#For new power(s): I thought about giving her some sort of luck based ability

[ghoulishautism]

Time for another pointless poll, my favorite! Ghost!Kitty is not relevant to the comic I'm working on at all, but since I have her on the mind:

And in case y'all have no idea what I'm taking about:

[image description: A screenshot from the Danny Phantom wiki (specifically in the '[powers and Abilities]' section that reads as follows: Banishing Kiss: When Kitty joins forces with Ember McLain and Penelope Spectra in "Girls' Night Out," it is revealed that she can blow a kiss that can make any man, human and/or ghost, disappear to an unknown location. If she does not blow another kiss to reverse the effect and bring her victims back within 12 hours, the effect is permanent, and they are gone forever. With the help of Ember and her guitar, the effect of her banishing kiss can be amplified to banish many more men. It possibly has no effect on half-ghost, like Danny. - end description]

[screamingatanemptyroom]

Please Fix the Story pt 24 - Sci Fi

The battle with the Hive, and the traveler! Moving onto the end game after this. (Still will take a few parts, but the end is in sight!)

Masterpost linked here.

Enjoy!

_____________________________

The atmosphere in the conference room was tense.

“The numbers don’t look good.” General Gladus stared at the display with a frustrated sigh. “We just have the few Mechs stationed in the Fifteenth Sector. The Hive have a full colony… thousands of drones, directed by a Queen. They have already landed on the nearest moon, destroying the defense base there, and will be within striking distance of the planet in..." He rechecked his numbers. "Eighteen hours.”

Pointing his finger at the hologram, the display zoomed in on the larger dot surrounded by countless other smaller red dots. “The Queen is the key. She controls all the drones. If we take her out, we can halt the invasion long enough for true reinforcements to arrive.”

I nodded, trying to follow along. “So if we don’t have the numbers to defend the planet, we go on the attack and try to strike the Queen?”

“It can take a whole squadron to take out a Queen. “ He quickly put a damper on my excitement, frowning. “A normal Hive drone is the size of a human. She’s larger than two Mechs put together, around six stories tall, with armor to match.”

I thought about the story, what I knew about what technology was available years ahead… Hadn’t Chris gotten a special Mech to fight Queens? “What about a bigger Mech? Big enough to take on the Queen?”

The general paused at that. “The military engineers at the academy have been working on some prototypes… but the bigger a Mech is, the harder it is to control. In a few years we might have one that a single Guardian could operate, but the ones we have now? No one would have the capability…”

“I do.” I interrupted, speaking with certainty. “Let Liam and I try it.”

“Honey, I know you’re a Grade S Guardian, but…”

“I’m more than that. You remember that I almost destabilized? It was because of a sudden increase of my power” Because I’m not really your daughter. “I’m much more powerful than a grade S… “ I reached out and grabbed Liam’s hand. “And that’s not even to mention our 100% resonance match.”

Liam grinned, squeezing my hand. “Trust us, General. Alaira and I can fly anything they can build!”

The General stared at us, obviously unnerved at the idea of sending his daughter into the worst of the fighting. I reached out and grabbed his hand. “Trust me, Dad. I’ll make you proud.”

“…” He let out a long sigh. “I’m already more proud than I could ever be…” He rubbed his forehead. “Fine. Let’s see if you can work the thing… but if you can’t move it perfectly, then the plan gets canceled. I’m not sending you out there to die.”

“Thank you!” Awkwardly hugging him, I felt a twinge of guilt as he patted my back gently.

I wish your daughter could be here to feel your love and pride in her.

“Don’t celebrate too soon… Even if you’re big enough to take on a Queen, we still have to get you to her.”

I stepped closer to the display, studying it. “She’s directly in the center of the army… hiding away on the moon in the ruins of the defense base. With their numbers versus ours… we just don’t have the firepower to get there.”

Warning! Mission Failure Imminent!

As the blue writing and loud warning appeared only to me, I felt no fear, no terror at my imminent doom. It was now more annoying than anything else.

If you're not going to suggest anything helpful, then shut up!

Warning!...

SHUT UP! I screamed in my head, feeling a thread of shadowy power emerge from around me, erasing the words from existence.

The warning fell silent.

What… what was that? Some sort of magic? How much about myself is still hidden in my lost memories?

Enjoying the new silence in my head, I looked over at Liam who was staring at me with a worried look.

“Are you okay? You weren’t responding.”

I reached out, smoothing out his forehead, which was wrinkled with concern. “Yes. It’s difficult to explain, though. What did you say?”

“If we don’t have the troops to blast our way to the Queen, then what about a diversion?” He pointed at the area of the diagram between us and the Hive. “We act like we’re staging a frontal assault, and when they’ve deployed enough forces to weaken the rear, you and I strike from behind!”

The General nodded slowly. “It would take quite an attack to make the Hive divert forces to the front… Even if we threw everything we had and left nothing to protect you two, it might not be enough.”

I grinned. “Don’t worry about protecting us.” Grabbing Liam’s hand I added. “You forget who I matched with. We can handle our own defense. All that’s left is to figure out how to make a big enough distraction to give us a way in.”

“DID SOMEONE CALL FOR A DISTRACTION?!”

Princess Ilene pushed past the guards at the door with the two other girls in her group at her sides. “Sounds like a job for the Harem!”

Liam raised his eyebrow. Harem? He mouthed silently at me. I shook my head, not wanting to get involved.

Alaira’s father did not look impressed. “Princess. I don’t recall you showing any interest in military matters previously.”

“That’s before the Hive kidnapped Chris!” Ilene cracked her knuckles. “Now I gotta go crush some space bugs.”

Who says Chris was kidnapped?

“YEAH!" "We're going to save him!” The other two girls struck dramatic poses on either side of Ilene.

“…” The room stared at them in silence.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, wishing away my headache. “Princess, maybe this would work better if you explained to my father what skills you three brought to the table? “

“… I suppose.” She sniffed, gesturing at Wen grandly. “She has designed a Mech with the ability to tow 50 mini cannons.”

Wen grinned, explaining further. “The guns are strapped to a small engine, and will fly at evenly spaced intervals behind the controlling Mech. It’s still a work in progress… You can’t target, and you can’t control them individually… at least not yet.”

“But that’s still 50 extra shots for one Mech.” General Gladus looked much more interested. “How many have you made?”

“Just one, but if I add a small hologram projector to the guns, it will look like we have 50 fully operational Mechs with us! THAT should get the Hive’s attention.”

Ilene and Allie chimed in. “ We’ve already practiced piloting the Mech and can operate it smoothly.”

“… That… might just work…” He shrugged. “Strong work, Ladies…”

“We call ourselves the Harem… Alaira came up with the name!”

“Don’t credit me, please..”

The General glanced at my cringing expression and chuckled. “…Glad to have you aboard… I think.”

“All right!” The young engineer high-fived her companions, grinning proudly. “I was originally saving this invention for Chris, but now I’m going to use this to SAVE Chris!”

“YEAH!”

“…” The General was now staring at me with a look of consternation, to which I raised my hands helplessly. “…Sure.”

“So that’s the plan then.” I took a deep breath, calming the fast beating of my heart at the thought of the fight to come. “The Harem will distract the Hive, and Liam and I will take out the Queen.”

We’ll save the world.

We’ll complete my mission.

It will work… it has to.

“We’ll strike first thing in the morning.” General Gladus watched me with a worried gaze, but obviously held back from speaking further. “… Good luck.”

_____________________________

Liam and I tested out the massive Mech prototype called the “Queen Killer,” able to move it with an ease that shocked Alaira’s father and the engineers. After confirming the plan a final time, I returned back to my dorm to get some rest before the battle.

I found myself too keyed up to sleep, staring blankly at the ceiling. If we complete the mission, will I get all my memories back? Will I stay in this world or be forced to leave? Will Liam stay with me? My frantic thoughts were interrupted by a quiet knock on my door.

Wary, I checked the security system, quickly opening the door once I realized who it was.

“Liam, what are you doing here? It’s still a few hours before we’re supposed to meet for the mission.”

Liam wrung his hands together, staring at the floor quietly. “I… was hoping…”

“What is it?”

“Can you come with me?”

At my nod he grabbed my hand and pulled me along. I started to ask where he was taking me, but seeing the determination on his face, fell silent. I didn’t feel any wariness, despite my lack of knowledge of our direction.

_____________________________

“Aren’t you scared?” A voice asked, coming from high above me.

“No.”

“Why not?” The despair in the voice was heartbreaking. “Everyone else is.”

“Because it’s you.” I grinned. “Can’t be scared of you, Liam.”

_____________________________

I blinked, my gaze once again resting on our clasped hands.

I’ll keep trusting you Liam.

He took me to the upper deck of the academy, a large platform surrounded by multiple gardens. In the dead of night, the multicolored flowers and trees were barely visible. Rather than a clear sight, it was a combination of the senses: of impressions of movement, of gentle sounds of the wind swaying the branches and leaves, of brief flashes of colors in the light of the multiple candles that lit up the platform.

In the center of the platform stood a minister, the elderly man looking tired but still smiling gently. Off to the side were the Harem girls, watching silently, and Alaira’s father who stood by with a combination of tears and joy.

The King and Queen were nowhere to be seen.

“This.is…” My voice trailed off, filled with awe at the sheer amount of work it must have taken to move everything up here from the ballroom we had planned it in.

Liam knelt down, holding my hand with a solemn look.

“Alaira... I don’t know if we’re going to survive this battle, but I know one thing: If I’m going to die tomorrow, I want it to be as your husband.”

His hands were shaking with nervousness as they held my own.

“Please marry me.” His words were simple, but they struck my heart with a force that made me sway on my feet.

_____________________________

“Please marry me.” A trembling man held me close.

_____________________________

I smiled at the thought that I had answered this question before. “Yes.”

Liam let out a sigh of relief, standing up and hugging me gently. “Thank you…” He hesitated. “Bel.” The name was spoken only for me to hear, sounding like a prayer.

“You realize we had already planned to get married today?” I chuckled. “You didn’t have to re-propose.”

“I needed to hear it again.”

With a wide grin, he led me over to the center of the platform. There, in front of friends and family, the minister led us through the vows. As I spoke the words, holding Liam’s hands tightly, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had done this multiple times before.

How many lifetimes have I already spent with him? How many times have we been married?

Liam leaned in to kiss me, the gentle movement the barest touch on my lips, and then hugged me tightly against him.

“I love you.” He whispered in my ear.

My father stepped forward and clapped us both on the shoulder. “Alright, kids, that’s enough excitement pre-battle. Go get some sleep. I’ll throw you a combination victory party and wedding reception once we survive the Hive.”

Laughing, Liam and I left the party behind. We were unable to sleep, and simply laid in each other’s arms. My head rested against his chest, hearing his heartbeat and breaths. Closing my eyes, I prayed that we would make it though this battle safely.

And just maybe, if we survive this, I’ll figure out how to get our memories back.

I thought of the shadowy power I had displayed to shut the system warning down, an ability I had tried to repeat without success several times since. I don’t know who or what I am… but I do know one thing:

I won’t accept my fate.

_____________________________

Soon it was time for the battle.

Liam and I boarded the Queen Killer Mech and flew it around the battle site, staying out of range of the Hive’s sensors. We floated in Space watching the holographic display from the Mech's communication system as the Harem and the few soldiers Alaira’s father had brought with him advanced from the front. It looked as if there were over a hundred Mechs, an intimidating site, but we knew it was just an illusion, holograms attached to remote guns. Their actual numbers were quite pitiful compared to the army in front of them.

We could only hope the Hive would fall for the trick.

“Advance!” The General’s voice came over the intercom. I felt myself tremble with nervousness at his serious tone. I wasn’t really his daughter. Most of the time I felt like the worst fraud when I was with him. But I genuinely cared for this gruff, strange man. He loved his daughter, and wasn’t afraid to take on the world to protect her.

I hope he makes it. I felt a sharp pain in my stomach at the thought that he might not.

But if we don’t fight, none of us will.

The army of Mechs, both real and fake, moved forward. As the Hive flew to meet them, I got a close look at them through my headset. I had seen their appearance in Alaira’s memories, but somehow, seeing them with my own eyes was all the more horrifying.

Large insects, each the size of a human, with a black and red exoskeleton that coated everything, even the wings. Enormous pincers grew outwards on their heads, sharp enough to tear a Mech open, to cut a human in half. Their dark, multifaceted eyes took in the space emotionlessly. They were unstoppable, insatiable. The Hive’s only goal was to devour, to destroy. They numbered in the thousands; enough to make even seeing the moon the Queen was hiding on difficult.

I felt a deep feeling of terror growing within me, fear and despair mixing, threatening to take away my reason.

It’s not my emotions.I tried to push down the feeling, but they continued to grow, trying to overwhelm me. It’s Alaira’s.

She had died there, next to that moon, surrounded by the Hive. Their pincers destroyed her Mech, pulled her out from the safety of the piloting sphere. She was overwhelmed, and even with the fracturing of her mind she knew she was doomed.

“Are you okay?” Liam’s voice in my ear calmed me down. “Your strong emotions are interfering with the Connection.” I took a deep breath, repeating silently.

You are not Alaira. You are not Alaira.

I knew exactly what it would feel like to die in battle with the Hive, though.

The Hive started swarming to the front, line. The Queen was directing them to defend her against the “larger” threat. There were only a few hundred left to guard the rear.

“It’s working!” General Gladus’ excited voice sounded out. “They’re falling for it.”

“Then we’ll get to work.”

“… Good luck, Alaira. I love you.”

I hesitated. “… I love you too… Father.”

It was time. I grabbed Liam’s hand, squeezing it tightly.

“Focus on your shield.”

He took a deep breath. “You know I can’t control it.”

“You can let me in, Liam. You are in control. Use it for its purpose: to protect yourself. To protect me.”

He closed his eyes, positioning himself behind me within the Connection chamber in the Mech. His hands were on my back, and through the physical touch I felt his nervousness. The air around the Mech seemed to shift, and I knew that I had to act quickly before the mental shield weakened.

I flew the Mech forward, quickly reaching the highest speed. At the noise of our passing one of the drones turned to face us. Soon they had swarmed around us, their pincers opened to attack.

FEAR.

Alaira’s emotions were running full force, but I pushed them down once more, going faster. I could feel Liam behind me, keeping the connection between me and the Mech easy despite its enormous size. We flew into the swarm, and the sturdy alien insects splattered against the mental shield, which held firm under the blows.

Liam and I sighed with relief.

“See? You CAN control it!”

“We still have the Queen to deal with.” Liam’s voice was worried, I could feel his concern though our connection. “She’s a little big to be squished by a shield.”

“Well that’s why we brought the big guns.” After a few more moments we broke through the Hive’s line of defense, and landed on the Moon, trying to locate the Queen.

“Where is she?” The scanners were starting to scramble, as if interrupted by an unknown signal. The Hive shouldn’t have that kind of technology, though.

“I don't see her on the Moon's surface. Has she left? First, let’s try the defense fort. It should be big enough to hide the Queen.” At Liam’s suggestion we flew forward, making our way to the building. The clear defense dome seemed intact, the computers opening an airlock, allowing us to pass forward after communicating with our Mech and confirming our identity.

“How would the Queen be here without destroying the dome?” I muttered, trying to scan the surroundings and noting that it was picking up several lifeforms, even if it was still too scrambled to give a clear location.

“ I don’t know, but I don’t think that hole was there before.” Liam tapped my back, and I looked towards the Hanger, the largest building in the complex. A six story hole had been torn out of the front wall. Wary, I moved the Mech closer, ducking down and entering the main area, which was fortunately tall enough to accommodate our oversized Mech.

The area was mostly lit up, a few of the florescent lights sparking and flickering from recent damage. The few Mechs that had remained had been torn to shreds and tossed in a pile. The space was wide-open, extending outwards into shadows.

“What the…?” My voice trailed off in shock as I stared at the unbelievable sight in front of me.

In the center of the hanger stood the Queen. She was bright white with red and black markings along the side of her rotund torso. She brandished hundreds of spiky claws like a millipede, with large bright red wings extended behind her. Towards the top she sported multiple large pincers, with a final one extending from her head. Her eyes glowed with a bright white light, staring at us with fury.

She was frozen into place, unable to make a single movement.

“What is going on?” I whispered to Liam.

“Bel, you actually made it this far!”

A cheerful voice rang out, causing both of us to groan with frustration. A Mech emerged from the shadows, we couldn’t see the pilot, but Liam and I knew who it was and spoke his name together.

“Chris.”

“I keep telling you, it’s not Chris.” The voice coming from the Mech seemed annoyed, the large robot swinging a sword back and forth. “As always, you two are wrong.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked, clenching my fists at my side within the Connection Chamber of our Mech.

“Exactly what I told you, Bel: I’m ending this.” He lifted up his Mech’s free hand, and in it was a large bomb blinking with a bright red light. A single red button marked the trigger, and I tensed up as he caressed it lightly with a large metallic finger.

“That’s a uninite bomb.” Liam spoke up. “You’d destroy the moon with one that big! You'll kill us all with the Queen!”

“Exactly! I’m willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to save everyone. Not like you… monster.” He spit out the last word, his voice filled with hatred. “I’m the HERO. I’m the one who everyone cares about. I’m the one SHE SHOULD LOVE!”

“Oh, SHUT UP!” I activated the opening on our Mech, and slid down a cord to the ground, pulling off my helmet to reveal my face. The air inside the defense shield was slightly stale but breathable.

Liam was startled, jumping down to stand beside me. “Bel, wait!”

“It’s okay.” I grinned at him. “Trust me.” The Mech straightened up behind us, falling into a standby position. I looked up at the Mech controlled by the Pseudo-Chris.

“If you’re going to threaten me and insult my husband, then do it to my face.”

“Nice try. If I leave the Mech, I can’t control it. All you’ve managed to do is to give away your only advantage!” He laughed confidently. “I am in control, Bel. The Hive, the Queen… all of it! I’m the only one who can save your soul from destruction.”

“You brought the Hive here… you’re the one who advanced the story so quickly.” I paused, thinking it over. “How come you can go against the story? I always get warnings whenever we stray too far away from our characters.”

“You don’t understand. You never have. All that matters is that the roles are obeyed, that we follow our fate. I may have taken a… detour… but in the end I will fulfill my role as a hero, and save everyone, at the cost of my own life.”

“Why are you doing this?” Liam growled, standing close to me.

“He was hoping that I would give up.” I answered for him calmly, staring up at the Mech with a disgusted expression, “He made a seemingly impossible situation, hoping I would see accepting my fate as my only option.”

I thought of the system's warning that I had no chance of survival. They had tried to manipulate me. Tried to force me to do what they wanted.

But I hadn't.

“You see things so clearly sometimes, Bel.” Chris’ voice showed his approval. “And even though it didn’t work, I can still just end things here. I’ll destroy the Queen, which will complete your mission. The system can erase your memory again and we’ll start over.”

I felt a sense of fear at his words. How many times has this already happened?

“No matter how many times we have to do this, there will only be one outcome in the end: you will accept your fate.”

_____________________________

“You will accept your fate, Bel.” The young handsome man stared at me with disappointment. “You can’t keep hiding with this monster forever.”

“He's not a monster. Besides, you’re the one who sent me to Liam.” I grinned. “You have no one to blame but yourself.”

“It was temporary. You were supposed to be his prisoner.” He snapped. “Now, because of you, he’ll be the first to be destroyed. You can’t distort the higher realm. Everything depends on it.”

“It’s not right…”

“It’s the reality of our roles. Now enough stalling. What will you choose? Will you follow the rules, or will you let everything be destroyed to protect your precious independence?”

“No…”

“Even you can’t be that selfish.” He growled, reaching out to grab my arm painfully. “Accept your fate, Bel.

“NO!”

_____________________________

“NO!” I shook my head, clearing aside the memory. “No matter how many times you ask me. No matter how many worlds you drag me through. No matter how many times my memory is wiped. I WILL NOT ACCEPT IT!”

“Fine. Then it’s time to move to the next world…” His Mech raised its hand holding the bomb.

