#teamwork is optional for the project but i already know she’s going to make me team up with her and it’s going to be bad | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

marukrawler · 1 year

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Ok, so I guess it's further dissing Dan hour because I'm studying to become a HR manager, and he might be the worst option ever to be the leader of a team: first of all, he's clearly an individualist, which on itself isn't a bad thing, but given one of the key parts of a team against a group is coordination, this kind of personality can only lead to problems. Second of all, he sucks at communication and is willing to even strain it between the other members of the team that (1/?)

that do actually work well together; for example, instead of telling the group that Shun was grieving over his mother's death he preferred to make them believe he was a selfish cunt for not wanting to play with him again (luckily, that didn't stop other brawlers from seeking him). As for compromise, it isn't strange for him either to screw the bigger project or picture because he wants to become the best brawler ever, going as far as to put others in danger like in MS if I'm not mistaken. (2/?)

He also lacks any larger experience or knowledge of the situation in comparison to his teammates; for example, it's Mira who knows how Vestal and their colonizing process work, Ren who knows Gundalia's military and politics, Alice is the mastermind behind the Bakugan game and the one with atual access to the Old Vestroia and the Doom Dimension, and Fabia is the goddamned princess/queen of Neathia... and yet, everytime, the team has to follow a lose canon like him (3/?)

Likewise, I'd say the rest of his teammates actually work well together, like Shun may sometimes go solo as well, but is willing to team up with the others and acknowledge that other people actually know what the hell's going on (he works with Fabia a lot in GI, and didn't forced himself on Ace, another Vestos, during NV); Marucho is definetly the trust part of the team and Alice's arc is all about the importance of complementarity, while Julie's is about communication. Runo (4/?)

Runo I'd say was the one who was screwed since the very beginning as, while the other brawlers got their importance in the team diminissed either to erase them from further seasons or to make Dan seem like the better option, she actually seemed to reunite at least the passion to seek his teammates, offer them some comfort like with Alice in BB and Julie in NV, defy whenever Dan was an obstacle in communication (she was the first to look for Shun if I remember well) (5/?)

But then Runo's arc changed to revolve around abiding anything Dan did or made since her trial in which she "accepted" she was into him, which was exaggerated in NV and MS. Likewise, Drago himself has the experience and attitude of an actual leader, and because he's Dan's guardian we're supposed to accept Dan is as well (which no). Had Dan had rivals that actually exploited his lack of teamwork and leadership skills instead of being somehow worse Drago would be toast already (5/5 Sorry for this)

no need to apologize, it's always dissing dan hrs on this blog lolol

dan is all about everyone accommodating and taking his feelings into consideration but won't do the same when it comes to his friends. it's so funny to me how this was actually a problem the show brings up multiple times but is never actually resolved?

dan is so quick to ignore the suffering of his friends in favor of going after masquerade, which is funny because outside of dan hating what masquerade is doing to the game, he had the least bit of personal reason to beat masquerade. runo wanted to avenge the fallen bakugan, shun wanted to protect the game his mother encouraged that masquerade is now destroying, julie and alice had their loved ones work for masquerade and marucho almost lost preyas for good. even then, none of them are blind to what the others are going through except for dan.

i agree with you that dan is just awarded the role of leader without putting in any of the work to bring his team together or having any leadership skills that make him qualified for the role. he simply is the leader because he has the strongest bakugan, which is so unfair to characters like runo or marucho who exhibit far more competency in battle as well as compassion towards their teammates than dan ever does.

runo is the one to take action and tries to bring shun back to their group, who can easily tell that julie is faking her cheerfulness, who checks up on marucho throughout his period of grief and implores dan to be patient and understanding of marucho's loss, and she's the one who takes care of alice and weeps when alice leaves them. i'm really not joking when i say i want runo to be the main character and that marucho deserved to be the leader after ms1 when it was so clear to everyone that he was doing a far better job than dan lol

#bakugan #dan critical

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sleepysnk · 3 years

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Team Player: Chapter Eight

Pairings: Eren Jaeger x Fem!Reader

Warnings: None

Word Count: 2.5k

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A week or two had gone by, and things had been going well for Eren and (Y/N) surprisingly. The two actually were getting along pretty well, they both hung out a lot to help improve on his skills. The improvement was showing and she was satisfied with how much better he was doing compared to the previous weeks.

Eren and (Y/N) were sitting in the library talking about their project which was due that coming Friday.

"Does it look good?" Eren asked, leaning over to look at her laptop.

She leaned back against her chair. "Yeah.. it's coming along nicely. It looks nice with the pictures you added," she said and smiled at him.

Eren looked at her as his smile grew. "Nah really it was all you," he replied, looking at his phone.

Eren was feeling a lot better about his situation, (Y/N) also helped with his ankle. He was off the wrap and was now able to walk on it without limping, which was a huge gain for him. The pain meds did a pretty good job, as he was now off of them since his ankle was now pretty much healed.

"Hey Eren!"

His eyes averted up to see Jean walking towards him. (Y/N) stayed focused on the project, she knew Jean since freshman year. He was one of the many people who knew about the whole incident, he took the video. She knew him and Eren were teammates.

"What's up?" Eren asked and nodded.

Jean leaned against the wall. "Oh nothing I just saw ya and I wanted to say hey. Is that (Y/N)?" he asked, pointing at her.

Eren looked towards her. "Yeah that's (Y/N), she's my partner for the project." he replied, running his fingers through his hair.

"Hey (Y/N), I haven't seen you in forever." Jean said, a sly smirk forming onto his face.

She looked up from her laptop. "Yeah.. it really does feel like forever ago," she replied and rolled her eyes.

"You know… I forgot how cute you were. I miss being your lab partner sometimes," Jean said, eyeing her hungrily.

Something inside Eren made him want to hit Jean, he was talking to (Y/N) first, not him! Who does he think he is? He didn't like the way he was talking to (Y/N) either, it made anger bubble inside of him. He was never one to get mad, but this felt… different.

"We should hangout sometime you know? I can whip up some good food for you," Jean said and smiled at her.

Heat rushed onto her cheeks as Jean was speaking to her. "U-Uh.. I don't know Jean," she replied, looking down avoiding his gaze.

He nodded. "C'mon (Y/N)! You're so pretty and I wanna show you how a guy should treat you," he said, leaning down towards her.

"Jean. She seems clearly uncomfortable, just let it go. Plus I was talking to her first," Eren said, his voice stern and serious.

Jean looked at him with raised brows. "Huh? Hm.. fine I guess. Just know the offer stands (Y/N)," he said, smirking at her. "See you later Eren," he added and made his way out of the library.

A relieved sigh came from (Y/N)'s mouth. "Thank you for that Eren.. really," she said and placed her hand on his arm.

He felt tingles coming from her touch. "U-Uhm.. of course! He just seemed like he was bothering you and I felt like you needed the assistance," he replied, smiling a bit.

They sat there staring at each other for a few moments, Eren's eyes flickered towards her lips. His mouth slightly watering at the idea of leaning in and kissing her, they looked so soft and plump.

"Eren?" (Y/N) said, snapping him out of his thoughts.

He shook his head, a small blush creeping onto his cheeks. "My bad! What's up?" he asked, nodding his head.

She giggled a bit at how cute he was. "I gotta head to my next class," she said and began putting her books into her backpack. "It kind of is important too," she added.

Eren stood up. "Let me walk you to class, I'm gonna head to the practice field anyway." he said, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

She smiled and grabbed her backpack. The two exited the library and made their way to the other side of the campus building, the walk wasn't far but it was a pretty reasonable distance. The two chatted about everything that had been going on including the football game Eren was unsure of. (Y/N) assured him that everything would work out.

"Here we are," she said and stopped at the door of the lecture hall.

Eren looked down at her. "I hope you have fun in class," he said, chuckling a bit.

She rolled her eyes playfully, hitting his arm. "Yeah sure! Because anatomy is so fun," she said and giggled. "Let me know what happens if you go to practice, okay?" she added.

Eren felt a smile form onto his face hearing her laugh, it was so cute to him.

"Yeah I'll let you know! See you later (Y/N)," he said and waved at her.

She waved and entered her classroom, the day was now over for Eren. His classes were done and he didn't have much to do, so he decided to make his way towards the locker room. A place he hadn't been for awhile. He missed the way it felt when he walked in after school, his energy was high and it was all he looked forward to.

He entered the locker room, many eyes bored into his head. Most of his teammates were speaking to him, most of them broke the ice and apologized for acting like idiots. Eren claimed their behavior was valid, considering what happened.

Many of the players exited and went outside to the practice field.

"Eren.. funny to see you here,"

He turned his head to see Reiner standing there in his practice uniform.

"Yeah.. I uh, wanted to talk to coach," he replied, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "You see em'?" he asked.

Reiner sighed. "Yeah, he just went outside. How's your ankle?" he asked and looked down at it.

Eren leaned against the lockers. "It's actually fully healed, the nurse cleared me and I can actually walk without a limp." he replied.

The blonde nodded his head. "That's good to hear.. I hope to see you playing again soon," he said and patted his shoulder before exiting the locker room.

Eren made his way outside after Reiner, he felt the cooler air hit against his skin. A shiver went down his spine, he forgot what it felt like to play outside with this weather. He had been indoors so long his body wasn't used to the colder air.

He spotted the players practicing blocks, throwing balls, or just doing the usual warmups for practice. Something Eren missed dearly.

Eren's eyes caught the head of his coach, he was looking down at his clipboard, seeming to be going over the plays. His eyes flickered every so often to check on the people warming up.

"Coach.." Eren said, looking down at the ground.

Coach Smith looked over at him. "Eren? What are you doing here? It's been quite a bit." he asked and nodded his head.

He sighed. "Yeah it has… I um, I wanted to see how practices were going. My ankle is healed now," he replied, smiling a bit.

His coach's eyes averted down towards his ankle, noticing it wasn't wrapped up anymore.

He nodded his head. "I see… I'm happy to hear that really. How has your teamwork skills been working? Do you have any improvement?" he asked, looking over at him.

Eren leaned against the bleachers. "Yeah! I've been working really hard actually," he replied. "I've done a lot," he added.

"The championship game is this Saturday… you don't have much time. Not having you at the game last week wasn't good," Coach Smith said, his eyes not leaving the players running around.

Eren's eyes grew wide at his words, the game was already this soon?

"Wait, it's this early? I thought it'd be later," Eren asked and furrowed his brows.

His coach looked at him. "It's earlier because we won last week. I hope to see your improvement soon, you have until Friday to prove it to me. If not, you won't play and your offer for the Chief's becomes slim to none." he replied.

Hearing those words come out of his mouth made Eren's mind race. He had less than 3 days to get ready for the game, that was barely any time! He had to do as much as he could now before then.

"I won't let you down Coach.. I promise I can prove how much I've changed," Eren said and looked at him with determination.

Coach Smith nodded his head. "Good.. Mr.Zacharius will be there as well. He was quite disappointed hearing what happened the week before, watch it Eren. You need this season," he said.

He totally had forgotten about the scout that came to see him. If Eren messed up one more time all the offers headed his way would be off the table. That's an option he didn't want to come true.

"I think I'll be able to do it," he replied.

"You think so? Let's see by Friday," Coach Smith replied, looking at him.

Eren headed back towards the locker room, he had to find (Y/N).

Class ended fairly quickly for (Y/N). She was tired after a long day of helping Eren and doing homework assignments, she just wanted to collapse in bed and take a nap.

She was sitting in her dorm on her laptop, typing away at her essay she had to do. Her roommate Sasha was out and about with her boyfriend Connie so she had some peace and quiet for the whole night. Maybe she could finish up in time?

A sudden banging on the door caused her to jump in her bed. Her heartbeat quickened at the sudden noise.

Furrowing her brows, she stood up walking slowly towards the door. Did Sasha end up with some mafia? That girl was always full of surprises..

She put her hand on the cold door knob, hesitating a bit to open the door.

"(Y/N)! Are you here?!"

She knew that voice.

It was Eren's.

She let out a sigh of relief as she opened the door to see him standing there. He seemed a bit flushed, like he was running or he was in a rush to come see her.

"Eren? Jesus.. you scared me! I thought someone was trying to break in," she said, looking up at him.

His brown hair was messy. "Sorry.. I should have texted. Can I come in?" he asked, nodding his head.

She moved out of the way so he could enter her dorm. The faint smell of his vanilla cologne coming off his body filled her nose.

"Are you okay? You seem like you're in a rush," she asked and plopped down on her bed, crossing her legs.

Eren plopped down next to her. "Yeah I just needed to come find you," he replied, smiling a bit.

She felt her cheeks becoming warm. "Well what's up? Did something happen?" she asked.

He chewed his bottom lip. "I went to practice today and uh.. My coach told me I have until Friday to show my improvement. If not all my offers are off the table," he replied, looking down at the floor.

Her eyes went wide realizing that Friday was a few days away. They barely had any time to prepare.

"Shit…" she said, leaning against her bed frame.

"Look if you can't help-"

"No Eren, I can help you. We just need to prepare," she said and looked around the room. Her mind raced with different thoughts or ideas on what to do.

Eren was a bit surprised at her response. "We can find a way," he said with determination in his voice.

She bit at the insides of her cheeks. "What if we went to the field, you know the practice fields? You do need some help throwing balls since you haven't been on your feet, and it can be some good practice." she said, nodding her head.

Eren thought about the idea. It sounded great, plus he could use the extra practice before the game. It would show his coach that he was able to work well with his teammates and he could actually play without his ankle bothering him.

"That sounds great, when though?" he asked.

"How about tomorrow or Thursday?"

He smiled. "Tomorrow would work best.. it gives us more time," he replied, looking up at her.

She shook her head. "Alright.. um, tomorrow at 7? My classes end early," she said, opening her phone to add a reminder.

"Sounds like a plan! I got nothing going on so we can for sure meet up," he replied, throwing a thumbs-up her way with a grin on his face.

Her cheeks warmed at the sight of Eren smiling at her. She couldn't lie that his smile wasn't charming, it always drew her in somehow.

"Okay great! I can meet you there," she said, looking at him.

His emerald like eyes lit up with excitement. "Hell yeah! Ugh, (Y/N) you're the best!" he said before hugging her.

She felt her face heat up as Eren pulled away quickly. "Oh shit! I'm sorry.. I-I didn't even- ugh shit- oh my god i'm sorry," he said, an obvious blush forming onto his cheeks.

She laughed a bit. "No, don't worry! You're fine.. it was just a little random, that's all." she replied with a reassuring smile.

He laughed, running his fingers through his brunette locks. "I just.. I don't know you seem huggable," he said, looking down to avoid her gaze. Embarrassment still written all over his face.

"I like hugs if that helps," she said, giggling a bit.

He smiled. "You are the best though, I didn't think you'd help me."

She rolled her eyes as a playful smile formed onto her cheeks. "I'm not all that special. Plus you did let me do the project, so who was I to say no?" she said, leaning against the bed frame.

The two stared at each other again, Eren's eyes flickering over her lips. There was that tension again, the way the two stared at each other as if they were waiting for one of them to make a move or lean in.

"I should get going!" Eren said, breaking the silence between them.

(Y/N) shook her head. "Oh yeah! Totally.. uh, I'll see you tomorrow?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

He smiled. "Yeah for sure.." he replied before standing up and grabbing his things.

"Don't forget!" she said and opened the door for him.

He looked back at her. "I won't.."

She waved at him before shutting the door to her dorm. She plopped down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling.

"Ugh.. Eren, what am I gonna do about you?" she asked herself.

It's crazy it's almost a week or two ago she despised the boy for everything he did. Now she was hanging out with him, giggling at his jokes, thinking about him.

What was going on with her? What was Eren doing to her head?

tagging: @ererokii @eremiie @erensapologist @luvrboykento @callmepromise @katsuhera @just-a-little-sad @bell0214 @flam3bird @moomii-hime @thicmitten @ryan249057 @daughter-of-the-stars11 @lunamoonawatcher @chayauwu @sofi-yeager

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star-trekkin-across-theuniverse · 3 years

Text

Worthy (pt5)

A/N: I thought I would try to get on top of things and cue a chapter. @rampant-salamander @bolontiku

Markus, as it turned out, was the goofiest guy I was likely to ever meet. His passion for clean energy was matched only by his passion for collecting vintage pop cans. He was the only person on the team who had an office, and it was cluttered with partially finished projects, and mountains of proposals. And his bookshelf had not a single book on it, but instead was lined with pop cans, right back to the dawn of canned carbonated beverages. It was impressive. He pulled his chair around to sit beside me instead of across the table. And in a move that proved the clutter to be a highly efficient filing system, he pulled my proposals from the middle of one of the stacks of papers.

“Your three proposals have all been greenlit by Pepper and Tony, but I won the coin toss, so I get you first. I suspect that your green washer was your back-up proposal, but I love it. I think it’s important to make clean energy available to every household. Your washing machine is economical to build, and that will make it accessible to all income levels. But it also takes into consideration some pretty fantastic advancements in water reclamation. I was impressed by the various disciplines you worked with to put the proposal together, some clearly not your areas.” His speech was relaxed. He flipped through my proposal, certain areas highlighted.

“I’ve lived in university residences for the last nine years. I assure you, access to space and energy efficient washing machines at an affordable price was something I got quite passionate about as more and more of my clothing was destroyed by or stolen from the communal machines,” I laughed.

“I was particularly impressed with the water reclamation technology you managed to build into the machine. That’s usually a very cumbersome apparatus.” He flipped to the schematics I’d included in the proposal.

“I took inspiration from Mr. Stark’s arc reactor miniaturization, and consulted with one of the senior engineering professors to ensure my calculations wouldn’t decrease the output capacity,” I explained.

“You were the only applicant who not only admitted to consulting, but credited the colleagues you consulted with. My department is a well-oiled machine, and every person has a role to play. Your dedication to teamwork is why I pushed for you to work on this project first. Well, and that it’s really cool.” His compliments were making me feel overwhelmed again. I shook my head and looked away. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m worried about the fall-out when you all discover I’m not as amazing as you think I am.” My laugh was stilted. He clapped me on the back.

“By the time that happens, we’ll have the washer on the market and you’ll have secured your place at Stark,” he laughed. His comment made me smile, but it was seriously terrifying to have so many really amazing people telling me that I was awesome. I was untested, fresh from school and so inexperienced. The only reason I hadn’t hidden in academia longer and gone on to my PhD was because I wasn’t exactly sure what I would do with a PhD in engineering that I couldn’t do with a Master’s.

“What are the other interns like? I didn’t get a chance to meet them last night,” I asked. Markus’s forehead wrinkled in thought.

“Well, one of them no-showed. So we’re down to just two of you. And the other seems okay. Arrogant. Maybe a little too arrogant. I looked over his proposal and passed on it. It seemed way too easy to weaponize,” he explained.

“Which one is he?” I had a hard time believing someone would give up the opportunity of this internship, but I understood the feelings of inadequacy that came with the pressure of accepting on a visceral level. I probably feel somewhere between the guy who showed and the guy who didn’t on the confidence scale. So I was desperately curious about the one who showed up. Know the competition, and all.

“The kid who proposed the mag-lev technology for automobiles. His proposal discusses crumbling infrastructure, and suggests that a mag-lev device in the shocks of vehicles would help protect the structural integrity of vehicles. He completely neglected to mention that it would also be helpful to the military in hostile situations where IEDs and mines can compromise troop safety. I wouldn’t have been suspicious about the proposal at all if he’d included that application and some research on it, but it was really conspicuous in its absence. I think the first thing Tony has asked him to do is flesh out the proposal with the appropriate defense department research. Like we’ve all said, you’re a stand out.” It was in that moment that I finally clued into why I was feeling so out of sorts. I wasn’t used to being recognized and lauded for my work. I was used to producing and working hard. I was used to long hours of research, long hours of application, long hours of revision. But I wasn’t used to even five minutes of praise like I’d been receiving since I showed up at Stark Industries. And as a result, I felt uncomfortable.

