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kindestegg · 3 years

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Deltarune Theory: Ralsei is a guide for the script

It feels crazy that Deltarune Chapter 2 has only been out for like, what, two weeks? As of the time I’m writing this, and yet, there has already been so much secret hunting and speculation over this. Not even the full game, and people already go crazy over it. Naturally, I am part of this craze. In fact I was one of the people that played it as soon as it dropped.

And, I thought it was only me, but, at least for a little while, Ralsei’s behavior struck me as… odd. Not outwardly malicious, but just… odd. Particularly the first bit of the game, it was just so… happy and convenient? And Ralsei was at the center of it all, orchestrating it, making sure everything happened accordingly.

Eventually, that initial feeling of distrust went away, but… not quite. And it seems a lot of people began to feel the same way, pointing out bits about Ralsei that are just… out of place. Things that didn’t seem to stand out in the first chapter, are now popping out about him.

Questions include:

How does he know about what’s outside the Dark World, about the school?

How does he know about the game mechanics and call them out by names?

Why is he so interested in keeping the balance between only Kris acting and him and Susie doing magic?

Why does he seem so eager to dismiss what happened with Spamton NEO?

Why doesn’t he turn into stone or even get weak at any point during the time he spends in Cyber World?

Are the parts of his name and design connecting to the Dreemurr’s intentional, and if so, what does that mean for his relation to Kris?

How and why does he take player control away to look at what Susie is doing? Why must he wait until Kris is willing to do it? What does he tell them when he succeeds in this?

Now, I don’t intend to pose here “a supreme theory to rule them all”, I’m just a guy having fun and I’ve seen people voice particularly similar ideas to this one I’ve had, so I want to at least try to answer these questions through a relatively simple idea that would, almost entirely, immediately answer ALMOST all the doubts.

First, let’s start with some steps to build up this idea. For one, we know for a fact that Ralsei holds knowledge over game mechanics and may even break the fourth wall at times.

But we also know that Ralsei’s design resembles a lot of characters from Undertale we know and were fond of. For one, he can be likened to Toriel in the sense that he is the one to give you the first tutorial of the game and his clothes resemble her original outfit as well. Another connection, much more common, that people have made is that he is like Asriel, no doubt due to his name being an anagram, but also due to the fact he is also a cute young goat.

I would like to do a complete turn around here though, and say I do not think any of this points to Ralsei being related to Kris in the familial sense, for more than one reason, but my main one being that I don’t think Toby would be as frankly disgusting as to imply such a thing when there is so so much teasing in the direction of Ralsei possibly having a crush on Kris. I mean… really, Toby?

You know, I’m not too sure this would be the smartest idea, Mr. Fox, but alright.

However, I do think all these hints in his design and name have a purpose. And it has to do with how us, the fandom, see these two characters. For one, they are very beloved characters, and Toriel is one that we associate with her tutorials and guidance, whereas Asriel is one that people have yearned to see more in action. They are back, in a sense, but not present in our adventures so far.

What I’m getting at is that Ralsei is specifically designed to be the darling of the fandom. He is made to be loved, to be trusted, to cause feelings in us that make us want to protect him and accept his advice. This, in a way, also affects the in-universe characters who see him, as Susie put it: “as a big portable teddy bear”, whose job is “giving hugs”.

And I don’t just mean this in a character design way, like “oh wow Toby was so smart to make a perfectly marketable boy!” No. I think Ralsei exists as a meta element, his form being a direct manifestation of what we want to see.

He looks like that because he wants us to see him and lower our guard and expect his guidance. Remember how his form was shadowy and vague throughout all of chapter 1 until the very end of it and how he poofs into nothing but a pile of clothes in both chapters so far, no matter what form he’s in? What if he’s a shapeshifter? What if Ralsei isn’t even his real name? That certainly would explain why he says he doesn’t know what being Ralsei-like is like.

Ralsei? Ralsei? Oh God he’s gone.

Now, do I think he’s lowering our guard in the sense of leaving us vulnerable for an attack? Not exactly. I think it's so we learn to accept him…

Accept that he is a GUIDE for the game’s script. His entire existence hinges on guiding the main characters, specially Kris, throughout the story, and making sure the whole story, all seven chapters, play out exactly as planned.

You see, Ralsei isn’t evil. His goal is pretty simple, actually: guide us, the player, throughout the game, making us feel as safe and happy and secure. In that sense, of course he pushes so hard towards the pacifist route. After all, that’s the one that’s closer to a completionist route, as the sparing + recruiting mechanic adds more characters to your town, and therefore more content. He wants you to see all this content and get the most enjoyment out of it. His code urges him to bring you the best experience possible.

This would also answer why he does that thing with taking our control away from Kris and to watch Susie’s shenanigans. Because it’s satisfying to us. Notice how stressed out and pushy he gets in the alternate route when Susie comes out of Noelle’s room without being able to let us see what happened. He knows he messed up, something went wrong. He was supposed to let us see, so that we wouldn’t be bored, because God forbid the players be bored.

Just imagine this going through his head.

He also seems to genuinely care about Kris and Susie, and with good reason, as he knows these are the protagonists, and he is supposed to care for their well being too and ensure they reach their goal. I do think, however, there is a good amount of being genuine in his care, as he has no reason to react so boldly sometimes to either of them, showing outrage or affection in pretty telling ways. He isn’t heartless despite carrying out this job.

However it is also worth noting, for all his care, he cannot do the one thing that Kris would desire the most: free them from our grasp. And that is his ultimate failure towards them, and may end up creating conflict later on in the game.

From, here, there are two possible pathways:

Ralsei does not know about the dilemma Kris is going through, and believes Kris is entirely oblivious and passive towards being in a video game. He may even end up being the final boss to fight, as he desperately tries to keep everything on rails while Kris very much does not care for any of that.

Ralsei is entirely aware of what’s going on with Kris, after all, everything in a game’s design is planned, even the cutscenes, therefore even Kris’ struggles. Ralsei knows of the fate that lies ahead, that Kris will eventually be free, how it all ends. But to get there… is still a road ahead.

I think Ralsei’s affection towards Kris will definitely be explored in the later chapters. Not just because of the teasing we’ve been getting, but, if Ralsei really is a guide of the game’s code and script, what would that mean for him to get so attached towards the character the player is controlling?

Ralsei will have to make a choice. He will either recognize Kris is suffering and cannot wait any longer, or be faced with possibly having to fight them himself. This is why those two pathways matter as well. If he doesn’t know, his choice will come later and it will be an unpleasant surprise for him to find out the game universe is breaking apart around him with the self awareness of certain characters. If he does know, however, his choice is NOW, and waiting for the inevitable will be torture.

Just how long until he breaks? Or will he keep the facade until the very last chapter?

Like I said, I don’t intend this theory to be the biggest, most revealing and coherent theory. But… It could add a very interesting layer to Ralsei’s character, as well as answer many questions posed beforehand. He knows the school layout and game controls because he is part of the code. He can get to the other Dark World’s easily and remain unharmed because the game demands him to be. He looks like this so that we love him. He wants to give us the most fulfilling Castle Town so that we will love the game. He doesn’t protest even when Kris does things like try to give him the thorn ring, because to him, everything will be okay anyway. Everything he is, is for us. He isn’t evil or malicious per se, he just opposes Kris’ biggest need.

But he may have gotten himself attached. And that may be a clue to sparing him if he does become a final boss.

But! Tell me what you thought of this theory! Do you think it’s way too weird and farfetched, or do you think it’s possible that it could happen? Or maybe you agree with some stuff but not with other stuff? Go ahead and tell me!

#deltarune #deltarune theory #ralsei deltarune #Commander's orders

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amazingphilza · 3 years

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DSMP!OC HEADCANNONS

i dunno if ppl on here make dsmp!ocs for themselves outside art but here’s my long list of headcannons?? idk what to call this, but assume all names have c! before it ofc :]

,, this is kinda messy & probably has a lot of plot holes but i just needed a space to write out all my thoughts LOL

also cw / ment of manipulation & ib: dsmp wiki <3

character origin :

previous life was the l’mantree :D

allegedly planted by schlatt, we will never know who’s my canonical parent(s)

reborn as a dryad after niki burns the l’mantree

i think being a dryad would fit especially since they’re typically nymphs of oak trees :]

appearance :

my character’s mc skin has long light brown hair & is seen wearing a flower crown with petals that are around the color of a pale violet and navy blue

clothing would consist of black shoes & a long light grey sweater that falls down to the legs and covers most of the hands which adorned with 2 black stripes on the upper arms

lore / history :

since my past life was the l’mantree, i would’ve known the ins and outs of the history when l’manburg was still standing, up until niki burned the tree

after witnessing everything, i’d hold a grudge on niki (+ allies?) and loyal to wilbur since he’s the whole person that made a meaning of the land of l’manburg

however i’d still be on edge w any side because i could sympathize with everyone to some extent after seeing some sort of distress from everyone at some point

i think seeing both sides of the spectrum when l’manburg/manburg still stood could change my perspective of some other characters

but at the same time, not everything was completely centered in l’manburg so i wouldn’t know the whole story of everyone’s character

i’m currently writing this just after tommy has left the prison & mostly everyone is treating him differently, so i’d try to befriend him by not showing that i dont care about his past & trauma but also not being fully faithful about our friendship ahaha,,,

he seems like the type that needs someone to see through his past history but tommy would definitely disapprove of my character visiting dream at the prison (i would do it anyway :))

vowing my current life to wilbur, i would help dream escape to revive wilbur & follow along with their plans of chaos

i don’t fully support dream but he is the only way to wilbur, making me comply with dream’s decisions

“growing up” in my past life and witnessing endless conflict, it is the only thing i know and understand; chaos

but i think during the process of helping dream & wilbur i’d keep my connection with them secret, being the person to obtain all the inside information they need

i could see myself as a type of equilibrium like ranboo but in a bad way, i don’t know how to explain it

but i would try befriending ranboo since he seems like he is involved in many things and would know a lot, despite his short term memory

unfortunately i’m not sure how much his character actually knows since i haven’t been able to watch his pov that much but i’m sure there’s a lot in his memory book...

to blend in as a normal person within the rest of the characters, i’d surround myself with connor a lot

not only because he needs more lore, connor is one of the “normal” citizens of the smp so i believe being with him doesn’t bring as much attention to myself, unlike people that’s related to the egg and their noticeable features after associating themselves with the egg

he is currently only on bad terms with techno which is rly good when comparing that to other characters and their relationships with other people

connor could probably sense my real intentions eventually & tell everyone else that i’m not who i say i am but if that’s my flaw & my downfall is caused by connor, so be it! sorry dream & wilbur

i feel like for being a young dryad, i’d still fool around with dream/wilbur & help give tommy an small “advantage” to defeating the two ?

like yes i’m supposed to be on your side but where’s the fun if tommy can’t do anything to begin with?

i honestly don’t know if wilbur was revived he’d actually be his vassal but let’s assume that happens, but either way i’m with wilbur on his decisions

but ya dream seems like the type to punish me for helping tommy and send me to the afterlife to learn & become smarter like wilbur had done or smth

in the end, i just want to give tommy bits and pieces that tease him from ending all the wars and problems he has been faced with

like here’s some info about dream and wilbur but it won’t be no where close to enough

but who knows, ghostbur said ‘villains are just heroes that aren’t convinced yet’ & maybe tommy could eventually grow on me & change my ways,,

maybe me fooling around & teasing tommy with answers he’s been searching for is a way to mask that i want to be a good person

ok but imagine after knowing so much about dream/wilbur, the revive book, & the afterlife & then i switch sides,,,

surely if tommy can’t put and end to them, dream would make sure i’m gone for good instead

but also if me & connor are in good terms & he’s canonically a necromancer & can bring ppl back to life,,,,

personality :

to all besides dream & wilbur, i’d try to act passive and friendly on the outside to get on everyone’s good side

however under the mask i am more mischievous & strive to cause more problems for everyone on the server from the inside out

in a way, i’ve taken up some of dream’s manipulative personality but still very understanding

i’d like to think of my character as a good listener,, trying to do less talking than others so i do not open up about my true self and intentions

i’ve seen rumors about schlatt & mexican dream also being revived along with wilbur & i feel like i’d have some soft spot for schlatt & pick up a few things from his own character, not sure what though

schlatt planted l’mantree theory, dad!schlatt au part 2 !! /j

because of my character’s closed off and quiet personality, i feel like i’d be pretty analytical

i would know how to slip between the cracks with some characters & notice the smallest things to make them question themselves

maybe my character is good at holding their composure, and not that susceptible to being “emotional” in a way so it’s easier to face people

like i understand when a situation is sad, etc but i can’t show emotion towards how i feel about it (i don’t know if that makes sense but ya!)

i wanna try to elaborate more,, like imagine my character before tommy visits the prison, i would be unfazed from when i found out he died to the point he’s released and we find out he’s been revived

everything is a constant blur hehe

i just can’t fully process everything i guess? i dunno if that’s helpful but yeah!

in the end though, my moral compass has been very tainted; despite wanting to show my loyalty, it can be slightly easy to sway me, making me internally feel guilty to other people

but me trying to get on everyone’s good side to impress wilbur/dream to seem useful to them would ruin me before i would even realize that i’m another “pawn”

we know damn well dream is faking it till he “makes it” but yk,,

but i’d be stuck in this kind of dilemma of not knowing what thoughts are my own or just something trickled down from wilbur or dream

there’s like maybe something that clicks in my head like “maybe i wanna think for myself for once” or smth

like who am i really?

powers , bonuses , etc :

since dryads can technically manipulate plants in some ways, theoretically i could control the blood vines to some extent ???

