#Combating Hate in the Paranormal

[lhparanormalresearchcenter]

Debunking It's Bullying or Hating

[homestuckreplay]

Week 1 Retrospective: Who Is John Egbert?

It’s official - Homestuck is one week old today! And while a week is not a long run for a comic, it’s already got more pages than the author’s earlier work Bard Quest, so maybe it’s something worth recognizing. So I wanted to mark a week of Homestuck by doing a deep dive on what we’ve learned about our protagonist John Egbert so far. It’s some fact collection, some wild speculation, and some ongoing questions. It’s over 3000 words, so it’s under a readmore for anyone who’s interested.

If that doesn’t sound like a fun time to you (or even if it does), you can take the John Egbert Big 5 Personality Test to see how you score on John’s five key personality traits. It’s 14 multiple choice questions, so a much quicker read.

We’re introduced to John on page 4, where we’re given five key interests of his: bad movies, programming computers, paranormal lore, amateur magic, and gaming. I’ll take these one by one and use them as a framework for John’s character so far.

“You have a passion for REALLY TERRIBLE MOVIES.”

John has eleven (11) movie posters on his walls. Of these, three star Matthew McConaughey and two star Nicolas Cage. More notably, six have a Rotten Tomatoes rating below 50%, and two of these are below 10%. I haven’t seen any of these movies, but as far as I can tell, here are the one sentence summaries [broad spoilers for all these movies].

Little Monsters: A boy befriends a monster and visits the monster world, where they try to convert him into a monster too.

Con Air: A paroled man disrupts a gang of prisoner’s escape from a prison transport plane.

Deep Impact: Earth tries to prepare for extinction after a comet is found on a collision course with Earth.

Ghostbusters II: After going out of business, the Ghostbusters reunite to combat a negative energy slime monster.

Mac and Me: A boy befriends a young alien who gets separated from his family and lost on Earth.

Contact: An Earth scientist successfully discovers alien life and travels to an alien world.

A Time to Kill: A father is acquitted in court for killing the perpetrators of racial hate crimes against his daughter.

Failure to Launch: A 35 year old man’s parents hire a woman to persuade him to finally move out of their home.

Face/Off: A terrorist and a FBI agent go through facial transplant surgery and temporarily swap identities.

Armageddon: A group of space workmen go on a mission to stop an asteroid from destroying Earth. 

Ghost Dad: A man temporarily dies but is able to interact with his children in ghost form.

From this we can see that John really likes science fiction movies related to aliens, ghosts and monsters, as well as action comedy. We also know from page 21: ‘Films about impending apocalypse fascinate you’. A Time to Kill and Failure to Launch are the only ones that don’t fit his taste. The implication here is that John really loved Matthew McConaughey in Contact and so watched his other movies even though they were things he wouldn’t usually watch.

I’m curious if these movies are intended as clues to John’s character, the future of the comic, or both. In terms of his character, they make me see him as someone who’s imaginative and goofy, young and carefree, not concerned with other people’s opinions, more interested in watching movies for their surface meanings and exciting stories, maybe wants to escape to a different world, might be a little bit gay. 

In terms of the future of the comic, it could be that we’re going to see literal aliens or monsters - they could even be already here, keeping John ‘homestuck’. Slime monsters are particularly highlighted, with Slimer from Ghostbusters appearing on John’s shirt and computer background, and his chumhandle, ectoBiologist, relating to slime. Slime invasion honestly feels too obvious, and anyway, several of John’s movies are about befriending a more benign supernatural force - could John’s Pesterchum friends be something other than human? Or maybe it’s a more metaphorical meaning, referring to John having a very different life to his friends? 

Two of these movies feature Earth extinctions by giant space rocks, but there’s absolutely no indication of this being a real world threat John is dealing with. Again, it could refer more generally to a sudden, life changing event that’s about to happen to disrupt John’s current state, something that would fit thematically with this being John’s 13th birthday, a milestone age.

There’s also a theme of crime and the legal system in several movies, including Con Air, the one that’s been most highlighted. The most obvious interpretation of John’s dad right now is that he’s a clown or performer, but there’s an outside chance he could be in law enforcement, or a criminal. It’s even possible that he’s currently in hiding or some kind of safe house. This would explain John being ‘homestuck’ and sick of spending time with his dad.

Speaking of John’s dad, I’m concerned for him based on the Ghost Dad summary - the comic keeps teasing his presence, but we haven’t actually seen him yet. Could he be a ghost? Or become one at some point? Alternatively, we know John has an already dead relative - could his nanna be a ghost? Did John dropping her ashes release her ghost? Family is a really common theme in movies, so I don’t know if a large number of these movies being about family (especially fathers) is relevant, but I’m noting it all the same.

“You like to program computers but you are NOT VERY GOOD AT IT.”

John claims he ‘likes to program’, but it actually seems to make him angry. We first learn ‘[y]ou were never all that great with data structures and you find the concept [of the stack modus] puzzling and mildly irritating.’ We then see three files on John’s desktop, two in ^CAKE - ‘pff.^CAKE’ and ‘FUCK FUCK FUCK.^CAKE’ and one in ~ATH - ‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH.~ATH’. These tell a clear narrative of John trying to work on his programming and getting increasingly more frustrated with his attempts, until inevitably giving up. Both of the programming languages are puns, too. ^ is often called a carat (carrot cake) while ~ is a tilde (til death). 

I know this is wild speculation, but… John started off coding in a harmless programming language, was already struggling, then for some reason switched over to the most ominous possible sounding language, screwed it up even worse, and now… he’s constantly haunted by the ghost of failed programming attempts in the form of his sylladex, which he appears to be new to using (he had no prior understanding of it on page 7 - although this could be handwaved due to video game tutorial logic), and which operates similarly to a computer program and seems to cause John endless frustration. He’ll have to figure out how to exploit the inventory system in ways that help him, which involves actually figuring out some stuff about coding, in order to partake in some real life ghostbusting, or monster hunting, or dealing with whatever threat he’ll have to deal with by using inventory hacks.

“You have a fondness for PARANORMAL LORE,” (...)

By far the interest of John’s that we’ve seen the least of so far, John’s love of the paranormal is mostly inferred through his movie preferences, and we don’t see any direct evidence of an interest in lore. However, I can’t stop fixating on John’s chumhandle: ectoBiologist. The comic’s first act was to draw attention to giving John a name, and for many 2009 kids, the names they go by online are more meaningful and representative of them than their real world names. 

‘ecto-’ means ‘outer, outside, external’ according to dictionary.com, and it’s actually a common prefix in a variety of fields of biology, but there’s no such thing as ‘ectobiology’ as a field, or an ‘ectobiologist’ - neither term has any search results prior to Homestuck. I think it’s way more likely that this refers to ectoplasm, a term from both cell biology and spiritualism that was popularized by Ghostbusters to mean any substance secreted by a ghost, in practice often manifesting as green slime. Slimer, who we can guess is John’s favorite, is a benign ghost made of pure ectoplasm. I love the idea that John loves this dumb ghost so much that he’s memorized all the lore about them in their appearances throughout the franchise, and devised this username based on being an expert on these ghosts right down to their biology (or at least thinking he is). 

The only catch is, ‘fondness for paranormal lore’ is very passive and doesn’t even imply much knowledge, much less action, while ‘biologist’ implies that John has been doing actual experiments. The idea of John trying to create a real life Slimer the same way other kids make slime in their kitchens is really entertaining, if an off the wall theory. Does ‘homestuck’ just mean John is grounded for an unethical science project? 

(...) “and are an aspiring AMATEUR MAGICIAN.”

The magic chest is one of the biggest, most eye catching and most colorful objects in John’s room. We see its contents on page 8, which lean more into joke store items than things a magician might use, except for the trick handcuffs and perhaps the collapsible sword. The narration on this page states that John is neither a skilled magician nor a cunning prankster. I’m nitpicking definitions here, but everything John has done so far has been way more about pranks than about magic. 

John’s uses of the magic chest to date are…

various putting things into his inventory and removing them (funny, but unintentionally)

combining fake arms with cake (p.36) out of necessity, which ‘makes the cake at least 300% more hilarious’

merging hat with beagle puss to create a clever disguise (p.45) and wearing it for 25+ pages, which he acknowledges is a ‘shitty disguise’

attaching fake arms to harlequin doll (p.65), which makes it ‘AT LEAST a million percent funnier’

All of which are definitely not magic tricks, and honestly not even pranks. Arguably John’s best and most successful prank so far has been when he pretended not to have arms for the first six pages, before revealing his arms after the interface had gone to the trouble of moving the cake off his magic chest to get him some arms.

John keeps thinking about reading Colonel Sassacre’s Guide to Magical Frivolity and Practical Japery, but always finding some excuse not to. He can’t read it until he captchalogues it, but once he does that, it gets buried in his inventory. He assumes that the book can tell him the exact percentage increase of hilarity a prank leads to, but it’s too big for him to actually look anything up. 

An outside theory for this that I don’t think is likely simply because it’s so much darker than the comic has been so far, is that John loves this book, but since the incident where his nanna was killed by a copy (perhaps even this copy?) he hasn’t been able to bring himself to read it. A far more likely theory is that while John is an aspiring amateur magician, it’s more of a big idea, and he hasn’t actually done any magic yet. This also tracks with his weaksauce pranks above. And if that’s true, then it says a lot about John that he defines himself by a hobby he aspires to but doesn’t actually practice - he’s someone with big dreams and less motivation, just like his big dream of going to collect the mail from his father despite the lack of motivation that’s kept him messing around for 70 pages. 

“You also like to play GAMES sometimes.”

Potentially most important of all is Gamer John. We get a list of games John likes to play from inspecting his CD tower the same way we get a list of movies from looking at his posters. 

Bard Quest

The Caper Havers

Problem Sleuth

And It Don’t Stop

What Pumpkin?

Ghostbusters II MMORPG

Little Monsters (for Nintendo)

Harry Anderson: Call My Bluff!

The first five games all reference previous work by the author of Homestuck, and as such probably don’t need in depth analysis. However, the fact that within the world of Homestuck, these are all games (instead of comics) is one of several suggestions that we should think of Homestuck as a game, something that needs further analysis. 

The next two games are video game adaptations of movies we know John likes, and the last is a branded video game from Harry Anderson, whose book we’ve already seen in John’s magic chest. Notably, none of these are real video games in our world either. It says a lot that John plays game versions of things he already likes (he’s put ‘countless manhours’ into this assortment of quality titles). 

However, it’s undeniable that the most important game in John’s life right now is Sburb. The poster is behind his head in the first panel, placed centrally with one of the only two splashes of color in the panel. The beta release is the only thing marked on his calendar for April besides his birthday, and the Sburb logo is even the picture printed on the calendar - perhaps it’s a calendar themed around new game releases? There’s clear delight on John’s face when he thinks about getting the beta, and his quest to fetch it from the recently delivered mail is the closest thing to a story this comic has so far.

Unfortunately, we know almost nothing about Sburb, so we don’t know what it says about John that he wants to play it. It’s publicized as the Game of the Year, and according to GameBro, the game may be about houses and the player may not get to thrash anything, although these details are provided by someone who hasn’t played the game so I’m not taking them as expert opinion. It might be multiplayer - TT has been pestering TG all day about playing it with her. Maybe John just wants to share a game with his friends.

Speaking of GameBro, John can’t stand the magazine, although he for some reason has a copy on his desk. He describes the publication as ‘a joke’ to TG, and he makes the effort to take it downstairs to the fire and burn it, presumably releasing asbestos fibers into the house and causing serious lung damage to himself and his father. Does he read this because it’s the only games magazine that exists? Or did he like it just fine until now, when it trashed the game he’s excited about, and now he’s furious with it? Either way, it tracks with John’s overall fondness for critically panned media that he would be angry about contrarian critics. 

–

All of this has left me with a few questions about John as our main character. These are the things that I’m keeping an eye on and trying to answer as the story continues.

What is John good at?

We hear so much about what John is bad at. He’s explicitly stated to be bad at programming, pranks, and magic. He’s bad at using his sylladex. He’s clumsy and knocked over his nanna’s ashes. He’s got bad taste in media. He’s funny but only when he doesn’t try to be, and even then he’s sometimes the butt of the joke, where the joke is how not funny John’s joke is. He was tempted to squawk like an imbecile and shit on his desk. He has like six different prankster props and he doesn’t even use all of them. I’m saying all this with love and kindness because he also just seems like such a sweet kid, but so far he doesn’t have any defined strengths or skills. 

Is he going to turn out to be really good at gaming and kick ass at Sburb? Are we going to get a curveball where it turns out John is an amazing baker, and he hates the cakes in his room and the smell of Betty Crocker because he can do so much better than that packet mix? Or is he starting off from this low point so he can develop skills as time goes on?

What is John’s relationship with his dad really like?

John doesn’t want his dad to monopolize his time and feels trapped in his room, despite his dad baking cakes and leaving notes on gifts telling John he’s proud of him. John’s dad gets his son one great present that John’s really appreciative of, and one terrible present that John immediately hates. All of this feels very reasonable and normal for a teen feeling misunderstood by a parent who’s trying their best. 

And then there’s the clowns.

John can excuse magical frivolity and practical japery, but he draws the line at harlequins. He’s an aspiring magician, but his dad’s figurines are ‘fucking garbage’ and his dad ‘sure can be a real cornball’. John seems like somebody who gets angry at ultimately unimportant things, like bad reviews of games, too many cakes, and harlequin figurines, but because of the subject matter it reads like an intense rivalry between two highly specific subcultures that outsiders would group together. John is really making a huge deal of needing to disguise himself and mentally prepare himself to go down and face his dad, and I want to know if there’s any genuine reason behind John’s fear, or if it’s solely the overdramatics I’m starting to think are typical of him.

Is John ‘Homestuck’?

‘Sometimes you feel like you are trapped in this room. Stuck, if you will, in a sense which possibly borders on the titular.’ (p.30)

John clearly feels like he’s stuck at home, but is this the extent of the title’s meaning? His dad has recently returned from getting groceries, so leaving the house is in theory possible. Reasons why John might be homestuck include: he’s not allowed to leave the house (for example, he’s grounded, or his dad is very controlling), he can leave the house but there’s nowhere to go (he lives near major roads, bodies of water, farms, or other obstacles, and there’s no public transport to get anywhere), or he can leave the house but it’s not safe to do so (there’s some sort of external threat, either supernatural like a monster or alien invasion, or mundane like a criminal or bomb threat). Seeing out of John’s window and into his front yard does not provide any clues; it looks like an extremely average front yard with a tree, swing and mailbox, and we know the mail was recently delivered, so there can’t be anything too world-ending happening in the neighborhood. Right now John’s goal (the Sburb Beta disc) is inside the house, so this might not get answered right away - in fact, my running theory is that the game itself might hold the answers, as its logo is a house.

What’s the differentiation between John and the narrator?

My biggest question of all, and one that probably deserves its own essay. I’m fascinated by the lines ‘In a kid's yard, a tree without a tire swing is like a proper gentleman without a monocle.’ (p.27) and ‘In a home, a FIREPLACE needs a fire, because that's what FIREPLACE is for.’ (p.50). These lines carry so much opinion, but because the narrator is constantly addressing John with the second person ‘you’, I don’t think these are John’s opinions. The narrator does have a window into John’s thoughts, so the line between them can be blurred, but there's clearly a distinction somewhere, because there have been pushbacks and disagreements between the two of them. 

One theory is that John’s dad is the narrator - John’s at home a lot for whatever reason, and so the constant and overbearing presence of his dad means that he can’t get him out of his head even when he’s alone, the commands at the top of each page reflecting John’s dad’s level of control over his son’s life. But I think this question is open ended enough that I’m not willing to commit to one theory yet. After all, we ‘examine 3rd and 4th walls of [John’s] room’ which is a directly meta allusion to the comic’s audience that only really makes sense if the narrator isn’t a character in the comic itself. 

–

I think John Egbert has been really well characterized so far. He feels like a real kid, one who keeps getting off track and forgetting what he should be doing, but one who it’s enough fun to get to know that I don’t really notice. While the main character in media often doesn’t end up being the most interesting character, I do want to keep an eye on John because I think he has a lot going on to analyze. Above the style and the world and the mechanics, John as a character is the aspect of the comic I’m most interested in right now.

