#guys I thought this was just gonna be another wacky kids adventure

[theridgebeyond]

Reasons why Animorphs #23: The Pretender is gay propaganda:

It’s narrated by Tobias.

The line “We are… we can’t hold hands, Tobias. We can’t dance. We can’t go to a movie together…” exists in the 90s.

The title is clearly a call-back to “The Great Pretender” by Freddie Mercury.

Tobias says “gay” and means gay.

#animorphs #tobias #please excuse my live tweeting in the tags but #right as I was typing this post I got to the part of the book about Elfangor and I started screaming #guys I thought this was just gonna be another wacky kids adventure #but then Tobias started talking about local a Boy Scout troop kicking out the gay neighborhood kid and while I was distracted by that blow #Applegate had the audacity to drop the Elfangor news #I promise I’m a reasonable adult with reasonable adult interests

[intertexts]

SEASON FINALE TRIVIA !!!!!! this includes 23 and 24. i hope youre having fun :)

- yakko does the intro and says "welcome to just rolled with it the show after the show where we talk about how awesome i am :)" and hes right for that

- JUST GENERALLY PRAISING YAKKO FOR HIS PERFORMANCE AS ASHE. grizzly goes "i honestly forgot you were a guest player i just want you to stay here forever now"

- bizly and yakko the night before they recorded this episode were up late thinking about just . goofy scary things for the trickster to do. like what if the floor is lava but REAL. what if his ARMS GOT LONG. shit like that

- BIZLY WAS GETTING EMOTIONAL DURING THE SCENE RIGHT BEFORE ASHE FULLY TURNS INTO THE TRICKSTER. which is HUGE because its a running joke in riptide that bizly never gets emotional during character moments and grizzly is like. the big crybaby about it. polar opposites of the getting emotionally immersed in roleplay spectrum

- grizzly: "i know out of character we had to leave ashe here because it works for the story and also youre a guest and cant stay forever but in character, dakota would NEVER do that willingly. if circumstances were just a little different i think william and vyncent wouldve had to physically drag him out of there" :(

- OVERLORD WAS NOT ORIGINALLY AN ALLIGATOR. HE WAS NOT AN ALLIGATOR FIVE MINUTES BEFORE HE WAS REVEALED . OVERLORD BECAME AN ALLIGATOR THE MOMENT BIZLY SAID ".... i gotta do it"

- yakko: i kinda feel bad that i just one punch deleted the big supervillain thats been hyped up for the whole season

grizzly: no, look. we've been joking for like 5 episodes now about how our characters could never beat an alligator. and we were right!

- "it took a god to beat a gator" "i feel like youd see that on the front of a church in florida" "whats a king to a god. whats a god to a gator"

- condi: "hey! so the beginning of the episode! pretty wacky! remember when we fought whirlwind?"

charlie: "no. no i dont."

- grizzly: "i almost find myself sympathizing with the villains sometimes because we're just so annoying"

yakko: "every villain we've gone up against is just thinking 'man, these kids are LOSERS'"

- grizzly: "i genuinely never want to speak to mark again"

charlie: "if he breaks out of prison i will go to every length to put him back in. i hate him. i hate him so much" THIS WAS LITERALLT UNPROMPTED?!?!?!?!! WHY DO THEY HATE HIM SO MUCH. FREE MY MAN !!!!!!!!!

- when they first got into the room, charlie condi and yakko thought thetubes were gonna open and 4 regular gators were gonna come out to fight them. grizzly thought it was gonna be wavelength betraying them with the other lieutenants (AGAIN. WHY ALL THE MARK WINTERS HATE. I DONT UNDERSTAND)

- QUICK BACKSTORY RECAP BY GRIZZLY. basically verbatim to how hes saying it.

vyncent: is from another world. looked up to an adventuring party. (condi: the important part was the whole "monsters that dont look like monsters" thing)

william: theres a bunch of ghosts spirits monsters in deadwood and he and his friends were investigating them until one day he followed a wisp into a forest and fell down a hole and died and came back as a wisp and now all the monsters and ghouls are out to get him so he had to leave deadwood so his friends and family wouldnt be in danger (charlie: well when you put it like that it sounds so much lamer)

ashe: had a trickster book and the trickster killed his mom. idk why he thought that was a good idea. actually, when you got possessed by the trickster the first time, howd you get him back in the book? (bizly: theres more to that story you guys havent learned yet so im not gonna just tell you. you have to figure that stuff out in character)

- dakota: (from charlie this time) uhh your parents died and you take risks and jump off things and then one day a girl jumped off a thing with you and you grabbed her but then also died like william wisp because we like falling off of things and getting superpowers apparently so you fell off something and got superpowers and then you left the hospital before they coukd tell you anything and you ran into the woods where you met a strange old man that taught you how to fight stuff i guess (grizzly: i never actually wrote what happened to the girl in my backstory. bizly: because you wouldnt KNOW)

- dakota adrenaline junkie........ (grizzly: its worse now because he has powers and he can do all the things he used to and MORE. and SURVIVE)

- they all believe tide was mind controlled from the time he went to talk to whirlwind by himself after they beat him. bizly says he misspoke and described some things wrong, tide wasnt actually mind controlled until they were actually in the building. he kept rolling saves for him and every time he just rolled like garbage so he never broke out of it

- its a 2/3 split on how theyre planning to react to the heroes. vyncent and william are bitter about it because neither of them are used to living in a place with a lot of heroes so they dont know how all of this is supposed to work. theyre angry that the heroes never showed up when they needed them and the one time they actually do come its just MINUTES too late after their friend had to basically sacrifice himself to save them instead. dakota, who grew up in and around the city basically worshipping superheroes, doesnt understand why theyd be so angry.

- the reason overlord knew they were coming is because the gunman from the whirlwind fight got away. he instantly came back to overlord and told him to expect pd soon because they beat whirlwind

AWESOME TRIVIA FOR THESE!!!!! holy shit... trickster the floor is lava but real ^_^ horrifying thanks!!

ALSO REAL. THIS IS YAKKOS WORLD WERE JUST LIVING IN IT!!! genuinely probably i would have figured out the setup in 24 so much quicker if i hadn't just. Forgot ashe was a guest. i was like yeah man four of them. he just lives here now. i wonder what theyre setting up for because i dont think some big setup for one of the main pcs 2 have an insane sacrificial moment would happen!! ^_^;

I LOVE THE WIWI STUFF. fucked up x files gravity falls ass hybrid. head in hands. ALL of the backstory stuff actually esp. vyncents which is still the vaguest shit ever. shaking himmmmmm why is there an adventuring party in ur brain !!!!! head in hands.

#THE FUCKING ALLIGATOR SHIT. OH MY GOD. im stiilll not fucking over it man. god. #god. please tell me these kids get like. ONE NIGHT. ONE NIGHT in umm. probably a fucking hotel or something because the hall of elementals #is still not really livable & umm. well they wont be staying at marks! please for the love of god i need them all to have a really long hot #shower & a cry & cuddle pile. head in hands. i need to like open google docs about this or something. #anyway... aughghgh. have been thinkin bout this shit all day dude. fuck. also feeling insane about dakota + their reaction 2 the heroes #specifically. i think thats most of it. OK. DAMN i need 2 get this classwork done ok i think ummm. maybe ill start s2 to motivate me. #catkiss.gif!! #mac tag! #pd lb

[dballzposting]

out of intellectual curiosity, what if trunks was a younger sibling? like bear with me, replace trunks's birth with bulla and assume that after goten is born, for some reason, bulma decides to have another kid relatively soon after, making trunks not only younger than bulla but younger than GOTEN. what might change if he's not the oldest OR the only specialest little baby of his household? how would the balance of power shift if there were TWO commanding briefs children in the friend group?

SO . . . . GOTEN & BRA ARE BFFS ?!

They would be BFFs then. And there would be a whole Future Bra arch. Yes?

OMG Goten & Bra as BFFs for LIFE ! The thing is I don't know how entertained by him she would be. She would boss him around severely as a personality trait that is encouraged by her homelife. But IDK I think that Goten could handle it.

OMG They would be just like Bulma and Goku in a way.

OMG They would be just like Bulma and Goku.

Guys it would be like on the original dragon ball where Bulma and Goku went on an epic swag adventure only instead it's Bra and Goten on the hunt for some good damn places to EAT around here LOL !

OK I've reread the ask and I now understand that you purposefully shifted the time of the births so that Trunks and Goten are still not far apart. So Bra, a year later Goten, a year later Trunks.

Well that would be interesting because Goten would be friends with both of them but Bra and Trunks are not always getting along obviously but sometimes theyre a duo and sometimes they want nothing to do with each other and sometimes Goten is there and they're a trio and sometimes he's a duo with just one of them and sometimes he's feuding with both so he's not there at all and. Woah so cool

That's so cool .. that dynamic is really speaking to me. Two siblings and between their years is one wacky neighbor boy.

The thing is, by personality, Bra would be better as The Older one while Trunks would be better as The Younger one. Bra is gonna put her foot down and call the shots no matter whom she’s with, it just makes more sense that she would have the authority and responsibility of the elder kid. Trunks is gentle and easy by spirit, and sort of soft inside, and the way he is in GT .. IDK he doesnt seem the older brother of anyone. He seems like someone’s baby brother. 

Of course I never would have seen this if you hadnt sent this ask in ... Thank you ...

I feel like Trunks would still end up as President for a short time while Bra fucks off with a passion project, and Trunks would only be doing it for the sake of the family, but sometimes he feels like he’s the only one who still cares. I of course only thought of this because of Roy and Joy from Papa Louie BUT THIS ISNT PAPA LOUIE. Bra does come back to be Prez and Trunks is glad to resign HE HATED DOING THAT SHIT !!! 

And it would be so weird that Trunks doesnt have Goten all to himself. Goten probably couldn’t get too close to either of them or he’d indirectly scorn the other. Bra and Trunks are so different and they need their space from each other, Goten wants to be in their space all of the time, clearly he would have to pick one or the other in any given day. Interesting stuff

#dballz posting #dballz asks #goten & trunkz

[geekmedium]

Jack Kirby’s Jimmy Olsen

So I just got through reading the first omnibus in Jack Kirby’s Fourth World saga. I’m gonna try to make my way through every last one in order to see what the big deal is and analyze why they have such imaginative power while other Jack Kirby creations like the Eternals went down the memory hole.

And honestly this isn’t an auspicious way to start. I had wondered for a while why Jimmy Olsen isn’t really recommended in the New Gods Saga and now I know why. It’s barely a New Gods book. The only connections to the New Gods are:

Mokkari and Simyan as the recurring antagonists

Morgan Edge working for Darkseid (which isn’t resolved in this book)

Lightray appearing for a scene

Clark spending an issue in New Genesis

A few references to the Forever People

Not exactly the best intro to the War of the New Gods. In fact I would describe this book more as New Gods clean up. It spends more time dealing with threats that are the spillover of war rather than confronting the war directly.

The real through line of these tales is “The Project.” A genetics facility that would later be known as Project Cadmus.

Mokkari and Simyan create threats based on Cadmus tech. Superman and Jimmy deal with the monsters of a Cadmus scientist. We meet the D.N.Alien Dubbilex who investigates a secret passage to Cadmus. Heck the entire story starts with Jimmy investigating a wildness group that uses technology left over from Cadmus. If you’re someone who likes Project Cadmus then this is a highly recommended collection for you.

I think the biggest revelation was that Superman was a partner and firm advocate for the Project. Literally every piece of superhero media I’ve watched portrayed Project Cadmus as morally dubious at best, so it’s kind of surreal that Kirby intended them to be good guys. Especially since a lot of stuff they do in this book is still morally dubious. They create human clones (seemingly without permission) and employ mad scientists. Some of their soldiers are children or teens and they seem really intent on keeping all this literal life changing tech undercover. It’s kind of wild that Kirby framed all of this in the narrative as morally good without questioning it at all. Then again, wasn’t eugenics a well thought of science back in the day? I figured it died out in the 50s or so, but maybe a lot of people still agreed with it in the early 70s.

Anyway, the real reason why I think Project Cadmus is the focal point is that it allowed Kirby to work where he shines brightest. Big ideas.

Someone once described Jack Kirby as a hundred ideas per square inch, and it’s hard to disagree when reading through this. Small planets, D.N.Aliens, the Habitat, Zoomway, and the solar phone are just some of the inventions that fill the pages of this collection and I purposely left out the stuff connected with New Gods like the Boom Tube. But more than just making cool technology, Jack gave Superman cool threats.

It can be hard coming up with challenges for any incarnation of the Man of Steel, and I have to imagine the Bronze Age one was one of the hardest. But reading through these I’m amazed with how rarely I felt the threat was below Superman. And I think that comes down to the fact that rarely was Kirby trying to write a cosmic wrestling match. His solution to problems had a more cerebral element to them, and required Superman to get creative or even occasionally play for a more peaceful resolution. I think my favorite was when he saved Cadmus from a collection of atomic energy eaters in like 10 seconds.

In fact, Kirby wrote an absolutely fantastic Superman. Strong, clever, mature, creative, kind, and badass. I said it can be hard to write for Superman, and I think a lot of comic writers think that decreasing him makes him work better, but Kirby knew that all you really have to do is make the threats bigger. And this cosmic war of gods, with Earth as just a casualty in the way, is about as big as you can get. And as a result, the Superman that emerges here is all the stronger for facing these threats as they come one by one while also trying to help start a whole new branch of science that these monsters threaten or distort. While this isn’t much of a New Gods book, I consider it a bit of a hidden classic for Bronze Age Superman stories.

But what about the titular character of Jimmy Olsen? Well honestly, he really ends up playing a side character in his own book. And I’m fine with that, because I think Jimmy only really works as a spotlight character once every couple dozen of issues, but if you are reading these stories for him, you’ll probably be disappointed. It’s not that he has nothing to do, but when your book has New Gods and Superman and genetic warfare and interdimensional schemes of every shape and size, you’re just gonna have to play second or even third billing. To be fair, no other main player in the Superman mythos can really tag along either. Lois is nowhere to be seen, I think Perry White only shows up once, and while Morgan Edge is a small antagonists, he really only acts as an orchestrator instead of a major player. They are all gone to make room for the Newsboy Legion.

And man do the Newsboy Legion just barge into the story. Sometimes literally.

Kirby seemed to really want to make them a thing again like when he wrote them in the 40s. It kind of reminds me of how J.M. DeMatteis tried to put Vermin in a lot of his stories. And just like with Vermin, they really end up over staying their welcome.

They were fine in the first two or three issues, but around the time the Outsiders (no not those Outsiders, a different one) exit the story, the NL should have left too. They could return for a story or two, but no more. Instead Kirby makes sure they appear in every single story in this omnibus, including ones where they aren’t really needed. Oh no! Jimmy has been ambushed and Clark has been sent off to Apokolips with no way to return. Quick, let’s go see what hijinks the Newsboy Legion are getting up to. Like, I don’t hate them, and giving Superman super wacky kids who support him in his adventures isn’t a setup I’m adverse to, since that’s basically what Jimmy was for the Silver/Bronze Age. But man, the 70s slang and rapscallion attitude you see in the panel above is only a little of what shows up, and it gets really grating after a while.

On top of that were some other weird cast choices. I actually really like the Golden Guardian’s setup as a genetically made man with memories implanted with those of a dead man. I really looked forward to him relearning his past life while making a new one in Metropolis as much needed backup for Superman. But he honestly ends up as just a kind of Captain America clone

He also ends up just dropping out of the story later on. Not even leaving, it’s just that one scene he is with Superman exploring the city and the next Superman is off exploring a secret tunnel with Dubbilex and not-Lois character Terry Dean.

