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probably-writing-x · 4 years

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Admittance pt.7

Guzmán x Reader

Gif is not my own

Requests are open

As Christmas break ended, it felt like the end of a strange haven that you’d found yourself living in for the past weeks. You’d spent every waking moment with Guzmán and had managed to work well with this understanding of ‘difference’ between you. You weren’t just friends or co-parenting... but you weren’t dating. It was just different. It had been discussed as it was on Christmas day and then left to settle in it’s own manner ever since then. You couldn’t complain. Guzmán, as you’d come to learn, was every bit a good man when he was around you. But you were heading back to normal now as soon would be starting again. And you were starting to realise more and more that your future would be completely changed over the next months. You couldn’t keep living in this haven.

“Are you seriously going to stay silent the whole time?” Guzmán questions from beside you as you’re walking up to the school gates, “What’s going on today?”

You glance at him and force a little smile, “Just thinking through some things.”

“Well, think through them with me please,” He raises his brows, “I don’t like all this weird silence.”

“What am I going to do about school, Guzmán?” You sigh, “My due date is basically right before we should be getting ready to graduate.”

“Then we’ll see what the school are willing to implement to make sure both of us still can graduate,” He confirms, so seemingly sure of himself.

“I don’t think that’s going to be possible,” You shake your head, “Maybe I just won’t graduate. I could look into doing some online cou-”

“No, (Y/n),” Guzmán stops as you’re nearing the doors, “Either we both graduate or neither of us do, we’ll talk to your Mum and figure out what we can do. Okay?”

You nod as though it’s the only way you can satisfy his heart and he turns back towards his path. You’re not as sure as he is. You won’t be able to finish the year, and your Mum’s status as principal could only get you so far. But Guzmán clearly hated the idea of you thinking like that, and there was something about those eyes that made it possible to want to disagree with him.

“Now, what do you want for dinner tonight?” He looks at you with a grin and, so easily, he has gone back to being the boy that now managed to calm all of your worries.

- - - - - -

“I’m just past twenty weeks now,” You explain to Samuel as he is sat behind you in class, “We went for the scan and everything’s looking good.”

“Have you found out if it’s a boy or a girl?” He asks, glancing up as Guzmán walks into the classroom after he’s spoken.

“Yeah, we did, Guzmán couldn’t wait,” You laugh, jumping a little as Guzmán squeezes your shoulders from behind you.

“Can we tell him?” He beams excitedly.

So far, you’d only told his Mum, and your own, along with Ander and Omar, and Nadia just before she’d flown back to New York. With every person, it seemed that Guzmán’s smile grew a little wider.

“Yeah, sure, if you want to,” You smile as he sits down in the seat next to you.

With that, he settles an arm around you so his hand falls onto your growing bump and turns to his friend with a bright grin, “We’re having a girl!”

Samuel smiles, “Congratulations guys! I’m so happy for you.”

You’d been surprised at Guzmán’s reaction to having a girl, you’d always pictured him being more excited about having a son and having a little mini me. But when the doctor broke the news that he was going to father a little girl, the look on his face had been basically priceless. You’d capture it into the locket around your neck if you could. He was so utterly happy from the bottom of his heart.

“Thanks man, and I’m sorry I haven’t been around much recently,” Guzmán reaches up and clasps Samu on the shoulder, “We need to catch up.”

“How about you two go out for some food, a few beers, or something?” You suggest, “I promised Ander we’d have an evening together soon anyway.”

“Are you sure?” Guzmán raises his brows, “I’d love that man if you’re up for it.”

They discuss a time and a place and it’s a relief to see Guzmán doing something close to normality as they plan to meet up at the end of the week. Sure, he could be a parent, but he also deserved to be an eighteen year old guy beyond that.

“Have you thought of any names for girls?” Samuel asks, smiling as a greeting when Omar and Ander walk in.

“I still don’t see the problem with Andera,” Ander grins as he sits down in his chair, “Named after her favourite uncle.”

“Omara, Omara,” His boyfriend encourages, setting his books down onto the table, “I’ll definitely be her favourite.”

“Then I guess we’ll have to split up so I can get rid of you,” Ander rolls his eyes jokingly, “What names do you actually have?”

You glance at Guzmán momentarily and shake your head, “We haven’t really spoken about it. But we’ve got plenty of time for ideas.”

The conversation settles into typical chatter as you try your best to remain comfortable in your seat at a desk that you no longer fit at with ease. Another way where you felt you stuck out like a sore thumb at school, where you no longer just fit in. It was minor, of course. But you were taking things like this as opportunity to realise more and more of just how much would change in the coming months.

- - - - - -

“So, it’s then these electrons from here and here that pass through the chain and cause phosphorylation to occur at this point here,” Guzmán runs through the poorly drawn diagram on his page, tapping different points along the way, “Did I get that right?”

“Guzmán you’ve been through it six times, you’re doing fine!” You laugh, “Again, that was perfect.”

He grins and taps his pen against the desk, “Alright, alright, what did you want to do instead?”

You sit up from where you’d been laying on his bed, “I don’t know really.”

“Well, we can go out somewhere?” He suggests, walking over from where he’d been sitting as his desk, “I’ll take you out somewhere nice.”

“You don’t have to do that, I thought we were just ordering in tonight,” You look up at him.

He reaches out his hands to help you to your feet, “Let me take you somewhere nice, it’s been ages since you’ve been out for a nice meal. Come on, I won’t take no for an answer now.”

Thankfully, you’d already practically moved half of your clothes into the house after how much time you’d been spending here. You dismiss yourself to get changed and choose a simple black dress that hugged your figure and clearly accented your bump but wouldn’t mean that you would be uncomfortable- as you found more and more clothes were at the moment.

“Alright, I’ve just called ahead and made a reservation so-“ Guzmán stops as he walks back into the room where he’d left you to get ready, “Wow.”

“What?” You laugh, brushing your hands over the fitting material of the dress that came down to your thighs.

“I’ve just never seen you in a dress like that before.”

“You’ve seen me in a dress,” You frown, “I used to wear dresses at parties all the time.”

“Yeah but I never actually saw you then. You look beautiful,” He seems bashful as he says the word that seems so natural when he says it.

“Well, I’d love to thank you but it keeps bunching up around my bump weirdly,” You sigh, tugging at the material as you try to make it look somewhat better.

