#doing all that to the normal teen girl character in a wonder woman comic is so fucked actually like dc comics i should not have to explain
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Thinking about current continuity Vanessa and just getting pissed off again
Like one, LET HER REST oh my god dc you ruin her FUCKING life like an asshole only to bring her back as a villain after she finally got out oh my god-
But also like its just so bad. This is a whole other woman with her name like why are we doing this. Like first you kill her mom (JULIA NOOO) and erase her YEARS of history growing up around diana (the thing that actually made her villain turn [if you can call it that w the level of manipulation involved] interesting and fucking heartbreaking) for some shitty "oh I saved you we were friends" run of the mill whatever. Then to use that and say Nessie had a crush on her OWN SISTER (Diana, so like informally adopted, but still 😡) now????
And then they took away her curls and made her a redhead but not even the realistic kind. DC SHE DOESNT LOOK LIKE THAT
It just makes me so mad. Freaking guys. They could have used another name like oh my god. She's not even the first silver swan why the fuck would they do that if they're not going to explore her history w diana (which she no longer has!!!!) or how intensely fucked up everything got for her. What is even the fucking point of this then other to drag a main character of the ww supporting cast through the mud again for genuinely no reason. They could have easily had her be Valerie Beaudry (sorry Val) instead or just MADE UP ANOTHER NAME because it's obvious that no one actually cared about her as a character they just wanted the wondy villain back so like !!!!!!!!!! Why even bother
#her entire treatment just makes me so angry#like in general it makes me mad and sad and a million other emotions#but the fucking robinson version just makes me enraged. beyond pissed off. because theres no fucking reason for it its bullshit and its the#one in current continuity right now. so i get to see tom king ww panels put on my dash that have this stupid fake vanessa and its so#infuriating. like thats NOT her!!!!!!! oh my freaking god people#her hair is BROWN and CURLY and shes dianas BABY SISTER who she lived with for YEARS like she was a MAJOR supporting ww character for the#longest time. like shes got about 100 appearances (just checked) preboot this is not a minor character#so freaking frustrating#blah#ALSO. FUCKING ALSO. THE FACT THAT THE WHOLE CURRENT VANESSA TURNED EVIL BC SHE REALIZED SHE WASNT SPECIAL TO DIANA BS. FUCK YOU THERE LIKE#OH MY GODDDDD “isnt special to diana” im going to fucking kill you. what do you mean she doesnt care about her specially. thats her FUCKING#BABY SISTER. not to sound like vanessa herself a la silver swan but those clowns at dc would never say that shit about cassie oh my god#not special my FUCKING ass. nessie and her mom were literally the first people invited to themyscira in post coie continuity#like yes diana trevor and steve trevor and even baby julia kapetelis washing ashore but like the kapetelises (and you could even say just#nessie bc again her mom had been there before) were the FIRST ones invited there like you cannot say diana didnt care about them more than#the average joe dc i fucking despise you.#this girl has been through so much why is dc incapable of throwing her a bone ever. nessie i am so sorry they did that to you sweetie.#gonna tag it bc her tag deserves the traffic#vanessa kapatelis#just makes me so mad#doing all that to the normal teen girl character in a wonder woman comic is so fucked actually like dc comics i should not have to explain#that to you. what message do you think you are sending here be serious
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Nintendo Switch: DC Superhero Girls: Teen Power
I can be a bit of a geek, or a nerd. I know there is a difference between the two but I often use both synonymously. But I am also a bargain lover, who doesn’t love a good sale? The other day at Walmart looking for batteries, I stumbled upon this game. It was nearly half off, and I looked up the trailer and honestly, this looks like a blast! Let’s jump in.
Join the fight as Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Batgirl from the animated series DC Super Hero Girls, and save Metropolis from the tinkering terror of Toyman! With the city in danger, even frenemies like Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Star Sapphire will need to band together to help protect the town. Each Super Hero and Super-Villain has a unique set of abilities: for example, Wonder Woman uses her warrior skills with the Lasso of Truth and Flying Shield while Harley Quinn wields her Pop Roulette blaster that fires off mischievous effects to do both a little good and a little bad at the same time. More info here: https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/dc-super-hero-girls-teen-power-switch/
My Thoughts On The Game:
Full price is $60, but I picked it up in person on sale for $25. Before playing, I loved the idea of being the normal person that doubles as a super hero-with the choice to be bad or good! As a female person, I loved that this was all female. I appreciate a good balance of guys and gals in my comic books but...some of the coolest people tend to be male. It’s nice, while hopefully not too “feminist” of me to say, to see some proper female empowerment! It’s hard to be a strong woman without a proper example of what that looks like.
Anyways, social antics aside, gameplay. You enter into a cut scene where all the classic super heroes are teenagers who have a “normal” identity and a “super” identity. The graphics are kind of comic book like. You start off as super girl and are eased into the controls. You switch from the introduced hero teens. Just before I stopped playing they started getting to villains.
I love this game. It is much better if you know the characters, so maybe someone who is older or more well versed in the universe? I wouldn’t say this is just a girls game, but the male teenager version of this game would appeal more to the boys than this does. Very different game, kind of gave off persona vibes. Who is down to be a young female super hero? Which hero or villain is your favorite?
#nintendo switch#now playing#gamer#gamer girl#geek#nerd#bargain#walmart#DC#rant#spoiler free#spoiler alert#single system#action#nintendo#nintendo switch game voucher#review#super hero#villain#DC super hero girls teen power
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The harshest, fiercest critics
From my experience, some of the harshest and fiercest critics of fictional black women often tend to be black men. Like if a white woman in fiction becomes black, black men will decry this real badly. Not all black men, but some of them do. If misogynoir refers to an intersection between racism and sexism when aimed at black women, then some of the worst misogynoir I’ve ever seen came from black men.
Even with original black female characters like Ironheart, they still get criticised real badly for it in a way it wouldn’t have been done with another white male character. I know of a black man who complained about Milestone Comics’s Rocket being unlike other teenage girls in comics, one of those criticisms about her is being a single mother. For some reason, he doesn’t do this with white female characters, even if they could be just as unrealistic.
I have a nagging feeling if people really wanted a realistic or more relatable, perhaps more normal female character she’d turn out more like Cathy Guisewite’s Cathy rather than Kate Pryde. But that’s for another topic, even then it’s kind of telling how his point of reference for a relatable teen girl character is suspiciously a stereotypical white teen girl. As if black girls can’t be normal girls the way white girls get to be.
Like when their baseline for a teen girl character is a stereotypical white girl, I can’t help but wonder if they’re so socialised to expect white women to be the baseline for every woman that it’s going to leave out black women. It’s not that black women can’t be teen mothers, but the white western standard renders them deviant in a way they wouldn’t be in black-majority Nigeria.
Even then, I don’t think all white teen girls (both real and fictional) are like this either. But they keep on bringing up a stereotype as if it were the baseline, the norm and the standard for what fictional black girls should be. It’s not that black girls can’t be boy-crazy, into fashion and stuff but some of the things they describe don’t describe what white female characters are actually like.
Kate Pryde, to my knowledge, is hardly ever this boy-crazy and ironically has more stereotypically male interests (sports, computers and weapons) than female ones, since she barely has much of an interest in fashion and the like. Not that women can’t be into sports, but when coupled with her being contrasted against Emma Frost that it feels misogynistic.
If contrasted against black female characters, it becomes an exercise in misogynoir which is what these men are doing. I remember a blogpost where it states that some black men have a habit of going after women who aren’t in their league, if these women reject them or show disinterest in them in some way they’ll react badly.
To the point where they take on some white women, who might be just as incompatible given the high divorce rate between white women and black men. (The phrase should be if you go black, you go back in light of the high divorce rate between the two.) Their criticisms are barely if ever aimed at white and nonblack women, which makes their contempt for any black women who don’t fit their standards more evident.
They bash her real badly if she dates a white man, whilst thirsting after white and nonblack women. While these relationships can work, those that do don’t work on misogynoir and lust. There was a time when I was into black men, but the more I encounter these whiny characters the more I realise why black male-white female relationships don’t end well.
In the sense that they seem appealing at first, but when their bad sides show up the relationship sours real badly. I followed a black man before and he was really misogynistic, in fact he habitually bashes black women a lot. He’s also into Goth girls especially if they’re fair-skinned, which again proves a common observation that black men go after the unattainable.
His muses tended to be fair-skinned black women, but when they mess up real badly like dating a white man he chastises them real badly. He doesn’t do that with white women that much, which makes me think even if he claims to like black women his contempt for them gets blatant at times. Complaining about black single mothers and the like.
Not appealing, not cool and kind of sad really. Misogynoir is a deadly poison, but something black men indulge in often. Even if not all black men are like this, there are those who are genuinely good but for those who do get into interracial relationships only to witness them end badly they have encountered the rejects. The sort of black men who complain about black women dating Pookies and Ray-Rays.
The sort of black men who complain a lot about black women being ghetto and hood, then bashing said ghetto/hood women in fiction and the like. Any black woman who’s too black, whether physically or culturally, is deemed undesirable. Then they go after women they have little in common with, only to have these relationships turn out to be disasters know little of the risks that lie ahead.
Not all black men are like this, but unfortunately it’s fairly common to encounter black men like these.
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Invincible Episode 7 Improves Upon Its Already Great Source Material
https://ift.tt/3dGH4U1
This article contains spoilers for Invincible episode 7.
Amazon’s animated adaptation of Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker’s comic Invincible was always a great idea. The property has just about everything that streaming services and their audiences are looking for currently: superheroes, ultraviolence, and jaw-dropping twists.
One big question facing the series, however, was how could one show possibly fit in all the story of the comic’s lengthy 144-issue run? Invincible episode 7, “We Need to Talk,” is the first season’s penultimate installment and it reveals how the show is set to approach this logistical challenge. With so many comic book issues of plot to get through, Invincible seems perfectly happy to accelerate through that plot as efficiently as possible. To that end, “We Need to Talk” features a truly staggering number of climactic moments.
This might actually be the most charmingly chaotic and jam-packed episode of TV this year (at least before next week’s finale). So much happens in “We Need to Talk” that it runs the risk of overwhelming the viewer. With that in mind, let’s break down the important plot points of this hour and examine the major ways in which they differ from (and even improve upon) the comic.
Robot’s True Identity
The reveal that the entity known as “Robot” isn’t who he claims to be might be the most shocking Invincible twist thus far. And that’s saying a lot for a show whose first episode concludes with the story’s Superman equivalent straight up murdering the rest of his Justice League.
That Robot (Zachary Quinto) is really a malformed genius named Rudolph Conners isn’t a surprise to comic book readers, but its positioning this early in Invincible’s story is a surprise. Robot’s work with the Mauler Twins to create a new body for himself doesn’t happen until after the events of Omni-Man’s confrontation with Mark in the comics (more on that later). The show, however, shrewdly decides to present this moment in the same episode as Omni-Man’s fall – just so there’s never really a moment for viewers to catch their breath.
But now the truth has finally arrived. Robot, the orange hunk of metal with a fixedly bemused expression, is actually a machine being operated remotely by Rudolph Conners. Rudolph, or Rudy, is a small, damaged man whose body isn’t capable of surviving Earth’s environment. For many years Rudy was content to exist in his own life-giving tank of fluids while operating his superheroic “Robot” remotely. Everything changed, however, when he met the hero known as Monster Girl.
Rudy couldn’t help but identify with Monster Girl (Grey Griffin), a fellow soul who has made the best of a flawed body. Everytime Monster Girl transforms into a monster, her human form de-ages several more weeks. Theoretically at some point Monster Girl will become an infant and then waste away into nothingness. Before any of that happens, Rudy wants to fix her…and he wants to fix his own broken body so that the pair can be together.
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To that end, Rudy sprung the mad genius villain team The Mauler Twins from prison to create a cloned body for him to transfer his consciousness into. What makes this whole thing even stranger is that the genetic material Rudy chose for his new body belongs to his Teen Team and Guardians of the Globe colleague Rex Splode. The new Rudy appears to be played by Rex Splode actor Jason Mantzoukas with his voice altered to sound younger.
Does that mean Zachary Quinto is no longer a part of the series? Let’s certainly hope not as he may have been the best performer of the entire cast. And why did Rudy choose Rex’s DNA (and without Rex’s consent, it must be said)? Because Rex is hot, basically. Rudy chose a human form that Monster Girl was already comfortable flirting with.
This is…a lot. And the fact that Rudy has to introduce himself to his teammates while they’ve all gathered for an “apocalyptic event” just adds to the madness. But what of The Mauler Twins? The disappointment of Rudy’s double-crossing doesn’t last long. For, after Rudy is forced to abandon his efforts to reincarcerate the Mauler Twins to return to the Guardians home base, the twins get back to their important task at hand. And that leads to the return of another important Invincible character…
The Immortal is Immortal After All
Back in Invincible episode 1, Mark Grayson’s dad Nolan a.k.a. Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons) made short work of the Guardians of the Globe. Darkwing? Dead. War Woman? Dead. The Immortal? De….wait a minute. How can someone called “The Immortal” die?
Well, it turns out that death for The Immortal (still voiced by Ross Marquand) is only temporary. Omni-Man removed The Immortal’s head, which is pretty much universally lethal across all genre stories. But The Mauler Twins theorized that if The Immortal’s head were returned to his body, he would spring back to life.
Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened once The Immortal’s noggin was reattached. Unfortunately for The Mauler Twins, their dreams of forming any sort of alliance with the resurrected hero are quickly dashed as he immediately flies off to confront the man who killed him.
Omni-Man v. Cecil Stedman
And that takes us to Omni-Man. In the comic, Omni-Man’s confrontation with The Immortal is what leads Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) to discover that he’s got a Darth Vader situation on his hands. The show borrows that moment from the comic because any time you have the opportunity to make a character watch his father tear a Wolverine-looking dude in half, you’ve got to take it. That comic book moment is surprisingly abrupt though. In one panel Omni-Man is doing his usual Omni-Man thing and saving a group of citizens from a faulty roller coaster and in the next panel, The Immortal is all over his ass.
The Amazon Prime series dramatically improves on what is already a pretty great moment simply by drawing it out and building serious tension. Nolan’s wife Debbie (Sandra Oh) and the entire Global Defense Agency led by Cecil Stedman (Walton Goggins) are already well aware of Nolan’s treachery and have decided to finally take action. In speaking to Den of Geek and other outlets prior to Invincible’s premiere, Kirkman (who’s onboard as a writer and producer for this adaptation) revealed that Cecil Stedman would be getting an expanded role earlier on in Invincible’s story.
“Cecil Stedman is a character that we get to know a little earlier in the show and definitely we get to do more with him,” he said. “I think that’s a lot of fun. There’s definitely some differences to his character and working with Walton Goggins on him has been great.”
Cecil really is a fascinating tool for Invincible. Many superhero stories have a Jim Gordon-style government liaison for its heroes to interact with. This person usually represents the interests of the planet’s “normal” citizen and is particularly impressive for being able to cut it in the world of the super-powered. By having Debbie and the GDA uncover Nolan’s guilt first, Invincible creates a wonderful opportunity to display both Cecil’s competence and depict the absolute horror of we puny humans trying to keep a super-powered god in check.
Many times throughout Invincible episode 7, Cecil admits that there is nothing they can do to stop Nolan. The best they can do is slow him down for a bit until Mark is able to intervene. The first roadblock that Cecil presents is the explosion of an entire suburban city block with Nolan at its epicenter (R.I.P. Donald).
“Best it will do is maybe knock him on his ass for an hour or two,” Cecil says. Then when the smoke clears to reveal an unharmed Omni-Man, Cecil grimly adds “Or maybe not hurt him at all.”
Cecil then throws the “hammer” at Nolan, which is a powerful blast from a weaponized satellite.
“$400 billion for the world’s most expensive nosebleed,” Cecil quips when Nolan takes the weapon out with ease.
Then we get a sense of how many moral shortcuts Cecil is willing to take to keep the Earth safe. Mad scientist D.A. Sinclair’s (Ezra Miller) wounds from his confrontation with Invincible haven’t even healed yet but Cecil already has him using his evil technology for noble purposes. Sinclair’s “Reanimen” technology is now being used to reanimate recently dead U.S. soldiers, who are sent in to slow down Omni-Man. Unfortunately, that is also unsuccessful.
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Finally, Cecil is forced to head out into the field armed with nothing but a teleporter to confront Omni-Man himself. When that inevitably fails to slow Nolan down, the GDA sends a monster that Nolan already conquered, only this time it’s been robbed of its weaknesses and fear. And that’s where Mark finds his father, just in time for The Immortal to arrive and deliver one hell of a surprise.
There’s something to be said for the suddenness of the comic’s Omni-Man moment with Mark. Mark witnessing his dad’s evil act truly comes out of nowhere even though we know it’s inevitable as Nolan has been practicing this conversation all issue.
What the show does with the moment is a masterstroke, however. By centering the focus on the human characters of Invincible’s world, we get a chilling sense of just how terrifying this all is. Omni-Man’s heel turn doesn’t just have personal implications for Mark, it means that Earth’s unbeatable protector now seems to hate Earth. More terrifying than that is that the only person we think can defeat him is Mark Grayson…who, it must be said, has done nothing but had his ass absolutely handed to him by lesser enemies over and over again for the past three episodes.
Amber and Mark
It probably feels anticlimactic to address Mark and Amber’s lover’s spat after breaking down Omni-Man’s reign of terror. But it’s necessary to see how far-reaching the changes (and in this case improvements) are in episode 7 in comparison to its original text.
Mark and Amber’s relationship thus far has been all about frustration. Mark is facing an annoying problem with a seemingly easy solution. Amber (Zazie Beetz) is upset with him because he is absent in their burgeoning relationship. He’s absent in their burgeoning relationship because he’s a superhero. Therefore, the quickest, easiest solution to this dilemma is to tell her that he’s a superhero.
So in this episode, that’s exactly what Mark does. He gets suited up and flies right through Amber’s window to deliver the exciting news. The problem is – she’s not that excited.
“Ugh, I know you’re a superhero,” Amber says. “I’m not an idiot, I figured it out weeks ago.”
This is not how things go down in the comic. That version of Amber is a bit more…let’s say “bubbly” and when confronted with the fact that Mark has lied to her for weeks she responds with an excited “My boyfriend is a superhero?!?!?”
The show, however, is smart to not let Mark off the hook so easily. Of course Amber knew that Mark is Invincible. Because, like she says, she’s not an idiot. Anyone who spends an inordinate amount of time with him is bound to figure it out sooner than later. So what Mark thought was a problem with an easy solution becomes yet another difficult lesson on his path to maturation.
“I think that Amber is important in terms of holding Mark accountable,” Beetz told reporters prior to the show’s premiere. “Mark is still struggling with what his identity as a super person is. And she shows him that (powers) are not what make you good or special ultimately, it’s what’s in your character.”
It turns out that the people close to you don’t appreciate being lied to. Though human beings all look like particularly vulnerable ants from Mark’s perspective high up in the sky, we certainly don’t appreciate being treated like insects to be protected and manipulated by the powerful among us.
Mark and Amber’s relationship is an excellent indication that nothing will come easy for Mark Grayson on this show. Every decision has an equal and opposite reaction. It’s important that he learns that lesson before he enters into what is sure to be the most stressful and morally confusing moment of his life next week.
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Invincible’s season finale will be available to stream Friday, April 30 on Amazon Prime.
