Think of this as nailing my thesis about Robby's name to the door of the fandom. Its Rabbot, its got a preview of maybe another fic I'm working on, and its full of all your favourite cicak nonsense!!! and by that I mean its got a lot of filthy sex, oh yes. you know you can count on me for the good stuff.
wrote my review of the new Robbie Williams album but only as notes one-handed on the bus in on my way to a gig, I’ll refine it for the Sunday show but this is basically it
Robbie Williams - Britpop
As you follow the album, you’ll realise why it’s called Britpop. Britpop not necessarily as the period of music in the 90s during which Robbie and his hugely successful pop group Take That were active, alongside Britpop acts like Blur, Pulp, Oasis. No, that’s just a bit of clever wordplay. When Robbie says Britpop, he’s thinking more in terms of the breadth of British pop music. The album has references all over the place. From enlisting metal pioneer Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath guitarist) to guest on the raging opening track, a bit of David Bowie’s wham bam thank you ma’am on political zinger Bite Your Tongue, to Morrissey on the bizarre love letter he co-penned with former Take That bandmate Gary Barlow, to his own signature balladry on the solo penned All My Life. Richard Ashcroft and Oasis from the original Britpop Wave get a shoutout too on it’s okay until the drugs stop working.
Some songs on the album are genuine bangers, there’s some good writing on the album, like All My Life, which is Robbie doing the pop ballads he does best, to his Tony Iommi collaboration which is genuinely the best song on the album, to songs like Bite My Tongue, which hold Robbie in good stead as a songwriter who can write a political pop song with decent depth.
On the other hand, the references the album can be a bit tacky and on the nose, some songs like Cocky are genuinely awful.
Robbie’s a chameleon - many different styles of music on the album, from the softer pop and ballads he’s known for to heavier music, gives him a chance to flex his muscles as a performer
Pretty Face - Green Day, 2009 ish + hello how low Teen Spirit Nirvana
Bite Your Tongue - Robbie ironically doesn’t bite his tongue on a political scorching pop punk song with 80s synths, with a slight nod to Mike skinner/the Streets on the verses, whose adidas track jacket look may have influenced the cover artwork too.
Morrissey - Williams empathetically attempts to address the underlying issues of the boy with the biggest thorn in his side: former Smiths singer Morrissey. Calling the crooner “lost, lonely, hurt, abused and in need of love”, the song co-authored with his Take That bandmate Gary Barlow turns into a bizarre love letter with the chorus “Morrissey is talking to me code/Morrissey, it’s just you and me, come let me hold you for rest of your life”.
Whatever else can be said of Robbie Williams, can certainly be said that he's a good marketeer because of course that song is making headlines. And it’s damn catchy.
Tyrantis Roams the Earth! [Cope, William David] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Tyrantis Roams the Earth!
I did a four part series of trivia posts when ATOM Volume 1: Tyrantis Walks Among Us! came out, and that was pretty fun! You can see that set of trivia posts here if you’d like. I thought it’d be fun to do another now that ATOM Volume 2: Tyrantis Roams the Earth! is out - just one this time, because a lot of the trivia I talked about with Volume 1 still applies.
I’m gonna divide this into two sections: non-spoiler trivia, for things that really don’t give a lot of plot points away, and spoiler trivia, for things that DO give away major plot points. I recommend not reading the spoiler trivia until after you’ve read Tyrantis Roams the Earth!, for obvious reasons, and will put the spoiler trivia under a cut.
Ok, let’s go!
- So if you read ATOM Volume 1, you probably noticed that the book is split not only into chapters, but “episodes,” which consist of four chapters a piece. It’s kind of a nod to how the series owes a great deal of its DNA to various monster of the week shows, with Godzilla: the Series and The Godzilla Power Hour being obvious influences. It also allowed me to pepper in some illustrations and cheesy b-movie style titles into each volume.
- The first “episode” of Volume 2, Tyrantis in Tokyo, pays explicit homage to the giant monster movies of Japan, perhaps even moreso than the chapters that came before it. Given how much Japanese media influenced ATOM - from tokusatsu like the Godzilla, Gamera, and Ultraman franchises to anime like Digimon and Evangelion (hell, the title of this episode itself is a tip of the hat to Tenchi Muyo by way of one of its spinoffs) - it kind of felt obligatory that Tyrantis visit Japan and pay his respects.
- Tyrantis in Tokyo also fits in a tribute to another staple of Atomic Age pop culture: Rock and Roll.
