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ben-talks-art · 1 year

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Thoughts on Ben 10

I've seen that some people started doing reactions series of the original Ben 10 show on Youtube, and seeing their reactions got me kinda nostalgic and in the mood to talk about it a little since I honestly really, really like this show.

So I figured, why not just make a post about my feelings towards the franchise, characters, aliens, storylines, and overall just sharing what I liked about it?

Guess I should start with the obligatory "For those who never watched the show or know nothing about Ben 10..."

Basically, this series is about this one kid who has a watch that allows him to turn into a bunch of different aliens for a short period of time, and uses it to help people and fight bad guys while going on travels around the country with his grandpa and cousin.

At first he starts with only ten aliens (thus giving the show its name) but as time goes on he keeps adding more and more to his list trough different ways (thus completely invalidating the show's name). Sometimes he will unlock a new alien at random, sometimes he will meet someone that will use a code on the watch that will unlock it for him, and other times he will collect the DNA of other aliens he fights.

The aliens the kid turns into are the highlight of the show.

Each one has its own unique design, ability, voice, body behavior, way of moving and other little things that make all of them feel distinct and unique. (You can check out one of the official artist's DeviantArt page to see some of his comments on many of the designs and how hard they were to animate.)

What was cool about the show is that you never knew what alien Ben was going to use to save the day so it made the experience feel fresh and exciting as you kept wondering what was going to happen, kinda like when you play a gacha game and you don't know what you're gonna pull out.

It's like having an entire Justice League or Avengers team inside one person. You had all these great characters that you knew little to nothing about and you would just watch and wait to see what was cool about each of them, and the show always did the best it could to make each alien feel as cool as possible... Except for Ripjaws, it was clear that after a while they had no idea what to do with him.

Everyone had their favorite aliens who they hoped would get used in the episode, but it was also nice to see other aliens you might not think you would like also getting the spotlight and making you realize everyone can be useful if given the chance and used in the right way.

It promoted the idea of experimenting with new things and exploring untapped potential.

Aside from the alien roster, the show also had fun playing around with its premise. Usually Ben would do something that affected his normal human form and that would have some effect on his alien forms as well.

For example, one episode Ben got showered by the fountain of youth and turned into a kid, so all his aliens de-aged as well, other time he went inside a videogame so his aliens started to wear gaming clothes like Sora in Kingdom Hearts 2. Another episode had Ben get a cold so his fire alien turned into an ice alien, another had him be stuck for one alien form for the entire episode, another one had him break the watch and anytime he transformed it would randomly combine two aliens.

It felt like the writers were trying to do anything they could with the idea of a watch that turns you into different creatures, like they were trying to have fun with its own premise.

Like, you would see the episode where the aliens get younger or older and you would go "well, now I want to see what all of them younger or older look like!" and that would just make your imagination go crazy.

Same thing for the episode where they mix two aliens together, imagine the massive amount of fanart that this episode inspired!

There were also episodes where Ben would turn into Halloween creatures like a werewolf, a mummy, or a ghost, but each of them still had the "that's an alien not a monster" theme around them, so again you would go "What would a vampire alien look like? What would a demon alien look like? What would a dragon alien look like?"

It just kept building and building on top of different possibilities.

Ben 10 was so good because it made you feel rewarded for being a kid, rewarded for being curious, for having creativity, for enjoying weird and out-of-the-box ideas.

It rewarded you for wanting to have fun and wanting to play around with different ideas.

Even the villain. You could teel that the creators were trying to have fun with what they could come up for Ben to fight with.

They had a guy that was some sort of abomination that combined all of Ben's aliens, a dude with the head of a squid that could turn off Ben's powers with the touch of his finger, a mad scientist that always kept trying to steal the DNA from Ben's aliens and fusing it with animals, and even one of Ben's own aliens who managed to come to life and escape from the watch.

Watching this show was basically a game of "Okay, what idea are the writers gonna explore this time? What crazy thing will they do now?" Like, they later make it so his cousin can use magic spells, and they also later reveal his grandpa was a secret agent who happens to have a lot of high-tech, and they would mix all this stuff while fighting crime and saving the day.

It was just fun. This was just a really fun show.

But... It wasn't perfect...

The biggest problem of the series was that the sense of character development was non-existent.

This series had three main characters, Ben, his cousin, and his grandpa, and the relationship and chemistry between then is pretty much the same throughout the whole thing.

Ben is always immature and jumping into things without thinking, his cousin is always nagging and butting heads with him, and his grandpa always has a pretty good lesson to teach that everyone is just going to forget in the next episode.

There are so many times that I'm watching this and going "Ben should know better than this" because he keeps making the same mistakes over and over again and it gets really tiresome after a while.

Same thing with his cousin, they keep writing scenes where her and Ben just keep bickering and arguing for no reason and it just makes them feel so annoying to watch.

I never got why animated shows think watching people bickering is fun, to me it's just obnoxious. My least favorite part of any Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle show is when Raph and Leo just start fighting because the plot says so. I guess you could say it's realistic that teens would argue but... Just because it's realistic doesn't make it enjoyable.

There is also the fact that I never felt the show truly dived into why we should root for Ben or why he wants to be a hero.

For instance, there is a scene where Ben sees a city getting attacked and he just starts smiling as if he's glad he gets a chance to be the hero and fight bad guys.

I never felt Ben wanted to help people because he cared about people, honestly it felt like he just wanted to feel the joy of being a superhero. Which, again, he's a kid, so probably it's realistic, but realistic doesn't instantly means good.

For a show about a kid that could turn into ten heroes, they never really sold why Ben had what it takes to be a hero.

That's not to say they didn't had episodes about Ben being humble, noble, or heroic, they actually had a lot of them. They had episodes about him facing his fears to save his cousin, learning the value of teamwork, learning to put others' needs before his, learning to let go of personal desires for the greater good... But these things just never stacked on.

I never got a sense that Ben was growing from his experiences, it felt like he was just learning some random lesson to get through the episode, which is a shame because a lot of those were some really good lessons, and good lessons for kids no less, but they would just be forgotten by the time the next episode started because... I don't know, I guess they just liked Ben being very flawed and immature.

But honestly, even with this tiny problem, it's still a really good show. It has a lot of creative action, some really inventive designs, and like I said, It just does a great job promoting the idea of having fun.

I particularly love the scene where they show Ben inventing "diamond surfing", like, how can anyone look at that and not think this is gonna be a fun show?

So yeah, small lack of character development aside, I still recommend this series.

I also want to talk about the other pieces of media that also take place in this series' timeline.

"Protector of Earth" is a licensed game that came out around the Ps2/Ps3 era and I remember being honestly a lot of fun. It was a beat-em-up where you could play as five aliens while having access to some honestly really creative attack combos. It was also how I, a non-English speaker, finally found out why the alien "XLR8" was named like that.

"Secret of the Omnitrix" was a movie that had a premise of the watch accidentally going into self-destruct mode and had Ben travel through space in order to find the inventor of the watch so he could ask him to turn it off. Really good movie overall, just wish they had tried to be a tiny bit more creative with the action scenes. There are way too many "laser shooting" fights and the final battle is basically Ben getting an "I win" button. It was kinda anticlimactic tbh.

"Destroy all Aliens" is another movie but this time done in 3D. I actually liked this one a lot. They had Ben be stuck with some sort of randomizer feature so he keeps shifting from alien to alien every couple of minutes while fighting a guy that can teleport, so we get some really creative action scenes with all the aliens as they keep going from one part of the globe to the other.

There is also a live-action movie called "Race against time" that... Surely is a movie that exists...

Honestly, the most I can say about it is that I'll never understand why they didn't give the title "Race Against Time" to the movie about the watch going into self-destruct mode, kinda feels like a no-brainer to me.

Then we have the sequels, Alien Force and Ultimate Alien...

And I'm going to sincerely apologize to all of its fans right now but I really don't like either of these shows.

I don't want to talk about them too much since my feelings towards them are mostly negative and I don't want to dunk on what could possibly be someone's favorite show... But they just did so little for me.

Now, I'm not saying they're bad, just saying that I myself didn't like either of them very much... But while I don't like these shows, I do like certain things in them.

Alien Force is about Ben, who's now five years older, teaming up with his cousin again, as well as one of his former enemies now turned ally, and getting a new set of ten aliens.

The idea of ten new aliens seemed cool at first. Honestly, when I first heard about the show I thought the new aliens were like fusions of the old aliens, like one looked like a fusion of an ice alien and a ghost alien, one looked like a fusion of a cloning alien and a small alien, and another looked like a plant and fire alien. They looked really cool and they had some really creative designs.

The plant/fire one and the ghost/ice one actually became some personal favorites of mine. They had some really fun and creative powers.

The ice one in particular apparently got really popular with fans due to the idea of being a moth that rested its wings in the shape of a cloak, kinda like they used to do in Gargoyles, and because they gave it an interesting episode where it gives birth to a ton of babies... That, as far as I know, we never see again. 🤔

As for the others aliens... They were there... I'm sure they all have their fans, I'm just not one of them.

Ultimate Alien was basically more Alien Force, except now some of the aliens could "Mega Evolve."

And again, a lot of the evolved forms didn't really do much for me, except for the ultimate form of the clone alien, which legit felt both really cool and really creative. I just loved that design.

Aside from that though, not really much positive I can say about these two shows. It just wasn't for me.

And finally, there was Ben 10 Omniverse, by far the most ambitious Ben 10 show.

They ditched the whole evolution thing but Ben now had access to basically every alien he ever had in the entire franchise, as well as every villain he ever had before, and they were a lot more open about the idea of exploring other planets and seeing different alien worlds. The world-building (universe-building?) took a major focus in here.

They also kept trying to push this odd gimmick of going back to the original 10-year-old Ben.

Sometimes Ben would travel back in time, or flashback to when he was a kid, sometimes he would switch brains with his body from the past, sometimes he would shrink into a kid, and other times he would visit another dimension from when he was still young and see how he would have turned out if he had no grandpa.

Basically, the name of the game changed from "how can we explore the idea of a person with access to ten aliens in a creative way?" to "how can we tie back to the original show?"

It seemed like they were trying to go back to its original focus of exploring the potential of its premise, but this time going a lot more out-of-the-box than ever before.

Getting to see every single past alien again was really cool but many of the new aliens added kinda felt like filler.

There is like one or two that I really liked, like this one alien that's like a living planet with its own gravity, but most of them just looked lame to me.

But, again, every alien from the past is here, so even if had an episode where you don't like one or two of the aliens used, you would still have five or six of the classic ones to enjoy, which was always refreshing.

The writing still didn't have that big of a sense of progression but I liked this Ben a lot more than the old Ben from the first show. I actually think this series had the best character writing out of all of them. Everyone here has great chemistry and is a lot more charming than before.

Sometimes the tone was also hit-and-miss. It would often try too hard to be humorous and end up losing a sense of stakes, making you feel like you were watching a cartoon instead of an animated show, but still had plenty of things to like.

They tried a lot of new things (sometimes way too many), most of them I liked, some of them I didn't, but I still appreciate them taking the risk to try.

Ben 10 is overall a very interesting franchise and I'm always curious to see what they try to do next with it.

#ben 10 #ben 10 ultimate alien #ben 10 alien force #ben 10 omniverse #ben 10 desstroy all aliens #ben 10 protector of earth #ben 10 secret of the omnitrix

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jeannahas · 2 years

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Hardfought - Part II

|Recording found inside abandoned building, placed precisely in the center of wooden chair, in the middle of a seemingly empty room - casset tape of old design, but functional|

:Recording begins:

Hardfought: Ah - and who might you be? ( Sound of cup being set down) The Mate Isn't ready yet- if you want some.

M1: You seem oddly trusting, for a supervillain. Is overconfidence a disease?

Hardfought: (Chuckles) Ah - so I've officially be classified as a supervillain? That propaganda machine worked quickly. You a reporter?

M1: Well, yes. I suppose I am.

Hardfought: Hm. Take a seat then. I don't have any quarrel with you, not yet at least ( sipping)

A chair slides, and the reporter sits down, taking out a set of papers, and clicking a pen.

M1: You were hard to find.

Hardfought: I should hope so - you know very well who's after me. How's firefight recovering by the way?

M1: Why do you care? You practically blinded him!

Hardfought: What? he tried to melt a hole in my chest. What did you want me to do? Sit there and take it?

M1: There are a lot of stories about you these days - dropping out of the sky and killing people, before leaving in a mass of carnage.

Hardfought: Probably exaggerated somewhat. I do have my targets though - it's a long list.

M1: What do you mean?

Hardfought pauses for a long time, and the sound of a chair sliding on tile floor is heard, Hardfought sits, and appears pensive for some time. A cup is set on the table next to the chairs.

Hardfought: How long do you have?

M1: Pardon?

Hardfought: You seem decent, and sincere enough. How much time do you have? Anyone following you in? Are you wired?

M1: Wired? Not that I know of.

Hardfought nods.

Hardfought: Cool, I'll give you till we run out of Mate then. Then I'll have to move on.

M1: You know that I'll be reporting your location right?

Hardfought: Not until you get your story. It's not very long. You going to ask questions? We really don't have all day.

M1: (sips) Hm. Oddly sweet. Ah, yes. what led to your spiral?

Hardfought: A list. extracted from the scum of the earth -at great duress I might add.

M1: A list of what?

Hardfought: Names. A larger conspiracy. Senators, low level officials, a number of people in the superhuman department. I have no reason to doubt those names.

M1: Wait, so you've been targeting these people off of this list you got from a supervillain? How do you know they weren't just innocent people he wanted you to target? To kill so that you'd end up doing evil instead of good?

(sipping)

Hardfought: Surprisingly good question. I start with the obvious ones. Those with hidden connections - convictions. occasionally my targets offer up someone else in a desperate bid to survive. Usually their information coroborates my list.

M1: Wait- is that why you've targeted supervillains as well? Everyone thought that you just had lost your mind - you've killed supers and normals with equal predjudice- some superheroes too.

Hardfougt ( Snorts) : In name perhaps. Rotten to the core, the ones that I got to. There are bound to be more of them.

M1: So you see yourself as an antihero then? Doing what the heroes won't?

Hardfought pauses, takes along sip.

Hardfought: I don't really know that I deserve to have the name hero in my name anymore, if I'm being honest. My title serves me fine. I fight, and each fought is hard won. each victory slightly phyrric, slightly pointless and hollow. But still a victory. I wonder where I fall now though. How close am I to what I hunt? What can I do to avoid becoming as heartless as they are?

M1: I don't know - a surprising number of people are applauding your assassination of multiple multi-billionaires.

Hardfought: Multiple? Ah - I suppose some of them had to be - I only know of one for sure - I targeted the others for things they had done. Human trafficking, under the table murders, so on and so forth.

M1: Some are calling you the Iron Avenger- or the Iron Justice.

Hardfought: Hm. Vengance, perhaps. A necesity - I don't know about justice though. Seems to noble for what I've had to become.

M1: Can you tell me about it?

Hardfought: Of course - you need a line, somewhere, you need a line in the sand you won't cross, and you need hills that you can die on - things to defend, things you will always do and will never do. Imagine that you could snap your fingers, and kill everyone who has ever murdered someone - would you?

M1: Well, yeah, of course.

Hardfought: Here's the problem, and how it applies to me - in that moment, in which you avenge all of their victims, in which you kill every murderer, are you also a murderer? They had no chance to fight you, the death was clearly pre-meditated. Some of them maybe have reformed, a lot hadn't, some were probable in the middle of murdering someone. But are you now a murderer? Where is the line where defense becomes vengeance, becomes murder? Would you then die as well?

( Silence)

M1: Damn. I would hope not.

Hardfought: Same. I bein to suspect that there won't be a peaceful resolution to my work for me.

M1: So you see yourself as that force of nature, erasing the murderers from the world?

Hardfought: Those I can. I told another men some people are like a cancer, killing society from the inside. I've purged a few of them, killed a few dictators, killed a couple who rose up to take their place. But I haven't done so unscathed. I've had to reveal emergency abilities, I've had to resort to last ditch measures to make it out, and I've faced more superheroes and villains than I ever would have thought possible. I even had to destroy a lab in Kansas where they were trying to clone me. God that was awful.

M1: Seeing how things have turned out, would you still make the decisions you did? To turn back on the agency, to start on your witchhunt?

Hardfought: People could learn from you -direct questions, asking what you want to know. Not a witch hunt. Just punishing crimes that never were intended to make it to the public eye.

M1: you beheaded the Vice President.

Hardfought (dismissive) : He owned slaves. Killed a few. Involved in human trafficking.

M1 ( sighs): So you feel you are justified?

Long Pause.

Hardfought: I hope I am justified, as we all do. I have decided that I possess the ability to take extreme action. I recognize that If I go to far, then I'll just become the tyrant I am trying to remove from the world, and will become no better than those I hunt, and will be worthy of extermination in my own right- might already be.

M1: Which one was the hardest for you?

Hardfought: Emotionally? Anyone on my list is already forfeight. I have the evidence I need. However - any time I slip up - any time I mess up and my weapons, my abilities, or those of my enemies kill others ? I feel each of those like a knife in my soul.

(Silence)

Hardfought: It's hard, watching the news, seeing how they paint me. Makes me doubt myself a lot. But. I still think that if I could snap my fingers and kill every murderer, I would do it.

M1: Even if it killed you too?

Hardfought ( pauses, takes a long sip): Even if it killed me too, even If I was swept up in the hellfire... the world would be so much of a safer place. Cities cleansed of only the killers. No need to worry about someone murdering you, because the murderer is already dead. A respite, a breather before someone starts again. How long would that peace last? I don't know. Maybe there's a super somewhere with a power like that- they sure aren't using it though, and that 's definitely not one that I possess. innocents would be spared - another thing that I can't do no matter how I try - how hard I try only to remove the worthy, the worst that humanity has to offer. I've lost count of the CEOs, the corrupt government officials, the generals, the plantation owners, the supervillains and cartels. I've lost track of the numberless faces who I've had to deal with so far.

Idealy, you would phrase a wish like that not to include yourself, so you could include the fruits of your labors- killing all human traffickers, for example. I've never done that. A large evil removed - smaller impact, but still important. But, even If I could only kill all killers....yes. I think I would.

I miss peace - the peace of ignorance - but I can't rest until we have actual, lasting peace.

M1: So you will keep killing?

Hardfought: To spare the world the pain of bending under the weight of corruption, death, and sheer heartless abuse?

For now. Yes.

Well, the Mate is gone. I'll be moving on. Have a good day.

|Recording Ends.|

1.01

The reporter was found bound and gagged in a closet in the same building, largely unharmed, but startled. He refused to comment. He has had his memory of the encounter erased by Tabulas. He has been returned to his workplace. He will be monitored.

He did mention that Hardfought bled when stabbed. He did not have armor on. This information is pertinent, and has been forwarded on to the counsel.

