#Sibling fights can be downright bloody.

[mordredhnoc-rp]

Mordred this girl I know (never seen anything worse than a sibling squabble) said that violence is the answer >:(

—Muffin anon

Well, violence can be useful, but I try to treat it as a last resort. Violence often just leads to more violence, and the world has enough as is.

[underdark-dreams]

I just binged all your Rolan x Tav fics on here (about to go to A03 and give kudos ❤️) and just wanted to say 😩😩 Perfect! AND! I saw you wanted suggestions! i would love to see the first interact/first meeting of Rolan and Tav from his POV if you felt inclined! No pressure! Thank you, keep up the good work! ❤️

I've grown so fond of this vague fem Tav I keep pairing with Rolan...so I hope these pronouns are ok for this request! Tav gets her name finally. (Cal and Lia also barged their way into this one in a big way)

Blades and Spells

A sanctimonious soldier isn't Rolan's idea of a good person to know, but is seems Tav is doing her damnedest to prove him wrong. The day of their first meeting at the Grove.

Tags: Fem Tav, Fluff, First Meetings, Sibling Bonding

Word Count: 4,322 [Read on AO3]

"We don't even know these people—"

"They're the closest thing we've got to kin, and you know it!"

The bright and promising midday had been punctured by a bloody ambush at the gate. Kanon was dead—a goblin booyagh's arrow and a nasty fall behind the front wall. No doubt his body was still cooling just a short walk from where the three siblings stood inside the shaded mouth of the Grove.

Their caravan's brief respite was shaken by the attack. Zevlor had retreated to strategize; the other Tieflings were on edge, a few downright panicked, the fresh tension around them only fueling the siblings’ words. 

It had been weeks since he and Lia had a proper fight—Rolan felt all the pent-up anger rolling out now.

Lia stood with fists braced on her hips. "And what about the goblins? I know you're handy with a spell, Rolan, but I seriously don't fancy our chances alone on the Risen Road."

"Did you not see what just happened?" Rolan said, casting an arm behind his sister toward the gate. "That treasure-hunting idiot just led them right down on our heads. There’s bound to be more, and I don’t want us sticking around to find out how many."

"That’s all the more reason to stay!” Lia’s voice rose to match his. “These people aren't fighters, Rolan. We’d be cowards to leave. We can protect them—we should—"

“Or keep making a scene,” Cal said from the sidelines, to no one in particular. The other Tieflings had grown used to their bickering many miles ago.

Lia was undeterred. "Is this about your precious Lorroakan? Because I promise you, Rolan, he'll still be there when we finally get to Baldur's Gate."

Rolan's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Oh of course not, why would I want to achieve my lifelong dream, see my family finally be safe and provided for along the way—"

"Don't put this on me and Cal," his sister warned. "It's all the same excuse, you'd have left these people yesterday—"

"Because they're not my kin!" Rolan practically shouted, not caring how far his voice carried. "No matter how many times you say it! I'm not going to risk all three of our lives, our futures, on people who can't seem to keep themselves alive. How do you think I'd feel if I let anything happen to you? Either of you?"

"We know, Rolan," Cal interjected, trying to bring a little understanding.

"If you care about me and my future—" Lia jabbed a sharp nail at Rolan's chest—"you won't ask me to turn my back on these people when they need our help."

As Rolan opened his mouth to respond, he caught motion in his periphery. He turned to see an unfamiliar face standing at the edge of their conversation. The stranger rested a hand on her sword pommel, looking on quietly curious at the scene.

"Yes?" Rolan snapped at her. Sticking your nose into a private conversation hardly deserved politeness.

“Wait," Cal piped up beside him. “I saw you at the gate after the goblins."

Lia was quick to follow, disagreement all but forgotten. “You fought out there just now?” She sounded practically jealous. “Sweet hells, that must have been a rush. We owe you.”

"Good timing, that’s all," the stranger replied, shifting her weight a little. From real or false modesty Rolan couldn't tell.

He finally recognized her then—the one he saw speaking with Zevlor for quite a while immediately after the attack. Judging by the flecks of wet blood on her equipment, and on that of her companions behind her, these were the surprise reinforcements he'd already heard other refugees chatting about in energetic tones.

They weren't so impressive in person. Scrappy, in Rolan's private judgment. His eyes passed over the pouting cleric, the murderous-looking Githyanki with a massive sword on her back, the elf who was glancing around himself as though trying to decide which element of his current surroundings he disliked most. 

The other wizard looked sane enough, Rolan allowed. He could practically feel the ripples in the Weave all around the man's shoulders. Perhaps Rolan would have a chance at an intelligent conversation in this place after all.

As for the one in front—she smiled pleasantly at Rolan despite having just walked from a goblin ambush. That, to his mind, marked her as the most eccentric of all.

"Tav," she said, extending her sword hand. Rolan glanced down at the dark stains on her fingers.

Wasn't this hovel filthy enough? His clothes already smelled of smoke and grease from days in close quarters; he drew the line at smearing them with goblin blood.

Tav tracked his eyes, letting out an awkward laugh as she moved to wipe her palm on her pants. From beside him, Lia firmly intercepted the handshake.

"Lia. Forgive my brother, you know how wizards are about their robes." His sister's tone was light, but she shot him a look from the corner of her eye. 

As if Rolan cared what some passing stranger thought of him. If he’d had his way, they wouldn't be here to have this conversation at all. But Cal introduced himself as well, looking a bit starstruck.

“Well met,” Tav told them, Rolan included. “Sorry, I know I’m interrupting.”

Perhaps sensing Rolan was about to agree, Lia jumped in. “Please. It’s a pleasure to meet people willing to risk their necks for a bunch of strangers, especially Tieflings. You all heading to Baldur’s Gate?”

“Aye. Same as you, I imagine—”

The inanity was enough to drive Rolan mad; it was like their first days on the road from Elturel all over again. He crossed his arms and zoned out as she and his sister made their meaningless smalltalk. He'd rather get his tail stepped on than do this painful getting-to-know with one more person they’d never see again. 

Then he heard Lorroakan's name, and his ears perked up.

“He’s taken Rolan as an apprentice,” Cal was telling Tav proudly.

"Have you met Archmage Lorroakan?" Rolan asked her, suddenly interested in the conversation again. Tav looked at him with hesitation.

"Not personally. Gale said—" She glanced down the slope deeper into the Grove, and Rolan realized that the companions behind her had all trickled away in the short moment he hadn’t been paying attention. Seeking rest and recuperation, no doubt. "Gale was saying he's heard of him."

The human wizard, Rolan gathered. Hearing a stranger speak the archwizard’s name somehow rekindled the fire in Rolan’s chest, one he hadn’t realized had grown so low on fuel. He clenched his fist beside his robes and felt the crinkle of Lorroakan’s letter there in his pocket.

Tav was regarding him with a quizzical expression. "I mean, if an archmage that famous has an apprenticeship waiting for you…I guess I can’t blame you for wanting to move on sooner than later."

"Naturally," Rolan said, a bit stiff. It annoyed him that this newcomer could see more sense than his own siblings.

Then she continued. "But Lia's right. You three seem like you can handle yourselves, and I'm not sure the same could be said for everyone here. We'll need every fighting soul to defend against that goblin nest. Especially you—" Tav directed the comment to Rolan. "Having another Weave caster could make all the difference."

Well, so much for sense. Speaking of we and us as if they all had the same goals. A transparent tactic. Rolan wasn't sure what altruistic world Tav had waltzed out of, but he'd heard enough rousing speeches on kinship and unity from people like Zevlor to last him a lifetime. He wasn't about to listen to one from a stranger.

She was correct, however, to acknowledge the value of his skills. No one on the road here had displayed anything close to what Rolan knew he was capable of.

He glanced one more time between his siblings. The set of Lia's jaw told him her mind was well made up. Cal just looked hopeful for a resolution.

Rolan swore. "Fine. We've only taken our damn time getting here, what’s a few more days lost? If we’re lucky, we’ll reach the city with a good story, at least."

"Thank you, Rolan." Lia was meek now that she'd gotten her way.

“You must be quite skilled,” added Tav, sizing him up a bit. "To catch the eye of the Archwizard of Baldur's Gate."

Rolan didn’t miss a beat. "I am.” Cal rolled his eyes over Tav’s shoulder, but Rolan ignored him. “I’ve been manipulating the Weave since I was a child.”

“It’s true,” Lia confirmed. Still feeling guilty about winning the fight, perhaps.

“Really?” Tav broke into a grin, clearly impressed. Rolan drank in the admiration. "Good thing you're staying, then."

Behind his pride, Rolan couldn't help but feel a bit manipulated. Perhaps Tav wasn't the unsophisticated sellsword that she’d appeared at first.

"Well, I should go find the crew before they make too much trouble.” Tav was turning to leave before she paused, sheepish. “Say—don’t suppose druids keep a blacksmith around? One of those worgs’ teeth put a big scratch in my baby here.” As she spoke she looked down at the sword belted to her hip, almost like an indulgent parent.

“Dammon can fix you up,” Lia told her at once. “He’s one of us, a Tiefling. And he’s damn good. Take a left down the hill and you can’t miss him. Follow the loud noises,” she added, with a grin to match.

“Cheers,” Tav told her. “See you all later?”

The three of them watched her figure disappear deeper into the Grove. 

"She stabbed a warg right up close,” Lia murmured, sounding morbidly inspired. “That’s incredible.”

Rolan scoffed at her. “Better to kill it from a distance and not damage your most valuable piece of equipment in the process.”

“Hey.” Cal glanced over to his older brother. “Did you even tell her your name?”

Rolan wasn’t concerned. “I’ll tell her later, if she’s still around.” She and her companions would remember his name soon enough—them and all of Baldur's Gate.

—

In these cramped quarters, it didn’t take long before they encountered Tav again. Her hands swung a bit awkwardly at her sides, as if she didn’t know what to do with them. Her scabbard clanked empty against her greaves; presumably, Dammon was hard at work repairing her blade. 

Cal and Lia practically swooped down beside her as she approached. Rolan tried to hide his scowl at their eagerness.

"Have you been around the place yet? Cal and I can show you around, if you’ve got time.”

“I’d like that,” she told them both with a genuine smile. “Perhaps later, if you’re willing? Zevlor told me about your…druid problem. I promised him I’d have a talk with Kagha.”

Who had elected her emissary? Rolan glowered. "I assure you, the druids will tell you it's a foulblood problem."

It wiped the smile from her face, and Rolan found it difficult to feel bad. She wanted to dig through other people's problems? She could get used to uncovering ugly things.

"Yes…well. I'd prefer to keep an open mind," she told him evenly. With another small comment to his brother and sister, she continued on toward the deep clearing where the druids were gathering in preparation for their rite. A place strictly off-limits for Tieflings.

Lia rounded on him. "I swear, you embarrass me worse than Cal sometimes."

Cal frowned. "Hey—"

"Because you care too much about what people think," Rolan answered his sister. "Believe me, she and her people don't care about us. Didn't you hear her little speech before? She only wants more bodies for the fight."

Internally, Rolan was still bristling at the idea that Tav had complimented and cajoled him into staying at the Grove. He didn’t truly believe that was the reason for his decision, but the fact that she’d gotten to him at all unsettled him.

“Come on.” Lia knocked her arm against his playfully, an effort at reconciliation. “I’m just saying, Rolan. It costs nothing to be a bit nicer to people around here.”

Rolan heaved a sigh. Even he was growing weary from all the bickering they’d done today, though he’d never admit that to his sister. “All right. I’ll try, if it makes you happy. But believe me—people like her look after themselves. And I intend to look after us.”

—

Tav hadn’t been in the heart of the Grove for more than ten minutes before she reappeared, practically stomping up the path from the Kagha’s inner sanctum. Apparently the emissary work wasn’t going so well. Without her sword, her hands were clenched at her sides in empty fists. Her expression was thunderous.

“Have you seen Zevlor?” She asked the three of them as she approached, bypassing the smalltalk Rolan was beginning to expect from her. He directed her back toward the carved door in the corner of the cave. 

“Everything all right?” Rolan asked, curious in spite of himself.

Tav exhaled sharp through her nose. “Kagha was having a grand time interrogating a hostage. That little girl, Arabella.”

“What?” Cal’s voice rang with alarm.

“I guess she tried to steal the druids’ carving of Silvanus,” Tav told him. “The one they need for their ceremony. Her mother was nearly out of her mind…the child’s all right,” she added in haste. “Back safe with her parents now, but shaken up.”

Lia quivered with outrage at Rolan’s side. “Thank the hells you intervened.”

“Of course,” Tav replied at once, as if the situation called for nothing less. “I understand it’s the idol of their deity, but by all the gods…Kagha was ready to call her asp down on a terrified child.”

“That fucking viper." 

Cal wasn’t referring to the snake; his siblings both glanced at him in surprise. He was a gentle soul, but if Cal cared about anything, it was protecting the young ones.

Tav seemed of the same mind. “There’s something about her,” she agreed with a dark look. Abruptly, she wheeled on Rolan. “What do you think?”

She sought his opinion as a wizard, he realized. All three of them were watching him, in fact, hanging on for his answer.

“Ritual magic is quite different from the Weave,” Rolan replied carefully. “Especially druidic magic. I don’t have the same feel for it. But Kagha…” 

He cast his mind back to the first day their bedraggled caravan arrived in the Grove. The lot of them exhausted and bloodied after fighting off goblins and gnolls just up the road. Halsin, the massive elf who was then First Druid, squaring his shoulders above the smaller woman who somehow seemed to tower to his same height.

“She’s powerful,” Rolan decided. “Quite. Where it comes from, I couldn’t say.”

Tav was staring at him with an intensity Rolan hadn’t seen on her face yet. She looked far more intimidating than she had to him before. 

But then she let out a thoughtful hum, and her features were back to their usual lightness. “I guess that’s one more reason to find this Halsin sooner rather than later.”

They all watched her take her leave toward Zevlor’s makeshift war room, the stone door sliding shut again behind her.

—

As the sun dipped below the horizon and a stiff evening breeze picked up at the cave’s entrance, Rolan and his siblings settled toward the insulated back wall of the Grove where Okta was tending hearth. Whatever the old woman had simmering in her massive cauldron smelled a bit like damp wool, but the warmth of the coals underneath was toasty and wonderful against the skin on Rolan’s face and hands.

Cal and Lia were in wistful discussion on either side of him—something about which landmarks of the city they wanted to visit first. Rolan let the feel of the conversation wash over him without hearing the words. His eyes were on the glowing coals, but his mind was also on Baldur's Gate—that and its great archwizard. 

You are fortunate, young Rolan. The flourish with which Lorroakan had written his name floated through his mind's eye. Even the parchment itself was heavy and fine, almost promising of better things. Rolan’s fingers brushed the hip pocket of his robes again as if to assure himself. He still carried the letter with him everywhere, though he’d long since memorized its contents.

From behind him Rolan heard the sounds of a friendly disagreement and turned to look. Tav again. He shouldn’t be surprised; the woman seemed to be everywhere today. 

Across the path, she was engaged in a polite argument with Dammon at his tent. The smith held a hand up as if refusing something. Rolan caught sight of the polished sword pommel back in her scabbard once more, and surmised that Dammon must be turning down payment for the repair job after her help at the gate today. That seemed like his chivalrous style. 

Indeed, Rolan watched her tuck her leather coin purse away and offer a hand instead. Dammon accepted and shook it with a warm smile.

As he continued watching, the two struck up a friendly conversation. Rolan supposed a soldier would find much more to talk about with a smith than with an apprentice wizard. Her hand was draped at rest over her sword hilt again; that seemed to be an idle habit of hers. 

He remembered the city guard back in Elturel displaying the same gesture while posted at watch, and wondered whether she might be in a similar line of work. Back in…wherever it was she hailed from.

Insipid questions that Rolan nevertheless filed away in his mind to ask her at some point. If nothing else, it would make Lia happy to see him making an effort. Being nice.

Rolan glanced again at the dark stains on her fingers. She hadn't taken time to wash and rest yet since the fight. It was all over her, goblin blood and human, small flecks of it visible on her clothing and chestplate and even on the side of her face. Didn't she find it unpleasant? It would drive him mad. But it didn't seem to concern her, and Dammon certainly didn't look bothered.

The smith said something that made her laugh then, and a dimple appeared in Tav's blood-spattered cheek.

Dammon had an easy way about him that always seemed to earn him fast friends. Right now, Rolan found he was a bit envious of the trait. He didn't intend to come off as such a prickly ass, as Lia so affectionately liked to call him—though time and again he seemed to manage it. 

The constant setbacks between them and Baldur's Gate had just soured Rolan's mood in recent weeks, he told himself. His apprenticeship was all his mind could dwell on at rest, and each delay was harder to bear than the last.

But none of that was really Tav's fault. Inwardly, he could admit that Lia would have talked him into staying on her own anyway. Rolan found himself hoping that he'd made a non-terrible impression on the newcomer.

An elbow in his ribs broke his line of thought. "What?" Rolan looked around, rubbing the spot with a hand.

"I said, you're staring," Cal repeated. He and Lia were both looking at him—Rolan didn't like the expression on either face.

"Shut up," he said, though neither of them had spoken. "She's got blood all over her, who wouldn't?"

"I'm just saying." Cal put up both palms, his eyebrows raised. "From your face, you didn't seem that put off."

"Maybe she’d like to see your Thunderwave, Rolan," his sister suggested.

"You're both idiots." Rolan turned around with arms crossed, watching Okta pluck a dead chicken as though it might be interesting. The idiots on either side were not so easily deterred.

"There’s something about a woman in armor, isn't there, Cal?"

"I've always thought so." Cal leaned a forearm on Rolan's shoulder, sounding quite sincere. "Hey, you could offer to magic the bloodstains off her stuff for her. Use that presto—presti—"

"Prestidigitation," Rolan supplied, eyes still on Okta's cooking. A shockingly good idea from Cal. But it would be strange to offer that to a person he'd just met; Rolan dismissed the thought.

"She should've just taken the time to clean it herself before it all dried," Rolan said aloud. "The way her companions did, no doubt. Instead of running back and forth back here all day."

"Yeah," Lia drawled. "Saving little girls from pit vipers. What a waste of time."

