#Danger berry saga

[longeyelashedtragedy]

Ask game, you get a ⭐️ but it has to be about Dangerous AU

dangerous AU! here we go--

so this exchange from the most recent chapter:

“I’ve got to tell you, Granit.”  Mikel feels a little more courageous with knives nearby.  “Some of the things you say sound a little crazy.”

“Hmmm, really?  Because you make me feel a bit normal, sweet Mikel.”

this is important! it says a lot about how i write this fic, and also kind of hints at the trajectory of the fic.

i know "show, don't tell" is something we all get taught if we take a writing class, or at least we've heard it said, and i think it's kind of reductive advice (as a lot of writing advice is? there's a lot of different ways to tell a story yknow), at least for a more advanced level of writing. Granit here is kind of idk...telling the exact point of the fic, or at least, the point of his character arc.

(idk if i've mentioned this on here, or just talked about it in private with its biggest fans, but the sort of Thesis of the fic is:

granit might have turned out pretty "normal" with a different life circumstance and his first flashback chapter is meant to indicate that shooting a guy in the head as a teenager was a life altering and traumatizing event for him, that was never handled healthily by anyone around him--instead he was rewarded for it (while ALSO being dehumanized for his tendencies even in his own violent community). in the 2nd flashback which isn't published yet, granit (now about 20 years old) thinks: Sure, money can’t buy love, but Granit knows he’ll never have that anyway, and money can buy all the rest of it. granit will always be...granit, unhinged and sadistic, but mikel's love and devotion and genuine respect for him are going to take the edge off, in a sense.

while mikel's Philosophy is to kill very sparingly, and only for a specific purpose, and the purpose is to help make him feel the power he could never feel as a sick, infantilized, and powerless kid. but, granit's love and devotion and genuine respect for him make him feel this surge of power and control and might just very well wind up the more violent of the two? I've written the last few paragraphs of the fic so i already know but i ain't telling!!!)

"You make me feel a bit normal, sweet Mikel," is sort of the entire point of the fic, then, and it was really cool to disregard any writing advice and just have granit bluntly state that in one of the earlier chapters.

and that's the thing about dangerous AU--idk if it reads differently than my other fics or what, but i call it my "playground," since i never intended to publish such a thing, but some people told me i should and i honestly feel like it has a bit of a cult following 😂 in it i just write however i want--if it's melodramatic or pulpy or choppy or the sex is too rushed or the dialogue is strange or ANYTHING...i'm just writing for fun with no stylistic filter or anything, which also means i can disregard any writing advice whenever i want!

[leesbian42-rp]

So who am I?

Hello!! My name is Chaos, or Cam, and this will be where I interact with other RP blogs or chat about my OCs. My main is @leesbian42 and I'll keep my OC tag from that blog here too

I'm 24, queer and I use pink/pinkself bat/batself and punk/punkself, or 🐍/🐍self 🌺/🌺self 🦋/🦋self. Don't like neos? Don't follow. Simple as that.

I'll do most kinds of RPs, but no nsfw and if you want it to go in a certain direction you have to tell me. Any and every OC is never restricted to just one Universe, and even if I don't know the fandom more than the basics I'm willing to at least try.

Some of the things I do is: avatar (atla/lok/woba), lego Ninjago, LEGO Dreamzzz, LEGO Friends, Encanto, Disenchantment, Danny Phantom, Descendants, DC (only know basics), Marvel (bare basics), She-Ra, Voltron, Hamilton, historic, LUCIDS, Marble Hornets / Creepypasta etc

everything I post is open RP unless specified otherwise

So!! Some quick deets on my OCs!!

Non-Fandom OCs:

Eldi 'A23421' Light

my cyborg oc with a ✨tragic evil fucked up past✨. Once human, she was experimented on against her will and had her sentience removed from her, sent out by her Creator, James Stone, to get him new patients to experiment on similar to how he did to Eldi or other majorly fucked up shit. when she's around 13-15 she realises what's been going on and by the time she's 17 she's escaped and deep into hiding, working to reprogram and relearn everything

Phoenix Night

don't really have much for him? He's born in Scotland and got sort of a symbiote like venom??? and got a pretty normal life until I hit him with the Trauma and Death stick yk how it is with OCs

Alex Xamira

I usually make her a friend of Eldi's, but I lost a LOT of the information and notes I had on them originally :(

Liwh Saga Korpwinge

my first ever oc!! She's born in 1100 and has travelled with her mother for as long as she can remember, constantly on the run from something she's never gotten explained to her. Until, one day, her mother gets caught D: Liwh sees her hang from the gallows already the next day (and other things bc uhhh 13yr me making this character really went bonkers with the tragedy)

Tilda Klemensdotter and Torkel Klemensson

these two are actually my irl Museum job characters!! Twins, born in the 1760s, they get job at the local sheriff's (länsman) farm, but somehow keep missing each other and leaves in search for their sibling! But now, a few years later, they're back working at their parents farm. They're both half-finnish too bc Torkel is actually a Finnish name, but idk how much they'd know about that side of the family

Rebel

another one I don't got a lot for? I thought the word Rebel as a name would be super cool and made this oc. Lives up to their name def at least

Fandom OCs:

Raya

I don't got a lot for her either? She's an atla oc (from the swt) AND an encanto oc (from the other side of the mountains).

Elyha Ivy Moon

my WoBA (world of the bending arts) RPG atla oc, an airbender born in around 500AG, 17 yrs old and lives in the Republic City with her mums Mary and Rose, and their older sibling Reese. Elyha and Reese are both adopted by Mary and Rose and they often joke the family is the avatar but split up (Elyha air, Reese earth, Mary water and Rose fire). Elyha's bio parents was a moonblessed waterbender (like Yue) and an airbender, which is how she got her white hair.

Rira 'El Fuego'

another atla oc!! She got kidnapped as a very young child by Ozai and Azulon for her purple fire. She's around the same age as Lu Ten and is a very skilled firebender (Ozai and Azulon won't accept anything less, even from the child they kidnapped) and she, after realising the children were no danger, could be seen with Zuko, Azula and Lu Ten. She actually goes with Iroh to the siege of ba sing se! and after that, the sun warriors!

Sara 'Saga Berry' Gustafson

born in the early 1960s, she's one of my youngest OCs on 11 years! She's specifically from a Gravity Falls dream I once had, which then turned into an au. Orphaned and homeless after her mother got evicted, she spends years on the streets before finally being found by Stan Pines during his homeless days. When Stan leaves the country, she goes with him as his adopted daughter and actually spends the rest of her childhood living on the streets and travelling the world with Stan! She's in her twenties when she starts even thinking about settling down somewhere

[oh-dameron]

I'm re-watching the East Blue saga at the moment: if anything Sanji started with slightly more chill around women and has got more unhinged as they've gone along. I would guess in no small part because of how he and Nami interact and their hoarding/giving dynamic.

Nami went through terrible trauma where she had to be entirely self-reliant and claw every berri to herself, for years. No-one was taking care of her. Now there's this guy who'll wait on her hand and foot, treat her like a princess, never act like what she wants is an inconvenience, move heaven and earth to keep her safe. In return he wants smiles and sweet words and to be near her: basically, it's free. She could set boundaries or discourage it but why would she? She's getting exactly what she wants out of this dynamic.

Sanji's trauma was around being unwanted, being not good enough, having all this care to give and being punished for trying to give it. Now here's Nami, and he can spend hours making treats for the whole crew, and then make hers extra-beautiful because he can cut hearts out of chocolate, all right? There can be little fondant roses. He can exercise his craft to his limit to make it the most beautiful, delicious treat and get to watch her eyes light up when he serves it (yes, Luffy lights up that way when he flings him any random ham hock, and yes, it's still appreciated but it's not quite the same). And Nami doesn't tell him that she doesn't need or want his hard work, his declarations of affection, she lets him give and give and give and that is what he wants. He gets a smile or some praise in return sometimes and it's the icing on the cake, but being allowed to pour all his care out without being told it's too much is the real gift.

Which is all well and good for them, except then that dynamic feeds on itself until Sanji is in danger of dying from nosebleeds and he can no longer hold a coherent conversation. The pedestal that Nami is on keeps getting taller and taller, and it's pretty comfortable always being told yes and after a while it's hard not to take it for granted. He gets more ridiculous, she gets more spoiled. They both need therapy.

Aaand of course there's a veneer of horniness overlaid over the whole thing, which I'm not going to dig into because it hurts my brain.

Okay that last post i added to made me think about it but i wish Sanji could be fucking normal for once because if he and nami had a mutually respectful friendship it would be so FASCINATING

They BOTH suffered immense trauma due to not having access to a resource--Sanji almost starved to death, and Nami saw Bellemere killed for not having enough money. And they handle it so differently!!

Nami hoards money. She keeps it close to her chest and doesnt share it freely--think of her interest rates! Even among friends she rarely is seen giving money away. There are some exceptions--Thriller bark for instance--where she can be generous if youve earned it, but largely she is extremely tight fisted about it. (And yes, part of this is the trauma associated with bellemere, and part of it is the trauma and long term habits of becoming a thief at such a young age).

Sanji, on the other hand, is So Generous. Its one of the first things we see him do, and its what drives Luffy to ask him to join the crew. Feeding Ghin, and convincing him to eat, even though he can't return the favor (and ultimately actually causes damage to sanji and the Baratie). And yes, theres something to be said about food being something thats harder to hoard since it spoils, but this first act of generosity is towards a complete stranger on a restaurant ship. That food wasnt going to be wasted, it took time and effort to prepare, and he still gives his labor away freely.

