#I mean it helps that he’s part fire elemental or whatever. if he still looked human as holt would they think differently?

[celestetcetera]

One of my favorite thing the more supernatural adaptations of Jekyll & Hyde do is debate whether Jekyll/Hyde should be considered a monster. Like, he doesn’t have that immediate classic monster recognition that others like frankenstein’s creature has, but obviously Hyde is quite monstrous. But Hyde is also an inherent part of every human. And he looks human, usually, so not everyone who meets him really clocks him as a monster. I mean, is a man who can turn into another man a monster? What if they don’t even look any different? What exactly puts them in the monster category?

[jiminsass-istant]

WHO MV ANALYSIS: BRILLIANT STORY TELLING, QUEER CODING AND MORE

I have a lot to say. And yes i positively feel like a clown that this post comes right after jimin said "go ahead, misinterpret everything hehe". This might be a long one, so settle in. Also, if you are looking for this as some kind of validation for any ship, I'm afraid it might not serve that purpose (BUT keep reading!). This is simply an analysis of MV elements and cinematography in its purest form appreciating the brilliant work done by Lumpens and his assistant directors.

Part 1: Start of the story of a man in search of love

Let's start from the very beginning. Many of you have already figured out that Jimin is telling a story here (I'm not wrong yet Jimin, dammit). How do we know this? Look at that mini TV. Yes, this mini TV is actually our bookmark, our storyteller. In it's first appearance, it says "play" with a man walking at a normal pace, imitating jimin here, who is also walking.

Elements to notice here:-

The 'ONLY' signs on the road which mean these roads have only limited accessibility when it comes to directions. In my opinion, it symbolizes the rules that this world imposes on us. And here comes jimin whining/asking why he hasn't met 'her' even if he sees her at night? (imagines her) and thinks about her.

2. Also notice how it says "BLISS" on the neon sign but the world he's in is basically pre-tornado winds - there are papers flying, cars on fire, safety barrier tapes, even the mini TV is on fire. The flyer for the song says "who is!! Tornado of love" and basically serves as a warning that the 'tornado of love' is approaching soon.

3. Reference to 'Closer' (than this?) on the billboard with a man on it. Looks like a reference to a movie or song of 1995 which I haven't been able to find out yet. [help me]

Part 2: Searching gets more desperate

Moving on, we see Jimin entering the part of street with an old, dilapidated building in the background (so much to notice here!!)

Elements to look out:

Firstly, look at the mini TV which still says 'play' but the man in the TV is now running instead of walking. Just like how Jimin's steps are faster now, he's on his search for 'her', but he's getting desperate.

Notice the engineers in the background? Yes they are engineers- they have plans, measuring devices etc. And they are working to "renovate" the building. Interesting choice of scene right before a tornado... let's found out why-

Notice that on the right side to the entrance of this building, there's "B-1" written on the walls, but one could also read it at "13 1" At first glance, that's what it seemed like to me. I think people renovating a building whose name looks like a "13" is symbolism for jimin trying to heal/renovate/repair his heart/emotions/past traumas. It's about him still being in that phase where he is healing/ trying to heal himself by trying to find 'her' OR maybe he's trying to find 'her' when he is not even completely healed himself.

See the TV on the shopping cart on fire because it will be referenced later. Put a pin on it.

Part-3 Theatrics

With a flash of retro cable TV like lights, the perspective changes - as in now you are watching inside the mini TV. I'm talking about this part, when he changes direction and goes to the girl. So many interesting things happen, I'm giddy thinking about writing it.

Elements to notice:

I can't help but think of the words 'auto calibration ' that flashes right before Jimin does that cunty choreo with the female dancer. 'auto calibration ' literally means 'standardization' or 'correction' . I don't think people realise how queer coded it is. 'coded' being the keyword here. It could also mean 'standardized' as in the way we view idols as these perfect people with perfect dating lives.

3. The car is on fire- so yeah whatever is happening cannot be good. Everything is still chaotic and doesn't make it easy

2. The mini TV now shows various images with a heart '<3' symbolizing that he is engaging in some kind of relationship, but this is literally the biggest 'drama' ever. Because look at this scene- it's pure cinema..

"So many people to see" - people watching them date/engage while making a whole show out of it. There's also an ambulance nearby because obviously an idol's dating life shown to the public can leave people hurt and offended. As Jimin and the girl dance, they are literally in front of a local theatre called the 'OASIS'. My interpretation is that a celeb's dating life is literally 'theatrics' for the public. They are reduced to nothing but characters for entertainment, and worst part is that the public isn't happy either. No wonder, making it extremely difficult for Jimin to find true love. Special mention where the girl has him in a chokehold, quite literally an uncomfortable position, entangled with each other- or at least that's how the public views them.

3) In the same scene we see that the mini TV has tumbled down along with the shopping cart which was on fire, hence setting the car on fire too lol. Brilliant attention to detail.

Part-4 - where Jimin gets more desperate to find true love (in the past!)

As soon as the dancers leave, we see the huge billboard fall down and if i go with all the clues we have been getting, especially the travel show...it is WILD.

Because people are focusing on the possible OST called "Keep going", but DO YOU NOT REALISE HOW HUGE IT IS THAT JK IS REFERENCED IN A ROMANTIC SONG? dropping from the sky with 'who' written on it??!! "Who" without the questions or exclamations. I'll let you go delulu mode on that one. Moving on-

You must have noticed that to show a change in phase/scene, they have used multicolored flashes and change to 90s TV perspective. The same happens now after the billboard drops but the important thing to notice is the "rewind" on the screen now. Which basically means jimin going through different people is a thing of the past.

3. The crow/raven seen multiple times in the MV. Either way, a crow or raven is not something we see at night. They come out only at times of 'unnatural exceptions' like storms, earthquakes etc because they are not nocturnal creatures. While Jimin was trying to find love, there was definitely something happening which wasn't natural for him or was out of his comfort zone/he was not himself.

4. Another instance of queer coding I noticed was both men and women walking past him, similar to Like Crazy MV. It had a different symbolism in LC because he was trying to stay in the dream. But here people walking past him clearly means possible romantic partners. And he keeps stopping, keeps trying his luck with different people, almost always failing. OR- it could mean there are people of both genders walking past him but he never goes for the men in the past.

Part-5 - The tornado of love finally arrives

Now it says 'Play' on the screen meaning we are now in the present again. The tornado has built up, Jimin looks more confident, more smug as the tornado gains momentum behind him.

A flash of light, fireworks erupt as he sings his heart out. Even after the tornado is completely gone, the sparks and short circuits and destruction continues, meaning the 'tornado of love' arrived and certainly did a number on him.

Finally, we see him on a much calmer path. All cars lined up. He owns his life now. The situation is under control, the cars with lights on, ready to go.

I truly appreciate the storytelling in WHO MV. Lumpens Sir delivering as always. And I would love to know which things were Jimin's ideas but he wouldn't share that with us would he?

Let me know what you think and discuss in the comments if you want to.

[peijizerojournal]

issues and inconsistencies in "khaos reigns" [part 1, probably] :

i already have a post speed-reviewing/critiquing ‘khaos reigns’ and i touched on the sektor parable via a reblogged post, but grrahh, i still have tons of thoughts, questions and comments about the narrative and i need to excise them from my soul so here are some of them. apologies for any spelling mishaps or inconsistencies i may have missed. spoilers below, of course :

- the new era being — essentially — a multiverse, totally cancels out the idea of kronika being THE titan of TIME itself. her timeline was the ONLY one. i know that they tried to explain this away by saying that the fight between liu kang and shang tsung for the hourglass in mk11 was apparently so powerful that it broke the space-time continuum, but still! the way mk1 ended and how ‘khaos reigns’ continues the story basically takes away from the gravity of her position, and the weight of what it means to be the keeper of time. kronika painstakingly tinkered with the realms to achieve a golden balance, but now, since basically everyone and anyone can be a titan, liu kang's sacrifice seems moot. everyone just opens a portal to anywhere and everywhere and does whatever they want to his timeline. he may be reluctant to touch the hourglass out of fear of going insane or mucking things up, but the writers sure don’t mind i guess lol!

- according to titan havik, ‘time crystals’ come from geras (because he’s the only one to exist in all timelines), and they function in a similar way as jinsei (only jinsei is the 'essence' of the realms). so does that mean jinsei isn’t a thing anymore? or are the time crystals the ‘jinsei’ for the alternate timelines? what do they even look like? the needles in geras' back look like they are holding the same fluid that was injected into bi-han, so i'm confused by how they were extracting anything from geras at all...

i wouldn’t really care about this normally, but since they went to the trouble to bring back the kamidogu and insert a weak explanation from havik about the usage of these phenomena, then why not give us the proper exposition? i guess they didn’t bother because the kamidogu are essentially just infinity stones (‘the avengers’) or chaos emeralds (‘sonic the hedgehog’). hm, veryyy creative plot device…

- the scene with sub-zero and havik talking about the time crystals and kamidogu should have been longer. noob saibot's transformation was too rushed and havik’s motivations for corrupting him aren’t there. why didn’t we get sub-zero’s final stand fight scene either? it would have made sense to show that: giving havik a reason to actually keep sub-zero and turn him into a henchman (because of his formidable kombat skills and cunning to follow him into the portal, perhaps) and it also would have helped flesh out bi-han’s dimensionality, too (i.e. jumping into the portal to go after geras).

- geras and sektor should not have stopped noob from attacking liu kang at the end. bi-han needed to fight the fire god. it's such a long time coming. the pressure between the two of them has been building, bi-han’s frustrations have been surmounting and in that moment, he was ready to implode.

would he have lost the fight? yes of course, but that’s the point. bi-han needed to be humbled. maybe after liu kang defeated him in kombat, he might've cooled off a bit and been more accepting of help and willing to go to the temple of the elements instead of having to be sedated and taken there against his knowledge/will. and sektor being the one to break him out and tell him that liu kang 'abandoned' him and left him to rot -- while his last memory of being awake is his failed confrontation with liu kang -- does his redemption arc no favours. no wonder he went back to being 'bad.'

- i believe that sektor is not only bi-han’s enabler, but his full-blown sycophant. i don’t necessarily think she is 100% a manipulative mastermind, but if we ignore the bad storytelling going on, it’s plausible that she is a ticking time bomb of her own, and in her obsessive infatuation with bi-han, she is -- perhaps unknowingly -- sabotaging his opportunities to grow and confront his flaws and frustrations. and to be honest, they don't really seem 'romantically' involved to me, but rather have developed a strange codependency toward one another.

bi-han in mk1’s normal story mode clearly sought to be respected, maybe even revered, and acknowledged for his efforts, as well as exhibiting a keenness to take on more proactive role in leading earthrealm. to go from that to: “better to be feared than respected!” hmm… that doesn’t seem like the same man to me.

sektor’s constant smirking/lurking in the background of the cutscenes, however, makes me think that she’s been planting certain seeds in his head: encouraging him to embrace his negative traits (likely not even on purpose, just out of adulation), be the villain that everyone has already been painting him to be, and continue to isolate himself from everyone who might have ever stood up to his shenanigans or help him find a better path.

whether or not she actually has ulterior motives, it's clear to me that sektor prefers bi-han to be "bad," or unchanged, based on his presented mk1 persona. for her to be the first voice bi-han hears and the first person he sees when he wakes up after his mind is fixed... that's something poignant.

the man has been -- more or less -- 'lashing out' because of the departure of his brothers, and because for sometime now, he's been frustrated by his strained, untrusting relationship with liu kang. so, sektor is quite literally the only one he trusts and feels that he can trust.

but, this sort of 'all-in' attitude is, of course, toxic. when she says to liu kang that she stopped bi-han from attacking him because he 'would have gained nothing' from the challenge'.. uh, who is she to decide that? of course she wants bi-han to be restored: as in, made human again. but not redeemed. a 'redeemed' bi-han would be a different one than the one she has known, and a version of him that has been humbled (like if he fought liu kang at the end and neither her nor geras stopped him), or cannot be controlled (noob saibot) is probably not the one she wants.

she gives off: ‘i’m the only one that understands you’ vibes, but if he remains as noob, or if he were to be redeemed and healed as a better sub-zero, she cannot continue her power fantasy with him. to be honest, i think that would've been an interesting direction to take her character in: where in her mind, she has built up this idea of the lin kuei and the grandmaster, but in bi-han's fall from grace or in realizing her ambitions have diverged from his, she sees her disillusionment and in her delirium, proceeds full-force with the cyber initiative. THAT would have been one hell of a tower ending!

(side note: i also -- like many other people -- was almost certain that she would have looked down on bi-han in her tower ending, the same way she did with cyrax and kuai liang, and thus turned to embracing machinery and going full-on insane with her aspirations for the lin kuei. unfortunately, though... the writers introduced it only to then promptly throw it away.)

there is definitely more than meets the eye with all of this that is worth further exploration and analysis, as there are plenty of examples of her warped fanaticism (think annie, from ‘misery’ by stephen king), but it’s best saved for another post.

- there are too many contradictions between mk1’s base campaign and this dlc, INCLUDING tower endings and intro dialogue. i don’t know what is ‘canon’ and what isn’t anymore because technically, all of it is, if it’s in the game, right? but, it makes no sense for liu kang’s new era. what’s the point of introducing all of these plot twists when they don’t apply to the current timeline? from an ‘easter egg’ standpoint, it is what it is. but from a a lore/storytelling standpoint, it’s confusing and utterly inept. it seems silly to rewrite the lore while constantly referring to the 'old story' at the same time.

- NRS really do hate sub-zero and bi-han… but why? it’s clear that even in mk1, bi-han is shown to be a rather complex, emotional character that is grossly misunderstood and certainly not irredeemably wicked. i have a hard time believing that the guy who wanted to help lead earthrealm, who wanted to use his father’s teachings to guide him, who wanted to lead the clan alongside kuai liang first and foremost…. is suddenly a supervillain? who enjoys lying to his supposed ‘second-in-command’ (cyrax)? this contradicts mk1’s story mode so much (among other things) and it’s WILD. yes, he is extremely flawed, but it's clear that there is more under the surface than is being said. since it was a noob saibot-focused dlc, we needed more info about his upbringing, maybe; more insight into the bond with his brothers and even his subordinates, into his role as grandmaster... but it's clear that NRS can't wholly decide what they want to do with him. they villainize him in 'khaos reigns' except for his story chapter, and even that is nullified by his tower ending. another storytelling fail.

- another conspiracy theory i have is that this dlc seems like it was supposed to be longer and larger, likely including noob’s full character arc, too, because so many things are missing. some of the leaked dialogue from last year was not in the dlc at all, and lots of the lines in the cinematics seem to not really fit… almost as if there were cutscenes that used to be there but were hastily edited out at the last minute or something. also some of the audio mixing and animations are a bit off, if you pay close attention.

- in his first moments as noob saibot, bi-han is literally more human than he’s ever been throughout mk1. strange, considering in the beginning of ‘khaos reigns,’ he is SO out of character and almost comically villainous, but yet… after having his mind broken and then freed from havik’s mental corruption, he is forthright with liu kang, shows distress towards his situation with his hubris on full display, and then he fights alongside the allies to protect the timeline without claiming ulterior motives.

despite the khaos magic still coursing through him, he does his due diligence. but then… all of this gets tossed away when sektor frees him in his tower ending. what was the point in the vulnerable moment where he showed visible concern for how his actions compromised the timeline? or when liu kang lets him know that his desires for a different future aren’t an issue, it’s the ‘methods for achieving them?’ (that scene needed to be longer too, tbh) in short: why introduce the concept of bi-han potentially being salvageable if at the end he’s just going to continue being bad, if not worse off than how he began? the whole dlc was like a flat circle in terms of progression; that's how little happened in it.

- the hand on noob’s hip was supposed to be explained. in the last kombat kast (and i think in that xbox article, too) they said its purpose would be revealed in the actual dlc but… that never happened. aside from the missing fight scene with sub-zero and havik, we didn’t even get a glimpse at his transformation, either. he was just suddenly there… with the hand on his hip and all of these new powers. it would have been nice to get a teeny bit of info as to how exactly khaos magic works for noob, like imagine a scene where havik explains to noob what he can do now, how the hand and the shadow work in tandem and how much more powerful he is compared to how he used to be? it would also have been a chance to explain the random telekinesis, too.

- smoke really, really, really needed to have a chapter in 'khaos reigns'. i have a feeling — as i mentioned earlier on — that the dlc was originally going to be a bigger expansion, but some characters/scenes/dialogue were cut along the way; likely to drip-feed the whole story back to us in a trilogy of dlcs instead (taking notes from BUNGIE i see… ahem ‘destiny 2: lightfall’).

but i digress: smoke having a chapter maybe just before noob’s would have been amazing. it would have been nice to see his visceral response to bi-han’s transformation, as he has claimed to have idolized bi-han in the past and was/is hoping for reconciliation between the brothers. i personally think the brotherly bond between the three of them is the most interesting part of the lin kuei story in mk1, and it sucks to see this angle being completely abandoned when the dlc focuses around bi-han.

we needed MORE BACKSTORY! more info about their parents, their upbringing, bi-han’s obvious long-standing conflicts with his life's purpose, the true nature of their father’s death (what actually happened?), etc. and the dynamic between the three of them with bi-han as noob would have also been really interesting. smoke was absolutely necessary as a the vessel for the more compassionate approach to bi-han’s downfall and ensuing redemption (instead of sektor, who is obviously evil) and bridging the gap between scorpion’s mercilessness and bi-han’s malevolence.

- it's not havik, but liu kang who was the real hypocrite here, and it breaks my heart. first of all, stopping bi-han from killing titan havik in order to ‘save innocent lives’ is such a weak, oxymoronic explanation from liu kang. let’s not forget that he wiped out two timelines in the base game: titan shang tsung's and quan chi's. a bunch of other titans died at the pyramid battle too. liu kang even says himself that without shang tsung to ‘hold the timeline together’ it would collapse! the actions of the final chapter of mk1 were already enough to kill BILLIONS of innocents, yet havik is somehow an exception. actually, leaving havik alive would have been worse, considering he didn’t want to destroy or merge the other realms, but have them tumble into anarchy and khaos instead. bi-han was 100% correct when he said that they were 'not safe until he dies.’

- another problem i have with liu kang is that says he cannot leave his timeline to go help get geras (which by the way… geras is his closest companion and confidant, another powerful being like him who has been at his side for EONS). that left me with a huge, glaring question: where is liu kang’s urgency?

it is so unlike him to be this 'laissez-faire' (but that’s a discussion for another post). he says that he cannot go with them because the timeline would be compromised without him, but that is a silly excuse because:

1) his timeline is tainted anyway, because 'damashi' already messed with it, and the fact that concurrent timelines exist negates this idea that his new era can ever be truly 'safe' again.

2) titan havik leaves his timeline all the time with his cronies… he’s been collecting every geras and kamidogu, so why can’t liu kang? havik said he'd be back to inflict khaos after taking geras, so it wasn't like he needed to wait in earthrealm and twiddle his thumbs. it was GERAS, for god's sake. he should have been right behind bi-han going through that portal, the way they built up the bond them in the main story.

3) liu kang literally DID leave his timeline in the base story mode… the first time, he went to look for titan allies to fight shang tsung, and the second time was when he went to the pyramid to defeat him. he is essentially repeating the former raiden’s mistakes with this sort of approach to protecting earthrealm.

on one hand, raiden was slightly too impulsive and tried to intervene a bit too frequently, causing a negative ripple effect to those surrounding him. i get that liu kang does not want to repeat his — or kronika’s — mistakes, but doing absolutely nothing until your hand is forced and trying to evade all conflict by letting [terrible] events play out is not the way to be doing things. defend your timeline, liu kang!!! get up and get moving!!! just as raiden 'jumping the gun' had its own consequences, so does remaining overly-passive and slow-to-react.

- i like the character of liu kang and i was initially excited at the idea of a timeline reboot with mk1. liu kang is known to be humble, kind, genuine, understanding, compassionate: all of those hero-like qualities that we know and love him for. but that being said, why claim to reset the timeline if everything is going to turn out mostly the same, if not worse?

from a development standpoint, i understand needing to have certain things remain static, no matter what game or era we’re in. for example: raiden must always have lightning, mileena/baraka must always be tarkatan, sub-zero and scorpion must always exist, etc. fair enough.

but having bi-han not even make it a whole game without becoming noob? having shang tsung, shao and quan chi continue their plotting? how come some characters got a pleasant rework (reptile, sindel) but others are thrown so far under the bus and are poorly-utilized/represented (sub-zero, smoke, havik).

constants are needed, of course, but variables are also important too. and there are not enough variables in mk1 for it to feel like a 'new era,' and cheap, low-risk 'changes' are not an effective way to reflect it. at this point, the game should have just been called ‘mk12’, full stop.

- cyrax deserved better. she starts off as what we expected of her, based on her new character bio, anyway. she is loyal, but inquisitive. ‘free-thinking.’ she has no problem pushing back on bi-han a little bit about his explanation for kuai liang and tomas’ departure, and she obviously doesn’t get along with sektor and doesn’t mind talking back to her, either. she is defiant, but noble, as presented. but then…

she spends the rest of story mode groveling to scorpion: following him around like a lost puppy and begging for his forgiveness and receiving the brunt of his anger and spite (which was completely unwarranted and undeserved.)

kuai trying to hold her accountable for something that had nothing to do with her is crazy and really out of character for him, and because of this, her story arc was thwarted by her constant seeking of his approval and validation. the same way sektor’s reliance on bi-han takes away her arrogance, genius and austerity, cyrax’s sudden flip from being honourable but discerning into being manipulated by scorpion is just so, SO unfortunate. both ladies deserved better than to simply be portrayed as the unsung loyalists to a pair of capricious, irascible men.

some insignificant [mostly nitpicky] honourable mentions :

- this was an observation made by gaming youtuber mike hollow who pointed out some telltale inconsistencies regarding believable power balancing: sektor’s camouflage, scorpion’s fire teleportation and rain’s ability to turn into water were all missing in this dlc. it’s like they forgot to include the characters’ defining abilities in the story at all. why weren’t they taking advantage of the cybersuits in the maze? using camouflage to hide from havik’s minions? where was scorpion’s kunai climbing rope? why did rain not turn into water to escape his crushing death? again, it's not that deep in the grand scheme of things, nor is it new to the franchise, but it's definitely something i noticed, as well.

- in that same vein: geras’ time freezing abilities could have stopped him from being kidnapped by havik’s minions. why didn’t he stop them? he casually stopped bi-han at the end from lunging at liu kang, and he had plenty of time to do it since sektor stalled the attack.

in sindel’s throne room, havik was going on a big, illustrious speech about how he was only here for him. isn’t geras on par with being a kind of divine being, considering he himself is a construct of time (i.e. made of the sands)?

perhaps his lack of reaction in that scene can be chalked up to just 'shock', but this is just another example of poor power balancing in mk1's story mode (and i say mk1 and not the other games because the current timeline has all kinds of titans and divine beings that are all fair game). another example of this would be: empress tanya being able to defeat noob, but noob easily defeats titan, kamidogu-powered havik. and -- if the khaos magic had something to do with it -- they should have shown that somewhere in the campaign.

- how come titan havik’s limbs suddenly stopped regrowing when noob fought him? is it because noob has khaos magic in him and thus, he can be defeated by his own powers, therefore stunting his ability to regenerate? they don’t actually explain this whatsoever, unless again: it is another misrepresentation of power scaling in the story, but it is what it is. (seriously though, we should have gotten a scene where havik explains to bi-han his new powers!)

- if bi-han and sektor knew that cyrax wouldn't go for the wedding attack (hence the pointless lie they told her about liu kang 'capitulating to outworld'), then why take her along in the first place? why even include her in their plans at all? this doesn't seem like the same cyrax that kuai liang was referring to in mk1's regular story mode when he said she would 'sooner abet' bi-han's corruption than follow him.

um... as soon as we meet cyrax, she is already weary of bi-han and it seems like she has been for a while, enough so for he and sektor to already suspect her lack of fealty. at that point, she shouldn't have even been given that suit.

(side note: AS SOON as they arrive at the wu shi academy, cyrax is already fighting against the lin kuei and going against bi-han's orders. when she comes down from the roof, she immediately eliminates two of her fellow lin kuei warriors before harumi is even captured. she was already over it even before learning about what really happened.)

it doesn't make any sense and does not corroborate kuai liang's observations from the main campaign. i feel like once more, this is another example of something being changed in this dlc somewhere between the initial leaks last year and the trailer drop this past july. it seems like there might've been more planned for 'khaos reigns,' but they got rid of it, or they're saving it for the next dlc (which i'm almost positive is the case, at this time.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

there are a million more things that are running through my mind, and if it comes to it, i'll make a part 2 to this post. there is still a lot to be said about the dlc on a corporate/business level that may be worth touching on.

that being said: the game design, stages, animations, cutscenes, characters, etc. are all absolutely gorgeous! you can tell the ground-level developers really care about their work and that's amazing. c-suite and the 'narrative department' however...

in addition, i've still got some conspiracies regarding liu kang, kuai liang and also... the khaos magic! has anyone out there played batman: arkham asylum? does anyone remember the TITAN VENOM? yeah, i have a feeling that the writers are doing some borrowing from other IPs beyond the obvious comparisons to the avengers (because, of course). the rabbit hole gets deeper and deeper.

i will leave the bi-han analyses to the experts in the community. there is already a lot of discourse out there about what happened to him but all i'll say is this... he deserved his comeback, redemption and victory lap. but... he was bastardized. again. bi-han 1000% deserved his moment. JUSTICE FOR SUB-ZERO!

anyhow, if you made it this far, thank you for reading! xo

[smoooothoperator]

Die With A Smile

09: She's So Gone

Bucky Barnes x mutant!OC (Astrid Rowan)

HYDRA victims, found family, "strangers" to lovers, emotional scars, first love

Warnings: flashbacks, some angsty, Astrid remembering things, a little foreshadowing in the end :)

Masterlist

previous part | next part

a/n: HAPPY NEW YEEEEAAAARRRRRR

The serene beauty of the Wakandan lake was a stark contrast to the storm inside me. The water was still, a sheet of liquid glass reflecting the setting sun. But I could feel its pull, a quiet urging to let it move, to let it live. My bare feet pressed into the soft, cool grass, and I focused on the sensations around me: the whisper of the breeze, the cool kiss of mist against my cheeks, the faint hum of life in the plants that surrounded the lake.

I knelt by the water's edge, drawing my hands over its surface. A thin stream came to wrap my fingers, and then another. The pull of my powers felt instinctive now, but controlling them was another matter entirely. I needed precision. Balance. 

Instead, my thoughts swirled like the water, chaotic and relentless.

The flames flickered unevenly in my left palm, a reflection of my distraction. I clenched my jaw and tried again, forcing the fire to weave with the water. But it wasn’t working. The elements refused to bend to my will, stubborn as the knot tightening in my chest. 

“You are distracted” Bucky’s voice slid into my thoughts, low and familiar. I didn’t hear him approach, but I felt it, like a tug on the thread that connected us

I turned, meeting his gaze. His eyes flickered with something knowing, as if he could sense the tension I tried to bury.I

I exhaled slowly, letting the fire die in my palm and the water go back to the lake.

“I’m fine. Just… tired.”

His gaze didn’t fade, but I felt the pull again, a soft nudge against the edge of my mind, like he was tracing the outline of a locked door. He didn’t speak, but his silence pressed as if he already knew the answer.. 

Silence stretched between us, broken only by the faint rustle of leaves. I could feel his gaze, waiting for me to speak, but the words caught in my throat.

“Bucky… What if they could get rid of the trigger words? Shuri said she could erase them completely. You’d be free.”

His expression tightened, and I saw his hand flex at his side.

“We’ve talked about this.”

“I know, but-”

“Astrid” he turned to face me fully. “What if it breaks something else? What if it breaks… us?”

I blinked, caught off guard by the raw vulnerability in his voice.

“You think the bond could disappear?” I asked quietly.

He looked away, jaw clenched. I could feel his emotions now, after Shuri’s work in the lab. I could feel how anxious and scared he was.

 “I don’t know. I don’t know how this works, or what we are because of what HYDRA did to us. But what if that connection, whatever it is, is tied to what they put in me? What if taking it away means losing you?” he said, looking at me.

“Bucky… whatever they did to us, it doesn’t define who we are now. We’re more than that. You’re more than that” I said, looking at the lake. “I want you to be free. Not just from HYDRA, but from the fear of what they left behind. We’ll find our way back to each other, no matter what. I believe that.”

For a long moment, he didn’t say anything. Then, finally, he nodded, the faintest hint of a smile tugging at his lips.

 “I hope you’re right.”

“I know I am.”

As the sun dipped lower on the horizon, casting warm amber light across the lake, I felt the weight of Bucky’s gaze still on me. I wanted to hold onto the moment, to believe that this peaceful place could keep the ghosts of our past at bay and help us recover. But even as I smiled softly at him, I could feel something else. An empty ache, like a missing piece slowly shifting back into place.

I couldn’t let him see it. Not yet. Not when I don’t even understand what is going on with me.

“Come on” I said, brushing my hands off on my thighs as I stood and walked away. “Let’s head back.”

Bucky gave a low chuckle, but his eyes stayed on me a moment longer before following me.

The Wakandan evening air felt cold, carrying with it the scents of earth and blooming flowers. It was almost enough to distract me from the images that had started to surface in the back of my mind the last few days.

Cold walls of a HYDRA facility. The metallic hum of handcuffs being locked. Bucky’s hand gripping mine, tight, like we were clinging to the last shred of humanity they couldn’t take from us.

I swallowed hard, forcing the memory back into the depths where it belonged. But it didn’t fade the way it used to. It lingered, thin and translucent, weaving itself into the present.

His gaze flicked to me for the fifth time. 

“You’re too quiet” he murmured, but there was no accusation, only that thread again, tugging lightly against the edges of my mind.

I clenched my hands in my pockets, taking a deep breath and looking up at him.

 “I’m just tired, Bucky” I insisted. “I’ve been practicing the whole day”

The pull didn’t fade. I could feel him waiting, but he didn’t push.

What if I remembered something I wasn’t supposed to?

The thought wrapped itself around my heart like ice.

Bucky didn’t press the issue, but as we walked, his hand brushed lightly against mine. I almost reached for it, but at the last second, I pulled away, shoving both hands into my jacket pockets.

He noticed. Of course he noticed.

As we approached the edge of the village, the distant flicker of torches lining the paths brought a small comfort. The shadows of Wakandan warriors moved fluidly between the trees, their presence a reminder of the safety this place offered. I wished it could shield me from what was happening inside my own head.

I glanced at Bucky, watching the way he seemed lighter here. 

I wondered if I could ask him for help. But that would mean admitting what was happening. Admitting that the memories were coming back.

And what if those memories led to something I wasn’t ready to face?

As we neared the village, Bucky slowed, falling half a step behind me. I didn’t look back, afraid that if I met his eyes, he could see right through me.

For now, I would keep this secret buried. Until I could make sense of it.

Until I could be sure that remembering wouldn’t destroy the fragile peace we had finally begun to build.

My room was always warm and the air was sweet with the scent of the lavender placed next to the window . I sat on the edge of the bed, legs crossed, hands pressed into the fabric of my clothes as I tried to center myself. The warm glow of the lamp flickered, casting shadows that stretched across the walls, making the silence feel heavier, more oppressive.

I had been trying, for days now, to meditate. To reach some semblance of peace. But every time I closed my eyes, the images came as snippets of my past, flashes of memories long buried, each one bringing me closer to something I wasn't sure I was ready to face.

I exhaled slowly, focusing on the steady rhythm of my breath. Okoye's voice echoed in my mind, her teachings clear but hard to follow. 

“Feel the present. Let go of the past.” I whispered to myself.

I didn’t even realize when the first image flashed in my mind. It was so sudden, so vivid. I felt the cold metal of Bucky's hand on my arm as we moved swiftly through the shadows, our mission set in stone.

We had been sent to take down SHIELD. 

The orders had come down from HYDRA, as they always did. 

But this mission was different.

I could feel the rush of adrenaline through my veins. James and I had moved through the streets, silent and deadly. We were supposed to hit SHIELD’s headquarters, neutralize key targets, and take down anyone who stood in our way.

