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zahri-melitor · 3 months

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if I wanted to get into the bat comics do you think it matters if I miss a few? Does it matter that I go in order and read every issue, or are they not that deeply connected? Every guide on the internet says something different about which comics are the essential ones for the batfamily and I am so confused. I don't know how to tell what to read and how to tell what isn't worth my time. Help?

Short answer: no, you don’t need to read all the comics. However you’ll find it a lot easier to follow if you read comics in arcs or runs, rather than skipping between issues following an appearance list.

Longer answer: ‘essential comics for the Batfamily’ is a question that resembles ‘how long is a piece of string’, which is part of why you’re getting confused - people like different stories, and what ‘essential’ means differs between people, particularly as some stories get repeated over and over.

Now I don’t know which Bat characters you’re interested in, so I’m going to give general advice. If you’re getting into comics and don’t feel confident about where to start, my best advice is ‘pick one character or one team’.

Maybe two. But one is better.

This is for a very practical reason. The best way to get to know a character is to read comics specifically focusing on them.

There are four general categories of superhero comic.

Family Title. This is a headline book. For Batfam it’s Batman and Detective Comics. Batman is generally tightly focused on the current Batman (usually Bruce Wayne), though other characters may appear. Detective Comics is more the BatFAM title - it’s still often focused on Bruce, but is also where you’ll find team ups, stories focused on rogues, sometimes story arcs about a completely different character in the group.

Solos. These usually have the character’s name in the title. Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, etc. They star the named character.

Team books. Yes, there are teams within the Bats, but these also include other characters. You’re looking at Birds of Prey, Batman & the Outsiders, Red Hood & the Outlaws, Batman & the Signal, etc. More general team books are Justice League, Titans, Young Justice, etc. These are where you’ll often find stories focusing on characters who DON’T have a current solo.

Anthology books. These ARE samplers. You’ll get a taste of all sorts of characters here. Gotham Knights and Batman: Urban Legends are the best regarded.

Pretty much every Bat character you’re considering picking up has had at least one solo run. The simplest way to start is to pick up one of their solos and start there. (Their name is generally in the title). For some characters, you’ve only got a few choices. Open whichever sounds interesting/you like the cover art. For others, if you just picked up Nightwing, say, you’re staring at 28 years of ongoing solos at this point.

Now, you’ve probably heard or noticed people throwing around the names of different writers. What you want to do is EITHER start at #1 of the title you’ve picked, or start at the first issue of a new writer. Sit down. And read that writer’s whole run (or at least the first full story - that will usually be somewhere between 3-12 issues).

A new main writer on a title will generally give indications at the start of their story arc about where you are in time. They’re also considered a jumping on point - plenty of readers switch comics when a new writer comes in.

You’ll have an easier time if you treat a writer on a title like its own book. Don’t read issues #1-3, #7, #9 and #12 as those are the ones that have Damian in them; read #1-12.

If while reading a comic you come across a random crossover issue that doesn’t make sense, you have two options. Track down and read the crossover event, or skip it. I promise, it’s almost always safe just to skip over the issue (If you’re reading 90s Bat comics, it’s actually just easier to read the events and I can talk you through that, but that’s very much more Guide Dang It).

The more obscure a character you’re interested in, the more scrappy what you read will be. Honestly, don’t start with anyone less prominent than Helena Bertinelli.

Once you’ve read that story, skip ahead to the next one that sounds interesting to you. Keep trying for CHUNKS to read, rather than one or two issues. You’ll find branching out comes more easily once you’ve read a couple of dozen issues - you’ll want to follow someone to find out more.

I’ll finish with some suggestions for various characters:-

Bruce: honestly for Bruce, you might as well hop on board for either the current Zdarsky run in Batman (#125-) or the Ram V run in Detective Comics (#1062). They both work as entries. You will NEVER run out of Bruce comics. Just take whatever Bruce rec calls to you and read it.

Dick: Nightwing #1 (1996, 2011, 2016) all work as starting points. Also, if you really haven’t read a lot of comics, starting from Tom Taylor’s current run (you want Nightwing #78 2016) is probably going to be enjoyable, and line up with characterisation you’re used to seeing in fandom. If you want Dick as Robin? Robin: Year One, Robin & Batman, or Batman/Superman: World’s Finest.

Jason: I am not good on Jason, but you probably want Under the Red Hood (Batman #635-641, #645-650) followed by Red Hood: The Lost Days. Alternatively, I hear Red Hood and the Outlaws (2016) is better than (2011).

Tim: the three Robin miniseries between 1991 and 1993 make good intros to Tim, then dig further into Dixon. Alternatively I suggest Young Justice 1998. I personally would suggest saving Red Robin till you’re read more of his stories, just because it improves the more you know Tim.

Damian: look, go straight to Batman & Robin 2011, or Robin: Son of Batman 2015. Batman & Robin 2009 is far more uneven than these two.

Duke: We Are Robin or Batman and the Signal.

Jean-Paul Valley: Batman: Sword of Azrael #1 or Azrael #1 1995.

Selina: Catwoman #1 2002. Or honestly any other run of her solos, but 2002 is a particularly good starting point.

Barbara: okay, this depends on what you want. Early Batgirl? Batgirl: Year One. Oracle? Birds of Prey 1999 #1 (for Dixon) or #56 (for Gail Simone). Post-2011 Batgirl? As much as I hate to say it, you are the audience for Batgirl of Burnside. Start at Batgirl #35 2011.

Helena Bertinelli: Huntress #1 1989, Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood, or Huntress: Year One.

Cass: Batgirl #1 2000. Then read Spirit World.

Steph: you have three options. Batgirl 2009 is one. Pulling a list of Steph appearances and following her as Spoiler through Robin 1993 is another. The third is reading her four issues as Robin (Robin #126-128, Batgirl #53) but that’s actually hard mode.

ETA: Kate Kane: you are blessed and basically everything starring Kate is a high quality comic. Batwoman: Elegy (Detective Comics #854-863) or Batwoman #1 2011.

#how to start reading comics

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nishayuro · 4 months

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Saw that you were asking for Stanley x reader requests because I need to see more of him.

So you know how Xeno is Senku’s mentor? What if Stanley was our Mentor? He mentored us similar to Senku before the Stone Age and now we’re with the kingdom of science.

Dr.Stone Stanley Snyder as your Mentor

A/N: YESSSS MY LOVE STANLEYYY

Genre: Fluff / small Angst (its dr.stone new america city, its gonna have some angst lmao)

GN!Reader.

Also, This will be Platonic, let me know if you want a more romantic approach lmao

You’re originally from America and back in the old world, in your teenage years, you were a regular at a local shooting range near your school. You were very interested in the art of shooting a gun, so much so that you’re also a great FPS player. But you prefer the real deal.

One time, a competition was being held at your local shooting range, so naturally you signed up.

Your skills astounded everyone, even those who were older than you.

You naturally won the competition, and decided to stay back to get some more shots in.

That's when a guy with blonde hair stood next to you and shot all the targets with a bullseye before you could even blink.

You were shocked, and you looked up at the man

“Wha-” you stammered, impressed by this man’s marksmanship. You stared at him in awe, “I watched your game, you’re quite the natural” The man complimented, facing towards you. ‘Oh damn, he’s pretty’ you thought, “oh.. Uhm… Thanks, it's a hobby, I guess” you answered.

“Is that so…” He trails off, “Were you the one who shot those bullseyes in a flash? How’d you do it?!” you asked excitedly, getting over your shyness. “I’m in the US Military.” He answered, shocking you. A military officer just complimented your skills? “Wait, really? That’s so cool! Thank you for serving our country!” You exclaimed.

“I’m Stanley by the way, Stanley Snyder” He introduced, “I’m Y/N L/N, nice to meet you!” you replied. “I probably shouldn’t be doing this, but honestly, why not? Hey, want me to show you a few tips and tricks? You’ve got skills, it'd be a shame to not see them prosper.” He offered, making your eyes wide. You nod aggressively with a smile.

Whenever he had free time, he’d meet you at the range. Sometimes, he’d take you hunting or to paintball to test your improvement. He’s taught you about different guns, about how to properly feel for where the bullet will go by knowing how the wind affects it and all that other stuff. Since then, you’ve joined lots of tournaments and won.

Unfortunately, your family had to move to Japan, and Stanley was being deployed on a mission, so your time together was up for the meantime, however, you made him promise to you that he’d keep in contact whenever he can, and he agreed.

Fast forward to Japan where you met Senku, Taiju and Yuzuriha when you transferred to their school. Taiju recognized you as the famous junior marksman. You easily fit right into their small friend group.

