#I really want someone to like safely secure a piranha one of the ones that look really sparkly and let me pet it

[dumb-doll-lips]

I just learned about new type of fish I want to pet: Prickly dogfish shark.

Maybe just one quick little pet tho.

[golden-saga-imagines]

Hey! Wondering if I could request an imagine with the main 4 and their opinions on valentine's day and if they'd do anything with their s/o on that day???

Yes, of course! I hope you like these headcanons. Enjoy! 💕 💕

LUPIN

💰 You know he had pointed this day in the calendar months ago, therefore, he’s eager to celebrate it. Really he doesn’t think is an important date in itself, just only an excuse for stay with you, the most time possible. For loving you only how he does it. So, Lupin loves Valentine’s Day especially if he spends the time with you.

💰 Lupin adore loving you stupidly and exaggeratedly.

💰 Yesterday, you find a note in your study which says: “Get ready to be stole tomorrow by the famous thief Lupin III”. You laugh, you’re delight and wait nervous and excited to the next day. The next morning, when you go to water the garden someone grabs you from the back and he gives you a fright. Is Lupin. He wears a tuxedo with a pink tie.

💰 In the morning, Lupin takes you to the aquarium to see marine creatures. You get dumbfounded when an enormous shark across the aquarium. Lupin gets you to feed the dolphins (and also the piranhas, but this is less legal). The security guard finds you and you have to run away.

💰 Later, he invites you an Italian restaurant, where the food is tasty. You have a conversation with him very pleasant, you talk about everything a little and your projects of future. While this lunch, Lupin gifts you a beautiful earrings, they’re make of sapphire and diamond. They are especially beautiful.  

💰 Later, when the sun falls, Lupin takes you at wine tasting in private vineyard, you’re very excited because you never have gone to one. But, when you’re done, you’re pretty drunk, you have to do a break to continue with the journey.

💰 Lupin cooks the dinner, he cooks your favourite recipes, in this time you drink water, still you feel the vapours of alcohol in your mind and you’re bit sleepy. After the dessert, Lupin’s favourite part is coming.

💰 You only have to caress his neck with your finger for Lupin jump over you, he is already naked, Lupin devour you to kisses. He’s euphoric. And before you realize it, you’re in the bed, with his hands in your skin and you sigh his name.

 JIGEN

🥃 He’s old for this shit. Especially when his heart has been broken so many times. He tell you actively and passively that he will not celebrate this. But, oh boi, you know he wil. Not the same way of Lupin, but yes by his own form.

🥃 Jigen will run away all day of Lupin, before he mocks of the gunman. Jigen takes you to lunch at some beautiful place, where there aren’t many people, he makes sure to sit in a private space. You’re very happy because you hadn’t expect that. Is a quiet place, cosy and comfortable.

🥃 Sometimes, Jigen takes your hand while he’s talking. Upon leaving the restaurant, Jigen kisses you.

🥃 Later, you return at his safe house. Jigen turn on the radio and search classical music, his favourite, for calm both you. When you’re sitting in the sofa, you listen a beautiful and slow song, you stand up, you place in front of Jigen. He looks you confused and raise an eyebrow that hide under the shadow of his hat. You smiles him and make a reverence, reach out your hand and he takes it.

🥃 You get him out dancing.

🥃 Jigen gifts you a beautiful half smile, the takes off his hat and his jacket. He takes your hand and caresses your waist, you rest your head in his chest. Jigen dance slow against you, the dance doesn’t coincide with the song, but you don’t care, you’re so focus in Jigen that not even you realize it. The dance is comfortable and intimate. He touches his forehead with yours and smiles you while he swings.

🥃 When the song ends he kisses you while you sink your fingers between his hairs.

 GOEMON

🎐 He doesn’t understand the point of Valentine’s Day. That is to say, he loves you all and each days of the year. What’s so especial this day? He doesn’t loves you more only because it’s February 14th. Nevertheless, he accepts the chocolates if you gift it him (because he loves the chocolate).

🎐 If you want to do some special, Goemon won’t refuse to do it, he loves see your eyes shine of happiness. He smiles when looks you, his smiles are so beautiful. If you want go out, he takes you a Japanese restaurant, it’s really good. A real one. Where the food aren’t only cheap sushi. He’s very pleased and proud that you like this place.

🎐 After eating, he takes a park, where some cherry trees and almond trees have already bloomed. Goemon walks with you, he likes it because is an activity similar to meditation, you provide him calm and harmony, for this he loves you so many. He isn’t a fan of PDA, just thinking about it, his ears colours of red. But, for this special day, he takes your hand while you’re walking. And he will kisses you if you’re alone, especially if you’re under the cherry trees. Goemon loves the way how look you smile between the pink of the flowers.

🎐 Later, he takes you to hot springs. For your disappointment there aren’t mixed pools. Anyway, you enjoy very much, there’s a perfect atmosphere and you see the cherry trees which surrounded the pools. When you get out, Goemon waits you in the door of women, he accompanies you until your bedroom, where there’s a great banquet: sushi, okonomiyaki, yakitori, monjayaki and dorayakis and dangos. You dinner so fast and finally you sleep with Goemon.

 ZENIGATA

🚔 Actually Zenigata thinks Valentine’s Day isn’t so special, but he knows this day is important for you, therefore, Koichi doesn’t have any problem with that. Nevertheless, it’s possible he forget it because he has a lot of work. But when he remembers it, he will fix it right now, he is the inspector who almost catching Lupin III, he’s intelligent and quick.

🚔 When Zenigata sees you in the door of police station he realizes to what day is today. He pretends he remember that, and he gives thanks to his past himself to have booked an appointment in a restaurant for today. It’s a Arabian restaurant, he knows you love this food, you will die for the hummus, especially for the aubergine. Zenigata prefers Japanese food, but this is good too.

🚔 The restaurant is very nice, you sit in some cushions in front of Zenigata, between both there is a low table of wood, you’re surrounded of lattices. Is a private place, you like the atmosphere. The food smell good and taste better.

🚔 Later you walk through the streets, in a moment Zenigata disappears and he buy an orange rose of wood, but it smell like one; when you want to realize it he stay at your side. When you arrive your home, Koichi hands you the flower, you kiss his cheek and give him thanks. This rose never will wither.

🚔 This afternoon, you stay in the sofa watching your favourite movie with Zenigata, he rest his arm in your shoulder and his temple in your head, he loves how your hair smell. You cuddle with him. When the night appears, Zenigata cook the dinner with you, although he’s a bit clumsy in the kitchen, Koichi manages to do a great work. The dinner smells tasty.

🚔 After the dinner, you drink hot chocolate in the sofa with a blanket cover you while Zenigata kisses you and tells you how loves you.

 Ari  🌿

[howtohero]

#092 Being Beloved By All

Some superheroes are just gosh danged loved. Everybody likes them. People stop them on the street just to say how much they like them. It’s kind of gross? Like, gosh just because someone can make tornadoes with their fists or produce breakfast meats out of thin air doesn’t mean they’re the best thing since sliced bread. (Fun fact: I wanted to make a joke here about some better food that was invented after sliced bread and there is literally none. Even grilled cheese which you would think would have to be invented after sliced bread showed up a few years earlier in France. Frikkin’ French people man. Grilling that cheese. Sliced bread or not.) So anyway, these losers are so beloved by the people they’ve sworn to protect that they become a major source of pride for the townsfolk. They’re thrown parades, given metaphorical keys, their names are placed on the city’s welcome sign and official tourism website. Brochures are printed in the image of their silhouette. Sometimes there will be talk of renaming the city in their honor, a local talk show host will jokingly suggest they run for mayor. It’s all very nice.

And who wouldn’t want to be beloved by a whole city! It’s much better than being hated by a whole city! If you’re universally hated you always have to be on the lookout for angry mobs. You can never look at a pitch fork the same way again. It diminishes your ability to help farmers. It’s just no good. But being universally beloved might not be ideal either. It comes with its own problems that you need to be prepared to deal with.

When you’re communally celebrated you get invited to a lot of events. Museum dedications, college graduations, town hall meetings, movie premiers, barbershop openings. You become a celebrity, everyone wants you at their thing. And good for you, go enjoy the thing. But when you agree to go to a thing that’s going to be advertised. The ad men will come up with something clever about it being a super event (somebody hire me). What’s the point of having you at a thing if nobody is going to even know about it! So it’ll be in all the papers, on all the radios, probably someone’ll skywrite it into the clouds. And that means the bad guys are gonna hear about it. They read newspapers, they listen to radios, they occasionally look up at the sky (often while collapsing to their knees and shouting the word “nooooooo”). You never want a supervillain to know where you are. Because, remember, they hate you. When they know where they are they’re going to show up in a giant Spider-Mecha and attack you. So when you agree to appear at an event, and that event is then heavily publicized, you’re putting everybody else who is attending that event in danger. So you better have the roughest, toughest security team on high alert. Get some of those power-detectors the banks have invested in, hire some super-mercenaries (not one of the ones who are super shady and kill lots of people. Get the ones who only kill some people. You’re a superhero) invite some of your super-pals to come to the event too. Do what you need to do to keep things safe.

Additionally, if you’re adored by all then you might actually have a more difficult time getting your job done. If you’re constantly being stopped for autographs or selfies or babies that need kissing (ugh so unsanitary), then you might be prevented from responding to a super-crime as quickly as you could have. That’s why many superheroes prefer to operate just below the public’s radar. They fight crime in the shadows. They stop a supervillain from destabilizing the sun with a nuclear toothbrush and then run away before the cops get there. They’re urban legends. Nobody ever invites an urban legend to a movie premiere. (Which reminds me, Bigfoot told me to tell you all that he’s insulted by the lack of movie premiere invites, he likes movies too!)