But then something shifted. I could see it in James’ eyes. There had been a hesitation, a subtle change in his posture, and then… he was gone.

He had left me.

I stood there, frozen for a heartbeat, as James walked towards a different direction. The sound of his footsteps faded, the distance between us growing. I wanted to call out to him, to stop him, but I couldn’t.

 My mission was clear. And so was his.

But he had gone after Captain America, Steve Rogers.

The realization came like a punch to the gut. In that moment, everything shifted. I wasn’t part of his plan anymore. I wasn’t his partner in that moment, at least not in the way I thought I was. He had chosen to go after Rogers instead of completing the mission with me.

I could feel my heart racing as the memory settled deeper into me as I opened my eyes, and I pushed against it, trying to shove it back into the recesses of my mind. But it wasn’t enough. 

The image of his face, the conflicted expression that haunted me, wouldn’t leave. The way he had looked at me, as though torn, as though there was something more, something I didn’t understand at the time.

He had left me. 

But I didn’t know the full story. I didn’t understand why he had done it, why he had broken away. All I knew was that it hurt. It felt like I was being abandoned, like I was being pushed aside for something else, for someone else.

And in that moment, something inside me had cracked.

I was alone.

The cold, biting wind that blew through the streets as I continued the mission alone felt like it was cutting through me. The streets of Washington had never seemed so empty. The shadows felt deeper, darker. Every corner I turned, every step I took, I couldn’t shake the image of him, his back turned to me, heading off in the search of Steve Rogers. 

The mission had gone surprisingly smoothly. 

I was alone. And James wasn’t there.

That night, I went back to the HYDRA facility, expecting an explanation. But there was none. Just cryptic orders. More tasks to complete.

 And I did. Because that was what I had been trained to do.

But the weight of what had happened never left me.

James hadn’t just gone after Steve Rogers. He had chosen something. Someone. And I was left in the wake of that choice, left to pick up the pieces of something I couldn’t quite grasp.

And in that moment, I realized: he wasn’t coming back.

The memory was cutting, searing through me like an open wound I couldn’t stitch closed.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to suppress the flood of emotions that threatened to break through. But the more I tried to push them down, the more memories came, breaking through like a dam that had finally given way.

The more I searched for answers, the more I felt I was losing myself. Every time I grasped at the truth, it seemed to slip away, leaving behind only more questions, more doubts. The faces of our enemies blurred, the sound of gunfire became a memory I couldn’t place, and the pull between Bucky and me seemed like a distant echo, something too fragile to hold onto.

But there was something else, something buried deep in my mind. I had to find the answers. I couldn’t keep living in the dark, not when it came to him. Not when it came to us.

“Astrid?”

I didn’t even realize Bucky had entered the room until his voice cut through the heavy fog in my mind, but it wasn’t enough to shake the image that was still burning behind my eyes.

Him walking away from me.

I blinked rapidly, pushing away the flood of emotions that had overtaken me. I knew he felt it, whatever emotion I sent through the bond when that memory hit me.

“Yeah?” I managed to say, my voice a little too tight.

Bucky was  kneeling in front of my bed, his expression caught somewhere between concern and relief. The small drops of sweat on his temple told me he had rushed here.

“I felt… something” he said, carefully watching me, as if I might shatter under his eyes. “It woke me up. I thought… ” His voice softened. “I thought something happened to you.”

I didn’t know what to say. My heart ached with everything I still didn’t understand. 

I shifted slightly, tugging my knees up closer to my chest.

“It’s nothing.” 

The words came out too flat. I could feel the tremor in the bond between us, the thread vibrating faintly with lingering unease, my unease.

Bucky’s eyes narrowed, and I felt his doubt break beneath the surface, but he didn’t push. Not yet.

“You’re shaking” he said, quieter this time. “Astrid, talk to me.”

I clenched my fists, trying to still the tremble in my hands, but there was no stopping the way the memory clawed at the edges of my mind.

 The cold streets. His back to me. The way he left without hesitation.

“I’m fine” I said quickly, forcing the words out. I didn’t trust the way my voice cracked on the last syllable.

Bucky didn’t move any closer, but his gaze stayed locked on mine.

“You’re not” his tone was soft, but it felt too close, like he could peel back the walls I was so desperately trying to put up.

I looked away, staring at the lamp on the nightstand as if the flickering light could hold me together.

The bond stirred, faint and unrelenting, brushing against me in a way that felt too much like him trying to get in.

I swallowed hard.

“Stop it” I said quietly.

Bucky blinked, his brow furrowing. “Stop what?”

I let out a breath, harsher this time, hating the way I could feel the tension growing in the space between us.

“Whatever you’re doing. Reaching for me like that. I can feel it” I muttered.

He flinched and looked away, and the pull in the thread disappeared, like a hand pushing away.

“I wasn’t-” he sighed, closing his eyes before taking a deep breath. “I wasn’t trying to. I just… felt like something pulled me here. I thought you were in trouble.”

I was, I thought bitterly. But not the way you think.

“It was just a nightmare” I lied, the words bitter on my tongue.

The truth sat at the edge of my throat, but I couldn’t force it out. I couldn’t tell him that I just saw him walking away, breaking a promise, betraying me.

Bucky moved closer to my bed, his hand hovering near mine but not quite touching.

“Was it about HYDRA?” his voice dipped lower, like he was afraid to say the word too loud.

I flinched before I could stop it, and the bond pulsed, just for a second.

Bucky felt it. I knew he did.

His gaze softened, but I couldn’t meet his eyes.

“It’s not important” I whispered, curling my fingers into the fabric of my sleeve.

“It feels important.”

He wasn’t wrong, but I couldn’t let him see that.

“Bucky… I just need space” I finally looked at him, hoping he wouldn’t catch the flicker of doubt in my expression.

He held my gaze for a long moment, his eyes searching mine. For a second, I thought he might push, but instead, he let out a breath and took a step back.

“Okay,” he said, though I could feel the weight of his hesitation even as he pulled away. “I’m here. If you need me. ”

His words lingered long after he left the room.

But even as the door clicked softly shut behind him, I could still feel him through the bond. Waiting, quietly, on the other end of that fragile thread tying us together.

The small village glowed with soft amber light as lanterns hung from every tree and post, their warm flicker reflecting off the streets. The festival was in fully alive, villagers dancing, drinking, and laughing as music hummed in the background.

I stood next to a tree, leaning on it while my hands held a cup of something that tasted like a liquor that made my body feel warm whenever I drank short sips of it. The villagers greeted me warmly, offering smiles and plates of food, but I  rejected every piece of food with a weak smile. I didn’t feel like celebrating.

Bucky’s presence was a weight I couldn’t shake, a shadow always hovering just out of sight and a gentle pull of the thread attached in my chest. His gaze was intense, and I could feel it when I turned my back on him.

It had been days since the last time we had spoken, days since my mind has been full of doubts and blurry images of him walking away from me. I had been avoiding him, pretending that I didn’t notice how he tried to close the distance between us whenever we were in the same space.

But I can’t keep running forever. I have to face the consequences. I need answers.

I glanced toward him again, my heart beating fast when I saw the frustration in his eyes. He wasn’t going to let this go.

As I stepped away from the tree and tried to lose myself in the crowd, he followed. His footsteps were almost silent, but I knew he was there.

“Astrid.” His voice was low, but it carried easily over the noise of the festival.

I stopped, sighing heavily before turning to face him, hugging myself. 

“Not here, Bucky. Not now.” I mumbled.

“Then when?” he asked, stepping closer. “You’ve been avoiding me for days. I deserve to know why.”

“I don’t owe you an explanation.” I said, crossing my arms over my chest, avoiding his eyes.

His frustration bubbled to the surface, and he closed the remaining distance between us. I had to take a step back to create more space between us, but when I felt the wood of a tree pressing my back, I sighed.

“That’s not fair, and you know it” he said, his voice sharp but not rough. “We’ve been through too much for you to shut me out like this”

“Too much?” I scoffed, my voice rising despite myself.

“Tell me what’s going on, Astrid” he said, his tone softening. “Please? You’ve been acting weird for the last week and I don’t know why”

I stared at him, the anger and confusion that had been building inside me for days threatening to spill over. My hands trembled at my sides, and I clenched them into fists to steady myself.

“Fine” I said, my voice trembling. “You want to know? Ever since we went to Shuri’s lab, I’ve been getting my memories back. Little pieces here and there, things HYDRA buried so deep I thought they were gone for good.”

Bucky’s eyes widened slightly, but he said nothing, waiting for me to continue.

“I remember us, Bucky” I said, my voice breaking. “I remember the missions, the things we did for HYDRA. I remember how we fought, how we worked together. I remember every kiss, every hug, every promise. And I remember…” I hesitated, the words catching in my throat.

“What do you remember, Astrid?” he whispered, stepping closer, his expression unreadable.

I met his gaze, my eyes boiling with the pain I have been carrying since that night,

“I remember you leaving me behind. You ran, Bucky. You left me by myself when HYDRA was falling apart. And you didn’t come back.” 

 “Astrid, I-” his face fell, and for a moment, he looked as if the weight of my words had physically stabbed him.

“No” I interrupted, my voice firm. “You don’t get to make excuses. You don’t get to act like you didn’t abandon me, like you didn’t break a promise. I thought I knew you, but that day… that day shattered everything.”

Bucky’s shoulders fell, and he lowered his gaze, his right hand clenched into a fist at his side. After a few seconds, he talked.

“You don’t know the whole story” he said quietly.

“Then tell me!” I snapped, the heat of my anger driving me forward. “Tell me why you left me.”

He hesitated, his jaw tightening as if the words were too painful to say. But then he took a deep breath and looked me in the eye.

“I didn’t have a choice” he said softly. “HYDRA split us up on purpose before that mission in Washington. They erased you from my mind, Astrid. And they erased me from your mind because you… you lost control of your powers when they told you I was gone.”

I froze, his words cutting through my anger like a blade.

“W-What?” I mumbled.

“They knew we were closer than what they planned, they found out” Bucky continued, his voice trembling slightly. “So they erased things from you from my mind. My orders were to kill you, Astrid. They thought that you made me weak”

“Kill me?” my breath caught, my mind racing to make sense of what he was saying. 

“But I couldn’t do it. Even when I was the Winter Soldier, even when they had me under their control that day, I couldn’t hurt you. There was a voice begging me to not touch you. So I ran. I thought… I thought if I left, they wouldn’t hurt you. You would be safe.”

I stared at him, the weight of his confession pressing down on me. My anger disappeared slowly, replaced by an amount of emotions I couldn’t understand.

“I didn’t know” I whispered, my voice barely audible.

“They erased me from your memories, Astrid” he said, defeated. 

“But I’m starting to remember things, Bucky” I whisper and he smiled weakly.

Silence fell between us, and for a moment I could feel the tension leaving my shoulders. I felt his presence through the bond, like a hand caressing my cheek.

“I’m sorry” Bucky said, his gaze softening. “For all of it.”

I let him hold my hand, the warmth of his touch grounding me. And for the first time since the memories started returning, I felt like the pieces of my life were getting back together.

“Don’t keep things like this from me” I begged. “Don’t… Don’t leave me alone again”

“I won’t” he whispered, stepping closer and pressing his forehead against mine. “I promise”

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[sonkitty]

Timestamp Notes and Theory for Episode 1: The Arrival

This post was last updated 08/27/2024.

I am heavily referencing this wonderfully helpful post: timeline rundown. I am also referencing this post, The Main Bookshop Clock's Hands are BACKWARDS and Other Revelations!

Below are my notes for an overall forming theory and then getting into the specifics of episode 1. I have a few different notes of what I think the time is from the referenced link above, will be naming the days, and guessing some order.

Reminder that I'm growing more confident in my theory that Crowley earns his red streak from a Big Miracle performed the first time Gabriel arrived with a cardboard box.

...

This theory is very tentative.

Episode 1 is an out-of-order mix of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Most of it is Monday.

Maggie and Nina might not have "existed" until Monday. In Before the Beginning, we are informed of the concept of "pre-aged" stars, so these characters might be like that. They are "pre-aged" humans, whether that's from the Big Miracle Crowley did or was part of or the Metatron messing with the book that holds most or all of this story or Adam creating a pocket reality or whatever.

The clothing for Maggie and Nina is the story's main clue that most of episode 1 is Monday. Their clothing also gives clues for the other days.

In that timeline rundown link, my interpretation of events is that before Crowley enters Heaven in the present day, the clock by Aziraphale's desk works such that the ornate hand is the minute, and the other hand is the hour.

This functionality reverses no later than Maggie and Nina being shown using fire extinguishers on the demons in the bookshop. From that point onward, the ornate hand will be the hour, and the other hand will be the minute. I took some extra time and effort to check the 1941 minisode and season 1 out of curiosity. The clock hands match the meaning for after Crowley returns from Heaven in episode 6, where the ornate hand is the hour, and the other hand is the minute. If my conclusions are correct, the main bookshop clock hands are actually reverting, in episode 6, to how they operated before Season 2, Episode 1 started.

...

Extra ideas:

Something of significance happened 8 months ago because that's how long Maggie has not paid her rent. My main best guess is that is when Hell kicked Crowley out of his flat.

The week that Season 2 covers reset at least once or the overall story is a time loop of different timelines stitched together, including season 1.

With at least two significant games happening in Good Omens 2, the humans are game pieces, and the setting is the game board. Hence, these elements are allowed to shift as part of the games. The games are The Sideburns Scheme and Earthly Objects.

...

Episode 1: The Arrival

The present day part of episode 1 starts on Monday sometime before 4:20PM.

When Aziraphale receives Maggie's note, it's difficult to find the clock, but it is there. The time is, conceivably, 3:58PM. If the hands are not reversed yet, the time is possibly 11:20AM. Based on the season overall and maybe the bookshop closing at 3:30PM, I do think 3:58PM is the correct time.

In t he record shop, Maggie's watch is visible when Aziraphale visits, but I find it very difficult to read since it seems to fluctuate during the scene itself. Based on what I can read of it, I hesitantly think it goes 12:25PM, 12:32PM, 12:00PM, 11:25AM, 11:57AM. With such fluctuation, I don't trust it. But still, I'll acknowledge that I tried to check it. Again, based on how the whole series goes, Aziraphale's bookshop clock looks to have the more likely correct time.

Aziraphale receives Maggie's note.

Aziraphale goes to the record shop and talks to Maggie.

...

Crowley in St. James' Park. According to the referenced timeline rundown post, chimes indicate 5:00PM. I could not find all 5 but will trust that person's judgment better than mine since it's not the type of thing I even knew to check for at all. I think this day is Sunday, not Monday, and happened before the past two scenes of Aziraphale receiving Maggie's letter and their conversation in the record shop. Crowley has earned his red streak, receives his mail, and will throw the mail away later.

Back to Monday...

Maggie enters the coffee shop, talks to Nina.

Nina reacts to the events happening outside.

For now, my guess is Gabriel's naked arrival sequence is actually still Monday, possibly two different versions of Monday due to how the extras shift in the background. It could be both Saturday and Monday instead, but I haven't been able to figure it out. I lean more toward two different versions of Monday.

...

Aziraphale getting up from chair to answer door, 4:20PM.

Maggie and Nina comment on what they saw.

Michael on phone in Heaven. My current speculation thinks this phone call is also Monday but actually more like 10:04AM, rather than between 4:20PM and 4:26PM. My reasoning is admittedly very biased in trying to fit the pieces where I want them to be. Such a time would allow Shax to receive news that events in Heaven are related to Gabriel, then pass that along. She has not been given the specifics of the threat on the Book of Life. I would rather think such is the order of things than that Crowley's supernatural time zone is off from bookshop time by something close to 5-6 hours.

...

Gabriel receives hot chocolate in bookshop, 4:26PM.

...

Crowley throwing mail away, then looking at phone by his car in isolated street, 10:35AM. This day is Monday morning. This scene took place before the Whickber street scenes but not Michael on the phone in Heaven. This scene is the morning after Crowley met with Shax on Sunday when she gave him his mail. The mail is supposed to connect the scenes as close to each other in the sequence of the story.

...

Crowley answering phone, his watch shows 11:35AM. I think this one is Crowley making Shax wait for an hour to manage his personal space with his sideburns. So, still Monday morning before most other scenes.

...

Aziraphale looks in the cardboard box. When he asks what was brought, the clock says 4:30PM. The fly was in the box.

Aziraphale calls Crowley. Gabriel still has hot chocolate to indicate not a lot of time has passed.

Heaven, Matchbox Muriel Scene #1, Muriel finding the matchbox. At this point, Heaven seems to line up with the time that is happening in London on Earth. Muriel finding this matchbox at something like 5:00PM. This speculation is, again, me being biased on trying to fit things where I want them to go. It is based on a basic work day of Earth ending at 5PM for many. Since Heaven doesn't seem to sleep and always has daylight, Muriel could have been between shifts of what they were working on to somewhat mimic an Earth office environment. Also, this part would fit the time between the last time-stamp shown and the next potential time-stamp shown.

Crowley enters the coffee shop, presumed Monday due to Nina's employee and Nina's clothing.

Crowley sits down, and there is a sign that isn't behind him yet. In the next cut of him sitting, there is a "TODAY'S SPECIALS HONOLULU ROAST" sign. That sign has Nina's handwriting. The other sign above it doesn't. The shift could be a sign of the differing timelines. That is the more plausible and easy idea in play.

Due to my retying studies, knowing that Crowley performed The Perfect Entrance Trick on the way in, and knowing that the spaces read Crowley due to his sideburn lengths, I'm starting to suspect those silly Tied Hands can perform tricks. In this case, this event is like a little trick he and the space perform with each other to make something appear.

Plus, the sign seems to be acting as an assist while Crowley's Tied Hands manage a Table Connection Reflection (best guess for the name from me). The full text of the sign is visible when Crowley says, "Charmed." It's the last cut with his hand touching its reflection on the table before he leans forward in the next cut.

A previous draft of this post considered that the sign was a hint to a potential Saturday visit, but I have since changed my mind. I think it's Monday during the whole scene. It could be two different versions of Monday, or it could be trickery because Crowley's a demon playing around with the space, or it could be both of those things, but I'm still guessing it is Monday.

Crowley and Aziraphale exit the coffee shop and encounter Maggie with the record. They then finish crossing the street.

Maggie gives Nina the record. Nina says "Back again?" to indicate the day is the same one as shown earlier. Maggie's dialogue mentions getting a "...final something. End of the day."

...

In the bookshop, Crowley removes his sunglasses and starts the scene with, "I wasn't gonna say this out there..." The main bookshop clock is not visible during this scene. The other one that occasionally shows up is visible and blurry when Gabriel brings out the yellow feather duster. I have it at questionably 5:25PM. For almost all of this scene, the framing is making it clear that Crowley's red streak is there.

...

Bookshop, private room scene #1 of the season. I'm not sure which day most of this scene is when considering both Saturday and Monday. There is a clue about Monday with just dumping Gabriel and the Something Terrible in the dialogue. There is a clue about Saturday due to Crowley's mostly lacking red streak. So, it seems to be a mix of both days, playing out the same way, and then something happened after Crowley's exit to change things.

Crowley has a subtle demonic hiss and says, "You're on your own with this one." That's Saturday because the timing and framing is showing that he hasn't earned his red streak yet.

The first cut after the door is shown as opened is Gabriel pretending to be Crowley. I theorize that the day there is also Saturday, or at least represents Saturday.

Then in the next cut is Aziraphale pretending to be Crowley. By then, the day is Sunday, or the cut at least represents Sunday. He passes by the cardboard box, leaving it untouched and unquestioned. While Aziraphale does not have a more saturated streak of red hair, red that is more red, he does have a brighter streak of hair where the more saturated streak tends to appear above Crowley's left eye.

Additionally, the clothing is more blue, much like Crowley's clothing in the park scene earlier this episode where I speculated the day was Sunday.

These characters are editing the story to indicate Crowley will storm out on Monday.

They also cut what was found out about the box and actions taken that involved putting the Book of Life into the matchbox without setting off the alarms in Heaven yet. They make themselves forget, leaving themselves clues to solve their own puzzle.

Crowley would have earned his red streak through a Big Miracle that happened at midnight on Sunday with a full moon.

...

Once Crowley has three visible fingers touching his sunglasses, the storyline has returned to Monday, as it then joins with the Monday clothing Maggie and Nina are wearing. They watch Crowley from the window.

Crowley shouts "Ten!" and the lightning shoots out from him.

Maggie and Nina end up locked in the coffee shop.

In Heaven, Michael and Uriel talk. Eventually, Saraqael and Muriel arrive for Matchbox Muriel Scene #2.

Back on Earth, Crowley arrives at his car in the isolated street at night.

Beelzebub summons Crowley to Hell.

Having exited Hell, Crowley starts driving to return to the bookshop.

In the coffee shop, Maggie and Nina run to hold out their signs. A passerby does not stop to help them.

Crowley driving, changes three traffic lights.

Maggie and Nina talk about the record shop's history.

...

Crowley arrives and restores power to the coffee shop. The time is 21:02 (9:02PM) on Nina's phone.

...

The story wants it known that the apology dance happened at 9:06PM. The clock by Aziraphale's desk is as clear as it will ever be on that point.

...

When Crowley finishes the dance, the other clock behind him is visible, and that time looks more like 9:00PM.

...

After Gabriel says, "Where did you come back from?" the bookshop clock looks a little burred but now more like 8:01PM. We've gone back an hour. There are too many other indications this day is still Monday for me to think we've reverted to Saturday. Crowley's hair being charged with so much red is the main one. The scene is also too cohesive for me to think that the events within it are out of order.

As Gabriel is saying, "Is it big on the outside?" still seems to be 8:01PM.

Crowley telling Gabriel no, still seems to be 8:01PM.

Aziraphale suggesting half a miracle, seems more blurry but 8:01PM.

The clock is intentionally too blurry just as Crowley is describing how small they have to make the miracle.

...

With the camera panning down during the miracle, the time seems to be 9:01PM or 9:02PM.

...

The clock is intentionally too blurry with Crowley saying, "I don't know. Probably."

As Gabriel gets up from the chair, the clock has switched back to just after 8PM.

Crowley, preparing to stand on chair, still just after 8PM.

Crowley, jumping down, still just after 8PM.

In Heaven, the alarms go off.

...

So, the way I read it, after Crowley returns at night, the clock can only ever be trusted on the point that Crowley danced at 9:06PM. The characters telling us this story aren't concerned about the clock consistency or clarity for a lot of the scene, but they definitely want us to know that Crowley danced at that specific time. That's why they are making it as clear as possible and not so much the other times.

If you want to get more specific, Crowley is telling us the time was 9:06PM, and he is more certain of that than the other characters because of the clock being so clear. He's the one in the best position to sense-with-his-eyes that clock at that time. His layered play in the games probably wanted that time too.

From here on out, the story is actually more honest about the order of present day events. Background humans will act or be positioned oddly. Sometimes the clocks will have questionable times and continuity errors, but the story will flow forward, naming or hinting to previous events affecting those being experienced in the present. Aziraphale will tell us that the scene between him and the Metatron happened already when things are shown out of order in episode 6.

...

That's all for this post.

...

More: Timestamp Notes for Episodes 2-5

[windcarvedlyre]

I'm gonna turn that meme around on you: Venti and Jean? :>

(ask meme)

Ty :D

Honestly my answers will sort of be an inversion of yours: Jean as someone I really appreciate but I'm not actively into and Venti as unhealthy obsession and fandom bicycle. (Thanks for introducing me to that term, lol.)

Jean

How I feel about her: I don't brainrot over her for her own sake, but as my de facto main in co-op, the permanent healer in my overworld team, and one of Mondstadt's most important characters I'm very fond of her. She deserves more breaks. So so much.

Her design fascinates me too; if you use the alt version of her default outfit it looks very modest and like everything's covered when she's standing still, only for more skin to be exposed on her upper torso when you run or otherwise move around. It feels like a visual reflection of how she hides/suppresses the more human, emotional parts of herself to perform her role.

Romantic ships: I'm not actively into any but Jean/Lisa just makes sense to me. Lisa is such a fun character to bounce off her. You've got me intrigued about Jean/Eula and Jean/Kaeya as well, and I should look into Jean/Diluc too.

I s2g her voice lines make her sound like she's starting to have a crush on Traveller too. That could be really wholesome; they could periodically show up in Mond, speedrun solving a ton of citizens' problems, and whisk her off to beautiful corners of Teyvat she'd never dream of having time to visit otherwise. And they both have sibling issues... I'm selling myself on this as I type it, dear lord.

Platonic OTPs: All of the above are also wonderful platonically. Also Jean and Venti!! God!!! I neeeed more interactions between them; it's a massive shame the game never showed us Jean or Diluc processing the Venti-Barbatos reveal and the religious crisis that would definitely cause. Especially for Jean! I wish this oneshot was a longer multichapter so badly.

I'm fascinated by the idea of them having a lot in common under the surface, especially if we compare Jean to how Venti may have been in Mond's cultivation period. Even their outfits have a lot of design elements in common!

Additionally, considering her parallels with/idolisation of Vennessa, I love the idea of Venti having unresolved guilt/unprocessed trauma about whatever happened to Vennessa in the end + maybe her overworking herself for Mondstadt until her death, and him screaming internally watching Jean go down the same path. I can't get enough of fics where he helps her relax for once. The two of them should go on some long field trip where they coax each other into acknowledging they're people that feel things.

Unpopular opinion: Not sure I have any! I'm not familiar with general fandom opinions about her but I'd be surprised if I saw someone severely mischaracterising her, tbh. She doesn't feel like a difficult character to grasp. Maybe my perception's skewed since I tend to obsess over human dumpster fires, though.

Something I wish would happen: mainly (gestures at the platonic section), but seconding you that we need her to make progress with Barbara too. I'd love to see her be dragged into more shenanigans with Diluc as well, though I'm biased as a combined-Diluc-and-Jean main.

Venti

How I feel about him: I probably need help with the amount I think about this goddamn character. I didn't truly understand the term 'comfort character' until I started obsessing over him. I project onto him a bit too much and I want to emotionally smash him to bits and scrape him together again.

Even without the brainrot, he's just fascinating; he's clearly a significant character that will almost certainly be tied to massive lore drops later on, and the vague hints about him having time powers mean that even the way he fundamentally experiences reality can be theorised about with wildly different ideas being equally valid.

He has me freezing up at every damn mention of wind and/or time and/or music in this god-forsaken game. And there are a lot of them.

Romantic ships: as I said, he's the fandom bicycle for me. Everyone gets a ride. I especially love zhongven in multiple permutations, and their longevity means fanworks for other Venti ships can easily slot in past zhongven as well. Otherwise I really like kaeven, I used to be more into diluven but kaeven has completely eclipsed it for me, and I'm really intrigued about the potential of furiven as well (though I usually approach that platonically).

Non-romantic OTPs: any of the above if not being done romantically, plus Venti+Jean and Venti+Vennessa (see Jean's section lmao) and Venti+everyone in old mond- especially NB and RHW. And I really really want to see him interact with Furina. There are so many people he either has a fascinating relationship with already or has potential to.

While it's not a ship, I find the idea that he's slept with the Tsaritsa at least once pre-fallout very funny.

Edit: Venti having a non-reciprocated crush on Vennessa is interesting as well.

Unpopular opinions: I'm not sure I have any in a tumblr fandom context? Maybe that any ships between him and a mortal who's grown up worshipping him (like diluc/venti, jean/venti, etc) would be a lot more of an emotional minefield for both parties than people tend to explore, with the mortal having to go through a religious crisis while Venti clearly just wants to be treated like a person + could be paranoid as hell about whether their consent to anything is genuine.

That's not a criticism of those ships, though! The opposite, actually. I'd love to see a long fic that really digs into that.

Something I wish would happen: ...there are so many things I could put here. The main ones are a) a Venti-is-Barbatos reveal (and maybe a reveal of his darker secrets, like any abyss ties) to all of Mondstadt, forcing him to stop avoiding his problems for once, and b) for Venti to be pushed into a corner and/or go apeshit and reveal just how much he was lying about his power level.

I need a Vennessa-Venti reunion as well. Please please please.

[ben-talks-art]

Motivations

So for the longest time I had a small issue with Legend of Korra. For one reason or another, I could never connect with this cast of characters the same way I could connect with the cast of Last Airbender, and I could never figure it out why.

So I went to look up some discussions here and there about how people felt about Korra, why does it feel so different from Atla, and basically try to help me understand why I felt the way I felt... And I think the reason for that was the way motivations were handled in this series.

(The following is entirely my opinion, feel free to disagree)

The thing about Avatar compared to Korra is that Avatar was a very character-driven narrative while Korra was a very plot-driven narrative. In the first one, the characters say "I want to go there!" and they go there, and the story happens around the place they want to go and what they want to do.

In Korra, most of the times the plot comes to the characters. It's not as much as "I want to go here" as it's more like "I have to go here!"

What I mean by that is that, in Avatar all the character motivations drive the story and force the plot to move.

Aang's motivation is that he regrets running away from his duty as the Avatar and "letting" his people die, so now he's trying to redeem himself by restoring balance to the world and making up for lost time.

Katara lost her mother in the war, so now she wants to stop the war and make sure nobody has to go through what she did and she does everything she can to help anyone in need, even people from the nation that hurt her.

Sokka was left behind by his father and forced to sit still while everyone else fought in the war, so now he wants to contribute as much as possible. You can see that in the episode "The Library" where he's the one most focused on trying to find out how to win the war. He's basically a workaholic.

Toph wanted to regain her agency as she felt her full potential was being wasted by her family, so now she wants to be as free as possible to do whatever she wants.

And Zuko, he wanted to prove he belonged alongside his father and make him proud, but once his eyes were opened to the truth he decided to make up for his past mistakes, much like Aang.

All these characters had a simple yet effective backstory built on some form of misfortune that explains why they want to do what they want to do, why they want to change the way things are, why they act the way they act, and why someone would want to root for them.

Their motivations are all well-established and, like I said, they make the plot move forward.

Aang wanting to redeem himself and fulfill his duty as the Avatar causes the fire nation to take notice of him and thus come up with new plans to track and capture him, as well as sometimes using him to advance his plans, such as the time Sokka helped a mechanic to build an air balloon, or the time the fire nation used sneaked inside the earth city disguised as Aang's friends.

These characters have agency, and this agency has consequences. They cause good things to happens, but sometimes also bad things, and these conflicts gives us a story to follow.

Motivations play a big part in Avatar. But when it comes to Korra... The motivations don't feel all that important.

Korra wants... to be the Avatar because... she's the main character.

Mako wants... to help Korra fight evil because... he's one of the main characters.

Bolin wants... to help...

Asami wants...

See how this game gets a little harder with this cast? Because they don't really have backstories as solid as the old cast, I don't really get as hyped for these people to reach their goals, cause I barely get what their goals are aside from "stopping the bad guys."

The most well-established character is Tenzin because you instantly get what his deal is, he wants to live up to the hype of his dad and fulfill his job as the only air master in the world.

Korra's "backstory" (if you can even call it that) is that she got three elements at a very early age and now she's full of herself. So naturally her story arc should be about her realizing she's not all that and have her make some big mistake in order to humble her a little. But we don't really do that...

Korra doesn't really humble herself until season 3 and anytime she makes a mistake through the show it feels like she just feels bad for a moment and then moves on without really learning that much.

Her character arc just feels so clunky to me cause it feels like she's re-learning the same lessons about not getting too ahead of herself over and over again.

And yes, I'm aware the writers got screwed over because Nick wouldn't tell them if they would have new seasons or not so they probably weren't aware of how much they should or shouldn't allow Korra to evolve, but I still feel like there were better ways to handle her.

Legend of Korra seemed more interested in establishing the motivations of the adult characters than the teen characters, in particular the villains.

The villain in season 1 wanted to make sure nobody could be above anyone by stripping away everyone's powers, in season 2 the villain wanted freedom after being imprisoned for centuries, in season 3 the villain wanted to get rid of authority figures, and in 4 the villain wanted to be the supreme authority figure.

Regardless of whether you think these motivations are good or not, you still get what everyone is about and what makes them tick.

But we don't really get a clear base of what makes Korra tick. Why does she want to be the Avatar? Why does she want to help people? Why does she want to stop the bad guys?

