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nicoforlifetrue · 18 days

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I need to get the gangs designs out of my head like, right now so here we go! Au characters first then cannon guys spoilers below

Anyone the color crew considers a friend gets a matching jacket that green made with something representing them embroidered onto the old jackets, chosen has one and has it tied around his waist most of the time, everyone else wears it near 24/7

Victim: gray dead anime mom hair, scene kid from Spencer's in the 12s looking clothes, long sleeves striped under shirt with a t shirt on top, ripped up skinny jeans, has broken shackles around his wrists that act like the lasso tool but he doesn't use very often, a fire fox icon often sleeping on his shoulders he has three that act as attack dogs, soft rainy day blue eyes that are normally kept in that same dead anime mom half lidded state, he looks calm and approachable and loving after all that's how he gets you.

Chosen: black hair to his shoulders that he keeps in a bun, dyes red streaks into it, combat jacket three sizes too big, ripped up t shirt and jeans he never bothers to fix, wears a face mask when hiding his identity because his mouth is abnormally long and it freaks people out, has a locket with a family picture in it (it's a picture of Alan's face and cupped hands, the hollows are in his hands waving at the camera, Alan took his picture made it the computer background then took a screenshot of the boys, it was Alan's phone screen lock picture) everything he owns is burned at the hems because of his anger issues triggering his powers. Eyes glow red and are set into a permanent scowl, he has worry lines.

Dark: wild red hair he's never brushed in his life, he dyes black streaks in it, has one of those slutty leotard things that show the hips? You know what I mean, and combat pants, he has five virabands one of each limb, he made the first one just to give chosen a challenge but after seconds powers awakened he made more for when the kid has nightmares and needs to be held down so he doesn't hurt himself or anyone else with his powers going haywire, it only really works because the powers not concentrated, also has a locket with the family picture, he says it's for chosens sake but he stays up at night sometimes staring at it. Has black eyes but his pupils glow such a bright red their mistaken for red, all the hollows have sharp teeth but darks are especially sharp and he keeps them in a lazy grin, he has pronounced crows feet.

Second: orange wavy hair in a low short pony with it down it only reach's his shoulders, basic orange hoodie and well he does have his own clothes he more often then not is wearing some eclectic mess of stolen goods from his brothers, he likes Vic's shirts and darks pants the most and will try to get away with chosens jacket at any given opportunity, chosen trades his hair bands to get it back. Eyes glow a radioactive green, his lip is always busted from him chewing it, as are his cuticles from picking at them, is always a little wide eyed and sad looking even if he's over joyed just because his face has kind of settled like that, real case of "resting depression face"

Cannons turn!

Cannon second! Same hair as au, wearing the groups jacket and has is closed most of the time because he gets cold easy but takes it off to sleep, wears paint pants and shirt near always and there always covered in new color splash each day, convinced chosen to perce his ears and has a industrial one that he puts a spare pencil tool in after the box episode so he's never really disarmed, the other side has a little curser on a chain because he felt bad that Alan couldn't get a jacket. His eyes are still nuke green but they don't glow and his hands have calusus but he doesn't pick them like au infact he has them painted, heavy eye bags because he actually has to get up in the morning when the crew decides to have late night party's.

Red: fluffy red mop that he just cuts when ever it gets into his eyes, has the fellow headband to keep it off his scalp when exercising, cat ears, no really he has actual working cat ears and not normal ones, his jacket is hanging on for dear life and Is always at least a little off his shoulders even keeps it on when he sleeps, gym clothes even in the snow, bandages and gaze patches everywhere, his jacket hides the fact that he's fucking ripped because after the "blue punching obsidian" incident he got competitive and started working harder, he's up to diamond now. Eyes are whiskey colored have slits like a cats and he's sensitive to air changes just like cats are.

Blue: ties the group jacket like a cardigan around their neck when working in their garden or making potions so it doesn't get ruined, overalls are a farmers best friend, has the longest hair out of everyone reaching his knees, ties it into a bun for fights, braids it for potion making and sleep, and puts it in a ponytail the rest of the time, keeps it down when they plan on just hanging out with the guys. Has excessive nerve damage from the lava and can't feel if they've been cut or injured below their chest. Eyes are a very rich mahogany that gained purple flecks after a while of messing with potions, red asked Herobrine about it and it turns out to just be his body gaining immunity to most of the bad side affects potion making gives you (turns out his neather wart addiction is actually fairly common among potion makers because it helps build and keep those immunities which are important when experimenting)

Yellow: blond typical trans boy hair cut, meaning under shave with a quiff, has the jackets sleeves perpetually shrugged up his arms, only closes it when working on a more advanced machine, under shirt is stained red and he doesn't own a single pair of clean cargo jeans all of them have at least one mend in them. The bridge of his nose is stained red from rubbing there when he had redstone on his fingers, his fingers themselves are also permanently red, where's glasses near identical to Alan's, his eyes are a washed out pinkish rose, almost gray.

Green: for the longest time had an an uncontrolled frizzy mess of hair I'm talking untamable never seen coconut oil 3c, but after they sticks where introduced to dj, he managed to wrangle them into locks, DJ helps him braid them best he can if he ever wants to clean up but it's either dreads or spending hours everyday calming them. Only one who wares the crew jacket like a normal person, also the only one with a normal clean and sensible wardrobe in general, likes skirts but considering it's a bitch to fight in them only wears them when going out and knowing the others won't start a group bonding brawl, always has both head phones and earbuds on his person and is the only one too keep his phone intact and not broken. Eyes are hazel mixing green and gold with flecks of blue around the center, has audio processing issues and it helps him understand people if there's a background noise of some sort also fights better with a beat. Also has really bad tinnitus and always has, it's been made worse by recent fights though.

Purple: curly hair more of a 3b or 3a, keeps it in a single braid so it's easier to keep track of and care for, mango helps them with it in the mornings, the most recent one to get a jacket after the king stuff went down. Likes fancy and just nicer clothes like button ups and poets shirts and leggings, has bird wings because there mother was made for a stick flight animation test, but there weak and they can't fly like there mom can, they can hover and glide but they need an elytra to act as basically a sort of brace if they want to propel them selves, and even then they can't get to high speeds without rockets. Has orangy red autumn colored eyes like there mother.

#plot swap au #avm #ava #animation vs animator #animation vs minecraft

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tazzytypes · 2 years

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Headcanons for Silco. You did mornings so what about evenings/going to bed? <3

Your wish is my command! Love me some domestic night-time head-cannons ❤️

If y’all haven’t read the Mornings with Sikco headcannons, check them out [here]

Also reminder that headcannons are still open for Silco! Send me in some ideas as I work on the Arranged Marriage fic, “Glitter and Gold.”

Young Silco

During the work week, evenings consist of falling onto the bed and falling into a coma-like sleep

A lot of times, you end up eating bar food from The Last Drop for dinner. It’s easy and quick and means you don’t have to worry too much about meal planning. Silco probably gets a discount for working there as well which is a bonus.

Dinner is quiet a lot of the times. Silco and you often share food, not caring when the other reaches to grab a fry or something from the other’s plate. Benzo tried to steal one from Silco once and got a slap to his hand. Silco shares, but only with you.

Idle chatter does happen — questions and commentary about the work day. Stupid bosses, annoying coworkers, and creepy clientele. Venting usually happens when everyone first comes home, but dinner is usually conversations of genuine concern (if that makes sense). More, “I’m tired and don’t want to deal with this,” than “my coworker is fucking idiot.”

Showering together. Usually in a non-sexual manner, though Silco will often wrap his arms around you and place his head on your shoulder. Its a way to ensure you both get a warm shower or conserve water. Another warm body also helps when you have to take cold showers, as well.

Silco and you will help the other brush their hair on particularly bad days. You’ll complain about doing it, but you both secretly enjoy it.

“You’ll have a rat’s nest on your head in the morning, Sil.”

“I really don’t care.”

You sigh, “sit on the bed. I’ll get it.”

Silco snores. It isn’t obnoxiously loud (unlike Vander who you can hear down the hall). It’s the kind of snore you can ignore or turn into white noise. Honestly, you’ve found you can’t sleep without it.

Homeboy also sprawls out in his sleep. Especially in the summer months when it’s hot. You’ve been woken by the back of his hand slapping you in the face. Thus, your sleeping position is usually nestled on his chest. He takes up too much of the bed for you do to sleep anywhere else.

Winter months, it’s the complete opposite. He is curled around you to keep you warm. He is horrid about putting his cold feet on you to the point you got him socks specifically to wear at night.

If your hands are cold during winter nights, Silco will cup his hands around yours and blow hot air onto them. Hands are too important to loose in the Lanes… or anywhere. He just likes holding your hands, ok?

Weekends usually result in you two trying to spend some time together before completely crashing. You’d plan to go out for drinks, but end up sitting on the couch and passing out in each other. If Vander and Benzo had a camera, they’d definitely take a picture. It’s fucking funny. You’re usually curled into Silco’s chest or lying across his lap, drooling more often than jot. Silco’s head has usually fallen back in an open-mouthed snore.

Sometimes you’ll be in bed, reading, and Silco will crawl up to you. This results in him either laying with his head on your stomach and your hands in his hair or pushing the book aside to kiss and otherwise devour you.

Act 1 Silco

Dinners get tricky. It’s about a 50/50 chance you two eat together. However, you do have a system now to trade off cooking duties. The meals aren’t elaborate, but they’re good. If you can’t cook to save your life, Silco will grin and bare it for the first few meals. After that, you’ll find him coming to “help” you more often while cooking.

If he’s called away during dinner, will place a kiss on your head and with an apologetic “duty calls.”

Sometimes you two work together in silence while eating. It’s a compromise — you two still get to spend time together, but also the work gets done as well. (also probably means it’s more likely Silco will join you in bed that night instead of working late).

Cleanup is often done together as well — one person washing dishes while the other dries. You two usually have some music plying in the background which sometimes leads to impromptu dancing in the kitchen.

Will jump in the shower with you because “you use all the hot water,” but that’s a lie. He just wants to touch you.

In the evenings, you help with his injections. An especially important ritual if you have to go to bed before him. Him staying up implied some level of stress and those few moments of closeness carry him over until he can finally sleep. Just wants to place his hands on your hips and relish being close to you. Place your hands on his cheeks and pepper his face with kisses after, ok? He needs that.

During these moments, he will also apologize for being to bed late. Especially if it’s become a recent habit. Will promise you a weekend or night if no-work and the things he will do to you.

“Promises, promises,” you tease, making him smile just a bit.

“You calling me a liar?”

“I’m not calling you a truther,” you joke which makes him chuckle as he wraps his arms around you.

“What would I do without you?“

“Die, probably.”

He chuckles again and humms, holding you for a few more moments before getting back to work

As stated in the morning head-cannon post, he definitely sneaks back into your room on late nights like a teenager out past curfew. If you’re still awake by the time he finishes getting ready for bed, he apologizes. However, he finds it adorable the way you turn over and open your arms for him on those nights. You curl around him like a cat before promptly falling asleep again.

Sometimes he’ll be successful and not wake you up… until he gets into bed. Even then, he isn’t 100% sure you’re awake and you have no recollection of the moment. You always hum as he slips behind you, your back against his chest. You always turn to him, but you never really open your eyes.

Silco’s hands like to wander in bed. They always have. If he’s been working late for a long time and finally is able to go to bed with you at a decent hour, the chance of wandering hands is even more likely.

The wandering hands are fucking annoying when it’s cold outside. You’ll be just about to drift off when, all of a sudden, ice.

“Ah, you’re awake?” Silco will say, cheeky as a motherfucker,

“You do know we have a meeting tomorrow morning, right?”

He humms, “we were probably going to end up killing the leader of their little gang anyways — might as well skip the pleasantries and let Sevika take care of it, don’t you say?”

“I’m tired, Silco.”

“I promise to make it worth your while.”

And boy does he. He knows how to put those icy hands to good use.

Act 2 and 3 Silco

Y’all are back to a “bar food every night” kind of meal plan. The circle of life returns to where it began. Ordering out is also a common occurrence. You two aren’t kids anymore, got to watch what you eat and greasy food upsets your stomach more. Also… got to be a good role model for Jinx.

When Jinx was young, family dinners were more frequent. Silco still regularly missed them due to work, but he always tried his hardest to be present. Sometimes you would all gather around the coffee table in his office to eat when he could not be pulled away.

Family cooking nights on the weekends. Jinx loves it and it gives the three of you time to catch up. She particularly liked when y’all got to make deserts, especially if she could decorate with icing.

As Jinx got older, family dinners became less frequent. While Jinx loves you both more than anything in the world, she’s still a teenager that wants her space. She usually eats out or in her bomb-cave. You all do try to aim for one dinner together a week, but some months make that harder than others.

Silco will take you on date nights at fancy restaurants as an apology for being absent for long periods of time. Especially when Jinx was young. He knows you’ve sacrificed a lot to help him with his cause and to ensure your daughter was raised properly. Whenever he sees you and Jinx together there’s a warm feeling in his chest he can’t describe. He’d do anything to keep it from going away.

Still slips into the shower with you some nights, but it’s very rare. Rip his temples and help him was his hair. He has a headache most days from the stress of running Zaun.

You still give him his evening injections. As Jinx gets older, she takes up that mantle more often, but that last injection of the day is reserved solely for you.

Speaking of Jinx, she definitely worked her way into your bed at night. Scared you and Silco shitless the first few weeks when you woke up to a tapping on your shoulder and opened your eyes to a child in your face. As time goes on, she gets more comfy and won’t even wake you two before jumping between you. You’ll turn over in the morning to see blue hair peeking out from under the blankets. Or you get smacked in the face in the middle of the night — like father, like daughter.

Silco is a Grade A workaholic in these days. Most nights than not, you sleep alone.

Come to his office at night and slip into his lap. It’s a silent exchange that usually results in Silco actually getting some sleep. You fall asleep in his lap, he takes you ti an actual bed, then realizes it looks super comfy and falls asleep next to you.

Lean on the back of his chair, massage his shoulders, and whisper something like “the bed is cold without you,” and there is an 80% chance he’ll go to bed, but not to sleep. There’s also a 60% chance he’ll just spin around in his chair and pull you onto his lap.

He still does the cold hand trick every now and again and it still annoys the hell out of you.

Check in on him if you wake up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water or something. He sometimes falls asleep on the couch. Make sure he has a proper pillow and some blankets or he’ll have a sore neck that won’t feel better for weeks.

Sometimes you’ll wake up in the night after falling asleep alone and feel his hand draped over you, snoring like he used to when he was young. He’ll feel you move in his sleep and tighten his hold on you.

#silco x reader #arcane x reader #silco x you #arcane x you #headcannons

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theseerasures · 3 years

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RWBY V08C14 reaction post

haven’t done something like this for this fandom yet, but the finale was so much all at once that i could not muster any level of critical thinking the first go-around. my thoughts have...settled somewhat with a second rewatch. still nothing conclusive (obviously), but at least coherent enough to be written down.

in rough chronological order:

i am very into it, of course, but i’m still not quite sure what to make of the fact that this finale very explicitly pivots around Winter Schnee, to the extent that the episode (sans prologue and coda) are bookended by her. she begins the episode charging into a fight, and ends it the same way. even putting aside that her in-universe presence has increased by magnitudes, that we end a season where she has mostly been a sparse supporting player with THIS has implications i can’t suss out for her narrative role going forward.

going into the finale i thought that Ironwood vs. Winter would turn out to be another RWBY Flagship Fight (ie long and flashy and indulgent in the best ways), but i pretty much knew that wouldn’t be the case once the fight began in earnest and they immediately started talking to each other.

for what we did get i’m happy to say that the Core Dynamic of the fight was exactly what i predicted: Winter rushing in to melee and not giving Ironwood enough time to fire, Ironwood trying to make room by shoving her away and using his cannon as a makeshift club--even down to breaking the cannon formation BACK to dual wielding to give himself an edge.

i will say that for Winter to have blocked him head-on--this is James Ironwood, who once stopped an Alpha Beowolf cold with one bionic hand, and now he’s got TWO--with her broken noodle arms is...incredibly cool. stupid! but cool.

Ironwood doing the double pistol whip while screaming about how no one is grateful has i wouldn’t have to be doing this if you just behaved all over it.

in retrospect i’m not sure why i expected a RWBY Flagship Fight when just about every fight this season has been extremely different. the camera work is always fucking frantic, we’re often cross-cutting between different simultaneous fights, and there are far fewer shots where both combatants are clearly shown and evenly matched. about the only fight we’ve had resembling that is AceOps vs Penny waaaaaaay back in Strings--even the low-stakes triumphant JNPER + Winter vs. Ironwood fight in Creation was extremely short and crosscut with BRA vs. AceOps.

case in point: the showdown in Grand Central takes up pretty much the entire episode, but combatants are continuously entering and exiting, the setting’s physical dimensions feel wonky and surreal, and the fact that half of the people fighting have flight capabilities means we’re relying on wide shots and oners to figure out what the fuck is going on. it’s a war now, and even though we follow only a handful of characters in it the fights carry that grander and more desperate tone.

Cinder relies twice this episode on just fucking nova-ing herself to overwhelm her Maiden opponents. it’s different from how she usually fights, which is still fireballs and conjured swords/projectiles--she’s learning to use her Maiden powers to wreak havoc on a larger scale, which a) reinforces what we already know of Cinder, but b) complements her recent relearning of subtlety and manipulation. still a tenuous balance of extremes that can and will shatter, though.

Weiss got to save everyone during the fight, and none of it mattered in the end.

the thing about priority one is that they all planned for this. they all went in planning for the contingency where they don’t make it out, where they have to watch others not make it out.

Weiss plucking Penny out of the air and Penny pleading to make the sacrifice play is an EXACT recreation of what happened in Enemy of Trust, down to the saved looking up at the savior while the savior is looking onward. she’s just swapped places with the Schnee in question, and...they are the priority targets this time, unfortunately.

Cinder smugly flipping her hair out of...her eyepatch...she really is living her best life and she knows it

Blake made the right choice, and it didn’t matter at all.

Qrow ending the last episode with a berserker charge at Harriet and then immediately pulling back here and trying to talk her down really got to me, as did him trying to block the bomb with his body. the man is so desperately trying to be better than he was, and it doesn’t take a lot anymore for him to realize the right path.

