#Destiny A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold

[windsweptinred]

May I ask about the Destiny artwork for the WIP game, please? I love your approach to him :D

Thank you @dream-of-the-bitchless 😊. And @notallsandmen as you also asked. ❤️ I appreciate any excuse to waffle on about Destiny. 😅

I'm going to go into this assuming you already know about my Children of Destiny headcanon. If not, forgive me, I shall return and explain.

So this was my original 'Destiny Calls his Children'. Drawn around a year or so back in pen and inks. Now my art has come on a bit and I'm trying my hand at digital, I really want to take another crack at it. As Destiny has remained one of my favorite Sandman characters. And I always end up getting sidetracked from doing more art/headcanons for him. (Bring forth the box of shame.)

This time I've replaced the horses with the figures of the Horsemen/people as depicted in Good Omens (War/Famine/Pollution) and Pestilence (Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold). And I'm going to be cramming a whole lot more detail in there. I'm always in my art element when I can do zodiac wheels and arcane symbolism. So Iove doing Destiny fanart.

I really want to revisit this headcanon at some point this year. Either seriously or as crack, as it's so fun to play with Destiny having his own chaotic little brood. And see how this next generation of Anthropomorphic Personifications would fit in with the extended family. 😅

[cryptocollectibles]

Destiny A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold 3 Issue Set (1997) by Vertigo / DC Comics

Written by Alisa Kwitney, drawn Kent Williams and Michael Zulli. Painted cover by Kent Williams.

[endlessthedestiny]

everytime destiny appeared on destiny: a chronicle of deaths foretold

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

thats all we have of our old man

Also I felt silly and spent 40 minutes (rip my 40 minutes) to create this collage wallpaper thing with (almost because I forgot one page) all of his panels. here

[tomoleary]

Kent Williams - Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold #2 page 43 (1997)

Source

[amageish]

People seemed to like my post chronicling the queer history of Felicia Hardy, so I'm going to do something similar to that... Let's chat about the queer history of Marvel's unwitting power couple, Ellie Phimister and her girlfriend Yuki Ohara.

Let's dive in!

Content Warning: This summary will include discussion of anti-mutant hate crimes and genocide, as that is part of Ellie's comic book story.

Like a lot of queer X-Men stories, this one begins with queercoding in the 80s.

While Jim Shooter famously prohibited any queer storytelling in Marvel Comics during his tenure as Editor-in-Chief of the company and, on top of that, the Comics Code Authority also banned it, Chris Claremont, the architect of the X-Men as we know them today, never really followed those rules - and neither did his editors, artists, and co-writers. There are so many queer-coded relationships throughout his runs on the X-Men and the modern X-Men stories are still playing catch-up to this day, canonizing the intentions of him and his collaborators one character at a time. Mystique and Destiny are probably his most famous pairing nowadays, as that is canon now, but he also wrote the Juggernaut as being with Black Tom Cassidy, Kate Pryde as being bisexual for most women she encounters in her life, and, the topic for today, Storm being in a romantic relationship with the Japanese assassin Yukio.

Yukio is, to put it mildly, a risk-taker. She runs through life with seemingly no self-preservation instincts whatsoever and, for some reason, always gets by nonetheless. She and Storm have a fling while Storm is in Japan (Uncanny X-Men 172-173) and this leads directly into Storm's famous punk era, which certainly does recontextualize some of the vibes of her having suddenly gotten a mohawk and a taste for leather.

Their later reunion in Uncanny X-Men 311-313 is extra funny to me - both because of the narration textually referring to them as "more then friends" and because of Yukio justifying her daredevil attitude by suggesting it would have been "politically incorrect" of the villain to have attacked them in public.

These two "kindred spirits" hang out for a bit, but Yukio is ultimately a Wolverine character and not a larger X-Men team member, so they naturally split off as time goes on. Their last appearance together was during the 2014 Death of Wolverine event - though their affair was mentioned by an angry Kitty during the Storm flashback mini earlier this year.

That said, Yukio is obviously a Sapphic and I guess when the team behind the movie Deadpool 2 decided to give their version of Negasonic Teenage Warhead a girlfriend, they looked at the list of queer-coded characters and decided she was the right one for them...

Now, as for Ellie...

Eloise Phimister AKA Negasonic Teenage Warhead debuted in Grant Morrison's New X-Men, but her name was not said on-panel until after she was already dead. She was one of Emma Frost's students, a gothic woman with telepathic powers that foretold the death of her and her classmates at Genosha... and yet she died nonetheless.

This is a very tragic character. She has a silly name, but that is part of the heartbreak of this moment. Ellie is a child who died as a result of a genocidal desire to kill all mutants. Her silly name emphasizes her youth... which makes it REALLY tonally dissonant when it played for comedy from here-on-out.

She was briefly brought back by the camp gay villain Selene when she revived horrific versions of many deceased mutants as part of X-Force... and then she was revived for real with a new design fter the release of the first Deadpool movie. She maintains her precognitive abilities and future-sight here, but otherwise... Well, she's now a comedy character in a Deadpool book. She also can warp reality now, partially as an explanation for why she looks/acts different then her first appearances.

She paled around with Deadpool for a bit, but didn't do anything explicitly queer in the comics until 2022 (good god) where she kissed an unnamed woman, causing Wolverine to wonder if she'll one day lead a X-Men team that is exclusively made up of her multiple girlfriends. This comment is also a subtle not to the implied status quo of the Krakoa era, where Wolverine himself has two partners - dating both Jean Grey and Scott Summers.

This is a funny moment, though I do wonder why it took so long for her to be queer in the comics - Marvel comic books are generally the most queer media Marvel puts out, so I do wonder if it was something specifically about her being a Deadpool character that caused people to hesitate to greenlight queer stories about her.

Finally, in 2023, Ellie got her first solo series in the form of an Infinity Comic.

This series uses the increasingly-popular approach of having "fate" be a stand-in for "the concept of being a loyal adaptation in a multimedia landscape," as she is fated to kiss a girl named Yuki Ohara or else the fabric of reality as we know it will be destroyed.

While Deadpool is only in it for a bit, it is a very meta narrative, with a lot of commentary on the way that female characters are written in comics in general and female reality-warpers specifically, with Ellie having a lot of anxiety about the risk of her becoming like Jean Grey or Scarlet Witch - not helped by the TVA chasing her down and declaring her a threat. However, in the end, she meets her girlfriend-to-be and pauses time itself to get know her properly before having their universe-saving kiss. Good for them!

Since then, she has appeared exactly once - in a Pride issue fashion show - but I imagine she and her girlfriend Yuki are just in a little reality-warp bubble, hidden away as Fall of X finishes up.

Synergy is a dirty word in the comics landscape, but I personally like Ellie and her romance with Yuki - and I'm very relieved that they introduced a new, younger Yuki O. based on the movie for her to date instead of just retconning the established Yukio into becoming Eloise's girlfriend... Storm doesn't deserve to have her girl stolen away like that!

Also, Yuki has a giant mech and electricity powers. Maybe a little cliche for a Japanese character's powerset, but it is badass...

I hope we see more comic book stuff with these two eventually... There is potential there that is as of yet untapped - especially as they are probably two of Marvel's most notable queers by virtue of being in wildly popular movies, even if their comic queerness is a relatively modern thing.

