#even in his own utopia he just has no right to anything lol | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

egg-emperor · 11 months

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I love how much Eggman sincerely does not give an actual single fuck about how much damage he does/his creations do to the world, as long there's actually still something for him to conquer

Literally only focuses on the world part because fuck yeah he's gonna own it babyyyy

And then him being like "whatever there's still enough for me to conquer lol" and he sounds smug about it in the line delivery too to make it even better

This is why he'll happily destroy wildlife and cities to rebuild his bases or factories or Eggmanland on top of it, why he'll allow shit to be polluted immensely, why he'll blow up half of the moon with the Eclipse Cannon and threaten to fire it at the world to kill people on it if they don't give him what he wants, why he'll literally shoot and break the fucking planet apart in his plan, why he'll unleash destructive evil monstrous eldritch horrors on the world, why he'll happily leave the world as "nothing but ashes, from which a glorious Eggman Empire will rise" and why he only tries to save the world from being completely destroyed entirely so the world he wants to conquer actually still exists and also so he doesn't die obviously

And he doesn't go "um this is for the greater good I'm going to make the world a better happier place for everyone and this is actually a really good and nice thing, I'm the good guy here uwu 🥺" and if he did it'd be lies and propaganda, he isn't stupid and he doesn't actually believe that. But in these cases he knows he's not fooling Sonic and Tails, so he just shows boldly and openly that he truthfully doesn't give a fuck what happens to the world and the state it's in, as long as it belongs to him. When it isn't all his personal doing like Lost World it can be a pity, but when it's all his own doing alone then even that doesn't matter to him.

His way of making the world "perfect" is for HIM ALONE in his own twisted fucked up definition. And all of his plans of both conquering and ruling the world involves it becoming a dead polluted destroyed hellscape, that's his idea of heaven and utopia, a selfish self-centered one that only benefits himself genuinely. But he knows it isn't the good and right thing to do, he calls himself, his creations, and his actions EVIL to prove that. And in other cases he has to use lies and propaganda to deceive people because he KNOWS he's the bad guy, so he makes the conscious decision to cover it up then.

And he's also just as careless towards the actual people he kills in the process, be it intentionally as he does intend to kill Sonic and co all the time and has intended to kill random innocent people- or as collateral damage as he has acknowledged this too- and again didn't give a single fuck about either. He just practically shrugs off collateral damage and celebrates the intentional deaths caused by him. He has no limits in the deaths and destruction caused as long as the world exists to rule. All that matters to him is getting what he wants and he'll go the lowest, most fucked up places to get that and that's why he's such a dangerous threat.

The idea that he isn't all that bad, doesn't actually want to destroy anything or hurt anyone, and his intentions are good and not really from total selfishness and self-centeredness, greed for attention, power, and control, and total evil, just isn't true in the actual games. He isn't stupid. He literally loves fucked up theme parks and similar BECAUSE people having a horrible time and dying terribly in his death trap rides is so cool and fun to him and he likes to take something fun and happy and make it fucked up, the amusement parks are for HIS amusement and everyone else's horror and death hehe

He knows EXACTLY what he's doing. His methods, goals, and ways of ruling the world are all intentionally maliciously evil and messed up. There is not part where it starts getting good and beneficial and he starts being nice. I'm certain that he can only get even worse with the more power he gets. He always either just doesn't care about the damage and death he's causing, he actually enjoys it, or most often both at the same time- depending one what parts he's intending, focusing on, and enjoying- and what is also being done in collateral damage that he doesn't care about at all lol

I love this nasty fucked up bastard so fucking much 🥰💜

#dr eggman #eggman #dr robotnik #dr. eggman #eggman is evil #analysis #my post #sonic generations #sonic lost world

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carrotsnake · 6 days

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dungeon meshi fandom rant

i usually stay away from fictional autism headcanons or indulging in them wholesale because i'm more on the 'characters are constructs' side of things. some may exhibit traits we relate to but placing real-world diagnostic labels on walking metaphors makes things too nebulous. however laios touden is an exception to me since autism allegories are pretty hard-wired into both his arc and dungeon meshi's core themes. so for once the fandom autism memes feel genuine to me lol. it doesn't feel as fanon-heavy or platitudinous, actually it's pretty uplifting. i appreciate the positivity.

that being said the most dogshit dunmesh take i've seen lately is the assertion that laios and falin show us autistic men are villified for things autistic women are accepted for. the fuck are you people smoking? some rebranded MRA-pilled bullshit? log off tumblr and go outside, then point and show me where this is the truth. i don't know if you guys are all living in a feminist utopia that i'm not privy too, but if so send me the address because things couldn't be less like that everywhere i've ever been.

countless times i've been told 'oh you're exactly like a female copy of [socially inept male friend/co-worker/family member who shares my personality] and then i gotta watch them get special treatment as i get left behind and scolded for not being normal enough. him being blunt is rebellious & brutally honest, me being blunt is just being a b*tch with no filter. how many times do you see autistic women reaching high positions of power and being revered as a misunderstood genius.

how about everyone reminding us to 'be nice' to the supposedly harmless awkward guy who keeps making sexual comments & invading our boundaries because he can't help it apparently. but strangely enough, i have gone my whole life without creeping on others. only to be called creepy and off-putting by these same social equality preachers for not applying makeup or styling my hair right. autistic women are more likely to be sexually harrassed and/or abused than neurotypical women and no one gaf (let's b real they don't care when it happens to neurotypical women either if the man has a good enough sob story.) shit like walking strangely, having a speech impediment and talking too much about esoteric topics was enough to be outcasted for us. once more, with feeling: what are you people smoking?

and critically, falin is pretty. she's conventionally pure, self-sacrificial, beautiful with hollywood curves, soft-spoken, and never questions anyone nor asserts herself over others when her needs aren't being met. her dislikes in the adventurer's bible are 'nothing in particular', she never spoke out against her village's bullying even when she had it worse than laios, quickly forgives her parents for exiling her, and never shows any opinion on marcille's use of dark magic. she's a paragon of femininity. anything less than that, and she would probably invoke similar if not more disgust from her peers than laios through the audacity of not conforming to gender expectations. but she likes holding bugs or whatever so...whoa! she's so feral and subversive amiright guys. but crucially she looks cute while doing it so we're not too uncomfortable to stan.

i love laios so much, he's in my newest blorbo collection for sure but calling the female characters who don't like him judgemental is not a good look. we as the readers who have been inside the main chara's head know he's a good guy - but in the context of dungeon meshi's world, where sexism is as prevalent as stranger danger, it's fair for them to assume bad intent and keep their distance. they're looking out for their own safety and you're mad about that because, what, it makes your 2D nigel sad? cry about it.

so quit using anime characters as fodder for your thinly-veiled 'everyday men milk themselves' preaches. the touden siblings are not a good example of this. if you unironically agree with that take: it's time to go talk to some real women broski.

#EVERYDAY MEN MILK THEMSELVES !!! laios wishes smh #i criticise falin's treatment because i think she has potential & deserves more autonomy beyond her chimera form #the hype cannot convince me she's much more than a lucy westerna archetype :( but that's a whole essay for another day #so it's unfair to use her as 'proof' the woman is treated better when she upholds high standards of what we should be to deserve acceptance #and from that meta lens the cast's love becomes conditional; it hinges on her continued passivity

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writingjourney · 4 months

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Also! This is more of a fun ask :) I like to headcanon Copia either as queer in some way or as a Trans Man (however those depictions change from headcanon to headcanon, fic to fic)

do you have any particular headcanons about Copia's sexuality? I know the fandom all has different views and I'm curious :D

I'll take the time to reply to your other ask tomorrow when I can think on it for a bit but I can answer this one right now because I feel chatty! (under the cut bc it got a bit long) ♡

Basically, I just project myself onto the Papas and think of them (most of the time, I am flexible too lol) as bisexual men who also like to fuck with gender and don't care about gender norms. Like, I personally struggle to label my own gender, I vibe with pretty much anything that's female descriptors as well as gender-neutral descriptors, there's times I prefer one over the other and then it changes again and I don't feel the need to throw a label on it at the moment.

This brings me to, and this is a bit of a wider HC, but I always love to imagine that them growing up in the Satanic church, gender and sexuality did not "matter" as much in the sense that there was not as much of a need for coming out and using labels because everyone is able to express their gender and sexuality freely. Also as an act of rebellion against the very strict norms of Christianity and them spreading that shit all over the world. Just think of Copia wearing the Cornette or Secondo being described as "in tune with his feminine side". Which is why I think they don't bother with labels as much and just do what they want. This is a bit of a utopia of course but I often wish society worked like that, so the "ideal" ministry in my head is just this safe space.

I also love to HC Copia as demisexual though because that is also very relatable to me, even though I don't quite love that label for myself. But I like to think that he needs to trust and know someone a little better to feel sexually attracted to them or get intimate with someone, not being "in love" per se but having a bit of a connection that makes him feel safe :)

#asks #a bit personal bc let's be real we all just want to feel seen right?

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sebastianshaw · 1 year

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What are your thoughts on the whole 'lost his memories and was a suicide bomber' arc? Thoughts on when they were trying to give him a redemption arc that then went absolutely no where?

OOOH! Ok, so, firstly, sorry this took a couple days, I really wanted to have the time and mental energy to sit down and give this the answer it deserved. Secondly, I just LOVE being mutuals with someone who KNOWS SHAW LORE LIKE I DO because I can get questions like this! Short answer is, I wouldn’t want it to last forever, I’d want our nasty man back EVENTUALLY, but I really wish it had lasted LONGER and had more of an impact. As it is, it might as well have just never have happened, and like. . .you don’t do THAT to a character and just have it be totally irrelevant to them. Except it is now. Longer answer: Honestly there were so many interesting things and things I liked going on here, it’s hard to organize my thoughts! First thing that I really enjoyed is THE BACKSTORY THAT HE WAS GIVEN and how it comes off as making fun of SO many common tropes in this universe (tropes that actually I happen to hate and be sick of myself lol) Secondly, Transonic explaining to him he’s a mutant by singing BORN THIS WAY?! Love it.

Getting into the meatier bits, Amnesiac Shaw notes that his first lesson in his new life was betrayal, which is correct. He was tricked by a terrorist group into being a repeat suicide bomber for them, since his powers ensured he’d survived. “The first lesson I learned in this new life was betrayal. And here I am met with hostility and secrets. So I suppose the more immediate question is–do I trust her? “

And given Shaw’s history with being betrayed over and over, which I’ve written about before, which you know about from reading The Legacy Quest and his mental issues with that, with being convinced EVERYONE will stab him in the back sooner or later and doing the same to them first, that’s…interesting, to me. It’s even more so interesting that he DOES choose to trust Hope, to protect Hope and her friends. Hell, he wants to protect them WHEN HE FIRST MEETS THEM even before they’ve done anything for him. You know, aside from the initial suidice bombing that shows “oh this guy is a mutant”, every time amnesia!Shaw uses his powers and/or acts offensively, it’s in defense of children.

The first time, he kills Jin Billion to rescue the Gen Hope kids. Then he goes up against the majority of Utopia, who are being mind-controlled by Kenji, to save Hope (including delivering a brutal elbowing to Emma Frost’s face when she was about to do a doubtlessly nasty “scrubbing” to Hope’s mind) Finally, when he breaks out of Avengers custody and fights them, it’s to rescue the X-kids, who are being held against their will at the Avengers Academy during the AvX conflict. The Avengers mistakenly assumed he wanted to kill the children, an idea he was horrified at when they told him.

So, pretty clearly, hurting kids is a big Berserk Button from amnesia Shaw. And then I look at NORMAL Shaw and how he treated his own child. And it’s like…clearly he HAS a capacity to be better than that. And I think that’s very on-theme for him, much like that moment in the Legacy Quest where he does consider if he’s on the right path. . .and then keeps right on being a villain. He CHOOSES every step of the way. He is a self-made man, for better AND worse, not simply in the sense of having made all his own money but in the kind of man he has decided to be, and I really truly just LOVE his very deliberate, aware agency in that.

Going back to him, oh my god, look at him, he’s so cute in his yellow X-hoodie!!

And speaking of cute, what I mega-loved about this time period is that you could get him being OOC for his normal self and have it BE OK! Like, I think you know as a Villain Enjoyer that there can be the urge to see your fave nasty guy be Soft in some way, but there’s also the desire to have him be IC, and these things usually can’t go together. This gives you a “have your cake and eat it too” scenario, or at least it did for me. I really loved seeing him with these kids. I especially liked when he told Teon that he did the right thing coming to get him for help, and even though one of the other kids said he was talking to Teon like he was a dog, I don’t see that??? Who says that to a dog??? But I do kinda like the idea of him throwing a frisbee for him, lol.

And he’s given a file on himself, and he says he’s not sure he wants to read it, and it doesn’t seem like he ever does? Or if he did, we didn’t see any reaction that I recall? I would have really liked for him to find out more about himself later—maybe unwillingly—and how he handles that. I would also have liked to see how he got his memories back, and if he remembers this period at all, and what he thinks about it, what effects it has. I’d love to see current era Hope acknowledge it AT ALL, I mean all these other callbacks are going on for other characters, like her and Exodus! And speaking of how he got his memory back, last time we saw him he was about to dive INTO THE OCEAN, and the entire pointed of leaving him in landlocked China was to HIDE HIM FROM N.AMOR…the guy who LIVES IN THE OCEAN…like no way that wasn’t deliberate??? He was ABSOLUTELY intended to run into N.amor, he had to be, and I want to know the plan there!