“Well, only one way to find out if she’s interested.” Cal turned around and cupped a hand to his mouth. “Hey, Tav—”

Rolan would have smacked the back of his brother’s head had the woman not already turned toward the sound of her name. She approached their spot near the hearth looking politely curious.

“Lia was just wondering,” Cal started in—leaving Rolan’s name out of it, a smart choice for his skull— “won’t it take a long time to get all the stains out of your armor?” 

“Oh.” Tav sounded taken aback, but glanced down at herself as if just now noticing the state of her equipment. “Oh yeah, this’ll cost me a good half hour at least. And probably both my elbows,” she added with chagrin. “Damn. Got distracted by everything, I guess.”

“Because Rolan can magic it off in a second,” Lia said in a rush.

"Really?" Far from averse, she was looking at Rolan with sudden enthusiasm. "I didn’t know magic could—I mean, of course it can. I guess. Why, are you offering…?” She glanced between him and his siblings then, as if finally picking up on the strange energy between them.

Rolan felt all three pairs of eyes come to rest on him. He could hardly back out now. “If you’re interested,” he told her.

“Hells yes,” Tav laughed. “Are you kidding?”

Lia clapped her hands together softly. “Excellent. Well, since Tav’s interested—” She placed a strange emphasis on the word, one Rolan hoped only he noticed— “Cal and I should get going to set up camp. See you both later?”

“Right,” Cal agreed at once. With that, the pair of them slipped off in a few flicks of the tail. 

What a couple of damned children. Rolan let out a heavy sigh; they seemed determined to try every last slip of patience he had.

Tav followed him to a spot closer to the back corner of the Grove, a bit removed from the sounds and smells. A stream of cool air seeped in from somewhere outside the walls, and Rolan breathed in gratefully. He had found it hard to concentrate in the stale surroundings of this place.

“Right.” She stood opposite him, looking a bit unsure. “How does this work, exactly?”

“Just keep still,” Rolan advised her. This would be easier if she took off the pieces of her half-plate first, but asking her to do that seemed unthinkably familiar.

She did as he directed. “Sure you’re not going to transform me into a pigeon or something? Give me wings?”

“This is the simplest spell there is, I’m not an idiot.” Rolan’s tone was irritable, but it only made her laugh. He realized that she was teasing him.

Regardless, Rolan steadied his stance and reached out to the Weave. Whether or not it was technically correct, it was the way he’d taught himself. 

Breathe in—quiet each thought—feel the air above and the ground below—

Like a warm embrace from the oldest friend, the Weave flowed as a golden light into his cupped hand. Rolan formed the clear intention in his mind and guided the magic toward her. 

“It tickles,” Tav said in surprise, but he could tell she was doing her best to keep still. Her eyes were squeezed shut for some reason.

Rolan blinked at her, not sure how long she had expected this to take. “You can—it’s done.”

“Really?” Tav looked across her chest and shoulders and the greaves on her legs, admiring their new shine. “Wow…neat trick, that. So you’re saying Gale’s been watching us polish our armor and weapons every night when he could just use the Weave for two seconds?”

“The manipulation does take energy,” Rolan told her, not wanting to discredit a fellow wizard while he wasn’t here to defend himself.

Her expression changed a bit. Then she reached a hand to his shoulder. “Thanks for this, Rolan. It might be simple to you, but—” She dropped her arm and cast around with a tired laugh. “Life has honestly been…kind of terrible lately. Thank you for making it better.”

Rolan felt he could stand to hear more of that story, but he doubted she'd want to tell it. “You’re welcome,” he told her instead.

It was a bit awkward traveling back through the winding Grove together toward the entrance, but it could hardly be avoided. Their camps were both in the same direction.

The night patrol were watching vigilantly from the wall; the massive carved gate raised before them as if in anticipation. Rolan stepped out into the dark, cool evening with another grateful breath.

Beside him, Tav sighed wearily. "Well, 'night. Off to enjoy my extra sleep," she said with another smile to him before she turned away.

No such easy goodnight for him, Rolan knew. He imagined Cal and Lia perching awake on their bedrolls, eager to hear what chaos or embarrassment or both their meddling had caused for him this time. 

More concerning to him right now was the way his shoulder seemed to radiate where she'd placed a grateful hand before. Rolan rolled his arm a little, trying to shake the tingling warmth near his collar bone. It didn't quite work.

But perhaps he'd think about that tomorrow.

[yohohonabottle]

The Old Gods Au - Pirin & his two fools

Taken from my chat with @bunnybird-afk!

"And that actually gets me thinking about an au I've been thinking about called the 'Old Gods AU' where the Divine War/Immortal War never happened.

Sena still become The People's God and the Dusk Prince. And now all I'm thinking about is how absolutely terrifying Pirin and Sena would be if they had been allowed to grow up without the trauma that those wars caused.

The Dusk Lord 'gifting' Pirin to Sena as a herald/sentinel and the two becoming genuinely inseparable.

Rumors spread about how The People's God seems to know everything happening in his domain no matter how small (it's cause of Pirin). That he has a the uncanny ability to know everything about you at just a glance (he does). And that his retainer is terrifyingly loyal and competent, easily capable of handling even the toughest fights on his lords behalf (because the idea of Pirin growing up being raised and trained by his father to be a herald.

Being taught all the sublties of his duties by his mother. You just know our boy is the PERFECT herald for Sena.)"-Mika

"Pirin already on his own at very base level is stupidly formidable (Species), (Base lv skillset, learnt on his own.) but with his Father teaching him?

You know Ekchauh, and his fighting. Plus him being the Setting Sun's familiar/herald-- He's driven to be even better at what he's indisputably a prodigy near unparalleled. (Similar to 'Liya on the Sunseek arena ring. Plus his parents.)

And his whole bloodline is literally about War/Military/Combat/Hunting.

Ain't no way he'll let his son be a weakling. Or a bad Tooth. Ekchauh will be sure his boy is THE best of THE best of warriors period. Even surpass him and the Baleful beasts. (Rin will absolutely hate it tho. All this enormous pressure, and he doesn't have his dad's general affnity for war/conflict. Unless furious. Then he's 1-1 copy of him.) Then add in Larra and her own mastery. Plus Vladymir and Maya/"Mamaya" -Eldest siblings, 'cause of course they'd want their Nightingale to be the utter best!

And since they know he's been chosen to become a Tooth/Arrow by the god himself? They go to town. It really reaches a point where Pirin becomes THE most capable, strongest warrior of All.

Forged and honed, not an centimeter of his body and skin untouched. He'll be covered in scars of all kinds all over. And also spy/Overseer/Diplomat. Because Larra has made sure her son trumps above their bloodline. Just as her Bonded/hubby.

So yes, he'll be perfect for Malak's Eye/Arrow -Herald. But the compassion would be lowered so much. The mellower elements toned down and hardened to steel you can't break. See Ekchauh, Soren and Arlecchino + Marionet." -Finch

"Pirin is going to be so shook when he realizes that Malak is a compassionate and kind god despite his affinity for combat and magic. Like their dynamic is so going to be,

"My lord may be a merciful god, but I assure you that I am not."

Like you mentioned Ekchauh being unforgiving of blasphemy, so imagine Pirin being downright ruthless towards anyone who slanders his patron."-Mika

'"....And The gods, Celestials, Hypogeans better watch out. Or mind it around Malak. Because otherwise his herald will curb stomp them all. Really battered, bloodied, but triumph from the many vs one.

Merlin stands not even 0.0000001 chance of winning. Or any mortal.

....And then this terrifying warrior behemoth falls for Valen or Sinbad of all people. Like everyone would be one beat away from a heart-attack or pissing/shitting themselves at just seeing this one night nymph. Or book it for the hills at hearing his voice/gets a coldly grim look.. at somehow slandering his Patron.

But here Valen is, this playboy drunkard, weasel lil smhmuck-- Able to chill and prance around this Gladiator freely.

Same as Sinbad.

And actively BRAGGING about it. No shame. Man just knows nobody can do anything to him, not with having to face THIS. (Tho he does get floored by his Dove, 99% of the time with a very simple one-liners.)

And also knows to not cross any lines... or he'll get a hard slap on the wrist. (Not as harsh as Malak slandering louts do. But not very light either)."-Finch

"Sena being in Dura's domain for business and brings Pirin along. And while they're there, Sena decides to mingle a bit with the locals, disguised as a mortals.

And things are going normally until this random knight starts absolutely flirting with Pirin in the most casual way possible.

And Pirin is like 🤨 because he's on duty, except Malak just chuckles and gives him a look letting him know he can relax and just handle it however he wants. And well, Pirin isn't UNinterested...

But lol, I just know Pirin was fighting the urge to skin Sinbad (and half of Rustport) alive during the first half of the WOI plot. Like sure they didn't KNOW they were messing with a god and his familiar, but still! Then afterwards he can't really do anything because Malak pardoned them, so instead he has to play nice with this seagull looking basta- wait, why is he blushing like that?!"- Mika

(((Also "Seagull looking bastard" 😂😂))) Not Sinbad kinda pulling up with a damn Flyn Rider move 😂 (((You can't look me in the eye and tell me this idiot won't be turned on by Rin being his ruthless self. The filthy lil freak would be imagining all the ways he'll be dominated. And blushing hard.)))- Finch

"Cue him getting """adopted""" into his Dove's family, and be really nervous around Ekchauh with how he's side-eying him for dating his son. And later becoming in-law.

Val would be sweating buckets if not waterfalls and rivers 😂 Sinbad too.)

Then both get put through the ringer by their father-in law. (A good sign, means he finally accepted them and their relationship w his son.) Ain't no way he'll let these two "louts" be "slackers"/and or weaklings to their Bonded. Absolutely hell no.

And that's how Valen and Sinbad became nearly on their Angel's level of prowess. Only second close to him.

(Suddenly the General isn't that much of bother figure or the Order's line of work so annoying.

And Valen comes back as a WARRIOR who can and does wipe out a single enemy squadron -- And get out unscathed.

This knight, walks in the battle like mf Terminator. Same as Sinbad. Anyone hear him or that he's involved? See this man coming? NOPE. Peace out or White flag to save themselves the Deathwish.) Everyone much prefers Valen being playful, flirty, carefree and chill to him going serious/ angry. (Same goes for Sin.)" -Finch

"And Sinbad will also suddenly see being chased around as a nuisance. Or choose to bite back his bullies, Ekchauh's training is making everything else in Rustport look like a JOKE. Yes even Lucca and the Whispers. Or the Dead Tide and Water Wights.

I can guarantee he (Pirin's dad) made both Valen and Sinbad climb the damn mountain, to the summit and back down.

'To hone endurance and stamina. Along with resistance to heights/temp difference or prevent astma/beat out astma.'

And this is a part + the Ironjaw """marathon""" from 3AM ass crack of dawn to 17-18PM in the afternoon. Every day consistent training. STANDARD training mind you. Not advanced.

The whole regime is something like- Ironjaw marathon, Summit climbing, A break somewhere in there to catch their breath (traveling back and forth counted in it) + quick eat/drink/ nature calling, Hand to hand combat in 1v1 + 1+ v1 (with and without close-range weapons), ranged combat- (Spears, archery & other ranged weapons).

And that's only one regime for all those months the duo spends with the fam during their visit to 'em." -Finch

"Lmao, these boys are being put through the absolute RINGER. Like they even Val's knight training has absolutely nothing on this. And poor Sinbad has never had to work this had in his life. And now they're getting trained by THE most competent and hardworking warrior clan in Esperia.

Like legit, these boys think they're going to die most of the time and Pirin is just jokingly like, "Then perish" cause he went through this AS A FLEDGLING and he was fine!" -Mika

Hogan: "You're... Unusually keen on paperwork today Valen?"

Val: "General, do you know what's its like to be woken up at 3am to get chased around by an Ironjaw because your future father in law thinks you need the practice, all because you sighed once after a fight and he though it meant you have bad stamina?" (-Mika)

Hugin: "What happened? Why're you hauling cannons around?! And how by Tritonus did you get this fast!? Not even Magister Merlin can catch you!"

Sin: (Casually moving the cannons & supplies around the workshop as he'd been asked like it's just a couple of logs.)

"My father-in law makes me wake up at the damn crack of dawn, just to get chased by those bull-lizards all day. Then climb up the entire goddamn mountain, and I have do it fast or else morning would come- And I'm still somewhere at the FOOT.

Don't get me started on the whole 'climb down the mountain at dawn the next day, just to get jumped and punted in a fighting training.

And, OF Course, CLIMB that damn mountain UP again!"

"The boys are so damn tired, but lol, imagine they see Pirin and Sena actually fight together for real and are forced to realize that they genuinely do not stack up to their hubby and his patron what-so-ever. And that motivating them to work a little harder. 😂"-Mika

"And terrify everyone else in the process with how much of beast they're becoming/already are.

This is some god of war type of nonsense

...And then Rin becomes friends with Ludovic. (Poor young Graveborn earl will never know peace. ..

You think he'd be spared? HAH! No.

Remember, Pirin- Ekchauh's own son, was put through this ridiculous """hell""" from a youngling. A KID, younger than 'Vic.)"-Finch

OhHO, this noble kid gets added to the list of trainees. (Pirin and his siblings join Valen, Sinbad and Ludovic for the training as solidarity.)

"Yo, Sena joining in just for the fun of it and he and Pirin make it look so easy that Val, Sin and Lu are just looking at each other like "wtf???" cause they are STRUGGLING." -Mika

"10-20 years and the three get kinda used to it. Absolute MONSTERS on the field." -Finch

"Legit though! Like if they could survive Ekchauh's training, they can survive anything. Not to mention every enemy feels like absolute child's play when they compare it to sparring with Pirin and Ekchauh and even Sena at some point."-Mika

"Don't forget Vladymir and Maya. Or Iyan and Kallina.

I can see Lud actually take to his friend's family, and decide 'Yup. I'm of house Hestios now henceforth.' bc his legit fam or whoever's left of it are... embarassments. I imagine the Crusades still happened buuut retribution was swift.

And they, like some fools, funded the damn crusades. Like so many other noble families did.( very few held back or didn't join the bandwagon)" -Finch

"Yoo. Sena and The Dusk Lord being around to literally enact divine retribution over that. Like it is the perfect excuse to let Pirin and Malak go full on 'no mercy' mode.

And them reassuring Vic that they don't blame him for his families actions and that he's always welcome to join their family instead."-Mika

"I am Ludovic, son of the Eclipse, house Hestios." -Finch

------

They'd have a heart-attack indeed if she does from freaking out they're dead/boutta get murked by her. And then see love she goes back to total sweetling after this warning.

...Unlike Pirin and Vlaymir. Who keep hurling insults at each other and cussing each other like petty idiots. And their play-fights that are full on wrestling.

Like how Vladymir snuck up on his younger bro and jump-scared him by whistling (shouting equivalent) in his ear. A prank. Only for Pirin to have none of his bs and elbow him hard in the chest. Or whirl around sharply and aim a real nasty suckerpunch at his throat/chest/collarbone.

And just laughing heartily as he blocks the attack + flurry of follow-up strikes, tossing a strike of his own at times. (Which his younger sibling takes like a damn champ - just as he did as a kid- or blocks it and goes off on offense.)

While yelling/ hissing and gritting out a colorful storm of cussing. In Night nymph, in Bulgarian -Some real serious vile and vulgar stuff- in common Esperian, in French-- And that man's cackling/dissing back like it's nothing. (Val & Sin have learned all 3 lingos by that point from being in the family/ hanging out & visiting so often for the banquets & get togethers. So they understand ALL of it, shocked and stunned speechless. These two are brothers! They shouldn't act and talk to each other like this! What kind of playing-??? HUH!??

And then Larra's voice cuts through in a single sharp but low, mildly high-pitched whistle. ("Boys.") And suddenly both "idiots" freeze, instantly shut up and end the wrestling. Tho Vanya throws Vlado a mean annoyed glare/ quick side-eye.

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Shadow Into Light (Lena Restrospective) Finale!: Lena In Season 3! (Commission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people and welcome to the FINAL part of my look at the life and times of Lena Sabrewing. It’s been a long and satsifying journey through the character’s rich arc and some of Ducktales 2017′s best episodes. Lena started as a tourtured but complacient teen willing to do bloody awful evil things if it meant her freedom, who through the power of love and friendship realized what she was doing wrong, that she loved Webby and turned on Magica... and after a brief stint of this going horribly wrong a magica simply just bodyjacked her, she sacrificed herself for Webby he story seemingly done. Of course it wasn’t, Disney woudln’t let them kill a teenager... fully grown lion men horrifcally decaying indiana jones style yeah, of course it’s disney, but killing a teen is where they draw the line. Point is Lena was merley trapped in the shadow realm with a bunch of those guys Yugi beat and with the help of everyone’s faviorte stoic hummingbird, freed Lena. Lena found new family in Violet.. but also found dying is easy but living is harder and had to wrestle with both her fears of turning out like Magica and Magica herself who naturally was gaslighting her to try and get the last scraps of her power back. We also took a detour or two to see where she came from: looking at both Minima De Spell and her rivalry with a 34 year pretending to be a small child, and Magica’s Shadow whose like Lena except almost nothing like Lena. We also took a look at her one comic apperance which was never released here for some reason and was incredibly disapointing. 

So yeah i’ts been one long, fun ride filled with gay subtext, launchpad’s spider sense, giant legs, movie refrences from warriors to jaws to nightmare on elm street 3: the dream warriors, toddlers who look and probably are 34, launchpad apparently huffing enough paint to damage his brain as that’s the only way to explain the terror of the terrafirmains subplot and gay subtext. I’ve enjoyed every step of the way so before I take the last one of those steps, i’d like to thank all of ya for reading this. I’ve gained at least 10 if not more followers off this series alone and I appricate all of you. I’d also like to thank Kev for directly comissioning this, keeping me in work and in x-men comics since 2020. 

As you can probably guess by the title.. this one’s a bit different. This is a combination of two things: The first is that i already reviewed “The Phantom and the Sorceress” when I was reviewing each episode of Season 3 as it came out.  My thoughts have not changed  at all so I felt redoing that review would be redudant and a waste of Kev’s money. The same goes for Split Sword, which has the extra issue of  being a three story episode with only one of the parts starring the focus of this retrospective. The second is while she shows up about the same amount as season 2, her apperances in season 3 outside of her Christmas Cameo are all more substaial outside of her two starring roles. Both COTHJSW and The Last Adventure shed some more light on our faviorite shadow and feel like natural evolutions of her character so it felt wrong to just flat out ignore them. 