[monkeyjaw]

The Year in Books and Graphic Novels 2022 and an analysis of 20 years of books and comics

January

1.      Temple Alley Summer – Kashiwaba Sachiko, illustrated by Miho Satake, translated by Avery Fischer Udagawa

2.      Dreams From My Father – Barack Obama, audiobook read by the author

3.      X-Men Grand Design Vol. 1 – Ed Piskor

4.      Vera Kelly Is Not a Mystery – Rosalie Knecht

5.      All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team – Christina Soontornvat, illustrations by Karen Minot

6.      X-Men Grand Design Volume 2: Second Genesis – Ed Piskor

7.      Year of the Rabbit – Tian Veasna

February

1.      Deadly Class Volume 1: 1987 Reagan Youth – Chris Remender, Wes Craig

2.      The Eye of the World – Robert Jordan

3.      Pattern Master – Octavia E. Butler

4.      X-Men Grand Design Volume 3: X-Tinction – Ed Piskor

5.      The Confidence Men: How Two Prisoners of War Engineered the Most Remarkable Escape in History – Margalit Fox

6.      Deadly Class Volume 2: 1988 Kids of the Black Hole – Rick Remender, Wes Craig

March

1.      Once and Future Volume 1: The King is Undead – Kieron Gillen, Dan Mora

2.      Once and Future Volume 2: Old English – Kieron Gillen, Dan Mora

3.      Dragon Hoops – Gene Luen Yang

4.      Ringworld – Larry Niven

5.      Once and Future Volume 3: A Parliament of Magpies – Kieron Gillen, Dan Mora

6.      Princess Jellyfish Volume 8 – Akiko Higashimura

7.      Princess Jellyfish Volume 9 – Akiko Higashimura

8.      The Sheepfarmer’s Daughter – Elizabeth Moon

April

1.      Planetes Volume 1 – Makoto Yurimura

2.      The Library of the Unwritten – A.J. Hackwith

3.      Doom Patrol Volume 1: Crawling From the Wreckage – Grant Morrison, Richard Case

4.      ODY-C Volume 1: Off To Far Ithacaa – Matt Fraction, Christian Ward

5.      Conan of Cimmeria – Robert E Howard, Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter

6.      Doom Patrol Volume 2: The Painting That Ate Paris – Grant Morrison, Richard Case, John Nyberg

7.      Doom Patrol Volume 3: Down Paradise Way – Grant Morrison, Richard Case

May

1.      Doom Patrol Volume 4: Musclebound – Grant Morrison, Richard Case, Kelley Jones, Mark McKenna, John Nyberg

2.      Eragon – Christopher Paolini

3.      The Promised Neverland Vol 1 – Kaiu Shirai, Posaku Demizu

4.      Deadly Class Volume 3: 1988 Snake Pit – Rick Remender, Wes Craig

5.      Once and Future Volume 4: Monarchies in the U.K. – Kieron Gillen, Dan Mora

6.      The Dark is Rising – Susan Cooper

7.      The Forest – Thomas Ott

8.      The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K LeGuin

June

1.      Deadly Class Volume 4: 1988 Die For Me – Rick Remender, Wes Craig

2.      Arthurian Legends – Wace and Layamon

3.      Dune – Frank Herbert

4.      The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K LeGuin

5.      The Lost Years of Merlin – T.A. Barron

July

1.      The Secret To Super-Human Strength – Alison Bechdel

2.      The Promised Neverland Volume 2 – Kaiu Shirai, Posaku Demizu

3.      The New World – Ales Kot, Tradd Moore

4.      Super Sentai Himitsu Sentai Gorenger – Shotaro Ishinomori

5.      Spider-Gwen Volume 0: Most Wanted? – Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez

6.      The Deed of Paksenarrion: Divided Allegiance – Elizabeth Moon

7.      Ultimate Miles Morales Spider-Man Volume 1 – Brian Michael Bendis, Sara Pichelli, Chris Samnee

8.      Giant Days Volume 1 – John Allison, Lisa Treimann

9.      Giant Days Volume 2 – John Allison, Lisa Treimann, Max Sarin

August

1.      Lockwood & Co. Volume 1: The Screaming Staircase – Jonathan Stroud

2.      Ultimate Miles Morales Spider-Man Volume 2 – Brian Michael Bendis, David Marquez, et al

3.      Ultimate Miles Morales Spider-Man Volume 3 – Brian Michael Bendis, David Marquez, et al

4.      The Wheel of Time Book 2: The Great Hunt – Robert Jordan

5.      Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Wynne Jones

6.      A Study in Scarlet – Arthur Conan Doyle

7.      French Medieval Romances from the Lais of Marie of France – Translated by Eugene Mason

September

1.      Pyongyang – Guy Delisle

2.      Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold – Alisa Kwitney, Kent Williams, et al

3.      The Dead of Paksenarrion: Oath of Gold – Elizabeth Moon

4.      Brave Chef Brianna – Sam Sykes, Selina Espiritu

5.      Fledgling – Octavia E. Butler

6.      At Death’s Door – Jill Thompson

October

1.      We – Yevgeny Zamyatin, read by Toby Jones

2.      The Witch Boy – Molly Knox Ostertag

3.      20th Century Boys Vol. 7: The Truth  – Naoki Urasawa

4.      20th Century Boys Vol. 8: – Naoki Urasawa

5.      Isaac the Pirate Vol. 1: To Exotic Lands – Christophe Blaine

6.      Dungeon Zenith: Volume 4: Outside the Ramparts – Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Boulet

7.      The Wheel of Time Book 3: The Dragon Reborn – Robert Jordan

8.      20th Century Boys Volume 9: Rabbit Nabokov – Naoki Urasawa

9.      The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson

10.  Isaac the Pirate Volume 2: The Capital – Christophe Blaine

11.  20th Century Boys Volume 10: The Faceless Boy - Naoki Urasawa

November

1.      Gotham Central Book 1: In the Line of Duty – Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka

2.      Komi Can’t Communicate Vol. 1 – Tomohito Oda

3.      The Promised Neverland Volume 3 – Kaiu Shirai, Posuka Demizu

4.      Sleepless Volume 1 – Sarah Vaughn, Leila Del Duch

5.      R.U.R. – Karel Capek, translated by David Wyllie

6.      20th Century Boys Volume 11: List of Ingredients – Naoki Urasawa

7.      20th Century Boys Volume 12: Friend’s Face – Naoki Urasawa

8.      20th Century Boys Volume 13: Beginning of the End – Naoki Urasawa

9.      20th Century Boys Volume 14: The Boy and the Dream – Naoki Urasawa

10.  The Sandman Volume 1: Preludes and Nocturnes – Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg, Sam Ketih, Malcolm Jones III

11.  Dodger – Terry Pratchett

12.  The Promised Neverland Volume 4 – Kaiu Shirai, Posuka Demizu

13.  20th Century Boys Volume 15: Expo Hurray – Naoki Urasawa

14.  20th Century Boys Volume 16: Beyond the Looking Glass – Naoki Urasawa

15.  20th Century Boys Volume 17: Cross-Counter – Naoki Urasawa

16.  20th Century Boys Volume 18: Everybody’s Song – Naoki Urasawa

17.  20th Century Boys Volume 19: The Man Who Came Back – Naoki Urasawa

18.  20th Century Boys Volume 20: Humanity in the Balance – Naoki Urasawa

19.  Thursday Next book 2: Lost in a Good Book – Jasper Fforde

20.  20th Century Boys Volume 21: Arrival of the Space Aliens – Naoki Urasawa

21.  20th Century Boys Volume 22: The Beginning of Justice

22.  The Promised Neverland Volume 5 – Kaiu Shira, Posuka Demizu

December

1.      Thrawn Ascension: Book 1: Chaos Rising – Timothy Zahn

2.      Crucial Conversations: Tools for talking when stakes are high - Kerry Patterson,

 Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler

3.      Sandman Volume 2: The Doll’s House – Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III

4.      My Favorite Thing Is Monsters – Emil Ferris

5.      Please Don’t Step On My JNCO Jeans – Noah Van Sciver

6.      The Sandman Volume 3: Dream Country – Neil Gaiman, Kelley Jones, Malcolm Jones III, Charles Vess

7.      Winterfair Gifts – Lois McMaster Bujold

8.      Sandman Book 4: Season of Mists – Neil Gaiman, Matt Wagner, George Pratt, Dick Giordano, Kelley Jones, P. Craig Russell

9.      Sandman Book 5: A Game of You – Neil Gaiman, Sean McManus, Bryan Talbot, Colleen Doran

 105 books and graphic novels in 2022! 34 novels (and 1 novella) and 70/71 graphic novels. I read one book twice for a book club. That’s 13 more than I read last year.

