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theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin · 3 years

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[tomione thing] Thanks for the recs! I actually was looking forward to the rant, I like how you break things apart so they make sense in a very unique way.( I don't have any strong feelings to the pairing if that was your concern, I just think the stories about them have the potential to be fantastic because I enjoy intelligent characters going through life and solving problems and, usually, in fanfiction there's focus on only one smart character.

So, you people are just poking me with sticks to see what ridiculous opinions spew out then. I’m onto your game.

With that said, let’s get to answering then, and know that you bring this upon yourself.

I loathe Tomione. I put up with it, sometimes, because I will read almost any fic featuring Tom Riddle as a main character. (Want the Carnivorous Muffin to read your fic? Tom Riddle as a main character. Even if I disagree with 110% of your premise I will probably still read your story.)

However, it’s extremely telling that my recs the other day were hilariously small, and one was actually Hermione/Loki. The Tomione exists, I just hate it.

This is for two main reasons. First, I just don’t believe the ship would ever work under any circumstances and the pair are naturally doomed to loathe one another. Second, fanfiction has a collection of tropes associated with Tomione that are in unbearable (likely caused unconsciously by the first, Tomione doesn’t really work, so we do terrible things to make it work).

Tomione Doesn’t Work: Change My Mind

So, remember we’re living in Muffin-land for this. I’ve explained some of my headcanons regarding these characters, and I’ll offer brief explanation for why I think what I do here, but I’m not going to expand on it too much.

Tomione has appeal under the premise that either you or someone else previously mentioned: they’re both so smart, of course they belong together.

The trouble, Hermione’s not nearly as smart as she thinks she is. What we see of Hermione’s cleverness boils down to having a very good work ethic and reading a lot of books. She tends to outsmart Ron and Harry because she actually puts in the work to do her homework and, my god, read her text books. Also, as I’ve covered before, Harry’s an idiot, so that’s a low bar.

Because Hogwarts can be passed by the likes of Crabbe and Goyle, and the curriculum seems to boil down to “pronounce this fake Latin correctly, ooh look, a spell”, actually reading her books not only gets Hermione by but skyrockets her ahead of her peers. Who, apparently, have no ear at all and don’t understand the swishy motions are important and probably never bothered to read their books.

This isn’t to say she’s stupid, she’s by far one of the more intelligent characters in the series, but it says a lot of not so good things about Hogwarts that Hermione is the “brightest witch of her generation”. In my mind she has never compared to characters like Tom Riddle, Lily Evans, Severus Snape, or Albus Dumbledore.

Hermione never questions how magic exists, why wands work, or why pronunciation is so weirdly important and why we’re using spells that are gibberish Latin instead of English or simply Latin. She never takes that step outside the box I would expect a truly intelligent person to take.

An example, Hermione completely throws out the entire discipline of divination. This is part because she believes it’s stupid, but she also only spends about two seconds thinking about it, and she doesn’t appear to be any good at it. If Hermione’s not good at it then it must be a stupid subject for stupid people.

Now, that alone doesn’t doom her, but it does put a huge chink in the major appeal of Tomione: they’re both just so brilliant that they’d be great together.

What dooms them is that Hermione both a) thinks she is as brilliant as all these other people and b) has this pervasive need to be the smartest person in any room she walks into. Hermione comes across Tom Riddle in the past or just chills with Voldemort in the future, she will inevitably try to show him up. This isn’t just to assure us that good is better than evil, but because she can’t help herself, because being the smartest is how she defines herself.

As a result, especially if we’re in the time travel/school setting, she would inevitably get in competition with him to prove she’s so much better/smarter than he is. It would undoubtedly be on her terms, probably revolving around school work, and she’d throw a fit when Tom wins because he understands the value in being concise where Hermione would quite easily write a hundred page Potions’ essay (that had a five page limit) with the subtext “PRAISE ME” written on every page.

I can’t imagine Tom Riddle would find this anything but completely obnoxious and a waste of his time.

Now, part of this goes into headcanon land, but I have always imagined, 100%, that Tom Riddle in Hogwarts was treated like a muggleborn, that he didn’t find out his ancestry until at least part of the way through, and he never confessed to being the Heir of Slytherin. I can back this up, but that’s another story for another day, I’ll just say that no matter what Dumbledore says any other backdrop makes no damn sense.

So, Tom has clawed the respect of his peers into reality with bleeding hands, he came from nothing in a way that even the ‘good’ purebloods wouldn’t have sympathy for. Even the muggleborns I imagine thought they were better than him. Tom is an impoverished orphan, so poor he has to stay at Hogwarts over the holidays, he was not having a fun time at school.

Tom has ambitions, is mired in hatred, and is not really all that wrapped up in Hogwarts except to get him where he wants to go.

Now, imagine Hermione suddenly shows up in front of this Tom. Suddenly he’s being challenged to essay competitions, she probably leaves cryptic remarks all the time about how evil he is and how amazing she is because she’s not evil and smarter than he is, and if he thinks he’s smarter than her then he better find time to prove it.

It’s like talking to a Dumbledore he can never escape from.

Tom doesn’t have time for this bullshit.

Tomione not only insists that he does but that he lives for this bullshit. Forget Voldemort, Hermione making weird comments about how Tom has a mutilated soul, or that Dumbledore is so much cooler than he is, is where it’s at.

As for Hermione, ultimately, I don’t think she’d ever really be attracted to Tom Riddle because he’s too much competition. The guys we’ve seen Hermione with are all safely much dumber than she is, Hermione likes being in relationships with men she feels in some way better than. Tom Riddle is not that guy.

Add on top of this that Hermione’s righteousness would never allow her to even think about dating someone like Tom and we get her, at best, trying for the sake of destroying him (if she seduces Tom then she destroys Voldemort!) but ultimately failing.

Because the thing is, circling back to where we started, there are different kinds of intelligence, different levels of intelligence, and intelligence alone isn’t a reason to get along. Smart people might gravitate towards smart people, but they still have to have compatible personalities. Reading books isn’t magical glue that can bind people together.

No matter what way I look at it, Hermione and Tom would absolutely loathe one another in every capacity.

Hermione ends up back in time accidentally and goes to Tom with Hogwarts: utter loathing.

Hermione ends up back in time on purpose and tries to save Tom’s troubled soul or else murder the shit out of him: utter loathing with an extra dash of “what the fuck?!” on Tom’s end.

Hermione ends up back in time after Hogwarts when Tom’s a store clerk: utter loathing (Hermione walks into Tom’s shop to tell him how cool and interesting she is to enter into the typical Tomione mind games, all Tom wants is commission.)

Hermione enters into deals with devils with the horcruxes: utter loathing complete with Tom’s triumphant/Nelson laugh when he inevitably betrays her to get his own body.

A young Tom Riddle somehow winds up in the future and is forced to attend Hogwarts because Dumbledore does what he wants: utter loathing (Tom has to sit there and enjoy Harry and especially Hermione telling him how evil he is and how Hermione’s so much smarter than him because she’s muggleborn and reads books.)

Lord Voldemort takes Hermione hostage during the horcrux hunt: utter loathing (though this would be sadly less irritating to Tom than the others, I imagine, if only because Hermione would probably be more terrified and less righteous. But she’d hate him with the fire of a thousand suns and inevitably pull a horrific revenge scheme on either him or his Death Eaters. No one crosses Hermione. No one.)

You name it, I think it’s going to end with the pair hurling chairs at each other and just being completely and utterly uninterested in every capacity.

Now, onto how Tomione is typically written, which just makes it so much worse.

Tomione Fics Breed Awful: Change My Mind

Tomione, to me, is born from a few things. It’s born from the author’s desire to have an intelligent, female, borderline SI lead and to shove her together with another edgy smart person with some degree of a bad boy persona.

In this way Tomione fics are very similar to Snape/Hermione fics, are similar to Lokane from Thor/Avengers, are similar to Zutara back in the earlier seasons of Avatar the Last Airbender, etc.

As a result the fics almost invariably spiral into: “Hermione is so smart, she’s so much smarter than everyone else, she impresses Tom because she is so smart. Tom is so smart but so evil, he sexy growls at her, and confesses how much he hates love every other chapter.”

Only, as I noted above, while there are many interpretations of Tom’s character (and mine certainly doesn’t agree with the vast majority) I can’t help but think every single version would hate her.

To make him not hate her the author will often turn him into one of two Tom Riddles: Emotionally Deficient Robot Tom or Growling Sexy Sociopath Tom. Emotionally Deficient Robot Tom will often have paragraph long tangents to remind us he doesn’t compute your human emotions, “Beep boop” but despite this Hermione’s out of control hair makes him feel urges “bloop bloop”. Growling sexy sociopath Tom usually goes on a rant about how love is beneath him, backs Hermione into broom closets, and growls as he sexily makes out with her in a non-romantic manner because “ew love”.

In other words, Tom is made an unbelievably flat character. He becomes a base archetype of sexy villain character. He never really gets redeemed, even if the story insists he does, he usually doesn’t have a reason for the way he is (”um, love potions!” the author often cries), and he and Hermione always think they’re much more important than they are.

The story rarely, if ever, goes anywhere because the entire point of the story is mind games between two sixteen-year-olds who think they’re smarter than everyone else. So we get a lot of chapters of Hermione and Tom running around, being very clever to each other, but doing nothing.

Sometimes authors do deviate from this, we will have an actual plot where we’re not just in Hogwarts again or it’s not just centering on ridiculous mind games. However, even then, Tom is usually is some variant of a very flat cartoon villain while Hermione is... Well, one would think the way she’s described that she’s the smartest, best, most beautiful, most brilliant thing to ever grace this earth.

TL;DR

Tomione is not my jam.

#ask #anon #harry potter #tom riddle #hermione granger

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tellywoodtrash · 3 years

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immj2 26.12.20 lb

lmao there’s regretting having sex with someone stupid and then there’s THIS guy; poore bed aur bandiii ko hi aag lagaane ki koshish karr raha hai.