“Can I get you to do me a favour?” I asked, suddenly changing the subject.

“Is it legal?” Markus countered.

“Can you dial back the compliments? I appreciate that you are impressed with me and excited about my work. But I’m not used to anyone being thrilled with me like everyone here seems to be. I feel like an imposter. It’s a lot of pressure.” It felt good to say the words aloud. Markus leaned back in his chair. He crossed his arms, and just looked at me. Assessed me. Then he nodded.

“Sure, kid. No more endorsements, praise or approval until you prove yourself,” he agreed. “I give that about a week.” I think he thought he’d mumbled the last part quietly enough that I didn’t hear him. I let out a huff of resignation and shook my head.

“I appreciate it, Markus.” I pushed myself out of my chair. As frustrating as I found the golden child treatment to be, I could step back and appreciate it more knowing Markus was going to let me find my feet. I shook his hand again and headed back out, astonished to see how much time had passed while I was meeting him. Angela was back at my desk, and was holding a paper bag.

“I intercepted the distribution delivery to your room. Check out the towels you ordered.” She handed me the bag. I pulled a towel out and snapped it open. It was even smaller than the towels I already had.

“This said it was a bath sheet in the order book,” I protested. Angela laughed.

“Well, now you have hand towels for eternity. Let’s go get you some decent sized towels. Can’t have Thor seeing you in the altogether again, can we?” She linked arms with me, and started to lead me away from my desk. I barely had a chance to grab my purse and the bag of towels before she dragged me off. “I just need to drop this file off for Pepper, so we’re on our way up before we go down.”

We were intercepted in the elevator by a woman who was obviously fed up with the guy who was with her. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her mouth was set in a thin line. Every time she breathed it was like she was counting in her head. Slowly in, slowly out. I guessed it was my fellow intern, and I wasn’t wrong.

“Ladies.” He winked at Angela and smirked at me. I bit my lip and tried to hold back a snort of amusement. What a dork. Angela smiled at the woman with him.

“Marie! How is day two going? Are you settling Matt in?”

“You could say that. We’re just headed up for a little chat with Ms. Potts about policy and procedure,” she nodded. I looked at Angela in alarm. We hadn’t done that. Angela met my panicked look with a serene one, and just barely shook her head.

“Ella, this is Marie. She works in the same capacity as I do, and has been assigned to orient the other intern to Stark Industries. Matthew Emerson is from MIT. Ella came from CalTech,” Angela offered. Matthew offered his hand and gave me a once over that was overtly unprofessional. I rolled my eyes.

“A pleasure, Ella. I’m sure we’ll be seeing much more of one another over the summer.” The way he said it made me want to bathe in bleach. I forced a smile and withdrew my hand from his sweaty grip. I turned back to the front of the elevator without saying anything in return.

The elevator stopped on the 77th floor and the doors opened. Thor stepped on, munching on what appeared to be a pop-tart, and nodded at us. He pushed the button for the top floor. Apparently we were all headed up to see Tony and Pepper. He was holding the hammer loosely in his grip, and the way the light caught on the surface, I could see the writing on it again. My mind flashed back to the moment I’d lifted it, and the shock that had coursed through my body.

“So, Ella. You don’t look like a CalTech girl,” Matt started. I gave him a questioning look. “I would expect you to be beach ready, with a perfect California tan. Tan lines optional.” He winked. I turned and faced him.

“Excuse me?”

“Well, come on. We all know you only got the internship because you’re the closest thing to attractive out of the women applicants. Pepper needed a sort of pretty chick for the face of her Women in STEM campaign. I just figured you’d be more summer girl than science girl.” His laugh was a derisive snort. Before I could respond, he slapped my ass. I saw red. The rage bubbled up so quickly, I wasn’t even sure where it came from. But I’d been dealing with asshats like him since I’d started university and I was not going to let his type win this round. I set my jaw and grabbed his arm, twisting it behind his back and pushing him into the wall. He made another disgusting comment. I’m not entirely sure what happened next, but when I came back to myself, I was standing over him, panting, and holding Mjolnir in my left hand.

“Ella!” Angela reached for me. Thor put a hand up and prevented her from getting close. The elevator doors opened and Pepper and Tony were greeted with what was probably the strangest tableau they’d ever seen. The god of thunder looking on hopelessly as a raging intern held his hammer over the other intern. I could feel the lightning from the handle coursing through me again, but this time it wasn’t as painful or startling. It snapped me back to the present. I looked down at my hand in surprise and back up to Thor, meeting his gaze. I held out my hand without breaking eye contact. He took the hammer from me, and held out his other hand to stop the elevator door from closing on us.

“I don’t recall seeing anger management issues in your background,” Tony had come over to investigate.

“It was a warranted response, Tony. The boy spoke vulgarly.” Thor was in my corner, even if he was irritated that I kept stealing his hammer. Tony looked at Angela, who nodded.

“We were just on our way up to drop off this file,” Angela held the folder out to Pepper, who accepted it. She stepped back onto the elevator, and pulled me to the back with her. I think she was hoping we’d get away with leaving.

“And you?” Tony looked at Marie. Marie stepped off the elevator and gestured for Matt to follow her. He scuttled past me and pulled himself to his feet.

“Matt needs a policy and procedure orientation,” she replied. “From Pepper.” Tony raised an eyebrow, and in that moment, I realized that was code for something else completely. He stepped aside and let Marie and Matt pass him. Angela leaned over to punch the button to return us to the ground floor.

“Not so fast,” Tony intercepted the attempted escape. “Ella is going to have to explain exactly how it was she came to be holding the hammer. Again. You don’t need to stick around though, Angela.” I sighed and stepped off the elevator, anticipating the worst. Tony led me over to the far side of the room, to the bar. Thor had followed, wordlessly. He dropped a couple of ice cubes into a pair of glasses and poured two drinks. He handed one to Thor and the other to me.

“Vodka, rocks, right?” He confirmed. I nodded. He nodded at a chair and I sat, smoothing my skirt over my knees. “Elizabeth Carmichael. Who exactly are you?”

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thebibliomancer · 3 years

Text

Essential Avengers: Avengers #237: Meltdowns and Mayhem

November, 1983

Pandemonium at Project Pegasus!

Oo, that might have been a better title! It’s just fun to say! Meltdowns and Mayhem is good too. And mayhem and pandemonium really does describe the cover.

Its one of those big mishmash fight covers. Just a big confusing scrum. And Wasp yelling at She-Hulk for some reason. Yeah, I dunno.

Hey, Spider-Man is still pretty front and center so this is still the Spider-Man Guest Stars, starring the Avengers book.

Oh, and the cool new logo is still here so I guess its the new thing. Rad.

Last time on Avengers: Spider-Man decided he was going to join the Avengers because money. He stowed away when the Avengers were called to an emergency situation at Project Pegasus, which turned out to be lava men. Captain Marvel’s presence accidentally released Nova villain Blackout who freed Moonstone. On her say so, he also freed Rhino and Electro. Captain Marvel also managed to resolve the lava men situation since they for some reason worship her as the prophesied savior the Lady-of-Light.

Avengers lead interesting lives.

This time on Avengers:

Captain Marvel tells the lava men to go home.

And they do.

Spider-Man grouses that he gets no respect from lava men. I’m not sure why he was expecting any?

Cap(tain America) has been briefing Plain Michael O’Brien - the once (and future? when he stops sulking?) Guardsman - on the situation re: the lava men invasion being a big misunderstanding.

Project Pegasus accidentally sent a magma tap right into the lava men village. Common mistake, could have happened to anyone. But O’Brien promises the magma tap will be moved.

Elsewhere in the facility, Moonstone’s quirky quartet watch Cap, O’Brien, and the lava men make peace. With different reactions.

Rhino doesn’t think its a big deal because he wants to pound ‘em. Electro is more hesitant because the Avengers outnumber them as is AND have Spider-Man and Spider-Man pretty consistently kicks his and Rhino’s asses.

Rhino still doesn’t care.

But if Electro doesn’t want to do the superhero fight then he can guard the rear and keep an eye on Blackout who Rhino doesn’t trust anymore than he would Spider-Man.

Because since Blackout is so new a villain (only previous appearance an issue of Nova), Rhino hasn’t heard of him. AND ISN’T IT CONVENIENT THAT A VILLAIN HE’S NEVER HEARD OF RELEASED HIM FROM HIS CELL SAME DAY THE AVENGERS SHOWED UP?

Pretty suspicious.

Blackout is hyperbolic and has a persecution complex even by the standards of supervillains.

Blackout: “How dare you accuse me of such a thing!! You’re just like all the rest! You’re against me... All of you!”

He uses his vague powers to encase Rhino in “solid black-light” and then waxes melodramatic.

I mean look at this shit.

Electro’s reaction to this in-fighting is more on the lines of scoffing at all this nonsense comic book science compared to his super cool normal electricity powers.

Electro: “Solid light? Black-star power? Moonstone, what’s he talking about? Anyone who’s had even a grade-school science education knows that he’s spouting gibberish! Black-light is just ultraviolet...”

Moonstone: “... And what he controls is much more. Yes, I know... But I don’t think that he fully knows.”

Wow. Co-villains be snarkin’.

Also, while Blackout continues monologuing about how anyone that stands against him will be merged with the light spectrum (???), Rhino just breaks out of the solid black-light, grabs Blackout, and goes to bounce Blackout against the wall until he blacks out.

But Moonstone and Electro separate the idiots and reminds them that they should be more mad at the Project Pegasus scientists who imprisoned them.

AND MOONSTONE HAS A PLAN, of course.

Back two levels down where the lava men plot is still wrapping up.

The lava men have gathered around the magma pit with the lead lava men chanting for the powers of earth to carry them home if they could kthx.

Spectating Spider-Man: This is screwy! He just keeps chanting and waving his arms over the trashed opening to the old magma pit, like he was some second-rate Dr. Strange! What’s he think he’s going to accomplish?

And then the earth blasts magma up from the pit and whisks the the lava men away home to Spider-Man’s great incredulity.

I mean, sure, the Avengers’ lives are weird but is this really weirder than your own life, Spidey?

Just a few years before this comic, Amazing Spider-Man #2 had to be retconned so you wouldn’t have dealt with aliens in only your second issue. Your life is weird!

Anyway, since the lava men are gone, Wasp decides its time to rip Spider-Man a new one for stowing away and interfering with Avengers’ business.

Spider-Man: “I’m sorry, Wasp. I...”

Wasp: “Sorry?! Is that all you can say for yourself? Well, I should hope you’re sorry! You might have sacrificed our entire mission!”

Spider-Man: I really blew it this time! “I only meant to help, Wasp. I just wanted to show you that I’d make a good Avengers... But I guess you’d never consider me for membership now, huh?”

Wasp: “I didn’t say that! If you promise not to ever do anything this rash again, we’ll see what we can do about making you an Avengers-in-training!”

(Good to see Wasp got over her inexplicable ‘ew spiders are gross’ phase from the 60s)

Much excitement until Spider-Man remembers that he didn’t want to be an in-training and protests what would he even need training for?

Captain America: “Well, for one thing, to learn how to follow orders!”

Hah!

Its like a criticism sandwich. ‘You almost fucked everything up!’ ‘But we still want you to join us.’ ‘But you need to learn teamwork dammit!’

I’ll give Spidey credit, after I was a bit rude last time, that he has learned to take criticism between the time in Amazing #1 and now. He didn’t immediately jump out a window rather than face embarrassment at fucking up. Part of that is probably that he’s underground in a government facility and there’s no good place to run away but still, some of it has to be growth.

Scarlet Witch backs Cap up that all the Avengers had to learn how to work together as a unit.

Wasp and Cap also mention that if he becomes an Avenger, he can keep his private life private but no secret superpowers. The Avengers need to know what each other can do in a pinch.

This is news to Starfox who begins musing about his own SECRET SUPERPOWER (which I’m pretty sure I’ve spilled the beans on repeatedly already). Since there hasn’t been a situation where his SECRET POWER would have been useful, he just hasn’t mentioned it but not wonders whether he should just tell the other Avengers or maybe lean into the omission and keep not mentioning it forever.

I feel option 2 isn’t a great idea but, hey, you do you spaceman.

Anyway, Spider-Man agrees that telling them about his cool powers is a fair trade for becoming an Avenger. And seriously, he’s prone to explain his powers at the drop of a hat anyway so this is no kind of huge task.

Wasp decides that they should return to the mansion so they can get this wrapped up and O’Brien shows the Avengers the cool and not at all dangerous vortex beam transport tube.

The vortex beam propels the passengers up and is apparently susceptible to irony. Because as soon as Spider-Man asks what would happen if the power went out, the beam fails and the Avengers start plummeting twenty stories.

Thankfully, Captain Marvel, Wasp, and Starfox can fly and Spider-Man catches the rest in a web net after catching himself against the wall of the tube.

Maybe stick to elevators and stairs, Project Pegasus.

But O’Brien protests that there are hundreds of failsafes and automatic safety systems that would have had to fail for them to plummet even if the vortex beam lost power.

This was SABOTAGE.

On Wasp’s order, She-Hulk punches them an egress into the side of the tube.

O’Brien gets over to a security monitor and discovers the breakout. The guy on the other end of the monitor informs him that the four escaped prisoners are on their way to the nuclear research dome.

Wouldn’t you know it! The Avengers just left and now they have to head back.

They find that the doors to the dome have been melted and Starfox and She-Hulk have to KRA-THOOM them open to pieces.

Spider-Man: Geez, next to those two, I feel like a 98-pound weakling!

Unfortunately, its one impediment after another. Past the doors into the dome, there’s a big black wall that’s not supposed to be there.

Spider-Man tries climbing it but slides right down, to his bafflement.

Spider-Man: “I can climb a wall of teflon if I have to! What’s this thing made of?”

She-Hulk tries punching it and finds that it breaks just fine but when she BAMs a hole in it, Electro zaps her with electricity through it. And the hole seals up when Spider-Man tries to web Electro.

Moonstone starts broadcasting through a monitor so she can gloat that her boys and her have taken over the nuclear research dome which means they’re in control of the whole project and the Avengers (plus Spider-Man) can’t do a thing to stop them.

And as a pretty vehement gtfo, Electro juices up with a backpack connected to the dome’s nuclear generator and electrifies the black wall.

So now the Avengers can’t even try to punch through.

Wasp: “Dangerous or not, we still have to get through and stop this madness! That wall has to come down... and you’re the one best equipped to handle that -- Wanda!”

And her probability borking powers are, as ever, a good do anything button.

Its not very probable for Blackout’s barrier to break down but it does! And its not probable for the electricity on the barrier to discharge into Electro but wouldn’t you know it, Wanda waved her hands a certain way and its happening!

Supervillains hate her. Her one weird trick for doing heroics.

But with the barrier down, Rhino charges the Avengers (plus Spider-Man), bowling over Starfox who was probably momentarily baffled to see a man dressed as a rhino charging him.

Captain Marvel dodges Rhino in her light form only to be immediately captured in a bubble by Blackout.

Alas, she had such a good showing this issue. I guess Stern decided that some other people needed time to look cool.

Spider-Man jumps on Rhino while he bowls through the Avengers and Starfox punches Blackout in the head for capturing Monica.

Blackout: “You think you can intimidate me just because you can fly?! Well, you’re wrong! Wrong! Blackout can also defy gravity!”

Starfox: “A challenge! Marvelous!”

Blackout sure is something. Like I said, even for a supervillain, he sure is something.

But its funny how Blackout and Starfox are on completely different wavelengths.

Electro recovers from getting Wanda’d and goes to fry Spider-Man but Cap(tain America) throws his mighty shield and severs the cord giving him extra juice.

Spider-Man, webbing the cord so its not a hazard: “Thanks for the quick save, Cappy!”

Captain America: “Don’t mention it, son! That’s just teamwork in action!”

It’s a teachable moment. Cap-style.

Electro tries to fry Cap for interfering but Cap’s mighty shield blocks... the... electricity. Okay, its metal though. Where is the charge going??

Scarlet Witch comes to ruin Electro’s day twice-over and waves her do-anything hands at him.

He scoffs that nothing happened and then immediately passes out.

Cap: “Wanda? What the blazes did you do to him?”

Scarlet Witch: “Basically, I tried to make all the carbon dioxide in the room cluster around his head, so he’d pass out from temporary lack of oxygen. Looks like it worked!”

Cap: “Uh... yes!”

Cap’s thinking ‘damn Wanda, you’re scary.’

The thing about do-anything powers like Wanda’s is that she really should be able to shut down most opponents like this but she probably won’t do this very often because it would be boring.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man blindfolds Rhino with webbing and lets him ram through a wall.

Rhino: “A few inches of steel don’t mean anything to me!”

She-Hulk: “Is that so? Well, how about a few knuckles of She-Hulk? Does that mean anything? Hmmph! I guess it does!”

I mean, you didn’t have to phrase it that way but good job, She-Hulk! You punched him in his rhino face.

And it was more good teamwork from Spidey. He set ‘em up, She-Hulk knocked ‘im down.

Also meanwhile, Captain Marvel is fed up with not being able to escape Blackout’s globe. And, hey, nice touch, from the outside we can see that the globe is wholly opaque so yes, it would be impenetrable to the visible light spectrum.

And no matter what energy she tries, she can’t get out. But she does a force-blast and that does bust the globe.

Whiiiiich distracts Starfox as he chases Blackout around the room and Blackout takes advantage of the distraction to blast Starfox.

Captain Marvel: “You devil! I’ll get you for that!”

Blackout: “Get me? Yes, you all try -- don’t you? You’re all out to get me!”

In this situation? Yes they are! Ya goof.

In the control room, Moonstone knows that Rhino, Electro, and Blackout don’t stand a chance to beat the Avengers but all she needs is for them to be a distraction while she uses the controls.

Wasp flies in but too late. Moonstone blasts not Wasp but the control panel.

Her plan all along was to destroy Project Pegasus for daring to study her powers like she was some kind of lab rat. And with the controls destroyed, she’s confidant that the Avengers won’t be able to stop what she started.

She blinds Wasp by doing a taiyoken with her chest and then flees out the evacuation exit, gloating that Project Pegasus is about to get very unpleasant.

What a goof.

Blackout also takes the opportunity to escape, sealing the exit behind him with one of his black light constructs.

Captain Marvel starts to blast through but Wasp tells her that there’s no time to chase supervillains right now, the reactor is going critical.

Spider-Man: “Critical? Is someone being critical again?”

Wasp: “This is no joking matter, Spider-Man! Moonstone’s left the reactor in an awful state!”

Spidey seriouses up immediately and goes to take a look, commenting that he has a little scientific training.

Oh, hey, another great reason to have Spider-Man join the team. He can be the new science guy and Starfox can get back to being the flirt. Everyone would be happier then.

And then Spidey even more seriouses up.

Spider-Man: “Moonie pulled all of the damping rods out of the power core! If we can’t get them back in place, we’ll have a meltdown that’ll leave the entire project uninhabitable for the new hundred-thousand years!”

Geez, Moonstone! You don’t half-ass revenge!

Moonstone broke the controls so they can’t just plunk the damping rods back into place. Wanda’s do-anything powers could do it, if she wanted to melt before she could do it.

Apparently her powers are reliant on direct line-of-sight (even though that doesn’t gel with when she fought the Wizard recently) but the radiation levels are so high in the reactor that she doubts even She-Hulk would survive it.

But Captain Marvel could.

Radiation wouldn’t affect her energy forms and she can get into the reactor through the circuity in the control room.