i’m pretty sure dryads can communicate with plants so i could understand what the blood vines are saying as well

maybe i could get a good sense of what the egg is all about and stuff

assuming that i understood anything that was happening with the egg in the first place but anyway—

i guess similar to ranboo like how he can’t really be around water without some type of amour or something, it would make sense for me to primarily reside in a type a forest or be near one ?? who knows

seems a bit morbid in a way because of the whole history but if i can somehow easily get rid of the blood vines without it affecting me (if there is still some there) i think it would be kinda pretty to build a tree base in the middle of the l’manburg crator (iskall tease)

like it can show a sign of some rebirth, not the same government repeated once again but a new era in general

you know how you see like destruction years after it the disaster or smth happened and it gets all overgrown with plants and stuff? ya that’s what i’m going for in my head (mumbo jumbo s7 tease)

i know it’s covered in glass already but i dunno, some broken glass and a giant tree emerging from the whole thing and all the rubble seems cool

i’m not a good builder but i have the vision LMAO

omg puffy is like a sheep human hybrid im pretty sure & like there’s a specific type of dryad that are a protector of sheep & other animals?? i’m not exactly sure but that seems like an interesting element to incorporate somehow

also glatt randomly planting a oak sapling in quackity’s lore stream yes pls feed my nonexistent dsmp character lore /j

i honestly dunno how to incorporate the fact dryads can turn shapeshift into trees when trying to escape something but i read something that if a dryad stays in a tree form for too long they’ll forget who they are and stay stuck as a tree?? which like woah that’s cool & some material but at the same time what—

since everyone’s backstory is kinda a mess, mr beast parent tease bc he planted a bunch of trees /hj

i have realized wilbur saying like “the whole reason i built this nation is gone” & blowing up everything or whatever is kinda a plot hole in like ‘why would i follow wilbur if/when he’s revived when he said this?’ but i’d like to think he was the one that made some meaning of the area lmanburg was on, which includes the lmantree

like he was the one that started everything and created that sentiment of that land, and however he views it now is how i would see it now

he gave meaning to my past life and now in my current life, i feel this obligation to repay him for it

not really lore bc i think it was cc!tommy talking to cc!ranboo about his height & age when he first joined but yk it would funny to make my dsmp character than his just to slightly spite him anyway

canonically 6’4 dryad yes . /hj

also i have no idea anything about hannah and her lore but we do be flower buddies :D

also omg like this isn’t at all important but the way ranboo can pick up grass blocks will just have me at awe, i dunno seems in theme with the forest/plant stuff

and i remember reading like there was something about dryads and apples but i can’t remember but i’d give tommy a bunch of apples /hj

apples am i right chat,,,,,

i’ll just have infinite apples in my inventory, like kill me in game, not like losing lives kinda deal but just in general and boom stacks of apples

“bee i get you’re half tree but do you just poop apples out like they’re nothing??” “girls don’t poop” /j

ok but like no matter how many streams i watch i cant grasp where everything is but omg but no if i was new to the server & stuff, canonically & not, i would feel my character to be the curious kind to explore everywhere

like besides a mini tour from some other person in the server, since my character only knows things in the bounds of lmanburg, i’d go off exploring different places like pogtopia, the sewers, showchester, etc

i feel like my character would be really into history, like they would have questions about what happened to lmanburg after the last war? what was life like before wilbur? what was the whole history about the antarctic empire? i dunno but reading a bunch of books from a library seems really interesting

oh but in theory, me and tubbo are loosely related if you wanna count schlatt as my “dad” because he supposedly planted the lmantree ???

i mean could make sense but it seems like a stretch

also if my character ever got close to schlatt, i’m not sure if this is canon, but i swear one time he mentioned how the whole dsmp sever is just a game/server in a game & he’s the only one that knows that ??? but like imagine if i found that out canonically,,,,,

big existential crisis pls

and i’m not 100% sure how dryad shifting works with like going from female to tree form and stuff but if i’m able to morph into different girls on the server & act as them,,,, the about of problems that can cause in the lore omg

lemme frame niki real quick and get inside information /j

oh ya and like hey bee do you support the government then? yes but no. whatever my “fav” person is canonically (assuming this is based in the beginning of this whole hc) whatever wilbur thinks, i think. head empty. but subject to change as the dsmp storyline progresses and stuff :]

ngl i wanna throw in some like random lore that doesn’t make sense to throw people off but i can’t think of anything

not actually really lore related but my choice of stream music like how ranboo has his undertale stuff that makes everyone cry, i will have in love with a ghost

yup i like in love with a ghost sm & i’m pretty sure their music is like not dmca too which yay but yk theoretically never gonna stream on the dsmp but still a fun aspect to think of bc i love listening to music & it’s very impactful to a story & associating something to it makes it more meaningful :D

like i could imagine the chill pop lofi piano stuff fits witha few lore streams of like exploring the whole smp before my character would really go out with being this lost villain in a way?

tubbo’s gangnam style who?

like i feel like i made my character bad/evil so they could have potential to get better in the future

on one hand, i’ll end up w dream and/or wilbur for the rest of my life, which is okay but i could also switch to be with tommy or even disregard all of them and be with techno/phil or quackity & potentially schlatt even who knows

also i cant wait for more connor lore tho, like as much as i tried to make my character give him more content i wanna see how everything goes with him having connections to schlatt & stuff

anyway i would’ve made concept art for my character but i honestly don’t rly like my art currently but who knows LMAO

and lastly if u read all of this ily /p

i might update this later when there’s more lore but ya

#bee for dream smp 2021 /j #dsmp headcanon #dream smp oc #dreamsmp headcanon #dsmp hc #mcyt x oc #dsmp x oc

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tgammsideblog · 3 years

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Ghost Lore in The Ghost and Molly Mcgee

Instead of talking about the show’s production and characters, this time i´m going to do something different: Talk about the ghost lore that has been revealed until now as well as some speculations.*

First, In terms of appearance, Most ghosts revealed until now are between a shade of blue and green. Scratch´s color is blue/light blue. The unnamed popular ghosts from the flashback are blue and green. They also lack legs and they are always seen floating around.

One detail i like is how they have different body types, it gives them more variety in design. Scratch is short while others are more taller in comparison.

One common aspect they share is they all mostly have yellow eyes with thick dark lines and blue-green rounded noses. Some also have ¨hair¨ that may cover their eyes if it´s too long.

When it comes to their body, they are able to shapeshift into whatever form they prefer. They can grown three to four times their size to scare and intimidate others. They are also able to stretch their arms to grab objects that are a few metres away. However, they can be changed back to their ¨base¨ form if they are squeezed enough or rolled up.

Ghosts are tangible as seen by how Molly is able to hug Scratch without any effort. They are semi-transparent as well since a person can see things through them like they were a glass. It hasn’t been shown if they can make themselves untangible but it wouldn´t be surprising if they are able to.

A ghost may lose control of their base form when squeezed enough or hits against a hard object. However, they can regenarate themselves very quickly and turn back to their base form. They don´t appear to be suffer from mayor injuries because of their supernatural nature. A Ghost may lose their eyes or nose by accident and they be easily put back in their face.

Another thing is that they are able to make themselves invisible. In one of the animatics of the songs, Molly is seen playing the piano with other ghost who remains invisible while Molly's teacher are watching her.

They have their own world called the Ghost world. Very little is known from this place except for the fact that it has been implied that ghosts have different status in the ghost world that depend on their ¨popularity¨. Popular ghosts appear to have certain benefics that less popular ghosts don´t have: In the flashback in the two minute sneak peek Scratch isn´t allowed to enter inside a building that is exclusive for popular ghosts while he is kicked out it for not sharing this status. Some popular ghosts look down to him by saying things such as ¨He doesn´t belong here¨ and ¨Who does he think he is?¨.

It hasn´t been explained how a ghost becomes popular. If it has to do with their abilities, how many humans they are able to scare or how they used to live their life as humans. My theory is that it depends on their powers and how scary they are. The more powerful they are, the higher their status is.

Now for the question that i’m sure many reading this are wondering: Did ghosts used to be humans or are they just supernatural beings?

In my case i think they used to be humans because:

1) The fact that Scratch was living inside the house before the Mcgee family moved in there. Unless he considers the house a ¨special place¨, then there isn´t there any reason for him to stay in there, he can easily find another place to be. That’s why i think the house used to belong to Scratch when he used to be human and the reason he doesn’t want to share his space with the Mcgee. If i was a ghost and suddenly one day people started living at my house i would be angry too. (There’s the another possibility that Scratch is too selfish to search for another house to live).

2) Some of the ghosts have their very specific traits that makes them look like human like the ¨hair¨. I wonder if these were traits that they used to have when they were human. Each ghost appeara to have a unique form that reflects what they used to be like in their past lifes.

3) The creators mentioned an episode about Molly and Scratch ¨reviving¨ a bunch of dead people to start a band. This proves there might be a conection between ghosts and humans.

If they go with the ¨ghosts used to be humans¨ route, it would be a very interesting concept to explore. A few animated series have done this in the past (Hilda, Adventure Time) but i have´t seen many series that explore this in depth. That´s why i think it would be a great idea for the TGAMM crew to explore it.

* Note that many of this lore is based of Scratch's abilities. We don't know if all ghosts share the same powers or Scratch is unique in someway. Take this analysis with a grain of salt because i may be proven wrong when the series airs.

#The Ghost And Molly McGee #The Curse Of Molly McGee #molly mcgee #scratch the ghost #tgamm lore #ghost lore

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mishavacado · 3 years

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SPN has so much spinoff potential and so much canon to work with, it's such a waste that none of it's getting used. This post is just all of my spinoff ideas, I'll apologize in advance because it is VERY long.

Wayward Sisters, obviously. There are so many possible storylines to work with, so many stories to tell. I'd really love to see some Charlie, Eileen, or Krissy Chambers cameos. I think that Charlie and Claire would get along really well (just read this post). Rowena is another character that I think could easily be worked into the canon. She could teach the girls all kinds of magic and be the fun wine aunt that spoils the girls on their birthdays. I don't think that Claire would like her very much, but, Rowena and Alex would probably get along just fine. How much I need this in my life: 1000000000000000000000000/10 when I heard that this idea had been tossed out I was so angry. Why doesn't this exist?

Men of Letters prequel that's mostly set in the bunker. This show could really expand on the canon lore and give us some more background on the Men of Letters, as well as any other similar/rival organizations that were around before the main show's time. The Men of Letters have so much story potential for a spin-off; corrupt leadership, new monsters, other organizations, expanding the MoL to outside the U.S. Episodes could be in a monster-of-the-week (MOTW) format, starting and ending with the Man of Letters the case is assigned to making notes in his journal or case file or talking about the case, as well as the overall season arcs. Episodes would be titled by their case number, i.e S1 E1 Case No. 1925-4, etc How much I need this in my life: 1000000/10, the supernatural/historical drama combo would be absolutely stunning.

A series focusing on all of the alternate timelines and universes, both the ones mentioned in the main show and ones just randomly created for an episode. There are infinite possibilities. Each episode would be in a MOTW format, but with different versions of Sam and Dean. The HunterCorp universe, Jared and Jensen from the French Mistake, a universe where their names are switched, a universe where Dean went to college and was the one with the demon blood powers, a universe where they drive a Mustang instead of the Impala, a universe where Sam isn't scared of clowns. I could go on, but I'm going to stop myself here. How much I need this in my life: 9/10 I think it would be pretty funny, but it's not my best idea.

A Bobby and Rufus spin-off where they talk about cases they worked on together or with other hunters, but the stories are told similarly to Tall Tales. It's the same story but told from different points of view depending on who's talking. I wish we'd gotten to see more of Bobby and Rufus because I think those two are hilarious and really think that this could be funny, even if it was just a web series with twenty-minute episodes. How much I need this in my life: 10/10, I love Bobby and Rufus and I think that they have a lot of interesting hunting stories to tell.

GHOSTFACERS GHOSTFACERS GHOSTFACERS. How much I need this in my life: 100000000000000000000000/10, I love the Ghostfacers. That's my whole idea.

A Jack-centric show that's almost a political drama. Jack is the ruler of heaven and is constantly being manipulated by angels, demons, and Death herself. He just wants to make an afterlife paradise, but power-hungry angels won't leave him alone. Remember that Jack is very young and trusting by nature, so there is a lot of potential for disaster if he gets goaded into doing something, like making new universes or ending existing ones. Cas is a main character and he does his best to protect Jack, but he has to be careful to not seem overprotective/like another manipulator or Jack won't trust him either. I have no idea if I'm making any sense, but shoutout to me if I am. For some reason, I've always thought that heaven would be an interesting setting for a spin-off, and those angels are pretty similar to power-hungry politicians. How much I need this in my life: 800/10, I would totally watch this.

A very short series that just destroys the canon finale. Twelve episodes, detailing the storylines that were ignored or destroyed by Carry On. E1: Rescuing Cas from the Empty and he and Dean have a long talk about their ~feelings~. They kiss, and for the first time, Dean’s mind is free of doubt about whether or not anyone could ever love all of him. E2: Eileen returns. She says nothing when she sees Dean and Cas holding hands, just raises her eyebrow and smiles knowingly. Some excellent movie night content. E3: 1 year later. Sam and Eileen’s wedding. Dean and Cas aren’t legally married, but their matching gold rings are very prominently shown. It isn’t mentioned. The wedding is almost canceled because of the rain, but with a wave of Jack’s hand the clouds disappear and the birds start to sing. E4: Sam and Eileen have moved out of the Bunker. Cas finally convinces Dean to downsize, so they find a little house in Lawrence and settle down. Cas works as a special ed teacher. Dean works as a mechanic. Miracle loves the backyard but makes sure to stay away from the beehives in the back corner. E5: Sam and Eileen’s twins, Mary and Maura, are born. Dean and Cas love their nieces, and Jack loves them too. He doesn’t know what to call himself, so they settle on Uncle and call it good. E6: Deaths. They all die old. Cas’s vessel has aged, but he can’t die, so when Dean finally passes away in his sleep, Cas scatters his ashes in the woods and disappears, ascending to heaven, to spend eternity with Dean. The closing scene is a dark screen, with the whoosh of wings and a soft “Hello, Dean.” OK. That was a long one. My apologies. How much I need this in my life: 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000/10. I would reach nerdvana thirty seconds into episode one.