Also: Loved his fight with Hercules. Loved him beating him and calling him an idiot. Loved finding out he can absorb magical energy too, because I feel like that jives with his ancestor being a Sorceror Supreme (I will pay Marvel so much to ever revisit this; I hear it does get mentioned in Midnight Suns!) Loved him charging himself by HITTING HIMSELF IN THE HEAD WITH BOOKS FOR HOURS. Also love that in allllll his history as an actual villain, the ONLY time he ever clashes with the Avengrs is HERE when he’s trying to RESCUE CHILDREN even thought the Avengers Mansion was literally canonically a FEW BLOCKS FROM THE HELLFIRE CLUB

Honestly, literal only thing I dislike is the interactions with Emma and her touching on the abuse retcon, I feel like if this had gone on longer there would have been more focus on that and how she feels having him around because that just makes good writing sense but also I Would Hate It.

Overall though…definitely wish this had gone on longer and had more development for him, both as his amnesiac self and when he gets his memories back. I wouldn’t want an actual redemption arc for him, he’s way more valuable story-wise as a villain and I enjoy him that way, but I think as an exploration of his character from a unique angle, it would have been fascinating, and instead it kinda just…plopped. And then everyone else seemed to get amnesia about it having ever happened. Alas.

(also I think him meeting Sage this way would have been cool! Or Shinobi!)

#amnesia Shaw #sorry this is kinda disjointed #not my most elegant meta #but I hope it was still a good read for you!#out of shirt

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devintrinidad · 3 years

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(So like… maybe everyone believes that Kansai is changing for the better, but in reality, there’s still corruption and blurring in between the lines of what is good and right… I’m getting Psycho Pass vibes, which is so awesome!) -

Lol, Surprise everyone! Akudama Drive is the stealth prequel to Psycho Pass (no so things got even worse)! Uhm, I imagine things got worse in a better way. Like there’s anarchy. The Executioners are weak and divided. The Akudama’s are running around causing havoc. The people are angry and lashing out at anyone in power. There are power struggles everywhere and no one trusts anyone. Basically it’s good that the corruption that lead up to this is falling apart and people are showing a backbone and wanting justice and truth. Problem is, no one knows what that is anymore. People want leaders and those who will take care of them. For better or worse that’s how people are a lot of the time.

Pupil I could see being a good main character because she’ll try to understand how wrong the world is but wonder how to do good. Have you ever heard of the famous words, “You can’t be a moral person, until you understand the monster you’re capable of becoming?” I could see Pupil’s journey being that. Trying to understand how evil works so she knows how to combat it with morals. Because it’s clear to her she wasn’t as aware as she thought she was. It’d be the opposite of Swindler who, well swindled for the right reasons. Pupil could be sick of all the propaganda and lies and want to figure out how humans are suppose to live and how she can be a true protector of peace and the people.

(That or just give up.)

Cue Hacker. He’s invested in what’s going on for his own reasons and so he’s following Pupil around and helping her out. Maybe he discovered something that’s interesting to him and he needs her help in getting it. Like getting a body or something else. Maybe he’s become known to some larger entity and is being targeted. In return for his information in helping her understand who her enemy is. Pupil helps him. The two end up working together and maybe more lore gets expanded upon, maybe you get to see some shadow government that’s controlling more of the world.

I could see the kids returning. Maybe Pupil ends up leaving because she’s forced to and runs into them. I imagine the kids are living as best as they can. I am jaded enough to believe there is no utopia or even totally safe place out there for them. But I’m hopeful enough they can run outside the eyes of those who want them and find some peace with what they have and what everyone sacrificed for them. Who knows, maybe there were more experiments and Pupil discovers a bigger plot and Kansia is just some big experiment on it’s own.

Idk, either way Pupil would have to have a different story arc then Swinder while also embodying her desire to do the right thing in a twisted world. She would also have to live to carry the burden Swindler left behind and bear the weight of living and making things right and atone for her own mistakes. Hacker and her would have to rely on each other.

If Swinder is the Jesus parallel they were going for. Then I see Pupil (in a good route) being the Paul figure. They both became the very thing they used to persecute.

Either way Pupil and Hacker would probably have a funny dynamic in all the chaos and revolution happening. Pupil would be wondering where all this was even going and Hacker is kind of the sassy mystery mentor she’s uneasy about.