There’s also an inverse proportional relationship to how much a superhero is loved by the public and how much they are hated by their enemies. Remember a lot of supervillains are so dang thirsty for attention and notoriety and they hate when that public attention is instead diverted into love for a superhero. If the public loves you, you can pretty much guarantee that your arch-nemesis is going to start pulling off grander evil schemes to try to swing some of the attention back to them, they’re ginormous babies like that. Just colossal infants. If before they were unleashing piranhas into one public swimming pools and it was fine because nobody even used that pool anyway because it was gross and then all the piranhas died from the grossness of the swimming pool, now they’re going unleash microscopic piranhas into the city’s water supply so that everybody’s drinking microscopic piranhas (which also doesn’t really sound healthy for the piranhas) and broadcasting the whole thing on multiple flying jumbotrons placed throughout the city. Don’t be the reason the bad guys are pulling off more outlandish crimes.

So you need to strike a balance. You don’t want to constantly be on the run from the local law enforcement and you don’t want to be feared by the people you’re trying to protect. But you also don’t want to become a celebrity socialite whose fame prevents you from fighting crime and whose emergency hotline keeps blowing up with calls from adoring fans, while simultaneously spurring your enemies into doing crazier eviler things than ever before. Try getting yourself in with key individuals in the city, the police commissioner, the mayor, the local superhero blogger, perhaps a real reporter or two, for sure a doctor, probably a fireman, maybe a friendly sanitation worker. And then snub the rest of the public. You don’t need to be everybody’s best friends. You need the public to trust you but you don’t need them to love you.

[rainbowsandbalian]

Below the read more is Balo’s entire thread with Sam (all graphics removed, lines between posts tho):

Sam had nothing to do. He’d worked out, eaten and even spoken with some of the higher ups. No missions had come in, but even he’d have to run it by Deryn before he signed them up for something. He was bored. Sam sat on the edge of the fountain looking at the piranhas. He could feed the Piranhas… But, they had already been fed this morning.

Sam didn’t want to spend the day in the training facilities. The last time he’d done that he was sore for three days. Commercials that said doing one more rep never told you about how sore you would be the next day. Sam sighed and looked to the Piranhas who’d all swarmed to him. “Dudes, chill, you aren’t getting fed.” Sam said standing up and the piranhas scattered.

If only there was someone around the courtyard today. Sam was looking for any excuse to not go back to his dorm or even back into the training facility.

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

Balo was honestly in the mood to draw sceneries - and what better place to draw than the courtyard. It was peaceful, and fish were so pretty and friendly. She carried a sketchbook under her arm and a very fat tabby cat in her arms. Ches’s dog - Melody - was on a leash secured around her wrist. Ches swore Melody didn’t need one, but, it was better safe than sorry. Her owner was due back today, so, it would suck to lose the dog.

She felt like an animal whisperer or something, surrounded by not only her cat, but, Ches’s Maltipoo. It was nice. When she reaches the courtyard she sets the cat down on a bench before noticing a man near the fountain.

“Is it okay if we join you? It’s such a nice day, so I figured I’d take Catsby outside. It can’t be good for him to be stuck in a room all day - after all.” She gestures to the cat that was just laying on the bench, not moving from where Balo set her, purring up a storm. “and I have to take Melody out here anyway Ches should be back sometime today though, so, she’ll get to go back with her best friend real soon.” She pets the dog, a grin on her face.

“i’m Balo, by the way. I’m not sure if we’ve met before - if we have, just remind me. Sometimes I forget names.”

“You look as if you were an animal whisperer,” Sam smirked looking to the girl. “Sam, Sam Sansby. Son of Ares or whatever. Yeah, feel free to join me.” Sam leaned down and started petting the small maltipoo. Not expecting it to basically jump in to his arms and start licking his face. “Wow friendly.” Sam laughed looking at the small dog.

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Sam looked over the very big cat, who was purring, not making any move to pet it. “Catsby looks a little intimidating. He’s kinda, uh, big.”  Sam wasn’t against cats, he’d just heard a lot of things could go wrong. Plus they weren’t usually helpful in a fight. “Is Melody usually this friendly?” Sam asked petting the small dog.

He’d heard of some owners just keeping dogs as pets and Sam assumed this was the case with Melody. “Ches never told me she had a dog. Although I guess that wouldn’t really come up as a topic of conversation,” Sam shrugged and looked to Balo noticing all the art supplies.

“What are you drawing today?” Sam asked he knew Balo liked art, and although he wasn’t a fan. He knew she was good, and he gave respect where respect was due.

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Balo nods, okay, she knew Sam then. They’d met forever ago - but with so many people coming in and out of Half-Blood Inc, well, sometimes she had trouble keeping track. “Okay, I know that name. Sorry, Sam. There’s just so many people here - sometimes it’s hard to keep track of everyone.” She admits.

She laughs, “yeah, Catbsy’s a little on the lazy side. I keep telling him to stop sneaking out for Arby’s but, he’s stubborn.” She laughs. “he’s a good cat though, I dress him up sometimes and he doesn’t complain. He went as Maleficent’s dragon form last year for Halloween.” She tells him, turning her attention to Catbsy now that Melody was preoccupied with sam. “She is! You should have seen her when Ches first got her. She was literally being carried around everywhere with her. She got used to people fast.” She admits. “She’s also a pillow hog.  Ches lets her in the bed and it wasn’t like I could tell her; “no, you’re sleeping on the floor while Ches is gone.” That would be rude.”

“It’s not like Ches advertises it much. She’s not exactly allowed to bring her a lot of places either - with the whole no pets in the cafeteria rule someone decided to put in.” She admits. “Ches and I kind of have a deal - if she has to leave for a bit, I watch Melody. I have to leave? She watches Catsby.”

She shrugs, “I was leaning towards sceneries today. If something else grabs my inspiration today however I’ll draw that.” She admits.

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

“I get it,” Sam smiled softly to Balo. He’d been traveling when he didn’t have a partner anyway. It wasn’t uncommon that people forgot he’d been here longer than some. “Lots of people come and go. Gets, uh, confusing.”

Sam’s jaw dropped hearing the cat had been dressed up as a dragon. “He let’s you dress him up?” Sam had never heard of a cat letting a human do anything to them. “Well, I guess anything is possible if you try hard enough.” Sam said petting Melody. He smiled looking down at the dog hearing the pillow thing. “You and Deryn share a few traits little dog. He’s a pillow hog too, and well, you’re both around the same size.” Sam laughed at his own joke, Deryn wasn’t even around and Sam was still thinking of him.

“That’s Zelda’s fault. Well a combination of Zelda and the higher ups.” Sam had heard the rumor through a few people but he didn’t doubt that she had something to do with it. “Something about being unhygienic?” Sam shrugged. “I don’t care though,” Sam said continuing to pet Melody. “You seem good with both of them so it’s probably not a hassle,” Sam said to Balo.

“Well i’ll try not to interrupt your creative process, i’ll enjoy myself with Melody. She’s super cute, and Catsby seems like he’s chillin,” Sam smiled petting the dog.

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Balo returns the smile, “Thanks for being so understanding, I feel bad about not remembering people - I try. It’s just hard if I don’t see them often.” She admits, “although, it’s been awhile. What have you been up to? If you don’t mind me asking.”

She nods, “Yup, and Catsby tends to he very awesome about it too. He has a leather jacket and and a Flintstones tie too - and a couple other outfits. He also doesn’t mind sunglasses if he’s laying down - he obviously doesn’t walk around with them though.” She tells Sam, “Catsby a good cat - it kind of helps he’s too lazy to fight with me while dressing him up though. Plus I’m his food source - so - there’s that.”  She shrugs, petting Catsby a little more. “I think Deryn’s taller.” She ponders - trying to remember which one Deryn was for a moment. “But yeah, Melody is a pillow hog. It’s not too bad, but, if you leae your pillow alone for like five seconds she’ll steal it.”

Balo pouts, “Maybe we can convince Zelda that they’re not unhygienic? I have to keep sneaking Catbsy’s dinner to him and someone’s bound to notice at some point. It would be easier if I could just bring him in the cafeteria, you know?” She’d have to figure out how to get Zelda convinced - of course - but she had hope. “It’s not too bad, Melody can get a little hyperactive at times - but she tends to be well behaved.”

“Yeah, that sounds good. Although you can talk to me when I’m sketching. Sketching doesn’t require my complete focus, you know?” She admits, starting to sketch the fountain.

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

“Went to Europe to fight hell hounds. That’s always fun. I guess it makes sense you don’t really remember me.” Sam said scratching the back of his head nervously. “What about you? What have you been up to?”

Sam smiled at the thought of the Cat in a leather jacket. “You’ll have to show me Catsby in sunglasses.” He was sure there was a great Gatsby pun somewhere in there but he’d never read the book. “Yeah things tend to like you if you feed them. The Piranhas are like that too, greedy little bastards.” Sam shot a look to the fountain as if the Piranhas could hear him. “Deryn’s a little taller, but Deryn steals all the blankets too. It’s almost like they are building a nest.” Sam rolled his eyes at his partners antics. “Deryn is the child of Zeus. They’re pretty new but, they are nice,” They were Sam’s partner so they knew a lot about each other.  

“I dunno about that one. If she was that adamant to get it done I doubt we could change her mind. But eh, it’s worth trying. Sneaking his dinner does seem hard.” Sam had done his fair share of sneaking food out and he knew Zelda had a stash of food in her and Alan’s shared office.  

Sam nodded, “You’re really good at art, that doesn’t surprise me. Man, I can’t even imagine trying to do some sort of sketch and trying to talk to someone.”

