#I tried doing a good amount of research on the Chinese names and I think some websites were actually a danger zone

[isame-allen]

Guys new sibling au info dropped

This time is on the Jacksons, since I’ve hc them to be Chinese here’s their Chinese names :D

• Victoria - 江之华 Jiang Zhihua (beautiful as flower)

• Cross - 姜震烨 Jiang Zhenye (brilliant, have a great future)

• Slash - 蔣嫵坤 Jiang Wukun (charming and feminine)

• Chris - 姜���和 Jiang Huihe (benevolence and harmony, a smart and kind person

Jiang is their surnames so all of their full names would be

Victoria ‘Crow’ Zhihua Jackson

Cross Zhenye Jackson

Slash Wukun Jackson

And Christopher Huihe Jackson

[jumpscaregoose]

x laws propaganda time

alright this is the big one buckle in nerds

@ungodly-amounts-of-godly-trauma poll crash course in x laws and also lyserg diethel. all encompassing longpost, tangents included

this is probably going to be too monolithic to work as propaganda but I can do what I want

(read more for courtesy because. abomination)

we’ll begin with some light housekeeping!

Shaman King 101 real quick for those unaware: shamans are people who can see and communicate with ghosts and spirits. every 500 years there’s a big tournament to decide who gets the biggest, bestest spirit, the Great Spirit. there are two versions of SK, 2001 (a heavily manga divergent anime adaptation considered to be better on both nostalgia and writing principles) and the 2021/manga version (written by this guy hiroyuki takei who’s really not the best at writing plots and tends to forget important details. this one’s his intent for better or worse and is more canon).

IMPORTANT TERMS (that I use here but forgot to explain first oops)

spirit ally: a shaman’s primary spirit they use for combat and various tasks

over soul: putting a spirit into a physical medium to allow them to interact with the living world

mana/furyoku: interchangable english and japanese terms for a shaman’s power level. can be measured numerically

shaman king: the person who has the great spirit as their spirit ally

the original shaman king manga was written by a man named hiroyuki takei. takei is. certainly a writer ever. he’s very good at writing fun characters and character dynamics. he character designs and art are very nice (when he’s not being stupid with them. there are some CHOICES). he is very bad at most other things. like remembering timelines and plot details. or research. I will be referring to him occasionally

my area of expertise is the manga version, so assume anything I mention is from that one unless otherwise stated (most general statements do apply to both). HOWEVER, there are some x laws related things that are SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT (more traumatic) in 2001, and I will bring those up as well.

the main antagonist is this guy hao, an onmyoji from 1000 years ago who reincarnated himself to become god (the shaman king). also btw an onmoyji is a type of spiritual leader person who practiced the traditional chinese wuxing (five element) concept, that’s important later. the main protagonist is his twin brother/split part of his soul yoh. they’re really interesting but not the point of this post so 

enter lyserg diethel, blorbo no. 1 for this poll (I highly recoommend starting to type his name into your search engine and clicking on the first chemical looking thing that comes up in autocomplete. I could just tell you but it’s way funnier if you find this out how I did)

when we meet lyserg he’s 14 years old (I think. the SK timeline is very broken around this part of the story and dates can vary by a couple years) and he’s joined the shaman fight (big plot tournament) to get revenge on hao, who killed his parents and burned his house down when he was 6. also he’s british, uses dowsing with a pendulum, and his spirit ally is the fairy morphine (funny if you looked up the thing from before), who’s been his friend for his entire life (comes up in trauma later keep notes). he’s also frequently depicted with poppies in the manga (infuriating when combined with the name thing and morphine. why. why is he named that. why he not opioid. this makes me so irrationally upset). lyserg meets the protagonist gang (yoh, this gay emo kid, gay emo kid’s shonen rival boyfriend, and this other guy with a hilarious running gag of summoning this guy billy with magic hitchhiking powers all the time in 2001. it’s implied hitchhiking guy and billy make out once. this show is insane). lyserg’s goal at this point is to find strong allies to beat hao, so he tries to invoke the let’s-fight-to-become-friends trope and it does work but not until he gets decked in the face for being an idiot and pays for everyone’s hospital bills. which are a thing because btw everyone got dropped out of a plane into new mexico breaking bad style for a tournament test.

while journeying with the protagonist gang, they encounter one of hao’s minions, a man named boris tepes dracula. boris is able to use his spirit ally to possess people and temporarily turn them into his vampire minions. the concept of becoming a servant to hao is so horrific to lyserg that, in the 2001 version, he begs yoh to kill him if he ever becomes one. with 100% sincerity. spoiler alert he does at one point, does not get killed, and is confused. this is also when the main event of this poll shows up.

X LAWS BACKSTORY INTERLUDE!

back in the day there were these two dudes luchist and marco lasso. marco was an orphan who grew up at luchist’s family orphanage and they had a very close paternal relationship. so close that they founded an independent supercar dealership together. enter hao, here to find minions for the shaman fight in what was at this point probably about 10 years! arson and murder! the car dealership and orphanage get burnt down, and luchist and marco swear lifelong vengeance on a kid who couldn’t have been more than 5 years old and form the x laws. they gather more people who also think a small child is the ultimate evil, including… who’s that? our next competitor!

iron maiden jeanne, blorbo no. 2 for this poll!

jeanne was a young orphan girl on the streets of mont saint michel in france (my high school functions teacher claimed to have almost drowned in quicksand there writing his name during low tide), that marco and luchist picked to become their ultimate weapon and convinced her she was sent from god to defeat hao. key point here: iron maiden jeanne is genuinely just some random little girl, no divine connection beyond that of the average shaman of her power level. and about that power level. manga/2021 shaman king has this weird little detail, where if a shaman dies or is gravely injured, their numerical power level (I’m glad 2001 only brought in numbers to surprise us with hao’s strength later on, because aaaaaaa) will increase drastically. the x laws exploit this system by having jeanne swear and oath on an iron maiden (the fake medieval torture device, not the band) and stay inside it almost 24/7. real spikes, too. blood pours out of it during her introduction.

being so close to death for probably half her life has given her immense power, and her spirit ally is shamash, the god/spirit who… issued the first laws to the babylonians in mesopotamia? wasn’t the x laws supposed to be a catholic thing?

don’t. worry. about it. normal Takei things.

real quick on religious imagery: the x laws’ over souls are “angels” these robot things (think eva unit but #aesthetic #angelcore or whatever) that they activate by shooting guns. can range from small handguns to bazookas. the second ed of the 2021 anime is also this:

take it as you will (I love the 2021 eds so much btw, my favourite pieces of shaman king animation. ed 1 for the win)

jeanne’s over souls are all also medieval torture devices (of various levels of accuracy), for example guillotines, gibbets, and the statue of apega

(also, when I say “god” in this, unless I’m referring to hao, the great spirit, or winning the shaman fight, I just mean a powerful spirit ally. it’s weird and confuses even me)

and while we’re talking about jeanne, she’s clearly named after joan d'arc, the revolutionary who heard visions from the archangel micheal on mont saint michel. jeanne wholeheartedly believes she was sent by god to defeat hao, and in the x laws’ twisted views of justice

all those who stand in their way are irredeemable sinners who deserve their gruesome deaths. the x laws are justice incarnate. hao is the ultimate evil who must be defeated at all costs (hao is spotted doing such things as. hanging out with his adoptive little sister/daughter on top of big rocks. engaging in polite conversation with his brother at coffee shops and hot springs. eating a baguette at their match. taunting his brother’s fiancée over a book)

returning to the timeline, the x laws appear and immediately kill boris (turn him into actual dust and all). resident good boy yoh and the other protagonist guys are obviously icked out, because they’d just shonen battled boris, learned his tragic backstory, and taken him out as a threat. lyserg, however, is entranced by the x laws and their gun angel robots… gun angels… angels with…

no…

*I am pulled away from my computer and executed by the comedy police*

anyways, this is the start of a somewhat out of place shakespearean tragedy for our boy. is comparing hiroyuki goddamn takei to william shakespeare a stretch? yes. so much of a stretch. does it feel right in this case? also yes. this is the start of a beautiful, fascinating, deeply frustrating spiral (this character arc has made several people I know hate lyserg diethel at some point lol)

our guys make the final walk to their destination awkwardly walking behind the x laws, who are pissed they didn’t do a murder. eventually they separate and we randomly meet god in southwest colorado. god as in the great spirit in this case. some plot shit happens and lyserg ends up separated from the rest of the protagonist gang, and he wanders into the x laws. there’s this absolutely heartbreaking scene of lyserg, this young boy mourning his parents, crying into marco’s shoulder to ask him if, just maybe, the x laws can defeat hao. and because this is a cult he says yes.

the reveal of lyserg joining the x laws is another very nice and painful scene. it’s been heavily implied to have happened (see above) but had not yet been confirmed. it’s a really good scene but I think you can only really catch the ~Vibes~ by seeing it so

important context: the guy getting sliced was lyserg’s opponent in an officially sanctioned tournament match, where you absolutely do NOT have to kill people. this is after around 3 months of being with the x laws (in the dumb manga timeline. holy shit I hate the manga timeline. in 2001 it’s different, I think it’s even less time)

so, in roughly 3 months with this group, our boy went from “standard anime revenge plot” to “actual cult member. who will kill people”. like he was fucked up before but not in a godly way. also there’s more fucked up now.

real quick jeanne thing. in the manga, most of the x laws get killed by hao (either in a tournament or while shooting a giant space laser at him, setting off a criminally underutilized subplot). some more shit happens, and jeanne ends up discovering that she’s not sent from god, but just and ordinary girl. she is surprisingly unfazed by this. I blame takei

the 2001 and manga versions both have a mutually exclusive godly fucked up thing about them so we’ll be going over those after a quick word from our sponsor: child abuse! yeah lyserg gets slapped around a lot. for not being 100% murder cult 100% of the time. it’s fucked up in a godly way yeah.

in the 2001 version, the spiral is even worse, including lyserg abandoning morphine (best friend fairy who he had a whole filler episode getting back from some goons. that morphine). and he doesn’t really stop being culty and the worst until the very end. and he’s also a lot MORE culty and the worst. he straight up kidnaps someone to use them as bait in an elaborate plan to send hao’s soul to the shadowrealm called the Gate of Babylon, this thing that’ll send everyone in a small vicinities’ souls there. I’m gonna be honest I forgot the details and the wiki was really unhelpful but that’s the gist. he does eventually get less cultish in 2001 though.

in the manga lyserg goes to hell. this isn’t actually that weird for shaman king, I haven’t mentioned it yet but at this point in the manga death has kind of lost all meaning (this comes up with a jeanne thing later. do I need to touch on red crimson jeanne in here? not really. but I’m gonna. “world is mine” -hatsune miku). 4 other guys go to hell at the same time as him he isn’t special. BUT. the hells in shaman king are pretty clearly tied to past events of their beholder’s lives, or worries they might have. for example, a character who’s hometown was flooded when they were young goes to a flooded forest (for THREE PANELS. justice for the hororen hells). lyserg’s hell is london, what looks like some weird time dilated tudor/modern london crossover (or someone not knowing what london looks like). in weird london, lyserg is attacked by a demon he calls Mastema (who, according to my beloved wikipedia, is a fallen archangel and the personification of hatred) takei clearly did at least that much research for once, because Mastema follows lyserg wherever he goes and only attacks when he thinks of his parent’s deaths and his hatred for hao. at one point, he does this to try and defeat it…

…and immediately gets pummeled

now, I’m not entirely sure this was intentional, but like. becoming an “angel” to defeat something. and that doesn’t work. 2+2, people. he comes back from hell btw. death has no meaning and all

in 2021 there’s also this scene where yoh comes to visit lyserg (because he’s the goodest boy ever and is worried about his friend) and jeanne shows up to ask yoh to join the x laws. he refuses, and she immediately switches from hello friend join us to well. murder

and we should also probably talk about zeruel. zeruel, according to google and evangelion, means “arm of god”. zeruel is the angel lyserg recieves as part of the x laws (and who he ditches morphine for in 2001). zeruel itself isn’t really that relevant overall but I felt I had to bring it up. in the manga he uses zeruel (car form) and morphine to form his armoured over soul, mastema dolkeem (flames of enmity)

oh right

five warriors

is a thing

so

in the manga, they introduce this concept of the five warriors, each representing one element (annoyingly, not the actual wuxing elements but instead water, earth, fire, air, and lightning?). hao’s spirit ally throughout the series has been the spirit of fire (there are spirits for each element btw) so it’s poetic that lyserg gets the flames of enmity and fire, or something.

let’s talk about the impermance of death in shaman king real quick. for most of the second half of the manga, death has basically no meaning

oh shit I just realized I forgot to mention jeanne can resurrect the dead. she can do that btw

the death-has-no-meaning train gets started when jeanne brings this one emo guy who died for emo reasons back from the dead and it’s introduced as a concept. over the course of shaman king that emo guy dies. four times. the entire main cast has died at least once (we will get to that later). by the end there is no reason to leave someone dead at all, and doing so would be really fucking stupid. guess what happens to jeanne in red crimson (shaman king spinoff manga. also the best shaman king spinoff manga my beloved)? she dies. permanently

(this screenshot was apparently what broke the post? jeanne dying too powerful for tumblr?)

it’s an ok (?) ending to her character arc (and shows how fucked up she got from the whole child cult leader thing) but it irks me somehow (there’s also a scene in the manga after jeanne discovers she’s not sent from god where she refers to suicide as “there being no act more wicked”)

resurrect my girl

jeanne’s whole thing in red crimson annoys me to no end and if I went off about it here you wouldn’t believe that red crimson is Good Actually. so I won’t. but just know that the wasted potential is off the charts

and now, for what feels like a technicality to me: asakura hao kills everyone!

at the end of the manga, hao becomes god. he also proceeds to attempt his genocide of the human race and offs the entire main cast almost instantly. it is my favourite scene in shaman king ever and I love it dearly. what matters here is that both of our guys here got killed by god himself. that’s also godly trauma. the fact that THAT’S in a lil footnote shows how fucked up everything else is tbh

and uh that’s all I can think of for lyserg and jeanne religious trauma. if you’re curious just ask me somehow and I will be glad to infodump

but really you should just go shaman king (I recommend reading the manga first and then watching 2001. the reboot anime too if you really like the story but it’s just the manga but worse)

do it

there’s some bullshit and bad writing in there but it’s still pretty good (and stupid)

[thewritewolf]

Mari Christmas And A Happy New Adrien

Summary:

Lost in the aftermath of Hawkmoth's defeat, Adrien loses complete track of time and before he knows it, the holiday season is upon him. Will a Christmas visit to his girlfriend's house be just what he needs to move on?

Hello and welcome to my piece for the @mlsecretsanta event! My giftee, @lesslinette, asked for among other things, Adrienette, family bonding, fluff and just a bit of hurt/comfort and I aimed to please!

I had to do a good amount of research into French and Chinese Christmas traditions (including interviewing my long-suffering French friend - thanks @emsylcatac!), so hopefully I didn't get anything *too* wrong.

Read on Ao3

Enjoy!

Marinette 💖: You still up?

Adrien: Yeah Still not sleeping great House was always too quiet Never thought it could get more quiet tho lol Whats up?

Marinette 💖: :( Just wondering what u were doing 4 xmas Since You know

Adrien: Since father went to jail and mom died again? Haven’t thought about it Guess ive still got time to figure it out

Marinette 💖: … ..Its the 23rd of Dec Like 2am Not a lot of time left

Adrien: oh Guess uh Stay at home?

Marinette 💖: Adrien Its been like two months Youve been going crazy in there Youll just be stuck in there all by yourself Why don’t you come over?

Adrien: I don’t know… I don’t want to bring anyone down Or ruin anyone’s christmas

Marinette 💖: Adrien ‘Kindest Boy in Paris’ Agreste

Adrien: Oh no she used my middle name

Marinette 💖: You are coming over tomorrow And letting me pamper you And letting my family - your REAL family - love you And that is the end of that ...Is that okay with you?

Adrien: Whatever you say ma’am

Marinette 💖: Good Be here no later than fifteen hundred Let me know if I need to pick you up

Adrien: Will do

Adrien laid back down, his face lit up only by the glow of his phone and the only noise in the room being Plagg’s snoring. Putting his phone to sleep, he turned over, closed his eyes, and honestly smiled for what felt like the first time in a long time.

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

Adrien reached the door to his girlfriend’s house with a gift under one arm, an envelope in his pocket, and a weak smile on his face. The latter wasn’t because of a lack of feeling on his part - the exact opposite, actually.

It had been hard to go to sleep after their conversation that night, a swirl of mixed emotions keeping him from getting the rest that he craved. Last night wasn’t much better and he was left exhausted. He’d even been half tempted to call and say that he couldn’t make it, but somehow that only made him feel worse.

So here he was. He’d shambled his way to the car, driven himself there through blurry eyes and frequent yawns, and turned the doorknob. Maybe they’d understand if he just dropped off the present and headed home.

Well, maybe not home, but just where he lived.

The instant the door opened, a wave of hot air buffeted him. Not only did it warm his freezing face, it brought all sorts of wonderful smells on it. There were the expected scents - baked potatoes, salmon, chicken. But then was something else, something a little harder to place.

After puzzling over it for a moment, he shook his head and stepped into the house. No sooner had he closed the door behind him than he heard some voices calling out from deeper inside.

“Wait, was that the door? The family wasn’t supposed to be over until tomorrow, weren’t they?”

“Tom, that has to be Adrien!”

There was excitement in Sabine’s voice that warmed his heart, but not quite as much as when he’d taken a couple steps into the house and was blindsided by Marinette bursting out of the living room to wrap him in a hug.

“Worried I might not show?” Adrien whispered after they parted from their kiss.

