" Naoya grunted and kicked the door, but it didn't budge. He let out a loud shout in frustration that only made the screeching voice become louder and, somehow, closer to you.

"Boss, let's get out of here now," Naoya realized how now he could see every detail of the hospital thanks to a mysterious orange light. He turned around and saw how the building was being engulfed by flames. Both of you felt the overwhelming heat of the fire making your body’s temperature unbearably high.

You quickly ran into the nearest window, and with shaky hands tried to open it. As you both struggled to lift it, you heard how the nerve-wreacking screech was getting closer to you. And just before the window sprung open thanks to your forces combined, Naoya managed to see from his peripheral view an demonic creature standing next to him, reaching out to grab his shoulder with its familiar human-like hand.

Naoya pushed you out of the way, and he threw himself out of the window. He landed abruptly on the concrete floor of the entrance. His body shook at the impact; he could feel blood running down his face, which clouded his view with red.

“Boss! Help me!” Naoya heard your plea behind him. He turned his bloody face around and saw the tall creature taking the right side of your body to forbid you from leaving the place. Naoya made eye contact with the goat-like face of the force that was man-handling you, but before fear took over his body, he saw your crying and desperated face.

Naoya used his hands to prompt himself up. He grabbed your left hand that was reaching out towards him and violently pulled you outside. You hit your hip with the window frame but managed to free your right arm and jump out of the window.

Trying to look for a way out, Naoya looked at Chad's trailer but it was being devoured by fire. Then, he instinctively looked at the car that was parked near it and saw how Chad's moonlit body was running towards his vehicle.

Without giving a second look back to the creature that was now making its way out through the window, Naoya demanded that you follow him.

He jumped the steps of the staircase, and he loudly sprinted towards the car as Chad was trying to start it. The lights of the lamps guided his and your way towards it.

Naoya slammed his body against the door of the passenger seat. His hands touched the cold metal of the door until he found the handle. He pulled it, opened the door and launched himself into the seat, closing the door behind him. Chad was too focused on trying to start the car for the fifth time to acknowledge his employer's presence.

"Pump the accelerator" Naoya took Chad's hands out of the steering wheel. He put his right hand on the key, and he fidgeted it three times while Chad pumped the accelerator. In an instant, the car's engine started, and Chad placed his hands on the wheel.

As Chad looked up he saw how your bloody body was trying to get to the car. The creature was close behind you. He drove closer to you so you could open the back seat.

In a second, you managed to open the door and got into the car. Chad sped up and drove out of the inferno that was the hospital and the trailer.

Naoya's gaze traveled back to check on your body lying in the backseat, and he could also see how the out-of-this-world creature remained still and watched you leave.

The road to the main highway was a bumpy and silent one. Tears were still running down your face; Naoya had pulled out a few tissues from the compartment, and was cleaning the blood off his face.

He had gave you the whole box and some medical alcohol, which you used to treat your wounds and then clean the blood. As you were doing so, you couldn't help but noticed that your wounds didn't burn when you applied alcohol to them, and that the tissues were only came out with the brown dirt of your skin.

"Someone else has to drive. I can't do this," Chad interrupted your thoughts when he suddenly stopped the car. He started to sob and then desperately cry as the sight of the cuts on his hands was too much for the young man to handle. Naoya opened his passenger seat door and exchanged positions with his assistant. He was now driving his car.

"I had to break the fucking window with my hands. I thought I was going to die there," Chad whispered as he kept crying.

You gave Chad the bottle of medical alcohol and the box of tissue. Chad took it and started to wipe off the sweat and tears from his face, as well as treating his wounds. You saw how he hissed in pain, and noticed how his tissues came out red.

Then, a silly thought came to your head:

"Boss, I lost the camera back there."

"And I lost all the footage in the computer."

"The demon can keep them," you giggled at Naoya's comment, and Chad did the same.

#naoya zenin x reader #zenin naoya x reader #naoya #naoya zenin #zenin naoya

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Hickman’s X-Men Line: One Year in Part 1: Prelude, House and Powers of X, X-Men and New Mutants (Hickman)

Under the cut is an explination of how hickman’s run happened (the mass decay will be covered another time probably), and dives into his x-books: house of x, powers of x,x-men and his breif run on new mutants and what i thought. Pax Krakoa baby.

One year ago, I breathed a sigh of relief as I read the utterly masterful house of x #1. See for the past few months, i’d been waiting on baited breath for this comic with a level of anticipation not matched by any before or since. Even the debut of a spinoff to Chew, one of my faviorite comics of all time that i deftnetly need to do a retrospective on, this week got within the same galaxy and it still wasn’t on the same level. This was big, grandiose and everything I hoped for. And whatever issues I had as House and it’s sister series came out slowly died out as the full story unfolded, my jaw dropped and my faith in Hickman to save the x-men was fully delivered. At last the x-men were back on top. And it was going to be one hell of a ride.

As you probably know the x-men had been treated pretty badly at marvel due to fox having the movie rights, a move that still baffles and frustrates me. Instead of making money to rub in fox’s face by promoting the hell out of them in merchandise, animation, video games and of course comics ALONGSIDE the avengers, they basically ignored the x-men and fantastic four to give fox less to work with to spite them while fox.. entirely ignored this as since both franchises have been around since the 60′s and the x-men had had mountains of spinoffs to give them mountains of characters. So in short: a decision to spite and hurt their compeitors only cost marvel money, pissed off fans and fox’s eventual absortion as far as I can tell had absolutely nothing to do with any of this.

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Thankfully marvel DID stop being stupid eventually and relented: The Fantastic Four came back a year before house of x with a decent run by dan slott, which is thankfully more like earlier spider-man work and ff work, and less like what his spider-man run became from superior onward despite the ocasional misfire but i’ll talk about both runs another day. I mostly bring it up because with this revivial, marvel also slowly reintegrated the four back into the marvel universe and made their return feel like a big deal. The X-Men however took a bit: while they got an earlier shot at returning with ressurxion. Buuut with the idea of having hickman return in their back pocket, marvel apparently refused, at least according to cullen bunn who I fell has no real reason to lie, to let the writers rock the boat too much and the era perdictably was just meh, especially flagship book X-Men Gold which was written bafflingly by Mark Gugenhiem and outside of one or two good ideas basically felt like the comics equivlent of one of those party store albums where every song is a cover done by someone who couldn’t give half a damn. There were bright spots though with Cullen Bunn finishing out his awesome x-men tenure with x-men blue, Sina Grace’s wonderful iceman that took the wonky execution of Bendis’ decision to make bobby drake gay and made it work beautifully, and the decent if somewhat baffling x-men red. But overall it just felt like a missed opportunity and with the fox deal in bloom and a new EiC, marvel NEEDED something bigger, bolder and grander to do with marvel’s strangest heroes of all. After all all eyes would be on them while Marvel’s Movie department took a few years, probably longer now thanks to the pandemic, to let things cool off before bringing the x-men into the mcu. Enter Jonathan Hickman: Writer of another one of my faviorite runs of all time, his Fantastic Four run, along with an enjoyable but heavily flawed avengers run, a secret warriors run i’ve read half of that was a hell of a ride, tons of ultimate comics, and a bunch of indies I haven’t read but are probably great. A wordy weirdo and i’m convinced the second coming of grant morrison, and I hope one day the two work together on something tha’ts equal parts weird and amazing.

The morrison comparison is also apt as both came into the X-Men at a time when the x-men badly needed them: Just like Hickman morrison had to deal with a largely stagnant x-men and changed them to fit the times. And yes unsuprisngly i’ll also be covering morrisons run, warts and all, and it’s also one of my faviorite comics of all time. However Hickman was given a huge advtange his spirtiual predecessor, and really few comics writers EVER have gotten: full control of the x-men line. Unlike morrison who wasn’t even allowed to use certain characters despite writing the main fucking x-book, Hickman got full creative control: full say in the direction of the story, full say in who came on board and to let them pitch whatever they wanted to do. And honestly it’s an apporach that’s not only reovlutionarly but makes the books FEEL like their actually occuring around the same time. Sure their all still seperate entities, but it DOES feel like one coheisive universe. Contrastingly with the avengers Black Panther’s solo has had him on a year long sojurn in space, before returning to earth.. while also running the avengers over in jason aaron’s run and having his own spinoff team, without any fucking clue as to when intergalactic empire of wakanda takes place in relation to everything else. Tony Stark is currently just taking back both his own damn name and the iron man name in his own book, but is also a major player in avengers, and empyre with no mention of his seeming drunken spiral (itw as a ploy) or arno taking up the armor and I feel these issues rather than the neglect the x-men once had are why krakoa’s impact isn’t being felt more in other titles. I’m not saying don’t let books do their own thing, but I am saying let them have fucking consequences and weight instead of just acting like one isn’t happening or at the very least have a character be absent for an arc so you can fit the other stories into continuity easier. As X-Men’s shown it dosen’t stifle inovation and hell even immortal hulk easily fit into no road home with a fucking note saying “this takes place before x issue” it’s not that hard. This advantage was likely part of Hickman’s terms for coming back. See the x-men were the one thing at marvel he never got to do. The Gillieon and Aaron runs and Bendis runs meant the spot simply wasn’t open and by the time he was leaving it was clear marvel wanted to bury the x-men not praise them, so his ideas had no run. But the X-Men were what got Jonathan into comics. A shocking fact I learned at last years comic con, during which most of the dawn of x titles were revealed, was he WASN’T a fantastic four or avengers fan as a kid, not hating them but like me with the avengers for some time, not really caring about them. But with both runs, he did his homework, read as much as possible, and BECAME a fan, and it shows as both runs show a deep love for both marvel and the teams present. With X-Men they were his dream, his golden goose, his windmill, he just never was in the right place at the right time... but with Marvel needing his starpower and creativity and having nothing to loose with the x-men and badly needing a big run to hlep keep intrest in the x-men till the new movies, he finally was. So seeing the company needed him and he could get his dream and the control he needed, while dc had just taken bendis, didn’t need him and until very recently was ran by a moron, his choice to come back to marvel instead of go to dc as he’s admitted, was obvious. And it ended up being the right one. House and Powers of x were massive creative and commerical hits and the following titles have all been mostly praised. The new direction has been a boon for the franchise,k the fans and marvel. So being a fan of this direction, as you can tell by the massive intro, to give my thoughts on each book so far: what I think their doing right, where some went wrong etc, since I’d rather wait another year or so befor ediving into these and let some more of hickman’s plans and future story hints spread throughout his books pay off first. WIth that all out of the way it’’s time for a deep dive of x.So grab some plant based snacks, your x-shaped helmets, and your krakoan coffee, it’s time to finally get into hickman’s era of x-men.

HOUSE OF X AND POWERS OF X The opening salvo and just with two mini series that are one, though why he DIDN’T just have them be one big mini series I genuinely do not know, probably to justify having two diffrent artists to carry the load, is an utter masterpiece. Plain and simple. Let’s get the status quo the series set up out of the way so I can dig into it more: Magento and Xavier were revealed to have been working together for years behind the scenes.. with Moira Mactaggert, one of my favoirite x characters who the series changes utterly and forever. See instead of being the one human who consitantly is on mutants side and one of the x-men’s staunchest allies who sadly hadn’t been resusrected in 20 fucking years, she was a mutant herself, her ablility being reincarnation.. and thus had lived through 9 of her 10 lives seeing mutantkind always loose so told xavier and magneto about this in the hopes of breaking the wheel and letting mutantkind live this time. However hickman , while revealing the alliance does brilliantly still make it work in continuity for me: it’s clear from moira’s notes in one issue, as house and powers and any following titles love having charts or text based sections that I feel give the comics a unique flavor and really help boost most issues, that Charles optimism she was trying to break him of and faith in humanity took years to fully shatter: he plotted and schemed with her to protect his species but it was clear he probably felt it woudln’t be necessary that humanity would prove her wrong.. and by this series it’s clear, no they haven’t changed, the majority of them just want to genocide mutants and have tried again and again and again while the rest who don’t necessarily want it, paticuarlly the superheroes did nothing while Magneto chaffed against her after the whole “alter his infant self after he was deaged by a mutant he made into a baby to be more pacificsitc which naturally pissed him off when that wore off”. Yes that’s a thing that actually happened pre and post retcons it’s why a survivor of the holocaust is , while not a YOUNG man, still healthy and vibrant. It’s a clever way to not undermine those stories while still telling this one and this retcon is a move I like as unlike most retcons it’s both there to tell a good story and excuted in a way that outside of moira dosen’t undermine anything. The Moira retcon I was and to a degree still am mixed on. While the new version of her is brilliant, creative and intresting and I can’t wait to see what happens with her next time she shows up, I do mourn the old as the x-men had few human allies and now their only big one is now a mutant herself, but it IS in service of a really damn good narraitive and the twist that the bad futures presented were in fact other lives of moira was brilliant, and it’s nice to see SOMETHING done with her. I’d rather something that i have a small problem with lead to really great things and be worth the sacrifice of her former character, than just changing things because “fuck it I want to do this and their letting me do this’ as a lot of retcons tend to be. Hickman’s story needs moira and her cycle of defeat to truly soar to the heights it’s reaching, and to make Charles and Xavier’s back alley actions make sense, so i’ll glady sacrifce one version of a character that I really liked for another version of her that’s also really good. The other big swing though I was completley on board for: Hinted at early on by serveral dead mutants being alived, after a sucidie mission against new big bads and mutant hating extermists orchis, who are far better written than other extermists, it’s revealed just why death has seemingly taken a holiday: the big plan that has been decades in the making for xavier and co? That will reshape mutant kind and required working with mr sinsiter of all people? Revivie all dead mutants. See in a brilliant reveal Cerebro isn’t just a mutant tracker; It’s a copier, copying their essecnes reaguarly and storing them for later, updating them every so often and thus meaning any who died can come back. Why it took Chuck so long to do this is also explained as he needed 5 specific mutant power sets to do it and thus had to wait till they had everything they needed: Goldballs, yes goldballs, spits out his giant golden balls, phrasing, which hickman in an insane and awesome turn revealed to be EGGS. Yes EGGS. Proteus, Moira’s son and former villian whose now pacificed since this body cloning process means he has an infnite suply of xavier bodies to burn through and thus isn’t killing people, warps reality to mamke the eggs viable. Elixir, a healer whose been through some shit the poor guy,gives the eggs , once injected with the mutant in questions dna via syringe because of course, life, and Tempus, goldballs former classmate fellow bendis creation and mistress of time, speeds it up a bit so they don’t have to wait a good few decades for some mutants to rerez. The fifth that makes all this possible is hope summers, mutant messiah and adopted daughter of cable returned to promence once more, whose power is revealed to be power maniulation and thus can boost their powers to the degree neded for this. it’s a BRILLIANT turn that not only undoes all the pointless deaths mutants have undergone, but changes the game: Genocide is now near impossible, as humanity has no idea bout any of htis, and instead of mutant lives going down, they can only go once.. as one man once put it...