1.02

Apparently a copy of the recording was left at the reporters workplace before we found the recording and the reporter- the recording has been disseminated- public opinion wavering. This may be problematic.

1.03

Our controlled news outlets publishing edited version of events- not perfect, but a large number of obedient individuals are buying in. No sign of activity from Hardfought for three days.

1.04

Printed papers of the reporters notes- not found in the initial search - found published in numerous outlets. Immediate action from the propaganda devision advised. US government under scrutiny from multiple nations due to released data and information. Send in Nightshade.

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weirdmarioenemies · 3 years

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Name: Podoboo

Debut: Super Mario Bros.

Before I start this post, I’d like to clear something up. Podoboo? Yes, Podoboo! I’m well aware these enemies are often called Lava Bubbles and that’s the name Nintendo has been trying to make standardised these days, but you know what? You can’t make me! Podoboo is a lot cuter, plus its the name I grew up with and changes in society scare me and cause me to lash out! Maybe Lava Bubble is closer to the Japanese name of just “Bubble”, but since when has that been a factor in any of the localised names? Do you really want to refer as Lakitu as “Jugemu”, huh? I’ll have you know one of my civil rights as a citizen of Wet Dry World is to refer to Mario enemies with whichever official name I please. Like it or leave it!

So this is a post about Podoboo. Do you like Podoboo? I certainly Podo-do! They are perhaps the most generic design you could give to a Mario enemy, a visibly Dangerous Thing with two eyes, but they have always charmed me! It’s the little things, like their distinct shape and the fact their pupils are somewhat wider than most obstacles like this. They bring me comfort in dire times. No matter what happens, I know Podoboo will be there, jumping at a set height in a particular spot of lava! Without them I would be nothing!

So simple is their design, isn’t it weird to think they started off as even simpler? The Podoboos in the first SMB game are completely blind, and with no eyes they may as well not be creatures at all! Of course, I’m very glad they are creatures, and their iconic behaviour was there from the start! They love to jump, of course! There is nothing they would rather be doing!

Awaken! As of Super Mario World, they have been gifted sight and are no longer blind to the sins of this world! Hurray! What do you think they see as they jump up and down? I’m surprised it doesn’t make them dizzy!

You’ll be glad to hear Podoboos have had an expansive career ever since, now with their new trademark eyes! After all, they are THE lava enemy! Anywhere you’ve got that tasty hot fire juice, these guys are soon to follow! Here they are in Super Mario RPG, called Sparkies here because they couldn’t make up their minds on a localized name and probably because they confused them with Li’l Sparkies. In Yoshi’s Story they even called them Spark Spooks! Geez, I’ll even take the name Lava Bubble over this! But doesn’t this render look nice and juicy?

Though any great career has its flops, and I have to say... I am usually the first to campaign for the unique designs from the first three Paper Marios, but I do not really like this Lava Bubble! This takes away from their distinct Mario-y charm and makes them look like a Fire Enemy you could find in any other game! Though in the RPGs they are able to float around without needing any lava, the ones in Super Paper Mario act just like the platformer ones, jumping around despite not looking like they should be doing that! Ok!

The Podoboo from New Super Mario Bros. DS just wasn’t trying very hard at all. Come on! They could’ve it a bit more justice than this!

Ah, there we go! The Podoboos in New Super Mario Bros. Wii decided to finally stop messing about and go back to what everyone loved from them in Super Mario World. I encourage experimenting with your identity, of course, but it’s good to be back, and now they are more mortal than ever! A single shot from an Ice Flower is enough to instantly vaporize a Podoboo in a puff of smoke, which is a bit scary! Are they really just pure fireballs that can be put out just like that? What a frightening life to live!

And in Super Mario Galaxy 2, they... hey, wait!! You took away their eyes again! Now you are just being inconsiderate. This outraged me as a kid! One of my most vivid memories of playing this game with my brother involved chanting “Podoboo rights! They deserve eyes!” because this upset me so much. Maybe my past as an activist is why I am so passionate about Mario enemies these days... I think I was 100 percent correct in hindsight, and now you know some of my backstory, too!

What relief it gave me to find out they were back to their usual selves in 3D Land! And they have been ever since, of course getting redesigned for the modern Paper Mario games and everything.

What’s this? Blue Podoboos! Podo-blues, even...! They show up in 3D World, in its incredibly cool-looking blue lava levels! It’s a well known fact that blue fire is objectively cooler than red fire, and it seems even the Podoboos wanted in on the action! Blue Lava is an actual phenomenon I’ve just learnt, though it’s a sulfuric fire rather than lava. Could it be that Podoboos, being made entirely of lava, adapt to their environment? I’m not sure...

As an aside, the blue Lava Bubbles aren’t to be confused with Lava Bubble (Blue), which are from Mario Galaxy and show up during King Kaliente’s fight! They hop around on the ground and have square-ish eyes, which is enough to make them different I guess!

The Podoboo’s next big appearance, in Super Mario Odyssey, was in Soup! Yes you heard me- Soup! Some delightfully pepto-bismol pink coloured soup, no less. This is why I wasn’t too sure about Podoboo’s being able to adapt to their environment earlier- the Luncheon Kingdom is a big soup volcano after all, but the fact these Lava Bubbles are able to live in it is very interesting!

There is simply no way I would talk about Odyssey here without talking about possibly its greatest achievement, the best game design decision ever made! After decades of begging from fans, they finally did the impossible- they made Podoboo playable! Now it is Podo-you! It is quite unlike the other captures in the game, since it keeps the Podoboo’s simple-looking eyes and simply adds onto it a nose and a mustache! You may very well be the world’s first Podoboo with a sense of smell! I wonder if that is a benefit or not. The constant smell of soup might be a bit overpowering.

Not only is this delightful, but it gives us more insight into the life of the humble Podoboo. First of all is the fact that they can swim around in lava, not just jump in one spot! Do you think they do this when we aren’t looking? I really hope so! Imagine a school of Podoboos swimming through molten lava in a castle’s moat. How delightful!

The Luncheon Kingdom is also home to a number of Lava cannons, marked with a Podoboo’s lovely face. These are cannons for only for Podoboos to launch themselves across the kingdom, from one body of lava to another! My question is whether this was technology made by Podoboos themselves or whether it was made by some generous Podoboo lovers as some lava equivalent to the Fish Tube. I think I would take either explanation!

And last I have a Podoboo appearance that even I, the world’s biggest Podoboo fan, didn’t know about! Paper Mario Color Splash has a Big Lava Bubble boss which speaks with you through a Shy Guy translator! It is quite upset that you barged into its volcano and decided to change the temperature. Mario, of course, kills it anyway, and also the Shy Guy translator without a second thought.

Still, just take a look at this sprite sheet! How cute! A little disappointing that they thinned out the eyes, but wow! They more than make up for it with this range of expressions! An angry Podoboo! A sad Podoboo! And my personal favorite is of course the shocked Podoboo with its assymetrical dot eyes, which might be one of the best things I’ve ever seen.

To be honest, I could talk about Podoboo forever! If you didn’t stop me, I would go on all day about their every appearance, but I kind of had to limit myself to some of the most relevant ones. I just think they’re neat! And cute! And silly! Besides, I’m Mod F Boy, so I’m basically obliged to talk about fireballs with eyes! But for now I must bid you Pod-adieu!

...Not! What, did you really believe me? Well you clicked the Keep Reading button, so you only have yourself to blame for this. Here I am talking about more Lava Bubbles from all over, because Lava Bubble’s career has taken it BEYOND the Mario series! Wow!

Podoboo’s had quite a few appearance in the Zelda series, appearing in Link’s Awakening, both the Oracle games, and even Cadence of Hyrule! Their Zelda wiki page is still called Podoboo instead of Lava Bubble, which means those Zelda fans have it better than we do. But wow, this is a pretty angry looking Podoboo! I wouldn’t mess with them!

Both the Oracle games even had a Podoboo Tower! Amazing! They look quite a lot like a Fire Snake, but they are simply a tower of Podoboos! Why don’t they do this more often?

Hm... The Cadence of Hyrule one doesn’t have any eyes. Come on guys! It’s 2019! Podoboos having eyes should be standard! Though they still made the conscious decision to call them “Podoboos” in 2019, so I can’t be too mad.

And they have even spread to Minecraft! In the Mario Mash-up Pack, they replace the Magma Cube enemies, and really there was no better choice for this. And now we have a Podoboo Cube! What more could possibly be left for Podoboo?

The answer is obvious- Podoboo in real life! Thanks to a certain Lego Mario set, Podoboo is now real and can be in your home for the small price of 19,99 US dollars. Please give a Podoboo a home today! Just make sure you don’t own anything flammable.

#mario #mario enemies #podoboo #lava bubble #mod f boy

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ectonurites · 3 years

Note

can anybody please explain the appeal of tim drake because ive been into the batfamily for a while now and tbh im really confused on why people like his character so much compared to the other robins. like they all have their own thing going on and he just... doesnt?

Have you read his Robin solo? Because if not and you want to try to like him but just don’t understand why people do, that’s what I’d recommend. That and like, Young Justice 1998.

Because Tim definitely... does have his own thing going on. Maybe not in the same way as the others, but like, there’s a reason he has a 183 issue long solo comic that ran for like 16 years: he was fun to read about!

But I will give some more specific thoughts on the subject as a Tim Drake Appreciator™ (this got long im sorry)

The appeal of Tim (especially early on Tim) is kinda the fact that he’s this more normal kid. For a while that is his ‘thing’. He was basically designed to be a self-insert (he definitely became more than that along the way, but from the start he was meant to be relatable) in a different way than how Dick and Jason had been before him.

Like the role of Robin from the start was this way to create a character young readers could identify with more, could see themselves in more. And Dick and Jason did that, but they still had this element to their lives and stories that was more... unattainable for the average reader. Dick was a circus prodigy, Jason was either also a circus prodigy if we remember pre-crisis or if we go with his post-crisis story he’s this street-wise orphaned kid who had a really tough life but still went on to be a hero anyways. Obviously those lives are relatable for some people, but those’re definitely not as broadly recognized as common upbringings especially not by DC trying to market to the ‘average’ kid/young teen.

But the creation of Tim changed the game a bit. Dick and Jason were these aspirations a kid could look to like ‘wow I want to be cool like that!’ but Tim was a Robin designed for kids to look at and go ‘wow, his problems and civilian life are just like mine AND he’s a hero, I want to be cool like that!’, ya know? Tim was... just a clever kid with an average life who managed to connect some dots and had enough drive to want to fix things he saw were a problem, he didn’t have the same kind of heightened drama backstory the others did. The Robins that came after Tim definitely didn’t have this idea of relatability in mind the same way either. Unfortunately Steph’s time as Robin was much more of a marketing ploy than an actual like... decision to make her Robin, so it’s hard to really fit her into this conversation. But Damian from the start was first of all initially created not to be Robin but just as the son of Talia and Bruce back in the 80’s, but when he was later reimagined into the character that would become Robin he had the whole ‘raised by and is the heir to the league of assassins and is the son of batman’ thing going on still. He just was not supposed to be relatable that same way, he was a character designed with different things in mind.

I really think it was more just DC’s 90′s era younger-audience comics in general that tried to push that relatability thing (like in YJ how Cissie even after quitting the team stays a major character as a civilian throughout, and the civilian aspect that’s super present in Bart’s 90s solo too, etc), but later in the 2000’s that idea was definitely pushed to the side in favor of... putting in even more dramatic superhero-y stuff.

And the other thing that’s... such a more normal thing but it actually made him unique here, was that Tim’s dad was still alive until like 2004 (so 15 years into Tim being around as a character). This gave Tim a lot more typical ‘family school girlfriends normal life etc’ problems on top of/in contrast with his superhero problems. These just manifested in very different ways than they could with the other Robins because of that unique situation with a living civilian parent who doesn’t know about hero stuff (until he did find out which lead to that whole Unmasked thing, but there was only the brief time around War Games & Identity Crisis where Jack knew Tim was actively Robin and he was... still alive) Tim also had his life at school expanded way more than most other Robins, like, he had such an extended supporting cast of civilian friends which is a really interesting thing to read about (and the fact that he hasn’t had that stuff since the New 52 I think really hurts his character)

And then related to that loss of his dad... Personally another thing about Tim that really interests me is how a lot of things were more... his choice. if that makes sense. A lot of characters in the Batfamily were struck with tragedy/extreme trauma before they became heroes and that’s what spurred them into this life of becoming heroes. Tim’s situation wasn’t like that at all! When he first got involved in everything during Lonely Place of Dying, the only tragedy he’d experienced was watching Dick’s tragedy happen. Which sure yes traumatic obviously, but that’s not the same as how pretty much all the other Bats had gone through these very personal losses or other sorts of very first-hand personal traumas that served as motivators. Tim didn’t start to experience those things until after he got involved in the hero life, and aside from his Mom’s death which was more of just an unrelated incident (that technically happened before he was officially Robin but it was during his time training to become Robin), pretty much all these other tragedies and things... would not have happened or been experienced by him had he not become Robin.

That’s not me placing blame on him or anything like that, because god no that’s not how that works, but it’s very interesting because from his point of view he definitely feels that guilt because he knows him being Robin played a role in a lot of it (Thinking specifically about in Adventure Comics #3 when Kon even says “I know what guilt does to you” to him like it’s... it’s a thing with him!). His dad was murdered because he was Robin. He only met Steph and started dating her through being Robin, and thus he would not have experienced the loss of his girlfriend dying like that had he not been Robin. Tim met both Conner and Bart through being Robin, and would not have had a personal connection to them when they died otherwise. The whole Bruce’s death thing after Final Crisis, like. I could go on honestly, that was only talking about losses not even his own experiences nearly getting killed, but yeah, all these personal tragedies were experienced by him specifically because he chose to bring himself into this life, which I think in turn plays into how throughout his comics you see him go from having this really optimistic view on things and being really hopeful to seeing him at that low point he reaches by the time of Red Robin. (thinking about that one post that points out how Tim started out in the 90′s as an optimist and Steph a cynic and by the time they were Red Robin and Batgirl in 2009 they had switched outlooks...)

I also think that him having had such a great team book with the original Young Justice can help contribute to people liking him. His friendships with the rest of the core four and that team in general are really compelling. (and that’s something like again when looking at the other Robins, while Dick had the Titans ofc, Jason never really found footing with a team outside of like one mission with the Titans and then We All Know How Damian’s Teen Titans Stuff Went. Steph also only ever really worked with a team outside the batfam on very brief occasions) and even though I’m not as big of a fan of the 2003 Teen Titans run that came after YJ, people who read Young Justice and also that could follow and be attached to those same characters over a pretty decently long period of time.

Idk man, I don’t really have an ultimate point here i’m just rambling. I can definitely understand not seeing the appeal to him right away (honestly i’ve been into Batfam since like 2013/2014 and Tim did not become one of my faves until 2020) especially if like... idk when you say ‘into the batfamily’ that can mean a lot of different things. If you’re reading more like the bigger events with the batfam sure Tim can kinda fade into the bg a bit, if you’re more talking about fanon the fanon version of him is prettyyyyy uhhhhh not really the same as how he was in pre New 52 canon, if you’re mainly reading New 52 era Batfam stuff then that Tim I also don’t understand the appeal of bc thats Not My Boy, if you’re interested in a different member primarily and only familiar with Tim when he shows up in things focused on that other character then it’s easy to not really understand the appeal right away bc he’s more there to support that character rather than shine in his own right.

I think it’s also worth mentioning he’s just not everybody’s cup of tea, and that’s totally fine. Like, these are fictional characters and sometimes you just will vibe with a character and sometimes you won’t! idk if this helped at all or even made sense. but yeah. I just think he’s neat 😌

#Anonymous

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thr-333 · 3 years

Text

Drastic Measures- Part 8

@daminette-december2019-2020

~Wind~

It’s just a nice day in Gotham, like always.

Ao3

First< Previous > Next

--------------

“You know what?” Ladybug says to Chat as they both take shelter from the wind, “I really hate Gothams weather,”

“It’s fine Ladybug,” Chat jokes, daring to look around the building only to hide again with severely windswept hair, "Just don't go into hibernation,”

“I might just watch me,”

“You there!” they both look over to see an officer pointing a gun at them, “Leave! Let the pros handle this!”

“Excuse me! We are the pros!” Ladybug snaps despite their cowering behind a building from wind.

“But if you want to try take over your welcome to it!” Chat Noir yells, grabbing Ladybug and leaving their shelter before they got shot. They get thrown back into the wind, blown back a few steps. They hold onto each other working together to reach the Akuma hiding in a self-made tornado.

“Do you think someone was just as mad at the weather as I am!?” Ladybug yells over the wind, trying to throw her yo-yo only for it to get blown back in her face.

“Well, I have to say this is kind of a step-down!” Chat shouts, trying to poke his staff through the tornado getting jerked to the side, only saved by Ladybug catching him, “Stormy Weather could control all sorts of weather,”

“Yeah and almost started several global catastrophes!”Ladybug pulls him back down to the ground, both crouching down.

“Well, maybe we need some luck before there's another!”

“You got it,” Ladybug nods, gearing up to throw her yoyo, “Lucky charm!”

The lucky charm is immediately blown away.

“... Maybe we should have done that further away,” Chat muses.

“You think so?” Ladybug sighs, “Maybe the city road maintenance could use some bad luck?”

“Oh I get what you're putting down,” Chat grins, “Cata-”

“Help!” The look towards the cry, a couple of officers and their car getting pulled up to the sky.

“Looks like they took you up on your offer,” Ladybug deadpans, running over to them with a tailwind.

“I was trying to make a joke!” Chat Noir jumps up catching the two and getting carried off by the wind.

“Trying,” Ladybug throws her yoyo out wrapping it around Chat and pulling him and the officers down.

“Well how about we try making a new manhole?” Chat Noir places the officers on the ground, they duck down getting pressed to the road by the winds.

“That's all you Kitty!” Ladybug shelters the police long enough they can grab onto a lamp post.

“Cataclysm!” Chat Noir hits the ground, lowering the level of destruction to a smaller radius. He keeps it activated until the hole is big enough for them to drop down into. Ladybug sticks close to him as they tunnel under the tornado.

“Do we know where the Akuma is?”

“Why don’t you brainstorm?” Chat says with slight irritation, “Kinda trying to focus,”

“Sorry,” Ladybug cringes, keeping quiet for him.

“Here should be good,” Chat Noir says, turning to point his hand up and make their way back to the surface. They pop up in the eye of the tornado everything calm but wind gushing around them. Marinette throws out her yo-yo unimpeded catching the floating Akuma's legs and pulling them to the ground.

“YoU!” The Akuma lashes out at her with a fan, a slight flick, and Ladybug is blown back into the tornado.

“Chat! The fan!” Ladybug tries to pull herself back into the calm but the winds are too strong, she only prevents not being blown away by her yoyo still wrapped around the Akuma's legs.