Now for totals from 2002 to 2022.

Totals:

2002 20

2003 86 – 7.16/month

2004 9

2005 84 – 7/month

2006 79 – 6.58/month

2007 58 – 4.83/month

2008 49 – 4.083/month

2009 51 – 4.25

2010 72 - 6

2011 60 - 5

2012 80 – 6.66

2013 50 – 4.16

2014 144 - 12

2015 92 – 7.66

2016 151 – 12.58

2017 138 – 11.5

2018 116 – 9.66

2019 96 - 8

2020 102 – 8.5

2021 92 – 7.66

2022 105 – 8.75

 Including the years that I have incomplete data for (2002 and 2004 I only have 3 months of data), I read 1734 books and graphic novels from 2002 to 2022, 86.7 per year. If we leave off 2002, and 2004, I read 85.25 per year and an average of 7.89 books per month. I’ll post the graphic novels and regular books break down shortly. 

[mythoughtsverbatim]

My hardcore engineering experience in Silicon Valley prompted this thought with me whether our lives, like the language driven AI model predicting next sentences, could be predicted by providing input our life data.

Lo and behold...

Our lives, like stories, follow narrative arcs. Each one unfolds uniquely in chapters bearing familiar headings: school, career, moving home, injury, illness. Each storyline, or life, has a beginning, a middle and an unpredictable end. 

Now, according to scientists, each life story is the chronicle of a death foretold. By using Denmark’s registry data, which contains a wealth of day-to-day information on education, salary, job, working hours, housing and doctor visits, academics have developed an algorithm that can predict a person’s life course, including premature death, in much the same way that large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT can predict sentences. The algorithm outperformed other predictive models, including actuarial tables used by the insurance industry.

That our complex existences can be parsed like scraps of text is both exhilarating and disconcerting. While we know that a generous income correlates with longer life expectancy, linking vast amounts of different data could unmask other ways in which social factors affect health. That could inform policymakers seeking to improve our odds of living longer, healthier lives.

On the minus side, there is something almost absurdly reductive about the idea of a DeathGPT. Each bead on the necklace of life — attending a class, a salary increase, losing a parent — feels too personal to power a predictable data set. But, in an age of big data, and AI to mine it, we will need to accept that those deeply felt qualitative experiences can be captured quantitatively in ways that, within error bars, sketch out individual destiny.

Both language and life are sequences. The researchers, drawn from the University of Copenhagen and Northeastern University in Boston, exploited that similarity. First, they compiled a “vocabulary” of life events, creating a kind of synthetic language, and used it to construct “sentences”. A sample sentence might be: “During her third year at secondary boarding school, Hermione followed five elective classes.”

Just as LLMs mine text to figure out the relationships between words, the life2vec algorithm, fed with the reconstituted life stories of Denmark’s 6mn inhabitants between 2008 to 2015, mined these summaries for similar relationships.

[balu8]

Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold #2 by  written by Alisa Kwitney and with art by Kent Williams,  Scott Hampton

DC Vertigo

[absolutebl]

So I watched the 12th episode of UWMA last night, the one with the Buddhist ceremony at the beginning, and it made me wonder how religion tends to get represented in BLs. Are characters shown practicing it? Is there a variety of religions represented? Are atheists allowed to exist in BL? Does it ever cause a conflict?

Oh what an interesting ask. I don't chronicle religious elements on my magic spreadsheet, so this it's gonna be pulling from memory.

ALT

Religious representation, setting, and narrative devices in Thai BL

First, quickly, THE ASKS:

Are characters shown practicing it?

Yes, in my experience mostly Buddhist morning blessings (LBC), wedding rituals (SOTUS S), hope & wish rituals, and some funerals (UWMA). Also Type becomes a monk in TharnType 2.

ALT

Is there a variety of religions represented?

Mostly what I can recall is Buddhist, but I've seen a few crosses round necks, weddings seem somewhat egalitarian, and I think I'm forgetting some.

According to most online sources, 85-95% of the population of Thailand is Theravada Buddhist. 5-10% Muslim. Less than 5% of the population includes animists, Christians, Confucians, Hindus, Jews, Sikhs, and Taoists. There is no official state religion in the Thai constitution, which guarantees religious freedom for all Thai citizens, though the king is required by law to be a Theravada Buddhist.

You'll hear characters using satu often.

However Christmas is definitely a Thing in Thailand (if only an excuse to decorate) it shows up in UWMA, Ingredients, and Love Area among others. 

ALT

Are atheists allowed to exist in BL?

I don't know, not explicitly stated as such in my experience so far. But I don't think they'd be pillorized, at least not in Thai stuff. As an atheist myself, I'd probably notice.

Does it ever cause a conflict?

I should note that belief in ghosts, occultism, psychics, oracles astrology (not just stars but birth years, birth day of week, blood type and more) and other cultural superstitions are pretty common. Y-Destiny highlights a number of these.

BL Outside of Thailand

The Boy Foretold by Stars is a 2020 Pinoy BL with excellent queer rep set in a VERY catholic high school. Religious setting and characters are key to the story. Other stuff out of the Philippines often contains casual Catholicism.

Korea, there seemed to be something swimming around Peach of Time, the BL side plot in Run On features a homophobic mother who implied Christian, (and they do use conflict around religion for elements in Kdramas, see Hospital Playlist.)

I haven't noticed any in BL out of Vietnam, Taiwan, or Japan. 

ALT

BL with Religious Representation

Just Friends? (Korea) - mother goes to church 

The Fairy Fox (China) - sorta plays with Chinese mythos

Love By Chance (Thai) - when Ae goes home 

Mood Indigo - Pornographer series (Japan) - fetishized funeral, don’t ask 

Goodbye Mother AKA Thua Me Con D (Vientam) - family home life is religious 

Until We Meet Again (Thai) - reincarnation, Buddhist temple visits and offerings, Thai mythology, and also Christmas 

He's Coming to Me (Thai) - ghost, gravesite location, temple visits, I learned A LOT bout Buddhist funeral and death practices 

My Tee (Thai) - blessing ceremony 

So Much in Love (Thai) - ghost, occult, superstitious beliefs 

TharnType 2 (Thai) - male coming of age ritual within Buddhism 

The Boy Foretold by the Stars (Pinoy) - Catholicism & psychic practices  

My Day (Pinoy) - both Ace and Sky’s mom pray in chapel 

Ingredients (Thai) - Christmas 

Tonhon Chonlatee (Thai) - prayer/wishing tree 

A Tale of Thousand Stars - rural northern beliefs and village practices including welcoming/departure ceremonies and weddings   

Y-Destiny (Thai) - ghost, mourning rituals 

Hometown's Embrace (Thai) - local shrine and home votive offerings 

Love Area (Thai) -  Christmas 

Siew Sum Noi (Thai) - northern temple and home shrine practices 

Top Secret Together (Thai) - mourning rituals 

Peach of Time (Korea) - death practices and mourning rituals 

Bite Me (Thai) - northern temple visits, legends and mythos

My Ride (Thai) - wish upon the floating flower candle, blessing, hope 

Gen Y 1 & 2 (Thai) - offerings, wishing tree, prayer tree, temple visit 

Something in My Room (Thai) - ghosts and household spirits, occultism, exorcism, psychic abilities 

What Zabb Man - side couple visits a Buddhist temple 

Cupid’s Last Wish - I hated this show but it has a lot of religious stuff in it 

Of these I would say Until We Meet Again, He’s Coming to Me, TharnType 2, and The Boy Foretold by Stars have the most significant plot points and narratives around religion (rather than just using it for character depth and set dressing). 

Okay, now what’s I forget? 

(source) 

Updated mid 2022 

[windsweptinred]

did you read that miniseries about destiny?( destiny a chronicle of deaths foretold )

im reading and it's incredible, the story is very interesting and everytime our old man appears im happy

I have not only read it, I've inhaled it! Then gone on to pester people about it repeatedly on Tumblr. 🤣

I cannot begin to tell you how much I adore this mini series! The concepts it explores and the questions it leaves you asking. The exploration of Destiny's 'relationship' with John. The theories it opens up and the wonder about the other horsemen...

