Hi! I’m Avi or Mo, 22, bi/demiromantic asexual, afab nonbinary, uses they/them pronouns, majoring/screaming in Classics. I’m also at avi-writes-fic, if you want to follow my fic writing adventures! Very tired of white nonsense, white people shut up challenge
Just warning y’all now, I operate under a firm policy of talk shit, get hit (metaphorically). Why do I have that policy?
Part of it is because I am brown, and openly so, in a world that favors white people above all else. If I raise my voice in any way outside of what society deems “acceptable” I am shunned and slanted aside. Meanwhile, white people can judge me and say that I’m the one who brought this upon myself, and if I’d just kept my mouth shut about the injustices I and other POC have faced, it would be fine.
I am also afab nonbinary. I get a double shot of misogyny, transphobia, and nbphobia, from those both in and out of the trans community and LGBT+ community, as well as society at large. Even more so, I am not conventionally attractive or androgynous, and, as mentioned before, I am a POC. And the LGBT+ community has a very large racism problem, one that white LGBT+ people seem to refuse to address.
So no, I will not sit down quietly while others drive the narrative, and I will not apologize for my talk shit, get hit policy. Come on my page with hate, expect to be blocked. I don’t want you here, and neither does anyone else.
Imagine Grace defined his name as the elegance definition of grace and Rocky spends years thinking how fucking ironic this clumsy leaky space blobs name is.
Until Grace slips out a sentence along the lines of "could you give me a little grace here" and Rocky immediately points out he used a word wrong so Grace has to explain that yeah, grace means elegance but it can also mean mercy sometimes too.
And Rocky has to suddenly reconcile that the clumsy leaky blob that saved his life twice, that almost certainly doomed himself to come back for him, name is Mercy.
Selection of original-run Doc and Raider comic strips (1987–1997).
Doc and Raider was created by cartoonist Sean Martin (1950–2020). The comic strip humorously depicts the daily life of a Canadian gay couple while addressing issues faced by the LGBT+ community.
I absolutely love how they did Laboon in the live action.
Don’t get me wrong – nothing can quite beat that initial insane journey of holy shit it’s a terrifying GIANT whale, to what the fuck is up with this whale, is there a sky in his stomach, to Laboon must be protected at all costs – I love that whale!
I adore Luffy saying he knows Binks’ Brew because someone used to sing it to him, someone who left him a long time ago.
I never once considered that connection between Luffy and Laboon and I honestly feel quite foolish for that now, because holy shit.
They were both left behind by the crews that they loved not because those crews didn’t care or love them but because they did; the Grand Line would’ve made an easy meal out of those two young boys.
I loved Luffy singing Bink’s Brew to Laboon (on its own that would've been more than enough but of course they added that dance/pose).
I especially loved Luffy's speech about how yes, some people will leave you, but others will stay with you.
I really love that in particular because as much as I adore Laboon’s relationship with the Rumbar pirates and Brook; Crocus has been with Laboon for 50 years and loves him so much and he doesn't get nearly enough credit (or love) for that.
Instead of the dad who didn't want the cat; One Piece has the lighthouse keeper who didn't want the whale.
To be clear, it’s not like the Rumbar pirates chose to leave Laboon...
Well, I mean they did...
But they were 100% planning on returning in a year or two; they weren’t planning on dying.
They really did an amazing job adapting something that is in no way an easy thing to adapt to a live action medium. It's honestly amazing they pulled it off, but they did because they kept what was important, changed what they needed to, and even made some improvements.
How many minutes is more than a few? Greater than twelve. No, I don't think we've hit twelve, but it's been three to five a dozen times. Yeah, he's solid in the three to five, I get that. Anyone's great in three to five.
Deciding to Assassinate Scott Summers for the good of mutantkind. It takes ~30 mutants to stop him, but he declares victory anyway due to uniting the two divided camps against him.
Going to town on Stark Sentinels so dramatically that Rachel thinks he's acting. These things generally take 3+ strong mutants to overcome, but he tears scores of them to shreds.
'WHO'S NEXT? WHO WILL FACE THE BLADE OF MUTANT TRUTH?' Somewhere in the afterlife, Magneto senses the crown of 'most dramatic mutant alive' pass to another. Mags does reclaim it, but it's praise from Caesar.
