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clarenecessities · 3 years

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As my followers may have picked up from my long, spiraling rants, I’ve undertaken a new research project, courtesy of the death grip She-Ra has on my brain. And guess what? It’s finally at Disseminate Information Stage! So I’m going to lay out all of the gods, demigods, and godbeasts of the Masters of the Universe. With sources!

This table is more of a cheat sheet. We’re gonna tackle this god by god, with a section on Actual Lore & a meta section to help you decide how valid you think they are, because frankly some canons are more canon than others.

Asklepia, Benevolent Snake Goddess

Lore: Asklepia is one of two snake goddesses, the benevolent twin sister of Serpentia. We know very little about her abilities, but the Snake Clan (a clan of human warriors) were said to worship her, and they were famed for their architecture and healing. She had the ability to curse and deform people--to what extent is uncertain, but she’s known to have condemned a fallen priest named Ka, whose disfigured likeness now adorns Snake Mountain.

Behind the Scenes: First appearing in the 1987 comic “Il Nero Cristallo Del Potere“, Asklepia remained nameless for over 30 years, until Masters of the Universe Classics (MOTUC) released a few choice bios. For the unfamiliar, MOTUC seeks to reconcile the often contradictory canons into one overarching narrative, which is great in theory, but in practice is kind of like putting ice cream on a hot dog. And calling it a Chilly Dog ® as if that makes it taste better. But I digress. In 2019 they released a bio for the Staff of Ka which finally put a name to the less-evil Snake Goddess, in an obvious nod to Asclepius and the asklepian (that staff+snake icon people put on medical stuff).

Sharella, the Green Goddess and/or “Avatar” of Asklepia

Lore: Contradictory

Long Version: Okay I’ve put avatar in quotes because it is... contentious. Basically, and you’ll see here why I felt the need to make this post instead of relying blindly on the wikis, Sharella was introduced (in the ‘87 licensing guide) as a tribal leader who had joint custody of Gray, the original name of He-Ro’s alter ego, while he was growing up. This was further developed by Emiliano Santalucia’s concept work, wherein she was the leader of the Green Tiger Tribe (GTT) specifically. While the comic concept was not run through licensing & is thus not “canon”, the idea of her leading the GTT persisted. This teeny tiny image of her from Tytus and Megator’s 1987 Italian box art was all we had until 2008, when one of He-Man’s accessories described her as the “warrior woman ally” of Queen Veena, “who had been changed into the immortal green-skinned avatar of the Goddess Asklepia”. In 2009, MOTUC released a figure for The Goddess, apparently forgetting they’d done that shit the year before because the packaging did say “K’yrulla” was her real name. They had to cover it up with a sticker.

So who’s The Goddess? Way back in the days before Mattel solidified any of the lore around MOTU, there were mini-comics released with the toys. Initially, the Goddess served a similar function to the Sorceress in the cartoon, and was in fact sometimes called the Sorceress. She facilitated He-Man’s transformations, gave him missions, was generally magical and mysterious, etc. If you know who the Sorceress is, and you can picture Teela, but green? That’s about it.

Back to Sharella, though. The Third Ultimate Battleground rolled around in 2015, and for the first time since some packaging in the 80s, we saw Sharella in action! She was shot through the heart with a poison arrow. Yeah. But don’t worry, she received a blood transfusion from Moss Man (who we’ll get to later), and was transformed into the Green Goddess! She’s immortal now. How Asklepia figures in here is sort of unclear, which is weird since this is still part of the MOTUC line, but whatever. Whatever! Queen Grayskull (the aforementioned Veena) received a bio in 2015 as well, which described Sharella as her apprentice who became “The Goddess”.

Horokoth, Aspect of the Mother Goddess

Lore: DC went a little batshit (pun intended) with the lore for the Eternity War. Here the Goddess is three combined aspects, “Serpos” (Serpentia) for the Snake Men, Zoar for the human “Eternians”, and a third, invented deity called Horokoth, who represents the Horde. Horokoth is “the coming destroyer. The darkness at the end of days.” and is represented by a bat.

Behind the Scenes: That last link has a clearer picture of her, it just didn’t crop well. Also, I confess I couldn’t bring myself to read Eternity War. As thrilling as the prospect of a cohesive narrative is, if I wanted to see Adora slit her brother’s throat there’s the edgier side of deviantArt to peruse. Therefore I know little of Horokoth outside of a few still images of Hordak. The bat was almost certainly selected for the Horde’s vespertilian emblem.

Hordeous, God-Beast of Horokoth

Lore: A “primordial”, bat-like godbeast of Horokoth, created in response to the god Saz’s feline races. Their face was “forever infused“ on the surface of Horde World by Horde Lord (Hordak and Horde Prime’s father in the MOTUC canon) to grant their family power and immortality.

Behind the Scenes: Yes they’ve used some words wrong, but they’ve got the spirit, right? Hordeous was (allegedly, this is secondhand) an invention of the MOTUC crew in answer to Horokoth. Now, the Horde Supreme bio predates Horokoth’s introduction by about 3 years, but obviously the comics were in production already. There’s an undated sketch of Horokoth Hordak from an undated interview (thanks for nothing you useless website) but in that same gallery there’s an orko sketch labeled 2012 so. We’re good right? That makes sense, timeline-wise. Anyway the comics slam dunked Horde Prime out of existence and combined him with Horde Lord so it’s contradictory anyway. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Serpentia, Malevolent Snake Goddess

Lore: The evil counterpart of Asklepia, Serpentia is the goddess of the Snake Men. The priest Ka of the Snake Clan forsook Asklepia in her favor, destroying Asklepia’s sacred orb and stealing the Serpent Ring (an artefact capable of transforming humans into Snake Men) from the Ophidian Spire with King Hsss. In DC’s triune interpretation of the Goddess, Serpentia (here ‘Serpos’) is blood, passion, and desire. A primal and primordial force appearing to the Snake Men in their own image.

Behind the Scenes: Okay yes I’ve reused the Asklepia pic but in my defense they are twins and this is the easiest one to crop. So here’s the thing about Serpentia: we only got a name for her in 2019. We knew there was a snake goddess, and she was pretty evil, or at least hostile towards mammalian life (see: the source of the pic I chose for her). Where Asklepia references the asklepian, ‘Serpentia’ is a much more heavy-handed snake reference, even though Anguis was right there. Those Masters Mondays came through for us, though, with the shield and staff of Ka, Ssssylph, and of course MOTUC’s Dark Despot Skeletor, which is. something. Though only recently named, Serpentia has been a shadow over Eternia since the Snake Men’s introduction in 1985 (or, depending on how much of the presented backstory you accept, even sooner in the form of Skeletor’s lair, Snake Mountain).

Serpos/Sarcedon, God-Beast of Snake Mountain

Lore: Contradictory, but the gist of it is he’s a very large snake with elemental magic and a grudge, that was turned to stone and became Snake Mountain.

Long Version: Snake Mountain was conceived of towards the end of 1982, but wasn’t revealed to the public until September of 1983, with the debut of the Filmation cartoon. For another year, the snake coiled around its summit was simply a carving, its mouth hollowed out for Skeletor to stand in and loom. But in 1984 the Snake Mountain toy was released, completely discarding the Filmation design in favor of the hewn face of the figure we now call Ka. Instead of a snake carving winding its way up the peak, the Mattel toy featured a ‘striking serpent’, alive and attached to the mountain itself. From there, it was an easy leap to make to ‘this carving comes alive’. So easy, in fact, that they did it twice!

First attempted in 1985 in the newspaper storyline “Vengeance of the Viper King”, the snake was here called Sarcedon, the World Destroyer. At the dawn of time, he was said to crush Eternia within his deadly coils. He burrowed deep into the ground, causing fearsome storms that nearly destroyed the planet. Only a fearless hero (implied to be He-Ro) could defeat and imprison Sarcedon. Using a macguffin called a Mirror of History, He-Man forced Sarcedon to behold his own reflection in a reference to the Medusa myth that kind of missed the point of it being reflective. Sarcedon was sent back in time, Snake Mountain was restored, the good guys win, blah blah blah.

That was the last of it until the MYP cartoon in 2004. Serpos as a name was actually first invoked by Mer-Man in a 1982 minicomic, but like it probably wasn’t about the snake. Anyway in the MYP cartoon the Snake Men get this thing called the Medallion of Serpos that lets them un-petrify the snake around Snake Mountain, grow two more heads, and unleash his godly wrath. He breathes fire, trashes Eternos, beats up He-Man, then turns his attention on Castle Grayskull to consume the Orb of Power (containing the strength and wisdom of the Elders, who had first trapped him in stone). He-Man cuts off Serpos’s extra heads with a sword upgrade, the Elders are somehow magically restored to life, and they re-petrify him. Snake Mountain is restored, the good guys win, blah blah blah.

Zoar, the Fighting Falcon

Lore: Contradictory, but it sure is a bird!

Long Version: While Sharella’s backstory is fraught because of the comics couldn’t decide what they wanted her to be, Zoar was similarly tangled up by the toyline. Initially male, he went through several color schemes, some prettier than others. Though there was a vague association with the Sorceress before the cartoon (recall that pre-Filmation, the Sorceress was just the Goddess), Filmation made them literally inseperable by designating Zoar as the Sorceress’s falcon form, to which she was confined when leaving Castle Grayskull.

Some of the comics and Golden books showed Zoar as being flipping enormous & ridden into battle as a steed by Teela and Man-at-Arms. Pre-Filmation, Zoar was always referred to as male, but post-Filmation, always female, as an incarnation of the Sorceress.

The Eternity Wars comics describe Zoar as the third aspect of the Goddess, the ‘Great Preserver’ whose light would shine through the universe for eternity. They pull off a sort of tripartite priestess thing where it’s Serpos/Zoar/Horokoth represented by Teela-Na (the Sorceress)/Teela/Evil-Lyn.

MOTUC, of course, had to reconcile all of these contradictory canons. How’d they do it? “In the folklore of Eternia, the golden falcon symbolized the godhead Zoar, a powerful deity of Preternia. As a god, Zoar could appear in both male and female guises and while the blue-tipped female falcon was associated with the Sorceress of Grayskull, the golden falcon represented Zoar's masculine nature.” So Zoar is genderfluid now, and the Sorceress is merely borrowing their form when transforming into a falcon. This bio also established that Zoar had anointed the first Sorceress, Veena (Queen Grayskull), which explains why she has wings for no apparent reason.

Also it’s not offically MOTUC but the scultors of the line, Four Horsemen, made a single anthro Zoar for Power-Con 2013. In case you need that for some reason.

Glorybird, Emissary of Zoar

Lore: Many millennia ago, there were three siblings, who were very poor and mistreated by their stepmother, but had hearts filled with kindness and love. Zoar, recognizing their resilience and desire to help people, sent an emissary named Glorybird. Glorybird bestowed upon each sibling a divine gift, but as they used their new powers to fight for good, their stepmother revealed herself to be a Celestial Witch & attempted to sacrifice them to Zoar’s “greatest enemy”, Horokoth.

Backstory: Okay, so the Star Sisters (and Glorybird) were in exactly one episode of She-Ra, primarily to set them up as new toy designs. While prototypes were made for these, the figures weren’t actually produced until MOTUC released figures for them in 2012. Though they were referenced in Princess Prom, and we saw a brief cameo in a background, Glorybird was absent until the introduction of the Star Siblings in Season Five.

That’s right! This bird is a god, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Saz, God of All Felines

Lore: One of the “Gods of the Multiverse” (he is the only member named explicitly), Saz was a blue-furred, feline deity responsible for the creation of all cats, humanoid or otherwise. He transformed himself into an enormous cat-beast to defeat Serpos and Hordeous, whose progenitors created them in envy of his children. Though Serpos was defeated, Hordeous escaped into the cosmos, and Saz himself vanished mysteriously.

Behind the Scenes: “By the whiskers of Saz!” is a fun pseudo-swear made by various cat races throughout MOTU, first in He-Man’s “The Cat and the Spider” and later in She-Ra’s “Magicats”. That was the only real mention of him until... okay, so MOTUC bios aren’t always attached to the product. Starting in 2018, they did this thing called Masters Mondays where they put unposted bios on the org forums. So while we’ve had the sword since 2010, we didn’t get the background on it until March of 2020. And then a couple weeks later, the Cat Mask of Catra bio referred to him as a “mystical being” instead of a god, but the mask was from 2011 so. He may not have been a god yet. It really depends on when the bios were actually written.

Saz wielded a blade probably best described as a falchion, whose quillon & langet formed a vaguely triangular shape around a deep red gem. I want to be clear that while it looks totally rad, this sword would be very impractical and have poor structural integrity were it not made by a literal god. Do not make swords like this. Also it’s almost certainly riffing on the Sword of Omens from Thundercats (affectionate).

Sabe-Or, Son of Saz

Lore: A green-furred, orange-striped paladin, Sabe-Or is one of the only named Ancients. He inherited his father’s blade upon Saz’s mysterious disappearance, and lived for centuries more. Upon his death, he transferred his “heroic essence” into a group of Eternian tigers, forever transforming them into the Green Tiger Tribe, whence both Granger (steed of King Grayskull), and Cringer, steed of Prince Adam.

Behind the Scenes: So “Battle Cat Man” is a concept that’s existed since they decided to make their hero ride a wicked tiger into battle. If you show a kid a superhero, and a supertiger, apparently the natural inclination of most children in the 80s was to combine the two. There are so many custom action figures. So, so many. Sabe-Or is visually a clear reference to this concept, and canonically seems to be the closest we’re going to get outside of the Thundercats crossover, unless you count Cowarros from 4H’s Mythic Legions line (I do, because it means Purrrplor is also canon and I fucking love calling him that).

Moss Man, Ancient Eternian Nature God

Lore: An ally of King Grayskull, Moss Man was something of an Eternian cryptid in the centuries leading up to He-Man Times. He has control over all plant life, the ability to meld with plants, and apparently can imbue sentience to said plants.

Behind the Scenes: Moss Man wasn’t featured in many episodes, because he’s a little... incredibly over-powered. He’s literally Bigfoot from 5000 years ago with magic powers. And like, since I don’t think the writers appreciate how long 5000 years is, you know what happened 5000 years ago? Stonehenge. This bitch is Stonehenge-old. But sure, you can trace a direct line of descent from his contemporary. smh. Anyway according to MOTUC his real name is Kreann’Ot N’Norosh so make of that what you will. Also his toys were pine-scented. I just love that.

Evil Seed, Rebellious Creation of Moss Man

Lore: Created by Moss Man to help fight in the Great Wars, Evil Seed betrayed his master and turned to evil (who could have foreseen this...), finding joy in corrupting all forms of plant life for his own amusement. Moss Man imprisoned him in enchanted chains, keeping him restrained for many millennia.

Behind the Scenes: According to MOTUC, his real name is Sero Malustro, clumsy New Latin for “(to) plant evil-burnt“. Why his name is New Latin and Moss Man’s is... whatever that is, I have no idea. As you can see from the image I included, he originally had an artichoke head, which was upgraded for the Mike Young Productions (MYP) cartoon. Personally I think the artichoke rules.

Volcana, the Fire Goddess

Lore: Canonically, she’s a fire goddess, and the mother of the Volcano Magus. Together, they are a rising force that seeks to conquer Etheria in the wake of Hordak’s defeat.

Backstory: Volcana has taken a long a twisted journey, but was first revealed to fans at Power-Con 2016 in a panel revealing previously unseen concepts and characters. After the first wave of She-Ra toys, a second wave was planned with a snow focus, to bring more attention the Filmation-neglected Frosta. This began with the introduction of a fire villain, an “evil lady that glows with heat” who would attempt to melt Castle Chill. That concept actually refers to a character named Amber (not Ember, as one might assume) who was reworked into a benevolent counterpart, Volcana’s twin sister.

Volcana was later fleshed out to be a Fire Goddess with flame-red hair, x-ray vision, and arms sculpted with flames. Her cape flew up with flame detail that rose up to control the volcano (of Volcanica, a proposed toyset that seems to have been reworked into the Crystal Falls). She was emphasized by Mattel to not start fires, which, honestly, is probably why they scrapped the character. He-Man couldn’t use his sword as a sword; a woman made of fire was basically doomed.

Now, though, we’re several decades in and lines made for collecters that are largely in their 30s and 40s can say whatever they want! So she’s canon, even if Amber isn’t. Yes there’s only one mention of her. Amber technically was mentioned in an unproduced episode titled “Amber Waves of Flame”, but as it was unproduced, it’s noncanonical.

Volcano Magus, Sinister Son of Volcana

Lore: Living within a dormant volcano, the Volcano Magus of the German audio plays was the source of most of Catra’s power and all of her evil intent. He supplied her with magic for spells and schemes with which to assail the Crystal Castle, but neither she nor Clawdeen were aware of the dark influence he held over them.

In the MOTUC canon, he’s specified as the son of Volcana, a demigod from the “Region of Volcanoes” who craved the nature magic of the Whispering Woods. When he learned the Twiggets were inextricably linked to that magic, he used his powers to petrify the former Rebels (this was after the Horde's defeat) and kidnap three Twiggets to drain the magic from their souls. Twiggets, for the uninitiated, are like purple tree-elf things. According to MOTUC, Razz is a Twigget, though the ‘real’ name they assigned her doesn’t fit their naming convention. She is purple, I guess.

Kowl, who avoided petrification, read Razz's spellbooks to find a way to save his friends, and learned of an Entrapment Gem that she hid in a shoe, for some reason. He confronted the Volcano Magus, spoke in the ancient tongue of the First Ones, and sucked him into the Gem.

Backstory: Admittedly this stuff is second hand, as I don’t speak German & they only have transcriptions/translations for the He-Man tapes anyway, but if anybody can find me an audio file I will do my best to verify. The MOTUC stuff at least I can confirm 100% because it’s from 2019 & I do speak English, for better or worse.

Oak, the Jackal God

Lore: Oak was the terrible Jackal God worshiped by the denizens of Zhar, an ancient civilization that once existed in a remote, forested region of Eternia. Long ago, Oak was imprisoned within a statue which could be found within the Temple of the Jackal. When Skeletor removed the statue from the temple, Oak broke free of the enchantment which imprisoned him and wreaked havoc on Eternia. Although the Jackal God was immensely powerful, he could be weakened by the elements of nature and was ultimately foiled by a rainstorm conjured by the combined powers of He-Man's sword and the magic of the temple's guardian priest.

Backstory: I have lifted this from a He-Man guide word for word as I cannot for the life of me find a copy of the Brazilian Editora Abril comic he came from, O Templo Do Chacal (1986). The description is like, suspiciously similar to the plot of the He-Man episode The Cat and the Spider, except the Grimalkin was never described as a god. The rest of it--statue, Skeletor, storm defeat--plays out almost the same. True pity I can’t find the original source, but I do trust this guidebook. You may be interested in Ceres from the UK comics--another dog-slash-statue who frankly might as well be a god himself, but as he’s not called one in canon he’s not going on the list.

The Bitter Rose Goddess

Lore: As Man-at-Arms told the legend, “Every day, a woman climbed Rose Mountain to look for her husband to return from the war. Alas, he never came back. Her tears poured from her cheek and entered the ground. One day she disappeared, but where she stood was a single, solitary rose. It’s the only thing that grows on Rose Mountain.”

The Insect People, who lived at the base of Rose Mountain, believed that the Bitter Rose is all that held the mountain together (and when it was picked, they were proved right). After the flower was restored, it transformed into the Bitter Rose Goddess herself, who explained that she had been a prisoner of her love's sorrow, so bitter that she refused to allow anything else to grow on Rose Mountain. She blessed the surrounding area, blanketing the jagged peaks with roses, and disappeared.

Backstory: She’s kind of... barely a god. She showed up in one episode and no other media & has objectively less power than like, every single demon they ever brought in. I almost didn’t put her on this list.

Mask-Ra, Goddess of Masks

Lore: A goddess who created the magical Masks of Power.

Backstory: Mask-Ra was first mentioned in 2019 and like, look, I’m gonna be real. I don’t respect her. She’s an invention of MOTUC (unless they were drawing on this concept art of Maska-Ra, which I doubt bc he was a Man-E-Faces precursor) and they retconned her into having created Catra’s mask, which is kind of redundant given the entire episode Magicats. This mask did not need two bios. There are no other mentions of her in any canon.

Potential other Masks of Power: The Deemos and Tyrella masks from the He-Man episode “Masks of Power”, lizard and canine masks from the mini-comic “Masks of Power”, Lord Masque’s Demon Mask from the He-Man episode “House of Shokoti, Part 1″, and whatever the hell Red Shadow has going on.

Procrustus, Giant Guardian of Magic

Lore: During the creation of the various dimensions (5 in MOTUC canon but demonstratably higher everywhere else), the gods installed the four-armed, immortal giant Procrustus to guard their secrets at the heart of Eternia. There lay the Starseed, from which the entire dimension was created. It still held immeasurable power, and could be used to conquer entire universes. Hordak, in an attempt to access the Starseed, cracked Eternia in two with the Spell of Separation. Though he was (mostly) thwarted, from then on Procrustus was forced to hold the two halves of Eternia together from within, lest the planet break apart and the Starseed be exposed.

Backstory: First appearing in the mini-comic “The Magic Stealer!”, Procrustus is a lot more tangible than most gods. We know where he is, at all times, and he seems confined to one size. His powers appear to be largely physical, as he had to burrow out of the ground to investigate in the mini-comic instead of teleporting or like, magicking the dirt away. This was his only appearance until MOTUC released a figure for him in 2012. He also showed up in the Subternia map the next year, holding Eternia together.

Standor, Cosmic Creator of Power

Lore: “Before time began, the great Gods of the multiverse convened in the Hall of Power to create all that was and all that will ever be. Head architect of this great task was Standor. A cosmic being of unlimited imagination, Standor helped lead his fellow deities by fueling their energies with raw creative force.”

Backstory: Released for Comikaze 2013 to celebrate the partnership of Mattel and Pow! Entertainment, Standor is literally just Stan Lee But a God. The prototype was called Standar--idk why they changed it, but I think it’s because it’s too easy to confuse with “Standard”. They made a bio for his sunglasses. I don’t want to talk about it.

Bash-Or, Slain Mystic God-Beast

Lore: Very little is known of Bash-Or, the Ram. His last remnant was sealed within the Ram Stone by the ancient sorceror kings of Zalesia, imbuing it with his divine power to overcome any barrier, magical or otherwise.

Backstory: Bash-Or was revealed in the bio for the Ram Stone, September of 2020, but his spirit (previously referred to as ‘the Spirit of the Ram Stone’) was twice utilized by Skeletor in the MYP cartoon, to great effect, before the stone was destroyed.

#she-ra #spop #motu #he-man #clare shares notes #edited to actually include the gd graph

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leila4you · 3 years

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How to Bring Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne into the Live Action DCEU

I think that's what it's called, basically the Live Action Justice League movies and their universe.