And the art. God the art is some of the most beautiful I've ever seen in a comic. Seriously I could go on forever about it. 😅. I'm just happy to hear someone else has read it!

[theyearofrisinglight]

So as I have referenced on two other posts on here, I have been reading the works of Gabriel García Márquez this month to commemorate his 6th death anniversary but I'm v obsessed with The Witcher, too, so I couldn't stop seeing some parallels with some Witcher characters and Gabo's characters and the most glaring one is Dandelion *snort* For real, as I was reading Chronicle of a Death Foretold I couldn't stop thinking that what happened to Santiago Nasar would've end up being Jask's destiny had Geralt not been his babysitter. Jask would've definitely been m worded by the brothers of some peasant girl he had "deflowered", the same way the Vicario twins did Santiago Nasar, except Dandelion would have actually deserved it. (Santiago is iffy but he, too, was a sexual harasser soooo)

But the real point of this post is to say that yeah, Dandelion lives in my head rent free but it's all the show stans damn fault. They have created this alter ego that's somehow worse than the real Dandelion lmao Honestly, sometimes I feel like being in one of those creepy abusive boyfriend movies where the guy makes his girlfriend's life a living hell in private but in public everyone sees A Saint™ who can do no wrong and THEY'RE the victims of this cruel, cruel world and its people, and the girl and maybe a few other people know who he really is but the vocal others drown them out. It's so maddening! Like I said before on here, Dandelion is a character who has no growth, no journey, he ends up practically the same way he began. And you know what that's ok. Not every character has to have some deep character journey, it's not necessary. And you can stan such character of course, but to say HE IS A MAIN CHARACTER?!?! LMAOooo waht?? No.

Not to mention, I really do think that the show not fully showing how horrible of a man Dandelion can be was a A Mistake, but it's not too late to add that shit in s2. It is a fact he gets poor peasant girls pregnant and has to run tf away from towns with the tail between his legs bc their brothers want to make him marry them or murder him or both. It's a fact he's a womanizer who doesn't respect anyone's relationship status. It's a fact he's a narcissist. And immature. And reckless. And selfish. And has delusions of grandeur. And depending on how you interpret the text above, miGHT even be a sexual abuser of a disabled girl(!!!) (And I do think it was Dandelion bc knowing how Mr. Sapko writes, he wouldn't have emphasized she was grinning if it had been anyone else but Dandelion, this shit is for the giggles apparently.) So I have my reasons not to like the guy, but wait there's more.

So you see, this is the “A Little Sacrifice” short story, following this passage, a dude offers Dandelion a gig to play at his daughter's betrothal but he gets offended when the guy tells him there'll be another bard so he'll have to share the stage. He's ready to tell the guy to fuck off but Geralt literally has to beg and coax him to accept the gig and to be a little humble bc they are starving and his last job went unpaid and thanks to the shit he caused with the Rangers they are broke asf.

Which brings me to this Thing I thought about the other day and that it doesn't get out of my head. It's a hot ass take, and I don't expect to be right, but bear with me. So y'all know how Dandelion is a rich dude with castles to his name and shit but is going incognito with a fake bard name bc he's hiding from Anarietta's duke husband who's sentenced him to death for fxcking his wife, right? And that's why he meets Geralt and not only does he see profit from going around from town to town with A Witcher, but none other than the White Wolf himself, the Butcher of Blaviken. So he chooses him as his personal bodyguard and Geralt, after years on the Path being all alone and hated by the very people who require his work to free them of “pests”, forms a sort of opportunistic friendship with him, too. He becomes the funny weird sexist bard's protector in exchange of the bard's company, as annoying as it turns out to be. And even as Geralt treats Dandelion with real contempt sometimes (but Dandelion responds with the same measure), he knows he won't leave bc he can't survive without him. So that makes Geralt a bit of an asshole, right? 

Wrong. You see, Geralt doesn't know who Dandelion really is until The Tower of Swallows and he's shocked! to learn this man is rich asf!! Which going back to this whole money thing, Geralt supported Dandelion for YEARS out of his own pocket, shared his food and lodging with him, and Dandelion never once made an effort to contact his treasurers or whatever when things were tight to get some cash and help out his friend. I know, he was supposed to be on the down low but there are ways idk!! And from this dynamic, it seems that it's always Geralt who pays for the food and lodging and other important stuff with HIS coins, bc if Dandelion earns some from his singing he always spends it in brothels, gambling, and buying shit for his personal appearance. Dandelion, was literally a leech living off Geralt 😭

Tl;Dr in other fucking words, y'alls uwu unproblematic soft baby Jask is a selfish, sexist, deadbeat dad, hot mess of a man and a horrible friend nine times out of ten. Also he's NOT a main fucking character gtfo

[dante-vergil64]

Sasuhina month: Day 2 - Vampire AU

She had never been a girl who was particularly easy to frighten.

Despite the countless strange happenings that came to pass all throughout her life, that single emotion was not in a habit of grasping her senses as effortlessly as it normally would another’s 

It was deceptive, its malevolent nature demanded it mercilessly present itself within long intervals of sobriety before it was ready to take possession of her body with the timing impeccable to destroy her.

Her mother’s death was perhaps the first time she had become aware of it, the phantom layer freezing her skin that paralyzed her digits and limbs from making a single move, the frenetic beating of her frantic heart that echoed resoundingly through her head as it degraded all other sounds into haunting white noise, the hazy lightheadedness that blurred her surroundings with foggy mist, the painful constriction of her struggling lungs preventing her from drawing breath.

It was akin to dying with no injury marring her body, helplessness and despair unlike anything that could be properly articulated spreading suffocatingly along her veins as easily as her blood did. 

Indeed, it had managed to surge deep beneath her skin imprinting the terrifying essence of its existence into the very depths of her psyche.

It was only natural then, that not many further occurrences even began to elicit an inkling of that sentiment from her. 

The stern light that constantly dominated her father’s eyes as it concealed his perpetual sorrow, the deafening silence separating her from her cousin’s glacial hatred, and the flickering glimpses of loneliness that would dim her little sister’s gaze from time to time might have as well been her only exceptions.

She acknowledged with unhidden honesty, that only they could command the apparition of a fraction of the terror she had experienced that day.

It was more amusing than it sounded, truly. The world they lived in was a dauntingly enormous place, plagued with as many dangers, tragedies, and horrors as it was graced with joys, wonder and beauty. Sanity duly dictated an appropriate response and yet that fear simply refrained itself from manifesting.

For a woman who was blessed with the supernatural gift to harness the forces of nature and impose her will onto the environment, it was most inconvenient. 

Witches, sorcerers, shamans, mages, whatever term society had fancied to label them with, did not change the intrinsic nature of their life. 

And it was in fact ‘them’ she referred to as she was not alone in that unlikely endeavor. The reality that so many human beings unwillingly ignored was that paranormal creatures populated most of their created communities on all sectors across the globe in very great numbers, easily blending in and carrying on with their lives with them being none the wiser.

She had had the fortune of being conceived within an old and powerful family of practitioners that were bestowed with the uncanny ability to summon magic, a gift granted to her people by grace of their close connection to mother nature. 

That wonderful favor had permitted them to secure a stable and safe stronghold within society, creating connections and planting their surname on the minds of young and old as their status and wealth continued growing steadily along with time. 

It was an undeniable blessing she would be eternally grateful for, and a curse that nearly brought her own demise.

Witches were but one of the many species occupying that vast portion of land they proudly called their home, other abnormal entities wandering seamlessly through their cities and towns in their own masks and disguises with their own purposes and objectives, some even inclined to inflict violence upon those they considered lesser.

Ghouls, demons, specters, phantoms, beasts, lycanthropes, there was a myriad of beings her kind had long learned to be wary of through painful and tragic experience.