The post Invincible Episode 7 Improves Upon Its Already Great Source Material appeared first on Den of Geek.
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It's funny how the more we look at it the more the Dastardlys are ACTUALLY seen as handsome or charismatic in universe, the Scoob! Movie didn't pull his new hot looks out of its ass (yes Velma and Daphne call him ugly but they are teen and he looks too much like a dad to Daphne and they hate him lol even Fred is still troubled after having found out he was the hot cop, "mixed feelings"). They have a decent success, even quite impressive in some admirers they could get
The fact Dick the 1st and Dick the 2nd got wives and got laid to have children aside (ESPECIALLY SINCE THAT MAGAZINE DID CONFIRM THAT YES HANNA BARBERA CHARACTERS DO HAVE A SEX LIFE THERE IS NO STORK), Dick the 1st has that milkmaid who was running after Zilly for a whole episode forget about him when seeing Dick and going after him after that, as if there was no doubt he DID have looks, . Dunno if it counts but let's add in the realistic Dastardly and Muttley comics where even if it is a very, VERY different continuity, that Zee has a secret crush on him too (now I wonder if normal Zilly does too). And indeed he doesn't look too bad with normal proportions even if once again he is not truely him and it's a different continuity
Now the fact that Treasure Hunt Dick is Dick the 1st or Dick the 2nd is up to people, but whoever it is (I personally make it Dick the 2nd before he got in the races and was a pilot like his dad first for Fender Bender and the long time old rivalry with Yogi from Yo Yogi), he manages to attract 2 Geishas as well as an opera singer. And even precises he doesn't kiss on the first date in another episode so he does have dates whoever it is. And if Dickie from Yo Yogi is just as ambiguous let's put him here, but it would be fun to imagine Roxie and him ever went somewhere but eh not canon
Anyway Dick the 2nd attracted the most of people, even we put the Treasure Hunt and Yo Yogi personas aside. He almost got married with a girl named Ophelia, and mentions he has an ex ladyfriend who used to call him pussycat (even if I HC it IS Ophelia), "an" ex lady friends so he does have more than once. He attracted an aligator even when she found out he was not an aligator, and we all found out yesterday that Penelope DOES fancy him in secret which means that HE managed to attract the most attractive girl in universe, and yet he doesn't seem to care lmao. In the comics a woman even says she loves his moustache, that must do all the magic (good tastes) And even when he is crossdressed he is being flirted with by 4 guys, so he must be handsome enough to be fuckable even by guys
So people just hate them only for a lack of fashion and for being jerkasses which is valid. But they are seemingly hot in universe
And it is apparent too with dick the 4th who must be even more attractive in universe since just like Scoob!Dick looks good and more proportionate to us !
And Desdemona, despite having a moustache Muttley DID date her for a moment (WHICH IS CREEPY TO KNOW HE FUCKED SOMEONE LOOKING LIKE HIS OWNER, WHAT DOES IT MEAN !?)
And then there is the case of Dick the 3rd. Always called ugly by everyone, rejected, slapped and pushed away, Penelope gags at the ideq of being with him and Agent Z says he disgusts her, and he has a huge virgin energy radiating out of him he probably never dated anyone. So why !? Well I would say his dumb fashion choices and haircut and moustache and his depression (and genes) making him older looking (he doesn't seem and act like a middle aged man ag all) and self conscious and non-confident at all no matter how much he denies it ; the show does point out in an episode that as soon as he acts confident and calm and classy with another clothing style he suddenly gains a lot of popularity and charisma, and he DOES look good in a suit, with sideburns and another haircut and sans a moustache all the times we see him with those thoughout the show. And given how Pandora seems to be flirty and how in a cancelled season 3 ep the Duchess gives up on Peter as soon as she sees Dick to run after him, it means that that guy is way too much of a loser on the outside and on the inside to use all his charismagic potential, but that if he did efforts and gain confidence he would have as much success as the others
In short, Dick the 3rd :
#sexy XD#mfw I'm a chad#meme#lol#dick dastardly#family#grandparents and grandchildren#parents and children#moi#comics#tv show#movie#scooby doo#it's true IRL they must just have a strong jaw an aquiline nose thin traits and a fancy moustache. add to the fact they have dark hair#wacky races
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You Had Your Chance To Help Years Ago And You Blew It
Summary: The heroes of Paris have been active for four years, they asked for help and were ignored so if the league thinks that Paris will welcome the justice league's help with open arms acting if they hadn't been wronged by them for years then they must be delusional.
Chapter One: An Event Being Interrupted By An Akuma Otherwise Known As A Normal Tuesday In Paris
Author’s Note: DON'T KILL ME! if I got the dc character's wrong, I'm sorry.
it's my first time writing them and I only know their personalities from the cartoons like young justice, fanfiction, wiki and the small number of comics I've read.
Paris wasn’t happy but it’s not like they could express that, there was an event going on which was full of journalists who were from all over the world which meant if an Akuma were to happen, it would make worldwide news in a matter of hours.
Paris was aware that Hawkmoth was a villain that should be known worldwide but they had tried that years ago by sending the justice league video of the events and calls for help but because of the miraculous cure fixing everything, they were told to stop sending fake calls and blocked so no they had been dealing with this four years now, they had their own heroes who could and would handle this, they had no need for the so-called heroes that made up the justice league.
Clark was bored, nothing important was happening in Metropolis so he was stuck in Paris listening to awards be given out for the next three hours. The event was for awards given to people who were considered heroes due to their charity work and new ideas on how to improve the world. That meant Bruce was here as well so he wasn’t the only league member suffering.
“You look bored Smallville,” said Lois who was busy writing notes,
“You could say that” replied Clark with a sigh,
“Well not everywhere can be as exciting as Metropolis or Gotham” retorted Lois glancing at Bruce,
“Yeah that’s true but I still don’t get why we had to do this event?” Clark questioned,
“Because the other reporters had stories already or were ill” answered Lois, “It’s only one event and anyway were can spend rest of the time tour Paris since I doubt you’ve been here before”.
Clark just hummed in agreement as he went back to taking notes as the next Award winner was called. The winner only had a chance to grab the award before an Alarm started blearing and a policeman took the mic from the host. “Everyone remains calm, this is just the Akuma alarm if you follow the police instructions in order to get to one of the shelters you will be okay,” the man said pointing to the rest of the police who had entered one of the double doors.
Obviously there were people who were yelling in panic and running over to where the police were but most were just confused and followed the instructions calmly. “Do you know what’s happening, Bruce?” questioned Clark as he went over to join him away from the crowd, “no, this was not something that came up when I investigated the security of this place” Bruce muttered looking annoyed as he pulled out his phone.
“Will you three please leave” yelled on the police at Clark, Bruce and Lois who was filming the event on her phone. Before Clark could reply, he was cut off by red blur crashing through the glass window at the entrance of the event.
“Ladybug” yelled the same office running over to the person, “I’m fine officer but you need to get the guest out of here, this is the Akuma target” replied the red blur who was, in fact, a teenage girl dressed in red and black spotted spandex that was black at the back, stomach and legs and red with black spots at the feet, chest and arms. She also wore a black and red jacket with spots, had short hair, red and black spotted mask and wore stud earrings. The girl had claw-like scratches on her face that looked fresh.
“Get out of her” Ladybug yelled as she threw what looked like a yo-yo towards the broken window, it hooked on a metal beam and the girl swung forward as she kicked someone with a hammer in the face and out the window, hitting the concrete outside with a loud crack. “All of you out” the police yelled as he pulled the trio toward the exit where the rest of the guest had left.
“Who was that?” question Lois as the trio was pushed into the room that was currently holding the other guest. The man didn’t answer as he focused his attention on the project screen which was currently showing an emergency broadcast.
Clark looked the video being shown, there the girl along with other teenagers dressed up in animal-like costumes, three boys dressed in a dragon, fox, cat while girls were dressed as a snake, what appeared to be a bee and the ladybug girl. The group was fighting a cat-like woman who was wielding a large hammer which she used to throw the teens into buildings and the concrete streets.
“Ladybug, Chat Noir, Reynard, Medusa, Vouivre, Guêpe are dealing with the Akuma named Tomcat please stay away from the area at all costs as there have already been a few civilian casualties and just because the miraculous cure can bring you back does not mean you can go running into an Akuma attack” The newscaster stated, the last part seemed like dig at someone but no one seemed to notice.
“Their Paris heroes” stated Bruce looking up from his phone,
“What?” asked Clark confused on why they had never heard of them,
“They’ve been active for four years apparently” Bruce continued as he showed Clark a news blog called Miraculous Out that seemed to be dedicated to hero news,
“How come we didn’t know?” Clark questioned confused because normally the Daily Planet was one of the first ones to write about new heroes but to not know about a team of heroes for five years and ones that the justice league hadn’t heard about was confusing.
“Apparently Paris heroes tried to make themselves to the justice league but were called fake due to the ‘miraculous cure’ fix the destruction of the Akuma and were told to stop playing pranks then were blocked” answered Lois who finally got one of the police to talk to her, “Ladybug and Chat Noir was the first and main heroes before they chose more, they had temporary heroes before their id got out so were canned for good then a few months ago the other four others were chosen recently and are now permanent”.
“Which member of the league blocked them because I doubt Batman or Superman or Wonder Women knew about it?” asked Clark looking at Bruce who seemed to be angrily texting someone, probably the rest of the league,
“They don’t know because they never got a name on the emails” responded Lois who was closely watching the news as the heroes managed to grab the Monster’s collar with the cat hero turning it to dust in seconds with a purple butterfly flying away from the dust before getting captured by Ladybug’s yo-yo and turn pure white when leaving the yo-yo. The snake hero passed what looked like a small toy mouse to Ladybug only for them to throw in the air with the item turning into tiny ladybugs as they flew around reversing the damage.
“Wow, the rest of the heroes could use powers like that” stated Lois,
“Yeah” agreed Clark as he got a text from Bruce saying that they would need to find those heroes later tonight to have a chat with them but for now just gather as much info as they could.
Author’s Note: Hey, I've wanted to write a miraculous ladybug and dc crossover for a while now because I like idea of it but I don't have an exact plot at the moment so updates will be slow while I figure it out.
dragon → vouivre: https://www.interglot.com/dictionary/en/fr/translate/dragon
wasp → guêpe: google translate
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#miraculous ladybug#dc#justice league#ml x dc#marinette dupain cheng#adrien agreste#clark kent#bruce wayne#lois lane#batman#superman#nino lahiffe#chloe bourgeois#Kagami Tsurugi#Luka Couffaine#fox!nino#snake!chloe#dragon!luka#bee!kagami#original akuma#aged up#you blew it Au
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Checking Out other Magical Girls shows Part 4: Miraculous
Of all the Magical Girls shows I’ve been researching this was one of the ones I was most hotly anticipating. See, in addition to Sailor Moon, American superheroes are a big passion of mine and Spider-Man is my all time fav. So a show that ostensibly combines the two was fascinating to me.*
I checked out three episodes from the first season, ‘Stormy Weather’ and the two part ‘Origins’ episodes. I was initially recommended the former as the best place to start but honestly I kind of regret doing that. Every ‘watch list’ I consulted recommended I NOT start with the origin episodes and I do not know why, they were a perfectly natural jumping on point and a far better introduction than ‘Stormy Weather’ was. Not that ‘Stormy Weather’ was bad, but I was a little lost.
Let me get some negatives out of the way before I move onto positives.
So the origins episodes I think at times dropped the ball as far as laying out the ‘rules’ of how Ladybug and Cat Noire’s powers work.
-The five minute time limit comes out of nowhere and I don’t understand if it applies just to Cat Noire or to both of them, when the timer begins (from the moment they transform or from when they use their unique powers).
-I’m uncertain if Ladybug has some kind of special visionary power because in 2 episodes items are lit up in a ladybug pattern in sequence and this is how she deduces how to use her Lucky Charm. But I don’t know if that’s a power of if it’s just an artistic representation of her figuring out what to do herself
-I also think the show should’ve clarified that when they refer to their ‘super powers’ they mean their special unique abilities, because obviously they both get enhanced reflexes and whatnot.
-I guess also they seemed to know their the special phrases to activate their abilities without anyone telling them, but that’s standard Magical Girl fare I won’t hold that against the show. Same thing with how intuitive the characters seem to be with their powers, although I don’t know why Adrienne seems better with his powers off the bat than Marinette did?
-Finally, I’m very much in two minds about Ladybug’s unique powers. It’s certainly novel as super powers go and I guess works with the magical aspect of the characters. But…she gets a random item that will somehow help her resolve the issue? So…are things just predestined here? Her powers just know what will happen because she clearly needs to make certain events happen for the Lucky Charm to help her, and even then it doesn’t seem to just fix the problem outright. I can see that power being problematic from a creative POV and possibly overpowered. I hope the sow addresses that going forward. The same applies to her ability to essentially undo all the damage caused, including restoring a collapsed building. I mean…does this apply to anyone who’s died too?
One other issues I noted were how Hawk Moth seems to know Cat Noire and Ladybug’s names when he wouldn’t, especially the latter since Marinette had yet to even label herself as Ladybug.
I know that sounds like I’m really down on this show but the opposite is true. I think those are issues with it but I nevertheless REALLY LOVED THIS!
Marinette is charming and relatable and even Adrienne, in a more abstract way, can be understoof by his desire to feel normal whilst also feeling like an outsider. These might not be brand new teen hero archetypes but they’re classic, and the classics stick around for a reason. Marinette reminds me of Usagi and Adrienne is vaguely Bruce Wayne esque, although given this show’s influences perhaps Tuxedo Mask would be a better comparison.
The show also built up a decent supporting cast in it’s origin episodes, giving both characters a best friend, a rival/possible romantic interest in Chloe and decent tertiary characters ripe for expansion in their parents and body guards. Plus the school setting is a great story engine for the show, capable of giving us emotional drama but also a possibly endless supply of super villains for Hawk Moth to exploit. I also love the Parisian setting if for no other reason than t is refreshing to see a superhero story set outside of New York, Tokyo or an fictional American city like Metropolis or Gotham.
Hawk Moth himself, whilst perhaps standard, worked for me. He sort of reminded me of Professor Tomoe, but with a little extra spice since he’s drawing upon the same powers as our heroes. And of course…he’s clearly Adrienne’s father (unless the show is setting me up for a huge twist). Again, MAYBE that’s nothing new but…it’s still a fun trope to play. And if I’m right I think I also know his motivation but that’s probably me having consumed super hero media all my life. Aeshetically he’s cool and the moth motif works well for his character.
In fact the look of the show over all works very well. It is a sad fact that the CGI in this show will look dated sooner rather than later since that’s the nature of CGI. But the animation style also allows for dynamic camera movements and action set pieces so I don’t mind. And frankly, this is the closest I’ve ever seen CGI come to evoking anime style animation so I’d be happy to see this style continue/evolve over time in other shows (honestly, a Spider-Man show might look really good in this style).
In particular I was surprised that the show allowed for decent facial expressions and body language, which I was concerned about since I know the show plays in some romance and that might’ve been hard to watch if the animation wasn’t up to snuff. Thankfully it was and I’m invested in seeing their relationship evolve. I particularly like the dynamic in play here. In Sailor Moon you had 2 people who disliked one another as civilians but were very much attracted to each other as superheroes. There they get on in both identities, but whilst Marinette tries (and funbles) to initiate things with Adrienne, Cat Noire is the one coming onto Ladybug who seems to rebuff his charms (even though she seems to like him). That’s at least relatively unique for this genre and I’m here for it!
So overall, I really liked this and would watch more if I got the chance.
*Cat Noir is even named similarly to Spidey’s girlfriend the Black Cat.
P.S. I enjoyed the reference to Wonder Woman/Captain Marvel in the comic book Alya’s comic book.
#My Essays#Miraculous#miraculous: tales of ladybug and chat noir#Cat Noire#Ladybug#marinette dupain cheng#adrien agreste#Hawk Moth#sailor moon r#Tuxedo Mask
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Would it be offensive to Greek culture if one were to make Hades closer to Persephone’s age and a much younger brother to Zeus and Posideon to make a retelling of Hades and Persephone feel a bit less creepy?? I’m not trying to be rude I just had the idea and want to know if it’s worth keeping stored in the brain box
This is gonna be long, you have been warned 😄
I don’t think it would be offensive. When LO did such a big age difference it was annoying mainly for those reasons:
1) Persephone in the mythology was a goddess in her own right, probably hundreds if not thousands years old, not a sheltered teen fresh out of highschool. Now, there is no problem with making Persephone young in your story if that’s how you want to do it. It’s just that in the context of the comic it was a bit creepy. (more on that on 3 section)
2) It was creepy because the writer made it creepy.
In the mythology the gods seeked young mortal women who were MUCH younger than them. This wasn’t seen as creepy in the culture because gods weren’t held to the same moral standards as the mortals and it was withing their rights to do whatever they saw just (including stealing young women). Is it a good thing? Certainly not. But we have to examine the myths in the context of the old era, see if they hide some symbolism (Zeus showing fertility leaving many women pregnant) and recognize that they might not have been seen as entirely true by a lot of ancient Greeks - so if the morality was a questionable they didn’t care.
I mean they could be folk stories in the style of “it is said that once Apollo found a woman in the woods and he desired her...” and not as “as we all know, Apollo takes a woman from the woods every now and then so be careful, girls, because it may happen to you tommorow”. Someone correct me if I am wrong 😄 I don’t say that the gods or their stories weren’t seen as legit but how important certain myths were would probably differ from area to area or different areas could have different myths. In this context it’s difficult to set a canon and rules of morality. Hades was Persephone’s uncle and while ancient Greeks didn’t like incest, they still kept the story around. This gives me a sense that all those myths were more on the metaphorical sphere.
What Smythe did is that she took myths from another era and tried to apply a modern logic to them while keeping many scenes or similar scenes from the ancient story. In a few words, she wanted to have her cake and eat it, too. She wanted the rules of the modern setting but the actions who stayed in the old myths.
Sometimes the gods in the comic are presented as justified in their wrath because they are gods. Other times the narrative judges the characters with a modern morality, making things confusing. Hecate said to Hades “But Persephone is so young for you!“ This wouldn’t be an issue if the ancient logic was applied. Plus, Zeus and Poseidon as seen as pervs, something that is a modern thing to judge gods as. As the sense of morality in the comic is somewhat confusing, it’s natural that a lot of readers will prefer to follow the modern morality. When this happens, a relationship between a thousand year old man and a 19y/o woman is seen as immoral.
3. The story of LO constantly reminds us the age difference and the power imbalance between H and P. Readers usually want big age gaps to be addressed and they want to see some of the troubles that come with them. I don’t blame Smythe for writing those bits in. I would mostly blame her for choosing to create this imbalance in the first place. (It’s her story and she can do whatever she likes but as an audience we can say our opinion about it).
I mean, the writer chose to make Hades a rich CEO and Persephone barely having any money and in possesion of a broken phone. She chose to make Persephone Hades’ intern, giving Hades a natural power over Persephone. She chose to have Hades being the one creating a bank account for Persephone. She chose to make Persephone sheltered by her mother and unaware of how the world works.
The was already a power imbalance with Hades’ immense experience but it was enhanced in the eyes of readers by the situations mentioned above. Perhaps many readers accept such a relationship because it’s fiction but when the power imbalance is so prominent in the story that a lot of people feel uncomfortable.