“On it! Cataclysm repeat!” He calls on it again grabbing the fan and turning it to dust. The storm calms and Ladybug lands on her feet getting the leverage she needs to grab the butterfly and purify it.

“Bye bye little butterfly,”

“No to be the bearer of bad news,” Chat Noir half whispers to her, “But we're out of the pot and into the fire,”

Ladybug looks around to see the police starting to form a shaky barricade around them, it's easy enough to evade if the batclan wasn't blocking every viable exit.

“So police or Batman?”

“I honestly can’t deal with his high and mighty routine right now,” Ladybug sighs still chilled to the bone from the wind, “Police,”

She walks over with purpose to the man she had researched was the commissioner; Gordon. On her way she finds a spotted item lying on the side of the road. So that's where her lucky charm went. A fan, cute.

“Miraculous ladybug!” Ladybug stands before commissioner Gordon, whom she knew had to have dealings with Batman, he marvels at the repairing ladybugs until she gets his attention, “You want to talk sir?”

“You finally want to talk to me?” He asks instead, almost good naturally if tired like he was used to it. Definitely had dealings with Batman.

“If I wanted to hear get out of my city and leave this to me I would just record him,” Ladybug gets Chat to chuckle, not the commissioner but she can tell he wants to, “What did you want to talk about?”

“Your a hero unaffiliated with the Justice League or any government,” The commissioners lays out, “In other words, you're a vigilante and I don’t know if you can be trusted with Gotham's safety, Batmans been around for years he’s a vigilante but he does protect the city, so why are you here?”

“I understand your concerns sir, but unfortunately this isn’t a matter of borders or what city each hero protects, the villain hawkmoth can only be stopped by us or other miraculous users, so even if you dont approve we will continue to operate even if we have to fight the police along the way,” Ladybug says with all the confidence, hoping to also portray that she really dosent want to, “As for trust we operated in Paris for years, we have the trust to the citizens and officials, if you want a reference call the chief of police or the Mayor we have worked under the approval of both,”

“I will, thank you Ladybug,”

“No problem,” Her earring beeps, “Now if you’ll excuse us, bug out,”

They jump up, using their skills to reach the rooftops.

“Oh man I forgot about this guy,” Chat complains as Batman is right there when they land.

“Ladybug-”

“Yes leave the city, yes I’m not needed here, thank you I’ve heard it before,” Ladybug tries to just walk past him but Robin lands in her way, “You know we have to stop meeting like this, wouldn't you prefer a nice dinner date?”

Robin makes a choking sound which must be offended. Chat laughs, coming to lean on her shoulder.

“We’ve traded places bug-a-boo,”

“Heh,” She smirks at the old nickname, “bird-a-boo,”

Robin completely freezes, giving them the chance to run by, he doesn't even react, until she calls.

“Later bird-a-boo~”

It’s an interesting reaction.

---

“You seem distracted,” Marinette tells Damian, both working separately together in their study.

“I’M NOT!”

“Oh forgive me, clearly you are completely relaxed,” Marinette rolls her eyes, pinning a new design to the wall.

“Heh there must be a pretty girl in his life,” Adrien smirks from the seat he stole from her earlier.

“Why are you even here?!” Damian snaps, taking the papers Adrien was shifting through.

“You didn’t deny it~”

“Oh is there someone?” Marinette ignores the sick feeling for plastered cheerfulness, “Tell us about her,”

“It’s none of your business!” Damina snatches some more papers from the desk and storms out, blushing all the while.

“Don’t be embarrassed!” Marinette calls after him letting go of her gratefulness she didn’t have to hear about her, she says quieter, “I bet she’s super cool,”

“I’m noticing a pattern with you Marinette,” Adrien hums, her sketchbook now taking up his attention.

“Adrien I was madly in love with you for like a year and you didn’t realize so I highly doubt you can notice a thing,” Marinette takes her book from him, whacking him lightly with it.

“Right back at you bug,” Adrien tries to snatch it back from her only to get pushed back.

“Flirting doesn't count,” Marinette rolls her eyes, putting her book safely on the shelf, “No one can tell if you’re serious,”

“Is that so~” Adrien hums, “What about Robin?”

“I’m not flirting with him,” Marinette rolls her eyes, gathering up some fabric to start her next project.

“You so are ,” Adrien accuses, outraged.

“I am not!” She slams the fabric down on the desk and turns to him.

“So are,” Adrien smirks sinking back into the seat.

“I don’t even know him,” Marinette rolls her eyes again it's scary how much that's becoming second nature at this point.

“You could~”

“Adrien!”

--------

No tag list sorry, I’m horrible at keeping track of them :P

#miraculous #miraculous ladybug fic #miraculous ladybug #miraculous fanfic #MLB #ML #ml fic #Marinette #miraculous marinette #badass marinette #maribat #daminette

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stawscweam · 3 years

Text

A New Golden Age | MegaStar

Hello! This is my first ever fanfic! I’ve loved MegaStar since I was a kid, so this just feels like fate, you know?

I dedicate this jumble of words to my darling friend @sivictis uwu 💜💜💜

Here it is on AO3!

A new dawn settled on the recently rebuilt city of Kaon. Citizens stirred online as rays of light flooded their berth-chambers. As they awoke one-by-one, excitement coursed through all of their circuits for this day was of great importance; it was the coronation of Megatron and Starscream as the supreme rulers of Cybertron.

The official ceremony had been put on hold for quite some time after the resolution of the Great War. The restoration of their war-torn planet held upmost precedent after the execution and imprisonment of the defeated Autobots.

Justice was dealt swiftly to their high command and the helm of Optimus Prime decorated the entrance to the grand capitol. The remaining Autobots were used as prison labour to bolster the ranks of the reconstruction effort.

Cybertronians that had fled when the civil war destroyed their world returned upon news of the war’s end and were challenged with two choices: assist their new Decepticon brethren in rejuvenation or face the consequences. Most chose the former.

The damage dealt upon their planet was great, but the mechs of Cybertron were determined to make their leaders’ dream of renewal a reality. Unity and hope flowed through their processors as they tirelessly worked to birth a new Golden Age.

As their work bore fruit, Kaon surpassed the prestige of Iacon of old. Its streets bustled with activity and purpose as pubs, medical centres, cultural hubs, and businesses of all kinds blossomed into fruition. Emancipated from the archaic nonsense of Functionism, bots from all walks of life were free to choose their vocation and hobbies.

At the epicentre of the great city-state stood Kolkular, the headquarters of the Decepticons and now proud capital of Cybertron. The metallic walls of the fortress shone brightly as the sun continued to rise. Its residents already up and about to prepare for the big day. The grand hall needed to be pristine and magnificent for nothing but perfection was acceptable in the optics of a certain Seeker.

----

In his shared berth-chamber with Megatron, Starscream fussed in annoyance as his aides fumbled in polishing him, their servos teeming with nervousness and joy at being chosen to assist one of their leaders. However, the prime reason for their joint clumsiness was due to them ogling the new frame of the jet.

Sleek, aerodynamic lines of gold and scarlet graced their vision, causing their cooling fans to awkwardly hum in the spacious room. A rush of apologies left their mouths as they quickly calmed their anxieties, submerged their amorous thoughts, and properly applied the polish to his body.

Megatron shook his helm in amusement at the antics of his Conjunx as he overheard the commotion from the balcony of their room. With his arms clasped behind his back, he peered across the waking city and mulled over the state of his own body.

He still possessed the Ore-13 empowered frame that assisted in their victory over Optimus Prime and his accursed Autobots. The peace he had dreamed of in Towards Peace would soon be achieved and then and only then would he rid himself of the rail gun currently attached to his right servo.

The scars and dents that littered his body were a grim reminder of the pain and loss his Decepticons endured during the long course of the war. This battered frame of his would be a living symbol to represent an era of hostility and strife that will never ravage their world and his people again.

Cybertron would flourish under the combined rule of Starscream and himself. After all, it was their mediation that had led to the destruction of their steady rivals. Optimus Prime and his cohorts could not have foreseen the both of them working together in perfect unison and that was their fatal mistake.

Megatron knew long ago that with Starscream at his side, no goal was out of their reach and that the universe would be theirs to conquer.

“Are you finished brooding or should I come back?”

Megatron’s helm turned slightly to the beautiful sight of Starscream glistening in the sunlight as the jet strutted up to smirk at his beloved bondmate. Dainty claws grasped the balcony’s railing as he settled beside Megatron.

By the unmasked hunger in those piercing optics, Starscream figured the bumbling fools must have done a somewhat decent job at polishing his frame. He might have even thanked them if he had not already dismissed them.

“I wasn’t brooding,” Megatron clarified. “I was thinking.”

“About?”

“You.”

“Oh, really?” Starscream raised an optic ridge. “And what about me? Do tell.”

“It was your brilliance and cunning that secured our victory, our future. Look, Starscream,” Megatron gestured to their view of the city. “Look at our world. Cybertron has never experienced true freedom of this magnitude. We did this and we will crush all those that stand before us. Together.”

“You big sap.” Starscream snorted with a roll of his optics but could not suppress the smile forming on his face. Megatron leaned down as a silent request, tilting the Seeker’s chin up with his servo. Starscream obliged him by lifting himself up on his heel struts and locked their lips in a passionate kiss.

Their EM fields intertwined in a swirl of fierce love as they parted slightly, helms resting comfortably on each other. Their optics shut as their sparks pulsed in tandem, their bond strengthening with each beat.

Despite his lover’s affinity for the dramatics, the jet could not object to the results of their reconciliation. How comical it was for the war to end simply when they ceased their incessant bickering and acknowledged each other’s faults and strengths.

They both came to understand the other’s solution to their four million stellar cycles old problem and devised a devilish plan that utilised their shared prowess in deception. Their union produced a harmonic serenity that washed over their troops and solidified the complete annihilation of the Autobots.

A give and take entity slowly formed between them that burst into a cohesion they had not experienced since the beginning of the war. Their mutual commitment to the Decepticon cause culminated into the Cybertron that laid before them.

No want, no unhappiness, no dissent.

Peace through tyranny.

“My Lords, it is time.”

A humble Decepticon scout bowed in reverence to the now reluctantly parting couple. Megatron reached down to grasp Starscream’s servo and placed a gentle kiss upon it. The jet huffed in faux indignation, still unaccustomed to such blatant expressions of affection. However, he could not deny how it warmed his spark to immeasurable degrees.

Servos clasped; the two leaders followed the scout to the grand hall of Kolkular. It was clear to Megatron—much to his chagrin—that no expense was spared to lavishly decorate the hall to the specific demands of his Conjunx. The subtle grin resting on the face of Starscream was proof enough that their aides had satisfied the exceptionally picky Seeker.

As they walked to their designated positions by their thrones, Megatron and Starscream waved to their subjects still servo in servo. The hall was packed to the brim for no mech of Kaon was barred from witnessing the crowning of their beloved rulers, the roar of their cheers deafening all in attendance.

Starscream had mused that after their long and arduous effort to reconstruct a portion of their planet, the mechs of Cybertron deserved a lively respite. Megatron steeled himself for the inevitable boasting of his mate after the event transpired.

Arriving at their destination, the two lovers stood before their thrones and faced the crowd. The previous thunderous cacophony settled to a hush of whispers and soon complete silence. Those who could not physically attend the ceremony also muted their conversations as they watched the televised proceedings.

“Citizens of Cybertron and the Constellate,” Megatron began. “This past stellar cycle has been a gruelling journey to restore what was once lost. Today, we commemorate your valiant efforts in rebuilding Kaon!”

“Though there is still much work to be done,” Starscream added gently with a practised smile. “The full revival of Cybertron is well within our grasp now!”

“Hone this fervour, this drive and Cybertron will be the shining beacon of our glorious Decepticon Empire! We will continue our dominion over the lesser species and take our rightful place as masters of the known universe and beyond!”

“Under our united might and brilliance, we will lead you all to a new galactic order that will crush the anti-mechanical prejudice that has swept across the cosmos. Stand with us for it has never been a better time to be a Decepticon!”

“All hail Cybertron!” They declared as one.

A wave of applause and hollers rumbled across the masses in the grand hall and all of Kaon. Pride and determination charged their frames as they repeated the final message of their lords with ecstatic zeal. No longer subjugated to a cruel caste system that oppressed their liberties, they were free to usher in a new era of Cybertronian supremacy and they owed their full gratitude to Megatron and Starscream.

The cheers and adulation of the crowd continued as the rulers of Cybertron seated themselves on their thrones. The two assistants that had polished the radiant Seeker, returned on each side of Megatron and Starscream, both holding a bejewelled crown resting on a tasselled pillow. The duo’s shaking servos successfully crowned their lords and the persistent ovation erupted into a booming uproar.

With a deep bow, the twin mechs left the stage. As they departed, Megatron shifted his discerning gaze to his Conjunx. A buzz of electricity surged through Starscream as he felt the heated attention of his beloved once again and lessened his posturing for the crowd and cameras to address his other half.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because you’re stunning.”

“Would you quit that!?” The jet hissed, failing to stop energon from tinting his cheeks. “You’re insufferable, you know that?”

“Only for you, my dear Starscream.”

“Is that so? Well, two can play at that game, dear Megatron.” Leaning over and up to the much larger mech, Starscream cupped Megatron’s face between his claws and kissed him. Hoots and whistles reverberated everywhere as the corulers of Cybertron shamelessly canoodled.

The bonded pair separated slightly, crowned helms mere centimetres from each other.

“I love you, you sentimental oaf.”

“I love you, too.”

#megastar #baby's first fanfic #i like corny ass shit what can i say #i referenced a lot of my favourite idw issues if that wasn't blatantly obvious. i'm not a subtle individual *wheezes*#shoutout to Goosey for helping me come up with their coronation speeches! we're still fighting at the Dennys tho #tf shit #my fic

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aspicystrum · 3 years

Text

Embarrassingly, last night I wrote an exceedingly long and sickeningly heartfelt email to some Netflix people (executives? Idk) based on advice from #saveteenagebountyhunters. It felt important, so I decided to share.

Hi there, friend.

I don't usually do this, because writing in to a studio about a show that you just watched seems a bit over the top, and potentially just a drop of salt water in a river that somebody has already built a bridge to get over.

However, on the off chance that this email might make a difference, I just want to say that it would be really, really, super-mega-cool if you guys changed your minds about renewing Teenage Bounty Hunters for another season. I finally got around to watching it this week, and I want to firstly, congratulate you for such a stellar piece of work, and secondly, implore you not to leave it unfinished. Not only is it fantastic and hilarious, but I also think it's kind of important, and I'm going to apologise in advance for the length of time I'm going to spend on telling you why.

I'm definitely not a teenager anymore, but I was definitely a young christian questioning her sexuality when I was a teenager, and there was just nothing remotely like this on TV at that time. If there had been, I think it might have been a bit easier for me to figure myself out. Much easier, even. I dislike clichés, so I don't like that I'm basically saying the same thing that most queer people over 30 are saying about new media featuring queer representation, but the thing is, there's a reason that we're saying it. And Tropes Aren't Bad. The only thing that was around when I was growing up that had any gay women in it was porn and the L Word. Buffy too I guess, but I never got into it when it was airing (I'm not even sure if I'd have been allowed to watch it, to be frank) and later on, I wasn't interested in the drama and heartbreak. And of course, because I was a young christian, I thought porn was bad (I mean, it's terrible if you're looking for accurate romantic representation, but it's certainly not morally wrong like I thought it was) and because I don't live in the US, I never came across the L Word until I managed to pirate it in university. And while the L Word was massive and so important for representation and visibility... Honestly, I never really liked it. I didn't relate to a bunch of lesbians having sex and being bitchy in LA.

But Teenage Bounty Hunters? Shit. That would have been young Alex's obsession. Or lifeline. Cup of tea. Addiction. Breath of air while feeling like I was drowning? I don't know. Pick one. All of the above. I grew up going to an Anglican, semi-private high school. So while lesbianism wasn't wrong per se; (God still loved the gays - they weren't wrong for loving who they did) it definitely had to be wrong for me. Because it also sure as hell wasn't good. It was definitely no path to happiness. Lesbian was an insult that you used against girls you didn't like on the opposing soccer team. It wasn't until I went on exchange to France when I was 17 that I met girls who were out and proudly, wonderfully, sweetly dating. It's not even like it was illegal or anything, or that the LGBT+ community weren't tirelessly working to be visible and represented. I live in New Zealand. Generally, we're a pretty open, progressive, liberal country. I like to think that most of the time kiwis make pretty sensible decisions in terms of governance (though, believe me, there's always room for improvement). But, there's a difference between what's allowed, and what's socially acceptable. Especially in high school. Especially when you bring religion into the conversation. Or politics. It just wasn't done. Even in public school, you'd be asking to be an outsider.

So I can't satisfactorily express how incredible it was for me to experience the relationship and character arcs of April and Sterling. A couple of staunchly christian girls, falling in love and unashamed of that. Albeit fucking scared. Their storyline resonated with my queer little soul. I was Chapel Prefect in my final year at school. I was an overachiever like April, and I had no idea how potentially gay I was, like Sterling. I wanted to kiss boys and sort of ignored all the crushes I had on the girls I went to school with. I wanted to be a good student and above all, a good person. I believed in a god. In fact, I wanted to believe in a purpose for existence and God so badly, that I chose to continue to believe, even while I wanted to kill myself in my first and second year of university because I felt like I was a bad student and a bad person. I still believe and it still keeps me alive from time to time.

All this is a very dramatic and unfortunately slightly sad way to say that you've got something incredibly special in Teenage Bounty Hunters. And that's just from one perspective. There's so much else that the show brings to the table. So much that it has the potential to. I could talk about racism, or adoption, or classism, or so many other things that I don't really feel I have the experience or understanding to give voice to, and do them justice, but you get the picture.

Finally, I just want to say, I think I got my first recommendation for this show after you'd actually officially cancelled it. And it wasn't from your algorithm, it was from a male co-worker. Somebody I wouldn't have expected to recommend something like this show. Both based on judgements from before and after watching it. And I'm not going to lie, I heavily judged the title when I heard him talk about it, because I thought it sounded pretty frivolous and mindless. But certainly after searching for the show (I'm kind of shocked it was never recommended to me actually), and watching the trailer, I was immediately interested, because it's fucking hilarious. Now, after watching it I'm curious to know what he liked about the show too. So if your algorithm is designed to target viewers you think might be in a show's intended demographic, I feel like it needs tweaking. Also, I feel like you need to give more than two months grace-time for a show after releasing it, before you decide to cancel it. It's kind of tragic finding out about and deciding watching a show even though you know it's cancelled and then having your suspicions confirmed about you loving it. Very Fox and Firefly. Congrats, I guess?