“Not even for a moment, chaton.” She smiled up at him before her eyes wandered down to his arms, a suspicious look on her face when she saw the one present. “Looks like you showed some restraint this year.”

“Of course!” At her continued doubting look, he added. “Come on, I’m perfectly capable of giving reasonable gifts.”

“Last year you tried to give me my favorite restaurant.”

“But I didn’t!”

“Only because I hid your checkbook and credit cards!”

Adrien snorted. “Details.”

Rolling her eyes, Marinette tugged on his coat sleeve. “Follow me, you ridiculous man. You can put your gifts under the tree, we’ll open them tomorrow.”

She led him into the living room, where their Christmas tree had been set up in all its glory. There were red paper chains wrapped all around it and a huge variety of homemade ornaments - including a few that he’d made in years past. Ever since he and Marinette had started dating, he’d been welcomed into their household with open arms. And even before that, they’d been nothing but kind to him.

His eyes poured over the tree, looking for one specific ornament. It didn’t take him long to find it - with its poor quality, it stood out among the beautiful glass orbs and painted baubles. His fingers brushed over the patches of glitter, a nostalgic smile spreading across his face as he took in the patterns of melted wax inside it. His first ornament. They’d barely been dating a few months when he’d made that one.

Had it really been four years already?

Arms wrapped around him from the side and he looked down at Marinette’s chin resting on his shoulder, peering up at him with big blue eyes.

“What’re you thinking about, hot stuff?”

“Old memories, that’s all.”

“Hmm…” She leaned up to give him a kiss on the cheek. “You just about ready to make some new ones?”

“With you? Always.”

“You two want to come in and help us finish cooking dinner?” They both jumped when Sabine’s voice reached them.

Blushing, Marinette reluctantly let Adrien go and headed toward the kitchen. “Coming, maman!”

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

A few hours later and the four of them were seated around the dining room table. Some things had been moved around from what Adrien remembered from the usual arrangement, and a long table had been set up. Most of the spaces were empty - with the four of them, only about a third of the table was occupied. But while the chairs were mostly left bare, the table was not.

Even though he had helped make some of it, Adrien was still amazed at how good the food all looked when laid out on the table like this.

Most of it was pretty traditional, at least from what he knew. A lot of the time his experience with Christmas dinners were meals allowed to grow cold until he gave up on his father showing. But the roasted chicken was still steaming when they cut into it, the smoked salmon and toast still holding the heat of the oven on them. Add in the gratin dauphinois and this was just about the ideal Christmas dinner he could imagine.

Naturally, it got even better with Sabine’s contribution - spring rolls.

As Adrien shoveled them onto his plate, he asked Sabine, “Is this the only Chinese dish for today, maman?”

“Just you wait, dear.” She smiled over her plate. “Today was Tom’s turn to make dinner. Tomorrow will be mine and you’ll definitely have your fill then.”

“I can’t wait!” Adrien took some of the chestnut sauce to pour over his chicken. Which reminded him… He glanced nervously toward the oven. “I don’t suppose you made foie gras, did you?”

Marinette made a face and shivered.

Tom quickly shook his head. “Oh no, son. Back when Marinette was… what? Eight, nine? She found out how it was made and made us promise to never have it again.”

“Eleven years later and we haven’t broken that promise yet,” Sabine finished. “There are plenty of other foods in the world.”

“That’s good.” Adrien breathed a sigh of relief. “It always made me uncomfortable when my father ordered it.”

“Ordered, dear?” Sabine gave him a confused look.

“Oh, we never really cooked our own dinners.”

Tom’s jaw dropped. “Not even Christmas dinner?”

“Nope. Sometimes he’d have to order the dinner prepared the day before and then we’d reheat it the day of, since no one wanted to come into work on Christmas day, you know?”

“I see…” Tom shared a look with Sabine, but the meaning was lost on Adrien. “Well, you make sure you have your fill, son! We’ll be making more for tomorrow, so this is all for us.”

“Thanks,” Adrien said with a grateful smile.

The conversation meandered and for the most part Adrien was just content to listen in, drinking in the company after spending so much of his time recently just by himself. Well, mostly by himself. Marinette would visit whenever she could get the time between college classes and internships. Nino and Alya were more elusive, if only because they were outside the city so often these days.

But there was one person who was his constant companion, Adrien thought with a smile as he peeked into the breast pocket of his T-shirt…

...Only to see that it was empty. Maybe he’d gone to visit Tikki and the kwamis of the miracle box? Adrien was drawn out of his thoughts when Sabine directed a question at him.

“Are you ready for the pre-dessert snacks, dear?”

“Oh! Sure, yeah. What do you have?”

“You’ll love it!” Tom excitedly got up and hustled over to the kitchen, Sabine right behind him. He raised his voice to be heard as he went to the room next door. “We know how much you love camembert so…”

Adrien’s eyes widened. They didn’t…

Tom returned with a platter of cheeses in his hands and a frown on his lips.

“Something wrong, papa?” Marinette’s eyes glanced between Tom and the cheese platter.

“No, no… its just… I could have sworn I bought more cheese than this. And I was so sure that I had purchased camembert.” He rubbed his chin. “Ah well, there is more than enough for the three of us anyway.”

While Sabine set down a large bowl of salad in the middle of the table, Adrien glanced at Marinette. At his side, Marinette was biting her lips and pointedly staring into the middle distance, trying her hardest not to laugh. For his part, Adrien was frustrated that he couldn’t go anywhere without Plagg making a noticeable dent in the food supply.

His annoyance with Plagg was so great he almost didn’t enjoy the Yule Log that Tom had made for dessert. Almost, but not quite.

Once they were done with dinner, they cleared the table.

“So, how’d you like the meal?” Marinette asked as she dried off the dishes while Adrien washed them.

“Definitely better hot. And homemade.”

Marinette chuckled. “I’m glad the bar was so high for us. Really makes us feel like we accomplished something here.”

“How about…” Adrien bit down on his lips and narrowed his eyes in thought. “It was the most delicious meal I’ve had in months.”

“Ooo, now we’re getting somewhere.”

“Years even.”

“Good, good, go on.”

“I had never known food could taste so delicious until you graced me with your heavenly meals.”

Marinette’s eyes gleamed with restrained laughter, the hint of a barely contained smile ruining her deadpan. “Glad I could finally weasel how you really feel out of you.”

“Yeah you’re pretty good at that, aren’t you?” Hands still in the sink’s soapy water, he leaned over and planted a kiss on her forehead.

“No fooling around now, we still have to help put up the last decorations before we relax for the night.”

“What sort of decorations?”

“Paper lanterns and paper chains. That sort of thing.” At Adrien’s politely confused look, she added, “It’ll help make mom’s side of the family feel welcome. Plus they look pretty cool.”

“Well what are we waiting for then? Let’s kick this into overdrive!”

Adrien suddenly worked in a flurry, Marinette scream laughing as she got splashed with some of the water thrown up by his breakneck pace. Marinette could barely keep up between her giggling, but she somehow managed.

With the last fork, plate, and glass sparkling clean and put away, Marinette shook her head and dabbed at her slightly damp shirt with a fresh towel.

“You’re a dork, you know that?”

“So my girlfriend tells me.”

Adrien relished the sometimes quiet, sometimes loud evening he spent with the Dupain-Chengs. When he went upstairs and cuddled Marinette in the cozy darkness, Adrien felt only excitement for the next day

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

Morning came swiftly, but Adrien rose to meet the dawn’s first light with a smile on his lips and a spring in his step. Marinette was… a little less eager, but he managed to coax her out of the bed, eventually.

When they finally got down the stairs and made it to the kitchen, Sabine’s eyes widened and she even froze in the middle of folding one of her dumplings.

“Marinette? I’m surprised to see you up so early.”

Bleary eyed, her daughter simply jabbed a finger toward Adrien and grunted. Adrien rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled.

“I knew you’d be a good influence on her, sweetie.”  Sabine patted his cheek with a warm smile. “Now, once you’ve had some breakfast I’d really appreciate some help out here. From you especially, Marinette, since you know exactly how to do it the way I like it.”

“Can’t Tom help?” Adrien made some toast for him and Marinette, doing his best to stay out of Sabine’s way. “Not that I’m not willing to lend a hand, but he’s got to be pretty good at it after all this time, right?”

Sabine laughed and even Marinette cracked a smile. “You’d think so, but no. The man can make almost any dessert known to French mankind, but I’ve yet to see him finish one spring roll or dumpling in all our years of marriage. Just about the only thing I’m trusting him with today is the roasted pork.”

“Not even the cheese plate?” Adrien asked, tongue in cheek. To his surprise, Sabine shook her head gravely.

“We don’t make one for Christmas day. After all, everyone that is going to be here is from my side of the family and we’re all lactose intolerant.”

“Oh.” Adrien glanced at Marinette, who shrugged.

“I got lucky and got papa’s tolerance for it, I guess.”

“Huh… well, can I help?”

A few hours passed, most of which Adrien spent doing vital but unskilled cooking like stirring and kneading. Although they did let him try to fold a few dumplings. It ended up nowhere near as well done as Marinette’s, but she still gave him a kiss on the cheek for the good effort. From what he gathered, Tom had never even managed to get it to stay together.

They had just put the last batch in the oven when they heard a knock at the door, Sabine quickly taking off her apron as she rushed to answer it.

Adrien’s ears perked up when he heard a conversation in Chinese start up, but between him being a little rusty and them speaking so fast, he couldn’t pick out much.

A few moments later, Sabine walked back into the room with an older Chinese couple. Marinette pulled him towards them. Sabine put a hand on Adrien’s shoulder and introduced them.

“Adrien, these are my parents. My mother, Ling,” she said, gesturing towards the grey-haired woman currently hugging Marinette. “And my father, Zheng.”

The older man’s grey eyes sparkled with excitement as he held out a red envelope for Adrien, who just now noticed that Marinette had also been given one. He froze, eyes widening. Was he supposed to have gotten them something too? He hadn’t realized that anyone would be getting him anything, except maybe Marinette. There was a moment where he was about to decline but he took a shot in the dark and accepted.

The moment his hand touched the envelope, Zheng spoke in Mandarin, “Best wishes for the New Year!”

“Thank you very much!” Adrien replied automatically in the same language. While the finer points might escape him, Adrien was fluent in niceties.

Zheng’s eyes widened before he nodded sagely to himself. “Ahh, I see you’ve picked up some Mandarin from my daughter, yes?”

“Oh, no, sir. I’ve been studying since I was fourteen.”

Once again, Zheng’s eyes widened before he chuckled and looked knowingly at Marinette. “This one is definitely a keeper! I approve.”

Marinette’s cheeks were almost as red as the envelope, but she still smiled.

The bright, enticing red of the envelope made him want nothing more than to open it right then and there. But Adrien took a nod from Marinette, who had very pointedly left it sealed even as she refused to set it down. He chose to follow her lead as they all made their way to the living room.

While the Dupain-Cheng parents and the Cheng parents were getting settled there, Marinette volunteered them to go make some tea. Once they were in the kitchen and out of earshot of the new arrivals, Adrien held up his envelope with a raised eyebrow and curious look.

“You can go ahead and look at it now, it’s just not polite to do it right when you get it.” She carefully unsealed the envelope. “It's this Chinese tradition - good luck money for the new year, you know?”

Adrien followed her lead and found one ten, one twenty, and one fifty euro note inside. Glancing over, it seemed Marinette got the same. He was half tempted to just give her his euros since he didn’t have any need for it, but decided that might be tacky. If she would even take them at all. After stashing the envelopes away in a kitchen drawer, they came back with tea for everyone.

Over the next few hours, more and more family members funneled into the house. Adrien, used to seeing maybe four people during the holiday season, thought the room would be close to bursting after the first aunt arrived with husband and two kids in tow. But then came the uncle and his family, then the second aunt with her boyfriend and by the end of it fifteen people were packed into the living room. For some reason apples in boxes became involved? Adrien thought that was a pun but that was more his pun sense than his linguistic skill.

Before anyone could get too settled in, they finally got to opening presents. Despite his fears from the red envelope, no one else seemed to have gotten Adrien anything.

At least, none of the extended family had. The Dupain-Cheng family, however…

“Here you go, dear.” While the rest of the room was chattering among themselves, Sabine placed a package about as big as a shoebox on Adrien’s lap. Before he could react to it, Marinette had shoved a bag stuffed with packing paper.

“Let me go get your-”

Adrien felt a tug on his arm and looked down at Marinette seated beside him. “Open your gifts first and then we’ll open the ones you got us.”

“Okay, okay.” Adrien looked at the box on his lap and tore it open. He tilted his head in confusion as he lifted the fabric that he found there out of the box. His eyes widened when he realized it was an apron with ‘Kiss the Chef’ on it.

“Its for when you come over to cook with us!” Tom beamed down at him proudly. “Now you don’t need to borrow our aprons any more - you’ll have one of your very own!”

Adrien felt his eyes get misty and he bit his lips to keep himself from crying. After a few moments of pulling himself together, he managed to say, “Thank you, guys. I’m really looking forward to wearing it!”

“Speaking of…” Marinette prodded the bag she left with him.

“Right, right.”

Adrien removed the paper and pulled out what turned out to be a sweater, cream colored and decorated with mistletoes and black cats in red scarves. It felt amazingly soft as he slipped it on over his head, embraced in a warm hug that - he lifted the fabric to his nose and took a deep breath - yes, smelled exactly like Marinette. For now at least.

“Do you like it?” Instead of replying, Adrien wrapped his arms around Marinette and pulled her close to him, nuzzling his nose against her neck. Giggling, she smacked his arms lightly. “I’ll take that as a yes, now let go!”

After he pulled his arms back, he stood up and stepped between the Cheng family members and made it to the tree before heading back to the little corner of the living room that they had claimed. He passed the envelope to Tom and the box to Marinette.

“A… gift card for an appliance store?” Tom said, his brow furrowing.

“I wanted to get you an actual new stove because you’re always upset at it,” Adrien explained in a rush, feeling embarrassed that his gift felt so… impersonal compared to theirs. “But when I went to the store I had no idea what actually made a good stove and searching it up on the internet only made it more confusing and… yeah,” he finished lamely.”

He glanced up at them and felt better to see them smiling back.

“That’s very thoughtful of you, Adrien! Thank you, we’ll make good use of this.”

Beside him, Marinette began opening her gift, which Adrien was much more excited for. Not because he had spent any less for it, but because that at least he knew exactly what to get.

He knew he’d done good when she gasped as she pulled out the expensive fabric she’d once stared at longingly from the otherside of a store’s window in Paris. Which, of course, meant that he was also expecting the smack on his arm from her as well.

“Adrien! This is expensive! You definitely shouldn’t have bought this.”

“Actually, you’ll remember that I get to spoil you exactly three times a year - birthdays, Valentine’s, and Christmas.” He gave her the most innocent look he could manage. “So you like it then?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You know I absolutely love it, you cat.”

“Then that’s great!” He continued with the overly chipper and oblivious tone, knowing how much it bugged her. He rubbed his hands together. “So… when’s dinner?”

-----------

After a Christmas dinner packed with Chinese dishes, they slowly returned to the living room.

Adrien sat in a corner of the room, taking in the warm and inviting atmosphere, the excitement and energy of so many people gathered together in such a small space.

Holding Marinette close, Adrien felt like he was part of a real family for the first time in a long time.

[official-weasley]

The Extraordinary Dragon (Part 2/6)

A fluffy story about Charlie training a dragon with a sad and mysterious past.

Warnings: dragon abuse Word Count: 2,266

“Are you ready?” Matthew was standing with me by the gates of the reserve, his arms crossed on his chest and looking like he will burst from excitement any moment now.

It’s been a week since I found out that I am going to work with a 1-year-old Hebridean Black. That, however, has been the only information Matt has given me. He has been awfully secretive about this dragon and no matter how many times I asked him about it he just told me not to worry and that I will have all my questions answered once the dragon arrives.

Today was that day and I couldn’t help but feel nervous. Not only because I didn’t know what to expect and the whole thing seemed to amuse my boss very much but also because this was a Hebridean Black – my favorite breed of dragon.

We don’t have a rule book here in the Sanctuary but we do have a few protocols we have to obey.

Wear your protective gear at work.

If you get injured, stop what you are doing immediately and find a healer.

No matter how vicious the dragon is, try to stay as calm as possible because they sense fear.

We don’t get promoted but are assigned to dragons based on our experience.

In the first year when we arrive here, we work with researchers to observe dragons – learn about their behavior and eating patterns.

In the second and third years, we either get assigned to Common Welsh Greens or Antipodean Opaleyes. If we are doing great with the latter, our superior might assign us to one of the fliers so we can start training to fly on a dragon.

That is a crucial practice for working with dragons later on because part of the daily routine is to take them out for a flight. The training usually lasts for 6 months and then we have to pass the flying exam – which I passed with flying colors on the first try, of course!

Then in year four we usually continue with Opaleyes. I was lucky enough to get a chance to work with two Chinese Fireballs.

In years five and six we are assigned to a new breed, the Swedish Short-Snout, and we train with the healers to learn how to heal and recognize symptoms if the dragon we work with shows any signs of sickness.

For me, that dragon was a Norwegian Ridgeback. I wasn’t experienced enough to work with the breed but due to a shortage of dragonologists, Matthew assigned the dragon to me anyway, and even though it wasn’t the easiest dragon to work with I had a pleasant enough experience with it that I now visit its habitat a few times per month to say hello.

In year eight or nine we can sign up for an exchange program. It means we go and work in one of the other dragon reserves. My wish was to work in the Swedish Reserve for one year and I was over the roof when my application was approved.