So rather than do a full review of the episodes i’m just going to go into Lena’s apperances for Season 3. This way I can cover Phantom again without fully repeating myself, and fully track the last steps Lena takes as the series closes out in a fresh and hopefully enjoyable way. So join me under the cut for one last step into the shadows as we finish bringing Lena into the light. 

Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks!

Challenge was one of the very first Ducktales I ever talked about on here, alongside Quack Pack, so it’s quite a trip returning to it a year later, even if i’ts just my memories of it. It’s also an excellent episode, with a great and engaging main plot and a “it’s just kind of there” subplot. 

It’s also one of the only three episodes to focus on Violet, and one of only two that focuses just on her and not on Lena in any way. It is a shame: While I love Lena as a character, I wouldn’t of just spent several weeks talking about her if I wasn’t getting paid for this retrospective or not, Violet is equally intriguing and so i’ll be taking a second out to talk about her as I really HAVEN’T gone into her character this retrospective and given how important she is to Lena and to all of us, most Lena fans like Violet just as much and vice versa. I’ll still be talking about Lena in this episode, obviously, but I feel her sister from two misters deserves some time in the spotlight too as the show only gave her three episodes, and one was more focused on Webby and Lena by design and the other we’ll get to. 

Violet is an excellent character. She speaks well and with little emotion but that’s just how she is and she’s never called out for it or insulted, something I like. Likewise she dosen’t judge others, never really batting an eye at the rest of the groups own quirks and at most being freaked out by leg huey a bit. She’s just a kind, curious, intellgent young lady. 

And this episode shows that off: We get to see her in the spotlight of her own, every bit the Woodchuck Huey is and more, but still supporting and encouring him, seeing their contest as a friendly one and putting no stakes into it as she’s failed before, she can fail again. What matters is she get back up and keep going. Her “razzing” is also just downright adorable, and nicely shows off her and Lena’s new dynamic: they’ve gone from friends to siblings, something really not shown off last time and something that wason’t confirmed on screen till now but it just works naturally, the cool and collected but chaotic underneath that lena just plays perfectly off the uttelry calm and deadpan violet. It’s a natural, perfect dynamic that they clearly had mapped out from the beggining and simply had to build up to that. 

Her genuine shock at Huey’s betryal... hurts the heart, as she genuinely thinks it’s her fault and not just my boy having a panic attack and doing something questionable. But it also shows her character.. when givne the same opprunity and no guilt for it, he struck first.. she dosen’t. She saves him because it’s the right thing to do and shows Huey she really is the bettter woodchuck.. but htere’s no shame in it. It’s okay to fail, what matters is you keep trying. And as a result despite giving Huey the opporunity to win with her.. he turns it down. She gets a deserved win, celebrating with her family and just wearing the most adorable smile. She also just has.. buckets of chemistry with Huey. I mean it was apparent to me with the whole Library Scene in Nightmare but god damn do they ramp it up with this one. They just contrast each other perfectly here, the handshake is adorable and he clings to her.. while also being hilarious “I naturlaly defer to authority!”. I will take this ship to my grave, and fully support it... that being said if you ship Huey/Boyd or all three togehter, go for it man. I do the latter sometimes. Your good. You didn’t need me to tell that but sometimes shipping discorse can get downright ugly so rather than make it a war between two ships, I just wanted to offer an olive branch for once you know? Same with Weblena. I obviously adore that ship but if you have a non-boys ship with her, tha’ts cool too. Ship what you want to.. i’m just doing me through this retrospective. 

Now back to Lena. Her apperance in this episode is really heartwarming and really nice after all the shit she’s been through. This is the first episode she’s in where NOTHING bad happens to her. No really, every apperance, even her two cameos had her suffer in some way. She spent the entire first season grappling with Magica, and her season 2 apperances trapped in a shadow dimension and nearly loosing her girlfriend to her own jealously, horrifically stalked by her abuser using her own self doubt against her, attacked by a literal tempest in a tea pot and captured by aliens. The girl has not gone one friggin onscreen break since the series started and probably not many off it either. 

Here? She just gets to cheer her little sister, proudly celebrating both her and her new dads. She gets to teach her sister to trash talk, even if that ends up backfiring a bit but she meant well. And she gets to celebrate with her family when her little sister wins. It’s all small stuff.. but it’s all things she’s NEVER had. A sibling to be proud of and support. Dads to sit with and go places with. A family to celebrate things with. This is all pretty normal stuff, but not something everyone gets to have and something Lena NEVER had even remotely. But now she’ll ALWAYS have that. A supportive loving family to give her a place to belong, and to support in turn. After a nightmarish 14-15 years of existance, she’s FINALLY allowed to just be happy without having to fight a giant monster first. 

She’s finally made it, she’s hoped and she’s waited, for the first time in her life she dosen’t feel alone. Her hearts started to heal, to know this is real, this is how it feels.. to have a home. Yes I haven’t given up on that song. And if you think this is the last time i’m going to quote a song you clearly didn’t read the review I did of the next episode. 

The Phantom and the Sorceress:

Season 3′s primary focus outside of the FOWL plot was tying up loose ends. Pretty much every major recurring episode outside of Fethry got an episode tying up their character arc and of course Lena was no exception.

You’d think with Magica no longer a threat to her and having fully accepted she’s a good person now, and having found a place to belong that Lena was done.  But while she accepted her past, that she’s not magica, and that she deserves to be happy.. she never accepted Magic as part of her despite being made of it and that’s what this episode ties up as well as the mystery of the blue aura that surronded her magic at times. 

The episode starts with Lena’s amulet, which she has back now which is the only part of this episode I don’t like as they don’t really explain why she’d take it back from Violet. But her magic keeps goofing up and making Sleepovers dangerous, and gets Scrooge grousing about how magic is bad.. only to naturally backpedal when an angry Webby points out Lena is magic. He does amend things and genuinely apologize for it, having not meant her at all and not even thinking of her as part of his hatred of the stuff. It also shows why Lena likely didn’t take him up on his offer.. with her self loathing still going she probably thought he was just pitting her and would always resent her.. when really he just geninely did not care despite his overwhelming hate of magic. It worked out granted, she found a better fit for her family wise.

But Lena hates it too.. and while she hasn’t fully brought it up before it makes perfect sense: We saw how she viewed it as dangerous and not worth the risk to bring her back in Friendship Hates Magic and Magic has brought her nothing but pain, nearly killing her on several occasions, allowing magica to fuck with her head  or directly control her and general putting the one person she cares about more than anyone in harms way. She hates what she is.. because it’s brought her nothing but pain and misery. She has ever reason to resent it..

Yet this episode is about forcing her to accept it.... to realize that Magic is part of who she is, and that it’s not inherently good or bad, it’s all about the intent of who uses it. Her last two uses of it were not made with any malice and in fact using it to pull her friends into her dreams allowed her to break free of Magica. 

And it’s perfectly done by giving her a new enemy, something I REALLY wish tehy’d done with Fenton at some point, but get why it took this long with Lena: The Phantom Blot. The Phantom Blot, like many characters in this series is HEAVILY redone: he keeps the iconic look and threat level but instead of being an operatic supervillian, he’s an anti-villian with a link to magic he never really had before. He works with FOWL sure but it’s likely because unlike the rest of FOWL he actually agrees with Bradford’s goal for a less chaotic world and his desire to wipe out magic is perfectly in line with that. 

He’s also given a backstory that perfectly parallels him with Lena: Both were created by Magica in a way and horribly abused by her: Lena mentally and phsycially, and Blot by having to suffer under her rule after he took over her family and then barely survivie as she wiped out his villiage, his family and his normal life swearing vengance on her. LIke Lena magica didn’t care about him or see him as a threat, figuring like most people who swore eteneral vengance on her he’d get swatted down like a gnat once and never return. INstead he returned again and again and again for decades, learning each time getting stronger and wiping out more magic along the way. He went from what was probably a good normal person to a vengeful vigliante dedicated to wiping out magic good or bad because he can’t concieve that it isn’t ALL bad. He’s easily what Lena could’ve become if , ironically enough she hadn’t encountered him, seeing the end result of hating something just for what it is as it tried to murder her. That hating and resenting Magic would just lead her to become as hollow and vengful as the blot, having a good cause to start.. but slowly loosing yourself to hate and anger. Letting the person who ruined your life still control it simply by focusing all your energy on hating them and people like them. 

It also gives us an interesting and painful teamup as with the boys and Scrogoe stuck in another dimension, there’s only one person they can turn to deal with Magic: Magica herself, whose resulted to depression eating pizza and the most she can do as a threat is eat the garlic Violet was wearing in case of vampires (”There now your susceptible to vampires!” is easily the best joke of the episode, from how Magica eats the garlic in one bite to her manical laugh to Violet just being annoyed rather than terrified or anything). Magica only agrees because they have a common enemy and if he sucks up her magic amulet, that’s the end of any magic she has left. 

It’s also here we learn the reason for the blue and purple color coding: Duckworld magic is indeed color coded.. but rather than be based ont he emotions used or anything.. it’s based on the user. The purple is Magica, and as we later learn Poe’s, magic, and thus Lena borrowing it via the amulet. The Blue is HER magic. Tapping into her emotions and her own inante power. It’s a nice twist I didn’t see coming but makes absolute sense in hindsight: Every time she’s triggered it.. it’s been when she’s been using her own emotions and been doing thigns for her own good, and not for anyone elses. It also explains why the Magica powers aren’t working for her or stable: their not HERS to control and thus are fighting her. 

So she trains to use her own using the time honorted traditions of montages and having your sibling shoot things at you out of a magical amulet. She grows in her talent and power and herself, even if she learns from the person she hates more and comes to accept magic.. in time to fight the Blot who misguidedly thinks harming her will show Magica the pain he felt.. even though as we learn later that ship already sailed and we already knew she cares nothing for Lena. 

But as he drains her amulet... she focuses on what she cares about... and if we didn’t already ahvea  MOUNTAIN of subtext for webby and lena her “frienddship” montage has maybe one or two shots of her sister.. and about 80 of webby. Seriously they.. they weren’t even hiding it at this poitn outside of the finale, which we’ll get to. 

And so she takes hold of her magic, no longer need the amulet to channel it and taking on her super mode! Which was highly contreversal at the time.  BUt I get why. As a transformation, ala dragon ball, and a superhero type costume it works, giving her a power and grandeur not seen before and showing she’s using all of it, giving weight to when it only shows up in the finale when she needs it most and likely would’ve given it weight any other time it showed up. But it wasn’t clear if this was her permenant look now and Frank’s response to it was to say he wanted to dress everyone up in that outfit , at the same size Lena has it, including launchpad wearing it like a cape. Which while hilarious and it was, was also blatant trolling as her return in Split Sword showed it wasn’t her default form, and they could relax. But as a form showing the apex of her power, character development and confidence, it works and has all the drama i’d expect from a form like this, reflecting the blot’s power back onto him and overloading the gauntlet and facing down Magica easily. 

It’s the perfect way to cap things off... Lena finally acccepts herslef as she is fully: she’s not evil and neither is magic.. magic is a part of her and her power is not something to hate.. but to embrace. To use to protect the world from people LIKE Magica who would misue their power to harm others or the blot who belivie her power is inherently evil. This is a lena freed from the chains of self hatred, fully accepted. It turns her story into a wonderful, beautiful story of escaping abuse and accepting yourself as who you are, that no matter what you are or where you come from, you are beautiful, you are good and you can do good. And as she flies off with her sister and girlfriend, she’s finally, fully, truly at peace with who she was who she is now and flies into the future.. and to free her girlfirends dad from another dimension. Nothing is holding her back now, no one can push her around, she’s who she wants to be, she’s the master of her, and the thoughts enough to lift her off of the ground. She and Webby are independent together and they are flying. And yes i’m linking the song again. 

But even with her character Arc Wrapped she still could support others in their own growth. Case in point:

The Split Sword of Swanstantine!

This was the vingette episode, with a pair of the kids, one from Team Magic the other from the Duck Boys, going after a piece. And while Violet’s segment is neat it dosent’ really expand on her enough for me to go into it like I did with Challenge, so i’ll only be covering the cold open and Lena and Huey’s segment. Given these two are some of my faviorites, Lena hasn’t really gotten to have any meaningful interactoins with anyone besides Webby, Violet and Magica (And scrooge but for like.. two minutes), and this bit is really creative and intresting I loved it. It also has Steelbeak so I got a nice Jason Mantzokus fix on top of that despite him barely getting to speak in this one.. and really all season. Season 3 REALLY wasted Steelbeak, only using him three times and just ignoring the whole idea of him growing more compitent with time. Maybe Frank’s saving that for darkwing duck if he gets to do that I dunno. At least Invincible and Close Enough are using the man properly so I got that. 

THe setup to the episode as a whole is comedic gold: Scrooge has taken the kids to Monocrow to find the split sword, one of the missing mysteries before FOWl.. only to then realizze in one of the best jokes of the season, after HOURS of plane travel probably that Violet and Lena had also come along having slept over and thus spending the episode in their sleep clothes. As Violet puts it in LIebe’s best delivery of the series “You said eveyrone get on the plane so we got on the plane”. So, fricking relatable. Scrooge’s awkard “Do you.. like history?” is also great, David is a treasure, as if he’s just now realizing he really dosen’t know Webby’s closest friend and girlfriend and is scrambling for some common ground so he can stop talking. 1/2′s good enough and we’re off. 

Lena and Huey’s plot, the final one of the three, likewise has a simple setup: Huey finds the sword piece.. and also Steelbeak, whose ready to punch  him some children. Lena freezes time as she can do that but can’t delay the inveitble, just give them time to plan. 

And this is a nice showcase for Huey and a nice chance for Lena to be snarky as Huey wants to try anything and everything he can do that dosen’t involve fighting as he hates it and Lena endulges him as he gets tossed around, playing on her phone while he tries dumb scheme after dumb scheme from prtending to be his dad, to his inner child, to construction to offering him a snack, to “what sword piece” while hodling the sword blade twice his side behind his back.

Lena eventually calls him on it: He can’t keep avoiding this and there’s some reason he dosen’t want to fight. The reason turns out to be he bruce bannered himself and thus has a split personality for all his agression and primal rage, the duke of making a mess,  Huey’s version fo the McDuck family anger he’s buried away and is ashamed of, hating his  more impuslive emotions due to his desire for control. 

As for how Lena impacts this.. it’s her own acceptance of the part of her she hated, her magic, that gives her the clarity to help Huey, helping him realize like her this shit isn’t healthy and to make peace with the Duke instead of fighting him and locking him away. The result is a perfect combo: a huey with all the power and strength of a mcduck, but the nuance and tactics Huey normally has to beat Steelbeak easily. Lena is impressed, a friendship is forged and we see how far sh’es come: from hating herself.. to helping others stop doing it before it gets worse. 

How Santa Stole Christmas!

All we really learn here is that she and Violet share a room and a king sized bed.. but we got that cheek smooch and I had to mention that so there you go. 

The Last Adventure!:

Like most of the main cast Lena gets a decent note to go out on, if a bit wobbly. The wobblyiness comes from two sources. The first is just a nitpick of mine; We don’t get to see the climax of her fight with the Blot alongside Manny. No really. The Blot got two spotlight episodes, his own sidekick/wife/amy sedaris, and was built up as one of FOWL’s biggest threats.. and his defeat isn’t even shown on screen for some damn reason. I feel they just ran out of time but given how important Lena and Manny were series wide and how awesome the keith david reveal was, it’s a cop out

Speaking of Cop Outs we can’t talk about this episode without talknig about the elephant in the room: Lena saying Webby “already has two sisters”, seemingly shooting down any posiblity of Weblena. I do not see it that way but do feel the two could’ve phrased it better and we could’ve gotten SOME Weblena by the end instead of none to offset this. I feel Lena’s motivations, esecpailly given the context were purely to try and placate Webby to keep her from investigating the twins further and endangering herself, not realizing how badly this wouldn’t work as Lena’s never cared about where she comes from and her past is all pain and abuse before Webby, while Webby had this gnawing at her her whole life. I do think the last episode was the WORST POSSIBLE place to put this, as it comes off as queerbaiting evne though I don’t think that was the intent. So yeah this line sucks and was poorly conveyed. 

Everything else though is thankfully excellent: Her raging frekaout at June feels warranted, as June is literally trying to cut Webby out of her life and was purposffully trying to galight webby as we find out. Her and Violet’s reason for going is also just pure awesome, pure heartwarming and pure badass, both angrily and simply proclaming when stating why their going on the final attack no fowl “It’s Webby”. Webby helped Lena become a better person and lnvoes her more than anyone else and vice versa and Webby gave Violet Friends, a sister and a life of her own. Nothings going to stop them and Scrogoe wisely backed down on that one before they strangled him. 

Her final scene is the best though: Not only do she and Violet give May and June friendship braclets but despite the earlier hostlitlity... Lena helps them with not a second though. She now understands them, gets that their like her: a being made by an evil dickhead who saw them as a tool to use and not a person and was willing to kill them the moment they were no longer useful. She too was once lost, sad and felt alone..but Webby pulled her out of that and now she’s going to be there for these two, these alterante versions of the love of her life, to give them the same support and encourages them they’ll find their home. And sure enough my boy comes by not a second later to adopt both of them. In an instnat they’ve gone from alone with only webby like Lena was.. to having a family of their own and loyal friends to stay by their sid.e 

And so Lena ends the series charing off into the wild blue with her sister and her newfound friends, the future all ahead of her, the past finally put to bed, and herself finally at peace, in love with Webby.. and with herself at long last. 

This retrospective was a wonderful time. I throughly enjoyed going through Lena’s history and being more and more impressed how much I’d missed and how it was even BETTER the second time around. This arc is Ducktales at it’s best and Lena is the finest thing they acomplished. This is easily Kimiko Glenn’s best role and really let her show off her range. Hopefully this isn’t the last we’ll see of this wonderful lesbian shadow, but as it stands with peace, love and self worth found, it’s still a good place to leave her. If she ever returns i’ll of course pick this up again, and free of charge but for now I enjoyed the ride and throughly enjoyed this retrospective. T

Thank you all so much for reading. If you liked this retrospective, please stick around. My next comissioned story arc is covering the various crossovers Lilo and Stitch did, but after that in three weeks return here for Season 2. All three arcs, All done intermidtley. Buckle up. 