Elm and Vine--

the thing about Elm and Vine is that both their powers boil down to getting attached. so watching Elm hold Vine in place while Vine holds the two airships together, everyone in this little world, it’s...everything i could ever want, out of how the story of the AceOps would end.

Anairis Quinones for dark horse MVP. why can’t you just let me do my job, delivered in the way that it was, is the perfect encapsulation of Harriet Bree desperately trying to outrun her personal feelings and the grief it has given her.

Elm tells Harriet that she’s their friend, to stop her from killing a part of herself as she tries to kill others. it’s the first time this happens in the episode, but not the only time.

Penny saved Blake so they could save Ruby together, and it didn’t matter at all.

our heroes have GOT to stop falling for the “watch the thing flying in the air! OH WAIT I STILL HAVE A WEAPON IN MY HAND WALLOP WALLOP” trick. it happens multiple times in this one episode.

Harriet, who has the fastest Speed Semblance known, says there’s no time to make it out of the blast range. she doesn’t try to outrun it. she just...stays put, and admits that she brought them all here, to this. i’m sorry.

here’s the thing: they’re soldiers. they were prepared for this eventuality, where they don’t make it out. that’s why Elm let Vine go grab Harriet; because she thought they were all going to die, and if that happened she wanted Harriet close enough to reach.

but--just like with Team Hero--some of them do make it out. they just have to watch.

Vine and Hazel sacrificed themselves in the same way in the end: pulling their loved ones close wasn’t working, so they threw themselves around the thing trying to kill them instead.

Ruby was clever, and pragmatic, and brave. it didn’t matter in the end.

Cinder letting Neo fall as soon as she gets a chance proves that she still lacks patience, and that’s going to bite her in the ass.

the Penny-Blake fastball special and the fall; Penny crying tears for the first time, but not moving immediately to rage, as she had last episode, when Yang fell.

Weiss’ shaking hands around Gambol Shroud, crying berserker tears as she tries, desperately, to pull off another miracle. it’s another role reversal in a way: her sister’s the Riza Hawkeye, but she’s the one emptying useless clip after useless clip into an enemy she can’t kill, because her heart has been ripped in two.

the last time Nora Valkyrie saw Jaune Arc, they clasped hands, and their eyes met with determination, and hope.

it figures that a Schnee would be the last one standing, letting all her friends die first. she was right, but again: wrong Schnee.

Weiss diving past Cinder’s blind spot to slice the Grimm Arm, to save Penny--the same script, but the wrong player. and too late.

at Haven, Jaune went from trying to do harm to unlocking his Semblance, and realizing that he was meant to heal. here, he goes from trying to do what he is meant to do, what he has made peace with, to...

it will take a long time, i think, for him to learn to live with himself, even with Penny reassuring him that this is what she wants. to go from wanting to harm to being the one who does no harm, to being forced to acknowledge a person’s right to die, and carry out the deed himself. it’s a new variation on what he’s always had to wrestle with since Pyrrha’s sacrifice.

Weiss managed to outlast Cinder Fall without an Aura WITHOUT getting her entire body broken, Winter

the boundary between material worlds is made of darkness. the boundary between souls is made of light, and there is no danger of falling.

where...what is this? of course Winter doesn’t know. she never would have, even if she had gotten the powers, because she would have used the Transfer machine.

i thought of you, and here we are. that was all it took. the last time Penny saw Winter, Winter was still loyal to Ironwood. she’s only known abstractly, secondhand from Weiss, that Winter was on their side again and trying to help save Mantle, for about an hour. and yet: i thought of you.

and in the face of this thought that is love, Winter averts her eyes. tries in vain to hide her face, because she knows she is unworthy. she doesn’t deserve this.

but here’s the thing: no one deserves this. Penny. are you...the one? even Penny herself wasn’t sure.

you were my friend. the second time it happens this episode. friends save friends from themselves. friends transform what would have been murder into sacrifice.

remember what Penny said to Cinder, shortly before Cinder killed her? you wouldn’t know anything about friends. she’s right. it wasn’t Cinder’s choice, but she’s right. and now Cinder has learned how to use that.

i’ll be part of you. it is, of course, something that’s been brought up repeatedly this whole season. but it’s also what Winter said to Penny after Fria died: she’s a part of you now.

and i do love this yoking together of arc words. Winter is of course the firstborn Schnee, but Winter is, more broadly, The Firstborn in this new generation. so here we have something similar to the chain that begins with Winter letting her sisters go, through Penny letting Emerald go, through Emerald helping Oscar escape, to Atlas’ however ephemeral victory over Salem. what Winter begins--haltingly and with resentment--becomes transformed into radiant grace in the hands of her younger siblings. and she gets to be the direct benefactor this time. the prodigal daughter returns to her family.

during Enemy of Trust we watched from the outside as Oscar fell and Penny rose, as one set of eyes closed as another opened. during The Final Word, we watch from the inside: one set of eyes close. another opens.

Winter’s leitmotif plays on the piano for the first time since the previous season as she comes back to the world. it makes sense. the piano version is for her sisters, and she just left one of them.

here is the apotheosis of Winter Schnee: she gets back up. she falters and sways but she gets back up, and then she, the person who once managed to convince herself that so long as she could make peace with someone else’s choice it meant she too was choosing, tells the man who has been choosing for her for years: you chose nothing. and she rises.

in the end James Ironwood was finished by his petard thrice over. Atlas had defected against him. his greatest creation had become the Maiden and unshackled herself from him. and there is of course, the cannon: a literal petard, in the other words, which he fires at Winter, and Winter reflects back upon him.

Jaune Arc used the heirloom that his family has held for generations to kill a defenseless girl. he took the blade and sunk it in deep, because Penny trusted him and he had to be sure.

and then it shattered in his hands.

there’s something here in the second fight between Maidens, about Cinder having a named weapon and forsaking it for what she can make on the fly, and Winter insistent on using a weapon with no name at all, but i still can’t put my finger on it.

Winter never got to see Weiss try to Summon her Nevermore.

the thing that gets me about how it turns out is: Winter was winning. she’d managed to get her hands on the Staff, and even with Cinder’s immediate counterattack she managed to get the Staff away from Cinder. but then Cinder saw Jaune and Weiss, and she remembered a few days ago, when Penny saved Winter instead of going after Cinder, when Winter attacked Cinder to save Penny.

so Cinder attacks Weiss and Jaune instead of racing for the Staff. and Winter--

this is Winter Schnee. she saves people despite herself. she runs toward them, despite herself. and it has always, always been what saves her.

not anymore.

last time it had been Winter who was in mortal danger, and Weiss who, with Ruby’s help, drove Cinder off. same script, wrong player. and too late.

Weiss falls and for a moment, the camera makes it seem like Winter is falling too.

she wants to. no one deserves this.

the thing you have to ask when characters leap for the exit and fall just short is: is it about faith, or friendship? in Jaune’s case it’s both. his faith broke with Crocea Mors. and the portal is one-way, so he had no friends to grab him from the other side.

but Nora was still trying. they clasped hands. she promised.

the first time Winter sees her family--really sees them, after years of separation--she averts her eyes. she hides her face from them, because how can she tell them that Weiss is gone? how can she tell Penny’s friends that Penny is a part of her now, when Penny is just a part, now?

there are people all around her looking to her. there are voices within her. she has never been more alone.

(Winter Schnee has never met Pyrrha Nikos, and Pyrrha Nikos never became Maiden. because Pyrrha Nikos never became Maiden. Cinder Fall did that, too.)

this is what Winter Schnee thinks, as she screams and charges, as she kills Grimm faster than they are drawn in by her despair: in the fairy tales, eldest siblings never win.

i failed you again, master. master, but not queen.

Cinder won this. the heroes tried and tried and tried and none of it mattered, and she won this. but here’s the thing: Cinder won because she was LUCKY, and because she made her own luck. that she was able to pin things on Neo and Team Hero depended on things going exactly as planned, and some things going better than planned. and the reason she’d even made it that far was because she cheated, with the last use of a divine relic. it doesn’t take away her from her victory, but what i do know is this: this is her finest moment. she will never win as completely ever again, and she will fall farther than she has ever feared. (and that will save her, in the end.)

and that’s checkmate. i said that i wanted Atlas to fall the same way that Amity rose, but of course they did it like this. of course it would horrific yet unspectacular, with its General slumped in defeat, unable to fire a single shot from his gun. with the city in the sky falling onto Mantle, in Mantle’s palette. from the Dust from which it arose into Dust again.

as below, so above.

#rwby #helen writes meta

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starr-fall-knight-rise · 4 years

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HASO, “Your Choice.”

I am having a lot of fun with this arc. Writing it has put me in a good mood, so I hope you like it as well :)

He walked the halls of the Oxystation with a gun slung over his front hanging from a shortened tac sling around his neck and shoulder. He rested his arms and hands against the weapon as he walked down the hall. The gun was more of a redundancy than anything, if any unwanted alien was able to breach the hull of the station with the armored patrol outside than his gun was just a token sign of resistance. Of course, there was always the possibility that one of the patients would become violent and attack a staff member, but that possibility was quite low, even lower than it was in human mental health clinics. Only five percent of the mentally ill population was any sort of danger to anyone but themselves, and a large percentage of that would still, likely, never do anything bringing that number down somewhere closer to one percent.

With aliens it was even less likely, they weren’t naturally aggressive like humans, so when their mental health tanked, it tended to do it with extreme anxiety and something that looked sort of like depression, though the different species presented the illness differently.

Working at the Oxyclinic had been good for him. It hadn’t been long until his enthusiasm for alien life had come trickling back in, and his fear had been discarded like a sock with a hole in it. He had even offered to help with the oxytheropy that the psychologists were offering. If anything was gong to get rid of his lingering fear of aliens, it was probably going to involve spooning one.

A weird way to deal with internalized fear but there you had it.

The oxystation wasn’t just for the oxytheropy. Human and alien psychologists were taking the time to learn about other species, and put together differing treatment plans for their patients. There was a high turnover rate, and not all the people who came to the clinic ended up staying, not all of them needed oxytheropy, and not all of them would do well having it considering that some of the fear the patients had often centered their issues around humans. To his surprise, he found that a lot of it centered around the Drev war.

He looked down at his watch and took a sharp right turn down the nearest hallway entering the guard quarters just as his watch reached the hour.

“Morning LT.” Someone called and he waved a hand.

“Anything to report?”

“Nothing, all is quiet as usual.”

He ejected the magazine of his gun, and checked the chamber to make sure it wasn’t still loaded before racking it in the safebox as one of the other men stepped up to take his place on patrol.

The other group of men and women looked up at him from where they sat around a table playing cards, “Want us to deal you in.”

Adam shook his head walking over to his locker and pulling out a fresh pair of light blue scrubs, “No I promised the doc I would help today.”

The other humans shook their heads and rolled their eyes, “leave it up to you to want to spoon aliens.”

“Spooning aliens is a lucrative job. You should try it sometime, maybe you’d finally have enough money to buy the bag you’ve always wanted.”

“Bag?”

“YEah the nice one to cover your face.” he shut the locker and grinned at the car players to let them know it was all in good fun before turning towards the bathroom, where he changed and stepped back out. The scrubs were very breazy in comparison to his guard uniform and he shivered slightly returning to his locker.

It was important for people working on the ward to be completely unarmed, and for the humans to look as non threatening as possible. A strict list of instructions urged them not to smile with their teeth, and to keep their hands and feet covered at all times. He wasn’t entirely sure if the fuzzy socks and mittens were entirely necessary for that, but apparently some of the aliens interpreted human nails as claws, and some genius had thought that covering them up like this was very nonthreatening.

Looking in the mirror he had to admit it worked.

In his light blue scrubs and the fuzzy white mittens, he looked more like the easter bunny than he did a killer.

But then again, in real life he didn’t look much like a killer either.

He turned to walk out the door flipping off the people geering at him before remembering that he was wearing a mitten, which kind of negated the point of the gesture.

From there he wandered back up the hall and was buzzed into the ward after waving to the camera. He went through a few metal detectors which pinged on his leg, but they let him through anyway as he stepped into the hall and up to the staff room where the other workers and a few psychologists were having a break.

He took a seat in a chair and idly watched the TV.

HE looked around at the people who wore similar clothes as him and noted, not for the first time, that it took a special kind of person to do this job. All of these people were remarkably docile and relaxed people, and as far as he knew the vast majority of them had no shame. Despite humans being prone to cuddling pretty much anything and everything, its was pretty hard to spoon an alien and not feel awkward about it, but these people right here, they either enjoyed it or they were damn good at faking it.

Adam wasn’t good at faking anything so he was the former.

HE shifted slightly in his seat thinking about some of the aliens on the ward before his mind inevitably shifted to…. To him…. The alien that he dreaded seeing the most…. A big, tall hulking creature that wandered his nightmares and made his leg ache.

The Drev.

The Drev with eyes like the thing that had stolen his leg.

He put a hand to his head feeling a bit dizzy. He had only had one PTSD related panic attack since getting here, and that was only because he had been accidentally exposed to the Drev unexpectedly one day and without knowing that he was on the ward. It had been embarrassing for him as he tried not to let anyone know about his condition, but based on that incident he had been forced to come clean.

Ever since that incident he had been quietly forcing himself to get closer and closer to the Drev despite the psychologists telling him that it was perfectly acceptable for him to step off the ward if the Drev was on.

But adam didn’t like that mentality much.

He had always felt, ever since returning from the Drev war, that people were too soft on him. They always sat there and told him that it was fine and whatever he needed to do was important, that he couldn’t blame himself if he couldn’t handle something. They were all very forgiving and very understanding, but that's not what he wanted. At some point, he felt that it was acceptable to get up in someone's face and tell them that: no you aren't doing good enough and that you behavior isn’t ok.

He wanted people to ask more of him, not less, and he wanted to get better not stay stagnant.

If other people wanted to spend their days medicated and avoiding the things that made them hurt than that was their decision, but he planned on healing all the way.

It was a thought that he espoused only for himself and did not apply it to others.

Their mental health was their business.

Either way, he was going to make something out of this, and had slowly been approaching the Drev on the ward over time. He didn’t know if the Drev knew, and it didn’t matter to him so much, but he did have a bit of his own agenda.

The door creaked open, and one of the psychologists stuck her head into the room looking around for a quick moment before her eyes fell on Adam.

“Lieutenant, can I speak with you for a moment.”

For a second Adam’s heart stopped a little. Was he in trouble? Had he done something wrong?

He tried looking at her face to see any signs of displeasure, but she was a difficult woman to read, so he stood slowly and followed her from the room and back into her office where he took a seat.

She sat across from him at her desk hands folded together. SHe looked him over with eyes that seemed to bore into his sole, “How are you doing, Adam.”

He shifted nervously in his seat, “Er… I thought I was a staff member not a patient.”

“Just humor me.”

“I’m good.”

“Any panic attacks recently.”

“No ma’am.”

“Are you being truthful.”

“You and I both know I’m shit at lying.”

She grunted and clasped her hands together looking at him with a stern expression.

HE shifted awkwardly in his seat, “What” “I have… a mission for you, though it is one I worry might jeopardize your mental health if it goes wrong, and the mental health of my patient as well. If it goes right however I think it would do BOTH of you a world of good. What I would be asking you to do is…. Of questionable ethicality.”

That made him nervous. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean by asking you to jeopardize your mental health, I could be in serious violation of a couple of major statutes in my field, however assuming you do it willingly it might not be so bad.”

Despite his apprehension, his curiosity won out, “Go on?”

“Kanan.”

“Cannon, WHat?”

“No, Kanan, the name of the Drev on the ward.”

Adam shifted in his seat, stomach churning, “Oh…. go on.”

“Have you noticed he has a limp.”

“I…. suppose I haven't looked closely enough.”

“Well he does, and you want to guess where he got that limp?”

He had a pretty good guess, “The war?”

“Exactly.”

“And….. I suppose you think….” He trailed off

“He lost everything during the war Adam, his mate, his honor, his home. He is injured and exiled, and at this moment there are very few people in the galaxy that can even partially understand what he has gone through.” She leaned back in her chair looking at him, “I think, that having someone like you to speak with about what happened would be,.... Beneficial to both of you.” She paused, “DId you know that human and Drev psychology is surprisingly similar….”

He shook his head, “Well it is, and I think the two of you would recover faster if you had something to work on together.”

“With all due respect ma’am, my papers say I’m recovered.”

“The UNSC isn’t exactly known for their in depth medical reviews Lieutenant. I know they overlooked some things. Either way, it’s your choice.”

***

Adam stood in front of the door. His hands were sweating leaving the inside of the mitten’s sticky and unpleasant. He felt nauseous, but swallowed to hold it down eyes wide as he stared at the door. What was he doing? What was he doing?

He took a deep breath.

Not being a coward, that’s what he was doing. He reached a hand up and knocked on the door before he could chicken out. There was silence and the knock seemed to echo down the hall for eternity. He waited, and waited, and waited, and assumed at some point maybe he had caught the large alien sleeping, but then the door opened.

His human knee went weak, and it was only the prosthetic that kept him standing as he stared up at the huge, hulking figure.

Adam was, tall 6,2 to be precise, but this hulking behemoth had to have been around or over nine feet tall, with blood red armor, and four bulging arms. It stared at him with bright golden eyes that brought echoes of his past welling up into his ears. He felt as if he was about to fall over, but then the creature turned and trundled back into the room, snapping Adam out of his trance.

He was breathing hard, and he thought about turning back, but instead, he stepped softly into the room leaving the door open just as crack as he moved inside.

The room around him was dark, and the floor was scattered with crumbled pieces of paper.

A box of markers lay on the ground to one side. He looked down to see he was stepping on a discarded piece of paper, and stepped back to look down, realizing the drawing there was of a tree, with striped bark and spiraling branches. It looked like something out of a Dr Seus book though he recognized it as an Anum/ Anin coiltree.

He crouched down to pick the paper up.

He looked up to see the Drev had returned to the edge of his cot and was sitting down, a shapeless form in the dark.

“You mind if I turn the light on?” Adam asked.

At first the Drev didn’t answer, but then he took a long breath through those strange holes in his neck and managed a deep, rumbling, “THe colors are too bright.”

Adam paused then, “Well neither of us can see very well in the dark and, he held up the page, drawing in the dark can’t be easy.”

There was a grunt.

“I’m going to turn the lights on.”