“You’re pathetic.” My words were quiet, but seemed to echo in the otherwise silent hanger. “Even when we were in the higher realm you were always trying to trick and scheme to get things to go the way you wanted. You thought by forcing me to Liam’s side as his ‘prisoner’ you could force me to accept my fate, but that backfired too, didn’t it?”

“… “ There was a long stunned silence.

“You… you remember?” The Mech’s head shook back and forth in a jerky movement. “No, your memories were wiped!”

I quickly thought through the few memories I had experienced over the last few weeks. “You wanted me to play my part… but I didn’t want to be in a romantic relationship with you. I would solve things my own way, which pissed you off.”

“YOU… NO! YOUR MEMORIES ARE GONE!” The whole Mech was shaking slightly.

“No matter the realm, no matter the roles we play, one thing remains constant: you’re a pathetic loser.” I smiled. “And I like Liam more than you.”

“HE’S A MONSTER! YOU CAN’T LOVE HIM! YOU HAVE TO LOVE ME!”

“Bel…” Liam whispered. “You realize you’re making the unstable man with the bomb angry, right?”

“Trust me, I have a plan… probably.”

“Oh, good.”

I looked up at the Mech, raising my voice. “I’ll never love you!”

“YOU HAVE TO!”

“Get used to disappointment, loser.”

The Mech was shaking more violently as he whispered hoarsely. “Y-you’re lying… you have to be. You don’t have your memories…”

I AM lying. “Too bad for you I’m telling the truth. I remember everything important.”

“…Then what’s my name?”

I spread my hands out helplessly. “Oh buddy, I just said I remembered everything IMPORTANT.” I leaned forward. “You were never important to me. You still aren’t.”

“SHUT UP! SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP!” The Mech was rocking back and forth with his screams and then suddenly became very still.

“Got him!” I pumped my fist in the air victoriously.

“What’s… what’s happening?! I can’t control my Mech!”

I chuckled at his panicked tone.

“You see, there’s a difference between you and me. You might be the hero, but I’m the one with greater than Level S Guardian abilities. In fact, you used that very trait of mine to try to force me to partner with you. It was a burden before I formed a Connection with Liam, but now?” I reached over and grabbed Liam’s hand. “It makes things really easy. One of the skills I’ve practiced was controlling Mechs from a distance.”

“That’s…”

“Impossible? Only if you’re weak. The distance makes things challenging but it’s still fairly simple for me.” I paused. “By the way, I WAS lying earlier. I needed you to have strong emotions to disrupt your Connection with your Mech so I could take it over.”

“…” Enjoying his stunned silence, I gestured, controlling the “Queen Killer” Mech to step forward.

“Now I could let you blow yourself up and kill the Queen to complete the mission, but unlike you, I don’t feel any satisfaction out of sacrificing myself or others needlessly. I’m also not going to let you die, because I have a feeling that could have negative effects on this world.”

The Queen started moving, whatever restraints the pseudo-Chris had placed on it obviously released. I could feel her anger at being obstructed in her mission. Her overwhelming need to consume life and move on drove her constantly, and even the briefest of pauses enraged her. Her hungry eyes focused on me, sensing a threat.

I released all my abilities to the limit, feeling a light throbbing headache at controlling two Mechs at once, and one of them being the large Queen Killer.

“It’s time for this story to end.” I whispered, feeling satisfaction as the giant robot pulled out a sword and brandished it.

“My mission will be completed.” The sword tore a huge rent in the Queen’s side, spilling green blood. The insect queen screamed in rage and pain, her pincers tearing off some of the armor on the Mech’s arm.

“The world will be saved.” A second strike hit, cutting off several claws. The Queen clamped onto the Mechs’ chest with her mandibles, trying to burrow into the center. I was glad I wasn’t in the suspension gel, feeling the pain of the attack.

“And it will all be done without you.” My Mech swung the sword downward, and the Queen’s head separated from its body. It still clamped onto the chest of the robot, its eyes’ light slowly fading away.

“NOOOO!” Pseudo Chris screamed out, but it was too late. The Queen was dead. Her army would become useless.

The world was safe.

A beautiful chime rang out, and bright blue words formed into the air.

Congratulations!

Mission 100% complete.

**** You have finished the mission! ****

Stay in this world?

YES/NO

“It doesn’t matter if you completed the mission or I did. I still have the next world, and the next and the next!” The Mech was still frozen into place, but it didn’t stop his angry words. “Time is on my side!”

I sighed. “No. It’s not.” As I had completed the mission, I felt a strange surge of power. A similar sensation to when I had stopped the system voice from speaking earlier. I focused carefully, and a shadowy power poured out in the world around me, much stronger than before.

“Bel?” At Liam’s worried question, I turned and smiled at him.

“Don’t worry, Liam. It’s just time to change the game.” He grabbed my hands and nodded silently at my words, supporting me.

I turned my attention to the System’s message.

“We will not stay in this world any longer.” The shadowy power around me increased.

…

WORLD TRANSFER FAILED. UNKNOWN INTERFERENCE.

“Oh, that’s just me. You see… this world’s victory was all I needed to finish piecing together my soul.”

…

“I really do remember everything now.”

And I did. Who I was. Why I had made the deal I had made.

“I fixed every world you sent me to. Without memories. Without my protected status as the heroine. Just a hated side character or villain. Admit it… I won.”

… NOT YET.

“You’re right. There’s still one last story to be fixed.” I grinned at Liam, leaning forward to kiss him on the cheek. “The Higher Realm.”

Our world.

YOU MUST ACCEPT…

“I must do nothing.” The dark power that surrounded me erased the blue words in the air before they could form that hated sentence. “YOU must transfer us back. Back to the beginning.”

…

…

“Do it.” I gave no room for argument.

…

WORLD TRANSFER INITIATED. LOCATION: THE HIGHER REALM.

“I love you Liam.” I hugged him tightly. “Let’s get married one last time.”

“I love you too… But what do you…?”

TRANSFER COMPLETE.

[demonslayedher]

The Sharing of Demon Cells

Kibutsuji Muzan is the basis upon which all other demons live. They were altered by his cells, having more of his cells makes them more powerful, he can reach into their thoughts and sight whenever he likes, and should they ever slip up and say something that will pose a threat to him, the cells of his that each demon carries will act as a curse and kill them. But each demon is also an individual, and their own cells determine what sort of being they'll become, and how useful they'll be to Muzan in doing what he cannot. To what extent can their own cells be shared and influence others, a reflection of the way Muzan's can be? This will be heavily based on info presented in Fanbook #2, but will also look at cases throughout the manga.

Influence of Muzan's Cells First, let's consider how unique or separate the demons are in the first place. All demons have Muzan's cells, except Yushiro who was created without them, and when Muzan was killed all the demons died too. This dependency, as well as the fact that each demon essentially acts as a long-distance extension of Muzan, might make it seem like they are a hivemind, or like an aspen forest, in which it looks like there are lots of trees but actually they are all one living entity connected by their roots. However, I think it's better to think of Muzan like one core tree, and the other demons like plants that growth on top on him with roots dependent on him, though they use their own leaves to reap... well, sunlight. Maybe this is a bad metaphor. We can still, however, thing of them as intimately intertwined.

Essentially, they are their own unique beings almost like parasites to him, because in most cases we've seen of people turning to demons, there was more or less a death of the human. In the two cases of demons turning human again, with the help of medicine to unweave themselves from Muzan, the mere time spent as a demon which self-repairing cells was what already zapped life back into them. In other cases, while still intimating interwoven with Muzan, that means they'd have been dragging down with him. This means Nezuko got very lucky with her timing that the medicine had an effect on her before Muzan perished; though perhaps she freed herself enough that this would not have had an effect. For those demons that aren't as lucky (Tamayo had a pure stroke of luck being able to break from, as though the thorny vines turned brittle enough for her to break through when Muzan was in pieces after encountering Yoriichi, and then it was impossible to bring her back), this means being vulnerable to Muzan's wishes at any time. While Muzan himself is essentially in pieces at all times, what with being present inside of each of his demons, he is the progenitor of demons, and this doesn't cause him any ill effects (making him more like a host rather than interdependent). However, other demons have also shown this ability to break themselves into multiple pieces.

The Swamp Demon: One demon in three bodies showing different attributes, but all the same being. Notably, this was not it's only Blood Technique, it had also developed a whole sub-dimension. Pretty rough first mission for a newbie, although it's possible it did not yet have mastery of its own rather impressive techniques (like Kaigaku). Hantengu: His self-splitting is more complicated, in that he first gains strength when he is cut, especially in taking on younger forms, until reaching the limits of this. Make enough copies, and his copies will no longer gain extra strength, like how repeated clones will have shorter and shorter DNA code on which to base themselves, or how photocopying copy after copy instead of the original will lead to blurrier copies. While like the Swamp Demon these different bodies show different personalities, it's a more advanced technique because they also show entirely different abilities, and function like multiple demons that happen to share the same basic identity. What gets really interesting is when one of these demons forcefully absorbs the others and grows more powerful.

Demon cannibalism is not an ideal way of gaining strength, but it happens. As mentioned in this post analyzing how demons rely on their human diet, demons at the Final Selection were known to eat each other, but clearly this doesn't make them as formidable as eating humans would, and it may had only been a desperate act to quell their own maddening hunger. However, in cases when demons have challenged each other, the loser may be absorbed. That is precisely what Kokushibou did on two of the three occasions he was challenged for the Upper Moon One rank, according to Fanbook #2 (he decided not to eat Akaza because he liked him). This cannibalism was done with Muzan's permission, and if it's anything like Sekido absorbing the other Hantengu quarters to become Zouhakuten, then we can assume Kokushibou got stronger because of the cells he took from those demons, perhaps similar to how cells from Muzan can make a demon more powerful. While we're on the topic of Upper Moons, Fanbook #2 states that only they have the permission to make other demons, and even so, they must ask Muzan for permission first. I'm assuming they're also the only ones allowed to call Muzan up on the mental telephone line instead of just be on the receiving end. If Muzan agrees, their blood is changed, so essentially what they give the new demon hopeful is not their own blood, but Muzan's. There is only demon we know of who has permission to share his own unique cells, which influence demons in their own unique way, separate from the influence Muzan already has. Lower Moon Five, Rui, simply by virtue of being a favorite. Fanbook #2 tells us:

Although he's only been a demon for less than twenty years, he's especially skilled, and well-favored by Muzan. In terms of absolute abilities he's thought to be more like Lower Moon One or Two, but since he isn't concerned about what number he is he's never applied for change in rank. Muzan anticipated Rui being able to kill Pillars. He probably would had been able to have a good match with a Pillar if he first reabsorbed all the abilities he split up amongst the demons playing the roles of his family (that is, his Blood Techniques which he lent to them by making them drink his blood, which gave them spider appearances), and he probably could had gotten even stronger. However, because he got over-emotional while fighting Tanjiro and the others on Mt. Natagumo, he made some misjudgments. He has a tendency to do simple attacks just throwing his weight around when he gets angry. If Rui were defeated first, his family member demons, who could not originally use Blood Techniques, would lose those abilities.

We can infer a few things from this: --All of those techniques were Rui's in the first place --Rui became weaker by doing this (though his overall strategy in spreading his abilities lead to lots and lots of Demon Slayer Corp deaths, so this is probably part of why Muzan allowed it), so there are limitations in how thinly he can spread himself --If not Rui's personal techniques and instead developed by being in combination with the individual demons' he shared his blood with, that's perhaps part of why he could had gotten more powerful by reabsorbing his own blood/blood techniques. While Rui did have special permission, I think it's also partly because Rui lacked ambition, so he never would had set about to challenge Muzan by spreading his own personal influence. Just think what, say, someone like Gyokko would had done with this permission, and how much he might had abused it in spreading his own taste and influence. Though he's subservient to Muzan, with too much of a taste for power, it's possible he could had tried to overstep his boundaries--not that Muzan would had let that last long the moment he saw it in his thoughts, but keeping tight rules prevents him from ever having to deal with any challenges from among his more powerful demons. If we look at the Rui-Demon Family relationship from the receiving end, though, this is a clear case for how taking cells from other demons can make a demon much stronger, thereby being another option besides eating humans or possible other self-strengthening methods. While they did on the whole become stronger and were newly able to use Blood Techniques with Rui's help, what about other cases of not simply getting stronger, but using each others' techniques as-is? Yahara and Susamaru, perhaps? Not quite, they each used their own Blood Techniques and willingly cooperated with each other, there was no exchange of cells, as far as we know. (That sounds dirty, and we're not going there.) How about when anybody uses Yushirou's papers? First, those abilities were freely lent, and most of the people who used them were human, and there was no ingesting of demon blood required. Perhaps with Nakime, however, forcing his own blood into her may had been how he was able to force her to see illusions. Genya using Kokushibou's techniques? Now we're getting closer. While in his temporary demon state, he was influenced by Kokushibou's cells like Rui's family was influenced by his cells in their appearance. It seems the tree was of his own making instead of being strictly a copy of Kokushibou's techniques, but we can think of this as a crude imitation of the ability to make objects based on demon cells, especially something that requires speedy growth/increase of cells. Later in that fight, Kokushibou displayed the ability to very quickly increase and transform, and the sword which Genya consumed was, essentially, a part of Kokushibou's body. (Still sounding dirty, but nope, we still are not going there.) Very notable is that this is a case of a demon's cells/abilities being absorbed and used against their own will. Even if this did subtract from Kokushibou's abilities like happened with Rui, though, the effect was probably only slight. So then what about when a demon freely wants to lends their own ability to another demon? First of all, Muzan, who will stand for absolutely nothing challenging him, will say no.

Ok. So. What if we can get around that? Answer: Yes, we can. We can totally do this. It's probably just as simple as Rui having other demons drink his blood, and they all probably have some innate ability to influence each other, albeit the more powerful ones having more influence. But, what's super interesting is that their own cells still stay unique to them, even when in another demon's body. Cases in point, Rui's family members periodically changing back to their personal appearance, and Muzan's cells lurking inside of any other demon. And, jumping ahead of ourselves, even when Muzan has absorbed Tamayo, her cells are still so unique that he can even reassemble her. (Worth noting, absorbing one demon probably only had a marginal effect on making him stronger. Also worth noting, at least when inside Muzan's inner space, she's also able to reassemble herself to some extent, and we only see her fade away in peace in a post-chapter sketch once Muzan is dead.)

Speaking of Tamayo, she did freely use a Blood Technique freely given to her by another demon, the man in Asakusa. Once they got him free of Muzan's curse too so he could act on his own will, he could lend the use of his cells and thorny flesh vines to Tamayo, specifically to be used against Muzan in Chapter 138. Muzan's first thought is, "who's Blood Technique is this?" Unsurprising he's long forgotten about the throwaway Asakusa Demon, who has now totally slipped out of his control! But he stays calm, knowing this is like any other demon, and it's not even a huge amount, he can simply absorb this. Which, of course, makes his unwittingly absorb Tamayo's fist, too. Whoops. (Aside: I had initially thought the Blood Technique Muzan uses against Himejima in Chapter 139 was Muzan taking the Asakusa Demon's attack and using it as his own, but Fanbook #2 specifies that this is Muzan's own unique technique.)

Let's back up one more moment. It's one thing to influence each other with your own cells that stay separate and unique, and to lend out Blood Techniques. But what about sharing demon cells in a way that makes it act like like a food, something that can be broken down, totally separated from its former host, and fundamentally transform its new host?

For that, we have medicine.

Yushirou might had been made with Tamayo's cells, or a medicine developed from scratch like the medicine that changed Muzan into a demon, or it could be a combination of both. However, even when Tamayo died, Yushirou could go on living, so he and Tamayo do not have a dependent host/parasite relationship like all the other demons do with Muzan. He certainly felt it with his whole being when he perished, but you could argue that this was the power of love instead of his cells being tied with hers. If her cells were used to create him (which I find likely), being used in a medicinal form severed whatever sort of standard connection there might had been if making demons in Muzan's style, and it also allowed it to fully become a part of Yushirou as an individual, instead of remaining uniquely Tamayo (not that he'd have a problem with that). Getting that process to work took Tamayo over two hundred years. That's probably part of why she could work so much faster with Nezuko's blood, and why she was able to use it as a medicine to help the Asakusa Demon, as stated in Tamayo's letter to Tanjiro in Chapter 127. There's no mention of him picking up traits from Nezuko like Exploding Blood or potential to master the sun, instead, the only effect was helping him break free of Muzan's influence, and perhaps his ability to live on a small amount of blood might also had been influenced by Nezuko's ability to function without it (though I find it more likely Tamayo already had other appetite management methods that helped her and Yushirou which also helped this fellow).

So anyway. While there are demons we don't wish to harm by shedding light on them in a thoughtless metaphor, I hope this was insightful.

[imthepunchlord]

Do you have any thoughts on how the guardian role is handled lore wise? Would you change much about being the guardian?

Oh yes I do and there's so much that I would change up.

The more we see of the Guardians, the dumber they are and the more pointless they are. To a point it's a wonder if they were worth the inclusion as they don't amount to much and are just useless. I'm putting this undercut as I just go off.

- Lore wise, they set it up that adults are naturally more powerful, so why did Fu pick two kids to fight his battles for him? Why not adults? Why did he leave them on their own instead of offering them some means to have an edge over HM?

- Of the Ladybug and Cat, we have yet to see anything unique that the Cat brings to these fights that the other 15 miraculi that Fu has with him couldn't do. You need a distraction that's going to mess up the akuma? Monkey and Fox. You need a protector/aggressor? Bee, Turtle, or Dragon. Ladybug is a must as its the only cleanser so far and has ML to boot, but Cat doesn't need to be out there, and as soon as HM had quite publicly stated that he wants LB and Cat, Fu should've reclaimed the Cat immediately to secure its safety and that HM won't get both. Another or two could go out to replace it.

- Why was picking Adrien a good idea? If Fu had just arrived in Paris, ok, but Backwarder reveals he's been living in Paris for a while. And with that, he's seen Adrien's face everywhere.s Adrien is potentially the most well known kid in Pari. Technically, for Fu's want of secrecy, why pick the most iconic face in Paris to get a miraculous? That sets up one of your heroes to always have attention on him. Fu picking Adrien doesn't make any logical sense.

- Why is Fu ok with endangering one kid but not the other? Why does Marinette get a test set up that risks her life and Fu's if it hadn't gone well and Adrien just helps an old man up, a common decency that most would do. It's like two extreme differences that don't work well in comparison as Marinette gets the risky test and Adrien it looks like he got his miraculous on a silver platter as he got the far easier one that takes the least effort to be a decent human being.

- Fu being a terrible mentor and hero picker in general and the whole shebang with Syren. If Adrien is not meeting his standards or if he doesn't trust Adrien at all, why is Adrien being allowed to continue as a hero? Or if he really wants Adrien to stay, why isn't he doing anything about Adrien? Why isn't he telling Plagg to encourage Adrien to step up and get serious? If he can take on the role of being Adrien's Chinese teacher, why not do that to try and guide Adrien to improvement so he can also be trusted with Guardian secrets too and truly help Marinette out. He's got two options when he doesn't trust Adrien or finds that he's meeting his standards: he takes the miraculous back or he addresses this issue himself.

- I also call big BS about him not doing anything at all when he comes upon Adrien detransformed on the roof with Plagg. Cause he's risking himself going out to find Chat Noir only to find him detransformed. That realistically should raise some brows and concern him. Adrien at least should've gotten a lecture or warning.

- Also the reveal that kwamis aren't allowed to know about their own power. that to me is off putting. It really stresses that kwamis are beneath them, these very ancient and powerful beings that have probably seen a lot. And canon validates it by making them children (which to me is the writers being lazy so they don't have to do complex characters).

- The whole thing with Fu's backstory. Dumbest backstory I've ever heard and it just paints Guardians in a really bad light, and by extension, real life monks. Monks didn't go to people's homes to take children. If they did take kids with them, those kids had nowhere else to go and offered them a place to stay until old enough to be on their own. And that test, omg, wtf. Ok, I can get the idea of a test of temptation, but there are other ways to perform it without starving a kid. Especially leaving said kid alone unsupervised with 19 powerful miraculi two of which have wish granting abilities. How would the Guardians even know if Fu used a miraculous as they left him alone with mriaculi. If Fu wanted to, he could've made a wish to never be picked.