Another spinoff of that idea is just...Dean and Cas living a normal life. Short episodes. Cas goes to the grocery store. Dean drags Cas to a horror movie fan convention. Cas meets a roomba. How much I need this in my life: I can’t type enough zeroes to express it.

Campbell prequel that focuses on Mary and her childhood. Mary being raised as a hunter but not being allowed on hunts. Mary rushing home to finish her chemistry homework so she can help her dad track a nest of vampires moving east. Mary missing her prom to help Samuel on a hunt. Mary trying to keep her real life secret from John, a man she knows loves the parts of her he knows about. Mary always being an outsider, the kindest and most beautiful girl in her class, but so slow to trust and quick to speak that everyone is afraid to be her friend. Mary is a character that has the potential a lot more development, for twelve seasons she’s the burning martyr in every Winchester’s imagined paradise. She deserves more. How much I need this in my life: 11/10, Mary isn’t my favorite character but I would die for her.

Gabriel spin-off. That’s it, that’s the idea. How much I need this in my life: 10000000/10, Gabriel is a character that we don’t know a lot about so there are so many possible directions for a story about him to go.

Show set in the SPN universe that doesn’t really interact with the main show’s canon. It’s about two cops in the 30s that become hunters by accident. After investigating the apparent suicide of a hunter in their small town, they become enthralled by her library, filled with books about ghosts and vampires. They pour over her journals on their own time, fascinated by what they’re reading. They get to know the hunter through her writings, her accounts of her hunts and travels. Eventually, a nest of vampires settles in the town and the two put their newfound knowledge to the test. This show would just be based on canon lore, there wouldn’t be any mention of the Winchesters or other main characters, although a few MoL team-ups is definitely a possibility. The two become quite a team, tracking werewolf backs on bulletin boards in their basements and hoarding rock salt. How much I need this in my life: 89/10, I think this could be really interesting and I am a sucker for historical hunters.

Speaking of historical hunters-Samuel Colt prequel. Cowboys, vampires, cowpires. Hunting in the wild west, galloping across the prairie chasing a pack of werewolves. This show could also tell us a lot about how different types of monsters spread across the U.S. Ghosts will go anywhere people go, but what about vampires? Shapeshifters? Ghouls? What was it like to hunt without technology to help with research? The hunters in this series would be the authors of the journals that modern hunters use every day. They’re the ones that tested tracking and trapping methods. Again, no idea if this is making sense, but I think that a supernatural western would be really awesome and would expand/substantiate the canon lore. How much I need this in my life: 1000000000000000000000000000000/10, I love cowboys and I love Supernatural. This is literally the best thing that could ever happen to me.

Crowley. I want to know more about him. A series that tells us all about Fergus Roderick MacLeod, starting with when he was born in Scotland and ending with his death in All Along the Watchtower. We know that Rowena was his mother, that he was a tailor, that he sold his soul for an extra three inches ~down there~, and that he was a terrible dad. I want to know more about his childhood, about the people he made deals with, about how he became king of the crossroads and of Hell. Crowley was a very interesting character that was abused by the story. I want to know more about him. How much I need this in my life: 10000000000000000000000000000000000000/10, I really do love Crowley and I would watch this a thousand times over.

Final idea: MOTW only. No season arc, no overall storyline. New hunters every episode, from all different times, from over the world. All kinds of monsters. One episode in Victorian England, the next in 1990s Los Angeles. Very few recurring characters, if any. The recurring characters would be the Bobby Singers of the world; the lore guys that you call when you need help. Each new character has their own style, own car, own music, own personality. The show could have some a m a z i n g guest stars because they’d only appear in a few episodes. There are so many possibilities for episodes, even if they weren’t full length. How much I need this in my life: 100000/10, I love MOTW episodes and would really like to get to know the characters. It would be very easy to write one-off fanfics for this show, and also very easy to introduce this show’s characters into Supernatural’s canon.

You made it to the end!!!!!!!! That’s all I have for now. Sorry for writing so much, I just can’t stop thinking about SPN and all of the wasted stories.

#al speaks #spn #spn spin-offs #my ideas #i worked hard on this #big brain time #do you like it?

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meetthetank · 3 years

Text

Cruciamen Chapter 11: A Touch of Honey

Rating: Mature Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: F/M, Other Fandom: NieR: Automata (Video Game) Relationships: 2B/9S (NieR: Automata), A2/A4 (NieR: Automata) Characters: 2B (NieR: Automata), 9S (NieR: Automata), A2 (NieR: Automata), A4 (NieR: Automata), Emil (NieR: Automata), Kainé (Nier) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, genre typical violence, On the Run, Monster of the Week, 9S is a half demon, 2B and A2 are shapeshifter Dragons, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Smut in the future, inaccurate depictions of medical procedures, Fantasy Biology, A2 is Nonbinary Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25104214/chapters/79358422

The art in the thick, leatherbound tome is unlike anything A2 has seen before. Great warriors, their mighty weapons, and the monsters they slew dance across the page and intermingle with the precisely placed text. They run their bandaged fingers over the linework and imagine the rough splinters of the carved woodblock. Each image is rendered with exquisite detail and transferred to the page with expert skill. The ink doesn’t even smear when they touch it.

The door to their sickroom swings open. A4 strides in, black curls bouncing with each step, carrying a basket of supplies and a plate of food. The dry beige stuff, “bread” and soft yellow stuff, “cheese” have been mostly replaced by fresh fruits, but there’s still small pieces of both hidden underneath. The nun regards A2 with a bright smile that makes her emerald eyes shine. For the past three days she’s greeted them this way, always the same smile, the same twinkle in her eyes. It’s weird, but A2 doesn’t mind.

“I didn’t take you for a scholar,” she says, placing her basket down and coming to their bedside. “Oh, no offense.” A4 scans the page open on A2’s lap, then sighs wistfully. “I always love this story. The Sword Saint is one of my favorite heroes. What about you?”

A2 blinks, their expression neutral. “I can’t read it. I just think the pictures are cool.”

“Oh.” The nun turns her head and makes a strange coughing noise. When she turns back her face is red, making the smattering of freckles across her cheeks stand out.

“What?”

“Nothing!” A4 yelps. “Just ah-... Dry throat is all.”

“Okay…” A2 mutters.

“What’s your favorite picture then?” A4 asks, eager to change the subject.

Their expression lightens a bit. “The weapons.”

“Oh, really?”

A2 nods. “Yeah. Never seen some of these before. They look cool.” Their fingers trace across an image of a wicked looking serrated blade. “Back home, the elders said that weapons told stories. I never believed it as a cub, weapons couldn’t talk.”

“Interesting,” A4 muses. She looks at them, lying in bed, clearly bored out of their skull. Their leg bounces under the covers, their eyes dart around only to settle on her face for a few moments, then find something else to be interested in. The book is long forgotten, and A4 guesses that sitting here telling stories would be as ineffective as trying to get them to change their bandages regularly. Then, suddenly claps her hands together.“I have an idea!”

They close the book and tilt their head to the side. “Huh?”

“I bet you’re tired of walking around the infirmary. I could take you around some of the other buildings, if you’d like.”

A2 grumbles to themself. Though they feel better after walking with A4, they despise being led around like a lost cub. Not even the prospect of new scenery will change their attitude.

“There’s lots of sculptures and art, and even relic weapons I could show you,” she says with a coy smile.

That… gets their attention. “... When are we going?”

“Whenever you’re ready, I think.”

A4 offers her hand out to A2 to help them out of bed. They wrap their bandaged fingers around hers and allow themself to be pulled up. Though the sharp pains and aches that ravaged their body have dulled, they still wince and hiss under their breath as they stand. Parts of their skin, particularly in their shoulders, elbows, lower back, and legs, feel too tight, as if their bones are a tanning rack. A4 places a worried hand on their shoulder. They give a dismissive wave but don’t reject the touch.

“I’m fine,” A2 says, forcing themself to stand as tall as they can. “Just a bit stiff.”

The nun sticks by their side as they leave the infirmary. A2 grumbles that they’re not about to fall over, but A4 remains adamant that she’s here in case they need some support. They glance around at the other rooms that happen to have the doors open. There aren’t many other patients housed here; A2 counts at least three or four patients and one other nun. This place must not get many visitors, or much outside aid for that matter.

The sun blinds them temporarily as they step onto the worn path that leads from the infirmary to the rest of the convent’s grounds. Straight ahead is an old stone chapel, decorated with symbols and iconography A2 recognizes from the book they were reading. Immediately left of that is a building similar in structure to the infirmary from which other nuns come in and out. The scents of unfamiliar foods drifts out of the open windows, and A4 giggles when A2 stares at the building as they pass.

As they approach the living quarters and the chapel, A2 notices a distinct change in the atmosphere around them. There’s an energy in the air that sends a chill up their spine, something unseen that makes the downy feathers beneath their hair prick up.

A4, noticing their tension, puts a hand on their shoulder.

“What is that?” they ask, stormy eyes darting around in search of a threat. “Something’s weird here.”

“It’s the blessed grounds,” A4 explains. “The area surrounding the chapel and our dormitory have been consecrated to ward against demons and other creatures.”

A2 nods along, not understanding at all. At least this place has some kind of protection. The only thing preventing an invasion is The Bog to the north and dense woods to the south. A fence or stones would be preferable, but a magical barrier will do, they suppose.

A4 brings them to the chapel first. She stops in front of the heavy wooden doors with A2 by her side and clasps her hands together in front of her chest. Though she mutters a prayer in a language A2 does not recognize, they can tell the words are full of reverence. She bows her head, makes motions across her body with her hands, then leans forward as far as possible in an exaggerated bow. A2 stands and stares, unsure if they should be following along or not. They fold their hands clumsily, only for A4 to giggle at them once again. Heat floods their face and they cross their arms over their chest with an indignant huff.

She pushes the doors open much more easily than A2 thought she would. Cool air laden with fragrant incense rushes out and rustles their hair. There’s barely any light inside, only the sun’s rays and a few candles illuminate the interior of the old building, but it’s enough for the colorful glass windows to shine in brilliant greens, reds, and blues. They follow A4 with their head on a swivel, trying in vain to take in everything around them. Each window has an image inside it of different colored glass, giving the depictions of strange beings and holy figures an otherworldly quality. In between each window are statues depicting all manner of weird and awe-inspiring creatures. There are many beings that seem to defy the laws of nature, each one brandishing instruments of war such as swords, spears, and great shields. One winged creature with a long, featureless face that ends in a point unnerves A2. Despite it having no eyes, it seems to stare at them.

“What are these…” A2 murmurs, finding themself staying close to A4.

“Angels,” she explains, slowing her pace to match A2’s

They shiver. “I didn’t think they would look so…” So much like demons? They don’t dare say that aloud. “... Monstrous.”

A4 giggles. “Angels and other heavenly bodies aren’t from this world.”

“Oh.” They scuff their shoes against the stone floor, feeling a little silly. Of course they wouldn’t be from this world. “Where are they from? Has anyone seen an angel before?”

They don’t mean to be rude, they’re only curious, but the frown that sours A4’s soft features makes them rethink asking questions like that again.

“We call their world Paradise,” she says, forcing her expression to be neutral again. “There are a number of thinkers that theorize that it’s somewhere high above the clouds or among the stars. The few times we have seen angels, they’ve descended from the sky.” She sighs and thumbs the fabric of her dress. “It’s... been a long time since anyone has seen an angel. The last recorded sighting was during the time of the Hellwalker, thousands of years ago.”

A2 hums and searches for anything to change the subject. A statue close to the small altar catches their attention. An armored human, or something that used to be human, holds out his arms as an angelic warrior erupts from his split chest. Though graphic and morbid (the scene sends chills down A2’s spine), none of the more gruesome details are rendered in the stone. Even the human with his chest agape seems to be enraptured by the holy warrior emerging from his decimated body.

“Wh-”

They stop short of asking about the sculpture, but ever observant, A4’s head whips around to face them. She looks from their face to the statue and back again, easily piecing together the question A2 was about to ask.

“This was Saint Agustus, an Ascended,” she explains. “Exceptional people of the Faith are sometimes chosen by the Bishops to give up their body to an angel. They become holy vessels of divine will.”

A2 only nods along, watching as A4 clutches a charm that dangles from their prayer bead necklace. They can’t make out the shape, but it looks like a similar design to what the statue of Saint Augustus has tied to his belt. Before A4 can catch them staring they avert their eyes, making sure not to linger on anything for too long. The last thing they want to do is make this sweet nun feel like she has to educate them on every aspect of the Faith.

“The weapons look cool,” they say in a desperate attempt to avoid any prying religious based questions.

It seems to work, as A4 smiles. “They are, but the real ones are even cooler.” For the first time since coming into the chapel, she looks genuinely excited. It’s infectious; A2 can’t stop themself from grinning as well. “Would you like to see some?”

All A2 has to do is nod once for A4 to grab their hand and lead them through the chapel and down a stairwell. A few other nuns scowl at her but it doesn’t seem to bother A4 in the slightest; in fact she seems to smile wider once she does notice. That little act of mischief from the woman A2 thought was a good and pious girl makes her smirk, just a bit.

Another set of oaken doors separate the basement of the chapel, used for storing unused furniture and holiday paraphernalia, from the Order’s armory. The array and variety of weapons is impressive enough, but the decoration and detail on their ornaments is dazzling. Each sword, spear, axe, mace, and bow is embellished with holy symbols, geometric designs, and mosaics of brilliant gems and stones. A massive sword in a glass case catches A2’s eye. Its intricate lattice work and inlaid jewels outline the polished and gilded blade. It’s ostentatious and far too gaudy for their tastes, but A2 can’t deny that it’s impressive.

“That’s Teresa’s Ecstasy,” A4 explains. “Or, a replica of it.”

“Cool…” A2 says, staring at the sword with wide, awestruck eyes.

A4 goes around and gives a little lesson on each weapon or replica and who used it. Teresa’s Ecstasy might be the largest and shiniest, but the brutal headsman axes wielded by Holy Executioners would be their choice out of the lot, hypothetically. There’s a pair of swords that look strangely familiar to A2, two serrated black iron swords devoid of the elaborate decorations or the others. A4 explains them to be the favored weapons of someone known as the Sword Saint.