The Drev didn’t stop him, and as he did the room lit up showing even more pages scattered over the floor, all drawings of Anin some of them sloppy, some of them, quite artistic for a species he hadn’t thought practiced art.

He knelt down to examine a few of them, “Not bad.”

He picked up one of the pictures to examine it.

“This looks like the valley between the volcanic belts.”

The Drev turned to look at him, and when his eyes fell on Adam, the page slipped from his hand floating back to the floor.

The uncanny deepness of it’s golden eyes unnerved him.

“You were in the war?”

Adam’s hands were shaking, but he clasped them together to hide that fact.”

There was a long silence between them, and then he reached down pulling up the leg of his scrubs to reveal the titanium construction underneath, “I was.”

The Drev seemed surprised and looked up at him.

“You were one of them.” he said it very flatly, and Adam suddenly grew very worried that the Drev would kill him in revenge for being part of the operation that decimated his people.

“One of your number killed my father.”

Fuck

He went to back away but the Drev just looked down.

He sighed very deeply, “You were a strong and worthy opponent. We never had a chance.”

His voice was not bitter, or hate filled. There was some measure of regret behind his words but not enough to constitute anger. And when Adam looked at the creature, he could do nothing but feel sorry for him.

He quietly walked over trying to avoid the pages on the floor and then, unsure, sat next to the large figure.

Adam was not used to feeling small, but sitting next to the huge figure of the drev, he felt very tiny indeed.

The inside of the gloves were absolutely soaking, and with some measure of annoyance he tossed them off and onto the floor.

He wiped his palm on his shirt, reached out, fingers trembling and rested a hand on the Drev’s arm.

“You want to tell me about it? I.. My people didn’t exactly take the time to understand yours….. Now that I think about it it hardly seems fair.”

The Drev snorted ,”My mother believed that war was supposed to be fair, but my father understood that there was always inherent unfairness in battle…. The two of them didn’t get along towards the end. I think I agree with my father, to assume that your species would abide by our rules of combat was…. Ignorant of us.” The Drev turned to look at him, “Your species is much more efficient at war than mine is.”

His hands weren’t shaking anymore.

And he realized that, when he looked at this Drev, He didn’t see much of an enemy at all.

But he did see someone broken by the war…. Just like him.

He looked down at his feet, and when he did his eyes came across another drawing. This one of a drev, It really only had an outline since it’s carapace seemed to be white, and the way it had been rendered with such delicate care, made it pretty clear to Adam who it might have been.

He picked it up quietly.

“You…. want to tell me about her?”

The Drev turned to look his eyes resting on the picture. Adam didn’t think up to this point he could read Drev facial expressions, but the welling of sadness in the creature’s face was so poignant that Adam felt his own chest tighten,

Damn the human’s heightened sense of empathy.

For a moment he thought the Drrev was going to tell him to get out, but, instead, he took the image and stared down at it, “Nechal…. Named after the moon….. She was the most glorious fighter I had ever seen in battle, strong, and graceful and powerful. She was not afraid to die, but she didn’t let that lower her guard. On the battlefield she was a goddess of war, and off…. She was…. Kind in ways that aren’t common among our people. I may have been attracted to her because of her fighting prowess, but I loved her because of the kindness she showed. Especially towards my sister… someone who needed kindness more than anyone I know.”

He took a very deep breath and when he spoke again his words were thick.

Could Drev cry? “In our people it is…. Custom not to mourn the dead who are lost in battle because their return to the spiritual realm will be glorious. It is a great honor to lose a mate in battle….” He looked down at his four hands, “But I do not feel honored…. I feel alone…. I miss her, ever day and every night I miss her, and I wish she hadn’t died…” He looked up and when he did Adam was struck by the expression of pain and grief on his face.

As if he was feeling the Drev’s pain in real time, he felt his chest clench again, and tears welled in his eyes. How could he not?

Anyone who didn’t feel the same must have had no feelings?

“I was exiled because…. I could not follow her into the afterlife…. With my injury I should have given my body over to the fire, and maybe then I'd be with her, but I just…. I couldn’t do it. I miss her every day and yet I don’t have the strength to go to her…. I am a fraud among my people, a coward and a fraud and….

“Hey! Hold on.”

The Drev went quiet and turned to look at Adam who was now gripping his arm tight in one hand.

“You think she’d want to hear you say that.”

That seemed to take the Drev off guard and he stared at Adam with some measure of confusion.

“You said she was kind wasn’t she….. Well then I doubt she'd appreciate you talking about yourself like that.”

He was quiet for some time.

“Look I…. I lost my leg during the war to…. To one of your soldiers and. It’s messed me up for a real long time. Hell you scare the daylights out of me, but I’m moving forward.”

THe Drev frowned at him, “Scared of… us… you won?”

Adam laughed, “We didn’t win anything. Nobody won, a lot of people died and a lot of people were crippled, and for what? I think about that a lot, for honor? Honor. Well maybe I don’t understand what honor means because to me, it would be something worth dying over.”

The Drev contemplated him for a long time.

“We may have won but we did it with scared soldiers like me, and broken soldiers like me. I’m probably never going to recover from the war. That’s the difference between you and me, you guys can make it through war in one piece but me…. Humans… we may be good at war but it destroys us.”

He sighed, “I guess what I am trying to say is, instead of feeling sorry for what you can’t change, why not move forward. Do something you think is worth it, do something Ne-” he stumbled over the Drev word, “Nechal would think was worth it.”

He didn’t know what he was saying, he didn’t know if what he was saying even made sense. Nerves had always made him ramble. He knew he was talking too much but he didn’t know what else to do.

The Drev looked down, and Adam. as was his training made a bit of a decision.

He shut up.

Which was a feat in itself.

Reached over and hugged the larger alien. His arms didn’t make it anywhere close to wrapping around him, but he hoped that maybe it would help?

He didn’t know.

He was kind of just a raging idiot most of the time, so his plans were usually half assed at best.

The Drev stiffened and then relaxed. Adam’s head was resting against the creature’s huge planted shoulder. It felt like hugging corded steel cables.

He would have to say that being hugged by something with four arms was a bit of an experience. Most aliens didn’t usually hug back, they were more the recipient of hugs, but it seemed that the Drev wasn’t unfamiliar with the concept, either that or he learned fast, and damn Adam felt even smaller encircled in the arms of the huge alien.

Kanan could have crushed him if he wanted, but let him go not long after to Adam’s surprise and relief.

The Drev looked at him.

He looked back

“You are strange creatures.”

He gave a weak smile, forgetting the rule about showing teeth, “So they say.”

It was a bit of a gamble but things had worked out better than the psychologist could have hoped. Drev are more receptive to self reflection than humans are. Humans like to internalize things, and their brains become obsessive. Drev have more control over their minds in many cases than humans do, so Adam’s encouragement for Kanan to do something his dead mate would think worthwhile showed results almost immediately.

To Adam’s grudging pleasure, the Drev seemed to be recovering faster than he was.

And was well on his way to recovering completely when the communication came for Adam one night while he sat lying on his bed next to Waffles, thinking about his future.

The pink roused him from near sleep and he sat up on one elbow to look at the time.

i t was only nine earth time, so he rolled onto his side and sat up, patching the communication through.

A light blue screen of holographic image filled his vision, and on the other side he could see Colonel Kelly sitting in front of him….. At least Colonel until he realized the star on her uniform.

His eyes widened slightly. He went to speak but she shook her head at him.

“I trust you are doing well Lieutenant.”

“Yes ma’am. I have no complaints.”

She nodded, “Good, good, I am sorry to intrude, but I am afraid this rest period is over for you. You are requested to return to earth on the next outgoing transport.”

He frowned and rubbed the back of his head, “Uh of course ma’am but…. Why?”

She stared at him long and hard, ‘I have a very important decision for you to make. It is one that is not going to be popular or easy, but I urge you to accept my request.”

He frowned and shook his head, “You aren't making sense, What is this all about?”

“Tensions are rising between our delegates and the GA, if we don’t do something soon, I am worried that this will devolve into infighting and eventually war. I have to work fast in order to stop this outcome, and you are the lynchpin that holds my plan together.”

“Me.” He squeaked.

“Yes, you, now Adam, be honest with me. What is your opinion on the GA and our involvement with them?”

He rubbed the back of his neck though his thoughts were adamant, “Cooperation wherever and however possible. We need them, and I believe they could due with being our allies, ma’am.”

“And if I gave you a job to try and reach that goal, would you take it?”

“I would do whatever I had to do ma’am.”

He was being truthful.

She nodded her head.

“Good then, it’s your choice at the end of the day, but if we act now, we can change everything.”

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cruelfeline · 4 years

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Ah, I can’t believe that I’ve never looked at the intro villain cards side by side before!

But now I have. And of course, what I focus on within them is Hordak, because that is my job. And Hordak... it’s very interesting, how he’s portrayed in these cards. Especially when compared to Catra’s portrayal in the initial seasons, and when compared to Prime’s portrayal, once he appears.

In seasons one, two, and three, we have the above title card with our three “major villains”: Catra, Shadow Weaver, and, of course, Hordak. And it’s interesting: both Shadow Weaver and Hordak are present, but the front-and center villain, and the one who looks the most pleased and sinister, is Catra. She’s the one wearing the smirk. She’s the one making the most direct eye contact with the viewer. And, arguably, during these seasons, she is the only most directly in conflict with Adora. She is, in a sense, our “main villain.”

Now, Hordak. Hm.

Hordak is... he’s a little odd, isn’t he? He has his back to the camera, initially. And when he glances toward the viewer, he doesn’t really convey the sense of villainous pride or overarching, central danger that Catra does. Instead, he looks sort of... annoyed. Not like he’s actively engaging in being a major threat, but like he’s being bothered while busy with his own affairs

He’s not even portrayed at the level of Shadow Weaver here, who is more forward-facing and can sort of be interpreted as the “force” responsible for Catra. Rather, it’s more like he’s sequestered off, doing his own thing, before being interrupted and sort of coerced into interacting. Which... is kind of what happens in the first three seasons, isn’t it? In these seasons, Hordak is very much in the background, not really taking an active part in the war, working on his own agenda and dealing with his own issues. Quite unlike Catra, who is our front-and-center antagonist. And not as active in influencing her, as Shadow Weaver is. He’s one of our villains, technically, but he remains separate in terms of how he functions within the plot: he never interacts with our heroes until the end of season three, never appears on the front lines, never actively joins the conflict.

He is very much focused on his own problems, and they don’t involve directly antagonizing our protagonists.

Moving on to the season four card, Hordak definitely features more prominently, but the portrayal is still a curious one.

Catra remains our front-and-center threat. She continues to smirk at us and remind us that she is the main antagonist that Adora and Friends will be dealing with. She remains firmly on Adora’s mind, and she spearheads many of the more aggressive Horde maneuvers this season, escalating the war beyond what we’ve dealt with before.

Horde Prime is here, too, still a distant threat at this point in the story, but wearing a small hint of a smile that suggests a quiet eagerness to Cause Problems at a later date. He looks calm and sinister, and while he doesn’t yet take an active role this season, he is menacing here, a gentle promise of serious future danger.

Now, compared to Catra’s steady head-villain portrayal and Prime’s suggestion of upcoming menace, Hordak comes across, yet again, somewhat oddly.

He is forward-facing now, appearing far more active in terms of engaging the viewer. He has a weapon, very clearly brandished for us to see. He reads as a more immediate threat: ready for battle, ready to do damage. And yet... his expression is strange, isn’t it? He’s not smirking, like Catra, to mark an eagerness to do battle. He doesn’t have the small, suggestive smile that Prime wears, indicating a rising threat to be dealt with in the near future.

Rather, his expression is... oddly vulnerable. Confused, almost. Distressed. He doesn’t have the face of a confident, engaged adversary. He looks unsettled, unsure of himself. Which is appropriate for this season, isn’t it? After all, while he does far more damage here, leveling settlements with his arm cannon, arguably furthering his goals, he hardly succeeds, in terms of his general well-being.

His military victories are marred by his pining for Entrapta (who actually appears behind him, in the shadows, as the camera pans up, strongly suggesting that she remains on his mind), and his actions ultimately culminate in terrible self-destruction when he reunites with his Brother and has to come to terms with the reality of how Prime sees him.

Actually, he looks almost as unhappy as Scorpia in this villain card, doesn’t he? Both seem to carry the air of people who are maybe beginning to realize that they are not where they should be.

All in all: he’s got his weapon; he’s ready to fight... but he’s conspicuously unhappy.

And that brings us to season five.

Horde Prime is our clear villainous focus here: forward-facing, engaging the viewer with direct (multiple) eye contact, smirking toothily to let us know that he is very happy to be our main antagonist this season. He is the chief danger: the clones, the chipped protagonists, Catra - all others present are small and insubstantial compared to Prime’s dominating presence.

And then, once again, there’s Hordak.

This is easily the most vulnerable we’ve seen him on these villain cards. He is stripped of his armor: thin body, discolored scars, and anatomical defects plainly displayed for us to see. He has no weapons. His expression is soft (my favored term is “resting baby face”) and carries absolutely no hint of malice. He looks so small, here. Fragile. And very much cast in Prime’s shadow, entirely at his mercy, though he remains differentiated, standing apart from the other clones to give us the indication that he is still himself.

This portrayal gives us a fairly good sense of Hordak’s role this season: he is not actively fighting, not engaging directly in the main conflict. Rather, this is an introspective time for him, marked by a quiet struggle with his sense of failure, with his difficult memories, with thoughts of Entrapta, with what he wants out of his life. It’s a culmination of all of his emotional conflicts, come to a head in this final season as he works to finally break free of Prime and make the choice to live his own life.

What this portrayal conspicuously does not do is mark him as an actual threat, for during this season, he really isn’t one. He doesn’t clash with our protagonists. He doesn’t harm Etheria in any way. He really does focus inwardly, and when he finally interacts with the main plot, it is in a way that leads to Prime’s demise and Etheria’s restoration.

Ultimately, this villain card gives us what I think is the most honest view of Hordak, as he truly is: not a villainous warlord, but a lost man dealing with real vulnerabilities and trying to figure out who and what he wants to be.

All right. That’s all of them!

Now, taking all of these villain cards, all of these Hordak portrayals together, I think that the most interesting overarching concept is that, season differences aside, Hordak is never really portrayed as the “main villain.” Catra and Horde Prime always appear to take that role, while Hordak... even when he’s shown with an actual weapon, he fails to come across as the real danger facing our heroes. He is always a bit apart, always giving off this sense that he is dealing with something a bit removed from the main conflict.

Which very much follows, doesn’t it? Because he is never really the main villain, is he? He is never that all-conquering warlord he pretends to be. He is never the real threat facing Etheria. Rather, he is a troubled man trying to navigate through his own trauma, and while he leaves a whole lot of collateral damage in his wake, it doesn’t have the same air of intended imperial control that Prime possesses. Or the spiteful malice that Catra offers, often tainting her central conflict with Adora. And while we can certainly glean that from assessing the whole show, we can see clear indicators of it in something as brief and simple as the villain title cards.

A fun set of little details, in my opinion.

#hordak #horde prime #catra #she ra

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buckyjustbelikethat · 4 years

Text

The Fiction of Fairytales: Prologue

Title: The Fiction of Fairytales: Prologue

Characters: (eventual) Stucky x Reader

Summary: (a/b/o au that is non-cannon compliant) After being captured and forced to live as Brock Rumlow’s mate for years you are kidnapped by the Avengers. They plan to interrogate you for information on Hydra and Rumlow, but after Steve and Bucky realize they are your true mates, they realize that their kidnapping was more of an unexpected rescue.

Warnings: Mentions of assault, kidnapping, and abuse.

Word Count: approx. 1400

A/N: Why is it becoming a trend in my multipart series that the first chapter takes place between tony and the reader. Anyways, this part is very angsty and not fun, but there will definitely be fluff and romance coming in the future. I hope you guys like the beginning! 💕

As a kid you dreamed of finding your mate one day. Your parents had a beautiful relationship, you grew up watching the adoration in their eyes when they looked at each other and you wanted that. They seemed the most relaxed and at peace when you all were together. You didn’t know much about what your parents did, and to this day you still don’t, but at the age of 16, you learned that whatever it was that they did, they had made themselves an enemy of Hydra. You were having a movie night, all three of you watching the most recent released Disney movie. You sometimes imagine yourself there in the days that followed, praying that your mind could conjure those moments in the present rather than remain cruelly unreachable memories. But they are gone now, and you weren’t sure if you would ever know true peace again.

Hydra had invaded your home, and killed your parents. This is when you had begun to wish you never were an omega. Maybe if you weren’t, you never would have been taken that day. You would have gone with your parents, and your life would have stayed blissful up until the moment of your death. Unfortunately, when the Alphas that had invaded smelled you they decided to take you. The head of the group that attacked you was Brock Rumlow. He had decided you would be his before any of the other Alpha’s could get their hands on you. Though that didnt mean he had stopped them in the future.

For the past 8 years you were Brock’s omega, not by your own choice. You had tried to escape him a few times and soon you realized the pain when they caught you again was worse than staying. It was pointless to try and leave. Brock had all of the resources of Hydra and you had nothing, and since your parents died, you had no one.

The faith that you previously had in love that was demonstrated and proclaimed by your parents seemed like a fairytale. Most importantly a fictional reality you were not given the privilege of having in your own life. You only knew pain from alphas, not just your bonded mate Brock, but his alpha friends he would invite over to your place.

In the beginning Brock kept you locked in the cold basement, chained up most of the time due to your many escape attempts. But at some point he had broken you physically and emotionally, and he knew it. That was his goal, to not be able to see beyond the life he had given you. You were expected to please him in all aspects. You were his to command in any way imaginable, he had convinced you over the years that he only asked what was expected of every omega, convincing you that even if you left you would never be safe from your presentation. You were now able to sleep with him in his bed, though that was probably the last place you would want to be. You were given free reign of the home, mostly so you could keep it to his expectations and serve him. He even allowed you to go to the grocery store, though you knew he was watching you at all times, he would know when you left and if you didn’t make it back within what he considered a reasonable time or you talked to too many people you were punished. You were punished for just about everything, and sometimes just because it was what he felt like doing at the time.

Most people in hydra knew about you. Brock took you to all of the public events, and he would often make sure to not harm you in any visible places leading up to whatever event he wanted to show you off at. Not that anyone at the party would care about his abuse, hell most of them had, at some point, had a part in it, he just wanted you to look more attractive. Though he never complimented you, too focused on making you feel worthless, you knew from others that your scent and appearance was enticing, and you wished that it wasn’t the case.