Spider-Man gets on a microphone and tries to walk Captain Monica through what she needs to do.

She needs to cut through all five supports on the damping rod assembly. If the assembly doesn’t fall as a unit, NUCLEAR DISASTER.

Captain Marvel zips about as a laser, I guess, cutting through the supports. One isn’t cut through all the way through, giving Spider-Man a startle, but Monica zips about lightspeed and finishes cutting through, allowing the assembly to fall into place with a WHUNK.

Spider-Man: “The reactor’s shutting down. Uh.. Can someone help me get my heart restarted?”

Ha, I like Cap(tain America)’s ‘whew’ gesture.

Y’know, the selling point of this arc seems to be ‘HEY LOOK SPIDER-MAN IS HERE’ but its been more of a Captain Marvel focused story. She resolves the lava man situation and she has a ‘this looks like a job for Aquaman’ moment with the reactor too.

Still, Spidey pulled his weight. He c-c-c-combo’d Rhino with She-Hulk. His spider-sense came in handy. And he got to be a science guy since Starfox was knocked out.

I tend to be iffy on Spider-Man as an Avenger overall but heck, lets have him on the team!

Later, after Spider-Man’s heart gets restarted and everyone has returned to the Mansion, Cap and Wasp call the Government (specifically their liaison Mr. Sikorski who doesn’t want to be here and hates dealing with superheroes. Its frankly amazing that Gyrich’s understudy is a worse Avengers liaison than him) to request clearance for Spider-Man to become a new trainee Avenger.

And over slightly to the left, presumably off-camera from the call Wasp and Cap are having, Spider-Man ponders whether this is actually something he wants.

He still doesn’t like the idea of being treated as a rookie. He’s been superheroing since he was in high school and darnit, he’s dropped out of grad school by this point! And he doesn’t know whether he’s a good fit for a team at all.

But on the other hand, he’s got a thousand good reasons (a week) to join. I’m sorry, I typed reasons, I meant dollars.

But what Spider-Man does and does not want becomes a bit moot as Mr. Sikorski shoots the idea down flat.

Mr. Sikorski: “Spider-Man?! Are you out of your minds? We have a file on him that’s a yard long -- and it still doesn’t tell us a blasted thing about him! The man’s a major security risk! No! I absolutely forbid it!”

God. He even wags his finger at Cap and Wasp.

The nerve.

The unmitigated gall.

Spider-Man takes this with all due sour grapes.

Spider-Man: “They’ll okay, Starfox -- a guy from outer space -- but my own government won’t approve me?”

Yeah, that’s a good point!

Cap offers to go over Mr. Sikorski’s head by going right to the president (which in FAIRNESS is kinda how Starfox got on the team) but Spider-Man tells Cap not to bother.

I’d guess a combination of bruised pride and ‘oh thank god now I don’t have to make a decision, I just get to be indignant about it.’

Spider-Man: “Naw, don’t put yourself out, Cap! Me joining the Avengers was a dumb idea anyway! But I’ll tell you one thing... my Congressman is definitely gonna hear about this!”

Sad Starfox with an icepack on his head: “Congressman? What on Earth is a Congressman?”

Hah.

Also, the tiny next issue box promises UNLIMITED VISION which is definitely not ominous at alllll.

So! Not a bad two-parter by any means! It is a shame that Spider-Man can’t join the Avengers, because of the government and probably writers and editorial, he has a fun dynamic with the team.

But in these times where Marvel tried to keep things consistent in the shared universe, a big guy with his own book like Spider-Man would be difficult. I mean, they’ve only recently written out Thor and Iron Man for having troubles in their own books and Spider-Man is constantly having trouble in his book.

Your time will come eventually, Spidey.

Follow @essential-avengers because maybe one day I’ll get to the point where Spider-Man is a reserve member. Also like and reblog because I like to feel liked.

#avengers #Moonstone #Rhino #Electro #Blackout #Spider Man #Captain Marvel #Monica Rambeau #Scarlet Witch #the Wasp #She Hulk #Captain America #Starfox #Essential Avengers #essential marvel liveblogging #so monica became the chosen one of lava people and stopped a nuclear meltdown in one day #that's a productive day #Spider Man wasn't MVP but he did a good job #Starfox doesn't know how democracy works

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parachutingkitten · 4 years

Text

A Totally and Completely Uneventful Night

The beginnings of a short little dewlet fic for y’all. Hope you enjoy!

“No! No way am I doing that!” Louie stood up. “Getting there early, organization, teamwork, dealing with tape. No way! Louie is out!” he announced as he started towards the door.

“I already signed you up,” Huey stopped him, crossing his arms.

“Come on guys!” Webby rolled her eyes. “It’ll be fun! All of us working together, setting up decorations, having some best friend bonding time! Plus, then we’ll be the first ones there!”

“Why the hell would you want to be the first ones to arrive at prom?” Louie squinted at her.

“Extra time at the photo booth!” Webby smiled.

“Look, I know it’s a lot to ask,” Violet sighed. “But I’m head of the planning committee, and the only other member so far is Huey,”

He smiled at the mention of his name.

“And this is my big project for senior year! So I really need this to work out, and so many things have already fallen through, I just…” she sighed. “I really need this to work.”

Dewey had been unusually silent for the duration of this discussion and he wasn’t exactly sure of the reason. He speculated it might be a combination of things. He hadn’t slept especially well the previous night, and he hadn’t had breakfast yet, both of which meaning his energy level was far below par, but most likely the main factor was Violet herself. It had been a while since he’d really talked with her. Senior year had been taxing on both of their schedules and neither of them really ever had the time to just slow down and hang out. And it hadn’t been until this moment, when Violet forced upon him the concept of prom, a signifier of the end of senior year, that Dewey realized just how much he had missed talking with her. He admired Violet quite a lot, and seeing her standing before him at her breaking point really made his heart ache in a way he had never quite felt before.

“We’ve got your back Vi,” Dewey assured her. “Come on, I mean the duck boys can handle a little party set up, right Louie?”

“I hate it!” he started. “I hate it so much! You have to try and roll up the tape to stick stuff on the wall, but you don’t stick it to itself right the first time, so it ends up in this lopsided ball, and you try to unstick it from itself, but then it’s lost its sticky-ness! But even if you do get it right the first time, the piece is always too small to actually hold anything, so you just have to throw it away! So then you start overcompensating, and you run out of tape, and you have to go around asking people for tape! Do you have tape? Do you have tape?! No! No one has tape! Because they all made the same mistake you did!” Louie’s hands clenched into spastic fists as a few heavy breaths went threw him.

“How about we find a non-tape related task to delegate Louie to.” Huey whispered.

“What’s the theme this year anyway?” Dewey asked. “I don’t remember it being announced.”

“A Night in Paris,” Violet answered, a smile gracing her face.

“Paris!” Webby squealed, grabbing onto Dewey’s arm. “It’s so atmospheric!”

“And it’s a lot of work.” Violet pulled out notecards from her back pocket, uncoupling them from the colorful paper clip that held them together. “Here’s a reminder of the date and time you’ll need to be there along with a list of things that it would be really helpful if you could bring.” She started passing them out to everyone in the room, Dewey looking down at the small pink card. So much information in such little space. “And keep in mind, as representatives of the planning committee, you will be expected to follow the dress code.”

“Oh my gosh!” Webby jumped. “We should totally go together, and then we could dress up all matching! We could make our outfits out of that fancy flip sequin fabric-!”

“I’ve added a rule banning excessive sequins specifically for you,” Violet stopped her, handing her a card. “I don’t want anyone being blinded.”

“Well… I guess we could just do normal sequins,” Webby reasoned.

“Wait-” Dewey broke his train of thought, his eyes turning to Webby as his mind caught up with her proposal. “You want to go with me?”

“Well yeah,” Webby chuckled. “That’s what best friends are for, right? I mean, no one wants to go to prom by themselves.”

Dewey looked at her a moment trying to figure out what it was about this that felt wrong. Webby was in fact his best friend- always had been- and going to prom with friends had always been his plan. Not to mention the idea of showing up in matching blue sequins was definitely alluring, but something just felt off. His eyes drifted across the room, trying to look for his answer.

“What about everyone else though?”

“Oh Louie’ll be fine.” Webby shrugged it off. “No offense Louie.”

“None taken,” he shook his head.

Dewey stared at them a moment, still confused. “What about everyone else though?”

“Huey and I are going together!” Violet smiled. “Mainly so that we can get their extra early for more set up time.”

“Plus-!” Huey chimed in. “If one of us gets pulled away for managing duties, we’re not abandoning anyone!”

They shared a confident high five, Dewey still a bit dumbfounded.

“Hold on, let me get this straight, the first one of us to get a date to prom… was Huey?” Everyone glanced around at each other, letting the information process. “This is not at all how I thought senior prom would go,” he mumbled. “I mean Louie going alone isn’t actually that unexpected, but Huey… that’s weird.”

“I don’t know, I think we can find a date for Louie.” Webby crossed her arms.

“You really don’t have to-” Louie broke in.

“Maybe you could go with Lena!”

Louie chuckled. “Lena’s like 14.”

“Lena’s immortal,” Webby rolled her eyes.

“Lena is out of town for the next two weeks.” Violet interjected. “So my sister will not be going with anyone, none the less Louie.”

“No offense Louie.” Webby chimed in.

“Again, none taken,” He shrugged.

Dewey glanced around the room a bit skeptically, still feeling a bit uneasy about the set up. “Well, I guess everyone’s set then,” he sighed. “I don’t know why I’m so worked up about it.”

“You’re nervous about prom, big deal!” Webby teased him. “Come on, let’s go figure out our outfits!”

Dewey followed her as she headed towards the door, still a bit dazed, perplexed about what it was that felt off.

“I’m thinking we do blue and pink because, you know, it’s us.” Webby rolled her eyes. “But also, that gives everything a cotton candy kind of feel, which I think will really set us apart.”

“You sure nothing feels weird about this Webs?” Dewey stopped her before they could leave. “I don’t know, something’s wrong. It just doesn’t quite feel like the quintessential high school experience I’ve always imagined, you know?”

Webby stopped, turning into the room again. “Actually, I think I might know your problem.”

“What?” He asked.

“There’s no drama.” She shrugged. “Think about it, in every prom movie ever there’s always someone who needs to work up the nerve to ask someone, or their crush is going with someone else, or maybe they just broke up, so they both have to find rebound dates, only to end up together again by the end of the night.”

“That’s it!” Dewey jumped. “How is it that this all worked out so smoothly?! There’s no way. There’s got to be someone who’s hiding something.”

Webby leaned in, both of their eyes turning to the room. “Who do you think it is?” she whispered.

“It could be Huey.” Dewey offered. “I mean, he seems like the quirky awkward protagonist that could have girl problems.”

“True, true,” Webby nodded in agreement.

“But it could totally be Louie. Not going with anyone. I mean, who wants to go by themselves? Is he waiting to ask someone special?”

Webby gasped, turning to him. “Goselyn!”

Dewey smiled, turning to Webby, struggling to keep his tones hushed. “Because she’s in a different school district! He would need special permission to get her to come, so he’s worried about even asking, because it’d be such a big commitment!”

“Or maybe he was secretly going to her prom,” Webby offered. “but all this set up stuff puts a wrench in his plans, that’s why he's so opposed to helping out!”

“Oh my gosh, what if he pulls one of those ‘tries to go to both at the same time, but ends up revealing himself in the end’ things.”

“And by the end of the night we all know about their secret love!”

“Oh my gosh, it’s all so real!” Dewey turned to look back at his brother, now slumped over on the couch, scrolling through his phone.

“Louie ever shown signs of liking Goselyn before?”

“No,” Dewey shook his head. “But like, what’s the other option? We have a normal prom? I don’t think so.”

“Come on, let’s bolt before we get too suspicious.” Webby nudged him, opening the door again, both of them slipping through and giggling as they headed towards Webby’s room.

“Man, I am so excited for prom now! Matching outfits, set up shenanigans, drama, secret love, we’re going to have everything!”

“I’m just happy for Violet.” Webby brought down the tone as they reached their destination. “She’s going to throw the most boss prom the world has ever seen. She really deserves a win to round out the year.”

“Yeah,” Dewey sighed. “Violet’s like a superhuman, she does absolutely everything and supper well too. It’s kind of crazy when you think about it.”

“I still don’t know how she does it,” Webby shrugged, hopping onto her bed.

“I feel kind of bad. We were really close junior year, even early this year, but we’ve both been so booked recently I feel like I haven’t talked with her in ages.”

Dewey plopped down next to her on the bed, Webby raising an eyebrow. “I didn’t even know you guys were that good of friends.”

“Really?” Dewey chuckled. “We used to hang out all the time. We did lunch together last semester, we would carpool during the winter, she helped me with my homework all the time. We’d even get ice cream after school sometimes if we were both staying after for musical rehearsals.”

“She wasn’t in the musical last year, was she?”

“She was in the orchestra.” Dewey corrected her.

“...huh.” Webby sighed.

“What?”

“I guess I just wouldn’t pin you as two to hang out one on one.” Webby straightened up, now more interested in the conversation.

“You kidding? Violet’s great! She’s so smart and fun and she’s down for literally anything. I swear we could talk for hours and not run out of things to say.” Dewey could see Webby was still a bit baffled. “I don’t know, I just always feel so... happy when I’m around her. It’s kind of infectious, you know?”

Webby’s eyes narrowed as a smile graced her face. “...yeah.”

“You’re totally right though.” Dewey leaned back, laying down. “She deserves the absolute best prom night possible.” His eyes traced the outline of the glow stars stuck to Webby’s ceiling, lost in a bit of a daze for a moment.

“Dewey?” Webby started.

“Yeah?”

“... Nothing,” she sighed. “I just think we might have more drama than you’re anticipating."

#ducktales #dewlet #dewey duck #violet sabrewing #writing

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incomingalbatross · 4 years

Note

Psych, Shaun and Juliet!

Hmm!

So... I don't think Shawn is much of an internet guy, honestly. My impression is that he browses for information (useful and otherwise) quite a bit, but he much prefers his social life to be IRL, face-to-face interaction, even if it's casual.

So, because of that--and because you'd probably have to move them around in time ANYWAY--I think I would probably do this by putting twenty-something Shawn and Jules in the present. As in, during quarantine.

Quarantined Shawn is, unsurprisingly, going out of his mind with cabin fever. He's in some random town in the US, where he was only planning to stay for a couple weeks but surprise! Now he's in his small, probably-not-quite-legal rental for the duration. He does get a grocery store job, which gives him something to live on and something to do, but it's not exactly fun work and the lack of recreational activity/interaction is seriously messing with him.

HOWEVER, it's 2020 and that means there are at least a lot of options for long-distance hanging out with Gus.

This means that, before too long, Gus talks him into ordering a Switch so he can see Gus's Animal Crossing island

(I know NOTHING about AC except all the Tumblr content, but that's enough to know it's exactly the kind of thing Shawn and Gus would get sucked into)

Shawn makes his own Pineapple Island, full of custom pop-culture stuff and MANY pineapples, and quickly becomes very engrossed in making it the Best Island Possible, because he has nothing else to focus on! This involves finding ways to make trades with other players

Enter Juliet (FINALLY) who is ALSO under quarantine stress in Miami and using AC to escape

Shawn tries to get the best of her in a deal

He does not succeed

Impressed by this, Shawn stays in contact with her and makes a better second impression. They "visit" back and forth

Jules's island is VERY cute, but she's also ruthless in running it the way she likes it

At some point they have a disagreement over something trivial, and Jules challenges Shawn to single combat

Shawn: "...I hate to break it to you, but this game doesn't have a combat mode?"

Jules: "There are other games."

She ALSO plays first-person-shooters, as it happens, and they end up arranging to meet in one and go head-to-head

Shawn is not a gamer, but he gets on early and figures out the mechanics, and he's a quick study with an excellent grasp of tactics

Jules wipes the floor with him

She is EXPERIENCED. She's a MUCH higher level than him, and has the skills to back it up

But what Shawn does get out of this is the realization that the challenge and adrenaline of FPS are also fun, and he starts playing with her there too

...Now they have voice chat

As one of them is Shawn, they talk a lot. This is where they really become friends, though they still don't know a lot of IRL Facts about each other. At some point Jules starts joining him and Gus sometimes when they're streaming cartoons together

BUT. Sometimes in the heat of virtual combat, Jules starts slipping into cop lingo. And Shawn responds automatically, because he knows this stuff, and since he's not always sure what's common knowledge and what isn't it takes a while to make him wonder about Jules

But eventually he asks where she learned it, and she goes "...I don't really tell people this often, online, but. Yeah. I'm a police officer"

And Shawn doesn't let his reaction show over the mic (just says, when she returns the question, that "my dad was a cop" in a closed-off sort of tone), but after they part ways he sits there, in his tiny apartment, with all his Henry Issues rushing forward, thinking I've fallen for a COP

"HOW COULD THE UNIVERSE DO THIS TO ME, GUS"

He decides he can live with it, though. He doesn't actually dislike the police as a whole, and he can be a supportive friend at least, right?

At some point he finds out she was getting ready for her detective's exam when quarantine started, and he goes "Oh, I could help you study, I took that when I was 16"

He DOES help, but this also leads to Shawn's Cop Skills being revealed to her

Somewhere in here, I think, they have a late-night conversation about Jules's dad and why she's a cop, and Shawn's dad and why he's not a cop

Fun Fact: I'm pretty sure at this point in canon Jules and Henry BOTH live in Miami

If not, well, it's already an AU 🤷

At some point Shawn finds out she lives in Miami

"...If you ever get a call about a cantankerous old coot named Henry Spencer," he says a couple hours after that, "let me know how he's handling this? Because Gus says he says he's fine, but he's probably going crazy alone without anyone else's rule-breaking to disapprove of. *chuckle* He's probably reduced to yelling at the TV."

So... Jules looks up the name, and finds Henry's called in some tips to the Miami PD over time (he IS a Spencer), though not recently

And

Here's the thing

Jules WANTS to respect her friend's privacy, and his obviously-superior knowledge of his own relationships... But she is a bit of a Meddler. And she ALSO wants Shawn to be able to have a better relationship with his dad, even if it's just the level of HER not-close-but-amicable parallel

And she's heard enough frustration and hurt and occasional wistfulness in his voice to think that, on some level, he really wants that too

So she makes up a reason to meet Henry Spencer, at six feet apart--something police-related, I don't know, maybe just driving through the neighborhood "checking up on people"

And... He's nice. Since he's also starved for human company, it's easy to get your conversation, and he has a lot of good advice to give her as a young officer.

He says he'd offer her cookies if it weren't for the contagion issues (Henry would be a quarantine baker, this is just a fact)

Jules knows that "likeable" and "good parent" don't have to corolate, of course, but she's surprised by how much she likes him

And then "loved ones currently out of reach" come up, because Quarantine Topics

Henry goes on a bit of a rant about his son who's who-knows-where, allergic to authority, and has ZERO sense of self-preservation. "His friend SAYS he's fine, but it's hard to imagine him keeping quarantine, you know? If he is, he's probably bored out of his mind..."

It's not hard to get Henry talking about Shawn

There's bitterness and disapproval there, and stuff Jules disagrees with... But there's pride, too, and fondness, and worry

She leaves sure of two things: A) she still wants him and Shawn to make up, and B) she's going to have to tell Shawn about this, because it feels wrong to keep it a secret

(Shawn is angry, but eventually she gets him to understand that her only real desire here is for him to be okay and not have to carry this hurt around)

(and he's also invested in hearing what she can tell him about his dad)

(so he's okay with her going back)

I'm not sure how things develop here, exactly, but Jules gets closer to Henry and Shawn over time (and Gus! Gus is helpful to this project, as well, though he doesn't want to take sides AT ALL)

I think Jules just ends up being in the right place, at the right time, to be a bridge between them

Eventually Henry and Shawn get in direct contact for the first time in years. It's still difficult, but Jules sets up some weekly game thing for the four of them, and just spending time together helps

Also! Jules has been talking about hard cases with Shawn for a while, but now they come up in the group as well. Watching BOTH the Spencer men solve something together is very impressive...

