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from-a-reckless-writer · 3 years

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Kara’s time in the Phantom Zone has always been labeled into two parts. The Going There and The Leaving. In part, because those two things are the things that she was coherent enough to remember but mostly because she doesn’t like remembering the time in between.

Not liking it, was an understatement. Kelly would probably call it trauma. Yeah. That was the word. Trauma. It was 24 years of traumatic experience but it was easier to just refer to it as The Going There and The Leaving. Simply put, just a part 1 and a part 2.

Kara didn’t even know when The Going There began. All this time she thought, Krypton exploding behind her pod was the beginning of it. But later, when her aunt comes back for her, when an entire fleet comes for her new planet, when her hero dies by the hand of her sister, she will learn: The Going There started the moment her mother thought of using Kara to arrest her aunt. That realization was something she didn’t like. Some days she wishes she’d never come to that realization at all.

The beginning of The Leaving on the other hand was something she was awake to remember. She remembers the rumbling, she remembers the hum of the engines as it powers up, she remembers the pod slowly coming to life and then the whoosh!.

The exhilarating, wondrous woosh! that roared into Kara’s ears. Filling her with hope after sleeping a slumber of despair for so long. Of course, she wouldn’t know that ‘so long’ would translate to 24 years till she arrives on Earth and Kal rips her door open. Of course, the hope wasn’t replaced with the utter feeling of failure and defeat, till Kal flies away from her. Some days she wishes she was never awake for any of it.

There were two parts to Kara’s experience in the Phantom Zone; The Going There and The Leaving.

She’d never expected that there would be a Return.

******

Loss was something the universe had given Kara at 14 years of age. Others received dreams or new siblings but Kara? The universe handed her loss and then left quickly before answering any of her questions. The universe handed her the burden of an annihilated planet’s legacy, a race of dead people that only she can remember.

It was something she’d learned to live with, had moulded into her every day life, a permanent mark on her soul.

In her hands loss used to be a strange thing.

She used to be a daughter of one of the respectable families of Krypton. A high born. The progeny to Zor-El’s brilliance, the successor of the El’s legacy. She had never known loss, until one day she woke up and nothing was left. At first, she didn't know what to do with it except for crying and screaming and waking the entire house of a family she didn’t belong with, night after night after night. But soon, it became a part of her, became a kindling to a roaring fire.

Nobody had expected the last daughter of Krypton to burn, but when she did, it was brilliant and bold and the world had stood in awe of her flames.

And so, as she watched herself lose her father for the second time. She snatched loss from the universe’s hands before it even had the chance to hand it to her, she snatched it and claimed it for her own. That was where this was going all along wasn’t it?

Another loss, another mark, another kindling.

The only difference this time though, was, she isn’t sure whether she wants to burn brilliant, bright and bold or set the entire universe on fire for what it’s done to her for the second time around.

These were the thoughts that chased each other around in her head as she breathed heavily; sagging against the walls of a cave she’d found shelter in. Aside from misery and agony, caves are also one of the most abundant things in the Phantom Zone. The jagged spikes and hard rocks are slowly becoming home to her now.

No, not home. This isn’t home. Home is-

And then her brain stalled. Home is…

Home is?

Home is—

It felt like a headache was ripping her skull. The more she thought about it the more it hurt.

She knows where home is. Home isn’t this place, home is— home is— home is—

It was at the tip of her tongue at the edge of her brain.

She can’t remember. Didn’t she just see home not 30 minutes ago? An hour ago? Two seconds ago? Time doesn’t pass the same way, her brain throws at her and the pain starts anew.

But she refuses to give in. She knows where home is. Home is...is...is

NOONAN’S!

Noonan’s is home! Or at least, it was a part of it??? Kara thinks and thinks and thinks.

And for a moment, Kara could swear that she smells the familiar aroma of coffee beans and sweet sugar in the air but then the thought vanishes just as quickly as it came.

She was grasping at the edges of that little snippet. She tries to picture the logo of the store, tries to recite the branches littered around National City, tries to remember how she had worked there once, tries to remember her order, tries to remember Alex’s order.

Alex!!!! Her brain lights up at the thought.

Alex is home too.

At this point, the pain was unbearable, she was barely breathing. It feels as if the more she’s trying to remember, the more something, someone?? Is blocking her. The chances of it being something seems more likely than it being a someone.

She remembers her father’s words of warning from just days before. Hours before?? Weeks before?

Before.

Just before she’s lost him again.

How this place will drive you to the brink of insanity, Kara held her tongue but she wanted to scream that she knew that. She knew what the Phantom Zone did to people. She knew what it had done to all those Fort Rozz escapees, what it had done to Astra, what it had done to her. She was fucking insane for 24 years! 14 year olds weren’t supposed to go through that.

The worst part is, it was her parents who put her there, her mother, her father. The same father she mourned and who not only minutes ago was telling her to give it up.

The same father she’s lost, again.

Pain flares at the back of her head, from her nape slowly snaking its way to behind her eyes. Kara suspects it’s something to do with the cave and the silver glow around the cave’s awning that she’s only just now noticing.

But it was too late now. Too late to get out nor to retreat even further. She has used the last ounce of energy she has in that fight with Nyx and this headache was only making her weaker. Headache, feels too juvenile a word to describe this feeling, this cleaving of her mind from the inside.

Alex, caramel macchiato and sticky buns were the last thoughts in her head before everything turned dark.

******

She steps out of the portal and the moment her foot touches The Tower, weapons and superpowers alike suddenly poise to strike at her.

Until, Alex whispers, “Kara,” lowers her gun slowly, arms shaking from shock and then she loses track of who crashes unto who first.

Just that she’s home and Alex is sobbing but so was she, and she’s never seen J’onn cry like this before but he cradles her and his sobs rumble out of his chest and into Kara. She can feel it rumbling between their embrace. The three of them stay in that position for what feels like hours until the voices of the others filter through and then next thing she knows M’gann is hugging her.

Brainy lifts her off the ground and it should surprise her that he could do that, but it doesn't. It feels like the most natural thing in the world as Kara laughs and Nia squeals at Brainy to put Kara down so she can hug her too. Nia’s squeals turn into quiet emotional sniffles the minute Kara’s arms wrap around her. And in that moment Kara realizes it isn’t just one sister she lost for a while there, she lost Nia too.

And then, her eyes land to the person in the back of the room. The person who didn’t run at her like the others. Whose heartbeat is now thundering so loud in Kara’s ears, now that her eyes have found her.

Lena.

She looks as beautiful as ever and Kara feels her heart swell so hard she fears it could burst. For a moment, she thinks she’s survived the Phantom Zone just so Lena Luthor could kill her with one look.

The moment their eyes meet, Lena’s body lurches forward only to stop awkwardly halfway through, leaving her standing there, twiddling her fingers, eyes shining with tears, her whole frame shaking from holding back.

Kara is two steps away from running to her and she was absolutely going to. She realizes Lena is doing the thing she does best.

Shrinking herself.

Kara was about to run to her—

But a shrill ringing breaks through their staredown, Lena breaks away from Kara’s gaze to look at her phone and then she is turning away; phone to her ear.

Later, Kara will think she should’ve run after Lena. She should’ve run after Lena, snatched the phone away from her and wrapped her arms so tight around her and told her how much she loved her, how much she missed her, how hard she fought just to see her again.

If she did, maybe they wouldn’t be here now. They wouldn’t be running inside an abandoned warehouse, trying to find where Lex had hidden Lena.

She wouldn’t be too late.

Maybe, if Kara did things a lot more different, she wouldn’t be here now; clutching Lena’s broken, bloody body to her chest and screaming at the sky.

How dare the universe hand her another loss?

******

When she opens her eyes, she gasps out Lena’s name. She jerks so suddenly, her head hits a low stalagmite and rattles the ground she’s currently lain on.

It takes her a long time to collect her bearings. She stares long and hard at her hands. It felt so real.

Lena’s blood on her hands. Lena’s pale face getting paler and paler. Lena dying.

She gets approximately two minutes of reprieve. These 120 seconds she uses to breathe in deep, lets herself feel the extent of her fear. The anger seeps deep into her bones but it was nothing compared to the grief in her heart at the thought of losing Lena.

Lena!!! Her brain screams, LENA IS HOME!!! Lena is ho—

And then the moment the thought comes barreling at her, the pain returns. It returns tenfold and Kara doesn’t even try to move.

She knows what’s going to happen next.

******

Alex finds her unconscious on the ground.

She yells for back-up in her comms.

Dreamer and Brainy and J’onn run to the portal.

J’onn fends off the Phantoms circling Kara long enough for Dreamer to create one of her forcefield tunnels in order to get Kara from the ground and unto the portal entrance unharmed.

These are the things they will tell her once she wakes up.

They will tell her how hard it had been for everyone, how perpetually dim those days without Kara were.

Kara will cry upon hearing all of it. She will cry because she saw her father again and she couldn’t save him, she will cry because why does it always keep happening to her?

What could she have possibly done to the universe that it would give her something this cruel?

She will cry because it’s been so long since she’s heard Alex’s voice and now she is right here, telling Kara that she did nothing wrong, that the universe just sucks. But it’s okay, because the universe can suck all it wants and Alex will always be there through all the sucky parts.

After the teary reunion, Brainy will come running into the room, just as the two of them are untangling from their embrace.

Brainy will then tell them that Sentinel needs to suit up. Brainy will be too emotional to say the words, “It’s Lena- Lena has- Lena’s been-”

“Brainy what is it? What's wrong with Lena?”

M’gann will say it for him.

“Lena has been killed.”

Kara will cry and cry and cry.

******

You know that painful lump in your throat that makes it hard for you to breathe because you are holding your sobs in?

That was how Kara woke up, with a painful lump in her throat that made her want to throw up. She didn’t even get to see her this time. She just woke up to a world where Lena was killed, and all she could do was cry about it.

And so, she cried. She cried and cried and cried and punched the walls of that cave. She screamed so loud and let the echoes of her screams resonate all around the hollow space.

The hollow space so similar to the chasm inside Kara’s chest.

Her screaming is cut off by a sharp pain shooting from her temple and immediately spreading. This time, the spread was much faster than the last. It knocks the breath out of Kara, steals the voice out of her shout and makes her submit.

She curls into herself. She struggles to fight off the call of slumber. Her eyes close against her wishes.

******

There are no portals this time.

All Kara remembers is that she touched a glowing stone on the murky soil west of her cave and then the next moment she is standing in The Tower.

Something was wrong.

Kara knew something was wrong, because the moment she was zapped in. Alex didn’t come running to her. Nobody did. They just stared at her. All of them wearing black.

“I’m back, I-I’m home.”

It alarms her that she felt the need to verbally say it. J’onn comes up to her, “Kara,” he says and he swallows, puts a hand on her shoulder.

J’onn looks like he’s going to tell her something. And that this something isn’t easy for J’onn to say. Alex takes one look at J’onn, realizes what J’onn was going to do and walks out.

“Wait— Alex! What- Where are you— J’onn what is happening?”

She wishes she never asked.

******

She wakes up again. This time she doesn’t bother to get up, doesn’t try to scream, doesn’t try to cry.

She just lays there.

The ceiling of the cave is the same shade of grey as of Lena Luthor’s tombstone. Never would she have thought that Lena Luthor and tombstone would be two things she says in the same sentence. It was J’onn who flew her there. In the dream? In the vision?? Kara doesn’t know anymore and frankly, Kara doesn’t care anymore.

Somebody left plumerias at the foot of her grave.

Plumerias.

Plumerias, like her mother’s favorite flower. Like—

Like the one in Lena’s office.

Like the one back home.

Home.

She lets the dark claim her willingly.

******

The Tower is destroyed. There are no survivors. Just Kara. Standing there in the ruins of what once used to be their hideout. Behind her the still gaping portal is blowing puffs of cold air from the Phantom Zone.

******

It’s Alex, this time. A role reversal. Lena breaks the news to her.

“S-she died, Kara. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Kara wants to die too.

******

It’s Lena and Alex.

Kara wants to laugh.

Of course, there would be a version where both Alex and Lena would be taken away from her. There was already a version where nobody survived. Why not this one too, right?

She should’ve known.

******

Eventually, she comes to one where it’s her who dies.

Isn’t it funny? That the thing she’s wanted—has been begging for—has come to life right in front of her, and Kara realizes, turns out it wasn’t what she wanted after all.

From where she's fallen on the ground she sees Alex bark orders. She hears hysterical screaming. She feels Lena kneel by her side.

Nia is slowly crumbling next to Alex’s side; she’s removed her Dreamer mask to let her tears flow freely.

“Don’t leave us, please, don’t leave us. Fight back, goddamnit, Kara fight back! We just got you back. Please, please, Kara, please. Not yet.”

She feels Lena’s tears fall down on her own cheeks.

She looks beautiful even with tears in her eyes.

Kara wishes she can move her thumb to wipe the tears from Lena’s eyes.

******

“I found her!”

Nia shoots up from where she was sleeping. Alex runs into the room. Brainy steps aside and lets her punch in the coordinates.

“Where is she?” Lena asks, suddenly materializing out of nowhere, startling Nia, green eyes frantically darting around at the monitor, waiting for the map to appear.

“There!” Nia shouts and points. There’s a little red dot blinking on the screen.

Lena shoves her, fingers flying across the console, zooms in and makes a 3 dimensional version of the landscape appear.

It’s a cave.

Kara’s inside a cave.

“I believe that’s what the Klamarian’s refer to as Caverna Tim-or,” Brainy states upon closer inspection.

They hadn’t noticed Alex behind them already gearing up.

“Then what are you nerds gawking around there for?! Suit up. Come on, let’s go!”

It spurs the whole team into action.

Nia was already in her Dreamer suit. She’s been sleeping in it for 2 nights in a row, now. Refusing to be woken up, just getting up to eat a power bar or to go to the bathroom. It was slowly nagging at Brainy, the way Nia wouldn’t move for extended periods of time until she jerks awake, exhausted and depleted from overusing her powers.

But this time, this time Nia doesn’t feel tired at all. She is pumped. She is hyped. She knows where Kara Danvers Zor-El is and they will bring her home.

The only one not running about the place in a flurry of guns, ammo and armor is Lena.

She is sitting perfectly still, in front of her monitor. She has to stay back, that has been the plan. If they ever find Kara’s coordinates, someone has to stay back and prepare The Tower for their return.

Lena knew it was going to be her. She didn’t have training to fight. She didn’t have any powers. All she knows is to throw a punch and she guesses that wouldn’t be helpful when faced with soul sucking creatures.

So, there she stays; controlling everything with her just a flick of her fingertips.

Besides, all their suits wouldn’t be upgraded if it weren’t for her. It was fine that she had to stay. She’s waited for Kara long enough, what’s a few more minutes of holding down the fort, right?

******

Lena might not have superpowers but she’s been gifted with enough intelligence to build the Superfriends trackers into the fibers of their suit, even have all of them linked directly to Lena’s supercomputer.

The one she’s had installed in The Tower much to J’onn’s protests. Lena didn’t have a job. She didn’t have responsibilities, she didn’t have to wake up at 7, go to work at 8 and be stuck in stuffy meetings.

She has free time and tonnes of money to rebuild The Tower’s entire tech department.

Brainy almost drooled when Lena pitched the plan to the team.

Lena also brought them Jess.

Or rather, Jess brought herself and nobody was man enough to tell her no. Who says no to a formidable American-Asian woman anyway? After Lena had emailed Jess about the recent developments regarding LuthorCorp. Jess had emailed her back almost instantly, telling her that she’s also just turned in her resignation and before she starts applying for another job, she asks, Ms. Luthor, do you need help with anything else?

Lena was floored with the loyalty that Jess had shown her. Instead of replying to the email, Lena called Jess. Upon answering, Jess expected many things from her boss, an eloquent thank you, a huge last pay, but she never expected to hear Lena Luthor sobbing into the line.

Jess asks if she could visit Lena in her flat.

“Like I mean, right now Ms. Luthor.”

“Lena, please, call me Lena.”

“Okay, Lena. Can I please go to your penthouse? Because, no offense, but you obviously do not sound okay, and I think I can help.”

“I’m actually not at my penthouse as of the moment.”

And that was how Jessica Huang was brought into the fold.

And also, if it weren’t for Jess, Lena thinks the rest of them would be lost.

As much as Lena was the brains of this operation, logically and legally speaking she wasn’t doing well.

The woman wasn’t eating and sleeping for fuck’s sake. For a woman who built a state of the art tech system in under three days, you’d think she’d realize that humans need to be healthy in order to function.

And so, it was Jess who handled Lena like she's done so many times before, handled all finances, handled all the press that all of them were bringing unto themselves. Jess enforced a No Flying Through the Balcony Unless Absolutely Necessary Rule and thus far it has worked.

Nobody was also allowed to use the main entrance. Only J’onn, the owner of the building, was allowed to be seen coming and going.

There were rag reporters at every turn and just one photograph of Dreamer, Sentinel and Guardian all going into the same building, would be a catastrophe. The young woman wanted to tear her hair out when she pointed it out and everyone was like, “Oh, yeah. Yeah, you’re right. Oh my god, yes, that makes sense.” As if the thought had never occurred to any of them before. Although, they were distracted with tracking a missing hero after all. So, Jess lets it go. She just shakes her head and makes sure each one of them has access to the secret entrance Lena designed.

Jess had also taken the time to go into the building opposite them, talked to the tenants and bought their silence. And then at the last minute, Jess thought, Hm, why not buy the whole block's silence?

The last thing these people—this team—needs right now, is a media frenzy.

She’s had enough practice with the youngest Luthor on that front.

Jess was also the one who organized them into shifts, pushed Alex to try to find a job at a local research center or even teach a bunch of self-defense classes. She made Nia go to CatCo on time and actually monitored all her deadlines, told J’onn to go do his private investigation stuff and made Lena eat three meals a day and sleep for about 6 hours every night.

Her and Kelly shepherded the team into a more reasonable routine.

Alex took the longest to warm up to her, though. Until the day Lena and Alex had a fight on whether or not they should tell Eliza.

It was a brutal screaming match.

Alex shouting that Lena has no right telling her what to do when it comes to her own mother. Lena screaming back that Alex has an obligation to tell her mother what really happened to Kara.

They all knew what it was really about, though. It was about Alex still being in denial. It was about Alex’s fear of Eliza labelling her a failure for not protecting her younger sister.

She didn’t want to tell Eliza. Because telling your mother news is one of the best ways to make that news a reality.

It was Jess who offered to find accommodations for Eliza once Alex finally found the courage and called her.

She bought Alex a six-pack of her favorite beer and sat with her till 4 am.

“Just once,” Jess says, “You get to drink this away, just once. And then you talk to Kelly about it, okay? I know we’re not really close, but well, I’m no stranger to family drama.”

“Thanks, Jess.”

Jess was not a stranger to loss too. She knows none of them are in their right minds with Kara gone. Everything happened so fast. And it really didn’t help that on every billboard and every LuthorCorp commercial you’ll hear about how perfectly perfect Lex Luthor is.

Everything happened so fast that Lena didn’t even question when she had known about Kara being Supergirl.

As if a ponytail and glasses would ever fool her, not to mention she’d seen Kara use a bit of superspeed now and again when she thought her best friend’s secretary wasn’t looking.

And so, the moment the Superfriends left for the Phantom Zone to find Kara. Lena Luthor immediately dialed one of her most trusted people in the world.

“Jess, I need you in The Tower, now.”

******

In twenty minutes, Lena was monitoring the team’s progress a thousand lightyears away, in the other room Eliza and Jess were preparing the med bed and the sunlamps.

It is now, in this moment, that it sinks in to her. This is real. This is real, they’re really bringing Kara back. They’ve found a way to find Kara, built a safe transport system into the Phantom Zone and if things go well, in less than fifteen minutes she will see Kara in the flesh again.

And she can’t help but feel the stirrings of fear begin in the pit of her stomach.

Sure, Kara had said that she trusts her again, but where exactly do they stand?

Does she even have the privilege of Kara’s friendship? Or are they merely allies?

It’s ironic, Lena knows exactly where her place is with the Superfriends, it took a long time and a lot of long talks but Lena now knows without a doubt that she belongs here, but well, now she doesn’t know where she belongs when it comes to Kara.

Kara’s been coaxing her to join them for years and now that Lena has, she’s now uncertain of their friendship with each other.

That’s always been the question with Kara isn’t it?

Are we really friends?

The red dot on the screen is joined by six more others on Lena’s screen.

They’ve arrived. They’ve located Kara. They’re right there with her right now.

Lena’s heart starts to race in her chest as the moment.

She tries not to imagine what Kara looks like once they find her there.

She tries not to imagine all the times she’s had nightmares about her being the one who finds Kara in the Phantom Zone.

Nia has been learning to project her dreams. Lena’s seen glimpses of what that piece of the universe looked like. She didn’t like what she saw, not one bit. She remembers how casually Kara had talked about it.

Whenever Alex asks Nia to project her dreams or asks Brainy to run the simulators, Lena walks out.

She takes it as her cue to leave. Don’t get it wrong it isn’t that Lena is afraid of the Phantom Zone. Oh no, if she could she had long rode a rocket ship there and rescued Kara.

It’s the visual coupled with the feeling of powerlessness along with the thought that Kara is out there, she’s there in that hell in outer space and it’s all Lena’s fault that she can’t stand.

That last one took a long time to shake off, it took a lot more than shaking off actually.

So, Lena leaves when they start to explore more about the Phantom Zone in VR and Nia’s dreams. She gets all of her information about the place, reading atlases from Brainy’s 31st century archives and other alien records, instead.

She has no idea what her friends are seeing there right now, what kind of creatures and all kinds of traps are set up for them. She hopes and prays to whoever it is up there that they bring Kara safe. That none of them gets hurt in the process.

She prays her family returns home to her in one piece.

******

Lena was brilliant enough to fix their suits with trackers that can remain linked back to her even if they were literally in outer space, but she didn’t have enough time to build a secure communication link.

Which means that the three of them, Eliza, Jess and her are staring at the screen. Watching seven multicolored dots move across the map, while they hear absolutely no news of how the team is doing.

The red one, Kara, remains unmoving, Lena notices, while the other colors circle around her. Lena does not want to think of the implications of that visual.

It either means Kara has been seriously injured and isn’t well enough to fight or Kara is…

She doesn’t dare finish that thought.

No, they will bring Kara home. They’ve got two Martians, a twelfth-level intellect Coluan, a human-Naltorian hybrid and two of the most elite human soldiers to fight for Kara.