About your story:
You could change the ages of the gods or maybe keep the age difference and make it seem normal for your world. I don’t believe this is bad because we talk about Greek gods here. Greek gods had a lot of mortal, young lovers in the mythology. This won’t be anything new.
Of course it depends on the context of your story. If the story is set on the ancient times it would be more fitting for people to accept such an age difference in a couple consisted by two gods. Perspective and context matter. In those days slavery was considered normal, women weren’t given as many rights as men and their place was in the house by default. Many times we wonder “but how could this be acceptabe in my story?” forgetting that the craziest things have been acceptable in our very real history.
Another thing is that, at the end of the day, you don’t need to make your story moral. You are not obliged to teach anyone anything about relationships. Ok, this might depend on your audience but even teens don’t need to be spoonfed what is good and what is bad. I had read stories about questionable characters as a teen but I recognized when something was f-ed up. It was the responsibility of society and the older people around me to teach me about morality and prepare me to consume media critically.
You have the right to say “in this world older gods have younger lovers and nobody bats an eye”. It’s true in your story because you said so and you don’t need to make a fuss about it in the narrative. You can address it once or twice and then move to the plot and themes. Hades and Persephone could have a dicussion about this and maybe they will decide to handle things in a mature and understanding way. There will be some power imbalance but the characters would try and work on this issue because they love each other. It doesn’t have to be toxic.
If you don’t feel comfortable writing a big age gap, you can change Hades’ age, as you said. I would suggest maybe changing Persephone’s age, making her older and more experienced? But this is your call. (In case Hades is 3.000 years old in the story and Persephone is 2.000 don’t worry, though :P)
It would be very helpful if you decided what the rules of your society are and how people would view such a relationship in that setting. This will determine your approach as well.
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In case this answer didn’t cover you and you want to discuss more, you can send another ask :) Have a good day!
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Weekend Top Ten #467
Top Ten Romantic Couples in Superhero Movies (& TV)
It’s Valentine’s Day this weekend. Woo, I guess? I dunno. I’m not generally cynical about holidays but Valentine’s Day does seem to be entirely focused on selling cards without any of the associated pleasantries of, say, Christmas or Halloween. I’d rather just try to be nice to my wife all year round. At least because of the apocalypse all the restaurants are closed so we can’t be tempted to pay through the nose for a set menu. Anyway, it gives me a strained excuse to tie this week’s Top Ten to something vaguely romantic.
Superheroes are often horny. This seems to be a defining characteristic of the artform. Whether it’s their descent from ancient myths, or their creators’ origins in writing romance books, or just a function of genre storytelling in the mid-twentieth century, there’s quite a lot of romantic angst in superhero stories. Pretty much every superhero has a significant other; Lois Lane even got her own comic that was actually called Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane. It’s hard to conceive of many heroes without their primary squeeze, and often – as we get multiple media adaptations of characters – we can add diversity or a twist to the proceedings by picking a lesser-known love interest, or one from earlier in the character’s fictional history; for instance, Smallville beginning with Cark Kent’s teenage crush Lana Lang, or The Amazing Spider-Man swapping out Mary Jane Watson for Gwen Stacey.
Anyway, I’m talking this week about my favourite superhero couples. I’ve decided to focus on superhero adaptations – that is, the characters from movies and films based on superhero comics or characters. I find this a little bit easier as I don’t have a phenomenal knowledge of sixty years of Avengers comics, but I have seen all the movies a bunch. As many comics as I’ve read, and as much as I love various ink-and-paper pairings, I can arguably talk more authoritatively about the fillums than the funny books. And let’s be real here, kids: my favourite comic book romantic couple is Chromedome and Rewind in Transformers. Also if I split them in two I can talk about comic couples next year. Woohoo!
It really is hard thinking of these things nearly nine years in, folks.
So! Here, then, are my favourite movie-TV Couples in Capes. Obviously there’s a fair bit of MCU in here. And I’ve been pretty specific about “superhero” romances: so no Hellboy and Liz Sherman, sadly (and I do really like them in the movies, of which they really need to make a third). Some are civvies-and-supes; some are capes-and-capes. You’ll work it out.
Superman & Lois Lane (Christopher Reeve & Margot Kidder, Superman, 1978): who else? The most famous romance in all of comics, a combo so strong it remains the focus of pretty much every interpretation of the character, but arguably never better than here; so good are Reeve and Kidder that their fast-talking banter and inherent goodness set the template for a huge swathe of other comic adaptations to follow. She’s sarky and streetwise; he’s gormless and good-hearted. She leaps in where angels fear to tread, he’s an invulnerable alien in disguise. They have buckets of chemistry and an utterly believable (tentative) romance. They’re perfect performances and the scenes of Clark in Metropolis for the first time (including Superman’s balcony interview with Lois) are the best bits of an already excellent film.
Raven & Beast Boy (Tara Strong & Greg Cipes, Teen Titans Go!, 2014): on a totally different register, we have the comedy stylings of the Teen Titans. Raven and Beast Boy had a flirtatious relationship on the original Titans series, but on this longer-running and much more demented comedy follow-up, they were allowed to make the romance more official (I nearly said “explicit” but, y’know… it’s not that). The jokes and banter – BB the love-struck, jealous suitor, Raven the too-cool partner who feigns nonchalance – build and build, but every now and again they’re allowed a moment of genuine heartfelt romance, and it hits all the more strongly amidst the ultra-violence and outrageous comedy.
Captain America & Agent Carter (Chris Evans & Hayley Atwell, Captain America: The First Avenger, 2011): the premier couple of the MCU, Steve and Peggy spend a whole movie flirting (she sees the goodness of him even before he gets all hench) before finally arranging a date that, we all know, is very much postponed. Peggy casts a shadow over the rejuvenated Cap and the MCU as a whole, founding SHIELD, inspiring dozens of heroes, and counselling Steve to her dying days. She remains Steven’s true north (like Supes with Lois, Peggy’s an ordinary human who is the actual hero of an actual super-powered hero), guiding him through the chaos and tragedy of Endgame, until they both get to live happily ever after. Even though he snogged her niece.
Batman & Catwoman (Michael Keaton & Michelle Pfeiffer, Batman Returns, 1992): Pfeiffer delivers a barnstorming performance as Selina Kyle, all barely-supressed mania and seductive feline charm. The chemistry between her and Keaton is electric, and propels the film forward even when the Penguin-runs-for-mayor stuff gets a bit daft and icky. There are beautiful moments of romantic comedy when they’re both trying to cover up injuries they gave each other, and of course there’s “mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it” – a line that runs a close second to “dance with the devil” when it comes to Burton-Batman quotations (just ahead of “never rub another man’s rhubarb”). Burton, generally favouring the macabre villains over the straighter edges of the heroic Batman, nevertheless makes great play of the duality of the character, and how this is something he and Catwoman can share – both “split right down the centre” – but also how this means a happy ending for either of them is impossible.
Spider-Man & Mary Jane (Tobey Maguire & Kirsten Dunst, Spider-Man, 2002): whilst a lot of this is really down to the sexiness of them kissing upside-down in the rain, there’s a nice duality to Peter and MJ seeing through each other too: he sees the wounded humane soul beneath her it-girl persona; she sees the kind, caring man underneath his geek baggage. This arc plays out beautifully across the first two films (ending in that wonderfully accepting “Go get ‘em, tiger”) before sadly getting all murky and unsatisfying in the murky and unsatisfying third film. Still: that kiss.
Wonder Woman & Steve Trevor (Gal Gadot & Chris Pine, Wonder Woman, 2017): probably the film that hews closest to the Clark-Lois dynamic of the original Superman, to the point where it includes an homage to the alleyway-mugging scene as Diana deflects a bullet. Steve is Diana’s window into man’s world, showing her the horror of the First World War but managing to also be a sympathetic ally and never talking down or mansplaining anything. He’s a hero in his own right – very similar to another wartime Steve on this list – and very much an ideal match to the demigod he’s showing round Europe. And, of course, Gadot’s Diana is incredible, both niaive and vulnerable whilst also an absolute badass. There is an enduring warm chemistry to the pair, with a relationship which we actually see consummated – relatively rare for superheroes! The inevitability of his heroic sacrifice does nothing to lessen the tragedy, and no I’ve not seen Wonder Woman 1984 yet.
Hawkeye & Laura Barton (Jeremy Renner & Linda Cardellini, Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2015): I love these guys! I love that Hawkeye has a relatively normal, stable family life. He has a big old farmhouse that he wants to remodel, he’s got two kids and a third on the way… he’s got something to live for, something to lose. It humanises him amidst the literal and figurative gods of the Avengers. And they’re cute together, bickering and bantering, and of course she is supportive of his Avenging. I hope we get to see more of Laura and the kids in the Hawkeye series, and I hope nothing bad happens to them now they’ve all been brought back to life.
Wanda Maximoff & Vision (Elizabeth Olsen & Paul Bettany, Avengers: Infinity War, 2018): theirs is a difficult relationship to parse, because they’re together so briefly. They cook paprikash together in Civil War before having a bit of a bust-up, and by Infinity War they’re an official couple, albeit on the run (and on different sides). That movie does a great job in establishing their feelings for each other in very little screentime, with their heroic characteristics on full display, before the shockingly awful tragedy of Wanda killing Vision to save the galaxy, before Thanos rewinds time, brings him back to life, and kills him again, and then wins. Their relationship going forward, in WandaVision, is even trickier, because we don’t know what’s up yet, and at times they’re clearly not acting as “themselves”, defaulting to sitcom tropes and one-liners. Will Vision survive, and if he does, will their relationship? Who can say, but at least they’ll always have Edinburgh, deep-fried kebabs and all.
Batman & Andrea Beaumont (Kevin Conroy & Dana Delany, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, 1993): woah, Batman’s back but it’s a different Batman, say whaaaat. Animated Batman has had a few romances, from the great (Talia al-Ghul) to the disturbingly icky (Batgirl, ewwww), but his relationship with Andrea Beaumont is the best. Tweaking the Year One formula to give young Bruce a love interest that complicates his quest is a golden idea, and making her a part of the criminality and corruptiuon that he’s fighting is a suitably tragic part of the Batman origin story. Conroy and Delany give great performances, him wringing pathos out of Bruce, torn between heart and duty (“It just doesn’t hurt so bad anymore,” he wails to his parents’ grave, “I didn’t count on being happy”), her channelling golden age Hollywood glamour. The tragedy of them rekindling their relationship years later, only to wind up on different sides again, is – again – so very Batman. It’s a beautiful, earnest, very Batman relationship, a great titanic tragedy of human emotions and larger-than-life ideals. And they both look good in black.
Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy (Kaley Cuoco & Lake Bell, Harley Quinn, 2020): this one’s a little bit of a cheat, as I’ve only seen the first season of the show, where Harley and Ivy don’t even get together. But in the wider, non-canonical sense of these being characters who are part of the pop-cultural ether, Harley and Ivy will always be a couple, I feel; and there’s definitely enough in there already to see the affection between them, not yet consummated. They adore each other, are always there for each other, and as the season follows Harley getting out of her own way and acknowledging the abuse of her relationship with Joker – and finally getting over it in the healthiest way possible for a bleached-white manic pixie in roller derby gear. And all through this, holding her hand, is Ivy. They’re utterly made for each other, and I’m glad that they do get together in season two. I hope that Margot Robbie’s rendition of the character can likewise find happiness with a flesh-and-blood Ivy. Hell, just cast Lake Bell again. She’s great.
Just bubbling under – and I’m really gutted I couldn’t fit them in – was Spider-Man & M.J. from Spider-Man: Far From Home. Like Batman, I’m comfortable including multiple continuities here, and those cuties offer a different spin on a classic relationship.
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What I think about Inuyasha’s writing.
I used to be a huge Inuyasha fan because I watched it in my teen years (The Latin Spanish dub, not the English dub where I find their voices to be pretty annoying). I would stay awake until eleven o’ clock just to watch a new episode on Cartoon Network and sing along with the translated versions of the intros. My early submissions on Deviantart were fanarts of Inuyasha, I used to draw him like crazy, and the show is even one of my original comic’s main inspirations. So what happened?
I love Inuyasha’s character, but as I grew older, I started hating or not caring about the other characters of the show (Except for Sesshomaru, of course) and grew tired of the story because I felt it wasn’t going anywhere. Inuyasha has good writing, but the pacing and how sometimes you can’t really take it seriously ruins it for me.
I want to talk about this now since I just heard about the sequel that is gonna happen soon with Inuyasha’s Lina Inverse of a daughter and Sesshomaru’s very confused twin daughters, and I’m thinking to myself: “How is Rumiko gonna ruin this story even more”. Don’t get me wrong, the creator, Rumiko Takahashii, is a very talented manga artist and writer, and I respect her, at one point I even saw her as my heroine, but now I want to surpass her.
How can Inuyasha, a story about a half demon, who falls in love with the reincarnation of his ex-girlfriend who can travel through time whenever she feels like it, has a hot demon brother that tried to kill him several times, wields a powerful magical sword forged from the fang of his deceased yet very famous demon father who I want to know more about, a dead human mother who may or may not have been a princess... Where was I going with this? o_o
As an aspiring storyteller/ animator, I want to talk about the problems with Inuyasha’s story, the things I love about it, as well as the bad things in it, and see why Inuyasha isn’t the writing masterpiece everyone likes to believe it is. And by the end, talking about what I would do to improve the story.
This is how I analyze Inuyasha. I never read the manga, so I’m gonna focus on the anime.
1. Inuyasha is a romantic comedy?
Rumiko Takashii is a successful manga artist and considered “The queen of anime”, because her art Style and humor have inspired many of the anime cliches we know today such as the nose bleeds shots, the beach episodes with fan service, and good o’l scenes where the girl calls a boy a pervert before comically sending them flying. She is the creator of another famous work called Ranma 1/2, an anime I used to love as a kid, but now...
I studied how to draw and create mangas and I have learned how to make a good story. After returning to Ranma recently, I have figured out the problem with Inuyasha, Rumiko Takahashii’s style is repetitive. Rumiko is capable of writing a good plot and creating very good characters from time to time, but now many of her main characters feel very cliche. In her stories there is always gonna be a pervert, there is always gonna be a bad parent, a rivalry, crazy and or exaggerated situations, goofy looking characters, wise old men or women, beautiful female characters, Japanese or Chinese folklore, fighting, but most importantly, a girl with a love/hate relationship with a dumb, rowdy tsundere boy, where they argue so much that the girl ends up physically abusing the boy and the show passes it for something funny; and those are the ingredients for making a Rumiko Takahashii styled manga/anime.
Rumiko’s forte is in Romantic comedy, sometimes mixing different genres makes a story good and very realistic... If done right, which brings me to my next point.
2. Time travel just for fun.
What is Inuyasha about? It is about a half-demon teenage boy that has to partner with a teenage girl from the modern times, who accidentally travels through time via a magical well that has been in her family’s shinto shrine for generations, to find the shards of a powerful magical jewel that said girl accidentally shatters and scatters all over feudal Japan. This idea alone makes it a very interesting series, either for a book or a TV show.
What went wrong then? I believe the problem started around the third episode were it was shown that Kagome can easily go back to the present, have dinner with her family, take a bath, gather provisions, and even take her god damn bike with her to the past every time she wants without caring about creating a time paradox.
This is played for laughs because of the romantic comedy element, but if you do this in an show with action, deaths, and evil spirits wanting to take over the world, then that fact alone makes the entire story lose credibility, I mean, what is stopping Naraku or any other demon from finding a way to travel to the future through the well to take over a world where demons and magical powers are basically extinct? The fact that only Kagome AND Inuyasha are the only ones who can go through the well? How convenient!
If the time travel well was taken more seriously it could’ve lead to a much more interesting story, but apparently nobody cares about time travel and the effects it could have in the history of Japan. I think there were two instances that I recall from the anime (Before Inuyasha Second Act, because I already stopped caring about the show when it came out) where time travel was or could’ve been relevant; the episode about the man eating mask that had a Shikon shard for hundreds of years, and the second movie of Inuyasha where the whole group was immune to a time stopping spell because Kagome’s medical kit and necklace from the future created some kind of time barrier around them.
And nobody cared about any of those things afterwards! Not the fact that there could’ve been one extra shard, or that Naraku was present during the time barrier incident and never wondered about it. Both the episode and movie scene were just ways to have Inuyasha being the only one who can come to Kagome’s rescue because their love is the main focus. Speaking of love...
3. Frustrating love drama.
Part of Inuyasha’s tsundere personality comes from the fact that he had his heart broken by everyone’s favorite b***, Kikyo.
Kikyo was the young priestess who sealed Inuyasha in a tree for 50 years, at first it looked like the typical holy person trying to protect her village from a dangerous demon, but in reality, she was in a relationship with him and thought that Inuyasha tricked her so he could steal the Shikon jewel from her. This was because everyone’s favorite a**h*** , Naraku, shape-shifted into both of them to trick them into killing each other.
It’s easy to blame Naraku for this, but that actually shows how they didn’t really “love” each other because of how quickly they turned against the other.
I take this as a cautionary tale for first love. Inuyasha was just infatuated with Kikyo because of her beauty and kindness towards him, and when someone falls in love for the first time they don’t think straight, they don’t know what a real relationship entails, and not knowing that is exactly what happened to these two.
There was a special episode in the anime where we see how Inuyasha and Kikyo met and fell in love, in it we get a scene where Kikyo told Inuyasha that she was gonna give him a gift, which was gonna be the subduing necklace that Kagome tends to abuse a lot, however, Inuyasha decided to give her a gift as well, his mother’s lip balm she left him after dying. A very sweet gesture, right? How does Kikyo react to this?
That’s not a look of love, that’s a look of pity. RECIPROCATE, WOMAN! HE OPENED HIS HEART TO YOU AND YOU JUST FEEL SORRY FOR HIM?!
She does end up changing her mind about the subduing charm, but before this, she didn’t saw him as a person, and she was considered a saint by everyone in the village, but I guess that feeding the poor, nursing people, and playing with children is alright as long as they are humans, that’s almost racist. I hate Shippo, but I bet she wouldn’t be so caring about him or his dad if she saw them.
Kikyo absolutely sucks as a romantic partner! She doesn’t express anything, she doesn’t talk about her feelings, she doesn’t show any emotion apart from anger and slight contentment, and based on what we saw after Naraku set them up, I believe she never told him ANYTHING about herself. Unlike Kagome who he got to know very well as a person, Inuyasha didn’t even questioned her motives for attacking him, he automatically assumed that she manipulated him the whole time, and ran to the village to get the Shikon Jewel.
Rumiko wanted to make Kikyo more relatable so we could feel sorry for her and pass Naraku as an evil monster who destroyed what could’ve been a beautiful relationship, by having Kikyo wanting to live life as a normal girl, but can’t because she is the only one who can keep the Shikon jewel from being corrupted, and ultimately falling in love with Inuyasha because he saw her as a normal person (Unlike her with him). Well, it didn’t work, at least not for me.
I did feel sympathy for Kikyo... When she was alive! The series had a witch bring her back to life in a body made out of clay and using part of Kagome’s soul because she is the reincarnation of Kikyo. Why do this? To create drama by adding a love triangle into this romantic comedy of a show.
Feels like Rumiko doesn’t understand how reincarnation works because I think Kagome would’ve died during that ritual, and I really doubt Kikyo would’ve become such a B just out of jealousy; she wanted to take Inuyasha to hell with her, and he was not even dead yet! If this Kikyo really loved him, she would’ve let him go on with his life instead of roaming Japan feeling sorry for herself, taking advantage of a situation to keep Kagome away from Inuyasha, and barely doing anything to stop Naraku which was supposed to be her main goal. All of this made Kikyo unlikable instead of a relatable character trying to fix her past mistakes before going back to the grave.