- Kutulusca, the giant cephalopod that appears in Tyrantis in Tokyo, is one of the oldest kaiju in this series, dating back to the first iteration of Tyrantis’s story that I put to paper back in 2001 or so. It’s changed a lot since then, but its fight with Tyrantis goes more or less the way it originally did.
- Old Meg, the giant placoderm/shark, and Nastadyne, the bipedal beetle, both owe their existence directly to Deviantart’s Godzilla fandom. Old Meg originated as a dunkleosteus monster I submitted to a “create a Godzilla kaiju” contest held by Matt Frank, while Nastadyne is based on a Megalon redesign I made during the “redesign all the Godzilla kaiju” phase of DA’s kaiju fandom.
- The second episode, Tyrantis vs. the Red Menace, gets dark as we visit the USSR, which had enough REAL horror with atomic power in its history to make creature features seem a bit defanged by comparison. It’s probably the episode with the strongest horror elements - ATOM’s always been influenced by Resident Evil, and this is probably where that influence shows the most strongly.
- It also features the first fully robotic mecha in the series, the mighty Herakoschei! Its name is a combination of “Heracles” and “Koschei the Deathless,” with the former part being added by its Russian creators to make it seem a bit more international as they offer it to the U.N. in hopes of gaining aid for a very extreme kaiju problem they’ve developed.
- Most of Tyrantis vs. the Red Menace takes place in the Siberian Monster Zone. Its name is a reference to the Lawless Monster Zone in Ultraman, which is such a cool fucking name I wish that I wish I could go back in time and steal it.
- The next episode, Tyrantis’s Revenge, is... full of spoilers, so we’ll move on for now.
- The penultimate episode, Tyrantis vs. the Martian Monsters, is a love letter to MANY different sci-fi stories that involve life on Mars, though the most prominent of them is of course The War of The Worlds (one of my top 3 favorite books) and its various adaptations. From its tentacles sapient martians, the tripodal leader of the titular monsters whose name includes the word “ulla” which is uttered by said sapient martians, the plant monster made of red vines, the cylinder-shaped spacecraft the Martian monsters are sent to earth on, the copper-skinned stingray-esque flying martian who shoots lasers from its tail, and the fact that every chapter title in this episode is a quote from the book, the H.G. Wells influence is STRONG.
- The final episode, Invasion from Beyond!, is shamelessly inspired by Destroy All Monsters, although there’s a dash of “To Serve Men,” Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, and The Day the Earth Stood Still mixed in as well. It’s also sort of a tribute to my first “published” bit of a kaiju fiction - a rewrite of Destroy All Monsters that included EVERY Godzilla monster that had appeared at the time, which my middle school self wrote back in 2002 or so for Kaiju Headquarters, a kaiju fansite I’m not sure exists anymore. Invasion from Beyond! is just as ambitious (but hopefully better executed) as my DAM Remake, with dozens upon dozens of different kaiju duking it out, earthlings vs. aliens.
- There were three different documents I made to outline the final battle of Invasion from Beyond! It’s the largest episode of the series so far and more than half of it is that fucking fight. My inner child is pleased, though, so hopefully you will be too.
Ok, that’s all I can share without spoilers. READER BEWARE WHAT FOLLOWS BELOW THE CUT!
JUST MAKING SURE you know that SPOILERS will follow from here on out. Read at your own peril! YOU WERE WARNED!
(I’m gonna start with lighter ones just in case you scrolled too far and want to turn back)
- There’s a number of explicit Spielberg homages in ATOM Volume 2, from a “we need a bigger boat” joke during a chase with a giant shark to the fact that Invasion from Beyond! opens with a group of people flying to an island of monsters to review whether or not it should get more funding.
- When Tyrantis appears in the first chapter, I snuck in modified lyrics of The Godzilla Power Hour’s theme song. “Up from the depths”... “several stories high”... “breathing fire”... “its head in the sky”... Tyrantis! Tyrantis! Tyrantis!
- The two rock bands in Tyrantis in Tokyo have real life inspirations ala Gwen Valentine, albeit a bit more muddled than hers. The Cashews are inspired by The Peanuts (see what I did there), while The Thunder Lizards are a mix of The Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Buddy Holly, and the Big Bopper. I wanted The Thunder Lizards to be more akin to the myth of a famous rock and roll band than the reality - less the real Beatles and more the Yellow Submarine cartoon version of them.
- The song The Thunder Lizards write for Tyrantis was written to fit the tune of “The Godzilla March” from Godzilla vs. Gigan, though ideally if someone made an actual song of it it would be its own song. I got the idea from Over the Garden Wall, which used the Christmas song “O Holy Night” as a a starting point for “Come Wayward Souls.”
