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papayatori · 3 months

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Don’t Blink! (P3)

LN4 x fém!reader

No warnings

I’m not sure how long I’m going to carry on this series, I guess it depends on how well it does. I’ve got nothing but positives so far, so I hope it stays that way. I also take requests! Feel free to leave me some! (This one is kind of shorter, I’m sorry. Longer one next time!)

My alarm interrupted my peaceful sleeping. I was beyond pissed and could have thrown it across the room had it not simply been doing its God-forsaken job. I decided that, at the ungodly hour of 7am on a Saturday, that I would get up and make breakfast like normal human beings usually do.

How incredibly jealous I was of said human beings.

In about thirty minutes, I had started things in the kitchen. I had my morning cup of Chai and was ready to take on the world; and by the world, I meant the frying pan.

Pancakes were a delicacy that could not be coveted, an art that took decades to master. Pancakes with bacon were even better. Not to mention, keeping my apartment from burning down as an added plus. With that said, I gave all of my attention to the stovetop.

After a long battle with the floury pancake mix and attempting to turn it into a batter(there was now a huge mess to clean up later, yet another reason I have yet to master the art of pancake making), I had finally managed to have a breakfast fit for a king.

Or better yet, a breakfast fit for me.

I had decided to leave the mess to clean up later, I was hungry and it could wait. Though, I was proud of myself and couldn’t help but snap a picture of my breakfast and post it on Twitter.

I ate in a comfortable and relaxing silence. I had earned this after yesterday. Though, I hadn’t really stumbled upon last nights memories until now. Lando and I had texted for a while after I had gone to bed, him insisting that I never answered his ‘question’. At first I was really sure what he meant, but then I had come to the realization that he was asking when our next date was.

Silly me.

I would be lying if the thought of our time yesterday hadn’t sent me into a mess of smiles and butterflies every time I thought of it. Sure, I had always found Lando attractive, but never had I thought anything more than that. Why would I? I hadn’t met him until yesterday.

I’m starting to believe I might be going insane, and I will be blaming Lando for legal purposes.

Ding!

Startled, I looked down at my phone. I usually didn’t get many replies on Twitter, this was new.

And you didn’t invite me? I thought we were friends 💔

At first I was confused as hell, and then I read the name of the person who had replied.

Lando Norris

I shook my head with a small smile spreading across my lips. I wasn’t sure how he managed to find my social media, or why for that matter, but I suppose it wouldn’t have been too hard. I decided to reply anyway.

Maybe next time Mr. Norris

…

My laptop open, camera plugged in, I knew for a fact that these were going to be the easiest photos I’d ever edited. I plopped myself back down on my couch, satisfied with my breakfast and cleanup afterwards, one hindered percent determined to be productive today.

Woo hoo!

Okay, maybe that was a bit of sarcasm. Though, i wasn’t lying about these photos being easy to edit. The hard part, however, would be keeping my eyes off of Lando’s face for long enough to edit his photos.

Who knew such a thing could be so insanely difficult.

It was honestly frustrating trying to keep my mind away from him. I’ve dated my fair share of men, and I don’t think I’ve ever had this much trouble keeping my thoughts in check. This also begs the question, what exactly were we now? I’m not sure if our date had any romantic implications in the first place. He could have just been being friendly. I would be a fool to mention it.

A knock on the door pulled me completely out of my rambling thoughts, and a part of me was thankful. I got up to open it, curious as who the hell could be knock in on my door at 9am.

The door revealed the most beautiful pair of blue-green eyes I had ever seen.

“I brought you things!” Lando said excitedly, not waiting on me to let him in a pushing past me to the table in my kitchen.

“Good morning to you too, Lando.” I chuckled, following closely after him.

“So, first things first. I’m mad at you.” Lando pushed his bottom lip out, giving me a pout I couldn’t help but giggle at.

“And why would that be, Mr. Norris?” He glared at me.

“You know exactly why I’m mad at you.” He clicked his tongue. “Fortunately for you, that isn’t why I am here.” I tilted my head, urging him to continue.

Lando pulled some bits of paper out of the sack I hadn’t realized he was holding. His eyes were too much of a distraction for me to even notice. He smiled then, holding my gaze for a little longer than I had anticipated before finally breaking the silence once more.

“Sign these.” He slid the papers towards me.

“What am I signing exactly?” I asked. As he handed me the pen, our fingertips touched for a moment, sending electricity through my body. My face heated up and I reverted my eyes back down to the paper to keep from falling into his.

“It’s a contract. I worked my magic with Zak, you’re welcome, and he’s written up an official agreement for you to work for McLaren.”

“You’re lying.” I gasped, reading through the paper that said just about the exact same thing Lando had just described to me. “I thought you were joking.”

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up like that, not even after you had pancakes without me.” I rolled my eyes at his smirking figure. I ignored his comment.

“I just can’t believe it’s actually happening. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted something like this.” This time I looked up at Lando with the biggest, genuine smile he’s ever seen me wear, and instead of smirking, he actually gave me a genuine smile back.

“I’m sure you can believe this then.” He reached further down into the back, balling it up afterwards. “Paddock pass for Bahrain. You won’t need to worry about the flight or the hotel situation, you’re going to be staying in the same one as Oscar and myself. I think Zak will probably also be there this time around seeing as it’s the first race of the season.”

Before I could really think about what I was doing, my arms were wrapped around him in a tight embrace. He was quite taller than me, leaving my face buried into his chest. His muscles were tense, slowly easing as he wrapped his arms around my waist.

“Thank you, Lando.” I mumbled, my voice muffled from his chest.

“Anything for you, darling.”

Coming to my senses, I pulled away a bit quicker than I would have liked.

“Fuck, I’m sorry-“

Lando was laughing at me now, probably seeing how red my face was.

“I got a bit excited.” I continued to try and explain myself without sounding like a fan.

Well, I was a fan, but that was beside the point.

“Just don’t get so excited that you forget to sign those papers, Miss y/ln.” I looked down at them to find that he was right, I really had forgotten to sign the papers.

His hand squeezed my shoulder as I was writing, causing me to hesitate slightly before continuing. His touch sent waves of heat through me, heat that I could explain but most definitely couldn’t deny either.

I looked up at him when I finished, praying my face wouldn’t give away the things his touch did to me. He smiled sweetly.

“I can’t wait for next week.” He said, as if he were the one who had just signed contract papers with McLaren as their primary photographer.

“Neither can I.”

…

“This picture? Really?” Lando gave me a look as we pulled my laptop away from me on the couch. I should’ve learned my lesson last time he took something from me, but apparently I had not.

“I like that one! It brings out your eyes.” I stated proudly. He smirked.

“You like my eyes, do you?” I paused, not expecting for that sort of question after the moments we had spent in the kitchen.

“Maybe, maybe not; but one thing is for certain, and that is that the LN4 Twitter fan girls are infatuated with them, and that’s all I need for my entire career to blow up.”

Who was I trying to fool, myself? Lando sent me a knowing look.

“Staring contest, go!” I was completely caught off guard by this, not prepared in the slightest.

His eyes bore into my own, blinding me without any light whatsoever. They were full of so many emotions that I couldn’t place, though the joy behind his iris’s couldn’t be contained. I almost smiled at the thought that maybe I was the reason behind the joy he was feeling.

Don’t blink

I lost myself in his eyes, in my thoughts, perfectly content to stare into him for the rest of our time together. I hadn’t realized that that we had slowly drifted towards each other, my mouth parted slightly in instinctive anticipation. Was this really happening?

Then he stuck is tongue out at me.

I blinked in confusion at first, laughing at his action before realizing I had lost the staring contest.

“Oh fuck off!” I laughed, throwing on of the couch pillows at him.

“You’re just mad because I’m right!” He laughed along with me, seeing the dawning look of realization grow on my face.

The only reason we had a staring contest was just for him to prove the fact that I liked his eyes. This bastard knew what he was doing. Honestly, I was starting to like that.

Or maybe I was just starting to like him.

…

The late afternoon had rolled around after spending the entire day joking around with Lando.

So much for being productive.

I led him to the door on his way out. I’m not really sure why I didn’t want him to leave; but, his presence sure beat the hell out of being lonely and editing his photos all day.

“Thanks for today, I had a lot of fun.” I said, giving him a small smile as a thanks. He chuckled.

“So did I, other than the part where I didn’t get pancakes.” I rolled my eyes before an idea popped into my head.

“If you won’t hold this over my head anymore, maybe you could come over for breakfast tomorrow morning?” Proud of myself, I gave him a wink. He blanked, surprised I even offered.

“Sure! As long as I can consider it our second date.”

“A deals a deal.” I offered him my hand. He shook it with a triumphant smile, bringing my hand to his lips before gently kissing the back of it.

“I suppose I’ll see you in the morning then, darling.”

And with that, he was gone and the door had shut behind him. The only thing he left behind was the faint scent of his cologne.

#don’t blink #f1 x y/n #f1 x you #f1 x reader #f1 imagine #f1 fic #f1 fanfic #mclaren formula 1 #fanfic #ln4 x y/n #ln4 fluff #ln4 imagine #lando x you #ln4 fic #lando norris #lando x reader #ln4 #ln4 x reader #ln4 x you

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poppy-metal · 2 years

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Camp counselor Nancy is very by-the-book, while you and Robin are a lot more relaxed. Hey, maybe if you break enough rules, counselor Nancy will punish you for being bad

me writing a whole thing.

The water is warm and nice, you think you’re happy to have fucked off and left the kids to nancy. Its nighttime anyway, they’ll all be in bed soon. You just wanted a moment to yourself, without that stuck up priss rolling her eyes at you.

“What’re you doing?” a voice calls, and you groan from where you'd been floating on your back. Nancy wheeler is standing at the edge of the dock, in a a jean skirt and a pink blouse, frowning out at you with her pouty glossed lips. Her stupid little clipboard is still in her hand.

You tread water to her until youre at the edge of the dock, gripping it and peering up at her with a grin, “having fun, wheeler. Heard of it?"

You see a flush rise to her cheeks, her blue eyes narrowing down, “you’re naked.”

Something about embarrassing nancy wheeler thrills you, you use the grip you have on the ledge to pull yourself up a little, so the tops of your breasts break the surface of the water, nipples hardening in the night air. You see her eyebrow twitch. “Excellent observation, nance. Its called skinny dipping.” you suddenly grab her ankle, “you should try it.”

She stiffens, expression bleeding all expression and going cold and impassive, “dont be ridiculous” she snaps, trying to shake your grip off her. “I just came to look for you because you were absent during dinner.”

You feel your heart skip a beat, “awe. Did you miss me that bad?”