They will save her, not to mention all of them are armed with tech made by Lena Luthor. There is no way Kara wouldn’t return home if she knew how hard they’ve been fighting.

Eliza must’ve noticed how tight she’s been gripping the edge of the console, because the older woman puts a hand atop hers.

“They’re going to be fine. We’re going to get them back. Don’t worry.”

Lena gives her a smile.

And then a portal opens in the middle of the room.

A strong woosh! comes out of the portal and immediately the three of them are running to the center of the room.

Inside, Lena sees Nia holding an entire ten yards of force field between where she's standing and the entrance of the portal.

J’onn is zipping around them fast, throwing off and assaulting Phantoms, Brainy is holding the portal open and there, in a dark awning of a cave she sees Kelly shielding Alex and M’gann.

A figure on the ground. Kara.

There was Kara. Kara was right there, lying unconscious on the ground and it’s taking every ounce of Lena’s willpower to not barrel through and carry her back here herself.

What good would she be if those creatures catch her? So, she stays there and she shouts, “Brainy, do you need help getting the portal stable?! I can hook you up to a closer power source if you keep it open long enough till all of you get back here!”

Brainy shouts something back but he is being drowned by the howling wind, so Lena takes it upon herself to do what she told Brainy.

Runs to the console with shaky fingers and with just a series of clicks and codes the portal opens much brighter and glows much more stable.

“THANK YOU!”

She hears Brainy shout and she smiles. Until she hears Nia say something that sounds like -can’t keep it up any longer, Alex! Alex! Now!

And then M’gann is heaving Kara unto her shoulders and Alex and Kelly are running for the portal, J’onn covering the four of them, Brainy waiting for Nia.

For a moment, Lena thinks, “This. This is what my life has become. I have alien friends. We are saving a superhero and there is a portal right in front of me right now. This is my life now.”

She shakes that epiphany out of her head

Alex sees her mother and shouts, “Mom, gurney! Gurney, she’s unconscious!”

Jess and Eliza run to fetch the gurney and Lena meets the four of them at the portal’s opening.

God, Kara was so pale, she was so pale being carried like that on M’gann’s back. Her cape is in tatters and her suit is soiled and dirty, there were cuts all around and her face, her wondrous beautiful face was so grimy and so was her hair.

There was nothing else in the world Lena wanted more than to cradle Kara in her arms.

******

Kara’s consciousness comes to her slowly; piece by piece. A bright light, a buzzing room, the quiet hum of an air-conditioner, and oh, her back is on a mattress, a soft, soft mattress. It makes her want to cry. She’s been sleeping on rocks for so long, she’s forgotten what mattresses feel like.

Her eyes remain closed but she’s lucid enough that she can decipher the buzz into separate voices.

“I cannot believe you didn’t change out of your suit! What did I tell you about hygiene and rest?”

“But, Jess— “

That was weird, was that Nia and Jess? What was Jess doing here?

For a brief window of a second, Kara’s heart drops. She’s in another dream-vision. She’s in—

“Would the two of you keep it down? Go yell at her in the living room.”

That was Alex. Wait— living room what?

“How’s she doing?”

Eliza! Eliza was here!

“Her vitals are fine, but I don’t think she has her powers. I was able to insert her Dextrose without using the red sunlamps.”

“She didn’t have sun there, honey.”

“I know.”

And then the conversation turns quiet and Kara hears Alex let out a quiet sob.

Then it gets muffled and Kara knows Alex is clinging to their mom. She wants to open her eyes now, she realizes.

So, she does.

She opens her eyes and she gets the frontrow view to Eliza and Alex sharing a teary embrace. Alex sitting down both arms wrapped around Eliza's torso, face soaking her mother's blouse.

“Hey, what about me?”

Her voice sounded scratchy and weak even to her own ears.

Alex breaks away from their mother, turns to look at her, gasps and flings herself forward to hug Kara.

Kara lets out a wet laugh, “I missed you, I really, really missed you, Alex.”

“I missed you too, loser.”

And oh, how she's missed this.

Eliza steps in to give her a hug too and Kara sobs in her arms and she lets herself fall apart in the arms of her mom.

Because that’s what Eliza is to her. A mother.

Her mother.

“Don’t you scare me like that, ever again, you hear me?”

“I promise, never again, Mom.”

It doesn’t matter that all of them know it isn’t true. Kara will be in far more dangerous situations again. Kara will risk her life again and again. But that doesn’t matter right now.

What matters is she’s safe and Eliza’s asking her to tell her what she wants to hear, even though they all know better.

She still wants to hear it anyway.

“Good,” Eliza says, squeezes her one last time and then pulls back to brush the hair out of her face, “I’m going to get you some food, you must be hungry.”

When Eliza said that, it was like Kara’s body remembered all of its functions likewise all of its needs, she’s never felt this exhausted and this hungry before.

Eliza sees her eyes light up at the mention of food and chuckles before exiting.

And now, it’s just Alex and her.

Her sister doesn’t look good. She looks older somehow. She looks tired.

Not that Kara can blame her, she understands what it must’ve felt like to Alex to lose her in a split second and not see her again for almost—

Her train of thought stops when she realizes she doesn’t know how long she’s been gone.

“How long have I been out?”

“12 hours. You need more hours under the sunlamps, so don’t even think about—”

“No, Alex,” she cuts her off, sits up on the bed, “I mean— I meant to ask, how long was I gone?”

Alex refuses to meet her eyes, swallows hard.

Kara moves her hand over hers and squeezes.

“It’s okay, I’m here now, we can go through it together,” she says and Alex eyes well up in tears again before letting out a strangled, “3 months, Kara. You’ve been gone for 3 months.”

“Oh, Alex, come here.”

At first, the mention of the time doesn’t even bother her, she was more concerned about Alex. She lets her climb in bed with her, careful not to jostle her IV.

Her sister says she's been dehydrated and she needed a boost. Kara knows that it’s no ordinary Dextrose. Lois must’ve given them some of Kal’s stuff from Argo.

They lay side by side in that cramped bed and Alex catches her up on everything.

And then and only then, does Kara realize she’s missed 3 months of her life.

“How’s Kelly?” she asks, not for her but for Alex because she’s missed the way her sister's eyes light up when she’s talking about the person she loves and besides, Kara doesn’t really want to talk about her side.

And so, Alex tells her that Kelly is now Guardian, and then she tells her—albeit more shyly—that she also has a hero name now.

Sentinel.

Kara likes the sound of that.

“It suits you,” she tells her, “You’ve always watched over me.”

“Alex?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Eliza finds them like that, feeds Kara soup and she's taken in approximately 20 swallows before she passes out again.

******

The next time Kara wakes, everybody is there.

Brainy bought her 3 dozens of donuts, Nia brought her flowers, Kelly bought her potstickers.

All of those made her cry, the colors of the flowers were so vibrant, she’s missed seeing colors. The Phantom Zone was all black and gray and sad. Nia almost pulled away in fear of doing something wrong that might’ve upset Kara when she started sobbing at the sight of roses. Kara just gave her a big ole bear hug and a wet kiss on the cheek.

But, there was one person though, one person that she hasn’t seen around and to be honest? She’s been too scared to ask about.

She still hasn't told Alex about the visions. How can she explain her fear of seeing Lena if Alex doesn’t know about the visions? Her sister would start asking questions soon, though.

Why hasn't she talked to Lena yet? Why she hasn't asked? Why was she so scared of—

And then, as she was just inhaling her third box of potstickers, mind going over how to talk to Alex and Kelly is snorting over whatever it is that Brainy said, Kara’s world stops.

Her supersenses—it seems—are back and the first thing it chooses to focus on is a familiar heartbeat.

Her head whips to the door and there, Lena Luthor, her best friend—the most beautiful soul Kara’s ever seen—is standing there.

She’s fiddling with her thumbs and it reminds Kara so much of the first time she’s fallen victim to those horror show visions.

Fear grips her and refuses to let her go.

She knows this. She’s seen this sight way too many times.

Lena takes a step forward, then pulls back, holds herself back and then—

Her phone rings.

Kara shoots out of her bed, in the next instant she is right in front of Lena.

Distantly, she hears Nia shriek and Kelly shout, “Kara, oh my god!”

It doesn’t even register to her that she’s used superspeed that her superspeed is back.

All she feels is that she knows who’s on the other side of the line and she’s got to stop Lena from taking the call and she really, really, really just wants to hug her.

Lena’s eyes are wide when she realizes the quick woosh she’s heard is Kara.

“Kara, what—“

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” she is quick to amend, “I just- I-” and then more eloquently, “Can we please talk?”

“I—” Lena hesitates, looks down at her phone, “I- I have to take a call.”

“No. Please, no don’t take the call, please trust me?”

“Kara, what are you talking about?”

Lena’s brows are furrowed in confusion now.

“Please,” she pleads, “Trust me, give the phone to Brainy, let him check it for you.”

“Kara, what—” she stops herself but then Lena takes a deep breath, looks straight into her eyes and says, “Okay, okay.” and then calls, “Brainy? Could you come here for a second?”

She lets out a sigh of relief and tension leaves her body and that’s when she realizes the cold tile of the floor beneath her feet and looks down to find that she’s barefoot.

Lena hands Brainy her phone and Nia hands Kara a pair of familiar fuzzy slippers. Alex must’ve made a run to her apartment, this morning.

“So,” Lena says, Kara can tell she’s nervous.

“You said you wanted to talk?”

“Yes,” Kara breathes out, “But first, can I hug you?”

This, Kara thinks, as Lena’s arms wrap around her and her shampoo invades her sense of smell and her warmth seeps into Kara’s body...

This is home.

******

Lena led her through the ‘living room’ and out to the balcony.

“I’m sorry I’m confused, living room?”

Lena chuckles and god, Kara’s missed that sound. Out of all the sounds on Earth, it was Lena’s laugh, Lena’s words, Lena’s voice she’s missed so much.

“Well, uhm everybody started camping out, there two weeks after you’ve…”

Lena's smile falters a bit but then she braves on through; omitting the words the both of them already knew, “And then Nia just started calling it living room, I mean, I guess it does look like a living room more than a heroes’ lair, now.”

And then Kara takes a good look around and Lena’s right, it does look more of a messy living room than a heroes’ lair.

There was a tangle of chargers on the cushions besides Nia’s laptop and Alex’s leather jacket draped over a couch, a couple of mugs sat on the coffee table. There were other knick-knacks too littered around, a Rubik’s cube here, a stress ball there, a couple of discarded pens and a lot of scratch papers filled with gadget designs.

She knows who to credit with those.

She’s missed so much. It hits her then She’s missed how all of this happened. How everyone had grown comfortable enough in The Tower that everyone considers it their second home.

Lena must’ve seen the way Kara’s eyes were roaming the place. Because she places a hand on Kara’s arm and the touch grounds her.

“Hey,” Lena says, “It’s your home too.”

She doesn’t know how to feel about that, but the way Lena says it makes Kara aware that Lena considers this place her home too.

Lena feels part of the team. Lena’s at home here, with her people, with her team.

The thought fills her with so much happiness but then—

If Lena became family while she was gone, what did Lena think of her now, then?

They stay quiet for a moment, which is driving Kara crazy, because she dragged Lena out here and now, she doesn’t know what to say.

“Kara,” Lena says the same time Kara says, “Lena,”

She smiles shyly at Kara and god, that smile. Kara wants to kiss that smile.

She doesn’t.

Even though Lena’s caught her staring at her lips.

“Okay, uhm I’ll go first,” Kara decides, averts her gaze and Lena gives her a small nod.

“Look, I’ll be honest, I- I don’t know how to do this and frankly, I’m not sure where I stand in your life anymore,” she admits and that seems to get Lena’s attention which just makes Kara’s palm get sweaty.

“Lena, I—”

“There you are!” Alex shouts at the two of them and whatever was about to happen, whatever Kara has to say becomes completely eclipsed by the next words Alex says.

“Lex is back. We have to hide Lena.”

******

“What?” Lena retorts back, loudly, “What do you mean hide?”

“Your phone, you gave it to Brainy right?”

Lena nods slowly at Alex, then looks at Kara and holds her gaze as if to say something.

“Yes, and?”

“We have reason to believe that he’s targeting an attack mainly for you,” Alex says and Lena isn’t really surprised.

The whole team is gathered now and Brainy is pulling up the details on how Lex had planted a bomb in her penthouse.

How original.

“Wait, you gave your phone to Brainy. How did you even know something was up?”

It was Kelly who asks and Lena realizes that it really wasn’t her it was—

“She didn’t.”

“What?”

Kara speaks up for the first time since they’ve been gathered here and Lena somehow finds herself wanting to close in on Kara’s space.

“Lena didn’t know. I did,” Kara tells everyone and Alex frowns for a minute, trying to comprehend.

“How?”

She sees Kara tense up at the question and this time she lets herself be pulled into the gravity of Kara. She takes the three step gap between and sidles up to her.

Kara seems to notice their close proximity and proceeds, “I uhm— I had these…”

Kara’s struggling to find the word, “Visions, I guess you can call them that, when I was uh- when I was stuck in this cave in the Phantom Zone. It was— they were very, very awful dreams. And in each and every one of them I lose somebody I love. But—”

She stops again and the pause seems to kill Alex but Lena’s attention is all on Kara, Kara’s staring at her like she’s trying to tell her something, Lena reaches over and squeezes her hand.

It works. The gesture gives Kara the push she needs.

“But mostly, they were about Lena.”

A tear falls from Kara’s face and Lena aches to wipe it away.

“Cavena Tim-or,” Brainy interrupts, “In Latin, timor stands for fear. You were stuck in the cave of fears, Kara.”

“But didn’t you say it was Klamarians' who named the place?”

“Yes, well, you’d be surprised at who was present during humanity’s past civilizations.”

After that, Alex quickly asks the question she’s been dying to ask since Kara told them about her experience two seconds ago.

“What did you see?”

“In one of them, the first one actually, I came home. I came back here, though a portal. Lena’s in the back of the room. She steps out to answer a call, but she never comes back,” Kara chokes up and this time, Lena presses up against her and wraps an arm around Kara.

“I’m here,” she says quietly.

“She never comes back because Lex abducts her and then kills her. And every time I fall asleep in that cave, it was that. Again and again and again. Lena dies again and again. And I lose her each and every time. I- I lose you each and every time.”

Before anybody else can speak up after Kara’s little revelation.

Lena tugs at her, makes her look at her. Lena’s wearing heels, Kara’s wearing fuzzy slippers, it allows Lena to put a hand on Kara’s cheek and finally wipe away her tears.

“I am right here. I am not going anywhere, you will never lose me. You always have me, Kara. You’ll always have me.”

******

Lex planting a bomb was such a fucking insult. It’s infuriating. But Lena wasn’t mad that he wanted her to die but because that was the lamest attempt ever. It was an insult to Lena’s intelligence.

She knows her brother. He wouldn’t settle for something as pedestrian as this.

And so, Lena does something she hasn’t done in a long time.

She calls her mother.

******

“Your favorite child is attempting sororicide again.”

“Yes, I’m aware. At least tell me you’re clever enough to have run into a discreet location?

“I don’t run, Mother.”

“Hm. For this one I advise you do.”

“What is he planning?”

“Well, that’s a surprise, I thought you already knew. Given the fact that you weren’t running.”

“I have an inkling.”

“I’m telling you now, Lena. You should run.”

“Why would I?”

“Supergirl’s back, Lena. Think about it.”

How the fuck did Lillian knew they got Kara back?

******

It turns out Lex's grand plan was to make the Girl of Steel choose.

The city or Lena Luthor.

It took them a while to figure out how Lex knew Kara was home.

Because of course, it’s always the things right on your nose that you don't see.

Remember the story about Jess making the occupants around the whole block sign NDA’s and buying their silence?

Apparently, Lex Luthor bought them at a much higher price and made them talk. Money makes the world go round, indeed. Or in this case, makes the world explode.

He planted moles and surveillance cameras all round the area and when the team got Kara back, somebody made the call to Lex Luthor.

He was staging a series of explosions using all of the National City’s residential areas. If there are victims, there would be a need for a saviour. And who would be a better saviour than Lex Luthor?

The explosives were all planted throughout a group of small-income businesses that can be found in most residential areas. A salon, a bakery, a dentist clinic, you name it.

Lex bought out these properties one by one under a pseudonym. Goddamn pretentious bastard. And then had his goons plant the bombs.

And the most irritating thing is, they weren’t the simple kind of bomb. Cut the red, save everybody kind of bomb. No, this one was a high-tech, highly volatile kind of bomb. Lena would soon discover that the bomb was one of Lex’s designs.

A compact, almost the size of a notebook, a plastic rectangular thing that nobody would notice. If you left it in the dentist's office, they’d just assume somebody has left a power bank in their hurry. But as soon as one goes near it—

Kaboom!

Game over.

******

Lex succeeds in taking Lena.

The plan was to get to a safe house before anything happens. Make use of the transmatter portals because Kara says she doesn’t trust any of them driving Lena and she was still too weak to fly her anywhere.

Lex abducts her in the middle of transporting. Her entire being felt like they were turned upside down during that. He hacked her coordinates and grabbed her in the middle of the process. Her brother defied Laws of Physics just to get to her.

“You’re forgetting, I was the one who made those watches.”

She is gagged and cuffed, not the police kind of cuffs but the DEO kind of cuffs, the heavy biometric access ones.

She can only imagine Kara’s horrified face when Lena fails to turn up at the other side of the portal.

Lex drops the bomb on the floor, 5 steps away from her and makes his mandatory villain speech. Lena tuned out about halfway through.

Every hour that the Girl of Steel fails to show up for Lena and saves another neighborhood instead, the bomb gets closer and closer to Lena.

Don’t save me, Kara. Save the lives of others. Don’t save me.

******

The thing about using tech for bombs is that Brainy will most likely have a solution on how to solve it, fast.

"We encountered a similar problem back when I was part of the Legion."

"Well, you know what to do then?"

"I do."

******

It’s Alex who saves her and...Lillian.

“Only you?” Lena jokes breathing heavily, as Alex removes her cuffs and Lex is down on the floor.

“Where’s the rest of the cavalry?” she says, standing up from the monobloc chair. Alex in all her Sentinel glory, waving a device that Lena suspects is for detonating the bomb.

“Actually…” Alex trails off, gestures somewhere to the entrance.

And like some well-timed cue, Lillian Luthor rounds the corner.

Her mother was wearing a long black coat and heels, hair flowing, half in an updo. She looked as she always looked, an expensive calculating cold bitch.

“Lena,” she coos, gracefully kisses Lena on the cheek as if she hadn’t just sidestepped her son who was lying on the floor unconscious with a broken nose, as if Lena wasn’t just held hostage fearing for her life and for countless others, as if half of National City almost didn’t blow up.

Just a typical Tuesday for the Luthors.

Alex was too busy detonating the bomb on the ground to explain what the hell Lillian was doing here.

Her mother leans in closer, Lena feels the cold metal of a gun being thrust in her hands, she whispers, “I told him not to harm you.”

And in that moment in time, Lena realizes what this is. Her mother didn’t come for her because she cared if Lena lived or not. This was Lilian’s cheap shot at redemption. Lex had obviously failed her. But Lena? Lena might just be her saving grace.

Lillian must’ve thought if she played her cards right, Lena would pull her up from the depth of her sins. But no more, Lena knows better now. She isn’t the same woman who Lillian Luthor can manipulate into her traps.

Lena knows better now.

******

The sun is harsh on her face as Alex, her and Lillian make their way out of the warehouse.

Lex was being taken care of by a SWAT team. Old agents of the DEO that remained loyal to Alex Danvers and just like her had a hunch that Lex Luthor was bad news.

They pile up inside a nondescript van.

Alex’s first words to her as she shuts the vehicle doors close and the van lurches, are, “‘You’ll always have me?'” she mocks, “I mean Christ, Luthor, I had a hunch that you were gay for my sister but I didn’t know you were that ‘gay’.”

Alex rolls her eyes, makes air quotations around the word ‘gay’. Lena snorts. Lilian looks like she was going to throw up.

On the ride back, Alex tells her that Lillian stepped forward saying she knew where Lena was, snuck into The Tower, which J’onn or any of the Superfriends didn’t appreciate.

“Your security system is predictable, Lena. I’m your mother not to mention I’m a Luthor.”

Lena pushed down the urge to punch her in the face.

“Kara was this close...” Alex holds her index finger and her thumb in a pinch. “-to heat visioning her.”

Of course, it would be Lillian Luthor who would know where Lena would be taken by Lex.

Apparently, the others were scattered around National City helping to evacuate residents.

They all know Brainy could undo all of Lex’s bombs and avoid any casualties, but still, better safe than sorry.

It was only when they are already stepping inside the Tower’s elevators that it occurs to Lena that she still doesn't know where Kara is.

******

“She solar flared looking all over National City for you,” Alex tells her as they walk into the medbay and she sees Kara’s sleeping form under the glow of the sunlamps.

Alex excuses herself after changing out of her suit, muttering “Idiots, goddamn idiots I swear to God-” under her breath and Lena pretends she doesn't hear.

Flying around National City all night long exerting her supersenses fresh from a 3 month stay in a sunless hell and after only 12 hours under sunlamps, resulted in this; Kara unconscious yet again, powerless and weak.

Lena pulls up a chair next to Kara's bed. Grabs her right hand and puts it against her cheek, her palm warm against Lena's skin and there, with only Kara and the hum of the sunlamps, Lena cries. The events of the last few months finally catching up to her.

She falls apart, clutching Kara's hand tightly like an anchor.

******

Kara wakes up exhausted and parched. She blinks her eyes open to bright yellow lights.

She groans, rubs her eyes trying to sit up. The moment she sits up she realizes she isn’t alone.

Lena was here, sleeping on folded arms on the side of her med bed.

That does not look like a comfortable position.

“Lena,” she tries, nudging her gently on the shoulder.

“Hey, baby, wake up.”

Lena rouses, hums a confused, “Mm?” and slowly opens her eyes. Kara is shocked to see Lena’s emerald eyes have turned into bloodshot, tired ones.

“Were you crying?” Kara whispers, shuffling on the bed to get close enough to cup Lena’s face.

Lena doesn’t answer, just lets her head be tilted, Kara’s thumb softly rubbing at her cheek, concerned blue eyes burning into her. Kara looks like she’s going to ask once again but Lena cuts her off, half-afraid that if she doesn’t do it now, she will never do it.