“This is what I take into battle,” A4 says and takes what A2 thought to be a censer off of a rack, but it is adorned with the wicked blades and spikes of a flail. “I burn a sacred herb inside that emits a smoke that suffocates demons.”

She demonstrates her skills with several wide sweeps and a downward strike to finish. A2 steps back to give her room to swing the flail. It almost looks like a dance and it astounds them that A4 doesn’t lose control of the weapon and smack herself in the face with it. It's enchanting in a way they didn’t expect, and they find themself watching her with enough intensity that when A4 catches them staring, her face flushes red and she falters, allowing the golden chain to catch on her arm. She sputters a half explanation, half apology as she hangs the thurible back on its rack.

A4 clears her throat. “S-so. Which one would you pick?”

They can’t help but smile. Her question carries the same excited innocence that a child has when asking a friend what their favorite lizard is. A2 scans the racks and shelves filled with weapons, relics, and replicas. Most of these are far too flashy or strange for them to latch onto, but there is a rack of simple wooden weapons. At first they mistake them for harmless training weapons, but one catches their eye. They pick up a heavy dark oak club with spikes crudely hammered into the rounded end. It’s hefty, top-heavy, yet well balanced and cruel. They give it a practice swing, then a more powerful one and smirk at the simple brutality of the spiked club.

“This one. If I didn’t have my sword, of course.”

She giggles. “I thought you might pick the Club of Saint Gertrude.”

A2 decides that Saint Gertrude had good taste. They set the club back in its place with much more reverence than before.

The pair don’t stay down in the armory for very long. An older nun whom A4 refers to as Sister Beatrice (who also lingers behind them as they leave) scolds them for playing around with holy relics. A4 tries to defend herself but quickly absconds with A2 in tow before the old woman could get too angry. As they exit the chapel and A2 has to walk past the statues and windows once more, they can’t shake a certain observation of the convent’s art and iconography that sticks in their mind. Everything here, despite being holy and images of purity, is very... sexual. Even the people or demons being skewered or torn apart have expressions of pure ecstasy and pleasure. They shove the thought away as they and A4 exit the chapel and the fresh air fills their lungs.

Along with the calming scents of grass and the woods, something else catches A2’s attention. A savory smell, like searing meat but not as sharp or oily, drifts from the building A4 had identified as the dormitory. It’s a wholly unknown scent to them, but it makes their mouth water nonetheless. Thankfully that building is A4’s next destination.

Since there’s no ritual she needs to perform for entering the living quarters, A4 walks right through the much less ornate wooden door, holding it open for A2. The entryway is sparsely decorated: only wide, featureless windows that let in natural light and potted plants of various kinds sit among neatly lined pairs of boots. Other belongings and clothes sit on small tables and vanities near the door: several woven black shawls, prayer beads, and simple leather satchels. It’s hard to tell just how many nuns live here, but A2 figures at least twenty based on how many pairs of boots they can see.

A4 leads them through the halls of the dormitory, which is relatively uninteresting aside from the different paintings of what A2 assumes to be saints that adorn the walls every so often. The smell grows stronger and stronger until they reach a large, open kitchen and dining area. Well-used pots and pans hang from the rafters, a pot of water boils on an oven with a small cookfire crackling inside, and plates of breads and cheeses sit on the center table, ready for lunch time.

The young nun bustles back and forth, checking on the pot of something she calls “pasta” that boils on the stove while A2 idly examines the different foods lying about. Some of them they recognize, like cloves of garlic, from the witch’s house. Others they have to sneak a bite of to decide whether or not they like it. Most of the powders and dried plants are far too strong, and it takes all of their self control not to vomit after biting into a thin stick of… something.

A2 finally comes to the loaves of bread that have a white decoration on top of them arranged neatly on a tray. While A4 fusses with organizing some utensils and complaining about how messy one of the other nuns is, A2 picks up a small loaf. It’s much softer than they expected, and denser. It must be a different kind than the ones A4 brings them. It crumbles easily when they roll a piece between their fingers. The white decoration turns to a sticky liquid when they touch it. Cautiously, they take a bite.

It only takes two bites for A2 to eat the whole loaf.

Whatever this is has to be the sweetest, most amazing thing A2 has ever put in their mouth. It reminds them vaguely of honey, a rare treat back home, but with so much more added to it. They taste a bit of fruit and some of the spices they had sampled in there as well. Suddenly they feel like they’ve been missing out on so much of the world, a feeling that causes tears to well up in their eyes.

A4’s laughter snaps them out of their religious experience. They try to wipe their eyes as nonchalantly as possible, but the nun sees right through their ruse.

“I never thought anyone would react like that to my baking,” she says, smiling from ear to ear.

“Y-...” A2 looks at her with wide eyes, “You made that?”

“Yes,” she giggles. “It was one of the first things I learned to bake. It’s sweet bread.”

A2 thinks they might like this place after all. They reach for a second loaf only for A4 to smack their hand.

“Hey! Save some for the rest of us!” she scolds them, but the smile plastered across her face lets them know there’s no malice at all. A4 leans in close to A2 and drops her voice to a whisper, “If you cooperate with your treatments and behave yourself I can sneak you some.”

Her excitement is infectious. A pleasant warmth rushes through A2’s body as they laugh with her. “Okay, deal.”

...When was the last time they felt like this?

They don’t linger in the kitchen for very long. A4 tugs them along by the hand once again, eager to have A2 meet her mentor at the convent (or to get them away from the food). She says this is the final stop of their tour, which comes as a secret relief to A2. Their legs and arms are starting to ache and despite eating an entire loaf of sweet bread they want to lie in bed for a few hours. Even walking through the dormitory halls takes the wind out of them. They try to hide it as best they can, but A4 gives them a concerned look when she hears them wheeze.

The final stop turns out to be the dormitory’s infirmary. Why the nuns have their own separate medical wing confuses A2, but the group seems eager to keep outsiders away, considering all the strange looks A2 has been on the receiving end. The room is devoid of people aside from two older women. One wears the same plain black dress and white headscarf that the other nuns wear. She hunches over a much more decrepit woman, dressed in a black robe with an intricate geometric pattern on the front, denoting a higher rank, and tends to a wound on her face. As A2 walks closer, they can smell a harsh potion similar to what A4 has been giving them to clean their sores.

“Sister Margaret!” A4 calls and waves, then bows to the older old woman. “Good afternoon, Mother Superior.”

“Good afternoon, sister,” both women answer in unison.

A2 gives a shaky wave, standing behind A4 as if this tiny woman would protect them from awkward social encounters.

“Is this the girl we rescued from the Bog?” Sister Margaret asks, only sparing a glance at A2 before turning back to the wounds on Mother Superior’s face.

They’re about to chime in with their usual response to that assumption, but their words catch in their throat as Mother Superior turns to face them, allowing A2 to see the full extent of her disfigurement.

Her eyes are gone. The only thing that remains are her eyelids, sewn shut, and two circles of thick scar tissue over them. Sister Margaret gently dabs a sharp-smelling cream over the wounds.

“Speak, child,” Mother Superior says, her voice severe but worn with age. “Does my penance frighten you?”

“P-...” A2 stammers, their aloof personality vanishing in an instant, “Penance?”

“Mother please.” Sister Margaret playfully taps her elder on the shoulder. “Don’t scare the poor girl.”

A4, Sister Margaret, and Mother Superior chat while Maragret finishes up with her treatments. The three women all seem to get along, from A2’s perspective, but A4 and Margaret seem far closer. A2 lingers on the edge of the group, waiting for and dreading when attention turns back to them. All the while, they can’t stop looking at Mother Superior and her wounds. The word “penance” echoes in their head over and over and over. They see an iron mask sitting beside the matriarch and swallow a lump forming in their throat.

It isn’t long before Mother Superior stands to leave. She waves her goodbyes, A4 and Sister Margaret bow in return, and the old woman hobbles out of the infirmary, leaning on a wooden cane for support and navigation.

As soon as Mother Superior exits the room, Sister Margaret claps her hands together and approaches A2. “Now! Let's take a look at you…”

This woman has no sense of personal space, A2 thinks. She pulls at their lips to check their teeth, runs her wrinkled hands over their scales and bandages, digs through their hair like she’s looking for ticks, and holds their eyelids open to examine them. They let out a low, annoyed hiss, but allow the old nun to pick them apart like an experiment.

“Looks like you’re doing a good job so far, 4!” Sister Margaret praises. A4 beams with pride. “Keep up with fresh fruit as her main diet, change the bandages daily or more if needed. How are you feeling? Be honest, girl.”

“Uh- I’m not…” They stop, unsure if correcting Sister Margaret about their gender would cause problems. “I’m... still sore. Get tired easily. Get sick if I eat too much.”

Sister Margaret and A4 nod in exactly the same way. “Well,” Margaret begins, “Rest, walks, and a proper diet should put your humors back in check. Don’t keep your condition a secret, there’s no room for the sin of pride in these walls.”

A2 nods, then suddenly chokes on their own spit as Margaret grabs at their upper arm and squeezes their bicep.

“Hooo boy!” she hoots, giving their arm another squeeze, seemingly pleased by how hard the muscle is. “She’s something alright!” Margaret turns to A4, whose face already begins to flush red. “I’ll say this, if she cleaned up, she’d be a snack and a half!”

She laughs at the red faced A4, while A2 stands there with the blank stare of a confused cub.

#nier automata #nier #nier automata fanfiction #A2 #fantasy au #fanfiction #tank in the real

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paladin-lynx · 4 years

Text

Love Hurts (“Among Us” Ficlet)

Trigger/Content Warnings: Mentions of character death

Author’s Notes: So as I’m sure you can all tell from my recent posting, I’ve started playing “Among Us” and I’ve quickly become hooked. Some games are short and not very serious, but others have been filled with emotion and I’ve played with some awesome people. This piece is loosely based off a particular game I played, although I changed the names just for everyone’s privacy. So I guess these are technically OCs now, if people want to see more of them? But to all the people I’ve played with, you guys are great! Hope to run into you again sometime soon!

“Dead body reported by Crewmate Orange. Corpse found: Crewmate White. All remaining Crewmates report to the Cafeteria immediately.”

Leora nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden announcement, blinking up at the nearest loudspeaker. Things had seemed to be going relatively well for a while, with no bodies being reported, but she should have known that the peace would only last so long. While MIRA HQ was fairly big, it wasn’t that big, and if there were Impostors running around killing Crewmates, it would only be a matter of time before someone stumbled across a corpse left in their wake.

While she was of course wary about the entire situation, she couldn’t help being a bit irked. Somehow the Impostors had slipped under MIRA’s radar during screening and had managed to stay hidden during the entire ride on The Skeld and it was only once they had gotten all the way to Headquarters that MIRA apparently had realized something was amiss.

She still remembered the announcement as they had started to make themselves at home at MIRA HQ – “There are two Impostors among us.”

The crew had immediately gone into a panic. Yellow had wasted no time slamming the Emergency Button so many times that the crew had ended up ejecting him. His constant talking had them convinced that he had to be one of the Impostors, because no one else would be so accusatory towards the friends they had made on the way here, right?

But as his body had fallen through the clouds, that announcement had sounded once more – “Two Impostors remain.”

It had been very silent around the Cafeteria table after that as everyone processed what they had just done. How could MIRA have technology advanced enough to figure out that there were shapeshifters within the crew, but their scanners weren’t intelligent enough to pinpoint who they were?

The turn against Crewmate Yellow had definitely been a shift in the crew’s dynamic up until that point. They had all become so close with one another on the way there. In training, MIRA had mentioned that on these missions, your crew was like your family and it was easy to form bonds. Of course, that was before any of them had known that not everyone was who they said they were.

They had even shared their real names with one another so that they didn’t have to constantly call one another by codename, even though it was still easiest to default to that at a moment’s notice. Leora was Red, but she had had no issue giving the crew her actual name. In fact, she had never been the most popular of people back home and these strangers had welcomed her into their midst with open arms. It was nice.

It made her heart clench to think that now none of them could trust one another. But they had to do what they had to do.

So for now, she glanced up at Black, who was in the Laboratory with her. “Come on. Let’s get to the Cafeteria.”

They made their way through Decontamination and through the hallways towards the crew’s meeting place. Black was a large individual, but he didn’t speak much, so everyone had decided to simply call him Giant since he hadn’t bothered giving his name. When he did talk, he was straight to the point, only saying what was necessary to get his point across and nothing more. Leora guessed it was to cover his ass and not say anything that could make the others suspicious.

Finally, they walked into the Cafeteria, and Leora blinked when she saw there were only two others there, already seated at the table and waiting for them. Were there really only four of them left? And there were still two Impostors among them.

Besides her and Giant, there was Crewmate Orange, whose name was Paige. She had had rotten luck thus far in coming across the bodies littered around the Headquarters, and to be honest Leora was shocked that the crew had kept her around this long and not accused her of self-reporting the deaths.

And then the last one was Crewmate Green. His name was Wilder, but the crew had taken to calling him Wiley since a rough-and-tumble name like Wilder didn’t fit his sweet disposition. He was one of the first Crewmates that Leora had met and she had known within seconds of him opening his mouth that he was not fit for an environment like this. They’d struck up conversation and Wiley had latched onto her immediately. As they had been flying up in the Dropship, when there had been a bit too much turbulence for his liking, Wiley had reached over to shakily take Leora’s hand. It had caught her off guard, since at the time they’d barely known one another, but she had taken pity on him and given his hand a little squeeze, keeping him close and assuring him that everything would be just fine.

She’d smiled at him through her helmet, and she’d sworn that she could see him blushing behind his.

And now he was one of the last four. Leora hadn’t really been keeping track of him as she’d wandered about the Headquarters, but she was glad that he was alright. She went to go take a seat at the table, watching as Giant did the same.

There was a stretch of silence, and the tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife. Finally, Leora decided to be the one to start the conversation, turning to Paige. “Where was the body?”