- Perry Martin, UNNO reporter and peer of Henry Robertson, is a nod to Raymond Burr, with his name being a combination of two of Burr’s most famous roles: Perry Mason, and Steve Martin from Godzilla King of the Monsters (1956).
- Dr. Rinko Tsuburaya is a few homages in one. Her name comes from Rinko Kikuchi (who played Mako Mori in Pacific Rim), while her last name is obviously in homage of Eiji Tsuburaya. Her being the daughter of an esteemed scientist is inspired by Emiko Yamane from the original Gojira.
- Nastadyne’s Burning Justice mode is named after a similar super mode from various Transformers cartoons, though it’s more directly inspired by the Shining/Burning Finger super move from G Gundam.
- Martians sending kaiju to different planets via shooting them out of cannons (with or without cylinder spaceships around them) is another War of the Worlds shoutout. So is martians living on Venus after their homeworld was made uninhabitable, actually.
- Kurokame’s vocalizations are described as wails in explicit homage to Gamera. His name can be translated as either “black tortoise” (a reference to the mythical guardian beast Genbu, which can also be construed as a Gamera reference thanks to Gamera: Advent of Irys implying Gamera and Genbu are one and the same) or a portmanteau of the Japanese words for crocodile and turtle - “crocturtle.”
- Burodon’s name is just a mangling of “burrow down.” It also sounds vaguely like Baragon, who Burodon is loosely inspired by. AND, since Burodon is sort of a knockoff/modified Baragon, that kinda makes him a reference to various monsters in Ultraman!
- The final battle of Tyrantis in Tokyo is sort of a hybrid of the finales of Ghidorah the 3 Headed Monster and Destroy All Monsters.
- The Japanese kaiju teaching Tyrantis the art of throwing rocks at your enemies is both a joke on the prominence of rock throwing in Japanese kaiju fights AND the tired trope of an American hero learning secret martial arts from a Japanese mentor ala Batman, Iron Fist, etc. In this case, the secret martial art is throwing rocks at people.
- When introduced to Herakoschei and its pilot, we are told that the strain of piloting this early mecha is so intense that many pilots have died in the process, with the current one passing out on more than few occasions. This is of course a Pacific Rim homage - sadly, no one invents drifting.
- Herakoschei’s design is a loose homage to Robby the Robot and Cherno Alpha, because big boxy robots are cool.
- The Writhing Flesh and ESPECIALLY Pathogen are both hugely influenced by Resident Evil and The Thing. Giant body horror piles of raw flesh, tendrils, mismatched mouths and limbs may be a bit outside the main era of monster design ATOM homages, but they fit the themes and bring a nice contrast.
- I came up with Pathogen long before Corona but MAN it definitely feels different in 2021 to have a giant monster whose name is a synonym for disease driving other creatures crazy in a quarantine zone than it did when I plotted out the story in 2016.
- The chapter title “Hello, Old Foes” is a riff on “Goodbye, Old Friend”
- Minerva, the kaiju-fied clone of Dr. Lerna, is meant to be an homage to Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, which is a genuinely good giant monster flick. I am sure many of you will also believe I included her because I’m a pervert whose into tall women, but you’d be wrong! I included the seven foot tall Russian mecha pilot Ludmilla Portnova because I’m a pervert whose into tall women. Minerva’s inclusion was just coincidental, I swear!
- Since Promythigor is a play on the archetypal ape kaiju to contrast Tyrantis as a play on the archetypal fire-breathing reptile kaiju, their fight has a lot of nods to King Kong movies. Promythigor attempts the famous jaw-snap maneuver of Kong (with less success), J.C. Clark paraphrases the “brute force vs. a thinking animal” line from the King Kong vs. Godzilla American cut, and Tyrantis slides down a mountain to knock Promythigor off his feet in a reversal of Kong doing the same in King Kong vs. Godzilla.
- Tyrantis sliding down a mountain on his tail doubles as a Godzilla vs. Megalon homage.
- Though Promythigor is the archetypal Ape and Tyrantis the archetypal Fire-Breathing Reptile, I think it’s fun to note that in some ways, Promythigor is the Godzilla equivalent in their matchup, and Tyrantis the Kong. Promythigor has a slight size advantage, was scarred by humans performing unethical weapons technology, and is associated with violent explosions. Tyrantis is a good-at-heart prehistoric beast who humanized in part by his unlikely friendship with a human woman.