And speaking of Terry Dean I find it just hilarious that she is in this panel. Superman and the others are exploring secret entrances and contemplating literal apocalyptic war, and she’s just kind of...there. For those who don’t know or care, according to my research she is a character who showed up once before Kirby came on the Jimmy title, twice after he left it, and then one more time eighteen years later as a deep cut in Superman vol 2. #46.

If I seem to be nitpicking, it’s just that it’s so weird Kirby would go for this character instead of bringing in Lois. And he includes another weird character named Goody Rickels for like two or three issues for a story arc I’m gonna have to reread just to understand what the point of it was.

Still, ignoring these flaws, the Jack Kirby’s Jimmy Olsen Omnibus is a recommend if for nothing else than the fact that it is a good set of Superman stories with incredibly inventive and creative plots that hint at a larger world on the horizon. And I honestly can’t wait to tackle that new world of New Gods.

#review #Jack Kirby #Superman #bronze age #Fourth World

[granddaughterogg]

Making Noise:War and the reader Go All The Way

This is mostly adult material, so if you happen to be a kid, please read it so that your parents won’t catch you. :D It’s also insanely long for a smut piece, so you can also read it on AO3 if you prefer. Enjoy!

Oh, how he sang.

You’ve never heard a man make so much noise while fucking. His sharp, ragged moans, his guttural groans and hisses sent thrill after thrill through your spine. War set your soul aflame. You never wanted him to shut up.

You started to gyrate your hips harder, to sway back and forth at a quicker pace, your whole upper body arched upwards, fingers dug into your lover’s back in relentless pursuit of pleasure.

Your pleasure – and his.

„I want to explore you."

His words lingered at the back of your mind for days after that. All the ravishing possibilities, packed into one simple statement.

It was the kind of candour you’d never got from Death. The Pale Rider’s way was one of clever self-restraint, either calculated or caused by his internal turmoil.

War was as straightforward as they come. And to be frank - you enjoyed the change.

You enjoyed War himself. Immensely. You yearned for more of him.

What happened between you two was like the first sip of exquisite liquor; just a teaser of way more delicious things to come.

Unfortunately, you had to be content with that for now, because the Four soon left for a mission. They had some important Horseman shit to attend to.

You wished them all luck in their endeavours. Hugged the twins.

(Strife quipped: "Take care and remember to exfoliate daily!” and held you a little too tight, as if he was a kid in distress and you - his beloved plushie).

You got yourself burrowed in Death’s firm embrace for a while. Pressed your forehead to his, covered with this ominous mask that he still wore to work.

Finally you approached War, shifting uneasily from one big leg to another. All decked in his pointy, clunky battle wear. A frightening sight. A cherished one.

You stood on your toes, stretched yourself as far as you could and reached out to his face, hidden under the red hood.

War’s eyes lit up with understanding; he scooped you up. Suddenly you were away from the ground and tantalizingly close to the big Horseman.

He smelled like old leather, like earth and rain and smoke. No wonder – his steed walked shrouded in flames.

„Come back as soon as possible, will you?”, you murmured into his lips. „I’m starting to miss you already.”

War shot you an intense stare and covered your mouth with his. The kiss was rushed and rather sloppy, but boy, was it fervent.

„Ewww, oh, come on, guys!” That must’ve been Strife. The charmer.

You’ve heard a light „smack!” when Fury brought some sense into her brother, although you didn’t give a shit.

Finally you parted, more than a little breathless. You shot a reluctant stare towards Death, about whose opinion you did care.

He nodded slightly. The mask hid almost everything, but his eyes were kind.

The eldest Rider knew what was going on between you and his baby bro. Of course he did. You didn’t try to hide it.

You felt as if a giant boulder has been lifted from your shoulders; a burden you didn’t even realize was there.

You and your most beloved Nephilim talked in abundance about this. About the kind of relationship that you want to have.

About inclusiveness. About monogamy - which Death saw no use for, perceiving it as another wacky local custom.

„You humans like to make simple things complicated” he’d say with a shrug.

But it was one thing to hear him say it and another – to see firsthand that he really doesn’t care.

You stood on the doorstep and waved them goodbye as they rode towards their adventure.

Your heart was full, bursting with relief and joyful expectation.

*

And then one day he came back.

Late summer twilight glimmered at the window, washing the cityscape with rich pinks and violets.

You had a first-rate view of the sunset from where you stood: over the white kitchen counter, making latkes.

Shallow fried stuff has always been your go-to comfort food. And you needed comforting.

The big house seemed so poignantly empty without them. You wondered if this is how the adventure ends for you.

If from now on you’re relegated to the role of team mascot. Loved and appreciated, sure. But ultimately too small and too helpless to be subjected to the heat of real battle.

If you’re always gonna be the one who waits.

The dough sizzled on the frying pan, filling the kitchen with its oily scent. It filled you with a sense of peace, too.

And then you clearly heard a horse neighing.

Your head shot up.

„Is that you, D?”

But it couldn’t have been Death, right? His crow always preceded him.

Should the Pale Rider return home, you’d already have Dust perching at the tap, giving you a sassy glance while trying to scrounge your food.

The door creaked. You’ve heard the thud of heavy steps approaching. At this point you were sure it wasn’t Death.

He’d never made so much noise, not even laden with all that lethal ironmongery of his. When Death was unarmed, he moved like a shadow.

You took the pan away from the fire and barely managed to turn around before two enormous arms closed around you.

There came the scent of earth, well-worn leather and smoke. Mixed with sharp coppery tinge, which you also knew so well.

Blood.

Fluttering strands of silver hair filled your field of vision. Hot lips brushed along your temple, your cheekbone and lower -

A stifled cry escaped your mouth.

„War!” you gasped. „You’re here!”

„I’m here.” The Red Rider held you up but with a palm of his hand, your whole body suspended mid-air.

You should probably get used to his strength by now, but it never ceased to amaze you.

There was something so primarily...enticing about a man who could just scoop you up as if you were a kitten.

His cowl was off, so you could admire the lustrous white mane, the glimmering stare, which held yours.

„I thought about you all the way back”, he said with a timid half-smile; it made your heart aflutter. „I made Ruin fly like the wind.”

„He’s gonna pout at you for working him so hard,” you murmured while leaning into the big Horseman.

Pressing as close to him as possible, even though there were layers of solid metal, leather and fabric between you two.

He must have felt the same. His grasp remained as ironclad, if not more so. The claws of his gauntlet sunk into the curve of your ass. You really didn’t mind.

„Ruin enjoys a challenge as much as I do.” Again, that adorable smirk. Was the most blunt of the Four trying to be cheeky now? You couldn’t tell.

„So you left your siblings in the dust?”

„They’ll be here in two days. Death dispatched me earlier. Said you and I have some catching up to do...”

You let out a surprised titter.

„D actually said that?”

„He did. And Strife said many other things...”

„I can imagine.” You put a finger across his parted lips. „And I don’t want any of it. But isn’t Death amazing?”

„He is.” War’s eyes were full of light, full of joy, all of it aimed at you. It felt like basking in a sunbeam.

„I missed you, Big Guy”, you confessed and moved in for a kiss. He acquiesced; for a while you tasted each other in solemn silence. Until you playfully bit his lower lip.

It was like striking a match.

Your tongues entwined, deep and hard. You submerged both hands in his plumptious hair, fingers caressing the nape of his neck, making him hum lowly in contentment. Something stirred inside you. Something blind and vehement, which craved more.

„I want you.” God, the voice of this man. He was born to say things like this. To moan things like this.

„I want you”, he repeated. That pleading note which quivered in his voice made you soft and pliant on the inside.

„It’s okay”, you breathed. „I want you too.”

You nibbled at his ear, traced the soft skin behind it with your tongue. War gave out a hoarse grunt. The iron hand which have supported you continued to clench around your bum, while the good one abruptly went under your T-shirt.

„Oh. Okay”, you gasped, half thrilled, half taken aback by this fervor. „I enjoy where this is going, but wouldn’t we be more comfortable lying down?..”

You underestimated your literal Horseman. For seconds later you were on your back on the kitchen floor.

War knelt astride your legs, his large frame looming over you, eyes ablaze with arousal, hands already pulling the offending garment over your head.

The T-shirt fell in this unequal battle. For a while you wondered if you’ll ever gonna find it when you’re done. War had one hell of a vicious toss.

You couldn’t help but smile now, seeing his wide eyebrows knit at this unforeseen puzzle.

The Red Rider might’ve traversed otherworldly plains, slain creatures you’ve never heard of - but he never had to deal with a bra.

He traced the curves your breasts, palmed them longingly, making your nips harden and dig into the soft fabric. You let out a small sigh.

„How do I get you out of this thing?” he asked, frustrated.

„Let me. This was made for smaller fingers.”

Stripping before War was...intense. His gaze scalded you.

The moment you let the lingerie fall away - he was all over your chest with his mouth, which greedily covered inch after inch, then closed in on your nip and wouldn’t let go.

„Oh my go-od...” you murmured with a stifled voice, arching into him while he sucked you.

„You like this?”

„Yeah!..”

„Good”, he stated and latched onto the other.

You dug both feet hard into the floor, trying to contain the electricity that linked the tip of your breasts with your sensitive inside.

Quite a few men had seen what you’ve just shown him, but War was by far the most passionate about it.

He sucked and kissed your breasts while giving out low grunts of satisfaction. It reverberated deep within you. You moaned quietly until your nipples went sore.

„Okay, that’s enough...” you huffed, gently pushing him away. „They get raw rather quickly. No more for now, please.”

„Did I hurt you?” War’s wide face turned into a picture of worry.

You lovingly stroke his jaw.

„No, baby. They’re just...easily overstimulated, you know? Let me take care of you for a change.”

War kissed the skin on your cleavage once more before backing off.

„Yes. Touch me.” There was so much yearning in his voice.

God, you loved this guy.

„Oh, I’ll touch you everywhere.” Your small human fingers wandered cravingly up his wide chest, still covered with all that armour.

And also smeared with crusted blood.

It sure as hell wasn’t his own.

„I will...but first we gotta get you out of your gear. It smells like something died.”

War snorted.

„Quite a lot of things died”, he said with a boastful edge to his voice.

„You’ll tell me after.” You flashed him a leery smile. War’s eyes brightened up even more than usual at the delightful implications of the word. After.

„My room?” he asked, already scooping you up.

„Your room.”

„The bed?” He rose to his full height with you held in a bridal carry and proceeded upstairs as if it was nothing.

You felt like you’re never gonna get over this man’s amazing strength.

„The bath.”

„Huh?” The Horseman’s cheeky grin disappeared at once, giving way to a baffled expression.

„War, baby, I’m not going down on a man coated in two weeks worth of sweat and grime. No matter how attractive he might be.”

He stopped abruptly, still holding you tight. Different feelings flickered through his face. Impatience, an essentially War trait that you already knew you’ll have to tame somehow. Bafflement, because he didn’t think of that. Smugness, cause he’s been called attractive; and boyish excitement, because you’ve just as good as made him a promise.

You watched your big guy emoting all this from up close and couldn’t help but remember how he was before.

How those broad features used to bear one of two expressions: a standoffish, dour one that scared people away or sheer rage.

War still wore his Manly Stoic Warrior Face most of the time, in front of enemies and allies alike. But with you, he thawed.

You managed to free this soul from its self-imposed shell, if only a little. That thought alone made you happy.

„But you’ll go down on a man who bathed?” he asked, looking you in the eyes with sudden child-like gravity.

You giggled and traced his cheek.

„Definitely.”

War started pacing again. „Then let’s get this over with.”

He brought you into his room; it was the one next to the stairs, as the Red Rider insisted on sleeping the closest to the house’s entrance in case of enemy invasion. He plopped you onto the mattress, pressed a quick, eager kiss on your lips (you gave it back with gusto) and disappeared into the bathroom.

There were a few candles on the windowsill – the Horsemen seemed really fond of them in spite of electricity at hand. You lighted those on.

Then you lied on your back, watched the dark wooden ceiling and smiled, listening to the clang of various parts of armour being tossed to the ground.

Then the shower babbled.

You smiled wider and got out of your jeans.

*

„What are you doing?” asked War leaning over you. His hair has been gathered up in the messiest of buns, skin glistened from moisture.

There was no towel or anything. Apart from his iron arm, he was naked.

„Touching myself”, you admitted with a lazy smile and reached with your free hand to nick the hard curve of his thigh. „I’m keeping myself warm.”

„Oh.” He got on the bed and nuzzled your neck, both of his mismatched hands already wandering. You got goosebumps from the feel of metal against your skin.

„Can I touch you in there?”

„Of course”, you breathed. „But I’d rather you used your lips.”

War’s urgent kisses kept going down and down until he brushed over your stomach. Then he stopped and shot you a tentative look.

„You want me to kiss you there?”

„Yeah.”

„I never did this before...”, he admitted with a hint of worry.

You ruffled his silver hair, still smiling.

„I guess it’s a day of firsts.”

„I guess”, repeated War rather breathlessly; he positioned himself lower, made a serious face and brushed your soft folds with his mouth.

„Like this?..”

You inhaled.

„You know there is a reason those are too called lips, babe. Kiss them like you would kiss me upstairs. Like you mean it.”

Well, you didn’t have to tell him twice.

War was as clueless as your regular teenager, but he made up for it with eagerness.

Soon you were letting out small groans, and your hips started their own little dance under the supple pressure of his tongue.

He abandoned all restraint and went at your sex as if it was ice cream.

You moaned in a low voice.

„You taste like green apples. But you smell sweet...” he panted.

„Do you like it, War?” You couldn’t help but smile.

„It’s all so new, but...it’s amazing.” He cautiously poked your clit with his finger. You took a swig of air.

„You’re so wet all of a sudden. And your little bud is much bigger now”, he observed with wonder.

You fought back a kindhearted laugh. War truly was such an innocent soul.

„This is where the fun happens. Lick it good and you’ll see.”

War pressed his tongue to the aforementioned place, rubbing up and down until you wiggled so much under his mouth that he had to pin your hips to the bed.

Your newfound fervor must’ve pleased him, cause he hummed under his breath while doing the deed.

The only thing was – the pleasure was going in circles, not mounting. Your big guy still had a lot to learn.

And learn he would. But not necessarily today.

„Ohhh...okay, stop now”, you whispered.

His head darted upwards. Those blue peepers held two question marks.

„It is nice...but I’m not going to come like that”, you explained breathlessly. „Besides, I don’t want to. Not just yet.”

„Why not?”

„Because I promised you something. And promises should be kept.” You watched War’s face lighten up when he remembered.

You sat up and slowly caught your breath. He sidled up close and eyed you with eager tenderness.

„How will you do it?..” he asked softly, embracing you.

He traced the lines of your torso with his good hand, closed your breast in his grasp and fondled it with an expression of a child given an enormous chocolate bar.

„You do like them tits, don’t you?” you chuckled.

„I love them. You’re so soft and beautiful.” His eyes were two small skies, awashed with wonder.

That cynical heart of yours downright melted.

„Just lie down, baby. I’ll take care of the rest.”

War fell on his back with a low sigh. Now you had an excellent view of the whole Horseman, and it was a view to behold.

Of course you knew that he was ripped to the gods. All that battle wear of his only highlighted that fact.

He spent his off-duty hours in simple jeans and a plain black T-shirt, and yet you couldn’t unglue your eyes from him whenever he was passing near.

His sheer physical beauty hit you like a brick.

It did so even more now, when there were no clothes in the way.

You sat back for a while and took it all in.

His broad, manly features. Those eyes the colour of lightning, now half-lidded from anticipation.

The hair, which broke from the flimsy bun and surrounded his face like a silver halo.

The cruel slash, marking those full lips (you’ve never asked where did it came from.)

His strong, wide frame, emanating with immense power even while the Red Rider lied leisurely like that. You’ve never seen a human being with muscles so defined.