And these two could have such interesting conversations/debates/realizations with each other if they were allowed to exist normally! If Sanji would see Nami as his equal and crewmate (please oda im begging), watching these two butt heads over when to be generous and when to be frugal would be fascinating! Its one of the reasons i dont often ship Nami/Sanji beyond a friendship, because i think that fundamentally they have extremely different values! Which could lead to some really deep and nuanced interactions! (Not to say this wouldnt also lead to an interesting ship dynamic but thats beside the point)

Again its way too early and im rambling but i love both of these characters and how they contrast each other and would love to hear everyone else's thoughts

[b-raypokemontime]

Danger Berry Saga: A Song of Love

@bloodxbrothers

The next day was a little more than hectic. Everyone making sure that everything was set up and in place. Balia going over the songs she was going to sing at the reception with Clint and Jacqueline. Mostly though Balia hung out with Michael and Baxter since most of the wedding was already set up and put into place. It was just the final touches and the waiting that was left. The wedding was to be in the Orchard at the Main house. The guests would be sitting on white chairs on a grassy area and there was a rose festooned arch that was set up where the two would stand hand in hand in front of the one officiating the wedding. The Colors for the wedding were rose gold, silver and varying shades of purple and lavender. And the cake was a chocolate masterpiece baked and decorated by Balia's Sister Trista. With a white sugar Beautifly and a sugar Pyroar together as the topper. When finally the hour before the sunset Wedding was to happen everyone was getting dressed and ready. Michael and Baxter were waiting for Balia to come out of her room before they went down for the event.

She came out of her room  in a shimmery silver dress with soft lavender floral lace over it. It was A-line and had an off the shoulder neckline that was just the lace. Her hair was pulled up partially in a braided bun and the rest was left to cascade down her back and there were pearls and little white and periwinkle flowers in her hair among the braids.

"How do I look?" she looked to the two men. Michael just stared, his face a bright pink.

"Wooow.... trying to impress someone at this wedding there?" Baxter teased with a wink. Balia pushed him and blushed herself.

"Shut up. They asked me to sing at this thing remember? I gotta look good, just not outshine the Bride." Baxter was laughing.

"Breathe~taking..." Michael suddenly found the power of speach. And then suddenly realized what he said and that it was out loud, and made a hasty retreat.

"Bathroom..." he muttered as he went. Face red like a tomatoe.

"Such fun~" Baxter chuckled as Balia watched the black haired man go. She was confused.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"Well, if by something you mean by being gorgeous then yes. Is it wrong? He~ll no! You're perfectly fine." the tall blonde assured her.

"Oh.... well thank you.. Hope he doesn't get lost.." Balia was a little sad. She was going to ask him and Baxter to be her escorts to the Wedding. But there wasn't much time to worry about it.

The wedding was lovely. The Bride looked stunning and Clint cried when he saw Jacqueline coming down the aisle arm in arm with her Father. The vows were read just as the sun was setting and the sky was starting to blaze with color, and when the Minister officiating announced Clint could kiss the bride the sky and the puffy clouds were in their full sunset glory. It was truely a wonderful wedding to see. When it was over everyone went to the old Castle grounds. Where the great ballroom was set up for the reception. Purple and silver and pretty lights were everywhere at every table. And there was a small stage set up. Everyone was shown to a place and food was brought out for everyone. Drinks were ordered and everyone was feeling a little merry. Balia talked to Michael about the cake and what it had taken her sister to make it. She really admired how amazing her decorating skills had gotten. And learned that Michael wasn't that into sugary deserts. But that he liked Banana bread. Balia then however hand to get up from her place at the table. The Father-Daughter dance happened. Then the Mother and Son dance. And then Balia came out onto the stage. The lights were shining on her and making her sparkle with an ethereal light. Not that she really would have needed the help. Clint and Jacqueline were then on the floor together for their first dance as husband and wife.

Balia opened her mouth and held the ballroom spellbound allong with the newlyweds. Her voice was silvery and sweet as she sang about love and cherishing one's love for their whole life. Not taking them for granted, and not wasting a second of their time together. She gave it her all and put her whole heart into the song. Which was her talent and was what made her so popular. She really sang the song to it's full potential, sweet and loving. She sang it for her Brother and his new Wife. But her heart also wanted to sing for a certain someone in the crowd. And subconsciously she did just that. Eyes straying and lingering on his face a second longer than everyone else's. Her emotions pouring out of her and sending her message right at Michael in all of it's honest promising emanations. Her unconscious gentle feelings broadcasted loud and clear to him and anyone who was sharp enough to feel and spot her glances. There was no denying it, and there were very few dry eyes in that Ballroom.

When the song ended she smiled, not knowing what her emotions had done. Balia blushed under the clapping of everyone at the reception. Looking like she was overwhelmed as she made a beeline for her seat. Everyone started mingling in the pause between the dances and when the couple would be cutting the cake. And all Balia wanted right then, was a drink to help her throat, and to have a few quiet moments to calm down after that performance.

[notsuchacleverboyq]

Sévérine Appreciation Post

There are plenty of Bond girls in this 25 movies saga and I firmly believe that each of them is worthy a post of their own (I might actually consider it).

We all have our favourites when it comes to Bond girls and for very different reasons. I've always used to adore Vesper Lynd, Pam Bouvier and the one played by Halle Berry (I forgot her name, I'm so sorry).

We could also add Madeleine Swann to the list, even if she's not one of my favourites and my gay ass feels sympathy towards her for different reasons.

I absolutely fell in love with Sévérine's character when, growing up, i started understanding more of the plot and could notice details I had never caught.

In my opinion, she's a really good character that utterly deserved more screen time and appreciation.

But it seems common in these movies for good characters to have a really poor screen time (just like Q, Moneypenny and Tanner).

Fortunatly, Fanfictions exist.

Anyway, she appears for a total of five scenes or so:

In that glass building when Bond kills Patrice;

In the casino (Macau);

On the boat, after 007 escapes her bodyguards;

On the boat when they reach Silva's island;

When Silva kills her.

Despite her poor and wasted role in the movie, she's actually important for the plot: working for Silva, she knows how to get to him and she quickly becomes Bond's passe-partout to reach the man.

But, firstly, why do I think she's one of the best characters in the saga, despite having a so limited screen time?

It's all in the casino scene.

When Bond arrives there, she's already at the place and quickly notices him.

She's there to welcome whoever got to the casino to collect the money through the fish, or so i guess since she's accomayned by her bodyguards (who control her) and Silva would know if she tried any move against him.

After Patrice's death, Sévérine knows that Bond would come there, probably having some intentions against Silva. She knows 007 is exactly what she needed.

Sévérine is clever and I love clever characters.

Like every Bond girl, in the end, she ends up helping 007 to get the job done. And that's another reason why she's a good character.

She doesn't decide to help him because she likes him or something, even if Sévérine does surrender to Bond's advances; Sévérine decides to help 007 for herself: she needs a quick and assured way to escape the big distress and danger that Silva represents for her person and sees a profitable saviour in Bond.

Sévéerine also is an indipendent and strong character who's well aware of the mess in which she's stuck; she's not a sweet and helpless woman whose only purpose is to be candy for the audience: Sévérine is just another person who has found herself in the plot by accident, letting her attempt to break free from Silva to blend with Bond's mission.

Another detail that needs more appreciation is the acting.

Specially in this scene.

There's an amount of body language here to leave me, a psychology student, astonished: the way Sévérine sits, how she looks at Bond and the surroundings, the visible tremble her hand gives once 007 brings Silva into the discussion..

There's nothing left to say.

Also, the dress she's wearing: a black, sparkling and backless dress, which leaves even the thighs to show; it is meant to make her look confident, because she is, despite her evident fear towards Silva.

The general choice of colour is merely aesthetical, meant to match the atmosphere, but serves for the same purpose anyway.

Still about body language, she knows how her moves are limited by her bodyguards who are constantly checking on her; despite that, she gives it a try and approaches Bond, probably knowing that she's been into trouble since the first word they exchanged.

Sévérine keeps their conversation as casual as possible, only covering her mouth when Silva is brought into the discussion and she asks Bond for help.

It's a move I loved, since it looks suspicious and totally natural at the same time, so that no one can accuse her of betrayal because of that talk.

Sévérine was a good character that had to die too soon. But what if she had survived?

She has been on Silva's side for at least twenty years (don't ask for the calculus, I don't know the reasoning I did to come up with that), meaning that she probably knew about his plan against M and the MI6.

But even if Silva would have been enough clever to not reveal his plan entirely even to his own minions, Sévérine could have prevented so much.

"You don't know him"

This is what she told Bond in the casino.

I like to think that that quote means she knows him so well to fear him and know how he acts and thinks.

What Bond, Q and even M lacked of was the ability to predict Silva's moves: characteristic that Sévérine owns.

She could have prevented Silva from escaping, the big trip to Skyfall and M's death.

The movie would have had a totally different title and would have probably ended after Silva's capture, but it could have ended better.

[the-al-chemist]

Artemis Sheba Hexley

Meet Artemis Hexley, a little witch with a big attitude! The protagonist of the Hexley Saga, Artemis achieved a small amount of fame in her youth due to her involvement with the Hogwarts’ Cursed Vaults, and though she followed her dream of becoming a professional Curse-Breaker after leaving school, she quickly fell out of love with the profession. In the years that followed, Artemis became somewhat of a drifter, both in terms of career and romance, and fought on the side of the Order of the Phoenix in the Second Wizarding War. After the end of the war, Artemis carved out a new career for herself as a magical wildlife photographer and found a new kind of happiness in the arms of an old friend.

Profile

Born: 1st May 1973 (Taurus)

Hometown: Camden Town, London, U.K./Charcombe Regis, Dorset, U.K.

Nationality/Ethnicity: White British, with American, Polish, and French ancestry

Blood status: Half-Blood

Gender identity: witch (she/her)

Sexuality: heterosexual

Personality

Myers-Briggs Type: ISFP(Adventurer)

Strengths: compassionate, quick-witted, determined, resourceful, adventurous, loyal, brave, resilient

Weaknesses: impulsive, stubborn, hot-tempered, reckless, sarcastic, naïve, low-key pyromaniac

Interests/hobbies: music, creatures (magical and mundane), photography, flying, duelling, explosions, Bakewell tarts

Appearance

Height: as an adult, 5’0.5”

Weight: as an adult, 48-50kg (much less during the war)

Hair: dark brown, thick, very messy. Naturally quite wavy, but some days will be curly, others straight. Artemis has no say in the matter: her hair is a law unto itself. Will sometimes be styled by Penny

Eyes: hazel, green around pupil

Skin: light olive, tans easily

Defects: Kneazle-scratch scar on her right cheek

Style: eclectic - comfort over aesthetic. Mainly jeans/t-shirts/jumpers, but will wear cast off dresses and skirts from Rowan and Penny as a teenager, and steals flannel shirts from Charlie as an adult. Style becomes more ‘witchy’ as she ages. Wears her brother’s gold watch on her right ankle until the last day of her Hogwarts education.