He walks over and stands behind you in the mirror, hands settling over yours on your bump to stop your movements, “It looks great, okay? Honest.”

You narrow your eyes at him in the reflection, “I don’t appreciate lies Guzmán.”

He laughs and turns you around, “Ready to go?”

You nod and don’t overthink it too much when his hand locks with yours.

- - - - - -

When you arrive at the restaurant, Guzmán is all parts a gentleman. He holds open the door, takes your jacket for you and helps you into your seat even if you are more than capable of doing it yourself. In the Japanese style restaurant, you’re seated on long squared tables that focus around the chef in the middle who cooked your meals right in front of you. You’re surrounded by different people you would never know and there’s a welcoming atmosphere as soon as you’re settled.

“So we just order and then he makes it right in front of us?” You frown, looking down at the menu in your hands.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Guzmán chuckles, “You’ve never been here before?”

“Never,” You shake your head, smiling politely at the young couple that take their seats beside you.

“Wow, I really should’ve brought you here before. This is like my favourite place,” He grins, “I should’ve brought you here last summer.”

“Guzmán, last summer we were hardly at a dating stage last summer. We never intended for any commitment from those few weeks,” You remind him.

He looks down bashfully, “Maybe I should’ve done.”

You turn back to the chef as he starts cooking up some starters and Guzmán settles a hand on your leg so easily. The couple beside you strike up conversation as they ask about the food before turning to the evident focus of your unmissable bump.

“How far along are you?” The girl asks, a dazzling ring on her finger suggesting she was far more developed in her relationship than you were, despite you being the pregnant one.

“Twenty one weeks,” You reply, “We’re having a girl.”

She smiles at the reveal, “Thats amazing! Congratulations!”

“You’ll give her ideas now,” Her husband jokes and she turns back to him as they evidently converse about their own future plans to have children.

“It still sounds crazy hearing you say that,” Guzmán mumbles as you turn back to him.

“What do you mean?”

“We’re having a girl, it makes it all sound so much more human,” He chuckles, “I actually wanted to run something by you about that.”

You match his stance as your hand falls onto his leg too, like you can be just as natural as he is about simple affection.

“When Samuel mentioned about names, I was thinking maybe her middle name, or one of them, could maybe be...” He stops and swallows the lump in his throat as his Adam’s apple bobs, “Could be Marina?”

You let a warm smile heat your features as you nod gently at his suggestion, “I’d love that, Guzmán.”

“Yeah?” He visibly relaxes as relief washes the tension out of his shoulders, “It would mean a lot to me, and my Mum I’m sure.”

“Of course,” You smile, leaning in and kissing his cheek, “It’s perfect.”

- - - - - -

It’s as you’re leaving for the night, belly’s full from some of the best food you’ve ever tasted, when you’re stopped by an older couple just about to leave. They’re middle aged but the woman appears in all ways to be trying to make herself seem younger. You can’t blame her really.

“Excuse me,” Her voice is posher than you’d ever be as you and Guzmán turn at the sound of her beckon, “Are you two married?”

“I’m sorry?” You frown a little, trying to place this woman as somebody you might know if she was asking questions like that.

“Are you married? You’re having a child, correct?”

“No, no, we’re not married,” Guzmán shakes his head, wrapping another hand around where one of his hands was already locked with yours.

“You’re not,” She scoffs, “And you believe you’re fit to raise a child?”

You’re stunned. You’d never expect someone to be so forward in their judgement, so unphased by their outward disrespect. That’s when words fail you.

“You’re barely done being children yourself!”

“You’re right, we’re not married and we don’t plan on being married any time soon,” Guzmán cuts in, standing upright like he was ready to become completely defensive. You feared his emotion overtaking him.

That’s when you interject, “We’re not sure we’ll be perfect parents, but nobody ever is. But I can promise you, him and myself one thing - together, we’ll raise a good hearted child. One that learns to be accepting of everybody and every situation, and even if they don’t understand it, they’ll respect and appreciate every person, every definition of family that they encounter. And they’ll learn that their parents did the best they could with the situation they had. And they wouldn’t have changed it for the world.”

You’re shocked at yourself but no more stunned than the woman opposite who is now being swiftly ushered away by her waiting husband. But nobody is more taken aback than the boy who’d slackened his grip a little on your hand. You were never one to speak up much, except when Ander wound you up or somebody insulted somebody close to you. You never really outwardly stood up for yourself like that. It was like he’d just seen a switch flip before his eyes and you’d become somebody he’d not expected. Somebody be damn right adored.

“God! Some people! What gives her the right to-“

You’re cut off on your beginnings of a rant as Guzmán turns and crashes his lips firmly against yours. He cups your cheek as you stumble back and he catches a hand on your waist to stop you from falling back any further.

“What was that for?” You laugh, flushed as he pulls away.

The corners of his lips simply curl up and you see a look warming his eyes that you’ve never seen in anyone looking at you before. You couldn’t exactly define it. But it was different.

- - - - - -

When you return to school the next day, it’s like you and Guzmán are back to being wrapped up in that invincible bubble again. You were now treating his house more and more like a home. And every night felt like a little pocket of reassurance that you really were more capable than people expected.

Those kind of heavens never really last long around here though, do they?

“(Y/n),” Your mother’s voice calls you over from the door of her office.

You turn around from where Guzmán had been making you laugh about something he’d seen in the corridor and smile, “Hey Mum!”

“I need to speak with you for a moment, both of you,” She states, her professional voice shining through rather than the way she’d normally address you.

That always meant something serious.

You glance to Guzmán who settles a hand on your back, “Yeah, sure.”

He looks at you cautiously as you both follow her back into her office. There, you’re met with two of the board members sat either side of your Mum’s chair and two empty chairs on the opposite side that are evidently meant for you and Guzmán.

You take a deep breath and sit down opposite the expectant eyes.

“Guzmán, (Y/n), I’m joined by Cecelia and Christian from the board of governors. They’ll be here to discuss, along with me, your future here at Las Encinas (Y/n),” She looks directly at you and you can see the guilt shining in her eyes.

Evidently this was one of those moments where her authority wasn’t enough to give you a free pass. The board wouldn’t let any special treatment pass this time.

“As we’re all aware, both of you have already re-taken your final year at this school, due to the extenuating circumstances that you both experienced when approaching graduation last year,” Cecelia speaks up, “Guzmán, we believe your current grade average and progress since last year give us enough certainty that you’ll be more than capable of finishing and graduating at the end of this academic year.”

