#BUT ALSO the surprise in me to learn of how fitting scout fighter is for eula

[chucapybara]

it's so over. disillusioned to nobility fighter scout eula lawrence. relentlessly tender paladin oath of the ancients noah kiefer. the realistic groundedness of a woman who has known pain and arduity and no longer believes in the pompous lies of her bloodline. the unadulterated kindness of a woman unashamedly devoted to the principles of good solely out of her love for a world that could never see her the same. glimpsing that purposeful naivety and believing it too innocent, only to discover it as a source of sheer will and choice to continue loving in spite of the tenets mankind has established. being such a paragon of good that the jaded cannot help but believe

[yandereforme]

Damian wayne? nah, Damian AL GHUL.

(in my perspective his al ghul blood is where he gets his yandare shii from cause yk..the al ghuls..it just fits right..)

(imagine if damian stayed in Nanda parbat)

so imagine damian going on an assasin mission in gotham and crosses paths with vigilante!reader(Female if possible xx) on the gotham rooftops where they get into a fight and for the first time, Damian loses, to a girl/woman and now he's obsessed interested in her, now I see him purposely taking missions that's from gotham just to see reader then just one night he plans a kidnapping, think several other assasins on standby so the kidnapping will be perfect and..idk anymore, I ran out of brain juice.(I'm gonna be honest this was my dream last night, and I woke up 💔)

ALSO IM SORRY IM JUST YAPPING I JUST WANTS TO TELL YOU THIS CAUSE MAYBE YOU CAN DO SOMETHING WITH IT CAUSE CAUSE I JUST LOVE YOUR WRITING 💔💔💔

also, me personally, Damian al ghul>damian wayne

I wanna ask without anon but I'm EMBARRASSED CAUSE IDK WHAT I TYPED SOUNDS LIKE WHEN SOMEBODY READS IT!! (and ik my grammar suckz ass cause English ain't my first language. far from that💔💔)

oh no I'm yapping again I'm so sorry

You are not a bother at all! I love this idea, and you don’t need to be embarrassed, that’s how I write most things lol.

Damian Al Ghul x Vigilante! Reader

I’m thinking he went to Gotham to scout out his father and his subordinates (they aren’t a focus in the post)

He completely forgets about them after he meets (and gets his butt kicked by you)

You are an independent vigilante, and you have always been that way. You avoid Batman and his birds, preferring to take care of things like human traffickers, muggings, abusers, etc.

That being said, you knew enough about the big stuff that the boy in ninja gear set off alarm bells. You were prepared for his attacks, and had your weapons at the ready

You were a badass, and wiped the floor with Damian, even pinning him down before other ninjas came out of the darkness, hellbent on you.

He yells at the others in Arabic and you take your chance to slip away. This was above your pay grade, and the Bat could deal with them. You needed to continue your patrol.

Damian was expecting an easy fight, but you surprised him. When you glared down at this boy, blood streaked across your face, eyes alight with hatred as you held him down, Damian fell hard.(I headcanon that Al Ghuls fall for/become yandere for strong fighters or general badasses, while Wayne’s tends to become yandere/protective over kindness/innocence due to their trauma)

Those idiots who interrupted his fight with his beloved were killed immediately, and he immediately set his sights on finding you again.

He found your vigilante work a worthy endeavor, but your civilian life was not up to par. You worked two jobs, both of which were meant to be taken on by peasants, not by important people like you. He admired and hated the fact you survived on your own, admiring your strength but despising what you had to do to survive.

This man will fight tooth and nail to get to go to Gotham at every opportunity. He prefers to watch you on patrol, and privately dispose of the simpletons you were surrounded by

After a while, when your room and all the supplies were prepared, only then did he set up your kidnapping. He approached you late at night, outside of your suit. You gave him another worthy fight, but this time he wasn’t going to let you get away, and knocked you out quickly.

When you wake, it will be to Damian sitting across from your bed, reading one of your favorite novels (he doesn’t like this kind of book, but as his beloved enjoys it, he will be learned on the subject).

Be prepared to have a life of being Damian’s Queen, Y/n Al Ghul. By the time you wake up, he will have already removed all traces of your past from the rest of the world, making sure you had nothing to go back to, if you were ever able to escape, so your best bet is to stay as his queen, and hopefully figure out a way out(you won’t escape.)

[flightofaqrow]

How well did Qrow fare in the tribe when he was younger? Meta ask!

send me a meta topic ** always accepting

@starfallandsilver​

an interesting way of phrasing it, which makes the true answer a mixed bag. he fought for his place, and the tribe found ways to make use of him, even if they didn’t like him.

this is such a great excuse to talk about some formative stuff i don’t usually get to expand on ooc, so excuse me while I go overboard.

at first, new, young blood which came as a pair seemed promising. but the tribe quickly realized the increased string of bad luck that came along with them, and, eventually, that it came from the young boy specifically. 

no one wanted to take care of him. they kept a constant rotation and spent the bare minimum to meet his needs until he was old enough to look after himself, generally. he ended up spending a lot of time with Raven, a lot of time wandering off or hiding or training on his own, and a lot of time with what small collection of books and weapons the tribe had. 

as the twins grew older and started training to fight, were put to work, and set up to start climbing the ranks, he gained a little more clout as a capable fighter, especially alongside Raven, though she got the most of the attention and praise and grooming. she was quick and clever and brutal. qrow was reserved and quiet and kind. and still cursed. they kept him around, but called him weak for how he brought everyone down, for his insistence on sharing some portions of things with those who needed it more. for having feelings. for showing remorse and hesitation towards taking from other people, for not wanting to trample those around him just to make a point or make a lien.

he ‘toughened up’ and forced himself to fit in (including with the help of liquid courage), and they forced the rest into him with hard knocks.

the twins learned to fight. they learned to survive. or else they couldn’t fight back. or else they couldn’t eat. those were the rules. follow them and the tribe continued to take care of you, anything other than that was of your own skills and your own defense, and at your own risk. they rarely had extra, but also rarely went without. 

he eventually found his niche in tasks which, as usual, had him far away and working by himself. while Raven would get extra lessons and attention, he would be sent into the forests and fields to hunt small game and forage for whatever goodies he could find. his careful and curious attention to detail (and playful excursions/adventures with his sister) helped him track down the best of nature’s plenty, and he learned to do it quickly. from this, he also learned how to quietly roam, to listen to the wind and the trees and the signs all around, to track people and grimm, too, so he’d frequently be sent out as a scout - again, with or without Raven.

no one could really argue against him when he did his part, when he learned to assert his rank and strength, when Raven and qrow became unbeatable in their challenges to climb the ranks, even as pre-teens. some of the younger kids actually started looking up to him, and his peers started seeing him as more desirable, even though Raven was still the only one who wanted to be around him for long. 

the second role came to him by surprise. it started with Raven, and how he had always been a secret solace for her. in solitude, he still stuck to his own convictions, his own compassion. he never lost his softness with her, not all the time, anyway. if she questioned, if she hurt, if she faltered, if she got tired of being strong all the time, he was there for her. eventually, other people caught on. it went around in whispers, how there was just something different about him that was so much easier to get along with, how he could make someone feel safe instead of threatened. a sin in the tribe, sure, but a need of the human heart.

the same people who mocked him as weak around everyone else, started seeking him out in private for that very same comfort. this may have been as simple as the soothing reassurance of braiding hair, or as far as his sensual, attentive, and accommodating way of having sex. 

hey! he was finally getting some attention! people finally liked him! except... they didn’t really like him, did they? and they still went right back to mocking him once other people were around. still, it meant something to be that wanted, didn’t it? and it still meant that he was good at something, something that helped people. sometimes he minded and sometimes he didn’t... and it’s not until much, much later that he would grasp the concept of using and being used.

both twins fared a little better, got a little extra in terms of training, and portions, and supplies, as well as a nice, respectable outfit for each of them once it was deemed that they’d be sent to beacon.

he’ll look back and hate the way he gained a lot of these skills, though ultimately they shaped him into being the person he wanted to become, and not all of his memories or values gained from the tribe are bad (see: working together for a common good, work hard/play hard, training each other, sharing stories around bonfires, not discriminating against race/class/faunus/etc) ultimately, he fared alright in terms of finding a place and survival, but he didn’t thrive socially. 

that came later, once he adjusted to the culture shock of vale/beacon.

(this is also when, in mirror parallel i’ve mentioned before - he actually swaps places with Raven, in that her skills help her fare alright enough through beacon, but she cannot thrive in a lawful, compassionate society after being groomed by the tribe and internalizing their paradigm.)

[soyeahitsmiddleearth]

i have a request for you! reader is a royal who doesn’t care for their title and therefore doesn’t enlighten the Company of their status. however, when they run into royal guards of reader’s kingdom who refer to them with their title, the Company is flabbergasted; especially Fíli, who has fallen head over heels for our main character. (I love your writing btw! never stop!)

Being royalty can be a real nuisance sometimes. 

Between fake friends, special treatment, ransom, and the looming knowledge that, someday, you will be forced to marry someone whom you do not love for people who don't care about you, there's no way you can be truly happy. 

Over the years you learned a great deal of different things, like how to bluff, how to break out of bindings, how to fight, and, ultimately, how to lie about who you are. 

It's really easy after all. 

The thing is, though, you've only learned these skills for the off chance that something happens to you. You're not allowed outside the castle without an escort, and all the battle training you've done has been under the watchful eye of your tutor and nanny. 

Of course, you learned how to become an excellent fighter away from their prying eyes, but it's still suffocating. 

And this is why you decided to run away! 

I know what you may be thinking; what kind of spoiled brat gives away such a cushy life for one of danger and uncertainty? 

Well, you of course!! 

You're tired of being kept in a cage; of being called, "Highness" and treated like nothing more than an accessory to the king; of having no purpose other than being a pawn to your father who will ship you off the moment a suitor comes along. You want to be who you are. A chance to grow and experience the world. A chance to fall in love on your own instead of forcing yourself to love someone you could not care less for. 

Also, your father, ultimately, did find you someone to marry, and when you asked who it was you learned that not only do you not know them, but they're also 30 years older than you.

All of these things are reasons you left. 

As soon as you escaped the palace there was panic, guards sent out everywhere to find you and bring you back, hand drawn posters put out on every street lamp and post, it was a whole fiasco. 

For a time there you were almost tempted to go back just so they would stop tormenting people over you, but when a greying old man came to you and stated that he knew who you are and that he wanted to give you the chance to go on an adventure, all thoughts of returning home flew out the window. 

You met a group of 13 dwarves and one small man that they call a hobbit. 

The wizard never told them who you are, so you didn't see much of a reason to enlighten them on your status either. 

It feels nice being treated so normally, something you aren't use to in the slightest, but it feels even nicer to make actual friends. 

Of course, there are some times where you act a bit off or bratty since you did grow up in a castle with people on your beck and call 24/7, but if they notice it nobody says anything about it. 

Thorin, Fili, and Kili, who also just so happen to be royalty themselves, were surprised by how normally you treated them. You spoke to them as if their titles meant nothing to you, joked and complimented them on various things where most would be horrified to do so, and it successfully won their favor. 

They don't know it's because you know what it's like to be in their shoes, to be treated specially and oddly just because you were born into a royal family, and you know to some extent that they have a desire to be treated as normal just like you. 

Of the three, Fili seemed to take to you the most. 

He likes the way you act so normally around him, how you actually care what happens to him and your loyalty to the company. 

At some point he actually begins to care for you a great deal more than he probably should, and once he comes to this realization, it's over for him. 

He began to do things for you that he hadn't before; like sleeping next to you, offering to accompany you when it's your turn to scout or get firewood, bringing you food in the mornings and at night, and even lending you one of his beloved knifes when the handle of yours broke after a conflict. 

When he started treating you differently, you feared at first that he found out who you are, but you soon realized that he just cares about you a lot- like a good friend should. 

Ever oblivious you are. 

You weren't exactly hiding it from them, the fact that you're basically next in line for the throne, but you didn't necessarily want them to find out either. 

It's actually right around the time when you began to think your kingdom gave up their search for you that things took a turn for the 'worse'. 

You were all staying in a town for the night, renting out some rooms at a lodging. You and Bilbo get to have your own room since you're not dwarves for one, but the next morning as you all set out to leave and are all well-rested, something happens. 

You're walking with Fili down the stairs of the place you all stayed, joking and laughing with each other while you follow the rest outside of the building when the dwarves in front of you both suddenly stop walking altogether. 

A soft 'oof' leaves you when you bump into Bifir since he abruptly ceased all movement, and when you look ahead to see what the fuss is about, your heart stops. 

"Halt!" Yells one of the 10 guards standing in a semi-circle around all of you. 

They wear both the colors and the emblem of your kingdom, so clearly they are here for you, but how the hell did they find you. 

Unconsciously you shrink back and half hide behind the door, glad to see that they haven't seen you yet. 

"What's the meaning of this?" Thorin asks angrily, reaching for his sword as he glares up at the armed men standing over them. 

"We have received word that the missing Y/N L/N has been spotted in this area traveling with a group of strange peoples." The guard states with a blank face, looking down at Thorin suspiciously. 

Uh oh, you're screwed. 

Fili looks up at you sharply, and duck behind the pillar quickly and crouch down, making yourself as small as possible. 

He's gonna sell you out and you're gonna be brought back to that horrible palace, chained up in your room for the rest of your life. 

"I have no recollection of coming across anyone of that name. Are they some sort of criminal?" 

Your eyes go wide when Thorin pretends not to know you, and you feel your heart fill with joy and appreciation. 

"Criminal? No. Try missing heir to the L/N dominion." The guard replies, seemingly less suspicious despite Thorin not really giving him any reason to believe him. "The Royal Highness has been missing for months, and the king and their intended are growing weary." 

"Was this Y/N kidnapped?" You hear Thorin inquire further, feeling sick to your stomach that all of your secrets are being aired out like this while you can't so much as get in a peep.

"Nobody knows for certain, though there has been a lot of speculation for both sides."

"It sounds like you've got a lot on your plate, kind sir. I hope your search goes well." Thorin states politely. 

The guard nods his head and states nicely, "Thank you."

"May I ask what you plan to do when you find them?" The dwarf presses a bit further, though he keeps his face neutral. 

There's a moment of silence, though your can't see exactly what's going on, when the guard replies with what you already know, "Take them to the palace where they can be wed to the Lord of our neighboring kingdom. 

"Fitting. If we hear anything we will send for you right away." 

"Then we will take our leave." The guard states, nodding at Thorin gratefully before marching off with the others who follow behind him. 

You stay in that same place crouched to the ground and huddled against the side of the pillar for a little while, and it's not until you feel a hand on your shoulder that you look up and see multiple confused faces peering down at you. 

You offer an awkward smile and say, "Well, that was crazy wasn't it?" 