“In Admin,” Paige replied, and she shifted her gaze to stare Leora down. “I saw you jump into a vent.”

Leora blinked, immediately straightening up, her eyes widening. “What? I wasn’t anywhere near Admin.”

“Yeah!” Wiley piped up helpfully, although his voice trembled, like the rest of his body. If they made the wrong decision here, they were done for. “Lee wouldn’t kill anyone!”

Leora felt her heart clench. He was so sweet, and the nickname only made it sink in more just how attached he’d gotten. Part of her wanted to reprimand him for being so trusting with all of this going on, but she held her tongue. None of them really knew what to do in this situation, and they had all been coping in their own ways.

Paige huffed. “I saw her, Wiley. Well, maybe I didn’t see her actually make the kill, but I promise you I saw her jump into the vent! And you know that only Impostors can use the vents!”

Giant slowly raised a hand, clearing his throat. “Leora was with me,” he deadpanned in that low, almost growl-like voice of his. Maybe that was why he rarely spoke. “In the Lab.”

Wiley nodded quickly, his helmet almost rattling with the movement. “See? And I was at the Launchpad running diagnostics…So where were you, Orange?”

Paige’s head swiveled to glare at Wiley. “In Admin. Obviously. I was going to enter my ID code.”

Wiley shrunk down a bit, and Leora felt anger boil under her skin. Her mouth moved before she could think about it.

“Don’t snap at him,” she warned. “You say you saw me vent, Orange, but no one else was there with you. I’m starting to think that you killed White and are trying to cover your own ass by reporting it yourself.”

“Are you crazy? That would be so stupid,” Paige hissed, her posture tensing. “Black is just covering for you because he’s probably the other Impostor.”

That was a fair assumption, Leora admitted to herself. Giant’s tendency to stay quiet could come off as so clever it was almost suspicious, as if he was trying not to draw attention to himself. Leora hadn’t bothered following him around much, leaving him to his own devices, but they had gotten on just fine thus far.

So for now, Leora just rolled her eyes, still scrambling to defend herself so that she didn’t end up getting tossed into the clouds below Headquarters. “Sounds like something an Impostor would say, doesn’t it?”

“Shove it, Leora. It was you. I saw you.” Paige looked to Wiley again. “Come on, Wiley, you have to believe me. You know I wouldn’t lie to you.”

It looked like Wiley was biting his lip, eyes darting between the other three Crewmates at the table. Paige had been friendly enough up until this point, and she did seem to be fairly observant and good at piecing things together. But now that there were only a handful of them left, she was fighting tooth and nail to keep her one remaining Crewmate safe. Or perhaps she was just trying to keep herself safe. She didn’t try to accuse Wiley at all, but Leora couldn’t blame her for that. When they’d found Blue’s body – his name had been Ben – Wiley had collapsed into Leora’s arms and sobbed, and unless he was secretly a theater star back home, there was no way he could act that well. He still seemed shaken now that White, named Felix, was gone, but he only had so many tears to shed.

“I don’t know…” he mumbled.

“It’s Leora, come on, you know I’m right!”

“But…b-but I can’t vote for Lee!” Wiley protested, nearly choking on his own words. “I love her!”

I love her.

Leora felt like somehow the blood had both rushed to and drained from her face at the same time, and she blinked at Wiley with big eyes. They had gotten close over the course of the mission, and Leora had tended to spend her free time in training and on The Skeld with him, but it seemed a bit too early to be saying it was love. Crew may be like family, but in a lot of ways, they were still strangers. Leora had no doubt that sometimes romances blossomed between Crewmates, but that wasn’t possible when there were Impostors running amuck, was it?

The room was silent for a long moment before Paige let out a heavy sigh, rubbing a hand over the front of her helmet. Leora heard her mutter, “no, you don’t” under her breath before she addressed Wiley again. “Love hurts, Wiley.”

“I…True…” Wiley still looked unhappy, peeking over at Leora, who just shook her head. There was a good chance that she was about to get ejected from the Headquarters, and while the thought was nowhere near ideal, as soon as MIRA had announced that there were Impostors that needed to be weeded out, all of the Crewmates had done their best to accept the very real possibility that their days were numbered. They would either get picked off by the Impostors or the crew would toss them out if they were acting suspicious enough. Leora just didn’t want to think about Wiley meeting his fate at the hands of the Impostors if she wasn’t here to keep an eye on him, and the idea made her heart squeeze uncomfortably in her chest.

“Please vote on your tablets for which Crewmate you believe to be the Impostor.”

Regardless of their argument, they had to come to some sort of conclusion. Leora pulled her tablet from her belt and glanced around the table quickly before she tapped on Paige’s picture and confirmed her selection. It had been awfully strange that Paige had been the one to find most of the bodies before now, and perhaps her deductions about other Crewmates was all a front to keep herself alive. If both Leora and Giant voted for Paige, and then Paige herself and Wiley voted for Leora, then they’d both be spared, but the tensions if that happened were no doubt going to be unbearable.

The others all tapped away at their own screens and then the vote closed. Leora waited with bated breath, heart hammering in her chest, for the results to calculate.

Honestly, what kind of system was this anyway, making them send one another to their deaths? Why couldn’t the potential Impostors be contained instead to avoid shedding the blood of innocents?

Finally, their tablets beeped, and Leora looked down. She couldn’t help a soft gasp.

Next to Paige’s picture were, unsurprisingly, Leora’s red helmet and Giant’s black.

But there was also Wiley’s green.

“What the fuck, Wiley?” Paige demanded, although her voice was quickly drowned out by the loudspeakers.

“Crewmate Orange to be ejected. Crewmate Orange, please proceed to the Launchpad.”

Everything was still for what felt like hours, but was no more than a few seconds. Finally, Paige slowly got to her feet, her entire body shaking as she did so. She narrowed her eyes at Leora and Giant, then more hesitantly at Wiley, before marching towards the door. Leora swore she heard her swallow down a sob as she went.

It was only a matter of minutes before they saw the flash of orange through the windows as she fell.

Leora swallowed the lump in her throat, let out a slow breath, and turned to Wiley. “…You didn’t believe her?”

“Of course not!” Wiley still looked frazzled by the whole episode but he managed to give Leora a little smile. “I could never vote for you. Besides, people had been commenting that she was near the other bodies a lot of the time. Now we just need to vote off Bla—”

“Two Impostors remain.”

Wiley froze, his entire body going rigid, and he looked up at the loudspeakers as if he was sure he had heard that wrong. Leora could almost feel the realization wash over him and he slowly – so slowly, horrified – looked across the table at her.

“You…Y-you…”

Leora sighed softly, glancing at Giant from the corner of her eye, and he easily rose to his feet. She did her best to look at Wiley evenly. “Sorry, love. But…a mission is a mission.”

She couldn’t help looking away as Giant drew his knife and rounded the table to approach Wiley, but she knew the sweet, ever so naïve face beneath that green helmet was still watching her. She sucked in a deep, quavering breath.

A mission is a mission.

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marewriteblr · 5 years

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Traits And Quirks For Characters In Fantasy (list)

idk if I’m the only one, but when creating characters for my wips, I like to google lists of traits and quirks to give a bit more depth to them. and since I mostly write fantasy, I thought my characters deserved some more fantasy-related traits and quirks, so here’s a list of 150+ traits and quirks for characters in a fantasy setting!! hope it helps some of you too

has tattoos that keep changing

bad vision—takes magical potion to see clearly

addicted to magical food or drink

weird things happen when they laugh, sneeze, cough…

sees things that aren‘t there—or are they?

speaks in rhymes

has a wandering scar

has a wound that never stops bleeding

shows symptoms of a curse but pretends to not know how they got it

physical signs when lying, eg hair growing unnaturally fast

can summon any mythical creature easily

has a mythical creature for a pet

brings a slight breeze with them whenever they enter a room

was dead once

refuses to eat certain type of food for no specific reason as though it were amoral or inethical

obsession with a particular period in history

obsession with a magical creature/species

doesn‘t dance or make music because weird things happen

haunted by a ghost, their best companion

always has a candle lit (eg for their ghost companion)

can speak a mystery language only very few people understand

can turn the light of single stars on and off as they please

used to be part of a secret society

wears shoes with wings, no one knows if they actually work

can predict the future correctly for a ridiculous/bizarre reason

lives at court, no one knows why or where they came from but they let them stay

can only talk in questions or riddles

always seen reading spell books though they can‘t do magic

always seen reading books though they can‘t read. bonus if the reason for this is magical

tells everyone about the time they did something they‘ve certainly never done

tells everyone they used to be a dragon, is obviously lying

is actually blind, no one has noticed

never speaks, only talks to people telepathically, they’re used to it by now

has blood of unnatural colour, tells the weirdest stories of why that is—story changes every time

sacrificed 7 years of their life to magical creature who might claim them any minute

sacrificed a body part, determined to get it back

sacrificed their good looks

always learning spells by heart and seen using them the next day as though they’d prepared it for the occasion

has a secret identity, eg can do a certain type of magic and sneaks out to commit crimes/perform on stage/meet their companions…

keeps getting into trouble because people are convinced they have magic, but they don’t

belongs to a human/non-magical species but was kidnapped years ago and never went back

is actually a ghost

is immortal but doesn‘t know anything about history—can tell you all about the migration of dwarf antelopes on their continent throughout the centuries though

always corrects people on history/mythology facts with things they can‘t possibly know if they weren‘t there themselves

allergic to magic. bonus if they‘re a powerful wizard or deity

obsessed with knives and swords. you can fight them but they‘re more interested in the crafting of your blade

allergic to a certain spell and only that spell for no apparent reason

always has a certain item or food in their pocket in case they need to bribe a magical creature today

miscorrects others‘ pronunciation of spells and pronounces them wrong themselves (eg emphasis on wrong syllable)

talks in a fake elf accent to piss off elves

pretends to be a species they clearly aren’t judging by their appearance, and gets defensive when told so, calling people racist

gets themselves into trouble by trying to seduce nymphs when drunk. also an alcoholic

is cursed to never remember any names—has forgotten their real name a long time ago so no one can ever have that power over them

introduces themselves with a different name every time they meet someone

heavily worships an evil trickster god

ominously refers to themselves in third person

doesn‘t walk but jumps from roof to roof instead

predicts the future but is always horribly wrong

challenges people to a quest all the time

seems to know every person in the entire kingdom

seems to be enemies with every person in the entire kingdom

spends a lot of time in dimly-lit taverns seeking opponents for a strange board game

likes to look for bizarre monsters deep in the forest

talks to their dagger

talks too much during sword fights

gets involved in sword fights but only ever carries a paper sword with them

makes up crazy and hardly believable stories when asked about their past to hide their guilt

collects a particular type of item that can only be found on adventurous quests to dangerous places

has large horns on their head despite their species having no such thing, refuses to tell anyone why

never seen eating

never seen sleeping

takes every time anyone mentions something being hard or dangerous to do as a challenge to try it

wears an eyepatch solely for the looks of it

collects dangerous enchanted jewellery

random hissing

an excellent storyteller, like unnaturally excellent

politically involved and fights for giants‘ rights

has a finger that‘s mysteriously shorter than the others

is best friends with a demon

is nocturnal but loves sunlight

pretends to be completely resistant to pain

always sneaking around

has a tattoo that keeps dis- and reappearing

enchants people with their acting

has a wooden prosthesis

doesn‘t wear shoes

changes eye colour every day

wears gloves all the time and tells people it‘s for their safety

hears the trees talk to them

believes the apocalypse is near

pretends to be immortal

breaks into people‘s homes to steal food. no jewellery. only food

pins pressed flowers to their walls

believes that flowers grant wishes

has random visions of other people‘s pasts that aren‘t necessarily true but always get them into trouble

strongly believes in reincarnation

talks in a different accent every day

is convinced they are cursed

sees every minor conflict as a challenge to a sword fight

fights their battles using nothing but darts

is an archer and also blind or missing an arm

accidentally stabs themselves. a lot.

always carrying poison around „just in case“

is at fault for the fall of a mighty god

knows all about mythology

always up to date regarding drama and gossip between the gods

immediately scared they’re about to be cursed whenever someone raises their voice

still mourns over the death of a friend

whatever they touch breaks instantly

chews on their wand (definitely not a good idea)

always wears their hair tied up into a bun, is longer than rapunzel‘s when worn loose

brags they were good at picking locks but actually just hit it really hard until it breaks

accidental shapeshifting

still waiting for an ominous prophecy to foretell their destiny

makes weird/seemingly unnecessary bargains with strangers

has something slightly off about their appearance that makes people stop in their tracks to watch them

unhealthy obsession with cloaks

is a great fan of wizards. collects wands and hats like action figures

horses don‘t like them, they ride a wolf instead

sings the spells they use

constantly mumbling to themselves or someone others can‘t see

can duplicate themselves but can‘t do math so they‘re always a bit confused

has a leaf sticking to the back of their hand. don‘t ask them why

is a painter, travels very far to obtain a particular kind of paint

sketches their dreams in a book after they come to them at night

always seems to be charged with electricity

freckles on their cheeks dance when laughing or when light hits them

makes up prophecies and tells strangers about them

grows wings when high up due to fear of falling

gets arrested regularly for pranking nature spirits and deities

sneezes when using magic

insomniac, needs a particular spell or magical food/herb to fall asleep

magic makes them fall asleep (when they use it or when others use it nearby)

mixes the weirdest potions all day

can‘t eat spicy food, literally breathes fire

necromancy but only to revive their dead cat

turns the same colour of any food they eat

dreams of becoming a knight

horrible short term memory but can easily recite anything they read two centuries ago

makes their eye colour look white just to mess with people

can‘t remember spells for shit. says them incorrectly which always goes horribly wrong

terrible handwriting. bonus if they’re a messenger who has to send important letters on a daily, causing things to go very wrong

can correctly guess anyone‘s magical power on a scale from 1-10. is stupid enough to point it out aloud, too

wears cloaks that are way too long

carries a fake sword on their hip

carries way more weapons on them than necessary

uses their dagger as a toothpick

plays with dagger when thinking

supernaturally heavy sleeper

gets the different species mixed up a lot

tells everyone how many people they‘ve killed in their life

a die hard fan of a well-known assassin

a die hard fan of shakespeare‘s puck

desperately wants to be abducted by the fae

heavily affected by the phase of the moon

#this list will definitely be updated #but i thought i'd post it #since some might wanna use these #i certainly have already skskskk #writing resources #traits and quirks #characters #character development #worldbuilding #fantasy #top posts

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beetlethot · 5 years

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In which I gush over beetlejuice's suit for too many paragraphs

Ok kiddies, enough talk about ship wars, time to do up a thing I've been wanting to talk about for a while

If you've peeked at my side blog you may already know this, but outside of being a slut for our resident dirty boi I'm a cosplayer and proffesional costumer, so I care Way too much about what characters are wearing and Brightman Beej's costume is just.. it's so exquisite and I need to gush about it

At first glance, it may seem like it's just a recreation of the suit as it's always been but there are a lot of beautiful subtle details that really make this version shine. Let's look at the other versions for comparison

Let's start with Keaton. It's worth remembering that ketaon's beetlejuice does *not* wear this suit for a lot of screentime (he actually doesnt have a lot of screentime in the film but even percentage wise). He oscillates wildly into lots of different looks, this is just the one that's become the most iconic and for good reason. In the film hes specifically wearing this when lydia finally frees him and he raises hell. This is the most well kept hes been in the entire movie to this point, so it gives off kind of a huckster showman/used car salesman vibe. Peep the 37 watches hes wearing for some reason lol. It's still dirty and dusty, but in comparison to Brightman Beej it's pretty pristine. This beetlejuice is much more confident and, for lack of a better word, more polished

Now let's look at animated Beej. The cartoon is really what solidified the idea of the striped suit as being his default outfit. He still wears other outfits when they're doing a specialized thing or when he shapeshifts into other people like Betty juice, but 99 percent of the time hes a stripey boi. Still with very clean and defined lines.

