#I was the winged fairy girl at this point during a big battle

[egglygreg]

Ok, so I had this dream last night right? And it was mostly nonsensical and weird and silly, but there was this moment...

[skylaryozora]

I also very much miss red hue in Musa's color scheme, it does suit her personality and goes well with her dark hair and pale skin. I think the whole fandom is eager to bring back this color to Musa's palette, as almost every moodboard/aesthetic board made with Musa in mind includes red. Not sure how red would look with her Harmonix design though, I think I would keep the pink/lavender palette in this case.

As for the second part, I actually got interested in the topic of wings' tangibility some time ago, so let me present my theory concerning this aspect, since I do believe it deserves insight (I mean, wings are the backbone of Winx so it would be nice to have plenty of information about them). I don't think it was ever explicitly addressed in the show, apart from the scene mentioned above, but I can recall three other scenes which might point us towards some idea what their wings are actually made of.

The first one, when the girls are chasing after pixies bewitched by the homesick spell (S2 E11), they fight a monster in a forest which explodes and spatters them with mud-like substance, and Musa comments on it with: "Our wings are covered with that sticky stuff, we can't go after them [pixies]." So that means their wings (at least the basic ones) are in fact tangible and can be affected by non-magical substances.

Later, when Faragonda instructs Aisha how to get her sight back after she achieves Enchantix (S3 E7), we hear the following sentence: "You have the power of a Fairy Dust. It's a magic energy in your new wings, you can feel it if you concentrate." I guess that wings of higher level seem to be made of something more sophisticated than basic wings since they contain a certain kind of magic energy, namely Fairy Dust (why they need Fairy Dust bottles at all if the dust is said to come from their wings is a topic for another debate...).

The last scene is probably not that important, but when Musa and Flora are trying to escape Valtor's violent wind spell, Musa says it's too strong and she can't activate her FD, so Flora responds with: "Me neither, maybe if I shield you..." (S3 E14) and does move in front of Musa, spreading her particularly big wings. So, this means that apparently Enchantix wings (and other higher-level wings) are still tangible and somewhat solid. By the way, I think it would be a cool concept to have wings actually functioning as shields (or maybe even mirrors to reflect spells?) during battles.

On a side note, I think losing them should actually hurt since wings are tightly connected with the fairy forms, especially later when they are said to be the vessel for Fairy Dust.

As a little girl, red was my favorite color (still is) so by natural progression, Musa was my favorite winx club member.

I will never forgive the fact that they took away her red color scheme. Her enchantix was gorgeous, but I was really hoping Believix would put the red back in Musa, but she got progressively more pink & lavender.

Also totally unrelated + I haven't watched later seasons so Idk if this was ever a plot point BUT i wish they expanded more on the tangiblity of their wings, like... are their wings hard to the touch or totally intangible/made out of dust or energy? Can they get hurt? If yes, how do they heal? I know it's just a kids' franchise but it is possible to expand upon this aspect of the show without making it too dark for kids.

I feel you! I miss the red in her color scheme. (It's also my favorite color.)

I'm putting the rest under the cut because I'm not very well-versed in the topic.

As for the third part of your ask, I don't know if the significance of a fairy's wings was ever discussed or touched upon in the show. I remember that Galatea's wings were shattered in season three, but she didn't seem to have suffered from any physical pain. She was, however, very distressed after losing her wings, so I assume wings are a crucial part of one's identity and powers. Musa was able to restore Galatea's wings by using fairy dust, but I don't think that necessarily tells us anything about what the wings are made of.

[drops-of-moonlights]

The redesigned Magic Animals! Because I looked at their old designs and absolutely hated them so they getting redone. Also Roxy gets one now and Elas goes to Diaspro because Bloom already has Kiko! Info below on them, Magic Animals in general, and the reworked concept of Wild Magic. (In order - Amarok, Squonk, Critty, Shiny, Flitter, Elas, Kiko and Galila)

Wild magic is, very bluntly, magic gone wild. It's natural ambient magic that has been negatively affected in some form or another, which stays in the area and starts to mutate and change the place. Previously crystal clear waters can become a toxic swamp, healthy trees can rot yet keep growing in an instant, animals might be harshly mutated. Those affected can suffer from various illnesses and while it's not normally fatal, chronic conditions might develop thanks to exposure.

However, wild magic is also what gave birth to the many Magic Animals on the system, creatures that managed to take in the magic and adapt to it rather than succumb to it, changing their form and gaining new abilities to survive in the conditions.

Wild magic seems to also fade away on its own after a certain amount of time, and while the changes to an area might downscale or dissapear completely, animals and people affected by it remain changed unless outside magic is applied to combat the effects. This is partially the reason for Silvestrix existing, as its immune to the effects of Wild magic and can counter and erase it almost perfectly.

TL:DR it's basically like radiation but slightly less murdery.

Onto each animal!

Amarok, the Moss Magiwolf: Amarok has been with Flora since she was a kid. Her parents run a Magiwolf sanctuary, and Amarok was brought in as a puppy. He was supposed to be released back into the wild, he came back after a few hours. They tried to make him leave again, but he simply stood there, tail wagging, before nuzzling Flora’s dad. Right then, Amarok became the “dog” of the family. They have a license to handle wild Magic Animals, and since Amarok still counts as one despite being somewhat domesticated, they were able to keep him. He’s a very loyal and goofy pet, and loves Flora and Miele very much.Lynphean Moss Magiwolves have a top layer of fur that covers their head and back that has a texture similar to moss, even being able to grow flowers on it - it helps them to keep cool in Lynphea's hot humid summers and they use it to mark their territory, as some tree moss is just the fur of a Magiwolf being fused with the bark. They’re omnivorous, like regular wolves.

Squonk, the Seafaring Gryphon: Squonk approached the Winx very hurt during a short travel to the Andros mountains, having been attacked by Kalshara who’s trying to hunt him. The girls defend him, and after being protected from an attack by Aisha, he helps the girls fight off Kalshara albeit clumsily. The girls try to find its parents, as it’s just a baby, but not finding them Aisha decides to just adopt him and learn about him so she can help him grow well. He’s very shy and gets scared very easily, but can and will harm anyone that he distrusts that approaches Aisha. Seafaring Gryphons are common in the Andrian cliffs, their eldest diving for fish to bring to their young. They also hunt small rodents, and seem to have traits of falcons rather than eagles, like other gryphon species.

Critty, the Melodian Quillcat: Critty was actually being hunted by Kalshara and Brafilius, in Musa’s hometown. She managed to escape thanks to Musa, however, and after she’s rescued fully, she seems very attached to her, even if she’s still hostile to the other girls… and everyone else. Quillcats are wild cats whose neck and tail fur managed to harden into sharp points, similar to hedgehogs and porcupines, with the added bonus that they seem to secrete a poison that acts as a paralizer, with Melodian Quillcats in particular seemingly creating some sort of “vibration” with them when scared or angry. They seem to be evolved from mountain cats, and have a similar diet.

Shiny, the Solarian Lumibird: Shiny appeared to the Winx during their attempts at rescuing Critty, and guided Stella (who had gotten separated) to a secret passageway, him also having been kidnapped by the siblings and wanting some sort of revenge. Shiny likes Stella a lot, as well as Squonk, but seems lukewarm to the other girls and animals. Lumibirds seem to be evolved from birds of paradise, mixing traits from the astrapia and parotia species. They are incredibly fast, looking almost like a shooting star at night thanks to their slight bioluminiscence, and their predisposition is basically like australian magpies. Diet is mostly plants as well as bugs, and in the case of Solarian Lumibirds, rocks.

Flitter, the Storm Fox: Flitter is one of the bats and foxes that maintain the inner heat and currents of the capital of Zenith’s main computer. After heavy malfunctioning, the girls access the core, and with Tecna and Flitter joining magic, they manage to restore the place. Flitter ends up close to Tecna, and seeing that the core can work without her, she leaves and joins the Winx. Electrobats and their big cousins, Storm Foxes, are known for their ability to store electricity in their fur and wings, usually using them for their prey or to attract mates via clever uses of the stored static. They are used in Zenith since ancient times as chargers for the older machinery, and are treated very well in exchange. Their diet consists of mainly fruit. (Yes I changed Flitter from squirrel to flying fox it’s my AU I can do what I want and what I want is for Tecna to have a giant fucking bat with her)

Elas, the Qilin-Unicorn Hybrid: Elas is the second-last animal the girls acquire, having been cursed under a rage spell and causing mayhem in the Domino/Quarzis border. Diaspro manages to calm him down enough for Roxy and Flora to lift the curse, and he becomes attached to her as a result. He seems very prideful much like Diaspro, and likes to antagonize Kiko. He is an unicorn-qilin hybrid, taking most of his physiology after Unicorns (just one horn, mostly horse-like, long mane) but with Qilin details (the gems in his forehead and chest, the scales covering most of his torso and head, his horn not being straight, his long tail). His diet is mostly plants and bugs, but can also eat small rodents thanks to his Qilin side and likes to bully Kiko saying he can eat him in one gulp.

Kiko, the Moth Rabbit: Kiko becomes friends with Bloom all the way back in S1, having been rescued by her in the Blackmud Swamp. He follows the girls to Alfea, and after a three-day battle with the girl’s dorm manager, Kiko starts living with them. He’s capable of slightly broken speech, and seems to also be able to understand talking plants. He’s very attached to Bloom and can be a jealous little flying fuzzball. He's a moth rabbit, very obviously a rabbit with moth wings. They're also nicknamed "fairy/witch rabbits" based off their wing design and coloration. They are herbivorous, and seem to prefer the fruit from very high trees. They also seem to be able to help with pollinization, and are native to Magix. They can fold their wings and seem to be able to lay on them without much issue if folded.

Galila, the Two-tailed Golden Ferret: Galila is part of the first proper magic animals that seems to have appeared on Earth after the revival of magic, and as such Roxy's very interested in her in both an investigative way and just her natural love of animals. Galila is very shy and withdrawn like Squonk, but seems to light up around Roxy and Musa and is very playful with them, sparking a bit of jealousy from Critty. Two-tailed golden ferrets don't deviate much from regular ferrets outside of the tail, but they do seem to have a knack for burrowing and seem to be able to generate sand as a distraction tactic.

As an aside, Amarok, Squonk, Shiny, Kiko and Elas are male while Critty, Flitter and Galila are female.

[five-miles-over]

‘Aftermath’ Part 5: Beneath a Moonless Sky (Commodus x OC)

Read Part 1: The Impossible Dream here

Read Part 2: Proud of Your Boy here

Read Part 3: Point of No Return here

Read Part 4: Look Down here

Summary: While in the palace, Caesonia ponders about her own test of courage and fidelity to her father. Meanwhile, Commodus finds himself attracted to his Pink Fairy when he learns about her past.

Warning: angst, obsession, and also a bit of fluff at the end.

People should know when they’ve been conquered, her father used to say. Caesonia looked out of her tiny window, watching the orange and yellow rays fall from the concrete and presumably into the horizon. Of course, when he said those words, he usually referred to Germanic barbarians, not young women.

Caesonia’s fingers dawdled near the cold wall, tracing abstract patterns against the grey material. Didn’t philosophers used to call life one big prison that houses all men? They spoke of a metaphorical one, while she was in a real one.

That wasn’t to say that her prison was akin to a cell in the palace’s dungeon - it was a bit more spacious and she had a blanket to cover herself with. Would you be proud of me, father? Being a dutiful citizen and serving my sentence as I must?, Caesonia thought longingly. Or have I disappointed you being a meek coward this whole time?

All Caesonia had ever wanted was to make her father satisfied to call her his progeny, despite never being the son he so desperately craved for. Perhaps he would’ve agreed that she did the right thing by remaining in her prison day after day. She didn’t seem to be giving the emperor or his guards any sort of trouble, and for a month, all was well.

Yet being the daughter of a general, had she failed the test of courage by never daring to escape her cell? Surely one of bravery would have done so, swearing to defy the emperor’s orders and fight back. The window was small, but she could’ve squeezed through and jumped out of it. Whether she would survive the three-story fall was a secondary question, but at least she would be free.

Ever since that Spaniard gladiator had arrived in the city, it seemed fashionable to defy the emperor - anyone who followed his orders was considered a weakling or a fool. Being a young lady, Caesonia never needed to worry about whom to side with; ever since she’d come of age, her father never encouraged her to delve into politics.

However, things were different now with the recent…change in dynamics. The emperor was back in power, and the Senate now in disarray, but the people were still deciding whom to give their loyalty to. From the conversations she could overhear in her cell, not even the servants were sure of their true allegiance. Only time could truly tell who would win this ultimate battle of leadership.

Her thoughts were adjourned by an announcement from a guard. “The Emperor of Rome is on his way, prisoner!” His declaration was interrupted by a quick slap. “How dare you call her merely a prisoner?” The voice was none other than that of Commodus’s. “She is a lady and must be addressed as such.”

Caesonia straightened herself, adjusting her toga so that she may be presentable before him. She saw him coming towards her, bearing a piece of pink cloth in one of his hands. Narrowing her eyes closer, she recognized it as her pink cloth - it was from the dress she wore to witness the Spaniard fight His Majesty.

The guards parted for him. “Good evening, my lady,” Emperor Commodus lowered his head for her, a rare honor for anyone, let alone a prisoner. “Good evening, your Highness,” she curtsied before him, her lower lip quivering as her eyes met his.

“Do you by any chance know of this, Lady Caesonia?” He offered her the cloth.

“Y-yes,” she stammered. “Yes, it looks similar to a piece of a dress that I own. Except, my cloth was stained with dirt and blood; the one you are holding, Caesar, is clean.”

Commodus, relieved that he truly knew whom his Pink Fairy was, signalled for the guards to let her out into the halls. “I had the laundresses clean it, my lady. Would it displease you if I asked you to walk with me tonight?”

“Not at all, your Highness.”

He hummed in agreement, going outside of the palace and into one of the gardens in the southern wing. Surrounded by various species of roses, narcissi, and gladioli, it was quite the colorful ensemble. And in the center, there was a large fountain with water spouting from a statue of Augustus, the first Roman emperor in history.

It was quite dark, with the sky being surrounded by nothing but black, velvety clouds. Yet, the starlight and the faint glow from the palace was enough luminescence for them to see each other.

The emperor invited her to sit next to him on the marble bench. Noticing her silence, Commodus softly asked her. “Do I scare you, Lady Caesonia?”

“No. This is not the first time we have met, your Highness.”

“Where have we met before?”

“In Germania, Highness. I came along with my father on his battles.”

Commodus raised an eyebrow at the idea of a young girl being brought to a battefield, especially one of nobility. “But why? Surely a girl like you would’ve been entrusted to her mother at home. A battle camp is no place for a young lady.”

Caesonia closed her eyes for a moment. “My mother died during childbirth, Caesar. And I had no siblings.”

“My condolences to your mother,” the emperor nodded.

“Thank you, Caesar,” she forced a small smile.

“Did your father teach you to fight?”

“He did when I was young - until I was twelve, everyone called me Cassius Quintii,” her eyes twinkled under the indigo sky as she narrated. “I was raised as a boy, and I fought like any soldier’s son.”

“And then what happened?”

Caesonia continued, “My armor…my armor became too tight for my chest, and my father knew why. He stopped teaching me, and started leaving me in the company of various ladies present - concubines, noble ladies, and even…” Her voice faltered, hesitating to mention Lady Lucilla.

“My sister, no?” Commodus finished, “She used to leave you in my care and go off to speak with her lover.”

Looking further at Caesonia, the memory suddenly came back to him. When he came to Germania hoping to speak with his father about his succession and eventual coronation, he was given a girl to watch over. It was utterly humiliating, him - a prince - being brought to a battlefield to baby-sit. Until his father’s letter describing the four virtues, he thought there was no clearer of a way for his father to convey his opinion about Commodus.

Caesonia added, “All I’ve wanted was to please my father, but I think he’s still angry that I was never the son he wanted…and that I took away the chance of him having another child.”

“And yet you still plead for his life in court even though he made yours uncomfortable?”

“I love him nonetheless, and I think he deserves to live. Perhaps that was my mistake.” Caesonia looked down, placing her hands in her lap.

His expression softening, Commodus gently stroked her cheek, causing her to turn towards him. With those same fingers, he lifted her chin and brought his lips to hers. Caesonia held his forearm to steady herself as she attempted to reciprocate his kiss, having never experienced such intimacy before. She did not want to be punished for refusing him and she was afraid of angering the emperor with her boldness, but her touch only captivated him.

“You’re perfect,” he whispered, lowering her onto the marble delicately as if she were made of glass. Commodus marveled at her submissiveness, having never felt so much power in his arms as he did in that moment. Her eyelids lowered and her lips parted slightly when he climbed on top of her, the heavy weight of his armor crushing her chest. He captured her lips again, and felt her arms encircle his broad shoulders.

As their kiss deepened, her muted sighs only strengthened a new desire surging through his veins. It was far too different than merely lust, Commodus thought, it was almost a feeling of jealousy, or hunger perhaps. In that moment, he was ready to kill anyone who tried to claim her, or touch her, or snatch her away from him. She needed to be his and only his.

Gasping for air, the two of them broke apart too soon for either’s liking, still lingering in each other’s embrace. It had felt like an eternity passed before the emperor rose from the bench. Commodus suppressed a chuckle as he watched Caesonia’s knees buckle when she tried to stand up. Lovingly, he wrapped the cloth around her neck like a scarf and strode away from the bench. Walking five steps behind him, she followed him out of the garden and into the palace.

The emperor could not help but glance behind as they made their way through the halls. She looked ethereal among the light of the torches. Her smooth hair and her cheekbones called to his fingers, clamoring for his caress. It was taking every fiber of his being not to roughly push her against the palace walls and kiss her again until they were both breathless.