And as an x-men fan having watched characters I love die again and again for stupid reasons, especially int he placeholder run right before house of x, this was so satsifying. Everyone the x-men had lost, every character I loved who was gone and forgotten.. they were back or would be back. And thanks to Krakoa they were thriving: By giving mutantkind a homeland instead of a headquarters, a nation given to one of their own because he demanded itbasically, or an island fortress designed to give a dying species refuge, they have a goregous sentient island (I’ve always loved krakoa for the record though I wonder what happened to his clone son), with abundant food, teleporting gates across the world to visit wherever they like or live in the various worldwide habitats if they please, and peace and security they’ve neve rknown. No more being woken up to get to a panic room because a sentienl attacked. No more having religious maniacs blow up busses containing your tine. No more having the vast majority of the superhero community do nothing as a fucking plauge cloud wipes out your species. Anything apporaching krakoa now has hundreds of the most powerful beings alive defending all mutants.. and that includes the worst of the worst, all given amntesty.. but they must tow the line or else be given a fate worse than death. After years of pain and suffering and misery mutantkind is free safe and happy. They still have to fight to get the rest of their kind out of racist hands and to saftey, the fight’s not over.. but now the odds are in mutantkinds favor. It’s paradise. And yet this mini, and this whole run dosen’t run from tough issues; The mutants are now isolationists and only mutants are allowed on krakoa itself.. on the one hand this is a bad idelogy and potentially dangerous, instead of fighting for harmony fighting for my land alone.. but it’s also see why Mutantkind has taken to it. The X-Men have tried for at the least a decade in universe and at the most and most likely 15 years to live in harmony, fight for mankind and make peace with them.. and only a small chunk has acutally tried to help them with that. The other large fraction? They either build death machines to try and wipe out all mutants, and in the case of Cassandra NOva who while not a human is still a racist genocidal bitch, SUCCEED in wiping out a large chunk, or do nothing while mutantkind suffers. The series forces you to think about the implications that marvel comics themselves previous ignored: That with all the superheros in this world who arent mutants.. more often than not htey’ve done fuck all when terrible shit happens. When Genosha died, not a one asked the x-men what happened or tried to hunt down those responsible. When Decemation happened, the avengers were more concerned with helping the x-men cover it up than helping them move on and did nothing as the goverment made xavier’s into a reservation, even after regrestration happened and the goverment had more heroes than ever to spare to helping them. When the T-Mist happened years later instead of stopping terrigin or asking the inhumans to stop it for the good of another race, the rest of the heroes just did fuck all. Sure the avengers were on a budget and the ff were asbent, but there were enough heroes in the world still and enough teams to do something about it and only the ones with mutants on them did!. IT’s hard to say “well you shoudln’t exclude them”.. when the rest of superhero kind has been subtly doing it their whole lives. But it dosen’t shy away from the claims of racial superiority the isoaltion or the fact the x-men basically sued for nationhood by making requiring recognizing their nation hood the price for trading for their life saving and extending, world changing drugs, which you would still need to buy. There’s other issues, one that i’ll get to in a moment as it was only revealed in x-men. Various characters, Corsair in issue one of the ongoing, the fincial summit in issue 4 and the ff both in house of x #1 and ff/x-men, all question this and some of the ethics. Hickman brilliantly decides instead of just painting the x-men as absolute moral rights, to show their new nation warts and all: the genuine good their doing and trying to do but also the price they have to pay for it and the mistakes they may be making. And the compromise necessary to build a nation. It’s all chiling, compelling shit that’s even more releveant in a time when bigotry is piling up like crazy. Both house and x-men, which i’ll get to in a second, ask questions with no easy answers and it makes them a compelling read. Also compelling is the two mini series use of flashbacks: The two previous moira timelines, which we learn are just that as we go, are compelling with the apoclaypse timeline having loveable heroes were are heartbroken to see die in the struggle, while the last timeline seemingly sees the mutants turn as bad as the humans.. only to peel back a layer at the end and reveal humans are still very much the real monsters, and them evolving via machine is a threat to mutant kind's natural evolution. It was a good story twist and of course there’s FAR more to dig into in both books, and I defintely will at some point in the future as I said. But there’s tons of great ideas here: Sinsiter not only being a mutant but a reluctant ally, the same of apocalyspe, the heavy questions I got into above, the idea of machines being mutants greatest threat which makes a ton of sense, and the various ones I already went into. I can’t gush about this book enough, but since this is already long enough i’m trying. The point is both mini series are great and how you do a self contianed event perfectlY plenty of consequence, plenty of scope but enough character and brilliant ideas and a FUCK TON of quotable and iconic lines, all blend into one of the very best series i’ve ever read. And lead directly into..

X-Men I talked about a lot of what this book represents above as it’s a direct continuation of the above, but the book on it’s own is still something diffrent. while it continues setting things up, playing with the new toybox hickman set up, and asking the tough questions, x-men does it in a diffrent way. House and Powers bounce around through time while all telling one huge story and one huge bundle of setup for this status quo. X-Men instead is a bunch of single issues. It’s still a ton of setup, though with enough payoff to house and powers that it at least so far hasn’t become tedious, especailly since hickman specifically has plans for all of it and has shown in the past he’s a long game man when it comes to storytelling, but through more action packed stories that, with the exception of mistque’s spotlight issue so far, have one shared element: Cyclops, aka Scott Summers, who as grand captain of krakoa is the nation’s ruling council’s go to guy for missions and who he himself can form any team he once for any mission. Cyclops, like the x-men hadn’t been treated well for years; Various characters lambasted him after the phoenix force drove him mad and lead to him killing charles xavier, and before that his run as leader of utopia, not helped by x-force painting him as a cold heartless dickweed, had him forced to make questionable decisions that made fans turn agains thim despite the hard position he was in. But now with the burden of absolute leadership of mutantkind in other hands, HIckman writes scott beautifully and has restored him to his proper place. WIth Xavier taking over as absolute leader of mutantkind and his race no longer hanging by a thread for the first time in years scott can relax and ENJOY himself. As the first issue shows he has everything he ever could have possibly wanted: A healthy marriage with Jean again, and an open one at that with him free to still see emma and Jean openly seeing Logan. Logan himself no longer trying to murder scott for his mistakes or kill his teenage self due to bad writing, but being his best friend again and also living with him and presumibly having threeways because they have connected bedrooms and of course jean would want both at once. Maybe they also just fuck each other sometimes again the details haven’t exactly been clear but it’d explain the tension disappearing. Maybe the schism would’ve ended quicker if Cyclops and Wolverine just fucked each other after children of the atom. Hey not every question is a deep personal one on krakoa sometimesm it’s just “Are these two fucking and could it have solved things faster in the past if they did?”. Also I almost forgot to mention, and added this near the end of writing this, in additoin to everything else scott now lives ON THE FUCKING MOON, on the blue area with a breathable atompshere, on a moon house with his family and fuckbuddy and Vulcan’s buddys. It’s fucking amazing. But moving back to other things scott’s gotten besides logan’s wang up his butt, as seen in issue one thanks to the gates his dad can now visit anytime, his brothers live with him with Vulcan going from genocidal dickweed to weirdo thanks to his experinces between his “death’ and this series, and he’s just. happy. And as a leader he takes the x-men on thrilling missions: the series combines action with character and worldbuilding and it is great. The worldbuilding part has been tremendous; we’ve seen new foes in the returning children of the vault and horticulture, aka what if the golden girls were tv ma, and also plant based supervillians plotting a better future for mankind that krakoa’s drugs clash with. We’ve seen nimrod creeping close, charles and magneto not playing ball with mystique start to backfire, the return of krakoa’s lost love, and in my faviorite arc, we’ve seen broo, one of my faviorite x-people and intellegent brood, eat an egg and thus become god emperor of the brood, not only giving the vicious race a chance to reform but giving the x-men a huge advatange in space, doubeldby events we’ll get to in a second. And biggest of all we saw the crucible: Since those depwoered by the decimation can get power back by dying again, and to prevent overworking the five with mass sucidies krakoa came up with a nasty solution,: earning resurection via ritual combat. And like the above there aren’t easy answers to this: mass sucidie isn’t better or faster, but having mutatns forced to EARN repowering by dying brutally isn’t a great solution either and is kind of sick. And it also opens up questions about ressurectoin that Nightcrawler feels made need reegion to answer htem. It’s again good heavy instreating stuff. We also got my faviorite issue #4 where the x-men go to a fincial summit, and while security detail cyclops and gorgon fight off hired goons...

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Xavier, Magneto and Apocalypse discuss with world leaders about the implications of krakoa’s policys, with Magneto not hiding his love of flexing his superiority. And Charles ends the confrence, after it’s revealed one hired them in an utterly masterful moment: Taking off his helmet to reveal no this is charles, this is him and that even after they tried assintating him he has and always will love humanity he’s just sick of being treated like crap and suffering for doing it and his people suffering for it and he won’t tolerate this sort of shit again. See it for yourself it’s an absolute triumph:

It’s a great scene. Overall an utterly great title that really keeps the momentum moving and I feel is only setting up for even more things.. the only real issue is that A) the title’s been slower at coming out than the other dawn of x titles, though in the case of the empyre tie in’s it’s not hteir fault but the rest sure as shit are, and B) that it has mostly been just setup but it’s been good enough and enjoyable enough and I feel payoff is coming, so I truly don’t care. At long last we have a main x-men book that’s not only fantastic but uttterly engaging and I read most issues multiple times. An utter slam dunk

Giant Sized X-Men: This one is incomplete, so I can’t fully say what the full picture is.. but for the three released so far it’s a mixed bag, though the art in all three is gorgeous as Hickman brought on the best artists in the buisness but it’s telling that while New Mutants bellow had issues that bugged me but was still kinda fun, and the above havem y utter priase I nearly forgot to include these issues. None of them are bad and all have gorgeous art as I said, these are some of the best in the buisness, they feel padded. These were supposed to be annuals, but when they decided to change this to one shots.. they shoudl’ve just made them regular length instead, as there simply isn’t enough story here to fill them and so far only Davis’ issue has both had huge setup (both revealing doug’s fusion with warlock is a secret for some reason and that he is indeed still fully alive and revealing what happened to the x-mansion), and due to Davis background as a writer/artist the pacing to fill one issue and even then it could’ve been trimmed. Not bad and I don’t fault the artists for not being used to being writer/artists or having to do so while also conforming to a larger narriative which likely didn’t help or in the third one’s case having to take over for someone else entirely, but it’s , while not bad no ton par with the two above books and I expect better from hickman.

New Mutants (HIckman’s Issues) I’ll cover Brisson’s issues next time as they feel like a diffrent run entirely, but New Mutants was.. a disapointment. I was utterly pumped for this title going in being a huge fan of the team thanks to finally reading the claremont and sikenwitz run and before that re-reading abnett and lannings utterly great run and hey jonathan hickman who’d already done gangbusters was writing it! It had a great roster!

And it starreed one of hickman’s faviorite mutants and one he’d taken a shine to on avengers, and one of my faviorite superheros, Roberto DeCosta, aka Sunspot. On Avengers hickman took Roberto , already a decent character and made him amazing. He was still rich, young and a playboy as ever.. but he used said wealth and his love of fun wisely. When undercover at an AIM casino instead fo throw down, he offers the agents a free day of partying and gambling on his huge dime, then puts them on payroll as his undercover agents. So to recap Roberto DeCosta won the avengers two valuable double agents in what at the time was one of their biggest threats.. by buying them tons of beer and gambling and presumibly hookers. And later got the loyatly of the rest of AIM through these guys, and when Steve found out tony betrayed him and went off hte deep end hunting him instead of stopping the end of the goddamn world, TOOK OVER AIM HIMSELF IN COMBAT WITH THE AIM SUPREME, and then formed his own avengers.

