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buckysrighthanddoll · 4 years

Text

Bad Guy

Pairing: Loki x enhanced!Reader

Warnings: swearing, drinking, fluff, a lil angst, and some of the team realizing that Loki isn’t as bad as they thought he was

When you were left to babysit the God of Mischief, you weren’t phased in the slightest. Sure, there were some nerves involved; Loki was the self-proclaimed bad guy. He was the cause for countless deaths in the Battle of New York, he seemed to have minimal morals, and he had a particular distaste for humanity.

Thor brought him to earth--or Midgard, as they called it--so that Loki couldn’t wreak havoc on Asgard. He thought that his brother could use a fresh start. Loki claimed that he was sick of vying for more extraordinary things, which you believed was bullshit. This was Loki--his entire life was nothing but lies and tricks.

But, nevertheless, Tony agreed to keep him holed up in the tower. Loki was never to be alone, but that spelled bad news for anybody who wasn’t busy. More specifically, you; you weren’t the newest to the team, but you were the most humane Avenger who also had a lot of free time. You showed compassion beyond the other members, and therefore were a perfect fit for the job.

Loki mainly kept to himself. He was always in his room, but occasionally he snuck off to different areas of the compound. He always told someone beforehand, which made the team feel better, but the cameras were always kept trained on him.

The first time you were introduced to Loki, your enhanced eyes picked up on his aura. It was a dark indigo color, not too bright and not too dull. You sensed isolation and a looming sense of self-hatred. This was the first reason you took a liking to the prince. The indigo hue also meant that he was hyperaware of people’s intentions, especially the unspoken ones.

And the first time you watched over Loki, you sat in the living room with him and turned on some music while he read and you wrote. He hardly said a word, although you caught him staring at you occasionally. He would just smirk a little and look back down to his book, and you would furrow your eyebrows and continue writing.

You weren’t intimidated by Loki. No, you weren’t as powerful as him, but you could see things that others couldn’t. Auras were the easy part, but you also felt a person’s emotions (no matter how well they were hiding them), and you could sometimes hear a person’s thoughts and see their dreams.

At first, Loki saw you as weak and naive. How else could somebody be so open to dealing with him?

The next several times you watched over Loki, you found yourself getting more attached to him. The conversations weren’t deep, but they left your mind reeling. His head was hard to get into, but you still tried.

One night, Tony said to take over Sam’s shift while he went to a mission debriefing. You weren’t feeling well on a mental level, yet you agreed.

You got to Loki’s door and let Sam go, and then you knocked. Loki opened the door with a smug smirk, but it was quickly wiped away when he saw how you looked. Sweatpants and a hoodie weren’t exactly a rarity for you, but your eyes were red, and you had dark circles and messier-than-normal hair.

His eyebrows furrowed as he shifts his weight. “Can we just go lay outside or something?”

“Of course, love,” Loki responded. If you weren’t so preoccupied with dark thoughts, you’d have questioned the pet name. Loki snaps his fingers, and suddenly he’s out of his black suit and in a pair of grey sweatpants and a t-shirt.

He walked beside you to the roof, where the stars were shining as brightly as they could within New York’s light pollution. Loki remained silent as you laid your back against the cold concrete, and then he followed your actions.

“I’m sorry this isn’t our normal babysitting routine,” You said, laughing drily.

“Don’t apologize; this is quite relaxing,” He responded. You turned your head to face him, only to find that he was already looking at you. “Do you do this often? Look at the stars, I mean?”

“Only when I need perspective,” You shrugged.

“How so?”

You turned your head toward the sky, admiring the twinkling lights. “It’s easy to see the night sky as two-dimensional. It looks like someone covered the earth with a black piece of paper and poked holes in it to let the light through. But each one of those stars is millions of lightyears away. Billions, even. Humans could never even hope to travel to one of them or the solar systems that orbit.” You point out one of the stars--not that it mattered which one. “That star right there doesn’t give two shits about our problems. We are as indistinguishable to them as ants are to us. Sometimes I feel like the world is falling apart, but then I come up here, and I remember that the universe was fine without humans--and it will be fine without us once we go extinct.”

“You speak so beautifully,” Loki starts, sighing as he turns onto his side. “Your mind must be a terribly dark place.”

A scoff erupts from you, and then you’re looking at the god. “Am I that easy to read?”

“Not at all,” Loki says. “You’re always wearing a mask around the team--around me. But this is unadulterated emotion. It’s quite admirable.”

You didn’t notice it until now, but his aura has shifted. It was still a deep indigo blue, but it seemed as though his walls were let down. His emotions were more apparent than they had ever been, and his thoughts nearly screamed at you. He thought about your strength and resilience--how you’ve fought through more shit than many could handle. Yet, here you were, breathing and having philosophical conversations with a god from another world.

“You know,” You start, sitting up. “Everyone keeps telling me you’re the bad guy.”

“And you don’t see it?”

“I see what’s inside. I see so much self-hatred that you’ve turned yourself into the monster others believed you were.” A short pause ensues as you allow Loki to interpret what you’re saying. “You’re not a monster, Loki.”

“I’ve killed thousands of people. I’m the prophetical cause of Ragnarok. I’m--”

“A misunderstood being who found that his whole life was a lie, and therefore became what others said you were. That’s not a monster. That’s a mask.”

“You’ve been in my mind, haven’t you?” He smirked.

You laid back down, shoulder to shoulder with the man beside you. “Only just now. Your walls are damn near impenetrable.”

“Good,” He quips jokingly. Silence falls between you, and all you can hear is the traffic from the city that never sleeps. You both resume staring at the stars until you’ve fallen asleep, and Loki carries you inside.

As Loki exits the elevator, Steve is scared to see you limp in Loki’s arms. Nat is on the defense until she sees that you didn’t pass out or die--you were leaning into Loki, an arm propped against his chest and your head in the crook of his neck.

“Loki what the--”

“Shh,” Loki interjects, making Steve even more upset. Natasha places a hand on his shoulder as a warning to calm down, and the three of them witness you stir a bit in your slumber and bury yourself deeper into Loki’s grasp. “She fell asleep on the rooftop; I’m just putting her in her bed.”

Steve fails to find words as Loki quietly walks down the hallway to your room. Once he gets Friday to let him in, he sets you on the bed. You wake up momentarily, only to ask him to stay with you for a bit. He supposed twenty minutes wouldn’t hurt, so he crawled under the sheets and laid next to you.

The instant you felt Loki’s coolness, you cuddled right into him. Your head rested on his chest, and your arm went around his torso to hold him tighter. What Loki didn’t expect was how warm this made him feel. He rests his arm around you and brings you in even closer. The twenty minutes he had planned on spending with you turned into an overnight stay; he fell asleep with you in his arms.

From then on, you were the only one to watch Loki when the team needed it. You were kind of bummed out that you were taken off missions, but the serenity of watching him made it okay. You watched movies together, stayed in your rooms and talked for hours on end, cooked together, and took naps together.

You hated to say it, but you were falling for Loki. He was respectful, and he was slowly (but surely) growing to tolerate humans and treat them as if they weren’t beneath him.

Tony had announced he would be throwing a party for Natasha’s birthday. He was going all-out and using the entire party deck--four floors included. You showed up late due to a doctor’s appointment earlier on, so the party was lively, and everybody was intoxicated.

You had on a little black dress, and you put effort into your hair and makeup. This was Nat’s birthday, after all, and you respected her a lot. You stayed by the bar area when you arrived to catch up to everybody else’s level of inebriation.

Loki found you less than ten minutes later. There was a clear connection between the two of you, to the point that you had considered that he was listening for your thoughts. “You look amazing, love,” He said, taking a seat next to you.

“You don’t look too bad yourself,” You quipped, watching as the bartender placed five shots on the bar for you.

“Those for some friends?”

“No, they’re for me,” You responded, taking one after another. “I gotta catch up to the crowd.”

Loki chuckles, but then it drops when he sees the liquor cascading down your throat as if it’s water. “Dear, perhaps you should pace yourself.”

You shrugged and ordered a few more shots, and then a mixed drink to sip on. “I’ll be fine, Loki,” You started. You picked up the cup and chugged it back, going against the initial plan of taking it slow. Within minutes, you’re feeling the alcohol’s effects. Your mind goes fuzzy, as do your senses, and the world around you feels lighter. You decided to stop at this level for now since everything was pleasant. The loud music enticed you, and as you looked around, you saw Natasha dancing with Wanda. “And that is my cue,” You smiled, standing up. You wobbled slightly, but quickly caught yourself and briskly walked over to your teammates.

“Took you long enough,” Wanda laughed as you started dancing with them. Little conversation followed that, mostly dancing and singing to the songs.

A slower song came on, and the three of you groaned as you stepped away from the dancing crowd. Natasha and Wanda’s faces hardened as they looked just past you, which immediately told you that Loki was approaching. You turned around as he got next to you, holding out his hand.

“Would you do me the honor of sharing a dance with me?” He asked, his tone as elegant as ever. You smiled and nodded, grabbing on to his cold hand and letting him lead you a few feet over to the crowd’s edge. One of his hands settle at your waist, and yours goes to rest on his chest. He holds your other hand, and then the two of you are swaying to the beat. “They don’t like me, do they?” He asked.

You give a small smile. “It’s less that they don’t like you, and more that they don’t like you with me.”

“Well, I can’t say I blame them.”

“Why’s that?” You asked. Your eyebrows turn up slightly as you gaze up to him. Loki can’t help but think that you looked more beautiful than any goddess he had ever met.

“I’m the bad guy, remember?”

“That’s what people want you to be,” You remind him. He extends his arm to twirl you and then pull you close to him--chest to chest, face to face. “You aren’t a bad person. You put up a wall so that people can’t get close to you. When will you let them down, Loki?”

Loki looks like an angel with the aura surrounding him. It changed right in front of your eyes. Where it was once dark indigo, now it was a clear and bright red. It meant that he could overcome any obstacle and sincerely wanted to change his life for the better. It nearly took your breath away.

“Perhaps now would be a good time,” He whispered. His eyes danced from your eyes to your lips, giving a physical hint to something that you knew just from reading his thoughts. He leans down slightly to gauge your reaction; he finds you also leaning in slowly. Your lips meet somewhere in the middle, and you can just feel the energy that surrounded you both.

His lips, like the rest of his body, were cool to the touch. Yet, they welcomed the heat of your body, like two opposite ends of a magnet meeting. You slowed to a stop in your dance, focusing on the euphoria that a simple kiss brought you. Loki cups your cheek to pull you even closer. The kiss feels like it lasts years, but it was only a few seconds. Your eyes flutter open as you pull away, and a smile spreads across your face.

Nat and Wanda watch with dropped jaws from ten feet away. “I’m gonna kill him,” Wanda states.

“No, Wanda, look at her,” Nat says, directing her friend’s attention to you. “She’s smiling--she’s happy.”

“Maybe she’s faking it.”

“She isn’t faking it,” Natasha responds. “The look in her eyes gives it away. She loves him.” She adjusts her stance and focuses on Loki. “And look at Loki’s face. It has genuine emotion. It isn’t stoic; it isn’t sarcastic--he’s letting her in.”

“Well, I’ll be damned. Why didn’t she tell us?”

“She knows that nobody else trusts him.”

You could hear the conversation despite their hushed words. It was one of the perks of your enhancements. Loki could hear their thoughts, too, which caused him to smile even more. “Would you like to go to bed?” Loki asks you. You nod your head and let him lead you away from the party, into the elevator, and down to the residence levels.

You take off your makeup and change into comfortable clothes, and Loki does the same. It was routine now to hop into the bed together and immediately hold each other. This time, though, when the movie is turned on, neither of you focus on the plot. You’re too wrapped up in each other, kissing whenever one of you felt like it, talking here and there, and just being absorbed into each other’s consciousness.

Loki was the proverbial bad guy. He had done horrible things in his past, and he had turned himself into a monster because his father had told him he was one. But Loki wasn’t bad at all; he was misunderstood, yes, but not evil. This was a man that you could spend all of your days with, and who wouldn’t drain you. He was not a monster. He could never be a monster.

#bad guy #loki x reader #loki x enhanced!reader #marvel #fanfiction #fan fiction #marvel fanfic #marvel fanfiction #marvel fan fiction #marvel one shot #one shot #loki #Loki Laufeyson #Loki Laufeyson x Reader #loki laufeyson one shot

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soyunaagente · 4 years

Text

Crossed Wires

Thank you @pridelumos for trusting me enough to write this request!