My boss wanted me to apply to the Chinese Reserve so that I could work with Fireballs since I have already dealt with them but I heard that even though the Swedish Reserve mostly works with Short-Snouts they had a Peruvian Vipertooth and a Ukrainian Ironbelly.

I know I shouldn’t have gone against my boss and try and work with dragons I wasn’t ready for but I just couldn’t help myself. I knew I would be less monitored there and nobody would tell me I can’t work with a certain dragon so I had to try.

Working with a sick Norwegian Ridgeback was harder than trying to befriend a Ukrainian Ironbelly. The latter looks like it’s going to eat you at any given moment but they are harmless even though they are huge compared to the other dragons.

Because I got a certificate of successfully taming both a Vipertooth and an Ironbelly, Matthew was so impressed that once I got back I was assigned to work with 3 different dragons.

I couldn’t believe that he allowed me to work with a Peruvian Vipertooth and not one but two Romanian Longhorns. I nagged him to assign me to one of those dragons for a year before my year in Sweden and he always said I wasn’t ready. But when I came back with the letter from my Swedish trainer, Matthew couldn’t believe how well I did and decided to give me a chance to work with dragons completely on my own.

I have been working with Hel, Lasair, and Rocker for over a year and I am doing great. All three of them listen to me and I have no trouble going through their daily routines. They trust me and I have learned so much from them in such a short amount of time. And apparently, it shows since my boss assigned me to the Hebridean Black.

“I would love to say that I am ready but the look on your face concerns me.” I lifted an eyebrow at him, my palms getting sweatier.

“Look, for how many years have you been begging me to let you work with a Black? Now you’re trying to chicken out?” He smirked.

“No, of course, not. I am just curious why the sudden change of hearts. Isn’t it too dangerous? Aren’t I unqualified to take care of a Hebridean Black?”

“Asterin.”

“What?” I turned my head to him, with more questions in my head than before.

“The dragon’s name is Asterin.” He explained and nodded toward the gate where 7 wizards appeared along with a big cage with a dragon chained inside.

We hurried to them and helped them unload the dragon. I had so many questions. We have never received a dragon that was chained or that needed so many people escorting it. What was Matthew not telling me?

They told us not to take the beast out of the cage until we reach its assigned habitat. Matt called 4 of my co-workers to help levitate the cage to a secluded area that was going to be Asterin’s home for the next 3 months.

Every time we get a new dragon to live in our reserve, we put it far away from the rest of the dragons so that it can get used to the environment change first before it’s introduced to other dragons. Then we determine if the dragon is capable of living with another of its breed – we never put more than 3 together – or if they’d prefer to have their own habitat. After those 3 months, the proper training can begin.

“I need some answers.” I frowned at my boss when we were left alone with the new dragon.

“Okay, so the dragon was put through a lot. She has trust issues and is very untamed for her age. She doesn’t want to fly and barely eats anything.” He explained.

“That’s why she’s so small for her age?” I leaned to the right to get a glimpse of Asterin behind Matthew.

“Yes.” He nodded.

“But I don’t understand. The dragonologists that brought her here are from the MacFusty clan. They take care of Hebridean Blacks, why was she brought here and where did they get her from?”

“They found her.”

“What do you mean they found her? You don’t simply stumble upon a dragon!” I furrowed my brows.

“But they did – abandoned in the forest close to their reserve. They heard her cries. She had both her wings broken and half of her teeth were missing.” Matthew continued.

“That would explain the not eating and flying part.” I could feel the heat on my face. If she was found like that someone had to hurt her and then just left her. How could someone do something like that to such a beautiful creature? Why would they hurt a dragon?

“They tried taking care of her,” Matt explained further, “but after not making any progress for more than half a year they contacted me.” He locked eyes with mine and it seemed he was trying to read my face.

“What’s with the look?”

“You know that you need 15+ years of experience to work with a Hebridean Black here.”

“I do. That’s why I asked you about 50 times in the last week why did you pick me?” My heart was racing, knowing I will finally get the answer to my question.

“I didn’t.” Matt cleared his throat.

“What?” “I didn’t pick you. They did.”

“Who? The MacFusty family?” I don’t think I was ever this confused – this didn’t make any sense. I knew about the clan. They were famous for taking in Hebridean Blacks and taking care of them before releasing them into the wild but there was no way they could know about me.

“They knew that the dragon needed better care and even though their property is expanding they reckoned it would be better if the dragon is moved to a bigger reserve,” Matthew said. “They contacted the Swedish Dragon Sanctuary and they recommended the dragon to be transported here, into your care.”

“The Swedish Sanctuary?” I said more to myself than to him.

“I guess they were impressed with how a 27-year-old tamed a Ukranian Ironbelly as if it was no big deal. And your trainer, Oskar, found it amusing when you called them extra large Cruppies.” Matthew playfully shook his head.

“Well, they are. Their size is just deceiving.” I defended my statement.

“Charles, you must’ve done something to impress them so much that they thought of you when they found out about Asterin’s situation.” Matthew put his hand on my shoulder and winked at me.

“And you just agreed?” I narrowed my eyes at him. I still couldn’t believe it. They singlehandedly picked me? They thought of me to help the dragon?

I took a deep breath. I was prepared for anything when Matt was keeping all of this a secret from me but I didn’t think that this involved me on such a large scale. This was a great honor, an honor about which I didn’t know how to feel. I am good with dragons but I am not that good, am I?

It rarely happens that a dragonologist is recommended to be assigned to a dragon, especially if they are 28 years old. I’m still learning. I am still observing and studying the dragons and now the MacFusty family knows my name?

I rubbed my eyes thinking I was dreaming. This opportunity won’t only escalate my career and make my day-to-day more fun, it will also make my dream to work with a Hebridean Black come true.

“I don’t know what to say.” Was all I could muster.

“Just enjoy it, Charles. I know how much you like a challenge.” He tapped me twice on the shoulder and walked away.

I swallowed thickly and looked at the dragon who was standing still and being aware of every speck that moved.

“Hi.” I waved slowly. “My name is Charlie and I’ll be your buddy for the foreseeable future.”

The dragon’s tail started to move from left to right and I was pretty sure that if I took a step forward I would get scorched.

“It’s okay. I mean you no harm.” I bowed my head, maintaining eye contact, and then sat on the ground. “See, if you want you can eat me right now.”

I looked at Asterin’s claws which were dug deep into the earth beneath her paws. It meant that she was tense and stressed and didn’t believe a word I said to her.

“I can leave if you want. Just let me come back so I can give you some dinner.” I started to stand up but a roar straight to my face made me sit back down.

“Okay, okay. You do not agree with me leaving. I understand.” I lifted my hands in defense.

I felt like my heart was going to escape my ribcage any moment now. I wasn’t scared. I was thrilled. I could see that this was going to be a tough challenge and I couldn’t wait to see how everything will unfold.

I sat still and had a staring contest with Asterin for the next 3 hours. My bum and back were killing me but I didn’t care. The dragon didn’t move a muscle and her claws were still dug deep into the ground.

“Asterin, it’s time for dinner. How about you let me stand up?” I motioned with my head to the sky – it being dark, that’s how long we sat together in silence.

The dragon didn’t move nor blinked so I inhaled sharply and without exhaling stood up slowly, maintaining eye contact. Asterin let out a silent growl but didn’t roar, which was a good sign. I backed away and once I was out of her sight I hurried to get her food. Hebridean Blacks love venison so that was what I was going to get her.

As I was heading out of the food supply hut, I grabbed a bag of apples just in case Asterin is a vegetarian like Crystal.

The whole way back to the dragon I was debating whether or not I should stay and observe her eating or should I just leave her alone. I wanted to see if she will even want to eat and if it’s painful when she chews the meat.

My decision, however, didn’t matter when I came back with the dinner and Asterin was nowhere to be found.

[defenderrosetyler]

Always With You

Banner done by me; Pics are not mine

Word Count: Over 3.5k

Beta and some content added by @flamencodiva​

THIS FIC IS ANGSTY! There are death mentions, as well as well as alcohol intake. If you don’t like this or it triggers you, please turn away now! There are also spoilers for the 15x20 SPN Series Finale. Now, here are your tissues. Away we go!

It was just supposed to be a simple hunt. A simple hunt to kill some vampires. Y/N had been off doing her own hunts for a while after she’d gotten a call from the Winchester brothers that, after what had seemed like a long time coming, Chuck was defeated.  With the defeat of the vengeful god, it made Jack the new God and allowed him to restore the world from the devastation that he had caused with the removal of the whole universe, besides Y/N, Sam, and Dean. Then there had been the beautiful golden retriever Miracle as Dean had so named him. 

Y/N had met the Winchester Brothers during a routine werewolf hunt. It was just her luck that they were on the same case. A werewolf had been terrorizing a small town and killing innocent people, brushing it off as a bear attack. With the werewolf case solved, as it usually did, with all three of their brains working together to help save people and hunt things, the family business for Sam and Dean Winchester, and now for Y/N too. After working with the brothers and feeling a sense of family, she never wanted to hunt alone ever again.

This victory they celebrated after dealing with the vengeful god was finally over. All three of them had met back at the bunker and opened up a beer, and Dean smiled as he looked over at his younger brother and Y/N. 

“To all those we lost and saved,” Dean says, holding out his beer to Sam. Sam let out a chuckle, clinking his beer glass with his brothers, and allowed Y/N to clink hers as well. 

Like the brothers, Y/N had lost other people when she first started her hunting career. She had someone like Bobby for her, one who helped her with the lore she’d been unfamiliar with and ways to defeat them. She was still a novice hunter until she met Sam and Dean approximately 6 months ago, she found herself drawn towards Dean, but she didn’t tell him how she felt. Not right away anyway. Maybe this was her chance to tell Dean how she felt? No, she was still too much of a coward. 

Sam left the war room after their celebratory toast. Y/N and Dean both knew he had to work on contacting Eileen Lehey. Eileen and Sam always had a soft spot for one another, and the pair realized they were meant for each other. 

Dean cleared his throat as he looked over at Y/N, sipping whiskey from the glass he held in his hand. “What will you do now?”

Y/N sighed as she set down her glass, shaking her head. “I don’t know. I may head back home.” She says. 

Dean’s body slumped down a little at the thought of her leaving. She’d been gone when Billie had been in the bunker. When Cas had vanished, and she didn’t even know he was gone. Castiel had saved and healed Y/N on more than one occasion. This was more than Dean would have liked, but he knew it was bound to happen in their line of work. 

“I haven’t seen Castiel around, have you?” She added, finishing her bottle of orange hard soda.

Dean frowned and sighed, clearing his throat. He had to tell her, didn’t he? As he opened his mouth to speak, Y/N’s laughter rang out when Miracle had entered the War Room and jumped into her lap. Dean wasn’t about to ruin her happiness now. This is all he wanted for her. True he didn’t have his chance at an ‘Apple Pie’ life as he called it with someone special like Sam had with Eileen, but this was definitely something he wanted for Y/N. A chance to get out. 

Several weeks passed in the bunker, and a routine kicked in. All three of them would work on handling Miracle. They took turns feeding him, walking him, those types of tasks. Y/N found herself most afternoons curled up on one of the plush chairs in the Men of Letters library, catching up on some reading. Not knowing much of the Men of Letters, but she knew this was a hunters haven and something that was part of Sam and Dean’s history? She wanted to know more. 

This was one thing Dean loved about Y/N. Her intuitive nature and the way she wanted to fill her brain with as much knowledge as possible. It seemed to make her like Sam, a bookworm, but he didn’t mind. Dean found that attractive about her. 

As Sam came in from his run early one afternoon, he was looking at his laptop, brows furrowed as he read a news story he found.

“Sam? What is it?” Y/N asks as looking over at him as she walks in carrying a plate of Chinese. 

The aroma filled the room of mushroom and chicken with zucchini. It was a healthier choice than the other dishes that were available, which Dean teased her about on occasion. Y/N was a health nut like Sam. She’d been more focused on her physical appearance, but that was beside the point. 

“Well, I think I just found a case,” he said.  

Sam appeared to be in a state of shock at the randomness of the case after the amount of time between the defeat of Chuck and now. 

All three of them gathered into the impala, heading over to a small town that was holding a pie festival. Y/N shook her head as she saw the face of the elder Winchester light up. “Dean, are you sure about this?” Sam asks, giving his brother a skeptical look, raising his eyebrow as Dean nods. Clearly, you can’t keep the elder Winchester away from him and his obsession with pie.

A few minutes later, all three companions sat together on a bench. Y/N, as much as she wanted some pie, knew she could share with Dean, who had returned with an entire box full. It was like he’d grabbed every single slice that was offered. Sam had his own slice on a plate, but let out a deep, resented sigh. 

“Oh god, don’t give that sigh.” Y/N says giving Sam an objectifying look. This made Sam glance over at her, feeling confused. Apparently Dean heard it too. 

“That….That’s sad Sam sigh.” Dean tries to explain further, causing Sam to shake his head. Clearly it was a face of denial. 

“I’m not sad, okay? Just got a lot on my mind ya know?” He says. Sam knew what had happened to Castiel but wasn’t sure if Dean had told Y/N. This wasn’t Sam’s responsibility to tell her what happened that night in the bunker with Billie. Dean glanced over at his brother, and instantly knew what was on his mind. 

Both brothers seemed distracted and Y/N couldn’t figure out why. To lighten up the mood, she grabbed a small plate of pies with a whipped cream topping and moved to shove their faces into the dessert. A light giggle left her lips as she watched the shocked expressions of Sam and Dean as they attempted to comprehend what just happened. 

“Did she just..?” Sam says, a look of shock and awe etched on his face. Dean used his finger to clean the whipped topping off his nose. 

“Okay, I feel better now,” she giggled. They all needed a good laugh, given the mood they all seemed in since discovering the case. 

While the trio researched the case, a family was turning in for the night after the events of the festival, and the day overall. Mother kissed her children goodnight, as did the father. As the kids were headed upstairs to finish their evening routine, the father stopped at the doorway, seeing a shadow in the window, Followed by a knock at their front door. When he opened the door, he had a confused look on his face as there was no one there.

“Lyle?” The woman asks her husband, a worried expression on her face. 

“It's probably nothing,” Lyle shrugged, “just some kids….” His words are cut off as a machete sliced through his spine, cutting him in half. Lyle’s wife shrieked. Seeing this, the boys ran upstairs quickly to hide from the invader. Their mother isn’t far behind them. However, she was soon backed into a corner, unable to run or hide. Her children watched as their mother collapsed to the floor, dead. The echo of a boy shrieking filled the night. 

The following morning, Sam and Dean approached the house surrounded by yellow police tape and introduced themselves to the officer as Y/N examined the property. 

“Hold up, Feds, look into murder cases now?” The officer asks, raising an eyebrow at Sam and Dean, who’d introduced themselves as Kripkie, Singer, and Y/N as Agent Lemming.

Dean nodded, “Couldn’t help overhearing on the wire that one of the victims had its blood drained, right?”

The officer sighed and nodded, “Oh yeah, blood gone, puncture marks, it was really disgusting, and I’ve seen my fair share of murder cases.”

“The Mom?” Sam asks.

“Her body’s upstairs, but her tongue was cut off.”

“The kids were taken too,” Y/N says. “Were there any witnesses who can pin a description on who may have taken the kids?”

A female officer approached with a sketch pad and showed the trio the composite of the kidnapper/murderer. The photo shows a man with a skeleton mask. The officer excused herself, as did the Sergeant, leaving the trio nodding, thanking them for their time. 

The trio loaded themselves into the impala; Sam appeared to be racking his brain for something that connected the clues. “I know that face. I just can’t put my finger on it,” Sam sighed, irritated. Dean pulled the Impala under a tree off the main road. He knew what his younger brother was trying to remember. 

Y/N had the patriarch, John Winchester's journal, in her hands and froze when she saw the sketch inside the journal's contents. Dean blinked as if remembering the case.

“The kidnappings of ‘77!” They both said together

“According to the journal, he didn’t find much. But this is a common denominator between the two cases now,” Y/N says looking between them. “The blood was drained, tongues removed….I think we’re dealing with mimes.”

“Mimes or vampires,” Sam says.

“Vamp-mimes,” Dean says, attempting to merge the names together, earning a skeptical look from Y/N. “Son of a bitch.” 

“So, what do we do?” Y/N asks. 

“If these cases are a copycat of Dad’s old case, we need to head over to Canton,” Sam says. “We need to look for families that live outside city limits, around the age of 5-10 years old.

“Okay, so we need to look over the population of Canton and see who fits the bill,” Y/N says as they all climbed into the Impala, setting themself to get to work.  

They had followed the vampires over to an abandoned barn, Sam declining Deans wanting to use a throwing star, he gave it a huge resounding no, but Y/N managed to sneak it into her arsenal before they walked in. Inside it was dark and dreary. Being confronted by a vampire they met several years ago was a surprise for them, but the ambush, was a whole different surprise.

Y/N issued the two young boys back to the safety of the impala as the fighting began inside. Dean and Sam used their machete’s to chop the heads off each skeleton masked vampire. Y/N was knocked down to the ground, Sam rushing to her aid as he chopped its head off. Meanwhile on the other side of the barn, Dean was pushed into a pole, unseen till he felt it, had a metal rebar. 

Seeing Dean struggling, Y/N rushed over to chop its head off and watched it fall to the ground.

“Okay, I think that’s all of them,” Y/N panted, “Sam, go check on the kids would you please?”

Sam nods and heads to check on the two younger boys they had managed to save. Y/N looked at Dean and wondered why he wasn’t moving. They’d won, they could go home, and celebrate over some leftover pie from the festival. 

“Dean?” She asks “Come on, Sam’s gonna need help with the kids.”