Because she's the main character, and that's what's expected from her.

In season 1 Korra wants to stop the bad guys, in season 2 Korra wants to stop the bad guys, in season 3 she starts by trying to gather airbenders, but that gets shafted so she can stop the bad guys, and in season 4 she wants to find her place in the world... and stop the bad guys.

Characters in Korra don't have a lot of agency, they just wait for the plot to come to them. I feel like character arcs often feel so disconnected from the main plot and that's because the plot tends to happen to them instead of with them.

Like, in season 1, Bolin tries to check out the main villain of the season's night event, gets captured and Korra and Mako have to save him.

Imagine how cool it would have been if Korra was the one who wanted to check out the main bad guy's night event instead of Bolin, imagine if they had failed to rescue him and he had lost his bending.

That would instantly give Korra motivation and some character arc, she would have been the cause of someone's misfortune and we would be rooting harder for her to make up for her mistake. She would realize that even with all her power she can still fail to help people and thus needs to be better.

But as it is, if you just took out Korra and replaced her with any other main lead, a lot of these events would play out probably the same way.

The lack of meaningful backstories, the plot-driven narrative, the minimal agency, the unimportance of individual motivations... all these things start building up to the point where Legend of Korra feels like a series where people just wait for the villains to do something so they can go and stop them.

The bad guys are the real protagonists of this show because they're the ones with an actual motivation that actually moves the plot, and I think that's the biggest difference when it comes to Korra and Avatar because in Avatar the main characters felt like the actual protagonists of the narrative.

This isn't me saying Avatar is better than Korra, but it is me saying why I like the way things were handled in Avatar more than Korra.

[sixthwater]

Dean Winchester (Rough) Natal Chart Analysis

As a gift for a friend, I did a gen rough analysis for the character dean winchester since one of their interests is supernatural. I on the other hand have only seen a few episodes from season one, so I was simply grooving here and if I can find their reactions I’ll add them lmao

Still can’t get over the fact that he’s supposedly a cancer rising beware, copy and pasting from google docs below!

There’s a few things that I want to look into and assess first (mainly career aspects because I’ve been focused on training my eye for that, but I find it interesting with the little knowledge I have of Supernatural), and a bit of his roots and connections to others, because that’s also interesting to me – however I’m going to try and go in my normal order so the important parts of the chart (asc, sun, chart ruler, moon, etc) aren’t forgotten

Cancer Ascendant

I’ve noticed that people with this asc tend to be great caretakers – which is due to their cap dsc. They want to make sure they have a secure place in the world and they can have a ‘sensitive’ approach to how they do things. Not in a sense that they’re easily affected, but they love/care for things heavily, so if they feel that it’s compromised in some way, they will take the proper steps to fix their shell so they are no longer hurt. I’m a bit annoyed because the Ascendant is very important but I have nothing else to say about it and more about his moon which is the chart ruler. There are no aspects being made to it, but his chart just has more important stuff for my eye besides this.

Chart Ruler - Sagittarius Moon in the Sixth House

A Sag moon is going to brighten his cancer attributes a bit. Internally it might cause some frustration (cancer & sagittarius naturally have friction, trying to balance elements that argue with each other within your chart will be a lesson to learn throughout your life) but on the other hand it can cause someone who seems very inviting, loving, or sweet. You mix the bubbly sag with the caring cancer and it attracts people naturally.

People with a Sagittarius Moon are going to end up being drawn to various walks of life and needing stimulation in order to feel comfortable. They will want to experience new environments or thrills, not just hear about them. So the more chances to do things, the happier they’ll be. They are also jolly souls, though they can sometimes have that blunt edge to them.

Having the Moon sitting within the Sixth will also mean that he is easily affected by his routines, work, environments, etc. For ex; he needs to watch his diet since he’d be prone to overeating if stressed out or upset. A co-worker he doesn’t like could make him act out at work more (especially with that sixth stellium). So all things dealing with the sixth house will in turn affect his emotions and internal cycle. With it being a fire sign, he will act first and think later, so it’s a bit helpful that he won’t sit on it and let it stew – ruining his body even more. However the downside is that if he feels bad, he will immediately act on it, and then process that it could’ve been solved another way. Sagittarius is a philosopher and enjoys higher thinking, but it’s still a fire sign. Also a smart-ass.

Sixth House Stellium – he could be prone to low self-esteem. Not just from this stellium, but planets here come naturally so they are hidden from the native. Unless the chart has help somewhere else, there’s a natural response to downplay compliments because the native doesn’t have physical evidence themselves.

Moon, Venus, and Neptune sitting here – this feels very healing in nature which I will come back around to when talking about both his career and childhood. His emotions are going to be visible to those that he works with or those that deal with him daily – even if he isn’t aware of it. So whatever habits learned from childhood, pure/facial reactions, things that go unfiltered, etc – they will be what’s remembered. Venus can show a person that has a natural charm or charisma – sometimes even being a natural beauty. This points to someone who is loved by a lot of their co-workers unless afflicted. It’s also someone who has high standards for themselves and can sometimes be awkward when trying to navigate their own love lives. Neptune is backing up that ‘emotions affecting the health’ issue. It can cause small hiccups that might not be picked up when going to get checked out. It can also be flare ups. They’re also a sign that they are easily influenced by outside forces so creating a good boundary between people and the self is Very important.

With Sagittarius being the sign here, it’s a sign that there’s a 50/50 shot he’s liked or hated. Sagittarius is charming but they have a mouth on them. However he has pleasant signs in the sixth, so it helps ease that up. Sagittarius also helps ease that awkward and tense energy it throws onto planets that enter that house.

Now they make some interesting aspects but I’ll come back to them.

What’s in a Career?

yaaay finally got to it – so for this we usually look at:

-Ascendant

-Tenth House

-Tenth House Ruler

-Midheaven/MC

-2nd, 6th, and 10th House for income/workplace energy

-North Node

So I spoke briefly about the Cancer Ascendant; they seek security within this lifetime. So in turn, they will want to provide security for others. They are great at providing it actually so much so that some of them want to be protected by others every once in a while. With angles, all of this energy repeats. They seek out security (1) > their home usually was domestic/peaceful for the greater good (4) > they become someone who can provide that same energy and end up attracting people who are older or mature for their age (7) > they become leaders, self-employed, or entrepreneurs (10).

The tenth house sits within Aries, which is co-ruled by Mars. When looking at traditional rulership you have to understand how the signs operate. Scorpio is ruled by mars as well, but it’s energy will store it, it will be methodical, it wants to go the distance, it’s in the background until it needs to strike. Aries on the other hand will come crashing in. It wants to fight, it will tackle the problem without a clear concise plan, but it’s going to make sure it’s solved. So they’re both action oriented, and they will both use their body, but in very different ways.

Using the body being the keyword.

A few things that Aries 10th house careers usually involve are: firemen, armed forces, rangers, welders, locksmiths, athletes, race car drivers, boxers, dancers, etc (and ofc, executives and the like). You get the point. Intense use of the body.

So we follow where his mars is going and it sits within the 8th! (sidenote: I don’t like how many house placements we share what does this mean for my career) So the eighth usually talks about loans, debts, shared money issues, inheritances, transformation/transition, and gaining/losses. For modern astrology it can also include the occult but that’s more the twelfth. However having Aquarius sit on the eighth, will still include things of that nature because Aquarius can share topics that are seen as obscure and at the time, the occult or astrology was seen as such (however once again, that’d be more Pisces or Scorpio) but they mainly talk of things like technology or science. SO basically this means that his career will be delivered out in a way that his energy is devoted to things of a give and take nature that might deal with science. Then we add the sun. Whatever this career is, it’s his identity. It’s an important part of him, and it will either bring drama or be a way of expressing himself.

So let’s bring in his actual Midheaven, which is a Pisces MC. So what did I say about Pisces lmao. We’ve already crossed out a lot of options for Pisces. It sits within the Ninth house which just slams down on Jupiter (Pisces and Sag are ruled by Jupiter, Sag sits within the Ninth). The ninth also can stand for a job that either involves the father in some way, it’s satisfying in some way as it’s a soulful career, or it’s the standard priest option because that’s the only path we have left. So let’s look at Jupiter, the ruler.

Jupiter sits within Leo in the second. Leo in the second is a sign that you should be selling yourself as it’s profitable, but we know any sort of modeling is out of the question lmao, it might just be a great asset in some other way. Jupiter in the second means there’s no issue with making money (maybe an issue with spending it if anything as it opposes mars, but that’s not a bad aspect in this case). The second house is once again pointing to a family business, it’s ruler is the sun so we just go back in a circle. In issues like these we look at the quality of the house. As I mentioned before – Leo should be selling the self. So this house wants to be able to manage itself and profit off of self-expression. So the career is pointing towards more of an entrepreneur like job despite all of it’s jupiter energy (lmao what is he a boss babe).

The only other thing we have to add is the energy of the sixth that is constantly fluctuating, plus with that Neptune sitting there it’s like what he does is truly not…it’s not usual. I’m watching The Blacklist and it feels like whatever they do, where they have to work in a secret site and not explain anything about their job – but it’s nowhere near that stiff. Plus Sagittarius means there’s no set routine and travel is abundant in order to be happy. Maybe not every day, but a lack of travel would make him restless.

FINALLY THE NODE. His node sits within the third house; communication, siblings, short journeys, etc. It’s also in Virgo which supports his sixth stellium – he wants to be of service, but needs to be able to be recognized for his work that he’s done. There is no doing stuff in silence and gaining no reward, which is slightly going against his tenth ruler.

Now the third house node is funny as hell I don’t have to spell that out. More importantly I think it’s interesting that Saturn sits alongside his Node. He has to ground himself and come back to be present, and that Saturn is showing up as being a responsible caretaker to the immediate people around him. Which works well with his Descendant as those qualities will pop up naturally. Mercury sits there so it’s probably more through communication (dryly, probably stiff, but it’s communicated). He’s battling the premise that his job is to be done not seen or heard, but his chart is urging him to understand that it’s okay to take the rewards after a hard job is done or to like pamper himself sometimes.

Mars is opposing his Jupiter so there’s a habit of pushing the bar. He might do too much because he believes he can achieve it and sometimes he can, sometimes he fucks it up. Also, Mars is a malefic (negative) meanwhile Jupiter is a benefic (positive). When they both sit in money houses that’s important to note, especially when they aspect each other. It’s like they negative the influences on the house – so mars could have him constantly ask for money or burn through it, but it’s hitting Jupiter which would mean it’s easy influx of money is also lowered. So income could come at the right time, but then he goes through it. So there’s an idea that he isn’t too worried about money because it works out as it’s worked out before.

Childhood

Okay last part because I’m talking too much honestly- Did you think I was going to ignore that pluto in the fourth lmao.

Pluto in the fourth is usually not very fun. It is a sign that something big happened during childhood and the native takes that with them. It’s changed their perception and how they walk through life and it impacts their tenth. The possibilities are usually an oppressive energy within the household, an unstable figure, being abandoned, feeling unloved. It’s possible that the family itself was fine but there was an external event that affected the home and it’s affected the native. In this case, since Pluto is squaring Mercury, it seems to be within the family and due to an event there was a shut down of expression. Act one way and that’s the only way. Especially since Pluto sits within an air sign and now Mercury sits within Cap who is usually snarky and more direct – expresses facts. I also wouldn’t be surprised if a traumatic event occurred because his sun is also in his eighth along with that Pluto in the fourth – so considering the show did this start at a young age? Those houses are known to be sensitive to this stuff. Anyway, I also see a natural channel to being a protector. In general, but mainly a big brother. Malefics within the fourth will make someone closed off but protective of others, and I already expressed my thoughts on Saturn in the third.

Saturn is also Squaring his Moon, so there’s another affect of restricted emotions or a sign of heavy responsibilities. There’s a scene from Always Sunny where Dennis talks about ‘how he’s feeling his emotions all the time like is that normal’ and that’s literally natives who have a Moon-Saturn aspect lmao. So there’s some sort of conditioning where it’s like…emotions bad control good, but it was for a reason (I wonder why).

Last bit is that Venus Squares his Saturn – which points again to having a conflicted sense of self. Some natives will hold off on love due to external factors, and then it causes a distorted view of the self. They wonder if they can ever obtain it or if they should give up on it, but it usually gets better with time (plus it’s sag influenced and he has uranus sitting in his fifth so like, this is long term not flings or whatever).

————————

Yaaaaaay

Ok that’s it. He has a T-Square but like…I generally brushed over it already. But yaaay he has a t-square go dean!

Oh. I wasn’t touching his chiron either to not upset you. You’ll be fine.

Oh yeah and who did his character end up with? Was it anyone? I wanna test out his seventh house I’m not even bothering to look at his relationships with that fifth I know that shit messy (I generally picked up on no heavy romantic energy, so whoever who he ends up with is of circumstance to put it nicely).

[tulipsnflowers]

Tulip rambles: Moving parts

Spoilers for just about everything in nexomon. If you haven't completed the post game for both games(Netherworld n1, Abyssals n2) do that first

One might be incredibly confused by what the Frick I mean when I say moving bits. So, to explain myself

When I say moving bits, I mean the moving ribbon like things first appearing on the CoO(Children of Omnicron), in n1, you can see them the best with Metta

Those guys. Moving parts. Elemental parts

It might not be obvious at first minus the mineral one, but they all have different little textures for their own elements

If you zoom into her green, or encounter her in n1, you can see those are actually leaf shapes in there that are moving!

Same for everyone else, for the most part. (We are going over the conflicting info later, for now this is just information dumping)

In n1, only the children of Omnicron, and some of the wardens had it. Particularly, Titan, Darine, Krowr, Hexia, *Tikala.

Ogoon... Has fire? Which I'm half way on counting, half way to not. Ziegler has like a moving body but not quite the same feeling

*Tikala will be a ramble later

The only legendary without it in short is Luhava(and Ziegler if you count it). Who knows what Luhava's deal is, doesn't matter

Now n2 gets... Interesting. Because they don't quite follow rule sets as much as they should (cough cough Solus and Nara cough cough), but still, to go down the list

From the tyrants, only Mulcimer has magma. Granted, it's red and Ogoon and Fona have been using yellow, but more on that later. No other tyrant does.

For Drakes... The ones with official moving elemental parts are.. Dracon, Graloon, Volta. That's three out of 9

... Now, to be salty, the ones who DON'T have it but SHOULD in n2 are Solus, Nara.

And in abyssals we have... Helovolk(again,), Pluvian, Braccus. Three, again, though different three.

So now, without me checking every single nexomon I am fairy certain non legendarynexomon don't have this, save for the Drare line and some fire types

So it's clearly at least a little important, right? Right. Ramble time.

So now we go into the deep end by discussing by types, and then some theories in the end, but for now, opposite order, which means-

Ghost.

None. Seriously, no ghost PT(primordial tyrant), Krainull and Fane don't have it either. They have like, blue flames if you want to count that as their thing, but generally they don't have anything

I can hear someone going "what about Titan-"

Titan still has his mineral things, for some reason, so he's disqualified (and also those aren't ghost shaped blobs, ya know? )

So as far as ghost goes... I'm guessing it's either purple or blue. I tend to lean purple because I like purple, but blue is a very valid leaning point (also doesn't create a bit of an overlap with Luxa, more on that later)

Psychic

.. Also technically 0! Technically. Venefelis, Solus and Mystigon don't have anything, but you know who does?

Darine.

Now the issue with accepting Darine, is that she was a water type, so that helps her design stay the same, but also, if Titan didn't change it, who says she had do?

That still looks like water to me, but! We can at least safely assume it would be pink.

... Now, why the heck Solus doesn't have it? I don't know. It would've been easy to take the orange and make it pastel pink and make it move but no, can't have nice things.

Normal

... So, conflicting information a tad. Mostly because:

And their souls are blue, which while helpful for my theory, I'm gonna try to be anti bias here.

I'm more included to believe Metta(even though, the fire being red complicates things,) so we're going to go with Black. And besides, red was already taken.

So normal is: Black (?)

Electic

Ho boy. Okay. This is a long one. So. First up we got the man himself, Luxa

He has this pale purple, which is we go above, it technically shared with ghost. But it's whatever right? At least he is always purple and-

His necklace is yellow when he revives Omnicron.

Well, that's less ideal. But whatever it's just Luxa, let's see our favorite bumble bee dragon-

So that's... Conflicting. Because that's just kinda... blue. Which is stealing from Water, and is also DRAWN like it's water, no I checked, Volta doesn't learn water moves

Okay Volcel is a no so maybe how about-

That's... That's just orange, which is a third color and is technically fire's! (And that shading is very weird. It's too goo-y to be pure electric)

So electric is.. Just spin the wheel and pick at this point. Who's saying fricking pink is off the table?

Granted, at this point there's little colors left, but if we kept mineral to a pale brown, yellow could have worked!

It's.. I honestly don't know what's happening there.

Water

Probably the clearest slam dunk ever is water and wind. It's just blue, that's it

.. Tumblr isn't letting me upload more images, but trust me on that one

Plant

Okay. I need to delete some image in the post I need y'all to just.. See n1 Tikala

So! Plant should be pretty clear, right? Nara in n1 has green moving bits, nothing else does, a slam dunk-

N1 Tikala says hi.

... So. I think those gems are moving but I also can't tell as I'm not home yet. Point being, that's just blue again!

And you know the funny thing? N2 Deena's things FADE INTO BLUE! instead of having like a moving elemental ribbon thing, her thing just fades into blue. That's it.

It feels connected but I wouldn't even know where to start honestly.

Forever angry n2 Deena doesn't have moving bits, but moving on..

Fire.

So.. You're just gonna trust me on this one my post is packed with images already

The thing is... Metta's ribbon and Mulcimer have red like magma. Ogoon, Helovolk and Fona in both games, have like yellow fire. That's... A bit contradictory.

As you probably saw in my redesigns, I just make fire red as a rule of thumb, but like, it can also be orange and yellow!!

I guess it makes sense because that's like the main colors of normal fires, but if everything could stick to a theme(excluding electric), you can too!

Wind

Just clear as day, use teal. That's it no drama no nothing, Ventra is the only one with it, anyway

Mineral

Finally. Okay so, mineral is this pale brownish yellowish color. That seems to be the consensus between n1 Grunda, Titan and Graloon, but. N2 Grunda is way more just out right gold. So is Metta's mineral ribbon.

Granted, I think the ribbon is because they needed to give him some gold, and didn't know where to put it, but that's irrelevant.

So brownish gold range? But then.

Braccus. He has just out right Magma like Mulcimer does. He doesn't learn any fire moves either.

But an argument COULD be made that he just spent a long time in hot areas so his rocks just... Melted? But then that's just speculation. I'm. Hhhh. Abyssal person why do you hate me.

In conclusion everything made mostly sense in n1 and then they messed it up in n2.

.

.

Now as for ending notes..

I think these basically show how powerful they are, maybe? Or what power they have. So then it makes sense that Titan is still lingering on mineral because lack of Ghost PT

So there has to be something going on with Electric, it just kinda takes whatever color of whatever elemental, that can't be great. Granted I don't know what, but, ya know,

Fire is on wayyy too many things. Every legendary and even common nexomon have fire. Also like the fire starters always start out with Explosion irrc which is really powerful. Dunno, there's something about them being maybe a touch too strong that I'm glancing at Fenrir

Nadine, Merida, Ulrich, James, thank you for being mostly chill

Deena what the heck. I don't know why she loses her elemental thingies and I will go insane over it, but she does. And I've always been like "WHY BLUE? " but now that I've seen Tikala I'm like "... W... Why.. Blue? " ya know

Thanks for coming to my tedtalk, everyone

[karlachgale95]

Hearts of the Multiverse--Chapter Twenty: Father of Mine

              It had been a week since Luke, William (and Agatha by extension), Rose, Max, Edward, Markus, Connor, and Lt. Anderson had joined them. Luckily, Miss Lilith Clawthorne and Gale had figured out a spell that made it possible to add more rooms to the shrine without altering its physical structure. They were like dimensional rooms open only to the people who lived in them.

              He had roommates now: Miles, Giorno, Zuko, William, Danny, Yugi, and Arven. And it was nice to have his own space, or at least, an eighth of a space. It was alright; the room was huge. Whatever Miss Clawthorne and Gale had also designed each of their parts of their room to their tastes. For example, lots of wolf plushies and wallpaper in his corner. Danny’s room was decorated with glow-in-the-dark moons, stars, and planets. There were posters of people in weird helmets and suits standing on the moon. Miles’s corner had cartoon posters and a few collectible figurines Hunter assumed he had before he came here. Zuko’s room had a few small dragon statues made of jade. There were maps detailing both Tokyo and his home in the Fire Nation. Arven’s room was lined by recipes and pictures of himself with Mabosstiff. He seemed happier in those pictures. There were a couple of pictures with him and Flap in his own corner; he understood the importance of having those memories with him. William’s corner had a bunch of movies and Broadway posters, books, and figurines lining his shelves and walls. He seemed to be big into older movies and shows, especially if they featured magic. He and Luz were probably going to get along. Giorno’s room was regal: nice pillows, blankets, and wallpaper. The wallpaper itself was black while most of the bedding was varied purple hues. He had a few paintings hanging on his wall; they all looked pretty old. Yugi’s space was decorated in old Egyptian mythology (he had explained it to both Hunter and Arven who were unfamiliar with the history). He had several puzzles and games they’d been putting to use over the past couple of days.

Ever since the meeting last week, Kaiba wasn’t openly antagonistic to anyone. Although, he never seemed too antagonistic to Jotaro, Zuko, Arven, or himself. Had it been that night they’d tried to help him? Hunter didn’t know. He’d even tried at an apology to Katara. It was a start.

Today he was practicing a rune Gale had been teaching. Hunter still wasn’t sure how a normal human was able to practice magic without the Titan’s language. Gale insisted there was a goddess who helped channel magic, but he always skimmed over their questions when they tried to ask more about her. Sokka, Zuko, and Suki were offering combat and sword training, but he didn’t need that. He’d had plenty of physical training during his time in the Emperor’s Coven. While the trio’s training was likely not as heinous as Belos’s training, he’d rather train with his weaker element. He needed to get better at magic, now that he had it. He owed Flap that much.

Tracing the rune was easy, but evoking the magic was another story. He’d tried this one rune over ten times now; it was supposed to make him invisible. However, he was still very much visible. He shut his eyes and tried again.

“Evanesco!”

Peeking his eyes open, he saw that he was still visible. He groaned and laid his head down on the desk in front of him.

“Working with magic takes a while,” William spoke up. “You’ve got to know what you want to do and commit to it.”

“I know what I want to do,” Hunter snapped. He lifted his head up, aware that he was frustrated and taking it out on the wrong person. “Sorry. I just want to get better at this.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” William said with a small smile. “I mean, I do, too. Magic is hard to master, but I think with the right amount of focus and emotion put behind the spell.”

He stood up, closing the book in his hands. “Maybe you should take a break, both of you.”

Giorno glanced up from his book and shook his head. “I need to figure this out. There are so many ways this could end badly. I can’t let that happen.”

After he said that, Miles walked into the room, causing Giorno to casually put it down into a bag he kept on him. Miles raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t say anything about it.

“It’s chaos out there,” Miles said. “Adora challenged Sokka to a friendly duel, and he didn’t know she’s basically trained her whole life to be able to fight with—whatever. How’s it going in here?”

“Terrible,” Hunter answered. “Magic shouldn’t be this hard. Luz was able to do more by now—why can’t I?”

“How much practice did she have to get so good? Also, didn’t the Owl Lady teach her?” Miles asked.

“Yeah, I guess I should consider that,” Hunter admitted. “It’s just hard. I mean, it’s been a long year. Everything is so different. I lived my life being told what to do. And now, with everything going on, I feel so underprepared, and I hate it! It feels like I should know what to do, where to go, and how to work for it, but I don’t!”

“Kind of sounds like you’re relying on old tactics that used to work that don’t work so well anymore,” Miles said. “It’s like you said: everything is different. So, you can’t rely on the skills of the person you used to be. You gotta be willing to adapt.”

“I’m adaptable,” Hunter argued.

“Oh yeah?” Danny’s voice interjected. “Think fast!”

Hunter acted instinctively as something white flew in his general direction. He caught and threw back the object with twice as much force. Danny yelled, “whoa!” as a pillow phased right through him.

“Seems like you’ve got a handle on quick-time reactions,” Miles said.

“I guess so,” Hunter said with a shrug. “It’d be nice to get my magic under control—or at least—useable.”

“Maybe you’ve got to find your inner fire,” Zuko suggested.

At that moment, Yugi and Arven walked into the room. Both were covered in flour.

“What happened to you two?” Danny asked.

“Usagi, Josuke, and Okuyasu happened,” Arven grumbled. “I was helping Chibiusa make a pie for one of her friends, and Yugi wanted to help. So, we did that. We baked an apple pie, and those three jerks found it. Needless to say, Chibiusa was upset when we came back to check if the pie had finished cooling. There was a flour war. And now Rei is making all of them clean it up; we didn’t participate.”

“That’s actually kind of hilarious,” Danny said.

“Shame you guys went through all that effort for nothing,” William said.

“It’s a shame Chibiusa’s efforts were wasted,” Arven said, crossing his arms. “If I worked that hard on food for someone I cared about only for some rando to eat it, I’d be super peeved.”

“We can always help her make another one when she comes back from school,” Yugi said.

Zuko stood up. “Actually, I’m going to be busy today. I promised my uncle I’d help him at his shop.”

“You sure about that, Zuko?” Miles asked. “Kind of looks like it’s going to storm out there.”

Peering outside the window, there was, indeed, no sunlight. Dark, finger-like clouds clawed through the sky, as if they’d stolen the sun.

“If it gets too bad, I’ll just stay at the tea shop. It’ll be fine,” Zuko assured him.

William picked up the remote. “Maybe we should at least check the weather first?”

And there was Vox in a human disguise; there was a shorter woman with him with pink hair in tornado twin tails. The black blouse and skirt she wore were fashionable and sparkly.

“What are they up to?” Miles asked with a scowl.

“I’m here with business entrepreneur, model, and influencer, Vel,” Vox said, gesturing to the woman beside him. “So, you want to tell us about your new project?”

“Of course,” the woman, Vel, apparently, said with a huge grin. “As Val’s started making many clubs for more *ahem* mature audiences, I thought I would make a joint for only the most elite, glamourous, and in-the-know kids. We’ve got modern music, mocktails, celebs, you name it. And the entry fee is reasonable, too. First-time entry is completely free. We’ll be opening later this week!” She grinned almost the point of a smirk. “It’ll be a hell of a time. To any of my doubters, well, just come and see.”

“Well, that’s an obvious trap,” Giorno said. “Given what Kakyoin has told us, she’s just as evil as the TV guy and mothman.”

“True,” Miles said. “But what happens to the people who have no clue? She could be trying to steal their souls.”

“It would be a waste of time,” William said. Giorno gave him a soft glare. “Right.”

Miles raised an eyebrow. “What’s going on? Did I miss something?”

Giorno shook his head. “It’s nothing you need to worry about.”

“I thought you said, ‘no more secrets,’” Miles pointed out.

“Miles, trust me on this,” Giorno said. “Everything is fine. I’ve got it under control.”

Miles crossed his arms. “Uh-huh. So, that’s why you always look super tired and spend all night reading. What’s in that book, anyway?”

“It’s none of your concern,” Giorno shot back.

“I don’t buy that.”

“And I have other stuff to do today than bicker with you,” Giorno said, getting up, tucking the book into a bag he slung over his shoulder. “Just, please, stay out of this, Miles.”

He rushed out before Miles could get a word in edgewise. Miles shook his head. “He’s not getting off the hook that easy.”

Miles walked out, probably to follow Giorno. No one did anything to stop him, so were they accomplices to whatever happened?

“I’m…going to head out, too,” Zuko said. “I’ll just…yeah.”

And so that left Arven, Yugi, Danny, Hunter, and William to their own devices. William was the first to speak up, “So, have they told each other that they…?”

Danny shook his head. “And at this rate they probably never will.”

“Well, that’s sad,” Yugi said.

“I think that’s the least of our worries,” Hunter spoke up. “What do you think Vel is planning? Why go through the trouble of making a hangout spot for kids?”

“Miles was probably right,” Yugi said. “She likely wants to steal people’s souls. It’s a divide and conquer scheme. They’ve already got a lot of people covering the park areas. Having people inside the cities is their next move.”

Pretty soon, they’d be surrounded. Every area would be covered in Deathbusters spies and monsters. There wouldn’t be anywhere to hide; not even the shrine would be safe!

Hunter shook his head and took a deep breath, counting down on his fingers like Gus had taught him. Now was not the time to have a panic attack. They could still beat them, right? He stood up. He needed to talk to the others. Maybe they’d have a plan.

“Hey…I’m gonna go talk to my family.”

“And then there were four,” Danny commented.

“Sorry. I just…need to talk to them.”

“It’s okay, Hunter,” Yugi said. “We understand.”

Hunter nodded and sprinted to the main room where Luz, Amity, Gus, Vee, and Willow were already hanging out. Amity had Vel’s ad playing on her scroll.

“This is everywhere on Penstagram,” Amity said, her face scrunching up with worry.

“Don’t worry, sweet potato,” Luz said. “We won’t let anyone get hurt by those creeps.”

Willow was the first to look up and see Hunter. When she did, she ran over to him. Willow was a calming force he desperately needed right now.

“I saw,” Hunter said. “Innocent people might die because of this.”

“We’ve gotta make sure that doesn’t happen,” Luz spoke up. “With all the new magic I’m learning, I should be way more prepared this time to take on those daimon!”

“They’ve got a vampire, three demons, a witch, and two insane inventors on their side. We can’t just rush into a fight,” Gus argued.

“Well, we can’t just do nothing,” Luz argued. “There’s gotta be something! Something we can do to help!”

A thought dawned on Hunter. “What if I’m not the only one here…”

“What do you mean, Hunter?” Willow asked. Her eyes were full of concern.

“What if I’m not the only one here who has a talisman?” Hunter asked. “What if Luz has one? What about Amity? Gus? Vee? Willo—?”

He was cut off when Willow wrapped her arms around him. He felt his face heat up. “It’s alright, Hunter. We’re not going to let those guys steal anyone’s heart. Trust me.”

He stayed in the hug for a moment before breaking away. He did his best to give her a smile. “Th-thanks Willow. It’s…just scary. I don’t want anyone to get hurt, and…I don’t want to get caught again.”

“We won’t let them,” Willow assured him.

Hunter desperately wanted to believe her. However, the low roll of thunder and gray sky did nothing to assuage his worry. And in any case, they still needed to see what Vel was planning with that club. It was going to be dangerous. He wasn’t sure if having the people he cared about most going into a death-trap with him was horrifying or reassuring.

Usagi bounded into the room with Mamoru and those two girls: Haruka and Michiru. Hunter couldn’t say why, but there was something off about those two. Although, he felt like a jerk for being so suspicious over Usagi’s friends. However, Zuko agreed with him. It was like they were always just around the corner. Maybe they were connected with the witches? Alastor?

“Hey guys!” Usagi said with a wave. “What’re you talking about?”

“Oh, that new club that’s opened up,” Gus said casually.

“It looks like a bad idea,” Mamoru commented. “I mean, there weren’t even any limits as to how many people could be in the building at a time. I’m pretty sure that violates basic firecodes.”

“I give it a week,” Haruka said. “Before it’s shut down.”

“Hey, were Giorno and Miles mad at each other?” Usagi asked. “Miles was yelling about a book, and Giorno kept insisting it wasn’t a big deal. Did he forget to turn in a library book?”

“I think it’s a bit deeper than that,” Hunter said. “They need to talk and sort things out.”

“Oh?” Michiru asked, raising an eyebrow. “How long have they been together?”

“I don’t know if it’s like that,” Hunter said. “Although…it’d make sense.”

For example, Danny and William’s comments earlier. But he wasn’t going to comment on a plausible relationship that wasn’t his to comment on.

“Guess what?” Usagi chirruped, bringing him out of his thoughts. “We got invited to a fancy party! Miss Lily was told that Mamoru’s friend, Edwards wanted to meet the best and brightest from the new generation!” She leaned in with a grin and whispered. “That means us!”

“Are there going to be a lot of people there?” Vee asked.