Faceclaim: Dafne Keen (childhood/teenage years), Mila Kunis (adult)

Witchcraft

1st Wand: Spruce and Dragon Heartstring, 9 and a half inches, whippy - this wand was broken by Patricia Rakepick in Artemis’ fifth year at school

(Unskilled wandmakers call spruce a difficult wood, but in doing so they reveal their own ineptitude. It is quite true that it requires particular deftness to work with spruce, which produces wands that are ill-matched with cautious or nervous natures, and become positively dangerous in fumbling fingers. The spruce wand requires a firm hand, because it often appears to have its own ideas about what magic it ought to be called upon to produce. However, when a spruce wand meets its match – which, in my experience, is a bold spell-caster with a good sense of humour – it becomes a superb helper, intensely loyal to their owners and capable of producing particularly flamboyant and dramatic effects.)

2nd Wand: Blackthorn and Phoenix Feather, 10 1/4 inches, unyielding.

(Blackthorn, which is a very unusual wand wood, has the reputation, in my view well-merited, of being best suited to a warrior. It is a curious feature of the blackthorn bush, which sports wicked thorns, that it produces its sweetest berries after the hardest frosts, and the wands made from this wood appear to need to pass through danger or hardship with their owners to become truly bonded. Given this condition, the blackthorn wand will become as loyal and faithful a servant as one could wish.)

Animagus form: Tortoiseshell cat

Patronus: Cheetah

Boggart: A shadowy hooded figure, with a face that shifts between herself, her brother, and someone she fears becoming: Voldemort as a teen, Rakepick as a young woman, and later, her mother.

Riddikulus: the figure becomes one of Artemis’ loved ones, doing or saying something amusing

Amortentia (what does she smell?): a sea breeze, firewhiskey, leather, toasted marshmallows

Amortentia (what does she smell like?): gunpowder, pine trees, marzipan

Magical abilities: skilled in wandwork, particularly Transfiguration and Duelling. A natural born Legilimens.

At Hogwarts

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff

Best subjects: transfiguration, charms, care of magical creatures

Worst subjects: arithmancy, potions, history of magic (unless Rowan is teaching it)

Third year options: care of magical creatures, ancient runes, arithmancy

O.W.L.s:

O - Transfiguration and DADA

E - Charms, CoMC, Runes, Potions

A - Astronomy, Herbology, HoM, and (miraculously) Arithmancy

N.E.W.T. Subjects: Transfiguration, Charms, DADA, CoMC, Ancient Runes

Quidditch position: Seeker (Year 5 onwards)

After Hogwarts

July 1991-November 1993: Junior Curse-Breaker, Gringotts Bank.

January 1994-June 1995: Member of the Triwizard Tournament Committee, Departments of Magical Games and Sports/International Magical Cooperation.

August 1995-June 1996: Dragon Care Assistant, Romanian Dragon Sanctuary.

July 1996-August 1997: Trainee Auror, Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

August 1997-May 1998: Rebel, Renegade, Freedom Fighter, Feral.

Post-War: TBC

Relationships

Family:

Sara Hexley (mother) - An American witch who moved to the U.K. after falling in love with an English wizard. Formerly an employee of the Muggle liaison office, Sara now has a more advisory role, having become reclusive and emotionally distant since the death of her husband. As of August 1990, Sara lives in America. She and Artemis no longer speak.

Leander Hexley (father - deceased as of 1979) - Leander, an Unspeakable, was found dead in the Department of Mysteries when Artemis was six. It is officially unknown whether his death was suicide or murder at the hands of Death Eater spy Augustus Rookwood, however Artemis discovered the truth in her final year of school.

Jacob Hexley (brother) - following his dangerous search for the Cursed Vaults and subsequent expulsion from Hogwarts, Jacob Hexley went missing in November 1981, shortly after the fall of Voldemort. He was found trapped in a Cursed Vault eight years later, and was arrested for his involvement in the Cursed Vaults in 1990. As of June 1991, Artemis and Jacob are not on speaking terms, though they do co-own the house their father left them in his will.

Tina and Newt Scamander (Great-Aunt and Uncle) - Artemis has a somewhat close relationship with her great-aunt and uncle, who often took care of her in the summer as a child. She remains close to them, however does not like to discuss her relationships with her more immediate family members with them, which can lead to some awkwardness.

Friends:

Rowan Khanna (best friend - deceased as of December 1989)

Penny Haywood, Dora Tonks, and Chiara Lobosca (dorm-mates and gal pals)

Bill Weasley (surrogate big brother)

Charlie Weasley (ride or die partner-in-crime)

Ben Copper (needs protecting)

Tulip Karasu (admirably chaotic)

Barnaby Lee (not as tough as he looks)

Andre Egwu (fabulous fashion guru)

Jae Kim (detention buddy and masterchef)

Badeea Ali (CoK member and later colleague)

Madam Rosmerta (surrogate mother and supplier of free booze)

Kingsley Shacklebolt (surrogate father and mentor)

Weasley Family (might as well be Artemis’ family by this stage)

Love interests:

Andre Egwu - though not technically a love interest, Artemis attended the Celestial Ball (her first ever ball) with Andre as her date, and the two shared a chaste kiss (another first for both of them), despite being no more than friends

Barnaby Lee - Barnaby confessed to having a crush on Artemis on Halloween of their fifth year, prompting her to question her own feelings for him. In February of that school year, the pair shared a kiss and their first disastrous date. A second date proved more successful, and they officially became a couple, breaking up just as fifth year ended after it became clear that Artemis’ feelings were not as strong as Barnaby’s.

Chester Davies - Artemis dated Chester on-and-off for over a year, until they both realised that they wanted different things in life. The relationship ended in a very abrupt manner, but they remain on civil if not friendly terms.

Charlie Weasley - having been good friends for the latter half of their school years, Charlie and Artemis gradually and separately developed feelings for one another in their adulthood. Over six months after the end of the Wizarding War, they made the leap from friends to something more.

Pets: Fergus the Cat, and Scully, the naughtiest Crup in the world

Ancestry:

Jacob and Queenie Kowalski (maternal grandparents)

Marius and Mavis Hexley (paternal grandparents)

Jeremiah and Héloïse Hexley (great-grandparents)

Eliza Morland/Ophelia Burke (great-grandmother)

Distantly a descendant via French lineage from Morgan Le Fay.

The text in the edit is the poem “Artemis Girl” by Nikita Gill, my new favourite poem

[frayderike]

Books 2021

♥ fav // ♫ audiobook // 🖌 graphic novel, manga // ∞ re-read

my goodreads profile

His Majesty's Dragon (Tremaire #1)

Throne of Jade (Tremaire #2)

The Black Witch (The Black Witch Chronicles #1)

The Iron Flower (The Black Witch Chronicles #2)

The Shadow Wand (The Black Witch Chronicles #3)

An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes #1)

Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1)

Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices #2)

Blackout: Morgen ist es zu spät

Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1) ♥♥♥

Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2) ♥♥♥

A Deadly Education (The Scholomance #1)

Shadow and Bone (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy #1) ♫

The Inheritance Games (The Inheritance Games #1)

The Library of Fates

Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices #3)

Legendborn (The Legendborn Cycle #1) ♥

In the Middle of the Night

A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes #2) ♫

Siege and Storm (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy #2)

Crown of Feathers (Crown of Feathers #1) ♥

Know My Name ♥♥♥

Ruin and Rising (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy #3)

Sweet Bean Paste

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic

Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1) ♥♥♥ ∞

When Breath Becomes Air

Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2) ♥♥♥ ∞

わんわん探偵団2 🖌

King of Scars (King of Scars #1)

Fable (Fable #1) ♫

The Midnight Library

Exhalation ♥

Namesake (Fable #2) ♫

Die Hölle ist die Abwesenheit Gottes

The House in the Cerulean Sea ♥

The Emrpess of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle #1) ♫

When a Tiger Came Down the Mountain (The Singing Hills Cycle #2) ♫

The Beast Player (The Beast Player #1-2)

Stardust ♫

Love Simon ♫

The Upside of Unrequited ♫

Leah on the Offbeat ♫

They Both Die at the End ♫

Clap When You Land ♫

A Reaper at the Gates (An Ember in the Ashes #3)

My Sister, the Serial Killer

Upright Women Wanted ♥ ♫

The Memory Police

A Sky Beyond the Storm (An Ember in the Ashes #4)

Ace of Spades

The Voting Booth ♥

Rule of Wolves (King of Scars #2)

Hood Feminism

The Bad Seed 🖌

The Handmaid's Tale

Howl's Moving Castle (Howl's Moving Castle #1)

The Song of Achilles ♫

Finna (LitenVerse #1)

An Enchantment of Ravens ♫

Number the Stars

Dial A for Aunties

Castle in the Air (Howl's Moving Castle #2)

White Tears/Brown Scars ♥♥♥ ♫

Spoiler Alert

We Hunt the Flame (Sands of Arawiya #1) ♥

To Kill a Kingdom ♫

House of Leaves

Kate in Waiting ♫

The Magic Fish 🖌

The Keeper of Lost Things ♫

Pan's Labyrinth

We Free the Stars (Sands of Arawiya #2) ♥

Scorcery of Thorns ♫

Sky in the Deep ♥ ♫

Hosue of Many Ways (Howl's Moving Castle #3)

The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air #1) ♥

The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air #2)

The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air #3)

Binti (Binti #1) ♥

A Monster Calls

A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1)

The Princess Bride ♫

The Historian

Heart of Flames (Crown of Feathers #2)

American Indian Stories

Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky #1)

Tender is the Flesh ♥

The Beautiful Ones ♫

Wings of Shadow (Crown of Feathers #3)

Under the Whispering Door

A Dead Djinn in Cairo (Dead Djinn Universe #0.1)

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex ♥♥♥

Defekt (LitenVerse #2) ♥♥♥

The Night Watchman ♫

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

In meinem Herzen steckt ein Speer: Das Jahr, das alles veränderte

Heart Berries

Crying in H Mart ♫

A Christmas Carol ♫

The Angel of Khan ek-Khalili (Dead Djinn Universe #0.2)

Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King (The Guardians #1)

Depart, Depart!