Literally. He got his own avengers team, most of which left after the apocalypse but he simply found younger and hungrier replacements, and aim.. with blackjack and hookers. The man is a legend. And knowing Roberto if hookers were actually involved he probably treated them with respect and overpayed them because he’s a class act. Then under Al Ewing’s mighty pen, Roberto not only formed another avengers team since most of the avengers he formed to stop the end of the world were busy elsewhere, of young and great avengers, while dying of the aformentioned death cloud, but became an utterly brilliant chessmaster, only failing ONCE becaue of hydra cap getting into his head while AIM was working for the us goverment towards the end as the USAvengers. And yes that’s a real team. It’s as insane and beautiful as it sounds. And his new avengers once fought american kaiju, a godzilla with a flag painted on it chaning usa. Al Ewing is the best and I love him. But he also became a master stratigest and schemer with schemes within schemes within schemes, his crowning one being faking his own death and using his fake funeral to clear out any remaning enimies in AIm, and only quitting AIM to keep it out of goverment hands and in the hands of a trusted friend. He was and still is one of the best avengers there ever was and ever will be. But here, as the new mutants go on a road trip to get sam? He’s a fucking dumbass who hires the worst space laywer possible, only gets off trial because Sam and his wife save them, glad they weren’t broken up by the way, and is utterly useless most of the time. It’s like HIckman forgot the last part of his run.. granted time runs out isn’t very good but still, that wasn’t a good thing to forget and like Hickman wants to ignore ewing’s work for no damn reason, even though Ewing did great things with Roberto and kept him relevant when marvel was choking the x-men to death. It’s fucking embrassing and disapointing to see. The rest of the New Mutants aren’t much better mostly being happy but also not really acting like themselves, with only mondo really standing out since he gets great moments and hasn’t done anything in a while. And Doug, who I negelcted to mention above is one of my faviorite mutants and thanks to being krakoa’s primary method of commuincation, is now one of krakoa’s most important mutants, has a seat at the council with krakoa, and weirdly has his best friend warlock hiding on his arm for reasons that haven’t been explained yet. In Short doug went from beign forgotten to being used awesomely again. Roberto instead of getting the same is set back as a character and ends the arc deciding to stay in space because he misses sam, and will likely become third in his marriage i’m sure, and wants to bone deathbird, x-men villian and frequent shiar usuper. But while rahne actually being happy is a good sight to behold they , except Dani, really dont’ do much. Though Magik gets a fucking amazing scene where she asks the various assasians sent ot kill them if they want to make out , not only revealing she’s bi, but that she’d prefer that to killing them all but does so when they dumbly refuse .. I mean seriously who, whose not in a relationship that’s open or way older than her, not take her up on that? The plot their thrust into isnt’ great either, mostly just more setup but not present as well as in x-men about Gladiator giving the shiar empire to xavier’s daughter.. yes charles has a daughter that was created from his and his ex wife lilandra, whose still dead’s dna, and letting DEATHBIRD Of all people teach her instead of his damn self. Xandra taking over isn’t a terrible idea it’s just handeld poorly. It just feels disapointing.. like hickman WANTS to do a JLI style book here but the combination of him only doing one arc and not really wanting to write the characters as they should be, an issue that only pops up here and in the new mutants cameo during x-men proper and not for doug ever, that makes it fall falt.. I mean there are utterly great moments like the above, and hte image i used to lead off their just stifled by misusing roberto and everyone else.

But overall hickman’s works on x-men are fucking great, intresting and engaging. I’ve read the issues a ton and will again. One small mistep dosen’t take away from all the large good he’s done and he’s made the franchise feel alive again and hopefully the MCU take on it will take after this run, as it’d be a great way to break from the endless xavier vs magneto battles of the fox universe. So yeah overall 2 great books and a thankfully short misfire, HIckman’s on top. And next time we’ll see who he picked to help him carry the x banner home to us all, and who did well with it and whose stumbled a bit as part two delves into the rest of the dawn of x. For now subscribe for more comics stuff as I plan to get back on that, including I hope a restrospective on the fox era x-men sometime soon, animation reviews, and more fun stuff. And until then, courage.

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iloveyouthree-thousand · 5 years

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FFH: the good, the bad, and the missed opportunities

A’ight people, I saw the movie, I slept on it, and here are my *spoilers* thoughts (this ended up being really long feel free to ignore it):

First missed opportunity: instead of having that intro video be a shoddy Midtown News Crew production, have the music fade into a title screen that reads, “in loving memory: a film by Peter Parker”, and swap the blurry photos out for quick iPhone clips and videos of Peter and Tony, referencing the homemade video at the start of HC and bridging a little bit of the gap between HC and IW

Second missed opportunity: don’t blip May away. Her casual relationship with Happy? Go for broke, put some depth behind it--have Peter ask them, confused, “what exactly did I miss here,” but instead of a comic beat it’s May and Happy exchanging sad glances, it’s May sitting Peter down and telling him about how she moved in with Tony because there was nothing left for her in the city. Have a powerful scene where May tries to reconcile the person she is, post-snap, with the person that Peter remembers, where she says, “a lot has happened, and Happy is a part of my life, now, but if it’s too much, too soon, we can go back to the way things were. Just you and me. Because as much as I care about him, you will always be my priority.” Not only would that give us much needed May/Peter heart-to-heart, but would show some of the real effects of the Snap.

I didn’t like the scene at the press conference much--because it felt like they took the ‘awkward teen’ trope a little too far--but that panic attack felt real and it hurt, and called back beautifully to Tony’s struggle with anxiety in the movies.

I. Miss. The. Guy. In. The. Chair. Seriously, two weeks have passed since arguably the most important adult in Peter’s life, behind May, passed away. Remember the end of Endgame? Where Peter comes back to school and Ned just holds him? I cried. Sobbed. Bring back some of that emotion. Give me back the Ned Leeds that would do anything for Peter and vice versa. Give him an arc. Don’t just make him comic relief.

While we’re on the topic of relationships: Peter and MJ. The concept? 10/10. I love this weird, slightly morbid MJ with Tom Holland’s dorky and painfully awkward Peter. The execution of it, though? Meh. I think the part that makes it so fast and stiff is Peter’s whole plan. He announces, at the start of the film, that he’s basically in love with MJ. Where the heckity-heck did this come from? I think it would’ve worked a lot better if you had MJ and Peter constantly sneaking off and accidentally running into each other on the trip (which would make sense, because he’s got Spidey-business and she’s observing him) and keep peppering in sweet little conversations at each of these meet-ups until Ned says something like, “dude, what’s up with you and MJ?” And Peter goes beet-red and defensive because nothing is going on, man, we just keep running into each other. It’s totally a coincidence. But then he starts thinking about it, and maybe he does like her, and then all at once he has a full-blown crush. And it feels hopeless except... he’s almost certain she’s been following him, because this is too weird to be completely coincidental, and maybe, just maybe, it’s because she likes him, too. Then go to the scene where he’s about to admit his feelings and boom! I know you’re Spider-Man.

Having Tony’s glasses be the thing he leaves behind for Peter? Wonderful. Mysterio wearing the Edith glasses was an amazing way to set up the emotional final battle scene, because the glasses represent Tony, and Peter’s guilt in the third act is driven by the fact that he screwed up, that he trusted someone else to be the mentor that Tony once was to him. Pete finally realizes, though, that Tony entrusted the glasses to him--and not because he needs to be the next Iron Man, but because Tony believed in Peter Parker. When Peter takes the glasses back, he’s shouldering that legacy, he’s remembering that he can do this, and that, even when he thinks he can’t, even when he thinks he’s going at it alone, Tony is still here with him. Even Dead, I’m The Hero.

Also, Mysterio in general is great. He really makes you root for him, even when you already know the twist. My little brother didn’t know that Beck was the bad guy, and lemme tell you that poor little sucker was shook. The one scene I might’ve omitted or cut down significantly is that little origin story at the bar... it’s just a little too cliché.

Okay. The origin story. The thing that’s got people heated. Look, the I-became-a-villain-because-Tony-was-mean-to-me is basically a Marvel trope at this point. And this does kinda feel like a desperate attempt to have Tony in the movie without really having Tony in the movie. But. Hear me out. I do hate that they went and re-edited those scenes. Honestly, though, you need to remember that Beck is an illusionist and that his whole schtick is making people believe what he wants them to believe. He’s the epitome of an unreliable narrator. He’s proved time and time again that, no matter how convincing he is, you can’t trust a word that comes out of his mouth. So do I believe that Tony stole his tech in any way, shape, or form? Of course not. Beck is a pathological liar who is attacking a child just because that child happened to be cared for by Tony Stark.

Another missed opportunity, in my opinion, and I get that most of these are unrealistic because they require RDJ, but just think about a scene, after it’s all over, where Peter sneaks into Stark Industries in the dead of night with his old internship keycard. Pepper finds him there (because of course she’s still at work), watching old memories on the BARF tech. She asks him about something she heard on the news, something about a night monkey and a fire monster, and his face falls. “I kinda screwed up, Ms. Potts. I just--I know I don’t have to be him, no one can do that, but I still... I just want to make him proud.” And Pepper wordlessly takes the VR glasses off of him and puts them on herself, and the room switches to one of her memories, one of her favorite memories, where Tony is holding a newborn Morgan with a faraway look in his eye and Pepper tells him, gently, that Peter “would’ve been a great big brother, don’t you think?” And Tony would scoff and say something about how Peter would have Morgan swinging up the Chrysler Building before he could even say underoos, but then his eyes would go soft and he’d whisper, “even though I have a sinking feeling that those two together would be the death of me... I don’t think there’s anyone else I’d rather have my little girl look up to.” When the video finally turns off, Peter’s crying into her arms. “He is proud of you, Peter. And he always has been.”

Lastly--I think they missed an opportunity during the mid-credit scene. Instead of Peter’s date being MJ, have it be Morgan. Cut to them swinging through the woods, running up to the cabin, and zoom on a very scared looking Pepper rushing them inside when they get close. And Peter asks what’s wrong, because something is clearly wrong, but Pepper forces a smile and tries to sound casual when she tells Morgan to show Peter the room that Tony built for him, because he might be staying with them for a while. But as Morgan pulls him up the stairs, his super-hearing catches the muffled audio of the TV, and his heart drops, because he swears to God he hears them say: “this just in, local menace Spider-Man is revealed to be sixteen-year-old Queens resident, Peter Parker.”

#spider-man #peter parker #ffh spoilers #ffh #may parker #pepper potts #happy hogan #irondad #far from home

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incorrectcadenzaquotes · 4 years

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WELCOME ABOARD CADENZA

intro: yo my name’s trace andddd i’m a casual writer who spends more time in a self fulfilling prophecy loop about writer’s block than actually writing but i believe that can change with this project.

BASICALLY .. this is a piece of (idw) transformers fanfiction that will be based off of mtmte/LL in that the story revolves around a crew aboard a ship (cadenza!). the twist is that these are all OCs based off of friends of mine on a discord server.

now, this idea originated earlier on this year (2019) anddd last time i worked on it was may and it is currently late december lmao . SO this sideblog is to make memes and shitposts from the cast so that i can both keep up my inspiration and also understand the characters better! (a starting cast of 11 and total of 19 , jesus fuck..)

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO here’s the guide to the cadenizens - our cast aboard the cadenza :D

these are all the notes i have currently - some characters are more fleshed out than others! but just an intro

CAPTAINS

pursuit - this one’s me!

psych consultant / jr tactician, autobot

speedster, black-red-gold, changes detailing a lot

prideful, relatively young, can be pretty darn bold/brash

mostly in charge of paperwork/technical stuff, public speaking

very few can get away with calling him “junior”

prowl fanboy, before cadenza was roommates with circlet and pandora

gives nicknames to everyone, this is law aboard cadenza

assigned mission by prowl to find stragglers/NAILs wherever in space (near the end of the war and prowl foresees the autobots winning soon, so it’s a last recruitment in case anyone wants to speed along the resolution)

pandora

product/weapon designer, autobot

spaceship-like alt mode, pink-purple-blue, outlier ability “pandora’s box” (details tbd)

hesitant but very positive and lighthearted, altruistic

in charge of coordinating people and asking favors/assigning jobs/communications - the more socially demanding interactions

loves to make teasing jokes about people, everyone knows she’s nice anyway so can’t really take it too seriously

circlet

artist, autobot

helicopter, lavender, rounder more streamlined appearance rather than sharp edges

neurotic, clumsy, cute until very angry

excels at graphs, organization, planning (often works with datum on this stuff)

known pursuit for basically their whole lives, practically brother and sister

THE CADENIZENS

deckout

frame designer, autobot

level headed, talks things through

he has spent far too much time with pursuit, putting up with his constant detailing and general bullshit

arc

welder/repairbot, autobot

likes order, rules, slow and steady wins the race!

mechanics = art

datum

analyst/engineer, ex-con, autobot

does his best to contribute, very organized, mindful of his past

works with circ on organizing and plans

like. truly, notoriously organized. how does he do it

armordive

revolutionary journalist, autobot turned NAIL

flying ship alt mode (likely will post separately)

loves random controversial facts that are really obscure

here to write about the crew

he’ll be picked up along the way, not part of the starting cast

roadagain

organics expert, humanitarian, secretly a rogue con, “NAIL”

softback jeep, orange-black-dark gray, camera/tripod attachments

speaks highly of original decepticon cause, bubbly, charismatic, he’s such a nerd

filming his own nature documentary

he’ll be joining the cadenizens when the crew get to earth, he’s with a group there along with stevotron, trip, and shamble

envoy

mediator/diplomat, autobot

space suv, black-red-light gray, weapons loaded into chassis but can’t use them all at once or it’ll drain her spark

easy to talk to, good listener, she has a.. mild obsession with money

was assigned to this mission by prowl

trip

recently constructed in the war, unknown function, autobot turned NAIL

loves jokes/pranks (esp with stevotron), surprisingly intuitive at times

trainee, dabbles in everything aboard cadenza, he pretty much just helps out all around

among the group on earth

letariat

supply manager/rationer (pls . this man is an entire communism joke i can hardly handle it it’s amazing), autobot (participated in early decepticon uprisings before war broke out)

dark humor, has a gentle/serious side, he bottles up more than he should tbh

avalanche

politician turned soldier, decepticon prisoner

military truck ? thing?

disdainful of ex-cons, grammar nazi

uh he probably joins aboard along the way, not starting cast

shamble

poet, autobot, early con leanings

half of a jet alt mode, duobot (not like... just the legs or anything. he’s a whole bot)

very chill, loves plastic models/figurines from human culture

another member of the group from earth!

sicarius

musician, eukarian, autobot

beastformer, spider (sicarius desert spider)

energetic, she is fond of organics and small talk

livewire

psyche nurse, medical nurse, autobot

off color, clown-like scheme

friendly, a little more reserved in group settings

they do NOT take shit while on the job

stevotron

NAIL

the second half to the prankster duo with trip

originally had a very common cybertronian name so he picked this one to show his appreciation of earth

the acting leader of the group on earth out of necessity more than anything else like desire for power

5P4M4

cadenza’s resident artificial intelligence

catalogs interactions, highkey wingman without anyone asking for it

and, well, the role of this last guy hasn’t been finalized. honestly all of this is subject to change though tbh

stabilizer

security director? ex-con, not with the crew(?)

seeker, jet

hot headed, ambitious, can seem cold, dry humor, loves flying

jaded by autobots, tries to keep his cool, wants to ascend ranks despite his past

YALL IF ANYONE HAS LIKE... THINGS THEY’D LIKE TO SEE IN A FIC? OR WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS PLS SPEAK UP I DONT RLY EXPECT THIS TO CATCH THE INTEREST OF PPL OUTSIDE OF THIS SOCIAL CIRCLE BUT ON THE OFF CHANCE IT DOES THEN U KNO THE DOOR’S OPEN

#transformers #fanfiction #mtmte #lost light #cadenza #cadenizens #trainc #idw transformers #original characters

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itsclydebitches · 5 years

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RWBY Recaps: Vol. 6 “Uncovered”

This is a re-posting from Nov. 4th, 2018 in an effort to get all my recaps fully on tumblr. Thanks!