S2 could honestly be anything. After all they threw a quantum super computer at us out of no where.

~~~

Akudama Drive being the prequel to Psycho Pass? Sign me up! (So much better than PP’s sequels… first season was always the best and nothing can say otherwise).

Hmmm, yeah. I can only imagine that there would be a power vacuum what with the Executioners defeated and the police force practically in shambles and powerless. Either the civilians band together to actually make laws and instill actual government agencies to help out or everyone becomes an Akudama.

A land of lawlessness if that happens.

“You can’t be a moral person, until you understand the monster you’re capable of becoming?” —Yo, I never heard about that, but that’s something I’ll take to heart.

A whole character arc with Pupil? Sign me up, seriously. The series set her up so nicely. She went from Master’s student to mentoring someone else, but she had to learn the hard way that Executioners weren’t what they appeared to be. To see that explored in great depth and detail would be a great plot by itself, but it also fleshes out her character as well. Figuring out morality and how to best apply it would make for a great season as well.

For some odd reason, I think that Hacker wouldn’t be too opposed to helping out Pupil, but he might do so for a price. Maybe he gets sick and tired of the virtual world and wants out. And maybe Pupil finds out there’s like extra bodies or something that he could upload his consciousness onto… or there’s some sort of facility that houses experimental drones or something. (The series is weird by itself. You could literally throw anything into the story and it would still make sense).

But, I would not be opposed to some sort of big bad looming in the horizon. Perhaps Brother and Sister found a civilization or something that was worse than Kansai or Kanto?

OOOOOHHHH, Kansai being an experiment? Might as well, there were so many plot twists in canon, we might as well include this.

It would be interesting to envision how the cooperation and relationship between Hacker and Pupil might play out. Hacker has been shown to be very playful with Swindler, so he might do the same for Pupil. The thing is, I don’t think Pupil would take too kindly to be treated like a toy. XD She would be too jaded by her cynicism and her past biases against Akudama, but I have a feeling the more empathy she feels, she might warm up to him.

Jesus and Paul? Hahaha, that’s actually a good analogy considering the symbolism in that last episode.

And Hacker as a mystery mentor? He would have so much fun schooling someone who is clearly much older than him. Pupil would be busy gritting her teeth and angsting while Hacker just chills in the background.

Season 2 better have cameos or flashbacks of the original characters or I’m rioting. That’s all I’m asking. XD

#anon ask #devintrinidad author #devintrinidad #devin trinidad author #devin trinidad #akudama drive #akudama #akudama pupil #akudama hacker #akudama drive hacker #akudama drive pupil #pupil #hacker #submission #anon

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danieyells · 3 years

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Thanks for answering my questions! I know it was a lot lmao but I Am Have Questions and very few people informed enough to discuss them with xD

I suppose it is possible they Oniwaka and Co. were being rent from their exceptions and not to Tokyo itself, but I thought the way it worked was that MC rent their connection to Tokyo itself and overwrote it with their own! I hadn't considered your angle before; something to think about haha

If I remember right though, Sitri's wings, and with them his powers, only grew in recently right? Like, a little while before the first Valentine's Event? That's why he had so much trouble controlling them if I recall correctly! But sustaining himself on that energy is one thing that can be explained (though! It's possible that part of Sitri's deep desire for chocolate in general, but valentine's chocolate especially, is the love that gets put into them? Not to say he sustains himself solely on it or anything, but it might explain the strength of his desires ahaha)

Wait. Do those character quests mean that collisions can literally send people into the pasts of other worlds?? Like fr?? And also, does that mean collisions are like, direct overlaps with other worlds and not just illusory versions?

Part of why I'm trying to sort this all out is because I want to write a TAS fic, but I needed a better understanding of how, exactly, the system works, and was basically about to throw my hands in the air and say that actually nobody goes home at all until they've fulfilled their contracts ever and that's that xD I've finished all the story content btw! Including chapter 11 and most of the translated events, except for the Canaan one (gotta get on that, pray I get myself a Dagon 5★)

Does that mean that we contracts are *unfulfillable*? Like MC's connection with Agyo was basically like "I want friend lmao" and then they got their friend, but does that mean that Agyo is trapped in Tokyo until MC decides that they don't want to be friends with him anymore?

Also, do you think that if a Stray Transient does eventually run out of energy to sustain themselves in Tokyo, they get booted back to their world permanently, or do you think they just recover their strength in their home world and then get pulled back over?

Thanks again for answering my questions! I hope that this is proving as interesting to explore to you as it is to me hahaha

I don't mind that it's a lot at all! Lol it was just a surprise. I'm honored to be approached about this kind of thing, and I find it very interesting, yeah! 'u' I love worldbuilding and characterization so thinking about/sharing my thoughts on it for things I like is always a pleasure.

I mean it's possible they're rending their connection to Tokyo, but I feel like that wouldn't take the exception away? Because it came from an interaction they had, not Tokyo itself. I figured they were torn from the exception and the exception and fighting robbed them of all their energy in the proccess of making them a. . .screaming, mindless fighting machine lmao. Like rending a familiar from someone? But that familiar is inside them? If that makes sense? I don't remember if this was explained to begin with let alone how lol I should reread it lol

Sitri's wings did come in pretty recently, and they're implied to be a puberty thing. The problem is that he says they came in "the other day"--which doesn't necessarily mean "two days ago" as convenient as that'd be. The Japanese is even more vague, just saying "When I was taking a bath" without giving a timeframe. But I kinda figured that, until the wings popped in, love from his family was enough to sustain him. Because Bathym doesn't have a family here, really, he has his fans and the guild. But also since his family knew about the wings, saying they were a sign he was growing up, maybe they have a similar power that pops in during puberty and thus were able to feed him others' feelings. But yeah they were new which is why he couldn't control them.

As for the pasts in other worlds. . .time doesn't flow in other worlds the same as it does in Tokyo necessarily. El Dorado isn't even around anymore, time in Shangri-La flows slower than in Tokyo, etc--but these places still participate in the Game despite that. So worlds and timelines aren't entirely stable--after all time's been reset over and over. Also, we have time travelers from Utopia(which is the future???) so if they were forced to conform to a single space-time path that'd be kind of difficult? So, yeah, time and space and memories aren't necessarily stable in collisions. I mean, if a world collided based on memories, who's to say those places are still exactly as remembered? It works for the jungle in Shangri-La because it's a jungle and how much will that change--but the collided oceans are connected to towns in other worlds? Dagon connected islands from various worlds into one, too--those can't all be his own memories or from the same timeframe. Collisions are pretty unstable by definition so it doesn't surprise me that time can get screwed up along the way.

But yeah collisions seem to be actual overlaps of some sort--since Macan remembered that he heard MC's voice that happened in the collision, Xolotl met and saw himself in the collision, etc. And those things had effects that brought them to Tokyo to begin with.

Oh, there's also Nomad's character story where MC was invisible to everyone but Nomad--Nomad could feel them too--because the worlds were unstable under Ikebukuro Coliseum and they reminded Nomad of the prison he was in, causing the Collision.

MC could travel the collision/memory without Nomad around and get accurate information about its layout to help him escape.

If the collision doesn't alter the actual past then there's no way they'd know without Nomad physically with them. . .and there's no way Nomad would know where to go to escape the prison if MC weren't able to get actual information.

Then MC breaks the lights--only Nomad can see them, but they can affect reality/the past in a way that influenced everyone in it. And they're able to escape thanks to information MC gathered about and influence MC had on the world that Nomad would have no means whatsoever of getting/doing on his own.

Then they saw present Nomad who said MC was his, MC tried to reassure past!Nomad that it was okay, they were the same person, and past!Nomad felt betrayed.

Past Nomad sees MC through the transient light and chases after them, bringing him to Tokyo in continued pursuit of revenge.

. . .and present Nomad, now home with Mc and having had resolved the collision, remembered that he'd been chasing MC through the transient light but had travelled to Tokyo to find them--but had not travelled to them. He'd likely forgotten who he was looking for because he was kind of out of his mind at the time and thought he was chasing after his own hallucination to begin with.

Now that he remembers he wanted to kill MC for leaving him but also knows that he's the one who MC left him for, he deems them half a traitor for only betraying the him of the past not the him of the present and lets them off the hook for now.

(nice kabedon--DAMN THE TEN IMAGE LIMIT.)

MC was the one he wanted venegence against when he left Utopia, although he still has to get revenge against the people who turned him into a tiger. But he went to Tokyo to get revenege against MC and made a contract with them without remembering they were the target. He says he won't kill them for now but someday, when his other revenge is done, he'll come after them for betraying him. Until then they're his assistant and they'll be helping him get revenge. If they betray him again--betray him "one and a half times"--they'll become the new priority and he'll kill them first.

But even he said that he thinks that he's crazed for revenge is stupid so MC figured out that he wants them to keep him in check. (He calls them 'traitor' fondly(? He smiles while doing it, I think it's pretty fond) and I wish he kept doing that but it'd probably reveal more to people than Nomad is comfortable revealing lol so he calls you by name instead.)

Also, canonness note, he declares them his detective assistant when he declares them his accomplice--and in the Beach House Andvari he reiterates that's your relationship too. Which means that his character quest is canon across events. And if events are canon--whether through your choices or not(at one point in the story you know Gyobu but you only met him in events until that point???) that means Mc making pacts with everyone could be canon too.

. . .but yeah collisions are just time and space freaking out. Maybe they're past resets of sorts.

And oooh fanfics are exciting 'u' I'll give it a read if you link it! And congrats on reading everything! *U* I've gotta do that myself lol and good luck getting 5★Dagon!! I wanted 5★Tangaroa(someone I have added has him and. . .holy shit he heals himself, he heals allies around him, he's practically invincible) but I ran out of transient stones and I'm poor irl 8'D The Canaan event is fun and also chaotic and will probably give you even MORE questions about how the fuck timelines and collisions work. Because it kinda introduces a new mechanic into the mix. So uh brace yourself?

The problem with "nobody goes home until they've fulfilled their contracts" is that some people just don't have contracts. And their own desires only seem to cause gates to open and take them, not actually bind them--someone from Tokyo(or in Tokyo in MC's case) needs to be their binding agent if they're not like. A World Rep or someone similarly powerful enough to stay on their own(this is a guess--they're probably sustained by being the System and thus stand on the faith of all their people from their world. Alternatively they're bound to Tokyo via MC as the trophy.) Otherwise they wouldn't note that transients disappear eventually if unbound by a contract.

Gullinbursti isn't attached to MC by contract anymore not because MC said "I don't want us to be friends" or anything but because MC refused to make a proper contract with him because he'd misinterpret it. But he's still hanging out, so. It's not immediate. But, yeah, there are probably unfulfillable contracts that can only be broken by death or declaration. Agyo is stuck with MC until MC says he can go lol--I mean they're friends now but it'd defeat the purpose of the pact if they went away as soon as that happened. Because MC wants more and more companions they'll never truly have their desire to have friends fulfilled probably. So anyone summoned that way gets to stay in Tokyo until MC is no longer in it or maybe until MC decides "I don't want people around me anymore/I don't want to see anyone ever again" and truly means it--which will declare their contracts fulfilled and send them home, if they have a home/life to return to.

As for if Stray Transients go back permanently, yes and no. I think they go back and recuperate their energy and they stay home if they don't have an outstanding pact(whether they're aware or not)--however if they were just there because they went into the light and had nothing binding them to the land but that energy/will that brought them, they'd go home without bwing sent back unless they really wanted it again. Thus they can be resummoned, intentionally or otherwise. If MC one day dismisses everyone, regrets it, and says they want their friends back, everyone would come back. But if they didn't ask for everyone to return they'd stay home(disregarding that they'd probably all go NO WE WANNA GO BACK TAKE US TO MC and the transient light would bring them back to Tokyo again lmao.)

So. Yeah, they'll stay home until summoned again, even after they get their energy back, I think. If they don't have a home to go back to maybe they float in the void for a while, kinda like how MC just kinda existed as the Exiles without a home or like how Robinson says they can't stay anywhere forever because they're Wanderers.

(Somewhat related, Shiro mentions in the Apprentice Santa event that it must be hard to import turkey to Tokyo. . .import it from where? Tokyo is closed off on all sides INCLUDING THE OCEAN. That means someone's bringing turkey from other worlds into Tokyo--a business-like summoning contract lol. "Come to Tokyo, bring goods from other worlds, and you can go back until I need more" basically. Using another world like a manufacturing plant lol. . .little things like that make me consider that you can go and come back at the will of a summoner, assuming you donct have an artifact or ability that allows you to traverse worlds as you please.)

Another thing for you to consider if you wanna be a bit more puzzled: remember how much belief plays a part in how things work in Tokyo. Consider. . .if someone claims they're not a stray transient when they actually are and everyone around them believes that they have a contract or guild or something keeping them there even though it's not true. . .are they bound to Tokyo by that belief as long as they're around more people who think they're bound to somebody? Will they disappear if people stop believing them or they're around people who believe they're a stray? Consiquentially if people believe a stray will disappear sooner than later does their timer run out faster? If Ose somehow ran around telling people that transients won't disappear with his ability to make people believe everything he says, do they stop disappearing because no one thinks they will? I suppose he can't lie to nature, but can those beliefs sustain people? I mean belief can cause Oni to be hurt by beans, can cause Behemoth to regain his sense of taste, can cause people from worlds that've been destroyed to become demons because the Angels invading will it to be so. So where does belief's power end and the power of the System kick in? Does the game end if MC puts on Ose's crown and tells the Representaives it's over and they all lost? Or would the alternation of belief on a mass scale cause an Exception by clashing with something more powerful than it? What, since they so value Systems and the Faith that sustains them, to the point that losing Faith in your System causes a full on collapse of the world it holds together(see:Canaan), is more powerful in this game than the power of belief?

#danie yells with anons #danie yells answers #danie yells at tokyo afterschool summoners #long post #tokyo afterschool summoners

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jonghours · 4 years

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ATEEZ “Crescent Party” spoilers

so ATEEZ said spoilers, and as usual I was summoned

let’s go then

first of all, as Hongjoong said at the end of the live, crescent symbolizes a new beginning.

The theme of the live is to look back into the past to correct their mistakes.

the first song they perform is WAVE. I believe the songs picked for this live have significant meaning, and is no surprise that the Crescent Party starts with this one, having in consideration that WAVE is the song that comes right before WAVE and ties with it. I have a theory about that, but I’ll leave it here.