He stopped before another empty bedroom, seemingly much more comfortable, and spoke to the guard, instructing him to keep her here for the time being. “Good night, Lady Caesonia,” he bent down to kiss her hand.

“Good night, Caesar. Thank you for your benevolence,” she nodded in return.

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

The next morning, Caesonia rose from her bed to find a plate of pink-bottled perfumes and creams, along with a little rouge, by her bedside. Perhaps a maid must’ve placed it while I slept, she thought. In the midst of the cosmetics, there was a folded piece of parchment. Carefully, she unfolded the note and read,

“If you ever asked me if I’d seen a rose blooming from another rose,

My reply would be yes, for my eyes have been blessed by one of those.

On the night your soft, finely curved lips met mine,

I witnessed your rosy cheeks bloom from that rose-like face of thine.”

[huntsman-ash]

RWBY LiveThoughts: Episodes 8 and 9

So I missed last weeks episode since I got busy with stuff (school mostly, basic bitch busy day and all) so here’s two for one.

Gotta say, Im interested to see where this is going...

So something I missed the last few episodes; the final shot of the opening has the words “happily ever after” turn into “happy never again”, which I am both trepitided by and also intruged.

Cut to the jail cell AGAIN...Schnee’s looking a bit ansty. Boi probably thought he was getting out sooner. Suck it mate, your lawyers are DEAD.

Convinent blast of fire is convinenet...knocks out the cell doors and punches a hole but thats it. My money’s on Cinder

Qrow becomes bird on reaction. Makes sense really. 

Two fade to blacks in less than 2 minutes? Come on RT...

Ohhh its Nora waking up. So does that mean Robyn’s dead? I doubt it, but that drama spike is def a thing.

IV tech in Atlas is almost the same as our world. Interesting.

Whitley A poses like a god. 

Looks like Penny’s back snapped. Or something...maybe a coolant pipe or something similar.  And the return of British Klein.

And there goes the power. Probably a Grimm getting smashed into it during a fight...or they left it unguarded. Either or. Lot of explosions, either way...

Bombing run...has Atlas gone to area denial now?

...ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! THOSE FUCKING FLYING JELLYFISH GRIMM CAN MELEE AIRSHIPS?! Can we just...how in the... (LONG SUFFERING SIGH OF MILTIARY FAN) Not...going to comment. MOVING ON.

Honestly that animation seems oddly...flat. Like they just did the bare minimum...the ship breaks cleanly too. ~12 or so bits in between its nose and tail section. Kinda reminds me of how the UNSC Savannah blows up after suffering a reactor breach in Halo Reach’s “Long Night of Solace” mission.

Yes, its too much Ruby. ITS WAR. Huntsmen and Atlas were not ready for it. Never have been. Welcome to the bloody grim fable.

Oh hi Willow, where did you come from. Also, vodka.  Wait. Generator near the-Oh, I bet I know where THIS is going...fuckin Five Nights style shit at this. Slash Jurrassic Park...

Whitley showing the first signs of being human...utilizing Atlas cargoships for evac. Nice. 

Shit, the storms spread across all of Atlas. How the hell are they gonna get out through that? Also DEF getting fuckin’ Jurrasic Park vibes here. 

Why does a power startup sequence take so long...

Oh so they can talk. Also Blake says “as a girl”. Soooo what, she thinks shes older than RWBY mentally? I mean maybe she is (she did kill a man) but whos counting?

Ladybug fans getting FED right now.

Hehe, the houses CANDLES are fed by the main power. How quaint.

YEP. Knew shit was gonna hit the fan. CONTACT. Hound

The chess set seems to have black loosing. Wonder if that means anything. Or if its just random.

Yep its the Hound. Knew it.

DID IT JUST ONESHOT RUBY’S AURA?! THE FUCK RT WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT BEING RESILIANT?!

Oh its trying to kidnap her. Also those wings just EXPLODED out of it. Must have learned from last time. No weird screaming noises.

DAMN THOUGH WEISS’S MOM GOT THAT CAKE! THICC SCHNEE ASS

WOOPS. No more booze for you Mrs Schnee

And Pennys back up and SHES NOT PLEASED.

Also I like how completely dead and robotic Penny is while hacked. It amuses me. Unfortunatly for Watts hacking something with MAIDEN POWERS doesnt seem to work too well. SURPRISE.

Oh and of course its got backup, DISRUPTING WEISS’S SUMMONING AGAIN

Ha, it thought Ruby was Penny. Lul. Makes sense, young girl, whatever.

Oh look, a Hydralisk. Or, Salems horrible attempt at making a Hydralisk. 

Hacking denied BY THE POWER OF BUTCH LESBIANS!

Willow having a panic attack, doesnt really surprise me. Then again she IS a Huntress, or was, maybe she’ll get over it.

Chandelier. Phantom of the Opera time?

Unsurprising twist is unsurprising...makes sense Whitley would get covered in that green shit.

Further proof to my theory the Hound is eyeless

And Willow doing her fucking job. NICE.

I know I should be worried for them while running but again, THAT SCHNEE ASS THOUGH GOOD LORD.

These bigger Grimm are getting smarter. They’re learning how to handle CQC. 

Target DOWN. Sadly, did not explode into showers of acid when Ruby cut it down.

Okay that was pretty cool with the arm. Always was a fan of “useless limbs only for smashing”.  Ah THERES the Silver Eyes. PROBABLY SHOULDNT HAVE TAKEN HER ROBOT WIFE PRISONER BIIITCCH.

Penny is just getting ALL KINDS of fucked up rn.

WELL THEN. The Hounds not ACTUALLY a Grimm. Just a parasite on a host. Salem couldnt get them smart enough by themselves (to no ones surprise, they’re completely SHIT in terms of actual lethality) so she steals a...faunus of some kind looks like. And just makes him wear a Grimm suit. Useful. Good to know.

Also this episode has been making excessive use of sweat drops. Did they get that figured out or what

HA! Grimm dont handle physics well do they!

The Grimm arm that results looks like Cinders. Intentional, Im compleretly sure. Also the fact theres bone underneath proves to me more what I thought. Its just a host. 

How...UNIMPRESSIVE.

However the fact that the bones have TWISTED and resulted in the Hounds form is...interesting. Unless those were there first (and they seem to be as they last past the Hound vanishing)...was that a secondary feature? He had the ears...

We’ll probably never know.

Ah so it WAS Cinder breaking in. To get Watts most likely.

Kinda feel bad for these three troopers. Shoulda brought shotguns, boi.

Fucking moron with a rocket launcher. WHY is he firing this thing INSIDE? Against a humanoid target? Though it is nice to know that Atlas does in fact have rocket launchers.

And now, Episode 9

...wow, way to start us off. Field littered with dead Atlas troopers. Yeah MAYBE IF YOU HAD SOME DEFENSIVE POSITIONS buddy...least they still got fire from the Paladins.

You know this kinda feels like an Imperial Guard moment. Point made, RT.

Also those Mantas peeled off without DOING anything. Least you could do is drop some ordinance...

Wait I t hink they did...also, for about 2 seconds you can see the silverfish Grimm that won that contest.

Alright, so RJY is inside the whale now. Good. 

Good question Yang. Probably cause you dont really have any other options?

I feel like Jaunes hair has become less plant-like and more realistic.

New fairy tale; The Girl who Fell Through The World. Interesting. Wonder if thats in the book somewhere.

So hes got access to magic but it makes them fuse faster. Alright, cool. Nice limitation.

...my god. Trenches. Standing formation. HUNTERS IN ARMOR?!

Its...its beautiful. Its everything Ive ever wanted! Seriously you HAVE to see this.

Just look at it. The lights, the Mantas in he background, the fact that FNKI is there and WEARING ARMOR!  Neon in her skates with weapon at the ready, everyone else standing firm, winter Walking the trench line like shes fucking Commissar Vale...

Its. Just. SO. GOOD.

And then they rush to glorious battle moments later. OH YES PLEASE

“Right now, just kill Grimm.” PERFECT

Hazel short-walking amuses me to no end.

Hazel has “II” in roman numerals on his arm band. I doubt it means anything but its funny

Spontanious Emerald is spontanious. And convinenent. 

Glowy blue titty woman yeahhhhhh

And there goes Hazel with his change of heart. Been good knowing you pal...I can guess where THIS is going.

Oscar is distracted by the big glowy milkys.

Also; Neo can...thats most interesting. Fully camoflauged. USEFUL. And of course you can see her ass for ONE SECOND and I bet the FANDOMS HAVING FUN WITH THAT

If Yang wasnt afraid right now I’d be very surprised.

Random floating Seer as well.

MAN THERE IS JUST TOO MUCH FUCKING CONVENIENCE GOING ON RIGHT NOW LIKE

I get it.  Nice to see things not going according to plan for Salem exactly but 

Ehh.

Hahaha. Juan. Bro doesnt even remember Jaunes name.  Also that short section of fight is magnificent. This is what I have always imagined the HKs being like.

CLEVER. Nice work Emerald.

Also uhhh...dont need no semblance ot see THAT Ren, she got that confused scared face right on there.

Tsundere Emerald continues

Also, the fact that all the troops stand in line around the bomb when it arrives amuses me. Like, yes, we must worship this tool of horror we have created.

Timer...ohhhhh thats gonna end poorly. WHY AM I GETTING SHADES OF LONG NIGHT OF SOLACE AGAIN?

Did Salem straight up make a door right through the wall? With a perfectly good one behind her? God damn.

Also on that subject uhhhhh off the walls guys, not to hard. Landing strats right?

OH NO WAIT FIGHT TIME.

Magic still doesnt seem impressive to me. Just...mildly forceful. Yeah it whacked Jaune and Ren off their feet but

Still. No 40k psyker is she.

Ohh ho. OH THATS NICE

Also Yang punched her titty. That is hilarious to me.

 BREAK, BITCH! SUFFER AND SHATTER!  In the words of the Chaplain Grimaldus; “BURN HERETIC!”

Addit; First time we see her regeneration. Seems its literally anything, she pulls herself back together using Grimm bits. Obviously shes not fully human considering that blast Yang hit her with should have liquified her organs. Makes SENSE of course.

Okay, magic seems to kinda work, she didnt like that much.

I paused at the perfect time and Yangs ass is riiigghhhttt at Oscars crotch more or less. Unintentional I know but its funny to me.

Also those sigils...like Weiss’s glyphs perhaps?

Huh. Two kinds of magic. The bright sunshiny ranbow one she used to hit Ren and Jaune, and now this void looking shadowy stuff.  So...two kinds perhaps? Creation and Destruction or...light and dark maybe is more accurate.  Makes SENSE, shes studied in both and uses both. All aspects.

Okay NOW Im seeing why RT got Jen Taylor to do Salem. We jussttt had to wait to the point she got mad enough to really start showing off.

Also Salem seems oddly unconvinced about Summer.

Awww, Emeralds crying. HOW PATHETIC

Someones gotta distract her...well this works. Again, RIP Hazel, you were pretty cool.

Homie goin ALL out on this. YEAH!

Okay, magic seems to be both, she has the void walker balls shooting rainbow light...

I like how casually Salem takes it. Seeing that Grimm ichor splatter was REAL nice though

IMMOLATIOIN OH YESSSS

Good, SHE DOES BURN!

Awwww. And it ends there. Of course it does.

Well hey maybe hes NOT dead. Albiet that looked like him passing out/getting strangled so who knows. Good news; Salem burns just like anyone else. If it feels pain you can kill it

And thats this weeks!

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 175

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 27 - “Rin-chan’s Date with a Handsome Ghost!?” Date watched: 24 March 2020 Original air date: 12 August 2007 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/7vdwVuj Transformation Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/6k6SzS0 Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

not pictured: a handsome ghost

Are you ready for more summer vacation antics? How about some ghost stories! No, not the gag dub kind, I mean actual ghost stories. Yes, tonight the girls decide to poke around an abandoned wing of their school and wind up in the middle of something bigger than themselves. Let’s dive in!

The Plot

All the girls are gathered around a table in the dark as Komachi tells them the story of Count Rosett, who used to live in a mansion behind the school with his girlfriend, until she died in a tragic accident. The count lived out the rest of his days in sadness and now his spirit returns to the school on the anniversary of her death. Nozomi, Urara, Milk, and Coco are all a little scared by the story, Karen and Nuts seem indifferent or even bored, but Rin is scared out of her mind. So naturally they go check it out.

Over in Nightmare, Kawarino himself summons Arachnea to the office and tells her that while her work is good, if she instills fear into her opponents, then they’ll expend all their energy. Sound advice honestly. With that in mind, she sets off, and begins to haunt the girls on their ghost hunt. How timely! Arachnea plays her card very quickly by bringing a skeleton to life, which makes itself known to Rin and only Rin, so she bolts off down the hallway away from the other girls. Suddenly she runs into another shadowy figure.... who reveals herself as Masuko Mika, who is inexplicably here at the same time with the same objective of finding the ghost and reporting on it.

or they’re doing the fusion dance

Nozomi, Urara, Komachi, Karen, and the fairies continue exploring the school building, trying to find Rin, and end up in a pitch-black classroom. Karen bumps into something, and when they shine the light on it revealing it to be a large statue of a man, she finally gets scared and screams. After Karen calms down, Komachi deduces that this must be Count Rosett, and then they see a large portrait on the wall of a woman who looks a lot like Rin.

or more accurately the animators drew Rin’s head on this random portrait

Rin and Mika continue wandering around until the skeleton reappears and starts chasing both of them. Rin trips and falls but Mika doesn’t stop, so Rin scrambles into a nearby classroom to hide and the skeleton passes her by. This time, though, she comes face to face with yet another specter, as a large shadowy figure reaches for her, and this one isn’t a student.

She freaks right the fuck out and loses consciousness. When she comes to, the other girls are surrounding her and asking what happened. When she explains, Komachi puts the pieces of the puzzle together and deduces that this was Count Rosett, the portrait was of his deceased girlfriend, and he was trying to give Rin a gift for his girlfriend. They convince her to try to meet him again and resolve his centuries-old suffering by accepting the gift. She really does not want to but they beg and plead her and she begrudgingly agrees to try it. Once again she enters the room and lo and behold the shadowy figure reaches for her. However the girls suddenly finds themselves in broad daylight in the courtyard of the school building and adjacent mansion, with a handsome man standing in front of her. He greets her and presents her with a rose-shaped hairpin, but before Rin can explain that she’s not his lover, the sky turns purple and Arachnea makes her appearance. She gloats about this excellent terrain and turns the wandering skeleton into a Kowaina, which is just a giant skeleton with a Kowaina mask on its forehead. Rin and the other girls quickly transform. 

The monster wreaks havoc on the mansion, which Rouge takes special exception to on behalf of the Count, and Arachnea retorts that it doesn’t matter anyway since this is a false world, before reminding Rouge that she had just been deathly afraid of the Count’s ghost mere moments ago. Rouge exclaims that her fear went away when he communicated his feelings and the girls all go on the attack. Mint and Aqua and then Dream and Lemonade perform a nice one-two combo on the monster as Rouge declares that she won’t forgive Nightmare for wrecking the Count’s house, even in an illusion world, and then her brooch glows and she summons her new weapon, the Rouge Tact. She uses it to perform a powered-up version of her finisher: Rouge Burning

The items should have been called Rouge Torch and Dream Tact but what do I know

This attack utterly destroys the Kowaina, and the mansion returns to its former beauty. The girls detransform and Count Rosett once again tries to give Rin the hairpin. She tells him she isn’t the girl he was waiting on, but he responds that she fought so hard for his sake and he just wants her to have it. She smiles the biggest smile and then the Count and the scenery fade away, leaving the girls back in the school building, with Rin still holding the hairpin. As they leave the building, Nozomi teases Rin about possible latent feelings for the Count, and then Mika reappears screaming about how she was chased by a skeleton. Komachi suggests they go back inside and get pictures, but Mika is too afraid to see any more ghosts. However, Rin states that ghosts are just like people, they experience normal feelings and once those feelings are communicated there’s no cause for fear, a marked change from her earlier behavior.

The Analysis

It’s shameless summer filler and it is EXCELLENT. This is how you do low-stakes. It’s fun! It’s a great character spotlight! It takes us new places! It ties into typical summer activities! This plays out like an episode of Scooby-Doo, with a shoujo bent. It’s comedy gold from the very beginning, when Komachi tells a ghost story and the others are varying degrees of afraid and all the way through the episode when Rin is the only one being haunted, either by Arachnea’s interference, classmates, or actual ghosts. The poor girl can’t get a break. But the comedy is done excellently, and the episode is positively filled with wonderful facial expressions (which is why my gallery ballooned to 132 images, a record for a non-movie or finale episode, so check that out).

I love how Karen and Nuts are just so over it all, while Komachi is too excited about the mystery to be scared. It makes sense given her affinity for literature, she’s heard it all before and she just wants to see if there’s any weight to the rumors. Nuts, being well-read and also generally apathetic, is probably just not spooked by ghost stories period. But back to Rin: Nozomi explains how she’s positively terrified by ghosts, and so of course she’s the one that ends up seeing them all, and ultimately meeting Count Rosett in the flesh (sorta) teaches her a valuable lesson that hey, they’re not so bad if you can reach an understanding. I don’t believe this has any lasting impact on her character but I might be wrong. I hope we see some hint of this going forward.

As I said, while Rin is scared out of her wits, the other girls are far from unshakeable. Even Karen, who spends about half of the episode acting bored, finally flips when she bumps into what she thinks is a person in the dark.

Nuts is still unimpressed though

Nozomi and Urara are scared when they start but everyone’s animosities fade away once they find the portrait of Count Rosett’s presumed girlfriend, and all they can think of is trying to get him to meet Rin and put him to final rest.