Aka My idea for Justice League 2 and I might write a fanfic on this at some point.

This is based on the Synderverse version. I've never seen the 2017 version and don't plan to.

SPOILERS FOR ZAC SNYDER'S JUSTICE LEAGUE AND EVERYTHING HE'S SAID ABOUT THE SNYDERVERSE, UNDER THE RED HOOD STORYLINE (KINDA), GRAYSON COMICS, TEEN TITANS ANIMATED SERIES!(AND I GUESS THE FAB5?)

Okay, so Zac Snyder confirmed awhile ago that the dead Robin is Dick Grayson, and from my understanding, Ben Affleck was going to do an adaptation of the Under the Red Hood storyline. But was canceled ot something. Anyway, what if they did, but with Dick Grayson. It's a very loose adaptation, mostly that Dick was killed by Joker, resurrected, and come back into Bruce's life.

So, Dick dies when he's around 14-15. Dick was around 8 when he started, so it would make a little bit more sense for Bruce to have been comfortable to be patrolling or in general being out by himself, but still be considered young. Dick went to try and stop a lottery, but turns out it was a ruse created by Joker to kidnap Robin!Dick. Joker takes him to a warehouse and essentially does what he did to Jason in the comics (for those who don't know, Joker beat him with a crowbar then blew up the building he was in, killing Jason(Dick in this case)).

Ra's al Ghul hears about Dick's death and puts Dick in the Lazurus Pits to bring him back to life and calls Deathstroke.

Deathstroke and Dick have already met and they have their weird obsessive/mutual respect thing/I-you-as-my-apprentice going on, so Ra's makes a deal with him: Slade can have Dick as his apprentice, but Dick has to help raise and eventually train Bruce's son, Damian. Slade accepts.

So, Dick unwillingly trains under Slade and becomes Renegade until he's 19 and he takes Damian and runs away.

Dick, who doesn't want to drag Bruce into all of this, doesn't go back to Bruce, but plans to when he knows it's safe because he wants Damian to meet his dad.

Eventually, Dick ends up at Spyral and becomes Agent 37, but the whole Nazi thing doesn't happen. The arc where Minos was trying to find out Heroes' identities could happen, but after the events of Justice League and Dick handles it (Basically Grayson comics 1-10 without Dick reporting back to Bruce) when he's like 22.

The Deathstroke and Lex Luthor scene happens and the reason Deathstroke has a vendetta against Batman is because he thinks Batman is hiding Dick and Damian (he doesn't really care about Damian but bringing Damian back to the League would keep him in their favor. He would know Dick's identity, but not Bruce's because he probably didn't believe that Bruce was smart enough to be Batman, but he would protect his son(s). He doesn't know that Bruce doesn't know anything.

So the story is about Deathstroke going after Bruce. At first, everyone thinks that Slade got paid to kill Bruce Wayne, but then Slade kidnaps one the League members (Like Barry) or someone close to them (Alfred or Lois) and says he'll kill them unless Bruce tells Slade where Dick is.

Bruce is mad because Slade is bringing up his dead son, but Slade isn't crazy enough to just make up Dick being alive, so he starts investigating.

He eventually comes to the conclusion that the League of Assassin's, or at least the Lazarus Pits have something to do with it, so he contacts Talia and she tells him the truth (or maybe Talia comes to Gotham looking for Damian and ends up telling Bruce everything when she realizes he doesn't know). But all these events have caught Spyral's attention and Dick and Tiger (and maybe Helena) go to stop Slade. Damian, who's still living with Dick, follows them.

It ends with the JL, Dick, Tiger, and Damian, (and Helena) beating Slade, but Slade escapes (of course). And it ends with people finding out Dick is alive (cover probably being amnesia or Witness Protection) and Dick leaves Spyral.

Maybe there's this conversation between Dick and Clark where Clark tells him the Nightwing story and it kind of sets up Dick to be Nightwing at the end and Damian possibly being Robin? It'd be hard without the closeness between Dick and Clark being there that Nightwing signifies and DCEU Bruce still might not want a Robin with him because of what happened to Dick.

This was just my idea of how they could bring Dick Grayson into the DCEU. Damian also would make sense to bring in this context of why Ra's would do this. And it could fit into Snyder's plan where Clark and Lois's son becomes Batman and Damian takes up Nightwing or be his own hero (he also goes by Redbird in the comics, right?)

I also had an idea that the Teen Titans formed, but just the Fab 5:

Roy Harper is Red Arrow, not much to change with his storyline, Oliver Queen started as Green Arrow around the tim Bruce started being Batman. Dick and Rot probably met at a Gala and hit it off, and eventually all four found out about each other.

Garth: Maybe Arthur found him as a child and helped him get to Atlantis, where Garth eventually becomes an Ambassador for them. He comes to visit Arthur a lot, but doesn't push for him to go to Atlantis, and met the others on one of his trips.

Donna: I read somewhere, and I don't know if it's true, that Donna was Diana's clone who got kidnapped and cursed and her life got like restarted, but this Donna's story is that. Both Diana and Donna know that the other is in the Man's World, but Donna never told Diana about the Teen Titans.

Wally: He traveled from the future (Like Bart) and to change the future and got stuck in the past. He probably lived or spent a lot of time at Wayne Manor, but after Dick died, it hurt to be there, but he visits Bruce and Alfred.

They have Titans Tower in New York.

This was mostly in order to have a way for Slade to meet Dick, and why it would have taken Bruce longer to find and save Dick from Joker. Because Bruce doesn't know New York as well as Gotham and it might take longer for Bruce to even find out that Dick was missing. It kind of doesn't work because why wouldn't he call them to join the Justice League and fight Steppenwolf or even Doomsday? Maybe because he still sees them as kids (even though they'd probably be older than Barry) and losing them would be like losing Dick all over again.

Anyway, that's my idea that will probably never happen, but I might write later.

#dick grayson #nightwing #agent 37 #batman and robin #batman #bruce wayne #justice league #snyderverse #fabfive #damian wayne #teen titans #i want this to happen #but it won't #what was the point of killing off dick #slade wilson #deathstroke #i'd tag more characters but they aren't really mentioned in the post much #spyral #restore the snyderverse

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toooldforfandom-liveblogs · 4 years

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She-Ra and the Princesses of Power S01E06 - System Failure

There's no way the title doesn't refer to the mechanic princess. The way she appears hidden in shadows in the OP makes me wonder if she's going to turn out to be one of the "bad guys," at least initially. It's interesting that she looks threatening _before_ revealing herself to the camera smiling, if she were a traitor it'd be the other way around, right? Hm. Anyway, enough speculation, let's do this!

What's with this horror house atmosphere

Huh. Is the princess a recluse?

They are really setting her up as some weird mad scientist.

I wonder if she's hidden in shadows because the war against The Horde seems to have some "Nature vs Tech" elements, so she's working in something that could be associated to the enemy. Hm.

Oh, she's like Scorpia but for the good guys (at least I hope she's one of the good guys) Same "first impressions don't match their personality" vibes.

cursed screenshot makes me gag just to imagine that amount of hair in my mouth

I really like the Doc Ock but with hair idea.

And here's She-Ra's excuse to visit her.

Or not.

She... doesn't have a lot of danger awareness does she

That's a cool visual. I keep wondering about the tech / nature divide. It's not really just that, right? Bright Moon _has_ technology, it's just better integrated to their surroundings versus whatever the Horde is doing in the fright zone, and they _were_ looking for "First Ones" artifacts in the first episode.

Huh. That's more obscure than the other names. I was expecting something obvious derived from working with machines.

Okay, so she doesn't have a bad reputation because of what she does. I guess I can discard that theory.

I love getting an in-show explanation for where Bow gets his weapons.

Who _is_ Bow anyway? We know more about everyone else.

There's no way this episode is going to end without Bow saving the day using his sonic arrow.

Hey, confirmation that She-Ra's transformations take real time. Can't wait for an enemy to attack her while she's transforming.

Interesting. The change in the subtitles make me think this is not as important as it could be but both Bow and She-Ra are talking about She-Ra as someone external.

Considering everything we've seen from the First Ones (other than the sword) has been kinda techy, maybe She-Ra's powers can also be affected by whatever is infecting the robots? It'd give Bow a chance to shine, which seems to be where this episode is going with all the mocking.

Are those ears? An antenna?

For some reason now I'm wondering if we'll ever see Catra's birth family or at least people of her species.

A zombie episode and it's just episode 6!

* facepalm * I just got Entrapta's name.

Yup, zombie episode. Love it.

I regret waiting so long before watching this episode.

She-Ra being kind of a meat-head makes sense but Glimmer? But I guess She-Ra does tend to distract her.

...you can teleport.

I love this episode already, so many good faces.

Welp, that explains her appearance in the OP. * sigh *, all that theorizing to the trash.

I have to agree with Entrapta, I _love_ tiny food. Makes me feel like a giant.

Aw, is Bow going to show them the power of being just a normal dude with arrows?

OH MY GOD

Oh, so it _is_ considered tech.

oh, she _dumb_

and also a lot shorter than I expected

Welp. Is the sword going to turn evil no– oh wait, does this mean that She-Ra is going to turn evil with accompanying dark menacing outfit? If yes please do continue infecting that sword.

Red eyes and what almost looks like a fang! Not exactly an "evil costume" but it'll do.

Unless "weird old first ones technology somehow disables She-Ra" ends up being a recurring plot, this feels kinda important.

Wouldn't this "virus" give The Horde a way to defeat She-Ra or even turn her into a weapon? Imagine infecting She-Ra while she's at Bright Moon, everything that Adora has done to overcome everyone's distrust would vanish.

Aw, self-confidence~

...she really doesn't seem to care at all about other people, just her tech

Maybe it's doing the same thing the temple did when it detected intruders?

I guess this is her "trait," like learned helplessness was Perfuma's and apathy was Mermista's. Both of them overcame their trait a bit in their episodes, is Entrapta going to learn the value of life~?

I can't get used to her being so tiny. Also great line.

Drunk Adora is everything.

That's really sad. Did Entrapta's parents die in the war? That'd be a good explanation for her behavior.

Glimmer is the best friend anyone could have.

"Shiny!"

I do have to admire Entrapta's one track mind.

So many good Glimmer faces, I feel blessed.

Also I can't wait to watch how Entrapta somehow makes something even worse than killer robots with that sparkle of Glimmer's magic.

Is Bow going to save the day?

So much for being a helpless cook that couldn't possibly hurt a robot

Somehow they managed to make Bow look cool. Is there anything this show can't do?

I'm still curious about Bow though, once it seemed to be clear that this episode was going to be at least in part about him, I was hoping it give us at least some backstory or something beyond what we already knew.

And this is how the Bow fan club is born

What _is_ Entrapta magic power anyway? Is it only her hair? That seems limited versus Mermista being both a mermaid _and_ being able to control water, or Perfuma being able to control plants. I guess her being a genius could count but I wouldn't have expected the kitchen staff to go "eh, they are magic, they can handle it" if that was the case.

Also, the kitchen staff doesn't seem to care much for Entrapta, not even one exclamation of worry or anything. That makes her backstory even sadder.

No one has ever said that so happily before.

The gem is protecting itself? Is the "virus" some kind of AI then?

Aw, his faith in them feels refreshing.

Considering She-Ra's sword doesn't seem to need power, I doubt this is going to work. Being "first ones" tech and all that.

There you go

Computers and arson, Entrapta's two passions.

Oh, I thought her drunkenness was just residual damage from having been infected while being She-Ra but she still had it in her.

The fact that the tendrils seem to be receding into the sword instead of vanishing worries me a bit.

Narrator: She feels that way at some point in the next 30 episodes.

Wow, Glimmer really can't get enough of She-Ra.

She really is a comic book villain in the making. Can't wait for this to happen:

Interesting episode and new character! I didn't expect a princess to be so grey, considering everyone else seems to be very aligned to their respective sides. It wouldn't even surprise me if the real reason Entrapta joined the rebellion was to have an excuse to make and test her weapons.

With the hints of a tragic backstory, her isolation from even her staff and her obsession with her machines, Entrapta really seems to be heading the wrong path. But, would she join or help the Horde if it meant getting more answers about the First Ones? I guess it depends if the Horde was responsible for killing her parents.

She-Ra's sword (and She-Ra herself) getting infected was as full of possibilities as Entrapta's future. There's no way it doesn't come up again when it disabled her so badly. Is the Horde going to find out how to activate it? Is She-Ra going to attack her allies if it happens? Lots of fertile ground for interesting drama. The infection could also be related to whatever happened to the First Ones, maybe they caused their own demise by delving too deep into AI?

I'm a bit disappointed by Bow's plot this episode, not because it was bad but because I was expecting more depth. It didn't reveal anything new about his character, it just spelled it out. Maybe that's all Bow is but I hope it isn't. How did he meet Glimmer? Was he always so confident about his abilities vs having magic powers? I want answers!

Until next time!

#spop #shera #shera liveblog #shera s01e06

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emperorsfoot · 4 years

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Finally, some much needed Entrapdak fluff. Angsty fluff. But its still fluff.

Also, the Horde garrison in Dryl misinterpreting pretty much everything about Hordak and ‘family’ in a wholesome and -hopefully- comical way.

Also, also, this:

...

Hordak was programmed to stand for a commanding officer whenever they entered a room. To be waiting for them, in formation and at the ready when they arrived on their flagship. In his current circumstances, as a refugee from the Fright Zone, deposed from command of the Horde, Entrapta held the higher rank. Princess of Dryl and sovereign of the territory he was currently residing in. In this scenario, Entrapta was his commanding officer. Dryl was her flagship. Hordak wanted to be standing at attention, waiting for her arrival home.

But he could not find the entrance.

Curse this labyrinth of corridors the locals dared to call a ‘castle’! There was no rhyme or reason to them. Hordak tried learning the layout. He tried marking the turns. He even tried making his own map. But it seemed like the layout changed semi-periodically. His marks inexplicably disappeared. And his map was useless by the next day. Hordak didn’t know how the mongrel got around without getting lost, but then, the mongrel was small and usually traveled through the air ducts and ventilation system. They probably did not have these problems.

All Hordak knew was that Entrapta was already home by the time Hordak finally found her.

Not in the entrance hall. He still wasn’t sure where that was anymore.

But he did find the kitchens.

Where Baker was just finishing up a pastry molded into the shape of a tiny creature with a pig-nose and bat ears. She looked up when he entered. It only took her half a glance to realize he was lost. She arranged the pastry creature on a tray held by one of Entrapta’s bots.

“That one’s going to the lab.” She told him.

Without saying anything, only offering a grunt as a ‘thank you’ Hordak left the kitchens and followed the bot.

The twisting and winding path the bot lead him on was not the same rout the mongrel lead him on the last time he was escorted to the lab. And they passed that damn painting of the flerken with the over-large eyes twice before they came to a familiar hallway. Then, finally, the lab.

The bot entered through a separate panel at floor level.

Hordak entered the passcode Entrapta gave him.

Thankfully, the door slid open without problem or incident.

Entrapta was already inside, reviewing the data from the exo-suit. Catching herself up on his condition and prosthetics.

“Oh. You made it.” She looked up at him with a smile. Happy to see him.

She crossed the room, propelling herself on her hair. Arms spread wide. But she stopped short of hugging him. They did not touch. She was mindful of his condition which often gave him muscular pain, and he was unused to initiating physical contact –it was not a thing clones did. So they never touched each other directly. Only through Entrapta’s hair.

Entrapta placed a lock of hair on his shoulder, giving the exo-suit an affectionate pat. “I missed you!”

Her smile was genuine, and infectious, and Hordak could not help but smile back. He missed her too.

He just lacked the words to tell her. They stuck in his throat. Admitting that he missed her when she went to Brightmoon for a couple of months also meant admitting that he would miss her indefinitely when he returned to Prime’s side and she remained in Dryl.

Instead he cleared his throat awkwardly. “Your clone preformed adequately in your absence. However, it is a relief having you returned.”

He placed his hand over the hair on his shoulder, intertwining his fingers between the strands. Hordak wasn’t used to physical contact, physical contact of affection least of all. He hoped he was doing it right. Entrapta did not pull her hair away immediately, and he decided to take that as a sign that he wasn’t doing it wrong.

“Dak did great!” Entrapta beamed. Wrapping her hair around his whole body, she carried Hordak over to the main monitor. “I’ve been reviewing the data from your tune-ups and it looks like your exo-suit is performing at peak efficiency. We can now start physical training.”

To get him back to a level of warrior proficiency comparable to what he was before being stranded on Etheria. Hordak would never be able to be active without his armor again. Just performing daily tasks like basic hygiene was difficult without it as a mobility aid. His muscles would ache and he would get fatigued easily. With the armor, he could function as any normal person did, but to return to Horde Prime Hordak needed to function better than a normal person. He needed to function like a warrior-trained clone of the Emperor of the Known Universe. Bred from perfection to be a living weapon and extension of his will. For that –even with the armor- Hordak needed training.

Hordak glanced around the lab.

It was tight. An enclosed space. And full of sensitive equipment neither of them wanted to get damaged, chief among them, the First Ones medical array Entrapta took from the ship in the Crimson Waste. They could not perform any kind of physical conditioning or combat drilling in the lab. Did the Crypto Castle have a gymnasium of sorts? Some place he could train. Another place to get lost trying to find.

Already holding him with her hair, Entrapta carried Hordak to the door of her lab. “Scorpia and Dak are already waiting for us in the courtyard.”

The door slid open and Hordak struggled to disentangle himself from her hair. By the Host, he was not about to allow her to carry him out into the courtyard where the remaining Horde that occupied Dryl could see him. The soldiers deployed in Dryl at the time of the portal’s opening were the only faction of the Horde here on Etheria that remained loyal to him. He was not about to shake that loyalty by appearing weak in front of them. And being carried in this tiny Princess’ magical hair definitely made him look weak.

“I am able to walk under my own power.” He assured her.

“Oh. Okay.” Entrapta let him down, feeling oddly rejected somehow.

It wasn’t like she was trying to initiate any kind of intimacy at that moment. He was just already in her hair and they had to go to the same place. It didn’t occur to her that he might feel more comfortable moving himself rather than letter her carry him. Hordak was Entrapta’s very Special Friend, not her Best Friend, that was Scorpia. But her Special Friend. She felt as strongly for him as she did for Scorpia, but… in a different way. And she wanted to hold him.

Not just with her hair –although, that was what was usually most comfortable for her- but with her arms too. The same way Scorpia hugged her when she came to rescue her from Beast Island. Both arms wrapped around, squeezing tightly, even… even bodies pressed together if that didn’t make him too uncomfortable.

But, Entrapta was also mindful of his condition. The exo-suit she made for him allowed Hordak to function the same as any average person. But underneath that armor, he was not an average person. He was frail and delicate. His skin sensitive. Not in the same ‘tactile sensitivity and overstimulation’ sort of way she was sensitive, but in the ‘a carless tap on the shoulder could cause debilitating pain’ kind of sensitive. Not counting Hordak himself, no one was more keenly aware of that than Entrapta. She knew what it was like to be sensitive and did not want to stress his boundaries.

So, why did Hordak wanting to walk on his own make her feel like he was walking away from her?

Because he still intended to go back to Horde Prime? To leave Dryl and leave her.

But that was always Hordak’s plan. Even before he started living in her Queendom. Back when they were in the Fright Zone building the portal in the first place. Nothing had changed.

So, why did she feel like everything had changed?

“It’s this way.” Entrapta pointed with her hair when she noticed Hordak was walking the wrong way to the courtyard.

Hordak suppressed a growl, letting out a hmph instead. “Nothing makes sense in this blasted place.”

Entrapta decided to let that comment go. It was her predecessor who designed the Crypto Castle, and Ensnarea made it intentionally difficult to navigate. Entrapta grew up here, she was well into her adulthood now, almost thirty, and she still sometimes needed the tracker app on her datapad to navigate her way around.

Outside the sky was gray and overcast. Dryl was prone to poor weather. Storms and lightning. An overcast day with heavy but calm cloud cover was actually a ‘nice day’ by Dryllish standards.

It took Hordak a few moments to get used to the natural light, after being in nothing but the dimness of the Crypto Castle for months. Blinking his nictitating membranes, squinting the second set of eyelids until his eyes adjusted.

The center of the courtyard was taken up by a unit of Horde soldier, being put through their drills by the Territory Captain. It had been months since She-Ra and her rebel companion kidnapped Dak –whom for all they knew at the time was Lord Hordak’s heir- and the Captain was not going to soon forget. She was determined that her forces would never allow a repeat of the occurrence. They were soldiers of the Horde, loyal to Lord Hordak, living in the territory of Lord Hordak’s chosen consort, the Princess Entrapta. They would not allow Hordak and Entrapta’s heir to be taken a second time. The Captain was almost fanatical in her training of those that were under her command.

Seeing Lord Hordak walking with his Princess, the Captain snapped to attention and offered a respectful bow. “My Lord, my Princess.” Then, snapped at her soldiers. “Attention! Salute your Lord!”

The company she was drilling performed similar motions. Snapping to attention, backs straight, shoulders tight, tails –of they had them- peaked. Then they bowed, humbling themselves for their Lord and his consort.

Hordak gave a hmph of satisfaction.

“Wow, you guys are so in sync!” Entrapta beamed at the company.

“Thank you, Princess.” Nodded the Captain. “I have been working hard with them. Rest assured that no harm will ever come to you or your… or the younger Lord Hordak again.”

“That’s great!” Entrapta smiled at the other woman. “And I’ll be upgrading your weapons before I leave for Salineas.”

Startled, Hordak glanced at her. She would be leaving again? To build more weapons for his enemies. In Salineas this time. But he thought the deal was only for Brightmoon. She was done in Brightmoon. Why was she going to another Princess’ territory so soon after she just got back? Hordak didn’t want her to go.

But in front of one of their subordinates was not the time or place to confront her about it. As sovereign Princess of Dryl and Lord of the Horde, they had to appear unified and of one mind in front of their subordinates.

Instead of asking Entrapta about it, he chose to remind her why they came out here in the first place. “Princess, you did mention that Force Captain Scorpia was awaiting us.”

“Huh? Oh! Right!” She offered a wave to the Territory Captain. “It was good seeing you Batting. I’ll get around to your equipment once I’m done with this grumpy-gus.” She pointed to Hordak with a tendril of hair.

The Territory Captain, Batting, didn’t know what to say to that, so she only saluted again. Only Lord Hordak’s lover could get away with calling his a ‘grumpy-gus’ practically to his face. Batting tried her best not to react. She tried really, really hard.

As Entrapta said, Dak was with Scropia.

They were off to the side, in a corner of the courtyard that was shadowed by the side of the mountain.

Scorpia had a bucket of what looked like many different colored calks next to her, and was handing them to Dak, whom was using them to draw on the ground.

“That looks great, Dak!” Scorpia was saying. “But, uh, what is it?”