This is the first one I’ve ever done so I hope you all enjoy it!

Word Count- roughly 2,200.

Warnings- mentions of murder, guns, sex, drugs. My terrible writing.

The ticking of the office clock was the only thing breaking the tense silence. Yet another day had passed and not a single tip, clue or evidence was sent in. You sighed loudly and got up from your desk. The evening sun still flooding the room in a warm glow.

‘Someone’s in a good mood,’ Agent Roger Knapp commented on your louder than normal exhale.

You shot him a look as you poured yet another cup of coffee, The third of the day. ‘It’s been weeks Roger, weeks. We still know shit.’ You’re fresh, not three years out of the academy, still chomping at the bit to make a difference; after all you’ve heard about the emerging ‘drug war’ in Mexico. The more….seasoned agents have gotten cynical over the years. Unless it falls into their lap they don’t bother to investigate.

You dropped into your comfortable office chair and slumped over the desk. Letting out a frustrated groan. Honestly? If you knew the adventure that was about to ensure you’d wish for a few more of the lazy office days.

----------

Miguel Ángel Felix Gallardo, arguably the most wanted man in Mexico, leaned back in his office chair. Specially designed with French leather. Not for the faint of heart. He too let out a frustrated sigh. The Gulf was weeks away from overtaking most of the land border into the United States. All he’d been able to do was sit back and watch it happen.

He sighed again and stood up to look out the window. The fading rays of sunlight doing nothing to ease his apprehension. The Gulf was mere weeks away from securing the majority of the land border between Mexico and the United States. It would lead to a drop in profits; and an increase in problems. As if he hadn't had enough, Tijuana and Sinaloa were in a war, Pacho had him in a vice grip and Maria was gone. Fled. Kids and all.

Miguel lit a cigarette, as he watched the ash tip onto the stone balcony he realised there was no point in wallowing. This wasn't going to sort itself. At least this may be something he could fix. Miguel caught his jacket from the coat rack and slammed the door behind him.

If he had known the events of the next few days maybe he would have gently closed the door instead.

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

You stood at the side entrance of the offices, leaning against the door frame and watching the Guadalajara streets begin to light up with nightlife and music. You glanced back at the building you called a workplace for a moment. Your eyes scanning the stonework. When you laid eyes on him, however. your jaw dropped to the floor.

Strutting up the steps to the main entrance. To the United States DEA base in Guadalajara Mexico was none other than the man that had saved your life almost two years ago.

Miguel Ángel Felix Gallardo.

*Sinaloa two years prior*

As the first female in the DEA you felt as if you had a point to prove. This was your shot to do it. The biggest night time raid the DEA was about to undertake in the city of Sinaloa. Three houses, two down, now it was your turn to show off all you had learnt. It's not an Old Boys Club anymore.

In the end it had all happened so fast. First you lead the team tactically into the premises, cleared the perimeter. You did everything by the book. After that night you learnt that rules become blurred south of the border quite often.

There was a sudden whirr of bullets, frenzied screaming.... an odd smell of smoke. Fear overtook you when you heard the order coming from your Walkie Talkie. Two words registered. 'Ambush... scatter.'

You gripped your gun so tight it was a miracle it didn't snap in two. Barely taking in your surroundings you ran. Hastily. The streets passed in a blur. Your lungs felt on fire as you slowed your steps. Slowing to a stop, leaning against a building. The panting made the footsteps approaching behind you inaudible, it was far too late by the time you noticed.

The sickening click of a gun being drawn from its holster behind you caused your face to drain of blood. Trembling you slowly turned. You were staring down the barrel of a gun.

Seconds ticked by. The masked gunman's hand trembled. In that split second a gunshot rang out.. as you were thrown to the ground. You kept your eyes squeezed tightly. A warm hand ran down your arm. Daring to open one eye was the best and worst thing you ever did. You opened both. A pair of deep brown eyes stared back. Entranced. He helped you up, how kind of him.

Once steady on your feet you got a good look at the man. Time for round two of heart attacks of the day. One of the most wanted men in Mexico had his hand in yours, his other holding your elbow to keep you steady. He looked, well, he looked concerned.

'Estas bien mija?'

Your mouth opened and closed.

He chuckled. 'We,' he gestured to the giant of a bodyguard standing over your would be killer's corpse. 'saw what happened. He was on our hit list anyway.'

You felt your cheeks heat up. His voice was like melted butter. He squeezed your hand. 'I hope I'll see you again... agente.'

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

A bunch of roses with no name attached appeared at the office two weeks later. After getting a LOT of shit from the other agents you figured it could only be Miguel who had sent them. Two days later a necklace arrived. Your internal monologue went a little like ‘Oh no Oh no Oh no no no no no no’, especially when you realised the butterflies before evening opening the little box tied with a red ribbon. He’s a goddamn Narco. You’re meant to be putting him in a prison to rot.

You threw the flowers out and hid the necklace in your wardrobe. Get rid of all keepsakes and therefore all memories. He’s not for you. It’s not right. It’s damn illegal.

Now here he was walking as calm as could be into the lion’s den. You stayed watching his cool demeanour. His cockiness. That blue suit, that jet black ha-no stop. You didn’t even notice the small smile appearing on your face as he disappeared indoors.

Realising the worst thing you could possibly do was follow him. So you waited. Hiding behind a tree. Smooth. Real smooth. He emerged from the building about twenty minutes later. You almost deflated in relief as the car turned the corner and sped off down the next street.

Naively thinking it was safe you returned to your desk. Only to have Roger and Chief Jamie Kuykendall waiting with eyebrows raised and an unreadable look on their faces. Jamie was the first to speak. ‘We-um- we had a visitor.’

You acted confused. They fell for it. ‘I- we- Felix Gallardo was here. Looking to give us information,’ he finished.

‘Wha- what? How? Why?’ you babbled.

‘We don’t know the specifics. That’s the problem, we haven’t the faintest idea why he wants to give it to us. All we know is. He’ll only give it to you.’ Roger intervened.

Your jaw hit the floor. ‘Me?’

‘No, he came all the way in here to ask for the Pope. Yes you,’ Roger snapped.

Jamie handed you a scrap piece of paper. ‘He asked to meet you for dinner. He’ll give you the information then.’

Your brow furrowed. The moral compass going into overdrive. He’s a narco. He saved your life. You’re just getting information. Pushing all the thoughts aside you nodded slowly. ‘I’ll do it. It’ll be okay.’ Whether you were convincing them or yourself is still up for debate.

You didn’t sleep at all that night. The bed was uncomfortable, the night was too humid, the pillows were uneven. All excuses you convinced yourself were the issue. Sitting straight up at dawn you stared at the wardrobe. The necklace. Sneaking up on the shelf you caught the box and pulled it down. Inside lay the most beautiful silver and diamond collar.

Slipping it on felt right, It fit like a glove. The dress you chose was a bit risqué to say the least. But you know, we have to give him something to look at. Grabbing your purse before leaving you noticed a driver and his car outside.

‘Para ti Senorita,’ He opened the door. Champagne and truffles awaited. The smell of the new leather filled you with apprehension as the streets rolled by, before long you were in an unfamiliar part of town. The filthy rich side. The driver pulled up to a villa straight out of a Hollywood movie. The old fashioned villa, complete with a football field sized yard and outdoor pool was a stark contrast to the cramped apartment you called home.

Feeling slightly out of place you followed the driver to the entrance. He pushed open the door to a beautifully ornate interior. A butler handed you a glass of champagne and led you to the outdoor terrace. A table for two was set, with a view overlooking the city. It was almost too much. Almost. You took a seat at the table. Admiring the white table cloth and, of course, the vase full of roses as a centre piece. You nervously tugged at the necklace, anxious for Miguel to arrive. Still mixed feelings on the whole deal.

‘Hola Senorita,’ that voice, It stirred something in the pit of your stomach.

‘Hola.’ There was a slight bit of tension in the air as he sat across from you. The look in his eye was mischievous, bordering cocky.

‘Antes de cenar agente. Tengo un regalo para ti.’ He pushed a brown envelope across the table. You let your fingertips touch it before he lets it go. You take another glance back at him. The cockiness is gone. This is the envelope with everything in it. Names, addresses, routes. You tapped your fingers on it for a second. Contemplating. Eventually deciding against better judgement you slipped the invaluable information into your purse. A look of relief washed over Miguel’s face.

It honestly took you by surprise how funny he could be. You felt a six pack coming on before dinner was even served. The tension disappeared. As the wine flowed you felt more at ease with your supposed arch nemesis. His shoulders slowly dropped throughout the meal. Simply enjoying the company. The butler cleared the dinner dishes away. As he did so the sound of slow classical music filled the night air. Bringing with it Miguel’s invitation for a dance. Slightly embarrassed at the prospect he put you at ease by assuring you he didn’t know the steps.

He held your hand in his. His grip around your waist was both comforting and reassuring. You simply melted into the embrace. Resting your head on his chest. The sound of his heartbeat was music to your ears. That moment, nothing could ruin that picturesque moment. The smell of his expensive cologne, the feeling of his cool shirt against your skin.

You gazed up at him, his beard tickling your upper lip. You felt a smirk, his hand around your waist tightening. Oh dear, no. You place your hands on his chest where your head once lay. He looks at you, concern filling his eyes. ‘Que pasa mija hm.’

‘I-I.’ you fumble. ‘This,we,’

He stopped dead in his tracks. Moving his hands to hold your shoulders gently but firmly. ‘What are you worried about?’

You stared down at the floor. ‘I can’t be a notch on your belt Miguel. That’s not what this is, I'm a DEA agent. Of course I’ll be forever grateful for saving my life but…. But I just-’

His grip became slightly firmer. Barely noticeable but yet, you felt it. ‘I’m not going to bring you to my room mija. If you do decide to, it'll be because you want to. Not to, what, thank me for the information? That’s not what this is.’ His tone was reaffirming. Yet Calming. His juxtapositions were almost overpowering. How could one man be so much Ying and yet, so much Yang?

You held his hand. Entwining your fingers with his. ‘This is the way it has to stay Miguel,’ your voice cracking slightly. This is the way it has to stay.

You quickly wiped a tear from your cheek. With mascara threatening to run you turned to leave. Picking up your purse you took the first steps. Before bidding adieu to the glorious villa you glanced back at the Narco standing in front of you. ‘If you have any more information you know where I am.’

With that, you bid the man that firmly held your heart farewell.

#miguel angel felix gallardo #miguel angel #miguel angel felix gallardo x reader #narcos mexico #narcos mexico imagine #narcos

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kurtwagners · 4 years

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you critize atla all that much which fine whatever you can do that but, your blog is plastered in marvel stuff which also has tons of problems in regards to representation and which mostly is run by white guys, one of which is actually a trump supporter so like, what's valid and what's not? Why do you get to pick and choose what is and isn't problematic to like?

Another thing is why are you so adamant on shitting on communists and anarchists and leftists in general? What do you even believe it that you think makes you so much better and wise that anyone with that sort of ideology? All you do is blog about fandom related things and consume comics by the two biggest media companies on the planet and you think that somehow makes you an authority on anything?

I’m so glad this ask gave me a gateway to rant about comics I criticize marvel and DC literally all the time, this is like the 5th time but I love to say it: Post-9/11 iterations of iconic superheroes of American culture, especially ones like Batman and Iron-man, are literally the manifestation of contemporary myth-making of American capitalism, as well as American-exceptionalism neoliberal copganda. My last super viral post was completely shitting on how Tibet is represented in Doctor Strange, you should check it out (it’s old though so not my best). It’s kind of an academic hobby of mine to rip apart comics because I love media studies a lot. My entire final project for my Tibetan Studies course in uni was on orientalist misrepresentations of Tibet in Western superhero comics such as Doctor Strange and Iron Fist and the “Shangri-La” phenomenon (I can link if you want I’d have to revise some sections though, haha)! Also if you follow my social media you probably see me preaching the book Capitalist Superheroes: Caped Crusaders in the Neoliberal Age by Dan Hassler Forest, it’s one of my favorite pieces of academic media studies writing, it completely breaks down the concept of the American “superhero" using a Marxist lens and I am obsessed with it. Warning though it’s REALLY dense but I think it’s extremely well-researched and really puts into perspective how important media studies can be when analyzing the political characteristics of nations, and how media shapes the minds of youth in their image.