This is also where purple gets more definitively added to his color scheme. Keaton has the purple around his eyes but that's pretty much it, animated bj has the addition of the snazzy magenta shirt, plus his skin being purple. This locks in the bj color palette of black, white, purple, and green

Now let's talk about this little gremlin

Musical meetlejuice is in many ways a cross pollination of his 2 dads. He gets the green hair tint from Keaton, and the subtle purples in his makeup from cartoon beej. But he also has a lot that's only his

Look again at the stripes on keaton's suit

Now look at the fabric for Broadway beej

The stripes are dirty, grungy, irregular. His suit is dirtier, there are rips and hanging strings. Brightman beej is a much more insecure, messy character and his stripes reflect this. It gives off a vibe that's more anarchic punk than showman.

Also look at the difference in fit between the 2 suits. The jacket is less fitted on brightman and the sleeves are so long that in some positions they almost hang over his hands. Combine this with the nail polish, brightman having a baby face (hes also like 10 years younger than Keaton was when he took the role) and it all adds up to make him a more youthful. He looks like a little boy in his dads clothes, which he basically is character wise lol

Another really interesting thing I noticed when watching the boot (its nft and I'm not posting caps from it again and causing another issue lol) is a really neat element they added. Obviously brightman cant do the same level of changes in live theater, and initially I thought it was a trick of the lighting but then I saw this snap of the costume designs and it confirmed it to me

His costume changes color a few times throughout the show! Most of the time his tie and hair is green, but when hes on the roof during invisible reprise (ie when hes sad) that color shifts to purple, and when hes being a full on evil bastard at the exorcism it switches to a red color. He literally wears his feelings on his sleeve and it really beautifully illustrates what a sensitive little puppydog he is.

I just.... guys I love this costume design so dang much

#beetlejuice the musical #beetlejuice #alex brightman #costumes #costume design #back on my bullshit

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 3 years

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Psycho Analysis: Count Dracula

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

So, in all my time doing Psycho Analysis, there have been a few villainous characters that, while extremely obvious, have such large and daunting scopes that it seems a bit scary to think I could accurately analyze them. Characters like Disney’s Pete or Bowser come to mind. Both are obvious 11s, but where to even begin with them? And that is a similar problem I faced with the villain who is arguably the single most important foe to ever grace fiction: Count Dracula.

How on Earth is one supposed to talk about a character who has spanned so much media and has remained an enduring fixture of pop culture for over a century? The guy has been in movies, comics, books, video games, plays, cartoons, musicals, songs… and he hasn’t even been a villain in all of them! How does one talk about such a villain with such a broad, all-encompassing scope?

The obvious answer is, of course, to talk about him in a broad sense and how he has affected culture, of course! This one’s going to be a little different than usual since I’m focusing more on the concept of Dracula than one single version, so there’s a lot of Dracula’s to go over here:

Performance: Throughout the years, Dracula has had many actors take a shot at him, though I think the finest takes are courtesy of Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee. The former is basically what cemented Dracula as a sexy, Gothic horror icon, changing the far less attractive man from the book into a seductive monster that would color numerous adaptations after. Lee’s take brings the sexy, but is also far more violent and monstrous, mostly because Hammer horror films were all about that bright red blood, so gotta have someone spill it all!

If you’re looking for more flamboyant, hammy Draculas, Richard Roxbourg of Van Helsing and Duncan Regehr of The Monster Squad have you covered, playing Dracula at his most deliciously, monstrously evil. However, the hammiest (and thus most amazing) Dracula was Michael Guinn’s take in Symphony of the Night, with the entire opening exchange between him and Richter Belmont being a testament to the joys of chewing the scenery.

More comedic takes on Dracula have popped up over the years, with the most notable ones being Adam Sandler’s lovable, fatherly take on the character in the Hotel Transylvania films and Phil LaMarr’s performance on Billy and Mandy, where he plays a ridiculous, possibly senile version of Dracula who is abrasive and hilarious in equal measure.

Basically, when it comes to Dracula, you can easily find any sort of performance to suit your needs and give you what you’re looking for.

Best Scene: Over the years, Dracula has had a great many fantastic moments under his belt, so many fantastic scenes and boss battles… but for my money, the single greatest moment Dracula has ever been in is the opening battle of Symphony of the Night. Just watch this cheesy melodrama unfold and try and disagree with me:

youtube

Though, of course, his death in the animated series sure is a contender:

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Best Quote: From the above scene, we have “What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!” among moany other meme-worthy bits of dialogue from Dracula.

On the subject of Castlevania, from the TV show we have Dracula at his most tragic and pitiable, especially when he delivers these fantastically tragic lines like “ It's your room... My boy... I'm- I'm killing my boy... Lisa... I'm killing our boy. We painted this room. We... made these toys. It's our boy, Lisa... your greatest gift to me... and I'm killing him. I must already be dead.” and “Your greatest gift to me... and I'm killing him." as he does battle with his son, Alucard.

Then of course, we have the legendary moment from The Monster Squad where Dracula drops any pretense and starts strangling a little girl, screaming in her face "Give me the amulet, you bitch!" It’s so deliciously, horrendously evil!

Final Thoughts & Score: It’s very strange to think of how much all of fiction owes Dracula. The original book invented a lot of traits (the lack of reflection being one) and popularized others (such as shapeshifting and weakness to garlic), but at the same time also predates a lot of things modern vampire fiction takes for granted. The Dracula of the book has no weakness to sunlight and gets younger as he drinks blood, starting as an old man; in fact, Dracula in the book is entirely lacking in the Gothic sex appeal that almost every adaptation of the character after would give him. He was also not very seductive, instead outright attacking women if he wasn’t hypnotizing them. Hell, he wasn’t even explicitly Vlad the Impaler in the books!

More than any other villain I’ve covered so far, Dracula is truly deserving of an 11/10. Even Count Orlok owes him a debt, seeing as Nosferatu was just a blatant ripoff. Hell, aside from villains from old mythology, I don’t think any villain can lay claim to the sort of scope Dracula has, having forever altered vampire fiction even as certain elements of him become lost in translation.

But what of some of his other incarnations over the years? How do they fare in terms of score? Well, I’m certainly not going to be incredibly thorough and list every Dracula ever, but here are a few I’ve encountered:

Obviously it’s unfair to give the Bela Lugosi incarnation anything less than an 11/10, mainly because this is the Dracula who pretty much inspired most other interpretations of Dracula after him. He’s suave, Gothic, attractive in that dark and mysterious way… it’s no wonder Lugosi’s Dracula became such an iconic fixture of cinema. Then we have the other classic Dracula, Christopher Lee’s take. I think he’s only a 10/10 because I feel like Lee’s tenure is a bit more overlooked and Lugosi tends to supplant him in terms of iconic status.

Castlevania as a franchise is specifically built qround defeating Dracula as the heroic Belmont clan or some adjacent vampire hunter. So you’d better hope that the big bad and master of the magical castle the game takes place in is impressive, right? Well he most certainly is; while he’s not completely fleshed out in every appearance he has some, like his iconic portrayal in Symphony of the Night, really help sell the idea this incarnation of Dracula is a rather tragic villain, though at other times in the series he seems to revel in being a monster far more than that interpretation would allow. Notably, the Castlevania show went with the more tragic approach to great effect, with Graham McTavish delivering a fantastic performance that swings from being genuinely terrifying to hauntingly emotional (just watch the scene where he breaks down upon fighting Alucard and realizing he’s killing his own son). Both game (in a broad sense) and show Dracula get a 10/10, for different reasons.

Duncan Regehr portrayed the Dracula in The Monster Squad, and it is quite obvious he’s having a hell of a time. He’s just wonderfully hammy, and he might be one of the most evil Draculas ever seeing how he called a little girl a bitch and tried to slaughter children with dynamite. This one’s a 9/10 for sure. I honestly think he’s the best take on the character, but his movie is sadly too obscure to really give him that push to being a truly iconic portrayal. He just captures the menace and charisma of Dracula so well, it’s a shame more people don’t know about him.

Van Helsing had a Dracula, played to hammy perfection by Richard Roxburgh. Say what you will about the rest of the film, but any Dracula movie that features evil bat monster Dracula fighting fallen angel werewolf Hugh Jackman in a battle to the death over Frankenstein’s atomic heart is worth at least an 8/10. For a more minor role, we have the Dracula who appeared in the blaxploitation classic Blacula. While he only appears for a bit at the start, long enough to curse an African prince with vampirism and dub him “Blacula,” this Dracula firmly cements himself as one of the most evil Draculas ever, gleefully participating in the slave trade. I believe that’s another 8/10 right there. On a related note, Blacula serves as a chief inspiration to the Billy and Mandy incarnation of Dracula, who is a cranky old black man with a big mustache and lots of sass (in fact, he’s accidentally closer to the original book’s depiction than most other Draculas). Sadly, as a more neutral chaotic comedic figure, I can’t give him a rating, but boy is he a riot.

Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf features a more comedic and zany Dracula, one who participates in some good-old-fashioned Wacky Races cheating in an attempt to keep Shaggy as a werewolf forever. He’s mostly amusing for a oneshot villain, so I’d say 7/10 is fair. Speaking of oneshot villains, Dracula also showed up in an animated straight to video movie for The Batman, where he did things such as turn Joker into a vampire and get killed by Batman. He’s probably a 7/10 as well.

And then there are all the heroic takes on Dracula, such as the version from Dracula Untold or the “overbearing but endearing father” take on the character from the Hotel Transylvania movies (though that rap Adam Sandler does at the end of the first movie is pretty heinous).

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And this is not an extensive list by any means. There are so many Draculas I haven’t watched yet, so many different takes I haven’t read the adventures of. And that, I think, is what makes Dracula such a great villain. He is a character who any writer can bend and shape to fit a plot, a villain who can serve almost any purpose and who can fit in almost any fantasy story imaginable. Dracula is incredibly versatile, and whenever he shows up in a work, things almost always get better for a bit. And keep in mind, this is a character who has been around since the year 1897, and yet he is still a household name that even people who have never read the books or seen the movies can accurately describe and recognize.

Is Count Dracula the greatest villain in all of human history? It’s debatable for sure, but I don’t think there’s any denying he’s up there considering his scope and influence and how he helped mold modern vampire fiction into what it is today. If nothing else, Dracula is still wildly influential.

#Psycho Analysis #Dracula #Count Dracula #The Monster Squad #Bram Stoker #Van Helsing #Hammer #Christopher Lee #Bela Lugosi #Adam Sandler #Hotel Transylvania

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blackfemmecharacterdependency · 3 years

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Share a Lair 18 || Share Those Secrets

Charlotte managed to get Piper to drive to the airport with her. Jasper was leaving too, as she suspected, so she would be sending all three of her guys off and she was in no condition to be able to drive away. She knew beforehand. By the time it happened, it was much worse. She hugged Henry and Jasper, tried not to cry on either of them. They held hands and headed for boarding. She clung to Max, trying not to cry, and also trying to let go of him, because it had to be done. She forced herself to smile and moved to kiss him. His tears wet her face and she lost it. “Why are you crying right now?” She asked. “We were supposed to tough it out!” Now, she was crying too.

“I know. I’m sorry, but I’m soft!” He said, squeezing her tightly. He didn’t want to let her go.

It was hard to watch for Henry and Jasper, so while Jasper teared up a little and begged Charlotte to just get on the next plane and come too, Henry pulled him away and awkwardly said, “We’ll see you at Thanksgiving…”

Charlotte wiped her face on Max’s shirt and he made a disgusted expression, “That was snot!”

“It’s payback. You were supposed to hold it together!”

“You KNEW that I wouldn’t!” He cupped her face and kissed her as the announcement sounded that he needed to board the plane. She pushed him, urging him to go, before she begged him not to. And whenever he left, she hugged herself and bit her lip.

“I really don’t get it,” Piper said.

“What? Why I didn’t go with them?”

“No. Why on Earth did they use a commercial flight whenever the Hero League supplies them with a ding dang private jet?” It was because they were going to be under their secret identities and couldn’t be seen near the jet just yet, but Charlotte didn’t feel like explaining. She was super sad.