“Kara, I love you.”

There. She did it. It’s done. She's said it. She can't take it back.

Immediately, Kara’s thumb stills and her eyes widen.

“And I’m so tired of this, I’m so tired of you and me getting separated. With you not knowing how much I love you. How much it hurts every time you’re away from me. I’m so tired of not being with you, Kara.”

Her voice is heavy with emotion; exhaustion and overwhelming love bleeding into each other. She stares at Kara who’s still frozen, tears slowly falling, making her eyes shine like sapphire.

She feels Kara resume the movement of her thumb and only then does Lena realize she’s crying as well.

“I have you, right here, right now, but for how long? For how long? Because I know, I fucking know, Kara, this life. Your life. Our life. One way or another some disaster is going to get us again and I don’t want that to happen without me having told you how I feel. So, here I am,” she breathes out, “Here I am, telling you how I feel.” Lena puts a hand to Kara’s hand and cradles it, leans in to the touch, kisses her palm.

“I love you and I can’t hide it anymore. I don’t want to hide it anymore. I love you.”

“Lena,” Kara finally replies, breathless and emotional, “You saved me, do you know that? You’re all I’ve dreamt about the whole time I was away. You're the thing that's kept me alive. My home is you, has been you, for some time now and I didn’t even have the chance to tell you.”

Lena breaks when she hears this, as her mind takes her back to the past three months of missing Kara, of feeling so fucking lonely, of feeling so fucking scared.

“I love you, Rao, I love you so much. I can’t not love you. You’re everything, Lena. You’re my home.”

Kara has moved so close to her that she’s able to press their foreheads together as she murmurs, “I love you,” again and again and again.

“I’m tired of all of this too. I just want to love you, Lena.”

These are the words Kara utters before she presses their lips together.

******

“Lena?”

“Hm?” Lena hums, distracted. It was a good day today. She woke up to Lena making pancakes in her kitchen, wearing nothing but Kara’s old yellow hoodie. The sight almost made her turn to goo.

It was her third day back after spending so long confined to The Tower’s bed under the sun lamps. She was sure it would be longer if Alex had her way.

Tomorrow, Lena will be arranging her affairs in taking L-Corp back. They both know she has a long way to go. Kara’s not worried though, if Lena did it once, she can do it again and just like before Kara will be with her every step of the way.

Now, they’re just lounging around lazily in Kara’s apartment. Lena curled up on her couch with a book and Kara on the floor writing on her laptop.

She came back to CatCo last Monday and now she’s trying to come up with a good enough email to send to Cat Grant and ask her for a favor. She loves Nia but Rao, did she really have to say Cat Grant to Andrea?

“Why was Jess yelling at Nia last week? I woke up to Jess’s voice, actually. And more importantly, Jess knows???!”

“Oh, darling, Jess has always known.”

Kara stops typing and turns around to prop herself up on the couch.

“What? I’m sorry what?” she blurts out, incredulous. Lena puts her book down and looks at her.

“Apparently, you haven’t been very subtle.”

“Wha- No! I can be sneaky! I’m sneaky!”

Lena snorts at her protests.

“Sure you are,” she purrs and if Kara wasn’t writing an urgent email, that voice would’ve made her destroy the couch

“—and uh Jess was yelling at Nia for not following Tower rules.”

“W-we have rules?” she says, Kara shakes off the straying thoughts out of her mind and focuses back on what Lena is saying. She hauls herself off the floor and unto the couch, Lena making room, lifting her legs and then putting it back down on Kara’s lap once she’s comfortably seated.

“Mm-hm.”

Kara’s hands start trailing up and down Lena’s bare legs on her lap.

“Will you tell me? I don’t want Jess to yell at me.”

Lena flashes a smile at that and Kara blushes adorably.

“Okay, okay. I’ll tell you, come here,” she answers and makes grabby hands at Kara. Rao, it’s a miracle Kara hasn’t died from the sheer cuteness that is Lena Luthor.

Kara shifts positions and fits herself horizontally, draping half of herself on Lena and Kara listens to the 5 cardinal rules of Jessica Huang. It mostly just says all of them should eat, sleep and balance superhero work and real work.

She wants to ask if somebody is paying Jess, but then realizes Lena Luthor is next to her and she would never let somebody like Jess work for free.

The thought of how utterly good and compassionate Lena is, makes her smile.

“Lena?” Kara mutters, nosing at Lena’s neck.

“Have I ever told you I love you?”

Lena laughs, “Once or twice.”

“Well, that wouldn’t do. From now on, it’s my mission to tell you I love you till I’ve said it a billion times,” Kara declares.

“A billion?”

“Mm-hm. And even a billion doesn’t even feel like enough.”

“You’ll always be enough for me, Kara,” Lena says, looking down to her and kissing her temple, “You’re more than enough for me.”

“I love you, Lena.”

“I love you too.”

******

There are two parts to Kara Danvers' story The Searching and The Coming Home.

She never even knew she was searching for something, someone, till she found Lena, till she found somebody to come home to.

******

uhm so, @uselesslesbianfr submitted something to me and my brain just started churning and then before i knew it i've written a 10k one shot about the brief plot she's sent me. so yeahhh.

#so uhm hi #this happened apparently #the reckless writer writes #a longggggg supercorp one shot #supercorp #supercorp fic #rcklss writes

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extemely-thoughtful-person · 3 years

Text

Epel Felmier Appreciation post, Unique Magic Theory, and... His Possible Role in Chapter 6

Here's that Epel post I thought about making way back in February. Sorry for being late on this one.

For those of you who somehow don't know who I'm talking about, Epel Felmier is a first year student in the Pomefiore dorm. He's one of the shortest characters in the game, and at first glance, he seems like one of those quiet people. This has lead to some not taking an interest in him before the game's release due to the fact that he seemed like a bland character.

Then chapter 5 happened, and...yeah. He was not what we were expecting.

Sure, he has a quiet attitude most of the time, but as it turns out that's just an act. He's actually really brash, harsh and he does his best to try and be strong. Vil has been trying to teach Epel that strength isn't just physical, but you can also have strong points in other ways as well.

As far as we've seen, Epel has come to terms with his adorable (but also deceptive) appearance. In chapter 6, we are going to be getting his help along with the rest of Pomefiore. Even though Epel learned about his greatest strength, he has yet to put that strength to use in a way that will confirm that, yes, he has excepted himself. Of course, he already does except his appearance, but he has yet to use it for something useful.

And this is where the catastrophe of chapter six comes into play.

Harnessing Potential

Now, I don't agree with Vil all the time, but during the recent chapter, I have to admit, he was right about a lot of things. One of the things that seemed to make the most sense was indicated by Vil and even Epel's parents: Epel has a lot of potential. And in my opinion, if there is one thing that he can do, and become a master of the art, it would be one of the lessons Vil was trying to teach Epel: Acting.

I think that out of all the career choices out there, Epel's best suited career would be as an actor. And maybe that was intentional in game, because there is a part of acting to be played.

Now, allow me to direct your attention to the Hercules movie, to a character that was charming enough to play both sides in the Hercules vs Hades showdown. It's Megera.

Meg was able to make Hercules flustered enough for him to mess up during his "hero moments" Even though eventually the feelings of true love were returned in the movie, before that, Meg was an enemy in disguise. She was able to easily wrap Hercules around her finger, and though it wasn't intentional for her because she didn't hate Hercules, Hades still saw Meg as Hercules's weakness. And this was the very weakness Hades exploited against Hercules.

And guess what? That strategy almost worked. Hades would've won because he used Meg against Hercules. If Meg just went through to the end, Hades would've taken over Olympus.

It's funny how one key player can decide the fate of the game.

Act One

As we all know, Pomefiore is going to lend us a hand in the upcoming chapter. For Epel, I think he's going to play in two acts. The first act is going to take place for the tournament, and the second will be during the Overblot battle against the Shrouds.

Act one is actually very simple: getting into contact with the enemy team.

How this works is, well, it starts with an accidental encounter. It's probably going to take place at the remaining culture festival time, and the interactions will be between Twist!Hercules, and Epel. Now, Twist!Hercules is most likely an athlete, and he looks strong. Epel still admires physical strength and will be fascinated.

Now throw this piece of the puzzle in: the gangsters on the beach in chapter 5 thought Epel was a girl.

So Twist!Hercules is going to believe that at first as well, and he's going to get flustered. Before Epel can correct him, maybe they have a conversation, or maybe they establish some kind of long term contact like exchanging phone numbers or something. But one things for sure, it takes a while for someone from RSA to point out the Twist!Hercules just befriended the enemy.

As for Epel, at first his fellow Magift club members are gonna be mad, but someone (Most likely Idia or Leona) actually thinks that this is a good thing. If Epel is able to wrap a strong enemy Magift player around his finger, then maybe they can get ahold of whatever winning strategy that RSA uses.

Of course, maybe Idia also plays a part in taking Twist! Hercules out of the match, but Epel's going to make things a lot harder for RSA. He has stated that he's working on surprise attacks, and with his appearance to serve as a distraction, Epel's going to be a tough character to beat.

Along with Idia's unique magic being involved, this game is going to be a close match. Of course, the outcome is already decided. Through unfair means of course.

Act Two

When Idia Overblots, he's going to reunite with his separated brother, Ortho. And one of the people responsible for separating them is Vil Schoenheit. He agreed to separate them to help Idia, but didn't know about the Magic stone situation. When the Shrouds have Overblotted and are reunited, Ortho might ask for revenge on Vil for allowing the Olympus Tech Company to take him into custody.

What I'm getting at is that they're going to imprison Epel as a form of revenge.

It's a callback to Megera dying. Epel is going to be imprisoned and is probably going to have some kind of death countdown to being killed. Or he's just going to be contained. Twist!Hercules and Vil are going work together to free Epel. And Epel is going to unlock his unique magic in this battle.

Silencing the Overblot

Now, I would say that we don't know what Epel's unique magic is, but that would be a lie. I believe they've already given us the answer:

"I feel a strong power rising in me, like an ice-cold poison. Now it feels like I could put anyone to sleep… maybe?"

This is one of Epel's level up voice lines for the tutorial. I think that this is hinting what unique magic Epel will get: the power to put someone to sleep. This might not seem effective, but it's actually very powerful, and it makes perfect sense too.

Epel has a desire to become stronger than others. And even though he works hard, there are going to be people which he will never surpass in strength alone. So how do you defeat someone stronger than you?

You make them weaker than you.

And what is the most vulnerable state a person can be in besides sickness?

Sleep.

So, Epel will be able to beat his enemies in a fight by putting them to sleep, literally making them fall before him.

Of course, the spell is much more complicated than just putting someone to sleep. Maybe he can control what they dream about, learn their worst fears, or manipulate them even. None of this is solid of course. Maybe Epel doesn't have control of his magic when it first manifests.

But when this power does reveal itself, I think Epel's going to accidentally test on one unsuspecting student who was trying to rescue him: Neige. This is referring to the time Snow White ate the poisoned apple, yet Neige still never got put to sleep until now. At least he'll be out of harm's way.

The people who are actually successful in the rescue of Epel are the Twisted!Hercules person and Vil Schoenheit. Perhaps it's a race to get to him first, perhaps they decide to work together. Who knows? Anyway, then Vil provides a distraction while Epel uses his new power on Idia, effectively knocking him out.

That leaves an Overblot Ortho on the lose. I think Twisted!Hercules is going to be the one to take him down. He'll most likely smash Ortho to pieces, which might seem cruel, but under the circumstances, they have no choice.

Of course, Ortho might get taken down first, and then Idia. It can go either way.

Or I could be wrong. Thanks for reading!!😊

P.S. I managed to make a pretty stupid, but interesting connection with the Pomefiore trio and the Fates from Hercules. This was mainly made because of the similarities in all of the characters heights. And this suggests that Rook was actually originally the first dorm leader of Pomefiore, until Vil took the position. And Epel has hinted at overthrowing Vil and becoming the new dorm leader.

So drawing parallels to the Fates, Rook would be similar to the Fate of the past (Laecesis[ I probably spelled that wrong]), Vil would represent the Fate of the present (Clotho), and Epel resembling the Fate of the future (Atropes).

And get this: it's the Fate of the future that warns Hades about Hercules, just like Epel gathering information from the enemy team, and warning Idia about the key players to watch out for.

Have a nice time of day!

#twisted wonderland #i did a thing #ignihyde #twisted wonderland idia #twisted wonderland epel #twst #rook i swear if you know what's going on but don't tell us i give you a taste of my shoe #twst ortho #night raven college #royal sword academy #royal sword assholes #Twisted Wonderland #twisted wonderland theory #eat your heart out dire crowley #chapter 6 #disney twisted wonderland

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aconstantstateofbladerunner · 4 years

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101 Open MHA Gen Prompts

I had a very long ask game where people gave me fake titles and I came up with fic ideas to go with them. Multiple people asked to use some of them as prompts, and some of my friends have lately maligned the lack of gen prompts out there, so I decided to compile them all into a single post. Almost all of these are gen, aka not shipping, but you can do what you want I’m not your boss. Everything is free and open to use WITH CREDIT, so have fun with my word vomit.

1. In Dreams I Had the Sun - Being the number one hero isn’t all it’a cracked up to be, Toshinori realizes early on

2. The Chainlink Fence that Held the Ocean - In his new book post-retirement, All Might opens up about his regrets, struggles with mental health, and his issues with the hero system as a whole. The backlash is swift and intense.

3. Welcome to the Loud Silence - After an injury, Izuku is rendered deaf.

4. Water Since Turned Red - After a villain attack nearly kills All Might, the beach where Izuku used to go to find comfort now feels tainted.

5. all scrap left untouched is bound together - A group hero students who failed the provincial license exam for the third time, effectively ending their careers before they start, get together to take revenge on UA’s first years who beat them out.

6. You’ve saved more more times than you know - Times All Might saved people without his powers, just by being a cool, nice dude.

7. No Amount of Tragedy Can Justify Your Actions - A dying All for One tries to justify his centuries of cruelty to an uncaring Toshinori.

8. To Leave a Cage Locked - One for All is conscious and has a will of its own, one that doesn’t always line up with Izuku’s wellbeing.

9. Okay, who let in the Kraken? - Izuku is the reincarnation of an ancient eldritch horror.

10. keep us alive up above - Izuku and Shigaraki get trapped together somewhere. Izuku knows he needs the villain’s help to survive and escape, but the other would rather they both die.

11. The world will revolve around me neither less - The ebbs and flows of AFO’s influence over the years.

12. More Roulette, Not Russian - Kids get their quirks swapped.

13. Patron Saints - Toshinori teaches a class about pre-quirk superhero comic characters and their influence.

14. Don't Come Back - Touya Todoroki’s first few weeks after a severe injury resulted in his father abandoning him.

15. The Blessed and the Fool - Toshinori meets up with a few of his ua classmates after retiring.

16. Not Your Sacrifice - Some of the other kids have started adopting some of Izuku’s self sacrificing habits and the teachers are concerned.

17. Break in the Storm - Villains use a power outage as an opening to break into ua.

18. One Day Those Consequences Will Finally Catch Up - Even though the teachers don’t take her concerns seriously, Inko saves every piece of evidence regarding people hurting her son.

19. a garden in their eyes - Izuku meets a fan who got injured after trying to step into a villain fight, just like he did, and it makes him question some things.

20. what could have been, if not for you - After Inko divorces him, Hisashi’s goes to the press to say All Might stole his wife and son.

21. Promised Misery - All Might finds out the severity of Bakugou’s bullying, and warns him he’s on thin ice with him.

22. Fly Up Higher, Blossom Brighter - Izuku has to write a paper for middle school about being positive, intercut with all the bullshit he has to deal with.

23. Libre Me from Hell - One of Izuku’s new quirks is spiral related.

24. No One to Blame but Yourself - Izuku’s kindness doesn’t extend to murderers, tragic backstory or not.

25. At Its Finest - Izuku accidentally gets involved in a hero commission coverup.

26. A Rising Issue - Izuku starts developing more severe side effects of his injuries. He’s convinced he’s under the influence of a quirk, while the adults thing he’s finally gone too far hurting himself.

27. What you are in the Dark - Izuku usually keeps most of his anger to himself until he can’t.

28. nowhere to go - Inko moves into UA after their home was destroyed.

29. Something Without - My theory about the 2 OFA vestiges that are blurred out is they don’t approve of izuku as a successor. Izuku tries to figure out why.

30. Walking with a Ghost - Toshinori joins the OFA dreams while he’s in a coma. He gets to reunite with nana, and is more open to Izuku about his past and feelings. Part of his starts to wonder if it’s worth waking up, since he will die and join the others eventually.

31. Death By Crying - Izuku is affected by a quirk that will suffocate him if he expresses any emotion.

32. Justice is Subjective - The hero commission gets to Shigaraki before AFO does.

33. Undo / Underdog - Death loop fic. Izuku keeps reliving the day he met all might after being killed by the sludge villain. he has to find a way to break the loop and survive, but he gets s little weaker every time he restarts.

34. Like Wildfire - A rumor that Izuku is All Might’s bio son picks up steam, and the characters have to decide whether to deny it but risk suspicion or play along and add a new layer to the lies protecting one for all.

35. Once Upon A December - All Might and Inko actually met in the past trope.

36. Some Legends Are Told - All Might’s first interview post-retirement.

37. Will The Real Mentor Please Stand Up - Aizawa considers himself the better teacher, but a lot of the kids seem to like All Might more.

38. I don't want the cure, I want the POISON! - Inko is killed in a hit and run, and Izuku becomes desperate to find the killer.

39. I will kill my heart before I dance on stage for these bigots - Izuku is interviewed as a rising star of UA, and the interviewer brings in some of his old bullies because they claimed to be his friends from middle school. Izuku does not play along.

40. Split Ends - A quirk gives Izuku brief visions of what would have happened if he made different decisions.

41. Dreamless Sleep - A One for All dream leaves Izuku with a cryptic half-warning, and he desperately experiments to try and figure out how to trigger the visions to get the rest of it.

42. toxic flowers and pretty blades - Young Inko escapes the constricting life of her cruel wealthy family by becoming a vigilante.

43. The Suns we Orbit - Some of the other teachers believe Izuku is too codependent on Toshinori, and separate them for a time.

44. Submerged - Similar to those buried alive fics only someone’s in a box at the bottom of the ocean.

45. Deprive - Izuku also loses his stomach to an injury, and struggles to adjust to the necessary lifestyle changes.

46. The ashes fall like snow - Post Kamino cleanup.

47. Home will always be here - Inko cares for Izuku after he’s sent home due to “trouble at work study” but he refuses to clarify what that means.

48. Playing Favorites - A look at several times where Izuku was punished, while Bakugou got off scot free.

49. Elusive Dreams - Some kind of training or issue forces the kids to stay away for several consecutive day, and they start losing it.

50. Fracture - Izuku struggles through physical therapy after a severe injury that leaves his hero career in question.

51. Starlight, Starbright - Space cadet au

52. Someone in Your Corner - Gran Torino looking after Nana, Toshi, and finally Izuku through the years.

53. I cast magic missile into the darkness - Generic “the gang plays d&d” fic.

54. One Month At A Time - Izuku breaks a limb, and has to let in heal naturally over the course of several months.

55. Head Above Water - Izuku runs out of his pain meds and can’t get access to more doses for a while, so he has to endure not only the pain, but the withdrawal symptoms.

56. Are you going to leave a path to trace - All Might uses a new strategy to try and get Izuku to be less self sacrificial: what about all the young kids who are going to look up to him?

57. The View from Halfway Down - Izuku realizes that a risky move has just landed him with a potentially life threatening injury, but the fight it still going.

58. The Dust Bites Back - A villain All Might defeated early in his career is back and out for revenge.

59. The Absence of your Worth - Nighteye thinks he’s put together a rock solid case for why izuku isn’t worthy of One for All. All Might’s response is to ask if he has something against quirkless people.

60. Behind the Screens Nobody is Afraid - All Might explains some of the context of his most popular hero videos to Izuku. They are much more tragic than the media has spun them in hindsight.

61. Under the Light of the Moon - Someone gets turned into a werewolf. And I ain’t talking the wattpad piss shit. I’m talking full-on back-breaking monstrous transformations into a bloodthirsty abomination set to Bad Moon Rising.

62. some dreams were made to be broken - Bakugou crosses a line and finally gets expelled.

63. You Say You're Into Closure - Izuku finally beats Bakugou in a one on one fight fair and square, but Bakugou is a sore loser.

64. Something or Someone Missing - AU’s memories of Izuku get wiped, but those closest to him can’t help but feel an absence.

65. Too Little Too Late - Izuku’s father returns to find he’s been replaced.

66. Collecting Dust - Inko goes through the stuff Izuku didn’t take to the dorms.

67. Where the souls of wanderers go - Toshi meets up with a retired hero support group.

68. Fragility of Trust - Suspected traitor au

69. no one answered - Izuku is trapped in a cell in a building that’s collapsing in slow motion due to a quirk.

70. Eye of the Storm - One of the other kids has a panic attack for the first time between public appearances. izuku has never seen from from the outside.

71. To Whom It May Concern - The kids find a mysterious collection of letters from previous students hidden in the ceiling of the classroom. Some are ominous, some are incomprehensible. Aizawa has no answers. They enthusiastically go to try and solve the mystery within, but that excitement quickly diminishes the more they find out.

72. Of Popsicles and Ponytails - All Might gets in a discussion with the other teachers about whether the Clark Kent glasses thing would actually work. All Might bets them it does, so he goes around town with no disguise other than his hair being up, and no one bats an eye.

73. All Men are Not Born Equal - Word gets out to the public that izuku used to be quirkless. Everyone finds out just how deep anti-quirkless sentiments run when some begin to question whether a quirkless kid should be at ua, regardless of whether or not he has a quirk now.

74. Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies - Something about encountering death in person for the first time being the dividing line between child and adult.

75. Sins of the Father - All for One has had many children over the centuries, and has made numerous attempts to groom them into the ideal heir with several different methods. None of them worked though.

76. Where The Dead Come To Rest - The kids come home after a long, grueling mission where they saw some shit, and are too tired to process what they went through. They take off their gear for plain clothes, then sit in the common room in silence long into the night, not wanting to open themselves up but also not wanting to be alone.

77. Rivalry - Nighteye tries to pit Izuku and Mirio against one another. It goes right over Mirio’s head, but Izuku becomes convinced the other boy is in on Nighteye’s plan to wear him down until he gives up One for All.