Anyway, I do genuinely want to say thank you for the work that you do and the joy that you've brought me and others through Netflix. I do hope the decision does get reversed, but it is a small hope.

If you made it this far, thank you very much for reading all of this. You're clearly a generous person with your time.

Sincerely,

Alex

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sally-mun · 3 years

Text

OKAY BITCHES ON TO PART 2!

Also don’t forget to check out Part 1 if you haven’t yet!

British

Okay so maybe it’s in poor taste to start the British section with dolls I’m not actually sure are British, but fuck it. The one on the left is a doll I’m reasonably sure I got from a British seller, and the one on the right seems to just be a scaled-up version of it, SO. That’s what I’m going with.

No joke, the left doll is my favorite Sonic plushie EVER. It’s so incredibly fluffy and the proportions are just right and it’s really well-made and AUUGHH I LOVE HIM. Interestingly the doll on the right is made of the same uber-fuzzy material, but it doesn’t have as much of a fluffy effect because of the larger scale. Also the shoe stripes are ribbons for some reason, which makes them stand out from all the other dolls.

So this is from a line of dolls that, as far as I’ve ever seen, are simply known as “Europe prize” plushies. I don’t know if they were actual prizes for some sort of game or claw machine or whatnot, but that’s how I tend to see them listed. These dolls are REALLY nicely made and incredibly cute, like way more than usual. I also have the Knuckles from this set, but he doesn’t live in this net so he’s not pictured here.

I know this line also included Sonic (obviously), Amy, and Shadow, but I’m not sure who else. I’d REALLY like to get the others someday, but I don’t have much hope for that, since they’re long since out of production and prices just keep going up as everyone cashes in on nerd collector culture.

This doll is fine enough on its own (if a bit fearful in the eyes), but what’s really odd about it is that it’s like literally twice as tall as the other dolls in its line, for some reason. I have the Sonic and Tails from this set, and their sizes both match each other, but for some reason Knuckles is a tall boi?? Oh well.

I believe this set also includes an Eggman doll, but I’ve never seen it before.

I wish I’d thought to showcase it better in this photo, but the tag on the bottom of Sonic’s right foot here is the real spotlight of this doll. I don’t know much about the background of this doll, but i know that tag on his foot is what distinguishes him from other Sonic dolls, and collectors go NUTS for this guy. I remember missing out on one years ago because the shipping was too costly (it’s always been rough importing from Britain, but it used to be a lot harder), and for a while I thought I’d never get one. Oddly this one that I did eventually nab is the only one I’ve ever seen with suction cups. I’d like to hope that one day I could get the one that doesn’t have them, but I’m not holding my breath.

Following the last doll, I’m sure a lot of you are immediately noticing that this Tails also has the tag on his foot, albeit a very faded one. This doll is also super odd, because EVERY other time I’ve ever seen this doll before, it has NOT had the foot tag! This one is the only one I’ve encountered with the tag, and I didn’t even know it had it until it arrived in the mail. This doll is also about 50% bigger than the Sonic doll with the foot tag, maybe he goes with the non-suction cup’d Sonic plushie? I don’t know off the top of my head how big that Sonic is supposed to be, so it’s possible! Or maybe these dolls have nothing to do with each other, and I bought some weird anomaly. Definitely one of the weirder Tails plushies in my collection.

Australian

EASILY the ugliest doll I will ever own, short of maybe obtaining the Tails that matches this set. (Trust me, the Tails is REALLY FUCKING UGLY.) I have such mixed feelings on this lil guy because, as many of you already know, this is one of the elusive Sega World Sydney dolls, which means it’s EXTREMELY rare and thus meant to be treasured... and yet holy shit guys how did you fail so hard on this doll. I mean FOR FUCK’S SAKE HE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE SOCKS! OR FINGERS!! There were plenty of Sonic plushies in the world by the time this doll was created, and they all socks and fingers, let alone better designed faces. I dunno man, I don’t know how to reconcile how ugly this doll is.

And then there were two.

Those of you that’ve been following me for years have probably already seen these before, but fuck it, here they are again. The Sega World Sydney plushies are the ONLY official Sally plushies to exist, and like the Sonic one, it’s really difficult to reconcile how incredibly ugly they are. I mean I can at least cut them some slack with the faces I guess, because the one on the left isn’t terrible I suppose. I think the fact that she doesn’t have hands is really stupid, but I mean, if Sonic didn’t get fingers I guess I’m not surprised Sally didn’t either. No, the thing that really gets me about these Sally dolls is the hair. It’s hard to tell from this angle but it’s.... bad. Oh my god it’s so fucking bad. It looks like she had a bad incident with a weedwacker. WHO THE FUCK DID THEY HIRE TO DESIGN THESE PLUSHIES?!

Whatever, I don’t turn away official Sally merch. Vests exist for these dolls, but as you can see I don’t own them for either of these two. I do have a third, smaller Sally that DOES have her vest, but she doesn’t live in this net. Maybe another time!

More bad Sally hair, this time without legs because she’s a hand puppet. She probably has the worst hair of all of the Sally dolls I personally own, it’s very clumpy and matted. The others’ hair is at least still fluffy.

I’ll let the fact that she doesn’t have hands slide here, being a puppet at all, but even then it’s only because I’m feeling generous. There’s no reason she shouldn’t have had them.

SOOOO not technically a plushie, but it was in the net and I’m doing Sally items right now anyway, so fuck it. This is a mini-backpack, but the fabric is so furry that it’s pretty much impossible to get a clear picture. I left the strap there sticking out just to help give some idea of what shape you’re even looking at.

I can’t remember what I paid for this, and honestly I don’t care, because it’s so unique and I’ve never seen another one since.

Bootlegs

A friend of mine sent me this as a surprise a few years ago because he thought it was cute, and I definitely have to say it’s one of the more fascinating items in my collection. Most of the time bootleg merch is trying to imitate something official to confuse the buyer, but so far as I know this is completely original! I love it because it’s what I imagine Sonic would look like if he were an Animal Crossing character. The most bizarre detail of all, though, is that the tush tag has the logo for Detective Conan instead of Sonic the Hedgehog. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY.

This is a fake version of the Fang/Nack doll from Sonic the Fighters, but honestly, I don’t mind at all that it’s a bootleg because holy shit this doll is higher quality than some of my official ones! (I’M LOOKING AT YOU, SEGA WORLD.) According to the pictures I’ve seen, I think he’s actually even better quality than the original he’s copying!

It’s hard to describe just how nice this doll is, because the picture seriously does not do him justice. The stitching is perfectly clean, the proportions are absolutely perfect, the fabric is soft and high-quality, and oh my god the HAT!! The hat is AMAZING, it’s actually solid and holds its shape VERY well! The same goes for his tail too, on that note. Plushies with long tails tend to have trouble maintaining their shape, but this doll’s tail is really well done. He also has a much longer muzzle than most dolls of this time were willing to use, which again helps his proportion and overall accuracy. I don’t give one single shit that this doll isn’t official, I love him so fucking much! <3 <3 <3

Other Dolls

What can I say, I fucking LOVE Nick Wilde from Zootopia, and this is one of the best dolls of him I’ve ever seen. It’s actually really nicely made (they put a LOT of work into his shirt), and he’s very soft and huggable. Also, bless that smarmy expression, they got it just right.

Jumbo Tom Nook! This is the only jumbo plushie of him I’ve ever seen, so I’m glad I was able to nab it. The fabric is oddly shiny though, and I have no idea why?? I have several Tom Nook plushies from different doll lines, and I’ve never seen another one that’s shiny like this.

Decided to picture these guys together because why the fuck not. I apologize for the lack of clarity, but I’ve never been willing to open their bags. I want them pristine~

One thing I think is cool about the Undertale dolls is that there’s so much uniqueness put into each one. They all have differently shaped tags to reflect their individual personalities, and the plastic bags they come in have different patterns as well. The fabric patterns all completely unique to each one as well, so they’re not all clones of each other (especially with Papyrus).

You can actually still buy all of these guys right now on the Fangamer website! They’re pricey, but you get a quality that makes the price worth it, and you get a discount if you buy them together!

Vault Boy from Fallout, and for some reason I’m just now realizing that I don’t know what vault number is on his back. I feel like a terrible fan, FORGIVE ME. He has also never come out of his bag, so sorry for viewing difficulties here as well.

Companion cube ‘fuzzy dice’ for the car. This is one instance in which I have actually not used the car-related plushie in my car, as at the time I got this it was VERY difficult to get companion cube merch of any kind (these dice were actually a compromise with myself because I still couldn’t afford a regular cube), and after the work I put in to find these I definitely wasn’t going to risk them in my car! Just as well anyway, because they’re awfully big and would’ve been pretty cumbersome to look past.

...I did, however, put these in my car for a while. These are fuzzy D20 dice, because come on, if you’re going to hang dice in your car and have the option to use these, how can you not?? It definitely got a lot of compliments, even from people that simply saw them through the window. I didn’t even play tabletop games yet at the time, I just really liked them~

AAAAND THAT’S IT~ At least, that’s it for this net! Maybe I’ll do this again with the other nets sometime, if you guys would like to see more. I do have another one that also very much needs a dusting, so we’ll see!

Thanks for tuning in!!

#IT IS COMPLETE #I hope you guys like it!#please let me know what you think because this was a lot of work!

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eternallyyoungjustice · 3 years

Text

Wherever the Winds Take You: Chapter 12

A/N: Another chapter! Yay! Thank you to those of you who read/liked the last chapter! This is definitely just a fun little thing I like to write in my free time for brainrot reasons, so knowing that even a couple of you read and enjoy this, genuinely makes me so incredibly happy! So thank you! Anyways, not much else to report! Hope y’all enjoy!

Star City

July 22

07:50

The sun was already risen by the time Roy Harper swung his body through his window and into his apartment. His new black, grey, and red uniform stretched awkwardly as the material hadn’t yet been fully worn in, but it was still much easier for agility compared to the old tunic.

When the ginger looked around his apartment, however, he was shocked to find it much cleaner than it had been when he left for patrol. The dishes he had left out in the living room were gone, everything looked as if it had been dusted and vacuumed, and the room smelled faintly of citrus. For a moment, the archer thought that perhaps he had swung through the wrong window. But then he looked to his old, mishappenly stitched, leather couch and all became clear when he found the sleeping form of a familiar young brunette. She was curled up under a threadbare blanket and wearing a pair of sleeping pants that he was pretty sure were his, so he assumed she must have been here for a while.

Walking towards the sleeping girl, Roy rid himself of his mask and weapon, placing both on the coffee table as he knelt down beside her.

“Lin’?” He spoke softly, grasping her arm and running his thumb along her skin. For a moment, she did nothing. But when Roy spoke her name again, her nose twitched and a small groan emanated from her throat as Lina’s face rolled into the pillow underneath her head. Roy smirked and gently shook her arm. “Come on Frenchie, time to get up. It’s almost…” he checked the clock on the opposite wall, “4 in the afternoon in France, you should be up and at’em.”

Another moan, followed by a muffled. “Que sont les fuseaux horaires? Je ne sais pas!”

Roy stopped, hesitated, then said “yea...you know I barely passed sophomore year French by the skin of my teeth, right? I can say ‘I’m a baguette' and that’s pretty much it.”

Lina sighed and sat up slowly, her eyes drooping as she tried to run the sleep out of them. “Good morning, Roy.” She smiled sleepily.

Roy smiled back at her, rubbing her matted hair before plopping down on the couch. “Good morning to you too, Lina.”

“Sorry for coming in while you were on patrol, I needed a quiet place to sleep.”

“Trust me kiddo, I’m pretty used to it at this point.” Roy shrugged. “Everything alright?”

Lina nodded, “Kaldur and I were on patrol in Gotham until two a.m. Eastern last night...I don’t know how you guys do it. Patrols are very much not for me, I have learned.” She explained. “But then, after all that, my brother came home drunk and started very loudly talking about a party he went to last night.”

“Oh Calvin, you bastard.” Roy gave her a sympathetic look. “And I take it the, uh, ‘Cave’ you guys called it, wasn’t any good?”

Lina yawned as she stretched her arms up to arch her back, “Superboy doesn’t sleep very well, so he gets up early and watches static on the TV, and since my bedroom is right next to the living area…”

Roy nodded, looking around his apartment to study the unfamiliar cleanliness, “Well you know you’re welcome here anytime, even though the cleaning wasn’t expected.”

As Lina dropped her arms, she gave Roy a look. “The room was dirty, I didn’t feel like sleeping next to a bunch of dirty dishes.”

Roy couldn’t help but chuckle. “I swear sometimes you’re like if Dinah and Nanny McPhee had a lesbian lovechild…”

“Nanny McPhee? I do not know this woman...” Lina asked with a raised eyebrow, and she leaned over to look into a bag that was sitting on the floor by her head. Roy watched as she rummaged through her bag, before pulling out her uniform. Her hands went to the thigh of the clothing, identifying one of the hidden utility pouches, and opened it to reveal a compartment fitted to house an emergency dose of her medication.

“It’s a movie, don’t worry about it.”

Lina hummed, pulling her medication out. As she injected herself with it, her eyes shut and she focused on the feeling of cool ice flooding her veins. Once the syringe was empty, Lina took it out of her arm and placed it back in its case. Then she looked around, suddenly appearing much less sleepy.

“What time is it? I will make us food.”

“It’s about 8, I think.” Roy hummed and then got up. “But don’t worry, I got it. You’re a guest.”

Lina sprang up from the couch, waving his words off. “No no no silly, I’ve got it. Please, you know I love preparing food. Plus, you need to shower and get out of your uniform…”

Then she looked down and noticed the red and black fabric. Her eyes widened.

“You changed your uniform!”

Roy chuckled and nodded. “I thought it would help separate myself from GA, I’m also still workshopping a new alias. What do you think?”

Lina poked and prodded at the material covering his chest, studying the design and fabric. “Very cool, I bet this is much easier for stealth missions. What did you use? Where did you get it?”

“Cotton-spandex hybrid fabric, coated in CNTs with some leather reinforcements here and there.” He explained. “I got it from a guy.”

“...so the same idea as mine and Robin’s?” Lina asked with a raised eyebrow.

“How do you think I knew it would be good for agility?” Roy smirked, and Lina smiled back before pulling away.

“Well, it’s good to know you’re at least trying to be safe. But don’t think I won’t stop worrying just because you’re smart with gear.”

“I would never expect you to stop worrying, Frenchie, I’m smarter than that.”

“Good,” Lina smirked. “Now then...I will start on breakfast. I hope you have some decent food I can use...may I borrow a sweater?”

“You know where they are.” Roy gestured to the hallway that leads to his bedroom, and Lina flew off. The archer watched her fly away, then turned to pick up his weapons and put them away in the chesterfield beside the couch. Not the best hiding place, but he didn’t exactly have his own secret stash of warehouses quite yet.

“So how is the Junior Justice League?” Roy called out.

“Not the Junior Justice League, first of all,” Lina called back. “You know, you really hurt the guys’ feelings by brushing them off.”

Roy sighed, letting her comment sting him. “I’m sorry Lin’, but you know I was just stating my opinion.”

“We’re allowed to choose our own loyalties, Roy.” Lina said, walking back into the living room; now clad in one of Roy’s sweaters. “Just as you have chosen yours.”

Roy shrugged. “Ouch...but I guess I deserve that. I’ll send them all an apology text or something…”

“‘Apology text’, bah! Ce qui s'a passé à parlant dans vraie vie, là?” Lina sighed and walked into the kitchen. “We’re good though! We fought an evil air-manipulating robot named Mr. Twister the other day.” At the mention of the air-manipulating robot’s name, Lina had to tune out the sounds of angry Winds.

“Okay, that’s a terrible name.”

“Right?!” Lina exclaimed. “And I know from personal experience that air-related names can be hard to come up with but I mean...that just sounds so foolish, non?”

“Definitely.” Roy nodded. “You think there’s any relation to RT? We still don’t know where Morrow is, last I checked.”

Lina was silent for a moment, then answered. “Perhaps...he did seem to have a personal vendetta against him. And you’re right about Morrow...it doesn’t help that Red was off after the whole thing. But we defeated Twister, right? So I’m sure it won’t be any issue.”

“Your call.” Roy nodded and sat back down on the couch; deciding not to shower and change quite yet. “So...have you guys chosen a leader yet?”

Lina was, once again, silent. For a second, Roy didn’t know if she had heard him or not. Just as he was about to repeat himself, Lina replied, “no, we haven’t...I wonder if Batman will assign one before our first real mission…”

“He kind of seems the type to let you figure that out by yourselves, doesn’t he? Who do you think should be leader?”

Without even a moment’s hesitation, Lina knew her answer.

"Who do you think?"

“Yeah, figured as much. He definitely has the makings of one. But are you sure the others will be okay with that? Robin may want a seat at that table, and personally, I think you’d be a decent leader.”

Lina hummed in thought but didn’t respond so Roy decided to drop it. An unspoken agreement was made between the two, both knew that Lina wouldn’t be elected as the leader and wouldn’t try to force herself onto the position. Robin, however…

“So how is Kal? I haven’t seen him in a while.”

“You would know if you reached out to him...” Lina said in an almost sing-song voice, and Roy sent her a look through the wall. Even though she couldn’t see his look, she knew it was there. “You guys are best friends, right? You should at least try and act like it. He may not admit it because he’s all stoic and calm most of the time, but trust me; he’s worried about you! To an extent we all are, but he’s not like me and the boys. He won’t drop in unannounced to check up on you.”

“That’s only you, Lina.”

“Bah! You know what I mean.” Lina exclaimed. “Obviously you can’t reach him right now because he’s in Atlantis with his parents but...just try to call him and invite him over every once in a while, okay?”

“He’s in Atlantis? Didn’t you say you were on patrol together last night?”

“He said he felt that he needed to be there or something.”

Roy let out a low chuckle. “What do you want to bet he just really wanted to see Tula?”

Although they had never officially met, Lina practically knew enough about Tula to write a small book about her. The pretty Atlantean girl who was Kaldur’s peer, friend, and crush. In the early days of her and the Atlantean’s friendship, Lina had asked him if he had someone special at home; and he had happily gone into a half-hour tangent about how Tula was not only one of the best friends he had ever had (along with his other childhood friend, Garth) but also one of the strongest, smartest, and most beautiful people he had ever known.

It was admittedly very cute, watching the usually very reserved man blush as he spoke about the young Atlantean girl. The one time that Lina actually saw Tula, when Kaldur showed a magic-infused picture of the trio of friends, she agreed that she was indeed a sight to behold. After one of his long tangents about Tula, Lina had once asked Kaldur why he didn’t just confess his feelings towards her. He replied that he had always wanted to, especially before he started splitting his time between land and sea. But for a multitude of reasons, he never had.

“You’re changing the subject,” Lina spoke sternly.

Roy let out a loud sigh at having been called out.

“Yes, I’ll reach out to him.”

“You promise?”