I said multiple times I don’t mind that people enjoy and consume Avatar, I just wanted to point out it’s flaws in representing the Tibetan people, which is rooted in the writers being white. Comics also does this too, and I have written about this problem both on Tumblr and in an academic setting! So many fictional works created in the Western World has political implications that are problematic in nature, which is why I as a fan enjoy it and also enjoy criticizing and dissecting it! It helps me better understand how politics are ingrained in almost every aspect of our lives! You can enjoy things you are critical of, so please don’t worry!

I agree with you, enjoying superhero comic companies is definitely a double edged sword, because of their problematic existence as corporate entities while they are now hiring more diverse writers and artists for specific projects that give positive representation for marginalized groups, like Ms. Marvel and Ironheart. I personally try my best as a fan of superhero comics to minimize my impact in contributing to the corporate side and white creators pockets by torrenting popular, large comic titles written by white men. I only actively purchase small series that give writers of color and women a salary and a platform, such as my absolute favorite writers Saladin Ahmed, Greg Pak, G Willow Wilson, Eve Ewing, and Ta Nehisi Coates! They’re all excellent writers so check out their comics and outside works! I also don’t watch superhero movies anymore, I just generally don’t like them that much outside of Black Panther, aka the best superhero film.

Time for a promo: My favorite superhero team of all time, the Champions, focusses on characters of color like Kamala Khan, Miles Morales, Sam Alexander, Amadeus Cho and Riri Williams, and is currently being written by esteemed black academic Eve Ewing. The next issue of her Champions reboot is coming out in October 2020. It’s going to focus on how teen superheroes and vigilantes challenge the government and status quo, I’m so excited about it so PLEASE check out your local comic store and buy an issue if you’re interested in supporting comic creators of color writing heroes of color! It really needs financial support after Covid delayed the release. Champions in the past also gave a platform for Indigenous Canadian voices by pulling in Inuit creative Nyla Innuksuk and collaborated with her to create the new Champions member, Inuit superhero Snowguard (my baby), so if you are interested in modern and inspiring indigenous narratives please check out those past issues as well ❤️

And to address your other criticism: not all is how it appears sometimes! I have a more serious political twitter and a fan twitter both, so if you want to see me talk more about politics then fan things please be sure to follow me @chaiiyou on twitter instead! Kind of unrelated but also this is actually a side blog, I have a main blog that’s mostly just pretty photos and aesthetically pleasing stuff @butterchalatte so follow that too if you wish.

I am a leftist of color (anti-imperialist anarcho-communist would be my best bet but I don’t like labels) myself, who is critical about how Western leftists often romanticize geopolitical situations they are unfamiliar with and nation-states that they have never been to or have been a part of. I hope you understand that leftism, like many things, isn’t a monolith and there are many disagreements and critical discussions happening within the left all the time, groups such as anarcho-communists and marxist-leninist-maoists really aren’t the same. If you happen to fall into the more tankie/authoritarian side of the spectrum, uh I guess sorry if I offended you by criticizing my colonizers lmao but these discourses are fairly common and happen all the time, I’m surprised you’re not familiar with it? Having open, critical discussions within the leftist sphere is what helps us better understand one another and build more substantial praxis together, it’s unhealthy to stick yourself in an echo chamber!

I don’t really get why you’re so spiteful and upset though, I think people who mostly come online to decompress and engage in things like fandom still have a right to have open discussions about politics if they want to. I’m not claiming to be an authority on anything, just sharing my own experiences like everyone else. I wish you well and hope you can find more compassion in your future om mani pedme hum.

Tl;dr: There is no ethical consumption under capitalism

#this is like. my bio on one ask. Thanks!#damn i spent like half my lunch break writing this back to the grind ig

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magaprima · 5 years

Text

Having seen the comments and anons on @concreteangel1221 ‘s blog about Lilith and how she less deserving of redemption than freaking Blackwood, I feel I had to have a little rant, because you guys know I have written literal essays of headcanons about this character and her actions and her experiences.

Lilith does do, within the timeline of the show, ‘morally bad’ things (I’m using quote marks not only because the benchmark of morals is different on the show, but also that the concept of being good or evil was something invented by abrahamic religions, because the old religions/ways/gods had a more discretionary, personal compass aspect to things). We see her kill Mary, we see her kill the teenage boy to summon the Greendale 13, we see her create a creature to ‘rip the skin from Sabrina Spellman’s bones’ (the other stuff she does is no different than Sabrina, Ambrose, Hilda, Zelda, Nick etc actions, so I’m not listing it).

However, before I go on to points and reasons why this does not stop her from having redemption or being a worth/morally capable character, I want to add, that as Lilith killed Mary, she did so on instruction from the Dark Lord (the writers confirmed in discussions about Part 3 that she was made to pick Mary specifically) and she has resurrected her. Zelda has also killed Hilda many times and resurrected her. Killing the teenage boy was, as we gauge from her monologue, a means to an end; ‘the dark lord was growing impatient with me’ so desperation not to suffer at his hands pushed her to summon the Greendale 13, which required a life. I’m just justifying her actions, I’m just saying she didn’t go out and murder for the hell of it, there was a reason, and her own self-preservation. And then when she creates the Adam Creature to kill Sabrina, I’ve already made huge posts about how that was created out of grief and anger, and how existing and surrounded by a patriarchal society made her attack the woman, the ‘competition’ rather than the man that was really to blame (as in society we women are encouraged to see each other as the enemy and men as the goal), and for that matter, her place didn’t work, she can only be accused of intent here and not action.

But now I have seen lots of comments on posts on tumblr, instagram etc where people say Lilith needs to suffer (as if she hasn’t already), that she should be punished for what she did (as if she hasn’t been punished enough) and that she’s pure evil and totally the villain no matter what.

And I want to introduce those people to something called the Abuse Cycle. Simply put, the idea that someone who has been a long time abuse victim has an increased likelihood of becoming an abuser themselves, because this suffered behaviour becomes normalised behaviour (a pop culture reference I always make for explaining this is Regina Mills when she tells Henry ‘I don’t know how to love very well’ because her experiences of Motherhood were only ever via Cora and that was a very abusive relationship). I have made posts which compare Lilith’s relationship with the Dark Lord as a marriage of domestic abuse, as she even uses the archetypal reasoning of ‘he wasn’t like this in the beginning. He was kind at first’ and often people who enter long-term abusive marriages have come from abusive homes, and believe the latter is an escape from the former (Lilith believes Lucifer is her saviour from the abuse of the False God/Adam/The Garden) and because this new abuser will occasionally reward them and assure them that they love them (i.e here have more power, here be my handmaiden and right hand, one day you’ll be my Queen beside me), the victim often reasons, for sake of survival, that this is just the way this person loves, and it’s not their fault they behave this way (’the more he became this thing of darkness’, it’ll be different when he’s back to his true form etc). And so they stay until the thought of leaving terrifies them, and the threat of being caught is worse than the threat of staying, and eventually this becomes normal and acceptable and just the way life is. They know no different. Lilith, until she meets Adam 2.0, knows no different. First Adam and Lucifer are her only experiences of long term relationships and both are violent and abusive.

Now the most large-scale example of an abuse cycle is human trafficking, another thing I have compared the Lilith-Lucifer-Sabrina dynamic too, especially as Lilith does use the word ‘groom’ in reference to Sabrina. With human trafficking cycles, long term trafficked victims often become abusers of other victims as a way of elevating themselves and earning themselves a more comfortable existence. For example, a young girl could be trafficked, then after 5 years of ‘loyalty’, she’s told to bring in other girls like her, she’s told that if she does, she’ll have to see fewer ‘customers’, that these new girls will do the worst jobs. So she does it, she goes out and brings other girls back to make her life easier. Then the traffickers create the idea of hierarchy; yes you’re still one of the girls, but if you help your abuser ‘break in’ the new girls, punish them and train them, well then you become the ‘manager’ of the girls, you move up a level, you’re important, and important people get better food, they get more comfortable beds. Sure they get beaten still, sure they have to still do their ‘job’, but there’s less of it now and they have status, they have a little bit of power for themselves and that’s better than no power at all. And therein the cycle begins.

This really is very similar to what has happened to Lilith. She was brought in by Lucifer, thought him kind and they were in love, and then he changed, became ‘this thing of darkness’ and she is abused, mentally and physically (the way she hides her face in the second episode of part 1 shows how used she is to him hitting her when he’s disappointed, and the way she asks to kiss his feet show she’s learned how to calm that temper. She has made a life within her abuse, a way to survive, a way to tell herself everything is fine and good) for thousands of years. Thousands of years of suffering this behaviour, being surrounded by it, knowing nothing else, is going to make it the norm for you. Like she literally has nothing to compare to in her experiences. And now she is told ‘if you do all these things (including those I listed above) you will finally be Queen, and this new girl can take your shitty jobs and suffer your shitty position, while you rule’, and like the trafficked victims, Lilith, understandably, jumps on this and does everything she can to make it possible. Why should she care about Sabrina? She’s just some half-mortal who has had a lovely life for sixteen years, while Lilith has suffered for thousands? Now it’s someone else’s turn. Why should she care that she makes another victim? Better to be the absuer than the abused, right?

Only, through her time in Greendale, surrounded by people who, while morally dark grey/black by Christian standards, are relatively good people, people who thank Lilith when she does something, who speak to her as an equal, who go to her for help, people who care about her, even love her (Adam specifically), surrounded by healthy relationships, living in that cottage without fear of abuse or beatings, living essentially a peaceful life, Lilith actually does start to care. She defends Theo’s right to be on the basketball team, she respects Roz’s decision to want to study away from others, and arranges that space in the library, and, in the finale, she helps Sabrina defeat the Dark Lord, and, quite notably, actually grabs the Dark Lord by the neck (telekinetically) blowing the subservient cover she has maintained for milennia in order to stop Sabrina from being hurt/abused as she has been. Because, remember Lilith knows his wrath personally and when she sees him marching towards Sabrina with it, she pulls him back ‘hold that nasty thought!’ and then, not only does she show sympathy for Sabrina losing Nick, she assures her she’ll take good care of him, and she returns her favourite teacher to her and allows Sabrina to have her powers without any need to sign a book, giving her both ‘power and freedom’.

Lilith, after thousands of years of abuse, of normalising that abuse, of becoming the abuser herself, breaks the abuse cycle. She breaks.the.abuse.cycle. And that is a massive thing, and an admirable thing, and, in my opinion, shows us what Lilith’s core character was before abuse and experiences etc (I do maintain Lilith’s core, original character is more akin to Sabrina). Someone who can go through such long term abuse and extreme levels of it too, and then break their own abuse cycle and behave differently, is not just someone worthy of redemption, but someone who should be applauded.

Yet, people will jump to say she’s evil and deserves more suffering, while Faustus will be defended. I like Blackwood as a character and I really love Richard in the role, but no I don’t think he’s a good person, and unless he shows real remorse and changes his ways in Part 3 or 4, then no he isn’t worthy of approval/forgiveness etc. I mean, we don’t know how he treated Constance, but the fact she had to ask for his approval whether to eat a cake, her fear and stress over giving him sons, and her general demeanour are very revealing. And then we have the atrocious thing he did to Zelda (which I won’t go into because many people have already done that) and perhaps the things he does are the very reason Edward forbid him from pursuing Zelda in the first place, and then he created a manifesto to oppress all witches, declaring women to be less than men, he made a secret society of warlocks that had such a nazi-esque demeanour it would be fucking terrifying to be surrounded by that, and then, when he didn’t want to accept the rule of a woman, he decided to poison an entire coven, before making plans to have his son and daughter married to each other in the future (and lets not forget when Zelda threatened to slit Prudence’s throat, he said he had his other children, so he could spare to lose that one). And there is no abuse cycle for him to follow; he is a white male witch. He has been born to every privilege.

I get if people don’t like Lilith (actually, I don’t, she’s fabulous, haha, but everyone is entitled to like or dislike characters) and I get people wanting Faustus to have a redemption arc, but you can’t possibly say that he is more deserving of chances, or that Lilith’s actions are worse, when you take all things in context. Similarly, as regards Zelda: she has been horrendous to her sister, abusive in more ways than one, but the fact she apologises for the harrowing, that she did stop killing Hilda after the nightmare episode, and how she encouraged Hilda to embrace her sexuality and gives her help and advice and a glamour makeover, and then gets her back into the church of night, all shows that Zelda is taking steps to make it up to her sister. People who are saying she hasn’t done enough and she’s still bad, like we are literally only just seeing Zelda realise the error of treating Hilda as she did, but the fact she has made changes and altered her behaviour accordingly shows that she, like Lilith, is breaking her own cycle.