78. A Subtle Language - All Might and Nana never said out loud that they loved each other, but little things told them that they did. All Might hopes to pass a similar love down to his own successor. But Izuku is very different than himself as a kid, and he needs to learn a new subtle language of affection.

79. It’s Gone - One for All stops working one day.

80. A Sight For Sore Eyes - All Might looking after Izuku in the aftermath of the second movie.

81. Loose Lips (sink ships) - Bakugou blurts out something about One for All during a rage, so the rest of the class jump on him and Izuku for answers.

82. No Expectations - Word gets out that All Might is going to choose a successor. None of the theories or speculation online resemble Izuku in the slightest.

83. Eden was Only a Garden - Izuku gets hit with a quirk that erases some of his most traumatic memories, but in doing so loses part of who he is.

84. Run it Down - With all Izuku’s new quirks and his incredible skill, some of the other students with similar powers (Iida, Sero, Uraraka) start to feel like izuku is upstaging them. And it affects their friendship.

85. Fool's Gold - Bakugou grows even more jealous of Izuku having One for All, and his relationship with All Might. He thinks that if he could just prove himself to be more worthy, All Might would change his mind and name him his successor. But in reality, he ends up jeopardizing the relationship they already have.

86. somewhere down the road - The final deadline for Nighteye’s predictions passes, and All Might lives. He debates telling Izuku, as even though it would be a weight off the boy’s mind, he doesn’t want to jinx it. He will still die eventually after all.

87. Just For You - All Might has certain rules and boundaries for fan interactions that he completely ignores for Izuku.

88. if these walls could talk (their whispers would be maddening) - Montage of training accidents in a ‘cursed’ ua gym

89. If Only I Could... - Nighteye tells Mirio about One for All, including that he thinks he’s more deserving than Izuku and he plans to pressure him into giving it up. Mirio struggles with the knowledge that his mentor, someone he respected more than anything, only saw him as a replacement for All Might, meanwhile watching Izuku strain under the pressure of that mentor’s impossible expectations.

90. This is a Test Designed to Provoke an Emotional Response - shameless Blade Runner AU

91. Once and for All - Retelling of the Superman story “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way?” with All Might. Some new heroes use much more aggressive and violent tactics against villains while also upstaging All Might. That, and there general approval from the public cause All Might to question his moral code.

92. Sitting In The Rain - Tsuyu likes to just sit out in the rain sometimes. Not do anything, just sit there. Some friends decide to join her.

93. At Sundown - Mysterious creatures start attacking ua every night. The gang works tirelessly during the day to find the cause and a solution, while defending their school and each other at night.

94. The 1000th time's the charm - Uraraka has been practicing a new move in secret but they just can’t get it right. She wants it to be perfect before showing it off. But one attempt gets her seriously hurt while training alone at night in one of the gyms, and she’s too hurt to get up to the phone to call for help.

95. Sunflower Seeds - All Might attempts to start a garden as a new hobby.

96. What It Means To Be Human - Sun god Toshi starts living among people.

97. Eyes on Me - All Might teaches Izuku some unarmed fighting moves to defend himself from bullies.

98. one remains - Izuku has developed all but one of the quirks he’s slated to, and he has no idea what it will be. Anxiety ensues.

99. Come Back Home - Izuku vanishes from campus and everyone assumes he was kidnapped, but in reality he ran away to try and clear his head after a depressive spiral. He goes by train as far away as he can until he comes to his senses and calls the others.

100. I Won - Izuku accidentally managed to kill Shigaraki during a skirmish, and while everyone around him praises his heroics, he struggles to deal with the fact that he killed someone.

101. Ivory Tower - All Might grapples with how much izuku suffered as a quirkless person, how he could have done more for quirkless rights in his time as a hero, and how now people may not care as much because he’s retired.

Reminder to credit me if you use any of these prompts, and a special thanks to everyone who submitted titles!

#mha #bnha #mha prompts #bnha prompts #mha fanfiction #bnha fanfiction #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #dad might #all might #toshinori yagi #midoriya izuku #deku #bakugou katsuki #aconstantstateoffanfiction

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chroniclerdl · 3 years

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Seven Fundamentals to Writing Better Yu-Gi-Oh Duelfics

Ever wanted to write a duelfic just as good or better than canon?

Done right, duels are memorable action scenes.

Done wrong, duels shatter the suspension of disbelief. It’s already a big ask to imagine the world revolving around a card game.

You don’t want the tragedy where your readers yank the scrollbar past your duel, or worse, close your tab. Even the small pool of duelfic readers/writers like me will skip huge chunks of your chapters when the duels sag.

By implementing basic storytelling techniques tailored to dueling, you can hook your readers into following the play-by-play.

High Stakes

Consistent Rules

Sneaks Checked

“Balanced” Gameplay

Foreshadowing Victory

Engaging Description

Dramatic Tension

1. High Stakes

When you advertise your story as a duelfic, your first duel tells readers whether or not what you wrote is worth their time.

If your characters duel without a concrete reason to rip the opponent’s throat, readers already know the outcome:

You lose.

Why? The game is pointless. Who’s dropping whatever they’re doing just to read the equivalent of your characters sipping afternoon tea? If you’re introducing the setting and characters, why can’t you introduce exciting threats?

No reader expects your first duel to decide the fate of the world, but your characters still need to bet.

Characters wager life chips.

If your character loses, they suffer death or suicide-inducing despair.

Is it too much to start with life-and-death? No. Think of the life chip as the culmination of hopes and dreams.

As the story progresses, the stakes will rise, must rise. How? Others will entrust the main characters with their own life chips, and/or the life chips acquire additional meaning. Consider this loose analogy: at the end of a poker tournament, gamblers sit at the final table with stacks built from the chips of others.

Life chips mean different things to different characters. Let’s take the Duelist Kingdom arc.

Yugi’s life chip is the hope to save his grandfather (and later, his own soul)

Joey’s life chip is the hope to win the prize money to fund his sister’s medical operation

Kaiba’s life chip is the hope to save his little brother (and later, his own soul)

You don’t even need your final showdown to revolve around the fate of world; it just has to be one or more things that matter to your characters.

Also, make sure to communicate the stakes, or why the characters accept uneven bets.

If you have the chops, you can also play around with disguising the stakes. As in, your character thinks they’re wagering something small, but it’s actually their life chip. However, your readers still need a vague reason to believe that a defeat will devour the character.

Always make sure the characters stake one or more life chips!

2. Consistent Rules

If you watched the Duelist Kingdom arc and tried to understand the moves everyone made, your head exploded.

Ask yourself: will the clever scheme that your hero invented drive readers crazy?

If I write a magic system that requires a wand, this applies to all. I cannot become a genius and suddenly wave my hands to cast magic.

Demonstrate the rules early, preferably in the first duel, and keep them sacred.

If you must make an exception, establish it early. In that case, the exception becomes a well-defined branch of the rules that the readers can anticipate.

Can the players magically draw the card they need, whenever they want?

If you can establish the when and why, by all means. The readers proceed with the understanding that the players can reach into their deck like a glorified toolbox.

For example, Duel Links has a concept called “skills” that function like a player’s special ability. At the time I wrote this, Yami Yugi’s “Destiny Draw” skill lets the player take any card from their deck once per duel after losing 2000LP (and even if they stacked the top of the deck earlier!).

Card should also have the same, predictable effect. If the card prevents attacks, I doubt the text discusses physical properties or mentions holding things in the air. But you knew that, right?

The rules are the laws of the universe.

3. Sneaks Checked

I love duels. I also love getting what I want.

Why does getting what I want have to be through a duel?

If we talk, maybe we can come to an agreement. If I blackmail you, maybe you’ll give in to my demands. If I shoot you, I can loot your corpse. Give the readers a good reason as to why your characters would bother with the hassle of honest dueling and can’t wiggle from the consequences of losing.

Often, the duel takes place in the context of a tournament. Hopefully, the tournament officials are keeping a good eye on the players and cracking down on cheaters.

However, even that’s not a guarantee. What’s the key concept?

Power.

The competitors have equivalent capacity for coercion (usually violence) or have a neutral referee presiding over the match with the most capacity for coercion (shoutout to gambling manga Usogui).

Anyone who enters a game otherwise has lost before the first move.

In Yu-Gi-Oh, magical and sci-fi enforcement are common. The Shadow Realm can trap the loser in a desolate hell. In a digital world, the loser suffers deletion. Or just have good tournament officials.

Be vigilant when your duel doesn’t call upon these tropes.

Your amoral characters won’t mind blindsiding your other characters, and they won’t mind blindsiding you with a plot hole.

If you’re not careful, the readers will ask you why they played uncharacteristically fair.

4. “Balanced” Gameplay

Duels should be fair and fun…for the villain.

Ostensibly, everyone plays a balanced game, designed to give both sides a sporting chance. In reality, the villain tilts the field to their favor with one or more tricks up their sleeves. Why would your villain ever fight fair?

But that’s fine. We love rooting for the underdog and watching the villain get their comeuppance.

Overpowered ability to let the villain read minds? Deck full of unbalanced cards that makes the villain’s monsters invincible with no drawback? Creator who knows every strategy in the game? Readers will turn the page as they wonder how the hero will prevail.

The more obstacles you can throw in the hero’s way, the better.

Got custom cards? No problem, just follow a couple guidelines. After all, some duelists are more equal than others.

The hero’s deck is full of regular cards that have a cost to use. For every play they want to make, their cards insist that they give up their attack, discard to play, etc.

The villain’s deck is full of rare cards that power up their game for free. So long as you can justify why the card made it to print, the villain can play whatever they want.

For every step your hero takes, the villain gets two.

5. Foreshadowing Victory

How many times have you watched a duel where the protagonist comes up with this never-before-seen card that does exactly what the protagonist needs to clinch the win? In the final showdown, no less? It’s like the writers begged to be called amateurs and idiots.

No other genre tolerates such laziness.

However, readers don’t want an infodump of the characters’ decks. Show the cards in action. To cover the deck, you'll probably need multiple duels.

This also implies you have more freedom in how your character defeats their early opponents in the duelfic.

Does that previous statement contradict what I said about never-before-seen cards clinching the win as the mark of laziness? No, because here’s the rule:

Tolerance for the hero’s new cards decreases as the story progresses.

(Notice that I specify the hero’s new cards; your villains exist to make life harder by inventing unfair tricks.)

When you must include new cards for the hero late in the duelfic, at least find a way to make them first backfire.

Now, some writers have lots of knowledge about the card pool and metagame. Can they assume the readers a priori know the hero has access to any of the available cards in a given archetype?

I’d err on the side of caution and properly foreshadow the cards before they appear late in the duelfic. Not every reader is a walking card database. They have no reason to assume something exists unless you show the card.

Take the tolerance rule into consideration when planning your duels. If you know the awesome combo you want to use for the final turn in the duelfic climax, that’s your cue to scatter the cards into the earlier duels.

Plan the last duel first and your early duels last.

6. Description

Every reader wants a front-row seat to the action.

They’re paying you their time, so make it worth the admission: sleek combatants & budget-busting fights. Kaiba invented Solid Vision technology for a reason, so help readers envision your duels.

Who’s fighting? Describe the point-of-view’s impression of the monsters’ appearances. Red-Eyes Black Dragon should be self-explanatory.

What about a decorated monster like Time Wizard?

You could go into detail about how the red clock humanoid has yellow gears that form epaulets and purple, pointy boots and a green mustache made from clock hands and so on, but such a level of minutiae bogs pacing and invites skimming.

Readers just need to hear about a purple-caped, red clock humanoid with a wand to form an image. Their imaginations can handle the little details.

Paint appearances in broad strokes and one or two brief sentences.

How are the monsters fighting? Duel Monsters is a game where the target takes the aggressor’s attack like a champ. That doesn’t mean you can’t spice it up.

For example, my opponent’s dragon attacks my weaker knight with a fireball. My knight, interested in not dying, raises his shield. Unfortunately, he screams as the flames engulf him.

You wouldn’t just stand still with a straight face if someone armed with a knife lunged for your gut.

A fight scene is a string of action and reaction.

Most people also experience life in more senses than just sight.

A dragon’s fireball is a bright reddish-orange, hot, dries the air, smoky, and explodes with a boom on impact. I never tasted a fireball, and I hope I never do, but that’s still four senses: sight, touch, smell, and sound.

Include multiple sensory details.

Let’s spare a moment to talk about the heads-up display (HUD).

In Yu-Gi-Oh, cards have multiple stats and abilities. You’re free to mention whatever you deem necessary. No set formula exists. On one extreme, you can mention nothing to keep the narrative clean at the risk of confusing the readers. At the other extreme, infodumps about the monster’s abilities provide great detail but wreck the pacing. But there’s a cozy middle.

State only what you need from the card.

If your duels occurred before the era of Synchro, you don’t need details about levels. You can just display the basic stats to determine the stronger monster. If a deck has Pendulum monsters, just mention the scale numbers when they're played as scales. And so on.

You can also make an index of new cards at the end of a chapter.

BONUS TIP! Understanding show, don’t tell.

What is show, don’t tell? At its core, this concept refers to immersing your readers in the senses and feelings instead of exposition. Unfortunately, that definition is a bit vague to execute. After writing for a while, I had my lightbulb moment.

Don’t TELL the readers how to think or force-feed them a conclusion.

SHOW your readers the evidence.

Here’s a written example from Joey vs. Rex in Duelist Kingdom. See if you can spot what makes this prose telling instead of showing.

“Joey watched nervously as Two-Headed King Rex stomped Baby Dragon. He messed up his Baby Dragon-Time Wizard combo!”

You can see two failures: “nervously” and the second sentence.

Adverbs like “nervously” and other “-ly” friends get a bad rep because rookies tend to use them as telling crutches (especially beware adverbs after dialogue tags!). “Nervously” tells me how Joey reacts. But what does “nervously” look like? One character might bite their thumb. Another might fidget in their seat. The adverb in this context lacks nuance.

We also have the second sentence: “He messed up his Baby Dragon-Time Wizard combo!” When you’re explaining the “why” to something, you’re telling. It’s like talking down to your readers.

Contrast with the next example.

“A bead of sweat rolled off Joey’s face as Two-Headed King Rex stomped Baby Dragon. He stared at the Time Wizard in his hand.”

The first sentence shows me Joey’s physical reaction. I see him sweating, so I think he’s nervous.

We also see a second physical reaction: “He stared at the Time Wizard in his hand.” This comes on the heels of the first sentence, and I also have knowledge of when Joey used the Baby Dragon-Time Wizard combo in a prior duel. Combined, I think Joey is ruminating about a missed chance.

Readers are smart; they’ll catch your intention if you show the proof.

7. Dramatic Tension

I bet you know what it's like to draw a bad hand.

Imagine: The hero staggers into the arena, and the villain just needs to win one duel to take over the world. The villain draws a bunch of powerups with no monster, but the hero draws a one-turn-kill combo.

Anticlimactic. The readers throw that duelfic straight into the trash.

Don’t just write real-life duels. “It really happened” doesn’t mean it’s emotionally satisfying.

That’s why we have literary structure.

Success and setback pace together with progressive intensity to maximize dramatic tension and emotional payoff.

I’ll spare the nitty-gritty theory detail, but your duels should look like this on a basic level:

Part 1: Villain’s basic threats. Introduces the villain’s deck and style.

Part 2: Villain’s minor strategy. The villain’s first serious attempt to defeat the hero.

Part 3: Villain’s major strategy. The hero’s reversal! But the villain has worse in store.

Part 4: Hero’s imminent defeat. The hero must break through, or else will instantly lose!

Ideally, you’re also integrating the story itself into the duel; themes and duels synergize to create a stronger effect.

You may notice how the format resembles the three-act structure.

Act I is Part 1

Act II until the Act II midpoint is Part 2

Act II midpoint until Act III is Part 3

Act III is part 4.

I’ll use Yugi/Pharaoh vs. Pegasus in Duelist Kingdom as an example.

Part 1: Mind scan. Pegasus can read minds to counter combos.

Part 2: Toon World. Indestructible, cartoonified monsters attack.

Part 3: Shadow game. Toons destroyed! But playing a shadow game weakens Yugi.

Part 4: Yugi passes out. The Pharaoh must find a new way to stop Pegasus’s mind scan!

Figure out each part of the structure for your duels before writing the turn-by-turn plays.

By the way, modern real-life Yu-Gi-Oh duels don’t suit drama because the rules provide weak constraints to creating strong boards. A good modern deck usually establishes a scary turn one board and jumps straight into Part 4, whereas other card games like Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone force the powerhouse cards to wait several turns until the player builds the mana to pay costs.

You can still write a good modern duel. Here’s a basic outline of Arc-V’s duel between Sora and Shay. Technically, “tragedy” is the structure of this duel, so I’ll make Shay the “hero” to flip it and keep matters simplified.

Part 1: Basic monsters. These clash before a monster appears from the Extra Deck.

Part 2: Frightfurs. They come one after another to crush Shay’s Raidraptors.

Part 3: Sora’s wrath. Rise Falcon survives! But Sora’s malevolent nature comes to light.

Part 4: Frightfur Chimera. Sora chomps candy and summons his biggest fusion horror!

If following the four parts is too difficult for you, that’s okay. They're just logical extensions of one basic concept. Keep the following in mind, and you’ll never go wrong:

The villain’s subsequent threats become increasingly overwhelming.

Conclusion

Much of writing a duel boils down to storytelling technique.

Let’s tl;dr the main takeaways.

High Stakes: Minimum ante is the life chip, worth a character’s hopes and dreams.

Consistent Rules: Everyone plays by the same logic.

Sneaks Checked: Characters can’t skip the duels with violence and coercion.

“Balanced” Gameplay: Villains enjoy advantages.

Foreshadowing Victory: Readers have a chance to predict the winning combo.

Engaging Description: Immerse senses and invite reactions.

Dramatic Tension: The villain makes progressively stronger threats.

As a duelfic reader/writer, I can gauge a writer's ability by measuring their duels with the fundamentals. Many fan writers struggle; even the canon writers struggle.

But writing a duelfic isn’t rocket science. With practice, minding the fundamentals will become second nature.

And don't forget to tag your story as a duelfic. It's a whole genre in fanfic, so sort it properly and help readers from the future find you.

May the heart of the cards be with you.

…

Want to see in-depth examples of my advice? I rewrote the Orichalcos arc to reimagine its untapped potential without the failures of the canon presentation. You can find it on FFnet and AO3.

#yugioh #ygo #yugioh fanfiction #yugioh fandom #fanfic writing #duelfic #writing #writing tips #writing advice #writing help #how to write #listicles

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Sparkshortstravaganza! (Commissioned by WeirdKev27)

Well this was a needed kick in the pants. When I first heard of the Sparkshorts program I was excited. As a kid I loved PIxar, as an adult I love pixar and as an old man dealing with the loss of his partner floating away in my balloon house, i’ll still love pixar. So the idea of a program focused on giving new fresh talent the room to do whatever they wanted and make content that would be on Disney Plus, a platform BADLY bereft of original animation? It was a dream come true and the first one I saw Kitbull is easily a masterpiece and something that I can vividly recall every part of to this day, which for my terrible short term memory recalling EVERYTHING is a rare feat few works have achived. But given I have a REALLY bad habit of letting things I want to watch sit there if I don’t jump on them immediately.. I let it sit there and didn’t touch any of the shorts and mostly forgot about the program until now. Until Kev, my patron and the only person paying for reviews at the moment, though others are more than welcome wink wonk, just decided what the heck and to test out comissioning shorts picked these ones because why not. And given I had been dragging my feet and reading the descriptions found creative and suprisingly heavy premises... I was fully on board And better late than never because along with Soul this program has EASILY restored my faith in the company after Onward really disapointed. Granted they’ve done worse, while there are pixar films I haven’t seen I need to like Coco or Cars 3, I’ve vowed NEVER to watch Cars 2 unless I have to and that vow has served me well so far. The shorts here are as a whole beautifully animated, have a ton of wonderful concepts and even the two weaker ones are still gorgeous to look at and a decent watch regardless and both come from a very well meaning place with a very well meant message. So yeah i’m thankful for this comission and to show you why let’s go through every Sparkshorts so far and see why their so awesome.. after some background of course.

Sparkshorts, for the uniniated, is a program by pixar where animators are given six months and a limited budget to create a film based on personal experince. The program was designed to test out new ways of animating, directing and creating and to find a creative “spark” in it’s employees. Thus each film feels unique, has it’s own style.. and is utterly charming. I’ll be looking at them chronologically as while this wasn’t my watch order, I feel it’s a bit neater that way. I’ve already taken long enough to get to watching these, let’s open these films up and see what makes them tick shall we?

Purl: An Adorable Yarn Ball Vs Toxic Masculinity Purl.. was better the more I thought about it. The first short released, it DOES have a good message and killer animation. The film takes place at B.R.O., a dude broey brockerage firm that’s painfully relasitic both in how broey it is and in how it looks. That’s to contrast our heroine: Purl, an adorable ball of yarn who just wants to be accepted but is instead ignored by the rest of the company till she changes herself up, donning a suit like her co workers she badly wants to fit in with and adopting their wolf of wallstreet esque douchebaggery. She finally gets accepted.. but ends up shedding her new self to help another Yarn Ball starting up. Director Kristen Lester drew from personal experince, starting work at animation in a mostly male dominated workplace and thus having to adapt and only letting the femine side she’d repressed out when she moved to working at pixar, which had more female employees. The film DOES have a good message about toxic workplaces and toxic masulinty and learning the personal story did raise it a few notches as it made it clear to me that what SEEMED like an over exageration.. was probably just a light exageration given the kind of bro antics we’ve heard about at companies like Ubisoft. So while I didn’t like the film much at first honestly.. it’s over the top because it NEEDS to be because even though it’s 2021.. some idiots STILL don’t get it and kids are better off learning it now so it’ll hopefully stick when their entering the workforce. So we’ll get more people like perl willing to make a change and stick up for those like her and less dude bros. Still a decent and clever short with Perl’s bro form looking really neat and the animation on her in general is really fucking gorgeous. All in all not the best of these but still pretty good and while a bit thick on the message.. it kinda has to be.