So much for Thursday/Friday postings. This episode ripped my heart out through my teeth, so you know I've gotta get thoughts down on paper. What’s today’s theme? The folly and inexperience of youth, but as much as I want to dive straight into my impassioned defense of Ozpin, we need to make sure that we unpack the new intro first. And, you know, the rest of the episode...

The highlights have already been circulating for the last week, most notably the animation of Ozpin’s (presumed) past reincarnations… and the fact that the one right before the guy we think of as Oz looks like a dad. He looks like Tai’s brother. One of these Ozpins is not like the others and honestly I kind of love it. Seriously though, in the realm of actual analysis there are a number of details I want to make sure we put a pin in before moving forward. Let’s make use of our good friend the list:

The beginning is super fluffy with the gang hanging out while waiting for the train, Ruby chasing after Weiss, and Blake watching them fondly. Out of the whole group Yang is the only one who appears upset, staring morosely out the window where we get a flash of Adam. I think this is significant given that she seems to be the most volatile of the group right now. As we’ll see, though most of them have beef with Ozpin, Yang is the one instigating the fights.

We have a moment where the camera moves through Maria’s eyes and then immediately does the same with Ruby’s. Are Maria’s eyes also important? Perhaps her semblance is connected to her blindness somehow.

We see (I think??) Roman’s hat blow by right before the hooded person (Cinder) is broken up by red slashes across the screen. Omg could he actually come back? I mean yeah, he literally got swallowed whole by a grimm, but he also might have cut himself out a la Hannibal Chau style. Please bring back my flamboyant fave and have him get revenge on Cinder. That would be so very excellent.

There’s a young woman (Salem) staring up at a statue of Oz. Last week it seemed weird that this statue looked so very much like his Vol. 1-3 reincarnation, but considering we’re in Jinn’s story world she might be borrowing imagery that the gang is familiar with. Either that or the reincarnations tend to look like each other in time? Idk. To be decided.

Jaune slams Ozpin up against a freaking wall. Given how this Volume is going so far, I’m pretty confident that it’s Ozpin and not Oscar. Wonder if Jaune is finally going to confront him about his part in Pyrrha’s death…

Plenty of potential WhiteRose (as mentioned in the first recap). Seriously, I try to keep shipping out of these (a few Ozqrow jokes aside…) but I’ve also gotta call any potential setup as I see it, and given the happily chasing after her, using her glyphs at the end, the final shot of Weiss helping Ruby to her feet, Ruby collecting dust cartridges later in the episode, her calling Weiss's name in Jinn's world, Weiss doing the same for her… all of this could just be them re-developing their relationship after the separation. Could also be something more.

Also in terms of that final shot: having the whole group—Ozpin included—standing together and facing down some threat is very reassuring after this week’s episode. Ngl lol.

Finally, we have those grimm arms reaching out to drag Qrow into darkness, notably while he’s drinking. “Wow,” I say to myself. “Those arms sure do look a lot like Cinder’s!”

Oh look. We open on Cinder.

Classic rule of television: if you don’t see a body they’re not dead yet. (Unless, apparently, you’re Ozpin.)

(…but maybe not Roman.)

She’s clearly terrified, waking up in water with her eyes darting every which way, groaning when she finally pulls herself to shore. It’s always good to throw your villains into moments like this where their basic—human—instincts take hold. It makes them a little more sympathetic (if not more justifiable) and therefore more compelling. At this point I really have no desire to see an attempt at a Cinder redemption arc, but even I’m wincing at that panicked look on her face.

She’s having trouble summoning up her power, presumably because she just got her ass beat by another Maiden. It comes back pretty fast though, which really helps put into context how powerful these women are. Even freezing them from the inside out is only going to knock them out of commission for a little while.

Cinder takes a look way up to where the tree stands and pounds her grimm hand against the rocks in frustration. Apparently these things are ridiculously strong because it opens up a crack in the mountain, letting a sliver of light shine through to her face. (A trope normally reserved for the heroes.) Cinder then uses her One Punch Man powers to break out, considering that her flames are still sputtering.

Outside she meets a sweet, no-name woman who makes the mistake of stopping to help. Cinder steals her clothes, her money, and presumably kills her. RIP nice lady just trying to do her grocery shopping.

We realize that Cinder woke up weeks ago as we move into another flashback at the house. There the team has their first conversation about the relic.

Ruby: “We need to take the relic to Atlas?”

Qrow: “That’s what Oz said.”

For all his banter and bluster, Qrow is a very passive character. He has so little faith in himself that he needs to put it in others—so he fosters pretty much all of that onto Oz. Ruby is the one who subtly questions why they’re taking the relic all the way to Atlas. Qrow is the one who just reiterates that these are Oz’s orders, so that’s what they’re gonna do. Right now he’s not questioning his general and I’ll be interested to see if and how that changes after the events of this episode. One of the reasons for Qrow’s dark descent in the intro?

We have a funny exchange where Ren points out that the borders of Atlas are closed, but no worries. They have a missing Schnee heiress to get them through! What’s less funny is when Qrow mentions that they actually wanted to seal the relic back up in the vault but can’t because they don’t have access to the Spring Maiden. Cut to a guilty looking Yang. Not that they’d have much chance convincing Raven to help them (what is she up to with Tai??), but again: Oz isn’t the only one keeping secrets.

Ozpin comes out leaning heavily on his cane and wincing with each step. Hmm. Another indication that, despite his power, he’s surprisingly fragile? I’m still wondering how Cinder won that fight and it looks like he isn’t recovering as quickly as the rest of the group, despite the fact that everyone took a beating in Haven. Something to chew on.

Still talking about the relic, Jaune mentions that they don’t know what the thing actually does and we get to see Ozpin’s conflicted expression before he whirls around with a smile. He’s clearly weighing what he should and shouldn’t tell them, secrets later revealed in the episode. He says that the relic has a “wonderful and incredibly dangerous ability”—important wording! We’ll come back to that. It can answer any three questions every 100 years, provided they’re not about future events. Ozpin claims that the questions were asked before the relic was sealed away so, sorry, no knowledge to gain right now.

Jumping a little farther into the episode, we also continue the plot-line with Cinder sneaking around in the dead woman’s clothes, realizing that she’s very much a wanted criminal now. She heads into this super sketchy spider gang and asks for information on Team RWBY and the others—not going back to Salem then—throwing down the woman’s lien as payment. The leader assures her that she’ll have their locations within a week… despite the fact that she already knows where they are. The “big guy,” Hazel, was asking first.

Back with the group. Ruby finds the relic lying nearby while Yang tries desperately to get her bike out of the snow. Despite having agreed to this plan of separating and stranding themselves, Yang is expressing her frustration by treating it like a cruel trick of fate, complaining about that as well as the fact that they’ve “gained a defenseless old woman.” After Maria introduces herself and comments a little about being hard of hearing, blind, and how her glasses need a tuneup, we slam hard into the heart of the episode. Good. I’ve got things to say about how these kids are acting like… well, kids. Yang has basically just had a temper tantrum in the snow and Qrow rightly points out that they need to try to keep calm so as not to attract more grimm. Yang—as we expect—uses this opportunity to segue back to the relic. She wants to know why Ozpin lied to them. Oscar thinks they deserve to know too and forces (maybe?) the switch.

“I didn’t lie,” Ozpin says. He just didn’t provide them with all the information. This immediately sets Yang off because that’s just a technicality. An excuse. Right? Well, yes and no. Do people sometimes manipulate others by doling out pieces of information and then claiming, “I didn’t really lie”? Yes, absolutely. But there’s also something to be said for adults withholding information in an effort to protect their charges. Like… if a kid asked you how someone died there’s a BIG difference between saying, “They were murdered” vs. “Oh, well the murderer tortured them for days and then sent pictures of it to their family and then gutted them very slowly….” Yeah. Sometimes you don’t need that kind of shit weighing you down and in this case Ozpin has an additional, practical reason for not telling them that the relic attracts grimm: their worry would just bring more. Which is exactly what I said last time. Telling them wouldn’t change the situation—there’s a very good chance it would actually make things worse—so he tried to give them what little peace he could.

Weiss: “You know, I’m getting real tired of people choosing what’s best for me”

An understandable statement? Sure, but Weiss is still a kid. Yes, 14, 15, 16, and even 17yos are still kids, whether we want to give them the label of “teenager” or not. It’s sometimes hard to remember given their responsibilities, but Team RWBY is still a collection of developing brains challenging thousands of years of experience. Kids never like it, but sometimes adults do know what’s best for them. All of this is complicated by the abuse in their lives—notice that Yang (Raven), Weiss (parents), and Blake (Adam) are far less trusting of Ozpin than Ruby is—but that doesn’t change the fact that a teenager is not equipped to make these world-altering decisions in the same way an adult is. Combine this with the fact that they have implicitly acknowledged Ozpin as their leader and them thinking they can challenge his well thought-out choices in this manner is a big problem.

Ironically, Ozpin and James have a lot more in common than they think they do when it comes to leading: they both understand the importance of compartmentalization, it’s just that James is more obvious about treating subordinates as subordinates. Ozpin cozies up to people and then they’re surprised when they don’t have his ear. As I said before, you can trust your army without giving them every single secret. That’s dangerous, and the girls aren’t entitled to dangerous information just because they want it.

Ozpin says he’s not entirely sure why grimm are attracted to the relic (another lie?) and we learn that he was the one who spun the story of Lionheart’s heroic death. Again, Yang sees things in a very black and white manner—that’s another lie and lies are bad—and Ozpin angrily argues that Lionheart doesn’t deserve to have all the good he did erased by his final mistakes. That's a pretty loaded conundrum and I’m definitely not equipped to untangle it. Rather, I’m more interested in how the girls are completely unable to consider that viewpoint. Because (common theme here) they lack the experience that Ozpin does. To them Lionheart was just a Bad Guy and should be treated accordingly because they’re teenagers who have never faced a betrayal like that. They might have a very different reaction if, years down the road, one of Team RWBY succumbed to Salem and betrayed them in the end. Would Blake want Yang’s name forever tarnished if she gave in and joined Raven? Would Ruby be okay with the whole world thinking nothing but awful things about Weiss if she went dark? No, it’s more complex when you love someone… but they’re too young to understand that yet.

Age matters here. Experience matters.

Just as important, Ozpin is an emotional, flawed human being who is being cut very deeply right now. That is, the girls have 100% condemned Lionheart despite the good he did in the past… and Ozpin has no doubt done things just as bad, if not worse. Though unintentional, their rejection of Lionheart’s worth is a rejection of Ozpin’s as well. If they can’t consider forgiving Lionheart for his mistakes, how could they possibly forgive him? “Does one lapse in judgement truly negate all of his good?” he asks, a question he no doubt poses to himself all the time. As Ozpin defends his friend he’s also trying desperately to defend himself and what he’s hearing from Yang is, “No. You’re irredeemable.”

Whether we consider Ozpin’s past to actually be irredeemable or not, that’s a pretty hard blow. Remember last recap I pointed out how shocked he looked at Ruby’s support? It’s because this is what he’s used to hearing. Everyone (like Qrow) looks to him to be their leader and then reacts with fury when he makes decisions they don’t like; people insist they care for him and then condemn those who have made far fewer mistakes. And he’s been dealing with this for thousands of years. Honestly, I’m surprised the guy can even get out of bed anymore.

“Do you really think Leo was the first?” he growls when Yang insists that he can trust them. Of course Leo wasn’t the first to betray him and, as Ozpin points out, he said those exact same words. You can trust me. Ultimately, why are these kids any different? Because they’re the heroes? No, that’s the perspective of the audience. From behind our fourth wall we know that Team RWBY is trustworthy, but Ozpin has no such reassurances. If a friend he had for years could suddenly betray him like that, what the hell is stopping a bunch of former students who are already frustrated with him?