And at some point they start playing a puzzle game together, just the two of them. They fight, of course, but when the intellectual thrill outweighs their bad blood and they get on the same page, it's... Something to watch. And eventually this teamwork becomes a more consistent thing, and they can beat Gus and Jules at certain types of games, now, as a team

(Also, Words With Friends. Henry is very offended by all the "words" this game allows, which delights Shawn immensely)

Anyway this is why, when the quarantine lifts, the first place Shawn goes will be Miami

He'll see his dad, of course, but first he'll wait outside the Miami precinct for a certain Detective O'Hara (whose name and face he knows by now, of course)

"Excuse me, miss, would you like to see my island?"

"Shawn!"

And then he asks her out.

Jules... Likes him. She knows that. But she tells him she can't do an on-again, off-again thing with him, and if he doesn't know where he's going to be in a year, or five years, or if he'll ever settle anywhere...

He tells her he's actually been thinking, with everything that's happened recently, about being a detective for real. He can't be a cop, but he can be a PI... Not without Gus, though, which means moving home and setting up shop in Santa Barbara. "I do want this to be a real thing, Jules, you and me. It would have to be long-distance, at least for now, but..."

She dimples suddenly, looking up at him. "I think we've proven we can do long-distance, Shawn."

#THERE we go #psych #shules #Shawn Spencer #juliet o'hara #Henry Spencer #ask games #covid mention #quarantine cw #why bless your heart #thank you for this!#it hit just the right spot of Late-Night Creativity last night to get LONG so...#have an entire outline! :P #hopefully this works now #long post #(might add a readmore later)

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illfoandillfie · 3 years

Note

Could I get a Year Ahead reading and/or a Heart Compass reading? Thank you so much!! (I really enjoy your blog btw!! <3 )

here you go darl, I just did the year ahead reading cause it’s quite a long one but if you still want the heart compass just send me another message!

Okay so, each card here represents a month of 2021.

January: Knight of Pentacles

This knight represents efficiency, hard work and responsibility. He’s the least kinetic of all the knights, his horse almost at a standstill but he’s thinking about what’s ahead, carefully considering the coin he holds. He is committed to his task and he’s approaching his path with care. January will be about setting goals and starting on the path towards them. They may feel far off or had to achieve but the knight of pentacles is patient and methodical in his approach so don’t worry if you don’t seem to be making progress straight away. This knights is seen as responsible, reliable and committed to his work so it may be that you find yourself with a few extra responsibilities either in relation to work or at home, but know that you are up to the task.

February: 3 of Pentacles

Another pentacle card. This may be a indication that a situation at work or a work related project will be occupying your time during the beginning of the year. The 3 of Pentacles is about teamwork, collaboration and building. February will be a good month to connect with others. It may be that a group project will be undertaken but this card is generally a symbol of honest and supportive teamwork whether that be business partnerships, friendships, or relationships amongst family members. Whatever the case my be, this is a good time to seek advice from others, especially those with more experience than you who may be able to help you move towards accomplishing your goals. But be wary of conflicts of ego, disorganisation and other aspects that may cause a lack of teamwork.

March: 3 of Swords

I’m not going to lie to you, this is one of the most unhappy cards in the deck. This is the second 3 card you’ve had in a row so February and March may be highly social months for you as the 3s generally refer to group communication. The 3 of Swords is about heartbreak and suffering though. March may bring challenges with it. It could be a separation or falling out with someone close to you, it could be that your workplace creates new or unexpected challenges that take a toll, it could be a significant block in the path towards your goals. Being a 3 card it might also indicate interference from a third party that causes you trouble (particularly in the case of conflict within a relationship). Whatever it is, it likely won’t be easy to overcome. March will be a month of pain and healing. Be gentle with yourself and take care of yourself and remember that more often than not suffering and heartache will lead to better things, even if it takes a little time.

April: 8 of Swords

Another Sword card. The Swords are the suit that represents the mind so it seems that during this period, your focus will be aimed internally and whatever situation arises during March will continue to be on your mind through April as well. The 8 of swords is about feeling trapped or imprisoned, however, escape is possible. The woman on the card is bound and blind folded and surrounded by swords but her feet are free and she is able to move. All she has to do is master her fear and anxiety and take a step forward. Whatever pain you are dealing with this month is being prolonged by dwelling on it constantly. April will be about letting go of whatever is holding you back and moving forward. It may not be easy - the woman can move but she’s still surrounded by danger and she’s not likely to leave without a few cuts and scrapes - but it is possible. Only you can let go of the fear and the sadness and only you can make yourself move.

May: The Lovers

Our first major arcana! Obviously The Lovers card can be a strong indication of a positive romantic situation, whether it’s with an existing partner or someone you meet in the first few months of the year. But The Lovers is more than just romance, it can also represent overcoming trials. Whatever setbacks you faced in March and April are coming to an end. May will be about refocusing on what you want and how to achieve it. The Lovers card represents attraction which may of course be an indication of attraction to another person in a romantic or sexual sense. If you already have a partner at this stage of the year it’s a sign of strengthening that connection and if you’re single it may be a good time to put yourself out there and try to meet someone. Attraction can also indicate a good time in relation to finances or career so if you’re thinking of switching jobs or applying for a promotion, May could be the time to look into that.

June: The Tower

The Tower often scares people. And with good reason. It’s a symbol of sudden upheaval, broken pride, disasters. Even just the imagery of the card is kinda scary - a tower on fire, people falling from it. But sudden upheaval can be good, even if it’s stressful, it can lead to better things. And The Tower doesn’t end with the ruins, it’s rebuilt with a stronger foundation. June may bring a big change with it, something unexpected, or it may just be a time of chaos. The change may be related to the situation that’s been happening since March, and June will be a time to rebuild and resettle yourself. Either way, don’t fall into the trap of resisting change too much. You can delay the inevitable but it will happen eventually.

July: Ace of Wands

The aces are cards of beginnings and potential, and the ace of wands specifically is about creation, willpower, creativity and progress. July is going to be a fruitful month for you. The chaos of the Tower is quieting, and you’re feeling ready to move forward from whatever issues occurred in the first half of the year. The creativity that is referenced in this card could be a creative project you’re working on, or it could be creativity in a more cosmic sense that indicates a time to find your voice or develop your own vision. It’s certainly a time to just go for it though, whatever it is. Whereas the Knight of Pentacles was about carefully considering your steps, the ace of wands is about action and movement. You’ve thought things through, you’ve considered your options, you may have made adjustments depending on what happened during the year, now it the time to actively and energetically make progress. You’re being handed a wand which traditionally in magic are used to focus your power. It’s up to you how you use that power though. Focus it towards achieving your goals and success will be likely.

I will warn you however, that the ace of wands can sometimes be related to the creation of life as well as birth and families so if that’s not a goal of yours or something you want at this point and you are sleeping with anyone, I highly recommend you use protection lmao.

August: 2 of Wands

Another wands card. The suit of wands is associated with fire and thus energy. This part of the year is going to be about being driven and active in working towards your goals. Theres a restlessness to this card though. The 2 of Wands depicts a lord looking out over his lands and alternately looking at the globe he holds in his hands. What he has achieved so far isn’t enough. You’ve made steps towards getting what you want but you still have some work to do. It may be that something is holding you back during August or something is making you hesitate but the 2 of wands is about taking risks and leaving your comfort zone for something new. August will be a time to continue with your plans, continue on your path.

September: 5 of Swords

The 5 of Swords is a card of ambition. It may indicate conflict but doesn’t always. Certainly the conflict isn’t as drastic as earlier cards we’ve seen. It can also be a sign of sneakiness or trickery. With that in mind, in September you may have to deal with someone working against you or undermining you even if it’s subtly. However, good intent can be sneaky or tricksy and it may in fact be referring to your own need to stand up for yourself or an approach you take in trying to reach your goals. Either way, ambition is key during September. Stay hungry for what you wish to achieve and keep working towards it.

October: The Moon

The Moon is an interesting card. On one hand, it can represent intuition, listening to yourself and trusting yourself to correctly read a situation. One the other it can be about the unknown, darkness, deception or illusions. If the 5 of Swords was in fact referring to someone working against you this may be a continuation of that situation. However, it may also be a warning not to create danger or enemies where there are none. Be wary but don’t assume the worst of everyone. In October you may be embarking into unknown territory - new responsibilities at work or something new within a relationship or social circle.

November: Queen of Cups

You started the year as a knight, just setting out on his journey, careful and methodical and now, towards the end of it, you’re appearing as a Queen. That shows growth and progress being made. The Queen of cups rules the emotional realm and yet her cup his closed off with a lid. She’s not one to spill her emotions anywhere and may come off a little guarded but she is compassionate and kind and empathetic to others. She represents calm and comfort. November is going to be a much calmer month that previous ones, though emotions may run high. The Queen of Cups also symbolises success and happiness and actions helping a dream become real. If the goal you set at the beginning of the year (or in July with the ace of wands) was a short term goal it may be that November will the month when your success becomes clear. Or, if it was a more long-term goal that you expect to take a few years to achieve (or even if it’s just taking longer than you’d hoped because of setbacks), November should give you something tangible to mark your progress.

December: 10 of Wands

There is accomplishment in the 10 of wands but also responsibility and burden. If your goal was achieved in November this may indicate a rise in responsibility or business that follows. Otherwise it’s just saying that there is still work to be done. December is a time to celebrate what you have achieved but also to recognise that there is more that can be done. It’s also a time to examine the load you carry and sort through it. Re-shoulder what you need to but don’t be afraid to let go of things that no longer serve you to make your load easier in the next year.

I drew 4 oracle cards as a kind of energetic overview of your coming year.

From the Destiny Cards deck is the word Commitment. This was definitely reflected in the Knight of Pentacles but it’s a theme that will carry throughout your year. You need to commit to your plans, commit to your goals, in order to get what you want. It may also be related to a committed relationship, whether its a deeper commitment of one that exists or committing to someone new. Or perhaps there is a cause or obligation you will commit to during the course of the year.

From the Elemental Oracle we have Pressure: Transformation. This is the 26th card in the deck to the numbers 26 or 8 may be important to you during the year. Pressure can be positive or negative depending on the circumstances and your point of view. And from the tarot cards drawn it is likely you will feel some pressure and stress this year but this card is about using that pressure as a shaping force and letting it transform you into someone stronger.

From the Believe In Your Own Magic deck we have Confidence - It comes with time and practice. This is card number 23 so 23 or 5 may be meaningful numbers (or perhaps 2 is since it appeared in both cards). There may be times during the year where you feel powerless or feel as if you’re losing your confidence. This card is telling you that its okay to feel like that. Confidence isn’t innate, it’s learned. It takes time and practice to feel confident about yourself or to trust your decisions. Give yourself the space to unlearn any toxic thoughts that may be hindering you and seek out situations or people that make you feel more confident about your choices.

And finally, From the Making Magic deck we have the sigil for Healing. This definitely ties into a few of the tarot cards. Parts of this year are going to be heavily focused on healing and recovery. It could be related to mind, body or soul or a mix of all three.

Last but not least, I pulled a handful of charms and dropped them over the cards to see if we could get any clarification or further details. They’re probably a bit hard to see but I’ll go through them.

On January we have the words Star and Of so this may be and indication of a spotlight of sorts being on you, perhaps you’ll make an impression as someone particularly knowledgeable about something. The star within tarot is a symbol of hope, so it could be a hope of reaching your goal or achieving something. It could also be saying Start of.... since this is the beginning of the year and as I said before, the knight of pentacles is related to starting on the path towards your goals. Beside them we have my old school badge which features the words fortiter et suaviter which is latin for strength and gentleness. These may be traits you should hold onto or keep in mind as you approach the year ahead. It may also indicate that the goals you set or the path you start on will be related to school/uni or learning.

On Feb we have a badge with a happy ice cream. I see this as an indication of a positive time, something sweet, perhaps a treat of some sort or something unexpectedly good coming from this teamwork.

Over March we have the word you and a badge that says Woo! The badge was a little unexpected considering the general unhappy feeling of the card but I think it’s really just indicating that while the situation may hurt, it will be for the best in the long run. Between this card and the next we have a shell. Shells often represent the unconscious mind which is interesting considering these are both swords cards. I think it suggests that the issues that begin in march are what will be in your thoughts the most in April. It could also indicate growing a strong defence mechanism or coping strategy to get through this time. Seashells are also obviously linked to the sea so there may be a connection to the beach or the ocean in some way.

Also on April we have the words Star and Love as well as a little blue “candy” heart that says Heart Eyes. This may indicate that the situation which leads to your fear or feelings of being trapped is related to romance in some way. As I said before the star represents hope so it may have been that you were hopeful of a relationship moving in a particular way or hopeful of connecting with someone and by it not going the way you wanted, you’ve been left feeling anxious or worried or trapped.

On May we have Internally Screaming. To me this is a good thing, particularly since between this card and the next is my charm representing The Sun. The sun in tarot is straight positive vibes. So whatever situation is indicated in this card is a good one. It might also be that you approach something calmly from the outside but inside you’re screaming about how wild or weird or unexpected it is.

Dropping down to July we have the lock. Potential. You don’t know what been locked away but you know something is there.

Connecting Jan to Aug we have the scissors. Interestingly both these cards are about moving forward but with different energies. The scissors represent cutting - cutting through red tape, cutting unnecessary thoughts or unhelpful influences from your life, cutting away the bullshit to reveal the heart of what you want. On Aug we also have the owl. A symbol of knowledge and wisdom. Owls are birds which can fly and thus also represent freedom or taking flight. Very fitting for the 2 of wands.

On Sep we have the word Give which could indicate a need to give something or that someone will give you something - a helping hand, encouragement, a literal object. The camera icon makes me think of the phrase “take a picture, it’ll last longer”. It’s a reminder to stop every now and then and take in the moment. It could also represent your ability to decide how a moment or time in your life will be remembered. Your perspective of a situation will change how you remember that time when you look back months or years later. The triangle also appears on this card. This may indicate that three people or parties are involved in the situation. But, it’s an equilateral triangle which indicates balance in your life and peace of mind. Now is not a time to make rash decisions but look at things from multiple perspectives.

On Oct we have the word Like which would be indicating that you’ll like the outcome of this situation or something that occurs this month. There’s another charm there which I should have laid down before I took the photo but it’s a little figurine of the pokemon oddish. To me oddish represents change and transformation because pokemon evolve but there’s a choice here too. Oddish can either evolve into vileplume or bellossom depending on which stone it uses. You have a choice here or two ways to view things. This message is I think enhanced by the Moon card itself which features two canines and two towers.

Over Nov we have the words Happy and Good. I think those are pretty self explanatory and definitely fit with the happiness of the queen of cups. We also have a book which indicates knowledge and learning.

Finally, over the Dec card, we have a badge that says Stand Up and Take Action/Make Poverty History. This may be an indication that during December you’ll have a chance to stand up for yourself, voice an opinion. It may also relate to the “burden” indicated in the 10 of wands. It may feel heavy and cumbersome and hard to carry but it’s worth the work.

#card readings

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heroparade · 5 years

Note

Hey, I'd like to ask for some first relationship headcanons for Shinsou and Bakugou with a female s/o? Like first kiss, first date and how did the boys actually notice they fell in love with their s/o? :3 Thank you♡

Thx for the request, I made these way too long for headcanons, but I got a little passionate. I hope mobile tumblr doesn’t screw up the formatting like it always does :^)

Shinsou

First encounter - Shinsou never cared for making friends, and never really had the chance. Working his way up to the hero course, and training with Aizawa on the side, he never had the time to. It wasn’t until he stayed after school for longer than he’d initially hoped.

His footsteps echoed against the walls of the empty hallway. His gaze focused down on his feet, and hands stuffed into his pockets. At the rate he was at, he knew the way to the 1-a classroom like it was the back of his hand. Something he’d rather die than admit.

“Thanks, Aizawa-sensei!” A feminine voice suddenly caught Shinsou’s attention. He lifted up his head, coming closer to the door. Another student began walking out of the classroom just as he walked in. The girl waved to her teacher as she left, her other hand clutching the bag that rested on her shoulder. The two walked at each other. Shinsou came to an abrupt stop, but the girl kept walking on. Her head slowly turned, realizing she was inches from bumping into the boy. She whimpered, halting her movement, stopping just in front of him.

“Woah,” she looked up at the boy. “That was close.” Shinsou looked away once her eyes met his.

“Uh, yeah,” he began to walk around the girl. “Sorry about that.” She waved her hands frantically, brushing off his apology.

“Totally not your fault, don’t worry about it.” She turned to face him even after he’d circled around her. “Hey,” she paused, thumbing her lip. “I know you, you’re the guy Midoriya fought in the sports festival!” Shinsou bit his inner cheek, he did not want to do this right now. “Shinsou, right?” He trailed away from the girl, slowly nodding his head. “Well, it’s nice to meet you,” she held out her hand. “I’m (S/o).”

First friend - Shinsou sat alone at lunch, that’s just how it went. He’d bring his lunch from home, and sit at his desk in homeroom. As of recently, he’d been accompanied by his (s/o). She had found him getting a drink in the lunchroom, and decided to invite herself to eat lunch with him

“You know you don’t have to sit with me every day,” he poked at his salad. “Shouldn’t you be hanging out with your friends?”

(S/o) shrugged her shoulders, leaning back in her chair. “What, you have a problem with me sitting with you?” Her brow raised, rocking back and forth in her seat. “Just because I have other friends to hang out with doesn’t mean you aren’t my friend.” The chair slammed back down with all four legs stable on the floor. “And I wanna eat lunch with you.”

First date - What the hell was he getting himself into? Shinsou hadn’t thought of it as a date, but he certainly realized that after he asked her, it sure sounded like one. He just wanted to go out to the market, maybe get something to eat. That’s what friends did right? He was so tired of seeing her at lunch in the same outfit every day. He wanted something new, and he wanted to hang out with her more, what was so bad about that?

He chuckled before taking a drink of his water, watching her as she lost her cool as well. “Anyway,” she normalized her breathing, picking up the menu. “What do you think you’re gonna get?” Shinsou set down his glass, picking up his menu as well.

“No idea,” he looked over his options. “I think th-”

“Hey, (S/o)!” She shot her head up, looking over the menu. Shinsou slightly turned his head. The girl’s face lit up.

“Oh, hey Mina!” The pink girl hopped over to (S/o)’s side. As the two of them went on, Shinsou sighed, resting his head on his hand. Any second now she’d be gone, all Shinsou would have to do was fixate on what he’d be ordering.

“I knew you two had gotten close, but I had no idea you were dating!” Shisnou’s eyes widened, (S/o) sat there in awkward silence. She struggled to find the right words, playing with her hands, focusing on them like there was nothing else in the room.

“We aren’t dating,” Shinsou put down his menu and looked up at Mina. “This is just what… friends do,” he muttered, avoiding eye contact with (S/o) at all costs.

First hug/kiss - After that night he’d been seeing (S/o) less and less every day. His mind had been racing, he had finally found something… someone that liked him. He had second guesses about asking her to go out in the first place, and it seems like his gut was right.

“(S/o),” he stood by the entrance of class 1-a. She stopped at the entryway to the classroom, looking to her left to meet with Shinsou. Her breath stiffened as she turned to face the boy. Looking at her made Shinsou’s stomach churn and ache. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re-” (S/o)’s head popped up in surprise. Before she could speak, Shinsou cut her off.