Until then follow for more, and join my patreon. My next stretch goal is monthly reviews of darkwing duck and reviews of the super ducktales mini series, and after finsihing this post i’m going to throw in some extra non-duck ones! 25 is being changed up from covering Tailspin every month, to covering a Danny Phantom episode every month, and the beloved special ultimate enemy. So check that out. I may throw in some more on both 20 and 25 so stay posted. And just for joining at the 2 dollar tier you get acess to my discord server and get to pick one of the shorts for my varoius shortstaculars I do. Next one up is goofy’s birthday with Donalds in june so join now! 

ANd if you just have one speciifc episode I haven’t covered you’d like me to, those are 5 bucks a pop on commission and available via my ask box, direct messages on here or discord at technicolormuk#6550 and until the next rainbow i’ts been a pleasure

[savethelastdan]

You say it to me like it's something I have any choice in. If I wasn't important then why would you waste all your poison? - SessKagu

After a few battles, it becomes obvious that she's holding back.

Sluggish, uncreative, overly focused on defensive maneuvers - it's a far cry from the calculating and ruthless manner in which Kagura has fought previously. When he is drawn once again towards Naraku's barrier, her so-called violence barely leaves a scratch on not only Sesshomaru himself, but any member of his brother's group.

It's downright insulting. So, when Jaken, Rin, and Ah-Un are thoroughly occupied with something else, and night's shadow is there to cover him, Sesshomaru seeks her out for answers.

Despite the burn of his aura as he touches down on the cliffside, Kagura only greets him with a frown and a flick of her fan. He smells blood and miasma, and it becomes obvious that her refusal to behave as a real opponent has not gone unnoticed by Naraku himself. Still, as it is not what he is here to discuss (she had the shards in her possession once, she could have used them then), then Sesshomaru will not press to her to admit it.

When he makes his accusation, her expression shifts into something he is alarmed to find excites him. The scarlet hues in her eyes darken; her lip curls in an already half-formed curse; and the knuckles around her fan whiten in rage. Dangerous.

"You pathetic coward," she spits, and stinging winds erupt around them, dragging him an inch closer to the edge of the cliff. "How dare you judge me?"

But he cannot help it. She isn't a captive in the typical sense, not with the power now threatening to force him a thousand feet down onto sharp rock. Why craft such a pointless rebellion, restraining herself in battle against him, instead of turning her full ire on Naraku himself? Why sneak around in the shadows, waiting to be rescued, instead of demanding the full respect one is deserved? Why, why, why, is the only thing on his mind, because he has never met a creature so incapable of being understood.

(He does not stop to think why it matters so much, for him to understand her.)

Fan slashing through the air, Kagura screams at him in a way no being ever has. A handful of power means nothing, she snarls, when every moment she's away from her master’s side ends with poison pumped through the veins of her heart, forcing the muscles to contract harder just to keep her body going.

"If there was any possibility in it -" Her eyes glaze over, taken with shapes Sesshomaru cannot see, "then I would have put my fist through Naraku’s eye the day I was born."

He opens his mouth to retort, and somehow this returns Kagura to herself; her next words are as sharp and quick as a blade. To Naraku - to everyone, she corrects, with an accusatory jab of her finger in his direction - she is like the bloody shards that the lost-in-time priestess carries around. Fragmented, never truly separate from their association with the whole.

"As if you could ever understand that. Sesshomaru, the proud and pompous son of some long-defeated dog demon, who wanders around picking fights because daddy didn’t give him the biggest and shiniest present."

He glares at her, heartbeat roaring in his ears. Kagura laughs.

"What, did you expect me to praise you, like I did before? Say how strong and powerful you were?" Her fan shuts, arm dropping to her side. "As if I'd ever make the mistake of trying to flatter you twice."

Sesshomaru doesn't know what he says to her - if he even says anything at all, for it is possible he only grit his teeth in her direction. All he can recall later of the moment, is that for a brief moment, he was given a glimpse of something very few people have seen, only to have it disappear again just as quickly as it came.

-

He only recognizes it when he sees it again. But by then, she is already leaving.

-

While it is no surprise that the incarnation Moryomaru chooses to mock her memory, his estimation that her life meant nothing is incorrect.

After all, it is because of Kagura that Kohaku is alive. It is she, who informs Inuyasha that The Infant is part of Moryomaru's body. Sesshomaru cannot forget this, and the fact that Moryomaru chooses not to acknowledge it (like a coward, like a fool) is infuriating. It is this rage that causes him to attack, not the hope for a victory.

When he is able to think clearly again, Tokijin is in pieces. He sees them, and thinks of shards.

-

When they speak of her - Kohaku, Rin, Kagome, even Jaken - it does not feel as though they are talking about Naraku. Sesshomaru accepts this, and thinks that perhaps it is another form of freedom that she always sought. Though this victory is yet another that he is not capable of playing a part in.

Because Sesshomaru does not speak of her, or the poison wasted on those who destroyed her, or the understanding that comes to him long after she has passed.

Perhaps he will, when time gives him the opportunity it once gave his younger sibling.

But not yet.

[stonecoldsilly]

Home Comforts

(Or How Kaer Morhen Got Its Famed Hot Springs)

Kaer Morhen had always been a stern, proud old castle, form valued over function. There was little elegance or decadence to it, even in its prime, when the halls were filled with clattering footsteps and the yard rang with the clash of silver and steel. Even now, it had its own grandeur, and the four of them did their best to maintain it, along with whoever else showed up that year, but it was an endless labour of love.

Geralt was running drills in the courtyard when the first stirrings of trouble began. There was an almighty rumble from somewhere beneath his feet, and he snapped his head around to try and spot the beginnings of the avalanche, but the mountains around them remained blessedly still. His medallion remained silent, and he ran into the keep sword in hand just in case.

Now that he thought about it, Lambert had been quiet for far too long.

He could hear water rushing, and as he listened it seemed to go from a trickle to a flood, somewhere down below. He took the stairs down to the cellars four at a time, Lambert’s whoops echoing up the steps.

He stopped when he reached the old alchemy rooms and yelled ‘Lambert you prick!’

The whooping stopped.

‘What have you done you daft bastard?’

Lambert splashed into view, clothes askew and smoke still wisping from what little remained of his hair, mostly burned away save for a hilarious looking tuft on one side. There was water absolutely everywhere, ankle deep and rising. It was hideously sulphurous, a foul stench of hot rotten egg suffusing the bowels of the castle.

‘Geralt!’ He shouted, grinning like a madman. ‘Look!’

Geralt hmmed and put his sword aside, satisfied that there was nothing to fight except Lambert’s idiocy, and he looked like he’d had enough blows to the head already.

He squelched into the water, intending to at least cuff his ear, and yelped instead. ‘Fuck, that’s hot!’

Lambert fell apart laughing, and Geralt flung Aard at him until he was flat on his back and giggling. He splashed happily, kicking up huge waves, and Geralt braved the heat of the water again to dunk him under until he looked like a drowned rat, gasping for air and stifling snorts of laughter.

‘What the hell,’ Geralt said, water now up to his knees.

‘I was adjusting-‘

‘You were experimenting again, weren’t you?’

‘I was adjusting the Grapeshot. And I’m telling you some of the powder down there is older than Vesemir. Shocking really, keeping expired ingredients where anyone could find them, it’s honestly a surprise this hasn’t happened sooner.’

Geralt gave him a little shake, which in hindsight was probably the wrong thing to do with a concussion.

‘Boom!’ He said happily, obviously still cracked from his bump on the head, and Geralt sighed.

Geralt left him to it, wading down to the door and peering through. There was a huge crater where the chemicals cupboard had once been, only a black pool of water bubbling up from some underground spring, showing no signs of stopping or slowing down at all.

The water was up to his stomach now and had probably reached neck deep in the next room, where there was a little set of steps down and the floor was set lower. He stood there, staring in disbelief, and Lambert swam past lazily, demonstrating a rather impressive breaststroke.

‘Vesemir’s going to kill you,’ he sang mockingly.

‘Nope,’ said Lambert, remarkably unconcerned for someone who was about to be tossed off the roof.

‘What do you mean, no? Look at the place, you’ve singlehandedly managed to submerge Kaer Morhen.’

‘Two words.’

‘You’re dead?’

‘Ha. Ever been to Novigrad?’ And the bastard floated past smugly.

‘Well… fuck.’ He had a point. Geralt shrugged and paddled over to the stairs. He peeled his wet clothes off, resigned to the madness. A grin started to break out on his face, and he backed up to the landing and slid down the banister, managing to land close enough to Lambert to dunk him again.

It soon devolved into splashing and wrestling in the water, Geralt chasing Lambert round and pelting him with the sodden remains of the alchemy cupboards. Lambert cried mercy and got out quickly to strip off as well, admiring his new haircut. He paused in trying to feel how much was left, and said, ‘Hang on, where’s Eskel?’

Geralt frowned as well. ‘He was meditating. Somewhere he wouldn’t be disturbed by your noise, he said.’

In a display of his usual excellent timing, Geralt and Lambert turned to the last room of the cellars just as Eskel floated in slowly like a particularly stately barge. He was on his back, eyes closed, meditation clearly undisturbed by Lambert’s spontaneous renovations.

They splashed over to him and looked down at his peaceful face.

‘I’d have thought he’d sink rather than float, all that extra padding.’ remarked Geralt.

‘Do you think he’s dreaming he pissed himself?’ said Lambert, and they grinned, and in perfect unison, as only younger siblings can be, bent and yelled ‘Eskel!’ in his ears.

Eskel’s eyes slammed open and he sank like a stone, spluttering.

‘Wha-?’ He managed, ‘What the hell?’

Geralt and Lambert both grinned at him and said ‘Hot springs.’

Once Eskel had been persuaded to get out of his sodden clothes and join them properly, he was coming round to the idea. He inspected the spring, as Geralt had, and looked around to make sure the walls were holding the water down in the cellars, and that no further leaks seemed to be appearing.

‘Pretty stable now, I reckon. Still stinks something rotten.’ He said, lining up to follow after Geralt on their hastily sourced diving board, which had previously been a table.

‘Air it out, crack the windows a bit.’ Lambert said, waving a hand idly from the corner where he was soaking, content with his own success.

‘How are we going to drain it?’ Eskel added, after trying to beat Geralt’s somersault and belly-flopping miserably.

Geralt and Lambert turned on him instantly, ready to whelp him until he recanted his betrayal.

‘I meant, it’s still coming, isn’t it? The water’s not stopping. It’ll come out the front door if we don’t keep it level.’

‘Easy.’ Said Lambert, and before either of them could reach him he’d twisted his hand into Aard and blown a hole in the side of the keep.

They had to dunk him again then, but through sheer dumb luck he’d managed to hit at just the right height to send the excess water out while keeping the level up to their chests.

‘Bloody miracle you didn’t bring it down on top of us. Idiot.’ Said Eskel, peevishly.

‘Worked, didn’t it?’ said Lambert, smug grin firmly affixed to his face.

‘We’re supposed to keep Kaer Morhen fit for habitation, not blow massive fucking holes anywhere we like.’ said Eskel, sitting primly at the top of the slide Geralt had cobbled together while Eskel was busy tanning Lambert's hide.

‘Downright luxurious now, I’d say.’ Lambert crowed, and Geralt had to agree with him.

...

When Vesemir arrived back from his hunt, he found a huge hole in the side of the castle with a waterfall’s worth of water streaming from it, a destroyed alchemy cellar, and a sheepish Lambert, being pointed at by his brothers.

He sighed and went to fetch his towel.

more amusing larks and japes on ao3

[madamebaggio]

A ROMANTIC CRISIS - Modern JonSa

***

Summary: What do you do when you have a crush on your brother's best friend?

And what if he's also your friend?

What if he freaking bites your lip after giving you a cupcake?

Sansa Stark is panicking and it's all Jon Snow's fault.

***

Notes: Prequel to “A Family Crisis”. One shot, can be found here as well.

***

Sansa Stark had been a very girly little girl. She wanted to be a princess; she loved unicorns and fairies, cupcakes and rainbows. She wore pink and danced ballet and baked cookies.

Catelyn was beside herself with such an adorable daughter and Ned was a proud dad, who called his daughter “princess” every night at bedtime, before kissing her forehead.

As Sansa started to grow she kept the whole girly thing in her life. After she passed the phase in which she thought boys were gross, she started dreaming about prince charming, a spring wedding and happily ever after.

She had a list of attributes for the perfect boyfriend and she knew what type of guy she wanted. Sansa imagined a million times how it would be to find this boy, dreamed of sunset kisses, rainy kisses and of everything sweet and gentle.

Then… Life happened.

For such a romantic Sansa had the worst taste in men. It was bloody ridiculous.

First, there was Joffrey, her first boyfriend, back in senior school. He was everything she’d wanted back then: handsome, rich, well educated; he was like a prince.

Only… He wasn’t.

Joffrey was a piece of shit. Unfortunately it took too long for Sansa to see what everybody else could see. It actually took him slapping her in front of his friends for her to understand. She had forgiven his cruel words, the way he spoke about her family –even though she shouldn’t have – and how he tried to mold her to his taste.

The slap she couldn’t forgive.

So it was goodbye, Joffrey.

She had a brief thing with Willas Tryel, Margaery’s brother, but it never went very far. She’d also rather not talk about that creep Petyr Baelish, who was her teacher on her last year and tried to manipulate her.

Then she went to college and fell head first for another piece of shit: Harry Hardying.

Harry was different from Joffrey, that’s for sure. He wasn’t deliberately cruel, he was a sexist pig, that’s it. He wanted her to be by his side whenever he “needed” her, being pretty, or having sex; and when he wanted to be alone, she had to be a good girl and wait for him at home.

After Harry –and a frightening encounter with Ramsay Bolton, the fucking psycho –Sansa had sworn off guys and this whole romance bullshit.

No more love stories, no more sunset kisses and no more fucking clichés.

God, she hated clichés.

And what was she right now?

A fucking cliché!

Why? Because she had gone ahead and fell in love with her brother’s best friend.

God, this was ridiculous.

Why???

Actually, she did know why, and –in her defense- it wasn’t like she had a long time crush on the guy. Those stupid feelings were brand new.

As opposed to her siblings Sansa had never been particularly close to Jon Snow. They all saw him as a brother and she only saw him as Robb’s best friend.

She wasn’t really mean to him, just indifferent. Jon was a bit of weirdo, always brooding, looking like someone had kicked his puppy or like he needed to be fed a sandwich.

Yes, she could admit that she had admired his form in school, but that was only because Robb had all but forced him to join the rugby team during their years at Senior School and he had started to get a pretty great shape. However, this was a platonic admiration. He looked good, she acknowledged that.

So, she didn’t have a crush on him during senior school and she didn’t get jealous over whoever he dated at the time.

Jon was Jon and that was all that Sansa saw.

Curiously, it was Harry who changed that.

She was home for Christmas when she saw a picture that made her stomach turn. Harry was at some party with two girls sitting on his lap; the subtitle to the picture said, “Enjoying being a single man.”

Most his friends had given “likes” to it, laughing that his “shackles” had been removed.

Sansa couldn’t believe that he was doing that; it was downright disrespectful, almost cruel. If Harry didn’t want to date anymore he could have just broken up with her.

She called him, decided to get an explanation. Harry made himself the victim as he called her crazy, controlling and paranoid, he said she didn’t trust him and was chocking him, and that there was nothing wrong with the picture.

Sansa had thrown her phone across the room, hidden her face in the pillow and cried. That was how Jon found her, 30 minutes later.

Poor guy. He had only gone there to call her for dinner –he was also staying there –but he sat down and listened to her until Arya came looking for them.

They became friends after that.

Jon was so fucking caring and generous. He was a great listener and his advice was amazingly insightful.

Slowly they started to get closer and closer: friends, drinking buddies, shopping companions –poor Jon, he was a true hero.

Cue in an inappropriate crush.

Sansa felt like screaming.

She tried to fight it, she really did. She was sure that Jon saw her only as an annoying little sister.

She was being ridiculous. This was ridiculous.

“You are ridiculous.” Margaery informed her, rolling her beautiful eyes. “No straight guy goes shopping with a woman if he doesn’t have every intention of fucking her.”

“Jon isn’t like that!” Sansa defended automatically.

Margaery snickered. “Keep telling yourself that.” She put her sunglasses back on. “Just seduce the man already. You’ll see I’m right then.”

The thing was, even though Sansa liked this idea, she had no idea of how to do it. Margaery had some ideas, but Sansa refused to dress something ridiculously short in front of him or make him jealous.

She wasn’t 15, for fuck’s sake.

She was going to be mature about this and maturely pretend that she felt nothing until it passed.

It was a very adult decision.

It was! It was a solid plan and she had every intention of sticking to it.

If it failed completely it was Jon’s fault and nobody else’s!

Lord, talk about embarrassing.

She had just finished the last test of that year at the University and was considering spending the whole day under her blankets when her doorbell rang.

Sansa considered staying right where she was, but years of being the polite and well-mannered girl couldn’t be ignored. She got up from the bed, still in her pajamas and half walked, half stumbled to the door.

When she pulled it open she had not expected to find Jon on the other side, but he was there anyway.

Sansa wished she had the strength to close the door on his face –his ridiculously handsome face –and run back to hide under her covers. However, this was Jon Snow, wearing jeans, a leather jacket, a freaking wool scarf, with his head a mess of dark curls and a smile on his lips.

What sane woman would close the door?

“Hey.” She smiled at him.

“Sorry. Did I wake you?” Jon asked embarrassed.

“No.” She replied quickly. “I was just being lazy.”

“You have the right to be lazy sometimes.” He smiled at her.

Sansa finally recovered her senses enough to realize they were still standing by her door. “Come in.”

Jon entered her apartment and she noticed the pink box in his hand.

“Are those…”

“Ridiculously expensive cupcakes?” Jon finished for her. “Yes, I bought them for you. I figured you deserved them, since you finished your tests.”