- Fu didn't even do shit when he finally had a chance to face off against HM. He just sat in his damb ball and allowed himself to get knocked around. At least try and roll over him! Be a ping-pong ball! DO SOMETHING. Like, why did you even pick Turtle??? Turtle wasn't able to do anything against Butterfly! I thought it could as Fu had been ready to go in Origins, plus the 5 are based off Wu Xing, by set up, Fox and Turtle should have some sort of an edge over the Butterfly. But I guess that means there could be other options aside form LB and we can't have that, Marinette's miraculous needs to be the only thing to take on the Butterfly to really stress on the fact that it comes down to only her.

- The memory wipe thing that's an apparently must when you retire from being the Guardian. Honestly I think that should've been saved as a last resort if you're ever captured and could be forced to leak info, not when you retire. Doing so removes a valid source of advisement that a new Guardian can rely on. History is there to learn from it and this tradition removes a source of history to learn from, either from having guidance or seeing what the old did and how you want to change things. This also makes me concerned as I see Adrien taking advantage of an amnesiac Marinette.

- I went off about the NY Special revealing there's more Orders here.

- And lastly, Su-Han, the other Guardian to see aside from Fu. And with him, it solidifies how stupid they all are. When the Butterfly is being misused in Paris, why is someone aggressive and judgmental coming to Paris? Why is this guy even working with kids when he doesn't like kids? And the reveal that Guardians don't use miraculi at all. That just makes that test all the dumber with testers being unsupervised. And for Guardians not meant to use miraculi, how come Marinette gets a nice perk as LB that she can pull a miraculous out of her yo-yo? They're probably playing that she's "the first" to do so but realistically, I'm pressing x to doubt. In the long history of miraculi and when Guardians were around, you expect me to believe that Guardians never used miraculi themselves? What if there was no one to turn to, do they just the disaster happen? ...Well, based on how terrible canon is setting them up, I wouldn't be surprised.

SO.

There is a lot I would change up about the Guardians and for this, I'll adjust canon.

- Adrien gets the ring another way, maybe a gift from his mom or aunt or grandparents. Realistically, there's no logical reason for Fu to pick Adrien. He just has too much attention on him and Chat being an unexpected miraculous user can make him wary, adding to him only trusting Marinette.

- I'd have Fu be more present in Marinette's life, a customer who comes in a lot. This way he can offer advise when needed but not take away from Tikki. And this has him more closely keeping an eye on things.

- I'd change up Fu's backstory. He got separated from his family in a flood, the previous Turtle saved him, tried to help him find his family and with no luck, took him to the Temple, but only the section where other orphans are where they work to help take care of it, oblivious to the miraculous near them. After a year, Fu is one of the few selected to be entrusted with miraculous knowledge. He's surprised but not all that for it as he'd rather go find his family still. Idk how Temple falls but its not that. That was just dumb and avoidable.

- I wouldn't have Adrien meet Fu at all. In truth, it actually could've been cut out entirely as Adrien meeting Fu didn't amount to anything. He doesn't help with Guardian duties, doesn't help pick heroes, hasn't stepped up at all in his role as a partner. And he's not as torn up about Fu's loss as Marinette is. Adrien meeting Fu was pointless in the grand scheme of things. Nothing was progressed or changed from Adrien meeting Fu.

- I'd have HM ONLY getting an edge on Fu because Mayura was there to help him, catching Fu off guard. I want to see the Turtle truly in action, to see what else it can do cause sitting there to be smacked around was just unimpressive. And if Asstruck even did as much research as he could, he'd know that in Chinese mythology, the Turtle is a boss. It's the keeper of history and symbol of immortality, and it's up there with Tiger as an animal that can go toe to toe with the Dragon. And of the Four Symbols (associated with 4 seasons), the Black Turtle is also known as the Black Warrior. There should've been a lot more to Turtle than just sitting in your shell and allowing yourself to be knocked around.

- Su-Han I'd drastically change up. I'd keep in him being critical and stern, but he approaches things smartly and patiently. Before he dives into aggression and accusations, he wants to know what's going on. Why does this 14 yo have the Miracle Box? How was the Butterfly obtained and misused? And what the hell is going on??? How are these people so small and how did they get into this thin glass box?? Computer? What's a computer??? Essentially, have fun with the fact that Su-Han is essentially a time traveler and one great bonding experience to have with Marinette while also offering some good comedy is him learning about the modern time and her acting as his guide. Su-Han can give her guidance that Fu hadn't been able to give, and Marinette can offer her own in a way that Su-Han will need. Which by extension could remove Marinette having a near mental breaking point and revealing herself to Alya, and could avoid some of that drama of what's coming.

- Speaking of which, Adrien. I'd use Su-Han to finally address the issues with Adrien as a hero and partner. Su-Han prioritized Marinette as she has the Miracle Box, but Adrien is someone he'd take the miraculous away from. Adrien would get a very clear warning and call out for his actions and role.

[echo-three-one]

Whatever It Takes

Sequel to A Forgotten Memory

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

With more and more information revealed via Augustus' burner phone, The team now has to make an important decision, one that would change the course of their lives, forever.

Chapter 15 to another story made by Ray (echo-three-one) Comments and Reviews appreciated! I hope you enjoy! Love you all ❤️

Previous Chapter : Meet Me Halfway

Unexpected Alliances

Gary "Roach" Sanderson

Task Force 141

Flying above Russian Airspace

Roach was speechless. Admittedly the dark and messy battle at the Gulag was something worth noting but the thing that kept his head preoccupied at the moment was Soap and France kissing in the middle of warfare.

Guess love knows no boundaries huh. He thought to himself as he looked at France kneeling beside Soap who passed out from exhaustion. Another person laying beside him was an old man named Jack. The 141 records had a match to Jack, he's apparently Alex's mentor who got missing when their safehouse got raided.

Guess the force will be having two reunions tonight. His eyes turned to Price, who sat by the huge window and gazed into the sea of clouds, he's always serious and in thought that Gary found him intimidating, even after that short mission in Germany. 

Then there was Ghost. He's surely heartbroken now that she saw what France did. And Gary was slightly to blame, well not necessarily his fault but if he pushed him enough to confess, maybe this won't hurt more than it did to him today.

Gary spent the rest of the trip observing, noting his comrade's actions, discussing with their thoughts, especially after the invasion. He was glad 141 extracted Soap before the deliberation, where none of them are allowed to perform missions. Gary felt scared, he just got here, got the hang of it, and was afraid to cut ties with the 141 on such short notice. But he hoped Shepherd would talk sense to the board, especially now that the burner phone filled with leads was within their possession.

"You're awfully quiet…" Ghost nudged to Gary while fidgeting with his gun.

"Well, I got nothing to talk about." Gary replied, turning to the masked man.

"Well I've got a lot, and it's pretty nasty. Can't say it here though." He replied, his tone was almost relieved, as if he just blurted out something that was bothering him for a long time.

"Is it about them?" Gary whispered, pointing his thumb to the couple back at the med bay.

"That's a different story, and I told you I was right, they already had a thing going on since day 1. Who am I to interfere…" Gary could feel him frown beneath the mask, he got defeated in the war of love.

"That's okay… You'll find someone better." Gary consoled and Ghost automatically shrugged it off. 

"Eh. I hope…" he said, turning to the window opposite to Gary's position.

~

Task Force 141 Base - Infirmary

"The audio from this room's camera is muted so it's best to discuss it here." Ghost sat on the chair as concerned 141 members circled around him, Jack, Alex and Soap occupied the beds as they recovered from injuries.

"What you got for us, lad?" Price crossed his arms as he leaned by the door, his hat tilted perfectly on his head.

"An anonymous number sent Augustus coordinates of the base prior to the attack." He held up the phone and everyone murmured.

"Looks like we have another mole in our hands." Alex grunted, turning to Jack for nostalgia.

"But this time, we have a solid lead to who it is…" Ghost added while everyone braced themselves for the slap of reality they're going to get.

From out of nowhere the infirmary doors opened, Maxine was panting and sobbing at the same time, her hands held her thigh desperately enduring some sort of pain.

"It's Samantha… haaah… Shepherd took her!..." she panted as Gary quickly assisted him while everyone who was capable of fighting dashed to the scene.

"Go, Gary. I'll take care of her." Soap quickly got up with Jack, they were already fine and just required to complete their nutrition so assisting her would be the best option.

Gary nodded and dashed outside, bracing himself for the unbearable news.

"Shit. What's going on! I thought we already agreed not to take Samantha elsewhere!" Gary caught up with Ghost and the rest of the available team.

"I have my wild guess, but you're not going to like it." He replied, adjusting his shades as they exited the building. From there, they saw the General's aircraft already far away from their reach. Behind them Alex, Soap, Jack and Maxine followed, their faces were drawn with extreme sadness. 

A few seconds of staring at the sky and Price's comms received an incoming message.

"Captain, I regret to inform you that the 141 is no more… I'm sending the High Value Individual to their care as the threat escalated and is being designated to a different force. I'm sorry. Please tell the rest of the group that in two weeks they will be returned to their prior assignments before 141 was established." his voice was nonchalant, emotionless and straightforward, like he's reading it from a diner table's tissue paper.

"No…" Price muttered. They were this close to Nero.  The rest of the team looked down, others started to disperse and did as ordered while the more concerned group stayed.

"Shepherd's working with Nero. He wants the EMP based weaponry to help his marines in Afghanistan." Ghost blurted, raising the heads of everyone around him.

"He's trading the economical side of the world to win a war?" Gary asked, as the information doesn't add up.

"It's a wild guess but the global economic pressure is already influencing the government to allocate more funds to anti terrorism. Cutting off 141 shouldn't be in play but he found a way to do so… He wants us to stop fighting back." 

"Then fighting back is what we're going to do." Price muttered, grabbing his phone.

"I'm going to make a few phone calls. Those who want to stay and save the world could stay. Those who are content to return to their past lives, you could leave." 

"What about me?" Maxine asked, raising her hand.

"Come with us, We'll take care of you while it's not safe out." Gary said, almost pleading her to say yes.

"I don't have anyone else but France and Samantha. I don't know where to go from here…"

"Then that settles it. Nikolai will take us somewhere safe. If the 141 is no more, we could still salvage weapons and ammo for ourselves. But after this, there's no turning back." Price added, his voice sparked inspiration to everyone. 

And that was it, from that moment. They've gone rogue, for a good cause. And they have to defeat Nero, Whatever it takes.

The Next Step

John Price

Task Force 141 - Disbanded

Former Task Force 141 Base - Helipad

A small group of his comrades were willing enough to stop the war, even at the cost of losing a lot of privileges. Price was always one to work under strict jurisdiction, and this rogue act he's going to commit will be backed up soon, it's going to be dependent on how Laswell influences the board.

The idea was easy. Create another task force which had to be approved prior to the 141's disbandment so that the papers for their redeployment would never be processed. Of course a few strings needed to be pulled and an organization must be able to absorb them. Interpol was willing to help along with Jack's influence to the CIA and Price was lucky enough to have them two on their side.

And there they were, with Nikolai's majestic aircraft, they set course to a temporary camp thanks to Jack. Price noted that he'd get along with the CIA, given they're age similarities and stance toward warfare. 

He surveyed his trusty crew and took note of their abilities. There's Alex, former CIA and fought alongside him in Verdansk and Urzikstan. He's got a clear objective and will and it doesn't matter to Price whether its love or world peace. He's good at terrible hostile locations and can single-handedly turn the tide of war by local agreements and persuasion. A good weapon.

Then there's Simon Riley, or Ghost. Excellent Sniper, the team's tech guy. He's a keeper, his ability to reject emotions while in combat makes him focused and a keen observer. He also excels in weapon usage. You give him anything with a trigger and he'll be sure to hit enemies no matter what.

Another one is John MacTavish, or Soap, what kind of a name is Soap? Price thought. Price looked at the muppet proudly. He rose among his comrades during recruitment and stood at the top of his batch, showing exemplary combat skills and demolitions expertise. Excellent at handling air support machinery and his keen eye never misses a tango hiding from the field. He's got it tough recently, Price believed luck wasn't on his side that's why he got injured a lot.

There's Gary Sanderson or Roach. Price calls him the team's therapist. He sees the willingness to help from the guy. He's eager to train hard and be better and he was impressed on how he handled the German Infilnitration they did together. He has initiative and a clear goal. Something useful at these times.

There's Francine Winters, France a.k.a. Shepherd's prodigy, the last minute addition. He's still quite skeptic as to why she's placed here, but so far he knew that with her sister mentally disturbed by the enemies she's bound to use her emotions as ammunition. She's great at stealth and close combat especially great for breaking and entering missions. She could be trained of open area battles and she has the drive to do so, making her another good addition to the team.

As for the remaining ones, Jack and Maxine, he has no idea yet but them tagging along and using their resources to the fight would greatly increase their chances of killing Nero and destroying the era of EMP machinery.

"Looks like you got yourself a pretty nice team, pal." Jack patted the Former captain's shoulder.

"Yeah. Small enough to remain secret and powerful enough to defeat Nero." he muttered. Jack held his phone and showed it to Price.

"I got us a place. An old CIA Safehouse."

"Are you sure this is going to be okay?" 

"Positive. This one's not used for decades. Classified as dormant and unmaintained. It's situated near a city that once housed a lot of terror activity but after it got neutralized it became very peaceful." Jack convinced. Price no longer hesitated, the team needed the help they can get.

"As long as we're under the radar." He replied and gave Nikolai the coordinates. From there they would begin their revenge toward Nero's attack, plan Samantha's rescue, and discover what Shepherd is really up to...

One step at a time.

Doing everything they can.

To set things right.

Whatever it Takes.

END OF PART 1

Wild ride first half. I hope you stay for the second part right around the corner!

Notification Squad my beloved 💝

@smokeywhalee @samatedeansbroccoli @enderio @ricinbach @beemybee @whimsywispsblog

[fallen029]

I’ve been busy. 

Want the beginning of the next OpB part? :)

Operation Bosco: Revisited, III

Sometimes, it was difficult to remember his mother.

She’d come to him in flashes, other times, in strange remembrances of an age he’d mostly blocked out now. There was a certain scent in the air, during the summer, that permeated around the region in which he’d been born and when he caught whiffs of it, in his travels around Bosco now, it immediately sent him back to those nights.

That place.

Shae told him it was a good thing, that he didn’t remember it.

She couldn't exactly relate, personally, to his story, as she’d grown up in Joya, in a loving home with both a mother and a father, where she never even dreamed of the atrocities that were taking place down the river, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t empathize.

It didn’t take a genius to realize, having been born into the trade, there had to have been very little, if not none at all, of Xavier’s life that should be carried over. And Shae thought it was best for him to put it all behind him, if he could.

“You have a new life now,” she’d told him when the first had just met, joining up with Astra’s fledgling group, when things still seemed bright and possible. “Here. With everyone.”

And he was happy for it.

Honest, he was.

But as those two years came to pass and he’d watched so many people that he was excited to get to know walk away from the trade.

Everything was falling apart.

Astra took him to the side once, out on the tiny porch as she smoked and the sun set, him fiddling with his unloaded gun, cleaning it, and maybe in another life, they could be something else. Siblings. Out in the dead of nowhere. Watching their life pass them by.

But things weren’t different and he didn’t know Astra well, maybe, but he knew her enough, he always thought, and he wanted to do anything she asked. He’d always had. Not just because he thought she was attractive (because, oh, he did) or because he had nowhere else to go (that was also a rather big one), but because he just believed in her.

In them.

It was the first time that he’d ever truly felt like he was apart of something, not even a family, really, maybe, but something and to watch it die, slip through their fingers, without accomplishing anything at all…

He’d been hurt. So much. In his very short life. But to have a task, no matter how small, in dismantling the thing that had hurt him felt like a step towards healing that.

He couldn’t give it up without fighting for it.

“Richard’s thinking about heading back home. To his guild.” Astra had taken a long inhaled, he remembered, because there was such an extended pause, maybe left for him to fill in the gaps on his own, but when he didn’t speak, she took care of any guessing. “And I want you to go with him.”

“What? No, I have to stay here. And patrol and-”

“Patrol what? Everyone’s gone.”

“Astra-”

“I made a mistake, X.” It felt weird for her to admit such a thing, to him of all people, but maybe she wasn’t. Speaking to him, at least. She didn’t look at him, anyways. Just out into the sunset. “In coming here. I just always thought-”

“You just have to give it a little bit more time.” He frowned over at her. “We’re all already here. Me, you, Shae; we’re not going anywhere. And Richard will stay if you ask, I bet. Maybe things will be even better, just the five of us. Can’t we just hold out? A little longer?”

She didn’t answer him, that night. Only sighed and he went back to his gun and it would only be a few more weeks before Haven and Locke arrived.

He found he really liked them as well.

Richard was hard to get along with and too old, really, to entertain a lot of Xavier’s nonsense, but Locke was always a good sport about most anything. And Haven was always willing to throw down, in the yard, with him.

He loved the idea of freeing Bosco, of working to do so, but…

The past few months, he mostly just love the feeling he’d gotten. Even into the summer months, where the smell of the fresh grass and late evenings usually sent him swirling backwards, towards the uncomfortable memories of his past usually crippled him, but not this time.

This time he had training to focus on, people to talk to, Haven, Shae, and Locke to bother.

Liberation of the country felt so distant and almost unreal, but if attempting it meant perpetually living the life he was currently, Xavier was content.

“You’ll come back with us, one day,” Haven told him once, when they patrolled together, late at night, and he asked her what she would do, when she got back to her guild.

She’d claimed she’d probably be awarded S-Class immediately, as well as drown in all of the praises of her family and associates. Plus, marry Locke or whatever and all that dumb shit, she’d added though the former thought seemed far more intriguing to the woman.

X had smiled in agreement, nodding his heads in all the right places, before wondering allowed if he’d have a proper place, really, stuck between Bosco and Fiore, but Haven had only made a face as she insisted on her previous statement.

“I have a cousin your age,” she’d continued on. “Ajax. You guys could even be a team if you ever figure this magic thing out. You’ll be a hero too. Just...not as much as me”

And he’d shoved her and she shoved right back, with a bit of electricity behind it, and Xavier liked it there.

With all of them.

So much.

It’s why he missed them so much when they were all gone.

He’d begged and begged to be allowed to go to Joya, but Astra insisted he had to remain behind before she took off as well, back for Bosco to hook back up with Richard, where he also wasn’t allowed to go, and it just wasn’t fair.

It was never fair.

For all he was supposed to feel in charge, Xavier felt that most of the women from the Factory still defaulted to following the lead of the three that had been in charge of them there while the few that stuck around from Ewing’s manor kept to themselves as well. It made it difficult for him to exert any sort of control over anyone when they all seemed intent on ignoring him all together.

There was one person, though, who couldn’t find herself rid of him.

Nessa was a...complex case.

One that, in an ideal state would be handled by someone who wasn’t awkwardly juggling his own previous baggage. She shouldn’t have been shoved off on Xavier, but there wasn’t quite anyone else on the property that could deal with her either and it was just the worst case scenario being played out as everyone was too busy to accurately solve it.

He didn’t get to spend a lot of time around kids his own age growing up. There were other children on the property, but they were the ‘Master’s’ actual children, with his actual wife. Locke told him, once, when he was explaining it all to him late one night that they were his half siblings, if the Master was his father, as he surmised, and that sounded right to Xavier, maybe, but it had never felt that way.

It wasn’t until he was sold away, after the Master’s death and his oldest son took over, that Xavier was able to escape, tumbling out of a transport vehicle and lucking into stumbling upon a meeting in a nearby forest that Astra was holding.

Fate, she told him as she ran her hand over his arm and, just like that, the thing that had always marked him, kept him contained.

Enslaved.

There were no children in Astra’s group and, originally, he was meant to be brought back across the boarder, into Fiore preferably, and dropped at an orphanage. It was great there, she’d insisted to him. Learn a bit of magic and you could make your own way eventually.

