I wasn't really interested in seeing this movie, since it isn't official MCU. But my brother wanted to see it, and the Eminem song is pretty cool, so we went yesterday. And hey, it was better than I expected.

Spoilers follow for the Venom film.

The impression I got from Venom's trailers was that it was going to be some nineties grim-dark preteen boy-aimed violence-fest, so I was pleased to discover it . . . wasn't. There was humor in it, and while there was unavoidably violence, it wasn't as gory as I was expecting. I enjoyed it for what it was; the creators were faced with writing a story with a character who's normally a villain in the role of protagonist, and they did a good job with that restriction. (Interestingly, my brother had gotten the impression that it was a much better movie due to all the hype around it on the internet, and was actually disappointed by the final product. Low expectations, heck yeah!)

I was amused by the fact there was a solid premise for a non-sci fi, non-comic book story right in the opening moments of the movie. Looking past the shuttle crash and the alien organisms, I legitimately would have enjoyed a movie about Eddie Brock investigatively journalisming at Transhumanist!Elon Musk to uncover all the shady human testing elements of his business. But then, I guess it wouldn't have been a comic book movie . . .

I was skeptical of how well it would work to cast Venom as a protagonist, but the writers managed it pretty well. In the absence of a traditional hero like Spider-man, and using an equally alien but much more single-minded creature of Venom's own species as the villain, Venom does indeed feel like a character I can root for in this situation, despite its monstrous qualities being dangerous in other situations. They played up its lack of human thought and emotion in a comedic way to make it feel more ignorant of social norms, rather than outright malevolent.

I really liked the Scientist Lady with Glasses and Morals. The fact that Venom even found the right host to be able to battle Riot later on is entirely thanks to her, so I'm very disappointed that she was killed. Even that has a silver lining, though, since her death wound up inadvertently taking out the blue symbiote, which probably would have allied itself with Riot and made it harder for Venom to stop the rocket.

Minor things I liked:
*Venom basically doing a "web-shoot" while escaping Elon Musk's private military. Even though Spider-Man's not around, they had to homage Venom's origins!
*The moment during the final fight when Venom and Riot are fighting and draw away from Eddie and Elon, and the two humans have a fistfight in the middle of the roiling protoplasm. It's silly as heck, don't get me wrong, but the fact the situation is pretty much unique to this plot lets me give that a pass, because we may never get a scene like that in any other movie, ever.
*For being nothing more than a teaser for a potential sequel, there was excellent casting and acting for Guy Who Becomes Carnage Eventually. He was very eerie, even after saying he wanted to skip the serial killer stereotypes. I also loved that he was writing in his own blood, to foreshadow the role it plays in his future as a supervillain.
*Probably the most fourth wall-breaking Stan Lee cameo of all!

Minor things I disliked:
*Both Venom and Riot see a lot of convenience in hopping from host to host, but of course, this is easily overlookable for the sake of letting the plot move forward.

Uh, bonus?

doctorlit reviews "Venom" by Eminem (warning for NSFW words and the r-word learning-disabled slur in lyrics)

I don't know exactly how much creative control was wielded by Eminem himself vs. the movie creators. The lyrics are a mix of Eminem autobiography and references to Eddie and the Venom symbiote. At least the Venom properties are fairly established characters in pop culture, so the song's references to them won't feel aged once the movie fades into obscurity.

I found the music video quite amusing, with all the different people lip-syncing to Eminem lyrics—especially the little kid and the old man. It's such a reversal of the sort of face that I usually see rapping, that it's quite trip to watch.

—doctorlit, a conflicted Eminem fan

♪I'm the super spoiler Dad and Mom was losin' their marbles to♪ ♪I'm the super spoiler Dad and Mom was losin' their marbles to♪ ♪I'm the super spoiler Dad and Mom was losin' their marbles to♪ ♪I'm the super spoiler Dad and Mom was losin' their marbles to♪

Starting off with Henry Robinson and Ian Thomas Horowitz, because the idea of Space Marine–precocious child interactions amuses me. ^_^ Will no doubt bring Derik and Gall in later, once I figure out what they're wearing.