- Of course, in the context of the famous quote from the American cut of King Kong vs. Godzilla, they remain in their archetypal lanes. Promythigor is the more intelligent of the two (though not necessarily wiser), and Tyrantis is in many ways a brute reptile. Their battle is a rebuttal of sorts to the assertion that Kong is the “better” animal because he is closer to human. Promythigor’s near human creativity and emotions don’t make him the kinder/more benevolent monster, but instead fuel a very self-centered and destructive attitude that makes him the far more dangerous threat. On the other hand, Tyrantis, who is less intelligent, limited in communication with others by his reptilian mindset and instincts, and simple in his thoughts and desires, is nonetheless a sweet creature that is easily dealt with when others consider his animal needs and mindset. There’s a quote from Hellboy I love that probably sums up all of my writing thus far: “To be other than human does not mean the same as being less,” and that’s what the matchup between these two in particular tries to illustrate: the “less” human Tyrantis is nonetheless more benign than the “more” human Promythigor.
- Kraydi the psychic lizard began life as a soft sculpture I made of the Canyon Krayt Dragon from The Wildlife of Star Wars. The sculpture didn’t look much like the illustration, but I liked how it came out, and so I made it an original monster named Kraydi (see what I did there). Figuring out an explanation for that name in ATOM’s world was possibly the most difficult kaiju naming task in the series, but it worked out in the end.
- Kraydi and Promythigor having psychic powers is a result of my time on Godzilla fan forums in my middle school years. Most of the forums had OC kaiju battle tournaments, and SO many of those kaiju had a wide array of beam weapons and psychic powers just to win the tournaments by beam-spamming and mind controlling their foes into oblivion. There’s a special kind of rage you get when your original creation is beaten by “Fire Godzilla” because he has a genius level intellect and the power of unstoppable telekinesis. Kraydi began as (and still is I suppose) my attempt to do a psychic kaiju well, while Promythigor’s villainy being tied to psychic powers being forced on him is sort of my passive aggressive commentary on people foisting powers on a monster without any real thematic reason for them.
- Henry Robertson and Dr. Praetorius chewing out the laziness of people giving kaiju completely unaltered names of mythic beasts will probably be seen as a jab at the Monsterverse and/or the numerous writers in the kaiju OC scene who do the same, but it’s ACTUALLY a jab at my past self, who had DOZENS of kaiju whose names were just Greek mythological figures verbatim. There are dozens of kaiju named Hydra, Scylla, Charybdis, Chimera, etc., past me, try to make the names stand out! Oh wait you did. I mean, don’t pat yourself on the back too much, you still went with “Mothmanud” as a canon name and never came up with something better, but, like, good on ya for trying I guess.
- Dr. Praetorius takes his name from the evil mad scientis in Bride of Frankenstein, who basically has all the wicked traits that Universal’s Frankenstein downplayed in their take on Dr. Frankenstein. Ironically, ATOM’s Dr. Praetorius is a bit less evil than his fellow mad scientists in ATOM. I really like how his character turned out, he surprised me.
- Isaac Rossum, the pilot of the USA mecha Atomoton, is named for Isaac Aasimov, whose robot stories are to robot fiction what Lord of the Rings is to high fantasy. His last name is a reference to Rossum’s Universal Robots, which is where the word “robot” came from.
- The unfortunate pilots of MechaTyrantis in ATOM Volumes 1 and 2 are all nods to Jurassic Park. John Ludlow = John Hammond and Peter Ludlow, Ian Grant = Ian Malcolm and Alan Grant, Dennis Dodgson = Dennis Nedry and Lewis Dodgson.
- A good way to pitch Invasion from Beyond! would be “what if the staff and monsters were able to fight back when the Kilaaks tried to take over Monsterland?”
- Ok, here’s a fun joke that no one will get but me because it requires a very specific chain of logic based on some obscure and loosely connected nerd bullshit. There’s a rocker in ATOM’s universe named Sebastian Haff, right? One of his songs, “Darling Let’s Shimmy,” is referenced right before a mothmanud larva emerges from the ground in both ATOM Vol. 1 and 2. Ok, so, in the Bubba Hotep, an aging Elvis impersonator named Sebastian Haff claims he is actually the real Elvis Presley, having changed places with the real Sebastian Haff as a sort of Prince and the Pauper deal that went wrong. Got that? Ok, so, in UFO folklore, a common joke is the theory that Elvis didn’t die, but was rather abducted by aliens (or he actually WAS an alien the whole time - the whole “Elvis didn’t die, he just went home” joke in Men in Black is a good example of this). Ok? Ok. So, in ATOM’s universe, we can surmise that their equivalent of Elvis, whose name is Sebastian Haff, WAS abducted by aliens, and that his song “Darling Let’s Shimmy” is subconsciously influenced by his repressed memories from his time aboard the Beyonder spaceships, which is why it accidentally awoke a Mothmanud larva in Volume 1. There’s a lot of bullshit jokes I put into ATOM, but this is perhaps the bullshittiest of them all.