Brock was having people over tonight, and you were expected to go to the grocery store. He didn’t give you the luxury of knowing who it was, you only wished to know what to expect, whether or not Brock would expect you to please whatever company it was. But like normal you were left in the dark, you only knew how he expected you to prepare and what food to make. Over the years you felt like you had gotten really good at cooking, though you weren’t allowed to have much of the food you made, he would tell you it was too good for you. He would either give you scraps or make you prepare something bland to eat for dinner.

You were picking up the ingredients as quick as you could at the store, despite the pain you were in from the morning. Brock had gotten mad at you for something minimal, you had looked at him in the eyes on accident, which was one of his least favorite things, and he had beaten you. Though you were sure you had a few broken bones, you were used to continuing on through the pain, he did not tolerate anything else. You thankfully had gotten used to the layout of the store since it was the only one he would allow you to go to, so you were able to make your trip as short as possible. It was the closest one to your house, and you imagined that at some point he had someone hack into the cameras.

After you loaded the bags into your car, you got into the drivers side only to scream when you saw a figure behind you.

“Hello, I’m sure you know of me, at this point everyone does, and you’re going to listen to my directions.” It was Iron Man, and though you weren’t too familiar with him, you had heard of him enough to know that he was an enemy of hydra, or that hydra was an enemy of him, you didn’t know which one was more appropriate. He almost didn’t need to point his weapon at you, he was wearing his whole suit as if he imagined you were some kind of threat, and you wouldn’t stand a chance even if he wasn’t wearing it, especially with the kind of pain you were in. Based on his threatening position in your back seat, and the fact that he smelled very much like an alpha, you assumed this was no rescue. Whatever it was, you hoped it would even be the slightest bit better than how Brock treated you. Maybe he would even give you the gift of killing you, then all of this would be over.

You looked at the cameras and noticed that in his position the car next to you blocked them from being able to see him.

“Don’t even bother looking, your mate isn’t going to save you. You’re going to put the car in drive and follow my instructions.”

You were too fearful to argue with him calling Brock your mate. Sure he technically was, but you had no choice in any of it. You originally had dreams of only bonding with your true mate, but that’s all it was, just dreams.

You didn’t respond. You had learned over the years to only speak when necessary, and you had a feeling Stark wasn’t going to listen to anything you had to say anyway. So you put the car in drive and followed Stark’s instructions. “You know you need to get out more, we’ve been following you for a while and you only go to the grocery store if you aren’t with your mate. I gotta say, that’s a little weird.” You didn’t know what to say, unsure if an honest reply would really get you anywhere.

“So, you aren’t much of a talker either I’m guessing, that’s fine, as long as you answer our questions when we get to the tower, I don’t care how much you talk.”

So, that’s why they wanted you. They thought you could give them information on Brock, or hydra. Maybe when he realized you were of no use to him he really would kill you.

Next Chapter

#stucky #stucky x reader #alpha stucky x reader #alpha bucky barnes #alpha steve rogers #bucky barnes x reader #steve rogers x reader

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glitterytidalwavedragon · 4 years

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Seto Kaiba Relationship Head Cannons (Manga & Post DSOD Kaiba)

This is my head cannon for Manga Kaiba. The reason why I added DSOD is because the movie is meant to take place six months after the events of the manga. For those who haven’t read the manga you need to read it! The characters have such different dynamics and it is insane how much of it’s own story it is, the anime is definitely in an AU of it’s own. Fair warning, this one is a bit darker then my other two. This is ReaderxKaiba.

Teenage (before DSOD):

Kaiba is not one to hide what their thinking, unless it is related to some grand master plan of his, so the moment he feels even an ounce of something, it will be known.

Kaiba is also aware of teenage lust, desires and impulses, but doesn’t know how to handle them with anything but aggression.

When confronting you with his “feelings” expect to be cornered, alone, and there to be uncomfortably close physical contact. If Kaiba wants to touch you, he will, but he won’t assault you.

Kaiba wants you to want him. So he will make you very aware of his motives whenever you are near.

Kaiba will count you both in a relationship, of some weird (probably unheathy) kind once he tells you he plans to make you his.

This proves to be hell for Joey, who believes you deserve better. Kaiba will try, and often succeed, in ripping down Joey whenever he interferes.

Kaiba must prove he is the alpha male you need. It can get very overwhelming.

Then comes the second problem. Yugi is a very friendly soul, the Pharaoh is a friend you enjoy playing with. Kaiba will not approve of this by any means.

Kaiba will mistakenly think the Pharaoh is a rival in not only duel monsters, but in acquiring your affections. A duel over you or you becoming a prize in BC is of high likelihood if you have not accepted Kaiba’s feelings by this point.

But warned if you do accept Kaiba’s feelings, it is not an easy ride.

Kaiba will push to be physical right away. The boy craves affection of any kind and sex is made out to be the “ultimate way of proving love and affection”, he will need to be rejected. A lot.

Kaiba will not understand gifts, small tokens, surprises and acts of kindness you show him. In the beginning he would always buy something for you in turn, thinking you only did these things to get something.

Kaiba will also get extremely paranoid and angry if you cancel on him or delince to see him to hang out with another male, i.e. Joey and Yugi. You can expect him to make an appearance at some point.

Worse, Kaiba might send his little brother to spy on you during these events. Be kind to the boy, he will be a much needed ally later.

Side Note: Should you break up with Kaiba...Congratulations, you have a stalker that will take about a year of heartache and life destroying madness to be rid of. (He will never take you back).

It would take Yugi’s, Mokuba and You to get Kaiba use to TLC that doesn’t involve a bedroom. It is best to avoid sleeping with him at all cost before he understands you really do love him.

Kaiba knowing someone loves him will make him panic.

Kaiba will try to do anything to show you how much of a monster he is, even going so far as to give you the body count he racked up.

Kaiba is determined to prove he can’t be truly loved and reject all thoughts of it.

This is where the longest and hardest park of the relationship hits.

Kaiba will be afraid of physical affection at this point but, as long as you don’t care how many he may have murdered, ruined, or coaxed into self-harm, he won’t be to far from you.

Expect years of proving your love for him. Kaiba will also explain that you will be his only relationship he will ever have.

Kaiba really is all or nothing.

Adult Post DSOD:

Kaiba has become mild in his actions at this point. Somewhat.

Happen to be at his favorite, quiet bar, run by Yakaza, well Kaiba will buy your next drink. Accepting the drink will trigger Kaiba to come over.

Kaiba being a flirt is an understatement. The man is smoother than the scotch in his glass.

Kaiba is also a dick, as he will quote poetry or classic literature as a test. Should you point out at least 60% of his phrases correctly you will end up getting his number, fail...at least he left you in a nice hotel room.

Kaiba wants a brain, and is shockingly not shallow. Many people had underestimated him due to his age and appearance, and had to prove them wrong, so he waits to see the mind of the person.

Should you manage to keep his interest, expect gifts.

Kaiba will send very expensive gifts that boarder uncomfortable.

Kaiba still has many of his old insecurities, he will buy your interest if he has to.

Kaiba understands physical affection and sex are two different creatures that could be the same thing at times. You will need to be affectionate.

Kaiba shall declare you both in a relationship after at least three months of dating. This comes with a few problems.

Kaiba finds your car too old, gets you a new one but doesn’t tell you he has a tracker installed. Your phone? He already cracked it. Someone broke into your apartment? It was one of Kaiba’s goons installing cameras to ensure you’re not cheating.

Kaiba does not handle rejection well, should you freak out on him and belittle him expect him to become destructive...with your things being what is destroyed.

Kaiba’s temper, even in a relationship is to lash out at anything around him, dueling him when he’s upset will aid in getting him back to baseline. Also saves the furniture.

Kaiba is shockingly easy to tame if given the proper affection and emotional outlets. If dueling can’t be done, give the man food to chop, you’ll have the best diced vegetables you’ve ever seen. Knife a bad idea? Play a video game where he can shoot or beat the hell out of someone. Stuck in a car with nothing around for miles, lap dances can work to.

Kaiba can not handle tears, his solution is to throw things your way. Expect him to order you food or a stuffed BEWD.

Kaiba will go into self-loathing if he causes the tears, you have to pull him out of himself as he will avoid you and won’t keep eye-contact. Man freaks out over failure, making you cry means he failed at the relationship.

Kaiba is much easier to love, however, he will reveal his crazy, crazy and expect you not to flee or flinch. So when he comes home in blood and a hot gun, offer to burn his clothing and bury the weapon in a park somewhere. Just don’t ask questions.

Cuddling is a big part of showing Kaiba affection. Kaiba will NEVER ask to be cuddled, but should you put yourself in the position, he will accept it.

Communication is also off with Kaiba.

Kaiba will communicate with his eyes, a lot. It is the most expressive thing about him. His face can say nothing but his eyes tells all.

Kaiba is also a very tender lover when in a proper relationship. The man still expects nothing to last so during these moments he takes his sweet time to savor every moment.

Kaiba will have to be coaxed into marriage. Marriage comes with a lot of risk and trust. He would be content with being partners for life, it’s far less terrifying than a piece of paper.

Kaiba is loyal to a fault, he expects the same. Any male in your life needs to be introduced to him. Be ready with their name, relation, job and how long you knew them. You best be ready to cut off old boyfriends who are now friends.

Did we mention that Kaiba is possessive. Kaiba is possessive and will never let you get far enough where he can’t get you within minutes.

Hope you all enjoyed this! Manga Kaiba is such a beast of a man...still want him though. Ugh! Kaiba-Senpai! Such a beautiful man.

Find all my Kaiba fanfics HERE!

#Kaiba Seto #seto kaiba #reader x seto kaiba #reader x seto #yugioh kaiba #yandere kaiba #kaiba #Yu-Gi-Oh #yugioh #yu-gi-oh duel monsters #yu-gi-oh dm #yu-gi-oh post DSOD #dsod kaiba #dsod seto kaiba #relationship headcanons #relationship head canon #relationship #yugioh seto kaiba

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sacchariinity · 3 years

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So Camille grew up in that original Gamecube Animal Crossing environment. Then who were her villagers? The people she absolutely couldn’t stand? Oh, she can rattle their names off at lightning speed for anyone that cared to know. As well as detail the nicer side of those few people that gave her the time of day.

Madam Rosa: Camille has never hated someone more in her life. If she could personally rip someone’s being from the timestream and assure that they never existed in the first place, she would do so to Madam Rosa with a smile. She’d constantly hector Camille the very instant she saw her, it was an issue every time the two locked eyes. Story goes like this: Little kid tried to help out the new arrival and, being a child, messed it up! But it’s not the thought that counted, not with this bird. She was labeled ‘The Inept One’ and was picked on whenever she tried to do anything, told not to “mess it up”.

Rocco: This was moreso her sister Chamomile’s gripe, but if you mess with one sister, you mess with both of them. Rocco was just mad at everyone, children included. And sort of a hypocrite if his take on Chamomile was anything to go on. He always rambled about how the youth needs to get their hindquarters in gear and start working. Too many layabouts. Yet when Camille’s sister does some work for Tom Nook and brings by a package for Rocco, she gets complained at for it! Ugh... His packages were always late after that, both sisters made certain of it.

Carmen: A mouse with a similar style to Camille’s, the rattier of the two always called out the kid for quote unquote “stealing her style”. From there on, it was a pseudo rivalry of constantly trying to outdo each other with outfits and such. Even if it meant sneaking into their unlocked houses and shredding their clothes when nobody was looking.

Curly: The guy was sort of clueless, but harmless all the same. His lack of wrinkles in the brain could make his statements a little blunt and harsh on the emotions, but even she could tell he never meant any harm. They would converse here and there, chat about her mortal enemies if she felt like sharing. Play dolls if Curly was done with his daily reps and sets.

Jeremiah: Chamomile often took care of Jeremiah’s plants since the frog was too busy napping or eating to do it himself, so Camille would tag along whenever her sister went over. One of the nicer villagers, frankly. Didn’t fuss when she brought her toys over to occupy herself, even willingly joined instead of her having to force people into playing like normal.

Camofrog: It was Jeremiah that introduced the sisters to the seemingly stick in the mud frog, actually. And while he was pretty strict, he wasn’t mean without a reason. He looked meaner than he truly was, happily entertaining the sisters if he had the time. Chewing them out when an act of revenge was caught. Defending them when it was clear they were in the right. Camofrog is one of the more stick-out people in her mind for all of the right reasons.

Quetzal: The main tattletale of the village. A walking sentry camera that Camille constantly had to watch out for. He always thought he was the so-called defender of the village, so of course he’d try and keep out an eagle eye for the pastel child’s devious antics. But with her status as the residential sweetheart, it came down skeptical stares and doubtful raises of the eyebrows whenever he said that Camille supposedly “ripped up my mail and used the tiny pieces to sprinkle overtop my trampled flowers”.

Daisy: This dog was a lot like Camille. Everyone in the village thought the poor pup was a bore. The only thing she put forth was her interest in paleontology, an instant turn-off for anyone but Blathers. But after chatting with Daisy, Camille found that there was far, far more than meets the eye! Did you know that Daisy was a traveling dart-throwing champion who was currently in the process of axe-throwing practice? She could split a piece of wood straight down the middle from an entire acre away!

Robin: A fellow partner in crime. Robin couldn’t stand half the villagers she lived around either, and even though she put forth that prissy air, she wasn’t afraid to get those feathers of her dirty. If it wasn’t Chamomile she was plotting to, it was surely Robin.

Stella: For what Camille remembers of Stella, she was another one of those genuinely kind ones. Sadly, she moved away rather soon. One of those loose cannon types, went wherever the wind took them. The image of Stella drifting from town to town, island to island on a boat made of letters she’s kept from her home-hopping is a chuckled at one inside Camille’s head.

#(SAVED.) ''I can take this... right?''#(VILLAGERS.) ''All shapes and sizes.''#((just backstory building; dont mind me))#((bout time i got around to actually making a 'village' for camille))

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oreoambitions · 4 years

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A companion to this piece for @liapetros and @jellybabykid

Lena is still standing over Lex with a smoking gun in her hand when she calls Jess. Her brother's blood is seeping across the floor, and her best friend is a liar, and she doesn't know what else to do. So when Jess picks up the phone, she says, "Lex is dead. I shot him."

And Jess replies, "Don't worry, Ms. Luthor. I'm on my way."

Lena isn't sure what compels her to add, "Kara Danvers is Supergirl."

There's a long silence on the line. Lena can hear the vague background noise of Jess getting ready to come to her rescue. "I know," Jess says at last. "She didn't tell me; it was the way she looks at you that gave it away."

Lena hangs up . The room feels empty and crowded all at once, and she's just committed a crime, and she's just said goodbye to her brother for the last time, and there's been so much betrayal, and she feels like she can't breathe. She cries and she hates herself for it. She doesn't even know which part of it all she's crying about.

She's barely made it back to her apartment when Alex calls. She looks at the cellphone ringing on the kitchen counter and she considers turning the ringer off - honestly, fuck anyone with the last name 'Danvers' right now - but she thinks better of it. Maybe Kara's been hurt. Maybe she needs help. There is nothing, not even a betrayal like this, that will keep Lena from coming to Kara's aid when it really matters. Not a damn thing. She lets the phone go to voice mail anyway, and she pours the drink she's been too upset to touch down the sink before she calls Alex back.

Alex does need help, but not with Kara. She leads Lena down into the basement of the DEO, deeper than Lena has ever been before, to a medbay Lena has never seen. It makes her wonder what other secrets the DEO might have been keeping all this time. The figure on the bed is so still that Lena might have thought she were dead if it weren't for the rasping sound of her breathing, shallow and fast, and the sickly green light flickering through her veins. Lena looks at Red Daughter and sees Kara and almost cries out in spite of herself. Not Kara, she tells herself. Not Kara, not Kara, not Kara.

"Red Daughter," she says out loud. She still has to swallow down the tears that are threatening an encore but here, trembling in the doorway of a top secret government medical facility, is not the place. And this is not the time.

"She's not getting better," Alex says.

"Kryptonite poisoning?" Not that Lena really needs to ask. She pulls a box from her pocket. A suit meant for Supergirl, but then, Supergirl is Kara is Red Daughter in a way, so what does it matter? As the suit unfolds over Red Daughter's body, Lena thinks to herself that in an odd way she is all that's left of Lex. His Kryptonian pet. His legacy.

"How did this happen?"

"Supergirl was down; Lex had a Kryptonite cannon. Red Daughter threw herself in front of the blast."

Lena thinks of Lex's mocking laughter, of gun metal hot in her hand, of the smell of blood. "She's going to live," she says. It's more of a wish than a declaration, but Alex doesn't need to know that. "She'll need a transfusion."

Alex nods. "I'll get Supergirl. Now?"

"Tomorrow. They both need to rest."

Lena sits in that dark room all night holding Red Daughter's hand while the suit filters kryptonite out of her blood bit by bit. Fast enough to keep her alive. Not fast enough to make her better. Only Supergirl can do that, and it chafes at Lena's pride, but there it is. Lex was right about one thing: humanity is only worth so much in the company of gods. Still, here is one god who would be dead now if it weren't for Lena. That's not nothing.

Alex arrives in the morning looking cowed and leading a stonefaced Jess, who has come bearing food, a change of clothes, and Lena's laptop. She tells Lena that she "took care of it" and Lena nods but doesn't bother to answer the unspoken question on Alex's lips. So that's that. Lex is gone and gone and gone. But it's not important now, because Red Daughter is very much alive, and until she's stable that's all that matters. Jess looks at the vitals on the monitor without comment.

"Will that be all, Ms. Luthor?" she asks.

"Can you clear my schedule for the next few days?"

"It's already done."

Thank the fucking Lord for Jess.

Supergirl appears in the doorway later that same morning, perfectly still for once in her life, tears in her eyes, not quite meeting Lena's gaze. She kneels next to Red Daughter's bed and squeezes her arm and whispers something in Krpytonian which Lena isn't sure Red Daughter can even hear through the helmet, let alone understand, but then again, she isn't sure she can't. Then Supergirl rolls up her sleeve and pulls up a chair.

"How long will this take?"