This and the next episode have really made me realize a problem to the show at this point, however. Since they got rid of Girinma, Nightmare’s only grunt is Arachnea, while Gamao is still wandering around as a free agent, and the two basically alternate episodes. Bunbee is going to dip his toes in the water again in episode 29 but it’s kind of a slog on the villain side until episode 31 when Hadenya and Bloody show up. Gamao is completely unlikeable and Arachnea has all the personality of a loaf of stale bread. Her attempt at being scary here consists of chasing Rin with a skeleton in an already haunted setting. That’s all she can muster. I’m very reticent to give Smile Precure credit for anything but they definitely had a better haunted school episode.

During the battle, Rouge accesses her portion of the Symphony Set for the first time, which is called the Rouge Tact. “Tact” is of course a name that will be reused for various Precure baton weapons in the coming seasons. The wiki says that it’s derived from the German word “taktstock”, which refers to a music conductor’s baton. As for its design, it is a large leaf shape with a handle on one end and an extension on the other which lights on fire. As I quipped above, I think it should have been called “Rouge Torch” while Dream’s baton should have another name, but oh well. The way she uses it is interesting, as you’d expect her to use it to launch a fireball directly at the enemy but she doesn’t. During her normal Rouge Fire attack, she creates a burning butterfly from the back of her hand and then palmstrikes it into the monster. Here, instead, she ignites the tact, then in a single motion she swoops the flame in front of her as the butterfly separates from her hand, she releases the tact and grabs it with her right hand as she pulls back with her left for a palmstrike and the burning butterfly shoots towards her enemy. A lot happens in a short time but the effect isn’t dramatically different from her normal attack, and rather than shooting a stream of fire directly from the tact she just uses it like a lighter. Once again, it suggests the staff weren’t sure how to incorporate the Symphony Set into the show.

I appreciate them remembering that Masuko Mika exists but it’s a really big coincidence that she’s here on this night. The script didn’t make it clear whether the ghost was spotted on one night every year, or every month, or just randomly. If they had clarified that, it may have made more sense for her to appear. I’m glad they’re trying to incorporate her but all she really does is scare Rin, sneak around, and then run off at the first sign of actual spookiness. Bring her into the group dang it! Make her a friend of the precures. Minor complaint.

From a cinematorgraphy standpoint this episode has some really cool camera shots. My absolute favorite is this zoom back from the abandoned wing of the school:

And later on the inverse: a zoom in and tilt upwards to look at the portrait of the lady that resembles Rin:

These scenes help to breathe some energy into the episode and provide atmosphere, enhancing the creepy and mysterious mood of the place.

Then there’s this sequence where the girls are trying to convince Rin to go find Count Rosett again, where the camera dollies back in stages and then shifts right to look at Karen.

I don’t remember seeing complex camerawork like this in previous episodes so to have so many of these unique shots in one episode is really cool and it makes me want to see more of it.

Finally, while this isn’t a very complicated shot, I like this bit from the fight where Dream and Lemonade perform a double kick in perfect sync.

I’m a sucker for cool fight choreorgraphy and this fits the bill. Sure, we’ve seen other more complex fights in this season alone but I like to call them all out when I find them.

(reminder: you can find higher resolution copies of these gifs in my gallery, I have to keep them under 2 MB for Tumblr)

All told, this episode is a fantastic summer ghost story. It balances comedy with an interesting mystery and provides Rin with just enough character growth to justify her unlocking her new finisher. It’s got some wonderful facial expressions that you can find in my gallery and it’s only brought down a little by its unerwhelming villain.

Next time, another summer staple: it’s time for a festival! Look forward to it!

Pink Precure catchphrase count: 0 kettei!

[hdnprplflwrs]

she held the world (and i’m just living in it): the great hall

Read on ao3.

Based on this prompt.

__________

Adrien didn’t know how to feel as Marinette made her way over to the Ravenclaw table, the blue and silver table cheering loudly for the grinning girl. He should‘ve felt happy for her, and he did, but he was also sad that she didn’t get into Gryffindor. He consoled himself with the thought that maybe he’ll see her in his classes.

He didn’t get to dwell on it any longer, as Nino soon dropped down beside him. “Dude!” Nino clapped him on the shoulder, shaking him slightly. “We’re Gryffindors!” He struck a pose, as if he was a superhero. “The brave, the bold, the daring! Like the Sorting Hat’s song.”

“It sang?” Adrien asked dumbly as someone got sorted into Slytherin. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

Nino just looked at him with an are-you-serious face. Adrien just shrugged and went back to staring looking at Marinette as she struck up conversation with the girl sitting next to her.

Nino followed his gaze to Marinette, who was now being obscured by arms waving wildly as the next Ravenclaw to join the table joined Marinette and her new friend. As if she could feel Nino and Adrien staring at her, she turned to them and stuck her thumbs in her ears, waggling her tongue and fingers at them while sticking out her tongue. Nino frowned and put his thumb and index finger to his forehead, making an L while puffing out his cheeks and sticking out his tongue as if blowing a raspberry. He and Marinette soon dissolved into giggles while Adrien smiled bashfully at their antics.

Adrien thought he heard a small hmph from the girl sitting across from Nino. He turned to look at her. She was in their year too, with long scarlet hair and big brown eyes, but her nose was scrunched up into a frown. Nino seemed to have heard it, too, as he dropped his hands and glared at her. “What?”

“Nothing,” the frowny girl said, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re just being immature.”

“Well, too bad for you,” Nino frowned back, crossing his arms over his chest and turning the other way. Marinette caught Adrien’s eye and cocked her head at him questioning my. He just shrugged. He had no idea what Nino and this new girl were doing, but he was hungry and Professor McGonagall was about to start her speech.

Adrien spaced out during her speech, fidgeting increasingly until he realized he was about to rip the hem of his sleeve open. He smoothed it out, embarrassment seeping across his face until he realized that Professor McGonagall had only said a few sentences and the feast had already started.

He didn’t even realize how little his father had him eat until the speech was over and the whole table was covered in more food than he could have eaten in his entire life. He just sat there, staring at all the food, until Nino started to pelt him with chicken wings. “Stop staring and start eating up, pretty boy. The feast isn’t forever, you know.”

“Right,” Adrien managed to shut his drooling mouth and started to add slices of duck to his plate.

“You could’ve said so nicely,” the frowny girl said, except she wasn’t frowning anymore and Adrien realized she, too had glasses that had been hidden by her hair. She offered Adrien a bread basket, smiling politely. “I’m Alya. I won’t throw chicken wings at you and get them everywhere.”

“Adrien,” Adrien replied whilst he took a small loaf from the basket, still warm from the ovens. “Thank you.”

“Welcome,” she all but beamed, passing the basket along. Adrien dug in, his ravenous stomach giving way to everything within reach, and then some. He was pretty sure he had at least third helpings of everything as well as a few goblets of pumpkin juice. That didn’t even include dessert.

At one point, he wasn’t even sure what he was eating, just that it was good. And filling.

(He totally saw Nino put trifle in his pocket.)

The feast concluded with a bang, and then they were following the prefects up to the dormitories. Nino had left him alone while he stuffed his face but as they walked up the staircase, he had slung an arm around Adrien’s shoulders and talked animatedly with their new dormmates: a bulky boy named Kim and a pair of twins, Connor and Travis Stoll.

Adrien had to get used to all of this physical touching. He supposed this was what it was going to be like for a while.

They stopped in front of the Fat Lady (“Mandragora”) and crawled through the portrait hole to reveal a circular room stuffed full of huge armchairs and deep red hangings, a fire crackling brightly in the fireplace, and Adrien felt for the first time like he had nothing to worry about.

He was far, far, far away from his father, with two new friends, a room that wasn’t cold all the time, and food that he could gorge on for days and not worry about how fat he was going to be at the end of it.

As he curled deeper into his four-poster bed, listening to Nino snack on his stolen trifle, Kim’s snores, and the Stolls’ whispers, he thought of bluebell eyes and a tinkling laugh that made him smile as his eyes fluttered shut, too happy to rest on fear and worry.

Plagg settled in the space created by his limbs and chest, purring contentedly, and then Adrien was able to fall into his first unfitful sleep in nearly a decade.

   ——————————

   Adrien woke up at the crack of dawn, which was probably way too early as everyone in his dorm was still asleep. The hangings on the other four beds were in varying states of open and close: the Stolls’ were shut except for the sides facing each other and Kim hadn’t even bothered to undo the strings before crashing into his bed.

 He wondered what his father would think, now that he was a Gryffindor. He wondered if anyone was up. He wondered if there was anyone....well, anywhere this early in the morning. He was a little bit hungry, but he could wait until breakfast.

 Padded feet hit the floor as he quietly shuffled out of bed and down the staircase into the common room.

 The fire was crackling just as brightly as the night before, but now he was awake enough to actually look around at his surroundings. The huge fire place was directly in front of a red sofa, armchairs situated into haphazard circles on the numerous rugs scattered around the room. Small portraits of notable Gryffindors who had passed in the Battle of Hogwarts or during the reign of Voldemort were hung, either by students who had painted them themselves or had taken photos and pasted them on the walls.

 His father never let him read about the Battle of Hogwarts or Harry Potter or anything relevant to the topic. He always wondered why, but never questioned it.

 Questions were bad, his father told him, though not directly. Just stick to what you’re supposed to be.

 But everything that he had learned in eleven years from his father— all of that had broken to pieces within twenty-four hours.

 His father often told him that there was only way to accomplish things and all other ways would fail. He often said that fairy tales were lies, that being a Slytherin was an absolute, and that having friends would only weaken him.

 He shuffled over to a painting of four people, clearly done by a professional. One was tall, with black hair and round glasses; one was not as tall, but with longer, shaggier black hair and an angular face; and the last was taller than the first and had loose brown locks and faint scars on his face and hands. They were all sitting around a dining table in what looked like a cozy home, kind of like the common room. The room wasn’t sharp and angular, but rather had a lot of soft curves and worn-down wood that Adrien liked a lot. All of them seemed to be laughing grandly at some joke or the other.

 “Remus—” the one with the glasses wheezed ,clutching his chest in laughter. “You gotta admit the kid’s got some Sirius in him. Trying to fly?” He became too overcome with laughter to continue talking and instead pounded his fist on the table.

 “Teddy’s got some good genes, is all that I’m hearing,” the long-haired man grinned, leaning back in his chair lazily. He caught sight of Adrien watching them and leaned forward, his gray eyes widening. “Hello, young man, why in the world are you up so early?”

 “Sirius,” the first man chided. “You weren’t any better than him, you dingus.”

 The man he called Sirius, the one who had asked Adrien the question, just rolled his eyes but didn’t retort back. It took Adrien a few moments to realize that they were all staring at him as if waiting for something.

 “Oh,” Adrien startled. “Um, I got used to waking up early. I liked to see the sunrise from my room.”

 The gray-eyed man just narrowed his eyes at him for a second before he sat back in his chair. “Hmph.”

 “I apologize on behalf of him,” the middle one said, the scarred one. A grin spread across his face as he said, pointing to himself, “I’m Remus Lupin, this asshole—” he prodded Sirius — “is Sirius Black, and the man of the hour is James Potter. And you?”

 “A-Adrien Agreste,” he managed.

 “Adrien Agreste? As in Emilie Agreste?” Sirius leaned forward, his foot tapping excitedly on the floor. “Dude, Emilie was one of my favorite cousins. I miss her. She was so nice when she’d come over.”

 “You knew my mother?” Adrien asked curiously, stepping closer to the painting subconsciously. “You guys were cousins?”

 Sirius gave him an odd look. “You don’t know about me? I assume she or Gabriel would’ve told you. Or you’d catch a whiff of my splendid good looks somewhere with Emilie. She did love taking pictures.” Seeing Adrien’s even more confused look, the odd look returned, but this time he shared it with the other two people sitting next to him.

 “My mom died when I was three,” Adrien said with a microscopic shrug of his shoulders. “I don’t even know who you guys are. What’d you guys do to get on the wall for the battle against Voldemort? Did you ever, like, fight him or something?”

 James slammed his hands on the table. “That’s it, I’ve had enough of this shit.” He leaned forwards and stared at Adrien. “You really don’t know anything about the Battle of Hogwarts, or Harry Potter, or any of that?”

 “James!” Remus half-shouted, trying to tug his friend back in his seat. “They’ve only been here for a day, maybe we shouldn’t tell him everything right now. Besides, it’s breakfast time.”

 Remus was right. Adrien could hear students slamming dresser drawers, thuds of feet slamming onto the floors and down the stairs, and the open and shut of doors over the din of calls and laughter wafting their way to fill the common room.

 He turned back to the painting from the dormitory staircases to see three eyes peering at him.

 “You know where to find us if you ever want a story that’ll keep you on your edge for days,” James winked at him as the three of them got up from their chairs. “Moony, Pads, it’s time for some hell-raising. Can’t let Teddy get all the credit.”

   ——————————

   Adrien didn’t have time to dwell on what the three men had told him before Nino had started dragging him down to breakfast. Apparently, after the first dinner at the castle, any House was welcome at the other tables. His father never mentioned that, but then again, Gabriel Agreste kept a lot of things from him.

 So it didn’t really surprise him when Nino made a beeline to the Ravenclaw table and wrapped his arms around Marinette, talking her ear off as he sat across from them on the Gryffindor table with Alya.

 “Good morning,” he smiled politely, reaching out for the bread basket.

 “Good morning to you, too,” she smiled before handing him the “—class schedule, and one for your friend over there.” She nodded at Nino, who was now clambering over the bench into the seat across from Adrien.

 “This is for you, bro,” Nino grinned, holding his fist out to Adrien and gesturing for him to hold out his hand. Once Adrien did so, he turned his fist upside down and allowed something to drop into Adrien’s hand.

 He pulled his hand closer to him, seeing a small, bulbous object in his open palm. He gasped as it unfolded, much like a flower, into a peony, colors swirling slowly like a lazy river on the paper.

 He looked back at Marinette, who was watching him with a hopeful look in her eyes. When she met his gaze, she waved, a smile and a flush of pink spreading across her face. He waved back and smiled too, feeling the same warmth from yesterday spread across his face. Then a third-year tapped her shoulder and she turned to answer them, but all Adrien could think about for the rest of the day was the peony in his pocket and her smile on her face.

[darkpoisonouslove]

Valtor and Griffin parents headcanon. I love your works. The way you write is sublime😍

Oh, wow, thank you so much for the kind words and this sweet request!

Let's set this in an AU in which Valtor ran away from the Ancestral Witches with Griffin and the two are left to live in peace after they helped end the war. Now my personal headcanon is that Darcy is their daughter so I'll go with that but most of these can probably be applied in general as well:

- Valtor is worried when Griffin doesn't feel well and when he uses his magic to check up on her, he finds out she's pregnant. Griffin suspected as much but didn't really want to entertain the possibility before she could be more certain what's happening to her because she didn't want to disappoint them both.

- What is more, Griffin is worried about what kind of parent she'll be. Her mom was a very warm person and even despite that, the way the world treated her brought out the worst in her and she turned more and more to darkness, evil and mayhem until she joined the Ancestral Coven and almost helped destroy the universe. She's scared she'll make a terrible mother and that was a part of the reason why she didn't really want to confirm that she was pregnant.

- Valtor has his own doubts about being a parent. His own upbringing was a total disaster and there was nothing healthy about it. He didn't know what love is before Griffin and he has a lot of demons to battle and a lot of ingrained habits that he needs to shake off. He has to be more open and in touch with his emotions and not push upon his child any unhealthy ideas that were forced on him. He and Griffin have a conversation in which they promise each other that they'll be there for one another and keep each other in check.

- Despite having a ton of doubts about himself, Valtor is very enthusiastic about being a father and helps Griffin with everything he can during the pregnancy and after she gives birth. He's changing diapers and dressing the baby (Griffin and he agreed to use as little magic when it comes to caring about the baby as possible because they want Darcy to feel that they're there for her). He even gets up in the middle of the night instead of Griffin to let her rest when he can get the job done although Griffin is the early bird and he is usually the one who has a hard time waking up in the morning. But he’s happy to be there for both of his girls.

- Darcy has her room decorated with Dragons Lights - little sparks of dragon fire that are enchanted to light up when she’s awake so that she’s never left scared in the dark and the room always looks warm and comforting to her. The Dragon Lights stay even after she’s outgrown her fear of the dark because without them it won’t feel like home.

- Darcy displays strong magical abilities from an early age and Griffin and Valtor make it a point to include magic in their activities to help her control her powers. That also hides its risks though. Griffin and Valtor are forced to put an inhibiting spell on Darcy that keeps her from teleporting so that she doesn’t end up in the middle of a busy street or squashed in a machine. They do manage to teach her responsibility and safety when using magic in time, though, and soon she’s not teleporting away from them but uses her powers to help around the household.

- Shapeshifting is mastered from early in her childhood for it was successfully incorporated in games of tag. They start with an animal of Darcy’s choice and every time someone else becomes it, they all shift into another animal. It helps her get used to the feeling of shifting, learn to stay in control, master many different forms, and improve her speed and duration of the shapeshifting process. It’s also a lot of fun running around in a wolf or bunny form or flying as a raven or an owl.

- Hide-and-seek becomes much more intense and challenging when everyone has the power of illusions. Darcy’s illusions can’t compare to those of her parents at first and they dampen their magic to allow her to participate on an equal level and find them after all. But she soon develops her powers and it is her who needs to hit the brakes on her magic for her parents to be able to catch up. She becomes so good at illusions that it’s a good thing that they taught her to be responsible with her magic and not use it for whatnot or to hurt others and make her parents’ job harder.