But it was overwhelming.

The idea of it.

Being sold off from his home had been difficult enough, but to now suddenly be free…

He’d imprinted on her. That’s what owe of the guys who used to be around claimed, when they thought Xay was asleep one night. Astra was his savior, atop being a rather pretty young woman, and it was unlikely for the boy to be easily parted from the woman. And when he begged and cried and insisted, throughh tears, that he could contribute, if she just let him try, if she just let him stay, he’d be the most productive member of her group, he swore, Astra just…

Gave in.

To it.

At the time they weren’t doing anything too dangerous. Outside of, well, hoping to overthrow not only a regime, but also a way of life that was so ingrained in the culture, it would surely tank everything to rip it away.

Mostly, back then, they passed out fliers.

And X was allowed to go to Bosco often anyways. Astra kept him save back at base, where he was taught by some of the older guys how to fire a rifle and instructed to keep patrol around the property. He did this with pride, walking around the perimeter and watching, nightly it felt like at times, as instead of keeping people out, he tried to keep people in. People liked to dip, in the middle of the night, to never return, rather than face the rather persuasive Astra and Xavier tried his hardest to keep them there, to keep every single person who slipped out there, but there was just nothing he could do.

Things felt different, when Haven and Locke came. Yes, there was no one left, really, and yes, things felt like they were falling apart, but Astra agreed to try, to really try again, and he knew that they’d change things. The two of them. He hadn’t been raised in Fiore, but even he’d heard of the power of Fairy Tail.

And, well, he liked Haven and Locke for other reasons too.

Even though he was mad at them before they left, when he was given the directive of looking over things while they were out atop keeping up with Nessa, he intended to do so to the best of his ability.

“I told you,” he bragged to Nessa that first day everyone had cleared out and it was just him, only him, that was supposed to run things for a few days. “I’m a top dog around here.”

In her time definitely not being held captive, nope, not at all, Nessa had found use of her time in the same way she’d spent all her other days, back on the manor, cooking and cleaning where need be. She kept busy this way, not unlike how Xavier was placated with a gun and a job, when he first arrived.

They lacked something, growing up the way they had, and the idea of fun and games was beyond children or teens in their positions.

At that moment, as he was lording this over her, Nessa was actually in the main house for once, sorting through some stacks of maps and things that had been left strewn about the living room. Astra had told Xavier one of his jobs was to pick up in her absence, but that sounded like a lot of work and he figured he could kill two birds with one stone by shuffling Nessa into the house to do this portion of his work for him.

“It’s quite dusty,” she’d told him softly and, well, yeah, maybe, but it was home.

Now though, she was folding and placing maps and papers while he bragged himself up and it felt like a good day.

A great one even.

“The top dog, huh?”

This didn’t come from Nessa. Even she looked up, surprised at the voice. Neither she nor Xay had noted the nearly silent opening and closing of the back screen door and both teen’s jumped some, to find Wanda standing there, her eyes accusatory and sent towards the boy. But, as his surprise wore off, Xavier only laughed some with a nod, not feeling the least bit of unease Wanda had tried to force upon him many times.

This was his home, here. He was safe.

He was the top dog.

Of course.

“Wanda,” Nessa spoke her name with a bit of a bow of her head, looking back at her maps before her as she said, “We’re cleaning up. It was Mistress Astraea’s orders-”

“She is not,” Wanda reminded the girl softly, “a mistress.”

“Nope,” Xavier agreed with a slight laugh. “She’s just Astra.” But, then he paused, thinking, and remarked, “Well, I guess she couldda been one. A mistress. But she’d probably like to be called Master a lot better. Haven told him that Mistress sounds weaker, so-”

“What do you mean?” Wanda had gone over to where Nessa sat, before the coffee table, to glance over the papers she was straightening up. “About Astraea?”

“She’s, like, apart of a top family or something.” He even shrugged, not too concerned. “She couldda been a Mistress. I guess. Who cares about her though? I’m the one in charge now.”

“For,” Nessa whispered a soft correction, “now.”

He stopped short, Xay did, to smile over at the other teen as she blushed a bit, at her own words, unable to help as a laugh escaped his lips. He’d never rightly heard her do it before, rib him, even in the lightest of ways, and it felt like something close to a breakthrough.

Maybe.

Her mother frowned though, glancing between them before remarking, “Don’t you have something else you should be doing then? Boy? If you wanna be the one in charge around here-”

“I am the one in charge around here.”

“For,” Nessa whispered softly again, “now.”

“Well, the people outside who are meant to be partaking in training seem rather lost without you,” Wanda informed him. “Not to mention, I think there was some confusion on the schedule for lunch-”

“Crap.” Xavier took off then, running even, as he refused to allow his first post as leader to be undermined. He couldn’t risk one of the other men or women to fill in, perhaps even have Astra take notice of them, and then the top hierarchy he was on be put even further out of reach. Still, to Nessa, he managed to call over his shoulder, “I’ll see you later, okay?”

Which left the girl with the mother she knew about as well as the boy, honestly. Blushing now for another reason, she busied herself with cleaning while the older woman merely looked after the teenage boy.

It would be a strange few days back on the property.

[lunadensmidnightprowl]

Let Trouble Lie - CH 2

𝕚 𝐃Ø𝔫'ⓣ   ςＡ𝐫€   𝐖𝕙αⓉ   ЎσǗ   Ŝᗩㄚ  ᗩภⓨ𝕄ｏ𝕣є   𝕋Ｈ𝐈s  𝒾Ｓ  爪Ў  𝐋ᶤ𝔽𝕖

✣●✣

My name is Mikaela, Mikaela Misjinx.  And yes, if you've figured it out by now, I am also Thinaire.  It sounds cool right?  Being able to turn invisible at the drop of a hat?  Well, it's not.  I'm cursed.

Maybe it would make more sense if I start from the beginning...

My family was small, just me, my mother, and my father, living on the outskirts of the city, doing anything we could to survive.  Sure, things were pretty bad now that I reflect on it, but it was happy.  I was 7 years old when the incident happened, a day were I was just grumpy and angry with everything, recently ticked off because it started to feel like my parents were smothering me.  Taking a walk by myself, I met a creepy old man coming out of woods, asking what I wanted the most, and what did I tell him?  I wished that I could become invisible.

That man was gone by the time I turned back and it seemed like the encounter never happened, so I went on back to where my family was camping for the night.  Only when I got there, calling out to my parents, they didn't respond.  Inside our little shelter lay their bodies, as if someone had just sucked their very souls from them.  "Maybe it's all a joke?" I had thought.  Begging and pleading for them to get up and talk to me, they never did because there was no pulse, they were dead.

At that moment I was so distraught that I hoped I would vanish right there, and I did.  I felt that something was different before I saw it.  Raising my hand to wave in front of my face, I saw nothing there but felt the air shift.  The rest of my body was the same, sightless but still retaining feeling.  I scuffled my feet, trying to raise dust and move the dirt, it worked, I was only invisible it seemed.

That was not what I meant!  I didn't actually want to be invisible!  Just for my parents to lay off the extra attention and let me live the most of my life.  At that moment, I wished hard to be seen again, that I wouldn't be invisible anymore.  That same weird feeling happened again, when I opened my eyes I was back to being visible.

"This is trippy," my mind said.  Once more I wished to be invisible, not even bothering to close my eyes this time as I watched myself fade away.  On and off I went, flipping like a lightswitch as I went between being seen and not.  It was all too weird, too specific, something like this didn't just happen, there was always a cause.

For awhile I thought, trying to figure out how I had gained such an ability not long after my parents had died.  What drew my attention was my encounter with that weird old man, he had asked what I wished for, then not much later it had happened.  But it wasn't really lucky that it did, there was a consequence, the death of two people had resulted from that wish.  It all clicked together.  When I had made it, my parents had become some sort of a sacrifice for the ability, it wasn't a free wish, it was more of a curse brought onto myself.

I had to live with the knowledge that I had killed my parents, though unintentionally so I wasn't all to blame, if anything it had been that man.  The curse hung over me, sobering me up so I could prepare to take care of myself.

For the next several years of my life after that one day when I was that 7 year old girl, I resulted to stealing just to stay alive.  Robbing places during akuma attacks when they started happening frequently brought in enough income to get me a more permanent shelter and food enough to live.  I never took more than what I needed and just a little extra to keep for longer stretches between attacks, trying to keep things as painless as possible for the store owners.

Lenny, or as I had called him when I was younger, Mr. Money Man was my pawn shop guy, never questioning how I acquired things and just handed over a reasonable amount of money for whatever I brought.  He knew I was Thinaire, but never sold me out, he knew what I was going through and decided to not give me anymore trouble.  Lenny was the closest thing to being my family.

Now having Ladybug and Chat Noir on my trail was not good, but I had to keep going.  If I didn't pilfer when I got the opportunity, things would go downhill fast for me.  I didn't bring in enough to buy a phone, or any other device, so I sometimes used the public computers in the library to check for news, especially when it came to me.

Apparently the hero duo had made an announcement over the website, the Ladyblog, that they were working on something else besides fighting the akumas.  They said that there was a thief, some kind of burglar, that went by the name of Thinaire and was seen only during akuma attacks.  If anyone knew anything about Thinaire, motive, location, anything at all, were advised to set up a meeting with the bug and cat through the Ladyblog.

There were many comments on that announcement, most of them were theories and rumors about Thinaire, some simply outlandish.  One said they was working for Hawk Moth based on their appearances, another said they were positive that Thinaire lived in the sewers.

I huffed at all of them, not one was remotely true in the slightest.

✣●✣

"Ya better be careful hun," Lenny murmured to me when it was just us left in the pawn shop, "If ya not, dem heroes are gonna catch ya."

"Believe me, I'm trying," I muttered back, heaving the rest of the load of stolen jewelry from the recent akuma onto the counter.

"Start trying harder, dat one little mistake gotcha name all over da net.  People are and will be scouting for ya all da time during attacks," Lenny held up one of the bracelets, eyeing it with his little magnifying glass.  "Well ain't this one just a beaut, surprised they made it so easy for ya to get it."

I rolled my eyes, "None of it's easy to get these days."

He shook his head, "Miky, ya just got to power through all dis media stuff, lay low and people'll forgetta boutchu.  Maybe lay off da next attack?"

Pressing my hands flat against the glass countertop I leaned forward, almost growling, "I can't damn well do that, now can I?  You of all people should know that."

"It was just a suggestion," Lenny said, inspecting the next piece, "Keep going out when people are hunting you is risky is what I'm saying.

Sighing, I leaned up against the countertop, occasionally looking at the items on display under the glass.  "I'll take my chances.  Pretty much the least I can do after that incident."

The man nodded in silent understanding, not wanting the emotional outlash if he mentioned anything specific about that incident.  He just went about his business in silence, moving quickly so I could go home.

"Here ya are," he slid the stack of bills across the counter to me, putting away the jewelry, "Take care of ya self Mikaela.  No doubt I'll be seeing ya soon."

"Thanks Lenny," I said, a small smile on my face, "You probably will."  With the money in the backpack hanging from my shoulders, I stepped out of the pawn shop into the cool night air, walking down the sidewalk back to my small place.

✣●✣

There's only so much I can afford with what I do, therefore my apartment was really small, on the edge of a somewhat good neighborhood and a somewhat dingy one.  You had to be careful in the area at night, always alert for someone intent on causing harm, but I didn't worry.  I knew I was light on my feet and evasive, able to escape almost anybody's clutches if it came to it.

I went up the steps at the front of the apartment building and down the hall to the left of the lobby.  Tarnished metal letters and numbers for apartment 2D were nailed to the door above the peephole, the plain white door hosting several scuff marks.  Putting my key in the lock, I opened the door and walked into the room with green threadbare carpet, being greeted by my cat.

The building had no rules against pets, the owners didn't seem to care as long as the rent was paid on time, so I had adopted the stray I found a year ago.  It was a ginger she cat with ice blue eyes, I had named her Clover, hoping she would some luck to my name.  Clover was always there for me when I needed her, it seemed like she had a sixth sense for it, becoming the fluffy purring machine that really helped.

Most of my days were just me and Clover, sometimes we went outside when the sun was shining, but most of the time we stayed inside, trying not to be bored to death.  That plethora of free time did give me time to train my cat, making sure she knew what she should do in certain situations.  If I told her to go home, she came back to wait in a hidden spot near the apartment until I came back.

Then there were times when Clover just stayed home and I went outside by myself, when attacks happened, the akumas could be dangerous and I didn't want to get her mixed up in that if I didn't have to.  Once the heroes started coming after me, the ginger cat stayed home at every attack, I just couldn't worry about her when I was trying to get away from them.  Now that citizens were looking out for me too, I couldn't have them connect Mikaela and Thinaire through Clover either.

But avoiding people for the most part was the most effective at keeping my identity secret, I wasn't interested in the public, and for the most part the public wasn't interested in me.  Like Lenny said, each passing day without an appearance of Thinaire lowered the interest in the character, people not being on as high of an alert.  Whether or not that was happening, an akuma attack in the future was inevitable.

[peace-coast-island]

Diary of a Junebug

Getting comfortable at the Cat-Nap Hotel

Back in Nekotown for a pit stop with Elara and AJ tagging along. They’re taking a two week long road trip so they’re gonna spend a couple days at the camp as one of their stops. The road trip was kinda spontaneous but it ended up working out as our camp was heading up to Maron Heights to see them perform in After Hours at the Opera.

Since I got tickets for the last night - the show was playing for a week - and AJ and Elara were gonna kick off their road trip the day after closing, we figured that it’ll make sense for us to travel together. So after the show, our camp headed back to Crescent Moon with AJ, Elara, Kat, and the gang instead of taking off on the road. It was going to be a super long drive and I wasn’t looking forward to that so that’s one less thing to worry about.

Also it was nice seeing Kat again as well as catch up with AJ, Elara, Micah, and Hawk. A lot has changed in Crescent Moon - and things are still a bit hectic but thankfully slowing down, allowing Kat and Elara to get a well deserved break every now and then. Hawk’s still as sweet as ever, geeking out about his latest inventions and just being a ball of sunshine. Micah’s definitely at least a couple inches taller than when I last saw him and while he’s gotten a bit more mature because of everything that’s happened, he’s still as mischievous as ever. 

Everyone in the BFF Squad is so wholesome, like they have no right to be like that! This is what happens when you put together a bunch of chaotic cinnamon rolls together - pure wholesomeness with big dumb gay energy. They’re actually five gays in a trench coat - two useless jock lesbians (Elara and AJ), two distinguished disaster bis (Kat and Hawk) and a baby troublemaker gay (Micah).

After Hours at the Opera was very good! I was surprised when Kat told me that AJ was playing the one of the leads alongside her dad. Truth be told, Kat, Micah, Elara, and Hawk chose After Hours at the Opera because AJ and Micah Sr. are the only ones capable of playing the lead roles without having to change the keys. AJ’s got a husky alto with a really wide vocal range while Micah Sr. had some background in musical theatre and is also a light tenor who can go up really high. 

Basically whoever’s playing Celinde needs to be able to easily sing super low and super high notes with ease and whoever’s playing Cordell needs to go up high as well as sing a super hard cadenza. So that’s how AJ and Micah Sr. ended up playing the leads and they were fantastic! It’s amazing how much they both improved since their auditions and rehearsal videos. Like they were good in the rehearsals but they needed a bit of a push as it was clear that they were playing it safe even though they can obviously go all out.

In AJ’s case she had no musical training background so according to Kat and Micah’s aunt, she was all over the place. Not sure exactly what she meant by “all over the place” but listening back to the rehearsal videos, there were some parts where AJ sounded like she wasn’t sure where she wanted to go. She had potential but didn’t know exactly how she wanted to utilize it. So Annie offered to give AJ singing lessons to help boost her confidence, which helped a lot. 

AJ put on a hell of a performance as Celinde. Her acting and singing were on fire! If I didn’t know her, I wouldn’t think that this was her first show. She definitely won’t admit it, but we’re sure that she enjoyed it a lot. Hopefully that won’t the last we see of her on stage.

As for Micah Sr., he had the chops, even after being out of practice for over twenty years. To everyone’s surprise there’s actually a few decent quality audios of shows he’s been in that are floating around. Hawk put together a compilation comparing how he sounded then and now, the most obvious difference being that his voice has darkened but he’s still able to sing in the whistle register - which is impressive. Because his voice is so light, back then he was taught to sing in a heavy vibrato as his lower range wasn’t as strong. Annie also had him undergo training as he doesn’t sound exactly like he did twenty years ago and it paid off too. 

The rest of the cast was fantastic as well! Kat played the Countess, the character who sets the story in motion. Micah, Elara, and Hawk were Teddy, Mara, and Thomas, three dancers who are intrigued by the mystery of the infamous countess after falling victim to her schemes. It was also nice to see Chip as Andre, the new manager who doesn’t know what’s going on half the time, and Elaina as Christina, no-nonsense the head of the theatre.

So the story’s about this dancer named Celinde who befriends Cordell, a stagehand who’s surprisingly chummy with Christina. While preparing for a show, strange things happen, prompting the dancers to blame it on the Countess’s ghost. The mystery of the Countess and her untimely death is a well known story based on something that happened at the opera years ago. Celinde suspects that Cordell may know more than he’s led her to believe so she begins poking around.

Then shenanigans happen as Celinde finds herself wrapped up in the Countess’s schemes in terrorizing the dancers. She learns that Cordell sort of acts as an accomplice but he too doesn’t know much about the ghost who haunts the opera. While keeping the Countess company, Celinde and Cordell investigate the past. Of course, they find some skeletons along the way, some which have to do with Cordell’s past that he tried to avoid. 

If I had to choose, the strongest thing about the show is the friendship between Celinde and Cordell. The actors are the ones who make or break it and AJ and Micah Sr. really knocked it out of the park! AJ’s a spunky and inquisitive Celinde who plays off well with Micah Sr.’s reserved and head-in-the-clouds Cordell. 

There’s also side plots involving Andre not fully realizing what he signed up for when he became manager, Christina worrying about Cordell, and the Countess messing with the dancers.

Kat made the right call when it came to the two leads. Not only they were amazing singers, they also have great chemistry. It’s hard to believe that AJ was intimidated by Micah Sr. at first because of his status but then she (and the others) realize that he’s a lot like Kat. So he’s a powerful badass who has the ability to incinerate you if you mess with his kids but he’s also a goofball who takes care of everyone. Both have gone through a lot of shit - much like everyone else in the gang - so that was something they were able to initially find common ground in.

AJ wasn’t exaggerating when she said it’s like there’s two Kats now. The minute I met her dad it’s like yup, they’re totally related. It’s interesting how much Kat and Micah take after their dad even though he was missing for most of their lives as Kat was so young and Micah wasn’t even born when he disappeared. It’s so sweet seeing the three of them together but also sad because Evangelina’s not there with them. 

After spending a fun night at the castle where things totally didn’t get out of hand and Elara did not manage to get a sword or two stuck in the ceiling. Just a bunch of pure, wholesome late night shenanigans.

Then this morning Kat gave us a tour around the castle grounds and village. There’s still a lot of reconstruction going on but they’re in the early stages of wrapping up. A lot of other places in the district are at the same stage. At the center of town square will be memorial for those who lost their lives in the rebellion so when that’s finished, there’ll be an unveiling ceremony.

We took off around noon and spent several hours on the road before stopping by Nekotown for the night. By luck, we managed to snag a reservation at the Cat-Fe for a late night dinner as it’s less busy around that time so the wait wasn’t as long. The food’s still as amazing as ever and there’s no better way to introduce Elara and AJ to Nekotown than by dining out at their most famous restaurant! Also, it was super cute seeing them get distracted by the cuteness and the kitties.

Spending half the day on the road makes your energy levels off so we spent a couple hours walking the streets of Nekotown shopping, sightseeing, and catching up with some friends. We didn’t expect it to get so late so soon but we had a good time stretching out legs and taking the time to enjoy our surroundings. 

I’ve never seen Elara and AJ so relaxed as well as being so cute and openly affectionate. Even after everything they’ve been through, after their complicated history together, they’re proof that there’s still hope that things can and will get better. With the past finally behind them and their future slowly coming together, I know that they’re gonna be all right. 