“More like a lot of academics in search of a scholarship,” Haruka scoffed. Michiru crossed her arms. “What? It’s true.”

“Edwards is a kind man,” Mamoru said. “He’s incredibly wealthy—a self-made man.”

“A lot of self-made people aren’t really self-made,” Luz muttered.

“Nevertheless,” Michiru continued. “They’re fun parties! You should all go. It kind of looks like you could use it.”

“I’m going,” Usagi said. “It’ll be super fun and…” she glanced to Hunter, her eyes lighting up in recognition of discomfort. “it’ll be safe.”

“True,” Michiru spoke up again. “There will be security guards and a…strange owl-bird-tube-thing posted at the front at all times.”

“Hooty?” Luz asked.

“You know him?” Michiru asked. Her calm and pleasant smile slipped, as one’s calm and pleasant smile does when the mention of Hooty comes up. “Why is he…like that?”

Luz shrugged and laughed.

“I find him strangely endearing.”

The group had failed to notice another lurking in the corner of the room: Kakyoin, Jotaro, Avdol, and Polnareff.

“Kinda stupid for this guy to be throwing a party during the middle of all these attacks,” Jotaro commented.

“I assure you, Edwards is a smart man,” Mamoru cut in sharply. “And the party is perfectly safe.”

“Like how that festival was perfectly safe, right?” Jotaro countered.

“You could’ve just said no,” Michiru reprimanded.

Jotaro looked at her then Haruka and shook his head. “Who said I wasn’t going? Gotta make sure no one gets hurt, after all.”

“How noble,” Haruka said with a snort.

Jotaro glared at her and muttered something under his breath.

“I take it the event is formal attire,” Kakyoin interjected quickly.

“Most assuredly,” Mamoru said.

“Fun,” Jotaro said, leaning back against the wall.

“It could be fun,” Luz said with a half-smile.

Hunter wasn’t so sure. Their hearts were on the line, he didn’t trust Haruka and Michiru, and…Belos was out there…somewhere. What if he was looking for them? What if he found him? What if he found his friends?

Would the people he loved most be safe?

He felt a hand on his shoulder, “Hey kid.”

It was Jotaro. He continued. “Don’t know what you’re thinking, but you look like you’re gonna hurl.” He paused. “You’re gonna be fine. We won’t let that creepy old fuck hurt you.”

Hunter tucked his arms closer into his body. “Th-thanks.”

“Don’t make yourself an easy target,” Jotaro said. “You gotta hit hard, especially if you know a weakness.”

“Um…okay. Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Jotaro is right,” Luz said with a grin. “We’ve got this!”

“Yeah!” Gus agreed. “Belos is going to Belose again!”

While the others laughed, Hunter still couldn’t help but feel uneasy. They had strength in numbers, but their enemies kept coming back with new powers, people, and weapons.

Glancing back to his friends who had gone back to the conversation of the party, he took in how excited everyone seemed to be. Willow and Luz broke from the conversation, looked at him, gave him a weary smile and a thumbs up. They were nervous, too. Scary considering they were two of the most confident people he’d ever known.

              If they were having doubts, what did that mean for their future?

              …

              Miles followed Giorno; he wasn’t going to let him walk away from this. He wanted—no—needed answers. He promised.

              They were walking down the streets aligned with several shops, restaurants, and arcades. Giorno was surprisingly able to outpace him. At one point, he lost sight of him entirely. He took a deep breath and refrained from screaming in the middle of the street.

              What was that book? Why was he guarding it so much? Why was he keeping secrets? Would this…would this be like it was with Gwen all over again? He couldn’t take that kind of emotional betrayal again. As it was, he was ready to snap. There was already so much going on; if Giorno betrayed him, he wasn’t sure what he’d do next.

              “Hey!”

              Miles froze dead in his tracks for just a second. He knew that voice instantly. The rapid footsteps behind him kicked his own legs into gear. He glanced behind to see Miguel O’Hara pushing past people; his eyes were dead set on Miles. Crap!

              “Stop! Stop him!”

              Miles pushed forward, ignoring the concerned and confused looks of passersby. He kept running until he saw another figure, waiting patiently up ahead: the vampire, Morlun. Ahead and behind were death, and he couldn’t use his webbing, not while he was in civilian clothing. Morlun grinned, the corners of his mouth like the crypt-keeper.

              Was he going to die here?

              Someone quickly dragged him backwards into the shop on their right. It was completely dark inside. What kind of place was this? How would they be safe in—?

              The front door clicked and then disappeared entirely.

              “Fuck,” he heard Giorno murmur.

              “Giorno?” Miles questioned. “What’s going on? Where are we? Why did you run away?”

              Giorno glanced away. “I’m not sure where we are, but Morlun is out there.”

              “Yeah, and Miguel.”

              “So, that’s what he looks like,” Giorno noted. He paused. “I’m sorry.”

              “Dude, just tell me what’s going on! I might be able to help you!”

              Giorno shook his head. “It would be better if you weren’t involved. Please, Miles, I need you to stay out of this.”

              “Why?”

              “Because you two are facing a very…grave future,” a voice above, maybe through an intercom spoke up.

              “Who are you?” Miles asked.

              “I am merely an entity who seeks to bring enlightenment to your situation,” the voice explained. “Perhaps once this tour is over, we can all be friends.”

              “Unlikely,” Giorno said.

              “We’ll see. Now, one at a time,” the voice instructed.

              Miles wasn’t sure what he meant by that until a wall popped up, separating him and Giorno. “H-Hey!”

              “Miles?” Giorno’s muffled voice questioned from the other side of the wall. “Are you alright?”

              “I’m fine,” Miles assured him. He stared up at the ceiling. “Who are you? Why are you doing this?”

              “Please move forward,” a familiar voice instructed. It was that ghost-man hybrid. This must be Alastor’s doing! “Move forward and all will be revealed, especially little secrets someone may be hiding.”

              It was quiet for a moment before he heard Giorno speak up again, his voice harsh and like a bee’s sting. “Leave him out of this. I’m warning you.”

              “Your powers are spiritual-based,” the ghost-man drawled. “I’m not frightened by a child who has yet to comprehend the full extent of harm he can inflict on others.”

              “Giorno,” Miles tried softly. “Let’s just get through this. I promise, whatever it is, I’m right here, alright?”

              “Miles…you don’t know what they’re talking about.”

              “And whose fault is that?” Miles asked. When Giorno went quiet again, Miles sighed. “Look, it doesn’t matter what happens here. We’re friends, and I’m not just going to abandon you, leave you to Morlun, or let you make a deal with some devil. I’m with you all the way. Now, let’s just go ahead and get this over with.”

              “…alright.”

              Miles tried to clear his mind. Giorno obviously knew more than he was letting on; he and William both had been acting weird. And now he was supposed to find out what exactly was being kept from him. Plus, Alastor was involved, so that was always fun.

              A light shined ahead. It was an old-timey projection screen. Miles walked toward it as it began to play:

              Morlun flung him across the room, his body landed next to someone else. Through a blurred lens he saw blond hair and a bloodied purple outfit. Miles saw that his video image was bleeding from his right arm, stomach, and from a few cuts on his face. Whatever happened before must’ve been brutal.

              He feebly grabbed the person beside him. “G-Giorno…no…please don’t be…”

              Giorno’s eyes were wide open as they had been when he’d sacrificed himself when Alastor cornered them. His body looked bruised, battered, and possibly more than Miles appeared to be. But…he couldn’t be.

              “It’s your turn, now, Spiderman,” Morlun said, sauntering over to him.

              Mirror Miles tried to stand, but he faltered. “His soul. Give it back!” He was screaming through his own tears. “Give it back now!”

              “His soul is nothing but a talisman now,” Morlun droned on. “You exhausted all other alternatives, your friends have fallen, and now it’s time to give up this game. It’s been fun, and you were a worthy adversary, as well as your ill-fated love, but I’ve no patience left. Unless, of course, you’d like to see your parents perish, too?”

              Even battered Miles glared up at Morlun. “L-leave them alone…stop this!”

              “Do you surrender?” Morlun asked. “Surrender and I leave them be. Surrender, and I will not consume the one you love.”

              Miles was quiet for a moment. “Can he come back if you don’t…?”

              “It’s a possibility,” Morlun said. “Depending upon your butterfly’s determination.”

              Who in the hell was he talking about? Also, by love, did he mean…? Miles felt his face heat up and his guts knot as he continued to watch the screen.

              “Alright. I’ll do it, then. I give up.”

              Morlun grinned wickedly as he placed a hand on Miles’s shoulder. “I knew you’d make the right decision.”

              Actual Miles looked away from the screen as he heard his voice shriek and then quickly cut off.

              “Tragic, isn’t it, Mr. Morales?” the infamous, staticky voice commented behind him. He turned to glare at the Radio Demon who smiled and waved in response. “Utterly terrible. This is what happens when you decide to romance someone so below you. He lives in this timeline, you know? And you…well, you have a lovely funeral.”

              “This has happened already,” Miles surmised. He glared at the Radio Demon. “Where is he? What’ve you done?”

              “More like, what can he do? Or rather, what’s he going to do with you?” Alastor asked, the room darkening as his smile was the only visible feature. “He’s been keeping secrets from you, Miles. Sure! In the timeline you’ve seen, you fall by Morlun’s hand. In another…”

              Miles shook his head slowly. “No…I don’t believe you. He would never!”

              “Oh?” Alastor asked, grin getting wider. “Why don’t we see if you’re right?”

              He waved his hand, drawing back a curtain, leading to a room that looked like a movie theatre. Alastor gestured for Miles to walk inside and disappeared. He heard his voice on the screen.

              “What’ve you done to him?”

              Miles walked in and stared at the screen. In front of this movie version of himself was Giorno’s father, the priest, and Giorno. Although, Giorno was a lot paler than he should’ve been, and his irises were crimson red.

              “Giorno? What did you do?” Miles murmured under his breath.

              His father, Dio, continued. “I needed to revive him—a soul is a heavy loss. However, I, DIO, know how to handle such situations.”

              “What is that? What is that in the center of his forehead?” Movie Miles asked.

              “I’m sure Kakyoin has told you about fleshbuds,” DIO said. “My son was a little put off by the stories he’s heard from your friends. It was a simple measure to make him more amicable to our work.”

              “In other words, you’re controlling him!” Miles argued. “You can’t do that! He’s your son!”

              “It may seem extreme, but I’ll do anything to have my son by my side as we seek our revenge on those who have wronged us.”

              He gestured to the halved remains of the Radio Demon; that smile branding his face, even in death.

              “Now, Mr. Morales, will you join us?” DIO asked. “If you do, you can become beyond those who would hurt you. I would offer you immortality, as well.” His face darkened. “If not, you will be considered amongst our enemies and dealt with swiftly.”

              This version of himself paused. “…I won’t allow you to control the person I love or hurt the Joestars. I’ll save Giorno, no matter what.”

              DIO scowled. “I thought you would know better. Clearly, the Crusaders taught you nothing. You’ll be the first blood, then. Giorno, my son, kill him.”

              It was as though a switch had flipped. Giorno’s eyes locked onto Miles and within seconds, he was standing in front of him.

              “Giorno! Wait!”

              Giorno didn’t seem to hear him as he jammed blade-like fingernails into Miles’s neck. His eyes widened in shock before he quickly fell to his knees, gasping and trying to say something. Real Miles knew he probably wouldn’t be able to say anything.

              “And this is what will happen should you refuse my deal once again,” he heard Alastor comment from the front of the theatre. “I know you’d like to save Mr. Morales as much as I’d like to not die by your father’s hands. So, last chance, Mr. Giovanna. The next time I ask, the price will increase, and he’ll be included.”

              Miles rushed to the front of the screen. Seeing Alastor extending his hand out to Giorno who’s red eyes and distant stare said it all. If he noticed Miles were there, he didn’t give any indication. He couldn’t let Alastor trick him into this deal. Even if this were real…it wasn’t his fault! There had to be another way!

              “You’ll keep him and his family safe?” Giorno asked.

              “Of course,” Alastor said. “And once you’re properly mine, I’ll use my connections to erase your father from the equation entirely. Your power will give me enough of a pathway to do that.”

              “If I do this…you will leave Miles alone.”

              “Absolutely. He won’t hear from me, or by extension, you, ever again.”

              Giorno looked at Alastor to his hand, surrounded by a magic green glow. He was considering it! Miles tried to stop him, to call out to him. “Giorno! Stop! Don’t! We can find another way!”

              “You’ll have to think of something better than that,” Alastor’s voice mocked in his head.

              As Giorno reached his hand up to meet Alastor’s, Miles rushed in and grabbed Giorno’s hand. This seemed to shake Giorno out of whatever spell he was under. “Miles? What are you doing?”

              “More like what are you doing?” Miles countered. “You’re trying to make a deal with Alastor! You’ll die! I’ll-I’ll never see you again!”

              “Maybe that’s for the best,” Giorno muttered. “Miles, I would love nothing more than to stay here with you. Surely you know that. But there are so many ways that ends badly. I don’t want to hurt you or anyone in the Joestar family. They’ve been good to me.”

              “You won’t,” Miles assured him. “All we need to do is work together. We’ll find another way. No one is going to die, especially not us. You promised, and I’m going to hold you to it.”

              Giorno paused. “Miles, you don’t…”

              “I’m really tired of people telling me what I don’t understand,” Miles said. “I get it. There’s real danger here, and it’s scary. But I’m not willing to face it without you, so, unfortunately for you, you’ve gotta keep your word. Or does that mean anything to you?”

              Giorno stood up, his face was unreadable. “Of course it does. But you…you’re important to me. I’ve never cared about someone the way I care about you. That’s why I’m willing to do whatever it takes to keep you—”

              Miles cut him off. “And I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you alive.”

              “Then we’re at an impasse.”

              Alastor cleared his throat. “I see you need time to think it over. You can explain your situation entirely to Mr. Morales. I’ll give you thirty minutes’ time. If you haven’t come up with the correct answer by then, I throw you back into the streets with O’Hara and Morlun.”

              With that, he disappeared, and the doors in the room vanished. The last, remaining light in the room flickered off as Giorno caught his hand. He could make out his eyes and the outline of his face in the pitch dark.

              “If I don’t take the deal now,” Giorno spoke in a low voice. “If something bad happens in the future, and you…you’re hurt. He’ll want both our souls—not just mine—to save you.”

              “Nothing bad is going to happen,” Miles objected.

              This time Giorno cut him off and dug something out of the bag on his shoulder. “Oh yeah? So, explain the memory we just watched! Explain the one you watched! It’s all in here! You wanted to know so badly what was in this book? It’s all the times we’ve died: you, me, the Joestars, Hunter, everyone! Everyone in this book…they possess a talisman. I’ve been trying to come up with a way to counteract it, but I’m the root cause for at least 50% of them. How am I supposed to help you when I’m the reason you die?”

              His grip got tighter as he sat down on the ground; Miles followed suit. Miles didn’t know what to say. He wanted to help, but how could he help someone dead set on self-ruin? They sat there in silence for a few minutes, far longer than he would’ve liked. Were they close to their deadline? What would Giorno choose? He couldn’t take the deal! He just couldn’t! Miles needed to convince him otherwise. Well, he could try one thing. Hopefully he wouldn’t end up looking too stupid after this.

              “You know,” Miles began. “I care about you a lot, too. You saw that in the memories, didn’t you?”

              Giorno’s grip lessened. “Miles…”

              “I meant what I said,” Miles said. “I’d like, when this is all over, to be able to hang out with you. I’m pretty sure we can manage it, even with our responsibilities. I’ll show you all the rare quiet places in New York. We could study together, grab dinner from a place that claims to be Italian. You can tell me if it sucks or not. No monsters, no demons, no vampires. Just us.”

              “Just us?” Giorno repeated, he leaned in a little closer. “All of that sounds nice, if it’s possible.”

              “What would you want to do?” Miles asked, the room suddenly got a little smaller and possibly warmer.

              “We could explore Italy,” Giorno suggested. “There’s plenty of quiet places I know of; beautiful when the sun falls. If you’d like to, we could spend time painting what we see; I know you’re good at that. Even if I’m not so skilled, I’d like to see your perspective. Then we could get some real Italian food, and you’ll be able to tell the difference.”

              “I’d like that,” Miles said. He leaned in a little closer. “It will be possible, you know? Trust me.”

              It was quiet. Giorno furrowed his eyebrows. “Just so I’m clear…this is a confession, correct?”

              Miles nodded.

              “Good.”

              As quick as his heartbeat, Giorno leaned in and kissed him. Miles felt his face heat up as he kissed back, trying to keep calm and collected. He’d seen this happen in some of the tomes he read, but he had no idea if Giorno had felt the same way in this timeline.

              At least before anything went horribly wrong, he had this.

              Giorno slowly broke away. “Alright…I’ll stay with you, Miles. I swear.”

              “I’m happy to hear it,” Miles murmured. He got up, extending his hand to Giorno. “Now, let’s find a way out of here.”

“Sure you two can stop making out long enough to do that?”

Miles froze and turned his head. Standing in the corner were Danny, Zuko, and William. While Zuko and William had the common decency to look at either the ceiling or floor, Danny smirked at both of them.

“How long have you guys been here?” Miles asked.

“Long enough for all the dream vacation planning,” Danny said.

“We don’t have time for this,” Zuko said. “We need to get out of here.”

“How did you find us?” Giorno asked.

“Well, we decided to help Zuko when those weird girls showed up at the shrine. I…couldn’t hear their thoughts. It was making me uneasy,” William explained. He pointed at Miles and Giorno. “Now, your thoughts were loud and clear. That’s how we found you, well, that, and Danny’s ghost powers.”

“As conflicted as I am over how you found us, I’m still grateful,” Giorno said. He took Miles’s hand and got up. “Now, like Zuko said, we need to get going.”

Green flames rose around the walls of the room. Out from the shadows stepped Alastor, Vlad, and a third devilish man with giant red wings and regal clothing. Birds of a feather, Miles supposed.

“I suppose you’re not taking my deal?” Alastor asked.

“No,” Giorno said firmly. “Never again.”

“That’s a shame,” Alastor said. “Obviously, there’s no danger to you, seeing as you’re surrounded by your friends…and more.”

“Golden Experience!”

Alastor stepped backwards as Miles felt a gust of air whoosh past him. Alastor shook his head. “I’m not going to fight you. Like I said, there’s no point. Besides, we’ve already made sure you’ll make a deal eventually.”

“What do you mean?” Zuko asked.

“You didn’t,” William murmured behind them. “All those people…you didn’t! You can’t!”

Giorno marched over to Alastor and grabbed him by his coat. “What did you do?”

“You’re not the only one who wants to know the contents of that book,” Alastor said. “I just provided the lists of the names of talisman holders to those who would value it most.” He glanced over Giorno’s shoulder. “Might want to let your friends, the ones who are in danger, know how much you’ve cost them.”

“MUDA!”

Alastor went flying backwards, blood dripped from his jaw. He rubbed the base of his chin, smiling and laughing maniacally as he disappeared. Vlad and the other man remained.

“You know Daniel,” Vlad spoke up. “I could help you, should you wish to join us. No one has to get hurt.”

“In your dreams, Vlad,” Danny shot back.

“I’m sure you’ll come to consider it,” the other man interjected. “When the vipers strike and you’re left poisoned and struggling to survive, you’ll find us to be the sweetest antidote.”

“Ew to literally everything that just came out of your mouth,” William said.

“Consider it.”

The two disappeared, leaving everyone confused, angry, depressed, or a combination of the three. William ran his hands through his hair. “This is bad! Really bad! They could be on their way to attack everyone now!”

“You’re right,” Giorno said. “I…don’t know what to do. I’m sorry.”

“Giorno,” Zuko began. “What was on that list?”

“It was people who hold talismans in their hearts,” Giorno explained. He handed Zuko the book he had been carrying. “Might as well share it, since all of us are targets now.”

Zuko flipped through the pages, his eyes widening as he examined the names. After a few seconds, he slammed the book shut. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“That’s partially my fault,” William said, stepping in. “I thought if we hid the names, everyone could be safe, even if just for a little while. I should’ve known Alastor would make copies of the names.”

“He could be messing with you guys,” Danny spoke up. “Who’s to say that ‘list’ is accurate? Just because it was in the library, doesn’t mean they didn’t make it up.”

Giorno shook his head. “No. It’s real. I found memory tomes to make sure he wasn’t lying. It’s happened before.”

“Just because it’s happened before,” Zuko said. “Doesn’t mean it’ll happen again. I’ve got an idea.”

“Where to?” Danny asked.

“Still the same as before,” Zuko said. “If there’s anyone I know who can help us, it’s my uncle.”

Miles walked over to Giorno, unsure of what to do. He didn’t want to overwhelm him (more than he already was). He settled for grabbing his hand. “You made the right choice. Those guys just…”

“Had everything planned?” Giorno asked. “Now everyone is in danger because I didn’t take the deal.”

“Everyone is in trouble because Alastor is an ass,” Miles argued. “We’ll get through this. We’ll beat Alastor, Morlun, and your dad if they decide they want to hurt anybody, especially anyone from our group. Besides, I’m Spiderman, and you’re one of the toughest stand users in your world, right? It’ll work out.”

Giorno squeezed his hand. “I’d like to believe you’re right.”

…

Katara was taking a few minutes to play with Sobble. She’d befriended him at the festival, and now he had begun to follow her around the shrine. It was easy to teach him how to use his abilities, since they were both waterbenders. Although, the water gun was a little different from her usual offensive attacks. They’d gotten through that, and now they were practicing aqua jet. Now it was back to her lesson.

Today Ami was with her; the sailor senshi of water and intelligence wanted to study Katara’s techniques. It wasn’t in Katara’s nature to dismiss someone who wanted to learn. Ami brought her Seel with her; she and Sobble seemed to get along well. While they played and trained with each other, Katara brought out a copied waterbending scroll she learned long ago. They stood in front of the pond at the back of the shrine.

Katara pulled her arms inward, causing the water to roll the same way. Then she pushed the small waves she created outward. Rinse and repeat. “Natural water is controlled by the balance of the sun and the moon. Waterbenders, just like the sun and moon, push and pull water back and forth to bend. You try!”

Ami took a deep breath and tried the movements as Katara had. However, the water wasn’t budging. Ami’s face fell. “I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.”

“Your movements are a little rigid,” Katara said. “Try to go with the flow of the waves. If you keep up with them, they’ll keep up with you.”

Ami shook her head and tried again; her arms matching the pull of the water. It began to sway back and forth. Katara grinned. “That’s it! You’ve got it!”

“Really?” Ami paused and smiled. “Neat! I thought I’d never get it!”

“Honestly? I wasn’t that great when I first started,” Katara said. She sat down near the pond and gestured for Ami to do the same. She waved her hand inward and levitated a ball of water between them. Warping it into a small stream, she sent it zipping through the air, circled around the two of them, and then gently above the flowers in Rei’s garden. “You’ve got to be more fluid, no pun intended. Once you master that, waterbending is pretty easy. Though, it still takes a lot of practice.”

“Bending is so amazing,” Ami said. “Thank you, Katara. I promise I’m going to get better at this! I’ll study the techniques you’ve taught me several times a day!”

Seeing her so determined was kind of inspiring. “I’m sure you’ll be great at waterbending, Ami. Although…why did you want to learn waterbending specifically?”

“I…” Ami blushed. “Well, I want to be able to protect my friends.” She shut her eyes. “I know I’m not the strongest sailor guardian. When I went against Sailor Neptune a couple of weeks ago, I lost miserably. But you went up against her and protected Hunter. Scientifically speaking, your waterbending is more powerful than our abilities.”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” Katara said. “Not completely. Like I said, these things take lots of practice. And you’ve got a lot going on: you’re a scholar, a friend, and a warrior. It’s a lot to juggle. You’ve gotta find your balance.”

“Balance,” Ami repeated. She nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind. Oh look, there’s Usagi.”

True to Ami’s words, Usagi ran out of the shrine, grinning as though she’d just won the hugest Pai Sho match.

“Guys!” Usagi chirruped. “Haruka and Michiru offered to take the girls to the new spa so we can get ready for the party together!”

“That’s awfully generous,” Katara said. “How can they afford it?”

“Well Michiru’s a world-class violinist and Haruka is a famous racer,” Ami said. “They probably make decent money.”

“Who cares about all that?” Usagi asked, that grin never leaving her face. “It’s a free day of pampering!”

Usagi sometimes reminded her of Aang when they had first met. She was carefree, idealistic, and kind. Unfortunately, those traits could get her into trouble; after all, she’d been targeted by the daimon before. And if Usagi was a target…

“Are you sure we should be going off for that sort of thing right now?” Katara asked.

“It’ll be fine!” Usagi said. “The boys can handle themselves.”

Katara raised an eyebrow and glanced into the open doorframe of the shrine. Josuke, Joey, and Sokka were all fighting over the same bag of chips, despite there being other types on a table nearby.

“And who will win the chipmaggedon of 97?” Gus announced.

“It’s 95, actually,” Rei spoke up.

“Nuances,” Gus said dismissively. He continued with a grin. “Will it be the brains and the brawler from the Southern Water Tribe, Sokka? The luck-based strategist, Joey Wheeler? Or our heart and healer, Josuke Higashikata?”

“I never even got to try this flavor!” Joey argued.

“It’s my favorite, it should go to me,” Josuke argued.

“It ALWAYS goes to you!” Sokka griped.

One of Gus’s illusions popped into the middle of the fight, grabbing the bag of chips, disappearing, and handed it to the real Gus. “No! It goes the amazing, master-illusionist, Gus Porter!”

“HEY!”

Katara gestured to the scene. However, Usagi seemed determined. “I’m sure they’ll be fine. Besides, Jotaro and Zuko will keep them in line.” She grabbed Katara and Ami’s arms. “C’mon! Please! It’ll be so fun!”

Her eyes were as wide and pleading as a baby saber-tooth moose lion cub.

“Fine,” Katara said with a sigh. “But only because we need to make sure everyone stays safe at that party.”

“Yay!” Usagi said, hugging Katara. “Thank you! I can’t wait to spend time with you guys! It’s gonna be so much fun without…you know…all the noise.”

Katara blushed. “That’s fair. They can be a little…loud.”

“Oh right! I forgot to mention something,” Usagi said. “Haruka and Michiru said they wanted to visit the library first. So, we’ll go there, and then to the new spa!”

“The library?” Katara asked. “That might be good for us, too.”

“Don’t tell me Ami’s gotten to you,” Usagi said.

“You could do with a little more studying, Usagi,” Ami said. “Besides, Katara is right. We could use this time to make sure there’s no new attacks in our near future.”

“You two have got to lighten up,” Usagi said. “I can see this spa day is critical.”

Katara laughed. “You know Usagi, sometimes you really do remind me of Aang.”

…

“Hey Chibiusa,” the Collector spoke up. “Who’s the pie for? Looks awesome! Can I have some?”

“No,” Chibiusa said a little more quickly than she intended. When the Collector looked hurt, she blushed. “Sorry, it’s just that I worked really hard on this, and this is my third attempt. Those jerks with the big gullets already ate the other two I made with Arven and Yugi.”

“Oh,” the Collector said. “Older people can be so greedy, right, King?”

“I don’t know,” King said. “I’m usually the one who eats a lot of food at home.”

“I remember,” the Collector said. “You ate like so many pizza bagels. I thought Mamadalia was going to flip out.”

“Some mom she was,” King said sarcastically.

“Yeah…”

The three were on their way to their new art class. King had been staying over to visit Luz and her friends. Plus, he seemed to like Jotaro (even if he was kinda scary to Chibiusa). Since the Collector wanted to stay with King, he ended up visiting the shrine a lot, too. Ash and Lillie didn’t want to take lessons, but Frisk had said they would show up a little later. They needed to do something first.

Why did the Collector look so sad, anyway? Who was Mamdalia? Well, she wasn’t anything like stupid Usagi; she knew it was impolite to pry. Still, she was curious.

“So, who’s the pie for?” King asked.

“U-Um, well, it’s for someone special,” Chibiusa stammered.

“Like a best buddy?” the Collector asked. He turned to King. “You never made me any pies. Why does her best friend get a pie?”

“I think the person she’s talking about is a little more than just a buddy,” King guessed (annoyingly correct). “Besides, I’d need help, and Eda has a tendency to make the ingredients for pie walk out the door.”

“That makes sense…maybe we can get Arven and Yugi to help us, too,” the Collector suggested.

“They might,” Chibiusa said. “They’re really nice.”

They walked on until they reached the rec center. There he was: Masanori Tsuzuki, Chibiusa’s crush. He made such beautiful sculptures; she wanted to get to know him better, at least. He was holding a bouquet of roses; there were so many, and they were so beautiful!

She wondered if she was lucky enough to be the one they were…

And then Mr. Wright showed up with Miss Fey and her cousin, Pearl. Masanori’s face fell. Who had he been expecting?

And then Chibiusa remembered that Michiru usually taught the class.

He was going to give those roses to Michiru!

“Where’s Miss Kaiou?” Masanori asked.

“Well, she’s absent today, but Pearls didn’t want to miss the class,” Mr. Wright explained. “And I was an art major before I went into law, so I agreed to help, just this once.”

Darn that Michiru!

Well, she wasn’t here today. So, Chibiusa had an opportunity to get closer to Masanori. It would be fine!

“Nick, Mystic Maya, these are my new friends,” Pearl said, dragging the taller lawyer and his shorter mystic assistant with her. “This is the Collector, Chibiusa, and King!”

“I’ve actually met King,” Mr. Wright said. “His mom used to stay with me. How is Eda doing?”

“Pretty good, we’ve been staying with Raine,” King said.

“Although, you could just live with us,” the Collector said. “I mean, the castle is huge, and there’s no way any of those monsters can get in there! It’s in the sky!”

“I don’t know,” King said. “I kind of like living with just Raine and Eda. It’s like we get to be a family now.”

“Oh…sorry.”

There it was again! That sadness. It was kind of familiar; like how she felt when no one wanted to be near her in the thirtieth century: extreme loneliness.

               “I didn’t know you had friends from other universes, Chibiusa,” Masanori said.

              Chibiusa smiled. “Yeah! We’ve been getting along well!”

              “That’s great,” Masanori said with a hesitant smile. “But…I don’t know…I don’t wanna scare anybody.”

              “I haven’t been scared yet,” the Collector bragged. “The monsters here are kind of boring compared to the Boiling Isles.”

              “Sounds scary,” Pearl commented.

              “It’s not that bad,” King said. “I mean, there’s a lot of good witches and demons there, too.”

              “Not like the witches here,” Chibiusa said.

              “Definitely not.”

              “Hey guys!”

              Wally, Mokuba, Bede, Silver, Syaoran, Sakura, Hop, Hau, and Toph walked over to the group. Mr. Wright raised an eyebrow. “I thought you two,” he gestured to Hop and Hau, “said you weren’t into art.”

              “Toph convinced us to come,” Hop said. He leaned closer to the group. “There could be witches anywhere.”

              “I sure hope not,” Masanori said, almost looking as though someone had walked over his grave.

              Chibiusa panicked. Hop was going to scare off Masanori! She pushed him away from her crush, laughing a little. “He’s joking! Hop’s a kidder.”

              “But there are witches everywhere,” Wally said. “It’s pretty spooky.”

              Masanori scratched the back of his neck. “It’s getting pretty late. We should go inside now.”

              With that, he sped off into the building. Chibiusa turned to the others in a huff. “Great going, guys! Now Masanori will never talk to me again!”

              “That’s probably just as well,” Mokuba shrugged. “Artists don’t make much money.”

              “Shows what you know!” Chibiusa argued. “Art is a beautiful expression of oneself! I can’t believe you would say something like that, Mokuba!”

              Mokuba flinched, like he’d been stung. Chibiusa was too mad to care.

              “He is related to Kaiba, cut him some slack,” Hop said with a grin.

              “And you!” Chibiusa said, pointing a finger at Hop. “You’re the reason Masanori ran off in the first place! I can’t believe you’d scare him like that! Don’t you have a brain?”

              “Hey! I was just trying to be honest!”

              King tapped her shoulder. “Chibiusa, don’t you think you’re being a little too harsh?”