He offered her the box and Sansa almost cried at his thoughtfulness. Why did he have to be so amazing?

She went to sit on her couch, while Jon left his jacket and scarf on the hooks by the door. She opened the lid and saw four heavily frosted and decorated cupcakes.

“These are really great, Jon.” She giggled. “Want one?”

“No, thanks.” He sat by her. “If diabetes has a face… That’s it.” He indicated the pink cupcake she selected.

She showed him her tongue. “More for me.”

God, those cupcakes were overpriced, but they were amazing.

Jon started chuckling and Sansa turned to him confused. “What?”

“You have frosting all over your face.” He informed, a fond smile on his face.

Sansa felt her whole face getting red. “Oh my god! Where?” That was what she got for trying to bite the whole thing.

“Here. Let me help you.” Jon stretched his arm and brushed his thumb against the tip of her nose.

Sansa was still feeling pretty embarrassed –what was she? A child? –but those feelings took a turn when Jon brought his thumb to his mouth.

Sansa was almost certain she had an orgasm.

Jon was looking at her in a way she couldn’t explain. It was… Different. It was like he was seeing her for the very first time. He stretched his arm again, but this time he was closer than before and Sansa didn’t remember moving at all.

His thumb brushed her chin and he once again brought it to his mouth.

“Done?” She asked breathless.

“Just a bit more.” Was she crazy or had his voice gone all husky?

Okay, there were getting closer somehow and Sansa had no idea of how, because, this time, when Jon reached for her he barely had to stretch his arm. His thumb grazed the curve of her lower lip ridiculously slow.

After everything that had happened to her, Sansa had started to believe that whole sparks and fireworks thing was a lie. But the way this simple touch radiated through her body…

Time must be working slower than normal, because Jon’s thumb hadn’t even reached the middle of her lip when Sansa decided to say something. “Stop stealing my frosting.”

Stop stealing her frost? STOP STEALING HER FROST? Oh Lord, she was pathetic. Who said things like that?

She did apparently.

“No.” Jon said simply. “It’s sweeter than I thought. Now I want a bite.” He spoke the whole time looking at her lips.

Sansa wasn’t sure when he moved. She just knew that one moment they weren’t kissing and the next they were.

Not exactly kissing. Actually it was way hotter than that. Jon had bitten –bitten –her lower lip and sucked it gently and Sansa felt it all the way down to her toes.

She forgot how to breathe and she was pretty sure her heart forgot how to beat for a second.

Jon let go of her lip and Sansa… Well, she jumped on him. Like… Literally.

She gave him no warning, or time to brace himself. She just put her arms around his neck and kissed the hell out of him.

In her defense, he did start it with the whole lip-biting thing, and her reaction was completely justified.

At least she tried to see that way later, when she felt so absolutely humiliated by the way she threw herself at him.

In fact, it was so strong –was she that desperate? – that he fell on his back, against the couch’s arm, and she was sprawled on top of him. She kissed him, her mouth opened over his, her teeth tugging at his lips.

Their position was very uncomfortable, but she didn’t even think of stopping; not when he was kissing her back, his hands traveling up and down her back, never going too low.

Then she did the most stupid thing ever: she stopped. She paused the kiss, just for a second, just to catch her breath, but Jon had opened her eyes, and so had she.

It was like being dosed with a full bucket of icy water.

She could see the moment he realized exactly what they were doing, his expression going quickly from shock to panic.

Sansa scrambled off him to her feet so fast she almost fell. Jon also got up quickly, looking like he had no idea of what he should do that moment.

So, he made it worse by speaking.

“Sansa, I am so sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

Well, that was just great. He regretted kissing her, seconds after doing it. All she could think about was how his lips looked swollen and pink from the kissing, how she could feel her face sensitive from where his beard had scratched hers and he’d said sorry.

This was terrible.

“It’s okay.” She said, her voice tremulous. “I just remembered I have some things to do…”

She just wanted him to go, that was all, because this was awkward and embarrassing.

“Yes, of course.” Jon jumped at her words and she thought she couldn’t hurt worse than she did, but she was wrong. “I’ll just…” He pointed at the door.

He was so obviously shaken and uncomfortable with the whole thing that Sansa couldn’t even begrudge the fact that he wanted to leave this fast. She kind of wanted him gone as well.

“Yeah, sure. Call me later.” She gave him a weak smile.

“Yeah, I will.”

She didn’t think he would, but she smiled at him anyway and watched him go so fast, he actually left his scarf behind.

Once the door closed behind him, Sansa fell on the couch. She noted absentmindedly that she had sat on the forgotten cupcake.

This day really sucked.

XxX

Jon Snow was the worst friend ever.

He truly was.

Not only to Sansa, but also to Robb and the whole family. You don’t lust after your best friend’s little sister, even though it wasn’t just lust, and you sure as fuck didn’t kiss her like that.

He had bitten her lip!

Sansa must have thought he was some kind of pervert or something. This was such a mess.

He should have kept his distance. The moment he realized he was feeling differently towards Sansa he should have stayed away.

Theon used to say that every boy (or man) at some point had had a crush on Sansa Stark. Theon himself had no shame in admitting to anyone –Robb included –that he had a serious crush on the oldest Stark girl when she was around 15.

Robb would bark at his friend to shut up and proclaim Sansa too smart to ever fall for Theon’s tricks.

However, Jon knew that Theon was right. Jon had had a crush on Sansa too, when she was 17.

He never opened his mouth about it to anyone –much less Robb. He felt silly for thinking about her at all, because Sansa was going out with Joffrey Baratheon then and he was a rich boy from an influential family. Jon was aware that Sansa barely knew he existed outside of being Robb’s best friend.

Crushes are crushes and eventually they go away, just like that.

Now… He wasn’t so sure if his crush on her had truly faded at the time or just remained asleep until this moment.

He never expected them to become friends, much less after so many years of knowing each other, but he loved it. Sansa was crazy smart, funny and charming.

She was the whole package.

“Oy, why are you brooding so much, Snow?” Tormund demanded.

Jon sighed. “Nothing.”

Edd and Davos traded looks, but it was the older man that spoke. “Come on, Jon. You’re even quieter than usual.”

Jon had studied to be a civil engineer and he was currently working on a construction site with those men. They were all good men and they’d become quick friends.

Which made them very nosy.

“I did something stupid.” He admitted.

“You?” Edd asked incredulous. “I find that hard to believe.”

“I kissed my best friend’s sister.” He informed them.

Edd made a face. “Big brother is overprotective?”

“A lot.” Jon sighed. “And I understand it, Sansa is…” He sighed again.

“Wow.” Tormund looked amused. “You got it bad, Snow.”

“Shut up.” Jon grumbled.

“Right… But what happened exactly?” Davos wanted to know.

Jon gave a simple explanation of the day before, editing the most explicit details –like the part where he bit her.

“I don’t see the problem here.” Tormund declared. “She kissed you back.”

Jon opened his mouth to deny it, but then, for the first time, he allowed himself to think about it. He had spent the whole day martyring himself and never considered that.

She had kissed him back.

Sansa had kissed him.

“Oh.”

The three other man traded looks again. “You just realized that, didn’t you?” Edd asked.

“I… I guess so.”

Tormund rolled his eyes so hard that Jon worried they were going to fall off. “What’s wrong with you, boy? Girl kisses you, you kiss her back, and –like a gentleman –carry her to her room to fuck her.”

“Hey.” Jon’s look was full of warning.

Tormund just snorted. “Stop being a pussy, Snow.”

“Robb’s going to kill me.” Jon predicted.

“His sister is a big girl, Jon.” Davos said patiently. “I’m sure she can make her own choices.”

“But what if…”

“Snow!” Edd barked. “Stop stalling. Call the girl!”

XxX

“I’m so stupid, Marge. Why did I do something so stupid?”

Margaery rolled her eyes. She let Sansa vent for another minute as she watched the girl in front of her paint her nails. She really liked this shade of red.

“Are you done?” She asked Sansa.

“What do I do?” Sansa wanted to know.

Margaery rolled her eyes again, happy that her friend couldn’t see her, since she was on the other side of the line.

Mary, the girl doing her nails, gave Marge a sympathetic smile.

“Fuck him, I hope.”

“MARGAERY!”

“Sansa, he bit you.” Margaery reminded her. “Do you have any idea how hot that sounds?”

“But…”

“Sansa Stark, you either call that boy, tell him you want to fuck him, marry him –whatever –or I swear I gonna lock you two in a room and only let you out after you fucked.”

There was a prolonged silence from the other side, while Mary looked pretty impressed by Margaery’s threat.

“Sansa darling, are you still there?” Margaery asked.

“Yeah.” It was weak, but it’d do.

“Great. Hang up, call Jon. Get laid.”

“Ok…”

Margaery was feeling pretty satisfied with herself right now.

XxX

“Jon.”

“Sansa.”

Silence from both sides.

“Is this a good moment to talk?”

“Yes, I just got home.”

“Good.” Silence. “So…”

“I think we need to talk, Jon.”

“You’re right. Can we… Let’s have dinner.”

“Tonight?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Ok… Are we… Are we ok, Jon?”

“Of course! We just… I really think we should talk.”

“You’re right.”

Silence again.

“So… Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow.”

“Where?”

“Wanna come over?”

“Better if you come here. If I go to your house we’ll eat pizza again.”

“What’s wrong with pizza?”

“No pizza in the middle of the week, Jon. That’s the rule, remember?”

“How can I forget? Your place then.”

“See you tomorrow.”

“See you, Sans.”

XxX

Sansa was in total control of herself. This wasn’t different from all the other times Jon had come over to have dinner with her.

They’d done it a thousand times.

They had never kissed before, but dinner, sure.

Sansa had taken a serious decision: –a very serious one –they needed to talk about it. It’d be terribly awkward, probably a bit humiliating, but it’d be fine in the end. Jon was a nice guy, so he’d never make her feel bad about something like that.

She just wanted to talk about it because she was scared that –if they didn’t –they’d grow apart. She preferred a thousand awkward conversations than losing Jon’s friendship.

Yes, she had heard what Margaery had said, but… She was still worried.

Sure, Jon had bitten her first –she was never getting over that –but he was the one that said sorry and that he shouldn’t have done it; so she was confused.

She wanted to believe that Jon didn’t see her as Robb’s little sister, but it was a bit difficult when he said shit like that.

Why dating had to be so difficult?

Not that she was dating Jon. Or that she thought they were going to date. It was just the general idea of dating.

She was pretty sure Jon would never want to date her. She was way different from his other girlfriends. She was almost sure she wasn’t his type.

Lip-biting excluded.

She could be mature. This was going to work out very well. She knew.

The doorbell rang.

Oh heavens…

XxX

Jon took a deep breath before pressing the doorbell. It was just dinner with Sansa, they’ve done it a thousand times before.

But they’d never kissed before.

He needed to make things right between them, which meant doing whatever she wanted. He was willing to pretend nothing ever happened if it was what she wanted, he just didn’t want them to become strangers.

Jon could handle anything but that.

The door opened, revealing Sansa. “Hey.” She smiled at him, but her smile was tremulous, like she wasn’t sure of anything. “Come in.”

Jon entered and showed her the ice cream he had in his hand. “I brought dessert.”

“Great.” Her smile was a bit more sincere now. “Come to kitchen. I have to put the casserole in the oven.”

Jon followed her silently to the kitchen, then put the ice cream in the freezer. “Sansa…”

She turned to him, the casserole on her hands. “Hum?”

Jon took the thing from her and put it on the counter. “I…” He took a deep breath. “Are we okay?”

Sansa opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened again. “You mean after you bit me?” She offered a bit dryly.

Jon cleared his throat again. “Something like that.”

Sansa crossed her arms. “Why did you do it?”

Jon could give her a thousand different answers; he could lie, he could give the answer he thought she wanted to hear, he could protect himself.

However, now, standing in front of her, he only wanted to say the truth. So he did.

“Because I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.” He replied honestly.

Sansa’s arms went slack and she looked perplexed. Jon wasn’t sure if it was a good sign.

“Sansa, I…” Lord, this was hard. “I’d never do anything to jeopardize our friendship, you know that, so if what I did was…”

He never got to finish that thought, because Sansa just grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled his mouth to hers.

She was kissing him.

Sansa Stark -The Sansa Stark -was kissing him! Again! She pulled him to her, she covered his mouth with hers.

Jon was in Heaven.

He kissed her back, pouring all his feelings into it. He sucked at speaking about what he felt, the words never came to him; he hoped that Sansa could understand him like this, that she could feel his love.

The kiss slowed, until they finally stopped. Jon cradled Sansa’s face between his hands, not letting her go too far. He dropped his forehead against her and gave her a gentle peck on the lips.

“If it’s a dream…” He murmured. “I don’t want to wake up.”

Sansa giggled breathlessly. “I’m glad you bit me.”

Jon groaned. “I wasn’t planning on that…”

She cut him with a short kiss. “It was hot.” She admitted. “Seriously hot. And there was I thinking you didn’t see me as a girl at all.”

Jon stepped back -just enough to be able to look into her eyes -and frowned. “Didn’t see you as a girl?” He snorted. “I’m quite aware of the fact that you’re female.’

She slapped his shoulder.” I thought you pictured me as Robb’s annoying sister.” She clarified.

“I tried to convince myself that was the case.” He admitted with a grimace. “I tried to think of you as Robb’s little sister, so I wouldn’t have to think about all the things I imagined…” He cut himself and cleared his throat.

Sansa arched a brow. “You imagined…” She prodded.

“Doing to you.” He finished.

“Oh…” Sansa bit her lower lip. “How detailed was your imagination?”

Jon looked at her with interest. “Very detailed. Explicit, actually.”

“Is that so?” She hummed.

Jon just nodded, fighting off a smirk.

“I think we should discuss that in detail.” Sansa concluded.

“I agree. But first…” He took a deep breath. “This… Us… I want it to be for real.”

“Me too.” She agreed, giving him a peck on the lips.

“So, before any of those detailed fantasies… How about dinner?”

Sansa groaned. “You seriously wanna take me out for dinner first?”

“I insist on a proper date.” He spoke solemnly. “I’m not an easy guy, you know?”

Sansa slapped his shoulder. “Not funny.”

“Date?” He offered, his hand touching her face.

“Date.”

They shared another kiss, then Sansa pulled back. “How are we going to tell Robb?”

“Oh fuck.”

[lilmajorshawty]

Lilith Through The Houses : The Fallen

(Carpenter Brut - TURBO KILLER)

Lilith In The First House : The Demon you can see

Lilith in the first house is about more than just the dark aura or the seemingly endless gazing eyes and petrified reactions from outsiders, rather it’s a accumulation of the natives energy focused so tensely in the area of the “self” that they seem like some powerfully dark entity. the face can have a darkness to it be it in color or in it’s appearance. the hair is often dark and depending on how close to the ascendant Lilith truly is it can even overwhelm any lightening affects of planets like Jupiter or Venus here. the eyes are often stunning, and a very harsh quality lies behind the gaze. the demeanor can seem quite detached and intense even if they are standing in an idle position. the natives also carry a strong energy, one that can seem a bit repugnant or erotic. these natives often can be completely opposite of the energy they’re expressing but it can be so atmospheric that they can be accused of “seducing” or “corrupting” their siblings, co-workers, step parents, friends lovers and so on. They have a mysterious nature to them that creates a sort of fearful nature in others, as many often ponder on if they are secretly moving or plotting in silence. These natives are POWERFUL and the scary aspect about them is their ability to dominate a room, a crowd or any relationship by sheer force of will and by existing. to many they are a threat, a bully, a sharlton, a whore, or some wicked vile beast of temptation. early life can be hard especially if Lilith is afflicted from this house and sadly these natives can receive quite a bit of sexual objectification as people often worship and lust after them as if they were a demon of sexual appetite. Lilith here is dangerous as she projects the inner animal in all of us onto the native making the native a target of primal behavior in others. People can act downright like wild animals towards these natives, snarling, kicking, biting, spitting, roaring, and so on just to strike them down and make them feel as small as the native makes them feel just by existing. once mature these natives are physically astonishing, as Lilith’s dark energy courses through the body’s constitution. staying fit is usually fairly easy here. and the mental and emotional faculties are very highly attuned making them incredible readers of character and intent. as these natives age they walk into their Lithuanian image and become truly intense and immovable objects, the men can seem like the devil, like some sly creature, some harmonious gale that weights you down with a simple glare. The women are fierce, and silent, passionately observing the world like a emperor of their bloodied kingdom. she is dangerous and cold, her intentions are far from emotional and her reactions are everything but sympathetic. this can be the coldest and unnerving of individuals to meet.

(Carpenter Brut - DIVISION RUINE)

Lilith In The Second House : The Blackest of Sheep

For Lilith in The second house natives self worth can be a guessing game, sort of like a constant pendulum swing. hatred of the purest and most carnal form can be exhibited towards ones body, whilst at another moment worship and unforeseen pleasure and joy can be derived from ones own body, their sense of self and place in this grand shit show called life. as you can imagine their appetite for the finer things is unmatched, but in many cases these natives love the ruined parts of beauty. This can be the ripped jeans, the broken stilettos. the old and cracked rusty crimson lipstick or the runny eyeliner, the spiked belt or the bareness of skin pale and lifeless after a cold shower. These natives are cold to the touch and tend to have quite the intense relationship with intimacy and touch. in many ways they loathe closeness and lingering intimacy, seeking to keep a mighty far distance from close ties or entanglements that last longer than they should. the other side of this is that once they do let someone in they can be so drawn to touch and sexuality, its sensuous and amorous nature that they become a gluttonous demon for it, eating their lovers alive. they can wear plenty of silly pretend tones, and soothe anyone into a manipulative tactic and make it seem like it was all a misunderstanding. These are the robbers and thieves willing to take and bleed everything and anyone dry if it brings them closer to their obsession “having what they cannot.” These natives are magnetic and their earthy bare beauty lies in the fact that Lilith here is reflecting on her time with Adam, the sex they had, his touch and the stranious and rather euphoric state she enjoyed until she was cast out and betrayed, thus as she lay nude and bare flying in rage in an unknown sky she dammed the world, the world she believed she had once had, now telling her she could no longer own it. these natives don’t value money or materialistic objects rather they value what is not their’s, what has been created, what is so fondly gazed upon by others, they seek to tear down it’s beautiful glow and to in-turn be made beautiful in it’s downfall. These natives by nature are sacrificial and have a almost godly relationship with the plants of the earth, many are gardeners in their pare time or actively partaking in medicinal herbs and many are even inherently nomadic easily reading climate patterns and environmental signs. these natives are also amazing in the field of medicine for their ability to scope out bodily dysfunctions and emotional imbalances. that being said these natives also have the most dangerous singing voices one could ever here do to it’s magnetic and often eerily moving tone. a rejection of the sensuality or body is common with this placement by the self or by others.