The Cat-Nap Hotel is just as comfy and cozy as the reviews said it was. This was exactly what I needed after being in an RV for so long! I’m definitely gonna get a good night’s sleep in this bed. Also the furniture is so cute, like just being in this room makes me feel all cutesy and happy. I wonder if Rover and/or Katie helped with the room designs. I know a bunch of cat villagers who would totally dig this hotel - too bad I can’t invite all of them or else the entire place would be booked for a very long time.

There’s still so much of Nekotown that I hadn’t explored yet and just when I thought I saw everything, there’s more to see. Good thing we’re not taking off the road until tomorrow evening so that means we have more time to enjoy Nekotown. 

Next time we stay at the Cat-Nap Hotel, we’re gonna spend at least a couple days there. As much as I’m looking forward for the next few days, I don’t think one night is enough to spend at such a cute and cozy hotel!

[bonnieisaway]

that dumb saiki k fanfic i wrote but chapter 2

chapter 1 | story on wattpad

chp. 2 - not my intention

There was one part of auras that had always confused Aiura.

See, she was born with the ability to see auras and into the future and all that. Ever since she could walk and talk she could remember trying to figure out people based off their auras, learning what they meant.. Not only did auras reflect someone's personality, but they could also reflect memories they held dear, emotions they felt strongly, and even then her fortune telling let her tell so much more about them.

But there was one thing she didn't entirely understand, even now as a second year in high school. When she was 6 or 7, she started seeing a new part of auras. A red string.

A red string, in most contexts, connects two soulmates together by an invincible string tied around their fingers. When she was around 7 she noticed that her parents had one tied to each other. Some times she'd watch people pass each other on the street and notice them form. Red strings were a part of your aura and they had only formed when you had actually met your soulmate. Aiura had this come easy to her but what always confused her was why it took so long for her to see them. Or maybe, why did it take so long for them to form?

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Saiki sighed as he walked along behind his friends..and (L/n), who you could consider his friend, but it's up in the air if he'd say the same. As Kaido and Nendo bickered and Kuboyasu sided with Kaido, (L/n) fell back to walk next to Saiki. Her thoughts rang clear as she walked and scrolled through something on her phone.

'This feels kind of awkward..' (L/n) frets as she bites her bottom lip, momentarily glancing to Saiki. 'I wanna talk to him but he's giving off the "please let me go never interact with humanity ever again" vibe.' Oddly specific. Saiki almost wished other people could notice that as well. He supposed if he wanted to make a friend of this girl- get his likability up a bit- he'd have to take charge.

"Do you like the arcade?" Saiki asks her, turning his head to her.

"Yeah. I haven't been there in a while though.." (L/n) smiles and scratches the back of her head "Never have the time or money, haha.. how about you?"

"I used to go alot as a kid. But the games are all really easy now." Saiki shrugs, turning back towards the other boys yelling ahead of them as the arcade approached.

"Is that a challenge?" (L/n) grins. 'This could work perfectly..!'

Saiki smirks, looking at (L/n) at the corner of his eye. "Maybe." This could work perfectly...

"Hah, you're on!" (L/n) laughs as she begins to run ahead, dragging Saiki along by the wrist. Saiki shrugs to himself, letting her drag him along. (L/n) basically bursts into the arcade confidently.  "Alright! You seem confident so I'll let you choose a game."

"Ooh, you two are competing?!" Nendo asks, popping up behind the two "Let us choose the games! That way it'll be fair." He's dumb but he's right. Saiki cringes a bit- they're going to call attention if he wins too much. He'll have to moderate his powers.

"Here, let me choose first!" Kaido interjects. "(Y/n), follow me." His face turns red. 'Maybe she's good at shooting games! If I choose a game that she wins at, m-maybe..' Saiki didn't want to hear anything beyond that. It was pretty easy to see where that was going.

"O-Oh, okay! C'mon, Saiki!" (L/n) beckons as Kaido lead her toward some sort of zombie-shooter game. Generally, they were pretty easy as long as Saiki didn't get startled. Lord knows what happened when he used VR.

(L/n) grins and picks up the blue colored fake gun. "Come on! Longest one alive wins!" She smiles, bending down and inserting 200 yen. Saiki does the same and sets his bag down, picking up the toy gun.. it should be easy to moderate his powers and give her a fair fight here...

...is what he told himself. Saiki didn't necessarily play games like these very often, if ever, because he'll either jump and blow something up or he'll lose and nearly break a controller. Nendo stood behind Saiki basically screaming support in his ear as Kaido stood next to (L/n) with starry eyes.

And Saiki lost. Horribly. By horribly I mean he lasted about a full minute before dying when (L/n) kept going for another 3 just to tease Saiki. Which was fine. N̶o̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶. It was normal to loose at games. He'd just win at the next one so it'd seem normal.

He did not. Kuboyasu chose one of those racing games where the seat is the actual sort of motorcycle itself. The author doesn't need to explain herself here. They're pretty hard to cheat at with esp, but even then- Saiki and (L/n) alike were looking for a fair fight. Which they got. Which lead to Saiki losing horribly.

"Partner, come on, stop losing!" Nendo pats Saiki on the shoulder as he stands up off the seat with a face of- to say the least, discontent.

"Shut up." Saiki glares.

"Not so easy now, huh?!" (L/n) teases, shit-eating grin on her face. Saiki breathes out. He is a patient man. He is not going to get competitive over this. The only one that can beat him is him and he will win the next game.

..Why does he even care?

Kuboyasu chose the last game. It was one of those games where you threw basketballs into a hoop for a certain time limit.

...

...would you be surprised if I told you Saiki lost again?

Saiki huffed as the machine made some stupid loud sound as (L/n) best his score. This time it was not his fault. He is perfectly fine at throwing the balls and would've made all the shots if he wasn't distracted.

He wasn't sure why he was. But for a minute there.. he couldn't take his eyes off (L/n). The way she focused on the game and her face lit up brightly every time she scored...by the time Saiki had realized he was staring he had basically already lost. This wasn't like him to get distracted. Something was off today.

Kaido had pointed out (how horribly Saiki had lost, and-) that they should get going. They'd spent a while at the arcade. Everyone agreed- if reluctantly- and grabbed their bags.

Walking out the arcade and towards there homes Kaido and Nendo continue to bicker- probably about the latest Jump.

"Stop looking so smug." Saiki comments, irritated with the girl.

"Whaaaaat?~" She laughs. "I'll make it up to you. You like sweets?" She asks. Saiki nods (violently) causing (L/n) to laugh. "I've got some coffee jelly back at my apartment. You should stop by."

Saiki nods in agreement- mainly for the coffee jelly, only about 1/8 for (L/n)'s company- as she waves goodbye to the other boys. Her apartment was only a couple blocks from Saiki's place.

"Alright then! Oh, look, they're playing baseball in the park again.. Wonder if Satou's playing." (L/n) points out as the pair pass the baseball diamond along their trek home.

There's a loud 'clang' and an indistinguishable shout before Saiki realizes.

..That the ball hit his head. Right in the power limiter. Shit. If he were alone, he could just teleport home and have his dad or mom try and fix it but (L/n) is right here. He's got one choice, and he's gotta pray that it works...  

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"Saiki!" You screeched, as the boy fell forward and you just ever so barely managed to catch him before he hits the pavement. The ball must've hit him hard.. it even broke one of those hairclips he has. You set him down gently, picking up his bag and throwing it over your shoulder. You slide your arms under him and pick him up, standing slowly.

Jesus Christ. You forgot how heavy guys are. The last time you carried a guy was when (F/n) passed out on field day in middle school. Saiki wasn't heavy necessarily but you weren't necessarily Hairo level strong. You wanted to take him back to his house and tell his parents but there was a small problem.

You had no clue where he lived. At all. You knew he only lived a couple blocks away from you because Kaido told you but you didn't know where. So the best option was to take him back to your apartment.

What became a 10 minute walk home became a 20 minute walk as you struggled to carry the boy. He was knocked out, hard.. whoever hit that ball had to have gotten a home run. You wouldn't be surprised if the guy got two.

So after struggling for 20 minutes, nearly dropping the knocked out boy when you tried to unlock your door, and just generally regretting your decisions, you finally were able to plop the boy on your couch. Your tablet that you generally used for drawing was blown up with notifications from (F/n). Whoops. You set the tablet on your coffee table, calling him as you take the broken hairpin out of Saiki's hair, wanting to fix it.

(F/n) picks up fast, halfway through his English screaming as the connection struggles. "WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?! I'm losing sleep, woman!"

"I'm sorry!" You laugh, fiddling with the hairpin in your hand. The pink ball on top had come off and some of the pieces on the bottom of the inside fell out. "I was walking home with that Saiki guy and a ball hit him smack in the head. Broke his hairpin and he passed out. I'm trying to fix the hairpin now."

"...And the guy?" (F/n) hesitantly asks.

"Heavy as fuck." You snort. It looked like small computer pieces on the inside but, who are you to judge? The problem was now this was a jigsaw puzzle and you hated those things.

"(Y/n)!" (F/n) shouts, reprimanding you.

"Calm down, he's fine." You smile. "I gotta fix this damn hairpin though and you're gonna do your homework and sleep young man." You jokingly glare into the camera.

"Fine, MOM. Bye!" He waves and hangs up. You lean your back against the couch as you continued to sit on the floor, now too lazy to get up. There was 3 major computer looking chips which by some dumb luck, seemed to fit pretty well in certain spots. They 'click' in pretty easily and the small pink ball fits back on pretty easy.

"Well..that should be about right..!" You smile confidently to yourself as you hold up the hair clip in your vision. You stand slowly and hover over the sleeping boy before gently placing the hairpin back where it once was.

You observe him for a second as you stand up straight again. He looks.. peaceful while sleeping. He wasn't smiling but he wasn't necessarily frowning, either. Content, really. You smile as you take off his green lensed glasses and set them on your coffee table. They'll break if he sleeps in them all the time.

You wander off to your kitchen, finally picking up your school bad and setting it on your dinner table. You grab a snack out of the cabinet and begin looking through your bag, pulling out miscellaneous homework assignments. You catch a glimpse out your window- the sun was already setting..

You hear Saiki in the other room shuffle around as he seems to wake up. You grave a coffee jelly and spoon from your kitchen before wandering over to him.

The strawberry-headed boy had sat up on the couch, eyes looking around confused. Hey, that was a good nickname.

"Hey, Strawberry. You're awake." You grin. He looks up at you confused and you freeze for a second. His eyes..

You didn't usually see his eyes very clearly since, green glasses lenses. Even then you hadn't known him for long. But his eyes... they were a mesmerizing violet color that you couldn't take your eyes off of. Realistically speaking, they were as plain as ever. But for some reason you couldn't help feel your face go red. Who's the strawberry now, motherfucker?

"Where am I?" He asks you.

"My apartment. You knocked the hell out when that baseball hit you and I didn't know where you lived so I carried you here." You hold out the coffee jelly and spoon to him, hoping he'll get the gist. He does and takes the snack faster than you could blink twice.

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Saiki took the coffee jelly from (L/n) greatfully, momentarily forgetting about his limiter that, as far as he last knew, was broken. He had knocked himself out when he was hit for a reason- he figured (L/n) would call one of his friends or someone else to help. He had better luck leaving it up to luck when passed out then staying awake and nearly starting a tsunami cause he breathed wrong.

"Oh, by the way," (L/n) starts, "I tried fixing your hairpin. I tried my best." Saiki looks at her a bit confused before taking out the power limiter, and looking at it carefully...it was put back together just about the exact same way it was before it got hit..

"Thank you." Saiki turns to (L/n). She smiles and nods. 'Oh thank god I didn't fuck up.'

"No problem." She smiles. Saiki loses his train of thought for a second as he watches the girl's face brighten. He turns to set down the now empty coffee jelly cup down on the coffee table. He blinks for a second. His glasses are set on the coffee table.

(L/n) must've taken them off, but why wasn't she turned to stone? She should be frozen in place a long while ago. He picks up his glasses and stands up, putting them over his eyes as he throws away the empty coffee jelly cup.

His mind was racing. Was this girl a physic? Why was she immune to so many of his powers? Why was she kinda cute?

(L/n) interested Saiki. She wasn't affected by nearly any of his powers and he wasn't sure how to feel about it. On one hand it confused him highly and made him want to be wary on the girl, but the other part of him was interested in this girl. She was someone who he saw as normal, she wasn't a nusience like the rest of his friends. His chest felt light with an emotion he wasn't quite familiar with. The ever intriguing girl had ignited something in him that he wasn't sure what it was.

"You okay?" She asks as Saiki stands in thought. He hesitates, but smiles. "Hey, Strawberry, it's getting late. Want me to walk you home?" She asks, now with a shit eating grin on her face. Saiki, yes, the strawberry, feels his face turn warm and his heart skip a beat at the nickname. He wasn't sure why. He sighs to himself. He's overthinking things today. His pyrokenisis must be acting up since his limiter was out earlier.

"...Sure..but what's with the nickname?" Saiki asks.

(L/n) shrugs as she stands, walking to her front door and bending down to put her shoes on. "I dunno. It fits."

Saiki sighs at this curious girl and grabs his own shoes, following her out the door.

The two walk in silence as the sun sets, darkening the world around them. (L/n)'s thoughts are generally quiet. 'Fuck, I'm cold. I should've brought a jac- or not?'

Don't get Saiki wrong here. He's only warming her up cause he feels bad. They continue to walk in silence, until they stop in front of Saiki's house.

"This is my h-" Before Saiki can finish his sentence none other than is mother, Kurumi Saiki, comes out the front door, fretful about her son.

"Oh, Ku~chan! Where have you been, I was so worried!" Kurumi frets as she hugs her son close. Saiki sighs and squints his eyes at (L/n), who has a shit-eating grin. Kurumi turns around and spots (L/n). "Oh, and who is this lovely lady?" She asks excitedly. Saiki about rolls his eyes into the back of his head.

"I'm (L/n)! I apologize for keeping your son out for so long. He passed out when we were walking home so I took him home cause I didn't know where you lived." (L/n) scratches the back of her head awkwardly. Kurumi's face lights up.

Saiki cringes as his mother pulls the poor girl into a hug. "Aah, thank you for looking after my boy you're just so sweet I'm his mom Kurumi Saiki thank you so much for befriending him!" Kurumi gushes so quickly the author forgot to write punctuation.

(L/n) finally gets to breathe again when Kurumi lets go of the hug. "It's nothing, really," She smiles. "He's cool."

Kurumi starts to gush once more when (L/n) laughs awkwardly. "You're really sweet, Mrs. Saiki, but I have to get going."

"Oh, of course! I'm sorry for keeping you! Have a good night." Kurumi smiles.

"It's alright. Bye!" (L/n) smiles as she walks off into the night. He walks inside with his mother and takes off his shoes before walking to his room, sighing as he sits at his desk.

Why does he have such a headache..?

.

i apologize for any spelling errors! i’ve been writing without my glasses because i’ve been sick

[thehopeymage]

Classes: Thief and Rogue, Knight and Maid

Alright, so, to start off my more open approach to posting here, I’m going to start with my general theory's on Classpects in general, starting with Classes!! Unlike Aspect, which everyone PRETTY MUCH all agreed on how they were paired before being canonized, Class is kind of something no one TOTALLY agrees on. Id have a hard time finding anyone who agrees on everything about class details, inversions, and pairings. So I’m gonna start with that!! First, something no one particularly disagrees with... 

The Stealing Classes, Thief and Rogue!

This is pretty well agreed upon because it’s one of the class pairings that had been canonically confirmed!

Wile Calliopes theories has been shown to be about as credible as any of ours (Ex: Gendered Classes), but this seems VERY plausible! 

Thieves, being the Active class, steal their Aspect from others! This can be seen by Vriska (Thief of Light) stealing Luck from enemies and thus having MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF LUCK!!!!!!!! It isn’t CLEARLY seen from Meenah (Thief of Life), other then BRIEFLY during Collide, but we can see it metaphorically present in Her Imperious Condescension when she enslaves multiple people and subjugates her species! 

Rogues, being the Passive class, steal their Aspect NOT NECESSARILY FROM PEOPLE and distributes it to the team! This can be seen by Roxy (Rogue of Void) when she steals the nonexistence from the Matriorb and gives it to Kanaya! These traits aren’t seen very clearly in Nepeta (Rogue of Heart) and Rufioh (Rogue of Breath), and I theorize that this is because they haven't denied their aspect! You see, Roxy denied her Aspect when she quit her drinking, committing herself to clarity! Whereas Nepeta struggles when shes pining over someone and Rufioh suffers with his general attitude of just doing what he wants and going with the flow. At least that’s my interpenetration of why! This leads me to believe that the quest of a Rogue is to rebel against their aspect, (Being called a Rogue, it makes sense) and not play by it’s rules! 

Now here comes a theory Idk if a lot of people will agree with me on lol

The Protecting Classes, Knight and Maid

This is a pretty good group because we have two Players of the same aspect in this pair, Dave (Knight of Time) and Aradia (Maid of Time) and we also have two players of the same Aspect and opposite class, Jane (Maid of Life) and Meenah (Thief of Life)!! If you think this theory is totally bull already, please hear me out.

Knights, being the active class, weaponize their Aspect to protect their Aspect! Offence is the best Defense, so to speak! You can see Dave literally weaponize his Aspect when he uses changing his swords placement in time to better defeat enemies! Dave is very careful to keep the Alpha Timeline safe, and Karkat does a lot to help the safety of the team, like prohibiting sleeping or leaving the room (Which almost no one followed but still). Now, although we get the best specifics on Dave’s journey, we can pretty clearly see that Knights tend to have some sort of insecurity or something along those lines that they keep up a shield to protect themselves from. This can form in many ways! Literally, Dave keeps on his glasses to hide his emotions! Metaphorically, he keeps up his cool kid shtick to appease Bro. Literally, Karkat keeps his text gray to hide his mutation, but metaphorically Karkat keeps up his anger and shouting to convince everyone he is a ruthless and badass leader. and Latula has a r4d front because shes insecure about not being a kickass enough girl. I believe that shows a Knights quest is to let down their shield (Metaphorical not literal) and use their Aspect to strengthen them! 

Maids, being the passive class, protect their fellow players with their Aspect /protect their Aspect in their fellow players! We can see Aradia do this by freezing Jack to buy her team time, and we can see Jane do this with her revival powers! I think Maids gain general defensive abilities! It seems that Maids typically get walked on by their Aspect OR for their Aspect. Aradia was walked on by Time in the form of death and used by DD for Destruction. Jane was walked on by Life during the events of their session when Jane gets ignored by her friends (except Roxy because shes good and pure). I think a Maids quest is to stand up to 1.stand up for themselves(/against their Aspect in some cases) 2.accept the bad things about their Aspect and 3. accept their aspect in their lives! It’s a weaker connection then the Knights, but to me it makes more sense then Healing and Creating given what we’ve seen in cannon 0u0 

Why these pairs? 

I think these two class pairs are the best candidates to be opposite of each other! Stealing being the opposite of Protecting! We can see the thieves steal their Aspect from people, whereas Maids are protecting it from being destroyed or taken away! Thus, we can see Knights fighting to defend their Aspect, and Rogues trying to take it for redistribution 0u0

With this theory, Karkat inverts with Rufioh! This may be a bit of a stretch because its based on very little cannon info, but Karkat enforces the connections of his team, whereas Rufioh helps the "Lost Weeaboos" by encouraging their individuality! (We dont actually know that much about Rufiohs experiences with the Lost Weeaboos because Meenah kept shutting Aranea up.)

Also, it’s pretty cool that the Maid of Life ended up fighting the Thief of Life!! Jane tried to protect her friends lives, wile )(IC was trying to steal theirs... Neat!!