People We Meet on Vacation ♫

May the Best Man Win ♫

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (Dead Djinn Universe #0.3)

The Hidden Oracle (The Trials of Apollo #1) ♫

The Unbroken (Magic of the Lost #1)

The Darkest Part of the Forest ♫

Ninth House (Alex Stern #1) ♥

The Last Graduate (Scholomance #2) ♥

Deutscher Humor: Eine Sammlung der besten Beiträge ♥

Winter's Orbit ♥

Krampus

A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot #1)

Certain Dark Things ♫

exit RACISM. rassismuskritisch denken lernen ♫

A Master of Djinn (Dead Djinn Universe #1)

Saga Vol. 1 🖌

Saga Vol. 2 🖌

The Bear and the Nightingale (The Winternight Trilogy #1) ♫

Dropped / DNFed:

Everything I Never Told You

Atomic Habits

Wuthering Heights

And Then There Were None

A Touch of Darkness

The Wolf and the Woodsman

A Court of Mist and Fury

[joezworld]

Bismuth

Bismuth - a harmless metal when consumed by humans, is known to have significant hallucinatory effects when introduced to a mechanobiological system such as a locomotive. 

Due to its non-fuel state, non-intentional bismuth contamination is rare, but has been known to occur, especially in instances when impurities from lead refining, which include bismuth, are introduced to locomotive fuel sources such as open coal bins or wood piles. 

Introduction to diesel locomotives is more complicated, and typically involves being within close proximity to steam locomotive that is burning bismuth-contaminated fuels, at which point the aerosolized mineral can enter their air intake systems. In some cases, fuel contamination can occur, however most known instances of fuel contamination have involved intentional dosing of fuel stocks with either bismuth or bismuth-derived pharmaceuticals (BDP). 

The stomach-settling use of bismuth in humans has meant that most locomotive contaminations occur after a well meaning relative or friend introduces a BDP such as Pepto-Bismol into the locomotive’s fuel or water system. 

Of course, intentional/recreational ingestion is a known activity, however all reputable sources (J. Small Berries et al) indicate that the hallucinatory events are notable in their inconsistency. The resulting "bad trips" often deter repeat usage.

- An excerpt from: The ABCs of Locomotive Health Care (10th ed., 1984) - J. Bigbooté, J. Whorfin; Yoyodyne Publishing Laboratories, Grover’s Mill, New Jersey. 

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

April, 2000

Nobody’s quite sure how the bismuth got into Sodor - presumably it arrived in the shipment of coal from the mainland. The railway bought coal from a broker in London, and their usual shipment of high-quality coal had been lost - quite literally, as nobody could find it -  and therefore the broker had scrambled to find more. A Polish metal refinery was found to have some surplus coal, and it was sent on without informing anyone on Sodor of the change. 

It arrived at Tidmouth docks on a cargo ship and was promptly sent out to the big stations across the network - Wellsworth, Knapford, Tidmouth, Barrow, and Crovan’s Gate. 

The coal trains ran late at night so as to not be in the way, and it meant that most engines would take on the new coal around midday, as the last of the old stocks in the coaling stages was used up. 

It took about an hour or so for the last of the old coal in the engine’s tenders to be used up if they were working hard. 

This meant that, as the engines rested in the yards after their noon trains, a lot of things started happening...

--

Tidmouth

Mid-sentence, Gordon’s eyes began to roll into the back of his smokebox. He was still speaking, but he slowly began to stop producing any intelligible sounds. His words turned into a mushy babel of slurred syllables and stuttering clicks as the men began frantically wondering if a locomotive could have a stroke. 

Nearby, Thomas giggled dreamily. The pretty pink unicorns that had suddenly appeared on his bufferbeam were prancing about in a most amusing fashion. 

---------

Crovan’s Gate

Percy had been undergoing a pressure test when his smoke started turning yellow. 

The men had dropped his fire and immediately began an inspection, but not before Wendell was totally enveloped in the thick yellow cloud.

Percy felt like his boiler was inflating and inflating, as though the pressure test would never stop. The men eventually stopped what they were doing as he began ranting and raving about being turned into a zeppelin. 

On the other side of the workshop, Wendell was speaking in hushed, manic tones to no-one. Whoever this “Lion” was seemed to be quite concerned for his wellbeing, even if he thought that they were overreacting. 

--------

Arlesburgh

The evil diesels were after him, he was sure of it. Look! There was one there! And another! And another! 

Well not today! Try and catch this example of Great Western Metal!

The men slowly backed away as Oliver ranted and raved at absolutely nothing. Duck and the Scottish twins watched from a safe distance, and decided not to get involved. 

-------

Barrow Sheds

James was past being concerned about the yellow smoke - the little pixies fluttering around his smokebox said that he didn’t have anything to worry about at all. 

Delta, sitting next to him in the cloud of yellow smoke, was much more concerned, but not about the smoke itself. 

"Jamie, something's wrong."

"What makes you say that?

"I can hear Jefferson Airplane.”

"What's Jefferson Airplane?"

"I don’t know."

-------

Barrow Yards

“Why are you not fixing this?! Don’t just stand there! DO SOMETHING YOU MEATBAGS!” Bear roared at the workmen from within the yellow cloud. He’d woken up deeply congested, and didn’t understand why they were saying he needed to be out of the cloud of yellow smoke - it wasn’t like he could breathe much to begin with, and Henry was in trouble and he clearly needed help and these men wouldn’t do anything!

“Holy shit Bear I can swim” Henry said from whatever la-la-land state he was in. 

“That’s nice dear, NOW ONE OF YOU FIX HIM OR I’LL KILL ALL YOU STARTING WITH THE WEAK ONES!”

On the other side of the yard, the men stared at the Hymek, which was bellowing and screaming at a staffing agency billboard on the side of the tracks while Henry belched yellow smoke over the both of them. 

-------

Wellsworth

The rails had turned to jelly some time ago. The crossties had begun speaking in the language of the beast. The sky was a deep blood-gray, and the clouds wept for their lost raindrops. The engine watched as his smoke curled away into letters of an unknown alphabet. He was concerned as to how the menaces had managed this, but he wasn’t going to let them win by acknowledging that anything was wrong. 

If he concentrated hard enough, he could just make out the signal aspects behind a curtain of iridescent sounds. That was a little bit too dangerous in his opinion, and he resolved to inform the twins that their pranks should not involve signals. 

Across the yard, Bill, Ben, and BoCo watched in horror as Edward puffed out of the yard. His pupils were two different sizes, his tongue lolled out of his mouth, he was mumbling and chittering in an indescribable fashion, and his smoke was thick and turning a worrying shade of yellow. 

But he was still pulling his train as though nothing was wrong. 

-------

Farquhar

The apocalyptic wasteland spread out on all sides. The sun burned and burned until the land was scorched to a godforsaken ash. The river Els was filled with blood. Roving gangs of madmen patrolled the ruins - their war machines littered with the bones of their victims.

Mad Tobias the Brown, last of the North Shed, protector of the Anopha Stone, keeper of the soul of Saint Pedroc, guardian of the survivors, rattled through the wastes with his precious cargo of human lives.

A cry rose up from his faithful warrior bride Henrietta as she sighted a roving gang approach from the south. Their war wagon was the converted husk of an old railcar that he once called a friend, but that was long ago. Now she was merely a convenient vessel for the beasts.

The war music sounded in the distance, and he set off - a confrontation was inadvisable with his charges aboard. His smoke scudded off to one side in the stiff wind as he charged - he would have to pass them at the old loop if he wished to be avoid being trapped in the Stone Mountain, and speed was key to avoid their wicked bone hand-and-a-halves.

As he approached, he bellowed a warning cry to intimate his foe. The corpse of the railcar stared back at him in a rictus grin, but its crew recoiled - as one should when facing off against him.

-

Daisy and her crew watched in amazement as Toby and Henrietta, wreathed in sickly yellow smoke, roared towards them with the midday workmen's train. They screamed through the passing loop and disappeared into the distance, incomprehensible epithets trailing in their wake.

-

Inside his cab, Toby's driver had long since given up trying to stop his engine, and was now trying to reign him in so that he didn’t come off the tracks before the fireman could finish dumping the fire.

-

Inside Henrietta, the guard pulled back on the handbrake so hard that the lever came off in his hand. It didn't work.

Terrified workmen bashed at the radio with their lunch pails, trying to make the Norwegian Death Metal stop playing, but it was no use. The radio kept bellowing out tunes even after its faceplate was smashed in, and began to get even louder.

-

Toby was eventually brought to a stop near the Kyndley family's home, but Mad Tobias the Brown didn't stop yelling until the last of the coal ash was cleared from his smoke box three hours later.

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

It took most of the day for the bismuth to work itself out of everyone's systems. Nobody at the railroad was quite sure what was wrong, but considering the dull yellow smoke, it was easy to guess that the coal was bad.

The broker was summoned to the island, and when he admitted that the coal was from a random colliery in Poland instead of the high quality American anthracite that the railroad had paid for, he was quickly sent packing - along with the coal!

A new coal merchant was found, and an emergency supply was bought locally to cover the gap, bringing the saga to an end.

Nobody likes to talk about it - except Daisy, who has no trouble mentioning the tale of Mad Tobias the Brown whenever she wants to bring Toby down a peg!

[i-did-not-mean-to]

Hike-Story

So...I’ve been on a hike today with friends and I’ve been told a lovely local legend of my country and region. I’ve decided to put it into a short story with Thorin.

It’s a sort of prequel to all the amazing stories some authors write about Thorin and OCs while already under the Mountain... Please feel free to reblog and further the local saga of Oberschlinden 😊

So...here goes...

Black

Prologue

In a valley hidden within a dark forest, there were once two villages, very different from one another and yet doomed to suffer the same fate.

The first village was prosperous and industrious and its inhabitants knew much success in their bountiful endeavours, whereas the second village was merry and joyous, filled with music and celebrations all year round.

One day, a weary gleeman came this way and asked to be lodged and fed in exchange for a tune, but the upstanding villagers turned him away for they were much afeared that he had come to rob them of their wealth and goods. “We have no need for your futile, frivolous shenanigans.” They claimed and forbade him to set foot into their town.

Understanding what they were really afraid of, the man replied: “So be it, I should not have taken a single coin that had not been given to me freely. For your callous ignominy, I shall leave you something instead.” 