She rolls her eyes, “as if. It was your turn to do cleanup. Im assuming this little side quest was purposeful?” she drags her eyes across the lake in a bored manner.

“Ill clean when im done.” you say, “m’not even pruned up yet.”

She finally succeeds in shaking your hand off her ankle, stepping back. Her lips curl, “typical,” she mutters and you frown.

“What?”

She shakes her head, “its just so you to push aside your responsibilities. I dont even know why you’re here, you dont take anything serious. You’re a joke.”

Her words hit their mark. You’d just wanted to have some fun and she’d gone and ruined it. Youd show her a joke. You wrap your hand around her ankle again, small and delicate just like the rest of her, “wanna see something really funny?”

Her eyes flare, “dont. Dont you da-”

Her words are cut off by you pulling her into the water. Her clipboard clatters onto the deck as she fumbles and topples into the lake. You’re already laughing by the time she pops back up, her perfectly styled hair now a wet mess atop her head, though it annoys you that shes still so pretty.

Her glare could melt Antarctica, you think. Or create a second ice age, with how frosty it is.

“You’re such a bitch.”

Your eyes widen, “oh my god. She curses!”

You’re rewarded with a splash of water in your face, she doesnt look amused. Little nancy wheeler is fuming. “What is wrong with you?”

You sober. “Nothing.”

She shakes her head, little flecks of water flying. “No, i mean it. You’ve had it out for me since the moment summer started. I want to know why? What did i do to you?”

You tread water a little bit back from her, looking off to the side, shrugging, “dunno, really. You’re just….”

“Im just.” she grits, “what.”

You fling your arms up, “you're just such a goddamn priss! With that godforsaken clipboard and your rules and commands, s’like you don’t even know what fun is. Wouldnt know it if it sat on your face.”

She looks at you for awhile. Shes unfairly pretty. “Alot of people think that,” she finally says, almost softly. She sighs, “its so fucking annoying.”

You blink. Woah. the second curse of the night.

You blink as she wades closer, closing the distance between you a little, “i like rules.” she says, “they’re there for a reason. To keep the children safe. They arent a joke. And despite what you might think, i know how to have fun. Just because its not with you doesnt give you the right to pass judgment onto me.”

“You? Know how to have fun? Are pigs flying?” you cup a hand over your eyes as you peer up into the starry sky, pretending to look. “Where?”

Nancy is rolling her eyes again, turning back to the deck to haul herself up.

You follow her. The mood had been ruined anyway.

Water drips from her body and her blouse sticks to her body. You can see her nipples poke through the fabric and she frowns, sighing before shes taking the wet shirt off, and then you’re really gawking, as she shimmies out of her jean skirt.

Shes wearing abhorrently girly underwear. Your cunt pulses anyway as she lays the skirt and blouse out on the deck. She glances at you, “where are your clothes?”

You blankly motion in the direction of a pile of your clothes at the bank of the lake. She goes to get them and you gape as she slips into your shirt and steps into your shorts.

“Um.”

She squeezes water out of her hair, “you pulled me into the lake against my will. If you dont want me to report you, you’ll shut up.”

“W-what amd i supposed to wear.”

She points to her still wet clothes, “those. When they dry.”

“Im supposed to stay here until then?!”

She shrugs. “Not my problem”

“Nancy. Come on-”

“No” she takes a step towards you, “im done. Do you understand? This stupid little rivalry you want with me ends here and now. Im not engaging with you. Its stupid and juvenile and beneath me. You’re beneath me. If you try to cross me again, ill make you regret it. You can try to underestimate that, but i promise ill make you. Fucking. Cry. dont test me.”

You dont know why you do it. If you’re being honest, you’ve been turned on since she came up to the dock. Youve had a thing for her for awhile. You wonder what it says about you that this is turning you on so much.

Either way, you’re both surprised when you lean in and kiss her.

You feel her stiffen, feel her hands rise as if to push you away and you close your eyes, prepared to be slapped.

She kisses you back.

Her small hands grip your wet hips and shes backing you up a few steps until your back is pressed against one of the beams on the dock. You gasp against her mouth when shes shoving a leg between your naked thighs, right up against your little pussy.

She pulls back. Her eyes look like they’re on fire. Or on ice.

“So thats why.” she says, almost to herself.

You blink a little dumbly, still stuck on the fact that shes just cornered you and shoved her thigh between your legs. Its still there. “Huh?”

“You’re pulling my pigtails because you have a crush.” she deadpans. She looks decidedly unimpressed. “Thats such a guy thing to do,” her knee dig up, right against your cunt, “is that you? Are you an immature little boy?”

You shake your head dumbly, “no”

“No?” she parrots, grinding the ridge of her knee into you. Your legs are shaking. “No i guess not. That cunt is unmistakable.”

She pulls back a little to look between your bodies, and you gasp when one of her fingers come down to pull back the hood covering your clit, pressing the pad of her thumb on the engorged center of you, “guess you’re more like a misbehaved puppy.”

“Nancy” you whine, hips bucking.”

“Nancy now? Where’s priss? Princess? Stuck up bitch?” with every word she rolls your clit around with her thumb, rocking you back and forth on her denim clad knee. Your denim shes wearing. “Im gonna tell you a secret”

She lets you hump her leg for a bit, the lips of your cunt spread lewdly as you grind down for some kind of friction or relief. Her hand reaches up to wind in your wet hair, yanks your head back so your neck is exposed to her mouth. She nips and sucks at the flesh as you gasp and mewl for her.

She licks the mark she left on your throat, “id know a good time if it sat on my face. Id tongue fuck that good time sooooo nice. Give her my fingers. Let her ride me. Cause this princess has a cock she likes to use. Likes when cute little girls like you spread your little cunt for me to fuck.”

As soon as she was on you, shes off, the pressure on your cunt gone as she backs up.

She smiles primly.

“Too bad you’re on my bad side now. We could’ve had so much fun.” she spins around, waving as she skips away, “see you!’

#ask #wow #nancy wheeler x reader #nancy wheeler smut #nanch wheeler fanfic #stranger things x reader

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smuttysabina · 1 year

Text

Chaelisa "Chella Action

(Lisa x Rose, 800 words) Lisa and Rose have fun at Coachella Tags: Lesbian action, Dialogue, Fisting, brief vomiting, cumplay, harsh language

"Really Lisa?"

"What, Rose?"

"This is the best you could find?"

"Hey, I don't want to hear any complaints, this is the best one I could get that was... unspoiled."

"Where did you even find it anyways?"

"Passed out next to the main stage, I think she missed him since he was unconscious."

"Well judging by the screaming Jennie is still going at it."

"Mhmm, so be happy we don't get her sloppy seconds for once, this one is fresh!"

"I'm surprised you didn't just grab some of her leftovers, considering what a perverted whore you are, you should like cleaning up after your betters."

"Wow fuck you too bitch, at least I'm not a sadistic... oh, shut up, shut up, he's waking up! Ahem- Hello there, how are you feeling, good? Oh don't bother getting up silly, we'll be joining you down there soon enough."

"Ugh, do we really have to fuck him in the dirt?"

"Its COACHELLA, everything is covered in dirt!"

"Well some of us, dislike rutting on the ground like animals!"

"Okay, then go find a fucking clean mattress then, I'll be busy enjoying myself."

"FINE. But I get to go first."

"Um, no. I don't want you to ruin him like you do with all of your... slaves. The last one was literally jizzing blood!"

"Oh please, you were just on your period Lisa, and anyways I don't want your filthy cunt juices smeared all over my... dildo."

"Heh, you were going to say 'slave' weren't you?"

"Its called wordplay whore, maybe you should figure it out before writing another song."

"....Ouch"

"..."

"Okay, I'm sorry, that was a little too harsh."

"It's fine, that just means I get to go first. God you are so easy to manipulate, its a wonder you manage to domme anyone at all..."

"Hey!"

"Too late! Hello again my darling little pet, ready to make my insides all juicy? Don't mind Rose there, she's just mad about going last! So make sure to fuck me good and proper, if you cum before I do, I'll make sure you get it up again..."

"..."

"What's wrong Rose, still mad that you're going to be cleaning up after me again? You can just stand there and watch as I ride- wait Rose. What are you doing back there with your hand? Wait, no. Get lube you idiot! Get lube! LUBE! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHH!"

"Oh shut up you slut, I know you love it rough. This is payback for earlier, whore"

"Oh fuck... Rose I can feel your fist in my stomach... oh god I'm gonna! Blooooargh!"

"That's disgusting! Could you not puke everywhere like a cheap whore? You really do deserve to get fucked on the ground you filthy animal."

"Hah- I- hah, I don't want to hear that from the fucking bitch who just shoved her arm up my ass!"

"Lisa, you came like twice from this, don't deny you're not enjoying this."

"Urrrgh, I'm going to force feed you so much cum after this you bitch..."

"I'd love to see you try, by the time I'm done with you I doubt your loose holes will be able to hold anything in them at all!"

"Ghurk Ghurk Ghurk GHUAH! Is that all you've got Rose, I've fucked virgins who could plow me harder than that!"

"...Um Lisa."

"Huh...? What?"

"Look down."

"...Oh, he passed out again."

"...Did he finish?"

"Hmm.... yup I can feel his load in there! I guess he came so hard he blacked out!"

"Pfffft, you really do suck at choosing fuck meat!"

"Yeah yeah I don't want to hear it! Also uh, Rose?"

"Yes Lisa?"

"Want to keep fisting me?

"Sigh, fine. But only if you eat me out afterwards."

"Deal! And you can degrade me all you want and shit while I'm doing it."

"You do know how to push my buttons don't you?"

"Oh yeah, and afterwards, want to try and find some more pets? Surely Jennie can't fuck her way through all of them!"

"With Jisoo helping her out? Seriously?"

"Well I guess we can be on cleanup duty again..."

"Are you fine with sloppy seconds?"

"Are you really asking me that?"

"Fine, as long as you clean them off first for me..."

"Rose dear, I always do. Now shouldn't you be, um?"

"Oh right! Only if you ask nicely though, Lisa."

"I hate you."

"That works!"

"OH FUCK! HARDER ROSE HARDER!"

#blackpink smut #rose smut #lisa smut #chaelisa #blackpink #Smut

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mamawasatesttube · 10 months

Note

38 for the dialogue prompt… maybe with some bart and kon?

also prompted by an anon!

38. "I'm going to be sick."

There are upsides to getting sent to New Orleans to deal with a surprise villain attack, starring Metallo. Like the pecan pralines from this one shop near the French Quarter that Wally has never shut up about since Bart's known him. Or the cajun fries. Or the beignets.

There are also downsides. Like the heat and the humidity. Seriously, how does anyone live down here? Running interference, and then helping with cleanup, has never been sweatier. Why'd that asshole have to damage so many buildings, anyway?