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

Whenever there's a story about a secret society or a shadowy quasi-government organization that pulls all the strings and controls the entire world and regularly defeats apocalyptic threats against humanity, I always wonder who the hell's paying for it all? The Men in Black, Hellboy's Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, the Assassins, the Templars, they all have blank check budgets and carte blanche to do whatever they need to, whenever, wherever, however. Need to go to an archeological site in Baghdad that may be the literal Garden of Eden? No problem, you'll be on the next flight alongside all your friends and co-workers, and all their supplies and guns and computers, you know, all the stuff that's really easy to ship across international borders. The Kola Superdeep Borehole is actually a portal to hell? I'm sure the Russian government won't mind us checking it out. Area 51 is about as impenetrable as the backstage at a rock concert; sure, some burly guy in a STAFF t-shirt or full combat gear may shout "HEY" and start chasing you, but you can give him the slip real easy and go about your business without him ever alerting a superior.

BORING.

Give me the shadowy agency that has had regular budget cuts since the 1980s. Their power and influence ebbs and flows every 2 years depending on which party controls congress. There's so much red tape and so many roadblocks that the 10,000 year old cult which was once the dominant global superpower is now just a rump echo chamber; they've preserved their ancient Proto-Indo-European language, the mother tongue of about half the world's population, but there was so much infighting over the millennia that they broke into countless warring factions that basically don't do anything anymore. "We're the People's Front of Judea, not like those wankers in the Judean People's Front."

Agent Kay once said "there is always an Arquilian battle cruiser or a Corilian deathray or an intergalactic plague about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, but the only way these people can go about their happy lives is they DO. NOT. KNOW ABOUT IT!" Surely they drop the ball from time to time.

"Hey, where's the Archduke? Aren't you part of his security detail?" "I thought that was your job!"

or

"When you disabled the alien ship, you set the autopilot to crash into the Pacific, right?" "The Administrator told me to aim for the Arctic." "Why the hell would he tell you that?!? Its orbit was nowhere near the Arctic! Where is it now?" "Apparently it's about to enter the atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia. Whoops."

or

"A rematch?!? That wasn't the plan! Why don't the higher ups ever give me a warning before they go off book? Do you even know which campaign you're supposed to sabotage? Everyone already hates them both!"

[aut2imagineart]

Being a fan of Hazbin Hotel and recently getting into the anime DanDaDan, I thought it would be fun to create something that's a mix of both. Set in the Hellaverse, some living humans are able to gain powers of sinners from Hell via a soul pact, curse, or aura absorption. These four would be the main caste having bonded with some of the residents of the Harbin Hotel. Here's a quick rundown of these characters.

Jacob: A 19 year old track runner who hates all things scary, Jacob was forced to make a soul pact with Alastor to combat a paranormal threat. While gaining Alastor's powers (including but not limited to shadow and radio wave manipulation), Jacob provides his own speed and stamina to become a force to be reckoned with. A disturbing side effect Jacob suffers is a growing inclination towards cannibalism.

Nikki: Jacob's friend and senior in her early 20s, Nikki has a passion for mixed martial arts and is overly eager to accept a challenge. She as formed a soul pact with Angel Dust whose extra arms and flexibility complements Nikki's fighting style. To her annoyance, however, she has become more flirtatious as a result of Angel Dust's influence.

Emmanuel: A 12 year old orphan whom Jacob and Nikki take in, Emmanuel has lived on the streets for many years and became a self taught parkour expert. Though he has done some things he is not proud of to survive, he ultimately an optimist who dreams of being a superhero. He Naively formed a soul pact with Husk and gained a batman-like persona combining his acrobatics with Husk's flight and arsenal with the side effect of a more pessimistic personality.

Calian: a short tempered delinquent in his early 30s, Calian reluctantly joins Jacob and his friends after inadvertently rescuing them. He has formed a soul pact with Niffty who was drawn to his bad boy energy (much to his annoyance). Calian's size and strength combined with Niffty's speed and agility makes him a powerhouse though often forced as a result of her influence.

Though this is made just for fun, I do have some more ideas with this concept. If you want to see more of it just let me know in the comments.

Hazbin Hotel belongs to Vivziepop.

DanDaDan belongs to Yukinobu Tatsu.

As always, comments and critiques are welcome.

[becauseplot]

Last night I finished Ordem Paranormal: Calamidade Episode 2! A five hour episode---lots of things to think about lots of things to talk about, hooooo boy.

Second set of characters! Second set of characters! More little guys for me to rotate!

Going into this season, I already knew that there was going to be another team of players/characters moving through the story, but this doesn't make it any less of a delight! So happy to see Luis, Triz, and João back in action, and now we have a couple new players, Mount and Zero. Exciting!

I suppose this is what Cellbit meant when he said at the beginning of the season that even he doesn't know how this story will end. Since we have our "good guys" team and "bad guys" team, the success of their respective order's missions is going to depend directly on the players' actions. The fate of the story has been almost entirely put in the hands of the players. And now whatever happens, happens.

This episode wasn't particularly plot-heavy: mostly just a bunch of fights one after the other. But that's not to say this episode wasn't without its moments. And it certainly didn't feel like it was lacking on the character-front, no sir. It was a pretty fun episode for me, because I love watching fights---not as much as I love watching character moments, but the fights are fun as well. And they can also lead to character moments!

Depicted: the Escripta crew demonstrates all five stages of grief simultaneously as T-Bag takes 38 damage in a single round from Signore Leone.

Alright let's go down the list.

Demir and Boris! Lumping them together because I. I'm sorry I don't have any major feelings about them right now. They exist! They seem to be twins! They had a brother whose name I can't quite remember but presumably died to something to do with the Devil, if I remember correctly. All the more reason to want to do away with the paranormal. Could they be the same brothers that the previous case was about? Probably not, but interesting that we have some characters with a direct history with the Devil. I just really think it's funny that this is the second time Luis has played a character with a "body double" if that makes sense. I don't quite know how to articulate it but out there exists some sort of Venn-Diagram between Damir and Luci/Fer with a non-zero middle part.

Anyway very interesting combat strategy they have, with Damir using rituals to buff Boris' weapon and defense for combat. They both care deeply about each other, as is obvious with the ways they try to stick close and protect each other. They're not just siblings, they're a functional duo! Also I believe it was Demir who said, when "the Devil" showed up, "This is not our fight." Something like that. Do I sense a hint of reluctance to fight for the Escriptas? To lay down your life for them? Why join in the first place? Is it better to cut your losses? Incheresting... (I could also be completely making this up, but I'm too lazy to go back and check.)

T-Bag! The rabid feral dog of the team! Auto subs hated whatever the hell he was saying about killing his dad but I'm convinced that 50% of what was coming out of his mouth was unhinged nonsense so it's...alright, I suppose. I find it infinitely hilarious that this guy has one of the largest sanity stats of the whole team. Yeah he might be crazy but he's not crazy, you know? His craziness is not a detriment to him, it's just how he is. Just a hungry little cannibal guy <3 Just looking for his next meal <3 Eating Artemis' possum for a snack to tide him over <3

Artemis! Firstly her personality is. So funny? Whenever shit is going down she always seems annoyed, like, "Man, now this is happening? Come on. 🙄" And meanwhile the "this" that is happening is a bunch of people are beating the shit out of each other and trying to murder her. When Gal (we'll get to him a second don't worry) sat down on that table in the front room to do his typical postering bullshit, Artemis just rolled her eyes and shoved him out of the way so that she could level her sniper on it. And that endeared me to her immediately <3 So sorry Triz's little possum friend got eaten two seconds into the season. 2 for 2 on dead animal friends, I'm afraid. Funny to think about how the Marcados are (theoretically) connected to each other by their players, and Triz's characters unfortunately inherited the link of "Animal friends who perch on your shoulder get their necks snapped." Sorry :T

Oh yeah and she's a cannibal too! Diversity win! There are two cannibals on the team and they are very different people who come from clearly very different walks of life and have a different style of cannibalism! That really caught me off guard. When she started to eat the dead body beside T-Bag I was shocked and absolutely delighted. Oh, she's a little fucked up too! And she can shape-shift, apparently! Artemis always kept me guessing this episode. Love her <3

Teammates <3

And of course, we now come to Gal. The bastard. The melodramatic sadistic motherfucker who's been here since the beginning of this shitshow. I've said this a billion times in the discord but GOD I love how João plays him. João's performative playstyle is absolutely perfect for a performative, arrogant character like Gal. Ever since his first appearance in OPD, João has put his heart and soul into making this character fucking rotten and wrong and sick, and it works. so. well. Like I said, you LOVE to hate this guy. Gal is a fantastic character, expertly crafted to be the perfect villain. Even on a meta level---João will sometimes go as far as to interrupt Cellbit just to keep being evil (cutting off the closing narration of OPD ep 6 to continue describing how Gal goads at Joui and co about Liz's death, to keep counting up his dice on the attack on the first Leone even after Cellbit has told him the guy is dead) and even goad the players (OPD finale, at Guaxi: "Might want to start thinking about a new character, eh?") to make sure that you hate this guy's putrid shriveled guts. No joke, when João showed up on the screen and Gal's little icon appeared on the tabletop, I just about foamed at the mouth.

My genuine reaction on discord.

GOD I love Gal. I want to rip his throat out with my bare hands. I would do unspeakable things to this character and I do NOT mean in the sexy way.

But! We got to see a little more of Gal as a person this session, which I really loved. Seeing him outside of combat and interacting with his subordinates was so much fun. He's fond of some of the Escriptas under his command (when they're not annoying him), especially his "son" Dagan. The way he treats Dagan is almost pet-like and sickly sweet, emphasis on the sickly. He ruffles his hair, brings him gifts, smiles fondly at the thought of Dagan having fun murdering a bunch of people in the rooms upstairs. Honestly it's kind of cute? In a fucked up way to be sure. Still cute though. That's Gal's little guy! Everyone needs a little guy!

I think at the heart of Gal's leadership style is that he has no patience for dealing with people who he thinks should know better. Otherwise, he's chill with you---or as chill as this sadistic bastard can be---and will even try to care for you.

POV: you have to explain to your stupid lackey for the second time that the evidence needs to be translated because you don't speak Italian.

Because on some level, he cares. It shows in how he treats Dagan, it shows on how gently he treated that one soft-spoken girl with the dyed hair (whereas Damir just snapped at her for not making eye-contact when she was talking to him, the dick), it shows in how he tried to do something stop Signore Leone from advancing when Signore Leone used his lionhead mace to throw Artemis against the wall, and it shows how when "the Devil" showed up, Gal looked to Kian and said, "Don't let them [the Escriptas upstairs] die." Even if he knows that all of them will have to die in the end to achieve Kian's goal of destroying the paranormal, some part of him still cares about his team. Sure, it could be that he just wants to make sure that they maintain enough man-power to see the job all the way through, but...no, it's not entirely that. There's something under the surface there, as twisted as he may be. He is not immune to giving a damn.

Kian. This guy. Fucking nerd. I don't dislike his character but I don't have any super strong feelings about him, probably because we haven't seen him as a character very much at this point. His reasoning behind destroying the paranormal is still some whack-ass shit. Over 4000 years to come up with a plan and THIS is what you arrive at? You're kidding. For a guy who """knows everything""" how could you POSSIBLY miss the detail that massacring thousands of people would, I dunno, CAUSE AGONY AND FEAR, which would, I dunno, WEAKEN THE MEMBRANE AND THUS MAKE THE PARANORMAL INFLUENCE IN THE WORLD WORSE. Chopping heads off hydras is what he's doing. Idiot.

It's talked about during Gal's conversation with Signora Leone in the office upstairs. Interesting for a character to understand and possibly even sympathize with the Escriptas' motivation. Signora Leone wants the paranormal to end too! She would do anything to rid the world of it---anything, that is, that doesn't require murdering thousands of innocent people. Gal tries to justify the mess downstairs as "it's the paranormal that's killing your family" like no bro I'm pretty sure that was you?? I get what he's saying, but if the paranormal no longer exists, or if the world was somehow reformed so that it's like the paranormal never existed, who's to say that the Leone family still wouldn't be involved in some sort of dangerous, non-paranormal dealings? It's such a subjective argument. Second grade level of critical thinking. Guess that's what happens when you get indoctrinated into a cult. "Kian sabe" oh please Kian doesn't "sabe" shit.

Anyway, that's about all I have about this episode. The NPCs were cool, watching Gal babysit his gaggle of weirdos was fun, and I liked the part where they nearly blew up T-Bag by firing a bazooka into a (closed) safe. They're so good at this.

Huh, feel like I'm...forgetting something...

OH WAIT.

JOUI IS BACK! MY BOY! MY BESTEST FAVORITEST BOY IS BACK AND HE IS PISSED.

Good lord. I actually screamed when this happened. I just. Okay how do I manage to take the chanting of jouijouijouijouijouijoui in my head and turn it into something intelligible by other human beings.

Let's start with the fact that I LITERALLY posted my Joui sword OPD rambles when I was less than an hour of episode away from this fight. I was over here angsting over the loss of Joui and missing him and talking about how fucked up it is that Mascara-Joui still has his sword, and then I get hit with this. I just. Okay! Sure! Why not!

To be clear: yes, I had seen Joui's OPC character miniature online before, both with and without the mask, and I knew from friends on the discord that Mascara-Joui had a stat sheet and he was STRONG. But, I figured that because Joui is still technically hanging around, it would make sense that maybe he could be like, a fight-assist NPC that would show up at some point to help the Ordem crew. Still an NPC, still emotionless, still masked, still not really Joui. So to see Luba return and play a version of Joui that CLEARLY retains his Joui-ness had me falling out of my chair. It was the last thing I expected. I really thought Joui's fate would be final, a no-going-back deal, since that's a pretty common theme with Ordem---permanent, inescapable consequences. I really thought that everything that made Joui Joui would be lost forever.

But no. Despite everything, Joui is still here, and he is not empty---he has his hate.

So many fucking questions. Most important of all: how is Joui here? He seems to have retained his memories from before he got masked (some of them, at least) but doesn't recognize who Kian is, mistaking him for Luci/Fer. I've got...one theory. Bear with me now. We know that the Devil is some sort of big-shot paranormal entity thing* who seems to thrive off of making pacts with humans. So, the Devil would not be too happy with people who are trying to stop the paranormal. This would include both the Order and the Escriptas, and especially the Escriptas since they're seeking to end the paranormal for good. So, perhaps the Devil used its power (made a pact with Joui somehow?) to restore Mascara-Joui and send him after the Escriptas. The Devil HAS to have something to do with this, considering the walls began to bleed when Joui showed up upstairs---something we know from ep 1 signals the arrival of the Devil---and the mention on the radio of someone claiming to see the Devil (perhaps it made a brief appearance before leaving Joui to it).

*A correction to the previous journal post: this is not the first time we have encountered a seemingly sentient paranormal entity! The God of Death from OSNF was clearly intelligent as well! I have other thoughts about this but they're kinda meta so I won't put them here.

Also, Joui is a very Death-coded character: his pensiveness and the fact that he often thinks back on what has happened when he meditates, the motif of death hanging over him since that night in the graveyard where his friends died, being frozen and helpless to the inevitable as Liz was killed in front of him, his dead-set motive to kill all of the Escriptas following said death, his fate being taken out of his hands and sealed when he made the deal with the Mascaras (more inevitability) and being in a downward spiral trying to kill himself in combat over and over leading up to the deadline. There's probably the more, but that's the gist. I do believe Joui's NEX is well beyond 50%, and he's got to be Death.

Here, though, I see both Death and Blood. Death is in his single-mindedness in this fight. He's like a force of nature, unstoppable, inescapable, inevitable. Given enough time in that fight, he would've killed them all, there's no doubt about it. Blood is in the hate, the sheer hate, he has for Gal and the Escriptas. It is potent. Death is often distinguished the absence of emotion and the inconsequentiality of the flesh, so the hate and violent rage Joui feels cannot be from Death. It has to be Blood, and the Devil I'm sure would be happy to help fill in those gaps. Joui's hate and anger brewed for a majority of OPD, so the Devil has plenty to work with. I love to see my boy cranked up to an 11.