"You're royalty?" Thorin asks, looking down at you with confused and curious eyes. 

"You're betrothed?" Fili breathes, his eyebrows furrowed. 

You nod your head slowly, pushing yourself to your feet before slowly mumbling, "Yes, and technically yes." 

A moment of silence passes by where everyone just stares in awe before Thorin says hesitantly, "If those guards find you, they will take you back by force?" 

This time you only nod, glancing off to the side nervously. 

"We're already behind schedule... we will discuss this later tonight." Thorin tells you decisively, reaching up to pat your arm lightly before turning and leaving the building. 

You stare after him in surprise, and it isn't until Fili mumbles your name that you snap out of it and go to follow. 

---

For the majority of the day you ride by yourself, for everyone seems to be acting more oddly around you.

It's not like anything has changed, they just know a little more about you, but still they act like everything is different now. 

The better part of your ride is spent in silence, and it's not until Fili's pony falls into step with your horse that your isolation ends. 

"You never told us." He begins, looking up at you curiously. 

"No, I didn't." You confirm, sighing quietly. 

"Why?" 

That's a bit harder to answer, but you try anyways, "Because...I didn't know if your uncle would let me come if he knew and I didn't want to be treated differently either. All my life I've had to abide by a certain set of rules and mannerisms, I've had to be taught how to spot fakes and to survive incase someone were to kidnap me for real... for once, just once, I wanted to live my life without somebody treating me specially because of who runs through my veins." 

He of all people should understand this, but your heart aches at the thought that he may just find you to be a selfish brat. 

"Why... did you leave?" He asks instead of acknowledging your answer. 

"I know there are many who have it worse than I, truly I can't even call it bad, but when I learned that I would be married off to somebody I've never met that is 30 my senior... I couldn't take it anymore. The fate tied to me is one that I would seldom wish on anyone, and so I left. I don't give a damn for that place, for they don't give one for me." 

A silence passes by that makes you uncomfortable, but you don't look down to see if he's watching you. You don't want to see the face he's making, no doubt one of disbelief or anger over how petulant and selfish you are. 

"I suppose I would've left to." 

You look down at him sharply at that, your eyes a bit wide since that is not what you were expecting in the slightest. 

"I understand. And when I say that I mean I actually understand. Truly." He looks up at you and offers a small smile, "People have expectations of you, and when you express that you never asked for all this responsibility you're seen as nothing more than a bratty child who doesn't understand what they have. When they find out who you are they will go to any lengths to be in your good favor. You never know who likes you for you or for your title. 

Slowly you nod your head. 

Really, what did you expect? Of course he would get it, he's living through it just as you are! Only he isn't running away from anything at the moment. 

"Yes, it's exactly like that." You hum, offering the dwarf a smile, "I don't know why I thought you wouldn't understand. You're probably one of the only ones who does." 

'Well, my uncle and Kili too, but yes..." He trails off, then adds, "So, you're an heir." 

This makes you scoff, but your face remains pleasant. "Unfortunately." 

"Do you... plan on going back?" He sounds more. nervous now, and you make note of that. 

"Not really, unless my intended is breathtakingly beautiful." You reply with a smirk, glancing down at the blond dwarf again. 

He clears his throat and asks just as anxiously, "Really...?" 

"Of course not! I want to be free to love whoever I want." You tell him, shaking your head while you speak, "I want to be with someone who I am both attracted to and happy with." 

Fili doesn't respond to that right away, but when he does speak his voice still remains hesitant, "What do you consider... attractive? Who would make you happy?" 

"Like qualities?" Before you do what your mind is telling you to, you need a bit of confirmation on his meaning. 

He only nods. 

"Hm... well, if I'm to start with what qualities make me happy, I would say kindness is very important. They would also have to be strong and fierce, loyal beyond belief, a warrior is always nice, a family man, and, certainly, they must be in love with me too." You begin, nodding along with yourself while a smile falls upon your lips. 

"And... my other question?" 

"Oh, right! I've always been rather fond of blonds, you should know. Thick hair, blue eyes, a brilliant smile- oh! They must have dimples. That's nonnegotiable..." You trail off and glance down at him, seeing that he's looking at you with wide, surprised eyes, "I've also a thing for shorter men, I don't know why for the life of me. Strength isn't a physical trait but I find that attractive, too." 

He's looking up at you with an awed expression on his face, and it successfully makes you smile. 

"And... there's one more thing." 

He gulps and asks shakily, "W-What's that?" 

"Mustache braids. They've got to be the most attractive thing a man can have! I'm most certain its a sign of an excellent kisser." Obviously it's cheesy, but you don't much care since you get to see his adorably red face. 

"I-It sounds like you already have someone in mind." He stutters, reaching up to rub the back of his braided head. 

"Yes, tell Bilbo I'll be looking for him once he grows out his hair will you-" You joke, watching as his eyes widen for a second before he smiles brightly and starts to laugh. 

"Oh! I'll be sure to tell him!" He exclaims, chuckling some more with the biggest and happiest smile on his face. 

"Also tell him that I'd care for him whether he holds the crown in his future or not. Those things don't really matter to me." 

"I can do that." 

You look ahead, the biggest smile ever on your face as well, "One more thing." 

"Yes?" 

"Tell him that I hope he doesn't look at me differently now that he knows who I really am." 

Fili doesn't reply right away to that, but when he does his voice is soft, "I know that he won't, because he loves you dearly and wouldn't care for your status whether you're a monarch to be or a struggling person scrambling to get by." 

"Wow, he sure has a way with words." You muse, reaching down to pat the top of his head while your other hand clutches the reins of your horse a bit tighter. 

"There's more where that came from." 

[the-big-nope]

While I’m certainly nowhere near ready for the story of the Mighty Nein to come to an end, I am also a D&D nerd and there’s a new sourcebook coming out soon with a bunch of new subclasses in it. By the time Campaign 3 of Critical Role gets underway, that book will be published, leaving a wealth of new options for the cast members to choose from, so why not entertain myself by making barely justified predictions of what the cast is most likely to pick for their next characters! (Disclaimer: Some of the new subclasses have been confirmed and some haven’t, so for a few of these picks I’m just going off of what I think is going to be in the book).

Travis

Cleric (Tempest Domain): Travis has been playing lowkey EMT since campaign one, and Laura’s already confirmed that Travis almost went cleric for campaign two. Between Grog with his barb-boosted movement speed to get around the battlefield so he could shove healing potions into his squishier teammates, and Fjord multiclassing into paladin and lovingly tapping his friends with single hit points to get them back up, it would be delightful to see him fully jump in and embrace the classical healer role. Of course, this is Travis, so I don’t see him picking a cleric domain that doesn’t allow for at least some whoop-ass, and Tempest Domain brings plenty of it. You get proficiency with all armor and weapons, Divine Strike at level 8 for boosted melee damage, you can use a reaction to inflict lightning or thunder damage against any enemy within melee range that’s hit you. And if you climb up high enough in levels, you gain a flying speed equal to your walking one whenever you’re outdoors. Pretty nifty, and makes for a fitting subclass for a guy that’s voiced Thor on multiple occasions.

Blood Hunter (Order of the Lycan): I mean, come on. The only reason it isn’t number one is that it was already widely assumed this would be Travis’s pick for campaign two, and I wouldn’t put it past him to surprise us again. But still, we saw him get a taste in Liam’s one shot and he was clearly having the time of his life. Besides, we lost Molly far too early to really see the blood hunter’s potential come to life; it would be damn cool to see someone else take a crack at it, and Travis is enough of a D&D gambler to not shy away from the class’s riskier features.

Artificer (Armorer): Speaking of Marvel connections, if Travis doesn’t lean toward fantasy Thor, then fantasy Iron Man might catch his attention instead. Artificer is an official class now, and since it’ll be reprinted in TCoE by the time campaign 3 gets underway, it’ll be a lot more visible as an option. The Armorer sits in almost a perfect middle ground of what Travis has done before: tanky and a frontliner, but also still has spells and tricks to help the party. Plus, you get a badass suit of power armor out of it. What’s not to like?

Marisha

Bard (College of Creation): After Hazel Copperpot, we all saw the pure magic that was Marisha Ray playing a bard. I know she implied that Hazel was supposed to be her campaign two backup character, but I hope this doesn’t discourage her from making another one. There are quite a few bard subclasses, a number of which I could see her being drawn to (Lore, Glamour, maybe even Swords), but I really vibe with the idea of Creation. I can’t exactly say why; maybe the idea of the ‘dancing object’ feature in Marisha’s hands is very funny to me (remember Keyleth’s adorable “Be Our Guest” moment? That, but this time it’s a walking wardrobe beating the shit out of the enemy).

Paladin (Oath of Vengeance/Conquest): As of yet, no one on Critical Role has ever played a paladin from the start, only multiclassed later down the line. I think this would be a cool departure for Marisha. Both campaigns she’s played characters that were either suspicious or at least indifferent to faith and the gods. Paladins are typically associated with deities, but they’re not tied quite so closely to them as clerics are. It would be fascinating to see what she did with it. As for the subclass, I just think Marisha’s earned her turn on the Goth Character Carousel, and while I know Conquest paladin is very unlikely given its moral grayness by default which might cause undue conflict and that Vengeance is a much more likely and acceptable pick, I just think it would be a sexy character choice. 

Wizard (Bladesinger/Graviturgist): This is a much more pie-in-the-sky, wishful thinking pick on my end, but not impossible imo. Marisha has experience with heavy spellcasting already, so she probably wouldn’t shy away from a wizard, but like Travis I suspect she likes a bit of oomph to her characters, and probably wouldn’t play as support heavy as Caleb does. To that end, Bladesingers get a bit more survivability and some modicum of physical prowess alongside their spells, while Graviturgists are definitely on the more aggressive side of the spectrum for wizard subclasses, with unique dunamancy spells to boot. I’m not sure how restrictive Matt would be about Xhorhassian characters in the next campaign if it takes place on another continent, but hey, you never know. Plus, she picked one of Matt’s homebrew subclasses for the current campaign; it would be cute if it happened again.

Liam

Druid (Circle of the Shepherd): At some point before Critical Role comes to end (hopefully far in the future), I know Liam’s gonna play a druid, I can feel it in my bones. He's too big of a Kiki fan not to. However, while Circle of the Moon might feel obvious given the potential for homage and how much he likes turning into animals, I feel like he might regard it as getting too close to old territory (also, I don’t know if Circle of the Moon is like an exclusive thing to the Ashari tribes, and if it is that would be rather restrictive for building a backstory). If that’s the case, Circle of the Shepherd feels like the next best bet. It has some great support options via the totems you can put down, and rather than becoming badass animals, you instead just get really good at summoning a fuck ton of them. It’s like Frumpkin, but ten of him. And they’re bears. (Honorable mention: If Circle of the Moon would feel like treading old territory then I’m certain Circle of Wildfire would too, but I’d bet my dice collection it would at least be tempting). 

Cleric (Unity Domain): Listen. The pure sap potential that would be at Mr. O’Brien’s fingertips with this subclass is incredible. The domain all about strengthening and protecting the bonds between friends and loved ones?? The domain with the Channel Divinity that can spread damage taken by one creature across the party however the cleric chooses to distribute it to lessen the blow to the individual??? The domain that used to be called the Love Domain???? I’m practically gagging on the soft moments and unspoken devotion conveyed through spellcasting already.

Fighter (Rune Knight/Psi Knight): Liam has yet to play a tank in a long-term campaign, and while I’m more enamored with the potential of the above classes, it would be novel to see him play a character with an actually respectable amount of hit points. However, I feel like if he was gonna commit to a straight frontliner, he’d probably want something a little more unique than a Champion or Battle Master (especially since he’s played those already for one-shots). Rune Knight has some fun options and built-in flavor, and with Psi Knight you can basically be a Jedi. Not bad options at all if you ask me.

Taliesin

Warlock (Fiend): Yeah, it might be expected, or Percy might have been too close to warlock anyway to feel like there’s new ground to cover, but hear me out. Both Percy (who, let’s face it, was a warlock multiclass in all but the actual mechanics) and Fjord were the classic reluctants. They got in over their heads without really knowing what was going on, and once they did they wanted out, cutting ties with their patrons and getting clear with only the scars remaining. I want to see Taliesin commit to a warlock in a way I imagine only he could manage to pull off. How fun would that balancing act be, to have a character that has no intentions of breaking their pact, who’s here for the powers, and is willing to work that delicate balancing act between keeping what he’s got and not letting his contract holder get the better of him? Give it to meeeeee.

Sorcerer (Psionic Soul): Psionic Soul has a bit of that eldritch flavor that vibes with Taliesin so much, with the added interest of introducing a brand new feature to 5E, the Psi Die (with this subclass, using them can do things like letting a sorcerer learn a spell they don’t already know for a few hours, allow you to cast spells without needing verbal, somatic, or material components, and can give you telepathy). Taking both Percy and Molly into account, it seems Tal likes to lean into those unique additional mechanics, and while Psi Die aren’t as risk-heavy as Gunslinger or Bloodhunter, they do add a layer of variability and unpredictability that seems to match his style.

Rogue (Swashbuckler): We only got a little bit of time with Molly, and so missed out on the opportunity to see Tal play a more cavalier character this time around. If he feels like leaning away from spells next time and back toward martial, I think a high-charisma, high-swinging swashbuckler from Tal would be a delight to watch.

Laura

Barbarian (Path of the Ancestral Guardian): Laura deserves to hit things, okay? Yes, spellcasting is great and comes in clutch frequently and Jester’s amazing, but you can tell Laura misses doing fat stacks of damage to the enemy in a single round. I personally think it would be amazing to watch her just cut loose and go full rage machine. As for the subclass, I’m not glued to the idea, but Ancestral Guardians are pretty kickass, have decent support capabilities for a barb without detracting from their DPS at all, and it doesn’t tread on any previous characters’ toes or their aesthetics.

Rogue (Scout/Soulknife): Laura deserves to play her favorite class at last, okay? She’s been class poached two campaigns in a row, and though that resulted in both Vex and Jester and I wouldn’t trade them for the world, Laura has earned first pick. Seeing as she already dipped into Assassin as Vex and Sam took Arcane Trickster, I could see Scout being a viable subclass choice. It’s in the classic sneaky vein, relatively simple in concept, but comes with features that grant easy-to-understand benefits that you can never turn your nose up at (boosts to movement, advantage on initiative, giving advantage against a target to everyone else in the party, etc.). If she’s looking for something a bit flashier, Soulknife has the benefit of retroactively dunking on Vax by taking the basic knife-rogue and making it better, with psionic knives that you can manifest with a thought, that can teleport you around Whisper style, and cranking up that stealth to ridiculous levels by just being able to turn invisible for ten minutes, no concentration or spell needed. The psionic die mechanics are a little funky of course, but I don’t imagine it’s any trickier than learning to manage all those cleric spells.