- One of the most common bits of feedback on ATOM Volume 1 I got was “I kept waiting for something to eat Brick Rockwell, he’s such an asshole.” And I had to smile and go, “Oh, yeah, guess he never got his, huh?” the whole time without letting on that he was going to die here all along!
- Dr. Lerna and Brick Rockwell’s nature as foils to each other is probably most apparent in Invasion from Beyond!, where both are given fairly similar situations - a nonhuman approaches them with a solution to a global crisis - and react to it very differently. I worry that some people may think they both made the same choice and got different results, and that that’s hypocrisy on my part, but I hope I wrote it so you can see how their choices and situations actually differ in key ways, and why their decisions, while similar on the surface, are ultimately very different, and thus result in almost opposite outcomes.
- So, when I planned out this book in 2016, I swear I didn’t know about the Orca from 2019′s Godzilla King of the Monsters. Having the plot hang around Dr. Lerna deciding whether or not to use a sonic device to rouse all the kaiju to save the earth was not INTENDED to be a Monsterverse reference - it came about from me looking at Pathfinder’s take on kaiju, who are all explicitly influenceable by music, and thinking, “Oh, wow, music and songs DO have a major connection with kaiju in a lot of media, I should do something with that.” Whem KOTM came out a few days after Volume 1 came out I realized I was kinda fucked here, because the comparison was definitely going to be made, but I’d also set this all up already and you can’t just change suddenly to avoid looking like a copy cat and make a good story, so... I dunno, I leaned into it a bit, but it is what it is.
- While most people will probably think they’re a reference to the Reptoids of UFO folklore, the Reptodites are more inspired by the Dinosapien of speculative evolution fame and, even morso, by the Reptites from Chrono Trigger. Me wanting to avoid the “lizard people control the government” conspiracy theory trope is one of the main reasons why Reptodites have this non-interference clause with humanity.
- Lieutenant Gray is a bunch of different humanoid aliens rolled into one - a little Hopskinville goblin, a little classic gray, a little this one weird alien with five-fingered zygodactyl hands, etc.
- There’s some Beyonder Mecha in this volume that are basically kaiju-fied versions of the Flatwoods Monster. The species that built them ALSO engineered the Mothmanuds, because connecting Mothman and the Flatwoods Monster is fun!
- Pleprah is, obviously, a one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater.
- Tyrantis’s brush with death, in addition to being so very anime, was inspired by my dad outlining how mythic heroes often have to travel to the underworld/land of the dead before they can finish their journey. It’s one of the plot points that I’ve had planned for this series since middle school.
- I’m sure some will view it as hackneyed and corny, but as a person who’s battled with depression for decades, having Tyrantis’s choice to live be the big heroic turn of the finale was very important to me. Tyrantis incorporates elements of a lot of imaginary friends I made as a kid, and in many ways he’s kind of the face of my more positive side in my head. He’s been telling me to choose to live for a while, and while maybe to an outsider it may seem hackneyed, it’s just... very Tyrantis. He chooses life and kindness in the face of pain and struggle. That’s Tyrantis.
- Tyrantis’s powered up form is called “Hyper Mode,” which is another Gundam reference. Originally it was a lot gaudier and involved him turning gold like a fuckin’ Super Saiyan. I opted for something a little more toned down here.
- Also, speaking of KOTM references, I decided to make Hyper Mode Tyrantis’s final duel with Pathogen be a sort of foil to Burning Godzilla’s final bout with Ghidorah in KOTM. Instead of ravaging the city, Hyper Tyrantis’s pulse of energy rejuvenates his fallen allies, and as a result he is “crowned” not out of fear for his supremacy in the wake of killing a powerful enemy, but in gratitude for his kindness. See? Leaning into it!
- And now I can finally reveal that Yamaneon is ATOM’s equivalent of The Monolith Monsters - that is, a kaiju that is also a mineral. I took the “strange continuously growing rock” thing in a very different direction, though, as unlike The Monolith Monsters, Yamaneon is actually alive.
- At various points in the pre-writing process, either Promythigor, MechaTyrantis, or both were going to die fighting Pathogen. I ultimately decided to let them both live, with MechaTyrantis even getting his flesh and blood body back, because I think it’s more interesting and thematically consistent that way. They get a chance to heal their wounds by changing their ways.