It takes four hours, and it's awful. Kara shudders as the first of the Krpytonite hits her system and Lena wants to look away and she wants to tell Kara that she knows it's her and she can't do either of those things. She watches that eerie green glow creep through Kara's veins and feels sick. What if this doesn't work? What if they both die by Lena's hand?

Red Daughter stirs an hour in, groans, coughs, calls for Alex. Alex shoots Kara a puzzled look but she takes Red Daughter's other hand anyway. "I'm here," she says, and Red Daughter stills. Half an hour later they have to bring in a bed for Kara when she can't hold herself up in the chair anymore. An hour after that Red Daughter's vitals start to improve.

Kara is in the kryptonite suit for three days. So is Red Daughter. Lena spends every waking moment perched on a chair between their beds, ostensibly working, but mostly crying. They're both unconscious most of the time, so it's not like there's anyone but the DEO's security camera to see her moments of weakness. She prays a lot, but she couldn't say who it is she's praying to. God? Rao? The man in the moon? She prays in silence because she's never sure when Kara is and isn't awake. Red Daughter doesn't wake at all.

On the fourth day, Alex moves Supergirl upstairs.

On the fifth day, Sam calls.

"Everyone is talking about what happened," she says. "I keep thinking that I should have been there to help." And then, "I crushed the handle on the car door today. I wasn't even mad, I was just trying to open it. I told Ruby it was a hit and run but she's not stupid; she's going to figure this out."

Lena listens to Red Daughter's rhythmic breathing and considers telling Sam that there's another Kryptonian in the world. Instead she says, "You're going to be okay. Did you enroll in that meditation class you were talking about?"

On the sixth day, Red Daughter wakes up.

It's the sixth night, really. They've finally taken Red Daughter out of her kryptonite suit and have brought in the sun lamps. Lena, used to sleeping in a dark room, is tossing and turning on Kara's vacated hospital bed but too stubborn to leave. What if something happens in the night? What if Red Daughter gets worse and Lena isn't there to help?

So she's on her feet in an instant when she hears whimpering from across the room, and she's already there to gently push Red Daughter back against the bed when she starts to thrash against the wires and the needles connected to her body. Two blue eyes meet hers, and the struggling stops.

"Can you tell me your name?" Lena asks. She tells herself she's asking because she wants to better understand the mental state of the patient. In truth she just wants to avoid another secret.

"Alex?"

"She went home for the night, but she'll be here to see you in the morning." Probably Alex would be here in half an hour tops if Lena were to call her right now, but Lena doesn't see the point.

"No," Red Daughter says. "Alex. Your brother."

Lena takes a breath to speak, but no words come out. Red Daughter's gaze is flickering back and forth between her eyes, and one hand has found Lena's.

"He's dead," Lena manages at last. And then, because the avoidance of secrets goes both ways, she adds, "I killed him. After his fight with Supergirl."

Surprise, grief, anger, and relief cross Red Daughter's face in succession. All she says is, "Good. And Supergirl?"

"She's okay. She was here a couple of days ago. Gave her blood to save your life."

"Then we are even."

"I suppose you are."

They stare at one another. Lena is suddenly aware of how close she is, one hand still on Red Daughter's shoulder, the other in her grasp, their thighs touching where Lena is perched on the edge of the bed. The sun lamps are too warm for her comfort.

"Can you tell me your name?" Lena asks again.

Another succession of feelings: confusion, grief, anger, sadness. "Alex called me Linda."

"Do you want me to call you something else?"

"I don't have anything else."

The first time Linda tries to walk, she falls down and then sits on the floor crying. When she finally pulls herself together, it's to ask how long she has until she has to leave.

Lena and Alex look at one another and then at Linda.

"What do you mean, leave?" Alex asks.

"If I don't have my powers, I'm worthless to you."

Lena has to get out of the room because otherwise she's going to lose her temper in front of Linda, and Linda will think it's her fault and not Lex's. She paces in the hallway with her hands balled into fists so tight her muscles twitch, and then she puts her head up against the wall and she lets out a long frustrated growl.

"I think we should move her upstairs," she tells Alex. "I think it will be good for her to see people."

When Linda can finally walk on her own again, Alex agrees.

Lena goes back to work. Kara texts once in a while, but Lena doesn't answer often or at length and Supergirl doesn't stop by. Lena wonders whether Kara knows that she knows, or whether she's just picking up on the unspoken tension. She tells Kara that she's just so busy with work that she can't spare the time to hang out, but of course Kara is aware that she's spending every free minute with Linda. Lena justifies it by telling herself that Linda doesn't really have anyone else.

Linda says she misses reading, and so Lena begins to bring her books. A trickle at first, but she goes through them so fast that by the end of the week Lena is bringing her a stack every day. History and romance, biology and social theory. It takes her two days to finish all seven volumes of Harry Potter. She does His Dark Materials in an afternoon. Alex gives her a copy of Bridge to Terabithia; Lena bans her from providing books after that.

Ruby is suspended for shattering another student's rib cage. She swears it was an accident; she doesn't know how it happened. Her school enrolls her in anger management classes, and Ruby says she doesn't need them but she can't say it without getting angry, and so the classes stay. Sam is inconsolable over the phone.

"She doesn't know what's happening to her," she says. "I don't even know what's happening to her."

Lena wants to say, It's the same thing that's happening to you. Instead she says, "Have you considered talking to Supergirl about it?"

Sam says, "I'm sorry Lena, I have to go."

Linda starts attending physical fitness classes in the gym with the DEO recruits. She doesn't speak to them, and they don't speak to her, but Lena hopes it's good for everyone involved. Once in a while Supergirl lingers in the doorway, watching Linda's progress, but she makes the human recruits too nervous to visit with any frequency. When Linda is in the medbay, she doesn't visit at all.

And then one day Lena gets a text message from Alex: Linda left in the middle of class. She seemed upset. Lena walks out in the middle of a meeting and trusts that Jess will make it somehow okay.

She finds Linda leaning against the wall in the medbay bathroom. Her tears have dried, but her eyes are still puffy and red, and she's still wringing her hands. She looks at Lena warily, as though she expects to be in trouble. Lena supposes that if Lex were here, she would be.

"They said I wasn't real," Linda whispers. "I'm just a copy. And it's- It's true, isn't it? I'm nothing. I'm never going to fly again. On the ground, I can’t even keep up."

Lena feels something old and painful inside of her shift. It feels like childhood, and not in a sunshine and butterflies kind of way. It feels like cowering under Lilian's gaze. It feels like Lex throwing her work in the dirt. You'll have to do better than that if you ever want to be a real Luthor.

Lena reaches out a tentative hand to stroke Linda's cheek, and when she doesn't pull away, she brings the second hand up to cup her chin.

"You feel real to me," Lena says.

Maybe it shouldn't be a surprise when Linda kisses her, but it is. She steps into Lena's space and before Lena can register that she should perhaps step away Linda's mouth is on hers and it's... good. Linda tastes like sweat and tears and something Lena can't define. She brushes her tongue over Linda's bottom lip and her breath hitches when Linda moans and slips an arm around her waist.

It's like that cliche: it feels like a puzzle piece slipping into place. Only Lena knows the edges don't quite line up, and the colors aren't right, and she's only going to make more work for herself in the long run if she leaves this piece here, this imperfect fit. She knows it when Linda deepens the kiss and Lena has to keep from gasping Kara's name into her mouth. She knows it, but she doesn't walk away.

Sam agrees to come to National City. "I can't take this anymore. I have to do something."

Lena promises to talk to Supergirl for her, and it's probably the most uncomfortable promise she's ever made. "Next week?"

"The week after; we have a thing with Ruby's school next week. Will that work?"

"I'll make it happen."

Lena opens a blank message to Kara's personal phone and considers asking her right then and there if she would be willing to talk Sam through understanding and controlling her powers. But that would mean admitting that she knows who Kara is, and it would be a petty way to break the ice, and Lena has marks on her neck from last night when Linda discovered that she could make Lena squirm by sucking just so, and all of this is just wrong. She closes the messaging app.

Two days later she falls down the stairs in the DEO. It's these damn heels. A Luthor should be allowed to wear practical shoes. She steps just wrong and falls backwards, has only an instant to acknowledge that she's probably about to break her neck when Linda catches her.

"You have to be careful," Linda admonishes.

Lena laughs. She laughs because Linda was at the bottom of the stairs talking with Alex when she fell. She laughs because there's no way Linda could have gotten to her in time.

"Congratulations," Alex says, patting Linda's shoulder as she walks by. "You've just graduated from medbay."

They agree that even though Linda is recovering her powers, she should stay in the DEO, at least for the time being. The night she moves into her new room she asks if Lena will stay with her. Lena agrees without hesitation. They share a bed for the first time, but they've agreed in advance not to go any further than that. Linda's arms are so gentle around Lena in the night, her fingers absently rubbing circles across Lena's hip, her breath hot on the back of Lena's neck, and the whole thing is driving Lena absolutely mad. She has that wrong-piece feeling when she turns to kiss Linda's mouth.

"Are you ready to fly tomorrow?" she asks, mostly to distract herself from the heat pooling between her legs and from the thought of Kara holding her like this, pressing kisses to her jaw, slipping a thumb under the waistband of her shorts.

"I'm ready if that's what you need me to be," Linda replies.

"I don't need you to be anything," she says.

Linda smiles at her sadly in the half light. "Of course you do," she says. "You need me to be her."

Lena doesn't ask who 'her' is. She doesn't have to.

#supercorp #supercorp fic #commiecorp #ficlet #angst #sorry #supergirl #kara danvers #alex danvers #lena luthor #sam arias #red daughter #linda lee

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kitchenangst · 4 years

Text

Love in space? It’s more likely than you think.

Summary: (Bakugou Katsuki x gender neutral!reader) Fuck space, that shit ain’t easy. Also, listen to the Among Us menu music.

Warnings: swearing, mutual pining?, dialogue heavy, characters’ deaths (including yours), mild gore, maybe ooc Bakusquad and deku team, last names only, Among Us terms used ((listen, i only played on skeld LOL) and very bad writing in 2nd POV -- lmk if I need more any specific warnings!

Word Count: 4401

Prompts: “I don’t mind if it’s you” + Among Us!BNHA (no quirks)

a/n: hi!! it’s my first time writing for BNHA, second POV, head cannons, angst AND gore,,, No like, I kid you not when I say there’s mild gore . Anyway, this is for @fromthewatertribe ’s 1k event!!!! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I wrote it!! happy reading :))

Hey just because you’re on the botanical team does not mean you get to skip out on team workouts with the rest of the crew!! For a plant nerd, you sure love making everything in the gym a competition and Kirishima, Mina, Iida, Uraraka, and Deku very much live for it

(Bakugou says it’s stupid, but joins anyway. He says it’s because he likes to watch everyone’s despair when he wins first place again.

Kaminari surprisingly gets top 3, while Todoroki, Sero, and Tsuyu join just to humor you and maybe add more fire to the competition; they absolutely don’t care about winning but they love making the others struggle)

Anyway, you guys have been preparing for Mission Polus for a LONG time now, and the playful tension between the crews on Ships UA, ShKs (Shiketsu), and LoV (League of Villains) was only making you guys more fired up than usual in your workouts and preparation

UA, being the biggest team, was going to launch last--only because Kaminari confidently lost in rock, paper, scissors,,, but no biggie! That just meant when ShKs and LOV land, everything should be prepped for you guys when you arrive!

Except, you find out things don’t come out as planned when UA arrives at the second checkpoint

“I just got word that Ships ShKs and LoV’s crew is cut in half,” you start off grimly

“Hold on--like, the lower or upper half of their body?”

You decided against your better judgement about throwing the closest thing at Sero until Kaminari added in, “Left half? Or right half?”

Y’know what? Maybe you’ll just throw him out of the ship.

Apparently, it was initially thought to be some space flu

“If it’s that bad, then… Why are they still continuing the mission? Shouldn’t they handle it back at base?”

It’s probably the smartest question you’ve ever heard from Kaminari. “If it is some contagious space virus, they don’t want it to spread on Earth.”

“Whatever it is, it must be evolving fast. LoV is halfway to the 5th checkpoint, and ShKs is a quarter way to the 4th checkpoint. If they both received it around checkpoint 3 and they’re down to half their people… I just hope they’re quarantining.”

“Good thing you mention that, Deku. LoV and ShKs are changing course to go straight to Polus, and they’re going through the safety measures and cleaning procedures. Meanwhile, we’ll be skipping the 3rd and 4th checkpoints; we’ll pick up all the supplies and materials at the 5th checkpoint.

“If the other ships’ flu or whatever started around the 3rd checkpoint, we don’t want to be infected. We’re probably setting everything up ourselves when we get to Polus.”

Everyone is staring at you as they process this new information and you’d be surprised that Bakugou hasn’t said a word all meeting if it weren’t for the grave news this brought.

“Which means we’ll have to ration our food supply…” Uraraka is the first to break the silence, and you pass a guilty look as you see the realization fall on the rest

The meeting wouldn’t have ended well if it weren’t for Midoriya reassuring everyone that the growing fruit should last them (assuming it was being rationed as well).

By heading straight to the 5th checkpoint, you’d be saving a lot more time as well

Theoretically, things should have gone smooth sailing if Ship UA was changing course. And it would have if all the information was correct.

Uraraka found you frozen still near the corner of a bedroom when you didn’t return to the meeting. Having never seen you so shaken up before, all she could do was check whatever you were pointing at.

You watched with bated breath, hoping Uraraka wouldn’t have the same reaction as you, that this was all a bad dream, that this was a prank; because whatever it was, it wasn’t fucking funny considering that deaths on a ship were now a thing.

A month hasn’t even passed since the terrible news. Ship UA was nowhere near the third checkpoint; there’s no way anyone could have been infected

it was all you could repeatedly think to not spiral

You didn’t even notice when everyone else had arrive in the bedroom, only focusing on the screams and whispers and curses that continued to echo throughout the room and ring in your ear as everything suddenly turned dark; your hands instinctively grabbing onto whatever was around you

“Hey, it’s okay,” you heard, the familiar scent of pine not quite registering yet. “it’s alright, they’re taking care of it.”

You moved your head back to look at Bakugou, his face masking his fear well if it weren’t for the slight trembling in his hands holding you up. “‘It’?”

“The body. Mina’s body.” He took your hands still clutching onto the front of his suit, his gloved ones briefly squeezing yours to ground you. “C’mon, we’re discussing it in the meeting room.”

God, you felt your body run cold at the thought of Mina’s corpse being called it, but figured maybe you were looking a little too into details at the moment

You focused on your breathing as he dragged you to the meeting room, where no one knew what had gone wrong.

The only absurd detail was the hole that covered her palms, which left the rest of her body a sick, wrinkly grey.

Deku was worried if this was what the space flu was about and Iida suggested a 2 week quarantine where one person goes on deck at a scheduled time, while Uraraka was rubbing circles on your back despite being quite shaken herself.

“The only person who holds her hand is Kirishima”

“Whoa, whoa whoa--what does that have to do with-”

“Everything!” and now suddenly Kaminari thinks he’s a detective.

A space flu so dangerous that it could kill you overnight was less threatening compared to what kaminari was suggesting

“Not only that, you’re the only one who goes into her room at night!”

“TMI, but… that’s unusual, isn’t it? Kaminari makes a good point.” and it’s another thing to have Sero agreeing

“Are you suggesting we lock Kirishima in his room until he confesses his crime?” (What kind of fucking suggestion is that todoroki)

“No, I’m saying we just throw him off ship.”

Okay, now that fucking took you out of your shock...into a different shock… and it seems everyone had the same reaction at how serious Kaminari was.

“What the fuck are you suggesting, dunce face? We just lost a crewmate, and now you wanna toss someone out?”

“I’m being smart for once! What if Kirishima did that to Mina instead of some space slug?”

“First off, what about me suggests that I can even do something like that? To my girlfriend, no less! Do I have to repeat that there was a hole in her hand?”

Everyone waited for Kaminari’s response, to which he sighed and admitted that he was just thinking irrationally from this panic.

Iida and Bakugou agreed to install cameras in the hallway with a security room while everyone returned to fulfilling their duties

The mood on the ship went downhill from there with Mina’s passing on everyone’s mind. Especially yours and Kirishima’s.

Kirishima admitted that while he was hurt at Kaminari’s absurd suggestion, he still couldn’t hold it against him for panicking at the first death on the ship. Didn’t mean he had to talk to him though.

On the other hand, Bakugou often visited you in the plant room, the plant lab, just… you. Anywhere he could find you.

He told himself that he was just checking up on you, seeing if you were doing fine since Mina was one of the closest members to you

Maybe if he had known her death would cause such hurting to you, maybe he would have… no, he shakes his head and reminds himself it’s pointless to cry over spilled milk

You didn’t need to look to know he had brought you lunch; judging from the smell, he picked your favorite too

“You know we’re not supposed to eat in the plant room, right?”

“You know you’re not supposed to be skipping your stupid meal, right?”

“You know we’re supposed to be rationing our food, right?”

“Whatever, guess you don’t want my portion.”

Banter like this is what always made you break the rules to eat in peace with Bakugou the last few weeks, like how he pretended to seethe at your obnoxious munching

just the simple act of giving his portion to you was touching enough, and it made you relieved how he never touched on the topic of Mina’s death; only listening whenever you brought it up

You did, however, become concerned when he started giving you his full portion of lunch.

“No, I’m not hungry,” he’d say after you left him half his lunch, which, normally, you wouldn’t do! you always ate more than half!

He didn’t have an appetite, he’d insist. And he seemed uncomfortable talking about it, so you dropped the subject.

It didn’t stop you from guiltily eating his portions, though.

Motivation and optimism only went up when Uraraka and Tsuyu came out with decorations and stickers on their suits one day

(Sero had taped the tape roll to his head; Deku and Todoroki both carried a fake flower pot in their chest pocket;

Iida said his pen was decorative enough but put a car sticker on the side of his arm; Kirishima wore Mina’s bracelet on his ankle; and Kaminari took up bringing a toilet plunger with him everywhere.)

You brought up the cute headband with bear ears for Bakugou, and he gave you a paper crown he “spent 5 seconds making”

(it was just slightly bigger than your head, but it was in your favorite color)

Everything was fine, everyone was better, nothing bad has happened the past 2 months, and everything was going back to normal!

Until Tsuyu found blood in the drainage

(no one was on their period at the time either!!)