The day of the petrification, you were in the science lab along with Senku, just playing a shooting game on your phone after Taiju barged in and did the whole Yuzuriha confession spiel, and that's when you noticed the green light.

You were revived by Tsukasa, after Minami said that your marksmanship can help with hunting, along with Ukyo’s.

As confused as you were, Taiju and Yuzuriha filled you in on everything that’s been happening, and obviously you sided with the Kingdom of Science.

Since then, your new weapon of choice has been a bow and arrow since no other projectiles were present. You aided the Kingdom with hunting for food. As well as in battle during the treasure island arc.

After the treasure island arc, Senku made you your own gun.

Background done, let’s move on to the New America City Arc.

You and your friends were just minding your business when Tsukasa asked everyone to get into cover because a plane was shooting at your boat.

Despite the initial fright, you grew excited, knowing that the big guns are back in the world, but grew scared again once you remembered that it's the enemy team that has them.

When you saw the plane flying a bit lower, you grabbed your gun and took a shot towards its engine. Hitting it and making it crash in the forest.

Now, this was your new friends’ first time seeing your gun skills since you’ve been using the bow and arrow. So they were shocked when you hit the mark.

“Y/N-chan?!” Gen screamed in shock, Yo’s eyes were bulging out, and Ryusui was laughing out loud. “Well done, marksman. That ten billion percent took out their engine” Senku exclaimed with a smirk.

After that whole incident, you, Kohaku, Chrome, and Gen were sent to pursue the plane’s pilot. However, Gen asked Kohaku and Chrome to stand back, and asked you to come with him but to leave your weapons.

You eventually found the person, with Gen going into panic, but you just stared at the man in shock.

“Stan…ley?!” You whispered, although apparently enough for him to hear and set his eyes on you, which widened at the sight of his old student. “Ah, I didn’t expect our next meeting to be like this.” He said, “you know each other?!” Gen exclaimed in surprise, “He’s my mentor.” You answered.

“Well, I'll need you two to come with me. I got a whole heap of questions. Bet you’ve got some too. So, How about you come meet our leader?” Stanley said, walking towards their base. Gen looked at me, letting me know that this mission is a now or never deal.

He brought you to their base, where you met Dr.Xeno, who you remembered from before when Stanley would tell you about his childhood best friend. After threatening Gen, he looked down at me. “And you?” he asked. “Y/N L/N, pleasure to finally meet you, Dr.Xeno.” You said in a calm voice to help with your situation once you realised that you were being read on a Polygraph test.

“Yow, Y/N. It’s been a while, how’re you fairing?” Stanley approached me as I was with Gen. “I’ve been better, seem’s you’ve been enjoying life here recently, yeah? I mean, I see you’ve even got machine guns.” You answered with a smile. Although he is your enemy right now, It’s still a great feeling to reunite with your childhood mentor. “Heh, I’m guessing you’re the one who shot down my plane with a single bullet to the engine?” He smirked, looking kinda proud. “So what if it was me? I learned from the best, didn’t I?” you smirked back.

“Oh? That name’s quite familiar.” Xeno ponders, looking towards Stanley. “My Mentee back in the old days” Stanley answered. “Ahh, is that so. Yes, I’ve heard quite a lot about you. In that case, this will make this whole thing easier.” Xeno said, a smirk on his face.

“You of all people should know how dangerous my dear Stan is, so it will be in your best interest to comply with us.” Xeno stated, his back towards us. “Yes, I understand. Although, I haven’t been with the group for long, so I don’t think I can give you much information” You answered calmly again, as if you were stating facts.

After the whole act Gen put on, with him revealing that Dr.Taiju was the lead scientist, we were let free to go for the time being while Xeno gets ready to talk to the Kingdom of Science.

“A person who blindly trusts a person who double-crosses their own people needs an appointment with a head doctor. That said, Y/N, I don’t trust you one bit, we might’ve been Mentor-mentee in the old days, but until your little kiddy science team surrenders, you’re not off the hook.” He states, a serious look in his eyes.

“I knew that much, you’ve always been a cautious person. It’s fine, I’ll just prove myself to you perhaps.” You answered, you knew he wasn’t going to be buddy buddy with you just yet. But it’s worth a shot.

“Mhmm, you do that.” Stanley replies, walking away. As you look at his back profile, you’re reminded of the same person who you’ve bonded with since your childhood. A small smile appears on your lips.

You notice the man stop before the door, looking back at you, you see a small smile of his own, with a hint of pride in his eyes, are you imagining things? Maybe, but his next words shocked you.

“I might not trust you, but that doesn't mean I'm not glad to see you again.”

masterlist

navigation

#dr.stone #dr.stone x reader #stanley snyder #stanley snyder x reader #stanley snyder fanfic #stanley snyder headcanon #dcst #dr.stone fanfic

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gerryrigged · 1 year

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For the wip ask game, could you say more about the DickTim reverse robin AU? 👀

Ahhh, I love that one, but it has several backstory/set-up arcs before the romance can even kick off hghkkldjfs THE STRUGGLES

OKAY SO. This is a story about a young Dick being in love with a years-older Tim from childhood, reversing their usual ship dynamic. Most of what I have so far is concerning their backstories, when Dick is still quite young (5-10-ish), so it's more of a puppy love at that point, while Tim sees him as a child.

Overview of the first arc below the cut.

First off, 12-year-old Tim is newly training to be Shrike (the hero identity Damian Wayne abandoned (or Batman took away from him; opinions differ) after he and Bruce had a serious falling out). As part of that training, he's sent to learn from various experts in physical and crime-fighting arts, much as Bruce did when he first left Gotham, or as Tim was meant to on his first Paris trip in canon.

So Tim ends up training in acrobatics for a month with the famous Flying Graysons, whom he has long admired - along with their 5-year-old wunderkind son, Dickie. Who absolutely adores Tim, following him around everywhere, showing off his own (legitimately incredible) skills, sweetly promising to 'teach Timmy everything he knows' and insisting on flying with Tim on the trapeze at every opportunity. Tim fully dotes on him, and Dick just blooms like a little flower whenever he has the older boy's attention.

When Tim isn't training (or catering to Dick's adorably bossy whims), he's often taking pictures with the beloved camera he couldn't bring himself to leave at home. And the circus provides such a vivid panorama to capture - something new every moment!

Once, however, he unknowingly photographs something dangerous, and when someone is sent to steal the evidence (ie Tim's camera), Dickie walks in on the attempted theft. He starts to shout, but is immediately grabbed and a hand clamped over his mouth. Dickie struggles harder, kicking and screaming even with his mouth closed, so the man shushing him grips even tighter, his big hand covering the whole of Dickie's tiny mouth and nose.

Dickie soon starts to suffocate.

Until Tim bursts in, fast and furious. Dick, still thrashing weakly but fading fast, sees Tim run up and do a flying kick to take down the other thug on the scene. He hears Tim yell out for him, just as his eyes roll up and he loses consciousness.

Tim ends up having to perform CPR - luckily, learning first aid, including forms of CPR for all ages, was one of the first things Bruce set him to learning.

Dickie wakes up with Tim breathing life into him, while John and Mary also kneel close by, frantic, with various circus folk pacing on phones to 9-1-1 or kicking the tied-up thugs in the background.

Dickie stares up at Tim, the fuzzy white static of oxygen deprivation painting a halo all around him in Dickie's vision. His knight in shining armor!!! His HERO!!!!!!

(Meanwhile, Tim is trying not to break down crying or hug Dickie so tight in relief that he has trouble breathing again.)

The Graysons REALLY adopt Tim after that. The whole circus does.

("I'm gonna marry Timmy!" Dickie insists after they get home from the hospital. He's suckered Tim onto his bed with him with tearful eyes (Tim really didn't need much prodding to come and cuddle him immediately) and is glommed onto Tim's waist, clinging. "Just you watch." Mary teases (somewhat emotionally) that Tim already stole Dickie's first kiss, so of course he has to make an honest boy of him. Then Tim can be a Grayson 'officially' - hurray, she's so happy!)

(Tim can't stop smiling, so he hides it by pressing his lips to Dickie's hair.)

Tim keeps in contact with Mary, John, and especially Dick after he has to leave. Video calls, texts, postcards, the works. And he makes time to fly out whenever Haly's is traveling the eastern seaboard - to visit, cheer on their performances, spend time playing around with Dickie all over the circus and on the trapeze.

He's family.

("He's my fiance," Dickie corrects. "I thought you said he was your older brother?" one of the clowns asks, tapping his nose teasingly. "Same thing," Dickie sniffs, batting him away.)