So back off attacking women for less and defending men for more, people. Even fictional ones.

Also Lilith gets demonised enough from her own mythology in the real world, I ain’t gonna add to it in a fictional one.

#headcanon #or is it a rant #or is it both?#rantcanon

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fart-gate · 4 years

Text

SG1

Season 4 episode 2

"THE OTHER SIDE"

Notes by me

- Jack in a leather jacket ❤

- "didnt I order you to get a life?"

- good to know sam and Daniel are so obsessed with their work that they would stay all night. I wish I could find a job I love like that

- "someone trying to contact US , how often does that happen?" Point Daniel

- "the stargate is a portal to our ancestors" you right! Second planet to guess that correctly

- OOF they didnt know they were nice and kept the iris closed and now they have to scrape 3 people off the back with a spatula

- when they finally get in contact with them and they have to apologize for killing 3 of their people like bugs on a windshield

- how is he able to send visual?

- "the first time the descendents pf earth actually called home"

- daniel: I have prepared a 35 minute bullet point presentation explaining why you should give us permission to help them

Hammond: permission granted

Daniel: POINT NUMBER ONE- wait what

- wonder what kind of food they always give ppl whenever they trade with planets. My best guess? Pop tarts

- if I was on an sg team to give ppl food I would give them gummy worms bc I like gummy worms

- OF COURSE they are always looking for new weapons. Who cares about helping ppl! Do they have guns. Typical government

- this Dr lady legit just pushed a make up brush into his neck and hes fine

- Jack and Sam side eyeing each other about the make up brush. Clearly advanced technology they can trade for

- everyone always surprised to see tealc is with them and nice. These are the things that make me think he is the very first jaffa to leave the goauld and fight back

- "hes part of our team"

"....is he?"

- when he flips thru the pics of the people in stasis and its just the same 2 white guys at different angles

- love when Jack doesnt understand science talk he just asks Sam to translate . Sam is the human science for dummies book

- reaaaaallly hoping that aircraft that Jack shot down was unmanned and they werent lying

- brief exposure to the mind things wont hurt Jack at all! Unlike our friend here who has permanent brain damage bc of long exposure. Small comforts

- these mind controlled drones are damaging these people and they dont care at all I'm scared mom come pick me up

- lady: our food is chemicals and yeast

Daniel: I'm eating WHAT

- heavy water! What do they have against light water

- Jack and Daniel having a fight at the dinner table using only casual tones and their eyebrows

- the kid who came in the tell them the enemy breached their defences can breach MY defences hot damn

- "to seek new allies and procur technologies to aid in the defence against the goauld" FINALLY something to describe what their job is. But this is to describe now. What about the first 2 seasons

- Daniel is suspicious and I feel like we should listen to him

- "I was speaking metaphorically"

"Well DONT......its not fair to tealc"

- Jack vs Daniel

- daniels hair looks good in this ep for me specifically

- daniels moral compass is so chaotic

- hes got a point tho??? Hear me out. What if an alien race came to help hitler and they helped him bc they didnt know what the other side was fighting for? That would be horrible. Daniels right. These ppl could be hitler

- hold up Jack and tealc in those mind drone things is a bad idea okay we already established the brain damage thing right??? Hello???

- I WAS RIGHT they lied about them being unmanned!!! U aint getting heavy water now bitch eat me!!!

- oh theyre bad news bears. Who saw that coming raise ur hand 🖐🖐🖐

- now their being super shifty about everything. "He is remembered" WHOS he??? A goauld????

- Daniel asking 1000000 questions and Jack having to close his eyes and ask the stargate gods for patience

- "Daniel......shut up"

- JACK DID NOT JUST SAY THAT MY BOY. HE DID NOT JUST BE MEAN TO HIS ARCHEOLOGIST. IM BOUTA THROW HANDS

- thats it everybody leave the room I want to talk to Jack alone

- omg they dont want tealc around. Racist mother fuckers. Or xenophobic I cant tell which

- Jack grabbing daniels hand to stop him from dialing and daniels eyes shift in every direction like hes watching pin ball

- jack, sobbing: you were right Daniel they are assholes and we cant trust them

Daniel: what made you see sense

Jack: they dont like tealc

- sam almost laying down on the battle plan table like what is she doing???

- jack: what do u thing of alar

Tealc: hes hiding something

Jack: like what

Tealc: fuck if I know???? Do you know what the definition of Hiding is???

- oh are they clones??? Is THAT why they are all generic white people??

- "they come in all shapes and sizes??....and colors???"

RACIST MOTHER FUCKERS OH MY GOD

- alar: black and brown people were all over the face of our world so naturally we had to poison our planet :)

- bc thats the logical conclusion when your a racist fuckin idiot

- sam high kicking people in the face is my sexuality

- tealc crushing alars hand with a smile

- hahaha just fucking blow them up!! Lmfaooo

- this is so funny they are legit just blow them up and leave. No less than what racists deserve 👍

- they closed the iris and that dude tried to follow and we just hear a dull thud. Splattered

- RDAs acting i- its just amazing. Hes like shocked that they just killed thousands of people but also those people deserved it so like???? His emotions are fighting each otherrrrr

- was he looking at tealc when the camera faded out. I would like to think so

#stargate season 4 #a couple thousand less racists in the galaxy! good for us

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nefastustenebris · 7 years

Text

tell me you don’t want to fool around - p5 - canon!vers

@ vraileretif TW: bullying

She only had a few seconds before students came back in from the supposed “fire alarm scare”.

Kobayakawa’s office was not that big and thus finding information about a recently retired teacher should not be this hard. She assumed karma was at work, considering she flicked her lighter underneath a fire alarm until it went off - ensuring the evacuation of everyone. Messing with legal forces like that must have made some deity pissed at her because she could not find any dirt on Kamoshida.

Mercy must have been bestowed on her, she found the file tucked away behind a book.

Sitting low into the ground so that no one would be able to see her, she reached for her phone and snapped pages from it.

There was one name in particular that came up - Ryuiji Sakamoto - a boy in class 2-E. He was apart of the track team that was recently disbanded for some unknown reason. He and this teacher seemed to have the most run-ins. Ryuiji was disciplined more than a dog, it seemed.

Ryuiji Sakamoto was now considered suspect #1.

Another name, Akira Kurusu appeared towards the end. He was apparently faced with expulsion, along with suspect #1. Other than that, he doesn’t appear much. Which seemed odd that he would try to expel a student who just transferred. According to the rumours floating around Shujin, Kurusu was considered to be a new transfer student with enough checkers in his past that he could have been considered a king. She hasn’t gotten the specific details about what he did that was so gut-wrenchingly nauseating. Some students mentioned that he peddled drugs, others mentioned that he had problems with aggression. She has seen Akira Kurusu and she could not believe that someone as lithe as himself could be capable of peddling drugs or even landing a well-deserved punch. She had been around criminals, hell, she considered herself one - each criminal had a look so that they would easily network with each other, Akira didn’t fit in that particular pocket of subculture. That left the other girl that hung around Akira - the blonde named Ann. Girls in bathroom frequently talked about her, in less than amorous words. According to many students, Ann was dating Kamoshida and her friend Shiho jumped off the building because of their relationship.

“Who pulled the goddamn fire alarm?!”

Kobayakawa was a man who had a loud voice. When she first met him, she took an instant dislike to him to save the trouble of disliking him later. He was a man with an unrelenting, and annoying, moral compass. Dressed up as a washed-up Pee Wee Herman, he managed to rule the school with both complete vigour and indifference. He did not care what happened to students, but he made sure that his school looked the best at whatever angle its’ viewed from. This Kamoshida incident took a damper on the schools’ reputation, not to mention accepting a convict that apparently managed to become school’s scapegoat in under one day.

He made sure that in under no certain terms would he make her feel welcome. He only allowed her to stay after an elaborate story made up by the man who was blackmailing her. Her blackmailer was a police officer, who immediately got on Kobayakawa’s good side.

“I bet it was that Kurusu kid.” She heard him get slightly closer. Putting the file back in its’ place, she went to the door and opened it slowly so as to not make any noise. She sprinted across the hall and hid behind some lockers. She felt guilty that her so-called elaborate ruse managed to put yet another mark on Akira’s back, but guilt dissipated quickly. She checked her person to make sure she disposed of her lighter. Students began to enter the building slowly. Some were excited at the thought of skipping an entire period and going straight to break, and some were annoyed that this even happened. Some whined about not having sunscreen, some whispered that Akira was really smart to have pulled the fire alarm. She heard some students whisper amongst themselves.

“Kurusu was with us in the class all day, I bet it was the foreign exchange student. She’s really scary, and did you see the way she disrespected that teacher? Plus the fire alarm prank sounds like something an American would do...”

She was more annoyed that they thought she was America. She didn’t know that students thought she was disrespectful. Upon being introduced in the class, the teacher asked her where her books were and she replied that she wouldn’t be needing them as she wouldn’t be sticking around long enough.

Her teacher was Kawakami, a woman with so many eyebags she was the personification of a bloodhound. She was exhausted, the air around her was stagnant and she frequently went on soliloquies about how crap her life was, she made it very clear that she did not appreciate being given yet another problematic student. She felt this was better handled by a male teacher and she shouldn’t have to play babysitter to kids who may or may not start their own underground fighting ring.

Ethelinda Mallory was, as the vernacular described, a bastard. On her first day of school, she set off the fire alarm causing an uproar, just so she could get her hands on a teachers’ file. She had decided from then on out she would blend into the background like her desk mate Yuuki Mishima, a boy so soft-spoken she swore he had a permanent halo attached to his skull.

Blending in with the incoming students, she managed to avoid any suspicion from the staff.

It would be a free period soon, and she was hungry so she might go down to the bread store and try and connect Ryuiji, Akira and Ann to Kamoshida.

She stopped by the staircase and looked down. She was hearing pained moans and groans.

“...Please sto-hng!”

She blinked and walked down a couple of steps and craned her head to see what was happening. She saw Mishima being held by two students; they both looked older than he was - they might have been third years. There was another student, balling his hand up like a fist. He could hear chuckling as Mishima was struggling to get free. The boys’ face was red, and he was struggling to hold back tears.

“Oh fuck no,” she growled under her breath.

The boy with the balled fist raised his arm above his head. Mishima was an easy target, it was even better that the staff here didn’t care about him. Mishima got Kamoshida kicked out, that meant his volleyball scholarship was as good as dead as this bastard was going to be, he hated the way he looked like a wounded deer every god damn time something happens. He’s going to permanently fix that. He was about to swing his fist before something stopped him. He looked behind him and saw a short hair, with long black hair and midnight-coloured eyes. She had freckles on her nose, and a scratch under her eye, on the bridge of her nose and near her mouth. She also had three large marks across on her neck - deep. red - as if something was trying to rip her neck. She looked at him, with narrowed eyes. He wasn’t expecting her to be that strong, her fingers began to turn almost bone-coloured.

“The fuck are you doing?” She whispered. She forced him to look at her. “You have a problem with Mr. Mishima here?” No one answered her. She threw the boy with the fast, hard, against some lockers. “Ya’ll supposed to be prep school boys, so fucking act like it.”

One of the boys who was holding Mishima lunged at her, but she was faster than him and elbowed him so hard in the gut he almost vomited. She spun and kicked him in the cheek. The other boy was about to bolt before Ethelinda clutched the back of his pants and forcefully dragged him back to look at her.

“Where are you going? Hmm?” She asked him. “Look, you and I are reasonable people. So I’m not gonna hurt you, or your little crew. I went easy on you guys because it’s my first day and I know how awful first impressions can be -” she looked at her guy currently trying to stop his cheek from pulsating “however, this dude is a classmate of mine and you were holding him down - not really a fair fight is it?” She looked at Mishima. “So I’ll cut a deal - you touch him again, or even so much as look at him weirdly, I’ll hurt you. I’m not talking about superficial hurt here, I’m talking like that your own mother won’t even recognize you and she’ll have to hire several plastic surgeons just to fix at least one part of you. Don’t do anything to Mishima, or any kid in this school, and I’ll walk along. Oh and..” She forced him to look at her again. “You tell a teacher about this, I’ll break your jaw.” She grinned and gently patted his face.