Trying to Kill Cypher to take his place in a tournament vs an entire dimension of immortal demon gods - for his protection of course.
Refusing to let a demon take his 12th century boyfriend to hell.
It's not real but he thinks it is and jumps in there to smite the demon. The Progenitor judges him worthy of living based on this test, but he thinks it's a false idol that should be melted for scrap. He did it for love and the #aesthetic.
Altering his already extra costume to have a bare midriff, and eating a sweet potato raw in the middle of a conversation
Soloing multiple skyscraper-sized annihilation machines on Judgement Day - The Hex. He ends up bonding with one of them over their mutual love of poetry.
Exploding Sinister's head 5 times. This one is my favourite instance.
Casually rewriting Abrahamic scripture because he decided that he's Pope now
There's plenty more where that came from. The first Krakoan age made Exodus sympathetic and kept putting him in hilarious situations.
For your choose violence ask game, 1 and 12, please!
Hey there, this is fun!
1. Character that everyone gets wrong. Funnily every ask has included this, but I'm not going to repeat myself. Instead I'll find a different way to vagueblog about certain of my fellow X-Men fans.
Hank McCoy, aka the Beast, specifically his tenure as Director of X-Force. One group of people simply choose to ignore the run entirely (which is valid - if you don't enjoy then ignoring it can be healthy,) and many reduce him to war crimes memes, which is also valid. I'm definitely not defending his actions at all, but I don't often see the complicity and accountability of the Quiet Council and his subordinates mentioned. Ben Percy's choice to reboot him from factory settings was one I found unsatisfying as it short circuited any kind of trial or reckoning - and everyone else's guilt has been forgotten.
There was a teeny bit of subterfuge
Firstly, every single member of the Quiet Council was there for X-Force's formation and received reports. His first act was torturing a prisoner. There's no arguing that Krakoa needed some kind of security apparatus, but they failed to provide any guidelines, zero checks and balances. They told Hank to protect Krakoa by any means necessary and handed him a morally blank check. He chose to do the things he did but he was enabled by those who knew even after he left Krakoa. They chose to keep him out in the world as a deniable asset. Again, not to diminish his culpability but the monster that was Hank McCoy had many parents. The simple fact that he wasn't very effective at protecting Krakoa should have been cause for review, even if the ethical calculus is non existent.
His team didn't have all the information but they had enough to know better and were involved in the team in the first place. 'Just following orders' should be odious to modern readers, and even Jean chose to quit while leaving the system in place rather than do anything about it. They eventually moved to a better model, but after genocides were met with light scoldings I wasn't surprised at the degree of sunk cost fallacy Beast fell into. I wish we got a serious meditation on how you can't be the director of the CIA without damaging your soul irreparably, but I think we got enough to illustrate my point. I often wondered how he felt about everything - during the first Hellfire Gala he asked Xavier if he'd disappointed him and heard 'not yet' back - I got the impression he was outsourcing his morality and it's unsurprising that he was able to reconcile it with his actions.
Solicits for X-Men #8 show the President of Terra Verde at Graymalkin to see Beast punished for his crimes. It's a shame he can't remember any of it because it was done by someone else. There's no Quiet Council or Krakoa to punish anymore, and I'm disappointed that accountability never came for any of the guilty people.
12. The unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them.
EXODUS, baby. Two of the big themes of Krakoa were compromise and community, and Exodus' previous publication history showed he was not well suited to either (except for that bizarre time he worked for SHIELD but I ignore that.) Up to that point he'd been an obscenely powerful religious fundamentalist and mutant supremacist but hadn't had enough page time to explore that in any depth.
Seriously, his style is out of this world.
When he arrived on Krakoa and was given a seat on the Quiet Council he was absolutely both of those things, though he proved himself committed to good governance without any agenda. By being part of an ostensibly egalitarian community for the first time he became a true believer and slowly ditched his old methods of blunt force for community-building and fiercely protecting it from outside threats. He compromised while looking fabulous.
Exodus had frequent campfire educational sessions with kids, he rewrote scripture as his theology evolved (Jesus as the Nazarene Mutant is everything to me,) he put his faith in Hope and Krakoa as a polity but moreso as a people. He tried to convince Doug to die temporarily so he could take his place in X of Swords, risking permanent death. His labelling of Wanda as The Pretender was pretty uncomfortable, but after The Trial of Magneto he invited her in to tell her own story.