4. Inuyasha’s background.
Something I absolutely love from Inuyasha’s story is the fact that it is set during a historical time period in Japan but with magical elements incorporated since many of the Japanese myths and folklore originated during those dark times. I love the fact that since everything was so dark back then, people would often see things that weren’t really there and made up stories to explain certain phenomena or just to keep children from misbehaving.
Inuyasha is full of Japanese folktales and magical creatures, and it clearly took inspiration from “Journey to the west”, a classic Chinese novel that’s one of the best adventure/ fantasy stories of all time, and that’s also been the main inspiration for many mangas and animes; it’s one of my favorites too.
Inuyasha’s background is one of the most interesting ones I’ve ever seen, it’s something common in fairy tales and myths where a human falls in love with a being from a magical race, like fairies, mermaids, gods, or in Asian folklore’s case, spirits or demons. In Inuyasha’s case, his mother was a human named Izayoi who fell in love with a powerful dog demon named Toga who was known as Inu no taisho (Dog general), animal spirits or demons can take human form, and the dog spirits are very common in Japanese folklore.
The third movie of Inuyasha shows us what Toga looked like before and how he died, and I’m actually more interested in how Inuyasha’s parents met more than his love triangle drama. In fact, Toga’s story sounds much more interesting because he was built up as this great demon lord who fought countless enemies, he was a gigantic dog monster that stopped a demon invasion from China, he could destroy multiple armies with one swing of a sword he forged from one of his fangs, he had disciples and loyal subjects, but he ultimately lost his status, he let his reputation be destroyed because he fell in love with a woman from a race that was considered inferior, and had a half demon child with her.
One of Inuyasha’s motivation’s (the main one being killing Naraku) is proving that he is stronger than his father who was a full demon, while Inuyasha himself is considered a weak half human who is unworthy of the tittle of being a descendant of Inu no taisho. Every time Inuyasha hears about a demon that his father couldn’t defeat in the past, he gets excited because, with the powerful sword his dad left him, he now has a chance to prove to everyone that he is not weak and that he is stronger than his father was.
Inuyasha never met his father because Toga died the very day he was born, so he was raised by his mother who died when he was still a child. His older brother, Sesshomaru, is a full demon that never really forgave his father for throwing his reputation away because of a human woman, and leaving him a magical sword that can also resurrect the dead instead of the one that can destroy numerous souls in one blow.
I’m not really sure, but I think the Sesshomaru from the beginning of the third movie looked like he was around Inuyasha’s age when Toga died.
Before:
After:
I like to think that’s the case.
Inuyasha’s background alone can hold up the entire series, as well as his tense relationship with his only living relative, however, the main focus is something else, something that I personally find very repetitive, boring, and even lame.
5. Is Naraku really worth it?
Note that I am not defending Naraku, he is unlikable, mainly because of all the bad things he’s done to the main characters, but the truth is that I don’t really hate him as much as I should, granted, he is a manipulative b*st**d and I don’t like him, but he is just evil for the sake of being evil in the story. If anything, I see him as pathetic.
Let’s see his main crimes: He cursed Miroku’s family, for some reason, killed Sango’s entire family by using her inexperience demon slayer little brother as a puppet, he basically conned Sesshomaru in hopes of killing Inuyasha, but most importantly, he is the reason Inuyasha and Kikyo broke up! :0
To me, Naraku is just a coward that likes to manipulate others for his own personal gain, he was born from a bandit named Onigumo who was burned in a fire after betraying the leader of his group of thieves so he could take his place, and allowed his bodied to be consumed by demons in order to get... Kikyo! The gross part is that Kikyo was like 15 at the time while he could easily be in his 20′s or 30′s. Kikyo, being a “saint”, found Onigumo’s burned body and nursed him in a cave, this ultimately made the bandit fall in love with her and allowed his body to be devoured by evil spirits in exchange for power, he was then reborn as Naraku who is basically a half demon like Inuyasha.
I heard that the manga didn’t really mentioned Naraku’s past life, but I think that’s for the best. Naraku became Inuyasha’s group’s ( and other characters’s) main target, but every single time they find him and think they got him cornered, he manages to escape in some way because of how much of a coward he really is. Because this happens over and over and over and over again in every season, it get’s tiresome and frustrating, to the point where I even ask myself: “Is this MF even worth it?!” Anyone would’ve just given up a long time ago. I liked it when they focused on fighting other demons and enemies with different motives, but after a while it was just Naraku, Naraku, Naraku!
At some point I even forgot what started this adventure in the first place, the Shikon Jewel shards that were accidentally shattered and scattered through out Japan! One shard alone can power up a demon, this idea alone makes it an interesting story, collect the shards before Japan is destroyed by overpowered demons and evil spirits, but no, turns out Naraku is collecting the shards too to the point that he already has a nearly complete jewel, well, that saves a lot of time!
I know, killing Naraku will get rid of Miroku’s wind tunnel curse, free Sango’s undead brother from his control, and Sesshomaru and other demons wanting revenge because he tried to use them, but what’s really Inuyasha’s beef with Naraku? Is he just mad because Naraku showed him just how totally incompatible he was with Kikyo? That’s what pisses me the most, to be honest.
As for Kagome, she definitely has no reason to be there, Naraku is the main antagonist and yet, he is kinda indifferent to Kagome. I don’t remember seeing Naraku doing anything bad to her or her family living in modern times that can be accessed through a magical well where he could easily... You know what? I’m done here.
Conclusion.
Inuyasha’s story has so much potential and yet it doesn’t take itself too serious. As I mentioned before, Inuyasha is treated more as a romantic comedy than a fantastical adventure kind of story. there is so much dept to the world building, but when focusing only on Inuyasha and Kagome falling in love, nothing else seem to matter. This could’ve worked if it had better writing. A simple or silly premise for a story can work if it has clever writing, something that Inuyasha really needed at times.
I liked to be surprised with clever writing in movies and shows, but if it was up to me, I’d definitely change a few things.
1. If you want a serious story, make Kagome be stuck in feudal Japan until the shards of the Shikon Jewel are recovered, or if this has to stay, don’t make the the stakes in the adventure so dire, either its a fantastical journey with two teenagers falling in love as the main focus, or a very serious adventure where their love is the only thing that can save the day.
2. Make Inuyasha and kikyo just friends, the love drama is unnecessary, specially since kikyo has almost no personality what so ever, unless you re-write her entire character. Or make Inuyasha fall in love with Kikyo, but Kikyo doesn’t feel the same and just sees him as a good friend, that at least would create some drama instead of the jealous ex-girlfriend that wants to kill everyone because she lost her chance in life.
3. Get rid of Naraku, the ultimate villain troupe gets tired very quickly, specially in a very long show that takes like 8 seasons to end. Or at least write him better and not turn the show into an endless chase for just one guy, specially since the main goal is to collect the shards of the Shikon jewel to destroy it once and for all.
This is just my opinion of course, and if you like the show just the way it is, then that’s alright, but seeing things you like with a critical eye, makes you appreciate them even more.
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THE HISTORY OF THE H-DIAL, DC’S WEIRDEST SUPERHERO CONCEPT
Everyone wants to be Superman. His unparalleled might, massive array of powers, and winning personality makes him a fantasy figure in many imaginations. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, given the option, we wouldn’t want to be one superhero, we’d want to be all of them. This is the premise behind Dial H for HERO’s H-Dial, an incredibly powerful object used in DC Comics stories intermittently since the 1960s.
Introduced in House of Mystery #156 (a title up to that point reserved for supernatural horror stories), the H-Dial was discovered by teenager Robby Reed in a cavern while he was camping nearby. The H-Dial resembles a rotary phone dial, and since Robby existed in a time when rotary phones were still in use (youths of today would likely struggle a bit), he quickly discovered by dialing H-E-R-O, he could turn into a random and wholly original superhero until he dialed O-R-E-H to change back. There appeared to be no limits or boundaries on the heroes Robby would be become, as the first year saw characters like Giantboy (a giant with super strength), the Mole (who could dig at super-fast speeds), Hypno-Man (with the ability to control minds), and Mighty Moppet (a super-strong baby who could shrink his enemies by spraying them with a milk bottle). Clearly, this was a creative playground for writer Dave Wood and artist Jim Mooney, who had smartly devised a storytelling platform that liberated them from the bonds of using the same power set to solve new problems every issue. However, the stories clearly weren’t a huge hit, as House of Mystery reverted back to horror stories and ended the original Dial H run after only eighteen issues.
The H-Dial would return in 1981, with new users Chris Grant and Vicki King, who discover them in a haunted house. A number of changes were made to the H-Dial this time around: there were two of them (Chris wore his on a watch and Vicki’s on a necklace), they had a one-hour time limit, and, incredibly, the heroes they became were submitted by readers! If you had the manual dexterity to hold a few crayons, you could see your creation in print in a real comic book! (The creators of these heroes were rewarded with a t-shirt and, uh, credit.) For eleven issues of Adventure Comics and twenty-one issues of New Adventures of Superboy, Chris and Vicki transformed into heroes submitted by the youth of 1980s America (as well as science fiction writer Harlan Ellison, then aged 46 years old), and series creators Marv Wolfman and Carmine Infantino clearly picked the cream of the crop: Vibro the Quakemaster (caused earthquakes), Hasty Pudding (either moved super slow or super fast, no in-between), Glass Lass (who could amplify laser beams), and Sister Scissor-Limbs (do you need this one spelled out for you?). This iteration once again faded away as new back-up features replaced them. Chris and Vicki got a mini-epilogue in the pages of New Teen Titans but following that, just faded away.
It wouldn’t be until 2003 that the H-Dial would appear again, and this time it would be the star of the book: H-E-R-O would follow the H-Dial (as it was seen in the original House of Mystery run) as it gets passed around from person to person for anywhere from one to four issues. Writer Will Pfeifer took this opportunity to tell some smarter, smaller stories about normal people who briefly possess incredible chaotic power, only for it to be lost, via intentional abandon, theft, or, most commonly, hubris. Robby Reed also returns in this series, hunting the traveling dial as it turns minimum wage earner Jerry Feldon into Afterburner, pre-teen girl Andrea Allen into Nocturna, and small-time crook Tony Finch into the Stretcher. The series was cancelled after an incredibly satisfying twenty-two issues, ending with Robby sending it 50,000 years back in time, hopefully ridding the world of its dangerous potential.
However, reboots gonna reboot, and the H-Dial would make its triumphant return in 2012 as a part of DC’s New 52 line-up in the series Dial H. This time around, the H-Dial is turned into an anachronistic telephone booth, as novelist China Miéville would lend his signature surrealistic take to transform schlubby everyman Nelson Jent into heroes like Captain Lachrymose (who derives strength from the traumatic memories of others), Hole Punch (who had three arms and sledgehammer hands) and Control-Alt-Delete (a computer-themed hero with the ability to “reboot” recent events). Miéville traded adventure and coherence for comedy and absurdity, showing that when the existing status for a device is one without presented limits, the logical step forward is one without logic at all. It could be argued this series existed at the wrong time; if it had shared the shelf with 1990s Vertigo hits Doom Patrol and Shade the Changing Man, it could have entered a classic status and stayed reprinted forever. Sadly, 2012 wasn’t the year for an interpretation like this, and Miéville’s Dial H would be cancelled after 15 issues.
This brings us to the most recent swing at the H-Dial, the criminally underrated Dial H for Hero, remarkably the first time the feature has had its full, original name as the title of a book. This time, the H-Dial is a glowing red rotary phone (complete with fairly unnecessary handset), wielded by teenagers Miguel Montez and Summer Pickens as they travel across the United States to find a place to safely dispose of the powerful device. Under the storytelling direction of Sam Humphries, this version of the H-Dial transforms its users into wholly original superheroes, plus the new wrinkle of each hero being drawn in a distinct homage to comic book creators of the past, such as the Rob Liefeld-esque Monster Truck, the Mike Allred-ian Lo Lo Kick You, and the Irritable Various Geckos, four lizard villains drawn exactly like the classic Eastman/Laird Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Illustrator Joe Quinones puts in work for this series, effectively aping artists like Frank Miller, Akira Toriyama, Moebius, and even Bill Watterson, while keeping everything on brand in the distinctive DC-house style, allowing every page to function as a museum exhibit on comics history. This mini-series was originally intended to only last six issues, but early success expanded it to twelve, with the dangling possibility of more to come down the line.
What could the future possibly hold for the H-Dial? Like the device itself, there is limitless potential. Superheroes are more popular than ever, and with deep cuts like Doom Patrol and Stargirl finding success on the small screen, there’s no reason a Dial H for Hero show couldn’t make a similar mark. It could be animated (Cartoon Network’s Ben 10 showed there’s a market for “boy with many superhero forms”), but a live-action version would also work. Utilizing celebrity guest stars as the different heroes could place it perfectly in that high-stakes-meets-childish-wonder space the comics always occupied. Dial H for Hero is nails exactly what we love about superheroes: powerful, vibrant characters in a grounded, human space. But while Wonder Woman is limited to magic and mythology, Green Lantern is confined to space policing, and Batman deals with a constant crew of painted goons, Dial H for Hero discards the pesky origin and setting to create a one-person anthology hero, something completely different yet charmingly familiar every time, where the only thing predictable is that it will be absolutely unpredictable.
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Reading project: Archie Comics (I of IV)
A random sampling of three Archie comics anthologies and one of the modern series.
First:
Archie 75th Anniversary Celebration, #4.
A collection reprinting classic Betty and Veronica stories from assorted decades, from the 1940’s to the 2010’s (!)
The collection itself is as you might expect: A mix of forgettable stories paired with some actually pretty interesting ones. You can see not just elements that would later be used in the most recent versions (the semi-serious Teen Soap heralded by Mark Waid and the Horror imprint —but also even more interesting experiments from assorted decades), but also how these comics became time capsules for quite a few trends in US fashion and in comics in general.
All stories come with commentaries from assorted writers, editors, artists and whatnot —the most interesting ones noting subtle details in the art and the evolution (sometimes de-evolution) of themes.
Some stories that stand out:
- Where the action is. By Dan Parent, Rich Koslowski, et. al. 2008. One of many stories re-creating the characters as X genre —in this case, as glamorous spies. What is notorios about this story is that it’s one of the fist to use obscure character Evelyn Evernever (from the Little Archie comics) as a villain.
- Dare to be bare. By Frank Doyle and Dan DeCarlo. 1982. One of the earliest stories starring the Blossom twins, Cheryl and Jason. I’d always wondered why Cheryl was for a time deemed too sexual a character for an all-ages comics. Then in this story we see her arrested for trying to go topless in a public beach and —yeah, now I get it.
- Vamp it up. By Dan Parent, Rich Koslowski, et. al. 2012. Imagine my surprise at discovering that Vampironica was not a character created for the current Horror storyline, but made her debut in this story —complete with the origin of Betty the Vampire slayer. Respectively, open homages to Vampirella and Buffy.
- Taking care of business. By Paul Kupperberg, Jeff Schultz, et. al. 2012. The single best story in this collection. Betty and Veronica get stranded in the woods at winter and must use their wits to survive. The twist is that Betty, by this point usually the reliable, level-headed one, get a concussion early on and spends most of the story unconscious, so it falls on Veronica (normally the spoiled rich princess) to keep both of them alive —a very clever scrip that managed to hit just the right amount of drama without going overboard.
- Of men and mermaids. By Bill Vigoda and Al McLean. 1945. One of the earliest Archie stories, which shows how the character Betty in particular has changed over the years —this one was quite capable of knocking out men with a good sock to the jaw. Described as “feisty” in and out of the comic, I’d say she was that very early kind of female character in comic books that had to be tough just to survive.
- For one brief moment. By C. J. Henderson, Doug Crane, et. al. 1996. A romance between Betty and Reggie —what is interesting here isn’t the up-ending of the usual romantic triangle of these comics, but the rare emotionally sincere handling of teen romance. How often do you see this kind of characters breaking off simply because they both realize that it’s becoming a serious thing and neither of them is ready for something that intense just yet?
There is an overwhelming amount of male writers, artists and editors in display here (the sole story written by a woman is “Pick me up”, by Kathleen Webb, 2000. Fittingly, it’s a tale about the girls dealing with constant harassment from entitled men) —which says more about the problem with the general comic book industry than with this particular publishing line, really.
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Living with the Cult Legacy of Evil Dead.
Here’ s a recent interview with Ellen Sandweiss by Den of Geek that discusess The Evil Dead, current cinema, and feminism.
We chat with Ellen Sandweiss, who played Ash Williams' damned sister in The Evil Dead, about a horror legacy nearly 40 years on.
Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead franchise seems to have had at least nine bloody lives. First was the original 1981 movie that propelled lead actor Bruce Campbell and director Sam Raimi to cult cinema stardom, and then there were the sequels (The Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness), the 2013 remake, and even a cable TV show via Ash vs Evil Dead. These low budget efforts, originally labeled as “video nasties” in the UK, became a refuge for film aficionados to revel in macabre humor, bad puns, and practical disembowelment effects that rivaled Tom Savini’s best work.
Less lauded though is the coven of women in the original feature that Campbell’s Ash battles to the death and beyond. In The Evil Dead, Ash drives to the remote cabin in the woods with his girlfriend Linda (Betsy Baker), a few friends, and his sister Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) for their spring break. Cheryl’s character is the first to notice something awry upon their arrival, the first to suffer at the hands of the demonic entity in the now (in)famous tree rape scene, and the first to be seized by the demonic entity’s possession.
It is really Cheryl’s character on which so much of the narrative’s propulsive force hinges. As a result, she exercises her acting chomps adroitly. Whether frantically attempting to convince her brother and friends that “it was the woods themselves! They’re alive!” or cautiously traversing the dark forest with the whites of her bulging eyes, Sandweiss showcases both Cheryl’s humanity and her intense fear. When she embraces her possession, pus-filled and pawing at hapless Ash, she recalls the witch from Anne Sexton’s poem “Her Kind,” which details a lonely, twelve-fingered evil. “A woman like that is not a woman, quite.”
Sandweiss also was the first non-Campbell actor to reprise a role in the series when she appeared in Ash vs Evil Dead Season 2. Den of Geek spoke with Sandweiss about her acting career, her work with Campbell and Raimi, TimesUp, and if the tree scene would be shot the same way in 2019 as it was almost 40 years ago in the backwoods of Tennessee.
What got you interested in acting? What led to your getting the part of Cheryl in The Evil Dead?
I acted in school plays and local theatre starting in middle school. I come from a very artsy family and was involved in music and dance as well. Then I went to high school in suburban Detroit with Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell and was in plays with them. They had been making super 8 movies since they were in their early teens, so I was often in those movies as a teenager. I then went to college at the University of Michigan where I majored in theatre, and during one summer, we made “Within the Woods,” a short film that Bruce and Sam made to garner interest and money from investors in order to make their first feature film, Book of the Dead, which then became The Evil Dead. Once they had raised the funds, I took a semester off college in ’79 to 80 and we shot the film in Tennessee.
What was your experience like on the set of The Evil Dead? Do you have a favorite memory of shooting the original?