You glance over to him but his eyes are completely focused on the trio ahead, evidently waiting what would come next.

“(Y/n), however, it is in our understanding that your due date will be approaching in May - which will be before the end of your school year. This will mean you’ll be unable to sit some of your final exams and will also mean you miss the last, and most important, part of your school year. It is in the boards understanding, therefore, that you won’t be able to graduate this year.”

Guzmán breaks his stare to glance at you and you catch his eyes for a prolonged moment.

“You may be able to retake next year, if this is a possibility for you - considering you will now have a baby to consider come September when the next school year would begin. Alternatively, there are plenty of online schooling opportunities you could do that would not hold as much of a high standard as the Baccalaureate but most certainly would provide a much easier pathway for you.”

“Online schooling? Excuse me but (Y/n) is one of the brightest students in this year,” Guzmán pipes up, “Surely there’s some way you could still get her to graduate?”

“Guzmán,” You say in a tone nearing somewhat warning.

“I’m sorry Guzmán but it does not currently seem possible, in time with (Y/n)‘s pregnancy and her previous track record.”

“Track record?!” Guzmán scoffs, “You mean her having to retake a year because her brother had cancer?”

“Guzmán, please calm down,” Your Mum sighs, looking to you with pleading eyes.

“You’re not even willing to fucking try!” He raises his voice a little, slamming his hands into the armrests of the chair, “You’ll just throw her to the curb as soon as she’s pregnant? Is that how little you think of her?!”

“Guzmán!” You raise your own voice now, grabbing his arm until you pull his attention to you.

He knew he’d already crossed the line and, in that moment, he wanted nothing more than to track back and never go close to crossing it.

“This meeting is adjourned. We’ll reconvene at another date, and I don’t believe we will need Guzmán in attendance next time,” Christian states coldly, adjusting the lapels of his jacket as him and Cecelia stand to exit.

“I’ll show you out,” Your Mum encourages, following the pair of them out of her office.

Leaving just you and a calming down Guzmán.

“I’m sorry (Y/n)... I shouldn’t have lost my temper like that,” He sighs, running a hand through his hair.

“I know you’re just trying to help me out, but I won’t have you jeopardise your own future by trying to fix mine,” You state, standing up from the chair, “I’ll handle this on my own terms Guzmán.”

“(Y/n)!” He calls as you go to walk out of the office.

“Guzmán I’m serious,” You say, refusing to turn back to look him in the eye.

“So you’re just going to let them throw you out? Not even try to give yourself a future?” It’s wrong. He shouldn’t have said it. It’s not what he meant. And he’d never been good at that. But it’s too late now.

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hellzyeahwebwieldingreviews · 4 years

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Untold Tales of Spider-Man 04: Better Looting Through Modern Chemistry – by John Garcia and Pierce Askegren

Surprisingly pretty good!

Peter Parker is in line at the ChemCo chemical supply house on a Friday afternoon. A man who looks vaguely familiar is in front of him. The man orders two helium cartridges but the price has gone up and he only has enough money for one. The ChemCo clerk is unsympathetic, not accepting a check or any other form of payment but cash. The man is forced to only buy one cartridge. Peter is sympathetic but can do nothing to help. He is buying plastic polymer to make web fluid, since his supply is dangerously low. But the price of the polymer has also gone up and Peter doesn't have the money to pay for it.

Back at Empire State University, Peter literally runs into Gwen Stacy. Since this story takes place "a few weeks after Amazing Spider-Man #36, May 1966", Gwen is still in her ice-queen phase concerning Pete; disdainful but trying to draw him out. She invites him to join the gang at a demonstration by sports star Johnny "The Ray" Ramos. Pete wants to go but he has to get money for his web fluid. He goes to the Daily Bugle to ask J. Jonah Jameson for an advance. It seems that JJJ is stuck without a photographer for a reception he is holding to premiere a new Bugle section on emerging technologies. He tells Peter he can get an advance at 4:30 PM if he agrees to join Jonah to photograph the reception.

At 4:30, Norton G. Fester, the man Peter saw at ChemCo, enters the Neville K. Trelayne Memorial Mineral Museum, knocks out the guard and cracks open a meteor just like the one from which he got his super-strength. He inhales the gas within and gains extra strength which he shows off by tossing a motorcycle into a fuel tanker causing a massive explosion.

Pete shows up at 4:45 to pick up his check, having spent too long in a camera shop. He gets the cash and prepares to hurry to ChemCo, which closes at 5:30. But Aunt May calls the Bugle and he wastes time talking to her as she asks him to buy eggs so she can make cookies.

At 5:00 Fester, now in his Looter costume, destroys an electrical substation with his bare hands. At 5:35 Peter shows up at ChemCo only to be told by the clerk that he's too late and must wait until Monday. Peter briefly considers using his spider-powers to break in and steal the polymer but he knows he won't do that. Just then Sally Green shows up and asks if he'd walk with her to Chesney's "a local soda fountain". Peter agrees.

Meanwhile, the Looter continues his vandalism, smashing any fire hydrants he encounters and going into subway stations and tearing up the tracks. Peter ends up at the soda fountain with Sally having a grand time. But just as he is about to invite her to join him at the Bugle reception, Flash Thompson, Harry Osborn, and Gwen show up and ruin his timing. (Aren't they supposed to be at Johnny "Ray" Ramos' demonstration?) When he hears a news report over the soda jerk's radio announcing blackouts, disastrous traffic jams, and a major fire on the Upper East Side, Peter knows Spider-Man needs to investigate. He begs off, saying he must run an errand for his Aunt but Sally thinks he is running from Flash Thompson and she loses interest in him.

On his way Uptown, Spidey runs out of web fluid so he hitches a ride from a Newscopter. The Looter, soaring through the air on his built-in helium balloon watches him. Fester muses over the fact that he was released on bail after his loss to Spidey. Knowing that he will be convicted in his upcoming trial, he has devised a plan to steal enough money so that he can skip town. As Spidey deals with the burning fuel truck and the cops are busy with the other disasters, the Looter robs Cassidy's Fine Jewels. Coming upon the ruined power station, Spidey rescues the security guard who then tells him that the "costumed lunatic" who did this wore a "purple and white costume, had a backpack and a tool belt." Spidey recognizes that description. It also makes him realize who was in line in front of him at ChemCo. Then he remembers "a leaflet...casually tossed at him by J. Jonah Jameson" and he realizes where the Looter is going. (The leaflet was a list of exhibits apparently trucked in for the reception and one of them is... well, guess what?)