As they drew closer, Hordak was able to peer over the backs of the crouched pair and see that the mongrel had drawn a hexagon and a pentagon with a shared side. A single line was protruding out from the hexagon, and another line that was bent in two places extended from the pentagon. Clearly, the hybrid was drawing some kind of chemical chain.

“You said I should draw something that makes me happy.” The mongrel reminded Scorpia. They labeled the line protruding from the hexagon HO, and the bent line extending from the pentagon NH2. “So, I drew serotonin.”

Hordak could not help the snort that escaped him. A very nasal, very wet sounding snort. Prime would have been mortified. But Prime wasn’t here. Scorpia instructed the creature to draw something that made them happy and they drew the chemical that –literally- caused beings to experience happiness. Hordak still did not like the mongrel, but they did like the creature’s sense of humor when it was not at his own expense.

Scorpia sucked in a breath between her teeth. “Well… I mean… that’s not wrong…” She seemed to be having trouble finding the word to explain to this child what she had meant. “Look what I drew.” She pointed to an entirely different chalk drawing. Sloppy, and childish. But still just recognizable as two figures. One rendered in red chalk with a scorpion tail, the other outlines in purple with many pink tentacles like snakes coming out of the head. The chalk figures appeared to be holding hands, and the words ‘Super Pal Duo’ was written over them in an arch. “This is the time I rescued your mom from Beast Island and she called me her Best Friend.”

Unconsciously, Hordak reached a hand out to run his fingers through Entrapta’s hair. He should have been the one to rescue her. At least, he felt he should. But Hordak did not learn that she had been sent to Beast Island until she was already rescued.

In response to his touch, strands of hair intertwined themselves with his fingers. Gently stroking and reassuring. He might feel like he had failed her somehow, but Entrapta harbored no such feelings. She was just happy he was with her.

It gave him a pang of an entirely different, but even more uncomfortable feeling when he remembered that he would be leaving her as soon as Horde Prime arrived. Leaver her, and not coming back.

But at least Entrapta would still have Scorpia as a companion. Her ‘Super Pal’ and Best Friend. Scorpia would take care of her. Besides, the mongrel would stay here too. Hordak would not take that hybrid thing back to the Velvet Glove and present it to Prime as a brother. Dak, or Hordak Second of the Name, was not a brother. He didn’t know what the creature was, really. But it was not his brother.

“That is exactly what a chain of serotonin looks like!” Entrapta nodded at the hybrid’s drawing. Satisfied with her clone’s work.

Dak offered their mother a hesitant smile. Entrapta’s approval and validation was what they craved most in this world.

“I hope you’re not too tired for our next experiment.” Entrapta continued.

Dak practically catapulted to their feet. “No. I’m ready.”

Hordak looked between the two of them, momentarily confused. “Now that you are returned, there is no need for the clone’s continued involvement.”

Except maybe for consistency of care, so that the mongrel could remain up-to-date and aware of his condition and progression. But Hordak was not about to admit that out loud. The hybrid made him uncomfortable and he did not want to admit that there might be a practical reason for continuing to allow the hybrid to be… on his maintenance team.

“Oh, Dak’s gonna be my Control for your vitals.” Entrapta explained, bouncing excitedly on her hair. “They’re not the same physical age as you, and they’re a hybrid with my own DNA, so they’re not perfectly analogous to you, but they’re the best thing I have to compare you to in terms of physiology. Dak is the closest approximation of a ‘healthy Prime clone’. So, Dak is gonna be doing exercises along side you.”

Hordak’s lips curled in a sneer of displeasure.

But he could not argue with her logic. When Entrapta first designed the clone, and yes, ‘designed’ was accurate. She went into his DNA and took out all the corrupted segments of code, filling in the gaps with her own healthy Etherian DNA. Dak was carefully crafted to be healthy. Not a perfect clone. But a perfectly healthy organism.

From her hair, Entrapta produced sterile gel, suction cups, and sensor nodes.

Using the sterile gel and suction cups, Entrapta fitted two of the sensor nodes to the sides of Hordak’s head, lifting herself up on her hair to compensate for their dramatic difference in height. She was mindful of his scar tissue which made the skin uneven. They looked worse than they were, the synthetic skin the First Ones medical tech knitted into Hordak’s real skin to close the wounds was the wrong color and stood out, a bold violet against the white of his face and the dark blue-gray of his neck. But the scratched Catra dealt him in that fight –even miraculously healed using seemingly magically advanced tech- still left the skin uneven and Entrapta had to work around them to get the suction cups to stick.

For his neck, she plugged the sensory nodes directly into the ports there. Same with the ports on his sides, she plugged the sensors directly into those too.

Dak applied their own sensors. Sticking them to the temples of their head, their neck, and their sides. Using their hair instead of their hands –which were covered in chalk and not sterile- the cobalt blue tendrils making sure they were even and secure.

With a bit of a sigh, Scorpia began packing up the colored chalks. At least she got Dak to play a little bit.

Entrapta ushered the clones back into the center of the courtyard.

The soldiers weren’t quite finished with their drills yet, but Captain Batting quickly made them clear the field. Whatever project their Lord and his consort were working on was obviously more important than making sure the garrison kept up their discipline as a single military unit. (Besides, Batting wanted to watch whatever was about to happen. She saw so little of the sovereign family interacting together. She would be lying if she didn’t admit she was curios.)

Hordak was uneasy about preforming in front of his only remaining soldiers. He was keenly aware of his physical limitations and of the fact that he was nowhere near as capable and strong a warrior as he used to be. He did not want to appear weak in front of his subordinates. Fear of betrayal and usurption aside, they were the only followers he had left. He did not want to lose the last and only Horde garrison he commanded because he so weak, even when compared to a literal child.

“We’re just gonna start with a few warm-ups to get your bodies read and establish a baseline.” Entrapta explained. “Just some simple stretches and light activity to loosen-up your muscles and get your blood flowing.”

Standing side-by-side with the mongrel, a double arms’ length apart, Hordak allowed Entrapta to guide him and the hybrid through lunges, tow-touches, jumping-jacks, and a little light running place.

Soldiers snickers behind the face shield of their helmets, or –if their heads were uncovered- hid smiles behind their hands. None of them had ever seen Lord Hordak appear so… normal before. Warming up for a drill. Like he was one of them. A soldier just like any other. And he was training with his heir. Just like a real dad (not that any of them really knew what a ‘real dad’ was supposed to be like). But it was still so cute!

All the while, Entrapta was studying their stats on her datapad, the screen split in half, one side displaying Hordak’s vitals, the other Dak’s.

She had them break for water before diving into the combat drills.

It was not all that different from the drills the garrison had just been practicing. Beginning with basic hand-to-hand kata, first going through the motions on their own, the two clones performing identical actions side-by-side. Then, after several sets, facing off and putting the combat motions into action in a mock battle against each other.

Dak was younger than Hordak. Lighter and faster on their feet. With healthy muscle tissues giving more strength to their limbs. However, Dak had barely been in one fight before, and didn’t actually know what they were doing. Hordak was older and more experienced. He had faced quick and spry opponents before and survived to learn from the experience. He was a seasoned warrior and knew how to handle himself –limitations and all- in a fight.

For the most part they were evenly matched.

Until Hordak over-extended himself. Dak did a backflip –on their hair- to evade the attack. And Hordak fell flat on his face.

The watching soldiers could not hide their amusement this time. Nothing was funnier than watching the terrifying and imposing Lord of the Horde do a face plant while trying to train his child.

Enraged, Hordak threw all manners of a polite spar aside and snarled at the mongrel. How dare they humiliate him like that!

Dak only grinned back. Flashing those razor sharp but pearly white teeth, as if goading the older clone. “Sorry,” they said, not sounding apologetic at all, “Old Man.”

There was a chorus of ‘Oo~oh’s from the spectators.

“Brat!” He growled back. In the peak of his health, Hordak could jump from a moving drop-ship, take out a small contingent of enemies, vault off a building roof, break through windows, and maneuver is close quarters combat. He was not going to allow this composite creature that hadn’t even been alive a year yet to humiliate him in a public forum!

Recollecting himself, adjusting his stance, Hordak assumed the defensive, waiting for the younger and quicker clone to come to him. Hordak didn’t have to beat the mongrel outright. He just had to let the dumb child tire themself out in order to win.

And ‘dumb child’ was right. Dak didn’t even hesitate to take the bait. Bouncing on their prehensile hair, the hybrid leapt into the air, coming down from above Hordak, hands with talons outstretched.

Hordak casually, almost lazily side stepped the clumsy and overly-showy attack. Dak would have smashed skull-first into the hard stones of the courtyard were it not for the quick reflexes of youth. They swung their hair around in front of their face, coiling it like a living blue cushion to pad their fall. Then transitioned into a sort of summersault to land on their feet.

Lowering his defensive stance, Hordak melted into a dignified parade rest. Turing one half-quarter to the side, he smirked sideways at the mongrel. Just to make sure the creature understood how insignificant it truly was to him.

The hybrid took the action as the taunt it was meant to be. Teeth bared in a growl of frustration, hair frizzing out like Entrapta’s often did when she over-excited. They ran at Hordak, attempting to slash at the older clone with their talons.

After facing off against a skilled and season opponent like Catra, young and naïve little Dak was nothing. Hordak barely had to break his rest to dodge. Only moving his feet. Arms still folded behind his back. Expression military neutral. It only took a few passes for the mongrel’s frustration to transform into outright anger.

“This is supposed to be a fight, Old Man!” They shouted.

Hordak smirked at them. “I am waiting for you to begin.”

That was the last straw that broke the back of the mongrel’s control. They did not quite have Hordak’s temper. They were not quick to anger. They could put up with Hordak’s quiet scorn and not-so-subtle distain. When it was just the two of them it was easy to stay calm. When it was just the two of them it didn’t matter. But when Mother was home… When Mother was watching them… When Hordak was making them look back in front of Mother… That was what set Dak off. Dak wanted nothing more than for Mother to love them.

Hair still frizzy, the tendrils and strands fanned outwards, haloing the mongrel in a semi-circle of cobalt-blue tentacles. Hordak would be lying if he didn’t admit it was a little intimidating.

He didn’t let any of it show on his face, however. Hordak, Lord of the Third Division, General on Horde Prime’s ruling cabinet, did not get intimidated by mongrel children.

Dak rushed him, running forward with the same speed as before. Hordak side-stepped them easily. But then the hybrid crouched down and lashed out with their hair, coiling two tentacles around one of the older clone’s ankles. It one solid jerk of the prehensile hair, Dak pulled Hordak off his feed, dropping him flat on his backside.

There was another exclamation of ‘Oo~oh!’ from the watching soldiers.

“That’s enough.” Entrapta called.

From his position on the ground, Hordak kicked up, just barely missing the mongrel’s face. If the move had connected, the metal toe-plate of his boot would have smashed into Dak’s chin.

Jumping back, the hybrid just barely managed to dodge the blow.

Hordak too the opportunity to leap back to his feet.

Dak lashed at him with their hair again. This time going high. For the face.

Raising an armored arm to block the blow, Hordak allowed the plating of his exo-suit to absorb the force of the hit, then grabbed the tendril of hair and yanked. Hard. Pulling the hybrid off balance, causing the mongrel to stumble as they winced in pain at having their hair pulled.

“Ow! Ow, ow, ow!” Dak exclaimed.

“I said that’s enough.” Entrapta repeated.

“A real opponent will do much worse than this.” Hordak informed them. How could the natives of this planet honestly believe that this soft, under-developed child-creature was his ‘heir’? They were no soldier. They weren’t even the kind of sparkling and gentle looking but surprisingly formidable kind of clumsy-fighter the Princesses of the Alliance was. The mongrel was… more like a Horde cadet. A child the Etherian Horde took in and trained. Young and stupid. But full of potential.

The mongrel only growled at him. They pulled the strand of hair, but Hordak did not let go of his hold.

“He’s right, ya know!” Someone called from the soldiers that gathered as spectators.

“Listen to your father.” Shouted another. “He knows what he’s talking about!”

Hordak bristled, uncomfortable at being called the mongrel’s ‘father’. The clones of Horde Prime had no fathers. The clones of Horde Prime had no children. The clones of Horde Prime were all brothers.

“Hey, if your hair is cut, it is like losing an arm?” Asked another. This question went unanswered.

Dak yanked their hair again, pulling harder this time. Pulling hard enough to make the taller and top heavier clone to stumble off balance. Mid-trip, another tentacle of hair lunged out. This this time. With more force. It struck Hordak in the stomach.

Hordak let go of the hair he was holding. Spitting and gasping.

“Stop!” Entrapta appeared between them. Wrapping both in her own hair, she forced the two clones apart. “As big as your ears are, you should be better at listening. Both of you.”

The watching soldiers heaved identical groans of disappointment. They were enjoying the show.

Placing herself between Dak and Hordak, she turned to the latter and held up her datapad. “Look at your blood pressure! The suit is not regulating it the way it should. And that gut-punch just now didn’t do you any favors either.” She turned the datapad back to herself and began scrolling through all the information the device was telling her. Muttering about adjustments and upgrades. About extending the exoskeleton to cover his chest and middle-mass.

As she spoke, Hordak took a breath, forcing himself to calm down. He had not risen to the killing edge. The mongrel was not a big enough threat for that. Not had they made him mad enough to push him to that edge. But Hordak was not as young as he used to be and active combat was not as easy as it once was. Now that he was no longer moving and adrenaline was no longer pumping through his veins, Hordak realized that he was… tired. His muscles under his exo-suit were already sore. His middle-mass most of all. The mongrel’s hair was very strong.

But he could not afford to appear weak in front of his soldiers.

Hordak melted his stance back into a rest. “I shall respect your concerns and end combat training for the day, Princess.”

There was a soft chorus of ‘Aww’ from the soldiers around them. One soldier wrapped her arm around another, the two women cuddling closer. Hordak might be a looming, formidable, terrifying military Lord, but he loved his consort. It was so sweet!

Their doe-eyed, adoring faces, and soft smiles made him uncomfortable. Hordak turned and walked back to the double doors of the main entrance into the Crypto Castle. Quickly realized that he would be lost the moment he got inside, and paused. Turning to look back at where Entrapta was still standing with the mongrel, he held out his arm. A gesture he understood meant he was offering to escort her inside. He hoped it did not make him seem vulnerable and afraid of going back into the castle alone –which he was.

“You can play outside some more if you want.” Entrapta informed the hybrid. “Scorpia tells me children should play. Come back to the Lab when you’re ready and we can go over your data together.”

“Yes, Mother.” Dak demurred.

She crossed the courtyard, moving on her hair, and took Hordak’s offered arm.

The crowd gave a second ‘Aww’ as the couple went inside together.

Entrapta waited until the double doors were shut behind them before remarking, “I think I’ll also add a navigation feature to the exo-suit. So you won’t get lost inside the castle. Not that I mind escorting your around. But I know you like… to go your own way...”

Hordak’s lip curled, feeling inexplicably uncomfortable. It felt almost like she wasn’t talking about his wanting independence while living in the nightmare labyrinth she called a ‘castle’ and more about… his impending departure when Prime finally came to collect him.

“I will always appreciate the things you do for me.” He informed her. Not knowing what he needed to say.

“Thanks.” Entrapta replied. “I will always appreciate you- -your friendship.” She twiddled her hair, looking off to the side to avoid eye-contact, cheeks a slightly pinker shade than was normal. “Out of everyone I’ve met on Etheria –Scorpia included- you are the one I- …work best with.”

A lump formed in Hordak’s throat and he found himself having to swallow a feeling he was unfamiliar with. “Your work is without equal.”

If he thought –even for just a moment- that Horde Prime would welcome Entrapta, Hordak would take her with him. In a heartbeat.

“Thanks.”

Entrapta looked uneasy for a moment, as if question a decision she was about to make. She raised herself up on her hair, so that their faces were on an equal level. Leaning forward slightly to close the distance between them. Her mouth parted slightly.

Hordak had no idea what her intensions were. He had never seen Entrapta behave this way before.

But whatever she was about to do, they were both distracted by shouting outside.

They both turned.

Hordak pushed the double doors open.

At first, they were both confused. Nothing seemed out of place in the courtyard. Everyone was still standing exactly where they were a minute ago when they left. Except now everyone was all tuned, staring in the same direction. Faces tilting up. Staring gape-mouthed, horror struck, and confused at the sky.

Following their gaze, Entrapta and Hordak looked up.

A strange light cut across the sky, shining brighter than the moons. A diagonal slash. The edges of which seemed to fray and peel back, like fabric torn and tattered. As if the very air itself was physically cut with a blade. A blade of light rather than steel. A rift opening.

The gaping Etherians were right to be afraid. They didn’t know what this was. They had never seen anything like it before.

Admittedly, Hordak had never seen it before either. But he knew what it was. He was expecting this.

Horde Prime got his message.

Horde Prime was coming.

#entrapdak #entrapta/hordak #entrapta #hordak #entrapdak kid #clone baby au #dryl #crypto castle #spop #fan fiction #ao3 #RenkonNairu #scorpia #dak #a song of steel and light #prodigal brother

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itslosttransitionsthings · 4 years

Text

A message for the ether

An open letter for the creators and fans of She-ra, Supergirl, Real life comics and other LGBTQIA+ fam and allies.

With special thanks to Noelle Stevenson, Maelyn Dean, Katie Mcgrath, friends who Know Things about me, and any trans allies out there. Written understanding you will all never see this, or if you do it will be long after this account ceases to exist.

This isn’t a suicide note. I am in no physical danger nor do I have suicidal idealizations, but I suppose I should include a TW for depression and references to abuse, so please be careful in reading as I don’t need you to experience my pain.

As a child, I was never comfortable in my own skin. Part of it undoubtedly stemmed from abuse I experienced, but knowing the things I know now, there’s probably more to it. In my pretend play, my roles were always female. I was surrounded by (other) boys, but I was the one playing the girl’s role. When I was little, there was a cartoon about a girl who had been a princess in another land, and secreted away to earth to protect her. When she grew up, she met a magic horse named Wildfire, who took her to her home to become the princess she’d been born to be. I don’t think I understood until fairly recently what that meant.

When I discovered Ranma 1/2, my mind always dwelled on why I would have liked that curse, and how I’d have a bottle of cold water on my at all times, and who needed hot showers, anyway?

Then a few years ago, Supergirl premiered. For the first time in my life, I’d found a superhero that I actually identified with. As a kid, yea I dressed up as batman or superman, but I never really wanted to BE them. Suddenly, there was this superhero that I could imagine being. years too late, obviously, but it made me feel like a kid again.

Then She-Ra.... geez... there was this cartoon that was EVERYTHING i would have wanted back then. Queer representation, and it was just so NORMAL.

I’m not very good at writing, sorry.

Anyways, thank you for being the things I needed in my life. But... I will never transition. And honestly... I think I need to stop pretending I ever will. There is no reality where this will ever be ok for me to have happen, so... I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for at least letting me see how things could have gone, how supportive people can be. Thank you for giving people that will have the chance to be their inner self a forum to feel good in. But I have to close the lid on this box I’ve been peeking out of. It would be more destructive for me to explore this idea than to just enjoy things from the sideline.

Mae, congratulations on the journey you are taking.

Noelle, thank you for giving kids a positive place to look up to.

Katie, thank you for being an ally among a show that appears to love queerbating as much as many others do.

Allies, thank you for being you.

Kids, and closeted folks - you don’t have to have my story. There are people out there to support you. I am NOT a role model for you. I’m just tired, and old, and stuck in my own self-image and self-hate. Don’t be me.

This is the only post that this account will ever make, I am losing the password and will never check it again. Sorry to sound all high-school drama about this, but there’s no other forum that exists in my life where a post like this would be acceptable for any of my family or friends to find, deep-red FL is not a safe space. And with a post on a blank tumblr, no one is likely to even see this even outside that circle, but I had to at least put it down once.

Like I said, don’t worry about me. Life is going to go on, other than this one little thing about me, I am happy where I am, I have a good family and will be ok. I just won’t ever... be me.

-FR

#mtf #helloandgoodbye #closeted #spop #supercorpforlife #justcauseIgottasayitleastonce #wildfire

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veronicadvalle · 5 years

Text

The whole Reggie thing has been a huge discourse in my inbox and rather than tip toeing around it and giving my opinion in tiny pieces, imma just put this comprehensive post out there. This isn’t a black/white opinion. It has layers (insert shrek quote here).

First - we’ve been seeing Reggie’s heart eyes for Ronnie for several episodes now. He has a genuine attraction and affection for her. However, never before 3.09 have we seen Veronica reciprocate those heart-eyes. She gave Josie’s performance more heart eyes than she’s ever given Reggie. Call me cocky but that’s just facts. So when she glanced at Reggie during her Maybe This Time performance, it did feel like she did a total 180 since she’s never looked at Reggie that way and suddenly she couldn’t look away. I don’t know, it just felt like she knew exactly what she’s doing when she looked at him.

This isn’t me saying iTs RuShEd or iT CaMe OuT oF NoWheRe. This is me saying that I think Reggie feels more deeply for her than she feels toward him, and this is evident in the fact that he’s been giving her heart eyes for several episodes now yet she never seem to have reciprocated them.

THAT BEING SAID - I DO think Veronica cares about Reggie. I DO think she appreciates him and his support. I DO think she has a lot of affection for Reggie, she clearly does.

I don’t think Veronica is “using him as a rebound” or just playing with him. She clearly cares for him. However, she had a long passionate relationship with Archie and that doesn’t just vanish into thin air.

Ronnie and Reggie are the flip side to Betty and Archie, from the comics. It’s just what it is. And I appreciate RAS taking several episodes to establish Reggieronnie’s story and to tell that story.

However - and this is the more controversial part where people might yell at me - I still think r/r is just going to be an arc. You have to be very naive and/or hopeful if you think r/r isn’t going to cause conflict. This whole situation (Veronica kissing one of Archie’s best buds) has conflict written all over it. It is what it is. Conflict is just a part of story-telling.

So yeah. I do think Veronica and Reggie have genuine affection toward each other. The framing and the whole set up to that kiss was pure and it was beautiful. I think we all agree it was a hot moment. But looking at it within context, it just seems like this is a slow motion car crash waiting to happen.

Ideally, I see it being very bittersweet and designed to pull at out heart strings (ie, Veronica genuinely wanting to explore a relationship with Reggie; Reggie having very strong feelings for her; Veronica still being very hurt and wounded from her break up with Archie; Archie wanting Veronica to be happy, whether it’s with him or with Reggie or with someone else, etc).

Fandom can be very petty regarding ships. I don’t dislike r/r. It just feels like in fandom, you need to be either 0% or 100%. Meanwhile, I’m like 50% (if that makes sense). I am happy that RAS is exploring this dynamic that has been established since the digests; but we are looking at a love triangle. And I’m not mad at it, I’m really not. I think it’s a good time to explore many emotions and conflicted feelings, and I’m excited to see it play out. Like I said before, it will pull at out heart strings for all of them (ideally).