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Balo nods, especially since she hadn’t been at Half-Blood Inc as long as some of the other people here. “Not too much - training occasionally with Alan and Zelda. They’re pretty cool. Hang out with Ches and Ivan, draw and paint.” She shrugs, “I’m waiting on getting a partner - I’ll hopefully get one at some point, it’s just for now I don’t have one.”

She nods, smiling, “That sounds like a plan. You’re more than welcome to visit him whenever you want? I mean I’m sure Ches would let you visit with Melody too.” She nods. “I don’t think I’ve met them officially yet? I’m pretty new myself - so it’s possible I’ve had training with them or something, but, if they’re as short as you say - I think I’d remember them.” She admits.

“It’s better to try and fail then never try at all.” Balo reminds him, a smile on her face. Plus Zelda didn’t exactly like Ivan’s pranks - if she talked to him, maybe he could help figure out a way to talk to her and convince her that it was a good idea- and at last resort - prank her.

“Thank you! A lot of practice, you know? Occasionally I mess up but I’m so used to it at this point it’s not too bad,”

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

Sam enjoyed having Deryn as his partner but sometimes it sucked. “Don’t worry about getting a partner, having to do the test thing sucks.” Sam said nervously twisting his hands. “I can’t imagine seeing Zelda and Alan do their test. They’ve probably gotten really good at it since they’ve been partners for a while. Deryn and I, uh, aren’t, uh, good at it.”

“I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing this little dude again.” Sam said petting the dog watching it get all excited. “You should, Deryn’s very nice. They are, Sam approved,” He laughed. “They are aren’t that short, they’re,” Sam paused. “Five one?”

“Yeah I’m sure you could probably blackmail her into getting your way, she is lazy. I’d imagine her and Catsby could sleep for days.” Sam chuckled at the idea of Zelda sleeping for hours on end with a cat next to her.

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Balo nods, “They keep me here for training anyway - so I suppose not having my partner yet isn’t exactly a bad thing. it would be nice though - everyone seems to have partners they like so far.”  She admits. “I can’t imagine it either - I’m sure you and Deryn will get there though. Sometimes you have to know who you’re testing with awhile before you do well. - at least that’s what I’ve heard.”

“I’m sure Ches will let you hang out with Melody, honestly. She tends to be nice usually.” She probably had a bad side - but Balo hadn’t personally seen it yet to date. “But I’m glad to hear they’re nice - I’ll probably meet them at some point.” She nods, “I thought Ches was the shortest?” She ponders it for a moment, before shrugging. “She must be really happy about him being around then, she gets a little upset when people are taller than her.”

She pouts, “Well, I was hoping that I could convince her nicely to allow Catsby in the Cafeteria. But that gives me an idea - maybe if they become nap buddies she’ll allow him to eat with me in the cafeteria.”

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

“It’s kinda hard to become enemies with someone who knows your greatest fears. Some sort of mutual respect.” Sam shrugged, he didn’t understand the thing that had formed in between him and Deryn but he wasn’t going to question it. “Zelda and Alan seem like to peas in the same pod so i’d imagine they get done really quickly. Hopefully me and Deryn get there someday.”

“I’ll definitely ask if I feel the need to cuddle with Melody,” Sam smiled to Balo. “Yeah Deryn is pretty short. They keep saying the rest of us are just giants. But, they are short. I’d imagine Ches would be happy if they meet, or have met,” He wasn’t actually sure who his partner had met. “Ches is average height though?” Sam liked Ches’ height it was nice and average, made him feel tall but not too tall, but he also wasn’t feeling short.

Sam shrugged, Zelda was fickle depending if she’d slept of not. “Photos, if you get Zelda and Catsby sleeping together it didn’t happen unless you have photographic evidence. I’m sure others will thank you if you end up getting the ban lift too.”

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Balo nods, “It’s happened though I’m sure. It’s harder - but I’m certain it’s happened in the past.” She tells him. “I’m sure those partners got reassigned though - you can’t easily work with someone you hate. I’m sure you and Deryn will get there at some point - it might take a lot of time and effort - but you can do it.” She tells him.

“I don’t know if they know Ches yet? I could ask next time I see her?” She ponders it for a moment. “Ches is average height - but from what little she’s told me about her father’s family. Her brothers are 5′11″ and her baby sister is 5′8″.” She tells him.

She nods, “I’ll be sure to get photos if it happens. I’ll see what I can do, maybe Catsby and her will get along enough the ban gets lifted.”

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

Sam shuttered at the thought of hating Deryn or even someone who knew all his fears using them against him. “It’d be terrifying to know that someone else knows your fears though, not just your partner. But I guess it is bound to happen. Thanks Balo, a little reassurance always help, and hey if things go wrong i’m sure Melody and Catsby will always be here for me!” Sam said grinning to the two pets.

“Ah she got the short stick, literally.” Sam laughed at his own joke. “But I’d imagine it’d suck being the short one in the family. I didn’t have to deal with that mom’s a model although, sometimes she wear these intense heels.”

“We can only pray shes in a good mood, try to get her in between just waking up and going to eat. She’s usually the nicest in that small window.” Sam had seen the insomniac when she hadn’t slept in a few days, it wasn’t pretty.

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

Balo nods, “They don’t tend to put people together unless they think they’re compatible though. So, hopefully you never have to deal with that.” She tells him, “I doubt things will go wrong, but, they’re always here if you need them. No doubt about that.” She tells him, giving him a reassuring smile.

“Yup! She says it sucks, and I suppose it does. I’ve never had to worry about that. I just have Ivan to compare heights with.” She had gotten out of her house as soon as possible so she didn’t have Grace to measure height with - but it was safe to assume with their father she was tall now. She had Ivan to thank for that though, home wasn’t safe - Camp Half Blood, and now Half-Blood Inc, was.

“I’ll try, maybe if she cuddles with Catsby a bit things will be okay and she’ll lift the ban.” It was worth a try, at the very least.

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

“Deryn and I are pretty good together so I probably wont.” Sam had been doing his best to get along with Deryn and so far they’d been doing a great job. “I’m sure it’s nice to have at least one at all times.” Sam said looking to Catsby, he hadn’t touched the cat but it’s presence was soothing.

“How tall is Ivan? He’s not a giant like Loren or Alan right?” Those two were giants in every sense of the word. Sam liked his height he wasn’t stupidly tall and he wasn’t short. It was a nice middle ground. “You seem like a good height too. Not too tall, not too short.”

Sam snickered at the idea of Zelda cuddling with the big cat. “Again, photos. Zelda near any sort of animal is worth seeing given the fact that she seems like a totally neat freak.”

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

Balo nods, “That’s good - as long as you get along with your partner, that’s what matters.” She tells him. She pets Catsby, nodding. “Catsby helps soothes me when things go wrong and when I wake up in the middle of the night. I’m so thankful Ivan got him for me.”

She looks around, “he’s average height.” She answers - “And Collen is 6′2″ so add him to your giant list - I swear those three hold the monopoly on tall people or something.” She jokes, “I like my height. Not too tall, not too short - it’s perfect.” She tells him, although she wished she was an inch smaller just so Ivan was a little more than an inch taller than her.

She nods, “Definitely, if she cuddles with Catsby, I’ll be sure to get photos.” She agrees.

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

“I don’t think it’s possible to not get along with Deryn though, they are the gods gift to the universe.” Sam smiled he was positive Zeus would actually kill him for making a move on his youngest child. “I’ve never had any pets, although Catsby seems great, and same with Melody here.”

“Damn, forgot about Collen, how in hell do people get to be that tall?” Zelda didn’t look ridiculous standing next to Alan, but Deryn sure did. Of course Sam couldn’t help but think of all the advantages they had being taller. But, they could also hit their heads on beams.

“How’s it going with your drawing by the way?” Sam asked curious.

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Balo nods, “I might disagree on you on that one? Ivan’s pretty much been my saving grace through everything. I don’t know where I’d be without him.” She admits, “but - Deryn sounds great. I’m happy for you two - it must be nice having a partner you can trust and all that.”

She shrugs, “when you find out, let me know?” She tells him - “I know Collen can reach things off the top shelf in Gamestop though. I may or may not have ran into him there and had him grab me Disney Infinity once.” She had been with Ches when it had happened and Ches grumbled most of the way back to Half-Blood Inc.

“It’s going good, want to see?” She asked him, flipping the drawing of the fountain around. “Do you think the piranhas look good - I don’t want to offend them.”

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“I think you favor Ivan though, being siblings and all. Plus he totally doesn’t prank you.” Sam groaned jealous that Balo was a safe zone. Although Sam had never been in one of Ivan’s pranks he they were bad. “Uh huh.” Sam nodded, he enjoyed Deryn as a partner, it gave him an excuse to be near them all the time.

“I don’t even try for the top shelf anymore. I’ll just download it off of PSN it’s easier than having to ask someone else to grab something for you.” Sam was tall but there were certain things he wouldn’t ask for help. Reaching something that was on a high shelf was one of them.

Sam looked over the drawing impressed. “Piranhas look good, but if you want their favor give them food and they won’t care. Or if you want them to basically love you.”

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Balo laughs, “we’re not blood siblings - you know that right? My father brought him to the states from England.” She looks down at the ground for a moment, petting Catsby. “No, I just tend to help him with his pranks. They’re nice - I mean some of his meaner pranks I avoid because I don’t like being mean - but his nicer ones are always fun.” He got extremely good at pranks trying to protect her from her father, after all.

She looks up when he mentions the top shelf, “Well Disney Infinity is one of those games where you need the little figures that come in the starter pack to play. It’s a lot of fun, they just put the starter packs on the top shelf.” She tells him.

She grins, “I’ll have to try that sometime. I’m sure they’d like some food. Meat only, right?”