At least Café du Monde is still intact. Rob promised he'd buy everyone beignets and coffee when everything's settled, and Bart's gonna hold him to that.

...Except that right now, he kinda doesn't want to eat. Probably 'cuz it's so hot out. But it is kinda weird to not be hungry after a big battle.

Oh well. Shit needs doing, so shit's gotta get done, and Bart's gonna be a shit-doer. He chugs some tepid water from the bottle at his hip, grimaces as nausea pulses through his stomach, and starts to run again.

Five minutes later, his legs give out.

It comes as a shock: one moment he's moving some debris to free a couple trapped cars in an alleyway, and the next, his leg cramps up so bad that for a second he swears he's just gotten shot again, and he goes crashing to the ground before he even realizes he's falling.

What the fuck?!

Sweaty, exhausted, nauseous, in pain, and miserable, Bart gives up. Something's wrong, but he can't figure out what. Someone else can handle that; he digs his thumbs into the meat of his calf and whines, "Kooooon..."

A whoosh of air and a red, blue, and black blur drop out of the sky almost instantly. Kon, damn his Kryptonian genes, isn't sweating at all; his cyan gaze pierces right through Bart as he drops to his knees next to him. "Imp! What's the matter?"

Bart groans, stomach churning. His leg still hurts like a bitch. "I think," he says, "I'm gonna be sick." He whines again.

Kon's eyes widen. He reaches for Bart's shoulders to help him sit up, then hisses. "Shit, dude, you're burning up! Have you had any water?"

Bart nods miserably. Now why the hell is he shivering? That seems wrong. Uuugghhh, he's so nauseous. "Jus' a minute ago. Made me feel more sick. I don't think water's supposed to do that. It's just so fucking hoooot..."

"Oh, man. Okay. I think you're overheating, buddy." Kon exhales slowly; the air he blows out over Bart's face is blessedly cool, and Bart almost topples over from his precarious sitting position just trying to lean further into it. "Yup, okay. Gotta get you somewhere cooler."

"But... the cleanup," Bart balks.

"Dude." Kon gives him a disappointed look—aw, beans, that's his disappointed Ma Kent look. Bart would squirm under his gaze, if he wasn't so close to puking. "It's, like, literally a hundred and ten degrees out, and super humid, and you've always run hot even without strenuous shit like a villain fight. Muscle cramps? Nausea? Feeling faint? Classic symptoms of heat exhaustion."

As he speaks, he gathers Bart up in his arms; Bart whines again, just to reiterate that this sucks balls, but then a tendril of TTK works its way along his cramping leg and presses in against his aching muscle just right, and he shuts up instantly. Fuuuck, that feels good.

"What are you?" he mumbles, a full second or two late. "WebMD? Why do you know all that off the top of your head?"

Kon snorts. He blows cool air against Bart's sticky forehead again, rising into the air in a smooth arc (Bart appreciates that, because neither of them would have a good time if he emptied his stomach all over them both mid-flight). "Imp, c'mon. They programmed field medicine into my head back in the tube, man."

"Oh." Bart huffs. "That makes sense." He lets his head loll against Kon's shoulder as Kon picks up speed; the Mississippi River sparkles in the sun far below. "Where're we going?"

"Back to base," Kon answers. The air up here is cooler; Bart sighs in relief. "You're gonna sit in a cool shower, and I'm getting you some Gatorade."

Kon's always so good at taking care of him, Bart thinks. His leg already feels way better. Of course, he can't just say that normally. "Okay, mom."

Kon scoffs. "Excuse me for being a good friend who worries about you!"

"You're excused," Bart assures him, closing his eyes.

For a few moments, the whistling of the wind is the only sound. Then Bart heaves a massive sigh.

"Hey, Kon?"

"Yeah, bud?"

"I still want beignets later. Can you make sure Rob remembers?"

Kon's rumble of laughter reverberates through his chest as the clouds pass them by. "Yeah, Imp," he promises. "I'll be sure to let him know."

#kon #bart #konbart #rimi writes #nola my beloved city. horrible summers #nightmareinfloral

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letitrainathousandflames · 2 months

Text

Rating: Mature

Word Count: 3.9 K

Character: CC-2224 | Cody, CC-5052 | Bly, Aayla Secura (mentioned)

Warnings: Major Character Death

Additional Tags: angst, drinking, suicide, grief, order 66 aftermath, major character death, post traumatic stress disorder - ptsd, canon divergence

Section Nine, Paragraph Twelve of the Clone Army’s Code of Conduct:

Should a unit, hereby referred to as “Clone”, suffer malfunction and self-destruct, their superior officer, preferably their Commander, must carry out cleanup of the remains and have your medic issue the following report:

“Clone trooper [insert number identification] has suffered a sudden illness and the medical team onsite was unable to resurrect him. The Clone Trooper’s time of death was [appropriate designation of time and date of the occurrence]”

Mental malfunctions are a non-standard deviancy from the norm, as all clones are design to withstand any amount of stress. Therefore, the body of a clone deceased in such manner must be immediately removed from the scene and shipped back to Kamino for further analysis of its anomalies.

Cody wakes up at what he is certain to be three, maybe four in the morning, which means he has only two or one more hour to sleep before he has to wake up, cranky and exhausted, only to then force his equally cranky and exhausted men to get up themselves as well.

Something feels weird. A buzz in the back of his brain. General Kenobi had once mentioned that, while not all beings could wield the Force like Jedi and Sith did, it did surround every living creature, even those as unusual as clones.

He would often say, too, that the creeping shiver Cody would feel up his spine whenever they set foot in a dangerous place could very well be a manifestation of the Force itself. A warning that reached the very core of his being.

Cody finds himself in the mess hall minutes later, dressed only in his blacks and boots, too tired to care for the proper use of uniform attire even though he was the Marshall commander and should lead by example. His commlink is still in his pocket, just in case any kind of emergency pops up. It’s not like anyone would be awake at this time anyway, not after that endless campaign in Cato Nemodia from which the 2224 had finally returned.

He realizes he’s wrong when he sets foot in the mess, only to see captain Rex sitting at one of the tables with a steaming cup between his hands. Rex is as careless as Cody himself, dressed in his Blacks and boots, his cropped blond hair a couple of inches longer than the Captain would usually keep it.

“Codes.” It’s murmured at him with a nod, and Cody takes a moment to fill his own cup before sitting in front of Rex “Sleepless?”

Cody nods, taking in Rex’s features. He looks positively shitty, bags under his eyes, five ‘o’clock shadow darkening his features and a gaze that said Rex was more sleep than awake at the moment.

Cody is pleased that he hadn’t seen a mirror in a long while, because he can’t be really sure he’s looking any better than that. Odds are that he’s looking even worse. He nods instead of answering, and Rex sighs.

“Heard you got captured. Are you alright, brother?”

A quick memory flashes through Cody’s head. The crack of a whip, screamed threats. Two of his fingers being pulled too far back until a nauseating crack came, followed by Cody’s own ragged yelling.

“Had worse.” He shrugs, downing a big gulp of too-bitter caf “General Kenobi got to me before they could quite get started.”

A troubled look passes through Rex’s expression, a slight tremor of his right cheek. Cody had seen the scars on Rex’s back in the showers, and he was honestly relieved that the men who captured him had only a bantha leather whip. Whatever those Zyguerrians had used on Rex had cut him almost all the way down to muscle tissue.

“Want me to fill in on anything for you tomorrow?” Rex offers, looking down to his cup “My general will be busy with, uh... some security detail duty for a senator so I’m mostly free.”

Cody shakes his head, drinking another sip with a grimace.

“Nah, I’m good. Life goes on, vod’ika.”

That was the last conversation he had with Rex before he got shipped away along with Commander Tano.

Before Order Sixty-Six happened.

Cody sits on that very same chair, looking at the empty space where Rex had been sitting on that very night one year ago. So much had changed since then. The Republic, now the Empire. The Chancellor, now his Emperor. His targets, now the men that had once been the generals leading his army.

It’s a sleepless night once more, this time due to the recurring dreams of his first – presumably dead – Jedi target. Obi-Wan Kenobi, falling from an incredible height, crashing into the waters below, disappearing in its depths…

Why does he keep thinking about it? He’s starting to look like-

Cody’s commlink rings, and he picks up the call.

“CC-2224…” he starts, trailing off once he recognizes one of his brothers’ voice; one that would often call him with questions they were never meant to ask themselves, or anyone else “Ah, it’s you.”

“Hey Cod- CC-2224.” Says CC-5052, sounding just as tired as the time demands one to be “Can you do me a favor? I won’t be able to take the men to that incursion on Dantooine.”

“I can’t keep covering for you, CC-5052. Get your act together for once. I don’t need more slacking clones now, with all this talking of phasing us out of active duty. Nothing’s stopping the brass from just kicking us all out in the street and replace us with those volunteers, and we need to show that we are still as useful as we were back in the clone wars.”

There is a pause, so long that Cody wonders if 5052 is still on the line. Then…

“Cody…” another drawn out pause “Don’t you ever think that what we did was…?“

“Silence!” Cody hisses, face tightening in anger “Kriff, 5052, how many times do I have to tell you not to talk about your- your deviant thoughts over the comms?! Just- Just hang up, get to your bunk, go to sleep…”

“I’m not at the base.” The drawl on the clone’s voice is much clearer to Cody now. he isn’t sleepy, he is drunk “I’m not coming back.”

Cody is aboard a transport headed to the location pinged from the other clone’s commlink within minutes, knowing that the missed sleeping hours are gonna be sorely missed at the meeting later that day.

He walks into the cheap hotel, places a hand on the grip of the blaster on his holster to get the flustered desk worker to let him in without a warning, climbs the creaky stairs and tests the old mechanical lock on the door, noticing it is unlocked.

He can hear the voice of a woman inside the room. His hand goes to his blaster, unfastening his holster. He slowly pushes the door open as its hinges whine in protest, and then he realizes that the voice isn’t clear enough to be a person’s. It is a recording.

“fifty-two?” he calls out, stepping in the room “Don’t waste my time, I have a meeting in three hours and I should be asleep.”

His eyes quickly assess the small room, his gaze being drawn to the small holoprojector placed on top of the desk in front of the opposite wall where an armored clone sits. The desk is pretty much covered in over a dozen bottles of different cheap alcoholic drinks, some of them tipped on their side, almost all of them either empty or half-empty. The shards of a bottle that must have rolled over are littered by the left side of the desk.

The old blinds are drawn on the window at the end of the room, shrouding the place in darkness. The only sources of light are the semitransparent blue hue of the holoprojection, and the rectangles of light cutting into the room through the broken horizontal blinds.