The words her grandmother used to share in passing, an old poem from her youth, often rang whisperingly like a mantra through her mind as her world had slowly began to shift with the foreboding arrival of her impending destiny “beware the shadows in the night, beware the darkness in the light. In times of long and dreadful fright, beware my child, beware my child. Do not stare into its eyes, windows holding blissful lies. Turn away into the bright, beware my child, beware my child.”

An old saying that had been passed around through word of mouth in times far back, when the undead would walk the earth and feed upon their prey with no restraint.

According to her grandmother, the woeful words had been first muttered long ago on a time unremembered, one somber rainy day following the tragic death of a young girl at the merciless hands of a vampire. That terrible event had filled countless hearts with aching grief and dreadful sorrow, culminating in a grand funeral that was widely held on the town square of what was now known as Sunagakure. 

Amidst the echoing droplets splattering harshly against the grass, the figure of a woman dressed in black had stood in heartbreaking desolation before the pure white casket gently holding the child, the porcelain face resting opposite to her, utterly unblemished and beautiful, belonging to her one precious daughter, love of her life.

A silky black hat had seated above golden tresses obscuring her mourning visage as heavy tears slid softly, agonizingly along her skin, her fragile form trembling in affliction facing her nightmares finally coming to life. Her lips started moving once, moving twice, a song of melancholy flowing grievingly at last “Beware the shadows in the night, beware the darkness in the light. In times of long and dreadful fright, beware my child, beware mi child. Do not stare into its eyes, windows holding blissful lies. Turn away into the bright, beware my child, beware my child.”

It was a wish thrown to the wind, a song of apology and regret. One that was told among the witches to keep their eyes forever watchful, forever sound.

And yet, she had never been a girl who was particularly easy to frighten, having long learned to unintentionally disregard those solemn whispered words of warning.

It had not, in all honesty, been an attitude developed from rebellion or confinement as one would usually be inclined to believe, but the abrupt commencement of a strange and complicated tale that fiercely challenged those traditional conceptions.

Indeed, her life had unexpectedly been thrusted into a vortex of the unknown, a sordid journey of death and blood, of tears and laughter, of love and hatred. 

And he, he had been the catalyst of it all. The boy with the golden locks and sky blue eyes, whose smile had managed to shine brighter than the very stars and whose gentle kindness had irrevocably stolen her heart from the very first moment of their meeting. The vampire-hybrid Naruto Uzumaki. The man tasked with the protection of the human girl Sakura Haruno, her very own best friend.

It had all seemed so surreal then, his rough voice weary as he informed them of an ancient prophecy foretold, the dismal grips of a fate that had unfairly enclosed around the young maiden of the verdant eyes and rose-colored tresses.

He had spoken with conviction, his gentle gaze and expressive features brimming with tender concern and ardent resolve as he shaped a chronicle of what their lives would soon become, and of the impending danger that lurked away in the approaching darkness ready to sink its starving fangs in their pale necks without hesitation, without mercy. 

The rosette for her part, had naturally reacted with confusion and distrust of the boy.

Despite his tone and solemn bearing, the unexpected warning of an incoming invasion and impending danger arriving at their door had been in fact rather difficult to believe even for her at the time. The incident that transpired the following week, however, was more than enough corroboration that the vampire’s words were nothing but the truth.

A bloody confrontation with a cult of vampire zealots had violently seized them thoroughly unprepared, and the safe, ordinary world they had inhabited thus far, harshly crumbled to a complete collapse. 

It had been a night like any night at some pub near university when an outing to relieve stress had abruptly turned into a gory bloodbath with the arrival of the homicidal creatures, tables breaking and corpses falling as no soul was spared from their malevolent carnage. In the unsuspecting chaos they had managed to successfully kidnap sakura leaving her valiant vampiric knight ruthlessly impaled to a wall to be slowly desecrated.   

She could quite vividly recall the damp feeling permeating her stomach where a broken billiard pole had been viciously thrusted piercing though her intestines and right kidney, the consuming fatigue and drowning light-headedness pleading for eternal rest, gradually forcing her eyelids to close and her heart to stop its beating.

When she had finally come to, it had been several hours after. The first thing her sight had registered were tenebrous statues standing in a rustic victorian living room, blazing fire burning steadily on the chimney as it filled the space with its dim golden light.

Naruto had somehow managed to save her by feeding her a portion of his own blood, the scene of massacre playing starkly on the news as they observed with grim determination, unwilling to abandon the emerald-eyed girl to the undesirable outsiders.

It had been rather foolish at the time, to fight,  just the two of them facing an entire dozen of bloodthirsty monsters with neither a plan nor the luxury of time to properly design one.

In the very depths of her mind, she had thoroughly anticipated for that crippling fear to finally make its appearance and viciously strangle her anxious heart as the worry for her treasured friend grew exponentially, and yet it had not come.

It had been a life-changing ordeal for all of them, most of all the human girl who had been previously unaware of the menacing creatures aiming strictly for her life. 

That was how it had all begun, the three of them facing unimaginable dangers trying to protect each other and their town from the sinister forces that sought to bring domination upon them, encountering both trustful allies and threatening foes as their path had slowly continued to unfold.

Their once small faction had soon unintentionally began to grow. With each trial they faced and every enemy they battled, extraordinary members that were willing to trade their lives to protect the innocent from the forces of darkness easily fell into their ranks.

The loyal werewolf Kiba Inuzuka, the seductive witch Ino Yamanaka, the lethal hunter Kakashi Hatake, the genius vampire Shikamaru Nara, and the silent warlock Shino Aburame. They and many others, brave men and women who seamlessly managed to grow into something more…a sort of makeshift family…fragile…precious.

She supposed it had lied on them, the real reason her grandmother’s bittersweet words gently shrouded in melancholy were never able to fully reach her. The wonderful people she had encountered in that epic tale of hers had been the same kinds of creatures witches like her had long been warned never to befriend, never to approach.

The panoramic view of the colorful world around her had steadily crystalized into a dazzling image of immunity that even she forgot was synthetic, comfortably wrapping her with a blanket of invincibility that made her believe things would always go their way.

She had been naive.

The silky mantles of darkness had effectively hidden forces far beyond their blithe comprehension; terrible, ominous entities who wielded the power to casually grind their blissful reality into tiny fragments of perpetual horror and expose just how entirely and utterly vulnerable and insignificant they truly were.

It began with a name, an echoing whisper in the voices of the dead, a chant of terror that had long been sparingly divulged through the countless creatures of the night.

An obscure legend, a faceless phantom, a tale of nightmare too ludicrous to believe that had soon faded into the misty backgrounds of their minds, a severe mistake that almost costed them their lives.

Because that fear she was so impervious to, the chilling petrification of her very being, it had a name. One that had first revealed itself in rivers of flowing scarlet.

She would eternally remember that transcendental winter night, the flickering lights of the ceiling lamps dangling brokenly in the center of the spacious room, the shattered glass scattered violently across the maple wooden floor, the sturdy furniture harshly displayed in disregarding disarray, the pungent smell of iron in the glacial air, damp stains of crimson lining grotesquely the concrete walls. 

Her eyes watered, oxygen struggling to enter her trembling body as her lungs traitorously ceased to function and her stomach twisted painfully from the revolting nausea. 

There were bodies loitering motionlessly dispersed across the wide bloodstained room in a macabre simulation of a graveyard that nearly paralyzed her senses.

Short silky locks of golden hair stained red as a disfigured mesh of limbs and flesh rested fractured against the tarnished, fragmented wall.

A muscular brunette boy hovered viciously impaled to the brick formations of an auburn chimney with a black steel bar protruding insultingly from his chest.

An amputated arm gripped the the throat of another in a mocking gesture as his viscera spilled disgustingly from a brutal gash in his midsection.

The pale body of the fair witch rested sordidly petrified on a shallow crimson puddle spreading fluidly through the floor with no apparent injury gracing her creamy skin, yet her eyes remained wide open, teal irises somberly absent of life.