Sure enough, Fester crashes the Bugle reception. Having finished his crime spree, the Looter now prepares to breathe in the gas from yet another meteor, this one "nearly the size of a telephone booth." (How many of these dang meteors are there?!) Spider-Man shows up before Norton can puncture the meteor and he is forced to flee. Spidey gives chase and hangs on as Norton sails away on his balloon. Fester manages to knock Spidey off but the struggle puts a hole in the balloon. He lands and patches the balloon but in the meantime, Spidey has rescued himself as well. But Norton gets to his car (somehow) where all his loot is. Trouble is the word has gone out and the authorities are watching all of the routes off of Manhattan Island. Fester knows his only chance is to get the balloon up and running again so he goes back to ChemCo to steal a helium canister. But Spidey has deduced this and, hitching a ride with the news chopper again, gets there a head of Fester. He grabs a polymer compound and a "reagent jug with attached hose" which he combines and sprays on the Looter's feet, anchoring him to the floor. "It's not webbing, but it'll have to do" says Spidey.

Of course, Spidey takes pictures of the Looter's defeat and he hopes this will be enough to mollify JJJ for his no-show at the reception. He also grabs the bottle of liquid polymer he needs for webbing and puts the money on the counter. Tonight he's going to make some more webbing but first he has a long walk home. He wonders where he can stop to buy some eggs for Aunt May. Then it starts raining on him. "Some days, it just didn't pay to get out of bed."

I was pleasantly surprised by this tale.

The Looter is at best a C-list Spidey villain at that. Most people forget he exists and the people who do probably forget Ditko himself created him.

The fact is aside from a kind of cool mask he’s just not all that great of a bad guy which is why the people who do actually like him tend to gravitate towards the more comedic style stories with him, perhaps the classic examples being those found in the Dezago/Wieringo Sensational Spidey run.

Indeed it is one of the weaknesses of this issue that it takes the Looter rather too seriously, especially when we consider that the latter mentioned run was actually fairly recent at the time of this book’s publication.

It’s not that the Looter is bad exactly, but you do raise an eyebrow over a Spider-Man villain who literally travels via balloon. I feel like the author actually took Looter more seriously than maybe any writer before or since (including perhaps Ditko himself) because he actually puts effort into emphasizing the Looter’s smarts in regards to his equipment along with how dangerous fighting a super strong opponent can be. He’s a loser villain to Spidey, but to a civilian he’s actually quite intimidating.

I actually can’t recall off the top of my head if his motivation in this story really lines up with established canon. A lot of what he does here is basically get super strength from chemicals in meteors, his ultimate target being one from Wakanda (although weirdly vibranium is never mentioned). Again, I might be forgetting this but I could’ve sworn that’s not how his powers work. IIRC he did indeed gain super strength from the gasses of a meteor but it was a one time deal and permanent. He doesn’t need to constantly top up his power from other meteors and nor could he as they wouldn’t necessarily have the same chemicals anyway.

As for the story over all this was perhaps the best story thus far to capture the approach that the comic book UToSM took back in the day. This is rather ironic considering this is also the first story that takes place after high school which the comic series never got around to.

The comic book series rooted itself in the Ditko run and then delicately modernized the dialogue and over all writing style. I say delicately because it still felt a lot like the 1960s stuff there was just a bit more polish to the pacing, dialogue and plotting.

Whilst the second story by DeFalco sort of did that too, it was ultimately a lot heavier and a lot more emotionally engaging than Ditko/Lee’s stuff used to be. That isn’t to say it was bad or that Ditko/Lee’s stuff was bad, it’s just a matter of style. Busiek and Garcia/Askegren Garcia/Askegren’s stories’ though feel like they could be read inbetween the Ditko era material and feel fairly cohesive (obviously if this story was drawn).

Moreover this story not only feels tonally like a Busiek comic story but the plot itself could absolutely have been an issue of UToSM had the series ever hit college.

That’s it’s strength and it’s weakness though.

It is it’s weakness because just like a comic book story there is a fair chunk of action, more as the story unfolds in fact. And as I’ve said before prose is not ideally suited for comic book super hero action. This one was better than the last story by leagues and the action wasn’t hard to follow, but I did drift off a bit during it I must admit.

Furthermore nothing really significant happens in Peter’s life in this story. Obviously I’m not expecting a tale where he gets married or something, but DeFalco’s story for example was impactful. This one isn’t, but in a way that is appropriate.

The nature of untold tales is such that you tread a fine line between doing something dramatic, but not too dramatic because readers would wonder why Spidey never brought this event up in earlier stories?

This story is perhaps the most effective one yet in this regard. It’s a fairly standard day in the life story for Peter Parker at a certain point in his life. Its nothing special but it’s good fun. A dash of normal life soap operatics mixed in with super hero action makes for a perfectly serviceable Spidey yarn.

And were this a comic I feel it would’ve been appreciated amidst the turmoil of the Clone Saga and post-Clone Saga era. Something short, simple and sweet.

However there is a little bit more to the story than that.

I feel that this story pretty much confirms a theory that’s been brewing in me about this book. Each story is in some way a representation of an aspect of Spidey lore. The first was about Spidey’s place amidst the wider Marvel universe and the uneasy relationship he has with fellow heroes. The second was about Peter’s sense of responsibility. The third was about his sibling rivalry dynamic with the Torch. And this one seems to be about the Parker Luck as almost everything that can go wrong does go wrong for Pete in this tale.*

However it isn’t overwrought or Satanically cruel like far too many attempts at depicting the Parker Luck are. The bad luck is indeed bad, but it’s reserved. It’s stuff like being in the wrong place at the wrong time or the clouds opening up when you really don’t need it.

The underlying element of bad luck is Spider-Man’s lack of web-fluid.

Obviously there are plenty of stories where Spidey runs out of webbing, but there actually aren’t a whole load where he is totally devoid of them. And this yarn is perhaps the first (and only) that practically makes that the central conceit of the story.

