#NOAH'S NEW MAN (TEMPORARILY)

[kissablelips-desireslure-vol2]

NOAH'S ARC (2006)

Created By: Patrik-Ian Polk

Synopsis: A phenomenal gay series featuring black men gay friend group. In this scene Noah awakes to his new lover Quincy.

DARRYL STEPHENS (as Noah)

&

KEITH HAMILTON COBB (as Quincy)

[averbaldumpingground]

Because you have given me prompt powers: Halloween by Noah Kahan

You've always had prompt powers. Even if you horribly misuse them.

There is a letter waiting for him from his sister at Mrs. Olafsson's boarding house when he returns to settle his accounts. Mary is already teething. And Little Jacob, named for his father, has started learning his letters. He does not crumple it into the fireplace, but his reply is curt, and hastily scrawled. He has no need to linger any longer.

She does not comment on his agitation when promising to post his response, but Elna, the Olafssons's niece, does ask him to wait for her for a few moments at the threshold. She has a bundle for him, fresh bread and hard cheese and salt cod. Her eyes are troubled when she sees him off, and he is grateful for the kindness she has shown him, even if it is borne out of pity rather than any sort of particular fondness or regard for his person.

Elna's own father had sailed for a time on a whaler. She knows what awaits him past Greenland, perhaps far more intimately than he has dared to inquire himself.

But Nathaniel does not wish to dwell on the dangers of his newly chosen profession any more than he had wished to dwell on the contents of his sister's letter. He was to except a new niece or nephew by Christmas. Jacob had been tasked with producing a rather execrable tract by one William Gilmore Simms. A canal is being built, and there is plenty of work to be had should Nathaniel be inclined to embrace such a wonderful opportunity. Frankly, it seems preferable to him to perish at sea.

On the long walk to the harbor, Nathaniel has too much time to ponder his own unfortunate circumstances. Were he the sort of man inclined to marry, he supposes it would be to someone like Elna: diligent, kind, and well past the age to hope for anything more than the same in a husband. She is quite a bit older than him and seems content enough in her prolonged state of spinsterhood that she is unlikely to be particularly desirous of children. Nathaniel has considered it before.

It would be a farce, of course, but he has long since abandoned all notions of meaningful companionship or anything resembling desire. He had been acquainted with it once, as a boy, and thought those foolish feelings reciprocated, with promises whispered between stolen kisses smudged into his hair and his skin.

That pitiful illusion has been thoroughly shattered with news of his sister's engagement to Jacob.

There had been no prior indication, nothing to prepare him for the gravity of Jacob's betrayal, the whole of their apprenticeship shy glances and fumbling hands and brief, pilfered Sundays together. He could not object to the match without likewise exposing his own inclinations, so he had said exactly nothing, and signed on to the crew of a merchant vessel, in a spectacular disappointment to both his uncle and his mother. By the time his ship had returned to port, Jacob had wisely moved on, his journeyman years as a convenient enough excuse.

It is just as well, Nathaniel thinks. His sister's letters, too frequent and rather too long when he is in port, present the sort of portrait of a man Nathaniel counts himself exceedingly ashamed to know.

Or is it that he never really knew him?

Rather than ponder his own youthful folly, Nathaniel contemplates the voyage he is about to embark on. The Anna Elizabeth sits waiting for him in the distance, her captain a stoic old Quaker whose cousin he has sailed with before. She is a beautiful ship.

He is not certain of her destination, the Davis Strait or maybe the whole of the Pacific, but breathing in the salinity of the harbor air, Nathaniel discovers himself temporarily at peace.

There are no letters at sea, no sisters. He only has to close his eyes to disappear.

[special-bc-ur-part-of-it]

five fics under 500

rules: 5 fic recommendations that are currently under 500 kudos. let's give these fics the love they deserve!

thanks to @bitbybitwrites for the tag! five fics i really like all under 500 kudos under the cut! read on!

Miles to Go by @thnxforknowingme

In the wake of Finn’s death, Kurt struggles to keep up with schoolwork at NYADA or engage with his life in general. He finally finds purpose again when he decides to spend the summer venturing west, to scatter Finn’s ashes in the Pacific Ocean. The road trip is long and lonely and challenging, but Kurt’s luck starts to turn around when he meets a handsome man named Blaine, who’s heading to California for his own reasons. After crossing paths in Colorado, they decide to travel together. As they get closer to the west coast they start to let down their walls, learning more about each other and revealing what they’re really seeking on this trip.

Stick Season by @spookyklaine

After Finn dies, Kurt leaves everything he knows behind without a trace. His hometown, his family, his boyfriend. When his dad has a medical scare, he returns to Lima, one year after breaking Blaine’s heart with no explanation. A non-chronological series of one shots and drabbles set in this universe. Based on the Stick Season album by Noah Kahan

we look like animals by staccato_ramble

Whiskey kisses, shared cigarettes, blood on the pavement: these are things that add up when two boys fall in love. Inspired by Richard Siken’s Little Beast.

treading water by @kurtsascot

Kurt doesn’t do relationships. He had a terrible first boyfriend and the last thing he needs to do is to repeat history. Work is stressful and he just needs to get laid. Simple. Then, he meets Blaine, and suddenly it's not simple because Kurt can’t seem to stop seeing him. It doesn't make sense. Kurt shouldn’t be this attached. It’s not like they are dating. At least, Kurt doesn’t think they are dating.

Hit the Switch by dizzywhiz

Feeling complacent in their lives, Kurt and Blaine enter an intensive research study meant to explore the strength of married couples through temporarily switching each partner with a new "experimental spouse." Blaine is eager to take the opportunity to work on his marriage, but Kurt is more hesitant, prepared to just do his time and go back to normal life. As it turns out, things quickly take a turn, sending them down a weeklong path unlike anything either of them could have anticipated.

[adainesjacket]

My Dragon Age/DADWC prompt list! See this tag for current prompts (or feel free to send me song lyrics, etc) and find my ao3 here.

Romantic ships (favourites bolded, this changes weekly):

Anders/Justice | Anders/Hawke/Justice | Anders/Hawke (F or M) | Anders/Karl | Hawke/Varric | Dorian/M!Trevelyan | Cole/F!Trevelyan | F!Cadash/Blackwall | NB!Rook/Emmrich | M!Rook/Davrin | Lucanis/Neve | Solas/M!Trevelyan (rivalmance only)

Platonic ships:

Hawke & siblings | Trevelyan & Trevelyan (twins) | Trevelyan & Inquisition members | Rook & Veilguard members | Dorian & F!Trevelyan

OC's with descriptions & moodboards under cut:

Seong Trevelyan

Inquisitor, bard, archer rogue, proud Free Marcher (Eastern Marcher/Korean background), half Orlesian on mother's side. Romanced Dorian, close friends with Cassandra, Blackwall, and Cole, friendly with Sera and Bull, respectful of Vivienne, rivals with Solas (pre-Trespasser). Polite, mischevious, noble, bit self-righteous at times. Plays The Game well. Living in Val Royeaux as a bard/spy/gap yah student before the Conclave, was at the Conclave to search for news of his twin sister Viola who is missing and always his number one priority. Bisexual cis man.

Songs that fit this character: 'Dear Fellow Traveller' (Sea Wolf) | 'The Archer' (Taylor Swift) |'Ego' (Halsey) | 'Homesick' (Noah Kahan)

Viola Trevelyan

Twin sister of Seong, same background. Spirit mage, estranged from brother due to being found by Templars when they were teenagers, missing during half the events of Inquisition. Either got lost in the physical Fade or made temporarily Tranquil, depending on what headcanon I like best that day (sorry, Viola). Could see her romancing Cullen, Cassandra, or Cole (if she had been trapped in the Fade). Becomes close with Josephine, Vivienne, and Dorian. Kind, cuttingly eloquent, practical, mischevious. Bisexual trans woman.

Songs that fit this character: 'Lonely Is The Muse' (Halsey) | 'Millions of Heartbeats' (Kate Nash) | 'right where you left me' (Taylor Swift) | 'Wax & Wane' (Alana Henderson)

Marika Cadash

Inquisitor, sword-and-shield, ex-Carta dwarf. Ruthless, cunning, practical, shy in social situations. Romanced (and pardoned) Blackwall. Close with Dorian, Cullen, and Sera. Fiercely loyal. Straight cis woman.

Songs that fit this character: 'King' (Florence & the Machine) | 'Training Montage' (The Mountain Goats) | 'A Better Son/Daughter' (Rilo Kiley) | 'Bury It' (Chvrches ft. Hayley Williams)

Mora Mercar

Rook, Elf, spellblade mage, Shadow Dragon, Tevinter native (liberati). Romanced Emmrich, close with Neve and Bellara. Reckless, bright, sarcastic. Pansexual non-binary person.

Songs that fit this character: 'But Daddy I Love Him' (Taylor Swift) | 'Eat Your Young' (Hozier) | 'Bite The Hand' (boygenius) | 'Color in Your Cheeks' (The Mountain Goats)

Rafe Thorne

Rook, Human, Grey Warden, necromancer mage. Golden retriever boy. Grew up in the Kirkwall Circle and liberated by the Mage Underground pre-rebellion. Joined the Grey Wardens to honour Anders, a personal hero. Idealistic, kind, enthusiastic. Prone to anxiety and depression. Romanced Davrin, close with Bellara and Lucanis. Gay trans man.

Songs that fit this character: 'Ship in a Bottle' (fin) | 'Theseus' (The Oh Hello's) |'My Boy Builds Coffins' (Florence & the Machine) | 'Daytona Sand' (Orville Peck)

[columboposting]

for the questions: 2, 8, and 10!

and for the numbers, what were your 14th, 32nd, and 73rd songs?

2. "Dial Drunk" by Noah Kahan was my #5. This isn't a song that I have particularly strong affection for -- the only reason I know of it is because of Todd in the Shadows putting it on one of his best lists lmaoo -- but I've looped it while writing a story that has a scene where one character drunk dials another character (very tenuous connection I will admit) so I guess that's how it snuck up there.

8. Stairway to Heaven (Live) by Heart -- the only Heart song on the list not from their album "Dreamboat Annie" (for context all 10 songs from "Dreamboat Annie" are in my top 100, with "Dreamboat Annie" and "Dreamboat Annie - Reprise" in my top 10).

10. There weirdly isn't a whole lot of overlap between 2023 and 2024 because in 2023 I guess I listened to a lot of ELO, ABBA, and [REDACTED] because the [REDACTED] movie came out and I went temporarily insane. Setting aside In the Aeroplane Over the Sea pretty much in its entirety, which makes both lists ("Holland, 1945" in particular remaining in the top 20 where it has comfortably resided since 2020), I'm sort of surprised to discover that "Dead Man's Party" is on both my 2023 and 2024 lists. Didn't realized I listened to that song that much.

My 14th song is "Soul of the Sea" by Heart, my 32nd song is "Blue Monday" by New Order, and my 73rd song is "Ghost" by Neutral Milk Hotel!

[12th-shavie]

I now have even more thoughts. And an equal amount of spoilers under the cut.

These are more centered around the additions Perfect Chronology made to the original game, setting and story.

I'll start off with the noticeable change in tone : after comparing the early portions of the game, RH comes off as very quiet and even gloomy at times (during the raining part mostly) whereas PC had given me a much lighter "You're going on a little adventure doing your job" impression. The track that added to that effect is exclusive to PC and that led me to wonder if the entire game had a lighter tone because of how the final ending it is possible to get has changed.

Instead of a tragic end no matter what, PC pulls out a magic solution to aaaaall of the problems and you can just beat it up. It detracts from the narrative we're presented over the course of the game that leads to that inevitable moment where the consequences of the neglected ritual catch up to the current timeline and there is no way out of it, something must be done and none of the options can satisfy everyone. It's tragic, sacrifices are made willingly out of necessity and it works because that's what the story was building towards. It's not a happy ending for everyone and the game doesn't suggest that it'll end well for everyone involved.

But PC just goes around that foregone conclusion to say "but what if you could just use the power of friendship and this new mcguffin and beat up this big monster instead" then takes your hand and shoves you in the Nemesia storyline so that you can see a bunch of possible histories that don't explore that many characters or that do so in a way that feels really out of character (like Protea who gets a pseudo-redemption in a history where she isn't queen and hasn't done any of her heinous decisions, or Hugo who has something going on with Noah but it's not very clear on the intent and he even gets to avoid the consequences of his actions and leave with Noah) just to give everyone a "happy" ending except for Dias and Selvan who just die another way and barely get developed in their relevant possible history (or get a proper boss fight but that's me being salty). These endings feel undeserved and underwhelming but that's not all. A lot of relevant possible histories make Noah a major character in their plot and he's a little weird in the sense that he's not quite consistent with the idea of his character presented in RH through context and other characters' view of him and PC's version feels a little off, I'm not quite sure how.

The Nemesia parts of the story are also a little weird. Her character (and I'm biased) feels forced with the whole teacher shtick (which is retroactively made more disturbing by the ending and how she was in love with her teacher and I just dislike how creepy that is considering she looked pretty young at that point) and then this whole thing with the Red Chronicle feels shoved in the story and not all that cohesive with the rest of the lore established but I'd excuse that if the dungeon was more interesting and if it wasn't for the final boss. The Singularity is what doesn't work. It's just too easy to make a monster out of some guy only Nemesia (who isn't very compelling herself) cares about and pin all the problems on events that don't mesh with the core story of the game the way Apocrypha did as a final boss. The game ends on a victory where no one has to take responsibility because the problem was defeated and everything's gonna be just fine (even if Nemesia is temporarily left behind but that doesn't count) and that's why the tone gets to be lighter : it doesn't need to make the player feel the incoming tragedy.

The change in artstyle also plays a part that, being literally lighter and rounder (softer is what comes to mind) than the original.

Aside from that, I played the DLC chapters because I was curious and man I should have known better, because I sure am not the target audience for that mana springs one (aside from Rosch without his armor which was fine but the rest was a little too uncomfy for me).