So of course 8-year-old Dick notices immediately when Tim stops returning his texts. And his emails. And answering his phone - until his voicemail fills all the way up from Dickie's frantic calls.

It takes them a while to track down Tim's obituary, and the write-up of his funeral, in the Gotham Gazette. Tim had been so private about the people in his life away from the circus, so they hadn't had anyone else to call and ask, and limited resources to put into the search from their tour on the other side of the continent.

When they find out, Dick sinks to the floor and curls into a ball, a silent little pillbug of lost, confused grief. Mary scoops him up and wraps herself around him, and John wraps himself around Mary. They rock, and they soak each other's skin with tears, until Dick's heart cracks open and a thin, wavering wail pours out. It never seems to stop.

He doesn't smile or speak for weeks.

#dicktim #asks #gerryrigged #gerry words #dc #dick will eventually end up with the waynes #and tim will eventually reappear like a knife sliding into gotham's meaty heart #and EVENTUALLY their romance can start once dick is not a literal child hghkldjfks

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honoka-marierose · 1 month

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DC announces an incredible team of creators' return to Superman in the upcoming Action Comics #1067 -- kicking off a three-part story this summer.

SUMMARY

▪️Gail Simone returns to write Superman in a three-part arc, with artist Eddy Barrows.

▪️ New story "Superman and the Challenge from the Stars" follows two recent story arcs.

▪️ Expect epic battles and a massive alien threat in Simone and Barrows' upcoming tale of Superman

DC has announced that legendary comic writer Gail Simone will return to write Superman this summer as part of a new three-part Action Comics arc. Simone will be joined by artist Eddy Barrows for a story taking place at the beginning of the Man of Steel's superhero adventures.

The action will unfold in Action Comics #1067 in a story called "Superman and the Challenge from the Stars", following Jason Aaron and John Timms' "I, Bizarro" arc and Joshua Williamson and Rafa Sandoval's "House of Brainiac" arc. DC shared covers for the first part of the story, with the main cover by Eddy Barrows, Danny Miki and Tomeu Morey along with variant covers by Wes Craig, Pablo Villalobos and Ben Oliver. The main cover will also receive a foil variant release. The three-part story will be released monthly, starting with Action Comics #1067 arriving July 10.

ACTION COMICS #1067

Written by GAIL SIMONE

Art by EDDY BARROWS, DANNY MIKI, REX LOKUS, DAVE SHARPE

Cover Art by EDDY BARROWS, DANNY MIKI, TOMEU MOREY

Variant Cover Art by WES CRAIG, PABLO VILLALOBOS, BEN OLIVER

On Sale July 10

DC also offered a teaser of what fans can expect when Simone and Barrows' three-issue story begins and a "massively powerful alien race makes Earth their arena." Action Comics #1067 begins the epic tale of Superman's strength and resourcefulness early in his public career as he stands up against the alien threat and protects the lives of his loved ones.

Simone Teases High Stakes in Upcoming Action Comics Run

Speaking in DC's press release for her upcoming run, Gail Simone promises that the three-part story will deliver a threat only Superman is capable of tackling. "I love the classic Superman cast, and this story is deliberately meant to echo my all-time favorite Superman time period," she said. “We didn’t want to tell a quiet story of Superman in a diner; we wanted to have a massive threat, a war taking place all over the world, and only Superman could possibly protect his adopted planet. It is unapologetically huge in scope and fun as hell, with one of the best art teams I’ve ever worked with...Eddy Barrows, Danny Miki, and Rex Lokus on colors!”

Artist Eddy Barrows also spoke about his personal connection to Superman's comics. "I remember when I was 7 years old, I was playing on the sidewalk, and suddenly I was run over by a truck [...] During that whole year that followed I remained in bed, doing lots of physiotherapy, lots of meds and exams. [I]t was during that time that Superman came to my life, reading Action Comics. Kal-El became a good friend of mine, making my days better. His adventures and his behavior were things that stuck with me! Back then I wouldn’t have imagined that one day I would be helping to build his legacy: illustrating his stories. The stories of my all-time favorite superhero… SUPERMAN!"

Action Comics #1067 goes on sale July 10 from DC Comics.

Source: DC

#dc #dc comics #superman #all star dc team #comics #action comics #action comics 1067 #gail simone #cbr #comic news

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clanwarrior-tumbly · 8 months

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Can you do more with player!reader x Marauder? Maybe something with Marauder learning about the players life during battle, and being surprised about there being a fandom (and the "humiliating" art of the slayer) I have seen enough catboy doomslayer to last a lifetime. Pretty sure he'd get a kick out of fanart and memes.

Bonus if the reader is an artist and finds a way to show the Marauder their own art of him.

"So in your world...you--this game..has its own cult following?"

"We call it a "fandom", Marmar-"

"Do not call me that."

"..okay, Marauder. But yes." You nodded to the screen, having the Doomslayer chainsaw through one of the zombies that spawned into the room, granting you extra ammo. Then you had him dash to evade the glowing orange wolf that the Marauder summoned, finishing it off with a shotgun round.

Yes, you were indeed communicating with one of the toughest enemies in the game Doom Eternal--who so-happened to be aware that he is a video game character and knows he's destined to respawn every time you entered the final room in the ARC Complex level for his boss battle.

And he now sees that the Slayer was merely a vessel controlled by you.

Instead of getting too freaked out, you struck up a small friendship with this Marauder. Why wouldn't you? He was your favorite demon of all the ones you've encountered.

He was curious about your world--one that he quickly learned that not even the Maykrs themselves could reach--so you've been explaining small things about it, although the subject of how others of your kind perceived him and Doom Eternal as a whole.

That's when you mentioned the fandom and online following it had.

"It's more than just this one, though, the fandom goes back as far as the first Doom game released in 1993."

"It's...that old? How fascinating.." The Marauder was intrigued.

"Yeah, it's come a long way from being a simple shooter game. It was the first one ever created, in fact, and it paved the way for more like it."

"And then it became Eternal about three years ago?"

"Precisely."

"I see. Are there other versions of me in previous---GRRAH!!" As a stray bullet suddenly flew towards him, he brought up his shield and scowled. "Are you trying to catch me off guard, mortal?"

"No, I promise." You shook your head, before adjusting the mic connected to your headset. "To answer you...no. You're unique only to this game. And to be honest, you became quite a hot topic for debates in the community."

"Is that so?" Taking a pause, Marauder lowered his shield, red eyes narrowing at the Doomslayer and whatever skin you chose to use this time around. He was always amused by what your vessel looked like, be it the menacing Praetor skin or the ridiculous Doomicorn. "Let us pause our duel. Elaborate."

"...okay, um....ah, how do I say this without sounding like a jerk..." You mumbled to yourself, before looking back at the screen. "Some people think your attack methods "ruin" the flow of the game...and before you get mad, Doom was always known for just shooting demons and moving on. They whine about it being too "complicated" now, but I like what you brought to the table: you give us a true challenge."

"Of course..I only bring the toughest challenge. Lest they forget, Marauders were amongst the Sentinels in legion with the Slayer...so I ought to be a worthy enemy. One that players shan't forget." He chuckled, grabbing the head of a zombie who had the misfortunate of spawning right next to him. "Nothing like these...simple-minded corpses. They're forgettable. So easily crushed by a simple action."

With one squeeze, its head disintegrated into a bloody pulp before it collapsed to the ground, despawning.

"But not me."

"Right." You were surprised he could do that, but you shrugged it off. "All debates aside...I think you'd get a kick out of all the art this fandom has made, too."

"Art, you say? Let me guess..they're all tributes to the Slayer? Covered in blood? Scorching fire and relentless rage in his eyes? Standing over mountains of demonic corpses?" He scoffed.

"...some of that, and a lot of catboy pictures and maid outfits."

".....what is a "cat-boy"?"

Oh no.

This was taking quite the awkward turn.

"Let's. just say there's a lot of degrading and humiliating stuff about him, and god, don't even get me started on the fanfiction.." You shuddered a little, although hearing Marauder's deep chuckle made you refocus on him, seeing him sit on the stairs.

"This has enlightened me..oh, what I would give to see such humiliation with my own eyes. The great and mighty Slayer, reduced to a-"

"There's art of you, too."

He blinked. "Me? I, too, have left that much of an impact on your "fandom"?"

"Oh for sure! People love your voice, and uh...your physique."

"...they like this..hideous rotted body of mine?" He put a hand to his chest, taking all of this information in. "It's merely a husk of what I once was..before I was denied an honorable death."

"Yeah, well..at least your abs stayed with you." You joked.

"Glad to hear I am somewhat admired among your species. But am I subjected to the same degradation?"

"Sorta..on a lesser scale."