And with these words, he turned around and headed to the other village across the valley.

Here, he was welcomed with open arms. He was fed and housed and after having regained his strength, he went on his merry way again to entertain and amuse other villages. The villagers were much aggrieved about his departure as they had greatly enjoyed his contribution to their daily merriment. They let him leave with their best wishes, nonetheless, for they were an indolent people, unable and unwilling to defend their interests with any kind of forcefulness.

A shadow fell over the valley. A dark sickness befell the first village and rapidly spread across the valley to the other one that had taken no precautions to keep the grim reaper out. Too busy had they been celebrating life and the sinking sun to pay any heed to the pestilence creeping their way.

This is how the first village learned that one who is too afraid to lose what he cannot keep, might well be given what he cannot get rid of, and the second village understood that evil spread faster than fell the night and crept, insidious, into every crack if not actively opposed. Like moss covering the immobile stone, the plague washed over the villages and left none but two women standing.

One of those women would rail and wail all day long, lamenting the loss of her glorious life and of her dear family, until madness took her and she returned to her empty house to wait for death to be her last visitor.

The other one, however, took it upon herself to do penance for the sins of her valley and all its ghostly inhabitants that were heard in the moaning of the wind and the gurgling of the brook.

This is her story. 

The sun was low in the sky already when she was startled by the sound of footsteps behind her, making her look up in amazement.

“Good day, good woman, I am a blacksmith and I am looking for the prosperous village hidden in this valley. I am on my way back to my people and I am willing to work in exchange for food and lodging. May you point out the way to me, please?” A gruff voice resounded and a man stepped out of the shadow of the dense foliage.

He was short and stout, unlike any other man she had ever seen in her life, and she was so surprised by his appearance that it took a moment for her to react to his words.

“Good day, Master Dwarf,” she replied courteously, for she now saw that this was what he was, “I am sorry to confess that this village no longer exists. Neither does its sister. I am the last living soul in these parts.” 

He looked much alarmed at her words. 

“Moreover, there is a sickness lying over the valley. It is not advisable to traverse it.” She went on, getting up from her kneeling position at the foot of the little chapel. “Master Dwarf, I live at the other side of this cursed valley, it is a two-hour walk and the light is failing. I offer you my guidance around the affected area and my hospitality.” She spoke, bowing her head deferentially.

The dwarf seemed to ponder her words for a moment, then nodded. 

“Step where I step; the path is treacherous and night shall be upon us soon.” She warned and set out.

Every day, she made her way along the rocky outcrops and the stony ledges, through the dense foliage of the underbrush and the silent desert of trees, to circle the whole valley and pray for hours at the foot of the small chapel for the souls of those who had fallen prey to sickness, stubbornness and wicked ignorance. 

Along the way, she collected herbs and mushrooms to sustain herself and produce ointments and potions she sold once a month in the next village, just beyond the valley. 

She led a lonely life, but she was unerring in her penance. Those two villages that had been mother and father to her for most of her adult life had done wrong and had been smitten for it by the hand of God. There was nobody left to ask for forgiveness, but her. 

“Dwarves have steady steps and exceptional eyesight, even in the darkness. Worry not for me.” The man, for she could not call him anything else than that, answered. 

He was well-grown, like an oak, strong and sturdy; he seemed tired though and she vowed that she would not commit the same mistake her forefathers and elders had made; she would be a gracious host. Indeed, she would salve the burns on his bare arms and give him the best parts of whatever she would find in her traps along her daily trek. 

“Have you no kin, woman?” He asked after they had mounted a steep rocky ledge leading them through dense undergrowth from which she would extract berries and healing herbs to stow away in the satchels she carried on her back.

“I have no kin, Master Dwarf.” She shrugged, extending her hand to him when they came to a brook. The stones were slippery and wont to shift beneath the unfamiliar foot.

He just chuckled, a sound reminiscent of the big rockslide that had occurred a few months ago, and leapt easily enough across the narrow expanse of wet pebbles. 

For a creature looking this heavy, he was surprisingly agile, she thought. She knew nothing about dwarves of course. In her nan’s tales, there had been mentions of those mysterious man-like beings who lived under mountains and in golden halls, but she had imagined them smaller and less…beautiful than what she saw in front of her. 

As a matter of fact, she could not remember ever having seen a man quite as enchanting as the one following her swift steps effortlessly. There were beads in his hair that shimmered in the dying light and his eyes were the colour of the great river rushing through the valley; indeed, he was the closest she had ever come to a genuine fairy tale. 

“What happened here?” He inquired, as they reached the highest ledge and looked down on the villages, already plunged in deep shadows and obviously deserted.

“A plague broke out and took every living soul. It is said that it was the refusal of hospitality by this village,” she pointed to one cluster of houses, “and the lack of zeal or backbone of that one,” she pointed to the opposite side of the valley, “that led to their doom.” 

She had been there, she had seen the people who had been her friends and family die a miserable, painful death and she had waited for the blight to fall upon her as well. It had never come and now, she was the watcher of the dead valley; in a world of ghosts, there was none who felt less alive than her, walking along the deserted ruins of her existence day after day. 

“Thank you for warning me.” He had a good voice, she thought, low and kind. It was a miracle to stumble upon another living being, but his voice and the empathy in his eyes felt like a caress upon her bruised soul. 

“It is my duty, Master Dwarf. I shall stand in harm’s way as long as I can.” 

“My name is Thorin.” He declared in an almost questioning voice. He had been reticent to divulge his name, she realised and turned around to bow deeply. 

“Come along, Master Thorin. The light is fading fast now.” She urged him on, almost running along the rocky paths, her feet sending up sprays of pebbles in her wake.

They walked on tirelessly for a long time, until they reached a fallen tree stump that had not been there when she had come this way earlier in the day.

Clambering over the dead wood swiftly, Thorin extended his arms, in turn, to her. She stepped closer and uttered a small cry of astonishment when he simply lifted her over the obstacle as if she weighed nothing at all. “Thank you, Master Thorin.” She bowed again.

He smelled like the pines that grew beyond the valley, she noticed, and like life. Everything about him was painfully alive: the vivid intelligence of his eyes, the small smirk he gave her on account of her breathless incredulity, and the warmth of his hands on her ribs that left a palpable impression.

As she walked on, nearing the point where the path would dip drastically and the danger doubled, she came to accept that she would cherish this encounter until the end of her days.

Maybe God had heard her prayers and granted her the small solace of seeing another soul, of speaking to someone who actually answered and of feeling living flesh upon her own once more. 

She extricated a small rabbit from the trap she had laid on the highest crest and pushed it down into her satchel as well, gesturing to the silent valley with a sense of pride.

“This is home. And there’s my hut.” She pointed to a small wooden house at the far end of the valley, nestled between two tiny hills and reflecting the last rays of sun. 

The light was growing dimmer now and the way down was treacherous even in broad daylight. “Permit me, Mistress.” He gave her a mocking smile and took her hand. 

It felt huge and calloused, but its roughness comforted her. She had lived in this rocky wilderness for years now and the feeling of warm stones would always be synonymous with home to her. 

To her shame and despair, she tottered several times on their way down and when Thorin slung his arm around her waist and steadied her, she did not object.

Finally, they reached the little plateau she called her own. 

“Give me your boots.” She asked and when he did, she set them aside to be cleaned afterwards. 

Stoking the fire, she started taking the small rabbit apart and tossing the various leaves and mushrooms she had collected into the pot filled with fresh water. She would deplete her stocks for him; she would not be a bad host like the first villagers. Also, she would mend his socks, tend to his injuries and clean his boots; she would not be a slovenly scallywag like the second villagers either.

“Make yourself at home.” She invited him, giving him the best chair and a blanket she had woven herself in her youth. 

“Are you really all alone?” He asked her, as she sat on the floor, grinding herbs into a paste with devoted focus. “Yes, Master Dwarf.” She smiled, taking his hand and spreading the ointment gingerly on the burns dotting his strong forearms. 

“Do you like being alone?” He pressed on, wincing as the wet unguent made his wounds smart.

“It is my punishment and my expiation.” She replied while stirring the stew she was preparing. 

His eyes settled heavily on her face and she could read sympathy and sadness in those dark, blue lakes shot through with silver. He looked rather like a gem hewn from precious stone himself, she had to admit, feeling drawn to the solidity of his frame and the living warmth of his gaze. 

“Eat, Master Thorin.” She handed him a deep bowl, containing most of the mushrooms and all of the meat she had managed to scrape off the scrawny rabbit.

“What about you?” He asked, suspicious, when she filled a goblet with the fragrant broth. 

“Eat.” She encouraged him again. He had obviously known a long and tiresome road and she wanted him to feel safe and cared for; she was thankful for the chance to do right by him. 

It was a small redemption of her blood to be a good host after the opposite reaction had plunged her people into extinction. 

He looked relaxed now, sitting by the fire, listening to her hum to herself while she cleaned his boots and mended his clothing. “Your gifts are wasted on the dead.” He suddenly said.

“Beg your pardon?” She looked up from polishing his boots, a questioning expression in her eyes. 

“You have been a good host to me, you’re a steady cook and a knowledgeable reader of nature. Come with me.” 

She blinked. She knew not what he was talking about.

“I am, as I said, on my way to rejoin my kin. Come with me, there is nothing here for you but desolation and loneliness. There are people yet alive beyond this valley and they could greatly benefit from your knowledge…and your sweet nature. Come with me! Be my travel companion!” He reiterated when she didn’t reply. 

“I cannot…I am here to…” - “You are here to wait for the next weary traveller and right the wrong inflicted by and upon your people. Consider it done, Mahal has heard you child, I am Thorin, and I shall be King under the Mountain one day. I might be here to deliver you and take you away from this place.” He interrupted her harshly. 

A king, she thought, a future king. What prevented him from being king now?

“It is a hard life amongst my people; there will be deprivation and long, cold nights.” He warned her, but she simply motioned to the small hut they sat in while the wind howled with furious intensity outside. 

“But…it is a life. I offer you a life, not an easy one, not a pretty one necessarily, but a life. Be the watcher of the living, be the minder of the sick, be the guide of the hale-bodied; leave behind your dead and let them find their peace. Come with me!” 

She thought about it for a moment, then nodded. He was right; he might have been the sign she had been waiting for all these years. 