              Chibiusa looked around. Her friends did look hurt, but so was she! She’d had to deal with Usagi, Josuke, and Okuyasu’s thoughtlessness this morning. She didn’t need the same from her friends. She shook her head and ran inside.

              …

              It was awkward. They were sitting together. But how was he supposed to navigate a relationship with Miles? Is that what they had? True, he’d wanted this. Now that he had it, he felt more vulnerable and worried than ever. The others were talking, a bit somberly. This world was nothing but painful for him. He was marred by failure here. In Italy, he was reminded of those who never made it home, sure. However, there was still some light mixed with the loss. Here, in Tokyo, he was constantly making mistakes. He thought it had been a good idea to keep Alastor a secret. That didn’t work; it almost and may cost Miles his life. He thought he didn’t have any family; it turns out he had one and he’d just endangered them. He thought keeping the list of talisman holders was a good idea; now almost everyone knew who had a talisman.

              “Giorno?” Miles asked. “You doing okay?”

              Giorno shook his head, but he didn’t say anything. What was there to say?

              “Uncle,” Zuko began. The older man was very hospitable. He seemed kind. It was clear Zuko trusted him, and that didn’t seem to be something so lightly gained. He had made them some tea and sat down with them to discuss the situation. “We’re not sure what to do next. We don’t even know who knows about the talisman holders now. We’ve got to protect everyone, but there may not be any time!”

              Iroh looked at the list, perhaps trying to come up with a plan of action. His eyes widened and his brow furrowed when he looked further down. “Nephew…it says…”

              “I know,” Zuko said, shutting his eyes. “But I can’t think about that. I’ve gotta think about what’s best for everyone. What happens next could be because of us.”

              His uncle sighed. “I know you want what’s best for everyone, Zuko. It’s what makes you a good leader. However, I think this situation calls for help from those who have years of experience.”

              “Experience in fighting monsters?” Danny asked.

              “Fighting evil,” Iroh corrected.

              “We can’t just sit here and do nothing!” Danny objected.

              “I’m not saying that!” Iroh said. “I’m just saying that it shouldn’t be wholly up to any one group to defeat your opponent. Those who would try and end the lives of so many people should be brought to justice by the people.”

              “What if they already have a way of getting to them?” Giorno questioned. “What if it’s already too late?”

              “If you allow yourself to think it’s too late, then it will be,” Iroh said. He stood up. “I, for one, do not believe fate is so harshly determined. Perhaps help will come from the likeliest and unlikeliest of places.”

              “Will you help us, Uncle?” Zuko asked.

              “Of course,” Iroh said. “As will others. You merely need to ask.”

              Giorno turned away. A heartwarming family moment wasn’t exactly what he needed to see right now. He looked at Miles; he was staring out of the window, as though he were searching for someone.

              “Morlun or Miguel?” Giorno guessed, keeping his voice so the others wouldn’t intrude on their conversation.

              “Both…and more,” Miles admitted. “Also, what you said and…did…are you sure?”

              Giorno paused and looked at the table. “I don’t try to lie about my feelings on things. Granted, I’m not generally an open person, and this is all new to me. I’ve never cared about someone like this before. However, I… like you, Miles. You were kind to me, even when I wasn’t very honest with anyone. You talked to me, shared your music with me, you treated me as a friend, like someone who had someone who cared about him for once. And you saved my life. I will do anything to make sure you and your family stay safe during all this.”

              When he turned back to look at Miles, he looked like he was going to cry. What had he messed up now?

              “Thanks, Giorno. I’m glad someone sees me that way,” Miles murmured. “And I’m glad it’s you. I like you a lot, too.” He paused and turned to Giorno. “I’ll be real with you; if this is an official thing we’re doing, then this is the first time I’ve ever been in a relationship. I never thought I’d be able to trust anyone again until we became friends. And…I think you’re one of the coolest people I know. You took on a demon several times, you run…your own business, you help protect people who can’t protect themselves, and you’ve looked out for me ever since I got here. You kept me safe when I didn’t even know it, and I don’t want you to have to do this alone anymore. I’m going to help you, and we’re both getting out of this. I’m not letting Alastor, your father, or anyone hurt you ever again.”

              He was always looking out for himself. Was it okay for him to accept Miles’s offer? This would be the first time he established something with someone without materialistic reciprocity. Miles thought he was someone good, and he liked him for who he was. Their connection was genuine; it was heartwarming and terrifying. He might not have known how to approach this, but he was going to try his damndest.

              “Well, look who it is.”

              Giorno rolled his eyes. Astarion, along with his partner, Tav, the wizard, Gale of Waterdeep, and the patriarch of the Joestars, Jonathan Joestar walked over to their table.

              “Yes?” Giorno asked, raising an eyebrow.

              “Couldn’t help but overhear your conversation,” Astarion said.

              “Not to fear,” Gale said, almost-knowingly. “I checked. We are the only other people in this shop.”

              “Are you sure?” Zuko asked.

              Gale nodded. “I cast detection to make sure we were the only ones here.”

              “Well, what do you want?” Giorno asked.

              “Is that any way to talk to those who want to help?” Astarion countered with a smirk. He turned to Zuko. “Curiosity, who’s on that list?”

              “I don’t trust you,” Zuko said bluntly, clutching the list tighter.

              “I’m hurt,” Astarion said, holding his hand over his heart.

              “They really do just want to help,” William spoke up. “If they had any intention of hurting anyone, I would’ve been able to hear it.”

              “Maybe we can trust the psychic,” Miles said. “Besides, Gale has helped us a lot.”

              Gale did a small bow. “I am a wizard of the people.”

              Tav and Astarion scoffed.

              “No need to be so rude.”

              The four sat down at their table. Wonderful. Giorno was tempted to leave, but he might as well hear what they had to say.

              “We’ve got a plan for countering your vampire problems,” Tav said. “There’s two enemies down.”

              “Are we going to be allowed to know what the plan is?” Danny asked.

              Tav shook their head. “It might not work, and if it falls into the wrong hands, it definitely won’t.”

              “Great plan,” Danny said. “It might not even work.”

              “You try to counter a vampire who is literally only allergic to radiant energy and another who can stop time!” Tav argued. “I swear Cazador was easier to beat than these bastards.”

              Astarion frowned. “I’d argue that point, but you did tear him apart.”

              Tav paused. “I did not mean to make light of your past, Astarion.”

              “I know, love,” Astarion said.

              “The point is,” Jonathan interrupted. “Dio isn’t a threat to be taken lightly.”

              He turned to Giorno, making his stomach sink. “Giorno, whatever he has promised you is a boldfaced lie.”

              “Do you think I’m an idiot?” Giorno asked. “I know that, and I don’t need you to tell me.”

              “Shut up and listen,” Astarion hissed. Tav moved to stop him. “No, I’m not staying quiet on this. You want to push everyone away who tries to help you? Be my guest. You stay alone, you’ll die alone. Your father will find you, and he will make you an immortal whether you want to be or not. Much more than that, those you loved or cared about become his playthings! You’ll endanger everyone if you don’t take what’s being offered to you now. If there’s one thing you can take as truth from me, it’s this: you’ll never get your life back if you lose your humanity, Giorno Giovanna.”

              Giorno stood up, ready to fight him. How dare he! How dare he…he…Astarion didn’t know anything. His blood felt like it was boiling; he hadn’t been this mad since he fucked up Cioccolata. Yes, he knew Astarion was a vampire, and he might or might not have some experience in this field, but Tav also said the vampire they fought was weaker than Morlun and his father. It wasn’t the same. He had no idea what kind of pressure he was under! He had managed to stay cool and collected through everything: a shitty childhood, taking down powerful stand users in the mob, dealing with a demon who slowly sapped his life away, and finally finding someone worth protecting whose life was in immense danger!

              “I know it’s a lot to take in, but I—we want to help you,” Jonathan said. “I know what it’s like to feel like your whole world is falling in on itself.”

              Giorno started to walk away. “You have no idea what my life is like.”

              “Giorno!” he heard Jonathan protest.

              “No,” Iroh’s voice cut through. “He needs some time to think this over.”

              “Alone?” Miles asked. “Giorno, you can’t. There’s…”

              “Miles, please,” Giorno said. “I just need some time to think things through. I promise, I’ll meet you at that gala tonight.”

              “Alright…”

              He sounded hurt and dejected enough to almost make him turn around, but he couldn’t. He needed to calm down and think of a way to beat Morlun, DIO, Alastor, and any other fucker on his own.

              …

              He was sure he’d seen him again. His hands were shaking, even as he tried to steady them when he took a sip of tea. He hadn’t told Franziska. He wasn’t sure what to tell Franziska, and Phoenix wasn’t home. He was all alone in his apartment; Bucciarati and Abbachio had left to go investigate an old warehouse for some sort of monster, and Franziska was out shopping for food. He had no one to tell that Manfred Von Karma was back from the dead.

              He’d been walking the streets of Tokyo, meeting with Miss Skye to discuss the forensics she performed on a personal project he’d discussed with no one. It might pay off eventually, but now he had bigger problems. Von Karma had almost blended into the crowd, and if the man didn’t regularly haunt his nightmares, he might’ve missed him. The worst part was when they locked eyes, the latter smirked and disappeared. It was almost identical to his nightmares.

              So now he was doing his best to calm down. Surely Franziska would return soon, and they could form a plan of action.

              That’s when he heard a loud knock on his door. He almost fell out of his chair. The knocking persisted. What should he do? Did he have a weapon to pry it open? The knocks were getting louder—more impatient. They had vast amounts of technology and numbers on their side! Should he open it and get it over with? What did he want, anyways?

              “Hey nerd!” a familiar, non-Von Karma voice called out. “You in there? Your boyfriend asked us to check up on you.”

              Miles marched to the door and glared at Eda the Owl Lady and her partner, Raine.

              “Geez, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Eda commented.

              “Something like that,” Edgeworth muttered. “Come in and have a seat. Could I get you some tea?”

              “That sounds nice,” Raine said. They took a seat while Eda plopped down next to them. “Is everything okay, Mr. Edgeworth?”

              Edgeworth poured a cup of tea and handed it to Raine, not looking at them. “It’s nothing.”

              “Doesn’t seem like nothing,” Eda said. “C’mon, spill, what’s up?”

              Edgeworth sighed. “It’s a long story, and I’d rather not get anyone else involved.”

              “Doesn’t help anyone to keep it bottled up,” Raine said. “Besides, we’re in our ‘helping each other out era.’ Or, at least, that’s how Luz put it.”

              “Is that really how the children talk in 2024?” Edgeworth asked.

              “Maybe everyone talks like that, and you’re just out of the loop,” Eda said.

              “In any case,” Raine interjected. “We need to be open and honest with each other. We don’t want anyone to get hurt by something we could’ve dealt with earlier on.”

              “I don’t suppose you’re being specific to anyone’s situation?” Edgeworth mused.

              Raine sighed. “I hate that the kids didn’t think they could trust us to help them. They seem dead set on handling things by themselves. I’m afraid they’re going to get into a lot of trouble being stubborn.”

              “Not that you’d know anything about stubborn people, Rainstorm,” Eda teased.

              “Surely not,” Raine said sarcastically.

              Their affection for each other was terribly saccharine, but also something he himself wanted to be able to express eventually. He loved Wright, but sometimes it felt like he could do more, like something involving love and care was broken. He often wondered if Phoenix would have preferred to been with someone who could show him their affection more clearly.

              “Hey!”

              Edgeworth looked back up at Eda and Raine; both seemed even more concerned now.

              “You were staring off into space. What’s going on?” Eda asked.

              “I thought I saw someone I knew,” Edgeworth said. “Twice now. He’s supposed to be dead. However, given how the dead have been given a second chance at life, I believe it might be more than merely ‘seeing things.’ I think my old mentor, my father’s murderer, has risen from the grave.”

              Eda and Raine were quiet for a moment, taking in his words.

              “What do you suppose he wants?” Eda asked. “Was he a witch? Demon? Tyrant with an invisible, punchy-ghost?”

              “He was a prosecutor,” Miles said. “His record of being beaten was only beaten by one defense attorney.”

              “Let me guess,” Eda said. “Phoenix?”

              Edgeworth nodded. “I’m worried. Even if Wright doesn’t have a talisman, they said they needed hearts to fuel some sort of grand plan, and his was unusually bright. What if he…”

              “Look, we’re not gonna let that happen,” Eda said. “I mean, Phoenix was kind enough to let us stay with him when we had nowhere else to go.”

              “Exactly,” Raine agreed. “In fact, we’ve got a plan to get rid of a lot of the threats lingering out there. Perhaps, he’s in league with the Deathbusters. We might be able to get rid of them all in one fell swoop.”

              “What’s the plan?” Miles asked.

              “It’s top secret,” Eda said. “If someone infiltrates your mind, you wouldn’t be as aware. No offense, but you’re not a human with magic.”

              “I suppose Luz knows, then.”

              “Actually, we’re not involving the kids.”

              “Not that I don’t agree with your morality, but isn’t that slightly hypocritical?” Miles asked.

              “They’ve gone through enough,” Eda said. “They shouldn’t have to defeat an entire shadow organization. They could get hurt.”

              “I’d like to help,” Edgeworth said. “Perhaps I can’t do magic, but there must be some way I can help put a stop to this!”

              “No,” Eda said. “You’ve already done enough by telling us about your mentor. We can handle the rest from here.”

              “But Wright, his life, I want to fight for him just as much as you want to protect your loved ones!”

              His sincerity had even caught himself off guard. Raine and Eda seemed too stunned to respond. Edgeworth readjusted his cravat and cleared his throat. “Apologies. I lost my composure for a moment. I would just like to make sure he remains safe.”

              “Don’t worry,” Eda said. “We’ll keep him safe and you, too. Don’t be so quick to discount yourself, Edgy-boy.”

              He hadn’t given much thought to that point: what if Von Karma ignored Wright entirely? What if to get to Phoenix he sought revenge on Edgeworth first? In any case, they were both in a decent amount of danger.

              Edgeworth fished an older picture out of his wallet. It had been from a time when he was garnering his reputation as the Demon Prosecutor. He stood stiffly beside Von Karma, finally being recognized for all his hard work. It had been everything he had ever wanted, and he didn’t stop to question why he felt so hollow in that moment, until Phoenix stumbled back into his life.

              “This is Von Karma. If you see him, let me know.”

              “Kind of looks like a good gust of wind would blow him over,” Eda commented.

              “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Edgeworth mused. “The man carried a bullet in his shoulder for years.”

              “You do realize Belos was hundreds of years old, pretty much the embodiment of a living curse; we beat him,” Raine pointed out.

              “Isn’t he alive again?”

              “And we’ll get rid of him again,” Eda said, a little tersely. She sighed and smoothed her hair. “Please, just leave this up to us. We can handle it.”

              As much as he wanted to believe them, Edgeworth wasn’t so sure. He hadn’t believed in such redundant and basic concepts like ‘good vs evil’ before now, but it seemed to him that evil was among them, and no matter how good tried, evil seemed to be oddly overpowered.

              …

              Joseph flipped through the tomes in front of him. None of this added up. It seemed to him that Miles’ situation was steeped in coincidence rather than causation. Yeah, if there’s a villain who can literally tear apart timelines opposing him, it would serve to say the timelines would get a little messy. He was surprised DIO hadn’t ripped any holes in time with all his shenanigans. For all he knew, he probably did, they just hadn’t suffered the effects yet.

              Given Jotaro wasn’t getting into any fights with Giorno, it could be that he wasn’t evil. However, there was the possibility that Jotaro didn’t even know. In which case, he needed to find Jotaro as soon as possible to warn him.

              The table in the middle of the library was taken up by a skeleton, a woman with pale skin, pinkish hair, and clothes that looked like they were actually a part of her body, a man with wiry, brunette hair, tan trench coat, and pinstripe suit, a woman with dark hair, magenta jacket, t-shirt, and jeans, and a man with a regal gray shirt tucked underneath a red vest, slacks, and red sunglasses fixed over top of his graying hair. There was one chair left at the table, and he was tired of standing and reading. He casually strode over to the group.

              “Do you all mind if I take a seat here?”

              “Of course, take a seat,” the pale woman said. Joseph was now able to note she had a giant gemstone—no—a pearl in the middle of her forehead. Bizarrely enough, she still struck him as more normal than most enemy stand users.

              “What’s your name?” the man in the vest asked.

              “Joseph,” he said, trying to play casual. No need to give out too much information, especially with the probability of DIO pawns being out there. “And you?”

              “My name is Stolas,” the man said with a small bow. “What brings you to this place, Joseph?”

              “i was gonna ask the same thing,” the skeleton spoke up. “kinda wondering what your thoughts on all these monsters are.”

              “Obviously they’re terrible,” Joseph said. “What else am I supposed to say to that?”

              “then, why don’t you and o’hara focus more on them rather than some kid?”

              Joseph narrowed his eyes at the skeleton. “Who are you?”

              “casual observer,” he said. “you can call me sans.”

              “What do you know about me? Do you work for DIO?”

              “do i look like i got a fleshbud in my skull?”

              “Some help him because they want to,” Joseph argued.

              “why would i want to? so he could kill a good majority of the people in this broken timeline? d’ya think i’m a numbskull?”

              “So,” Joseph asked, furrowing his eyebrow a little bit. “Why do you seem so opposed to what O’Hara is doing?”

              “because he’s got it all wrong. the kid isn’t gonna cause some collapse of a timeline by saving his dad. what destroys the timeline is determination of an absolutely unstoppable force. i should know.”

              “Well,” the man in the pinstripe suit interjected. “It depends entirely on the event and universe. Should one try to change something that has already happened, yes, it could very well rip apart the fabric of space-time. However, the event hasn’t happened, and given where we are, I’m not sure it ever will. All of reality could be destroyed because we’re all here, together.”

              “As depressing as he’s put it,” Stolas said. “He’s correct. I’ve studied my grimoire, but none of these events should be happening. Quite frankly, these universes should’ve imploded upon themselves many moons ago.”

              “Well, who are you three? You seem to know more than O’Hara does, even with his technology,” Joseph said.

              “His ventures are quite noble for a human,” the man in the suit said. Stolas, the pearl-woman, and sans nodded in agreement.

              “Quite condescending, aren’t ya?” Joseph asked.

              “You get used to it,” the woman in the magenta jacket spoke up. “He’s the Doctor, by the way. And I’m Martha Jones.”

              “Nice to meet you, I guess.” Joseph shook his head. “What I don’t get is this: if you three know so much, how come you haven’t been able to solve this mess?”

              “We’re all unique in the sense that we recall some memories of this mismatched world,” the pearl-woman said. “But everything involving major events has been completely wiped away.”

              “It’s as if there’s a block, preventing us from remembering,” the Doctor said thoughtfully. He wasn’t staring at anyone in particular, which was messing with Joseph more than it should have. “What are you doing with your fingers?”

              Joseph glanced down to the table. He’d just been tapping his fingers against the table. He didn’t understand what the big deal was. It might’ve made a little more noise, given his prosthetic, but it shouldn’t have been anything for alarm.

              “Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt your genius,” Joseph said sarcastically. “We humans have to do something to weather boring conversations.”

              “you didn’t seem too bored to me.”

              “Hmph.”

              “If I might ask,” Martha spoke up. “Who is O’Hara?”

              “Someone who I thought had good intentions,” Joseph said. “Now, I’m not so sure.”

              “His intentions might be ‘good,’ but good intentions are only good if the person knows the outcome,” Martha said.

              “Spoken like a true medical student,” the Doctor said.

              “Given I’m one of two humans here, I think I can speak better on the human condition than most others here,” Martha said. “Most of us have done something we thought good, noble even, only for it to blow up in our faces. It’s a part of life. Could be that your friend thinks he’s in the right, when in all actuality, he doesn’t have enough information to make an informed decision.”

              Joseph gave her a smile. “Could be that you’re right, Miss Jones. Could be that I’ve been played for a fool.”

              “Not a fool,” Martha said. “We’re human. The best part of that is our lack of staunchness. We’re more flexible to change and adaptability.”

              Joseph scratched his chin. “You make a good point.”

              He stood up. “Thank you. You’ve given me a lot to think on.”

              As Joseph exited the library, a group of teenage girls passed him by. Some of them seemed familiar. Not that Jotaro would know any of them; his grandson wasn’t overly fond of girls. They probably didn’t know him.

              In any case, he had his new mission now. He’d talk to Speedwagon, and they’d decide what to do next.

              …

              As everyone filed into the library, Katara wondered why they were here. True, she had convinced Sokka to give her some of the books he’d taken back, so it was kind of convenient, but why did Haruka and Michiru want to come here?

              As though, reading her mind, Michiru spoke up. “We attend the Infinity Academy together. Our midterms are coming up soon, so we’re just picking up some books for our papers. We won’t be but a little while. In the meantime, I encourage you to check out some of the literary classics: Twain, Dickens, Thoreau. For those of you unfamiliar with our world, some of the best realism writers might help you understand it.”

              Haruka laughed and shook her head. “Or you could always read some manga. Way more fun.”

              “Haruka,” Michiru warned. “I’m trying to help them. What do you think their interpretation of the world will be if they pick up Berserk?”

              “That the world is full of liars, and we should never trust anyone? I don’t know, seems like a pretty good lesson to me.”

              “You’re quite the cynic, Haruka,” Amity commented.

              Haruka shrugged. “Losing your parents will do that to you.”

              “Oh,” Amity stammered. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

              “Don’t worry,” Haruka said. “It was a long time ago, and Michiru and I have each other’s backs.”

              “That’s so sweet!” Luz commented.

              Except for the parental death part, yeah.

              “You girls wait here,” Michiru said. “We won’t be long.”

              They disappeared to the upper levels of the library. Ami explained there were a lot of autobiographies up there. Although, the blue-haired senshi did express an interest in learning who they were writing about.

              Katara broke away from the group and walked into the secret library. Others were leaving just as she got inside. She recognized the Doctor and Martha Jones. The woman with the pearl in the middle of her forehead was new, but Stolas was not. He seemed concerned, as though he’d misplaced something.

              He looked to Katara, “Ah-um-hello! Would you mind terribly keeping an eye out for my Via? I can’t seem to find her. She was in the secret library with me, but she must’ve went off somewhere at some point.”

              “I’ll see if I can find her,” Katara said.

              “Thank you! Thank you so much!”

              Katara walked into the room, placing the books onto a cart for return. “There. Hopefully that’s the end of that.”

              If Kaiba returned his ill-gotten books, then that would be the end of it. However, that wasn’t very likely. She was still a little mad, even if he had apologized. He should have never mentioned bloodbending. If he was truly as smart as he claimed to be and done all this research on them, he would’ve known how taboo a subject it was to discuss. The only times she’d ever used bloodbending was to prevent Aang and Sokka from getting hurt by Hama’s bloodbending and when she thought she’d found her mother’s murderer. She never wanted to use it again.

              From the corner of the library, she could hear sniffles. She walked over to the corner of the library and saw Via huddled up with her face buried in her arms.

              “Via? You okay?”

              She looked up, tears still in her eyes. “He said he’d spend time with me today. He spent the entire day reading and debating with all those other people. No matter where we are, my dad always ignores me.”

              “He seems really upset that you’re missing,” Katara countered.

              “Then why does he keep ignoring me? It’s always like this! He promises to spend time with me until he finds something better to do!”

              “That does sound pretty bad,” Katara agreed. She was quiet for a minute before deciding what to say next, “You know, my father was away at war for a long time. My brother and I didn’t see him again until we found Aang.”

              “Is this some story where you’re going to make me feel bad for being mad at my dad?” Via asked.

              Katara shook her head. “Actually, I was mad at my dad. Even if I realized that that he was out trying to make the world better. I knew what he was doing was important, but I couldn’t help but feeling like we needed him, too. I was pretty angry at him when we found him again.” She turned to Via. “I think it’s okay to be angry. But don’t lose yourself in your own anger. Maybe you can have fun here without him.”

              “But my dad knows so much more about the human world than I do,” Via argued. “The last time I came here, people were so mean. They shoved me around, called me names, and screamed in my face.”

              Katara felt bad for this girl. It was obvious she needed someone to help her out. Well, she didn’t have to look any further. Katara stood up and held out her hand. “Hey, I was new here, too. I still don’t understand some stuff, like the arcade or the fascination with malls, but I’m with a pretty good group. Do you want to hang out with us for a little while? We’re getting makeovers and going to a formal dance today.”

              Via looked as though she’d been offered the world. She nodded and grabbed Katara’s hand. “Thank you. It…would be nice to make a friend here.”

              “You can consider me one, then,” Katara said with a smile.

              As they made their way to the others, the door to the entrance swung open. A very tall and built man, hunched over, walked into the secret library, brushing past the girls. It’s like he didn’t even notice them. The strong scent of iron followed him; it was then Katara noticed the trail of blood following the man who had collapsed against a bookshelf.

              “We should…help him?” Via guessed.

              Katara nodded and rushed over to the man. She did a cursory glance over his wounds. The skin across his abdomen had been cut. It wasn’t anything she couldn’t heal, but it would cause problems if she didn’t do anything. She whipped out a steady stream of water from the cantina strapped to her side and held it over the man’s wounds.

              The man looked up at her. “Who are you?”

              “My name is Katara. I’m a waterbender. Don’t worry, I’ll have this healed soon.”

              “G-gracias.”

              Thank you. Luz had taught her that.

              “If you don’t mind me asking, how did this happen?”

              “It’s…complicated,” the man muttered. He hissed as one of the wounds began to seal itself shut. “How’d you learn you could do that?”

              “I healed myself,” Katara said, preferring to leave out the details of what happened when Aang first tried to learn firebending.

              “It’s remarkable,” the man said. “I wish I had that sort of ability. Seems all I’m good for lately is destroying stuff.”

              “You know, that’s what Master Jeong Jeong said about his firebending when he saw I could do this,” Katara said. “I’m sure destruction isn’t the only thing you’re good at. Unless…you’re one of those witches who likes to take pure hearts.”

              “No, I’m not a witch,” the man said. “I’m just a guy trying to do his best to keep everything from falling apart. If that means getting mauled by a vampire, so be it.”

              “DIO or Morlun?” Katara asked.

              The man paused. He narrowed his eyes at her. “The latter. How do you know about Morlun?”

              Katara froze. She wasn’t sure who this man was, he could be anyone. She needed to tread carefully. “Some people in our group were infected by some sort of spider-totem. We did our research here to find out what that meant and why Morlun wanted to attack them.”

              The man took in her words and nodded. “And who’s in your group?”

              “The girls out there,” Katara said. “Why?”

              “No reason,” the man said. “Are you sure that’s the entirety of your group?”

              Katara nodded. Via should know she was lying, but she didn’t give it away. She’d have to thank her later. “Although Toph is staying with Mr. Wright. She’s our friend, too.”

              “The Blind Bandit, no?” the man asked. “She’s in quite a few of these books.”

              “That sounds about right,” Katara said, rolling her eyes.

              The man laughed. “You don’t seem surprised.”

              Katara sighed. “No. I’m not. If you ever meet her, you’ll know what I’m talking about.”

              “Maybe I will,” the man said. “I’m sure I’ll see more of you and your group around. It’d be a shame to waste your healing powers just on me.”

              Why did that sound like a promise…or a threat?

              “I didn’t catch it,” Katara said. “What’s your name?”

              “My name is Miguel O’Hara.”

              Katara’s heart dropped. She’d been helping Miles’s biggest threat this whole time. She almost slipped up and dropped her smile. No, that wouldn’t do any good. She just needed to finish healing him and get out of here as quickly as possible. So, she did so.

              “Alright, you should be good to go.”

              “I feel better already,” Miguel said. “Thank you, Katara. Don’t waste that gift you’ve got.”

              “I haven’t,” Katara said. “And I’ll continue to use it.”

              “Good.”

              “We have to go,” Katara said. “The others are waiting for us. C’mon, Via.”

              “Hasta luego.”

              She knew that one, too. And she hoped to the moon spirit above that she wouldn’t.

              …

              Giorno was just trying to clear his head. He’d clear his head and rejoin the others. Everything would be fine. He had to keep everything in check. He would not let his emotions get the best of him.

              He sat on a park bench; the weather had turned colder. It was fall now. He wondered how much time he’d spend in this world before he went back home. He knew Kaiba, along with Miles, and a few of the others who were more technologically adept were trying to get everyone home, back to the time and place they had left.

              Now everything was more complicated. He cared about Miles, and he would make sure no harm came to him, but the danger kept increasing. He didn’t know if he could stop it.

              “Hey.”

              He glanced up, ready to fight. It was just that Steven kid from the Kaolinite incident. Giorno rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “What?”

              “Whoa!” the boy said, sticking up his hands defensively. “You just looked like you were upset. I wanted to see how you were doing.”

              “Oh, I’m just fine,” Giorno said sarcastically.

              “Uh-huh,” Steven said. He sat down on the bench next to Giorno, “Then I guess you don’t mind if I take a seat, huh?”

              Giorno felt his eye twitch. “That’s fine.”

              They sat in silence for a minute. Was he expecting a conversation? He glanced over at Steven who seemed to be content looking at his phone, grinning at some text someone had sent him. It was that girl who’d been locked away with him and the others.

              “You know,” Steven interjected. “Eavesdropping on someone’s conversation, even if it’s just texts, is considered rude.”

              “…my apologies.”

              It was halfhearted, but that’s all he could manage right now.

              “It’s cool,” Steven said. “Connie was just telling me about some formal she was going to tonight. Apparently, Kaiba thinks it’s a deathtrap. What do you think?”

              “It could be,” Giorno admitted. “That’s partly why we’re going today.”

              “Oh, so everyone else is going, too?” Steven asked. Giorno nodded. “Hey, at least that should be fun!”

              “Yeah, fun,” Giorno scoffed.

              “Do you not like stuff like that?” Steven asked.

              “It’s not that in particular,” Giorno said. “It’s complicated.”

              “…It’s the monsters, right?”

              Giorno laughed without any humor. “You’re going to have to be more specific than that: do you mean the daimon who are after a laundry list of people’s pure hearts? The two sailor guardians who are after the same thing for some fucking reason. There’s also a group of demons wanting me to make a contract with them to guarantee everyone’s safety, God knows what happens to me! No—wait—what about fact that my father wants to turn me into a monster who will kill every single family member I never knew I had until I came to this place? Or, the other vampire who wants to consume the souls of everyone with a spider totem, which just so happens to roundabout to the whole demon-contract thing again. And for some fucking reason, it’s all tying back to me and the person I really care about.”

              He hadn’t meant to lose his composure. But, once it was all out there, he realized maybe his tirade was a bit justified. At least, Steven’s shocked face was sort of a confirmation bias.

              “Wow…that does sound like a lot,” Steven said after a moment. “Are you trying to deal with this by yourself?”

              “Yes,” Giorno said quickly. “No one else needs to be involved.”

              “You realize you’re gonna burn yourself out doing that, right?”

              “Then what do you suggest?” Giorno snapped. “I’m not involving Miles in this.”

              “Does Miles know that?” Steven asked. “Did you talk to him about this—about how overwhelmed you are? Kind of seems like a conversation you need to have, or at least try to have. Because you can’t do this alone, and you can’t leave him in the dark.”

              “What do you know?”

              “I know that when I tried to do the same thing you did, it nearly destroyed my relationship with Connie. She was so mad at me when I tried to take Homeworld on by myself. She didn’t talk to me for weeks. And honestly? She had every right. We both had been training, we could’ve come up with a better plan together. I just went off and did what I thought was best.” He paused, seeming downtrodden by the memory. “It can feel like the whole world is out to get you, and maybe it is, but you can’t do it alone. Terrible things happen when you try to tackle so much by yourself.”

              When Giorno didn’t say anything, Steven chuckled and continued, “Besides, Miles is Spiderman. If you tackle this together, you shouldn’t have any problems.”

              He did make a good point. Perhaps going alone wouldn’t be an option. But he didn’t want to see anymore death, not this time. He knew it would probably be a constant in his line of work, but if it didn’t have to happen, why will it into existence? Still, acting like a loner would probably get him, and now by extension, Miles, into the clutches of Alastor, his father, or Morlun.

              He’d acted so stupidly. He’d left Miles with the others and gone off on his own. But what was he supposed to do? Everything Steven had just said was so strange. He wasn’t used to needing to depend on others.