"........"

"But it's not all bad! I've actually made some cool art of you looking completely badass!" You hastily mentioned before he could get too upset. "Since you're my favorite demon, of course I had to. Wish I could show it to you somehow.."

"Not to worry." He sounded relieved. "I'm grateful to be idolized in some world, if not my own."

"Right--hey!" Distracting by your chitchat, you failed to see the zombie take a slash at the Slayer, and in revenge you made him do a Blood Punch to regain the health he lost. "I forgot we're supposed to be fighting."

"You wish the Slayer's "Blood Punches" worked on me.." The Marauder teased, rising up and scraping his axe against the ground. "Now shall we continue? Perhaps..you could let me have this win?"

"...I would, but I have over ten extra lives in my inventory and I'd hate to waste them." You smiled awkwardly, watching his expression grow frustrated.

"What..? Now how is that fair?" He growled. "True warriors don't get second chances. Are you using those "cheat codes"?"

"No. I found them all on my own. No cheats here."

"Hmph...well said, human. Now let us fight."

#clanask #anonymous #doom x reader #doom eternal x reader #doom marauder x reader #marauder x reader #player reader #platonic

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spawnofdeath · 8 months

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As promised, since the overwhelming majority voted for wanting to see it, here is my Empires AU main post with all my current notes and thoughts:

Two Sons of Rivendell

(Title borrowed from the poem written for the ending of Empires season 1 by the wonderful @fishy-strawberries on their art blog floweroflaurelin)

AKA me realizing there's two plot relevant reveals of two characters being siblings in Empires 1 and thinking what if I switched them, so Scott and Xornoth get "Hold on now, we're siblings? How did we forget that?" And Lizzie gets "Wait, the demon is my brother?"

Summary:

Scott and Xornoth, rulers of neighboring elven kingdoms Rivendell and Erewyn, rediscover the tales of their people's old gods, Aeor and Exor. What memories have they lost along with the connection to their past?

Meanwhile, in the nearby Grimlands, salmon loving engineer fWhip starts having troubles involving a demonic cod creature. Who is this malicious stranger, and is he connected to Ocean Queen Lizzie?

In no particular order, some notes:

There aren't really just straight forward role swaps exclusively between two characters each, it's all a bit all over the place

I only watched six out of twelve perspectives (Jimmy, Joel, Lizzie, Pearl, Scott and Sausage) so I don't know if I'm missing anything but also it's not meant to be canon-compliant (but also means I don't know how to write the other characters)

This AU is fully falling into the trend of making fanon Jimmy much cooler than he is in canon, but I just think he deserves a proper villain arc (not counting the one he thoroughly failed at in season 2)

Actual story notes:

Xornoth identifies and presents as broadly male-adjacent, and uses he/they

Because there's no possible pun on "siblings" that could work as well as "Seablings" for the purposes of this AU, Scott and Xornoth will be collectively known as "The Twin Kings"

Xornoth's Empire Erewyn (name might be subject to change) is slightly down the mountainside from Rivendell, where it's a bit warmer than on the snow covered peaks (even without their gods, Scott prefers the winter and Xornoth the summer), and has shared borders with Rivendell, Crystal Cliffs, and the Lost Empire (small parts taken off each of those three, but mostly extends into the spawn area, I looked up a map for this so hopefully you get what I mean)

Erewyn exports enchanted books and offers services of custom enchanting for armour and weapons

The Ocean Queen, of course, cherishes all Ocean dwellers, which certainly includes, for most of their life cycle, salmon

Featuring Scott both as one of the Lost Siblings pair and as the guy who falls in love with the demon

Those two plot lines actually might interfere with each other, I cannot imagine Xornoth would be very fond of the idea of his friend/brother trying to date a demon and Scott probably wouldn't take it very well if Xornoth tried to talk him out of it, so it might put a strain on their friendship, but I don't care, it can't be anyone but Scott, I can't make it work with anyone but Scott (the only other option I can think of would be Sausage, and he's already allied with the demon in canon, I don't want him to be in this AU as well)

I'm gonna say Jimmy is also at least somewhat interested in Scott, because, well, he is kind of cute, for someone without any fins or scales, and why not? Some fun on the side, why shouldn't he? There should be more to life than just terrorising people, even for a demon

Farmer (and Fighter) Queen Pearl is far too exited about her new demonic sparring partner and the powers he's willing to share (just to make their matches more interesting, right? This surely won't corrupt her, nooo, how would it?) (Unlike with Sausage, here I actually do like the idea of Pearl still being in a somewhat similar to canon role, except cranked up to eleven to become the role of demon protégé)

Pearl is also involved in this AU's equivalent of the hostage exchange, the other side being Xornoth (Pearl started it by stealing one of Xornoth's owls, but I cannot think of who or what they would have taken from her in return)

Pix as the assassin in that storyline, I think, because it's really funny to me to think that the person who in canon is tracking people's deaths in this AU is causing people's deaths

Lady Katherine of House Blossom, Flower Mage Queen of the Overgrown, tends to what is known as the Memorial Garden

Lord Sausage of Mythland really just wants to be friends with everyone and is always advocating for peace

Xornoth and Shrub have this AU's equivalent of the Cod War (what would that be though? I'd appreciate any ideas)

Joey and Xornoth are the happy couple who had the big royal wedding, with Scott as Xornoth's best man, and officiated by Pearl

Joey also gets the role of the one who's in complete denial of anything demonic going on. Joey cares about two things, his beautiful builds and his beautiful husband, and that's it. Demon? What demon? There's no demon, why would there be a demon? The sudden surplus of cod make good food for the raptors, as such their unusual aggression goes almost entirely unnoticed, piles of slime are buried under dirt to form nice rounded little hills. He can't even see Jimmy during the big arena fight, just Pearl going mad for no apparent reason, like, what's up with her then? (Keep in mind that I have never in my life watched any of Joey's videos, I have not the first clue how to write him)

Who did Pearl build the arena with, by the way? Probably Gem, who starts out being somewhat complacent about the whole demon issue ("Oh I'm sure he's not that dangerous, he's hardly managed to hurt me, and anyways, he's got some very interesting abilities I'd love to study"), but after the big massacre finally realizes it's actually quite serious and also Pearl is clearly not herself and definitely needs help

Random thought, you know how manta rays swim like they're flying through the water? Jimmy flies like he's swimming through the air

Jimmy is short for Jimahinjao, although he doesn't go by that name anymore, and definitely only Scott is allowed to call him Jimmy

Lizzie is short for Lizmoa, which is already one of the shortest merfolk names, but she's always gone by Lizzie, except in situations calling for truly formal adress

I don't know if "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" would necessarily apply to a gay wedding, but I kind of want it to in this case because:

I imagine Scott and Xornoth would have similar styles in terms of clothing and accessories, because it's a traditional elven style or because they're unknowingly brothers, who knows. The point here is Joey coming to Scott for 'something borrowed' and Scott going "Ohhh I can make your outfits match, that's gonna be so cute!"

Thus, the four items: an enchanted golden apple found with the help of Joel (because I didn't know what else he could provide), a pendant made of pixandrian copper (paralleling my interpretation of the amethyst Lizzie got from Gem as a necklace), an elven crown borrowed from Scott (matching Xornoth's), and a bouquet of blue orchids from the swamp outside of Mythland (paralleling the fact that in canon, the warped fungus came from the same place as the corruption)

Speaking of the swamp outside of Mythland, it is regarded as a dangerous and possibly haunted place and thus uninhabited (except for Jimmy, who is the reason people think it's haunted)

The crown Scott receives from Jimmy is a flower crown (as a nod to the for this AU rather unfitting official ship name of "Flower Husbands"). It's made from water lilies and has, beyond the mind control, two rather obvious magical properties. One: it doesn't wilt. Two: it's always slightly dripping. Mostly water, sometimes mud, rarely a bit of slime, but it's always dripping something. Scott still wears it anyways

Lizzie and Katherine get kidnapped by Pearl and Scott, and rescued by Joel, prompting that particular romance

As it will eventually turn out, Scott and Xornoth are twins (Xornoth being older by an hour, though there's no real way for them to find it out that exactly)

Xornoth reads in the library about an artifact he's pretty sure is related to the old religion he and Scott are continuing to learn about. The artifact in question is a black iron crown in the shape of a pair of antlers, to be worn by the royal representative of one of the two gods. They resolve to find this artifact.

Meanwhile, Lizzie, in a treasure chest she unearthed, finds what she thinks is probably an interestingly shaped piece of scrap metal. Maybe she can trade it to some fool for something else. Maybe for a channeling trident. She's been wanting one of those. Calling lightning at will sounds amazing.