Thief Inverts with Maid

Rogue Inverts with Knight

Feel free to message me about any of this, I’d love to discuss!! :^D

EDIT: 

Okay so this has been my first LEGIT classpecting theory post, so of coarse it’s a little weak, so I wanted to strengthen it a little before moving on! I had a lengthy discussion on the rad @godtier-mods Discord server with some very smart/dope peeps ( @creative-classpect and Taksy as well as Vivs and J, if you want me to link your blogs hit me up, I just couldn’t find links to them for some reason??) and I thought this theory needed an addendum 0u0.

First things first, Inversions!! I see a lot of people interpret her decapitating the frog temple a sign that shes inverted to a Destroying Class, but, what she did was use the data in the frog in the Kernalsprite and fused herself with it, effectively stealing it, inverting to Thief! Additionally, we can actually see Vriska invert to a protector of Void! This can be seen by Vriska making sure to keep Tavros useless (Him only being able to do anything when she isn’t around.), and also by keeping everyone in the dark, notably what she was actually doing during [S] Collide. Additionally, this one I think is maybe less solid, but the pre-retcon Vriska (Vriska) wanted to stay irrelevant! 

And now the pairs!! There’s no real need to get into the Thief-Rogue pairing, but I think theirs a lot to be said about the relationship between Knights and Maids! The best way to compare Dave and Aradia, Knight and Maid of Time!! Along with the fact that you could see them as serving classes (Dave serving the timeline and Aradia serving the dead), they can both be seen protecting the Alpha timeline in different ways! Dave, being the active Knight, aggressively stopped any and all possibilities for doomed timelines, every doomed timeline being seen as a set back to him (Dead Daves are the Enemy!!), thus effectively preserving the Alpha timeline!! Meanwhile, Aradia and the Aradiabots passively allowed many doomed timelines, using them as a tool to protect her team, often times using them as meat(metal) shields, and defeat the Black King! This could also be seen as the Knight Actively preserving the timeline by eliminating any and all doomed timelines they can, and the Maid passively allowing the doomed timelines to serve the Alpha!

Whew, I think that enough for addendum. Again, I am more then happy to discuss with anyone or answer questions about what I think 0u0. If I really feel the need to add more I’ll just make a new post >u< idk. I think i’m gonna do my next theory on Pages, their pairs, and their inversions. If you thought this one was too against most Classpect theories... you probably wont like that one either lmao. But I think I've formulated some very good reasons for it 0u0

[cherryclakanin-blog]

CHARACTER DESIGN

CHARACTER INFORMATION

Name: Estelle

Race: Magical (Sorcerer)

Age: 17

Magic: 

Father-inherited: Air - Sun          Mother-inherited: Fire - Moon

Strand (Other World): Alchemy

 CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

Dealer at a human school.

Used to be an alchemist student from a parallel world but went through a portal.

Her body's artificial with insertion of a soul and magic from both of her parents because her parents are of different species and can’t produce and offspring.

She strong (power-wise in using magic) but her stamina is weak.

PERSONALITY

Arrogant (at first) and sassy but chill.

Gets easily frustrated when she can’t be good at something right away.

Has an inferiority complex because of her situation in the magical world but she slowly learns to accept herself through her time on earth while making business with people and learning about humans and spending her days in “Luna Magica Academy”.

TRINKETS

Heirloom 

holds partial magic. Every magical has this object or something of the like. It's for controlling power. It’s comparable to a wand or staff used by magicians from classic literature and story books. 

It helps manifest the power and change its form. For example if an individual inherited water-based magic, using the heirloom, they can transform it into water healing magic. Skilled users can even transform their element to use a different element (but to an extent).

Basically, if your magical energy stored within the heirloom is the same amount of energy as the magic you want to use, you can transform your magic to an ability outside of your own capabilities with the heirloom. 

Amount and power of magic depends on the wielder's skill, and talent regardless of quality of heirloom (although quality of heirloom is also a big factor in magic making).

Suitcase 

That's where she lives.

A gift from parents because since she’s from the alchemy division, she does frequent research and tends to stays over at school or goes home late. It was given to her so she could stay at school when she needs to. Permission was asked from the headmaster so it’s all good.

Also made it into a storage room so it's a mess.

100sqm x 100 sqm, 2 floors on the inside

Glasses 

Conceals eye color so criminal magicals don’t finds out she's one of them or so that nobody thinks she’s weird.

Dealer jacket 

Contains magical stuff that she sells when someone approaches her for it... sort of like sketchy dealers from games and movies.

OTHER IMPORTANT CHARACTERS

Ellis

Met Estelle by asking her for a potion.

Has pure magical parents but was tossed out by relatives because they thought he had no powers, he's abandoned. He also knows this story because he was already conscious when this happened.

Didn’t know he was a magical until he found out Estelle wanted use him because her body’s too weak to handle very immense magic.

eyes: instead of having a glint is completely empty.

Thought he had no powers but he's made sort of like a shell (i.e. you can insert magic in him) 

Living heirloom (can transform into weapons or magical items)

Gemini

Junior gatekeeper(s) 

disguised as students because they were tasked to pursue Estelle.

not actually twins the sign gemini just needs to manifesters

magic: Air - Sun and Moon

Sansa

Estelle’s best friend from the Other World

magic:  aparition and astral projection

Turns out  they were following Estelle when she was breaking in the sacred rooms and reported everything to the ministry 

actually didn't like Estelle, she was jealous of her and was pushing her to steal the object.

LORE

The magic world has no concept of time so it's hard to control where you jump if you encounter a portal. It could be anywhere at any time and is dangerousif you’re not trained in time magic.

Powers are inherited

You could distinguish magicals from non-magicals with the glint in their eyes (Estelle has bluish gray eyes with a glint of pink)

Gatekeepers - guards time and space since it's very fragile, ancient, and barely touched magic.

Astrology is important because constellations and planet alignment are important to finding the gates that separate the two worlds.

Magic school - kind of like school on earth, from very young to high school students are taught the necessary things and basic magic and construct of the world while higher enchantment (SHS) gives students a choice for specialization. After HS you can go for higher learning or not.

Some jobs don't require magic at all

Current era earth contains very very tiny amounts of magic since criminals are banished here (explanation for sightings of the supernatural.. e.g. aswang and those who carry great “luck” that are the so-called “mediums” and “voodoo witch doctors” on earth)

“Luck“ is the only form of magic within humans. Their luck also coincide with Astrology and the alignment of various heavenly bodies. If it is taken out, they futures might turn haywire. If you have only a small portion of luck, you could still accumulate some through a) practicing good karma b)getting astrologically connected with your sun and moon signs.

In the past united non-magic earth and magic earth used to be one until the Disaster of Divine Separation happened where half of the population lost their magic and the other half didn’t. This caused a divide as the ones who retained magic called themselves the “chosen ones” and those who didn’t got ridiculed. So the now non-magicals threw a rebellion which forced the separation of the normal and supernatural. 

All magic fall under the four elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Air) and two categories (Sun and Moon).

STORY

Estelle is a genius at their school although, she's arrogant and prideful because of her talent. You could say she's admired but also disliked. Her parents are also quite powerful and hold high regard of their daughter. Her co-students don't wanna praise her though because they know it'll further inflate her ego. 

Eventually their class went on a trip to the ministry of magic (not Harry Potter lol I just couldn’t think of a name) where all magic records, historical events, and experimentation are kept. The ministry also guards the sacred artifacts which hold the "secrets" of time magic. Only selected people could handle time magic, even if one is very powerful but cannot contain this magic will not be able to handle it. 

Prior to this trip, Estelle had a fight with her Higher enchantment  professor because she was saying she’ll make the ministry make her a gatekeep and was acting all high and mighty. Her professor told her "whatever you become, in that state, you’re not going to be as good as your parents". 

Maybe it was the professor’s choice of words but it didn’t sit right with her. Estelle’s parents were former gatekeepers that now work for the ministry after their contract ended (and also by choice). During the selection period, she didn't get picked. 

Due to desperation and wanting to “show them all” she planned to go to the artifact room and see if she could handle time magic. Her friend Sansa helped her with distracting security and Estelle was already good enough to bypass the guards.

When she reached the room of the sacred artifacts. Because she wasn’t at the right location and time of alignment, and for various other reasons, she failed in trying to use the items and the whole ministry’s magic got drained then she got transported to the earthly world.

Naturally she was very confused but one thing lead to another, she got scammed into enrolling into "Luna Magica Academy" which she thought was a magic school that could help her get back to the Other World, but in all truth it was just a name of a private school with zero magic. She wasn’t fond of reading history books as she thought they weren’t necessary. Here, aside from being frustrated by the whole ordeal, she get's a taste of failure as she doesn't know anything about earth and their studies. 

Here, she notices a lot of problems in the non-magic world that could easily be fixed by magic. From typical things like aching backs and sores to things done by other magical beings banished to the earthly world .

Because of this, she thought of opening up a service where she sells potions and extinguishes problems for a price of a portion of that person's luck. Since they didn’t know what she was talking about and thought they had nothing to lose, they’d agree to this contract. She puts their luck in her heirloom in hopes of trying to return (she still has this the sacred artifact btw).

Business runs smoothly but then she meets a guy asking for her help, a healer’s potion to be exact. Through the emptiness in his eyes, she figures out that he's a powerful living heirloom and makes a contract with him, without him knowing he was an heirloom. From here on out, he became her assistant and according to the contract will help her with whatever problem may be and agree if she asks for “divine” help.  

Long story short, as she interacts with more people and encounters their problems and commit many failures both in school and personal life, she slowly loses her will to do business for the sake of acquiring magic as she doesn't want to take away other people's luck and becomes guilty whenever she lets someone sign her contract. 

As she grows as a person, makes new friends and her abilities in academics improve (since she catches up quick), and feels normal, she felt like she found her place and nearly forgets her desire to go back to earth. She even thought of opening up a magic shop (totally not sketchy at all) after graduation. 

But of course fun times ain’t the end of it all, because someone enrolls in their school - part of the gatekeepers, Gemini. And everything was coming back to her. 

Of course this had to happen, she still had the artifact, naturally someone was going to chase her. Although she didn’t want to leave anyone behind and didn’t want anyone to forget her, she most of all didn't want to get the people she interacted with on earth involved because she knows at that point that she made a mistake. So it was back to plan A - to go back to before she stole the artifact, the day of the ministry field trip and he needed Ellis to get back.

When he found out he was mad, they fought but eventually made up. They talked to the people they helped in school and they all agreed to give her a part of their luck (she returned these people's lucks after meeting Ellis, also everyone at the school knows she’s not ordinary by now) to her.

Ellis also agreed on letting her use him as an heirloom. They guided their way through the constellations while escaping Gemini’s surveillance. She finds the portal entry and uses Ellis to get back.

After the travel, she realizes she transported at the exact time that she left and found out her friend, Sansa snitched on her. Afterwards she got into all sorts of trouble and was banned from entering the Other World until she fixes everything on earth because after she opened the portal of time - the ministry which is also a prison had the criminals escape. 

She's gotta find em, on this journey she’s going to be accompanied by Ellis and Gemini.

 She goes back to earth and apologizes to everyone and thanks ‘em before venturing off through time and space to find these criminals.

to be continued in season 2... 

[pxgtails]

KRIS CLARITY’S RP PLOTTING CHEAT-SHEET!

Want new-and-exciting plots for your character? Long to reach out to more of your followers, but don’t know where to start? Fear not! Fill out this form and give your RP partners both present and future all the of juicy jumping off points they need to help you get your characters acquainted.

Be sure to tag the players whose characters YOU want more cues to interact with, and repost, don’t reblog! Feel free to add or remove sections as you see fit. Template here.

Mun name: Butts! OOC Contact: Tumblr IM is usually the best way to reach me! I also have s.kype and d.iscord, and mutuals are free to ask for it!

Who the heck is my muse anyway:

That pipsqueak who squashed Team Rocket’s attempted uprising in Johto a few years back — and went on from that to earn the title of the LEAGUE CHAMPION  ( though she’s still in training! )  and also complete the NATIONAL POKéDEX. 

Points of interest:

She runs a one-man capturing business, branding herself as ‘Kris Clarity, Capturer Extraordinaire.’ It’s actually become wildly popular  ( having a POKéMON ‘caught by the Capturer Extraordinaire’ is slowly becoming a status symbol! )  and so odds are, if you know of Kris Clarity, you probably know of her business.

She’s LOUD. She talks at the same decibel that some people raise their voice to — it’s not intentional, but that doesn’t make the reality of her volume any less genuine.

SUICUNE tends to never be far from Kris; if the Legendary Beast is spotted, odds are Kris isn’t far behind  ( and vice-versa! )

Recently, she’s taken to having her seventeen salandit out of their POKéBALLS when she’s resting. The scent that comes with them would be enough to turn anyone’s head — as well as most likely disorient them.

She is a total sucker for space, and can often be found stargazing on clear nights. It’s the quietest you’ll ever find her!

She’ll get in a fistfight with just about anyone and anything that moves. Odds are, she’s either just finished fighting someone, is currently fighting someone, or is going to fight someone very very soon.

Kris is very afraid of birds. The larger the bird, the worse-off she is. Birds her size or larger tend to leave her paralyzed with fear.

She’s very vocal about the fact that she doesn’t believe in psychics. This stems from the fact that she’s ESP-deaf, meaning that any and all attempts to telepathically communicate with her  ( as well as several other psychic abilities )  are rendered moot.

She very loudly dislikes Sinnoh, and she’s sure to inform everyone who mentions ‘Sinnoh�� to her of exactly this fact.

Characters with odd-coloured hair and/or odd-coloured eyes immediately garner her interest. As someone with bright blue gravity defying-hair, she automatically assumes that everyone else faced just as much hardship about their appearance as she did. Anticipate her deciding to be the defense force that character needs!

She thinks capes are the coolest thing on the planet. If you’re wearing a cape, good luck.

What they’ve been up to recently:

She’s been trying — and failing — to mega evolve her absolute brute of a houndoom named Blue. She has both the Keystone and the Houndoomite, but something just isn’t working. 

She’s always been very infatuated with quite a few people — but recently, she’s been increasingly preoccupied with what she considers ‘depraved thoughts’ of wanting to hold their hands and such.

While on the topic of Ghetsis — she’s slowly being wrapped around his finger  “proving herself useful” to him. Thus, between her thing with Ghetsis and assisting her cousin in his labwork, she’s become somewhat integrated with Team Plasma.

She’s coming up on her big 1000th personal capture — and she’s aspiring to catch a jirachi to commemorate the occasion. So she’s been pouring a lot of her free-time into researching them.

Outside of the POKéMON universe, Kris has been looking for new people to buy her food friends. She can’t very well tell people that she’s from a universe vastly different from their own, so she’s always very vague about where she’s from and why she needs to crash on your couch for the night.

Where to find them:

JOHTO.     It’s her home turf, after all! Her position as Champion-in-Training keeps her coming back home on a regular basis. Especially look for her in Olivine City, Azalea Town, Goldenrod City, near the Indigo Plateau, and the Ruins of Alph!

HOENN.     Her best friend in the universe lives there, so of course she takes every opportunity she can to spend time in this region — particularly around Mossdeep, and especially around the Space Center!

UNOVA.     It’s where her cousin and Team Plasma are located, so of course she ends up spending quite a bit of time there. Besides — the hustle and bustle of Castelia City and Nimbasa City makes Goldenrod look like some sort of hick town, and Kris loves it!

ALOLA.     As someone who loves the sun and summer, Alola is her new favourite place to be during the colder months.

MT. SILVER.     She’s a die-hard Red enthusiast, after all. She’s set up a “base camp” in the abandoned POKéMON CENTER at the base of it. She does what she can to keep it operational, in case Red ever needs it.

JUST ABOUT ANYWHERE WITH POKéMON, REALLY.     She’s the Capturer Extraordinaire — if she’s not capturing for her own leisure, she’s capturing for commission. This takes her to many out-there locations!

Current plans:

She will eventually manage to mega-evolve her houndoom. But she’s going to need some help, first. And a lot of help after.

Things with Yuri will come tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down. Rest in pieces Space Crew B’]

I mostly play things by ear! Kris’ story is ever-fluid and ever-changing, so hit me up with any ideas you might have!

Desired interactions:

More friends!     Or just positive interactions in general — I love writing negative and angry interactions, but variety is the spice of life! Kris is a little abrasive, but she’ll also bend over backwards for you.

Someone to talk to her about her crush habits!     Whether it’s ‘you need to stop crushing on every pretty guy meet’ or ‘you need to understand that when people say they’re gay, it means that they’re gay and no amount of pushing is going to change that’ or ‘wanting to hold hands is okay and a natural human instinct, don’t feel bad about it’ or something else entirely — this girl needs help.

A villain who crushes on her!     Bonus points if it’s a Rocket.

More unhealthy relationships!     Kris is an easily-manipulated girl with a nigh-on palpable desperation for validation. She’s headstrong and impulsive and vehemently believes that everyone has only the best intentions! This is a very dangerous combination of traits and I’d love for people to capitalize on them to take advantage of her!

People who try and get to know her!     The real her — not ‘Kris Clarity, Capturer Extraordinaire,’ but just Kris. She has an astoundingly difficult time thinking about herself as a person, and not a pop culture icon.

More people flirting with her / teasing her!     Because I can never get enough of that to be honest.

Offered interactions:

Need a POKéMON captured? Kris Clarity’s your girl! On top of offering to capture just about any POKéMON you could ask for, she’s also become a big-enough name that even without knowing her personally, she could very easily be the person you end up going to.

Need your muse beaten up? Look no further! Kris practically speaks fisticuffs as a second language; she’ll throw a punch as her first resort, rather than her last. A lot of the time she won’t even realize that she’s being too rough until after the fact.

Need someone to stick up for your muse? Kris’ll do it! If your muse is getting bullied or harassed, Kris is very likely to jump in to defend them — even if they’ve never met! She fashions herself ‘a hero of the people.’ after all.

Need a rival? Kris loves rivals, and so do I! Whether they’re friendly or very very unfriendly, Kris will be competitive about nearly everything.

Need someone to manipulate? As stated earlier, Kris is obscenely easy to influence, and is also a very powerful person to have on your side.

Current open post/s:

Here’s my open tag and my status tag! I don’t have an expiration date on those, so feel free to scroll through and respond to anything that tickles your fancy!

Anything else?:

Not that I can think of! I just want to emphasize that mun =/= muse, so while Kris may come across as intense and overbearing, I like to think I’m a little more amiable!

Tagged by: @bandagedbandit literally nine months ago klashsklha

Tagging: @cosmonucleic @desbearer @lamentis @rationalclover @fukainoumi @rebursting @blancowls @soarleader @gbplayer @starmarkcd @starblend @carnivigorous @shadyxdealings @craniumaniac @watterlogged @undinaes @telekinetiq @rocketbcss @glitchborn @agentmansley look it’s been nine months i don’t remember who’s done this and who hasn’t... ... ... IF I DIDN’T TAG YOU AND YOU WANT TO GIVE THIS A SHOT, PLEASE DO!! this is a wonderful way to open yourself up to new interactions!!

[coalessscence]

RULES.  Repost, do not reblog !  Tag 10 !  Good  luck ! Tagged by: @fatherofmachine (sorry it took so long and tHANK U !!) Tagging:  @desxderium @fireversed (for raja!) @aceinthehcle @haplesstimetraveller @jigowatt @doomedtogether (for anyone u like !!) @floriistry (for ur depressed florist ;) ) @stridande @annastrxng @feliciahadley @piper-aileen-lenox (ONLY IF YOU RLY WANT TO HUN !! DW IF U DONT !!) @thoracicbeams @agxntvanpelt (there’s no rush/don’t feel obligated oml !!) @pxperhearts (for jennifer) 

 (i’m doing this one for MIRA.)

BASICS.