A sad smile appeared on Dean’s face, he was clearly struggling. “I don’t….I don’t think I’m going anywhere.” 

“What?” Y/N breathed confused but she already had an idea about what happened. 

“There's something in my...Something in my back. It feels like it's right through me.” Dean rasped. Y/N walked to stand in front of him now, reaching around to his back and more tears welled in her eyes as she looked at him. Shaking her head, fighting the tears. She wasn’t about to cry in front of Dean.

“We-We can call for Cas, Cas can heal you!” Y/N pleaded. Praying for Castiel, praying that her angelic friend would be able to appear in a ruffle of his feathers and save Dean like he always did. Heaven rules or not.

“Don’t move me, Y/N/N, this thing is actually holding me together right now,” Dean says trying to put on a smile for her. Y/N moved to leave him, intent on calling for Sam for help or at least gathering the first aid kit she’d ensured was in the Impala at all times, in instances where Castiel’s healing ability wasn’t at their disposal to use. “Just-just come back and stay with me please?”

Y/N wasn’t about to let Dean be alone. He’d been there for her so many times, now it was her turn. “Okay, okay.” She nodded trying to compose herself. “Sam’s off taking care of the boys right now, we’re all gonna go deliver them to their families. Deal?” She suggested

“No,” Dean says, shaking his head, “no Y/N/N. I’m not going to be leaving with you and Sam. I mean, this is how I always told Sam that this is how I was going to go out. On a hunt, doing what we do, saving people and hunting things.” 

“Dean, for the love of God stop it!” She snapped, the tears now fully falling down her cheeks. “I’m going to get you out of here alive if it's the last thing I do!!”

“It's been a hell of a ride Y/N/N.” As hurt and as injured as he was, he gave her a stern look. “No deals, you and Sam are not bringing me back. We all know how deals turned out for us. Just, let me talk for a minute okay?” He asks. Causing Y/N to nod only and bite back her tears. “Remember, remember the day we met at the pool house? You were at the bar and uh…”

“You and Sam were playing pool,” Y/N chimed in to help him. 

Dean nodded. “You had busted my ass at pool, only because I let you, then you proved me wrong on the hunt that we’d done, saved my ass for the first time.” Dean chuckled sadly before coughing. 

“I don’t want you to go…..” Y/N sobbed, looking at him. “I can’t do this without you.” 

“I’m so proud of you, Y/N/N,” Dean says, “Besides, I’m never gonna leave you,” he whispered moving his hand to her heart, Y/N placing her hand over his. Gripping it tight as she possibly can without hurting him.  “Can you do me a favor?” Dean adds. 

“Anything,” she says instantly 

“Tell me it's okay to let go?” Dean asks. This makes Y/N finally let the waterfall of her tears fall down, resting her head against his. Chest heaving as she struggled to breathe. Where was Castiel? Why wasn’t he or Jack here yet? This was the one thing she refused to do. 

“Y/N/N, please?” Dean was practically begging on his final breaths. Y/N gathered her composure and nodded. A sniffle filled the air as Y/C/E met his emerald green ones. 

All Y/N can do is sob. “I’ll let Sam know you said goodbye.”

A single tear fell down Dean’s cheek. “I’ll always love you Y/N/N, I always have. Just been too afraid to say it.” Dean says struggling, on his last breaths. 

Y/N sighed and moved her hand to place it over Dean’s heart. She leaned in, pressing her lips to his, soft at first before dean deepened it. His tongue clashing with hers as they shared their first and last kiss., Pulling away, Y/N bit her lip, trying to suppress the sob that threatened to escape. Her heart shattered into a million pieces as she placed his hand over her heart. “I love you too,” she whispered, “It's okay Dean,” she paused to find her voice, “You can go,” she whispered. 

Dean took his last breath, his hand slowly dropping from Y/N’s chest where he had it over her heart.  Y/N kept her hand on his heart till it wasn’t beating anymore. She let out a scream of rage, sobbing at the loss of the one man she loved. Collapsing onto the floor, all hope abandoning her.. 

Upon entering heaven, Cas and Dean were reunited. As much as it pained Y/N and Sam to do it, surrounded by family and friends they’d known throughout the years as hunters, they gave Dean a hunter's funeral. Y/N watched the flames, holding back the need to jump on the pyre with him and meet him in Jack’s new heaven she is sure he’d have built. In order to numb the pain, after the funeral, one night as Sam slept, Y/N slipped out, heading off to find another hunt. 

Hunting seemed to help her not think Dean was gone, but then came the nights where she heard his voice in her head. Telling her to stop, slow down, and take a rest. One evening, after she’d been up for almost three days straight, Y/N decided to give in to her exhaustion and take a soothing bath. 

While in the tub, Y/N had opted to numb more of the pain she felt, by drinking Dean’s favorite whisky.  God she missed him, missed the way he flirted, missed how they would sing at the top of their lungs to annoy Sam. She just wanted him back.  As she continued to drink, the exhaustion mixed with the effects of the alcohol started to sink in. Her mind began to drift off, eyes fighting to stay open until they closed, her body sunk into the tub, head submerged, until she was engulfed by the water. 

The next morning, Sam went to check on her. He hadn’t heard from her in a few days and tracked her down to her motel room. At first, he thought maybe she was sleeping and tried calling her cell while banging on the door. That usually resulted in Sam meeting the end of the barrel of her gun. But after a few minutes, his heart began to pound with worry. Kicking the door down, he called out her name frantically, until he reached the bathroom. His heart stopped, torn at the scene before him. He let out a cry, both angry and sad at his fallen friend. Angry because she had left him alone, she was all he had left, and sad because he knew he didn’t do enough to help. 

With a heavy heart called 911, and a second hunter's funeral was planned. 

Y/N opened her eyes and looked around herself. The sky shone brightly, her skin feeling it’s warmth. She wasn’t sure where she was, but she could feel a familiar presence behind her. Taking a deep breath, she slowly turned around to see a familiar place she called home. 

Harvelle's 

The sign welcomed her and as she walked closer to it, she felt her heart warm to see the familiar mentor who had helped her long before she met Sam and Dean. 

“You’re an Idjit for doing all those hunts back to back you know,” her mentor huffed, putting the beer bottle to his lips and taking a drink. 

“Yeah,” she sighed, “but at least I saved people doing it, Bobby.” 

Bobby let out a huff, smiling gently at her, “He’s in there if you’re wondering.” 

Y/N nodded, making her way towards the door. Her hands shook as she placed her palm on the wood, and pushed it open. 

The bar was filled with laughter and music. As she looked around she saw familiar faces, faces of the people she had loved and lost along the way. They were drinking and dancing, music filling the air around them. As she continued farther in, the voices seemed to fade away as the man she was looking for stood at the bar, elbows leaning on the top as he offered her a cocky smile.  

“I’ve been waiting for you sweetheart,” he says with a chuckle. “Now, about that kiss.”

Tags: 

 @simsadventures​​ @mummybear​ @impala-dreamer​ @holylulusworld​ @snffbeebee​ @saxxxology @akshi8278​​ ​ @deansmyapplepie   @luci-in-trenchcoats @samskia-writes @winchester-fantasies​​ @talesmaniac89​​ @stusbunker​​ @idreamofplaid​ @cherrypiebbyblog​​ @cleighwrites​​ @jxackles​​ @flamencodiva​​ @wonder-cole​​ @msmarvelouswinchester​​ @downanddirtydean​​ @janicho88​​ @lacednleathered​​

[the-bjd-community-confess]

I kinda wanna do my own mini rant in the spirit of the rant about Ringdolls nazi stuff. For years now we’ve been all educated, and educating on many huge issues in the world. How to be more accepting, and mindful of others. What I just wanna make clear is, that we’ve had a much bigger focus on just, learning, and accepting, or at least understanding different views, and experiences, from the present, but also the past. One thing that kinda irks me, which this hobby obviously has a problem with, but I also know many other hobbies must do too, is how people will excuse racism, sexism, or just downright historical cruelties, and whatnot, just because the person wasn’t born in the west. Just an example Imagine if a Western artist, or a Western BJD company, started producing dolls wearing the Japanese Red Sun, or imagery with strong resemblance to it, and uniforms of that time, and then sold them to East Asia. Imagine selling them to S Korea, China, Philipines, and so on. That’d obviously cause a huge issue, because historically, it’s just a very offensive symbol, which to some East Asians, and just Asians, can be viewed close, or just like the Nazi-Swastika. I obviously can’t confirm this, but from what I’ve seen, and heard, it’s a really bad symbol to people in many Asian countries. In the West, we might not even realise that, even if we know some of the history of Asia, because we just aren’t as close to it. But I think many people are at least somewhat aware of certain military historical symbols, and actions, and what they meant for people. I highly doubt many people in our Western part of the hobby would accept that, and would probably call out the artist, and wonder why the hell they’d make something like that, when it’s clear that this symbol is incredibly offensive to the people of a large part of Asia. You’d obviously come across information, and hints, when researching a certain topic, especially when it’s very gruesome, and had a big impact in some way. So why is it fine for a Chinese company, Ringd0ll, to produce Nazi inspired clothing? Why is it that we in the West should basically “accept” or “mind our own business” when this stuff happens? Why do people excuse the actions of this company, or even companies? Allegedly Iplehouse had a very clear Nazi imagery featured in one of their dolls fullsets at some point. I’ve even seen small Asian artists make Nazi uniform pieces, with the Eagle on the Swastika and all. We know it’s not hard to figure these things out. And I’d say, that especially in circumstances like these, where the issue isn’t some small, insignificant historical event, but something that impacted the whole world!, everyone knew about it, it’s WORLD WAR 2! people should research, and frankly, get educated before making these things. And then immediately realize why they shouldn’t make them. Or at least listen to the people, who try and educate why that’s just incredibly offensive. And I mean offensive, as in actually offensive, not someone getting their ego bruised, this is people calling out people using Nazis as a doll fashion statement.

I especially don’t understand, that even Westerners will make excuses for Asian companies, and people. It almost comes across as infatalizing, because they treat it like Asians just “don’t know any better.” or that they’re somehow not educated enough to know, or figure out who the Nazis were, what they did, and why it’s so horrific to be, in a way, putting them on a pedestal, by creating dolls in their image. Fact is, if you are able to make Nazis uniforms, based on historical, or even modern media, you’re also able to figure out why it’s an incredibly offensive thing to do. And in regards to there even being Western doll owners who feel comfortable enough to make dolls dressed as Nazis, and posting them online, in public spaces. This is what the people who accept, and excuse this are doing. You’re not being “accepting of culturally different views.” you’re just accepting the of glorifying Nazis, and their deeds. Because you acknowledge what these dolls represent, and you excuse it.   And I know the argument is gonna arise “So are you claiming you’re always glorifying something, when you create something based on something else?” The thing is, this is a very nuanced type of situation. If I made a doll who’s based on a horror movie figure, I’d not be glorifying the deeds of that character. I’d show either appreciation, or something in that vein, based on that character, the writer, and the story it came from. If someone creates a character based around the idea of someone like Jack the Ripper. That’s kinda fucked up, not going to lie, but in most cases it’s clear that people are more obsessed with the deeds, rather than the person. They see the name “Jack THE RIPPER!” and think it’s somehow cool, and edgy to make a doll based on that, on the name. Most people aren’t aware of much besides that. They are more glorifying the idea of the figure, the “mystery”, the lore that was created around the figure titled Jack the Ripper, than the actual person itself. When you make something based on Nazis, you know what’s going on. You know what it all symbolizes. Everyone knows it, or at least a large part will know, who’ll also have a good amount who’d immediately try to tell you why that’s fucked up. There’s nothing you can remove from Nazis, that isn’t gonna still make it clear you’re still glorifying a Nazi, or the concept of Nazis, because everything involving them, is steeped in that Nazi imagery, and history. + Just wanted to add, from the point about Jack the Ripper. It’d be a different thing if it was someone like Charles Manson, or Albert FIsh, you can’t remove what you created, from glorifying what these actual people did. You can’t, you’re just glorifying their deeds, because there’s not “mysterious” figure, there’s no lore made by overeager writers, or mysterious names that basically create a character completely removed from the person, because people didn’t know much, or even nothing at all. At that point, you’re glorifying horrible people, who are looking you straight into the eye, with their histories, and their deeds, clear cut and dry.   I’m not sure if that last part made much sense to many, but I tried explaining it to the best of my ability.

~Anonymous

[bigowlenergy]

📂 i love your headcanons, btw, for some reason i always go "that makes SO MUCH SENSE"

thank u i feel incredibly valid rn good to know we vibe bro.

how about some melanie king content on this day? i think we need it

i saw a single hc about cantonese melanie and i lost my mind. during the early episodes i was seeing her as the white woman in the cast, and there is value in her defensive anger and unquiet rage in that space, but i was never invested in that for her. but then my mind was enhanced and now i see the light and i love melanie king even more.

under the cut bc its long:

i think the post was talking about ‘king’ being a possible romanization of ‘qing’ and thats cool, but i heard the words cantonese melanie and i fixated on her first name. i know that this is a british setting, but in america, many - and all that ive met at least - asian-americans or visa students or longterm visitors with a culturally chinese/korean name often choose an ‘american name’ to be called by instead. the sounds in those language do not exist in english, and the sheer amount of labor that would be expected on the part of the asian person to teach every single non-asian how to pronounce their name would be ridiculous. not worth it.

melanie king as a name has very much the same feeling about it. and the way she’s protective of her name? its not mel. its not melly. her name is melanie only bc thats the name she chose and u better damn well respect it.

and this puts her anger and her defensiveness and her solo fight to get to the top in a much more understandable light. the stereotype of asian woman in a white mans world gets kicked to the curb by her personally on a daily basis. shes in a disadvantaged position from the get-go and shes had nothing but time to get angry about it, to learn to be untrusting and defensive, and to not want to take even an ounce of shit from anyone.

theres also the fact that shes wlw that compounds on this. whether shes butch or femme or not on the social presentation spectrum that way, there are stereotypes waiting in the wings for her to contend with. femme? well yeah of course she is, shes a cute little asian woman, she HAS to be cute and wear pink and look socially soft and submissive, as femme is perceived by outsiders. butch? wow, an angry tomboy asian woman associated with knives, she MUST know self defense and enjoy violence and hate men. that shit sucks, and sometimes it feels like u cant possibly win.

whatever she chooses for herself, she is going into it with the expectations of needing to defend her own existence and individuality. of course she’s angry. of course she loves that anger that surprises people, that lets her get her tiny advantages where she can. of course she feels like shes on her own and only has her own strength of will to rely on - she does. the system of the world made it that way and melanie is going to fight it with her own two hands

and the way her second meeting with jon went? the immediate rage upon thinking that he might be trying to gaslight her? sure, shes got the bullet at that time, but that is the reaction of someone used to having her attempts to get her own show, her own respect, her own experiences, met with racist gaslighting minimizing her own abilities and hard work and interests in not simply being the ‘asian expert’ on chinese ghost myths or something. she was PISSED and did not listen to another word he tried to say.

and then elias hired her. not for the songling center, not to specifically handle the asian section, he hired her to the archive of the entire building bc he knew about her show and was impressed by her own dedicated researching at the library. an older white academic male authority recognized melanie king as worthy of respect. that must have been SO validating. and then, of course, came THAT reveal.

i also hc her as having lasting knee issues from the bullet - more like a brace situation with a cane side deal.

anyway, i love femme wlw cantonese melanie king i will stan her forever

[saintcients]

➥ intro.

hi everyone! i’m bringing you ito fuyuko, the december baby and private detective! i’m currently still working on the pages as i wanted to have this muse up as quick as possible – so for now there’ll only be this intro, but i will update everyone once i got the pages up! i love plotting on here or discord, so just feel free to add me on there if you’d like!

please click the read more to get some info about dearest fuyuko. ♡

basics. 

name: ito fuyuko 伊藤 冬子 [ fun fact! fuyuko actually means winter child – very fitting since she is born in december! ] / korean name: dongja 동자.

age: 27 years old.

nationality: japanese.

date of birth: 2nd of december. 

western zodiac sign: sagittarius.

chinese zodiac sign: rooster.

representative month: december.

education: bachelor’s in criminology. 

current occupation: private detective. 

current location: dallyeog, complex 4, floor 4, apartment 2.

sexual orientation: homosexual. 

languages: japanese, korean, english, little bit of chinese.

relationship status: single. 

pets: ginger cat called takahiro / picked up from the street.

background.

fuyuko is originally from nagoya, japan. her parents are both working in the manufacturing industry, but are both close to retiring soon. the ito family, due to their hard-working nature, is rather well off and there are little worries about the future money-wise. 

early on, fuyuko liked picking up her mother’s crime novels, that the woman consumed en masse; fuyuko mostly fascinated by the ones with a female lead – rendering her with an idea for her future in her head.

however, there was one problem: even the slightest little cut on her finger would make her wince, the mere sight of blood ( real blood, that is. ) making her close her eyes, not able to take a look. 

that was a problem for her, as it slowly dawned on her that being a detective and being this squeamish would definitely not work out. it baffled her a little; there was no stopping her love for true crime in any case – she could read hours and hours about unsolved cases, the most cruel things, one documentary after another, but she knew that if she would experience that in person, it would hurt her in the long run.

still, as soon as she graduated high school, fuyuko enrolled into a bachelor’s in criminology, enjoying every single class she had to take, ending up with a pretty good degree. 

while in college, she picked up a few extra language courses, weighing her options of maybe exploring the world: korean, english and the tiniest bit of chinese. she knew that maybe working abroad would be a problem as getting into law enforcement as a foreigner wouldn’t be exactly easy. 

still, the thrill was there and fuyuko, even when she tried to push the thought aside, kept wondering what would be out there. at first, she only toyed with the idea, researching how her life in korea would be as a nobody. she wouldn’t know anyone, she would have to take her life into her own hands and actually try to survive. 