              “I just don’t want Miles to get hurt,” Giorno said.

              “I know that,” Steven said. “He probably does, too. But you can’t push people away.” He stood up and held out his hand. “Let people help and life gets a lot better.”

              “Usually I’d slap your hand away,” Giorno said. “But I’m at a loss, and…you might have a point.”

              Steven chuckled. “C’mon, this place is getting cold, and we’ve got a formal to go to.”

              …

              Frisk and Gohan showed up a little later than everyone else, and yet, their sculptures were coming along better than most. Gohan was sculpting this dragon-creature that looked so adorable, she wondered if his dad or mom was a mangaka for a living. Frisk, on the other hand, had been sculpting a humanoid, goat child out of the clay. It was also pretty cute. However, Chibiusa’s sculpture of the painted chalice in her mother’s room was not going as well. The small jewels and wings alongside it looked clumpy and uneven, but she didn’t know how to fix them. Eventually she tossed up her hands and took a step back from it.

              “Would you like some help?”

              Masanori gave her a smile and began to help with the edges of the clay chalice. To be honest, it looked even better than it did in the portrait! It was amazing!

              “Wow! That’s amazing!”

              “You think so?” Masanori asked. He grinned. “You’ll love this!”

              He gestured to his own project; it was a woman, with a very familiar face and hair in the shape of an angel in elegant robes. Michiru.

              Chibiusa bit her tongue. “It looks nice.”

              “Just nice?” Masanori questioned. He tapped his finger against his chin. “I guess I could work on the hair some more! Thanks for the motivation, Chibiusa!”

              With that, he turned back to his own work. So much for that special connection. Maybe her mom had been wrong about all of that. It was frustrating: she wanted a friend she’d be able to keep forever, someone who wouldn’t go away, someone who wanted to be her friend just as much as she wanted to be theirs. She did like spending time with some of the other kids, but it was inevitable that they would have to go back to their own worlds. Mokuba’s brother, even as smart as he was, couldn’t guarantee they’d all get to see each other again. Chibiusa was so tired of permanent goodbyes; she couldn’t take another heartbreak like Puu.

              “Hey Chibiusa, what’s wrong?” Gohan asked.

              “Oh?” She hadn’t even noticed she had tears at the edges of her eyes. She quickly wiped them away. “It’s nothing.”

              “Doesn’t look like nothing,” Sakura said. “C’mon, no one here is gonna judge you!”

              Silver opened his mouth but was shot down by a glare from Hop.

              “Well, it’s just that it’s very lonely in the thirtieth century,” Chibiusa explained. “Mama said I’d meet someone very special here, someone who would be my friend forever. I know it’s selfish, but I’d like that. Since I’m going to be the next Moon Queen, I’m going to live a long time, and I’m already alone a lot. I don’t want to be even lonelier!”

              She paused when she noticed everyone (sans Masanori) was looking at her. “S-sorry. I just thought, if I found that special person Mama was talking about, I wouldn’t have to be all alone anymore.”

              “Well, maybe you don’t have to be,” the Collector spoke up. “After all, whoever was trying to keep me out of this world wasn’t able to. I mean, I know we’re kind of stuck here for now, but maybe King and I can keep coming to visit you.”

              “Yeah,” King agreed. “When we’re not repairing the Boiling Isles, that is.”

              “Repairing? Did something happen to your home?” Chibiusa asked.

              “Well, Belos kinda destroyed it when he took over the titan’s skeleton,” King said.

              “Maybe I can visit your world and help fix things,” Chibiusa suggested. “Mama’s magic is all about healing the world, maybe if I practice enough, I could help you!”

              “You’d be willing to do that?” King asked.

              “Of course!” Chibiusa said, smiling again. “Not only would it be good practice for becoming queen, but…it’d be nice to help a friend.”

              “Well, if you need anyone to crack some skulls,” Toph spoke up. “You know who else to call.”

              “Maybe Belos,” King said.

              “I’m pretty sure Luz can beat him again,” the Collector said.

              “Maybe she doesn’t have to this time,” Syaoran said. “We’ve got our own abilities. Pearl can channel the dead, I’ve got elemental magic, Sakura has her cards, Hop and Hau have legendary creatures by their sides, Bede has fairies, Silver and Wally have pretty strong pokemon, too, Mokuba’s monster cards can actually hurt those daimon, I’m not sure exactly what Frisk can do, but they have a pretty strong aura, and Toph can literally bend the earth and metal to her will.” He paused. “And you, Gohan, King, and the Collector are stronger than all of us. I think all of us together can beat that old goopy-guy no problem.”

              “Hey maybe we can form our own club!” Pearl suggested.

              “With them?” Silver asked, gesturing to Hop and Hau.

              “You’d at least be better than stupid Usagi and her friends,” Chibiusa said. “They can’t seem to agree on anything.”

              “Good point,” Silver said. “I do love being better than other people. Alright, I accept. What about you, Bede?”

              “We could probably help Mr. Kaiba if we worked with each other,” Bede said with a sigh.

              “I think it’ll be fun,” Hau said. “We can hang out together, fight the bad guys, and find all the good spots to eat.”

              “You sound like Usagi,” Chibiusa said.

              “Nothin’ wrong with having a little fun while taking care of business,” Hau said.

              “We should come up with a cool team name,” Hop suggested. “Something like Team Legendary!”

              “Too predictable,” Bede said.

              “What about Team Skullcrusher?” Toph suggested. “You gotta admit, it would make us sound pretty tough.”

              “How about a more nonviolent name?” Gohan suggested.

              “Your loss,” Toph shrugged.

              “What about Team Titan?” The Collector suggested. “Titans are so powerful and strong!”

              “Wouldn’t that basically be giving away that we’ve got a titan in our group?” Mokuba asked. “We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves, we just want to help.”

              “That’s a good argument,” King said. “Plus, I’m way less despotic than I used to be, or so Eda says.”

              “What about Team Guard ‘Em All?” Wally suggested. “It kind of sounds like Gardevoir and our purpose is to protect everyone, right?”

              “It’s kind of dorky,” Toph said, “But I think it could work.”

              “Better than Team Yell, anyways,” Bede said.

              “I like the name,” Frisk said in an almost whisper.

              “Then it’s settled,” Chibiusa said. “We’ll be the better hero group! No, the best hero group!”

              “Yeah, even if—,” Toph cut herself off. “Get behind me, now!”

              Everyone jumped behind Toph and avoided nearly being crushed to death as Eudial’s van crashed into the building, coming close to hitting the wall of rock Toph had put in front of them.

              “Nice instincts,” Hop commented.

              They heard heels clack against the tile floor. Before anyone could stop him, Masanori stood up and went past the barrier.

              “What is he doing?” Hop asked, dumbfounded.

              Eudial hopped out of her van, surveying the area, flinching. “Whoops. I did not mean to do that. Man, it’s gonna take ages to repair that.”

              “Who are you?” Masanori asked.

              Eudial glanced over at him. “Oh, there you are.”

              She pulled her blaster from her coat, and just as she was about to pull the trigger, Mr. Wright and Miss Fey stepped in between Masanori and the witch. Miss Fey looked to Masanori, “Masanori, get back behind the barricade!”

              Masanori nodded and ran back behind the rock wall as Mr. Wright glared at the witch ahead of him. “Targeting more children, huh?”

              “Well, even if you don’t have a talisman, we could always use your pure heart crystals to awaken our Messiah,” Eudial said, raising the gun again.

              Chibiusa needed to think fast! She needed to transform. To the left of their group was a wall of desks. This was her chance! She ducked behind the discarded chairs and tables, transforming into Sailor Chibi Moon.

              She jumped over the rock wall and aimed her heart wand at Eudial. “How dare you come here and try to steal the hearts of people trying to create such beautiful art! I am Sailor Chibi Moon, and in the name of the moon, I’ll punish you!”

              “If you two are just going to be annoying, can you at least not put up much of a fight? I’ve got a long day ahead of me. I’ve got a gala to attend later on, and my work schedule is just hectic right now.”

              “Do you honestly think we’re going to be sympathetic to you?” Mr. Wright asked. “C’mon, your work is legally, not to mention, morally terrible.”

              “Says the lawyer.”

              “Hey, Nick has great morals! He and Mr. Edgeworth are always helping me and Pearl out! Even Franny helps! And I’ll be darned if I let you use his heart as some sort of fuel for anything!” Maya protested.

              “Ugh, Chibi Moon, Mr. Wright, Maya, move! I can get a clearer shot if you move out of the way.”

              The earth underneath their feet slid out from under them, causing them to go either left or right. Rocks from the wall were thrown at the speed of sound by Eudial’s head, and then straight at her. She barely dodged them.

              “Hey! What are you trying to do? Kill me?” Eudial complained.

              “That’s the idea,” Toph said.

              “A noble endeavor,” a voice sneered. “I’m afraid the only ones who will by dying soon are those nearest to you.”

              Chibiusa didn’t recognize the voice, but the Collector and King did.

              “Belos!”

              A man appeared from the ground, almost as though he grew out of it. He wore a green uniform, similar to English medieval clothing, a white cape, and had long hair that looked like it needed a brush.

              King and the Collector both jumped over the wall. The man laughed. “Oh please, I’m not here for a fight. I’ve simply come to collect associate and tell her of the news we received.”

              “What do you mean?” King asked. “And what did you mean by those near to us would be dying? Talk!”

              “I’m not frightened of children,” Belos said. “Besides, you can’t kill me. Not while I’m tethered to my new allies.”

              He chuckled and handed Eudial a piece of paper. She glanced over it for a few seconds, her eyes widening. “Is this what it looks like?”

              “Precisely,” Belos said with a small smile. It creeped Chibiusa out.

              “Get away from them!” a familiar voice shouted from the opening in the rec center.

              It was Seto, Karlach, and Wyll. All three of them looked ready to fight.

              “And there are three of them now,” Belos said. Eudial raised her gun, but Belos shook his head. “No, the grand design is to have them all in the same area.”

              “What are you going on about?” Karlach asked.

              “You hurt any of these children and I will send you to the hells myself; that’s my solemn promise as the Blade of Frontiers,” Wyll said.

              “Goodbye, for now,” Belos said, placing his hand on Eudial’s shoulder. He glanced to King. “Tell Luz that I do look forward to seeing her again.”

              “Wait! What are you—?” King tried to ask, but before he could, Eudial, Belos, and her van had vanished to parts unknown.

              “Did you know what that was about?” Mr. Wright asked Seto.

              “Talisman holders,” Seto said. “They know. They know exactly who and who doesn’t have a talisman now.”

              “Seto,” Mokuba said. “That man said you three…”

              “He’s mistaken,” Seto said quickly. “I don’t know where he got this information, but it could get a lot of people killed. I don’t have pure heart, so there’s no way I could—!”

              He cut himself off and sighed out of frustration. “I need to go warn the others. Karlach, Wyll, Miss Fey, Mr. Wright, go back to Kaiba Corp with the kids and stay there for now. You’ll be safe there. Don’t come to the gala.”

              “You’re crazy if you think you’re going there alone,” Karlach said. “One of us will stay with the kids, and the other will go with you.”

              “I’ll stay with the kids,” Karlach said. “Wyll is better with fancier events, anyways.”

              “I rather like your dancing,” Wyll commented.

              “Can we focus?” Seto asked.

              “Of course, your lordship,” Karlach said sarcastically. “Don’t worry, we’ve got a handle on this.”

              “I have my doubts.”

              “You know, we can help you,” Toph said. “I nearly took that witch’s head off.”

              “No,” Seto said. Before she could protest, he added, “It’s not because I don’t think you can handle a few monsters, but that’s the scheme. They want to get as many pure hearts as possible into one area so they can strike all at once. The less people attend, the worse their odds at pulling off a huge heist.”

              “I guess that makes sense,” Toph grumbled.

              “There’s gotta be something we can do,” Hop complained.

              “There is, stay away from the gala,” Seto said.

              “But we can help!” Sakura protested.

              Seto ignored her. “Karlach, can you please take them home? We won’t be long.”

              “You two better come back in one piece or I’m wringing both your necks, yeah?” Karlach warned.

              Kaiba rolled his eyes. “Do you honestly think I’d let the Deathbusters take me out?”

              “We’ll be fine, love,” Wyll assured her.

              As everyone else was turned away, Chibiusa heard the Collector say, “I’m starting to think Chibiusa was right and that all the older people have no idea what they’re doing.”

              “That’s what I’ve been saying!” Toph complained.

              …

              The punch at the gala was alcoholic, and Usagi had drank a lot of punch. Right now, Miles stood with her on the balcony, waiting for the effects of the drink to wear off a bit. The fresh air seemed to be doing her a little good. She wasn’t spouting stuff about desserts and the theory of relativity anymore.

              He hadn’t seen Giorno since the tea shop, and he was starting to get worried. Did he get attacked? And if he did, by who? Miles should’ve never let him go off by himself. But he hadn’t known what to do at that moment. He was afraid if he pushed the issue, well, then their relationship would be very short lived.

              Was that even what they had? He didn’t know what to make of any of this. Then again, why should any relationship in his life be easy to comprehend?

               “Hey Miles,” Usagi said, poking his cheek. “Why do you look so upset? We’re at a party! It’s ‘sposed to be fun!”

              Miles chuckled. “Sure. Fun.”

              “Is this about Giorno?” Usagi slurred. She came up close to him. “Don’t tell Miles, but I think he likes you. He was so upset that you were in danger back at the Pokémon event. I told him everything would be okay! And it was!”

              “He was upset?” Miles asked.

              Usagi nodded. “Oh yeah. Even when that weird octo-lady attacked him, he was more worried about you.”

              Miles felt a little better and at the same time, a little guilty. He knew that Giorno must care, why kiss him, if he didn’t? But…Miles didn’t know how to help him, and he wanted to help. He wanted to keep him safe.

              “Miles?” Usagi asked. “Do you like him, too?”

              Miles was quiet for a moment and then nodded.

              “Then you should tell him,” Usagi suggested. “I’m sure it’d make him happy.”

              “I did…” Miles said. “And it did, for a few seconds. But then Alastor ruined it, and now we’re in a lot more trouble than we were before. I think I might’ve caused it. I didn’t mean to give him more trouble to deal with.”

              “Hey,” Usagi said, almost accusatorily. “Don’t ever be sorry for loving somebody! In fact, I’ll deal with Alastor and anyone else who tries to get in the way of love! For I am the pretty guardian!”

              “Usagi, keep your voice down” Miles urged. “There are other people inside.”

              Usagi giggled. “Oh, right.”

              She walked over to Miles and gave him a hug. “In any case, I won’t let anyone hurt either of you. I know what it’s like to feel like the other person is always just out of reach. It used to be that a lot of things and people were keeping me and Mamo apart, but we found our way back to each other.”

              She paused, broke away, and laughed. “I guess I’m being dramatic, like Rei says. But I think both of you should be happy. Kind of seems like you both need it.”

              “Thanks, Usagi,” Miles said with a small smile. Talking with her had actually made him feel better.

              “Miles?”

              He turned to see Giorno standing in the doorway. Usagi glanced from him to Miles. “I’m feeling better now…I’m gonna go find Mamo!”

              With that, she scurried off and left them alone.

              “Hey.”

              “Hey,” Giorno said. “You look nice.”

              If it hadn’t been so inconvenient, Miles would’ve almost forgotten that he was wearing a suit tonight. To be fair, they both were just to get into this place. Still didn’t make it any less tedious.

              “You do, too.”

              Giorno walked over and leaned against the guardrail. “Sorry for running off earlier. I…just got a little overwhelmed.”

              “No, I understand. It’s my fault. I just…I wanted…I don’t know,” Miles said.

              “Miles, it’s not your fault. I just don’t know how to do this,” Giorno said. “I want to be completely honest with you. I’m not sure if it will make things better or worse, but I need you to know that I care about you, even if I have a hard time expressing it. Before you showed up, my relationships and interactions were purely transactional. And then you came into my life. You were my first true friend, and you helped me at my weakest, defended me against everyone else, even if it could’ve hurt your own reputation. I…didn’t understand it. Not until I used what I thought would be the last time of my stand’s ability to save you did I get it. Even then, it still scared me. I’ve never had someone try to risk their life for mine, not with the express intentionality of saving me because they liked me. And when Alastor…when he hurt you, I knew I’d do whatever it took to keep you safe. I thought I could do it alone. I didn’t have anyone else to help me growing up, for the most part. I spent my childhood living in fear. My mother constantly left me alone, and my stepfather…well…I’d rather not discuss it. Not now.”

              He paused and then glanced up at the moon. “I never envisioned needing anyone. I learned very early on that I couldn’t rely on others.” He turned back to Miles and smiled. “But you were different. I’ve been trying to keep you safe using the same tactics I used alone. But we’re a team now, no? Partners. So, I realize, I’ve been approaching this the wrong way. Miles…would you like to stay with me? No matter what happens next? I swear, I’m not going to shut you out.”

              Miles felt his heart swell up. That was the most tragic yet sweetest proposal he’d ever heard. He walked over to Giorno and wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug. “Sounds good to me. Like I said, I’m not going anywhere. We can win—together.”

              Giorno seemed a little surprised, but soon he relaxed. “I’m glad you think the same.”

              He grabbed Miles’s hand and leaned in. All of this: the moon, the music, this moment felt almost too good to be true. Miles shut his eyes and waited.

              However, they were interrupted.

              “You two need to get out of here now! I think he knows—oh—I am so sorry,” Katara’s voice cut in.

              “Who knows?” Giorno asked.

              “Miguel O’Hara, that’s who,” Katara said. “I stumbled into him at the library and—!”

              She was cut off as the familiar, icy tone of said man cut in. “And she very kindly healed me after you two left me to deal with Morlun alone. Thanks for that, by the way.”

              Miguel stood behind them, looming like a statue. Miles almost tripped backwards, but Giorno caught his arm.

              “Are you really so obsessed that you’re gonna keep chasing me even when there are way bigger problems out there?” Miles asked. He turned to Katara. “Also what did he mean you healed him?”

              “He was bleeding, and I didn’t know who he was,” Katara explained. “I came as soon as I could to warn you!”

              “I’m not blaming you,” Miles said. “Thanks, Katara.”

              “You’re welcome!”

              “I wouldn’t be so quick to be nice to him” Miguel said. “If it weren’t for him, those witches wouldn’t possess a list of talisman holders right now!”

              “What?” Katara asked.

              “That was Alastor’s doing,” Giorno explained. “He was upset I wouldn’t make a deal with him. Miles had nothing to do with it.”

              “That tracks.”

              “Hey! Toma esto en serio! Now they know where all the talisman holders are. They’ll be able to summon whatever grand weapon the talismans united creates and use it to destroy everything once and for all, and then no one is safe!”

              “We’ve been trying to stop them!” Miles protested. “It’s not like we’re standing by while people who have talismans get attacked!”

              “You mean like that friend of yours? The scared kid? He’s come close to getting caught by the deathbusters several times. We can’t let them get their hands on any talisman anyone might possess.”

              “Wait…” Miles said with a pause. “Because it kind of sounds like…”

              “You’re working with the two rogue senshi,” Giorno finished.

              “And that means he’s looking for talisman holders, too!” Katara said, whipping out a straight line of water. She turned them into sharp icicles she launched at Miguel, without even giving him the chance to stand up. He blocked them with the back of his arms; they shattered on impact.

              Giorno grabbed Miles and Katara. “All of us need to get out of here! NOW!”

              Suddenly, the doors shut as a purple mist filled the room; there was an abrupt chorus of screams that were cut off in mere seconds as several thuds hit the floor.

              Miguel looked from the doors to them. “You three stay here. I’ll deal with you later.”

              “What, so you can swoop in there and steal the talismans?” Miles asked. “No way!”

              “Look, this weapon could get us all home and prevent us from collapsing the timelines,” Miguel explained. “Although, I’m not surprised you’re doing your best to stop that again.”

              “People could die,” Miles argued. “Lots of people!”

              “Well, what am I supposed to do?” Miguel asked. “For all I know, this is all your fault anyways!”

              Giorno glared at him. “Take that back, now.”

              “And lie?” Miguel asked. He shook his head. “You two should really learn exactly who you’re allying yourself with. The fragmentation and loosening of timelines started with his timeline! Why do you think you’re all here to begin with? If he hadn’t screwed up his timeline so bad, none of this would be happening! You’d be home, safe! You wouldn’t even have to worry about any of this talisman business! If people die here, it’s his fault.”

              “That’s not true!” Miles argued, barely dodging Miguel’s grab. He turned to Katara and Giorno, urging them back. “You’ve gotta believe me!”

              “You know,” Giorno began, his voice low. “I read something in the library the other day about a man, pretty lonely and pathetic who disrupted an entire timeline, destroying it. So, then he felt a pressing guilt to watch over all the other timelines. Who’s to say that man’s actions didn’t start all of this in motion?”

              Miguel’s eyes widened before he shook his head. “I fixed the damage I caused!”

              “Doesn’t seem like it,” Katara added in. “From what Sokka told me, the timelines were still frayed. If anyone’s good for research, it’s my brother.”

              “I am the only one who’s been trying to fix things,” Miguel said, his eyes wild. He was about to go off again. He raised both his arms. “You have no idea what I’ve sacrificed, the amount of trouble I went through just to form a place that could help everyone! But because one person decided to be selfish, everything is going to unravel! We’re all going to die if I can’t fix this!”

              It looked as though he was going to take a swing at them, so Miles jumped in front of his friends. He planned to grab Miguel’s arms and try to push him away, but Miguel froze. He appeared just as confused as they were, well, except Giorno. Giorno stared directly behind Miguel.

              “Who are you?”

              Directly behind Miguel an old man clucked his tongue. He wore a tan fedora, shirt, slacks, and gloves over his hands. “You know, I the greater good only works if there’s a greater good left to fight for, Miguel.”

              “Joseph,” Miguel’s voice hissed. “What are you doing?”

              “Keeping you from doing stupid shit, apparently,” Joseph said. He held something invisible in his hands as he jerked them backwards, causing Miguel to stumble as well.

              Giorno took this as an opportunity. “MUDA!”

              Spiderman 2099 went flying backwards, over the balcony. He caught himself, but Miles wasn’t sure Giorno knew he would do that. He decided to not think about that.

              The man, Joseph, walked forward, eyeing Giorno. “That’s crazy. You’re like the spitting image of him!”

              “Of DIO?” Giorno guessed. “So I’ve been told.”

              Joseph seemed confused, as if he didn’t know what to do next. He scratched the back of his neck. “Is Jotaro safe?”

              Giorno nodded. “We’ve been staying together at the Hikawa Shrine.”

              “Really? I guess you both know about who your dad is—well dads—I should say?”

              Giorno nodded. “Look, I’ll answer any questions you have later, but we’ve got to get in there and save our friends, including Jotaro!”

              Joseph nodded. “Gotcha!”

              “MUDA!”

              The glass to the room cracked wide open, revealing….

              …

              *Ten minutes prior*

              Hunter walked through the courtyard with Willow. It was a nice night, not exactly a full moon, that was gonna be in a couple of weeks. He charted them in case he ever came across a friendly werewolf. How cool would that be?

              No, it was more like a bright crescent. Apparently, a lot of people embodied the moon: Yue/Yukito, Usagi, and Sokka’s girlfriend (who had also gone by the name Yue). Maybe the moon was their key to getting home, that or Kaiba.

              “It’s a nice night out,” Willow said, grabbing his arm. “Serene and peaceful. Makes it better that I’m with you!”

              He felt his heart leap. Willow smiled at him, pulling him closer. Even if everything else was going wrong, he was glad he had Willow back.

              They sat down near a patch of flowers growing in a fenced area, stargazing. Everything was so calm, so different than the craziness of the past few days—weeks—months—years. If he thought about it for too long, his whole life had been pretty crazy. Being the Golden Guard was never easy or quiet. He was always either studying or going on missions for Belos. His first act of rebellion had been keeping Flap; he never regretted that decision. Flap had been his first real friend. Then he’d actively rebelled against his duties and joined Hexside’s Flyer Derby team; he’d met Gus and Willow. Plus, Darius had helped him create his own social media. He got to keep his friends! When he found out the truth, when he found out about being a grimwalker, his life had been uprooted. A part of him had wanted to stay blissfully ignorant when it first happened, but if he had, he wouldn’t have gone back to Hexside to help everyone when Adrien attacked the school. And he’d actually enjoyed his time in the human world—sans being possessed by Belos…and Flapjack sacrificing himself. Now he was studying under Mr. Clawthorne and learning to make palismans, enjoying his time with his friends, and he had the best, strongest, and most beautiful girlfriend in all the Boiling Isles. His life had never been better, and it was because of all the crazy events that had happened in such rapid succession.

Although he was scared now, there was still some positives to his situation: the new people they’d met, like Usagi, Zuko, Sokka, Katara, Miles, his roommates, other guests of the shrine, and even Kaiba had been pretty good friends to have during all this bizarre business with the talismans, demons, witches, and…Belos. How he was alive again, Hunter didn’t know. He was acting just as self-righteous as when he’d died. He hadn’t flinched when he tried to kill him…again. If it hadn’t been for Miles grabbing all of the talismans in that moment, the witch and Belos might’ve gotten away with them. It didn’t matter if they were a family once, Belos still wanted him dead. He tried to tell himself that it didn’t matter, that he had family besides Belos, but sometimes, it was just hard to get over. He’d spent so many years of his life trying to gain his uncle’s approval and love, and it didn’t mean anything.

“Hunter, are you okay?”

Willow’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He rubbed the back of his neck. “Um-yeah. I’m fine…what about you?”

“I’m worried, I’m not gonna lie,” Willow said. She squeezed his hand. “But I’m also determined to keep you safe!”

Hunter could feel himself blushing, but it also warmed his heart. “Hey, tomorrow do you want to go out? Just the two of us? Usagi said there was this really nice restaurant not far from the shrine, and I’ve been saving up enough yen doing odd jobs here and there. I thought…it might be nice.”

Willow looked up at him; her eyes were so pretty in the light of the moon. “That’s so sweet, Hunter! Of course I’d love to go!”

“C-cool!”

“You might want to postpone those plans.”

Both Seto Kaiba and Wyll Ravengard walked up the stone path leading up to the mansion, they seemed to have noticed Hunter and Willow hanging out in the courtyard ahead of them.

“What do you mean?” Hunter asked.

“I mean that everyone here tonight is in danger,” Kaiba said. “They can’t enact their little plan if they don’t have at least three of the talismans. I’ve read that much.”

“So Katara was right,” Willow said. “You didn’t return the books.”

“If I had,” Kaiba said. “I would’ve missed one of the most important memories. So long as they don’t get three talismans, they can’t enact their little summoning ritual. I’m not sure what all it entails, but a lot of people will die if that happens.”

At that moment, all the doors in the house slammed shut, as did the windows. The windows fogged up by some purple mist as the screams inside were cut off by coughing and thuds.

“And they’re going to pull it off if we don’t stop them now!”

“We need to find a way in,” Willow said. “Let’s try the back door; I saw Miles and Usagi go out to the balcony earlier. Maybe we can regroup with them.”

All three of them nodded in agreement, rushing to the back entrance. There was some sort of squabble as they heard Giorno yell “MUDA!” A man, with the stature of a statue went careening over the side of the balcony overhead. Wyll acted quickly and pulled everyone away from the man. The man, for his part, was able to grab onto one of the ledges on the lower levels and land on his feet. He glared up at the balcony as they heard glass shatter.

His attention turned to the four of them. “You—all four of you—stay right here.”

Kaiba laughed. “I’d hardly take orders from someone like you.”

He turned to the Wyll, Willow, and Hunter. “This is Miguel O’Hara. I’ve been informed that he’s working with those rogue senshi. Isn’t that right, Mr. O’Hara?”

“You don’t understand,” the man said. “I’m only doing what needs to be done!”

Wyll grimaced. “I think, as two mature adults here, we have very differing opinions on what needs to be done. After all, who blames children for the actions of fate? I’m sure you’re aware fate is a very fickle lady.” He frowned and shook his head. “We can’t control what the deities seem fit to throw at us, but we can control how we approach our own circumstances. We can guide our own fates to something better than was originally intended.”

“You have no idea what we’re up against,” the man countered. “There’s no way to fight back against total erasure. If all spacetime continues to bleed from the very gushy wound, eventually, it’ll give out. It’ll be a total implosion.”

“And you know this how?” Kaiba argued. “Because by my estimates, you have no idea what in the hell you’re talking about. You’re going off baseless assumptions!”

“I don’t have time for this,” the man said.

“Neither do we.”

“Dolor!”

Miguel was blasted backwards by a dark red hue of malevolent energy. He tried to get up again, when he was tossed aside by a red blur that emerged from the ground. The bright yellow grin and red eyes automatically struck terror. “Well hello there!”

“Alastor, what are you doing here?” Kaiba growled.

“Helping a friend,” Alastor said. “Can’t have Mr. O’Hara ruin my fun, can I?”

“You’re the one who started this!” Kaiba argued. “You’re the reason we’re all in danger!”

“No, that’s Mr. Giovanna’s fault. You can discuss that with him later. Oh! Do tell him I look forward to working with him and Mr. Morales in the very near future. Of course, you’ve seen what comes next, haven’t you, Mr. Kaiba?”

“As much as I don’t care for Giorno, Miles is a valuable asset. You keep away from him!”

“Careful, Mr. Kaiba, one might begin to consider you actually have a human heart.”

Wyll shook his head. “He’s trying to distract us! Come, we need to get inside. We can climb the walls!”

“I’ve got a better idea,” Hunter said. “Everybody just lock arms.”

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Because I can teleport us up there. We can help Giorno and whoever else is trying to fight off whoever set off that trap.”

“I'm skeptical that you could, yet intrigued that you may.”

“Just grab an arm!” Willow said.

As soon as they were interlinked, Hunter focused on the balcony and with a few zigs and zags teleported them just above the stone floor, careful to avoid the glass.

              There were a few people, already inside, fighting against a group of daimon that looked like one of those weird marionette monsters in Cosmic Frontier. The guests—their friends were passed out and scattered along the ballroom floor, even Hooty was unconscious. And it seemed like he had tried to hit a couple of the monsters before zonking out. Giorno, Miles, Katara, and some old guy they’d never seen before were doing their best to keep them away from innocent party guests, but they were quickly being outnumbered. Not only that, but they seemed to be multiplying every time they were broken by Giorno’s Golden Experience, Miles’s and the old man’s strength, or Katara’s waterbending.

              “Hey,” Willow said, turning to Seto. “Do you think you could summon one of those monsters of yours? I think I’ve got a plan. I’m going to group all those monsters together with vines. You hit them with your monster.”

              Kaiba nodded. “Go ahead.”

              Willow turned back to the monsters, her eyes glowing green as vines sprouted from the marble, ensnaring the marionette monsters. Kaiba shuffled through his deck, placing cards into another field, the graveyard, if Hunter was reading his disc-thing correctly.

              “I summon Blue Eyes White Dragon!”

              The massive dragon with features of its card name appeared in the room. It threw its head back and launched a beam of light at the marionettes, incinerating them all. Kaiba smirked. “And that’s how you dispose of trash.”

              He turned to Willow. “Thank you for your help, it was very kind.”

              “Gods, you sound like Astarion,” Wyll said with a laugh.

              “Don’t ever say that again.”

              Hunter decided to turn to the most responsible person in the room, who could fill them in on what they missed. “Katara, what happened?”

              “Eudial released a smoke bomb that knocked everyone out and the horde of daimon that Willow and Kaiba took care of. And now, she won’t leave.”

              They had neglected to see Eudial fuming in the corner of the room as others started to wake up. Eudial stamped her foot. “I could just set the whole place ablaze to reduce the stench of failure.”

              “Calm yourself, Eudial,” an eerie voice chastised. Hunter’s heart sank as Belos materialized from the floor. “It will all end soon; this wasn’t the proper night. The moon wasn’t full.”

              “You understand waterbenders are at their most powerful under a full moon?” Katara asked. “I don’t care who you are, if you try to hurt my friends, I’ll put an end to it!”

              “Such fire from a waterbenders,” Belos remarked. “You young heroes are all the same, so arrogant, so strong in the belief that you will always triumph if you believe hard enough. But good, true good, always triumphs in the end.”