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“Yeah but you refer to him as your sibling so, eh.” Sam shrugged, he didn’t care if they were half siblings, or not even related. If they said they were siblings, they were siblings. “Yeah you help him, you’ve never been in one. And I’m pretty sure anyone who’s been in an Ivan prank doesn’t completely like him.”

“Dude the little figures suck, I hate having to spend money on more than just the game. Although I’ll admit to getting all the Amiibos shipped to me through Amazon Prime,” Sam loved smash bros. He didn’t even play some of the characters he got, but he had all of them. “I so get needing to have all of the characters.”

“Yeah, sadly no vegan Piranhas. I’d assume they’d just be considered regular fish. They don’t even like tofu.”Sam was a little sad that the Piranhas didn’t like tofu although it made sense.

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Balo smiles, “I’m just saying, it matters to some people.” She admits. “But he’s the best brother I could have asked for - he keeps me safe, and I try to keep him safe.” Ivan used to pull her father’s attention, and she’d try to pull it back to prevent him from getting hurt. It was a twisted cycle that resulted in two abused children. Her smile fades a little, “Ivan’s not too bad. You know? Ches really likes him.” Of course, Ches had a crush on him, it was obvious.

Ches just wasn’t exactly admitting it.

“I’ve been wanting to get a Wii U to play Smash, I’m still on PS3. Maybe someday, but, it’s not currently a priority if that makes sense.” She admits, “I have to make sure this little guy is fed.” She gestures to Catsby, who wasn’t exactly little in cat standards. “Do you get the Amiibos as they come out? I try to get my favorites for Disney Infinity, and occasionally Ches picks me up some when she thinks of me. There’s just so many Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars characters - you know?”

“They don’t like tofu? I thought that you can make it taste like meat though - isn’t that why vegetarians use it in their foods?” She wasn’t exactly knowledgeable in vegetarian foods, so, she could be wrong of course, but, that’s what she always assumed.

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“Ches likes Ivan? Is this a like like or just like?” Sam asked a bit stunned that the queen of makeup was into Ivan. “She doesn’t seem like the type to like Ivan. I thought she’d prefer someone she could mold into being her, I dunno slave?” Sam shrugged, he’d seen some Ches types pick a popular boy and make them into their ultimate boy toy.

“Feel free to come by and play with me any time you want. I have a PS4 and an Xbox one too. Although most of the games for those are Halo, Assassin creed, war games type.” Sam beamed, he loved playing Smash, it was the family friendly Halo. Sam’s face scrunched up at the mention of Star Wars. “Ugh, I love the new Star Wars movies don’t get me wrong but, it kind of sucks that Disney owns Star Wars, it lead to the meshing of some of the worse TV shows. But yeah, I have a dude who charges me and just orders everything for me. I have some that are considered ‘rare’ He’s probably charged at least a thousand dollars to me just on those alone, but it’s so worth it,” Sam laughed.

“Piranhas like the more gory side to meat and some how can tell the difference. I’ve never had any meat so I don’t know if there is a difference between the fake stuff and the real stuff. Plus I tend not to eat any of the fake stuff anyway, I like tofu, and I like garden burgers.” Sam shrugged, the only actual product of animals he liked was Cheese.

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Balo raises an eyebrow, “It’s obvious, isn’t it?” She asks, she thought it was at least - perhaps she was wrong. “That’s stereotyping, you know. Ches bores easily of boys - a boy who follows her like a puppy dog would bore her too much.” She hadn’t know Ches very long - but the two quickly became friends, to the point where Balo was aware of Ches’s dating habits. The ones that doted over her quickly bored her, that was a clear as could be.

“That sounds like a plan! I like Assassin’s Creed. I’m not any good at it, but it’s fun to attempt to play - if that makes sense.” She tells him with a smile, “I like Star Wars Rebels though - I get mega confused on where it sits in the timeline to be honest. I’m not a fan of Lego Star Wars though - I mean there’s a funny scene here or there but it’s not something I’m really into. A thousand dollars? That’s a lot of money.” She wasn’t exactly used to that kind of money - at least not anymore. Not since Ivan and her ran away.

“It could be the blood possibly? They eat what smells like it - although I suppose that wouldn’t explain the cooked meat.” She ponders it for a little bit. “Piranhas have weird diets - no doubt about that.”

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“I don’t know, I guess I tend to stay away from the touchy-feely crap.” Sam shrugged, he hadn’t known Ches liked Ivan. “Like she hasn’t judged me. Everyone judges people Balo, except maybe Catsby and Melody here. Although I guess that’s why she likes Ivan, I definitely would have done her every wish.” Sam chuckled to himself as he snuggled up to Melody.

“Assassin’s creed is by far more mental than they let it out to be. You should try Halo, it’s way easier and your fighting monsters in space. Or you could fight dragons in Dark souls, and Diablo holds a special place in my heart. Ah, the carpal tunnel of clicking furiously.”  Sam could talk about video games all day. Deryn thought it was ridiculous that one person could own so many video games but they warmed up to playing a few of them.

“A thousand dollars isn’t that much for video games though. each game is usually 60 dollars anyway, 17 games is more than thousand dollars and I own way more than 17.” Sam had never been truly poor in his life, he had a comfortable life in Malibu since his mother was a big time model. He didn’t know how to be poor, even in Europe he always had a bed and always had money for food and transportation.

Sam shrugged he didn’t get the piranhas he just knew they tended to like him. “Who knows, they’re weird.”

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Balo nods, “That makes sense. It might just be I spend time with both of them too?” She tells him. “I think Catsby judges people to be honest - he gives Ivan dirty looks when he doesn’t share his food.” She pets the cat, “But honestly? That could be it. Anyway, some people are better as friends - you know?” She says with a grin.

“I like Assassin’s Creed - it’s just I’m not good at it. I haven’t tried Halo yet - although I’ve heard rumors that the driving part of it is a little finicky. I’m easily scared - so Dark Souls is out. I jump at Rugrats - Reptar is scary, you know?” She admits, it wasn’t exactly the scariest thing out there she knew - but she wasn’t exactly a big fan of anything that jumped.

“That’s a fair point, just one Amiibo being a thousand dollars sounds like a lot to me.” She admits, maybe it wasn’t a lot of money for people like her father and her sister - but it was for her. She couldn’t help but wonder what Grace was up to - she obviously didn’t stay in contact after Ivan and her ran away, and it wasn’t like she googled her sister - so she was pretty much unaware of what her older half sister was up to.

It was probably better that way.

She nods, “friendly, but weird. They need to learn playful nips aren’t nice though. Maybe you should work on that with them? You seem to be good with them.”

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“Catsby you crafty SOB, you would judge people who don’t share food.” Sam laughed unable to help himself picturing the Cat giving people dirty looks who wouldn’t share. “A type is a type,” Sam shrugged still chuckling over the cat. “Don’t worry Catsby i’ll share my food with you although I’d doubt you’d like it.”

“Halo’s driving is ridiculous, but once you get the hang of it it’s all good. Dark souls isn’t that scary, the mechanics are weird though. Diablo definitely has creepier monsters in my opinion. But you can play whatever you want, I don’t care.” Sam liked the mechanics to Dark souls it did make you think but it also sucked trying to learn how to read each move.

“Hell no, I don’t even buy clothing that costs a thousand dollars. That’s ridiculous.” Sam technically didn’t buy any of the clothing he wore to events, they were given to him. But he’d never spent more than 50 bucks on any of his clothing.

Sam glanced at the fountain and shook his head. “I think that’s in piranha nature, can’t really train out something they do to survive.”

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Balo nods, “Catsby would probably eat anything - he likes the meat off the Arby’s sandwiches. Also you can’t open a can in my common room without him coming running.” She admits, “he’d probably love you forever if you fed him though - like - he loves food. Isn’t that right, Catsby?” She asks turning to her cat, who purrs louder in response.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Well, l scare pretty easily - so I might avoid Diablo and Dark Souls. But playing whatever I want sounds like a plan. If you ever want to come play Disney Infinity with me, feel free? All Ches likes doing is running around the Toy Boy Hub as Anakin and failing to kill the children.” Ches did it as a joke of course - she didn’t actually want to kill the children - though she had fun hitting them around the place with Anakin’s lightsaber. “That, or we play the fan maps - there’s this Black Ops Zombies one that’s a blast.”

“Okay, good, I must have misunderstood - it happens. I just thought that’d be a lot of money for one thing, you know? A lot of things - sure - one? That’d be pretty expensive.” She had exceptions for that rule of course - things like paintings she’d be willing to pay a lot of money for, but an Amiibo? Not so much.

She nods, “I suppose you’re right. I guess that’s why the signs are there, right?”

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“Well if I ever need Catsby’s help i’ll remember to feed him.” Sam smiled looking to the Cat and stood up leaving Melody on the ground. “He’s a really big cat.” Sam chuckled, he couldn’t get over how big Catsby really was.

“You should play splatoon or move or die, they’re fun co op games. Although I might take you up on the Black ops zombie fan map, that sounds awesome.” He was always up to kill zombies or monsters. Even in real life, fighting always was a rush of energy.

Sam rubbed the back of his head nervously. “Yeah, no, buying one of those little figures for a thousand dollars is a lot of money. M’ sure spending that type of money on Art happens a lot though.” Sam didn’t understand art prices but he knew his mother had spent money on art for around their house.

“I’m getting kinda hungry Balo, if you’d like you can join me in the cafeteria. If not i’ll bail, but this was really cool, I enjoyed meeting Melody and Catsby.” Sam smiled to Balo hearing his stomach grumble.

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Balo smiles, “He’ll definitely help you if you feed him. Just human food only, I don’t feed him anythign I wouldn’t personally eat myself.” She tells Sam, watching him get up.