FULL  NAME : Mira Kathleen Colburn (former alias, Nora P. Retwood) NICKNAME/S : None at the moment AGE :  verse dependent; default is 39. BIRTHDAY : August 12th, 1977 ETHNIC  GROUP :  Caucasian / white. NATIONALITY :  American. LANGUAGE/S : English, a tiny, acquired-in-passing amount of several others (spanish, french, etc) SEXUAL  ORIENTATION :  abrosexual (Abrosexuality is defined as a “fluent” sexuality in that that the sexuality is always/frequently changing, usually between the same sexualities. In example, an abrosexual female can switch between homo, hetero, pan, and asexual, so that a few days she can be a lesbian, followed by a few weeks where she is ace and not attracted to anybody, followed by a time of pansexuality where anybody could be found attractive.) Mira herself tends to fluctuate between hetero, homo, and ace. she also fluctuates a lot on the sex repulsion scale, especially post her traumatic experiences. ROMANTIC  ORIENTATION :  abroromantic (same as above but regarding romantic attractions). RELATIONSHIP  STATUS :  single.  CLASS :  working-mid class; presents herself unfailingly as upper HOME TOWN / AREA :  born in new orleans, louisiana, usa CURRENT  HOME :   EXTREMELY verse dependent. defaults are either texas or georgia, usa PROFESSION : as per, very verse dependent. has dabbled in acting & theater, modeling, law enforcement consultant, undercover operative for the ATF, performing her mentalist bit from the carnival (where she grew up & performed until the age of 17) in bars and clubs, and as the host of her own short lived television show.

PHYSICAL.

HAIR : brown EYES : brown NOSE :  a little on the wider side, not terribly large. FACE : prominent cheek bones; generally the more prominent, the worse she’s been doing (hasn’t been eating/sleeping as well, etc). small lines around the eyes and a hint of dimples with a wide smile. most signs of middle age are well hidden by makeup at all times. moderately defined chin. LIPS : a little on the thinner side, but well defined. often wears red lipstick, of varying shades. COMPLEXION : Pale. BLEMISHES : probably a few spots covered by makeup, here and there, on her skin, but for the most part, her complexion is clear. SCARS : on the inside of her right arm, a scar runs from just above her elbow up towards her armpit. it was incurred via a knife in a bust gone wrong, one which resulted in captivity & rape. it is part of the reason she does not wear very short sleeves. TATTOOS :  None. PIERCINGS:  just for earrings, lobe piercings. HEIGHT :  5 ft 1 in (154 cm). WEIGHT : 131 Ibs (59 kg or 9.3 stones). BUILD : short, but not stocky; she is not tiny, but also not considered ‘overweight’. has relatively even curves. FEATURES :  smooth but also somehow a bit angular; she has great control over her expression at all times, and she doesn’t like to allow herself to appear too much so- she usually holds a softer expression in place to balance it.  ALLERGIES :  none USUAL  HAIR  STYLE : long and flowing, lightly styled- mahimum length, mid back, minimum length, shoulders. (although a lot of my icons depict it much shorter lol whoops)

USUAL  FACE  LOOK :  

tends to maintain a pleasant expression most of the time; almost never is she seen with an expression that is indifferent, scowling, or otherwise negative. there is a vague sense of calculating about it, and her eyes are always watching. the expression is also unreadable- the cover-all-mask for whatever real expression didn’t make it to her face.

USUAL  CLOTHING : done up, a lot of red (or, more rarely, yellow or blue) accents paired with neutral tans, grays, blacks, and whites. dressy but not ballroom dressy; never casual, never t shirts or denim. a lot of makeup, but not in a made up sort of way; more a no makeup look that take fifty different products. name brands, things that look, (maybe are) expensive. a lot of jewlery- necklaces, bracelets, rings. usually does not wear dangling earrings, but always wears studs. heels on a daily basis. mostly dresses, nice tops with slacks, pantsuits. following the experiences that gave her the scar, she does not expose much, if any, skin, and she always dresses in layers. if you see her w/o her nails done, w/o makeup on, in something less than presentable- something is terribly wrong.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEAR/S :  vulnerability, loss of power/control, being controlled, being manipulated, not being taken seriously, dependency. she does also suffer from ptsd following her experiences with the scar situation. she can be triggered by things like, men with powerful personalities trying to control her (or doing anything she may perceive as such), or getting too close to her; being touched when she was not asked if it was okay, did not see it coming, or is uncomfortable with the person touching her, being caught off guard by anyone in any situation. she also sprouted a fear of flying, which is based solely on an intense, triggering level of discomfort with the security measures proceeding the flight itself. ASPIRATION/S : she’d really just like to be happy. she’d like to be happy, and she’d like to not be alone. she’d like to move past her trauma without letting them change who she is because of it. she also does enjoy helping, although her methods of helping people out are rather unorthodox and may or may not appear incidentally threatening at some point in the process. POSITIVE  TRAITS :  intelligent, kind, tends to withhold judgments, makes people feel at ease, usually (seems) cheerful, willing to help, loyal to people she feels some attachment to. NEGATIVE  TRAITS : sometimes stubborn, closed off about important things, untrusting, secretive, tends to write off people she does not like to an absurd degree (for example, telling people her mother is dead, because they don’t get along), has the ability to be manipulative, to control a situation too much, etc, can be somewhat morally ambiguous, doesn’t take no for answer. ZODIAC :  Leo. TEMPERAMENT : calm, collected, seems to be quite easy going (whether she really is beneath the surface is anyone’s guess). keeps a level head in crisis. generally keeps a somewhat neutral opinion on most things (outwardly); and is as such generally non-threatening. SOUL  TYPE / S : the scholar: curious, analytical, & knowledge-seeking. ANIMALS : the fox. unassuming, seen as perhaps cute or approachable, but also has an air of wildness- an animal that should not be tamed, perhaps cannot be;  an animal with immense cunning, which people can sense deserves some respect for its capabilities. VICE  HABIT/S : always deflects the point away from herself, in a way that most people will never even notice. you may talk for hours, tell her your entire life story, and never realize that she didn’t even give her name.  FAITH : has no personal opinion. interested in the various faiths of the world, open to all of them, but claims none of them herself. GHOSTS ? :  rather indifferent.. AFTERLIFE ? : also rather indifferent REINCARNATION ? : same as above ALIENS ? :  would love to debate the topic, and assumes it’s probably likely, but is still personally rather indifferent.. POLITICAL  ALIGNMENT :  on the progressive side of things, probably. Chaotic Good. ECONOMIC  PREFERENCE : ? ? ? SOCIOPOLITICAL  POSITION : ? ? ? EDUCATION  LEVEL : did not graduate high school. due in part to the degree to which school bored her, but mostly due to a constant, moving home in the carnival and her mother’s insistence that the money she made for her was more important than education. this has limited her career options greatly (although she could have forged her way into college, she doubted she’d be able to pay for it). she is greatly ashamed of this, and has strove to rise above her carnie roots considerably. she speaks in a i read the dictionary for fun sort of way, rarely using a five letter word if she can think of one with seven. and since she does have and utilize a memory palace of sorts, she has memorized a lot of such words. in general, she strives to be well read, well informed, and appear to be very much an upper class member of society. it is partially personal preference, yes, but at least sixty-percent compensation.

FAMILY.

FATHER : unknown; random carnival goer her mother seduced. probably because she thought he had money. MOTHER : clara colburn. SIBLINGS : none. EXTENDED  FAMILY : unknown. NAME  MEANING/S :  of latin or slavic origin; mira may mean admirable, peace, the sea, the light, or female ruler. she was named for the meanings ‘the light’ and ‘the sea’. HISTORICAL  CONNECTION ? : none.

FAVOURITES.

DEITY : none. MONTH : September or november- the fall, but not october, because she’s not into halloween.. SEASON : fall. a time of casually layered clothes, her favorite colors, (except for blue, unfortunately) and spiced lattes. PLACE :  somewhere with a lot of other people, where she cans hoose to interact with them or not- someplace calm, but still busy, like the beach, a cafe or coffee shop, the park, etc. WEATHER :  on the cooler side- the 50s-60s F. ( 10s-20s C ). weather for jackets, sweaters, scarves, boots, etc. SOUND : gentle waves washing over the sand on a beach, the hum of a crowd of people doing whatever it is that humans do, rain splashing onto an umbrella on a cool september day. SCENT/S : sweet smells that are not fake or sickeningly so. perhaps a scent such a wisteria, or rose; but also, the smell of the beach- the scent of coffee- or perhaps even that distinctive smell of autumn. TASTE/S :  has a secret love of terrible carnival and fair foods, due to her past and the memories associated with them, but eats them very rarely. enjoys soups, salads, wraps, those sorts of things. lighter cuisine is more her forte; large, heavy comfort foods are not generally what she’s drawn to having. enjoys fresh vegetables and fruits, grilled meats, etc. also loves deserts, as long as they aren’t sickeningly sweet. FEEL/S : smooth and cool; silk, smooth cotton, something with a high threadcount. ANIMAL/S :  somewhat indifferent to animals, pets in general, etc. NUMBER :  none COLOUR :  blues, yellows, and a lot of fall/earth tones- grays, tans, sometimes even a forest green or a an apple red.

EXTRA.

TALENTS :  observation, reading other people (anticipating their emotional reactions, reading body language, watching for their subconscious tells, controlling and communication with her own ‘subconscious’ tells, which is useful in manipulation, etc) controlling a situation/what someone does or how they respond without their knowing it or realizing it. good at lying. good at memorization. plays the smallest bit of piano, good with things like makeup and fashion, a relatively good actress, very good at the practice of mentalism. knows how to pick locks, forge a signature, read lips, understands morse code, able to accurately guess someone’s name, age, weight, height, etc by just looking/interacting,  knows how to change a tire, can tell what someone is writing by watching the top of the pen, almost always knows when you’re lying, can perform countless tricks that imply she is capable of “reading your mind”, and a lot of other strange little skills that are not necessary, have little practical use, but which she has picked up anyway. BAD  AT :  true genuineness, being vulnerable, showing real emotion (rather than filtered or fabricated emotion), staying out of other people’s business, actually trusting someone, relationships, maintaining friendships, managing things that make her personally uncomfortable, blending in, making or keeping something simple, knowing what to do with children or animals, managing stress, not catering at least somewhat to other people’s wishes, anything technological (computers, smart phones, etc- they lost her after email machines if we’re being honest), video games, anything physical (sports, running, etc), does not know how to ride a bike (and is secretly ashamed of it), cooking, normalcy, making things inexpensive, changes on a fundemental level, doing anything in a hurry. TURN  ONS : intelligence, kindness, openness, cheer, a trusting nature. her ability to trust you (this one’s a rip off bc she blames u if she doesn’t when she’s the one with trust issues), uniqueness, gentlness, soft touches/kisses/etc, no expectations placed on intimacy. (which she is skittish of following her trauma). TURN  OFFS : rudeness, competitive nature, forcefulness, any man who is large and projects a powerful vibe (post trauma), controlling people (mun, coughing violently: WHO ARE YOU TO TALK-), a lot of expectations, anyone she doesn’t trust (basically everyone then), any sensed ulterior motives. HOBBIES : people watching, interacting with strangers, checking out new things, going to museums and art galleries and the like, reading at the beach, to some degree reading in general, fashion and makeup, going for walks just to enjoy the air, seeking out different coffees (she’s a bit of a coffee snob, but also enjoys tea), knows how to embroider and does occasionally make it a hobby, generally performing/being the center of attention. TROPES :  I WISH I COULD ANSWER THIS BUT..... I’VE ALREADY SPENT LIKE AN HOUR ON THIS IF I GO LOOKING FOR TROPES IT’LL BECOME THREE RIP AESTHETIC  TAGS :  light things, things with a lot of white in them, examples of solitude among people (like coffee shops, a small apartment overlooking a busy street, etc), the ocean, water in general, rain, designer fashion, the click of high heels, royalty.

FC INFO.

MAIN  FC/S : Rachel Weisz !

ALT  FC/S :  Naomi Watts (blonde fc; for the parallel lines verse; potrays the mira under the alias of nora retwood)

OLDER  FC/S :  none YOUNGER  FC/S :  aubrey miller (child), coner dwelly (teen), rachel weisz (from 20s and up!)

VOICE  CLAIM/S : i don’t actually have one. her speaking voice is measured, calm, unhurried but not slow. she has a soft louisiana accent, dulled from the years since she’s lived there, which tints certain words a bit, and she makes a point to speak in a way she considers to be upper class. her tone is usually even, but expressive; she doesn’t shout or growl or squeal or any such thing unless the circumstances are genuinely dire.

[tokyotheglaive]

Kylux, Resistance Hux!AU

Okay so I have a lot of feelings about a full cast switch–First Order is Resistance and Resistance is First Order–but I haven’t thought about Resistance Hux!AU exclusively outside of @sithofren‘s fic Third Degree which I haven’t finished yet but I love so far. Still, I’m going to give it my best shot!

At a relatively young age, Hux decided that enough was enough. His father was failing–the Empire was gone–and there was no sense sticking around with a sinking ship. He stole a shuttle and made for Hosnian Prime. For the next few years, Hux found himself in dire financial straits and on the street more than he was off of it, but he persevered. A combination of illicit activity, dogged determination, and sheer luck found Hux a candidate for the New Republic’s fleet. He made some credits but more or less found himself equally miserable. He might have drowned at the bottom of the bottles he grew to be so fond of during that period if he hadn’t been tapped by a supporter of the newly-established Resistance. He could be a pilot for them, they reasoned. The work would matter. Hux vacillated before admitted that he didn’t want to be a pilot. The supporter had done their research; of course not, they said, that’s not where your talents really lie. Hux might have bristled but they followed it up with soothing, ego-boosting remarks about his ability to talk circles around others, to fight on when no one else would, and his drive to succeed. Hux was hooked, and with the promise of a Senate sponsor (because he wanted his credits, damn it all) he found himself a slot in the Resistance as a troubleshooter of sorts–someone willing to do almost anything to get intel and new recruits.

Hux is absolutely one of the poster boys for Resistance recruitment. He’ll deny up, down, and sideways that it’s the hair, but the hair helps. He meets contacts across the galaxy, and through a combination of good looks and smooth talking he manages to accomplish his goals. The one problem the Resistance uncovered rather quickly is Hux’s xenophobia. He tries, though not very hard, to accept non-humanoid species, but his distaste for them is evident enough that he’s only sent after them on kill operations. If the Resistance needs more pilots/money/supplies/what have you from a non-humanoid species, Hux is sidelined in favour of someone else. (Hux doesn’t like that, not one bit, but he also doesn’t like aliens, so maybe it all balances out.)

When Luke goes missing, Hux is one of the many agents sent out to find him. He refuses to return empty-handed, though he grows frantic in his search. He runs out of fuel too many times to count and gets himself involved with an unsavoury crowd in order to keep going. The Resistance marks him as dead and carries on. Hux is not dead, just angry–at Luke for going missing, at the Resistance for not giving him more (non-existent) intel to work with, at himself for not doing his job and finding the person he’s meant to find. In the process of combing the galaxy, though, Hux hears of the First Order. It’s not that they’ve been unknown to him–he is fighting them, after all–but what he hears gives him pause. He discovers that Rae Sloane--his old mentor, once a Grand Admiral in the Imperial Navy--is still alive.

Sloane isn’t particularly happy to see Hux when he arrives, though she says that she’s not surprised. She’s been waiting for him to return for decades now. She’s disappointed in him, does he know? He says yes, he expects she is. She guesses he’s there to kill him, and he says he’s thought about it. He has, too, but that’s not why he’s here. He pours them each a drink and she laughs, says he’s gone soft. He asks her where Luke Skywalker went. Sloane’s not impressed with his question. “Come on, boy, use your head,” she tells him. She hasn’t been in with the Order for years, not since Snoke took power. Everything’s gone to hell. It’s not the organization she built, not the one she wanted. Hux presses her to tell him what she knows so they can build a better one.

He doesn’t mean it, except he does, and when he returns to the Resistance base armed with plenty of First Order plans--nearly everything Sloane had--the idea won’t leave him alone. He’s always wanted control; that’s why he likes these scouting operations, because he has control and power over what happens. What he does is important, and people recognize that. But if he built his own system... He sets the thought aside. There are too many players on the field right now, and he likes the Resistance, distant from most of them though he is. He’s a person here, a person with valued skills, a person who’s important precisely the way he is. His father never valued him as-is, and neither, for that matter, did Sloane. There’s something to be said for that.

Sloane’s dead, by the time he returns. She killed herself. There’s no one to back up Hux’s source information, but that’s of little importance to the Resistance. No, it’s a bigger problem for the First Order. His trip to see Sloane didn’t escape their notice, no matter how hard he tried to keep himself incognito. Snoke is particularly interested in Hux--he’d wanted that boy for the Order, and he had the audacity to break loose and join first the New Republic and then the Resistance. He wants him captured, returned to the fold if possible, and killed if not. Kylo Ren is sent on this mission.

Ren succeeds. He toys with Hux, drags him part of the way to the shuttle kicking and screaming. Hux is a vicious fighter, though he’s not the best; there was no overbearing father or Grand Admiral or Snoke to beat him into fighting shape. When Ren gets bored with him, he knocks him out.

Hux wakes aboard the Finalizer, strapped to an interrogation chair. Hux isn’t impressed with Ren, not in the slightest. Ren gives him the ultimatum, and Hux just laughs. Like hell is he going to join his father’s pet project. He doesn’t want to die, not in the slightest, but going back to the Empire or First Order or whatever they want to call themselves with his tail between his legs is hardly what he’d call a good time.

Ren’s ready to do things the hard way when he’s called outside of the interrogation room: a piece of the map to Skywalker has, allegedly, been located. A Resistance transmission was intercepted; someone now is headed to Jakku. Ren leaves Hux behind to get the map with the promise that Hux ought to have changed his mind by then.

Hux sort of drifts in and out at that point; he’s exhausted and, yes, a little scared, and pissed as all hell. He’s thirsty and hungry and in desperate need of a ‘fresher--but when the doors to his cell open, it’s not Ren who’s there.

Or, the thing looks like Ren. It’s not, though--the mask is different. Hux glares balefully and tells it not to come any closer. The creature obeys, and Hux remembers--something he hasn’t thought of for a long, long time.

The Knight--for Hux learns that he is a Knight of Ren--frees him from the interrogation chair at Hux’s own instruction. He leads Hux out, to a ship in the hangar bay, only to be stopped by Ren himself, demanding to know where his colleague is taking his prisoner.

Hux orders the Knight to fight on his behalf, but the Knight is quickly cut down. Ren demands to know how he gave the orders--how he got the Knight to listen to him. Hux attempts to flee and is quickly captured again. There’s little place to run aboard a Star Destroyer.

During this time, of course, Finn’s in the process of escaping with Poe Dameron, who’d been captured on Jakku. Ren isn’t aware because he’s bringing Hux before Snoke. Hux, thinking perhaps Ren is just a defective one of the kids Hux had once held complete sway over, tries ordering him to remove his mask. Ren, obviously, refuses, until Snoke does the same. Ren removes his mask, and Hux recognizes the face. He calls Ren by his birth name, and Ren’s ready to kill him before Snoke gives the order not to. He’s curious about Hux’s ability to control the Knights--he’d known that Brendol could do it, but Armitage? The weak-willed boy, thin as a slip of paper and twice as useless? (They’re not his father’s words, but oh how they sting.) Snoke wants to know more. He will keep Hux alive and under observation until the mechanism of that control is elucidated.Hux finds himself a permanent resident of the Finalizer. Each day, cycle, whatever they use, one of the Knights is brought to Hux. Hux is meant to give them orders so that Ren can observe with the Force how it is done. Hux initially refuses, then tries to get the Knight to attack Ren, then seeing how both are futile, pretends not to hear. He’s not at all inured to torture, so each day is agony, but he tries. Stars, how he tries. He tries to remind Ren of who he was, tries to ask what happened to him, but Ren won’t speak of it, and whenever Hux brings it up, it only means suffering.

Starkiller fires. Hux isn’t aware of it until Ren tells him of it. He asks if Hux lost anyone, if Hux cares. Hux goes into something like shock. He didn’t know anyone except he sort of did--old companions he flew with while he was with the New Republic, perhaps a few Resistance contacts. He feels and doesn’t feel, and he retreats into himself.

Starkiller explodes, and Hux doesn’t see Ren for several days. When he returns, it’s not with a Knight but instead with silence. They sit there all day, seemingly just watching each other. It’s comfortable in a very, very uncomfortable way. This continues for quite some time until Hux demands, nearly broken down, to know what’s going on, why he just looks now, and Ren removes the helmet.