Then Immortal X-Men began and the 3 event comics put him through the wringer. First was Judgement Day where he fought and killed towering death machines while simultaneously leading the psychic countersiege on the Uni-Mind. He was tested by the Progenitor with a public simulation of his old boyfriend in hell. He stuck to his code and passed, but he also bumrushed a demon to free Garrington from his grasp. Exodus objected to humans being resurrected, but he still accepted Nightcrawler's argument. When Syne the Memetaur was resurrected for the last time, he rushed to fight her but lowered his fists when she started to talk about poetry. He ended up collaborating with this cthulhu that had torched Krakoa and killed countless mutants to fight a celestial and save the world for everyone. Compromise.
After Sins of Sinister, he accepted his capacity for evil and submitted to very unpleasant measures to ensure Sinister's influence was purged. When the fight kicked off he stuck to the agreement and didn't join the fight, even at Hope's request. His breakdown after he tried to kill the very obvious bad actor Selene highlighted the flaws of Krakoa's government, and played a crucial part in transition to democracy.
Fall of X prevented that being implemented, and after thrashing a ton of sentinels he pivoted to the safety of everyone else, especially The Five. When the Krakoan diaspora ended up in the desert of the White Hot Room, he wore a midriff and stepped up for 250K scared and leaderless mutants - choosing to inspire and protect instead of his old methods - he'd come full circle. His actions after that are a whole other post, but I hope I've made my point. I don't trust religious fundamentalists, generally speaking. My kneejerk reaction to Exodus was 'fuck, he's going to ruin everything' but he avoided the hypocrisy and selfishness, the refusal to allow change that underpins my experience with IRL fundamentalism. He compromised and grew, and definitely walked the walk.
Is he unhinged? Yes, fortunately. Does he have some bizarre beliefs? Absolutely, but they weren't based on nothing and he ended up being right. When Hope was prepping to sacrifice herself to rebirth The Phoenix he begged to die in her place. He was the only adult to level with Kafka and be honest with him about the reality of the White Hot Room. More than most he committed to the promise of Krakoa and put everything into making that a reality. He's also not fooling anyone with his vow of celibacy not being related to his true love dying 900 years ago.
That's right, the craziest of the crazy. French Crusader from the 12th century turned Omega Mutant hero of Krakoa. The Black Knight's boyfriend and the guy who rebuilt Xavier's brain. The guy who looked at Catholicism and said 'nah, you're all wrong. Here's the real religion and I'm Pope.' Bennett Du Paris - Exodus.
This celibate sex God. He was right... about at least one thing, though it was a very important thing. Join me for a journey into the work of a prophet - a tale of a baby, a pink guy, and a big bird.
Eating a potato raw in his midriff with Kafka. It's true, he is definitely intense.
Exodus benefited immensely from the First Krakoan Age, getting a seat on the Quiet Council and all sins forgiven. Since being awakened by Magneto after centuries asleep, Exodus followed his beliefs that boil down to Mutant Supremacy + Catholicism put in a blender and mixed with whatever extremism the writer needed at the time. He was rudderless Pre-Krakoa, both in universe and out. He didn't make a lot of sense and was used as a pseudo religious fundamentalist powerhouse/troublemaker. His character and belief system on mutants' personal Eden with battles to build solidarity and support from a community for the first time in 900 years fit perfectly.
He started to grow, chill out a little bit, had his beliefs challenged and shared. He became Apostle to the Messiah, teacher to children, puncher of dragons. He was EXTRA (that's getting its own post) and, for the purposes of this post, he started to adapt scripture. Pope stuff. We don't get to read the New New Testament according to Exodus, but several things about his theology were made crystal clear.
1. God was still God, but mutants were the chosen few.
2. The Nazarene Mutant (Jesus) was a Messiah, but not the Messiah. Hope Summers is.
3. The Holy Spirit is The Phoenix. They are one and the same.
Got all that? In X-Men Forever, the Kurt/Raven/Destiny family subplot is playing out and comes to light during a 'council meeting.'