Cody walks further in, now recognizing the woman in the recording, a tall, blue-skinned twi’lek dressed in a brown headpiece, pants, a short top, and an open cloak. The recording seems to have been made with the camera of a trooper’s helmet, judging for the medium quality of the projection.

Cody knows the woman. She had been a Jedi General during the Clone Wars, and became a traitor to the empire near its very end. Her assigned clone battalion as successfully carried out her elimination in Felucia exactly one year ago.

“Alright, so we have Korin, Mar’eti or T’aleh. Which one do you like best?”

The twi’lek is grinning at the person filming her, and a clone’s laugh comes in response.

“Any name you pick will be good.”

The Twi’lek laughs at that, shaking her head and reaching her hands towards the camera. The image shakes, and the camera is moved until it is placed at their bodies’ height, most likely a crate, given the background that seems to be the weapons’ depot of a Venator-class Star Destroyer.

“Are you sure you’re okay, love?”

The clone, now helmetless and in view of the camera smiles brightly. His cheeks have yellow-colored tattoos and his hair is shaven close to his scalp.

“I’m still getting used to the thought that I’m going to be a father. It’s… it’s incredible.”

The twi’lek laughs again, this time nervously, her hands dropping to her stomach.

“I don’t know what we are going to do.” Her smile falters, vanishes “How are we going to raise a child in this war?”

The trooper gently cups her face in his hands, pressing a delicate kiss to her lips.

“Don’t worry about that. The war will be over before our kid arrives. We’re closing in on the Seppies, this whole mess is almost over, and our baby will grow up in a peaceful galaxy.”

There is a small beat of silence, and the twi’lek raises her arms to hug the clone, huffing out a long sigh.

“I won’t abandon my duty as a Jedi. I can’t. Even after the war is over, I will still be a Jedi. You understand that, don’t you, Bly?”

The clone pulls back just about enough to look down at the Twi’lek’s face and nod.

“I wouldn’t ask you to.”

“I might be called to aid others all the way across the galaxy, and I can’t refuse.”

“We will follow you wherever you go. Me and our ad’ika. We’ll make this work. Haven’t we made this work so far?”

“Commander?” another clone’s voice pipes up from afar, and the clone hastily grabs his helmet, placing it back on his head and cutting off the recording

“Just a moment, trooper!”

The recording stops there, and a different one starts. The background is different this time – colorful trees and leaves all around the Commander’s vision of the same commander.

“I have a bad feeling about this.” The Twi’lek says, looking around warily

Hundreds of clones seem to be lining in formations, preparing to an attack. AT-STs are being prepped and yelled orders fly through the air.

“We’ll be fine.” The Commander says, placing a gloved hand on the Jedi’s shoulder, his voice then dropping to a whisper that crackles on its way out of his vocoder “Aayla. Cyare. Please let me lead this time—”

“No.” the answer is firm, the Jedi’s eyes sharp and her posture commanding “I will lead.” Her voice then drops to the same whisper, barely audible among all the noise muddling the recording “There is no one else I’d trust to have my back, Bly. I know you’ll always keep me safe.”

“All set here, General!” An ARC Trooper yells somewhere from behind them

The Jedi places a hand on the Commander’s chest, smiling softly.

“May the force be with you.” before he can reply, she is turning around to march ahead “Alright, troopers, follow my lead!”

The commander sighs heavily.

The recording stops once more. A new recording starts, at a clearing of the same colorful woods, the commander and his men slowly trailing behind their general.

“It’s so quiet.” Bly mutters “Where have they run off to?”

Their general stops, gesturing at her men to do the same.

“Be careful. There’s something wrong here. I can feel it.”

A commlink rings, and the commander presses the blinking button on his gauntlet. A voice, raspy and all too familiar to Cody pours from the speakers over the ears of the Commander in his helmet.

“Execute Order Sixty-six.”

With trained muscle memory, the Commander raised his DC-15 rifle, the gesture echoed by the other six troopers of their assault squad as they moved in sync to form a semicircle behind the Jedi General.

“Good soldiers follow orders” he whispers almost too quietly for the recording to pick up

A large flying alien creature cawed from somewhere behind them as it crossed the gold-tinted skies, and the Jedi turned around with a startle, he eyes going wide at the sight of her men and the aim of their weapons on her.

The general attempts to raise her lightsaber despite the horrified shock taking over her features.

She doesn’t have enough time to power on the weapon on before something bright and blue flashes out of her own clone commander’s rifle, whistling through the air to strike her right between her shoulder blades at her heart’s height.

Her body is jerked forwards, her arms flying up as the second bolt hits her on the ribcage, the lightsaber slipping off her grip as a pained scream is punched out of her.

Two more bolts strike her on the back and shoulder, and Bly fires another just as she stumbles forward, her protective shirt smoldering brightly over her back as the fourth bolt hits her there.

She falls down on her chest, one hand shakily and uselessly trying to reach for her lightsaber, and the men keep firing over and over, blaster shots hitting her middle. Her arms. Her legs. Her lekku, which slowly cease all movement. They keep firing until the only movement from the fallen Jedi are the occasional twitches caused by the electricity charges from the blaster bolts.

“T-Target eliminated” the Commander says with an almost unnoticeable stutter “All of you, let’s rendezvous at the alpha location, we must assist the other troops. We can’t stop until every jedi is dead and accounted for.”

Nodding, the men turn away, leaving the ground of their massacre behind. The commander lingers for a moment, his breath catching and coming out in a stuttered, heavy exhale.

Then he leaves.

The recording loops back to the first video, where Aayla Secura is trying to get Commander Bly to choose a name for their unborn child. Cody walks closer to the desk, his gaze now looking past the blue light of the projecting and further to the man sitting at the desk.

CC-5052, known as “Bly” during the Clone Wars, watches Cody with weary eyes, the semitransparent projection floating between them from the small device placed on the table between several empty bottles of various alcoholic drinks. Cody stops in front of it, removing his helmet and placing it by a cluster of purple-tinted bottles. He, too, is fully dressed in his kit except for his gloves and helmet.

Bly’s elbow is resting on the arm of the chair, his hand supporting his chin, while his other hand rests on his lap somewhere out of Cody’s view. He gives him a drunken smile that doesn’t reach his eyes, which are reddened and swollen.

His eyelashes are wet and there are dried trails of tears down his tattooed cheeks.

“Hey there, Codes.”

“You need to come back to base.” Cody oders dryly.

“Told you I’m not coming back. I can’t.”

The recording has reached the moment where the troops are about to move out, and Cody ignores the audio overlapping over CC-5052’s words, pretending he cannot hear the trembling that underlines his own voice.

“You are a Commando clone, CC-5052, same as myself.” Cody says the words he had been told since his infancy back at the sterile white walls of the Kaminoan laboratories in Tipoca City “We can endure anything, and we do not deviate from our duty.”

He swallows down thickly, the sound of the blaster that had killed Aayla Secura along with the life growing inside of her echoing through the speakers of the projector on top of the table.

He had heard Bly’s confession of his anguish over having killed her during the issuing of order sixty-six multiple times. He had always told Bly to keep those thoughts to himself, and to never let their superiors hear these treacherous words.

But only today he truly understands the whole picture. There was more to his relationship with the deceased Jedi than that of a duty-bound trooper and their general.

Still…

“We will not have this conversation again – the Jedi were traitors” Cody presses on “and a threat to everything we fought for. They had to die.”

Good soldiers follow orders, whispers the Bly in the recording.

“I loved her.” Says the CC-5052 in front of him, and under the faint blue glow of the projection, Cody sees the glistening of the tears brimming in his eyes, trailing down his cheeks “I- I loved her, and we were gonna-- She was—”

An ugly, anguished sound comes through CC-5052’s - Bly's - gritted teeth, and suddenly the stoic mask of numb exhaustion drops, being replaced by an expression that is so twisted in agony, it reminds Cody of those he had seen in the battlefield on the faces of men whose limbs had been torn off by landmines and no amount of anesthesia could put an end to their pain.

Bly sobs, bringing to his eyes a hand that rattles against his brow with how hard it shakes. The pained noises being punched out of the clone between every sharp intake of air begin to die out as his breathing becomes more and more ragged.

A stuttered breath hisses out of him as he drops his hand, and he raises his swollen eyes to Cody again.

“I c-can’t do this anymore.”

Cody stares at him, at the hollow eyes and broken expression in that face that is a mirror of his own, and the two sentences that keep haunting his dreams.

Thank you Cody.

Blast him!

“You have to.” Cody says, the commanding tone slipping from his voice and giving place to a plea instead “You need to.”

Because a clone commander can withstand any kind of stress.

Even the horror of carrying out orders that changed the entire galaxy and the structure of their army and robbed them of the generals that would actually put themselves in the line of fire to protect them, even though they were nothing but expendable clones.

“I have nothing left, Cody. Nothing.” it’s like the words are being pulled out of Bly like shrapnel, fresh wounds being opened with every tug “I’ve served my purpose…”

The hand he’d kept resting over his lap, out of view from Cody’s gaze because of the desk between them is raised into view, along with a blaster in its grip.

“…and I hope you can find yours, brother.”

Slowly and without a hint of hesitation, Bly brings the muzzle of the weapon to the underside of his chin. Cody’s eyes widen, icy dread pooling in his core and sending a shiver up his spine, his entire body stiffening in tension as he understands what is about to happen.

“Bly— Hey, listen to me!” he tries to think through the distinct click of the blaster being cocked; he has to stop this, has to do something, anything “Bly, put the blaster down, now--”

“Never gone, only marching away…” Bly whispers with the faintest hint of a smile

“DON’T--”

The sharp whistle of blaster fire echoes in the room as a flash of bright blue illuminates the scene for an instant, Cody’s unprotected ears ringing loudly over the thudding of his own spiking pulse.

Bly’s head whips back with the blaster’s shock, a smoldering, perfect circle letting out smoke on the wound under his chin. His hand drops, the weapon slipping from his fingers and clattering to the floor with a dull thud.

Cody stands there, breath shallow and cut off by small gasps as he tries to fight the instinct to just turn around and run away from this nightmare. His stomach clenches in nausea, and he covers his mouth with his hand.

He stares at the lifeless body of a brother with whom he had shared many battles and down times with, a man he had trusted with his life and who trusted Cody with his. A man who had been birthed from a tube like him, had blasters instead of toys since he was five like him, scientists instead of a family like him.

A good soldier who had followed every order. And that had killed him.

Cody doesn’t know how long he stands there, petrified, the recording of General Aayla Secura’s short-lived dream of having a child with the man she loved looping so many times that Cody could recite it from memory, and then looping enough for Bly’s words to dissolve into a cadence of joy, tension, and resignation, joy, tension and resignation, joy, tension and—

Cody walks carefully around the desk, standing close by Bly’s side. He is supposed to report the self-termination immediately and wait for the Kaminoan staff in Coruscant to retrieve the body. He is not supposed to interfere in any way.