- For one of Griffin’s birthdays Darcy makes an illusion that has all the known stars that have existed incorporated in it for her mom to be able to enjoy them all because she knows how much Griffin loves astronomy and the cosmos. She spent months memorizing star maps in order to be able to create the illusion and both Griffin and Valtor are left speechless by the complexity of it.

- Darcy and Valtor train with the Dragon Fire powers which she inherited from him. Griffin is a bit worried that they might hurt each other since Darcy is inexperienced and Valtor’s ego sometimes makes him forget he needs to hold back (he’s hurt her a few times when they used to spar or argue in the past) but Darcy surprises with precise control from early on and Valtor shows amazing restraint (so much so that she can see his muscles tensing with memories of him being hurt by his mothers while he’s trying to never subject his daughter to the same). Darcy becomes super good with using her Dragon Fire powers to the point where Valtor doesn’t have anything to teach her anymore and any further knowledge she needs to acquire herself.

- Darcy knows about her father’s demon form but hasn’t seen it. She wonders if she has one since she shares his DNA but Valtor assures her she doesn’t which might have been more of a disappointment in the edgy phase of her teen years but seeing how closed off he is about it convinces her that it is not something to wish for. She asks him to show it to her, though, because she wants to know all parts of her father and that includes his demon form. After a long discussion with both of her parents, Valtor finally agrees. Darcy is a bit shocked by the difference that is in him but she says she loves him nonetheless because even when he appears to be a demon, he isn’t one in his heart. He will always be the caring and present father that raised her and helped her become who she is. The one thing she does like from the demon form are the big demon wings, though.

- Darcy had a fascination with wings from an early age and would study all insects with wings she could get her hands on. Unfortunately, she was literally getting her hands on them and not all that carefully, too, so that resulted in a lot of torn off wings and dead insects in her hands which always made her cry. It did provide a good opportunity for Griffin to teach her a lot of healing spells that can be applied even to insects if you have enough control of your magic to use it on such small scale. Darcy was determined to not cause more destruction and death to the creatures that fascinated her so she learned to exercise enough control over her magic to be able to fix the smallest of injuries in the tiniest of species. That allowed her to study them without killing them.

- She also loved to study birds (especially in flight) but they were harder to come by and catch for detailed explorations (but at least that kept her from killing any of them). When she grew up a bit and learned to fly and control her magic, she befriended a crow that would always come near her and flap its wings around as if inviting her to join it in flight. She did once and the two flew around the sky like old friends with the crow even showing her some bird maneuvers that Darcy could copy when she shapeshifted into a crow herself. That later became a regular occurrence.

- The wing fascination might have started from Faragonda’s fairy wings on one of her numerous visits. She was pretty much Darcy’s fairy godmother (even if Valtor did not allow for that to become an official term) and Darcy loved to grab at her sparkly wings while she was a baby and Faragonda held her. Luckily for the fairy, her wings were much stronger than those of the insects so Darcy couldn’t rip them off or damage them. They always drew the girl’s attention, though, and she made herself “witchy wings” with her powers of illusion when she was nine or ten. They were dark purple and shimmered like starts on the night sky. Later, when she became older, she switched to flying around with dragon wings sprouting from her back. They were just an illusion, of course, but she was proud to be the bearer of the Dark Dragon Fire and her father’s daughter.

- Darcy loved all the animals and constantly dragged some stray kitten or dog home. Sometimes a squirrel, a hedgehog on occurrence, once even a snake. Neither one of her parents were very happy about it. Especially when one of the cats got three times the size of a regular cat and destroyed half of the furniture. None of them tried to inhibit Darcy’s connection with nature, though. It was a thing to be expected since she had Dragon Fire burning inside her and it was the substance of all life so all life was drawn to her (and Darcy might have helped her father reconnect a bit with nature himself since he was never allowed to explore that part of his powers and who he is). The establishment of some ground rules was necessary, though, to keep any and all incidents with wild animals to a bare minimum.

- Griffin would bake cookies or other sweets quite often when Darcy was little but she only used natural sweeteners to make sure her dabbling in the kitchen wouldn’t have negative effects on Darcy’s health. Cooking soon turned into a family exercise since Darcy was curious to learn how to make her own cookies and Valtor didn’t mind spending more time with his wife and daughter no matter what activity occupied them during that time. Griffin deemed it a great opportunity to teach them both some cooking skills so that they wouldn’t have to starve to death without her.

- Griffin and Valtor used to read and tell Darcy legends about the magical dimension and fill in some gaps with their own personal stories when they were in pursuit of some of the most powerful artifacts. That taught Darcy a great love for words and adventures and she spent quite a lot of time with her nose in a book when she learned to read.

- That happened at an early age and later on she built on that knowledge by studying magical languages that would allow her greater resources for spells. She knew a lot of languages (some of which didn’t even exist anymore) before she even turned fifteen. And all of that of her own volition. Neither Griffin, nor Valtor forced her to do anything.

- When she became a teenager, Darcy inevitably started using some teen slang that Griffin just shook her head at while Valtor was the one to find it rather distasteful and express his dislike of it. Darcy told him he was being old-fashioned which resulted in Valtor starting to use slang as well, much to Darcy and Griffin’s annoyance. They had to beg him to stop and become the old old-fashioned Valtor again.

- Darcy has a very open relationship with both of her parents that includes a lot of communication and trust. She knows she can tell them everything without being judged. Her parents are flawed people as well and know what it is to make mistakes which is something Darcy takes comfort in because she knows they're not perfect and they understand that she isn't either. She knows they will listen to her and try to help her avoid making mistakes she will regret later just as she knows that they will let her make her own decisions and allow her to find herself and be her own person.

I have to go to a lecture so I’ll have to leave it off here. Besides, I wrote down all I can think of right now. Hope this makes you smile. I sure had a lot of fun with these.

[tessacxstello]

hello im (F, 24) an idiot and forgot to post tessa’s (F, 22, fictional) intro!

pls bare in mind most of this was written 5+ years ago n i haven’t written tessa since 2015...... but lets get this show (LOCKWOODRP) on the road (DASHBOARD). 

tw school shooting, tw bipolar disorder

art hoe. always covered in paint. why?? she bad at painting

the mark rothko jackson pollock kind of bad tho wher people are like.... omg.... revolutionary..... its a badly drawn vagina

fuckin loves astrology, but cant take it that seriously bcos one of her bfs was a gemini so there’s some lenience there. but she WILL blame her hormones and mood swings on the positon of mars

embodies pure sunshine. 

one of those really annoying people that can go through the most traumatic shit and still find a positive spin. 

cares so much for others but does not really care for herself n it’s meant she just bottles up all this shit n when someone asks her how her day has gone she just falls on the ground like tht bit in midsommar when florence does that loud wheezy noise and sits down 

has never really had much money at all. learns to make-do with what she has. loves upcycling!! her bookshelf is made from cardboard which she’s reinforced by pappering it over with pages ripped out of thrifted books. her sofa is an old car boot which she’s repainted, put on wheels and stuffed w cushions so that it’s actually bearable to sit on.

her knitted cardigan? its made out of wife material.

knits all the time. will crochet you a christmas scarf. if ur lucky you might get a knitted jumper with a penis in a santa hat

still sleeps with cuddly toys n then wonders why ppl dont think she’s mature enough for a serious relationship

very passionate about Sister Doing It For THemselves!! raised by a single mom who worked her ass off so that tessa could do fun activities after school, have lelli kelly shoes, and go to college (not necessarily in tht order of importance)

tessa was born out of wedlock as the result of an affair between her mom (a journalism intern in her early 20s) and a new york times editor. 

the editor offered to pay tessa’s mom off to have an abortion, but she was like fuck u and told the papers he’d done that and used the money to cover the cost of her internship which they refused to pay her for

and because of the scandal, he ended up going through a pretty messy divorce with his wife, and losing custody of his kids. so as a child  tessa was seen as the cause of a divorce and received mutliple letters from the editors wife (to tessa personally!) and his kids saying how she had ruined everything, but her mom moved them to another town so tessa didn’t have to deal with that crap. 

her mom worked 3 jobs to put her through school, so in return tessa pushes herself incredibly hard to succeed. needs a break and a hug and to get laid to be honest. 

an old soul. likes old films, old music, old people. only recently got an iphone 5s so not really with this century yet

very sweet and soft and kind but also a fucking mess and won’t listen to anyone else’s opinion. she’ll take comfort, but not advice. 

feminist buddhist bisexual vegetarian for human rights and animal welfare. standing on a soapbox shouting about the climate in the quad, shoving flyers into your hands. flyers everwhere. she turns up at your grandmas funeral and shoves one into her mouth. she’s stolen the mic from the vicar to talk about pandas.

says “mother of pearl” and “heavens to betsy”.

had an affair with her married piano teacher and he’s now facing a custody battle and his wife is leaving him and tessa has completely internalised that guilt despite her being the victim in the scenario

aesthetics: paint splattered jeans, loose curls spilling from a scrunchie, thrifted blouses in bright yellow, guzzling coffee in the library at three am when a term paper’s due, shoddily illustrated campaign posters to save endangered species, polaroids plastered to your bedroom walls with scribbled dates on the frames, jumping into a stack of autumn leaves, jumping off piers in the summer months and stripping off your wet clothes on the beach, digging your thumbs into peaches to leave a bruise, smoking with the extractor fan on to hide the smell, bath bombs, letting the girls at lush rub samples all over your skin, cacti with knitted bobble hats, decorative pillows and sun and moon blanket throws, basic bitch fairy lights hanging from every single window, painting the name of the boys you’ve loved inside your wardrobe door.

studies fine art and philosophy, and wants to become either a lecturer or the first woman president. vibe wise, very similar to leslie knope, missy from big mouth, and basically the naive everygirl with a high opinion of themselves trope

gets drunk off like one double vodka lemonade because she’s small and she’s a pretty messy wild drunk. it’s when slutty tessa comes out, and the next day she’ll thoroughly regret every choice made and decide she’s never drinking again and cutting out all men and starting daily sudoko

on the cheerleading team and is a flyer, which she sees as a HUGE responsibility and she works really hard to make sure she’s on it for her team. one of those get up at 7am and go to the gym before school types its sickening

she had a really traumatic time at high school because there was a shooting in her school. she was in the next classroom when it happened, and she lost one of her friends in the shooting. she had to take two months off school, was diagnosed with depression and put on anti-depressants because of it. in her 2nd year of uni she was rediagnosed with bipolar disorder and anxiety, which she’s now on medication for. she can be really good for several months at a time and feel super creative and determined (she actually finds manic periods helpful for her creativity n art, n sadly sometimes doesn’t take her meds in these periods to push herself more which is obvs super bad.....). but when the bad periods come they can also last months n she had to take a semester out of school last year because of her mood, so she should be a senior by now but she’s retaking junior year

she attends weekly stress-management sessions prescribed by her doctor which she finds pointless.

very childish in the sense that she can only see her own point of view and kind of views herself as the “protagonist” and thinks her ideas are super important and life changing and she IS Destined for Greatness! despite being pretty much average af

pinterest board.

STATS

age: 22

height: 5'2"

positive traits: kind-hearted, gregarious, selfless, philosophical, open minded, idealistic, courageous, feisty, charismatic, loyal, adventurous.

negative traits: stubborn, hot-headed, reticent, escapist, self-destructive, easily led, naive, troubled, complicated, stepford smiler, envious, overdramatic, explosive.

distinguishing Marks: heart-shaped birthmark on the right of her chest, splattering of freckles across the cheeks during summer months, full lips, large eyes, porcelain features, long wavy hair, tattoo of a bird and a cage on her ankles and a basic bitch arrow tat on her wrist (srry to anyone with an arrow tat).

skills: jack-of-all-trades, talented pianist, perceptive, knows the correct way to throw a punch, good survival instinct, is able to remain calm in stressful situations, endures, artistic, excels in academic studies, hard-working and self-motivated, expert liar and talented actress.

likes: wolves, vintage thrift store fashion, old leather-bound books, left-wing democratic politics, cigarettes, poetry, John Hughes movies, cold coffee, hot tea, the sound of laughter, staying up til 4am having deep conversations, Tchaikovsky, having deep conversations about life, stationary, DC Comics, horoscopes, winged eyeliner, cats, knee-high socks, house music, abandoned buildings, studio ghibli, the smell of the earth after rain, Wes Anderson films, herbal tea, old people, solitude, esoteric things, the smell of freshly baked bread, Charles Bukowski, the moon.

fears: death, oblivion, global warming, losing those she loves, isolation, clowns, guns, enclosed spaces.

nicknames: Tess, T-Dog, Tessie, Socrates, Princess, Sunshine Girl, Florence Nightingale.

alignment: Neutral Good

MBTI type: INFP

BIOGRAPHY

tw school shooting

Her story begins with Cordelia Costello, a twenty-three year old college drop-out, turned beautician, turned columnist, turned intern at a local publishing company. She was a youthful, beautiful, siren of a women, always surrounded by an aura of enigma and an entourage of men. It was no surprise to the gossips in the office that within six months working at the company, Cordelia had added to her list another title – mistress to Franklin Hozier, the Editor of the New York Times. After two blissful months and three hundred and twenty seven orgasms, Cordelia decided she wanted a baby. Franklin laughed in her face. Feeling isolated and used, Cordelia continued her affair with her boss’ boss for another month, before deciding to take matters into her own hands.

It started with a turkey baster.

Soon the infant cries of a baby girl graced the world, her wrinkled skin puckered and pink as her mother held her in her arms, glancing upon the most beautiful thing in her life. Once Tessa, named after Cordelia’s favourite literary heroine, entered the world, Franklin left her life and things took a turn for the better. Despite living in a rented one-bedroom apartment in Staten Island, on what little money Cordelia had saved, Tessa’s childhood years were filled with nothing but the happiest of memories. Times were tough, but what they lacked in money, the Costello’s made up in love. While Tessa was at school, Cordelia did odd jobs cleaning, child-minding, working in local nurseries, in order to save up enough money to give her daughter the best start in life.

Despite what she had been led to believe by television shows and teen movies, the first few years of High School were some of the best years of her life. Tessa threw herself into a multitude of activities that High School offered her, including the drama club, the orchestra, choir, badminton and the school newspaper. While she certainly wasn’t considered ‘popular’ at school, Tess had a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. In fact, High School was a place where she made some of the greatest memories of her life, but come her final year, it was also a place where she was haunted by some of her worst.

On the January 17th of Tessa’s senior year of high school, a shooting took place in Westville High School. For two hours Tessa locked herself in a supply cupboard, her head between her knees as she tried to stay silent despite the screams of horror from the corridor. Eighteen students were caught in the crossfire, two of which were Tessa’s best friends. Bouquets of flowers, laminated photographs, Teddy Bears in cling-film bags attached to balloons littered the streets as families and friends came to pay tribute to the eighteen students withered before they had a chance to bloom.

It took two months of therapy before Tessa could return to school. Some of the survivors could never return due to the horrors that their eyes had laid witness to. Sometimes Tessa felt like a part of her had died with the friends that were stolen from her too soon, but one thought kept her going through: she had survived, she was alive and breathing, and she could not afford to loose a second of the precious time she had been granted on this earth. Despite the nightmares that continued to haunt her each night, Tessa found in the aftermath of the disaster a new sense of motivation. She began applying for scholarships for colleges without her mother’s knowledge, in the hope that her academic success would be enough to carry her through further education. Thankfully, it was, and after three torturous months of waiting Tess was offered an arts scholarship to her dream school, Lockwood University, where she hoped she could finally start to rebuild her life.

THE PRESENT:

Life at university was like a separate world. Students came and went like moths among the whisperings and the tequila and the stars. In this new world, Tessa was exposed for the first time in her life to alcohol, drugs, and the sexual appetites of other students her age – though she politely declined all three. Instead, Tessa threw herself into the vast array of activities in the hope that by distracting herself she could escape the terrible flashbacks that continued to haunt her. Tessa joined the lacrosse team, despite never having played before, and took up cheerleading discovering a new talent; she joined the musical theatre group, and the film club, and even set up her own acapella singing society. But despite how much she tried to throw herself into student life, her past hung around her like a bad smell, and with the added pressure of the Sinking Ships zine, Tess began to feel the weight of her secret tying her down like a pair of shackles around her wrists.

PERSONALITY:

If someone was to describe Tessa in a single word, it would most likely be ‘bubbly’, ‘open-minded’ or ‘sweet’. But they would be wrong – Tessa is not bubbly, or sweet, or stubborn, or hotheaded, or fiesty, or infectious, or any of the things the world see her as, but merely a numb and lonely echo of the gregarious, halcyon girl she once was. Tessa Costello was one of life’s enigmas. No one knew who she was, for to each person she met she wore a different mask – she dripped confidence, or was painfully shy; she was an exhibitionist, or a brooding wallflower; she took things too seriously, or not seriously at all. She was an actress and the world was her stage, each person she met a different member of the audience in the performance of her life. In truth, Tessa no longer even recognised herself. Insecure, and self-destructive, she tried to hang on to the extroverted, mischievous pieces of herself that everyone had once loved, but day by day it got harder to know what lay in the vacant holes blown through her mind. While she was stubborn and hot-headed, Tessa always saw the best in people, which meant that she was easily led astray. While she had grown up learning to be street smart and astute, she was idealistic and allowed silly fantasies to cloud her mind. By nature, she was passionate, which lead her to misimagine and romanticise those she met. Despite the hell she had witnessed, and the anxiety that feasted upon her, she believed that people were innately good and that to have courage and be kind could cure anyone of their sadness – yet she was unable to cure herself.