It’s interesting because it blends together Peter’s scientific intellect with his everyman status. He’s smart enough to make the webbing (and we learn a little bit of what goes into that process) but he still needs to pick up the raw materials from the store like everyone else would and if he’s cash strapped he ain’t swinging anywhere. Brilliantly Garcia/Askegren reflects this situation with the Looter as he too is a scientist and requires chemicals to fuel his super powered activities. Garcia/Askegren bookeneds this by having Peter and Fester literally in the same line to purchase their respective chemicals and then those same chemicals proving vital plot points in the climax.

For Fester, the loss of his helium grounds him and for Spidey he essentially improvises unrefined web fluid to subdue the Looter when all is said and done.**

Between the opening and ending of the story though, Spidey’s lack of webbing puts him on the backfoot as he can’t even travel easily from place to place. In fact Garcia/Askegren uses this fact for another plot point as Spidey hitches a ride with a news copter and this winds up scooping Jameson. The whole situation is an eloquent way of evening the odds between the Spidey and a villain who typically wouldn’t be in Spidey’s league.

The central plot just all clicks together, it all works neatly. Sometimes you don’t need a story to kick ass like DeFalco’s did, you can just enjoy it ticking along properly.

That being said the subplot is where the tale really shines. It’s tiny, practically cuttable, but it’s beautiful in it’s own way.

I am of course referring to the stuff involving Gwen and Sally Green.

The fanboy in me simply loves the fact that Garcia/Askegren like a mad man pulled one of the single most obscure characters in Spider-Man history out of the woodwork at all. This is a character who last I checked had her first and final appearance in ASM #36 and was never even mentioned again; in fact this whole issue is something of a sequel to ASM #36. The choice of using her at all then is rather clever as she’s mostly a blank slate and Garcia/Askegren doesn’t have to worry too much about what he does with her because it won’t fuck up canon.

What amazes me is that Garcia/Askegren doesn’t contradict Sally’s established personality, even though she was in just ONE issue! Her involvement in the story amounts to her bumping into Peter by chance and taking a second stab at flirting with him, which goes sort of more successfully. In ASM #36 she was sincerely interested in him and invited him to hang out because of that. But when she complimented him on his intellect in comparison to the ‘brawny athletic types’ Peter lost interest, he didn’t want to be viewed as just an egghead. Chalk it up to years of bullying or dodgy silver age writing, the point is Peter rebuffed her and Sally walked away with a negative view of Peter. Kudos to her I suppose because she tried again. Garcia/Askegren seem to have noticed the weirdness in Peter’s rejection of Sally and opted to lightly explain it away as a result of Peter’s bullying and rejection in his younger days.

Their depiction of Sally’s interest in Peter (she genuinely seems to find his brains attractive) and their brief romantic encounter is short and subtely sweet. It believably captures the innocence of youthful romance. Of course the Parker luck intervenes and the moment is ruined. Even if you were to argue that this is a cliché within Spider-Man, I still found the moment wonderfully realistic. How many in times in life have any of us been with someone, liked them, the chemistry is working and then the moment is gone and not to be recovered.

Don’t get it twisted. I’m not here to suggest to you Peter and Sally had a Miracle Romance brewing or that she was the greatest Spider-Man love interest we never had. I’m just saying this story, however briefly, captured a realistic slice of life in regards to romance. And Spider-Man is after all intended to be a reflection of real life.

Gwen is also handled interestingly here. She isn’t as over the top and basically a bully the way she was often in Ditko’s run. But she is still a harder edged Gwen Stacy who’s neither Spidey’s Virgin princess martyr nor the weeping Silver Age girlfriend she’d be later. She isn’t even the fairly bland MJ-rip-off of Romita’s early run. She’s a young woman who’s attracted to Peter and frustrated that he doesn’t reciprocate that attraction in spite of the opportunities presented to him. And yet she can tell there is something there so his lack of reciprocation is something she can’t figure out but wants to, which just compounds her frustrations. Immaturely she deals with that frustration by kind of punching down on Peter.

The scene where she and Sally are in the room together are gloriously soap opera laden but doesn’t over stay it’s welcome or become trashy. There is just a lot of passive aggressive energy in the air.

Even DeSantos’ ill suited narration and performance doesn’t do much to damper this moment or the story in general.

Over all I really, really liked this one and would both check it out again and recommend others to read/listen to it too!

*I think this idea of touching upon broad tentpoles of Spidey lore in a chronological way (the first story being set in the early High school era, the second more towards the middle, the third towards the back end and this one in the early college days) is more the remit for the book over all. It’s not really supposed to perfectly fit in with actual canon more a sort of generalized IDEA of Spider-Man canon.

**That scene also has a great Spidey line wherein he says he needed to think like the Looter and struggled when it came to thinking like an idiot.

#The Looter #Looter #Spider-Man #Untold Tales Of Spider-Man #Peter Parker #Gwen Stacy #Steve Ditko #Kurt Busiek #Stan Lee #Mike Wieringo #Todd Dezago

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lunawings · 5 years

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King of Prism SSS episode 4 commentary (Kakeru)

Ahhhh.... finally seeing this episode again after a long time was really good. You may think I’m just being over-dramatic, but I honestly think I felt normal again for the first time since seeing SSS Part 4 while I was watching the stream with you guys. Like halfway through I was like WOAH IM SMILING... ahah....... ha......... Part 4 messed me up even more than I thought holy s--

Thanks for always coming to the streams! And thank you Kakeru, for reminding me about love.....

*deep breath* Now, let’s get to it...

So like I mentioned last time, we’re now on what I know as the “Part 2″ episodes.

My experience seeing Part 2 in the theater was like night and day compared to seeing Part 1. For Part 1 I got to go to the midnight showing, and it was super emotional and exciting seeing it with an entire theater-worth of people also seeing it for the first time.

But for Part 2 I had to work until 1am and thus couldn’t make the midnight showing. Instead I slept for about 2-3 hours, went all the way to Nagoya, saw this at 8am, went all the way home, and went back to bed before waking up again to go to work at 4pm wondering if it was all a weird dream. So needless to say I was super out of it. I got about two minutes into Kakeru’s episode when I was like... wha... huh..... wait wha....... and comical sweat-beads started rolling down my forehead when I realized I had NO idea what was going on. I felt like the entire theater was just as out of it as I was since they were really quiet. Probably because most of them went to the midnight showing and got just about as much sleep as I did....

The whole what is going onnnnnnnn feeling never quite left me. Especially with this episode in particular. But.