Hope is happy for Kurt learning about his parentage and she mentions in passing that she doesn't know who her bio dad was. Exodus, true to form, declared that the Holy Spirit (The Phoenix) 'quickened the womb of...' AKA immaculate conception. Hope has little patience for this, also true to form (plus by this point she knows she is going to die soon.) They're all in the White Hot Room, you see, mutant heaven kinda and Mother Righteous killed Jean/The Phoenix. They need to bring it back to beat this nasty AI God, Enigma. It's got a lot of steps so I'll simplify it.
1. Feed Hope to The Phoenix while shooting it.
2. Jean/Phoenix/Jeanix go kill the mean AI God.
The rest of the X-Men/Mutants bounce back to Earth to kill fascists and the girls get to work. The Gun is Legion and the 'she' being referred to is The Phoenix, who's scared. They need it to stay still for the ritual to work.
The AI God learns of these plans and, making use of his access to all of time and space, visits Hope's mother before she's pregnant in his sleazy ass human form. If he's her Dad then he'd be able to influence her and stop all this Phoenix business, or better, absorb it into his greedy, nasty self. He tells her (truthfully) that she'll die soon after giving birth by fire and it will not be pleasant. In the present, Jean notices Hope starting to change (picture Back to the Future when Marty is disappearing but also not) and realises what's going on.
Jean comes in with the truth and Enigma shoots himself in the foot because he's forgotten how to be anything but a selfish dick. Louise (Hope's bio mother) says BAD VIBES and he *tortures her.* She still says fuck off cos she's cool AF.
Louise doesn't even blink and signs up to do the right thing, though she doesn't want to fuck Jeanix. As soon as she consents, Jeanix touches her forehead and it's done! Back to normal reality for her. Boom, Hope is no longer all weird and completes the ritual...
... sadly dying. Pour one out, but know that she did this willingly. Died for our sins would be pushing it, she's better than Jesus - Hope died for our lives and happiness, and to kill a shitty God.
So with all that mumbo jumbo and time travel stuff, two new pieces of information are confirmed.
1. Hope is the goddamn Messiah. ❤️❤️
2. Her previously unknown father turned out to be The Phoenix AKA the motherfucking Holy Spirit.
Let's check back with Exodus and his thoughts on the matter...
EXODUS WAS RIGHT Y'ALL.
As established, Louise was neither DTF nor pregnant. Jeanix laid hands and quickened her womb. All dictionaries agree - quickening is entirely fetus-related. The Holy Spirit created a whole ass baby and it was our Messiah, Hope. Move over, Nazarene Mutant. Move over St Peter. Hope and Exodus are here. Joyously, Cable is still her father. He just gets to be her step-sister/half-brother too. Most importantly, Exodus was right. I'm pretty sure he knows, too. (Send an ask if you want proof.) Aren't comics great?
That's right, the craziest of the crazy. French Crusader from the 12th century turned Omega Mutant hero of Krakoa. The Black Knight's boyfriend and the guy who rebuilt Xavier's brain. The guy who looked at Catholicism and said 'nah, you're all wrong. Here's the real religion and I'm Pope.' Bennett Du Paris - Exodus.
This celibate sex God. He was right... about at least one thing, though it was a very important thing. Join me for a journey into the work of a prophet - a tale of a baby, a pink guy, and a big bird.
Eating a potato raw in his midriff with Kafka. It's true, he is definitely intense.
Exodus benefited immensely from the First Krakoan Age, getting a seat on the Quiet Council and all sins forgiven. Since being awakened by Magneto after centuries asleep, Exodus followed his beliefs that boil down to Mutant Supremacy + Catholicism put in a blender and mixed with whatever extremism the writer needed at the time. He was rudderless Pre-Krakoa, both in universe and out. He didn't make a lot of sense and was used as a pseudo religious fundamentalist powerhouse/troublemaker. His character and belief system on mutants' personal Eden with battles to build solidarity and support from a community for the first time in 900 years fit perfectly.
He started to grow, chill out a little bit, had his beliefs challenged and shared. He became Apostle to the Messiah, teacher to children, puncher of dragons. He was EXTRA (that's getting its own post) and, for the purposes of this post, he started to adapt scripture. Pope stuff. We don't get to read the New New Testament according to Exodus, but several things about his theology were made crystal clear.