              The old man laughed. “You can’t be serious! You go around murdering people and still think you’ve got some sort of moral high ground? Not to mention that most of your targets are children.”

              “Well said!” Wyll agreed. “Actually, I had a rather similar line of thought just earlier.”

              “See?” Belos asked. “You’re all very well the same. You have the same dead ideas, you repeat yourselves, and you will be doomed to repeat this cycle. No matter how the outcome of our future battle plays out, you’re going to face the harsh truth that your truth is faulty. Soon enough, everything will end, and none of you will have to suffer anymore. Isn’t that far more pleasant of an outcome than to keep eternally fighting for heartbreak and evil?”

              “You’re wrong!” Hunter objected. Belos looked at him, and even though he never wanted to see his uncle again, he couldn’t help but argue. Sure, it wouldn’t change anything, but he needed to stand up to him! He wouldn’t continue to be his uncle’s pawn. “The only time I was suffering was when I was being controlled by you! I thought we were a family. I used to think you cared, all I ever did was try to earn your respect—you love. But it was never going to happen. Ever since I met Luz, I’ve met friends—people I love—and people who love me! This world is beautiful. Yeah, even this one. Sure, it’s a mess, and not everyone always gets along perfectly, but that’s kind of what makes it special. If we didn’t have our idealism, if we didn’t fight for the people we love, we’d be soulless husks—like you. You can’t steal their hearts! I won’t let you hurt them!”

Hunter waited, but Belos merely sneered at him and turned away.

Before Hunter could speak up, Mr. Ravengard did. “Excuse me, but it seems to me you could at least acknowledge what your son is saying.”

“He’s not my son,” Belos said simply.

“In any case, you raised him, did you not?” Wyll asked, his glare fixed on Belos. “He just poured his heart out, and you can’t even be bothered to acknowledge him?”

“What business is it of yours?” Belos asked.

              “For the record,” the old man said. “I think you’re kind of an ass, too. I wouldn’t ignore my daughter or my grandson if they had something important to tell me.”

              “I’ll say this now,” Wyll said, drawing a sword that looked like it was made from fire. “You try and hurt any of these children, and I’ll make sure your reanimation ends permanently. I swear on my oath as the Blade.”

              “We’ll see,” Belos said. “Come, Eudial. We’ll be off now.”

              Belos and Eudial disappeared in the blink of an eye. Hunter’s knees wobbled, he might’ve toppled over if Willow hadn’t grabbed him.

              She kissed his cheek. “I think that was very brave.”

              Hunter wiped his eyes. “Th-thanks.”

              Seto chuckled. “I’m jealous. I wish I could’ve done the same with my…father.”

              “Hopefully you won’t have to,” Hunter joked, wiping his hands on his shirt.

              “Hey, uh,” Miles interjected. “Sorry to interrupt the moment, but we should probably wake up the others.”

              “You’re right,” Seto said. “I’ve got a lot to explain. You’ll stay with me tonight. I can’t risk anyone ending up in the hands of the deathbusters. Not now.”

              “What did you find out?” Giorno asked.

              “A lot,” he looked at Katara. “I did mean to keep my word to return the books, but this was important. I had to make sure. And I was right. Everything Belos just said confirms it.”

              “What did he mean?” Katara asked.

              “They need three of the talisman holders,” Kaiba explained. “As long as they can gather three, they can force the rest to follow. I don’t know how, but they’ve built some sort of technology that needs three forms of bio-signatures. Once they’ve got that, every other talisman holder is doomed. And Alastor just gave them a list of every single person who has one hidden inside them. I…received the list from Alastor, too. I think he’s mocking us.”

              “Of course he is,” Miles said.

              “Let me guess,” Giorno said. “You blame me?”

              Seto shook his head. “Given I wouldn’t have made a deal with the Radio Demon, either, it would be hypocritical. That, and I’m tired. If we don’t make our next moves carefully, there may be none to play.”

              …

              Alastor wiped his hands on his jacket. “Thank you for another forgettable fight!”

              Miguel struggled to stand up. “Don’t flatter yourself. The vampire kid and the warlock did most of the damage.”

              “And you’re going to boast about that?” Alastor asked, raising an eyebrow.

              “Why help them?” Miguel asked. “You’re just going to make them suffer!”

              “And you’re not?” Alastor asked. “By Lucifer, they’re right, you really are a hypocrite!”

              “…It’s not my intent,” Miguel said. “Under different circumstances, I’d leave them be. But I can’t. I figure you already know that, diablo.”

              “It’s Alastor.”

              “Alastor,” Miguel said. “Why are some of the spaces blank on the list?”

              And reveal a good majority of his clientele, his business partner, her girlfriend, and her father to be talisman holders? He thought not. Besides, his management would definitely have a problem with that, and while he was still tethered to their will, he couldn’t make a slipup that huge.

              “Who knows?” Alastor shrugged. “It’s a mystery to me!”

              “You’re not one of the—?”

              Alastor laughed in his face. “No! I’d never even taken the chance at releasing the lists if I were.”

              Alastor paused. “May I ask a question?”

              “…Go on.”

              “You do know that if you hurt Mr. Morales, I will have to end you, right?”

              “Why do you care?” Miguel asked.

              “Because those heroes,” Alastor explained. “They’re the key. Perhaps you don’t see the use in them, but I do. You’re a fool if you can’t recognize their souls’ potential. If you leave it alone, I’ll be the one to watch the light leave their eyes. Simply do nothing, and your precious timeline problem will be handled. You can even have the talismans. All I’m interested in is souls.”

              “The two are intertwined,” Miguel argued.

              “Unless you can separate them” Alastor said. “I can do that. And I feel like Mr. Giovanna and Mr. Morales will be needing to make a deal with me very soon.”

              …

              When Kaiba said he was keeping everyone at Kaiba Corp, he was serious. He’d brought Miles’s parents from the shrine, just to make sure they were safe, or to make sure Miles wouldn’t go after them if something were to happen. In any case, Miles was grateful.

              Right now, everyone was in the couch pit, watching a movie. Mokuba had managed to get Seto to sit down for five minutes and join them, he grumbled about being too busy, though. All of the older people, his parents, Peter, the BG3 Gang, both Mr. Joestars (which was weird because Jonathan turned out to be Joseph’s granddad), Avdol, Luke, Mr. Wright, Mr. Edgeworth, Raine, Eda, Alador, and Darius took up council in a secure meeting room. Miss Fey and Polnareff decided to stick with them, probably because they either got bored during the meeting or they were asked to keep an eye on things. Miles decided it was likely the latter.

              Seto had explained everything to everyone else, so the atmosphere was tense. For now, Miles was trying to forget about him and Giorno being a target. He was content to watch this god-awful romance movie with him and their friends as he drifted in and out of consciousness.

              “This guy is clearly a stalker!” Sokka complained, pointing at Edward Cullen’s face.

              “This movie is trash,” Kaiba agreed. “Who picked this film?”

              “You guys need to see the beauty in bad movies,” Sasha argued.

              “No, I think pretty boy had it right,” Haruka said.

              For some reason, Haruka and Michiru were on the list of talisman holders. Miles wasn’t sure why, and he was kind of curious to know. However, Usagi didn’t want to press the issue. She didn’t want to scare her friends.

              “Vampire romance is bullshit,” Jotaro argued.

              “Tav seems pretty happy,” William said. “Not every vampire is evil.”

              “Because Astarion is such a great example of a stand-up guy,” Kakyoin argued.

              “He is helping us, so…” William argued.

              “Why is everything in this film blue?” Amity asked. “Not that blue is a bad color, it’s just like, they filmed in blue.”

              “Actually, they did,” Steven said. “They put a blue filter over everything to make it seem more creepy or isolated, I think.”

              “How do you know that?” Connie asked.

              “I…read it somewhere,” Steven said.

              “Do you like this movie?”

              “It’s got a cute concept.”

              “Steven!”

              “I agree,” Usagi said. “To love someone so much you’d live forever with them—that’s gonna be me and Mamo!”

              “Hopefully I won’t be a vampire,” Mamoru commented. “Though, if I get to be with you, it’d be alright.”

              “Aw! Mamo!”

              “I regret every single one of my life choices that led me here,” Kaiba muttered under his breath.

              As things began to wind down and people started to relax and doze off, Miles felt Giorno pull him closer. “This movie really does suck—no pun intended.”

              Miles laughed. “A lot of people watch this film to make fun of it.”

              “I guess I could see the value in that.”

              Miles leaned against Giorno; today had been long and bittersweet. He was going to sleep for as long as he could, no matter how much his mind begged him to stay awake.

              “Hey Miles,” Giorno murmured.

              “Mmm?”

              “I…wanted to let you know that none of this is your fault. It doesn’t matter what Miguel said. You’re not responsible for any of this. And I’ll help you prove it.”

              “Thank you, Gio,” Miles said with a sleepy grin. “And just so you know, I feel the very same way about you. You’re one of the coolest people I know; I won’t let anyone say otherwise.”

              “Thank you, Miles, for everything.”

              …

              Rio Morales just wanted to check in on Miles, even if Jeff said they were fine. The wizard-man, Gale, had set up some sort of protection spell around the building, and he was keeping watch with his strange vampire friend and the knight. This world was weird. The sanest person they’d met was Camila, and she was a saint. She’d gone with her daughter to the ‘Demon-Realm’ to help fight off some sort of slime creature with just a bat.

              Astarion had provided them a list of names of people who would be targeted by those evil witches (apparently there was a Wizard of Oz distinction between good witches and bad witches). A lot of the children were being targeted. Rio wasn’t sure what these talismans were, but she did know she wouldn’t let anyone hurt Miles. She was praying that their plan would pay off.

              Rio, Karlach, Raine, Gale, Jonathan, and Darius carried blankets, making sure everyone had one. Karlach frowned. “Hold on.”

              She glanced around the room, spotted a desk and sighed. She walked over to it, took a quick drink of some sort of potion, and picked up the tall, lanky boy in the white coat who had a paper stuck to the side of his face.

              “He’s gonna run himself into an early grave,” Karlach muttered. She laid him down into an open area of the couch, putting a blanket over him. “Poor soul.”

              “Wyll is right,” Jonathan spoke up. “You would’ve made a good mother.”

              “Nah,” Karlach said, shaking her head. “My child would’ve been absolutely wild.”

              She paused. “But it hasn’t been so bad. I don’t mind helping these two. They deserved better than they got.”

              Rio smiled. It was nice to see someone happy here. She continued to walk around the room until she found Miles with Giorno. If they were trying to keep anything secret, they were doing a terrible job. Miles had fallen asleep with his head on his shoulder. Rio chuckled and placed a blanket over them. She was sure he’d tell her on his own time.

              “Will you help me?”

              Rio looked at Jonathan who was standing beside her. “With what?”

              “It’s a long story, but Giorno…biologically speaking…he’s mine.”

              “I thought that vampire guy was his dad?”

              “He is,” Jonathan said. Rio raised an eyebrow. “It’s complicated. The long and short of it is that DIO stole my body. He won, and he wants to ruin Giorno’s life. His life has already been hard, and I want him to know that I’m on his side, but I was long dead before he was born. If I could have protected him, I would have. I want to protect him now. I don’t want DIO to manipulate him or force him into doing something he’ll regret, perhaps for eternity.”

              “I…what can I do?” Rio asked.

              “Just talk to him,” Jonathan said. “Every attempt I’ve made falls on deaf ears. I don’t know what to do to convince him to let me help. Perhaps, coming from someone he trusts, it might make a difference.”

              “I can try,” Rio said. She frowned. “Probrecito.”

              Even if Jonathan’s story was a little strange, she wouldn’t allow someone who had protected her son to be turned into some evil, undead creature.

              None of these kids would get hurt, not while she was around.

[star-vessel1237]

Gluttonous Scholar (Baalmon Yuu/MC AU)

Gender Neutral MC/Yuu (Pronouns used They/Them)

Warning: Swearing

([A/N]: I got inspired to make this AU after I read @emeraldtart​‘s Digimon AU. Recommend checking them out if you're interested in their ideas. Also using some elements from the Baalmons in Ghost game and Xros wars because why not. Also I will be calling them Baal!Yuu for simplicity.)

Link to Wikimon article I’m using for most of my info. [HYPER_LINK]

In Baal!Yuu’s original world they were on a quest to gain more knowledge as they had forgotten most of their past and we're desperate for answers

Baal!Yuu eventually grew obsessed with gaining more knowledge no matter how trivial

They try to control it but because of this obsession they have mostly lived as loner for most of their life, wandering and learning from both the digital and real world

How did they get to Twisted Wonderland? They were wondering around in the real world until the black carriage ran into them and knocked them out

Next thing they know they were cramped in a coffin, breaking out of it after Grim tried to set it on fire

Grim freaks out and Baal!Yuu is just staring at them thinking he's a weird variant of Gatomon

Grim: What the, why do you look so creepy!? Augh, whatever, just hand over your robes!

Baal!Yuu: The hell do you want with my… robes… *Looks down to see that they are in ceremonial robes*

Baal!Yuu: Okay, still not the weirdest thing to happen to me. Wait, where in the world am I?

Grim: Hey, quit ignoring me!

Baal!Yuu knocks Grim away and just runs out to try and find out where they are

When they get to the library Baal!Yuu was about ready to turn Grim back into a digiegg(still thinking Grim is a Digimon) but Crowley interrupts and drags them both to the mirror chamber

Baal!Yuu follows Crowley because they quickly caught on that they are in a completely different world, possibly dimension, and they're probably going to get more answers if they just follow the man

The students are a little weirded out since Baal!Yuu is freakishly tall and the robes hide most of their body but some of them can tell that there is something inhuman about them

The Dark Mirror can sense great power from Baal!Yuu however can not determine the shape of their soul (or digicore in this case)

Grim uses the students' mass confusion to escape, Riddle and Azul are chasing him before Baal!Yuu decides to help with a “peaceful” solution

By “peaceful” solution, Baal!Yuu means shooting warning shots with their gun at Grim in order to get him to stop running and capture him

Of course no one took this lightly, Riddle acts first and yells at them to drop their gun, they quickly go silent though after it is revealed that the gun is LITERALLY attached to Baal!Yuu’s right arm

After the chaos that was the Entrance Ceremony, Crowley and Baal!Yuu were dragged to library to see if they can get them home

Spoiler: They can’t since there is no recollection of their real world or the digital world and they have to stay at Ramshackle as a temporary solution

Baal!Yuu actually takes Grim in without any trouble and seems to have, for the most part, come to peace with the ghost

Definitely not because they threatened the ghost to exercise them with the countless paper amulets they somehow still have

Everything continues as normal, until they venture into the mines and have to fight the blot monster

Baal!Yuu decides to help Deuce in attacking the monster and even gives a few pointers during it, Ace and Grim also cave in and help as well

ADeuce and Grimm also realize what the mirror said when they said Baal!Yuu had great power as they are able to multiple elements with their amulets and-

Wait where did they get the sword from?

Either way they return back to the school safe and sound

Baal!Yuu is starting to suspect that they can’t properly rely on Crowley to return them home if he already has the expelled paperwork ready

They also give a mini lesson on what a digimon is to Crowley, Braincell Duo, and Grimm about what a digimon is and how they were able to summon all that stuff using the amulets they had on hand instead of the ones that were on their coat

Also this scene happens:

Ace: Oh yeah, I don’t think we’ve seen your face this entire time.

Baal!Yuu: Right. I got so caught up in everything I forgot to remove it.

Baal!Yuu *Removes hood to show them having bluish skin, wild yellow hair covering his right eye, a glaring red left eye, half of their face being covered by their mask, and blue bandages wrapping around the top their head with a slit cut open for their third eye*

Crowley: Well… you certainly are a… unique looking character.

Grimm: Eesh, you look more creepy without the hood.

Baal!Yuu: Oh please, I know digimon who look way worse than me.

Deuce: Should, should we be concerned when you say that?

Baal!Yuu: Probably.

Unrelated Note: They get their old clothes back but can’t wear them to school because of uniform restriction

They did get away with wearing their cloak though which they are happy about

I'll write more about this AU later, hope you enjoy.

[hollowsart]

found a place to watch the Flashpoint Paradox movie (not in full, I refuse) and I skimmed around until I found Sonar's little 30 second cameo including his death.

I also went looking for the Flashpoint comics in which his comic counterpart appeared and I gotta say..

While both kinda suck tbh like they really do.. the comic one at least had something MORE to give out of Sonar's character, even if he DOES still die on the ship. Sonar's predicament/position within Deathstroke's ship in the comics is so much more dire. In the movie? He's like actually a part of the crew, helping to aid in the fight for like 5 seconds before he'd killed. but in the comic?? Bro is like actually trapped and being used as a living tool and being tortured into using his powers. He is absolutely not there willingly and not at all seen as part of the crew. He joins a mutiny but he ends up dying as the last man standing of that tiny mutiny.

oh yeah, Flashpoint Sonar has super powers involving sound, so I mean.. yay for him??? I guess??

mmm.. if I had to rank the 5 versions of Bito's Sonar..

(this is so long already, I'm cutting it here. I also provided 2 pics below for the last one because it's truly horrid)

OG classic: honestly. despite his obvious flaws and how they handled his balkan heritage and ethnicity n junk, he's still the better one. he's entertaining and just overall fun to see how silly and dumb he can be. You can gain all the education you want, but you'll still have moments of "I never thought of that.." and that's okay.

JLU: Precious villain man. You will be missed so dearly. This version is a very close 2nd and could actually be competition for the #1 spot had he been used more. I really enjoyed him, he was funny and stupid and I wish SO BAD to see more of him. but alas, that will NEVER happen.

Flashpoint: while he was short lived, at least there was something somewhat vaguely compelling about his character and struggles. Rip to this guy. not really a fan of how he looks, but his costume is at least somewhat interesting despite being tattered to shreds.

New 52: This is SO FAR DOWN. I hate this one. I hate it. the only reason this one isn't dead last is purely because his design still retains SOME identifiable and recognizable elements to the original design. but otherwise? Man I hate this guy. I hate this version of Sonar. SO MUCH.

Whatever the heck this diabolical garbage fire of a design is. like what the heck were they even thinking with this?? this sucks so bad, I didn't even care to read anything with him in it (though I do enjoy the origin of his where his parents were deaf, if I remember right? that was neat):

[chessalein]

Hear me out:

I want a game with a powerful couple thats disgustingly deeply in love.

I want the hero to have to go to this magical couple that had to do the unthinkable for the world and are now in kind of retirement. She a elemental spirit, he her former knight who fought on her side.

(Yes this is very much Dragon's Dogma inspired when it comes to the pawn and the arisen. Please deal with it, I'm trying to sell you something.)

They get send there by a wise ruler who knows of their story who got shared over generations and is now more of a fairytale even though its the history of the Kingdom. A story of true love.

The hero arrives at their home that is a little house deep in a big forrest that is filled to the brim with flowers, and meet a relativ normal looking couple who is laughing away while they have a little water fight going on.

Of course they say yes to help, as it is an important task and impacts them as well if the hero doesn't get the help they need.

But only he can go :( because she has to stay behind to hold the balance of the elements. If she leaves there, they would go wild after a while, causing additional trouble for the mortal world. So before they part, she gives her lover a stone that is a bridge between their worlds. This way he can summon her whenever he wishes or needed. It would be okay if she is away for a few hours, but she can't come with them on their journey for days or weeks. When they leave her, it rains because she is sad that she has to part with her love.

So, we have the setting, now back to the main idea!

When in battle, the player can ask the knight to summon his wife and the summoning is the cutest stuff you have ever seen.

He is like: "Come to me, my love!" or "Lend me your strengh, my heart!" "My heart is longing for you!" You get the idea. While summoned, the group has a forcefield around them, protected from harm. She manyfests somewhere above them to cast this spell and then softly floats down (or lets herself fall) into her husbands arms and they share a sweet kiss and laugh, happy about the reunion, before he sets her down.

(Please don't ask me how exactly she works, I have no idea without making her OP. Maybe she uses the elements the monsters are weak against and puts a spell on everyones weapons with that while casting shield spells.)

When the fight is done, she makes a full health, no bad stats, full mana whatever spell. Then she will stay with your group for a while as an NPC, walking with her husband while holding hands, cuddling up to him when you stand, and kiss or talk about the surroundings as IDLE stuff. Maybe even making sure her lover is okay, asking him if he isn't hot in his armor and if you are in a hot surrounding, she will cast an ice spell on it to keep him cool. It has no real impact on him in a fight or so, its just cute that she cares.

When at a camp, every two nights he will summon his wife because he misses her so much ♥ they then have a little date, gazing at the stars, later keeping them company by the fire. Sometimes, when in a City or in a save little space, they might dissapear for a bit together... if you get what I mean *eyebrow wiggle*

I want them to be loving and careing to each other. Like they still have a brutal crush on each other even after hundred of years. Just adorable lovebirds. Pure sugar.

And the most important part: THEY STAY LIKE THAT! NONE OF THEM GETS KILLED OR SOME SHIT NO ONE NEEDS OR ASKS FOR!

Badly hurt: Okay, we can have that, but not that they would die.

I want to see them cuddling under a tree, one of them napping, in the credits! Just them being happy to be together again.

Thats my idea :) So if you work at a game company, feel free to use that. I want the summoning on a lvl of Final Fantasy, okay? I want them full HD and magical as heck. Their love should be super-ultra-HD and the must beautiful stuff you have ever seen. Throw in these orbs, glowing flowers, stars, etc. Make it "Wooooowww" and "Awwwwwwwww ♥"

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 13- Part 8

Well, would you look at that, the cactus predictions are half-right so far! And Blizzard’s Snow Warning overrode the other weather effects associated with Desert Field (sandstorm and harsh sunlight), very good!

But that’s just one part of it. Because now that he’s Lv. 23, he learned a very…interesting move, and now’s the time to see if it’ll do what I think it will. The big question now is: does an Elemental Terrain override a Telluric Field like this one? Only one way to find out: time for Blizzard to deploy Mist!

Oh my gosh, it actually worked!! The Desert Field’s down for a little while!

Pin Missile’s still scary, but that’s okay- because now, the real fun can begin!

What in the- Icy Wind gets a boost from Misty Terrain?? 

…Um, I mean- yeah, I knew Icy Wind gets a boost from Misty Terrain! That was part of my plan the whole time, totally! I definitely planned all of this!

Ahahahaha, it does so much damage now!! And now we-

Oh- oh no, it’s going for Pin Missile again- stop stop stop stop STOP STOP NOT THE SAND TOMB TOO-

AAAAAHAHAHAHA??? HE’S STILL ALIVE! THE HP SLIVER CURSE CAN HAPPEN ON OUR SIDE TOO!! But uh- yeah, let’s definitely use a Super Potion so he doesn’t die to the next Pin Missile and Sand Tomb combo, then finish with another Icy Wind.

Perfect! Already one Pokémon down! Unfortunately, the Misty Terrain goes away at the same time, but that’s alright, it’s done its job for now.

As much as I’d like to keep Blizzard out to get the most out of the Telluric Seed boost, that there’s a Steel-type and he’s an Ice-type. Time to bring out Caldera!

Oh, it’s got a Seed too, how cheeky-

Well, uh- we can’t use Clear Smog to remove the boosts because of the Steel typing. But even with the Sp. Defense boost, it’s still quad weak to Fire, so Incinerate should still do good damage.

Ah! I hate that, actually! To the flames with you!

Nevermind, it got taken out by its own Sand Tomb from the Telluric Seed!

Mmm, I’m sure it’ll have Sand Veil, so we’ll need to use Clear Smog to get that Evasion back to normal. After that, we’ll send in Prong to finish the job.

…Or…not. The way the Reborn wiki worded it, I thought Sand Veil got activated just by default, even if there’s no sandstorm- maybe not? Or maybe it’s just a passive effect and not so much a hard stat boost? Uh- either way, there’s nothing to Clear Smog, so Prong comes in early!

Nature Power again? That’s fine, I wasn’t gonna switch her out anyways. Cancea may not be a Dark-type yet, but it’s still weak to Bug Bite!!

Nice!! And as you can see, Prong’s doing perfectly fine after that Pin Missile!

Aha, Breloom! My other prediction really did come true! Now all she needs is Rotom and I can say I’m a genius! 

At any rate- Grass/Fighting? Send in the Flying-type!

And guess who got a stronger special Flying move to replace Gust? That’s right, it’s Air Cutter, baby!

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BRELOOM HAS SPORE-

WHAT DO YOU MEAN?? Breloom can’t learn Spore naturally in Gen VII, it has to do it as a Shroomish! At LV. 40! What kinda move technique stuff was Florinia doing to have a Lv. 23 Breloom with Spore!?

Using the Awakening didn’t help, it just used Spore again because guess what?? It ALSO outspeeds Decibel! New plan- send in Glare!

We’ll heal Decibel in the background while Glare’s out tanking attacks, then try to- oh my gosh it put Glare to sleep with Spore too, STOP!! 

Now what’s Florinia sending out-?

OH SHOOT, CRADILY’S OUT EARLY. Um- no no, it’s okay, I have something for this! But I need Glare healthy and NOT asleep, so we’ll stall for time with Riptide, who is likely to be deleted with a Grass-type move but we need to do what we need to do!

That’s…fine! Gives us a free turn to wake Glare up with the Pop Rocks!

And Cradily’s still just…Stockpiling…? …You know- I was gonna have Glare paralyze the Cradily to drop its Speed, but at this point…I think Riptide can just do that with Scary Face before he gets hit with whatever Grass attack?

And it’s setting up Sandstorm- we can deal with that! We can deal with all of this, actually! We just need to heal Blizzard!

And now Cradily’s…spamming Smack Down…? Instead of using a Grass move on the Water-type? Wait…it’s used Stockpile, Sandstorm, and Smack Down…it has one more move I haven’t seen yet, but it’s still only attacking with Smack Down…

…Does Cradily…not have a Grass-type move?

Well, in that case…I know a way to get Blizzard in for free without switching him into a Smack Down! And if he’s just taking a Rock-type move, Riptide has time to get some Ice Fangs in! It won’t do much because of the Defense boosts, but that chip damage could mean all the difference here! 

He’ll take some damage from the Smack Downs, more damage from the sandstorm, but he’ll be doing plenty of damage back with Ice Fang, until…!

Wow- lived on 1 HP from the rocks only to die from sandstorm damage…

But with Riptide’s sacrifice, we can change the tempo and the weather more to our favor by bringing Blizzard back in!

Now Cradily won’t be getting advantages from the sandstorm and the hail will be doing chip damage to it too. And not only that- but let’s take away Cradily’s other advantage too! Let’s bring the Mist back in!

Previous

Next

[theotherackerman]

COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: Any recognizable elements belong to Attack on Titan, Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, A Song of Ice and Fire

NOTES: Tiny timeskip. More reveals. Levi has had enough of this shit. You’ll see what I mean....

Chapter Five: Visions I Vandalize

Swords clashed. 

Sweat ran down Mikasa’s face. 

“Sasha! Tighten up on your left! Mikasa! Why are you not attacking Sasha’s left?! She’s not guarding it! Annie! Stop going low! I know your signature move!” Levi shouted the entire time they trained, pointing out their every weakness. 

It was helpful, it made them train even harder. 

It had been a fortnight since Eren had left.

There was an anger in Mikasa that had been festering long before things had happened with Eren. The anger at her aunt, her parents, and even her brother were consuming her. 

Why did her aunt have to choose her to be heir? Why did who she married mean so much? And why besides leaving her here did her parents not intervene with Kiyomi? Her father had his dragon. Why did it seem like the only ones who cared were in this castle? Why was she doomed to a life she did not want? 

Why did everyone make decisions for her? 

When would she get a say in her own life?

Her choices were being taken away, even by Eren. 

He had left, running away without even giving her a chance to speak to him again. 

The rage came out as she trained with Sasha and Annie, both of them coming at her at full force. It kept her mind busy so she didn’t have to think about it. 

They were sweating and breathless by the end of it. 

“Sasha, you’re weak on your left side,” Levi announced. “Annie, you keep letting Mikasa use your weight against you. Mikasa, you let your anger blindside you.” 

Levi had been watching their training today, giving them tips. Annie and Sasha were both competing in the tournament at the capital. 

Mikasa hadn’t decided if she was going to compete. She had already angered Kiyomi twice. 

Once for not marrying Zeke. 

The second for bowing to the Jaeger family. 

She wasn’t sure she wanted to risk her anger a third time, no matter how well she might do. Regardless, she was still going to train. She wanted to be prepared for whatever might happen. 

“Again,” Levi commanded. 

Mikasa, Sasha, and Annie took up their stances again.

—--------------

The streets were always filled with people when the Royal Family returned to the capital. 

King’s Landing was in much better shape than it had been when the Fritz family had ruled. 

There were still parts of scorched earth from the dragons but it was healing.

How there were still Fritz supporters, no one understood. 

Eren rode in the carriage again with his brother, their mothers, and the wolves. 

He gazed out the window, people waving as they passed. 

“Eren, are you feeling fine? You’ve barely spoken since we left the North,” Carla asked her son as she smoothed out his hair. 

“I’m fine, Mother,” he muttered, not even bothering to look at her. 

He wasn’t fine. 

Zeke had told him how disappointed Mikasa had looked, how she barely ate. He told Eren to go back, explain himself. 

Eren had refused.

His brother would never understand.

This way, he was saving Mikasa. 

The carriage stopped once they were in the courtyard, the gates closed behind them.

Carla and Dina exited the carriage first, their sons following them, and the wolves after them. 

“Eren, I know you don’t want to talk about it but…”

Eren held his hand up, cutting him off. “I’m fine, Zeke.” 

Zeke looked over at Armin as they went into the castle. 

Armin grabbed Eren’s arm, stopping Eren and Fenrir. “I need to talk to you.”

“Don’t you start,” Eren groaned.

“No, it’s not about you. It’s about me.”

“Is something wrong?” 

“Yes. No. I…I can’t tell you here. I don’t want her reputation ruined.”

“Her?!” Eren exclaimed.

“Keep your voice down!” 

“Armin, what have you been doing?” 

“Besides protecting you? Nothing good,” Armin ran a hand through his hair. 

“Why are you two lurking back here?” Pieck asked as she approached them. “No. Do not tell me. I do not want to know.” 

Pieck Finger was an older knight, closer to Eren’s brother in age. She also could be found among Zeke’s friends and confidants. 

“Hange is looking for you, Armin. They want a debriefing on The North.”

Armin sighed, “of course. Any chance they have thought about holding the position of Captain?” 

“Last I heard they were still saying no. I have tried to talk them into it but no such luck.”

Armin nodded before turning to Eren, “we’ll speak later, yes?” 

Eren nodded, “who is guarding my room tonight?”

In the capital, Eren was heavily guarded after the last attack from the rebels, Grisha had insisted. The North had been safer, no one would cross the Ackermans’ and their dragons. Here was a different story. 

“I believe it is either Reiner or Colt. I am not entirely sure though. You could ask Hange,” Pieck shrugged. 

“I’ll see who’s on duty. I’ll come find you later.”

Eren nodded and Armin walked away. 

“Heard you gave Jean quiet the beating in the North,” Pieck said once Armin had walked away. 

“Of course, you did,” Eren said as he rolled his eyes, walking in the opposite direction as Armin. “Come Fenrir,” he called to the wolf who trotted at his side. 

Pieck trailed behind him.

“It has been so boring without you here. Your bird is very angry you left. He’s been screeching in your room day in and out. He escaped from the aviary shortly after you left. We’ve been having to feed him. Other than that, there’s been nothing exciting here,” Pieck informed him as she caught up with Eren. 

“How is me fighting with Jean exciting?” 

“Because from what I heard, you finally put him in his place. And it was over a girl. Scandalous indeed.” 

Eren rolled his eyes again. “Zeke told you the moment we arrived.” 

“That he did. He also said you made that princess very sad. So what are you going to do about it?” 

“Nothing.” 

“Nothing?” 

“Nothing.” 

Pieck narrowed her eyes, “doesn’t seem like the Eren I know. He fought for everything.” 

“I still do. She has a reputation. I won’t tarnish her.”

“Oh Eren…”

“Do not. Please. I do not want your pity,” Eren said as he walked a little faster. 

Pieck said nothing more to him as she trailed behind him as his guard. 