Bly’s eyes stare vacantly into nothing, brown and formerly full of life, shaped exactly like Cody’s. After a small moment of hesitation Cody reaches up to close them, his gloved hand lingering for an instant on Bly’s face.

He had failed him. He had failed his brother.

He thinks of Rex, whose helmet was the only one not found in the mass grave of former 501st clones in a distant moon. Could he be out there, still alive? His own words to Crosshair in front of the memorial of the clone troopers who had died in service of the Republic - and later the Empire - come back to him.

Do you know what makes us different from battle droids? We make our own decisions. Our own choices. And we have to live with them too.

Cody moves his hand to rest over Bly’s chest, on the stillness of his heart.

“Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum, Bly, ner’vod.”

He straightens himself up, finally stopping the recording and removing the memory chip from the device, placing it in one of his belt pouches. Someone should keep Bly’s story and keep it from being forgotten.

Swallowing thickly around the lump forming in his throat, Cody picks his helmet up from the desk, placing it over his face with its expressionless mask of carved white and turning his back on the scene.

The armor would help him up until some point, and then he would do well to change out of it. The outline of a plan begins to take form in his mind. Safe locations, away from the Empire’s ever-watchful gaze. Old friends that might show mercy on him in spite of what he had become.

A hope, faint and delirious, that his former general might still be alive and willing to forgive him for what he had done.

Bly was right. Cody had to find his purpose. And he had to start now.

#all the goblins in my brain ceased all activity until I bled out this fic #pls comment uwu??#goodnight its three am #fuck #my fics #tcw

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askthehiddencaste · 4 months

Text

When Starlight Falls

Drabble Characters: Shuska , Tannos Mentioned/in passing: Cerium, Anvala, Serthi, Sallom, Dancer, Tuksei and Marsei (both belong to @pandersbox), and Avonis (belongs to @memurfevur ) Shuska gets a rude awakening

“Thank you for coming to Yggdrasil, have a wonderful night!” Shuska hummed, waving off the last person in her library before closing and locking the door behind them. She let out a soft sigh and turned back to her desk. “Alright everyone. Final clean up! Cerium you’re good to go to your mate’s apartment!” she called out, reaching over to pick up a stack of processed returns to put them away on the nearby shelves.

Cerium brought a small stack of books up to the front and passed it over to her mother with a small smile. “Thanks for letting me go early mom, we really appreciate it” she hummed. Shuska smiled softly and nodded, carefully taking the books into her own stack and glancing on where they would go before tucking them into different parts of her stack. “You know I don't mind letting you go and have your own life, you’re an adult now after all” she nearly cooed, reaching over and cupping Cerium’s cheek.

The younger lime coed and nodded, nuzzling that hand and going off to her mate with another soft thank you. Shuska took a deep breath as she left and let that smile fade. Cerium was the last of her children still at the library. Yes Sallom was in the apartment with Avonis and Dancer, but of the ones she had raised on her own? Of the children she had struggled with and fought to keep safe with minimal help?

The lime let out her breath and closed her eyes, turning back to her pile and just staring at it with a frown. Cerium was the last. Anvala? Already making it out in the world for himself. Serthi? She didn't know where he was, still caring for her boy even after what he had done. A mothers love wasn't something that just went away even after something like that after all.

Shuska would be in her own thoughts for a while while she put things away, managing to avoid her other helpers and answered whatever she could with just a quick message on the phone or shouting down the hall. At the end of cleanup hours, Shuska was going through the different rooms, turning off lights and tidying up the last few things she saw with a soft frown on her lips.

With a quick message to the last few helpers that had stayed past closing for cleaning up, Shuska moved to the front of the library. With a forced smile she let everyone out with a chipper little bye to each till she got to Tannos, the big lug kneeling down and giving his longest friend a tight hug.

“Shu you look tired…..maybe you should go to bed early tonight yea? ‘M gonna go home myself and spend time with Tuk and Mar….. You’re stressing yourself out so badly you’re getting silvers” he chuckled, just teasing the shorter troll. Tannos stood back up with a soft groan. “Man, I swear you and Tuk both get shorter every sweep” he hummed to himself, reaching up and rubbing the back of his neck. “Anyway, have a good night Shu. ‘m Staying home tomorrow, and I hope you can get some good rest” he offered softly.

With one last pat to the shorter troll’s shoulder, Tannos walked out and allowed Shuska to finally lock the library’s doors. “I’m….getting silvers?” she asked softly, half confused at his words as she made her way back into her own apartment. She was essentially alone tonight, Avonis out exploring the town again and Dancer watching over Sallom as the grub slept.

“I’m…..not old enough to be getting silver hairs” she muttered to herself, wandering through the living room absentmindedly with footsteps that wouldn't be heard even if someone had been listening for her specifically. 37 sweeps old this round. 37 sweeps she had survived: 8 in solitude with her lusus, 5 total aboard Hastrm’s hell ship as a slave, and the rest split up around the library, both Yggdrasil and the one she had watched over prior to its building. At this point 13 sweeps she had lived and raised a set of grubs to be adults.

Through her thoughts, Shuska had managed to wander into her room and stood at the short vanity of her writing desk. Her heart was heavy as she properly looked at herself for the first time in a few weeks. 37 sweeps……

Leaning in, she reached a hand up and ran it against her cheek. The sweeps passing had an effect on her. Once sharper features now softening with age, crows feet dancing alongside dim saddened eyes. “I’m….I-I….” Shuska shakes her head lightly, though it was enough to have a messy bit of hair falling out of her braid and into her face. She took notice of it in the mirror and just stared at the strands like shooting stars through the inky night of her hair.

Silver hairs. Shuska let it settle into silence as she stared at those few silver hairs. She ran on auto-pilot, her hands bringing the braid over her shoulder and brushing it out with her fingers. Now that they’ve been pointed out she couldn't stop seeing the shining scars of her time in this world. The only real scars she could see.

Shuska shook her head and hurried out into the kitchen, digging through the drawers to find her scissors, a decent sharp knife, anything she felt could remove the streaks before bringing her frantic self back to earth with a sharp prick of pain. She had cut herself, that bright curse in her veins slowly welling to the surface and starting to roll across her palm.

Mortal. Sometimes it was hard to remember that she was still mortal, though this brought the hard truth to the lime as she pulled back to just watch the gash. She was aging, through it all even with her healing, it wouldn't keep her around forever. “It’s not fair” she whispered to the empty kitchen, eyes welling with tears.

“I finally did things right….I-I finally managed to be happy, to have love and a family….. I…. I’m going to lose it all and everyone will live so much longer than I will” she said softly, the mar to her hand finally taking its cue to try and heal itself though the ability was not what it used to be.

Shuska took a deep breath, closing her eyes and letting it out slowly before standing and steeling herself. The drawer was closed only for a cabinet to open. She got out a wine glass and frowned at it quietly. She wasn't normally one to drink but at that moment, she needed it.

#shuska #drabble

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neptunite-stars · 10 months

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OH I HAD A FUCKING CRESCENDO IDEA (FOR THISE WHO SIMPLY DO NOT KNOW :tm: ITS OUR ENSTARS RP GROUP EHEH)

MAGICAL GIRL AU

imagine

CRESCENDO but something like Yuki Yuna is a Hero which i TOTALLY forced you to watch

the heros are the members of the “hero club” or some sort of idolistic club and they go around and sing and dance for everyone else but the main premise of the club is to find sacrifices worthy for “god”—whoever that may be. So when Crescendo’s first mission begins, they freak out.

Kiyama, although excited, has never been beyond this side of the world. Where the gods lay. His flower may be something like… a sunflower, and his weapon being a polaram or breakers or something like that. something with high mobility.

Miharu is given something like. a daisy maybe? (wasnt able to find anything on masking) and their weapon is maybe something defense-related.

Kirina’s flower is a white lily. Since Kirina expresses herself through dance her weapon might be something like a fan or some sort of leg brace based on kicking

Sato’s flower is a lilac, since Sato (i think) values family and close bonds. maybe their weapon is something based on chanting and bringing things together— like the vines itsuki has

Katsu’s flower is a Strelitzia since they symbolize a free spirit. Maybe Katsu’s weapon is a straight up electric guitar or a gun of some sorr

Shion’s flower is a white rose, my gay ass loves to focus on shion’s split between her unit and crescendo, since she can only focus on one after the events of ykyk.

Anyways with these, this idol group is tasked with the duty of protecting the world against the “Vertexes” or the wrath of the gods against humanity.

Hehe what do you think so far?

HI. I GO INSANE OVER CRESCENDO. HIIIIIIII I LOVE THEM SO MUCH DID U GUYS KNOW THAT. ANYWAY I WROTE A LOT IT GOT A BIT LONG SO. MORE RAMBLING UNDER THE CUT ^_^

@twowink @lycanthian @shards-of-brilliance @crooked-corvid hope u dont mind me tagging yall but its ur lil guys (gender neutral)

also im sorry i never got around to watching it o7 i think i accidentally closed the tab for it while doing a tab cleanup KLJHFKJSHDKFJ

also FUCK YEAH . MIHARU WITH DEFENSE. GOD. IM INSANE ABOUT THAT. IVE ALWAYS IMAGINED THEM TO BE LIKE . A PROTECTOR OF SORTS. YKNO . LIKE THEYRE CHILL BUT THEYLL ALWAYS HAVE UR BACK AND AOUR(ITDIFYGSDLIFUGSDFLKJG they have a shield and they most definitely have a helmet that they sometimes wear because im all for the "masking" and "putting on a different face" thing they have going on (if this is how you learn about this then. there u go! altho it seems i alr told you about it mostly . yeah i think i did say somehting about that) anyway. miharu sooo has paladin vibes. hgrhgh

i think kiyama (or katsu) should have gauntlets. they deserve to punch people. altho an entire electric guitar is SICKKK anyway kiyama probably would have Some armor (probably leather) on his upper body bc . hes gonna be in the middle of all these weapons ykno. he needs to be at least somewhat flexible and light on his feet right? hm. i dunno . kiyama and katsu are difficult to think about for this. katsu definitely has some lightning effects going on. That will stay.