TWITTER:

@500daysoftessa: i blame disney films and musicals for my high expectations of men

@500daysoftessa: i am in love with the boy who works at starbucks. today i asked for a double latte and he gave me a tripple, which i think is proof that my love is requited. our children will be smart and talented and beautiful.

@500daysoftessa: little known historical fact: pharaohs were burried with their hands crossed over their chests because it was a popular belief there would be countless water slides in the after life.

[homenum-revelio-hq]

Welcome (again) to the Order of the Phoenix, Gabe!

You have been accepted for the role of non-biography character CORA CHITTOCK with the faceclaim of Hunter Schafer! We were thrilled to see a veela character in a non-fanon way and can’t wait to see what you bring to the veela lore! We are so excited to see what you do with Cora! 

Please take a look at the new member checklist and send in your account within 24 hours! Thank you for joining the fight against Voldemort!

OUT OF CHARACTER:

NAME: Gabe

AGE: Still 22!

TIMEZONE: GMT-3

ACTIVITY LEVEL: Pretty solid, eh? I always go missing in the weekends because it’s Official Socializing Time, but then I make up for it during the week, mostly

ANYTHING ELSE: Nope!

CHARACTER DETAILS:

NAME: Cora Chittock

BLOOD STATUS: Half-Blood/Half-Breed (Veela)

AGE: 18

GENDER, PRONOUNS, and SEXUALITY: Trans girl, she/her/hers, lesbian. She can’t imagine her transition is anyone’s business, so I wouldn’t think that is something she’ll talk about at all these days, but her sexuality is definitely public knowledge, as she makes it her mission to make it obvious whenever the opportunity for it presents itself. She’s heard it too many times before that her interest in women is simply another cheap tactic to rebel against veela expectations, and she likes to assure everyone that nope, the 12-year-old knew what she was talking about, and she’s still very much gay.

HOUSE ALUMNI: Slytherin

ANY CHANGES: I wrote this myself, so nope!

CHARACTER BACKGROUND:

PERSONALITY:

Cora is an avocado – soft on the outside, hard on the inside. Some may argue – and she would argue with those some – that she doesn’t even have a soft exterior at all. Nothing is what it seems with her. There was no hesitance from the Sorting Hat when it sent her straight into Slytherin, its booming voice making the announcement as soon as it touched the first strand of hair on her head, much to her sister’s dismay.

        Being a veela wasn’t something she was conscious of until somewhere around third year. Or, at least, it wasn’t something that bothered her before that. It wasn’t hard to fit in right from the first day at Hogwarts, life was easy to navigate as an eleven-year-old that almost everyone feels inclined to like; Cora used to love the attention. She had many friends, teachers liked her, there was nothing to complain about! That’s what most people think about veela, anyway, and it might be true for a while, but only until you’re no longer a child. People’s intentions change. Her classmates’ friendly smiles and high-fives became inappropriate remarks and catcalls down the hallway. She went from Good Friend to Object of Desire in what felt like the blink of an eye and she despised it.

And no one cared, she quickly learned, about the veela complaining about getting too much attention, being too liked. It’s like complaining you have too much food to eat, or a bed too comfortable to sleep in! At least it’s how everyone saw it. Even her family refused to acknowledge the issue. Get used to it, they’d say. Welcome to the real world!

Cora isn’t one to sit idly by while someone has to deal with any sort of abuse – not herself, not anyone else. She learned quickly that no one else seemed to care about her fight, but she wasn’t gonna fight any less because of it. She just had to become her own fortress.

Her charisma and charm are still there, but now, every time she smiles, she’s baring her teeth. Every flip of hair is weaponized, every bat of eyelashes is a threat. She learned how to defend herself before anyone had a chance to do something more than hide behind catcalls and love letters. There are several expectations when it comes to veela, and she’s willing to break every single one of them, if she can. She’s still friendly and flirty when she wants to be, but she’s loud. Self-assertive to the point of brashiness, energetic and sarcastic, with the mouth of a sailor and a tongue sharp enough to kill. Every bit of her is a quiet armor, the pieces carefully collected and glued together over the years, though she still sees everything with unbeatable humor. Her skin is as soft as her edges are sharp and she’ll always throw the first punch. She refuses to be the fragile little fairy-thing made to cater to the fetishizing ideal of acceptable half-breed, and she won’t apologize for it.

She still keeps her fair deal of friends around, even though nowadays she prefers those who don’t seem to react to her much. Her defenses are up so high that it’s become a problem – maybe she has thrown a couple fireballs at one or two innocent people who she thought were following her, yes, can you blame the girl? –, but she’s pleasant company when she’s not climbing up on any tables and delivering speeches about half-breed rights that no one wants to hear.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FAMILY:

The Chittock sisters never really met their mother. It’s a complicated story, really – at least that’s what Cora heard all her life. Their father, an eccentric wizard devastated by the loss of his beloved veela companion, never told his daughters what really happened. When they were little, he would tell them these crazy fantastic stories of how their mother was and why she had to leave, but that only lasted a couple of years, until the girls grew up and realized these were products of his mind. And terribly inconsistent stories, at that.

He’s not crazy, Cora would say, but he’s, perhaps, not the most sane man she’s ever laid her eyes upon, sure. He’s a conspiracist and a bit of a nutcase, but he has a heart bigger than his body, and that’s how he raised his daughters to be. He loves them more than anything, and they know it.

Cora has a good relationship with her family, through and through. She loves her sister, even if they pick fights with each other sometimes, and she loves her dad even if he insists on cooking and burning the dinner every single night. They’re not too supportive of her feisty ways, and they would surely lose all the hairs on their head if they knew about her finding her way into the Order, but she’s not planning on telling.

Despite the absent mother and the lack of explanation that comes with it, the girl has never felt like anything was missing from her family. In fact, before she was even a teenager she’d already stopped asking questions about her mom’s fate, knowing it would only sadden her father and get her some nonsense response in return. Her family’s not a big one, but it’s perfect, as far as she knows. They’re as good of a support system as any, she thinks.

OCCUPATION:

Cora works at Eeylops Owl Emporium, at Diagon Alley. It wouldn’t be hard to get any sort of part-time job with the Veela charm turned all the way up, and while Glenda chose a much more artistic path with her own show, Cora decided she didn’t want all of that attention. No, instead, as soon as she was out of school, she marched right up to her favorite shop in Diagon Alley, and sweet talked until they gave her a position in there. It’s her dream job, for the moment, even if it pays terribly. Her family is quite wealthy and she doesn’t plan on moving out immediately, so it’s not like she needs piles of money. Here, she gets to hang out with the pretty little birds for most of her day, and it’s incredibly soothing. She thinks it might be the Veela bird-like tendencies that make her feel so comforted to be surrounded by the little winged animals, but she won’t question it. The owls keep her calm, and they seem happy to have her around, and she gets to help little eleven-year-olds to pick new friends. It’s a pretty fun job.

ROLE WITHIN THE ORDER/THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ORDER:

Cora still feels a little out of place in the order, but only because she’s new and hasn’t quite figured out who she can trust yet. She remembers some of these faces from school, but back then she’d been so busy perfecting her skills and learning defenses and dodging creeps that she would rather forget that time entirely, start fresh. The tiny self-conscious part of her worries she might be too brash for the crowd her age and too young for the older people, and that she’ll float somewhere in between, but she’s willing to make her presence known either way. She believes in their fight. She also, perhaps selfishly, believes she can have more of a voice if she has a group like this to back her up, and maybe she can convince them to join some rallies for half-breed and veela rights, while she’s at it. She certainly has been trying to make that happen for a while now. Cora sees the war for how heavy it is, and she knows how easily the tides could change against her, as a half-breed. As much as she vowed to fight her own battles, now she seeks protection, too. She knows no one is gonna survive on their own and if she can do something to help this end quicker, then it’s her duty to do so.

SURVIVAL:

Cora still lives with her family, and doesn’t plan on changing that anytime soon. Her father may be a nutcase, but their little hut in the middle of nowhere might also be the safest place she knows. She doesn’t know what it is about it that makes it feel so secure, but it does, at least for them (he told her once that her mother had enchanted it before she left, but he also said a number of ridiculous things, so she doesn’t believe it). She’s easily overlooked when it comes to this war. She’s a half-breed, but an acceptable one, one that society may praise from time to time, when it fits them. It’s just her and Glenda’s luck. Most people don’t seem to care about what the half-Veela are up to, and the rest who do, only care because they feel enchanted by them, so it’s mostly a win-win when it comes to hiding.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Cora doesn’t do relationships all that much. She’s never had a romantic relationship with anyone, nothing that ever went beyond some meaningless fooling around – even though there was and still is a lot of that. She likes the affection, she craves a human connection like that, but she doesn’t feel like she can have it until she learns to reel in all of her Veela charm. She’s still too young, too insecure. Even if she’s learned to keep most of her unwanted charm in, nowadays, she knows some people can still be affected. And how can she trust their affection, then? How can she know if the pretty girl who wants to date her won’t lose all of her interest suddenly, the day Cora learns to control her abilities better? She can’t. The line is blurry between someone loving you for the energy you put out, loving how you make them feel, or really loving you for who you are. She’s not willing to take any risks.

For that reason, she’s been known to still deliberately use her charisma here and there to get what she wants, but she tries to keep close to people who aren’t affected by her blood status at all. At least, those, she knows she can trust. Some specifics:

REGULUS BLACK: It’s not like they’re childhood friends or anything, but Cora might risk saying they were the closest friend she had in Hogwarts. It was a confusing, chaotic time back then, and when people started reacting differently to her, she found comfort in Regulus’ blatant indifference. She’s not fully convinced they even like her at all, as a friend or general company, but she still likes to hang out with them when she can.

DORCAS MEADOWES: They met because of Cora’s brief panic in fifth year, when a poor, sweet boy asked to be her date on a trip to Hogsmeade and she was too tired to be mean or blunt, as she usually was. Dorcas happened to be walking by, and Cora took the opportunity to grab her hand and yank her over before declaring she couldn’t accept the invitation, as she’d be going with this Hufflepuff, instead. She paid Dorcas back for any inconvenience by buying her some Pepper Imp on the trip, and she still occasionally helps distract her from her job nowadays, by visiting Flourish and Blotts and bringing candy.

OOC EXPLORATION:

SHIPS/ANTI-SHIPS: Cora/women is what I ship and Cora/dudes is the anti-ship, that’s pretty much it. Let my lesbian daughter thrive.

WHAT PRIVILEGES AND BIASES DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE?

Cora’s fatal flaw when it comes to biases is probably the fact that she wants to be an advocate for half-breed rights, but the truth is that she has no idea what that even means. She might wave that flag around and call people out, and she may get mad if anyone trashtalks any type of half-breed around her, but has she ever stopped to listen to another half-breed? Absolutely not.

Her concerns are very personal and Veela-focused, she doesn’t know what the other species are going through in the current society, and certainly not in this war, either. She wants to help everyone, genuinely, but she’s too caught up in the stuff Veela have to go through. They’re a particular type of half-breed, the model minority type, they are the ones who get invited to parties and get to escape from the general population’s scrutiny. On the other hand, they’re also victims to a lot of abuse and prejudice, and that’s the battle she’s (wrongly) focusing on. She says her fight is for all of the half-breeds because she knows her voice will have more of a reach that way, and she genuinely thinks it’s the right thing to do, to try and help others.

That being said, she is still a pretty sheltered half-Veela girl who lives a good, wealthy life, she’s never even seen many of the half-breeds she claims to be trying to help. She’d still be wary of a half-giant, and twist her nose at a half-goblin’s appearance.

Almost the same goes for her view of muggleborns, too. Circumstantially, the majority of her friends – and fellow housemates, back in her Hogwarts years – are purebloods or half-bloods, which means she hasn’t really ever heard from the muggleborns what they go through, and what they want. She’s angry, and loud, and she wants to be an activist for everyone, but she isn’t great at studying her causes.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO?

Absolutely NOTHING, I’ve heard this place is horrible!!! Yuck!!!! Delete my number!!!!! No but on a serious note, I’m dying to explore all of the Veela world and create a sensible, more inclusive lore for it (suck it, JKR). And this character is one that I’ve had in mind for months now, in sort of an abstract form, living somewhere in my brain in the room of Characters That Already Have a Voice But No Background Or Story. So I’m looking forward to finally flesh it out and write her!

PLOT DROP IDEAS:

I’m terrible at these BUT I’d be down for the Order wanting to use her Veela charm for something, like use her as bait or a distraction, because she would probably hate the idea of doing that and i’d love to watch her get pissy.

Also any opportunity to get her to use the fire hands, obviously, that’d be amazing.

ANYTHING ELSE?

A Headcanon:

Not really into sports at all but tried to get into the Slytherin Quidditch team out of sheer spite because everyone kept saying Veela were only good for mascots, not for playing. She almost made it in as a Beater, which she’ll deem good enough to prove people wrong as long as she doesn’t have to ever do that again. Yes, she’s still bitter about it.

EXTRA FOR NON-BIO CHARACTERS:

PAST:

Cora Chittock grew up to be pretty alright, all things considered. Despite her absent mother, her father and sister were all the family she needed, and she lived a sheltered life until she entered Hogwarts. There was where she discovered what being half-Veela really meant – and how she would have to try her best to repress that part of herself, if she wanted to stay safe. As a good Slytherin, of course, it was bite or get bitten. The charm and charisma that she flaunted as a child quickly turned into unwanted attention from her peers the second that hormones came into play. Everyone thought she was spoiled to complain, a rebel without a cause, but they didn’t know what it was like, to receive all these looks from people she had no interest in, people she didn’t like. She had all the attention she could possibly want, but loneliness still stung. Learning to be part Veela was learning to handle the harassment that came with it, and that was a hard lesson to learn.

PRESENT:

School had been hell for Cora, but now she’s finally found her footing. She worked hard to perfect her abilities to the point where her Veela charm is mostly controlled nowadays, and it makes her feel more confident than ever; she knows when she can, and should, display it around freely. That doesn’t mean all the past years haven’t left a bitter taste in her mouth. Now that she graduated Hogwarts, she wants to make sure people understand and listen to her side of things, too. Her people are still harassed every day, she’s not letting anyone forget that. These days, she can easily be found trying to organize marches and protests for half-breed rights, even if most of them fall through. She snuck her way into the Order as soon as she heard rumours of a resistance group existing at all, and she’s ready to give everything to fight this war. She believes in the group, she trusts her peers and she’s got her combat boots laced up and ready. Finally, she’s making the difference she wants to make in the world, right?

FC CHOICES: Hunter Schafer (truly my one and only, love of my life, but also to add other good names to the list because other rps need more representation anyway: ), Loiza Lamers, Hari Nef

[natsubeatsrock]

The Rewrite of Fairy Tail: Part 15 (Wendy)

What am I going to do with Wendy? 

tfw you were going to crossover event yourself and review captain marvel the day after this came out but you don’t get the review ready in time and you don’t get the post for the blog you want to do this for typed up in time and you also realize you need to add stuff and this intro is too long 

I'm in a tough spot with Wendy. I can't say that Wendy is a particularly bad character. She may be one of Mashima's best-written female characters this side of Rave Master. But I have some issues with how that writing is handled, keeping me from saying she's outright the best of either the Dragon Slayers of the Strongest Team. In fact, she might be the toughest of the five to rewrite.

In my analogy of the Strongest Team as a team of five protagonists, I would describe Wendy as a character similar to one I've mentioned before: Princess Yona from Yona of the Dawn. As I've mentioned earlier, Yona's journey is coming from a life of comfort and protection and growing into a strong and capable fighter and leader. The series involves seeing her grow in these capacities while also keeping core personality in the process. Also, something, something reverse harem series. 

Wendy introduces herself as mostly able to use support magic. Of course, she knows magic spells that can be used to attack people. However, she knows she is at her most useful as a support mage, not an attack mage. After learning her life up to that point was largely a lie, she joins Fairy Tail and starts heading towards the path of becoming a competent combat wizard.

If you think about it, we don't see a strong showing of Wendy's fighting ability until the Grand Magic Games. She doesn't take out one of the Oracion Seis or Seven Kin of Purgatory. She plays more of a support role in the anime arcs. Even in the Grand Magic Games, she ties in a fight with Chelia and her fight with Cosmos had to be padded out in the anime. Even then, it's not that great and is easily one of the least memorable fights in a tournament arc, of all times. Her capture of Aquarius in the Eclipse arc is more about making friends than fighting with her. And, in Sun Village, she fought the Treasure Hunters with Lucy and Flare.  

To be clear, this is not a knock on her. I don't think that this doesn't make sense for Wendy. Not to mention, I think that her fight between Chelia is one of the best fights in the series and might be one of her most important moments as a character. 

However, it's hard to compare that fight with her fight in Tartarus. When she actually does fight Ezel, it's almost a spectacle to see. In the anime, before destroying Face, there's an unnecessarily long flashback of Wendy and Carla's time together. Thinking back through it, though, it's crazy that the same Wendy who wasn't confident in her fighting ability in Nirvana beat one of the Nine Demon Gates on her own. While she never exactly gets as great a spotlight, she more than holds her own in other fights. 

There are two things that are important to mention in regards to how this plays out. 

First is that she never actually gets worse at her main ability of healing/support magic. It never becomes something she does worse than regular combat magic. As much as the combat stuff becomes better, it's not too much of a stretch to say that her best role is as a support mage. After all, Irene takes over her body because of both her dragon slaying magic and enchanting abilities. Looking back, it makes sense that her secret arts were both the combat skill Sky Drill and the support skill Milky Way. And in the anime, she combines both in a fight against Erigor. 