I HATE THE WAY VANSH TALKS. I HAAAAAAAAAATE IT. IT’S FUCKING RIDICULOUS AND I HATE IT AND THEY NEED TO STOP MAKING RRAHUL TALK LIKE THISSSSSSSSSSS.

anyway long story short, bhai ne tandoor chaalu kar diya.

she’s so fucking stupid, she just stood there waiting for the fire to surround her instead of escaping out the side that wasn’t on fire yet.

this bitch and her stupid fucking dreams. i’m sick of them, i tell you, i’m fucking sick of them. you know what, half the time vansh isn’t even doing anything wrong (other than being a fucking antisocial weirdo, and also really bad at communication) and this stupid show just makes us root against him because of this dumbass chick’s forever paranoid thought process. sis you need to fucking go to therapy already. you’re just ruining your own life and relationship and this poor dude’s sanity as well.

the real villain of this show.

ghar mein ek aur surprise. man.............. enough with the surprises. don’t y’all have a surprising life on a daily basis, tum extra kyun add karte rehte ho???????????/

requisite shady call to angre, which i’m not even gonna pay attn to anymore. for all we know, he’s just asking him to make sure the audits for the year are done on time.

where they get so many fucking outfit changes from for this one “surprise” day???? like, he didn’t leave the hospital/her side since she got shot, and they’ve had 3 outfit changes already. and here i haven’t changed outta the same pair of jammies for 3 days now.

Bitch-oo Babe (ahana) is calling again. and vansh is making faces again.

riddhima’s like WHAT YOU WANNA TELL ME WHAT YOU WANNA TELL ME WHAT YOU WANNA TELL ME WHY WON’T YOU TELL ME WHAT YOU WANNA TELL ME. behen tum ek minute chup rahogi toh woh kuch bolein???????

network issues. LORD. WHO EVEN CARES. ITNA BADHAAA CHADHAAAA KE THEY’RE GONNA MAKE THIS CHARACTER INTRO AND I’M TELLING YOU IT’S GONNA BE ANOTHER PHUSKI BOMB.

shady ruse where he takes her phone on the pretext of not being able to find his and mutes the call from ahana. dude, it’s shit like this that makes it hard to root for you.

she’s like thank goddddddddddd vansh read my letter and accepted me with my truth blah blah. idiot. this is why you send it by whatsapp. at least you get blue tick confirmation ki usne padha. even then you should have a conversation about it. not just have assumed the letter is the end of the whole fucking issue.

of course. literally who is surprised?

ouff this family is so fucking extra. ek din hospital mein rehkar aayi hai, SARHAD SE NAHI LAUTI WOH!?!??!!!!!

LMAO WHEN I SAY THESE THREE SIBS ARE FOREVER THE BIGGEST MOOD..........................

this dude so tall ki what flowers dadi is throwing on R’s head is just reaching his chest level.

blah blah blah party tonight, coz we apparently live in a universe with no ongoing pandemic.

Chehra Appreciation Break.

this dumbass’s need to be a SANSAAAR KA BIG BROTHER isko le doobega. when you threw out anupriya and your relation with her, then kaahe ka half brother??????? kuch bhi. you just wanna collect max number of people to call you bhai.

riddhima also acting too fucking smart and jhaado-fying rob of being vansh’s wife. stupid.

can’t blame kabir for wanting to murder these smug assholes. we’re #teamKabir again, girls!

uhhhhhhhhhhhhh i’ve seen this outfit before.

yup.

some more being a bloody weirdo. man he’s like those emo kids who never grew outta their ~~~edgy~~~ phase.

also i would fucking crotch-kick a man if he destroyed a perfectly good hairtie like this. BITCH YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT’S TO FIND GOOD QUALITY ONES???????? JUST COZ YOU’RE RICH DOESN’T MEAN YOU DO SUCH NONSENSE. A GOOD HAIRTIE IS SOMETHING YOU KEEP FOREVER AND ONLY HAND OVER TO A TREASURED SISTER WHO IS IN DIRE NEED OF ONE.

small cute moment. i love when riddhima mimics him!

oh boy, a internal monologue about teaching her a sabak at the party tho. oh vansh. why you gotta be like this???????/

vansh taking angre aside at the party and saying whoever’s trying to talk to riddhima is sure to show up here, so.......... taiyyaar rehna.

angre like “don’t worry, riddhima bhaabi ke paas koi anjaan nahi pohunch paayega.” ok but she’s always at threat of being murdered from the people she knows tho. so....................... idk how useful your security is gonna be.

as usual he’s saying nice but creepy shit. idk why she pays attn to his nonsense anymore.

Y’ALL NEED A RESIDENT ELECTRICIAN TO HANDLE ALL THESE RANDOM LIVEWIRES AROUND HERE, THAN ANY OTHER KINDA SUPPORT STAFF. THE FUCK IS THIS NONSENSE???????? (also, clearly vansh and kabir visit the same Torture&KillRiddhima reddit forum, since their plans are soooooooo similar.)

i’m so sick of him being like...............

pick a side and stick to it, you fucking coward.

anyway ahana’s making her way into the house. and security as usual, useless.

idhar useless tashan. why do you two even bother to talk to each other???? be like other exes, pretend the other one died and ignore everything about their presence.

riddhima being real overconfident and saying vansh ke hote hue not even deathhhhhh can touch me. yeah, i wouldn’t be so sure.

this sis really likes her stinging animal friends.

akjlakjfldskjfldskjflsdkjfl this dresssssss itselfffff they gave herrrrrrrrrrrrrr. haaaye bechaari mansiiiiiii. (i mean, i don’t feel TOO bad, coz this was the best dress of them all in that ep. of IB, but still yaaar. ek naya dress banwaa dete!)

dude. i ship it????? if riddhima HAS to be with some murderous psychopath, then i definitely pick a girl one over a boy one. girl psychos are just soooooooooo much fucking hotter. #teamRiHana

#ishq mein marjawan 2 #immj2 #immj2 lbs #episode liveblogs

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vespiiqueen · 4 years

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List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the ask box of the last 10 people who reblogged something from you (if you want !! 💛💖)

Wow I rambled a lot with this but i can't add cuts bc I'm on mobile rn DHSISHSJ sorry :"))))

1. Ik Ik "haha how cringe are you" of me to say, but honestly? Homestuck. Homestuck helped me in a time of need and when i so desperately wanted something to latch onto. Finally, I caved into my friends telling me to read it-- and it's been a blast!! The epilogues / hs^2 make me feel kinda sad though, because so much of what I loved about the original was yeeted through the nine circles of hell and into the trash. I love Y/ffany's (I call her Yippi tho) design, the art is really pretty at times, Harry is a major dork, I LIVE for seeing Vrissy bc honestly?? Her design is 10/10, very early 2000s emo style and I also live for that. Tavros is cute and a nerd and I think that's swell!

But in terms of story and how any of this happens, it makes me sad to see it happen. If Vriska could return as Vrissy, why not OTHER beta trolls? Where's my Eridan fish man, writers?? Give me the boy or perish by my fury.

2. Also super "haha how cringe are you" but,,, murder cats (Warriors), esp the early 2005-2015 amvs and stuff. I remember watching Flightfootwarrior's "I Will Not Bow" Scourge amv for HOurs and having no clue what was happening, but all these edgy kitties were KITTIES! It's introduced me to a lot of music I still listen to to this very day (Imagine Dragons, Young/the entirety of Hollywood Undead, Breaking Benjamin). And yknow what?? This new arc is absolute chaos, but in the good way.

I'm an "OG Fan". I prefer the first arc, The Prophecies Begin, to almost any of the other arcs. I just could never get into the other arcs-- not to say I haven't read them, I HAVE and the Fire Scene was probably one of my favorite moments beside grumpy Jaypaw, god complex Lionblaze, and fear the gods Hollypaw. I thought the build-up for it was SUPER satisfying. Gray Wing is my baby and I fully embellish in the Gray Wing is Silverpelt theory.

This new arc is definitely something new for the universe. While I didn't read aVoS (but I may do that if i can find the files for it), and so I don't know the major events of it other than what I've seen M.A.P.'s (Multi-Animator Projects, for clarification,,, bc unfortunately that term is also something disgusting). There's fucking cat possession and all the Clans questioning their belief system, yo. Shit be on fire.

Also the Imposter is 100% Ashfur, that's canon now, yeah??? Also im sorry but fuck Root x Bristle that's the dumbest shit I have ever seen. Give me Root x Shadow or face the wrath of my dragon plushies.

RiverClan is my Clan and my gov assigned warrior name is Fireshell 🌟🌟

3. As much as I hate the author,,,,, Harry Potter. It's been a major part of my life for as long as I can remember. I can never really remember why, but I've always just loved it- the movies, the books, the extra little merch that would pop up in my local Walmart. Of course my favorite character is Draco Malfoy. I could go on and on and ON about how I think his character arc was SHIT and JKR didn't have the balls to make him a confident gay man that was always implied through the text (at least, my lesbian ass thought it was implied but i may just be projecting, idk). I could ramble about Draco for HOURS and what I think his character SHOULD have been and how his parents are horrible (more specifically, Lucius bc Narcissa [?] Actually showed a few good moments), and a child should never have to pay for their parents sins.

Oh noo, Draco's a villain because he's a victim of major abuse and peer pressure? He's a villain because a literal child can be horrible and they'll always always always stay as a horrible little fiend?? Fuck that. He's a child.

Unlike manchild grease pan Snape, who was a racist piece of shit and shouldn't have became a fucking school teacher but it's okay because he was ~~~in love~~~. No, fuck you, he was a creep. James Potter n Co may have been a little posh bitch to you, Snape, but that's no fucking excuse to continue to bluntly be a little cunt all the way into adulthood. You're an adult who flatly changed your PATRONUS to imitate Lily's. You have no excuse. And Harry went and named his child after you LIKE JESUS CHRIST, DID RON'S SISTER NOT HAVE A SAY IN THE NAMES TOO?????