If you want to yell at me, that will cost you 5$ via paypal and/or venmo. (10$ if you include curse words)

Polite discourse is free :)

xoxo j

(that being said, archie and veronica will find their way back to each other. It’s just a matter of when and how :)

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jflashandclash · 5 years

Text

Traitors of Olympus IV: Fall of the Sun

Thirty-seven: Ajax

I am No Longer A Baby Panda

Later, Pax would say he admired his mother’s stylish entrance.

At the time, he was just horrified. And maybe a little annoyed. He’d been proud of himself for getting back Frank’s stick and not having to sleep with his sister (something, he realized, really ought to cue him in that he had hit an all-time-low) and now the Goddess of Night had to steal the limelight—haha, steal the light—and tackle Apollo out of the sky.

Everything happened at once.

As the sun fell, ghostly silhouettes groaned out of the blackness. The lingering ghosts spilled from the forests, out of the shadows they’d been watching, and cackled with gleeful war cries.

Rotting corpses staggered towards Camp Half-Blood, an army at least four times larger than the one the Romans had been holding back earlier. Melinoe, her half-mummified, half-fireplace fabulous carcass, led the charge.

The piercing notes of a pipe echoed through the fields and a huntress, a Greek, and a Roman[1] standing guard at the border collapsed.

A suction of warm air eased away from the camp, and Pax knew the Mist shield—if it had been recovering—was completely down again.

The ground rumbled. Pax hoped, but doubted, that it was Nico or Axel to the rescue with a secret, giant mole army.

Instead, a massive black serpent exploded from—if Pax had to guess—that hole in the ground that Jack had voice-activated outside Hera’s cabin. You know, the major weakness of their defenses in the center of the camp that really ought to have a Welcome, Python, sign, We Forgot You RSVPed.

By now, the screams were omnipresent.

When Python collapsed onto the Apollo cabin, Pax liked to think there were as many screams afterwards as before Python decided to use the once-golden structure as a back scratcher.

Romans spilled out of the barracks. Greeks scrambled out of their cabins, er, the cabins that were left.

“Turn on the field lights!” Frank shouted from somewhere by the barracks.

The Canadian’s orders came to light and brought the ghastly attackers to high definition. The thump of the field lights echoed around the strawberry field. Pax had to wonder if substitute sunlight could weaken ghosts, and, if so, whether the Romans should seriously consider adding horticultural LED grow-lamps to their infantry.

Michael Kahale and Butch were with half-a-dozen demigods towards their edge of the strawberry field, apparently having been planning defenses for this evening. Well, surprise!

In a breath’s pause, Butch looked towards Python and Kahale blinked at the advancing ghoul army. The debate on whether to help with Python or guard the border lasted all of Michael Kahale ordering the troops to stand strong on the strawberry field. “To arms! Defend our barrier!”

What a mighty battle cry Michael missed out on; Pax would have said, Defend our berries!

Pax felt like he was watching an old family movie as his mother tossed her Molotov cocktail up and down. The flame flickered, making the malicious zeal in her eyes glitter. She wore black tactical pants, a torn up red and black shirt with a circled and slashed A, a black bandana to conceal half her face, and—

When she launched her Molotov cocktail, everything became too real.

Pax wanted to say, Nice throw, since he’d forgotten his mother was a goddess and lobbing a bottle of alcohol was as easy as tossing rice at a wedding, though that probably was what she tossed at weddings. The bottle went clean over half the strawberry field, far beyond where Percy was cursing Eris at his throne of Saturnalia.

The glass shattered.

Michael Kahale went up in flames.

There were more screams.

He dropped to the ground, rolling, tearing at his armor.

Two other soldiers dropped beside him. One went to rip Michael’s armor off, the other frantically shoved dirt onto him.

Watching the fire and screaming centurion, Pax clutched Frank’s stick to his chest. He felt like the stupid thing could burst into flames by sheer peer pressure.

A laugh with the same giggling mania as the Joker’s filled the battlefield along with the flick of a match.

Eris jumped up and down in excitement as she tossed another bottle from hand to hand. “Terror Muffin! Come paint with me! I’ll bet I can make my masterpiece more vibrant than yours!”

Pax, stupidly, went to shout a warning, like Michael Kahale and the others might be confused or capable of defending themselves from the whole “flaming bombs” thing.

As he opened his mouth, something much louder made an inhuman wail about ten feet behind him.

There was a crunch of metal and bone.

At the same time, the Silver-Tongued helm attached to his waist shrieked.

One of our brethren is in danger!

Really, Pax wanted to ask the helm why it didn’t open up more often. He was offended by the lack of weekly coffee chats—Axel’s helm talked to Axel all the time--but now wasn’t the time.

The shriek left him confused, with a lovely punched-by-a-minotaur-in-the-stomach sense of dread.

One horrifying thing at a time.

When he looked up to see the Molotov cocktail’s destruction, a blinding flash of light arched over the demigods.

The bottle hit something, exploded along the arch, and burned out, leaving the split second image of a brilliant, mini rainbow.

As the beams of colors faded, Pax could see Butch, the giant child of Iris, scowling hatefully in their direction. His arms were raised, one with a mister bottle, the other with a flashlight.

Rainbows were some powerful shit.

Pax wanted to slowly back up, put his hands in his pockets, and walk away whistling.

But he had to stop his mother from withdrawing a grenade from her utility belt.

He needed to chastise her: utility belts were definitely something that shouldn’t be used by evil. Only comic book heroes.

“Mom! Stop!” Pax cried. The shock faded enough for Pax to sprint towards her.

Her grenade didn’t even have a pin in it. From what he could see, it was held together by a hair band.

As she slipped the hair band back onto her wrist and cranked her arm for the throw, Pax slapped her hand.

The grenade tumbled out of her grip. While in mid-air, he kicked it as hard as he could towards Farm Road.

In the last few moments, he tackled his mother away—

An explosion popped his ears. Dirt sprayed his back.

Before the dust had settled, his mother was already squirming to shove him off. Pax wished he could hug the homicidal out of her and have them all go on a nice, non-violent family picnic after this, whatever was left of his family. Merry wouldn’t hurt Hiro, but he’d watched Jason kill someone Pax loved before. He hoped Lapis and Axel were okay.

“My Little Terror Muffin, what’s the matter?” she cooed, digging her talon-like nails into his recently-fractured shoulder. “The Greeks and Romans massacred all your friends and hunted you into hiding. This is the perfect opportunity for you to have a little fun. Don’t you want to honor your friends and let Momma have a nice Bring Your Son to Work Day?”

Pax whined in pain. He fumbled to withdraw a dart from his belt with his hand with functional tendons. He feared he didn’t have the dexterity with the other. Pax didn’t know if his darts would knock out a goddess, or if he had any Morpheus dust left to do the trick.

His belt wasn’t there.

Axel had shredded it and Pax left the remains in the Hermes cabin. All he had was Frank’s stick and the Silver-Tongued Snake helm on a rope around his waist, because he feared the Hermes little ones would play with it.

Pax wanted to cheerily brush his mother’s comment off. Instead, his mouth worked on its own. “Stop pretending all the messed up stuff you and Dad do is for me!” he snarled.

Pax meeped when his mother lifted him up like he was a small child. When she stood, they were several feet higher off the ground than they should have been. She was feeding off the chaos around them, growing. He trembled to think she’d be more powerful with each second of this battle.

But, Pax realized, he was her son. It ran in the family.

Although he felt small and baby-panda-like, Pax could discern the delirious sensation coursing through his limbs, like it had during the pandemonium when the Heroes of Olympus collided with the Traitors from Mount Othrys.

The feeling normally made him nauseous. Normally, he wished desperately he could get a high off a party, like Merry, or off two people in love, like Calex, or a song, like Kally.

This time, Pax didn’t try to stop the tugging in his stomach. An uncomfortable acceptance settled over him, putting him at ease with the surrounding screams and mayhem: Greeks and Romans were going to die during this battle, he and his brother were never going to be the same after what Ares and Aphrodite did to them, his family was in tatters and needed major therapy, everyone in this camp would die if he, Kally, Alabaster, and a handful of fighters didn’t level up, and if he kept pretending his family was a pack of misunderstood puppies.

Axel or Jack or someone else always came to the rescue. If Pax could let go, maybe if he stopped acting like a baby panda, he could protect other baby pandas still in Camp Half-Blood.

“Terror Muffin, I only want you to experience life and glee as fully as I do,” Eris cooed. She was about to toss him, he could feel her winding up. But Pax was the Silver-Tongued Snake, the former spymaster from Kronos’ army, and known for weaseling his way out of everything. “What is that silly saying they have? Be the change you want to see in the world? I’m setting a good example for someone I love.”

She nuzzled the top of his head with her chin. Her body tensed for the throw.

In a motion Hunnie, Baller, and Nietz would have been proud of, he latched onto his mother, digging his functional fingers into the skin above her kidney and chomping down hard with his teeth.

Eris lost her grip on Pax.

He thrashed and squirmed his way out, springing off her to land on his feet.

Pax stood a foot taller than the highest field light, his breath was ragged, and a hysterical laugh spilled from his lips. “I am not a baby panda!” he cried triumphantly.

Eris touched her back, her fingers returning with golden ichor smearing them. “Terror Muffin?” she asked, her serial killer grin one of amusement.

“Sorry. Internal monologue. It’s a main character thing,” he said. “Now, for the reprise. You and Dad always say you do this stuff because you love me.” Pax doned the Silver-Tongued Snake helm, feeling the warm enhancement of strength slither through him. He cracked his neck and withdrew Frank’s stick like it was one of his daggers. “If this is love, I don’t want to be loved!”

Pax really hoped this battle would be over soon, else he wasted a kick-ass line.

Eris’ wide, excited gaze turned adoring. “Your tricks won’t work on me, Terror Muffin. There’s no one you can turn into that would make me stop. You can’t puppet me the way you did the little Valdez. We have the same powers. You’re my son.”

“I’m not just your son. And I’m not letting you, or anyone else from our family hurt these baby pandas,” Pax said. He wished he would have pickpocketed her lighter off her, but he hadn’t felt one when he weaseled away. Instead, he focused on Frank’s stick, hoping it was as easily influenced as he thought. He also hoped this thing had a “slow burn” option or an alarm that would flash with, Destruction of Canadian: Imminent.

The tip burst into flames.

Pax bit his tongue, whining at the blood dribbling out—how did Axel do this every time without complaining?--and said the incantation he’d only ever successfully recited during the battle for Mount Othrys, something he’d heard Frasco do before he died. “Xma’su’tal Xib, Liik’il Ch’iich’!”[2]

Pax spit his blood into the flames. The red glow flared a brilliant turquoise. Pain flared as he felt his limbs elongate and his bones alter. What he was excited to say, and had rehearsed a few times in his head, was, “I’ll show you why you don’t mess with a Mayan warrior-prince!” but what came out was more of a, “Aye! Aye! OW! How does Axel do this all the time?!”

Sorry for some of the bravado, I’ll admit, I’ve been watching WAY too much anime recently.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed :D

Footnotes:

[1] As Mel pointed out, excellent start to a joke, “A huntress, a Greek, and a Roman were standing guard…”

[2] “Abandon the man, ascend the eagle/bird.”

#TOO #HOO #PJO #fanfiction #Pax #Eris #Have you ever wanted to see someone from the first Cohort on fire?#You have?!?!#:D

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furashuban · 5 years

Text

Timely Caresses

A fic that I made for Valentine’s Day! It was inspired by a prompt I got from @spop-prompts and wrote it in a swift amount of time. So please, partake in some fluff and gay.

Pairing: Glimmadora

Words: 2.1K

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17782643

Summary: Glimmer uses her teleportation to ‘surprise’ Adora in every turn.

Adora completely forgets the idea of what privacy is as she lets herself come inside Glimmer’s room. She knew better of course, trying to knock before breaking in and even calling out her name through the other side of the door. But if all she was going to get for acknowledgement was sheer silence, why bother standing for another minute. Queen Angella had requested a personal order to keep an eye on her daughter during her recharging, to which the blonde was willing to follow. Seeing Glimmer was both a necessity and a pleasure ever since they, including Bow had developed their connection…But the pink-haired princess was absent from where she normally recharges, leaving Adora to resort in finding her somewhere in the palace.

The bedroom door closes behind her while the blonde woman began to pore over the aesthetically-furnished area. No sight of the short princess sitting by the window or pacing around the floors anywhere. Adora halts her unrecognizably intrusive behavior, growing apprehensive of why Glimmer was not rejoining to her presence. There was no way she was going to mess up the Queen’s directive if she could only apprehend where Glimmer was.

“Glimmer? You’re here right?” she inquires quietly. “I’m just checking up on you for a bit so I hope you aren’t messing with-”

She halts as soon as she glances upwards, realizing Glimmer’s bed dangling above the high ceiling. Hmm...maybe she was there, slumbering even, despite her recharging that was aforementioned by Queen Angela. The floating steps leading to her bed was right next to Adora for her to hop onto on each one. Without reluctance, she chooses to inch upwards to finally see how she was doing.

But the blonde woman barely raises a foot as soon as she perceives a mystic poofing noise coming behind her. A smaller physique, grinning jubilantly and very close to Adora, prepared to come into contact with her. Her hands were raised and opened while marked behind the blonde woman. Right away, Glimmer initiates her intent.

“Adora…!” the princess exclaims and lightly thrusts her back.

The blonde shrieks from panic as she turns around, only for her squeal to be stopped by Glimmer’s grasp to her shoulders and be pulled close to her face. The princess’ lips quickly collide with Adora’s in a tender caress, both their eyes shut while they coddle in their sudden yet gratifying palate. Their kiss barely lasts ten seconds, but it made the two princesses feel like their pupils have been replaced with stars for a moment. Glimmer gawked to Adora, already blushing from what just happened to them.

“Surprise…” the enchanter says softly, her flushed face being brighter than Adora’s.

“So you WERE trying to mess with me.” Adora says flustered.

“Yeah I guess but, c’mon…” Glimmer replies. “I thought it’d be nice to spice things up when I kiss you.” But Adora hesitates to agree.

The pink-haired princess could never contain her excitement after her curse from Shadow Weaver was lifted. The battle against the Hoard in Brightmoon made her especially feel more alive than ever, using her teleportation to aid the rebellion and other princesses was an ostensive ride of joy. Inevitably, she needed some recharging to do after Adora…well, She-ra for that matter, gave the rebellion their instant victory. Glimmer’s rest was an utter enjoyment knowing that her powers her back, while also thinking about what to do with them now apart from the usual things prior to her curse. She-ra was all in her mind apparently, nothing new came out of that. But she knew exactly what to do as a way to say ‘thank you’ in the most practical way.

“So um, are you feeling alright?” Adora inquires for the sake of checking her up.

“Oh, more than alright, Adora.” She replies elatedly. “I haven’t glitched or felt pain from glitching ONCE. Now I’m…”

Glimmer teleports again as a pink and glittery spec was left as an afterimage. Adora turns to see her just next to the door. “…here…” She continues, immediately teleporting again.

“…there…” she says standing up on the bed by the window.

Adora saw the next teleport coming, but now Glimmer wasn’t anywhere to be seen this time. “…but most importantly…” she hears a voice behind that was bound to startle her.

She turns around another time for Glimmer to caress her lips on Adora’s face, only this time she lands a kiss on the cheek. “…right here… the small enchanter gawked at her with a delightsome expression.

“Please stop doing that Glimmer….” Adora says with slight apprehension in her tone. A simple kiss would be good enough for her, it wasn’t hard to ask for it either.

The shorter princess proceeds to chuckle hysterically. Seeing the sheer shock on Adora’s face was like watching a meteor shower for her; not only did it entertain and astound, but the hue made everything better. “Okay I’m sorry.” She apologizes. “But I don’t think I’ll be stopping.”

It was either Shadow Weaver’s curse or endless unwanted kissing for Adora at this point. Either way, the task to check on Glimmer was completed and the princess’ antics were taken as a mere comical memory as soon as she decides to take her leave for now. It was funny…As the blonde ambled out of the room and onto the halls, she still felt the warm sensation of Glimmer’s kisses on her face. A petite grin wiped over her expression while trying to recall literally the last few seconds that she was in the bedroom. The smaller princess acting content over just about anything was absolutely adorable for Adora to captivate in. She finally makes it to her own room, wishing that she could have chosen to stay a bit longer with Glimmer. But little did she know that she might have thought to soon.

Her guard was down, and she somehow forgot Glimmer’s promise about not stopping. Heading towards her bed, another mist of glittery pink pops up near her body. A frantic gasp emits out of Adora once more to the sight of Glimmer taking a tiny step towards her. As luck may have it, the small princess gives a small peck of her lips onto Adora’s cheek and elongates her lingering before pulling back. The blonde swore that she would get a heart attack soon the more these surprise kisses from her girlfriend would keep going.

“Glimmer…!” she exclaims, following with nothing thanks to her shock.

“Hehehe. See ya later, Adora…” Glimmer waves her hand and teleporting back to her room. The blonde finally crashes onto her bed and lightly groans onto her pillow.

….. …… ……. ……. ……. ………

The pink-haired princess felt like enough time was taken for Adora to prepare for her kisses. Sure, she knew that she had finished recharging earlier, but she was having way too much fun now. And besides, she promised herself that this would be the only time where she would act like a complete pain to her favorite girl.

Glimmer stood asserted and teleports back to Adora’s room for another affable strike. There she was by a corner, she gawked at the blonde on her bed lying indolently with some paper gripped in her hands. Thankfully, she doesn’t bother notice Glimmer’s little mist when she teleports this time, let alone noticing her at all in the room. The princess kneels down and sneaks up to Adora’s bed to see what the blonde was up to. Being adjacent now, she notices the paper being mostly scribbles of unintelligible errors apart from what looked like routines and places Adora was going to do. Arrows also connected each word to one another. Glimmer was about to lose it. Was the blonde being tactical to make sure she doesn’t to lose to one of her kisses again…? Alas, she decides to talk.

“…What’cha got there….…?” she inquires.

Adora puts down the papers onto her naval. “Nothing, I’m just trying to find out–––W-WAIT A MINUTE-“

Glimmer takes her chance and instantly goes for her lips. Awkwardly, Adora cossets to this fourth kiss in a row. She doesn’t bother to let go, waiting for Glimmer to pull back herself despite the frustration of being immovable again. Gosh, the smaller princess could get used to the feel and taste of her lips all day, couldn’t she?

They withdraw and stare back at each other. “You’re enjoying this too much, huh.” Adora says smiling.

“Mhmm. And I thought you would be too.” Glimmer replies.

“What makes you think I’m not?” the blonde starts blushing again.

“Oh, I know you are, just not “too much”. Seeing you freak out after I kiss you keeps making things better and harder.”

“I bet I can outsmart you though…” as if Adora wasn’t already seen to be doing that a while ago. “There’s no way I’m gonna let you surprise me for the whole day.”

“I’m not trying to challenge you, Adora.” Glimmer clarifies.

“Well I’m doing it anyway.” Adora responds. “And then we’ll see whose laughing and...kissing, now.”

Glimmer was chuckling internally, trying to make its way to full laughter. If this will spice things up even more, who was she to stop it? Both of them were technically princesses. “Too late. I’m already winning technically…” Glimmer says. And there she goes again, teleporting to another part of the room.

Adora’s eyes widen and try to leave the bed by standing up. Unfortunately, her head turns the wrong way to the sound of Glimmer exclaiming “BOO” comically. There was no way the blonde was this gullible to fall for another brief kiss on her face, and all Glimmer had to do was snitch to the other side of the bed.

“And with that, I wish ya luck…” Glimmer says, ensuing a chuckle and another teleport back to knows where. The cost was clear for now. Adora can try to make progress in outwitting the princess.

…… …….. …….. …….. ……… …….

Adora felt like an hour had passed since Glimmer had last stopped by. It was just enough time for her to wonder if she’ll ever come back again. But in a more divisive idea, all she could do was snare her into a trap to return. What are needed were some sheer luck and a pinch of patience to make her vow of outsmarting a reality…The blonde was ambling to where Glimmer’s bedroom door was situated, peeking in a little to see if she was even there. Luckily, there she was, lying beside the window ad paying attention outside. She leaves the entrance slightly open for the princess to properly perceive her lure. And right there, Adora stomps twice on the ground and immediately walks back to her resting quarters.

Glimmer heard the blonde’s first step into her plan and gawks towards the entrance. She leaves her post by teleporting and reappears outside the room. It was just in time to see Adora walking away from her and onto a new location. The princess doesn’t use her powers right away, not wanting to assume where she was going and failing to jump out and break her streak. She follows her stealthily, only for Adora to arrive back into her own room. Yes, now it was Glimmer’s chance. Her fist clenches and shuts her eyes while picturing the image of the location. She makes her last teleportation to the room and immediately presses her lips…

…on nothing but thin air.

Her eyes re-open to find herself standing alone. Adora was now the one out of sight and left the enchanter puzzled for once. Hmm, if nobody was in front of her and nobody occupied the bed…hopefully scouting the room wouldn’t be so hard considering it was as similar as hers.

But she lets her bewilderment last too long to begin moving. Adora unexpectedly rushes beside Glimmer and catches her in her arms. The magenta-haired girl shrieks and squirms inside of Adora’s patently strong grasp. She gets lifted slightly upwards, Adora doesn’t hesitate when she finally kisses Glimmer. As the taller princess could feel the sensation of victory flowing through her, the enchanter was enthralled, feeling the stars form under her eyelids. The two girls coddle in their position and indulge their caress like it was now going back to square one. Glimmer’s palms ran through Adora’s tied-hair so she could make bring her kiss in deeper. Adora submits, embracing her tighter in return. She intended to last for a brief second, but ensuring to hang on was much, much better.

At the same time, they both let go and try to breathe. If She-ra had been kissing Glimmer, there was a great chance of her fainting from euphoria. But in the end, she treasured all she was able to get out of the day.

“I love you, Adora.”

She drops back to the floor, officially ending her antics. But the taste of their caress will cease to go away.

#she-ra #glimmerdora #glimmer #adora #fanfiction #my works #glimmer spop #adora spop #glimmadora #spop #im not friends with the moderator but yall. please follow spop-prompts their content is great for spop writers #also happy valentine's!

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vanilla-blessing · 5 years

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qb anime of the year list 2018

Anime of the Year 2018 - the year of girls going to aquariums together

I’ve seen at least one person who claimed that 2018 was the best year for anime in recent memory and I’m inclined to agree. A large majority of my top ten list is shows that I would consider perfect and even shows that blew away what I thought was possible in the medium. It was a revolutionary year and makes a strong argument that anime wasn’t a mistake after all. - qb

Hugtto! Precure blew away my expectations every week for close to a year. I don’t exactly know what to say about it here, since this isn’t the last time I’ll talk about it for sure. It doesn’t even end in 2018, but it was such a huge part of my 2018 in anime that it would be inaccurate to not include it. The only way I can think to explain Hugtto! Precure is to talk about the Netflix She-ra reboot. She-ra’s a pretty basic modern Dreamworks cartoon, with some interesting ideas thrown in and likable characters, but mostly held back by what they could realistically allot for production. Because of this limitation, She-ra goes hard on a single perfect episode (if you’ve seen it, you know which one) that stands out in a big way and shows the full potential of what they set out to make. Usually, Precure is lucky to get a handful of these stand-out episodes in a season, and most of the time just gets by, due to being an annual series that can never, ever take a break. Normally, the first few episodes of a Precure season can be counted on to be strong, but the realities of anime production being hella tough inevitably catch up.