And the fight. Needless to say, it was incredible. Every line out of Luba's mouth was a banger, every attack and action he did had me losing my mind. What I loved the most was how Cellbit, Luba, and João worked together to make Joui Jouki the scariest motherfucker ever. Both João and Luba can be pretty descriptive with their character's actions, so they complimented each other perfectly. João's RP skills really shone here, playing into the choices that Joui made and making it clear how affected Gal was by this fight. If you've got the guy who revels in pain fleeing from the fight, you know it's serious. When Joui cut off Gal's arm and Luba apologized to João ("sorry, friend") João just smiled, nodded, and respected it. God that is. PEAK RP right there. Genuine appreciation for other players' decisions, even if it's at the expense of your own character.

And actually---who says it's an expense? Gal has clearly been shaken up by this fight. Like João said, he's in shock. He lost his arm, the Escriptas are being slaughtered all around him, and Kian has seemingly abandoned him. There's plenty for João to work with here. I'm excited to see what he does with Gal, now that Gal's façade has finally cracked.

A final note about Joui... He really has changed, hasn't he? Yes, the anger is his. As I said, it's been brewing since OPD, but here, he is just out of control. No more of that self-discipline. He doesn't care anymore. He's angry. His hatred is beyond words. He has nothing but fury living inside him. Maybe that really is all he has left. I love the detail that his sword now heals people, but heals them wrong: a painful, twisted scar, leaving the flesh "rotten." That's what Joui kind of feels like now. A scar that healed wrong. A man restored but twisted by his pain and anger. And he will kill them all, one by one.

[FOLLOWING CONSTAINS SPOILERS FOR QUARANTENA]

And to finish it off: Joui tearing Hanna apart, limb from limb, furious, not reveling in it but dead-set on making her suffer just as he has before finally, finally killing her. Not really Nidere-core (Nidere definitely reveled in it fhdsk) but it is in my heart. Ouppy <3

[massivecheesecakewolf]

Inspired by a fanfic called "The Ghost called Molly McGee" by dat_physics_boi

This is a au of Danny Phantom with the usual ghost king au stuff, but with one thing added, the ADVISOR.

The advisor of the ghost world is the one entity that every ghost ( even the ghost king) listens to because even though the advisor is not strong as the ghost king in fact they are strong as a regular ghost even though their portal skill is very great, they has a power that when any ghost is not listening to the advice from the advisor, the advisor can install dread as the ghost get more fearful as they don't listen, until the ghost finally listens to the advisor and the dread stops, even the ghost king and the ancient powerful ghost are not immune to the dread. This is a necessity for the ghost king for that not even a wise king is all knowing and prepared, so the advisor is there to make sure that the ghost king is on the right path like preventing war and can get the king to change laws to prevent bad time from happening. Of course even the advisor can be corrupted by power as the previous advisor with Pariah Dark is corrupted. While Pariah Dark is imprisoned, the previous advisor was still free and on the loose, WAS free until they are destroyed by a... What do you call a ghost about to be resurrected by his friends ( no seriously do any phantom have a term for resurrected ghost), the resurrected ghost ( let call him John Scroll) is a (teenage) paranormal investigator resurrecting for the 2nd time this week as he is killed by vampire (again) as he saw ghost like thing as the entity saw John Scroll and commented him to take the entity to the castle of the ghost king, John politely refused and feel dread as the entity keep demanding John, as the dread keep going higher and higher John decide the only thing to make it stop, exorcise the entity entirely, and he got a lot of blessings and 'magic' to exorcise the entity just before his resurrection is done. Even though no one saw the interaction, the consequences of the action about to be started as the advisor role can be claimed by combat like the king role can be also claimed, and John is now the new advisor even though he is alive (again).

John Scroll is a paranormal investigator who is equivalent to a mid level dnd character with decent abilities that help with the paranormal and supernatural stuff, even though he died a lot, and he hates war as he and his friends (who is a paranormal investigation squad) stop an event that will start a vampire frenzy and he died (again) as one of his friend is casing a revive spell ( which it take an hour or two to cast) and John is back (again) but something feel off, but before they can think about it the van of spookiness ( it a tricked out van for the team) arrived and the team (let's call them the spook squad or the spook) have to leave. A couple of weeks later as the spooks are bored while waiting for the next investigation job, a portal form under John and he fell into a council room full of a lot of ghosts and he noticed that from the explaining ghost king ( John learns the ghost king name is Danny Phantom ) that John defeats the entity that John learns that they were the last advisor and John gain the advisor power and responsibility (he gain an average ghost power like etcoblast, become invisible, and getting portal making power which he is able to anywhere, even go to an ghost free place) and John just after learning it he just order the ghost council to give john information about the reason ghost goes to the living realm and also order the council and Danny to only call him for important thing like if the ghost king is about to declare war or making a stupid law like barring people from the afterlife,( if you ask John why he chose that situation he will tell you about a time of a insane mutated ghost, which it killed him (again) in the past.)while John is with his friend doing paranormal/supernatural investigator stuff.

Remember what I said about John Scroll hates war, I am thinking of a situation about how Danny has enough about the GIW and the anti ecto law and want to start a war in front of the justice league ( having to add them to get more tag) and as he is speaking

Danny "angry" Phantom:" as you didn't notice about this law and as you didn't stop the Guys in white, I will confirm you are our enem-"

A cough is hard as a masked figure is staring at Danny.

Danny Phantom:" Oh uh advisor I am just making a decoration of war and I am-"

The advisor (it's John Scroll):"no you are not. What you will do is very simple. You will take back what you said about starting a war and just talk about simple things like peacefully getting the justice league help.

Danny Phantom:" I have to start a war so the world can LEAR-"

The advisor stared at Danny disappointed. And unknowingly to the justice league (except John Constantine who knows about the ghost realm thing ) using the dread power on Danny.

Danny just stands there for the moment thinking about what he says until he feels more and more dread as he is thinking about war less and more peaceful solutions to stop feeling dreadful.

Danny Phantom:"Fine I will stop with the war decoration and get their help with the anti-ecto law. As his feelings of dread disappear.

The Flash:" uhhh what just happened?"

John Constantine:" what happened is that the advisor does not want war and force the ghost king to listen to him. And if you don't follow the advisor command you feel dread."

Superman:"Wait how do you know that?"

John Constantine:" why else am I still trying to make a spell that makes me immune to dread from the advisor."

By the way, tell me what happens when John Constantine learns that the first name of the new advisor is also John what will happen?

[sharkverse-turtles]

Something About Michelangelo

[Click the image to go to the design's main page!] [This page is still a wip!]

Name: Michelangelo

Nicknames: Mikey, Angelo, The Fun Twin

Age: 16 (oldest)

Pronouns and Identity: He/They - Demisexual

Species: Southern Painted Turtle

Weapon: Nunchaku

Ability and Drawback: Pathokinesis

Mikey is able to manipulate the target's emotions to whatever emotion he desires, though at the present moment he hasn't learned how to control the ability properly. To use this, he focuses on the target he's attacking and their emotional energy, typically through intense eye contact. Once he's secured into his target, he himself becomes apathetic and somewhat akin to an empty husk while he floods the target's emotions with whatever he chooses, whether it's an intensification of present emotions or overriding with new ones. Once he has incapacitated them successfully, he draws back, oftentimes feeling 'a small flame reinvigorated in his body'. Many times, there is a brief period afterwards where he is still in a state of apathy, followed by a sudden surge of emotions based on the emotions he made the target feel (If he made them feel sad, he would feel the effect twice as strong when the apathy wears off and become depressed lets say). There isn't much of a method to combat this besides regular techniques to fight panic attacks, counter depression, etc.

His drawback is he enters into a state of apathy, lacking any emotion for a period of time. Any emotions projected onto the target effect him twofold afterwards, leaving him prone to bad panic attacks or depression

Personality:

Mikey puts on a carefree and overly relaxed facade. Truth be told, he’s always nervous and a bit depressed. He worries his powers will end up eventually hurting those around him, which brings him great stress. He, like Leo, also worries and stresses about his siblings. He is openly adamant about not being a co-leader of the team, worrying about how his leadership skills may hurt the team.

Mikey often acts on impulse, opting to act now and think about the consequences later. This has both worked for and against him on several different occasions, but usually results in him getting a lecture from Leo about being careful.

Mikey has a soft heart for his friends and family, and is willing to help a stranger in need, even if not the best idea. He takes great care to listen and sympathize with their problems, being a therapist in his own right.

He is rather secretive about his own feelings and thoughts, which has led to him bottling things up to prevent stress and worrying his family. In that right, he can be VERY stubborn. He also uses jokes as a coping mechanism and a means to relieve stress.

Despite being a rather kind-hearted turtle, he can flip VERY quickly when a friend or family member is in danger. He becomes terrifyingly vicious when the safety or lives of them is in danger, and has once or twice lost his temper when one of the others has been hurt badly by an enemy.

Hobbies: *Skating *Creating *Climbing and Parkour

Likes: *Barbeque Chicken Pizza *Jokes and Pranks *Annoying his brothers *Ghosts and the paranormal *sunrises and sunsets

Dislikes: *Anchovies *His ability (He actually HATES his Pathokinesis) *Being left alone

-----------------

Relationships:

Leo:

His relationship with Leo is interesting. Leo gets on his case about not taking things seriously quite often, and Mikey secretly admits rightfully so. He doesn't tell him that this is a means to cope with his sometimes overwhelming anxiety and depression from worrying about him and his brothers constantly, and dealing with the drawbacks of his ability which he believes to be a curse. 

He believes that Leo is an incredible leader, and wishes he felt like he could take on that responsibility, but how can he take care of a team when he has a hard time even taking care of himself? He encourages Leo to come to him with the things that worry and stress him, and he's grateful his twin trusts in him enough to seek his help despite his apparent careless attitude. Mikey has been told time and time again by him that he can go to him for any problems he has, and he doesn't have to be alone in things. Mikey insists he's okay though. He doesn't want to worry or burden him or anyone else with his problems, and is terrified to talk about his abilities since he fears everyone would see him as a 'monster'. He has a sinking feeling that Leo knows that what he's doing is just a gimmick and a mask, but he's holding steady and refuses to falter. He thinks Leo already worries about the other two so much, and doesn't want to add more unnecessary stress. 

The two tend to bond through talking about just about everything under the sun that they like, what they find interesting, friendly debates about toppings on pizza (You ever have barbeque chicken pizza before? Clearly Leo's playing it too safe)- just about anything. He appreciates Leo's assistance and sometimes participation in his creative endeavors and keeps all the things that Leo makes, much to Leo's embarrassment. He also likes to sometimes sit and listen to him practice his guitar, which he is open about.

Raph:

Mikey loves his younger brother. The two love to get into chaos and shenanigans together and feedback off of each other's chaotic energy. They also love pulling pranks on the others and each other.

He knows that Raphael looks up to and adores him, but deep down he wishes he looked up to Leo more, since he feels guilty about the admiration he receives from his youngest brother. He admires Raph's superhuman strength and ability and sometimes wishes he had his instead.

As siblings, they have a typical sibling relationship- Mikey LOVES to annoy him by getting into his space and bother him while he does something (Typically whenever he's trying to game), but is willing to lend a hand when he needs it, and hugs, comfort and advice. Mikey likes to keep him company when he's doing anything, and they bond over pranks and absolutely trash tier movies.

This doesn't mean they don't have their spats, though. Raphael and Mikey get into the occasional fight about abilities and unintentional babying. Sometimes the fights are over more petty things, though the fight gets resolved quickly, whether through a quick argument, or just Raph flipping Mikey onto his back when he's being particularly stubborn.

Donnie:

He loves Donnie a lot. He has a tendency to pick on Donnie just a LITTLE more than the other two though for the sole purpose of it's funny to annoy the hell out of him. Some light teasing, and having ZERO concept of Donnie's personal space especially since he knows Donnie can't really do much about it. He knows when to back off though and let him have his peace and will only annoy him if he's not really working on anything super important and in good spirits. In a way, its his way of bonding with him.

The two argue all the time about aliens and ghosts. Mikey believes in ghosts and the paranormal, and Donnie believes in aliens and extraterrestrial life. So far, neither have been proven right which drives BOTH of them insane.

Despite this, Mikey is a good therapist to him and he's glad that Donnie feels like he can talk to him about his problems.

-----------------

Trivia: *He has a (even if slightly weak) psychic connection of sorts with Leo, possibly as a result of the ooze. He can tell when Leo is nearby and how far, can sometimes communicate through simple eye contact, and can feel when he's dealing with drawback or intense emotions. He can tell when Leo uses his healing powers since it feels like a very faint and cool sensation along his hands and arms. He calls this ‘minty skin’. When doing this, both of his eyes turn blue.

*He has a scar on his shoulder from a recent injury, which also cracked his plastron. His plastron injury was transferred over to Leo and the injury on his shoulder healed, but it scarred over due to the nature of Leo’s ability.

*He has heterochromia

*Mikey has been keeping his secondary ability a secret for almost four years, opting to keep it from his family and doing a good job at it. This has led to everyone thinking he doesn't have one.

*He was also the last one in the family to find out he had a power

*He loves putting stickers on himself

*Mikey has a fear of being left alone for long periods of time, often making him anxious and stressed.

*Mikey met April first. She is the only one who knows he has powers at all

*Orange is his favorite color because it reminds him of sunsets and sunrises

*Originally, Mikey wasn't going to have any abilities whatsoever

-----------------

Things can/will change as time goes on!

[kharmii]

Hawks is lying under a blanket with an advertisement printed on it that says: Detnerat Healthy Green Juice. He wakes up.

Hawks: What!?!? What is going on here!?!? Why am I on my back!!! My back hurts!!!

What is this blanket?!?!? I was just going to take a nap but I was too tired. I was fast asleep!!!

Huh!?!? Seriously!!! Seriously what!!! Surrounded by surveillance!! When you wake up.

Awesome!!! And my wings hurt too!!! This... is not only the pain of their weight!!!: Slowly and surely...

This is low temperature burn!!! This is a fiery ice injury!!!

Isn't it starting yet!?!?! Hey you two!?

*Dabi and Geten mumble things in their sleep*

*Dabi and Geten wake up startled and reflexively launch an attack with their respective elements*

(Background voices○The building is completely destroyed!! Hurry and put out the fire!!! The ice is in the way. We can't melt it. The fire is spreading here!)

Dabi and Geten: *drowsy and disheveled* .......................

(Random voices shrieking in the background)

Hawks: This is what a mischievous cat looks like~

Okay, everyone. Let's go apologize.

(Hawks is a good friend)

Geten: Twice increases the blue flames on a scale of several hundred people. Both hands in front. Place on ice and cover.

Geten-chan thought, "I will not fight with Dabi."

(Working together, Twice makes clones of Dabi. Geten combines his ice power with the fire power of the clones) Incineration and cleaning machine [DABI∞ with mobile cooling function] Wheeeee.......

Geten: ReDestro! (He's pleased with himself believing the Grand Commander and his colleagues will be pleased).

Instead......Oops!

Caption: Paranormal Liberation Front.

ReDestro: Let's get started! On behalf of the Supreme Leader, I, ReDestro, will now be organizing troops based on the tendencies of my warriors!

(The height of honor)

ReDestro: As the captain, I ask for your help in improving the morale of our soldiers and in providing training and combat instruction! If you have any requests, please let us know.

(ReDestro starts roll-call with orders)

ReDestro: Lieutenant Geten!

Geten: Please limit your responses to a very small number of people as there is a risk of getting others involved. Sorry I can't be of much help.

ReDestro: Got it! Mr. Skeptic!

Skeptic: Not necessary. The crew will produce their own. It will interfere with the operation.

ReDestro: Understood! Dabi-Kun!

Dabi: Even if it burns, I won't understand.

ReDestro: ....understood. Toga-Kun!

Toga: I don't know! I want to be free!

ReDestro: Understood.... Twice.

Twice: I don't need it. I am the million strong army!!

ReDestro: Understood. Mr. Compress.

Mr. Compress: Any number of people is okay! The more the better. The target can escape easier.

ReDestro: I'd be in trouble if you ran away but....understood. Spinner-kun!!! You were the one who came up with the name with me!

Spinner: Please align the rolls. Raid big jump rope. AOE is also good.

ReDestro: What language is that? Trolls are no good... Understood. Well then, over 10,000 left. Me and Trumpet. Let's do our best!!!!

Trumpet: (anxious tone) Yes....

ReDestro: The more you are, the better.

Geten: I hate being a errand boy, but you guys can't even fly. The temperature isn't that low. I don't want to use my meta abilities that much just to move around.

(Geten makes them all ice floats of their own he can use his powers to move about)

Twice: Wow, it's flying! It's falling!