I'm not sure where this train of thought is going but the more I think about it, the more I see the missed potential of the possible histories and how they could have expanded on what was already there and I get sad.

On a final note I did appreciate the expression variety of the portraits and the voice acting, they made for a good first experience with the game, and the bonus images during certain scenes were very nice (except the one with Raynie getting changed, get that outta my face) although one I'd say was really missing from the game is the painting from Heiss' office. It's just cruel to leave a prompt on his desk for what feels like forever only to not show the painting when it's finally unlocked. That's mean to me specifically and I don't support that.

So I've been playing Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology lately and I have many thoughts that plague me

Spoilers under the cut

All of this is from reaching both basic and true ending, the PC ending with the singularity, all side quests, possible history quests and no second run with clear data for the extra ending. Also I played it on friendly difficulty and it's a good thing I touch at the end of my thoughts.

I mostly want to ramble about the different characters in the game, in somewhat of an order so I'll start with my dear boy Stocke.

I really liked Stocke. He's not particularly chatty, but we get to see a lot of what's going on his mind through the story, including every decision he has to make that can lead to a bad ending and he ends up very well-rounded by the time of the ending. He clearly grows to care a lot about everyone around him, which makes his fate particularly cruel when it's only because he made all these connections that he can be the sacrifice, but it's also the reason why his sacrifice is such a heavy blow for the others. His status as a man whose soul hasn't been his for a long time unbeknownst to him heightens the value of his growth as a person and as a friend, showing how he could still grasp the opportunity to see value in the world beyond himself and his own lifespan (that was technically over since quite some time). He's willing to use the power at his disposal to try to get the best outcome for anyone he can help, even when it seemingly doesn't do much for the world at large, he's just really helpful. Stocke is also very funny to me in the many ways he deals with his time travel. Especially in the ways he casually transports a bunch of items through the timelines, and never explains how he knows information he has absolutely no way of knowing at the point in time he's in. He also doesn't seem to question the fact that there's a big part of his life missing, or at least that's what I understand the Ernst memory wipe as, and seems to just adapt to whatever the timeline has in store for him at any given time. But he's also a Sad boy™ and deserves the world for everything he's been put through. Especially having to kill Rosch that one time.

Ah, Rosch. My poor sweet bulky boy whom I really tried to use every time he was available but it seems it was never enough and even in post-ending he's not quite caught up. The mana spring dlc also shows just how big his armor truly compared to his actual body and I respect the huge suit of armor that makes his silhouette a little silly. I wasn't a big fan of his romance with Sonja at first until the alternate history in Celestia and his bigger arc, where we get to see some more of them that made me appreciate them more (and Sonja upgrading his Gauntlet has to be some of my favourite interactions between her, Rosch and Stocke).

Raynie and Marco are cute as characters Stocke is close to but I really couldn't care less about Raynie's romantic subplot, or her in general. My interest in her never rose higher than my interest in her gameplay, which is thankfully fun to me so it doesn't feel like she's wasting my time. Marco was a little better, especially with the Mimel sidequest where he shows another facette of himself in the bad ending where he goes nuts and I respect that. But ultimately, they're only involved at first because Heiss made it so, and neither their past not their relationship to Stocke or the others was delved into all that much, which is kind of a shame given how present they are during the game.

Which bring me to Heiss. Heiss' first appearance just threw me in a loop of "wow, this guy is so obviously evil but he called Stocke his best boy so now I really want the game to surprise me with a turn of events where he's not one of the Big Bad™. I really wish I could trust this guy in the slightest but that character design is screaming EVIL very loudly". He then proceeds to turn out to be the main villain. Except he still very much cares about Stocke, and always has, even when his other intentions are very nefarious. And even at the very end he still cares about his favourite nephew. And I'm a sucker for that kind of character development, so needless to say Heiss now lives rent-free in one of my mental tabs that run in the background on my thoughts. He does have one portrait where he looks down, in a content but sad way, as if reminiscing of a happier past and it really gets me every time. I did not expect to care so much about the guy, yet his character arc really did it for me. From the bitterness cranked up to eleven by the Black Chronicle's past owners and his huge soft spot for Stocke to his own actions of granting Stocke a chance at a non-royal, non-sacrifice life that he himself never got as Heinrich being the key to the only positive future there was for the world ? Gorgeous arc ! Until the true end where he just never gives up on the only thing he truly cared about, Stocke's future. The PC ending where he joins forces with Stocke, Nemesia and the others was also a satisfying moment, seeing how he's reminded of when he went on adventures with Ernst (again with that softer portrait I am very weak to), along with one of the possible histories where you get the key to his desk (which had plagued me from the moment I tried to snoop around his office much earlier in the game) and it contains an old portrait of Heinrich and Ernst, probably the only trace had kept from that part of his past, showing that despite all the scheming and lack of remorse on other fronts as the main villain, he's still an old man whose life was never completely his own, and who tries to break the cycle for the one person he cared about who was condemned to the same fate. In other words, Heiss is absolutely a magnificent bastard but also very human underneath and I am not immune to that.

On the other hand, a character I had to warm up to gradually was Eruca (I've seen her design from the DS version and I feel robbed, that little sprite had so much more personality !). She starts out kinda generic, as the princess stuck under the terrible reign of her stepmother who secretly leads her dead brother's rebel group, and I only started garnering interest when she joined the party and was armed with a gun. I had gotten a gun before but had no idea they were for her, and it was extremely refreshing to see how she fared in combat despite her lower availability. Her relationship with Stocke was also made so much better by that one moment around the end where it goes back to their first time meeting in standard history and shows exactly what she was dealing with when interacting with Stocke, knowing full that he not only was her dead brother living with a borrowed soul, but also had yet to be aware of his role in the grand scheme of things. I was afraid the whole ritual bit would get in the way of her character development but it didn't and she ended up being one of my favourite characters in both story and gameplay. Ice magic nukes are very nice.

Aht is adorable and I knew she'd be in my top three from the moment I saw her in the animated opening in which she gave me some Just a little guy™ vibe which is sufficient for me to be interested. Her voice acting was also very endearing (then again all of the voice acting worked really for me) and she was just as fun in gameplay with her trap set-ups and big combo potential. And then the story dropped all sorts of hints that she clearly was aware of something very big and plot-relevant and that really makes her go from Babsie™ to Tell me your secrets you adorable little scoundrel™ and that's absolutely my jam.

I wish I had a stronger opinion on Gafka. He's pretty neat, I like the combos he brings to the tables, the way he learns additional skills with Bergas makes sense to me and is cool, but I wish his character spoke to me more. The one thing I would say about him is that he has this trait where he has a hard time distinguishing humans and uses nicknames based on other visible parts of them, but does eventually come to recognize Stocke with his name instead of "Red One" and that's a new bit of development he got there.

I wish Viola was playable. Girl's got so much potential with a title like the Valkyrie but only gets so little story presence, but she's a highlight of every scene she's in and that's fine by me. I find her design very soft yet powerful and inspiring, as befits a character with her renown and charisma.

I can also say I really appreciate Raul, he's not the most appealing character at first, but the genuine effort he clearly puts in supporting however he can from the back lines and devising all of the larger scale tactics and stuff really elevates him as guy who's trying to make the best out of a bad situation where he can't turn his back on people who need help he can provide after not opposing Hugo more directly even though he suspected him to be up to no good.

Speaking of Hugo, he has me a little confused on what exactly his motives were, where his loyalty lied and what he was really trying to accomplish, especially regarding Noah and the possible histories surrounding him. I'm not a fan of letting him around with Noah and not facing more consequences for his actions. Noah himself is also a little weird, being both this mysterious prophet who just wants what's best for his people and this calm guy who seems to know more than he lets on but hasn't really tried to stop Hugo or find another way to reach the people without his name being exploited. I wonder how he could've affected the timeline if he didn't just vanish from the public eye after the possible history that saves his life in the alternate history.

Dias and Selvan are most definitely meant to be read as an evil power couple. You can't throw in a sidequest where it is shown they get a hotel room in the middle of the day and Selvan immediately resorting to threatening to kill a little girl the instant he sees Stocke menacing Dias, and not tell they're not in some kind of very close relationship that is never described as friendship, not even once. Also they'd seemingly betray anyone in a heartbeat except each other and I will read the subtext as I please. There is also that one line from Selvan in alternate history when Dias is dead and he says something along the lines of "But now Dias is slain, and I am broken". And that's without mentioning the possible history where they didn't set Protea up as queen but Dias directly, and an NPC says that "Dias wears the crown, but Selvan might as well sit on the throne" and I'll gladly interpret it as Selvan sitting on the throne with Dias on his lap. Moving on.

Friendly difficulty is a godsend that should be in many other games. I love being able to progress rapidly through the combat heavy parts of the story and only be forced into important fights which I can appreciate without wearing down my gameplay experience. I cannot show grateful I am to be able to enjoy the story to the fullest with no downsides in my opinion. It even gives me a reason to someday try out the DS version to experiment with combat a little more, and also see the game in all its original stylized glory (mostly Stocke's grittier self, Eruca's pixie cut, Heiss balding forehead that makes him less magnificent of a bastard and Dias looking less evil for some reason)

I also intend to finish RHPC with my clear data to see that final final ending, just to see what it brings to the table.

[docgold13]

365 Marvel Comics Paper Cut-Out SuperHeroes - One Hero, Every Day, All Year…

February 16th - Luke Cage

Carl Lucas, the man that would one day be known as the heroic ‘Luke Cage,’ was born and raised in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. He was the son of Esther and James Lucas, a retired N.Y.P.D. detective. Lucas spent his youth causing trouble on the streets with his friends, a group of would-be gangsters who called themselves ‘The Rivals.’   In his younger years, Carl dreamed of becoming a powerful racketeer and crime boss.  As he grew older, however, he came to better understand how his actions were affecting others, especially his parents.  As such, he began to disengage from his pals among The Rivals.  Carl’s former best friend, Willis Stryker, felt angry and abandoned by Carl.  As retribution, he planted a large amount of narcotics in Carl’s apartment and informed the police.  It resulted in Carl being charged, sentenced and incarcerated.  

Following numerous fights and escape attempts, Carl was transferred to the notorious Seagate Prison of Louisiana.  There Carl was subjected to all manners of brutalities, primarily at the hands of a racist guard named Rackham.

Dr. Noah Burstein came to the prison to carry out secret medical research and recruited Carl as a volunteer. Bernstein was secretly working on experimental cell regeneration based on a variant of the Super-Soldier process that had transformed Steve Rogers into Captain America.  Burstien immersed Carl in the ‘Electro-Biochemical System,’ a device that contained an electrical field conducted by an organic chemical compound. When he left equipment unattended, Rackham tampered with the controls, hoping to kill Carl. However, the treatment was accelerated past its intended purpose causing mutagenic change throughout Carl's body, fortifying his cells and giving him superhuman strength and durability. Carl used his new-found powers to escape the prison and make his way back to Harlem. A chance encounter with criminals inspired him to use his new powers for profit.

Still a wanted man, Carl adopted the alias ‘Luke Cage.’  With his new super powers he decided to don a distinctive costume, and start a new career as a ‘Hero for Hire.’ He would help anyone who could meet his price.  He found an office above Times Square's Gem Theater and from there he continued his new career.

Dr. Burstein also relocated to New York and opened a Storefront Clinic, assisted by Dr. Claire Temple. Luke met Claire after he was attacked by hitmen hired by his old friend Stryker. When she rushed to help him she was shocked to find that he wasn't injured by the attack, but insisted on having her colleague look at his bruises. At the clinic he met his old friend Dr. Burnstein. Later, when Burnstein was attacked by a syndicate looking to convince them into paying a protection fee, Claire suggested that they take up Luke's services. Claire was kidnapped and Luke tracked her to the perpetrators lair, where he was surprised to find that it was his old friend and betrayer, Willis Stryker. The two former friends fought. During the fight Stryker fell through a skylight and was blown up by one of his own trick switchblades, ruining any hope Luke had that Stryker could clear his name.

Luke went on to have numerous adventures in his role as the hero for hire.  After an encounter with Iron Man, Luke decided to take on the moniker of ‘Power Man’ to further cement his status as a super hero.  He later became a member of The Defenders for a brief period of time and additionally acted as a member of The Fantastic Four, stepping in for The Thing who had temporarily lost his powers.  

Some time later, Clare Temple and Noah Burstein were abducted by the crime lord known as Cottonmouth.  The villain used them as hostages in order to coerce Power Man into taking down Misty Knight, a longstanding nemesis of Cottonmouth.  The scheme backfired when Cage joined forces with Misty and her boyfriend, Iron Fist, to take down Cottonmouth.  

Cage and Iron Fist did not have much in common with one another, yet they nonetheless got along extremely well.  The two decided to rebrand the Hero for Hire operation as Power Man and Iron Fist: The Heroes for Hire, and together achieved great success, earning an international reputation and battling a wide variety of criminals on countless adventures.  

Cage was ultimately able to clear his original name and he worked with investigator, Dakota North, in an effort to find and reconnect with his parents.  The effort was stymied by Cage’s older brother, James Lucas Jr.  Indeed James Jr.’s animosities toward his brother ran so deep that he ended up becoming a member of the criminal syndicate known as The Corporation, whose power-enhancing scientist, Doctor Karl Malus, mutated him into the super villain called Coldfire.  Yet the Corporation betrayed James Jr. and they took his father, James Lucas Sr., as a hostage to ensure his cooperation.  It was a critical error which ultimately led to the two brothers resolving their differences and teaming up to rescue their father.  Coldfire ended up sacrificing himself to save his father and destroy The Corporation.  