Smash And Grab: A Jaunty Ride to Freedom

This was a really fun one. Directed by Brian Larson and inspried by his need for a break from routine this follows two robots, the titular smash and grab who are designed to well.. smash and grab coal-like energy things for a train and have for years and years. The two long to high five, but can’t because their hooked to tubes so they can’t escape. But one day Smash looks out the window and not only sees fellow robots living a better life.. but a way to power him and his buddy/love intrest? I mean bromance or romance, either way it works. Point is our heroes escape, and have to fight security. It’s just a really damn fun and creative movie. While robots wanting a better life isn’t new, the crisp art deco animation, breakneck pace, fun gags and heartwearming relationship between the two bots is just charming as hell. It’s just a fun ride the whole way through with a lot of heart and creativity with the two’s way they throw coal to one another used to take out the guards, and all together just some really good set pieces. Easily one of my faviorites here and that’s a high water mark to pass.

Kitbull: Tiny Orphan Kitty + Big Abused Doggo = Best Friends

As I said this is the only one of these I saw before today and as I said it’s stuck with me. I love dogs. I have one of my own named Yoshi whose just a sweet boy. So i’ve always loved ALL DOGS.. and was thus horrified years ago when I learned about the stigma Bulldogs get. Seen as “agressive’ and “Mean’ and victious.. when really a lot of them, including my grandpa’s own pitbull when I was little, are just loveable as any other dogs. And having also known a former fighting dog my friend owned, if a much smaller min pin rather than a pitbull, who by the time I met him had become the sweetest dog you’d ever meet.. yeah.. don’t mistreat a dog just because some assholes force it to fight to the death because their sick, horrible, ghastly human beings.. if they can even be CALLED human beings after doing that to these poor animals. My point is it’s nice to have a short about such a needed subject. Director Rosana Sullivan actually had the idea for the short for years and intended to do it as a side project, but when the program cropped up she moved it to pixar and the result is one of the most popular and easily one of the best of an already bright bunch, brought on by her love of animals and working in a shelter. It’s also one of Pixar’s first 2d animated projects and proves their just as good at that as cgi. It’s the touching story of a kitty whose alone in the world and initally mistrustful and hissy at a big dog she finds and is naturally scared of.. until she grows to bond with the dog, realizing much like a LOT of fucking people need to that pitbulls.. are just dogs and often victims of circumstance and the poor, sweet pooch who just wants his owner to love him.. is instead thrown into a fighting pit, nearly killed and forced to make a daring escape with their new forever friends help. It’s through this wonderful, heartrending friendship that the dog finds freedom and the cat.. finds them both a home, no longer running from people but instead making sure they both get a person. It’s often brutal at times, with the scene of the dog being forced to fight being one of the most striking: while we thankfully don’t see the action, we HEAR IT, as does the poor kitty, and we see the aftermath: a friendly harmless dog thrown out into the cold just because it dosen’t WANT to fight. It’s just really heartrending stuff that makes the happy ending all the better. It’s also gorgeiously animated which I mentioned but i’ll say it again; the animation here is GOREGOUS, unqiue and stunning. Go watch this if you haven’t.

Float: This is Why Krakoa Exists

This.. has easily been the hardest to review of the bunch. While ALL of these stories are very personal, very inclusive and very intresting, this one.. is a bit rougher than most of them and hits REALLY close to home. See this one was built out of director Bobby Rubio’s experinces raising his son who has autisim.

It’s about a dad who discovers his infant son can float... and thus gets stares of fear or judgment from eveyrone around him slowly getting broken down by this. So he makes a HORRIBLE judgment call and rather than just accept some people are assholes, weighs his son’s backpack down with stones despite him hating it then drags him away when he ends up floating off, before screaming at the poor kid WHY CAN’T YOU BE DIFFRENT.. He DOES instantly regret this and the ending is genuinely touching as the father finally accepts his son is different and throws him into the air while on a swing, letting his son soar as he always should’ve. It is a beautifully animated and well meant film and the filipino representation is truly great: Rubio originally was going to have the characters as white but his fellow animators convinced him to go for represntation and be true to himself and honestly in a time when disney itself has had to be fought to get queer representation most of the time, it’s nice that pixar at least is a part of it that throughly encourages representation and will gladly put diversity and representation over any bullshit “risk factors”. That being said.. while this was a decent short with a very well intentioned message and it clearly connected with a lot of people.. it wasn’t for me and I say this as someone who has autisim. As someone who has worn down people’s patince and been starred at by a freak for something I was way too young to properly deal with. I’ve been in this Kid’s shoes.

And that’s the problem: The metaphor dosen’t really work for me. While auitism CAN have some benifits and I wouldn’t be any other way i’d be lying if I said it was easy having trouble commuincating, constnatly misreading people, constnatly worrying if someone’s going to like you, and hyperfocusing on a problem instead of being able to set it and forget it for a bit to my own detriment. There’s other problems and not ALL of my issues come from anxiety disorder: I also have anxiety and depression. They just bleed badly INTO said autisim sometimes, as it’s hard to effectively combat anxiety sometimes when your mind won’t let you.

What i’m saying is... there aren’t any FAULTS in his powers. See i’m a fan of x-men, so I can only see this boy as a mutant, and yes I know they usually manfifest at puberty but there have been exceptions so don’t at me.. and one of them who has no real downsides other than the unfair stigma of being a mutant. He’s more like storm, who can control the elements and whose power only enhances her life nad lesss like say Rogue, who looks normal.. but can’t touch anyone without knocking them out at best or horribly abosrbing them into her head at worst. There’s no downside other than the fact people judge him and his dad is a dick about it. And the dad part is hard because I get what Rubio is going for: parents make mistakes, parents mess up and their only human even if they should embrace their kids anyway. That’s a good message and one I support.. I just think Rubio was way TOO hard on himself and thus made his stand in into an unlikeable asshole, one whose more concerned with how everyone ELSE thinks and does the horribly abusive action of basically tying his son’s wings down so he can’t fly. He mans well, it’s so his son dosen’t float off.. but instead of finding a way to help him and work with him on it.. he just stuffs rocks in his back and forces the kid to be miserable so other people can be happy. It just goes way too far in the other direction to work. As I said I think it’s the guy being too hard on himself, manifesting his worst moments with his kids and his biggest regrets and making himself into a very hard to like character because he has trouble forgviing himself for how he acted. So I want to say if you ever read this bobby while I wasn’t hte biggest fan of your film.. I do wholly support you and your son.. and the fact you made an entire FILM just to show your sturggle and show people there not alone was a beautiful act. You are not a bad person , we all make mistakes and we’re all just human. You are a good man Bobby Rubio. I may of not liked your metaphor... but your message is beautiful.

Wind: Immigration by Way of Rocket Science

Thankfully moving on.. this one is tied with Kitbull for my faviorite. It has a truly intriguing premise, a great metaphor, stunning animation, and is just really moving, gripping and fun to watch. This one was by Edwin Chang, and as is usualy by now, it was built on personal experince.. but not his. It was built on the fact his father was an immigrant who had to leave his mother, Chang’s grandmother, behind to a better life. She rejoined them eventually but it left an impact on his father and thus serves as the core of this story. And honestly knowing that only STRENGTHENS an already impresssive sci fi short. It’s the story of a boy, apparently named Ellis so i’ll use that, and his grandmother who live in a bizzare, hauntingly beautifuly stygian sinkhole that has floating rocks and debris. The two spend their day farming potatoes and grabbing whatever they can to hopefully make their way out. But it becomes clear to young Ellis after they find a plane his grandmother wants HIM to go alone and escape and is willing to sacrifice herself.. and ends up having to trick the boy into thinking sh’es going along in order to get him to do what he needs to surivive and thrive. It’s a truly gut wrenching story as even when she seems to have found a way for them both to leave.. it’s very clear she’s simply training him with all the welding tools and what not so he has skills to make it out there on his own in the unknown. So he can live without her.. but more importantly.. so he CAN LIVE. Away from the darkness, not having to scrape and to surivive and hopefully find something better out there. While the old parental figure sacrifciing thsmelves so the youngun can start hteir journey isn’t new.. it’s the unique, beautiful and haunting setting and the emotoin, conveyed only through the utterly beautiful animation that make this story feel fresh, along with it’s great metaphor. This short is just haunting, beauitful and really damn sad, and I only dont’ have all that much to say because it’s all in the visuals. The only thing I have left is like all of these really, watch it. But especailly this one.

Loop: Enough Said

This is part of the reason I didn’t like Float all that much. Loop is just.. way better at conveying the experinces of having auitism. While Renee is a more severe case than me I can relate to what kicks off the film: Renee, usually paired with an adult at the camp she at, is forcibley paired with a chatty boy named Marcus. While Marcus is eager to go home and has no idea how to interact with the two the two genuinely bond, with Marcus slowly getting into Renee’s world. The key scene for this and the one that clinches the film is Renee waving her hands over the reeeds in the water, throughly enjoying it with marcus not getting it.. till he tries himself. Director Erica Milsom, whose worked with autistic children and picked this medium entriely because i’ts perfect for a non verbal character and is one that can tackle heavy issues like this in a way to help people understan, really wanted to counter most depections of severe autisim, paticuarlly sensory issues. While we see the good in them instead of JUST her freaking out or being overwhelemed: how her sounds and the things she feels truly relax her and how she really DOES enjoy nature and is perfectly at home there. It’s just a beautiful way to show this disablility is not ALL bad, as many works tend to focus soley on the drawbacks. While I had my issues with Float part of it was it had too much good.. but Loop is superior at this simply because it shows both with unflinching honesty: The beauty of something that calms and relaxes your brain or a touch or sensation that just FEEELS really good, things that while again i’m not on the same level as Renee.. I can still fully relate to. But what puts it over float besides not having a messy metaphor is it DOES show the issues that come with it.. but does so WELL and with nuance. It shows how isolating autisim can be, especially for someone like Renee who can’t talk, how people are sometimes freaked out by you and don’t know how to interact with you and how adults can MEAN WELL, and the counsler setting them off was a good idea in the end... but can also be misguided and not fully know how to handle you without overwhelming you. It shows just how bad a panic attack can be, how you can just.. shut down and drive away. It was easily the sequence that hit the hartest and resonated the most as I’ve had those, and i’ve just shut down with no one able to reach me.. and it makes it all the more touching as Marcus eventually realizes how to handle things, and gives her space despite the setting son and the peril of being stranded.. because he realizes she needs it and offers to simply be there when she’s ready. It’s a touching, wonderful gesture, capped by him giving her a reed.. and the two heading home finally udnerstanding one another.This one is very close to wind in my heart and I think I found even more love for it writing this review and realizing just how much it hit me. And that ain’t bad.

Out: Be Proud of Who You Are.. with the help of a gay cosmic space cat

Speaking of hitting close to home and really resonating with me, we have Pixar’s first short with a gay main character, with his sexuality being the center of this. And as a bi person who had struggle accepting his sexuality let alone telling anyone, even when you know someoen will likely accept you.. this naturally hit hard. I took some time to realize I was bi, and when I did I was terrified of telling my mom, despite her being loving, supportive and just wonderful, same with my brother. Both fully accepted me as I figured and had no issue with it, esepcially sine my romantic history is nearly non existant anyways, but I related to our hero Greg’s fears of coming out to his parents despite them being utterly wonderful, well meaning people. It’s hard to come out, it’s hard to admit that about yourself, and it’s hard knowing you may not be accepted or things may change. I had an even harder time coming out to my dad, who I fully expected being a trump supporter and having said “if gay marriage is leagal I should be able to marry my cat”, to not support me and to loose him.. and was proud and suprised when nope, he was utterly supportive and happy for me.. if a bit awkward with the “be careful with sex” advice.. to someone whose had none and may never will due to being awkward as shit. But he meant well and the point is I really related to this, and it’s easily one of the best coming out stories of this kind, tied handily with Schitt’s Creek’s episode about Patrick coming out to his parents that dealt with the same theme. And naturally given the nature of these shorts it was a story close to Stephen Clay Hunter’s heart, as he group up a gay nerd in the 80′s a time when homophobia was even worse and representation was near non-existent. So when given the shot he wanted to make something for a young him, something they can look at and point to and tha’ts me. And the behind the scenes short for this one sold just how... big this felt for him. To draw two men in love and embrcing, to see guys mo capping that. To see someone LIKE him on screen. It shows just how important representation is and how dumb it is it took 20 goddamn years at pixar for them to get gay.

The short itsel is delightful as we open with a gay space cat and dog appearing in a rainbow. The Cat and Dog are watching Greg, a nice young man whose moving out of his small town with his boyfriend Manuel.. only to panic when his parents who he hasn’t come out to show up to help move and try and hide the one photo he has of them. And despite Manuel seeing it as a very easy thing to do to come out.. it’s not for Greg. He knows it’s hard and a scene of him practicing shows the poor guy breaking down at the thought of telling them despite getting every indicatio their nice people. It’s then the whole Space Cat thing comes in as the cat enchanted Greg’s dog’s collar, so when greg puts it on as a jest, it’s a body swap! So naturally we get tons of REALLY well animated shenanigans as Greg has to get his body back. Seriously the animation here is gorgeous with director Hunter choosing the painted on , impercet style to give it a storybook feel which fits the story perfectly.. seriously if Disney hasn’t made a story book of this do so.. and if they won’t someone on etsy do it because Etsy is apparently where the merch companies should be making happens.

The point is it’s fun, furious and leads to some great gags.. and then we get the emotional punch to the godnand as Greg bites his mom’s hand in order to prevent her finding a photo of him and his boyfriend. He instnatly regrets it, and breaking the photo in the process and goes to comfort her.. and we get easily the most emotinal, most beautiful part of it as Greg finds out his mom is hurt as she can clearly tell he’s keeping her at arms length and dosen’t want to loose him.. and she’s known all along he was gay.. just like the Schitts Creek example it’s clear she’s hurt a bit her son is scared to tell her but just wants him to be happy. So with a brilliant use of a squeaky toy greg switches back.. and comes out, with his dad warmly hugging miguel when he introduces himn and the space dog crying. Just a beautiful, charming, fun, and gorgeously animated short with some badly needed representation.

Also... one last note. This isn’t related to the short.. but Disney, who once again proves they can’t be progressive without stabbing themselves in the foot and no I will not stop giving out about this. This time’s especailly bad as while Out was heavily promoted.. the descripton DOSEN’T mention it having Pixar’s first gay lead and goes out of it’s way to hide Greg being gay despite the fact the short dosen’t and his being in the closet is the whole conflict of the short. And the not mnentiong the first gay lead thing is noticable because Loop DID rightly point out it was their first non verbal proganist. You can’t.. brag about being progressive about one thing and then try to hide your being progressive about another you idiots. Plus the “pleasing the bible belt” ship has sailed and left port. Ducktales is gay as hell with Penny being gay, even if Disney won’t let her just come out and say it, the crew still had her say it as much as they could, Violet’s dad’s being gay, Della being bi and Webby and Lena being as close to a couple you can get without disney screaming at them no. Andi Mack is fully avaliable on D+ as well.. well okay not fully because the dad turned out to be a pedophile, but still a series with a fully gay character is out there. And finally Owl House got TONS of press for having a bi progatanist and having her love intrest be a girl. Even if Dana Terrance had to FIGHT for that, and rightly so good on her, the point is you have queer characters already. The groups that hate you for that aren’t going to magically stop hating you because you hide the fact a short anyone can see from minute one is very , beautifully gay, I mean it starts with a very swishy space cat emerging from a rainbow atop a pink dog. COME ON. I only have a few words left for disney..

Okay whew, one more and we’re out of here.

Burrow: It’s Okay to Ask for Help and To Bang a Willing Salamander This was the first one I watched today. In hindsight had I properly researched the shorts and realized how heavy they were I probably would’ve saved this one for later to help balance out the deep feels of some of these. While Burrow is VERY VERY good, as all these shorts have been even Float, it’s subject matter is a lot lighter. I mean so far we’ve had stories about toxic masculinity, animal abuse, issues accepting your child is diffrent, sacrficing yourself so your loved one can have a better life, autisim and coming out of the closet. Even Smash and Grab which is light and breezy.. still has a disney death, and is still about a heroic rush to freedom from slavery whenyou think about it. This one.. is about an insecure bunny whose afraid to ask for help and ends up learning to get it while ending up plumiting through a bunch of comedic set pieces. It’s basically if Winnie the Pooh and Bugs Bunny had a baby comedy wise, it has the warm feeling of pooh art wise, a storybook quality tha’ts utterly adoring.. but director Madeline Sharafan specifccally wanted the animators to take after chuck jones, using lots of great expressions and reactions. It has a real classic theatrical screwball comedy vibe and given The Looney Tunes, Droopy, and Tom and Jerry mean the world to me and i’m glad nto reocnnect with 2/3 thanks to HBO Max.. I fucking loved it.

Burrow is still a personal story and is based on Sharifan’s experinces having trouble colaberating, wanting something to be fully baked before showing it off, something I agian relate to. She often hid from the others and refused to show her work until it was done while everyone else was happy to help. And as the previously used to slam disney hard with something they own Hickman Era of X-men has shown.. colaboration is just better and more freeing. By having friends and colleuge s to bounce off of you refine ideas, see how people react to them and grow a bit and that’s what the shorts about.

The plot is easily the simpliest of these: A young bunny wants to build her dream burrow but gets self concious when she runs into a friendly mole and rat living next door to where she wants to build and keeps digging to find both privacy and her own place.. and instead ends up digging into various shenangians and other burrows from frogs, to hedgehogs to most memorably some Salmanders taking a sauna.. and in the best and most ‘how the fuck did they get away with this bit of it”, one of the salamanders ends up .. gladly removing his town and being liike “You wanna do this? I mean I got an hour free” And i’m just saying while now wasn’t the time and the offer was a little awkward i’d go for it if I was her. I mean at least ask him out for coffee later. He seems nice enough if low on boundries. Then ride him until the morning light girl, ride it. She also finds the Demon Bear from New Mutants at one point.. so that’s where he retried to after danny kicked his ass again. Neat.

But eventually our heroione digs herself too deep and ends up hitting water before finding a

Who sees her crumpled plans and then does the stygian call of the badger to call all the other animals to help and after they escape the flood, the bunny finally realizes their good people and lets them see the plans. So we end on our heroine and her new friends and possible salamander lover helping her settle in as she finallyg ets the home she wanted, complete with disco. I mean every home should have a disco. If I didn’t have a ceeling fan i’d have a disco ball.. and I still want one just to set somewhere or hang away from the fan . Let me dream dammit. Overally a fun, hilarious, mad dash short with a good message and a good note to go out on.

Final Thoughts: Overall.. the Sparkshorts program is fucking spectacular, a great way to let some of Pixar’s staff get into the directors chair and really shine, and a way to tackle issues that they may not be able to get greenlit into a full film. Lushily animated, well produced, Pixar has announced MORE are coming and I cannot wait. Thank you kev for comissioning this, and thank you all for reading. If your new and liked this review, follow this blog as I talk disney all the time: when they come back i’ll be doing regular coverage of Amphibia, Ducktales and the Owl House as new episodes come out every week, and i’m currently doing a retropsective on the three cablleros kev also paid for, with the finale of it, an episode by episode look at the legend of the three cablleros, starting this week. I’m also covering LIfe and times of scrooge mcduck (though infrequently for a bit), and finishing up a look at darkwing duck’s just us justice ducks, started with looks at all the players involved and finshing next week with the episode itself. So if any of that sounds good to you, check out the archives, but goodbye, goodbye, goodbye for now.

#sparkshorts #pixar #disney #disney plus #disney+#purl #kitbull #out #wind #loop #burrow #LBGTQ+#lbgt #lbgtq #float #smash and grab #robots

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 3 years

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Psycho Analysis: Loki

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

In the early years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, great villains were… well, they were less hard to come by than some would lead you to believe, but most of them were only good based on their actors and the performances they gave. Red Skull and Obadiah Stane are awesome villains, but they’re also rather simple ones, ones which have really simple goals and personalities that leave enough wiggle room for the actors to give a fun interpretation. We didn’t have complex, rich, and thematic villains like Ego or Killmonger or Thanos.

At least, that is, until Thor. Then we got Loki.

Loki was the big breakout star of the early MCU, and it’s not hard to see why. Pretty much every later villain that became beloved by fans has at least some sort of genesis in how Loki is portrayed here. The familial drama of Ego and Hela, the noble qualities of Vulture, the inherent tragedy of the backstory of Thanos… everything later villains were praised for got their start in everyone’s favorite trickster Asgardian. Praised by critics, loved by audiences, and so good he almost manages to make Thor: The Dark World watchable for about half an hour, Loki is one of the most fantastic characters in the entire MCU.

Too bad I’m not here to talk about how good he is as a character. I’m here to talk about him as a villain, and in that regard… Loki kinda sucks.

Motivation/Goals: Loki is, in short, an attention whore. But I say that with affection; Loki probably should have gotten some more appreciation from his dad Odin, but Odin blew him off a lot in favor of Thor. His drive to get some respect is what leads to his schemes in the first film, and his scheming carries through into the second and third Thor movies.

The real issue is with The Avengers where Loki, after falling through a wormhole, becomes essentially a generic doomsday villain. Or, he would be if he didn’t have so much pre-existing character development. He honestly suffers the same fate as Endgame!Thanos in this regard, where a complex and interesting villain gets watered down to be more blockbuster-friendly despite having tons of interesting characterization.

Performance: One thing that’s true for all of the films: Tom Hiddleston kills it. His Loki is exactly as he should be – cunning, slippery, underhanded, snarky, and just an absolute blast. He really sells Loki as an engaging and complex character. Even in the weaker films he features in, he tends to steal the show and make even dreadful slogs like The Dark World slightly watchable for short times.

Final Fate: In Infinity War, Loki sacrifices himself to save Thor from Thanos, which only somewhat works. He’s getting his own Disney+ spinoff so either he survived or the show’s about the continuing adventures of the Loki who escaped captivity in Endgame. Whatever the case may be, we thankfully haven’t seen the last of Loki.

Best Scene: Despite The Avengers aging rather poorly, I think most can agree that the “Puny god” scene is still one of the funniest and most awesome villain takedowns in the MCU. It also gets some hilarious callbacks in Ragnarok, which also features a legendary little moment that implies Loki bottomed for The Grandmaster. Oh, and there’s the three seconds in The Dark World where he turns into Cap, which is maybe the only good part of the film.

Best Quote: As always, the best bits of Loki come from Ragnarok, including his best line:

Worst Quote: As always, the worst bits of Loki come from The Avengers. Remember when he called Black Widow a whiny cunt?

Final Thoughts & Score: Time to be controversial! As a villain, I find Loki to be exceptionally underwhelming.