Yet this paragon of robustness and life was speckled with scars, large and small, shining pale under the flickering candlelight.

They covered both his arms and the remaining forearm, his chest and his flat, sturdy stomach.

One particularly large gash crossed his inner thigh; you traced it with your fingers.

„That’s where the femoral artery goes”, you said with a stifled voice. „You must’ve bled almost to death...”

„Yes, probably”, said War lightly.

„Probably?...”

He lifted his head and smiled at you.

„It’s not that easy to kill a Horseman. Besides, there were so many battles. To be honest, I don’t remember.”

You took a long, only slightly shaky breath.

„I can’t help but think how much pain each one of those marks must have cost you.”

„Such is warrior’s life”, said War so matter-of-factly, those bombastic words actually rang true.

You palmed his thighs a little longer. Mostly because they were so shapely.

„You’re like an angel of carnage...” you muttered dreamily while sliding your hands upwards until they rested in his pronounced v-cut.

You were slowly approaching the fun area. War knew that. And you knew that he knows.

But he kept his cool somehow – even if his breathing did become a little rushed.

„I’m only half angel”, he pointed out, smile lacing his words.

„Yeah, and you’ve got an absolutely hellish temper to prove it. But you look like the whole package. You’re beautiful.”

„..?” War quietly uttered your name.

„So beautiful, you’re making my head swirl. And I want your beautiful dick”, you stated and went in for the kill. So to speak.

„!” Your name again, louder this time.

You let go and send him a wide grin.

„Do you feel like making noise, War? Let’s hear some noise.”

You wrapped your lips around the crown of his manhood, helping yourself with one hand. War was just...big all over, but you managed somehow. You sucked a few times, then flicked over the frenulum with your tongue. War tossed his head back and gave out a moan.

You sucked harder, still only on his sensitive tip.

And were rewarded with a prolonged, breathy „Ooooh.”

That’s the spirit, you thought to yourself and really went to town.

You were never much of a deep-throat type of girl; a strong gag reflex prevented that. But what you could do with your greedy mouth and flexible tongue – no one else could do. You always got enthusiastic feedback.

And boy, wasn’t War enthusiastic.

You worked your magic on him while your fingers caressed the smooth length of his shaft. It was like fine suede to the touch, only warmer.

Up and down your mouth went, kissing him as you would kiss him upstairs, while War grabbed onto the mattress and continued to make this blessed noise.

There were moans. There were low, rumbling „ooohs...” when you slid down – and sharp, growly „ahhs!” when you went up, your mouth closing in on the tip of his cock.

There was a lot of tight breathing inbetween. This man was thoroughly unable to hold himself back when receiving pleasure. And you adored it when he sang.

His dick swelled up nicely, stretching to the utmost corners of your ability.

It was enticing to have this monster in your mouth...but you had no idea how long you’ll be able to hold on without getting serious jaw cramps.

And then War got silent all of a sudden.

„Wait...” he said, that lovely voice of his now raspy and faint.

„What is is, baby?” you asked after letting go of his very erect manhood.

„If you don’t stop soon, I’m going to burst...” he sounded almost pained. Helpless. It aroused you like nobody’s business.

„Maybe I want to see you burst”, you hummed.

„Oh...” After a beat War continued: „In that case...can I come inside you?”

The sheer vulnerability of that question made your insides twitch.

„Of course you can. Indulge yourself!” you said and cheerfully got back to what you were doing.

War squeezed his eyelids shut and hissed through clenched teeth: „That’s.. ooohh...not...what I mean.”

You set him free again, intrigued. „Yes?”

His eyes flicked back open, large, full of yearning.

„I meant to come as in to get inside you, not finish. You know...”

„Oh!” You arched your upper body upwards, pressing both palms into the mattress and smiled at your Horseman. „You want to go the whole way?”

„Yes”, he breathed. „I want the whole you.”

You crawled up to his face and kissed him with lips still wet from his precum. War didn’t seem to mind.

His hands curled around your frame while you two were still kissing; suddenly you found yourself at eye level with the Horseman who sat ramrod straight on the duvet, legs wide open, while you were straddling his hips.

He was still painfully hard under you.

You splayed your palms across each pectoral and buried your face in the hollow of War’s throat. „Let’s go the whole way”, you murmured.

„Oh, yes. How?..” he breathed into your skin.

You loved this beautiful, clueless lug of a man so much.

„Just like we are now will be fine. Just touch me a little, War. Work me open.”

You’ve never seen such intense focus on his face as when he slowly slid two fingers of his good hand between your folds – and started to move them up and down, peering into your face for confirmation.

He got it.

War had nice, large fingers. They did the job.

You arched slightly when your tender insides loosened up under his touch. A shuddering sigh left your lips.

„Good?” he inquired.

„Good...” you smiled breathlessly at your Horseman. „Now stick them in.”

„Just like that? Are you going to be alright?”

„You’ll be pushing much bigger object inside me really soon, so I’d say that yes, I’m going to be alright.”

You leaned in and kissed him – slowly, with conviction. War’s white eyelashes fluttered while he tasted you.

He put the fingers in and it was like a signal; your whole body lit up.

„Oookaaay...” It was a half-moan, half whisper on your part. „War. Baby. Can you find that roundish spot up top? Feels kinda like a soft button?”

War scrunched his wide eyebrows, making those shiny markings on his forehead ripple. He felt around with the pad of his finger until – aah, bliss – he found it.

„What’s that?..”

„That, my love, is the sweet spot”, you huffed into his ear. „Please try to get to it with your cock.”

War’s eyes went huge.

„You mean that -”

„I mean exactly that”, you smirked, sliding yourself off his fingers. You were pleasantly wet and tender and also in a dire need of an actual dick.

„That was enough. Now let’s fuck.”

The Red Rider’s mouth formed a perfect O while you grabbed at his manhood and lowered yourself on it.

He truly was enormous. You felt pleasantly stretched, filled to the brim.

So you pressed both palms against his shoulders and rode him.

War’s grip curled around your ass with bruising force while he cried out.

It was a piercing cry, so primal it reminded you of a wounded animal.

You ceased to move.

„Something’s wrong, baby?”

War’s mouth desperately covered yours. It was the sloppiest kiss ever, but it was fervent.

„No, it just...feels so strong, that I...oh, don’t you stop, okay?”

His eyes were one big pleading.

You kissed him back. Slowly.

„I won’t from now on”, you said with an impish smile.

And rolled your hips against his.

War moaned.

You went in, you went out, making sure to drag along his whole length every time, and your silver-haired beauty of a man completely lost himself in the sensation.

Oh, how he sang.

You’ve never heard a man make so much noise while fucking.

His sharp, ragged moans, his guttural groans and hisses sent thrill after thrill through your spine.

War set your soul aflame. You never wanted him to shut up.

You started to gyrate your hips harder, to sway back and forth at a quicker pace, your whole upper body arched upwards, fingers dug into your lover’s back in relentless pursuit of pleasure.

Your pleasure – and his.

War held you like his life depended on it and moaned nonstop. Sometimes those were words, mostly just ooohs.

You cherished every cry.

„So good...” it was almost a sob. „You’re so good, I can’t hold it...I’m gonna...ooh! Ooooh!”

And then he cried your name.

„Go for it, baby”, you breathed into his lips. „Have your fun.”

A string of incoherent wails rushed out of War while his whole body clenched - and shuddered powerfully with his release.

You could feel him spill inside you, lather your insides with hot, thick seed that will gush right out of you when you two will part.

Your body still had some way to go. You craved your completion.

„I’m so close...”, you gasped, pressing desperately to his torso, as if he could slide through your grasp. „Just hold out for a moment there. Don’t let go.”

Most men tend to get frustratingly limp and shrivel inside you right after they cum. As it turned out - War was not most men.

He was one beautiful, unyielding sex machine and you loved him, you loved him to bits.

You rode his wet (but still hard) cock until ecstasy ripped you from yourself.

And then he held you, you both plopped gracelessly onto the mattress and stayed like this for a long time.

*

A really long time.

You had no idea for how long exactly you two remained like this; legs entangled, innards clenched around each other and dripping with War’s release.

Both of you were glistening with sweat. None of you felt like breaking the embrace yet.

You hid your face in the crook of his neck, half blind from the headrush.

War gently, tentatively stroked your back.

„Are you okay?” he whispered. His beautiful voice was all hoarse from the moaning.

You gave out a weak chuckle. „I think so...”

He held your chin in his palm, looked you in the eyes, worried.

„Was it too intense?”

„I love you.” The words just spilt out of you. Like his cum.

„Huh?”

„I love you.” You leaned in so close your noses touched.

„You’re an animal, a beast. Powered by desire so ferocious that if you weren’t so strong, it would probably tear you apart.”

„…?” That was your name. He spoke it very softly.

„You wanted this so much, didn’t you? And yet you keep making sure that it’s not too much - for me. Not too strong.

You keep worrying that magnificent body of yours, which I also love, by the way, is gonna hurt me. I love you, War, Rider of the Red Horse.”

Your voice broke.

War stroke away the tear that flew down your cheek.

„Please don’t cry”, he implored, those eyes now two small pools of blue sadness. „Please.”

„Babe, I’m not crying because I feel bad.”

„Then why?”

„I cry because the orgasm was so strong.”

You watched War’s face change while he proceeded that revelation. It was quite a feat.

„Really?” He planted a quick your nose and then on your lips, suddenly playful again.

„Really!” You held his face close and kissed him back; on the cheekbone, lower, at the corner of his twitching mouth.

„So...all is good?”

„Yeah, War.” You snorted lightly. Such a cinnamon bun.

The Horseman’s lips curled up with the sassiest grin that has ever graced that face.

It was one of those expressions that Strife wielded on a daily basis. You wouldn’t believe it if you didn’t see it.

„So,” you asked, your mouth still close to his, „How do you rate your first full-on sexual intercourse?”

„It was excellent.” His peepers sparkled. „Let’s do it again.”

„Yes, let’s.”

You underestimated your literal Horseman.

Two strong arms (one made of superpowered flesh, the other cast in iron) lifted you up and flipped you over.

Suddenly you found yourself on all fours, the big guy likewise just behind you, holding your ass in a firm grip and more or less mounting you.

„War!...” you cried out, half surprised at this turn of events, half enticed by such gall.

„What?” he leaned over you; it was easy for him, considering the difference in your height.

He brushed the damp hair away from your neck, planted a kiss there - and then bit it. You gave out a shaky sigh.

„You said yes.”

„Oh, War...” It was really hard not to give in immediately.

„What, you don’t want me to do that?” That playful edge to his voice got you left, right and center.

What the hell happened to the cinnamon bun? When did War learn to be so smug?

„I do,” you breathed. Because that was the truth.

„Than let’s.” The former cinnamon bun bit you again, a little harder – you yelped from this unexpected pleasure.

All this while his good hand sneaked up your backside, slid between your legs and started to work you up.

„But – now?...”you gasped.

„Now. Again.”

You acquiesced. There was no point in trying to subdue this wild beast; not when everything in you yearned for this.

You gasped again, harder - when he impaled you on his shaft and started pounding.

That must have been the most instinctive thing for the Red Rider to do. To take the reins and lead, even though an hour ago he didn’t even know the way.

He did know it now.

This time you didn’t cry.

It was too sweet to cry.

#darksiders #darksiders war #war x reader #war/reader #polyamory as a background setting #sharing is caring! #keeping up with the nephilim

[snappedsky]

Fanatics 70

With the Battalion home on Earth, all they wanna do is nothing. But will they ever have a chance to relax again? Previous! Next!

--

Whole Lotta Nothin

Squee: After the year we had I kinda wanna do absolutely nothing today

Dib: Sounds like a plan

Gaz: Im down

Pepito: way ahead of you

Zim: Then it’s settled. Today we will do absolutely nothing. Check in later.

           Squee closes the group chat and stretches, smiling contently. He quickly finishes his cereal and, after washing his dishes, starts to head outside. Johnny and Granny Cammie, who were both sitting on the couch with him, watch him pass by.

           “Big plans today?” Cammie asks.

           “Yup,” Squee replies as he opens the front door. “A whole lotta nothing. I’m gonna see if Colton wants to join.”

           “That sounds like a good plan,” Nny comments and sinks deeper into the couch.

           Squee heads down the yard and sits on the curb. A moment or two later, Colton joins him.

           “Sup,” he greets.

           “Wanna do nothing today?” Squee asks.

           “Every day,” he smiles and they both lie down on the cement, sighing happily.

           The sky is a bright blue, dotted with puffy, white clouds. Birds are singing as they fly overhead. Around the city, kids are running around, enjoying their last week of summer before school starts again. But as per usual, Grave Road is quiet, which is perfect for the two lazy boys.

           “I bet the Earth sky is pretty boring after what you’ve seen,” Colton remarks.

           “Space is amazing,” Squee comments, “so much…space. But the sky is nice in its own way too. Space is endless; Earth has a horizon. Both boast freedom.”            “I like clouds.”

           “Clouds are nice too.”

           Across the street, a neighbor girl Emily leaves her house with her friend and Colton’s sister, Kay. Giggling, they race over to the boys and stand over them, blocking their view.

           “Squee!” they exclaim.

           “Are you shouting my name or just squealing?” Squee asks.

           “Both,” Emily replies.

           “Is it true you were in space all year?” Kay asks.

           “Yup,” he nods.

           “What was it like?” Emily demands.

           “What did you see?” Kay asks.

           “What did you do?”

           “Did you fight aliens?”

           “Did you go to a lot of planets?”

           The boys both grumble with annoyance from the constant questioning before Colton interrupts them. “Girls, please. Squee just got back yesterday. Give him space.”            “Pun not intended, I hope,” Squee grunts.

           “Uh, yeah, no, sorry.”            “Awww, but we wanna go on an adventure,” Emily whines.

           “Huh?” Squee questions.

         “You guys are always going on such awesome adventures,” Kay points out, “we wanna too!”

           “I never go on the adventures,” Colton argues, “I just hear about them.”

           “Well, I’m tired of just hearing about them,” she whines, “I want adventures!”

           “Me too!” Emily shrilly agrees.

           “Well, why don’t you go find some?” Squee suggests, somewhat impatiently.

           “Huh?” they question.

           “You don’t need me to go on adventures,” he explains, “adventure is everywhere, around every corner. Who knows what you’ll find.”            The girls share a surprised look before beaming with excitement.

           “Let’s go find adventure!” Kay exclaims.

           “Yah!” Emily cheers before they go racing away.

           “Finally,” Squee sighs with relief.

           “Now you know what it’s like to have a little sister,” Colton remarks. They both sigh happily from the peace and quiet and continue their packed schedule of nothing.

           Meanwhile, Emily and Kay race down the street and through the neighboring blocks, giggling and excited.

           “Where should we go? How do we find adventure?” Kay asks as she peeks around every corner they pass.

           “Hmmm,” Emily muses before spotting the city bus. It just arrived at a nearby stop and a couple people are filing on. “Let’s take the bus!”

           “Okay!” Kay exclaims and they both laugh excitedly and skip to the bus stop. They slip inside behind a random businessman and since they’re both young children, the bus driver doesn’t even notice them.            

           They settle down on an empty seat, giggling feverishly as the bus takes off.

           “Where do you think it’ll take us?” Kay asks.

           “I don’t know,” Emily snickers, “definitely somewhere we’ve never been.”            “Somewhere adventurous?”

           “Yeah!”

           They both laugh into their hands, getting strange stares from the other passengers.

           They watch the scenery pass by with wide eyes and big smiles as they get farther and farther away from their neighborhood than either of them have ever been. The filthy city streets covered in litter and panhandling addicts might as well be paved in gold with the way the girls are staring in awe. And when the bus gets stuck in traffic, they both beam excitedly at the new, colourful language they hear from the surrounding drivers.