(Dabi's ice float melts right away, and he falls)

Toga: (perky, raises hand) He fell!

Twice: (getting emotional) A Dabi who can't fly is just Dabi....

Geten: Blue flame!!! I wish you could at least control your supernatural powers! Ah, sorry, if you could, you wouldn't burn yourself! How pitiful!

Dabi: I grill it as a hobby. You can shout it all you want. If you pity me, then pity me for my own foolishness in not being able to predict this.

Geten: It's annoying that only you get a special edition!

Dabi: In short, if the ice that is the basis for this is gone, then nothing can be done. It's a weak quirk.

I'm not like you. It's okay to just ignore it, right? The heat of the flames burns the air and burns you, without melting the ice.

Geten: All you need is a piece of ice the size of your fingernail, and you can lower the temperature of the ice along with the surrounding air.

Create ice from moisture in the air. My ice is infinite, unlike yours. I'll wrap you up in a thick wall of ice so you can roast yourself.

Mr. Compress: Because I can follow. Burns and rashes.

Don't worry about it, let's do our best together. They are appealing to each other.

Dabi: Don't do it!

Geten: I didn't!

Toga: They are good friends.

Art credit: 九わん - pixiv

[mintbees]

im going through my once every few months binge of buzzfeed unsolved and other paranormal youtubers while im knitting and i hate how often "loud human footsteps" are put down as undeniable proof of something walking around because you wanna know what also sounds like a fully grown man stomping around in a space where a human shouldnt even be and is active late at night?

we had one of these in an old ass windmill we were staying in in france one time and when i tell you this little thing sounds like a giant man in combat boots on your roof i mean it. At some point it dragged in a mouse that started to rot (gross) and had maggots growing in it (grosser) and because it was in the cieling it started Raining Maggots Inside (The Grossest). If we hadn't known it was a ferret i wouldve thought we were stuck in some conjuring shit in the french countryside. If you say your remote old building has rotting smells and footsteps its not infested by demons youve got something worse: a fucking creature

[igotsnothing]

Trope: Enemies-to-lovers

Frederick: Once the toast of the town, one of high society's most-eligible bachelors, Lord Frederick Fairfax returned a broken man, physically and emotionally, from the last war. He has become reclusive and withdrawn- described even by his friends as taciturn and increasingly misanthropic. The reality, however, is that Frederick is proud and quite sensitive- to the point that he can perceive things ordinary folk cannot. He hates being regarded with pity. And it stings when his face is looked upon with revulsion. Methodical and intelligent, he is often consulted to lend his expertise regarding criminal...and paranormal matters.

Hester: Little is known about Hester's origins, except that she is wealthy, refined, and a witty conversationalist. Her unusual appearance and the slight and inscrutable accent are part of her allure. Despite her willingness to attend soirees and balls, everyone agrees there is something elusive and mysterious about her. Observant and shrewd, Hester is on the hunt for a way to rid herself of the curse she lives with.

Hester's situation is becoming untenable on both the mortal and immortal ends: she has been raising eyebrows in Henford-on-Bagley's polite society: it is unheard of for a woman of her stature and age to remain unmarried. In addition to that, her lack of ties to any vampire covens makes her vulnerable to any vampire hunters...or rogue creatures. Frederick's position is suffering, as well. There are rumors beginning to circulate about him, about his mental state. His family demands he combat the gossip by finding a wife. A mutual acquaintance, unaware of either party's secrets and abilities, facilitates a meeting between the two.

The two loathe each other at first. Frederick realizes what Hester is right away and has all kinds of prejudices against her. Hester finds Frederick quite provincial and finds his suspicions of her comical.

And yet...

They must set their differences aside if they wish to remain free. With his abilities and contacts, Frederick might be able to help Hester break her curse. Hester can help Frederick regain his footing in society and investigate cases alongside him- cases ordinary or otherwise.

They agree that they can definitely put up a front so that people stop gossiping and prying into their business.

It's just a front, right? That's all...

Lord and Lady Fairfax?...

(Hester and Frederick are kind of *very* loosely based on Lady Ora Fischerová and Domek Myska from the novel The Lights of Prague, by Nicole Jarvis)

[chronicparagon]

I hear harmony has a camp counselor au, tell me....what be her final girl weapon of choice🧐? (Waiting to throw a horror movie au at you)

Hello and welcome! Thank you very much for the ask!

I'm afraid I don't have an AU for that yet, but I really would like one. Whenever Harmony is a camp counselor (or babysitter if that's preferred), the kids' safety is her top priority. She loves being in the great outdoors and teaching children about the wonders of nature, but Harmony will also take her job seriously.

Since she also loves horror movies, she is well aware of the older, campy slasher ones. In fact, they are a couple of her favorites besides ones about the paranormal like ghosts and demons (which is her top favorite kind).

Because of this, Harmony knows some of the mistakes the victims including the final girl, and doesn't want to fall for the same problems. Yes, panic and fear can make anyone not think clearly but that's where the antagonist gets you. There are times when she may panic, but if others depend on her, that's a different story.

While most camps would not allow weapons, Harmony would conceal a few, mainly to protect the campers. She is a mama grizzly bear by nature and that is the worst kind of grizzly bear to ever come across. She would have a small pistol concealed, which she would use in the event similar to horror flicks.

She would also have a police-grade folding tactical knife that can slide into her purse or pocket. Another plus of the knife below is the glass breaker at the end.

Another weapon is also a smaller keyring knife like the one below.

Because you know, in some movies, even after shooting the antagonist, they can somehow survive. For good measure, Harmony will keep a pocket knife in case of close combat, or when she shoots the enemy down, she will slice them up and dig out their hearts to make sure they stay dead. Harmony hates killing, but in this case, it is to defend others and she knows reasoning with the killer or killers has a low chance of success.

Another thing to know is that in an emergency situation like being hunted down or having others depending on you, anything can be a weapon.

A shovel, axe, rope to strangle, a branch to smack the antagonist, and that pool noodle or intertube one of the kids left by the nearby lake, all potential weapons. Probably not as effective as bullets and blades, but they can help buy time until she can find better weapons.

@iblade290-2

[dxrknessembr8ced]

Character information #10:

Tulpas or The False Stalkers are a new and far more powerful race of B.O.W.s. created from the new mutagenic strain of the virus or Hsien-Ko's blood and bio mass she left behind during her journey. These monsters are nightmarishly powerful, hostile and far more deadly in combat as well as intelligent and still retaining sapience and humanity are capable of human speech perfectly. Tulpas are expert hunters of darkstalkers and sees all darkstalkers as parasites that have prey on humanity and see no chance of both the darkstalkers and humans coexisting. And as like them these creatures come in all shapes and sizes, big and small, from beautiful or to the hideous deformity and some are as odd and bizarre looking though despite the hate for the darkstalkers they see no problem in killing humans and or infecting humans as apart of their own either becoming a tulpa or one of the undead. Their name tulpa had originated from Theosophy, mysticism, and the paranormal, of a materialized thought form, typically in human form such as an imaginary friend or being that is created through spiritual practice and concentration which led to the superstitious folk believe that these types of B.O.W.s. are creatures that have come from one persons darkest thoughts when they could not be further from the truth.

With the outbreak now becoming more out of control and the villages become beyond saving at this point especially with tulpa sightings sparked. Half of them have learn of their creation and where they came from which have led to them to believe Hsien-Ko as their god and so much as their savior of the darkness, where to a fanatical point that the new variation of the T-virus is a gift from their 'goddess ' this led to the creation of the grotesque death cult known as the cult of Erebus or simply las Erebus. The terrifying cult taking having inspirations in both neo umbrella and the other cult los illuminatos while possessing many relics, viruses, info and other B.O.W.s. from the pasts bioterror incidents from all across the world while the cult creates and converts more followers to becoming tulpas or other B.O.W.s. in their ranks. The cult's insignia once belong to neo umbrella now belongs to them using it only to spread fear within the darkness against their greatest enemies of the cult.

Las Erebus is run by a powerful cult leader who was once a rogue umbrella scientist who they simply call him, the father and or the prophet. His entire history and life aside from being a rogue umbrella scientist from the raccoon city incident is unknown but he is dedicated is faith and devotion towards to the T-virus afflicted jiangshi who he and the members called her Erebus, the goddess of chaos and darkness, she who consume all and bring life again. The cult had numerous supplies and technology along with these viruses that are transferred from the black market and some viruses thought to be lost forever. T-Virus, Abyss, Golgatha, Uroboros, phobos and so much more. And with these B.O.W.s. created from these viruses they will evolve and mutated upon the exposure of the red mist. The darkness is no longer safe for the False stalkers have come to take the night by force and Las Erebus will turn the lights off, for the darkness is young and the night has just begun.

[thedarklightphoenix]

hitandrunduorp​:

“…same to you; don’t be reckless if you can avoid it.” He warned as he swallowed his feelings down. Though when Kaze finally left, it would be a good five minutes before he himself collapsed, covering his mouth to keep anyone from hearing him sobbing.

The day arrived. After Kaze left he had gone to Aizawa and principle Nezu, though apparently Endeavour had gotten the same time as well around the same time. Eclipse stood with Chargebolt on the front lines- they tried getting him to stay behind with the evacuation team, but he couldn’t. When he heard they’d be facing the Paranormal Liberation Front, with the League of Villains itself… he had to join.

“You sure about this?” Denki asked, obviously worried about his classmate, who offered a reassuring smile.

“I’m not staying on the frontlines. Like Tokoyami, I’m just here for extraction…”

“…are you sure? That that’s what Kaze wants?” Of course there were still doubts among his classmates. Mattie hadn’t said anything, of course, and he knew those like Bakugo. Midoriya and Todoroki knew something else was at play. Kaze wouldn’t forsake them all without reason.

“I do. Just… trust me, alright? He’ll explain everything later when he can.” Mattie assured once again, looking over at Tokoyami who just gave a nod.

He was going to save Kaze.

   Dominion stood on the roof of the villa smoking as he watched the scenery around him. having been placed as a Lieutenant, in the force, he had a wildly higher degree of freedom than Hawks ever would have. Meaning that the two of them could coordinate something much easier even if they had to speak in code. If he and Hawks timed this right, Endeavour, Mattie and the others would have worked to gather heroes and everyone to face off against the Paranormal Liberation Front. It was a long few months since he met with Mattie in his apartment and with Hawks on 24 hour surveillance things have been even harder. Stubbing out his cigarette he cracked a small smirk as he saw the telltail signs of the trees moving. Perfect.

   “THE HEROES ARE COMING!” He heard the echoes of screams from Skeptic from the floors below right before the building started shaking. Time to set the whole plan in motion. Soon he would be able to go home.

   Hawks would be taking care of twice, stopping the chances of the Villain’s numbers increasing. No doubt if the heroes are attack head on, they would have sealed the exits. His only worry now is Gigantomachia and Redestro. Now, he just needed to lead his own regimen right to the heroes that will be waiting for them.

   “Azure squad, look alive. Face the heroes. I need you to split up and take them from each side.” He calmly commanded to the ones placed under his command. They were the combat regimen supposedly tasked with providing the main combat prowess for the front. he needed to feign his loyalty to the cause a little longer. If the heroes have indeed came with as many of them as they can, they can easily take down his own regimen.

   But something felt off. Hawks should have made contact with him by now... He across the roof. Fuck- something was terribly terribly wrong. Sure the battle was going well. but...

   And he saw it. The sudden blast of blue flames from where Hawks was supposed to be. Fuck. Did Dabi suss Hawks out? He needed to get there and fast. Over the past months he was slowly accumulating kinetic energy with his quirk. All of this battle.

   Freezing at the sight of Jin’s body, Dabi’s flames and Keigo under his foot a voice he both hated and slightly relieved to hear echoed in his head.

   Kill him.

   Gritting his teeth, he pushed the thoughts down just as he heard the familiar voice above him.

   “Hawks!” Tsukuyomi flew in. Great, Keigo had an extraction! Guess it was time to blow the cover. Summoning the energy he had collected, he pushed off of the wall and shot towards Dabi, landing his foot directly on his chest pushing him back a few steps. Shit- the three of them there were about the worst match yup to Dabi. He hardly had any protection against Dabi’s flames, Tosukuyomi’s quirk would only get weaker against the light form the fire and Hawks... oh Hawks...

    “Well well well. Looks like we had two backstabbing little traitors here. And here I thought you were just like me.” Dabi taunted, the maniacal smile still on his face. “Are you really going to be like your little bird hero there? Are you going to kill me too? After everything I did. You heroes are nothing but hypocrites and murderers!” He sent another blast of fire at them- but working with them for so long, Kaze knew that the fire was already weaker. His body can’t keep up with the use of his quirk. He’s stalling for time.  He rolled out of the way with Tokoyami following in suit.

   “Fumikage, it’s bad! His wings! They’re gone!” Shit... Hawks’s wings...

   “Tsukuyomi. Go.” He growled. Readying his weapon against the villain.

   “Kaze-?”

   “Save words for later! Go while you have the chance!” He screamed. Tsukuyomi snapped out of his stupor and with dark Shadow, he flew away with Hawks safely in his arms. Now Kaze was left with Dabi.

   “Just you and me, Dabi!” He growled. Dabi just laughed.

   “Yeah, just you and me. And to think that I actually thought that we had a bond going there.” Dabi laughed. “But you’re just like every other Hero!” Kaze blocked every blast with a small fire proof shield but the fire was far too hot.His arm started burning as it became hard to breathe He was almost certain it would result in airway burns. With a blast of fire, the heat that hit Kaze’s face caused him to throw up the wall he had stored a long time ago as a last resort. With a loud thud, the ground beneath them cracked as the thick steel reinforced wall appeared in front of him. blocking the flames. Shit... now the only weapon he had left to use with the sword in his hand. Any other item would take too much out of him.  But to his dismay, Dabi moved faster than he anticipated.

    “Such a shame you didn’t follow through. Revenge would have been so sweet taken together!!” He screamed as he charged up his attack. Kaze had nowhere to dodge. But as if a miracle in disguise, a massive ice wall cut him off. This was his chance. Energy didn’t take it out of him to summon. and with so much stored... he could probably manage a landing pad along with it. With legs feeling like they would give out at any moment, he crouched and summoned all of the kinetic energy he had and launched himself in the direction of where the heroes were coming from, praying that someone he trusted would find him. Flying through the air, he watched the trees get closer and closer. Mattie… his thoughts were of his boyfriend. He didn’t know if this would kill him, seriously and permanently injure him or by some miracle he would be caught just in time but his only thoughts were to want to see his boyfriend again. He closed his eyes as he braced for impact.

[becauseplot]

I finished Ordem Paranormal: Calamidae Episode 3! Wa hoo! A shorter episode, which obviously means this will be a shorter journal post right? Right???

And we're back with the Ordo crew! So happy to have my little guys again, I missed them. The Escripta crew was very interesting though, glad to have met them, looking forward to another session with them. I'm actually writing this having started Episode 4 because up until now I've had time to watch bits of episodes but not sit down and write up a big post like this. But I'm here now!

Me and my mutuals reblogging and liking each other's posts back and forth.

There isn't too much I want to talk about this episode. My last post sure was. A long one. I'll try to keep this one to the basics.

This episode should just be renamed to Carina and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day. Jokes aside, though, Gabi was just. Holy shit. The sobbing, fuck, the voice cracking; the sheer vitriol and anguish and desperation. Chills. Her acting for Carina in this moment felt so raw, open wound. The pain in her voice. Ugh. God. Phenomenal.

The Devil sure is scheming something. More mentions of an oncoming "war," and an invitation to seemingly join a side. But seriously---invitations to a game from Kian, delivered by the Devil, found in Signore Leone's chest, locked in a box with the key found with blood beast Signora Leone, with the symbol from Arnaldo's grimoire on the envelopes. Okay. What the fuck. Whose side, exactly?? This "invitation" sure seems to have passed through a lot of hands. The battlefield of this war is currently a tangled mass of who-do-I-hate-less and my guys need to focus on just making it out of this mansion alive because oh shit there is a whole entire horde of blood zombies after them now D:

You know it's really funny. In my first journal post I was talking about how blood zombies are, at best, tutorial creatures to help new and returning players learn the revised combat mechanics, but now they're STILL TUTORIAL CREATURES MY GUYS FUCKED EM UP ROCKED THEIR SHIT TORE THEM TO SHREDS LETSGOOOO.