Now, don’t get me wrong: Tom Hiddleston’s performance is amazing across the board, even in the god-awful Thor: The Dark World, where he actually made the film slightly fun and watchable. And Loki is a fantastic character with an incredibly consistent arc across several movies which culminates in a heroic sacrifice that also utilizes his trademark craftiness and backstabbing. Loki is amazing in those regards, and there’s no denying the impact he had on the franchise as a whole, so if I was rating him as a character he’d easily be a 10/10.

But here on Psycho Analysis beeing a good character is an entirely different thing from being a good villain. Similar to the case with Kronk, Loki isn’t really all that evil outside of The Avengers. He’s a dick, sure, but this series isn’t called Dick Analysis. I’m trying to determine how effective, cool, and influential a character is as a villain, and Loki just… isn’t. Sure, he has good quips and a funny defeat, but that doesn’t make his showing in The Avengers any less of a waste of his skills, which are put to much better use in anti-heroic roles like in the latter two Thor films, where he is constantly swapping sides and backstabbing his brother and everyone else. In fact, in terms of everything Loki is about, Ragnarok is easily his best outing, showcasing his anti-heroic side to the extreme.

If it was only his outing in Thor that we were talking about, I’d easily give him an 8, but his showing in The Avengers is so bad and basic that I’m subtracting a whole number grade and giving Loki as a villain a 7/10. This is a different situation than the one with Thanos, were his Endgame counterpart is so radically different but is also from another timeline and doesn’t detract from the original Thanos, this is the same Loki across all these movies, and funny moments aside his portrayal in the original Marvel crossover event was really lackluster. I can’t stress enough that Loki is a fantastic character, but his best strengths are when he’s stabbing everyone in the back or when he’s actually getting along with Thor to some degree.

As a villain, everything Loki did was done way better by many other villains. Is he going to be a villain in the Loki show on Disney+? Who can say. But whatever the case may be, it’s pretty doubtful Loki could ever hope to catch up to the rich villains we’ve gotten as of late. Loki plays much better as a tricky, sneaky anti-hero/villain than as an outright villain, and those are the strengths they need to play to, because Loki as a straight bad guy just does not work at all.

#Psycho Analysis #Loki #Tom Hiddleston #Thor #MCU #The Avengers

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celebritytgcaptions · 3 years

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Requests (5/8/2021)

Hi lovelies! I just filled up the queue through May but I have a LOT of requests left. So I’m posting the remaining requests below! If you see your request here that means it’ll be posted in June at the earliest. If you don’t see your request it means it’s probably going to be posted in May (although I did delete two messages that weren’t “requests” as much as “demands”, messages that said, “Do this,” or, “Make that,” which I don’t respond to). There are some requests I addressed in a post on April 27th though that won’t be posted until June also so be sure to check that out. Thanks for the support lovelies! Hope you like what’s to cum. ;)

Anonymous said:

Could u do emma stone from amazing spider man i like her look from the 2nd one but its fine whichever u use

Yep! Second one it is. :)

Anonymous said:

Hi was wondering if you could do a caption of a superhero that is captured by their villain and turned into an evil hench woman thought about anne hathaway as cat woman if you could thanks love your captions btw

Sure thing!

Anonymous said:

Could you do a caption where a white guy gets turned into Kerry Washington. And becomes addicted to sleeping with black men? I was thinking of using the scene from little man where shes in bed after a night of "doing it". Can that be done or is that too graphic of a description?

I don’t think it’s too graphic? I’ve never seen Little Man (idk what it is tbh) but I googled “Kerry Washington Little Man” & found a pic I think works so I can do this.

Anonymous said:

I don't remember if I requested this already or not but could you do one of Haley atwell from captain america I was thinking like a super soldier test turns a guy into her but he then finds out that was the plan that the government wanted to make super sissies instead

You did not request it and I can do it!

Anonymous said:

Hi could you do a caption using Betsy brandt? Shes the aunt from breaking bad incase you didnt know I just think shes beautiful and hope you could do a caption for her idk what about maybe something about milfs thatd be good ig whatever you decide anyways thanks

I DO know who that is! And there have been quite a few MILF requests (as you’ll see) so all you MILF lovers will be happy going forward. :)

Anonymous said:

Hello first off big fan 2nd off im sorry if this is too much but I have abit of a list for ya if u can do these thats great if not its ok just sorry i know its alot. Emma thompson(saving mr banks) Sean young, (ace venture) Rhea Pearlman, ( matilda) Christina agulara( burlesque) sigourney weaver, (alien or ghostbusters) emma stone (cruela) thank u there will be a part 2

Heres part 2 its just ones I dont really have any specific thing in mind. Tia and Tamara. Idna menzel. Adele. Bonnie Tyler. Ruby rose. Sarah chalke. Kristen schaal. Melissa McCarthy. Megan trainer. Elizabeth gillies. Like i said if u can great if not thats alright atleast u'll have some stocked up for a rainy day thanks again and sorry again

Hello im the one who gave the list of requests sorry once again I just wanted to further explain one of them the christina Aguilera from burlesque one to be specific I would like the one where she is wearing the bowler hat with the loose frizz curls thats the only one I can think of to elaborate on the rest are up to u thanks again sorry again

Ok so this is A LOT of requests and in the future I would like to ask people to limit their requests to three celebs at a time, but I’ve never said that before so it wouldn’t be fair to the person who requested all these. So yes I can do these requests. The only one I won’t do is Sean Young from Ace Ventura because her character in Ace Ventura is really really transphobic (or, more specifically, how that character is written). And I can do that specific Christina Aguilera one. Also since this IS so many requests I’ll probably be sprinkling them in through instead of doing them all at once, & I already wrote an Elizabeth Gillies one coming out towards the end of May.

Anonymous said:

If possible could you do Elizabeth perkins as Wilma Flintstone I had the idea of it litterally being set in cave man times and depicting the forat instance of feminization, the first sissy, being of a weaker evolution and stuff causing the tribe to pick him as the tribes cave sissy

Oooo, sounds fun. Totally!

Anonymous said:

Could you do Marissa tomei? Was thinking hero type story by night hes a crime fighing vigilante by day She is a stay at home sissy wife waiting for hubby to get home to pleasure him

I can do this!

Anonymous said:

Could you try making one where a boy who’s always been short his entire life gets feminized by his friend? I was thinking someone like Skai Jackson would be great for this

Sure thing! I found one of Skai where she’s of age so I’ll use that. :) (I won’t use a GIF of here her though since most of them are from Jessie when she’s under 18)

Anonymous said:

I was wondering if you could do one about a college professor named Peter whose autocloset gets hacked by his students. They transform and feminize him into a sexy latina milf so they have someone sexy to look at during class. Actress of your choice, someone over 30 please.

Oooo, I’ve got the perfect celeb for this. ;)

Anonymous said:

Hi I actually have 3 u may have done them before but if u can thatd be great. 1 Natalie Portman (V for vendetta ) the little girl outfit with the pigtails I was thinking like a lost bet. 2 P!nk (beautiful trauma) the house wife look is so good. 3 Elizabeth olsen (wandavision) when shes in the bed wearing her costume like a morning after thing. Thats all like I said if u can thank u love ur captions

Ah gotcha. I can do these!

Anonymous said:

Hi id like to start off by saying i love your captions. Was wondering if you could do one of Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona flowers when she had Green hair as far as the story I dont really have anything other than green being the guys fav color idk hopefully you can do something with that anyways thank you for your time have a good one

I can work with this. :)

Anonymous said:

Hey I have a specific scene in mind its of kaley cuoco when she was on the big bang theory I dont remember the episode but its where shes sitting on the couch when her BF walks in and shes dressed in this purple lingerie and shes got her hair up its beautiful I was thinking if u could do a caption on that? Maybe like a roommates thing sorry I dont have enough info on the scene

I’VE HAD THIS IMAGE FOR SO LONG BUT COULDN’T THINK OF A STORY SO YES I CAN DO THIS! :D

Anonymous said:

Could u ro Lindsay sloane from bring it on I had to look up the name I just remember her as "Big red" what they called her in the movie

Yep! I love Bring it On. :)

Anonymous said:

Omg i love the Alex kingston caption u did recently whenever u get a chance could u do more River song captions also the billie piper one again whenever u get the chance

You got it. :)

Anonymous said:

Ok if you could i have an idea for a caption of a guy who wants to be internet famous but cant cut it as a guy so he pretends to be a lady on an onlyfans but doesnt show off anything too much then he gets surprised by his Male roommate who found out and his roommate blackmails him into making more "Private" videos to get cash I was thinking using meg turney if u could thanks

Sounds fun. Sure thing! :)

Anonymous said:

Hello I know you mightve done this one already but the one of Katy Perry from "Hey hey hey" music vid could u do another one from that still her with the blonde hair but when shes just waking up instead thank you

You bet!

Anonymous said:

I know you got alot of requests lately but if you dont mind one more could you do Drew Barrymore from Batman forever?

I had to double check how old she was in that but yes! I can do this. :)

Anonymous said:

I know I probably wont see this for awhile but if u could can u do a caption of debby ryan from jessie where she is dressed like a little kid and has her hair in pigtails? I was thinking like a babysitting gig gone wrong for the story like dress up goes too far or something anyawys thank u

Do you know what episode that’s from? I found the image and I think it looks great but I just want to make 100% sure that Jessie was an adult when she made it. If you know the episode feel free to message me & I can go ahead with it. :)

Anonymous said:

I have 3 if u could do them 1. Zazie beets 2. Zendaya 3. Tessa Thompson. Thats all thanks

I actually have Zazie Beets and Zendaya caps coming up before May ends, but you’ll get the Tessa Thompson one in June. :)

Anonymous said:

Hi could you do another caption tor jenna fischer from the office please?

Yep!

Anonymous said:

Could you do a cap where a teacher named Peter gets feminized into a latina housewife and use Marisol Nichols from Riverdale? Can't ignore the MILFs.

Damn right you can’t! I’ll be sure to do this. :)

Anonymous said:

Addison Rae or Ariana Grande please

I’ll do both! :)

@tammyboy25 said:

Hi there! I was wondering if you could please do one where a sister or best girlfriend guilt trips a boy into being their maid of honor for her wedding? Bachelorette party, Dress shopping, getting their hair done, dancing with other boys at the reception are some ideas I had. Thank you so much either way!!!

Ooooo I love this! You got it sweetie. :)

Anonymous said:

Wow, I really loved the "From the Amazons" caption you did with Wonder Woman! Could you do something similar with a guy named Rene put into the body of a sluttfied superheroine? Maybe Scarlet Witch/Wanda? Thanks!

“From the Amazons” has been getting a lot of love so thanks everyone! I can totally do this with an Elizabeth Olsen pic. :)

Anonymous said:

I'm not sure if youve seen falcon and the winter soldier yet but Erin kellyman who plays kharli in that is a relatively new actress so I could understand if you dont know her but if you do could you make a caption for her? Thank you

I actually do know who she is! I saw her in “Falcon & Winter Soldier” and Solo so I can totally do a cap with her. :)

Anonymous said:

Hi, yesterday I said how much I loved that Wonder Woman caption you did with Gakl Gadot. And I've since discovered the manips made by Saturdays24. My name is Rene, and I'd loved to be turned into a girl in one of his pics, particularly Taylor Swift! Thanks!

Sure thing! @saturdays24 gave me permission to use their stuff a few years ago so I can do any caps with their manips. :)

Anonymous said:

Can you please do Priyanka Chopra captions

Sure!

Anonymous said:

Can you do Lala Anthony captions. I am a big fan of her

Totally! (For some reason I can’t find a good GIF of her though)

Anonymous said:

Can you do a cap with the new Billie Eilish Vogue Pics? That would be so so amazing.

Anonymous said:

billie eilish or addison rae?

Anonymous said:

Hi I remember someone else asking for a billie eilish caption since she was of age now but it was still too recent to have any pics of her at the right age well now shes 19 and I just saw she was on the cover of vogue afew days ago ....would that work?

Don’t worry, a Billie Eilish cap from British Vogue is on the way! She is an adult now & so I can make caps with her. :) (Also to the person who asked about Addison Rae, like I said earlier I’ll make one for her too. :D)

Anonymous said:

I really liked ur newest caption of Kelly lebrock as a boss being spotted enfemme I was wondering if u could do a follow up to that one? Maybe with her from woman in red. Id just like to see the coworker confront the boss

I like that idea! Totally. :)

Anonymous said:

Could you do a caption with Jhene Aiko or Jenna Ortega? They’re both similar to me in body build so it would be pretty amazing to see them in a caption.

Jhene Aiko yes. Jenna Ortega MAYBE. Jenna Ortega only JUST turned 18 and that was during the COVID-19 pandemic so there aren’t going to be a lot of projects where she’s an adult to pull from. So if I can find something maybe otherwise you might just have to wait a bit. Sorry if that’s a bummer. :/

Anonymous said:

Can you do Nikita Dragun captions please?

I’ve no idea who this is, sorry.

Anonymous said:

Idk if u know the band pentatonix or not but if u do could u do a caption for Kirstin Maldonado they just came out with a music video for 90s medley and she is gorgeous in it much appreciated :)

I’ve actually done some Kristin Maldonado caps already so I can totally do another. :)

#Requests #Not a Caption

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whitewitchdani · 4 years

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Laters, Baby: Chapter 7

Read Chapter 6 Here

Word Count: 2248

Pairing: Winchester!Sister x Lucifer

Warnings: language, angst, canon typical violence, fluff

A/N: I hope you guys like chapter 7! As always let me know what you think and if you’d like to be tagged! :)

Laters, Baby Masterlist

“This is a horrible idea.” Dean deadpanned.

“Do you have any better ideas, Dean? Because I don’t, Cas doesn’t, and I only told Bobby to look up anything he could about soulmates; we don’t need him freaking out over this. Anyways we’re human and can’t just waltz into Hell without either being dead or with some form of demonic assistance. This is our only option.” Sam gave his brother a sympathetic look and continued to gather the summoning supplies.

“How do we know he’ll even help us?”

“Well Crowley wants Lucifer gone and if we retrieve Y/N it may throw him off balance enough for him to make a mistake. Also, from my observations it seemed Crowley always did tend to favor Y/N out of all of you which may make him more inclined to retrieve her from Hell.” Cas stated nonchalantly as he supervised Sam preparing the summoning ritual.

“Okay, it’s ready.” Sam placed the bowl of ingredients on top of the sigil and used a knife to cut his hand, bleeding into the bowl, “Et ad congregandum... eos corum me.” He completed the ritual by dropping a lit match into the bowl, igniting the ingredients. The men looked around, awaiting the arrival of the crossroads demon.

“You know, demons do carry cellphones these days. Summoning is so 14th century.” The hunters and the angel spun around, finding a man clad in all black standing behind them.

“Crowley.” Dean grumbled.

“Moose, Squirrel, and your pet angel; lovely. Well, what is it that was so important that it required a summoning? And where’s Moosette? Never seen her too far from you lot.”

All the men cast their eyes downward as they were reminded that Y/N was, in fact, not there. Sam was the one to reply, “Well, Crowley, that’s the reason we called.”

“What? Little sister run away? I’m not a babysitter in case you haven’t noticed.”

“Will you shut up for two minutes Crowley? This is important.” Dean growled.

“Testy, testy. All right, get on with it.”

Dean sighed, “She’s gone. Taken actually.”

“And why do you need me? Isn’t that what you two do? Guns blazing to save the damsel in distress?”

“Because we can’t go where they took her. But you can.” Sam informed the demon.

“I don’t...” The men waited for the dots to connect in Crowley’s head. “Wait, Hell? Y/N’s in Hell? Why the hell is your sister in Hell?”

“That is... complicated.” Sam explained.

“If you are wanting me to go into Hell to retrieve her when I’m currently public enemy #1 you bloody well better uncomplicate it.”

“Lucifer has her Crowley. Meg grabbed her from a park and took her to him in Hell. We have no idea where in Hell she’s being kept but it won’t be too far from wherever Lucifer is and is probably pretty well guarded.” Sam rubbed the back of his neck.

“But why, Moose? You or Squirrel I’d understand but your sister has been relatively quiet in most of this apocalypse business.”

“Y/N is,” Cas began but was cut off with dirty looks from both Winchester brothers. “The whole of perdition already knows most likely, he should too if he’s going to attempt to retrieve her.” Dean still looked skeptical but Sam nodded. Crowley looked genuinely curious, what could be so important? “Y/N was crafted by God to be a soulmate; something incredibly rare in itself. However, even more rare, she was crafted for an angel, more specifically an archangel. She is meant to be the soulmate to Lucifer.”

Crowley’s eyes looked as if they were going to explode from his head. The boys didn’t blame him; their reactions were similar. “Lucifer has a sodding soulmate? And it’s a Winchester? And I thought nothing could surprise me anymore. So, you want me to go into Hell and get her. I have an inkling of where she’s most likely being kept if he’s being civil towards her. Why should I do this?”

“Because if we take Lucifer’s soulmate from him it should throw his general bearing off, making him weak until he recalibrates from being in her presence. The longer they are together, the weaker they will be when they are apart; at least until the soul connection is completed.” Castiel almost whispered the last sentence, not wanting the brothers to overreact. Too late.

“Completed? What do you mean by the soul connection being completed Cas?” Dean asked incredulously.

“Consummated, Dean. Lucifer and Y/N must consummate the connection for them to be actually bound and connected by the soul. However, neither party can forcefully complete the bond. So Lucifer cannot force her by magic or any other manner to complete it, it has to be completely consensual,” Cas informed the group. Sam’s face went white while Crowley smirked and Dean looked confused.

“Consummate. You mean...”

“Horizontal tango, squirrel.” Crowley laughed.

“Yes. Crowley put it rather crudely, but yes. Your sister would have to have intercourse with Lucifer to complete the bond.”

“Cas, please don’t say intercourse. Especially when you’re talking about my sister.” Dean rubbed a hand down his face. This angel was going to kill him. Again. “Well Crowley, will you do it or not?” Crowley looked skeptical. Why would he go to the number one place he should avoid for the Winchesters?

“I understand your hesitation. But you said you might know where she is being kept which gives you an advantage. You should do this because it’s an opportunity to weaken Lucifer, which is one step closer to defeating him. Also because, why I am unaware, you seem to have a soft spot for Y/N and she is currently in Hell. With Lucifer. Those two things together are not good.” Cas deadpanned to the crossroads demon.

“Don’t read my mind, wings. Makes me feel violated.” Crowley paused, “Bloody hell, alright. I’ll go. But I make no guarantees. I will save my own hide if it comes down to getting her out or staying alive. Deal?”

Dean and Sam looked at each other and had one of their silent conversations. They were both skeptical and Crowley’s last statement didn’t help that. “Fine, deal. Just please, Crowley. Try to get her out.” Sam pleaded with the demon as they shook hands.

“I’m a man of my word Sam. I will do everything in my power to retrieve her. Like the angel said, for some reason I actually like the female version of you.” With that, Crowley snapped his fingers and disappeared and all Sam, Dean, and Castiel could do was wait. Wait for a demon to rescue their sister from the devil.

They were screwed.

It had been a day since you had woken up in Hell, and you hadn’t seen hide or hair of Lucifer since he brought you to this room. You were utterly confused. For being the devil, Lucifer was being awfully nice to you. He healed you, treated you well, and gave you these nice chambers; it made no sense. You expected wrath and rudeness, not kindness and a bit of domesticity. What was it exactly that Lucifer wanted from you?

Your stomach growled. Oh yeah, while Lucifer had healed you, you still hadn’t eaten in over a day. You made your way into the kitchen of the small... apartment? You still weren’t sure what to call this place. You checked the cabinets: empty. Then the fridge: also empty. You rolled your eyes, what happened to this place having everything I needed? you thought to yourself. This meant you had to deal with one of the demons standing outside the door. Marvelous.

You walked to the ornate door and took a deep breath. You were completely unarmed and had to ask a demon to get food for you, this was ridiculous. You opened the door to see the back of a large man with dark skin in a suit on the other side. He turned to face you and flashed his already dark eyes onyx when they met yours. “What are you doing? You know you can’t leave these chambers.”

“Yes I’m aware but your boss neglected to put food in this place. I’m human and have to eat every once in a while to, ya know, live. So, can you get me some?”

The man rolled his eyes. He was obviously less than thrilled with his job assignment. “Seriously? Why should I do anything for you, Winchester? Wait until the King returns and I’m sure he’d do it for you.”

Your already thin patience was becoming nonexistent. “Look, its not like I have much of a choice in this. I haven’t eaten in over a day and Lucifer told me to come to you for anything I need...”

“James.” He sighed.

“James. So do your damn job. You know, I wonder, if I exorcised you while in Hell, would it work? Would it force you from your vessel and to a different part of Hell or would it just be unpleasant? Shall we find out?”

He flashed his eyes black at the huntress once more, “Don’t even think about it, Winchester. I’m here to make sure you don’t leave, not be your errand boy.”

You shrugged and began chanting, “Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spirtus, omnis satanica-” That was as far as you got in the exorcism before the demon lunged into the room, grabbing you by the throat and pinning you to the wall. You attempted to buck the demon off, but he punched you in the face once, twice, three times and stalled your struggle.

“You know, when I first saw Meg bring you down here I was excited. Finally, another Winchester after big bro made the big angelic escape; it should be fun. But no, Lucifer brings you down here and treats you like royalty. Why? You’re human, a hunter, and a Winchester. Maybe he isn’t the leader we thought he was. Oh well, at least I get to kill you. I’ll be a goddamn hero to most for it.”

Your vision was beginning to darken at the edges. You weren’t going to be conscious much longer, and dead not long after that. As you were beginning to teeter into unconsciousness, the pressure was suddenly gone and you fell to the ground. After a few seconds, you gasped a big breath and began to cough. You looked up at your savior and through your blurred vision saw an interesting sight: Lucifer holding the demon off the ground by the throat and looking pissed.

“Now James, this is not what I assigned you to do. Last time I checked I said to guard the door and get her the things she needed, not to choke the life out of her against the wall. Do you know why she’s down here James?” The demon shook his head and Lucifer flashed his eyes red, “That’s because you are insignificant and not privy to such information. You’re a demon, I’m the devil, and I’m tired of this conversation.” Lucifer snapped the fingers of his free hand and the demon turned to dust. He fanned away the remnants of the demon floating in his face and turned to the coughing woman on the floor, “Are you alright?”

You attempted to stand but fell to your knees, that demon did a number on you. “Peachy,” you were able to rasp out, flashing him a sarcastic “OK” sign with your hand.