(Carpenter Brut - MANIAC cover)

Lilith In The Third House : The Rumors Of Shepard

Lilith in the third is a very subtle yet remorseless position, here Lilith has a free tongue and is delighted at the intricate yet magnified level of mental mind games and manipulation plausible in human nature. These natives may have had a parent or an early influence who was a pathological liar, a schemer or in some ways a com, and false prophet. the children often were fascinated and found novelty in the weakness of the brain and sought later in life to play into this more weakened aspect. Lilith sees weakness in the expression of sympathy and compassion and often preys into these aspects via communication or even things as subtle as certain movements/mannerisms, speech patterns and eye movements to throw off their desired target. Sometimes the lies are harmless while other times they are dangerous and toxic although none of this really matters to the native. These natives aren’t heartless per say but their is an inherent disconnect in the manner that the mind and the heart interact; they don’t. you see Lilith places an almost tar like cable separating the two so she can have her fun, as emotions would interrupt her spiritual mingle so to speak. These natives enjoy vocal banter and sparring as they get to test out their new tactics(subtly of course) on others and test the efficiency. These natives are brilliant writers and can often easily decorate a paper with words and diction that would make a literary scholar and professor of 99 years drop to his knees in astonishment and awe. they can color their words in such a way that can both woo you and terrify you with it’s effect. Many with this placement have seductive voices and can easily charm your clothes off in such a way you could even feel taken advantage of. both sexes are dangerous in this regard because although they can create a pretty little portrait for you, they are secretly knitting you in their twisted and often thoroughly planned web. these natives aren’t plutonion the sense that they actively seek to control their conversations or interactions, rather they do so in such a quiet and sincerely relaxed way that it’s as if it’s instinct to naturally swirl a mass into a a joyed get together, a fight into a compliment fest, or a tragedy into a miracle. They are intellectually 100 steps and 100 lifetimes ahead of you which is what makes being in their presence such a sincerely scary thing as they tend to be alphas in any interaction with everyone around them taking the place of common folk, in the presence of a lord. A rejection of ones thoughts and ideas and even knowledge by the world is common. the arms tend to either be hairless or sporting some dark moles, and scars here and there that seemingly seem to curve into a moon like shape. Lilith working positive here awakens premonition and cerebral awareness that far exceeds the normal person.

(New Order - Elegia)

Lilith In The Fourth House : The Nomadic Evil

Two things should be mentioned be for we carry on, This is Lilith And what we are speaking on is how her presence can effect that particular area of your life by infusing it with her darker scheme but make no mistake where she lay is often the area of life that needs her power the most as to protect the native from being dogmatically bulldozed over by the treachery of the world, she is both a blessing and a great evil. In the case of the fourth house Lilith can make the home life practically non-existent. It can create detachment or loose ties with ones heritage or familial upbringing. In both men and women this aspect can show that the families history is often dark and full of lose of power and regaining of it in darker ways through sexual and emotional expression and this can involve much of the female side of the family. their can be an innate disdain for other women or MEN especially with this but it’s more common to have a disdain for the conventional Mother and  Father dynamic if anything. This can make the native feel rejected when home, or as if they don’t really belong, or in some cases like home is not a real conceptual desire. the family itself can seem almost alienated and far, and much of the early interactions may have been tense, overwhelming or the women in the family could've been survivors of dark acts such as rape, murder, abuse, violence, and or anything that would’ve likely been the result of a man or society failing to give them aid. When Lilith rest here positively the above is still true but the connection to the divine feminine and women in general is passionate and endearing and instills a lot of inner will power and drive in the native. the chest can be very boney and rather tight with the way the nerves and organs coil together. so sharp chest pain, and chest compression is common due to anxiety or strong emotions. the heart can also suffer from palpation and sloppy rhythm yet miraculously the heart is in amazing condition and seems to do well enough on it’s own to fix any potentially fatal issues(still go to the doctor if any symptoms get worse though!) the native tends to express emotions in a cold and rather aloof manner and can have a very hard time flowing into their more nurturing qualities mainly because they were never really exposed to nurturing in the same sense most people are, they attribute caring and compassion to being sturdy, independent and steadfast anything other than that is useless and unnecessary. overly emotional or overly clingy types and unfortunately even children can be a very hard battle for these natives as it clashes with their essence. these natives despise intimacy and tend to prefer being alone as opposed to having to connect and get intimate with others. that being said these natives are emotional, and deeply so but this is hidden behind a wall of trauma and a very well created mask. the thing is though the mask isn’t to protect them or anything rather it’s an instinctual action to create distance and to raise themselves above those who would try to dig past their facade. They are rather powerful in nature and have almost demonic/fallen angel like emotions, often feeling wrath rather than rage, feeling pride instead  of courage and feeling lust instead of love, these natives emotionally exist on a darker emotional plane than anyone would ever be able to fathom. They are by no means fiction and i tell you this because these natives are genuinely so hard to understand, like a complex myriad of fluttered wings and bloodshed, navigating their pain, and their hardships is nearly impossible and this only worsens the older they get as they periodically build more and more mazes. the mind set is often attentive but far away, they can seem like passerby’s and have a extremely closed of nature making things such as friends or lovers seem a bit difficult. they are caring but rarely ever feel as if anyone is worth the expression, they are warm, but very rarely are they willing to create a sun. these natives are mysterious but not for the “look” of it, mainly because they live in their darkness so much so that it is who they are, and if anything thats the beauty of this placement they are an innocent angel with the whitest glowing wings dancing in the dark all alone, in peace far away from the commitments of the world.

(Big Black Delta - Huggin & Kissin )

Lilith In The Fifth House : The Volcanic sin 

Lilith in this house is a vortex of madness, she swarms and dances in the highways and the swamps, in search of god. She’s so angry and filled like a wine glass with sorrow and lament shouting endlessly for him to hear her pleads. She’s grieving constantly, for what seems never ending. always, constantly in pain, constantly burning her wings and re-birthing over and over each time becoming something else, something more, something darker than before. These natives are seemingly passive and bothered by the world around them, critiques of art, disgusted by the things humans passionately wave their fist in the air for, they always seem disappointed or lacking in amusement at the creations of man. these natives can brim with an almost colony of souls the moment they see that desired star power, that human pitfall where all seems lost and someone surpasses their own abilities and broken bones, and armless and all rises even still. these natives value fearlessness in the face of ones own demise and destruction, rising above adversary without wasting a moment to dwell in the sadness of the situation, art littered in pain or trauma and it’s massive weight or the intensity of someone being able to vocalize that pain and it’s darkening wave excites them. they adore man at it’s weakest moments and the fight it takes to come above those heavy waters once more. These natives can be almost demonically cold to weakness in others, turning a blind eye to someone crying or complaints of a hard life, they tend to ice out people with sob stories and even more so they tend to find complete disgust at those who sell their sob story to the masses and are worshiped for their own self pity. these natives are true seekers of sorrow and strength and it’s often why Lilith in this position is almost at the same strength as the Descendant in deciding whom these natives marry. The lover often is a cold one, dark, intense and one whom has witnessed their fair share of sorrows hence their more stoic and serious nature. the love life of these natives can be pure hell, as the romantic partners especially when younger may be attracted and even obsessed with the natives but upon the natives seeking to consummate or initiate the bond past the courting stage the lover can reject the native, coldly as if they were dirt and openly choose another, or avoid the native all together and in some extreme cases the lover could be abusive or monstrous all due to the fear and powerful emotions the native drudges up in the lover. much pain will be felt but many re-births will be the result, the natives get far more cold, far more intense and even more selective as they age. much of the rejection is due to the native unconsciously turning a blind eye to what Lilith is trying to show them within themselves. Lilith seeks to help these natives process their own pain, and to love from within rather than seek it through another person which is often why up until that is learned these natives are given nothing but hate, mis-treatment, and sorrow. The relationship with children can be healing surprisingly, Children often are afraid of these natives (at first) but as time progresses and these natives get older and harness their inner love children naturally gravitate towards them, seeing them as a source of fun and excitement, children are often very protective and fond of Lilith in the fifth house natives often showering them with love and support. the deeper alignment here is that the natives are constantly carrying an energy of sadness and are often disconnected with the world around them due to their incredibly high standards of what counts as passion, they don’t just want love they want to feel it like a raging fire in their souls until it leaves nothing but ash. they want to feel sadness like a suffocating and deafening tsunami on a deadly storm in the sea. they want to love heir children with the force of all mother united, to feel sex like a turbulent storm of water and fire crashing into the earth like molten rock and icy cool. Sexually keeping up with these natives is impossible, they move like a wrathful archangel and can be practically insatiable. Often times these natives tend to find their suitable lover sometimes between their early 20′s or mid 30′s in most cases it’s early 20′s during college or ladder adolescence as the sun is progressed into the incoming sign and its often mid 30′s following the Saturn return due to the fact that these two will be in a close interaction. the back can have moles, beauty marks or freckles or even just sport a few scars and a more darker skin tone than the rest of the body. the Body of these natives is AMAZING. these natives can seem to have model figures or have very naturally erotic bodies that can make even the most innocent person look like a sultry, she- witch the second the clothes come off. Dancing and writing tend to be past times for these natives and they can be some of the most erotic, and talented dances you could ever have the blessing of seeing. Singing and physical activities are also past times and these natives are very obsessed with the body and tend to gravitate towards more physical and martial art like sports, due to their inherent flexibility and natural stamina and vitality. the overall health is deviously good and these natives tend to have impeccable recovering abilities often mentally dealing with sicknesses. These natives can seem like they are constantly bored or unamused which can make them seem intimidating or hard to please which is often why people feel so uncomfortable or as if they must be on their best behavior around them, this includes people above them and children. many people may seem stiff or cautious around these natives due to how stoic and carnal their eyes can seem in disapproval. these natives internally feel a endless state of heartbreak and can suffer from drastic bouts of depression to episodes of euphoric highs only to come crashing down with the speed of a collapsing wave. things don’t necessarily improve rather these natives learn to take these up and down pitfalls and rise and even stronger version, a darker one than before.These natives are not easy to connect to and can be very hard to gain the time of but assuming you have what it takes they are extremely loyal and deeply sown to the ones they give their hearts too. Be careful how or what you say or do to their family, husband or kids they will annihilate you with the scorn of a trillion dead and their are no lengths they fear crossing. 

(New Order - Blue Monday)

Lilith In The Sixth House : The Burning Lambs 

This Position of Lilith can seem like a backdoor or a darkened curtain off to the side in the natives personality. They can demand an almost unrealistic and un-sympathetic tone to the less then polished things in the world around them. These natives crave perfection and this isn’t something that’s a simple as the clean room, and perfectly tucked shirt, or carefully honed smile, these natives need and desire perfection at it’s core in a almost spotless representation of themselves to the point of which they would rather annihilate all around them that fails to meet this high expectation. these natives condemn the more instinctual sides of man, preferring to use the mind as their highest calling. many find it difficult to work with others, preferring not only to go in alone but they enjoy the weight of taking on a duty even if it leaves them in shambles. These natives have a furious tenacity that makes them bloodthirsty for positions at work, and trying to compete with them will be a fruitless effort as much of their being and dark intellect come into the matter. in many ways they are beautiful, innocent and contrasting as much of their allure lay in their seemingly angelic and pure nature. these natives have a strong level of discipline and self restriction only second to their Lilith in Capricorn and 10th house brethren. These natives can have billions of fires and storms raging within yet present the polished car, sleek black dress and rose-marry scented smile in the phase of an entire gathering as if they weren’t impaled in the deepest of depressions moments before. a certain level of seriousness and intensity cloud these natives as more often then not they make it a point to remain objective, detached and eerily focused on the objective at hand. ignorance is blasphemy to the natives and often a source of immediate disapproval and disgusts. These natives are very intolerant of many things especially those whom are overly dependent on instinct rather than logic. These natives are incredibly sensual and pleasures can be multi-faced much like their minds. they tend to be their most sexually powerful in sexual situations of inequality. They may prefer more dominant or submissive sexual partners and have a strong need for their darkness to be expressed through sex on a constant basis otherwise frustration and mental agitation is the result. the problem here is that this can cause the underdeveloped types to get into relationships mainly for the sexual outlet rather than the emotional growth. They are immensely loyal, but very rarely ever do they commit to someone as many prefer to be alone. the masturbating tends to be aggressive and volcanic in nature and often times these natives have such an earthy and tense sexuality their co-workers and even people in their everyday lives may feel uncomfortable or sexually aroused around the person due to the power of projection. The stomach can have scars, or moles upon it in some cases or may be the source of frequent emotional upsets. the health can fluctuate and reach moments of life or death both figuratively and in reality. feeling reborn after fighting a illness is common even if it’s something as small as a cold. the animals that the native deals with can be Lilithian in nature and have darker more dangerous attributes. the animals will have powerful personalities and will be treated as an equal by the Lilith person. Hunting animals for sport or having a more grudgingly relationship with animals is common here. These natives are incredibly resilient and steady but have a very inner ward pestilence that causes them to despise reliance or support of any kind.

(Hozier - Dinner & Diatribes ) 

Lilith In The Seventh House : The God In we, The Devil In Me 

This position of all Lilith in the Houses is One of the most paradoxical and the most devastating. These natives are like a violent wheel of chance, filled with endless possibilities of both malefic and benevolent inclination. These natives can be the sweetest drop of honey, the warmest embrace and the lover of your fantasies dressed as human. They can be your wickedest nightmare, deepest wound and most prolific demon inhabiting your body and mind. They have a level of control on their environment that would put Scorpio to shame, a level of cunning that would silence Virgo and Gemini and an almost biblical like understanding of the human brain and it’s reactions, it’s fears, it’s pitfalls, and it’s quiet longings in such a way that Sagittarius and Capricorn would fall prey. the manipulation can be quiet and a bit hidden in it’s expression but it happens, sometimes unconsciously, other times in the light of day. these natives no matter how lighthearted their chart or how many grand trines and castle of Davids will have a very unbalanced inner world, fluctuating from nun to sinner. to many outsiders these natives are adorably understanding and patient, arguably the most giving and sacrificing person you’d ever meet but behind the sweetness these natives are deeply self invested and in many ways this isn’t a bad thing but it’s also a means of self preservation at the expense of others. These natives seem closer and more intimate then they actually intend and are one of the most difficult people to get to open up or trust you as they prefer to keep much of their interactions superficial and easy. Deeper connections are usually saved for potential love interest or marriage partners but they more than most people get to meet an entirely different beast. these natives can attract heavily Lilith aspected lovers whom are dark, tantric, intense and downright possessive and sexually demanding like hungry animals. The native themselves can project their own shadow side onto the people they interact with platonically or romantically which can create a hypocritical “why are you acting like that” mentality when the truth is that they themselves are the source of the heavy seated Lilith energy. This house is most dangerous as the natives tend to get that much more intense and dark when married, expressing their “real” self, the sinner, Persephone, the black witch, the fallen angel free of shackled purity. They can end up with marriage partners or lovers who seem completely opposite of them or rather a complete 360. the lover may have tattoos, work in a taboo field of work or the music industry  funeral homes, a rock-star/musician, porn,martial arts, or drug trafficking and money laundering, running a prostitution rink, selling drugs, or things like hunting, poaching, lucrative work, government work, FBI, Military and so on. The partner is often serious and Intense but LOYAL. The native can be co-dependent and attract co-dependent relationships which are more dangerous here because of the Lilith like theme. The natives can be seductive and so sexually provocative that many people who may not even be that sexual are actively aroused or turned on by the Lilith in the 7th person, often caught up in their sultry atmosphere to the point where many may be in fear, or disdain of the natives effect on them. The other lot, married, committed or otherwise who cannot help themselves develop strong obsessions with these natives. Love is death for these natives and it needs to be littered with obsession, paranoia, possession, hate, love, intensity, pain, loss, rebirth and struggle for them to truly value it, although they may intentionally reject this and seek more peaceful unions, deep down in their heart of hearts they need that chaos to mend the woes and trios of faces and inhibitions tied to love and romance for them. The buttocks and back can be incredible. the natives may have birthmarks on the butt or darker skin on the area, men may have a hairy buttocks while both sexes may have a mole or scar of some sort here. the waist and hips flow like water and can make these natives excellent at riding or rather make cowgirl-reverse-cowgirl positions their favorites.  these natives are dangerously seductive and can set a whole room of men and women in under their spell as this is a gender less sexuality expressed here often sucking up any unlucky fool who dares to gaze their way. the tell tale of these natives is their deep stare, it can feel like god is looking upon you, as if the devil is entrancing you, they seem like a taboo decision that will change your life and leave it in tethers. 