Highlights from this fight for me are: Carina turning into a human blender with her knife when in the zombie mosh pit, Dante dual-wielding his AoE spiral ritual, and "torretta."

Then there was the Hanna blood zombie. Lovely lovely detail to include that it looks like its limbs were reattached at wrong angles, as well as the Japanese character carved where its face would be. My boy is an artist <3

Really, though, it feels so. Mh. How do I say this. It's the fact that it's basically a creature of his own creation, intentionally or not. His hatred for the paranormal and the creatures it harbors vs the fact that he is somewhat responsible for this abomination existing. He feels. I don't want to say he feels unhuman, to call him no longer "human" would be doing the character a disservice, but he feels slightly left of human, you know? Not quite creature-coded, but more along the lines of a force of nature. A force of pain. Something that brings things like this into the world. Hanna, having been a powerful occultist in life, was always going to leave behind a powerful creature if left in a paranormally active area, but now it has some of Joui's influence on it and some of Joui's wrath inflicted upon it, which certainly has to be helping on the power-front.

I don't know. There's something about this that I feel like I'm walking around but not quite landing on. Get back to me in 3-5 business days.

(Update: I'm starting to think thoughts, and I might be terribly wrong about Joui being Death-leaning-but-backed-by-Blood-because-Devil and is instead just Blood. Not going to elaborate more because those thoughts need to stay in the pot to cook a little while longer but I really do hope Joui is still Death-leaning. Please it would make me specifically so happy.)

In any case, they took care of creature, even if it landed on top of Carina (ouch). Oh and the fan. Yes, the fan. Surprised that the fan does not, in fact, give the infamous paralysis ritual, which is what it was used for, and instead gives a zoomy ritual. Hanna does have multiple fans. According to Arthur's reaction, though, this seems to be the same one used to paralyze them, which I would assume would have the appropriate ritual symbol drawn on it. Ah well. Another ritual pocketed.

Upstairs and medical room (aka checkpoint before boss fight) and papers time, papers time, time to papers!

I actually don't remember too much about what they were talking about here, I'm pretty sure I was half-asleep when they were discussing lore. They looked over some more things with the black light (mention of a throne? like the Devil's?), they talked about the x-rays and the potential fact that Signore Leone had made a pact with the Devil when he was declared terminal with a heart tumor and BAM blood beast! Kinda sad that they didn't get to theorize more, but unfortunately this house is just full of horrors. I think I'll rewatch this section later.

Blood beast Signora Leone. MASSIVE. Rubens ran out into the hall, followed by Carina, because damn, short ranged weapons are a bad idea. (Head in hands, poor Balu....and with a paranormal Death spiral scar too...)

Believe it or not, these are screenshots from the same pause frame. Two very different emotions here.

At the very least, Arthur and Dante's sniper + echo dolor team attack came in clutch again (even if it was nerfed, rip Rakin) and it was especially cool this time around because Dante's turn was right after Arthur's for this combat. It really felt like they were trading off, chaining attacks. Neat!

More lore. Did not catch all of it. New page for the Grimoire with the symbol of the Mascaras...? Or something...? As you can see I pay careful attention to this series and all of the important plot points and investigation threads when they come up because I am an attentive viewer. Have a squished Dante.

Then there was the funeral for Signora Leone and the rest of the Leone family---once again a symbolic funeral, because there's rarely ever any remains left to bury when someone dies in this series, unfortunately. One thing I've noticed is that when a person dies in the middle of a mission, the burial always starts with their closest loved one(s) digging a grave with their bare hands. Sometimes someone else starts to help, sometimes someone else goes and finds a proper shovel, but it always starts with someone getting on their knees and clawing at the earth. It's raw. It's personal. You know the risks of your line of work and yet you still weren't prepared to do this; you could never be prepared to do this.

Arthur being there to support Carina in this horrible time, using everything he's learned from his own heartbreak and his own families to comfort her... He, too, lost his family in the span of a day. He, too, never got the chance to say goodbye. He, too, never could have imagined that something like this could happen. And Carina, just like he was, will also be saved by her new family---her team. So he gets on his knees beside her and helps her start to dig the grave. He tells her they'll carry the memories of their parted loved ones with them, and they'll continue fighting those bastard Occultists for the ones who are still here, and that the rest of the team will be here with her, always.

EVIL that Guaxi had Arthur pull out this photo. I get why, but EVIL.

A detail I love: in the middle of Arthur explaining all of this to her, calmly offering reassurances and comfort, at some point he hides his face and makes a furious expression---not the first time he's done this. I love the little peaks into how Arthur is really feeling about all of this bullshit. He's trying to stay level-headed and collected, presumably for the people on his team, but damn, it still hurts, and he's still pissed off. Just because he's showing less emotion than he used to doesn't mean he doesn't feel it.

Rotating Balu as well. He said he joined the Order looking for vengeance, like so many others, and everything that his vengeance and hate put him through wasn't worth it. so he left. "It’s better to live a life with a smile rather than with hate, even if it’s forced. You’ll see it’s not worth the pain. [...] I want to be the protagonist of my own story, I don’t want to just be the guy that hates others." Implying that letting yourself be moved by nothing but hate signifies a lack of agency over your own life LIKE YEAH. YEAH. THAT.

Clarissa continues to be stubborn. Everyone handles grief in different ways, and her taking a painful dig at Rubens is certainly a response---hurt people hurt people. Good on Rubens for simply leaving that conversation, it was going nowhere good.

Team sleepover on the (bloody) couches after making some food in the (bloody) kitchen in the (bloody) murderhouse! (If I had a nickel for every time etc etc.) Carina's conked out on the small couch mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted, Arthur and Dante are sharing the big couch and you cannot tell me Arthur is not drooling on him, Balu is sprawled out in one of the arm chairs, and Rubens has fully curled-up-crammed his body in the other.

The arrival of the rest of the Order really felt like the arrival of dawn. Agatha my beloved little alarm clock. Love how Carina, Rubens, and Balu jump when she shouts into the room and both Arthur and Dante barely stir. Something tells me they're used to this. And Ivete! She's here :D Things are feeling a bit lighter. Carina got to tell her sister that she deserves a day to break down and be a mess. Supporting each other <333

And oh, yeah. I feel physically ill about this. In a good way. More stuff about the Marcados being connected to each other by their players. And more stuff to imply the players are themselves entities of the Other Side if I squint, too. Foaming at the mouth.

"Liz would reveal [to Carina] that hate solves nothing, and the love of your family is much stronger." SO SOMEONE ON THE DISCORD TOLD ME THAT THIS WOULD'VE BEEN LIZ'S LAST WORDS TO JOUI IF SHE HAD BEEN ABLE TO SAY THEM. UNFORTUNATELY GABI WAS CUT OFF BY CELLBIT AS LIZ HAD CHOKED ON HER OWN BLOOD AS SHE DIED. ANYWAY. THINKING ABOUT THIS IN RELATION TO HOW JOUI IS NOW. CONSUMED BY HATE. Hard to say if hearing this would have done anything to "save" Joui considering that it was seemingly outstanding circumstances---the deal with the Mascaras---that really started him on that downward spiral in opd, though he was struggling before the Mascaras showed up and gave their deadline. Still. It's. A lot. Incredible coming from Liz, who in life believed herself to be a fundamentally bad, hateful person.

Does anyone still think about Elizabeth Webber because I think about Elizabeth Webber I think about Elizabeth Webber a lot actually I think tha

Bonus:

Fofoca (they are talking shit about you)

[books]

Writer Spotlight: Olivie Blake

Olivie Blake (@olivieblake) is the pseudonym of the writer Alexene Farol Follmuth, author of multiple novels, anthologies, graphic novels, and film scripts, many of which involve the fantastic, the paranormal, or the supernatural. Her works revolve around the collective experience, what it means to be human (or not), and the endlessly interesting complexities of life and love. Cult-favorite The Atlas Six was re-released in a revised hardcover edition last month with Tor Books. A sequel in October and a live-action series are forthcoming. Alexene lives and works in Los Angeles with her husband and new baby, where she is generally tolerated by her rescue pit bull.

Read on for Olivie’s favored medeian specialty, lessons learned from writing fanfic, her take on dark academia, and the process of self-publishing books people love.

Not to spoil anything for the three and a half people who maybe haven’t yet read The Atlas Six, but can you tell us a bit about the world of the series?

First of all, I appreciate the wording of this question. Thank you for that. Secondly, The Atlas Six is about the six uniquely talented magicians vying for initiation to the Alexandrian Society, a secret society of caretakers who protect and contribute to the archives of “lost” knowledge from the Library of Alexandria and throughout history. In the book’s contemporary setting, the question of how to combat climate change is answered politically and economically with magic, so the characters exist openly in a world where magicians, called medeians, are university-educated and contribute to a system of capitalism much like ours. These particular six candidates each have a rare magical specialty and a myriad of personal motivations for pursuing the Society’s promise of wealth, power, and knowledge—which drives their tendency to want to kiss or kill any of the others at any given moment. (Two of them already hate each other, and the rest are about to.) And there is obviously a catch to this extraordinary opportunity: only five of the six are guaranteed initiation.

What’s the journey been like writing, self-publishing, and re-releasing The Atlas Six? 

This is absolutely the weirdest timeline. I don’t know of any better way to put it. I wrote this book when I was starting to think that publishing wasn’t going to happen for me. I’ve always split myself in two, writing manuscripts to cold query to agents while also self-publishing the stories I wanted to tell that I didn’t feel were a good fit for the market. Basically, I was self-publishing for the handful of beloved weirdos willing to follow me wherever I went. (Find your flock, they say. Good advice.) 

I knew from my initial concept that this book wasn’t right for publishing en masse—it was too hard to explain in a quick pitch to an agent without sounding derivative. It was too character-driven for genre standards. It had a familiar setting and hook but with a very unconventional execution. There was no hero or villain. Every character was 100% sexually fluid. It was too quiet for spec fic. I was in a really think-y place, trying to figure out whether it was responsible to bring a baby into a world where it’s impossible to be ethical. In the end, I figured I could just write it for myself, exactly as I wanted to write it, while nobody cared enough about me to say no. 

So I wrote it. Released it. People seemed to like it, but it wasn’t doing numbers. Within a few months, I had finished another manuscript and finally gotten an agent for a completely separate project—my young adult rom-com, My Mechanical Romance. I figured, okay, I guess I’m a YA author now, at least until those obligations are fulfilled, so Atlas will have to wait. But, I reasoned, thankfully, only a few people were waiting.

Then I got pregnant. I wrote another YA manuscript. Something weird happened on Twitter. (A very “somehow, Palpatine returned” situation.) People started talking about the book. I gave birth to my son. Something weirder happened on TikTok. A LOT of people started talking about the book. Suddenly my book that had absolutely no commercial appeal was...commercially appealing? I signed with Tor to finish out the trilogy (!). Then…producers wanted to meet with me? So I was like? Okay? In between my baby’s naps, I wrote the sequel and optioned the book for TV. I…got on the NYT bestseller list? I went on tour in two countries? At this point, it all dissolves into a fever dream. Is this real? I really don’t know. I haven’t slept more than two consecutive hours in almost a year. 

On a serious note, revising The Atlas Six was such an incredible opportunity. I went from being a one-woman show (with the help of one or two friends and, of course, my beloved collaborator @littlechmura) to suddenly having the resources to actually make the book into what I wanted it to be. I got to stretch out a little, narratively speaking, and take up more space. New illustrations! New cover! New feedback! New ways to reach a new audience! Suddenly the book of my mind became the book of many minds and was all the better for it. It was then, and is now, a product of some kind of magic. For five years, I wrote ten to twelve hours a day, posting millions and millions of words for free, purely because I loved it—loved it to the point where it broke my heart to think of doing anything else. And now? 

Well, now I have imposter syndrome, of course. But my god, what a beautiful con.

Do you have a favorite character among the six? Why? What does their Tumblr look like?

I don’t have a favorite character—I personally think it’s detrimental for the author to have a favorite when creating an ensemble cast that relies so heavily on changing POVs for the narration—BUT I do feel strongly that Libby and Nico would be the most active on Tumblr. Libby writes poems and carefully curates her aesthetic. I sense a little cottagecore in her. Probably a lot of melancholy art, too. Nico definitely runs an absolute chaosphere of a blog depending on whatever his fixation is at the time. He’s one of those mutuals where you followed him five years ago and can’t remember why because he’s changed fandoms several times, but at least the GIF sets he reblogs are entertaining. 

This reissue includes illustrations from your longtime collaborator, illustrator Little Chmura (@littlechmura). What draws you to this kind of collaboration? 

If you were fortunate enough to become friends with a brilliant artist, wouldn’t you try to lure them in, any chance you got? I love art. I love storytelling as an art and writing as an art. I love the adrenaline rush of creativity I get from working with other artists who are equally passionate about their craft. Sometimes, brainstorming an illustration with Little Chmura makes me feel inspiration in its purest form. The incendiary kind. All of my books contain art from her because it just contributes that much more to the story. Or, at the very least, it helps the story vibe properly. 

You got your start writing Dramione fanfic. What did writing fanfic teach you about writing?

Okay, random start here, but go with me: I really loved this Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again oral history on Vulture where they said that the film was referred to as a crowd-pleaser in a way that was meant to be an insult. A crowd-pleaser, how meaningless. But the producers posed a critically important question: do you know how hard it is to please a crowd? Fanfic authors do. There is no other medium as dependent on audience enjoyment as fanfic. The entire medium is reliant on characterization and emotional beats. Imperfect plot or disrupted pacing can be forgiven if something sweet or hot happens along the way, but failing to be true to a character’s narrative arc or committing to a cheap bit like gratuitous character death is grounds for the proverbial guillotine. 

The number one thing I learned as a fanfic author is always to keep one eye on the audience’s heart. Should it be racing? Fluttering? Aching? Should it, dare I say it, break? Pleasing (or devastating) a crowd is best learned via the fanfic structure: episodic and evolving with constant feedback. Learning how to make someone keysmash in your reviews is a carefully honed skill.

You’re very active online, with copious amounts of asks answered on your Tumblr and a video series on Youtube. Do you have a favorite fan interaction? 

I have been more active in the past—this is a very busy year, what with the chaos goblin I birthed, a slightly unhinged production schedule, and three book releases! I’m feeling very guilty about my untended inbox, but I do love Tumblr. There, I said it! I love Tumblr! I love the multimedia curation! The possibility of long-form communication! The ads that do not, in any way, appear to be stealing my data! Anyway, no, I don’t think I could pick a favorite. There have been too many beautiful interactions, especially from people who’ve been reading my stuff for years. 

Well, I guess one that stands out is a seemingly small series of events: I wrote a short friends-to-lovers fic about two engineers. It sparked a conversation on Tumblr between women who were pushed out of STEM at an early age and women in STEM fields who had never seen themselves in fiction before. It led to my YA book, My Mechanical Romance, especially after one user told me she wished she’d had my writing when she was younger. I thought, okay, well, good point, I should tell a story specifically for our younger selves. And now here we are.

What would your specialty be if you were a medeian, and why?

Telepathy. I’m incredibly nosy. I’d love to have a more nuanced reason, but that’s honestly it.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve received?  

Potentially a bit overused, but the thing that has helped me most is the “you can edit a bad page, but you can’t edit a blank page” quote that Google is currently telling me comes from Jodi Picoult (I obviously first heard it on Tumblr). I have always been a pantser, meaning I fly by the seat of my pants when I write (fanfic is very conducive for such things), and I really had to learn to love revision. It doesn’t matter if you get the first draft right. The first draft is just the skeleton. To everyone who struggles with anxiety or creative blocks, I typically think it helps to tell yourself the first draft is allowed to suck. It’s kind of supposed to suck! Don’t romanticize this idea that writing is when the muse hands you the perfect words in perfect sequence. The craft of writing isn’t about the first draft. It’s about everything you do to bring the story to life. 

What fuels your interest in dark academia? Do you have a favorite dark academia book/film/series/game?

To me, The Atlas Six is true academia—very The Secret History in terms of having long philosophical discussions about the meaning of art and beauty, except I did it with physics and psychology. It’s dark, of course, because of all the gray morality and institutional rot and inadvisable sexual tension. That’s a feature, not a bug, and I love when authors get a little weird with it. I love Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas, Bunny by Mona Awad, Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth. Academia is weird and messed up by most standards, so the outsiders (BIPOC and queer authors) really do some fascinating work handling its darkness. 