Monk (Way of the Open Hand): Between Beau just being super cool and her brief stint as Farriwen Breeze, monk wouldn’t be a surprising pick from Laura. An Open Hand monk might be the definitive version everyone knows, but you can’t deny it’s a solid subclass, and between previous overlap and the concepts of the other subclasses just not seeming to fit, I could see the classic being what she went with. But hey, it’s Laura Bailey. She could surprise us with Way of the Drunken Master or something.

Sam

Ranger (Monster Slayer): Let’s be real, I don’t think this would be his actual first pick for a Campaign 3 character, but the amount of shit-stirring he could achieve by making a character with the aim of pissing off Laura Bailey specifically would be hilarious (and since Matt isn’t completely opposed to UA and acknowledges that PHB ranger has a lot of issues, I wouldn’t be surprised if they went Revised Ranger this time).

Warlock (Genie): Actual first pick here, Pact of the Genie Warlock is confirmed by now, and the potential of a warlock in the hands of Sam Riegel is pretty vast (for some reason I’m imagining he would go the ‘spoiled sugar baby’ route). The subclass doesn’t matter as much, but the Genie one is nice in that, depending on the type of genie patron you pick, you can get a wide variety of extra spells, you get a container like a classic lamp or lantern that you can bamf into for short rests, and you get a limited Wish ability for your capstone, all features I feel like would especially appeal to Sam.

Barbarian (Path of the Wild Soul): I want to see Sam play a fairy barbarian. ‘Nough said.

Ashley

Fighter (Eldritch/Echo Knight): Ashley really seems to vibe with the crushing power of martial classes (she does love her brutal kill descriptions), so I could see her sticking with it rather than going back to full caster. However, I do see her picking one of the magical subclasses for some variety after Yasha. Eldritch Knight is a classic and reasonably easy to manage, but tbh I’d LOVE for it to be Echo Knight. And think, if my wishful thinking came true, with Ashley picking an Echo Knight and Marisha playing a Graviturgist wizard, they could link up their backstories and be a traveling Kryn battle duo that left their homeland behind to explore the world!

Sorcerer (Draconic): If she does want to go back to full-time casting, Sorcerer doesn’t require near as much bookkeeping as a cleric, druid, or wizard while still having decent variety, and the Draconic subclass is a bit beefier than the other subclasses. Also, it would be the third campaign in a row where Ashley Johnson’s character eventually got wings, soooo...

And tbh I have no idea what a third pick might be for Ashley, so I’m just gonna throw a dart or two at the board and say either College of Whispers Bard or Way of Mercy Monk *Shrug* We can only wait and see!

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #57: Eric Bloodaxe

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re making Eric Bloodaxe, He’s a Viking king best known for his bloody axe, which is why they call him “Bloodaxe King”.

Check out the level-by-level breakdown below the cut, or the build summary over here!

Race and Background

Eric is a Viking, and therefore probably Human, which will give him +1 to all his stats. He may be a king, but we’re going to make him a Marine, for Athletics, Survival, and Land and Water Vehicle proficiency. 

Stats:

In typical berserker fashion, your stats go Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Charisma, Intelligence, Wisdom, in order from highest to lowest. You’re strong, tough and built like a brick, but your Madness Enhancement wrecks your mental stats. Your Charisma is less wrecked than the others though, both because you’re scary and because we’ll need it for multiclassing. We’re multiclassing into Warlock to get Gunnhild into the mix, partly because I don’t want to make three fighter-barbarian builds in as many weeks, partly because I’m scared about what she’ll do to me if I don’t put her in.

Class Levels

1. Barbarian 1: Wild, right? First level barbarians have proficiency in Strength and Constitution saves, as well as two barbarian skills. You’re a scary guy, so you’ve got Intimidation down pat. And you can see how lovely your wife is, so your Perception has to be great! please don’t hurt me

You also get Rage, which you can activate as a bonus action for extra damage with strength based attacks, advantage on strength based rolls, and resistance to common physical damage. You also get Unarmored Defense, giving you an unarmored AC of pretty good, based on your dexterity and constitution.

2. Warlock 1: The question of what warlock patron Gunnhild would fit under is a tricky one. Mechanically, the one thing we know you can do is curse people, and Hex is a first level spell any warlock can learn. The Fiend’s off the table right now for reasons I can’t go into, so my second pick would be the Raven Queen. Alongside their normal charisma-based Pact Magic, warlocks of the Raven Queen get a Sentinel Raven, a raven shaped spirit that obeys your husband’s commands. When perched on his shoulder, it can’t be targeted by attacks or other negative effects, and takes no damage. It also gives him 30 feet of darkvision and adds his charisma modifier to his perception checks. As long as it’s within 100 feet of him, they can speak telepathically, share senses, and it can wake him up as a bonus action. If the raven’s killed, he gets advantage on all attacks against the killer for 24 hours. The raven vanishes if either of them are killed, or they’re separated by more than 5 miles. Finally, he can recall the raven, even from death, at the end of short or long rests.

For your cantrips, Toll the Dead will help you finish off whatever your husband started, and Infestation will make them regret starting anything in the first place. For spells, grab Hex for the obligatory curses, and Unseen Servant to manifest yourself to help out.

3. Barbarian 2: Second level barbarians get a Reckless Attack, and when you use it you get advantage on all of the turn’s attacks in exchange for your enemies getting advantage against you until your next turn. You also get a Danger Sense, giving advantage on dexterity saves caused by things you can see. Honestly, becoming more reckless and more attuned to danger seems counterintuitive, but I’m not a berserker.

4. Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get two Eldritch Invocations, which you can use to customize your pact experience. Fiending Vigor will help keep your husband alive with an at-will False Life spell. Save the second one for third level. 

For your spell, Armor of Agathys lets hubby go on the offense and defense at the same time, giving him a shell of temporary hit points, and while those hit points still exist, dealing ice damage to anything that hits him in melee range.

5. Barbarian 3: Third level barbarians set down their Primal Path. The path of the Berserker should be familiar by now. It lets you turn your rage into a Frenzy, adding an attack as a bonus action while raging at the cost of one level of exhaustion after it’s over. Again: It’s bad.

6. Warlock 3: Third level warlocks get a Pact Boon. The Pact of the Blade gives you a pact weapon you can summon as an action. It can be any weapon you want, but for the sake of this build we’re making it a Battleaxe. You know, it’s the Blood Axe, for the Bloodaxe King. To make it especially bloody, use that other invocation you were saving to grab Improved Pact Weapon, adding one to Eric’s attacks and damage rolls while using the axe, and allowing you to cast spells while he’s holding it.

Speaking of spells, Silence will be useful if any women try to talk to him. It creates a 20′ radius within which no sound can be made, including thunder damage and verbal components of spells.

7. Barbarian 4: Use your first ASI on your Strength for more damage an accuracy.

8. Warlock 4: Use your next ASI to round out his Constitution and Charisma for more health, AC, and better spell saves. At least one of you has to look out for his safety...

For your spells, Prestidigitation lets you create a bunch of magical effects without burning any slots, and Crown of Madness forces a wisdom saving throw or you choose what it attacks at the start of each of its turns. In name, this is the closest thing to Eric’s NP, but using it on him is kind of pointless.

9. Barbarian 5: Fifth level barbarians get an Extra Attack, letting you strike twice with each attack action. They also get Fast Movement, adding 10′ to their speed as long as they aren’t wearing heavy armor. Thankfully Armor of Agathys doesn’t count, even at third level.

10. Warlock 5: Speaking of, fifth level warlocks have third level slots and spells! Grab Spirit Shroud so you can take a more active part in your husband’s life. Add 1d8 necrotic damage to his attacks, prevent them from healing, and slow them down, all for a single spell slot!

You also get another invocation at this level. Eldritch Smite lets you burn spell slots like a paladin for some extra force damage. It deals 1d8 as a base, plus another 1d8 for each level of the spell slot used. Since you’ve only got third level slots, that means they’ll hit for 4d8.

11. Barbarian 6: Sixth level Berserkers can go into a Mindless Rage, making you immune to being frightened and charmed for the duration, and suspending any frights or charms already affecting you. It’s useful, but you’re mostly doing it because you’re afraid of what Gunnhild will do to whoever’s foolish enough to charm you.

12. Barbarian 7: Your Feral Instinct gives you advantage on initiative rolls, and you can ignore surprise if you rage first thing. Turns out having multiple people looking out for you makes you hard to ambush.

13. Barbarian 8: Your next ASI is going to turn you into a War Caster so you can cast spells even with your hands full. This also gives you advantage on concentration saves, and you can cast spells with your attack of opportunity. Now Gunnhild can hex somebody on their turn, and you can make them regret being born on yours!

14. Barbarian 9: Brutal Critical lets you add an extra damage die to critical hits. You can also use that smite thing to add lots of dice to your critical hits. Basically, your crits hurt.

15. Barbarian 10: Tenth level Berserkers have an Intimidating Presence. You can use your action to try and frighten someone, forcing a wisdom save with your spell save DC. It only lasts a turn, but you can use your action next turn to extend the effect without causing another save.

16. Barbarian 11: Your Rage is now Relentless, letting you continue fighting after terrible wounds. When you would drop to 0 HP, you can instead make a DC 10 Constitution Save. On a success, you drop to 1, and the DC of the save increases by 5. After any kind of rest, the DC resets.

17. Barbarian 12: Use your last ASI to bump your Charisma. This gives you better perception via bird, but more importantly it makes Gunnhild’s spells hurt more.

18. Barbarian 13: Another Brutal Critical level, another die added when you deal critical damage.

19. Your final Berserker feature is Retaliation. When you take damage from a creature within 5′ of you, you can use your reaction to attack them. 

20. For your final level, you gain Persistent Rage, which means your rages don’t end until you want them to. Or until a minute is up. Or until your wife tells you to stop yelling.

Pros: 

Being able to smite as a barbarian is great! You can do a ton of damage in a single blow if you’re lucky: while raging, you’ll deal 4d10+4d8+8 damage with a critical hit..

You’re also very difficult to surprise, both in the sense that you can ignore being surprised, and that you have a scout that can fly up to 100′ ahead of you and warn of danger.

Cons:

Once again, having to juggle spells and rages can be a tricky decision, reducing the overall effectiveness of the warlock levels.

Your magic is also very limited, especially if you’re going to spend some of those slots on smites. .

Up next: Look in the kitchen! It’s a dog! It’s a cat! No, it’s Tamamo!

[thattimdrakeguy]

Robin - The FIRST Miniseries - Issue #5 (The LAST Issue) Review - (R.I.P Tom Lyle)

This is the big movie styled climax of the miniseries. So its mostly just endings, and action from here, but that doesn’t mean there’s not fantastic character work in here either.

There’s a LOT in this issue I didn’t remember, since normally I don’t pay attention to this one simply because I didn’t remember as much character stuff in it, but to my slight surprise (and bigger surprise in one or two moments) there’s some stuff in here I didn’t quite remember.

The weirdo trio finally breaks up in a way that reminds me of a divorce of some kind.

In a way Clyde and Lady Shiva played the roles of Tim’s parental figures in this miniseries. So that is fitting in it’s own way.

Clyde argues that Timmy shouldn’t be a part of this. Partially for his own want to kill King Snake (Dorrance) himself, but also because he wants to protect Tim’s innocence given the gruesome nature of what’s about to go down.

While Lady Shiva is absolutely numb to violence, and if anything wants Tim to be like her and revel in it.

Some of the word usage and Tim’s reaction to Clyde running off really set this up to a bizarre version of a divorce. It’s a slight soul cracker seeing Tim so worried that Clyde’s leaving to the point he yells out “CLYDE! WAIT!”. In the panel were Lady Shiva holds him back, he looks like such a helpless kid.

It’s a wee bit more emotional then it has any right to be given this trio only lasted 3 issues or so.

But, the climatic action must begin.

--

Tim uses his established cleverness to give the team some kind of advantage against what’s more or less an armed militia of men ready to protect King Snake and his drug empire.

With some small, but still tense moments.

And Timmy, of course, being on sneaky time.

This is one babyfaced boy that loves his sneaky time.

There’s even a good page that’s a good reminder that Tim isn’t the best fighter on the planet, but that he does his best given any opportunity he can.

--

A good chunk of this issue though, and deserving enough too. Is Clyde trying to get his revenge against King Snake for all he’s done.

It’s genuinely tense even if it is just a one time side character in this fight.

Because this has been building up between him and the bad guy since issue two. He is the emotional connection between the heroes and the main big villain. It’s for the best he’s the one that gets to take him on first compared to if Lady Shiva or Tim did it.

He’s the one that deserves this fight the most. Even if King Snake is too much.

While Tim’s too preoccupied stopping the plague from spreading and making sure he doesn’t get killed himself. Tim isn’t skilled enough to get out of the situation fast enough. He’s helpless to help his own friend.

Tim has no idea whats even happening to Clyde as he keeps having to run to his own safety.

All Tim can do, is his best. He sticks to the rafters to be sneaky. Uses the tools he knows he can use like his sling, and that’s just about it. Which continues to use his established skill-set instead of giving him sudden Gary Stu moment were he’s suddenly good at everything.

He’s lucky he’s small enough to even hide up there.

--

I know I been talking spoilers this whole time, but after this part. This contains-

MAJOR SPOILERS. 

So read at your own risk, because this is the climatic issue and stuff happens.

So the big crushing part about this issue. Is that the last time Timmy Drake ever got to see Clyde Rawlings still alive, breathing, and blood pumping through his body was when Clyde ran to come to this fight.

The last thing Tim ever heard Clyde said was “RIGHT NOW!” and the last thing Clyde ever got hear Timmy’s voice say is “CLYDE! WAIT!” that’s the last they ever got to hear each other, because the next time Tim finds Clyde’s body it shows he’s already been killed by King Snake.

At this point it’s literally just this tiny little boy in red and green spandex vs a tanking man (with a freaking mullet) that’s supposedly one of the most dangerous men.

There isn’t a Lady Shiva in sight to save him, and Clyde’s not around anymore. Tim’s all alone, and the two people that have been protecting them this whole time are either gone in one way or gone in another way.

It’s all up to Timmy now.

And for the most part he doesn’t do good, because of course he doesn’t. He’s not a good fighter. He’s a tricky scamp with a sling and staff. Against the One of World’s Most Dangerous Men.

King Snake mocks Tim’s notable innocence.

Luckily though, Tim’s a clever boy, and finds a way to distract King Snake, before he can kill him or destroys him too badly. Thanks to Lady Shiva teaching Tim to his enemies underrating him to his own advantage.

Also right before Timmy absolutely wrecks him with one big, hit, that’s the biggest Tim can get out of his very teeny body.