The Crown™ is still forged by fWhip, and makes the rounds from Joel, who gets killed for it by Lizzie, who, while trying to give it to Shrub, gets it yoinked away by Joey, who gives it away via a treasure hunt which is then won by Xornoth, who gets it stolen by Gem, who creates a quiz for it that's won by fWhip, who gives it to Sausage, who puts on a contest in which Shrub then cheats and kills him to get it

The Ocean Queen gets storm powers that she needs to learn to control, she probably strikes Katherine with lightning by accident and subsequently flees to a deserted island to not hurt anyone else

While Lizzie is gone, fWhip steals the nautilus shell "Jimmy" has been sealed in, prompting her to return when one of her axolotls comes to tell her about it

More notes to possibly come in the future via reblogs

#empires smp #empires s1 #jimmy solidarity #ldshadowlady #scott smajor #joey graceffa #xornoth empires smp #two sons of rivendell au #two sons of rivendell au notes #tsorau #long post

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summerstrash · 11 days

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having complex feelings about the x-factor 2024 announcement.

pros:

Pyro and Frenzy are there. Be Gay Do Crimes Twink + The Giant Woman I Always Want To See = Good Shit.

The guy who's writing this book is well-known for his one-shot rewriting the Hanna-Barbera character Snagglepuss as a mid-century homosexual playwright. Considering that Pyro is here, this is promising.

Alex is no longer wearing the classic costume, which reduces the chances of him being forced into the Goblin Gown significantly, forcing his arc to rely less on his sexual objectification.

The solicit seems to imply that social media will act as either a framing device or a plot point, which I like the sound of.

Alex and Frenzy serving on a team together rockets her to the #1 spot on the list of Potential Alex Summers Sex Mistakes, since she's a slightly bitter Scott ex with BDSM inclinations.

My longtime Twitter mutual Gail Simone called it a gem of the line, and I'm inclined to trust her judgment on many things.

The writer specifically namedrops Alex and Frenzy as characters he's excited to write, which implies they'll see at least some focus.

The artist is Bob Quinn, a guy I quite like and who sent me free art once for my birthday when Knights of X was delayed.

As someone who hasn't read much X-Factor from the 90s due to my ongoing feud with a particular writer from that era (iykyk), I'm kind of looking forward to seeing what X-Factor as a government team is like, as opposed to X-Factor as an investigating body.

cons:

Alex in a leadership role is never a good sign. Bad things happen to Alex when he leads.

Not a huge fan of the fact that the current known roster includes three white guys and two WOC, with one of the WOC also being a visible mutant who has fur instead of human skin, and the other being a medium-to-dark-skinned black woman famous for being buff and angry, and the three white guys are all blondes, ranging from "dumpster twink" to "hunk"

Alex working for the U.S. government feels like a microagression against me personally, as I've been very vocal about thinking that Alex needs to finally come to terms with the fact that clinging to mainstream institutions and dominant social groups will only ever hurt him, and I was hoping the Hellions or Limbo could be that for him in the Krakoan Era

The marketing seems to imply a different tone and genre from the domestic/workplace horror-comedies Alex has been part of for the last five years, and I don't know how I feel about that yet.

Greg Land is doing the covers, and I hate that for me.

"Who will die?" Of the characters we have announced so far, Alex is the most expendable. He's one of three blond white guys, and while Warren seems to be taking center stage as the Face Of The Team, and St.John's movie counterpart is returning to theaters this summer in Deadpool & Wolverine, so I doubt they'd kill him off in comics at the moment, Alex feels kind of superfluous as a co-leader, and he also is just...less loved, I think.

"Who will fall in love?" Again, worried for Alex because one of his, like, three recurring stories is "gets picked up by the scruff of his neck by a girl way out of his league so she can use him to self-actualize while playing at transgressive forms of heterosexuality." We don't really have similar core recurring storylines for other announced characters.

"Who will be the first to sell out?" Honestly I feel like St.John might be the answer to this question. He's a novelist. Novelists have egos. He's worked for the U.S. government before, under Mystique. And I guess this kind of makes me sad.

The fact that the whole cast hasn't been announced yet fills me with fear that Lorna will be in this, mostly because a fair chunk of FTA seems to be focused on catering to nostalgia on some level, and Alex/Lorna is very 90s. And frankly Dr. Dane should be doing better for herself than the man that left her at the altar for a gay man's girlfriend.

So yeah, I have complex emotions about all of this and will be watching with a fair amount of suspicion as we draw closer to the release date.

#x factor 2024 #from the ashes #havok #feral #frenzy #warren worthington iii #maria callasantos #alex summers #pyro #st.john allerdyce #joanna cargill

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cuubism · 1 year

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wip update

since I have a good number of actively-posting WIPs that some lovely people have been very kind about and invested in (and which I am very slow in updating), I figured it might be only polite to post a little update on where those are.

the melting press of the sun (dreamling) - Never intended this as a longfic, there may or may not be more than the 2 chapters it has now. I have a bit more written but it's disjointed and incomplete. I intentionally didn't leave any brutal cliffhangers on what I did post for this reason. We'll see if that one comes back.

Deja vu, Deja connu (dreamling) - The slowness in updating probably belies how deeply emotionally invested I actually am in this fic. Chapter three is just a major challenge--it's very long, covers a lot, has lots of fluff in the first part (fluff is kinda my Achilles heel, though not quite as much as wedding scenes, which this chapter also has) and a lot of heavy content later. But I have the whole fic outlined, a bunch of chapter 4 and 5 written in advance, and I'm super excited about the stuff that comes later, so it will definitely be finished, just... slowly. At least for this chapter.

In Waking Dreams (dreamling) - My current priority for an update. Chapter 4 just hit 10k and will probably hit 15k before its done (god help me), and I feel somewhat obliged to finish chapter 5 as well so I can post them in quick succession. Chapter 4 necessarily ends on a cliffhanger as it catches up to the events of chapter 3, but I feel bad about two cliffhangers in a row. But that one soon, I hope. (chapter 5 has a lot of the juiciest, long awaited scenes promised by the fic's premise, so I hope you will like that one when it's finally done 😅)

IRL (malec) - Fic that I have a tendency to get stuck on for 15 months, then write a ton of all at once, repeat. But I actually picked it up again the other day for the first time in ages, and I think I know all of the events of the chapter now, so who knows! Maybe I'll actually manage an update!

Subject: I Love You (malec) - Fic that I shamefully left with ONE CHAPTER remaining for a full year now. Honestly not sure why. Someday I will pick it up tho, I swear to god, or maybe I'll just cut the chapter short and make it an epilogue. (Actually maybe I do know why. It's another damn proposal/wedding scene. My absolute weakness and failure, I should stop writing them entirely)

mind & heart, body & soul (malec) - This fic haunts me, it follows me around 24/7 like a vengeful spirit that can't find rest. I can't wrangle it back into making any sense in my head, but for the sake of both my own sanity and the story's frankly frightening number of readers (I love you but you scare me), I've been trying to do one final chapter to offer some kind of wrap-up. Hopefully I can manage it.

Leviathan (malec) - My long held passion project that I have, in classic form, not touched in months. In fact I've been stuck on the same chapter I'm on now since probably 2020, when I first started writing the fic. This particular middle part of the fic is just vexing me to no end. At some point, I will decide on a course of action, inevitably flawed, and just power through that chapter (I say, for the 2nd year in a row). Why did I give this story two big villains again? Or think having a whole separate story arc in the middle of the fic was a good idea? Ah well.

in the palm of your hand (malec) - The one and only multichapter I finally caved and marked abandoned. I learnt my lesson with this fic about letting a oneshot expand into a completely unplanned longer fic. Boy did I...

----

I feel like I don't express it enough, but I really appreciate everyone who's ever read one of my fics, commented, kudos'd, chatted with me about them on tumblr, made podfics or art or translations, shared headcanons in my inbox or your own fics with me... I'm always blown away by the kindness and interest, and love getting to share little (or big!) stories with you and am so happy when you enjoy them ❤️ I love doing fandom with you.