“I made you uncomfortable, that wasn’t very cool of me, was it?” His hands fidgeted in his pockets. “So,” he bowed. “I’m sorry.” The girl let out a heavy breath, reaching out to place a hand on Shinsou’s shoulder.

“No,” she pushed the boy up. “I should be the one apologizing. I-I guess Mina’s comment made me think and…” She let her arm fall off of his shoulder, her head fell with it. “I recognized that I do have really strong feelings for you.” She clenched her fists at her side. “And I didn’t know if you would feel the same way or not, so,” she looked back up at him. “I got scared.” Her eyes began to burn. “So, I’m sorry.” Shinsou hands fell to his sides, he felt motionless. He had forgotten how to move. He fell forward, arms reaching out to envelop her in a hug. He pulled her closer, his cheek resting on her shoulder. She responded, completing his hug by wrapping her own arms around him.

“You have no idea how worried I was,” he mumbled, turning his head. (S/o)’s face began to heat up as the boy’s breath tickled her neck. She nervously laughed, pulling away, but only slightly letting her grip around him dwindle. Smiling, she pulled him down by the collar leaving a small peck on his lips.

Bakugou

First partner project - Aizawa wasn’t the kind teacher that let you pick your partners, no, he would pick for you. Bakugou wasn't thrilled about having a partner in general, but hey he was glad it wasn’t Midoriya. (S/o) on the other hand had trouble coming to terms that she was paired with Bakugou, who was notorious for not being the greatest at teamwork.

“Hey Bakugou,” the girl opened the front door. She stepped back, allowing him to come in. The boy held his usual stoic expression, stepping inside her house. He looked around, taking in his surroundings as she shut the door behind him. “I’ll take you to my room, I have most of the supplies laid out already,” she sauntered in front of him. He nodded, his hands somewhat tensed at each of his sides. As the girl lead him to her room, she took a quick glance to look at him from behind. It might’ve just been her, but he seemed quieter than usual. “All right, here we are.” His nature set the girl off a tad bit. She sat down around the pieces to the project she had set up, their topic was ‘villain behavior.’ Bakugou followed, plopping down on the opposite side of her. “Oh,” she lightly smacked her hand on her forehead. “Do you want anything to drink? If you’re hungry I have some snacks for us too.” He shook his head.

“Let’s just start this damn project,” he finally spoke. (S/o) crossed her arms, before leaning forwards towards the supplies to get them started.

First shared laugh - From the start of the afternoon to the near end of it, things only went up. Turns out Bakugou provided a lot of good ideas, and to his (s/o)’s surprise he was fairly good at working with a partner. Surely this hadn’t been the same boy...

Bakugou pressed his hand on the paper attached to the board, so it wouldn’t fall as it dried. “Do you think it’d be too much to put fake blood on our project?” The girl asked, scrolling through forums upon forums of villain psychology. Bakugou let a snort out through his nose.

“I think that’s a great idea,” he carefully let go of the picture, making sure it stayed in place as he did so. He made his way over to her side, watching the screen as she scrolled further down into the reddit abyss. “Do you have fake blood we could use?” She paused, flipping onto her stomach.

“No,” she rubbed her chin. “But I do have ketchup…”

“Would that stick?” (S/o) shrugged her shoulders.

“It would leave some sort of stain, I think?”

The girl fell back, the ketchup bottle falling out of her grip, her hands clutched her stomach as she gasped for air. Bakugou dived down, retrieving the bottle from the floor. He chuckled as he watched her struggle to regain her composure.

“It’s supposed to go on the project, idiot,” he wiped the ‘blood’ from his face, smearing it on the girls cheek.

“Hey,” she giggled, slapping his hand away.

First realization - From that project on, the two got closer and closer. Not shy of the close friendship they quickly formed during their little experience. That’s to say, they became practically inseparable, if Bakugou was busy, it usually meant he’d be hanging out with his (s/o) and vice versa.

(S/o) skipped in the sand, leaving indents behind her, she traveled over to the shoreline. “Where the hell does she think she’s going?” Bakugou grunted, slightly lifting up his head from his comfortable resting position on top of his towel.

“The sun is setting, maybe someone should go with her before it gets completely dark out,” Mina suggested. Bakugou nodded in agreement, getting up to follow behind the girl. She stopped at the bridge of the coastline, letting the water slightly brush against her toes. Joining her side, he slightly shoved her forward.

“Oi,” she giggled, lightheartedly pushing him back. She smiled, setting her elbow on his shoulder, leaning on him for support. “The sunset is really pretty tonight,” she suddenly commented. Bakugou hummed, watching the sunset with her. His lips curled into a warm smile. He looked over at her, watching the colors of the sunset hit her face. He shook his head, looking back over to the sunset. His expression dwindled, how cliché could this get?

“Come on,” he grabbed her wrist, walking her back over to their spot on the beach. “We’re about to eat, Denki ordered UberEats, and I’m pretty sure that’s what he went to go get a couple of minutes ago.”

“Hope he ordered hot sauce with that.”

“He better have.”

First kiss - Yep, as strongly as he resented the weird gut feeling he got around his (s/o), he still knew that he really liked her. More than just friends and it made him furious. He definitely tried to push aside his emotions, but his (s/o) truly didn’t help, always around him. He started to despise the situation as a whole. Sero suggested that he should just tell her if it was such a problem. So, that’s what he did.

“Hey, (S/o).” The two walked down the street, on their way to meet up with the others. The girl hummed, looking over at him.

“What’s up?” He scratched the back of his neck, a lump started to develop in his throat.

“I don’t want to ruin this,” he looked down at the girl, slightly frowning. “But, I really like you, more than a friend.”

The girl next to him flushed red, her eyes averted from his. She stopped in her tracks, fumbling with her hands. “It’s fine,” he commented. “Sero told me to just tell you,” he looked away from her. “So, I did, to get it off my chest I guess.” A smaller hand grabbed his wrist, pulling him to the nearest vacant alley.

“Oh,” she let his wrist go. “Sorry, guess I got a little flustered,” she smiled. “I’m glad you finally told me though,” she smiled

“You knew?”

“Well,” she laughed a bit. “Mina kind of let it slip.” He groaned, rolling his eyes.

“Of course she did..” He crossed his arms. “So-” he trailed off before being pulled down. (S/o) left a small kiss on his cheek before undoing her grip on his shirt.

“I like you too.”

#headcanons #bnha #boku no hero academia #mha #my hero academia #mha x reader #bnha x reader #shinsou hitoshi #shinsou x reader #bakugou katsuki #shinsou hitoshi x reader #bakugou x reader #bakugou katsuki x reader #sfw

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theonceoverthinker · 5 years

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How do you think Kim and Ron’s relationship and eventual romance was handled in the show?

I think both worked pretty well! So I actually spoke a lot about their friendship in this post, so I’d recommend checking that out because I’m gonna focus more on their romantic relationship here as to not repeat myself.

The fact that Kim and Ron’s romance was never thrown in our faces was their relationship’s secret ace in the hole. At the start of the series and until about Season 3, Ron and Kim were friends, they never had crushes on one another, and they both liked other people, and they both regularly casually conversed about their crushes with each other. That allowed for two and a half seasons of organic intimacy to build up between them because there was no stress to their dynamic for a romance by the creators.There was no carrot on the end of the stick to make the audience feel impatient as we waited for them to get together because it wasn’t even close to being promised. Like, Star and Marco from Star vs. The Forces of Evil were in-universe ship teased from like the tenth episode. So people who wanted them together were now stuck in this waiting period until the penultimate episode of the series until they finally got together, lessening the broader importance of their other romantic relationships and making every tease for Star and Marco agonizing.

But with Kim and Ron, there was no such issue and it not only allowed us to see them together, we got them together ALL the time with none of the stress and groans that came with waiting for them to become a couple. Because of that and their already established friendship, they and the audience got to know them as both individuals and a team and fall in love with their dynamic before anything else happened. They got to explore other romantic options and see why they didn’t work where theirs might. And when the time finally came for these feelings to emerge, it wasn’t out of nowhere and knocked it out of the park. The idea of Ron realizing his feelings for Kim when she finally gets what seem to be a long term boyfriend in “So The Drama” – something we had never seen before in the series – made us feel that same punch in the gut that Ron did. We saw those moments of bonding between Kim and Ron lessen so dramatically as Kim and Eric’s increased and that sense of not knowing what you wanted until you lost it (Or her) resonated so strongly. Kim and Ron are still friends, but she and Eric are connecting and bonding on a level that used to only be reserved for she and her friends and Ron’s no longer a part of that. Even when they are together, there’s this clear distance in the shots that are used and Ron’s not an active part of the scenes in the same vein that Kim is, making the moments where they collide feel intelligently awkward and heartbreaking.

This got long, so meet me under the cut for more!

I think Kim’s development also worked, but to a slightly smaller degree. The entire series thus far has had an almost subplot of Ron showing that he was more than he seemed, and no one got a front row seat to that better than Kim. Aside from “Transfer,” Kim was around for everything Ron did – the mystical monkey powers, Ron saving Kim from the embarrassment ninjas, Ron travelling across the world to give her a good Christmas and find her library book, them literally swapping bodies – Kim saw all of that. And the mood modulator scene definitely helped as well, giving her a setting (Albeit, a crazy one) where she could live out a what-if with being in love with Ron. That development was all great and when paired with being Ron’s date to his cousin’s wedding showed potential for a relationship that Kim would enjoy and get something out of just as much as Ron.

And then in “So The Drama,” when the feelings came out, I think it worked…mostly. Ron’s pep talk after being trapped by Drakken was a great scene and set up the basis for why Ron is great, Kim believing Ron about the “evil toys” despite Ron having no evidence is practically applause worthy, we still see so much of their great teamwork throughout the film, and I can see Kim’s hidden feelings for Ron coming out in a similar way it did for Ron, but it never quite reached that level. Ron felt Kim’s absence whereas Kim was so wrapped up in Eric that it never hit her how much they haven’t been seeing each other nearly as much as they regularly did. And I think for the most part, that was fine. I just think a moment where Kim asked about Ron at the prom or tried texting him before dancing with Eric would’ve gone a long way to show that his absence was felt (I don’t count the clubhouse scene because that was literally after Ron had a mini tantrum in front of her, not something on her end). That would’ve served as more of a means of feelings for Ron penetrating through her relationship with Eric because as it stood, the relationship was a bit projected onto Kim by her mom and Bonnie and not the culmination of her own romantic feelings coming to a head. The story is really more about Kim overcoming the embarrassment Ron sometimes makes her feel more than a realization of deeper romantic feelings and those are two different things that aren’t guaranteed to mesh well. I mean, I can see it as a final obstacle between them and their relationship, but I don’t think that was set up well enough to work like that. To do that, they’d need something like either a moment where Kim lists out all of Ron’s great qualities, Ron and Kim have one of those small romantic moments that ends with Kim blushing or seeing a change in her expression earlier in the film, and/or some flirting between them, but as it stood, that didn’t happen. Or if they wanted to have Kim realize those feelings all in one go, that moment needed to be bigger.

...I get the feeling that I’ve VERY alone in that and I even rewatched the film to make sure that I knew what I was talking about because I didn’t want to reach that conclusion, but yeah, that’s how I feel. But even then, it’s not terrible by any means -- I still think the development was there. It just needed to be a bit tighter.

But enough about the negativity because I still have plenty of positive stuff to say! Once their relationship really started, it was fantastic!

Once again, their relationship isn’t flung in our faces, but because they’re a couple, every moment that they are together gives us fans what we want! We see them working together, supporting one another, and all that good stuff, and the romantic moments we do get are the icing on the cake! And now, moments like Kim applying for colleges and Ron joining the football team have an added emotional weight that they didn’t before because of that relationship, but wasn’t done in a way that disrupted the comedic and absurd tone of the show.

And when we get episodes and stories focused on their romance, that’s doubly true! They’re a total unit during the hilarious double date with Shego and Barkin and they can practically read each other’s minds as they slip away from it. The whole matter of Ron worrying over KP’s safety and then his own because of statistics is just as absurd as it is heartwarming! He literally stuck himself in the equivalent of a nuke shelter! XD The matter of Ron being kissed by Bonnie has Kim letting Ron off the hook because it took years for him to kiss her, and the way Kim says that line is just hysterical!

Of course, we have to talk about “Clean Slate.” Kim knows Ron so well that she immediately gets him the perfect gift and her knowledge of how perfect that gift is was what reminded her about her feelings for Ron! That made for an adorable moment between them and probably one of my favorites in the entire series.

It’s kind of interesting that Kim and Ron’s relationship and its uncertain future is kind of a secondary running plot throughout the season. Between the aforementioned joining of the football team for Ron and college applications for Kim, the question of can Kim and Ron endure in high school and beyond is a topic that comes up a lot. Those are the big two, especially the latter two because Ron’s both never been portrayed as an excellent student nor are his contributions to saving the world highlighted nearly as much as Kim (if at all), and that’s what inevitably comes to a head in “Graduation,” but there are smaller bits. Ron’s inability to pay for fancier dates, Bonnie being a jealous homecoming queen to Ron’s king, and Kim getting amnesia all call into question aspects of their relationship, making it all the better when they’re overcome by Kim and Ron!

As I said before, “Graduation” is where it all comes to a head. The larger question of Kim and Ron’s future is directly addressed and both characters get to be afraid of what comes next, just like we might. We saw “A Stitch in Time” and how the long distance thing was tough when they were just friends! How are they gonna fare while in a relationship? However, by fighting the literal end of the world, both Kim and Ron prove on a meta level that they’re ready and completely able to fight for their relationship and themselves outside of high school.

Kim and Ron have an incredible romance, one that was created with patience and care and because of that, paid off in such a satisfying way. While I took issue with a small part of it, where it mattered, their relationship didn’t just succeed, but THRIVED on our screens. I hope the new movies get a similar treatment if we get more and if we do, I have all the faith in the world that we will!

#Anonymous #kim possible #ron stoppable #kim x ron

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yfere · 5 years

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Bowlgate and Beyond! The Empire Kids Learn How To People.

So who wants an opinion on Bowlgate and Yussa’s Tower, forever after the fact??????? Ahahahha!!!! For once, though, I actually did a bit of research into what other people have been saying about these things, so I at least have some idea of the general discussion, though it’s admittedly not the most comprehensive idea. #INeverSayAnythingNew #PleaseForgiveMe #I’mJustHavingAGoodTime. Anyway, this is a two-part series of mine.

Thesis: Caleb and Beau were understandably terrible at communicating, and communicating with each other specifically at Bowlgate. Yet they are progressively getting much better (I would say pretty damn good!) at handling people in general and each other, even as they continue to have arguments.

Part 1: Wherein Caleb Learns Most People Aren’t Mind Readers

Caleb was just not cut out for cooperative group work—at least, not at the start of the story. At the Labenda Swamp, Nott gives him a magic bowl, and he discovers this is a super dangerous artifact that can be used to commune with Tiamat, an Evil Calamity God. The one person who is personally interested in this item is someone he met only hours before, with some sob story about being part of a Tiamat Cult (alarms ringing!) and wanting to find artifacts like this to “destroy them.” Caleb is suspicious, he’s cautious—justifiably so, in his opinion. He feels it’s anyone’s responsibility as someone who doesn’t want to be Evil to make absolutely, unquestionably sure that by helping this person they are not aiding and abetting the promotion of Tiamat’s influence in the world. He concludes that the only way to be sure this person is telling the truth about their intentions is to use Jester’s Zone of Truth to confirm. (If only he still had Suggestion, his favorite spell for these situations!) If they can get Caliana to camp with them, perhaps he can discuss it all with the group privately…..except, Caliana is dead-set on leaving right that second, and won’t stay to camp. So Caleb is left with two choices:

1) Say nothing, and keep the bowl. Nott would never tell the others if he asked her not to, if he really thought keeping it was best. Problem is, then they would have to figure out how to destroy the item themselves, and they’d be endangering the group since the cult is out looking for it. That’s not fair, Caleb’s already been reprimanded for withholding items before, and besides, Caliana could really be telling the truth, could really be the person best suited for destroying these items. Option #1 just won’t work, which in his mind leaves him with

2) Deal with the trust problem right then and there.

Knowing that Caliana is gifted with magic and that he himself is delicate, Caleb thinks, I believe, well, she could turn on us and attack me and leave with the bowl once she sees it and if she doesn’t want to submit to questioning. He decides the only reasonable thing to do is to put a barrier between her and the bowl without her knowing that’s exactly what he’s doing. It’s the same kind of reasoning that eventually leads to Caleb’s Wall of Fire in Darktow. ((funny that hoarding other people’s stuff is his defining trait. saving the world one stolen item at a time, lmao))

So, with the group safely(ish) walling Caliana from the bowl, he reveals it! And the group loudly tells Caliana about it! And he says, basically, I don’t trust you with a powerful item, and you should let us hold you hostage for an evening and let Jester cast magic on you so that your trustworthiness can be confirmed.

To which the party goes, what the fuck, Caleb?!

What the fuck are you saying, without consulting anyone on the matter?! That’s not teamwork???!!?!? Who do you think you are????!?!?!!!

Proper procedure for Caleb would have been to say, one, I don’t want to keep this bowl. This is what the bowl is, this is what worries me about it, this is what worries me about Caliana, and this is what I think we should do—what do you think? Explain reasoning, ask for feedback, collaborate. But Caleb skips through all these steps and goes straight to executing his preferred mode of action, without properly checking in with anyone. He only even begins to explain what the fuck the bowl is (other than “powerful”—vague much?) after Beau takes it away from him and everyone’s hackles are already raised over his behavior.

So of course it feels manipulative, of course it’s pressuring the group—those are the literal effects of his actions, but I think it’s important to distinguish between Caleb actually trying and intending to manipulate people (Fjord in the Diver’s Grave), and Caleb putting unfair pressure on people as an unintended consequence to an unfortunate assumption of his: that because a course of action seems right to him, that it is self evident—everyone must be thinking the same thing as him, it’s super obvious this is Right, why would anyone ever disagree? “Why would you not want to wait twelve hours to see if this woman’s intentions are true or not?!” he asks, in complete bewilderment. Caleb is genuinely incredulous and surprised when the group starts arguing with him, when Jester suggests that maybe they should let Caliana talk to Tiamat if she wants, when Beau and Molly suggest that it’s really none of their business to interfere with Caliana whether her intentions are true or not—if she does bad shit, why should they take the responsibility to stop her? Will it really affect them? Caleb doesn’t consider at the time that his actions might be controlling and pushed back against because he assumes that the group will all absolutely be in his corner in this thing and that he is acting on their collective interests and desires. What he neglects to do is find out whether he actually knows what their interests and desires are, if they actually agree with him. (((There’s also, of course, Caleb doing Typical Gifted Kid Bullshit #150, thinking “oh, but I’ve thought of everything, this has to be the right and only solution to the problem!” No, you haven’t thought of everything Caleb, STFU. Molly and Yasha both bring up solutions to Caleb’s dilemma that Caleb didn’t think of himself—I can cast Friends, Molly said. I can use my sword and try to break it, Yasha said. These are both things Caleb might have come to know if he cared to, say, consult the group before going off at Caliana with his Plan.)))