This is when Lady Shiva shows up, and we get another scene representing Tim’s morals, because it’s a spot were King Snake should be knocked off the building, but he managed to get one solid grip on the scaffolding.

Even to the very last issue the character’s remain strong as ever. With constant reminders during their fights of who they are.

Clyde was so stuck on vengeance and anger, even if he wanted to try his best to protect Tim.

Lady Shiva, while calmer, doesn’t care about other people. She’s empathetic to her own fault.

Tim’s just the Boy Scout doing his best to stand up for what he was taught as right.

So what does Tim do in this Emperor Palpatine “DEW IT” moment?

What do you think? He’s such a good boy. He’s no Anakin Skywalker. This is a Luke Skywalker (Original Trilogy anyways), baby.

There’s some hard to watch panels though. Some stuff that actually made me a bit emotional reading this stuff.

Where Tim carries Clyde’s corpse because he’s not leaving him behind. Even when it causes Tim physical pain given he has a busted rib as he does it.

Tim could’ve easily left Clyde’s body behind for the police to find but he didn’t.

Clyde’s still on his mind and who can blame him. This is the dude that protected him this whole time even when he jumped in to protect him.

Tim tries to figure out what this all was for, because it starts to drag on him.

There’s even a surprisingly dark moment were Tim goes into the mindset of getting some payback, but of course, because he’s Timmy. He backs off of it because he realizes it was wrong. Showing that even when stuff goes wrong, Tim still has a sense of morality in him.

It’s stuff that really weighs down on Tim as the issue closes, because this was Tim’s first real adventure, and as it ends there was a lot of stuff he probably never wanted to be a witness too.

Probably some regrets carrying in his brain.

He starts to wonder what it’s all about as the miniseries and his adventure comes to an end.

--

So this was honestly a pretty good climatic issue even if it gets massively grim towards the end to a degree I wasn’t expecting.

Tim’s ongoing series touched grimness in the 90s, but it never went to this level or had such soul crushing visuals like Tim carrying the man who protected him on his back even with a busted rib.

Or contemplating physical payback against the person who caused him being dragged into all of this but backing off.

Like his ongoing series (where I fell in love with him) was a lot more lighthearted after this. So this isn’t the typical tone Tim carries. Even before this, it was just a soft action romp with character moments.

A lot of this caught me by surprise, because since I skip to Tim’s parts and the action didn’t take me away like other scenes, I didn’t even realize Clyde freaking died in this issue.

How did I not realize that?

I don’t even have a clue how, but in a way, it made it better for this review, because I’m more in tune with how a first time reader might react to it.

It’s a grim ending to a good miniseries.

The miniseries biggest flaws is having creepy girl characters who’s creepiness either feels out of character or not expanded upon to make it feel like it has a point, and moments that don’t go anywhere, with a really lame villain. Such a super lame villain.

However it’s character moments, character work for Tim, pacing, art, and sense of adventure still makes it a really good read. Even if compared to others it’s still a low-key adventure.

If you really wanna learn about Tim’s character. It’s a definitive recommend, because it’s a great character study for him. Through his goodie two shoes boyscout moments, his geeky moments, his awkward moments, to even his immature moments, and a rare dark moment from early Tim, but even that dark moment showed that in the end, Tim’s still gonna do what’s right, and not go too far.

I love reading the miniseries when I’m bored, because even if it’s typically just the first issue or two I read. I just love Tim, and I like to be reminded why.

He’s such a bean that’s trying his best to be heroic. You get a real sense of depth with the character that wasn’t seen by a Robin that was still Batman’s sidekick till this.

Dick had depth, but it wasn’t till he split with Batman that he got it.

With Tim he was the first Robin that was still Batman’s sidekick that could carry depth, and this is were you get it.

It’s the full show of Tim as a character from all sides.

It’s great that way.

I’m thinking of reviewing his next miniseries next just because reading this captured my spark for Tim in a brighter way then it has been after all the dullness of his current life as a character being misused time and time again sort of dragged on me.

With this, I get what I want even if there’s a bit of dirt on it. It’s a good read for a Tim fan, or someone that wants to learn about who he is just to include him in a fan fiction.

It’s a great feeling to remember just how fantastic Tim used to be.

I still hope DC brings back the old Tim eventually.

[earlybirds-atla-au]

Who’s this universes equivalent of Jet?