My experience making The Evil Dead was mixed. Of course it was exhilarating at age 20 to be off making a feature film, and the “boys” [Raimi, Campbell, and producer Rob Tapert] were a lot of fun. But the budget was tiny, and it wasn’t a union film, so the conditions were harsh and everyone on the set was very inexperienced. We were all in our early 20s and for many it was our first experience making a feature film. At the Tennessee cabin where we shot most of the film, we had no electricity, no plumbing and no running water—need I say more?
Could you have anticipated, at that time, the kind of cult following that film would have especially with both the remake and TV show?
I could never have anticipated the eventual cult status of the film. When we made The Evil Dead, there was no video rental, no streaming, etc. So films, if they were distributed at all, would end up either at a first-run theater or at a B-movie theater or drive-in, which was where our film landed. Honestly, when we were shooting the film, I thought (and hoped) it would never actually be seen. Then, after a few years, it was released and then it disappeared. I forgot about it and went on with school, then graduate school in arts administration, followed by management jobs in non-profits.
It was when video rentals were born, a few years later, that people started becoming interested in Evil Dead, followed by multiple releases on VHS, then DVD, laser disc, Blu-ray, etc. I didn’t actually realize it had a cult following until around 2001 when my teenaged daughter’s geeky friends started talking about it and ED t-shirts were appearing at local film and comic memorabilia shops. Then we had a 20-year reunion screening, and it was after that that the other two actresses and I started making convention appearances as “Ladies of the Evil Dead.”
What was it like revisiting Cheryl as a character when you did two episodes of Ash vs. Evil Dead?
Revisiting Cheryl in Ash vs the Evil Dead was a hoot! At that point they had a big budget, union rules and lots of experience under their belts, so it was a lot more comfortable. It was fun acting again with Bruce, whom I’ve remained friends with all these years, and of course it was wonderful getting to see New Zealand, where we shot the episodes.
Do you think the tree scene from Evil Dead would be filmed in the same way today as it was done then?
Yes, I’m sure that the tree scene would be done differently if it was filmed today. First, I’m not sure that it would be characterized as a “tree rape,” as Sam has since said he regrets that it ended up that way. I think it would have gone back to what was originally intentioned in the script: trees coming to life and attacking Cheryl, which would also satisfy today’s more feminist audiences (and actresses!). And I’m sure that CGI would be used instead of the reverse-filming, or whatever it’s called, to show vines wrapping around me.
What is it like coming back 35 years later on the show and actually exploring a sibling dynamic?
It was great fun to do Ash vs Evil Dead all these years later and visit the earlier lives of Cheryl and Ash in their family home. In the original film, I believe there was only one line referring to their relationship (“it’s your sister Cheryl!”), and if you missed that you were probably wondering what this weird morose girl was doing on a party weekend with these two college couples! In Ash vs. ED, fighting with Bruce took sibling rivalry to a new level—I loved taunting him and I always enjoy filming a good fight scene. Of course he was the star, so he had to win in the end, but I did enjoy my final words, emanating from my decapitated head on the ground: “Not again....” We actually played around with some other final words—I thought, “Mom always liked you best” would be funny, but nobody seemed to agree with me!
Many people are saying that the horror genre is having a renaissance with hits like Us and Hereditary. What do you think it is about horror that has audiences continually returning to it?
I admittedly am not a horror expert by any stretch of the imagination. I normally don’t watch horror films, but I did watch Us because I love everything Jordan Peele does. I liked it because for the most part it didn’t focus only on blood and guts—there were actually well-formed characters and a message. I think that certain people will always want to explore their dark side, and horror films allow them to do that in a safe space. I also think some people simply like the adrenalin rush they get from being scared.
In the past few years, there's been a lot of discussion around the representation of women on screen. A lot of this conversation seems to be fueled by #MeToo and #TimesUp movement. What’s been your impression of the shifts being made in Hollywood?
I love the shifts being made and hope that they continue to shift even more. Everything about the women’s movement, MeToo, TimesUp, etc. can only make our choices in entertainment better. My daughter is an actress, and I like the improvement of the roles that are available to her. Of course we need more female producers, writers, and directors, and I wish that was happening a little more quickly.
What films have been most exciting to you as an audience member in the past few years?
I’m such a film enthusiast that I really can’t name specific films. But in general, I’m drawn mostly to indie films that make me think, laugh, and cry, and films that cast women in interesting roles.
Do you have any new roles or projects coming up that you can speak about?
No, I’m pretty much retired at this point, although sometimes I will come out of the closet and do a play. Mostly I’m having fun watching the acting careers of my daughter Jessy Hodges and her husband Beck Bennett blossom!
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Young Heroes in Love #4
If Junior hits it off with Zip-Kid, he can stop fucking mice.
I don't want to assume that Junior and Zip-Kid are going to become romantically involved just because she's got the only vagina he won't drown in. Certainly she has her own agency and wasn't specifically created so that Junior can have a romantic love interest, right? Right guys? Tell me I'm right. Please?
I don't really remember Zip-Kid too well because she isn't gay and I didn't have to write a letter to DC that purported to be about her sexual identity but was in fact about me and how lonely I was. But I think she can actually adjust her size which it seems Junior can't. So why would she want to fuck Junior when she can bang Hard Drive? I bet Zip-Kid comes so hard when she's small and wraps herself around a regular sized dick. Now everybody who likes dick is probably thinking about how awesome that would be because it totally would be awesome. I'll let you think about it for a few more seconds.
Okay! That's enough! Get your mind back on comic books, you disgusting perverts!
Everybody is sad because they're being drawn by a guest artist.
Hard Drive has run off crying so Superman is all, "That guy don't seem so hard." Blushing little lightning bolts, Superman clarifies, "In the British sense and not in the erotic sense." I wonder what Superman Red was doing while Superman Blue was fighting Tottenjaeger? That might sound like a stupid question to people who actually knew what was going on with electric Superman after he returned from the dead. I never read any of those comic books. I'm sure one of my friends explained it to me at the time but it must not have been interesting enough for my mind to retain it.
Superman questions Hard Drive's leadership skills because Superman can't remember a single time Batman ran out of the room crying. He never even did that when Kevin Smith was writing him! But Zip-Kid appears for the first time and is all, "I'm Zip-Kid! You don't know me or my huge tits (huge for a tiny woman, that is!) but let me explain what just happened." She then provids a stupid excuse as to why Hard Drive lost his temper and ran away crying which Superman readily accepts because he's a naive and gullible idiot. Unless he's just too kind to question anybody's honesty and simply knows when a person is lying to save face on all sides. Maybe Superman is the opposite of a naive and gullible idiot. Maybe I'm the naive and gullible idiot!
No, no way. My mom certainly would have yelled that at me at least once growing up if I were one.
Zip-Kid heard the mummy was back and figured the Young Heroes would be back too so she thought she'd appear and try to be recruited. She's pretty hot so that means she probably automatically makes the team. Unless she still has to declare which two other members with which she'll become entangled in a romantic triangle and she'll only then be a full-fledged member.
Last issue, Bonfire read a hidden message in Frostbite's ice sculpture so she confronts him about it now.
Pretty sure the filthy message was for Off-ramp and the guest artist wasn't told Frostbite shouldn't look so happy about Bonfire wanting to sit on his dick.
Hard Drive hears Bonfire's lustful words to Frostbite and once again uses his mind powers to get her to forget him. Frostbite doesn't notice and I don't know why. I think when Bonfire said she wanted to dip his icicle in her foundry, he grimaced, awkwardly adjusted his neck tie, and excused himself stage left.
Junior makes a pass at Zip-Girl only to find she not only has huge tits and a gigantic zipper but also a boyfriend. A mouse, watching from under the sofa, tightens its sphincter, squeaks, and runs away.
Frostbite seems upset that Bonfire suddenly wants to fuck Thunderhead again which seems weird because I'm fairly certain he's gay. I suppose I should trust the story I'm reading rather than my memory since the me that made that memory probably hadn't put as much thought into bisexuality as the me that's currently writing this. Although that probably isn't a whole lot more. Me back then probably would have been, "Is that a thing?" And me now is more like, "Oh yeah. That guy fucks chicks and guys. Cool beans." Although by 1997, I'd already been propositioned by my friend Doom Bunny's friend Michael when we were both sleeping in Doom Bunny's living room after a party. Michael climb up from the floor so we were chest to chest and leaned in close and asked, "Have you ever been with a guy?" I said, "No." And then he said, "Do you want to be?" And I said, "No-o-o-o?" Then he said, "Oh, sorry!" Then as I lay there in the dark feeling horny, I thought, "Why aren't I bisexual? I sure wouldn't mind being jerked off right now!" So I totally would have thought about bisexuality by the time I read this!
At some point, Zip-Girl returns to normal size and everybody becomes annoyed with Junior because he doesn't. He then has to confide that he's incapable of changing size. It's so emasculating that I can hardly feel enjoyment in this next scan.
Va-va-va—oh, poor Junior—voom!
Junior almost quits but then he and Frostbite walk in on Thunderhead and Bonfire boning and the intense drama pulls him back into the team. Plus, you know, maybe he still has a chance with Zip-Girl.
Young Heroes in Love #4 Rating: B+. The Teen Titans was never this good. How could it run for 120 or more issues and this comic book only went for 18? Oh wait. I know how. Because comic book fans are idiots who will read any comic book, no matter how shitty, as long as it has a character they love. This comic book only had new characters so it already lost a good portion of its potential audience right out of the gate. Comic books with new heroes are like going to a concert and hearing the band play songs off the new album. Nobody wants that shit! Give us Batman and Free Bird!
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I Love Him, Your Honor [2 of ??]
summary: During college, Richie works part time at a law office for the sole reason it pays well, and he honestly thinks it’s utter hell. But then he meets another part time employee who works down in the file room and, well, maybe the law office isn’t completely hellish.
word count: 4.1k
a/n: our fave boy mike makes an appearance near the end & rich sees eddie’s clothed ass for the first time, so enjoy
AO3 link; chapter one
chapter two: boring as all hell
The work load at the law office ends up being relatively easy. At first, on that Tuesday when he first started once he sorted out the hours he'd come in with the three lawyers, everything sounded complicated and Richie fully believed he had gotten himself into a extremely hard job with just the simple persuasion of money on Bev's part. That, thankfully, isn’t the case at all. The rest of the week goes by smoothly though, much to his surprise. He doesn't really do much Tuesday. Various other employees sat him show him how to do different things throughout the day so he would be able to do what they asked and what they lawyers needed, and he catches on rather quickly, impressing everyone. He essentially becomes their little elf as the rest of the week rolls by - as much as his six foot, lanky being could be an elf. Mostly, he just does things on the computer. He scans stuff in, searches clients, checks people's files in the N-drive or whatever it’s called, and other various boring shit that's mind numbing.
It's easy. But it's so boring.
Richie is just glad he's allowed to listen to his music while he works or else he would have gone batshit crazy on the first day and the ones following. He doesn't even have to work on Fridays; the law office is closed, and people only go in to make up hours or catch up on work they got behind on. He just has to work from eleven to five Mondays, and then eight to three Tuesdays through Thursdays. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
A tune of one of Hozier's songs plays through his ear buds as he sits in the rolling chair in front of the computer. His fingers tap against one of the arm chairs as he checks the releases that had been sent back by clients, making sure they signed where they needed to and that it was stamped correctly. His eyes lifted up for a split second as someone walks by the cubicle, the woman's blonde hair catching his attention, and a split second later the woman is shouting down the hall to one of the other women. It's mostly women who work at the law office, and Richie can only this that this was his teen's wet dream. Only, it's not at the same time. He doesn't find any one here attractive, and he doesn't mind that, and he would include Bev - she's one of the prettiest girls he knows - but she’s engaged and basically his sister so she’s bunched in with the others, but his hormonal side of him wishes there's someone worth his ogling. The only other guys are the two other lawyers, Thomas and Peter; middle age men.
A sigh leaves his lips as he sits up to take the staple out of the papers so he can scan them in, only to stop short when someone enters the cubicle. Richie blinks at the woman and takes out an earbud. Her hair is brunette and looks to be styled in an 80s sort of way. She's probably the oldest one who works at the law office other than Peter, and she has a look that kind of reminds Richie of Stan when the Jew has had enough of his best friend's shenanigans. He half wonders if they would get along, and completely wondering what her name is.
Her dark brown eyes squint a little through her tiny glasses as they look him up and down. "You look tall," she states.
Richie slowly nods as he pauses his music. "I am. My whole family's pretty tall, actually. Dad's over six foot, Mom's close to five nine, and the little demon I have as a sister is probably the tallest girl in her grade."
She grins, pleased. "Perfect! Follow me, there's a few lights out and all of us women aren't exactly on the tall side here," she tells him. With a hand, she hurriedly motions for him to follow and then walks away just as fast. Richie scrambles out of the chair, nearly tripping over his own feet, and follows her closer to the back of the building where the back door is, the one the employees use to come and go when getting to and leave from their job. She suddenly stops and points up. "The bulbs went out, have been for weeks, and the maintenance guy is a slacker."
Richie looks up with furrowed brows. "Listen, I dunno how to tell you this, but I'm not Mr. Fantastic. I gotta have a ladder even if I am six foot."
"Mr. Who?"
"Comic character, I think, Sasha," the blonde woman who he saw pass by his cubicle a minute earlier says, sitting at her desk in the office that's right by them. "DC, maybe? I dunno, my son mentioned something about it the other day."
Richie gives a tight smile. "Marvel," he corrects. "Mr. Fantastic can-."
Sasha waves a hand. "I don't care! I don't care, just fix the lights."
His eyebrows shoot up and he holds his hands up. While Sasha goes to get the new light bulbs, Richie and the blonde, Deb, search for the ladder. They do, eventually, but it’s broken, the things that hold the ladder up right are only attached to one side of it. The next ten minutes are filled with the two searching for something to help Richie get to the ceiling, and he finds a somewhat sturdy green card table. Once he gets back to where the lightbulbs are out, he unfolds the table legs, waving off Deb’s and Sasha’s concerns.
“Hey, it’s better than the ladder,” Richie tells them, leaning on the surface of the card table to see how wobbly it actually is. Then he climbs on completely just as Thomas walks up. The man stares and takes a sip of his coffee.
“Are you trying to get the newbie killed?” Thomas asks. He walks over and goes into Deb’s office to set his coffee down before walking to the card table, holding the edge as Richie reaches up to screw out the old bulb.
“He’s tall and we need them changed, Thomas,” Sasha says.
“You could’ve used the boy in the file room.”
Richie looks down at the adults and hands Deb the old light bulb as she hands him the new one. To make us seem as if he’s not listen, he busies himself with putting the new bulb in.
“He’s out today – something about a test.”
“He is coming in later, though,” Deb says. “After, of course.”
“Also, he’s short. Hence Richard.”
“You women are something else,” Thomas sighs.
Richie grins as he finishes up the first one and climbs off of the table, scooting it under the next bulb that needed to be fixed. He climbs back and on repeats what he did before. The three adults continue to talk about File Boy. Apparently, he’s part time too, but none of them except for Sasha see much of him since her work space is in a room in the very back of the large file room; no one else really goes to the file room unless they need a file, which isn’t too often but often enough to at least see a glimpse of the working boy. Richie keeps his mouth shut from asking anything about him, planning on just bombarding Beverly with them later.
Richie half wonders what the other guy looks like as he does the third and final bulb. Blond or brunet – or, maybe a dyed bright color like blue, or a darker red – with green eyes, or maybe he has brown eyes? Light skin or dark skin; how short is this File Boy anyway? Apparently not as tall as himself, Richie thinks, if any of Sasha’s words are a hint. He blinks rapidly, half from his thoughts and half from the light of the new bulb as it got screwed in correctly. He’s so interested in the file guy already it’s almost comical.
I’ll just blame it on the fact I haven’t gotten laid in three months, Richie thinks. Not whatever Beverly is going to come with – which will be the total opposite of needing and wanting a hookup.
He rubs his eyes under his glasses and gets off of the card table not so gracefully. “There ya go, madam,” Richie grins as he uses a British voice, bowing dramatically at Sasha. A screwing joke sits at the tip of his tongue but he keeps a hold of it. He doesn’t want to get fired yet. “Gives off an enlightening point of view, does it not?” He asks, still using the British accent and still smiling.
Thomas laughs at the pun as Sasha smiles amusedly. Deb half rolls her eyes as if exasperated by the pun, and Richie turns to her feigning hurt.
“Do you not like puns, Deb?”
Deb shakes her head. “Nope. They’re just not funny to me.”
He drops his jaw. “I think you just broke my heart.”
Deb rolls her eyes again but there’s no annoyance or fire in the action. “You’ll heal,” she tells him with a small smile.
Thomas laughs, a loud sound that goes through the building. He lays a hand on Richie’s shoulder. “You’re funny, kid.” Then, he’s grabbing the coffee he set in Deb’s office and leaving, Richie grinning wide.
Sasha chuckles. “You are interesting, I’ll put it that way. Thanks for the help, by the way.”
“Ah, ‘s no problem,” Richie says, almost sheepishly, and puts his hands in his hoodie pocket.
He then helps put the card table back where they got it while Sasha throws the busted bulbs away. Then he’s back at his desk, boredom hitting him like a train.
+++
The café and grill Stan works at isn’t as busy as Richie thought it was going to be. There are still a lot of people about, but it’s not over flowing. The line to the front is just a bit longer than it usually is when Richie normally visits, and more tables are filled. It's nearing close to rush hour, which explains the abundance of people, and Richie knows that its only going to become more busy, but that doesn't stop him and Stan from sitting at a far back table and moaning about their jobs.
"Literally none of my co-workers polite to the customers half the time," Stan tells Richie, angrily sipping on a cold brew tea he made himself moments before Richie entered the building. "I'm amazed we have customers to begin with - and I know there have been complaints about them! Roger needs to fire all these assholes."
Richie bites into the cinnamon muffin he paid for. Crumbs fell into his lap and on the table, but he doesn't bother to brush them away. "Dude, I know," he says with a mouthful of muffin, "That girl - Grits, or whatever - seemed like she wanted to murder when I ordered this muffin. Speaking of, if this were a person, I'd fuck it. Marriage is plausible, too."
Stan's face contorts into disgust. "Who are you, that underage kid in that one movie with a peach kink?"
It takes Richie a moment to understand but then he's belting out a laugh, sliding down the seat he's in. "Stan gets off a good one," he says, still laughing. It's only when he calms down a bit when he talks again. "But, gross, man. No. If I ever actually become that just toss me in piranha infested waters."
"Deal. So, how's the law office?"
Richie lets out a groan and sinks farther down into the chair. "Boring as all hell," he says. He pulls off part of the muffin and stuffs it into his mouth. "I mean, it's easy. Having lunch with Bev like we're in high school again is cool, and the ladies are pretty nice, I guess. Lawyers are chill. But, fuck, it's so mind numbing. And usually I don't mind that, but its all the time!"
"Honestly surprised you're alive." At Richie's slightly confused look, Stan elaborates, "Your ADHD."
His mouth forms an 'O' shape. He hums and nods, things making sense all of a sudden. It's not like he's forgotten about having ADHD - he has to take medicine for it, so it doesn't ever really leave his mind - it's just that it hasn't been such a big deal since his senior year of high school when his parents were finally brought to the realization that their hyperactive son has ADHD. His grades sky rocketed that final year, he was actually on time for school, and his impulses died down. Of course nothing was perfect; even with the meds Richie still struggles. It's become a normal thing in his life within the past few years.