Bakugou stayed back with you in your restroom while everyone else prepped Sero’s body for discarding

He heard the heaving from his door, similar to the ones he had after his first meal. He recalls the stench of his being so awful, he could almost taste it bubbling at the back of his throat

So why did yours smell so sweet?

He continued rubbing and patting your back, the same way you had done for him awhile back. He kept telling himself it was because he didn’t want you to choke, but he knew it was to distract him from the smell

you slept in his arms the following few months when everyone agreed Sero’s death was done in cold blood, and no one knew who it was

The irony, he learned to love, was how you were the one who suggested the curfew, the placement of the cameras to be in the bedroom hallway and other places, and the idea that no one should go to each other’s rooms

yet you still wanted to be in his with him late into the night, to “take your mind off things” as you said, and you two would talk until the other fell asleep first

he loved that you broke your own rule to be with him

and he found it oddly comforting to feel the pressure of your head on his chest

and it was fascinating to him... that he could practically taste your fear when you had a nightmare, how you sought comfort in his arms first before anything else

he was probably enjoying it way more than he should when you trusted him this much to comfort you at night, to hold you, to not break you in more ways than one

his favorite part was having a routine with you

joining you in the lab at x o’clock to watch you take care of the plants, to make observations of you as you made yours on plants, hearing you talk about the progress of growing plants in space, kissing you-

wait, kissing you? that was new.

The forehead kisses when he left you to do his duties and before either of you fell asleep

the cheek kisses when he brought you lunch (you’re convinced that’s the payment for bringing you food)

the cute little peck you do on the corner of his mouth to stop him messing up the files in the lab

They were so tiny and often he hadn’t even noticed when they integrated themselves into this routine

it’s also why he wasn’t surprised when he leaned in to kiss you to stop your rambling

“there. as long as that’s there,” he gestured vaguely at whatever that was, “you aren’t going to die. not on my watch.”

“So that’s a thing now?” you raised an eyebrow in amusement

“What.”

“That.”

Oh don’t do that, don’t do that fucking grin of yours when you’re mocking his dismissive attitude

“Y’know. Seal of protection.”

He is not going to give in-

“You’ll do that when-”

God, who he is to resist when you’re practically asking him to shut you up

It’s been another few months since Sero’s death, and he had been cautious in taking advantage? of your emotional state? in taking a step further? --either way, he didn’t know what held him back in the first place and he wasn’t sure how to put it in words

He also didn’t know how to explain it to you that he couldn’t kiss you more than the simple peck anymore

not when he felt the sudden surge to take more of you and definitely not when his jaw was starting to hurt

And he didn’t know why he felt so relieved to have you be so understanding

Of course, everyone was still on their toes about a possible murderer on ship, but no one expected a sudden electrical outage

The nice thing about the lab was that it had a backup generator for lights, but it didn’t cover for the use of equipment

This wouldn’t normally be a problem, not when you still have months to go before reaching the 5th checkpoint, but you weren’t going to be a sitting duck waiting to look a plant cell

With a sigh, you began to make your way to electrical, hand sliding against the walls to make sure you wouldn’t trip over anyth-

honestly what the fuck, you swear you’re going to get Kaminari for leaving a puddle of water around with that plunger of his.

whatever, it’ll dry eventually. still a hazard though.

and honestly what the fuck, it’s been ten minutes and no one still hasn’t gotten the lights. the bystander effect is starting to make the crew lazy.

But no surprises here, only two people had gathered there, and stupidly, no one bothered to use a light to adjust the right switches.

When the lights got back on, Kirishima jumped at the sight of you.

“Relax, I just came here to fix the li-”

“No, not-”

“Why do you have blood on you?”

You turned to Deku, and fuck you haven’t seen him this scared since Mina and Sero’s passing

You’re about to ask what he means when you feel it

the crunch your gloves give, the stiffness of your suit, and you should’ve known the stickiness from your boots wasn’t from water

“What the-” it nearly sends you in a panic, to see your suit covered nearly everywhere-

“Whoa, hey, hey, stop!” Kirishima and Deku have to physically restrain you from trying to take your suit off with the way you’re digging at it

And it’s not too long before Kaminari and Bakugou come rushing in, panting from their sprint

There’s another four dead bodies.

And oh, oh, oh shit it looks so bad-

“It wasn’t Y/N.”

“And how are you so sure?”

“Just ask engine over here. We were watching security together, and there was still light coming from the lab. I only left when Y/N left, and there’s no way 4 fucking bodies could have been killed during that time.”

“Bakugou is, indeed, correct. The infrared cameras seem to have been shut down for some time now, so it’s hard to make out who was in the locations.”

Right, right. This was no fucking flu--you all confirmed that with Sero’s body.

It didn’t stop you from feeling sick to your stomach, though: seeing the scratches and marks on your 2 crew mates to the point of no recognition

even worse when you saw the same sickly grey skin on the other two with holes in their palms as well

Mina’s had happened over night... there was no way a slug or flu killed them within 10 minutes

Kaminari points out Deku’s locations before the lights went out

Iida vouches for Bakugou and you (Bakugou vouches for him, too, of course)

and Deku, Iida, and Bakugou vouch for you

....why couldn’t anyone vouch for Kaminari, Deku, or Kirishima?

Did it make sense for Deku to immediately leave the lab to fix lights?

Did it make sense for Kirishima to avenge Mina’s death?

You’re not even sure where to begin thinking of Kaminari-- like with his sudden claim of throwing Kirishima off the ship earlier on

Iida, with the grace of angels and levelheadedness of lions, suggested the best plan to find the killer.

A group of three, a pairing, and lone wolf

Of course everyone agreed.

it was no brainer that you and bakugou would stick together--you two were practically stuck at the hips

Kaminari was grouped with Deku and Kirishima while Iida volunteered to work on his own.

Everyone was tense: keeping distances away from each other, keeping tabs on the other...

whether there was one or two killers, it had to be within the group of 3, and you were bound to catch him at some point.

And while they stressed on who the murderer was, you and Bakugou... well, you felt a bit bad for enjoying the alone time you two got

“Hmm,” you drawled out one night.

Oh yeah, don’t think Bakugou didn’t know where this was going

But, oh, don’t think he’ll play along.

You pushed the pen and notepad away from his face when he ignored you and flopped onto his chest.

it was nearing curfew, and you still hadn’t gone back to sleep in your own room after all these months

(only Kaminari had the balls to call you out for leaving his bedroom early to sneak into yours, and honestly that’s good enough reason for you to suspect him)

“Hmmm...”

okay how dare Bakugou go back to writing on a tiny notepad the size of his ego

Even after you cover his eyes, he still continues to write on the notepad

“C’mon, you know I hate it when I have to ask”

Big mistake, you should’ve uncovered his eyes and attacked him with your own deathly cute look

He pauses his writing to jab the pen into the back of your head.

“Weren’t you the one who said consent was everything?”

“I also said it was very sexy of you to not swear.”

“What the fuck am I swearing on?”

He finally drops the pen and notebook to hold onto your back

He loved feeling your breathy laugh sweep over his skin, to feel your body come to life at something he said

and like all those months ago, he removes your loose hands from his eyes

(”They’re sweaty whenever you leave them there too long,” he once complained, yet he’s always the one holding onto you longer)

and this time you’re able to look into his eyes with clarity, to see all the smiles in the crinkles at the corner of his eyes, to see a spark light up in the reflection of you

and maybe bad experiences in space brought you closer than the misfortunes on earth did

“Kiss?”

Who is he to deny you one when you look at him so expectantly and full of love at the moment

“That’s the bye I’ll see you in two minutes kiss!” you cried when he kissed your forehead. “Neither of us are leaving anytime soon!”

“That’s the I got you lunch kiss...” from the cheek. You giggled stupidly when he kissed your nose. The stop being cute kiss.

“You’re alllllmost there”

“Almost where? You just asked for one kiss, and I gave you three.”

Seriously, he made it so easy, so easy to get mad at him and then you made it so very easy for him to tell you, you weren’t being specific

“Where’s the wittle shweal of pwotection?”

and it isn’t the first time you see him roll his eyes this hard

and yeah, that’s right, you’re going to make him do all the work now as you keep your face in place, your eyes closing in trust

the only way you knew he was leaning in was when you felt his lips brush yours with the most featherlight touch, making you smile instantly

“you don’t need it when I’m constantly with you though.”

and the bastard has the audacity to tease you like this!!! are you the only one pulling the weight in this dumb relationship? because you put all that shit into the kiss, including your feelings, frustration, worries, and you both press deeper when Bakugou reciprocates with the same enthusiasm

obviously you punch him when you see him with that dumb smirk after pulling back

“That’s what you get.” He shrugged. “You’re not going to die on my watch. Stop fucking worrying.”

You don’t laugh like you usually do, at how he throws in a swear when his voice becomes rough and soft and gentle at the same time

it’s how he knows you’re worried with the unchanging look on your face and yet your eyes continue to search for the answer in his

“What about you?”

“I’m not going to die.” when you don’t press further, he says, “We’re not going to die.”

“How’re you so sure?”

“Was the shweal of pwotection not enough?” He’s relieved when a grin breaks on your face.

“You’re right. We didn’t get this far without it, after all.”

It was so silly how a kiss started with a hopeful promise, had made you believe in Bakugou’s words

But it wasn’t enough

Kirishima had intercepted you two on the way to fix the communications room, panicking and barely able to get his words out

all you made out was “reactor” and “suit”; and the way he said Deku’s name made you latch onto Bakugou’s hand to run in that direction

You gripped his hand to the point of bruising, not even noticing you’d been digging your gloved fingers into your own palm

Honestly, you had no idea what was wrong, but the fact that Kirishima needed to leave the Kaminari with Deku to find someone, anyone, was already concerning

“What’s wrong with-” nothing prepared you for what you saw.

Kaminari looked up from his spot, surprise defensively taking over his face. “I know it looks bad-”

“Kaminari-” you gasped, taking a step back as he neared you like one would to an animal

“-because it is! Please, Midoriya just looked so vulnerable! How could you resist that?”

God how can he say that as if he was talking about a puppy

He laughed when you backed into a wall; laughed because the way your eyes expressed so much disgust at his admittance would be much more delightful at the big reveal; laughed because he wasn’t even close enough to harm you and yet you still looked so frightened of him

Laughed even more when you cringed upon seeing his gnarly set of teeth

Kaminari started licking the blood off his teeth and lips once he calmed down, and when he stared at you with the most predatory eyes, you nearly mistook the pounding rush of footsteps as the blood in your ears

“Bakugou!” Kaminari didn’t need to take his eyes off you to know it was him. “Did you tell Kirishima the news?”

You’re a little too relieved at having Bakugou here to comprehend Kaminari’s words.

“Back off, dunce face.”

"Where’s Kirishima?” you ask when you notice his absence

“He ran off. Or tried to.”

everything is too still for your liking

“Then the-the blood on your suit?”

“His body exploded.”

And fear washes over your body as you try to comprehend that Kirishima exploded?

Everything starts to blue as you try to piece everything.

No, no, no-

“That’s a terrible lie, even coming from you, Bakugou. Off your game?”

-it can’t be-

“It would’ve been cleaner if I weren’t in a rush to cover your ass.”

-you don’t have time-

“Feeling betrayed yet, Y/N? That your boyfriend-”

-there’s nowhere to run-

“Don’t fucking do it, dunce face.”

-what about Iida-

“I promise you, it won’t hurt one bit.”

And honestly, you’re wondering if the other ships had made it past this point.

Iida had heard Kirishima’s distressed panic before making it to the communications room, understanding he would go on his own to fix it

The Bystander Effect, as you once called it, made him believe you and Bakugou would handle Kirishima’s situation. He wouldn’t be of any help if the radio signal wasn’t up on time to solve this emergency!

He recalled Kirishima mentioned the reactor, and hastily made his way there once he finished fixing

Some noble class person would call the splatter of deep red across the floors and wall “art”, with how the bits of black and gray nearly bring it to life.

How ironic that it had cost a life.

He had to force himself to look away from the mess in the lower engine when he heard Bakugou’s almost feral growl.

“I don’t mind if it’s you.”

By the time he arrived, Iida found the reactor in the same mess as the lower engine.

He couldn’t help but think what an art critic would have to say about this, were it to be a painting.

Green liquid streaked the room with a pattern similar to the red

The same green dripping from Bakugou’s hands as he cradled what was left of your head

the same green that oozed out of Kaminari’s grayed body that was in equal parts unrecognizable

He wonders what the art critics would say about the four bodies surrounding the only one alive

a/n: wow u made it to the end huh,,,,,,,,thank you so much for reading!! I hope the music really set up the mood I was going for. Also, I didn’t want to spoil anything, but I read somewhere that it can be very triggering to write about the reader’s death esp if it was in 2nd pov!! Ik i said it’d be gory but I figured I could skim over it! anyway i love u nina this one was dedicated to all our among us plays

I dont think i conveyed it very well but bakugou was basically gonna eat u for dinner. But kaminari got to u first and bakugou figured u had to taste as good even tho kaminari already digested u, right?

#nina's 1k event #bakugou x reader #among us!au #bakugou katuski x reader #bnha x reader #mha x reader #j writes

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ducktracy · 4 years

Text

174. get rich quick porky (1937)

release date: august 28th, 1937

series: looney tunes

director: bob clampett

starring: mel blanc (porky), cal howard (gabby), earle hodgins (honest john)

another cartoon that entails a lengthy preface!

while this is bob clampett’s second piece as a director, it’s the first cartoon where he has full control of the helm. his previous entry, porky’s badtime story, was started by ub iwerks, who as preceded the unit. but, technically, clampett was co-directing with chuck jones.

here’s where the famous Clampett-Jones rivalry settles in. bob clampett and chuck jones did not get along. even friz freleng mentioned that they had been fighting like kids since they WERE kids, which is very true. clampett and jones would have both been 24 at the time of the cartoon’s release, jones turning 25 in september. chuck jones thought that he was co-directing the shorts with clampett, doing character layouts (which WAS a very hefty job and considered a director’s job) while clampett did the writing and timing of the shorts. however, the credits only credit clampett and not jones, so jones assumed that clampett had deliberately gotten rid of jones’ credit (to which clampett didn’t have any control over). jones would therefore hold this grudge against clampett all the way to the grave--they were bitter rivals, and chuck especially was very outspoken about his disdain and contempt towards clampett. it’s unfortunate how such a big misunderstanding can be inflated into such a bitter rivalry, and even more unfortunate to see two great talents go against each other, but that explains that. we’re here to analyze their great cartoons, not gossip about them! (...well, not ALL the time, anyway.)

a second extra little treat is that this cartoon has an animator’s draft, courtesy of devon baxter, so that we can see who animated every single scene! devon also has a breakdown video posted so you can see the credits in conjunction with the assigned animation. thanks a bunch, devon!

gabby goat sings his swan song in this fun, light-hearted clampett entry tentatively titled the oily bird gets porky: porky and gabby are easily swindled by honest john, a snake oil (emphasis on the oil portion!) salesman who scams the boys into thinking they’ve struck it rich digging for oil.

“when my dreamboat comes home” fittingly scores the title card as the cartoon opens. in some clever signage play, the camera trucks back to reveal the title card posted on a sign--the screen fades out, fading back in to reveal a new sign (now scored with the appropriate “with plenty of money and you”) advertising “oh! ~~~ just oodles of oil!”, with the oil typography actually dripping, courtesy of norm mccabe.

john carey provides the animation of the facetiously named honest john, the antagonistic oil huckster of the film. a fun bit of clampett continuity: from 1959-1962, clampett would make a cartoon adaptation of his hit puppet series time for beany. one of the characters, the show’s antagonist, was actually named dishonest john! honest john chuffs on a cigarette (his wealth and snootiness indicated by the cigarette holder he sports) as a truck driver asks where to deposit his “erl”. john, voiced by earle hodgins, redirects the trucker to park around the fence. it is then that john attaches a hose from the oil tank attached to the truck to a sprinkler system, and presto! sweet, bubbling “erl” spouts up from hidden sprinklers within a patch of land. carey’s animation is very smooth and dimensional, a telltale trait of his work.

satisfied, john now opts to search for his next pair of suckers (”ahem. i should say prospects. someone with a little money to invest in...”) lo and behold, his pair of suckers are right across the street, marching up to the bank.

said suckers, are, of course, porky and gabby, now cast as children. for porky especially, his age was inconsistent in the ‘30′s and early ‘40′s cartoons--sometimes he was a child, sometimes he was an adult. more often than not, he was a young adult, and would obviously remain that way through the vast majority of his filmography, but there are a few exceptions, such as here. after all, he did debut as a school child. bobe cannon animates the closeup of the duo at the bank, porky toting a bag of money. gabby, voiced here by storyman cal howard as opposed to mel blanc, urges porky not to store away his money (”let’s buy us a car, or a yacht, or a trip to europe, or a chocolate soda or somethin’!), but porky refuses. “uh-uh, i’m eh-geh-geh-geh-gonna sock my eh-meh-mo-mo--dough in here and get eh-teh-teh-two percent!” bobe’s animation of porky is easy to spot in the clampett toons, especially around 1938-1939, where he would typically draw porky with buck teeth.

suddenly, honest john swoops in himself to stop the boys from going any further. he introduces himself as john gusher, doing some gushing of his own as he describes how fortune is going to smile down upon them. jerry hathcock’s timing is excellent as he shows the kid his card, zipping it out of his pocket and back in again at the blink of an eye. without giving the boys any time to think for themselves, john pushes the kids to the oil site, ranting and raving about the wondrous business opportunity before them. to demonstrate, john jabs his cane into the soil, where a mini oil gusher spurts up on command--”presto!”

more succinct comedic timing as john, finally winding down his spiel, concludes “i won’t take any more of your valuable time. a little parting word, let me say...” after a pause, he jumps right back in with a breathless delivery of “this land is so saturated with oil that you can literally wring it out with your fingers!” he does, of course, just that, much to the delight of the kids.

john carey takes over and does a rather impressive little scene of porky and gabby contemplating signing the deed. gabby urges porky on, telling him that they won’t get another chance like this (prompting a rather humorous delivery of “uh... ‘til death do us part” from earle hodgins as john.) carey’s animation is extremely smooth, brimming with subtle character action. porky and gabby’s differences shine, but also unite: gabby is much more outspoken about his eagerness to sign the deed, nudging porky and literally pushing him to sign the deed. porky, on the other hand, is more cautious and timid, having to mull it over by thinking and tapping his chin with the pen. but, of course, porky shares gabby’s excitement--it doesn’t take much for him to change his mind. he signs the deed, gabby excitedly looming over his shoulder. even the animation of john tapping and signaling towards the deed is well crafted. john carey’s animation is very appealing--once chuck jones would leave the clampett unit, carey would take over as his layout man, all the way until 1941 when he moved to norm mccabe’s unit.