I also fully adore the idea that Muggles can run into Hogwarts and their patronus can 100% be a made up, fantasy creature. Imagine you learn the patronus spell and suddenly fucking ARCEUS comes from your wand. Imagine learning the spell and CHTULU (i did not spell that right but im so tired) comes from your wand-- an entire ass fucking Lovecraftian, Eldrith horror is just the embodiment of you. What if it was a fucking Homestuck character like Vriska? How fucking METAL would that be?? Hskajssowjjsjs get on it fandom.

4. Hee hee very evident by my url but Pokemon is another major thing of mine. While vespiquen isn't my favorite (that title goes to Hydreigon), it is definitely up there!

I've ALWAYS enjoyed the idea of Pokemon. You run around, training up these fight monsters and collecting them. I remember playing my sister's Ruby version on her flip-up Gameboy. I couldn't even read but I ran around catching god only knows how many of the same pokemon wherever she was. Apparently, I had fought for hours in the same area and leveled her Blaziken up to lvl 50 something and left her lvl 30s in the dust LMAO.

I got my first game when it was Pearl/Diamond. It was Pearl, and it still holds a very fond place in my heart. I could barely read, I could barely write-- I had named my Turtwig something along the lines of "MmorpHy" and my player boy "ZbsibJ". Yes I remember the names slightly. I really didn't get far-- I barely got to the first gym but I was just so happy to play it.

I eventually lost the game, as a 5 year old would do, but I can still vividly remember what was happening when the game arrived. I had just came back from the dentist and was quite tired from fighting the dentist bc I was super scared. Mom suddenly handed me a box and said it was mine-- my overseas (at that time) dad had bought me Pearl and my sister Diamond, because I lost my shit about it when he visited one time.

Well, tdlr, I played it for about five minutes while struggling to stay awake against the loopy gas they made me take. I fell asleep listening to Twinleaf Town's soundtrack. Every time I play a rom of Pearl and I get to where the player's house fades in and I hear that first tune of the song, I get a huge smile on my face and cry-- as.. Weird as it sounds.

A few years later, I had gotten Pokemon Black bc I liked Reshiram on the cover. Now, this one I could actually READ when playing, but I don't remember a lot of things about it. I probably lost this one too, as a 8/9 year old would do. I DO remember, I chose Snivy and my sister chose Tepig (hrmm there's a theme here of grass/fire goin on......) and vibing to the music. I was so amazed by the sprites moving, I just kept getting into encounters to see the sprites move (oh boy, no one tell younger 7-9 y/o me about Zelda......oh wait....)

Playing Pokemon NOW, as a 17 year old """gifted""" chick, I stil have very fond memories. I recently beat Pokemon Black again and GOD the OTS SLAPS. I fucking adore the soundtrack-- the track that plays when you battle a trainer, the low health dings being turned into a legit song that also slaps, the battle! gym leader themes-- and oh my gOd, the legendary theme is amazing? It really tells you just how glorious these pokemon are supposed to be. It's not intimidating like Groudon/Kyroge/Rayquaza's themes. It's not action packed like Palkia/Dialga's is, it's not filled with tension like Giratina/Arceus's is-- but it radiates the GLORY that the beasts portray. And I live for that. (Also, Kyurem's version is my favorite because it glitches in the beginning and that's rly cool)

P/D/P and BW/BW2's stories, imo, are some of the greatest ones. Yeahhh, US/USUM's is cool and I haven't played XY nor SwSh-- but the ones I can find memorable are PDP and BW/BW2. I love N. I love Barry. They're my sons. Ghetsis is fucking terrifying, Cyrus needs a hug. Giratina scared the piss out of me when I was younger, which was NOT helped by Giratina and The Sky Warrior.

I think my favorite movies are the gen 4 ones. The Rise of Darkrai having a tear-jerking theme for such a mysterious pokemon (i still tear up when i hear Ocarion), Giratina being spiteful is a mood and Shaymin was cute, Arceus being angry is also a mood. Yeah, Pokemon 4Ever made me cry my eyes out over Celebi, Mewtwo Returns made me again cry because Mewtwo accepting who he is, I remember how vastly different the BW movies are-

I just. I have a lot of memories with the series, even if Gamefreak and Nintendo kinda do the series dirty a lot (your top-grossing thing and you made That monstrosity for the Switch? How dare you.). It's comforting to be stressed and pull up my roms for the games and to play them. Mystery Dungeon is incredibly fun to play, Pokemon Ranger is really fun with the concept (Shadows of Almia continues to kick my ass to this very day and FUCK the Jungle Relic, I hate the Water Challenge fucking gyarados bullshit). I remember the pokemon I got for MD (I got Time, my sis got Darkness) was Mudkip, if that is any help.

I love my little fictional pixel monsters.

5. Yup, someone told tiny 7-9 y/o me about console games. The legend of Zelda. My first Zelda game was Twilight Princess on the Wii and BOY did I play the fucking SHIT out of that game.

Honestly, looking back and looking at playthroughs now-- I still love TP. Twilight Princess is still one of my top favorite Zelda games-- yes, even after playing OoT, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Skyward Sword, the anniversary four swords edition for the DS where you could play by yourself (Nintendo pls bring that back, I don't have friends to play it with ;-;), Phantom Hourglass- ect.

Something about Twilight Princess grabbed me by the head and yeeted me into the world. I can remember playing it for hours with little to no breaks. I, a tiny 9 y/o, had gotten the hang of the controllers and managed to get past the tutorial quite easily. And then, I was launched into the game and I wasn't stopping for NOTHING. Mom and Dad would have to force me to save and get off to go and eat dinner. THAT sucked.

I had done everything on my own up until the first temple, the forest temple. Not where/when you saved the dumb kid, but when you were saving the spirit's light. Theeeeeeennn I got stuck on the fucking Forest Temple for deadass six months straight. I'd play for hours, running around in circles, unable to figure out where to go, and because I didn't grasp the temple's purpose of being that way- I'd get angry and get off. It wasn't until dad looked up a walkthrough and talked me through what I was supposed to do that I learned how to get through temples.

I had gotten to the last little fight with Ganondorf before the Wii broke and i could no longer play. Despite the Wii being broke and we got rid of it, I was ADAMANT on keeping the game, and I kept that game for YEARS. It was an original copy out of a sealed box, and I eventually lost it when I left it accidentally at my now ex-friend's house.

She had a Wii and I went "hey I have a Wii game!" And I brought my Zelda over. Worst fucking choice of my goddamn life. Mom called me to come home and said I couldn't sleep over like the original plan was, and that was it. My ex-friend stashed my Zelda and I never saw it again. And, even if I wanted to-- I couldn't get it back, which makes me upset. We had a BAD falling out. She likely doesn't even remember it's there, or sold it to the local game junkie kid who buys ALL games.

But I still love the game. Midna was amazing, and I loved how snarky she was and she has a very cute design! The game's OST is fucking phenomenal. Midna's Desperate Hour makes me cry bc goddamn it really sells how serious that situation is. I love Hyrule Field's theme in this game. I love the Twilight Realm's song. Zant was fucking hilariously scary. Ganondorf's design in this game scared the piss out of me when I was younger.

Midna and this game's Link and Zelda are def my favorites. Yeah yeah, Sheik is cool and all I Guess but dhsushwishs Midna holds the special place in my heart. She was totally my gay awakening BUT

For other game antagonists, I adore Ghirahim-- let's go you funky little queer-coded villain. Skull Kid was great, I love the entire dynamic of him. Prankster lost soul stumbles upon Majora's Mask and the mask makes him act out due to powers-- which, I actually took very heavy inspiration from for one of my OCs. The moon falling to Hyrule was a fucking terrifying looming threat.

But the game series holds a place, and I've yet to be able to play BoTW-- although, I'm fairly certain I'll like it. The playthroughs I've watched of it are all fairly decent! I just. Gotta save up enough money to buy it haha.

Dang guess I gotta go watch a Twilight Princess playthrough again.

Honorable Mentions:

Avatar: the Last Airbender, specifically Book 3

my OCs definitely make me happy, they're my children and I'd ramble A LOT longer if given the chance WHEEZE

My friends, but I didn't add them here bc it's more fictional stuff, I presume

Baking. I love to bake cupcakes.

Painting is fun. I'm an artist and goddammit im going to use painting as an excuse to make a mess.

Fire. I rly like fire, down to a pyromaniac level. However, i hate the fires that happened to my home town, the Great Smokey Fires of 2016-- THAT pissed me off. How dare you burn mountain landscapes to the ground. Perish.

History. I'm a history nerd.

I'm also a science nerd.

But fuck math, I cannot comprehend math to save my life.

For some reason, I rly like learning how the human body works??? like did you know, organs are actually sticky when touched by a bare hand?? Did you?? How fucking cool is that.

Bakugan. I love Bakugan, esp the DS game. I love my Darkus Leonidas. Give me back the online world, you peasants-- I want my Darkus Dragonoid. (Also fuck all my friends from when I was in kindergarten- my theory that Alice was Masquerade was somewhat correct.)

#admin ace #admin ace speaks #communistvriska #inbox tag #homestuck #warrior cats #harry potter #pokemon #legend of zelda

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ask-codeearasure · 4 years

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Questions and Answers

Question: Why did you combine Dreamtale and Mafiatale together for Dream and Nightmare?

Answer:

I did so because I thought it would be fun. I like to go with the most wacky and zany ideas because to me it’s fun. Think of Treasure Planet.

How can they breathe in space? Why are the spaceships like boats? I DON’T KNOW BUT IT’S FUN AND COOL AND FUCKING AMAZING!