“I’ll have to come over and check out Splatoon sometime.” She agrees, “although if you ever want in on that fan map - let me know? I’m always looking for people to play co-op with.” She had more fun playing co-op on Disney Infinity. No doubt about that.

She nods, “makes sense. Art tends to be expensive, just one of those things. But it makes a lot of sense to me - artists deserve to get paid for their work. You wouldn’t go to a store for a couch and go: “I want this for free.” You know.”

She grins, “Nah, I’m not hungry, plus Catsby and Melody aren’t allowed in there. But yeah, this was fun. It was nice seeing you Sam!”

She waits for him to walk off before she turns her attention to a new sketch, drawing something else in the area.

[twxntrash]

Dance of Grey Ch. 3

Exposition, more characters, more powers, a training session, and Kotone being a little shit, with Best Girl making her appearance in the next chapter. This chapter was totally absolutely was in no way shape or form influenced by one of my favorite BNHA episodes.

Hercules is inspired by a mix of All Might, Superman, Hercules|Heracles (Obviously, but we’ll be seeing more of that later) and some other characters. I just like characters who are Too Strong For Own Good. 

It was nice having gotten to make friends with Dakota Andrews. Kotone hadn’t been lying when she said that his power was impressive, she had always found blood related powers to be pretty interesting and cool, and his Blood Control just opened the doors for so many possibilities. Though, he did need some work on the self-confidence department.

It didn’t hurt that he was kind of cute in his own way. Tall, long lanky limbs and just enough muscle mass that he was able to pass the intense physical part of the exam, but not as much muscle as the other boys in their class, and of course he had messy jaw length black hair.

She would be lying if she said the resemblance Dakota had to someone else wasn’t a big part in why she reached out to him. The two looked a bit alike, sure, but in personality they were completely different.

But that didn’t mean that Kotone had lied when she said she wanted to be his friend, she really did want to befriend him and get to know him. He seemed like he’d be a sweetheart once you got past his fifty layers of pessimism, anxiety and self-hate.

Of course, Kotone hadn’t hesitated to latch onto Dakota’s arm and take him down to join her for lunch in the cafeteria every day since. She usually sat with different classmates to get to know them, and had always noticed how Dakota sat alone for lunch. That was going to change. She planned to sit with him for lunch every day so he wouldn’t be alone. She knew how much being alone hurt.

But that stuff was just filler stuff because once lunch was over it was the best part of school.

The Hero Course.

Dakota had gone off ahead of her for class, mostly at her insistent as she had a phone call to make before the lunchbreak was over. She’d stayed outside away from prying ears for most of the call and was just now on her way back, phone still in hand.

“Things are going good,” Kotone said into her phone as she walked the halls of Garrick Academy, making her way back to her classroom.

She ducked under an older student on her way by, talk and heavily built with a second pair of beefy arms sticking out from his sides. “I’m okay. Trust me, everything is going fine.” “Honestly, she wasn’t a kid anymore. She could handle herself just fine out here. Sure, this was her first time living on her own, and she was pretty far from home, but she was managing just fine on her own, thank you!

But, his concern was touching. It always made her heart swell and flutter whenever he showed these little gestures of concern and worry, rare as they were, for her.

“My class?” Kotone repeated into the speaker, narrowing her eyes at the little crowd that was taking up too much space in the hall. So many extra limbs, tails, wings and other powers and mutations blocking the way for students trying to get by.

Taking a deep breath, Kotone pushed herself up against the wall and tried to squeeze past them.

“They’re nice, energetic and lively. And so attractive it should be a crime,” she added as a joke, laughing a little as she imagined the face he was probably making at that comment. “Don’t worry, they don’t hold a candle to you. …I’m serious! …Lies! You’re plenty good looking! Who cares what others think, I find you pretty damn handsome,” she said, making a face. It was more at what he was saying than at the students she managed to finally break free of.

Adjusting her hold on the phone, she listened to him as he kept talking. At least he wasn’t trying to argue with the handsome part again. He knew better than to argue when Kotone set her mind on something. And, she was being honest, in her opinion he was a true Prince Charming.

“Yeah, my classmates are pretty strong,” she answered when he asked, reaching the stairs and starting the ascent to her floor. “Plenty strong with powerful powers this year. I was honestly impressed by what these guys can do. This defs adds proof to that whole theory that the gene mutation that gave us these abilities is growing more complex and producing stronger powers with each generation.”

A pause.

“Hey, what’s wrong with saying ‘defs’? It’s shorter and quicker than saying ‘definitely’, and it gets the same point across!” Another pause and this time Kotone sighed, shaking her head as she walked. “Fine, fine,” she surrendered.

A few more seconds passed as she listened to him talk on his end, reaching the door to her class and slid it open, “Don’t worry, I’m keeping an eye out for any potential recruits like you asked me to,” she assured him. “I’m sure you’ll be able to see what they can do for yourself when it’s time for the festival in a few months. Don’t worry, I’ll send you a list of possibilities for the agency later. I know you want fresh faces.”

She hummed and smiled as she reached her desk, slipping her bag off, “Yeah, talk to you later. Stay safe and don’t do anything too stupid,” she said with a laugh at his response before hanging up.

Kotone had barely put her phone away before a few of her other classmates, having heard the tail end of her conversation over the phone, were on her like she was meat in a piranha pool. She was forced to reel back as several hands slapped on her desk and a few heads got too close for comfort.

“What was that about, Kotone?” A sweet voice asked.

Elizabeth, Joseph and Casey were surrounding her with eager expressions, like they were waiting for the latest gossip.

She looked at them confused, scratching the back of her neck as she thought of what they were asking, “You mean my phone call?” hadn’t they ever heard of privacy? She couldn’t quite get why they’d be so interested, though.

“Duh,” Elizabeth spoke up again, smiling playfully. “You had this kind of glow to your face as you were talking. Who’s the lucky person, your boyfriend?”

“I didn’t even know you were into the whole romance thing. Girl you got to spill the deets,” Casey added with a laugh.

Kotone shrugged as she started to dig through her bag for her class material. “He’s a friend from back home, I’ve worked with him a lot on different stuff before I came to school here, family friend and all that. Not my boyfriend,” she said, glancing at Elizabeth as she said that. “He was just checking up on me, wanting to know how things were going now that I was here on my own.”

It wasn’t like who he was mattered for them, and she’d rather not put him in her classmates crosshairs.

“You mentioned something about recruiting and an agency,” Joseph mused as he tilted his head to the side, his blue hair moving with him like liquid in a glass. “Does he work at one of the Hero Agencies?”

When he brought that up, Casey let out a little gasp like she hadn’t considered it and Elizabeth leaned in closer, searching for some kind of answer on Kotone’s face, as though the idea he might work at an H.A. was more interesting than him potentially being Kotones boyfriend.

Which made sense when you thought about it.

These were students aiming to be professional heroes, most of them, if not all, were going to be going to a Hero Agency once they graduated. An agency was an office that hired and employed heroes. They were usually created by a single hero who’d gained enough popularity and financial assets to start one. Those who joined the agency were sidekicks or team members. Most were younger heroes who’d just started out, so the hero who ran the agency acted not only as a leader but a mentor, helping the new heroes get a feel for what they had to do.

Of course not all hero went into an agency, there were plenty who went off as a solo hero once they got their licenses. But, an agency provided a layer of security that a solo hero didn’t have. Teammates to fall back on if things got rough, PR agents to help keep the heroes image clean, easier to make connections with costume and equipment manufacturers. While an agency wasn’t necessary, they were a very big help.

Catching the eye of an agency early on at the academy was a good thing, and if her classmates thought she had some connection to an out of town agency, then of  course they’d want more information.

But, Kotone laughed a little and waved her hand at them in a playful manner. “Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t,” she said, watching their expression as she brought a finger to her lip. “But, he does plan to see just what this class is made of at one of our public events. Who knows, maybe he’ll take an interest in one of you.”

She saw their faces light up and the quiet cheers they let out at the idea of getting scouted as first years by some hero agency. A few of the students glanced their way but showed no sign they heard or cared for their conversation.

A chair was kicked over loud enough to catch her attention and Kotone looked over to where Carter was standing, the ginger looking pissed off as usual and staring right at them like they were insects he found crawling on his shoes.

“Who gives a shit if your friend runs a Hero Agency or not? It’s probably as second rate as you are,” he snarled, baring his teeth.

Kotone’s first thoughts of her classmates would always be that they were a very nice bunch, a bit weird, but nice, friendly and easy to get along with. And that was mostly true. Most of them were really decent people, the kind she wouldn’t mind hanging out with on her day off from school or  getting a late night burger with.

But, then there was Carter Schott.

He was the definition of anger problems, and his head was so swollen that she was surprised he managed to get into the classroom each day. Apparently his classmates from his old schools must have thought his power was the greatest thing on Earth and stroked his ego so much that the idea of it being anything but the best just pissed him off. He couldn’t stand not being the greatest and strongest all on his own.

The idea of relying on a Hero Agency was something he made clear that he hated. Believed that he was going to be the number one hero as soon as he got his license.

The class always laughed at that idea.

Honestly, his power wasn’t even as great as he made it out to be. It was strong, but there were more than a few in the school who had a power even stronger.

From what she understood, Carter was able to bring his blood, which had a different composition to it than normal blood, to a burning hot boil, and, using small pores in his hands to mix it with his sweat, that also had a different composition to it than others, he could cause bloody eruptions from his hands that had both a burn factor and an explosive factor to them. The more he used it, or the angrier he got, the hotter his blood became making the eruptions that much stronger. They were hot enough to cause serious injuries and destroy objects.

Of course, it meant that, like Dakota, he was using his own blood for these eruptions. However, unlike Dakota, blood loss wasn’t even a concern because of how little blood was required. It only took a few drops of blood for a nasty explosion, after all.