#i'm bad at expressing emotion ack #my fics

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bumblebeehug · 10 months

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Regarding the END rewriting post, I feel like there are so many nalu moments that had a lot of potential but ended up being a bit disappoting ?? Like in 100 yq when lucy held natsu back and got burnt, but they never had a proper conversation about it. Idk I just find it a bit frustrating

i don't even know if i can pretend that mashima and ueda's treatment of nalu is fine, because it really isn't. mashima can abolutely spend his time writing about as many mangas and stories as he wants, but i feel like he shouldn't have promised the sequel if he never intended to put in effort for it. i could have managed half of the amount of arcs we've had leading up to these recent chapters, if we could have gotten more character development instead. just brief insights of what's been going on with Lucy since the war against Alvarez, how Natsu has been dealing with his END stuff, because clearly that's unfinished business, and I'd love to see Wendy flashback to the faces during the tartaros arc by learning how she's coping mentally, maybe talking with carla about it etc.

to not just criticize the mashima's writing, i feel like nalu as a ship has been overlooked for a crazy long time now. We haven't gotten a nalu-centered chapter cover in ages, nalu day became 1/4th about nalu and 3/4ths of the other ships in the major four. Now i'm really reading in to it though, because if you look at the effort he's been putting into the nalu arts compared to the other ones, nalu had unshaded arts that felt unfinished and hurried, the face on natsu this year felt meaningless rather than exciting, and in general, the jerza and gruvia art has been so much higher quality, that i can't help but to feel a little deserted. natsu didn't even get an artpiece for his day this year, however he did get a shared one some weeks before that, where Wendy was kinda main focus (i love her but natsu sould be a liiiittle bit more in focus, considering the fact that he's the hero of the entire franchise)

i would also die for some general interractions between natsu and lucy in the hyq that go beyond natsu saying "ill fight the enemy with my fist!" and lucy smacking him on his head or reacting loudly like "don't say that!" or "that won't work!" or "it's always as simple as that for you huh", because i'm sorry but they barely seem like friends anymore? ik it's mainly the recent chapters that's been like this, but it's exhausting either way yk.

the fact that the whole year of abandonment got brushed over is also one of the things i wish mashima would've tied up in the sequel, but i doubt it would happen now, so far along.

also, the fact that natsu had no reaction about nasha or the relationship between the star-versions of them is just disappointing

#sorry for ranting #i'll get back to writing my fanfics where i fic all the problems i have with the hyq and other parts of fairy tail #fairy tail #hyq #nalu

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akiizayoi4869 · 1 year

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Master Meta post (updating)

The Last Agni Kai

Azula's family does indeed owe her

Zuko at age 13 vs Azula at age 14

Azula fanfics that make her stand trial for war crimes

The most tragic character of the show is Aang, not Zuko

If Kuvira can be redeemed, so can Azula

The dumb letter in The Search

Zuko did not realize that Azula was abused

Zuko only asks Azula what's wrong with her one time in The Search

On the topic of Azula, Ozai, and Abuse

Zuko and Ozai in The Promise

The Search: a story about abuse, abuse apologism, and ableism

Smoke and Shadow: "Trust is for fools! Fear is the only reliable way!" On steroids

Stealing food: Suki Alone vs Smoke and Shadow

Comics! Zuko and Comics! Ursa don't care about Azula

Azula brought Zuko home with her because it's what Ursa would have wanted

Azula redemption circle jerk

Azula and Zuko in the Crystal Catacombs

Azula and Zuko in the first half of Book 3

Azula and Zuko headcanon

Zuko's fever dream

Ursa and Azula: "What is wrong with that child?"

Azula and Ursa: A complicated mother daughter relationship

Commentary from The Search and Smoke and Shadow

The Search commentary

Aang killing Ozai dies send a powerful message

"Azula should be blamed for everything wrong in Zuko's life"

Azula did not think that Zuko would join her in Ba Sing Se

Jet had every right to be suspicious of Zuko and Iroh

My thoughts on Uncle Iroh

Zuko and Mai in Nightmares and Daydreams

Mai and Zuko in The Beach

The Family Portrait

"I just asked if you were cold, not for your whole life story."

Aang hate in fandom

Azula in Nightmares and Daydreams

Who cares if Azula did bad things? She's not real.

Why Azula killing Aang does not mean that she is evil and irredeemable

The Invasion Plan

Zuko and Jin's date

Zuko apologizing to Iroh

Why Zuko's arc falls flat for me

Most horrific Mai and Ty Lee take I've ever heard

Zuko doesn't know what's wrong with Azula in The Search

"She was right, of course, but it still hurt."

Azula did not hold power over Zuko

The bedroom scene

Aang when Appa gets stolen

Zuko needs to forgive Azula in order to move on and let go of the anger and resentment that he has towards her

The Infamous Smirk

The Southern Air Temple

Azula is not irredeemable

Zuko's redemption arc deserved better writing

Unpopular opinion: Aang understood Katara's pain better than Zuko did

Azula in The Storm flashback

King Bumi

Original cover art for The Search

Zuko and Azula both get undeserved hate

Why doesn't Zuko's crew know about his scar

Azula is not a feral animal or a bumbling crazy person

Azula was abused in the asylum

Book 3 should not have been the last season

Azula saying "I am about to celebrate becoming an only child!" to Zuko is not abuse

Little Azula eating mochi

Gene Yang's favorite panel in The Search

Yang forgot all of the bad things Zuko did when he wrote the comics

Azula and the doll

Azula and the sandcastle

Azula in the spirit temple

"I think we should take they're precious hope, and they're land, and burn it all to the ground"

Azula and the mirror scene

Iroh not wanting to fight Ozai

Azula calling Zuko "Zuzu" is not abusive

"Dad's going to kill you."

Tumblr ask: "Why do you think that so much of the ATLA fandom just violently hates Aang?"

Tumblr ask: The WORST Azula take ever(probably)

The Fire Nation and genocide

New(?) Unpopular Takes

Tumblr ask: Would you mind explaining the mirror scene?

Azula is not an irredeemable spawn of Satan

Part 2 of Azula is not an irredeemable spawn of Satan

Azula and war crimes list from villains wiki

Ghost Azula AU idea

Why the theory that Azula brought Zuko home to use him as a scapegoat makes no sense

Azula defeated herself before her agni kai with Zuko happened

Kya and the Southern Raiders

Iroh encouraging the toxic sibling rivalry between Zuko and Azula

Suki Alone

Sokka's trauma

Zuko was a willing participant in the sibling rivalry between him and Azula

Iroh never told Zuko what the "correct way" was

Azula sketch

Stop downplaying Sokka

Azula the mochi thief: wanted dead or alive

DOBS Kataang kiss

Tumblr ask: Azula slept her way to the top🤮

Sokka training the children of the Southern Water Tribe

Azula and Zuko in the Lost Adventures comics

Azula did not force Mai to join her in Omashu

Atla fandumb thinks that Azula should not have told Ursa what she overheard that night

#atla #my metas #azula

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esperfruit · 11 days

Text

Welcome to Yu-Gi-Oh! GReduX

Preface:

Yu-Gi-Oh! GReduX is an idea I first conceived when I was 17 and I decided to revive it.

It’s a sequel to Yu-Gi-Oh! GX that later turns into a sequel to Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V and also is deeply connected to Duel Terminal. As I have a lot going on, I don’t have the time and energy to turn this into a fully-written fanfiction so I am telling the story through blog posts and art. It is still in a very raw state so this pinned post will be updated over time when I have something to add. This post will also only cover the “post GX" section of GReduX, that being Act 1 and 2. Act 3, the post Arc-V and Duel Terminal section that involves time-space travel shenanigans, will receive its own post sooner or later and will be linked to this one.

This project usually uses sub names but I can also use dub names whenever I feel like it.

I will use the tag “ygo gredux” for all posts connected.

Feel free to ask away when you want to know more about GReduX.

Premise:

GReduX starts not long after Judai and the others graduated and a new semester at Duel Academy has begun. One day Principal Samejima calls Professor Chronos into his office, who was accompanied by his younger sister, the nine.year-old Bianca de Medici, as he recently became her legal guardian after their parents died in a house fire one month ago.

Samejima informs Chronos of an exchange program with the new promising duel school, Terminus Academy. The program sends two students and one teacher to the other academy for one year and Samejima suggested sending Chronos, Tyranno Kenzan and Rei Saotome as Duel Academy’s representatives. Kenzan and Rei have already agreed to the program and Chronos was more than eager to teach at this Terminus Academy to show what Duel Academy has to offer as its greatest professor.

Not long as the group of four arrived at Terminus Academy, they met new and old faces and Chronos learned all teachers at this school are people he knew in the past with the principal, Rantaro Yamikage, being an old friend of his. As a sign of their friendship, Rantaro offered Bianca to become a student at Terminus despite her only recently finishing elementary school. Both Chronos and Bianca agreed to that offer with Chronos being excited to teach his beloved sister about the game they are both so passionate about.

Soon they would have to realize that Terminus Academy is a more than an extraordinary duel school filled with exceptionally powerful duelists in terms of skill and personalities.