she wasn’t able to get rid of the temptation, and decided to pack up her things and move. her parents weren’t extremely happy about the fact, but if other people could do it, so why not her?

after she had found a nice apartment after staying in a hostel for about two weeks, fuyuko couldn’t have been happier – finally a place for herself and her new life. and !!! the day she moved in, she encountered sweet takahiro, a ginger cat roaming the alleys looking a bit hungry, deciding to keep him; together they could fight the loneliness.

at dallyeog.

the next problem fuyuko would encounter would be the question of a job. her idea definitely raised some brows at the employment exchange – but somehow it worked. maybe the paperwork gods were on her side that day. 

just like that, fuyuko was her own agency, her own boss. a private detective. it was the thought that had been rummaging through her head for a few months now, however she had never thought that it would become reality. 

now, just because it was written on paper, didn’t mean that it would work out. it took a few weeks and lots of calls – back and forth, discrete advertising and finally she got something, her first case !!! 

the first case: the woman seemed rather unbothered, however she still wanted to find out if her husband was cheating or not. she had mentioned lots of money being involved and her just knowing that the dearest husband was up to no good. fuyuko had no problem stalking the man, documenting his every step and providing the wife with more than enough information – after all, fuyuko had an endless amount of patience, her work was driving her and she just needed to find out the truth. and the pay was good. 

she now lives a bit more peacefully, knowing that her dreams had worked themselves out and that she has a rather stable income and a reason to stay. 

characteristics. 

fuyuko isn’t afraid of taking risks, however most of the time she is a rather calm person. in general, she has a positive view on things and is self-assured. 

she is candid and honest and will always prefer to be straight-forward with others even if her words could hurt the other’s feelings – so some might find her too blunt, some might think her honesty is a fresh breath of air. 

fuyuko has an independent soul and usually doesn’t like being told how to live: she knows what’s best for herself and will always do whatever she feels like doing. 

it is easy for her to read other’s emotions and body-language, often noticing if anything is off rather quickly.

what she can’t stand are selfish people and she doesn’t tolerate much bullshit as she can usually tell whenever she is getting herself into a useless / waste-of-time-type situation. 

it is rather fun to be around fuyuko as she can be spontaneous and will always try to cheer the other person up whenever she can. random dates and day trips are always on the list! 

she will always try to be there for her loved ones when they need her the most – she also doesn’t like to hold grudges and prefers to leave them in the past. 

sometimes she will get herself into trouble as she can be relentless and daring, often not caring in what kind of dangerous situation she is getting into. 

wanted connections.

guidance: the first friend fuyuko made when she came to dallyeog – someone who showed her around seoul and made her feel more comfortable. 

drinking buddies: someone who comes around after work and they just have a good old bottle of soju together while ranting about life and maybe gossiping about others !

new friends: someone she just met but they immediately clicked and now can’t stop hanging out with each other. 

a job: maybe your muse needs to find something out and fuyuko can definitely help them out – with a big friendship discount, of course. 

night drives: sitting around for hours in a car isn’t too strange for fuyuko, however having company while driving through the city at night while talking about anything and everything would be way better. 

the fall: maybe while trying to peek through a window or something, fuyuko falls and twists an ankle ( or worse ) and isn’t able to move around much. your muse volunteers to take care of her for the time being. 

romantic connections: don’t hold back ladies wink wonk... no i’m serious anything would be nice (??)

[neriad13]

Favorite Media of 2020!

There was a large swathe of this year during which I was unable to concentrate on reading (as there probably was for a lot of other typically-frequent readers), so, as a result, I ended up listening to way more podcasts and watching way more TV shows. Not a bad thing, but boy did I read way less books than usual. 

However, for the first time in a while, the amount of fiction I read was about equal with the amount of nonfiction I read. Last year’s reading resolution was to read more fiction, so...success??

I did read a lot of phenomenal fiction when I had the energy to do so this year.

Books - Fiction

The Martian - Andy Weir

This book is the hardest of the hard sci fi I think I’ve ever read. Every single aspect of it is minutely researched and calculated. The author literally wrote equations to write this book. The science is insanely impressive and yet...it never loses its sense of humor or humanity in the mix. In fact, they’re the thing that drives the entire story.

Warlock Holmes - G. S. Denning

Way early in the year I was strolling down the fantasy aisle at the library, when this cover caught my eye. I took one look at it, went “oh, this looks silly” and...proceeded to devour the entire series in a matter of weeks. 

It is very silly. Especially when it’s pointing out something that was silly in the original. There’s something so satisfying about Watson immediately answering Holmes with the correct number of steps in their flat when he’s trying to make his point about how most people don’t pay attention to things like that.

World War Z - Max Brooks

Every single scenario in here could easily support an entire book. A park ranger whose job it is to contain the yearly zombie spring thaw? HECK YES. I’d read tens of thousands of words about that. A Chinese admiral who defaults, steals the government’s premier submarine, loads it up with the families of his underlings and takes to the sea for years to live in the maritime economy that has sprung up in a world where everyone is trying to escape the shore? That could be an entire movie on its own. 

Every chapter was more creative than the last and as a huge worldbuilding fan, this book was so, so fun.

An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon

In which a queer, neurodivergent protagonist solves a mystery on a spaceship which is a microcosm of antebellum era politics! This had a beautiful, mysterious, wonder-inducing writing style and it was a joy to peer into the wildly differing minds of every single character.

Books - Nonfiction

Underland - Robert MacFarlane

In every chapter, the author visits a different hole. Basically.

It’s an exploration of caves, catacombs, mines, nuclear waste facilities and the hidden underbelly of every forest. It was fascinating. And fundamentally changed how I look at time.

Rejected Princesses - Jason Porath

After years of having enjoyed the web entries, I finally got my hands on the first book and was not disappointed. 

There are the more entertaining entries, of course and the art is as charming as always, but what struck me the most were the more difficult stories. The deeper you go into this book, the more horrific it gets. The author does not hold back on the indignities suffered by the historical figures he writes about. It’s terrible...but also very, very illuminating.

The Gift of Fear - Gavin De Becker

This book - while maintaining all the essential information in it - could be pared down to one sentence in a sea of blank pages and that sentence would be: trust your instincts. End of story.

But in a world where instincts are either customarily suppressed or going haywire, it’s not quite that easy, which is why I’m glad there is more to the book.

I picked it up thinking “ha ha, betcha can’t help a person with anxiety who fears all the time already” and...what it actually ended up doing was giving me the tools to differentiate between real fear and unfounded fear. And did help with the anxiety quite a bit.

Fanfiction

Watch Over Me - cakeisatruth

A Bioshock fic from the point of view of a little sister who is learning how to trust and be an ordinary child again. Dark and sweet. An excellent combo.

All That is Visible - Ultima_Thule

An exploration of a minor character in a well researched historical context? That’s my jam! How did they know?? A Tron fic about what it’s like to be a female programmer in the 70s.

Graphic Novels

The Adventure Zone - McElroys + Carey Pietsch

Yesssssssss! It was a running-to-the-library type event whenever my library got a new volume in. The jokes are so good, the art is so lively and the ways in which they added the details that the podcast couldn’t necessarily get across is *mwah*

Trail of Blood - Shuuzou Oshimi

Hoooooooly shit, the art style of this one!! It’s beautifully detailed and expressive, sure, but the real draw for me was how it changes with the emotional state of the main character. There’s this sequence in which he’s consumed with anxiety at school and all of his classmates become blurry and unfocused, until they can’t be recognized as humans at all, that particularly sticks with me.

It’s a horror story about a kid who witnesses his loving mother push his cousin off a cliff for seemingly no reason and is then obligated by her to keep the secret, which is eating him from the inside out. It’s so good, guys, please read it.

Level Up - Gene Lien Yang/Thien Pham

A story about a kid who is haunted by his late father’s desire for him to become a gastroenterologist. It’s funny and touching and the ending gave me what I can only describe as a feeling of exhilaration. Y’know that feeling when something unexpected but not out of left field, perfectly in tune with the narrative arc and gut bustingly funny happens, all in the same panel? That one.

Film

Searching

This is a fairly standard thriller about a dad trying to find out what happened to his missing daughter. It’s also found footage...but not in the usual way, which was what made it so compelling to me. It’s told through the dad’s phone calls, google searches, social media interactions, news footage, security cameras and webcams. It was such a cool way to tell a story.

Train to Busan

There’s a lot that’s already been said about this movie and I don’t think there’s much more I can meaningfully add to that. Suffice to say that ya gotta take care of each other if you’re going to survive a zombie apocalypse!!

TV Series

My Brother’s Husband

As close to a perfect adaptation as a person can get (barring the entire conversation in English which was...oof). I was so happy when they took it a step further and showed Kana and Yaichi actually getting to meet Mike’s family.

Zumbo’s Just Desserts

I watched a lot of baking shows this year. Like...a lot. They were my much-needed comfort viewing for the year and this one was my favorite, even over The Great British Baking Show (which I LOVE). Why? Because the pastry chef for whom it’s named makes such bizarre and wonderful desserts and fosters an environment in which the competitors do the same. I’ve never seen anything like a lot of the desserts that make an appearance on this show. Every single episode was an awesome surprise and so help me, this show had better get a third season.

She-ra and the Princesses of Power

There’s also a lot that’s been said about this one, so I won’t say much more. Suffice to say: DAMN. That’s how you do an 80s toy tie-in cartoon remake.

Infinity Train

This show’s premise is probably the most unique I’ve seen in recent years. Its balance of comedy, horror and existential dread is also *mwah* I also love how much it trusts the viewer to figure things out on their own.

Primal

A late entry sliding in before the year ends! I finally got to watch the second half of the first season last weekend and it was EXCELLENT. The pacing, the brutal fight scenes, the adorable dinosaur antics, the animation, the quiet moments - *mwah-mwah-mwah-mwah-mwah*

The most emotional moment for me was the part in which the protagonists watch, with sorrow, as the rabid dinosaur who’s been trying to kill them all night dies an excruciating death.

Also it sets up a fascinating new plotline right before ending in a cliffhanger!! Another one for the ‘had better get a next season’ list.

Games

Night in the Woods

This is one that’s been on my to play list for a few years and I was so glad I finally got my hands on it. It’s like...The Millennial Experience (TM), the game. I felt so seen, playing it. The character writing was fantastic.

Prey

I don’t know why I put off finishing this for so long. I guess I wasn’t in the right alien killing headspace for a while?? Anyway, the setting is gorgeous, the alien biology is weird and cool, the ethics are delightfully murky and the interconnectedness of the station was really cool, especially in the OH SHIT moments at the end. 

Podcasts

The Adventure Zone

I tried to narrow this down to one favorite arc, but found that I couldn’t do it. I love Balance for its comedy and creative energy. I love Amnesty for its drama and acting. I am loving Graduation for the depth of its world and the way in which the real story behind everything that’s happened is slowly unfurling. It’s a good podcast all around.  

The Magnus Archives

Who obsessively listened to every single season while playing Minecraft in about a month? Surely not me, nooooo. Of course not.

There’s also been a lot said on this one, so I’ll keep it brief. I’ve seen things in here that I haven’t really seen elsewhere in horror. My particular favorites were the creepy psychiatric hospital in which the horror comes not from the patients, but from the denial of the doctor to believe them about their mental illnesses and every single thing related to the Anthropocene. The one with the Amazonian village made out of trash - CHILLS.

[buckleysjareau]

you feel like the perfect escape now

"In the symbolic language of jewels, a sapphire in a wedding ring means marital happiness."

or

Eddie planning his proposal with the help of Hen and Karen. Featuring good ol' Buck and Chimney banter, soft and in love boyfriends, and tooth rotting fluff.

part two of three in my series ‘cause i’m not too far and you’re my favorite place on ao3

Eddie Diaz was never the type of guy to actually think about marriage. He’ll sound horrible saying it, but he didn’t really think about his marriage to Shannon. He loved her, he’s loved her since their third date when they were caught in the rain and instead of freaking out, she grabbed Eddie’s hand, dragged him out from the shelter and spun them around, head falling back in happy, care-free laughter. He loved her when she told him, with tears in her eyes, that she was pregnant. He loved her as she walked down the aisle with a grin on her face, carelessly happy. He loved her when she gave birth to their world.

But he never thought about it as it happened. When she’d told him she was pregnant, after he got over the initial excitement, his first thought was oh, we should probably get married now. Before that, it never occurred to him that he would ever marry Shannon, even though he loved her.

It was different with Buck.

Realizing he wants to marry Buck, not because he should but because it’s the only thing he can think of when he goes to sleep at night and when he wakes in the morning. He realizes the difference in the thought when it comes to planning his proposal to Buck and how he treated Shannon’s proposal.

He loved Shannon, but he was never in love with her. The thought sends an uncomfortable amount of guilt through him, but he hears Buck’s voice in his ear saying, you can’t help who you fall in love with.

Not exactly what he meant when he said it but it helped Eddie shake a lot of the guilt.

He was wholeheartedly, one-hundred percent, completely, utterly and stupidly in love with Evan Buckley.

The second it struck him how much he not just wanted, but needed to marry Buck, he couldn’t wait a second longer to start planning it. 

The first thing he has to do before he even starts planning anything, though, is ask Christopher if he would be okay with him marrying Buck. He knows his kid loved Buck more than life, but sometimes he’s scared that Chris will think that if he marries him, he’ll be replacing Shannon.

When it happens that Buck and his schedules don’t line up, he takes Christopher to lunch at his favorite place and asks. 

“Christopher, can I ask you a really important question?”

He giggles when his son looks up from his triple chocolate pancakes with whipped cream and chocolate already covering his mouth. “What is it, dad?”

“Abuela’s gonna kill me for letting you order all of this sugar.” He shakes his head as he smiles before he clears his throat. “You know how before Buck and I got together, I asked what you’d think about it?”

“I said I loved my Buck and got really excited.”

“That’s right! Well, Christopher, how would you feel if I asked your Buck to marry me?”

Chris’ smile grows immediately. “You’re gonna marry Bucky?”

“If that’s alright with you.” He smirks.

“Yes! Yes!” 

His heart soars. He was really going to ask Evan Buckley to marry him. 

After he texts Hen for her help and the twenty texts he receives of her freaking out in the language of keyboard smash, he tries to plan it. Keyword: tries.

From Hen;

Alright, alright diaz-buckley, how do you plan to do this

To Hen;

I have no clue!!! That’s why i asked for your help to research and what not. I’m not Buck, i’m not good at research or whatever

Also

*future diaz-buckley, we’re not married YET

From Hen;

boy... you’re in love in love huh

Your boy is sitting right across from me 

*photo attachment*

What’s he smiling at eddie?

To Hen;

Probably dog videos 

Now helllllppppppppppppp

From Hen;

You were right. A golden retriever looking at videos of golden retrievers

Patient, diaz! 

Got a call, we’ll talk later

To Hen;

Tell buck to be careful!

You too obviously

bu t you know what I mean 

He doesn’t know why he thought he could get anything done regarding the proposal through text. That’s how Hen and him were, they had never been able to stay on one conversation at a time when texting. There was one time when Hen had asked him for a recipe Buck wouldn’t give her, followed by a text about a playdate with Denny, and a text asking his high score in Candy Crush. He responded to say he’d ask him and send it and continued the conversation. Talk of playdates turned into talks of weirdest calls, talk of high scores in Candy Crush turned to talk of modern technology and so on. By the time Hen stopped responding, presumably because Karen got home, Eddie realized he’d never given her the recipe. 

It was different in person, they could sit for hours and talk about the same thing. He cherishes any conversation with Hen, though. He cherishes their friendship so much. Next to Buck, Hen was his best friend. 

That’s why he couldn’t think to ask anyone better to help him plan the next step in his life with the man that he loves.

From Hen;

Heads up, your boys in a sour mood 

Dont worry though because ik you are!

Im sure a nice cuddle from his soon to be fiance will do the trick

To Hen;

Why shouldnt I worry? An hour ago you sent me pic of him smiling 

Now hes in a bad mood? Something happened

Hennnnnnnnn tell me what happppppennnnnneddddd

What was the call

im bored and worried 

From Buck; 

Can I stay the night? Ill bring wine and chinese <22222

<4444

To Buck;

You okay there babe? Haha

You never have to ask 

Or bribe me with food and alcohol

But i will accept it <3

From Buck;

You know i hate texting don’t judge me!

See you in 10 love love love you <3

Eddie’s worried. Buck practically lived at the Diaz’s, he never had to ask to stay the night and he knew that. All Hen had sent back was the shrug emoji so he was on his own to figure out why.

As promised, Buck walks in ten minutes later with two bags of chinese food and a bottle of white wine. He seemed tense, but when he sees Eddie in his presence, he can automatically see his whole body relax. 

“I hate when we’re not on shift together.” Buck says in lieu of a greeting. He places the wine and food on the coffee table in front of them before he plops down next to Eddie.

He leans into Eddie’s touch, instantly lying his head on Eddie’s chest and closes his eyes.

Eddie smiles down at his boyfriend, automatically moving to run a hand through his curls, wrapping the other arm around Buck’s chest. “Me too. I missed you today. So did Chris.”

“I missed you both like crazy today. I can’t wait to just cuddle up to you and fall asleep.” He mumbles. “You’re my world.”

Even after all of this time, Buck can still make Eddie blush like it’s nothing.

He presses his lips to Buck’s forehead. “And you’re mine.” 

It stays quiet after that until Eddie’s stomach growls, startling Buck into sitting upright in laughter. 

“I think it’s time to eat, huh?” 

“You’d be right.” 