The second, a fact that I've come to recognize as Fairy Tail has ended, is that Wendy is a fast learner. Not just in being able to work out those arts in a matter of days of training, as one could argue that's aided with the use of Gale-Force Reading Glasses. She picks up the Sky Dragon's Wing Attack just from watching Natsu use his version of the move.  So as annoying as it was to see Dragon Slaying Enchantment, it's not terribly improbable of her to after just hearing about it. (I didn't expect this to come back when I wrote the first draft of this.) 

Why does this make her a hard character for me to rewrite? 

One of the big issues I have with how this arc plays out for Wendy is one I've spend much time talking about before - lack of training. The fact that Fairy Tail doesn't focus on training probably hurts Wendy the most. The progression from Edolas to Tartarus makes less sense with little training in between fights. There's no sense of Wendy's making the change in perspective of combat magic. Obviously, with some of the changes to the series, this will help.

But the other bigger issue involves the way Wendy herself is written. I said that Wendy's fight with Exel marks a sign of growth for her. As it stands, it's probably the only sign of growth she has in the entire series. It's easy to look at Wendy only being about 14 now in the sequel and think about how little Wendy has grown up during Fairy Tail. I mean that's still around the time puberty happens so something, something Reedus' drawing, blah blah blah body issues. 

But it's hard to say that she starts to grow up in many other respects. Of course, I've talked a bit about her magic ability growing. However, she doesn't become less prone to cry. She doesn't become less apologetic over things she can't possibly control. Even her cutting her hair after the Exel fight gets changed back at the epilogue at the arc. 

I can understand this being excused as she still is a kid during the series and she has time to grow as a person. But, in rewriting this series, I can't carry the same type of mindset. With a shorter Fairy Sphere time, Wendy will actually have to grow up. She'll be at least 6 years older than she was at any point after the x791 arc in the original series. 

This presents writing Wendy with a more unique issue than most other characters. For the most part, I can keep the characters in a similar state from the beginning of that time skip to the end. There are some issues to worry about, like justifying Juvia's prolonged unrequited feelings for Gray, but I have some ways to get around that. Wendy at the end of the first time skip doesn't have to be a drastically different character from how she is. However, she has to be written in a way that recognizes that, once Natsu returns, she's a young adult. 

What should kick off that change? 

As is the case for some other characters, one big catalyst for change ought to be the end of Tenrou. Of course, that's the biggest and most important moment before the skip starts. However, seeing Acnologia and recognizing the gap in power between them isn't a bad motivator, assuming she sees it as another way to support her friends. With Natsu going off later to find Igneel, there's also a recognition that she can't rely on him or other mages to fight battles she thinks she can't fight all the time. She might even want to go with him, but he doesn't want her to go with him because he's concerned for her safety.  

You can probably tell what the end result should look like. We should get a Wendy more similar to what we got before chapter 416 with the abilities and skills she gains after the second time skip. She can't and shouldn't stop all her tears, but she has a better grip on her emotions than before and isn't afraid to get into a fight. She's still as kind-hearted and optimistic as she is in canon. The difference is that she's no longer just a girl. (I hate myself over this.)

Now that we’ve talked about the main characters in the Strongest Team, I’m going to start talking about some of the other characters in the series. Who am I going to start with?

Who else do you expect me to start with?

Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 

[duckapus]

So a longish time ago I posted a series of drawings on Deviantart depicting the main Fairly Oddparents kids as superheros post-series. These are those drawings, along with some explanations for each.

Guardian(note: needs a better name): Every three generations, a child of the Tang family line is chosen as a mystical guardian of light. Each guardian is approached by a spirit animal on the fourth day of the fourth month after their twelfth birthday, who will grant them their spirit vessel (a magical body designed specifically for fighting evil spirits) and act as a guide and partner through their many battles. Beatrix “Trixie” Tang was destined to be the latest iteration of the guardian. This is Veronica Star, who is very much regretting putting on her wig today. At least her new mentor Derek has the decency to look sheepish about the mix-up.

For those wondering, I only noticed how similar Veronica’s magical girl form is to Galacta Knight after drawing her.

Deep Toot: After Cleft became Dimmsdale’s first full-time superhero, Tootie was inspired to redesign and re-purpose her Deep Toot persona, taking inspiration from The Question in particular. As Deep Toot she is incredibly subdued and grounded in reality, acting as a foil to Cleft’s quick wit and comic book-style methods.

Ringo: Since Veronica ended up with the powers Trixie was supposed to have, I decided to have the April Fool take her under his wing. Her powers are a kid friendly version of the ones from The Mask, and she’s rarely seen without her smiley-face mallet.

Professor Fist: Basically, a bunch of robots were rampaging across the city and AJ strapped on part of a Mech Suit he was building so he could deal with them. No-one in Dimmsdale realized it was him because it’s Dimmsdale, the media gave him a stupid name that stuck, and he decided to keep going with the whole hero thing. He doesn’t really care about his secret identity, since he doesn’t have one outside of Dimmsdale.

Matter Muncher Lad: “KND Research File Project Codename: B.R.A.C.E.R. (Biological Restructuring Advances Combat Effectiveness Radically) Project Purpose: Replicate effect of "Supersoldier Syrum" compound on Captain Steven Rogers during World War 2 for use on Kids Next Door Operatives. Project Status: Success, exceeds expectations, currently unrepeatable due to time travel. Notes: Project Bracer originated in an alternate timeline where a person known only as Marianne took over the world during World War 1 via a combination of Fairy Magic and information provided by a magic-based clone of herself from the modern day. The Nazi splinter group Hydra still managed to form under these conditions, and began Project Bracer in an attempt to dethrone Marianne and take her place. This was noticed by both Marianne's followers and the Resistance Next Door, our counterparts in that timeline. Both sides tore Hydra apart and seized what resources they could. This is when Project Bracer as we know it truly began. Closer to modern day, two boys with knowledge of the original timeline appeared; Chester McBadbat and Albert "AJ" Johnson Jr.(Codename Professor Fist) The duo quickly encountered and joined the RND, regaining their memories of aiding their friend Timmy Turner on his adventures in the process. Now armed with the knowledge of how Marianne's rule came to be, Chester and AJ were sent along with a strike team to take Marianne's primary fortress and utilize the same Time Machine her clone used. The strike team consisted of Sector V itself, Phineas Flynn (Codename The Beak) and Bubbles Utonium (Codename Agent Bullet, and the last surviving Utonium in that timeline). Chester's lack of combat experience and unique equipment compared to the rest of the strike team was remedied by becoming the first successful subject of Project Bracer. In addition to the overall enhancement intended, Chester gained a near-bottomless stomach, teeth and jaws that could chew through any material at incredible speeds, and an unusual effect on his braces, permanently fusing them to his teeth and turning them into biomechanical excavation equipment, augmenting his already unprecedented chewing ability. He took the Codename Matter Muncher Lad after discovering these new abilities as a reference to one of his previous adventures. The plan was to free Cosmo and Wanda, Marianne's Fairy Godparents -Particularly Cosmo, as he was the Fortress's power source- and have them lead the way to the Time Machine. The plan worked, albeit with a few complications, and the team even got two new members in the form of invader Zim and GIR, who had been captured soon after landing on Earth two years earlier and researched by Marianne's scientists. The group managed to get to World War 1, where things get fuzzy. What is known is that Bullet died at some point (despite being a Powerpuff Girl in a time where most weapons shouldn't have been able to bruise her), Chester managed to become a war hero in the eyes of that time period's Kids Next Door, Marianne gained the same powers as Chester as a result of a wish, and both Chester and Marianne were lost at sea, only to be frozen until, in Chester's case, his team found him again in the modern day. Chester has agreed to let us study his abilities and DNA in hopes of restoring Project Bracer, though he insists on his work as Matter Muncher Lad be strictly as an independent vigilante. Still, he has been, and likely will continue to be, a great ally in the fight against adult tyranny. This is Number 17, signing off. Kids Next Door Rules.”

Cleft and Catgirl: This one’s pretty simple. Timmy decided to become a full-time superhero after realizing his battles with the enemies he’s made over the years, Chloe wanted to help, they redesigned the costumes they had on hand and started fighting the good fight.

The Masked Magician: So, Elmer is one of my favorite characters. Because of this, I've made him the most potentially powerful of the superheroes. His powers are a book-themed actalike of Doctor Strange, his hero identity is my second favorite of Timmy's transformations, and he has direct access to Maginary World/ the mindscape/ the dream realm/ whatever you happen to call the collective subconscious of every being in a particular universe. And his partner is NiGHTS, one of the best underused video game characters of all time. I'm not sure how this happened, but I'm going to assume it involves some greater destiny-type stuff. He doesn’t have his Boil because Bob gained a body of his own, which I’ll explain some other time.

Polterpunk: Due to an incident where he got caught in the middle of a big fight, Sanjay ended up becoming roughly twelve percent ghost. As a result, he can turn intangible, almost invisible, create energy weapons out of ectoplasm, and has glowing purple eyes. unfortunately, he can't fly, there's no strength boost, and he has no transformation. He also can't get his eyes back to normal and shows up on ghost tracking equipment. Currently he's being trained by Dani Phantom and Cleft, since his condition was partially their fault.

[occasionalfics]

The One To Stay, 3 (Thor X Reader)

masterlist | tost masterlist | part 1 | part 2

Summary: Time to get to work to build your defense. Your personal defense, that is. But when something doesn’t go according to plan, a wrench is thrown into the cogs.

A/N: Thoughts? I actually don’t have a lot of notes this time XD

Tags: @thewayilookatbacon @mysweetcookie99 @httpmcrvel (let me know if you want to be added to the list!)

Words: 4,811

Loki appeared to adore the idea of hidden chambers, as you thought he might. “There aren’t any connecting tunnels, and some of the rooms are still quite empty-“ you started.

“I’m sure I’ll find uses for them,” he interjected, examining the smooth walls of his room with deft precision. He didn’t speak for some time, just knocked on the flat surfaces of the room to find the hollow spaces.

“Showers are at both ends of the suite,” you told him, as if he were still listening. “Alert me if you need anything, please.”

He ignored you, so you took your leave.

Everyone was settling in, nicely, you hoped. Hulk - or Bruce, rather - didn’t appear to like the situation too much, but none of them did. You didn’t blame them. You hated these circumstances, but you did what you had to put your plan into motion. It was time your father step down or be taken down, but you needed allies and troops to see the plan through.

It would take a while to earn the Asgardians’ trust. At least Thor had almost smiled at you when you’d shown him his room. Loki liked the palace enough, and from what you’d heard, he was the least trustworthy to begin. Perhaps he’d do whatever the group at large did, though you doubted that. You had to keep an eye on him if he was notorious for having his own agenda.

The Valkyrie, Brunhilde, liked you least. You considered revisiting her room, to try to apologize for everything, but decided against it. She didn’t want to see you, and you wanted to show her that you respected what boundaries you could afford her. You needed to give her time to process that this situation would not last forever. You had to give her reason to believe that you would, indeed, restore her freedom and Thor’s kingdom to his hands when the time came.

You had to show them all that you were not a Trickster God. You were the Goddess of Mercy. Despite your aggression on their ship, you were also kind and caring. It was completely possible to be cunning and ruthless in battle, but soft and compassionate in personal matters. The two could coincide; some stories you’d heard of Thor confirmed that much.

You went to the common area, plopped on the couch, and opened the book you’d placed on the table the last time you’d been in the room. It was a fairytale collection, Midgardian in origin. One of your siblings had put it in the library long before you’d come around, but you spent much of your childhood reading through it, teaching yourself how to recognize the Midgardian letters. The particular story you were reading was about a girl the size of a thumb that was kidnapped by forest creatures - a toad, a bug, and a mole. She faced the changing of the seasons with courage and friendship, until she found the Vale of the Fairies. You were just getting to the part that you loved the most - when the Fairy Prince gave her a set of dragonfly wings and asked her to marry him, making her the Queen of the Fairies - when someone else came into the common area.

“A fan of Hans Christian Andersen?” Bruce asked.

You glanced up at him, nodding from behind your pinky, which rested just above your lips. Your other fingers rested against the side of your face, and your elbow was against the arm of the couch on which you’d sat. “His stories are so full of longing and hope,” you said.

“He was...kind of a sad guy, from what I’ve read,” Bruce said. “Liked to pine a lot, but all of his crushes were never requited.”

You frowned just a bit and said, “How sad.”

Bruce shrugged. “Could be worse,” he said, looking around the room instead of going on. You knew what he was getting at, though.

You shut the book, placed it on the table once more, then shifted to bring your legs up onto the couch, bending and tucking them beside you despite the grime on the bottom of your boots. “I hope you’re at least comfortable in your bedroom.”

“It’s kinda small,” he said. “The Big Guy...he’s used to more space.”

“Right,” you said, not having even thought of “the Big Guy” until then. “I can see about remodeling the room with higher ceilings and reinforced walls, if you’d like.” You didn’t know how long that would take, or where Bruce and the Big Buy would go in the interim, but you’d worry about that later.

Bruce stared at you for a moment, like they all had at some point between your takeover and dinner. His head was cocked to one side, just slightly enough to match his curious expression. “I don’t get you,” he said. “One minute, you’re taking down the whole team with a look and the next, you’re giving us all elaborate prison cells and offering to remodel them to our tastes. Who does that?”

You shrugged. “Someone that’s not proud of her methods, but knows there are reasons for those methods, I suppose,” you said, pushing some hair away from your face as you leaned forward a bit.

“What I still don’t get is why you want to overthrow your dad,” he said.

You hushed him, looked over your shoulders, and only returned to Bruce once you were sure there were no guards around. When you were satisfied enough to do so, you said, “My father has spies everywhere.”

“So you want to kill him?” he asked, coming over to the couch. He sat beside you, his brows furrowed in confusion. “That doesn’t make any sense!”

“That’s not why I want him off the throne,” you said, adjusting so you wouldn’t have to speak very loudly.

“Then why?” he asked.

If this was how you were going to get Bruce and the Big Guy to trust you, then so be it. “My father’s been on the throne too long,” you said. “He was a generous, giving leader once. He took care of his people. Even during my lifetime, he’s done more for the people than they will ever know. And they’re grateful to him in turn.”

“Being old isn’t a reason to kick someone off a throne, if they’re an effective leader,” he said, whispering now.

You nodded. “You’re right, Bruce,” you said. “But he is no longer an effective leader. My father had many lovers, many wives, and he loved each one more than the last. He outlived them all. When my mother died, he grieved for months. I’m not entirely convinced he’s moved past her death even still, and I was young when she passed. But ever since he returned to his duties, he’s been greedy, selfish, and unkind. I’ve had to be his voice of reason and mercy too many times since my mother’s passing, and he barely listens to me.”

“You told Thor his people could thrive here,” he said.

Again, you nodded. “And they can, just not under my father’s rule. My people and the people of Asgard deserve a leader, not a ruler. They deserve someone they know well, someone that still cares about their well being. Someone that can fight for them, in both the physical and political senses.”

He thought for a second, then said, “A warrior Princess-slash-Goddess of War and Mercy.”

“Perhaps,” you said. “Or a warrior King-slash-God of Thunder, should he prove to be a better leader.”

“That’s not what you said at dinner,” Bruce said, squinting once more at you.

“It’s not,” you said. “I do want the throne, because I think I’d make a good leader of the people. But I won’t take it unless I earn it, and I expect anyone else that contends the throne to feel the same.”

“You would just hand over your birthright to a foreigner?” he asked. “This plan doesn’t make any more sense than it did when I asked a stupid question.” That last part appeared to be more to himself than a response to you.

“No, but I would concede if I wasn’t the best option,” you said. “Are you an avid reader, Bruce?”

He paused at your seemingly off-topic question, the nodded.

“I thought so,” you said. “So am I. I’ve read all kinds of things. Wonderful, artistic poetry; gorgeous narratives of worlds I’ll never see but in my imagination; horrifying tales of war and woe and destruction. Those tend to be my favorite. I learn the most from them. For example,” you said, leaning closer to him to speak at an even lower volume. “The villains of many war stories are the pompous, self-righteous people that only fancy themselves heroes. They don’t earn their thrones through valor and service, but through selfish acts of derision and revenge. I don’t intend to be one of those villains in this story.”

“But is that..not how you got Asgard?” he asked.

You shrugged. “Maybe it seems that way, but I know I’m not their hero. Despite Surtur stepping in to stop Hela, I know it was you, the Valkyrie, Loki, and Thor who saved the Asgardian citizens.”

“And Heimdall,” he said. “The Gatekeeper.”

“Exactly,” you said with a nod. “So maybe you consider me the villain of the story. I don’t blame you for it, but I intend to change your mind, and to help gain your freedom to return to Midgard sooner rather than later.”

He stared again, more like he had when he’d been standing. “You’ve cleared up exactly zero of my questions about...all of this,” he said, gesturing to all of you.

You sighed. “I hope, over time, the answers you’re looking for will find you. For now, I’ll promise you two things: first, that I’m not nearly as complicated as you think,” you said, giving him a small smile. “And second, that you will see your home again. It just won’t happen until my father is dead.”

You decided to show the Asgardians them the truth, rather than telling them. Maybe, you thought, they would believe in your cause if they weren’t taking in information from you - you, who’d kidnapped them, threatened them, and confused them.

In the morning, you met them in the common area as breakfast was being served. You had it all brought to your suite, to keep as few guards in close proximity as possible. If you’d eaten in the great hall, your father’s men would’ve surrounded you. You knew you were just lucky that your father hadn’t summoned you for breakfast, in any case.

When they gathered, you noticed that each of them looked and smelled better than they had the day before. They all walked taller, too, and wore fresh clothes. You took them by surprise, standing in the common room while food was being brought in on trays. That wasn’t the surprise though; compared to the day before, you were a completely different person on the outside.