Following a brief tenure with an expanded Heroes For Hire squad, Cage decided to lay low from super heroics, retiring the ‘Power Man’ name and just going by Luke Cage.  He and Jessica Jones became body guards for attorney Matt Murdock.  Luke and Jessica became very close as he helped her overcome her difficulties with drinking and begin the process of working through past traumas she endured at the hands of the sadistic villain known as The Purple Man.  Luke and Jessica ultimately became romantically involved and have remained together ever since.  The two were married and have a daughter named Danielle Cage.  

In the wake of the Secret Invasion event, Cage once more found himself a fugitive as Norman Osborn took over SHIELD, rebranded it as HAMMER, and labeled Cage and many of his fellow heroes as enemies of the state.  Cage ended up a member of the New Avengers, battling against Osborn and his various schemes.  

Cage remained with the Avengers through the return of the heroic era, ultimately forming his own squad of Mighty Avengers.  Cage additionally spent time acting as the leader of a new iteration of The Thunderbolts squad.  Later Cage reunited with his former partner, Iron Fist, to take down a number of threats that were linked to Cage’s youth growing up in Harlem.  More recently, Cage, Iron Fist and Jessica Jones have teamed up with Tony Stark in an effort to bring down Mayor Wilson Fisk.

Actor Mike Colter portrayed Luke Cage in the MCU Netflix series Cage, along with the Defenders and Jessica Jones series.  The character first appeared in the pages of Hero for Hire #1 (1972).

[bffsoobin]

33

➤ soobin x reader, fluff, very slight angst, idiot best friends oblivious to their mutual pining

↳ prompt 33: “Are you SURE I can’t punch him in the face?” “Yes.” “What if I just break his nose a little?

requested?: yes

warnings: swearing, mentions of small injury

A/N: I’m sorry if you were expecting more explicit romance but I feel like this prompt worked better as a mutual pining idiots plot. Also apologies if this is lack luster, it’s been a few months since I wrote anything non-academic! 

•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•☾☼☽•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:••:•.•

You huddle underneath your comically large black umbrella as sheets of torrential rain pound down on it, washing across the pavement below your feet as if following the tide of the ocean. Your sneakers are soaked, squeaking pathetically as you shift your weight from foot to foot and grimace at the feeling of your socks soggy between your toes. Normally you would have been huddled in your dorm room, working on homework from the morning’s classes or watching reruns of Catfish just to grumble about how stupid a person could be.

But your best friend had texted you with a code blue, so you found yourself in the back parking lot of the campus library, enduring the rain that could only mean Noah’s Arc was due to float by any second. Wind whips your hair into your face cruelly and temporarily blinds you, as if mocking you for daring to brave the storm. You can do little more than scrunch your face oddly and shake your head from side to side in a desperate bid to get the locks away from you since there was no way in hell you were taking a hand off of your umbrella just to push your hair back. A car peels into the parking lot just as you clear your vision. It’s a humble silver sedan, a Hyundai of almost 20 years old, with streaks of rust on the back bumper and a sun-faded license plate. Even in the rain you can make out the litany of decals covering the back end, especially your favorite which boasts the term “MILF: Man I Love Frogs” in bold green letters.

There’s no hesitation in your step as you slosh through the rain to yank at the passenger’s side door, jiggling it several times until the telltale click of the unlock allows you to heave it open fully. Suddenly worried about the state of the car-which is littered with coffee cups, extra clothing, loose notebooks and sheet music and fast food receipts- you shake the umbrella off outside of the car before snapping it shut and closing the door. Beside you Soobin laughs, short and low.

“Thanks for shaking off your umbrella. Really counteracts the gallons of water your brought in with your shoes and pants.” He glances pointedly at where your feet soak the tan carpet into a dark brown and you bristle.

“Thanks for calling a code blue in the middle of a rainstorm. I wouldn’t have fucked your car up if you didn’t have an emergency.” Your voice softens at the reminder of why you’re here, and you finally turn to face him better after you buckle up. He’s devastatingly handsome, as always, but you feel your heart stutter at the fact that he’s wearing the hoodie you bought him for Christmas, the one he had almost slapped you for spending so much money on. It’s slightly damp from the rain and it casts his face in shadows along with the shitty weather and for once you hate the way it looks on him. He drives without asking, already knowing exactly where he wanted to go to talk out whatever had happened.

“I wouldn’t call it a total emergency,” he begins as Spotify takes a few seconds to switch between songs. “Just something I needed you to be in the loop for ASAP.” He looks your way again, eyes calculating for a few moments before the light turns green and he’s making the all too familiar right turn into the tasty and underrated diner that you discovered as freshmen. The rain has not slowed at all and the two of you run into the building to avoiding getting too wet, although your feet squelch with renewed vigor on the red and white tiled floor.

The lighting is much better at your favorite table, and after you place your order you’re able to finally get a good look at Soobin. His soft eyes are rimmed red and puffy, and you can’t tell if it’s the weather, the lack of sleep or his persistent allergies that are the cause. Maybe all three, or maybe something new entirely. He’s staring back at you just as clearly, studying your own face and mannerisms even though it had been years since anything about him was new to you. Of course, other than the day he casually pulled you into his chest and you realized just how tall and broad and handsome he had become.

The thought leaves as scarily quick as it enters, as Soobin turns his face to smile up at the waitress delivering drinks and you catch a glimpse of reddened, mottled looking skin just beneath the seam of the hood. As soon as the waitress retreats you lean across the rickety table and paw at the cotton. Soobin puts up almost no fight, knowing he’s about to lose a battle that hadn’t even begun. The delicate skin of his cheek is alarmingly bright red and looks angry to the touch. Bruises had already begun to form around the outer ring of the graze and your heart clenches when you realize that what you first thought was a circular bruise looks suspiciously similar to a fist. A symphony of anger and concern rise within your chest and your eyes prickle with tears that you know Soobin will wipe away for you if you let them fall. 

“What-” you swallow, saliva suddenly feeling like it’s made of cotton, “Who did that?” 

He smiles shyly, ducking away from your touch but you gently grab at his cheek, keeping him from moving too far. His eyes bore into yours, flicking down to your lips before bringing them back up. Slowly, as if scared to spook you, he encloses his palm around your wrist.

“Promise you won’t yell and disturb everyone else that’s eating?” You nod eagerly even though both you and Soobin know that it was a promise likely to be broken. His hand, steady and radiating warmth into the skin of your wrist tugs tighter, hooking on to you like a life line. 

“That asshole Braden. I was passing him in the lobby of the math building and he was talking to his friends about how-” Soobin stops to swallow an invisible lump in his throat- “how he worked with you on some project and he kept talking about how stupid you were the whole time.” 

Your face twists into a grimace at the reminder of that exact project and then the image of Braden, tall and wide with an angry round face; but then a laugh bubbled from the depths of your chest. 

“To be fair, I was useless for that project. It was film class and it was about that stupid French movie I didn’t watch. So he’s not technically wrong.” Soobin’s frown twitched and then, to your surprise, deepened. Heart dropping at the sight, you felt a chill creep up the back of your neck. For as long as you’d known him, there was always a good chance that a well timed joke could curb his anger or sadness or frustration. 

“It wasn’t that that got me, well, this. After he said that, he said that even though you were stupid he wouldn’t mind seeing you on your knees.” You sucked in a simultaneous breath with Soobin, whose moody look finally transfered to you. It made too much sense now; why your joke hadn’t shifted his mood, why he was so vague about why he needed to talk to you, why he had that bruise. Your heart races as you begin to imagine how the skin will turn deep purples and greens, going sickly yellow around the edges. “It just pissed me off so bad. So I yelled at him and he squared up with me and before I knew it I was on the floor.”

To be honest, you were angrier that Soobin had come out of the altercation hurt than anything. You were used to the comments, the snide bullshit that falls from the mouths of your less kind peers.

“I’m going to kill him.” Soobin laughs, finally, as you clench your fingers into a tight fist around your innocent glass of strawberry lemonade.

“No, you’re not. I’m fine.” He finally removes the hood from his head, and if it weren’t for the bruise- which you now could see spread almost all the way to his ear- you would have been more interested in the fact that his shaggy hair had gotten even longer since the last time you’d seen it this close. You open your mouth to protest just as the waitress approaches again, this time balancing two hot plates of food on her arms. You flash her a sweet smile at the same time she notices the state of Soobin’s face and squints. She doesn’t say anything, though, and leaves almost as quickly as she showed up.

“Are you sure I can’t punch him in the face?” You ask as soon as she’s out of earshot. 

“Yes.” Soobin playfully scowls at you around a mouthful of french fries. Your heart skips at the adorable way his eyebrows knit and his dimples press deeper into his cheeks. Despite yourself, you smile, feeling the tension in the air dissipate around the pair of you. Soobin gestures loosely to the plate in front of you, wordlessly encouraging you to eat.

The pancakes you ordered are just as delicious as you remember them to be every time; fluffy and syrupy with just enough butter. Halfway through a chew, a new idea pops in your head and you struggle to keep chunks of batter from spewing onto the table as you speak.

“What if I just break his nose a little?”

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 5/5

Book Blurb: A small-town sweetheart and an emotionally unavailable bad boy try to find some common ground in this chemistry-filled romance from the author of The Cheat Sheet and When in Rome. Annie Walker is on a quest to find her perfect match—someone who complements her happy, quiet life running the local flower shop in Rome, Kentucky. But finding her dream man may be harder than Annie imagined. Everyone knows everyone in her hometown, and the dating prospects are getting fewer by the day. After she overhears her latest date say she is “so unbelievably boring,” Annie starts to think the problem might be her. Is it too late to become flirtatious and fun like the leading ladies in her favorite romance movies? Maybe she only needs a little practice . . . and Annie has the perfect person in mind to be her tutor: Will Griffin. Will—the sexy , tattooed, and absolutely gorgeous bodyguard—is temporarily back in Rome, providing security for Amelia Rose as excitement builds for her upcoming marriage to Noah Walker, Annie’s brother. He has one personal objective while on the job: stay away from Annie Walker and any other possible attachments to this sleepy town. But no sooner than he gets settled, Will finds himself tasked with helping Annie find the love of her life by becoming the next leading lady of Rome, Kentucky. Will wants no part in changing the sweet and lovely Annie. He knows for a fact that some stuffy, straitlaced guy won’t make her happy, but he doesn’t have the heart to say no. Amid steamy practice dates and strictly “educational” tutoring lessons, Annie discovers there are more layers to Will’s usual stoic attitude. As the lines of their friendship become dangerously blurred, Annie reconsiders her dream guy. Maybe her love life doesn’t need to be perfect—it just needs to be real.

Review:

She’s a florist who’s known for being the small town sweetheart with a heart of gold and he’s the emotionally unavailable tattooed bad boy that doesn’t believe in love... until he meets her. Annie Walker is on the hunt to find the perfect match, someone she can marry, understand her, and support her happy quiet life running a flower shop in Rome, Kentucky. She definitely does not need the famous handsome tattooed bodyguard with a bad boy reputation who is emotionally available and doesn’t believe in marriage in her life, but here comes Will Griffin. Will is a bodyguard for famous celebrities, and one of his favorite clients is Annie’s sister in law. Will is someone who is constantly on the move, ready for new adventures and avoiding settling down and commitment after the disaster that was his parent’s marriage that haunts him. Yet the moment he runs into Annie as she is leaving from a bad date, he can’t stop thinking about her and he knows she spells trouble for his heart. Annie is looking for marriage but when Will agrees to be her dating coach things take a turn as Will thinks Annie doesn’t need to change herself at all, she’s perfect the way she is, but Annie thinks she needs help practicing to find the right guy for herself. and since Will is definitely not the guy for her (despite all the butterflies he gives her) there should be no problem for them since she won’t fall for him and he definitely wont fall for her... right? Will soon finds himself both bodyguarding for Annie’s sister in law and spending every other waking moment with Annie, or thinking about her, or helping her, or definitely not ( most definitely) being jealous of any guy that could be her potential husband. The more time Annie and Will spend together the more “practice” is starting to feel like actually falling in love, but can two people who are polar opposites actually be perfect for one another? Can Will finally see that maybe if he found the right person he could not only open himself to love but to opening himself to feeling that he can be loved too? Can Annie finally see that maybe what she needs isn’t a husband but to find peace with her own happiness in whatever shape or form it takes? This was such a cute and amazingly fun read, I adored the chemistry between Will and Annie! Also the town and all it’s residents were hilarious and adorable, seriously this is the perfect heartwarming read that will definitely make you smile. I adored getting to see them fall for each other and open themselves to love! Seriously add this to your tbr!

*Thanks Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Dell for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[mystical-flute]

Uncharted Waters 51: Wave Goodbye, But Don't You Cry, Our Memories Remain [FINAL CHAPTER]

AO3 || Ko-Fi

Well. We're finally here. This is the final chapter of Uncharted Waters. I can't believe it's been over a year since I started this crazy journey. To everyone that's read it, thank you so much. I still have ideas for this universe as a whole, so this isn't goodbye forever... it's a "see you later".

Please enjoy!

Convincing two planets of people that yes, the thing in the sky was supposed to be there, and yes, there was another world out there with people just like them, was taking a lot of time, especially among the average citizens.

The Internet, of course, had blown up with the revelation of the other world. Many conspiracy theorists were claiming victory over aliens being real, and for now, the I.D.R.A was content to let them believe it as Kenji and the other commanders dealt with Earth’s world leaders.

Which was why, for the first few months, diplomatic trips had been key in establishing relationships between Earth and Eturn.

The first of which had been set up between KaibaCorp and the new Marines, now with Kuzan as the Fleet Admiral. Seto had also asked the Young Five to attend, to show them what their mentors had known all along, and what the company was currently trying to correct.

Mokuba and Noah had insisted on coming with them, and as they were now fifteen years old, Seto had a much harder time trying to stop them.

“You’re sure we can trust Kuzan?” Seto had asked her as he finished putting his files into his briefcase. “I won’t have him convincing me to create tools of war again.”

“Kuzan was Sengoku’s pick to be Fleet Admiral a few years ago. He was also a member of SWORD under Garp. We can trust him, I promise,” she said, reaching for his tie and straightening it. “Roland said everyone is waiting downstairs.”