Lucifer rolled his eyes as you continued to cough, reaching his hand out to you. “C’mon kid, let’s get you up.” He grabbed your left hand and pulled you to your feet, leading you to the bed in the other room. “Go on, get in.”

You looked at the devil quizzically but climbed into the king size bed, sitting up against the headboard. The mattress was unlike anything you had ever felt before; a lifetime of squeezing onto uncomfortable motel beds with Sam made this feel like an actual cloud. You sighed and closed your eyes as you sunk down into the bed, feeling Lucifer sit next to you. “Are you alright?” he repeated.

“I’m fine, Lucifer. I’ve had worse.” You sat in silence for a moment as you picked at a loose stitch on the comforter. You looked back up at the devil, unable to keep your questions to yourself any longer. “I don’t understand what’s going on. Why do you care? Why am I here? Why are you being so nice to me?”

Lucifer sighed, “I will tell you everything, Y/N. I promise. But not right now. Right now, you need to sleep and I need to deal with my demon problems. It’s so hard to find good help these days.” You let out a small laugh, which made the devil smile, something he’d noticed himself doing a lot since you arrived in Hell. He pushed a stray hair behind your ear, “Get some sleep, angel. I’ll be back in a couple hours.” Kissing your forehead, he stood and headed for the throne room.

You watched as Lucifer left your chambers, a part of you wishing he would stay. Your eyes widened at your own realization. You were beginning to see him differently. In the day you’d been in Hell Lucifer had been great to you, healing you, saving you, and now he was pushing hair behind your ears and kissing your forehead and calling you angel. He was becoming less like the devil, and more like your soulmate.

Read Chapter 8 Here

Tag List:

@lovesamwinchester @tomhiddleston-is-mischief @loco-latte @stuckinsaudi1 @sugar-nico

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padme-amitabha · 4 years

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Is Anakin and Vader the same person?

I think I have talked about this before but I’ll reiterate the main points.

Of course they are the same person at different points in life. I don’t choose to follow Disney’s interpretation of anything about Star Wars. They hire writers and pay them to write their own fanfiction and interpretation and it’s far from George’s vision so I don’t see any reason to. Only 1-6 movies are canon to me with few exceptions such as 2003 Clone Wars and a few legends material but I’ll always put more emphasis on the movies.

Now from Revenge of the Sith movie we see Anakin become Vader (and by that I mean undergoing a surgery and being put into the suit). While the mask is being lowered we can see the fear in his eyes and his face is still recognizable. Fast forward 23 years and there’s no reason to believe he’s a different person. The only time he talks about his name is when Luke brings it up and he says “that name no longer has any meaning for me” not “I destroyed Anakin” or something similar to that. He is completely right because obviously it doesn’t hold any meaning for him - everyone who called him and knew him by that name (Shmi, Obi-Wan and Padmé) were all dead and his master called him Vader. And he had gotten used to the name in over two decades. Also, Palpatine probably preferred that he distance himself from his past hence referring to Luke as “the offspring of Anakin Skywalker.” Vader wasn’t a personality; it was just a new name he went by and since the mention of his real name brought back unpleasant memories he tried not to think of himself as the same person as a coping mechanism. This is why Vader tells Luke it’s too late for him to redeem himself - because he knows he commited some terrible deeds and hurt his loved ones and he can’t ever take that back. If he wasn’t Anakin, he wouldn’t feel that guilt or remorse for Anakin’s wife and mentor.

It’s the same as Padmé in TPM really - we see Padmé first as Queen Amidala who is a regal authoritative figure and then we see her true self when she’s in disguise.

Anakin winced, then quickly picked up another holograph, this one showing Padmé a couple of years later, wearing official robes and standing between two older and similarly robed Legislators. He looked back at the first holo, then to this one, noting that Padmé’s expression seemed much more severe here. “My first day as an Apprentice Legislator,” Padmé explained.

Then, as if she was reading his mind, she added, “See the difference?” Anakin studied the holograph a moment longer, then looked up and laughed, seeing Padmé wearing that same long and stern expression. She laughed as well, then squeezed his shoulder and went back to her packing.

Anakin put the holographs down side by side and looked at them for a long, long time. Two sides of the woman he loved.

This is from the AOTC novelization and this can be applied to Anakin as well. (More about similarities between Darth Vader and Queen Amidala in this post.) Just like Queen Amidala is really Padmé Naberrie, in the same way Darth Vader is really just Anakin Skywalker.

The reason why he has a different demeanor in OT is mostly due to his age and because he had years to adapt to his new persona. Vader in ROTS didn’t immediately become all stoic and impassive - he got very emotional on hearing Padmé’s death just like he would as Anakin. Vader isn’t some kind of demon possessing Anakin - Vader is Anakin after he has lost everything and he isn’t holding back as he did as a Jedi. It sounds very poetic to state both Anakin and Padmé died on the same day but Anakin truly didn’t though. Anakin lived on for years and died a redeemed man on the death star. The ROTS novelization supports this and it was approved by Lucas so it’s authentic to me.

And there is one blazing moment in which you finally understand that there was no dragon. That there was no Vader. That there was only you. Only Anakin Skywalker.

That it was all you. Is you.

Only you.

You did it.

You killed her.

You killed her because, finally, when you could have saved her, when you could have gone away with her, when you could have been thinking about her, you were thinking about yourself …

I do think it was Anakin who choked Padmé on Mustafar even though some people like to blame it on “Vader”. Anakin was unhinged on Mustafar but even in the beginning of ROTS, he was beginning to show some aggression. Though people complain the first part of ROTS is slow and too much happens in the latter half and he falls too suddenly, that’s not the case. This moment has been building up from the very first movie to the first half of ROTS. The fall isn’t just that one action of attacking Mace Windu, he was gradually falling to the dark side for years starting from his mother’s death and he only made the actual decision in the rumination scene. That’s when he finally sheds a tear and makes the conscious decision to join the dark side.

For the record, I think conflict has always been a part of Anakin Skywalker. The prequels portray him in a negative light, particularly in the last two films. Anakin in the movies is a very, very flawed individual and even meant to be unlikable at times. He struggles with his emotions, he struggles to communicate with others and he struggle to fit in the order. I wouldn’t say he was mentally stable either - he could be unpredictable and his actions depend on his mood. But the movies also show the good aspects of him, especially about people he cared about. He even starts off as a kid with a good heart. The conflict and his flaws cause him to fall to the dark side and his good qualities (like selflessness and loyalty when it comes to family) ultimately redeem him.

So I don’t think “Anakin” was the good side of him and “Vader” was the dark side. Vader is Anakin after he has lost everything he cared about and since he is not a Jedi anymore he is no longer required to hold back on anything. Ambition and desire to rule the galaxy is often associated with “Vader” but I think people forget Anakin was just as ambitious and in ROTS being denied the rank of Master deeply upsets him and increases his resentment towards the Jedi. He admitted that he wanted more in ROTS even though he knows he shouldn’t. He also told Padmé in AOTC that he would prefer dictatorship over democracy so it’s not like his ideals changed either. Vader until he discovered he had a son had no interest in ruling the galaxy. Later on he essentially offered Luke the same choice he gave Padmé on Mustafar. From the conversation in AOTC, it seems he’s more dissatisfied with the system and being from a lawless and harsh world he sees dictatorship as the solution. While he doesn’t want to actively take part in it, he wants to enforce the system which is exactly what he does later on (and perhaps he preferred leaving the actual ruling bit to Padmé or Luke). I don’t see Vader as “evil” - I mean the only times he killed people were for failure and he did keep Admiral Piett alive since he proved to be competent. Vader in OT (when Luke isn’t concerned) is just doing his job and punishing inefficient people who aren’t letting him do his job. He only serves the emperor and does his bidding. After Luke rejects his offer, Vader still plans to seek him out but in ROTJ his resolve definitely grew weaker and it’s more like he’s imploring him to reconsider than being forceful.

Anakin as we have seen in AOTC is very much capable of mass murder (and confessed that he felt they deserved it) so should he really be defined as the good side? You could even argue as Vader he killed people for legitimate reasons whereas Anakin killed defenseless people when he was blinded by rage. And even in ROTS he kills Dooku as revenge. I’m not saying Anakin is evil (that would be grossly oversimplying things); I am saying he was a complex character. The reason why he turned out the way he is has already been explored in the prequels but I also believe it’s a combination of nature and nurture. Anakin as a child has a good heart, wants to help others and free the slaves but in TPM script/novelization he lashes out at a Rodian who claims he won the race by cheating, meaning he didn’t handle accusation very well. It might be dismissed as a childish reaction but we see he struggled to control his temper in later years as well. A person has both good and bad qualities and that’s the case with Anakin here, though his negative traits were expressed more. But the prequels are all about exploring his downfall so it was necessary to highlight them.

Anakin to me was never a “hero” who fell to the dark side due to circumstances; he was a complex character who made some hard choices. If the roles were reversed and Padmé was the Jedi with Anakin’s life at risk, I don’t think she would go that far to commit murder. Sure Palpatine is very manipulative but at the same time he understood that it was in Anakin’s nature to be manipulated very easily. You need to have some form of fear, insecurity and resentment in you for someone to utilize them.

I blame TCW, Rebels and the fanboyish Marvel comics for dissociating Anakin from Vader. “Anakin Skywalker was weak, I destroyed him” again makes him very one-dimensional than accepting the fact that people can be morally complex. Not to mention the Marvel comics’ tendency to make him react violently and unnecessarily ruthless to prove he isn’t Anakin drastically reduces his character depth for me. It may also have to do with the fact that movie Anakin was not well-received so they are trying to distance him from Darth Vader, whom fanboys worship. Anakin’s story is incomplete without Vader - he made a choice to embrace the dark side and sacrifice his morality so like the tragic hero he is, he has to suffer and face the consequences for his actions. Similarly, Vader’s story is incomplete without Anakin - without Anakin he is a faceless man. Sure he’s mysterious but without his past we would not know what a complex character he was or sympathise with him.

If Vader wasn’t really Anakin, he wouldn’t have felt remorse for his actions or believe it was too late for him. If he wasn’t Anakin he wouldn’t refer to Luke as his son and if he was so desperate to erase any trace of Anakin, he would have definitely killed Luke as he was a reminder of his past. It was Vader who saved Luke in the end and while it is fine to figuratively say “Anakin was back”, taking it literally undermines his sacrifice. It takes a lot to come back from the dark side, face your demons and after being that way for decades, attempt to redeem yourself when you believe you’re far too gone. He redeemed himself as an old man after a long life full of sorrow and regrets, which also sounds much better than saying “he was evil no longer” and that “Anakin was back”. It makes everything seem black and white and the prequels were essentially all about exploring the gray area. Luke didn’t even know “Anakin” and really where was Anakin when “Vader” cut off his hand? Or fought him? Vader’s inner struggle was between accepting he was far too gone and going on as he did for years, and accepting change, letting it go and forgiving himself for his son’s sake - not a struggle between two personalities fighting to take control. If they were different personalities, Anakin wouldn’t have almost all of Vader’s qualities; he wouldn’t be morally conflicted both as Anakin and Vader. George said the reason why he later replaced his force ghost as a younger version was because he stopped being Anakin after he fell to the dark side and I have to say that’s the only time I disagree with George because Anakin in prequels still had dark tendencies so I do believe Vader never stopped being Anakin hence the original version with the old force ghost made more sense to me and the new version does rob some of the depth from his character. I’m sure George has his reasons - he might have wished to preserve the black and white simplicity of the OT but after the complexity of the prequels, it seems more appropriate for the saga to have a more imperfect, realistic ending. In retrospect, it seems to me they are very much the same person when you study his personality and consider his whole life, which was full of ups and downs.

#ask #my thoughts #anakin skywalker #darth vader

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jadespeedster17 · 4 years

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*Laces fingers together with a smirk* Soooo, lots of people do Sanders Sides Halloween stuff, right? Well here’s my AU on this. Based kind of the Goosebumps movie, in that it’s about characters coming out of books, but it doesn’t follow the same plot except getting characters into the books again. You’ll see.

The Forevermore Night! (Forevermore AU.)

this AU mostly is a reader insert, would make it a choose your own adventure but I’m bad at those.

So, characters and plot, won’t spoil too much for plot but here’s the basics.

PLOT: You are an average college student getting by for another Halloween alone as usual watching scary movies, scrolling through Tumblr, and maybe going by yourself to a haunted house. That is until a package from your dear friend overseas comes in, it was your late/early birthday gift. Inside the box you find a series of books that your friend thinks you’d really like.

The Forevermore Series.

Supposedly it’s about different types of creatures who each haunt the reader in a choose your own adventure style. Seems pretty fun. And looks like there are 7 in total, perfect for a night of Halloween in your house.

The books normally come individually, but your friend got them in a bulk in one giant book. They always did know you. Halloween comes tomorrow as you settle down to get a headstart in reading. However, upon opening the book a ringing fills your ears and you’re out cold.

Upon waking the book in blank, and the seven characters turns out are very alive and seeking to cause mischief and find themselves a new host.

Now you and the writers of the books, Joan and Talyn, have to round of the characters and get them back into the story before you become their next host and may or may not cause the world to be plunged into the world of the Forevermore. With you as the King/Queen leader as a puppet for the creations.

However, something it’s quiet right, these people don’t act like book tales but rather real people. And Joan and Talyn refuses to answer any questions about how or why they are alive. Just that they were put into the books for a reason. There is more questions than answers, and you aren’t sure who your trust or who is telling the truth.

Because if they were put into the books, that would mean they used to be real people. But if that’s true... then why were they put into the books in the first place? And why are they so afraid that a man named Thomas got out?

CHARACTERS

Patton Hart aka The Doll Maker - Ever been afraid of dolls as a kid? Yeah here’s a reason why to be afraid. Each doll is made with special care and crafted by hand when made by the Hart Family. Made from all sorts of materials and made to look however you please. With such life likeness it’s easy to see why they are famous and so expensive. Patton loves each and every one of the kiddos he crafts, making sure only to have the best. Even if that means plunking the eyes from a naughty child to use for the perfect child. Or making a bad kid suffer so that the good kid can gain such soft skin. Naughty children should know better, but his kiddos are always well behaved. And always make the family happy. Parents deserve good children, the world does too. And who is going to miss such bad children anyway? Certainly not him or their parents, not when they have their perfect kid. And besides, bad kids make perfect parts for his little kiddos. As for teenagers and young adults, well Patton still has use for them, some parts are useable, but he always does need extra hands around the workshop. After all, it isn’t hard to rework the brain, and they are always so much nicer once he’s done. Yes, he love his kiddos, of all ages.

Roman Prince aka The Happy Ending - Every fairytale deserves their prince, their knight in shining armor, their hero. Such is Roman’s story, ‘The Happily Ever After’, the tale of a knight who saves princes and princesses, by basically kidnapping and enslaving them to his kingdom. The princesses bring much to his land, brave souls looking to rescue them, and the princes are pretty things to look at, which Roman loves. He is their hero, he saved them all and brought them to a place where they will always be happy. There is no time here, no pain here, no need for trivial mortal things. They are forever here, forever young and happy. Roman is such a nice knight to them, but some do need to be punished, he hates having to harm the ones he saves. But they need to know the outside world is horrible, here they are safe with him. With his powers to create whatever he wants, snap thing into existence, he’s very powerful. Prince of the Forevermore with his brother and previous king. He always is looking to add to his collection of pretty things. That or a good fight, which ever comes first.

Logan Adams aka The Mad Scientist - What would the world be without ethics on testing and creating? Well Logan is a good example of what happens when you throw our morals and feelings. Logan has made far advancements in the scientific field, if it wasn’t for the fact he likes to trap people for testing his newest creations. Logan is passive about life, being he found a way to make himself immortal he tends to disregard those who aren’t. Honestly mortality is just so stupid, when your life is condensed into a century at most. You have to play games to escape his traps, and use logic should he ask you do anything. To him, it’s all a game, he’s only interested in the end result. But he does enjoy a challenge, and if you can outsmart him, color him impress. He may even offer up a golden liquid to you as a reward. After all there aren’t many who can outsmart him.

Virgil Spider aka The Welcome Home Party - Remember that haunted house you were always afraid of? That always seemed like no one lived there. Then one day you gather up the courage to peak inside and see if it is haunted or abandoned. As you walk in the house seems lively, the hallway lit up in a nice warm glow. And you turn to see someone coming down the stairs. It’s your older brother, Virgil. Right, this is your house. You’ve lived here since you were a kid with your big brother. He’s happy your home asking what took you so long. What ever did take you so long? You can’t remember, but it doesn’t matter. Your big brother is always better than most other peoples brothers. Virgil always knows how you feel, and always does his best to make you happy. He gives the best kinds of hugs, and only ever opens up to you. You love your big brother after all, and he loves you too. Virgil loves all of his family, he loves to hold you, love the way you smell, the way your blood tastes on his tongue. You always seem to get weaker and sleepier each time Virgil holds you. Maybe you should rest for a bit, Virgil says he’ll keep watch, so no monsters come. You can trust him, he’s family. So what if he’s part spider, he’d never hurt you.

Remus Prince aka The Slimy Monster - There is a reason these books are rated for young adults. And it’s not just the gore and such, it’s when you read Book 5, that’s when it’s becomes clear. Remus is a slimy monster with eight tentacle like appendages. He lives in a camp for young adults in the lake, and the stories told of him are meant to keep campers out of the lakes at dark. Not that it always works, as most college students think they know everything. So when allured out to the water by the sweet sound of a siren, they don’t think twice. Guess that’s why so many go missing. Remus loves his trinkets and toys, he loves to drown them when they loose their usefulness. And he also loves the sounds they make when he does use them. By this point he’ll have enough children to make his species the dominate ones. Life is great for this sea monster, and it’s about to get even better.

Janus Silver aka The Great Magician - Everyone loves to watch magic shows right? Loves to get their palms read, the cards look at, and their futures unfold. Some people also love to go see hypnotists and see if they really can use a pocket watch to put them under. Ofcourse there is the risk factor and you have to sign a form to make sure you can go in. No one ever reads them anyway, just sums up your a willing participant. Called up to the stage by a handsome man that wears a half mask, taking your hands in warm gloved ones. Leading you to sit down, and just to relax. You do funny things on stage under his guide and such, unable to stop yourself. But not that you want to. Suddenly you find each time after you wake up in strange places. You start to lose hours of time, unable to recall what you were doing. Your mind is no longer your own, you respond to commands on the snap of gloved fingers. You obey, that’s all there is too it. And soon, your mindless, you’re his doll, his puppet, you do as he says. You’ll believe whatever you tells you, his little sleeper agent. What’s his goals, honestly no one knows, the two faced snake only speaks in riddles and lies. We can only hope he just likes to have people under his control and that there isn’t a deeper plan. Such as pure anarchy, or even starting the purge. Who knows what’s going through his mind. Moral of the story, always read the fine print.

Thomas Sanders aka The King and The Host - Not much is known about him, his story is still in the making. He’s locked far within the pages, but that’s what they want you to think. You’ve seen him alot, he’s in each of their stories. Even if you don’t know it. Put together the pages, it makes his story of what happened to him. That’s what he wants you to do after all, help him out. He’s been trapped for years, they trapped him with them. It was an accident, he swears. Question you should ask is... do you trust him?

Want to know more, I take asks! :D

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agent-cupcake · 4 years

Text

The Holy Kingdom of Faerghus: A History

Basically, this is a more coherent version of the Fódlan’s history document I’ve been spastically adding to for a while now as a reference for myself. I don’t know if anyone’s even interested in this sort of thing aside from me, but I had fun with it regardless. Potential spoilers if you haven’t completed the game, I suppose.

Strap in, this one’s a doozy.

What was to become the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus was originally the northern part of the Adrestian Empire, a monolithic country covering all of Fódlan after the War of Heroes.

In the Imperial Year 747, the nobles of the northern Empire acted upon their desire to gain independence. This movement was led by Loog, a descendant of Blaiddyd from the Ten Elites, his mysterious tactician Pan, and Kyphon of the Fraldarius line and Loog’s close friend.

However, it doesn’t seem as if things were as simple as that. I’m going to use an excerpt from Burnt Remnants of a Report, a book found in the Abyss library. It’s unclear who the author is, but this document was very interesting while compiling Faerghus’s history together.

Item 18, Part 5

… The Faerghus rebellion … I harbor doubts about the army Loog has raised. How did he recruit soldiers without raising suspicions in the Empire? How did he acquire those mysterious weapons, so like Heroes' Relics? What is the true identity of Pan, the tactician rumored to have been integral to Loog's victories? And Those Who Slither in Dark…

The first point of interest was that one of Edelgard’s reasons for beginning the war was that the Church had artificially segmented Fodlan for their own benefit, but this implies that it was actually Those Who Slither in the Dark. At this point in history, it makes sense that Slither’s would have a desire for a segmented Fódlan, as the Adrestian Empire was crafted at Seiros’s will. Moreover, this would be ideal in regards to causing malcontent and constructing war, doing what they lacked the strength to achieve on their own.

This document also seems to imply that Pan was a member of Those Who Slither in the Dark - an Agarthan - which could make sense considering how little was recorded about him. Although that makes it especially funny that Ferdinand compares Byleth to Pan.

The “mysterious weapons, so like the Heroes’ Relics” could be stolen Sacred Weapons, lost Crest Stone Weapons, or the copy weapons Slither’s was shown to be capable of making. The Sword of Moralta is a Sacred Weapon of Fraldarius, and there’s another document in the Abyss library that might relate to this connection and possibly that Slithers could have ownership of it... But I digress.

In 747, the War of the Eagle and Lion, the battle for the Kingdom’s independence from the Empire, began. It lasted four years until Faerghus’s victory in 751 on the Tailtean Plains. At this point, the Church of Seiros stepped in and helped to mediate peace between the two countries. House Charon was integral to these proceedings, seeing that the Kingdom’s independence was recognized by all parties and secured by the Empire and Church.

On the founding day - the twenty-first of the Red Wolf Moon in Imperial Year 751 - the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus became an official country, and Loog, King of Lions, ascended to the throne as king. Despite the potential involvement of Slithers in the rebellion, Faerghus’ identity was forged out of gratitude and respect towards the church for mediating their founding which created a culture with an emphasis on piety and support of the Church.

Soon after Faerghus’s independence was assured, the Empire constructed Arianrhod, the Fortress City occasionally referred to as the Silver Maiden. The city was built in Rowe territory on the border between the countries. Once construction was complete, Rowe changed allegiances and gifted the city to the Kingdom in exchange for the title of Count.