Epilogue:

The last survivor of the great plague that had ravaged the valley and left it inhabited forevermore was never seen again. People say, she just vanished at some point. Some hold the belief that she has been carried away by fairies and others claim that on windy nights, one could see her walk along the stony ledges on her eternal way to the abandoned chapel. 

We shall never know for sure what really happened to that sole survivor, but her name disappeared from the ledgers, never to be mentioned again in the books of men. 

[rockhopsblog]

Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN-- A New Hip Hop Legend

Whether tall tale, truth, or somewhere in between, 13 time Grammy Award winning rapper/songwriter Kendrick Lamar Duckworth’s rise to immortality is nothing short of a cosmic wonder. To go back to the beginning, let’s first take a look at his most recent solo project, 2017’s Album of the Year nominee and Best Rap Album winner “Damn”. The very last track of the album, “Duckworth”, tells of a saga that took place during the rapper’s infancy. The mythic-like storytelling follows the journey of his father, mother, and what would one day become the owner of the record label that propelled Kendrick into stardom. Kendrick’s father, “Ducky” supposedly worked at a chicken fast food restaurant, which “Top Dawg” Anthony Tiffith, proprietor of Top Dawg Entertainment, frequented. Tiffith was a notorious gangster on the block who aspired to be the first one from his neighborhood to reach the life of luxury. Tiffith went on to plan and subsequently rob the chicken place Ducky worked at, but spared his life because he had always given him an extra biscuit with his meals. Because of this decision, Kendrick grew up with his father around, helping to keep him out of the L.A. gang wars and keeping Tiffith out of prison so he could go on to found a record label. Things obviously could have gone very differently, but they didn’t. As Kendrick himself puts it: “Whoever thought the greatest rapper would be from coincidence? Because if Anthony killed Ducky, Top Dawg could be serving life, While I grew up without a father and die in a gunfight”.

Growing up in Compton, CA and making it out to be a success is no small feat. Throughout the years, one of Kendrick’s closest collaborators has been a rapper/blood gang member, Jay Rock, who too came from the neighborhood that Kendrick grew up in. Also a close friend of theirs- Schoolboy Q, a crip. Kendrick Lamar has been on the forefront of using his voice to unify people involved in gang violence and deterring those who may later fall into it. In 2015, Kendrick designed and released his signature shoe with Nike, aimed at the unification of people divided by the lifestyle that many of his friends and family became victims of during the tribulations of his youth. In 2007, a friend of Lamar’s called “DT” was gunned down by police for reportedly posing a threat, an event which seemed to Kendrick was all too common in his life. The silver lining, however, seems to be that there’s no shortage of the tales in Kendrick Lamar’s rap repertoire to depict the dangers and deeper meanings about the reality of gang activity, giving those steeped in that side of life hope for betterment and success. 

In the early stages of Kendrick’s career, he was selected to be in one of the first XXL freshmen, an annual group of rappers recognized by the hip hop publication as up and coming artists. XXL’s freshman freestyles were new at the time, and Kendrick Lamar’s verse in the cypher was prominently featured online and the cypher itself is often looked back on as a classic among those available on YouTube. Those who initially viewed the freestyle session may have come looking for other, better known rappers, only to find themselves stumbling upon the discovery of a young Kendrick Lamar. Around this same time, he released his first official single, “HiiiPoWeR”, which was produced by the now prolific J. Cole. These two, in their own rights, have become widely regarded as today’s best hip hop lyricists for their hard hitting and meaningful bars. Rubbing elbows too with Kendrick was the now superstar pop sensation and rapper, Drake. Drake, a Toronto rapper, has helped launch several careers through featuring on their music because of his viral popularity. When Drake and Kendrick collaborated on Kendrick Lamar’s “Good Kid M.A.A.D. City”, Drake’s career was still in its early stages, but their song together certainly helped garner a mainstream appeal for the release at the time. All in all, it is clear to anyone doing some digging that not only did Kendrick work hard at refining his craft to become prolific, but that he was also met with great fortune in making the correct moves early on in his career to find the notoriety that he now enjoys. 

Fueled by artists such as Tupac Shakur, Ice Cube, Kurupt and Eminem, Lamar has carried the torch forward from the 90s into the modern age of rap. During the famed “California Love” music video shoot featuring Dr. Dre and Tupac, Kendrick has claimed a small piece of hip hop legend by saying he was present in Compton, on the scene for the shoot. As a child, seeing such an idol and icon propelled his drive to follow in the footsteps of the greats of yesterday. In 2015, Kendrick sat down for an interview with the group N.W.A. who’ve had such classics as “Straight Outta Compton” and “Express Yourself”. In the conversation, Lamar said: “anything that I do, it always comes from what y’all done, I wanna get y’all take on my generation today and what we have as far as music”. In response, DJ Ren retorted “I like a few, I like you”. The metaphorical hand-off is evident, from O.G. approval to the strong impact in waves that Lamar has been able to produce from just four major label solo albums. From Anderson .Paak to Roddy Ricch, Kendrick has set out and proved more than he’d ever dreamed of.

Currently, Lamar has two triple platinum records as well as one platinum record which was maybe the most adventurous and critically acclaimed album, not only of his career, but of that decade. Rolling Stone magazine journalist Greg Tate called “To Pimp a Butterfly” a “masterpiece of fiery outrage, deep jazz and ruthless self-critique”.With songs like “The Blacker the Berry” and “Hood Politics”, the fabric of TPAB was woven to reflect the attitudes of a movement of racial justice and equality in a time of great struggle and oppression. Aside from exposing the brutalities of life as a black man in the United States, Lamar also presented the album as a platform to uplift and celebrate the accomplishments and great artistic devotions of black people from around the world. Many consider this album to be Kendrick Lamar’s magnum opus. He has shown that his work has staying power, and that his albums stand out among the formulaic pop-trap that reigns supreme on the radio. Perhaps TPAB has gone the farthest out of any other thing to help cement him as the king of hip hop and the greatest rapper of the generation. 

With a back catalogue so insanely successful you’d expect Mr. Kendrick Lamar to be universally beloved, right? Well, not so fast. No inspection of Lamar’s career would be complete without the mention of his ground-breaking verse on the song “Control” by Big Sean. Kendrick decided to seize the moment coming off of his first platinum album by going after 11 of the biggest names in rap at the time, including: J. Cole, Meek Mill, Drake, Big KRIT, Wale, Pusha T, ASAP Rocky, Tyler The Creator, and Mac Miller. Many interpreted his lyrics in which he called out these artists to be a diss, but we now know that it was, in fact, Lamar’s intent to light a flame under these artists to create higher art. The people named on the verse were people Kendrick truly believed had the potential to create truly classic works, and his bar “I got love for you all but I'm tryin' to murder you” was aimed at them because of the intention to hype them up to work harder and realize that they weren’t inherently owed the popularity bestowed to them. The so-called “Control verse” made such a splash that even rappers who weren’t even named in the song made counter-disses to the single verse in the form of an entire song. Most notable out of these songs were Joe Budden’s “Lost Control”, Joey B4Da$$’s “Killuminati Pt. 2”, and Lupe Fiasco’s “SLR 2”. Despite the negativity spawned from this verse aimed to do good in the hip hop community, Kendrick Lamar’s twitter saw a 510% increase in followers just days after the dropping of the single. If there even was any “beef” to be had regarding this song, it is clear who the real winner was.

From the president of the United States claiming his favorite song was a Kendrick Lamar song at one point, to winning a Pulitzer Prize for 2017’s “DAMN”, the mile-high accolades of Kendrick seem almost too good to be true. However, of all accomplishments, perhaps his greatest is his influence on music. Not only has he single handedly put on several label-mates to the mainstream, but he has risen the bar of what it means to write a good rap song in this day and age. Not content with people who churn out 30 song albums as a money grab, Kendrick has shown that effort is important, that careful construction of art is important. Lamar has also been credited as reviving the importance of the hip-hop music video. It is clear during a listening session on Spotify or YouTube that so many troves of artists, young and old, are attempting to emanate the same X factor that Kendrick Lamar Duckworth has been so highly praised for, and rightfully so.

[b-raypokemontime]

"Don't let him fool you Karen. He's not fine. He looks like he's about to throw up or pass out or both and it doesn't feel like just the reaction to what we did last night..." Balia explained to her Gardevior friend as Morgan's started gathering up the lovebirds' discarded clothes. Not realizing she missed a certain item of Michael's. The aqua haired woman held Michael's hand firmly, trying to help keep him from pitching over if that's what ended up happening. And taking Karen's hand. Morgan's thought eating what was left of the food was a good idea. No need to let it all go to waste.

Balia thanked Karen, and as soon as they appeared in the Ray Family living room she moved to help Karen.

"I think he needs to sit or lay down something awful Karen. Polar bear what about the warmth?..... Do you want to go up to your room or sit here on the couch?" She reached up to touch his forehead. They both needed more rest but it was him she was worried about. Was he running a fever?

Rise and Shine

[b-raypokemontime]

@bloodxbrothers

[Text]: Hey Baxter? Could you come check out the security system you installed? I think Sparks might have fried something in it..

[Text]:But I've got a meeting with my Manager and I gotta meet a guy about a piano. I'll leave My Delphox Morgana with the keys.

[diet-coke-sims]

Hello! I’m Alex! IDC what pronouns but I am used to she/her! I have had this account for a while and I want to start posting! Not that anyone will care. I have been playing The Sims for a few years now :) I mostly play TS4 (I know how to recolor and am self-learning mesh editing/merging) but TS3 is my favorite. I am planning to post some berry stuff in a while, I just have to organize everything and put in some new parts in my computer.

You may want to know that while English is the only language I speak, I am absoluty horrible at it. I will probably misspell/misuse words a lot. I am sorry. Also, if you want anything recolored for TS4, feel free to ask! I have the noodles sorbet actions but if you want to send me others and request those/any specific colors I can attempt it for you! Also sorry this is so long, I got carried away and wanted to put stuff I always like reading about you guys! My anxiety is also a HUGE problem. If you would like to talk to me, messaging is the best bet!

Me & TS4 (Mostly MM~90%)

Favorite/Least Favorite: Skills

Favorites are Flower Arranging/Gardening!

Least Liked is Baking! 