Also… just pointing out… Yang insists he can trust her and then two seconds later she, along with Blake and Weiss, have their weapons pulled on both Ozpin and Qrow. So he can trust them… but only if he does what they want and tells them what they want to hear. And people question why Ozpin has trust issues.

I do want Ozpin to trust more—both for himself and for others—but my god does he have good reasons for holding back.

Sadly, we don’t get to see Yang try to grapple with the revelation that she’s parroting Lionheart’s words (because, as I’ll discuss a bit below, RWBY ultimately dodges any real sticky moral questions and segues back into simple story logic). Instead the conversation is derailed as Ozpin realizes that the relic is missing.

Ruby has it, but she’s not willing to hand it over. So much for my theory of her sticking by him this Volume. At least right now, she’s acting as much like a kid as any of the others. In what I think is a reckless move, Oscar realizes that Ozpin is hiding something from them and briefly takes control, telling Ruby to say the name Jinn.

She does and all the snow stops.

A sort of genie appears and says that she was created by the God of Light to “aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge.” Jinn then reveals that Ozpin did lie outright. There are still two questions left.

And with this revelation we come to the crux of the matter. His own very personal history aside, compartmentalization aside, why doesn’t Ozpin just give the gang all the information they want? Why all the lies? Because they’re children and right now they’re acting like it. Yang isn’t interested in making sure everyone gets to a safe place after Qrow mentions that they’re probably attracting grimm, she wants answers right now and she won’t move until she gets them. They’re not considering the hypocrisy of demanding Ozpin’s secrets when they’ve all had (and for some still have) secrets of their own. The girls aren’t responding logically to Qrow’s innocuous “Hey” later—why does he deserve their wrath?—they’re reacting with pure emotion, pulling their weapons on him for daring to just try and voice an opinion. That is an incredibly extreme reaction and in my opinion shows how little they’re thinking through their actions right now. They are, to put it bluntly, acting like a bunch of bratty teenagers. They want something and the adults in charge won’t let them have it, despite having numerous good reasons for withholding it (both practical and personal). So they throw a fit. The only difference is that instead of stomping their feet these girls have crazy powerful weaponry and a relic at their disposal.

All of this culminates in the release of Jinn. Let’s think back to that moment in the house: Ozpin tells them that the relic has a “wonderful and incredibly dangerous ability”—emphasis mine. Do the kids stop to wonder why the ability to answer questions is called incredibly dangerous? No! They’re just fascinated by the shiny new toy. Ren thinks it’s cool, Blake is amazed, Yang notes that picking the right questions would be a big responsibility but doesn’t back down from the challenge, and Nora immediately leads them in a charge to determine what they’re going to ask. Not one of them says, “Hey. What’s the catch here?” They’re all ready to jump into asking three questions without thinking through any of the potential repercussions of messing with an ancient object they know absolutely nothing about.

This no doubt tells Ozpin, as it told me, that they’re still kids and as such are in many ways still thinking like kids too. They don’t have the experience and the maturity yet to consider the consequences of their actions. What? Do we think someone as controlling as Ozpin just let two questions remain without a very good reason? That it’s a coincidence that immediately after he—or someone else—used the first question the relic was sealed away? No, there’s some downside here… but the gang never considered that possibility. So rather than explain all that and risk them insisting that they use the questions anyway—as kids are wont to do—Ozpin says the questions are used up for now. That way there’s no risk to them.

I’m thinking that when Ozpin charges Ruby he’s trying to reach her to protect her somehow. It's not just about him keeping his secrets. Jinn’s smoke is reaching for her too and he’s trying to get there first. He’s flawed, yes, but he’s not going to attack her. When has Ozpin ever been violent towards them? When has Ruby ever hesitated to defend herself? This isn't an experienced Huntsmen going on the offensive, nor a talented Huntress scared for her life---it's a desperate man and a young girl panicking at this mess of a situation. Because let's be real, if Ozpin had wanted to take the relic by force he easily could have. But he wouldn't do that. He’s not the one who drew his weapon here. No, if there’s a catch attached to these questions he wouldn’t want Ruby to pay it. He literally begs her on his knees not to use the relic… and when that fails he gets desperate and uses incredible speed to try and reach her before the magic does.

Remember, he wanted to immediately seal the relic back up in the vault and would have it they’d had access to the Spring Maiden. It might not just be because they’re worried about the relic falling into Salem’s hands. It sounds like there’s danger attached to using it too…. and people would absolutely be tempted to use it.

As we see here.

Ruby says, “What is Ozpin hiding from us?” WHICH IS ABOUT THE WORST QUESTION YOU COULD POSSIBLY ASK.

That’s not a targeted question to help you understand what Oscar was hinting at before. That’s an entirely open ended question that, depending on how Jinn works, will show you every secret Ozpin has ever had. What kind of fucked up invasion of privacy? Granted, we don’t have time in RWBY for something like that to actually happen—looks like Jinn is going to show us Ozpin’s greatest mistake/regret, something he thinks they’ll abandon him because of—but that doesn’t change how horrible that question was. I don’t care if the girls are right that Ozpin needs to work on trusting people more. You know how you don’t help people do that? By forcibly pulling all their secrets out into the open without their consent. Ruby’s question wasn’t just horribly invasive, it wasn’t thought out at all because no matter how frustrated she might be I don’t think she’d ever want to do that to a person. She, like the rest of her team, isn't thinking clearly.

Finally, you know what the real kicker is? All of this—everything I’ve mentioned throughout this scene—is done in front of Maria. What’s the latest definition of oblivious immaturity? Demanding that your leader reveal his secrets in front of a complete stranger.

Honestly I wanted to rip out my hair through this whole part of the episode. It’s easy to identify with Ruby and the gang because they’re our protagonists. The show wants us to empathize with them, but in this case it doesn’t change the fact that they’re acting their age and making really uninformed decisions. Despite the huge range of ages in this fandom, sometimes I feel like I’m watching RWBY very firmly from an adult’s perspective while the vast majority of the fandom is watching from the perspective of our heroes. They see the mean adult keeping secrets—and in a black and white universe secrets are bad!—while I’m seated firmly in Camp Context. It’s like that post about watching The Little Mermaid at different stages of your life:

As a child: She loves him! How romantic…

As an adult: You love him? You’re sixteen and you met him yesterday!

The thing is, I know RWBY isn’t going to take that adult perspective. That’s not how most stories go. Ozpin’s secrets will be revealed, he’ll probably be forgiven, and he’ll learn the lesson that it’s Bad to keep things from your friends. The intricacies of the situation and his very justifiable reasons will be brushed aside because he’s not our primary hero. Ruby is and her view of the world is that nearly blind faith in humanity. She doesn’t understand that after thousands of years Ozpin’s fractured faith doesn’t mean he can’t encourage others to be better than he is, she just pouts and says he should trust them specifically because he preaches trust as a general principal. At its core RWBY follows the simplistically moral logic of a fairy tale and though that’s great in many ways, I’m still at times frustrated by how the show introduces adult viewpoints without ever having the narrative justify them. Ozpin tells the group that he has more experience than them and has carefully considered his choices, but we’re encouraged to frown at him like the rest of the cast. Except Ozpin is right! He’s right!! He’s right and he should say it!

But most people don’t seem to agree with me. Oh well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We end the episode with Jinn’s magic reaching the group before Ozpin can reach Ruby. They’re all seeing the same vision of a castle and a beautiful woman, Jinn’s voice telling them a fairy tale:

“Once upon a time there stood a lonely tower that sheltered a lonely girl named Salem…”

So Salem’s backstory coincides with whatever Ozpin is so terrified of them figuring out about him. Full disclosure: if he starts crying next episode I will also be an emotional wreck. Here’s hoping that whatever the girls see, they’ll start mending their trust in one another once it’s over. I’m not sure I can take a whole Volume of everyone eviscerating Ozpin for trying to protect them, himself, and the rest of Remnant.

What’s he doing? His best. It’s far from perfect, but give the poor immortal a break.

Here’s hoping for one in episode three!

Other Details of Note

Of course it’s raining when Cinder leaves the vault. We need appropriate atmosphere for her dramatic collapse and rejuvenating murder lol

Except can we please have women remove their heels when everything goes sideways? I’m sorry, but if I were that exhausted and injured getting the spikes off my feet would be the very first thing I did.

Love that they essentially gave Maria’s glasses eyelids. Makes it very easy for her to express herself.

Okay so we pretty much know for a fact now that Ozpin and Oscar are starting to share thoughts both ways. I can’t imagine that Ozpin went, “Yeah so I’m still hiding something and you can figure it out by saying ‘Jinn’ to the shiny relic over there, but don't tell anyone else, okay?” Oscar is starting pick up on things as they (presumably) merge.

The relics are entities! And now we know why the the statue in Haven was of a woman bound in chains—she’s Jinn. Look at Ozpin’s dramatic ass designing lairs that reveal secrets no one realizes are there.

“It’s a pleasure to see you again, old man”—evidence that Ozpin either used that first question himself, was there when it was used, or has used the relic at another time in the past.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #mymetas #RWBY Recaps

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captainfawful · 5 years

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With the year coming to a close, that means it’s time for me to do my “Nobody Cares Awards” thing I like to do! Check under the cut for some hot takes I may or may not have!

Hello, hello! It’s me again! Third year in a row I decided to jot my thoughts down on the years various game. I decided to change things up more from last year, kind of eliminating most of the categories in favor of writing more about the games I enjoyed. I tried to write at least something about every game in the Top 10 this time, even if it’s the bare minimum. Let’s see how it goes!

BEST MUSIC

This entire thing was first created because I wanted to write about how good Death Road To Canada’s soundtrack was. So no matter what changes with my format on this, there will always be a Best Music category. I’ll be honest though, there weren’t a whole lot of games this year with amazing soundtracks. The only real contender for most of the year was Celeste, which OST is very good, and fits perfectly with the games tone and style, but it’s not... The Best music. They aren’t songs I’ll put on loop and listen to multiple times throughout the day. They’re not the hard hitting tracks I would typically put at the top of this category, despite how great the music is. That’s how I felt until about August, when The Messenger came out. Messenger is not a game that will be in my Top 10 by any means, but it’s a pretty good game nonetheless with a couple of really weird twists. But the OST is phenomenal. Easily my number 1 favorite of this year. Just about every track in the game is a total banger. But don’t take it from me, take a listen yourself! A little later in the year I played through Just Shapes & Beats. I have a personal stigma against saying a thing with licensed music should qualify for Best Music, which is why JS&B did not make it into my top 3, but rest assured that it is sitting comfortably in the 4th place spot. Almost immediately after I played JS&B, Deltarune suddenly came out. I don’t think I have to tell you why that’s on here, right? Toby Fox cannot make bad music.

SPECIAL MENTIONS

THE MISSING:J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories

It’s hard for me to talk about what makes The Missing so special without diving deep into spoilers. There’s a reason it’s in the special mentions, and not the Top 10: And that reason is because the gameplay isn’t great. The Missing is a side-scrolling puzzle game, in the same vein as Limbo or Inside. Unlike those two, however, the puzzles you have to solve are not that hard, and most of the difficulty around it revolves around how slowly and janky the movement is. However, the overall story and twist is what makes this game great. There’s not a whole lot for me to say about the themes this game presents, so if you want to play The Missing, play it. If you don’t want to play it, then maybe take a look at some writings from actual queer women who could talk about its subject matter in a way I never possibly could.

The Quiet Man

The Quiet Man is a terrible game. When I first saw the trailer during Suare Enix's E3 presentation, I was super interested. I've always wanted a game that transitions from FMV to gameplay with as few seams as possible, and The Quiet Man promised that. Not only that, it promised a compelling story told from the perspective of its' deaf protagonist. The way I saw it, this game would either accomplish what it set out to do, or fail miserably. Either way, it was a win/win scenario for me! Little did I know just HOW miserably it would fail.... Oooooh, how miserably it failed... The gameplay is absolute trash, the graphics leave much to be desired which makes the "seamless" transitions from FMV look unconvincing and bad, the story is needlessly complicated despite how generic it is, the acting ranges from decent to awful, and it requires you to play it twice in order to actually understand what's happening. And all of those problems are the LEAST offensive parts of the game. It's racist, misogynistic, somehow ableist against more than just deaf people, semi-incestual, and also kind of pro-abuse??? I mean, it doesn't take a stance to be anti-abuse, and certainly doesn't condemn abuse, so does that make it pro? Maybe? Probably? I have a headache. I've watched this entire 2-4 hour game be played 10 or 11 times, and I still don't understand how this exists. Square-Enix published this. They dropped Hitman and IO Interactive not even one year ago, yet threw money at this horrible abomination of a video game! Oh by the way, you might be wondering why I said you have to play it twice to understand, and that's because the first playthrough doesn't give you any sound. Yup, aside from the intro cutscene and the credits song, the entire games' audio is just muffled ambiance. This includes all of it's cutscenes, of which there are MANY, and they are LONG. Entire MINUTES of dialogue happening at a time that the game just doesn't want you to hear or have subtitles for. The only way to get audio is to beat the game once and replay it. Not only that, but the New Game + with sound and subtitles didn't even get patched in until a week after it's release!!! Who does that!!!!! And the version with audio has some ATROCIOUS writing. Just about every scene has at least one line of dialogue that makes no sense, almost as if the writers were only told about how humans speak, but never actually heard one themselves. I’ve heard a lot of people saying it’s The Room of video games, and I sort of agree. Much like The Room, it’s not the absolute worst of it’s form of media, the game is playable start-to-finish, extremely straight forward so you can’t get lost, no bizarre puzzles to figure out, the FMV cutscenes are at decently produced. Hell, I wouldn’t even say The Quiet Man is the worst game to come out THIS YEAR. Crying Is Not Enough released in June, and boy oh boy is that game a trash fire. But it’s just BAFFLING that this game exists. That’s the perfect word to summarize my feelings on The Quiet Man. Every single thing about it is just, baffling. I need to stop writing about this game. This whole paragraph is probably going to be longer than anything from my Top 10, which feature a few games I ADORE, but no. All my writing energy is going to how terrible this fucking video game is. Don't play The Quiet Man. Or do, fuck if I care. Maybe watch someone else play it, I don't know. I don't know anything anymore.