Hugtto! Precure started with an incredible opening arc, then never let off the gas pedal. Nearly every episode of Hugtto is a stand-out, never-before-seen, innovative tour-de-force. The combination of production miracles that resulted in Hugtto has been talked about by me on this blog before, (http://vanilla-blessing.tumblr.com/post/176000267859/hana-is-getting-unstable-a-pink-precure) but the length of time that Hugtto stayed in the paint, going extremely hard every single week with few exceptions, was just absurd. Every season of Precure has one or two peaks, sometimes a good season gets lucky and has even more, the best seasons bat a solid average, but are still expected to be held back by reality. Coming out of the fifteenth season of Precure with a majority of the best episodes in the entire franchise isn’t something that I can wrap my head around, but it definitely happened, mostly in 2018. It’s simultaneously a love letter to the franchise’s past, present, and future made by the biggest Precure fans on the planet, and it’s unquestionably the best season. Hugtto threw what we all knew was true and had accepted about Precure clear out the window, retroactively made older seasons better, watered my crops, brought world peace, ect.

Oh yeah and boys can be cures now.

I’m definitely not done with Revue Starlight and this won’t be the last time I talk about it. Revue Starlight essentially carried the Summer 2018 anime season on its back. Starlight absolutely dominated my anime watching schedule; my week was seriously just waiting for and watching different translations and releases with every other show being almost incidental, far less important than waiting for the song lyrics to get translated for an episode I had seen three times already. I won’t get into everything here, since I’ve already talked about it on this blog after all (http://vanilla-blessing.tumblr.com/post/179023723689/subtext-is-for-cowards-revue-starlight), but I need to reiterate that it was such a commanding, unique, stylized experience and didn’t drop a single episode in its entire absurdly high-level production. The only reasonable explanation for this is devil magic, and hell, it was worth it. Revue Starlight is probably in my top 5 anime of all time and I wouldn’t get this list out if I said everything I wanted to say about it. It’s great. Watch it twenty times.

Pop Teen Epic, or Hoshiiro Girldrop, was the most wildcard that has ever been in seasonal anime, and could have been absolutely anything. What none of us predicted was just how much of anything this show would be, encompassing an unprecedented range of artists, voice acting talent, and whatever AC-bu are, each giving their very individual takes on a self-described shitpost comic strip, sometimes covering the exact same material two or three times, with no regard for any sort of cohesion or structure.

Nothing about this idea should have been funded, nothing in Pop Team Epic has any reason to work, and as a straight adaptation probably wouldn’t have worked. PTE spun gold from trash through the raw effort of artists doing their own thing, which captures the original spirit that made the formerly-cancelled comic popular in a way that’s much too intelligent for haters to understand. Also it got a dub, which is the most ridiculously bad idea i’ve heard in my life, and it owns that it happened.

Spider-man into the Spider-verse is legit the best comic book movie ever made. It’s a fun, expressive twist on the most tired superhero origin story of all time, and showcases some of the most sssssssssstyle and raw, real emotion I’ve ever seen in animation. Its particular selection of influences is brilliant and poignant, rising far above the simple fanservice you’ve come to expect from Spider-man. The unrelenting individualistic spirit of this movie will stick with you the longest in the soundtrack, bravely incorporating a side of pop music that you don’t usually get to see in big-budget productions, pulling soundcloud rappers out of their grody (i’m told) dens into the spotlight with equal importance alongside the heroic score. Spider-verse is all about establishing your own unique flavor, and it manages to overwrite every other entry in this cursed franchise with its bold taste.

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It doesn’t make sense to me how amazing Aggretsuko’s dub is. The impeccable timing of each line, the perfect integration with the comedy, and the optimal length of the episodes are all far beyond what I expected from a Netflix show. It not only converted the original series of shorts that I already had on my top 10 the first year into a godlike longer series I didn’t know I wanted, but went to the effort to bring real metal singers in for the karaoke. Honestly just repeat everything I said in my 2016 list and multiply it by five. I hope they make more. They’re making more.

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I was pretty slow to pick up anime in the Winter 2018 season, but I never missed Hakumei and Mikochi, maybe because it was like, the only simulcast on my favorite online anime streaming subscription service HiDiVE. The subs weren’t great, and it certainly wasn’t all that popular, but it was just the relaxing show I needed. Hakumei and Mikochi brought me back to my favorite non-racist parts of the Redwall series of books: friendly animals, delicious foods, alcohol, and rustic songs. I was ready to put it on my list for simply being a cute healing foodie anime, but to my surprise, it had much more in store within its tiny world: stark confrontations with mortality, a shy riverside necromancer, the inexplicable remake of The Raid: Redemption in miniature, fashion trends, frogs, carpenter weasels, carpenter skeletons, ghost celebrations, a country beetle with lofty dreams. The list of memorable people, places, and things contained in the gnomish roommates’ tiny world goes on and on.

Masaomi Ando’s directing went completely along with the storybook aesthetic, maybe even to an overall detriment, which is exactly the kind of reckless commitment to style I love to see. The distinctive paneling, constantly gorgeous backgrounds, and deliberate pacing perfectly captured the imaginative stories I loved to read as a kid, but with more alcohol, and more sophisticated themes under the surface. Even something anime rarely get right, endings, were perfectly capstoned every week with a short digest that explored more of the history, legends, and very personal lore of their small, unique world. At its core, Hakumei and Mikochi is the calming story of tiny roommates you think it is, but it’s also so much more. They have day jobs and get drunk and remodel their house after it explodes that one time. They gamble dangerously to escape a blizzard, help a photographer give herself a little credit, and rescue their neighbor from a fancy grave of her own making. By the end of the show Hakumei practically built half a town. The collective stories from their everyday adventures build into something tremendous, and it all wraps up on the most perfect ending sequence I could have hoped for, which calls back to every story thus far as a new verse of the show’s central duet is sung. In any reasonable AnimeOTY Hakumei and Mikochi would be my top anime of 2018, but this year, the competition was unreasonable. This show will just have to settle for being the best regular anime of the year.

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Bloom Into You is an incredible adaptation of an apparently yuri romance manga that raises the bar for anime adaptations in general. I don’t know when, but somewhere along the line I stopped expecting that serious capital R Romance anime would have a distinctive style, and gave up to the notion that there was no demand anymore and a stylized, seinen/josei romance would just never get made. Well that was 2016 and then Scum’s Wish happened which this blog has covered extensively.(http://vanilla-blessing.tumblr.com/post/168842023559/how-lerche-adapted-an-average-trashy-romcom-into, http://vanilla-blessing.tumblr.com/post/168789506264/scums-wish-and-our-messy-uncomfortable) To me Bloom Into You feels similar in concept, as a difficult romantic situation with no easy answers or completely happy people. The main perspective character, Yuu, is among my favorite romantic leads in any series; she doesn’t get romantic feelings, although she wants to, and despite being easily motivated, is kind of dispassionate. Her relationship that she was pushed into with Touko might as well be out of mutual convenience, since Touko doesn’t want to fall in love with someone who would love her back, and Yuu doesn’t think she can.

Yuu filters the developments of the series as they grow closer through a very different perspective compared to more emotional leads of usual romance stories, methodically breaking down and considering where she’s at, observing where others are at, before taking an action that makes sense to her. Her growth through the series takes a very different direction than the common dramatic formula; instead of running headfirst into misunderstandings to overcome romantic challenges, she’s compelled to take a step back and position herself in a way that allows her to understand and confront her girlfriend’s issues. The changes that she experiences herself during this process are extremely gradual, but are no less significant to her. Although the dramatic weight of the series is obviously all about Touko, the central thesis of Bloom Into You is to explore Yuu’s complex feelings, and ask to what degree our actions are dictated by our emotions. It’s a heavy topic to be sure, but what makes this anime adaptation special in particular is how the directing and production pull it off, to maybe an even stronger degree than the original material.

Bloom Into You’s most striking and noticeable feature is the incredible conservation of small movements that connect expressions naturally. Minute changes in characters’ faces are vital to observe the almost imperceptible changes in Yuu over the course of the series, and every aspect of the direction is in service of highlighting these subtle moments. In addition, repeated cinematic themes are reinforced over the show’s run, such as the use of light to impart a blinding realization, flower language to inform deeper personalities, even using a literal (not literal) cinema. Symbols such as trains, masks, and mirrors are used constantly and consistently to reinforce the show’s themes, which should be immediately obvious from the opening animation. I’m still kind of stunned that Bloom Into You’s ending theme is such a banger and managed to use an oscillating sine curve in a metaphorical way. These details might be lost without the brilliant layouts, intentionally resembling a stage, which always push the minute differences front and center. As an anime adaptation, Bloom Into You adds so much value in such a subdued, conservative way that it puts uninspired adaptations to shame.

Thunderbolt Fantasy 2 rounded out the year with a good old new-fashioned Japanese-speaking Chinese-Wuxia Taiwanese puppet show. The novelty of this wild series, like, existing at all, is still incredible to me, but I was really wowed by the new characters and the direction the series went in after the already high standards of the first season. Following the outrageous action and fights of the previous season, I did not expect that season 2’s introductory goon would 1. Live past the first episode 2. So quickly become my favorite swordfighter and 3. Have inarguably the most complete character arc of the entire show thus far. The Princess of Cruelty’s struggle against her inner and outer demons in a unreasonably stacked, desperate situation developed her into easily the most compelling character of the season, and the rest of the cast including a corrupt police officer with extremely disconcerting and bad puppet teeth, a ventriloquist rock-lutist, and a nihilist monk each bring their own unique flavors to the table. The table that they throw the puppets in the air from to make the show. All of the new elements of Thunderbolt Fantasy 2 improved an already strong formula even more, and revealed an emotional depth to the series that I’m excited to see developed further. Some people might not call this anime, but those people haven’t seen Thunderbolt Fantasy for longer than 2 seconds. It’s so anime.

I blasted all available seasons of Star vs the Forces of Evil early in 2018, and it was basically my first foray into straight-up American cartoon magical girl, despite watching all the Japanese ones, which was probably an oversight on my part. That’s because Star Versus is really good, and provided a flavor of magical girl I had been missing out on. I could talk about the excellent sparkle witch aesthetic of the show, fluid animation, and hilarious comedy, but I’d rather spend this blogspace posting Star Butterfly faces.

#10

A Place Further Than the Universe, or YoriMoi, or my preferred moniker That Antartica Anime, wasn’t on my radar until well after it had finished airing, but it stuck with me for most of the year. Although it’s definitely melodramatic at times, it utilizes this tendency in exactly the right way to enhance the individual characters’ emotional arcs. Even though I was personally sort of taken out of it for many of the girls’ personal trials, :penguin emoji: is obviously thoughtfully written and carefully constructed, and especially knows how to orchestrate an immense emotional reaction with pitch-perfect timing. If there’s one particular aspect this anime has absolute mastery over, it’s hitting that perfect note and cue to create a memorable narrative climax. And for all my bellyaching about not fully relating to some of the characters, Miyake is definitively the #1 qb-relatable character of the year.

Here’s the rest of my list. Don’t @ me about it because if its not on my top ten then it doesnt really count anymore i dont make the rules thats just how it is

11. Yuru Camp

12. Hisone and Masotan

13. Asagao to Kase-san

14. Devilman Crybaby

15. After the Rain

16. Planet With

- friend of the show @queuebae on twitter

That’s why the 2018 anime of the year award goes to Kaiju Girls 2.

#top ten anime 2018 #top ten pop team epics #pop teen epic #pop team epic #hoshiiro girldrop #poppiteppikiu #popttippiku #bob team epic #bob epic team #PTE 2018 #Pop Team Epic Season 2

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enygma0710 · 6 years

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Day 7: Jonerys Appreciation 2018

Alright, here is my one-shot for Jonerys Appreciation 2018.

The prompt Day 7: Free Choice/ Role Reversal / Favorite Moment

I chose Free Choice, this is a one shot that is actually DONE! not a snippet but actually COMPLETED!

Title: When you least expect it

By: Enygma0710

Modern AU, Hybridize Westeros, Jonerys, Fluff,

Summary: Jon relented to Sam’s badgering and agreed to attend the fifteenth annual Blackwater Comic Con. He expected to have the normal con experience except this one is could be more than he bargained for.

Note: I attend at least one Comic Con annually, this is loosely based on experiences I’ve had over the years and people I’ve met over the years. Hope you like it. This will be on AO3 as well, under the same author name. Enjoy!

The convention floor at the fifteen annual Blackwater Comic Con was humid to say the least, but that was the last thing on Jon’s mind as he flipped through the comic book bin in front of him.

“Jon?” Sam held up a comic book.

Jon squinted, shaking his head. “No, I already have that one.”

Sam shrugged, placing the comic on his growing stack. Jon returned to the box in front of him.

“I’m off to catch the Lego panel. Are you coming?”

“No, I’ll catch up with you at the Steranko panel.” Jon replied.

Sam paid for his comics, waving at Jon as he walked away. Jon glanced up and caught the annoyed sneer of the booth attendant.

“You ready to check out too?” He drawled.

“Nope, still looking.”

The attendant huffed, rolling his beady eyes as he walked away towards his shorter partner; muttering under his breath. Jon chose to ignore the man’s antics, switching to the next box. got it, got it, don’t need it, want it but don’t need it, got it

“Excuse me? Do you have JLA #45?”

“Well that depends?” Jon overheard the annoying man respond. “Is it a gift for your boyfriend?”

The woman scoffed. “Hardly, I need it to complete my collection.”

“Really now?” the man whistled. “And what’s a pretty thing like you know about JLA #45? Or for that matter comics in general?”

Jon could hear the irritation in the woman’s voice when she answered. “It’s the Tower of Babel series,” she huffed. “Look, do you have it or not?”

“Slynt!”

Jon glanced up in time to see the short burly man making his way towards the thin man standing opposite a woman with striking silvery blond hair. “This one here is asking for JLA #45. Do we have it?”

The shorter man, leered at her before turning to his partner. “We have it and you can have it love, but-” He paused, his eyes lingering on her. The woman stood with her arms tightly wound against her chest, glaring defiantly at the duo. “You can have it, when you come back here dressed as batgirl, right Flint?” Slynt drawled. Flint started clapping his hands, chuckling. “Yes, batgirl or no deal. What say you then?”

Jon could see the blush of indignation, color her porcelain cheeks. She narrowed her eyes at the two and opened her mouth to retort. He left the stack of comics behind him, moving quickly.

“I know a place where that has it.”

She closed her mouth and huffed, turning to glare at Jon.

“I know another dealer with a bigger selection.” He stared down at the two men across from him. Silently wishing they wouldn’t try him.

Her steely violet gaze faltered for a moment before she visibly relaxed, her shoulders rolling back. “Fine.”

Jon gripped her by the elbow to lead her away from the table. Leaving the harassing assholes behind them. They were barely a few feet away when she snatched her arm out of Jon’s grasp, stopping their retreat.

“I didn’t need your help back there, I could’ve handled it myself.” She snapped.

Jon glanced back at the deserted table. “I bet you could’ve, but you didn’t see the security guard standing in the corner,” he nodded towards the imposing man in the grey uniform. “Waiting to see if he needed to intervene and escort you out.”

She spun around towards the direction of the guard, who grimaced, acknowledging her with a tip of his head. She silently cursed under her breath, turning back to Jon. “Well, I guess I owe you an apology and a thank you then.”

“No worries,” he waved her off. “I’ve run into them at other conventions up North, they are known for being assholes.”

“Then why have a booth then?”

Jon shrugged. “Don’t know. Are you still interested in that JLA #45?”

“Yes, of course.” Her smile was bright and contagious. Jon couldn’t stop the crooked grin that tugged at his lips. Jon led the way as they meandered through the maze of booths on the convention floor until they reached a booth with flamboyant signage, lined with three times as many comic book and graphic novel bins.

“Free Folk Comics?”

“Yeah, they have the best selection up North, besides The Wall of course.”

Her violet eyes widened. “The Wall comics?” She dropped her bag to stand in front of the nearest bin. “I always wanted to go there, biggest comic book store in the North, right?”

“It is and it’s our biggest competitor. What can I do for you?” Tormund stood in front of them grinning.

“I’m looking for JLA #45.”

“Ahh, part three of the ‘Tower of Babel’ series.” Tormund maneuvered towards their right abruptly stopping and tucking into a bin. He flipped through the individually wrapped books before he made a grand gesture of pulling it out. “Here you go, I also have the others individual comics that proceeded the series, Paradise Lost and The Queen of Fables; very fine-near mint condition.”

Jon smirked as he watched the woman jump up and down in excitement, her silvery braid bouncing against her back. “Yes, I’ll take them. You have no idea how long I’ve been looking for those. Do you have ‘Gotham by Gaslight’?”

Tormund shot Jon a curious look before he turned back to the woman. “I do, I’ll just start a pile for you back here. Just let me know when you’re ready to close out.” He reached across the table, slapping Jon on his back. “Jon here will let me know when you’re ready. I’ll give you the friends of the north discount.” He winked at Jon before leaving to help another customer.

She turned, facing him. “You know him?”

“We use to work together. I’m Jon by the way, Jon Snow.”

“Daenerys, Daenerys Targaryen” She extended her hand. Jon shook it.

Jon grey gaze discreetly inspected the woman standing next to him. There was a clear theme to her present attire. From the Jim Lee cover on her shirt, the seven distinct emblems scattered on her back pack to the art on her custom made converse. “Fan of the league?”

A melodious giggle escaped, causing her to blush. “I know, it’s a bit too obvious.”

“No, No,” Jon shook his head, leaning against the table. “I like it. So, who is your favorite League member?”

“Well if you’re asking for which version of the league. Classic, international, unlimited, new 52,” She listed, leaning against the table, resting her chin in her hand. “That’s damn near impossible to answer, but my favorite regardless of the roster will always be Batman.”

“Really?” Jon started going through the close’s graphic novel bin. “Okay, who is your favorite Batman?”

He watched as she bit her lip, mulling the question over. “Well, I love what Burton started, hated how Schumacher ruined it, but it’s a tie between Keaton and Bale.” She pulled out ‘Batman: Hush’ from the bin, setting it to the side. “However, the voice of Batman will always be Conroy.”

“Can’t argue with that. I grew up on the animated series, I still watch it whenever I get a chance.” Jon stopped his perusing. “What’s your favorite episode?” he asked.

“The Demon’s Quest, first appearance of Ra’s al Ghul,” she immediately answered, flipping through another comic book bin. “What about you?”

“Hard to pick just one.” He mulled it over. Jon loved the entire series. He didn’t think he had a specific favorite episode until an image popped into his head. “Joker’s favor.”

“Ah, the introduction of Harley Quinn eh?” she laughed. “Typical.”

“No, No,” he shook his head. “I always liked the Joker, he’s my favorite villain.”

“Mine too, next to Ra’s al Ghul of course.” She gave him a bright smile as they continued their conversation. After spending an inordinate amount of money at ‘Free Folk Comics’. They spent the next few hours wandering the convention floor, looking at t-shirts, cosplay, weaponry, books, artwork and even seeing a few celebrities on the floor. “Seven Hells Jon that’s Neal Adams.”

During that time, Jon learned that Daenerys grew up in Dragonstone and went to college in Meereen. She was only back in King’s Landing temporarily for several job interviews. Besides her love for all things Batman and Batman related, she was also an avid gamer. She credited an old college boyfriend into getting her back into videogames. As she told it. ‘It was either sit there and watch him play Gears of War all day and be bored out of my mind or get on the sticks. So, I got on the sticks and started playing God of War, and the rest is history.’ They both commiserated on the fact that adulting left them with little to no time to game, read comics or indulge in all thing’s geek related. However, they both did agreed that having their own funds made splurging on certain high-end items nice and the one highlight of being an adult.

“Have you ever cosplayed?” He asked as they stopped in front of a huge statue of an Orc from the Lord of the Rings.

“I did once, years ago. I went as Harley Quinn.” She punched Jon lightly in the shoulder when he started laughing. “I know, I gave you shite about it earlier and it’s kind of cliché, but I went as nurse Harley from the first Arkham video game.”

The image of her dressed in a red and purple bustier with white puffed sleeves and a short white skirt in thigh high matching purple and red boots, topped off with a traditional nurses’ cap, caused Jon to stare at her longer than what is considered appropriate. “Really?” He coughed, trying to stop the train of improper thoughts. “Did you go all out and have the mallet too?”

She nodded.

“I’d love to see a picture of that. I bet the quality of it was ridiculous.” Her bright smile faltered. Shite is it something I said? “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t have many photos of that one and the ones I do have, I don’t show them,” she grimaced. “Most of the fans were really cool about it and love it but I got harassed a lot with that cosplay. It’s bad enough I have to prove I know my shit but after that con, I decided not to cosplay anymore.”

“Damn, I’m sorry you had to experience that. I wish- “

She cut him off, changing the subject. “What about you? Did you go as the Dark Knight?”

“Ha-Ha,” Jon dryly replied. “No, I’ve always wanted to, but never felt creative enough or had the time to do it justice.”

She stopped, her eyes roaming over him. “I can see you as Bruce Wayne. All dark and broody sitting in the Batcave. It suits you.”

“Dark and broody? Where did you get that?”

“Oh, come on, Jon” she gestured at his appearance. “Between the skinny jeans and your Jim Lee ‘Dark Knight’ t-shirt, plus your man bun; you are the epitome of a brooding geek hipster.” She laughed. “All you need is a sketch book, maybe a guitar and statement glasses.”

Jon chuckled, he held up his hand making a grand gesture of opening his backpack. He pulled out his glasses case, removing his glasses and putting them on. “I can’t play the guitar but I do have my glasses,” he smirked.

Daenerys doubled over in laughter. “See I was right!” she cackled, leaning against a pillar for support. “Hang on,” she pushed off the pillar, moving back towards him. She studied him with a narrowed gaze. “Are those- is that ‘The Killing Joke’ printed on your glasses?”

“They are, and if you stop teasing me. The guys that made them are here and they have a Batman line.”

Daenerys stopped inspecting his glasses and grinned.

“Jon!” Sam darted through the crowd, striding up to the two. “There you are, I’ve been calling you. You missed the panel with Jim Steranko.”

“Shite,” he pulled out his phone and saw the multiple missed calls and texts from Sam. “How was it?”

“Fantastic, I had him sign some Nick Fury artwork.” He raised the poster tube in his hands. He glanced over at Daenerys and smiled.