The heroine of this story is Bianca de Medici or Bianca Crowler in the dub. A nine-year old girl, who lived in Italy and just recently witnessed her parents burn to death right before her eyes by a serial arsonist. She is now in the care of her older brother Chronos, who she loves and admires dearly but could not see often due to his job at Duel Academy.

Bianca had never been a social butterfly and preferred talking to her deck than with other humans thanks to being born with autism and the ability to communicate with Duel Monster spirits. She was a model student in terms of grades but never had any human friends and was even bullied by other kids and got frequently in trouble because of her violent outbursts whenever she was being picked on despite being very shy when unprovoked.

At the age of six, she had a dream of being visited by Duel Monster spirits of the Ice Kingdom. The spirits, who she immediately formed a deep connection with, asked if she wanted to be their friend and she agreed without hesitation. They also requested to form a contract with her that asks her to become a powerful duelist with them at her side in exchange for their protection. After the contract was sealed, she woke up with a deck of Duel Monster cards next to her, the Ice Kingdom, and a silver bracelet with an ice blue stone in its center at her right wrist. Ever since, Bianca, a dueling prodigy, has been seeking power alongside her new spirit friends with White Blizzard Dragon as her ace, while finding out what powers lie in the bracelet she received from her otherworldly friends.

At Terminus Academy Bianca starts off as very emotionally stunted and still traumatized from the house fire, developing pyrophobia as a result. In that state the young child has to prove herself as a powerful duelist and student under a group of teenagers with similar abilities as her. Fortunately the class she attends has a strong sense of unity and she can count on her brother Chronos and her friends from the Ice Kingdom to have her back.

Terminus Academy:

A duel school founded by Rantaro Yamikage one year ago. It’s much smaller than Duel Academy as it has only three classes with 16 students each. It was built as a counter project to Duel Academy as the students wear similar uniforms to DA in black and orange and are not split in different houses but share one huge apartment complex not far away from school as their dormitory.

The purpose of this school is researching young duelists with the power to talk to duel spirits or show the potential to. Every student was scouted by Rantaro himself when he traveled around the world. The students do not have to pay any fees and every cost is covered by the school, they only have to show good results as students in order to stay at the Academy.

Terminus Academy is located in the fictional city of Resort Valley, named after it being a very popular health resort filled with all sorts of places for fun and relaxing activities. Rantaro chose this city as the location so the students would have a healthy and welcoming environment and as an opportunity to perceive other activities outside of school.

The Academy offers everything a school needs to and more with an always clean and safe building, latest equipment, healthy food and a card store with new and old packs so students will always have a chance for good deck building. Terminus also holds various events for their students and helpful courses for them to make their school life educational and fun. Whenever something breaks, it would be repaired or replaced in no time. How a school this small could have such a huge budget even with its undercover funding from Kaiba Corporation is one of its greatest mysteries.

In only one year, Terminus gathered an exceptional positive reputation from students, parents and outsiders alike. A near flawless learning environment, student satisfaction and dueling performance at an all-time high made it become more popular than every of Duel Academy’s branch schools and came to rival DA itself, gaining the attention of many journalists and as well of Industrial Illusions.

Class 2-C:

The class of sixteen Professor Chronos was assigned to teach over the year:

Bianca de Medici/Bianca Crowler

Tyranno Kenzan/Tyranno Hassleberry

Rei Saotome/Blair Flannigan

Midori Tachibana

Alexander Muller

Hazel Cortex

Lien Cai

Constantin Sokolow

Dejan Kovac

Diana Sergio

Martin Kanou/Marcel Bonaparte

Esra Farhani

Grant O’Brien/Grant Brodie

Jason McConnor

Marlee Reed

List of reference sheets HERE

Every one of them being a very talented duelist in their own right with many of them being able to talk to spirits or awakening to it later. Midori not only being the class representative but also the Academy's head girl. As a group of eccentrics filled with dreams and determination, these teenagers (and that one elementary schooler) are a very chaotic bunch, getting in all sorts of trouble and hijinks. And while having their differences and arguments, they have a very strong sense of unity and stick together through thick and thin as friends, managing to overcome every challenge.

It turns out many of them had forged contracts with their deck just like Bianca did and have gained similar protection. When the world was dragged into Darkness at the end of GX, many students of Terminus, including Class 2-C were unaffected by Darkness as they were put into a safe, dream-like state by their cards where Darkness could not reach them.

While being a member of Class 2-B, the student Nigel Setanta became a part of this group over time thanks to his friendship with Jason.

Staff:

Aside from janitors, cleaning and lunch staff and housekeeper, who runs the card store for both school itself and the dormitory, the Academy has the principal, three teachers and a nurse:

Rantaro Yamikage

Professor Chronos de Medici/Dr. Vellian Crowler

Dr. Kakeru Yamamoto

Napoleon/Jean-Louis Bonaparte

Dr. Dahlia Thorndyke

Currently there is also Asuka Tenjoin/Alexis Rhodes at Terminus for an internship for her goal to become a teacher.

Chronos, Rantaro, Kakeru and Dahlia were close friends during their time at university in Domino City and Rantaro purposefully arranged them being reunited again through hiring Dahlia and Kakeru for his Academy and organizing the exchange program. Napoleon, teacher of Class 2-B, applied for a job as teacher at Terminus shortly after leaving Duel Academy and similar to Bianca, Rantaro offered Martin to become a student as well, Chronos and Napoleon meeting again was a pure, yet ironic coincidence.

Kakeru, teacher of Class 2-A, was Chronos’ best friend during university times and he especially is looking forward to doing everything with his friend again, who had changed a lot since graduation unlike him. This group of educators turns out to be a miniature version of Class 2-C in terms of being chaotic yet sticking together.

Spirit Contracts:

Duel Monster spirits from another dimension called Duel Terminal, which closely resembles a computer program, have gained the power to transcend into other worlds and can influence them to certain degrees. The most effective method is making contact with humans that show immense potential as duelists and can communicate with them. They then form a Spirit Contract, which allows the spirits to manifest into Duel Monster cards and an item the duelist will always carry with them, be it a bracelet, a pendant or anything else.

With the item at their side, the duelist is under protection of the spirits from Duel Terminal with said protection showing their effects in many different ways, for example Bianca not being injured by the flames or poisoned by the smoke of the house fire. The Monsters can also become truly tangible in duels with another duelist with a Spirit Contract and cause real damage, which usually only occurs when the duelist is either in danger or loses control over their powers.

If a duelist with a Spirit Contract has become especially powerful, they can be able to perform a “Terminal Draw”, which works similar to a Destiny Draw, in being able to draw a specific card of their deck archetype from their deck in a pinch and when the duelist has reached the absolute height of their strength, the Terminal Draw can even be compared to a Shining Draw.

The reason the spirits from Duel Terminal are contacting humans is that Duel Terminal became completely jumbled in its own timelines with events being undone or misplaced in time and at worst threats that had have been previously been defeated are suspected to return in even greater and more terrifying capacity that will not only affect Duel Terminal, but every dimension and the only way to bring everything back into order is to cooperate with humans from another world, who can not only help them reclaim their former strength but to surpass it as well.

Rantaro Yamikage, a scientist for Kaiba Corp. at the time, had noticed shifts in time-space caused by Duel Monster spirits influencing the human world in unexpected ways and thus decided that this matter had to be studied at any cost and founded Terminus Academy with the approval and secret funding by Seto Kaiba himself.

Everything went well as expected and Terminus was formed in no time with construction and organization done by Kaiba Corp. and student scouting by Rantaro until one day Rantaro had been contacted by spirits that call themselves the Fabled…

Act 1:

Act 1 covers the first half of the school year with everything and everyone being introduced. It is more on the comedic and slice of life part with the students getting into wacky hijinks that somehow also manage to get the teachers involved. Bianca also learns to open up and become friends with her classmates despite the age gap. Jason becomes friends with Nigel and assimilates him into the chaos of Class 2-C.

Bianca gains a reputation among the students and proves herself time and time again to be a very powerful duelist with defeating countless of them. Her Ice Kingdom deck, which she is the only owner of in the world, caught the interest of Pegasus J. Crawford, paying Terminus Academy a visit as a result.

He was very fascinated with the students there and decided them to be the test users of the new summoning method Industrial Illusions and Kaiba Corp. had been working on when it was finished, Synchro Summoning.

Bianca had become quite cocky with her winning streak so Midori, the Academy’s strongest duelist also called “The Empress”, decided to humble her by defeating her in a duel in front of the entire school and succeeded at doing so.

At first Bianca took the loss very poorly but with some uplifting from her peers and her spirit partners, she regained her composure and managed to grow even stronger from that experience by learning Fusion Summoning.