Ori and the Blind Forest

Back on the topic of good games, I finally got around to playing Ori and the Blind Forest! I played it for a little while after it originally came out around 2015, but it just didn’t stick with me at the time. There wasn’t any real reason why it didn’t stick, I just got bored and stopped playing, which isn’t that uncommon for me to do. But for whatever reason I decided to go back to it super late last year. It may have been the excitement for all the cool looking Metroidvanias slated to release throughout the year, I don’t know. But I played through it, and it’s fantastic! Most Metroidvanias tend to go with around a 60-40 split between platforming and combat. Different games have different splits, sure, but most of them tend to keep those somewhat even. Ori is like an 85-15, greatly favoring tight platforming over fighting enemies. Your main attack automatically locks on to nearest enemies, and boss fights are replaced with autoscrolling or stealth segments. The traversal is also super smooth and fun, making that 85-15 split much more favorable than others in its’ genre. Great controls combined with some amazing visuals and music, Ori is definitely a game I regret not playing earlier.

2019′S COMING IN HOT

Spelunky 2, Wargroove, Indivisible, Hypnospace Outlaw, Ooblets, UFO 50, Kingdom Hearts 3, Overland, Sea of Solitude, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and Get in the Car, Loser!. These are all great looking games that are supposed to be coming out in 2019. I remember last December when I last did this, I couldn't think of THAT many games I was really excited for, and despite that I ended up with a pretty damn good list of games for 2018. So who knows what next year will be like?!

And now... The Top 10!

#10: Spider-Man

It’s been a great year for Spider-Man. His best buddy Venom had a pretty good movie, his new video game is good, and he has a new movie that’s fantastic! Yep, it’s been such a good year for Spider-Man in which nothing bad has happened to him or the people who created him.

#9: Megaman 11

2 > 4 > 3 > 8 > 11 > 7 > 5 > 6 > 9 > 10 > 1. Don’t @ me.

#8: Iconoclasts

Iconoclasts has been in development for a very long time. Officially, development for it began in around 2010, but there is a seemingly earlier game by Konjak that shares many similarities. Basically, Iconoclasts began development at least 8 years ago, and it shows, for better or worse. On one hand, the game is gorgeous. Grade A sprite work all around. The characters are interesting and well written with their own morales and arcs, and the story is surprisingly deep and compelling considering the type of game it is. On the other hand, the gameplay feels very outdated now. The combat is super simplistic, the puzzles aren't terribly challenging or rewarding, and the weapon/ability upgrades are very limited. The traversal can be sluggish and boring, which is a red flag for a game where you have to backtrack a decent amount. If Iconoclasts came out 4 or 5 years ago, I feel like it would've been at least a cult classic. But in 2018, it's a decent Metroidvania in a year of great Metroidvanias. Overall, I'm glad Iconoclasts finally came out. I just wish it either came out sooner, or got more updated for modern game design.

#7: Slay the Spire

For all intents and purposes, I shouldn't like Slay the Spire. I always hated card-based RPGs, and always hated RPGs with only one party member. And for the most part, the issues I have with both of those are still very much present in Spire. So why have I sunk 50 hours into it so far? Beats me! If I had to guess, I’d say it’s the similarities it shares to Darkest Dungeon, one of my favorite games, that ultimately drives me to it. Now, you might be asking why Slay the Spire, a game that came out in 2017, and won’t be in 1.0 until probably 2019, is in my top 10 for this year, but Ori & the Blind Forest isn’t? Well, I started Ori last year, and didn’t start Spire until the middle of this year! Also, they’re my awards, and I can do whatever I want!

#6: Just Shapes & Beats

Just Shapes & Beats’ concept is simple: A rhythm bullet hell. Certainly not the first of it’s kind, and not even the first one to use simplistic shapes as the obstacles/characters. But there’s a bit more to it than that. JS&B has some good personality to go with it. It has some fun characters, all of the levels are demonstrative of the areas you’re in on the world map, it even has a couple lightly emotional moments! It’s much more than you’d expect from a game about Just Shapes & Beats. When I was younger and had vague dreams to make games, I always imagined making one that was basically “What if a Windows Visualizer was trying to kill you?” and also be themed around a world and a story, and JS&B is basically that.

#5: Pipe Push Paradise

What happens when you take Pipe Dream, an iconic puzzler which has given inspiration to countless others, and mix it with Stephen's Sausage Roll, arguably one of the greatest puzzle games of all time? You get Pipe Push Paradise, of course! That’s all I really have to say, and all I NEED to say.

#4: Dead Cells

Go play Dead Cells. Really, it’s the closest thing to a perfect Rogue-like (that isn’t Spelunky) out there right now. It’s a game so good, Filip Miucin couldn’t look away from it long enough to write his own review!

#3: Subnautica

If I had the opportunity to become a Fishman and live underwater, I’d probably take it. As long as you take out the jellyfish that can kill you .0001 seconds after stinging you, I have no qualms with open water. In fact, the isolated feeling from it is really relaxing to me. That’s what initially drew me to Subnautica. Survival games are usually hit or miss for me, but the ones I like I really dive deep into (Heh heh), and Subnautica is one of those. Also, I was rewatching the Super Mario Bros. Super Show on Netflix as I played this, so now I’ll have those two permanently linked in my mind from now on.

#2: Into The Breach

I love tactics games, especially Advance Wars. While I do still love others in the genre like Fire Emblem or X-COM, there are some intricacies of the AW series that most of the others don't have. When I first heard about Into The Breach, I thought it would be exactly what I wanted, a true successor to the series I'd been waiting for. And it was not! But it's still pretty damn good. It's not so much a tactics game as it is a puzzle game, described by Waypoint's own Austin Walker as a "tactical dance". You know at the start of each turn where each enemy is going to attack, and it's your job to navigate and attack with your 3 mech units in the exact right way to minimize or even straight up prevent any damage that would befall you or the cities you're protecting. You aren't trying to advance a map during combat, or conquer any enemy bases. You are merely trying to avoid damage for a certain amount of turns and move on to the next level. And it's all super fun! I've let the game sit for 10, 20 minutes while I try and figure out every possible option I have after being backed into a corner, and coming up with the absolute perfect solution and getting through to the other side is super satisfying. The biggest gripe I have with Into The Breach is the same one I had for FTL, the developer's last game, which is I don't think the unlockable mechs/mech teams are as fun as the default ones. I played most of them once or twice and went "Yeah, that's a thing" and migrate back to the first mech team. All in all, Into The Breach is a fantastic game, it just doesn't scratch that Advance Wars itch I've been feeling. Oh well, at least there's still Wargroove!

#1: Celeste

Celeste is a game I got 100% completion in. For those of you who might not know me well enough to know how I play games, that’s something that never happens. I think the last time I purposely got 100% on a game was in Uncharted 2, and even that was only to get a skin for multiplayer. Despite that, it’s been really difficult for me to write up a whole thing about why I love Celeste so much. It’s just a compilation of everything. I love the look of it, both the sprite work and the character portraits. The music, as mentioned before, is fantastic and perfectly fitting for all of the levels themes which deal in different forms of anxiety or self-doubt. The levels are hard, but not too hard. The secrets hidden throughout the game are so satisfying to figure out and find, very reminiscent of Braid. I feel confident in saying that Celeste has cemented itself as one of my favorite games of all time.

Well, that’s all I can handle writing for this year. Thanks to the few of you who skimmed through all this, and extra thanks to the fewer of you who read all of it! I’m not 100% sure if I’ll do this whole shpeel next year or not; maybe if 2019 turns out to be an incredible year for games, and definitely not if I have to move to Twitter in the off-chance Tumblr dies out completely. Hope you all had a fun holiday season, and have a great 2019!

#dont reblog pls #long post #very rare personal post???

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daniel306gaming · 1 year

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¿What if Spider-Man No Way Home ended like this?

To: Tom Holland, Jon Watts, Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios

Intro

¿What if events went differently in the MCU? ¿What if Spider-Man No Way Home ended like this? In today’s fan fiction we’re going to be exploring what would have happened if Spider-Man No Way Home had a complete different ending with the Spider-Verse being involved. ¿How can this affect the next Spider-Man trilogy going forward? This is my own take of events taking inspiration from the 2014-15 Spider-Verse story arc with elements from the 2007-08 One More Day story arc and adding details from the 2010 One Moment in Time story arc while following the mythology of Spider-Man and the timeline of the MCU. Without wasting anymore time sit back and relax and enjoy this fan fiction.

Prologue

In our universe we saw how the Spider-Men successfully defeated the Sinister 6 and Doctor Strange casted a spell causing everyone that knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man to be erased from their minds completely and restoring the multiverse. But what if things ended differently and what if more Spider-Man heroes and villains leaked into the multiverse. Well that is the story of today. I am the Watcher. I am ur guide to these vast new realities. Follow me and pounder the question. What if…

Story

The events of No Way Home were playing out the same as in our universe. When Doctor Strange performed the spell to erase everyone’s memories of Peter Parker it had been backfired on Parker as villains from other universes were scattered across New York. After battling with Doc Ock and seeking out more villains Peter gained the help of MJ and Ned to find the rest of them. Peter would capture Sandman, Electro and Green Goblin like in our universe. Peter learned the fate of each villain and how most of the villains would die at the hands of Spider-Man. Peter couldn’t accept this. His hero values were at a breaking point. Parker decided to fight with Doctor Strange after Strange brought Peter to the Mirror Dimension. Peter eventually won the battle leaving Strange tied up. Peter told MJ and ned about the situation at hand and if they needed him he told them to use the sling ring. They agreed as Peter freed the villains. The villains went to Feast where all hell broke lose after Norman Osborn rejected being cured explaining to the villains that they had gifts in the world they knew and that they needed to conquer a new world. All of the villains escaped but Green Goblin had fought with Spider-Man beating him to a pulp. After some time during the fight Peter’s Aunt May was attacked killing her for good. Norman fled the scene leaving Peter Parker broken without his Aunt May. Our story begins here during this important event. After Parker was left broken and on his own other Spider-Men were teleported to New York. Peter was on the edge of becoming someone he wasn’t until he heard a noise in the background. Peter went on top of a building rooftop where he cried in the rain debating on whether or not to kill Norman Osborn for what he did. Peter turned around to see other Spider-Men approach him. He was shocked to see them standing before him. He asked who they were. One of them wearing a 1930s trench coat and a pistol told him that they were him. They were Peter Parker and they have been looking for him these past few days. Peter saw another Spider-Man wearing a white red and blue colored suit and told them to leave. Peter said that he didn’t care anymore about what happened to him. He said that he was sorry for dragging them all into this but his Aunt May was killed and now he had nothing left. Parker told the group that he wanted to kill the Green Goblin before Spider-Man of the video game universe confronted him. He told him how he had already lost May in his world because of mistakes he made but May wouldn’t want him to become a killer. A young kid who was next to him introduced himself as Miles Morales. He said that he was sent here after something weird happened when they were battling the Vulture. Another Spider-Man in a bright blue and red outfit told him that he was also sent to this world after battling with Doc Ock who had just bonded with the Carnage symbiote. He said to the group that if it wasn’t for him then maybe he would already be dead. He was explaining that perhaps fate had brought them all together. Spider-Man Noir extended a handout to Peter saying that they would fix it together. He was about to take it before 2 other Spider-Man appeared from the shadows and they were with Ned and MJ. Peter hugged his 2 friends who knew that something was amiss with Peter. He became consumed by rage since Peter didn’t have the talk with Peter-Two like in our universe about “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”. This Peter Parker was more rageful than ever. The other 2 Spider-Man who appeared said that they were sorry and could still help by making this right. Peter took the box. He told everyone that he would send them home before MJ grabbed it from him. She told him to look around. He had more help than ever and because of this they would avenge May for this. Spider-Man Noir told Peter that they couldn’t cure them as it was too late for them. They chose to leave Peter and kill his Aunt May. Peter-Two disagreed saying that if they cured them his plan could be successful. Miles agreed that Spider-Man would never want to kill and that he would always want to be helpful. Peter decided but this wouldn’t stop him from killing Norman like in our universe. He agreed that he would cure the villains. Peter-Two and Three made cures for the villains but with the help of the other Spider-Men they were all ready to end this. Peter live stream to the world that he would fix this mess and they went to the Statue of Liberty. Peter Parker-Two and Three planted the cures in spots around the construction site where the rest of the Spider-Men were ready to fight. Insomniac’s Spider-Man and Miles Morales were confused to see an orange portal open. Doctor Strange got out of the Mirror Dimension. He was shocked to see the rest of the Spider-Men standing before him. Insomniac’s Spider-Man extended his hand out to Strange where he took it. He was proud that Peter’s plan had been working and was happy to see that he might able to cure all of them after all. In our universe Strange was mad at Peter’s action where he wanted to send everybody back but this time after seeing Peter rally the other Spider-Men and cure the villains he knew that what Peter stood for was for good and that this could fix reality. As the villains made their way to the Statue of Liberty they had a standoff. The villains were all there but Green Goblin who surprised Peter by taking the box he tried to throw a pumpkin bomb in it but it didn’t work. This time Peter used his webs on the Goblin’s glider and left the box to Strange. Since Norman didn’t blow up the box the multiverse wasn’t leaking in this universe. Spider-Man 2000 and Peter-Two took on Lizard and Sandman curing them while Insomniac’s Spider-Man, Miles Morales and Peter-Three fought with Electro. Ock decided to betray the villains and help them cure the rest. Doctor Strange watched the chaos unfold. With too many Spider-Men the plans were harder to achieve as they weren’t fighting as a team. Doctor Strange looked at the box before closing his eyes. Peter screamed at Green Goblin kicking him from the glider to the ground. Spider-Man Noir managed to help him by shooting parts of the glider. Norman yelled as he fell below crashing the glider. Norman was knocked out and was defeated before Peter walked up to him. He saw from above most of the villains fighting the other Spider-Men. They were being cured faster one by one. Spider-Man Noir pointed his gun at Norman and told him that people like him must die. Norman laughed saying that they were too weak to send him to die. Peter punched Goblin over and over again until his face was covered in blood. Peter-Two and Three along with the rest of the Spider-Men watched. They yelled for him to stop down below but Peter just kept going. Insomniac’s Spider-Man swung below catching the glider before he could murder Norman Osborn. He told Peter that this wasn’t going to make things right. Peter-Two jumped down below and told Peter to put down the down the glider. Peter-Two tried to use his webs before Noir aimed his gun at him. Peter dropped the glider and got into a heated battle with Insomniac’s Spider-Man knocking him out cold. The rest of the Spider-Men came below and were ready to fight. Peter said that he was sorry for what he had done and he looked at the blood on his hands. Noir told everyone to stand back and those criminals must be stopped once and for all. If they aren’t killed they will keep coming back again and again. Peter-Three stood up and explained how he became bitter because he lost Gwen and didn’t want anyone to feel that too but that “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”. Noir realized that they were right putting his gun down and threw it away. The rest of the Spider-Men watched as Peter was going to make his choice. Either becoming a hero by letting live or murdering him in cold blood in front of all of the other Spider-Men. Peter took the glider again. He was about to kill Norman for everything before portals started opening in front of them. Strange with now the cured villains met with the group of Spider-Men. Strange told Peter to watch. More Spider-Men that were heroes like him started coming out of the portal like Ultimate, 616, 2099, symbiote, Peter B. Parker etc. came out of the portal. This broke Peter as Spider-Man was a hero everywhere. He decided to put the glider down before webbing Norman up. Strange started sending everyone back. The Spider-Men were proud of him for making the right choice. He helped Insomniac’s Spider-Man up shaking his hand as the villains started leaving. “Good luck” said Insomniac’s Spider-Man as they began to fade away along with Peter-Two and Three. The universe has now changed as with the villains not leaking Strange didn’t do the spell that cured everyone to forget that Peter Parker was Spider-Man. This time Strange offered him an opportunity to become a sorcerer like himself. Peter was gifted with many abilities that can help him become one but Peter looked at his friends in the distance and told Stephen that he would stick to being Spider-Man even if it meant Peter Parker was no more. Strange agreed and left Peter with Ned and MJ. They all hugged and Peter would continue being Spider-Man with the cost of the public knowing who he was. His friends would go to school but Peter would be banned from MIT. The city started loving spidey for saving the city form the villains. Mysterio would be exposed for being a liar as Peter was able to prove that he used to work for Tony Stark and how he was actually evil. The Daily Bugle in this universe would be shutdown because of the negative press against Peter Parker. Parker himself opened his own company called Parker Industries taking over the Avengers Tower. Parker was able to do this because of Happy Hogan who became a mentor to Peter like Stark. Parker was steps ahead of becoming Iron-Spider the new and future leader of the New Avengers…