- The Great Beyonder and Dorazor both almost didn’t make the cut, as I felt they didn’t have the same pull as villains that Pathogen, Promythigor, and MechaTyrantis did. But then I thought that could actually be the gag - build them up as the final boss, only to have Pathogen take their crown. I want to explore post-face turn Dorazor a bit more, though. We’ll have to see about that in a later volume.
- Volumes 1 and 2 make up what I call “The Ballad of Tyrantis Arc” for ATOM. I call it that because Tyrantis’s storyline in these two volumes was patterend after Chivalric ballads like Yvain the Knight of the Lion. Tyrantis, a heroic warrior who is kind but dumb of ass, learns of strange goings on outside his home and investigates. During his journey into the unknown he falls in love with a powerful woman, whose favor he tries to win. Through happenstance he is separated from his love and, distraught, wanders around fighting various foes to prove his worth, before finally returning to his love a better hero. Invasion from Beyond! could even be seen as a sort of Morte d’Artur, with Tyrantis and a bunch of other kaiju heroes (including Nastadyne and Kemlasulla, who are built up as Hero Kaiju of Another Story) take part in a huge battle that threatens their idealic kingdom (of monsters).
- Volume 2 isn’t the end of ATOM, but it’s designed to work as an ending if you want to tap out here. As a reader I feel a definitive ending is important, but as a writer I’m always tempted to revisit my beloved characters, so I feel giving closure while leaving a few doors open for possible future adventures is a good compromise between these positions. There will be more ATOM stories, some (but not all!) following Tyrantis and Dr. Lerna, but if you want to know that Tyrantis and Dr. Lerna get an ending and the resolution to their arcs such a thing promises, here you go. An ending, if not THE END.
Pairing: Loki x Reader PLUS a lot of the Avengers and more
Summary: Bored, you and Loki come up with another use for the helium gas tanks...
Note: After writing THIS Chat I couldn´t stop myself writing a oneshot upon getting an adding idea whispered into my ear by @bluedemonsblog
Hope you´ll have fun!!
In the Livingroom of Tony´s Tower hundreds of balloons cling to the ceiling. Black ones, white ones all swaying in the constant flow of air from the vents that provided you with fresh air.
“This is about the quadrillions balloon I am pumping helium into. Why does Tony always have to go over the top?” You said a little antagonized.
“I HEARD THAT!” came Tony´s yell from the bar that he was currently stocking up with high end booze. “GOOD, YOU BETTER!” you grinned a little as you filled yet another balloon.
“I am going over the top for the Team (Y/N), To boost the mood before the next mission! You better have a good time or I will make you!” Tony held up his gauntlet and a bottle of Vodka.
“Choose which one I will use against you!” He had the audacity to grin.
Thor, who was sitting next to your left with his lap full of empty balloons looked tired.
“We had a rhythm. I hand the balloons, You fill, Loki knots.”
Loki, sitting bored in a chair next to your right just waved his hand and the balloon is sealed close.
„Oh the jooooy!“ His eyes rolled back and so did his head.
Bored out of your mind yourself you said “I know what would be fun!” Lokis head snapped up at that. “Fun?” Nodding you grinned a little “Don´t knot the next!” Filling the balloon to its maximum you took it to your mouth and inhaled the gas inside.
Your voice instantly is high pitched as you started to talk
“I am (Y/N), burdened with inglorious purpose to fill those rubber-sheaths with gas”
Thor looked at you a bit unsure at first but very soon started to laugh his ass off and took the balloon out of your hands and inhaled himself. Loki smirked, but wasn’t yet convinced that this was fun.
“I am Thor, God of Thunder...” Thor started in a high voice which brought tears to your eyes, but Loki’s comment made you hold your belly.
“You sound like someone hit you with your hammer where it REALLY hurts!”
Thor´s laugh sounded even funnier in his high voice. Loki watched you and leaned forward with a gleam in his eyes that spelled TROUBLE..
“You, my Darling still need to learn about FUN. Let me teach you!” Taking the gas tank with one and your hand with the other he started to walk.
“Where are we going?” you asked with a normal voice again.
“We, my love, are going to find Bruce and make The Hulk inhale the gas! THAT will be fun!” Loki smiled at you and grinned at Tony who just stared in shock? Awe? Horror? You couldn´t describe the look he threw you.
Thor on the other hand jumped out of his chair and followed you.
“I NEED TO SEE THAT!”
Well, sadly there was nothing to see, because Banner wasn´t cooperating. He really didn´t want to change into The Hulk shortly before Tony’s Party and probably SMASH everything that he got into his big, green hands. Every trick you tried to cajole him was received with deaf ears. Thor even tried to aggravate Bruce to make him change but that didn´t work either.
“You are a Party trooper!” Thor said with a little pout.