“Sorry, Sam this is Daenerys. Daenerys this is my friend Samwell Tarly.”

“Sam’s just find,” he answered, reaching forward to shake her hand. “Is this your first Con? Are you here all weekend?”

“It’s not and I am, all three days. I’m here with my friend Missy and her boyfriend Grey.” she pulled out her phone in its black and yellow case from her back pocket. “Speaking of, looks like they were trying to reach me as well.”

“Are you heading out?” Sam asked.

“Yeah, there’s only thirty minutes left before the floor closes. Then it’s another early start tomorrow.” She glanced at Jon. “There’s a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Panel that Grey is insistent we go to tomorrow.”

The movement of the crowd inadvertently corralled them towards the escalators and the exit. “I wanted to go to that, but my girlfriend Gilly arrives tomorrow morning, but we plan on coming later,” Sam gaze darted between the two. “But I’m sure Jon won’t mind coming early with you, right Jon?”

Jon shook his head at his friend’s mischievous grin. “No, I wouldn’t. That’s if you don’t mind?”

“No, I wouldn’t, plus you still have to take me to the booth with the glasses.” She gave him a dazzling smile. He heard someone yelled “Dany!” over the din of the crowd. She flicked her head back and forth several times, finally stopping to wave at a couple standing in the corner.

“Missy and Grey,” she looked back over to Jon. “Can I see your phone?”

Jon handed his phone over. Daenerys quickly punched in her contact information. She called herself from his phone.

“Alright, no escaping me now.” She laughed as she handed the phone back to him. “I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow Jon.” She stepped away, turning back.

“Nice to meet you Sam,” She waved over her shoulder at them before disappearing into the crowd. Jon looked down at his phone. ‘Daenerys aka Mother of Dragons’ with a grinning Joker icon. Jon looked up from his phone. “This could be an interesting Con after all.”

The convention floor felt claustrophobic after Friday’s thinner crowds. It seemed as if all the geeks, nerds and gamers in a two-hundred-mile radius choose Saturday to descend into the Blackwater Comic Con. Jon had met up with Daenerys and her two friends at the entrance of the convention that morning. He learned that Missy and Grey were two of Daenerys close friends from college in Meereen. This was both their first time traveling further than Dragonstone and first Westeros convention. Grey was reserve but had dry sarcastic sense of humor. He too was an avid gamer but preferred first person over the action adventure games Jon preferred. They bonded over memories of playing on old consoles and how kids these days wouldn’t understand the fear of a parent switching off a paused game or how certain games were just ridiculously hard for no reason.

“Mega Man 2, took me half a holiday to figure out.” Grey lamented.

“Same, my cousin Robb refused to tell me the order to defeat the robots in once he figured it out.”

“Why did you need to know the order to defeat them?” Daenerys chimed in.

“To unlock the different suits,” Grey gave Daenerys a quizzical glance. “It made the boss battles ten times easier.”

“Hmm, never knew that.” She shrugged. “I just beat the game.”

“Wait you mean to tell me, you beat Mega Man 2 just using his regular old blue suit? Even with Quick Man?” Grey asked.

“Yeah, I had most of the boards pretty much memorized. My brother Rhae would play with me all the time.”

Grey looked over at Jon “And you never used the other suits? Or even looked in the Nintendo Magazine?”

Dany shook her head. “No, I just played. Rhae nor Vis never said anything about it.”

Grey stared at his friend for a moment, shaking his head. “I swear D, just when I think I know you, you still surprise me.”

Later, while watching Grey and Dany battle each other on a ‘Mortal Kombat’ arcade machine. Jon took the opportunity to talk to Missy. While not a comic book or gamer fan like Grey and Daenerys, she loved all things fantasy related and surprisingly sci-fi television. “I love the classic Doctor Who” she gushed. “I grew up watching that, Star Wars and Star Trek in Naath.”

“Is it bad that I’ve never seen a single episode of Star Trek?”

Missy’s caramel complexion slightly paled. “I can’t believe this, and you call yourself a geek?” She shook her head, causing her curly mane to bounce. “If you had a geek card I would take it.” She teased.

“My cousin Bran watches it, but I never got into it.” Jon shrugged.

Missy gave an indignant huff, her arms creating a vice against her chest. “That’s a strike against you Jon.”

“I promise to work on it.” He looked back over to see Grey and Dany fussing at each other. “If you had to choose between the two, which one?” Jon asked.

“Oh no,” she laughed. “You see, I could give you my long winded meta about the differences between the two and why one is better than the other, describing the different aspects with character, series and season analysis. However, since you haven’t watched a single episode of Star Trek,” she stressed with a dramatic pause. “Watch a season or two and I’ll think about giving you my answer, “ Missy grinned.

Jon laughed at the sharp response, now understanding another commonality between Daenerys and her friends.

They spent the rest of the morning wandering the convention floor and artist alley, where Jon picked up a reprint of ‘Crisis on Infinite Earth’, cover #7 signed by George Perez. The crowd grew denser as the day went on. They were jostled around so much that Jon hadn’t realized that he and Daenerys had started holding hands. At first, he thought it was just to not get separated, but she would occasionally rub her thumb over his knuckles and he would find himself still holding her hand in an uncrowded area.

“Where’s your friend Sam?” She asked as she sat down next to him, leaning against the wall.

Jon pulled out his phone. “He just texted that he’s in line with Gilly for a photo-op.”

“With who?” Missy asked, resting her head against Grey’s shoulder.

“He doesn’t say, but he picked up the wrist bands for the panel so he will meet us in there. He asked that we save them a seat if we can.”

“Oh, I cannot wait!” Daenerys shook with excitement. “I can’t believe they got the entire main cast of ‘Justice League Unlimited’ and they are going to do a table read!” she excitedly shook Jon’s shoulders. He smiled at how excited she was, her passion was contagious and he couldn’t shake the smile that had been permanently fixed on his features since that morning.

The panel was fantastic, the cast talked about the series and answered the audience’s questions. Jon thought he was going to have to restraint Dany to her seat when Kevin Conroy first entered the stage. “It’s Batman!” she whispered in an elated tone.

Jon draped his left arm around her shoulder intending to give an innocent one arm hug but before he could stop himself, instead of the expected hug he pulled her in and lightly kissed her on the forehead. He froze as he pulled back, looking for her reaction. If he were honest with himself; the more time they spent together, it was becoming harder to resist the urge to kiss her. Besides the fact that they both liked the same fandoms, she had a wicked sense of humor, an otherworldly beauty and brilliance about her that made the magnetic pull between them undeniable. Shite, I don’t even know if she has a boyfriend. Jon felt himself becoming disoriented in her violet gaze; she stared back at him, biting her lower lip with her brow slightly furrowed. The cheering of the audience broke the trance. Jon looked away, back towards the stage. He dared a brief glance back over at Daenerys, her focus was back on the speaker. He noticed a small smile that quirked her lips. Good, that’s a good sign. He exhaled the breath that he didn’t realize he was holding as she scooted her chair closer, resting her one hand against his thigh. Jon tighten his arm around her shoulder, remaining that way till the end of the panel.

“You’ve got a Con girlfriend.”

“What?” Sam was standing behind him with Gilly. Both grinning at him.

“Con girlfriend, Gilly saw you two during the Justice League panel.”

Jon smirked, shaking his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The group had separate with plans to meet up later. Daenerys and Missy were off attending a Star Trek panel and a photo-op with the new Aquaman, that himself and Grey had politely decline.

Grey snorted next to him as he pulled a multi-color scarf off the hook. “You’re in denial, Snow.”

“See, even Grey sees it,” Sam pointed out.

“Missy agrees too, she’s probably interrogating Dany as we speak.” He handed the scarf over and paid for it. The group walked over to another booth selling collectible action figures.

“Whatever,” Jon huffed as he picked up a NECA Broken Tusk Predator Figure. “Look, we just met and we’re enjoying each other’s company. Hell, I don’t even know if she has a boyfriend back in Braavos.”

“She doesn’t,” Grey answered, snatching the figure from Jon, inspecting it. “But you didn’t hear that from me, besides ask her. She’ll tell you if you ask her.”

“Jon,” Sam stressed. “Look, I know you’ve been on some self-imposed, anti-relationship mode for the past several years.”

Jon scoffed. “It hasn’t been years.”

“There hasn’t been anyone since Ygritte,” Sam countered. Jon rounded on Sam ready to argue as his friend held up his hands in defense. “I know, I know it’s been over for years, but don’t you think you should’ve moved on by now? she sure the hell has.”

“Who’s Ygritte?”

“Jon’s ex, they dated on and off during college. Nice girl, bit abrasive and rude at times. They broke up three years ago. It didn’t end on good terms.” Gilly answered as she moved deeper into the booth, looking at phone cases. “Icing on the cake; a year ago she calls him to talk things over, alluding to a reconciliation, except she shows up several months pregnant and married.”

“No shite!” Grey looked up from the shirt he was admiring.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure Arya would’ve done something, if she hadn’t been pregnant.”

“Who’s Arya?”

“My cousin,” Jon muttered. “And why does any of this matter? I’m happy for her. She got what she wanted, a nice secure stable lifestyle.” He responded, aggressively grabbed a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man bobble head.

“What’s not secure about you? You go to too many conventions or something?” Grey asked.

“He works for the Nights Watch, causes him to be on travel assignments half the year.”

Grey whistled, turning around to face them. “The Nights Watch? The Elite Northern Intelligence Agency, that has agents imbedded everywhere, even in Essos?” His brown eyes studied him briefly. “Remind me to not get on your bad side.”

They all laughed except Jon. He bristled that there was some partial truth in Sam’s statement. It wasn’t his intention to not date for three years, it just happened. He had gone on a few dates but they just never panned out and while he honestly was happy for Ygritte and wished he the best. It didn’t make the heartbreak of losing your first love hurt any less.

“Jon,” Gilly stepped up next to him. “Your cousins would kill me if I didn’t say anything, but Daenerys is sweet, she’s a joy to be around and would even give Arya a run for her money, plus she clearly interested in you. Do not bury that gorgeous head of yours in the sand with this one. Go after her.”

“You think so?”

“I swear,” she laughed. “Sansa is right, your middle should be oblivious.”

“You talk about me with Sansa? Do you consult all my cousins about my abysmal love life?”

Gilly ignored him, walking away towards a display of anime purses.

“Not all of them,” Sam answered next to him. “Just Robb, Arya, Sansa, occasionally Theon when he doesn’t annoy Sansa. Bran pipes in occasionally, and Rickon’s too young.” Sam shrugged. Jon gave an exasperated sigh, turning away from Sam.

“Look at it this way Jon,” Sam stopped his friend from walking away. “You didn’t even want to come down here after Robb had to cancel, I had to talk you into it.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“I didn’t?” Sam pulled back his shoulders, dropping his voice to match Jon’s gruff northern timbre. “Aye, what’s the point in going now that Robb canceled? I’ll just end up wasting money. You and Gilly go ahead and enjoy yourselves. I’ll just spend the weekend with Ghost and check out Netflix.” He said, imitating Jon.

“Oh, that was good, babe. Your ‘Jon’ is getting better,” Gilly giggled.

Jon sighed. “Fine your right, you’re all right. I’ll talk to her.”

Sam smiled, patting his shoulder. “Good, stuff like this happens when you least expect it, you never know what could become of it? Be optimistic for once.”

Jon nodded, be optimistic he told him. What’s the worst that could happen right? It could go either way but he did acknowledge that Daenerys had made one hell of an impression in the short amount of time they knew each other. Even if it all went to hell, he knew he had at least gained a friend out of it all. Jon turned back around towards the tower of figures in front of him. One in particular caught his eye. He pulled it down and headed towards the register. Grey nudged Sam while Jon paid for his purchase. He returned to the group, all smiling at him.

“Oh, shut it.” He muttered, shoving the gift in his backpack.

Sam, Gilly, Grey and Jon made their way towards Missy and Daenerys to meet up.

Sunday was the final day of the convention. The last day of the convention was usually Jon’s favorite day. This was due to the fact that most of the booths were trying to unload as much merchandise as possible so there were plenty of deals to be made on Sundays. Even Robb commented on his thrifty plan at previous Cons. However, this year, while he still enjoyed making deals on comics and expanding his growing collection. There was a bitter taste in his mouth this year. A few weeks ago, when he relented to Sam’s pestering to come to the Blackwater Comic Con. Jon saw going as not only a way to get Sam off his back but take the leave Mormont and Seaworth had been hounding he take for years.

The last time he was at the Blackwater Comic Con; he came down with his cousins and Ygritte. The memories of the that Con trip haunted him on the first day. He remembered how excited Ygritte had been on the first day, sharing in her enthusiasm of her first convention and experiencing all the different fandoms. It was the middle of the third day that the initial novelty of Comic Con slowly eroded into irritation when realization hit that the con was an all-day, twenty-four seven marathon event. For someone who was not heavily involved in any specific fandoms or as many as Jon, his cousins and friends were, the con turned into a tortuous event for Ygritte.

Jon didn’t know what to expect when he stepped in between Daenerys and the two assholes at First Flints Comics booth. He thought at the least a polite thank you, or the possibility of making a Con associate, exchanging harmless banter about upcoming games releases, and theories about future seasons of popular shows. It never crossed Jon’s thoughts that that a minor interaction on Friday was slowly turning into something potentially special. Sunday morning at the Con was not as busy as Saturday. The group decided that in order to take full advantage of the last day, they would split up and depending on schedules try to meet up for lunch later. Missy had dragged Grey off to a panel focus on different languages in fantasy world. “If I come back speaking elvish or Klingon, I blame you all.” He joked as Missy dragged him off.

Gilly and Sam were looking for baby items at different booths. She told Sam yesterday evening the true reason why she missed Friday due to her doctor’s appointment, confirming the pregnancy. She was eleven weeks along but decide to wait before officially announcing it. Sam had been left dumbstruck but grinning. He excitedly gushed about how he could introduce all things geekery to their child. He would do the opposite of what his own father denied him growing up. The picture of Sam holding up a Thanos onesie made him grin. He was happy for his friends, couldn’t wait to see them as parents.

Poor kid has no choice huh? He texted back to Gilly. His phone buzzed. Not in this family ;)

Jon chuckled, putting his phone back into his pocket. He looked over at Daenerys. She was kneeling in front of a bin that held graphic novels. She was wearing a t-shirt that had The Joker and Harley Quinn, escaping into a Tardis. “It covers two fandoms in one.” She told him. Her silver hair was held back in an intricately braid. She informed him that the humidity on the floor had her looking like a poodle yesterday and this was more manageable. They were currently leisurely strolling in artist alley. In a moment alone, looking at independent artist’s work. Jon broached the subject of relationships.

“Are you asking if I have a boyfriend?”

“Um, Yeah,” he answered, flipping to the next page in the portfolio. Jon focused on the art in front of him yet he could feel her burning gaze studying him. She laughed loudly.

“Jon Snow, do you take me as one of those Con girlfriends?”

“Huh?”

“You know, the ones you meet, hook up with and never see again.” She moved closer. “What happens at the Con stays at the Con.”

“What? No,” he started in disbelief.

“Good,” she smiled. “I’m not the type, I’m a monogamous, serious dater only. By the way when will I get to meet your cousins and the rest of your family?”

Jon choked on the water he was sipping, he glances over to see her smiling, no laughing at his discomfort. “I’m sorry but you were prime for baiting” she giggled, dramatically turning away, walking to the next artist. Jon shook his head and followed.

“You didn’t answer the question.”

She stopped in the aisle, turning towards him with her hand on her hip. “Why didn’t you ask me yesterday? And yes, I’m single. I had a boyfriend but we started having problems six months ago, but the final nail in the coffin was four months ago.”

“I didn’t get a chance.” He chuckled as she playfully rolled her eyes in response. “Sorry to hear about your ex. Well not really.”

Daenerys giggled. “Not your fault he was an ass,” she shrugged, grabbing his hand. “Besides, if he wasn’t an ass. I wouldn’t have met you.”

“You wouldn’t have pursued me?”

“For the record we pursued each other, agreed?” she laughed. “And no, I wouldn’t have.” She stopped in front of a t-shirt stand. “He was supposed to come, we bought tickets when we were together. We starting having issues but the plan was to still go, but I caught him cheating. So, I upgrade Grey’s single day pass to his three day pass and here I am.”

Jon leaned forward, he pressed his lips lightly against hers, she responded with returning pressure. The kiss was chaste but it was enough to hold him for the moment. “Well I’m glad, his lost, is my gain.” She blushed, her hands resting against his chest. “After that kiss, I’m assuming you are too.” Her eyebrow arched.

“Yeah,” he tightens his grip on her hips. “Single for years now, but that’s a story for another day.”

“That bad?”

Jon nodded, looking away briefly before returning his gaze to stare back at the woman in his arms. She leaned upward on her toes, her small hand playing with the curls at the nape of his neck, pulling him down. She kisses him, her soft lips teasing him. He leaned down further to deepen the kiss, his tongue tracing her bottom lip. She opened her mouth allowing Jon entry. He felt a heat settle in his stomach as the kiss started to grow in passion, a low hum reverberates across his chest. Dany abruptly pulled away, nipping at his bottom lip with a mischievous grin. They both noticed the lady at the stand beaming at them with clutched hands.

“Sorry,” Jon apologized.

Dany buried her face in his chest. “No Jon,” she pulled pack, giving him a quick peck. “Never apologize for that.”

They awkwardly made their purchases at the booth, turning to head to another booth. Dany firmly locked into Jon’s side. “Where to now?” he asked.

“You still have to take me the glasses booth?” She grinned.

Jon happily obliged and led the way.

“The Blackwater Comic Con is now coming to an end, thank you and see you next year!” the intercoms announced over their heads. The escalators emptied the steady flow of conventioneers into the massive glass enclosed entrance. There were scattered groups taking photos and talking animatedly about their con experiences. Jon observed several characters in full Metal Gear solid cosplay and Stormtroopers taking photos with fans. A couple stood next to a sleeping toddler in a stroller, both looking exhausted but happy. Jon nudged Sam, nodding towards the couple. He beamed as he tightens his grip on Gilly’s shoulders. They seize the opportunity to take a couple of group photos together. The girls were off taking photos together with an impressive Optimus Prime and Bumblebee cosplayers.

“So, what’s the status?” Sam asked.

“You’ve been waiting all day to ask that haven’t you?” Jon chuckled at Sam irritated response. “Calm down, we decided we’re going to stay in touch and see what happens.”

Sam relaxed. “Fantastic, I know Gilly will be happy to hear this.”

“She’s a keeper Jon.” Gilly walked back over to join Sam. “We’re going to head back to the hotel and pack up before we get on the road. Are you still following us or driving up later?”

Jon watched as Dany took a cheeky photo with a Darth Vader. “I have to check on a few things, but’ I’ll let you know before you guys leave tonight.”

Sam and Gilly said their good byes to Missy and Grey with promises to stay in touch. Missy surprised Jon by giving him a hug. She pulled slightly back and whispered to him. “Treat her right or I will cut you Jon Snow.” She smiled.

Grey moved to stand next to Missy. “I don’t know what she said but knowing Missy, it was probably a threat.” he chuckled. “It was nice meeting you Jon, I’ll try to find you online so we can run a few jobs together on GTA,” Jon shook his hand. “We’ll see you at the hotel, Dany?”

Dany stood in front of him. “I’ll call you when I’m in the lobby.” Grey and Missy waved goodbye over their shoulders as they left the two. Dany had her backpack and one large bag beside her, filled with all her fandom purchases. Jon took a step forward, sharing her personal space. “Do you need help with carrying anything?”

“No, I can manage.” she fidgeted with her hands. “So…”

“So.”

Daenerys let out a nervous giggle, she reached up wrapping her arms around his neck, securing him in a hug. Jon responded with wrapping his arms around her pulling her in tight. He felt her nuzzle against the short hairs of his beard. “Is it odd that I almost feel like crying right now?”

Jon shook his head, kissing her temple. “No,” he pulled away, his hands moving up to cradle her face. “I’m going to miss you, but this isn’t the end.”

“You’re right it isn’t, it’s just, well… we’ve been attached at the hip since Friday and-”

“And it’s going to feel odd.” He finished her thought. “We have each other’s numbers, we’ll call each other.”

She nodded, looking away. “Promise me you won’t forget about me?”

Jon laughed. “How could I forget about meeting this amazing woman who knows just as much if not more about Batman than I do? You’re unforgettable Dany.”

She rested her forehead against his lips. He kissed her there, and left a trail of kisses down her face till he reached his destination. He pulled her in closer this time, lifting her off her feet. The passion that flowed between the two was more than tangible, it was electric. Jon felt his nerves singing with fire as he nudges her head back slightly to deepen the kiss. Dany’s soft sighs turned into a soft whimper. The growing need for the woman in his arms was setting off alarms that he chose to ignore.

One arm banded against her back, holding her steadily in place; the other played with the end of her braid, gliding the soft strands through his fingers. He moved his hand away from her hair to caress the back of her head, using the pad of his thumb to massage circles along the base of her neck, mimicking the actions of their intensifying kiss. He groaned as Dany’s ran her fingernails across his shoulder and down his back, dipping her hands into the back pocket of his jeans, giving him a firm squeeze. Only when the need to breath became inevitable did they both pull back, chest rattling and heaving for breaths. He leaned his forehead against hers. “There’s no fucking way I’m forgetting that, Dany.”

“No, Never.” Dany answered. She pulled away, grabbing her bags. Jon grabbed his bags, holding her free hand with his. “I’ll walk you to your hotel.”

“Thanks, but I’m not staying in the hotel, Missy and Grey are until they fly back to Meereen tomorrow.”

Jon paused. “Really? Where are you staying at then?”

“Right now, I’m staying in an extended rental loft, while I get a few more job interviews scheduled, why?”

“Do you have any plans for next week?”

“I have a job interview on Monday, but that’s it,” her eyes narrowed at him. “Why? What are you suggesting Jon?”

“Have you ever driven up the Historic Kings Road? This time of year, is beautiful with the fall foliage.”

She stopped walking, turning towards him, resting her hand against his chest. “You know, I honestly haven’t.”

“Well, I know the perfect tour guide.” He pulled her in closer, grinning. The two left making plans for an impromptu road trip, leaving the Blackwater Comic Con behind them.

Two years later

Missy looked down at her phone, laughing.

“What so funny?” Grey leaned over the couch, looking over his fiancée shoulder.

“Those two are a hot mess.” Missy showed them a picture of a triumphant Dany with a defeated but amused Jon.

“I still can’t believe he lost.”

“Well you remember their bet, whoever won the most matches in ‘Injustice’ gets to pick their cosplay outfit for this year’s Con.”

Grey laughed, plopping himself down next to Missy. “I warned Jon, Dany has gotten ridiculous good using Batman. She’s even beaten me a few times.”

Missy gave a nonchalant shrug, “You tried, love.” She swiped through the photos. “Look.”