My favorite feature of Kakeru has always been his eyes....

So seeing him go through 8 stages of acceptance in this opening always gives me chills....

OH MY FUCKING G..............

So in the past I have railed on Crunchyroll for their wonky wording, but this is the first outright mistranslation I think. (Unless “solid style” wasn’t on purpose, but that one was so ridiculous I kinda feel like it may have been....)

If you have seen Pride the Hero, you’ll know Kakeru doesn’t leak the Prism System to his friends. He leaks it to the Itsutomo Group.

To be fair Sadana doesn’t say Itsutomo Group here. Just Itsutomo. But still, what did the translator think the “Itsu” part meant? They leave so many things as-is, but this... THIS they decide to attempt to translate into something.

Okay. OKAY...................................

I really, really like Kakeru’s dad. But not for anything he does in the movies/anime. He’s a super boring pushover here. But if you take Young of Prism and layer it on top of all that..... he’s fucking great.

I was so out of it when I first saw this the entire natural gas plot went over my head. I was just like “Episode 5: Kakeru goes to Madagascar. Does a prism show. Then he comes back for some reason. The end?????”

I also missed the earlier reference as well. To think when Kakeru looks at the newspaper in episode 1 and is like “Natural gas is expensive!!” that was foreshadowing ahah.

So this is the most controversial part of the episode I think. Globalization/colonization/industrialism has done damage lot of nations which were just fine beforehand, and I think paving over all of Africa’s natural habitats would likely cause.... various problems.

Do I really have any right to be commentating on this? No. But I don’t think King of Prism does either. I just don’t think it’s really the time/place for it.

But all-in-all I suppose Merina’s opinion isn’t too unusual for someone who works for Juuouin Group. I just wish they made it more clearer that his opinion and not the general opinion of Madagascar.

But then again what do I know. I really don’t even want to be talking about this!! It was just such a weird choice to take this episode to Madagascar at all.

This brought me so much joy. Please go read Young of Prism if you haven’t yet.

NNghkdhgkdhg baby Kakeru................. face......... uuuUUUgfh and his cute little voice...........

I also often wonder what Kakeru was doing in Kodama’s office in the first place. He’s not actually his uncle I believe.

My headcanon is that his mother dropped him off there one day when she was busy with something and needed someone to watch him quickly, then Kodama-san’s office just gradually became Kakeru’s daycare.

In cheering people will point up one concert light shaking with increasing intensity. Usually orange because nobody knows what other color to use.

.......GGDGDGDGdksl;fl;sgs.......... AHHHHHHHHHH.....HHH........hhhhhhhhh.. K.....

Crunchyroll agrees with me that Kakeru’s father is “Momojiro”. I know that’s the most likely reading, I’m just really bothered and concerned that there is just no furigana for it anywhere.

And behold, my favorite Kakeru face of all time.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh poor baby you were so pure back then

And behold my second favorite Kakeru face of all time aahaha

Okay now is as good a time as ever to bring it up, but.

I’m a bit disappointed that young Kakeru doesn’t wear glasses.

Because most kids get glasses before middle school if they are going to get them, don’t they? It makes me worry Kakeru’s glasses are just an image thing.

I mean he’s certainly frikkin adorable without them, but I dunno.... It made me weirdly happy to learn that Hiro wears contacts in episode 1.

I just want visually impaired comrades in my anime I guess!!!

Or maybe he just went without for longer than he should have by memorizing the eye test by listening to the kid in front of him like I did.

Kakeru can you see I’m worried about you.

Okay I’ll move on......

So someone pointed this out in the stream, but he doesn’t really say “mood” here. He says “kao iro” which would translate more into like... health? I don’t know. I honestly have no idea what he was getting at and it’s always puzzled me.

Oh the controversy.....

Okay so, that whole non-issue aside. About the rest of this scene.

I am not particularly offended by it for two reasons.

First...

Kakeru’s grandfather is giving him important life advice while his face is IN A BOOB

YOU CANT TAKE THIS SHIT SERIOUSLY COME ON

King of Prism has a tenancy to pair serious moments with ridiculous visuals that nearly ruin them on purpose and it’s a whole other level of humor ahah. There is an even better example of this in the next episode.......

Secondly...

KEI-CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN

In the theater people hold up two light blue lights as soon as she rises up and then go nuts. It’s the best.

While most of the other characters were inspired by watching male prism stars like Hijiri or Rei, Kakeru watched mostly the girls and I get a kick out of that. We have already known he’s their fan for a while due to his Blowin’ in the Mind ringtone and side materials saying he has their magazines in his room, etc.

“What” - cheering audience

So if you look up “kakeru” in a Japanese-English dictionary, you’ll know it has.... a lot of meanings. And since they always write the boys’ names in katakana (to make it ambiguous I guess) you can never know for sure.

Here we confirmed for the first time it is intended to be 翔 = to fly/soar

This is a theme throughout SSS. How much Shin changed things for everyone............(I’ll come back to this)............

LOVE

So I guess when Kakeru got back from Madagascar Leo was like “So what do you want for your Prism One outfit?” and he was like “Make me a flamingo” and Leo was like “......You got it.”

Or maybe Leo was already like half done with Kakeru’s outfit and then he just burst in the door like “LEO I NEED TO BE A FLAMINGO--”

I only have one bad thing to say about Kakeru’s prism show and it has nothing to do with Kakeru’s prism show. I noticed that his legwork is really similar to Taiga’s, which was when I realized for the first time that it’s the same person doing all the motion capture. So that kind of brought me back to reality a little bit. But oh well. That person is really fucking talented.

They have been talking about Kakeru doing a prism jump where he’s naked with a pile of money for YEARS. HE DID IT. I’ve seen it in manga, I’ve seen it on Prism Rush... BUT THIS

Also how similar this is to the Prism Rush version amazes me...

CYALUME CH--

.....So I guess the translators haven’t watched PriPara either huh.

Wait is this even supposed to be for “Cyalume Change” because the subtitle is at such weird timing.

Also I felt bad afterwards about putting “CYALUME CHANGE” as one of my shitty out of context spoilers ahah. I hope I didn’t ruin it for anyone. At least I didn’t say what episode it was. My hope is that anyone who read it has been waiting to be blindsided by CYALUME CHANGE and it came at the best possible moment.