Buck gets up and gets two wine glasses from the kitchen. The way in which Buck walks so comfortably around his home will never fail to bring a kaleidoscope of butterflies to his stomach. He knows where everything is and he knows how everything works and it feels empty when he’s not there. 

Eddie turns on the TV and picks a random station that’s playing reruns of a cop show he’d seen here and there. Eddie and Buck’s legs are interlaced and resting on the coffee table, food in their laps when things settle. The ease on Buck’s face makes him wonder why he was even worried in the first place.

They don’t talk as they eat their food and sip their wine. They just take in each other’s company as they watch what’s on in front of them, perfectly content in just being together. 

Buck’s phone rings from the coffee table. When he lets it ring through to voicemail without even looking at ID, Eddie raises an eyebrow. “Aren’t you the one who said you should answer every phone call because it might be important? Or are you just a clone of my boyfriend?”

Buck snorts. “I know it’s not important.”

It starts to ring again and Eddie sees Maddie’s name flash on the screen. “It sounds important.”

“I promise you it’s not.” 

Then she calls a third time and Buck groans. “Fine, fine. I’ll answer.” 

He doesn’t leave the room, doesn’t make any effort to grab his phone, just sits back and pouts as Eddie hands him his phone. 

He listens to Buck’s side of the conversation closely. He’s talking about not wanting to go somewhere because he doesn’t know if someone is going to be at that place and he doesn’t want to risk it. Hm.

“I was having a nice, relaxing night with Eddie before you called about something you knew the answer to, so if you’ll excuse me, I’d love to get back to that.” He throws his phone onto his lap after he hangs up, then smiles sheepishly. “Any chance you can ignore that?”

“If you don’t want to talk about it right now, that’s perfectly okay. But we do have to talk about it eventually. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you snap at Maddie, so something must have happened.”

Buck cuddles back into Eddie’s chest, revelling in his arm comfortably wrapped around his shoulders. “It’s really not a big deal, Eds. It’s just stupid.”

“Well, lucky for you, I like hearing everything you have to say. Even if it’s stupid.” 

“Did you just boop my nose?” 

“And what about it?”

All Eddie feels is the shaking from Buck’s giggling. “Shit, whoever decided I was good enough to have you in my life is someone I’d like to meet because...man, I love you.”

“Hi, nice to meet you.” Eddie smirks.

Buck hides his face in the nook of his neck. “Stop making me blush.”

“Never.”

It’s quiet again after that until Buck finally talks. “So, uh…”

“Yeah?”

“I got a wedding invitation in the mail today. It’s from my cousin, she’s getting married in Los Angeles so she invited Maddie and me. We get along just fine, always have, but I haven’t talked to her in a few years and now Maddie thinks it’s completely necessary to actually go to her wedding. I just don't know if I want to risk going and have them be there as well, you know?”

“Your parents?”

“Who else?”

“Well think about it this way. If the risk of seeing your parents again was out of the equation, would you want to go?”

Buck sighs. “Of course I would. It’d be nice to see her again and have a good time, but Eds… you know how my parents are.”

It’s true, he did know how his parents were. He remembers when they’d come to Los Angeles when they found out their first grandchild had been born. He remembers how tense Buck had been the entire time, how he let his parents walk all over him and tell him how big of a failure he was like it was a normal day to day conversation. He especially remembers yelling at Buck’s father after a particularly barbaric comment on Buck’s lifestyle. 

He knows why he’d want to avoid his parents, because Eddie would too. 

“Can you bring a plus one?”

“What?”

“Can you bring a plus one to the wedding?” He smiles when Buck nods. “Take me. If your parents are there, I’ll have your back. Plus, your cousin seems nice, I’d love to meet the family that’s not pretentious.”

Buck choked on the wine he’d taken a sip of. “You think Maddie’s pretentious?”

“Oh, yeah, definitely pretentious.” He jokes. “I mean your extended family. You’ve met mine.”

Buck sighs. “Whatever. I guess we’re going to a Buckley wedding. I really did want to see McKenna so you win.”

“I always do.” He grins before he connects his lips with Buck’s and giggles against it when his fingers press against the only ticklish part of his body.

“What? Did that tickle?” Buck gasps. “You said you weren’t ticklish!”

“I’m not!” 

“Mhm.” 

Then suddenly, the wedding worries were long forgotten, tickle war long taking its place. 

“Oooooooh, so you’re going to a wedding with him, huh?” Hen wiggles her eyebrows from where she stands across her kitchen. “That’s gonna be you one day.”

Eddie sighs exasperatedly. “Not if I have nothing planned. I wanna make this special, okay?”

Hen’s face softens. “Anything you do to propose will make it special, honey. You’re Buck’s world, a simple Marry me? would be the most romantic thing in the world to him.”

“Maybe so, but that’s how it was with Shannon. She was pregnant with Christopher so I thought the next logical step would be marriage, but this is different. Buck is different.”

“Alright, alright, let’s get to work, then.” She opens her laptop. “What are some of your favorite things about him?”

Eddie’s face erupts into a look of pure adoration at that question. “Oh, Henrietta, you have no idea what you just got yourself into, asking that. What are some of my favorite things about Evan Buckley? Let’s see… When he wakes up in the morning, he makes this cute little noise when he stretches and it makes my heart fill with joy. He loves Christopher like he’s his own and he never treats him differently. He just has so much knowledge about literally anything. Random facts upon random facts are stored in that beautiful brain of his and whenever he tells me one of these random facts, it’s suddenly the most important thing in the world. He’s so selfless, you know this. When we got together and I still wasn’t sure about being open about my sexuality, he put my fears above his own fear of telling you guys. He’s an amazing cook, so amazing I have a hard time believing that before he joined the one-eighteen the only thing he could cook was ramen. Even if he could still only cook ramen, I’d still love him, we’d just be living off of frozen food. I love the little family we’ve got going on now. I can go on for hours, but I won’t. Any of that help?” 

By the time he was done, Karen was home and trying her hardest not to tease the lovesick man.

“Oh, honey, you’ve got it bad.” Karen giggles. “Buck has it just bad, though.”

Hen clears her throat. “What’s something that’s specific to you and Buck? Christopher, too. You can always propose that way. Doing something and it’ll just come completely unexpected?”

The metaphorical light bulb over Eddie’s head flashes on. “I have it!”

It’s a Friday morning at the firehouse and Eddie finds himself next to Hen, looking over her shoulder as she helps him navigate what needs to be done to propose. 

His eyes travel up to meet his boyfriend’s as he walks up the stairs, and even though his smile is bright as he sees him, there’s bags under his eyes. The second his eyes land on Chimney though, he deflates and rolls his eyes. Chimney has a smug look and Eddie knows he definitely missed something.

“You can’t avoid me forever, Buckaroo.” 

Buck looks over to Hen and Eddie, making an exaggerated face of confusion. 

“Did you guys hear something?” 

Bobby laughs from where he’s at in the kitchen, Hen snorts, and Eddie is grinning, looking between the soon to be brother in laws.

“How mature of you, Evan.” Chimney rolls his eyes. “I just wanna talk about the wedding next week and he keeps rolling his eyes and running away. Eddie, make him stop.” 

Buck scoffs. “You’re sitting here whining and you’re calling me the immature one.” 

“I wouldn’t be whining if you just talk to me for once. I just want more information, who I’m gonna meet, if your parents are coming, c’mon give me something.”

“Alright.” Buck smirks. “For good luck, Egyptian women pinch the bride before the wedding.”

Chimney groans. “What?”

“Engagement and wedding rings are worn on the fourth fingers of the left hand because it was once thought that a vein in that finger leads directly to the heart.”

“That’s beautiful, but I wanna talk about the wedding next week.” Chimney whines.

Eddie is torn between wanting to laugh and being worried about his boyfriend. It’s obvious Chim doesn’t know that this is Buck’s classic mode of deflection, and Buck seems to know this. Eddie can tell Buck is just beginning, too. 

“Seventeen tons of gold are made into wedding rings each year in the United States.”

“Maddie says you would know more about the family that’s going to the wedding, so why won’t you just tell me?”

“Ancient Greeks and Romans thought the veil protected the bride from evil spirits. Brides have worn them ever since.”

Chimney turns to Eddie and Hen, arms out in exasperation, desperate. “Eddie!”

Eddie shrugs his shoulder. “If he doesn’t wanna talk about the wedding, don’t make him talk about the wedding. I’m not gonna make my f- my boyfriend do something he doesn’t want to do.” 

Buck’s too distracted in his minds’ files of facts on weddings to tell Chimney to hear him almost slip up, but Chimney’s got his eyebrow raised and he hears Hen snicker under her breath, nice one. 

Chimney eyes him suspiciously for a moment before he goes back to the problem at hand. “Maddie doesn’t know her cousin all that well, she’s more around Buck’s age, I just want to know what I should expect because I know how the Buckley’s are. Why can’t you just tell me something, man?”

“The most expensive wedding was Sheik Rashad Bin Al Maktoum’s son’s marriage to Princess Salama in Dubai in 1981. It was forty-four million dollars.”

“What about your cousin’s wedding?”

“In the symbolic language of jewels, a sapphire in a wedding ring means marital happiness.”

Before Chimney can ask once more, Eddie cuts in again. “He hasn’t seen anyone in his family in years, why would he know who’s going?”

“Thank you!” Buck sighs and drops next to Eddie, who shuts his laptop so fast it probably would have broken the screen. “I have plenty of more facts about weddings if you want to keep talking about the wedding, though.”

Chimney hears the message it is and sighs. “I’m sorry, I know you don’t like talking about your family. I’m just feeling a little anxious here, ya know?”

Buck sighs. “Me too, Chim. But if it helps you any, McKenna is not at all as pretentious and callous as my parents. That’s all I can and want to tell you about though, so please… Let it go.” 

Hen reaches over and places her hand on Buck’s in an attempt of comfort before her soft smile turns to a smirk. “So Buckaroo, why do you know so much about weddings?”

Eddie’s eyes go comically wide. 

“A little late night reading.” He shrugs. 

“Hm.” She turns to Eddie with a smirk when Bobby calls Buck over to help.

Eddie groans softly, resting his head on the cold wood of the dining table. “I hate you.”

“No you don’t.”

Three days later, Eddie finds himself at a jewelry shop on Wilshire with Hen and Karen.

“I feel like all of these rings look the same.” He whines. 

“You’ve looked at four rings and this store is huge.” Hen rolls her eyes. “You’ll know when you’ve found the right ring, okay?”

“Will I?”

Karen snorts. “Yes, you will. Trust me, I went through this same thing when I was proposing to Hen. You’ll just know.”

So Eddie keeps looking. He’s completely indecisive as if it’s him that’s going to be wearing the ring, because Buck definitely wouldn’t care about a fancy ring or any ring at all, but Eddie needs it to be special. 

“How about this?” Karen calls from the other end of the store. When Eddie reaches her, she’s pointing at a black band, definitely something he can automatically picture on Buck’s hand. It still didn’t feel right to him, though. He says as much to Karen before he starts searching the glass case in front of them for more. 

He gasps as soon as he sees it. Hen was right about just knowing.

He calls over the jeweler and asks to see it. The second he’s holding it in between his fingers, he can see himself getting down on one knee. He can see it on Buck’s ring finger, shining brightly to everyone Buck proudly shows it to. It’s definitely the ring.

“This is it.” He grins, looking side to side at the women standing next to him and then smiles at the jeweler. 

Karen and Hen squeal loudly. “What is it about this ring, Diaz-Buckley?” 

“In the symbolic language of jewels, a sapphire in a wedding ring means marital happiness.”

[emsartwork]

Can I ask why you chose those specific fairy tales/mythological/folk figures for the Mythix redesign? Very much enjoy how unique the designs are and how they draw from multiple different cultures thnx

Yeah so Mythix was a process and had a lot of concept brain work before i ever put anything down on paper. I think I had a few ladies in mind from the very beginning (Scheherazade is one of my favorite folk lore ladies just in general lol) but i wanted to pull from as many different cultures as possible, and have fit the winx girls’ ethnicity when possible. 

So for a character like Musa, who is Asian even if she is technically from an alien planet, I wanted to draw from mostly north east asia(even tho south and south east asia have super cool stories too), and I know a good amount of japanese folklore because of...... anime reasons and at first I was trying to find a japanese figure related to music, voice, or mouth, but I kind of hit a wall with that one because the only one i could think of/find was the tongue-cut sparrow story or the Split mouth woman which, while interesting, aren’t all that fitting for a powerful magic lady. You of course have momotaro, princess kaguya, or, a personal favorite, the boy who drew cats but none of those felt right either so I expanded my range to China and IMMEDIATELY landed on Mulan, I like to think at least some of her story was true, but even if she is just a legend WHAT A FUCKING LEGEND AMIRIGHT. she was perfect for a powerful magic lady, strong, honorable, selfless, protective, and smart. Even if her “power” wasn’t realted at all to music she was a perfect fit. 

With Flora I wanted to draw from Mexican or native american(aztec or mayan) folklore, I actually did consider making her Scheherazade for a hot minute cus I draw a lot of inspo for Flora and Lynphea from Persia/the middle east in general, but ultimately decided against it. La Muerte is another favorite figure of mine, partially because she has such an interesting origin from an anthropological point of view. with the blending of catholic saints and native cultures in Mexico and possibly some influence from what would eventually become voodoo. Also, Dia de Muertos has that whole marigold flower petal association which perfectly links to Flora. 

Aisha was a little more difficult because she’s black, and black people are, ethnically, from Africa, and Africa has SO MANY DIFFERENT CULTURES AND STORIES AND EVEN JUST GEOGRAPHY. and i know from past experiences its stupidly hard to find good reliable references for any of the native cultures in Africa, or america for that matter, because racism and colonialism. So I tried going by Aisha’s name, which is of Arabic and Swahili in origin, but arabic and swahili are both spoken in many countries across south Africa North Africa and the Middle East, so I used her parent’s names Niobe and Teredor which are both Greek sounding so that pulled it towards North Africa/Saudi Arabia(where there was a lot of Greek influence). SO i thought to myself, what about egypt??? Didn’t the Cinderella story originate in Egypt with an eagle and a sandal and a prince or something?????? UNFORTUNATELY THAT’S A LIE(as far as my research showed). So I was mega stumped with Aisha, and I tried applying Scheherazade to her as a last ditch effort because Saudi Arabia, and.,,,....,, it fit???? like weirdly well???? like Aisha and Scheherazade are both BAMFs with unrelenting determination, an urge to protect the innocent, and punish the unjust they just do it very differently, but I liked the contrast between Aisha’s more active aggressive style and her switching to a more subtle story teller’s methods. So somehow I got it to work out ethnically, geographically, personality, and using my lady Scheherazade AND the design + the colors came out fantastic imo.

Stella was easier, I knew I wanted to pull from Greece, and possibly link to Apollo if possible so I looked up the temple of Delphi to see if there were any notable priestesses. Pythia came up right away, and had a gorgeous classical painting to use as reference so that was a snap tbh

Bloom was pretty easy, I’ve based Domino off of Scotland and a lil’bit of China but appearance wise she’s VERY white. But I was already pulling HEAVILY from Scotland and Ireland for Morgana and Tir Nan Og, so I broadened to Europe in general(which means I had a lot to work with because fairytales are so Eurocentric *eye roll emoji*) I decided to go with cinderella because CINDERS come from FIRE(aren’t I clever) and glass making requires a lot of heat. I mentioned earlier that there are theories as to where the “cinderella” story truly originated, The most popular being China, Egypt, or Germany(as far as I researched the Egyptian and Chinese “versions” of Cinderella barely resemble the story?).  Aschenputtle is the iconic one from Grimm Brother’s collections in 1812 but I chose to use the edition that popularized the story in 1698 by Charles Perrault since thats the “classic cinderella” modern audiences still recognize(even tho i am very partial to the more violent german version lmao). Her outfit design was a bit of challenge but I really like what I came up with.

Tecna was..... troublesome. Pink hair doesn’t exist irl unless it’s dyed, so I had only a partial appearance to base ethnicity on. I pull a lot from Russia for Zenith tho, so I figured I would start with Baba Yaga(who is already a villain in world of winx so I wasn’t gonna use her anyways) and see where that lead me. I came across Vasilisa the Fair/Beautiful/Wise, she featured in a lot of Russian folklore and had a lot of different aspects/personalities/stories so I kinda tried to pull from all of them (which gave me difficulties later on in the design process) She was one of the only Fairytale figures I could find that had a direct connection to intelligence (not that other fairytale ladies aren’t smart ofc). Because of Vasilisa’s many different roles and some physical transformations (russian frog princess) I made her the Fairy of Transformations. Tecna is probably the one I’m least satisfied but I’m not changing it lmao 

[missguomeiyun]

My 1st rice wine - 11 day journey

Sharing my 1st ever rice wine-making experience with you~

Makgeolli is a sweet, rice wine that originated in Korea. I did a loooot of research on it, & I have been thinking about making it for a long time. I really like this drink! I have even been to the hometown of makgeolli - Jeonju City - & tried the “mother makgeolli” there. It’s much sweeter than the commercial stuff! In modern times, the flavours have changed significantly. Now, there’s floral, fruit, & other Asian-inspired flavours like ginseng, jujube, & ginger. I’ve tried several fruit flavours, & I gotta say. .. the original is always the best!

Start with “chapssal” rice, which is a round glutinous rice. I didn’t have the Korean kind, but I have the Chinese equivalent, so I used that. Majority of recipes I’ve read/seen on Youtube start with at least 1kg of rice o_O for a first timer, I didn’t want to commit 1kg of rice to this project... so I used 250g.

Wash the rice (I washed 6x), till the water is not murky. It’ll still be a little cloudy but that’s ok. Then soak for at least 3hrs.