Dany was dressed in a black body armor suit with a matching cape and cowl. She stood with her hands pressed into her hips, with a deep scowl set on her mouth. “Hang on, did she gender swap the characters?”

Missy giggled behind her hands. “Yes, and check out Jon.”

Grey groaned, dropping the phone on the table. The photo was of Jon in an ill-fitting red and bronze bustier, his dark hair was loose and topped off with a bronze head band, with matching arm cuffs and boots. “That my dear is love.” Grey laughed.

“At least his legs look great,” Missy cackled. “Hairy, but great.”

Grey joined in laughing at their friends’ expense. “He’s the best looking Wonder Wo-Bear I’ve ever seen. Are they actually going to the Con dressed like that?”

“No, even with Robb and Arya pressuring her, Dany still chose not torture Jon.” She pulled up another photo Dany had sent with Jon, testing a purple suit. Showing it to Grey.

“That’s going to look nice once Dany puts her final touches on it. Besides, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from laughing in his face if I saw him in that.” Grey got up from the couch, heading towards the kitchen. “But seriously ‘kudos’ to Jon, a lesser man wouldn’t have done that for their girlfriend.”

“Future Fiancée,” Missy murmured.

“What?”

“Okay, but you cannot say anything and well not officially. Jon has the ring. He’s going to propose at the Con.”

“Seven hells, I just talked to Sam and Jon and neither mentioned a thing.”

“Apparently, I’m the only one to know besides Rhae and Vis. Jon called them months ago. You know how Dany always figures things out. If he ever wanted to truly surprise her, it should be this. ”

Grey grinned, he leaned over kissing Missy. “And to think you were nervous the first night she came back talking about some northern hipster guy with great hair, she spent the day with.”

“I admit it, I was, but Jon Snow was good for Dany. They are good for each other. Hell, he got her to move to Winterfell.”

Grey nodded as he took a sip of his beer. “Just think, two years ago she almost skipped Con because of Daario.”

“Yes,” Missy sighed. “They say things always happen for a reason.”

“And it happens when you least expect it,” Grey chimed in. “Are you all packed? Do you have the costume for little Sam ready?”

Missy held up her handmade rendition of an Ewok. “All ready.”

Grey and Missy, packed their truck and headed towards the airport. The Blackwater Comic Con had become a yearly event among the friends to congregate and catch up. Between the baby showers, weddings, house warmings, births and other life altering events that generally pulled them in separate directions. It was the one place and the one time of the year where they knew that regardless of what was going on in their day to day lives and the miles that separated them that they would always have the Con to come home to.

#jonerysweek #iceandfiresource #jonerysevents #enygmas fanfic #jonerys

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metalandmagi · 5 years

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December End of the Year Media Madness!

It’s a new month and a new year! And what a crazy month it was what with Tumblr imploding and all. But I’ll still throw this on here just because I’ll be on this site until it literally boots me out. But I do have a twitter now…@metalandmagi where I’m also barely active at all.

Anyway, why make top 10 lists for the entire year when I can just ramble about all the media I consumed this month? There’s only a marginal amount of holiday things on here by my standards!

November media

Movies!

Give me some credit there’s only four Christmas movies on here.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?: A documentary about Mr. Rogers starting with the birth of the television show to his death. This is the fluffiest most heartwarming thing I could have possibly picked to watch on Christmas, and I encourage everyone, even people who hate documentaries and/or never grew up with Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, to watch it. There’s a lot of important messages about acceptance, dealing with tragedy, and mental health that people can learn from and feel good about. Not to mention how he completely revolutionized children’s television. So yeah, he was awesome.10/10

Spider-man Into the Spider-verse: When a rip between dimensions is opened, a bunch of different spider themed superheroes from every comic fan’s wet dreams all get together to close it. Guys I’m not that big of a Spider-man fan, but dang this movie was a ton of fun. I came for the amazing visual effects and stayed for the amazing...everything else. The music, the performances, and the story were all top notch. Also I now have a new favorite Nick Cage role. If you thought the trailer made the animation look interesting, it was just the tip of the iceberg because it is the most visually interesting movie I’ve seen in the last three years. I strongly suggest any fan of animation...or even any fan of great stories and movies in general go see it even if you’re not that big on Spider-Man. Now I’m demanding a Spider-verse Aunt May movie because I have so many questions! And the post credits scene was the best out of any Marvel movie. Period. 10,000/10

The Wiz (2015 musical): I should start making a section for musicals or plays instead of just lumping it in with the movies. It’s the Wizard of Oz...but cool. I’ve never seen any iteration of The Wiz and it seems like I’m constantly hearing about it. So I watched the 2015 version of the 1975 Broadway musical that NBC aired. And yeah it’s good. There were some great performances. But I wasn’t very impressed with the songs themselves, and it’s not really the same without a dog along for the ride, but whatever. 7.5/10

Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle: The surprisingly fun reboot/sequel thing of Jumanji where four teenagers get stuck in a video game that follows every “stuck in a video game” trope you can imagine but actually does it well. It’s a sweet, funny romp through the jungle with some great comedic performances. I really don’t have much to say about it except that this movie is better than it has any right to be. 8/10

The Christmas Chronicles: Two children stow away on Kurt Russell’s, I mean Santa’s sleigh and go on a dangerous, balls to the wall adventure throughout Chicago trying to save Christmas or something. After everyone started talking about how crazy this Netflix movie is I had to watch it to verify if it is indeed as wild as they said. And yes...yes it is. It is so laughably ridiculous and questionable that it’s impossible to actually hate. The elves are some unholy mixture of minions and gremlins, one of the children is a literal felon that no one is concerned about, and Kurt Russell is super into the role but has some sort of thing about fat-shaming Santa. I just...have so many questions! But it was certainly a trip, so I’d have to recommend it just so you too can witness the insanity. -10 “savvy, straight-talking St. Nicks”/10

Arthur Christmas: No, it’s not a Christmas special related to the aardvark cartoon! This is the 2011 animated movie that no one remembers exists. Santa’s clumsy but enthusiastic son Arthur must deliver a forgotten present in less than two hours while the rest of his family deals with some Arrested Development style family drama. This is by far the most underrated Christmas movie of all time; even I didn’t realize it was actually good until I watched it for the first time in 2016! The fun road-trip style plot and the entertaining characters were victims of bad marketing. Arthur is hilariously endearing, and there was so much heart and effort put into it that I can find new things to notice every time I watch it. Not to mention the amazingly animated opening spy sequence! And also Mrs. Claus is secretly a total badass and Bryony the elf is the coolest female character in a Christmas movie ever. The movie’s message of old vs new is nothing we haven’t seen before, but I really don’t care because at the heart of it all, it’s about making people happy on Christmas. If you’re like me and just assumed this movie would suck...or didn’t know it exists, please give it a chance. It’s not perfect, but it’s worth seeing. 9/10

Neo Yokio Pink Christmas: Yes, it’s the Christmas special for Neo Yokio. No I cannot accurately describe it with mere words. There’s a rich bachelor gift exchange, demon possession, and pompous French aunts slinging insults at each other. It is unironically my favorite holiday episode of a show ever, and to me it’s the best Christmas special ever made. I thought I was prepared for the absolute bat-shit ride I would go on, but no...I wasn’t even close. At this point I don’t know if it’s written like this on purpose or if some divine twist of fate made the executives believe this is truly brilliant television. Either way, it is a masterpiece in its own right. There’s even a somewhat intriguing plot and a message about gift giving and capitalism under all the crazy! If you haven’t jumped down the rabbit hole yet, I implore you to watch the insanity that is Neo Yokio and follow it up with Pink Christmas because it will truly make your holiday season. 100,000 demon DNA drugs out of 100,000!

Die Hard: Nothing says Christmas like terrorists taking over a skyscraper and Bruce Willis having to take them all down by himself. Yeah...so I’ve never seen Die Hard before, but this is one of those movies that is so famous that I felt like I’d already absorbed everything important through cultural osmosis. And even though it’s pretty good, I would have liked it better if I didn’t know what was going to happen. My only real complaint is that I think it goes on way too long. More than anything it just made me sad to remember that Alan Rickman is gone. And it bothers me so much that John McClane goes through this building that’s under construction WITHOUT SHOES! 8/10

Books!

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis: The 4th/6th book in the Chronicles of Narnia, in which Eustace Scrubb and his classmate Jill Pole go to the underworld to find King Caspian’s long lost son. Even though my children- the Pevensies aren’t in it, I actually think this book is my favorite of the series so far. Jill and Eustace are both sassy enough to play off each other, Puddleglum absolutely hilarious, and the book actually has a clear cut plot! It reads much more like a Greek myth than a children’s fairy tale since there aren’t nearly as many of Lewis’s trademark author interjections, and you know...it’s a literal journey to the underworld. And can I just say that it’s super refreshing to have an author write two main characters WITH ZERO ROMANTIC INTENTIONS! Especially since they’re freaking children! Now I just wish Disney had continued the movies even more! 9/10

Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare: I’m going to do this with only minor spoilers. It’s the final book in The Dark Artifices trilogy. Will Emma and Julian break the parabatai bond? Will the reflection of the modern day American government- I mean the Cohort/ the Clave fuck up the relationships between Shadowhunters and Downworlders forever? You’ll have to suffer like the rest of us to find out! In my opinion, 99% of this book is amazing, but in the last 50 pages there are some...bullshit ways of solving problems. Like everything that went down with the Cohort in Idris. Not to mention we’ve been so invested in the parabatai curse and how Julian and Emma’s bond would go down and...let’s just say the resolution was way too easy. And if you thought Clare’s other finales were jam packed, you ain't seen nothin’ yet. My copy is 880 pages and there was still more stuff that I wanted to happen...like any sort of scene between Dru and Ash...or an ending between Kit and Ty that doesn’t make me want to cry (the Wicked Powers is going to be brutal). But the rest of that 99% is mind-blowing! There’s so much good I can say that it mostly outranks anything I didn’t like...I mean we finally got a Malec wedding and a proper polyamorous relationship for the Angel’s sake! It may be my least favorite of her finales by default but it was still a fun ride! 9/10

TV shows!

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018): An elite soldier finds a sword that can transform her into a super buff magical girl who helps princesses take down the forces of evil. It’s a reboot of the 1980s cartoon, and holy crap it’s AMAZING! I have a whole new group of children to adopt, each episode is entertaining in its own way, and there’s so...many...good...ships! And it gives Steven Universe a run for its money with the care that went into making every character a different kind of warrior, which I love because the cast is 99% female. My only real complaint is that I never warmed up to Catra because she wasn’t particularly sympathetic to me from the beginning. But I understand why some people love her. If you love well crafted adventurous character driven cartoons and haven’t watched it yet WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? 10/10

Nailed It Holiday: Yes, my favorite baking show (and by that I mean the only baking show I watch) has a holiday season out on Netflix, in which newbie bakers are tasked with making incredibly professional desserts with a very short time limit. And whoever makes the best treat gets 10,000 dollars. I’ve talked about this show before in my June media madness, and I don’t know what it is but I’m so addicted to it. 10/10

Brooklyn nine-nine (season 5): Come on we all know the cop sitcom. It’s the best sitcom. Just in general it’s the best. Great characters that subvert expectations, great humor, and a lot of heart. I’ve known that this show is supposed to be amazing for years, but I only started watching it a few months ago. And since I couldn’t find season 5 anywhere...I got a Hulu subscription just to watch it before season 6 comes out. That’s how good this show is. 10/10

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (season 2): Our favorite underdog comedian is back, and she’s slowly gaining popularity and doing...stuff. Like going on tour. And hanging out with Zachary Levi. Yes, this season is great, but my problem with this series is that every character aside from Midge and Susie are the fucking worst, especially the parents. Midge’s parents suck, Joel’s parents suck, Midge and Joel are appropriately neglectful parents for the time period...I could go on. And it’s not even in a funny way; like it’s just disgusting to watch these power dynamics. Not to mention how old the comedic bits for the parents get (how many times can we hear about Joel needing to date or Midge needing to get married?!) Yes, I realize that we’re supposed to be annoyed AND YES I realize that this is a product of culture and how society was, but none of the parents have any redeeming qualities. In episode one, we’re led to believe that Midge’s parents will grow and change through the season and they never do! At least there are moments where Joel can kind of be redeeming and expand on his actual character before he reverts back to being an asshole. Anyway, my thoughts are pretty much the same as the first season. It’s funny and interesting to watch, but it can be ridiculously frustrating when you hate almost all the characters! 8/10

Fuller House (season 4): Yes I do watch the ridiculous Netflix reboot of Full House. And yes, it is absolutely terrible! I really really hate it! But will I stop watching it? Let’s just say you can pry this pile of garbage from my cold dead hands. I don’t know if I’d call this a guilty pleasure or a hate watch type of show... it’s certainly not so bad it’s good territory like Neo Yokio...but Full House was pretty much my entire childhood. And yes, the original show is also not great. I loved it as a kid, and it was my first real exposure to a non-traditional family in live action, but yeah it doesn’t age well. What I’m trying to say is...I have no good reason for watching this.

I don’t mean to say that there’s nothing good about it, especially this season. They really back off on the more cringe-worthy catch phrases, Stephanie being aware of how stupid the writing is and constantly pointing it out is actually funny, their Christmas episode was surprisingly genuine, and they impressed me by actually make two female characters try and work through their difficulties instead of pitting them against each other for laughs. It has its moments, just like the original but definitely not enough to make up for the worst of it. Maybe this generation of children will like it the way lots of my generation used to like Full House...but yeah it’s awful, I hate it so much. -1 missing Tanner child out of 3

Voltron Legendary Defender (season 8) SPOILERS: It’s the final season of Netflix’s Voltron, and boy it was...something. I didn’t want to make this a big rant/defense of the show...but I feel like I have to highlight some things because this fandom is a shithole that refuses to see the good in anything.

There is so much good and so much...not good I can say about it, so here’s a couple things. I know this show didn’t go the direction anyone wanted, but that doesn’t make it bad. In addition to the stunning fight scenes and music, the performances this season were just amazing! I literally wanted to cry every other episode even though sometimes I didn’t know why the fuck something was happening. I don’t know how I feel about Honerva’s plan. I understand her motivation, but I was constantly questioning how we got from point A to point B... so yeah the plot and writing could be...weird at times. Also everyone seemed to have super pointy chins this season...

Spoiler alert: Not many of us wanted Lance and Allura to happen, but I truly believe it wasn’t done in a half assed way. At the very least, I appreciate that they had a genuine bond that developed over so many seasons. BECAUSE YES IT DID! Anyone who says they had no development or that it felt forced never paid attention. I wanted it to stay platonic; I wanted Klance to happen, but...I can’t be too mad at the writers because they at least tried. I still believe that Klance was endgame and the creators were forced to change the outcome of the show later on. AND YES LANCE DID GET A CHARACTER ARC! It may not have been the one we wanted to see, but I’m baffled that people think Lance living with his family, surrounded by people he loves-which is what he wanted all along- is not a happy ending. I just wish his relationship with Keith wasn’t pretty much ignored all season. But I believe Allura is his past that taught him to genuinely love and Keith is his future who will make Lance his “first choice”. And I’m not even gonna try to explain how I feel about Shiro and Allura’s endings because everything I feel is so complicated and layered. There is good and there is bad.

TLDR: This show teaches us that we’re stronger together, and I think the “fandom” completely missed the point because they do nothing but tear others down and refuse to look at things from other perspectives. YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO NOT LIKE IT, BUT YOU DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO TAKE AWAY OTHER PEOPLE’S ENJOYMENT AND BE A DICK ABOUT IT. It may not have been everything I wanted, but I’m glad I went on this ride. Besides, there are canonically infinite realities so there’s got to be a reality where all your dreams for the show come true. As a season, I’d say it’s a 7.5/10.

Honorable Mentions

I watched Avengers: Infinity War again. And yes it’s still great.

I’m watching Superstore because when another sitcom comes on before The Good Place, why not? Also since I finished season 5 of Brooklyn 99 I had to use my Hulu subscription for something.

Camp Camp has a holiday episode...so naturally I watched it...several times. Please watch Camp Camp.

Hellsing Ultimate Abridged finally ended, and I feel obligated to shout this out because, hey when you put out one episode a year it’s a big accomplishment to finish it!

Super Smash Bros Ultimate is finally here!!!!!!!!!!!

ALL THE WINTER ANIME IS ENDING!!! They were all so amazing! So shout out to Iroduku-The world in colors, Bloom into You, Hinomaru Sumo, Dakaichi, Banana Fish, Jingai no Yomen, Golden Kamuy, Skull-faced Bookseller Honda-san, Tsurune, AND RUN WITH THE WIND even though they’re not finished yet.

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qeterqujll · 6 years

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Panic Room p.1

summary: when the end of the world arrives, you have a front row seat. mental institution/apocolypse au based on the music video for panic room by au/ra

characters: nurse!peter maximoff x patient!reader, doctor!charles xavier, nurse!logan howlett, patient!erik lehnsherr

warnings: angst, a hint of fluff, mental instability, cursing, mentions of death

a/n: au where mutants haven’t been researched as extensively as they are in the movies, so mutants are sent to mental institutions. also, mutant cases are more rare then they are in the movies.

(part 1) (part 2) (part 3)

Hell raising, hair raising, I'm ready for the worst. So frightening, face whitening, fear that you can't reverse.

When you first started showing signs of being a mutant, your parents thought that maybe their child had been possessed. You don’t blame them, with the way mutants are demonized, and you’ll admit that it scared the hell out of you at first. You soon found, however, that your mutation was more helpful than you thought it would be. The ability to see into the future, whether it be near or far, came in handy with the additional bonus of telekinesis. Although, you didn’t come to that realization until about a year after the night your visions started.

You didn’t tell your parents anything when you figured out that the strange things happening to you were, in fact, your mutation, but you should have known that them finding out on their own was inevitable.

The main component of your mutation was seeing into the future, and visions of the future appeared to you in the form of dreams. The dreams you had been having about the future had been quite calm so far and you were still trying to make any sense out of them. Then, the nightmares started.

They were horrible, the screams and the flashing lights, making you wake up almost blind for a few moments before you could adjust your eyes back to the normal lighting of your room. You would often wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, shaking as you tried to rid your mind of the images that had plagued it only moments ago.

But those hopes were to no avail and the dreams only got worse. Pretty soon you were waking up screaming instead of crying and your parents would rush into the room, trying to find out what was happening. You had to tell them eventually.

Their first reaction still hurt even though you had seen it coming: disgust. How could they have created a mutant? How could they have created a monster?

After the initial phase of astonishment and fear, they decided that a hospital was the best place to take you. Most people across the country and even across the world had heard of Xavier’s Hospital for Mutants, a place where parents could take their children if they had a mutation. The truth of the matter was that most people feared mutants. There were even people who believed mutants were demons, children of the devil. Those people were nutty and most didn’t go as far as to say something like that, but no human would want to interact with a mutant.

“And why have you brought Ms. Y/L/N in today?”

Dr. Xavier stands in front of your parents, taking down information about you as they go on about their concern for your wellbeing. He’s heard it all before, from his own mother as well. “I don’t know how this happened.” “It doesn’t run in the family.” “Is there anyway to reverse it?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Y/L/N, but I’m afraid mutations are irreversible. It’s in her genes and neither of you may have mutations, but some of your ancestors most definitely did.”

Your mother and father exchange a horrified look at the prospect of having even a scrap of mutant DNA running through their veins, and the looks on their faces are almost comical to him.

“I know this is quite the shock,” he tells them, although they seem to catch the insincerity of his words, but they don’t comment, “but I assure you, your daughter will be taken care of here.”

Charles doesn’t like to go through people’s minds often, but with some people he just can’t seem to help himself. Your parents happen to be two of the people he feels the need to flip through like a file, and the first thing he hears from your mother is, is this man a mutant? It’s funny how the people he decides to read are always the ignorant ones

“I am, actually, but that’s nothing for you to be worried about. The owner of this building is not a mutant and it’s his belief that mutants will get the best care from other mutants.”

Your mother looks at the doctor with a horrified expression, suddenly rethinking the idea to bring you here. But so many people have come here and said that the results were better then they ever could have asked, so she tries to ignore the fact that the man standing in front of her just read her mind and thinks about anything other than her concerns about him in fear that he’s still digging through her thoughts.

“Now,” Charles says, looking behind the couple to try and see his newest patient, “can I meet Y/N?”

“She’s...in the car,” your mother says quietly, leaving the building with a bit of a dazed expression on her face. Charles can’t really blame her. People like her and your father, who have such a limited understanding of mutants, are a bit overwhelmed having a civil conversation with one. He does understand it, it’s just the way most people were raised. With the idea that mutants aren’t human. He’s sure you were raised that way as well, and his goal for every mutant who is brought in by a pair of terrified parents is to help them learn that their mutation does not make them any less human than anyone else.

Charles sits in a somewhat awkward silence with your father as they wait for you, not sure whether or not the man will strike up a conversation or give him more information about the patient. As he expected, nothing.

When your mother walks back in with you by her side, the first thing Charles notes is that you look like you haven’t slept in days. From what he was told about you, you’ve been having visions of what you say are of the future, but that’s not what is concerning your parents. The last time they came in during one of your nightmares, everything in your room was levitating...including you. You have a mutation similar to one of his other patients, Jean Gray, but seeing the future is new to him. He’s never heard of anything like it, and with the right teaching you will be able to see danger from miles away.

He stands, as does your father, and everyone spends a moment looking at you. They all wait for you to say something, but you look like you’re in some sort of trance. Again, Charles doesn’t like to read minds, and he’s even more against reading yours then reading your parents. But he sees the expression on your face and thinks that, at this point, the only way to know what has you in this state is to go to the source.

“Thank you for coming in today,” he tells your parents, “is there anything else you’d like me to explain to you before you leave?”

He expected them to want to get out of the building as fast as possible, so he’s taken by surprise when they nod, asking if they can have a short meeting with him about the care you’ll be getting. He supposes that they may fear you now more than they did before, but you’re still their daughter and they still care about you.

“Peter,” Charles says to the passing nurse as he makes his rounds. He motions for Peter to come over and take you to one of the vacant rooms, taking you from your mother's arm and guiding you to Peter. He nods and puts a hand on your back to guide you upstairs.

“He’ll see that she’s taken to a room. We have plenty of open ones, you have nothing to worry about,” Charles smiles, seeing the couples’ obvious discomfort at having Peter, who had run over to them using his mutation, leading their daughter away from them.

“That boy,” you father points at Peter, “he’s a nurse?”

“That he is,” Charles nods, smiling at the two as they disappear down the hall, “one of the best we have. He gets where he needs to be.”

“Y/N, I’m a mutant as well,” Charles tells you. He had just come back from talking to your parents and felt it necessary to have a talk with you about your move here, “I have the ability to...read minds.”

As he expected, there is obvious fear in your eyes, and he hears you ask a silent question, has he been reading mine?