THE END!

And that is going to be it for this alternate ending of Spider-Man No Way Home. I felt like having a bunch of other Spider-Men being in the MCU helped Peter become a better hero by not killing Green Goblin and being able to go on a path to becoming the Iron-Spider possibly leading into The New Avengers but also maybe The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars which we hope he appears in those films. Do make sure to be on the lookout for more what ifs coming soon. Take care guys and have a fantastic day. Peace out!

#marvel studios #multiverse saga

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builder051 · 6 years

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master fic list

Hello, it’s been a thousand years since I sent this around, but I’ve written a lot of fics in the past year (yes. one year. all of this.)

With my OCs going through their arcs, I though it would be pertinent to bring around all their old stuff. And why not send all the fandom stuff around with it?

So anyhow, there you go. Close to 200 stories. Knock yourselves out.

My OCs

Jax Beach

Intro part 1 (Mel is angry with Todd; she attempts a rescue)–not a sickfic

Intro part 2 (Todd is hungover; he doesn’t know why Mel is angry)–contains vomit

Intro part 3 (Todd still feels like shit; they attempt reconciliation)

Drabble prompt fill (Mel is sick and a mess; Todd assists)–contains vomit

Prompt fill (Todd catches Mel’s bug)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Mel’s sick after an argument)-contains vomit

Travel Sickness (Todd’s ill on a plane)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Todd’s getting over a stomach bug and doesn’t feel up to cooking)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Mel is sick after a Christmas party)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Todd has a migraine)-contains vomit

Happy Anniversary (Todd is seasick on a cruise)-contains vomit

You’re my angel, just not in the morning (Mark is a good samaritan)-contains vomit

2K18 Story Arc part 1 (Troy has a bug, he meets Mark)-contains vomit

Short drabble: Troy + migraine -contains vomit

Prompt fill (Mark and Troy’s first date)-contains vomit

200-word ficlet (Troy deals with a stomach ache alone)-contains vomit

2K18 Story Arc part 2 (Todd’s sick at the grocery store)-contains vomit

2K18 Story Arc part 3 (Troy has a migraine and his sister assists)-contains vomit

2K18 Story Arc part 4 (Amelia discovers secrets at a dinner party)

2K18 Story Arc part 5 (Todd ruins Mark and Troy’s moment)-contains vomit

Mike & Co

Intro (Mike runs away, gets pulled over, and gets sick; Jason and Colby rescue her)-contains vomit

Flu hits the Deangeles-Carson household, part 1 (Mike is sick)-contains vomit

Flu hits the Deangeles-Carson household, part 2 (Jason is sick)-contains vomit

Flu hits the Deangeles-Carson household, part 3 (Colby is sick)-contains vomit

Prompt Fill (Jason is sick and passes out at school)-contains vomit

Prompt Fill (Colby’s up in the middle of the night being sick)-contains vomit

Drabble (Mike has an ear infection, Colby helps out)

Prompt fill (Colby has appendicitis)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Jason shivers his way through finals with a fever)

Prompt fill (Colby has an morality crisis)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Colby has an emotional breakdown)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Jason works himself to the point of illness at the gym)-contains vomit

Mike and Jason at Thanksgiving (Mike has a hard time)-contains vomit

Jason vs. finals week, part 2 (Jason comes home from his exams and is immediately sick)-contains vomit

The Mike fic that wasn’t (Mike grocery shopping with ED-Brain–major trigger warnings)

Prompt fill (Colby gets sick in bed, and Jason takes care of him)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Colby and Jason are both sick and fighting)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Jason is sick from too much sugar)- contains vomit

200 word ficlet (Jason sick, and it’s Colby’s fault)-contains vomit

Better you than me (Colby’s sick and Mike assists)-contains vomit

Party hard, fall harder (Colby and Jason are both sick after a party)-contains vomit

Pain weigh out the pride (Ash is ill after a crisis in ballet class)-contains vomit

Friends and fears (Mike faints at school, early in her ED days)

Tied game, lost lunch (collab w/ @lickstynine- the kids attempt a casual basketball game)-contains vomit

2k18 arc part 1 (Mike can’t do anything right)-contains vomit

2k18 arc part 2 (Jason tries to handle things)

2k18 arc part 3 (Ash and Hannah take a road trip)-contains vomit

Short drabble: Jason + Nauseated

2k18 arc part 4 (Colby and Mike have a heart to heart)

2k18 arc part 5 (Everybody together having emotions)

200-word ficlet (Colby’s breakfast doesn’t agree with him)-contains vomit

200-word ficlet (Overtied and bickering Jason and Colby)

200-word ficlet (Carsick Colby)-contains vomit

Hannah’s Birthday Drabble (Hannah has a cold for her birthday)

The Bostonians

Intro part 1 (Hildur has a disappearing episode, Pierce leaves her a message)

Intro part 2 (Pierce has a migraine, Hildur appears to assist)-contains vomit

Pierce in college (a flashback of Pierce’s test anxiety)-contains vomit

Hildur: an anxiety genesis (a flashback of Hildur’s childhood anxiety)

Drabble (Hildur’s sick the first time she spends the night at Pierce’s place)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Hildur and Pierce at the aquarium)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Pierce is unwell and feels worse when all he’s had is coffee)-contains vomit)

Hildur and Pierce at Christmas (Hildur has a fever while out looking at holiday lights)

Heart of the matter (Pierce reveals a secret)-contains vomit

Happy Birthday, Hildur (Hildur’s not well on her birthday-2018 arc part 1)-contains vomit

Discovery (Hildur suffers morning sickness and talks to Pierce-2018 arc part 2 (Hildur and Pierce go to an appointment with the midwife-2018 arc part 3)

Dare (Hildur and Pierce make plans-2018 arc part 4)-contains vomit

Under Pressure (Hildur and Pierce navigate moving house- 2018 arc part 5)

Sigh (Hildur confronts some issues-2018 arc part 6)

Other people’s OCs

…and an unhappy new year (for @anonyony1)-contains vomit

Christmas eve with the usual suspects (for @lickstynine)-contains vomit

Fanfic

Titan A.E.

Stuck in the red (re-imagining the scene where Akima is shot and receiving treatment on New Bangkok)-contains vomit

Swallow your pride (Cale is sick on public transport)-contains vomit

MCU/ Spiderman

Prompt fill (Peter’s sick after the civil war fight)-contains vomit

No sympathy (Peter has a bad Halloween patrol)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (The day after Halloween is another bad one for Peter’s stomach)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Peter shouldn’t try to drink with Tony)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Peter’s sick in the car while Happy’s driving)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Peter leaves school because he’s sick, and May thinks he’s ditching)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Peter’s sick while at the Avengers facility, Pepper Potts comforts)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Peter does badly on a mission because he’s sick)

Prompt fill (Peter has a migraine)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Peter has a concussion)-contains vomit

spidermanspotter (Peter and Tony laugh about social media and migraines)

Ruins (Peter’s powers interfere with his dental surgery)-contains vomit

Live and learn (Peter’s sick at school and Tony picks him up)-contains vomit

Running (Peter and Tony have an argument. Peter runs away)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Peter is overstimulated and has a panic attack)-contains vomit

Rerun (Peter is sick at the Avengers facility again)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Peter has a migraine while training with Tony)-contains vomit

Aftermath (Peter heads to Avengers tower after his showdown with Vulture)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Peter gets a concussion while on patrol)-contains vomit

200 word ficlet (Peter nauseous coming off patrol)-contains vomit

Playing the fool (Peter’s sick at an Avengers party)

Beautiful oblivion (the ffing Spider-Man novella)- contains vomit and big tw for eating disorders

200-word ficlet (Peter’s nervous meeting Steve)-contains vomit

MCU/ Captain America

Who are the stars (Bucky’s in cryo; Steve can’t deal)-contains vomit

Left with what you had (Bucky’s carsick on the way to T'Challa’s palace, then overwhelmed with memories once they get there)-contains vomit

Wait for tomorrow (Bucky contemplates suicide; Steve rescues him)-contains vomit

Stay with me, we’ll take the night (the 4th of July is a disaster for Steve and Bucky)-contains vomit

Come to me now and rest your head (Read on AO3–A short Stucky novella)-contains vomit

Drabble: Childhood Illness (Steve’s sick at school, Bucky is there to help)-contains vomiting

Needle and the thread (Steve’s a wreck after coming off the ice)-contains vomiting

Pumpkin spice and everything nice (Bucky’s not a fan of Steve’s PSL)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Steve has food poisoning and Bucky assists)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Bucky has appendicitis)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Steve is depressed and wakes up ill)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Bucky’s sick while Steve’s out of town, Nat assists)-contains vomit

Prompt fill(Steve has a migraine, Bucky picks him up from work)

Prompt fill (Steve’s getting ill, but Bucky’s already having a bad day)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Bucky’s not feeling great, Steve doesn’t really notice)

Prompt fill (Bucky’s triggers)

Prompt fill (Bucky takes initiative to tell Steve he’s ill)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Steve has a concussion, Bucky assists)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Bucky’s on is first mission, it goes badly, and Steve’s not feeling great)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Bucky’s drunk)-contains vomit

Morning after (Bucky’s now hungover)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Steve runs himself ragged taking care of Bucky)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Steve has the flu, Bucky is a good caretaker)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Bucky has the flu)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Steve’s poisoned on a mission and Bucky helps him)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Steve has a bad run-in with mind control tech)

The gun still rattles (Bucky battles with depression again)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Pre-serum Bucky with a migraine)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Steve is seasick)-contains vomit

Ignite your bones (the ffing Stucky novella)- contains vomit

Prompt fill (Bucky’s unwell, and he calls Steve to come home)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Steve’s seasick again, this time with Bucky)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Bucky’s sick with a bug)-contains vomit

Dodging bullets with your broken past (Bucky has a concussion and a setback)-contains vomit

Sail away (again) (Bucky’s seasick this time)- contains vomit

200 word ficlet (Steve’s seasick on a cruise)-contains vomit

200 word ficlet (Nat and Bucky stuck in an elevator)-contains vomit

200 word ficlet (Bucky waking up with stomach flu)-contains vomit

Beatitude (Bucky continues to struggle with depression)