It’s not--it’s not the worst wound Hux has ever seen, but it’s seen better days. Clearly, no one’s seen to it, least of all Ren himself. It’s infected, and, to be perfectly honest, pretty gross as a result. Hux can hardly look at it. Ren’s surprised and vocalizes it; Hux pities him. Hux flinches at the thought, but Ren pushes the matter. He has compassion, after all of this.

Ren starts coming and talking to him about Hux’s family, a topic which Hux refuses to speak of. He talks of Brendol, relays Hux’s backstory over and over to the point that Hux thinks that perhaps this is a new form of conditioning--maybe Ren’s tweaking the story a little each day until finally they come to the point when Hux leaves and Ren convinces him he never did. Ren doesn’t alter the story, though, merely relays it as if it were the news. Hux listens, and at the end of days of this Ren asks why.

Why? Why did Hux leave? What made him think he could survive alone? Hux, in a moment of weakness and exhaustion, admits that dying alone was preferable to serving his father or his cohorts any more than he already had. He’d rather live in agony than suffer that kind of indignity.

Ren leaves for quite some time after that, and when he returns...when he returns, he says that Hux is being transferred. He doesn’t say where, or how, only that he is. When he loads Hux into a shuttle, though, he demands that Hux reach out to old Resistance contacts. Hux refuses. Ren claims he’s defecting--he’s seen the light--and Hux continues to refuse. Ren plucks the answer from Hux’s mind and pilots the shuttle away.

Ren keeps Hux subdued as they travel. He says that Snoke wanted him to kill his mother, and that’s different from his father because he can feel her in the Force and even now after all of this she hasn’t given up on him, and he doesn’t want to suffer anymore--he wants to make the same call that Hux did. Hux doesn’t believe him. How can he? This is the person who imprisoned him, and intends now to, what, use him as a bargaining chip to get with the Resistance?

Ren doesn’t see a problem, and by the time he tracks down the new Resistance base by himself, Hux is too tired to fight. In Ren’s fervor to return, he’s neglected Hux’s health, and he’s a mess. Ren’s placed in a cell and Hux goes to the medbay, and for quite some time, they don’t see each other.

When they do, it’s because Leia orders it. Ren--Ben, she calls him, though he still doesn’t answer to it--has said that he’ll only speak to Hux and to herself, and she hasn’t been able to make much headway. She says he seems pained whenever she comes around, and perhaps Hux will have better luck.

Hux goes to see him, and Ren perks up. (Thinking right now of Clarice and Hannibal of Silence of the Lambs shot through with Liz and Red Reddington of The Blacklist in their first meeting.) Ren tells him where to find the other Knights--Hux can still control them, he can stop them from doing Snoke’s bidding in a way he can’t stop Ren himself. Hux asks why, and Ren says he wants Snoke dead. That’s it. That’s all he cares about now. Hux fears a trap and Ren says he can’t promise that they won’t be heavily guarded now, but Hux can stop them from doing worse. What worse means, Hux can’t get out of him, but Ren’s very clearly afraid of leaving the cell, of hurting anyone else.

Leia decides to act on the intel. One by one, Hux brings each of the Knights into the fold. They remember him from when he was a boy, and they’re no more talkative. Rumours start to spread about him--he’s something evil, something to be feared. It’s not helped by the Knights’ insistence to follow him everywhere, or the abilities they display during tests. They were fearsome as feral children; they’re worse as adults.

I’ve only just realized how far I deviated from what I was actually supposed to be doing re: merely listing five headcanons *sweats* whoops. Uh, let’s mark this down as a story I’m probably not going to write, then? I don’t know. Maybe I will. Depends if you like it, nonny. Don’t know how it could possibly end, though.

[connorrenwick]

Finding Your Creative Path with S A D É

The following post is brought to you by Squarespace. Our partners are hand picked by the Design Milk team because they represent the best in design.

Sometimes rather than figuring out what we want to do to pay the bills, what we want to do to pay the bills finds us. Not to sound cliché, but when it feels right you just know – and Sadé Hooks can relate. As someone who has always been a creative and tactile person, there was a natural attraction to craft and its various forms. We talked to Sadé about her Brooklyn-based jewelry company – S A D É – along with what led her to this place and how Squarespace has helped streamline her business and save her time. The platform offers a vast selection of award-winning templates, e-commerce capabilities, and even marketing tools to help your business grow.

Photo by Anna Sian

“My interest in craft and wearable object is innate and learned. I’ve always been a creative and tactile person, which led to a natural attraction to craft and the creative modalities that allow you to engage with touch. Being sort of an only child for a while, and having to figure out new ways to entertain myself, crafting in its varied forms allowed me to create a world for myself.,” Sadé says.

But it wasn’t until later, after she’d been exposed to the process, that jewelry became her main interest.

“Minus a short-lived enchantment with an EZ-2-Do bakeable jewelry oven, my interest in jewelry didn’t really evolve until I was a teenager, specifically when I took my first jewelry class at FIT when I was 14 or 15 years old. It was there that I really fell in love with jewelry making. The ability to manipulate materials, especially metals, was thrilling. When I was on the bench, me and machine were one and the same; I was an extension of them and they were an extension of me. It was a welcomed awakening and my creative abilities felt limitless. I started to truly understand the power and impact that jewelry can have, not only on the maker but on the wearer as well.”

At the moment, Sadé describes her business as an expensive professional side hustle that will hopefully one day turn into her career. Easy to relate to, right? Still, there was no doubt a moment when it hit her that her designs were something special.

Sadé says, “I first came to the realization that I was onto something with my designs when I was a teenager – but luck had a lot to do with it. When I was 15, I found myself in a very fortuitous situation which led to Nelly Furtado wearing some plastic bracelets I made on TV and in her ‘Turn Off the Light’ music video. A few years later luck also led to Sia (yes, ‘Chandelier’ Sia) wearing one of my barrettes in a campaign for one of her early albums.”

Those moments of luck didn’t have the inspiring impact you might expect, and for several years, Sadé didn’t really think of jewelry design as something that she could do professionally. It was a hobby she enjoyed, but any interest by others was – and still is – an addition bonus. There have also been the doubts that so many creatives experience in their craft.

“Over the years, and for a number of reasons, my confidence in my creative abilities did waver. I’m not traditionally trained, I took a few classes here and there, but otherwise part of my practice was just figuring things out. I always thought in order to be taken seriously I would need credentials and the right education. I think these thoughts were excuses I made to mask my fears and to block myself from my own success. I would still make things and try to sell them every now and then, but I would never call myself a designer. I had seen what professional jewelry designers could do, and what I made at the time didn’t look like what they were making.  Imposter syndrome was very alive within me. So I went further into that spiral of self-doubt, and instead of sharing my work, I found myself spending almost ten years promoting the creative efforts of others, neglecting my own.”

Being surrounded by a solid community and support system can go a long way, and Sadé learned just how much they’re to be valued recently.

She says, “Last year, through a lot of nudging and some sort of cosmic alignment, I got over myself and my insecurities. Luckily, I am part of a multifarious swarm of creatives that really supported me before, during, and after I launched my brand. It was through their support that I found a lot of strength in re-committing myself to my art, and believing in what I produce. I’ve definitely met my fair share of challenges since I launched, but I’m still learning and growing.”

We’re forever curious where creatives find inspiration for their work, along with what they might describe their aesthetic as – so we asked Sadé.

“Each piece has its own story, and thus its own source of inspiration. Sometimes I feel inspired by the wild women – real and imagined – that came before me, sometimes art and cultural references, and sometimes ideas just come out of the blue. Whatever the source of inspiration, it’s always intertwined with outward expressions of my thoughts, needs, neurosises, and/or process.,” she said.

An example is Medusa. “A couple of years ago, after a bit of heartache and a lot of confusion around the concept of ‘dating’ (which honestly still baffles me), I had the idea to turn myself into an object and put a value on my likeness. While it’s was somewhat inspired by Bernini’s ‘Medusa’ and Medusa’s story (fun fact: I’m a Greek Mythology nerd), it’s more of an examination of self-identity, race and racial politics in art, ownership of the gaze, and my questions around desirability.”

Sadé went on to say, “As far as its aesthetic goes, everything I design is meant to be impactful and transcend trend. My pieces are intentionally not precious. It’s quietly maximalist but also voluminous, strong as the hammering of a gavel, with the same rousing emphasis of the exclamation point at the end of a declaration. They’re also malleable, each piece easily adapts to the personal style of the wearer, with the intent of making them feel emboldened and powerful.”

Being a jewelry designer, there’s no way we couldn’t ask Sadé about the pieces she wears daily – what they are, who they’re by, and what they mean to her:

“There are actually quite a few pieces I wear everyday. They’re more or less items that mark significant moments in my life and/or act as a form of armor offering protection or guidance.

On my right forefinger, I wear a wedding band from Tiffany & Co. It was a gift intentionally repurposed into a undergraduate graduation ring with ‘NYU 07’ engraved on the inside (thanks Mom!).

I also wear a red acrylic Tatty Devine nameplate gifted to me by my old flatmates/friends Micha and Eneka. They gave me the necklace right before I moved back to New York from London in 2009. It’s now attached to a gold figaro chain my godmother gave me when I was 21 and I wear it as a declaration of personhood and as a testament to friendship.

On my right arm I wear a few woven bracelets that I’ve collected since 2015 – coincidentally shortly after my Saturn’s return ended. My favorites are two string bracelets that have beads from jewelry once worn by the spiritual guru, Amma.

I wear a talisman I made composed of charms of a few of my celestial guides, a piece of garnet (a great gemstone for small business success, amongst others), and a ‘S’ charm given to me by a college friend 12 years ago.

On my left forefinger I usually wear one or two of the first Helios rings I made. No deep meaning other than the fact that I originally made them because I thought I needed new jewelry for a work trip to London. (I am very much that person.)

As of a few of months ago, I started wearing a mood ring I designed, and will hopefully start selling soon. I love mood rings and as corny as it sounds, I designed this one to give me a sense of invincibility. It conjures up feelings of power, protection, and confidence when I wear it; all of which are feelings that I hope my jewelry gives to their respective wearers.

I recently added a gold pinky ring with a small yellow sapphire into the mix. I named it ‘St. Anthony’ because while I was making it out of wax, I lost the sapphire for three days and it didn’t re-appear until I started reciting the St. Anthony rhyme (Dear St. Anthony please come around, something is lost and it cannot be found). Try it – it works!”

When it comes down to it, a business is a business – whether it’s a side hustle or a full-blown career – and it takes a lot to make one run. Sometimes that means pulling in extra help to make it function smoother, like Squarespace. S A D É uses their platform to save time on sales and administration.

Sadé says, “The Squarespace templates are an aesthete’s dream. When I first started my e-commerce site, it was really important for me to find a platform that cared about the aesthetics of the website as much as they cared about the functionality. Without a doubt Squarespace was the answer.”

“I’m also very thankful for the Squarespace e-commerce platform – it has been the biggest timesaver for me. Running a small creative business is no joke, especially when you have a full-time job outside of your business like I do. Between working on new ideas and trying to think of strategies that increase consumer engagement, there isn’t much time to think about how my website is functioning, especially from a sales and admin perspective. The Squarespace e-commerce platform and its optional add-ons do all of the work for me. It is wonderfully intuitive and as a whole has made the ordering and tracking process seamless and easy for me and my customers. I don’t have to worry about anything except for fulfilling orders. It’s kind of amazing.”

Photos by Najva Sol.

Ready to get to work on your own site? Take the first step with a Squarespace website. Use coupon code DESIGNMILK at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

via http://design-milk.com/

from WordPress https://connorrenwickblog.wordpress.com/2019/02/26/finding-your-creative-path-with-s-a-d-e/

[sarahburness]

Why Your Positive Attitude Might Be Hurting You

“Positivity is a dogmatic insistence on turning away from what is painful.” ~Susan Piver, Wisdom of a Broken Heart

What if I told you there may be a flaw in positive thinking?

How could being positive possibly be unhelpful?

To some extent, positivity can be beneficial. In my life I’ve found optimism to be quite wonderful, crucial even.

Being around people who are generally positive is just far more pleasant than being around people who are constantly negative. Life seems a little bit more manageable when you can practice gratitude. Smiles are had and spirits are lifted with simple platitudes like c’est la vie and it is what it is! Not only is it helpful, but optimism can actually provide a number of benefits.

There was a study done by the University of Kentucky where nuns were rated on a positivity scale based on their diaries in the 1930’s. Sixty years later researchers found that some of these ladies, aged seventy-five to ninety, were still alive. The survivors were mostly the women who scored high on the positivity test, insinuating that happiness leads to a longer life.

Happiness expert and psychologist Michael F. Scheier says that optimists do better in life than pessimists because they’re problem solvers and have better coping mechanisms. Dealing with trauma from earlier in my life has been made much easier by having these two things at my disposal.

In her Broaden and Build Theory, psychologist Barbara Fredrickson has discovered a model of how positivity interacts with resilience. She states that people who are more positive have more physical, psychological, and social resources. They may be better able to exercise, more able to keep away from rumination, and they have the best of buds to cry to.

When my grandmother died, I was devastated. How could I possibly draw positivity from death? Well, it turns out that I can and I did. My coping mechanism was to gain life lessons. In fact, her passing was the catalyst for me to get sober. I began to cope in a healthier way, without the crutch of substances. I had to adapt to see the sunlight, and optimism brought me there.

I now have great positive coping mechanisms like meditation, playing hockey, and the ability to discuss emotional matters with others. I regularly practice gratitude; I even write a daily gratitude list and send it to a friend. I express my appreciation for things like my job (which isn’t always perfect), being able-bodied, and having financial security.

Don’t get me wrong here, I love optimism; I just can’t help but look at where it fails us.

I used to be the “fine” queen. When someone asked me how I was doing I was always “fine.” Whenever something happened, maybe someone did something to wrong me, like the guy I was dating being a real jerk, it was “fine.” I was the girl who kept the smile on her face.

I was bubbly and eternally positive, no matter what the situation. While on the surface this may seem like a wonderful trait in a person, in practice it meant that my needs weren’t being met, I was letting people treat me poorly, and I wasn’t always listening to my mind, body, or spirit.

To grow from this has been a long journey of realizing that it’s okay (even important) to slow down and take a look at what’s going on. It’s necessary to give my feelings space and let them come out to play. I learned this through heartache after heartache. Breakups, dreams crushed, and death—all of these things helped me to discover that I deserved my own presence.

Heartbreak shook me to the core, leaving me feeling like I’d never be okay again. The feelings I had at that time demanded to be felt; there was no getting around it. In order to move past the suffering, I needed to feel it. I couldn’t tell myself I was fine or that everything was going to be okay. I just needed to sit with the hurt.

Sure, there were good things that came from heartbreak like lessons learned and new opportunities, but there were also times when I just needed to feel, heal, and deal. I needed to look my heartache squarely in the face, cry, and let my facing it begin to repair the damage done.

My dreams were crushed when I got into an Ivy League university and realized that I couldn’t attend for financial and personal reasons. I was totally devastated. Through this, though, I realized that it was okay to hold my sadness. I was allowed to hold joy for being admitted in the first place while I could also leave space for my tears.

Man did I spill tears when my grandmother died. It felt like my heart had been put through a meat grinder, and the pieces were never going to fit back together again. I cried in the grocery store and at the mall, I couldn’t mask what I was feeling. I couldn’t plaster that fake smile on, and when someone asked me how I was doing, the answer was often “not so good.”

Little did I know that these experiences were gifts, moving me closer to being with myself. They encouraged me (with much force sometimes) to be with my truth, to be with the heart of the matter without turning away.

Allowing and visiting feelings may take the form of letting myself cry without redirecting my attention anywhere else. Just giving myself the space to cry without judgment. Letting myself cry until there are no more tears to spill, or even telling myself that it’s okay if I don’t stop crying when I’d like to.

It’s also leaning in, asking myself, “What’s going on, darling?” and listening to the answer, however difficult. It’s being able to sit with that raw feeling of vulnerability in my chest.

Instead of being with what’s in your heart, many people put up a wall. Susan Piver puts it beautifully in her book Wisdom of a Broken Heart, “Positive thought is a method of stepping away from what ails you rather than toward it.” You’re often stepping away with avoidance, because who wants to feel the tough stuff?

Leaning into that takes work and courage. It’s a societal norm to avoid feeling pain. We hate it; we’ll avoid it at all costs. That’s just what we do: mask our struggles. At work, in life, even in relationships with loved ones.

There’s a pressure to be okay and put a game face on. This pressure comes from the idea that you should always aim for positivity, in all cases. This is what Susan Piver coined the “Cult of Positivity,” continually turning away from what is uncomfortable and painful. I have two big bones to pick with “positivity:”

1. I don’t believe the bad in the world has happened because you were too negative.

2. I don’t believe that looking at the bright side of things is always the answer to solving life’s problems.

There are those who believe that positive thinking undoubtedly makes their lives much better. In many ways this is true. However, not so much when it comes to what happens to you in the world. No matter how positive you think, the outcome of your cancer is going to be the same.

Alternatively, you can have wonderfully positive thoughts and still end up homeless or jobless. I dislike the idea of a “positive mind, positive life.” It ends up victim-blaming because people may feel at fault for something they had no control over.

I’ve experienced this as someone who deals with mental health issues. I’ve had people tell me to just suck it up and think more positively. Don’t you think if it was that easy there wouldn’t be mental illness? No one wants to be depressed. It’s just not that simple.

Optimism doesn’t cure crippling bipolar or bring you out of a depressive funk. Telling someone that they can control the outcome of their illness is just placing blame when there’s no blame to be had.

The idea that someone has control over all outcomes in their life baffles me. For example, the book The Secret is about the Law of Attraction. What you put out in the world is what comes back to you, according to author Rhonda Byrne. If you put out those positive vibes you’ll reap the rewards, like a good seat at the movie theater or a gorgeous partner.

This insinuates that you deserve it when bad things happen to you just as you deserve it when good things happen. It’s similar to some sort of merit system. I don’t believe a tragic accident happens because someone didn’t practice enough positivity. On the same token, even something like hitting the lottery is pure luck rather than an expression of a manifestation.

Next, always looking on the bright side to answer life’s problems is just a way to avoid feeling. It’s superficial. It’s okay, important even, to be sunny, but it becomes problematic when your feelings are lying untouched below the surface. There’s nothing to be gained by lying to the world and saying that your life is perfect.

Sometimes I feel like I need to “practice gratitude” when I’m sharing my struggles with a friend. I’ll tell them all about what’s ailing me, then I’ll quickly bookend my concerns with something I’m grateful for.

While gratitude is a magnificently powerful practice, I may be selling myself short here, missing out on digging just a little deeper into what’s going on. Instead of turning away from my suffering, I could turn toward it to take a peek and to let it be felt.

So, what to do with all of this? Next time a close friend says “good” when you ask them how they’re doing, try asking them how they’re really doing. You’ll likely take them off-guard, but it’ll worth it to help them open up. Listen to their answer.

In yourself, watch for those moments where you’re quick to shut a feeling down. Look out for “buts,” like when you say, “I had a crummy weekend but it’s totally fine.” Practice just letting the tough stuff hang there. Don’t try to make it better for a moment.

Of course, eventually, you do want to move on, and positivity can come in here. Once you’ve looked squarely at your stuff, then is the time to find something to be grateful for. It’s the time to make a joke or spew a platitude. Then you’ve really honored yourself, allowed yourself to be seen. Because only when you’re seen can the real healing begin.

About Ginelle Testa

Ginelle Testa is a passionate wordsmith. She's a queer gal whose passions include recovery/sobriety, social justice, body positivity, and intersectional feminism. In the rare moments she isn't writing, you can find her holding her own in a recreational street hockey league, thrifting eclectic attire, and imperfectly practicing Buddhism. You can find her at ginelletesta.com.

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The post Why Your Positive Attitude Might Be Hurting You appeared first on Tiny Buddha.

from Tiny Buddha https://tinybuddha.com/blog/your-positive-attitude-might-be-hurting-you/