           Their sightseeing is interrupted when a middle-aged bald man in loose, filthy clothes covered in sweat stains approaches. “He-hello, little girls,” he says in a heavy, panting voice.

           “Hi!” Kay chimes.

           “Where are you off to this-this fine day?”

           “Adventure!” Emily exclaims and they both giggle.

           “Really?” he smiles crookedly, “y-you must be very brave girls to look for adventure.”

           “You think so?” Kay asks excitedly.

           “I-I do,” he nods, “and I know a great place for adventure if you’ll come with me at the next stop.”

           For the first time since they’ve started their adventure, Kay and Emily feel hesitant.

           “I don’t know,” Emily replies, “my mom says I shouldn’t go off with strangers.”

           “That’s a very good idea,” the man nods, “but-but adventurers need to be brave and take risks, right?”

           “I guess,” Kay replies, somewhat unsure.

           “So be brave, take a risk, and come with me,” he smiles, a little bit of drool dripping out of the corner of his mouth as he reaches for them. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.”

           Before he can touch them, another hand lashes out from his side and grabs his arm, twisting it around.

           “Ow! What the fuck!” he barks and glares at his perpetrator: a young, black haired woman with a nasty glare.

           “I suggest you go sit on the other end of the bus,” she growls, “before I change my mind about being PG.”

           The man starts to say something but stops when the woman snarls, revealing very sharp vampire fangs. She lets go of his arm as he winces back and he scurries away like a frightened dog.

           The woman sighs and sits on the seat across from the girls. “I couldn’t help but overhear. You two are looking for adventure?”

           “Yeah!” they cheer.

           “Well then, let me give you some advice, as a seasoned adventurer. We need to be brave, sure, but we still have to make careful risks. Otherwise, you might end up not being able to go on adventures ever again.”            Emily and Kay both cock their heads, quizzical looks on their faces.      

           The woman looks them over analytically. “You must be far from home. Where do you live?”

           “Grave Road,” Emily replies.

           The woman’s eyebrow rises with interest. “Really. You know someone named Squee?”            “Yeah, he’s our neighbor,” Kay nods, “he’s the one who told us to look for adventure.”            “Oh, he did, huh,” she grins with amusement. “I doubt this is what he meant. He’s gonna owe me big time.”            “Huh?” the girls question, cocking their heads.

           The woman leans forward, smiling. “I’m Serena. What are your names?”            “Emily!”

           “Kay!”

           “Well, Emily, Kay,” Serena says, “I know of an amazing, safe place to have an adventure. I happen to be going there right now. Wanna come?”

           “What kind of place?” Emily asks, eyes shining excitedly.

         “An amazing, alien vessel filled with wacky characters that you would only find in a cartoon.”

           “I like cartoons,” Kay beams.

           “I thought you would,” Serena grins, “but do you also like clowns?”

           They spend the next couple hours riding the bus through the city. Kay and Emily are amazed by Serena’s seemingly endless knowledge of the city, as she always has something to say about something they pass. She also seems really tough and scares strangers away with just a glare and a snarl.

           Finally, after about two hours, they arrive at their stop and Serena leads them off the bus. They walk for a couple blocks before arriving to another, smaller bus that’s bright pink. The young girls are immediately ecstatic.

           “It’s so pretty!” Emily chimes.

           “Really? I always thought it was kind of gaudy,” Serena comments as she opens the side door. “I’m back.”

           Inside is pink too, with fluffy carpeting and leather seats and a hammock hanging from the ceiling. Spread out on the seats are four very odd looking characters who do a double-take as the girls walk in.

           “What!” D-boy exclaims and falls out of his hammock.

           “Uh, Serena…” Sickness trails off, pointing dumbly at the young girls.

           “What did you do?” Reverend Meat asks accusingly.

           “Relax,” Serena grunts, waving away their concerns. “I saved them from some perverted creep on the bus. They’re Squee’s neighbors.”

           “Really?” Eff asks as he kneels in front of them.

           “You’re a clown!” Kay exclaims.

           “Very perceptive,” he remarks.

           “Can you make balloon animals?” Emily asks.

           He shrugs. “Sure, why not.” He reaches into his hat and pulls out a long, deflated pink balloon which he quickly blows up. After a bit of twisting and pulling, he makes Emily a balloon poodle and she squeals with delight.

           “I want one!” Kay exclaims.

           “D-boy, you make this one,” Eff orders.

           The other Doughboy groans with annoyance but pulls a red balloon out of his hat, which he twists into a giraffe. Both girls cheer excitedly.

           “They’re adorable,” Reverend Meat beams.

           “They’re too loud,” D-boy grunts as he rubs his ear.

           “Where’s Aron?” Serena asks as she looks around.

           “In class,” Sickness replies.

           “Damn,” she sighs, “I wanted to drive them home right away but I guess we can’t just leave without Aron. If he comes back and the bus is gone, he’ll break.”

           “Wait, you’re gonna take us home?” Kay snaps, “you said you’d take us on an adventure!”

           “Was this not enough of an adventure for you?” Serena asks, gesturing to the Night Terrors. “You even got souvenirs.”

           “We want real adventure!” Emily shouts, “with danger and…and…exploring and…and monsters!”

           “Yeah!” Kay agrees.

           “Ugh, this is why I hate kids,” Serena groans, pinching the bridge of her nose.

           “So, you guys want adventure, do ya?” Reverend Meat purrs as he kneels before the young girls.

           “Yah!” they cheer.

           “Meat,” Serena says suspiciously.

           “Relax,” he grins and stands up. “I was just gonna suggest that we walk them home.”

           “Across the city?” Eff exclaims, “that’s like five hours!”

           “And the perfect adventure for a couple budding adventurers,” Reverend Meat adds, “who knows what we’ll see, who we’ll come across. And they’ll probably get wiped out before we even get them home.”

           “Fine,” Serena shrugs.

           “Yeah, alright,” Sickness nods, “could be fun.”

           “Pass,” D-boy yawns as he lies down on his hammock. But before he can get comfortable, Eff yanks him off and they all leave.

           “I guess we better stop at a store and pick up drinks and snacks,” Reverend Meat muses as they walk down the street, the girls skipping ahead of them with excitement. “Wouldn’t want them passing out from hunger or something. Serena, you got any cash?”

           “Uh like ten bucks,” she replies.

           “That should be enough for them but what about us?” Sickness asks.

           “Don’t worry, I got a plan,” Eff smirks.

           They go inside the nearest store and Eff hands them the ten dollar bill. “Alright, girls, go ahead and buy ten dollars’ worth of snacks and drinks.”            “Cool!” Emily cheers and they race off. They carefully pick out their treats while Eff and D-boy follow, seemingly like diligent guardians. But as the girls pay, the Doughboys slip outside with the others.

          “We got gummy worms and fizzy pop!” Kay exclaims excitedly as they join the Night Terrors.

           “Hey, us too,” Eff replies as he and D-boy reach into their hats and pull out cans of soda for everyone.

           “Hey,” Emily says accusingly, “where’d you get those?”

           “We’re magicians,” D-boy shrugs plainly, “we definitely didn’t steal them while the clerk was busy with you.”

           “Yeah, exactly,” Eff nods, “now let’s go.”            The girls stare at them suspiciously but follow nonetheless.

           It’s a beautiful day for a walk and the girls are in awe of everything. It’s even more amazing than what they saw on the bus because now they’re actually within it. The Night Terrors keep them from stopping and admiring though, but also tell little stories about some of the stuff they pass.

           “That’s the alley where Serena tried to drink my blood once,” D-boy says.

           “Oh, yeah, when we first met,” Serena remarks.

           “Why’d you try to drink his blood?” Emily asks, grimacing.

           She shrugs. “Blood has lots of iron.”            “Eeewww,” both girls reply shrilly.

           They eventually leave the shopping area and pass into a middle-class neighborhood. Kids their age and older are outside, playing around and enjoying the nice summer day. But there’s one house that everyone seems to avoid and Serena points it out.

           “You two will like this; that’s the Membrane house.”            “Like Dib and Gaz Membrane?” Kay exclaims excitedly.

           “Well, I was thinking more like their dad,” Serena replies, “you know, The Professor Membrane.”

           “But Dib and Gaz are the ones who have been on all the adventures with Squee,” Emily points out, “Dib is a genius with ghosts and monsters and Gaz is super strong and dangerous.”

           “Wow, you guys really know a lot about Squee’s adventures, huh?” Sickness questions.

           “So you must know us then, right?” Reverend Meat asks, “the Night Terrors.”

           “Ummm, I don’t think my brother ever talked about you,” Kay replies.

           “But we’ve saved Squee dozens of times,” Eff points out.

           “Yeah, he’s our Little Boss,” Sickness adds.

           Both girls shrug apologetically.

           “Hmph,” D-boy snorts, “guess our adventures aren’t good enough to talk about.”            “Whatever,” Reverend Meat whines, “we’re way cooler.”

           “Guys, shut up for a second,” Serena snaps and points down the street. “You see that?”

           “What? What?” Kay and Emily question. They can’t see it but the Night Terrors do: something or someone on a building across the street from the Membrane house. They’re hiding in the shadows and doing a pretty good job. If Serena hadn’t noticed a glare from the scope on their gun, they never would’ve been spotted.

           “What are they doing?” Sickness asks.

           “Looks like their pointing some kind of weapon at the Membrane house,” Reverend Meat replies.

           “That’s suspicious,” Serena comments.

           “What are you guys talking about?” Emily asks, “we don’t see anything.”

           Eff smirks at them. “We’ll show you just how cool our adventures are. Come on, D-boy.”

           The Doughboys suddenly leap up onto the roof of the closest building, to the shock and awe of the two girls.

           Meanwhile, Dib and Gaz are relaxing on lounge chairs on the roof of their house. Both of them are smiling blissfully, enjoying the peace and quiet. Across the street, an Irken in a black body suit points a scoped laser rifle at them, taking aim at Dib’s big head.

           He starts to pull the trigger when his antennae twitch. He whips around and fires his rifle.

           Dib’s eyes crack open at the sound. “Did you hear that?”

           “Huh, I don’t care,” Gaz replies, not even looking up from her GS3.

           “Hm. Yeah,” Dib agrees and closes his eyes.

           The Irken growls defiantly but is completely immobilized as Eff holds the barrel of his gun and D-boy squeezes his antennae. With his free hand, Eff rubs the little spot of charred flesh on his cheek where the laser grazed him.

           “You ruined my make-up,” he grunts.

           Without another word, Eff reaches into his hat, pulls out a machete, and carves the Irken to bits.

           They soon join their friends back on the ground, after disposing of the Irken in a nearby dumpster.    

           “So?” Reverend Meat asks.

           “Looked like some kind of Irken assassin,” Eff replies.

           “An assassin? After Dib and Gaz?” Sickness questions, “but Squee hasn’t said they’re being hunted.”

           “Maybe he doesn’t know,” D-boy shrugs, “we almost didn’t notice them.”            “Oh! Oh!” Emily exclaims, frantically waving her hand in the air.

           “Yes, Emily?” Serena asks.

           “What if assassins are after Squee’s other friends too?”

           The Night Terrors share a curious look.

           “Well, we’re already walking through the city,” Reverend Meat muses, “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to check on them.”            “And the Little Boss would definitely appreciate it,” Eff adds.

           “Well, looks like you two are getting more adventure than we thought,” Serena grins at Emily and Kay, who beam excitedly.

           The group hurries through the city. With a set goal in mind, even Emily and Kay don’t get so easily distracted. And soon they arrive at Zim’s cul-de-sac, and stare at his house from down the street.

           Inside, Skoodge, Gir, and Minimoose are enamoured by a silly cartoon playing on the TV. Behind them, Zim is lying face down on the couch, relaxing for the first time in over a year. He forgot how nice it felt to just shut down for a while.

           Outside, on the roof of a neighbor’s house, an Irken reaches into her PAK and pulls out a small, round device with a display and a red button. She presses the button and a countdown begins on the display. She starts to toss the device towards Zim’s house when a flash of purple rushes by her eyes. Before she can react, something grabs her antennae and yanks her off her feet.

           Sickness lands back on the ground with her friends and holds out the immobilized Irken like a trophy. “Behold: an Irken.”

           “Whoa!” Kay and Emily exclaim.

           The Irken says some nasty things in her alien language which thankfully the young girls can’t understand as Sickness tosses her over to the Doughboys. “Here you go, guys.”

           They both giggle excitedly and disappear down a nearby alley to finish her off in private while Sickness hands the device she had to Reverend Meat.

           “She had this too,” she says, “I’m guessing it’s some kind of bomb.”            “Hm,” he muses as he examines the display. “It’s in Irken. No idea what it says. Oh well.”

           He grips the bomb, pulls his arm back, and whips it into the sky strong enough to break through the atmosphere. But it doesn’t make it that far and explodes ten seconds later.

           Zim’s antennae twitch at the sound. He lazily lifts his head, glances around, and lies back down.

           “Well, that was a lot quicker than I thought,” Reverend Meat comments.

           “That was so cool!” Kay exclaims while Emily nods agreeably. He chuckles bashfully and rubs the back of his head.        

           “Okay, we’re done,” Eff says as he and D-boy return. “Let’s get going. It’s a long walk to Pepito’s house.”

           “Yeah, too long to walk if he’s gonna be assassinated,” Reverend Meat agrees then smiles at the girls. “You too wanna go for a ride?”            They stare at him in confusion.

           A few moments later, they’re squealing with delight as they hang onto his shoulders and the Night Terrors leap across buildings. They’re moving much faster now, even faster than the bus, and they cover way more ground. A five hour walk is quickly shortened to barely an hour.

           In his house, Pepito has barely moved from the couch all day, except to get a snack or use the bathroom. He’s been watching whatever cooking shows his mom has playing on TV and finds that he’s retaining quite a lot of it. He’ll have to try these tricks later when he’s not determined to do absolutely nothing all day.

           On his roof, an Irken removes a small explosive device from his PAK and begins to activate it when he senses multiple presences appear behind him. Before he can react, a hand roughly grabs his antennae and turns him around to the Night Terrors, with Kay and Emily peeking excitedly over Reverend Meat’s shoulders.

           “Hey,” Eff nods while D-boy draws a sledgehammer from his hat and smashes the Irken’s face in.

           The noise is audible through the house and Pepito glances up curiously before shrugging apathetically.

           Back on the roof, Serena quickly wipes the pink Irken blood off Kay and Emily’s faces, who are both stunned.  

           “I told you to not do that in front of them,” she hisses at the Doughboys.

           “Sorry,” D-boy shrugs, “got excited.”            “Ah, they’re fine,” Eff scoffs, “right, girls?”

           “Yeah!” Emily exclaims.

           “That was awesome!” Kay cheers.

           “See?” Eff says to Serena. “It’ll just come up in therapy later in life.”            “That was everyone, right?” Sickness asks.

           “Let’s see: Zim, Dib, Gaz, Pepito.” Reverend Meat lists them off on his fingers. “Yup. All that’s left is the Little Boss.”            “Good. We can drop these two off at the same time,” Serena declares and looks at the girls. “You ready to go home?”

           “Okay,” they chime.

           “Good,” she nods, “let’s go.”            The hot summer sun has passed over the sky and just begins to set for the day, and Squee and Colton haven’t moved an inch. They’re still lying on the sidewalk, legs stretched out onto the road. Their glazed over eyes blink heavily as they both smack their dry mouths.

           “Hey, Colton,” Squee says.

           “Yeah?” he questions.

           “I’m starting to think that spending all day lying on cement wasn’t a good idea.”

           “I was just thinking the same thing.”

           Squee squirms painfully, his back aching. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to move again.”