Bcos I didn’t have as much rice than the recipes, I shorted the time to 2.5hrs.

Drain / somewhat ‘dry’ the rice (a little bit of wetness left is acceptable).

I didn’t have a colander with small enough holes for draining the rice.. . so I did it my way, which was using coffee filter.

I basically patted it dry, then gave the rice a mix, & blotted again, etc.. . The reason why I used coffee filter rather than paper towel was bcos I find coffee filter paper more absorbent & has less fibrous material. At the end of the day, whatever works, right?

PS: I have seen ppl using a hand-held mini fan to dry the rice. I don’t know how I feel about that =/ Not that my kitchen is dirty or dusty, but wouldn’t you be introducing particles to the rice??? *shrugs* I don’t know. The idea didn’t work for me.

Let it air dry a bit. This drying process took me a little over 30mins from start to finish.

While the rice is drying, prepare your steaming apparatus. We have one of these 2-level steamers, so I used it (changing it to a 1-level steamer).

Begin steaming time when you introduce the rice to a fully boiling steaming apparatus. Most recipes say 30-40mins, then let cool for ~20mins. I steamed for 25mins, & that is bcos I used a smaller amount of rice. You just need the rice to be fully cooked, right?

*Most ppl used a cheesecloth to wrap the rice, then place it into the steamer. From what I read, the reason was simply a ‘convenient’ one since sticky rice sticks to bowls & such - using a cloth allowed for easier clean-up / transferring of the steamed rice to another thing. .. therefore, no, a cheesecloth is not needed. I used the same metal steaming dish to steam my rice.

Cooling...

Flip the rice over a few times to loosen it up. Then dry thoroughly - as in the outside of the grain should be hard, but the inside should still be chewy/soft.

*Maangchi uses a dehydrator. Other ppl just let it sit out for x hrs. .. Some overnight! I chose the overnight option - mainly bcos I started this project too late in the day so by the time I finished steaming, it was almost 9pm...

Good morning!  Here’s the rice after ~12hrs of drying. I think it matches the description of hard exterior & soft interior.

1st thing you wanna do during/after the drying of the steamed rice is sterilizing your equipment that you’re about to use! This is important for obvious reasons but long story short, you don’t want your fermentation/brewing vessel to have contamination.

I sterilized 2 diff glass jars bcos I wanted to see which one would work better (for the future makings hehe). After sterilizing, dry & let it cool.

Here’s the *mystery* part that determines whether or not my project will work out or not :S :S :S :S :S  ...

Koreans use an item called “nu-ruk” for making makgeollis. When you are somewhat of a trilingual (lol!), sometimes it gets confusing. .. I was unable to find nu-ruk at Hmart =( I searched online for what the English name is. .. & lines started blurring. No joke. It got maybe a little worse once I entered the Chinese searches =/ amylase enzyme, yeast, starter culture, “nuruk”, fermentation base... WHAT ?!?!?!?!?!? What are all these things, & what’s the difference?

Last yr some time (bcos I started reading up on making makgeolli last yr), I bought this from T&T - which is ‘rice cake’ .... a term that I never read about lol

To make matters worse, I thought I had understood it, but then when you compare recipes in English, in Chinese, & in Korean (both text & visual versions on Youtube).. . there is discrepancy. & once again, I fell back into the hole of unknowing what these things are.

In brief, I have found the following variations of recipes:

* rice + water + nuruk

* rice + water + nuruk + yeast

* rice + water + ‘culture starter’

* rice + water + “yeast”

... does this mean nuruk = yeast = culture starter? *shrugs* I have no idea.

I have also read somewhere that nuruk is a combo of yeast & culture starter(s)? Whaaaaaaa... !!

Anyway, I only have this ?nuruk. Chinese ppl use this to make rice wine, & it looks almost identical to Korean makgeolli. Even the procedural aspect of it.

Instead of nuruk being the sole 3rd item for makgeolli, this ‘rice cake’ is the 3rd item for rice wine....... Welps, let’s roll with this & see what we get!

Crush the rice cake balls.

I used 4 balls, which was ~40g total, & then added 10 tbsp cooled boiled water. Please note that the ~40g was a last minute amount that I had decided on bcos. .. I honestly have no idea what this really is & diff recipes say diff things, including the amount so.. . whatever. Do not use warm or hot water as this will “kill” the effects of this powder (nuruk/yeast/culture starter).

Mix into a paste.

~150mL of water. Be sure to use cooled boiled water instead of filtered water. I believe filtered water is not ideal for making rice wine bcos it contains microorganisms as well as chloride. Anyway, either use distilled bottled water or boiled water.

Mix in the dried rice.

Put in fermentation vessel; remember to leave an opening for it to breathe, otherwise, it’ll create a “bomb” lol (remember by kimchi bomb from a few months ago?!)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Day1: ...not looking right? I don’t know; the rice is like all dry, & the water is all soaked up........

Day2: I have some moisture inside the container, & I’m seeing a little bit of water.

Day3: :D This is looking much better!! So the “yeast” or whatever I added (the ‘rice cakes’) takes some time to kick in. Bcos it’s day 3, I gave it a stir, & more water was ‘released’ from the rice. The liquid is a little cloudy; & the smell is . .. legit!

Day5: More liquid content YAY! Honestly, it wasn’t until day 5, where I felt a bit at ease that fermentation was happening. So don’t worry if for the 1st few days it doesn’t look right.. . give it some time.

Day 7: Wowwwww more liquid, stronger scent. When I stirred it, I felt the rice had turned really soft. It’s like mushy, almost.

Day 9: This was after stirring- a milky white liquid. Some sources talk about seeing 3 visible layers... I did not. That being said, I felt pretty good about this since everything else is working out. You can also hear loud-ish popping sounds from the gas formation.

Day 10: It is looking ready!

The final look on day 11! Look at those beautiful holes on the sides of the container :D

Part 2 of this project coming up next!

[purplesurveys]

730

what’s the first thing you think of in the morning? I usually wonder what time it is, and how late I slept in. These days I don’t really think of anything anymore, mostly because there’s very little to think about. have you/do you own something that's been recalled due to safety reasons? I don’t think so, no. do you smile at strangers in public? Only if I see something I like about them - like if they’re walking a cute dog, if they’re holding a baby, or if I see them helping someone else. I don’t smile at every stranger cause I know not everyone wants that interaction, myself included. what's the weirdest, best tasting concoction of food you've made? I don’t claim to have invented it, but dipping my fries in hot fudge sundae was love from the very first day I tried it. My sister and I also came up with our own sandwich spread where we’d use Nutella and sprinkle Milo powder on top of it to give the sandwich a crunch - it’s my go-to I’m-so-fucking-hungry-but-I-can’t-cook-so-I’m-willing-to-combine-everything-in-the-pantry sandwich.  do you like to play jenga? We don’t have our own set but yes, I find it really fun. I think not having the game is better because then I don’t get sick from playing it too much.

do you remember the game perfection? I’ve never even heard of it. do you like gardening? I probably would if I took the effort to learn it and know how to do it properly, like it would be a great side hobby for me. But for now, I don’t. are you adopted? I am not. if so, have you ever met your biological parents? if you plan to go to college, what for? Where I’m from you need to go to college/university to secure a job and to look reputable in front of your family and peers, otherwise you lose the race. It’s very rare to hear about dropouts, and I honestly can’t give you one dropout I know of. Even really rich kids who are already heirs/heiresses to their family’s businesses (and thus technically don’t need to take schooling) usually go to college so that they can lead properly when it’s their time to run the business. Dropouts most often occur within less fortunate families, which is why it’s always a big deal and a great source of pride when kids in those sectors are able to finish college. if you don't plan to go to college, whats your plan? name 5 things you could use from walmart right now? :) Can I visualize our local groceries instead lmao? I really want to grab five bottles of soju right now. That’s it. what’s your favorite christmas song? I really love Michael Buble’s rendition of It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas. Never fails to make me feel Christmassy every time I hear it. if you have a dog, does it sleep with you? No, he prefers the floor because it’s colder. I’ve tried introducing Kimi to my bed, believe me - he always jumps off after a few minutes. do you like fresca? Not sure I know what you’re talking about. who would you want to be with if you found out the world was ending? Gabie. I’d break lockdown rules and be with her. would you rather your middle name be your first? No, I like the flow of my name when it’s said out loud. does it bother you if your socks don't match? No. This happened once, when I was doing a workshop in a remote community and they required us to wear socks in their classroom - but the only socks I had in the car were of two different designs - but I thought it looked cute haha. do you like jigsaw puzzles that are 500+ pieces? Eh, I only did this once, it was with Gabie when we were in high school and she bought one that had like 2000+ pieces I think. I was too impatient for it at the time, but I think I’d like it these days cause it would keep me busy. if you get married, who would cook? I would learn how to. would you name your child after someone you know? Yes, but have it be a second name. I don’t want my child’s first name to be taken from someone else cause then I’d remember the latter when I address my kid and I don’t want that to happen. Am already thinking of a future son’s second name to be Owen, after Owen Hart. have you ever been on a cruise? Yes. It was so fun and I want to do it again, except for the second time around I wouldn’t wanna be surrounded by mainland Chinese passengers anymore. what celebrity do you get told you look like? A local singer/writer, Frankie Pangilinan. I’ve also been told I talk like her, which is a greater compliment for me because I find her very intelligent lmao. have you ever taken a vicodin? Nope. are you a vegetarian? I’m not. how many towels do you use after a shower? Just one. what kind of shoes do you prefer to wear? Sneakers would be just fine; they look good with most of the stuff in my closet. where do you work, if you do? do you like v-neck tshirts? I don’t have one and haven’t really had experiences of wearing them, so I don’t hold an opinion. do you wear sweats a lot? I do not. how long does it take you to get ready on a bummy day? Around the same time it takes me to get ready on a hectic day since I have a bad habit of waiting until the last minute before getting out of bed and starting my day. If I have an 8:30 AM class and have a fully-booked schedule ahead, I’ll start getting ready at 7:15 and be out the door by 7:30; same way, if I only have a 2:30 PM class for the whole day and absolutely nothing before and after it, I would still bum around till 1:45 and be out the door by 2. does wearing your hair up symbolize that it is unwashed? Not really. It just means I’m either 1) feeling hot or 2) about to dive into a good dish and I wouldn’t want my hair to interfere. do you like roller coasters? I like that many people have fun with it and I respect the amount of effort and research applied by experts to make thrilling but still safe rollercoasters, but I can’t ride them myself lol. have you ever been to pittsburgh, pa? No. I know Carley is from there, though. do you like seth rogen? He’s made some jokes that I’ve laughed at but I dunno his background or if he’s made anything offensive in the past. would you accept a friend request from someone you thought didn't like you? Sure. did you know tanning is more of a cancer risk than smoking? I didn’t, I just know they’re both unhealthy. would you smoke marijuana if it were legal? I’d try it once, probably. if you believe in god, why? do you think before you speak? Yes. I can be blunt but I still think my words through before saying them so that I can say them out loud the most respectful and responsible way I can. are you easily embarrassed? Yes. would you ever flash a cop if you knew you'd get out of a ticket? No. have you ever seen the hbo show entourage? I’ve heard of it but I never watched it. what’s your favorite commercial? It’s an old TV ad for a local biscuit brand, Fita. A guy was shown eating Fita when a poor old lady came up to him and asked for a biscuit, but because he loved the biscuits so much he only broke off half a piece to give it to her. The old lady transformed into what she really was, a fairy godmother, and out of gratitude for feeding her she told him he can ask for anything he wants. He wished for a sports car, and she granted the wish and gave him half a sports car hahahahaha. It’s a hilarious ad and got popular for a very long time.

[artemis-entreri]

[[ This post contains Part 5 of my review/analysis of the Forgotten Realms/Drizzt novel, Boundless, by R. A. Salvatore. As such, the entirety of this post’s content is OOC. ]]

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Generations: Book 2 | Legend of Drizzt #35 (#32 if not counting The Sellswords)

Publisher: Harper Collins (September 10, 2019)

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Additional Information: Artwork for the cover of Boundless and used above is originally done by Aleks Melnik. This post CONTAINS SPOILERS. Furthermore, this discussion concerns topics that I am very passionate about, and as such, at times I do use strong language. Read and expand the cut at your own discretion.

Contents:

Introduction

I. Positives  I.1 Pure Positives  I.2 Muddled Positives

II. Mediocre Writing Style  II.1 Bad Descriptions  II.2 Salvatorisms  II.3 Laborious “Action”

III. Poor Characterization  III.1 “Maestro”  III.2 Lieutenant  III.3 Barbarian  III.4 “Hero”  III.5 Mother

IV. World Breaks  IV.1 Blinders Against the Greater World  IV.2 Befuddlement of Earth and Toril  IV.3 Self-Inconsistency  IV.4 Dungeon Amateur  IV.5 Utter Nonsense

V. Ego Stroking  (you are here)  V.1 The Ineffable Companions of the Hall  V.2 Me, Myself, and I

VI. Problematic Themes  VI.1 No Homo  VI.2 Disrespect of Women  VI.3 Social-normalization  VI.4 Eugenics

VII. What’s Next  VII.1 Drizzt Ascends to Godhood  VII.2 Profane Redemption  VII.3 Passing the Torch  VII.4 Don’t Notice Me Senpai

Ego Stroking

Before Timeless, each new Drizzt novel release reached a new level of self-congratulation and selling out. After a one book break with Timeless, Boundless hops right back on the proverbial horse and charges to new distances. 

The Ineffable Companions of the Hall

As mentioned in the previous section, Drizzt's awesomeness has increased yet again. It isn't quite clear what specifically is going on with him and what specific abilities he's using from his new multi-classing, but one thing is evident: Drizzt is way more than what he should be. I suppose this follows tradition, but it's past the point of ridiculous. While something like Drizzt's monk training helping him run more efficiently is plausible even at level one as long as it also isn't making him run faster, which is an ability monks do not gain until level two, the feat that Drizzt performs at the end of the novel isn't even a monk ability, at least not in the current D&D edition. Drizzt eludes a creature that wouldn't stop chasing him so long as they both exist on the same plane, and having stripped himself down to his underclothes, Drizzt has only his own body with which to perform his feat. The feat he performs is more on the level of Grandmaster Kane, who transcended death long ago and doesn't seem to even need his corporeal form anymore. Drizzt literally vanishes into nothing, and the creature chasing him returns to its home plane after its supernatural senses verify that Drizzt indeed no longer existed on the Prime anymore. So, several possibilities exist here, lets examine a few. First, Drizzt's awesomeness somehow negated a fundamental aspect of a very powerful creature that he couldn't defeat in combat. Second, Drizzt performed the astral projection portion of the level eighteen monk ability Empty Body. Third, Drizzt performed the twentieth level ability Psionic Body of the imbalanced and not yet official Mystic class from Unearthed Arcana. Fourth, Drizzt's sheer amazingness allowed him to transcend the mortal world and spontaneously become a Jedi master. The first of these possibilities is the least trite, but is still inherently based on a cheap tactic. I am legitimately afraid of what Salvatore is going to tell us about what happened. The creature pursuing Drizzt is a Retriever, with a challenge rating of fourteen. Yet, in Boundless, they are presented to be much more than that, on par with the demon lords and feared by lesser demons. In D&D canon, even a normal marilith poses a greater danger than a Retriever, and Drizzt had managed to singlehandedly defeat the greatest of that class of demon, the Maritlith who gave its name to its type. A Retriever, in comparison, should be no problem at all for him, but Salvatore inflates the power level of an established creature in order to create drama and suspense rather than coming up with something more original, or doing more research and finding something of an appropriate power level to use. The second possibility shouldn't be viable at all, the only reason aside from making his character and hence himself awesome through it is a story arc for the characters to recover or recreate Drizzt body and relocating his soul to put back into it. The third possibility I named is just really nothing short of Salvatore signing his name in an ugly sharpie across the tapestry of the Realms. Even though Grandmaster Kane was his creation too, apparently, Drizzt has to be the best, even among his own. The fourth option? Well, that one seems like it might be the most likely after all. I mean Salvatore does have an in with the Star Wars community... and wouldn't we all want Drizzt to dual-wield light sabers? The self-congratulation doesn't stop with Drizzt. The Companions of the Hall, in addition to being great heroes, apparently also have to be extremely physically attractive. This has already been done to death with Drizzt and Catt-brie, and in Boundless we're reminded a number of times of how hot Wulfgar is, but absent of this treatment thus far is Regis and Bruenor. I think Salvatore realizes that perhaps even his most fervent fans might raise an eyebrow if he pimped out Bruenor, or perhaps he doesn't have the stomach to do so for a character who's basically a very muscular, short and hirsute man. That said, it's not like he hasn't tried, for Bruenor has two wives instead of one after all. In Boundless, the circle is complete with Regis, who previously was a chubby (and hence unattractive) halfling. Now, he is described as a "quite striking figure" and "quite the dashing figure", wearing fancy clothes and equipment whilst rakishly having his "vest undone just enough to hint at another weapon he carried beneath it". Regis is so arresting that the disciplined and task-focused Dahlia "fancied she might comb her hair in her reflection" in the shiny silver buckles of his boots. Regis might've been a plump and greedy glutton with a heart of gold in his previous life, but no more. Now, he fits in with and stands beside the rest of his group in equal beauty, because apparently, it isn't enough for heroes to heroically kick people when they are down. They have to be look good while doing so too, or at least, Salvatore's heroes need to be best in all aspects.