After a school trip to Italy for 2-C, Synchro Monsters were finally complete and it was decided that Lien would be the very first person to ever Synchro Summon in an official duel against Bianca.

Her Flamvell and Neo-Flamvell, who she had a Spirit Contract with, evolved and adapted to Synchro.

In the duel Lien successfully summons the Synchro Monster “Ancient Flamvell Deity” but the duel had to be terminated as all her fire-themed monsters had brought Bianca to a breaking point and she suffered a panic attack from her pyrophobia.

Despite the termination, the test was a success and Synchro Monsters were now ready to be introduced to the world.

Jason and Nigel’s friendship blossomed further and Jason realized thanks to Nigel that he doesn’t have to screw himself over in order to rebel against his parents but can also strive for his own path with the power he has if he finally puts it to use. That resolve evolved the Mist Valley deck he contracted with into Gusto and thus formed a friendly rivalry with Nigel, swearing to surpass Ritual Summon expert one day.

At the end of this half, Bianca is confronted with the arsonist, who killed her and Chronos' parents. To get his hands on the valuable Ice Kingdom cards, he trapped him and Bianca in a life-or-death duel in a burning building with the Laval deck he contracted with.

Despite being confronted with her fear of fire, the rage of being faced with her parent’s killer took over and she went all out against him, taking him down with her deadliest Fusion Monster, “Glazio, Devil of the Ice Kingdom”, freezing him to death despite his pleas for mercy as the attacks in this duel were real.

Act 2:

Eight months into the exchange program, Principal Samejima agreed to Rantaro’s proposal to hold a tournament between Duel Academy and Terminus Academy at Terminus’ campus, the GX Tournament V2. Students and teachers from both schools face up against each other as well as students from the same school.

Much to Samejima’s dismay, the tournament was being dominated by Terminus with all the best students he ever had had already graduated or are part of the exchange program.

Mysterious incidents seem to occur during the tournament as many of the participants' behavior suddenly began to shift into aggressive and even violent, including Chronos, who almost hit a student from Duel Academy, who tried to steal a deck, if not stopped by Dahlia.

The situation started to get out of control further as more and more duelists turned violent and downright malicious. Said duelists also developed breathing problems, high blood pressure, tearing muscles and chronic migraines. Neither Rantaro nor Samejima were able to provide answers and so Class 2-C including Nigel, Kakeru and Napoleon began to do their own research while Dahlia and Emi Ayukawa/Fonda Fontaine took care of collapsed or contaminated duelists.

Everyone wonders why Rantaro strictly refuses to stop the tournament at a time like this and with how out-of-character he acts, his warm and welcoming demeanor switching into cold and strict with his kind smile now having something eerie in it.

Bianca gets challenged to a duel by Midori, who had turned violent as well. Bianca had her rematch against The Empress with finally surpassing her with her new Synchro Monster “White Blizzard Impact Dragon”. Midori then collapsed after the duel and was contaminated as well.

When Chronos raised his hand against Bianca when she tried to stop him from hurting another student, Kakaru finally had enough and challenged Chronos to a duel to bring him back to his senses.

Even though Kakeru fought with everything he got, he was crushed under the might of Chronos’ “Ancient Gear Chaos Giant” with whom he severely injured Kakeru with after his victory.

White Blizzard Dragon told Bianca they were able to witness a dark energy possessing Chronos that forces his Ancient Gears, who he had formed a Spirit Contract with not long ago, to use their powers to harm others.

After Kakeru was hospitalized, Bianca and the others confronted Dahlia, who had been acting suspicious for a while and she finally decided to tell the truth as she can’t bear seeing everyone she cares about getting injured:

There is a supernatural virus going around that infects others through duels. It makes the infected severely violent but also inflicts health issues that are very likely to kill its victim over time and take over their dead body if not treated. The virus is called Evilswarm and was brought in by none other than Principal Rantaro Yamikage.

His goal is to spread Evilswarm as far as possible through GX V2 with his true motives being unknown. He blackmailed Dahlia to turn Evilswarm into a bacterial state and infuse it into his primary test subject, Chronos. Sick of Rantaro’s madness, Dahlia already created an antidote for Evilswarm and it already proved itself as effective as she secretly tested it on Midori, who had been cured but is still bedridden. She tells everyone that the infected need to have the Evilswarm weakened in them before the antidote gets injected or it won’t work. Dahlia also informs Bianca that Chronos might not have much longer to live if he isn’t cured soon with how long he had been infected.

Without any hesitation, Bianca rushed to Chronos and challenged him to a duel to save him. It pushed both of them to their limits and Bianca witnessing her brother's health fail the longer the duel went broke her but she forced herself to keep fighting for his sake. What gave her the final push was hearing the plea of his favorite Ancient Gear Golem, Sirius, to save his life at all cost. Bianca defeats Chronos with the combination of the very first Terminal Draw, a Permanent Spell Card that deals effect damage, two of her Fusion Monsters and White Blizzard Dragon, allowing him to finally receive the antidote and be brought to the infirmary.

It was finally time to grab the problem at its root. While Terminus’ and Duel Academy’s best united to defeat and cure all the infected, Dahlia and Lien confronted Rantaro, who sneaked into Dahlia’s underground lab to destroy the antidote, the recipe to make it and to later kill genius pharmaceutic Dahlia so Evilswarm could never be cured ever again.

Bianca meanwhile was with her brother at the infirmary, watching over him. When she was suddenly approached by the Ice Kingdom spirits, who told her that Lien’s Flamvell contacted them for immediate assistance because Lien was in huge danger, she rushed to the underground lab as fast as possible, led by her Monsters and followed by Napoleon and Samejima. When she arrived there she saw both Lien and Dahlia laying on the ground, severely injured.

Napoleon and Samejima brought the two of them to the infirmary and gave them the antidote just in case. The infuriated Bianca then confronts Rantaro, who gladly accepts the challenge of Terminus’ new strongest student, saying once someone as powerful as her is infected, he’d be unstoppable.

Before the decisive duel could start, Chronos arrived, dragging himself to the place with his duel vest, still severely weakened. Despite his critical state, he had to help Bianca take down Rantaro no matter what. When being asked by Chronos why he was doing all of this and what happened to his precious and kind friend, Rantaro only gave vague answers but he proved that this good-hearted Rantaro had been gone forever even before the whole exchange program even began.

In this 2 vs 1 duel the de Medici siblings struggled more than ever because of Rantaro’s Fabled cards, which he had artificially modified into the dreadful ArchSeraphim, who all possess downright unfair effects with his Ace Monster being “ArchSeraphim Overlord Abyss Shadow”, a Fusion Monster with 6000 ATK and 6000 DEF that reduces the opponents LP to 1, can only be defeated by Battle with a Fusion Monster and is completely immune to opponent’s card effects.

In this near hopeless situation, Bianca performs a Terminal Draw and Fusion Summons the siblings’ ultimate Monster, Ancient Gear Blizzard Dragon, a combination of both their Aces and reduces Rantaro’s LP to 0 with the help of their Monster’s piercing damage dealing effect and Chronos’ previously set Limiter Removal.

When Rantoro was defeated, he just laughed about the absurdity of his situation and congratulated the siblings and everyone at Terminus for their glorious work, admitting he couldn’t be a prouder principal and that Terminus truly will initiate a new age of dueling. Before Chronos could receive any answers on asking once again how Rantaro turned out that way, a dark energy surrounded the principal, seemingly eating him alive until nothing of him was left.

Bianca could only look at this for a short time until Chronos collapsed thanks to his still critical condition.

The aftermath of the Evilswarm Incident was the cancellation of GX V2 despite Samejima reluctantly admitting that the victor would have definitely been Terminus. Everyone involved was properly treated to make sure Evilswarm was completely eradicated. Terminus Academy had to take care of reparations for the damage caused by Rantato. Dahlia took over the mantle of principal and had to announce that Terminus had to close down for at least one year to take care of financial and legal matters, giving everyone injured during the incident time to recover. The students were allowed to return home during that time or stay at the dormitory.

Rei and Kenzan, returned to Duel Academy, the teacher and two students chosen by Rantaro for the exchange program were taken under custody as it turned out they were spies for Rantaro. Asuka finished her internship and left as well to finish her studies.

The bedridden Chronos and Kakeru made up again and were taken care of by Dahlia, who they forgive for her involvement in Evilswarm as she was forced into it and she did her best to make up for her misdeeds. To their surprise, Chronos was writing a letter of resignation to Duel Academy. When asked about it by Dahlia, Kakeru and Bianca he told them he does that so he can give Dahlia an application to become an official teacher at Terminus after its great re-opening next year.

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