~Neshomeh

Two boys dressed as Scouts a la Attack on Titan went barreling through the crowd. Nine-year-old Henry Robinson was taller and skinnier than his ten-year-old friend, Ian Thomas Horowitz, and he used that to his advantage in order to slip between people, even if they were really standing too close together.

"'Scuse me! Pardon me! Coming through!" he called out, grinning. He was Eren Jaeger. He was flying through the air with his ODM gear, swinging through the narrow city streets, ready to whip out his sword and slice into anything that got in his way!

He didn't have a real sword, of course, and he wasn't planning to hit anybody with his pretend one—he would be SO dead if his mom found out—but that wasn't the point. The point was he was free and fast and unstoppable.

Until something, or rather someone, caught his eye and he skidded to a stop. He backed up a few steps and looked up—and up, and up some more—at the giant man in what he was pretty sure was a dragonrider's flight jacket. "Whoa," he said. He looked back the way he'd come, found his friend in the crowd, and called to him. "Ian! Hey, Ian! Come over here!"

Ian caught up, puffing a little with the effort of going around groups Henry had simply gone through. "Dangit, you're too fast," he complained. "What?"

"Do you see this guy?" Henry gestured. He was pretty sure they were far enough away not to be noticed gawking.

"Whoa," Ian echoed. Then he grinned. "Is he a Titan? Do we hafta go for the nape?"

(( I think Ian was technically adopted at some point, but then nothing ever came of it and I don't remember who adopted him, so I'm borrowing him again. If that person turns up and wants to take over, I'm all for it! ))

This rumbling proclamation from the towering posthuman did little to discourage his young human companion. “Leonidas. We’ve already been over this. As far as I know, Dozle Zabi is the only character from the franchise with a build remotely similar to yours.”

The Space Marine, the one the (much) smaller of the two Agents referred to as Leonidas, shrugged his massive shoulders. The oversized uniform of a Zeon officer seemed to be struggling to contain the warrior’s powerful form, as if at any moment he might erupt from it as a wild creature more beast than man. “Very well, Samuel. Who are you impersonating again?

“Just call me Sammy, I really don’t mind,” answered the gold-haired human boy at his side. The youth’s gray eyes peered up at his counterpart through a pair of pilot’s goggles. “I’m Quatre, remember? Pilot of the Gundam Sandrock?” The gleam of excitement in Sammy’s eyes touched a buried memory and the Space Marine’s flint-hard gaze softened slightly. "Very well..let's go." With that, they wandered into the room.

"Hi, Will!" VJ said, seeing her warlock partner walking through the RC door.

"Hullo!"



















-----

((What? That's it. She met a supernatural monster! :P))





((Okay, the actual prompt will be later))

https://archiveofourown.org/works/537879

Elanor held out her bag, beaming up at the elderly lady who opened the door for her.

"Aren't you precious," the lady said, beaming as she dropped a handful of fun-sized candy bars in Elanor's bag. "Are you supposed to be Sleeping Beauty?"

"I'm Princess Aurora!" Elanor declared proudly. She pointed toward the sidewalk. "And Mummy's Maleficent!"

The Aviator lifted a hand in greeting, accidentally knocking his horns askew. "Hullo."

The lady's smile became slightly confused. "Don't you mean your daddy, sweetheart?"

"Nope! Thank you for the candy!" Elanor shut her bag and went skipping back to the Aviator, who scooped her up.

"Kiddo, remember what I said?" he asked as they started towards the next house. "You need to call me Daddy while we're here."

"But you're my mummy," Elanor said stubbornly. "It's too weird to call you Daddy."

The Aviator kissed her nose, then blew a raspberry against her cheek. "It's Halloween," he said. "Think you can be weird for one night? You can call me Mummy when we get back home."

Elanor giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Okay, Daddy."

So basically a Focus is your magic.

Well, technically, you’re able to do any type of magic, but there’s always this one type of magic that you’re better at than the rest, so either you find out on accident or there are these people that test you for it when you’re about six or seven years old, and then learning about it becomes a part of your normal education.