But why is Caleb so confused at the negative reaction, so thrown for a loop by disagreement? This fascinates me. At this point, you see, Caleb is……not used to being around people with different opinions than him. I mean, conjecturing from his backstory of Mega Propaganda Brainwashing and Conformity, not to mention the Only Child business—it’s quite likely he’s never (or not in a long time) in fact had to deal with a serious difference in opinion before—certainly not one among peers, where authority and power structures aren’t at play. He also definitely hasn’t spent much time around people from different walks of life, who would have different values and life experiences and worldviews from him. He’s always been fairly isolated, 24/7 around people who were trained to think and make decisions in exactly the same way he did, with everyone else being Wrong and an Enemy. Where there was a premium on Obedience—child to parent, student to teacher, patient to doctor. More recently he’s been around Nott, who at this point in the story is also just agreeing with everything he says and not really challenging that assumption. Arguing over gloves and scrolls and bowls—that’s probably new stuff to him. He’s finding out in an ugly way that he can’t project what others are thinking, people don’t think exactly the same way he does, and he doesn’t know how to collaborate in decision making the way he obviously needs to to survive in the group. He doesn’t know how to handle disagreement in any other way than caving in and Following Orders and Keeping the Peace, and he definitely doesn’t know how to handle a disagreement when caving in is no longer a useful strategy, when the cost of caving is, to him, unacceptable.

“You’re a shitty communicator” is actually some of the most useful feedback he could have possibly gotten out of the situation. What is most important for Caleb to learn to do at this point is learn to explain his thinking in detail before he acts in ways that will affect the others, to stop assuming everyone will think in exactly the same way he does, to present his opinion as an opinion rather than The Undisputable Obvious Truth. He needs to learn how to advocate for a course of action and genuinely brainstorm on issues (he has good ideas, but he doesn’t know everything!) instead of either Winning the Argument or Obeying Others. What’s great to see is that Caleb is getting better at all of these things. Compare what he’s doing with the bowl with his planning strategies post-Felderwin. At this point, Caleb has become fairly comfortable in his preferred role as an advisor and source of information. He doesn’t plainly defer to the group without contributing, and he’s careful now about prefacing his opinions with his concerns and reasoning, with saying “I think this because X,” and then asking for others’ opinions. To paraphrase the moorbounder suggestion, he says, “My concern is, and this is not a dealbreaker, but what if we learn Yeza is on the chopping block, and we don’t have enough time to get to him?” which does three things: 1) presents his opinion as an opinion, 2) explains the reason why he thinks it’s a good idea to get the moorbounders and he’s concerned about the “working for the Krynn” idea without assuming everyone already thought of this and his conclusions are obvious, and 3) asks a question that solicits the opinions of the rest of the group. Nice growth, Caleb! When you do this people can actually work together and address your concerns! Caduceus floats letting the city government know what they want ahead of time, they discuss whether the government would have access to teleportation or sending spells, they talk about how much danger Yeza is probably in and how they can determine whether the government can be relied on to follow through on a favor, how they could safely frame their favor. They agree at the very least to prepare to book it on the moorbounders as Plan B—if the job is too long or Yeza gets in trouble or the favor can’t be relied on, they leave. That’s collaboration at work!

Even when the disagreements are personal, Caleb does a much better job at explaining himself and debriefing, though he isn’t perfect. Post-Yussa’s tower, he does a fairly good job explaining why he refused to do what Beau asked of him in the moment. He also does a fairly good job explaining why he wasn’t exactly giddy to go there, though he doesn’t directly address Beau’s line of questioning (she wants to know what about Yussa makes Caleb think he’s tied to Trent specifically—since she thinks that would justify his fear). Instead, he tries to justify his Absolute Caution With Powerful Mages Philosophy by painting a frightening, gory picture that offends Beau and pokes at her own insecurities—does he not believe in her friendship? And Caleb tries to acknowledge that he as Beau are talking at cross purposes and explain himself more but eventually becomes so frustrated and overwhelmed with the misunderstanding that he begins snapping and storms off to scream at a tree. More useful things to do would have been to ask for a break, or to ask Beau to explain what exactly she was feeling so he could address what was bothering her about what he said instead of trying to brute force get his point across through arguing and fright. The point is though, that he’s trying, when he wasn’t before. He’s getting better, their relationship is getting better, and honestly it’s pretty wonderful to watch.

Next is Part 2: Wherein Beau Learns Assumptions are for Chumps

#critical role #cr spoilers #bowlgate #caleb widogast #beauregard #the meta no one asked for ever #long post #i should have edited this down but standards lower during the school week

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goodticklebrain · 5 years

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Q&A August: Kate Powers of the Redeeming Time Project

Q&A August continues! I first met Kate Powers at the opening reception of the 2016 Shakespeare Theatre Association conference. It was my very first STA conference and I was, needless to say, SUPER NERVOUS about suddenly being in a huge room with hundreds of top-notch Shakespeare experts, artists, administrators, and educators. I felt very much like an impostor and interloper: after all, I was just drawing these stupid little comics, while these people were making Shakespeare come to life, and were changing lives in the process.

I had heard of Kate’s phenomenal work with Rehabilitation Through the Arts at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, so I was already suitably intimidated when I was first introduced to her. However, she took one look at my name tag, said “Oh my god, you’re HER”, and then seized me by the arm and proceeded to lead me around the reception, introducing me to all manner of Shakespearean theatre luminaries and instantly incorporating me into the STA community. And that’s pretty much Kate in a nutshell for you: welcoming and supportive, absurdly generous with her time and energy, and never hesitating to help lift people up in any way she can. Over the past several years she has become a wonderful resource, correspondent, and friend, and I’m so excited to share her with you now.

Take it away, Kate!

1. Who are you? Why Shakespeare?

I am a director, a text nerd, a prison theatre maker. I saw my first production of Shakespeare before anyone had a chance to tell me that this was going to be good for me, or that these people talk funny. I was eight. The play was in a park downtown; we had a picnic and a can of mosquito spray standing by as we watched Petruchio arrive (on a motorcycle, wearing leopard-print hot pants, as it happened) to wed Katharine. I am sure that I missed a lot, but I had a great time.

After a student matinee of my production of Measure for Measure at the Kansas City Rep in 2005, a girl asked at the post-show discussion, with great urgency, if Isabel was going to marry the Duke. When I directed The Winter’s Tale at American Shakespeare Center, I spoke to a lady in the audience who was seeing her first-ever Shakespeare play. She asked me if I had updated the language or if someone else had done it for me. She was stunned when I told her that we had not changed a word. “It’s crystal clear,” she exclaimed. I am all about smashing up the cultural church of Shakespeare and starting the Shakespeare block party.

2. What moment(s) in Shakespeare always make you laugh?

It’s cheap, but it is textually supported cheap. I laugh every time an actor playing Malvolio reads the letter, “If this fall into thy hand, revolve,” takes a beat, contemplates, and then turns in a circle. It’s not actually what the letter writer means (it means “consider,” essentially), but it doesn’t matter. I think you have written a strip about revolving Malvolios, (Mya interjects: I have!) and I would like someone to start a band called the Revolving Malvolios.

3. What's a favorite Shakespearean performance anecdote?

I would probably have to go with Squirrel Butt Romeo.

Mya interjects: Kate is, of course, referring to the immortal anecdote that led to the creation of this comic:

4. What's one of the more unusual Shakespearean interpretations you've either seen or would like to see?

I saw a Czech language production of Hamlet while I was in grad. school. The host at my B&B in Prague strongly discouraged me from going. I think he thought I would be upset when it wasn’t in English. I told him it was okay, that I was fairly familiar with the story. They cast Claudio much younger than I had previously seen. The late king’s much younger brother. He read like an older brother to Hamlet in some ways, and also, he was HOT. I suddenly understood “The king doth wake tonight and takes his rouse, / Keeps wassail and the swaggering upspring reels,” much more clearly, and I also could see the appeal, the sexy appeal, the temptation, the need to believe, for Gertrude.

The interpretation that I have seen far too often is the leather-clad Hamlet wielding an AK-47. Just. Don’t.

Mya interjects: OK, I have definitely seen leather-clad Hamlets, but Hamlet wielding an AK-47? What is that??

5. What passages from Shakespeare have stayed with you?

“It is required you do awake your faith” and “Let be” are perpetually in the front of my consciousness.

Mya interjects: I totally forgot about “Let be”. Is there a more powerful two-word quote in all of Shakespeare?

Right now I hear Sir Thomas More’s “mountainish inhumanity” speech to the rioting mob loudly and insistently:

“Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise Hath chid down all the majesty of England; Imagine that you see the wretched strangers, Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage, Plodding to th’ports and coasts for transportation, And that you sit as kings in your desires, Authority quite silent by your brawl, And you in ruff of your opinions clothed; What had you got? I’ll tell you. You had taught How insolence and strong hand should prevail, How order should be quelled; and by this pattern Not one of you should live an aged man, For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought, With self same hand, self reasons, and self right, Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes Would feed on one another.”

6. What Shakespeare plays have changed for you?

Which ones haven’t?

7. What Shakespearean character or characters do you identify the most with?

I pretty much am Beatrice, with a dash of Paulina. Very smart, very punny, often wielding my words as a weapon, tenacious, determined, protective of those around me, and also afraid of getting hurt, yet determined to speak, to name injustice when I see it. “I care not. It is an heretic that makes the fire.”

8. Where can we find out more about you? Are there any projects/events you would like us to check out?

I am the founder of the Redeeming Time Project. Our name comes from Hal’s speech in I Henry IV, “I’ll so offend to make offense a skill / Redeeming time when men think least I will.” We make theatre with men incarcerated in two Minnesota state prisons. I started doing this work over a decade ago with Rehabilitation Through the Arts in New York state. We believe human beings are born inherently good, and we teach critical life skills (such as empathy, critical thinking, communication skills, teamwork, conflict resolution, goal setting, delayed gratification) through making theatre together. At Sing Sing Correctional Facility in 2016, while we were rehearsing Twelfth Night, one of the men said, “Shakespeare gave me words for emotions I didn’t know I had.”

The act of imagination required to play a character can become the spark of compassion that leads to empathy. One can learn empathy through the effort of performing a play, because one must ask, “What is it like to be this character? What is it like to walk in his shoes?” Through rehearsal room disagreements about the interpretation of a scene, or a line, one can learn to tolerate not just different points of view but also ambiguity itself. This newly acquired tolerance and wider understanding of human behavior helps cultivate patience and perspective.

Shakespeare teaches us what it means to be human, in all the nobility as well as all the depravity that it can entail. Again and again, he asks us, “What does it mean to be alive? How should we act? Who am I? What do I love?” Redeeming Time makes Shakespeare accessible to all, restores a voice to the silenced and voiceless, and explores the full complexity of the human condition.

Incarcerated individuals who study and perform Shakespeare challenge. They develop a passion for learning. They explore the full complexity of humanity through Shakespeare, reassessing their past and current choices, as well as their future options, as they do so. Although RTP will work with material written by other playwrights and authors, Shakespeare will always be the firm ground on which we stand.

(Back to Mya) Thanks so much to Kate for taking the time to answer my questions. You can find out more about Kate and her excellent work here:

plainKate.com

The Redeeming Time Project

@_plainkate_ on Twitter

Plus, you can hear Kate on several episodes of the Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast:

Episode 346: Theatre in Prison

Episode 398: ‘Salesman’ Behind Bars

Episode 498: Year of Shakespeare

Episode 532: Shakespeare and Trump (also featuring yours truly)

Episode 580: Redeeming Time Project

COMING THURSDAY: A fellow Michigander who just happens to be one of my personal Shakespearean superheroes!

#Q&A August #shakespeare

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sugar--pie · 6 years

Text

Recently I made a post talking about Barlee’s recent tweets and how I personally believe it doesn’t kill off Klance. I recommend reading it before you continue reading this HELLA. LONG. POST. As I might refer back to it a few times.

Edit: just want to add in here, that Barlee said those tweets weren’t about Klance, and that they were about Shiro being Rep. She also said she doesn’t know the end result of the series though... so I’m still gonna keep this post. But a lot of the things I talked about in that post about Klance in general, I’ll still refer to. Please remember to read my edits at the end too! Thanks :)

Okay.

So even after I made that post, I still had a major panic attack and slowly lost hope in Klance again. Idk, I’ve fallen way too deep into this it’s not even healthy probably, it felt like literal heart break. And I’m not even LGBT, I have another reasoning behind why I’m not really for Allura/Lance... and Season 7 kinda fuelled it a bit more. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. That post will be made after Season 8... if I manage to somehow be horrifically incorrect about what I’m going to talk about here. Which... I highly doubt I will. But I’ll keep a cushion to be safe.

I’m going to make bullet points:

One of the biggest problems the Klance fandom had before was that they put the Klance GogglesTM on for everything. Some specific things in the show were obvious yes, or at least it should be to everyone, but some things were stretched out way too far.

One of these scenarios is the theory (yes theory, this was never confirmed to be true, it’s just an assumption) that Hunk was given what was meant to be Lance’s arc with his family.

Reason why this became a theory was because of Barlee’s Tweets. And this is kind of where I started to lose hope again.

If Hunk was given Lance’s arc then that must mean Klance was written out. Because it was all about Keith and Hunk, when it “should’ve been” Keith and Lance.

However, I was seriously thinking about it as my last few morsels of hope started leaving me during work UNTIL BAM! IT HIT ME!

Yeah. Klance gogglesTM. Fans have grown to projecting Klance on to everything. And that includes Hunks arc, but trust me when I say this. Hunk was never given Lance’s arc. This is meant to be Hunks arc, through and through.

Keith was also included in Hunks arc because he is the one who didn’t have a family from the start. Including Keith in Hunks arc is demonstrating the growth Keith has had throughout the series.

Hunk was admitted to being the most underdeveloped character in the show. I remember it from an interview (video I believe) where Joaquim and Lauren say they had trouble with Hunk when creating him because, comparing him to his 80’s counterpart, was a lot different and they had trouble putting him in certain roles.

That is really lame, don’t get me wrong, but this explains why Hunks arc in Season 7 felt rushed and out of place. Hunk only mentioned missing earth or “not wanting to be a paladin” once in the beginning. And he wasn’t super upset about it.

Lance on the other hand was. He was vocal about missing earth, He was shown getting upset, leaving the room and opening up to Coran about it. This is where I think people mistook what Lance’s arc was meant to be. Even I misunderstood because of this scene.

however, this is where I’m going to point out, that yes, this is the start of Lance’s arc (“Lance and Keith’s arcs have been the only two that have lasted the entirety of the series” - incorrectly quoted by Joaquim)(I’ll expand on this a little later), but Lance’s arc isn’t about family.

I know, shocker. And it should’ve been obvious from the get go. But oooooh nooo, it wasn’t because we focused too much attention on Lance missing his family here. But let me ask:

How many times in the show has Lance voiced about missing home besides this scene? Yeah... try making a list for that lol. That’s because we took it way out of context and made it a bigger deal for Lance’s character when... it isn’t. Lance’s arc was never about family or missing earth.

Writing a show, you need to make sure the characters move into the spot they’ll need to be in. They used Lance missing earth in order to make him go off on his own, and have Coran follow.

Why you ask? It should be obvious. This could be a stretch but a very realistic one: Lance needed to be by the Crystal with Coran when it explodes, to ultimately, lead to the Bonding moment. Boom.

Lance’s Arc started here. Lance’s arc is a Romance Arc and it’s been in our faces the whole time.

He’s had more scenes voicing his charm and making it known from the get go.

He’s flirted.

It’s canon he wants to fall in love with someone.

His blog talked about crushing on Allura and wanting to be called pretty.

He’s the most feminine coded character as he enjoys generally feminine tropes like taking care of his appearance, even more so than Allura, who has only ever referenced being “girly” by having her hair done by mice(?) and wanting something sparkly.

This is also why Lance’s romantic life is such a focus not only for us, but when being talked about at Conventions. He’s the only one to have a canon romantic endgame. Gee, should’ve been obvious there what his arc is about.

And what finally made me realize Lance’s arc is a romance arc, is remembering when Lauren and Joaquim told us during a discussion that “Lance doesn’t know what he needs. We know what Lance might look for, but it’s not necessarily what he needs.” Lance being the only one known to have a canon endgame, ties into this.

This, made me realize. Lance’s arc, will be him realizing what he needs. I think it’s already leading up to it, personally because of this season alone. But arguably, it started picking up once Keith left in Season 4.

So No, Lance’s family arc was never given to Hunk because Lance was never meant to have an arc based around his family in the first place. We knew Lance missed his family and earth, but it wasn’t the main focus for him so that’s why all we saw was this glorious reaction to seeing his family again. And why the only lead role out of his family is Veronica.

(Keep in mine Keith is made out to be a focal point within this scene as well. Hunk too. I’ll bring this back up.)

So... now that I’ve covered the ground work in this long ass essay. Let’s continue the essay!

Now that we know Hunks arc was never meant for Lance, and Lance instead has a Romance Arc, let’s consider his endgame options:

In my post about Barlee’s Tweets, a lot of people assumed she was referring to a lot of things implying Lance will just end up in a rushed relationship with Allura, and I was one of these people too at first. But then it made me think. There was a lot, and I mean a lot of Keith and Lance interactions, and most of those, as I said in the Barlee post, demonstrated the trust and teamwork between the two right away, as well as had undertones and subtlety towards romantic intentions. Keith also has been a focal point in generally Lance centric moments, like above when he runs to hold his family. Hunk makes sense of being present because it starts the “family” portion of his arc this season. Keith however, only makes sense if he has purpose in Lance’s Arc, otherwise he wouldn’t be a focus and made apparent that he’s watching Lance reunite with his family. Make note that Allura was not.

The game show for example, If Lance liked Allura so much and was meant to end up with her, he would’ve picked her to leave. But instead, he chose Keith and also had a very sweet reasoning behind why, including a very dopey fond look on his face.

That’s why I love Pidge’s reaction in that scene because she practically sums up pretty much everyone’s reaction. Even mine. All of them were probably expecting him to pick Allura, (maybe even himself) but nonetheless, they weren’t expecting him to pick Keith, even Keith himself.

That’s why Keith reacts the way he does. I guarantee you he panicked.

Filler episodes in Voltron have always foreshadowed in some way, I wouldn’t be surprised if having Lance and Keith choose each other isn’t blatant foreshadowing.

Overall, there was more Keith and Lance interactions that included romantic subtext, compared to Lance and Allura, this season alone.

This is why it confused me a lot if the showrunners did write out Klance. They wouldn’t have included such strong scenarios with the two in this season if that’s the case. Not only this season but also the smaller ones that implies something more between the two in season 4, and season 6.

This is the point I’m going to bring in something interesting I read in this post. The OP said it’s probably a reach (when are they ever not?) but this is where I think Allura randomly having feelings for Lance, comes into Lance’s Arc.

Like we’ve been saying since the beginning, Allura has been what Lance has wanted from the start. But in OP’s post, they mentioned how the only time Lance had shown insecurity and being unsure of himself this seaosn, was right after his scene with Allura (and Veronica teasing him about it). That was the only scene that caused insecurity.

THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT TO POINT OUT YALL.

Lance had been secluded from season 4-6. He started getting closer to Allura, but then Lotor came along and changed that.

This is where I believe “what Lance wants isn’t necessarily what he needs,” makes sense. Allura has started having feelings for Lance, but then ending up together would be, as said by Lauren, “a disservice to both their characters.”

Allura getting feelings so soon kind of proved to me after realizing all this, that, no she isn’t Lance’s endgame. Like we’ve been saying Allura is what he wants. But not what he needs.

But who... pray tell.. is what he needs.

Keith.

I know, I know. This is the part where the typical Klance Goggles would probably come in. But I’m serious about this guys.

The moment Keith came back into the picture, Lance had been put into a more important role.

Keith listened to him, trusted him immediately and asked Lance to take over multiple times. Lance never had a moment of insecurity because everything fell back into place, and Keith made him feel useful again. Lance was once again the Red Paladin and Keith’s Right hand.