the boys are now excused, free to dig for oil. the shift from minor to major key in the underscore of “with plenty of money and you” reflects their excitement as they rush to get the equipment. bobe cannon animates gabby drilling into the soil--he strikes something, and sure enough, he hauls up an entire canister of oil. he’s delighted, rather than outraged or confused at being scammed, gleefully remarking “porky, look! oil!”

thus sparks the B plot of the cartoon. this isn’t as segmented as other clampett cartoons with A and B plots as, say, porky’s party, but it’s a start--clampett would sort of introduce the concept of having A and B plots in his cartoons, which wasn’t quite something that existed before in pre-existing warner bros. cartoons (off the top of my head, anyway.) a stray dog stumbles upon the oil site, curiously approaching the dirt pile left by porky as he digs for sweet, sweet “erl”. much to the dog’s delight, porky digs up a bone, which the dog takes away and buries for himself. the scene (animated by bill hammer) definitely takes inspiration after the rising popularity in pluto cartoons over at disney, demonstrating that WB wasn’t entirely free from the disney stranglehold just yet.

as the dog digs, the bone is suddenly propelled into the air by a mini-gusher. dog carefully covers the gusher by lowering the bone down, but gets smacked in the face in the process as the gusher propels upwards once more. bill hammer was an animator over at the iwerks unit, and a bit of that iwerks flavor is still present in the dizzy lines hammer animates after the dog gets struck in the head with the bone. resigned, the pooch covers the hole back up, only to get squirted in the eye by another gusher. and, to top it all off, we have more Naughty Clampett Humor as the gusher from before brushes against the dog’s nether regions, prompting him to giggle delightedly. this isn’t the first nor last gag of its kind in a warner bros cartoon--especially a clampett cartoon! frantically, the dog attempts to plug up all of the rapidly appearing gushers beneath him, a double-exposure technique used to convey the urgency of his plight. gushers prevail as the pup is launched into the air, propelled by a stream of oil beneath each paw. in all, the scene drags along and definitely plays into that “curious puppy” humor filled with polite chuckles, but some of hammer’s poses and facial expressions make for a treat.

back to the boys in the next sequence, handled by bobe cannon. gabby, perched on a jackhammer, asks porky how to operate it, but he immediately begins drilling uncontrollably before he can finish his sentence. cal howard’s vocals as gabby are amusing, especially his ad-libbed cries for help--his gabby is less scratchy and high pitched than mel’s gabby, and instead deeper voiced and more goat-like in inflection, sounding like he’s bleating at certain points. porky rushes to speak into the hole that gabby dug himself into, anxiously asking “uh-guh-eh-guh-eh-gabby! uh-weh-eh-where are ya?” gabby answers his query by digging out of an adjacent hole, breaking cartoon physics by drilling and floating upside down in the air. he manages to land safely, the drill stopping just enough for him to chew porky out for not helping him. and, of course, the drill starts up again, sending gabby within the earth’s soil once more. porky asks if he’s alright, prompting a bleat-y “what do you think!?” from an offscreen gabby. it should be noted that the underscore here is, of course, “the merry go round broke down”, a rather fitting and amusing choice. interestingly enough, clampett’s next entry, roval’s rival, would be the first cartoon to debut that song as the looney tunes theme song, which would be used all the way up until the last short in 1969.

chuck jones hones in on one of his three specialties: dogs (the others being drunks and close-ups--sometimes all three at once!) he animates the malcontent pooch fiddling with his bone. a bump in the ground, and a gopher pops up, doing a little twirl in the process, bugs bunny style, like a magic trick. clampett always fostered a love of magic tricks, and this fascination pokes through in this scene. the gopher signals for the dog’s attention before ducking inside the hole, much to the dog’s delight--a hole to bury his bone into! as he tosses the bone inside, he’s treated with a rude awakening as the bone is hurled right back up out of the hole. jones’ timing varies wonderfully--the dog is slow to put his bone back in the hole, but once he does he jumps to cover it up quickly, resulting in some intriguing psuedo-smears. after all, it would be his own cartoon, the dover boys at pimento university, that really brought the magic of smears to life. the animation of the dog twitching his eye on one’s is another great touch.

the gopher returns to bonk the dog on the head with the bone, which segues into a series of magic tricks (scored fittingly with “she was an acrobat’s daughter”.) the gopher shrinks the bone into his hand, reducing it to nothingness, much to the befuddlement of the pooch. tried and true, the gopher brings the bone out from behind the dog’s ear, pointing at it excitedly as the pup can only stare in bewilderment. gopher buries the bone, signaling for the dog to dig it back up. delighted, fido digs for his beloved bone, and is greeted with a spurt of oil right in the face. to top it off, the gopher brings the bone out from the recesses of the dog’s mouth, ending the show by retreating back in his hole. heartbroken, the pup begins to cry mournfully, pounding his fists against the ground and kicking his legs. in all, the scene is a very nice one. not very snappy, but chuck’s timing is full of momentum and personality, and his drawings are very appearing. there are some angles of the dog’s head that just SCREAM chuck jones--they look like something straight out of one of his cartoons. some aspects of these magic tricks, such as the gopher shrinking the bone to nothingness, would be used in chuck’s own cartoon, prest-o change-o, a mere two years later in 1939. the gopher itself IS very bugs bunny-esque in execution.

transition back to our piggy protagonist, hacking away at the ground with a pick-axe. he hits a sweet spot, excitedly reaching for his bucket as oil spurts out of the ground. just as he’s able to collect a few drops, we cut to our favorite huckster john, who snickers as he turns the hose valve off, thus eliminating the geyser. porky digs again, this time striking one of the sprinkler systems connected to the hose. we get a closeup, where porky is squirted straight in the eye by the hose.

honest john himself opts to scope things out. “what’s the matter, sonny boy? you aren’t discouraged, are you?” porky displays his childlike innocence (a property that would carry on to his adult years as well, but is especially strong here since he is a kid in this picture) as he wipes away his tears. “you’re je-je-je-just a crook, and i want my muh-me-muh-me-muh-me-money back!” john, ever the haggler, proposes that porky return the deed in return for a $1 bill.

norm mccabe takes over from john hathcock, whose animation is muddied by noticeably poor inking. pan to the ground, where we see a black slick hiding under the soil, the words “OIL!” bubbling up to make its appearance obvious, with gabby drilling dangerously close to it. pan back up to more norm mccabe animation, a switch--clampett LOVED to switch his animators around. so much so that identifying his later cartoons can be infuriatingly difficult because he would switch his animators in the middle of a scene out of seemingly nowhere. he wasn’t the only director to do this, but he certainly did it often. nevertheless, we pan back to porky and john. porky trepidatiously prepares to hand john the deed, who greets it with outstretched hands. just as gloves prepare to make contact with paper, gabby strikes the “SAME OIL!”, the typography playfully melting into a true oil geyser as goat, weasel, and pig are all catapulted into the air by a real, genuine gusher, scored by (what else?) “we’re in the money”. the layout of the oil geyser raining down upon the camera is at a nice up-angle, very tashlin-esque and intricate, if only for a second or two.

gabby still drills aimlessly around on the geyser as porky, holding onto the deed with john, remarks “a guh-gusher! i’m r-ri--i’m w-we-weal--i’m a buh-be-buh-be-buh-billionaire!” suddenly, porky realizes he’s still holding onto the deed with john, and thus sparking a tug of war between the two as he stutters threats (”i’ll tell my be-be-big brother on you!”) to the huckster.

thankfully, gabby, who has been drilling aimlessly for the past few minutes, saves the day by accidentally drilling into the back of john’s pants. earle hodgins’ screams are hilarious (and sound almost genuine), as is bill hammer’s animation of the weasel being held hostage by the drill running around in the back of his pants. the deed is now in porky’s clutches, who grabs gabby and pulls the both of them to the ground. hammer’s drawings of porky especially in this last shot of them preparing to fall down are very, VERY appealing and cute.

both kids on the ground, porky holds up the white, elongated object in his hand, gleefully declaring he got the deed... or so he thinks. jerry hathcock does porky’s closeup as he realizes the precious deed he holds in his hand is, in fact, a bone.

dejected, the kids are left to mope, until a little bump in the ground comes to solve all of their problems. chuck jones animates the final scene of the Magic Gopher coming in to save the day: porky hands him the bone, and, much to his head-shaking surprise, is met with the deed right in the gopher’s hands after just a flick of the wrists. porky reaches out for the deed, prompting the gopher to shake his finger--always a catch.

“partners? 50-50, even steven?” porky nods. with the deal made, the gopher helpfully rips the deed in half, giving porky the bottom half. iris out on the gopher winking, holding up the top half of the deed (emblazoned as such) in victory.

while this isn’t the most rousing clampett entry of them all, it’s certainly one that i revisit quite often and am rather fond of. it has plenty of fun and intriguing animation--john carey’s scene of the boys signing the deed is just fantastic. his animation is very grounded and smooth. while the psuedo-pluto scenes aren’t the most exciting pieces of work around, the chuck jones sequence with the gopher and dog are especially impressive, highlighting just how strong jones’ draftmanship was. clampett’s cartoons became much more wild and loose after jones left the unit (just look at porky in wackyland), and chuck certainly seemed to ground clampett, but at the same time, the lack of jones’ draftsmanship was rather apparent upon his exit. he’s a very strong force, and that sequence with the dog is no exception. earle hodgins does a great job as honest john, as well as voicing salesmen in general--he was also the salesman in tex avery’s porky the rainmaker a year earlier. i love mel blanc to death and have nothing but praises to shower him in, but it is always fun to have other people like earle hodgins to come up and voice characters alongside him. cal howard does a fine job as gabby, too.

speaking of gabby, as i mentioned earlier, this is his final cartoon. i have this odd fascination with gabby. these clampett cartoons i’m going to be reviewing are some of the first LT cartoons i watched as an adult, and therefore have a fonder place in my heart than others. so, watching the iwerks cartoons that clampett was heavily involved in, gabby was introduced to me VERY early on and i’ve been fascinated with him since. out of his three entries, he became more and more watered down: his fury and anger is practically nonexistent here in comparison to how bitter he was in porky and gabby. while i find him interesting, i don’t shed too many tears over his absence--daffy will always be porky’s best sidekick, and i’m not saying that because i’m biased! nevertheless, gabby is an interesting enigma, serving as WB’s failed attempt at a donald duck for porky’s mickey (who is much richer in personality than mickey himself, as we’ll explore, much to my unbridled excitement!) gabby WAS slated to return in porky’s party, alongside petunia, but was instead scrapped for a penguin character instead. thus, gabby would take a near 80 year absence, being revived in 2018 in wabbit/new looney tunes, voiced by bob bergen.

so, overall, i recommend this cartoon! i view it more fondly than it probably needs to be viewed, but it’s a fun, early entry that makes for a good, leisurely watch.

link!

#lt #looney tunes #get rich quick porky #clampett #reviews #long post #i'm gonna try putting a readmore so i don't clutter up dashes.. but please read it! i don't want that to make these get less exposure #i don't do these for clout of course i do it for educational purposes because i want to share my passion and love for these cartoons with #you guys so you know what's going on and why i love these cartoons so much #but i don't spend 5 hours on one cartoon for 0 notes yaknow? so if the reviews with readmores get significantly less traction/overlooked #then i'll stop 'em. but we'll see...!

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whatisgoingonpaul · 3 years

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So I’ve now also put myself though Lost boys: the Thirst.

Not Bikers, not surfers but Ravers.... who want world domination... ok.

So right off the bat it was already better then the tribe with a ok music choice and a good intro which flashed images from the actual 2 comics being the Rein of the frogs and the Lost girls based one. The movie once again skipped location to somewhere we don’t really care, posters of people who aren’t really important. However this film automatically does better then the tribe by actually showing “freaks” instead of some slightly overweight tourist and the resident emo. As this town is flocked to by those early 2000s emo and Goth kids and it’s terrifying, Edgar I get you man. Lmao.

So Alan? He’s back! But was apparently turned back in Washington explaining his absence in the second film and basically does what grandpa does in rein of the frog. He taxidermy’s because their animals he eats, he gets all pissy and dramatic and I started crying because “it’s a pyramid skeem there’s always someone higher up.” And I’m. You heard it here folks being a vampire is a pyramid skeam. He gets dramatic only to write a note like “here Ya go ps call mom :)” lmao.

So basically they help a suto twilight author find her brother with the help of.... “I’m not like other girls. I’m quirky!” And a reality show douche and his camera man. Fun. Except Peter , the brother is like Aparently the like og head vamp so twist! Why? Because we need the “kill your brother , you’ll feel better.” Line given to Edgar because we need to place them against each other for drama. Yet it’s ok.... you know this, their the meanest, the badest. Also Alan when turned back basically refuses to leave the beach because sunlight and I think that’s great. Good for him.

So vampires again are inconsistent. Blue eyes and fangs (mainly Alan) or black eyes and face, black eyes and fangs, yellow eyes and fangs. Choose one. They are all also dressed straight out of mad max in their emo skin showing ass battle armor spiked bs basically looking like the vampires in the comics. Also a lot of titties out and lesbians because.... because.... uhhhhh that’s hot I guess??? Also the lost boys comics cannonically show up in the fucking movie? Edgar smacks into a shelf in the store and sits up in a pile of them.

However unlike the first one this film has some bit of heart towards the original, by this I mean they at least mention it. And don’t do “sex sex sex party party” every five minutes. So Sam is dead (vamp did what he gotta do-)and Micheal and Star basically won’t answer calls. It also shows one of the images from the og movie of the 3 boys that Edgar owns and my heart??? He also had BATMAN #14! He put it at Sams grave and I’m not physically ok? I’m not I’m not I’m not. He also flashbacks to the og movie ALOT , grief or “hey remember how good it was” likely both. Also part of it was taped??? It was implied to come out of the tv??? Idk.

So I think I discovered the main problem. The vampires , not just the changing appearance and inconsistency “garlic don’t work boys” except it does in the sequels. Then there’s also that we don’t really get to know them... granted we didn’t get a lot of time with the og boys or at least lines but they were around more often then not they were... important in the plot!! Even with the shorter time we could fully grasp a personally besides Into blood and horny (that is also true for them but not the point...) it’s so impersonally they don’t really have a role anymore but that they are here to put up a fight and be killed. They just aren’t people... black eyes means hollow husk of a person Aparently. Part of the original is that... hey sure we are pretty sure these guys are but it could be anyone, we don’t hit you over the head repeatedly that it is them in the first 20 minutes. We hint but don’t show, that’s a treat for later. That they’re just people- like genuinely people that aren’t to die and nothing else , like charecters :0. Also not to mention what bothers me wildly is the whole famous people vampires. Surfers throwing ragers where like a bunch of people go missing/drop dead. Is no one going to send investigators? Cops? People dropping dead at raves and going missing ? No one? No one at all ? Ok. Also not to mention “no vampire goes out the same” is now a lie as no matter what you do all of them would explode with no real reason to. Even with holy water. No melting or anything like that... I’m not wasting for practical effects- maybe I am- but at least try ya know? Also why he whole pure evil I’m going to give a ‘drug’ that takes over the world or I’m just going to collect more shitheads for myself. Again what I like about the og is they just do their own thing.

I will take this to my grave but these two sequels are basically action movie fan fiction made by the frog brothers just like rein of the frogs is(it’s literally agknowlaged as their own thing lmao.) it’s really 1988 and everyone is fine and well... especially Sam. Smh don’t do that to me. (Yes I know about the actor and I’m emotionally weak.)

#the lost boys #lost boys #the lost boys : the thirst #Edgar frog #alan frog #the frog brothers #Sam Emerson

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eponymous-rose · 5 years

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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E62 (May 14, 2019)

The pre-roll summarizes last week’s episode well:

[id: A picture of a small pink toy house with sides that fold out and an oven that looks like just a great little sticker with a picture of something delicious cooking in the oven. Now I’m hungry. end id]

Fresh off their takeover of the Yee-haw Game Ranch, tonight’s guests are Laura Bailey and Ashley Johnson!

Brian’s camera angle has to be adjusted to accommodate his extra-floofy hair.

Announcements: In place of the Gif of the Week contest, there is now a Cosplay of the Week contest, and there will also be a cosplay gallery! Only individual cosplay photos will be considered for the Cosplay of the Week since there can only be one winner (group photos are fine for the gallery!). More info here. Art and cosplay submission has changed! Instead of e-mailing, you can now SUBMIT by visiting critrole.com/submit. Wyrmwood will be sponsoring both contests going forward.

Episode 62: Domestic Respite

Jester has cast Sending 38 times, making it her second-most-used spell after Cure Wounds.

It’s been roughly 3.5 months since Jester and Nott sent their letter to the Academy. Laura: “Oh no. That’s a long time that things could have happened behind the scenes.”

Dani, speaking for so many: “Ashley, you’re perfect, and I just want you on the show all the time.”

Jester likes having a roommate, and Laura thinks Beau also likes having one. "I think it’s a really nice partnership, that they get along really, really well.”

Yasha getting the balcony room was for a couple reasons: “sleeping under a roof like that is obviously a very new thing for Yasha” and also “from experience, from what she knows up until this point, is that she communes with her god outside”. She thinks he might be an “outside god”, but isn’t sure whether he comes indoors. Now I’m picturing a god with a doggy door.

Ashley was tempted by Caduceus’ space, but she didn’t want to steal his thunder. “I think there will be nights where Yasha will probably go in there to sleep at night.”

Laura: “I can paint you a hammock for the tree!”

Jester genuinely does want to make people happy, but “I think that desire comes from fear, probably, of disappointing people and of them not wanting to be around her. She grew up with expectations on her, and upon herself, maybe, that she put there. She equates that to being loved, and keeping that love.”

Brian asks about Laura’s inspiration for that idea, and Laura talks about how it wound up being a pretty natural evolution of the character once she started embodying her and fleshing her out a little more.