In Imperial Year 801, only a few decades after the founding of Faerghus, the nobles of the Leicester region also rebelled against the Empire. They found themselves unable to maintain control, however, and were commandeered by the opportunistic Kingdom who wished to establish their power as a young nation.

With the Leicester territory still under Kingdom control, King Klaus I ruled until his death in 861. Details of his rule are seemingly unimportant, as his name is only notable due to the will he left after he died which laid out plans for his three sons to divide the Kingdom and rule as archdukes of the Eastern Kingdom, Western Kingdom, and Leicester territories. To return to the report from earlier:

Item 22, Part 2

The shadowed order of the Knights of Seiros believes that King Klaus I of Faerghus was assassinated. Everyone believes that his will, which demands the territory be divided among the three princes and fails to name a successor, is a fake. The purpose was likely to involve the Leicester region and display a greater military force than the Empire...

Once again, if this report is to be believed, the events that caused the involvement and subsequent fragmentation of the Leicester Alliance were orchestrated by Those Who Slither in the Dark.

Whoever created the will meant to undermine the power structure of the Kingdom, as failing to name a successor meant that when the Archduke of the Leicester territory died in 881, the nobles of that area were able to once again make a bid for independence. This time, they were led by the Duke of Riegan. This rebellion began the Crescent Moon War, which ended in 901 with a victory on the part of the Leicester territory, which formed their own country under the banner of the Leicester Alliance.

In Imperial year 1101, the Kingdom and Empire cooperated with the Alliance to construct Fodlan’s Locket as a safeguard from the Almyran threat to the east.

King Lambert ascended to the throne of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus sometime before 1162. Although he was the second child, his older brother Rufus lacked a crest and thus wasn’t seen as fit to rule. Late in 1162, Prince Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd was born, the first and only child of King Lambert and his unnamed wife.

In 1168, King Lambert and Rodrigue set out to claim the southern half of the barren, tribal country of Sreng, likely because of the constant threat the warrior clans posed to the northern territories of Faerghus.

The fact that they stopped with only taking half the country leads me to believe that it was something like a scare tactic, a display of overwhelming dominance. It doesn’t seem as if the land had any real value, but King Lambert might have seen a dominating display of strength as the only way to deal with the warrior culture of Sreng. More than that, Faerghus’s own warrior culture might have prevented any other means of dealing with Sreng to be discussed.

Around 1169, a plague tore through Faerghus, claiming the life of the queen consort - Dimitri’s mother. The year isn’t explicitly stated, but in 1169 Dimitri would have been seven and Yuri (who got the plague and was subsequently cured by Aubin) was nine, so that date is late enough to match up with a reasonable timeline for Yuri but early enough that Dimitri’s lack of memories about his mother can make sense.

Around this same time, a woman named Cornelia, a highly capable scholar and mage, managed to cure the plague as well as aid in fixing the unfavorable conditions of Faerghus and especially Fhirdiad. For her efforts, King Lambert gave her a court position and became reliant on her aid.

While I don’t subscribe to the idea that Cornelia was always a member of Those Who Slither in the Dark at first, there is an argument to be made about the nature of the plague and her appearing out of nowhere. It doesn’t make sense to me that the game would go out of its way to mention her major personality shift. I also don’t believe that Slither’s had very much sway in the Kingdom up to this point, not until the Tragedy of Duscur. Either way, if Cornelia was switched out with a member of Slithers it would have had to be soon after she cured the plague, as Hapi was kidnapped for Cornelia’s experiments in 1169.

In 1171, the Adrestian Empire was thrust into turmoil due to the Insurrection of the Seven. Despite his involvement in the event, Lord Volkhard Arundel - given a title by the marriage between his sister Anselma and the now powerless Emperor Ionius IX - helped his sister Anselma and niece Edelgard escape the Empire to the Kingdom. He trusted Cornelia with care of his sister - whose name was changed to Patricia - and settled elsewhere with his niece. Cornelia mediated the relationship and secret marriage between King Lambert and Patricia, becoming Patricia’s only outside contact aside from her new husband and step-son, Dimitri.

In 1173, Lambert and Dimitri visited Volkhard and Edelgard, presumably so the two heirs could get to know each other and arrangements between Lambert and Volkhard could be made. At this point, Volkhard’s situation was incredibly precarious, and Lambert was taking on a lot of risk with his interactions with Imperial nobility. Ignorant to all that, Edelgard and Dimitri spent the year becoming friends. Dimitri was not told that his step-mother was Edelgard’s mother, and Lambert did not allow his new wife to reunite with her brother or daughter. Aside from Dimitri, Edelgard was as isolated as Patricia, neither allowed contact with others. It is possible that Volkhard and Lambert planned to arrange a marriage between the heirs in an attempt to salvage the Imperial throne and bolster it with the Kingdom’s strength, although there was a risk of uprising or being attacked by doing something so drastic. In 1174, however, Volkhard’s identity was taken by Slither’s leader Thales and he and Edelgard abruptly left the Kingdom to return to the Empire.

Around this time, King Lambert began to build relations with Duscur. In 1176, Lambert made a bold display of peace - or a bold power play against the weaker country - by setting out with his family and all his best knights to Duscur so he could finalize relations between the two countries. This ended in the fiery deaths of nearly everyone who had gone on the trip, Prince Dimitri being one of the only survivors. This was, of course, the Tragedy of Duscur.

I’d like to go over some of my thoughts about this all. There’s a lot to unpack.

1) King Lambert’s treatment of Duscur was far more peaceful than the way Faerghus interacted with Sreng. I’m a bit of a cynic so my first thought was that Duscur’s resource-rich land was valuable enough that it was smarter to avoid a full-scale battle that could damage the area. Then again, his willingness to interact with Lord Arundel shows that he isn’t as separatist as others of Faerghus. Besides, the circumstances of both situations are different and we don’t know much about either... or King Lambert for that matter. Something to think about, King Lambert is an interesting character to me.

2) As I mentioned before, it seems to me that the involvement of Slithers in the Kingdom was minimal before the breaking point of the Tragedy of Duscur. Discontent wasn’t overt in the same way as the Empire, the rot hadn’t taken hold within the higher powers because the most powerful men in Faerghus were still loyal to King Lambert. There was displeasure in the hearts of men and lords who called themselves loyalists to Faerghus ideals, and there was major tampering with the Western Church, but no chance for something like the Insurrection of the Seven to take place. Slithers needed to wreak havoc upon the entirety of the Kingdom’s structure. It feels like there was something vindictive in this all. If King Lambert had truly been considering a marriage between Edelgard and Dimitri in order to consolidate power, that would have undermined all of Slither’s hard work of separating the countries to begin with and put a wrench in all their devious machinations within the Empire. Then Lambert made an attempt at peaceful interactions with another country, which is completely unheard of as far as Fodlan’s extreme aversion the outside world and could have weakened the hold Slithers had overall. So, ultimately, Slithers weaponized all of this against him. Maybe I’m way off base, but Cornelia seems like a petty gal.

3) A few thoughts about motives:

The Kingdom Lords: No matter what King Lambert’s reasons, to a loyal Faerghus lord or knight - a man living in a place characterized by its hatred of anything outside of their own people - the idea of having a relationship with or even peacefully folding another country into their way of life would be unthinkable. Radical. Combined with the possibility that there were rumors spread about Lambert’s relations with the Empire, it’s easy to see why rallying the soldiers against King Lambert would be doable.

Anselma: Cornelia was her only friend. She had a husband who fell in love with her at first sight and a son that was not her own. Anselma, Patricia, was a woman - a mother - who had been isolated and living in a place where she was utterly powerless. And matter what her reasons or how far her involvement went in the plot, it seems pretty clear that she never even got what she was promised.

The men of Duscur: There are always radicals, people who can be rallied into violence. Moreover, the people of Duscur had reason to fear and even hate the Kingdom. The noble king of Faerghus arrived with all his plated knights and shining weapons. They marched in a grand parade past their borders, speaking of peace but imbued with the unknown powers of their foreign goddess and trailed by the reputation of their country's war-hungry past.

Bringing all of this discontent together was probably not as hard as it might have seemed, which is another reason why I think the Tragedy was the catalyst for Slither’s power in the Kingdom, not a result of it.

Continuing on, following the Tragedy of Duscur, the kingdom was thrust back into the Faerghus grand tradition of violence. Prince Dimitri was too young to take the throne, so King Lambert’s older brother, Rufus of Itha territory, took on the title of Regent to rule in his stead. After condemning them for the crime of Regicide, Faerghus destroyed and subjugated Duscur without the slightest bit of mercy, enacting absolute violence without further investigation into the causes of the Tragedy. The young Prince Dimitri was one of the few who actively disagreed with the treatment of Duscur, saving Dedue and taking him on as his vassal.

The previously small House Kleiman rose to prominence during this time, secretly taking part in the Tragedy and then receiving the noble title of Viscount as well as the land previously known as Duscur as rewards for his part in the vengeful conquest against the people.

Slither’s took this chance and distraction to take more complete control of the already weakened Western Church. Taking another passage from Burnt Remnants of a Report:

Item 49, Part 18 ...

The Tragedy of Duscur, after which more members of the Western Church are strongly criticizing the Central Church. Among them are those who claim the incident in Duscur was the work of the shadowed order of the Knights of Seiros. It seems a confrontation over the dogma's legitimacy is inevitable. Soon, the child of House Gaspard...

This note illustrates that while weakening the Kingdom was undoubtedly a priority for Slithers, taking control of the Western Church was the greater of the two goals as it gave them a chance to undermine the foundational control of the Central Church.

The line about the child of House Gaspard is in reference to Christophe, Lonato’s son and Ashe’s adopted brother. In the same year as the Tragedy of Duscur, 1176, he was killed on false charges regarding his involvement with the Tragedy. This was a lie, as Christophe was actually killed because of his plans to assassinate Archbishop Rhea. The use of the word “soon” could refer to the author’s knowledge of Christophe’s plans, or his execution.

The lie the Church uses to misdirect panic from the idea of the Archbishop being assassinated is interesting, as it ties in with the way everyone else uses the Tragedy to their own ends - Faerghus blaming Duscur, the Western Church blaming the Knights of Seiros, and Dimitri blaming Edelgard.

In 1178, Prince Dimitri joined in the campaign to quell the widespread rebellion in Western Faerghus, demonstrating his exceptional aptitude for battle.

And, finally, two years later in 1180, he left Faerghus to attend Garreg Mach Officer’s Academy.

#fire emblem three houses #FE3H #fire emblem 16 #fe16 #faerghus #holy kingdom of faerghus #fire emblem three houses lore #i'm a historian guys #check it #my headcanons #my writing

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inkribbon796 · 4 years

Text

The Midnight Hour is Close at Hand Ch. 1

Chapter 1: The Thriller

Summary: Sometimes heroics is more dangerous than it’s worth, especially when you have minors dressing up like superheroes and trying to go up against dangerous villains.

A/N: Warning! The death of a minor is detailed in this. This is for Robbie’s birthday, which is actually tomorrow but I didn’t want to push the release of another story back a day for that. Also no black magic was actually used in the making of this story because I refuse to be responsible for getting anyone in trouble. Titles of this story are a reference to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Because that song and NateWantsToBattle’s Terror Time cover are pretty much all I listen to while writing this.

Chapters: 1, 2

~::~ Five Years Ago ~::~

The idea of the heroes getting apprentices or sidekicks had been around, jokingly, since they first started the Coalition. Roman, coincidentally brought it up first. The colorful hero liked working with and around kids since he practically had Disney Prince slapped over his forehead anytime he went out in public in full costume. Logan was forced to reign him in constantly.

Over the years many kids and teenagers had tried to be heroes but they lacked one thing or the other: the fact they were minors, parents understandably didn’t want their kids put against villains, and a real lack of an ability to protect themselves against the villains like Anti or Wil who were known to think weapon-first and consequences never.

Eventually, a couple teens made the cut. The first happened during patrol when Mark was surprised and almost punched a fourteen-year-old’s head off. He was in a costume that reminded Mark of his first couple of costumes. It was clearly a blue sweater, a pair of jeans, and a blue face mask which barely covered his identity. He was in items pulled from the boy’s closet.

Then, eager to prove his agility, the young would-be superhero did a backflip.

Despite his invisibility gift, and a sweet backflip that he would be embarrassed about for years to come, Blank didn’t immediately get a license to become a superhero. He would get that through proving that regardless of having the right equipment or permission, he was going to be a superhero, come hell or high water.

So there was a quiet agreement that Silver and the rest of the heroes would keep their eye on him and make sure he didn’t get into too much trouble.

The Coalition’s second side-kick was a bit different.

Robert Gravesly was much like any other teenager in Athlone, he liked to get into trouble after school. He tended to frequent areas that several gangs were in and got arrested by accident more than once. Robbie was a smart kid and over time had just ingratiated himself with the Septics, so much so that Henrik took the young boy under his wing a bit.

Chase bonded with his as well, the young man helping to sooth the gaping hole in his heart that his divorce had left him in.

The young fifteen-year-old had dreams of nursing school and at first he was more likely to be seen with Henrik and Iplier than the rest of the Coalition.

Then Ethan met Robbie and there began to be a serious discussion: Robbie despite a couple schoolyard scrapes didn’t know enough self defense to really protect himself. Logan even admitted that a plucky attitude and intelligence only get you so far, even he had tech to augment himself.

Eric and Randall were picked up shortly after, Randall more eager to be a hero but wanted to stay with his painfully shy friend. Iplier, by necessity, was more of a parent to them than a guardian.

It was all going well, Ethan was coming up on his seventeenth birthday, Robbie was about to turn sixteen, and Eric and Ray were fifteen.

But then Blank and Grave got a bit too confident in themselves.

“You sure we got the right message?” Ethan asked Marvin.

“Oh yeah, simple in an’ out,” Marvin smiled as he walked next to Silver. “Yeh two keep watch an’ we go in an’ talk ta the informant.”

To Blank’s frustration he was sent with Robbie to a neighboring building to the one Silver and Marvin would slip into. Ethan, half invisible as he looked out the window of an office building that matched the one across the street.

“Man I wish we could do something interesting,” Ethan grumbled. “I’m almost twenty, I know what I’m doing.”

“In a couple years we’ll be laughin’ ‘bout it,” Robbie shrugged.

Then they started to hear talking, the two sidekicks moved towards the open door to listen. Then they moved into the cluttered storage room right next door.

The voices were unfamiliar, a teen about their age and an older man.

“Why does the Old Man want me here again?” The younger voice asked.

“I don’t ask the big guy questions,” the older voice dismissed. “It’s how I’ve stayed alive this long.”

“Right,” the younger voice huffed out.

“Shit!” Ethan hissed out, “is it one of those guys? Why are they in this one?”

“We should go tell the others,” Robbie whispered.

“I can’t take both of us,” Ethan reminded, his powers still weaker and shorter ranged than they would be when he became a full-fledged hero.

“Yeh go, I’ll keep an eye on ‘em,” Robbie promised.

“You sure?” Ethan asked.

The younger sidekick nodded, “Go ‘fore I kick yeh out the window.”

With that Ethan made one of the only decisions he would truly regret, leaving Robbie alone in the building.

Carefully Robbie began to creep towards the voices, moving through the hallway until he had to duck behind a filing cabinet when the door opened.

“What’s taking so long,” a young man with a metal bat groaned in frustration. His golden eyes almost glowing in the darkness. The end of the bat hitting the concrete floor loudly. “I have books to write.”

“We’ve barely been here for a minute,” the older man followed the younger boy in, Robbie recognized him, it was one of Dark’s lieutenants, Lynel Bargs.

He also noticed that he seemed a little tense.

“Whatever,” the young author reached up for a bronze star something on his button-up short lapel and blew on it.

“No!” Bargs yelled out but clamped his mouth shut when a rip in reality opened up and after a couple seconds Dark walked through. He was straightening up his jacket and fixing his tie.

“Arthur? What happened?” Dark asked, and Robbie started mentally cursing as he clamped his hands over his mouth and hunkered down into the shadow of the filing cabinet, putting Dark out his line of sight.

“Ugh!” Arthur groaned. “I don’t know you called me here and never showed up.”

“Seems everything’s fine here Darky,” Wilford said, a giddy smile in his voice. “Maybe we should go back and—”

He trailed off, Robbie fighting his curiosity to look.

“Bargs, what are you doing here with him?” Dark asked, his tone almost dripping with accusation and threat.

“You told me to bring him here,” Bargs responded defensively.

The entire room seemed to chill as silence descended upon everyone in it.

Finally Dark said, “Go home, Arthur, I didn’t call you here.”

“Okay,” the normally caustic and belligerent teen sounded subdued and walked through the portal, it stayed open ominously.

Dark walked closer to Bargs, someone that minutes ago he’d considered loyal. “What are you doing here?”

“I told you,” Bargs said. “You called me here.”

“I thought you knew better than to lie to me, Bargs, especially about them,” Dark snarled angrily, his aura thrashing around, numbing into some of the objects in the room, including a filing cabinet.

The filing cabinet toppled over and Robbie tried to get out of the way, but space was limited and he was afraid of revealing himself.

With an audible crack, the cabinet’s weight landed on Robbie’s leg and snapped his fibula in half.

“AHHHHHHHHHH!” Robbie screamed out in agony.

Dark turned at the scream, he’d heard and caused thousands in the time he’d been sentient and been flinching towards them. But for the past fifteen years he’d been fighting with very parental instincts. And the scream of a young teenager almost struck him like a bullet.

“Well what do we have here?” Wilford commented, the scream hitting his brain wrong. He pulled out his gun. “Let me dig the poor lad out.”

“Wil!” Dark reaches out with his aura to stop him but the madman was faster and when Dark’s aura pulled him back, Wil shot the teenager in the chest instead of the leg.

With another tortured grunt the young man curled on himself a bit.

“Get out,” Dark ordered and threw Wil through the portal Arthur had gone through. It flickered closed before reopening and Dark haphazardly threw his traitorous lieutenant into it.

He could be dealt with later.

Dark rushed over to the young hero and was struck by the fact that he hadn’t seen this sidekick before. His informants in the police had told him the heroes had four, he’d personally been given three photos of children dressing up like vigilantes, but he’d never seen this one.

An angry pit burned in his gut, the faces of the children he had helped raise with Wil flashing through his mind, as he watched the kid let out pained gasps. This was a child, the heroes had convinced a child to meet up with an informant! At least Dark had the good sense to keep his Lost Ones supervised, even around Wil.

Trying to reign back his anger, Dark pushed the objects away and watched the boy flinch in fear when he saw him kneel down.

Dark knew he should leave, he’d get blamed for the boy’s death anyways, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave.

Robbie whimpered out when someone propped him up a bit and he looked up to realize Dark had gently set his head up on the Entity’s leg . . . his mask was gone.

“No,” Robbie choked out in a panic, he hadn’t even noticed it getting pulled off.

“Hush,” Dark said as he pressed all the buttons on Robbie’s watch, knowing one of them signaled the other heroes but not knowing which it was. “Save your strength, and hopefully they’ll get here in time.”

Dark scanned his eyes over the boy’s wounds, already knowing it was probably too late. If he was in a hospital, he might survive, but he wasn’t.

“The heroes made a mistake,” Dark told him, memorizing the boy’s face and brushed his messy brown hair out of the way. “They shouldn’t have let you into their world. Your death is a tragedy.”

Robbie couldn’t talk, a mix of pain and fear robbing him of speech.

“I have some boys about your age,” Dark admitted. “Maybe in another life you could have fought them as adults. But life’s not fair, least of all to children.”

The boy’s breathing was getting quieter, more labored, and he had a sad, panicked air about him as his life was slipping away. His strength robbed from him by his wounds so that he couldn’t even call out, couldn’t even scream if he wanted to.

And he wanted to.

“Sleep, and hopefully the heroes will learn,” Dark told him gently as he felt the tension in the teenager’s body finally slip away. Dark waited a minute before he checked for a pulse.

Nothing.

Dark slipped the mask back on and got up, the young teenager lying on the ground.

Before Dark could take a single step to go and find Silver or another hero, Silver found him first. He burst through the door and looked from Robbie to Dark and then went into a rage.

“No!” Silver screamed and flew at Dark so quickly that the Entity barely had time to throw up his aura, burying him a bit into the wall. Dark had his aura shielding him as Silver clearly trying to cave his face in.

“Silver!” Marvin called out, already starting to try and cast magic to revive what Dark knew was someone who was already dead. “He’s not breathin’, I can’t get him ta wake up.”

“What did you do?!” Silver demanded.

“What did I do?” Dark spat in outrage, his anger almost throwing Silver off. “I’m not the one that sent a child against a crazed gunman and hoped that he’d find mercy!”

“You killed him,” Silver accused.

“His death is on your hands, hero,” Dark shoved him away. “I am not responsible for the children you dress up and fill their heads with fantasies.”

“Yeh fucker!” Marvin shouted at Dark, “yeh asshole! He was a kid.”

“Yes,” Dark agreed, his tone terse and angry. “And how old was he gentlemen? Sixteen? Fifteen? Barely old enough to drive or try and get and job, and yet here he is, dead on the floor of some shitty insurance building. Clearly someone should not have entrusted their child to you.”

“He wasn’t supposed ta die!” Marvin shouted. “No one was even supposed ta be in here!”

“The rest of your sidekicks,” Dark turned his attention back to Silver as he opened up a portal into the Void. “Fire them and send them home. If he’s lucky, death has him. You should collect your dead and move on.”

Then he left, Silver finally turning to look at Robbie, “Jackie already took Blank back to the base.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Marvin’s eyes watering as he nodded desperately. “J.J’s still at the base, he’ll fix this. He’ll fix this.”

Silver sighed, Mark had to have some type of hope but in the back of his mind he knew that they could never remember the times J.J turned back the clock.

But Mark carefully picked Robbie up and cradled him against his chest. Death was already starting to permeate the room as he rushed to bring him to the base, calling ahead to make sure that Eric, Ray, and Ethan were safe at the base. Along with announcing the grizzly news: Robbie was dead.

#Superhero AU #Masks and Maladies #Egoton Origins #death #death of a minor #jacksepticeye #markiplier #crankgameplays #birthday post #robbie the zombie #marvin the magnificent #silver shepherd #the author #darkiplier #wilford warfstache #jackieboyman #dealing poorly with emotions #angst

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