A reporting team from The Domino Daily, whom Seto had apparently known for years and actually trusted (a rare feat for a reporter, really) would be coming with them, taking photos and video of Eturn, of the meeting.

Seto let out a grunt and ran a hand through his hair as they stepped off the elevator, Mokuba and Noah at their heels. Flashbulbs popped in her eyes and reporters shouted questions in their direction, but all were ignored until Seto stood at the podium in front of the portal, temporarily moved to the lobby of Kaiba Corp until the meeting was over.

“I’ll make this quick. My associates and I will be meeting with the Fleet Admiral of Eturn. He is the man that is in charge of capturing criminals and bringing them to justice. I intend to continue the deal made in the past, where Kaiba Corp creates games for their world, and they leave us in peace,” Seto explained. “Kosaku and Eiko will take enough video and photographs for you, I’m sure. Fuguta. Start it up.”

And Fuguta did, the blue portal cracking to life in front of the stunned press, flashbulbs and shouting beginning anew.

Reika took a slow breath and straightened her shoulders, glancing back at the nervous Young Five members behind her.

“Don’t worry. I’ve met Kuzan before. It’s going to be okay.”

“Wait, you wh - ”

She left them no time to answer as she stepped through the portal.

“Oh, Miss Muto, so they sent you with the Kaibas, huh?” Kuzan asked with a small smile. “Welcome back.”

“Seto brought only his most trusted advisors. That includes me, Kuzan. It’s good to see you again.”

Kuzan raised a brow. “Trusted advisor?”

“Indeed. Mr. Kaiba and I have known each other since we were children. I’ve known his other advisors longer than that,” she said, glancing over as Hideo jumped through, wide-eyed and walking like he’d just landed on the moon.

“Young man, if you need gravity, I can have Admiral Fujitora adjust it for you,” Kuzan said with a curious frown.

Hideo looked up in surprise. “Oh - no, it’s fine! Um, thank you. I’m Hideo Ogawa. You must be the Fleet Admiral Reika told us about. It’s uh, nice to meet you.”

She had never seen Hideo so tongue-tied before, and was going to relish it as long as she could.

The former Holy Land of Mary Geoise was transformed into neutral territory, the safe haven between Earth and Eturn. Eturnian and Earthling agents worked together to restore the history of the two lands, and it was where all diplomatic meetings between the two worlds were held.

Much of it that hadn’t been occupied by the Celestial Dragons, had been transformed thanks to Morley’s Devil Fruit powers, making travel between the Four Blues easier, and it also allowed Laboon to be able to follow the Sunny around as the crew sailed along, exploring islands they hadn’t yet seen.

It also created the All Blue, which had been Sanji’s dream to find. Thinking about how far the crew had come made her emotional - many of their dreams had been fulfilled. She’d found her parents, Luffy was the Pirate King, Brook had met Laboon again, Robin had found the true history, Sanji found the All Blue, Carrot saw the dawn of the new world, Vivi had been able to go home…

What was to happen now? Surely the Straw Hats hadn’t completely reached the end of their journey, right?

“Reika! It’s so good to see you again!”

She glanced over, broken from her worried thoughts, and grinned over at Koby. “Rear Admiral Koby. It’s good to see you too.”

Koby, as ever, was full of boyish charm as he bounced over to her, and pulled her in for a tight hug, then paused and pulled back. “Huh… what’s wrong with your arms?”

Ah, her batons. She’d almost forgotten she’d been wearing them.

“I’m fine, Koby, I just have a bit of… protection with me,” she said, carefully placing a finger to her lips and letting her sleeve drop just enough so he could see the batons attached to her arms. “Just in case. Nothing you need to concern yourself with.”

“Wait, you’re -”

Smoker, Tashigi, and Helmeppo caught her eye, as they moved into the room and took a seat at the long table. “Happy to be here? Of course I am. Come on, let’s take a seat. The meeting is about to start.”

Smoker had been promoted to Admiral, taking Kizaru’s empty slot. Any Marine that was still loyal to the former government had been immediately stripped of their ranks, and sentenced to what was, essentially, house arrest. It wasn’t fair to jail them simply because of their ignorance, so re-education had been a top priority, and so, they lived in Mary Geoise, learning about Earth and Eturn’s true history together, and why the former government was as wrong as they were.

Two reporting teams sat on either side of the room - Earth one one side, Eturn on another. The table, again, was divided by the Earthlings and the Eturnians, with Kuzan sitting at the head.

“Good morning, one and all. I am Fleet Admiral Kuzan. As you’ve all been made aware, there is another world, known as Earth. The World Government had known about Earth for some time, and worked with Kaiba Corp to create a variety of things used and sold here. Most recently, they created the stuffed animals and games being sold at the Sabaody Archipelago, and other Marine strongholds.”

He paused to let the words settle in the minds of the people before he continued his speech.

“Given that the worlds are now open to each other again, I thought it would be a good idea to show you the man who has already given so much to our world.”

Seto, as always, was stoic as he gazed at the cameras ahead of him, as if daring someone to try and stop him. “We are willing to work with the Marines to get more games and educational materials about Earth to the general public of Eturn. It’s time that both worlds put the past behind them, and bury it where it belongs.” He glanced over at Mokuba and Noah, and the cameras followed his gaze. “For those of you who have seen the games and plushes available, they were designed by my brothers, under my instruction, during a deal made with Vice Admiral Garp.”

Surprised murmurs broke out among the Marines, which were quickly hushed by a look from Kuzan.

“So, uh, Mr. Kaiba, when exactly did you find out about Eturn?” Smoker asked with a frown.

“About three years ago now. When my stepfather tragically passed away.” Reika was certain no one missed the sarcasm in the word ‘tragically’. “Some of the agents from Earth found a Den-Den Mushi among the wreckage of one of his laboratories, and brought it to me. Vice Admiral Garp was the liaison.”

That seemed to ease the minds of those in the room, including the reporting team, and Reika had a sneaking suspicion that everyone watching would be calmed by the revelation as well. Eturninans seemed to be reliant on Garp for comfort.

A little overly reliant, at times.

“Mr. Kaiba, is your company responsible for the KC weapons often found on the black market?” Tashigi questioned.

Seto went stone-faced, and Reika knew that if he had conqueror's haki, everyone in the room would have been knocked out immediately. “Those were created by the Kaiba Corp under my stepfather’s control. That Kaiba Corp is dead, just as he is. Any weapons with that logo on them I ask to be destroyed immediately if the Marines come across them.”

“We’ll do everything we can to find them,” Kuzan promised. “We’re in agreement that it’s time to progress both of our worlds. And I’m glad we have such a well-known group fighting on our side.”

Seto raised a brow. “I quite agree, Fleet Admiral.”

Helmeppo cleared his throat and glanced at Seto. “Did - did you guys bring any examples of the games? The older ones were really cool, and I was wondering if you designed new ones.”

Mokuba and Noah jumped out of their chairs, reaching behind them and grabbing the large bag they’d packed with them.

“Do we ever! We’ve been pouring over the information Mrs. Muto gave us after she and her husband returned from Eturn, and we’ve come up with some trading cards and new stuffed characters based off the legends and myths of your world!” Noah explained as Mokuba pulled them out one by one and handed them over to the Marines. “We’ve also included some of our own mythological creatures, as a way of trying to educate.”

Once the Marines had started their restructuring, her parents had retired from service and returned to Japan full time. Miaka worked at the I.D.R.A as a mediator between the two worlds, and Genji had taken a job at Kaiba Corp as an engineer. Takeshi and Rei had stayed behind in Eturn, moving into the home her parents once occupied, with the older model portal tied to Kaiba Corp’s basement.

“My father was the one that created the mechanics for the game in your hand, Tashigi,” Reika said with a smile, watching as Tashigi spun a part of the game, a dial slowly landing on a frame called ‘island whale’.

“And if you need help marketing them, just let me know! I’m really good at charming people to buy products!” Hideo said with a charming grin at the cameras.

“We’re all willing to help you,” Sora clarified. “It’s part of our goals as Young Five members.”

“We’re also gonna talk to Maximillion Pegasus about getting Duel Monsters set up here. It’s the most popular card game on Earth, and Seto is one of its best players!” Mokuba said, practically bouncing on his toes. “Having both worlds combined is awesome!”

The air in the room was lighter from that point on, and eventually, the Marines took them on a tour of Castle Panagea’s grounds, the larger group breaking into smaller ones.

Reika was not surprised when Tashigi offered to take her on a private tour.

“How does it feel to be back here?” Tashigi questioned casually.

Reika couldn’t help but smile. “Figured it out, huh? Did you talk to my parents after Punk Hazard?”

“I didn’t have to. Your whole barista story matched flawlessly.”

“Good, then I did what I meant to,” she said, sticking her hands in her pockets and looking out at the water. “I’m glad this place can be used for something better. But it’s weird, it’s like I can still feel Imu’s presence. That voice in my head…” a hand rose to her temple, and she repressed a shudder.

“Yeah, I get what you mean,” Tashigi agreed. “But what I don’t get is why you just didn’t tell Smoker and I about your parents. We would have led you to them right away!”

She sighed. “I know, Tashigi, but the problem is, Monster Summoner Sakura wasn’t looking for Genji and Miaka Muto. She was looking for a couple named Mako and Kasumi. You couldn’t have helped me with that. And I couldn’t tell you the truth, even if I wanted to. It’s like I said years ago… you’re a good Marine, Tashigi. It wouldn’t have been safe for you to know at that time.”

“Do the people in your world know?”

“No. They know my parents were working for the Marines, and they know I’ve been here, but they don’t know about Sakura. Only a select few people do,” she trailed off, glancing at the Kaiba brothers. “I have a pristine reputation on Earth. I’d like to keep it that way.”

“It’s hard to imagine you as someone with a pristine reputation. I’m just picturing you sitting quietly while important men do all the talking.”

Reika laughed. “Until I was sixteen, that’s pretty much all I did with the Young Five. Smile and be polite, pretend you’re not a puppet being used by men who want to conceal how much dark shit the company has done by parading a group of next generation teenagers around. It’s not that hard to slip that mask back on.”

Tashigi frowned. “It must be hard to juggle so many roles.”

Reika chuckled and glanced back out at the water. “Who knows what the future might bring? I might be able to retire from one of them…”

“Reika! We’re leaving!” Noah suddenly called.

She glanced at Noah and gave a nod of understanding before turning to Tashigi. “Before I go, I want you to have this.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a card. “It’s my personal number. Any time you want to come to Japan, let me know. I’ll give you the full tour.” She moved to walk away, but paused and looked at Tashigi again. “Oh, and… thank you. For being my friend.”

With that, the Earthlings took their leave back to Domino.

-----

Reika Muto could not believe Seto Kaiba actually agreed to host this party.

Granted, on paper, it made sense. He was the only one with a house big enough - and private enough - to host such a huge event, and the only one with a staff willing to look the other way at the more… criminal guest list.

Still, this was Seto Kaiba, the man known around the world for having a sense of humor drier than any desert, a man who preferred the comforts he’d been adopted into rather than the chaos that came with the Straw Hats.

“I love you.”

A grunt.

She took his hand. “Hey, I mean it. I love you and I know I’m never going to be able to repay you for agreeing to host this for me.”

Seto sighed and pulled her close. “Just make sure they know that nothing is to be stolen or broken. This place must be spotless come Monday.”

“It will be, I promise.”

She hoped.

But she hadn’t just invited the crew. No, Yugi and his friends were currently downstairs. Rebecca and Arthur had been invited, and had flown in the night before. Her parents, grandfather, Takeshi, Rei, and Kaiya were all outside, enjoying the crisp lat summer air that had settled over the region.

Fuguta would be arriving shortly, with Aiko, Ace, Sabo, Marco, and Yamato. Genji had already arrived with Vivi, Miho, Hiro, Rayleigh, Shakky, Mai, and Valon.

And, to her great surprise, Seto had extended an invitation to Pegasus. He was outside as well, chatting eagerly with her family.

It would be a grand party, a pirate’s celebration of everything they’d accomplished over the years, both legal and illegal. Most of all, though, it was a celebration of friendship.

The clock chimed, breaking her from her thoughts. “Four o’clock. I’ll go get them now. Meet you outside?”

Seto grunted an affirmative, and so, she quickly disappeared to the Sunny, which had been safely docked at Laugh Tale, still as difficult to reach as it had been before they’d found it, so no one would be able to catch them there.

Robin and Jinbei had been pouring over the books, trying to piece together the history of Eturn before the Void Century. It was a massive undertaking that she didn’t envy, but if anyone was going to figure out the mysteries, it was Robin.

It took no time at all to get the crew through the portal, with how eager they were in greeting her and rushing through to join the party.

When she arrived back at the Manor, most of the crew was standing in the atrium with their eyes wide, but she could hear Sanji in the kitchen and Luffy eagerly chatting outside.

“This is just one house? Are you sure it’s not a castle?” Carrot asked.

“It rivals the emperor’s palace, but yes, this is just one house. Come on, everyone’s waiting outside,” she said, guiding them through to the manicured lawn where the rest of the partygoers were.

Bentham stopped in his tracks. “Max?”

Pegasus glanced up and nearly dropped his wine glass. “Why, if it isn’t my old friend Bentham! How wonderful to see you again! Come now, you must tell me all about this world of yours!”

“And you promised to tell me about the game you invented!”

Joey  waved his arm in the air. “Hey, Luffy! C’mere! Yugi and I were about to duel! You wanna watch?”

And so off Luffy, Usopp, Carrot, and Chopper went. Zoro had already found the bar, and she could smell Sanji’s cooking already beginning to waft through the kitchen’s open windows.

Brook had set himself up in front of the ballroom doors, where the grand piano was as close as they were able to get it, and was playing jaunty party music with his violin. Little Kaiya had been the first on the dance floor, and Solomon joined her. This led to a makeshift dance floor on the large patio, singles and couples dancing along to Brook’s greatest hits, and eventually, a duet with Noah.