Yasha’s “very much struggling with the love that people give her, and so I think in terms of the house and everything, it’s obviously a weird thing.” Before Jester came in to decorate the room, Yasha wasn’t planning on putting anything in that room; it was going to be a bare-bones living space and nothing more. “It was just another moment of, this is a family, and they all care about each other, and Jester wanting to make Yasha happier, doing something nice, that was a beautiful little moment.” There’s some conflicting feelings. “I don’t know how long she’s going to last in that room.”

Laura points out that everyone in the group shares that feeling of not being deserving of affection. Ashley: “Do we all just feel that, secretly, and then put that in our characters?”

Laura has some ideas about decorating the other rooms that she doesn’t want to bring up in case they come up in-game. The only person she doesn’t have ideas for is Fjord, because he specifically asked her not to. She’s not sure what his deal is with the house. “He’s playing it very close to the chest.”

Blindspot’s been renewed for one more season. Ashley stares directly into the camera: “And then I’m home.”

They make a joke about a spinoff when Ashley’s character inevitably turns out to be the real villain on the show. Brian, staring directly into the camera: “And it shoots in Los Angeles.”

Yasha’s feelings of not being a full member of the M9 and often having to play catch-up (Ashley: “Not the condiment.”) is partially a reflection of Ashley’s feelings, but she thinks it’s something that may change given some time. “Obviously, everybody showing love towards each other is breaking down everybody in a good way.”

Jester originally just wanted to put a peephole in the wall “so she could spy on Fjord”. But then she told him, and things kind of spiraled from there in a way she hadn’t intended. Dani: “None of it was dirty... except for the initial idea.”

Lo, Henry is slain by the pineapple:

[id: Henry having a well-deserved snooze with a thoroughly mangled pineapple dog toy on top of him. end id]

Yasha’s getting more comfortable with sharing her past. “But a lot of that was sort of out of knowing that I have a little bit of a limited time at home. But I think it was at a point where we kind of had to discuss it. There’s still a lot that hasn’t been talked about, so that’s still the surface part of the story. It definitely has gotten to the point with them where she did feel comfortable confessing that with them. ‘Yeah, I’m a coward. Here’s my story.’”

Jester on the unintended information revealed in the letter to Astrid: “The thing is, I’m sure somebody like Astrid could figure it out, but most people know my mom as the Ruby of the Sea. It’s not like, come see Marion Lavorre! That’s not a name that’s out there.” Laura points out that it’s not even common knowledge that the Ruby has a daughter. “But it’s... not good. It can be traced. That was not the wisest decision, but I’m blaming that fully on Nott, because I didn’t know anything about Caleb’s backstory at the time.” All she knew at the time was that he potentially had an old girlfriend named Astrid.

Even the group’s reassurance hasn’t changed Yasha’s opinion that her actions were cowardly. Ashley doesn’t think she’ll ever change that opinion. “I think she realized in that moment how brave she was not. It’s like if you do something shitty in your life, you don’t ever really forget it.” Brian points out that there’s a difference between that and choosing to be defined by your worst moment, which Ashley agrees is closer to where Yasha is right now, and that aspect could change with time. “I think it did mean something that Beau said that [she’s a survivor]”, but there was still that aspect of ‘oh, you’re just saying that’.

On Nott expressing the possibility of leaving the M9 to stay with her family, Jester’s opinion? “Not good. But family’s important, too.” Yasha’s opinion is that, since she’s recovered her family and wants to be with them again, she should take advantage of that opportunity for a second chance. Laura and Ashley both can’t see a way forward right now where Nott doesn’t leave.

Laura: “Jester wouldn’t hold any animosity towards Caleb for the sins of the past. Unless it was something really bad. Like killing his parents or something.” Yasha also wouldn’t be likely to throw stones.

Fan Art of the Week: Jester painting the wildflowers. A long time is spent panning and zooming to hunt down the hidden dick.

Yasha following Fjord was mostly just because he’d been acting strange lately. “I just wanted to find out what he was up to.” Laura: “Sometimes you follow people.” Brian: “That’s how you find out what they’re up to.”

Laura, out of context: “It’s not a glory hole, it’s a peephole!”

Laura: “I feel like Jester’s been very forward with Fjord, and he hasn’t returned any of those flirtations... things that she thinks are flirtations. But there was definitely this friendly banter between them early on, and it drifted away when we were at sea. He hasn’t been talking to anybody about the turmoil he’s been going through or any of that stuff. I’m backing it off on those terms with her. Plus having the realization that all romances are not what you read in the book. She’s coming to these terms of, maybe I don’t understand how it is, and how I feel and how other people feel, I don’t know any of those things.”

Yes, Ashley knows that armor would improve her AC, but wearing armor would seriously limit Yasha’s abilities in battle. Laura: “You need a ring of AC, is what you need. But if we got it, you’d be fucked, because Caleb would just take it and keep it for himself.”

Laura, patting the Caleb plushie gently: “I give Liam a hard time, but honestly I do understand that Caleb’s a glass cannon and he needs the protection. I understand it,” Laura adds, patting the Caleb plushie with significantly greater force.

Yasha’s negative opinions of Xhorhas that she expressed earlier were partly colored by her experiences there, and partly to try to keep herself and the rest of the group away from her past. She also points out that if they encountered her tribe, they’d be within their rights to kill her, and she’d probably accept it.

Ashley’s excited at the prospect of Yasha going home because she’s looking forward to seeing what Matt will have done with the parts of Yasha’s backstory she wrote. Yasha’s opinion is considerably less positive. This is as far north as Yasha’s ever been. “I think she’ll continue to avoid it until they can’t anymore.”

Laura would be a lot more confident in the Gentleman being Jester’s dad if she’d thought to use Disguise Self in front of Marion. Jester, on the other hand, is entirely convinced that he’s her dad. She doesn’t fully think he’s intentionally ignoring her. She has a plan for what to do the next time they meet him.

Yasha’s favorite flower? “There’s still so many flowers that she hasn’t seen.” She may not have a favorite yet; she’s still learning what she likes.

Ashley calls out Brian for mispronouncing Yasha’s wife’s name: it’s definitely spelled and pronounced ‘Zuala’.

In a trust exercise, Ashley whips the Caleb plushie at Brian’s head.

Tune in shortly for the cast of Critical Role joining Joel Hodgson’s MST3K: The Podcomic!

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long text post

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starr-fall-knight-rise · 5 years

Text

Humans are Weird “The Watering Hole.”

Forgive the grammar mistakes if they are more numerous than usual. I am trying to multitask right now. Hope you all like it, and have a great day :)

You see that…. Beautiful isn’t it. The watering hole, the place where all the humans go to feed, drink and meet up with other humans. Humans are very social creatures, but all of them still prefer to have their own territory. They work out this problem by having their territory in a different area of the ship, and then return here where the territory is communal. Technically it is owned by the alpha who allows all the others to go about his space.” The camera slowly zooms in on another large, intimidating figure, much larger than its human counterparts, with bright red carapace and a beak-like face. “Humans are notorious for their pack-bonding ability. This creature right here is a Drev, named Cannon, and he is just as much a part of their human pack as any of the humans are. With a lot of species, to become a member of the social structure, there may be some sort of challenge or requirements one might meet, but integration into a human pack requires only time, and the stipulation that the humans actually enjoy your company. As far as science can tell, the Drev and the Humans are the most psychologically similar species in the universe. Not many tests have been done on the subject, but they seem to have a similar cortical and limbic structure, which suggests that humans and Drev feel and think in the same way.”

Dr. Krill moves around the corner and scoots just a little closer the camera jostling in his hands. The humans are the first ones to notice his presence lifting their heads from the odd multicolored mush on their plates. Those strange, unnerving eyes lock onto him, an entire pack of the creatures. A few of them began to chirp at each other and at the camera as Krill moved forward. The Drev raised their heads relying on the human reaction as they turned to look at Krill grunting huffing a hooting at each other with their own strange dialect.

“As a doctor, I often come here to observe the health of my humans. You see when a human isn’t feeling well, they will often avoid socializing or even eating. Now you well know that humans need food to survive, so to see a human not eating is a very alarming sign. Additionally, from here I can observe their social patterns to determine how healthy the social structure is. Today everyone seems happy and calm. Now, because this is such a large place where many humans come to eat, you may also see pack conflicts between subordinate humans.”

Krill moves up the gauntlet of humans even despite multiple pairs of predatory eyes locked onto him as he goes. The camera doesn’t even tremble as the humans lean over him occasional paw swiping at the camera as they hoot back and forth to each other. He turns to the camera towards a row of humans. One of them swipes at the camera showing his teeth as he does his dark eyes and brown skin blending pleasantly with the strange green/grey outfit he wears. “Down Chavez, sit.” The human pulls back head tilting sharply to the left mouth open slightly.

“See, a firm hand works well with the subordinate humans specifically the low level pack members. Chavez is a very young juvenile member of the pack and so does not have a very high ranking, and the more subordinate you are the more dangerous work you do. You see he is what is called a Marine, and the humans use members of his class as protection and to fight. On the other hand, the Alpha could choose to stay aboard the ship and avoid all confrontation but isn’t likely to do so because he must show his competence to the rest of the pack by supporting his subordinate members.” The camera trembles slightly as the Dr.’s voice changes imperceptibly, “Besides, the marines are the dumb ones.”

The pack of humans erupt into a burst of sound. It is a horrifying sight, teeth flash as the humans snarl before exhibiting a strange noise like the revving of an engine. One of the humans rises to his full height and hoots something loudly to the room. All close-by human groups are making the same revving noise now. It seemed as if the Dr. was about to get jumped and ripped apart for some breach of protocol, but the humans themselves remained seated though their eyes never left the Dr. as he moved around the room with his camera pointed their direction. Slowly the lens zooms in on one of the humans hunched over his plate and using some strange silver tool to shovel the strange much into his mouth. The camera continues in until the human’s face filled the entire picture, “See that, the human jaw muscle is one of the strongest in their body, making the human capable of biting off fingers, and, for certain nonhuman species….. Limbs. I don’t know if you can see, but inside the mouth they have two rows of teeth, now teeth are actually bones that grow from the gums and protrude into the mouth. The front two teeth are generally used for biting and holding, the sharp pointed teeth next to it are for ripping, and the teeth behind those, the ones that are sort of flat and round are using for grinding. Though humans are classified as a predatory species, they are primarily omnivores eating both meat AND pants. Hard and fast rule is that a human can eat almost anything as long as it contains nutritional value. Correction, humans can pretty much eat anything they can digest, it may not provide them with the minerals they need to survive, but they will at least digest it.”

The human in frame looks up cheeks puffed out as it attempts to hold food inside its mouth. Seeing the camera, it freezes in that posture eyes darting around towards the other humans who begin making that revving sound. The human swallows hard and grimaces wincing as it rubs its chest with one hand. The Dr. hurries over and smacks the human on the arm. The human sits back reproachful brown eyes looking at Krill, “Don’t take such big bites.” The human yips in response. The camera shakes slightly, “The younger humans are always a little enthusiastic about their food. Now the issue with this is that the human trachea was moved further down in the throat to give them such a high range of vocalization that you see here. However this ability to vocalize also makes it easier for them to choke on their food. Choking being the obstruction of the windpipe as food becomes stuck in the esophagus. Sometimes, I have to discipline the humans participating in this risky behavior, and I can do that because they see themselves as subordinate to me. The alpha will tolerate it because it keeps the peace, and I am a useful member of the pack.”

At that moment, the entire room raises their head to something behind Krill. A few of the humans stand up making a strange signal with their arms. “That will be the alpha coming into the room. What you see right here is a greeting ritual that the subordinate humans will use to fall in line under the alpha human.” He turns the camera around to find a familiar human. The alpha stands in the doorway single green eye sweeping over the crowd to fall on Krill.

“Let’s see if he will tolerate my behavior today.”

The green eye rolls, but he ignores Krill for the moment and barks something to the room. In response, the other humans go back to their food. A figure steps from the hallway behind the captain. It is another one of the Drev creature, this one is only a little taller than the human with bright blue carapace and glittering golden-yellow eyes. She grumbles something at the alpha, and he clicks back his answer reaching up to place a hand on her shoulder, “Ah, you see that, I have been waiting a while to show you a demonstration of human affection. Now this is only a small one, but humans often use touch to both greet, dominate and show affection to each other. Now the Drev you see here is a young female Drev who falls as the 1 Beta aboard this ship. In any other situation, she would be the Alpha to her clan, but has given up that responsibility to the more dominant human.” The Drev and the human turn to look at each other somehow managing to highlight the same expression across their dissimilar faces.

Suddenly, the female Drev reaches out and shoves the alpha human. Eyes wide he stumbles backwards, trips over a chair and goes crashing to the ground. The entire room makes that revving noise as the alpha scrambles to his feet with a reproachful look on his face. He hisses something at the Drev, and she grumbles something in return. Surely this is a behavior that the alpha would deal with. But he only shows his teeth and bats softly at her with one of his large paws, the two of them return to walk side by side over to where the food is being served, “Now that was an interesting little interaction you got to see there. Seeing that technically the female Drev is also an alpha, she chose that moment to assert her dominance and remind the human alpha of that fact. If it was anyone else, he might have chosen to continue the competition, but instead chose to allow the interaction.”

From the other side of the room, the human lifts his paw and makes a gesture with a set of fingers. The nonverbal is unknown.

The humans don’t stop staring at Krill as he moves around the watering hole. Their eyes follow him with their predatory grace, slowly sweeping back and forth as he moves. Sometimes they call to him in their strange rumbling voices, and sometimes they just watch. Eventually many of them turn back to their food ignoring him for the most part.

He stalks through the tables barely coming up the human mid-back even when they sit. He narrates as he goes and sometimes they turn to look at him before going back to their food. A few of them watch continually from where they sit. The corners of their mouths are turned up eyes wide with amusement heads cocked comfortably to the side.

“Ah, now this is interesting.” Krill moves forward bringing the edge of the camera up beside one of the tables. A male and female human sit across from each other, “This is a good demonstration of human courting rituals. Look at how close the male is sitting to the female, how he leans towards her.” The human glances over at Krill shifting in his seat as he turns back to the female. The little line of fur above her eyes is raised as she looks from Krill to the man. Krill moves closer until he is right up against the table, He zooms in on the humans face.

The human turns his head away from the camera lens doing his best to ignore Krill as he continues mumbling towards the female who sits back showing her teeth, “He will be trying to woo her. Perhaps he will try to look intelligent and sophisticated…. He is not doing a very good job.” The human turns to glower at krill hissing something as his eyes narrow before clearing his throat with a huff and turning his attention back to the original conversation. The female sits back in her chair she is showing more teeth than before as she looks back and forth between Krill and the other human.

“I don’t know if you can tell, but humans tend to court based on their genetic health. Those with high genetic health tend to mate with those with the same genetic health as them. As you can see this female human is much healthier than the male human. In colloquial terms one might say that he is out of his leave.”

The female human snorts and makes that odd revving noise.

“Ah, look see that is an interesting reaction. That color change in his face is actually do to an influx of blood into the neck and head. I am not really sure what it is for, some say that it is actually evolutionary trait chosen by its use in social situations. It’s a way we can tell he is embarrassed.” The human whirls on Krill and snarls. His lips are pulled back from his teeth and his eyes are narrowed. He stops upon realizing that the other humans are watching intently. They wait in expectant silence as the human male shifts in his seat, eventually the alpha waves a paw at the young human and barks something at him from across the room. The red in his face grows deeper as more blood rushes into his neck and head. He turns back towards the female human who is showing even more teeth than before.

He makes a coughing noise and then continues to mumble quietly.

“Often humans try to use their voices to attract each other, this humans voice is not very impressive. He keeps tripping, and if he keeps speaking so quietly, than she will not be able to hear him.” The human plows onward as quiet revving stars up from the humans around the room. All of them are watching him.

“See how the coloring has changed, I am surprised he has any more blood in the rest of his body as it is all in his face.”

There was some barking from the other humans and the young male stumbled even more forcibly.

Krill turned the camera towards the female human, “Hm…. It is hard to tell what she will think about his advances. The teeth are a good sign, but the human female does not always keep her emotions at the surface. With all of his stuttering and mumbling she may decide to reject him for a better mate.” Still showing her teeth, the human female swipes at the camera and chirps something before turning to look at the male human nodding. The human male is still horribly red, and slumps down in his seat only to show his teeth

“Hm, wow, it worked. I did not expect that.”

Across the room the humans begin hooting and screeching slamming their hands against any close hard surface.

“Apparently all the other humans are impressed as well, bet they didn’t expect this to happen. They are congratulating him with loud noises. Humans love when other humans make loud noises for them.” The alpha barks out another loud string of noises, and Krill turns the camera on him.

“The alpha would do well to remember that despite this human’s incompetence when dealing with female humans, he himself has never managed to court another human.” He stalks a little closer with the camera still on the alpha who has gone rather quiet, “You know I have wondered about that for a while, as a medical doctor it worries me. I would have assumed that he is very genetically healthy for a male human, and if so why is no one interested. I played around with the idea that, perhaps, he has some kind of deformity that only humans are aware of and I am not.”

The alpha shifts on his feet and sits back down. He grumbles something at the camera.

“I have wounded the alpha’s pride. As a human he will likely find a way to retaliate at a later date”

Translations.

Hey Krill, What’s up, what’s with the camera.

Are you like, narrating or something?

Is this for some kind of documentary? Or are you just being weird.

Nerd

Hey!

What is that supposed to mean!

What are you talking about, I am the smartest person I know.

You signed up for this job, how smart can you be?

You know what, he’s not wrong. I’ve never met a dumber group of people, and that includes myself.

What are you my mother?

Now what is this all about?

Oh, this is Krill’s new thing. I think he’s making some kind of documentary or something like that. Get ready to be annoyed excessively.

The hell! What was that for?

Because I felt like it, do I need a reason?

So… uh, I was wondering if you….. maybe might be interested…. I mean you don’t have to say yes, if you don’t want; I just thought that since…. Since we are friends or….

Are you serious right now Krill?

So anyway….. I was thinking that you and I….

Come on

Get on with it.

At this rate she will be married and dead by the time you finish

Oh Krill, knock it off and give him a break. Of course I will go out with you

Nice!

Sweet!

Nice job man!

It’s about damn time!

Alright, alright Krill….. I get it.

#humans are space orcs #humans are space australians #humans are space oddities #humans are weird #earth is a deathworld #earth is space australia

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