Instead of green and black, you were draped in light pink, the color of sunsets on clear days. Instead of tight trousers and a tailored top, the pink fabric draped over each of your features, flowing from top to bottom. They couldn’t see the shoes you wore, but they certainly weren’t dirty battle boots. Instead you had on little light colored slippers. You looked like a Princess, from your twisted hairdo to the slight rouge you’d put on your cheeks to the dainty bracelet you had on that you doubted anyone could see beneath the sleeves of the dress.

“This is new,” the Valkyrie said, nodding at you. She didn’t look amused, but you didn’t mind.

You shrugged. “It’s tradition. And it’s how the citizens recognize me.”

“It’s nice,” Bruce said. He sat on the couch and watched as the last few trays were brought in and placed on the various surfaces around the room. “What’s it mean we’re doing today?”

“I thought I’d give you a tour of the city, if you’d like,” you said. “We can see how your people are faring so far.”

“It’s been a day,” Loki said. “How badly could they be doing?”

“I think it’s a great idea,” Thor said. You hadn’t noticed until then, but he looked only at you. His stare was intimidating, regardless of the fact that he only had one eye to stare at you with. Everyone else was glancing at the food, but not Thor. “After all, this is home now, isn’t it?”

“I’d hardly say so,” Loki said, sitting at the other end of the couch from Bruce.

You ignored him, gesturing to the food. “Please, eat,” you said. You waited for one of them to reach for a plate, more out of respect than anything else. But no one moved, and you remembered what the Valkyrie had said the night before. She wouldn’t eat anything you didn’t. And here, in the palace, you couldn’t blame her. If your father knew anything of your plan, he wouldn’t be above sending poisoned food to your suite.

“Right,” you said, moving to the main table to pick up a plate. You went around and filled it with cold meats and fruit, warm pastries, and a spoonful of porridge. You heard them all move to join you before you’d filled the plate, and by the time you sat down, each one of them had eaten something already. You settled in and started to eat as well, the breakfast as normal as wearing a dress made of soft pink satin, at least to you.

You were comforted when everyone ate in relative silence. No one was questioning you or the food or the planet. No one was angry or downtrodden. Everyone was at ease, relishing in the peace of the room. Bruce and Thor went in for a second helping, and as they ate, you asked if anyone wanted anything else. The Valkyrie asked for mead, which you went to find. You came back with butcher’s paper, and after you gave the Valkyrie what she’d asked for, you went around and wrapped up what was left of the food.

“Planning on giving it to starving children?” Loki asked, his tone sarcastic, like he couldn’t believe that would be your intent.

You nodded anyway. “Of course,” you said. “I normally do. Although, most are not starving.”

You could tell by the silence that followed that they were all still confused by you. And that was fine - it would be a while before they understood your choices. That was to be expected. You just hoped you could be patient enough for long enough. For now, however, you continued to wrap up what was left of the food in the paper, careful not to crush any pastries. You found a few leather satchels to stack the packages in, then helped the Asgardians with cleaning up the plates and trays, which were left in somewhat neat piles for the house staff to pick up later.

“Who’s ready for an outing?” you asked, pulling the straps of the leather bags up to your shoulder. They didn’t match your dress, but you didn’t care. The gesture wasn’t about the dress - it was about showing the Asgardians that they could trust you had your people’s well being in mind.

Thor nodded and, surprisingly, smiled. You found yourself unable to look away from his bright face, but you tried to fight through the feeling anyway. You bit your lip, turned around, and headed out of the room before anyone could catch the hint of heat in your face. You lead the way through the corridors, down bright but silent hallways and past too many doors and open rooms to count. You nodded to the guards who stood on watch at the front of the castle, then continued on into the courtyard where many festivals were held throughout the year. There was a grand fountain in the center of the yard, and rose bushes lined the walkways, filling the air with a floral, sweet scent that made you relax and walk with straighter posture as you passed them.

The Town Square was less than a mile away from the palace. The walk was warm and quiet. You didn’t turn around to make sure, but you were convinced your guests were taking in the splendor of the area. You weren’t just proud of your planet because you were its princess, but because it genuinely was a gorgeous place. Its only rival had been Asgard, as far as you were concerned.

Children were running and playing in the Town Square. Merchants lined the streets, their tents pitched and tables already assembled with the day’s goods to trade and sell. You waved to many people as they called out to you, bowing with huge smiles on their faces. Some of them you called back to by name, especially the jewelry makers. They were some of your favorite merchants along the main road that lead to the pit.

Before you’d made it to your destination, Thor caught up to you, walking at your side rather than behind you. “Your people adore you,” he said.

You shrugged. “I adore them,” you said, unable to keep yourself from smiling. “They’re lovely, artistic people. And I believe it’s important to support what they do.”

He leaned toward you, which must’ve taken extra effort given your height difference. “Does your father feel the same way?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” you said. “He used to, but I haven’t seen him outside the palace walls in some time. I prefer the Town Square to the Throne Room, in any case.”

The Town Square opened into a round pit. It wasn’t deep - there were a few concrete steps that lead to a flat surface. The area was entirely open, and at that time of the morning, it was still shaded enough to be bearable to sit in. There was a bench at one end of the pit, and children played within its confines. When you approached the steps, some of them stopped and waved. Some bowed, especially if they were older. You smiled and waved back, then picked up your skirts before descending into the pit.

The children cheered and crowded around you and the Asgardians. Some of the faces were unfamiliar to you - normally, you knew nearly everyone you met in the Town Square, but not that day. You knew the unfamiliar children had to be Asgardian, so you smiled especially softly at them as you made your way to the bench.

You put the bags on the bench first, then sat beside them. The children all filled in the space in front of you, pushing past the Valkyrie, Loki, Bruce, and Thor to find a spot as they sat and looked at you. “Good morning everyone,” you said.

“Good morning Princess (Y/N),” they called, mostly in unison. The Asgardian children all looked on, turning to their new friends for guidance or keeping their eyes directed at you. Some of them looked scared, and you knew it was because, only a day ago, you had thrown their ship off course and brought them here, to a place they didn’t know.

You knew that, in order to earn your throne like you’d told Bruce you wanted to do, you were going to have to earn more than just the trust of the four Asgardians in your care. You’d have to earn Thor’s people’s trust, too. The faces of the children who recognized you reminded you how much work was to be done.

Still, you smiled and opened one of the bags. “Those that have been here before know to take one item before passing a bag,” you said, your voice echoing just slightly enough to be heard by all. “But today we have more friends here than we normally do. So let’s share as much as we can, okay?”

Many of them gave a resounding positive answer. Some nodded, and others continued to stare. Your smile stretched as you opened one of the bags, then bent forward and handed it to a girl who looked to be about seven. She took something wrapped from the bag, then passed it before opening her item. You opened the other bag, then handed it to a boy at the other end of the front row. As they all passed the bags, you settled on the bench, pulling your feet up under you into a criss-cross position.

As they ate, you told them stories. You always did. You liked to recount the stories you read the night before, so that day you told them of the Thumb-sized girl that became Queen of the Fairies. You told them about the toad that took her from her windowsill, of the Maybug that flew her high up a tree only for his Maybug friends to ridicule her, and of the Fieldmouse that housed her during the winter, only for a swallow to carry her into Spring and the Vale of the Fairies.

“When the Fairy Prince saw her, he thought she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen,” you said, dramatically clutching your heart to the tune of childlike laughter. “He could see how scared the little girl was, so he offered her a pair of dragonfly wings, so she could be like him. He was kind to her the way no one else had been before. When he asked the girl to marry him and become his Queen, she accepted. And there she lived, among people her size with wings just like hers.”

“I love that story,” one of the children said.

“Me too,” you said with a nod. “It’s one of my absolute favorites. And next time, I’ll tell you all about the Ice Queen who turned Summer to Winter with a flick of her wrist!”

They cheered, got up, and milled about the pit. Some children came up to thank you, and you welcomed them, hugging and smiling and laughing with them. After everything that had happened the day before, this felt so normal and wholesome, and it warmed your whole being to know you made a difference to the children.

A little girl with a long brown braid came up to you, her eyes wide and apprehensive. You didn’t know her, so you hunched down until you were eye level with her and asked, “What’s your name, sweetie?”

She didn’t answer at first. She just stared, the way many of the other Asgardian children had at you. A large body moved closer to you, and when you looked up, you saw an adult approaching. The woman wasn’t someone you knew either, and by the look on her face, she clearly wasn’t happy that you were speaking to the child.

“Get away from her,” the woman said to the child, grabbing her small arm in a larger, dark hand. Her lips puckered, and you thought she might spit at you, so you backed away and went to raise your hands. But the woman simply picked the child up and walked out of the pit. You heard her tell the girl, “We don’t talk to her, Romi. She’s a mean, evil person. She took our king away from us.”

Of course, that was when the Asgardians came over to the bench. You weren’t sure how the woman had missed them as she left, but you weren’t focused on that. There was a pain deep within you as you watched that woman walk away. It would’ve been worse if little Romi had looked at you over her mother’s shoulder, but she didn’t, and you were thankful for that at least. Still, this was just another reminder that your plans were working on thin hopes. Romi, with her round little face, had seemed so terrified of you, despite your story and your kind voice.

You wondered how many more children were just as scared, all because you’d stormed their ship like a Ravager instead of a Goddess and Princess.

The smile had gone from your face already, and it did not return as Thor, the Valkyrie, Bruce, and Loki all stood around you. Thor had the leather bags hanging from his shoulder, but you hardly noticed. You couldn’t make eye contact with any of them, so you stared at the stares beyond Loki’s waist.

“That was quite the show,” the Valkyrie said.

“Didn’t go exactly as you planned?” Loki asked.

You shook your head pathetically, only half-paying any attention to the question. That child was scared of you - a small girl with braids named Romi was terrified, and would remain so because you had taken their liberator from them, and in turn, taken their freedom. All to create the appearance of pleasing your father, all to betray him and take his place. You tried to rationalize - one child was nothing when it came to revolution. But that thought only frightened you. You didn’t like it, so you shut it off and sat straight suddenly.

“I’m sorry,” you muttered. You still didn’t look at any of them as you stood. “I must return to the palace. Please, stay in town and get to know the merchants or...whatever you wish.” You picked up your skirt and pushed between Loki and the Valkyrie, moving out of the pit before any of them could really comprehend what was happening. You hurried through the Town Square, back through the streets you loved and past the people that loved you. You kept your head down and put a flat hand out over your eyes to shield them from the sun that had finally risen to its full height. If anyone called out to you then, you hardly noticed. You simply kept going, walking straight through the courtyard by the palace, through the heavy stone doors, and across the grand, spacious grounds to your suite, and then to your private chambers.

You’d had the hidden chambers built for fun, as a whim on a night when you were particularly lonely. But since then, there was one hidden room that you went to whenever you needed to be with your thoughts, or when you needed to push them out. Between your dresser and your window was a little knob. You turned it, and the wall which otherwise looked seamless, opened for you. Beyond the door, you stepped down a spiral of steep stairs until you reached the next floor; the stairs dropped off into a dark room you knew well. You crouched by the fireplace, finding it by touch alone, and carefully lit a flame with the tips of your fingers. Fire was your father’s specialty, but you’d taught yourself some basic pyromagic. When the fire had caught, you stood and undid the fasteners on the back of your dress. You let the fabric fall from your body before you went to the chaise a few feet away, where you then laid down and pulled a thick fur blanket over you.

If you pretended hard enough, the blanket still smelled of your mother: peppermint, white sage, and a hint of cinnamon. It was a comforting, cool smell that brought your memories of her to the front of your mind. You’d been young when she had passed away, but you remembered her face perfectly. You looked like her, or so people told you. But you never thought so; she was gorgeous, young, vibrant, and so kind. People always said she was the kindest of your father’s many, many wives. She loved the people the most. She’d commissioned the pit. The bench had her name on the back. It was her place to go and tell the children stories and give them treats.

But that, like much of the light on the planet, died when she did. You’d only reinstated storytime a few years ago, when you were finally able to go out and sit on her bench and pretend to be her. The only person that didn’t seem to like that so much, until today, was your father. Then again, he didn’t like much anymore.

That child, you thought. Romi. She and her mother were terrified of you. You could only imagine what your mother would’ve said, if she were alive. The longer you breathed in her scent, even if it was imagined, the more you envisioned the disappointment on her face.

That shook you harder than Romi and her mother. The possibility of your mother being so...upset with your choices broke your heart. But you’d made choices, and now you were going to have to face the consequences of those choices. You knew what she would say to that, if she could: Do it with grace, kindness, and compassion. Show them you love them. They will love you, too.

You weren’t so sure of that.

[laetro]

Samby Sayward: Comic Art that Celebrates Strength

Samby Sayward, the artist who manages to contain ‘boundless’ ideas on paper, battled her way through the hurdles of perfectionism and procrastination to reach greater heights and thrives for more! Her works are living proof of majestic works. The quirky and ambitious soul has worked on various projects and gained popularity with her ongoing comic series “Daughters of Grimm”.

Samby Sayward or more commonly known as Boundless Bard creates comics focused on female empowerment. She is a dogged person when it comes to working and does not fallibility as a reason to stop and suggests the future artists have a similar attitude towards their work. Sayward hopes her work inspires people from all backgrounds to be proud of who they are and to strive to make their wildest dreams come true.

ORDER CUSTOM ILLUSTRATION FROM SAMBY

Q. What was your childhood like and what made you, you?

Samby: I was such a quirky, scattered child! Constantly curious. Constantly jumping to the next “shiny” thing. I’m extremely lucky to have parents that tried to facilitate my exploration, while also teaching me to focus and direct my energy.

My mom is a pretty curious person herself, so she’d take my sister and me on themed library runs. Sometimes we’d do crafts like building a radio in a shoebox. We had to wrap the wires around the sink faucet to catch a signal, though it was still pretty garbled. My dad always tried to facilitate any interests with tools and instructors. When I latched on to comics, he took me to the bookstore and offered me any book I wanted. And when I wanted to go to college to make comics in Japan, he said, “OK!”

I never moved to Japan, but it just goes to show how incredibly supportive my family is. I changed my dream career multiple times a year for most of my childhood, and as long as I had a game plan for it, my parents cheered me on. And with all these different experiences to go off of, I think comics ended up the perfect industry for me. I don’t have to change careers every time I’ve got a new interest. I just explore it through my characters!

Q. Tell us something about yourself. About your journey of being an Artist.

Samby: I’ve been drawing as long as I can remember, with pretty much anything I could get my hands on. It started on scrap paper with crayons and markers. When my family saw my enthusiasm, I got sketchbooks and paint sets and colored pencils, anything “artsy” they could think of on every gift-giving holiday.

When in class, I drew my notes in the margins. When out to eat, I drew on napkins. When I entered the general workforce, I spent the minutes between shifts scribbling on receipt paper or paper plates in the breakroom. What’s more, my mind has always been my cinema. In grade school, I would spend months crafting serial stories in my dreams, watching the next part unfold each night as I drifted to sleep. And now I have the pleasure of crafting those stories during the day and sharing the finished products with the world. I’ve had a variety of aspirations throughout my life, but I think I was always meant to make comics. Now, I honestly can’t imagine doing anything else.

Q. What or who is your inspiration?

Samby: There are a lot of people, stories, experiences, art, and philosophies that have inspired me over the years. But if I had to bring it down to my top two inspirations, I’d say the combination of seeing people live and create authentically, and hearing that people reading my comics feel inspired to be themselves.

As much as I’ve had supportive influences in my life, I’ve also had people tell me I’m too much, or that my ideas are stupid, impossible, or too idealistic. I’ve even had people judge me to the point that I felt I needed to hide an integral part of who I am.

So seeing other people share their stories, inspires me to keep sharing mine. And when others accept my truth and resonate with it, it keeps that cycle of inspiration going — both to them and back to me.

Q. What inspired you to make comics on Badass Woman?

Samby: Honestly, a lifetime of stereotyped representation. With a few exceptions, I often had trouble getting into media that was marketed to girls and women. It always felt like a caricature that I couldn’t even relate to. When I turned to men and boys’ entertainment, I got stories that were more my speed, but the female characters were still parodies from a male perspective, or a fantasy “ideal”.

When I was younger, I thought that was just the way things were. I even took my action-packed story ideas and changed the protagonists to guys, since that’s all I saw in the stories I liked. But college did a lot to help me spread my creative wings, and around the time I started seriously pursuing comics as a career, I thought, “Screw it. I’m going to make the stories I want to see. With BADASS WOMEN.”

I think a lot of other women had the same epiphany because soon after, I was finding all sorts of movies, shows, and comics with badass female protagonists I could get behind. It’s awesome to see the plethora of stories and experiences that have been represented since. The media’s really heading in a cool direction now.

Q. Is there any specific reason why you make Badass woman comics?

Samby: It started out just as self-indulgence. I wanted to see myself in stories and genres that, historically, I had not. And I wanted to flip the script. To call out the tropes that belittled and objectified women.

I think my motivations have grown from that though. Seeing so many people relate to my work, and their excitement at feeling represented adds fuel to my creative fire. There’s a real need for diverse representation without stereotypes. And though my main focus is badass women, I really hope that over time I can give everyone that joy of seeing themselves in a story they love.

“When I was younger, I thought that was just the way things were. I even took my action-packed story ideas and changed the protagonists to guys, since that’s all I saw in the stories I liked. But college did a lot to help me spread my creative wings, and around the time I started seriously pursuing comics as a career, I thought, “Screw it. I’m going to make the stories I want to see. With BADASS WOMEN.”

Q. What’s your comic “Daughters of Grimm” about?

Samby: “Daughters of Grimm” is a coming of age story about five young women aiming to be heroes in a world that thinks them better as damsels. Set a few generations after the original Grimm fairy tales, each Daughter follows in the footsteps of a hero they idolize until a “Grimm” vision weaves their narratives together for a larger quest.