“I believe you mean Party Pooper, brother.” Loki said and sat the gas tank back down.
Bumped you looked at Loki. “I don´t want to finish the decorations by hand.. could you not… you know…” Loki leaned in and said next to your ear.
“Well, darling, I could but how will you make me do it?” Oh that inuendo in his voice…
Banner and Thor sighed and looked at each other while saying “Get a room!”
Laughing Loki turned and looked at his brother.
“We do have one, and better don´t come looking for us in the next…lets say…3 hours!”
With that the both of you were gone and the decorations were finished.
Thor yelled “Better be ready in 3 the party starts by then!”
Loki really knew how to fill the most of the 3 hours. Showering and dressing up in a hurry after he had made you beg and beg some more, he stood behind you to close the zipper of the little black dress you had chosen to wear. “You look ravishing darling!” Smiling you turned and looked at him in his black suit. “You already ravished me…a lot…but thank you. You look very handsome yourself!”
Giving this stunning god a kiss you finished your hair and makeup and let him watch you while you did it. Loki liked being near you, he liked to be touched by you and he loved it that he could call you his own. It had taken a while until he could let you in like that, but you had made it under his armour and into his heart. The two of you became a mischievous double who liked to play pranks on everybody in the Tower. Mostly you had a somewhat funny idea and Loki took it to another level with his prowess.
“It really was a bummer that Bruce didn´t cooperate earlier.” You said as the both of you walked into the wide open space of the Livingroom overlooking New York.
“Don´t fret love, we do have something up our sleeve, I believe that is the right saying.”
Looking at Loki you grinned. “It is, and I can´t wait for it!”
Loki stole a kiss but soon got manhandled off of you by his brother and Clint.
“Enough lovey-dovey you had 3 hours… Time for a party!”
“Brother if you think 3 hours are enough I pity the women you lay with!” Loki deadpanned to the hoots of Clint and Tony who came offering drinks.
The party was fun, everybody was there who you could think of. Nat, Clint, Cap, Bruce, Thor, Vision, Wanda, Strange,... Even Fury was there for a little while before he got called and had to leave again. With a grumpy face he stood in the elevator and yelled “Don´t get all drunk, in case anything happens and I need you ungrateful lot!” Cap, saluted with a grin and a drink in his hands. He was the most level headed of the people around you and even he let loose tonight.
Some drinks and dances into the evening Loki sat down next to you, hijacking your lips for a moment before leaning back and watching Tony and Bruce fumbling with the karaoke machine.
“Do you need assistance with that?” He asked teasingly and smirked.
“Shut up, you wouldn´t know how to attach different cables if your life depended on it!” Tony fussed.
“Oh, he really shouldn´t have said that.” Loki said quietly and only for you before he started to grin.
“CLINT, get over here and put that thingy into this one!” Banner tried to explain.
Thor grunted a laugh. “How many PHD´s it was you got?” Everybody laughed at that and watched the three men wrestle with the machine for 5 minutes until it came alive and Tony hooked it up to his high end laptop, typing franticly before he laughed out. “HA!”
“Since you are up there, you better start singing!” Pepper threw in and Tony looked at her as if she had stabbed him in the back. Bruce wanted to get away that moment, but Tony grabbed him and hurled him back. “Oh no, you and me Bro…you and me both!”
“Are you sure you want him to sing Pepper? We ALL know what´s coming our way…and it will not be pretty!” Clint looked at Pepper, you just laughed and soon Black Sabbath started to sound out of the speakers. “IRON MAN!” Tony yelled into the microphone and Loki handed you some earplugs out of nowhere. “Thanks Love” You kissed him and grinned. Clint turned his hearing aids off but everybody else had to endure the song. Or better Tony and Banner trying to sing it!
After that Tony chose to sing another one with Thor joining him now.
Brad Paisley & Robbie Williams - "Collision of Worlds"
Loki took out your earplugs and just winked at you as you looked at him questioningly.
“Wait for it!” He grinned and motioned something with his fingers. It looked like a trigger for a spell, but you didn´t know for sure. Into the chorus of the song Tony started to sound pitchy.
He pushed some buttons and tapped on the microphone. But Thor sounded high pitched as well.
You looked at Loki who just grinned and nudged you to stay nonchalant.
With every breath they took they sounded even more like a chipmunk out of the comics.