( Allan Rayman - Crush)

Lilith In The Eighth House : The Way we speak to the fallen

Lilith is happy here, she resonates with Hades and Pluto, she understands their loss and contempt, their lament and dutiful weight. These natives can seem magnetic without much effort. much of their movement and reaction is stalled and cautious, yet never in a way that brings to much attention to them or their actions. They are observant and still much like a spider knitting it’s web and patiently waiting for that one impulsive mistake or haphazardly movement. They are cunning researchers of human nature, often playing fortuneteller when it comes to mingling with others. Their sexuality can feel like a heavy wave devouring you in a atmospheric way. they can be around you, next to you and above you all in one instant without moving an inch. Their personality is deep but mysterious as much of their real feelings and sexual desires are hidden behind screen doors and cleverly manipulated traps set to seduce or adhere those around them. These natives prefer the -nonchalant and rather un-bothered  mode of emotional expression as much of their darker or more wild nature is focused and centered only on sex.Lilith here grants these natives the ability to use their darker more traumatic experiences as an  battery for their rebirth. The worst in life slides of these natives like tar and from the tar rises a new silky smooth pair of wings with an even tougher exo-skeleton. the ability to heal the pain in themselves and in others is one of their best qualities as they are strongly sympathetic and patient with the darkness and pain in others. Lilith in the 8th house more than most people are deeply aware how trauma and pain can make us lash out or self destruct as a means of regaining control and as a result these natives are the least reactive to emotional displays or darker manipulation or coercive tactics by others. In all honesty these natives feel pity for such people and do what they can to rise above them. These natives aren’t as manipulative or as power hungry as Lilith in Scorpio and tend to prefer love unions built on respect and equality, they just prefer to have control in the bedroom, but have a very open and ardent nature to the sexual ventures in general. sex is VERY important to these natives but they don’t mind waiting years or decades if it means they could find the right person who satisfies their inner sexual need of being respected and recognized as a sexual being and “loved” for it. Here we see Lilith desire to be seen and recognized for her sexuality rather than cast out for her pride in it. these natives are very sensitive towards sexual partners and tend to have deep marriages as they work very hard to maintain the sexual chemistry and love in the union all the while force-ably putting the relationship through upheavals and moments of spiritual and emotional rebirth. These natives are mainly gifted with matters of inheritance and joint business dealings but can still attract money in rather taboo or off the script like fashions. The sexual partner may be the only person these natives share their money or savings with and the family may come second or not at all depending on the relationship with the mother. Many outsiders can be obsessed with the energy of these natives often acting like fan-girls/boys at the acknowledgement of the native which typically puts them off and rather disgust them. These natives fall for the unassuming or the lighthearted free spirits who see the light in everything. the ones with Lilith towards the end of this house prefer more stoic and intense lovers. The genitalia is FIRE! quite literally, men and women with this position have sexual organs that can bring the crazy out of a mountain. They can be very passionate and deep sexually, and will be one of the most biblical experiences you’ve ever had. 

( Das Rocs - Maybe, I)

Lilith in The Ninth House : The God You Did Not Believe In

Lilith in the 9th is as massive as the solar system, seeking to spread her wings over all the neatly tucked books, and scriptures, digging her nails in the spoken word and rearranging it’s tones and vibrations to her sense of grandeur. Lilith here is the grand passion and the mighty mind of man. she sees fun and joy in the merriment of dancing in the knowledge and origin of the world and very rarely will you ever catch these natives poorly informed about any subject matter as they do much work to ensure that they know the where,why, how and when of the worlds history. They can seem arrogant or entranced in their own knowledge to the point of stepping on the ideas and thoughts of others. They can have an air of supremacy and carry an air of resistance or loathing of universities or higher schooling in general deeming it as a barrier to delving deeper into knowledge. others tend to dive head first into higher schooling to an almost obsessive quality, treating it like some insatiable candy they cannot get enough of, often returning to get multiple certifications and degrees just because they know they can. these natives have a strong dislike of strings attached or chains of obligations which makes them very unreliable and rather arms length in many of their interactions. to them sex and romance, life and death, love and hate should be experienced like an expansive adventure, a gift from the demons gods of hell to live as you please and grow beyond measure. The emotions can fly UP and DOWN, HERE and THERE but they are never consistent as these natives are always heading to the next spiritual obsession. Lilith here is free, SO endlessly free and she hates being all cooped up in a boring, stagnate environment which is often why these natives can seem like birds, and many share a strong understanding or compassion of winged creatures. The thighs can be darker than other parts of the body, have scars or moles or in many cases the thighs are often plump and thick depending on how deep Lilith sits in this house. the sexual arousal can be VERY fast for these natives, especially the men. they are turned on by the uncharted and many men with  this placement love sex so much that they fuck men and women, anyone that has that sexy air of inhibition is everything they’ve been begging for. the foreign travels can be to darker lands, and might involve danger, death or turbulence of some kind so its advised to be safe, and very aware of yourself and others when ever you head out of the country. Lilith is VERY bubbly here so it’s no surprise that this Lilith is one of the hardest to spot. 

(New Order - Vanishing Point)

Lilith In The Tenth House : The Suited Black Paint

Lilith here is operating in the cold black visor, the feathers loose and sparingly dancing cross the corporate office like jet black paint. These natives can Seem like a cold shower, or some devastatingly subtle but violent train crash with a almost quiet disharmonious backdrop. The ambitious nature of these natives is their strong suite but also one of their most dangerous past times. these natives seek the top and can often use their black wings to blow away the competition, sometimes through charm, manipulation, scandals, black- mail, sexual liaisons or downright intimidation. These natives prefer to be in charge and don’t stay in the passenger seat of any corporation, business, activity for very long as their natural desire to sit on top triumphs above all else. Their careers can be of Lilith like nature or just be drenched in Lilith like themes, such as sexual objectification which is especially the case with women or, emotional black-mail, power plays and power trips or downright psycho-analytics. These natives are often seen as a threat by their colleagues and in true Lilith story line fashion the workers can act as god and attempt to cats him or her out of the workplace, in some ways out of fear and in others out of jealousy. Many times over the bosses or corporate peers can be perverted, dubious and false in their intent. The natives tend to have a ridiculously thick skin and easily create emotional block aids and emotional barriers as a means of alienating their issues and problems as opposes to facing them. this is not done out of a fear of what they feel, rather to them the time necessary to deal with their emotional issues is time that could be used getting ahead. these natives can be filthy in the means that they go about rising in the ranks and can be even more cold and aloof to lovers whom fail to showcase ambition or a grounded and realistic outlook on their future. These aren’t the types to marry dreamers or people who spend more time talking about their future than creating it. These natives bare Lilith disdain for the lord and because of this they tend not to place things in the hand of chance or prayer, rather they believe in actively going out to create the destiny and circumstance they desire. These natives often have a hard relationship with the father or one that is strained in some way, this can even be a step father or male relative of some kind.  their is an inability to submit to the darker expression of their sexuality emotionally rather, they remain objective and steady sexually even when it’s something that should be expressed in a relaxed and calm way. Due to this their sexuality can be very BDSM and Power play friendly, they like to feel in control or be completely controlled by their sexual partners and this can sometimes be in such a way that the natives need to feel emasculated or pain in order to feel ‘alive” though this behavior is only in extreme versions. Much of the darker energy of Lilith is projected towards racing to the top, a insurmountable hill that never seems to end. these natives don’t realize that Lilith is trying to overcompensate for her perceived short comings and is on an endless tirade to prove(god) of her worthiness and power but in reflection to the natives this symbolizes a inner feeling of being inadequate or lacking in worth via their environment and their familial upbringing that is to be addressed before the native becomes engulfed in Lilith Dogma. these natives are as harsh as granite and can often struggle with the softer expression of sex and intimacy as they naturally detach and shut down emotionally from these things out of an instinctual need. That said the relationship with the children unlike their fourth house counterpart is not nearly as strained and is actually very close knit and loving. These natives give their children the world almost to compensate for what the native lacked as they themselves grew up. the kids come first in their lives, before the marriage partner and this can often cause a ripple in their marriages and one they don’t typically care to fix. these natives tend to have sharp peaks and ridges in the bone and can have rather great bone structure. under eye bags or just tightly clenched resting faces is common, beautiful smiles but these natives usually try not to smile in public.

(New Order - Leave Me Alone)

Lilith In The Eleventh House : The Millions of Lost Souls 

Lilith here is Many but also few. Here Lilith understands the human psyche, she understands its’s pains because she understand the worlds pain, she sees it’s cycle. These natives are Em-paths and have a very difficult time separating their woes from the woes of others. These natives can feel the emotions of others in such an intense way that it often feels like a shock or jolt that can energize or deplete them. These natives have a keen ability of harmonizing with whatever environment you place them in but can also create chaos there by crowding up the energies. Lilith here is like a battery constantly debilitating and then re-vitalizing the area around her postivley or negativity afflicting her environment. These natives tend to attract Lilith like friends whom are often, serious, sultry, provocative, reckless, anarchist, aggressive, shady, mysterious or downright evil. These natives are not naive, and tend to be very aware of their energy and how it manifest as a great many with this placement take on a very nomadic and free spirit. Many like to wear chakra stones, and jewelry that furthers their individualistic expression. The ankles and calves of the native tend to be darker then the rest of the body or remarkably sturdy. they may still have scars or just a abnormality to them. These natives make excellent runners and many gravitate towards the sport whilst others may pick up singing or artistic expression. Lilith here is more passive than she is a troublemaker, choosing more so to lay low and experiment with her own individual self then that of others. these natives can express themselves in ways that can turn society upside down, or greatly challenge the status quo. Gender normalties are lost on these natives as they don’t really identify themselves as anything in particular, rather they are energy, constantly shifting through the cosmos. These natives have a sharp tongue that can quickly turn poisonous yet they don’t actively rely on it. Due to Lilith being so self invested in this house very rarely will the dark side of this native produce any dangerous or malefic habits, rather they will seem calm and vulnerable to the world around them. sexually they can be very quirky and new-ons. they see intimacy as a gate way to exploring their raw and darker angel and transverse sexuality in stride. that being said these natives are very odd and perplexing in matters of romance and sex and can easily fly back and forth between wants and needs sexually as Lilith is really just testing the waters. the mind is deep but depressive and these natives can suffer mighty highs and strange lows from nowhere but never anything that debilitates them. these natives are very kind and balance self centered and people centered quite naturally through the help of Lilith.

(New Order - Guilty Partner)

Lilith In The Twelfth House : The Clouds where she Scram A Mighty Scream

Lilith in this house is chaos, the reasoning being that Lilith in this house is grappling with the idea of undoing and self manifested characterization. Lilith doesn’t face her actions she seeks to free herself from them and in karmic fashion the evil in her is sent spiraling back at her. These natives are sensual, calm, intimate, healing, clairvoyant, em-paths, spiritualist, pacifist, slaves of justice and human weakness yet they also manifest as unstable, counter-productive, stagnate, false, and stuck in their escapism. These natives are so afraid of themselves that it becomes an unconscious struggle between their Lilith and them as a person. this aspect plays out like a Demonic possession. The person can feel entangled, low energy, or bouts of hedonism, sexual obscurity, impulsive action, and substance abuse that are all out of character. The thing here is that Lilith in her attempt to commit a grand escape has a chain caught on the native causing her woes and anguishes to be randomly transferred to the native. in many ways this can create an alter ego for the native as the native gets hit with personality shifts that progressively deepen as they get older. the dreams can be very LILITH like and the mind itself and it’s inner psyche can feel like hovering voices, paranoia and dreams of sharing or not being in control of ones on desires and feelings or even actions. This aspect can create a person who can seem moody and unpredictable, especially when the urge to detach and disengage pops in, it can be impossible to stop these natives. the sexuality falls on a spectrum like with all humans but with Lilith's inhabitants their can be an unconscious desire to stay celibate or an association of trauma with sex. Men and women here could've been sexually abused or taken advantage of and their can be issues surrounding the “yes” or “no, i don’t want to” in sex that can make it a very blurred area for the native. Lilith may want aggression, passion and complete domination but the person may not truly resonate or desire that and may feel appalled or fear if the personalities switch during sex. these natives NEED a sensitive and compassionate lover who will guide them and nurture them, lovers who are chosen during the Lilith persona tend to worsen and deepen the wounds of this person causing a higher frequency of escapism. I CANNOT stress enough that parents who have kids with this placement, please ensure your child is well aware of the dangers of sex and try to keep them somewhat grounded in the area as some of the emotional trauma can start very early and these natives do sadly attract the worse of the worse mainly due to how violent and angry Lilith is to be resting in this house.  the natives can be seductive but its never intended, they can be provocative but it’s never something they are aware of. these natives are a mirror of the person who views them and can be a dream or nightmare but that is the power of Lilith here, even in her escape she creates a shadow in the clouds that can be anything the heart fears or wishes.  these natives can sleep for LONG hours and have a hard time waking up. The nightmares tend to be hard for them to awake from and can make the natives fear going to sleep all together. Insomnia is another manifestation later in life but is not the norm. the brain is powerful but repressed. the natives can be highly sensitive to hospitals or jails and usually attributes jails to danger and naturally stay away from them and out of trouble. these natives have a natural distrust of hospitals and vice versa as in many cases things go array or seem shadier than they should. that being said later in life hospitals are crucial for the native and therapy in it’s own way is very healing for the native. the desire to use sex as a coping mechanism is a dangerous possibility here and one that should be avoided at all costs. these natives are lovers not fighters and that is their loveliest quality but also their biggest weakness. unlike the other houses whom are fusions between the natives and Lilith this house is the only house besides the 11th house in which 11th and the native are separate and because of the natives emotional nature, Lilith readily devours them. These natives must learn to fight otherwise they will fall victim to Lilith's heavy presence. through their battle with Lilith these natives become remarkably strong, often powerful spiritualist and even stronger at protecting themselves from dark energy in their later years.

[urmckidding]

╰ °✧ that’s MARLENE MCKINNON and SHE seems to look a lot like NANA KOMATSU. according to ministry files, the PUREBLOOD used to attend HOGWARTS and be in GRYFFINDOR. now, they’re TWENTY and is A RADIO BROADCASTER. red wine stains on white linen ; bloody lips pulled into a defiant grin ; plunging into cold water ; the twist of your gut before you make a stupid decision ( still laughing despite the fear ) ; loud and unapologetic laughter echoing out ; a soldier — scared but marching on nonetheless ; a bonfire roaring to life, wood hissing and sparks flying are the best way to describe them. it doesn’t say in their file, but word around the street is that they’re a ORDER MEMBER.

hullo  ,  it’s  ME  ,  bri  (  she/her  ,  23  ,  est  tz  )!!  this  is  my  trash  daughter  ,  marlene  ,  but  don’t  tell  her  i  said  that  because  she  will  bully  me.  any  who  ,  you  can  find  more  about  miss  mckinnon  under  the  cut  including  wanted  connections  (  at  the  way  bottom  so  feel  free  to  skip  the  about  bit  if  it’s  too  long  )!  and  feel  free  to  check  out  her  ABOUT  PAGE  &  PINTEREST.   

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐒

FULL NAME:  marlene  isadora  mckinnon

AKA:  marlie  ,  len  ,  mckinnon

AGE:  twenty  years  old

BIRTHDAY:  

GENDER  & PRONOUNS:  cis  woman

PRONOUNS:  she/her

SEXUALITY:  biromantic  bisexual 

BLOOD STATUS:  pureblood 

FORMER HOUSE:  gryffindor

OCCUPATION:  radio  host  ,  order  of  the  phoenix  member

marlene’s  radio  show  is  anonymous  and  she  mainly  uses  it  to  shit  talk  the  deatheater  movement  and  share  stories  about  the  order  of  the  phoenix  and  their  allies.  it’s  fairly  similar  to  the  potterwatch  radio  show  that  lee  jordan  runs  during  the  seventh  book.  of  course  ,  since  this  is  marlene  she’ll  also  put  on  some  music  during  the  breaks.       

FACECLAIM:  nana  komatsu 

𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐑

POSITIVE TRAITS:  humorous  ,  protective  ,  spirited  ,  passionate  ,  loyal  ,  courageous  ,  persistent  ,  independent  ,  playful  

NEGATIVE TRAITS:  bullheaded  ,  impulsive  ,  impatient  ,  self  destructive  ,  arrogant  ,  attention  seeking  ,  argumentative    

DEMEANOR:  marlene  can  come  off  one  of  two  ways  :  friendly  and  playful  or  cruel  and  spiteful.  she  is  a  person  set  in  her  ways  ,  that  means  she  probably  has  already  decided  how  she  feels  about  a  person  either  before  or  in  the  first  couple  minutes  of  meeting  them.  to  her  friends  and  family  ,  marlene  is  a  spitfire  with  a  penchant  for  adventure  and  trouble.  she  likes  to  make  her  loved  ones  laugh  and  have  fun  and  is  incredibly  protective  of  them.  however  to  those  she’s  not  so  crazy  about  ,  she’s  a  spitfire  in  a  less  fun  way.  she’s  hard  to  win  over  if  a  person  has  already  felt  her  judgement  but  it’s  possible  ...  maybe  ...  who  knows.      

𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓  (  trigger  warning  :  the  death  of  a family  member -  i  will  tag  the  paragraph  it’s  in.  )

the  mckinnon  brood  resides  in  SCOTLAND  ,  her  father’s  family  having  settled  there  for  quite  some  time  while  her  mother’s  side  has  never  left  japan  —  save  for  her  mother  of  course.  they  are  a  large  crew  even  when  only  counting  marlene’s  immediate  family.  she  has  four  siblings  ,  all  older.  it  had  been  a  contentious  subject  whether  to  send  the  kids  to  hogwarts  or  mahoutokoro  in  japan.  her  father  won  the  fight  eventually  and  the  mckinnons  went  on  to  scatter  themselves  throughout  gryffindor  and  ravenclaw.        

as  a  note  ,  the  mckinnons  have  not  mingled  with  many  of  the  other  zealous  pureblood  families  for  a  long  while  now  having  marked  themselves  as  blood  traitors  generations  ago.  they’re  a  rough  and  tumble  kind  of  group  who  don’t  care  for  haughty  parties  or  the  politics  of  it  all. 

marlene  has  always  been  a  whirlwind  of  spirit  and  trouble.  she  was  infamous  for  the  pranks  she  played  on  the  family’s  tutors  and  her  disappearing  acts  ,  though  her  parents  could  hardly  blame  her  with  the  kind  of  examples  they  set  ;  both  aurors  who  threw  themselves  into  trouble  even  when  the  odds  were  against  them.  marlene  grew  up  hearing  stories  about  their  misadventures  ,  all  tied  up  in  a  nice  little  bow  as  if  her  parents  weren’t  risking  their  lives  as  the  war  worsened.  but  it  was  not  them  that  marlene  wanted  to  be  like.  no  ,  she  completely  adored  and  idolized  her  grandmother.   