SHION. I DIE IMMEDIATELY. OAURGHHRGHGRHGJHRGJRHG ourhg. she'd be probably one of the ones dealing dmg too. give em a sword ^_^ classic fighter. also im putting them in a skirt u cant STOP ME. oh if u havent caught on EVERYONE IS GETTING SOME ARMOR. YOU CANT STOP ME. magical girls outfits with just frills and fabric be damned. I NEED TO PUT SOME METAL ON THEM I NEED TO MAKE THEM KNIGHTS (no not en.stars knights sorryy still love them tho ^_^) GOD. IM INSANE. MAGICAL KNIGHTS WITH FLOWERS??!?!?? OUHGHHHH

heheh ok time for kiri~~ she definitely has high mobility!! aaa implementing her dancing ability into her fighting style!!!!! i think shed try to learn how to fight using a halberd at first but she finds it awkward to move around with and then she (or sm1 else helps) comes up with the idea to do what shes used to: dancing. if shes so used to moving gracefully without holding heavy things then why doesnt she just. do that ? !!!! anyway im putting her hair into a high ponytail as we speak. although im having difficulty in imagining her in armor. ill work on that.

satoo waaaa so theirs would kinda be like. immobilizing enemies? kinda?? ough interestingggggg i think their armor would be relatively light (like kiyamas) but im thinking maybeee . ok i lost the thoughts dammit its hard to think about things for sato too :((

tldr i need to draw them all. specifically i need miharu in flowy fabric and armor. with flowers. and a shield. FUCK now im thinking about hades im sorry (i am crazy ok)

#WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CRESCENDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO #rambles #ask #pitxroxas

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corancoranthemagicalman · 7 months

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Just read through @noneorother 's brilliant Good Omens Soundtrack Meta And it brought me back to listening to the soundtrack again.

When I first started listening to the soundtrack, there was one particular track I was looking forward to listening to. And that's the music that plays while Crowley is straightening the Bookshop in e6. The chord progression (to my untrained ear) in the beginning sort of reminded me of Hallelujah, and despite it being a short track it was so magical sounding.

Cut to my surprise when Crowley and Muriel, the track that happens right before the Kiss track on the soundtrack list, sounds nothing like it. I listened to Crowley and Muriel over and over, and still couldn't ear-pick what I had heard in Crowley's Cleanup. I figured that I must have been mistaken.

But I've just gone back and watched the episode again (at the inspiration of noneorother using the scenes as reference.) Crowley and Muriel opens up with the ominous strike of Metatron leaving with Aziraphale (and isn't that choice?) Then it ends right as we cut to Maggie and Nina talking about coming over.

Maggie and Nina decided to come over, and then we cut to Crowley straightening the Bookshop. The chord progression and a chime (again, untrained here) begin, and the track lives as long as it takes Maggie and Nina to come over. It stops when they enter.

Is this a reprise to a song that I missed?? Wouldn't the reprise be listed as its own track??

Then I wondered what else might have been missing between Crowley and Muriel and I Forgive You.

When Aziraphale walks back into the Bookshop, that same track plays again!! Only this time, it has a chorus to it and the progression sounds even lighter. I hadn't noticed it the first time at all. And what I can say is that—well, there's been enough analysis of the Opening Title and actual Discussion of what Went Into the Good Omens Theme. That it is their character themes (because they're a unit!!) BUT there are PIECES of that theme!!! That become those characters!! The lower, more somber sounding tones versus the angelic choruses! And this track (which I'mma just call Straightening Up) has TWO versions. Versions of them separated.

But Straightening Up (Aziraphale's Version) lasts quite a bit longer, I think. It lasts up until Crowley says "I've got something to say." Which, for reference, mean the track includes: Aziraphale entering the Bookshop, Maggie and Nina leaving the Bookshop, Nina passing the Metatron, the Metatron conversing with Muriel, and then landing its final death note on Crowley and Aziraphale in the Bookshop.

With the thought that perhaps this was a reprise, I went hunting.

There's a similar chord progression, I think, in Maggie and Nina (0:32), but otherwise there isn't a lot of similarities. I'd mistake the chords here as just an artist's signature rather than a music theory analysis point.

[Sidebar: But do you know what I did find in Gabriel's Love Story (0:57-ish)? That I remember hearing on my first listen, but am only now committing to memory when trying to purposefully listen for pieces? Not Kind!! Not Kind is in Gabriel's Love Story!]

Anyway, I'm continuing my hunt for what might be another missing soundtrack, but so far I've come up empty. If someone who is more musically inclined than I knows where it is, let me know! Or maybe it's just another missing song from the track. :,)

#gomens #gomens 2 #gomens 2 meta #gomens meta #ineffable husbands #ineffable soundtrack #Not Kind is my FAVORITE track and ofc I picked up on it during the first listen to Gabriels Love Story #i just promptly forgot since I havent been able to crank my tunes for a hot minute (and also because I hadnt seen any active discussions on #the soundtrack before so i was like oh yeah everyone must have picked up on this but idk if they did ? maybe it is obvious ? but i feel lik #we should talk about it more anyway)#i love reoccuring themes and motifs and chord progressions its sooooo !!#beloved to me #everyone say thank you david arnold #long ish post

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incognito-lionbeast · 1 year

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Aftercare (And Maybe More?)

The truth beyond all other truths is that I write things so that I can be Really Very Silly. Anyway, follow-up to that smut I posted earlier. (This one is just suggestive & not explicit)

Series: Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System Pairing: Mobei-Jun/Shang Qinghua Ao3 Summary: After having given Shang Qinghua the dicking-down of his life, Mobei-Jun tries with some difficulty to be a loving and considerate partner. It works! Mostly. --------------------------------------------------------------------

Cleanup was such a confusing, awkward affair. In stages, Shang Qinghua first experienced the very special sort of grief that can only accompany the sight of a partner’s freshly re-dressed silhouette leaving them behind. Mobei-Jun had spoken a single word at the time: “Towel.” Cryptic as that was, Shang Qinghua wasn’t sure what to do with it, so he sat—any followup questions drowned out by the door sliding shut. Thus, the second stage came as a wave of surprise and embarrassment, huddled miserably and rather foolishly at the corner of his bed like an abandoned, sticky puppy.

As promised, Mobei-Jun had returned, toting both towels and a surprise newcomer: a clean sheet! Suddenly, the one-word reply made sense, but that only made Shang Qinghua feel all the more foolish, shrinking into his shoulders when Mobei-Jun approached. Positively cherry-red, Shang Qinghua stared anywhere and everywhere but his king’s face, yet found that his tepid attempt to grab a towel was thwarted by Mobei-Jun’s still very cold hands. The demon leveled his face closer, brows crimped together with one of Shang Qinghua’s wrists firmly held as if suddenly afraid he might bolt.

“...have I offended you?” Mobei-Jun asked, having entered the room earlier in a rather good mood. Yet, it seemed perhaps his imagination had been wrong after all? How vexing.

“Er–uh, no! No, my king,” Shang Qinghua stammered, gently pat-patting the vice-grip upon his wrist with a free hand. Never had he been so aware that he was still naked. “No, I mean it. I promise. I just—”

Wasn’t expecting you to come back? No, he definitely couldn’t say that.

—can do this myself? Well, true, but that still felt like the wrong answer here. Was Mobei-Jun really intent to help him clean up? Shang Qinghua felt a second wave of flustering bashfulness take hold, praying to any god that might listen to not allow him the vitality to get hard again. Please. Absently, he caressed the back of Mobei-Jun’s hand, still slightly at loss on a response, but a quick glance told him that his king was, once again, becoming impatient. Spoiled, always. So, Shang Qinghua–so used to groveling by now–erred on the side of pathetic, summoning up the strength to stare with upturned brows at Mobei-Jun’s collar (and not a centimeter higher! God help him!).

“I guess it’s a human thing,” he explained. “To be a little embarrassed after, uh… It’s nothing. It’s fine. Thank you. Er, not for that—for the towel!—but I guess thanks for that, too.”

He needed to stop talking. Desperately.

Yet, Mobei-Jun’s grip loosened and his expression relaxed back to its normal icy demeanor. ‘Good,’ it seemed to say. Although he hardly understood, embarrassed was better than the alternative, ignoring Shang Qinghua’s second attempt to grab a towel from him. He could try all he liked–and make all sorts of interesting sounds–but his king was determined, pressing the chill, damp towel against his lover’s body with all the tenderness a ruthless demon lord could muster. Not an easy task, but one Mobei-Jun attempted diligently, pausing only when Shang Qinghua gasped especially sharply. In pain? He wondered, but Shang Qinghua neither flinched nor attempted to stop him. So, he simply cataloged the noise for future investigation.

With most of the sticky unpleasantness wiped from Shang Qinghua’s body, Mobei-Jun discarded the towel. Really quite satisfied with his handiwork—he was earning a good grade in human husbandry, for sure!—he had only just begun reaching to collect the scattered remnants of Shang Qinghua’s robes when the man in question finally objected.

“My king, I can dress myself. There’s no need for you to–” Did Cucumber-bro suffer like this, too?! His demon partner was really only half, but that bizarre Anti of his had made Luo Binghe so much worse. He couldn’t fathom handling that nannying crybaby if Shen Qingqiu was just as attracted to Luo Binghe as he was to…

Mobei-Jun frowned, but acquiesced with a counter-demand. “Then get up.”

Ah.

Right, was that better? A little more normal, anyway. Shang Qinghua scrambled off of the bed, snatching several pieces of clothing and hoarding them to his chest like his life depended on it. Far be it from him to complain about being treated well, but this was Mobei-Jun not Luo Binghe. It was a bit jarring even if it was nice, and though maybe the idea of going for a second round was appealing in its own right– One thing at a time. Later. Maybe. He’d really like to.

Once fully dressed, Shang Qinghua’s confidence returned to him. After those precious few minutes spent finagling with his robes, he couldn’t help notice that his bedsheet had been torn asunder and swapped for a new one. Ah. Well, he couldn’t give Mobei-Jun full marks for tidiness or presentation, but he was startlingly efficient. And he still hadn’t left, either, seated upon the bed regally. Waiting for something. Him, maybe? Mobei-Jun’s stare was piercing, nearly making the reclamation of his robes feel irrelevant. Still, a tad more daring now, Shang Qinghua settled at his side, considering heavily the risks of taking Mobei-Jun’s lap instead.

He thought better of it. For now.

“Do not thank me.” Mobei-Jun added decisively.

“Hm? Oh– okay?” Shang Qinghua tilted his head. Was this about the sex or the bedsheets? Probably not a ‘both’ this time, he surmised, inching just slightly closer. Maybe if he looked confused enough, then Mobei-Jun would clarify for himself.

“It wasn’t a favour. Do not thank me,” he repeated, now with slightly more context! Then, Mobei-Jun held a hand out expectantly, seeming to struggle with the action the longer it remained unanswered. In the moment’s hesitation it took for Shang Qinghua to understand, Mobei-Jun had already fought several battles with himself (and seemingly the rest of the world, too). His hand twitched, bound to the spot by sheer willpower. Frankly, it was a little funny, but eventually Shang Qinghua caught on—well, he hoped he had?—settling his own hand into Mobei-Jun’s open palm. Holding it.