His main problem was heat. He’d get heatstroke long before he’d ever run the risk of blood loss. Carter would overheat himself if he used his power too much in a short period of time without giving him time to cool off in between. He’d even been taken to the nurse on the first day because he got so pissed over how much better the other students were then what he wanted, as well as used far too much of his power than he needed during the practice session, that he gave himself heatstroke.

Even more, Carter was just so unpleasant that Kotone could never see him becoming the ‘number one hero’ he claimed he would be, let alone one anywhere near popular. He cared more about fighting and beating others up then saving people like a hero was supposed to do, and his reasons for wanting to be a hero were selfish and greedy. For the money and fame.

Honestly, it’s guys like him that Kotone hated.

Thankfully, none of her classmates really took him seriously. His old classmates before entering the Academy may have thought him the scariest person out there, but class 1-B was hardly fazed by his attempts to assert dominance over them.

“Are you just jealous because you know there isn’t an agency out there that would ever accept you?” Kotone asked with a playful grin as she rested her cheek on a hand. Joseph let out a low ‘oooh, burn!’ at that while the other girls giggled.

She could see the skin on Carters hands turning pink as his blood heated up at the comment. “Why you!” He snarled, murder in his eyes, “Any agency would be lucky to have someone like me,” he hissed as he stomped his way over to her.

“You say that, but I’m not convinced,” Kotone said with a lazy shrug. “Joseph here has a better chance of being accepted into a fire-themed agency than you have in getting into any decent one,” and Josephs power was turning himself into water of all things, making him one of the last who’d get accepted into an agency for fire-related powers.

But, she could see the anger rising in Carters face and it just filled her with glee.

Come on, hit me, she thought. I know you want to.

Throw a punch at her so she could throw one right back at him with even more force. She had been dying to give him a black eye since day one, and self-defense seemed as good an excuse as any for it. Besides, it’d only be a matter of time before Carter’s verbal threats turned physical, so someone ought to put him in his place and for guys like him, violence was the only way to get through that thick skull.

The volcanic student ground his teeth and raised an arm, reaching out to grab her by her shirt and yank her up. “You’re really asking for it,” he spat at her, “do you want to fucking die that badly?”

“Not a very heroic thing to say, an attitude like that and you’ll be lucky if you even get a hero license,” she taunted. Oh, it was always fun getting him mad.

Before Carter could do much of anything else, though his eyes told her that he wanted to kill her where she stood, the door was thrown open with way too much force to be the hero Stone like it usually was after lunch.

The students turned their heads as the massive man walked in, ducking under the high door frame that was still a bit too low for him. He was huge, bulging muscles under a white button up work shirt and wearing a simple black tie over it.

Even outside of his costume, a black spandex suit with a golden armor chest piece and a lion-themed cowl, he was still easily recognizable. Dark brown locks of hair that reached past his shoulders, dark eyes, the scar over his right cheek and a smile that could light the world in place of the sun.

Hercules.

The number one hero nation-wide for the past fifteen years, worldwide for the past nine, and one of the hero course instructors at Garrick Academy for the past three.

Just his presence and the class, who had slowly edged back to their respective seats, were in silent awe while the other half were in excited cheers.

It went without saying, but the class was always excited when he was teaching them something. Because, A; it was a hero-course activity and that meant they got to get out of the classroom and do something active and training related other than the usual studying and lectures. And B; it was because Hercules was teaching the class.

Sure, Stone was a good teacher and all, and his training sessions were better than expected. But nothing could compare to Hercules. The hero with super strength even greater than his namesake. The Strongest Hero Alive who had never lost a fight and always went above and beyond to save and protect those around him.

It meant that whatever they were doing today for the hero session of class, it was going to be good.

Kotone couldn’t keep the grin off her face as the teacher made his way to the podium, coughing loudly to get the attention of the room as though it hadn’t all been on him the moment he walked in.

“I see you are all energetic today, good. You’ll need that energy for our training today,” he said, still smiling that obnoxiously wide smile that showed off those irritatingly sparkly white teeth. “You all ready for a little field trip to one of our training sites?” Hercules asked.

The class was filled with a chorus of ‘yes, sir’ and other sounds of agreement at the idea. The academy had ten different training sites scattered around the city, each massive in size, some held mini cities. Each had a different design from the other, with a different purpose in mind.

Kotone had only ever been to one of the training sites and it had been for the application exam. Even then she had been impressed by the structure. She could only imagine what the others would look like inside.

Hercules nodded and gestured for the door. “Well, in that case; change into your gym clothes and meet me at the bus by the gates and we’ll head to our destination,” he said and watched the students get up. “But don’t be late. We don’t want our time for training to be cut, now do we?”

As it turned out, they were going into one of the sites a little farther away from the school. It was a city structure one that had a variety of buildings inside the tall steel walls. Hercules had ushered them into one of the buildings that was set up with various monitors and speakers.

The purpose of this training was to get some experience in a real fight, to think like a hero, and more. Carter was, of course, excited about the fight part, making it clear that he was going to kick everyone’s asses. Hercules ignored him and explained how they’d be paired up at random and split into two groups. One team would play the role of a villain and the other was the hero team that had to stop them.

The hero team would be breaking into the villain teams hideout and try to reach a goal that was different for each group. They may be trying to retrieve stolen weapons, a powerful bomb, or just capture the villains. They were to fight as hard as they could with Hercules and the rest of the class watching from the base building. The teacher would step in if things got out of hands, otherwise it was all up to the students.

The hero team wasn’t going to know what it was they needed to look for until they started, didn’t know where it was going to be or what the interior was like. They were going to be at a huge disadvantage while the villains had the advantage of knowing where everything was while having time to make a plan.

Teamwork, strategy and communication was going to be essential for this activity, that much was obvious.

Kotone was eager for her turn, and was even more excited when she got paired up with Dakota. Out of all her classmates, she felt he was the one she’d work the best with, so this worked out in her favor.

“Ready to show them who the best team is?” Kotone had asked, wrapping an arm around his thin shoulders and pulling him down to her height. Seriously, why was he so tall? “Between your power and mine, no team can stop us.” Of course she was saying it quietly so that the others didn’t hear and try to pick a fight. For Dakota’s sake of course. She could handle herself in a fray of heated words and challenges, but Dakota was a nervous wreck who’d break down crying if the others started yelling at him.

But she did believe she and Dakota were the best team-up. One pair, Casey and Ian, she couldn’t think of how they’d work together. Casey’s hypnotic singing and Ians cat-like features weren’t the best match. Matt and Hector were another team she had her doubts about as well. Pain Manipulation and Spiderlegs, while interesting powers on their own, didn’t quite have a natural harmony together.

She wanted to laugh when she saw the Dae twins ended up getting paired up even though it had been a random drawing. Alexis was screaming over how that shouldn’t have been possible and how unfair it was that she had to “Be in the same womb as Alex for nine months and now I have be in the same team as him?” But, they had potential to be a good team, unlike the others those two had years of training together.

However, they were always butting heads so it was up in the air if they could actually work properly together or if they’d try to one-up the other like they did in class.

There were other pairs with powers that didn’t really work well with each other, but Kotone was starting to figure that was the point of the exercise. With the exception of the twins, none of her classmates had experience working with the other in some kind of fight or training exercise. They didn’t know how to work the others power, how to use them together to secure victory.

Part of the lesson was to try and learn how to work together. After all, a hero didn’t always get to choose what other heroes they’d be working with out on the field when responding to a disaster or attack.

It was going to be interesting seeing how well the others managed.

But then came the actual fights and, while the fighting was hardly anything to scoff at, and her classmates proved how deserving they were with their strength to be at the academy, their performance as villains were terrible.

Cody and Elizabeth had been the first villain team and had been the worst villains. They’d chosen a bunker as their layout and the target goal was a mess of explosives that would cause a sizable portion of the city to sink. That is, it would if the explosions were real and not just props.

But their impersonation of villains, while passionate… made her want to tear her ears off.

“BOW BEFORE US, YOU PUNY HEROES!” Cody screamed so loudly that even through the speakers Kotone felt her ears ring. “NO ONE CAN DEFEAT US VILLAINS! MWAHAHAHA! WE’LL BLOW UP THE ENTIRE CITY BECAUSE THAT’S JUST HOW WE FEEL!”

No self-respecting villain or criminal, no matter how batshit crazy they may be, was going to scream their lungs out and talk like that. It was like he was trying to be a walking stereotype. Just. No. The cringe was so real.

Elizabeth wasn’t much better, doing her best smug impression with the backhanded laugh you saw the conniving evil girl in an anime doing, sneering like she was some evil queen who knew she was better than you. “Do you pitiable men really think you can take us on?” she asked, her voice made a pitch higher for the act.

“YOU’RE GOING DOWN!” Cody added.

Kotone wanted to just mute the both of them.

But, to her surprise, they worked well together. Elizabeth’s smoke obscured the other teams vision and Cody’s long-ranged electric attacks kept them from being able to make any ground without having to get close to them. Kotone had to hand it to them, despite their despairingly over the top impression of what a villain was like, they were  good team.

She hadn’t expected them to win, but they had kept the hero team at the first floor long enough for the time to run out. Even though most of their work was probably improvised, their teamwork was spot on while the hero team was disorganized and didn’t have a plan or any communication.

Once they had finished up, Hercules picked two more teams and a location and goal would be set. Not everyone was as good as Cody and Elizabeth in the teamwork department, and sometimes the heroes won, sometimes the villains did. Most of the pairs were dysfunctional, unable to find some form of rhythm between them to work with.

As expected, Ian and Casey did awful as villains, but they were up against Alex and Alexis. But even then, the twins didn’t work as smoothly as others may have expected. They spent the first five minutes arguing over how to handle it before Alexis just froze the entire building without even talking it over with Alex.