           “Squee! Colton!” Kay and Emily exclaim as they race down the road.

           “Oh, look who it is,” Colton groans wearily.

           “Wonder where they’ve been all day,” Squee muses.

           “Probably just playing in the backyard,” he replies as the girls approach.

           “You’ll never guess the adventure we just went on!” Kay yells excitedly.

           “First we took the bus, and then we met this really cool girl Serena who took us to the bus she lives in with clowns!” Emily explains enthusiastically, “and they took us through the city while beating alien assassins that are trying to kill your friends!”            “That’s nice,” Squee mutters, barely registering what she just said. Then it hits him like a brick and his eyes fly open. “Wait, what!”

           An Irken’s mangled, lifeless body hits the sidewalk right by Squee’s and Colton’s head, startling them to jump to their feet, squealing. They hold onto each other, panting as they stare with bewilderment at the body and at the Night Terrors as they land before them.

           Serena grins and leans forward, flicking Squee’s nose. “You’re welcome.”

           “Duh-um-uh-g-good work, guys,” Squee stammers, pointing at the Night Terrors before slipping past them and heading to his house. “I gotta call Zim.”            Everyone watches him leave before the Night Terrors look at Colton.  

           “So apparently you don’t like telling your sister about our adventures?” Reverend Meat questions accusingly.

           Colton flinches beneath their glares while Kay and Emily dance around, giggling and cheering about the day they just had.

#invader zim #invader zim fanfiction #johnny the homicidal maniac #johnny the homicidal maniac fanfiction #iz jthm crossover #myart #myocs

[alienaesthetical]

Ah, the 90s- a decade of questionable fashion choices, dial-up internet, and shape-shift-enabled teens with depression.

Some of you may remember Animorphs as those wacky adventures with kids who could change into animals. Others might remember it as the series of books featuring kids who watched an alien be cannibalized in front of them, going on to fight a cult, attempt suicide, commit genocide, and attain PTSD.

In all truth, my memories of it were completely vague, with what images I could remember mostly based off of one of the extended universe novels, Andalite Chronicles. Having completed a reread of the series a few months ago, however, I was able to put together my own thoughts.

So, which was it; Tragedy or Comedy? Why do people remember it differently? Let's answer the former question first. Spoiler warning, by the way.

Animorphs was co-written by K.A. Applegate, and her husband, Michael Grant- both of which are still successful writers. The story starts in the spring of 1997, local teens, Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Marco, and Tobias, exist as a clique in a way- each representing the awkwardness of the 90s in different ways. Jockey Jake has an awful haircut, Gymnast Rachel, initially, is the living embodiment of gender roles enforced in the 90s, Horse Girl Cassie experiences discrimination multiple times throughout the series due to her skin color, Marco is the groups token funny guy who has too much flirting energy, and Tobias, the local victim of literally the entire series. Seriously, this kid does NOT get a break. The entire group is just overtly 90s and it's honestly quite awkward and sometimes humorous how enforced these roles are from the start. Anyways.

The group of friends are heading home from the mall, and decide to take the shortcut through a construction zone- (and yes, I realize how many stories begin with taking sketchy shortcuts.)

As they proceed through the construction zone, a ship descends on them, its doors opening to reveal a dying Andalite named Elfangor. What's an Andalite? Breaking it down to the essentials, a four eyes, blue furred deer with a scorpion tale and a nose that should probably be censored.

Elfangor, who speaks telepathically, tells the kids about the battle for earth- an invasive species known as the Yeerks have already integrated themselves into society, and pose a threat to the entire galaxy. Yeerks are basically slugs that slither into your ear and take over your body- while you remain 100% aware, most likely crying in a corner.

While the kids are skeptical, they don't fight him on it, and agree to help. Elfangor gives them a cube called the Escafil Device- a cube that grants those who possess it the ability to shape-shift into any animal they touch. He warns them, though, that staying in morph for more than two hours will result in being trapped in that body forever. After all six are holding the cube together, more ships arrive.

The kids go to hide as one of the descending ships opens, revealing another Andalite- this one, however, is being controlled by a yeerk named Visser Three- the only yeerk to have ever possessed an Andalite. He proceeds to morph into a creature from another world, and vores Elfangor.

The kids are heard crying by one of the alien guards, and a chase begins- though the kids manage to escape without being seen. They go on to have nightmares about what they just saw. Jake is woken up by Tobias the next day, who claims he managed to turn into his cat. Jake, hearing this, touches his own dog, acquires his DNA, and morphs into him- much to his own surprise.

Later, the group meets up at Cassie's barn, which also acts as a rehabilitation center for animals, thanks to Cassie's parents being vets for a local wildlife amusement park. They discuss what to do, and while trying to forget everything was an option, decide to fight back against the Yeerks. Now knowing the basis of the plot, you can see how this story could be seen as a lighthearted adventure full of shenanigans- but as the books continued to come out, the story grew darker.

Jake's brother, Tom, is revealed to be a high status controller- a person under control of a yeerk. Jake now has a personal stake in this battle, and begins to take it more seriously. Jake goes on to find out that The Sharing, an after-school program dedicated to helping kids fighting loneliness and depression, is actual a cover for the Yeerks, who use the society as a cult that recruits said kids into their ranks- which is how Tom fell into their hands.

Jake and the others decide to infiltrate a yeerk pool- a place where Yeerks go to feed on Kadrona Rays, which is what the sun on their home planet exerted. They find an entrance within their school, and break a handful of people out, only for all but one to be recaptured, or murdered. In addition to this failure, the kids notice that Tobias is also missing.

Tobias would later escape only to inform the group that he had been in hawk morph for a bit too long, and was now stuck in that form forever. All of this happens in the first book alone. Perhaps you're starting to see how it could be interpreted as a darker story, but you're not quite convinced. So, let's talk about what happens it the other sixty four books.

In book three, Tobias attempts suicide, trying to slam himself hard enough into glass that it would kill him. Marco, however, throws a baseball just in time for him to fly safely through the glass.

In book four, Marco discovers that his mother, previously thought to have drowned years ago, is Visser One, the highest commanding yeerk outside the council.

In book five, Elfangors younger brother, Aximili, is discovered, weak, leagues under the ocean, having crashed there the same night Elfangor died.

Still expecting this story to be happy in the end? Gonna kill that delusion right now.

Thanks to having dead parents, Tobias had been physically and emotionally abused by his aunt and uncle for years, the two trading him off to one another throughout the year. However, Tobias discovers his birth mother to still be alive, living with blindness and amnesia. His birth father, however, was Elfangor, making him Ax's nephew.

Closer to the end of the series, the group recruits disabled kids into their ranks, promising them that their wounds and illnesses would heal after their first morph- which, for some, was true. Others would still have to deal with with their disabilities- but not for long, as all seventeen disabled kids were slaughtered, as part of a distraction plan.

In the climax of the last book, Rachel murders Tom, only for her to be killed herself moments after, while Jake commits genocide by releasing a large majority of the earth populace of Yeerks into space, killing them instantly.

The result? The war ends! Yay! Happy ending! Not quite! Jake suffers from PTSD, going on to experience flashbacks in the last half of the book. Tobias escapes life as much as he can, retreating to a natural reserve to live out the last of his days. Rachel, well, Rachel dead. Cassie and Marco live... surprisingly decent lives, both going off to do things close to what they wanted to do. Cassie works in a newly established division of the government that helps relocate aliens, while Marco is essentially a movie star.

So yeah, Animorphs definitely wasn't as lighthearted and happy-go-lucky as some may remember- of course, the story did have huge moments were it screamed "WE'RE KIDS, WE ARE GOOFY 90s KIDDOS," such as the book about Oatmeal being used as a weapon, or that time they convinced Visser Three that the only way to remove the smell of skunk was by bathing in grape juice instead of tomato juice.

To remember the series as either one or the other, however, completely defeats the purpose of the books.

Animorphs, in the end, was a story about kids who were forced to grow up faster than they should have, due to the mistakes of those older than them. Kids who wanted to go skating or eat at McDonald's, but instead had to take a weekend to recover from being entrapped and physically tortured. Kids who thought they knew what right and wrong were, but ended up doing everything they said they never would do, just to win. It's a story about kids- what they should be, against what conflict makes them become.

It's also about how adults like to control kids, even if they think they're free. Elfangor started this by giving them the responsibility of ending a war. It continued with the Elimist, a godlike being who would come in throughout the story to make sure the kids did exactly what they were supposed to do, instead of doing what they wanted to do. Visser One, the yeerk who discovered Earth, gave the responsibility of invading it to Visser Three, instead of handling herself due to personal engagements that happened.

What begins as another nineties adventure of five kids of varying backgrounds, ends as a reminder of what happens when adults put too much pressure on children, and the consequences of forced growth. The kids, once gathering at malls to hang, or attending school, become so separated from their reality that escaping humanism seemed like the happiest possible path (tobias), that letting yourself die was better than returning to a war-less land (rachel), making regrettable choices at such a young age resulting in PTSD, constant flashbacks to times of immense danger and death, a complete separation from the present. (jake)

Leaving children to suffer the consequences of a war not belonging to them resulted in more tragedy than necessary. Forcing kids to make grown up decisions before they've even entered high school only gives them depression, anxiety, and dissociation from reality.

Thinking younger generations can handle the repercussions of your actions, thus making it not your problem, brings the end of youth and innocence.

Millennial humor is often looked on as "dark and depressed," and those Millennials, now in the work force, are accused of bringing the end of many businesses and morals held previously by older generations.

Gen Z is viewed as completely nihilist, having even darker humor, with many having a complete separation from the reality they live in. They're viewed as lazy and brainwashed by entertainment media, when in truth, more happiness can be found in books, games, and television than in their own lives, and it is a daily experience for many of them to wake up in a world that is dull and dystopian compared to the wonders of fictional universes.

These generations are expected by previous ones to pick up what they left for them- to prepare meals with the scraps of meat so carelessly dripping out of their mouths and onto the floor. To end wars they've started. To fix the economies they themselves ruined. To be able to open the Burger King the day after a customer is murdered before them.

Responsibilities created by previous generations that are viewed too troublesome to deal with themselves are being pushed onto our generations, with the belief that our generations can take these responsibilities without so much as a grimace. However, just because one thinks others can handle issues, doesn't mean that they should have to. 

Animorphs has an ending. It is not a happy one. It is not an awful one. It is happy for the ones who did not have to endure the war others left for them. If it awful for the ones forced to handle situations pushed on them by adults who thought the problem best be left with the future.

The problem may have been fixed, but an entire generation of people were left to suffer because those in charge refused to handle it themselves, and chose instead to leave it to someone else.

#animorphs #long post #text #jake #marco #tobias #aximilli #cassie #rachel #yeerk

[pinetwiins]

A Drabble for Verse!Beta; Yako’s death and Dark!Ford’s Origin story.

Mabel & Stanley & Stanford / Dark Ford - (Me) @pinetwiins

Neuro + Yako @hellsgreatestdetective​

Bill Cipher (DAPPER) @joinwithmekid​

Please note - there is death in this thing, its long and also includes an old man dying from a heart attack. 

Neuro

Yako is thrown onto the sofa but her reflexes seem... off. She does not roll to avoid and hits the sofa hard. Neuro notices and isn't grinning so much. "What Bill chooses to do with the relationship I shall not protest again."

StanfordPines

wait what?? He is also very worried over yako.

DAPPER (Bill)

Bill also notices. “Off day, Foodie?”

Neuro

Neuro waits for Yako to get up. She seems completely still for several moments before she suddenly moves, almost baffled at where she is. It's very not Yako behaviour.

StanfordPines

“hey... sweetheart... are you okay?”

Yako

"I'm sorry. I kind of blacked out there, what happened?" She tries to laugh it off, but she can't even laugh right. What the hell? "Maybe I was more badly hurt than I thought, but the medics had checked for injuries and said I was doing fine."

StanfordPines

he bites his lip and walked over to stand next to the couch. “perhaps... perhaps they overlooked something...?” He is very worried.

Yako

"I can't remember hitting my head at any point. Maybe I'm just tired. I should head to be-" She seems to have forgotten what she was saying.

StanfordPines

he feels his heart rate picking up.... he’s.... he’s scared...

Neuro

Neuro snaps a finger in front of her. She does not react for several moments.

DAPPER (Bill)

Bill’s not shocked or worried at all, he just watches. He’s seen this happen hundreds of times - not exactly like this, but generally speaking. Death means nothing to him. Actually, he just giggles a bit at the fact she forgot what she was saying. “Yep, you should go sleep kid! Actually, sleep here. You’ll forget what you’re doing on the way to bed, don’t want that!”

Yako

"That's- that's a good idea. Thank you Will." She kind of just- shuts down there. She doesn't have the energy to be nervous about her own condition. Neuro looks worried for once.

DAPPER (bill)

“It’s Bill! Try and remember when you wake up!” He fixes his hair. “Don’t worry so much guys, she’s fine for now!”

StanfordPines

“Ya-Yako...? Heh... sweetheart, come on, you should sleep in bed...” he’s really scared, he’s freaking out right now.

Neuro

"...For now, you just said. So you know what's happening."

Yako

Yako is already fast asleep, barely breathing.

DAPPER (Bill)

“Course I do! I’ve seen this more times than there are grains of sand on Earth.” He’s still pretty nonchalant.

StanfordPines

”Bill....” he swallowed hard and kneels down, taking her hand. “Hey, yo-you’ll be okay... you’ll see... we’ll... we’ll go on an adventure, on the stan o war...” his voice cracks as he try’s not to show his panic.

Neuro

"So it's death?" Truthfully, he did not expect it so suddenly and so... lamely. "But why now of all times?"

August 3, 2018

Yako

"Yeah... tomorrow..." She mumbles vaguely to herself, curling into her side. She can feel herself drifting, smiling in her sleep.

DAPPER (Bill)

“Dying but not dying isn’t natural for fragile meatsacks. All that death’s finally catching up to her. She’s still got some time, but this is probably the gentlest path of it happening I foresaw, so you should probably not wake her up. Don’t want Neuri’s human to suffer, do ya?”

Neuro

"Ah... all those instances. The universe is reclaiming it's debt. Shame... she was a good detective." He's not necessarily angry, rather disappointed. Ghosts still existed, no? Perhaps she would return as one. He could be hopeful that god would give him this one mercy. "I suppose it's only right we look for the rest of her family."

StanfordPines

”Stanley.... oh gosh Stanley... Yako was the only one other than the kids keeping him sane and-“ not wanting to kill himself...

Yako

Yako just sighs in her sleep, waking up again. She looks annoyed."Too loud." She announces puffing out her cheeks and getting up. She does not seem to recognise anyone.

DAPPER (Bill)

“Well, so much for the gentle one!” He shrugs, leaning back in his seat.

StanfordPines

to his knowledge he hadn’t been speaking very loudly... he put on a forced watery smile. “So Sorry Yako, do try and sleep again.” He murmured.

Yako

"Dun know 'ow ya know ma name Mister but A ain't sleepin' 'ere." She's just sulking. Strangely seems more energetic than before. "Ya got food?"

StanfordPines

”Um... Yako... I’m your Grandfather... well adopted... tell me... how old are you? You seem to have memory’s missing...”where did this energy come from?

Yako

~"Whaaaaa ya arna grandda 'e's got a mullet and a silly voice. A can copy it!" She clears her voice. "Hey kids and welcome to the MYSTERY SHACK!" She poses dramatically but yelps at her own arm, rubbing it. "Though 'e's been sore recently, 'e 'urt 'is back." She pauses at the question then raises nine fingers, pausing, and adding another. "Ten in three days! We're gonna fix the roof an' 'ave a party!"

StanfordPines

he laughs at the imitation. “I’m his twin brother... Stanley is upstairs he will be down-“ he’s cut off by the creeking of the stairs.