The Atlas Paradox comes out in October. Is there anything you can tell us about it?

I personally think it is funnier in the way things are funny when the characters have all begun existentially melting. (I’m an empath, she says chaotically.) People who have read it tell me it’s better than the first book. My publishers tell me hearts will be broken. But I leave all that for others to determine, of course… 

Thanks @olivieblake! The Atlas Six is now available everywhere you can get books!

[nanaosaki3940]

Come Dance With Your Son, Here In Hell!!

The Crimson Butterfly [My Hero Academia & Tokyo Ghoul]

We all are familiar with the two most well-known anime/manga series called "Tokyo Ghoul" and "Boku No Hero Academia". What if there is a quirk that existed in the world of BNHA called the Ghoul Quirk? || My Hero Academia ft. Tokyo Ghoul || (Follows the canon storyline of MHA & is up-to-date with the manga.) 

Genre: Romance, Fluff, Angst. 

Warning: Age-gap romance (no smut), blood, gore, strong language, unrequited love.

Pairing: Dabi/Touya Todoroki X OC X Shoto Todoroki

Note: Shoto and my OC are of the same age (16 yrs old) and Dabi/Touya is 8 yrs older than them (24 yrs old) - Just like how it is in the manga.

I know this is an xOC fic, but you can read it as a self-insert if you like.

(The Paranormal Liberation War Arc)

Nana’s POV (Three months later, at the end of March, the day of the Paranormal Liberation War)

Three months had passed since the boys and I started our internship at Endeavor’s Agency. The four of us had worked our asses off ever since day one. During weekdays, we all would go back to school and give practical reports on our internships and share what we gained from our experiences with my old man Aizawa and All Might. So far, everyone in our class had improved their techniques and skills and become even stronger than they were before. 

Working under Endeavor for the last three months really did help me a lot. He advised me to focus more on my Ghoul quirk as my Gravity Manipulation quirk was already quite strong and powerful in his opinion. Endeavor quoted that as my Ghoul quirk was one of the rarest quirks out there in this quirk-based society, I was blessed with incredible lightning-fast speed, unparalleled monstrous physical strength, and remarkable regenerative or healing ability. And for that reason, during the whole internship, I focused on improving my Ghoulish speed and strength alongside my other abilities.

Endeavor said to me that the lightning-bolt projectile firing ability of my Ukaku Kagune was quite powerful and was really useful for long-range offensive attacks, so he kept pushing me to use this ability of mine more and more, saying that I had to generate more powerful electricity and lightning-bolt projectiles from my Ukaku Kagune. He even advised me to try and fire crystallized bullets and lightning-bolt projectiles, both at the same time for it might give me a great advantage during battles. Besides that, I also worked hard and improved the skills and techniques of using my Rinkaku Kagune, excelling in its brute strength and striking power.

Besides the internship training, Endeavor arranged special training sessions for me where he hired experts in martial arts, especially Taijutsu and Jujutsu, and swordsmanship. He already knew that ever since I was a little child, I had been taking hardcore training on martial arts and swordsmanship from my old man Aizawa and Yomo sensei, and also knew that I used my scythe as my weapon during fights. So because of that, he made all those arrangements for me in order to improve my hand-to-hand combat and swordsmanship skills and techniques.

Endeavor even made special arrangements for my lunch and dinner. As he was already aware of the fact that to keep my Ghoul quirk all-time active and strong, I needed to feed myself on human flesh alongside normal human foods, Endeavor always made sure that I was getting my proper meals during every lunch and dinner. I never knew Endeavor could be that kind and generous, so even though a part of me hated him because of Touya, I still had to give him the respect he deserved for going all out like this for me.

I was also told to strengthen the powers and abilities of my Kakugan even more, so I had to frequently use my Kakugan eyes during every single training session. During the internship, Endeavor advised me to always keep my Kakugan activated and use them to read people’s every single move because, in combats, my Kakugan allowed me to see fast-moving objects and offered me the predictive capability of anticipating an opponent's next move based on the slightest muscle tension in their body and acting accordingly to dodge or to intercept. Endeavor said that this ability was really helpful as it gave me the opportunity to always stay a step ahead of my opponents.

Also, my space-time teleportation or swapping ability got even more upgraded which now allowed me to move, dodge and attack faster than ever. Under Endeavor’s instructions, I always used this ability on Bakugo, Midoriya, and Shoto in our internship training to deliver surprise attacks and strikes on the villains by swapping each other’s places. And now thankfully, the boys and I would always move in sync and swap places with each other whenever we had to make a surprise attack on an opponent. 

Today, it was the end of our spring break, which meant the day had finally come; to fight and stop the upcoming threat of the Paranormal Liberation Front. Right now, students from every Hero school in Japan had arrived and gathered around the center of the Jaku City in Kyoto for the upcoming battle.

We all met up with Burnin who told us that we the students were ordered to evacuate the residents from the rear of the city while the pro heroes split up into two groups and took their positions at two different places; one was at the foot of a mountain while the other was at the Jaku General Hospital. 

The Jaku General Hospital and the mountain were eighty kilometers away from each other and that hospital was the place where Shigaraki was apparently hiding the entire time for months now while the rest of the Paranormal Liberation Front was taking their shelter on top of that mountain in the Gunga Mountain Villa. 

Determined to deliver the first blow before the villains put their plans in motion, the Hero Public Safety Commission organized this large assault force made up of us the students, the pro heroes, and the police to take down the Paranormal Liberation Front.

The assault force was divided into three teams; the Hospital Raid Team, the Villa Raid Team, and the Evacuation Team.  

The Hospital Raid Team which was led by Endeavor was in charge of storming the Jaku General Hospital as it was the place where the Nomu were produced and where Shigaraki was also located. The Hospital Raid Team was divided into two groups where one group was tasked with evacuating visitors, staff, and inmates while the other group consisting of Endeavor, Aizawa, Present Mic, Mirko, Ryukyu, Gran Torino, and Detective Tsukauchi was tasked to infiltrate secret hospital labs to dismantle Nomu's production, arrest Shigaraki and a doctor named Kyudai Garaki.

Next was the Villa Raid Team and they had the mission of storming the Gunga Mountain Villa, the headquarters of the Paranormal Liberation Front and arresting all of its members. Here in the Villa Raid Team, the UA students were divided into two different groups.

The first main group was on the front line of the battlefield with the other pro heroes (Keigo, Midnight, Kamui Woods, Mt. Lady, Fat Gum, Edgeshot, Cementoss, Gran Orca, and many others) which consisted of Jiro, Kaminari, Tokoyami, Tamaki senpai, Komori from Class 1-B and Honenuki from 1-B.

The second group was the Villa Backup Team, a group made up exclusively of trainees whose job was to catch any villain who slipped past the front line. This group was placed in the forest, just a few meters away from the foot of the mountain which consisted of Yaoyorozu, Kirishima, Mina, Sero, Sato, Shoji, Hagakure, Ojiro, Mineta, Aoyama, and a few others from Class 1-B alongside many students from other hero schools.

Finally, there was the Evacuation Team which was led by Burnin, and the function of this team was to evacuate the inhabitants of Jaku City, near the hospital and move them to safety, and this team consisted of me, Bakugo, Shoto, Midoriya, Uraraka, Tsu, Iida, Koda, Nejire senpai and many others from other hero schools.

Also, although they were not part of any of the three groups, there were also some heroes deployed in different cities to capture the traitorous heroes that had allied with the Paranormal Liberation Front.

Two hours passed since we started the evacuation.

“If anyone in this neighborhood can’t get up and out on their own, please let us know!!” Burnin announced. “There’s a chance that this entire city will soon be a counter-villain battle zone!!”

“Shuttles will take you from here! Get out of this city!” Bakugo shouted.

“Thank you, young man.” A kind elder lady smiled at Bakugo. “Here have a chocolate bun.”

“It will just make my mouth dry! Forget that crap and get going!” Bakugo responded.

“Might as well accept her generosity.” Uraraka muttered, sweat-dropping.

“You just want a freaking bun for yourself!” Bakugo yelled at Uraraka.  

“He even treats old folks that way.” Tsu commented.

“There is a manuscript on paper that I haven’t submitted yet… So, don’t destroy my workplace, okay?!” a man pleaded worriedly.

“We will preserve and protect your precious manuscripts, sir!” Iida responded, helping the man to move.

“The fifth ward is completely evacuated!” Koda announced through the comms.

“Our group is finished too!” Nejire Senpai announced from afar.

“We are going to check every single building to ensure that nobody has been left behind in senior homes and apartments!” Iida stated.

“Please, calm down! No running please!” Burnin called out to the civilians. “We are going to have you folks ride these vehicles to a shelter outside the city!”

Suddenly, while I was helping with the evacuation, I sensed something unpleasant from afar with the help of my Ghoul quirk which made me quite worried. I noticed Midoriya looked worried as well. I quickly walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Izuku?” I muttered.

“You sensed it too, haven’t you, Nana-chan?” Midoriya mumbled.

I simply nodded my head in response.

“Nana, Midoriya, what is it?” Shoto asked, eyeing us worriedly.

“Slacking off, huh?! What's your excuse this time?!” Bakugo asked.

“Guys… The hospital…” I said.

“Huh?” Bakugo raised an eyebrow.

“Guys!!” I called, making my other friends look at me. “A huge shockwave of Shigaraki’s decay will head over toward this direction any second now! Quick, everyone, move away from here!!”

With that, I quickly ran over to the direction where Shigaraki’s wave would come from while my friends started to move the remaining civilians away as fast as possible. Just a few seconds later, the ground under us started to shake violently and I looked up to see that Shigaraki’s huge strong decay wave was flowing down from the peak of the mountain while destroying the mountain and the path it was flowing down in the process.

“Get these people moving!!” Bakugo yelled.

I quickly used my repulsive force and pushed back the huge decay wave.

“Endeavor?! Hey Endeavor?!” Burnin yelled in comms.

“Everyone run!!”

“The wave is extremely strong!!” I yelled through my gritted teeth, using all my force to hold back the wave. “Everything is going to crumble to dust!! I won’t be able to hold it back any longer!! Hurry up, everyone!!”

When I noticed that all the civilians were moved away from there and my fellow hero friends and I were the only ones left, I called out again.

“I’m releasing my repulsive force!” I shouted.

And as soon as I released my force, I quickly altered my and my friends’ gravities and we all flew up in the air. I looked down and saw that Shigaraki’s decay wave started to crumble down buildings, roads, and everything it touched. I along with my friends quickly flew away and landed at a spot where Shigaraki’s decay wave won’t reach us.

“Is everyone okay?!” I asked.

“Yeah!” they all responded.

“We need to evacuate the other side of the city as well!” Iida noted.

“What’s up at the hospital?! Somebody, please respond!!” Burnin shouted. “Endeavor!! Ryukyu!! Anyone!!”

“What’s going on at that hospital?!” Uraraka asked.

“The hospital is completely destroyed.” I responded. “There’s nothing left at the place.”

Then all of a sudden, Burnin was able to contact Endeavor.

“Endeavor?! Hello?!” she called. “Huh?! One for what?! Whatever, I am on my way to assist you!!”

Midoriya, Bakugo, and I went rigid on our spots and looked over at each other, giving each other a knowing look.

“He’s heading for the shelter!!” Endeavor announced this to us through the comms. “We’re expanding the battlefield!! Order them to evacuate another side of the city!!”

“Hurry!! He will be here any moment!! Whatever he lands next is done for!!” Iida yelled.

“Are you kidding?! That punk is… how?!”

“Cry about it later!! For now, we have to evacuate!!”

“You need to get away from here, Izuku.” I whispered to the green-haired boy.

“But, the town’s people’s safety is a priority!” Midoriya whispered back.

“Listen up!!” Bakugo called, making Midoriya look at him. “These people are going to look out for you… because being a hero means protecting everyone!!”

“Kacchan…” Midoriya trailed off.

“That’s been the only option since the beginning after all… Just knowing he is coming here right after one for all was mentioned, it's difficult to be certain that's the reason  why…  but the one thing's for sure, you need to move!!” Bakugo stated.

Midoriya went silent for a moment before nodding his head at us. Bakugo and I nodded back at him and the three of us blast up in the air and started to head southwest.

“Hey!! Where are you going?!” Shoto shouted at us.

“Ah! There's something I forgot!! I’ll be back in a flash!!” Midoriya responded before he tried to contact Endeavor through his comms. “This is Deku!! Please excuse my use of the private channel!! There's a possibility that Shigaraki is after me! Though I don’t know if I can lead him to a place with no people around!!”

“I'll destroy him!!” Bakugo grumbled under his breath.

“Please hear me out for a moment!!” Midoriya added.  

“What are you saying?!” Endeavor asked.

“I’ll explain later!! I’m too far away to spot Shigaraki now cause of all the dust and smoke!! Please let me know if he suddenly changes courses!!”

“Like I have got time for that!!” Endeavor responded before he went silent for a moment. “Dammit!! He altered course!! He’s heading southwest now!!”

“Thought so!” Midoriya responded. “Thank you! I can buy the evacuation effort sometime! I will try to lure him away!!”

Midoriya disconnected the line and looked at us.

“Hear that?! He's coming our way!!” he stated.

“Of course, I heard!!” Bakugo responded. “Were you listening?! That total scumbag has turned into some kind of monster!! All the more reason to play keep away!!”

“Why are you two following me?!” Midoriya asked.

“Want me to kill you instead?!” Bakugo snarled.  

“No!!”

“Use your freaking head! We are short on time and are the only people who know your deal without needing some long-winded explanation! Me and Nana, duh!!” Bakugo yelled.

“Katsuki’s right!” I added. “Shigaraki has grown really powerful now! I felt that power when I held back his decay wave! You can’t face him on your own, Izuku!”

“In that case, thank you!!” Midoriya responded.

“Don’t get a big head about it!!” Bakugo growled. “Follow you? You think you are the main character now or something? I have got unfinished business with that piece of crap. Since I’m the guy who put an end to All Might. One For All is just the bait… ‘cause I am the one who will get payback for that day!! It's the perfect chance to rack up a win!! Get it?! Good! Just keep it together and don't trip me up!!”

“Got it!”

As we flew up through the air, I suddenly felt two different presences coming in our direction at high speed. My eyes widened in fraction. I immediately recognized who they were; one was Gran Torino and another one was Shigaraki.

“Guys!!” I yelled in bewilderment. “Shigaraki is here!! Move away!!”

“Hand over One For All, Izuku Midoriya!!” Shigaraki yelled as he flew directly at us.

Wasting no time, I quickly used my repulsive force and pushed Shigaraki far away from us. And right on cue, Gran Torino appeared at the spot and grabbed the boys before he and I quickly flew away from there in a flash.

“When I heard One For All over the comms, I had a real bad feeling.” Gran Torino stated. “Were you kids looking to scrap with that thing?! Shigaraki's decay obliterates anything he touches and then some! Even getting hit with a piece of stray rubble will kill you! As you are now, you don't stand a chance!!”

“But!!” Midoriya cried.

“Listen, us, heroes aren’t out of the picture yet!” Gran Torino added. “Hang on a second! That thing will be brought down by everyone who is left!!”

A few seconds later, the four of us landed somewhere safe.

“Should be good here.” Gran Torino said, putting down the boys.

“But old man Aizawa is down there!” I stated worriedly. “I just saw him now!”

“Yeah, he’s sealing off Shigaraki’s quirks.” Gran Torino responded.

“We’re still pretty damn close, Gramps!!” Bakugo noted.

“This is as far as we go, Bakugo.” Gran Torino explained. “That thing is capable of moving quicker than any of us expected. There are only so many heroes who can give chase and since our comms are jammed, luring him too far away would actually give Shigaraki free rein. He already got that thing away from the people and into Eraser’s line of sight! Now I’m heading back to help keep Eraser mobile.”

“Are you saying we should just hide?!” Midoriya asked.

“At least let me go with you!” I pleaded.

“Word is All For Once quirk was transferred to Shigaraki.” Gran Torino muttered.  

“What?!” Midoriya and I gasped.

“Yes. If he manages to steal One For All from you, well… what's worse than the worst-case scenario?”

Suddenly a huge explosion went off and we turned to look around. We noticed that as all the heroes started to charge for Shigaraki, several Nomus emerged from the wreckage of the hospital, leaving everyone confused as to how they survived.

“The Nomus are still alive?!” I gasped.