I love that fun shit. Fuck serious shit, let me have my fun. But, also I like to add serious tones to it but the thing is, is that too much seriousness is not fun. Think of Teen Titans, it was a funny as shit show but also had serious undertones that would seemingly come up out of nowhere but it did so in a way that let the viewer take them seriously because of how they complimented the comedy. Angst and drama works in small bursts, but you can never have enough comedy. If you don’t let yourself have fun, you are going to lose interest in your own creation and no one wants that.

Also there was a deeper reason for this. A good while ago (fuck my memory) several people were having very serious issues with a guy called ManiaKnight, and his treatment towards people during these event things where he’d roleplay as several characters, such as Ink, Error and push narratives, however he’d use the characters to gaslight and manipulate those who had joined the events.

He made it all super dark, serious and edgy in the worst way possible and people wanted him to lighten it up via Dream. However for some reason Mania hated Dream and so out of spite he made Dream an Amalgamation, and thus normal Dream became a symbol of “Fuck you Mania” for the people who were tired if Mania’s bullshit.

A former friend of mine had vented to me about this so I designed Mafia!Dream to help encourage their “rebellion”. One thing led to another and here I am! We’ve been having fun with the characters since then.

Question: Is Error obsessed with Hazbin Hotel?

Answer:

No, I made a few Hazbin Hotel jokes in OOC because I fucking loved the pilot and couldn’t help myself because I’m a massive goober. Also FYI. Error is actually obsessed with Gambling, and doesn’t know Novella exists nor would he care that it exists.

My version of Error is not much like normal Error.

Question: Why’d you make Dream and Nightmare hoomans?? Nightmare looks like a onceler >:(

Answer:

The AU that my Nightmare and Dream are from requires them to go to the human world, so they need a human disguise. Thus they use illusions to make them look human. They’re not actually humans. They’re monsters with illusion magic. The humans in their AU don’t know that Monsters exist.

Let me elaborate, sorry for Spoilers.

Nightmare and Dream’s AU is extremely different from Dreamtale.

Mafia!Dreamtale is an AU where Dream and Nightmare are from two different realms of reality that they’re named after. The Nightmare Realm and the Dream Realm. Monsters are from these realms and consume desires and only feel certain emotions.

Dream Realm: They only feel Positive Emotions and eat Positive Desires

Nightmare Realm: They only feel Negative Emotions and eat Negative Desires.

They need to go to the human realm in order to collect these desires because the human realm is in the beginning of an Industrial Revolution and sleep has been practically outlawed because people are more concerned with progressing technology. In this AU Sleep Medicine and Alcohol are outlawed and give you time in prison if you’re caught with them.

Nightmare and Dream both make and sell these products. Nightmare sells alcohol, Dream sells Sleep Medication. Which is why they need to go to the human world and why they have the illusions.

Question: Are you tryna butcher every AU sans you come across gurl

Answer:

If by “butcher” you mean switch shit up and have fun. Then yes. Yes I am. I’m not trying to be accurate to the source material. You assuming that I’m trying to stay accurate to the source material is just that. An assumption. Not the truth.

Aren’t you tired of the same ideas over and over and over and over again? Let’s get extreme! Let’s go ham! LETS FUCKING GO! FUCK, KINGDOME HEARTS!TALE LETS GO -- okay but in all seriousness. Let’s look at all the AUs that we have. Where are the more zany ones? Where are some that just go weird and shit comes from seemingly left field before doing a nose dive into weirder territory? Why not have fun?

Fuck, I’ve seen Harry Potter meets My Little Pony fanfictions that are twice as fun than some of the AUs that I’ve seen.

Outertale is just Undertale but in Space! Can we go a little bit harder on the concept? Let’s push it just a little bit further. What else can we do with this concept? Are there space theme magic? What about when the monster’s die? Do they become dust? Stardust? Why not push the concept a bit further? What if they went supernova? What about that? Can we go further or are you just content with Undertale but in space? What if we made the story take place in the year 3000?

(Note: I don’t know much about Outertale. I only used it as an example.)

Question: Why is your Horror based on Japanese mythology?

Answer:

I wanted him to be different and I like going all out with my characters. I like basing them off of different things. I wanted my versions of the characters to be different. I didn’t want to be blatantly ripping off others. I know the originals are great! But I didn’t want to feel like I was ripping them off and claiming them as my own. But I also wanted to show off some individuality. I wanted to deviate for the sake of fun. I wanted to go all out. There is nothing wrong with changing things up.

Horror is actually mainly based off of the Blood Moon skins from League of Legends. But it got my interest in Japanese mythology going again so I decided to mix that in there BUT that is also because The Blood Moon Skins are based in Ionia a region on Runeterra (the world of League of Legends) that is based off of Japan and… well.. Asia in general. So I got those two things and mixed them together and started to switch shit up. Change the Blood Moon idea into something new! I want to make things different.

Question: Is Dust based off of Assassin’s Creed???

Answer:

I have never played Assassin’s Creed. The closest thing to it I’ve played is League of Legends’ Pyke, and Ekko; and with Watch_Dogs (the second one) but I haven’t gotten past the first level because I had to focus on my college education and I haven’t had the time to play through it.

Dust is based off of Alice in Wonderland, Alice: Through the Looking Glass, American McGee’s Alice, Alice: the Madness Returns, Dr. Spencer Ried from Criminal Minds, Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bamg Theory, Ekko the Boy Who Shattered Time from League of Legends, Visual Kei, and the image in this Youtube video: https://youtu.be/jJ0qDlyrGow

It’s weird that you came to such a conclusion because everyone else keeps telling me he looks like he’s from Kingdom Hearts, which is hilarious! Dear god, I don’t see either! Someone needs to break this down to me because I must be fucking blind.

(Ps. Please send the music artists in that video love, adoration, support, and money. They’re amazing and need more of everything positive.)

Question: Killer looks like a walking JoJo reference!!! Is he??

Answer:

Nope. I didn’t even watch Jojo when I designed him -- which reminds me I still need to binge the show. Killer is actually based off of Tanya Degurechaff from Saga of Tanya the Evil, and Edward Elric from FullMetal Alchemist and FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

His story will barely even reflect this. And I know what you’re thinking “So original/sarcasm” well there is no such thing as originality. As an artist (which writing even falls under). Everything is inspired and based on something.

To quote Picasso “Good artists copy, Great artists steal”. Now this can be taken in a horrible way but it’s talking about technique. You can steal a technique and those techniques are something you are even taught in art school. You can take inspirations and those inspirations are dependent on how they are used. In this context, the technique is a trope. Tropes are dependent on how they are used and executed. And yes I might switch up Killer’s design a bit, but at the same time I like his design but I don’t think I will change it right now, I need to think about it, because now that I think about it, it’s not much of a military uniform but that’s because of his jacket. I will have to add a bit more detail to his uniform. Also the shadow behind him is a visual signifier of the Chara part of his soul (he absorbed Chara’s Soul but her soul is still active) which is awake and can still talk, but it's more like she is talking through him a voice emanating from his soul -- perhaps that’s why he looks so… Jojo-y?... I’m going to have to go through his design with a fine tooth comb to switch it up a little more.

“Question:” WHY IS BERRY TOO CUTE AND TOO MUCH OF A BABIE!! I HATE THOSE KIND OF BERRIES AND I WANNA MURDER THAT THING FGHJKL!!!!!!111!!

Answer:

That isn’t my problem bud. I don’t cater to anyone. If you think he’s too cute, that’s not my problem. Hell I made him that way because my version of Berry -- Cyber!Berry -- is literally a 3 year old who is super intelligent but still a child. I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen a 3 year old, but they look so fucking cute. But if you don’t vibe with cute things… that’s a you thing, not a me thing.

It’s your problem. Not mine. You don’t have to like my designs.

“Question:” i hate ur characters, they made me cry because of how badly designed they are hurrrr durrrrr

Answer:

Not my problem, I’m not catering to anyone. You hating my characters doesn’t mean shit. After all, let's point out the obvious… it’s just your opinion. You don’t have to like my designs. They weren’t made specifically for you. They were made for fun not for you. I’m not going to cater to you. Do yourself a favor and go away and find something you do like,or find the best discount at Macy’s, or send your favorite creator love, because those things are better than wasting your time and more importantly mine and my friends’. If you wish to stay strictly to bitch, bemoan and troll, please cry directly into my coffee mug, your salty tears give me life.

#faq post #qna #Code: Erasure

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teddy-feathers · 5 years

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Prompt from @moss-flowers-trees not exactly fulfilled.

Up to No Good

Now it was well known that across the multiverse there was no Papyrus lazier than Stretch. After all, most took him as nothing more than a 'swapped' personality of Classic Sans and his brother.

That was their - a collective term here referring in a general way to the entirety of the multiverse and all of the alternates - first mistake.

Because a swapped Papyrus was still a Papyrus and all Papyri enjoyed a good jape.

Their second mistake was, as always, underestimating his brother.

Blue was a Sans in the way Stretch was a Papyrus, and from day one had resented being underestimated. Credit where its do, no one could do shenanigans like a Sans, especially his brother. It was as admirable as it was terrifying.

The last was more of a fortuitous boon, luck if one really wanted to be so crass, then a mistake on anyone's part and that was no one spoiled the fun.

So to set the stage, to really understand just how priceless the current situation of a nightmare carnival mirror image of him frothing in rage, you have to go back to the beginning.

Not the very beginning - though any good story should perhaps start there - for the sake of time, argument, and a joke that will only grow stale for having to wait for it, let it be assumed for the moment that Stretch is the center of the universe the second he and his brother stumble into a room full of strikingly unfamiliar faces in some sort of mirror maze of 'what ifs' and 'could have beens'.

Papyrus - one of many now, always? Apparently. - zones out, empty sockets not giving away his unfocused attention as Not his Brother Sans reluctantly and with much prodding from a much more handsome and friendly reflection Papyrus explains something about Universal Causality. What homeowners insurance had to do with this bowl of Flowey Flakes they found themselves in he missed, but at some point someone had pointed out that they couldn't all share the same name without even the most friendly of them wanting to dust the others like some bad Highlander reboot.