Risky. She could have harmed the other classmates or damaged what they were trying to retrieve. Then Alex could have hurt them even more with the steam he produced when he melted the ice. Even Hercules had made a comment to them that they need to be more conscious of safety for those around them, had there been bystanders, hostages or teammates inside, they could have easily hurt them.

Carter just destroyed everything when it was his turn, gave no thought to the fact that he was trying to recover a stolen nuke as he used his boiling bloody-sweat mix to blow holes into walls and at his classmates.

Hercules pointed that out to him right off the bat that, even though he and James did technically catch the villains and get the nuke, had this been a real situation and not a training scenario, Carter would have caused the bomb to go off and destroyed the entire city in his recklessness, and thus the villains technically won. He then told the entire class to take Carter as an example, that they need to be more aware of their surroundings and can’t just destroy everything in sight as that could potentially make things even worse.

That pissed him off and Kotone relished in his rage.

But then it was her and Dakotas turn and they were  being ushered away by Hercules to get set up.

They’d picked an office building like some of the other students had. Much more space, more obstacles in the form of the buildings furniture and office cubicles. All the floors meant the heroes had to climb and search each floor, making them waste time searching ad giving her and Dakota ways to cut them off.

It was easy for them to choose the location. But the goal?

Kotone grinned as she kicked at one of the fake bombs. Whatever they chose to take into the office, Hercules was going to carry for them and help them set up for the simple fact that most of the props were as heavy as they were.

The bombs were too simple, easy to dismantle, destroy or deactivate so it’d be too easy for the heroes. A nuke was too troublesome, if the fighting got too close or too intense then it would risk going off, if it was real at least. Just let the heroes break in with no other goal but to capture her and Dakota, then there would be no fun, no risk or urgency for both parties. She needed something good.

“Hey, Dakota, how about this?” Kotone asked as she rapped her knuckles against the plastic head of a life-sized doll leaning against the wall. “Up for a hostage situation?”

Dakota wrung his hands as he looked at the dolls and then back up at Kotone, “Hostages?” he asked her curiously, “Like, they have to beat us and get those things?”

“Yep!” Kotone grinned as she looked at the doll and the ones beside it. “We, the fearsome villainous duo, have just kidnapped this high profile target and her family and are holding them hostage for ransom. Two heroes were dispatched to fight us and get the hostages back unharmed,” she explained as she slipped her hands into the pockets of her gym pants.

Hercules laughed as he listened to them from where he stood. “I think that is a splendid idea, he said as he watched the two. “We haven’t had a group do that scenario yet, but out in the real world, villains kidnap all sorts of people every day, not just the high profile ones, for a variety of reasons. It’s very common, right up there with robberies.”

“We can store them on the sixth floor, make it so the heroes have to do just a little bit more work, waste a little more time to get to us,” Kotone added as she looked back up at Dakota. “What do you think?”

Her friend offered a shy smile. “Well, if you think it’s a good idea, then let’s do it.”

With a fist thrusted into the air, Kotone was grinning like crazy. “Alright, let’s do this, then,” She cheered as she moved for Hercules to lift three of the dolls. He carried them effortlessly even though they probably each weight half as much as Kotone did. She was excited for this activity, even if she was the ‘villain’ of this fight. Honestly, she was going to show the others just what a villain was like. They were hardly some over the top loudmouth or a snarky queen bitch.

Even more, she was itching for a good fight. This was going to be her first fight against another student since entering the academy, and with all the strong students around her, it was bound to be good.

Leading the way for Hercules, dragging Dakota at her side, she began working with him on a plan. Well, she did most of the planning and he just agreed, but she’d help him work on that inability to voice his own opinions.

They were going up against Joseph, whom could be a problem, but if they got him to wear his power out then he’d be easy to take out. The real threat this match was going to be Kiera O’Connor and boy was Kotone looking forward to fighting her.

[pagedesignhub-blog]

SK Gaming wins IEM Sydney

New Post has been published on https://pagedesignhub.com/sk-gaming-wins-iem-sydney/

SK Gaming wins IEM Sydney

The very last day of Intel Severe Masters Sydney noticed SK Gaming and FaZe Clan faces off in an exciting series within the Quds Financial institution Area. SK continued its domination of the event with another robust performance, taking a 3-1 win to bring home the IEM Sydney crown and the $100,000 prize. Right here’s how the grand finals went down.

The series started out with a really one-sided start on Educate. SK took the pistol round on the again of a triple kill from Marcelo “colder” David, turning that into an early 3-zero lead. FaZe eventually got on the board with a win in spherical 4, however that proved to be just one of three rounds it secured within the first half. Notwithstanding taking the 12-three lead into the half of, FaZe battled returned rather tough to make things thrilling within the second 1/2. FaZe’s Finn “Carrigan” Andersen was the pinnacle of his sport as FaZe went on a ten-2 run to open up the half of. At that point, although, SK in-sport leader Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo helped bring back the very last rounds for a 16-12 SK win.

The series moved to Cache for recreation 2, where FaZe had a far better start than it did in recreation 1. This time it turned into Nikola “Niko” Kovač popping off early on, going huge with eight kills for a 4-2 FaZe lead. From then on, but, FalleN all over again stabilized SK, leading the Brazilian side to head on a large run. SK won 10 straight between the give up of the first half of and the start of the second one 1/2. Whilst FaZe managed to win 3 instantly rounds afterward, SK got on track to finish up the 16-7 win and put itself simply one win far from the championship.

recreation 3 ended up being an absolute thriller on Inferno. Niko turned into on top of his recreation once more at the start of this recreation, giving FaZe an early 6-zero lead. SK controlled to discover a few extra rounds in the 1/2, but FaZe stood tall, taking a 10-5 lead into the half of. the second one-half of is where matters started out to warmness up as SK rattled off 5 directly wins to open the half off and tie things up at 10 all. The groups then traded returned-and-forth spherical wins, with SK taking a late 13-12 lead. FaZe failed to let SK runaway, though, with Håvard “rain” Nygaard selecting up a 1-vs-2 take hold of to tie matters at 13. FaZe took the following three wins to keep its hopes alive and pressure game four.

recreation four began off properly sufficient for FaZe, as it took a four-2 lead early on. That lead didn’t come clean, though, because it took Kerrigan developing with a sneaky bomb defused in proper ninja shape in spherical 6 to cement that lead. From then on, the teams proceeded to change wins back and forth for the remainder of the half. round nine became every other excessive-profile spherical as Niko and colder traded triple kills, with caldera’s coming in a 1-vs-3 state of affairs for the spherical win. At the same time as FaZe overcame that for a nine-6 lead at the 1/2, SK found its groove with a ten-2 showing within the 1/2 to lock up the 16-11 win.

The three-1 series win was the suitable exclamation factor on SK’s performance in this tournament because the Brazilians dropped just one map all match. In spite of the shaky begin to the year, it seems secure to mention that SK is officially back and will be a force to be reckoned with for tournaments to come.

Incredible Mario Bros recreation For The Classic NES

You may assume speedily and move even faster to finish this Traditional quest! The Mushroom Princess is being held captive by means of the evil Koopa tribe of turtles. It is up to you to rescue her from the clutches of the Koopa King before time runs out. however, it might not be clean. To get to the princess, You will climb mountains, pass seas, avoid bottomless pits, combat off turtle infantrymen and a number of nasty traps that simplest a Koopa King can devise. It’s miles another journey from the Terrific MARIO BROS.!

First rate Mario Bros was the first sport ever to be released for the NES in 1985. It becomes the first sport to deliver powerful clean scrolling levels with a well-made map. Extraordinary Mario Brothers are currently the fine promoting video game of all time. You could play it on the NES, Famicom, SNES, GBA, and recently the Wii. Trust me everybody, this sport is a real blast from the past, and nevertheless, entertains these days. Mario was the primary true video gaming man or woman and he will rise up and fireball away any others that try and take his location. he will continually be big within the video game enterprise because of this games massive effect.

The video games Tale:

Many say the Tale of this game is terrible and It’s far a large downfall of the sport. I mean It is much like every different sport wherein a princess receives captured and you want to save her. The actual fundamental plot of the sport is that Bowser has unleashed a wicked spell over Mushroom Nation. The only ones who can save the Princess and wreck this evil spell are Mario and Luigi.

properly, this game changed into quite a good deal the primary game to begin those conventional plots. but definitely, what is there not to like approximately the Classic Mario saving Princess Peach from Bowser Tale? Nothing, it is easy and a compelling Story. I am certain the Tale does now not deserve a high rank due to the fact on the time while the game came out the Tale turned into very surprising and possibly sounded a piece corny. but nowadays, all of us understand of our pleasant plumber hero, MARIO.

Gameplay:

This sport is unbelievably a laugh to play. The goal of the game is whole each level by means of going for walks to the stop of the extent and jumping has high as feasible in the direction of the flag. You will come across many famous enemies consisting of Goombas, Koopas, Piranha Plants and many extras. There is cash unfold for the duration of the sport in random areas and hidden in blocks which you have to bust. When you get one hundred cash you get additional lifestyles.

You get a rating for how many enemies you kill, how many coins you snatch, and for different various reasons. each stage is particular and has one-of-a-kind limitations in every and is a blast to play. There are 8 worlds with normally 4 stages in every world. the game is extraordinary because it has more than one hidden secrets and techniques for the duration of the game that maintains the fun coming. There are even mystery minus worlds and warp pipes that give the sport a super twist.

the sport additionally mixes in some mazes to offer it a bit project. You could also play 2 players where You can play as Mario and Luigi and defeat the evil Koopa King. The few downfalls are that the sport isn’t very long, display screen scrolling, and it receives irritating. In case you play it brief enough you can beat every level in around 30 minutes.