“Oh and, I’m hungry so can you spot me some money for lunch, and my new friend Mishima.” She smirked. After stealing the bullies lunch money, she let them run off. She turned around and helped Mishima pick up his books. He took them from her gently. “I know I kinda disrespected the teacher back then but... I have some money and I would like to buy you lunch.” She grinned. “Remember, I saved your ass. Not that it should matter but I really wanted to ask you some things, if that’s alright?” Mishima blinked and nodded. “Sure, I think that’s alright. Plus I’m pretty hungry, could you believe someone pulled the fire alarm?”

“Pfft, what a disgrace. Wasting governmental resources like that.” She hoped the Lord wouldn’t strike her down.

“I know, right. Before I go to lunch, I needed to go say hi to my friend and give him something - you can come along if you want.” He wanted to tell Akira about a new request that he saw at the Phan-site. “I’m meeting Akira Kurusu.”

The kid who almost got expelled, and the young little criminal around here. She nodded. “Isn’t he the uh..”

“Oh, yes the rumours aren’t very kind to him but he’s actually very nice. Or well, to me he is. I’m sure he’ll be nice to you too. So coming?”

This was the first time someone invited her along for something. She grinned and nodded and followed him back up the stairs. She slipt her phone out the pocket and got a couple of messages from her blackmailer. She was ready to put her phone back in her pocket when she noticed something odd - a new app installed itself on her phone. She always kept her phone plain. Devoid of pictures, music, and personal mementoes. Aside from the fact she never had friends, any information that will connect this phone to her was considered a liability. She needed to frequently change and destroy phones - putting too many memories in temporary things was a wasteful wish. She only downloaded one game in her life - Candy Crush - so this app being there made her blink.

The app itself had a name called METANAV. It was a red icon, with a white eye looking at her. She tried to move it to delete it, but her screen froze. The app itself started to enlarge itself, taking up half her screen.

“Hey Mish-” she stopped. He was frozen, mid-walk. Everyone else was frozen too. A girl was leaning down to catch her falling pencil case. She turned around, everyone was a standstill.

She looked towards the end of the fall and blinked. There was a fire. She wasn’t entirely sure if this was karma flipping her off again. The fire seemed strangely contained. Just burning at the end of the hall. Soon it began to take shape. She could make out long arms and legs. Horns began to form, wings began to outstretch from its’ back.

She wasn’t sure, but she swore that the fire began to even form a mouth and eyes. They were grinning at her. In the middle of the flames, there was a silhouette of a woman. Long black hair concealed her face. The fire-creature began to lift up its arms with palms outstretched, it waved at her. She looked back at the woman, whose hair slowly began to blowback, revealing her face.

It was her, manically grinning. Sickly yellow eyes open wide, her mouth fixated in a snarl position.

The fire creature bent backwards slightly before lunging forwards, sending streams of red-hot flames after her. The flames began to twist on themselves, coating the entire hallway.

“Are you okay?”

She blinked. She looked up from her fetal position and saw Mishima look at her. She blinked and looked past him. Everyone was moving again.

“Uh yeah...”

“You just suddenly dropped down - you’re not sick are you?” “No, I’m..” she kept looking behind him. Everything was normal, no fire marks on the ceiling. She saw a girl pick up her pencil case whilst silently chastising herself.

“I’m fine... I dropped my..” she looked on the floor. “Candy wrapper.” She dragged an old wrapper from the ground and showed it to him. “Recycling, man. It’s a .. it’s a rush..”

“Well, Akira is right down the hall so I’ll go and speak to him - wanna join?”

“I’m.. I’m good. I’ll hang back.” She got herself up from the cold floor. She watched Mishima walk towards the black-haired boy. He was talking enthusiastically. She checked her phone again, the app was still there. She sighed and pressed on it and dragged it over to the trash icon.

There, gone.

#persona 5 #p5 #p5 rp #persona 5 rp #akira rp #replies #long post #rp #roleplay #persona 5 roleplay #persona roleplay

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pixelbitesgames · 7 years

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A Wolf In Sheriff’s Clothing

Game: The Wolf Among Us Played On: Xbox One Format: Physical Release Year: 2013 Developer: Telltale Games Producer: Telltale Games

“Imagine if you could not only read a comic book, but experience it with fully animated and beautifully cell shaded characters? Where you can guide their fate by making ‘well informed’ decisions and bare witness to the consequences that follow!”

That’s at least how I imagined the dev team at Telltale Games pitched the idea to transform the graphic novel series Fables into a “choose your own adventure” game. Well… Telltale is known for this type of licensed adventure game so it was probably more like “Hey, let’s make a game about Fables” and they all agreed.

I’ve never actually read the Fables comics but the concept has always intrigued me. The idea of fairytale creatures being forced out of their realm and having to blend into modern society by disguising themselves as humans is super fascinating and makes for a great story!

So when I saw that I was going to be getting the game for free as a part of the Xbox One Games with Gold in April 2016 I was super excited!! I’ve had my eye on it for a while but could never pull the trigger. The only other Telltale game I’ve played up to that point was The Walking Dead and although it was great, it kinda left me apathetic towards Telltale’s brand of adventure games.

And there the game sat in my Installed Game list for over a year, tempting me to play it and occasionally succeeding. I started it a couple of times, once by myself and once with my wife but we never made it any further than the first chapter. Fooling ourselves that we would pick it back up some day.

But it must have been fate that I would be writing about the game on this blog! For I found a fully sealed physical copy of it at the local thrift store. Begging me to buy it! Begging for us to play it!

So we did.

Presentation

Looking at the cover art for The Wolf Among Us, it definitely screams comic book. As a comic book and manga fan it’s what drew me to the game. The fact that it was actually based on a graphic novel series by DC was just the icing on the cake.

I can’t speak to how well the art style imitates the comics themselves. Looking at images of the comic for comparison, I can tell artists employed their own “Telltale” spin on the design but they more than channeled the comic book feel. The aesthetics from the dark outlines to the deep black shadows do really hit the mark!

My only issue with it was how they portrayed the main character in his “wolf-man” form. He kind of emits a Teen Wolf vibe and don’t get me wrong I love that movie, but I was hoping Bigby would look a little bigger and lot badder. I guess it’s fitting since the game is based in 80’s.

The back cover does little else to draw you in that the cover art hasn't already. Touting a hard-boiled thriller where your choices matter!!! Listen synopsis people, you had me at “Can you contain the beast within?”.

The beautiful look and feel continues as you boot up the game and are presented with a great intro showcasing Telltale’s expertise in cell shaded graphics. It’s really too bad they didn’t put as much effort into their character model animations. The clunky and artificial animations sometimes pull you out of the immersion the dialog and story try so hard to keep. Then you're drawn back in by how expertly crafted and gorgeously rendered the graphics are.

I’ll admit, it’s a love hate relationship with Telltale games and their graphics. But generally that’s not what you're here for.

The Game

Choices and story are Telltale’s nom de plume and with The Wolf Among Us they delivered on both fronts.

In most situations you are given a variety of choices that will have either significant or barely noticeable consequences throughout the game. These will alter how characters perceive you or can change how specific scenarios play out.

One interesting feature that Telltale employs is that each of your choices are timed. Making you think fast, choose on instinct and more than likely make ill-informed decisions. I personally like to try and make choices that I could see myself making in those situations, colored by where I feel the character’s moral compass lies.

Not having the time to analyze the situation and determine the best response make your choices all the more impactful. This also makes it feel like they have more control over how your character is portrayed and how they develop throughout the story.

One complaint I do have about this system is the fact that you don’t really ever know if your choices are making a difference. There are definitely situations where your choices will lead you down one path versus another, but for the most part it goes unnoticed other than the small notification you are given in the corner of the screen. You’ll get notified when someone “Will remember that” or “Noticed you didn’t agree with them” but what does that mean?! I’m sure there are systems at play, but if I’m perfectly honest, I don’t see them.

Truthfully that’s what makes these games entertaining though. The fact that the story is so dynamic and can be controlled by how you react and interact makes you want to come back and play it again. Seeing how different choices can alter outcomes.

No dynamic story is complete though without strong plot threads that tie everything together.

On the surface The Wolf Among Us is a noir murder mystery about fantastical creatures slumming it in 1980’s New York City. Each of them scraping by while being dragged through the dirt by both their inner government (who you, Bigby Wolf, work for) and a drug slinging, prostitute pimping, crime lord known as the Crooked Man.

Deep down, this game also comments on social injustice, discrimination, governmental corruption and poverty. It certainly doesn’t shy away from suggesting that the combination of all of these things almost always creates a toxic and oppressive environment forcing many of the Fable citizens to fall victim to a less than dazzling lifestyle.

Luckily, our main protagonist, Mr. Bigby, is here to take a BITE outta crime! Or maybe blow it’s house down.

The story as a whole was fun and intriguing starting with a bang but slowing petering out with a puff of smoke. It definitely kept me interested throughout by introducing new twists and new characters but ultimately left me feeling indifferent in the end.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing as it left room for the story to be expanded with a sequel. Telltale has confirmed a second season but who knows when we’ll see that. If they do actually follow through,it should hopefully make up for the gaping hole in my soul that can only be filled with more Fables lore.

There is one thing I’ve discovered about playing Telltale games though or any game of it’s ilk. If you can, play it with a friend, your significant other or your local superstore cashier, whoever you can!

Although it is presented as a single player game, sharing the experience with others, arguing about what choices to make and discussing that “end of episode” cliff hanger is half the fun!!

Highly recommended if you can play it this way!!

Social Media Stuff

As we conquer each game look out for let’s play videos on my YouTube channel PixelBites and let me know what you think!

We’ll occasionally do live gaming sessions as well. Keep an eye out and stop by my Twitch channel at PixelBitesLive when we do!

You can also find the entire list of games in my collection on

PixelBites’ Backloggery

The list will be updated regularly as I start and finish games as well as when I get new ones. Don’t hesitate to take a look and let me know what you would like to see featured in the future!

Follow me on social media to keep up to date with what we are doing next and other random video game shenanigans!!! See you there!

Twitter

Instagram

#The Wolf Among Us #Telltale Games #Gaming #Review #BacklogOdyssey #Xbox One #Collecting

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radiofreefandom · 5 years

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TRANSCRIPT: Episode 201 – Undead Heist Crew with Jenny Hamilton

Claire: Hello, and welcome back to Radio Free Fandom, the podcast where my guests and I get down and nerdy about the media and stories that we love. Welcome to Season 2! Because we have seasons now, because podcasts are hard to make. You can’t make them every two weeks. It’s hard! So we have seasons, this is season 2, it’s going to come out every week for fifteen weeks. And I am so, so excited about the line-up of episodes that I’ve got for you folks, it’s going to be awesome. So as you’ve probably guessed this is Season 2 episode 1, I am still Claire, and my guest today is Jenny. For those of you who don’t know Jenny, or who didn’t hear Jenny’s previous episodes, she is a blogger and podcaster at Reading the End, and a diehard fan of Black Sails, her toddler godson, and the New Orleans Saints. Did I say that right?

Jenny: Yeah, that was perfect, that was amazing!

Claire: OK good, I was worried! Today we are going to celebrate the podcast’s glorious return to the land of the living by talking about our fav undead creatures and monsters, and then we’ll squee about stuff that we loved in the last… six months or so since we spoke to you, dear listeners!

[Music break]

Claire: Welcome back to the show Jenny, I’m so glad to have you back for the start of this new season!

Jenny: I’m so excited to be here, and I’m so excited to hear the other episodes you’ve got lined up, because like, what I’ve heard you talk about so far sounds amazing.

Claire: Well, we’ll have a bit more of a teaser in the recommendations segment later in the episode. But, let’s start with talking about the undead! Why do we love them?! And then, we’re going to play a game, which was Jenny’s idea, and was the best of the best ideas.

Jenny: I’m so excited!

Claire: So the undead – we kind of had to figure out what we meant by ‘the undead’, like, just zombies, just vampires, immortal people, people who’ve died? What’s the criteria here, for something to qualify as the undead?

Jenny: So yeah, the only criterion that I applied, is that they had to have died and come back to life in some way. So whether that was zombies or vampires, obviously those count, but also, for instance Harry Potter counts, because he’s died and then come back to life. I mean, in my line-up I decided not to just include immortals, they had to have died, so no Wolverine, but, you know, who cares, so. (Laughs)

Claire: That is also the rule that I went by, and before we get too much further into that, let’s talk about the line-ups that we’re going to do. I’m going to let you introduce it, because it’s such a brilliant idea.