Clint, who had turned on his hearing aids as he saw the confused look on Tony’s face began to laugh. “You sound like….” He stopped because he sounded high pitched as well. “Hahahah Clint!” Nat burst out but she too sounded just high voiced. Clapping her hand above her mouth she looked around into stunned faces. At first nobody wanted to try and talk. But then Steve took a deep breath and looked at Tony “Stop that Stark!” He squeaked and his eyes went wide as he heard his own voice. Bucky, who was standing next to him snorted and downed his drink. The liquid somehow managed that his voice sounded normal for some words “Cap you sound so strict!”
Everybody turned to Bucky and eyed him suspiciously. “Bucky Barnes! What did you do?” Steve demanded in that high voice. The normally reserved Bucky broke into laughter and the next words got higher with every letter. “I didn´t do anything Cap…”
Nat had trouble holding her laugh back but she turned to Clint and asked high pitched ad somewhat stern. “Did you put that thingy into THAT thingy, like Banner wanted?”
Clint looked at Nat with tears in his eyes and shook his head.
“I didn´t put ANY THINGY into something today!”
Thor clapped Clint on the back what made him almost tumble over
“Poor fella!” Thor TRIED to sound normal but failed miserably which made everybody cry tears of laughter. Tears streaming down your face laughing you looked at Loki who looked pleased with himself for a second. At the bar Nat said something which made everybody turn to look at Loki.
“Talk!” 3 voices sounded unison. Loki actually looked surprised and said (in an evenly high voice)
“Why is everybody looking at me?” Hearing him so high pitched made you snort ungallantly and laugh even more. “Spill it god of mischief! What did you do?” Tony demanded but couldn’t keep a straight face as he heard himself speak. Loki grinned and leaned back tacking you into his arm.
“I might have hooked the helium tanks to the air supply…”
Tony’s head snapped up to the vents and back to Loki.
“You shouldn´t have said that he can´t attach cables…” You laughed at your own voice and nudged Loki who tried to keep his cool but started to fail like everybody else.
“How many tanks?” Banner asked and looked to funny as he heard himself in that high voice for the first time. “3..” Loki said and you could see the gears turning as Banner tried to calculate how long it would last till everyone’s voice was back to normal. Tony just laughed and went back to the microphone. “To hell with it, let´s have fun. Nice Party trick Trickster!”
Loki inclined his head accepting the praise and grinned.
The fun really started after Tony and Pepper decided to sing a duet in that high voice.
Grease classic “You´re the one that I want”
Nobody could hold it together any longer and just laughed like a maniac.
That was why nobody noticed that the elevator doors opened and Nick Fury stepped into the room.
Taking in the sight he looked pissed very fast. “What the Fuck!” He swore still in his normal voice.
Tony turned to him and greeted him high pitched and laughing.
“Fury, join in the fun, which song do you want to sing? Maybe some Barry White?” Tony squeaked and just in seconds Barry White´s Never Gonna Give You Up started to play.
Fury’s nostrils started to flare.
But Tony was not done “uuuhhhh….Baby…” he moaned in his high voice the first sighs Barry normally sang in his deep, full of inuendo, voice. Everybody broke out laughing as Tony swayed his hips to the next moans. Fury took a deep breath, clearly to start screaming at everybody.
“What is this ? STARK are you TWELVE?” aaaand his voice was gone but he had talked himself into a frenzy already that he didn´t realized what was happening or how stupidly high he sounded.
“I said you should NOT get drunk in case something came up, but what did you do? Jumped head first into the next bottle of booze!” Steve had to keep Bucky up straight. Nat tried to muster SOME composure but failed as she saw Clint´s face with tears streaming down. Thor held his belly and was bend in half, falling to the floor hitting it with his fist.
“I can´t believe earth is relaying on you stupid TEENAGERS!” With his last scream he heard himself and his face fell for a second before he started to scream all over again. Insults and scolds flying out of his mouth without taking another breath. Nobody could take him seriously in that voice and after 3 minutes of unrelenting rebukes he stormed of and punched the buttons of the elevators a little to hard. He stared everybody down who dared to look at him until the doors closed.
Tumbling over yourself not ONE person in the room was left standing. Oh you would pay for that, all of you but it had been worth it. SOOOO WORTH IT…
It took some 10 minutes until you sat up holding your hurting belly. Loki twirled his fingers and you knew he cleared the air. Nobody could take anymore without having the worst aching muscles tomorrow. Actually it already was to late for that.
Wiping away the tears and clearing his throat, tony sat up and looked at you.
“That actually was a prank I did find funny! But oh, it hurts to laugh that much!”
“All for the Team!” You grinned and kissed the mischievous god next to you.
General Tags for : @drakesfiance @confessionsofastrugglingteen @inlovewithfreyamikaelson @heart-shaped-hell @theoneanna @marikochi @xxxeatyourh3artoutxxx