“I haven’t,” he tells you, and your eyes widen even further, but you remain silent, “but I was wondering if you would be okay with me looking at some of your dreams.”

You speak for the first time, and your voice is hoarse from what he’s guessing is disuse.

“Why?”

Charles leans forward, looking you in the eyes long enough that it would make most people shift in their seat, but you meet his gaze, unfazed. “Because I’ve never seen a mutation like yours. In all my years, I’ve seen a lot, but never someone with the ability to see the future. I want to know more so that I can give you the best care here.”

“You want to study me,” you state, looking into his eyes to read his reaction to your accusation.

Charles laughs shortly and shakes his head. “No, not at all. This isn’t a lab. Think of it more as...as a school.”

“School?”

Charles nods and points around the room, encouraging you to look where he’s pointing. “Look at where you are. Does this look like a room that would be in a mental hospital?”

You follow his finger, taking a moment to look around at the details of the room that you hadn't seen when you first walked in. There’s a small dresser with some books stacked on the top in the corner of the room. The walls and all of the furniture are wood, not white like you would expect from a hospital. And the sheets aren’t white either, they’re a light blue. All in all, the room is very colorful, not at all what you’d expect from a hospital.

“It doesn’t.”

“No, it doesn’t,” he repeats, meeting your gaze again. “I know what you think about mutants. You’ve been taught to fear us, and now yourself. But I can assure you that we’re just like everyone else. We just have a little...upgrade. Mutations aren’t dangerous if you know how to control them, and that’s what I teach at this school.”

“But...parents are happy with the results of the hos- of the school. If you’re not doing anything to stop people from using their powers, why do you get such good reviews?”

“Because by teaching mutants to control their powers, they can easily hide them.”

It’s a smart idea, teach people to contain what society doesn’t want to see, but you’re still having trouble getting past the fact that you’re basically going to school again. Except this time it’s because you have powers, and you’ll be surrounded by other mutants instead of normal people like you.

Well, not like you anymore.

“Now, about looking at those dreams of yours...”

You look at him, unsure of the proposal, but you know that the best way for him to teach you is to know exactly what he’s teaching. You nod and he smiles, telling you to relax and close your eyes, clearing your mind of any distracting thoughts. To focus solely on the dreams.

You can feel him in your mind, going through your memories and avoiding the ones that are irrelevant to his goal, skimming over ones that might be of use later. Finally, he finds what he’s looking for. The particular dream he finds is from a few nights ago, one of the worst you’ve had.

He takes a minute, but by the time he takes his hand off your forehead and tells you to open your eyes, you feel like no time has passed at all. It almost put you to sleep, the gentle feeling of the doctor digging through your memories. You guess that he’s had a lot of practice to make it feel that calming.

“That is...something,” he snaps your out of your thoughts.

“Did you see it?”

“It was fuzzy. Dreams aren’t like memories, they’re harder for me to see. It’s difficult to remember dreams exactly as they happened, so trying to see someone else’s is very difficult. But I saw fragments. I saw enough to get the big picture.”

You look at each other for a long moment before you can barely help from telling him what you think it means

“I know what it is,” you whisper, getting his attention away from his own thoughts, “it’s the end of the world.”

“I’d like you to keep an eye on her, “Charles says as he walks alongside Peter, who had been itching to get away from the doctor for just a minute to stretch his legs, but his day had been one of the busiest of the month and he figured his itch to run could wait until his shift ended.

“Who? Y/N?” Peter takes your file from Charles and flips through it, skimming through the notes Charles had taken about your dreams. You had been at the school only one night, and fortunately it had been free of nightmares. It was important to Charles that you have a good nights sleep your first night in the hospital. If your first night in an unfamiliar place had been taken over by a nightmare, it would have made adjusting to your new life that much harder.

“If she has an episode, someone needs to be there to wake her up. I don’t know how much harm she can do when she’s asleep, but I’d rather not find out.”

“Can’t someone who has a night shift do it?”

“I’m just trying to have you around her because you’re her age, she’ll trust you more. She wasn’t like you when you came in Peter, her parents view us as monsters and it will take her longer to adjust. And if she’s having an episode I’m not sure if having Logan burst in on her is the best idea.”

“Right,” Peter sighs, handing the file back, “so I’m a babysitter now?”

Charles chuckles and shakes his head. “I don’t think ‘babysitter’ is the right word for it.”

“Charles, I love it here, but I don’t get paid enough for this.”

“Trust me, Peter, neither do I.”

Trust is hard for you at a place like this. Charles’ suspicions about you not being too fond of mutants was right. Your parents had instilled the idea that mutants were nothing but poison to society into you from a young age. The idea was to keep you away from them, but those ideas didn’t help you adjust to becoming one of them.

Meeting them is far from what you expected. You’ve had yet to meet anyone in the hospital who has been anything but kind to you. Charles is probably the kindest person you’ve ever met, from the words of encouragement when you’re trying to learn to control your powers to the way he looks out for every one of his patients. Hank reminds you of a friend from sophomore year, so you’ve found yourself incapable of being intimidated by his appearance, and Jean reminds you a lot of yourself. Everyone in the hospital, whether they work there or they’re a patient, has been the opposite of your image of a mutant.

The only person you have yet to meet is the man in the room next to yours, Erik. According to Charles, he’s one of the more unstable patients with one of the more dangerous mutations. He thinks it’s better if Erik just stays in his room. You’ve found that you agree him.

Peter is who you spend the most time with, and he has become the person you go to for almost everything. Whether you’re bored or in need of someone to talk to, Peter is the first person you think of.

“Do they scare you?” he asks one day when the two of you are taking a walk through the courtyard. There’s not much to do in the hospital, but you’re content just walking outside with Peter and watching everyone play games or practice their powers.

“What? The dreams?” you raise your eyebrows, pursing your lips when he nods. “Yeah. I mean, it’s doesn’t make much sense. All I see are people running screaming and lights are flashing making it hard to make out anything, but I just feel so much pain and...and death.”

Peter listens carefully, knowing that he’ll have to write down what you’re saying when you go back inside. This seems like something Charles would want to know, seeing as how he’d taken a specific interest in you and your dreams. Peter has to admit, the possibility of you being able to see into the future is fascinating, but neither him nor Charles know if that’s what this is. There’s always the possibility that these are just nightmares and your only mutation is telekinesis.

“That must be horrible to see.”

You nod. “It feels like I’m just...watching the world end.”

Days pass and Peter sticks with you for most of them, coming and going when he can, helping give you tips about your power, and even showing you his own. You had finally met Erik, who, as it turns out, is Peter’s father. Apparently the man had been through more than anyone was willing to explain, but as Peter had put it, he had lost more than anyone else in the hospital.

“He has you, doesn’t he?”

Peter shrugs. “At this point, I’m not really enough.”

My phone has no signal, It's making my skin crawl, the silence is so loud. The lights spark and flicker with monsters much bigger than I can control now.

The night you had your first nightmare in the hospital was much later than anyone expected. It was on your fifth day staying in the hospital, and you were praying before then that they were ending. It had been months since the dreams had stopped for this long and it felt like the weight of the world was lifting off your shoulders.

Then tonight, it all fell back and the feeling of it was crushing.

This dream wasn’t unlike any of the others. Screams, lights, pain, death, the whole package. But this time things were a bit clearer. There were these...awful growls coming from every direction, like something was surrounding you. You could vaguely make out blurry forms of what looked like animals near you, and suddenly the overwhelming feeling of being absolutely powerless washed over you. That feeling, along with the familiar feeling of death seeping into your mind, was probably what triggered it this time.

When Peter ran into the room, calling Logan’s name along the way, the sight before him was something he hadn’t expected. You had explained to him what happened before and he thought he had a good picture of how bad the episodes would get, but he was wrong.

As you described before, everything in the room was levitating, still in the chaos of the room. Then right above your bed, you floated with your eyes squeezed shut, your blanket hanging off your waist messily. Your mouth was open in a silent scream and if he had to describe the sight in one word, he would have said it looked like you were having a seizure by the way your were shaking. But he knew better, and from what Charles told him the best thing to do at this point would be to wake you up.

“Y/N!” is the first thing he shouts, before he even comes in contact with you. Then he uses his speed to get to you, standing on the bed next to you but hesitating to touch you.

“What are you waiting for, kid?” Logan’s voice behind him startles him, “wake her up!”

He nods and focuses back on you, tapping your arm and breathing your name, getting nothing in response. He grabs onto your arm, giving it a soft shake, then a harder one, still getting no response.

“Y/N! Wake up, dammit!”

He shakes you harder and harder until it’s clear that you won’t wake up, so he yells for Logan to wake Charles and he backs away from you, looking around the room for anything that might be able to wake you up. You don’t have much with you, just some clothes and a couple books. There’s nothing that would help with his current situation.

“Peter,” he hears Charles’ voice behind him and he backs away, looking at the doctor with wide eyes. “I... I don’t know why she won’t wake up.”

Charles looks at your shaking form and stands next to Peter on the bed, closing his eyes and putting a hand to your forehead. Almost immediately, you fall back along with everything in the room and your body stills. Charles opens his eyes and looks at you, slowly starting to stir from the events.

“Please take her to the infirmary,” Charles tells Peter, “she’s burning up.”

Peter nods and lifts you up, getting you to the infirmary in seconds, startling the nurse working the night shift.

“Peter! I’ve told you not to do that,” she scolds him, her gaze then falling to you as Peter sets you down on the examination table, “is she our clairvoyant?”

“Her name is Y/N. She has a bad fever, Charles wanted me to bring her here.”

“What’s going on?” you mumble, catching their attention as you try to sit up from the table. Peter immediately catches your shoulder, gently pushing you back to lay down again.

“Take it easy,” he says, “you just had quite the dream.”

“Yeah, tell me about,” you mutter, sighing. “Thought I might’ve been home free this time.”

The treatment for dreams is pretty simple, as it turns out. The nurses weren’t really sure what to do besides give you medicine to help with the fever. No one in the hospital had seen a mutation like yours and they wondered how Charles would be able to teach you to control it. It seemed like he himself didn’t even know the answer to that question.

It took you two months to feel completely comfortable in the hospital, surrounded by people who you had been raised to fear. There were certain people who helped, like Jean, who you bonded with over your similar mutation, and Peter. Charles had been something of a role model for you over the months that you had been there, but you figured that everyone felt the same way. He’s definitely someone to look up to.

But it seemed that you were the only one who took a special interest in Peter, besides the other nurses who he had already befriended. Of course, he was very well liked around the hospital, but doing well on his rounds and being close with his patients are two very different things.

He’s told you multiple times that you’re one of the most compelling people he’s worked with, and although he admitted that Charles had been the one to ask him to spend time with you, it didn’t seem to matter after the first month. After the initial time it took to get used to living with mutants, Peter had already broken through your wall and made a home in your heart.

“It’s good here, you know,” he tells you at night, after you have a nightmare, “if you’re going to have a nightmare, it’s best if you have them with Charles here to help.”

Those small reassurances were what helped you adjust more then anything else. Thanks to Peter, you learned to disregard something your parents had been telling you your entire life in the span of three months.

The nightmares, although they were never any less severe then they had been to begin with, were less and less frequent, and that may have been due to the fact that Peter had begun to stay with you while you were falling asleep. It had started after one bad night when you woke up from a nightmare in something of a trance, dead to the outside world. It took until the next afternoon to get you back to the real world, and you were told that your episode had scared quite a few people. When you saw Peter that same afternoon he had wrapped you in an unexpected yet welcomed hug, telling you he was glad you were back with them.

Charles didn’t request that Peter do anything extra to help you through the night, but that night after your episode, he told you his concerns about leaving you alone. He was afraid that you may have a nightmare, but this time you won’t come out of the dream-like state that you were trapped in for nearly half a day.

So he stayed with you through the night, leaving early enough to start his shift that you weren’t awake yet.

The first few nights he stayed with you, he only laid under the covers next to you, making sure to keep at a comfortable distance in hopes that he wouldn’t trigger an episode, but as time went on you started feeling more comfortable with him there. Eventually, he would wake up wrapped around you, having moved during the night. It was nice, and he found that he enjoyed having you in his arms.

So he started to scoot closer to you before he went to sleep, every night closing the space between you more and more until eventually he would fall asleep with you already in his arms, both of you content to hold each other until he had to leave for his shift in the morning.

Your dreams became scarce with Peter there to keep you calm. Whenever he sensed you were having the beginning of a nightmare, he would immediately wake you up to make sure that it didn’t get any worse.

“Hey, it’s alright,” he tells you one night when you begin to shake against him, having just woken up from what he assumes was a particularly bad nightmare. “I’m here, it’s okay.”

“They’re coming,” you whisper, turning over to press your face into his chest. He pulls you closer and presses a soft kiss to the top of your head.

“You’re okay, Y/N.”

You pull away from him and stand, going to the bathroom and splashing water over your face. They’re much clearer now, the monsters that always surround you in your dreams. The things that were causing all of the pain and all of the death.

Peter stays in bed, sitting up and running a hand over his face, wiping at his eyes in an attempt to wake up more. He looks up to see you still leaning over the sink, letting it run as you calm yourself down.

“Y/N,” he says quietly, “are you alright?”

“Yeah,” you say, your voice hoarse. You look up and meet his eyes in the mirror, but they widen when you see the same creature from your dreams standing next to the bed, slowing creeping towards you with it’s mouth open, a black abyss coming towards you.

You let out a gasp and turn around quickly, looking around the room for the creature. Peter’s eyes widen at your sudden movements and he moves towards you as you flip the light on, looking around frantically.

“It was there,” you say, covering your mouth with one hand. “It was right there.”

You slide down the wall and bury your face in your hands. You’re going insane, you can feel it. These dreams are taking a physical and mental toll on you, a toll that you won’t be able to handle if this goes on for much longer. You can still see the monster standing there, just staring at you.

“Hey, come here,” Peter puts his hands cautiously on your waist, waiting to see if you want him there or if you want space. When you shift closer to him, he sits next to you and pulls you towards him. He wraps his arms around you as you gasp for breath, trying to rid your mind of the images from your dream and from your apparent hallucinations.

“You’re safe here,” Peter whispers, although you both know that’s not true. There’s something coming, something that will show you no mercy.

Something is coming to kill you. All of you.

Welcome to the panic room, where all your darkest fears are gonna come for you, come for you. Welcome to the panic room, you'll know I wasn't joking when you see them too, see them too.

(x)

#peter maximoff x reader #peter maximoff x you #peter maximoff imagine #peter maximoff imagines #quicksilver x reader #quicksilver x you #quicksilver imagine #quicksilver imagines #xmen imagine #xmen imagines #marvel imagine #marvel imagines

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the-cryptographer · 7 years

Photo

My tiny yugioh shrine - before and after pics. The Jounouchi figure still up top, holding a chain and ready to shank you with a scapegoat~ But I thought I’d zoom in so we could see my BEAUTIFUL NEW ISHTAR SIBS CLEARFILE INSTEAD~

I thought my shrine was getting a little too shippy. And especially a little too shippy in the absence of Mai. WHERE IS ALL THE KUJAKU MAI MERCHANDISE?! i need it pls, thx. But, anyhow~ I bought the Ishtar clearfile off of auction. And I thought it might be an old one, but on the back is actually a logo for the 20th anniversary of ygo, last year in 2016. And they weren’t even really in the movie, so now I’m wondering maybe there is also the chance of some recent Mai merchandise out there, hmm, so she will properly be represented in my collection >3>

But yeah, this is just by the exit to my room so i can stop by before i leave for the day and, offer coins or pieces of fruit or whatever and pray at my card game based alter, and maybe then Jounouchi’s good luck will rub off on me a little~

...

And there’s also a gore version of the shrine, but I usually keep that picture in the back so visitors don’t think i’m a creep. i guess i’ll put this picture in the front if i ever decide to host ritualistic demon summonings in my room or smthn~

(Both prints are from toxicosis by the way.)

Doujinshi are in another location. And I was only going to talk about my stupid ygo bookshelf shrine thing today, but then my doujin shipment came in and I decided FUCK IT i will brag about my crippling lack of impulse control cool swag all at once if i want to... Under the cut-

@battymarionette

If you remember this one~

tdah~ Basically it seems like a Kaiba Corp has put out a game, some kind of ridiculous fantasy RPG where Atem is some kind of Ron the Death Eater villain and Jou may or may not be the princess or smthn. And Mokuba invites Jounouchi over to play it or playtest it or something of that nature. Which seems like as good a premise as any for this kind of thing. And it’s got all the cute platonic Joukuba vibes which is a plus~

But yeah, Jounouchi goes over to Mokuba’s place, has some kind of fight with Seto, and some kind of conversation with Atem, and Mokuba’s kind of confused or upset about something, and then Jou gets all cute and announces that he and Kaiba are dating~ which i’m pretty sure Seto didn’t want Mokuba knowing about or whatever~

But, see, now I’m making this doujin sound sweet when, to be really blunt, i didn’t like it. At some point Seto slaps Jounouchi across the face for something.

I guess I shouldn’t pass judgement when I can’t even read the moon runes that explain why this has happened, but- no. (I’m trying to articulate. It’s not that I think Jou and Seto are incapable of being violent with one another (jfc how hypocritical would it be of me) but there’s something about the whys and the hows~? in my mind, Seto doesn’t gets hands on with that kind of thing unless it’s landing a measured martial arts blow in self defense, or lashing out from a place of extreme vulnerability - the kind that involves him being five seconds away from curling up in a ball of self-protection. So... Seto being collected and composed and instigating violence on Jounouchi’s triggers all my ‘no’ responses. And I also doubt Jounouchi would take that kind of thing without complaint, unless he was actually raving or spiraling and it was, like, a calm-the-fuck-down slap. I think he would definitely retaliate with shouting and intimidation, if not a physical blow. With Jounouchi it’s a little harder for me to define what would prompt physical violence, partly because i think his idea of what violence is is narrower than mine, and doesn’t include things like grabbing somebody’s jacket collar and shaking them around. But, hmm, I think by the time he’s through canon he doesn’t exactly break out the fistcuffs lightly.)

The point was that this doujin made it to the top of my shit list very fast. And I was concerned because, see, I had been avoiding buying KaiJou (in that order) doujins because most of them kind of do this thing to me and completely miss the glass cannon type of volatile fragility I see as being kind of central to Kaiba’s character. But then I caved and ordered a whole bunch. But, actually, I was pleasantly surprised by the other couple of ones I bought, so maybe the curse has finally lifted~ I liked this one in particular-

But, tbh, it also knew the way into my heart~

The way into my heart is Wheeler siblings :x

@rainstormcolors

First of all, I got POLARIS and it was good!

I don’t know what to share about it other than that because it was mostly porn. But I felt like it was kind of sweet and sentimental and Kaiba and Atem going on silly dates at the beginning with gorgeous background details. Also they sit on the throne together at the end and look very in love teehee~

But, yes, thank you for reccing~ I enjoyed a lot~!

BUT- !!! More importantly this finally came in the mail!

To answer your question, it’s a normal rivalshipping anthology. 112 pages, comics and fic~ Exciting things happen like Yuugi and Kaiba playing twister~

And in another story they’re out travelling and having punishment games of some sort and Yuugi gets a beard painted on his face~

AND HIS MOM OMG!! I love when odd characters cameo in my doujins. I think you can tell~

But, no, I lied- I addition to the anthology I got all this other stuff too~

I don’t know. There’s a set of tiny playing cards you have to disentangle. Some have exciting images.

Notably Jounouchi and Atem are the jokers, heh~

I still haven’t checked out the CD. This is a very rushed post where I don’t attempt to read things carefully or any of that~ But it comes with a manual with a bunch of character avatars - lots of expressions for Yuugi and Kaiba, as well as one avatar each for Jou, Anzu, baby Seto, Kisara, and BEWD. So I think it may be a visual novel of sorts. Undetermined~

So now you’ll know what you’re getting if you decide to order, in theory at least. I’m not sure because I bought this off the author’s BOOTH, so idk if the extra merchandise is limited in any manner or if toranoana only sends part of it(?)

ugh, let’s see.

I also got another anthology- a Yuugi-centric one.

It’s mostly rivalshipping, which I’d expect. rivalshipping is really popular in the jp fandom. but, tbh, i enjoyed the more odd ships more-

Like Juudai/Manjoume/Yuugi... Kaiba walks in on the Kohais basically crushing yuugi with love after this it’s so cute~

And Otogi/Yuugi. Ah~ I love the DDM chapters in the manga and how softly Otogi warms up to Yuugi~

A Duel Monsters themed art book I spent too much on~ I’m ashamed to say I don’t recognise a whole lot of the cards

but you’ll recognise Yubel, perhaps~

or the lady that Y!Bakura crossdresses as ;)

and there were quite a few dark magician girls and blue eyeses.

from another illustration book~

and i found a couple of apprenticeshipping doujins on BOOTH, but none of them wow-ed me really~

although I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how Mana inherited the Ring in manga canon. I feel like there are things to consider here. This picture struck me as a result.

Alright~ And now for my favourites~

OMG! A WHOLE DOUJIN ABOUT MALIK AND HIS SIBLINGS!!! I think this one was a predictable fave. I loved it so, sooo much. I was absolutely filled with quality Malik and Rishid moments.

EVERYONE IS SO CUTE!!

Malik and Rishid go biking and run into Mai which is very !!!

There are vacation photographs~

It looks like Malik tries to feed Ra a revival slime and gets eaten himself. I don’t know. But it was good. I’m so happy~ Ishtar family doujins. My life is complete. not really. i can’t die until i finish my fics.

Okay, but my other fave I didn’t see coming at all.

I don’t ship this! I shouted into the void. But nobody really believed her, not even herself. It’s too late for me. I’m just multiship trash. I will ship anything you put in front of me...

Okay, but the real reason I decided to get this was because of this preview panel. Of course I knew it was puzzlleship. But actually I love Mana and vaseshipping for reals. And this was so cute and the art was so pretty I thought- We might as well check the rest of it out~ (the idea of top!Yuugi didn’t hurt either...)

And then jackels happened~ And this kind of ethereal magic stuff~

There was some confusion I think with the cultural imagery in the doujin. Some of it looked vaguely Indic to my untrained eye but- I don’t know what to say, the art was so gorgeous and detailed.

And the smut was all facials and frot so obviously the doujin artist has my gd number, smh.

And Jou appeared near the end, looking amazing, and Jou is automatically about +50 points for any doujin.

I don’t know what to say. Very nice. Would recommend.

Also- just fyi- I do buy doujins for things that aren’t ygo. pls forgive my focus on my ygo obsession tho.

I’m really glad I stumbled across this in the hetalia tag~

And there’s a picture of Tifa being so bad at games at the golden saucer that Nanaki, who doesn’t even have opposable thumbs, can defeat her in PvP. Beautiful~

#doujinshi #Malik Ishtar #Mana #JouKai #prideship #rivalship #kuribohship #offership #nurseship #puzzleship #ygo gx #save me from this card game hell #cw: gore

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