Stan chuckles. "Dude, you're screwed," he says, fixing a few crooked napkins on table.
Richie makes a face. "Tell me about it," he mumbles, eyes watching Stan as he scrunches up his nose when unable to get the napkins just right. Richie grabs them and sets the napkins in his lap, away from Stan's sight. "Speaking of disabilities," he starts, "How's the OCD thing?"
Stan looks slightly annoyed that Richie took the napkins, but the look is gone within seconds. He shrugs and leans back in the chair, but still somehow sitting up straight. "Good, actually. Obviously a few things still bother me, but the meds help. Have since middle school, you know that."
"Just makin' sure, Stan," Richie says, smiling softly. "You're my best friend."
"Oh, don't get all sappy now, bitch!" Stan exclaims, grinning wide.
Richie laughs and says sorry repeatedly for a few seconds. After that, silence falls over them, and Richie finishes the muffin while Stanley finishes his drink. Richie swipes the crumbs onto the floor and sets the napkins back on the table as neatly as he can, and doesn't take them away when Stan reaches over to fix them again, this time satisfied with the outcome. Richie looks around as Stan pulls out his phone to check the time, noticing that it's getting even busier than when he first came in. He's about to ask if Stan needs to get back to work when his eyes land on a guy in a blue polo shirt, and jeans that outlines his ass perfectly. It's unfortunate that Richie can't see the guy's face because there's no doubt in his mind that the guy's face looks as stunning. But Richie can see that he was brunet, the hair styled nicely out of his face; and the guy is tan, and only a few or so inches taller than the blonde girl beside him.
Stan looks up then and to Richie, who's head is tilted at a ninety-degree angle to get a better look. Stan turns around, quickly noticing the boy in the blue polo but also noticing the blonde. She's positively stunning; the hair is in a loose braid, and Stan can see the blue her eyes from where he's sitting. The nice shirt she has on brought out the blue color, and the skinny jeans hugged her legs nicely. Stan forces himself to move his eyes back to her face and a dopey smile forms on his lips as he watches her laugh at something her friend says.
"I think I just fell in love."
"Look at that ass."
Both nineteen year olds still and quickly move to look at one another.
"How are we friends?" Stan asks, brows close together.
"Beats me," Richie says. He goes back to look, but sits up straight. "Where'd they go?" The question causes Stan to turn back around again. They have to look completely weird as they search around the café and grill for brunet boy and blonde girl. With their luck, they don't spot either of them, and it confuses the two best friends, wondering how the hell either of the two people they were staring at disappeared so quickly. "His ass was too perfect, it has to be a hallucination."
Stan rolls his eyes. "That's bullshit!" He pauses and looks at Richie once again. "You gotta stop checking out random people's asses."
"Like you weren't checking out his friend!"
"I was captivated by her beauty, there's a difference, Richard!"
"No-."
"Uris! Back to work! We're getting too busy," the manager calls from a bit away from them.
"Be there in a sec!" He then turns to Richie as he stands. "See you at the game night, Rich."
Richie smiles and stands as well. "Text me if you see the girl again."
"...For why?"
"So I can rush over and embarrass you."
"I hate you."
They then say a quick goodbye, and Stan is heading back to work while Richie grabs their trash and throws it away before leaving, doing one more look over everyone inside just to make sure they didn't over look the two earlier. He shrugs away the disappoint when he doesn't spot them, and leaves, texting his dorm mate if he wants to do a Forensic Files marathon later.
+++
"Y'know, sex is cool - I love it, personally - but that cinnamon muffin might just come back up."
Richie, he realizes, should have known something was up when Mike Hanlon, his dorm mate, never responded. During the Lyft ride back to the university, he just assumed Mike was neck deep in studying for one of his classes. And, technically, he had been studying, Richie guesses; it just wasn't for school.
Mike Hanlon smiles awkwardly and side glances at the boy in bed with him. The two covered waist down thanks to the bed sheet; Richie doesn't know what he would have done if everything had been out for all to see. "Sorry, man, we thought you'd be out longer," Mike explained.
He shrugs. "I mean, I'm not mad, no need for a sorry in that regard," Richie explains, eyes landing on Bill Denbrough. The auburn haired student looks awkward as ever and they both know why. They were friends for a short time in middle school because Bill dated Beverly for a few short months. It didn't last long and the break up was mutual. Nothing had been exactly awkward between everyone until high school when Bill drifted off to become one of the more popular kids after joining the baseball team. It caused a sort of rift between Bill and Richie, where as Stan and Beverly, as hurt as they were, just moved along. The last time the two boys talked had been at graduation when they accidentally ran into one another. Now, almost two years later, Richie is walking in on his former friend and current dorm mate fucking. Things are definitely awkward. "Bill," Richie says, putting on a smile that lacked any emotion.
Bill shifts awkwardly, lifting a hand for a second. "R-Richie."
Mike looks between the two with a frown. "Do... Do you two know each other?" He asks slowly, uncertain whether or not he can ask.
"Yeah, we d-d-do," Bill answers.
"Big Bill here dated my best friend, Bev, in middle school," Richie explains. "They broke up quick, and Bill stayed our friend for a bit. Then he fucked off in freshman year to be with the popular kids, leaving his only friends behind, not bothering to stand up for any of us the following years when his so-called new friends picked on us." Richie doesn't mean for it to come out: bitter filled. He doesn't even realize that he's still mad at Bill for what he did until the words leave his mouth.
Bill frowns. "Richie," he starts but doesn't continue, unsure of what to say.
Richie waves a hand and backs up. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Don't care at the moment," he says. Then, he's walking out to let them have a bit more privacy to get dressed.
Just a couple minutes later, Bill is walking out. Thankfully, the guy is dressed. The only indication that he had been messing around with Mike is sec hair and a hickey right under his jaw. He stops and looks at Richie who is leaning against the wall opposite of the dorm’s door. “Have a g-good night, Rich.”
Richie grunts and pushed himself off of the wall. “Ditto, I guess,” he says. He walks bun Bill and into his room, and shuts the door. He looks to Mike who is sitting on his bed with sweatpants and socks, no shirt. “Genuinely sorry for stopping your good time, Mike.”
Mike shrugs. “It’s fine. Look, if I knew you and Bill-.”
“Dude, You can fuck him or date him or whatever with him, I don’t care,” Richie interrupts as he jumps on his bed, laying on his stomach. He turns his head to look at Mike. “It’s your life. Didn’t even realize I was still mad at him until now, and we’re just dorm mates.”
“Yeah, but it’ll still be awkward.”
“Not if you make it awkward. I mean, other than that shit he pulled in high school, he’s a decent guy. Have your fun with him, Mike ‘n’ Ike. So, what, are you dating? Just hook ups? Give me the details, lover boy!”
Mike laughs and shakes his head. “Just hook ups from time to time. But we are friends, so we hang out too – mostly with his other friends, or guys from the baseball or football teams.”
“Oooh, friends with benefits! Life imitating art!”
“So what about you? Any cute girls or guys?” Mike asks as he gets off the bed. He grabs his phone from the floor and checks his messages as he walks to his closet, pulling out a pack of beer. He gets one for himself and one for Richie, handing it to him after opening both.
Richie sits up, criss cross apple sauce, and takes a sip. “Nope,” he sighs. Then he perks up. “But there was this cute dude at Stan’s – you know Stan, right, he stopped by a few weeks ago when we were watching Snapped-.”
“Yes, I know Stan,” Mike chuckles.
“Right. Yeah. Okay, so I was at Stan’s work earlier after leaving mine. He was on break so we sat for a bit and talked when all of a sudden my eyes land on the cutest ass in the world. On the short side. Brunet. Wish I could say something about his face but his back was to me, but I can’t complain too much. Stan saw too, but was focused on the girl Cute Ass was talkin’ to; said he fell in love or whatever. Then they, like, disappeared into the growing crowd.” Richie gives a disappointed look and takes a sip of the beer.
Mike winces sympathetically. “Nothing more disappointing than a cutie getting away.”
“There’s also this guy at my work who’s in the file room but I dunno his name, or what he looks like, so I can’t say much about him, but I want to meet him just so I can see if he’s as cute in person as he is in my mind.”
A laugh tumbles out of Mike. “You need to get laid, man. Or – fall in love.” He waggles his eyebrows, laughing more at Richie’s reaction.
Richie makes a face. “The day I fall in love is the day pigs fly.”
It isn’t that Richie is opposed to falling in love – the more time he’s around his engaged friends, the more he wants that for himself. Rather, it’s just that he’s a bit scared to, if he’s being completely honest. He doesn’t want his heart to get shattered into a million pieces like it did in sophomore year. Actually, it more like a hundred pieces, because he wasn’t completely in love back then, but he did get a taste of it, and it was wonderful until everything came crashing down. Since then he’s relied on a few months long relationships and hook ups from time to time, not getting too emotionally attached to any of them.
The rest of the night is filled with the two boys neglecting school work that was slowly starting to pile up as they watch a true crime show, sipping on their beers and talking every once in a while. They drop the topics of relationships and love, and move on to ones about the crazy murders, episode after episode, until one in the morning when they went to bed.
Only, an hour later, Richie sits up in the dark. “Wait, Bill doesn’t even go here!”
Mike groans. “How d’you ‘ven know tha’,” he slurs out the question, his mind too plagued with sleep to utter the words correctly.
“Snapchat. The Uni across town’s. He’s been on there multiple times. Holy shit, this is like some Romeo and Juliet shit, our schools are rivals!”
“Stan goes there.”
“Yeah but that’s different. We’ve been friends since childhood. You didn’t go to our high school either, so-.”
“Go t’sleep, Richard.”
Richie lays back down, muttering a few ‘okay’s to appease Mike. Then, “...I ship it.”
#reddie#it#richie tozier#eddie kaspbrak#the losers club#my writing#*#this fast updating won't stay so enjoy while u can#it (2017)#it chapter two
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Nightmares Are My Wonderland
((Heavily based on the universe in the movie “Push” with undertones of the anime/manga/game corpse party and my hero academia. TRIGGER WARNING; DOMESTIC ABUSE AND ALCOHOLISM IS HEAVILY IMPLIED WITH UNDERTONES OF SEXUAL ASSUALT AND MENTAL ABUSE))
((Looking for a partner to either ally with my villain and prime her to become something either truly evil or virtuous (meaning you can be a hero that saves her from a dark life if you’d like, I encourage this.) Or you can meet with her a decade after she’s become a villain, being more well-known and feared among the community and either ally her as a villain or fight her as a hero (meaning you would have to fight to defeat her as a hero, saving her soul would no longer be an option unless you’re creative) Please be very clear as to what you quirk is and how you use it))
((If you wish to play a Cannon character than this character is strictly made for a hero/villain environment as long as they belong to the comic book, manga, movie range then you are free to use them))
Sun glistens through the dark murky motel room as Valerie grips her long smooth locks, a soft tan to her skin despite living like a vampire most of her life, as her eyes flutter impatiently about the room. Dad didn't come home again, looks like he'll be home later today. Suddenly the neighbor and his weird cosplay girlfriend begin talking way too fucking loud for 6 a.m. before Valerie pinches the bridge of her nose, whining softly as the hangover settles over her small boxy frame "Fuuuuck! Shut Up!" she screams, throwing a pillow at the wall before sitting up at the edge of the bed. The walls are a dark smoke gray, with brown stains scattered about the room like carefully hung photos and a pitch colored trim between the concrete floor and ceiling “God, could we have picked a cheaper motel…” she huffs as if she hadn’t spent all her savings on a few months in this crappy place, it was easier than trying to find an apartment without a reliable source of income. At this point, she’d only been taking odd jobs in different towns with hopes of someday landing a job and settling down in a real home, but that was entirely impossible with her father’s drunken misdeeds in every town she had attempted to build a nest. Speaking of which, was it possible he sent her a text or tried to call her last night when she was drinking? Like Father, like daughter…Valerie stares at the bottle of 1800 Tequila Silver on the nightstand, it never tasted good but the feeling of floating was something worth chasing “I really ought to let him go drink himself to death far away from me…” but the truth is like the high liquor gives, she continues to chase what her father used to be…before…She dives for the bottle before the thought can bubble to the surface taking a massive swig, filling her mouth entirely before swallowing. She runs her fingers through the length of her hair as the liquor silences any chance of tears before she opens the app on her phone to check for any paying jobs. Please, something that pays more than 35 dollars!!! Browsing the list carefully her eyes flutter over something odd, but for 1,000 dollars…how could she pass this up? Imagine all the food, maybe even a motel upgrade…even for a few weeks would be better than breathing in mold for a day longer. The description reads ‘Social experiment; One-time visit required for payment. We are inviting 7 people to a night of fun and fright!(Each person will receive their own time and date to arrive, only one person will be selected to receive a permanent job and living quarters) You and 6 others will be suited up in gear that will analyze your vitals and brain functions while giving a boost in physical abilities so you can defend against ‘monsters’. This will require all 7 participants in different sessions to work alongside me to complete simulated courses, like a Virtual Reality Video Game! No Danger! No Risk! Just 23 hours of free food, socializing and a whole lot of exercise! Better message quickly or you’ll miss your chance!’ below was an email and phone number with the letters X.O.E signed below. Social experiment, huh? The young maiden smiles nervously at the idea of anything social, but quickly decides the money would clearly be worth it, although it could be a scam…on the off chance it is real “Suppose I just message them and see how it goes…”
Several Days Later; Monday
As the night of the experiment arrives, Valerie finds herself standing outside the most beautiful little house she’d ever seen in her 19-year life, it was white and plain colored with vines covered in tiny blossomed flowers scattered about its length and surrounded by a garden that must’ve come right out of a fairytale. Her brain wept at such beauty, unaware of the man hollowing out her soul with his eyes until the final time his eyes rushed over her, Valerie gasps gripping onto her sides with her arms across her abdomen
“Y-you must be Xavier Everts…” she blurts out, trying not to appear terrified to no avail “I...I’m Valerie Bonna-velt…I’m here for the…social…experiment…” she was beginning to wonder if there was such a thing, now that she stood in his unblinking presence. Had anyone messaged this man? “Excuse me…Could you please tell me what’s going on…I’m really confused” the man moves closer, and without a word takes her wrist dragging the trembling teen through the gate and into a poorly lit kitchen.
The man’s frail old voice booms “Master Everts!” Valerie stares numbly at the floor, her brain rushing over every possible scenario in which she’d never see the light of day again. Suddenly a warm voice coos back, in the sweetest most soothing manner an anxiety-stricken woman could hope for “Ah yes, back here Ms. Bonna-velt, I’ve awaited your arrival” she eagerly grips onto the velvet sheets draped over the door frame replacing a door, pulling them apart as she stepped into a large open Victorian style living room. She grips her chest as her brows dip and pull together in rhythm with the melting of her soul, the walls were deep pitch with roses painted all over that were framed two-fourths of the way down with a light brown border. This appeared to have an almost red glaze deepening in opacity as it met the floor unlike the lusterless tan trim. This matched the drapes and couches perfectly; Valerie could not help but stand in awe as her honey colored eyes polished the place over. From the floral-patterned wood below her feet to the glowing candle chandelier above her head it was truly a picture taken right from her dreams. A soft chuckle ripples through the air before her eyes meet with the tall thin man with paper white skin and long raven colored hair
“I see you appreciate the beauty in times far before you and I, but I’m afraid we haven’t the time to give you a tour.” His apologetic smile, spreads energy through her body like a surge of electricity as she nods, rushing to close the distance between herself and the much taller employer
“It is alright, really I’m sure we could do that another time”
In response to this he laughs “Confident one, aren’t we?”
His features were strong and well pronounced, it was like talking to a portrait in an art museum only this one was responding. He explained the way that the suits would have small needles placed in various areas to properly study Valerie’s vitals and chemical balances in response to the simulations around her. Truth be told she didn’t understand half of it, but the way his arms wrapped around her front and hands fumbled with the attachments kept her calm, unable to focus on the suspicious liquids behind each needle or the metallic scent coming from his clothing. The only thing on her mind was the way his lips would part for each breath as if breathing through his nose was not good enough, and the squinted glances he’d gift her with a calm cold grin
“My, you really enjoy being in my presence, don’t you?” Valerie felt her shoulders pull back as her spine straightened and she nodded softly, there was something…about this place, this man that felt too close to her heart…as if plucked right from her mind. She bites her lower lip, leaning into him to take in the rough metal odor as he roughly grips her waist with his right hand and slammed down onto a large orange button with his left
“I hope you continue to feel this way after your first trial.” His voice quickly escaping her mind as 5 needles inject strange liquids into various parts of her body simultaneously. Had her gut instinct been correct? Had no one else messaged this man? Did she sign up to be a lab rat? His fingers squeeze her skin roughly before releasing
“Don’t worry, it’s the power boost you were promised in the post, I hope you did not forget the terms of our agreement dear girl” all her muscles tense in response to the liquids.
This triggers the beginning of the first simulation titled “Of All the Things You Love” the words stretched across a beautiful Japanese garden, cherry blossoms swaying over the bold white words that slowly began to fade as Mr. Everts booms through the headphones covering her ears
“Now, you should be able to move normally about the world, you will need to find a clue in this world to escape. If you perform well enough, we will discuss having you over for the next trial. For now, all you need to know is your brain controls and develops this game as you play, I have zero control of what you see or what the clues are. I can only give you directions on where to find these clues, beyond that it will be up to you whether you escape or not.”
Valerie was stumped by this, her mind trying desperately to find a solution “My brain created this place? From a memory? Or a dream?” she thought, wrapping her arms around herself as always. Nothing felt different, her arms and legs were the same appendages she used every day. Truthfully it had appeared the only difference was a scenery and climate change. She takes in the warmth of the sun’s rays before he speaks again, somehow watching her stretch and twirl in the summer’s heat
“I see you prefer warmer climates, are you ready to begin?” his soft words felt as though they were placed there for a reason, as though they were meant to calm her uneasy state. “The clue is at the center of this garden, but beware, although your mind has created a calming environment that your cognizance can handle, there are still threats guarding each clue.” He sounded quite sure of himself, but the idea that her mind could have created something harmful in a place like this, it felt impossible. Nevertheless, Valerie forced herself forward deeper into the garden, trying to focus on the flowers, the sun and the warm floral smells that were fashioned by the two intertwining
“Are you sure there are fiends in this game? I know I watch a lot of horror movies, but it doesn’t seem like there could be anything like that… here…” even she sounded unsure of her conclusion, worried it was her brain trying to cope with the idea of treading unknown terrain. “What do I do if there is something trying to attack me anyway?” these seemed like questions she should have asked before starting the simulation, but it seemed she was purposefully placed in this place without knowledge of what was to come. This would force her to rely on the help of Mr. Everts or her own reflexes, making this far more challenging than she had first envisioned.
“Onee-chan!!!” A familiar tiny voice calls towards her from somewhere far ahead, followed by soft weak sobs “Onee-Chan!” the voice cries once again causing my feet to move towards it.
“This is such a bad idea, what if it isn’t really a little girl!” Valerie would scream at her body, but it continued to sprint towards a small terrified scream, until that scream had a face. Before her stood a little girl, not much older than 4 years old with soft black hair that framed her warm rosy skin “Hello there…little one…Do you need help?” Valerie whimpers, keeping her distance from this small child as the girl began to appear more and more familiar the longer, she stared.