Yako

She gasps really dramatically

StanleyPines

”hey! Pointdexter! I hear someone copying me! Hah! Is that Yako at it again?”He gets to the bottom of the stairs and walks into the room.

Yako

"E 'as a twin!? Awesome! Are ya psychic! Grandda ya never said ya had a twin!"

DAPPER (Bill)

Bill’s just gonna watch this all play out. He’s not messing with time or what’s supposed to happen, he doesn’t care enough to. Actually he would if Neuri wanted him to do something but that’d be difficult to accomplish at this point of the death process.

Neuro

Neuro's going to let Yako spend her last moments with her family. As much as he would like to undo it... even he follows a few of the rules.

StanleyPines

He blinks and looks at her. “Hey Peanut... are you okay? I’m pretty sure I told you about that... the lab under the house?”

Yako

She gasps even louder

StanfordPines

”I’m- im sorry Stan...” he whispers as he stands next to him. “She’s dying...”

Yako

"A LAB!?!?" She is flapping her arms in excitement. "Grandda's so cool! Can A see. A'm gonna see!" She's up like a lightning bolt trying to find the door.

StanleyPines

”the hell you on about?” He hissed back not wanting to believe him. “Hey! Sweetheart! You can look later! Come back in here!”

Yako

~"But A wanna solve the mystery shack mystery!" She's persistent but sulks back when he calls her forward. "When did ya get so grey? Did ya dye ya hair by accident? A thought we were fixin' the roof today?"

StanleyPines

”from what I can see sweetie, is that ya memories are being wonky, going from past to future, but no matter, come sit with me on the couch.””you know how I know? Because you’re not currently 10 years old.”

Yako

"Don' give me science speak secret scientist A shall uncover ya yet!" She announces proudly, marching forward. "Course A'm not ten A'm nine silly." She plops herself onto the couch next to him, kicking her feet back and forth. "But  ma legs really 'urt they're cold!"

StanleyPines

“....lie against me sweetie...”his voice is shaking slightly

Yako

"Sure thing!" She does just that and... seems to fall asleep for the longest time. She is icy to the touch. Her breathing is shallow, and she is barely moving at all. Then she seems to jump awake suddenly, rubbing her head. "Just a bad dream..." She looks around "This isn't my office?"

StanleyPines

“....no, it’s the shack sweetheart.... you okay?”

Yako

She seems startled by the man and jumps away from him, blinking in surprise."I'm terribly sorry sir, I do not know how I got here."

StanleyPines

”Peanut? Are you okay?”

Yako

"P-pardon? Do I know you, sir? As far as I'm aware I just bought my office in London yesterday how on earth did I get here?" She gestures vaguely to the entire building.

StanleyPines

“ya memories are being wackie... ya 25 years old Yako, your in the mystery Shack and I’m ya adopted grandpa.”he wonders how many times he’ll have ya repeat that...

Yako

"I'm terribly sorry, sir, but you must be mistaken. I haven't even turned twenty-one and... my grandfather passed away some time ago. Look if you're trying to con me into some sort of vacuuming business I'm not interested I am perfectly capable of cleaning up after myself and how the hell do you know my name?"

StanleyPines

he laughs at that, his signature laugh. “I used ta sell vacuums.... I’m telling the truth Peanut. A car knocked ya over sweetie, I was fine, just a concussion and a back that now won’t stop giving out on me.”

Yako

"Look, sir, I don't like this game your playing." She responds, a warning tone to her voice. "But if Dylan sent you over you can kindly tell him that the next time he bothers he his messenger boy is getting a bullet to the head, understand?" She keeps rubbing at her eyes, as though she's tired and she is, trying not to yawn in front of the threat. "And he can keep his murder sprees the hell away from me." She does end up yawning and hates herself for it.

DAPPER (Bill)

Bill appears to be thoroughly amused by this, a smirk on his face as he watches the death play out. To the untrained (and maybe even the trained) eye, he looks like the heartless dick he’s proclaimed himself to be. Beneath that, though, is something entirely different. His well constructed wall of assholery hides a small, grieving voice. He doesn’t care a lot about Yako. She was just another fleshbag about to die. The most important she’d become to him is his boyfriends human. Even so, there are internal tears behind the laugh of amusement he lets out, tears that no one can see or hear. Why, you ask? Why is he feeling this way? He’d never admit it out loud, but this reminds him of the death of his only friend. The death that originally set him off on the path of rejecting reality, the death that eventually caused him to destroy his dimension out of his own denial. Stan’s reaction to this situation.. well, it reminds him of his own. Absolute denial, down to the very end until it’s too late. He wants to tell Stan to tell her goodbye while he still could, but he says nothing, staying silent for the most part aside from the occasional laugh.

StanleyPines

“who the fuck is Dylan?” He grumbled. He didn’t like this, he wants someone to convince her... plus he hasn’t changed that much....

Yako

"You should know he bloody well runs the city god down mobster bastard almost killed me yesterday I swear his aim's improving." She whines more to herself than others, slumping down on the sofa. "Damn, I'm tired.Talk about a shitty start to a shitty day." She tries to rub away the exhaustion but her hand stops midway through reaching for her face. It then slumps back down. Her mumbling falls silent.

StanleyPines

his heart rate picks up, he’s still denying it but it’s getting really clear something is really wrong.

Yako

"I think I saw my grandda today. I know it must be a hallucation, doctor, I've seen lots of them recently. People that aren't there, people that have died or are not real at all. How am I supposed to deal with it?" She leans into the sofa, then lies down on it. "But I'm certain I saw him. He was older and greyer but he had these two kids with him. Mason and Mabel. Yes... like the Gleefuls, but what am I supposed to do? Do I just pretend I haven't seen it at all?"

StanleyPines

”ya really must be hallucinating if ya think I’m a doctor Peanut.”

Yako

"Oh ha ha, real funny. Just don't tell the Gleefuls, I don't want any more canon fodder for Stanford to creep around like the gremlin he is." She grumbles, scratching at her neck. Her skin appears to be crumbling away. "I'm going to try something, just to be sure it's a hallucination. See it was in a mirror in the manor up in the attic. Nothing special about it, but if I can confirm I can't walk through it I should be fine. But if I can... if I can I get to see my grandda again, right?"

DAPPER (Bill)

Yep, Bill laughs some more. The exact opposite of his internal emotions. “You know, I’m enjoying this one far more than the one you all just prevented!”

StanleyPines

He kneels down next to the sofa and strokes her hair. “Of course ya can sweetheart.... he’d love ya see ya...”

Yako

"Yep. I'm going to give it a shot today!" She grins up at the man. It slowly fades still and her eyes slide shut. The skin is clearly paling and crumbling away, disappearing like ash. When she next opens her eyes she looks exhausted. "Hey grandda what's up?"

StanleyPines

he gives a watery laugh, eyes watering... “ya dying pumpkin... ya skin is ash and I’m loosing ya by the minute...” the tears started to fall.”Ya memory has even been through ya deaths from start to now...”His chest was hurting, burning, but he ignored it.

Yako

"Oh." She begins to chuckle. "Out of all the things that would kill me this does it. Talk about a rip off I want a refund." Part of her arm crackles and disappears. She reaches her spare arm out to ruffle his hair. "Hey there don't look so glum you think death will stop my nagging. I'm like a puppy, you can't be rid of me. I'll find a way." She laughs this time. She's sure this is how Neuro almost died, but she doesn't have a back up plan. She didn't expect this at all. Her legs begin to disintergrate. "You'd think they'd have the decency to leave a body this time"

StanleyPines

“....I also think I’m having a heart attack....” he murmured softly face scrunched up in pain...

Yako

"Well shit we need to call a doctor." She uses the last of her strength to grab the phone but Neuro grabs it before her, dialling in the number for an ambulance.

StanleyPines

he could already feel his limbs growing numb/cold. “Hah... I think it’s too late.” He said with a strained smile, his breathing short.

StanfordPines

“Stanley...?!” Ford finally noticed something wrong.

Yako

"Damn it this is supposed to be my dramatic farewell I'll see you in hell moment don't you ruin it by dying first." Oh great now she's crying you were supposed to be fine. "I'm going ahead you bastard. You get to a hospital and get better so I can haunt your ass."

DAPPER (Bill)

Bill didn’t see the heart attack coming, that’s an update. And a clear example of the fact Bill can’t see everything. Huh, this’ll go well.

Neuro

"Yes we appear to have a man at the Mystery Shack in Gravity Falls having a heart attack literally right now."

StanleyPines

He shakily kisses her forehead. “I have a feeling that the universe won’t survive for long...”

StanfordPines

Ford grabbed his sholder, wishing there was something he could do. “No-no-no-no-NO!” He practically shouted.

Yako

Where he kisses the forehead it begins to crumble. She's trying to stay awake but it's failing to work."Asshole universe."

StanleyPines

”see ya later sweet pea...” he murmured as he felt himself grow weak.

Yako

Her body disintergrates into nothing before them all, leaving behind only the bones of a young child probably eight years old with a cracked skull before that too disappears

DAPPER (Bill)

To keep his mind off feelings he makes a mental note to use this idea in his future disturbing plans.

StanleyPines

“Heh... sorry point dexter... seems my heart can’t take it any more...” He wheezed.

StanfordPines

”Stanley..? Stanley! No!” But it was too late and he was holding his twins body in his arms.... He hugs him close... before a cry of grief rips through him.... he lost two people of his family today... his mind can’t take it....

DAPPER (Bill)

Bills still just watching. He can feel Ford’s sanity ripping away from him- this is also unexpected, but a pleasant form of unexpected for him. He isn’t going to stop it or offer any form of emotional help. This was going to happen eventually anyways.

Neuro

Neuro slowly puts the phone down. He finds himself strongly disliking this universe and joins by Bill's side, offering him a worrisome glance for his reaction earlier.

Dark!Ford

His head shoots up and letting go of his brother he sprints from the room, to the lab door and punches in the code.... he didn’t care for what happened now... he would find Yako.... he would- he would.... HE WAS GOING TO REBUILD THAT PORTAL.

Neuro

"We should leave before he traps us in his destruction."

DAPPER (Bill)

Bill just nods. Yeah, he can see what's gonna happen. "I'm ready when you are, Neuri! Wow, that was a show!"

Neuro

Neuro just grabs Bill by the hand and morphs them out of the danger zone back into the Alpha world.

Dark!Ford

Ford doesn’t stop to take a break. Fiddleford has tried but he ended up throwing a spanner at his head and then breaking down when the man ran away from him. It took him a full week of no sleep or eating to complete the portal once again from scratch and from memory... it was finished. A wild grin with wild eyes looked at the portal... and pulled the leaver.The ground shook and he chuckled slightly... which turned into a laugh and then a blown out cackle as the portal switched fully on.

Dark!Ford

Grabbing his bag, coat and already dressed in his portal clothes, he waited for it to fully open... screw weirdmagedon... he didn’t give a flying fuck anymore.

Dark!Ford

He steps through the portal... First stop, Rick Sanchez... then he would decide from there...

SixerToday at 1:37 AM Time stamp (started at 11:43pm British Summer Time)

-end of Rp- -that universe is dead lol- The Portal destroyed that world, the void ended up consuming it. There was no weirdmagedon as it backfired. Stanford is too far gone to care, but deep in his mind, he is consumed with guilt.

#drabble #discord #hellsgreatestdetective #V: Beta #beta:stanley #beta:stanford #this is what happens when you write at midnight #tw: death #tw: heart attack

[skyplayer37]

Worm Liveblog: 1.01-3.02

I started reading Worm. That really long web serial about superheroes. 

I’d say I’m starting this live-blog late but I have yet to make a scratch in the surface of this thing, so buckle up. I might have a better plan of attack from here on, with sections commenting on each chapter (arc? segment? act?) but below the read more here will be some meandering thoughts in which I will comment on what I’ve read and try to guess what’s gonna happen. And you can laugh at me for being wrong!

  I started reading Worm while 35,000 feet in the air. Or at least that’s what Google has given me an estimate of. While I botched the set-up on Pocket and only gave myself the first page to read offline, I was instantly hooked. I was an avid reader in school, tearing through YA series like Percy Jackson and Harry Potter multiple times over, but it’s been a long time since I’ve read a regular novel now. Probably since before I found Homestuck almost 5 years ago.

 So naturally, Worm has felt almost nostalgic to me. A quaint story without animated scenes or games like Homestuck, without weird webpages like 17776, and without the improvisation of McElroy content. Just written words again.

 But let’s get to the story. The first arc of Worm had me skeptical. I been receiving recommendations to read it for about a year and a half or so now, so maybe it’s hype had grown on me a bit too much for it to start like every other young adult novel. We follow Taylor, a loner kid in school. No friends, plenty of bullies. We see them bullied in their normal life, so they have a reason to explore a hidden world and act as a way for the reader to be introduced to the supernatural aspects in small chunks, rather than being thrown in with a hero from the start. While it was nice to skip over the origin story (of which Taylor’s is still a mystery to me at this point but I have seen Spiderman’s too many times to count), I knew right off the bat how the next couple parts would go.   - Taylor gets bullied: check

 - Taylor either loses control of or has extra-control over her powers: check

 - Taylor runs off to battle a foe as an amateur, gets her ass kicked: check

 - Taylor is saved at last minute by the Hero, a bigtime guy who cares more about the fortune and glory: check

Up until she agreed to join the villains team, things went pretty much how I expected them too. Although looking back, it seems like that too was a logical step. Most large works like this (see: Adventure Zone) fall into the loop of the characters joining a large group that then sends them out on missions. It’s an easy format: heroes are told to go out and perform task, wacky hijinks happen, they return to homebase for character development. The tasks gets more and more important until the big finale brings together all the ideas and characters from each task. I doubt Worm will stay like this all the way to the end, but it’s a good way to set-up the world for the first quarter to third or so of such a long work.

The last bit I read before typing this was the reveal of the first one of these arc tasks, robbing a bank. The robbery seems insignificant, bar moral implications on Taylor’s part, so I assume this is when we’ll get to see a hero in action for the first time. Probably the heroes from the Interlude. Taylor will try to wink to them so they know she’s a “good guy” but then gets beat up (and maybe her villain friends will die) and realizes she actually hasn’t done anything to be worth being called a good guy yet. And her power is terrifying.

Terrifying in both current usage and potential usage. I don’t like bugs. Not in the slightest. Pretty much every nightmare of mine involves bugs, and I think most people would say the same. Sorry Taylor, you’re power is pretty much entirely geared towards being a villain. But even scarier, is that she could control that crab. She nonchalantly explains that it must just be its weak brain, revealing this early on that with enough training she could probably control anything. My earliest end-game theory involved Taylor turning evil and filling the entire city with billions of bugs. A sea of bugs that is in someway a metaphor for... poor people? I don’t know. But she was supposed to be crying in the middle of a sea of bugs and someone else comforts her for the first time. Or something. With the crab however, there’s much more potential for the entire world becoming enslaved in a Taylor-controlled Hivemind, so that’s fun. Of course, either ending calls for help from another Cape who’s power is to accelerate other Cape’s powers, so I’ll be keeping my eye out for who could possess that ability.

Here’s a few more meandering thoughts before I go:

- The teacher offering his help to Taylor in private, but turning his back when being there in person to witness her being bullied. That’s meant to be the reverse to how the superheroes’ do things (only stepping in when the crime is committed, taking no action to prevent them or help mankind as a whole) and is likely the message of the whole novel.

- The mysterious Boss of the villain group will likely be one of the big superheroes. They rob a few banks for him, making him filthy rich, and once every like dozen robberies he swoops in and pretends to beat them so that he gets the glory too.

- Taylor remains adamant about being good even after enjoying the company of the villains. Her descent to evil will be a slow corruption, but the story will justify it by making the superheroes look bad.