His brother, Blue now - cleverly claiming the Sans favorite color as his own - nudges him from a lovely little daydream back into the existential nightmare that was the current universe, and Papyrus folds his fingers together and lifts them above his head tilting this way with that until his back pops. This is met with disgusted looks from many faces around the room - most of them his own - and he slumps back comfortably into his hoodie. "Guess I'll go by Stretch."

Several voices protest of course, because life from now on was going to be lived by committee.

"Well That is certainly... unique Orange Me." Says Putting a Positive Spin on This With All His Might Papyrus - or Creampuff as he'd agreeably allowed Edgelord Papyrus to dub him.

"It is Ridiculous is what it Is." Protests the version of his brother that had wandered into a Hot Topic and had never left. "It doesn't Fit with the Already Established naming convention!"

It was times like this that he - The Papyrus who was going by Stretch for Spite now - was glad he had never bothered with the magic expenditure that was eyelights. Meant no one could see him roll his eyes.

There was no Convention - no real pattern for the group as a whole or even just through the pairs. Classic Sans - named such for his outdated old man jokes no doubt - seems to notice all the same and huffs out a laugh. "gotta say buddy, kinda agree - name like that seems like a stretch."

Blue looks as cross as Stretch feels but it would take someone who knew him well to see it. He grabs onto Strectch's arm in a show of solidarity and asks "Brother, why did you choose such a Unique name?" The way he says unique stands in tonal counterpoint to how Creampuff had said it, and Stretch smiles down at his older brother discarding the first three responses that come to mind.

No need to make his brother worry, or get labeled as the Depressing Papyrus right out the door - even if none of this did matter. "Cause bro, I'm the tallest one here."

Of course his brother immediately catches on, lights going to stars in a way that brightens his expression both figuratively and literally. "Nyeh heh heh of Course! How very Astute of you Stretch!"

Immediately several voices raise in protest, and boy did his own voice sound worse when amplified and played back a half dozen times, but it was worth it when his Blues cuts across the din to add with sly earnestness "I Knew my brother was the Coolest!"

This of course started a whole new argument that derailed the last and the rest should have been history.

But of course some part of him just couldn't let it go.

A universal constant for Papyri apparently was a vicious strain of competitiveness. And while Stretch could have let the jape die, it was nice to have something - no matter how fake - to lord over the other Oh So Talented versions of himself.

Literally in some cases.

Creampuff, if not a Perfect host, was unfailing in his attempts to fulfill that responsibility while the whole living arrangement situation was dealt with, that when Stretch's insomnia got the better of him he'd inevitably pop into the kitchen just to grab something off the top shelf for his better mirror's ungodly hours Breakfast Prep.

This was particularly satisfying as Creampuff apparently put everything up on the very top shelves and with the whole lot of them living there, something inevitably ended up pushed to the very back that he just Had to have. It was child's play - minus the murderer possessed doll - to time things that Stretch's arm could slip over his and pull done the item before he had a chance to grab it. Add that to some casual comment about the perks of being tall and...

It was inevitable that Edgy Mc My Chemical Romance would catch wind of the ongoing shenanigans. And unlike Creampuff who tried hard and was generally likable despite his Arrogance - another trait shared by those who shared his face . Edgelord didn't have a redeeming bone in his body. Made him insufferable... and a particularity sweet target for tomfoolery.

So when at some dinner or another that they all agreed to go to on occasion after they'd gotten their own places, and Edge once more started in about how obviously he was the Superior Specimen of the Skeleton Species, well Stretch wasn't going to take that lying down.

Or, well, he was laying on the Fell - the call sign they'd agreed to for their universe - Bro's couch. But he had lifted his hand and said in a deliberately matter of fact dry tone, "Not the tallest though."

It was like he had murdered their damn cat (who was a friendly surface beasty... if you didn't mind being considered a scratching post). Edge sputtered in rage and had dragged him upright by force, while Stretch uncooperative hug heavily like a rag doll in his unphased grip.

If Creampuff was the Handsome Papyus than Edge was the Strong Papyrus, it would have been easy to hate him just for that if he didn't so obligingly make himself as unlikable as he had. Of course with a little expended magic to give his brother the Babybones Look that worked every time, and Blue's quick intervention with a level and a bit of slight of hand - the fight was diverted and the Japery continued.

Perhaps the most agreeable of the versions that had clowned their way out of the Multiverse Machine that day was the one that went by Mutt. Agreeable in the sense he kept his head down, mouth shut, and kept away from all of them. That could be because his brother was annoying enough for the both of them, but Stretch thought an argument could be made that Mutt didn't consider himself a Papyrus at all - he'd already had the moniker long before the pageant had begun afterall.

Black combined the Worst of Stretch's brother and the Best - if that quality could even be ascribed to him - of Edge. A menace of a monster who honestly came across as the smallest of the Sans in a more convincing way than Stretch was the tallest of the Papyri... Not that anyone had dared mention it to him of course. Stretch was saving the observation for a special occasion.

For whatever reason the Tiny Tyrant had taken an exception to the idea that he was just the evil twin of Blue and went out of his way to be exceptionally petty about finding ways to make himself out to be the better version of his older brother.

Honestly it was a bother and Stretch tried to stay out if it since Blue Obviously could take care of himself but for whatever reason Black seemed to take Stretch's height as a challenge as much as any Papyrus... With the sole exception of Mutt.

Trying to recreate the circumstances of Edge's measuring contest between the Stretch and his own brother during a holiday social backfired spectacularly into Mutt curling even more into himself and Stretch - more than a little tipsy - actually challenging Mutt to see who could slump the most.

Mutt had shrunk so fast into his coat that his skull had almost vanished amidst the fluff like a turtle and Stretch had laughingly declared him the victor, pleasing Black and being the last time for years that anyone bothered with his height.

So now onto the present situation.

Edge had been so pleased when he ambushed him and his brother in the grocery store, smug about his six inch heeled boots and his mastery thereof, dying to show up Blue who also had an insatiable love of the damn feet death traps and he had turned to ice his cake by pointing out that with these he could be the tallest of the Papyri...

That annoying smirk whipped clean off as he met sockets - exactly level - with Stretch who didn't do more then smile back because this was the joke of the lifetime.

"How!" He choaks, the sweetest music to hear.

Stretch leans in even closer to whisper conspiratorially "I'm standing up straight."

This only makes Edge froth with rage and stomp off without ever noticing that Stretch had been standing on a divider on the floor giving him a physical lift along with the rise to his spirits when Edge's dropped like a man into a river with cement shoes.

Blue laughs, mood doing a 180 as quickly as Edge's. "You should have told him the Truth Stretch!"

"Mmm?" He hums curiously, moving to drap himself back atop the already half full cart. The other versions of himself were fun to get the goat of but they were exhausting even in small doses. "What that this place's floor is poorly designed? But he was being insufferable."

"Nope," His older brother says in an insufferable tone of his own - oh no, not one of his 'great' jokes. Those were the worst. "That the reason you're always going to be taller than the others is that you're always Up to No Good!"

Stretch groans and covers his skull with his arms, pushing the cart away with more vigor than he'd shown anything all day. "Title drops are the Height of bad comedy."

Of course that only makes Blue laugh harder.

#undertale multiverse #us papyrus #bad jokes and worse writing #actually pleased with this though it needs to be cleaned up some #prompt #drabble

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cathygeha · 3 years

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REVIEW

Tell No Lies by Allison Brennan

Quinn & Costa #2

Detective Kara Quinn is on leave from her job with LAPD working with FBI Agent Matt Costa and his mobile unit. She is a “cop” through and through but is unsafe in Los Angeles. Matt & Kara worked together in book one of the series, had a romantic interlude, and now are working to find the murderer of a college student who was killed while searching with her boyfriend for a toxic waste dump impacting the dessert environment. With team in place the story begins just after Billy rushes Emma finds Emma and tries to save her. Will the team be able to find the murderer? Is toxic dumping taking place and if so, by whom? Will the romance between Matt and Kara continue? And, what else will be unearthed as the story unfolds?

What I liked:

* Kara: intelligent, quick thinking, loves her job, a chameleon, does what it takes, uses her childhood con artist skills in her current undercover jobs, interesting, fierce, capable…someone I am becoming more and more invested in.

* Matt: intelligent, a bit of a workaholic, work has impacted his relationships in the past, cares about his team, an enigmaMichael, interested in learning more about him.

* The relationship development between Kara and Matt – not much at first in this book but see a great deal of potential as the series progresses.

* The complexity of the case: started simply and became more involved as the story progressed.

* The FBI team members: Michael, Ryder, Zack – the bits and pieces about each one that were shared in this story made me wonder about them and want to know more. It will be fun to see how these characters (and others) grow as the series continues.

* The many threads, that at times seemed too many, all being pulled together by the end of the story. Better than a simple plot executed quickly.

* Billy: I felt for him and hoped that in the future he would heal and be able to move on. I also wondered if he might end up joining the FBI when he finishes school.

* Frank: Emma’s boss, a good man, haunted, focused, provided a safe haven to more than one in the end.

* The dark, gritty, harsh, realness that immersed in the story.

* The twists and turns.

* That there was a resolution to the case even if some were not 100% satisfied with the results

What I didn’t like:

* Knowing that such things happen all too often

* Having to wait for book three ;)

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin-Mira for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

BLURB:

New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan's newest thriller again features an edgy young female LAPD detective and an ambitious special agent, both part of a mobile FBI unit that is brought in to investigate the unsolved murder of a college activist and its alleged ties to high stakes crime in the desert Southwest.