Tying in Lance being vocal about Keith “running away”, I don’t think people are far off from thinking Lance actually opened up to how he actually felt when Keith Left. And even showing worry when Keith said he’s going back for Acxa. Might as well put it in a present and wrap it up with a little bow.

Keith is ultimately what Lance had been needing the whole time. And Lance, I believe, will realize it. He’ll figure out that Allura isn’t what he needs, and because his moment of insecurity stems from an interaction he and Allura had, is also foreshadowing it too.

Throwing back to when I said Lance and Keith have had the longest arcs since the beginning, (quoted by Joaquim himself), this would explain why Lance’s finality to his arc hasn’t happened yet. It’s because it includes Keith, and Allura (possibly even Acxa which I explained in the Barlee post) and will most likely happen in season 8. The ultimate slowburn endgame.

This is where the bonding moment will be acknowledge.

They’ll also acknowledge two important scenes; Keith’s almost sacrifice, and Lances actual death (which included parallels to their season 1 bonding moment with Lance and Allura.)

And also “the other part” to Keith’s reason for leaving the team for the BOM.

Parallels are for a reason. And oooh boi.

Did my brain manage to restore faith back in Klance. Yup. Even if I’m the ONLY ONE LEFT IN THE FANDOM, I know what I’m talking about here. And if Allura/Lance do end up canon after all when it really makes no sense to, I will be one confused fucking bitch.

I believe I covered everything my jumbled brain puked out. So please, keep the faith Klance fandom. There is more story to unfold!

Edit: and technically I’m already again a really confused bitch. The Barlee post might be useless now, since she specifically stated she was referring to Shiro. And he was the intended rep.

I’m not upset again I’m just downright confused once again. Butttt... at this point. Maybe stuff will be answered in season 8. But overall, a lot of my points in this still stand!

Edit 2: Ultimately (I say this a lot), the one thing I knew from the start, is that Keith and Lance would have something to do with eachothers arcs, and arguably, they have, considering Lance and Keith’s arcs have been the longest arcs in the show. So even if Klance isn’t endgame. At this point, they have definitely become best friends and have grown on their own and with each other. And that, is still a very, very beautiful thing. No they don’t have to be together romantically. But they can and will be by each others side for a long time after the series ends.

Because that’s what Klance is. Lance and Keith, back to back. Thank you for reading. :)

#klance #laith #voltron #vld #voltron legendary defender #voltron crew #voltron s7 #voltron season 7 #keith #lance #kogane #mcclain #faithinlaith!#voltron season 8

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winterromanov · 5 years

Photo

she’s the sunset (in the west) - thasmin fic (2/?)

Yaz doesn’t make promises lightly. It’s one of her things. A promise should be taken seriously, carried out. If she’s promised to bake a cake for the school summer fair even though she can’t bake for shit, she’s still going to do it, layering the burnt bits in slightly sloppy buttercream. If she’s promised to take her parents to the airport at 3am on a school day, she’ll set an alarm and turn up to work the next morning on with a coffee stapled to her hands.

If she’s promised to find Poppy Smith some friends, she’s one hundred percent going to do that too. She remembers the warmth in Joanna’s eyes at the thought of it—this feels important, like she could actually change something. It might not work. It might be that in less than a year’s time Poppy will move up into year one and nothing will have changed, but she’ll be damned if she doesn’t try.

She brainstorms ideas at her tiny kitchen table as soon as she comes through the door. Ryan’s not home yet so she violently clatters all his dirty crockery into the empty sink, dragging her flipchart paper down the stairs (which she saves only for special occasions). An hour later, her whole kitchen wall is covered in bright pink post-it notes, like she’s attempting some spontaneous redecorating.

“What the—“

Yaz almost jumps out of her skin, black marker sliding out of her fingers and onto the floor. She’d been so absorbed in her new project she’d never heard the front door creak open—and that’s quite a feat considering Ryan’s just come in from football practice, the studs of his boots usually clicking on the laminate like a herd of women in stiletto heels.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” she exclaims, heartrate slowly easing back to normal. Ryan rolls his eyes.

“I literally didn’t, but okay,” he huffs, refusing to look away from the chaos she’s created. He squints as he expertly manoeuvres his dirty kit from his bag to the washing machine—if only he could do that with the socks he leaves stranded in the hallway, she muses. “What the fuck is duck-duck-goose?”

“You’ve never heard of duck-duck-goose?” Yaz asks, open mouthed. Ryan bemusedly shakes his head. “Did you even go to primary school?”

Ryan shrugs. A grin tugs at the corner of his mouth. “Not if I could help it, no. Mum was a pushover but Nan never believed me when I told her I had the Japanese flu or whatever.”

“I bet she didn’t,” Yaz hums, because Grace never took any of Ryan’s shit. Not even at the end.

The two of them stand in silence for a moment, like every time Ryan mentions the lost women of his family. Yaz has never felt the pain he has. She can see it in his eyes, sometimes, how it lingers like fog. Dense and dirty but fading, eventually. Slowly.

But it’s okay, he has her. He’s always got her.

(It makes her think of Joanna Smith, again. About the dad that’s not around.)

Ryan snaps out of wistful reverie first, grabbing a beer out the fridge and snapping the lid on the kitchen table. Yaz throws him a look. He knows she hates that, which is probably why he does it. “What’s all this for anyway? Because if you’ve volunteered to lead another year six team-building weekend I’m going to be seriously questioning your sanity. Especially after last time.”

“No,” Yaz tuts, as if she’s going to make that same mistake twice, “There’s this kid in my class who is finding it hard to make friends. I’m trying to…think of something to solve that.”

Ryan takes a long sip of beer, studying more of her responses. “So you think a trip to the aquarium will fix it?”

Yaz shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe? Nothing gets five-year-olds talking more than jellyfish. That, and what they’re going to get at the gift shop on the way out.”

“I guess,” Ryan offers, but he doesn’t look too convinced. “Just… some kids don’t want to make friends, Yaz. As long as they don’t seem too unhappy, what’s the harm in it?”

“This kid is four, Ryan. It’s a very important stage in her social growth. If she doesn’t start developing those skills now when she’s little it could be a really big problem later on.”

“That’s a bit dramatic,” Ryan says, “All I’m saying…this is a lot of effort for just one kid. As far as you’re concerned, as long as they can count to ten and know most of the alphabet you’ve done your job. And don’t, uh, stick their fingers into plug sockets or something.”

Yaz just about resists the temptation to go off on just how wrong that is and just how Ryan could possibly understand anything about her job, how it’s never just one kid. Yes, she needs to teach them how to read and write and count. But she also needs to teach teamwork, conflict resolution, gratification. How you can’t hit someone with a building block or steal somebody’s sausage rolls at lunchtime. How you must listen to the people around you and acknowledge that sometimes you can’t win, whether that’s the star of the week accolade or someone’s forgiveness, straightaway. How you must be kind, always, forever.

The day she sees a kid in her class that’s struggling to fit in and she thinks it’s just one kid is the day she’ll walk away from teaching and never look back.

“Are you hungry?” Ryan asks, after a moment, “I haven’t eaten yet. Pizza?”

Yaz’s hand relaxes, flexing from a fist to loose. On an outtake of breath she runs a hand through her hair, before nodding. “Yeah, sure.”

“Cool,” Ryan already has his phone out, scrolling through the options on Dominoes. “Hey, Yaz, if you went through this much effort for a bloke maybe you’d finally get laid.”

It’s meant as a joke but—ha. Yeah. Maybe.

-x-

As it happens, it doesn’t matter how many neatly written post-it notes and mind maps you make. Children will always be ridiculously unpredictable, like they’re wired completely different to every single other person aged eighteen or over. She tries class games, seating plans, even outdoor learning in the summerhouse on the grassy quad near the upper school playground—but nothing will encourage Poppy Smith to talk to the other children, or the other children to talk to her.

Instead, Poppy becomes incredibly attached to Yaz. And that is really, honestly, the last thing she wanted.

“You know, it’s really sunny outside today, Poppy,” Yaz says, as in a new turn of events, Poppy refuses to follow the other children out onto the playground during lunch break. Instead, the little girl stays in her seat, taking her dark blue starry-patterned pack lunch box out of her draw and unpacking it onto the table. “I think some of the other girls were thinking about playing with the new skipping ropes. Wouldn’t you like to play with the skipping ropes?”

Poppy shakes her head decidedly. Silently, she removes a small peanut-butter and banana sandwich from her box and places it in front of her. Yaz watches as she nibbles round the corners first before eating the filling.

“Wouldn’t you prefer to go outside?” Yaz asks, somewhat weakly, because she has a feeling Poppy won’t give in to her hints easily. “It’s so dark in here and I have to mark your handwriting worksheets!”

“I want to stay with you, Miss Khan.”

When two little eyes blink innocently back at her, Yaz finds it very hard to resist. Technically, as long as she’s not on her own, it’s not breaking any rules. It’s just—this is not in the plan. It’s not good to let a kid become too attached. It goes against every instinct she has as a teacher, but she knows if she forces Poppy outside she’ll go back to silently stalking the edge of the playground with her book about space, lost in a world of her own.

If she’s in here—just for today—at least she’s in her company. Talking to someone.

“Okay,” Yaz smiles tightly, “As long as you promise to go outside tomorrow, yeah?”

Poppy nods happily and returns to her sandwich.

-x-

Quite by chance, today just so happens to be the day that Joanna is late. As one-by-one the kids spot their parents or guardians in the playground and head off back home, rain splattering off bright red wellies and raincoats, Poppy stands on her tip-toes and peers into the murky outside. The weather has turned somewhat since lunchtime.

Yaz looks at her watch. Quarter to four. The playground is mostly empty, other than a group of mums nattering by the gates, restless kids hanging off their arms or in pushchairs.

It’s the second time she’s been left waiting for Joanna Smith, Yaz ponders, and wonders if it’ll be the last time. She sighs, looking at the back of Poppy’s head, watching as the little girl’s eyes lock on to everything and everyone walking past the school.

“I’m sure she’ll be here soon, Poppy,” Yaz says, gently smoothing Poppy’s hair. Poppy looks back up at her, eyes wide and concerned.

“What if she’s gone to the moon without me?” Poppy asks quietly. Yaz shakes her head with a smile, crouching down so their faces are level.

“Your mum wouldn’t do that, I promise,” Yaz says, “She’d always wait for you. I’m sure of that.”

Poppy frowns. “My daddy didn’t.”

Oh. Oh. Yaz freezes for a second, like she always does when a kid says something like that. You know—something unbearably sad, something hanging and poignant, one of those things that just slips out because kids don’t hide anything. Kids have sad stories too. They carry tragedies in their reading folders, hidden under exercise books and friendship bracelets and constellations of gold star stickers.

Yaz takes one of Poppy’s tiny hands in her own. Notices the stars she’s etched on her palms in blue biro pen. “Look at me, Poppy. Your mummy isn’t going to leave you behind. Ever.”

(It’s a big, big promise. She doesn’t realise it at the time, but it’s the biggest one she’s ever made—because sometimes, sometimes people don’t come back. Or you don’t go back to them. Maybe it’s the first promise she’s made that she won’t be able to keep. Sometime.)

Poppy’s disgruntled expression shifts into a smile, and Yaz can’t help but grin back. When she stands, still clutching onto Poppy’s hand, she can see through the raindrops on the window a shaky, grey figure running towards the door. Against her better judgement, she can feel her heart do something she doesn’t want to put a name to.

The glass door opens and Joanna emerges from the cold, her anorak dripping rain onto the floor in mad, abstract patterns. She pulls down her hood and her blonde hair is a chaotic mess of drenched natural waves—it reminds Yaz of tides and sea-salt and white-sand beaches, somewhere cluttered and rugged like the Northern coast. The kind of water that leaves you freezing but dazzlingly awake, shivering in clean, white towels with piles of seashells in your pockets.

Joanna blinks and catches eyes with Yaz. Grins. “I’m making a habit of this, aren’t I?”

Poppy replies first, dashing towards her mother excitedly. She grabs Joanna’s legs in a hug and Joanna laughs, ruffling her hair.

“Oh, baby, you’ll get all wet,” Joanna murmurs, before clearly deciding that Poppy is going to get wet going outside anyway. She scoops her up into her arms and kisses Poppy’s cheek messily, Poppy’s hands looping round her neck.

“You didn’t go to the moon without me,” Poppy says matter-of-factly.

“Of course I didn’t,” Joanna answers, before looking confusedly back at Yaz, forehead scrunching. “I would never leave you behind. Never ever.”

“That’s exactly what I said,” Yaz reassures, “Your mummy was just late, Poppy. Nothing to worry about.”

Joanna grimaces, shifting to bring Poppy further up her hip. “Yeah—I’m so sorry about that, I…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Yaz responds, smiling comfortingly. Joanna seems to take it, smiling back. “No harm done, eh?”

“No, I suppose not,” Joanna’s eyes seem focussed on Yaz’s face for a second or two, and her heart is doing that thing again, that ba-dum ba-dum ba-dum that she’s only ever really felt when Harry Styles winked at her during a One Direction concert fucking years ago.

(Was it really that long ago, huh? Have men really been that disappointing since?)

“Well,” Joanna says, breaking the silence, “I think you deserve a treat, ay, Pop? Ice cream?”

Poppy looks excited but Yaz laughs, glancing at the deluge outside. “You’ve certainly picked the perfect weather for it.”

“Mummy,” Poppy says pointedly, playing with Joanna’s wet hair, “Can Miss Khan come for ice cream with us?”

“Oh, uh—“ Joanna looks at Yaz expectantly, “I mean, of course she can, if you’re allowed…?”

Yaz pauses, because this is not a situation she’s encountered before, and she’s not sure what she’s supposed to do. It’s probably important to keep a professional distance from the kids in her class and their families. She knows she can’t show favouritism, but… this isn’t that, is it? This is just going for ice cream with a woman that she can’t help but want to get to know better. There’s a magnetic quality in Joanna. A one that makes all her wiring stutter and restart.

“You know what,” Yaz answers, after a moment, “That sounds like a lovely idea.”

(Oh, and this is when she discovers that she’ll do anything for a smile from either of the Smith women.)

#doctor who #dw #doctor who fic #doctor who au #thasmin #thasmin fic #doctor x yasmin #thirteenth doctor x yasmin khan #thirteen x yaz #thirteenth doctor #yasmin khan #thasmin au

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onewhoturns · 5 years

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fictober.23.: the first appointment

#Fictober19 Prompt: 23. You can’t give more than yourself. Fandom: Oxenfree Characters: Jonas, Duke (OC) Rating: T (no warnings apply) Tags: Angst-ish, emo Jonas, mental health & therapy Word Count: 2802

So... I'm posting this in order to maintain Fictober, but in all honesty this is actually a side scene/side story to a previously mentioned project that is still in the works and has yet to be posted. There may be some spoilers for the beginning of that fic. This is more an exploration of who this AU's version of Jonas is, how he's been affected by the things in his life- I'm calling it 'emo Jonas' but it may not be the type of emo you're expecting, I don't know.

If you want to read it when it comes up in the fic, it's looking like that would be anywhere from chapter 6 to chapter 9 (we're still in the midst of writing at the moment), and I'll update the summary and add it in as a related work when that becomes applicable.

For now, if you still want to read now (and it's cool if you don't), enjoy Jonas's first meeting with Duke, with no context to the rest of the story.

An appointment. ‘Like a doctor’s visit.’ Yeah. Well, maybe.

“Hey. You want to come on in?”

Jonas holds his breath for a second, standing from the waiting room to follow the man inside. The guy is in his early 30s, brown hair with a bit of gray starting in, just barely this side of messy, with glasses that look like he should be drinking craft brews at some gastropub in Portland. Duke. That’s a name, alright.

“Nice to finally meet in person.”

Jonas just nods. He’s not great at speaking to new people. Took him a couple weeks to start talking in intake. But he has kinda met Duke before. A pretty long phone interview, not to mention emails. They wanted to find a good therapist, and Camena had options. He’d settled on Duke.

“It’s nice to have all the paperwork out of the way already. Kind of a waste of session time, really.”

Jonas’s brows raise as he tips his head in acknowledgment and agreement.

Duke has a leg crossed over the other, and Jonas realizes, in retrospect, that the guy is actually his height. Maybe an inch shorter, but pretty damn close.

“How tall are you?” They’re the first words out of Jonas’s mouth, but they do their part.

“Six three. On a good day, anyway.”

“Nice.”

“Shoe size?”

“13.”

Duke winces audibly. “Damn, you beat me. 12 and a half.”

Jonas smirks a bit. And the ice is broken.

“You came from school?”

Jonas’s eyes wander to the side table between his chair and the unoccupied couch. He reaches for some kind of adjustable wire toy, turning it inside out and flipping it into different shapes. “Yup.”

“What’s your electives?” It’s a better question than ‘how was your day,’ at least. Duke’s foot is bouncing idly, as well.

“Gym and weight training; shop.”

“At CHS, right? Wilkinson still teaching wood shop?”

Wilkinson? “Yeah, I think that’s his name. Old guy, wears a lanyard with a whistle on it even though I don’t think he does any sports stuff?”

“Yep. He’s not too bad. Get him talking about baseball, that’s a thing. Does he still have that slugger in the workshop?”

“I… don’t know?”

“He’s got two, actually, I think. Louisville Slugger wooden bats, one official and one he made. If he still has it. I heard one year some kids stole it for a prank.”

“Kinda a dick move, the guy’s gotta be at least 70.”

“Yeah. Kids can be idiots. Present company excluded, of course.”

“Technically an adult, and I’d agree regardless.”

“When we talked before, you sounded kinda meh on the Individual Studies thing. How’s that looking?”

“It’s…” Jonas pulls a face. “Still meh on it. Some of the other kids are… ehh. Remind me of guys from North Valley, thinking they’re the shit. And the teachers - or whatever they’re called, aides? They’re a mixed bag. This one girl - woman, I guess - she seems pretty cool. Darcy. Good attitude, even if she seemed kinda fake at first.”

“I’m not sure I totally get what the course is, to be honest.”

“I mean, I’ve got three periods of it, it gets old fast. Though— I mean I guess they’re not all the same. First period for me seems more like… learning skills?” Jonas winces. “I dunno, it’s kinda cringey sometimes. And then third is gonna be assessment stuff— kinda miserable, just packets of standardized test questions and shit like that. Last period is chill though. Basically like a study hall for me, working on the stuff from the tests. And I’ve been getting out a little early, so I can-” He stops.

Duke waits a second for him to continue, and when he doesn’t, he lifts his chin from looking at the pad of paper in his lap (where Jonas can see little geometrical doodles as well as his illegible scrawl of whatever he’s noting). “A reminder; mandatory reporting doesn’t include stuff like truancy, just plans to harm yourself or others. And I consider ‘plans’ to actually mean plans.”

“So… there’s this girl, right?”

“A friend?”

Jonas hesitates. “Yyeahhh…”

“Or… sounds like maybe not just a friend?”

He shakes his head, “No, definitely just a friend, just… kinda insane.”

“Fun fact; ‘insane’ is really a legal term.”

Jonas rolls his eyes. “Kinda wild, then. Her and this other guy, too. They kinda like… adopted me?”

“Is that a positive or a negative?”

“I think it’s a positive? But— right, my point was, it gives me time to dip out the back and then meet them in the other parking lot.”

“Why the other parking lot?”

Jonas shoots Duke a flatly skeptical look. “Well they’re not gonna come meet me over in the ‘special’ wing.”

Duke huffs out a short laugh. “Wow, okay, strong feelings about IS are still there I see.” Even as Jonas is rolling his eyes again, he goes on. “So the wild duo. What kind of wild? You think they’ll get in the way of treatment?”