Jenny: OK, so my idea was – I’ve been watching a lot of Leverage, as we are going to discuss – but, so I wanted to have us each invent a caper crew, with seven positions, and then we would each have to draft a fictional undead character to fill each of those positions, and comprise our full caper crew.

Claire: And this is great to me, because I also love Leverage, but I feel like I wasn’t really into heists before Leverage, I haven’t really been into heists as a specific type of story, but it’s wonderfully tropey, is a heist, isn’t it?

Jenny: Yes, very, yes!

Claire: So do we want to start by talking about the roles that we’re going to recruit for our caper crew, and we basically took them from TV Tropes.

Jenny: Yeah, and we picked the most interesting positions, and I feel good about where we landed.

Claire: Yes, although I did change one of them a tiny bit so it was more like Leverage, but we’ll get into that.

Jenny: (Laughs) I have no complaints to make about that.

Claire: OK, Good. So the first job that we’re going to be looking at is the Mastermind. The Mastermind is the leader, the person that gathers the crew, finds the targets, calls the shots, thinks of the plan, and basically, in Leverage, which is going to be the ur-text for this, right?

Jenny: Yes, yes

Claire: The Mastermind is like, supposedly the main character, although I personally think that Nate is very boring and shouldn’t be the main character, but whatever.

Jenny: Yeah.

Claire: The idea of the Mastermind is a person that’s able to change the plan on the fly if something goes wrong, which is kind of what I went for more specifically when I chose my Mastermind, so, do you want to reveal yours first or shall I go?

Jenny: I can go! Because I’m really excited about my Mastermind. OK, so, you had said in your notes for this podcast that it was someone who could keep a bunch of immoral people in line, but I’ve gone a different direction.

Claire: Nice!

Jenny: I tried to escape from this outcome, but everyone I cast as the Mastermind was less good than my first thought, which was Katherine Pierce from the Vampire Diaries. She’s the only undead character I could think of who has the right combination of intelligence, initiative, and passion for contingency plans. I think she’d be great at planning for every eventuality. I do think she would mostly want to do evil plans, but I think I’ve got a team that mostly has a strong moral compass and ultimately could keep her on the straight and narrow. Basically, Katherine is just incredibly smart. On The Vampire Diaries sometimes she is outsmarted, but that is by like, the collective intelligence of two Salvatores and Elena, and those are all pretty smart people, so I think she’d be great as the Mastermind. Who did you pick?

Claire: My first pick was literally just a bad joke, I was literally going to say it should be Jon Snow, because he died and came back to life and he’s as boring as Nate, right.

Jenny: (Laughs) That’s pretty good, that’s funny.

Claire: My actual pick is Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas, because the man has grand ideas. Like, sometimes they don’t work great, but he is going to go out there and organise stuff. He’s going to go to this random new place he doesn’t know and have an idea and be like, alright, we’re doing it, and get it all done. And then, when stuff doesn’t work, he will come up with a way to fix it, which I thought was important for the Mastermind as well.

Jenny: Yeah, oh absolutely I agree, that’s a very good pick, I like it.

Claire: Thank you, thank you thank you. Yeah I’m sorry, I haven’t actually seen the Vampire Diaries, so I can’t —

Jenny: Oh, it’s really great, it’s so great, you should watch it one time.

Claire: MM-kay, one time – isn’t that show really long?

Jenny: Yeah, but I think if you just wanted to get a sense of it, you could just watch the first two seasons, because that’s when it’s like, peak itself. Or if you just wanted to watch the first three, that would also be fine.

Claire: Fair enough, fair enough.

Jenny: OK, so the next position on our caper crew is the one that I found the hardest to cast.

Claire: Oh my God, same.

Jenny: It’s yeah, which is Tech Support. This is the hacker, and provider of gadgets, who builds what you need to get into vault security, hacks into computers, and does all that kind of stuff. Turns out there’s not a lot of undead techy types, so I’m really interested to hear what you came up with, Claire.

Claire: Right, there’s a lot of fantasy undead things, but not a lot of sci-fi undead things. I struggled a lot, I had a lot of like, this is a real stretch but I might have to go for this. In the end, I kind of talked it through with friend of the podcast Susan, who was extremely helpful, and what we in the end landed on is Breq, who was the Justice of Toren from Ancillary Justice. Now I want to say straight away, this is my biggest stretch for someone who died and came back to life. But, the Justice of Toren was a massive spaceship, with a bunch of ancillary bodies, who themselves had basically been braindead, and then like, been brought back as corpses to serve, blah blah blah. And then the Justice of Toren gets blown up, and Breq is like, the conscience of the Justice of Toren in just one body. So I think I’m going to give it to myself. Breq used to be an artificial intelligence in a spaceship, so like, she can do the thing. Breq is the only person that I thought of that wasn’t like an absolute stretch for this in terms of being able to actually do tech support.

Jenny: Actually, as you were speaking I changed my choice.

Claire: Oh dear!

Jenny: I just changed my choice just now. Well because, OK, I’ll tell you my thought process. The first person I thought of, the only undead character I could think of who was remotely in the STEM discipline was Liv from iZombie, but she really doesn’t do tech support, that’s not her thing, she’s a medical person.

Claire: No, I know.

Jenny: And then my second thought was, OK, one of the X-Men, like, all the X-Men die and come back to life, so I was like Beast, surely.

Claire: Yeah, comic, anyone in a comic book, I’m not going to go and check, they’ve probably died and come back to life.

Jenny: Right, well, but I’m committed to the integrity of the system, so I did go and check.

Claire: I know, I know you are.

Jenny: And I swear to god, every X-Man except for Beast has died and come back to life.

Claire: Oh, I’m so sorry.

Jenny: I looked and looked, I couldn’t find anything. So I was going to land on Jean Grey, but I have just this moment changed my mind. And I’m instead going to choose Jedao from Yoon Ha Lee’s Ninefox Gambit.

Claire: Yes! This was Susan’s first idea, but I haven’t read it, and I felt very uncomfortable citing something I hadn’t read. And I care about the integrity of the system so we looked for something else.

Jenny: Yeah, so I feel really good about this! Jedao used to live inside his body and that body has died so I think it counts. They kept his consciousness alive on ice, but I still think it counts as having been dead.

Claire: No, I think it counts. I mean, I mostly think it counts because I had it as a backup myself.

(Both Laugh)

Jenny: Well, and I did think about him as a Mastermind, but the reason I didn’t want him as the Mastermind is that he doesn’t really trust himself as a Mastermind. So, I think that in the Tech Support role he could use his brilliance, but he wouldn’t be in charge of people’s lives, and I think that would be a relief to him.

Claire: Well, I feel like Hardison would be insulted by this, not being in charge of people’s lives.

Jenny: I just mean not being a leader of men, he did some bad stuff when he was a leader of men, so I think, you know.

Claire: No that’s fair, that’s fair. That’s the only thing I know about this series, is that Jedao did a lot of bad stuff before.

Jenny: He did, he did, yes. But he’s very brilliant, he’s techy, I think he would do great at both hacking and building gadgets. Wow, I’m so excited I thought of this just now!

Claire: Yeah, I think that really works.

Jenny: Oh man, so good.

Claire: Great, amazing! The next role we have down is the con-person, slash the grifter. So in Leverage, that’s a woman called Sophie, or maybe not Sophie, we don’t really know. But the TV Tropes thing says, they do most of the conning, acting, and people-manipulating, which is quite important, and they use confidence tricks. And obviously they might also have to go and be a mole, or be bait, or be distractions if they need to do that.

Jenny: Okay. I love my pick for this, I think that the con-person, it’s helpful if they have a background in the theatre, and they also need to be hot and charming, so I chose the vampire Lestat from the Interview With a Vampire books by Anne Rice.

Claire: That’s fair! (Laughs)

Jenny: Isn’t that good?

Claire: Yeah, that’s quite good.

Jenny: He’s like, he’s flashy and vain and charming, he has been an actor and a musician, which means that he’s like, at ease as a performer, he can also, he’s bisexual, so he can romance people of any gender, and I think that he would just be a real asset to the crew.

Claire: Yeah, that’s fair. I went with Liv as iZombie, specifically because, it’s a plotpoint in iZombie that when Liv eats the brain of a person with specific knowledge or specific urges or personality or whatever, she gets that. So, my idea of that would be like, if Liv wasn’t confident in herself to be the grifter who could do a particular job, then she could like, tap back to the time that she ate that one brain that would be really great for that. Or, they could just have a library of brains on ice, that had like, the right, you know. I mean I’m going way more evil with this. Just like, we’re just going to keep a bunch of brains, just in case.

Jenny: That is pretty evil, but I like it.

Claire: Or, she could just have the brain of the vampire Lestat, on ice.

Jenny: I didn’t really imagine our teams going up against each other, but watch it missy.

Claire: OK, fair enough, fair enough.

Jenny: OK, so our next position is the pickpocket slash cat burglar. So, this is the one with the steadiest hands, who can perform any kind of job requiring sleight-of-hand, like stealing security cards. Claire wrote in our notes, “the one most likely to descend from the ceiling via a series of cables, or manoeuvre around a laser grid”. Fantastic.

Claire: I mean, that’s also from TV Tropes, but I wanted that in there because that’s my favourite thing about the cat burglar as like, you know, a type, a trope of character, like. Just the competency with which they can do that particular thing. Obviously competency porn is a really important aspect of any type of heist story, but the cat burglar really gets me. I’m, I’m so excited about this pick!!!

Jenny: (Laughs) Oh my

Claire: I picked Death from the Discworld. Because canonically, people do not notice Death, people make sure to avoid to notice Death, because it’s very uncomfortable to look at Death. Now, only children and cats and witches and wizards will notice Death, right. So you just need to make sure you’re not trying to pickpocket some witches or wizards, and just try to make sure that you get the children out of the way, so that no one says like, “who’s this person descending a wire?” or whatever. And then, also, death is so old and all-encompassing, that basically like, walls or things that are less than five million centuries old or whatever, that has no bearing on him and his person. He can just like, walk through walls. Which, on the one hand, I feel like, I’m a little sad because, you know, Parker didn’t go through the process of undoing this entire safe, and unlocking all the things and whatever, just for Death to just walk through walls and do the thing, but, it would be efficient.

Jenny: It would be extremely efficient, an asset to any caper crew. I chose John Constantine, from DC Comics. He died and came back to life, that’s kind of his origin story. And he really wants to do good, and I think that’s important because I have a couple of not-so moral people on my team, so I think it’s helpful to have a couple of people with a strong moral compass. Also, canonically he has experience in stage magic, so I think that he would be good at – yeah, so he can do sleight-of-hand, and he’s fun, I think he would be a fun, enjoyable addition to the team.

Claire: That’s really cool.

Jenny: Yeah.

Claire: Now, the next one is the Muscle, and I’m not going to read the TV Tropes description of the Muscle, because it’s all like, “the burly man who’s big”!

Jenny: Boo!

Claire: We all know what the Muscle does, we all know what the Muscle does, the Muscle intimidates, and body-guards, and all that kind of good stuff. Now I’m very curious to hear your pick for the Muscle, because I feel like my pick for the Muscle is my most legit pick of the entire list.

Jenny: Ooh, I’m worried we might, I’m a little worried about this one that we would overlap, and we’d have to fight it out.

Claire: OK, go go go.

Jenny: OK, I chose Buffy the Vampire Slayer —

Claire: Obviously!!! Obviously Buffy Summers, like. OK, fair.

Jenny: Wait, did we, because I have a back-up, I can choose my back-up.

Claire: No no, I don’t think we have to, do we have to, have —

Jenny: No, we can have the same one. They’re imaginary, so it doesn’t matter. Yeah! She’s scrappy, she has experience coping with a lot of bad guys at one time, and I think people would underestimate her because she is petite.

Claire: Yeah, and also, you know, she does have superpowers, basically. She is very strong.

Jenny: She’s very strong, I also, again, I wanted some people on my team who were good people, to keep the bad people in line, and I think that’s Buffy, I think Buffy would not agree to anything that was morally wrong, because she’s a good person, and she really cares about being a good person.

Claire: Yeah. I love how you had a thought about your whole team – like all of my thoughts about this was how to make it fit the actual competence that they can do, and how to make jokes that relate it to Leverage. I feel like your team is going to work a lot more cohesively over all as a lovely found family.

Jenny: Well, I haven’t gotten to my Driver yet, so we’ll see what you think when I get there.

Claire: OK, so, the Getaway Driver, that’s another one that I found a little bit tricky, because again, there’s a lot of fantasy about undead people and not a lot of sci-fi? And so, like.