Seto took her hand and swept her off her feet, swaying to the beat of the slower song Brook was playing.

“Well, look at you dancing and being involved in the party,” she teased as he spun her.

“I can admit when someone has talent, and Brook has plenty of it.” He dipped her, then pulled her back up. “So how does it feel to have everything you want?”

She exhaled slowly and glanced around the manor grounds. Earthlings and Eturnians laughing, dancing, learning together, her parents on the other side of the dance floor, holding each other close and looking sickeningly in love, and Seto’s arms around her, keeping her safe and warm.

“It still feels like a dream,” she said. “Like I’ll wake up and something will be missing again.”

“Reika! Why don’t you come join me for this next one?” Brook called. “I think it’s time for a pirate’s favorite, don’t you?”

The pirates around her cheered immediately.

She took a seat at the piano and the sounds of Binks’ Sake filled the air, but as she played and sang, Reika couldn’t help but think of how things were changing. The crew were accomplishing their dreams, Aiko and Ace had all but retired from piracy, the Revolutionaries were still active, but with the downfall of the government had come the downfall of many overly sympathetic leaders.

Even in Domino, things were changing. Téa was going to be heading to America to study dance, Yugi was going to study game design, Joey and Tristan were still active in the I.D.R.A, and Duke Dungeon Dice Monsters was set to debut in Eturn in a few weeks. After fighting alongside each other for so long, the thought of it all ending was… almost as frightening as the beginning of their fight had been.

“Beneath the moon we’ll meet again, the wind’s our lullaby!”

Wait, what was she thinking? Why was she so afraid of the future? After everything they’d been through, why would they never see each other again?

As she glanced around at the joyous faces, the silly dancing Luffy had pulled Ace and Sabo into, at Kaiya clapping her hands while sitting on Jinbei’s shoulders, at Yamato showing off his horns to Joey and Tristan, at Noah stealing shy glances at Rebecca, and Carrot listening wide-eyed and invested in whatever story her grandfather was telling her, she couldn’t help but smile.

Things changed, they always did. 

But no matter what the future held, she knew their group would face it as they had faced everything else.

Together.

[hklnvgl]

Hey! How are you? It's been a while since I sent you an ask 😅

Let's talks about Adam Parrish?

I always see around here that the fandom really believes Adam committed murder in TRB. I'm assuming they are talking about Whelk and how Adam let him die in Cabeswater. I went back to the book to read that part again and now I don't know what to think anymore!!!??

I didn't think it was Adam's fault at first, but maybe he really thought he was doing something right by letting him die, it was something he really did on purpose.

What do you think?

👋 i’m always down for talking about adam parrish! 🌿

i have honestly never believed adam murdered whelk but i’ve also seen those takes around and this was the perfect excuse to reread those few chapters so i come bearing proof!

so. first of all. context. whelk is threatening adam with a gun. to be more specific, robert parrish’s gun, which adam took and carried with him to monmouth, where he was staying temporarily after he was just left dead on one ear by his very-loving dad and thrown out of the only home he’s ever known by his also-very-loving mum. he’s also 17. he’s just seconds ago sacrificed himself to cabeswater, which is probably making stuff confusing in adam’s brain.

and then whelk shoots.

cabeswater saves adam. which brings me to my second point: cabeswater is angry. whelk wanted the ley line’s power without a sacrifice (or sacrificing other people). whelk wanted to steal from the ley line like kavinsky also did. he killed a boy and left his body and his car to rot in this forest. he’s just shot a gun at cabeswater’s brand new hands and eyes.

so. facts. a herd of animals appears and runs whelk over. we know this because blue and gansey saw them.

and then whelk is dead.

then gansey asks what happened. i think gansey only asks if adam shot whelk because he was a bit freaked out and mad because adam didn’t listen to him when he told everyone to stay put (he still thinks this is his hunt and therefore he should be able to call the shots) and adam of course stole his car and gansey has a very romanticized view of how the search for glendower and magic should go and this ugly thing happening doesn’t really fit (like that one brown sweater later on didn’t fit either).

so i think there are two possibilities here. either adam gained control of cabeswater in the six seconds this has been a thing and asked cabeswater to kill whelk in revenge for noah (and, you know, the whole kidnapping and shooting his friends and himself), which i don’t think is what happened because adam doesn’t learn to communicate with cabeswater until way later in the series, or—

adam just didn’t ask cabeswater not to kill whelk. which:

may not have worked either way (see above)

might have gotten him killed by the animals as well, since he didn’t go to the safety of the tree as the rest of them

does not make him a murderer! standing by and doing nothing makes him an accomplice at most, and arguably this is all self-defence (and he’s 17 so despite me knowing nothing about us law i’m going to say here he might not even have been convicted at all if there’d been any kind of trial??)

he was not the only one! blue, ronan and gansey were all there and they, very cleverly, hid away into safety when they saw the animal herd coming. they didn’t do anything either to save whelk.

now. gansey does feel terrible about whelk. adam doesn’t, and that’s where the fandom is coming from i guess.

and, actually, i do personally agree with gansey’s view on this (the him not feeling qualified to judge if a person is to live or die part)! but i also see where adam’s coming from, and i’m writing this from the comfort of my couch, and i haven’t just been violently threatened by anyone, or had a close friend killed in cold blood, or have just had my thoughts invaded by this sentient forest with no real concern for human lives.

this new reread has made me realize something else, too. adam is very adamant in pointing out whelk deserved what he got. he did very bad things and he got punished for them. adam is actually satisfied with this (the same way he didn’t feel sad when kavinsky died later), because it is proof that people who hurt other people don’t go roaming free unscathed, and even if it takes years there are consequences. so, in a way, he might be reassuring himself he did the right thing in both pressing charges against his father (bacause there is justice in the world, even if it’s slow to come) and giving himself up to this scary forest that just killed a man (because the forest cares about justice, so it will see that adam never deserved to be hurt).

and then later on cabeswater protects adam from his dad! i’m gonna go cry in a quiet corner now to try and process all the feelings this has awakened in me 🥺

tl;dr: adam’s not a murderer in my books! he just doesn’t regret whelk dying and it might read colder than that because that was a very stressful situation for all the characters and they all have reasons to be pissed!

[voidstilesplease]

in another life

part three

Stiles jerks awake to a pot clanging in the kitchen. He groans and thinks for a second that it must be his father making breakfast. Stiles rubs his eyes, opens his mouth for a loud yawn, and blearily blinks to an empty mattress on the floor. It takes a second for it to come back to him, and when it does, he pushes to a sitting position. Stiles stumbles, getting on his feet with the sheets wrapped around him, and ends up falling on the floor on all fours. He curses at the sting on his knees and hands, but he ignores it to race out of his room.

His bare feet thud as he dashes downstairs. Was the clacking noise from Theo and his dad hitting each other with pots and pans? Stiles won't put it past either one of them, even if he has sent a text message to his dad to warn him of the case.

When he reaches the kitchen, Stiles is ready to put forth his authoritarian voice to stop the two from murdering each other with cookware. But what greets him is an entirely different scene.

His father, who's still wearing his uniform, is by the stove, putting the pan onto it, while Theo is cracking eggs into a bowl. Stiles halts in his rushed steps and blinks. He also gapes like a fish. His dad turns around and gives Stiles a tight smile while Theo grins, albeit hesitantly.

Another beat and he finds his footing. "What's going on?" Stiles can't stop the surprise in his voice.

His dad heats the stove and turns completely, his face still pinched. A series of emotions cross the Sheriff's face as he glances at Theo and tries to form words. In the end, he sighs wearily and presses his lips together. He waves a hand in Theo's direction, "I came home to Theo, looking for the pan. So, I helped him out."

Theo looks out of place and uncertain in the middle of the Stilinski kitchen, but he nods, "I wanted to make breakfast before you woke up."

Stiles lifts a brow, "Oh."

"You're going to Deaton, aren't you? Fix this?" The Sheriff asks, standing closer and putting a hand on his shoulder, squeezing slightly. He squints his eyes at Stiles.

"Yeah," Stiles meets Theo's eyes, and the latter's smile recedes to a clenching jaw before dropping his gaze to the eggs he's whisking, more aggressively now.

His dad nods, satisfied and pats his back. "I'll be upstairs if you need anything." Sending one last glance at Theo and a small encouraging smile to Stiles, Noah leaves the kitchen and pads his way upstairs.

Silence fills the space, and Stiles rubs the side of his jaw, watching Theo pour milk on the yolk. He takes a tentative step forward, "You want-" he delays, waiting for Theo to raise his head. He points to the bowl. "You want me to do that?"

Theo's forehead creases, "I know how to cook scrambled eggs, Stiles,"

Stiles pauses, "Of course," he hastily agrees, hand flailing in the direction of the refrigerator. "I'll just get... juice, then." He stalks away to the said fridge, biting his nails at the awkward air, taking up space between and around them.

He closes his eyes for a moment, letting his face feel the icy chill of the refrigerator as he gathers his thoughts in order. When he opens them again, Stiles huffs determinedly, nodding to himself. 

It's time to fix Theo.

~•~

After suffering through the quietest, most tension-filled breakfast of his life, Stiles, and Theo finally climb into the Jeep to the animal clinic. They had to open Theo's truck for his change of clothes, and Stiles shudders at the mess inside. He gives Theo his pair of black jeans that at least appear clean and Theo's pink sweater that the man scrutinizes for a whole minute before pulling into them. There's also a scarf that Theo reluctantly places around his neck for the cold.

Theo hasn't spoken sentences the entire time, just moving around sluggishly and responding with half-hearted little noises. He looks worse for wear, and the dark circles under his eyes are much more evident than the previous day. He probably didn't sleep well last night. 

Stiles only finds his attention straying to Theo's nape and the tattoo there a handful of times. But he is definitely going to ask Deaton about it. Tattoos don't just glow, and with their current predicament, Stiles is one hundred percent sure that it has a part of it, if not the cause itself.

As they go, Theo stays speechless, contentedly scowling as he looks ahead. He behaves so jarringly uncharacteristic like a different Theo has replaced the old one that Stiles knows. The Theo that Stiles remembers, even under stress, was always annoyingly present, running his smart, smug mouth in which they are similar. This one, though, is just passive and detached. It's like he exists in another world inside his head, which now Stiles thinks about it, is the case. False memories, and personal details about Stiles, are planted in his head, and the big questions are who did it and why?

Stiles worries his lips; Deaton has to have answers because Stiles can't spend his Holiday break babysitting a Theo who calls him babe and knows one too many secret information about his life.

Stiles wets his lips and decides to break their wordless companionship. "So, before we get to Deaton," Stiles begins, looking at him sideways as he drives. "I need to tell you a few things so that things don't pile up on you all at once at the clinic."

Theo turns to him, face carefully blank. "At the clinic where you'll fix me?"

Stiles looks at him, surprised at his bitter tone.

"I don't understand how I'm broken." Theo's impassive expression bleeds to rising anger. "I lose consciousness, and suddenly I need fixing?" He shakes his head, slumping back in his seat. His voice is softer when he adds, but Stiles hears the fright in it. "And the worse thing is I believe it. I don't belong here."

Stiles sets his jaw and swallows. "We're going to find out what happened," he intones, summoning the confidence to his words. "For now, I need to explain everything to you, but you can't interrupt me," he meets Theo's blue eyes. "No matter how outlandish and absurd I'm going to sound, you have to listen."

Theo's eyes soften after a moment of consideration, though his features remain taut. "I fell unconscious in New York while snow fighting with you and woke up in different clothes, in a different city, on the other side of the coast where you and your dad are here but treat me almost as a stranger. I don't think there's anything crazier than that."

Stiles scoffs, "You'd be surprised."

~•~

They are parked outside the animal clinic for a good ten minutes now. Stiles is drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, and Theo is staring down at his protruded claws, horrified but at least not in hysterics. Stiles's reaction to finding out his blunt nails grow to razor-sharp claws after hearing about the supernatural only less than an hour ago would be downright manic.

"I have claws," he says breathlessly, finally registering the fact. He turns to Stiles wide-eyed.

"You have fangs, too," Stiles adds. Theo's eyes widen another fraction. "And your eyes glow."

Theo shakes his head, mouth hanging slightly open.

He's taking this much better than Stiles had expected. He narrated the story beginning the night of the Senior's Scribe, up to that point when Theo left Beacon Hills without any word. Of course, he leaves out the gory details -let Theo remember those when he retrieves his memories- about his sister, the other chimeras he killed for power, killing Scott, leaving Lydia catatonic, and a few other horrid things.

Stiles tells Theo, though, a SparkNotes version, about how he's a science experiment of the Dread Doctors and that he almost destroyed Stiles's pack. He also tells Theo that he temporarily went underground for his attempts but freed later to help them with the Ghost Riders, then Gerard's hunters.

Theo's face distorts, gazing at Stiles like he has discovered a horrendous fact. "So that was really my truck in your driveway?"

Stiles heaves a weighty sigh. He doesn't know if it's in relief or exhaustion. At least, whatever they'll discover with Deaton, won't probably faze them both too much.

~•~

"A witch?" Stiles repeats flatly, eyes locked on Deaton. "A witch did this to Theo?"

Theo looks thoughtful, standing opposite Stiles at Deaton's exam table. The veterinarian -part-time druid and supernatural guru- is close behind Theo, tipping the man's head back to examine the tattoo on his nape.

He steps back from the chimera and nods, "Yes and no."

Stiles's nose flares as he exhales. He hates it when Deaton does this. His arms go up in the air, pointedly staring hard at the vet, to prompt him to spit out the rest of his riddle.

Deaton probably senses Stiles's impatience because his lips curl a little, maybe in disapproval, but whatever. "It is indeed a witch's mark, but it means no harm to the bearer. It could be a protective symbol even. It's called a Triquetra."