“Yea...but don’t tell GA alright?”

Even though he couldn’t see it, Lina rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect your stupid masculine ego.” And with that, she collected the bowls of yogurt and freshly cut fruit she had prepared and brought them out to the living room.

“My stupid masculine ego thanks you.”

Mount Justice

July 22

19:00

“Isla Santa Prisca.” Batman spoke clearly and loudly, as he stood in front of the team of 6 supernatural teenagers. Behind him shone a holographic map of an island that sat in the heart of the Caribbean. “This island nation is the primary source of a dangerous neo-steroid, a strength-enhancing drug, sold on the streets under the name Venom."

The screens flashed with images of factory blueprints.

"Infrared heat signatures indicate their factory is still operating at full capacity, but all shipments of Venom have been inexplicably cut off. That's where the team comes in." The Bat turned to face the eager-faced teenagers standing around him.

"This is a covert recon mission only. Observe and report. If the Justice League needs to intervene, it will." The leader of the Justice League turned back to the screens. "The plan requires two dropzones."

"So who's in charge?" Robin piped up, not at all hiding his excitement.

Batman and Red Tornado exchanged glances before the former said sternly,

"Work that out between yourselves."

Caribbean Sea

July 22

20:08

As everyone sat around the bio-ship, stale tension filled the air. Nobody dared to break the silence, if they were even aware of it. Most of the team stared ahead through the window at the sprawling sea, their thoughts locked away in their own mind. For Lina, her thoughts lingered with anxiety. The fact that they were going into their first mission without a clear chain of command made her innards tie themselves into tight knots. But instead of trying to make small talk, Lina cast her eyes up to the moon above them (trying very hard to not think about the flying contraption she was sitting in) and thought about the small bit of dialogue she and Roy had shared over the topic of team leadership…

There was no way she could be team leader.

Being responsible for the success or failure of six powerful teenagers? No, thank you. Sure, she could look after her family and Roy. But that was small stuff; making sure they ate and were hygienic, healing any minor injuries, giving them advice and making sure they were happy. But in battle? When one wrong decision could lead to real consequences…

She shivered at the mere thought of it.

Not to mention her sheer inexperience was enough to disqualify her from the discussion on its own. Just three years ago she had been a simple circus girl, a civilian, and she barely had a year of field experience under her belt. She didn't know the first thing about tactics or battle strategy. Running a hand through her hair, Lina let out a long sigh, and began mentally preparing for a mission she hoped wouldn’t go terribly wrong.

“Approaching Santa Prisca.” Miss Martian announced, snapping everyone out of their trances. “Dropzone A in thirty.”

Almost in unison, Kaldur and Lina stood from their seats. As their chairs sank back into the ship’s floor, the two teens reached for their insignias and gently pressed them. Black began to pulse from the letters on either of their waists, and slowly the darkness began to cover the entirety of their uniforms. Aqualad’s red and Zephyr’s white and gold all turned to the colour of the Caribbean night sky, leaving nothing but the metallic gold-tinting of their respective symbols.

As Lina pulled up her hood and looked down at the new look, she grimaced.

“I feel so…angsty.” The girl muttered, but then looked back up at Kaldur. Their eyes connected, silently communicating before the taller of the two looked to M’gann.

“Ready.”

“Putting bioship in camouflage mode,” M’gann replied, and the cabin’s air pressure changed as they descended from the clouds and closer to the water. The two teammates nodded at one another. “Go.”

As a hole opened up under the hero’s feet, they both fell down and into the saltwater below. Just as her body was about to breach the surface, Lina circled her hands and formed a bubble of air around her form. Then, once the two had fully submerged, the two rocketed off towards the shore. The darkness of the water made Zephyr’s human eyes strain, barely able to make out Aqualad’s form as she followed behind him, but the water was thankfully clear of any obstacles. Or rather, almost clear. After a moment, the two came across a long, large wall of netting, but Kaldur was able to promptly slash it open with a swipe of his sword, creating a hole big enough to swim through.

Not long after, they breached the surface. Kaldur poked his head out of the water for a moment, then dove back under.

“I’ve located the security sensors, are you ready?” He asked, used to speaking underwater. Lina nodded, then with one sweep of her hands, blasted them both through the water, breaking her protective bubble and lifting them into the air and over to the heat and motion sensors. When they landed, Lina pulled out a USB drive from one of the hidden compartments on her upper arm and plugged it into the large, boxy machine. After a moment, the USB began to blink a blue light.

“Heat and motion sensors have been patched. Data is now on a continuous loop. Move in.” Kaldur spoke into his earpiece.

“Acknowledged.” Robin spoke back.

As Zephyr and Kaldur made their way over to the end of the beach, they were met with a tall cliff. Overhead, they could see trees, foliage, and other signs of a jungle peaking over the surface, the jungle that housed the Venom warehouse. Kaldur turned to face Lina.

“If you please.” The young man leads as he placed a firm hand on his partner’s shoulder, and with a small nod, Lina summoned her Winds and began lifting them as slowly and as quietly as possible. About halfway up, however, they were interrupted with their com’s sparking to life yet again.

“Aqualad, Zephyr; dropzone B is a go.” Robin’s voice came through.

Kaldur lifted his finger to his ear. “Head to the factory. We’ll track your GPS coordinates and rendezvous ASAP.”

Once they landed, Lina lifted one hand to her ear and pressed her com. “Be careful, and let us know if you need assistance.”

“Copy.” Robin responded.

And with that, the two teenagers began sprinting/flying in the direction of the factory. Partway through, however, movement caught Kaldur’s eye and he slid to a stop. Lina had to quickly drop her Winds to avoid flying into him.

“What is it?” Lina whispered as she stood, and Kaldur motioned silently over to where the movement was coming from. Stepping over a little to get a better look, they were able to make out a slow procession of armed men a few meters away...and headed in the direction of the four younger team member’s coordinates.

“Superboy, KF.” Kaldur spoke as the two partners began their sprint yet again. “Switch to infrared, see if you are being tracked.”

A moment later, Wally replied. “Got a band of armed bozos incoming.”

“Two squads, but they’ll reach each other before they find us.” Superboy added.

“Sweep wide and steer clear.” Kaldur instructed, but apparently, his words fell on deaf ears as hardly a minute later, the sound of loud gunfire rang through the forest.

“Those miscreants always find a way to bring chaos to nature, so much disruption.” A voice sighed into Zephyr’s ear.

Almost in unison, the two heroes let out whispered curses in their respective mother tongues and picked up their speed.

Once the two had reached the source of the gunshots, a large clearing amongst thick greenery; Kaldur and Lina found their teammates fighting groups of men. Some were in long, dark red coats with black face masks, and others wore typical dark street clothes. Two of the red-clad individuals caught Aqualad and Zephyr’s attention and they jumped to action; the former leaping in front of the first goon, placing his hand just over the man’s heart and lighting up his tattoos to send a surge of electricity into it, and the latter using her Winds to pick up the other cloaked man, sending him flying into a nearby tree.

The last of the men fallen and unconscious, the team turned to look at one another.

“Nice of you to join us.” Wally smiled bashfully.

Santa Prisca

July 22

20:20

“I recognize those uniforms,” Robin spoke up once the last of the men were hogtied and safely incapacitated. “The Cult of the Kobra…”

“I am certain Batman would have mentioned it if he knew a dangerous extremist was running Santa Prisca’s Venom operation.” Said Aqualad.

“Agreed.” Robin nodded. “And since there’s clearly no love lost between the cultists and those goons...I’m betting Kobra came in and tossed them out. That’s why normal supply lines have been cut off.”

“We get it, Kobra wanted super cultists: mystery solved.” Wally piped in. “Radio Bats and we’ll be home in time for-” He was quickly cut off by Robin.

“These cultists aren’t on Venom! Kobra’s hoarding the stuff. We don’t leave...not until I know why.”

“Until you know why?” Kid Flash spoke, frowning.

“This team needs a leader.”

“And it’s you? Dude, you’re a thirteen-year-old kid who ducked out on us without a word.”

“And here we go…” Lina sighed, just loud enough that Superboy, the closest to her, was the only one that could hear her.

Robin let out a cackling laugh. “And you’re a mature fifteen? You broke our cover the first chance you got!”

“Don’t you want to lead?” M’gann asked, tilting her head towards Superboy.

Superboy scoffed, obviously not fond of the idea. “You?”

“After the Mister Twister fiasco..?” M’gann cringed, raising her hand up in rejection.

Superboy gave her a shadow of a smile. “You did alright.”

M'gann face lit up with pink as her eyes grew wide. She quickly caught Lina’s amused gaze and the French girl gave the Martian an approving nod and thumbs-up behind Superboy’s back. Turning her attention back to Kaldur, Lina saw that he was carefully watching Robin and Wally bicker with a look of mild annoyance on his face. After a moment of trying to find the right words, Lina leaned in closer towards the Atlantean so that she wouldn’t be overheard.

“Being a leader is a very important burden.” She said. “It’s important to have the one bearing it be cool-tempered, reliable, patient, and level-headed.”

Her hinting wasn’t meant to be subtle.

“A good leader must also care deeply for their team, always have their best interests at heart, and have a good moral compass.” Kaldur countered.

“Fair enough.” She nodded but then turned to look directly at her Atlantean friend. “Although one could argue that some people on the team embody all these traits, while also having real experience with combat and strategy.”

Kaldur didn’t respond, but it didn’t much matter as not a moment later Lina’s attention was diverted by her overhearing someone muttering in Spanish. In her peripherals, she saw Superboy turn towards the sounds as well.

“Look at them argue.” One man spoke in Spanish. “Free yourself now and take them while they’re distracted!”

“Quiet!” Another man, this one larger and wearing black and white face paint. “For now I play along, they’ll give me what I need.”

Superboy and Zephyr exchanged looks.

“Yeah? You don’t even have superpowers!” Wally screamed, drawing the attention back to the young arguing boys.

“Neither does Batman!” Robin exclaimed.

“Duh,” Wally scoffed, “you’re not Batman.”

“Duh,” Robin mocked, “closest thing we’ve got!”

The two’s bickering was interrupted by the man from before, the one with the painted face, laughing.

“Such clever ninos.” The man spoke. “But you only know half the story. Let me show you the rest, get you into the factory via my secret entrance.”

M’gann knelt down to the man and began focusing, channelling her telepathy. “There is a secret entrance, but he’s also hiding something.” Her eyes began to glow white as she attempted to dig deeper.

“Ah ah ah chica,” Bane tutted, “Bane is not that easy.”

After a pregnant pause, M’gann let go of her telepathic connection and groaned. “He’s mentally reciting football scores en Espanol...this could take a while.”

“I can try and translate.” Zephyr voiced. “Mi Español debe ser satisfactorio.”

“Suffocation is an effective means of interrogation.” A deep, dark voice whispered in Zephyr’s ear, causing her to jump, straighten her back, and wave off the sadistic Wind.

“It’s not that complicated.” The man, Bane, said. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

The team exchanged unsure looks.

Santa Prisca

July 22

20:39

As the team hiked through the forest, led by Bane, each and every one of them felt uneasy. Even Miss Martian, arguably the most naive and inexperienced of the group, knew that their guide wasn’t trustworthy. It was like a ringing feeling in all of their heads, telling them that they shouldn’t be doing what they were doing. Eventually, however, they came to a cliff, and Bane silently motioned towards a large industrial compound. Robin took out his binoculars and began to scout.

“Look at all that product…” Robin whispered. “A buy is going down. But if Kobra’s not selling to the usual suspects, then-””We need to identify that buyer.” Kaldur finished.

“Just what I was thinking.” Wally nodded.

Robin scoffed. “Yeah, you’re the thinker!”

The look Wally gave his friend was the most unimpressed anyone had ever seen him. “Sarcasm? Dude, a real leader would focus on getting answers.”

A loud grunt, followed by a crashing sound made all of them turn to see Bane removing a large boulder to reveal a hidden passageway.

“Answers are this way.”

“So now El Lucador is our leader?” KF exclaimed, only to be smacked by Robin. “Ow!”

The passageway led to a gate, which-with Bane’s thumbprint-led to the factory’s interior. Bane poked his head through but was nudged to the side by Robin. After a moment, the young boy gave the all clear and ran out. When the others caught up, however, he was gone.

“Has that little fool already been captured?” Bane grunted.

“No...he just does that.” Kaldur spoke, disappointment evident in his face and voice.

“Stay put.” Wally whispered, slipping his goggles over his eyes. “I’ll get our intel and be back before the Boy Wonder!”

“Kid, wait-“

But Kaldur was too late, and the ginger had already sped off.

“Great chain of command.” Bane spoke, which to everyone’s surprise, earned him a deadpan remark from Zephyr.

“Bueno trabajo manejando tu fábrica.” Bane cast the girl a dirty look.

“What’s that?” Superboy piped up, and motioned to a nearby opening. It was a large garage door, littered with tall piles of crates with a forklift moving some out. The group moved to kneel behind the crates.

“It’s a massive shipment.” Kaldur muttered.

“Yea, but they’re only taking new product outside. They’re not touching this Venom.” Superboy noted.

“Maybe...freshness counts?” M’gann tried.

Suddenly, almost like a dog, Superboy’s head jutted upwards at attention.

“Helicopter’s coming.”

But of course, to everyone else, there was utter silence.

Santa Prisca

July 22

20:45

Kid Flash zipped into the control room where his best friend sat. The older boy munched on one of the energy bars he kept in the hidden compartments in his suit as the Boy Wonder sat above a knocked out Kobra cultist. The sight of the limp body on the group didn't even phase the snacking speedster, however, as he walked over to peer over the Boy Wonder’s shoulder.

"What'cha got?" Kid Flash asked.

"Chemical formulas." Robin explained, not even looking away from the monitors. "I'd say it involves Venom but…"

Robin pulled up two pictures of molecular makeups and their chemical formulas as the ginger's eyes squinted in focus. Not even after a second of thinking, Wally's granola-holding hand extended to motion to one of the pictures. "That one's Venom", then to the other, "and that one's...Woah, the Blockbuster formula from CADMUS."

In a simulated diagram, the two images formed together to create a new compound.

"Mixed correctly, Kobra's new juice would be three times as strong as Venom...and permanent." Wally turned to Robin. "But how did Kobra get access to Project Blockbuster?"

"Our mystery buyer must also be Kobra's supplier!" Robin exclaimed. "Using the cult to create a Venom-Blockbuster superformula!" Robin raised a hand to his com. "Robin to Aqualad, we got-" He was cut off. Static.

Meanwhile, back at the loading dock. The helicopter Superboy predicted had finally landed. A blonde man wearing a hockey goalie mask walked out of the flying machine, met by an awaiting Kobra and two of his goons; a tall punk girl with orange hair, and an inhumanly bulky male with skin akin to that of a post-Blockbuster Desmond. The two men spoke, discussing business. But unbeknownst to either of them, an invisible force watched them from above. The camouflaged martian watched closely, barely being able to hear the words they were exchanging in soft tones. But she could clearly see when the cult leader, Kobra, opened a silver briefcase. Furthermore, she could make out the several vials of purple liquid that lay inside. Quickly, Miss Martian opened a telepathic link.

"Aqualad," She mentally spoke, focusing her gaze intently on the masked man. "Sending a mental image of the buyer now."

Back inside the factory, Kaldur focused on the image of the blonde man that flashed in his brain. Once he had, he opened his eyes to the other people sitting with him on the raised catwalk Bane had taken them to.

"Sportsmaster? He is the buyer?" He muttered to nobody in particular.

Lina knew very little about 'Sportsmaster', never having run into him herself. But she recalled reading his file at one point. An average man, Lawrence “Crusher” Crock, but apparently some sort of sadist that was affiliated with the League of Shadows. He was trained in more than a few martial arts and was known to have access to an arsenal of dangerous weapons. Basically a glorified goon-for-hire, but a dangerous man nonetheless.

Kaldur raised a hand to his com. "Aqualad to Red Tornado, do you read?"

Upon only receiving static, he attempted other channels with very much the same degree of success.

"I cannot reach Robin, the League, or Kid. We need a plan. Now."

Bane gave a smile, an eery one that shot straight through Zephyr's spine. "I have a suggestion." And then he leapt right off the catwalk and straight into two armed cultists, quickly taking them down, but not before getting them to open fire at their attacker. The sounds of the gunfire quickly notified the rest of the security forces around the warehouse, who all rushed over to zero in on their intruders.

"What is he-" Kaldur didn't get the chance to finish his question, as the Blockbuster-esk Kobra goon (a previously normal man who went by the name of Mammoth) leapt through a nearby window and crashed straight into the catwalk. This caused the three members to fall or haphazardly fly down onto the floor, ridding them of any sense of safety.

“There goes our cover.” Superboy huffed.

Mammoth ran straight at the heroes, and the clone charged back at him, causing a resulting force strong enough to shake the whole building. As the two tanks went head-on with one another, a few dozen cultists began shooting at the two remaining young heroes. Aqualad knelt down, using his water-bearers to form a shield that protected both him and Zephyr from oncoming fire. Meanwhile, the young air manipulator lifted her hands, targetting the closest cultists she could see as her Winds picked them up and sent them all flying into metal walls.

“Where did Bane go?” Zephyr asked once she had realized that, once the shooting had started, the Spanish man had seemed to disappear into thin air.

“I’m not sure.” Aqualad shook his head as he lifted his other water-bearer to begin shooting cultists. “But I’m afraid we have more pressing matters.”

The fighting was a blur, with the members of the team very obviously outnumbered and confused, all of them internally reeling at how the mission was playing out. The large, open area of the warehouse floor made for little cover, and the sounds of repeated and multiple bouts of gunfire made it difficult for the team to get their bearings. At some point in the chaos, Miss Martian and Kid Flash had returned, only for the former to be blasted into a nearby wall by a rocketed projectile.

To put it simply, they were losing. And there was still no sign of Robin.

“Miss Martian, radio is jammed! Link us up!” Kaldur shouted.

A moment later, a sharp ringing entered each team member’s mind. Zephyr winced a little, but noted that the link didn’t hurt nearly as bad as it did during the initial cave tour.

“Everyone online?” The Martian girl’s voice rang into each member’s mind.

Superboy’s mental voice growled, but reluctantly spoke, “Yeah.”

“You know it, beautiful.” Kid Flash said from his place behind another support beam.

“Present,” Lina spoke, creating her own shield and blasted more cultists that were aiming at M'gann.

“Good. We need to regroup.” Kaldur’s voice rang.

Robin’s voice came through, rushed and chaotic. “Busy now!”

“Busy? What does he mean busy?!” Kid Flash’s actual voice sounded over the gunfire.

“Where did he go anyway?” Lina asked, but then spotted another cultist aiming straight at Kid Flash from around a corner. She delivered a quick air-strike to him, but in doing so, opened herself up. A sharp blast sliced at her arm and with a loud yelp of pain, she flew back behind the support beam for cover. “Putain!”