also this might be a stretch, but Seongha is so usually related to “dreams” that the moment I read his tie my mind directly went to “fever dream” lol

as I mentioned before, they make it clear that the point of this is to look back on their past

now, the first segment is called All to Zero, which as you all know is their first album. Their album names have meaning (obviously) and in this case it means for all of them to go back to the beginning. as we all know Pirate King/Treasure is their starting point.

I’m just throwing this out there, but the moon will be on a crescent from the 25 to the 26 of July, so who knows, it just seemed very abrupt for him to mention it like that. but there is another thing related to this that shows up later, so let’s continue

maybe the next album will start with Zero following the Treasure Story dynamic?

I think what Seonghwa says here might be a hint at the theory that ATEEZ constantly travel back in time, turning the hourglass once again to make up for the mistakes they’ve made in the previous journey

the next segment is Action To Answer, the name of Epilogue. This time they show the crescent picture.

now, I just thought that this was funny. when the game props show up, they asked if they came from the sky, to which San answers with “I guess it’s a trend”. this could have to do with the Crescent promotional pictures all having place in space.

I already made a post about this, but Wooyoung accidentally let it slip that red and blue are connected which we all already had figured out tho this was an umprompted spoiler so thank you Wooyoung.

these are probably lyrics or notes for their next song maybe?? not like we can decypher them or anything but I just thought it was interesting

now the next song is Say My Name. as we all know SMN is the prequel to Pirate King, and the story of how all of them came together. I think it’s important to remember the lyrics that say “Dream of being on top and the bottom can be changed with one difference”, wich ties into the past mistakes that were being mentioned before. also, the top and bottom part remind sme of ATEEZ’s new leitmotiv, the hourglass aaaaaand guess who shows up!!

it also shows up when the theme of the pictures is Seonghwa, who as I mentioned before here has some power over it

I don’t know who this belongs to, but you can clearly read “the beginning” on it

I want to point out that when they arrive at the last chorus, the lights turn red, which is usually a sign of Dark ATEEZ.

now, Dazzling Light. as I said I believe the songs picked for this are important. like many other ATEEZ songs, Dazzling light is about ATEEZ trying to reach for the light (their utopia/treausre), but being unable to: “Even if I dream and dream // I’m still curious // Another sparkle, find the light and reach for it” “Follow the light that unfolded countless times for a new beginning”

but the heaviest topic is that of lost identity and confusion present in other songs like Illusion and Precious: “In your eyes I see another me” “Let me know who you, who am I”

also, there is this line “A promise that lead to destiny, where is the end of our journey?” that has a key point in the choreography

and I immediately thought of WONDERLAND. it was weird for me that Wooyoung would do this when the lyrics aren’t even about promise, but who knows

now, as I mentioned before, the moon shows up again. this to me looks like an eclipse. there is an eclipse on July 5. the eclipse shows up again when they perform HALA HALA

now, I know people don’t care about this but ATEEZ stickers are my favorite to decode, and finally one has been cleared up! this si proof the eclipse/moon stuff has been here since WONDERLAND

now, HALA HALA. as I said, red is always related to Dark ATEEZ, and so this stage is covered on it.

now, the “clues” I found in the background

there were many numbers, but this 9/6 shows up again on it’s own

there are various words written downwards and reversed. I don’t know what “roll” could mean, but it shows up multiple times. the second one simply seems to say “finish”

another rmention to color? “help”? “split/splice”?

now, the numbers again. many show up, but this is the clearest one “156124″ I tried to see if it would work with a letter to number code but couldn’t come up with anything

then the next song is Desire, which is about being blinded and consumed by the desire of reaching their treasure. the lyrics literally say “I’m blind(ed)”

unrelated, but I think it’s interesting that the lyrics “couldn’t nobody else” that were already said in SMN are repated here, both times sung by Wooyoung. they also mention again “I do not remember anything // All the time so far, I’ve forgotten it” this stage is covered in red again

now, the butterfly thing keeps on showing up, more off stage that on MVs. Hongjoong constantly wears and uses butterfly themed stuff, and he’s the member most invested in the story so far, so I’ll trust him

about their new logos for their perfume, they obviously represent a rudder + the hourglass.

now, why is one of the hourglasses black and the other one white? who knows, not me

I loved this because as I said my favorite ATEEZ theory part shows up, the stickers!! the rudder, the hourglass, the weird tear, what I believe now is the moon/eclipse and the keyhole!

now finally, the crescent moon at the end. the sand goes from bottom to top once again, just like the code in the Epilogue code says, and just like in that scene in ANSWER with Wooyoung inside of it

“The hourglass I saw in my dream wasn’t a dream?I looked through the sand and unintentionaly turned it around.The sand in the hourglass started to move from bottom to top”

and that’s all I’ve got. hope this was entertaining!

#ateez #tehre it is #of course I would hyperfixate #ateez theory

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kurtty-drabbles · 4 years

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Pirate au Redone (part 2)

N/A: So it continues. I´ll try to make this in 5 pieces IF is possible. I want to explore the Maximoff´s family dynamic ( Wanda and her kids) and Jean and Scott´s relationship with their kids such as Cable and Rachel. And well, I think I can do a better job than Marvel. BTW, I never even travel to New York so my image here of New York is more focused on how media show this place...

@dannybagpipesarecalling @djinmer4 @bamfoftheundead @everykurt @muninandhugin

The streets of New York with a cacophony of sounds provide by peoples and the cellphones and other machines-the News on display in every big screen on New York City is only one thing and no one is sure if they´re tired of such news or if this is important anymore- and the main anchor leading this news is stating the message with all professional that makes her the number 1 in the field. "Prof X announces the existence of Krakoa and the trade remedies in exchange of amnesty for the mutants and their past crimes. Senator Kelly is absent of this trade, but, senator Osbourne speaks in favor of the mutants and the president of US fully welcomes the mutants" and the people are shaking their heads about this or something else.

Wanda Maximoff is one of the 1% looking at the news with little interest-in fact, she sits on the street on a red building and notices the stares of awe and waves at the other residents who wave a bit awkwardly- and looks at her watch. "Is almost 15hs..watch. "Is almost 15hs....any minute now" her tone is tone as she fidgeted with her crimson cape.

"Mo..." her eyes look up to see Tommy Sheppard in his casual outfit and Wanda offers a small smile- she notices and felt a pang of sadness as he wanted to call her mom but avoid doing it- and Tommy continues speaking with his casual tone (yet, she can see he´s confused and how his feet are ready to run just like Pietro would) "Wanda...are you ok?"

Her eyes show a certain crestfallen as she speaks with a melancholic tone. "Do the world needs to end for me to visit you?" she tries to joke but her watery eyes are ruining any attempt of joke and Tommy´s feet come an inch closer to her. Only an inch.

"I´m sorry...Wanda" he repeats and Wanda refuses to think about the past-she prefers to think about the present and the reason for her to be here as she often says "the past is in the past"- and now the boy, no, the young man looks unsure of what to do or say. "I´d not know where Billy is...I think he´s on an adventure with his boyfriend...you can try next week, I mean, Dr. Strange told he will be back in a week" Tommy explains and now Wanda frowns.

"I know...and I´m not here to speak about your brother. I´m here to speak about you." her tone is firm as she taps a seat on the stair next to her. "sit with me, Tommy...I want to talk with you" and the young man is still unsure.

"I don´t know...where Billy is" is his answer.

"I know where your brother is and I want to speak with you" and her eyes widen as her mouth gasps for a moment and closes quietly. "Was a bad mother to make my son to truly think there´s a favorite? Was a bad mother to make him think I wouldn´t care for his life?" and Wanda looks up and slowly meet Tommy´s gaze. "In House of M all I wanted was a family and yet I can´t keep tabs of you and Billy...maybe the universe is telling me something about wanting a family...and my own mental health" she begins.

"I wanted a family and let myself be dominated by many people who took advantage of me and my powers and almost cost me everything..." she sighs as now Tommy is sitting next to her. "I can´t change the past nor I should but I want to be present in your life. You and your brother..."

Tommy looks to his front watching people looking at the famous Scarlet Witch, some ignoring and some are just minding their business- in the sense of superheroes in C list are walking and doing patrol without bait an eye to Speed and Scarlet Witch- and speaks again in a neutral tone. "What if this whole reincarnation thing is bull crap? You said Magneto is not your father ...and no offense, but, reincarnation, Mephisto and all that story seems far too complex for me"

Wanda nods and can´t deny how the story looks for an outsider, let alone for the ones involved. "You´re right...it does sound complex...let me explain the best I can...Magneto is my biological father, yes, but I hate him enough to lie to his face to cause him pain..." she let a mirthless chuckle escape her lips. "by this logical this make me his daughter even more...all I want was to cause him pain and, well, in the end, I was silly to think this would cause any trouble" Wanda concludes.

Tommy says nothing about Magneto and Wanda is more than happy for that.

"But as for you be the reincarnation of my son...Tommy, does blood truly matters? Maybe you´re not my reincarnated son, maybe Billy isn´t...maybe my sons were just a trick from Mephisto...but, I still would like to be your mother, I would still be part of your life if you let me" Wanda confessed looking at him with watery eyes and she grins softly as she notices the young man is wearing his goggles for some unknown reason.

"Yeah...if you want" he tries to sound cool, but, Wanda can see his real emotions and hug him-for once, he doesn´t pretend to hate the hug-and Wanda asks what he was doing after the Young Avengers was shut down.

"I´m sort of detective...sort of, the terms are sort vague" he explains. "Uhm...do you remember Hope Summers?" he begins wanting to confide this information with someone and Scarlet Witch may be the best person or maybe confess this to your mother is the best idea here.

"Yes, I recall her...is she alright?"

"No, she is dead...like, super dead"

"A mutant hate crime?"

"No...I think is something more insidious...she dies when Krakoa was, uhm, crafted? I don't know the right word to use in this freak show, but, I think there´s a correlation here" and he looks at his mother afraid. "do they ask..." Wanda shakes her head. "And rest assured me and your uncle won´t go either...also, I´m no longer an Avenger either"

"Oh, I heard that...Tony Stark mess up...what you´ll do now?"

"Open my school of magic, of course, and you´re always welcome to visit me or even help me"

"I...I would like that"

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jean Grey can remember her teenagerhood with total clarity -maybe, is a blessing of her powers or one of its curses, after all, Jean doesn´t like to remember certain parts of her past- and as she enters in the new accommodations of Krakoa one can´t help by comparing to the first time she enters in the Institute. How time flies.

Scott is there, as she knew he would, tapping his feet on the ground- how Krakoa has such facilities to house everyone? Many questions are now emerging from her mind. She recalls with all the morbid details of her death and her resurrection and how her mind was ...taken by numbness and euphoria at the same time- and is looking at anything but Jean Grey.

"How the soup?" Jean asked breaking the ice as Scott lift his bowl to show he was eating cereals. "Ok, let´s talk, Scott...what´s in your mind? And yes, this comes from a telepath..." Jean sits in front of Scott - she remembers his visor in her "nightmare" Nate puts everyone through and is amazing how the shape of this visor didn´t change in the slightest- and waits patiently his turn.

"I hate here!" Scott confesses quietly to Jean. "I hate how Professor X is making what me and...Emma" if he thought Jean would make a fuss or big deal over his time with Emma, well, Scott is wrong " tried to make with Utopia, yes, I know is a pretentious name, but I hate how he´s making something I tried to make and is being praised as the savior while I was the mutant Hitler as some call me" and he concluded with his teeth grith so hard that it clenches his jaw.

"Go on" Jean speaks in a neutral tone. "You have lots of things you want to talk and I´m here...I´m here now, Scott and I want to listen" and Scott continues.

"I hate how the Avengers took down Utopia without a single question...it was meant to be a sanctuary for mutants after M day and then...Prof X says he´ll revive all the mutants in the history and again, people speak as if he´s the only hero ever..." he sighs tiredly now.

"I hate how we´re always dying or being hated" and Scott continues. "And I hate the choices I make ...in regards everything" and now he lowers his head. "I have doubts, guilty and I want to cleanse them, not start anew" and now Jean speaks.

"You´re thinking, and no I´m not reading your mind, you´re thinking about Madeline Pryor, right? Me too...I´d think about her and what she could have been and what should have been" and she narrows her eyes now. "and you want me to talk about our kids too...and we should!" she rubs her temples for a moment. "For starts, I´m ashamed of Nate...what he makes me do in his dreamWorld, what we made Bishop endure...how we´re all out of our mind...I pity Kurt...and I sympathize with Meggan as any sane woman would" Jean explains seriously.

"About Cable...we killed him and I only feel...relief" Jean confesses holding her face for a moment nervously. "Do I want kids? And this is something is bugging in my mind forever...no, Scott...I don´t want kids" she reveals crossing her arms.

Scott nods and speaks calmly now. "I know...I truly know. I love you, Jean, and yes, I want a family, but, kids are not a requirement for us..." and Jean´s eyes relax at that but stop as Scott mentions what she saw it coming. "You took Cable under your wing even though he was from Madelyne...why you never tried with Rachel?"

Jean looks away from his eyes and thought in leave the conversation, but, Jean is not a teen anymore. "Let me put this way, Scott, if in another dimension forsaken by the Gods, I and Logan had a baby and this baby travels here and wants me and Logan to created another version of him or her...would you think I would do it just for lols?" Jean asks a bit peeved and Scott is not impressed.

"OK, you don´t need to be her mother...but, it feels like you had a favorite, and Rachel was never in your mind..." Scott trails off and Jean looks slightly ashamed.

"Maybe I was trying to live a fantasy on Nate. He is our son and that would nullify Madelyne´s existence...and that´s petty and cruel of me..." Jean confesses. "I can support Rachel as a teammate and as a gay mutant, yes Scott...I have eyes, ears, and a brain and when she was with Kurt was pretty clear it was a beard!" and she concludes. "I can support her in this...but I don´t want to be her mother"

Scott touches her hand. "I can be her father, but, is my decision, and if you don´t want...no one should force you. Family is still a fragmented thing for me, but, is still precious" Jean squeeze his hand tightly now.

"I know...I know. Oh, Scott...we have lots to talk about"

"Time to talk about me and Emma?"

"Oh yes!" __________________________________________________________________________________________

Logan is over the moon as in Krakoa it opens many possibilities and the Canadian is so over joy he´s ignoring the silent elf on the quiet council-Logan pick beers for himself and is practically dancing-and now notices the elf after a comical swirl makes the elf enter in his view. "Kurt...Kurt, I have a shot...I have a shot with Jeanie"

Kurt is too busy thinking about everything. Introspection is something he hates, but, is his only companion lately. "Well, I´m curious now" Kurt lied. "Why you think you have a chance with Jeannie?"

"Kurt is the law...make more babies" Logan has a big smile and Kurt´s fist clench as he makes an excuse and leaves. Logan is alone and Kurt is suddenly realizing that if Iceman is no longer making dumb jokes, then, Kurt is the one doing the jokes, and sadly, no one is getting is a joke.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Kitty Pryde is watching the shore beach and count until 3 as she slowly looks to her right. "Hello, Yana!" Kitty beams at the sight of her friend and Magik offers her ghost smile and informs her about Krakoa and the smile on Kitty dies.

"Tell me what´s the difference between Utopia and Krakoa?" Kitty asked and Magik explains in short words.

"Utopia wasn´t a creepy cult" Yana responds bemused and adds. "Uhm. Piotr is saying mean things about you..."

"Yana...I left him at the altar...I would be surprised if he was singing praises about me" Kitty answers deadpan. Yana sighs in relief as Kitty is not hurt, angry or sad with the news.

"Do you want to see Krakoa?" Yana asked and Kitty is bitting her inner lip.