Theo rubs the back of his neck, putting back the scarf around it. "What's that?"

"It's similar to triskeles," Deaton says to Stiles, referencing Derek's triskelion tattoo, which they're both familiar with, "It's Celtic and also known as a trinity knot. It could represent a lot of triplicities: life-death-rebirth, past-present-future, body-mind-soul, or simply a symbol of protection."

Theo licks his lips, drawing his eyebrows together. "So it's not doing anything to me?"

"Nothing ill-disposed," Deaton answers him. His eyes fall to Theo's collar. "But maybe we should look into that necklace of yours." He points at the said item peeking lightly under the scarf. 

Theo unquestioningly takes off the necklace and hands it to Deaton's waiting hand, watching expectantly as the veterinarian studies the object.

Deaton hums and returns the necklace after a short while. "It's a hypnosis necklace, laced with magic. And carved within is the pagan symbol for sleep."

Theo frowns, at a loss.

So Deaton simplifies, "It makes you fall asleep,"

Theo snorts, "That's a joke. I never slept a wink last night."

Deaton's lips press to a line, "Whatever the exact magic the witch placed in the item, I can't tell. You will have to get the answers from them."

Stiles crosses his arms, his head starting to swim again, unable to stop the remarks from coming out of his mouth. "How can we find this witch? Do you think they hand out receipts when they put their symbols on people and give them jewelry for hypnosis?"

"You don't need to find them," Deaton drawls, obviously done with the conversation, letting the statement hang for a period. They trade puzzled glances with each other, and then Deaton finishes. "They'll come to you."

~•~

[project-rebirth]

Beasts and Beings: Angels

Angels are immensely powerful beings with very volatile existences in the Toaru Majutsu no Index universe. They can be beings of either divine origin, such as the Archangels Gabriel and Michael of Christian doctrine, or artificial existences consisting of masses of highly concentrated AIM fields built-up from the thousands of espers within Academy City. Angels of divine origin get their magical power from an energy accumulated in Heaven known as Telesma. 

General

Appearances

Angels, both divine and artificial, have been described as possessing halos above their heads and various forms of wings manifesting from their backs, some of which such as the case of Archangel Gabriel can reach several kilometers into the sky, as well as speaking in an Angelic language that sounds like high-pitched gibberish to normal humans.

If deemed necessary, like a command from God, or being forced down from Heaven, an angel can acquire a human form. In the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, Angels hid their identities to enter ordinary people's cities and had meals with them. Indeed, as Gabriel can attest, he can hide his being an angel from humans quite easily.

Personality

Vento of the Front explains that Angels in the magic side have no free will of their own and that they are meant to be God's perfect tools, and are often referred to as messengers of God to humanity. Although, they can malfunction and in turn can be called a Fallen angel, or known as demons. According to Stiyl Magnus, Angels and Devils are similar in nature, however, the important thing is who they take orders from.

However, when a divine angel falls from heaven due to the effects of Angel Fall, they can break the orders of God in order to return to Heaven, such as killing humans, despite creating a paradox for God's plans for the Final Judgment, and seemingly have an orderly fashion of thinking. As with the case of Archangel Gabriel under the guise of Misha Kreutzev, who spends his time helping Touma, Tsuchimikado Motoharu and Kanzaki Kaori trying to find the culprit of her fall. Later when Kanzaki and the others try to prevent him or more appropriately inconvenience him from killing Kamijou Touya who was unknowingly the culprit, Gabriel resorted to destroying the world instead.

The case is somewhat different in the science side however, as evidenced by Kazakiri Hyouka's existence, as she displayed emotions similar to that of humans. However, Hyouka herself is shown to behave as a mindless tool similar to that of angels in Christian lore, after having her Fuse Kazakiri mode activated.

Abilities

As stated angels in both sides are extremely powerful beings, capable of causing great destruction. So much is their power, that their very existence can distort the world. It has been said that a single angel has the power to bring down the Vatican. Even a depowered one such as Archangel Gabriel in his first appearance was simply toying with Kanzaki, a powerful Saint in her own right.

An archangel such as Gabriel has been shown to possess the ability to manipulate any celestial body through the use of "Astral in Hand", allowing it to immediately block the sun by speeding up Earth's rotation. He also displayed tremendous speed, able to move from Russia to France easily and eliminate their forces.

In order to be "summoned" or take a physical form on Earth, Angels must have a medium, or "core", to keep them bound to the Earth. Likewise, if the core that binds them is destroyed their physical form will leave the Earth.

Both divine and artificial angels seem to be weak to Touma's Imagine Breaker as well, as with the case with Misha Kreutzev trying to avoid Touma's right hand, as well as Touma himself trying to avoid touching Kazakiri Hyouka after finding out her true form.

Abrahamic Angels

One notable feature that the angels of the magic side has is their name being chosen by God, which is the purpose for which they are created. As such the names of angels cannot be easily changed, unless a powerful distortion changes these laws of God. Angels are also genderless and is depicted in some Christian lore as having qualities of both male and female.

Angels are also apparently susceptible to Angel Fall, which forcibly casts them down from heaven. At which point, angels will try to get back into heaven, even if it means disobeying the will of God.

An angel's name and attributes are widely referenced by magician's spell chants throughout the story, such as being used as a way to borrow power from when constructing a magic circle.

Archangels

Archangel is a term used to refer to angels of higher rank than normal angels, in the Toaru Majutsu no Index universe there are four recognized archangels that are aligned to their own corresponding elements and attributes.

Each member of God's Right Seat derive their powers from the four archangels depending on their alignment after cleansing as much of their original sin as possible.

Archangel Gabriel

Archangel Gabriel (大天使　(ガブリエル) Daitenshi Gaburieru?) is an archangel that appears in Toaru Majutsu no Index. He embodies the The Power of God (神の力 Kami no Chikara?) and represents the symbol of water which is its attribute, and is the guardian of the moon, the governor of blue, and the protector of the rear side. He is the only true abrahamic angel to appear in the series thus far.

Acqua of the Back is aligned with the archangel. Because of the distortion of the elements, he can bypass the name God has given him and is weaker than normal, even then Gabriel is still more powerful than several other characters combined such as Accelerator and Kazakiri Hyouka.

Other Archangels

   Archangel Uriel, also known as God's Flame or Fire of God    Archangel Raphael, also known as Medicine of God    Archangel Michael, also known as Regard of God or The Likeness of God

Other angels

Fallen Angel

Lucifer the Light-Bringer was said to be an angel that was the closest being to be allowed to sit to the right of God, until he malfunctions and causes chaos in one-third of all the angels in heaven, making him rebel against God's will and causing war and becomes a fallen angel. He is later defeated by Archangel Michael who became the ruler of all the angels, and had become a higher being compared to Lucifer even though they were once equals.

Moreover, there is a mention of the Grigoris by Sherry Cromwell as the ones who gave knowledge to humans on how God created Man from clay before the time of Noah, knowledge which eventually gave birth to the golem.

Non-Abrahamic angels

Aiwass

Aiwass, the entity that Aleister Crowley supposedly summoned and the true author of the Book of the Law, has also shown the characteristics of an Angel, possessing a halo above its head and a divine form.

Espers

Espers of Academy City have been shown to sometimes exhibit angelic characteristics under specific circumstances. The most well-known example is what is termed "Awakening" by the fandom, wherein an esper gains wings and sometimes halos following contact with Magic and an emotional breakthrough. So far, only Accelerator has been shown to "awaken", gaining black wings partially during the Taowu incident at Seiin High School, then fully during the 0930 Incident, white wings and a halo during World War III, and finally platinum wings during the Ceremony of Mo Athair. Accelerator also speaks the garbled language of the angels in the early manifestations, though he can now retain his rationality.

The exact reasons behind this phenomenon are unclear, but it is known to be linked to Accelerator's mental state or him having an emotional breakthrough, like him feeling cornered or having something to protect. And when first manifesting a particular color, it follows Accelerator having contact with magic: redirecting the explosion resulting from Taowu's body collapsing into space; hearing Index's singing prayer to free Last Order from her coma induced by the manifestation of Fuse Kazakiri; singing a magic spell to save Last Order using data from Index's song, his encounter with Aiwass, and magical parchments under a Telesma-filled sky and crossing the Abyss using the new kabbalistic tree Clonoth with the assistance of Qliphah Puzzle 545. Index also compares the matter of the wings as similar to Telesma yet also fundamentally different in some way, and after first manifesting the wings, Accelerator, similar to Sasha Kreutzev as a former vessel of Telesma, is able to sense magic.

The cyborg Rensa 29, while making use of Accelerator's ability, was shown to be able to manifest wings same as Accelerator, deliberately getting pushed into a difficult situation to draw out the black wings and manifesting the white wings while determined to protect Yakumi Hisako, though she didn't manifest a halo.

The #2 Level 5 Kakine Teitoku manifests angelic wings when using his powers, but it is unknown if this is like Accelerator's, or just an aesthetic choice stemming from personal preference.

During the Level 6 Shift attempt on Misaka Mikoto, the transformed Level 5 esper manifests a halo, and even physically resembles the form of Misha Kreutzev during World War III.

The manifestation of angelic characteristics is not restricted to Level 5s only. While fighting to save her mother and using the magic of the Rosicrucian Spiritual Item violin Stativarius Ainsel, Sakibasu Yuri temporarily gained white wings and a halo.

Artificial Angels

The AIM Burst is a less obvious form of an artificial angel.

Magic cabals such as the Hermentic Order of the Golden Dawn (Aleister Crowley's former magic organization), seem to have dabbled in creating angels themselves by collecting the formless telesma into a container which is in the image of a person. It is unknown if they had succeeded, though since Aleister Crowley has successfully manage to create an artifical angel on his own, he was most likely influenced by the cabal's methods.

One example of an "artificial angel" is Fuse Kazakiri, the "artificial angel form" of Kazakiri Hyouka, an existence that manifested from the mixing of AIM fields throughout Academy City and resides in the "Imaginary Number District" when not physically manifested. Fuse Kazakiri, an existence that is considered considerably less powerful than an a Christian archangel, has displayed the ability to fire beams of energy that can reach several kilometers in length, project an AIM barrier that protects all those around her, flying at supersonic speeds and manifest a powerful energy sword.

The AIM Burst, an AIM entity product of the Level Upper network also displayed angelical attributes such as a Halo and wings similar to those of Fuse Kazakiri. It should be noted that Kazakiri Hyouka, Aiwass and AIM Burst all had small triangular-prism shaped cores inside their bodies that sustain their existence.

[arcticdementor]

The massacres at three massage parlors in the Atlanta area this week, leaving eight human beings dead, others injured, and their families scarred, were horrifying. Read this deeply moving story about the son of one of the women killed to remind yourself of this. It’s brutal. The grief will spread and resonate some more.

But this story has also been deeply instructive about our national discourse and the state of the American mainstream and elite media. This story’s coverage is proof, it seems to me, that American journalists have officially abandoned the habit of attempting any kind of “objectivity” in reporting these stories. We are now in the enlightened social justice world of “moral clarity” and “narrative-shaping.”

…

We should not take the killer’s confession as definitive, of course. But we can probe it — and indeed, his story is backed up by acquaintances and friends and family. The New York Times originally ran one piece reporting this out. The Washington Post also followed up, with one piece citing contemporaneous evidence of the man’s “religious mania” and sexual compulsion. It appears that the man frequented at least two of the spas he attacked. He chose the spas, his ex roommates said, because he thought they were safer than other ways to get easy sex. Just this morning, the NYT ran a second piece which confirms that the killer had indeed been in rehab for sexual impulses, was a religious fanatic, and his next target was going to be “a business tied to the pornography industry.”

We have yet to find any credible evidence of anti-Asian hatred or bigotry in this man’s history. Maybe we will. We can’t rule it out. But we do know that his roommates say they once asked him if he picked the spas for sex because the women were Asian. And they say he denied it, saying he thought those spas were just the safest way to have quick sex. That needs to be checked out more. But the only piece of evidence about possible anti-Asian bias points away, not toward it.

And yet. Well, you know what’s coming. Accompanying one original piece on the known facts, the NYT ran nine — nine! — separate stories about the incident as part of the narrative that this was an anti-Asian hate crime, fueled by white supremacy and/or misogyny. Not to be outdone, the WaPo ran sixteen separate stories on the incident as an anti-Asian white supremacist hate crime. Sixteen! One story for the facts; sixteen stories on how critical race theory would interpret the event regardless of the facts. For good measure, one of their columnists denounced reporting of law enforcement’s version of events in the newspaper, because it distracted attention from the “real” motives. Today, the NYT ran yet another full-on critical theory piece disguised as news on how these murders are proof of structural racism and sexism — because some activists say they are.

…

And on and on. It was almost as if they had a pre-existing script to read, whatever the facts of the case! Nikole Hannah-Jones, the most powerful journalist at the New York Times, took to Twitter in the early morning of March 17 to pronounce: “Last night’s shooting and the appalling rise in anti-Asian violence stem from a sick society where nationalism has been stoked and normalized.” Ibram Kendi tweeted: “Locking arms with Asian Americans facing this lethal wave of anti-Asian terror. Their struggle is my struggle. Our struggle is against racism and White Supremacist domestic terror.”

When the cops reported the killer’s actual confession, left-Twitter went nuts. One gender studies professor recited the litany: “The refusal to name anti-Asianess [sic], racism, white supremacy, misogyny, or class in this is whiteness doing what it always does around justifying its death-dealing … To ignore the deeply racist and misogynistic history of hypersexualization of Asian women in this ‘explication’ from law enforcement of what emboldened this killer is also a willful erasure.”

In The Root, the real reason for the murders was detailed: “White supremacy is a virus that, like other viruses, will not die until there are no bodies left for it to infect. Which means the only way to stop it is to locate it, isolate it, extract it, and kill it.”