*DING DING DING!!!* YOU GET A CHARACTER REVEAL! :D

~~~

“This is Nanyue?” Hama repeated.

“Yep!” Aang said, securing the reins on Appa’s horns. “I can’t wait to find a village here, there’s this really good artichoke tea that they make in this area! And their music’s really cool, too, there’s this one instrument - ”

“Nanyue is a highly contested hotbed of occupying Fire Nation forces and stubborn guerilla fighters,” Hama said flatly.

Aang sighed. “Guess I should really just start expecting everything I remember to be awful now.”

Hakoda gave him a side hug. “How much of a hotbed are we talking here?” he asked Hama.

She shrugged. “It goes back and forth. A lot. The Fire Nation pushes, the Nanyuese push back. Sometimes one side wins, sometimes the other does. I used to listen to soldiers in the pubs talk about it, there’s one region that’s been taken and retaken five times in as many years. It’s a mess.”

Hakoda looked around the forest they’d camped in overnight. “Do we know if this area’s firmly in the Fire Nation’s control?”

Hama snorted. “If it wasn’t last week, it might be this week.”

“Doesn’t sound like a place we want to stick around too long,” Kya said.

“Yeah,” Hakoda nodded. “But also not a place we want to draw attention to ourselves.”

“Flying bison are a very good way to attract attention,” Bato pointed out. “We don’t know who might be in this area.”

“I think we should lay low for a while,” Hakoda said. “Literally. Let’s get walking.”

Aang was enthusiastic about the plan at first. It wore off after ten minutes. “Walking stinks! How do people go anywhere without a flying bison?”

“Come on, Aang, just a few more miles,” Kya said. “Maybe by then we’ll have a better idea about where we are and what’s going on in this area, and we’ll know if it’s safe to fly or not.”

Aang sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. No one’s lobbed a single fireball at us yet this morning!”

“Must be a record,” Hakoda said, parting the branches of a bush, and then he froze.

The Fire Nation soldiers milling around the campsite in the clearing froze as well.

“Run!” Hakoda snapped, but before he could even turn a fireball flew past his face and the undergrowth behind them turned to flame and cut off their escape route. Hakoda decided to do the next best thing, lifting his machete menacingly. “If you let us pass, we promise not to hurt you.”

He could feel the physical pain Bato went through to refrain from slapping his forehead. “What are you doing?”

Hakoda shot him a sheepish grin. “Bluffing?”

The Fire Nation captain laughed. “You? Promise not to hurt us?”

Hakoda took a breath and prepared himself for a fight, but then he was suddenly pulled back by a hand on his shoulder. Hama stepped forward, between the kids and the soldiers. “Well,” she said, her voice hard as ice, “me.”

“Hama what are you doing?” Hakoda hissed.

She popped the cork on her waterskin. “Not bluffing.”

“Hama!”

“The second you’re able to, fly Appa out of here and don’t look back.” She shifted into what the kids were starting to recognize as a waterbending stance.

That was when the first arrow whistled through the air and hit the back of the Fire captain. Three more hit his men in quick succession before any of them had the chance to react.

“THEY’RE IN THE TREES!” someone shouted, and that’s when people in leafy camouflage started dropping from the branches and taking out soldiers.

“...Or we can see how this plays out,” Hama amended, and then she jumped into the fray with a water whip. She hit one man right in the gut, the next in the neck, and then sliced through half the company’s spears, iron spearheads falling to the ground with little tinks.

“I guess we’re doing this,” Bato said, and he clubbed a soldier over the head.

Aang used an air blast to blow another soldier into a tree. “Do they have any Firebenders - oh, there’s one!” He dodged the fireball that came soaring at his head. The Firebender gave an angry war cry and charged forward. Hakoda and Kya shouted back, weapons raised.

And then the Firebender’s cry was cut short, and he fell to the ground with an arrow in his back. The teenage girl behind him already had another arrow fitted to the string, but she only had a split second to look grimly satisfied before a spearman came for her. She ducked, twisted, and fired short-range into the soldier’s gut when she came back up. He went down howling, and she whirled back around towards Aang and his friends, her next arrow aimed right for them.

They barely had time to react. The arrow loosed, and it flew right past Hakoda’s ear and Aang’s face and into the chest of a Fire Nation soldier Kya hadn’t even noticed coming up behind her.

“Thanks!” Kya shouted, and she returned the favor by throwing her boomerang at the head of a Fire Nation soldier fighting one of the girl’s compatriots. The girl nodded back, one fighter to another, and went back to shooting arrows.

She came to them when the fight was over - when her people had declared the area clear and started cleanup, and Aang was steadfastly not looking at the scattered bodies, and Hama’s breathing had slowed down. She went around to every single one of her people first, issuing quiet orders and listening to quick reports. Then she went and found them clustered around Appa, cleaning weapons and checking each other for injuries. They paused when she approached, and she took a moment to look them all up and down. Their blue and yellow clothes must have looked as foreign to her as her lefay outfit and strange woven hat did to them.

“I’ve never actually seen waterbending before,” she said after a moment, looking at Hama. “That was very impressive.”

“Heh,” Hama managed. Her breathing still hadn’t quite returned to normal. “Glad to give a good first impression.”

The girl inclined her head and looked to the rest of them, expression going uncertain. She’d seemed more comfortable taking out soldiers than she did trying to figure out how to greet a group of foreigners. Her gaze slid towards Aang, and she opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, only to close it again a second later.

“Thanks for saving us,” Hakoda said after a moment. “For a second there I really thought that was going to end badly.”

The girl smiled. “From what I saw, you’re all very formidable fighters. I’m sure you would’ve taken out a lot of them.” She didn’t say they would’ve made it out alive. Like taking out as many as you could before you went down was the best you could hope for.

“Maybe, but there were a lot of them,” Hakoda shrugged. “I’m surprised you managed to take them all out. There’s a lot less of you than I realized.”

She sent a proud look over her shoulder to where her people were still cleaning up. There were only a dozen leaf-clad warriors to be seen. “We don’t have much choice,” she admitted. “Our forces are spread thin, and we’ve suffered losses over the years. We do what we can with what we have.”

“Well, you did a lot,” Bato said, “and we appreciate it.”

“I should really be the one thanking you. We needed to ambush this camp before they moved on, but they were on high alert all morning. We were trying to figure out how to stage a distraction - and then you walked in. I couldn’t have planned it out more perfectly.”

“So...you’re Nanyuese?” Kya surmised.

“Yes,” the girl said. “And I’m sorry for being so blunt, but - you’re the Avatar, aren’t you?”

Aang laughed weakly. “Yeah, Appa’s kind of a dead giveaway, isn’t he?”

The girl chewed her lower lip. “Are you...here to help?”

Aang smiled. “I mean...I’m trying to help the whole world.”

“Right now, our focus is getting to the North Pole so Aang can learn waterbending,” Kya said.

“So...you’re just passing through.”

Kya nodded, apologetic.

“We were walking because we thought it might be too dangerous to fly on Appa,” Hakoda added.

The girl gave Appa a disbelieving look. “That thing can fly?”

“We call them flying bison for a reason,” Aang grinned.

She shook her head. “Well, it’s a good thing you were walking. The Fire Nation has garrisons and watchtowers all over this valley. You would’ve been spotted for sure.”

“Do you know how we can get through Nanyue safely?” Bato asked.

“There’s no safety here,” the girl said darkly. “The Fire Nation’s been burning away at us for fifty years. They take our land and our people and our culture, and every time we take any of it back, they get upset.”

“Sounds familiar,” Hama muttered.

“Okay, but what’s the best way out of here, then?” Hakoda asked. “Can you give us directions, or…?”

“I can do a bit more than that,” she said. “You should come speak with my aunts. We’ve got intel on the Fire Nation’s movements from here to the northern mountains. And we can get you a safe place to spend the night, too.”

Hakoda and Kya exchanged glances before looking at the rest of the group. Aang gave them a trusting look, Bato nodded, and Hama shrugged. “We’d appreciate that,” Hakoda said. “Thank you.”

She nodded. “For the Avatar? It’s an honor.”

“All clear!” someone shouted from the other side of the clearing. 

The girl glanced over her shoulder and gave a hand signal of acknowledgement. “Move out in five!” she called to her fighters. “Come on,” she added, looking back at them. “We need to get out of here before any scouts show up.” She started walking back to her people.

“So what’s your name?” Kya asked as they followed after her.

“It’s Tien,” she said. “Tien Trung.”

[lon3lynation]

A Clexa AU Story that includes a soul searching road trip, long-distance friendship to relationship, phone conversations and Clarke demanding her car back from a thieving dick Lexa. Oh, and a lot of internal Lexa thoughts.

 Chapter 2: Midnight City

Previous Chapter

"Waiting in a car Waiting for a ride in the dark Drinking in the lights Following the neon signs

Waiting for a word Looking at the milky skyline The city is my church It wraps me in its blinding twilight

Waiting in a car Waiting for the right time Waiting in a car Waiting for the right time"

Midnight City by M83

Five years later…

Anya’s mentoring truly paid off in many ways for her. No longer did she have to scrape by to cover her essential needs. She didn't have to rely on trying to live on minimum wage and shitty tips anymore. She didn't even need to work a proper job unless she was bored with nothing else to do in a specific town. She could finally set aside her worries and focus solely on figuring herself out.

Unfortunately, figuring herself out still felt like a far fetch goal as the years passed.

There were days where she felt most content when Anya was around. She made sure to savor her time with her because her mentor doesn't like to stay in one place for too long. They would go months without seeing each other before reuniting in another state with new stories to share.

Most days though Lexa still very much felt like a shell of her former self.

She had hoped that when she struck out on her own several years ago, that it would lead her to a rebirth of sorts. It was supposed to be the thing to save her. She wanted to claw her way out of her shell and be someone new.

Someone that felt whole.

She wasn't whole.

Everything felt like jagged pieces that stabbed her insides. Time had not healed nor repaired the damage that had been done. She felt everything and nothing at all at once.

Her crimes became the glue to hold the pieces of herself somewhat together. It wasn't perfect. Pieces were missing and not fitting right as they should with the glue trying to hold it all together in some incomplete shape.

It may not be much but she was thankful for the little relief it offered her. She was glad for the itch, the thrill and adrenaline it gave her. It became her purpose.

Anya did quite well training her to practically become an expert thief and fighter. There had been a lot of trial and error in the first couple of years that resulted in jail time. She didn't like jail. It gave her too much time to think and made her feel trapped. Feeling trapped beneath her own skin was already claustrophobic enough for her. After her last stint two years ago, she made sure to never allow herself to get caught in the process again.

So far, so good.

However, her life began to feel too repetitive lately; too routine. She'd travel to another small town, scope out opportunities to steal more money, settle for a short time there before finding herself back on the bus to take her to a new destination to repeat the process all over again.

It suited her well the first few years and gave her a sense of freedom by getting to choose what she wanted to do next. It was also a major comfort not to stress over money-related things anymore. It had been good enough to distract her from the fact that something was still missing in her life. She hadn't quite experienced total freedom like she's been longing for since having her heart shattered twice at 16.

After all, how does one find freedom from themselves?

It was earlier in the year when the sudden realization came to her that something needed to change. After hopping from town to town for so long, her excitement faded as she began noticing how similar each town actually was. It was becoming mundane and that's not what she wanted for her wandering journey. It did slightly amuse her hearing how people truly believed that their small town was safe from bad people and crime.

How willfully ignorant.

It was all the same to her. When she had envisioned running away years ago, she always had this image in her mind of herself driving a car, windows down to let the wind blow through her hair while road tripping across the United States.

She imagined it would be memorable, serene, and exhilarating. Perhaps that was the way she could finally attempt to unburden herself. It would be hard to sort through but she knew there was still a lot of stuff inside her that she needed to unpack. Being out on the open road by herself sounded like the best way to find the missing pieces of herself and a chance to smooth out the jagged edges.

A month ago, a plan began to form when she arrived in New York for the first time. It has been a while since she felt total anticipation and awe when she took in the sights that New York City offered. Maybe she needed to start looking through a tourist lens to a better experience. She liked it so much, she stayed to explore more and decided that this was where she'll put her plan in motion.

It was time to steal a car.

It would be the first time Lexa would steal a car on her own and for herself. She had tagged along with Anya a handful of times to steal vehicles just so she could learn how or because it was a delivery job. Her favorite memories were seeing how much Anya enjoyed joyriding and doing donuts in an empty lot. It had been such a pleasant surprise to see her friend freely laughing and smiling.

It had softened her enough to join in the laughter and enjoy the pure adrenaline as Anya continued to spin them rapidly at great speed leaving skid marks on the lot.

It was a memory Lexa held on tightly.

After doing some scouting of different parking lots in the area, she eventually found an ideal spot that she could case for cars. It was a convenience store on the corner that didn't have a well-lit parking lot and only had one working camera at the entrance. She figured with the lack of lighting and a hoodie, she'll remain anonymous even if the camera's quality happened to be decent or not.

As luck would have it while waiting in the shadows nearby for a perfect opportunity, a dark-colored Jeep Wrangler parked near the back of the lot away from the entrance of the store. She slinked a little closer when two female figures exited the car. One appeared to be blonde and the other was a brunette. She watched the two young women enter the store when she suddenly realized she hadn't heard any sounds signaling that the car had been locked.

This was her chance.

Lexa double-checked that her hood was still in place before smoothly walking toward the Jeep and glancing around to see if there were any potential witnesses. There was none. She cautiously opened the car door ready to run if she had been mistaken and the alarm went off. Thankfully, she was correct that it was left unlocked during the women's rush into the store. The owner of the car would very much regret that soon enough.

All Lexa could hear was the rapid pounding of her heart while she quickly set to work to start up the car and take off.

There was no turning back now.

Feeling the steering wheel in her hands, Lexa gripped it until her knuckles turned white as her foot stayed pressed against the pedal of the stolen Jeep Wrangler. Her heart was racing as she constantly checked the mirrors and the road, almost expecting to see flashing blue and red lights of a cop car following her.

No police car in sight. No flashing lights or sirens to be heard.

She still did not loosen her tight grip on the wheel. Not yet. Not until the anxiety that filled her body, that made it tremor, and her racing heart began to lose its hold on her once she felt she was safe from being caught.

Lexa drove out of the city, passed through some more, determined to leave New York altogether. Only then, she’d imagine, it would be enough to feel like she really managed to escape. That she wasn’t going to get caught instantly and that she could actually go through with this idea of hers to travel across the country.

What she hadn't expected was nearly driving herself off the road in fright when a phone suddenly rang from the passenger seat. Cursing quietly to herself, she glanced to the seat where she had tossed her overstuffed backpack, which had apparently hidden the phone beneath it.

Biting her lip, Lexa chose to ignore it, hoping whoever it was wouldn’t try calling again. She needed to focus on the road and getting the hell out of New York. Once she did, she would have to eventually stop and get some rest, not to mention get an idea of where she was headed first.

However, before she could breathe a sigh of relief when the ringing stopped, it rang again and again and each time Lexa ignored it.

It was putting her further on edge, and after the 9th call, Lexa angrily snatched it from beneath her bag and answered it.

There was a brief moment of silence before suddenly a female voice began yelling through the phone.

"Hey, asshole! You stole my friend's car! We're gonna stick the po--” the sound of struggling and cursing suddenly interrupted before it tapered off into a moment of silence.

Then…

A new voice is heard on the other line.

“You actually answered?”

Lexa detected disbelief in the new voice before it turned angry.

“It was my car that you have stolen. Do you have any idea how long I saved up to get that Jeep? I just bought it like 4 months ago. Only for some thieving dick to come along to pretend it was theirs now.”

Lexa furrowed her brow, still watching the road as she listened to the woman whose car she had stolen. If she wasn’t inwardly berating herself for answering the phone instead of simply shutting it off, she would almost be amused at being called a thieving dick. Anya would have a laugh.

She was quite aware that she was a thieving something.

“Do you often decide to completely screw over and inconvenience citizens? Because I am definitely feeling inconvenienced right now. I'm meant to be at a friend's surprise birthday party right now and be the bringer of alcohol.”

Suddenly the first voice Lexa heard piped up in the background of the call. She overheard the name “Clarke” which must be the car owner's name.

“I want my damn car back. Are you even listening? Hello Mr. Criminal? Answer me!”

Lexa found herself gripping the cell phone tighter in her hand.

It was a little annoying to be assumed as a male. It's not the first time she's heard it.

"What do you have to say for yourself, huh? At least give me enough decency to answer me while I’m questioning you."

Lexa quietly scoffed as she debated if and how she would respond. It couldn’t hurt to momentarily speak to this person, and oddly enough it was actually a helpful distraction from how on edge she was during her escape.

Clearing her throat, she decided to humor the woman and maybe even stall her from reporting her car missing since it seems Clarke and her friend had chosen to call her stolen phone first in an attempt to guilt-trip her.

"Are you done with your failed guilt trip, Clarke?” Lexa questioned in return, purposely including Clarke's name to hopefully unnerved her. “It's simple, really. I needed a car and yours just happened to appear at the opportune time for me to steal it.”

There's a gasp, a rustle over the phone and what sounded like muffled voices until Clarke’s voice came through clear again.

Lexa smirked briefly, pleased with her success to unnerve the girl.

"What the hell for? How do you know my name? And no, I am nowhere near done with the guilt trip.”

How insistently stubborn, she thought with a sigh.

“I needed it to travel. You should tell your friend to be more careful about what she says in the background.”

There's a groan after the realization of how she learned it and then a couple muffled curses were exchanged.

"There are other means of transportation, you know? It didn't have to come to this.”