Piper wrapped an arm around her back and said, “Come on. Let’s get you back to your dope ass house.”

Piper was around for a few hours before she had to head out. Charlotte hadn’t known how to tell her that she really didn’t want her there, anyway. She just wanted to be able to settle in by herself, since she would have to get used to being there by herself. She had no idea how much.

After only a couple of weeks, she lost contact with Max. Jasper had texted only to say, “Max scored an in into a target and was given the order to go all in.” She had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but Max’s number was disconnected and the only social media that he had left was for his alias, Borya Kozlov. And it had been altered significantly by the Hero League’s tech teams to look like it was many years older and even had doctored photographs that Charlotte had to presume were manufactured by a superpower, and not just some image designer. She had to get things translated, because she didn’t know a lot of Russian and Max wouldn’t let her try out his new and improved Instant Language Learner, because he had a rule about not allowing her to test out things that he wasn’t 100% certain of success. He had gone through a lot of mistakes in his youth and wasn’t going to let her become a target of any of the same type. So, she had been trying to learn Russian on her own.

Initially, she and Jasper had begun together, but he was a lot better at picking up languages, as a grammar nerd and a linguistics hoe. Charlotte understood and even memorized the rules and conditions, but actually executing the words, she was unable, so she’d stop trying to learn and didn’t think about the fact that she would probably have to READ it - that she tried to pick back up on, after she found the Kozlov pages, but she still needed a translator.

It became her thing. A month passed and Henry’s birthday and Thanksgiving were on the horizon. She was relieved and excited, because those were times that they could see see other and Jasper thrived at doing big birthday things for Henry, while Henry thrived on making a bomb ass Thanksgiving. The previous year was their first after meeting Max and he was still sort of a private person and a jerk to them, so they had a minimalist celebration in the tower and made their rounds through Swellview, collecting plates of food and Henry’s presents. She was looking forward to this year being the first in her new home - her and Max’s home… but a couple of weeks before, she heard a sound that she had only heard in the background before and hadn’t heard in a while…

“Incoming Call from President Kickbutt…” She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion for a moment, wondering why on Earth she would be receiving such a call, because she didn’t work for Kickbutt and Max was out on assignment… She rushed to the monitor and saw a woman with strong features and an interesting hairdo on the screen. “Good afternoon, Miss Page. I take it you know who I am.”

“Yes, Madame President. Of course. What do I owe this honor?”

Kickbutt raised an eyebrow. That wasn’t what she expected, but she welcomed it. She looked slightly amused, but mostly unphased. “I’m afraid it won’t be news that you’ll be able to fully appreciate at the moment, but it is imperative.”

“Is Max okay? Is Henry alright?” Charlotte asked, panicking.

“Max is doing a stellar job. This is the most impressed with his work that I have ever been. You should know that he is very deep undercover, and now has ties to at least 12 high profile Russian supervillains, terrorists, and mobsters. At least one of them is suspected of being a spy, so he is unable to do ANYTHING that could possibly draw attention to something outside of his fabricated identity.”

“Including any contact with me.”

“Especially any contact with you. It’s the people closest to us that bring out our most vulnerabilities. I’m afraid that until we have solid evidence and have made every possible arrest that we are unable to risk him venturing outside of the parameters of this mission.”

“He’s… not just hero-ing? He’s on a high profile case???”

“It was not our intention, but it’s the way that things have happened. Whenever he caught the attention of an assassin who took an immediate liking to him, he leaned into it and now, we’re here. This unfortunately means that any visitation plans must be altered. As of right now, Henry is only acknowledged as a financial connection for him, so he is not watched as much and will be allowed to come to visit you for Thanksgiving. Your little friend Jasper insisted that the world would end if I wasn’t able to accommodate this. But. There is no way that we can risk Max coming outside of the boundaries of his assignment, currently. Millions of lives could be at stake if we lose just one of the 12 persons of interest.”

“Max is isolated and surrounded by terrorists and mobsters…”

Kickbutt shrugged, “He’s moving up in ranks, so he should be fine. And he’s one of the smartest young men to have ever worked for me. I assure you, as long as his cover isn’t blown, he will not be in any danger.”

“Are you able to communicate with him, at all? Does he… have someone near him?” Charlotte asked, twiddling with her shapeshifting necklace, anxiously.

“He has a handler. My very own daughter. And, he still has Henry, Miss Page.” Charlotte nodded her head and within moments, the call was over. He still had Henry. That helped her to be able to make it through the day… Not so much to sleep at night.

Henry was Ricardo Richfield and everybody called him Richie Rich. Jasper was his “simple plaything” or “trophy husband” to everybody. His alias was Douglas Ritchfield and according to the paper trail created for their safety, he and Ricardo had been married for three years. The mansion that they were moved into was big enough that it was extremely unlikely that anyone would come across the underground lair, and Max’s lab was one of those where someone could definitely find it and see into parts of it, but they couldn’t access it.

So, the first weekend that they were in Russia, they threw a huge party to celebrate Richie coming to Russia. The story was that he had done some things in the Americas and was hiding out here to avoid “justice.” He was supposed to be laying low and staying out of trouble, but the personality of his character was to absolutely not do that. He was a spoiled little rich kid playing gangster games and that would mean that he might attract those who may wish to do business with him.

Borya was a Russian scientist who he would make rich by funding his experiments. Max came up with these aliases for them, avoiding the typical “lay low and be mild mannered” and reaching more for, “Get into the thick of the crime world and bust it up from the inside out.” Henry and Jasper didn’t have many talents that could be impressed upon the criminal element, so Max settled for the “useless rich kid and even more useless lover” angle. That way, he could also express anytime they frustrated him, in Russian and they wouldn’t know, but the people around them would and it would probably be funny.

Max had a little bit of familiarity with Russian, because some of his favorite scientists were Russian and he’d watched several recordings of them, so he recognized a lot of words and also had their accent pretty well down pat. (Same for German, and Japanese, but that’s another point altogether). Max adjusted well to Russia.

As soon as they were away from Charlotte, he focused on some mental exercises to try to compartmentalize her away. The thing of it was that in trying to do that, he wound up just thinking about her more. She became his meditation center.

He would wake up everyday, brush teeth, wash up, burn one of her favorite candles and hope that she knew he was thinking of her as he tried to clear his mind and empty himself out for another day of work. Another day of pretending.

It didn’t take long for him to get his foot in the door of something very heavy. It was at the party that he met Zenovia. She was looking into his lab when he approached and directed her back towards the party.

“What are you making in there? Looks illegal,” she teased. He frowned, gripped her arm and forced her down the hallway, only to be met with a battle. She was a trained fighter. He instinctively defended himself, despite the fact that it wasn’t actually part of his character’s background to be able to fight the way that he did. “Who ARE you, really?” she wondered.

“Just someone who wants to live long enough to be rich and powerful,” he said.

“I can probably help you with that.” And just like that, she began introducing him to people and saying that in his lab, she could tell he was smart and that he could probably do jobs that they needed a scientist of questionable moral fiber to handle. He… handled a few things. It was troubling, but he had to weigh out sacrifices. The more that he did, the less he wanted to think about Charlotte. He didn’t want her to be a part of this world he had gotten involved in. He even withdrew from Henry.

Whenever it was time for Henry and Jasper to go to home for Thanksgiving, Jasper asked if there was anything that he wanted them to bring Charlotte and all he could think was his apologies. Instead, he said, “Hopefully, I’ll see her at Christmas.” he couldn’t think about her too much. That could make it all so hard for him. He and Henry had inadvertently received a bigger assignment than planned whenever they got to their station and while Henry was mostly doing his best at being the residential superhero, while Max only sometimes could act, if Henry was going to be gone, Max would have to be responsible for hero tasks AND be undercover. That was the most difficult placement he had ever had and he couldn’t dare allow himself any distractions. Not right now. She would understand. And if she couldn’t, he would eventually make it up to her.

Charlotte was at Henry’s parents’ house whenever he and Jasper arrived and they joyously screamed whenever they saw each other, hugging and hopping and all talking at once. Henry glanced around, “Where are my parents?”

“We literally haven’t seen either of them all week,” Charlotte said, shaking her head.

Jasper wondered, “Were you able to get everything that I messaged you for the feast?”

“Yeah. Who do you think you’re talking to?” She asked.

He furrowed his eyebrows and said, “Umm, only the youngest crisis management specialist in the state…” She fought off a smile and he shook his head and excitedly yelled, “CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR NEW JOB!!!”

She smiled bashfully and shook her head, “I’m in a probationary period, and only even working with police forces of Swellview, Neighborville, Bordertown and Hiddenville… I’m gunning for that Metroburg spot, but it has literally NEVER gone to a non-supe and I need to build my resume and finish my next degree.”

The boys dropped their things in the living room and the mood got a little tense for a moment as Henry and Jasper glanced at each other, silently deciding who would say something about it. She stopped smiling for a while and just said, “Maybe, I’ll be able to see him at Christmas!” She tried to pretend that she was fine, but secretly stalking his alias on social media and seeing how he seemed to be spending his holidays with Zenovia was heartbreaking.

This wasn’t like when Jack was surrounded by fans and given numerous declarations of love from his fan base. It should have been similar, but this woman was always tagging Borya and they seemed very close. She knew that it was business, but it was also undercover and she wasn’t basic. She knew that… whatever the reasons, there was something else there that, while it probably was only business for him… it bothered her.

Henry tried to distract her from her sorrows and Jasper stole her phone and hid it to keep the obvious obsessing to a minimum.

Once the guys were full of food, wine and beer, she was still functional. Sometimes, you gotta push through that itis, and that was definitely what she was used to. Henry had fallen asleep on the couch. Jasper was sitting on the floor near him, with his head leaned back, mouth wide open, and she noted that Henry’s phone was on the table.

Before the move, Henry’s phone might as well had been her second phone. She knew all of his passwords and everything. So, she figured that since she couldn’t access Max through her own, Henry’s should be as easy for her.

It wasn’t a holiday in Russia, so she figured that he was probably just chilling, if not working and if he was working, Henry’s phone would be the best out, anyway. She opened Richie’s social media and saw Borya hearted a lot of things in the notifications. She checked and saw that they were mostly photos with her in them. She wasn’t tagged and the photos were set to private, so Henry must’ve allotted for Max to see them. Then, she went to check Max’s page - which was usually private and only had a few public posts that she could stalk, but since Richie and Borya were friends, she could see more and she hated to see it.

The woman, Zenovia was all over Max in public settings, their faces were really close in several photos, and if Charlotte’s translations were correct, she called him by affectionate names in comments on things. The ONLY thing that was a little bit of reprieve was the fact that Max had not posted anything about her. She sort of just barged into his space by tagging him to things and commenting. But… Still… Charlotte opened Henry’s texts and found his exchanges with Max.

“You shouldn’t do this, Girl. You already know what it is and it’s business and that’s it and he has responsibilities and…” She closed the app. She couldn’t violate his privacy or Henry’s that way. She set it down and wondered if this was going to aggravate her for the rest of her life. Probably. But, she wasn’t going to spy on Max. Lurking his social media because she missed him was one thing. Invading the privacy of his relationship with Henry was on another level and she felt like she had more morals than that.

Instead, she picked up the phone again and texted, “Dude, if you possibly can, I think you need to try to reach out to Charlotte.” She watched as Max typed, stopped and resumed, and finally, eventually the reply came.

“I find it incredible that you would be so reckless as to mention her name in a text. What if Zenovia had this phone? What if she was right next to me? What if one of the others were. I’m extremely disappointed by this and you need to promptly delete it.”

She replied. “Sorry. I’m so sorry. This is Charlotte. Henry fell to sleep…” Her heart was pounding in her throat and her hands were all sweaty and she couldn’t remember the last time that something made her this nervous. Then, the phone began to vibrate in her hand and the name Borya the Beast flashed with a photo of Max. She took a deep breath and answered, “Hello?”

Max felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. Recalling her voice and hearing her voice were very different things and it had been months. “Hello.” His chest was on fire and he had never wanted to rush to somebody more than he did right now. “So, you’re… playing on people’s phones?”

“I was… Just lonely. I’m sorry. I didn’t think about… I didn’t think. Are you pretty mad?”

“I was mad when I thought it was him,” he said, with a chuckle, then to someone in the background, he said something in Russian like ‘Taking this outside’ or ‘Going outside for a moment,’ or something like that. She only got the word for “outside.” It wasn’t terribly noisy on her end, but she could bet that it was more difficult for him to hear on that end. Plus, he probably needed privacy to chew her out for this little stunt. When it was quiet on his end, his voice was clearer and she could hear gentleness in it, “So… Please don’t do that, ever again, okay?” She nodded, blinking out her tears. “Char? Are you still there?”

“Yeah. Yes. Sorry, I won’t. I just… I don’t know what came over me.”

“I know what came over you. We haven’t been able to talk or see each other in four months and believe me, I KNOW how hard it is. It’s torture for me, and I think you care just as much about me as I do about you, so I think it’s as hard for you…”

“No… I mean, yes, but also… You’re big on family and spending time with them and now it’s the holidays and your folks are all celebrating in Hiddenville, but you’re thousands of miles from home, surrounded by people who aren’t even your friends, and on top of that, I miss you. I miss you, but I worry, too. About the danger and the enemies, and the double life… that… woman…”

He was being emotionally stirred up, up until “that woman.” Then, he asked, “What woman?”

“You know, the one that keeps tagging you to photos of you and her all over each other and practically sexting with you in the comments sections of said photos. Zenovia.”

He shut his eyes tightly and whispered, “She doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“I know that. But, still… It’s hard to watch..”