As is routine with Drizzt's journal entries, there is much sanctimonious preaching. In Boundless, Drizzt lectures about tradition and the perils of following problematic traditions. Yet, Drizzt doesn't break from tradition himself, as though he, through being who he is, is absent from even that which he himself cautions about. In the opening to part three, Drizzt extols the dwarves for constantly searching for new tunnels to mine, Wulfgar for overcoming the sexist conditioning of his tribe, and the halflings of Bleeding Vines for the malleability of their society. Yet, he continues to hold fast to his intolerance of Zaknafein and his conviction of there being only one right path, namely, the one tread by him. This really makes him more akin to the unchanging Lolthite society of Menzoberranzan, the atrocious practices of the Prisoner's Carnival, and the insular elves who turn away refugees from their shelter, all things which he condemns. Drizzt, of course, is a fictional character, and these entries are Salvatore's words. The thing that is nearly unique about Drizzt in these novels is that he tends to present a more or less consistent stance and voice and this is still the case. Other characters are markedly less consistent, and I suspect this is driven by the fact that they are more purely whole cloth creations of Salvatores. This leads me to believe that Drizzt acts as Salvatore's perhaps unconscious spokesman, and that these ideas spouted by Drizzt are Salvatore's own ideas. If so, he is attempting to give them more validity by having them spouted by a "hero", and specifically one that he continues to build up to ridiculous levels.

Me, Myself, and I

Zaknafein, whom we're told on numerous occasions is so expert that he is pure grace with no wasted moves, is remarkably showy. During the recreational cavern-jumping sequence of the past timeline as well as the fleeing of the demons of the present timeline, Zaknafein's free-running style is more typical of a YouTube parkour performer. There are a lot of unnecessary flips, as though Salvatore in fact used a YouTube video for his writing guideline. Traceurs perform all the acrobatic feats that they do in their videos because it's more entertaining than if they simply followed the most efficient strategies for navigating a route. There's much of pointless flipping in those videos, such as running up a wall and back-flipping off of it only to climb that same wall again. Salvatore's describes Zaknafein doing a lot of similar things, with back-flipping off of stalagmites when he could just jump across, or running up surfaces that he doesn't need to run up in the first place to perform the subsequent moves. The specifics of Zaknafein's blade work is harder to comment on, as it's weighed down by Salvatore's tedious need to walk through the moves as though he were making a grocery list, but the amount of leaping and turning serving nothing but to offer his opponents openings makes the fight scenes reminiscent of old Chinese martial arts movies, where the combatants spent most of their time somersaulting at each other than exchanging blows. I believe Salvatore fancies himself a master of writing combat, for much of Boundless showcases his combat and action scenes, this is an inconvenient truth for those that would like to agree with Mr. Salvatore about his mastery. R. A. Salvatore might not be able to remember details of the greater world nor bother to spend the time to look them up, but he certainly will toot his own horn and reference his own work as though it's the only thing written in the Realms. The Stone of Tymora trilogy, penned by him and his son, Geno Salvatore, is a loose spin-off from the Drizzt series, featuring protagonists with less relation to the dark elf books than the cast of The Cleric Quintet. Yet, we're to believe that the, objectively speaking in the greater scope of the shared world, insignificant events have sent ripples that are still felt a hundred years later. The not-so-inconspicuously named ship, Joen's Heirloom, just so happens to be the trusty vessel boarded by one of the exalted heroes of the Companions of the Hall as well as the co-leader of Bregan D'aerthe. Joen is the co-star of that trilogy and eventually rises to become a minor pirate queen. Maimun, the main protagonist, and Joen were last seen during the Transitions trilogy, mourning the passing of Deudermont. The demon controlling Brevindon Margaster, a key figure in the noble Waterdhavian house that is consorting with demons, is a cambion named Asbeel. Asbeel is the name of yet another character from the Stone of Tymora trilogy, specifically, the main antagonist of the series. The last we saw of that Asbeel was being stabbed through the heart after the magic that was keeping him immortal was broken. In addition, that Asbeel, although cursed to appear with the visage of a demon whenever he wasn't in a shrine of Beshaba or Tymora, was fundamentally a moon elf. The Asbeel in Boundless is described as a cambion. Yet, this  cambion possesses a "melodic and high-pitched" voice, specifically, "the voice of an elf, but twisted and grating". It seems to be no coincidence, especially considering that the description of Asbeel's sword in Stowaway, the first book of the Stone of Tymora series, is as follows: "Black iron, the blade was longer than Perrault was tall, and the whole length of it curved. The convex edge, the sharp side, was wickedly serrated, with bright red barbs lining its length. Even the hilt looked capable of killing. Its crosspiece of twisted metal spikes, a dozen perhaps, jutted at odd angles, and several more spikes stuck out beneath the demon's red hand where a pommel should have been. More frightening still, the length of the blade blazed with red flame." Meanwhile, the blade wielded by Brevindon Margaster, specifically stated by the text to be "Asbeel's sword", is described as, "a black blade" as well as, "a curving, viciously serrated bastard sword with a handle of jagged spikes that cut into his hands when he wielded it". It seems pretty clear that these two weapons are the same, even if the one that appears in Boundless is "completed in the town of Port Llast after the sacking" that had occurred earlier in the novel. Perhaps Asbeel was "reforged" in some way too for the purpose of this Generations trilogy, but another thing becomes, I believe, very clear: that Salvatore took time to reference other material, which is something he most certainly hasn't done recently to the works of others, and oftentimes not even to his own earlier books. Yet, what makes the Stone of Tymora series an exception? I suspect that his special treatment of it, as well as the name of the current trilogy, hints at the reason, which I'll go into further in the speculations section. Either way, it's yet another example of Salvatore exalting, or, at the very least, recognizing himself.

[missile-silo]

More headconons because I feel like it

* They adopted a cat and called it Schrödinger . He’s a Maine coon cat (they think, he was found in a box). He’s an old cat, about 10.

* They also have a little Russian blue (again they’re not sure, he was found near an airfield)cat called Yuri (after Yuri Gagarin) but they only got him a year before the show started. He’s only a year and a half old.

* Alya comes to Marinettes apartment one time and is complaining about getting a low score on her science test. Mendeliev is marking papers while banging her head on the table saying “they’re so f**king stupid” and Alya starts screaming.

* Marinette learns how to bake through Gina, so she still makes things for class gatherings.

* When she was first taken in Marinette ate a lot of pizza. Like a lot. She can’t stand it now.

* The morning routine consists of: coffee, breakfast (cereal, they go through so much), get dressed and leg it because Mendeliev forgot she had a meeting.

* Marinette finds out about Mendeliev and Bustier by walking into the apartment to see both of them chatting (flirting) in the couch. School was bare awkward.

* The above has also happened to Alya, Nino and Adrien, but Nino saw them kissing so he’s scarred.

* Mendeliev smoked. Marinette poured water on her when she did. Mendeliev no longer smokes (she has an juul instead)

* “Ms I haven’t done my homework, what should I do?” 

 “Perish”

* Marinette purposefully tells Mendeliev about trends in the hope that she’ll pull some weird crap in class. So far, she’s heard three screams from Mendeliev saying “oh wig?” to people not finishing work.

* An incredibly distraught Mendeliev asking Damocles for help to learn how to raise a kid (I feel like she’d be 27 when she got Marinette, so she would have been teaching for 6 years). Damocles doesn’t know Marinette is Mendelievs kid, but knows she has one.

* Jagged Stone being involved with Marinette in more of an uncle/godfather way after finding out about her being adopted. Offers to look after her during holidays and after school when there’s parent evening. Not over the top, but he has definitely been called into school (during school hours)when Gina couldn’t make it.

* The bro relationship Adrien and Mari have. They act like siblings because they can relate about parents being gone and the trouble with that. They get put into groups for science classes with another random person (they good at science minus biology) and the bickering would be real.

* Nino and Adrien are also like bros, but they’re like best friend bros.

* Alya and Marinette have a healthier and more positive relationship, with Marinette being blunt about relationships. Marinette helps Alya with physics and chemistry homework in return for biology homework. The dynamic duo have lots of fun together, and neither end up third wheeling because the group ends up getting pretty close.

* Alya still falls for Lilas lies at the start , but Marinette talks her into publishing the video in a sort of speculation/public opinions based column. This would save the reputations the ladyblog when all comes to show.

* When Lila comes into the class, she lies about knowing ladybug first and Maris like oh dope. Then she says about the miraculous and Maris like “ookay bit weird” but nothing comes out of the volpina episode that damages Marinette (Adrien voices concern about her not taking being rejected well, but Marinettes like “you should be able to reject who you want bro”). Mari mainly doesn’t like her because of the lies and her ignoring Adriens attempts to get away from physical contact.

* Then comes the bull crap about the bakery girl being her best friend and Maris like “lmao what no mate” and Lila puts on crocodile tears. People react with hostility, but Alya runs her mouth and says that Mari is the bakery girl. She later gets thanked for this, but admits she wasn’t thinking straight.

* Some people are hostile to Marinette after that, with Lilas tinnitus. At break time Marinette admits she didn’t manage to get any work done. This is where Marinettes head injury rears it’s head, because she has difficulty with focusing in class because of it (I do my research this is a real thing I think). She asks why Lila didn’t move to the front row replacing Nino or Adrien (or even Chloe and Sabrina). There’s a bit of owopsie and Adrien moves himself to the back (leaving Lila with marinette, much to Lilas dismay)

* Lila tried to claim that Marinette wanted to keep her away from Adrien, to which she’s like “yeah, you don’t respect his boundaries despite his clear dislike for you touching him”. There’s a whole woe is me part, but then Alya and Nino step in like “tf dudette, thought you weren’t interested”. Then Lila cries to her mum and...

* They are “revealed” when Lilas mum demands to see Marinettes mother (to talk about how horrible she is and why she shouldn’t “bully” her kid) and despite the school offering multiple times to call Gina she refuses saying “I’m lilas mum, I should talk to Marinettes mum” and Mendeliev just sort of says “oh yeah let me get her” and she spins around and is like“hi you wanted to see me?”

* There’s a big oh feck.jpg moment in the class, but it explains a lot about Mari (why she despised Lila for using her parents death for fame, why she was so big about Adrien being able to choose if people touch him or not. Ms Mendeliev raised her that way)

* People are surprised that she doesn’t get favouritism from Mendeliev, but they both explain that they hate that (miss bustier is making notes)

*Sabine and Tom were once Ladybug and Chat Noir (for like a week) and Gina sees ladybug and chat acting like bros and is just like :,) cod they act like Sabine and Tom but less romantic and more familial.

* Marinette and Kagami just... end up together. Only Nino knows why. It does involve a can of squirt cream, a kitchen knife, three packs of blu tac and a whoopee cushion.

* The group happily integrating other people (Aurore, Mirelle and Marc) because the power of a found family is just THAT strong.

* Weredad doesn’t happen (obviously. Unless I wanted to douse this with ridiculous amounts of angst in which I would have Toms ladybug ghost being akumatised because he missed so much in his babies life)

* Marinette isn’t obsessed with Adrien, so she just has obscure sci-fi references on her walls like from “The cone heads”

* Mendeliev used to have a mild heart attack whenever she saw Marinette trip or fall down the stairs, but now it’s like “oh ya....there she goes”.

* One of the office women (receptionist?) taught Mendeliev little tips and tricks about raising the gal. Ended up being one of those people you call auntie but really isn’t related to you. (Her name’s Linda and she knows everyone’s name)

* Marinette found some heelies in a charity shop when she was about 6, and just sort of clings to Mendelievs jacket when she walks because that woman is fecking tall.Whenever she outgrows them, someone from her extended family gets her a pair. This carried on for years. Almost gave Chloe an aneurism when she first saw them do it on a school trip.

* The group all does it now. Sometimes Alix tags along, but grips onto Kim instead.

* Someone (Rose) asks Marinette whether she has an adoptive Dad and she’s like “no but I might get another Mum if she ever learns how to flirt” and Ms Mendeliev is embarrassed but Bustier is deciding if she’d want a daughter

* Post “reveal” Lila runs to the media and now the class has a daily game of finding out who are Marinettes illegitimate parents that week

* “Who am I related to this week?”

“You’re Jagged stones and... Adriens’ Mums kid now.”

“Damn, I always thought I’d be Jagged’s and Audrey bourgeois’ kid”

* Someone gets akumatised because they think they were a bad parent.

* It’s probably Astruc.

* One of Marinettes favourite childhood toys is a furby but Mendeliev is terrified of them so if Mari gets annoyed at her she just whips out the furby

* Marinette tried to be all cool about her Ma but she does say the occasional cursed thing like “She sleeps in her lab coat. What you don’t know that scientists shed their coat once a year? Wack”

* The phone conversations that consist of other cursed things:

“No you can’t eat cheesecake. Why?! It literally has cheese in the title. YOU’RE ALLERGIC TO MILK! Why did you do that? Yes I’ll tell school to get a supply in, just try not to puke on your phone. Please don’t do this every time you have a meeting you don’t want to go to. ”

* Marinette has a lot of extended family past her own, but doesn’t get to see them often cos Mendelievs family all live in Eastern Europe.

* Max gets Marinette to help with Markov (working out how to get him to hover idk I haven’t seen the episode)

* Buffinette is real. But not from fighting or weights. It’s from dragging Mendelievs’ student’s books up four flights of stairs to get to the apartment.

*Theres no balcony scenes because having a balcony increases rent and Paris is already expensive.

* Marinette has heterochromia (an eye for each parent) because I’ve been playing overwatch and I like Moira’s design. She’s definitely more obviously half Chinese, and her hair is more a warm black (incorporating Toms hair a bit). What, this is my Au I’ll design Marinette how I want to.

* Although realistically Marinette should have green eyes after Tom because that’s how google says alleles work but idk. God maybe powerful but I’m a tired Brit who’s results day is far too close.

* Ladybugs outfit is more than just spandex. It’s modelled after Chinese martial arts and roman gladiators (the armour).

* Marinette tends to struggle to empathise with people but is compassionate. If someone cries infront of her she’ll comfort them but won’t really get why until it’s explained.

[someone-online]

Do you have any Filipino!Natalie hcs?

HELLO I AM FREAKING READY AND THIS IS GONNA BE LONG HERE WE GO

Her parents are immigrants from the Philippines from the Visayan region. They studied law there, met and got married, then decided to move to America while Natalie’s mom (don’t remember if her name was given in the book) was carrying Natalie; they figured their child would have a better life there.

Natalie’s parents didn’t teach her much Tagalog or Bisaya, so she decided that she’d learn Tagalog herself using Rosetta Stone. She’s not completely fluent yet, but she’s pretty good! She plans to learn Bisaya after.

She is super proud of her heritage and has done so much research on Filipino history, making sure to confirm with her parents for accuracy especially if she knows or thinks it’s not written by an actual Filipino.

She loves whenever there’s Asian representation, but gets ecstatic when there’s even the slightest bit of Filipino representation in anything. She barely sees herself represented so she will cling onto even the smallest things. (She doesn’t cry over it like I would, but she will not stop smiling or talking about it.)

She hates that she has to call all of her parents’ friends Tito or Tita or Auntie or Uncle because she honestly has no idea who she’s actually related to anymore and it drives her insane. She swears that her mom keeps changing her answer whenever she asks.

Hates Filipino parties because the younger kids scream and ruin her room (and occasionally steal something from it). She learned to hide her more important stuff or anything she doesn’t want them touching where they won’t find it.

Another reason to hate the parties: titas constantly asking “Do you have boyfriend?” Her parents constantly told her “No boyfriend until you graduate” and her titas tell her the same thing (some have said until she’s 35) so why would they ask her that question???? (Found out eventually that they were joking. She thought they were serious before.)

She doesn’t do the karaoke during parties, but will do it when it’s just her and her parents. She isn’t an amazing singer, but she’s pretty decent for someone who never had voice lessons.

Her parents believe Filipino superstitions. She doesn’t. She has tried to explain to her parents that they aren’t true, and will go to bed with her hair wet to prove she won’t go blind or use deodorant to show it won’t make her armpits black.

Also refuses to use Vick’s as a miracle cure for getting sick or hurt.Gets really, and I mean really, annoyed when people try to guess her ethnicity. She keeps being mistaken for Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Latina, and a couple others.

Another pet peeve is when she’s told that she’s “not Asian, she’s Filipino.” Will explain to you that Filipino is still Asian (amount of detail in her explanation will depend how annoyed she is).

Doesn’t like using the bathrooms in most other people’s homes because there’s no tabo.

She also always has to wear her tsinelas (slippers) whenever in her house. She hates being barefoot or wearing her shoes in the house. In other people’s homes, she will just wear socks if she needs to.

Loves spaghetti with hot dogs. She thinks Americans are missing out by using meatballs instead, because the hot dogs are amazing. Also loves pancit.

Probably eats too much rice but she doesn’t care.

Her family visits the Philippines every year for usually about two weeks. She enjoys the visits since it’s to see the rest of their family.

She likes durian candy. Doesn’t like durian itself. Has gone to the Durian Capital of the Philippines. She doesn’t plan on going back anytime soon.

She’s done research on many of the islands in the Philippines and wants to go island-hopping one day with her parents. She knows which island has what and even has the plan on which islands to go to and what they’ll do.

Once her mom introduced her to Yoyoy and she decided that she never wanted to hear his voice again. Complained to Scott about his voice, only to find out the next day that Scott looked him up on YouTube and memorized the Philippines History song. Scott decided to prove this by singing the whole thing. Natalie was not happy.

Also showed Scott a picture of a Philippine tarsier, and he cried over how cute they were.

The Recruits don’t understand why she gets easily annoyed when taking more than two pictures.

She brought lumpia to school once and shared it with the rest of the Recruits. They absolutely loved it, so she makes sure to bring lumpia whenever her mom makes some, usually storing a ziploc full of them in the back of the fridge before a party.

This is long and way more headcanons than you probably wanted sorry djdndjdnndnd