Jenny: I’m so excited about my choice! Sorry, continue.

Claire: So my thought process behind this was to try and find somebody who could drive a whole bunch of different things? So obviously I went for King Boo from MarioKart, because it’s a driving game, he can drive lots of different things. And he’s a ghost!

Jenny: That is so good!

Claire: Thank you! (Both laugh) I want to hear yours!

Jenny: OK, so mine is the Lord of the Nazgûl, the Witch-king of Angmar —

Claire: Oh, so good!

Jenny: Isn’t that good, I’m so happy about it! He has a baller horse, and an even baller-er flying monster —

Claire: I did consider the Night King from Game of Thrones, because he’s got an undead snow dragon or whatever, but yours is better.

Jenny: Yeah, yeah. He is taciturn, but you don’t want a driver who’s a chatterbox you know? And, moreover, since no man can kill him, you now have a driver who can’t be killed by one entire gender, that’s like, a huge advantage.

Claire: Right, and also, if the thing that you’re stealing is the one ring of power, he does have a satnav built in.

Jenny: So true, so true!

Claire: But just if it’s that.

Jenny: Oh man, that’s amazing.

Claire: And the final place in this crew is something that you suggested.

Jenny: Yeah, so I suggested we have an audience stand-in, so someone who’s new to the biz, and excited to learn how everything works, and they help us, the audience, understand who every member of the crew is and what each of their jobs are and so forth. I kind of made this as like a swing position so that we could just add someone to the team that we like, so Claire, what did you choose for this?

Claire: So I didn’t actually go with like, oh here’s a person that I like that’s missing from this list, what I went with in the end was, who’s a person who would be a good stand-in for the audience? And so what I went with is newly-vampired Bella Swan, because, you know, canonically in the books she doesn’t really have that much of a personality, and it’s not to rag on those books, it’s just she’s a character who exists kind of as a stand-in for the audience anyway. Like, that’s kind of the point of that particular character I think in YA a lot of the time, and she’s made a vampire during the series, so there you go. But I would like to not have Edward or any of the Cullens or Jacob, or her creepy baby in the crew or anywhere near them, they can be her tragic past.

Jenny: Sounds perfect!

Claire: And also my crew now gets to have Kristen Stewart, so it’s now hotter and gayer.

Jenny: Yes, I would like to note I have two canonically bisexual characters on my team – actually no, three, because Jedao is also, as I recall, pansexual. OK, so my audience stand-in, I originally was going to have an X-man character, and then I was like well I can’t have two X-men on the team so I nixed it, and I was going to do Death of the Endless, but since I got rid of my X-men character I’m going back again, and now I will again choose Jubilee from the X-men, because she is young, she is enthusiastic to learn about things. People say she’s a pain in the ass, I think she just has a case of being a young woman in fiction.

Claire: Oh yeah, fair fair.

Jenny: And also, she has her own superpowers, so as she is with the team for longer she could start to take more of a role, and find which department she wants to specialise in, and I think that would be fun to witness also.

Claire: That’s really, really fun!

Jenny: Yeah!

Claire: I was also trying not to have too many people from the same properties, but I was also trying to have a good break down of what creatures people were. I tried to make sure I had a good coverage. So I’ve got a skeleton, I’ve got a spaceship that died and is an AI back to – maybe, I don’t know how to classify Justice of Toren. But, I’ve got a skeleton, I’ve got an AI come back to life, I’ve got a zombie, I’ve got Death, I’ve got someone who died and came back to life, a ghost, and a vampire.

Jenny: That’s very good.

Claire: And the thing I’m proudest of out of all of this is just the spread of undeadiness that I’ve got in there.

Jenny: Yes, you’ve done absolutely brilliantly. I didn’t even think about that, so I’ve got two vampires, two people who came back from the dead… yeah, so mine is a little more mixed.

Claire: But I think yours actually works better in terms of a narrative you could build with it. The other thing that I tried really really hard to do is I tried to pick people for the positions of hacker, thief and muscle, that could be in love. Because obviously I very very strongly care about the Leverage OT3, of the hacker, the thief and the muscle, Parker, Eliot and Hardison. And so I tried that really hard… and I ended up with Breq, Death and Buffy. Which Susan pointed out, that’s at least two people that are like, “what are those feeling things you speak of?!” which works really well with Leverage. I rest my case.

Jenny: That does go really well with Leverage. Mine is, mine doesn’t really work so well, I have, who do I have… I have Jedao, Constantine and Buffy. I just don’t think they would fall in love in the end, I don’t think they would.

Claire: So that was our undead heist caper crew, let us know on Twitter at @Readingtheend and @Radiofreefandom if you agree or disagree with our picks, and if you would pick other people for undead heistiness, and please watch Leverage.

Jenny: So good!

[Music break]

Claire: So for our recommendation segment today, we’re going to talk about stuff that we’ve loved in the break, and that is since about March or April, something like that, so we have a lot of things to cover. Do you want to start us off, Jenny?

Jenny: Yeah, so, there’s no way that you could have predicted I was going to say this, because I have given no indication at all that this is what I’m currently obsessed with, but, I am currently obsessed with Leverage. I started watching it a couple of years ago and I think what went wrong – two things I think went wrong. One, I got distracted because I was not a finisher at that time, and I am a finisher now. Two, I was much less aware of fandom back then, so I don’t think I fully appreciated how super super shippy it is. Which is, very, especially in seasons 4 and 5, which I am now in. And in case you’re not familiar, it’s a heist show, there is a found family of five people, who all have jobs on the heist team, and they love each other and they do crimes to stop the rich from being terrible. And it is so great, it’s the best comfort food, I love it.

Claire: Yeah, I mean I have been watching Leverage and I think I was watching Leverage before the break and already started talking about it. I need to finish Leverage, I need to watch seasons 4 and 5, because I am ready for even more shippiness than earlier in the show. Like literally came to this show from fandom, and didn’t realise that Parker, Hardison, Eliot aren’t the main characters. I literally thought it was a show about Parker, like Parker was the main person —

Jenny: I wish!

Claire: I wish too! But since we’re talking about Leverage now, I need to tell you all that you will hear more about Leverage this season on Radio Free Fandom, because we’re going to have a full Leverage episode later in the series, we’re also going to have episodes about other things that I was talking about before the break and that I am still obsessed with, things like She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, whatever is going on these days in the MCU, also the Hugo Awards. And we’ll be talking about some newer stuff that’s been happening since then, like the juggernaut that’s taken over fandom, Good Omens. As well as the Veronica Mars revival, for good or bad or whatever value of that, we’ll be talking about it.

Jenny: Sounds great, I’m very excited. I’m especially excited obviously about the Leverage episode, and I hope it includes fic recs.

Claire: It definitely definitely will, because, not to spoil too much ahead of time, but Chelsea will be on it.

Jenny: Great, great.

Claire: OK, now that I’ve teased what’s coming up on the podcast a little bit, do you want to tell me your next thing you’ve loved in the break?

Jenny: Yes, I would love to. So, this is actually going to be one of my favourite books of the entire year. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell. I’m just so high on this book, it’s a YA comic about a girl named Freddy, who’s dating this very flighty, charming unreliable girl called Laura Dean, and Freddy is trying to figure out who she is as a person, and also who she is when she’s in a relationship with Laura Dean. It’s really great for a number of reasons. The art is gorgeous, and I think does a really tremendous job of conveying the characters’ interiority. I also think, and I’ve thought this about Mariko Tamaki’s books in the past, I think it just really clearly remembers what it’s like to be a teenager. And it just felt, I was not the teenager who went out and did parties, which these kids are, but even so, it felt so familiar, it felt so much like what I remembered of being a teenager, and how you just never felt like the ground was solid under you. So that was really great, I also love that it’s about a queer character and she has queer friends, I think that often, if there’s a queer character in YA friends they’ll be the only one among their friend group, which I don’t think is realistic, and also just creates this false sense of isolation around queerness, so I loved seeing her be in a supportive group of friends. And God, it was just great, it was so great, I felt so good when I finished it, I recently reread it, again, and I, again, felt amazing when I finished it. It’s just the best, everyone should read it.

Claire: I’m definitely going to look that up!

Jenny: Oh, it’s so sweet, I think you’ll really love it. It’s so sweet!

Claire: Now, my first pick for this is something that, if anyone’s been following me on social media you’re probably not too surprised, but, it’s the TV show Schitt’s Creek, which. Jenny, if you haven’t seen it, I think you would also like it. The high level pitch is basically that it’s this family of incredibly, incredibly, incredibly wealthy people, who in the first three-minute cold open of the show basically lose their entire fortune because their crooked business manager basically went away to the Bahamas with all their money. And so, they have found themselves with nothing to their name but like a suitcase of belongings, and a town that the dad bought his son as a gift, as a joke, because the town’s name is Schitt’s Creek. So they go to Schitt’s Creek with a suitcase of fabulous clothing each, and they get a room at the local motel, and they have to learn how to have actual life skills, and be a family. The first season is a little bit more shaky, because it’s trying to introduce the thing, and it’s a bit – I think it just takes them a while to figure out exactly what they’re doing. But, it kind of turns into the most gentle, loving ribbing of these people, and the joke is always that they have no life skills, and it’s never at the expense of the people in the town, who are just normal people trying to live their lives. The relationships that it starts to build, the way the characters kind of grow into a loving family is just amazing. And it’s just so kind, and it’s about people trying their hardest, which really really just hits me in the feels.

Jenny: Yeah man, I. So I haven’t watched it yet, all of the internet, like everyone I know is obsessed with this show. The only reason I haven’t is that I’m a finisher now so I’m trying to finish shows I’ve already started. Because, the reason I never finish any goddamn shows is that something like this always comes along, and I’m like ooh, this sounds good!

Claire: Yeah, fair! That’s really fair.

Jenny: And then I’ll watch one season or a season and a half, and then some other thing will be the thing that everyone’s obsessed with, so I like jump ship immediately. So I’m goddamn finishing Leverage, and then I’m going to finish Jane the Virgin, and then I’m going to finish Killjoys, and I think once I’ve done that, then at that point, I can take on something new.

Claire: It would be really sad if you started watching Schitt’s Creek, you got through like season 1 and season 2, and then you stopped when it’s getting like, amazing. It’s good in the early seasons, it just gets really, really, really amazing later in the run of the show. Season 5 is now out, there’s one more coming out, and then it will all be done and then you can watch it when it’s all finished and finish it, because it is so so good, and I love it so much.

Jenny: It’s a half-hour comedy, right?

Claire: Yeah, I think it’s a twenty minute show. Because, I actually had a sleepover at my best friend’s house that was like a craft weekend with her and a couple of other friends of ours, and I showed up and they were watching Schitt’s Creek, and they had started like in the middle of season 3, for people who have seen it they started at the episode where Patrick showed up, and then they had it on the entire time, and so I showed up, and I had said I would cook some food, so I’m cooking some food and not really paying attention to the show, and they’re kind of explaining to me what’s going on with it and what’s happening and who the people are, and by the time I sat down to actually watch it, was the episode where the main couple that I’m now obsessed with get together in the actual show, it has canonical queer representation in the show – this is not a Schitt’s Creek episode! A Schitt’s Creek episode will happen in this season of this very podcast, so I’m going to stop talking about it now and we’re going to talk about your next thing.

Jenny: OK, but I do look forward to watching Schitt’s Creek, and I do think half-hour comedies are easier to binge, so I’m about it.

(Quick break)

Jenny: OK, my next thing is, I signed up for a poem-a-day email, and I’ve really been loving it. I don’t tend to think of myself as a poetry person, partly because a lot of the poetry that I read I don’t like, but what I think is true, and if you’re a poetry person feel free to tell me I’m wrong, but I think it’s the case that you in general will not like most poetry that you read, because poetry is aiming directly for your heart, and so since people have very different hearts, inevitably a lot of poems’ll miss the mark. So doing a poem-a-day subscription has been fantastic, because I get exposed to a really wide range of poets. I originally signed up for the poets.org poem-a-day and it didn’t suit my needs, so now I’m using the Poetry Foundation poem-a-day newsletter, and it’s been great, they have a really nice variety, diversity of voices, a diversity of ages of poems. One that I got that I really liked recently was called ‘Vines’ by Kaveh Akbar, and it has this line in it, he’s talking about his family, and saying some compliment that they’ve given him, and he says, ‘I thank them for that and / for their chromosomes most of which // have been lovely’.