“Onee-chan” Yuka cried, looking over her shoulder with the one side of her face that still had an eye, immediately being recognized by the Valerie as one of the victims in her favorite anime.
“No. No no no, this is impossible. You’re not real!” she cried, taking a step back from the child before it revealed its entire face. Blood dripping from the hollow socket that used to house Yuka’s eye as the ghoulish kid closed the distance between herself and Valerie. It was like lightspeed one second Yuka was staring at her and the next she was crying to be saved with tiny hands wrapped tightly around her throat.
“You have to fight, if you want to survive you must fight” Everts calls, reminding her this was merely a simulation. Valerie groans loudly, slamming her elbow into the child’s skull and with a loud crack the girl’s skull fragments spray about the smooth dirt path leading to the center. The corpse began to shrivel like a salted snail until there was nothing left of the falsified child. Needing to remind herself this was just a game, despite the years that torture scene had terrorized her memory.
“It’s Okay Bonna-velt, you can do this. You can do this! You need to breathe and remember your goal” this seemed to do the trick, as Valerie got to her feet once more and began on the path to the center of the world which appeared to have a large pine tree more massive than a skyscraper, the point nearly pierced the sky. “Looks as though my awareness was kind enough to give me a marker. Better return the favor and move swiftly” with this the young girl closed the distance between herself and the wooded forest housing her first clue. The wind whistled an alluring tune as she cautiously stepped into the shaded lot, each tree huddled closely together to deny the rays of sunlight any access while below was an unkept brush that slicked over towards the center, all signs pointed forward. What lied behind this damp cloaked brush? Valerie ties back her long brown hair in a loose poorly constructed bun before entering with a nervous whine, as she passed the threshold the world around her began to change. Although the foliage remained trees, the leaves had grown much larger and pronounced than pines with long limbs that stretched out to the similar trees surrounding it. The terrain matching that of a rainforest, with the sounds of life flooding the air.
“What did you do!?” Everts chimes suddenly, making her body jolt and tense. “How did you change your surroundings? None of the other subjects were able to change their environment without finding a clue” his tone sounded agitated, but for what reason? Had she done something wrong?
“I’m not sure, I just thought I was done with that world…Did I do something wrong?” her voice sounding so terribly unsure of her accidental decision to change the world, unaware that was even something she was able to do.
“No, my apologies. I was merely annoyed with myself for having my attention elsewhere…. You are a wonderful specimen Valerie. I’ve never found a human who’s suited my fancy so immensely, please continue” He chirped, suddenly she feels him grip her waist with both hands and squeeze roughly forcing a moan from her trembling lips. It was embarrassing, but he achieved his goal as she decided not to ask any more questions before getting closer to the first clue. All along her path we’re dried and torn snake skins that grew larger the closer she managed to get, as though there was a large snake that had been shedding in this area over the span of its life. This Idea alone was not enough to scare her, but thinking back she remembered one snake that made her skin crawl. Kaa from the jungle book, no beast should have the ability to manipulate living beings’ minds. A shiver ran up her spine
“Oh god Bonna-velt…tell me you didn’t do that to us…tell me you were thinking snakes on a plane or something harmless like that” but there was no undoing what had already been done, hissing suddenly filled the air.
HISSSSSSS
HISSSSSSSSS
HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
She screamed, running forward frantically, unaware that she was headed towards the snake instead of away from it until her body slams against a large, thick and scaly body before falling onto her behind “No no no no! Close your eyes, close your eyes!” Valerie screams afraid of anything sentient invading her mind as her heels dig into the dirt in front of her, pushing her body away as quickly as her behind will scoot. Woefully she does not scoot fast enough, as soon she can feel that same meaty, scaly body slithering around her and crushing her ribs tighter and snugger by the minute. With her eyes closed the maiden begins shouting at the beast through constricted breaths “I’m not looking into your eyes! You’re not real! And You cannot control me!” it felt like her lungs would pop after this declaration, her eyes threatening to evacuate from her skull as a result of so much pressure. It was not only terrifying to see these characters come to life, but to witness them behaving so different than the characters they represented from shows, movies and books. Memory has a funny way of warping reality, although Yuka was no villain in her stunning debut the memories of her revolve around a nightmare that visited young Valerie from time to time. This made Yuka the perfect first trial according to her brain, and this brainwashing beast was no different.
“There is no need for you to fight me now. You’ve given me all I need” the beastress hisses, as her cold scaly body loosens its grip letting the young girl breathe for a moment. “Open those beautiful eyes, and see for yourself” Her eyes fluttering open to see the snake is no where near her body, and yet it felt as though the thick meaty body began to constrict around her again
“Gah! How are you-…you doing this?” she gasps, unable to breathe the tighter this invisible body squeezes around her small frame. What is going on?! Valerie stares at the serpent as it moves in from the brush
“Why would I waste my time crushing you, when you’ll do it for me?” Kaa smugly hisses towards her, leaving the young girl choking and confused before it eases up allowing her to breathe again “Why waste my time on something as helpless as you? Or Someone so selfish?” the sound of the viper’s harsh words makes each gasped breath that much more painful.
“SHUT UP! YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!” Valerie cries out, feeling a sharp pinch in her left lung before erupting into a fit of coughs, blood oozing from her chest and out her mouth along with mucus from smoking habitually. Her eyes closed tightly as it pools all over directly below Valerie’s trembling body, it felt like lava was pouring from her lungs and out her throat
“Poor thing, it’s really eating you up inside isn’t it?” the serpent cackles, closing the distance between the young human and herself, quickly jerking the young girls chin upward with the end of it’s tail “You should have spoken out, before you could no longer speak at all”. Suddenly Valerie feels the large scaly body starting to coil around her again “Oh dear, I’d never imagined you’d make yourself suffer so much” The young girl spits the last bit of blood onto the floor before looking up at the temptress and yelling
“Don’t get so smug, thinking you’ve won!” the roar of her voice makes the snake stumble and the hypnosis break, knocking the terrified girl to the ground as her surroundings are returned to that garden from the beginning of the game. Kaa had control of her since the moment she stepped into the forest, warping her surroundings to toy with the scared girl. “What?! Why are we here? What did you do?!” these questions swirl around the thick cold air for seconds before Valerie launches at the small snake, gripping the back of its head and the third fourth of it’s body. ‘You have to kill it, it will take over your mind again if you don’t kill it’ her mind screams as she pulls the beast apart in once swift motion, spraying its blood all over herself and the surrounding trees as her knuckles clack together behind her.
“Mhhhm, what a good look for you.” He groans, finally releasing her hips from his hands, wait…Was He holding onto her this entire time? No, his hands started at her waist, now they’re on the sides of her hips. Has he been petting her this whole time?! A blush overcomes her face as an item within the world suddenly begins to glow “That is the clue for the next trial Ms. Bonna-velt…Take it and read its contents carefully, for it can only be deciphered by you.”
The small slab was glistening so brightly it’s shape could not be interpreted from this distance, and as the young adventuress closed the distance she had to use her arms to cover her eyes “I always wondered what the highlighted items looked like inside the game, but this is insane” she whimpered in regards to the blinding light emitting off the clay slab, as her hands gripped the bottom end it ceased floating and glowing, resting in her tiny palms as a normal chiseled slab “What you’ve found is what you fear, but what you seek is gone my dear” the words flowing from her lips like unsteady breaths “What you’ve found is what you fear…Do they mean Yuka and Kaa? But what you seek is gone my dear? Gone? Like disappeared or like dead?” she puzzled over this for a moment before the words became clear. The young maiden held the slab tightly to her chest, it was all so clear. Yuka was mother, begging to be saved by a simple phone call to the police department and Kaa was the guilt crushing her insides for leaving her mother in the hands of her father, she had only wanted to get away from the fighting for a few hours, a day at most, but the family she’d left behind that day was no longer there upon her arrival. As tears rolled down her heated cheeks like water off a melting icicle, she hugged herself tightly and cried out “The Clue is Mother” before the device suddenly releases her from the simulation.
“Welcome back Young Bonna-velt…” Everts cooed, catching her body as gravity gave way to her tired limbs. Despite physically never moving, her body felt heavy and exhausted as though she’d been running marathons all night “Do not worry, the serum will heal all your aches by the morning. As well as reform some of your least performing organ systems to a new undamaged state.” Almost certain he meant her liver and lungs, but would not directly say these as to not pry too deep into her personal life. Suppose he’s seen too much already? Her eyes begin to grow heavy against his warm frame until the world around her fades into darkness.
The Morning of Mourning
The following morning, Valerie wakes to the dark dank hotel she’d left her unconscious father resting in, wait…How did she get here?! She rubs her temples, sitting up at the middle of the same lumpy mattress she’s slept on for nearly a month now. A sharp pain jolts up her spine, followed by the need to vomit with her head spinning like a dreidel as she plops back down across the mattress watching the small warped ceiling fan weakly wobble in a circle. “uhhh” she groans, this was like a hangover, morning sickness and fever chills had a baby leaving it in the young girl’s skull “Small price to pay for a healthy body, right?” wanting to believe that the strange man from the internet was telling her the truth. Should she see a doctor? A better question is…Does she have the money to visit a doctor? Oh right, the thousand dollars. Rolling onto her side, Valerie looks around both sides of the bed to see if her wallet was on the nightstand, but instead of the torn, leather wallet her mother had gifted Valerie…there was a wave of deep crimson covering the night stand, wall and right half of her bed. Her eyes widen ‘Mr. Everts no!’ her mind sobbed as she pushed herself onto her belly, kicking herself forward to find Victor Dean Bonna-velt with the upper half of his skull removed, as though whomever did this cut from the middle of the eye sockets around. She gagged, pushing herself upward in a rush to get away, but her palm slips on the blood covered wood slamming her body forward and into the corpse where her skull would bounce off the concrete a couple times with the weight of her body sliding her under the second bed with ease. The entire front half of her body smothered in hot, sticky blood as her breathing grows heavier “Someone, please help me…” she whispers, before fading out of consciousness
Hours later the young girl stirs from beneath her father’s bed, unaware of her surroundings beyond a foul smell and the suffocating, cramped space she finds herself crammed in.
Buzz Buzz,
Buzz Buzz,
Buzz Buzz!
Valerie’s phone erupts with life, vibrating on the nightstand closest to the door, she scrambles forward kicking at the guts behind her with loud disgusting squishing sounds as she squirms from under the bed’s grip. She whines softly, trying to rub the filth from her face as her eyes adjust to the darkness
“Dad? Can you get that!” she groans, wiping her hands on her shirt before rubbing the sleep from her eyes. The phone once again springs to life and danced about the nightstand, glossing over the bedroom with a bright blue light as Valerie is reminded of the scene that coated her in…blood…This is blood…A soft chuckle leaves her cowering lips as the phone erupts with a call, the letters X.O.E displayed in bold letters on the tiny screen, slowly she inches past the bed as she tries desperately to keep her from seeing her disemboweled parent again “Block it out Valerie, you have to stay focused, try to remember” she whispers softly. This seemed to ease her nerves as she answered the phone with a monotone “Hello.”
“MS. BONNA-VELT! My gracious dove, how are you this fine eve?” He booms, a cheery whimsy to his words as though he was utterly pleased to speak to the young girl once again. She takes a deep breath before trying to speak again, so much had happened, so much that she needed to know about the events leading up to…to…She swallows hard, holding herself loosely with one arm as the other helps her hand hold up the phone
“N-not very good Mr. Everts… I’m having trouble remembering…some things…” to this he responded with a deep sigh that melted into a groan, she could feel his smile fade with her words, but he had needed to know. “Please Mr. Everts, I don’t mean to annoy you, I had only hoped you’d fill in some gaps…” an insecurity to her tone, feeling the tension slowly start to dissolve before he replies again with a soft hearty laugh
“I see young girl; your brain must be suppressing some things in an attempt to protect you. Could I come get you from your motel and take you elsewhere to clear your mind? I’m sure the smell is getting to you” Somehow his words made it sound like he knew her father’s corpse was only feet away from her beginning to pucker and bloat. How long had she been out? How long had the body been there? It had to have been a few days for the smell and appearance to be this bad, right?
“Yes please, please come get me!” she cries, not wanting to think about how old the blood on her body was or how she’d come to be covered in it to begin with. Today was beginning to be much worse than she’d ever planned when suddenly there’s a knocking at the door
“Then come outside my love, daddy’s here” he hums through the phone, making her pause and stare at the door…He…He did this…Is he…Is he going to kill her too? “Don’t be shy my sweet flower, come say hello” he coos once more, trying to lure her from her nest, but Valerie is unable to move despite standing only a few feet from the unlocked door. She watches as the handle turns left all the way “Hello?! Are you alright?!” his tone drowning with worry as the handle twists all the way to the right “Say something” he once again cries, throwing the door open to the vision of his beautiful little girl, the fruit of his labor and the love of his life. Their eyes lock, making him visibly swoon “You look so beautiful all painted up for daddy” He closes the distance between them, taking hold of her sides as his thumbs softly rub her love-handles and he washes her over with his gaze once more “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone more beautiful” he whispers before his lips press to her jawline, making her body tremble “Valerie, it’s okay. I stayed by your side for these last 4 days, but I didn’t want to scare you…I couldn’t be here when you woke, I’m so terribly sorry…” what had he meant by that? He’s been here with her? What had she done with him on those days and why could she not remember…?
“What are you talking about!” she screams, shoving him to the ground before plopping down onto the bed with an ugly sob “What would you have been doing here for the last four days if I wasn’t awake! Why are you doing this to me!” she wails, slamming her fists into her own stomach a few times “Or am I right to believe I was involved somehow?”
“Involved?” he repeats, as though the word is foreign to him before he erupts with laughter “Such a shame, we’ll have to fix that broken memory of yours right away” with this he pushed himself upward and onto his feet in one swift motion, who the hell is this dude? “But first, I will need you to listen little girl. Come here” he snips, curling his finger in towards himself to direct her.
‘Do I have a choice? What will happen if I don’t? And why didn’t he answer my question’ these were the thoughts that plagued her mind as she obediently hoisted herself upward to her feet and under the arm of the man that obviously murdered her father.
“Atta Girl” He chirps, walking her out the deep green door towards a short maroon 2004 Mercury Marauder with smoky gray leather seats and interior, upon closer inspection she finds the windshield cracked and the radio removed. He let go of her long enough to toss the door open and shove her into the vehicle, but rather than go around the car he scoots along the front of the seats to the driver’s side, pulling the passenger door closed behind him. He starts the car as his eyes lock with hers intently “Please smile little one, you’re going to remember everything soon” somehow, she knew this was meant to calm her, but those words had an effect neither of them could have predicted. As the car backs up, jolting her body forward she grips the car door and the dash as a flash of the days that lead to these events fills her head.
An image of Valerie covered with blood, wearing a crazed grin as a camera films “My, my, such a beautiful girl painted up for daddy…Do you enjoy this? Does it feel good when you remember how it feels to be happy? Such a gorgeous smile you have little one” the man behind it booms, that strange familiar voice. Who is that? It felt as though she was looking through a smudged lens at the world surrounding her “I will be the protector of your memories my love, never again will you feel isolated or trapped. Never again will I allow anything to harm you, my sweet dove. That sick bastard didn’t deserve a daughter as perfect as you, therefore I will take you myself. And through experimentation you will be reborn as my daughter” the camera moves as he draws closer to my face, Everts!!!! He cups her cheek softly, why does his voice sound so melodic right now compared to real life and what does this memory mean? Valerie snaps back to reality as suddenly as she had left it, staring down at the rubber mat place below her feet
“Where are we going?” she mumbles, feeling her palms and hairline begin to sweat “And how much longer? I’m…I’m tired…” a soft tremble to her words, showing that same insecurity that drew him towards her to begin with. He quickly takes her hand in his, resting the two on her thigh as he spoke
“Back to our nest my little dove, it will be quite a while I’m afraid. If you wish to sleep, you can lean on daddy. I promise you’ll be safe” he softly coos, something that once was so comforting felt like a death sentence
“That’s okay…I’ll be alright…daddy” the word felt like vomit leaving her mouth, nothing could be more revolting, but a smile rested comfortably on his face after she had knighted him with his self-proclaimed title “Could you tell me more about our nest?” she hums softly, looking out her window onto the horizon as she buckles herself in the seat more securely not wanting to look towards him.
“It’s out of state I’m afraid, so that beautiful home you wished to tour will be left to collect dust. I have many homes I’ve strategically purchased around the united states and a few in Italy, but we won’t be leaving the country anytime soon. It is in a small town just outside of Bozeman, Montana. It is a very beautiful place, you can see the mountains so that’s a plus, but there’s also a lot of eyes, it is a heavily populated town and for good reason. The home itself is rather cheery and wooden, far from the town for good reason and it overlooks a lake.” The way he spoke made him almost seem normal to her, like he felt panicked for being ‘put on the spot’ and was trying to push past the feeling. Why did he feel so eerie before? She leans closer to the window, feeling the vibration of the car rock her into a deep sleep with an uncertainty towards the days to come.
Sunlight pours in through the windows like an estuary the rays penetrated the glass with ease as it lacked any form of tinting, the light was blinding to sleep covered eyes making life just a little harder for the teen girl “Mhhh!” she groaned, stretching as she sat up off the lap of her captor, it felt so good to sleep after processing so much, but immediately she is reminded of her situation
“Did you sleep well my little dove?” He coos, eyes focused on the road as he awaits her response. It had taken a moment for her to realize, but Valerie remembered falling asleep on the door against the window…Although she had avoided it before her eyes locked on the face that she once found so charming
“Did you…move me?” Irritation tainted each syllable of this question as her eyes burned holes into his soul as she waited for him to confirm what she already knew; it was a way of telling herself she wasn’t crazy.
“Yes, you looked so uncomfortable away from daddy…” he pouted, pushing his lower lip out as though it would influence her response at all. Why did he need to move her onto his lap?! So close to his…Her face turns bright red as she looks away from him, no telling what he could have done to her whilst she slept. Valerie was known to be able to sleep through a hurricane, her mother used to have to carry her sleeping body to the shower and drench her just to get her to school on time because standing her up stopped working after she’d gotten used to it. “I’ve seen that look before; you needn’t worry… I would never taint your purity without permission. I may have my warts, but things of that nature don’t suit my fancy…” meaning he did want her, but is it possible he expects her to want him in time? Rubbing her eyes, the girl yawns softly
“Well good…I don’t think I’d handle something like that very well…” there was truth to her words, but the way she phrased it was incorrect. She was relieved to find out he was not a self-proclaimed rapist, but this brought another question to her attention. He has his warts, but not of that nature…What nature does suit his fancy? She’d hoped it was her paranoia telling her what he fancied was far worse, and turned to her captor sleepily “Just…don’t touch me when I’m sleeping” she huffs, why was this something that needed to be said? It felt like common sense to Valerie, but not all monsters are cut from the same tattered cloth. “How close are we?” her soft quaking voice whispered as the young girl pulled her knees towards her chest and wrapped her slightly muscular arms around them before resting her chin on her knees.