"Those other means of transportation are exactly the reason why I decided it was time to get a car."

“Who are you? Where are you going with my car?”

Lexa scoffed once again amazed that Clarke would actually think she’d reveal her name or whereabouts to her.

"I am a criminal. Telling you my name or where I am would be a mistake on my part. Wouldn’t want to increase the odds of getting caught, now would I?"

"Look, you need to turn around and return the car to me. Do that and then just maybe I won’t involve the police and we can just settle this between us."

Did she think of Lexa a gullible idiot? She was sadly mistaken.

"No. I can’t do that, and I can’t trust that you wouldn’t have the cops waiting to arrest me if I were to ever entertain the thought of doing so. It’s too risky and honestly, I don’t take too kindly to being ordered around. You’ll just have to use those other means of transportation you mentioned, Clarke."

"Ha ha. I don't know what you really plan on doing with my car. If you really are just driving around or plan to strip it for parts but it doesn't have to come to that, okay?”

Lexa’s jaw twitched when she noticed the husky voice on the other end had softened.

“How about this? You can abandon the car, tell me its location and I can retrieve it. We can dismiss this as a stupid mistake and not involve the cops. See? You can trust me. So, please return --"

"No. This is something I have to do. I've been planning this all out!” Banging her fist against the steering wheel, Lexa could feel her anxiety and tension returning. Clarke was no longer being a good little distraction.

“Then undo those stupid plans! How could you ever think to commit such a crime was a grand plan to have? Anyone else would have already reported their car stolen and I'm trying to work with you here. You can trust --”

“Shut up!” Lexa shouted as anger began to bubble up to the surface and spill into the conversation. “Don't delude yourself, Clarke. I don't know you and you don't know me. There are zero trusts here.”

Lexa tensed thinking she saw a police car down a street and eased up on the pedal. The last thing she needed was to be pulled over for speeding in this car.

“Well, I am not giving up. I'm determined now to make this happen.”

“No.”

“I won't report the car stolen. We can come to an understand--”  

“I'm done,” Lexa interrupted again. “You're not getting it back. Deal with it.” Lexa has had enough of this conversation. She needed to be hyper-aware of her surroundings and drive as far as she could before exhaustion could claim her.

As she ended the call, cutting Clarke off mid-pleads, she softly whispered before she realized what she was about to say and swallowed the rest down. “I’m...”

I'm sorry -- she was going to say.

Lexa couldn't remember the last time she apologized to anyone for something she did. This was not the time for any sort of apologizes though because she didn't regret taking the vehicle.

Powering the phone off, she chucked it back on the passenger seat and took a moment to appreciate the sudden silence and the passing city lights.

Now she was feeling a little guilty but she had meant it when she said she had to do this. She wasn’t about to turn back around and possibly get thrown in jail again when she was so close to finally reaching her original dream of being on the open road and hopefully make peace with her past.

So, she ruthlessly stumped down the guilt.

Lexa just needed to get as much distance as she could from New York.

It was going to be a long night.

[aion-rsa]

My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 5 Review: Operation New Improv Moves

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This My Hero Academia review contains spoilers.

My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 5

“We’re birds of a feather.”

Battles are chaotic and it can be easy to focus on only the immediate danger within them. Survival can give the illusion of strength, but sooner or later this facade crumbles away without the right preparation. “Operation New Improv Moves” is an exciting My Hero Academia episode that presents another grueling fight between the students of Class 1-A and 1-B, but it also speaks to how essential it is to adopt a bird’s eye view perspective. This vantage point, which considers the whole situation and doesn’t get lost in the specifics, proves to be fundamental in not just battle, but also life. Hawks emphasizes this to Fumikage Tokoyami during his internship and it’s a pivotal lesson for his current clash against Class 1-B.

“Operation New Improv Moves” does primarily focus on the second battle in this Joint Training Arc, but it’s exciting that the first fight’s conclusion still has everyone abuzz. Midoriya’s brawl isn’t for a while, but he already can’t help but devise a strategy with Mineta. Mina Ashido’s Instant-Kill Floating Ball also better be the Chekhov’s Gun of this Joint Training Arc. This season has largely been fun and games so far, but it’s nice to see a fire get lit under everyone as their competitive instincts become unleashed.

Shinso and Asui were the big stars of last week’s win for Class 1-A, but they’re still frustrated over their inability to pull off a flawless victory. It’s a throwaway moment, but All Might actually dwells on it quite a bit with the other Pro Heroes. They break down why “frustration” is the perfect emotion to feel after a victory and that there are few expressions that are more representative of a hero. Shinso and Asui’s self-criticism expands into general pointers for the entire team by Shota Aizawa. 

This is a stretch of episodes that’s designed to be about combat, but it’s appreciated that the previous fight’s results are studied. The entire team learns how they can generally improve upon their performance and it opens the door for all of these characters to debut new strategies whenever they’re next in the spotlight. In contrast, Vlad pushes much more of a tough love approach on Class 1-B’s students. They receive derision and frustration more than they do encouragement and advice.

Class 1-B also exhibits some reverence towards Kirishima and other heroes for their work against the Shie Hassaikai. It’s a fleeting detail, but it helps continue to flesh out My Hero Academia’s growing world. Some of the students from Class 1-A have achieved remarkable things, even by Pro Hero standards, and so it’d be kind of ridiculous if nobody was talking about it. It also plays better that Class 1-A doesn’t get cocky from these past achievements and it’s instead their opponents that mystify them through these rumors over their past.

“Operation New Improv Moves” provides an especially exciting and eclectic mix of fighters. From Class 1-A is Tokoyami, Hagakure, Yaoyorozu, and Aoyama, all of which have extremely unique Quirks that have never fully gotten their due yet. Class 1-B pulls together just as interesting of an assortment of heroes.

Itsuka Kendo has gotten some attention before in the series, but the rest represent some of Class 1-B’s weirdest individuals, with Quirks that pull from mushrooms, comic onomatopoeia, and living darkness. Before literal darkness takes over the battlefield, there’s some metaphorical shade thrown at Yaoyorozu from Kendo over how they both “fit into the same box.” A very “there can only be one” Highlander mentality begins to fester between students, but it’s best reflected in Tokoyami and Kuroiro. 

Everyone in this fight has a lot to contribute, but it ultimately turns into a war between shadow-centric Quirks between Fumikage Yokoyami’s Dark Shadow and Shihai Kuroiro’s Black Quirk. It was inevitable that My Hero Academia’s Joint Training Arc would pit counterpoints of characters against each other, but “Operation New Improv Moves” is thrilling rather than predictable simply because Tokoyami and Kuroiro’s Quirks are so powerful and mysterious.

This season’s secret weapon continues to be an inspired use of Quirks when it comes to battle strategy rather than victory through brute force. Tokoyami’s Dark Shadow can unleash vicious attacks, but here he uses its size and maneuverability to scout the entire field and immediately locate the enemy. Unfortunately, Tokoyami’s increased aptitude with his Quirk only becomes more of an advantage for Kuroiro. Kuroiro’s Black Quirk allows him to commandeer Dark Shadow and turn it against Tokoyami’s team in a very powerful display. 

What’s also so effective about the competitive nature between Tokoyami and Kuroiro is that it functions as this collective origin story for this rivalry. “You and I share a destiny,” Tokoyami coldly hisses at Kuroiro. “Operation New Improv Moves” successfully turns two fringe characters into individuals that feel like they could fuel their own spin-off, which is really the power of My Hero Academia’s characterization and what this new season has the ability to tap into. I’m not sure if Tokoyami’s accusation that Kuroiro is a “Dark Fallen Angel” is based on anything, but it’s a straight up savage burn and an effective way to label your opponent as the villain in this feud. 

Read more

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My Hero Academia Season 5: What to Expect

By Daniel Kurland

The choreography around Tokoyami’s flailing Dark Shadow and Shihai Kuroiro as they move around the pipe-filled area gives this episode such a gripping visual quality. It’s easily one of the best uses of an environment for a fight that My Hero Academia has ever done. Both the Dark Shadow and Black Quirks are already fascinating, but they really get to show themselves off through the labyrinthine nature of the battlefield. The “flying” solution to Tokoyami and Kuroiro’s feud plays well and also feels like natural development for Tokoyami’s character. Deku’s been on the sidelines for a lot of this season, but I love that his reaction to this is a freaking “Egg of Columbus” reference as if it’s a totally natural thing to reference in this situation. 

It comes as a surprise when the episode jumps back in time a few months to chronicle Tokoyami’s Quirk development alongside Hawks, but it’s an approach that actually really works well despite how it stops the action dead in its tracks. Not every episode should resort to this strategy, but it provides valuable context for not only Tokoyami’s evolved powers, but also the ideology that drives him forward. More Hawks is also never a bad thing.

Tokoyami and Kuroiro are mostly able to resolve their fight, but that’s merely one piece of this busy battle. The final moments of “Operation New Improv Moves” initiates “Plan B” where Kinoko Komori unleashes a fungal apocalypse on the battlefield that forces Class A to quickly develop a new battle strategy that carries over into the next episode. 

When it comes to the supporting players in this fight, I’ve always been very skeptical of Yuga Aoyama and his Navel Laser Quirk as anything other than comic relief, so I was kind of hoping that this battle could legitimize the hero. “Operation New Improv Moves” features more smart use of Quirk application since both Aoyama’s Navel Laser and Toru Hagakure’s Invisibility Quirk both make use of light refraction, which allows them to actively mess with Kuroiro’s strategy. Aoyama still isn’t elevated above a novelty supporting character, but this does allow him and his Quirk a little more depth that goes a long way. It’s possible that both he and Hagakure will both have more to do in the concluding half of this encounter. 

The animation in this episode that brings these fast-paced Quirks to life is a triumph, but Yuki Hayashi’s score is so excellent here that it deserves some special attention. Hayashi has never been a slouch, but he’s seriously upped his game for this season and every scene becomes more powerful thanks to the operatic music that accompanies these tense moments. It’s the first time in a while that the series’ music consciously stood out to me in terms of its ability to match the animation.

If there’s any major problem to this season of My Hero Academia so far is that there’s a strangely reflective quality to the episodes that bides a lot of time and leaves every episode feeling padded. This look to the past makes sense on some level since this season is all about a reunion and a chance at redemption between 1-A and 1-B from the events of season two’s Sports Festival. However, “Operation New Improv Moves” definitely gets indulgent in this regard. There are several moments where U.A. High’s faculty reflect on the progress that their students have made, which it’s possible to do without devolving into full-on flashbacks of old footage. 

All Might’s memories about Midoriya even feel trumped up to some degree and certain moments like his performance in the School Festival concert shouldn’t necessarily be included among Midoriya’s mastery of One For All or his defeat of Kai Chisaki. My Hero Academia is a rare example of a shonen series that doesn’t get lost in filler material and it’s an incredibly faithful adaptation of the manga, but sometimes the cost of this is episodes that subtly run the clock and don’t really get moving until the halfway mark. When “Operation New Improv Moves” is focused on battle it’s absolutely fantastic, but it shouldn’t have to tiptoe around its action to this degree.

“Operation New Improv Moves” could be a tighter episode in some areas, but it still succeeds and even improves upon last week’s solid battle. It’s comforting that My Hero Academia allows this fight to spill over into the next episode and that every showdown in the Joint Training Arc won’t have the same “one and down” structure to it. There’s a strong mix of action, character development, and emotion through this exercise and it does exceptional work to highlight some of the anime’s unsung heroes. This battle continues to rage on, but Tokoyami’s narrative softly receives resolution as he passes the torch over to Yaoyorozu for the next leg of this confrontation. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

And the biased commentary protest group continues to fight the good fight. Never surrender. 

The post My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 5 Review: Operation New Improv Moves appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[kingracetrack]

[ biography :

Childhood

Anthony “Racetrack” Higgins was born in 1883, which made him 16 at the time of the Strike. He was born to Antonio and Camilla Higgins. They both decided to Americanize his name in order to not have as much prejudice be put on him, but they didn’t stray far from their Italian roots when doing so. They were both Catholic and took Anthony with them to Mass every Sunday. Anthony didn’t really care all that much, but later in life when things do go bad he does turn back to his faith for guidance, but that quickly doesn’t work he realizes.

Antonio worked as a stable hand and at Sheepshead. He’s the reason Race’s love for horses and the races came about. Race would often go with him to work. By age five, Race knew the ins and outs of the tack room to how to properly brush a horse. Race would also run errands for the jockeys and occasionally their owners, and that was when he first learned that many of the races were in fact rigged. His running though was what got him his nickname initially the jockeys would say he belonged on the track with how fast he was. They’d give him a few cents for each message.

When he was six his mother died in a factory accident that killed 8 other women, they were on page 15 of the paper. Race ripped the article out, and it is one of his prized possessions. Race’s father was never the same after his mom’s death, depression if it had been known at the time, clearly plagued his father. But his father continued to work, even if he wasn’t the same bright guy. Somehow it got out to The Crib that Race knew what races were rigged.

The gang began to pressure the young boy who was nearing eight years old. And Race continued to not reveal the secrets that the jockeys trusted him with. The Crib roughed him up, in a way that left him barely able to walk. One particular Jockey took notice, and asked him what happened, and Race being himself said nothing. He knew when to say things and when not to. He was more terrified what would happen if spoke against The Crib, after all what can a child do, not much. However word got out, and the jockeys began to look after Racetrack as an honorary member of their exclusive club.

After that run in with The Crib, Race decided he shouldn’t be a messenger for the Jockeys only, so he took up a job as a newsie, he sold at Sheepshead and got to know the Brooklyn newsies. He became quite close with them. The Jockeys didn’t mind, and they would always by a paper with him. But The Crib did not relax their pressure on Racetrack.

A few days after he turned 9 Racetrack was kidnapped, but it wasn’t for long, for when he figured out where he was he saw his dad in front of him. His dad made him promise to not say anything, and that was when this gang did the unspeakable. Race lost his dad, and distanced himself from the Jockeys entirely by quitting being their messenger and being a full time Newsie. However the jockeys took notice, and whenever they saw Race they would still buy papers, and give him tips on who to bet on, there was also always someone who worked for them, a hired thug, who was hired specifically to watch out for Race when he came to sell at the tracks. Race doesn’t know about it, and its a protection he has to this day.

Brooklyn Newsie

Race officially moved into the Brooklyn Newsboys lodging house at age 10.

Race continued to live up to his name among the Brooklyn newsboys, at age ten, he was an accomplished gambler among the boys, and was able to call a cheat from a mile away. He knew how to cheat himself, but it was easy to win against boys who didn’t know what they were doing with any spare change they had. Race was always careful though to make sure the boys didn’t bet more than they could, they had boarding fees to pay, and food to eat. He never took from them if they had to eat. His name now not only was synonymous withe the place he sold, and his swiftness but his gambling habit. It fit the boy.

A few years prior to his death, one of the stable hands who had been good friends with father had taught Racetrack how to play Harmonica and even gave him one of his own. Race took to it like he was born with it in his hand. He was a natural at the instrument, and whipped it out whenever the boys needed a pick me-up. He also carries a pocketwatch with him, that he claims he swiped of one of the owners of one of the horses at the tracks. But that is a large rumor.

When Racetrack turned 13, he was a regular, he was in the higher ranks of the newsies in Brooklyn, his soft heart which was a bit odd in the rough and tough neighborhood was actually the reason. He was good with the younger boys. He gave them tips, and made sure they got to their right homes at night whether that be the lodge or an actual family. It didn’t matter to him as long as they were safe. There would be no repeat for him of what happened when he was taken by the Crib to watch his father die. Especially boys who hadn’t fully learned to fight yet.

He had never been the best fighter, and a few boys, took to teaching him, and they said that because he was so quick, and had a fast mouth he should work on dodging and distracting before throwing a punch. That became Racetrack’s tactic. And it worked well for him, and if it didn’t work he could always outrun them. He was after all one of the fastest Newsies in New York, and one of the smaller ones too, which certainly worked in his favor.

His spot was Sheepshead. No one ever sold their, or tried to. Racetrack knew the clientele and they knew him. He owned the spot, and for anyone else to sell there on the few days Racetrack couldn’t because he was too sick to move, it was weird. But those days the Jockeys seemed extra worried, and would always pay Race extra when he appeared again. Only a few boys, those who knew Race the longest, would try selling in his spot when the boy was sick, they were the ones that new Race had allies that many boys could never dream of.

His gambling though became an issue, and boys said he was stealing from them. The leader of the Brooklyn Newsies came to him saying that he needed to prove he wasn’t stealing. Race couldn’t because all the boys had in fact lost money to him gambling, but he didn’t consider that stealing. But this leader had really cracked down on things, and on Race. And Race never understood why. He was confronted in the morning and was given til sunset to get his proof. The only proof he had, was from one Newsie who stood up for him. It was difficult to figure out who that really is--- without naming names. Because his proof wasn’t good enough, a chase began, a chase to teach him a lesson, and he knew what that meant. So he ran. They chased him halfway across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Lower Manhattan Newsie