Even if that was somehow the wrong answer, the hand stopped twitching, so Shang Qinghua decided he was probably right. It was then that Mobei-Jun hit him with a verbal truck.

“...Daddy.”

Shang Qinghua couldn’t decide whether he wanted to laugh, cry, or die in a hole somewhere. Simultaneously, that one word was everything he wanted and didn’t want at all! He was gobsmacked. Well, part of him was proud, too. Vindicated, even. Yet, that part was quickly overshadowed by horror, still somehow unable to meet Mobei-Jun’s searching gaze with anything other than a scandalised blank stare. Now was not the time to start listening to the stupid shit he’d said angrily, okay? Not right after they’d–

Daddy kink was not an option here!! Too real! Way too real!

“My king…” How to word this? Shang Qinghua laughed awkwardly. “I was– no need to call me that, really! Really, really. I was spouting so much stupid shit back then, I�� I was just angry! It felt like you didn’t respect me at all, so I wasn’t thinking straight. How could I ask you to call me something like that? ”

Yet, that was not the response Mobei-Jun wanted. Rather, to Shang Qinghua’s continued shock and awe, he looked a little… disappointed? It was hard to tell through the frost, but there was a glimmer of something sad etched just underneath that first layer, prompting Shang Qinghua to lean in just a little closer. Shit, don’t tell him it’s too late? Or, rather, don’t tell him that Mobei-Jun, one of the most fearsome demons in all three realms, suddenly wanted to call him Daddy? Unthinkable. Shouldn’t that be humiliating for a demon like him??

“Shizun?” Mobei-Jun tried a second time.

Now that one wasn’t right to either of them, but he was not a demon with much in the way of creative naming capabilities. Not much unlike the man sitting beside him, really. Yet, he was determined to get something special out of this. After all, he’d officially claimed Shang Qinghua as his; that was his right and privilege.

Shang Qinghua balked, “Absolutely not. Where did you– never mind, I know where. My king, please. If you want a pet name so badly, call me—!”

Call him what, exactly? He blinked, realising for the first time that he’d never actually given the character “Shang Qinghua” a birth name… or Mobei-Jun, for that matter. It’d never felt important, so he’d taken the easy way out and simply never bothered with it. After all, “Shang Qinghua” was just supposed to be some cannon-fodder nobody. Although admittedly, searching through his memories, it was uncanny how the world around him had gotten away without even acknowledging that fact! It was always “gege” or “gongzi” or things like “Shang-Shidi” or even occasionally “An Ding Peak Lord” — or, hell, Cucumber-bro just called him Airplane.

And that name was definitely out—not like Mobei-Jun knew what an “airplane” was, anyway—and he had to think of Mobei-Jun’s image! Someone had to. So, “Great Master” felt like a little too much, though incredibly tempting. So, under Mobei-Jun’s intense evaluation, Shang Qinghua settled on a rather personal title. One he hadn’t heard in a while.

“Yuan, call me Yuan. It’s, uh, my real name. My birth name, I mean. No one else uses it,” Shang Yuan quickly reassured. “I don’t think anyone else actually knows it, to be honest…”

After a moment’s consideration—Shang Yuan yelped, dragged mercilessly into Mobei-Jun’s lap. Then, with such imminent satisfaction that Shang Yuan suddenly felt a bit proud and a bit embarrassed (again), Mobei-Jun agreed:

“Yuan.”

#Moshang #Shang Qinghua #Mobei Jun #SVSSS #I just thought it'd be really funny if #Airplane & Cucumber shared an IRL given name #for no other reason that like #I am considering shenanigans rn

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thebibliomancer · 1 year

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Essential Avengers: Avengers #291: Shadows of the Future Past!

May, 1988

Let’s Party!

Fancy dress? Someone punching Dr Druid? Sounds like a party to me!

Joking aside (or is it?) Thor wielding Mjolnir while in fancy dress makes me laugh for some reason. Who can say why things are funny.

I gotta laugh at the cover because I have a bad feeling about the contents. I remember... something. Secondhand rumor of Marrina and Monica...

Well! We’ll get to it when we get to it! Maybe sooner, maybe later!

Let’s just enjoy Dr Druid getting punched!

So the broad strokes last time on Avengers: the Masters of Evil taking over Avengers Mansion was a black mark on Wasp’s otherwise very successful run as chairwoman. And even though she handled the aftermath well, she decided it was time for her to take a vacation. The senior Avengers on the team like Captain America and Thor were too busy with their own personal biz to devote the necessary time and energy to leading the team so with encouragement, least new of the new Avengers, Captain Marvel Monica Rambeau became the new leader of the team.

She’s done a good job!

She’s led the team through several high stakes situations and proved herself one of the heavy hitters.

And then for whatever reason, Mark Gruenwald, the editor that had overseen the book when Monica became the chairwoman and led the team successfully several times decided he wanted Monica to be out of her depth and incompetent so that Captain America would come take over. Writer Roger Stern objected so now he doesn’t write this book.

So for the past bit, Monica and everyone around her has been bemoaning that she sucks, actually.

I might be being a little uncharitable with this read but I’m not feeling charitable based on the last story arc where Monica was entirely unable to do nearly anything the whole story and had to sit in a bubble and wait for Captain America to bail the team out.

ANYWAY.

Dr Druid has a sex dream.

AN OMINOUS SEX DREAM.

He has some sense of a terrible thing coming that he and he alone must face. And also a sexy blond woman makes out with him and places a crown on his head.

OMINOUS. SEX. Dream.

He doesn’t really remember them when he wakes up. Leaving only that foreboding feeling and possibly apprehensive morning wood.

Dr Druid doesn’t have a lot of time to dwell on it this morning though because there’s a loud CKRUUNCHH! outside the window as She-Hulk and Black Knight clean up the mess by Heavy Metal’s attack on Hydrobase.

Black Knight slices rubble with his extremely cursed sword into manageable chunks and She-Hulk throws them onto a barge.

We have a new writer on this book, Walt Simonson. And I don’t know if he really... gets these characters?

Or at the least has gotten only the most cursory of cliff notes.

Black Knight is sexist now.

When She-Hulk tells Dr Druid to come out and help them clean up, Black Knight decides this is an okay thing to say about FUCKING SHE-HULK.

Black Knight: “Yes, Dr Druid, this is unseemly work for a woman’s hands.”

She-Hulk just flicks his helmet to bounce his noggin and tells him

She-Hulk: “Listen, buster. Knighthood may have been in flower 800 years ago with the crusaders in Jerusalem... But if you don’t manage to pull yourself into the 1980′s, I may just pull you up by the roots!”

C’mon, Simonson. Geez.

Dr Druid practically pulls that “they don’t know” meme on his fellow Avengers as he walks off to meditate on the beach.

‘They don’t know about the palpable sense of menace in the air’

But then he thinks wait what if the sense of impending doom is just me being too mixed up by ominous sex dreams?

So he meditates and has a vision of the sexy blonde faceless woman saying that meditation will “restore you to that which you seek so desperately. Come hither to me, doctor... and know me better.”

Oh god, its upgraded to an ominous sex daydream.

Back at the rubble cleanup, Captain Marvel shows up and decides to help by blasting the rubble.

Since this is the character assassination era, this was the wrong thing to do and She-Hulk berates Monica for making the job harder and Monica flies away berating herself for fucking up yet another thing.

Captain Marvel: “Ever since I became leader, everything I touch seems to go wrong, no matter what I do!”

This is why I’m not charitable with this book.

Because. Look. The first two panels would be a funny gag if the constant refrain wasn’t “Monica is terrible at everything.” On its own, it could be funny.

I’d be reminded of the humor back in Shooter’s run, where he wasn’t afraid to make the Avengers look silly and fallible sometimes. Like when Donald Blake transformed into Thor in a restroom and then had to awkwardly walk out the front door because he didn’t want to punch a hole in a restaurant.

Namor and Marrina KER-SPLASSH out of the ocean and are being That Couple this morning. The couple that’s all about the PDA.

Black Knight, because Simonson I guess thinks he’s actually from the Crusade times, grumps “such public displays of affection should be more restrained.”

I swear, I don’t remember him being quite so much of a fuddy-duddy earlier.

She-Hulk tells Dane off as the stuffiest hero she knows because heck Namor and Marrina are a cute couple. But even she gets a little sick of how gooey Namor and Marrina are when they go off for a morning swim together and Marrina says “To cleave the waves with you, my darling, is all I could ever desire.”

Thor shows up, yawning, and She-Hulk teases him for sleeping the morning away while she and Black Knight were cleaning up after Heavy Metal and from damage caused when Grog the God Crusher invaded Hydrobase looking to god crush Thor in #390 of his book.

Fun fact: That’s the issue where the Captain America lifts Mjolnir for the first time.

Unfun fact: Even in another book with a different writer and a different editor, Monica is still doing the ‘geez I suck, the Captain America should be in charge.’

ANYWAY.

POINT BEING.

She-Hulk razzes Thor for not helping clean up when his book contributed to the damage. But Thor argues he was doing the most important task of all.

Telling Jarvis to make them all breakfast.

Okay. That sounds bad.

He was getting Jarvis from the hospital and bringing him to Hydrobase so he can get back to work.

Okay, that still sounds bad.

I swear its heart warming.

Everyone is happy to see him, he’s happy to be back. Its great. Its Jarvis!

I’m happy to see him.

After breakfast, Monica Marvel returns from her pity party with good news.

She decided to work on improving the Avengers’ PR and she got the team an invite to an exclusive party!

A fancy party will surely improve team morale and make them look good. Provided nothing catastrophic happens! Ignore the cover of this book!

Pfft. Fancy dress Avengers is a wonderful thing. Monica and Dane being the only one wearing little masks because they’re the only ones on the team that have a real secret identity.

I forget sometimes but Dr Druid was kind of a celebrity before joining the Avengers. I wonder if he still takes time to make tv appearances.

Also, Thor in a suit! Just like I wished for back during the Trial of Yellowjacket! Wow. That was so long ago...

Anyway, the Avengers spread out to mingle. This is about boosting their reputation with the public. Or at least the narrow slice of the public that got invited to this party.

So there’s a lot of cool snippets of conversation that we see the Avengers subjected to. Some dude tries to convince She-Hulk to do endorsements for the International Federation of Body Builders. Despite Namor’s potent ‘don’t talk to me’ face, some guy expresses wonder that Namor functions in both fresh and salt water. Some lady tries to convince Thor that the Avengers should move to Tulsa so that property insurance rates in New York will drop. And some dude tries to convince Dr Druid that the world would be better off without superheroes. Some guts on that dude. Dr Druid is, technically, a superhero.