Then I noticed that Shigaraki was about to charge at Aizawa.

“Dang, it! He’s heading right for Eraser!! You three keep hidden!!” Gran Torino yelled, before dashing away.

Even though Gran Torino told us just now to stay hidden, his words didn’t reach up to my brain. Without thinking twice, I flew up and charged straight at Shigaraki.

“Nana!!” Bakugo and Midoriya called out, following me from behind.

“There’s no way I can let my old man die!” I shouted.

“Got your eyes on me, huh?” Shigaraki yelled, charging at Aizawa. “Well then, who is watching you? You are in the way Eraser Head!!”

“No, you are in the way!!” Aizawa yelled back.

Before Shigaraki could even touch Aizawa, I came in and punched Shigaraki square in the face, making him fly far away from us.

“Get the fuck away from my father, you scumbag!!” I snarled.

“It's our turn to save him!!” Bakugo yelled.

“As long as Shigaraki’s quirks are erased, we can join the fight too!! The worst case is… we, losing our teacher and Nana, losing her father!! The teacher who has watched over us all the time!!” Midoriya shouted.

“The man who took me in and raised me as his own child!!” I added. “We can’t lose him!! I can’t lose him!!”

“Nana… Midoriya…Bakugo…” Aizawa trailed off, looking completely puzzled.

“Let’s do this rationally!!” Bakugo smirked before he attacked Shigaraki with his epic move. “A.P. Machine Gun!!!”

A huge explosion went off, but nothing much happened to Shigaraki.

“Cute fireworks show there!” Shigaraki mocked Bakugo as he was about to attack the blonde. “But sorry. You are not on my radar anymore.”

But right on time, Endeavor came in and blast Shigaraki away from Bakugo.

“Endeavor!” Midoriya gasped.

“Where is Shoto?!” Endeavor asked.

“It’s just the three of us here!” I responded.

“That body is beyond human at this point!” Gran Torino noted.  

“And keep that scum away from us!” Manual stated who was supporting Aizawa to stand up.

“As powerful and sturdy as All Might.” Endeavor commented.

“As All Might?!” Midoriya gasped.

“But as long as I don’t blink, that power is all he has got. And I will hold on for a good long time.” Aizawa stated.

“For whatever reason, you three are here now…” Endeavor looked at me, Midoriya, and Bakugo. “Let's save the ‘why’ for later! We are giving Eraser the support he needs! Bakugo, you cover Deku! And Nana, follow me!” 

With that, both Endeavor and I started to charge at Shigaraki. I quickly unleashed my Ukaku Kagune and was ready to attack. Shigaraki also started to charge back at us and grab Midoriya.

“Acquire One For All…! One For All!” Shigaraki mumbled to himself with a crazy grin on his face. “You will be mine, little brother…!!”

Endeavor unleashed his Hell Spider flames while I fired powerful lightning-bolt projectiles from my Ukaku Kagune altogether at Shigaraki, making him fly back and crash hard on the ground again. When he got up and was about to charge at Midoriya again, Gran Torino came in and kicked him in his face.

“Hitting back can be the best way to avoid dying! After all, I did train a crazy super guy!” Gran Torino noted. “Now quit trampling all over Shimura’s memory! You even existing hurt Toshinori so much… It had made everyone suffer!!”

“Not on your radar, huh?! You total piece of crap!! He was just a bait!!” Bakugo smirked before unleashing a huge explosion from his gauntlets.

“It’s over!! Tomura Shigaraki!!” Endeavor yelled as he charged forward and used a new super move called Vanishing Fist and struck Shigaraki square in the chest.

After taking so many powerful strikes one after another from Bakugo, Endeavor, and Gran Torino, Shigaraki was now having a bit problem standing back on his own two feet.

“You heroes hurt your own families just to help complete strangers.” Shigaraki stated. “Dad told me that… You want ideals? I have it! No, I had it!”

“What did you say?” Gran Torino asked.

“Heroes have been pretending to protect society…” Shigaraki stated. “How many times in the past throughout multiple generations have they turned a blind eye to things they could not protect? Or silently swept the filth of society under the rug? It’s been building up so frivolously… the resulting rot emanates from within and decay ensues…It’s the small accumulation of this rot… the trash coddled by being protected all the time… the role players who only serve the spoil… a meek society... The destruction that will ensue is merely the result of all the reckless grandstanding you have accumulated… that’s how the muck gets cast out…That’s how they break can retaliate… that's how it loops back again and again and again… simple, right? You don't need to understand! In fact, you are incapable of understanding! That's the dichotomy of heroes and villains!!”

“Thanks for your monologue! But you are already dead!! Give…” Endeavor yelled before shooting a blast of fire in Shigaraki's direction, but Shigaraki dodged the attack by jumping into the air. “How is he able to move?!”

Gran Torino tackled Shigaraki to the ground but Shigaraki turned to face Gran Torino as he tried to jump away and grabbed Gran Torino's left leg and crushed it before slamming him into the ground.

“Gran Torino!!!”

"I can't forgive the likes of you!! I don’t forgive any of you!!” Shigaraki screamed.

Midoriya charged at Shigaraki and tried to strike him with Blackwhip, but Shigaraki rushed past him and Bakugo as he aimed for Aizawa. Ryukyu and I quickly stepped in as I used my Rinkaku Kagune while Ryukyu used her dragon-clawed paws and we grabbed Shigaraki together before tackling him on the ground. Midoriya then quickly joined in and also grabbed Shigaraki with his Blackwhip. Even though Shigaraki was now stronger and faster than us, we had to make sure that he couldn't escape from our restraints. Midoriya even struck and karate-chopped Shigaraki with his 100% Wyoming Smash, but nothing happened to the said villain leader. 

“Maintain that exact position, Nana, Deku!!” Endeavor yelled as he and Bakugo charged forward.

“Hurry up!!” I yelled, using all my power to grab Shigaraki and pin him down, who was struggling under our restraints.

But then I suddenly noticed something in Shigaraki’s hands as he pointed that thing in Aizawa's direction.

“Wait, that's...!” I gasped, realizing that they were Overhauls’ quirk-destroying bullets, and I quickly looked over at Aizawa. "Shigaraki has Overhaul's quirk-erasing bullets! Old geezer, get out of the way!!" 

Immediately, Shigaraki then pierced his hand through Ryukyu’s claws, making her scream out in pain. Midoriya and I punched Shigaraki, trying to hold him onto the ground. Bakugo came just in time and destroyed almost all the bullets with his AP shot explosion. However, Shigaraki still had one left and before we could do anything, he quickly shot the bullet from the palm of his hand and the bullet hit Aizawa’s crippled right leg. But before the drug could even spread throughout his entire body, Aizawa quickly pulled out his knife and cut his right leg off.

“Old geezer!!” I yelled in worry.

And right on cue, Shigaraki pushed me away and bit down on Midoriya’s arm, before he suddenly unleashed a shockwave to break free of Ryukyu and Midoriya’s grip and flew straight for Aizawa, getting rid of Ryukyu and Midoriya and also dodging Endeavor's blow. Shigaraki was about to grab Aizawa’s face, but before he could do that, I dashed forward and kicked him away.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay away from my father, you bastard?!” I shouted.

“Nana!”

I looked around and saw Shoto running towards the battlefield.

“Shoto, right on time.” I noted.

“After you protect him, then what?” Shigaraki chuckled. “Even if you so desperately try to delay it, the only thing that awaits you is destruction!!”

“Shoto!!” Endeavor called out.

“I’m late because I was helping Ryukyu's team!! Cool off, I will help you out in the meantime!” Shoto stated before dashing towards Shigaraki.

“That fucking bastard!!” Bakugo growled at Shigaraki. “Deku, you must get out of here!!”

“I will never!!” Midoriya responded.

Shigaraki then announced that it was time for everyone to die, but just at that moment, his body ripped and spouted out blood.

“What the hell?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Huh? But just now oh I see… surpassing my limits must have put a strain on my body…” Shigaraki mumbled to himself.

His body…

Gran Torino warned us that Shigaraki has been transplanted with All For One's quirk…

His body can't keep up with that overwhelming power!!

But nevertheless, Shigaraki's regeneration finally kicked in again.

“One touch to finally end this!!” he announced, attempting to use his decay quirk on the ground again to finish everyone off.

I quickly altered everyone’s gravity and made them fly up in the air while I dashed forward and punched Shigaraki right in the face.

“You’re right!!” I shouted. “We're ending this, Shigaraki. Right here, right now!!”

If Shigaraki touches the ground, there will be another huge wave of destruction…

He has to be dealt with in the air…

I quickly altered his gravity and made him fly up in the air before dropping others back on the ground again. I also flew up in the air and dashed forward to attack Shigaraki.

“I’m going to help Nana-chan!” Midoriya announced. “Please take care of Gran Torino, Aizawa, and the others!!”

“Shoto, deal with the injured!” Endeavor ordered.

“Hold on, Deku!!” Bakugo yelled out. “You are the one who should be furthest from that guy! ‘Erasure’ is already gone!!”

“Then who else is going to keep Shigaraki up in the air?!” Midoriya yelled.

“Me you idiot! Get away from here, Izuku!” I scolded.

“Let’s fight together, Nana-chan!” Midoriya stated.

“Fine! But you better not die on me!” I responded.

And with that, both Midoriya and I charged forward to attack Shigaraki.

“If you both like the sky so much, then I will cut off your hands and send you straight to heaven!!” Shigaraki smirked, charging at us as well. “And I will make sure those old geezers down there keep you both company!!”

“Leave them alone!” Midoriya growled.

“Don’t you dare hurt anyone else!!” I snarled.

“Endeavor, you better not miss this time!!” Bakugo yelled, before grabbing Endeavor’s wrist as he was getting ready to blast off into the air to charge at Shigaraki.

Midoriya unleashed his Blackwhip and grabbed Shigaraki, while I kept on striking Shigaraki with all my Ghoul quirk strength while firing crystallized bullets and lightning-bolt projectiles at him, all at the same time. Shigaraki then broke free from Midoriya’s Blackwhip and was about to attack him, but I again quickly came in and punched Shigaraki away. Midoriya again grabbed Shigaraki with his Blackwhip and continued to drag him through the air as he started his assault on Shigaraki, striking him with Detroit Smash, Wyoming Smash, St. Louis Smash, and finally Texas Smash. I kept my distance from Shigaraki and Midoriya while still keeping both of them high up in the air with my Gravity Manipulation quirk as we couldn’t let Shigaraki touch the ground under any circumstances.

“That’s incredible!!” Manual gasped.

“No, he’s going to get destroyed at this rate!” Bakugo responded. “He is using his legs and Air Force to avoid the recoil while already controlling several quirks. Deku is pulling every move he is learned until now just to keep Shigaraki in the air. Since he could not completely take him out with the first attack it has turned into a war of attrition, just wearing each other down… in that kind of situation, there is no way he can hold out against a guy with regeneration! Within minutes he will get his ass kicked and his power stolen! Todoroki, you finished yet?!”

“Yes but…” Shoto muttered.

“Shut up and grab on!” Bakugo shouted, extending his other hand. “Endeavor, hold off on the fire! I will make sure you get up there! Todoroki, keep Endeavor cooled off as long as possible!!”

“I will use my greatest firepower to bring him down! Leave it to me!” Endeavor responded.

“Take care of our teacher!!” Shoto said to Manual.

And with that Bakugo grabbed both Endeavor and Shoto and blasted off in the air, charging at Shigaraki.

“I’ll aim when the Blackwhip is completely extended away from Deku!!” Endeavor ordered Bakugo and Shoto. “When I hit up there, you two return to the ground or you will get caught up in it!!”

“Midoriya, hold on!” Shoto called out.

And as soon as they reached up to Shigaraki and Midoriya, Endeavor called out.

“Now! Get down!!” Endeavor yelled before he let go of the boys and attacked Shigaraki by wrapping his arms around the villain's body and incinerating him. “Prominence Burn!!!”

Shigaraki screamed out in pain and agony, but later in an instant, he stabbed Endeavor in the chest and stomach with big sharp wires emitting from his back.

“Endeavor!!”

“How come you don’t die?!” Endeavor groaned in pain.

Shigaraki then quickly fired the wires at Midoriya while calling him ‘little brother’. Bakugo dashed forward and pushed Midoriya out of the way to receive the attack for him, but I quickly used my Kakugan and swapped places with Bakugo and thus the wires went right through my stomach and chest regions. Throbbing pain quickly spread across my body as I coughed out blood with my vision started to get blurry.

“NANA!!!” everyone screamed out in horror. 

At that moment, there were no thoughts in my head... 

But when I noticed Midoriya and Bakugo were about to get stabbed by Shigaraki, 

My body just moved on its own... 

“You can’t kill me that easily, Shigaraki! I’m a Ghoul quirk user after all!” I smirked before I grabbed the wires, pulled them out of my body, and broke them into pieces.

I landed on the ground and Bakugo and Shoto quickly caught me.

“Nana!!” Shoto called.

“Are you okay?!” Bakugo asked.

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine.” I smiled meekly. “Look, my wounds are already regenerating.”

“It’s my… this fight today…” Shigaraki trailed off. “…Has shed a lot of useless blood… but that just now has to be the most useless of all… Even though her Ghoul quirk is rare and unique… But still useless…”

And this snapped Midoriya. Without even thinking twice, filled with rage, he charged at Shigaraki again.

“Take that back!!!” Midoriya screamed while striking Shigaraki with everything. “You hurt Nana-chan!!! Take that back whatever you’ve just said, you bastard!!!”

But soon after, Shiagaraki grabbed Midoriya’s face as he grinned at him like a maniac.

“Midoriya!!!” we gasped.

“I finally touched you… now be mine One For All!!” Shigaraki yelled.

Then Shigaraki and Midoriya both struck at each other to which a grand explosion went off and both Shigaraki and Midoriya fell away from each other in the sky.

“Midoriya!”

“Izuku!”

“Deku!”

Shoto, Bakugo, and I quickly rushed over and caught the green-haired boy as he landed on the ground.

“Izuku, are you okay?!” I asked, frantically.

“N-N-Nana-chan…” Midoriya mumbled in response.

We noticed that Shigaraki was holding his ground with the wires from his fingers, but then suddenly he was attacked by some wave motion quirk.

“Everyone!”

We all turned around to see Nejire Senpai and Iida finally joining us on the battlefield.

“The giant villain is approaching the vicinity! We have hereby informed the heroes engaging in combat with the Nomu!” Iida stated.

“Iida, great timing! Get the casualties out of here!” Shoto stated.

“God, this is why you have not returned?!” Iida asked, looking around.

“I have to stick to Shigaraki!” Midoriya muttered as he tried to get up from the ground. “He is still after me! Just take Nana-chan and Endeavor!!”

“Just stay still, you idiot!” Bakugo yelled at Midoriya.

“I’m not leaving, Izuku!” I responded. “Besides, my wounds are already healed!”

“His regeneration has slowed, we can take him on!” Shoto announced, looking over at Shigaraki. “Nana, Bakugo, Hado senpai!”

“Maggots swarming by the thousands…” Shigaraki muttered, trying to stand up from the ground.

Shoto, Bakugo, Nejire senpai, Iida, and I all at once charged at Shigaraki before a huge battle broke out. But within a few seconds, it all stopped when the earth beneath us started to shake violently and the sound of buildings crashing down hit our ears from afar. We all turned around and noticed that the behemoth Gigantomachia had finally arrived at the battlefield while carrying the remaining members of the Paranormal Liberation Front on his back as we watched the walking calamity moving towards us in horror. 

“There is no way we can handle fighting both that giant and Shigaraki!” Shoto yelled, before charging at Shigaraki again. “I would better take Shigaraki down since he is already on his last legs!!”

“Don’t go and play the hero all by yourself, you half-and-half bastard!” Bakugo growled, charging at Shigaraki as well.

And with that Shoto, Bakugo, and Nejire senpai attacked Shigaraki with their super moves all the same time and the villain finally fell on the ground, unconscious. 

“Run!!” Endeavor shouted when Gigantomachi finally stepped into the battlefield and quickly picked unconscious Shigaraki up from the ground.

“Shigaraki, you're not looking so good!!” Spinner asked from the giant's back.

“You okay, Shoto?” Endeavor asked as Shoto landed beside his father.

“Oh, there you are!” a familiar voice suddenly called out.

We all looked up to see Dabi on Gigantomachi’s back, grinning down at us.