Trevor Noah insisted that the killer’s confession was self-evidently false: “You killed six Asian people. Specifically, you went there. Your murders speak louder than your words. What makes it even more painful is that we saw it coming. We see these things happening. People have been warning, people in the Asian communities have been tweeting, they’ve been saying, ‘Please help us. We’re getting punched in the street. We’re getting slurs written on our doors.’” Noah knew the killer’s motive more surely than the killer himself.

None of them mentioned that he killed two white people as well — a weird thing for a white supremacist to do — and injured a Latino. None pointed out that the connection between the spas was that the killer had visited them. None explained why, if he were associating Asian people with Covid19, he would nonetheless expose himself to the virus by having sex with them, or regard these spas as “safer” than other ways to have quick sex.

They didn’t because, in their worldview, they didn’t need to. What you see here is social justice ideology insisting, as Dean Baquet temporarily explained, that intent doesn’t matter. What matters is impact. The individual killer is in some ways irrelevant. His intentions are not material. He is merely a vehicle for the structural oppressive forces critical theorists believe in. And this “story” is what the media elites decided to concentrate on: the thing that, so far as we know, didn’t happen.

…

But notice how CRT operates. The only evidence it needs it already has. Check out the identity of the victim or victims, check out the identity of the culprit, and it’s all you need to know. If the victims are white, they don’t really count. Everything in America is driven by white supremacist hate of some sort or other. You can jam any fact, any phenomenon, into this rubric in order to explain it.

The only complexity the CRT crowd will admit is multiple, “intersectional” forms of oppression: so this case is about misogyny and white supremacy. The one thing they cannot see are unique individual human beings, driven by a vast range of human emotions, committing crimes with distinctive psychological profiles, from a variety of motives, including prejudices, but far, far more complicated than that.

There’s a reason for this shift. Treating the individual as unique, granting him or her rights, defending the presumption of innocence, relying on provable, objective evidence: these core liberal principles are precisely what critical theory aims to deconstruct. And the elite media is in the vanguard of this war on liberalism.

…

The more Asian-Americans succeed, the deeper the envy and hostility that can be directed toward them. The National Crime Victimization Survey notes that “the rate of violent crime committed against Asians increased from 8.2 to 16.2 per 1000 persons age 12 or older from 2015 to 2018.” Hate crimes? “Hate crime incidents against Asian Americans had an annual rate of increase of approximately 12% from 2012 to 2014. Although there was a temporary decrease from 2014 to 2015, anti-Asian bias crimes had increased again from 2015 to 2018.”

Asians are different from other groups in this respect. “Comparing with Black and Hispanic victims, Asian Americans have relatively higher chance to be victimized by non-White offenders (25.5% vs. 1.0% for African Americans and 18.9% for Hispanics). … Asian Americans have higher risk to be persecuted by strangers … are less likely to be offended in their residence … and are more likely to be targeted at school/college.” Of those committing violence against Asians, you discover that 24 percent such attacks are committed by whites; 24 percent are committed by fellow Asians; 7 percent by Hispanics; and 27.5 percent by African-Americans. Do the Kendi math, and you can see why Kendi’s “White Supremacist domestic terror” is not that useful a term for describing anti-Asian violence.

But what about hate crimes specifically? In general, the group disproportionately most likely to commit hate crimes in the US are African-Americans. At 13 percent of the population, African Americans commit 23.9 percent of hate crimes. But hate specifically against Asian-Americans in the era of Trump and Covid? Solid numbers are not yet available for 2020, which is the year that matters here. There’s data, from 1994 to 2014, that finds little racial skew among those committing anti-Asian hate crimes. Hostility comes from every other community pretty equally.

The best data I’ve found for 2020, the salient period for this discussion, are provisional data on complaints and arrests for hate crimes against Asians in New York City, one of two cities which seem to have been most affected. They record 20 such arrests in 2020. Of those 20 offenders, 11 were African-American, two Black-Hispanic, two white, and five white Hispanics. Of the black offenders, a majority were women. The bulk happened last March, and they petered out soon after. If you drill down on some recent incidents in the news in California, and get past the media gloss to the actual mugshots, you also find as many black as white offenders.

…

The media is supposed to subject easy, convenient rush-to-judgment narratives to ruthless empirical testing. Now, for purely ideological reasons, they are rushing to promote ready-made narratives, which actually point away from the empirical facts. To run sixteen separate pieces on anti-Asian white supremacist misogynist hate based on one possibly completely unrelated incident is not journalism. It’s fanning irrational fear in the cause of ideological indoctrination. And it appears to be where all elite media is headed.

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 70

After every serious arc, I like to do a fluffy chapter. Super fluffy.  And this one is no exception.

There are three people I cannot thank enough for helping with this chapter. First up is @charlylimph-blog for helping me get the character of Charly right.  You may remember her briefly as the woman with the collar from the Food Festival arc.

Second, of course, is @satan-parisienne for beta-ing the stuff I churn out.  She is in town for New Year’s this week, and I had the absolute pleasure of watching her reactions in real-time (something I haven’t gotten to do in several months)! 

Last but not least, @baelpenrose, who has been giving the last few chapters a read to make sure the story is consistent and to poke holes in anything I may have missed or got mixed up.

Happy New Year, and I hope to see you all in the New Roaring 20s!

”Sophia, we sorta kinda maybe need to talk?”

I glanced up from my datapad, rubbing the cramp in my neck as I did. With Insert Winter Holiday – and the crisis with Else – behind us, the backlog at work basically qualified as cruel and unusual punishment in most Terran jurisdictions.  Unfortunately, we weren’t on Terra anymore, so I was working twenty hour days trying to get things back on an even keel. Neither my joints nor my partners were very appreciative of it, but at least Conor and Maverick complained less than my spine did.

When I saw my visitor, I stood with much crackling to greet her.  Charly bounced in, completely oblivious to my crunchy joints. “You work too much,” she scolded without preamble.  “We need a ladies’ night – you, me, Tyche, and Xiomara. No arguments.”

Arching an eyebrow at her uncharacteristically demanding tone, I glanced over her shoulder.  A dark silhouette that rivaled Conor’s height flashed a quick, blinding white grin. I shrugged and looked back to the energetic brunette in front of me. “And when am I supposed to have time for a ladies’ night, Charly?”

“I already talked to Xiomara, who talked to Tyche, who told Alistair to clear your calendar the day after tomorrow.  So, tomorrow night, we’re getting cute and going out!”

“Three out of four of those names are in relationships,” I pointed out.

“So? It’s drinks with the girls.  I tried to ask Grey, but they don’t want to go.” She dropped her eyes and pouted at my navel before looking back in the direction of my face. “Still. It’s not like we have to be on the hunt for sexy fun times just to go out and have drinks together. It’ll be fun. And you know you love the Undine, you just haven’t had an excuse to go back with everything going on.”

Bacon Bloody Marys… I shook my head vigorously, focusing on the present. “You do realize that Xio, Tyche, and I are probably going to talk about work, right?”

“Duh. Geez, that’s what the booze is for.  Complaining about work is enhanced… by the booze.”

I sighed.  Ever since she had been released from medical observation, I had learned that saying no to Charly was incredibly difficult.  Even Tyche just kind of went along with her in something of a confused daze. I swore, the woman had a superpower – people just agreed with her.  The only thing standing between her and Galactic domination was the same low threshold my sister and I shared for being around people.

If she was this eager to go out, to a bar, for a girls’ night, who were we to say no?

“Can I at least take today to think about – “ I tried in vain, only to be cut off.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Girls’ night! Girls’ Night! Ladies’ gonna get druuuuuunk!” she started chanting and dancing in a circle.

 Sure enough, the next night saw Tyche fussing over my outfit and hair, gently trying to tousle it into something she obviously understood and I didn’t.  Xiomara was laughing hard enough that the only thing saving her from an abrupt, face-first introduction with the floor was the doorway she was leaning against.  When I tried to turn my head to scowl at her, Tyche used one very firm fingertip to turn my head back to her. “I’m almost done. Would you just hold still? Sheesh,” she grumbled.

“You know I hate getting dolled up,” I pointed out sulkily.  

She ignored me, instead stepping back to look at her handiwork. “I think that will work,” she finally pronounced with a nod.

The mirror she held up made me want to scream. “I look exactly like I did before!” I cried in confusion. “Why did you spend an hour making my hair look exactly the same!?”

With a low growl, she rolled her eyes and shook her head at a now-gasping Xiomara. “Some people just don’t understand,” she sighed dramatically. Glaring at me, she pointed at my hair. “This does not look the same. It looks intentional.”

Xiomara temporarily sobered up enough to contribute her two cents. “Before, you had bed-head.  Now, you have sex hair.  Big difference.”

“You. Two. Are. Loony,” I ground out. I reached to run a hand through my hair in frustration, only to have Tyche intercept it.

“Don’t you dare. I don’t have time to fix it,” she ordered before dragging me out of my office, my hand still clutched tightly in her grasp.  Groaning as loudly as possible in hopes of rescue, I reluctantly allowed myself to be pulled along until we reached the Undine. Once outside, my sister stopped and dropped my hand, giving me one last once-over before seeming content that I hadn’t managed to wreck her painstaking work in the last forty meters.

I was permitted to enter the pub under my own power.  Making our way to the back of the space, we found Charly had already claimed a high-top.  As soon as we were visible, Coffey gently cupped her jaw in one massive hand and gave her a kiss that was paired with a look that clearly meant Stay out of trouble.  Charly just gave him an angelic smile.

Frankly, the odds of that were fifty-fifty.  Charly wasn’t reckless – not by a long shot. On the contrary, I had learned in recent weeks that she was usually very quiet and extremely cautious. In absolute, direct conflict with this was an underlying need to play pranks on unsuspecting victims.

Given her usual demeanor, ‘unsuspecting’ was synonymous with ‘everyone on the Ark except Noah and Coffey’.  Well, Coffey at least suspected it, but he wasn’t exactly immune to pranks. When I asked her about it once, she just shrugged and told me “Hey, if I’m going to be punished, I may as well deserve it.”

The man in question waved one hand at the three of us before disappearing into the crowd.  I honestly had no clue how he did that – he was easily the second tallest human on the ship.  More annoyingly, he did it all. The. Damned. Time. It was profoundly frustrating, albeit very impressive. Squashing the sigh I felt bubbling up, I turned back to the table. Tyche and Xiomara were already seated, leaving me a seat across from my sister.

No sooner did I climb onto my seat, than Sebastian came through the crowd with a tray full of drinks.  Coconut rum and fruit juice for Tyche, an enormous Bloody Mary for myself, neat whiskey for Xiomara, and eye-catchingly blue something-slushy with a huge wedge of pineapple and an umbrella for Charly.  She caught me looking and held it up so I could see it better. “It has alcohol, I swear – blue curacao, cognac, and rum.”

With a skeptic glance, Tyche sniffed the drink and wrinkled her nose. “Sounds like a hangover.”

“Nuh-uh,” Charly retorted. “It sounds like fun!”

Xiomara rolled her eyes before downing her whiskey with a wink at me. “If we’re here to drink, may as well, right?”

An hour and a half later, Sebastian was taking away our most recent set of empty glasses, ducking Tyche’s hand as she gesticulated wildly.  She was telling some story to Charly, who had slowly scooted her chair closer and closer.  At the moment, she was leaning on the part of the table that was actually in front of my sister, watching and giggling as Tyche enthusiastically flailed and made exaggerated faces.  I could not figure out for the life of me what story she was telling, but a few minutes later she tipped her head back with a clap of her hands and a peal of laughter. This sent Charly into a fit of giggles, face down on her arms.

I glanced at Xiomara, who was smiling, but still clearly sober despite her drinks. With a conspiratorial tone, I told her “They are soooo drrrrr… draaa…. dur-rur-rur… Inebriated. Very inebriated.”

Xio stopped mid-sip to arch an eyebrow at me. “You seriously couldn’t get out the word drunk so you went with, of all things, inebriated!?”

Tyche and Charly collapsed into howling laughter at the disbelief in her tone. I just tapped my temple and sat as straight as I possibly could, offended. “Dain bramage, Xio. Loooooots of brain damage.”  I ruined my scolding tone by belatedly realizing what I had initially said and snorting with laughter.

That seemed to break the dam to pieces, because I started giggling and could not stop myself no matter how hard I tried.  It didn’t help when, just as the giggling started to trickle off, Charly howled “Dain Bramaaaage!” at the top of her lungs and blindly toasted the room with a mostly-empty hurricane glass.  The gesture sent the wedge of pineapple on the rim into a tumbling arc…

Right into Xiomara’s whiskey, droplets splashing her face.

I didn’t know whether it was the pineapple or the wet-cat look on Xio’s face, but either way, it was the funniest thing the three of us had ever seen. Soon, Tyche and I were leaning against Charly, fighting for breath against the laughter that was possessing us like minor demons.

“Ha, ha, ha,” Xiomara mock-sneered. “Go ahead, laugh it up.  I swear, you three are –“

When she stopped mid-sentence, Tyche popped up like a meerkat.  Almost immediately, she was smacking my shoulder and shaking Charly. “Look!  Looklooklooklooklook.”

Xiomara was frozen, face slack, mouth half-open with the dying breath of whatever she was about to call us.  Her eyes were glued to the entrance of the Undine.  I felt two different spots in my neck pop as I snapped my head around to see what she was staring at.  At first, all I could see was just an ocean of people getting after-work drinks and socializing… granted, it was a little quieter than I expected, and more people were talking in hushed tones than I remembered from bars back home, but maybe I was just out of touch.

Tyche saved me again by reaching across, grabbing my jaw, and turning my head to face what Xiomara was looking at: a beautiful woman, about my height, with what seemed like miles of thick, black hair, and a stunning blue saree with warm gold and pale green details coming over her shoulder.  I could see how she was a show-stopper, honestly, but Xio’s reaction seemed a bit dramatic.

In contrast to this, Charly’s head came up, dislodging Tyche’s hand. “Oh, that’s just Parvati!  She’s an artist.  I think she told me once she did murals in the Before?”