Anyway, Dr Druid thinks he sees his Sexy Ominous Dream Girl in the party and walks away from the conversation to speak to her but it turns out to not be the Sexy Ominous Dream Girl at all.

Black Knight is still being written as if he’s fresh from the Crusade times as he comments “I should rather face a company of Saracens... than meet the reporters who wait in ambush without.”

GOD DAMN DUDE.

It’s been like six years and almost seventy issues since you came back from the past-times. This is not who you are!

Thor gets ambushed by a bunch of women who are simply agog that he is not married and suggests maybe he’d like a nice Earth girl to show him the town.

Thor: “You have my gratitude, fair ladies. But though I have no spouse, I am not without a keeper of my heart.”

Party lady: “Wouldn’t you know it! Just like every other man in this town!”

Thor at least takes the conversation in good humor judging by his little smile. Same can’t be said of She-Hulk as she deals with some dude who tries to recruit her to lead the department of consumer affairs.

Some dude: “Are you kiddin’, honey? You’d be a natural! The She-Hulk in charge of the consumer affairs department! ‘The Big Green Machine is on your side to save your green!’ You’d knock ‘em dead!”

She-Hulk: “You have no idea, ‘darling’, how close you are to being right about that!”

Try not to kill anyone in public, Jen!

I probably didn’t need to spill this many pixelated ink about party banter. But you know what? We should appreciate the silly banality of the Avengers having small talk made at them.

Y’know. Given what’s about to happen.

Which is this:

Another some dude who works at the New York Aquarium tries to convince Namor and Marrina to come visit the aquarium some day. Partially because the guy wants Namor to look at some of their exotic specimens.

Namor isn’t enthused about the idea because he’s one of those dudes who hates zoos except aquariums in this case.

Marrina just isn’t paying any attention to the conversation at all. Instead she’s grabbing a goldfish out of a fish tank and just scarfing it down.

It’s not the snack that smiles back.

Namor tells her maybe don’t do that at a party but she starts screaming about needing food. She smashes the fish tank, scarfs some more fish, and then runs out of the party.

He chases after her but she goes all monstery when he grabs her arm and punches him off of her.

The behavior apparently reminds him of how she acted in Alpha Flight #40 when she was... drawn to her genetically predetermined mate or something?

She’s an alien fish lady.

But aforementioned mate is dead so she shouldn’t be having this reaction. For no reason. Out of the blue. At a party.

While the Avengers run off to see what’s going on, a party-goer snarks that “this wouldn’t have happened if Donald Trump had thrown the party!”

Now there’s a line that aged badly.

Namor chases Marrina to a dock. She’s glowing, radiating heat, apparently transforming into a turtle judging by her head right now.

She jumps into the water and despite making a little splaash! when she jumps in, her swimming away creates a massive SCHLOOSHHH! that threatens to capsize a ship.

Namor jumps into the water as well and swims after her because dammit, she may be turning into a monster but she’s the woman he loves!

You know what? You’re an okay guy sometimes, Namor.

The Avengers arrive just in time to see Namor jump in after Marrina. And also just in time to see Marrina’s quick exit capsize a container ship.

Thor thinks fast and tells She-Hulk to help him push back on the ship so it doesn’t roll over onto the dock.

Of course, this is the character assassination era, so Monica bemoan that she didn’t think fast.

Captain Marvel: “Once again, the leadership of the Avengers seems to slip further and further away from me without conscious effort. It’s as though I seem incapable of taking command!”

Uuugh. In a way, it’s going to be a relief when the trigger gets pulled on Monica because at least then I won’t have to be putting up with the constant self-deprecation that has to be designed to to undermine her appeal.

Speaking of undermining.

Monica does think to turn into her light form to search the waters for Namor or Marrina. But it’s so dark and dirty in the New York Harbor that Monica starts to lose cohesion.

HUH.

NOT A PROBLEM SHE SEEMED TO HAVE BEFORE.

>=[

Fuck sake. Even if her light form was losing cohesion, she can turn to other energies that are better at penetrating water. She can turn into any form of energy or radiation! She can turn into neutrons!

Bah!

Anyway. Monica returns to the surface so that Dr Druid can suggest everyone regroup at Hydrobase and Monica can unconvincingly say she was about to suggest the exact same thing.

Bah!

Somewhen else, this is suddenly a Kang story.

I thought we were done with that dick.

And since this is Kang, I don’t even know which Kang this is.

Wiki says its Kang from Earth-123488.23497.

There’s an infinite amount of universes. Why do we have to decimalize them too?

Anyway, A Kang.

Kang-123488.23497: “While my companions were slain, I concealed myself in the hidden corridors of time! Now the temporal displacement charge has expired and Kang the Conqueror, master of time, returns home! You might have destroyed me, Immortus, but you are a fool! For Kang still survives and you have much to fear!”

So I was wondering if he was a Kang that survived judgement and execution by the Council of Kangs by hiding with a temporal displacement charge. But he names Immortus as involved and nobody but Cape Kang (Prime Kang?) should know Immortus was involved because he was pretending to be a skeleton. So is this the Kang that absorbed every Kang’s memories and ran off screaming into Limbo, but the time one not the demon one?

God. Kangs just make things complicated.

Anyway, Kang-123488.23497 finds his base in shambles. And also finds himself under attack by someone hiding in a time dislocation and shooting a thermal lance.

Kang-123488.23497′s armor holds up but its failing under the assault so Kang-123488.23497 MacGyvers random laboratory junk into a molecular sealer that can shoot a quark beam across a “variable time net.”

Anyway. He smites his assailant. Smites him good.

And is surprised to find the dead, deceased body of a child dressed in Kang armor.

How weird!

Kang-123488.23497: “A child? Who has dared to mock the king of time?”

Lady Kang: “No mockery, my Lord Kang. Only an orphan of time, now an orphan no longer! But they do say the child is father to the man.”

Kang-123488.23497: “Who -- ?”

Lady Kang: “Or woman!”

Okay.

But what does any of this mean?

The lady Kang then mocks the dead, deceased child, calling him Kanglet and saying he lacked patience. But that the Kang she just seemingly disintegrated is an excellent substitution for the child that just died.

Lady Kang: “He may make a welcome addition to the great council! But we shall see.”

Another Council of Kangs? Wasn’t the last one just a ruse to kill all the other Kangs? APPARENTLY IT DIDN’T DO A GREAT JOB.

We just got rid of an infinite amount of Kangs and now we’re lousy with Kangs again. At least they’re more interesting than “Kang”, “Kang with a cape”, “Kang but he’s old and sad.”

We’ve got a lady Kang and a child Kang! ... Had. Had a child Kang.

No, but, seriously, why are we kanging again? We were just here twenty issues ago.

But back to the A-plot - where A stands for Avengers.

A ship sailing south of the Canary Islands runs afoul of A SEA SERPENT

Its many spinal spines rip open the underside of the ship and it sinks.

In other ocean-related disasters, a tidal wave just smash the shit out of Barbuda.

Here’s a downer, children explicitly die. Although its not shown.

Well. We did see a child gunned down a couple of pages ago so maybe that was easing the way into mass child death.

I’m just saying. This book sure has a lot more dead children now that Walt Simonson is writing.

Over at Avengers HQ Hydrobase, it’s been two weeks since Namor and Marrina disappeared into the ocean. The sea serpent wrecking a ship and a tidal wave wrecking Barbuda are just two of a trend of unexplained marine disasters.

Captain Marvel has searched the world in those two time-skipped weeks but hasn’t found either of the missing Avengers or a cause for the spate of disasters.

(I’m sure that the two points could not possibly be connected)

A news report comes on the giant technological television reporting that there’s rumors of the Biblical Leviathan in the Bermuda Triangle.

Because the Avengers are always getting their best actionable information from the news.

Since the news reader also says that “some fundamentalists are claiming this is the first sign of the impending Judgement Day” Monica complains that its impossible to separate the truth from the bullshit.

Dr Druid suggests she go look into it anyway because she can move the speed of light and it’ll take her like a few seconds.

Because this is the character assassination arc and Monica can’t do anything herself. She even complains that she has to let Dr Druid do her thinking for her.

... Which. Is dangerous with a mind guy. Monica. Don’t let a mind guy do your thinking.

After Monica leaves (briefly), Dr Druid has some thoughts.

Dr Druid: “Captain Marvel continues to seem unsure, unable to come to grips fully her role as the leader of the Avengers. And now, more than ever, I fear that the trouble I have foreseen approaches without warning. The stars themselves speak of some global disaster, something so devastating than all the super-beings of Earth may not be enough to forestall our total destruction. And if this is truly the beginning of those events, perhaps someone else might be better suited for the chairmanship here.”

I’M ONTO YOU, YOU DICK.

Anyway. As Dr Druid said because Monica doesn’t know how her own powers work, I guess, it only took her a few seconds to search the area so she’s back and with news! News that she spotted the sea monster!

Captain Marvel calls a Condition Red! Avengers Assemble! Specifically in hangar one! So they can take a Quinjet to the Bahamas!

Monica flies outside the Quinjet. She does move at the speed of light, after all. Flying in a Quinjet will only slow her down. She’ll fly ahead and emit radio waves so the Quinjet can use her as a homing beacon.

She leads them to the sea monster which just bulldozes through a small, “apparently uninhabited” island.

Geez.

The Avengers realize that this sea monster is clearly the cause of all the sunken ships and floods and tsunamis.

Black Knight: “It’s time for the Avengers to do what they do best! Defend the living... and avenge the dead! Let’s ride!”

But as the Avengers fly out of the Quinjet under their own power or on a cool Atomic Steed, a defender flies out of the water to protect the sea monster.

Namor: “NOOOOOOO!! He who first strikes the Leviathan does so only through me!”

The Avengers are confused why Namor is stopping them from Avengersing until first Captain Marvel and then Black Knight realize...

The sea monster is Marrina!

DUN DUN DUN!

And she’s headed right to wreck up Florida!!

DUN DUN DUNNNN!

Quick, Bugs Bunny! Saw it off and push it somewhere else! Bamboozle the Marrina kaiju!

Follow @essential-avengers even though this arc is not giving me a lot of hope. Like and reblog because I’m pushing through anyway. Comment, if you have thoughts!

#essential avengers #avengers #Kangs #just lots of kangs again #a sea serpent #Captain Marvel #Monica Rambeau #Dr Druid #who is here for some reason #She Hulk #Black Knight #namor mckenzie #marrina #Thor #some awkward party small talk #body count in this issue is surprisingly high #essential marvel liveblogging

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