#worm #worm serial #parahumans #liveblog

[avelera]

POTC:5 - A Hot Mess, with some glimmers of heart

I actually wrote this a few days ago on the plane and consistently forgot to post so here we go Maggie’s analysis of the hot mess that is POTC5 (and thoughts on how it could have been improved). 

So PotC:5 was a hot mess and totally deserves a hard 57% rating, with a good portion of that rating based latent affection for the franchise.

THAT BEING SAID, they broke Will’s curse so given that I have been waiting 10 YEARS (10 YEARS IN AZKABAN/ ON THAT ISLAND WITH ELIZABETH) for that to happen, and it happened, I’m gonna say my time may have been 90% wasted but I’m not unhappy that I saw it.

The thing is, I think there were scraps of  good movie in there somewhere. Not in the same was as say, Wonder Woman (where I think there was a superb movie in there had they only been allowed to simply rearrange some of their scenes and tweak a plot twist or two) but still. Frankly, I don’t think the scenes that would have made POTC:5 great were even shot, but there’s some structural hints towards their potential.

So here’s what I would have done to tweak POTC:5 to make it a better story along the lines of a novel. To my admittedly untutored eye, there was a lot of things that look like they could have been improved, and maybe there was even a stage of the script where the writers would have liked them to be improved, but things such as studio requirements, actor availability, and actor preference prohibited it. I have no idea what the exact making of this movie entailed but let’s just say, for example, I don’t think Keira Knightley wanted to make this movie, even though it would have been vastly improved by her presence.

Tweaks and Improvements:

1) Replace or at least partner Elizabeth with Barbossa. Frankly, we left her as Pirate King and it would have been amazing to see her *ahem* Swanning around on that opulent ship along with him, enforcing her title. I would have adored a subplot in which Henry has either essentially run away from home or, say, a respectable life that Elizabeth set up for him, or that he has simply gone missing and she’s been looking for him. Frankly, the very idea that Henry could be working on breaking the Will’s curse and have a lead and Elizabeth isn’t on that boat with him is crazy to me. The only understandable explanation is metatextual, ie Keira wasn’t available for the film. Pirate King Elizabeth should have been on that quest with them, and it could have provided some really excellent moments of action, pathos and even comedy. It may have also spared us some of the unrelenting fixation on fathers too, or at least balanced it with one present, capable mother instead of the endless string of fridged Disney Moms like Carina’s.

Some scenes it would have allowed - fuckin’ Pirate King Elizabeth overtaking Henry & Co. and giving the “I’m not here to stop you…. I’m here to join you.” speech. Moments of bonding between Henry and Elizabeth. Elizabeth expressing her loss of Will, and Henry sharing it. Humorous tension of having your mom onboard when you’re starting to crush on a girl and also prove yourself. Elizabeth’s total lack of interest in Jack and their inevitable banter… I mean frankly, the only reason not to have her is how much she would have stolen the show. MOVING ON.

2) Carina should have been Salazar’s daughter, not Barbossa’s. Frankly, the Barbossa thing just made… no sense at all. He’s never mentioned or shown interest in a family before, it just doesn’t really fit with his story, and I’m pretty sure that even if he wasn’t a ghost at that point of her conception (assuming Carina is younger than Henry but that’s not necessarily a given), it means he had her after POTC:3 which is… weird. Unless I’m missing something from POTC:4.

Reasons Carina should have been Salazar’s daughter instead:

Shared features: We got quite a few interesting close-ups of Salazar’s black waving hair, which looks a great deal like Carina’s. In contrast, technically under all the liver damage, Barbossa does have blue eyes but there any resemblance to Carina ends. Salazar actually looks at least a little like he could be her father, enough to serve as an actual clue to her heritage instead of the out of nowhere revelation about Barbossa. There’s the issue of the accent but they could either hand wave that by saying she studied in England or hire a hispanic actress, or have the actress assume a hint of a Spanish accent. Either way, it’s not a huge hurdle.

Salazar was clearly a good guy and successful before his transformation into a ghost thing, it explains how Carina got such a high-end education as to be an astronomer and a horologist, something that was never explained by the film, because by all accounts if the ruby was all Barbossa left her and she didn’t spend it, Carina would have grown up penniless. Salazar, as a Spanish officer of his own ship, would have been in a much better position for his family and estate to see that his daughter had a fantastic education.

It would have allowed Carina’s story to mirror Henry’s, that both of them are trying to free their father from a sea curse. Frankly, her not believing in magic and still going after the map thing is a bit of cognitive stretch. Having both of them trying to break a curse on their father would have been a nice parallel. You could even have it that Carina is skeptical about her father’s curse, but still sees the trident as a means of “freeing” him or at least convincing him to come home if he’s just gone mad. It could also provide a dramatic scene where maybe her whole life she hasn’t allowed herself to believe that her father was really “cursed” rather than dead or a deadbeat, and she tries to convince Henry that his father is no more cursed than hers and is only absent. Then, at the first sight of magic she could have a true moment of emotion, realizing it was indeed a curse that kept her once-heroic father away from her and her family.

Frankly, Salazar’s story is all over the place. Especially his morality. I get that this is “Pirates” of the Caribbean so the pirates are the good guys, but he was something of an actual good guy at least along the lines of Norrington before he went down and became all ghosty. Also, the moment where they become human again was actually rather emotional. I didn’t really understand why he was still a bad guy after they got turned back? Why the vengeance? How about instead let him get an actual redemption arc, his daughter talking him down from his mercilessness towards pirates because they’re the ones who helped free him. That also eliminates the need for Barbossa’s rather random and out of character “sacrifice” at the end, if he doesn’t need to die taking down Salazar.

(I gotta say, for like a split second I thought the witch would turn out to be Carina’s mother and her and Barbossa gave her up to give her a better life so failing a Salazar parenthood I could totally accept that too.)

3) Just… less Jack Sparrow, please. His wacky hijinks are at their best when they’re played against someone who is actually trying to pursue the plot. That’s why he was such a good foil and antagonistic ally for Will and Elizabeth, he’s best when he’s a wild card. But also, the schtick is getting a bit old. Hence why it would have been nice to have Elizabeth in the film to play off him a bit.

That being said, the glimpse we got of Young Jack the Sparrow was waaaay hotter than I expected, like I never had a real thing for Sparrow like many others did but godDAMN young cocky pirate kid who is just finding his sea legs, wasn’t totally crazy yet, and looked like he walked off the set of Black Sails was one of the small highlights of the film. It just goes to show what giving Jack Sparrow even a dash of integrity can do to strengthen the character.

Another thing absent from the film which was desperately needed - some connection between Henry and Jack Sparrow. It seemed assumed but never shown. Really, we got a ton of Jack Sparrow being disdainful of Will and Elizabeth, but I’d like to think that he would feel at least a little protective of their child. There was moments in the film that seemed to hint at that, but it would have been nice to get a verbal admission at some point (unless I missed it) along the lines of how he actually does care about them beneath his wacky and selfish exterior, and by extension doesn’t want their son to die.

Overall the film felt like 3 or 4 film ideas sort of crammed into one story. I definitely saw snippets of discarded plots, the whole possession of Henry came out of nowhere (though I forgive it because possession is my jam), Salazar’s pathos went in and out in favor of him in the end just remaining a monster despite the fact he just got his life back, Carina’s backstory and relation to Barbossa makes no sense at all, Elizabeth not participating makes no sense at all, and characters would randomly move vast distances or have extremely helpful coincidences just when they needed them to a level that went beyond “fun adventure story” and into “writer clearly ended up in a corner, again” territory.

I think the best parts of the film came down to Henry’s authenticity and his quest to save his father. The scene at the beginning where he meets Will by nearly dying was perhaps my favorite of the whole film, if not for the ending, and with just those two I would have been quite content. The film really needed to be more about that and less about Sparrow hijinks, which are always a great spice but they are a terrible center piece. POTC has consistently been the story of Elizabeth and Will, and it loses a lot of its fire when it shifts to be about Sparrow rather than their story serving as a stage where he could serve as jester and commentator. If this was to be the story of the next generation of Henry and Carina, it should have been allowed to remain fixated on them, and allowed there to be pathos in Carina’s story as much as Henry’s, which is why I think a parallel lost father and a connection to Salazar would have added a great deal.

I’m not sure if there’ll be a sixth film. It’s probably better if there isn’t. But I would be willing to drag myself back to the theater if we can finally see Will and Elizabeth again because frankly, apropos to nothing, their reunion was the single hottest most powerful moment of the whole movie and I’ll take a lot of confused garbage for that.

#potc #pirates of the caribbean #dead men tell no tales #potc5 #willabeth #my meta

[genehackmon]

Tamersona Week 2017 Day 4: A Hero’s Uniform

I am so behind on Tamersona that the official week is already over, but I don’t care! This is too much fun. Sorry to have kept everyone who’s been following Jules and Buns’ story waiting... this one took much longer because I was traveling over the weekend AND of course I had to read up on everyone’s Tamersonas to be included in the post! 

In the spirit of the Share The Love Tamersona Day 7, shout out to @elecmon, @tortamon, @lighdramons, @knifeoframens, @metalphantomon, @beelko and @tangy-sweetlove!! I hope y’all enjoy meeting Jules and Buns!! :)

Also, shout out to @partiallyaquatic, @icewolf741, @1ggyness, @ladykiradevimon, @gaomon, @nekoharuko, @zenchoi, @thepastyman, @mametyramon, and the whole Tamersona community because I definitely missed some of y’all and I loved reading (and still reading!) all of your OC’s!!

Ok, without further ado, here’s the next chapter in Jules and Buns’ wacky adventure!!

Prompt 4: A Hero’s Uniform (Feb 18th 2017)

Jules woke up with every limb and joint shooting with soreness.

”Ugh,” he groaned, as he righted himself up from the fold-out bed in a plaster-white waiting room. He had underestimated how exhausted he was from the night before - being tossed around and dropped into choppy seawater from ridiculous heights was not how he expected to spend a Wednesday evening - not to mention how mental everything was with meeting Michael and Buns digivolving for the first time.

He peeled his eyes open and looked up at the clock. 10:30am. He overslept. As disappointed as he was with himself, he wasn’t surprised; the long drive down with Michael and Himekawa was draining. After leaving the city so late last night, the three of them didn’t arrive at the meeting site until 4:00am.

Suddenly he felt his face pressed back into his pillow, “Wakey wakey sunshine!” teased Buns as his little feet bounced up and down the back of his head.

“Ugh, Buns - cut it out!” Jules groaned.

“Oh, someone’s grumpy this morning!” Buns giggled.

Jules ignored him and sat up. His shirt was completely wrinkled. “Enough already, didn’t Michael say everyone was meeting in the next room? We gotta get moving.” He tried patting down his shirt and straightening his collar. No use, still a mess. He combed through his hair quickly with his hands. All knots.

Jules walked quickly into the meeting room adjacent to the waiting room he had slept in. It was quite a decorative, official space, with plaques of key scientists and innovators, pictures of significant moments of technology history, and large display monitors strewn across the walls. The Computer History Museum in Mountain View didn’t spare for flare.

“Ah, look who’s finally up!” Michael greeted Jules cheerfully as he saw him stumble in with Buns on his shoulder.

“S-sorry I’m late,” Jules announced.

“That’s quite alright,” Himekawa answered, standing at the end of a long, broad table at the far side of the room. “The others haven’t arrived for long, and have been spending some time getting to know each other,” she continued in her thick foreign-but-official-accent.

Jules glanced a slight eye at Himekawa - there was nothing he liked about that pretentious woman. He looked around, and there were quite a few people all gathered around, all chatting with each other before he and Buns had walked in, and were now staring at him. What’s more, each person had another pair of eyes with them that stared - they all had Digimon!

“Wow…” Jules didn’t know what to say. Buns was taken aback as well - the little bunny hadn’t seen so many of his kind in one place since, well, as long as he could remember.

A girl with dark hair tied in a ponytail broke the silence, “Hey there, do you work for Himekawa?” she asked politely.

“Wha- what?” Jules answered frantically, “No way - why would you - “ he looked down at his own clothes. Button-down dress shirt and khakis. He looked around the room. Everyone was dressed way less formal than him, save Himekawa. “Ah, figures.” he thought. “No, uh, no I don’t. I’m new here.” He replied.

“Yeah he just looks like a dweeb all the time,” Buns added.

Everyone chuckled and Jules blushed profusely. He noticed that aside from Himekawa and Michael, everyone gave off a noticeably younger vibe than him. He felt like he had just stepped back into college or high school. Or maybe it was just he was so hopelessly out of fashion that he felt out of place.

“Ah, gotcha. The more the merrier!” said the dark-haired girl. She approached Jules and extended her hand, “My name is Liz, nice to meet you!” A small ball of flame slowly peeked out from behind Liz’s back; it had a soft glow and shy face, “And this is Minnie!”

“Oh, uh - hi. Jules. Nice to meet you. This is Buns,” Jules shook her hand, immediately feeling like his reply was stuffy. He noticed her outfit. Long-sleeved, weather-proof teal shirt; blue shawl; brown hiking boots; utility backpack with blankets and first-aid kit; this girl was prepared. “Uh, wow… you’re dressed like a… real hero.”

Michael chuckled from the back of the room near Himekawa, “Jules is the guy I was telling you guys about earlier! Him and Buns there were the first on site during last night’s emergence!”

Murmurs and commotion went throughout the room. Jules didn’t know how to respond - he was always uncomfortable in front of crowds, the only time he could be articulate was when he prepared for hours the day before a board meeting presentation at work.

Liz gave Jules a chummy pat on the back and brushed Bun’s ear. “Nice job, you two!” she said reassuringly. Buns puffed a smile full of content and climbed from Jules’ shoulder to his head in triumph.

Another girl on the other side of the room with glasses gave an approving nod. She was wearing plaid and had a large red dinosaur with intense yellow eyes next to her. In a corner, a kid that looked around college-age in a beanie giggled with a floating, tapir-looking creature.

Next to them, was a brunette girl with an orange, striped, cat-like creature perched on her shoulder. She wore a black tank top, blue arm band, and orange gloves. She took her turn at introductions, “Sounds like you two are quite a team! I’m Kana, and this is Toramon.”

A taller-looking person with blonde hair, a dark cape, studded belt, and ripped black jeans stood up from the corner of the room with an impish-looking purple creature and gave an edgy smirk. In the same corner, a girl in a vintage 1990’s Jim Lee X-Men tee shirt and a purple skirt looked on in silence, accompanied by a sheet ghost with an oversized witch hat.

Jules reached back to nervously scratch his head, only to accidentally hit Buns on his. He was trying to cope with being the focus of attention in the room. “Uh… um… thanks y’all… I guess… ha,” he replied. “Say, uh… this might sound weird, but, uh, how old are y’all?”

“Huh?” Liz was surprised by the question, “I dunno, I thought we’re all about the same? I’m 22, for what it’s worth.”

“Oh,” Jules felt slightly more comfortable, “Okay, y’all all look really young, so, uh, I just didn’t know… you know? I mean, I felt old.”

“Ha! Relax my man! Are you scared of college kids or somethin’?” laughed Michael.

“Jules is scared of his own shadow if you don’t tell him it’s gonna be there beforehand,” jabbed Buns, always ready to get one in.

“Man, you’re a firecracker, Buns!” Michael and the others in the room laughed along, “Hey man, I’m 25 here, don’t make me feel like a fossil.”

“No that’s not what I meant - I’m 24.” Jules quickly replied with an apologetic tone, “Anyway,” he turned to Himekawa, suddenly firm and determined, “I asked because I want to know - why the hell do you have a bunch of kids gathered here, lady?”