“Are you okay?” Kaldur asked, eyes darting to her injury.

Zephyr examined her arm, finding a tear just below her shoulder. Crimson blood seeped into her uniform, and the girl was suddenly grateful her costume was no longer white. “Just a graze, I’m fine.”

“Robin!” Aqualad called over the telepathic link. “Now!” After giving the order, Kaldur ran out, forming his weapons into water-whips and taking out as many cultists as he could.

“Strategic retreat! Kid, clear a path.”

A dark blue zig-zagged across the warehouse floor at top speeds, sending cultists down onto the ground as the remaining team member followed close behind and into a side door. Superboy lagged behind, having to wrestle Mammoth. But after a moment, the clone was able to leverage his strength into gripping Mammoth’s hands and send him flying into a group of armed men. Once the clone was able to enter into the side-passage way with the others, he and Aqualad promptly closed the door and resumed running. This only granted them a short reprieve, however, as Mammoth busted down the metal and was quickly followed by shooting cultists who open fired into the cramped walls of the hidden passage.

“Superboy! The support beams!” Aqualad exclaimed, and the clone delivered quick, strong strikes to the wooden support beams around him. Not a moment after, the rocky passage began to collapse, and with a rattling ‘boom’, all surroundings went dark.

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nadango · 4 years

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Alela Grora: an analysis thingy

Good day to the funamusea fandom that has neglected my beautiful angel (joking. Maybe.) I offer you sea urchins a collection of observations concerning the eccentric lady: Alela Grora.

I'll be breaking down her personality and interpreting every scene and official art she's appeared in, and even include a couple of theories to fill in the gaps, if you find that interesting.

Note: I believe seichiinara did this before when she was active, but I sadly never got to read it. Therefore, everything here is based on my own observations.

First of all...Who is Alela Grora?

Grora is an angel that serves as Etihw's subordinate. She's an archer and a war veteran, and now destroys Wodahs' garden full time.

Based on canon appearances, she is described by Yosafire as "a weird lady looking for her eye"...Perhaps it's because Yosaf isn't too familiar with Grora (which I kinda doubt) or Grora simply doesn't get too close to others, keeping her cool and mysterious appearance.

To the player, I'm sure she seemed like a cool and laid back adult, contrasting Wodahs because opposites attract. She only ever loses her cool when Ater is involved because of the eye incident, which I will talk about later.

But, other than that, we don't know much about her. Being chill isn't an entire personality, especially when we're talking about a literal soldier who lived through the dark war era. Yet, what makes Tgg and dsp's storytelling magnificent is the way they make their stories more than what they seem. During the game, you have a group of cute main characters who are facing danger, but slowly you start to feel something darker creep in the background, not the angry flame demons, but the guardians of their peaceful world hide a lot more than you think.

Therefore, important characters such as Grora, Kcalb, Etihw, the cats and Wodahs-- who is this big question mark-- aren't going to reveal themselves just like that. No, a good writer will drop subtle hints in their mere actions.

Grora literally lost an arm and nearly blew to death for --ah, a certain group of girls. Reincarnations of Etihw's past subordinates. Grora's previous colleagues she had witnessed their deaths and their burial.

She encourages Macarona and is close to Froze for a reason (she hasn't interacted with Chelan as of now, probably didn't have a chance to) ...because of the guilt and the pain she has felt as she saw her previous world fall apart, she wants the descendants of her colleagues to enjoy this new world a d have a wonderful and peaceful life, a life their ancestors would've wanted. And this would make sense, since she's the only character to not explicitly talk about the past, but also the only one to directly compare Froze to Sherbet.

To sum this up, Grora is a very chill individual who is loved by all, a bit odd sometimes, but still friendly. She is selfless and will fight for what is right, probably due to her past experiences during the war, which she is trying to forget and move on, unlike the rest of the crew. Alas, she can't, for everything reminds her of the terrible old world.

Character Design

Hands down, dsp did the Blancblack crew's designs justice. When it comes to Grora, we could note a few things:

Her current outfit resembles Sherbet/Froze's a bit too much. This may indicate that Sherbet might've had a certain impact on her. I can't say for sure that they were close or not, but he did do something that'll make Grora act the way she does towards Froze.

Missing halo: She is close to Etihw and works under them, no? So why doesn't she wear it? We know it's an accessory, but someone in Grora's position would wear it. For example, Taffy, who is the Head Angel of his world, doesn't wear one because he's not fond of Fumus to begin with, and that includes Olive. All the other Angels don't mind their gods, so they keep the halo. Dsp doesn't need to tell us that, it's logical. Something might've happened between Grora and Etihw, but it's not necessary huge. It could've just altered her point of view or something.

Now, for the war outfit. It is, simply, inspired by Etihw's diamond themed robes. Another thing to note is the tired expression she wore is VERY similar to Etihw's. This might mean that Etihw had a large influence on Grora, and we'll get to their relationship later on.

Grora's color palette is exactly the opposite of Wodahs', which is a good choice considering that they drastically contradict each other. But it's important to note that Etihw and Kcalb also have opposite color palettes, black and white, dark and light, two past enemies who's mentalities are totally different. It's quite curious of Dsp to design Wod and Grora this way too, no?

Ater and Grora's eye

Grora's grudge against Ater isn't simply a grudge. If she is truly trying to heal and let go of the past, why couldn't she just forgive Ater and heal her eye like Wodahs suggested?

Grora was most likely a fierce warrior, an archer, and having her eye taken out must've been humiliating. A strong and pure being torn down to pieces. That incident was proof of her cowardice. Therefore, the lost eye resembles her lost pride. Finding it again means redeeming herself, but of course, the eye has nothing to do with pride. It's just a distraction.

I may be looking way into this, but it DOES make more sense that way. Same thing goes for Wodahs' eye, but I'll talk about that some other time.

Speaking of Wodahs...

Eyepatch Angels

Whether you ship them platonically or romantically, they're still the best duo and work perfectly together either way.

Based on the events of the game, Wodahs and Grora are close colleagues who always bicker and fight over the most mundane things (Grora is usually the one who starts) yet they make a great team. Grora has a bit of a crush on him because who doesn't but these feelings don't seem reciprocated (Small note: That doesn't mean he doesn't care for her at all, and we barely know what Wodahs is thinking most of the time, so we're not really sure. He's also very dense sometimes)

There isn't much to say about their current relationship for now. What's more interesting is their relationship during the war, and boy oh boy, do I have some news.

I'm sure we all know this infamous art, the only art featuring them so badass and, so far apart too. They're also facing each others backs, and considering their close relationship, this is bad news. Only enemies are positioned like this, and the high gap resembles how distant they are from each other. That being said, Wodahs and Grora have quite the history. If only dsp could reveal more about them.

Oh, a wild theory has appeared!

Using these observations (specifically Grora's relations to Etihw and Wodahs, and the missing halo) we could come up with some context.

Grora respected and looked up to Etihw, remaining true and loyal to them. At some point, Grora became/was going to be head angel, only for her position next to Etihw was taken by Wodahs, and it angered her.

Etihw most likely paid more attention to him, and ignored Grora. Perhaps they've hurt her in some way, which resulted into a shattered relationship. Sure, everything was fine after Kacalb nuked the world, but memories and past experiences stay.

Well...this speculation is farfetched, but I wanted to share an abridged version of it with you

And that, ladies and gentlemen, includes the analysis thingy. If you've made it here, thank you so much for reading!! And I hope this helped you in some way!

Also, looking at how hard I tried to summarize this, I'm kinda anxious about the Wodahs analysis, since there's a LOT to cover...Haha.

#funamusea #the gray garden #mogeko theories #海底囚人 #alela grora #wodahs (the gray garden)#etihw (the gray garden)#kcalb (the gray garden)#ater (the gray garden)#poison bugs #obsolete dream #mogeko castle #oounabara to wadanohara #wadanohara and the great blue sea

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coeursetcolores · 3 years

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What I Would Add To/ Change About: Devil May Cry 5

Hello again! Today is March 8th! Two years ago, Devil May Cry 5 was released, over ten years after Devil May Cry 4. Such a long gap caused many to believe that Capcom abandoned the franchise, but to our surprise at the 2018 E3 conference, after years of silence and tentative hope brought by a picture of Reuben Langdon and Johnny Yong Bosch in mocap gear, the day we dreamed of happened: DMC was back!

Now here’s the million dollar question: Did Devil May Cry 5 live up to it’s fans’ expectations after all those years?

I’m pleased to say, YES!

To the whole collective fandom, this game was totally Smokin’ Sexy Stylish!

To me individually...

Well...

It wasn’t really what I’d thought it’d be.

This is all just my own personal opinion and if you disagree with me, that’s perfectly okay! If you’d like to talk about a point I made, please let me know, but please try to respect my opinion as I respect yours.

Fair warning, I won’t talk about online stuff. I’m not an online gamer, that’s just not me.

Well, with out further ado, let’s get started!

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Like the last time, I’d like to start with the positives before getting to the things I wasn’t 100% on board with.

Combat. It’s DMC, and it’s styling way past any other game that dare challenge it.

The music: Frustration is getting bigger! BANG, BANG, BANG! Pull my Devil Trigger!

NICO. I jut love that crazy chick. And yay! Nero has a friend!

The death screen changes were SO helpful. Giving an option to come back in the middle of a fight saved me so much time! As long as it stuck to in-game currency...

The backgrounds are so detailed, Redgrave City looks amazing! And I was really happy when they brought back that gorgeous gothic architecture for Sparda’s mansion!

Bosses are tough, but not to unfair levels. It really makes you feel awesome when you finally knock that last bit of health out.

I’ll never miss an opportunity to fight Vergil. One for having an opponent that doesn’t tower over you, two for his fights just being great as usual. And after everything he’s done, yeah, it feels good to beat the ever loving crap out of him.

Dante dance. I cannot do it justice.

Lady’s new outfit is so cool!

Patty! Call her back Dante!

MOTORCYCLE! BUZZSAWS!

Dante has officially embraced being a silver fox. I salute him.

LORE!!!!!!

NERO! NERO! NERO! BEST BOY, SPICY SON I LOVE YOU SO MUCH YOU PRECIOUS BLOODTHIRSTY SWEETHEART!

You can see just how much detail went into the game. From the blood tubes staining you to V decomposing, it’s astounding.

Nero got a Devil Trigger! And it’s GORGEOUS! ...I do miss his persona, though...

Seeing all our favorite demon hunters again! I missed these guys!

Okay, but before we get to what I wish they added, I want to say something.

I have a lot of issues with this game, but while I can blame some of that on the writing and design teams, a lot of it is also on me having spent years basically imagining the story that would be perfect for me and probably me only. So a lot of my problems may boil down to the game not matching my imaginary scenario, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt.

Now here are some things that could have possibly made me like the game more.

ADD:

MORE LADY AND TRISH. These women were screwed when it came to the plot and they could have done more, what the heck?! Maybe some scenes where they try to process what happened to them, have them distraught at having been used by Urizen to help him destroy the city and blame themselves. Have Lady blow up at Dante for not warning them about what was really going on, for letting them go in unprepared, let her tell him that the blood of the city is on their hands because he kept his mouth shut. Lady is a huge influence in his life, and I feel like this would really open his eyes to how much he messed up.

As for Trish, she knows better than anyone else that you can really screw up and hurt someone that cares about you. Maybe after everything goes down, she could be the one to encourage everyone that, “Yeah, we messed up big time. But sitting around here hating ourselves isn’t getting anything done. So get up, we’ve got a city to fix.” I feel like this could really show how human she’s gotten from being with Dante and the others. I think it’d make her look more multi-dimensional.

And how come Vergil can get a DLC when he was in the game even less than they were?! The women in these games deserve equal representation, Capcom’s DMC developers!

And as for Vergil, maybe make his deal less ambiguous? I mean, the whole “Is Vergil really redeemed?” debate is really bringing out the worst in people. Like yeah, keep it ambiguous to the characters, it makes sense for Vergil to not show something “weak” like remorse to others, but show it in a way that the player can easily interpret.

Give Vergil some missions to himself where he takes in exactly what he’s done. Have him see Redgrave City, where he was born, devastated, people he may have once known reduced to ashes and know this is all because of him. That just because he wanted to be stronger, he’s destroyed lives, because even if he had no intentions of doing so, the split went against his wishes and left him weak to see a tyrant slaughter countless people without any goal. Have him realize that even if that was unintentional, he still nearly almost ended humanity once before with a sound mind (Temen-ni-gru) so he can’t pretend he’s in the right and that he’s actually probably a disgrace to Sparda’s legacy. Have him run into a sobbing little boy crying that his mother was killed and he lost his brother, maybe in the ruins of the family home. Have Vergil look into a mirror and see Mundus, have him realize that he’s no better than the demon that killed his mother and imprisoned him for years. Have him hallucinate Sparda disowning him for going against everything Sparda believed in. Have him see Eva sadly tell him that she wanted to save him, but seeing what he’s become lament that she lost her life trying to save a monster. And when Dante tells him Nero’s his son, he freezes. He abandoned and maimed his own child, left him for his brother to care for. Dante sees this and doesn’t know what to do? Is Vergil...sorry? Can he take a chance on him this time?

Or leave him an unrepentant jerk that’s just upset he still can’t win and expressly tells Nero he’s only going to cut down the Qliphoth down so he can fight Nero again and because he doesn’t want to give up Yamato.

And for that matter, make V’s goal clearer to the player. Have him expressly state, when he’s by himself with his familiars with no one that he can manipulate around that:

A. He wants to stop Urizen and prevent anymore devastation as atonement for his crimes as Vergil and part of the reason he wants to merge again is that while he does want to fight Dante again, he deserves to die as Vergil or defeat Dante and fix his mistakes by himself, realizing that Dante’s been cleaning up his messes for years.

B: He wants his power back, his mind got stuck in the human half and he can’t stand how weak it is. Everyone is just a stepping stone for him to be stronger.

Actually have the characters react to the Qliphoth. Seriously, everyone is crazy apathetic to all the death and destruction that they failed to stop. Aren’t they supposed to be the “heroes?” The only character this would make sense for, ironically, the one who actually seems to remember it exists at the end, Nero. Yeah. Remember how he didn’t care about anything but Kyrie in 4? Remember how the developers said he would just walk away after Dante shot the pope if Kyrie wasn’t there? I’m not say he needed to stay apathetic, I’m just saying it doesn’t make sense for him to be the righteous character.

Have Dante at some point just look out at Redgrave and see that if he had told the others what was going on, maybe this wouldn’t have happened. “...This didn’t have to happen.” Have this weigh on him. He’ll still act goofy, but he realizes that his selfishness can have real consequences.

Have him realize that he really hurt Nero with what he said and that he used Nero’s trauma and insecurity against him in the heat of the moment and it’s causing a rift between him. When he’s alone, make him privately promise to make it up to him later and actually apologize at some point near the end. Dante should know from his experiences with Vergil that insecurity can lead someone down the wrong path and that if he doesn’t do something he could lose one of the few positive relationships he has.

Have Nico have at least one freak out at everything around her and realize that she might not be as ready for this as she thought. She hasn’t experienced something like this before like the others. Nero comforts her and it makes their friendship grow stronger.

When Nero starts talking about family, he should acknowledge that while he is related to Vergil, they’re not really a family yet until they actually work for it, and that he knows what a real family is like, the ones who adopted him and were there for him (Kyrie’s parents, Credo, Kyrie, Nico, Dante, Lady, Trish, etc.).

Make it clearer that Vergil isn’t forgiven for his crimes, but that they’re willing to give him a chance. His last one.

Alright, now for the overall changes.

CHANGE:

The entire ending. Instead of Dante going down with Vergil, Vergil stops him and tells him that his life is here, with people that haven’t hurt him like he has. Dante tries to protest, says he can’t leave Vergil free to do whatever, but Vergil gives a bittersweet smile and tells him he can’t stop him, but it’s obvious Vergil’s not going to do anything again. When Dante gets desperate and tells Vergil he can’t leave him again, Vergil tells Dante he’ll be back, once he’s cleaned up his own mess for once; he’s the older brother after all. With that, Vergil goes to fix his mistake.

Dante’s left behind by his brother again. Instead of brushing things under the table, Nero is furious with Dante for never telling him the truth about his family. Especially after he was left uncertain about the future and looked to Dante for guidance, Nero feels betrayed. Dante understands and apologizes. Nero’s too upset to accept and tells Dante he needs time to think before he’s ready to talk to him again. Instead of begging Nero to stay and keep a connection he desperately needs, Dante lets him go, realizing that if he wants to fix things, he needs to start learning how to talk about how he actually feels instead of covering things up and unintentionally hurting those he loves.

Vergil destroys the Qliphoth, but doesn’t leave the Underworld. Realizing just how much he’s sinned, starting all the way back to Temen-ni-gru, he resolves to not go back to the human world until he’s made himself one worthy of being a Son of Sparda, finally understanding what that really means. Descending into the Underworld, he won’t leave until he’s eliminated those that would harm the world his brother, father and son protect so hard. This could be the start of his own spin-off series that would focus more on the demon lore in the games and take place entirely in the Underworld with Vergil struggling to be a better person and take responsibility for his own actions. Devil May Cry: Atonement, maybe.

Nero heads back home with Nico but doesn’t read V’s book. Hurt from his betrayal, he puts it in a box and seals it up for Vergil’s maybe return. When Nico starts talking about how Agnus is the reason she’s alive, she also acknowledges that she already has a real father and family that love her and subtly (and stutteringly) implies Nero’s a part of that, cementing that Nero has a family that loves him and is there for him. Nero thanks her and the two descend into silence for a bit before they start mocking each other and end up laughing before Nico realizes Nero’s crying. When she starts freaking out, he explains that he’s scared he’s still not strong enough to protect them, but before Nico can say anything, the phone rings. Answering it, a voice says, “You don’t have to be.” Looking out front the two see Kyrie and Patty, decked out in hunting gear, a phone in Kyrie’s hand. Smiling at them, she says into it, “We’ll protect each other.” Running out of the van, Nero scoops Kyrie up in a hug. When Patty starts complaining about them ignoring her, Nico pulls her away and tells her not to interrupt. After a bit, the group looks out at the horizon and vow to fight together, not letting themselves fall to the bitterness that led to this mess. Seeing some demons approach and watching his crew get ready, Nero smiles before smirking and gets ready to throw down. “Let’s rock!” Devil May Cry: Forsaken.