Tiger was extremely confused. Normally that was a very rare occurrence, but anyone would be confused by the situation Tiger was currently in.

He was meant to be working together with his sister to fight a Changer, which was a shapeshifting monster which could only be defeated by exploiting its weakness – but the problem was, different Changers had different weaknesses and there was no way to tell which weakness any Changer had.

This particular one was large and seemed to be made of purplish-black mist which was constantly changing shape. That made it a lot harder to attack in any way, because it would just change to avoid the attack.

Magic, on the other hand, couldn’t be dodged and most Changers couldn’t block it either, which gave them one weapon – but there was only so much magic they could use and they didn’t know which spells to use.

Holly shot a Freezing Spell at the Changer, but it had no effect. Tiger, meanwhile, was trying to think of possible weaknesses to attempt to work with. So far, he’d tried wind, fire and water, but none had worked.

The logical next choice was water, but his magic was running dangerously low and he doubted that Holly would try in any way to save him.

That was when the Changer decided to attack. It charged directly towards Holly, who quickly raised a magical shield to keep it away. It then turned on Tiger.

Heart pounding, he tried to summon a shield as Holly had done, but in his nervousness he mispronounced the spell and it didn’t work.

There was no chance for a second attempt. He tried to run, but it was already too late. As the tendrils of mist began to engulf him, he screamed. To his surprise, the mist retreated a little.

Surprised, he screamed again and this time the monster moved away from Tiger. Holly, seeing what was going on, screamed too and the eerie sound echoed through the still valley. A few banshee-like howls later, the purple mist melted away.

“Seriously?” said Tiger. “Its weakness is screaming?”

That's right, these prompts are sure to put shivers down your spine. In fact, some people may see them as a Thriller.

Prompt 1: One of your characters meets a supernatural monster

Prompt 2: One of your characters attends a more traditional celebration of Halloween**

**including Samhain, Allhallowtide and anything else you know of from any canon you know of.

Hope you have fun.

Novastorme

Kat glared at her brother, one hand on the door handle.

“I’m not sulking! I’m being in character!” Edward was dressed as a zombie, and he was walking like one too: arms stretched out in front, staggering from side to side.

“Don’t be silly! Just because I dragged you to this party doesn’t mean you can act stupid! I don’t know about you, but I’m here to have fun and socialise, not to have an embarrassing brother trailing after me!”

“I’m hardly the most embarrassing person in HQ. Anyway, this is a complete waste of time.”

“Shut up,” said Kat, adjusting her witch’s hat with one free hand. “How do I look?”

“Like my sister.”

Kat rolled her eyes, pushed open the door and stepped through. Edward lurched after her, hissing “Brains...”

“I said, shut up!”

I have a hunch that more people get banned during then because all the Scratch Team-sponsored LGBT stuff makes those who are even mildly homophobic immediately come out of the woodworks so they can get banned or at least one step closer to being banned. It wouldn't be so bad if the folks affected didn't include all the little kids who don't yet understand how gender and sexuality works and make mistakes that get overreacted to by Scratch's LGBT+s and get the kids reported. (By the way, the whole of the LGBT+ people on the Board get my thanks for being so mature and such a breath of fresh air compared to Scratch.)

And yes, scratch.mit.edu's Community Guidelines actually do prohibit linking to other websites. But nobody enforces that. Except the time I got reported for asking a friend to get on Flockmod with me.

-Twistey

One suggestion I have is that you should probably cut down on the Suvian traits for Destiny, since the story doesn't sound like it's a parody, and also, you really shouldn't refer to anything non-PPC as a "Suvian", because it's terminology exclusive to us, and outsiders would either be confused or look it up and discover us. Unless your story is a parody, the types of people who read it won't be limited to the types of people who we want here/who won't yell at us for existing.

Another suggestion: Perhaps you should expand a bit on what genre this is in, so that you either have a justification for Destiny's strange last name or (if it's urban fantasy), you can change the name. Behindthename.com has a joint site with last names in it, so if you want to, you can start there.

