The Golden Herondale

M’gann was somewhat relieved and un-nerved at the same time by Jace’s cool reaction to her brief summary to his question. He always handled a new threat, new challenge with such ease it was astonishing at times. M’gann moved to stand, moving towards the bathroom door, into her bedroom. “If you give me a moment, I can meet you in the kitchen…I’m going to put something more comfortable on.” She motioned to her jeans and the tank top which had beads of water soaked into the collar. “I promise to answer any and all questions to my knowledge…” M’gann promised holding up three fingers to single scouts honor.

She didn’t wait long for his answer, nor for him to leave before she rumaged through the small amount of clothes she had tucked in a suitcase. M’gann never took any clothes out of their, nor did she unpack into any home. A soft blue t-shirt and a pair of wool shorts were her options on pajamas. “You always are so calm about anything I tell you about me…It’s refreshing and alarming.” She admitted honestly, tucking hair behind her ear, as she adjusted the sling off her arm to remove her tank top.

For a moment, Jace stayed and watched her. There was nothing lewd about it and later it would have been hard for him to say if she had undressed or not.

He watched the way she moved.

Graceful, yes, but not the loose and effortless grace given to Clary by her Angelic blood. It was the careful, composed grace of discipline and a kind of pride that had nothing to do with ego.

Her words startled him out of his observation and he realised that he should have left the room. Now that he had been acknowledged, he shrugged, folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall, feet crossing at the ankles. "I fight demons on a daily basis and my parabatai is dating a warlock. Aliens and telekinetic powers really aren't that unusual."

M’gann shook her head a bit, “No, no, not paperwork. I was gonna ask if you could help me make a snack in the kitchen…People here are still off put when I use my powers to move objects and one handed it’s hard.” She explained before his next topic of discussion put her off guard. M’gann waited patiently for him to put her hair up in the towel, reaching up with her mobile arm to touch it. “These things are still one of the coolest inventions…so simple too.” M’gann noted trying to avoid the topic before rising from the chair, pulling the straps of her shirt up over her shoulders again.  

“We don’t have to tell them what they really are…we could say new form of demon…” She suggested giving him a sort of nervous look. M’gann knew it was probably a long shot that he would agree without know the full story of those creatures. “They are white monsters, creatures from Mars that eradicated almost the entire Green Martian race before taking over the planet. I’m not sure why they are here, but I figure it has to do with the alleged two green martians refugees on Earth.” She explained, her tone going flat as she tried to watch Jace’s expression, rather than invade his mind for his true feelings about what she had to say. “I don’t suppose I could explain more over a snack in the kitchen?” She suggested, giving him a small hopeful smile.

He could have made a comment about how it was obvious that people would be nervous around her. She looked like one of their own and had powers nobody within the Institute or close to it understood. Even Magnus had just shrugged elaborately and told Jace that it wasn't his problem until it was. Meaning unless M'gann caused trouble, Magnus was busy with other things, thank you very much.

Jace couldn't even fault him for that.

Her explanation made his chest expand into the long, careful intake of breath before a sigh. He had *expected* it, in a way. That she was the reason these creatures were there, right in his backyard, on the heels of one of the biggest wars the Downworld had ever seen.

That she was the reason didn't mean he blamed her for it.

It also didn't mean he didn't think that she owed him an explanation.

When the sigh rushed from his lungs, he shook his head and pushed a hand up through his hair. "They won't leave it alone.", he said finally. "If we tell them that it's some kind of new demon, they won't stop until they have figured out what it is and a lot of good people will die because we're not prepared. You get that, right?"

He caught her eyes and for a second, he seemed to search hers in the same way she could simply walk into his mind and pluck from it what she wanted. He wondered why that didn't scare him more. Why it never had. Then he shook his head to clear it and gestured vaguely to the bathroom door.