That makes him think for a second. “Um… no? I dunno. The guy is kinda stupid rich and somehow has a line to a shit ton of weed, apparently. Which could be a problem.”

Duke’s brows have risen high. “Could be, yeah. Does your JPPO do random testing? Think being around them could mess with your results?”

Jonas shakes his head. “Nah, they’re scheduled. Every other two weeks. And that should be done by the end of June, and the testing might be ditched entirely when we go down to only meeting once a month. Plus apparently he’s more of an edibles guy, so I’m not super worried about anything accidental. I can always just keep away for a few days before testing, shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Even though you’ve been adopted?”

He snorts a bit at that. “Guess I can’t know for sure. Not too worried, though.”

“That’s good. How exactly did you manage to get adopted?”

“The girl was my tour guide first day. I guess she thought I was cool, ‘cause she introduced me to her friend and… I dunno. We exchanged numbers and stuff. Texted. They’re kinda high energy for me, but also-” Jonas hesitates, rolling his eyes before continuing. “It’s weird, ‘cause Alex is kinda… popular? She’s a total dork, constantly jokes about being a witch, but it feels like everyone knows her? And likes her? It’s weird.”

“Huh. Are you saying you think they shouldn’t?”

“I’m saying…” Jonas shrugs. “Eh. She’s nice enough, I get that. But like… I feel like at North Valley she would’ve been… I mean, not disliked. Considered annoying, maybe, in large doses. Not exactly a class clown, but that same idea. More of a subject of entertainment than friendship.”

“That’s an interesting way of seeing things.”

“What do you mean?”

“Analytical.”

Jonas considers that for a second. “…Maybe? It’s just kinda how the world is, I’m not complaining about it or anything.”

“Are you unhappy about it?”

He shrugs. “No? Like I said; it’s just how it is. People offer certain benefits, right? Sometimes that’s, like… like someone who always knows the homework. If we’re thinking concretely here. And then there’s the one who always has a pencil you can borrow. —It’s like a study group sorta analogy. There’s someone who’s able to get everyone together at once, and someone who can talk to the teacher and argue on your behalf, but who you might not want to spend time with outside of class ‘cause they argue with everyone. And there’s a class clown type, who’s really entertaining but can sorta get in the way if you’re trying to be serious.” Jonas pauses again. “I mean, there’s a lot. But everyone kinda has their strengths and weaknesses, right? It’s like a teamwork thing.”

“So where do you fit in this?”

He thinks for a moment, still playing with the wire cage. “I dunno. I have a car.” That’s part of it at least, even if other things come to mind as well.

“You think that’s what people see you for? Your car?”

Jonas’s lips pull. “I’m not saying that’s my only redeeming quality, I know I’m not just some dude with a car. That’s just, like, the prime benefit.”

“What else?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your other ‘redeeming qualities.’”

He rolls his eyes. “I’m— I know I have them, okay? I’m- I have skills. But they aren’t- y’know, like, my function in a social group.”

“What if you didn’t have your car? You can’t give more than yourself— what qualities do you think you’re bringing.”

“…Alex seems to think my height is a benefit.”

“She obviously has not been 6’3 and attempted to sit in a compact sedan.”

Jonas cracks a smile. “Yeah it’s cute, she’s not tiny but both her and Ren are like… she said it before, I don’t remember what it was 5’5 or 6 or something. Joked about needing me to retrieve pickle jars or whatever.”

“So you’re the guy with the car and the pickle-getter.”

“Sure.”

“That all?”

“Well- I mean, the tall thing is also like—” he waves a hand, “-y’know, the other tall stuff.”

“Can’t say I know what you mean, apart from reaching things and being asked about the weather.”

“You know.” Jonas fidgets slightly. Duke has to know that part of things. “The kinda… intimidation thing.”

“How do you mean?”

Jonas’s lips pull again in that vague passing annoyance. “You know. Being tall and looking— not scary exactly, but like… imposing, I guess. Basically looking like someone you don’t want to mess with.”

“And that’s what you think you bring to a friendship?”

“Yeah. Like… like a bodyguard or something.”

“You think your friends are in danger you have to protect them from?”

“No- well.” He lets out a short sigh, a rueful smirk hooking his lips. “Not yet, anyway. And once they are, I’m betting they’ll have put themselves into it.”

“What does the whole ‘bodyguard’ thing mean, then?”

“Um.” A few images pass through Jonas’s mind, and he hesitates, face impassive for a second before he shrugs again. “Trying to keep her from getting hurt. I guess.”

“…That doesn’t really sound like something based solely on height.”

His fingers twitch, and Jonas’s ears feel warm. “Look, I spent a year in juvie for physical assault. It might not just be the height.”

“You think she wants you to fight for her? Is this like… an American Gladiators kinda thing, or…?”

The laugh is just a huff of breath, but the corners of Jonas’s mouth are lifting. “I don’t think she wants me to fight. I’m just— And I don’t want to fight!” he assures Duke. “But like… there’s probably some element of ‘this guy makes a good meat shield’ or whatever.”

“You ever think they might just… like you? Like just, as you?”

He snorts. “I— I’m not saying they don’t! I mean, at the very least they tolerate me, and I assume they must like me, otherwise we wouldn’t text all the time. It’s really easy to ignore someone’s texts and make excuses.” Jonas isn’t even mad about the question, it’s so far removed from how he feels. “I’m just saying that there’s this fringe benefit for them.”

“And is that how you see them, as well?”

He shrugs a shoulder. “Honestly, they’re my allies right now. Not in a bad way - I like them, they’re fun - but at the moment their function in my social circle is connecting me to my new community, right? They’re transitional aids, like a kinda PREP thing. Or IS. I mean, she was a tour guide.”

“Sounds kinda dehumanizing.”

“It’s not meant to be. I’m— Look, we talked all the time about support systems and community engagement, and buying in, right? So, I’m building a support system of peers.”

Duke cocks his head, looking mildly bemused.

“What?”

“It sounds like you know the words pretty well.”

“Yeah, well. I didn’t talk much. Mostly listened.”

“Is that really how you think about the people around you? As… I don’t know, bricks in your support structure?”

“I mean, it’s not the only thing I’m thinking. I like the company, I like the distraction, they’re fun. But…” Another one-shouldered shrug. “I dunno, man, call it a justification if you want.”

“What do you mean?”

Jonas sighs. “Gives me a reason to keep trying.” Again, it’s not said in anger, or even in sadness. Just a straightforward factual statement.

“What would you do if you didn’t think of things that way?”

“Can’t know for sure, obviously. But— I dunno. Call it distress tolerance. Giving them a function gives me a reason to tough it out. Like—” He pauses. “…Yeah, no, I can’t figure out an analogy for the brick thing. Sticking with people instead of being— transient.”

“Transient.”

“Kinda drifting around. Moving through things.”

“You think you’re transient?”

“I think I’d survive without friends. Until shit started to go wrong, I guess.”

Duke is quiet, eyes narrowed like he’s trying to parse the statement, considering. “…I’m not sure I get it.”

“I like people, but all the— politics, I guess. It stresses me out. I’d rather just… not. At least, in group things. School, juvie— the social dynamic is this constant thing where you’re maintaining. Don’t shit where you eat and all that. Don’t fuck it up, you’re stuck there. All this work to not make things worse for yourself. Honestly, I’d rather just see people when I see them. All day every day is… a lot.”

“…Can I ask you a question?” He’s leaning forward, and his tone is a different kind of curious than he has been.

“I mean… that’s literally all you’ve been doing.”

“Your residential center, your stepdown stuff— they had GED programs. Why come back to high school?”

Jonas is spinning the little wire toy around one finger steadily, keeping an eye on it to avoid having it fly off, even as he picks up speed. “Dad wanted me to.” His stomach dips, and his voice is a little quieter. “Mom would, too.” He’s silent for a second, still spinning. “And it’s supposed to be good for me. Community engagement, support structures, all that.”

“Why do you think they wanted you to do school?”

“I mean, my mom was a teacher. My dad… just wants me to be well-adjusted. I think he wants me to feel normal again.”

“What do you think?”

Jonas’s gut has been steadily, gradually, slowly but surely filling with lead. He breathes evenly. Too evenly. Actively making the attempt. When he speaks, it’s a low mutter. “Not sure that’s possible, if we’re being honest.”

“Why not?”

He shakes his head. “I dunno. Things just— changed. Can’t really undo that.”

“…I mean, I agree that you can’t live in the past. Things happened, you can’t undo them, but you also can’t spend every minute thinking about them. I know mindfulness tends to get a bad rap ‘cause it’s sort of trendy in the mental health field right now, but there’s definitely a ton of upsides to it.”

“I’m… vaguely familiar.” Jonas’s voice is a bit wry.

“So you know the whole idea of where you’re living. The goal is being present. So not living in the past, or in the future, but in the here and now, without judgment.”

“…Okay…”

Duke is still bouncing his foot a bit. “What do you think? Like— really consider it for a second. What that means.”

“What, living in the present?” Duke shrugs in a casual kind of confirmation. Jonas sighs, fixes his eyes on the therapist, and tries to do as asked. “…I guess I just feel like that’s asking for trouble.”

“How so?”

“I mean… thinking about the future is kinda important. Otherwise you fuck things up and can’t undo them.”

“Who says you can’t?”

Jonas snorts. “You? Like… a minute ago?”

“I guess— maybe it’s just the use of ‘undo.’ You can’t rewind and make something not have happened, but you can control how you handle the consequences, how you potentially repair the situation, your reactions to things, all of that. But if you’re constantly fearing every possible outcome of anything you do… you do nothing.”

“So you’re saying not to think of consequences. You want me to just go party and violate parole and not care what might happen?”

“Well, no.” Duke actually rolls his eyes. “Hell— it’s a delicate balance, right? But some part of that has to be just allowing yourself to exist without judgment.”

“O…kay?”

“Or analysis.”

“…Ah.”

“I mean, it’s not like I’m advocating underage drinking or drugs or truancy or anything, but… You’re out, y’know? You’re in this do-or-die headspace, but your situation has changed dramatically. Now’s your chance to go back to being a kid. Live a little.”

[source for AO3]

#fictober19 #oxenfree #jonas oxenfree #oxenfree fic #my writing #mach3 #cjgj #prompt fill #kinda

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arkus-rhapsode · 5 years

Text

My Hero Academia Chapter 209 Review

Well now, we’ve entered the home stretch of this arc. Going in to this last fight, I myself have a few jitters. Will this chapter cure that? Lets find out.

So we open on team Bakugou at the end of their matches, finding out it only took five minutes. Wow, we know Vlad is the one announcing so that must just be a real salt in the wound for his class. Though, I think team Tokage is walking away with minimal injury and no robo medics showing them out, so I just that’s a win.

So we get the teacher advice and performance reviews and with what Vlad tells team Tokage, I feel as if I need to address this. So last week, I made my stance clear, I was fine with Bakugou winning. As Vlad is saying here, their strategy failed as it was built around a different Bakugu, and they ended up spreading themselves too thin. Now, I will say though, what the fourth round lacked, is any reflection from 1-b. Oh sure, there was Tokage in the sky panicking, but unlike the other matches, there really was a lack of seeing class 1-b react and try to roll with this, even if it would be futile.

I know, let sleeping dogs lie, but I honestly was getting miffed at the tone of last week being, either “Bakugou is so great, you under estimated him,” or “Bakugou is an ass, and Class 1-b shouldn’t have been hyped at all.” So I’d like to say that I’m taking a middle ground and just saying as a fight it was great for Bakugou in terms of character development, but ultimately as an actual clash, it was sorely one-sided.

Speaking of team Tokage, them at least are pretty good sports over their loss. Kaminari is also on the side to congratulate Bakugou and of course needing to remind the shippers of his and Jirou’s relationship. Also, I’m assuming what Sero is talking about is when he lifted up Bakugou with his tape.

We see All Might congratulate Bakugou and he of course decides to act like a serious tsundere and act like this is nothing. Even though we know how he feels about All Might and thus meaning, he’s likely a little giddy on the inside. Also props to the comedy with Deku, that Bakugou’s anger at this point is just reflex.

We get that relationship progression scene with Deku and Bakugou, and don’t get me wrong, from a character stand point this is good, but from an average reader stand point, it feels like I’m watching the scene from the training before the license exam. You know, the one where Bakugou wondered if Deku was still going to try and surpass him. Granted this version is in a different context as we know Bakugou is now the one playing catch up with Midoriya in terms of being a hero. I’m just pointing out that this slow progression relationship definitely feels like it’ll take a while longer.

We actually do get a page that’s mostly blank, and textless to obviously add emphasis of just how important this moment was and is allowing the audience to digest it. Now I’m not posting it mainly cause I don’t wanna take up more space than I need with these reviews. But I wanna definitely that this is very appreciated in terms of pacing, because you have series like One Piece that pack itself with so much content you actually need just to have a chapter long breather rather than just a short single page one. It just really makes me happy to see that MHA is at a point where it can do this well.

We cut to team Monoma who Tokage is apologizing to because with her loss there is no way they can win. To which I’m going to take this moment and say yeah, you can’t. Alright this is just a mini-rant I have, but I really hope this match doesn’t end with team Deku losing and the final score being 2-2. That would be such BS, as what this arc is basically built on is A vs B, someone has to win or else you basically wasted almost 20+ chapters on this arc and it was all pointless. Now some have said that if they tie, class 1-b will still be around and this will clearly show them as a force on their own, as this arc will have gotten their characterization out there so we don’t have to shove it into the moment.

The problem is though, that still doesn’t fix the arc of being pointless. Say what you will about the provisional license exam or the gentle arc, but at the end of the arc, there was a point to each of them that was established and fulfilled. The class got licensees and Eri was free of Overhaul’s influence. That’s what the arcs were about, that’s what we got. But if no one wins and no one loses, then this entire arc was a big waste of time. What is the point of a fight if there is no winner or loser? I think we give shit to the Grand Magic Games in FT a lot, but the point of the arc was to win and get the guild’s popularity back, which it followed through on, and Black Clovers tournament was really a selection for the royal knights, which means that if the main character lost, there was still a pay off to it.

Now, if you go by saying that this arc isn’t about the fight and is more about Deku and Shinsou meeting and discovering what’s up with those visions of All for One’s brother talking to him, then this arc should’ve been altered. Because that would mean that only now are we doing what matters for the arc. There is basically no way to end this ultimately satisfyingly, because if team Deku does win, that ends this arc at 3-1, which makes class 1-a look like a group of jackasses who steam rolled class 1-b. But I’l take that over its a tie, I don’t wanna feel like I just wasted 3 months on this for just this fight.

Anyway, Monoma gives an impassioned speech that really shows a layer of his character that isn’t shown. While he’s often made a joke by his irrational hatred, Monoma is very much a theatrical man. Now I don’t mean that he’s flamboyant like Aoyama, rather he’s just a guy who sees the world a stage and is gonna bask in it. We saw this really early in the sports fest and a little bit with what he chose their culture fest project to be.

We end this monologue with Yanagi basically asking monoma what the point of this is, which means I already like her cause we’re actually getting some more characterization than we did with team Tokage.

We also get Shoda here, putting the pieces of their strategy togethe, telling us that their powers are techincal based. Likely meaning they aren’t directly combat based, but they all have skills that give them a lot of options.

Yanagi also speculates on Midoriya, calling him “hateful,” to which Shoda points out that Yanagi kinda speaks her own langue. Which is a cool trait that at first might seem like overlap with Shiozaki. However, when Shiozaki would act melodramatic it was out of religious vindication, Yanagi just has her own way of talking.

…Wait… What’s that? …Ahh, I’m getting word that a female character actually mentioned Deku’s name, thus she has been admitted into the Dekubowl.

We start more speculation on Midoriya and I think it’s coming from Shoda, showing that he’s clearly the analytical member of the team. Shinsou says that they need to beat down Midoriya first.

Now look, I actually really enjoy this as the way everyone is speaking of Deku and actually take him as a serious threat. Now I now there are some who have said, “team Deku should lose so that he develops from this.” To which I say, fuck off. Deku isn’t like someone like Natsu who basically could bamf his way through everything up to his fight with Gildarts, so when he lost it was a big deal. But Deku, dude loses like crazy and grows form it. Aside from the physical damage, the kid in the first few arcs barely got a win on his own, most of it was done with teamwork, with im learning for now he had to be the strategist. He didn’t finish at the top of the sports festival by Bakugou, he needed help against Stain, the first fight I think he won on his own was against Muscular, and let me remind you that destroyed both of his arms.

So I its only after 200 chapters, Deku is only now actually being treated as I’d expect a shounen protag to be treated, a massive threat. For the longest time his big quality was he had the heart of a hero, but that always ended with a shattered body. So he wasn’t really that powerful. And only now is is signs of progress really starting to affect other characters especially outside of class. So if Deku loses here, I’m gonna think that this wasn’t a big, “learn from loss character development moment,” I’m thinking it be a set back for him. Still team Deku could still lose if Mina, Mineta, or Uraraka get captured and as a whole they fail. Now there is a potential for Deku to fail, but I’ll talk about that in a little bit.

Also Shinsou asks Monoma that if they combine their quirks then they could pin down Deku. Now the images behind Monoma imply that potentially, Monoma would use copy on One for All and will end up destroying his body. Now That seems to be the implication, however there is the possibility that Monoma could also copy Shinsou’s quirk and then surprise everyone by answering him. But come on, we wanna see Monoma with one for all.

The teachers actually comment on Shinsou and wonder if he’ll pull through in this fight like he did the first round.

We cut to team Deku with everyone trying to figure out what their going to do, and unlike team Bakugou, they seems pretty downtrodden and realize that they don’t exactly have the same all-aroundness that team Bakugou had. However, instead of team Bakugou where Bakugou was the center of the team who protected and attacked, Deku is instead opting as a decoy, leet them focus on him, and then pick them off.

We also need to point out, they are laying it on thick with Deku’s quirk having some issues. If what ultimately screws up Deku is his quirk crapping out on him, then that’ll kinda fee like some narrative manipulation, but at the same time, one for all is such a strange quirk in this world, I wouldn’t doubt it could just screw up against Deku’s will. So we might have some flags going up with potential failure.

I love how even Mineta realized that Deku’s had character development up to this point. Anyway the match begins, but this isn’t the end of the chapter, oh no.

All Might needs to be excused after a call from Gran Torino.

We cut to the cell of All for One himself. He reminds us that Giantomachia has appeared. And unlike the league, this guy is loyal directly to him.

Welp, All for One knows about One for All and likely that vestige stuff. I mean,it’s not too much of a surprise at it came from All for One’s brother. Anyway, pants to be darkened.

Post Chapter Follow up: So I’m going to say, there’s nothing wrong with this chapter at all. Its a pretty standard breather chapter, but my greatest fears are more of what is to come than what has been actually in the chapter. Now I can’t condemn a chapter for not doing something that it isn’t time for, but as you can see the anxiousness is cranked up going into this.

On the positives, my personal favorite thing about this chapter is the character interaction in team Monoma. It’s something we sorely lacked from team Tokage, but now it feels like this making up for that. We see More to Monoma as a character individually, as well as Yanagi and Shoda really showing of what they’re like as characters. Nothing from Yui yet, but she could be like Bondo and that’s the point. As for class 1-A, this group of characters are pretty used to bouncing of eachother, so it’s nothing new. That said, I do enjoy the interactions regardless.

The continuing relationship of Bakugou and Deku is great and I’m glad Horikoshi is committed to the long run with this relationship. Also I’m just happy that we got some good pacing built around it without it feeling inconvenient.

Also appearance from All for One, which already makes this even better and furthers the Giantmachia plot,.

Final Verdict: 7/10

Good breather chapter

Awesome character interactions

Foreshadowing of future events are getting set

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