You can’t back off Once you circulate forward in a degree. the sport is frustrating because you can’t even store and there are not any keeps (You may use a code to start from the sector you lost on). the game display screen most effective scrolls inside the right direction. I might without problems supply the gameplay of Amazing Mario Bros a 10/10 if there had been as a minimum more levels per international.

Of route, you can’t simply take on the one’s tiers as just you and yourself, so you have got a few matters that You may discover there to help you. First of all, there may be the powerups You could discover in blocks for the duration of the sport. the first one You may get is the Great Mushroom, and by means of getting this Mario will grow to double length (Super Mario!) and be able to take one extra hit from an enemy (and revert to everyday Mario) before losing lifestyles.

As First-rate Mario, you furthermore may get the ability to break everyday brick blocks you come across this will show to be extraordinarily beneficial in several ways, be it finding a mystery block or just taking a safe course. If you uncover a powerup Whilst being Exquisite Mario, it is going to be a fire flower, which may not let you take any greater hits but presents you the extremely beneficial electricity of fireball throwing. Fireballs can kill enemies in a single hit, and Even as the same may be performed via jumping on most enemies heads, It’s simply much less difficult to release a fireball from a distance and knock out the enemies from a safe distance. So long as You could control to preserve the fireplace ability, you’ll be pretty overpowered.

In addition to that, You may additionally pick up 1Up mushrooms, a good way to provide you an extra life, and cash. The cash is collectibles so as to provide you with extra lifestyles while gathering a hundred of them, then the counter will revert so you can acquire a further 100, and so on. All things in the sport; cash, powerups, finishing a stage, defeating an enemy are brought to a factory rating.

This rating is a leftover from arcade games, and won’t without a doubt be used for anything because the high score is deleted while you switch off your console there won’t be any competition about it. not having a store function might sound horrific, however as cited the ranges can be finished pretty speedy and there’s continually someone around who will know about the secret warp zones.

Speakme of secrets and techniques, that’s one aspect this is extraordinary about this recreation. Even as many different NES video games display you quite a whole lot the entirety, Here there are a lot of invisible blocks with powerups or coins, pipes You could input to get to underground coin collections and once in a while a vine will shoot out of a hit block that You may climb to arise to “coin heaven”. An amusing component with this kind of secrets is that a number of them are in undeniable view, some are in a brick block you have simply by no means concept to hit.

[artsynanotech]

The Hunt, Part 1

The past couple weeks had been good. If I were feeling adventurous I’d even say great. The drama surrounding my group’s entrance in to Kindred society had finally fizzled out. I spent my newfound downtime working on my art. I sculpted some new pieces and started putting them out in galleries for display. Some of them actually got popular. I might actually have something resembling an art career now.  And to top it all off, Ares and I had crossed into official boyfriend territory. Yes, life was good.

Of course that semblance of normalcy came to an ear-shattering halt with a phone call from Wretchid. Don’t get me wrong, I value his friendship, but trouble swims around him like a hungry school of piranhas.

This evening’s trouble came in the form of a hunt for a miracle worker. Apparently someone had been making the rounds of D.C.’s hospitals curing the incurable. Wretchid summoned us (minus Michella, who wasn’t picking up her phone) to a hospital near our domain to begin the search. I was skeptical at first. Yes, we live in a world of strange supernatural phenomena, but bringing people back from the brink of death seemed to push the matter a bit too far. You have to draw the line somewhere, right? But Wretchid was adamant about this miracle worker’s legitimacy. Apparently a girl with terminal cancer had recently found herself 100% healed, which was what caught his eye. He did not want to pass up the time to discover something amazing, and possible get some acclaim under our neonate belts in the process. So into the hospital we went. We each covered a different area of the building. Of course Wretchid sent me to the pediatric ward. He seriously needs to lay off the short jokes. Wretchid had armed us with some jury rigged walkie-talkies before we split up. They looked like clowns with slapdash cybernetic enhancements. It really was sloppy looking electrical work. Michella would have blown a gasket had she been there to see them! Caroline was not pleased with the aesthetic. I for one was not pleased with anything about the situation. I had hoped to find some time to spend with Ares. But my coterie comes first, even in the most far-fetched situations. Caroline was the first to spot our miracle worker. She attempted to give us directions as she gave chase, but they weren’t very good Wretchid and I ended up clotheslining each other over a tray full of hospital food. He got up and continued the chase. I went to find something else to wear, as there was no salvaging my clothes from that mess of rubbery pasta and tapioca pudding. “Something else” happened to be a spare set of scrubs I found lying about. But by the time I found them and got changed I’d already missed my chance to help catch the healer. I did find Caroline, though. She was in the basement. The healer had used some sort of strange magic to vacuum-seal her into the floor. It took me forever to help pull her loose, and we lost her shoes in the process. At least I wasn’t the only one having a bad night. By that time Wretchid had lost the miracle worker’s trail for good. He was, well… “disappointed” would be an understatement. But true to form he came up with another plan to make up for the night’s failure. He was going to sneak into the security office and steal the footage from our chase. Thankfully he only needed himself for this. Caroline and I had a chance to head back to our havens and replace our damaged and/or lost clothing items. I took a shower, started some laundry, and regrouped with everyone at the Italian place once all of that was taken care of.

Michella was able to join us at that point. Wretchid – in full security guard regalia – proudly displayed a hard drive with the entire hospital’s security tapes saved to it. Michella offered to let us use her computer to look at it, so we headed on over to her place. Wretchid and I went over the tapes while Caroline and Michella talked interior design (note to self: never let Caroline anywhere near my studio). It didn’t take long to isolate a frame of the miracle worker using his earth magic on Caroline. Michella enhanced the image and managed to see just what he used to do it: a strange glowing sigil on his hand. None of us had seen anything like it before. Michella said she’d show it to her sire. I hoped the Tremere would have something on it in their library. I suspect they did, but more on that later… Michella had some business of her own to take care of, so the rest of us went home for the evening. It was around midnight. For once our adventures ended early enough for me to enjoy the rest of the night. I didn’t plan on doing much aside from cycling my laundry. Plans, of course, ended up finding me. In a good way this time! Ares paid an unexpected visit. He had a gift for me. He was nervous about giving it to me, of course. Something about two weeks being two early in a relationship for presents.  I told him not to worry. He’d gotten me a new sculpting knife! I’d been having some issues with my old one and he noticed. Who cares if we’re only two weeks in? He’s paying attention. I didn’t know what to say. I hugged him instead. We both had time to kill so he stayed for a movie.  At some point during the film he tried to go in for a kiss. And by “tried” I mean held my hand while staring awkwardly at me for a good minute or so. He’s still so… stiff, I guess, when it comes to physical affection. I asked him if everything was okay. That totally threw him off and he started rambling about something else. I stopped him and clarified: If there was something I was doing to make him nervous, he needed to tell me so I could stop. I don’t want him walking on eggshells around me. Ares explained that it was his problem, not mine. His clan’s flaw is that their bite always hurts. It never gives pleasure like another clans’ bite would. One of the ways vampires are intimate, he said, is to feed on each other. But because of his clan flaw it’s not something he can ever experience.  He wants to do that with me, though, and has been keeping his distance so he doesn’t end up causing me harm. Because as he says, he “really, really, really likes me.” It was a lot to take in, and I don’t quite understand it all, but I’m going to try. I can’t imagine having to hurt someone every time I try to get dinner. I told him as much. I think that made him happy. He asked if he could kiss me. I said yes. For the first time since we started dating, we were properly kissing. It was glorious. At least until Isaac ruined it by calling just as things were starting to get steamy. I couldn’t just not answer my sire. Thankfully Ares understood. Isaac told me to get to Elysium asap. I mentioned having Ares over. Isaac did not seem happy with that, but we didn’t have time to discuss it over the phone. Ares and I bid each other good night, then I headed straight to Elysium like my sire told me to. I found my way to Isaac as soon as I arrived. The place was packed. Every Kindred in the city (well, the Camarilla ones at least) was there. Isaac didn’t know what for. As we waited to find out he elaborated on his concerns about Ares. He wasn’t upset about me being with someone, but rather concerned that my involvement with a Giovanni would put me in even more hot water with the Prince. I’ll admit it’s a valid concern. I assured Issac that I would be careful, and should things start going south, I would let the relationship go. I don’t expect they will, but I know the value of having priorities. I’ll have to talk to Ares about such things later. At this point Prince Maxwell finally greeted the crowd. He had the Tremere regent at his side. This is the part where I assume that Michella’s clan had something on thatmiracle worker and his mysterious sigil. The Prince declared a blood hunt on him. He claimed the miracle worker was a member of a clan that was supposed to be extinct: Clan Salubri. Isaac told me he didn’t know much about them other than that they’re supposed to be extremely dangerous. He forbid me from actually taking part in the hunt, and if Isaac “I will drag you to this gala whether you want me to or not” Baum is telling me to stay home I’m going to assume there is some actual level of danger involved. Apparently he’s been assigned scout duty with Sherriff Bethany. I trust her to keep him safe, but I worry. Maybe it’s just Isaac being his overdramatic self, but he told me to go to my grandsire if anything were to happen to him. I’ve never met my grandsire, nor has Isaac told me much about him. It all had a rather ominous feel to it. Or it did until he told me to “go back to my Italian boytoy.” That’s my sire, everyone. Master of mood whiplash and embarrassing the heck out of his childe. In all seriousness, Isaac had better not go to final death on me. He’s a helicopter parent of the most obnoxious sort, but he’s my helicopter parent. Losing him would… ... I can’t bring myself to finish that sentence. Just thinking about it scares me more than anything else in the world.