The more Race became a Brooklyn Newsies, the less affection he got. Coming from a dad who loved him, he wanted it. He wanted to be affirmed. But that all was lost that one fate full day. It also didn’t help that he voluntarily distanced himself from the jockeys even if he was still close with them, and they still knew and protected him the best they could.

The Newsies of Low Manhattan accepted him easily. He missed his selling spot, he didn’t dare go across the bridge while the threat against him was still there, like he knew it would be. He sold at the bridge though, it was the closest he could get. He had one particular customer who bought the morning and evening editions of the paper from him, and paid him extra. It took him a while to find out, it was a man from the tracks.

Race soon found his place among the Newsies. When Jack wasn’t there, the boys tended to look to him for his experience, and help. He offered them money when they asked because they didn’t have it, he made sure they all got home, because he did have one of the longest walks. It was easy, but he missed his home, he missed the Tracks.

It may have been a year or two, or even less, he didn’t know but a scout--- a birdie came and said he had access across the bridge now, and that they were sorry for not sticking up for him. But he was allowed to sell in his old spot. Racetrack asked why, and it was because one of his oldest friends had become the leader. Of course he had heard the story, of how it happened, everyone had. But he didn’t think it would have any ramifications on him. But looks like their friendship meant more than he thought, it was something he wouldn’t forget, The first day back in Brooklyn, back at Sheepshead, he hadn’t been happier.

The Strike

Racetrack kept his amicable terms with Brooklyn on the down low. Most of the boys didn’t even know he lived there, or that he made up with them after he was chased out. Jack knew, but that was it. And Racetrack liked to keep it that way. Jack was good at keeping secrets like that. It is what made them such good friends, its why Jack trusted him, just as much as Race trusted Jack. Race was one of the first people to know that Jack wanted to go to Santa Fe, and make it more than just his nickname, more than just the dime novel dream.

Racetrack was constantly one to poke fun at Brooklyn, but the boys let him he was from their originally. No one else tried, Race had some mystery about him, so the boys who knew, the older ones, thought he lived up to the Brooklyn rep. The younger boys thought nothing of it.

When words of the Strike started happening, Racetrack go nervous. He called spreading the word to midtown, which he did, but then he ran to Brooklyn before Jack, Boots, and Dave could get their. He told Spot first, or told some of his Brooklyn birdies, what was going on and what was going to happen. He figured he owed it to the kid so he was not surprised, and since it was something that could mess up their relationship, and his relationship with Brooklyn he owed it to Spot to tell him ahead of time.

Jack didn’t have time to give Racetrack Brooklyn, and Racetrack didn’t want to tell Brooklyn, at least not with Jack. That would have been too awkward, and had more tension than anyone really needed right then with the strike.

Afterwords

After the strike, Race evenly split his time between Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. Eventually he made up with the Jockeys and when he became to old to be a newsie they got him a job as a stable hand. He worked hard, and worked himself up, to eventually being a jockey, his small frame allowed for it, and his knowledge of horses was unbeatable. It took him a while to get a name for himself, but because some of the Jockeys who were now trainers new him, and he was known around the tracks, it didn’t take as long as a brand new jockey would have taken.

[feywildatheart]

Nenîth,

I know well how this will alarm you, but nevertheless, I’m going to start with the important information: I am okay. I am okay. Please remember that as you read the rest of this letter.

We had a quiet few days on the Seles Emsel, after my last letter. I have been practicing the spells you both taught me, ever since I’ve left home. It’s been an effort in frustration, mostly, so far, but with a few days on the ship with little to do but focus and practice, I have finally made the magic work! And I couldn’t have known it, but it would hold me in good stead before we even reached the surface of Nosirion-1.

This is the part where I need you to remember that I am okay, because halfway through the trip to Nosirion-1 the four of us, Elyn and Pika and Squirt and I, were somehow drugged, and woke together in the ship’s airlock with only five minutes to spare before the room was depressurized and we all got vented out into space. Pika and I set ourselves to breaking through the doors in the hopes it would incentivize whoever was trying to kill us to call it off, lest they kill themselves as well. We’d nearly broken through when Elyn, who was applying herself to the command console in the room, was able to figure out the override code and stop the depressurization entirely.

Pika and I scouted ahead while Elyn and Squirt followed behind, and I can’t say I was ever expecting to use the skills you taught me on a spaceship, but I was glad for them nonetheless. The lower level was mostly deserted, which would have been enough in itself to make me wary, even if I hadn’t woken up minutes before being jettisoned into space. We found a single mutineer guarding the stairs up to the crew quarters and the bridge, but he was easy enough to incapacitate. You both taught me to move silently through the dense underbrush of the Feywild; the open halls of a spaceship, where there’s no sticks to step on or litter to rustle beneath your feet, made the task almost trivially simple. I took him down with a single arrow, and I think you will both be glad to know that I didn’t kill him. We still weren’t entirely sure what was going on or who might be friend or foe, and thought we might need to try to get answers from the man, so I only knocked him unconscious, so he couldn’t warn anyone upstairs about us, and tied him up and left him in a closet where he could neither come to harm nor cause any trouble until we were ready to speak with him.

Upstairs proved a greater challenge than the lower deck, but Pika’s a skilled fighter, and Elyn lent us excellent support, and healed our wounds almost as soon as we took them. (I suppose there’s no slipping that by either of you, but I only took one crossbow bolt to the shoulder, I promise you. And it didn’t hit nearly as hard as Adilet’s damned animated armor did back on Mir, so it was of little consequence, truly.) We found a handful of loyal crew locked in their quarters, which was a relief, and Elyn worked her magic with the console and freed them. They didn’t know what had happened to Captain Mink or the first mate, though, so we left them to keep an eye on those we’d knocked unconscious, and continued on to the bridge, where we found Captain Mink being held by the first mate, who we quickly learned was leading the mutiny and demanding to know the location of something-or-other.

Pika strode in there, bold as you please, and attracted his attention while I came into the bridge from behind unnoticed, and between the two of us we were able to keep Captain Mink safe and knock the first mate out like we had the others. I used the goodberry spell you taught me to bring him around, though I think Pika scorned the use of my energy on someone so despicable. But we needed answers, and he seemed the best equipped to provide them.

I left the talking to Elyn, who’s far better at it than I could ever hope to be, and settled for standing behind her looking as angry as I felt, and occasionally drawing my bow when he seemed disinclined to answer Elyn’s questions. We didn’t learn much, only that they’d mutinied in order to try to steal and then sell some piece of technology that the Seles Emsel was bringing down to Nosirion-1, and at that point, I must admit that my temper nearly got the best of me. Just the thought that they’d nearly sent us all out to suffocate in the vacuum of space — and /Squirt/, too, when he’d never done anything to him or any of them except offer a few licks, and maybe demand a belly rub or two! -- and all for a few extra coins in their pockets. Well, when Elyn suggested that we could turn the tables on this man, and do to him what he’d nearly done to us, I was furious enough that I couldn’t think of a more fitting retribution. But Pika’s head was cooler than either of ours, and also I’d damaged the airlock doors enough when we’d been trying to escape that we weren’t certain they’d hold, and so we settled instead for allowing Captain Mink to restrain those who’d betrayed her, with her promise that she’ll deliver them to the authorities upon the Seles Emsel’s return to Mir. I still think it’s better than he deserves, when he wouldn’t have thought twice about throwing a dog — a puppy, for the love of the gods, what kind of a monster does that? — out to suffer a horrible death.

There — that’s the worst of it, and you can both breathe again now. The rest of our trip was blessedly uneventful for us, though I think Captain Mink and what remained of her crew had their hands full trying to run the ship when they were so shorthanded.

Nosirion-1 is so lovely, nenîth. It’s all greens and turquoises from space, and once we landed it was even lovelier. The buildings are built from trees as though they sprouted from the ground that way, and the furniture’s just the same, crafted from living trees. It’s almost like when we camp out between fairy ring jumps, when the house is all broken down and it’s easier to set up hammocks than to put the house together again just for one night’s sleep, except I can’t see the sky. I’ll miss the view, but the bed’s more comfortable than any hammock, so I can’t complain. And in any case, it seems we’re only spending the one night here, and heading out into the wilderness come morning, so I’m sure I’ll have plenty of opportunity for stargazing in the days to come.

The scientists here seem nice enough — or well, half of them, anyway. We’ve only met two, and the first seemed like he couldn’t be rid of us fast enough, even though we were sent down here to help him and the rest of his fellow scientists. The other, though, was much more obliging, and welcomed us and gave us the information we needed about the job we were to do.

The ranger who went missing, Hallbjörn, was out placing sensors to collect data, and they want us to collect them and bring them back. The woman, Loraine, didn’t mention anything about looking for him or bringing home him or word of his fate the way Hiuda did, which seems a strange way for them to set their priorities. But I am hopeful that if we’re retracing Hallbjörn’s steps, we can accomplish both at once. Perhaps Loraine doesn’t  seem to feel the same sense of urgency that Hiuda does because she’s more confident that we’re not looking for a body? I can only hope.

That was this afternoon, and we spent the rest of it gathering supplies and readying ourselves to leave in the morning. Loraine gave us an herbalism kit, and there’s a temple to Mishakal here that sold us some healing potions, so we should be well-equipped once we set out and leave what little civilization there is here behind us. But best of all, the cleric there had a dog! Her name is Gwynne, and she is the sweetest, happiest thing I’ve ever seen (excepting Squirt, of course). The cleric’s sibling was there as well, strumming on a lute that seemed to catch Elyn’s attention. I mentioned my aedlira to her, but I don’t think she’s heard of it. She seems like she’s interested in hearing it, though, so perhaps I’ll pull it out one evening when we’re camping, and I can play it properly.

When we returned from the temple and retired to our rooms, I stopped by Pika’s to ask her a favor. I wasn’t sure she’d grant it, since she seems to dislike conversation under most circumstances (though you should have heard her when she found a gossip magazine from Rugira Prime. I don’t think I’ve heard her say so many words at once in all the time we’ve known her!), but to my surprise, she agreed to try to teach me her trick of being able to speak with animals! I’ve had little luck with it yet, but I’m practicing, and I’m trying, and perhaps it will be like the spells you taught me, and all at once there will be a breakthrough and things will start working.

I don’t know how much signal the LICD will have while we’re out retrieving the sensors, but I’ll try to send what letters I can. If nothing else, I can save them up and send them all when we return to the encampment here, and give you both plenty to read.

I asked Loraine what sort of wildlife we might expect to encounter on our travels, and she said they have no records of anything out there that might be particularly deadly or dangerous, so I’m sure you two have no need to fret about me at all. Surely whatever we find out there can’t be as dangerous as the things the three of us have faced together in the Feywild. I’m sure Loraine would have heard, if they had anything as frightening as displacer beasts out in the forests surrounding their base.

Stay safe, both of you, and I promise I’ll do the same, as best as I’m able. I don’t care to take any more crossbow bolts to the shoulder, or be crushed by any animated sets of armor, I assure you.

I love you both,

Maliah

[avidbeader]

Have more of the Sheith soulmates AU

Voltron fanfic. Probably rated T for mild language when it’s done. Definitely Shiro x Keith. Situational names/pronouns for Pidge/Katie. Feedback is always welcome. Still pondering titles.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

<><><><><><><><><><><><>

She left the details to her Druids. They could punish the guards that permitted themselves to be taken down. They could search for the traitorous Ulaz.

She had bigger things to do.

The second Haggar had removed Champion’s ruined hand, she had encased the mangled flesh in a unit designed to measure quintessence. The first step was successful: the wreck of a hand, magically preserved in a still-living state, showed the presence and fluctuations of the mysterious quintessence, allowing her a permanent barometer of Champion’s link with the other without having to physically watch him.

It also gave her unlimited access for further analyzing the quintessence. It took almost a full lunar cycle, but she was finally able to separate and identify the two separate halves of the meld, keeping them apart for brief moments before they coalesced again.

And if it were just another experiment, just another study of a random alien’s quintessence, she would have scrapped it. One of the two halves showed Galra characteristics.

Somehow the flesh had been tainted by a Galra. She didn’t know how—she was the only one who handled the destroyed limb between the body and the unit and she did so with full shields in place. While Champion had taken numerous injuries from Galra fighters in the arena—including the nasty head wound that had turned a shock of his hair white—their medical protocol was sound enough for cleansing such wounds. And the second quintessence was overwhelmingly similar to Champion’s, suggesting that the other was the same species, in a sector that the Galra had only just begun scouting.

But in spite of the Galra contamination, the device worked as she wished it. She could let Champion perform for Zarkon, who was toying with the idea of trying to brainwash the alien and test him on the Red Lion. There had been a few sessions with Zarkon’s pet team of persuaders. Those had actually been helpful to Haggar, allowing her to see that the quintessence meld responded to mental and emotional attacks in an identical manner to physical assault.

But for now, her device served a new purpose. The flesh called to itself. The quintessence sought its origin. She would be able to track Champion’s location as soon as the pod he was in dropped out of hyperdrive.

<> <> <> <> <>

The autopilot was driving him stir-crazy.

He was in a spacecraft, in the pilot’s seat, for the first time in nearly a year, and he couldn’t fly it. It was like being back in early training, next to an instructor, watching but not allowed to touch, not allowed to take control.

But he didn’t dare change any of Ulaz’s settings. His rescuer had entered the coordinates for Terra and programmed something called a hyperdrive that allowed for incredibly fast interstellar travel. Shiro had to settle for studying the control panels intently, learning the layout of the craft as it compared to a Garrison ship.

But Keith was with him, urging him on.

Shiro leaned back for a few minutes, closing his eyes to try and ward off a headache that was building. And suddenly he was seeing through Keith’s eyes as Keith prepared. His soulmate knew he was coming and was doing everything he could to get ready. Shiro was a bit astonished, watching and wondering where the slightly adrift boy he met in a combat class had gone. This Keith moved with purpose and surety, focused on his goal. This Keith no longer felt too young for him.

He would see this Keith soon.

Sensing his presence, Keith sent back affection and anticipation.

The ship jerked and shifted from hyperdrive into normal space. Shiro instinctively reached for the controls, then looked up through the viewscreen.

His eyes widened as he realized that the ship was already inside Terra’s atmosphere and coming in way too fast. He had to try and slow the descent!

His hands flew across the strange controls, searching for any way to decelerate. A screen turned red and he felt a shudder through the transport—it felt like a turbine had stopped, if he were in a jet. Velocity dipped, but now the ship veered sharply to the left, to the north of the landing coordinates.

And then he hit earth. He got his arms up to protect his face and head as he slammed into the control panel, but was flung back in the whiplash, his head striking the hard side of the pilot’s seat. He sent one last desperate call to Keith as he lost consciousness.

<> <> <> <> <>

Shiro woke and realized two things. The first was that Keith had not found him yet—he was coming but having to improvise for not being the first one there.

The second was that he was strapped down to a table.

The flashback overwhelmed him, the pain of the torture sessions, the agony of the procedure that had taken his hand and replaced it with the weapon. He clenched his teeth to hold in the screams.

“He’s awake!”

Figures in Terran hazmat suits leaned over him, waving scanners across his body.

Ulaz. Blue Lion. Voltron.

Keith was closer. He had done something that should get everyone’s attention soon and was moving in.

Someone moved to put a tourniquet on his left arm.

“Hey! What are you doing?”

“Calm down, Shiro. We just need to keep you quarantined until we run some tests.”

“No, you don’t understand! Aliens are coming! They’re after a weapon that was hidden here! We have to find Voltron!”

One of the medtechs recoiled from his right side. “Look at this! His arm! It’s been replaced with a cyborg prosthetic!”

“Put him under! We don’t know what that thing can do!”

“No! NO! Don’t put me under! You have to listen to me!” Shiro thrashed against the straps in a panic but one of the medtechs seized his head and another pressed an injector to his neck.

Keith! Help me!

<> <> <> <> <>

Pidge finished throwing laptops and equipment into his backpack and slid down the hill after Lance and Hunk. The minute he’d pointed out the person coming in on the hoverbike, Lance had gone competitive and insisted that he would be the one to rescue his idol.

Pidge would never understand Lance. Did it really matter who got credit for the rescue as long as they got a chance to speak to Shiro?

His emotions swung from hope that Shiro might actually be able to share what had happened to the rest of the crew and anger that Iverson’s people hadn’t even considered asking Shiro about them before knocking him out. He was obviously trying to communicate a warning, a major one, and they ignored it. All Iverson cared about was keeping his lies going.

Good thing Pidge Gunderson wasn’t interested in the Garrison as a career.

<> <> <> <> <>

In three swift moves, the medtechs went down. Keith leaped over the third as he fell and ran to the gurney. White hair spilled across the captive’s forehead and for one instant he felt despair. This was supposed to be Shiro…

Keith reached out to the man’s face and turned it toward him.

Their bond surged at his touch, making him sway. It was Shiro.

Shiro with a patch of white hair and a deep scar across his face. Shiro with a body hardened by months of being forced to fight for his life. Shiro with a smooth metal limb replacing his right hand.

But it was Shiro.

Keith sliced the straps with his dagger and heaved his soulmate up. The bond throbbed everywhere their skin touched. He was starting to worry that they wouldn’t be able to move fast enough when a voice interrupted.

“No, no, no you don’t! I’m saving Shiro!”