Favorite/Least Favorite: Careers

Favorite is... I guess... Secret Agent? None really.

Least Liked is Conservationist. It’s just boring for me.

Favorite/Least Favorite: Expansion Packs

Favorites are Seasons/Get To Work!

Least Liked is Island Living. It’s lacking in gameplay imo.

Favorite/Least Favorite: Game Packs

Favorite is Vampires! I remember the day the trailer came out!

Least Liked is none! I love and always use all of them!

Favorite/Least Favorite: Stuff Packs

Favorites are Fitness/Bowling/Laundry Day/Romantic Garden/Spooky/Vintage Glamour! 

Least Liked out of the ones I have is Movie Hangout! Least Liked out of them all, is the cash grab First Pet Stuff

My TS4 Traits:

Paranoid - Paranoid Sims feel that danger is around every corner, and that people are always talking about them. Paranoid Sims feel a sense of security while hanging out in basements.

Erratic -  These Sims can Talk to themselves and have unpredictable Emotions.

Clumsy - These Sims tend to fail more often at physical activities and tend to laugh at failure instead of becoming upset.

ME & TS3 

Favorite/Least Favorite: Skills

Favorite is Gardening!

Least Liked is none of them! I like them all!

Favorite/Least Favorite: Careers

Favorite is Daycare! 

Least Liked is Singer.

Favorite/Least Favorite: Expansion Packs

Favorites are Generations/Into The Future/Supernatural/University Life/Ambitions!

Least Liked is Showtime. SO BORING.

Favorite/Least Favorite: Stuff Packs

Favorites are High-End Loft Stuff/Master Suite.

Least Liked is the only one I don’t own: Katy Perry Sweet Treats.

Favorite/Least Favorite: Store Worlds 

Favorites are Dragon Valley/Aurora Skies/Midnight Hollow.

Least Liked is Barnacle Bay.

My TS3 Traits:

Neurotic -  Neurotic Sims will freak out at the most minor of provocations. They can become stressed easily and can be difficult to mellow. Luckily they take solace in sharing their worries with others.

Socially Awkward - Socially Awkward Sims try to fit in, but sometimes say the wrong thing at the wrong time. It's not easy being Socially Awkward, but it sure is awkward!

Brooding -  Brooding Sims often can't help themselves from contemplating the riddles, mystery, and meaning of life. Sometimes the weight of these incredibly deep thoughts can become a distraction, and can actually slow down the creative process slightly.

Coward -  Cowards are terrified of everything that can and will go bump in the night. They are scared of the dark and will frequently faint in 'dire' situations.

Absent-minded - Absent-Minded Sims get lost in their thoughts and occasionally forget what they are doing, or where they are going.

My TS3 Favorites: 

Music: Dark Wave, DigiTunes, Electronica, Rock (I know, as a Sim, you can only have one but I love them all too much lol)

Color: Black. If your one of those people that is stubborn that it is a shade, then my second favorite is purple.

Food: I don’t like food as a part of my ED I have, but Sushi is the closet thing.

This or This? 

(based off of TS3 + TS4 traits)

Unflirty or Flirty/Romantic? I come off as flirty, but it isn’t my intention.

Computer Whiz or Technophobe? Whiz, for sure. 

Evil or Good? Good! I do my best everyday to be the best me I can! Unlike sims, I don’t hate other people for having the guts to be evil.

Loves The Outdoors or Hates The Outdoors? I hate it so much.

Cat Lover or Dog Lover or Equestrian? Cat Lover! I have a kitten, soon to be full cat!

Loner or Outgoing? I am a loner, but I do go out of my way to try to make everyone feel included, or at least I try!

Supernatural Fan or Skeptic? Fan!!! LET ME BE A VAMPIRE/WITCH HYBRID IN REAL LIFE PLEASE!

Athletic or Clumsy? Clumsy, and I hate it.

Hydrophobic or Loves To Swim? I love swimming so much! Been doing it my whole life! I can’t do a single stroke though.

Active or Lazy? *chuckles* Lazy

Other Games I’ve Played: (that I can think of)

Both Watch Dogs <333

3 of the Assassin’s Creeds (Origins is the best one :P )

Ex-Overwatch player (played from when it came out to the second halloween event)

Planet Zoo (Timber Wolves are the best)

Minecraft ?Vet? (IDK if I count as veteran or not...)

Tropico 6

Two Point Hospital

DDLC (Natsuki is my girl)

LEGO Star Wars The Complete Saga

Terraria

FFXIV (Used to play- was an Astro Main)

LIS + LIS:BTS

Rimworld

Death Road to Canada 

Town of Salem

Stellaris

So... if you somehow have made it this far... I’m sorry. If you wanna talk about anything I’ve mentioned or anything else, please message me if you feel like!

[spaceorphan18]

Marvel Movie Night: X-Men The Last Stand

So - when this came out, I worked at a theater.  We got to see an early screening of it.  When we walked my mom turned to me and said -- that wasn’t good, right? I had to agree.  

So.  Here we are.  I feel like I have a very complicated relationship with this film, because I know a crap ton about X-Men and knowing more means this film feels like even more of a mess than maybe a general audience would know.  It’s hard to really comment on whether or not this is a good film.   It’s definitely far more watchable than the Fantastic Four, or the other Marvel related films coming out at the time that weren’t Spider-Man.  However, it doesn’t hold together too well overall.  

The biggest issue this film has is that it’s trying to shove too many story lines with too many mutants into one film, and it kind of fails at everything that it’s trying to do.  

But first - a comment on production.  It was kind of a mess (though, I’m super fascinated that there was an original draft of this that Emma Frost played by Sigourney Weaver.  Damn, I’m sad we didn’t get that).  Directors switched, writers switched, actors were no longer under contract -- and I mean, most productions have things change, but all of this resulted in this film getting pulled in fifteen different directions, and I do thing that did have an effect on the final result.  

So - let’s talk about what this film is trying to do.  

The Dark Phoenix saga.  One of the most iconic X-Men stories ever told, and it is for a reason.  Having just reread it last month, it’s egregious to me how much this movie misses the point.  Look - I’m fine, in general, when other media changes original stories for adaptations.  Film is not comics, but I do think you need to understand the essence of the story in order to do it well in an adaptation.  And The Last Stand just doesn’t understand the Phoenix story.  

See - in the comics, it’s a lot about manipulation, control, and power - and how Jean Grey is being manipulated, but breaks out of it with her extreme power.  (There’s also a ton about crazy space forces, but I understand why they didn’t go there, it’s... uber complicated.)  But, the point is that this ends up being an internal story -- how Jean deals with the power once she’s broken free from the manipulation, how how her relationships with various X-Men help her cope with split identity.  At the end -- with her friends behind her, she decides to end her own life, and her sacrifice is make sure she doesn’t destroy the universe.  And it’s very beautifully told.  

There are three things (major) things I have issue with in this film -- 1. With the exception of Cyclops, in a limited role, and slightly Xavier, Jean’s relationships with other people are just not explored enough to have an emotional impact; 2. At no point is Jean ever back in control of her own agency.  Xavier manipulates her, then Magneto, then she just stands around for a long time until Wolverine finally kills her.  It cheapens everything about Jean Grey and agency the original story has, and I hate it.  3. The story in the movie seems to service the goddamn Logan/Jean Grey love story that I hate in the comics, and I hate it more here - but I’ll spare you the diatribe.  

The other thing, though... The animated series got this right -- but it could because it had time to.  See, the comics drew this whole story out for years, and it’s emotional pay off works better over a long period of time, which a two hour movie just doesn’t have.  And it’s especially hurt when it’s truncated due to a whole other plot in the film.  Which leads me to... 

The Cure - the second plot of the film.  Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men at the time was a big hit, so they decided to use this story.  It’s not a bad story -- it has to do with the big political element that the X-Men always are dealing with, and that’s fine.  But, because it can’t be the full focus, it too feels overstuffed.  (Really the film wants to be this plot, and should have never done Dark Phoenix in the first place.)

Unfortunately, because they need to shoehorn in Magneto, the brotherhood, the Morlocks, and every other mutant in the X-Universe (except Gambit for some reason) - this turns into a mess, where Magneto is his Silver Age, scenery chewing self, and a whole lot of people punch each other because that’s what these third acts usually devolve into.  The Cure story line is and can be a much smaller story, too, and maybe works better as such, but this is a major blockbuster - which I’m sure studio mandates a certain amount of CGI nonsense.  Ah well.  

Other Thoughts (dear god, get ready for all the thoughts!): 

The Danger Room scene at the beginning of the film is a goddamn delight -- that is how you use the X-Men working as a team, and that’s how you use Wolverine in a good capacity. 

One thing I’ll credit this film - it does better with its action sequences, and specifically letting the X-Men actually work as a team.  

I can’t help but feel, though, that I wish more of the classic X-Men teams had been together for their last stand.  Something about Wolverine’s little pep talk felt hollow - maybe because these characters we’ve barely met and/or interacted with and the emotional resonance isn’t there. 

FWIW - the special effects in this film are such an upgrade than all the crud had has come before it -- especially Fantastic Four, which was only a year or so earlier.  

Hugh Jackman has finally really settled in his role as Wolverine, he’s great, yadda, yadda

Famke Janssen continues to be an excellent Jean Grey, and I’m sorry her story line stunk so badly.  The scene with her and Wolverine, where she goes through the gamut of emotions, is really quite wonderful.  It’s a shame she spends half the movie just standing (or sitting) there.  

I understand that James Marsden kind of tapped out of the franchise to go do Superman, but I’m so sad that they really didn’t do Cyclops well in any of these films.  He’s such a great character, and you wouldn’t know it at all by these films. 

The Beast! Who’d have thought that Kelsey Grammer would have been a good choice for Beast -- but it works.  

I think Halle Berry asked for more to do as Storm.  Well -- she has more to do, but she still doesn’t feel like Storm.  I want an X-Men film where she Ororo Monrue is given the proper chance to shine. 

Oh - I should mention Storm vs Callisto is a thing here, as an easter egg to long time fans, but it’s not satisfying to me as a long time fan because, like, most everything in this film, they kind of fucked it up.  