"Not really..." and if Kitty was elaborate on her answer it was cut short by Emma Frost -looking fabulous as always- and offering her usual demand. "Hello, Kitty...can we talk?"

#pirate au redone au #Kitty pryde #Rachel and Pheonix #revenge time #Logan you´re next #Oh yes Moira will be too #Kurt Wagner #Jean Grey #Scott Summers

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kiome-yasha · 5 years

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The Driver

This little snippet is because of @fireflyxrebel for being a bad influence, lol. Based off an AU we’re currently obsessing over thanks to The Handmaid’s Tale. Hopefully, she and many others will enjoy this little read ;). It has sexual tension GALORE! Kind of made me want to write more XD. This is a continued bit based on her snippet, which you should read here (X). Anyway, enjoy!

“I need a ride.”

It was a simple request. Just one trip to the bookstore before the checkpoint, nothing more. To Gar though, it felt like a death sentence waiting to happen. Like the obedient slave driver he was, he nodded, not daring to argue with the daughter of Trigon—much less Blood’s wife.

“Of course,” he said curtly with respect, his gaze tripping over areas he shouldn’t be admiring.

He opened the left side door to the backseat, offering her a hand inside. Raven graciously accepted his assistance, her slender hand cupping into his thick callous ones. The innocent contact caused her to shudder, imagining his fingers digging into other soft surfaces. She instantly banished such thoughts, gathering her composer as she sat down. Gar carefully studied her before closing the door, ever so mindful of her legs.

He traveled over to the driver side, entering the vehicle himself almost robotically. Once he was fastened, he did a double take to make sure she was locked for safety as well. Raven took notice of his cautious stare, gently snapping the belt across her lower abdomen. Gar nodded with satisfaction, gulping swiftly with a cough before bringing the engine to life.

It didn’t take them long to be on the road, their day promising sunny weather. The silence was a welcoming ploy between them, but not for long.

Raven’s curiosity of the boy’s background got the better of her.

“So, have you been working for my husband long?” she asked, adjusting her back from the seat.

Gar’s eyes shifted almost too hastily at the movement from the rearview mirror, her breasts displaying themselves almost too perfectly against the cups of her dress. Such a gesture didn’t go unnoticed by the courtesan, a smile tickling her lips. Just to test the limit of his attention on her, she loosened the headscarf around her neck.

He tried to distract himself by answering her, his voice becoming deep with a ravenous hunger—ironic. “A year.” Short and simple, just as she expected.

Coyly, she pushed her hood back, freeing her long dark tresses with a soft shake of her head. “No further detail than that, huh? How about my father?”

His thick eyebrows arched questionably at her persistence, craving to dig his hands into the endless layers of her hair. “Ma’am, I don’t think this conversation is appropriate between us. Just merely talking to you is considered forbidden.”

Raven focused on the drifting scenery from her window, her cheeks blushing boldly from her next comment. “Is that why you allow your eyes to do all the talking?” she asked with a sultry voice.

He gripped the steering wheel, making a turn. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he rebutted tensely, avoiding her smokey leer.

Raven was amused by his denial. As if to prove her point, she hitched her leg up over the other. The split in her dress spread her creamy thighs open like a curtain, dangerously exposing the undergarments she wore underneath. Dare he say, he was a bit enticed by the game she was playing. He pulled at his collar with his left hand, the thumb to his right tapping vigorously on the steering wheel—anything to keep his hands preoccupied. The thick end of his dark curls felt moist with sweat, forcing the heat inside his body to perspire with the hopes of it avoiding his loins. Raven grinned, taking the moment to indulge in her own desires, praising the way his muscles twitched beneath the satin suit he wore.

She soon fished out her lipstick, popping open a small mirror case.

“Do you mind?” she asked.

He shrugged, giving her permission—not that she had to ask. Raven popped the lid, reapplying the red wax against her slightly puckered lips. She had an image to keep amongst the public, so it was understandable. Sebastian made it very apparent for her beauty to be kept constant, not that Gar felt like she needed it. Still, such a simple cosmetic added a new allure to her already enticing lips. Raven smoothed her lips together, letting out a wet smack. They glistened, her tongue edging out between her teeth in order to avoid any thick smudging. It took all of Gar’s willpower not to pull off from their course and take her in the backseat.

Suddenly, a loud honk and a shout from her shook his lewd thoughts, snuffing it out like a flame. “Watch out!”

He never even realized he had veered across the other side of the road, quickly gaining back control and adjusting with a sharp screech. He pulled over to the side, gasping slightly before veering his eyes worriedly back at her.

“You okay?” he asked, not even sparing a thought besides her own wellbeing.

She gulped nervously, nodding briskly. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

He sighed with relief, hinting some mirth. “Well, at least your makeup still looks good; guess this car truly is compact.”

Wow, a joke. She probably would have laughed if given different circumstances.

“You got distracted,” she validated, shakily brushing her hair behind her ear.

“Is that so?” he countered, knowing full well she was right.

“You best pay attention, no need to ruin your reputation and lose your job,” she said, challenging him. “My husband wouldn’t be pleased if anything happened to me, after all.”

“No, I suppose he wouldn’t,” he said, his tone holding weight. “I best be careful then.”

There was shimmer in her eyes, dangerous, and yet, captivating. “Yes…you best,” she warned, frowning deeply with shame.

They both knew her purpose, neither of them having the nerve to discuss it aloud. Nothing more than an incubator, that’s all she was. Someone to bear children for some sick notion of a savior for the church of blood. Trigon used his daughter as if she was nothing more than some handmaiden, passing his bloodline through any strong connections necessary. Being the only daughter he had, he guessed it was to be expected. Garfield Logan had no right to intrude—after all—he was nothing more than a mere driver. Follow orders without question, but damn did he want her. Not like he never caught her stares through the curtains of the windows, spying on him with every stroke he made when cleaning the car. He could always say his prolong wiping was due to him waxing it, but they both knew that wasn’t the case.

What he would give to rub other things, starting with the tantalizing heat between her legs. Her honeydew breasts, her well-rounded rear, everything. Father Blood would never appreciate her body like he could—that was a promise.

The rest of the car ride was silent after that, arriving at their destination without any further complications. Like clockwork, he got out of the vehicle and opened hers, offering her guidance from the gap. Raven must have been still shaken up from the close collision though, as she missed her footing. Gar instinctively caught hold of her wide hips, steadying her into a rather intimate position when falling into him. Her breasts perched up against his broad chest, the silk-like material doing little in hiding his muscles. She flushed from the contact, nearly shoving him away from her.

“Thank you…” She contemplated for a second, trying to gain back her composure. “For the ride that is.”

He nodded and swallowed the lump inside his throat. “I’ll wait for you out here until you’re done.”

A proper exchange despite the stares around them. Whispers were already spreading amongst the crowd who resided in the cultish utopia—all followers believing in the same bullshit cloth like it was some sort of religion. Raven bowed—much to his dismay— and walked inside the colossal building. This was the only place she could feel free and escape; Garfield respected that.

He took this moment to retreat to his own sanctuary, entering back inside the tinted car. Once he slammed the door, he hit the back of his head into the blunt cushion of his seat. With eyes closed, all he could think about was her body pressed up against his. His fingers twitched over to his groin, knowing full well the punishment he would receive if any knew what he was thinking about.

To think, this was only the beginning of their future excursions.

When they returned back to the Blood estate, Raven made no effort of trying to strike up another conversation. She must have realized the failure of her earlier attempt, knowing full well that it wasn’t practical for someone like her to befriend the driver of their establishment. To say Garfield was disappointed would be an understatement though; he was quite enjoying their little diversion. Rare was it for her to converse with anyone, so he oddly felt special of having the honor—as fleeting as it was.

Once they passed the gates, the pair stiffened when spotting Sebastian patiently waiting for them in the courtyard. Garfield kept calm though, swerving the car carefully to the front. He stopped and switched the gear to park, waiting to see if the priest would make a move. The man held a cunning smile, though it was obviously hiding malice. His chin was tight with an underbite that was clearly hidden. He opened the door for his wife, his cheeks sinking into hallow slits at the sight of her.

“My dear, you look flustered? Has Garfield been a proper escort?” he asked, disguising the tempest inside him when offering his hand out to her.

Raven reluctantly accepted the gesture, his anger apparent from the forceful tug. Gar’s hands clenched tightly onto the steering wheel, wanting to do nothing more than to snatch her away from the despicable man.

“His performance was adequate,” she said, her voice hinting a sensual tease that was only meant for Gar to decipher. What the hell is this woman doing to him?

“I would say the man deserves a raise,” she said.

“Quite.” Sebastian was not impressed by her snarky response.

She could clearly handle her own, enticing the young driver even further than before.

“Well, you would pardon me when I say how perturbed I was by your little expedition, wife.”

The term snapped Gar back into realization. ’Married. She’s married, Gar. Untouchable. Forbidden. Death. All wrapped up in that package of an ass.’

“Last time I checked, I didn’t need permission to go to the bookstore,” she snidely explained. “Which Garfield was more than willing to oblige.”

“Not when it involves whispers that have not gone unnoticed by the eyes of our followers!” he snapped.

He took a glance at Garfield, deciding to be discreet on the subject. “But that’s something to discuss in private.”

Raven dreaded the confrontation, gripping the bag that contained her newly purchased books close to her side. Sebastian ushered his wife inside from prying eyes, leaving something vile in the air. All the while, Gar could only be the obedient servant and try to convince himself that it was none of his business.

That night, one of the maids came to Gar in his cabin above the garage, telling him that Blood had requested an audience with him. This did not bode well, but Gar accepted the invitation, having little choice to object. Despite entering the manor, Raven was nowhere to be found, much to his discouragement. When daring to ask one of the maids, they said she had retired for the night due to exhaustion. He left it at that, not wanting to know the details.

He came to the master’s quarters, giving it a soft knock. “Sir, you wanted to see me?”

A voice could be heard muffled at the other end. “Yes, come in, Garfield.”

The young man opened the door, closing it shut behind him. He walked over, crossing his hands behind his back. There was a pause between them; all that could be heard was the scribbling of Sebastian’s pen against some parchments. Gar shifted, wondering if he was even aware that he was in the room. Not long, Sebastian put his pen down, deciding to acknowledge his presence.

“Raven looked quite flustered from her return,” he said, crossing his hands together under his chin. “Can I ask why?”

He furrowed, quite baffled by the question. Realizing he was stalling, Gar took the initiative to answer.

“We almost got into an accident, Mrs. Blood was quite startled by the experience. I take full responsibility of nearly endangering her,” he spoke firmly with resolve.

“That’s your alibi?”

A pause. “It’s the truth, Sir.”

“Hmm, I guess that checks out, seeing as that was Raven’s response as well.” He stood up, circling around his desk. “For a moment, I feared the rumors today presented itself a different story.”

“Of?” Gar asked before even thinking.

“That you and my wife looked quite infatuated with each other when spotting her in your arms,” he simply said. “Not that I blame you, she is quite a beauty.”

Gar frowned, doing his best to act casual. “It’s not in my place to say, Sir.”

“Good answer.” He pointed a finger at him, commending his honesty. “I like you, Garfield. You’re a loyal one.”

Gar flicked his head to the side as if to nod. “Just doing what you hired me for, Father. Praise be Blood.”

“Praise Blood,” Sebastian agreed.

He then folded his arms across his chest and leaned back into his desk. “Now that we got that little detail out of the way, I have a proposition for you, Garfield.”

“A proposition, sir?”

“Yes, it seems despite our practice. Raven still isn’t pregnant.” Gar flinched from the term, trying his best to hide his disgust. “They’re starting to say I might be infertile; which is something I can …no…will not accept. However, we’re still running some tests. Thankfully, Raven seems healthy enough, so she’s the least of our worries.”

“If I may be bold, Sir. I don’t know how this has anything to do with me.” He parted his legs, resting them a bit.

“As I said, we’re trying to run some tests. And I think you’ll be the perfect candidate in helping us with that,” he said, his smile twisting into something wicked. “We’re here to look out for each other, I’m sure we can work together for a brighter future. We can’t disappoint Trigon, after all. Raven was put under our care for the very purpose to breed a new age. To bring about a savior to our society. I’m trusting you with this information in full confidence of your allegiance. After all, Raven seems to have taken a liking to you. And who I am to displease my wife? So, what do you say, Garfield? Do we have a deal? I promise you will be highly rewarded for your services.”

If Garfield didn’t know any better, he would think he was being tested.

“You want me to be your guinea pig,” he bluntly stated, realizing what he was insinuating.

“A healthy strapping man like you? How could we not? Granted, these experiments aren’t practical, but desperate times call for desperate measures. And I must get my seeds in order for Raven to endure them. It’s our future child on the line. Again, do we have a deal?” he asked, though it seemed like the option wasn’t negotiable.

It was no secret that Sebastian used people for his own gain; and compared to Raven, Garfield was no exception. Still, the idea of being closer to the family, to be closer to the lady of the house…it intrigued him to no end. Again, she was married. She was a highborn’s wife. Her husband—his boss. This was bound to bite him in the ass, right?

And yet, he couldn’t refuse.

“I accept.”

End

#bbrae #beast boy #raven #teen titans #tt #garfield logan #rachel roth #otp #my writing #my stuff #sebastian #sebastian blood #handmaid!au #dc #dc universe #dc comics #garrae

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kinetic-elaboration · 5 years

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August 2: Braven, Not Like You to Say Sorry

Braven, Canon-divergent, ~1200 words, for @jellamyjake

90s/2000s song inspo: #169, How You Remind Me - Nickelback

Story about this song: I have a very distinct memory of getting it stuck in my head once in middle school, must have been seventh grade, while I was outside on a snow day shoveling snow out of the driveway. And that is what I think about every time I hear it.

Not that this ficlet has anything to do with shoveling snow. It’s not really a story or a scene so much as it’s an outline for a whole canon divergent universe lol. But I kind of had to work it out as I went along.

Currently taking requests for 90s/2000s inspired fics; send me a pairing and a number between 1 and 217 and I’ll write a scene based on a song from my Nostalgic Childhood Music Playlist

My tag list: @ciewill @dealingdreams @shadowheron2013 @julyrubyrose @wonderland-promises @hanav @rycewritestrash @thelittlefanpire @musicnote902 @stonybnatural @earthgay2052 (lmk if you would like to be added to or deleted from this list)

Clarke leaves. She doesn't even come through the gate, just turns around and disappears into the trees. Raven doesn't hear about this until later; her first few days back at Camp Jaha are a delirium, in and out of consciousness, living through the haze of Monty's herbal medicine, the thudding pain in her leg whenever it starts to clear. Visitors in and out. When Bellamy fills her in, later, weary and slumped low in the seat next to her bed, she is too tired to feel angry. Anger comes later. For all of them.

Kane and Abby try to pick up the pieces. The wall goes up, and the guard stations looking out from the perimeter, rumors of underground negotiations with the Grounders follow but she's not privy to those anymore, to the mechanisms of power, slowly grinding. She moves into her own quarters. She settles into her work and lets distances grow. Bellamy she lets in sometimes, because he does not ask for much. Mostly he's looking for someone who won't ask him to talk, who won't ask anything of him.