Continued from ask

She relaxed her head back against the water, her eyes clenching shut as water splashed against her skin. M’gann smiled trying to keep her mouth shut as she wiped the soapy water from her cheek with her good arm. He was so soft and gentle wringing her hair dry. “Well, thank you for divulging yet another talent to me.” M’gann teased him, tilting her head forward some to see his face again. “Also for having my back today. Otherwise a broken arm might have been worse.” She added, now trying to use her good arm to push herself back upwards into a straight sitting position.

Things with Jace had been so simple for her, where as things had been so difficult for him. Everything about him she had just learned to accept. She wouldn’t change his appearance for him, it was more to her than that. Slowly he was understanding how valuable the inside of a person was to her rather than the form they took. How she used Clary’s appearance to force him to start looking for things that were solely M’gann.  “So do you think you could help me with one more task before the end of the night?” M’gann asked curiously, widening those doe like eyes as she waited for a towel.

One dripping hand had already reached out for one of the thick, fluffy towels when she pulled her little move and his expression turned from gentle to deadpan.

"I'm not going to do your paperwork for you. I have enough of my own.", he replied without real heat to it, despite the sharp snap of the material as he pulled the towel off the rack, caused by another quick flick of his wrist. "And I also have to explain extraterrestrial monsters to my superiors on top of it."

The fact that eldritch monstrosities from outer space had been added to his plate shortly after meeting M'gann had nothing to do with his complicated feelings for her, but it surely did nothing to make his life easier.

"You still owe me an explanation what those were."

I am so sorry, but I cannot take any review of the movie seriously that claims the book was celebrating 'toxic nerd culture'. One of the biggest turning points for Wade in the book was him realising that Halliday's entire Egg Hunt is bullshit and just an old man using his fortune to force people to like all the things he liked and was ridiculed for in his youth. The book makes a point of showing how shitty that is. It does not 'celebrate toxic nerd culture', it shows how someone who was always bullied for being a nerd became himself a bully (however mild).

Yes, I liked the book. I didn't love it, but I liked it. It was easy to read, it was fun and it actually had some good points to make. But this is not the reason why I'm fuming about this.

I hate everything about the movie. The movie takes the worst, most boring parts of the book and changes so many things in a way that does not make any sense whatsoever (why the fuck did Halliday program the first trial to wait five years to show up? In the book it at least made SENSE why it took so long. Also, in the book it was a DnD challenge and I will never forgive them for not including that), they, contrary to what some reviews say, took away a lot of the depth to the OASIS and they turned it into just a one and a half hour long trailer of one cool looking but ultimately pointless scene after the other.

The film removed all the aspects of the OASIS that showed that it is more than just a place to spend your money and do some mindless gaming. It failed completely in showing that no, the OASIS is not all about the nostalgia nerd stuff. In fact, most of the OASIS is not. It is JUST the Egg Hunt.

I am usually not a person who goes 'The book was SO much better', because most of the time, the changes from book to movie make sense since it is a transition into another medium, but again, this is not the reason I am fuming.

The reason is that first we had people bashing the movie as 'just a nerd circle jerk' without having read more of the book than a synopsis and now we have people who laud the movie as better than the book on grounds that just show that they completely missed the points made in the book.

Maybe those points were just too subtle (hint: they were not!) or maybe we are just collectively losing the ability to see things in moderation and until it is spelled out in big black letters of DIS MUCH BAD PEOPLE WHO DO DIS BAD! these points completely escape most people.

My anger isn't about RPO in particular. As I said, I liked the book, but I didn't love it. My anger is about the fact that this is an instance that shows so clearly that people get away with reporting bullshit formed on half knowledge because it's fashionable to hate on a certain demographic right now. Yes, some of the points in the book were ... very heavy handed or clumsy and I was at times mildly annoyed by the name dropping (which did have a point, though) but it made some good points about how you cannot make a point blank statement about technology being bad, that it'S about moderation. It even makes a point about race and gender and sexuality in a way that is not overstated but still poignant.