Himekawa sighed and smiled. She closed her eyes for a moment, then looked straight at Jules, unwavering. “I suppose I owe everyone here an explanation,” she started. She began her long briefing in her distinct serious, foreign tone.

“My name is Himekawa Maki. What all of you need to know is that I am part of an international agency responsible for the monitoring and resolution of digital anomalies. It is our duty to prevent and deter cyber threats of any manner of manifestation, and we operate independently from political boundaries towards this cause.”

“Woah, that’s a lot of gibberish there,” commented Liz.

Himekawa ignored the remark and continued, “To put it simply, I’ve gathered all of you here to inform you of your current situation and to ensure your safety.”

Jules scoffed, “Our safety?! What exactly do you think is our situation?!” He looked at Michael, “Michael, did I not tell you the whole story in the car?” He turned back to Himekawa, “I trust Michael, but you, I still think you’re up to something fishy!” he accused.

“Mr. Yue, if you are referring to the emergence incident last evening in San Francisco, that is part of the reason I have brought all of you here today,” Himekawa responded.

“So you’re saying… what happened to Jules here, and the Blossomon that Minnie and I encountered, these things are connected?” Liz asked.

“Precisely. The frequency of digital anomalies is something that is unprecedented since the Demiurge Incident of ‘06. I believe you are familiar with the event?”

“The… Demiurge Incident?” Jules repeated in confusion.

“Okay, lady, you really lost me now,” said Liz. All eyes around the room looked towards each other for some kind of confirmation. No one had a clue. Liz glanced at Michael, who was patiently waiting for Himekawa to explain.

“Interesting that no one here admits to the rumors they’ve heard on the internet,” observed Himekawa, “considering that I found all of you through your forum browsing history.”

“You what?!” Liz was shocked.

“Please hold a moment,” Himekawa held a hand up calmly, “The Demiurge Incident is the designation used to refer to the string of digital resurgences in Tokyo, Japan that occurred six years after the viral digital anomaly broadcast of 2000. I’m sure some of you have seen the term “Demiurge” used in online communities that expound on theories regarding entities known as ‘Digimon.’ We believe that the emergences this time are similar to the events of 2006. However, there is one major difference.” Himekawa paused.

“Uh, okay… what?!” prodded Jules, frustrated with Himekawa’s complicated explanations.

“We believe that the current emergences are synthetically triggered. Our intel has led us to match several distortions of the digital plane coming from IP addresses of a linked server during the same time as the most recent emergences. Digital anomalies have consistently appeared in many locations where our agents are stationed around the world. We believe that a highly sophisticated cyber sleuth has compromised the system and is carrying out a vendetta against our organization.”

“Hold on… let me get this straight,” Jules rubbed the bridge of his nose, “You’re telling me, some super hacker is messing up the apparently world-class act that you’ve got going on, and your solution is to bring us all here to, what? Keep us safe?! Aren’t you making things more dangerous by having everyone be a sitting duck around you?!”

“The opposite actually,” Himekawa replied matter-of-fact-ly.

Michael sighed and propped himself up on a desk, leaning his back on the wall and kicked back his feet. He knew the twist.

“You see,” Himekawa continued, “our organization has been keeping an eye on each of you for a long period of time, to ensure that these anomalies you call Digimon that you spend time with do not pose a threat to public safety.” Himekawa glanced at each of the tamers in the room, all with various degrees of distressed looks on their faces. “However, our current ability to keep both you and your partners safe from each other and yourselves is compromised due to the many emergences we discussed that are occurring globally at a rapid pace.” Himekawa suddenly looked down, as if in shame, “I’ve asked you all here today as a request for you and your partners to assist us in finding the culprits behind these attacks.”

“Huh,” grunted Jules, “So you want to use us as pawns in your weird cybersecurity games?”

“We will need your help to keep the public safe,” Himekawa reiterated.

“Sorry, no thanks,” said Jules. He turned away with the slightest of hesitations, “this isn’t our problem. And if you ask me, the public isn’t any safer with your kind roaming around.”

Jules started towards the door quickly, only to trip over Buns, who had jumped down to stop him. “Jules! Wait a minute!” he pleaded.

“No, Buns. We’re going.” Jules insisted.

Suddenly, a bright flash emitted from one of the large display monitors on the wide boardroom walls, and two figures jumped out from the light as if the computer screen was a portal.

“Well?” Himekawa said to the unknown figure while the rest of the room still struggled with the light almost blinding their eyes.

As his vision came back to focus, Jules saw a puffy-haired girl with goggles, a hooded cape, and heavy boots stepping out from the light; a true adventurer’s garb. A small, blue, pointy-eared creature followed her.

“Nothing,” said the girl. “Vic and I searched everywhere. No sign of any rogue tamer.” The girl’s cloak was tattered and caked in dirt.

Vic the Veemon plopped down on his butt, exhausted and full of scratches on his body. “I’m pooped! Man, I could really use a doughnut right now,” he moaned.

“Jeez Choco, you and Vic look rough! What happened out there?!” Michael jumped down from the desk he was sitting on to help Vic back on his feet, and Bates crawled next to Choco to comfort her.

“We ran into a swarm of Vilemon, and then a Devidramon attacked out of nowhere,” Choco explained as she pet Bates, “Vic had to digivolve into two forms, first into Raidramon to run out from the swarm, then into Flamedramon to duke it out with that Devidramon.” Choco gave Vic a fist bump, “You did great pal.”

“You know it!” Vic mustered a boast despite feeling completely worn out, “whoever is behind all these disturbances, though, they ain’t messin’ around!” he added.

“Unforgivable!” shouted Ray, the girl in the plaid shirt and glasses. Newt the Guilmon growled in agreeing resentment.

“I’m sorry the mission was not successful,” apologized Himekawa, “however, it’s prudent that we continue the search.”

“This is insane,” Jules protested, “You - this… this girl just jumped out of the computer screen like it’s a window, all beat up, and you’re telling more people to go into that thing?! Y’all should call the cops or something. I’m done here.” Jules walks towards the door again.

“Jules!” Buns yelled and tugged at Jules’ leg, but he didn’t budge and keeps walking. Suddenly, Jules felt a grip on his arm that stops him.

“Hey!” Liz called out, “can’t you see what’s going on here? These people could use your help. We’re all in this together.”

“‘We?’ What does this have to do with me? With Buns?!” exclaimed Jules, “you don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re all naive. Go home.”

“No, you’re a coward,” Liz stated firmly, “you think I don’t know what’s going on? You think you’re the only one here with a Digimon you care about? Wake up. We all have partners. We all love them more than anything, and we’re not going to let some punk just bully his way around, terrorizing innocent people. If you’re too scared to do something when it counts, be my guest and go.”

Jules was silent, stunned. He lost Bao once and he had vowed; never again. “You don’t understand,” he cried, “I won’t do it. I won’t lose Buns too!”

“Jules…” Buns muttered, standing behind Jules, at a loss for words.

Liz let go of Jules’ arm. Minnie gathered cautiously next to the two of them. “Look,” Liz said patiently, “I don’t know what happened to you, what happened to Buns. But you need to trust in each other. Minnie here is my world. She might be bashful, she might be tender, but together our flame burns bright and we are strong. You need to believe in yourself, and believe in Buns.”

Jules wiped away his tears angrily with his sleeve. Liz was right, he thought. His whole life, he had been afraid. Afraid of what would happen if he lost safety, if he lost control. He had spent his whole life running from risk. He gritted his teeth.

No more.

Jules turned around and scooped up Buns from under his little arms. “Where are we going?” he said with determination, looking straight at the still-open digital portal.

Buns looked up at his partner, big beady eyes and wiggling dumb smile full of emotion that he could barely contain.

“That’s the spirit!” cheered Michael.

Liz smiled.

“Um… guys, c-count me in too!” came a softer voice from the corner of the room. It was the young college-aged kid, dressed in a beanie with a floating mammal by their side. “I-I didn’t introduce myself. My name is Salem, and this is Baku!” The Tapirmon floated down slightly in a polite bow.

“Fantastic!” exclaimed Michael, “Now it’s a party!”

“Right. A group strategy should increase our chances of finding the culprit behind these emergences,” reasoned Himekawa, “the rest of you should stay here in case we need to relieve the other group. As long as each team has a D-3, we should be able to transport all of you quickly between the physical and digital world.”

“Great! Good thing we have Salem with us!” Liz gave Salem a supportive nudge.

“Ms. Choco and Vic, please stay and recover for the time being.” Himekawa requested.

Ray, Newt, Kana, Toramon, Choco, and Vic nodded at Himekawa’s orders. The taller blonde with the cape and the girl with the X-Men tee in the back corner rolled their eyes.

“Okay, here goes nothing,” Salem holds up their D-3 as Baku snuggles up against them.

“Alrighty, see you crazy cats on the other side!” cheered Michael as Bates let out an energetic bark.

Liz cupped Minnie close.

“Here we go!” shouted Buns, still tight in Jules’ arms. “Here we go,” sighed Jules.

Woah!! The plot thickens!! So many cool new characters!! When are they gonna eat breakfast?! Why do tamers always beat up on Vilemons and Devidramons??! Is the writer losing it?!?! They better stop adding cliffhangers to cliffhangers next time on Tamersona Day 5: Way To Grow!

#tamersona #tamersonaweek #digimon #oc #jules #buns #liz #minnie #salem #baku #choco #vic #kana #toramon #jack #mukade #ray #newt #metalphantomon #a hero's uniform

[tonightontv]

"I love television, so I was never against going on to another series," says the actress Christina Hendricks, who is best known for playing Joan Holloway (later Joan Harris), a Madison Avenue advertising agency’s office manager who claws her way up the corporate food-chain over the course of seven seasons on AMC’s landmark drama series Mad Men, as we sit down at the offices of The Hollywood Reporter to record an episode of THR's 'Awards Chatter' podcast. The 42-year-old, whose work on that show garnered her six Emmy nominations for best supporting actress in a drama series and two Critics' Choice Award nominations — and wins — in that same category, emphasizes, "I just wanted it to be the right one."

Mad Men aired its final episode on May 17, 2015. Less than three years later, on Feb. 26 of this year, Hendricks began starring in another — albeit very different — series, NBC’s Good Girls, as one of three suburban Detroit housewives who try to extricate themselves from desperate financial straits by teaming together to rob a grocery store, only to find themselves in hotter water than ever. "When this opportunity came up," she says, "I had to ask, 'Do I want to do this every day for potentially seven years?' And I looked at these two other women [co-stars Retta and Mae Whitman], and this writing and this tone, and it was so different. I loved the balance of the drama and the comedy, and being able to stretch my muscles or whatever, and play in comedy alongside the drama, which I would say most people know me for. And I thought, 'That would be fun to do every day.'"

* * *

LISTEN: You can hear the entire interview below.

Click here to access all of our 216 episodes, including conversations with Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, Lorne Michaels, Gal Gadot, Eddie Murphy, Lady Gaga, Stephen Colbert, Jennifer Lawrence, Will Smith, Angelina Jolie, Snoop Dogg, Elisabeth Moss, Jerry Seinfeld, Reese Witherspoon, Aaron Sorkin, Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Kate Winslet, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Aziz Ansari, Jessica Chastain, Denzel Washington, Nicole Kidman, Warren Beatty, Amy Schumer, Justin Timberlake, Natalie Portman, Tyler Perry, Judi Dench, Tom Hanks, Jane Fonda, J.J. Abrams, Emma Stone, Guillermo del Toro, Jennifer Lopez, Michael B. Jordan, Mandy Moore, Ryan Murphy, Alicia Vikander, Jimmy Kimmel, Emilia Clarke, Robert De Niro, Claire Foy, Bill Maher, Rachel Brosnahan, Michael Moore, Kris Jenner & RuPaul.

* * *

Hendricks was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, but grew up in Portland, Oregon, and Twin Falls, Idaho. As a kid, she felt like something of a social outcast, and her physical appearance reflected that. But through a series of unexpected events, she wound up modeling, and enjoying it, which inspired her to move the big city. She recalls, "I just thought, 'I have this inkling that being in New York City and getting out of here is gonna get me closer to who or where I want to be, and I'm willing to take that risk and that adventure.'" The next stop was Los Angeles, where modeling led to commercials, which in turn led to her first outright acting jobs.

For many years after entering the acting profession and studying her craft, Hendricks found steady work, if not a major breakthrough part or show. She was on two programs on MTV; Brandon Tartikoff's Beggars and Choosers (1999-2001) on Showtime; and then was offered a holding deal with a man she came to regard as her "fairy godfather," John Wells, which spanned nearly three years and led to some important early opportunities, including a four-episode guest arc on NBC’s E.R. in 2002. After that arrangement came to an end, she also did three episodes of Firefly (2002-2003).

But as time marched on, Hendricks grew frustrated at a piece of feedback that she received from many casting directors and creative people. She was told not infrequently that her physical type — which is voluptuous — precluded her from playing parts that she believed she had proven in auditions that she was capable of playing. As she remembers, "I thought, 'Well, that's shitty. There are all types of people doing all types of careers.' And I started to realize that I was being seen in a very specific way, and I was surprised and a bit naive. It took me a little while."

Hendricks was at a low point after "a particularly brutal pilot season" when Mad Men first crossed her desk, with interest in her for the parts of Peggy or Midge, initially, before she came to audition for and be offered the part of Joan, the "queen bee" of an ad agency's secretarial pool. "I had to decide between [Mad Men] and another project," she explains. "Mad Men was the one I wanted to do, and my agent wanted me to do the other. ... AMC wasn't really a network. It [the show] was a period piece. I wasn't told if I was gonna be a series regular or not. Like, everything was a strike against it, but the pilot was so good. And I said [to my team], 'I've been on the things that seemed like they were sure bets, and they weren't. I always went for the fastest line at the grocery store, and it wasn't working. So let's do the thing that we really, really love and want.'" At which point her agents fired her, something that she can laugh about now, but didn't find very funny at the time.

Hendricks and her collaborators shot the pilot for Mad Men — and then had to wait nearly a year to find out if the show would be a go. (She spent that time working as a florist, something she had always wanted to do in addition to acting.) It was, of course, greenlighted, and she remembers the making of the full first season as blissful, not knowing or thinking much about how viewers and critics would respond to it, but just working hard. Once the show did hit the air, it quickly became a critics' darling and her character a fan favorite. ("People were really cheerleaders for her," the actress remembers.) Hendricks' personal life also changed. She became famous, and therefore the subject of media attention, not all of it kind or respectful or having anything to do with what made her famous in the first place. "All of a sudden this focus on your physicality becomes very, very great, which is hard," she admits. "I was working so hard on this character, and they just kept wanting to talk about my 1960s bra. It was like, 'Listen, guys, it's pointy, I get it. It's super-exciting. But there was really only one conversation that we had about it, and that was it.' There was just tons and tons of focus on it."

For the very most part, though, Hendricks' Mad Men experience was a beautiful one that challenged and rewarded her in ways she never could have imagined. "It really was one of those magical rides," she says. "It just felt like a very exciting thing to be a part of." When the show neared its end, the actress felt a blur of emotions. It was alternately heartbreaking, "like having to break up with someone, but not because you fell out of love, because one was moving away," she says, and scary "knowing that I may never find something as special" and exciting "knowing that so many opportunities were going to be presented because of this." The opportunity that Hendricks chose to pursue as her next big project, Good Girls, couldn't be much more different than Mad Men. It airs on a broadcast network, rather than a premium cable service; it is set in and very much addresses issues of the present, rather than the past; and though it will be competing at the Emmys as a drama, as did Mad Men, it could just as easily have been classified as a comedy. "There's a lot of laughing involved in this, and surreal wackiness," she acknowledges, adding that it has been "nice to break up some of this intensity that I've been dealing with for years and years and years doing these really heavy dramas."

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