Claire: That’s cute.

Jenny: Yeah, so it’s been really nice, and it’s also just a nice thing to look forward to in the morning, because a poem is short and you can read it real quick. And I feel like I got culture first thing in the morning.

Claire: That’s really lovely, I think I’ve only got a couple of newsletters that I actually read. I very assiduously read the Rec Center when that comes out, I’m sure listeners to this podcast will already know about it because I’ve mentioned it a bunch of times on this show, but the Rec Center is a newsletter for fandom about fandom with fandom recommendations. And, also I really enjoy the Full Lid which is Alasdair Stuart’s newsletter, Alasdair is a friend of mine, and a genuine really good egg, like a very kind person who’s super enthusiastic about things, and it comes out on a Friday when I’m feeling tired and grumpy, and I still have one more day in my week, because I work Tuesdays to Saturdays, so it’s my Thursday which is the worst, and it just always cheers me up.

Jenny: That sounds great! Yeah I love the Rec Center, they had, not to be predictable, but they had a very, very excellent piece of – Claire’s making quite a face – they had a very excellent piece of fanart in the most recent Rec Center newsletter that was of Toby Stephens in Black Sails and my word, it was certainly something.

Claire: I mean, to be fair, I haven’t seen Black Sails yet, but I’m onboard with Toby Stephens is hot because I’m a person that enjoys gentlemen, so.

Jenny: Yeah, I mean, and let me just say, if you already think Toby Stephens is hot, watching Black Sails will be like a whole, it’s like a new dimension in your brain opens up for finding Toby Stephens attractive.

Claire: I know, I know Jenny, but the thing is, it’s such a long show, and it’s going to ruin my feelings, and I can tell it’s going to be the deepest fandom hole that I’ve been in since Les Mis, and I just.

Jenny: What I’m hearing you say is, “Try really hard to convince me Jenny, you will find it rewarding once you do.”

Claire: I mean the thing is I know, it’s not a question of an if, it’s a question of when I have time, but we know that I don’t really do having time.

Jenny: I hear you, oh my gosh, it’s so good. Well, listen listen, here’s the upside. The fandom… I don’t want to say the fandom is trash, but it ships the wrong thing, it’s very wrong, it’s unfortunately extremely wrong, so although I would like to be in the fandom, it’s too wrong for me to be in it. So, I just have the show mainly, and there’s a couple of fics that are really really good, but overall it’s not for me.

Claire: Oh, that’s really sad, I’m so sorry!

Jenny: It is really sad, thank you for understanding!

Claire: My next pick is the novel Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. This is a royalty AU fanfic of a book, basically. This is a story about a British prince, and the first son of the United States, he’s the son of the first female president of the US, and he’s a queer latino kid, and he’s in a kind of weird, they don’t talk to each other but they both know they hate each other relationship with the prince of England. And then they go to this reception together and basically get in an argument and inadvertently break some shit, and they have to do a PR stunt that they are best friends, and it was an accident, because they are best friends! And so they are kind of thrown together. And then they start having this really weird friendship that works because of their different positions, basically jobs that they have as public figures, and of course that goes into a romantic relationship. And there are a lot of tropes in this that are, you know if you’re familiar with royalty AUs in fanfic, you will see the same tropes, so I need to give a content warning for characters being outed. If you have read royalty AUs and you’re like, ooh I can imagine how that would happen in a royalty AU, it happens like that. It’s like, the press being shitty basically. So I don’t feel like that’s a massive spoiler because it’s just like, how this very precise subgenre of fanfic that I adore functions. Now, there’s been some controversy around this book about like, the way that it’s being marketed in very much a “this has never been done before!” “this is like YA but better because!” “this is romance but better because!” “It’s never been done before!” … It’s obviously been done before. I saw the title and the blurb and I was like, yep, I know exactly what kind of book it’s going to be and I’m going to love it. I do think it’s a really good book, and obviously the author didn’t come up with the concept of a royalty AU, but it’s a really good example of that genre, and it also has a lot of really lovely stuff about the presidency and politics and campaigning and stuff like that. I wonder if maybe that might be a little bit difficult to read or fraught to read for US readers, because it has stuff about having a female president and how campaigning works and all of that, that I thought, ooh that’s a bit soon, and it’s not even something that I personally have to live with every day, so, you know, eh. I feel like I’m giving too many warnings for this thing that I adore and I think people should read, but, there you go.

Jenny: No, I don’t think you are, that’s just useful, then people know, so they can approach it in the best spirit, I think that’s solid. Yeah, I’m excited to read that book, I keep checking at my library and it’s always checked out, so I just this minute while you were talking put a hold on it, because it does sound really cute and sweet.

Claire: Yay!

Jenny: OK, my next one is Six the Musical, which is a musical about Henry the eighth’s six wives, kind of as if they were the Spice Girls, basically. I did not discover this musical for the first time during podcast hiatus, but I did go see it for the first time during podcast hiatus, so I think it counts. I saw it in Chicago at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, and it was so much fun. If you’ve listened to it you probably already really like the soundtrack, but seeing the show is really great because the energy is really high, the performers are really engaged with the audience, and it was just a really really really really really fun musical to see. I think it’s in London and Boston right now, and it will also be opening on Broadway in New York next year, so if you’re in any of those places I really recommend it. If you can’t go see it because tickets to musicals are expensive, I do still recommend listening to the London cast recording, it bangs. And it’s just so much fun, I love it so much. I love it!

Claire: Yeah, it is a really really fun show, I haven’t actually heard the album, but I went to see it, so I’ve seen the London production, and it’s almost more like a concert than a musical? Obviously there’s loads of cool costume changes and there’s a lot of cool scenery onstage, but there’s also a band, isn’t there a band onstage? I thought there was like, drums if I’m remembering correctly.

Jenny: Yes, there’s a little band. In the Chicago production they introduce each of the band members, it was really sweet, it was really nice.

Claire: I mean, you kind of have to do that if they’re onstage I think. But that’s like a trope, if you want to use that word, of concerts, right, and they do do that, so that’s kind of what I mean by it’s very concert-y. I really enjoyed it, I thought it was really fun, I’m not somebody who knows a lot about this particular period of British history, I’ve done a lot more contemporary British history, so it was kind of fun to go and see because I didn’t know a lot of the details, and a lot of the timeframe of the thing.

Jenny: Well, apply to me if you ever want to know details, I know a lot of things. I was in a very major Tudors phase when I was a young teenager, so.

Claire: Oh yes, I do recall that you have a lot of opinions about Mary Queen of Scots.

Jenny: Yes I do, yes I do! What an idiot! We don’t have to get into it, but what an idiot, oh my god.

Claire: (Laughs) No no, I mean, I recall you specifically having a lot of opinions about movies and media depictions of Mary Queen of Scots, and various other things that I thought, “Sure, that’s a thing I don’t know anything about, but I will trust Jenny’s opinion on these things.”

Jenny: Thank you, I appreciate that.

Claire: So my next favourite thing is more of a genre of a thing, it’s TV shows that are very specific competitions. And not really mean competitions like Project Runway or something like that where people snipe at each other, I mean Great British Bakeoff-style competitions where it’s just a particular trade, or a particular type of thing, like, we’ve got a Great British Sewing Bee in the UK as well, which is amazing and I really like needlecrafts as well, so it works great for me. But there are more shows just like that that have this kind of, how kind, that have people helping each other. I have loved Faceoff for a really long time, it’s just not available to watch anywhere in the UK, so it makes me really sad. But, there are two that are available to watch in the UK, and that makes me so happy. The first I know you watch also, and that is Blown Away, which is the Netflix glass-blowing competition, which was amazing! Which showcased this really uncommon, obscure skill that people don’t really know about, and is fascinating, and also, every episode they talk about glory-holes a bunch of times, which is really funny, because that’s just a funny word!

Jenny: (Giggles) Yes they do, it’s hilarious!

Claire: It’s one of the like, ovens, I guess? That they use? And they all talk about it with an extremely straight face, which I love.

Jenny: Yes, yes, they do, there’s no winking at the camera, although if it were me that would be all that I was doing.

Claire: Yeah, for sure, for sure. And the other thing I’m not sure if that’s going to be available for people to watch outside of the UK, but it is a show called The Great Model Railway Challenge, which is a show… where they make model railways. Like!

Jenny: I could never have guessed.

Claire: But it’s so, so fun! I would say the one drawback to it is that it tends to be teams of older white dudes, there’s not that many women or people of colour, I mean they are there, obviously they’re there, because every kind of thing, like model railway building or science fiction and fantasy where people tell you “oh it’s a thing of white dudes!” it’s not, it’s not, we’ve always been around, we’re there, but… I would say, it is kind of still predominant, but it’s such a fun show. They basically have three teams come in that are local model railway building clubs from around the country, and they give them this big table, and they have to build a model railway on a theme in three days. So they start by putting out the tracks, and making sure all the trains run, and then they have to build this massive bit of scenery around it. They are allowed to bring some stuff from home, but they have to only bring a certain amount of buildings that they have premade from home, and so sometimes you get into a situation where someone is like “yes, this row of houses is one of our pre-built!” and the judges are like, “noooo.” That’s the level of drama that we get. You also get lovely shots of people drinking tea and eating biscuits, because that’s very important.

Jenny: Yes. That sounds wonderful. I too am a big fan of kind reality shows, and I actually read a thing on NPR recently talking about how Netflix is really cornering the market on kind reality shows in America, so you know, someone’s on it, it’s not going to stop with Blown Away, I hope.

Claire: Yeah, there’s also a Lego one in the UK actually. I didn’t mention it because it’s not on at the minute, but there’s like a Lego-building show, and they have a lot of teams that are like, a kid and their uncle or something.

Jenny: Aww!

Claire: There’s adult teams, and then kids, and there’s teams that are like two kids sometimes that do really really well because they are so imaginative. Then they have teams that are like, “Yes, I’m eight, and my dad is an engineer, and we have built the Eiffel Tower in Lego!” Something like that, it’s just really good.

Jenny: It sounds wonderful!

(Quick break)

Jenny: OK, my last pick is the Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas. Oh my god, I loved this book so much, I don’t understand why everyone’s not reading it and talking about it. This is another one that’s definitely going to be in my top five books of the year. And, like Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, it is mostly about women. This is about an alternate universe where time travel gets invented in England after World War II, and this whole time travel agency gets created. It’s told in multiple timelines, as you would expect from a time travel book, and there’s just so many moving parts, so what’s amazing is that it works really well together, all the different moving parts just click together so beautifully, I never knew what was coming next, I would get finished with a chapter and just be like, I have no idea what’s going to happen. It’s nominally a murder mystery, but you start out not even knowing actually who got murdered. It’s just great, it’s inventive, it’s queer, it’s unexpected, and I have not read a time travel book in a really long time that I thought did such an amazing job of characters, and plot, and I just loved it. And there are almost no men in it, which is great.

Claire: Have you read the time travel novellas by Kate Heartfield, Alice Payne Arrives and Alice Payne Rides? Because I thought they did that thing that you describe really really well, the time travel timey-wimeyness.

Jenny: Yes, so I read the first one, I haven’t read the second one yet. I enjoyed it a lot yeah, for sure.

Claire: Would recommend the second one.

Jenny: I’m all-in for time travel. I’m excited to read it, my library doesn’t have it yet unfortunately.

Claire: Hopefully soon!

Jenny: I know!

[Music break]

Claire: Well that’s all we have time for today, but before we go, Jenny, can you tell people a little bit more about where they can find you online?

Jenny: Yes! So I am at readingtheend.com where I blog and podcast, and I’m also on Twitter @readingtheend, and I think that’s it, those are my main two places.

Claire: Awesome, awesome, thank you so much for joining me Jenny, I was so happy to do this game with you today.

Jenny: Thank you so much for having me on, I’m so delighted that you humoured me and agreed to do my fantasy draft!

Claire: It was a lot of fun! So, thanks again for joining me, and thank you to all of you for tuning in to Radio Free Fandom. You can find us on Twitter at @radiofreefandom, email us at [email protected], or head over to our website radiofreefandom.com to see the show notes and find out more about our awesome guests. If you enjoy the show, please consider leaving us a rating or a review on iTunes as that might do something, we’re not sure, but it might help. We are also on Patreon at patreon.com/ClaireRousseau if you would like to support us with money. Or you can just tell people about the show on the Twitters. Our show music is Super Friendly by Kevin MacLeod, find out more at incompetech.com.

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