—----------------------------------

Midnight had not made a mess of Eren’s room which surprised him. 

The crow left out a loud CAW as soon he saw his owner. He landed on Eren’s shoulder. 

Eren petted the crow’s head. “Yes, I missed you as well. You couldn’t wait, could you?” 

“NO,” the crow said. It was one of the few words that the crow knew. Eren had tried to teach him others but the crow only seemed to learn what he wanted, not what Eren wanted. 

“Of course. Having you stay with the ravens is beneath you, it seems.” 

“YES,” the crow replied as he cocked his head to the left.  He hopped off of Eren’s shoulder and landed on Fenrir’s head. The wolf was clearly annoyed but did nothing. “FENRIR!” The crow screeched. 

“You learned his name out of spite, didn’t you?” Eren asked as he began to undo his plate armor. 

“NO!” Midnight exclaimed before flying to his perch. 

Fenrir and Eren shared a look, neither of them believed the bird. 

—-----------

Kenny and Kuchel surveyed the land, looking for any signs of the Tyburs invading. They also checked to see if there were any signs of the Others. 

Kenny wasn’t sure if he believed that the Tyburs could control the Others. He wasn’t sure if the story about the symbols were true. It didn’t matter. People lied all the time in the courts to get political gain. 

It just so happened to be exactly what the lords needed to hear.

“Do you think Mother’s dragon is among them?” Kuchel asked as they turned around from the wild dragons. 

“I think so. They say they can live hundreds of years,” Kenny said as he leaned back on Blaze. “Don’t think too hard, Kuchel.”

“I worry. I worry about Kiyomi’s eyes here. This is the only place we can safely talk. What will she do if she finds out about Levi, about me?  She’ll find out he’s a bastard. She’ll find out I had to sell my body to survive.  She could destroy us.” 

Seaflames let out a roar that echoed throughout the land and shook the land. 

“I believe your dragon just answered that question. Let her try.” 

—--

“It went horribly,” Zeke told Dina and Carla as they sat in the queens’ tea room. 

“Is that why he was so sad the whole way here?” Dina asked as she stirred her tea. 

“I couldn’t get him to tell me what happened. He said he did not wish to cause any more harm. My poor son,” Carla looked down. “So he confessed and she rejected him?” 

“Not exactly. I will not betray my brother’s trust but I will say that I believe it was all miscommunication. I do still believe that you are right. Mikasa very well be the one to best Eren in a fight. She is his match,” Zeke said as he lifted the tea cup to his mouth. 

“She won’t fight in the tourney. Kuchel already told me it is unlikely,” Dina sighed. “Kiyomi is already upset that you are not marrying her.” 

“She wants Mikasa to be in a loveless marriage?” 

“Yes, she was. She has an heir. She has a child but they are a bastard. She won’t legitimize them.”

“That is absurd.” 

“It is but there are traditions, Zeke. You see how the people here act towards Eren. Changes cannot be made overnight,” Carla sighed. 

—-------

Armin had briefed Hange on the North. They seemed rather pleased. Armin had let Hange know about what had actually happened between Eren and Jean. Hange was someone Armin could confide in. They would also hear it sooner or later for Zeke as well. 

Hange was what Armin considered a true knight. They were brave and just, a defender of the young and innocent. They always acted with the best intentions. They were who Erwin had named temporarily Captain of the Guard before he passed.

Armin wanted Hange to take the position permanently. Hange had said they didn’t think they were ready for the position full time and supported Armin’s taking his former liege’s position. 

Armin felt like he was much less prepared than Hange.

Not to mention Armin felt like he was moments away from disgracing the one and only woman he had ever loved. 

Yet he told no one how he felt about her. He never even told Eren that Annie existed. 

So tonight he would come clean, he would tell Eren everything. 

Lucky for both of them, it was Reiner who was guarding Eren’s room tonight. If he heard anything, he wouldn’t say anything. 

“Armin,” Reiner nodded as Armin walked up to Eren’s room. 

“Reiner. How’s the capital been?”  

“Pretty quiet. Glad to see there were no problems in the North.”

“Thankfully.”

“Eren seems a little…..what happened?” 

“He finally found someone he’s interested in and it didn’t go well.” 

Reiner scoffed. “So his answer is to sulk?”

“Seems to be that way.” 

Reiner shook his head. 

Armin opened the door to Eren’s room. Half the room had been turned into a study/sitting room. It was littered with weapons and books. The other half was Eren’s actual bedroom. There was Fenrir, stretched out on top of the bed while Midnight was sitting on the pipes that held up the canopy around the bed. 

The raven let out a loud “CAW!” 

Eren sat at the table, books spread out. “Debriefing took that long?” 

Armin nodded, “I had to explain the entire trip. Hange had to inform me of things here.” 

“Anything exciting?” 

Armin shook his head, “Several brawls. Smaller rebel attacks but nothing we haven’t dealt with before. Since your father has been delivering food to every house here, things seem to be calming down. Even the Fritz loyalists seem to appreciate not having to spend so much at the market. The market vendors are happy to sell their stock.”

“So who is she?” 

Armin sighed as he sat down in the seat across from Eren. “Annie Leonhart.” 

“Wait. The Princess’s lady? The blonde one? When did that happen? How did that happen?” 

Armin ran a hand through his hair, “I’m not entirely sure myself. As you know, I went there a lot with Erwin as you know. I always thought she was beautiful. I've seen her fight and she’s very graceful. She cares about the Princess a lot. She just seemed like a good person so the feelings grew. Then I started talking to her. We kissed and it went on from there…” 

“Wait, did you…did you bed her?” 

Armin said nothing. 

“You did! When? And why didn’t you tell me?” 

“I…I don’t know. I guess….I worried for her. Her father is rather strict. He wants her to become a part of our knights once Mikasa marries. If I was captain….it creates so many more issues. I..I don’t know anymore.” Armin leaned forward and put his head in hands. 

“Why?”

“Because I brought that up. We were about to….and I told her we should stop. She got mad at me. Said I was only thinking of my reputation, not her’s. Said it was too late. Then I overheard her talking to her father. She asked if it would be so bad if she married, he said yes.” 

“But you love her? She knows that, right?” 

Armin shook his head which he still held in hands. “No, I never told her.” 

“What?” 

Armin looked up, releasing his head. “It never felt right to say. I…I don’t know. Now…now we just avoid one another. She goes one way, I go the other.” 

Eren leaned back in his chair. “We’ve got ourselves in a mess, don’t we?” 

“Yes. And they’ll both be here in a fortnight.” 

“What are we going to do?” 

“I don’t know. I clearly know nothing when it comes to these issues. I think you should talk to the Princess,” Armin said as he gave Eren a knowing look. 

“And you should talk to Annie. But it seems neither of us are very good at that.” 

“It seems that way,” Armin sighed. 

Neither of them had any idea of what they should do next.

—----

Jean could hear the bed frame of the room next to him knocking into the wall. 

He was going to kill her. 

He was absolutely going to kill her.

The entire time he had been gone, he had not thought of her once.

The thorn in his side, the person who drove Jean even madder than Eren Jaeger, was on the other side of that wall with one of her “visitors.” 

Then the laughing came. 

Jean covered his head with a pillow. 

Why did he have to share a wall with that woman?

Jean lived in the barracks to be away from his asshole father as much as he could. It was nights like tonight that made him second guess that decision. 

Finally, when he heard her door open and the man left, Jean got out of bed. He shot to the door and threw it open. Then went to the room next to him. He proceeded to pound on the door. 

The door opened to reveal the bane of Jean’s existence, Pieck Finger. She was dressed clad in a tunic that went down to her knees. 

“Where are your breeches?” he asked as he ran a hand down his face. 

“On the floor somewhere,” she shrugged as she walked away from the door. “What do you want, Jean boy?” 

Jean rolled his eyes, “stop calling me that! And stop fucking when I’m trying to sleep!” 

“Stop listening!” Pieck called from inside the room. 

“I would if my wall wasn’t against yours!” Jean yelled from his spot in the hall. 

“Move rooms then!” she yelled back. 

He hated her. 

He absolutely hated her.

And it wasn’t just because the first time he had fought her that he had ended up on his back with her standing over him, the point of her sword at his throat. 

She annoyed him.

Everything she did annoyed him. 

The way she had multiple lovers, the way everyone seemed to think she was so sweet, and how brilliant she was, it all drove him absolutely mad. 

Now she was ignoring him, dressing herself like he wasn’t even here, not he could see from where he was standing in the hallway. 

“Is that it? Do you need something else?” she asked as she walked back over to him. 

Why was she so short? 

Why did he just notice how small she was? 

“No,” he said as he threw his hands in the air and walked away.

He hated her. 

—---------------

Hange was exhausted. They had never been happier when dinner was over. They retired to the library to work on their own personal research now that they were off duty for the night. They had taken up a table in the back of the library, books spread out. 

“Was running the capital that bad while we were gone?” Zeke teased them. 

“It was….not something I ever want to do again,” Hange replied as they leaned back in their chair. 

“I still think you should take up the job of Captain of the Guard permanently.”

“You and Armin both.”

“Oh come on, Hange. It cannot be that bad.” 

“Lets see, tavern bawls, rebels attacks. Oh yes, rebels preparing to throw cow shit at the carriage. Do you know how many people I’ve had to throw into the cells this week alone? I’m annoyed.” 

“What are you reading? The Tale from Old?” Zeke asked as he peered over their shoulder. 

“Some of the more in depth views of them. Mostly about skinchangers though,” Hange said as they handed a book over to Zeke. “Erwin’s father believed that magic was real. My family was said to be talented in that area. So I’ve taken it upon myself to learn what I can as a memory to Erwin.” 

Zeke sighed, “you could just take his position instead. Hange, you are the truest knight in the Seven Kingdoms. You’re brave. You defend the weak. You speak for those that can’t.”

“And I do not wish to lead.”

“But you do.” 

“Because I will do my duty. But I will not go out of my way to accomplish it. Besides, are you really one to talk? You have no desire to lead as well. Now are you going to listen to me about skinchangers?” 

“Of course, Hange. Tell me everything you know,” Zeke said as he pulled the chair out and sat across from Hange. 

Hange’s smile widened. “They’re actually very interesting. Your family was said to be a very powerful skinchanger family. The name for one that turns into wolves or dogs is a warg. But they don’t actually fully change into the animal. They go into the mind of the animal.”

“Wait, what do you mean they go into the mind?” 

“It’s simple, really. They can see with their eyes, fly. Everything the animal experiences the person experiences. There are, of course, things that are forbidden to do while in the animal body. You can’t eat human flesh while in animal form, things like that. The rules aren’t that interesting. What is interesting is the fact that these symbols for our houses can be traced to who the skinchangers were. Wolves for the Jaegers. Lions for the Leonharts. It’s also said the type of magic someone from that house wielded went into the decision for the sigil. Isn’t that interesting?” 

Zeke’s face scrunched up. “Do you happen to know what the sigil for the Tybur family is?”

Hange shook their head, “not off the top of my head. I know they’ve struggled with the Reiss family, a cousin to the Fritz family for years but the sigil escapes me. Why?” 

“My father was talking about them.” 

“Is something happening?” 

“I don’t know. I didn’t hear it all. I wasn’t supposed to hear any of it I don’t think. They were talking about my marriage to Mikasa…it was needed to make sure Kiyomi couldn’t back out. But for what, I don’t know. And I know my father won’t tell you anything because he knows you’ll tell me.” 

Hange looked down at their book, “times like these…I really miss him.” 

Zeke nodded, “because Erwin didn’t give a shit. He just told us everything. Even when he really shouldn’t have. I met Levi this trip. He’s exactly how Erwin described him.”

Hange laughed, “I’ve met him a few times in passing. Didn’t know much about him to be honest with you. He’s rather short.” 

Zeke laughed, “that he is.” 

Hange looked down at their books. “I’ll look up that sigil for you and when I do, I hope you’ll tell me what exactly you’re thinking.” 

Zeke smirked, “you know I will.” 

With that, Zeke left Hange alone to work on their research. 

——————————-

The warm sunset air should have cleared Mikasa’s head.

It did not. 

Nothing did. 

Thoughts of titles and marriages and love and whatever else kept popping into her head.

Kayda was annoyed with her. The dragon was annoyed because Mikasa was annoyed. At this point, Mikasa didn’t blame anyone for being annoyed with her. 

She had once hoped for guidance from her parents but it never did. It wasn’t that they didn’t love her or that they loved her brother more. 

The issue was that there was an entire ocean between them. 

So many years had been spent without them. So many milestones missed. She couldn’t even resent them for it because they had done it for her. How could she possibly be mad about that? 

Yet they had allowed Kiyomi to try and put her into a loveless marriage. 

It was all about duty.

Duty to a continent she had spent little time on. 

The answer seems to be simple.

Her brother was a peacock. He had been born and raised there. His dragon egg had not hatched. He was the clear choice for an heir.

Mikasa could not be tamed to the world of her aunt. She would never be their perfect princess. She could never be locked away in some tower and not be with her people. 

Kayda flew closer to the ground and then rose up at the last possible moment as one of the sea cliffs came into view. It snapped Mikasa from her thoughts.

She could feel the spray of the ocean. They had gone further than she intended. Yet it was a welcome distraction. 

Vulcan’s roar was heard from above her, Levi waving at her to hurry up. 

Suddenly, she felt like she had been transported back in time. 

Back before Mikasa truly knew what it meant to be a princess. A time where Mikasa thought Princess just meant you got to wear a fancy dress to a party and the duty part would never come into play. 

A time before Levi was Lord Ackerman. 

It was a time where she was mistaken for Levi’s annoying little sister. She had been fine with it, never bothering to correct. 

Kayda took off, catching up with the other dragon and his rider. 

——

It was late when Kenny found Levi in the study, reading through letters. 

“What’s your plan?” Kenny asked him as he walked over to the chair in front of the desk. 

“For what?” Levi asked without looking up. 

“I don’t suppose you have an overall plan.” 

“That was more Erwin’s department. The smart thing to do would be for Grisha to put the Fritz  bastard on the throne. Ackermans and Jaegers can rule the North easily together if we marry Mikasa to Eren. Kiyomi releases Mikasa from being her heir.” 

Kenny nodded, “so you think they should marry as well.” 

Levi sat his quill down and looked up. “How many people will a dragon accept to ride it with their rider? Or let them pet them on the first meeting? How long did it take for Kayda to accept Sasha and Annie? The boy showed no fear. Kayda recognizes something in him. I think we should trust the dragon.” 

“I thought we were marrying her for love, not duty.” 

“You haven’t noticed the moping?” 

Keny snorted, “oh no. I’ve noticed.”

“Besides, you asked what I would do. We never said we were going to do it,” Levi said as he picked up his quill. “Though it might get Kiyomi to stop sending me so many ravens. She wants to change Mikasa’s title.”

“Because she bowed?” 

“Because she’s realizing her niece has no desire to run a country.”

“She would do it out of duty for no other reason.”

Levi snorted, “I’m well aware. Let Kiyomi take her title. I will give her a new one. When was the last time the title of ‘Blood of the Dragon’ was used?”

“Before my grandfather. Is that what you’re considering? It will make a statement if you do that which is why you are doing it, isn’t it?” 

Levi smirked, “you’re not the only one who knows how to play the game of thrones.”

Kenny was very proud of his nephew but he would never let Levi know that. So Kenny just laughed at Levi’s antics. 

——————————-

Toss and turn.

No matter what Mikasa did, she could not get comfortable. 

So she stared at the ceiling. 

Sasha, Annie, and Mikasa had no secrets between them now. Sasha had prodded Annie for more information about Annie’s escapades with Armin. 

Annie did not answer any of the questions Mikasa and Sasha had had.

Mikasa got out of bed and pulled her dressing gown on. She decided to wander the castle as it was better than just laying in bed, wondering what she should be doing. The nice thing about being in the Ackerman castle was that it was almost impossible for anyone to get inside of it. No one would dare try to cross the dragons that were right outside. 

It was also said that the dragons knew secret tunnels and passage through the castle that had been built just for them. The dragons could pop up at any moment to protect their riders.  Mikasa had stumbled across some strange passages but she had never gone down them to see where they led. She wouldn’t have been surprised if they did exist. 

The dragons seemed to see past someone’s outward appearance. It was why their riders trusted their dragons so much. 

Kuchel told Mikasa of a time during the war where several Fritz Loyalists had tried to sneak into the castle.

Vulcan, only five years old at the time, had killed them all with a blast of fire to protect his rider. 

There were other stories of marriages where the couple had decided not to marry because the dragon had not accepted the other person. 

Mikasa’s parents had both risen on his father’s dragon many times together. 

Her parents. 

She had been thinking of them a lot lately. She knew they had done all of this to protect her, to keep her away from Kiyomi for whatever reason but why didn’t they seem to care more than that? 

They always seemed so content when she visited them. 

Was it all an excuse? 

Had she done something wrong as a child? 

Why did everyone end up leaving her sooner or later? 

Why didn’t anyone fight for her?

Why didn’t anyone stay?

“Your thoughts are so loud, you woke your dragon up,” Levi’s voice called her back to reality.

Somehow, in all of her thoughts, Mikasa had walked to her favorite window. 

Kayda was flying right outside of it. 

Mikasa looked down. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize to me. I don’t care. Kayda, on the other hand, looks a moment away from smashing through that window and carrying you off.” 

Mikasa looked back at her dragon. “I’m okay,” she reassured Kayda.

Kayda snorted smoke. 

“I promise.” 

Kayda snorted smoke again before flying off. 

“So what was that about?” Levi asked Mikasa. 

“Just late night thoughts. I couldn’t sleep,” Mikasa looked back down and began fiddling with a loose thread on her dressing robe. “Why are you up?” 

“Fielding letters, requests. Broken fences, lost sheep, a few cattle, strange sightings. Someone stole someone’s chicken. Usual lord things I have to handle. Oh and the ridiculous amount of ravens your aunt decides to send me has multiplied. I swear if I ever get the chance, I am going to let Vulcan eat every single one of her ravens and then I’ll let him have the peacocks as well to really drive home the message.” 

Mikasa looked up and laughed. “Better you than me. Are they all about how I disappoint her?” 

“Not all of them. There’s a good number of them that talk about how I disappoint her as well. How my uncle lives with her…I do not understand.” 

“You’re not even related to her.” 

“Correct and somehow that makes it worse.” 

Mikasa laughed again. 

“So what is bothering you? You might as well tell me now.”

Mikasa sighed. “My parents.” 

“What about them?” Levi asked as he crossed his arms across his chest.

“I don’t know. They don’t really write to me. They don’t spend time with me. They seem happy living in Kiyomi’s palace. They just sort of…..left me here to be raised.” 

Levi took a deep breath, “I don’t even know what to say because I do not understand either. I believe they want to protect you.”

“But not my brother?” 

“You’re right. It does not make any sense. I feel as if there has to be something bigger going on there that we just don’t know. Your parents have always been kind to me. Your mother loved you very much. She was so proud of you when you were a baby. Your father was the same. I was the one to find you with Kayda, you know.”

“You were?” 

Levi nodded, “she was curled up around you after she hatched, much like a cat. I ran and got your parents. Your father talked about how your dragon was going to be bigger than Seaflames and how he’d never have to worry. You’d always be protected.” 

“From what?” 

Levi shrugged, “I don’t know. I did always get the feeling that if your parents didn’t have to be across the sea, they wouldn’t have been. I don’t know why. Much like I don’t know why Kiyomi wants to change your title. Don’t worry, the one I’m having you announced with is much better.” 

Her title was being changed?

Mikasa must have truly disapppointed her aunt for that to happen. 

“Am I no longer a princess?” 

“Still a princess. Though it no longer says you’re the heir to the Azumbito throne.” 

Mikasa took a deep breath. She should have known.  Not only had she not become betrothed to the crown prince, she had bowed to another Royal Family when she was not supposed to be of their court. She should only bow to her aunt. 

Yet Mikasa had made that choice. She did not regret it. 

“Is it my brother then?” Mikasa asked finally. 

“She didn’t say that you weren’t the heir. I think it’s a test,” Levi answered. 

“A test of what?” 

“To show you what will happen if you don’t listen to her. She doesn’t realize she’s granting you freedom by taking it away. She thinks she’s hurting you. She’s trying to get you to fall in line. It’s a calculated move, I’ll give her that.” 

“So what do I do?” 

Levi shrugged, “whatever you want, within reason of course. You’re still my heir until you have children that I can name my heir.” 

Mikasa laughed, “why not have your own?” 

Levi scoffed, “I already helped raise one spoiled child. I’m not raising another.” 

Mikasa rolled her eyes, “you did not raise me.” 

“I helped raise you. You would have died the first time you tried to fly without me.” 

“You pushed Kayda and me off the cliff!” 

“Birds do it to their children.”

“I’m not a bird!” 

Levi smirked, almost laughed. 

“This is why I’m taller than you,” Mikasa retorted. 

“Oi! Shouldn’t you be nice to me? I could marry you off to someone.”

“And I would tell your mother.” 

“What would my mother do?” 

“I don’t know but I’m going to find out.”  Mikasa began walking in the direction of Kuchel’s room. 

“Going to tell my mother, just like when we were children,” Levi called before he started following her.

“Oh I thought you helped raise me.” 

“You can help raise someone as a sibling. I am sure Zeke helped raise Eren.”

“And you wanted to marry me to him.” 

“That was never my idea.” 

“But you still went along with it.” 

“Because I have to. You have your duties and I have mine.” 

“Kiyomi isn’t your queen!”

“But she is your aunt and you are her heir! Think rationally, Mikasa. I have to play the game, I have to give sometimes. I had no intention of marrying you to Zeke. I would not take your freedom away from you. Besides, the rational thing would be to marry you to Eren. That is exactly what I should be doing. War looms over us. Marrying you to Eren would ensure that Kiyomi could not back out of supporting this continent should anyone attack. “

Mikasa stopped walking. “War is coming?”

Levi sighed as he stopped as well. “Yes.”

“I…you want to marry me to Eren?”

“It would be the smart thing to do.”

The smart thing. 

The right thing.

She heard it enough. Her parents had said it was the right thing, the smart thing to leave her here. To protect her. 

They hadn’t protected her. 

They had abandoned her. 

If they truly wanted to protect her, they could have stayed within the walls of this palace. Kiyomi would not get past the dragons. 

“I will do what is asked,” Mikasa replied. 

“No. I will not let you marry for this. You marry for love. Nothing else.” 

Mikasa scoffed, “seems to me that love is curse. Your father. Kenny’s love. Yours. All dead. My parents say they love me but they left me here. Annie had her heart broken. What’s the point of love if all it does is harm? I will abandon love for duty. If we need Kiyomi’s support, I will marry Eren.”

“We just went through this with Zeke. No, Mikasa.” 

“Levi, think rationally. If war is coming….”

“It’s not coming in the morning .The sun will not rise to war.”

“So you say but can you truly promise me that? Levi, I do care for Eren. Rather I did. He asked me if I could ever see as anything more than a friend. Of course, I hated that he asked me if I could ever see myself marrying him.” 

“He did?” 

Mikasa nodded. “I thought he was just after….”

“That boy is in love with you. What else could that possibly have meant?” 

Mikasa’s jaw dropped and her eyebrows raised. “No…he’s not…”

“Horrible way of saying it but that sounds like to me that he was in love with you. He just did not know how to say it without scaring you off.” 

“We barely spent any time together!” 

“Since when does that matter?”

Mikasa looked down, still in complete shock. Annie had been right. “Then why did he leave?” Mikasa wondered out loud. 

“Because you rejected him, I’m guessing.”

“No. That…..that cannot be.” 

Levi sighed, “it is late. Come see me tomorrow. Even though I despise the idea of getting involved in your romantic problems, I can see that if I let you work this out on your own, you’ll never understand. Go to sleep.” 

Mikasa nodded before she slowly made her way back to her room. 

She got into bed. 

Yet one question remained unanswered: why did everyone who loved her leave? 

——-

Levi should have taken his own advice to go to bed but instead, he wrote a letter. In the morning, it would be attached to a raven that would fly to King’s Landing. 

——-

King Grisha,

Though the betrothal of your oldest son and my cousin did not work out, I believe your youngest has become fond of her. I propose a betrothal between Princess Mikasa Azumbito Ackerman and Prince Eren Jaeger. 

Of course a more formal betrothal would have to take place in the capital. Seeing as we will be arriving in less than a forthright, I have written a head so that you might consider this proposal. I do not want you or your wives or your sons to feel any pressure to agree. The Ackermans will forever remain loyal to House Jaeger. 

I would love to make that loyalty into a forever bond and unite our houses. 

I must also be truthful with you. My cousin has had a title change and her option as heir to the Azumbito throne may not remain. However, I think marrying your son to Princess Mikasa Azumbito Ackerman, Heir to the North, Blood of the Dragon may be just as nice. 

Do not give me your answer now, I only ask that you just think on this. 

-LA

—----------

“YOU DID WHAT?” Kuchel screamed at Levi at breakfast that morning. 

“I said I sent a letter to the king proposing to marry Mikasa to Eren,” Levi repeated as he added sugar to his tea. 

“WHY?” 

Kenny laughed. 

“Must you yell this early in the morning?” Levi asked as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Kayda accepted him. He asked Mikasa if she would marry him.”

“He did what?” Kenny asked. 

“It was not an actual proposal from what Mikasa had told me. I think this is the correct move,” Levi picked his tea cup up and took a sip from it. 

“I thought we were marrying her for love,” Kuchel muttered. 

“We are. We are just speeding things along.” 

“I don’t like this.”

“I understand but I am the head of this household and it is my choice.”

“Have you at least talked to Mikasa about this?” 

“I have not and I will not until I have an answer from Grisha.” 

Kuchel sighed. Hopefully her son knew what he was doing.

—------------

A marriage proposal for Eren.

Grisha never thought it would arrive. 

Yet here it was from a good family, a major house. 

It wouldn’t matter if they thought Eren was a bastard anymore because he had a princess for a wife. 

Grisha wondered if Mikasa would prefer to live in The North. Eren had seemed very at home there until the last day. Then he had taken off. Grisha still didn’t understand what had caused that. Maybe it had involved the princess. 

There was no way that Grisha was going to say no to this. 

Unless….

Unless Carla, Dina, or Eren said no to it. 

Zeke had brought up the idea while they had been there. 

He would wait to talk to Carla about it until the Ackermans arrived. He wanted to see how Mikasa and Eren acted around one another. 

[whovianwatchingstartrek]

A Whovian Watches Star Trek for the First Time: Part 025 - A Strong Cold Open, and A Strong Cliff-hanger

Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 1 Episode 26 - Shockwave Part 1

So, I'm finally at the end of season 1. This season has been a nice little introduction to the Star Trek universe, and it's been really nice learning about the wider key elements of the universe alongside the characters, which I don't think is something I would have experienced if I start with the Original Series.

On the advice in the replies, I am gonna tackle Shockwave as two separate posts because of the season break between the parts. I'm also partially motivated by the fact that by sheer coincidence there are two separate Doctor Who Universe stories called Shockwave, so covering the parts separately means I get to do a comparison segment for both of those. But, onto the episode: The Episode starts with the Enterprise sending the shuttlepod down to a colony planet, everything seems calm, but then suddenly as they descend, the planet is suddenly engulfed in fire and explosions. Which is a hell of a way to cold open an episode.

It immediately seems pressing to figure what the fuck just happened. The Colony is just gone. Dead. The crew immediately notice things aren't adding up. It's looking like the shuttlepod's plasma exhausts ignited the explosion, but all logs indicate the plasmaducts were closed with no leaks.

The writing on Archer in this episode was great. He really felt like he carried the weight of just accidentally killing 3 and half thousand people.

Starfleet and the Vulcans shut down the Enterprise's mission. It's looking like the End of the Road. Seeing everyone's reactions to that news is interesting. Phlox's never ending optimism that new adventuring opportunities will present themselves, Trip taking the combative "The Vulcans will use this to hold us back" stance, Travis not really knowing if anything will live up to being aboard Enterprise. And, the highlight, T'Pol trying to convince Archer to fight back against the decision. She masks that as "It is your duty as captain to present your case", but really she's grown attached to the crew, she just isn't ready to admit it.

After that attempt at being convinced, Archer hits the bed, and is instantly sent back in time by Daniels, the Temporal Cold War future guy from Cold Front. Which means, whatever happened to the colony: It's related to the Temporal Cold War. The Explosion wasn't supposed to happen. This is finally what kicks Archer into action. With help from Daniels, and some previous readings from Malcolm, evidence of sabotage was found, and the crew start moving to take down the Suliban ship that sabotaged the shuttle

This was a great Season Finale. Seeing everyone working on top form with the future of the whole mission at stake was excellent, and the action sequence of T'Pol, Archer and Trip moving to get proof of sabotage from the Suliban Stealth Ship held me captive.

Shadowy Future Guy showed up again. There still isn't much on his specific motives, but now plans to kidnap Archer. I really want to know more about our main villain's motivation. Being an elusive mystery is fine early on, but an elusive mystery with no answers or even clues gets old quick.

Our cliff-hanger leading into Season 2 is Archer sacrificing himself over the Suliban to save Enterprise. He gives command over to T'Pol. This scene was honestly kind of sad. It genuinely brought a tear to my eye. Then to find as he left the bridge, Daniels throws him into the future, to find an apocalyptic wasteland, leaving the Suliban to attack enterprise. This is a heavy cliff-hanger. I genuinly can't even begin to predict how Archer is gonna get back to his own time. Daniels' time equipment is gone, he's stuck in the dead future. And the Enterprise itself is about to be shot down with no chance of escape.

I am really looking forward to seeing how this is resolved. I can't wait, and I only have to wait a day, I can't begin to imagine how it must have felt to wait a whole season gap for the conclusion.

Comparing my Enjoyment of this Episode with a Doctor Who Universe Story of the Same Title

Doctor Who: Destiny of the Doctor - Part 7: Shockwave

So, the Destiny of the Doctor anthology was a set of 11 short hour long audiobooks, one with each doctor, released in 2013 in the lead up to the show's 50th Anniversary. I don't know how seriously Trekkies take their show's anniversaries, but in the Doctor Who fandom we go wild with anniversary fever, especially back when the 50th rolled around. There was so much content released 2013 celebrating the shows history. I could talk about Destiny of the Doctor as a whole for a while, but really I'm only here to talk about one of it's stories.

Shockwave, the 7th story in DoD was in theory supposed to be sort of a quintessential celebration of the 7th doctor era and all of it's elements. In a lot of ways, it is very much is a very Season 26 7 and Ace Story. The Doctor takes Ace to a planet which's star is set to explode due to a spatial anomaly and is throwing out a lethal shockwave of Artron energy (In Doctor Who, that means Time Travel radiation). To Quote the Doctor, "We can't help them. It's already too late."

I'm gonna skip most of the plot summary stuff here, because this is already a long post.

To those of you who aren't familiar with Who, the Seventh Doctor is an interesting character. He often keeps his companions in the dark about his actual plans, sometimes to the point of being a manipulator, and that is definitely what happens here. The story is narrated from Ace's perspective, separated from the Doctor who is working away in the Shadows. Shockwave is a good example of a 7 and Ace story. Enjoyable, but because of the nature of what it is, it doesn't try to do anything new with the characters. I like 7 and Ace's character dynamic, but stories like this really make you long for the more emotionally charged stories where Ace finally snaps over the 7th Doctor's bullshit. That said, even without that kind of occasional plot beat from Ace that I love, this story still writes her really well. Her personal character arc in this one is really really well done.

As with all of the DoD stories, The Eleventh Doctor briefly steps in for a cameo that only begins to make sense when you get to the final story in DoD. It's one of the better DoD 11th Doctor cameos, certainly less intrusive than the one in the 4th Story.

Both Enterprise's Shockwave (Part 1) and Destiny of Doctor's Shockwave are enjoyable, but on the whole I would give the edge to Enterprise here for being more of a standout within it's on series. Enterprise's Shockwave was higher stakes than normal, it was. DoD Shockwave was just another "7 doesn't clue Ace in on his plans" story in a sea of other "7 doesn't clue Ace in on his plans" stories. A very good one of those, but with nothing that would make me recommend it over the other good examples of the 7 and Ace dynamic.