“You aren’t supposed to be watching. You’re supposed to be keeping a safe distance, physically and electronically. Charlotte… She is a very dangerous person. I don’t ever want you to leave a trail to yourself that she could find. She’s evil and ruthless and wouldn’t hesitate to hurt you. She’s also got a soft spot for me and being close to her makes it easier for me to get closer to Russian overlords. Had I not utilized that attachment, it might have taken twice as long, maybe even longer to get where I am. Just… don’t watch for this stuff. I can’t break character, and I can’t get distracted…” She sniffled and he sighed. He hated making her cry. He knew that there was no way around it, with this subject matter, but he still hated it. “I love you,” he said, softly.

“I love you, too,” she said. It was the quickest she had ever replied it and he had to remind himself that millions of lives could be affected if he failed. Because he just wanted to jump in the jet and hold her and kiss her and look her in the eyes and promise her that everything he did was to make sure that he did his job and lived to return to her.

“Hey, whenever this is over, maybe you should just marry me and become part of my cover,” he said, trying to lighten up the mood.

“Yeah. I should,” she said. He couldn’t tell what he was hearing in her voice, but he hadn’t expected her to say that. She hadn’t laughed, so he didn’t know if she took it as a joke, and she didn’t inflect her voice, so he wasn’t sure if she was being sarcastic or trying to contain some anger. “I should’ve come with you. It’s not like I couldn’t work from there. I chose my career.”

“Well… it’s going good, though! I’ve seen the reports done on you in your local news outlets. You’re right out of college and already securing the bag. That’s amazing, Charlotte. I wouldn’t have asked you to trade that in for me.”

“You’re saving a multitude of lives,” she reminded him.

“While losing the love of mine…” he said so softly she might not have heard him if he weren’t in complete silence.

“You’re not,” she said. She took a deep breath and assured him, “I can handle it. I knew well enough what I signed up for. You know… When military personnel is deployed, sometimes there’s absolutely NO WORD from them for months and only snippets of visits. And their purpose is questionable. You’re a true hero and… I can do this. I have to. Or what? I get to feel the way that I felt tonight for even longer, while I try to get over you, or worst case scenario, for the rest of my life, because I never can? The options outside of sucking it up and being patient until we can be together again all seem miserable.” She sniffled, “Is there any way that you can arrange for me to come to see you?”

He sighed a sigh of relief. The moment Zenovia was mentioned, he was certain that a breakup was soon to follow. Charlotte reaffirming that she believed in him and in them was something he didn’t realize that he needed so much to get him through all of this. “I’ll think of something.”

#Share a Lair #Henry Danger #The Thundermans #crossover #crossover fanfic #Nesha Crossover #Thundanger #Thunderbolt #Share a Lair Repost #Nesha HD Fanfic #fanfiction #Share a Lair 18

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kinetic-elaboration · 3 years

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February 17: 2x07 Catspaw

It’s not Halloween but it is my mom’s birthday so a very good opportunity to watch Catspaw.

So we start with Sulu and Scotty missing on an away mission but why exactly the Enterprise is here and what the away mission was is not explained...

Also speaking of interesting and unusual combos--Scotty and Sulu!

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

I like Uhura’s nails. They go so well with her communications board. Even her job is stylish.

Oooh, possessed dead mannequin crew member warning the ship that it has been cursed?? Very promising.

Also falling like that was an impressive stunt.

Lol Assistant Chief Engineer Dealle is in charge because the first and second in command are going after the third and fourth in command. What would TNG have to say about that??

According to the Amazon trivia, Uhura was supposed to be the next in command and in charge of the ship in this ep but NBC didn’t want a woman in charge and can I just say that if this is true we were ROBBED.

Oooh mysterious fog.

Chekov and his terrible wig. Should have left him in charge.

Also it’s interesting that this is the first Chekov episode in production order and he’s actually not the navigator. He’s Spock’s backup.

This is like a game of telephone: Chekov tells Desalle to tell Uhura to tell Kirk.

This is a very serious, creepy, mysterious opening in a lot of ways (the dead crewman mystery) but I remember this as more of a goofy, silly episode. (But actually upon having now seen the whole thing... it’s more serious than I remembered in its sci fi concepts! I guess I was just remembering the witches lol.)

Honestly those witches... I guess Macbeth is a pretty big part of Earth Lore lol. I think McCoy is alarmed and unsettled by this while Spock is more intrigued and Kirk just thinks it’s dumb.

I love Kirk’s face when Spock’s only comment is “bad poetry.” Hilarious. Like “I love you but please be more helpful. This is Serious Time not time to play games and fuck with me.”

I really like Kirk in this episode. He’s giving off smart, curious explorer vibes. (Although I will say, with the whole episode down... he is very harsh on the aliens. I mean he lost a man in the opening and so he’s not down to clown but still.. I think he overestimates their hostility some.)

Creepy castle. Trick-or-treating. I want the deleted scene where Kirk explains Trick-or-Treating to Spock.

Kirk looks so frustrated by the cat.

“I’m not that green.” Lol.

What a talented cat actor!! Trot trot trot.

“Bones? I mean...the other Bones?” Maybe a different nickname today. That’s a really underrated joke.

I wish they’d picked up on Spock and put some Vulcan horror in there too. (Although I guess creating horror tropes wasn’t exactly their intention...) I wonder what Vulcan subconscious horror is like.

That was actually a pretty cool transition from the dungeon to the dining room.

Kirk would be more impressed with all this if they hadn’t killed someone. He’s never up for fun and games when someone’s dead. He’s very dubious about all of this, especially the cat.

Hmm, they are not native.

Kirk’s face just screams: “So the cat...is talking...to you?” (Actually you know what, I do think it’s very interesting that Korob can understand Sylvia even when she’s speaking in a different language.)

I bet young Spocks read about wizards and familiars and was super taken with the idea.

I don’t believe for one second that Spock’s thoughts are black and white lol. This decadent bitch? No way.

None of this is Kirk’s interest. Illusions, weird tricks, people who don’t give straight answers. This is not the way to impress him or make him want to help you in any way.

McCoy the jewel expert. These look real!

You like shiny stuff right humans? Pretty crystalline forms for you?? Not in a post-scarcity utopia!

McCoy has just realized this woman IS the cat.

Hmmm, telepathy, like Spock’s?

I want that Enterprise necklace!!

“You do with your minds what we do with tools.”

Lol at Kirk thinking he’s won because he can send another search party. Like... how’d the last search party work out for you?

Mmm, Kirk looking at the necklace. That’s some Acting.

Credits to navy beans.

“An Earthman like yourself...”

These aliens are very interesting. Very, totally alien, as Spock says. This idea that they tried to read the humans’ minds and missed their target is just so cool. Like, they weren’t trying to create a weird Halloween experience, they thought they were creating a familiar home for the aliens. “Oh, a castle, just like home!”

So it sounds like this planet is not that far away from Earth. The aliens are coming closer...

Haha Sylvia says she’s not a puppet but ironically--she is exactly, literally a puppet.

I’m just going to say it: Sylvia is one of the best female characters in TOS. Like should I be insulted that the lady alien went insane and emotional and messed everything up? Probably but I prefer to think of it as her being intrigued and invested in her own power and possibilities and then she goes overboard.

Anyway this is Macbeth whoops

“You torture our specimens.”

So what is their mission??

Hmm, she’s really into Kirk. And he knows just how to manipulate her: telling her she’s not really a woman, she’s not real, then transitioning into Honeypot Mode.

“I can be many women,” she says and just puts on different wigs.

Whoops she found his conscious mind. So much for manipulating her.

And so the familiar becomes the wizard.

This is sad; they could have become friends with the aliens. Korob doesn’t seem so bad.

Big cat!! Really big cat! Not the most terrifying creature at all; the nicest and softest. I'm not convinced that cat is big; I think it's pretty obvious the hallway is just small. However, I like the idea. I wish I had a super big cat to be friends with.

[Cat screams continue]

“Well at least we found them.”

Spock is so unruffled. "Hmmm, this is most unpleasant. If only we had some kind of weapon or something..."

“I got the transmuter. It’s mine now.”

Sylvia is obviously still into him lol.

“Don’t let her touch the wand.” It’s a transmuter Spock have you not been listening?

THE PUPPETS.

Spock wants to study them. Of course he does. And so the specimen becomes the scientist and the scientist the specimen.

...Overall an interesting ep. But I do have some questions. One of those eps that leaves a lot of world bulding unsaid, which leaves room for fun speculation.

So, first, these aliens came from very far away, and now they’re in our galaxy. Mom question if it was an “invasion.” I think so, at least in a neutral sense. But what was their purpose? Why were they traveling to new planets? Do they need something their planet can’t give them? Or are they just exploring for fun/curiosity--as we ourselves do?

Sometimes they’d speak as if they had some greater mission--the references to the old ones, their insistence on getting the humans’ help as if they relied on it, their “tests” like they were looking for something specific--but the actual mission was never stated or even hinted at. So I guess it’s just as possible they were exploring as intelligent beings do, and then found these humans, and came to really like them and just thought the alliance (or possible further study) could be advantageous.

Are these two the only aliens left or are there others back home? I assume there are others but it wasn’t completely clear if the “old ones” were memories or beings with, like, literal oversight.

Also, why were Scotty and Sulu on the planet in the first place? Spock says the planet has never known to have beings on it. So was the Enterprise just like triple checking that or did they have a reason to go down? Did Korob and Sylvia lure them? Because I felt like Kirk's annoyance with them was rather unfounded if his men just invaded their home first. I tend to think that they were in the area and something on the planet attracted them--that the aliens specifically wanted them to come down. That, and the killing of Jackson, would make Kirk’s reaction to them more reasonable.

I’m not saying I don’t have sympathy for the aliens because I definitely do. Like, we would absolutely do the same thing: find the interesting specimens and examine them. These are curious aliens. A lot of what they do seems to be in fun also--providing the humans with a setting they think the humans will like; offering them things; playing around with illusion. Of course then there are hostile actions--like killing Jackson, manipulating Scotty, Sulu, and Bones, and harming the Enterprise. But it’s not entirely clear to me if these are meant to be hostile actions, or if they just don’t see them as that serious--or perhaps, serious but worth it. Also some of it might just be Sylvia going power-mad (like the Enterprise torture, which Korob didn’t like).

I wonder what the aliens were doing on the planet before the Enterprise arrived. Were they in their real forms, or were they creating other illusions? They took these forms (human and cat) from the Enterprise crew’s mind so one would assume they looked different before the Enterprise got there. Were they on their way somewhere else? Could they have already known about Earth, even?

I like these aliens because they really do feel alien. I think that’s very difficult; a lot of sci fi (including Star Trek, often) presents aliens against the bar of humans: how are they different from humans, as opposed to, what are they like? These aliens have some very impressive powers: mind-reading, mental control, shapeshifting, “magic.” But their powers also have limits: they don’t always read minds correctly, for example, and Sylvia is so easily corrupted by her newfound love of sensation. And like I said before, their actions seem erratic and the morality of them hard to parse, perhaps because they’re just operating on a completely different moral plane than people.

Like, why DID they kill Jackson? Did Sylvia do it just because she could? Was it part of the test? Korob says later “you were warned not to come and you came anyway, that shows loyalty,” and the nature of the warning--the curse--was also taken from the horror subconscious. So maybe they thought this is how you communicate with humans, and the idea that killing one of them was so egregious didn’t occur to them, either because they see the humans as specimens, and would no more mourn our deaths than we mourn the deaths of lab rats (or than Kirk et.al. mourned the aliens tbqh), or because they just have a different relationship to death on their planet.

And what was the purpose of taking control of Scotty, Sulu, and Bones? Some of the dialogue implies that control is part of their telepathy--and yet they seem more than capable of reading minds without actually altering what the object of the mind reading does. Do they gain control when they go particularly deep in their interrogations? Why are they interrogating that deeply at all, and what are they STILL looking for after taking control of 3 people?

Another possibility is that they had too many specimens and didn’t know enough about them to feel comfortable letting them all roam free. They were outnumbered 5 to 2. The fewer people who are free, the easier to interrogate them and learn about them--they also use physical restraints at times, and after they try talking to 3 and find it too much, they switch to talking to 1 at a time.

And then finally, as with the killing of Jackson--it might just be something they did because they can. And I have to say, humans would be the same. Like if we had a group of aliens, we’d use the tools at our disposal to corral and restrain them and then learn about them, not necessarily malevolently, but for our own safety and sense of power and control. And some people probably would cross lines. Like, Korob and Sylvia aren’t entirely benevolent OR malevolent. They’re just alien.

The transmuter was very weird. I have to say, it didn’t really make sense. They seemed to use their powers just fine without it most of the time, which is why I’m inclined to think Sylvia wasn’t lying when she said it just magnified their abilities. BUT then why did destroying it destroy all the illusion? It seems pretty obviously just a plot device that would allow the episode to wrap up in an hour.

I’m also confused and intrigued by the line that they used the transmuter to get to the planet. How do you use it to travel?

And...why did they die in the end? If those were their real forms, you’d think being returned to them wouldn’t harm them in any way. And yet they seemed to disintegrate right there. They did seem very delicate and we don’t know what their native planet was like. Perhaps they needed the transmuter/their shape-shifting abilities to survive on this planet at all.

Actually just occurred to me--the transmuter. Maybe their mind reading abilities are inherent but their shape-shifting isn’t. Although that raises the question of how they could have built something so big when they are so small--does the wand itself change shape and size?

One interesting thing about these aliens is that even though they appear as humans without being humans, they are NOT energy beings like a lot of other aliens who shape-shift to human forms. They haven’t transcended to a state beyond teh physical form. Unlike the Organians or the aliens from Return to Tomorrow, there’s no sense that they are purposefully evolving or striving toward being so mentally powerful that they no longer need the body--they do have bodies and they are physical beings, but one of their, imo, inherent powers is this extreme mental capacity, including a version of telepathy and a version of shapeshifting.

The Amazon summary says they are “aliens on a mission of conquest” but I don’t think that’s true.

Anyway idk if I had other thoughts but I’m becoming decreasingly coherent so I think it’s time for bed!

Next up is I, Mudd. I’m not a big Harvery Mudd fan but I seem to remember there were some funny bits in that ep so it should be fun.

#the year 2021 #2021: fandom thoughts #2021: star trek #star trek tos

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