Her lavender gaze stared in unbridled horror, comprehension stumblingly escaping her processing mind and her heart beating frenziedly in painful contractions as she futilely tried to keep from hyperventilating.

Absurd. Ludicrous. The scene before her eyes could simply not be occurring under any circumstances, it was not possible. The desperate urge to cry and release her torment almost consumed her in its entirety as her fragile attention moved from body to body in a limbo of cognition; unwilling, thoroughly refusing to reconcile the images imposed onto her sight.

Only the damp periodic sound of liquid striking softly against solid ground managed to penetrate her separating bubble of distress. A haunting drip, drip, drip cut through the agonizing silence within the room with an ease that was almost ridiculing in intent, her terrified lilac eyes lifting hesitantly to capture pristine alabaster skin sharply illuminated by the abundant light of the moon.

 Amidst the center of the gory chaos, indifferent to her rapidly deteriorating mental condition and the revolting carnage painting the floors in sickening red, a pair of orbs glowing vermillion clashed contrastingly against the thick, heavy curtains of shadows casted almost mocking in its silence by the ominous night sky, latent power and excruciating pressure emanating like waves of poisonous radiation seeping burningly through her skin as if attempting to erode her body at a cellular level.

They stared in unperturbed disinterest as the dark viscous fluid descended slowly down the tips of long, slender fingers along glinting sticky red-coated skin, gradually accumulating atop bony knuckles before breaking into drops and continuing their fall.

The terse silence remained for another infinitesimal instant before the demonic scarlet gaze ascended and turned in her direction with a motion so slow it was almost agonizing, her breath leaving her lungs anew with a gasp full of dread as her eyes met with those of the devil.

Unnatural features that could have been carved out of marble by the hands of a master sculptor bathed soundly in the ocean of shadows not penetrated by the dazzling moonlight exposing his bloodied hand.

Midnight hair stretched in length down flawlessly ivory complexion messily embracing it like a dark uneven blanket, straight silky strands framing perfectly symmetrical structures of bone, and  a long thin concave nose coated in bright alabaster skin seating above a sharp slender jaw that seamlessly constructed an intimidating masculine visage.

It was a sick irony, that such ethereal beauty belonged to a creature as despicable as he.

A startled gasp coming from her side managed to break her spellbound trance filling her with stark awareness of just how dangerous the present situation was and reminding her of the unprotected presence of her currently unharmed best friend.

The evil crimson gaze followed the shallow airy sound and she could have sworn that for a breath’s moment her heart had completely ceased to function.

Before the vampire could so much as move a single digit, she hastily lifted her arms proceeding to chant as many of her most lethal spells as she could think of, her mind conjuring up a list of dozens upon dozens of hexes, curses, and incantations she had learned throughout her many years as an accomplished sorceress.

His nerves were heated to combustion as the walls lining the blood vessels running through his brain crumbled to ashen dust, allowing a massive internal bleeding to occur inside his cranium that increased the internal pressure to a point that should have left him effectively braindead.

The trachea inside his neck was violently crushed to fragmentation disabling his ability to properly breath as the alveoli sacs on his lungs seared aflame.

The density of his blood became so high it almost solidified, provoking his heart to immediately burst from the massive force applied to its contractions.

His liver and kidneys were severed and liquified as his internal organs were flattened and sent through his major arteries blocking the limited blood flow that had been previously allowed.

With complete desperation and urgency filling her muscles she unleashed her full devastating power against the demon that had dared to injure her friends.

She killed him. Once, twice, three times. She killed him so many times that by the time her ears had registered the horrified gasps of her dear friend as she observed the unconstrained violence of her magic she she had already lost count.

His body was obliterated and demolished in every single way she could imagine, lifting all the restrictions she had once imposed on her gift.

As his figure was ignited in bright consuming flames that illuminated the entire room, she swiftly turned to the petrified girl at her side before harshly ordering her to leave.

Tears had now freely started sliding down her soft cheeks as exhaustion began to seep through her softening limbs, leaving her short of breath.

Abruptly, a curse chillingly died on the tips of her lips as her jaw was involuntarily stopped mid-chant by an unseen, untouchable force, her mind filling with growing panic as she witnessed the vampire’s tissues and flesh healing and regenerating almost instantaneously. 

Try as she might, commanding a single movement from her body became an impossible feat as her control over it was completely relinquished to the being before her. Not even her eyes managed to escape his authority as she was forced to immutably observe his calm otherworldly stride now that he had fully recuperated, his naked body seemingly not able to draw an inkling of shame from him.

“Enough. Your childish attempts at retaliation have stopped being entertaining. I have no more time to spare on your little antics.�� His voice was caressingly soft as it held a distinctively rich depth that seemed rather seductive in its harmony when he spoke, a thick British accent lacing his leisure address of her. 

With no further word her way, his gaze nonchalantly slid to the figure of the woman by her side.

“Now, you must be who I am looking for, if appearances are to be believed. Come, it’s time we have ourselves a little chat” he lifted his hand free of imperfections as he motioned for her to follow.

In spite of the terrified expression morphing her features, the rosette advanced as if compelled, helpless to deny the will of her supernatural assailant before placing her soft palm above his.

His gaze turned to her one last time before her eyelids started feeling heavy, darkness slowly consuming her vision as the world gradually lost focus, the softly glowing red lights whispering. 

trying to convey a message….

telling her…

telling her to sleep.

That was how the man who would soon become their worst enemy, the man dubbed by the supernatural world as the Tyrant king of all vampires, the immortal Sasuke Uchiha first arrived into their lives.

A monster so powerful and ruthless his name alone made the high council of vampires and the great order of witches, among other supernatural organizations, shudder and cower in terror.

At the time, she had completely disregarded all words of his infamous reputation, neither warnings nor lectures managing to extinguish the sheer contempt and disgust she held for the creature that had so viciously wounded her cherished family.

In that very moment, she had allowed herself to freely hate him. An emotion that, like fear, was not one she was prone to indulge in. From the very depths of her heart, she abhorred the way he had so easily managed to wake helplessness from within her, as if the strength she had cultivated through painful struggle and tribulation was but a complete mockery.

Seeing the broken bodies and the blood of her loved ones heinously spilled on the floors of their very own home had funneled uncontrollable panic into her heart, flaring the memories of her mother’s death like an open wound that was adamantly unwilling to heal. 

And so, despite her gentle and nurturing nature, she despised him.

In an ironic twist of misfortune or fate, the encounters with the prince of darkness did not cease there, with the one following their first meeting coming much too early for her liking. It was inevitable, after all, the coming mission to retrieve the captive maiden.

Fortunately, to her great surprise and relief, none of her friends had perished in the previous altercation, deep wounds and extensive damage being healed through the regenerative effects of vampiric blood.

With the whole team fully recuperated and with a new plan of engagement devised, they hastily journeyed to the far ends of the remote city of kusagakure, determined to succeed with the rescue operation.

She had used a location spell to determine the vampire’s whereabouts as they organized and prepared for the upcoming battle, his hideout discovered near the east coast away from the city on an old and grand Japanese mansion seating atop a grassy hill. 

With the arrival of dawn and the bright sunlight grazing their skin, they had surrounded the structure and taken over tactical positions according to shikamaru’s strategy, their communication and synergy significantly more attuned than it had usually been. 

She had been so sure of their victory back then. Blissfully ignorant of their dancing to his demonic tune. 

Her muscles turned rigid as her palms faced the man they’d been pursuing, his lone figure calmly seated on a wide leather chair and her eyes wide in panic as the neural commands over her body were stolen in the exact same manner as the previous time.

Ahead of her, the sturdy forms of Kiba and Naruto holding a pair of manmade machine guns involuntarily stilled as the phantasmagorical spell took possession of their muscles simultaneously.

Her heart beat frantically as disbelief rapidly coursed through her delicate features, the man’s sheer control of his mental manipulation unlike anything they had previously encountered. 