Meanwhile... oh Rogue, maybe we shouldn’t get me started on how my favorite X-Man is the utter worst in this film.  Not only is she barely in this film but... this is such a complicated issue for this character -- to be given five minutes of screen time is just the utter worst.  And no, Rogue would never do that.  No, no, no.  

Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde is amazing, and she should have had her own movie.  I find it hilarious, though, that she and Iceman kinda flirt with each other here -- since Iceman is canonically gay, and Kitty is subtextually bi.  It’s just... funny.  

Iceman - in his ice form.  Yes, more of this. 

Angel is here! He literally does nothing, but he doesn’t do much in the comics either, so it kinda hilariously works.  I like the actor, too, he’s a great match.  

The dude playing Colossus is a delight - again, more screen time needed! I kinda love that he’s just carrying around a TV to show his strength. 

Lord help me - the Juggernaut is the worst.  I hated that meme.  I hate that he looks like a literal dick head.  I hate that he’s portrayed as a mutant when he’s not, etc, etc.  

There’s so much more to comment on, but I’ll spare you the time -- I mean there’s Moira MacTaggart, and the Morlocks - who are also the Omega Gang?, and Leech, and Eric Dane playing Multiple Man, and really... they brought in Stacey X (you guys ask me about Stacey X...), and apparently Psylocke is supposed to be in here somewhere, and sentinel camoes, and Trask, and Mystique...  But, this review is long enough. 

I do need to point out - the President is played by Josef Somer, who played Ducksworth in The Mighty Ducks, and I can only think of ‘quacking’ whenever I look at him. 

Final Thoughts: It’s probably more enjoyable for a non-fan than a hardcore X-Man fan.  It’s not as bad as people make it out to seem, but it’s not good either.  Overall, there’s a lot of potential that gets squandered and exploded.  Ah well.  

[leesbian42-rp]

:000 here's a quick summary of mine too :)

Eldi 'A23421' Light - my cyborg oc with a ✨tragic evil fucked up past✨. Once human, she was experimented on against her will and had her sentience removed from her, sent out by her Creator, James Stone, to get him new patients to experiment on similar to how he did to Eldi or other majorly fucked up shit. when she's around 13-15 she realises what's been going on and by the time she's 17 she's escaped and deep into hiding, working to reprogram and relearn everything

Bella Alvida Nightshade - the newest of the bunch, she's my WoMH metahuman oc with toxin powers, specifically *naturally found* toxins. Named after the Deadly Nightshade, or Atropa Belladonna. Wants to be a villain

Sara 'Saga Berry' Gustafsson: born in 1963 November 27th/28th, she's one of my youngest OCs on 11 years! She's specifically from a gravity falls dream I once had, which then turned into an au. Adopted by Stan Pines during his homeless days and actually spends the rest of her childhood living on the streets and travelling the world with Stan!

Elyha - full name Elyha Ivy Moon, she's my WoBA RPG atla oc, an airbender born in around 500AG, 17 yrs old and lives in the Republic City with her mums Mary and Rose, and their older sibling Reese. Elyha and Reese are both adopted by Mary and Rose and they often joke the family is the avatar but split up (Elyha air, Reese earth, Mary water and Rose fire). Elyha's bio parents was a moonblessed waterbender (like Yue) and an airbender, which is how she got her white hair.

Rira - another atla oc!! She got kidnapped as a very young child by Ozai and Azulon for her purple fire. She's around the same age as Lu Ten and is a very skilled firebender (Ozai and Azulon won't accept anything less, even from the child they kidnapped) and she, after realising the children were no danger, could be seen with Zuko, Azula and Lu Ten. She actually goes with Iroh to the siege of ba sing se! and after that, the sun warriors!

Hi you mind if I rp with you

not at all! I have a lot of OCs, so just lemme know which one you want to RP with!

[angelofberlin2000]

 By Jen Yamato      May 15, 2019  |  10:30 AM       

The stone-cold killer in a bespoke bulletproof suit is back — and if you thought John Wick was good with a pencil, you should see what he can do with a book of Russian folklore in the stacks of the New York Public Library.

The same goes for axes, guns, katanas, a lot of knives and even a few helpful horses as Keanu Reeves racks up the bad guy body count in “John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum.” The latest installment of Lionsgate’s R-rated franchise about an ex-hit man killing his way back to a clean slate picks up right where 2017’s “John Wick 2” left off and mostly follows a relentless breakneck pace until the credits roll.

It stumbles only when the action slows down to send the antihero on a clumsy side quest in search of character motivation instead of another fight. He is the Boogeyman, the underworld’s “Baba Yaga,” a man of few words; expository dialogue isn’t his strongest means of communication. That’s what fists are for.

That said, John Wick could use a moment to catch his breath. Technically the reluctantly un-retired assassin is still a grieving widower who only lost his wife, Helen, something like a few weeks ago in movie time, as seen in the New Jersey-to-Brooklyn rampage of 2014’s “John Wick.” That film, by comparison, was a downright contained moral fable about a guy with a cool car avenging his puppy.

But there’s no rest for the wicked, or for lucrative Hollywood franchises. Each “John Wick” movie has upped the ante, the destruction, and the texture of the secret society of killers who rule from the shadows with their sacrosanct laws of civility and engagement. So too has the sophistication of its action storytelling matured now that Wick has a deeper awareness of what he’s really fighting for.

To rewind: Pulled out of retirement by the Russian mobsters who stole his car and killed his dog, legendary hitman Wick unleashed hell on the underworld from whence he came in the first film.

His past continued to haunt him in the lore-expanding “John Wick 2” as he crossed the High Table — the governing guild of killuminati that enforce the rigid bylaws of contract killing — and spilled blood on the sacred grounds of the Continental, a five-star hotel for killers. He was deemed “ex-communicado” and off-limits to those who might help him.

As “Parabellum” opens moments later, he’s unleashed onto the streets of New York City, bloody and presumably very tired, with a $14-million bounty on his head and an hour’s head start. In this heightened world, all of Wick’s adversaries get a push notification alerting them of the news.

Wick smartly sends his new canine companion off to safety and very suddenly has to fend off wave upon wave of highly trained thugs. The nonstop flurry of beautifully crafted fight scenes that follows tests both the threshold of the human body to withstand stabby, slicing, bone-crunching violence and the threshold of the audience’s ability to watch said violence.

Then again, watching Reeves outfight everyone on the planet — always dressed to kill — is precisely why these films exist.

“Parabellum” unfurls some of the franchise’s most memorable and varied action to date, including a speeding motorcycle sword fight that owes a marker to recent Korean import “The Villainess,” a glass-smashing showdown against “The Raid” silat masters Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman and an opening face-off against Philadelphia 76ers center Boban Marjanović.

Another early highlight is an extended showdown in a Chinatown antiques store, during which Wick and the squad of elite killers bent on offing him run out of weapons — only to realize they’re fighting in a roomful of knives behind display cases.

Directed by stunt pro-turned-returning helmer Chad Stahelski with stunt choreography by Jonathan Eusebio and Scott Rogers, “Parabellum” bursts with the series’ usual sleek and squishy top-notch action, and the healthy dose of the winking humor that breaks Wick and his cronies out of the bounds of the genre.

The script by Derek Kolstad, Shay Hatten, Chris Collins and Marc Abrams expands the Wickverse in intriguing new directions with familiar faces and strong additions to the colorful ensemble of characters.

It’s fun to spend more time with both Ian McShane, as Winston, the proprietor of the Continental Hotel with a fondness for Wick, and Lance Reddick as Continental concierge Charon, who gets to do more than bemusedly survey the clientele this time around.

Reeves’ “Matrix” co-star Laurence Fishburne also returns as the pigeon-crazy Bowery King, while Saïd Taghmaoui is a new mysterious figure Wick meets on his international odyssey visiting different oddballs of the underworld.

Anjelica Huston joins in as the Director, the tough and exacting head of a Ruska Roma ballet company staffed with tattooed ballerinas and operatives-in-the-making, and whose retconned connection to Wick provides key passage to his future.

Make no mistake, this is John Wick’s universe. Even the killers on his tail are comically in awe of his celebrity status — most of all Zero, a sushi chef by day/shinobi by night played with scene-stealing zest by Mark Dacascos (“Only the Strong,” “Double Dragon”). Less impressed but no less obsessed is Asia Kate Dillon’s no-nonsense Adjudicator, a High Table auditor in Thierry Mugler doling out penance for those sympathetic to Wick.

A few of these characters, with their eccentricities and arch deliveries, could convincingly carry their own spinoffs. None deserve one more than Halle Berry’s Sofia, an ex-assassin with two loyal Belgian Malinois whose screen time more than sets up a stand-alone of her own.

The Oscar-winning actress stalks into the Wickverse hinting at a loaded backstory, and as the evenly matched pair team up for a thrilling midpoint action sequence, the film flirts with transcendence.

In the breathtaking centerpiece, Berry and Reeves move wordlessly in concert with her attack canines across a perilous Moroccan marketplace at night, felling their enemies in mesmeric synchronicity. Stahelski’s direction, judicious editing from Evan Schiff and cinematography by Dan Laustsen create an atmosphere ripe with danger and immediacy and let the meticulous fight choreography and balletic ballistics breathe in wide, long shots.

What’s physically writ onscreen amid the furious fists, flying bullets and wall-to-wall gun-fu enriches and advances both character and story. Sofia’s palpable connection to her two beloved dogs underscores the franchise’s founding principle — that even assassins who have closed off their humanity in order to do their job should always have a soft spot for the pups they love.

Even if its themes of loyalty vs. fealty and art vs. religion may not fully cohere, “Parabellum” mounts another argument — asking us to take action cinema as seriously as the Caravaggio paintings, Tarkovsky references and tattooed ballerinas with bleeding toes that adorn the margins of this operatic symphony of carnage.

Reeves and Stahelski have worked closely since the director was his stunt double on “The Matrix,” and their shorthand makes the star an instrument of kinetic movement and destruction, the paintbrush splattering CG squibs across the canvas.

Look past the aggressive rock bro riffs of Tyler Bates’ score and the “John Wick” movies speak a subtle dialect of fluent, artful action like few other franchises in Hollywood. “Parabellum” excels when it tees up the sublimely inventive and wince-inducing close quarters fights with the lethally graceful Reeves baring John Wick’s psyche and soul between reloads and headshots. How far the saga can continue to spin arias out of that tune remains to be seen.