“You all look like a bunch of ants from way up here!” Dabi chuckled, waving his hand. “Oh?! Do I spy Shoto too?! That’s perfect!! Long time no see!!”

“Huh?” Shoto asked in annoyance.

“Dabi!!” Endeavor snarled at the ravenette villain.

“Ouch! Is that any way to address me?” Dabi chuckled mockingly as he poured some liquid from a bottle over his head before his hair went from black to white. “Why must you call me by my villain moniker... when I have such a great name… Call me Touya…”

And then for a split second, I felt like the whole world had just stopped moving. My eyes widened in disbelief while my mouth gasped open as I stared at Dabi or should I say Touya in bewilderment. My heart started to beat faster than usual as if it was going to burst out of my chest and now I suddenly started to feel like the whole world was spinning really fast, making me feel all dizzy and sick.

Now that you asked… I think, right now, if Touya suddenly appears and stands in front of me, I’ll definitely jump into his arms like a typical shoujo manga heroine and tell him how much I missed him, how much I felt lonely without him. So yeah… Maybe I still love him…

“You are that dumbstruck?! Really?!” Touya laughed. “I know my face isn’t exactly what it was, but I was sure that my own family would have figured it out. Though there was this one person who speculated that I could be Touya and it was none other than my lovely ex-fiancé; Nana Osaki!!” 

It's been a while, hasn’t it Babydoll? I missed you so much.~

“T-Touya…” I mumbled and my breath got caught in my throat, still in shock as my eyes started to get blurry and watery. 

“Who are you?” I asked softly. “Do I know you? Have we ever met before? Why did you ask if I recognized you? And why do you keep saying that you missed me?”

“The name is Dabi, Babydoll… Your glorified villain babysitter.” He smirked, standing up, his hands in the pockets of his trench coat.

“Is that actually your real name though?” I looked at him skeptically. “I don’t believe that. What’s your real name? What’s your true identity?”

“Why do you ask, Babydoll?” he asked.

“Because you remind me of someone I knew and love.” I responded. 

“Oh really? Who?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“Touya Todoroki.” I mumbled softly. 

Touya looked at me with an apologetic smile. 

“Sorry Babydoll, for hiding this secret from you! Back at Camino Ward, when you asked me if I was Touya or not, at that moment I wanted to do nothing else but to pull you into a tight hug, shower you with love and kisses, and tell you that I was in fact your Touya, but if I did that, my plans would’ve gotten ruined!” Touya stated before he looked back at Shoto and Endeavor with a smirk. “Well, Endeavor, I never forgot a thing. And I had plenty of reason to keep watching you. I’m not saying that everyone has to be pure and selfless. Just you! And guess what? Right now, my prerecorded life story is broadcasting nationwide and on the internet!”

Touya grinned widely as he started to jump down from Gigantomachia’s back and began to dance and twirl around in the madness. Shoto and Endeavor simply stood on the ground with wide eyes and dropped jaws, staring at Touya in disbelief while trying to take in everything that was happening right now at that moment.

“Man, I’m having a blast!!” Touya laughed with a big wild grin on his face. “Sorry, where was I? Oh yeah! How could I make you hurt? How to best stomp all over your life? I have been pondering all this ever since that day! I couldn’t figure out why I even existed and every day I would crawl to Natsu-kun and Nana crying my eyes out… Not that you ever knew, right?! When you finally achieved success with your little puppet Shoto… I thought killing him might do the trick! But then who would have guessed you got bumped up to No. 1! Suddenly, I was rooting for your happiness. My blood ran cold when I thought you might bite the big one in Kyushu! Then I led Starservant and Ending straight to you one after the other and you still survived like the cockroach that you are! You were finally No. 1! It's all you ever wanted! But it must have weighed on you, right?! Or was all the praise and admiration like chicken soup for your soul?! When at long last you could stare your kids in the eye… Did you finally start to feel the warm and fuzzy bonds of the family?! You must have thought ‘as long as I face the future I can be better’! I can tell you are at a loss for words, so here is the answer!!" 

Touya then stopped swaying and twirling before he placed his hands on his chest. 

"The past never dies! Get it yet?!" Touya yelled out, widely grinning, and that sent shivers down my spine. "You reap what you sow!! Let us fall together, you and me, Enji Todoroki!! Come dance with your son, here in hell!!”  

“Touya is dead. This is an unforgivable lie.” Endeavor mumbled in disbelief, still staring at Touya with widened eyes. 

“I am alive and kicking! It's an unforgivable truth, Dad!!” Touya responded with a mocking grin, his eyes widening a bit. “So sad that you never bothered to invite me to your fire-quirk-infested agency! Why didn't you notice I was your son? You never suspected because so many had flame-related quirks? Is that the reason? You can swab me or take some blood samples as a souvenir if you don't believe me. Go run a DNA test. Although my own test results are already being publicized as we speak. Endeavor, consider this a homecoming gift from me to you since I dug up something on that good-for-nothing spy Hawks as well. Even coming from a villain, the words that I speak will shake the public to their core. They won't be able to trust any of you after this. The damage has already been done! After seeing something like that, who the hell won't be shaking in their boots?!” 

With that, Touya jumped off from Gigantomachia's back and was about to attack Endeavor with Prominence Burn to finish off his father once and for all.

“Thanks for going strong up until now, Endeavor!!” Touya yelled.

“Touya!! Stop, please!! Don’t do this!!” I screamed out, tears rolling down my cheeks.

“Sorry, Nana!! But for the past 8 years, this is what I’ve been waiting for!!” Touya replied back. 

“Father, he is coming!!” Shoto yelled at a still-shocked Endeavor, preparing to attack Touya back. “Protect Nana and the others! I will handle this! Please move! Protect them! Hey, please get it together!!”

But then suddenly a plane flew by in the air over the battlefield and before Touya could unleash his attack, he got tied up with wires from that plane. We all looked up and noticed who it was.

“Apologize for being fashionably late!! Best Jeanist will now be returning to work starting today!!” the No. 3 pro hero announced, making Touya frown at the man. 

"Bastard! You're supposed to be dead! It was a real corpse! Why are you alive?!" Touya asked in annoyance through his gritted teeth. 

"If you're greedy, you'll come apart at the seams like cheap denim!!" Jeanist replied back with confidence and Touya's frown deepened even more. 

“Even if you are alive, Jeanist… that doesn't mean the Todoroki family’s past will be brushed under the rug… Right, Shoto?!” Touya smirked, immediately engulfing himself in blue flames as he looked over to see a crying yet enraged Shoto charging toward him with his firepower unleashed.

Best Jeanist unleashed even more wire and wrapped them around Gigantomachia, Spinner, and Mr. Compress as he pinned down the giant on the ground.

“You’re kidding me! He managed to detain Machia?!” Mr. Compress yelled.

“Trying to break free is so painful!!” Spinner shouted. “Doesn’t Machia have immeasurable strength?! Shigaraki, wake up!! You are alive, aren’t you?! Machia needs your orders!! Shigaraki!!”

Nejire senpai meanwhile, tried to strike Shigaraki again, but unfortunately got blasted by Touya's flames, much to everyone’s horror. 

"Hado Senpai!!" Shoto screamed out in shock while trying to fight off Touya with his flames. 

“Senpai!” I shouted in horror as I ran up and caught her in my arms before looking back at Touya with rage. “What the fuck, Touya?!”

“What a mess, huh Endeavor!!” Touya laughed maniacally as he broke free from Jeanist’s restraints using his blue flames. “Look! Another starry-eyed kid with a bright future burned to ashes!! By your flames!!” 

"Stop it!!" Shoto yelled out at Touya as the latter's fire power pushed the former back. 

Then, at that moment, suddenly Shigaraki slowly started to regain consciousness and ordered Gigantomachia to break free from the restraints. And right one cue, the giant let out an earth-shaking roar and started to tear down the wires around him, but Jeanist again shot more wires around it.

“Quit it, Touya-Nii!!” Shoto yelled as he charged at Touya again. “So you send that villain?! Natsu-Nii was nearly killed!! The brother you said you crawled and cried to! That Natsu-Nii!!”

“Then that would mean Endeavor would suffer!!” Touya grinned at Shoto, leaving the younger brother in shock.

“Have you lost your mind, you bastard?!” Shoto screamed out in rage and disbelief.

“You got it, Shoto!!” Touya laughed again, overpowering Shoto once again with his blue flames. “Your big brother has completely lost any feeling for anything!!”

“Touya!!” Shoto yelled as Touya used his flames on his younger brother.

“Finally, I can kill you!!” Touya laughed.

“Shoto!!” I shouted in horror as I charged at the Todoroki brothers. “Touya, stop!!”

“Hey, Spinner!! Behind you!!” Mr. Compress called.

“Huh?” Spinner asked as he turned around to look. “Looks like luck is in our favor after all!!”

“Those fucking Nomus again!!” Bakugo snarled as he charged at those flying creatures.

I also turned around and gasped when I noticed Nomus flying towards us. I quickly changed my route and flew towards the Nomus unleashing my Rinkaku Kagune and taking out my scythe. One after another, Bakugo and I fought and killed the Nomus when suddenly I felt a similar presence around me.

“Don’t tell me!” I gasped and at that moment a certain individual popped out from the ground.

“PO... WERRR!!!” 

At that moment, Mirio senpai arrived, using his quirk to take out the Nomu which was approaching Best Jeanist, leaving everyone shocked.

“Lemillion!!” Midoriya gasped.

“Mirio senpai!” I called with a smile.

“Despite this, it’s not like I have got the power to take out this Nomus in one shot!” Mirio Senpai chuckled. “Nana-chan, Bakugo, back me up!!”

“It’s great to see you again, Bakugo.” Jeanist greeted.

“That was just a placeholder name…” Bakugo smirked as he killed a Nomu with his quirk. “I was saving the real deal for you! From now on call me… God of Explosive Destruction, Dynamight!!!”

“Huh?” I sweat-dropped.

“Another dud…” Jeanist groaned.

“Too long!” Iida yelled.  

“Chaotic!” Nejire Senpai commented.

“Tacky!” Mr. Compress deadpanned.  

“So lame!” Spinner muttered as well.

“Haha! That's a good hero name! It's pretty funny!” Mirio Senpai laughed.

“It’s not meant to be funny!!” Bakugo snapped at Mirio.

“Without joy and laughter to balance the sorrow the world can never hope to have a bright future…” Mirio Senpai stated. “My bad there! That's just my motto!! As long as the final boss is restricted in the blaze, it’s time to clean up the rest of the mess!!”

And after that, right on cue, Mirio Senpai, Nejire Senpai, Bakugo, Jeanist, and I started to attack and kill all the flying Nomus.

“Aw, your friends are having a blast down there!!” Touya laughed as he and Shoto kept on fighting mid-air. “Poor Shoto... No fun for you, just pain!”

Touya then grabbed Shoto and wrapped his arms around his younger brother before covering his azure flames around themselves as he started to increase his heat. 

“But you… your body will burn too!” Shoto stuttered out in pain. "You're burning up as well, Touya!"

“You have grown up to be so considerate, I’m happy for you little bro!” Touya chuckled as his eyes trailed off to Endeavor’s still-shocked face. “I’m fine! In fact, I’m overjoyed right now! Look at that face! Even when his masterpiece, his greatest doll is about to get perished by his failure's flames, he still can't do anything!! Hey, take a look! He is totally broken!! Hahaha!! Shoto, if you burn up in my flames and turn to ashes, I wonder what kind of face dear old dad will be making then?!”

While I was fighting and killing the Nomus, I noticed what Touya was trying to do with Shoto. So without wasting any more time, I used my Kakugan and swapped places with Shoto. And right now, I was in Touya’s arms.

“Nana!!” Shoto gasped in shock.

“Oh, now look at that?” Touya smirked as he tightened his grip around me and pulled me even closer to his chest, immediately extinguishing his flames. “It’s been so long since I held you like this, Nana… I missed this.”

“Touya…” I mumbled lovingly as I reached out and touched his face. “Please, stop this… I beg you… Please…”

“I can’t, Nana…” Touya muttered, softening his gaze at me before reaching out and gently running his fingers on my cheek.

“Hey, let go of Nana-chan!” Midoriya yelled.

“You know it’s rude to interfere in other people’s family matters!” Touya said to the green-haired boy in annoyance.

“I’m interfering because Todoroki-kun is a precious friend and Endeavor is my mentor who made me stronger!!” Midoriya yelled. “The past doesn't disappear! That's why the present Endeavor is making an effort. That’s the Endeavor I’m watching. You’re not Endeavor!!”

“Ha, anybody could figure that out!” Touya responded mockingly. “But don’t you pity the likes of me at least a little?! The consequences of the scenes committed by a supposed apostle of justice… That’s what I am! Evil will no longer prosper! Justice will crumble! All I have done is showed all those susceptible people where to put the blame! Now the future that awaits is clear! All the lip service and ego-stroking will vanish and it will be chaos!!”

Then all of a sudden, Gigantomachia started to go all wild and tear up Jeanist’s restraints.

“Big trouble!” Mirio Senpai yelled.

“He has restored!” Jeanist shouted.

At the moment, Endeavor used every bit of strength he had to fly up and knock the giant back before knocking himself out as a result.

“Enji-san?!” I gasped in shock.

“Macchia?!” Spinner yelled.

“My strength!!” Gigantomachia groaned in pain as he started to slow down a bit.

“There was a message from the mountain team! They said they didn’t notice any effect but… the anesthetic worked!!” Jeanist stated.

“Looks like we’ve to go now…” Touya muttered with a sigh. “But before I go, I want to do something that I’ve always wanted to do since forever…”

“What-“

But before I could say anything more, Touya quickly leaned forward and pressed his lips against mine, pulling me into a passionate searing kiss as the cold metal of his piercings sent pleasant shudders up my spine. My eyes widened in shock and I went completely rigid on my spot. I mean, after all, it was my first kiss and it got stolen by the man I had been in love with for so many years now. I didn't know how to respond to it at first. The kiss was like a beautiful sweet dream; a dream that I didn't want to wake up from. 

I’m in love with you, Nana Osaki. You may not understand what it means to be in love with someone because you're still too young. But always remember… I love you and I always will love you, Nana-chan...

My brain stopped functioning and the next thing I knew, I slowly and unconsciously closed my eyes and started to kiss back Touya. In response, Touya smirked into the kiss before he pressed his tongue to the seam of my lips and at my grant of access, delved the tongue inside my mouth. As our tongues intertwined with one another, the kiss got rough, sloppy, and even more demanding. Euphoric warmth began to blossom within me and the whole feeling was utterly blissful, making the kiss feel like fireworks, tingles, and desires. It felt as if nothing mattered at that moment, as if nothing existed in this universe; it was just only me and him. Touya then slowly pulled away from the kiss as soon as we were out of breath and chuckled softly at my tomato-red face. 

“DID HE JUST KISS HER?!?!” Bakugo roared in rage.

“Looks like I’m your first kiss, huh?” Touya muttered with a smirk, panting slightly from the kiss. “Lucky me!”

Touya quickly let go of me and started to climb back onto Gigantomachia while I kept on floating in mid-air like an idiot, trying to process everything that just happened now.

“Touya!!” Shoto yelled, charging at his older brother to attack him with Flashfire Fist.

“Sorry, Shoto! The situation has changed!” Touya responded before attacking Shoto with his Flashfire Fist Jetburn.

“Shoto!” I gasped, rushing forward to save him.

But it was too late as Shoto had already taken the attack and was now knocked out cold. I quickly caught him in my arms and slowly landed on the ground. I looked over to see that Mr. Compress caught Touya in his marbles before safely handing it over to Spinner.

And after that, whatever happened on the battlefield was all blurry to me. I remembered Shoto slowly regained his consciousness and I quickly went back to fight Shigaraki and the Nomus. Mirio Senpai was finally able to catch Mr. Compress and easily took him down. Bakugo, Nejire senpai, Iida, Jeanist, and I all desperately tried to fight and chase after Shigaraki with our fatigued injured bodies while also fighting against other Nomus as Shigaraki, Spinner, and Skeptic started to escape away by riding on the back of a flying Nomu. Shoto, Endeavor, and Midoriya were all barely able to stay conscious at that moment. Midoriya also tried to catch Shigaraki with his Blackwhip but failed in the process. In the end, Shigaraki successfully escaped away with his comrades, bringing the Paranormal Liberation War to a conclusion. 

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