Shikamaru had planned several contingencies in case any of them were intercepted before they could carry out their plan, yet they could have never prepared for the entire assault team to be captured as hostages.

Once again, their lives were at his mercy. And that, the knowledge that she was powerless to save any of her friends, was worse than any wound or injury received through her long years fighting beside them.

The vampire remained immutably seated on his luxurious abode before them, his pale slender hand holding an old, red tome open and his serene eyes scanning leisurely through the pages  as if their violent ambush was as common as the passing of days.

It was unnerving and entirely surreal, even for individuals as highly experienced with the darker corners of the supernatural world such as themselves.

His deep dispassionate voice reclaimed their attention as he addressed them in perfect Japanese “Took you longer than I expected”, The red tome closing with a snap as a pair of bottomless obsidian orbs traveled to the hybrid leader.

“where is she!?” The blond snarled as his eyes slitted red, his body trembling in an effort to fight the unbending compulsion.

“Is that the way you address all your captors? Well, not that it matters to me anyway. Since you are insistent on skipping pleasantries, we’ll get right down to business.” He said all this hardly moving from his initial position. 

“However, I have no desire to clean any blood of yours off my walls, your pet here will have to go back and await with the others” his eyes gleamed vermillion anew and she felt her breath still momentarily.

“Do tell your allies to keep away from the premises. Should they try anything, I will not hesitate to kill the hostages, before hunting every single one of you down and ripping your heads off your bodies. Good bye now.” 

His words seeped her puppet body with dread as her heart lurched in worry for the teams surrounding the property, the vampire’s threat too dangerous to ignore.

She tried ordering her limbs to move yet it proved an impossible task. Her eyes focused on the scarlet gaze as it landed on her other companion, the werewolf’s form following his silent command as he was physically unable to refuse.

The loud shout of the blond vampire made her eyes turn in surprise.

“I said where is she, you Bastard!!?” He said as if he were a caged animal, incapable of breaking free of his binds.

The man simply observed the outburst not in the least intimidated, the red glow in his eyes dimming to a pitch black before leaning forward and calmly serving himself from a bottle of scotch into a crystal glass that stood on a ceramic table near his knees.

She narrowed her eyes in disdain as she realized the man was enjoying the emotional and mental torture he was subjecting the other into, as if the intense worry for a loved one amounted to nothing more than a twisted game to him.

Her indignation managed to momentarily outweigh her fear, but as she struggled to open her mouth and address the creature seamlessly seating ahead, his voice resounded around the room monotonously “Come girl, you have visitors”

Both her’s and Naruto’s eyes widened as the rosette’s figure entered the room through a different door located behind the vampire beside a minibar to their left.

Her steps were slow, mechanical, her figure apparently unharmed wearing a clean set of clothes that resembled her usual attire, yet the way she moved was too controlled, thoroughly unnatural. The human girl was also under his spell.

“Sakura!” Naruto exclaimed, relief flooding his voice as his eyes returned to their usual oceanic shade. Hinata felt her eyes water slightly as they rested gently on her best friend, words unable to describe how glad she was that the jade-eyed girl was safe and sound.

“You’ll have your tearful reunions some other time.” Their captor interrupted as he finally stood, his pale hand nursing the alcoholic drink before taking a long sip “This girl is now my property, and she is to serve my purposes”

The words managed to froze her to her core before righteous anger consumed her senses. it was her companion, however, the one who spoke 

“What the hell did you just say!!!?” He exclaimed in primal rage as frustration rapidly accumulated at his complete lack of mobility, his mind was thrashing wildly yet his body not moving an inch.

“As you heard, the girl is now my property. A pawn I aim to use for my own benefit. You would do well accept it quickly, lest you wish for her to see your rotting corpse decaying on my land.” His words were ice as he stepped up to the captive hybrid, his scarlet gaze absolute in its dominion. “The only reason I am allowing you all to keep your lives is because she pleaded to me before accepting her own role. You should be grateful” 

Her breathing stopped as her eyes and ears worriedly absorbed the conversation, the image of the one she loved most being viciously slaughtered flashing instantly across her mind, summoning the now familiar terror she had come to associate with the murderous monster in front of them.

Her mind screamed to her frozen tissues to move in an attempt to temper down the blond, yet her body remained unresponsive, a watery mumble being released from her lips instead “Please”

The hybrid’s trembling halted before a heavy defeated sigh abandoned his lungs as his eyes narrowed conflicted, the demon’s gaze landing on her form briefly before he stepped back and turned to walk and past the petrified sakura.

“Fortunately for you, she is of no use to me at the current time. Therefore, I intend to leave her under your care while I attend to more pressing matters.” He drawled in fluent English, his earlier accent coming naturally as he stood facing a wide balcony.

As if per work of an incantation, their bodies abruptly recovered their ability to move, their legs stumbling slightly to regain their balance.

Free of her captivity, sakura rushed to the arms of her guardian embracing him tightly as she trembled in distress, the fatigue of all events since her capture finally taking their toll on her. Naruto for his part, circled her in his strong arms in an effort to comfort her.

Regaining her senses, almost as if out of sheer instinct, Hinata hastily lifted her arms anew facing the unprotected back of the vampire before opening her mouth ready to release a paralysis curse his way, the strategies and tactics they’d planned with Shikamaru and Kakashi still fresh on her mind.

 A gelid whisper reaching her right ear from her back managed to  freeze her instantly, her entire body filling with dread at the unmistakable voice of their antagonist “Quite the reflexes you’ve got there, love. Though I would advise you not to underestimate me. See, I’m rather not fond of childish tantrums”

She hadn’t seen him move at all. The space his form had previously been occupying facing the open balcony was now empty, her vision insufficient to detect even the slightest hint of motion. 

The silent threat had been relayed ‘i can kill you whenever I please. Do not mistake your position’

She bit her lip until it drew blood as she tried to calm herself, her mind reminding her that the priority was to rescue Sakura. If they accomplished that single objective, the failure to assassinate the man behind her would be bearable.

The other pair had turned in alarm when the vampire’s words resonated from the witch’s position, Naruto preparing to charge forward in an attempt to separate the him from her. Sakura noticing this, grabbed him tightly by the arm knowing fully well any reckless action would result in all their deaths. 

“I have no further desire to keep wasting my breath speaking to you people. I’m returning the girl on the condition that you, hybrid, bring this little amulet to me” the man said as he took a small picture out of his breast pocket before throwing it to Naruto who caught it in mid-air.

The blond gazed at the picture before turning to the enigmatic vampire, a deep frown marring his features as confusion inundated his senses “A stone? What do you want this thing for anyway? And why do I have to follow your ridiculous conditions!! I have the place surrounded and this room is warded to keep you locked. I’m going to take my friends and get out of here, and you are gonna let me, if you know what’s good for you!!”

“No, Naruto!” Sakura spoke surprising her two companions as she directed a frustrated frown at the impassive vampire still standing behind the witch “it’s too risky, not even you are able to take this monster head on. It’s okay, I won’t ask you to follow his orders so just take Hinata and go. I’ll be fine, I promise” she said as she offered the blond a small tired smile.

Hinata was about to object and make her disagreement public when she felt the vampire's form brush against her side as he returned to his initial position seating calmly near the middle of the room, his glass empty on his hand.

“Like hell I’m going to let you stay here. We came to rescue you, we’re not leaving without you, you hear?” The blond said, his gaze turning angrily to the man who seemed mildly amused witnessing their torment before glancing once more at the image on his hand. He grit his teeth in frustration before speaking aloud “Where do I find this?”

The corner of the vampire’s lips lifted in satisfaction momentarily before leisurely serving himself another glass of scotch “You are part of the association, are you not, hybrid? Your superiors stored this particular object on the Madrid headquarters, took me quite some time to locate it. You are to steal it and bring it to me. The witch will remain here as a collateral in the meantime” he uncaringly said as he once more stunned his uninvited guests.