“Only a few miles now. Did you want to stop and get something to eat? Stretch? Use the Bathroom? You know…Normal Human Road-trip activities…”It was clear he felt a little less comfortable with her after being reprimanded “Suppose I can hardly remember what other humans do anymore” he nervously chuckles, slowing the car a bit as his eyes wash Valerie over “I know…I can be a bit much, but I only have your best intentions in mind. I hate to admit I’ve been insensitive…I had time to think on this whilst you slept. I was not sure, but it felt like you were scared of me yesterday…and well, you’ve confirmed that today… with your response to something I’d hoped to be a kind gesture, I will admit I have not had much interaction with other people since college.” He pauses and looks away from her, back to the road, returning to normal speed in one smooth motion. Taking a deep breath Xavier continues in an unsteady tone “What I am hoping to convey is that, I am no threat to you Valerie Amerai Bonna-velt. I may be terrible with social skills and it’s possible my attempts at affection are more…creepy…than…romantic.”
“But?” She hums, leaning back in her chair so her spine is straight as her eyes look expectantly at him. She’d only had him in her life for a few days and already she expected so much of him. Was she starting to care? “But you killed my father?” suddenly the car screeches to a halt skidding towards the side of the road before he turns to face Valerie; the nineteen-year-old Mongolian American whose forehead is resting on the dash thanks to such an abrupt stop.
“I am not the one who killed that man Valerie, you are” the words clap against her ear drums like a gunshot, echoing all the way down her spine as he gripped her wrists “I was hoping to show you the video…but you went and made me spoil the cinematic reveal” he giggles, sounding pleased with himself as Xavier jerks the young girl closer, he was in his late sixties despite not looking a day over twenty-two and much stronger than Valerie despite his nerdy weakling façade “I know this is a lot, and although I love to watch a mind deteriorate…” He pauses, dragging his tongue over his upper lip as though thinking about changing his mind “…I want you to ease into these memories…You had to know the truth, but sometimes these things can be easier if you don’t try to rush it and force my hand. You could have remembered on your own in a few weeks, days or hours, but I wanted to at least wait until you were able to isolate yourself in a room away from me.” What was that? Did his personality start to act up, but he brought it back down to a normal level? What is this guy’s deal? “Suppose now that you know it’s inside the car, I’ll have to ask you to be patience an-”
“That’s okay… I’d rather put off…knowing all the details for now…If what you say is true, then this is probably my last happy day…funny because yesterday was probably one of the worst days of my life…” Valerie forces a laugh, wanting to conceal the shattering pieces leftover from her crumbling sanity. “Food does sound nice…” she whimpers softly, wanting to sway the conversation elsewhere as quickly as possible, to this Xavier swoons letting out a deep hum towards her
“This is why I love you, you really get me” he lets go of her, turning to start the car back up with little trouble “We should learn to focus on the good and a full tummy sounds brilliant!” he coos, pulling away from the shoulder and back onto the highway “What sorts of foods suit your fancy?” he hums, using that phrase again
But things of that nature don’t suit my fancy
What sorts of foods suit your fancy?
“I prefer something salty or savory, sweet things don’t suit my fancy” She hums, being nonspecific as always “I will admit I am being vague because I don’t want to displease you, it’s such a pain to deal with going back and forth over and over….” Her father had a funny way of convincing her to pick whilst rejecting every option she chose until she suggested what he originally wanted to begin with. The entire mess was frustrating for Valerie, she could hardly imagine a person who could stand a situation like that, but she was never a girl of patience.
“Aw how cute, you used my favorite phrasing! Hmmm…Salty or Savory? What a shame you don’t like sweets, there are lots of bakeries on the map. Well what about pizza?” he chimes, trying to cover everything she’s said to him, to prove his willingness to listen “It’s only sweet depending on your toppings and cheese is normally pretty sodium heavy”
“Fantastic idea!” She booms, leaning against the door as she watches him juggle driver and navigating. Something about this struggle was amusing to her, it was in no where near the suffering she’d endured as well as apparently creating it. Her smug grin fades, what an odd thing to find amusing…
The Arrival; Life’s gift
The cabin was a warm sandy tan, the outside looking as though full logs were stacked on top of each other to form the walls despite having such large full windows and crystal doors that slide open like a window laying on it’s side. What a beautiful home! Valerie forces a sweet smile as she rushes to the entrance running her fingers over the smooth glass of the door as her eyes wash over the pitch steel borders that kept the crystal in place. On either side of the door are golden dragons carved into the light wood, she can hardly stop herself from running her fingers over the glistening design “How much does a place like go for anyway?” she slurs, her eyes bouncing from her new shelter to Xavier
“To be perfectly candid, I do not remember. It may have been a gift from one of my admirers or one of the homes purchased by my parents…The décor will most certainly remind me where this cabin came from.” He closes the distance between himself and the young girl before nudging her with his hip “Open the door for me, my sweet dove” the sounds of pleasure rippling in throughout his voice as he watched a shiver jolt up the young girl’s spine.
“What did I tell you? That makes me so uncomfortable…” Valerie groans, sliding the door open for the lengthy man as he stumbled inside holding several boxes and bags, he had clearly prepared for this trip. Had he known they’d need to flee Premont, Texas? She felt deep inside herself that those videos contained a truth beyond that of her father’s demise. Valerie rubs her arms softly before entering the home, inside was dozens of family photos, anchors, and sea shells as if the entire home had been decorated with an ocean side theme “So? Parents? Or lovers?” she calls into the house. Quickly she follows behind her voice deeper into the cabin, where her feet meet the animal skin rugs stacked on top of one another about the room, nearly covering all the cherry-wood that made up the floor. The room was small compared to the rest of the house, with a large “L” shaped couch in the center of the room with many colorful pillows with words like “Live, Laugh, Love” written in cursive “God it’s so cozy I can literally feel the sea of big fluffy blankets and fuzzy socks beginning to smother me” she calls, fake dying as her body plops onto the plush coffee sofa
“Oh, don’t complain, we won’t be staying here long.” He huffs, sitting down near the young maiden’s feet as he leans deep into the couch as a sigh of relief blooms from his pouty lips “You could have assisted me in moving our luggage”
“Assist my kidnapper in moving his luggage and my stolen stuff? Do you ever listen to yourself when you speak?” she snips back quickly, hearing the smile on his face as he sits up, hunching over as his elbows rest on his knees and his finger intertwine
“I hardly kidnapped you, you walked with me to the car with no resistance and you didn’t try to run at Luigi’s Haunted Pizza, so I could very easily disagree with you. The same as any jury would, evidence makes a case young Bonna-velt and I’m afraid the proof is not on your side” Valerie could not stand his smugness, although this was only the case because Xavier was exposing the truth, although her terror served as a mental block she’d shown no sign of trying to escape this man’s clutches. Why was that? Was it the information he had about the four nights escaping her memory? Or the fear of starting over fresh with an unfamiliar face? She’d spent so many years living with her father, with no friends or family members to lean on her father was truly all she had left in this world and the moment he was gone, she latched onto this parasite as though it was a host. “Are you ready for tonight’s examination?” he hums, looking her over with an intense gaze “There’s been no resurface of your abilities during our trip, this leads me to believe you have a specific trigger that allows you to use those gifts” did he mean the body enhancers he injected into me the first night we met?
“Not now…I want to nap first, it’s been a long day of really bad news…I really just want to sleep…” suddenly the couch depresses, like something is crawling over her body, she feels warm thighs pushing her knees into her stomach by raising her thighs. She looks up to see him pressing his manhood to her crotch as he leans over her small frame, beginning to kiss her neck and collar bone as his arm slides under the back of her left shoulder. He cups the nape of her neck, looking deep into her eyes with a burning desire
“Tell me you’ll let me hold you whilst you sleep?” He whimpers, resting his chin on the tops of her breasts “It would be an honor to protect you throughout the night” she felt there was more to this than what he gave away, but whether she wanted to or not he quickly flipped the two so his body was below her on the opposite side of the couch “Cuddle into me and christen me yours forever” these words were so intense, what had he wanted her to say? Gripping onto his shirt, she stares down at him like a deer in the headlights very obviously afraid of such a sudden advance towards her.
“I don’t think so…You really ought to go…” She whispers, climbing of his body with great struggle as he tries to hold her close to him, Valerie disliked this pressure and although she wanted so badly to be held until all her problems could melt into the sound of two hearts beating. “Goodnight Everts…” She hums, wandering off into the home to find a bed to sleep in, when the sound of a vhs tape playing floods the air as a light flickered through a cracked door at the end of the hall. Valerie held her breath as she heard her own voice whine “I don’t wanna do this, I wanna sleep!” it was very clearly her, but it sounded much more intoxicated than she was.
“Val? What are you doing?! Who is this guy?! Val?! VALERIE!”
Daddy! Her eyes swarm with tears as she runs to the room, knocking the door open with such great force that the metal door makes a depression where it met the wall as her eyes meet with a flickering light. When her eyes finally adjust to the monitor’s blinding blue light, Valerie recognizes herself standing next to a liquified blur of reds, pinks, browns and grays, what on earth is that? She leans into the screen trying to take a better look at blob when suddenly it solidifies reforming the man she called father gasping for air, suppose lungs don’t work in liquid form.
“Valerie…Valerie please”
Tears swell in the young girl’s eyes as she watches her father plead with a dead-eyed version of herself, the mindless woman one screen crouches down looking him deep into his eyes “Solid, Gaseous, Liquid…Let us see if we can do all at once” the girl whispers forcing his mouth open as her fingers glow a bright white, making the saliva in his mouth and throat a solid. As her father chokes, trying to pull the brittle saliva from his throat as the beastress cackles
“Such a beautiful girl, are you enjoying your new powers? Show me more, show daddy what you can do” a voice off camera cheers, as Valerie’s father looks at the man behind the voice with terror as the dead eyed Valerie grips his body at a couple different areas and with a flash of light she changes his body into a mess of liquids, colored gases and hardened flesh.
“Just like ice” the girl cries slamming her fist into the upper half of his skull, watching the ice-like matter shatter and scatter about the room like red shards of glass. Valerie looks away from the screen, unable to watch herself rage like a brat being denied of something it wants as she vomits into the hall “h-how could I do this?” she trembles through rough gags, the world around her beginning to twirl like a ballerina. You did it Valerie, you did it without hesitation and you put this on mom. “YOU MONSTER! HOW COULD YOU?” Valerie cries at herself, feeling the ground quake below her, as her brain swells with memories of abuse, years of mental and physical abuse. NO, IT’S NOT HIS FAULT! HE WAS TOO DRUNK TO UNDERSTAND! IT WAS NOT FAIR! NO! He did this! He did this to me… She slams her fists into the sides of her skull as tears stream down her face, why did he do this to her? What has she become? These feelings bring upon an unknown feeling that boils up inside her bringing forward the quirk named Matter Manipulation; the name is suddenly all she can think about, but where had it come from?
“Valerie! Valerie!” Xavier cries, rounding the corner as the world around him suddenly begins to mold and change “Valerie no!” He cries as his body freezes in place, standing frozen like stone as he stared into her eyes. His legs beginning to change color and collapse below him as the blood in his legs solidifies “Please! STOP IT VALERIE! PLEASE I LOVE YOU!” he sobs in terror, but his wails fall upon deaf ears as Valerie closes the distance between the two of them and grip his neck tightly turning it into a floating blur of flesh colored liquids. The sounds of the tape rewinding replacing a theme song, the vhs tape beginning once again as her hands grip his shoulders
“Wait Gorgeous! I have something to tell you, darling. That dress is so snug, it really suits my fancy” Xavier calls through the screen, putting more emphasis on his favorite phrase when it suddenly becomes clear to Valerie. She’d noticed every time he used that phrasing her brain became fuzzy and she felt more inclined to listen to him, it was clear he’d kept her under this state when the effects of his serum were most potent.
“Your ability…what is it?” she snips, reforming his throat to its solid form. He stumbles forward gripping onto her, his head spinning as she watches him gasp and choke on the very air he has been deprived of. How cute! Look at him struggle! A smile plays on her lips as she steps back watching him fall onto his hands and knees
“My sweet dove, please, I’ve done nothing to deserve this treatment and being tortured doesn’t suit my fancy” He whines, trying once again to strain her consciousness to no avail, she pushes her power hard against him once more watching him squirm in agony before gasping for air once again “Fine…It’s called Deception; it’s the ability to change what a person feels or sees, I can only maintain this ability for 6 days and my strength over a person’s mind varies on the amount of trust I have between myself and that person….the less a person trusts me the harder it is to maintain the false reality… and your power is a chemical mixture of my own ability and several others….those samples were extracted through forcible autopsy…”Forcible autopsy? Does that mean he’s made a name for himself? He’d never been direct with her before, but she knew immediately this was the standard, a form of expectation for future acquaintances. A smile spreads across her face as she grips his throat from behind pushing him deep into the wood as she twirls planting her behind onto the arch of his back before her palms glow sliding from his neck down his spine liquifying his essence
The Heroes’ Arrival; Save Me
Had either of them thought this through?! Had she even considered repercussions for her actions? Although she’d hardly had time to adapt to these new memories, there was no time to watch the puppeteer draw his last breath. She releases him from her hold, exposing herself for the monster she is as the thick black smoke that makes us her body is wavered by someone busting in the front door, the glass shattering and bouncing off various areas around the entrance.
“Doctor Everts” a strong woman’s voice calls, as the sound of footsteps advancing towards the pair fills the silence. Damn it! Unable to hold him and continuously restructure the liquid formation of his throat as her time limit was 30 seconds without contact, but luckily his throat would likely reform with some sort of mutation as she didn’t maintain it’s shape up until it’s reforming. She leaps up from his body, rushing for a window in the back room behind the stack of screens and vhs players, Valerie tosses the rack holding the monitors down onto the door jamming it shut. She pushes off the toppled metal rack she grips onto the windowsill pulling herself through the window and onto slick dew-covered grass that leads into a forest of some kind, pushing off the ground with her hands she takes off into full sprint, no sense in trying to save energy if she has no idea how to control this stupid ability! She tries snapping her fingers and focusing as she builds the distance between herself and the heroes who would never understand the ever-growing hollowness inside her, she’d become a murder, there was no other path for her.
((This is where the road forks, for those of you who wish to save this pitiful hate-birthed beast then this is where your character will enter as either a hero or villain, either way you must play an ally))
((For those of you who wish to have a more matured/seasoned villain you will continue from here and reply to the end of this post))
A Decade to Fester; They Do Not Dare Defy Me
Many years have past since the day Matter Manipulation was gifted to young Valerie, a decade to be quite precise and as the temptress neared her thirties a broiling need to be acknowledged by the world grew in its wake. She’d wasted enough time training, scheming, and waiting for a day when the world would be forced to face pain beyond their feeble little dreams.
“Aqua Regia!” Darius booms, entering her chambers with a concerned expression rest on his glowing ocean eyes as they lock onto the voluptuous Valerie, he was her second in command and most trusted ally, the one who saved her from the cruelty of those who held the title of Heroes. Those who would brand her very soul with a bible of law; a law book sewn together by the suffering and consumption of it’s own people, written in the blood of every less than fair pigment or disobedient civilian by sadists and hypocrites. “Val, please we must speak of the mission to come. If either you or I were to misstep we would lose the very foundation of all that we have built, quickly dear girl we mustn’t waste time” with this he waved me towards the door as his soft poetic mannerisms lull her senses into a calm
“Yes, Of course, but please Avalon do not fret, you are the key to my throne and with you I will forge a Camelot that would put Tartarus to shame” Aqua Regia coos, slipping from her solid form into a smoke like cloud to enhance her speed as she moves towards the villain Elusion with the quirk Escape Artist or the ability to find an escape plan for any situation, the back lash is sometimes there really is no escape although he has yet to stumble upon this problem. Valerie is able to return to solid form by keeping hands, heart and lungs solid inside the smoke form otherwise her body would remain gaseous until reaching the limited amount of time. This time gap started at thirty seconds, but after nearly a decade of training she can hold most things in any of the three forms for a whole hour, sadly no human can hold their breath for an hour so the gift has become rather tricky to maneuver without sparing a few insignificant lives. As her body slowly reforms Darius takes this time to go over some of our earlier successes
“Indeed, Queen Arthur” He would start, wanting to begin on her good side “The first two steps of our plan have come to fruition with very minor mishaps, the pot has been stirred as you say. Drug Families are at each other’s throats trying to find the rat amongst them, unaware it was the clients who sold them to the pros. Secondly, all of the bombs went off without a hitch, except the last hospital apparently a hero arrived in time to stop both with seconds to spare.” His face remained calm and hard like a statue, he knew this would make her erupt furious that anyone was able to catch onto her scheme “But we’ve reached the results you hoped for Ms. Regia, the pros have all eyes on you for the show tonight.” Despite the second step having a few misfires everything was going according to plan.
“Well…At least things are still moving forward, are the boys reaching out to the head of each family as we speak?” She groans, clearly annoyed with the lack of security in her strategy, nothing is guaranteed and yet she’d hoped this would as close to guaranteed as physically possible. The two descend the stairs her warm honey eyes scan the crumbling lot for any sign of you, surely you knew she would be here awaiting your arrival, her lower lip presses out in a pout as she looks to her partner “Suppose they didn’t understand the clues that we left with each body?”
“Nonsense Mistress, you were very careful to be as obvious as possible” He assures her as she pauses, lingering at the window from the second floor. She was much taller now due to the various hormones and chemical injected into her body all those years ago, her hair was a long chocolate stream of shiny wavy locks and her once ashen tan skin soon became a warm mocha. Her once boxy frame had smoothed over into a more feminine look, being replaced with an hourglass figure. “Forgive my sentiment, but you’ve come too far Valerie to ever be made a fool of again.” Her heart sang at his sweet words, a smile resting comfortably on her lips.
“Thank you” she whispers, reaching for the illusion of her dear friend when the door flies off it’s hinges into the stairs. It would appear that they’ve arrived and so abruptly. Valerie growls under her breath, trying to maintain her composure as the hero/villain enters “I’m relieved you decided to show your face, this will feel all the sweeter” her palms glowing a golden color as she stands in an offensive position
((Comment Alpha1 if you want to save her as a child and change her fate as a hero or comment Alpha2 if you want to be a villain that assists her as a child. If you wanted to fight older Valerie as a hero comment Beta1 or if you want to be a villain that recruits older Valerie comment Beta2))
Name: Valerie Amerai Bonna-Velt
Villain name; Aqua Regia
Age: 19 or 29
Ability: Matter Manipulation; the ability to change and mold the shape/state of matter for limited amounts of time (Overuse of this ability results in a loss of free will; becoming an obedient zombie)
Appearance; Valerie is a 5’2 tall girl who weighs one-hundred-twenty-five pounds, she has a large behind and C cup breasts with warm thick thighs that meet at a waist that appears to be smaller due to wide hips and broad shoulders. When she was 19 her hair was a raven black, but now it resembles a dark chocolate brown with a healthy shine that she’s most definitely proud of! Her eyes are slanted, narrow and a light honey colored with short lashes that thick around the outer corner of her eyes on the top and bottom. Her eyebrows are thick and well groomed, but sparse with a very high arch. (Very bottom-heavy frame!)
Blood type: O negative
Height; 5’2
Weight; 125 lbs.
Weaknesses; Valerie’s powers cannot break the law of conservation (matter cannot be created or destroyed. Therefore, there must be the same number of atoms of each element on each side of a chemical equation.) She is also unable to hold an object in a state foreign to its nature for longer than her time limit (Starts at 30 seconds and ends with 1 hour) The heart, lungs and hands are exposed in gaseous form. Her circulatory system slowly shuts down in solid form and she runs the risk of losing limbs if she over uses it, not to mention solid form is as fragile as ice. Finally, in liquid form she cannot reform herself and must wait for the time limit to pass (She doesn’t really use it)
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