1. God was still God, but mutants were the chosen few.
2. The Nazarene Mutant (Jesus) was a Messiah, but not the Messiah. Hope Summers is.
3. The Holy Spirit is The Phoenix. They are one and the same.
Got all that? In X-Men Forever, the Kurt/Raven/Destiny family subplot is playing out and comes to light during a 'council meeting.'
Hope is happy for Kurt learning about his parentage and she mentions in passing that she doesn't know who her bio dad was. Exodus, true to form, declared that the Holy Spirit (The Phoenix) 'quickened the womb of...' AKA immaculate conception. Hope has little patience for this, also true to form (plus by this point she knows she is going to die soon.) They're all in the White Hot Room, you see, mutant heaven kinda and Mother Righteous killed Jean/The Phoenix. They need to bring it back to beat this nasty AI God, Enigma. It's got a lot of steps so I'll simplify it.
1. Feed Hope to The Phoenix while shooting it.
2. Jean/Phoenix/Jeanix go kill the mean AI God.
The rest of the X-Men/Mutants bounce back to Earth to kill fascists and the girls get to work. The Gun is Legion and the 'she' being referred to is The Phoenix, who's scared. They need it to stay still for the ritual to work.
The AI God learns of these plans and, making use of his access to all of time and space, visits Hope's mother before she's pregnant in his sleazy ass human form. If he's her Dad then he'd be able to influence her and stop all this Phoenix business, or better, absorb it into his greedy, nasty self. He tells her (truthfully) that she'll die soon after giving birth by fire and it will not be pleasant. In the present, Jean notices Hope starting to change (picture Back to the Future when Marty is disappearing but also not) and realises what's going on.
Jean comes in with the truth and Enigma shoots himself in the foot because he's forgotten how to be anything but a selfish dick. Louise (Hope's bio mother) says BAD VIBES and he *tortures her.* She still says fuck off cos she's cool AF.
Louise doesn't even blink and signs up to do the right thing, though she doesn't want to fuck Jeanix. As soon as she consents, Jeanix touches her forehead and it's done! Back to normal reality for her. Boom, Hope is no longer all weird and completes the ritual...
... sadly dying. Pour one out, but know that she did this willingly. Died for our sins would be pushing it, she's better than Jesus - Hope died for our lives and happiness, and to kill a shitty God.
So with all that mumbo jumbo and time travel stuff, two new pieces of information are confirmed.
1. Hope is the goddamn Messiah. ❤️❤️
2. Her previously unknown father turned out to be The Phoenix AKA the motherfucking Holy Spirit.
Let's check back with Exodus and his thoughts on the matter...
EXODUS WAS RIGHT Y'ALL.
As established, Louise was neither DTF nor pregnant. Jeanix laid hands and quickened her womb. All dictionaries agree - quickening is entirely fetus-related. The Holy Spirit created a whole ass baby and it was our Messiah, Hope. Move over, Nazarene Mutant. Move over St Peter. Hope and Exodus are here. Joyously, Cable is still her father. He just gets to be her step-sister/half-brother too. Most importantly, Exodus was right. I'm pretty sure he knows, too. (Send an ask if you want proof.) Aren't comics great?
k but imagine Rocky wanting to learn about how humans became the apex predators of their planet so he has Grace “hunt” him in the biodome as an experiment and during it he thinks Grace isn’t trying or taking it seriously which is bad bad bad because this is for research purposes
only for Rocky to get more and more tired as the experiment goes on just to realize that Grace isn’t which makes him panic so he puts as much distance as he can between them and finds a (hopefully) safe spot to sleep and when he wakes up the human is crouching over him like “got youuu” and Rocky has never shrieked so damn loud before in his life
k but imagine Rocky wanting to learn about how humans became the apex predators of their planet so he has Grace “hunt” him in the biodome as an experiment and during it he thinks Grace isn’t trying or taking it seriously which is bad bad bad because this is for research purposes
only for Rocky to get more and more tired as the experiment goes on just to realize that Grace isn’t which makes him panic so he puts as much distance as he can between them and finds a (hopefully) safe spot to sleep and when he wakes up the human is crouching over him like “got youuu” and Rocky has never shrieked so damn loud before in his life