Butane in my veins (Steve’s poisoned on a mission and doesn’t want to disturb Bucky)-contains vomit

Burning for you (Steve has heat exhaustion)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Bucky is carsick except not really)-contains vomit

MCU/Avengers (Other characters)

Hotter than a fantasy, lonely like a highway (Natasha is in crisis, Steve attempts to help)-contains vomit

And if the night is burning (Nat’s hurt on a mission, everyone needs a mental health day)-contains vomiting

Open fire (Natasha is in crisis, Steve asists)-contains vomit

Clint and Laura sickfic drabble (Clint’s up during the night with a stomach bug)-contains vomit

Clint and Laura sickfic drabble, part 2 (a continuation of the above)-contains vomit

I’m just a ghost running scared (Bruce is ill after hulking out, Nat assists)-contains vomit

Short drabble: Loki + stomach bug

Burning black (Nat on Fire 4.0, Nat’s held captive and assaulted)-contains vomit and TW for implied rape

MCU/Jessica Jones

A ticket costs only your mind (Jessica Jones/Avengers crossover: read on AO3)-contains vomit

Criminal Minds

Look at this photograph (Spencer has a migraine) - contains vomiting

Spencer whump for 13x01 (a re-telling of a scene from season 13 ep 1)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Spencer has a migraine, Derek assists)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Spencer has the flu)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Spencer has appendicitis)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Hotch visits Spencer post-prison)-contains vomit

Country roads (Penelope gives sick Spencer a ride home)-contains vomit

200 word ficlet (Spencer with pneumonia)

200 word ficlet (Spencer coughing up blood)

Prompt fill (Spencer with a concussion)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Spencer with concussion + flu)-contains vomit

Prompt fill (Spencer is down with a migraine during a case)

Prompt fill (a prequel to the previous one)-contains vomit)

Scar the armada (an experiment in prompt fills aka migraine Spencer 3 times over)-contains vomit

Short drabble: Reid + careworn

Short drabble: Reid + heat

200-word ficlet (Spencer has a siezure)-contains vomit

200-word ficlet (Spencer’s sick at a housewarming party)-contains vomit

Thunder chasing the wind (Spencer has a migraine and JJ assists)-contains vomit

200-word ficlet (Spencer isn’t looking forward to the flight)

#my writing #master fic list #master story list

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bzdsentai · 3 years

Text

Yeah it was part of one of the show’s last two arcs before the big finale arcs Secret Wars and Spider Wars. It was about Spider-Man teaming with Captain America and bunch of WW2 era heroes the show made up, I think it was supposed to wrap up shit set up in Black Cat’s intro arc since she’s juiced up on the Super Soldier formula in this show because her dad stole it from Red Skull as a kid.

#apple-a-la-mode

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clairekatswritingcorner · 7 years

Text

Kaito Kid’s Miraculous Night

Part One

Part Two

Word Count: 2,180

Summary: Kaito Kuroba has been searching for the Pandora gem ever since he discovered it’s possible existence and implication in his father’s death. Upon learning some rumors from his friend Akako about gems that grant people mystical and transformative powers, known as Miraculous Stones, he decides that it’s his duty to go to Paris and investigate. Tagging along with Hakuba, who happened to be going anyway due to a case, Kaito hopes that what little information he’s been able to glean is enough of a lead to help him hunt down the most interesting gems he’s had the opportunity to target yet.

*Author’s Note*: Second part of my intro of sorts for an AU started by @edorazzi and I connecting the Magic Kaito and Miraculous Ladybug (PV) universes. Notes are pretty much the same as before. I hope you enjoy.

(both parts also available on my Ao3 account, found on my blog links)

Before their lips could meet, something grabbed his wrist. The grip was tight, tight enough to hurt, and whoever had decided to interrupt them twisted Kaito’s arm behind his back and kicked him to his knees. Kaito did his best to spin and kick his assailant, but the stranger kept hold of his arm and simply spun him around, pinning Kaito on his back. He gasped for breath under the weight of the hard black boot that stomped on his chest. Tonight was just not his night, it seemed, and as he tried to focus on this new assailant he silently cursed himself for not being more cautious.

“Stay away from her,” a deep voice warned, laced with venom. “I don’t know who you think you are or what you think you’re doing, but my Lady isn’t someone to be messed with.”

Ghostly green eyes stared daggers into Kaito’s from behind a black mask. This new stranger’s face was framed by a fluffy halo of gold and topped off with…were those cat ears? “And neither am I. Ladybug, are you alright?”

Her name was actually Ladybug. Kaito couldn’t tell if he wanted to laugh, but even if he did, his struggle for breath against the weight on his chest prevented it. Was this guy going to turn out to be something like her familiar? He had called her “my Lady,” so it wasn’t such a farfetched idea. Kaito knew enough about witches and their lore from Akako to assume that it wouldn’t be out of place for a magical girl with immortal gems in her ears to have one; although they generally weren’t anthropomorphic, and even more rarely this human.

“I’m fine, Chat, you don’t have to keep holding him down,” she gestured to the pained expression on Kaito’s face. “I don’t think he’s any real threat, or if he is an akuma, he’s a lot more…present than the others.”

Akuma? A demon? What did that have to do with anything? Or perhaps that was part of the explanation for their earlier opponent’s invisible powers. What kind of world was Kaito getting into, what realm was he on the cusp of discovering, and was it safe for him to dare to dive in? He didn’t know if he really had a choice; he had to avenge his father, and he had to make sure to shatter the Pandora gem before Snake or his employer could get their hands on it. He hadn’t come all this way to be scared away by the thrill of something beyond typical comprehension. After all, he was a master of illusion and mind bending tricks himself.

“Agency can be more dangerous than a puppet just following orders,” the boy Ladybug had addressed as Chat replied. “I don’t think we should just let him go, especially if he’s after the Miraculous. You know only Butterfly and his cronies know about them.”

“He didn’t attack me, though, and he doesn’t seem to actually know what the Miraculous are or what they can do,” Ladybug explained. “He told me he’s been looking for them, but I haven’t gotten a satisfactory explanation why out of him yet.”

“Does it matter? Miraculous hunters are the enemy, and he looks just as ridiculous as the other akumas.”

“Look who’s talking,” Kaito huffed, and Chat ground his boot against Kaito’s diaphragm.

“Let’s just round up Mime’s stolen goods and return them before--”

Their time was up in an instant. The Mime stirred from his temporary paralysis, launching an attack Ladybug barely managed to dodge with a backflip. Chat ducked to the side and Kaito scrambled backwards before he could be targeted, rummaging in his pocket for his card gun as he got to his feet. His eyes zeroed in on the weapon lying near the edge of the roof, recalling that Ladybug had knocked it out of his hands.

“This is just not my night,” he grumbled out loud, removing a deck of cards from his pocket instead and tossing a few at the villain as he sprinted behind him.

“Don’t let him get away!” Ladybug warned as she returned to a bout of intense hand to hand combat with the Mime, Chat coming to her aid with some sort of black aura in his hand. “Not after all he’s seen!”

Chat changed his direction, targeting Kaito with a feline ferocity in his eyes that sent a chill up Kaito’s spine. Kaito slid to the ground, snatching his gun and turning it on the cat boy. Chat paused for a moment, examining the gun before a light of realization came to his eyes. He took a chance that cards were the only thing it could shoot, racing at Kaito with the aura of bad luck in his hand primed for attack. Kaito rolled out of the way and watched in undisguised horror as Chat’s hand struck the roof, the black aura in his hand extending from the point of impact and making everything it touched decay and crumble. Kaito rushed away from the zone of destruction, trying to remember his composure amidst the shock and panic swirling in his head. He hadn’t faced something this dangerous or formidable since he had dealt with Spider’s mind altering abilities.

“Watch out!”

Kaito whipped around, his eyes widening as the Mime set up a weapon he was familiar with enough to recognize it just by movement. He did his best to open his glider, but time was on none of their sides tonight. Just as he had clicked the belt into place the bomb exploded, sending him and the Miraculous holders arcing off the building. His ears rung at a maddening frequency as Kaito struggled to shake off his daze and at least glide himself to the ground. Everything spun in an overwhelming vacuum as Kaito fought with his gliding mechanism, the wind’s howl and ringing from the explosion assaulting his ears. He had fallen from greater heights and survived, but he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to shake himself out of this state fast enough.

Arms slipped under him, cradling him against a chest, and in the next moment Kaito felt still. He opened his eyes, trying to force them to focus as he observed the form of the red and black heroine that had given the warning call. Once again his savior, Kaito wondered if he was even going to be able to try to steal the gems in her ears without feeling immense guilt after all she’d done for him. She set him on his feet, and he brushed himself off and adjusted his monocle and hat, raising an eyebrow as he noticed the two heroes standing before him with crossed arms and tapping feet.

He cleared his throat. “Thank you for saving me, but I don’t think this is something you’re going to be able to wipe from my memory.”

Ladybug and Chat exchanged a glance Kaito couldn’t decipher, and he didn’t take the time to as his eyes strayed once more to Ladybug’s magical earrings, also noticing an equally bright green ring nestled on one of Chat’s fingers. Had Ladybug mentioned something about more than one person having magical stones like hers? He had probably zoned out for that part, and he also knew that it was the only explanation that made sense for the display Kaito had just witnessed. This was going to get even more interesting, although the situation had already greatly surpassed anything Kaito had expected to discover.

While Chat’s ring was certainly interesting, Kaito’s main focus was still Ladybug’s striking and mystical red Miraculous Stones. Without holding them up to the moonlight, he wouldn’t be able to tell if they were the exact hue he was looking for, but it was the closest he thought he’d stumbled upon thus far. He balled his hands into fists, reminding himself that he had made a lot of progress tonight, alongside wasting a lot of opportunities. He was fatigued and there was an endless tangle of thoughts tumbling around his head. The best course of action would probably be to withdraw and make better, more sophisticated plans to secure the gems at a later date. He didn’t think he had it in him to try to go up against Chat and Ladybug in an attempt to swipe them now, and to a point he did owe them for all the times they’d saved him from acute peril this evening.

“What do you think we should do with him, my Lady?” Chat inquired, ignoring Kaito’s nonchalance towards the situation. “We could always put a tracker on him, or turn him into the police.”

“For what?” Kaito challenged, affronted by such an uncouth suggestion. “Dressing outrageously and running into you two on a rooftop? If you think that warrants incarceration than I hope you’ll be turning yourselves in as well.”

“It’s alright, I’ll just try to rearrange his memory.” Ladybug suggested, a red and black aura materializing in her hand as her earrings, seeming to power it, freshly revived their glow.

Kaito narrowed his eyes at this display, taking a few steps back. Chat zipped behind him, craning his arms behind his back and holding him in place. There was no way Kaito was going to be able to successfully fight both of them off and avoid whatever magical formula Ladybug had cooked up in her hand. Lucky for him, he didn’t have to.

A red aura outlined Ladybug and Chat as an unseen force effectively paralyzed them. Kaito felt the grip on his arms loosen and release, and he shook out his shoulders and straightened his cape. Kaito recognized the red aura well, confident that tonight’s trouble was finally over. He stopped in front of Ladybug, the aura in her hand fading as her eyes swam with a mixture of disbelief and stubbornness. He materialized a small rose in his hand, slipping it behind Ladybug’s ear, his fingers trembling a bit at being so close to the gems. He reminded himself that good things come to those who wait, tenderly brushing his fingers against her cheek before leaving a soft kiss against it.

“I owe you both for saving me more than once tonight. Neither a gentleman nor a thief slights those that do them favors, especially ones as important as that. But this isn’t the last you’ll see of me; both you and your Miraculous Stones are dearly important to me.”

He flicked his wrist, producing one of his signature cards and laying it in Ladybug’s frozen, empty hand. “Let me know when you’re ready to play again. Courtesy of Kaito Kid.”

Kaito observed the mixture of agitation and shock that replaced Ladybug’s expression before turning and tipping his hat to Chat, who glared at him with a gaze that probably would have zapped him or something equally painful if his powers weren’t being suppressed. He strode out of the alley, walking a block before he caught sight of his unexpected saviors waiting in a car for him. Akako was still focused on keeping the Miraculous holders still, at least until they could get far enough away to not be followed. Kaito climbed into the back, removing his hat and monocle and resting his head on the seat.

“Seems like you got more than you bargained for tonight,” Hakuba teased as he drove through the Paris streets. It was amazing how much wonder these streets disguised, even just considering the fact that this car currently housed a renowned international thief, famous fledgling detective, and witch.

“I have a lot to tell you guys, but not tonight,” Kaito replied, rubbing his face. “I plan on doing nothing else but getting out of this suit and sleeping like a rock.”

“We already know quite a bit,” Akako explained. “Or enough that I knew we needed to come and rescue you. I started sensing some particularly foreboding auras not long after you went out, but I decided to consult my sources before I stopped you from running into the lead we’ve been looking for.”

Kaito sighed, shifting to press his head against the cool glass of the window. “We know the stones exist for sure now. And we know who has them. All that’s left is to earn a little trust, or get a little creative.”

“Well, you’re good at one of those things. Sometimes,” Akako replied, exhaling slowly as she was finally able to release the magic hold she’d conjured. “For now we could all use some rest. I hope you know what you’re doing, and you’re prepared to get involved with things beyond your understanding. Some of it has even started to go beyond mine.”

Kaito felt himself starting to slip into the realm of sleep, his words trailing off as he answered. “I have to do this. For myself and for people that are counting on me, whether they know it or not. And what’s wrong with getting in a little over my head? I have a feeling this experience could turn into something miraculous.”

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