Finally: Expand on what a Focus is. Aside from the band. *BEGINS YODELING* :D

-Twistey
(The yodeling was a reference to this song, which I consider my personal theme song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV0F_XiR48Q)

But on the other hand, that's sort of what the Reality Room does. Drop a Suvian in there, and everything that doesn't make sense no longer functions. This may have the side-effect that the subject can no longer survive, which is why it's been used as an assassination method a couple of times. That works by isolating the Suvian from the Word Worlds so that their ability to manipulate narrative-based reality is denied. I don't know if there's a way to make that portable.

I think the reason a typical exorcism wouldn't work on a Suvian or character replacement is that, if you're going to drive out an evil influence, there has to be an influence-ee left behind that's worth saving. The whole conceit behind Suvians needing to be assassinated is that there's nothing salvageable about them. Suvians aren't under an evil influence; they ARE the evil influence. Charge lists exist to determine that this is the case, and that they're not just a mediocre character that could be improved with a bit of work.

~Neshomeh

For future reference, posting a public link to a work is basically the same as publishing it, so we advise not doing that when you're still looking for betas. In this case, it was confusing, too—I thought it might be a strangely worded Permission request. {= )

Can't commit to a beta until I finish the other beta I started... uh... way too long ago. (I'm sorry. My life has been weird the last few weeks. >.< )

~Neshomeh

“Out, uncanon abilities and-slash-or powers!”
But seriously. Could you a dictionary to exorcise “illiterate influence”? And if you exorcised the uncanon abilities, then it would be much easier to kill the Sue, or you could recruit them.

So this is a story idea that I’ve been entertaining for some time, but I never actually got around to writing it; https://docs.google.com/document/d/13C1uK1X3coWktdIT5IcAYKB3jCiBpa3ZJkeAqB6Bwhg
Adding on to what’s in the docs, so- this is going to be long, possibly over complicated, and maybe a bit weird. So it’s about these two foster sisters, and one is supposedly the hero from some prophecy, and also has Suvian Traits, and the other, who is bitter, jealous, and likely to betray her foster sister, is sent with her to defeat the villain, but then they find out somewhere along the journey that they are actually twins, and the Sue has only half a soul.

And then they find out that the villain thinks the “darker” twin is the hero of the prophecy and it’s just very confusing.

And THEN they find their mom, who got captured by the villain, and she tells them that she only had one kid?

So they just loop back to the guy who told them that the Sue has only half a soul, and it turns out the other twin also has half a soul?

So it’s just like... they’re the same person, holy sh*t.

And after they defeat the villain, they spend a long, long, time figuring out what to do, because they grew up differently, and they have different views on the world and friends and stuff, and... yeah.

sorry forgot to mention it.

1: Yeah I've been on and off the Discord for a while. There are people who know who I am.

#2: Yeah both.

RPs are open to anyone who can think up a character for them, and do not require permission, as they aren't a part of canon.

...Well, unless someone with Permission canonicalizes it, or aspects of it. but then the continuity starts to get even more tangled.

This happened last year, 'frinstance. My Agent Thoth and Agent Tom canonically met Agents Gall and Derik at a Halloween party, where they also met up with Agents Ix and Charlotte... who, as I understand it, were canonically never at any such party and definitely didn't meet up with a rather drunk Space Marine and a considerably more drunk former Dragonrider. Or maybe they didn't meet at that party, but rather met at a halloween party considerably like that one with mant of the details of that one but that wasn't that one and wasn't a roleplay.

Confused? Good. That means it's working.

The point is, don't worry. You're fine to join.

I'll go grab a few characters. Thoth and Tom, no doubt, and a bit of whoever else I feel like. We'll see.

Soo... Jerks who are overly protective of their IP, assumptions they're the center of the universe, the "those who have left should be treated like they're dead" mentality, and an aversion to any sort of conflict.

What is the "executions month" thing?

Also, it's weird to see the whole forbidding of mentioning other places you can go if you want to be challenged more thing, because, of course, AT was all about being challenged more, whether by hacking Scratch itself or by working on Something Completely Different.