When Farm Station returns, Raven stands back, and waits. She watches the reunions. No one left for her to reunite with now. She catalogues all of the changes in the returnees, and she wonders if the dropship camp survivors were like this, seemed like this, distant and altered and insular, their integration not like loved ones returned but like strangers, trying to fit themselves in to spaces that are not quite the right shape, trying to recreate memories that do not feel quite true.

Easier, isn't it, she asks Bellamy, to have no one. They're sitting together at dinner, at a corner table by themselves, and he's become near silent and even harder to reach. So she's not surprised when he allies himself with Pike later: she saw this anger growing in the inward slant of his eyebrows, the hard grip of his fingers around his fork. A long time coming. Since Clarke left at least and maybe longer, maybe his whole life. She's sharp enough to know that Pike's Chancellorship won't end well but also smart enough not to involve herself. Bitter enough to know there are no good options. Bellamy's anger seems to give him life: the first time he kisses her, he feels, pressed against her and the hard planes of his back beneath her palms, and the jagged edge of his teeth pulling at her lip, like he did when they first met on Earth, just as reckless, just as dangerous.

War threatens, violence seeping in. She picks her side. On the edge of the precipice, they back down, the new government folds, and the mood in camp is that of a body, after a long run, holding its breath because it cannot breathe and then exhaling in a great rush, forcing itself not to collapse. Kane takes over the Chancellorship, because no one else wants the job. Autumn hardens again into winter, a harder winter than the last, and Raven starts to sleep under thick blankets of furs.

In the spring, Kane sends out groups to search for more stations. A long shot mission, but the Earth is wide and strange and Raven is glad to explore it. Bellamy is in her unit. He seems to be thawing as the ground has thawed, and at night by the fire he tells her that he wants to be different, and she can almost pretend that she knows what he means. Puts her hand on his knee and watches the inconsistent glow of the flames reflecting on his skin. Just watches for a long time. In the quiet of the night, the insect sound, the others snoring in their sleeping bags and in the back of the Rover, she feels no hurry at all.

Anonymous, he says. He wants to be anonymous. And she understands that he's carried a weight on his back for a long time.

They find, eventually, remnants of Hydro Station out west. Signs of a rudimentary settlement tell them that there were survivors, but no one is left now. Maybe the hard winter did them in. Maybe the Grounders took them. Maybe they went willingly. The rescue mission scavenges for parts and marks the site on their maps, and then goes home

No other stations are ever found.

Five of the twelve made it, in one form or another. More than they were expecting, Kane says, and Raven feels a deep settled numbness all through her. She sees it all from above: macro plans, the survival of the group, and along the way individuals are lost, and lost, and lost.

Two years later, Bellamy leaves. Raven's living in a cabin by then, with five roommates, and everything around her is something she helped build with her own hands. This is not utopia but at least something more like she imagined Earth would be, when she dared to imagine it: something she can settle into. Something she is beginning to understand. Still she knows, better than most people, because she knows him better than most, why Bellamy can't stay.

She waits, a year, another handful of months, and when the season changes again, she recognizes that she has been waiting, and she takes the Rover, and she follows him. The air is brisk and cool and leaves her refreshed, fully aware of and honest with herself. She is twenty-three and has lived on the ground for five years.

She finds him in a tiny little cabin, some way south of Arkadia. Autumn does not quite feel like autumn yet, here; she's too warm in her jacket, and that's all she can think, when she sees him: that the angle of the sun is too high, she cannot do anything but squint into it, and a line of sweat is drawing its way down her neck, down her spine, heat pricking all along her skin. Bellamy is wearing old clothes he must have dug up right before he left, clothes she remembers from the dropship. He has started to grow a beard. That night, she runs her hand along his jaw. Scruffy, she says, not quite smiling.

He takes her hair down and lets it fall over her shoulders, cards his large fingers through it awkwardly, as if he is no longer used to human touch.

You've grown your hair out, he says, not smiling at all. He sounds awed, and she wonders if it's her, or just the presence of another person in his space again. She wants to ask him why he left, really, what he thought this would do. But then she remembers what she believed when he rode off and decides that, of course, she was probably right. He's just lost. So lost that he cannot remember any other way of being, cannot trace his way back to a place where he last felt safe and real and whole.

You here to take me home? he asks.

Raven shakes her head. He's slipped his arm around her waist, and she leans in now, and tucks her nose in against his neck. I don't know, she says, I don’t know why I’m here, and tangles her fingers in his curls, tugging and pulling and hoping to cause an edge of pain, and bringing him down, down to her, until his mouth has found hers once again.

#braven #the 100 #braven fanfiction #raven reyes #bellamy blake #mine #my writing #the year 2019 #2019: free write #2019: answers #wrote this in 35 minutes straight whoooo hope writing goes this well tmrw #it's a little different than what i was planning but i think it turned out well enough #nostalgia songs

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bthump · 5 years

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What would be your reaction if Neo Griffith turned out to be evil?

Boredom and annoyance.

Boredom because after the whole Idea of Evil chapter, the arbiter of fate being humanity’s subconscious, and Griffith being essentially the messiah who grants humanity’s desire, Griffith being “evil” would be wildly disappointing. Maybe not technically contradictory to canon, if Miura decided to strike the Lost Chapter from the story after all rather than just postpone some of the revelations in it as he’s suggested he’s doing, but a whole lot inferior to what I’m expecting based on the Lost Chapter.

As far as I’m concerned I signed up for interesting moral grey worldbuilding, not good vs evil.

I mean I guess the other possibility is that Griffith is still like, humanity’s representative, and the moral of Berserk is that humanity as a whole is evil. Also something I’m not particularly interested in tho lol.

Annoyance because of NGriff’s narrative for the last 150 chapters.

Like let me be real here for a sec: the reason I am so insistant on not wanting NGriff to turn out to be evil all along isn’t because I’m a big fan of Griffith or because if he turns out to be evil I’ll be sad that my fave is bad now or anything like that. I mean come on, I fucking love Femto. I love him more than NGriff. I would’ve been absolutely fine with Griffith transforming into Femto and being an embodiment of evil for the rest of the story lol. Like, dude transforms into his evil inner darkness but retains some aspect of his feelings for the protagonist? That’s my shit man, I would’ve been all over that.

My problem is with how Miura has framed NGriff and his narrative:

You’re damn right I don’t want NGriff to be evil now if that’s going to prove Silat’s “tyranny is inevitable,” message right lol. Or if it’s going to show that a world outside that “reason of the world of man” is even worse. Like, if you position a character as attempting to create a world without tyranny yeah, I’m going to be annoyed if he turns out to be evil.

And I mean, there are shades of this already what with yk, creating the utopia by flooding the world with humanity’s own nightmares and Femto’s existing. I mean Femto may or may not have any bearing on this, I could easily see an interesting morally grey scenario where he exists as Griffith’s inner darkness, and by extension all of humanity’s worst feelings etc, without it being the be all end all of NGriff. Darkness is an aspect of humanity, darkness is an aspect of NGriff, but yk, it’s not everything. I’m fine with that.

And I can live with the moral question of: is this utopia worth merging the planes of existence and creating dragons. I don’t agree with the story’s stance that it’s necessary to create a new enemy for humanity to unite against in order to attain peace, but yk, w/e, I don’t have to agree with everything to enjoy a story lol. But like, for that moral question to work, Falconia has to actually be a utopia. A desirable place to live that is presented in a positive light.

Otherwise what’s even the point? Fantasia is bad, Falconia is bad, change is bad, everyone should’ve just learned to live with the shitty status quo we saw in, eg, the Conviction Arc, or in the tragic childhoods of all three of our Golden Age protags? Boo.

#Anonymous #ask #a #b #like it would've been fine if ngriff was pure evil had miura not thrown in the fulfiller of humanity's subconscious desires and only dude #trying to end tyranny thing but now that ship has sailed lol #ty for the question i've actually been kind of wanting to talk about this a bit recently #character: neogriffith #theme: morality #theme: falconia

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redscullyrevival · 5 years

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N(ot)stalgia: DISCO 2.0

Something I’ve not personally seen anyone talk about with Star Trek Discovery, although I’ve no doubt many are, is the role nostalgia plays in the series.

Sometimes at war, sometimes a crutch, sometimes reflective but mostly deconstructive; nostalgia is near constantly present within DISCO’s production. Present within the media as it is created and relayed to its audience as well as present within large portions of the audience themselves, from within their own expectations and beliefs on what Star Trek “is” (and perhaps most vocally on what the franchise “is not”). Star Trek Discovery is not all that concerned with restorative nostalgia, the series does not excessively lean on invoking comforting throw-back feelings with the intent of recreating the franchise's past tone. And then there’s season 2 episode 8 “If Memory Serves”.

OH BOY. Oh wow. Okay.

“If Memory Serves” is a double down boot stomp of an episode that I’m sure has been turning heads for its use of interweaving, updating, and altering the classic two parter “The Menagerie” (and thus the un-aired-but-widely-known pilot episode “The Cage”) and I’m positive some misguided individual is out there referring to all this as a “reference” and yes I kind of want to die a little knowing that’s happening but I’ll struggle through. Sigh.

The first season of DISCO dug deep and did some drastic nostalgia tweaking and even (dare I say) went so far as to weaponize nostalgia and all the expectations audiences brought with them about what Star Trek “was” and “means” and “does” as a pop culture storytelling institution.

It was a long-term re-haul of many, many aspects of the Star Trek TV franchise and it made many, many people very uncomfortable. Not me, I friggin’ dug it, but I am admittedly a contrary asshole.

Blahblah lots of folks right now are probably thinking about Captain Lorca and for good reason - so lets look at Lorca and how he was used to snap the audience’s nostalgic Trek lens. Spoliers ahead.

Captain Lorca (played by Jason Isaacs) was revealed to be from the Mirror Universe, as in the slap-on-a-beard-and-be-mean-universe. If you know Star Trek you know the Mirror Universe.

But in the beginning, we all sat around ho-humming over Lorca’s motivations and choices. Over what we wanted to believe about him. The viewership was VERY busy interpreting Lorca and working the character into our own individual understandings on what we know and want from a Star Trek television show.

As it happens Captain Lorca is one of the most Trekkie characters ever by default of his universal origins while simultaneously being an approach to the evils of the Mirror Universe (AKA What We Don’t Want Humanity To Be™) as we’ve never seen it before.

Hating other races and being aggressive and enjoying war and breeding a society hostile towards ideas of equality, justice, cooperation, and peace are pretty straight forward no-nos. Turns out though, and this is the real kicker, that the initial unease Lorca brought onto Discovery wasn’t just (entirely) the writers getting through their sea legs but a nice long con:

The evils of the Mirror Universe have now been expanded to psychological and emotional abuse with sexual predatory behavior and unsustainable environmental practices thrown in for good measure. Which was a much-needed update my friends.

And I say “update” but in a lot of ways it’s an insertion. A clarification. Or, as I first sated, an expansion. We could look at DISCO as re-writing Star Trek lore because that’s, ya know, what it is doing - but we can also more specifically look at DISCO as a project in nostalgic alteration.

Hey, guess what?! Spock’s sister has always been a black woman.

From our outward understanding yes, we know Michael Burnham is a ~new~ character in a ~new~ Star Trek show. None of us are confused on how any of this story telling is working. These are new stories.

The function of these stories though? I can’t help but think the audience is pretty torn up on that front.

Something inherent in experiencing Star Trek Discovery is how the show’s narrative future hails from our actual historical past. The utopia of the original series is dated and stale and disingenuous without a nostalgic/contextual lens firmly set in place. The function of many Star Trek Discovery stories is that of a much-needed blood transfusion: Bringing new life to old withered limbs.

Does this mean that Star Trek Discovery is seeking to recontextualize Star Trek? Yes and no but mostly no in my opinion. LOL, sorry, but it’s complicated! As most nostalgia driven works are.

Nostalgic Cinema is a real subset of critical film studies and has only grown in recent years but nostalgia isn’t anything new to media or the human experience. The general consensus is that nostalgic media tries to visually replicate time periods in human history (or the markers of media from a particular time period, what Marc Le Sueur dubbed “deliberate archaism”), but primarily acts as a bridge to idolized youthful emotionality and/or simplified “truths”.

Marc Le Sueur’s “Theory Number Five: Anatomy of Nostalgic Films: Heritage and Method” was published in 1977 and was one of the first major academic and critical looks into the role nostalgia plays in cinema and by extension our connection to and perception of art. In the 1990s Svetlana Boym and Fredric Jameson further pushed ideas of nostalgia in literature and late capitalism respectably (which of course made its way onto visual media).

Le Sueur and Boym saw nostalgia as two classifiable categories, restorative or reflective. Restorative nostalgia attempts to recapture and revitalize an imagined past while reflective nostalgia is marked by a wistful longing for what has been lost to time.

In “The Future of Nostalgia” Svetlana Boym wrote “Nostalgia inevitably reappears as a defense mechanism in a time of accelerated rhythms of life and historical upheavals.” She goes on to suggest that our attraction to nostalgia (either restorative or reflective) is often times less about actually trying to reclaim a vanished past but rather a conscious resistance to an unknown and potentially threatening future.

The bulk of nostalgic media can easily be seen to tie into Boym’s observations; most media isn’t concerned with or about the personal and effective uses of nostalgia as a lived experience/real feeling among individuals but instead more focused on a particularly stylized, sanitized, and simplified view of history. Nostalgia in media is typically a presentation on the present day's romanticized fantasy of the past, void of contradictions and unsolvable uncertainties of the focused time period's lived reality, so as to soften or even avoid the creator’s and audience’s confusing present and unknown future.

In 2005 film critic and historian Pam Cook explored nostalgia in her book “Screening the Past: Memory and Nostalgia in Cinema” which collected seventeen of her short essays from 1976 to 1999 that focus on memory, identity, and nostalgia not only within their subject matter but within Cook’s viewpoint of revisiting her own body of work. Early on Cook laid out a more optimistic outlook on nostalgia in media:

“Rather than being seen as a reactionary, regressive condition imbued with sentimentality, it can be perceived as a way of coming to terms with the past, as enabling it to be exorcised in order that society, and individuals, can move on. In other words, while not necessarily progressive in itself, nostalgia can form part of a transition to progress and modernity. The suspension of disbelief is central to this transition, as nostalgia is predicated on a dialect between longing for something idealized that has been lost, and an acknowledgement that this idealized something can never be retrieved in actuality, and can only be accessed through images.”

The Star Trek of 1966 didn’t air in a peaceful time free from social and political turmoil. In fact, the original series itself was a kind of attempt at Future Nostalgia: A projected desire for what humanity could be if we survive and make changes to the then-contemporary world the show was directly commenting on.

Star Trek’s original series today, as media that has survived and gained weight within the American pop cultural landscape, certainly feels warm, inviting, and reflective of an America long gone and shattered - and that’s because, now, it is.

Time moves forward and warps and bends our media and our experiences to media and the most warped and most bendy of all are those storytelling institutions that outlive and outlast the era and people who first created and first experienced it.