Something mysterious is killing the wildlife in the desert hills just south of Tucson, Arizona. When Emma Perez, a college-intern-turned activist, sets out to collect her own evidence, she too ends up dead. Local law enforcement seems slow to get involved. That’s when the mobile FBI unit goes undercover to infiltrate the town and the copper refinery located there in search of possible leads. Costa and Quinn find themselves scouring the desolate landscape that keeps on giving up clues to something much darker—greed, child trafficking, other killings. As the body count continues to add up, it's clear they have stumbled on more than they bargained for. Now they must figure out who is at the heart of this mayhem and stop them before more innocent lives are lost.

Brennan's latest novel brims with complex characters and an ever-twisting plotline, a compelling thriller that delivers.

EXCERPT

Prologue

Two months ago

Tucson, Arizona

Billy Nixon had been waiting his whole life to have sex with Emma Perez. Okay, not all his life. Two and a half years. It just felt that way since he’d fallen in love with her the day they met in Microeconomics, on his first day of classes at the University of Arizona. Love at first sight is a cliché, and until that moment in time Billy didn’t believe in any of that bullshit. His parents were divorced, his older sister had been in and out of bad relationships since she was fifteen, and his friends slept around as if the apocalypse was upon them.

But in the back of his mind, he remembered the story about how his grandparents met the day before his grandfather shipped off to the Korean War, how they wrote letters every week, and how three years later his grandfather came home and they married. They were married for fifty-six years before his grandfather died; his grandmother died three months later.

That’s what Billy wanted. Without having to go to war.

It took Emma two years before the same feeling clicked inside her. They’d been friends. They both dated other people (well, Billy pretended to date because he couldn’t in good conscience lead another girl on when he knew that he didn’t care about her like he cared about Emma). But it was three months ago, when Emma lost her ride home to Denver for the Christmas holidays and he found her crying in her dorm room, that he said, “I’ll drive you there,” even though he was a Tucson native and lived with his dad to save money.

From then on, she looked at him differently. Like her eyes had been opened and she saw in him what he saw in her. From that point on, they were inseparable.

The morning after they first made love, Billy knew there was no other girl, no other woman, with whom he wanted to spend the rest of his life. Call him a romantic, but Emma was it. He had started saving money for a ring. They were finishing up their third year of college, so had a year left, but that was okay. He did well in school and had a part-time job. He already had a job lined up for the summer in Phoenix that paid well, and he could live there cheaply with his sister—though the thought of spending two months with his emotional, self-absorbed sibling was a big negative. And the idea of leaving Emma for two months made him miserable. But if he did this, he’d have enough money, not only for a ring, but to get an apartment when they graduated. And—maybe—his job this summer would be a permanent thing when he was done with college next spring, which meant he’d have stability. Something he desperately wanted to provide for Emma.

Emma rolled over in bed and sighed. He loved when his dad was out of town and he had the house to himself, since they had no privacy in Emma’s dorm. Billy kissed the top of her head. He thought she was still sleeping, or in that dreamy state right before you wake up. It wasn’t even dawn, but how could he go back to sleep with Emma Perez naked in his bed?

“Billy?” she said.

“Hmm?”

“Can I ask you a favor?”

“Anything.” “I need to go to Mount Wrightson today. The Patagonia side of the mountain.”

“Okay.”

An odd request, but Emma spent a lot of time these days in the Santa Rita Mountains and surrounding areas. She was a business and environmental sciences double major who worked part-time at the Arizona Resources and Environmental Agency—AREA, as they called it—the state environmental protection agency.

“For work, school or fun?” he said.

“Last week my Geology class went out to Mount Wrightson and we hiked partway down the Arizona Trail. I noticed several dead birds off the trail. My professor didn’t think it was anything, but it bothered me. So I talked to my boss, Frank, at work, and he said if my professor didn’t think it was unusual, then it wasn’t. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so went back a couple days ago on my own. One of the closed trails has been used recently. And I found more dead birds, more than a dozen.”

“Which means what?”

“I don’t know yet, but birds are especially vulnerable to contaminated water because of their small size and metabolism. Remember when I told you my boss got an anonymous letter two years ago? Signed A Concerned Citizen and postmarked from Patagonia? The letter writer claimed that several local people were being made sick and that the water supply was tainted. Frank tested the water supply himself after that, but he didn’t find anything abnormal. So he dismissed it. But no one has been able to explain why those people were sick.”

“And remember—there was no evidence that anyone was sick,” Billy said. “The letter was anonymous. It could have just been a disgruntled prankster. Didn’t Frank talk to the health center about the complaint? Didn’t he investigate the local copper refinery?”

“Yes,” she said and sighed in a way that made him feel like he was missing something. “Maybe two years ago it wasn’t real,” she said in a way that made Billy think she really didn’t believe that. “But now my gut tells me something’s going on, and I want to know what.”

“You told your boss about the dead birds. You said he was a good guy, right?”

“Yeah, but I think he still thinks I’m a tree hugger.”

“You certainly gave that impression when you first started there and questioned their entire record-keeping process and the way Frank had conducted that original investigation.”

“I’ve apologized a hundred times. I realize now how much goes into keeping accurate records, and that AREA uses one of the best systems in the country. I’ve learned so much from Frank. I really believe I can make a difference now, and be smart about it too. All I want is to give him facts, Billy. And the only way I can do that is if I go back up there.”

Billy didn’t have the same passion for the environment that Emma had, but he loved her commitment to nature and how she continued to learn and adapt to new and changing technologies and ideas.

“Whatever you want to do, I’m with you,” he said. He’d follow her through the Amazon jungle if she asked him to.

“It’s going to be a beautiful day,” she said, as if he needed encouragement to do anything for her. “I just want to check out the trails near where I found the second flock of birds. We can have a picnic, make a day out of it.”

“Good call, bribing me with food.”

She smiled. “I can bribe you with something else too.” Then she kissed him.

* * *

An hour later the sun was up and they stopped for breakfast in the tiny town of Sonoita, southeast of Tucson where Highways 82 and 83 intersected. Emma had been quiet the entire drive, taking notes while analyzing a topo map.

As they ate, Emma showed him the map and her notes. “The dead birds I found last week with the class were Mexican jays. The ones I found after that on my own were trogons. I’ve been studying both of their migration patterns. The jays have a wider range. The trogons are much more localized. It seems unlikely that they just dropped dead out of the sky for no reason. I’m thinking, logically, they might have been poisoned. I don’t see any large body of water near where I found them, but there’s a pond here that forms during the rainy season.” She pointed.

While Billy couldn’t read a topo map to save his life, he trusted her thinking.

“That pond, or this stream—” she pointed again “—are right under one of their migration routes. I’ve also highlighted some other seasonal streams, here and here.”

“That seems like a huge area. North and south of Eighty-Two? How can we cover all of that in one day? Where are the roads?”

“We can hike.”

He frowned. Hike, sure. But this looked like a three-day deal.

“Emma, maybe you should talk to your boss again, show him the map and tell him what you suspect.”

“But I haven’t found anything yet—just on the map!”

Tears sprouted to her eyes, and Billy panicked. Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry. “Okay, what are we doing, then?”

“If you don’t want to help me, Billy, just say so.”

“I do, Emma. I just need to know the full plan, and I don’t understand your notes. I don’t even know where exactly I’m going.”

“This is the town of Patagonia, see?” She trailed her finger along one of the paths that went from Patagonia up the mountain. “And this is Mount Wrightson, to the north.”

Billy had hiked to the peak of Mount Wrightson once. He wasn’t into nature and hiking like Emma, but he liked being outdoors, so he took a conservation class that doubled as a science requirement. His idea of being outdoors was playing baseball or volleyball or riding his bike.

“Okay.”

“We need to hike halfway up Wrightson. I found a service road that I think we can use to get most of the way to the trailhead. Okay?”

“If you’re sure about this,” he said.

She frowned and looked back down at her map. He hated that he’d made her sad.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s fine.”

“You don’t want to go.”

“I do. I just don’t want us to get lost.”

She smiled sweetly at him. “Stick with me and you won’t.”

That was the smile he needed. He took her hand, interlocked their fingers. “I trust you.”

“Good.” She gave him a quick kiss, and they left the café and got back on the road.

Several hours later, Billy wasn’t as accommodating. They’d parked at the end of a dirt road near the trailhead halfway up the southeastern side of the mountain and been hiking through rough terrain ever since. The landscape was dotted with some trees and pines, but not as dense or pretty or green as on the top of the mountain. The land wasn’t dry—the wet winter and snow runoff had ensured that—so the area was hard to navigate, and the paths they were on weren’t maintained. Billy doubted they were trails at all.

The hiking had been fine up until lunch. At noon, they ate their picnic, which was a nice break, because then they had sex and relaxed in the middle of nature. It wasn’t quiet—they heard birds and a light breeze and the rustling of critters. A family of jackrabbits crossed only feet from them as they lay on the blanket Billy had brought. Afterward, Billy suggested they head back to the truck. He was tired, and they had already walked miles, which meant as many miles back to the truck.

But Emma didn’t want to leave. He was pretty sure she didn’t know exactly what she was looking for, but that she had this idea that if she walked long and far enough, she’d find evidence to support her theory that something nefarious had been happening out here to kill all those birds.

So Billy kept his mouth shut and followed her.

By four that afternoon, Billy was pretty sure Emma had gotten them lost. They had seemed to zigzag across the southern face of Mount Wrightson. He was tired, and even the birds had gone quiet, as if they were getting ready to settle in and nest for the night, even though sunset was still a few hours away.

He stopped next to a tree that was taller than most and that provided much-needed shade. It was only seventy-six degrees, but the sky was clear and the sun had been beating down on them all afternoon. He was glad he’d thought to bring sunscreen, otherwise they’d both be fried by now.

He dropped the large backpack he’d been carrying that contained their picnic stuff, blanket, water, first aid kit and emergency supplies. He knew enough about the desert not to go hiking without food and water to last at least twenty-four hours. Like if his truck didn’t start when they got back, they needed to be okay. So he had extra water—but he didn’t tell Emma that. It was for emergencies only.