Dante looks out over Redgrave from his childhood home, silently miserable. After a while, Lady and Trish come over and try to talk, but he cuts them off with an apology. Fully realizing how his inability to let other people in nearly got them all killed, he encourages them to leave so they don’t end up like that again. Stunned from Dante apologizing, the two are silent. Then Lady angrily asks, “What the hell?! Just how dumb are you?!” She tells him that yeah he really screwed up this time, but they’re not going anywhere! He’s an idiot, but he’s THEIR idiot, and they’re not leaving him alone. They need him and he needs them. Trish tells him that if he has time to mope, he has time to clean up the city. The girls begin to walk back to the city and tell him to hurry up. A genuine smile on his face, Dante looks to his family’s home one more time, sheds some tears and walks away, from his past to his new family. Devil May Cry 6 will pick up on what happens next.

If Resident Evil can have like 50 spin-offs, why can’t DMC?

Alternatively, I’m also open to the suggestion of Vergil being stuck as V for the rest of his life. Karmic punishment at it’s finest.

In all honestly, Vergil was really unnecessary to bring back. Like, just make him DLCs, his whole story is done. It just feels like fanservice and the writers banking on a popular character to bring in sales. I also feel like the game bends itself over backwards to please him (back to life, cheat coded to power, no more nightmares, gets to fight Dante whenever he wants, gets a son who wants his acknowledgement he didn’t have to raise, crimes are basically swept under the rug) while everyone else gets kind of screwed over (Dante has to leave his friends behind, Nero’s abandoned again, Lady and Trish are captured and get no screen time, V’s familiars are gone, millions are dead).

I think Urizen and V should have been their own things: I liked the idea of Urizen being the general of Mundus that attacked Dante’s house (his ACTUAL reason for fighting) and V being Mundus’ son who was abused and bonded with his henchmen who decided to become a devil hunter in vengeance for his mistreatment. I dunno, I feel bad V (who legitimately creeped me out) was just made into a convenient little redemption arc.

Nero’s character arc really should have been something else. I think he should have learned throughout the story to stop caring what others thought about him (a trait that should have been visible in 4 if it was going to be such a big deal in 5) and learn to trust his own strength. He should’ve realized that he doesn’t need to prove anything to Dante, he’s never going to be the same and he should be happy with who he is. Also, wanting Vergil’s acknowledgement doesn’t make sense. He may be his biological father, but literally the only things Nero knows about him is that he ripped his arm off, started the apocalypse, got millions killed, manipulated him and wants to kill the guy who was actually like a dad to him. Biological ties can only count for so much.

Alternatively, his arc could have been about becoming a more compassionate person. Like I said earlier, it’d make sense if he didn’t care about anyone other than Kyrie being in trouble. And remember when he tried to kill an armor he thought had a human in it in 4? Along with the seemingly human Agnus? Have Dante worried Nero might go down the wrong path. Have him tell Nero about Vergil WAY earlier (months after 4) and have Nero worried if he’ll turn out like that. Nero actually had more potential to be dark than Dante, and I feel like that in trying to make him look like a perfect hero in 5, they had to make Dante look worse (keeping secrets, ignoring suffering, etc.).

And instead of “deadweight,” Nero’s berserk button should have been Dante not telling him things. You know, like the Order? The group he worked for that tried to start the apocalypse in secret and nearly got him and his girlfriend killed along with actually killing his older bother? Yeah.

I do not like the hyperrealism. This is purely on me preferring more animesque art styles, but I always felt that not looking like actual humans helped the series’ fantastic elements shine.

Dante’s new outfit is just so...muted. It’s just boring. Dante’s supposed to be flashy, dang it! Give me back the chaps!

Nero’s hair is awful. It just looks terrible on him, I wanted him to have long, pretty hair. They should have just kept his trigger hair all throughout the game.

Also, Dante’s the hunk, give Nero back his soft, pretty boy face!

DON’T GET RID OF DEVIL BRINGER! I hated using the Devil Breakers, who wants breakable weapons in Devil May Cry?! What’s next, reloading ammo?! And if you can come back from being stabbed, shot, electrocuted, impaled, would it kill you to let Nero grow his demon arm back to keep his playstyle easier?! And if you needed a challenge, congratulations! Nero lost his Devil Trigger! WORK WITH THAT!

Please don’t get rid of Dante. I love Nero, but he can’t do the main protagonist role. This is Dante’s series and he needs to finish it. Sure, give Nero a spin-off or two, but let Dante finish the story; the “Sons of Sparda” storyline was just 3. Not the whole series. Vergil is an important figure in Dante’s story, but he’s not where it ends. Dante. And. Vergil’s. Lives. Do. Not. Revolve. Around. Each. Other. They just liked to fight each other and developed opposing ideals, but their overall goals ultimately didn’t really factor in the other.

The whole Vergil abandonment thing shouldn’t have happened along with his beating Dante obsession, it seriously weakened Vergil’s character. He started out as someone who wanted the power to defend himself and became so deluded that he was ready to disregard any moral limitation to get it and simply fought Dante to amuse himself while never letting it get in the way of his goals. And him blaming Dante and Eva and insisting that Dante had an easier life, while I can understand it, just makes him come across as a spoiled brat throwing a tantrum.

Let V’s familiars kill demons without him. That was just really annoying.

And that’s it. My dreams for Devil May Cry 5 and the reality were two very different things and honestly...I’m afraid I’m growing out of this series.

I’ll still post some content I want to get out, but I’m not sure I’ll be picking up the next one.

#What I Would Add to/Change About...#Devil May Cry 5 #Criticism #Praise #My Silly Personal Opinion

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lesbianmarth · 4 years

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it’s been a while since i posted about aa but i just finished soj in its entirety tonight. here’s my new list so far

i still have to give thoughts on cases 4 5 and dlc so that’ll be under a cut. spoilers!

6-4: this was such a filler case, almost shamefully so. i don’t know why they thought they could manage to do this in the 4th case when every game with 5 cases has been pretty consistent about making the 4th case plot relevant, sometimes literally just a preamble to case 5. so yeah i think this one was kinda ass

the two things it had going for it: one, athena. in 6-2 i actually got confused about why i ever liked her, because in that case she felt like she was just acting the part of the Peppy Teen Girl With a Rowdy Streak that makes up almost every assistant character. But then as SOON as she started bantering with Simon in 6-4 i was like “oh, THAT’S why i liked her!” was nice to take control of her again.

two, uendo toneido. while i don’t think you can say the DID was portrayed with quite the necessary respect or kindness, it was handled better than i’ve seen other media handle it-- at least it’s not completely demonized. other people have written more on that in better detail so i’m not really the judge, but the basic point is that this witness was mad fun to read, and even the dumb jokes like the changing number of floor cushions were entertaining. thus why this case is in the “hard carried by one side character” tier.

especially since there was like nothing else going on. no connection to the main plot, only two other characters besides uendo, and for some reason the clown tits girl was here instead of the magic show case (and to be honest, she wasn’t enjoyable for me even BEFORE she did the standard aa female villain thing and changed her speech pattern as soon as she fell under suspicion). just a weird, nothing case stuck right around the point aa games usually enter endgame. And especially weird because...

6-5 part 1: inexplicably there are two separate cases in the final chapter and each gets one day of investigation and trial. such a weird setup, and it really shouldn’t work... but i think it kinda barely does. barely. it would still have been better to split it into case 4 and case 5 though.

i have a hard time articulating much on the first case bc it sort of blends together for me. the main thing is that the concept of it being a civil case where apollo and phoenix face off is really good. it was a good change of pace, even though you knew it was gonna be a murder somehow anyway. sarge was reasonably nice, i guess, paul atishon had some good animations and quirks (my favorite being when he tries to just walk away from the stand to avoid answering a question), and the logic of the actual murder was good enough.

but i especially got those strong “oh this is a FINAL case!” vibes during the segment in the cave, and that added so much to it even if not much of it was relevant in the first half of the case. the adventure feel reminded me of some of the (out of context bc i still havent played it) scenes i know from 3-5, which is a good association to invoke imo. and it did a lot to give apollo and dhurke time to bond.

speaking of which, dhurke, holy shit. what a KING. i don’t think i’ve ever liked a dad character in ace attorney this much. he’s so genuine and like down to earth that it’s impossible not to start liking him and believe how much he cares for his sons. the bit where he rescued apollo from the cave flood... i felt it in my heart

6-5 part 2: let me just get this out of the way: ga’ran sucks. her design after she goes full evil is so bad, she’s so malicious that it’s immediately obvious she’s going to be the culprit, her breakdown is ridiculous and just embarrassing to watch, and inga had already established way more charisma as a villain when he did the “those were orders of execution actually” bit in 6-3. with that said,

i actually liked it for the most part. the spirit channeling stuff was excellent imo-- they probably use it to similar or greater effect in 3-5 but as someone who again has not played that, i was surprised and almost impressed by how well it was applied. maya was relevant for something! it feels like it’s been ages!

rayfa was a little underutilized, i think-- her moment of determination where she stops letting ga’ran have control over her was alright but it fell flat bc it didn’t have any weight during the moment. i kept hoping she would like, wordlessly take of her shawl and do the little verbal preamble to the divination seance while ga’ran kept yelling at her to stop, but no, the script can’t be good like that, i guess. and since she didn’t get to be the investigation assistant for long, none of her charm in that role carried through.

but DHURKE!! oh my god! in a game almost devoid of emotional impact, his involvement in this case really hit. the way they painstakingly animated his death, the scene where he makes a promise with maya, and then the weight of knowing in hindsight that everything he did in the first part of the case was after he’d already died and just wanted to see his son again before passing on for real....... it hurt. i felt something during that section. this case would also be hard carried by him if not for the fact that i really liked the murder bits.

amara was good too--liked how they made her suspiciously serene and accentuated it with the lightning strikes to make her look like a hidden murderer character about to reveal herself, only to walk it back and confirm she was being forced to act that way. i thought it worked. nahyuta was boring though, i’m sorry-- i get the motivation with having to be a bastard bc his sister and mom were basically held hostage, but the only time i found him compelling in that mess was the bit where he removed his one fingerless glove and revealed he still has the dragon tattoo. that was it. athena was also completely unused the whole case (not even a single mood matrix? really?) and trucy one again went without any role of importance.

the ending also... yknow, a friend said they had to end it this way bc they never figured out what they were going to do with apollo (since following up on what they started in aa4 clearly wasn’t an option???) and just threw him on a bus to get rid of him. i agree with that-- he really feels thrown to the side, and with that i think trucy’s officially stranded with no hope of any character advancement. and the way they ended the game with phoenix and lamiroir deciding “yeah, maybe NOW we should finally tell those two they’re related” honestly felt insulting lol

but maybe the dlc case will let things go out on a high note...?!

6-6: it was okay.

it would’ve worked pretty well as a filler case in an older aa-- honestly i think it’d be one of the better filler cases, certainly worth replacing the shitty ones like 2-3 or 3-3 or, hey, 6-4. but whether i’d say it was worth paying for... eh.

the time travel conceit was done well enough, i think. the way they tied it back to sorin and pierce’s backstories was nice, and the twist about having two receptions was good, although they needed to treat that as a real twist with much more gravity. when the truth comes out it just feels like “oh of course that’s what happened” rather than a big surprise worthy of the Confessing the Truth theme. it’s sort of important because the case becomes a lot less interesting when you take out the time travel element.

far as characters are concerned, i think they needed more side characters to sell the whole thing-- another sprocket family member or another servant of the household. it felt a little limited-- sorin and pierce are pretty good witnesses and i like their quirks and their secrets, but the only alive woman (ellen) has very few traits and no connection to the deeper story of the case, so she falls really flat. the old aa characters didn’t add much- maya and edgeworth were just there for fanservice, ema didn’t get to do much other than acknowledge for the first time in years that she’s a big edgeworth fan, and larry is annoying as hell like he always is.

and oh my god i actually forgot while i was writing that, how they put in athena and trucy but only used them for brief slapstick where trucy would try to set athena on fire and shit. again-- no mood matrix? couldn’t even try once to fit those two characters into something?

i did like pierce’s transformation into his surgeon form though-- that was really cool. loved him doing surgery on a robot, taking xrays of the lawyers, and his breakdown was fantastic-- he would make a really good culprit if they didn’t whiff the last bit of pathos at the end. i don’t think he should’ve been aiming for revenge on sorin; it would have hurt much more if he was still loyal to the guy and never intended for him to be in danger, but the final “why’d you do it?” talk in the trial just felt flat and one-note, much like the one in 6-4.

... so that’s spirit of justice! not a super positive experience but i’m happy to say it’s done. as much as i want to go and replay dgs, i think when i do go back to ace attorney i’ll be replaying the trilogy for the first time since high school

#ace attorney #aa playthrough

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ihassheepquake · 4 years

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Stargirl 1.06 “The Justice Society” is officially out on DCU and I’m here to talk about it.

Can we talk about how Sportsmaster & Tigress kick the football coach’s arse literally just because he benches their daughter? They’re supervillains but maybe not absolutely evil people. At least they give a shit about their kid. (Also they’re both easily the hottest adults in this show. I’d let Sportsmaster raw me any day, I mean, look at his hair while wearing his suit!)

I’ve talked about the visuals for the Staff before but have I talked about the sound design? Because holy shit, it sounds awesome.

“I thought we were in this together” Pat didn’t you bench her, like, 2 episodes ago? Pat seems so offended that Courtney is beginning to assemble a team but, yet again, didn’t he just say that he doesn’t wanna do a new team at all like 2 episodes again? (Also rude of you to bring up my baby boi Pat. Yeah Joey died but so far he’s been the catalyst for this whole damn team, show him the respect he deserves). And this whole “I thought you respected me more than this” works both ways pal. I get he’s just trying to protect these kids, and yeah they have no idea what they’ve really gotten themselves into, but Pat isn’t really doing much to help here.

We keep seeing all these specific shots of The Pen and I’m really excited to see where they’re going with this. I know what The Pen is, obviously, and I really wanna know what the plan. Are we gonna see Jakeem get it this season? Or someone else?? Who knows!

Yolanda & Courtney watching Wildcat fight seemingly without knowing they’re watching Wildcat is top tier shit. Beth becoming friends with the AI in the goggles is so cute (& sad but not her fault). I hope we get some real development for her. She’s one of the stars of the show and she best get the love she deserves. Oh, so you’ll go to Rick for help Pat, but not your own step-daughter smh.

I feel so bad for Yo & Beth when Courtney has to tell them that she needs the gear back. Especially when Court put so much effort into letting Yo choose to still be Wildcat. And the Pat & Rick confrontation is so satisfying. I’ve gotta agree with Rick on some level. I don’t think he’s been useless or anything, but Courtney has certainly been the one getting shit done for once.

I think the family bits are some of the best. I feel the Arrowverse shows are a little lacking in the family department and this show fucking nails it over and over. I’m a huge fan of the dark, angsty superhero dynamics, but I love that this show doesn’t really have much of that. It has dark moments sure but it’s not an overall dark show. Like, Barbara comes to see Mike at his science fair and then the two go home and literally eat his candy volcano, I love it.

With the first mission starting up, I’m here for this really messy team dynamic. The first part of the mission is set to “Timber” by Kesha & Pitbull, you have no idea how long I’ve wanted an action scene set to this song (also wow how much did that cost?) I love it when first missions immediately go wrong. Gambler is somewhere entirely different and they get ambushed by Sportsmaster & Tigress. I really love the dynamic between the team and the villains. We do get to see the whole “villains who know better than the heroes” thing in other shows, but never to this degree. The heroes are so clearly outmatched. We get some of our first real fight scenes in this episode and the fight choreo is so good. I really appreciate how Courtney & Yo seem to be the best fighters in the team, and both have been set up well for it. Yo is obviously a champion boxer, as we’ve seen many times since he first episode, and they established Courtney as well versed in some martial art, I think karate, back in episode 1 with all the trophies and photos in her room. But even this two are so clearly outmatched by the skill and experience of Sportsmaster & Tigress. The irony of Courtney venting to Pat about her team doing exactly what Pat has been telling her for the last two episodes is really funny though, and I think I can kinda forgive the things I complained about earlier in this very recap/review.

Ooooooh the Crisis shot! The first big team shot!! OMFG!!! And we get a villain team shot too? Sure, not the full villain team, but it’s still pretty cool.

I hope eventually we get updated, modernized suits for Beth & Rick.

Next week is 1.07 “Shiv Part One” which seems like it’ll be yet another origin story, probably for Cindy this time. I’m really hoping for a training montage with the JSA and I would like to see a little more of Cameron. Let’s get in some time with the kids being kids at school. At this point we’re more or less halfway through Season 1, so I wanna start seeing something about what Project New America actually is, especially if we’re getting a villain episode next.

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desktopdust · 4 years

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Scrapped Shooting Star Sonia Ideas

After over five years of work, the Shooting Star Sonia series is officially over. Initially I had ideas for it to run a bit longer, but after experiencing some burnout while writing Red Joker I felt it would be best to wrap things up in Event Horizon. Of course, once I get an idea I have a compulsive need to talk about it, so detailed here are my original plans for anyone who might be curious.

Event Horizon itself didn’t change all that much. Information would still be provided about the MBN cores, though perhaps not quite everything; Sirius would have had the xarium rather than Blitzar, so there’d be no Rogue Xa yet and Solo would take the metal back at the end. Naturally, the ending is where the biggest change occurred: originally, someone from Planet XM would express interest in continuing to have Sonia and friends test the Meteor Breaker Numbers, and give them one year to prepare before the experiments begin in earnest. How ominous! Everyone would realize they need to get stronger, and to facilitate that, Sonia would use the EM Compatibility Tuner to interface with the Rosetta Compiler, becoming the new Administrator of the Black Hole Server.

Next thing I wanted to do was actually a super short side story, the obligatory Boktai crossover. More specifically Boktai DS/Lunar Knights, since that’s the one that did a crossover with SF1. Though I never did get into Boktai proper, I always found it neat that Battle Network and Star Force had these ongoing crossovers, and I wanted to keep it going. It was a very basic idea: Sabata ends up in the SF universe and gets possessed by an FM-ian (I believe I was thinking Vulpecula?), so Django follows and teams up with Sonia to stop him. No one would be showing off their new powers here, it’d be too soon for that, but there’d probably be hints.

The main event would’ve been Shooting Star Sonia 4: Rosetta Orbit. (A Rosetta orbit occurs when an object is moving fast enough to not be sucked into a black hole, but not fast enough to entirely escape its pull.) A year has passed, and so Planet XM begins dispatching a series of Meteor Breaker Numbers for Sonia to fight. I thought the major bosses all being on par with previous final bosses would be a cool way to raise the stakes, and I went with two themes when designing them: the seasons of the year, and other Mega Man series. For instance, the first MBN to appear would have been Vernal Ronin, a skeletal samurai robot meant to evoke Mega Man Legends (it’d look Reaverbot-esque, it’d been observing the heroes from the moon for some time now) and spring (“vernal” means spring, samurai are associated with cherry blossoms which only bloom in spring). I also wanted each MBN to be accompanied by an XM-ian who had some sort of reference to the Roll of the respective Mega Man series, though I had done less work on that. (Vernal Ronin would have been overseen by Cophin, an excitable engineer.) The other MBNs were Estival Rampart (summer, ZX), Autumnal Specter (autumn, Zero), and Brumal Transgressor (winter, X), with a recurring boss in the form of an XM-ian named Aeim who fought by operating a separate entity named Solstice_Harbinger.XM (EXE). Ultimately, the gang heads to Planet XM to find the newest MBN, the Equinox, which has been enhanced with all the data gathered over the course of the story and resembles the Yellow Devil from Classic.