The statement seemed to snap Xio out of her trance. “What? How do you know her?”

Oblivious to the demanding tone, Charly shrugged. “She works with Hannah a lot. Like, a lot-lot. So I’ve met her a few times.  She’s really lovely, honestly.  Some of her work is in the database… she did a lot of politically-charged protest art, like this one…what was it called?” She snapped her fingers a few times, lost in thought. “Started with a ‘G’ I think? Refugee something?”

“Refugee Guernica!?” my sister and I demanded at the same time.  

“Yeah! That one.  The really violent one.”

The piece had been extremely controversial: a hyper-realistic mural of climate refugees, posed to evoke the original Picasso work and gaunt with starvation.  That, alone, would have been palatable to the powers-that-were.  However… the artist had gone one step further and portrayed what had been livestock in the original work as human beings, feasted upon by the fattened rich.  It had also been in true-to-life color, which hadn’t helped soften any blows.  Tyche and I had both been breathless the first time we saw an image of it.

“That is the person who did that mural?” Tyche asked, pointing a finger at the woman across the bar.

Charly nodded enthusiastically. “Yep! Parvati Fletcher.  Remember? Signed all her murals with a little arrow, fletched with peacock feathers?”

Xiomara’s eyes narrowed. “She did the one decrying the Baconists, didn’t she?”

“Yeah! Animal Farm, the scene where the pigs were adding ‘but some animals are more equal than others’.  I don’t know if Parvati has it in her to hate, but the closest I ever saw her come was when she compared Baconists to the rich. She said that the only difference between the two was that Baconists were more honest about wanting annihilate humanity.”

Dark eyes narrowed as Xio flicked open her datapad, summoning data furiously. Abruptly, she relaxed. “I remember this file… We suspected her after what happened on Level One, but Noah confirmed on three separate occasions that she was telling the truth.”

“Duuuuuhhhhhhhhh,” Charly intoned, rolling her eyes comically. “Vati doesn’t argue much, but one thing that will always make her speak is the fact that she only believes that humanity is at its best if everyone is given the opportunity to be their best.”

“That’s… why she’s here, isn’t it?” I asked with dawning comprehension.

“Well, yeah. Why else? You’re here for the same reason, right? You believe in the best in a person, no matter the person, right?  Well, she believes in that… It’s like, if you’re a psychologist, she would be a sociologist.  She believes in the best in humanity, not just the best in a person.”

Huh. That was a breath of fresh air.  I glanced back at Xiomara. She looked lost, and I followed her sight back to the same blue and earth-tone saree, shining dark hair, and a bright white laugh. I glanced back and forth a few times before the realization hit me between the eyes like a sledgehammer. The gaping stare, the quick background check and almost melting relief… “Xio?” I whispered in that special, extra-quiet volume only drunk people can use. “You like her, don’t you?”

“Tell the whole bar, why don’t you?” she grumbled.

“Hey, I’m not judging,” I held my hands up placatingly. “I just…. I had a completely different idea in mind for your type, that’s all.  Took me a bit to realize I was so, so wrong.”

“Oh, yeah, peopling-queen?” she smirked. “Do tell, what did you have in mind as ‘my type’?”

“Well, I saw this video once of a lady who broke a pumpkin in half between her thighs…” I gave her a pointed look.

Next to her, Tyche nodded vigorously. “And more sharp objects.  We both thought your affections could only be won by someone who could best you in single combat.”

Charly scowled. “There are more types of combat than fighting, you two.  I bet Parvati has incited more political uprisings than any four people at this table.” My brows furrowed and I opened my mouth to say something, but Charly rolled her eyes again and cut me off. “Yes, Sophia. I am aware there are only four people at this table. That’s the point.”

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[isaac-d-buchanan]

where: right outside WWN who: Isaac Buchanan and Aila Johnson ( @ailajohnson​ ) why: ( x )

(tw: attempted murder)

Isaac Buchanan

For the past couple of weeks, Isaac had watched Aila from afar, silently observing her routine when he could. By the third day, he had already memorized what time she leaves her house to get to work, the times she goes on breaks, whether she leaves her building or not, and the times she usually leaves the WWN to go home. By then, Isaac could already plan his attack on the broadcaster. Where and when he could strike... what could he do to take her out... It could be so easy. Still, Isaac struggled.

He didn't want to do this at all. But Isaac already stalled as much as he could, incurring another visit from Noah who reminded him just what was at stake if he failed to do his task. This time, he was no longer subtle regarding the consequences that would fall on him should he fail. It was Rosalind's life, his love, at stake. As well as the lives of his father and his father's girlfriend.

After two weeks of keeping himself close to Aila, Isaac decided that it was now or never. He had to act now or else he'll never do it. And that would mean there's going to be a lot more blood in his hands.

On that night, Isaac wore the signature mask of a Death Eater. It hid his identity but he was sure it didn't hide his shame and guilt. Bile threatened to rise from his stomach as he waited in the alley near the Wizarding Wireless Network. What he was supposed to do next was the complete opposite of what Hit-Wizards swore to do. But Isaac was suffocating between a rock and a hard place. And three souls of loved ones felt far heavier than one stranger's. That's exactly why he's waiting for Aila to be alone and off guard.

When she finally appeared, all Isaac had to do was bring his wand up. He'll utter the Unforgivable Spell, causing a bright green light to erupt from the tip of his wand and hit the unsuspecting witch, and all of Noah's threats would go away.

But he didn't. He couldn't. Instead, Isaac just stood there without a sound until finally the witch saw him and the chance to catch her unawares was gone forever.

Aila Johnson

She had heard rumors that Rodolphus was looking for a co-host for her show.  It might have been bullshit.  She hoped it was bullshit, because if the message of her show changed she was out.  Maybe Fabian could help her find a nice job in print.  Or maybe she'd say fuck it all and go work with Rosmerta.  She could make a damn good vodka soda.  A dash of soda and a whole lot of vodka -- it was easy.  Fuck, now she wanted a drink.

She turned to walk in the other direction, but she hesitated when her eyes caught sight of something in the alley.  It took a moment for them to adjust, but as soon as she caught sight of the familiar mask, peering out at her from the darkness, she immediately reached for her wand. This sucked -- dueling had never been her strength.  Sure, she could fire a thousand hexes off at this... man... judging by the figure under the robes.  But unless he was a real idiot he could probably take her.  Was he a Pureblood?  Probably -- sometimes that meant they weren't ready for a fistfight... maybe she could take him by surprise.

"What the fuck do you want?" She  called, far too loudly.  Hopefully she could catch the attention of someone who was still inside.

Isaac Buchanan

Isaac gripped his wand tighter. It was already half raised, ready to take aim at Aila at any second if she chooses to cast the first spell. A part of him did want her to do so. At least then, Isaac would only be defending himself.

Maybe Aila could even injure herself with her own magic. That was some foolish thinking but Isaac couldn't help himself. Panic rose from his chest when she called out. "Keep your voice down," he hissed. The urgency in his voice made up for Isaac's hesitation to sound more intimidating. "Or else," he added as he took a step forward. "I wouldn't do anything stupid, if I were you..." Talking to his victim wasn't making it any easier for him to do the deed but Isaac can't get himself to do it. Not just yet.

As for her question, what did he want? He didn't want to kill Aila. He didn't want to kill anyone. But he wanted Rosalind and his father to be safe above all. "I just want to talk," he lied. Even if he sounded convincing, surely Aila wouldn't believe that, but he didn't know what else to say and he wanted to stall.

Aila Johnson

She had seen a death eater before.  Maybe two or three, even.  But it had been from a distance and there had been other people to back her up.  But from what she remembered they hadn't seemed quite as jumpy as this fucker.  Maybe he was a new one?  Or just bad at his job -- he had to be bad at his job if they sent him after her. She wasn't anyone important.

When he told her to quiet down she laughed outloud.  "What?" She shouted, speaking far louder than necessary.  "What are you saying?  Talk louder?"  She wasn't stupid -- she knew she'd lose in a fight.  Her best chance was to piss him off so he acted stupidly or to get the attention of somewhere else.

“Oh?"  She shifted her tone into a false politeness.  "Oh, is that all?  Well, why didn't you say so?  Lovely weather we're having, isn't it?  Don't be a fucking moron.  If you want to talk take the mask off -- if you don't want to talk then get on with whatever it was you were sent here to do."  Her wand was raised, but she didn't toss any of the hexes that were racing through her mind in his direction.  What was the point?

Isaac Buchanan

"Stop shouting," he hissed, raising his wand even higher and pointing it directly at the broadcaster. He was the one who said that they should talk but immediately, he was already regretting his decision. Her voice was so loud that he was sure that she would attract someone's attention any moment now. And if she did... Isaac would be fucked.

Talking, Isaac realized, was the wrong thing to do. Given that it's precisely why she was being targeted in the first place, Aila could run her mouth as if her life depended on it. And it did. Plus, her voice grated on him, making it harder for him to think. Maybe if she just shut her mouth, things will start to make sense. Maybe if he can finally hear himself think, he'll know what he had to do.

Without any warning, he flicked his wand and aimed a Silencing Charm directly at her.

Aila Johnson

Did he think she was just going to take this silently?  Let him pull a wand out on her without a word spoken in protest?  That made no sense.  "I know you and all your mates are a bit dim, but even you have to be smart enough to see that I'm not going to let you pull a wand out on me and not respond?  Come off it."  She had a big mouth, but she made sure to speak louder than necessary.

It wasn't hard to dodge the first spell.  She had been looking at him, waiting for him to move.  She stepped aside, the flash of light barely missing her.  Without really even bothering to aim she shot a nonverbal stunning spell back at him.  This was going to go however he wanted it to go.  "There a few choices here, far as I'm concerned.  You can walk the fuck away and I don't say a word.  Or I can scream my head off before you manage to do whatever it is you think you're going to do and you can walk away hoping I didn't attract enough attention.  Up to you, mate."

Isaac Buchanan

Did he really expect that Aila wasn't going to fight back? No. But he at least thought that maybe fear and uncertainty would be on his side. Her insults rolled off of him like they were nothing. His focus wasn't exactly on what she was saying rather on the unthinkable task that he had to do.

Muscle memory from years of training allowed him to counter the spell that she threw on his own. In the process of dodging, Isaac managed to step closer to Aila. "I can't. I can't walk away." Even with his voice muffled behind the mask, his desperation, panic, and despair were palpable. He had no doubt that Aila heard it too. But he can't have her screaming too. He'll have to find another way to silence her.

In just a few seconds, Aila's loud voice did manage to attract someone. From behind he could hear urgent footsteps, In a few moments, they wouldn't be alone and Isaac wouldn't be able to do what he's been sent out to do. Or worse... He'll have to make sure that the newcomer wouldn't be able to talk too.

Curse the newcomer... or curse Aila. Given that Aila hasn't thrown more spells, Isaac assumed that she would be easier to handle. But the person turning towards them now? Isaac wouldn't know how good they were at dueling. It was probably best to use the element of surprise on his side and stop the stranger now before he saw anything.

Isaac took a step back. His eyes kept shifting from Aila and the corner of the alley where a shadow on the ground was steadily growing. When the figure finally emerged from the corner, Isaac turned to cause a bright explosion somewhere towards the stranger, supposedly blinding them temporarily.

Aila Johnson

She was hardly the most sensitive person, and she wouldn't try to pretend otherwise.  But the emotion in his voice had her pausing.  He didn't sound like the murder-happy Death Eaters of her imagination.  But rather, he sounded upset.  "Don't know who you've been talking to, but you don't have to do anything you don't want to do."  Her voice was quieter as she said that.

She hadn't realized another person had joined them, had been attracted to the sound of her yelling, until he set a spell over her shoulder.  She wanted to turn, to check that they were okay, but in the split second the Death Eater's eyes were off of her she flicked her wand in his direction.  She had always liked to yell her spells.  The dramatic flair tricking herself at least into feeling more confident.  But silence was important here.  Accio mask she thought to herself, shocked as it worked and the mask flew off his head and into her hand.

"I know you..." she trailed off searching for his name as she took in his face.  "You were a few years above me, right?  Isaac..."

Isaac Buchanan

For a brief moment, Aila almost sounded sympathetic. She dropped her usual bravado for something more cautious. Placating even. Maybe if he had responded with words, things would have turned out differently. Better. But it was too late. Someone was coming and Isaac acted in a way he thought he should have. The spell he cast to create a small explosion turned out to be successful. However, the distraction created an opportunity for Aila to summon his mask to her hand, causing it to fly away and reveal exactly who he was.

When she mentioned his name he knew that it was all over. There was no chance that he could kill her now. Not when she knew who he was. Not when she knew that this wasn't him. Isaac was far from perfect and never in his life did he ever think of himself as a saint. But Merlin knows that he would never even think of ending someone's life under his own volition.

He opened his mouth to speak without knowing what to say. Should he apologize? Attempt to explain? Warn her that people might be after her? Even if he did manage to choose what to say, his throat wouldn't cooperate with him. Isaac felt like he was choking on air. He already knew that both of them were walking out alive in this situation. Which meant that soon, he and his loved ones won't be. His only chance was to get them before they can. And then flee. Somewhere where they will never find them. They have to leave everything and everyone they ever knew and never look back.

With a wave of his wand, Isaac began his attempt to disapparate. There was one thing - and only one thing - left on his mind. Rosalind. For the first time in months, Isaac's head was clear. He knew exactly what to do. He needed to get to her and save her as soon as he could. Nothing else mattered.

Isaac's mind was already conditioned to brace for the push and the pull of apparating into a whole different place. What he didn't expect was for the stranger to tag along. While he was stunned after Aila summoned his mask and revealed his identity, the man managed to sneak up behind him and wrap his arms around his neck. Isaac tried to wriggle himself free but it was already too late. His apparition had already begun. They struggled in the alley for the briefest of moments before they disappeared into the air, leaving Aila alone.