Recreating Star Trek visually, tonally, and thematically would be straight nostalgic vampirism and is obviously not what DISCO is doing. But that doesn’t mean Star Trek Discovery is not not a nostalgic piece even though it looks, feels, and is thematically different than the 1966 original show.

Real quick, let’s get back to this week’s episode, “If Memory Serves”!

... Honestly though, do I need to connect these dots? We all get it right? We’re all on board with this entire thing from the name of the episode, to its direct use and alterations of the original series, and then the not-so-subtle reveal that the season’s big plot point, the Red Angel, is a time traveler re-writing history. Like. We get it, right?

This is where Discovery has yet again doubled down on its storytelling functionality; this is Spock y’all. This is Pike. This is for real happening. Michael has helped shape the Spock character we will see later on in the “future” (our collective past).

And while we’re here, check out Mr. Spock! The Spock of Discovery is not dripping with nostalgic slime, he’s sharp and clean to an almost shocking degree. The series makes little effort in acting as though we should have a pre-determined fondness for the character outside of his relationship to Michael. Which is absolutely NUTS. But in a good way, in my opinion!

The search for Spock (lawl) within Discovery has been on a surface level the literal search for the character within the narrative space of this new series. They gotta find that dude.

The search for Spock within Discovery has also been a form of re-defining the character not through audience expectation of What They Know and Remember but What They Don’t Know and Have No Basis For.

And the series accomplished it within the framework of places, characters, and events that are old, new, the same, and different all at once. I believe that’s a lot of intentional wibbly wobbly timey wimey paratextual stuff taking precedence for the sake of promoting a new view on Star Trek’s (and our own) past, primarily for the sake of moving beyond it.

I don’t think it’s just ‘haha, reference!’ that the first shots we see of Vina (an original series character) in Star Trek Discovery’s “If Memory Serves” is that of her high heeled glass slippers. It’s jarring and weird and even laughable. Vina’s hair and makeup are also deliberate archaisms within the series the character is currently in, airing in the year it is. It reminded me of another nostalgia ridden TV series that would often implement a similar absurdist approach towards viewer nostalgia.

Mad Men had a lot of fun presenting a visually accurate but sterile version of the past not so as to suggest things were better in the 1960s but so that the series could better magnify (and even exasperate) American disillusionment.

One of my favorite examples of nostalgic absurdity in Mad Men is when Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) stands in a crowded office building jokingly pointing a gun at unflinching women.

What's the goal of having Pete do this? Is it to show we were... better then? We were more innocent? Is this deeply inappropriate "joke" suddenly OK because it's 1960, or is it even within context creepy, horrifying, and in incredible bad taste? Do we need the characters to recognize the absurdity of Pete's actions for us to validate them as absurd or are we being invited to make that evaluation ourselves in the here and now outside of the character's reality?

What Pete does is creepy and weird if the characters acknowledge it or not just as much as it is, admittedly, darkly humorous for the audience to witness at all.

But that's because it's not really a set up for comparing and contrasting how much we as a country have lost or gained in the wake of mass shootings but rather that of an audience being able to recognize a total D-bag, even through time.

Pete and his gun aren't a direct focus of the show's nostalgia but they are certainly a product of it and a bit of the point is that Pete gets away with doing what he does because it's a story, yeah, but PRIMARILY due to the audience assumption of "well, it was the 1960s". Its within that suspension of disbelief living at the core of all the many absurdist moments that make up Mad Men where the series bit by bit wedges in its most critical theme: Nostalgia is bullshit.

Through its intentional juxtaposition of accurately ‘recreating’ the past and high co-dependency on its contemporary audience’s views, Mad Men suggests that the best we can do as a society, as a country, is see the similarities between the past and now and decide what is worth keeping, progressing, or discarding entirely. The series delights in uncomfortably positioning the audience to view the weird ass shit it's characters do (littering, chain smoking, drinking and driving, slapping women's butts, letting children play with plastic bags over their heads to name a basic few), not so as to suggest that the past was "better" than today but so as to highlight the ways that we as a society have already deemed the past to be inefficient, ineffective, and cruel.

The series uses the same audience awareness principle to highlight the ways in which nostalgia cannot hide nor brighten our shortcomings and continued failures. There are just as many (if not more) moments in the series that are not presented as contrasting absurdity but comparative harrowing familiarity; those areas of our cultural makeup we have not adequately progressed or left behind.

Sure, in the 1960s everyone could smoke everywhere (very ew, look how far we’ve come) but women still had to internally balance if they could afford looking like a humorless bitch when confronting workplace sexual harassment (haha, whoops!).

America’s past in Mad Men is terrifying and weird as well as frustratingly still present, as smoke soaked into our current attitudes and culture. What America’s past isn’t in Mad Men is purely seductive nostalgia for the sake of simplifying the present.

Le Sueur, Boym, and Cook all propagate that the cinematic image/use of nostalgia is that of double exposure, two images projected onto an audience’s perception and experience (1. contemporary recreation 2. of the past) - and that sure as hell makes up the building blocks of Discovery even though we’re all cognitively aware every aspect of the series is new and it takes place “in the future”. Discovery uses the franchise’s past as an adaptive functional mirror with which to compare and contrast our contemporary reality rather than merely repeating experiences and ideas reflective of a time long gone.

Vina’s shoes, her entire aesthetic down to her backstory aren’t just counter to the tone and aesthetic of Discovery but to the sensibilities of the contemporary audience; we are all very aware that Vina hasn’t literally been plucked out of 1966 and plopped into this new series. Again, none of us are confused on how any of this story telling is working. We’re aware these are new stories. But what is the function of Vina in this new story? What is the purpose of all the unease her presence brings into “If Memory Serves”?

Vina, way back in 1966, was written to choose a life of illusion among aliens siphoning her memories and emotions rather than accept and become a part of the present. The Keeper tells Pike, “She has an illusion and you have reality. May you find your way as pleasant” as they once again cover up Vina’s hunched back and scarred face with youthful and desirable 1960s beauty standards. As we all know Pike himself will go on later to choose this exact fate. He will succumb to the same choice.

“When dreams become more important than reality, you give up travel, building, creating," Vina tells us of the Talosians in “The Cage”, episode zero of Star Trek. “You even forget how to repair the machines left behind by your ancestors. You just sit living and reliving other lives left behind in the thought records.”

I’m having a serious and very real Look-Into-The-Camera-Moment here my friends. We’re all on board, yeah? Are the dots sufficiently and fully aligned? God I hope so. “If Memory Serves” is pulling a helluva fine “To Serve Man” word play pals:

If our memories perform our duties and live our lives for us, we become trapped. Discovery’s purpose for pulling in original series characters, and these characters in particular and all the narrative context sliding along in with them, is to suggest that we (and the franchise itself) need to move past our attachments to the original series and its rusty ideas and simplistic hopes for the future.

Vina and Pike are already lost causes, we know this. We gain power in knowing this. The re-framing of these characters as being more tragic than romantic, with Discovery reflecting their longing as kinda creepy and disconnected with Vina more siren than innocent the series can push past the past and grab on to a new understanding of this classic episode’s elements and what it can mean for us watching Star Trek made in 2019.

A purely DISCO inversion of all this is poor Dr. Culber who has a complete lack of emotional connection to the past, who can remember moments and events but can’t make them give off any feelings of relevancy or incorporate them into who he is as a person. Culber is just as trapped as Vina and what Pike will (possibly?) become. The inch by inch nature of his recovery will depend on, as a pissed off Burnham tells the Talosians, if he can learn to “survive another way.”

Yeah. That might be some thematic intent we’ve picked up on skip. We’re legit through the looking glass now huh? Up is down and down is up and nostalgia ain’t what it used to be! Hype.

As such, in its own way, Discovery is fairly critical of Star Trek and by extension a bulk of its audience and their personal reasons and motivations for tuning in. It makes a lot of sense that Lorca and “If Memory Serves” among many other production choices and aspects chafe some viewers.

I’m of the opinion that the shiny pristine nostalgic pedestal sculpture that is STAR TREK should be filed and chipped and shaved and grated here and there just as much as more contemporary substance should be added and stuffed back into it.

What’s the goddamn point of any of this if not to further progress the bar of reflecting and projecting the human experience onto a future better than that one envisioned in 1966? In 1987? In 1993? And, at the end of the day, isn’t THAT more authentically “Star Trek” than simply an episodic narrative structure, glitter effect transporters, and a captain’s log?

#star trek discovery #star trek #discovery #disco #fandom talks #brain puke

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gaylortruther · 5 years

Text

(many) tag games

saw someone else do this so i figured i’d go through all my tag games in one looong post instead of spamming you all with a bunch of separate posts!

i’m gonna tag everyone now and yall can choose which tag games you want to do or whether you want to do them all (or whether you want to do any)!!

thanks to everyone who tagged me in all of these! i LOVE being tagged in tag games and i am always up for more! <3

tagging THE SANCTION (including ppl that i haven’t gotten up on the page yet im sorry abfjffsdhsjbjsdf it will happen SOON): @newdivinities @wolvesofarcadia @maskedlady @victoiirres @sancta-silje @bumblebeesonpaper @wasting-ink-not-youth @horrorspell @ya-lady-tauriel @awritinglen @purpleshadows1989 @ivonoris @theforgottencoolkid @the-ichor-of-ruination @grotesqu-e @lucacangettathisass @tea-ndi @hazeywrites @lunar895 @thewordsinthesky-andstars

[LAST LINE TAG]

TAGGED BY @melwrotethat AND @hazeywrites

thank you both for the tags! these are the last few lines of the prologue-excerpt-thing i wrote for the page i’m working on for WHERE THE CELLAR MEETS THE SKY

Somehow, Collin hears them. Silently, she rolls up her sleeve, and Rowan feels the Collin Sutherland they knew is somewhere far, far away. The tattoos are black, geometric in design, two on each arm, and eerily similar to the ones Rowan has just discovered on their own left arm. They're sure if they were to roll up their right sleeve, they would find more.

"I should have told you a long time ago," Collin whispers. "I didn't know you were a part of it, but I should have guessed. I didn't want to put you in danger."

"I'm not- I don't- in danger of what?"

The waves crash onto the shore, and in the distance, a seagull cries, sending Collin into action. She grabs Rowan's hand and starts pulling, dragging them back behind the house.

"Come on. We don't have a lot of time, we have to get going. I can tell you everything on the way. I don't know why he brought me here instead of straight to the veil, damn it-,"

"Wait!," they say, wrenching their hand out of her grasp. "Just- stop! Where are we going?!"

Collin's eyes flash bright, despite the lack of sunlight. "Home."

yeah, a bit long, a bit unedited, but *shrugs*

[SPELL OUT UR URL USING SONG TITLES]

TAGGED BY @tea-ndi

thank you sage!!! <3

hard feelings/loveless | lorde

another one of those days | cavetown

let’s fall in love for the night | FINNEAS

ocean eyes | billie eilish

honey and milk | flower face

i know | king princess ft fiona apple

dreamz | sara king

iloveyou | BETWEEN FRIENDS

nobody’s home | gnash

greek god | conan gray

sycamore girl | rex orange county

and there you have a small sample of my music taste! add in literally every taylor swift song (dont judge me), some lo-fi tunes without ANY words whatsoever, and the occasional fall out boy or panic at the disco goddamn absolute banger, and you have my XANDERS JAMS playlist on spotify. ENJOY

[11/11/11 TAG]

TAGGED BY @awritinglen <333333333333333333333333

thank you for tagging me len!!! your questions were so fun!! i’m doing this for WHERE THE CELLAR MEETS THE SKY

Name all OCs in your WIP

OMFG okay,,, wait do you mean full names?? POV characters as of rn are Collin Aisling Sutherland, Rowan Tilley (doesn’t have a middle name) and Avery Bristol Charter. then the next most important one is Isaac Michael Rosewell, even though he’s the antagonist. then the side characters that are still very featured are Noah Rosalyn Pratten, Reese Iseul Radley, and Sage Emarosa Delgado. THEN we get into the very very side characters, Willa Robinson and her son August Robinson. then we have Avery’s parents, Alaric and the late Octavia Charter. and thennnnn we have Beldane Moreno, Avery’s uncle and Collin’s grandfather (undecided abt that last name but going w it for now). i promise it all makes sense. i promise anfnfsjnfdjsfd

Name at least one hobby your Main character love

i’ll give this one to Collin, she is a musician! Avery’s mother always taught her music before The Accident (dun dun dunnn) and after Collin was abandoned in the Nigh she threw herself into music. she plays guitar mostly, but she secretly loves piano the best out of every instrument she knows

3 sentences about your current WIP

OOF. im so bad at summaries why would you do this to meee abfhshjbsbshfjsbf. “A determined believer wants to return to a home that never wanted her. Almost 4000 miles away, an incisive, intellectual outcast of a dreamer muses over getting out of their hometown. And infinities away from them both, a teenage revolutionary disappears into thin air, on his way to bring back his past and fix his (and everyone’s) future.”

Is there a romance in your WIP and did you plan it from the beginning?

yes! there are three! they are definitely a main focus of the plot, but not THE main focus. Reese and Rowan were definitely planned from the beginning. Collin and Noah were, too, but they weren’t originally enemies to lovers, and they are now (hehehehehe). and Isaac and Avery were DEFINITELY not planned from the beginning. in fact, Avery was originally paired up with Sage, but it’s literally so much better this way and i’m so glad it’s been changed. Isaac and Avery has been planned since about when Isaac’s character was thought up, one year into planning WTCMTS.

What genre(s) is it?

a mix of dystopia and urban fantasy. and it’s YA, borderline NA because some of the characters are 19-20, but i still think YA is appropriate because of the style of writing.

What’s the aesthetic of two of your characters?

fun question! Collin’s aesthetic is very emo-punk, with a splash of yellow towards the end of the series. piercings, blue hair, rips on clothing, dirty converse, smudged eyeliner, safety pins. the yellow comes in as part of her character arc, as she learns to accept that her childhood memories are tainted and not actually perfect utopia. Rowan is way more minimalist (sometimes). they’re into the bookstagram type aesthetic, and mom jeans with sneakers, jean jackets, plants against a white wall, colorblocked windbreakers, rain against a car window.

When did you start your current WIP?

WTCMTS was started in august of 2017

How far along are you in the process (i.e 1st/2nd/3rd draft, worldbuilding)

still worldbuilding, unfortunately, for personal reasons

Who’s the hardest character for you to write?

OOOOOOF. sage or rowan?

What music genre best decribes your main character(s) and whats their favorite?

Collin - alternative (favorite band would be like twenty one pilots, p!atd)

Rowan - ichillwave (clario, rex orange county)

Avery - emo (fall out boy, all time low)

Isaac - indie alternative OR instrumental lofi (jaymes young, birdy)

Noah - electropop (lorde, halsey, charlie xcx)

Reese - folk rock (the head and the heart, of monsters and men)

Sage - indie pop (lana del ray, florence + the machine)

Are you working on more than one WIP?

yes! i have four currently but only two are important lol, ILLUNIUS and WHERE THE CELLAR MEETS THE SKY (this one). WIP PAGE

MY QUESTIONS

how did you come up with the title for your WIP?

is there anything you want to change about your WIP but you are hesitating on?

do you have a favorite character? a character that is your baby?

write a tinder bio for one of your characters.

how do you feel about epilogues? does your wip include an epilogue?

what changes does your MC go through over the course of the story?

what is the most significant insignificant thing that happens in your story? don’t explain why it is significant if it spoils things ;)

do you know what will happen after the ending of your wip, or would you rather not picture it?

how long does your wip span? is it a novel? a series? does it have prequels or spin-off wips?