On to transformations, Solo would obviously unveil Rogue Xa at this point, and I liked the idea of Geo working with the Sages of AM and WAZA to merge the Star Forces into a single, absurdly powerful form inspired visually by the unused concept art for an Angel Tribe On. With Geo and Sonia no longer needing the Ace and Joker Programs, I thought it would make sense to pass them on--have Bud take the Joker Program and Luna take the Ace Program. Sad to say I never got to the point of designing these forms, but I think it would’ve been fun. Also, I was contemplating the idea of Zack operating Magnes similar to a Net Navi, probably also developing a way for him to enter a controlled version of his Spade Magnes form; I wanted him to be involved and this seemed like an easy way to do it. There was also the possibility of Jack wanting to help and becoming a new iteration of Acid Ace, but I didn’t come to a decision on that. Other than that...I think Shepar was also going to have a way to temporarily take on the form of Chalice Libra? Everyone else was kind of on their own.

Now then, Sonia...as I said, she’d be drawing power from the Black Hole Server, which is powered by Adha. The last time she used this energy to transform was when she held the OOPArts, and I wanted to tie back into that. So, similarly to then, Sonia would draw on the Black Hole Server using the EM Compatibility Tuner, and then use the power of her Brother Bands to get it under control. These forms, called Orbits, would change her appearance and abilities to be similar to the Wave Form of the specific Brother she’s calling on at the time, probably with some design elements from Sirius thrown in. I wanted one for each element and was planning Luna Orbit, Bud Orbit, and Claude Orbit...but was at a loss for an Elec form. Since Gemini didn’t stick around I didn’t think giving her a Pat Orbit would be a good idea, and Couronne doesn’t have a Hunter and thus can’t make a formal Brother Band. I could’ve ignored that restriction, or found a way to justify her Band with Zack giving her a Magnes-based form, but nothing was ever decided on. However, just like with the OOPArts, this power would have sometimes run wild, causing Sonia to enter a berserk state and forcing one of her allies to hit her with her elemental weakness to shock her out of the form. For this reason, she would exclusively stick to forms that have elements...until the final boss. The Equinox would adapt throughout the fight and develop ways to counter all four elements, so with no choice, Sonia would use Geo Orbit to get a form combining Mega Man’s powers with her own, defeating the Equinox and saving the day. Then, she goes berserk. Her friends would find a way to calm her down eventually, of course, but this would sort of make Sonia the true final boss and I thought that was kinda neat.

So, with the pinnacle of the MBN Program destroyed, the XM-ians would be kind of freaking out--here’s where we’d get the full story of the origin of the program, and how it was originally meant to protect Planet XM in case a certain angry god ever showed up. Sonia being Sonia, she’d say that if anything happens, she’ll protect them. The XM-ians are moved by her kindness, and decide that maybe they should stop building war machines after all. After that, there were two more small things I wanted to do, either as two short stories (4.5 and 4.55, I think?) or as two Epilogues for RO. Firstly, that thing Planet XM is so afraid of would show up, and what do you know, it’s Duo.EXE! When I was planning for Red Joker I remembered how, leading up to SF3’s release, there were a bunch of theories that Meteor G had some connection to Duo, and I wanted to do something with that. The ultimate story then (and this holds true to an extent for the final product as well) is that Duo’s violence in the name of “justice” only spread pain and fear, which led to the XM-ians developing the MBN cores to fight against him, which only led to more pain and fear through their own actions as well as through the cores ending up in others’ hands. It’s an ongoing cycle of violence that is only broken when Sonia steps in to convince people to try a peaceful solution. Capping it off with Sonia the idealist versus Duo the extremist, probably resulting in Sonia helping Duo to grow beyond his programming and be more productive than destructive, seemed like a fitting, fun way to go. After that, I just wanted to have one last fight between Sonia and Solo--Geo Orbit Harp Note vs Rogue Xa in deep space to finally settle their rivalry! I didn’t decide a result, but it definitely would’ve involved Solo properly opening up and telling Sonia he respects her and all that.

(Also a very specific joke I wanted to use in RO and couldn’t find a good place to integrate into this post: when the head of the MBN Program is explaining it to Sonia, she’d say they still have MBN-001 through 008 on display, but only have records for MBN-010 and up. Sonia asks about MBN-009, and her guide scowls and says “We don’t talk about number 9.” You know, referencing the other Mega Man.)

(And, there is one other idea I had, a spin-off to shift to after resolving the history of the MBN cores, but it’s detached enough that I think I can turn it into a standalone story in the future so I want to hold onto it for now. Probably best I take a break from writing Star Force for the time being, but I really like the character designs I thought up for this one, so one day, I hope to put them to use.)

Once again, I want to thank you all for your interest in Shooting Star Sonia--I hope I was able to entertain you! It was a bit rocky at times, but in the end, I’m glad I embarked on this journey, and I’m eager to get to work on a new one. Until next time.

#Shooting Star Sonia

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riley1cannon · 5 years

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Presently Untitled Superbat Fic

Yes, so, I have been wrestling with this thing since July, with many starts and stops, and no title to be found (at this rate it really may end up being called “2 Idiots Sitting Around Figuring Stuff Out”), but there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, for this first half, Clark’s POV, anyway.

Anyway... It’s DCEU, post-Justice League, and really is just Clark and Bruce sitting around talking--about Harvey Dent, about how Smallville celebrates the 4th of July, with side trips into Alfred headcanon and references to recent JL undercover missions, and there will be a special cameo appearance at the end of part two. But this is part one, so it’s only Clark, Bruce, and Martha Kent. I don’t even want to contemplate the Bruce POV half right now...

“Clark: Chapter One”

He might not feel the heat and humidity like everyone else, but Clark could still enjoy a nice cool shower that sluiced it all away at the end of a long day. Now, if he could have a quiet night with no emergencies, no crisis anywhere, he would chalk that up as a small blessing. He knew better than to count on that, however.

He had changed into cargo shorts and a white t-shirt, and was weighing the pros and cons of rocky road versus Chunky Monkey, when his mom called.

“Clark! Clark! Turn on the Weather Channel!” she told him before he could even say hello.

“What?” He found the remote and scrolled through the channels, wondering what was up with the note of hilarity in her voice.

“Just turn it on, sweetie. You’ll see.”

He found the channel, tuning in just as a woman standing by a fountain in downtown Metropolis was saying, “Couldn’t he, like, tilt the axis of the Earth, or something?”

What? “Ma, what is this?”

“They’re asking people on the street what they think Superman should do about this heat wave.”

Oh for… Now a guy was saying he’d heard Superman had some kind of freeze breath, so why didn’t he just fly around and blow on everybody. Another was saying, “How about if he fixed the Moon so we always had a total eclipse going? That bleep’s bleeping cool.”

“Is this real life?”

“Guess it is, sweetie,” Martha said, laughter still running through her voice. “Guess you can’t blame folks too much. It’s a bad summer.”

Growing up on a Kansas farm, Clark was only too familiar with the weather as adversary. If it wasn’t too hot, it was too cold. There was either too much rain, or not enough. And if, for one rare moment everything was exactly right, ten minutes later a thunderstorm would come roaring out of Colorado to send tornadoes tearing across the landscape.

“Yeah, I don’t blame them,” he said. He did press the mute button before he got too boggled by the suggestions people had. “You know I’d do something if I could.”

“I do know, Clark. Don’t fret about it now.” She sounded like she was rethinking calling him. “I just thought you’d get a kick out of it.”

“Mom, it’s okay. It is funny. It’s just,” he shook his head, “I’m not sure how much good it would really do if I flew around blowing on everyone.”

Now she had a smile back in her voice. “Yeah, that does call up an interesting picture. So,” she let out a breath, “how was your day?”

He told her about it, the highs and the lows, most of it pretty routine. “Just a one thing after another kind of day,” he finished up.

“Uh-huh.” His mother had a note of skepticism in her voice now. “Bet those folks you rescued off that roller coaster didn’t think it was no big whoop. We watched it down at the diner. There were some mighty big smiles when you got everybody back down on the ground.”

“Yeah, that was pretty good,” he admitted, remembering the looks of fear that had given way to relief when he arrived on the scene. Moments like that were a joy. They were a huge help whenever he longed for the days he could help people and not have it be breaking news. There was no turning back time, though, and things probably never had been as simple as he liked to remember them. “Did you have a busy day at the diner?” he asked, hoping to change the subject.

“Oh, smooth,” his mother teased, a smile still in her voice. He could hear her moving around, the creak of the screen door that told him she’d gone out on the porch, and a soft patter that sounded like rain. “Well, Pete Ross came in and said he felt like changing things up, so he ordered a club sandwich instead of his usual BLT.”

He laughed now and shifted the phone to his other hand as he went back into the kitchen. “Sounds like exciting times.”

“Oh, yeah, things are hopping here all right.”

“Is it raining?”

“Little bit. Supposed to be a cold front coming down from Canada. That’ll help.”

And it would soon be August, with the end of summer looming not too far off, and harvest time coming up fast. Clark already had time scheduled to get back home and help out with that.

“So,” she was patting the porch swing, calling the dog to her, “have you talked to Bruce?”

Oh boy. “I have talked to Bruce,” he confirmed as he opened the fridge. A BLT sounded pretty good, actually, and he checked to see if he had all the fixings on hand.

Infinite patience in her voice, his mother prompted, “About?”

“About…three days ago.” He got out the bacon, checked the lettuce and tomato was fresh. “He wanted some input on the Justice League logo. The headquarters is going to look pretty snazzy when he gets it all pulled together.” Ah, there was the mayonnaise, way at the back.

“Clark Joseph Kent, you know that’s not what I’m talking about.”

“Mom…” He sat down at his small kitchen table, white Formica trimmed in red, and wondered how hard he could bang his head against it without breaking it. “It’s not that easy.”

The pattern of rain sounded louder in the background as his mother said “Looked pretty easy when he was visiting us. Ask me, you two already went out on a couple of dates. You just need to make it official.”

Clark doubted Bruce would share that viewpoint. Then again, Bruce had been known to surprise him--on a pretty regular basis, actually. After all he hadn’t expected him to show up in Smallville to celebrate the Fourth of July with them. That had been one of a hundred things they had talked about during a stakeout on a rainy Gotham night back in March. He’d never thought Bruce would remember, let alone actually follow up.

He thought about that night a lot. He had been surprised at the invitation to join Bruce, and had been ruthless about clamping down on the thrill of excitement that shot through him. It was because his x-ray vision and super hearing made him useful, he reminded himself. Nothing more. If Bruce had occasion to stakeout an aquarium, he’d call in Arthur.

Although why Bruce would ever put an aquarium under surveillance Clark could not have said. Nor had he expected anything but the most cursory information and instructions about the current job. Sit, watch, listen, report what he picked up. He’d been proved wrong as soon as he located Bruce, parked across the street from the Iceberg Lounge.

Bruce popped the passenger door and waved him over. As always, decked out in designer duds, Bruce looked like he belonged on the cover of GQ. Even the top buttons of his shirt were artfully undone. Clark, in jeans and a plaid shirt from the Tractor Supply store in Smallville, had a brief thought of being that thing that wasn’t like the other. It was there and gone in and instant, though. All Bruce had ever said was to once inquire if he’d die if he didn’t wear plaid. When Clark quipped back, “Don’t know, maybe,” he’d heard no more about it--but he had glimpsed Bruce biting down on a smile.

“Don’t tell me: you’re thinking of buying it,” he said, looking over at the night club. Until recently the place had been the hottest spot in Gotham, and you had to be a Bruce Wayne or part of his entourage to get inside. Now, with Oswald Cobblepot locked up in Arkham--again--it was shut up and dark.

“Funny,” Bruce grumbled. “Is anything going on over there?”

As Clark checked, Bruce told him about information he’d turned up that Two-Face--Harvey Dent--might surface at the club to muscle in on what was left of the Penguin’s operation. That was unexpected. He had gathered Harvey Dent was an especially sensitive subject, and one that Bruce didn’t share easily. He wanted to read volumes into Bruce letting him in on this. Best to pare that down to Cliff Notes, though, he suspected.

“It’s quiet,” he reported, completing a scan of the club. “No signs of life to speak of.”

Bruce canted him a look, eyebrows raised. “To speak of?”

Clark shrugged, “Couple of rats in the kitchens.”

“Four-legged variety?”

“Yep.”

“Hhn. Health Department gave it a passing score on its last inspection.”

“And of course there’s no corruption in Gotham.”

Bruce’s only comeback was a grumpy look. He relaxed back into the driver’s seat and reached for one of two cups of coffee. He jerked his chin at the other one. “That’s yours, if you want it.”

Clark nodded his thanks and reached for it. He took a sip, savoring the flavor. Smooth and rich, not as sweet as he usually took it, but with plenty of cream. “It’s good.”

“You don’t have to sound so surprised.”

Clark smiled and took another drink, skewed in his seat so he could watch Bruce and keep on the eye on the club. “Do you do this a lot? Just sit and watch?”

“That is the definition of a stakeout.” Bruce took a long drink of his coffee, to all appearances relishing every drop like an elixir of life. Every drop that was likely strong enough to peel paint, and untouched by any taint of cream or sugar. Clark didn’t know how he did it.

He also didn’t understand his sudden fixation with that glimpse of Bruce’s throat, with watching the muscles work as he swallowed. Well, that was the story he was sticking with anyway.

There wasn’t anything sudden about it, either, if he was being honest. Clark had been struck by him that first night, at the library gala. Perry had meant the red carpet assignment to be a reprimand, and Clark had felt it. Bored out of his mind and chafing to be anywhere else, he had been ready to provoke more wrath from Perry when a sleek Aston Martin pulled up. Everything changed the instant Bruce got out of that car. Clark’s attention had perked right up and been riveted on the newcomer, the other man’s charisma sparking the atmosphere. It had called to Clark so strongly that, even without the Gotham connection, he felt he still would have sought Bruce out in the crowd.

He thought about that night sometimes. Now and then. Wondered about the what-ifs. Impossible to know if anything could have played out differently, let alone if it would have changed anything. What mattered was they were here, now, on this rainy night in Gotham, and this second chance eclipsed all the what-ifs. He wouldn’t trade this for a Pulitzer.

“Something funny?”

Clark dialed down his smile and shook his head. “Nope.”

“Hhn.” Bruce eyed him with a flicker of suspicion and set his cup back in its holder “It’s a longshot Harvey will show up,” he said, shifting in his seat. “The last solid intel on him was that he’d gone to ground over in Bludhaven.”

Clark nodded, careful not to betray any surprise that conversation had come back to Harvey Dent. Maybe he wasn’t meant to contribute anything, just be a sounding board. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained, he decided. “You’ve known him awhile.”

Bruce’s fingers flexed on the steering wheel. Nothing else betrayed any sign of tension. Seconds ticked by and Clark was ready to accept that there would be no reply, when Bruce’s shoulders relaxed a fraction and he eased back in his seat. “We go back,” he admitted. “Used to paint the town together.”

Nostalgia whispered across Bruce’s face, caught in a wistful smile as he spoke. Clark knew the facts. How Handsome Harvey Dent, Gotham’s dynamic, young district attorney brought mob boss Sal Maroni to trial, and how Maroni retaliated by splashing acid in Dent’s face, scarring him physically. How the scars went much deeper, his mind turning on him so that he emerged as Two-Face, flipping a coin to decide if someone lived or died today.

Those were the facts, stark and brutal. Clark doubted they came close to conveying the impact of the tragedy on those had cared for Harvey Dent.

Offering his sympathy was feeble, he knew, but he had to say something. “I’m sorry.”

Bruce shrugged it off, tried to anyway. “It’s a long time ago now.”

“And you’re supposed to be over it?”

“So I’m told.”

Not by anyone who really knew him, Clark would bet. Not by anyone who had experienced the loss of a loved one. Almost twenty years had passed and he still felt the ache of his father’s death at unexpected time--while working on their old tractor, or watching Patrick Mahomes throw a game-winning touchdown for the Chiefs. He didn’t know how to begin to mourn for Krypton, for the mother and father he’d never know. One of his secrets was that he even grieved for Zod, for lost chances and what could have been if only Zod hadn’t been hellbent on annihilating all life on Earth.

Time did heal, but the memories were never far from the surface.

“Could you have saved him?”

Bruce sighed, fingers tapping on the steering as he aimed a pensive stare through the windshield. “Maybe not. I’ll never know for certain.”

Since he’d made it this far, Clark edged out a bit further. “Could you have guessed he’d become Two-Face?”

Bruce shook his head. “I knew he had some...anxieties, that he had that coin flipping fixation.” His hands flexed on the steering wheel. “Nothing that prepared me for Two-Face.”

“But you beat yourself up about it anyway.”

Bruce offered him a wry smile. “He’s my friend.”

Clark nodded. He didn’t miss the present tense wording, nor was he surprised by it. Not anymore. The contrast between when they believed the worst of each other and now, when they could sit and talk like this, verged on the surreal at times.

He shifted around in his seat and took another drink of coffee, starting to feel a buzz of his own anxiety. It had been there since he came back, a creeping unease that whispered the walls were too close and confining even in the middle of the Daily Planet bullpen. Distractions helped, and he reached over to scrub at the fogged up windshield, scanning up and down the street.

“Something?” Bruce asked, tensing as if ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice.

“No.” Clark shook his head, relaxed back into his seat. “Everything’s still quiet.”

Bruce gave a sharp nod, as if confirming something to himself. “I don’t think he’ll show,” he said, half to himself. Difficult to be sure if relief or disappointment threaded through the words. “We’ll give it a few more minutes.”

“Okay.” Clark watched drizzling drops of rain slither down the windshield, that random twinge of claustrophobia easing away as he concentrated on absorbing the cozy intimacy of the setting. Something else it would be best not to dwell on, and he scrambled for a new topic, prompted by a comment Barry had made in passing the other day. “So did Diana and Alfred really do the tango when you took down the Jade Jaguars?”

Bruce scootched around, eyeing him. “Someone’s been telling tales, I see.”

“Was it meant to be a secret?”

“Apparently not.” Bruce took another sip of coffee, pulled a face and put the cup down. “It was the foxtrot, not the tango, and it was part of their cover, not a celebration of the takedown…”

to be continued

Note: The idea that, in the wake of being dead, Clark might suffer bouts of claustrophobia was the inspired idea of @oneiroteuthis.

#superbat #superbat fic

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