“We’re down to our last water bottles,” he said. He’d paced himself so he had two left, whereas Emma had gone through all six of hers.

He handed her one of the two. “Drink.”

She sipped, handed it back to him. “Thirty more minutes, honey. See this?” She pointed to the damn map that he wanted to tear into pieces now, except without it he was positive they would be lost here forever. “That’s the large seasonal pond I was talking about. It’ll dry up before summer, according to the topo charts.”

How she could stay so cheerful when he was hot and tired and, frankly, bored, he didn’t know.

“How far?”

“Down this path, not more than two hundred yards. Three hundred, maybe.”

He looked at her. Implored her to let them start heading back.

“Why don’t you stay here and wait,” she said.

“You don’t mind?”

She smiled, walked over and kissed him. “Promise.”

Twenty minutes later she was back where Billy waited. She looked so sad and defeated. “I’m ready to go,” she said.

“We’ll come back next weekend, okay? We’ll bring a tent and food and camp overnight.”

She looked surprised at his suggestion, a smile on her face. “You mean that?”

“Absolutely.”

She threw her arms around him. “I love you, Billy Nixon.”

His heart nearly stopped. “I love you, too,” he said and held her. He wanted to freeze this moment, relive it every day of his life.

“We’re actually closer to your truck than you think—we made a circle. First we went north, then west, then south, now we’re going east again. When we get back to the main trail at the fork back there, we go left rather than right, and the truck is about half a mile up.”

He was impressed; he had underestimated her. Maybe they weren’t as lost as he thought; maybe he was the only one with a shitty sense of direction. But that was okay, because Emma loved him, and they were going to be together forever. He knew it in his heart and his head, and she’d always be there to navigate.

They drove down the mountain, the road rough at first, then it smoothed out as they got near town. They headed west on 82, deciding to drive the scenic route back to Tucson. Emma marked her map to highlight where they’d already walked, when suddenly she looked up. “Hey, can you get off here?”

“Have to pee again?”

“Ha ha. No. There’s several old roads that go south. Sonoita Creek, when it floods, cuts fast-flowing streams into the valley. We had a couple late storms this winter. I just want to check the area quickly—we’ll come back next weekend. But if I see anything that tells me the streams were running a few weeks ago, I want to come back here first. Okay? Please?”

Billy was tired, but Emma loved him, so he happily turned off the highway and followed her directions. They drove about a mile along a very rough unpaved road until they reached a narrow path. His truck couldn’t go down there—there were small cacti sprouting up all over the place, and the chances of him getting a flat increased exponentially.

Emma got out, and Billy reluctantly followed. She was excited. “See that grove of trees down there?”

He did. It looked more like overgrown brush, but it was greener than anything else around them.

“I’ll bet there’s still water. This is on the outer circle of where the birds could have flown from. I just want to check.”

“The path looks kinda steep and rocky. You sure about this?”

She kissed him. “I’m sure. Stay here, okay? I won’t be long.”

“Ten minutes.” “Fifteen.” She kissed him again, put her backpack on and headed down the path.

He sat in the back of his truck and watched Emma navigate the downward slope. He doubted this “path” had been used anytime in the last few years. From his vantage point, he saw several darker areas, plants dense and green, and suspected that Emma was right—this valley would get water after big storms.

Emma was beautiful and smart. What wasn’t to love?

He watched until she disappeared from view into the brush.

He frowned. He should have gone with her. Was he just sulking because he was tired and hungry?

Predators were out here—coyotes, bobcats, javelinas. Javelinas could be downright mean even if you did nothing to provoke them. Not to mention that these mountains bordered the corridor for trafficking illegal immigrants. Billy had taken a criminal justice class his freshman year and they touched upon that topic. He didn’t want to encounter a two-legged predator any more than one on four legs.

What kind of man was he if he couldn’t suck it up and help the woman he loved?

So he grabbed his backpack and headed down the path Emma had taken. He was in pretty good shape, but this hike had wasted him. Emma must have been fitter than he was, because she’d barely slowed down all day. After this, they’d go to his place, shower—maybe he could convince Emma to take a shower with him—and then he’d take her out to dinner. After all, they had something to celebrate: the first time they said “I love you.” They’d go to El Charro, maybe. It was Billy’s favorite Mexican food in Tucson, not too expensive, great food. Take an Uber so they could have a couple of drinks.

He wished he were there right now. His stomach growled as he stumbled and then caught himself before he fell on his ass.

He was halfway down the hill when a scream pierced the mountainside. Billy ran the rest of the way down the narrow, rocky trail. “Emma!”

No answer.

He yelled louder for her. “Emma! Emma!”

He slipped when the trail made a sudden drop as it went steeply down to a small pond—the seasonal one that Emma must have been looking for. The beauty of the spot with its trees and boulders all around was striking in the desert, and for a split second he thought it was a mirage. Then all he could think about was that Emma had been bitten by a rattlesnake, or had fallen into the water, or had slipped and broken her leg.

But she didn’t respond to his repeated calls.

“Emma!”

He stood on the edge of the pond, frantically searching for her. Looking for wild animals, a bobcat that she may have surprised. A herd of javelinas that might have attacked her. Anything.

Movement to his right startled him, and he turned around quickly.

In the shade, he saw someone. He shouted, wondering if Emma was disorientated or had gone the wrong way. But whatever he thought he saw was now gone.

Then he saw her.

Emma’s body was half in, half out of the pond, a good hundred feet beyond him, obscured in part by an outcrop of large rocks on the water’s edge. He ran to her and dropped to his knees. His first thought was that she had slipped and hit her head. Some blood glistened on her scalp.

“Emma, where are you hurt? Emma?”

She didn’t respond. Then he saw the blood on a hand-sized rock on the edge of the pond. And he felt more blood on the back of her skull.

“No, no, no!”

He saw her chest rise and fall. She was alive, but unconscious. He pulled out his phone, but there was no signal. He had to get help, but he couldn’t leave her here.

Billy picked Emma up and, as quickly as he could, carried her up the steep hillside to his truck.

As he drove back to the main road, he called 911. An ambulance met him in the closest town, Patagonia.

But by then Emma was already dead.

BOOK INFORMATION

Tell No Lies : A Novel

Allison Brennan

On Sale Date: March 30, 2021

9780778331469

Hardcover

$27.99 USD

432 pages

Buy Links:

Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/books/tell-no-lies-9780778331469/9780778331469

Indie Bound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780778331469

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tell-no-lies-allison-brennan/1136909250;jsessionid=BE5869D36ACCCEF44F21FF4A05BC5D62.prodny_store01-atgap04?ean=9780778331469

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0778331466/httpwwwalli0f-20

Books A Million: https://www.booksamillion.com/product/9780778331469

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B087JTYYSY/httpwwwalli0f-20

Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tell-no-lies-allison-brennan/1136909250?ean=9781488077142

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/tell-no-lies-16

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Allison_Brennan_Tell_No_Lies?id=RHDeDwAAQBAJ

Ibooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/tell-no-lies/id1509698872

About the author:

ALLISON BRENNAN is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of over thirty novels. She has been nominated for Best Paperback Original Thriller by International Thriller Writers and the Daphne du Maurier Award. A former consultant in the California State Legislature, Allison lives in Arizona with her husband, five kids and assorted pets.

Social Links:

Author website: https://www.allisonbrennan.com/

Facebook: @AllisonBrennan

Twitter: @Allison_Brennan

Instagram: @abwrites

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/52527.Allison_Brennan

Q&A with Allison Brennan

Q: How much research do you do before beginning to write a book? Do you go to locations, ride with police, go to see an autopsy, etc.

A: Research is one of my favorite parts of writing. Because I’ve been writing for more than a decade, I’ve been doing research for just as long. I’ve been to most locations I’ve written about, though sometimes long ago (and I rely on Google Earth, books, and friends to keep me up to date about changes.) I’ve gone on ride-alongs with law enforcement, I’ve been to the morgue twice and observed not only an autopsy, but have talked to technicians and toured the crypt.

I also went through the FBI Citizens Academy in 2008, when I was in the middle of writing my 8th book. After that, I had multiple agents to call upon for help with details; I toured Quantico twice, the national FBI Headquarters, interviewed both senior and brand new agents about their different experiences in the academy and on the job, and participated in numerous SWAT training drills as a “role player.” What does that mean? I’ve played the part of the bad guy, a hostage, and a victim based on the scenario they were training for. I’ve observed dozens of different scenarios as they drill them, including high-risk traffic stops. I once observed a live ammunition drill from the catwalk, which was both scary and exhilarating.

I recognize that I can’t put everything I learn into my books, and that because I write fiction sometimes reality is too slow and I need to speed things up (trust me, you don’t want to watch my characters doing paperwork!) But I try to write my books to be as realistic as possible.

Q: What’s your favorite part of writing suspense?

A: Everything! I love suspense. I read it as a child (Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew, Agatha Christie, Stephen King) and I read it now. I love romantic suspense (I’m a sucker for happy endings); police procedurals; and race-against-time thrillers. When I’m writing, my absolute favorite part is when everything comes together near the end and I have that “AHA!” moment. It’s exhilarating and worth every struggle along the way.

I’d also have to say that suspense is part of every story. If there’s no suspense, it’s a boring character study. I want to have that physical reaction in my story -- the sense of impending doom and “OMG, how are they going to get out of this?” -- and if I get it while writing, my readers will feel it when reading.

Q: From the books you’ve written or read, who has been your favorite villain and why?

A: The Man in Black, Randall Flagg, is one of the most compelling and scary villains I’ve read, created by the master Stephen King in THE STAND (though Flagg has also shown up in other books.) Favorite? Maybe not. But definitely the villain that stuck with me for the rest of my life. In my books, I’ve created a couple of villains who I’ve actually sympathized with (while condemning their crimes) because their backstories are so tragic -- such as in TEMPTING EVIL. My favorite villain to write was Elise Hansen Hunt who popped up in several books, including the recent COLD AS ICE. She is young, reckless, violent, and I never knew what she might do. I’ve written several serial killers, who are always scary because you never quite know what’s going to happen with them. For example, in the first Quinn & Costa book, the killer was so focused and determined I worried he would outwit my good guys.