There are action and intrigue, swords and sorcery, and a cute goat to balance all the badassery. And if women breaking the mould to fight monsters, rule kingdoms, and become heroes intrigues you, you can read the full story to date for free on Webtoon! The introduction is wrapped up and I’ll be launching the first story arc in the spring.

Q. Are there any real-life experiences in your life where you considered yourself badass?

Samby: It’s funny, I don’t think I’ve thought about it before. But I think the times I’ve felt most badass are the big milestones of my career — printing my first comic, tabling my first convention, participating in my first panel, and receiving fan art for my comic series. Each achievement just reinforces the fact that I’m doing it. I’m really a comic pro!

Q. Do you always work on your personal projects or do you take clients’ work as well? If yes, what is it like to work with a client and how much freedom do you have in such projects?

Samby: When it comes to comic projects, I tend to stick to my personal work. But I have done some illustration work and variant covers for other comic creators. Honestly, those projects have been a blast! All my clients have given a lot of creative reigns, just giving some character references and a concept to work off of. And as fellow creators with similar goals, we often end up vibing and helping each other out with cross-promotion afterwards.

I’ll add though, I’m absolutely open to doing comic page work for the right project! I’m pretty hyped about a project pitch I got the other day from a client. It’s all the genres I’ve wanted to do and haven’t gotten to yet. We’ll just have to see if our schedules line up when the script is done.

Q. What’s the strongest female protagonist you have ever created in your comics and what’s the inspiration behind it?

Samby: So far, I think the strongest protagonist I’ve created is Emil from “Daughters of Grimm”. Not only can she take down a sea dragon solo, but also, she’s managed the task of posing as her brother for years! I think it takes a lot of internal strength to hide such a large part of yourself for so long.

Her character and struggle are largely inspired by my own experiences, both with gender roles and with the broader sense of trying to be myself while fitting in with others’ expectations.

Q. What are the projects you are currently working on or looking forward to work?

Samby: I’m currently writing the first main story arc of my fairytale series, Daughters of Grimm! Until now, the series has been made up of little short stories that introduce the world and characters. So it’s really exciting seeing all the characters and plots coming together. I can’t wait to finish it up and share it!

I’m also working on a YouTube channel and book to share some of the story planning and production techniques I’ve picked up over the years. Though I’ll be honest, I’m not sure when it’ll be ready. It’s a passion project I’m building between comic and commission work. But I’m definitely hoping the YouTube channel will be online soon(ish)!

Q. What is one tip or advice would you give to upcoming comic artists?

Samby: My advice is two-fold:

Don’t be afraid to get started, but also don’t be afraid to ‘finish’.

I think beginning artists get told that first bit a lot. “Make something! Just do it! You’ll figure things out along the way.” But in my experience, starting is much easier than finishing. And it’s finishing a project that really levels up your skills and lets you learn something.

My art leveled up more in my time outside of college than in it because in college I got so focused on perfection that I never finished anything. I never learned how to get that polished product.

[aufi-creative-mind]

Writing drabbles #2 - From Ashes to Ashes AU

Author’s Note: The following set of fiction are draft writing ideas and may or may not make it to the final version. 

Contains: subtle hints of Amourshipping 

—

[Title: Cold Reception] 

When he walked out through the tunnel, Ash and Pikachu found themselves outside on top of the cliff above the Pokemon Village. It was nighttime with a clear starry sky as a cool breeze by, causing Ash to shiver a bit and wrapped his jacket a bit more tightly around himself. 

“I forgot how cold Kalos weather can be,” Ash sighed. 

He and Pikachu strolled along a small dirt path up, around the cavern entrance and then up some steps alongside a small rocky river that trickled down towards the waterfall below. At the end of the dirt path, there was a large flat rock underneath a large tree whose thick roots were overgrown out of the dirt. With a heavy sigh, Ash sat down at a smooth part of the rock and let Pikachu hop down from his shoulder to sit next to him. Through the clear spot between the trees, they could see the meadow of the Pokemon Village. 

“This wasn’t how I thought things would go…” Ash muttered under his breath as he looked down at his hands. Especially his Z Ring. 

There was a sad frown from Pikachu when he looked up to Ash, “Pika-pi…”

After some time alone, they were soon joined by another who walked up the dirt path. First to arrive was a tiny Dedenne who stopped when it spotted Ash and Pikachu. The Antenna Pokemon was soon followed by a young girl with a particular side braid, wearing a rather large jacket and a scarf around her neck. 

“Dedenne, is something the matter–” The young girl then looked up to Ash and with the biggest grin, “…ASH!” 

The younger girl suddenly dashed forward towards Ash and with big open arms, she jumped into a hug around the startled Trainer. “…I can’t believe it’s you! And Pikachu too!” She smiled down to Pikachu who in return greeted her just as happily.

Ash laughed, “…It’s great to see you again, Bonnie!” 

.  . .

“So…where’s your Greninja?”

Ash paused and closed his eyes for a moment. He then pointed his finger towards a particular tree in the distance with one opened eye and a smile. 

“Right there.”

Bonnie and her Dedenne turned their heads towards where Ash was pointing. After while of searching, she and her Pokemon partner spotted Greninja standing on one large tree branch with its back towards the trunk. The blue ninja frog hidden under the shadow that it was impossible to spot it at first glance. 

Bonnie smiled when she saw the blue frog Pokemon and waved to him, “…Hi Greninja!”

Greninja broke away from his watchful survey of the land upon hearing her call and returned the favour with a friendly wave to Bonnie and Dedenne. 

—

[Title: Z Move…Dancing?]

“Umm… Bonnie, what are you doing?” Clemont asked his sister with a raised eyebrow. “…You’re dancing rather…strange.” 

Bonnie and her Dedenne turned around towards her brother with a grin. “…I’m not dancing. I’m making Z Move poses!”

“Z Moves?” Clemont asked her again with a more skeptical tone after he put away the last of his tools. 

“Yeah! The other Ash showed me!” 

“The other Ash, huh?” 

Bonnie nodded, “…It’s how he unleashes his Z Moves Attacks! And they’re based on different Types. Like…this is a Normal-Type Z Move!” She then crossed their arms and then swung them up and over them, With one arm up and the other down, before forming a ‘Z’ shape form. Dedenne dancing alongside her in sync. 

“This is a Electric-Type Z Move!” Bonnie then posed with her arms crossed over her chest in awkward shape of a thunderbolt. 

“And this is a Fairy-Type Z Move!” She said while standing on one leg, the other leg out with her arms bent outwards like fairy wings. 

Clemont had a skewered look to his sister’s antics, “…I see, I never heard of Z Moves before.” 

“Me neither, but where the other Ash comes from. They used it all the time during the battles and they are super powerful!” Bonnie explained with an excited grin. “…Sawyer and the others saw this Ash used a Z Move against a group of the Team Flare grunts and it took them all out in one hit!” 

This took Clemont by surprise with widened eyes. He had to fix his glasses for a moment to recollect his thoughts. “…Really?”

“Yeah! Z Moves are like a…Mega Evolution forms of Attacks!” 

—

[Title: New Partners]

“Serena, I think you should be Pikachu’s new partner.” Ash said to her while he gave his counterpart’s Pikachu a rub before letting him hop into Serena’s arms.

The Kalosian Trainer smiled to the Mouse Pokemon who snuggled up to her. She was however surprised by this new proposal, “…Why me, Ash?” 

Ash smirked with a shrug just as his own Pikachu hopped onto his shoulder, “…I can’t think of anyone else who can take care of them.” Referring to his counterpart’s Kalos Pokemon team. He then took her hand and gave her the Pokeball with the thunderbolt insignia on it. His warm hands held her’s as a sign that he was entrusting her something of great significance.  

The gesture made Serena’s cheek flash red for a moment. 

Ash continued to smile her before looking over to the other Pikachu in her arms, “…Can I trust you to look after Serena and the others?”

The other Pikachu nodded to him with a determined look, “Pika Pika!”

Ash chuckled as he rubbed his nose. “…That’s good to hear!” He then looked over to the table next to them and took the old cap that he once wore here in Kalos before placing it on top of the other Pikachu’s head. “…Keep them safe, okay?” 

“Pika!” The other Pikachu agreed. 

Serena smiled. Her face still blushing red by this Ash’s kindness. Something that he noticed. 

“By the way, Serena?”

“Yes, Ash?”

Ash looked at her in the eye and with the familiar look of determination, “…We’ll get your Ash back, no matter what! I promise.” 

Serena stared at him before returning the gesture with a nod. “…Thank you, that means a lot!” 

[loosescrewslefty]

By any Other Name

Femslash Feb 09- Flowers

“What’s your favorite flower?”

Juleka blinked in surprise at the question, giving Rose a curious look as the blonde merely beamed down at her eagerly.

“Dunno.” She answered softly. “Never thought about it.”

“Never?” Rose asked, humming in frustration. “You have to have something you like, though! Marinette loaned me a book about the Language of Flowers, and I want to find out what everyone’s favorite flowers says about them!”

“Cool.” Juleka said, smiling at Rose’s excitement.

“I know right?! It’s soooo romantic! Like Marinette told me her favorite flower is an apple blossom, and they represent good luck, healing, and the promise of a bright future! And Alya likes sunflowers! Those represent devotion, happiness, and wisdom!”

“Awesome.” Juleka agreed.

“My favorite is the Daisy, I think. Those represent cheerfulness and trust!”

“That suits you, Rose.” Mylene laughed from the row in front of them, giving the blonde an affectionate smile.

“You think?” Rose asked with a pleased flush. “Oh, and Adrien told me he likes Bluebells! Faithfulness, gratitude, humility, kindness and luck! That suits him too, doesn’t it?”

“What about Oaks? Does the book say anything about that?” Mylene asked. Rose gave a thoughtful hum before flipping through and finding the right page.

“Here it is! Let’s see… Endurance, strength, maturity and protection!”

“Really?” Mylene gave a pleased grin before turning back around a smile on her face.

“Hmph! And you people call yourself Parisians!” Chloe scoffed in dismay. “If you’re going to go with one flower, then irises are the way to go, obviously!”

“Irises?” Rose repeated, brightening as she turned the book back several pages. “Oh, here it is! Eloquence, inspiration, hope, passion, valor, and a valued friendship!” Eyebrows furrowing, Rose looked up to give Marinette a confused look. “Why do you have that one highlighted?”

“N-no reason!” Marinette answered, her cheeks going pink. “Just. A friend told me she likes them a while back. I like to keep track of that stuff.”

“That explains why sunflowers were highlighted too.” Rose pondered.

“Awful big coincidence, though.” Alix pointed out with a shark-like grin. “Your friend and Chloe liking the same flower.” A laugh rang out in the room as the duo in question sputtered indignantly and began to loudly protest what Alix was trying to imply. Everyone knew that the pair got along better than they wanted to admit, but the two girls were still too stubborn to admit that they saw the other as anything but a mortal enemy.

Honestly, Juleka was starting to suspect they were trying to fool themselves more than anybody else.

Before she could ponder this any further, an alarm blared over the speakers making the students jump. Thankfully, everyone was used to the sudden, random attacks on the city in the years since Ladybug and Chat started protecting them, so it didn’t take long for everyone to start grabbing their necessities as Marinette practically teleported to the door.

“Alright everyone! Line up single file!” She ordered, as was typical of her duties as the class representative. Catching the eyes of the other Miraculous holders, the blue-eyed girl waited until each had given a nod to confirm they could fight before laying out her battle plan. “Nino, Juleka! You two take the lead and get everyone to the gymnasium safely! Alya, you and Chloe do a sweep of the girls’ room to make sure they’re clear! Adrien, you check the boys!”

Guess that means me and Talon Bleu are on back up today. Juleka mused as she quickly made her way to the front of the class, smiling back when Nino offered her an encouraging grin. It wasn’t a surprise, really. Of the Miraculous holders who went to their school, she and Nino were the least experienced, and the least suited for head-to-head confrontations. Sure, Nino could fight well enough and she could hold her own in a pinch, but that wasn’t what their powers were really meant for. Their abilities were more for support than confronting villains on their own, so they only joined the fight if it seemed like the others were at risk of being overwhelmed.

“Alright Dudes! You know the drill! Everyone to the boiler room, and take only what you need! Come on people, let’s move it!” Nino shouted out, waving their classmates out the door as Alya, Chloe and Adrien snuck out to the bathrooms to transform.

“Good luck.” Juleka offered softly to Marinette, as she always did when she had to sit out a fight. It felt silly at first, to wish luck to Ladybug of all people, but Marinette always seemed grateful for the sentiment nonetheless.

“Thanks. We’ll be in touch if necessary.” Marinette reminded her before making her way to the back of the room with the illusion of checking to make sure everyone was out. Taking their cue, Nino and Juleka started to lead their classmates out to the boiler room, clearing the Lab so that Marinette could transform unseen.

Maybe it made Juleka a bad hero, but she honestly hoped that Titania wouldn’t be needed in this fight.

---

Unfortunately, that ended up not being the case.

Rena Rouge and Queen Bee had ended up arguing about something during the fight, distracting them from what was going on around them. The enemy tried to take advantage of their bickering to take out Rena, but the fox was pushed to safety by Ladybug, who was captured in her stead. Which would have been bad enough on its own, but was made worse when Chat got captured trying to free her.

“So basically, you guys screwed the pooch.” Nino clarified flatly when a sheepish Rena had called him up to fill him in on what happened.

“It would have been fine if someone didn’t almost shove me off a roof when I was getting ready to attack the leader!” Queen Bee growled in the background.

“Oh would you buzz off already?!” Rena snapped back before sighing. “Yeah. They got LB and CN in some kinda cocoon, and they’re preparing to drain their essence to feed their leader. I don’t know what that means, but I really doubt it’ll be good for Ladybug or Chat.”

“Which means we need to rescue them fast.” Queen Bee said, looking anxious. She was the defacto leader if anything happened to Ladybug or Chat Noir, but they all knew she wasn’t entirely comfortable with that role, especially when she had to lead a rescue to save their actual leaders. She did her best to hide it, but Juleka could almost see the anxiety and trepidation coming off her in waves. “We need Talon and Titania suited up and on the way like, ten minutes ago. And make sure you bring a big gun, Fairy, because we need all the fire power we can get.”

“Roger. We’re on our way.” Nino confirmed, turning off his phone and pocketing it with a sigh.

“You’d think they’d be more mature after all these years of fighting together.” Duusu hummed in disapproval, visibly annoyed that they would be forced to come in and clean up after such a simple mistake.

“They’re young. And fighting is how they get along. If they argue with one another, then they are less nervous about facing their enemies.” Nooroo told her wisely.

“Less nervous AND less focused.” Duusu huffed back.

“Well let’s whip them into shape then, shall we?” Nino asked with a grin. Juleka gave a nod and the two crept away through the boiler room’s door and into a nearby room to transform.

“Ready, Nooroo?” Juleka asked. It wasn’t necessary, technically, but Juleka still felt it was important that Nooroo confirm that he wanted to transform her after he spent so long suffering at the hands of Hawkmoth. She wanted him to know that he always had the right to tell her no. That she’d never abuse his magic the way the villain had.

“Of course, Miss Juleka!” The butterfly said warmly, as always. He smiled with pure affection at the dark haired teen, earning a grin in return.

“Nooroo! Wings Emerge!” she recited, closing her eyes as the warm, empowering magic of the Miraculous washed over her and transformed her into her alterego.

“All set then?” Talon Bleu asked her once he finished transforming as well, summoning his wings and pulling out his fan to hold at ready.

“Almost.” Titania replied, bringing her cane up and holding one hand palm up as a glowing white butterfly fluttered out from the weapon and landed on her index finger. “Go ahead without me. I have to get my gun.”

“We’ll meet on the Arc de Triomphe. Be quick, okay? We don’t know how much time we got.”

“Right.” Titania nodded, giving a guilty wince. She knew how anxious it made her teammates that it usually took her quite some time to find someone willing to become her Champion, as the scars Hawkmoth had left on Paris had yet to fully heal, but Titania refused to coerce anyone into taking her butterflies the way the former villain had.

Thankfully, she had at least one person who never needed convincing to help.

Letting her butterfly go, Titania closed her eyes and watched as the insect navigated the halls and entered the boiler room, gently touching down on the shoulder of a familiar blonde.

<Hello again, Rose> Titania sent through the butterfly, smiling at the delighted gasp she got from the tiny girl.

“Titania!” She said in a delighted whisper.

<I’m sorry to contact you so abruptly, but I need help.> Titania told her. <Ladybug and Chat Noir are in trouble. We need Briar Rose to save them.>

“Oh, no!” Rose said, gasping in dismay. “Of course I’ll help! Only…”

<Is something wrong?> Titania asked her anxiously, stomach knotting at the chance that Rose might reject her.

“No, not really, but before I agree… Titania, what’s your favorite flower?” Rose asked breathlessly. Titania blinked a little caught off-guard by the question. “Sorry, it’s probably not the best time to be asking silly questions like that, is it? I-!”

<Rose.>

“Y-yes, Titania?” Rose asked meekly. Through their link, Titania could sense the girl’s anxiety, her fear that she had messed up and upset the heroine. Smiling, Titania opened a path so the other girl could sense her feeling in return, and feel the affection and admiration that she had for her.

<My favorite flower.> Titania clarified as the blonde gasped at the insight into Titania’s heart. <It’s a rose.>

The sheer joy that Rose felt at that answer was well worth the seconds she lost to meet up with the others.

“I accept, Titania.” Rose agreed warmly, making sure that the heroine felt the affection and gratitude she felt towards her before she transformed.

This, Titania thought, is why she’s my favorite Champion.