Hinata’s eyes widened in surprise at the man’s words, not at all expecting for the events to transpire that way. She bit her lip while gripping her fists tightly in frustration, knowing full well they were powerless against the vampire’s demands. 

The other man in the room did not seem to think so, however. He crossed the room towards her while holding the hand of the human girl before stopping with his back facing them in a protective gesture “I’m not gonna leave her here with you!! I’ll bring your damn stone, so leave them out of it” he said angrily as he glared daggers at their impassive foe.

Hinata observed as the vampire’s gaze centered uncaringly on the speaker before turning to her in facetious expectancy, reminding her of just how precarious their current situation really was. 

She gripped the blond’s arm comfortingly before stepping forward as she gifted him a reassuring smile “Naruto, it’s okay. He won’t do anything to me. Don’t forget what we came here for”

“Hinata!” Sakura exclaimed as she embraced the other girl, her lithe form trembling with frustration at her own powerlessness and her eyes watering slightly. 

“It’s going to be okay, Sakura” she said returning the hug as a genuine smile took over her features “I’m glad I was able to do something to protect you. Go home, get some rest. I’ll be waiting so, please don’t worry”

Naruto grit his teeth helpless, his gaze traveling to the source of their troubles in resentment. There was nothing he could do, and he hated himself for it. His weakness.

“If you touch one hair on her head, I promise I’ll come back and kill you myself. No matter how long it takes me, I’ll find a way!” He growled taking the hand of the rosette before facing the beautiful witch, his blue eyes burning with remorse and guilt as he silently asked for her forgiveness “Take care, alright? I’ll be back as soon as I can. I promise”

She gulped forcefully before steeling her expression, all the while ignoring the desire to embrace him one more time before his departure.

“If you are done with your pitiful attempts at comforting your friend, it is time to take your leave. Off you go now” the man said before standing and directing his attention to Hinata “little witch, come. I’ll show you to your temporary quarters”

Offering the vampire one last growl in warning, Naruto swiftly draped the rosette over his muscular arms as his form vanished in a wild blur that left gusts of wind flowing in its wake.

Inside the silent luxurious room, only she and that man remained. The light of dawn traversed gently across the horizon past the window facing the ocean as it illuminated the pristine floors and walls in a warm, vibrant orange. 

His form, every bit the intimidating figure she had come to know in such a short amount of time stood expectantly, his sharp gaze staring as his rumpled leather jacket and black denim trousers belied his nefarious true nature in a deceiving mask of simplicity 

Her ivory eyes faced the specter anew, strength coursing through her delicate arms as the knowledge of her friend’s safety tore through the fear and anxiety she had been experiencing just moments prior with unexpected ease. Now, not even death held that power over her.

“Welcome, witch of the Hyuuga. My name is Sasuke Uchiha, the original vampire, and you are hereby deemed my prisoner”

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

forgive my procrastinating ass for the delay, I'm so sorry guys.

I'm not really satisfied with this either but I wanted to contribute still. wanted to try my hand at writing a more villain-like sasuke, anyway hope you guys enjoy.

[harmonyofdisintegration]

[windsweptinred]

a question...

did you choose to believe/accept one of the choices of John?

tbh i think the point of the story is that they both happened but.. there was one you ""accepted"" more than the other???

I personally was like "😧 I can't. I can't choose."

Uff that ending... I think this entire comic is summarised perfectly by Destiny in 'Every book has more then one interpretation.' Two people could read the entire thing (The same life story) and come away with two entirely different takes. Though... Couldn't that be true of the entirety of the Sandman. 😅

Personally I think John's journey is reflective of Destiny's Realm, of destiny itself. A maze of paths where you can choose any route, the choices are yours, the journey is yours. But there are certain points that are inevitable. The ending above all. Theodora was fated to bare Destiny the Horseman Pestilence, John was fated to return to Destiny in the Garden and await the final ride of the horsemen. Whoever John chose at that point was irrelevant, Destiny knew his final fate was set. He chose left, he chose right... The same destination lay ahead. I think John by that point did as well. Maybe that's why we're led to believe he chose Emmett and set Ruth free. But again, that's just how I took it.

I admit to having a soft spot for Emmett as I've spent many a day in Eyam. And the fact that choice see Destiny now having a 'son' , daughter in law and soon to be grandbaby all frolicking round his realm. But I agree it's a hard choice. Emmett loved John but sealed his fate. Ruth offered John some semblance of independence, a life beyond Pestilence. But...Yes, there's just so many ways to take this! As ambiguous as Destiny himself!

[thenightling]

Dear People who call Neil Gaiman’s Sandman a “mini-series”

Dear people who called Neil Gaiman’s Sandman a mini-series...

Every so often I will see a comic book related blog or article that will both praise Neil Gaiman’s Sandman (perhaps because of it’s popularity) but also refer to it as a mini-series, making it very clear the author isn’t very familiar with the actual content at all.

Neil Gaiman’s Sandman was set in the DC proper main continuity and currently has been confirmed as still existing in the main continuity (Post New 52).  The first eight issues heavily interact with many DC characters including but not limited to Etrigan the Demon, Constantine, Martian Manhunter, Mister Miracle, The Justice League (via flashback,( Scarecrow, Doctor Destiny, The Joker (via name drop), ect... 

Sandman had seventy-five original issues during it’s eight year run between late 1988 until 1996. 

That’s quite a generous definition of mini-series, don’t you think?  If eight years is a mini-series I suppose Smallville was a TV movie.

Those seventy five issues that made up the original run of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman were made up of several storylines including Prelude and Nocturns (the first eight issues), Doll’s House, Dream Country, Season of Mists, A game of you, Fables and Reflections, Brief Lives, Worlds’ End, The Kindly Ones, and The Wake...

There was also The Specials, Song of Orpheus, Distant Mirrors (Ramadan), and the short Fear of Falling and The Castle. 

After this came the spin-off called The Dreaming (which ran for several years and also included the special Trial and Error).

The Dreaming Spin-off ran for sixty issues between 1996 and 2002. 

This also included Everything you ever wanted to know about Dreams, and the “Sandman presents“ spin-offs, Corinthian, Witchcraft, Lucifer, Merv Pumpkinhead (one shot), Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths foretold, The Thesaliad, Thessaly,  The Furies, Witchcraft, Dead Boy Detectives, Death: The High Cost of Living, Death: Time of your Life, House of Mystery Volume 2, Lucifer’s full spin-off (still currently going) and others I may have forgotten to name... 

Then there’s Sandman Guest appearances all through DC between 1988 to present.   

Morpheus and Daniel’s guest appearances in other DC comics including but not limited to Hellblazer,

Swamp Thing, (Where Matthew Cable becomes Morpheus’ loyal Raven)

The books of magic...

Green Arrow...

JL...

Sandman Presents (which has Wes Dodds Sandman as the lead protagonist (as opposed to Morpheus or Daniel, the literal Sandmen) who Dodds runs into during Morpheus’ captivity).

And Daniel in Dark Night’s Metal.

Besides numerous guest appearances Sandman doesn’t just end there.

There is also short story collection The Book of Dreams.

The Children’s books: Little Endless and Little Endless: Delirium’s Party.  

Then it spawned the Dream Hunters Novella, which later became a graphic novel.

The collection of seven one-shots called Endless Nights

And the recent award-winning six issue prequel, Sandman Overture.

So no.   Sandman is NOT a mini-series.  There are several mini-series within Sandman but Sandman is not a mini-series.

[multiversitycomics]

NYCC '17: Alisa Kwitney on the Magical Cast of "Mystik U"

We interview writer Alisa Kwitney on the upcoming tale about Zatanna Zatara: the College Years!

This summer saw one of DC’s most prominent and beloved magic characters, Zatanna Zatara, make her long-awaited return into DC Rebirth. Capitalizing on that momentum, DC will bring Zatanna into uncharted territory under the creative team Alisa Kwitney (“Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold”) and Mike Norton (“Revival”). At New York Comic Con, we talked with Kwitney about the upcoming book, its…