what is a major internal conflict for your MC?

do you include flashbacks in your wip? do you like writing flashbacks?

[HOW TO KNOW YOU’RE IN A ______ NOVEL TAG]

TAGGED BY @writevevo AND @wolvesofarcadia

thank you both for this tag! it’s so much fun and both of your novels sound like novels that would be very interesting to be stuck in :D

inspired by this post

HOW TO KNOW YOU’RE IN A HALOHIDINGS NOVEL

you’re an older sibling and you have a younger sibling. you’re extremely bitter towards your younger sibling for stealing opportunities from you, damning you to a life you never truly wanted. your younger sibling adores you and just wants to please you. they never meant to do it.

you’re stuck in constant, wistful wanderlust, never feeling like you truly belong, never fitting in anywhere, not with friends, not with family, and when you finally find the place you’ve been looking for, you realize it’s nothing like you dreamed or remembered.

you’re not heterosexual. no one around you is. no one is cisgender either. where are they? no one knows.

you have a peculiar capability dancing under your skin. it trickles from your pores and muddles with your mind. maybe you asked for it, maybe it was predestined, maybe you never wanted anything to do with it. whatever the reason, it’s there, and you don’t know what’s you and what’s it. maybe you’re not meant to ask. maybe you’re meant to succumb.

your memories are as fickle as the rain, coming and going and breaking through the clouds, shattering the fog and disappearing with the sun. you can’t recall what you’re doing here, or where you’re meant to be instead. what’s your name?, they ask. you don’t know.

there are two worlds. one world is blissfully unaware of this, or at least, as unaware as any world of millions and millions of people can be. no secret can be kept forever, they tell you. you are desperately trying to keep the secret.

the one closest to you, despite your abhorrent denial of this fact, the one you would trust with your life, will betray you. because of their decision, their selfishness, you will either lose them, or lose yourself.

THOSE WERE SO FUN OMG. they all mostly apply to both of my major wips, which is probably bad. oh well LMAO

SORRY THAT WAS SOOOOOOOO LONG hope at least someone does one of these tag games lol <3

xander out

#taggedin

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bigskydreaming · 5 years

Text

princeescaluswords replied to your post:

Alex Summers, after the most recent of 128979889...

Why don’t you write Marvel? You couldn’t possibly do any worse and I could use the laughs!

Lol, its a nice dream, but realistically I don’t think there’s any universe in which Marvel would ever let me write the X-Men.

Like, my very first story would probably have Bobby refreezing the Arctic while Storm heads up a team of elementals to combat climate change. And then a Republican senator and a Democrat senator would go on TV and make a bipartisan show of expressing their gratitude towards mutants for helping save the planet and this is the real future of humanity, this is them all building a world where they can live side by side in a mutually beneficial -

And then the broadcast would cut off because Cypher just hacked every satellite worldwide and said “all your binary codes belong to me now, resistance is futile, blah blah” before turning the camera to Sunspot who’s all decked out in his snazziest suit and dressed to the nines. Roberto yawns and flips the whole world off and says “LOL fuck you, the X-Men are done with respectability politics, we took a vote and our democratic process actually works, we don’t have a fucking electoral college. We only saved the planet because it happens to be the planet we live on, dipshits, nobody did it for you, you’re still cordially invited to go extinct. Or you can play nice and try getting along with the rest of us for a change but good luck trying to make Sentinels happen again, lmao, funding’s gonna be an issue for you pretty soon I think.”

He turns off the camera and goes back to planning his and Sam’s wedding, because look, I have my priorities, okay.

Then Mystique unleashes her new Fellowship of Evil (Same Name, But This Time Its Evil as in STFU, Its Ironic U Assholes) Mutants that she’s been recruiting from the ranks of the young and disenchanted. Overnight, the market is flooded with gold and gems transmuted from ordinary materials by mutant powers, as well as a bunch of shit ‘liberated’ from the coffers of the 1% via her Fellowship’s alliance with her son-in-law’s Thieves’ Guild. Value plummets instantly, and then technopaths join in the fun, crashing every banking system worldwide.

“Whoopsie, I broke capitalism, money’s worthless now, vive la revolution, everyone eat some fucking cake,” Raven sing-songs merrily from the chaise she’s lounging on while eating grapes. The city outside her window is burning. Meanwhile, a fiddler is playing nearby. She calls him Nero, because Aesthetic.

“Oh relax,” she rolls her eyes when Remy attempts to frown at her disapprovingly. “I had my teleporters evacuate the city before I set it on fire. I’m not a heartless monster, you know.”

“You mean you didn’t want to spend the next ten years dealing with your children yelling at you about innocent civilians and how could you,” Remy says dryly.

Mystique just shrugs and eats some more grapes. “Or that.”

Far-right dominated police forces and white supremacist militia groups attempt to forcibly establish martial law, except mostly they’re just standing around clutching their heads and trying to cope with the mother of all migraines as a gestalt of telepathic minds headed up by a Cerebro-powered octet of Jean, Emma, Betsy, Rachel, Quentin, and the Stepford Cuckoos psychically screams FAKE NEWS!!! into their brains every time their CO’s attempt to bark out new orders.

“Best school project ever,” Quire shouts. Emma smirks.

“Extra credit to the first person to psychically leak the full extent of just how extensively governments have invaded their citizens’ privacy with surveillance extremism in the name of national security.”

Jean attempts a half second of chastisement, but with them all linked this closely, there’s really no way to hide that she’s mostly just amused. Oh no, she and Emma are seeing eye to eye on something and there are witnesses and everything. The revolution was a mistake.

Atlanteans and mutant hydrokinetics team up to shove the worst oil and toxic waste and trash spills up onto the shores of every beach marked ‘privately owned’. The mile-wide ‘island’ of plastic debris that formerly sat in the middle of the Pacific is now parked off the coast of Malibu.

There’s a twenty foot demon from Limbo sitting in the Oval Office. It burps. Illyana beams and boops its nose. “Good boy.” It wags its tail and breaks the Oval Office.

Kitty and Kurt direct teams of similarly powered mutants in raiding the top secret R&D facilities of major pharmaceutical companies for all their research on diseases that never made it to mass production because they decided those treatments or cures wouldn’t be profitable in the long run because healthy people don’t need to spend a ton of money on medical care. Teams of healers are standing by to vet the viability of various research, while Hank, Cece and other mutant geniuses are already working on filling in the gaps on all the projects that were shutdown and Forge, Madison Jeffries and tech-based geniuses are converting existing infrastructure into the necessary machinery to take over mass production of these drugs, prosthetics, and sweatshop labor in general.

Speedsters and teleporters are redistributing food and stocking up the millions of properties worldwide that have just been sitting there empty for god knows how long, useless. Colossus is standing in the smashed remains of a mansion with his arms crossed sternly while a man who is definitely not meant to resemble the CEOs of either Tesla or Amazon or look like some kind of Musky Bozo hybrid cowers on the floor.

“You are a very stupid man,” Colossus says. “Why are you wasting billions funding research into space travel when there are aliens with a strong grasp of the technology in the ships that brought them here on every superhero team on Earth? You could have easily provided the Earth with working and widely accessible space travel by now if you weren’t so miserly.”

“Yeah,” Juggernaut says behind him, scratching his head. “Aliens have been coming and going from this planet for like fifty years. There are tons of fancy spaceships anyone could’ve just reverse engineered and mass produced by now. How come nobody’s ever done that and we’re all just acting like space travel is some far-off dream when everyone we know’s been to space like at least ten times?”

“Stupid people,” Colossus rumbles again. Musky Bozo wets himself and Piotr sighs and shakes his head. He didn’t even touch him.

Cyclops and Wolverine and their teams of bruisers are already done with the ICE facilities and have progressed to busting open prisons and liberating all nonviolent offenders. They inform everyone else that they can appeal to a panel of telepaths to read their minds and see for themselves that they’re innocent.

“Guilt determined by mind-reading?” Someone asks. “Lots of potential for sketchiness there.”

“Absolutely,” Scott says. “Which is why laws about boundaries and oversight have to be established. For now, its a volunteer basis only. Nobody has to get their mind read, but its an option available in the meanwhile as we sort out a better system for determining who’s been imprisoned for crimes of premeditated malice and abuse and who’s just been railroaded by an unjust and biased system.”

“So this is your new utopia, huh?” Sneers the prison warden, from the floor where he’s on his ass with a busted face because, idk, Reasons.

Scott just shakes his head. “No. It’s merely a start.”

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, but if its broke and you wanna fix it, you gotta start somewhere,” Logan says gruffly. “Shit was broke. This is ‘starting somewhere.’”

He and Scott share a very Passionate look of camaraderie. Rogue sighs loudly.

“Just fuck already, jfc.”

Logan grunts. He already offered, but apparently all Personal Business must wait until after the Revolution was over, because a Scott Summers who put himself first was very clearly an impostor, so its not like Logan could even fucking get mad considering Scott putting in a pin in sucking each other’s faces after their We Were Both Dead But Now We’re Not and Also What the Fuck Was Up With Us For the Five Whole Years Before That reunion was what confirmed that it was definitely the Real Scott’s tongue in his mouth.

“Alright, let’s move it people,” Logan barks, clapping his hands. “There’s three more joints to hit before sundown. We got a timetable here.”

Jubilee squints at him suspiciously. “Since when are you efficient?”

“Mind your own fucking business.”

At no point does anyone suggest they erase the most sacred sites of all the world’s major religions and call them all fake or randomly resurrect a bunch of dinosaurs and release them on unsuspecting and innocent populations, because those are terrible ideas and make no sense and just because they’re stinkin’ commies now doesn’t mean they’re fucking morons.

Also, nobody grows a ridiculous beard or stops using shampoo or starts wearing flip flops or robes, because apparently those are not actually essential components of being a stinkin’ commie or even just a garden variety peace-aspiring socialist. They checked. Extensively. It was almost a dealbreaker. Emma, Monet and Roberto all threatened to side with the Capitalist Pigs if that was not thoroughly clarified before proceeding any further.

Thus ends my first issue. I email Marvel the script. They email it back, almost entirely redacted in red, with the note “This isn’t quite what we were looking for. Do you have anything about a new cure for mutants, maybe?”

I email them back: LOL NO. MAGNETO WAS RIGHT.

I am promptly fired.

I go back to ranting about how Marvel sucks on the internet.

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avicebro · 6 years

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sorry, i don’t like jason or anything, but i feel the need to defend him since i spent like 20 minutes today writing a post about how i hope they write him better. anyway, i don’t think any of his bastard stuff is canon to Fate so far? i haven’t actually read FSF, but from what i’ve read, Alcides paints a very different image of him than Okeanos does or Medea does so i’m curious if Fate has actually had any canon evidence to suggest he’s as shitty as non-fate stuff shows him?

Haha yeah, Alcides, okay. I wouldn’t say that Alcides is a very good person to take anything from, considering he is an alter?? Who was specifically created to remember and live his sins?? But anyways, if we look at what Jason says:

“I’m going to be king, after all; I’m prepared for that much labor. As long as everyone obeys me, I’ll give them suitable compensation and a prosperous land. A land where everyone feels safe. In that land… Listen to me! In that land, no one will look at you and be afraid!” The blond man proclaimed, spreading his arms wide and cutting off Alkeides, who had been about to say something. The gesture almost seemed to say that his words were the world itself. “Because as long as you’re my man, my friend, my property, everyone will understand you.”

By Ancient Greek standards, Jason is a bad king. Suggesting that people are “his property” is not what a good king does! He starts this speech by manipulating his crew, by attacking them where they feel weakest, by their feelings of being treated as monsters, as outsiders. He states that he alone can fix all of the problems, he alone has that intelligence.

“Hm? You want to know why I don’t fear you…? Why even ask something so obvious? It’s because I am a sage possessed of wisdom to surpass even the gods, of course.”

[…]

“That’s precisely why a person like me has to seize power and glory.”

[…]

“Of course, they’ll never equal my wisdom, so I’ll have to compensate for what they lack.”

This is based on a dream that Bazlidot sees, based on Alcides’ memories, from FSF Volume 4. So this is from back on the Argo. No singularity no changes due to the grail, just Alcides’ memory of the Argo. Now you could say that Narita took Okeanos when writing Jason’s characterization.

He says that he’ll make an utopia, but he alone can do so, because he alone is the wisest, when Bazlidot comments that there is not really that much to him. The way he’s written, to me, feels more Shinji-like than anything. The way the scene is presented is that he does this often, as well, and that the rest of the crew are used to this by this point.

Now, in terms of what Alcides says about Jason:

“That man was a vulgar clown with all the weaknesses and twists of human nature in him. Nor can I deny that he always told his companions that he was the one who could make the best use of them.”

“He was a pitiful man who forgot the teaching of our mutual teacher Chiron and became obsessed with his own desires. Still, there was nothing false about the wild tales he spun.”

“That man, smeared with dirt and avarice, was the most human human I ever saw. ”

Very nice. Most people point to this:

“It may be true that he was an incurably arrogant fool who didn’t know his place, but even so… he was my friend.”

This is based on the friendship and bond formed on the Argo (Though It wasn’t enough to keep Heracles on when his bf went missing lol but no one talks about that part of the Argo for some reason).

So, Alcides does say a whole lot of pretty bad stuff about him, which you can read here starting on page 33, but because he was his friend he cannot hate him. I think again it should be noted that Alcides does have negative views on the gods and kings, to whom he shows no distinction, so that should be kept in mind when dissecting how he views Jason.

I would also point to Medea’s backstory from Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, which gives a third person recounting of fate Medea’s backstory, namely the killing of King Pelias by his daughters. In it he tells her:

“Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill King Pelias who broke his vow. Kill the king’s relatives. That’s right. The king alone shall not suffice. Kill that unsightly successor, and the three princess too-”

The VN also states that Jason set up the assassination. In the fate version it has Jason and Medea working together to kill King Pelias. Again, this could be seen as “oh this is just Medea’s memories” but since it is third person, I view it similarly to the other backstories from HA and SN as being truthful.

So, even if we ignore Okeanos, and how Medea characterizes him, then we still have a greedy person who used his shipmates’ fears in order to get what he wanted. Yes, he’s good at finding the best in people, which is a good skill.

He also shows up in Circe’s interlude, but I haven’t been able to find anything based on what that’s about. However it does end with her saying she wishes to go back to her island to proclaim her love to Odysseus, so maybe there’s something to be said about Jason with regards to how she views Odysseus? I don’t know.

I think it should be noted that a character does not need to be likable for them to have good writing. I would say that characters like Columbus and Teach, who are by no means fan favourites, are still sometimes written well. They don’t need to be cute anime boys for them to be in the summoning gacha. Wada Arco in all her wisdom drew Jason with Fionn and David lol. If they want to make him sympathetic, play on the “she killed our children” angle, which most playwrights do when adapting the myth. If they want to make him a hot anime boy, make him closer to Gilgamesh or Ozymandias. But again, since he is introduced threw the eyes of Medea, and we are supposed to feel pity for Medea, that’s going to be difficult.

Finally, as I’ve mentioned before, having him be arrogant, selfish and blaming others for his own problems echoes Medea’s master Altrum in fate/stay night. I think that parallel should be kept personally.

/shrug emoji

#local man tries to remain neutral

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