The first couple times I saw this episode I really wondered how cheering would go since so much of this episode is just business mumbo jumbo and if a lot of people would even show up for Part 2 cheering at all.

But then after about a week in I found myself waiting in the lobby before a sold out cheering show and saw a girl whip out a giant pink feathery fan.

Then the girl next to her was like hold my beer and took out a giant (fake) money fan.

Never underestimate Kakeru fangirls is a lesson I have learned over and over and over again.

A lot of people will also have three or four pink concert lights in one hand and an orange one or a color changing one in the other for this part ahah.

PAINT IT ORANGE PAINT IT ORANGE

(The lyrics to this song are nonsense. But it’s Kakeru, you can’t expect anything less.)

Prism shows with jungle animals are always a good time. (I can’t help but think of Shi Yoon.)

And there you have it, Kakeru saved the entire country of Madagascar.... with his prism show........ let’s not..... let’s not think too hard about this........

I suppose there are multiple ways this could be true so I shouldn’t be thinking too hard about this either. But.

The debut of the Leo pigtails.

Well actually I think he had them earlier in the episode too, but this was the first time I noticed.

Nothing warms my heart more than the few times Taiga throws Kakeru a bone by showing him the tiniest bit of affection. Even if it’s tsundere. Look at him. He’s just so happy. Aw Kakeru. Good for you.

I think this moment was kinda ruined by the new ending music though. In the theater it’s more quiet.

So I have always kinda felt like the Part 2 episodes are a bit weak compared with Part 1 and Part 3, but that’s probably a bit unfair considering how I experienced them. All of them grew on me more with time. It was also kind of hard coming down off of Taiga’s episode. After Taiga’s was so high tension I kinda expected the same for Kakeru too, but they went in a totally different direction. It was nothing like I thought it would be.

Before it aired I wondered if it would be about Kakeru trying to decide if spending his life in the Juuouin Group was right for him or not. And he did question it at one point when he was younger, but unless I misinterpreted it this episode was more about him loosing what he had and trying to get it back? He had doubts in his mind at one time about whether love exists, but he already came to believe it does before the events of this episode. So I guess Kakeru really has no doubt in his mind about what he wants for his future. You know, I think I like that better. I worry about him burning out with all the stuff he does, but it really does seem to be his true calling.

I find it rather sad that the Edel Rose boys never found out Kakeru’s backstory though. Instead he shares it with Merina. He couldn’t even tell them he was leaving. But then again, Minato quickly interpreted that it was probably too difficult for him, I’m sure he was right. The other boys seemed to understand and support him regardless. Kakeruuuuuuuuu...............

In side materials it’s kinda of hinted at here and there that Kakeru really wants to be more like Minato. He wants to be someone strong who supports everyone. He also really seems to not want to show any weakness to anyone, especially his friends....? (As I’m typing this I’m thinking back to the White Day event on Prism Rush when he was trying so hard to organize everything while also trying his hardest to hide that he was falling apart......) I guess he picked this up in the business world as well. Because of this I still feel there is a lot to Kakeru we still don’t know.

Well. Since I remembered this time and I liked this one: The special video for this episode that they show in the theaters has a voice over describing Kakeru’s intense schedule on a normal day.

But apparently on weekends he does no work at all. He gets caught up on manga and then plays with his friends. They showed a lot of stills of him hanging out with the Edel Rose boys, but my favorite and the one I remember the most was him playing arcade games with Shin (on a mysteriously PriPara-looking cabinet.... I think it was a fighting game though?)

Also Kakeru has a secret trunk in his room which must never be opened.

#king of prism #king of prism sss #king of prism shiny seven stars #kinpri #kakeru juuouin

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lacquerware · 6 years

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Hellblade's Language Problem

::WARNING: MANY HELLBLADE SPOILERS WITHIN::

I think I went into Hellblade with particularly well-balanced expectations. On the one hand, I had a vested interest in Ninja Theory’s success, having devoted several (rather grueling) years of my life to promoting their controversial last two titles, DmC Devil May Cry and its rerelease, DmC Devil May Cry: Definitive Edition as a community manager at Capcom. In my view, Ninja Theory greatly exceeded Capcom's and my own expectations for DmC, but they walked away from the experience dripping with rotten tomatoes from irate fans who wouldn't have been happy with any reboot of their beloved series, no matter what it did. With Hellblade, I'd wanted to see Ninja Theory get the credit I knew they'd long deserved.

On the other hand, I was also quite disappointed when NT revealed Hellblade to be a more narrative-driven piece, and I was downright worried when they still hadn’t highlighted the combat system after three or four PR beats. They were selling this game on its fancy performance capture technology and its treatment of mental psychosis, not its Smokin’ Slick Style and Just Guard mechanics. I’m fine with narrative-driven games, but there are tons of them nowadays, and NT is essentially the only Western developer to have sipped from Capcom's forbidden font of combat wisdom. NT walked away from DmC with a world-class mastery of combat design, honed under the direct tutelage of Capcom’s own Hideaki Itsuno (DMC series director and veteran fighting game dev) and his team of designers. It seemed a shame to let that mastery go underutilized.

I eventually concluded that Hellblade probably wouldn’t be the DmC-without-the-baggage follow-up I’d dreamed of, but it’d probably still excel on its own merits. In other words, I went in expecting a good game, but not expecting it to top DmC.

It pains me, then, to conclude that my experience with Hellblade was mostly just bad.

Early on in my time with Hellblade, I asked myself, “So is it ‘SEH-noo-ah’ or ‘SEN-yoo-ah’?” referring to the protagonist's name. Then one of the voices in Senua’s head called her “SEH-noo-ah.” A little later, one of the other characters calls her “SEN-yoo-ah.” Later still, Senua says her own name, pronouncing it "SEH-noo-ah." Much later, Senua’s own mother calls her “SEN-yoo-ah.” Is this inconsistent pronunciation a symptom of Senua's psychosis, or merely an oversight in the game’s voice direction? I don’t know, but I see it as symbolic of the overarching issue with Hellblade: it has a language problem.

When I say language, I’m talking about the visual, auditory, and tactile language that the game uses to guide its player. Ninja Theory took on a lofty challenge with Hellblade: to convey the experience of mental psychosis, using a video game. To be clear, psychosis is a severe mental disorder which presents the mind with vivid delusions—false sensory inputs. Video games, by definition, use sensory feedback—namely, graphics and sound—to communicate a consistent, predictable set of rules and parameters to a player. How do you simulate psychosis and make a functional game at the same time? How do you present meaningful feedback to the player while also inundating them with erroneous imagery and sound?