A boy that looked to be Keith’s age stalked through the door and took Shiro’s other arm, sharing the weight. Two others who would have fit perfectly on a flashcard teaching big and small stood in the door, watching with wide eyes.

Keith didn’t bother to reply. They were a godsend—they could help get Shiro to the hoverbike and then he and his soulmate would be off.

Except that the Garrison team was coming back much sooner than he had hoped and they all had to ride a hoverbike that wasn’t designed to hold five.

<> <> <> <> <>

One merry chase and one successful cliff dive later, they made it to the cabin. The big guy helped Keith move Shiro onto the bed in the bunker. Keith checked Shiro’s pulse and pupils while the short kid described how the medtechs had sedated him—he would be out for a while yet. Keith tucked a blanket around him and firmly told himself that he could leave for a few minutes. There was nowhere else for the other three to go and he needed to settle them in the cabin.

He directed the others into the main room, waving at the futon in indifferent invitation. He grabbed a cold water from the fridge and drank, getting the dust from the trip out of his throat.

The three of them looked at him and he looked back. Obviously there were questions that they all had, but no one was sure where to start. Then the big guy’s stomach growled loudly.

The other two broke into giggles and Keith snorted a little. He waved to the corner that served as a kitchen. “Help yourselves.”

The big guy moved toward him first, holding out a hand. “Thanks, man. My name’s Hunk.”

He shook. “Keith.”

Suddenly he had the short one’s attention. “Wait a minute, that’s how you knew to come after Shiro! You’re Keith Kogane!”

“Uh…yeah?”

“My mom and the Shiroganes, we’ve been worried sick!”

“Okay…”

“Sorry, sorry. I’m Katie Holt, Matt’s sister.”

That put a couple of puzzle pieces in place, but the reaction of the other two kept Keith off balance.

“Wait, what? Pidge? You’re a girl?” The thin one was clearly stunned.

“Huh. Okay, that explains a few things. Why were you in the Garrison under another name?” Hunk asked.

“Long story. Short version is I got banned from the Garrison for hacking into Iverson’s computer and had to find another way in.”

Keith grinned at that. “Good for you.”

The thin one was clearly still at sea. “Okay, Pidge is a girl and you two know each other. Any more surprises?”

Pidge…Katie…adjusted her glasses. “Oh, no. Not like that, Lance. I just know who he is. He’s Shiro’s soulmate.”

Hunk had his mouth full of granola bar but his expression showed interest as Lance began talking again.

“Soulmate, huh? Yeah, I remember that getting mentioned a few times around campus. Wacky shit. We had a case in our neighborhood, some woman who lived alone and must have been forty and one year at Halloween she was giving out candy like everyone else but when she handed some M&Ms to this one kid who had moved to the neighborhood that summer…wham! He was like, eight. Awk-ward! They got that shit broken by Christmas, you’d better believe it!”

He paused, clearly expecting someone to reply. He was not expecting to see Keith’s face drain of color or the concerned reactions of the other two.

Katie moved forward. “Keith, are you all right?”

Hunk also stepped up. “Dude, you’re not gonna pass out, are you?”

Keith swallowed hard. “No…no, I’m fine.”

“You are not fine! You look like you saw a ghost!” Lance flapped his arms, unsettled at Keith’s reaction.

“Sorry. It’s just that…they tried, at the Garrison. They tried to break the soul bond between Shiro and me.”

Katie’s eyes widened. “That was you! That night in the faculty building!”

“What?”

“Three men were dragging you somewhere, and then you started yelling. That was the night I broke into Iverson’s computer. I set off the security alarms to give you a chance to get away. You were screaming at them.”

Keith ran a hand over his face, fighting the memories. “Yeah, that was me. Thank you.”

“And thank you! They were so busy going after you that I was able to pull the video files that proved Shiro didn’t crash. That’s when my mom and I decided I needed to infiltrate the Garrison as Pidge Gunderson.” She stepped up to Keith and wrapped her arms around him. “Seriously, I’m glad they didn’t succeed. I’ve read about broken soul bonds…it’s not pretty, what it does to you.”

Lance shifted from one foot to the other. “Sorry I brought it up.”

Keith shrugged, returning Katie’s hug awkwardly. It had been a very long time since anyone had touched him in a caring way. “It’s okay. You didn’t know.” He moved away as Katie loosened her grip. “I’m going to sit with Shiro until he wakes up. You guys can hang out here.”

<> <> <> <> <>

Where am I?

The first thing Shiro noticed as his awareness returned was that he was warm. It had never been warm enough on the ships or in the cells or in the arena.

The second thing was that his bond with Keith was practically vibrating, it was so intense. His first impulse was to worry. The Garrison had found him. Are they going to try and break the bond again? Is Keith safe?

The third thing was someone holding his left hand.

He tightened his grip instinctively and heard someone draw in an anxious breath.

“Shiro?”

He squeezed his eyes shut. If he kept his eyes shut, he could stay in this dream where he was warm and Keith was holding his hand.

It got better. Keith was smoothing his hair back with the other hand, sending sizzles across his skin.

“Shiro?”

The dream wasn’t fading. It was getting more tangible, more real. His essence sang at every touch.

“Keith?”

The weight in his flesh hand shifted and he heard someone move, sitting next to him. The fingers interlocked with his and a second hand wrapped around their joined hands. Their bond pulsed with power.

“I’m here, Shiro. You’re home.”

Shiro drew a deep, shuddering breath, steeling himself for the disappointment, and opened his eyes.

Soft yellow light shone from above. Not the never-ending purple of the Galra and not the harsh white of the Garrison containment unit. He blinked and focused, seeing the person sitting beside him.

The dark hair that used to just brush his collar now spilled down to his shoulders. The graceful jawline and cheekbones were sharper, as if he had lost weight. But the eyes were the same deep indigo that had caught his attention as they took their first hesitant steps into the bond.

“Keith…” Shiro breathed, his voice barely audible.

Keith leaned forward and pressed his lips to Shiro’s forehead. The bond intensified further, stronger than anything they had felt before. Shiro pulled his hand from Keith’s grip so he could embrace him fully.  

And found himself clinging desperately to Keith who clutched back as their bond pulsed again. They were tossed around in each other’s memories of the year apart, drowning in flashbacks of pain and isolation and misery. The bond had responded to extreme distance and time by growing stronger and now there was nowhere to put the excess, no way to cram the genie back into its bottle. The intensity of the connection was about to engulf them until they would no longer be able to tell which was which…

Then Keith heard the lion’s roar, giving him focus.

Shiro heard the second roar.

<> <> <> <> <>

Half a universe away, a glass case exploded, unable to contain the surging quintessence inside. Haggar shrieked, unable to stop the destruction of the flesh from Champion’s body as it disintegrated. She flew around the lab, scanning readouts from various instruments frantically.

Then she found what she needed.

“Tell Zarkon that the escaped prisoner is in Sector X-9-Y!”

<> <> <> <> <>

The two halves were whole once more, together in body now as well as spirit. As she had anticipated, the intensity of the quintessence-meld threatened to overwhelm them. Her little one reached out blindly for help and she answered. She sent forth her own energy, the soothing, life-giving essence of water, to absorb the worst of the surging forces and sustain the two of them.

Together they rode the wave until it crested and washed back into a more manageable state. The bodies of the two small ones relaxed, still entwined with one another. She sent out one more flow of energy to calm the area around them like the surf smoothing out sand.

And stopped in shock when her essence touched a new presence near them. It sparkled with dappled azure light, calling to her like no other had for thousands of years.

This was her new paladin. It had to be.

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Part 9

[civrilla]

we are one :

spectracy’s ( sense8 ) inspired squad // diverse playbys // diverse ages // diverse membergroups // all open! //

eight strangers from different walks of life and situations, suffering through their own struggles and secrets until they suddenly develop a sensory link. and everything changes as quickly as one can blink: they feel joy for no reason, pain when they have none, sorrow with no explanation but the tears still fall. they’re speaking languages they haven't even heard, throwing fists when they never learned how to punch, and they find themselves in unrecognizable places but they don't feel lost. skills, emotions, sensations, they're bleeding, mixing, washing themselves into one another’s veins, marking the very beginning -- their rebirth as a piece of a suddenly combined brain.

-- the ability of the sensory link is that of a bewitching character, and i’m thinking that it probably recently awoke for these characters after they started coming into contact with one another. so there’s bound to be quite a few of them that have always thought they were bereft until they found this fun surprise, and/or some witches who got stuck with one kind of crappy gift only to find out they also have this, or somebody who’s been dealing with a really shitty curse only to find out they now have this to deal with as well. 

-- keep in mind: all the roles can completely be adjusted! it’s more or less me spitting out different ideas, rather than anything set in stone. stuff can be genderbent and changed to fit your concepts -- no worries! however, it’s important to me that the characters are all of varying personality types and, hopefully, backgrounds. that’s what i’ve tried to achieve with the roles you see here. you’ve got some good guys, and some sort-of-not-so-good guys.

THE CHARMING, taken by eos → pretty boy who was born in a cage that looks like a castle. prince, why are you so afraid of the destiny that awaits you? your name will inscribe itself onto the earth, onto the seas, and your bloodline will shake the very ground. so how come you're so scared to take the crown? your parents are giving you their kingdom, so long as you be a good boy and never frown. → your voice is husky honeyed sweeter than sugar, a symphony played by a single instrument, a raga with no notes. people are hypnotized and enamored, they never want you to stop talking. almost. herein lies your greatest strength: being the enchanter. open your mouth, and you can attract an entire room's attention, capture an innocent's heart, sway enemies to change their alliance mid-battle. you are the prince charming, able to weave straw words into gold. → herein lies your weakness: you're just a guy with a lot of stuff. learn to patch up that hole inside you, sweet prince, before it finally swallows you up.

❖  nice table manners, basically ur real stereotypical prince charming

❖  #1 smooth-talker; his other biggest skill is telling you which fancy fork to eat your salad with

❖  has been catered to his whole life (wants to be independent but poor boy doesn’t even know how to work a microwave or washing machine, 911 send h e l p)

THE PROTECTING, taken by piper → little guardian, you were always brandishing a shield for the weak and the fallen. but you must always remember: you’re just flesh and a beating heart and bright eyes, you are not indestructible. you can not save everyone. bones break under heavy weight. even atlas couldn't carry the world forever. put the weight down, sweet girl. you are not a titan. you are human. you are so human it hurts.

→ maybe in another universe there is no darkness, no bad guys, no all-encompassing doom. maybe in another universe, you don't have the weight of the world on your shoulders. but, unfortunately, in this world, you do. herein lies your strength: you're the mother hen, the shield, the one who keeps others stable. you may not be able to brandish a sword, but you can still cradle cheeks with gentle hands and whisper encouragements to those with sad smiles. to win a war, there must always be someone like you: a bright soul in the backdrop, who watches over the soldiers and nudges them back in line when they get off course.

→ herein lies your greatest weakness: you're so busy protecting others that you forget to shield yourself. little guardian, this world is nasty and cruel and will eat you up; why do you always forget that if you don't protect yourself, you're going to burn up?

❖  mother hen

❖  occupation maybe tied to protecting others? like a cop?

❖  forgets to protect herself? this could lead to something? idk

THE FIGHTING, open → there are two versions of you that people notice. the first is the one where you are all sharp angles, making yourself even sharper. you smile with razor blade teeth whenever someone gets cut, a danger and warning all in one. but if others stick around long enough, there are times where you will touch pretty faces with careful fingers, eyes like stars and a heart as big as the solar system, wiping the red off their cheekbones. you never minded getting a little blood on your hands, after all. → brave warrior, how come each syllable that falls from your lips has a sharp edge? barbs that scathe and bite with angry, mottled bruises left in their wake. a stain and poison, your own skin covered in battle wounds. who are you fighting, if not yourself? herein lies your greatest strength: you know how to throw a killer punch. little warrior, you've always done more talking through bloody knuckles than your mouth. hello morphs not into good-bye but an undecipherable look with a bitten-back tongue and hands in fists and knuckles embedded in the skin of a clenched jaw. → herein lies your greatest weakness: no one taught you how to stop. anger has always been your greatest enemy, hanging in your life like a backdrop. don't you see what's wrong here, little warrior? once you start fighting, you don't stop. not until someone's stopped breathing, and you're the champion at the top.

❖  one hell of a fighter

❖  but doesn’t know when to stop throwing the punches

❖  boy’s got some serious anger issues

THE HEALING, open → you heal wounds and skinned knees. you help others, but you, yourself, are not something to be mended. after all, you always tell yourself that the only person who can decide whether or not you need fixing is you. those who keep trying to find places to repair, who twist with screwdriver questions and hammer with sharp words, are not trying to help you, girl of gold. they are trying to help themselves, and you have turned from project to person. let them go. make them let go of you. → golden girl, herein lies your greatest strength: you've always been notorious for mending the broken. your childhood was spent playing doctor, operating on your extensive collection of stuffed animals. → repairing others is some sort of sickly-sweet remedy, because when you heal others, you like to think that it's slowly healing these fractures lying beneath your skin too. herein lies your greatest weakness: you think that healing others will heal yourself. it won't, little golden girl. it never will.

❖  has medical skills (doesn’t strictly have to work within medical field tho)

❖  thinks healing others will heal her broken soul, so sad :’(

THE THINKING, open → one must wonder what kind of past could have given birth to this: a heart restrained by wrought iron, with love scrutinized as though it can be explained in a formula and living beings studied underneath a microscope. darling girl, why do you detach yourself from the world like so? the thing about you is that you come off cold, too blunt, insensitive -- sometimes people wonder if you're really even human at all. → you have a beautiful brain, bursting with curiosity, and theories, and numbers, and knowledge, and you're logical to a fault. herein lies your strength: you're so damn smart. you've devoted yourself to the pursuit of knowing, to understanding, to learning. you may be distant, but you have taught yourself so much -- you know, at the very least, how to sharpen words into a point to drive through a heart. → lonely little girl, herein lies your weakness: this thirst for knowledge has tainted your blood. you have such a big heart but you're afraid that your studies are all that you will ever love.

❖  kinda sacrificed a social life in the pursuit for knowledge

❖  hence she has p much zero social skills

❖   big heart but unable to find love

THE RUNNING, taken by emri → this blood, this fear, this constant running, running, running. dear boy, what did you ever do but hide with shaky legs and then run with them? shaking still, feet always flying over the ground, looking over your shoulder and expecting to see a shadow chasing after you. what made you this way? why are you so afraid? → you're a retreating form disappearing into the inevitable darkness, your back broken from the weight of all the burdens you try to carry. but herein lies your greatest strength: you're the quickest -- perhaps, not the bravest -- and you can get so far on those two shaking legs, if you only try. hiding from shadows has taught you something too, darling boy: you know how to keep your head low so as to be unnoticed in a crowd, how to find the best scraps in a cold dumpster in an alley, how to scout out the best safe place in the stark coldness of night. → herein lies your greatest weakness: you can't run too far before you need your fix. fingers cracked and bleeding from the way you try to scratch away the concrete walls that cement you into darkness. little runner, don't you know? the drugs are not your savior. they'll ruin you, you know. stop shrouding yourself in fear and anguish, you're so much brighter when you smile. why can't you just stop running away, even for a little while?

❖  an addict maybe?

❖  the #1 hands-down at navigating the streets and making yourself invisible

THE DECEIVING, taken by cirilla → darling, you've been kissed with a large dark stain upon your heart. it crushes you into tiny glittering pieces, and you twirl through the air. what did this to you? why do you think this darkness inside you is actually okay? → so, you've faced darkness. you've swallowed the nights that ripped you to pieces, and swam laps in the broken glass of peoples' words. herein lies your greatest strength: you've learned how not to flinch when facing the pain, and are the best at elaborate facades. deceit sears through your very veins. you've hidden your wounds behind such a pretty mask, twirling and spinning, finely-dressed smiles spilling from your mouth. they might call you a princess -- a blinding beauty -- and, oh, how easily white knights mistake girls dressed like a daydream as soft and sensitive and needing saving. → remember this: you may be able to disguise your sharp smile behind colorful lips and pretty dresses, but one day, someone's going to come along, and they'll see past it all. but herein lies your greatest weakness: you've built your throne on your show and darling, it’s gone on for so long. how do you stop this performance? when will you finish singing the song?

❖  damn good at lying and acting

❖   but how do you find true friends or love when no one knows who is actually you underneath?

THE CHEATING, open → dark eyes and a dark heart, nature has molded you into a target; strike like an arrow. in this world, you get beaten up or you learn to fight tough, because life does not go easy on you. there is a fire fueling your veins, and you let it run wild, but you must learn to contain it, wild girl, before it consumes you up. → you have a lot in common with the others: you've faced darkness and come out on top, you've lied your way through things, and you've fought hard enough. but herein lies your greatest strength: you've actually not done it at all all. you're quite the filthy cheater; when you've had your nails freshly painted, you're not eager to enter a brawl. scheming is your strong-suit, it's all about the details, picking apart the puzzles until you find the opponent's critical weakness. everything is a game, but when no one's looking, you're the wild girl who likes to change the rules. → the problem with cheating is, once you find success, you refuse to play fair. herein lies your greatest weakness: you're falling deeper and deeper into this ring of fire, so before long, you're going to hit rock-bottom. fiery heart, what made you this way? why did you start changing the rules to games, dancing on the lines of danger, tempting the hand of fate?

❖  probably addicted to gambling and her luck’s bound to run out

❖  has one hell of a poker face

❖ master of drawn-out schemes and switching opponents’ cards when they aren’t looking -- sneaky, sneaky.