Villains should be both believable and realistic, so sometimes the most compelling are those who you can almost sympathize with, or at least understand, even when you are horrified by their crimes.

Q: What hobbies do you enjoy?

A: Reading (duh!), baseball (go Giants!), television (too many shows to list), hiking (except during the Arizona summer), shooting at the gun range (my daughter is a cop and great instructor), video games (with my boys -- at least that’s my excuse.) A little known fact about me … for years I used to make my own soap. It was fun, relaxing, and always made the house smell amazing.

Q: Do you write under one name for all books across genres or do you have other AKA's?

A: Just me! Allison Brennan is my legal name. In fact, I once told my husband if he ever left, I was keeping the name. Ha.

Funny story -- I bought my website domain allisonbrennan.com right after I sold my first book. This was 2004. I wanted to make sure I had it when I had books to put up there. A year later I got an email from someone named Allison Brennan. She tried to buy the site but couldn’t -- she was also a writer (a journalist) and wanted to know how I picked the name and if she could buy it from me. Small world! (There’s also an Allison Brennan who is a Olympic diver, an Allison Brennan who is a gymnast, and an Allison Brennan who lived in my town -- we used the same pharmacy, the same vet, went to the same church, and both had sons named Luke. Yet we never met!)

Q: Do you have pets?

A: Yes. Life just wouldn’t be as much fun without animals. I used to have chickens when we lived on a couple acres in California. I miss them--they were so much fun, and fresh chicken eggs are so much better than store bought. Now, we have two cats and a dog (a ten-year-old black lab). My son has a bearded dragon (lizard) who I adore as well. Who would have thought lizards could have so much personality? And we have a goldfish named Filet.

#Allison Brennan #Quinn & Costa 2 #Suspense #Thriller #Mystery #Crime #Romance #Fiction #FBI #Under Cover #Toxic Dumping #Environment #Harlequin-Mira #NetGalley

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dabibliophile · 7 years

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Are KO and TKO really the same person?

Is TKO a part of KO’s subconscious/a manifestation of his anger through anime rules/etc., or is he a separate entity in a Naruto/Ninetails type situation? We don’t have a lot of solid information yet, but what the characters say about him offers clues.

First up: Shadowy Figure

He clearly knows the most about TKO/the ominous purple goop. Here’s what he had to say to KO about it in his debut episode:

“I see something in you that no one else sees… the great power that already courses through your veins. Locked up tight within you is more strength than all of your little friends combined.”

“The secret to unlocking your true power is your anger.”

“[The goop] is your anger, the key to your power.”

“Everyone holds you back because they’re afraid of your raw, natural ability. They want you… blissfully unaware of your true potential.”

“Make [your anger] stronger! Strong enough to unleash your true power!”

“It’s time for your friends to see how powerful you’ve always been.”

In all but the first quote, Shadowy Figure uses terms like “your power” and “your potential” to make it seem like the goop is naturally a part of KO, like Rad having telekinesis or Potato being an anthropomorphic rabbit. SF is obviously manipulating KO with his “mentor” angle, but he could also be manipulating him by choosing his words carefully to influence KO’s perception of the goop. He’s way more transparent in “Let’s Have a Stakeout!”, where he’s dropped the mentor act and is straight-up hostile towards KO, which is reflected in both the beatdown and his wording.

“I could have never gotten through that pesky door without that… power of yours.” At face value, SF is referring to KO’s power fist, which he pulled off without any apparent help from the goop, but let’s be real here. That specific phrasing would definitely remind KO of his Plaza-destroying tantrum. Not to mention that claiming it’s KO’s fault he got in there is a blatant lie. A distraught six-to-eleven-year-old child might not be able to see through it, but we the viewers can. SF is saying he couldn’t open the door himself, but was able to easily trounce the kid who could? Bull. It’s absurdly easy to get weapons in this universe, SF could have dug around in the junkyard at the back of the Bodega for five minutes and found some leftover Boxmore part with a laser or saw or something to open the door. He’s just saying it’s KO’s fault to get him to bust out TKO again.

“You can’t even begin to comprehend the incredible power that lies within.” It sounds like SF is talking about the glorbs here, but his actions say otherwise. He didn’t make much of an effort to collect them, and wasn’t upset when he had to leave them behind. He even said “my work here is done” while falling into that pit, meaning the glorb objective was simply a cover for what he’s really after- the “incredible power” that is the purple goop. To make matters worse, both KO and Mr. Gar bought the fake glorb motive, which will throw them off when they try to stop SF.

“You’re pathetic and your only saving grace is the delicious dormant power that courses through your veins.” The creepiness of this line (“Delicious”? Seriously?) and his angry tone make it stand out from the “ohohoho I’m a cool suave mastermind who has everything going according to keikaku” attitude he had previously. This contrast suggests the line is significant, especially since it’s the second time SF hasn’t referred to the power as inherent to KO.

After our near miss with TKO, SF is ticked that he can’t access the power (as opposed to him not caring when he loses the glorbs) and says “That won’t do at all. We can’t have you ruining all of my hard work.” Stalking a child for a bit, giving a little speech about anger, climbing onto a roof, being a dweeb on camera for a few nights, traipsing through the sewers, and beating up a child doesn’t really add up to “hard work”. This suggests SF has put more effort into getting his hands on this power than we’ve seen onscreen so far. How does he know about this power? Was he involved in its creation or discovery? Did he seal this power inside KO? If so, why would he do that? If not, then who or what did? Since the “mentor” option is out the window, how does he plan on getting, controlling, and using it? As of right now, we don’t have an answer that’s more specific than “evil stuff” and it’s driving me crazy.

SF’s apparent insider knowledge gives us most of our information, but looking at what other characters don’t know about the situation can also help us.

Carol, KO’s own mother, didn’t seem to recognize Shadowy Figure from his card, or find TKO’s power set familiar. Most people can’t convincingly lie or conceal info under stress. While such a skill could be useful in her former superhero job, it begs the question: why would she conceal this information? At this point, KO being in the dark about this power is a danger to both himself and others, so either Carol has an extremely good reason for keeping it under wraps, or she’s just as clueless as everyone else. This possibility makes the whole situation even more scary for KO- his warm, loving, powerful mother can theoretically protect him from creeps in capes, but can’t protect him (or anyone else) from himself.

KO seems to have the most experience with TKO/the goop after SF since he’s probably been Traumatized by all of this, but his “knowledge” is all impressions and guesswork rather than the facts SF presumably has. In “Face Your Fears”, his reasoning that you need a powerful villain to defeat a powerful hero is what makes him summon our first look at the goop. We don’t see KO’s previous playthroughs of the fear game (though a flashback of something other than that darn sandwich would be nice), but it’s clear he views it as evil. His statement that “It came from inside [him]” as opposed to something like “It’s my shadow self” suggests that, KO-shaped as it was, he still saw it as a separate thing.

After he cools down in “TKO”, KO describes the titular character as a “kid who looked just like [him].” Once again, he considers TKO/the goop a separate entity, though this could just be a way of emotionally distancing himself from the destruction he caused.

In “Let’s Have a Stakeout!” KO states Shadowy Figure “tricked [him] into unleashing TKO and making [him] so mad that [he] wrecked the Plaza". It still sounds like he considers TKO separate, but he also holds himself responsible for the Plaza’s destruction. That’s good if TKO is a part of him since it reduces the chance of blowups in the future, but if they’re separate then he’d be blaming himself for someone else’s actions.

TKO calls KO a “faker” during their fight, so even he seems to consider them as separate entities.

Finally, (and maybe I’m just a sap here) TKO’s “any last words?” to Carol make me want to think he’s a separate entity because we’ve seen KO have nothing but positive interactions with his mom. Even in Evil Tantrum Mode™ I don’t think he’d attempt to murder her.

Let’s set theories aside for a moment and assume that TKO is a separate entity from KO like Naruto/Ninetails. If that’s the case, how would he benefit from pretending to be KO to the point of resembling him in the mindscape? Having KO as his host is a good strategy. If KO thinks TKO is a part of him, then trying to get rid of him is futile. But if KO thinks of TKO as separate from him, then he can theoretically be removed or destroyed. TKO’s assertion that KO needs him cements this. For one reason or another, he does not want to be separated from KO. If TKO can get everyone to think he and KO are one and the same, then the only way to kill him would be to kill KO too, and anyone who tries that is going to get their ass kicked by everyone in the Plaza.

Shadowy Figure’s wording suggests he also believes they are separate, while wanting everyone else to think otherwise. It’s highly doubtful he’s got altruistic leanings, so the “hard work” he’s put into the situation must benefit him somehow. As it stands, he got KO (and the goop) alone with him twice, one of those times being after KO recognized him as a serious threat. He might even know where KO lives at this point. Right now he theoretically has easy access to the goop. If it’s destroyed then his plans for it go kaput, if it’s removed it’s going somewhere more difficult to access, which makes getting it harder for him. Trying to get KO to keep the goop inside of him makes his job much easier.

Heck, let’s go for the amnesia plot and say even TKO thinks he’s KO. If he thinks he’s KO then he’s not about to leave KO’s body to take on a hypothetical “true form”, because he thinks it’s his body. It’s a lot harder to take over the world when you think you’re a six-to-eleven-year-old boy instead of, say, some ancient malevolent power that once trashed Konoha village. What’s an edgy anime rival without an identity crisis?

TLDR: KO might be straight-up posessed.

I welcome any additions/corrections/questions/etc!

#ok ko let's be heroes #ok ko #ko #tko #shadowy figure #ok ko carol #ok ko theory

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