Ninja Theory actually found a variety of ways to do this. As they explain in the documentary included with the game, many sufferers of mental psychosis display a tendency to draw patterns and connections where none are apparent (to normoids). So essentially, they're ascribing their own rules and logic to the world. Arguably, this is what all game designers do anyway, so in that regard this premise might be surprisingly fertile ground. Indeed, we mostly see Senua’s hallucinations take recurring, systematic forms: glyphs which she must overlay with seemingly arbitrary sights in the environment; “portals” which, once passed through, reveal new avenues; and horrible humanoid demons, with whom Senua must do battle. Theoretically, these elements successfully convey Senua’s mental condition while still offering the player a “game” rather than just a series of crazy, unpredictable occurrences.

So what’s the problem?

The problem is a simple matter of execution; the game is technically flawed. Tutorial-less and HUD-less, it relies solely on subtle, in-world feedback to communicate its rules of engagement to the player, but then breaks those rules either through technical failure or conscious design choices. In a different game, I might have picked up on each bug or design issue much quicker, but because of the psychosis premise and the subtlety of the issues I faced, I found it abnormally difficult to distinguish between intended weirdness and simple video game flaws. In other words, the game isn’t just about being crazy—it is crazy.

Here are some examples:

-Early on, the game establishes that you can use the R2 button to “Focus” on certain objects in the environment to activate puzzles or audio logs. A little later, the game introduces a new type of "Focusable" object--an icon of a flame--but for some reason these objects don't respond to your Focus until you're much closer. The game betrays its established rule for how Focus works, without clearly reestablishing the new rule. I probably passed by that first flame icon five times, attempting to Focus each time but receiving no feedback. By the time I realized it was a distance issue, I’d wasted maybe thirty minutes searching for a way to progress.

-Focusing on each flame icon activates a sequence in which the environment is engulfed in an inferno, leaving you with mere seconds to run away before dying horribly. When I activated the first one, I instinctively started running in one direction, only to have the voices in Senua’s head started frantically crying, “No, not that way!” So I stopped and frantically searched for another path. Before I could find one, I died horribly. It seemed so unavoidable that for a moment I thought the death was scripted. When I realized it wasn’t and I respawned, I examined the surrounding area at my leisure and determined that, actually, there was no other path and I was running the right way. Was this a bug? Or was I now to understand that sometimes the voices in Senua’s head actively try to get her killed? I’ve since cleared the game and still don’t know….

-I encountered a bug which prevented one of the first puzzle-locked doors in the game from opening. It wasn’t totally clear that solving the puzzle was supposed to unlock that specific door, so I found myself wandering back and forth across the vast section of the map available to me at the time. Additionally, there were music cues which played upbeat, intense music within a specific radius (which didn’t even contain the door in question), and cut off abruptly the instant I stepped outside that radius. I scoured every inch again and again. After close to an hour of wandering and scouring, I googled it in exasperation and discovered it was simply a door bug. The music was just completely arbitrary. Unforgivable in a game that demands you take unexplainable sights and sounds at face value.

-One section of the game introduces a light/darkness mechanic. You must stand in the light at all times—either by carrying a torch or standing in designated illuminated areas—or you will die horribly within seconds. In one such instance, a fight sequence breaks out while you're carrying a torch. Senua subtly drops the torch on the ground as the fight begins, and a grueling battle ensues. When it ends, darkness floods your surroundings, and if you don’t think to retrieve the dropped torch, you die horribly within seconds. But what was illuminating us during the fight sequence, and why did it stop after I won? When the darkness came, my instinct was to run, which of course got me killed. I had to repeat the entire fight.

-The boss which follows the darkness segments has the ability to spew darkness (shoutout to DmC’s Hunter). Visually, this darkness looks just like the darkness which causes you to die horribly within seconds elsewhere, so the natural assumption is that you must scramble to find the light. This proved not to be true; rather, the darkness simply makes it dark, which sucks because it’s hard to see. Lol.

-The glyph puzzles, which I felt the game leaned on way too much, were extremely finicky. I often found myself desperately trying to line up the overlay with its apparent environmental counterpart, only to be denied feedback. “Guess I’m barking up the wrong tree,” I’d say, and search elsewhere. Eventually I’d circle back and retry for lack of any better ideas, and finally I would land upon the precise footing that triggered the game’s acknowledgement of my solution. Because of this finicky detection, it frequently took me upwards of thirty minutes to execute a solution I’d figured out in five. These moments deeply hurt the game’s immersion—it’s hard to believe someone tormented by voices and haunted by hellspawn would spend this long lining up glyphs with such surgical precision. I felt neither crazy nor like a warrior; I felt like a child with a defective issue of Highlights Magazine.

Weirdly, in other cases the game would give me credit just for glancing in the general direction of a solution I hadn’t actually noticed yet.

By the time the credits rolled, I’d experienced so many baffling inconsistencies in the game’s communication that the whole thing just felt like a misfire.

Now look--I’ve been known to both overthink things and not be very smart, so I don’t imagine everyone will have the experience I had. In fact, I googled “hellblade frustrating” just to see, and was shocked to find that all of the results were about how frustrating the combat was. I actually found the combat to be Hellblade’s saving grace—satisfying, consistent, and almost perfectly balanced thanks to a God Hand-style difficulty auto-balancing feature. The camera worked against me in a few situations, but most fights left me feeling like I’d beaten dire odds, and certainly made me sympathize more with Senua’s plight than the mundane action of lining up Viking runes with wooden scaffolding.

The moral of Hellblade’s tale seems to be that Senua won’t “cure” her psychosis, but that she can heal by learning to accept it as a part of who she is and coexisting with it. After finishing the game, it occurred to me that I would almost certainly have a better time with Hellblade on a second playthrough. Those bugs and flaws would still be there, but I’d know about them and be able to anticipate them. There’s an obvious parallel here. I don’t think it’s intentional (though the idea of “bad design by design” does intrigue me), but I think there’s some poetry in the notion that we can apply Hellblade’s lessons to itself.

All that aside, I appreciate what Ninja Theory has done to advance the conversation on mental health and develop a template for their "AAA indie" model. Hats off.

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