KIRA  MCKINNON  was  a  staple  in  the  mckinnon  household  ,  floating  in  and  out  as  if  it  was  her  own  home.  she  doted  on  marlene  as  her  youngest  granddaughter.  she  would  often  steal  her  grandchildren  away  to  different  adventures  in  town  or  the  lands  surrounding  the  mckinnon  manor.  marlene  always  looked  forward  to  her  grandmother’s  visits.  

even  when  marlene  was  whisked  off  to  hogwarts  ,  she  and  her  grandmother  exchanged  letters  —  probably  the  one  thing  that  marlene  would  let  her  friends  tease  her  about  solely  because  she  didn’t  care.  

marlene  was  sorted  into  gryffindor  ,  like  her  father  and  older  brother.  she  made  herself  comfortable  quickly  and  garnered  a  reputation  as  a  fairly  opinionated  and  sharp  witch.  she  liked  the  flashy  spells  and  never  cared  for  the  classes  where  she  was  required  to  sit  still  —  “  what  a  bore.  ”  she  would  often  say  during  history  of  magic  and  potions  classes.  

she  had  grown  up  playing  quidditch  with  her  family  and  tried  out  as  soon  as  she  was  able  to  ,  earning  a  proper  spot  on  the  house  team  in  her  third  year  (  either  beater  or  chaser  ,  whichever  position  works  with  the  other  gryffindor  headcanons!  ).  

most  notoriously  ,  marlene  had  trouble  picking  her  fights  wisely.  she  has  always  been  the  type  of  person  to  act  first  and  think  later  ,  which  during  her  time   at  hogwarts  got  her  into  an  awful  amount  of  trouble  —  fights  on  the  pitch  ,  in  the  corridors  ,  sometimes  even  in  classes.  it  was  difficult  for  her  to  stand  down  when  she  had  a  problem  with  someone  ...  

this  passion  became  more  and  more  focused  around  equality  efforts  for  muggles  and  muggleborns.  that  conversation  was  had  frequently  at  the  mckinnon  house  and  it  was  clear  who  her  family  stood  with  :  the  order.  however  ,  marlene’s  passion  for  it  was  based  in  the  seeds  her  family  planted.  i  think  that  if  the  mckinnons  sided  with  the  death  eaters  ,  marlene  would  have  fought  just  as  passionately  for  that  ...  at  least  until  around  the  time  the  rp  takes  place  because  this  is  when  she  begins  to  form  her  own  opinions. 

FAMILY  MEMBER  DEATH  TRIGGER  WARNING  BEGINS  ...  though  marlene  was  obvious  in  where  she  stood  in  the  war  ,  it  never  became  real  to  her  until  her  seventh  year.  she  had  nursed  a  quiet  fear  for  what  waited  for  her  outside  of  hogwarts’s  walls  until  she  received  news  of  her  grandmother’s  death.  kira  mckinnon  had  garnered  her  own  reputation  throughout  her  career.  she  was  no  one  to  scoff  at  as  a  looming  figure  in  the  efforts  to  catch  war  criminals.  however  when  she  retired  those  she  had  helped  imprison  didn’t  forget  what  she  had  done.  she  had  been  on  the  death  eaters’  hit  list  for  quite  some  time  and  they  finally  crossed  her  off  —  marking  the  beginning  of  the  mckinnon  family’s  demise.  marlene  refused  to  leave  school  and  took  her  grief  out  on  students  who  she  suspected  stood  with  voldemort.  it  nearly  got  her  expelled.  but  her  grandmother’s  death  left  her  with  a  nearly  paralyzing  need  to  fight.  TRIGGER  WARNING  ENDS.    

upon  graduation  ,  marlene  —  seventeen  and  burning  with  purpose  —  signed  up  to  join  the  order.  her  family  welcomed  her  ,  though  her  parents  had  reservations  about  their  youngest  and  most  reckless  joining  up.  they  tried  to  keep  her  off  missions  as  long  as  possible  and  so  marlene  went  elsewhere  to  try  to  help. 

she  began  her  radio  show  ,  title  TBD  ,  when  she  was  nineteen.  it  requires  a  special  tune  in  in  order  to  hear  and  is  riddled  with  passcodes  and  code  names  but  she  mainly  reports  on  news  and  stories  ,  including  her  own  passionate  rhetoric.  she  operates  it  out  of  a  wizarding  network  who  she  hosts  a  show  for  during  some  weekdays  but  at  night  she  uses  the  instruments  to  hold  her  own  show.  of  course  there  is  music  during  breaks  because  marlene  needs  to  jam.  

since  she’s  joined  the  order  she’s  actually  been  included  on  missions  and  meetings.  all  she  can  see  is  the  fight  right  now  ,  but  in  that  reckless  and  young  perspective  where  she  can  only  see  it  ending  well  for  her  and  her  friends.  because  of  that  she  tends  to  act  fearless  and  downright  stupid  ,  glossing  over  her  fears  and  worries  with  humor  and  general  avoidance.  

TLDR;  marlene  is  a  chaotic  dumbass  who  runs  a  secret  radio  show  under  the  guise  of  an  actual  radio  host  for  a  wizarding  network.  she’s  a  dedicated  order  member  who  will  absolutely  throw  herself  in  harm’s  way  because  ...  she’s  a  chaotic  dumbass.     

𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

RIDE  OR  DIE’S  —  these  are  the  people  marlene  would  go  to  battle  for.  she  is  a  fiercely  protective  friend  and  would  rather  herself  get  hurt  than  those  she  cares  for.  these  are  also  the  people  she  would  actually  confide  in  too.  she  very  rarely  shares  what’s  going  on  in  her  brain  except  for  when  it  involves  these  people.  on  the  flip  side  ,  if  no  one’s  in  peril  ,  marlene  is  that  friend  who  always  pushes  her  limits  a  little  too  much.  she  wants  everyone  to  enjoy  themselves  but  it  won’t  stop  her  if  they  decide  not  to  partake.  she’s  a  bad  influence  point  blank.      

HOOK UPS  &  FLINGS  —  marlene  is  straight  up  afraid  of  serious  relationships.  she  sees  her  parents  and  their  parents  and  relationships  like  theirs  seem  so  out  of  reach.  i  wouldn’t  say  she’s  a  serial  one  night  stander  but  she  has  definitely  left  some  broken  off  flings  in  her  wake  because  of  this.  any  gender  ,  anyone.

LOVE  INTEREST  —  me:  *says  marlene  is  afraid  of  serious  relationships*  also  me:  *puts  love  interest  under  wanted  connections*  exCUSE  ME  if  i’m  a  sucker  for  a  guarded  person  falling  in  love  oK.  anyway  this  could  really  be  any  dynamic  but  personally  i  am  a  sucker  for  a  past  hook  up  catching  feels  but  marlene  doesn’t  return  the  sentiment  unTIL  LATER  or  enemies  to  friends  to  lovers  or  literally  anything  ,  it  does  not  take  much  to  please  me.  again  ,  open  to  anyone.  

RIVALS  &  ENEMIES  —  marlene  is  an  absolute  rage  machine  and  has  probably  started  fights  with  a  lot  of  people.  with  that  said  ,  her  favorite  people  to  hate  are  death  eaters  or  their  sympathizers.  other  than  that  ,  rivals  or  enemies  could  be  a  former  school/quidditch  competitor  to  someone  who  looked  at  her  funny  once.  

MENTOR  —  hello  i  am  a  sucker  for  the  mentor  -  student  dynamic  and  if  anyone  wants  to  knock  some  sense  into  marlene  ,  please  do  not  hesitate  to  do  it.  she’s  young  and  stupid  and  naive  about  the  war  efforts  ,  she  doesn’t  have  an  accurate  view  of  the  world  ,  a  place  she  thinks  is  neatly  divided  into  black  and  white.  your  character  can  tell  her  she’s  not  all  good  and  she  can  be  a  pain  in  your  character’s  ass!!  a  win  -  win  honestly. 

LITERALLY  ANYTHING  —  i  ,,  Love  to  plot  and  am  so  down  to  brainstorm  new  fun  things  with  y’all!!  

[id-never-letyoudown]

A Muse List

Wilford Warfstache: reality warping semi-madman. He goes through time and just rolls with the punches. Knows at least a dozen alternate versions of the same person. Makes multiverse ships technically canon. Sometimes he forgets which timeline he's in and acts like a kid who fell asleep in the car and woke up in bed. Kinda OP, but I I'll discuss anything big with the other mun beforehand. For now it's just small stuff. -tagged: pink stache whiplash

Dark: literally watch Damien. Only this Damien had ties to the mafia, which Celine was heavily against. Also Damien and Will had a romantic relationship, highschool sweethearts, promise ring. Then Damien started running for mayor, Wil met Celine, feels were had. (ps: he's got both sets of genitalia, cuz everyone forgets.) -tagged: 3d dream

Fordwil Stachewarf: started as a joke of a bizarro!Wil and now, welp, here he is. He's a manipulative green haired asshole. A creep. He does not "roll with the punches", if one version of you likes him then he will expect all of them to, and he will take. Stuff with him can get hella triggery so I don't use him often. He's a total hardass. -tagged: green jerk

Chase: ha, an average bro. Trickshots. Memes. Bad puns and scraped knees. Anxiety ridden and depressed. Tries to drink away the pain. Also he's a werewolf and used to have hella bad anger issues, they have gotten better, but when it's that time of the month it's easy for him to slip. -tagged: sad awoo

Dr. Iplier: ;A; after losing his V-card to his highschool sweetheart who was moving away, three months later when he tries to break it off, she tells him she's pregnant. So they have a shotgun wedding. Also his family disowned him for this. He had to balance college, a job, and financially caring for his long distance, pregnant, wife. The boy was stressed, and he vented to her. Very next day she says she lost the baby. And ol' doc blamed himself. They've been married since, and whenever he brought up separating she would bring up the baby. He hired a PI who uncovered that there never was a baby to begin with, so now he's just "fuck you, fuuuuck yoooou." Now he's trying to get her to divorce him so she won't take everything. -tagged: doctor love me

Host: ah hah, favorite boi. My Host did used to be the Author, and after getting his ass handed to him, started looking for ways to really amp up his abilities. He found It(not the clown, fck off)and offered a deal "I'll give you a vessel, in exchange for power" and It misinterpreted and took HIS body instead of letting him find someone else. Over the years he's realized his mistakes and has become much more humble. Basically: Host is a host to a being not of this world or even dimension. -tagged: host2

Yan: goes from "not feeling a thing" to "feeling too much" real quick. If you see him being peppy and cheerful, it's an act so ppl don't question him. He wants to feel. So whenever he gets feelings for someone he often takes it too far. Much too far. Also he's a kitsune h e r e -tagged: bloody cute

Winston: fucking pink, pompadour, greaser demon. Him big. Tol. Stronk. Very protective of his partners, especially if they're human. Big teddybear. Loves animals and works as a mechanic. His town? Almost everyone is a demon there, they just wear glamours all the time. -tagged: big pink

Anti: fucking glitchy glitch tech demon. Acts like a computer virus. Very bitter. Up Dark's ass. He has feelios that he refuses to deal with, so he just annoys Dark and insists on being by him most of the time. He likes Dark because he's one of the few who don't take his bullshit and aren't scared of him. -tagged: virus boi

Bing: saaah dude. Super laidback unless he's alone, then he gets to work and is actually semi serious. He's got a few defects, mainly with his eyes, so he wears shades. Default safemode, the dial(yes, dial)is on the back of his neck. Ppl confuse this for volume too often. Notch one: he can cuss. Notch two: he can look up lewds. Notches from then on just increase how raunchy he can be and the frequency of his lewd statements. Very last notch: he can FUCK. also, he has a detachable dick, like, he can still feel it when it's not attached, thanks to bluetooth. Weird man. -tagged: robruh

Virgil/Anxiety: anxious bab with a sarcastic tongue and foul mouth. Total pessimist. Will not go out of his way to interact with people. Loves puns and dad jokes and Disney. Sings. Acts like a damn cat tbh. But surprise! Him a spider. Has giant spider legs coming out of his back that he hides -tagged: smokey eye

Patton/Morality: god, fckin. He's trying so hard. He wants to be the bestest friend/father figure that he can be. Sometimes he holds his own feelings in and bottles them up. -cough-surprise binch, daddy kink and puns. -tagged: pun papa

AD: h e y, I know we all have headcanons n shit, but my Dark would have tried to get their pal DA out of the mirror and into a body, after things settled, somehow. It would have taken him years, but he would have. Course it didn't go quite as planned. By then whatever remained of the DA was far too gone, turns up being stuck in a broken mirror realm can really fuck you up. And eventually turn you into a demon. AD is not the DA anymore, all they remember is that night and that night only.

Any semblance of the DA they once had is now gone. Now they're out for revenge, and when you're able to travel through reflections that can come quite easily. Ofc they look like Mark(more specifically Dark, as he was the one who both put them in and took them out of the broken mirror that was keeping them tied to the manor), only hella scarred and with white streaks all throughout their hair. Their eyes are mirrors, which is just fckin creepy. Personality wise they don't trust easy. A smartass with a sharp tongue. Brutally honest. Redeeming quality? If they see someone/something that's vulnerable they'll protecc. -tagged: spitting image

Kink(Klancy): a kinky mtherfcker. Used to be in a hella abusive relationship with someone who called beating and using him with no regard for his safety at all "bdsm". And it was Klancy's first and only romantic relationship. It wasn't until his bad, horrid excuse of a dom took them to an actual, legit bdsm club that he realized what the dom was doing was abuse. So he dumped him, and Jeremiah and his buddies helped get his stuff. Klancy decided that from now on he'd take his sex life in his own hands. He isn't currently looking for a a relationship, but I'm a shipping hoe so if y'all are up for a slow burn, hit him up -tagged: kink it up

Eric: hoooooo b o y, well, his backstory was awful before. Now it's uh, downright trigger worthy. I won't go into detail, let's just say Pops has a bad touch way of getting Eric to "calm down". He is a quiet, anxious boy. We all know his canon story. He feels guilty that he's the only one of his siblings living now. And Derek doesn't help. He's moved out and with Klancy, because I want them to be friends and you can fite me in the pit. Klancy-aside from Host-is the only one that knows what Derek's been doing since uh, Klancy being Klancy decided he'd try the dad on for size and Derek said some questionable things in the heat of the moment. Klancy has practically adopted Eric, he'll fight Derek.

Eric is a nervous wreck and easy to manipulate. Which makes him perfect for juicy, angsty threads. -tagged: yellow handkercheif

Periwinkle: a defective Google unit made with an experimental sensory system, it made him incredibly sensitive to the point of pain. So he wears clothes from head to toe, along with a helmet, Daft Punk style. He works at a nearby Google place, doing surveys with owners of Google units. He fakes being emotionless when on the clock, as he's been threatened with deactivation due to violent outbursts. -tagged: off limits

Copiplier: his name's Leslie, Officer Morgan. He prefers being called Lee. He abides by the l a w!! No exceptions. Whenever someone makes a noise complaint or some other with the office, he's the one that shows up. Mostly because none of the other officers want to deal with t h a t mountain of paperwork. His hair's on the long side, man bun long. And he buff. When I say he looks good in the uniform I mean "gets mistaken for a stripper" good. Which is fair, because for some time he was a stripper, before police academy(cough, he still is, on the weekends). Strict boi is kinda dense and ever since Yukio gave him some damn pocky he's been addicted to it. Which is great, since he used to be a smoker. -tagged: oh officer

[rom-e-o]

All Hallows’ Eve [H!Jakob/NewYear!Corrin]

Pairings: Jakob/NewYear!Corrin [with mentions of Jakob/F!Corrin, Seth/Eirika and Ephraim/L’Arachel]

[FE Heroes-verse]

Askr was an enigma of a location. It was most definitely quieter and safer than the battlefields of Nohr and Hoshido, but also much louder and more vibrant than the Northern Fortress.

In many ways, it was the most normal place Jakob had ever been. Heroes chatted and galivanted around as happily as they could between battles. Some heroes even became engaged and informally wed. Hell, even the summoner Kiran was engaged.

It some ways, he could describe the land as quite idyllic.

In countless other ways, it was a strange wonderland of at least a million nuances. While bloody battles were an everyday occurrence, death wasn’t permanent. Fallen heroes always came back unscathed, even though the pain from the lost battles had been quite real.

Immortality wasn’t the only quirk Askr had to offer. Children turned to beasts, items like chocolates and seashells were weapons and warriors traversed the battlefields in elaborate ensembles of armor and even wedding gowns.

Some heroes even shared voices. Some of the voices were even identical to his own.

One such person with a similar voice was Saizo, but he never seemed to speak more than a few words at a time. The most notable person he shared a voice with was a spy named Matthew, who spoke in a different accent but most definitely the same voice and pitch.

It was even more surreal due to the fact the young man talked about unfamiliar names like ‘Jaffar’ and ‘Nino’ all while gushing over some woman named Leila. Whoever she was, he sounded quite smitten.

If it was odd enough to hear his voice from another’s throat, it was downright chilling to meet alternate versions of himself strolling the area. One time he thought he saw another version of himself, dressed in his normal butler ensemble, following Corrin into a church.

The thought made him blush.

Corrin.

Gods, he missed his liege. He sighed deeply and pushed the daydream from his mind.

Perhaps he’d only helplessly wished for such a sight. Although, in such a strange place, perhaps anything was possible. It wouldn’t be the strangest thing he’d seen so far.

All the other heroes, from children to seniors, chatted merrily one moment and, the next, they were facing down nefarious foes on the battlefield with wiped memories.

Some heroes wore armor and others even wore swimsuits and other costumes.

“Oh gods, don’t even get me started,” he thought as he cast a glance down at his own clothes. The garish costume he wore and the silly-looking weapon that crackled nefariously as his side didn’t bode well with him. No wonder most avoided him. That was the only silver-lining, he supposed.

Not that he cared to harp on it too much, all things considering. The man had been summoned to the strange place right in the middle of his homeland’s autumnal Harvest Festival. One second, he’d been serving tea to his master, and the next he felt as if the world around him shattered into a million pieces and he found himself walking upon an ethereal dais to be greeted by the mysterious summoner Kiran and an owl named Feh.

Since coming to the strange land in a puff of smoke, the summoner had appointed him to head the castle’s defensive team. He’s objected obviously, but Kiran had insisted he take the lead.

So, not in the mood to argue, he reluctantly agreed.

It was an eccentric change of pace for him. To be a leader was not something in his blood. Once more, he was leading armies of other individuals from other dimensions and worlds that were all practically strangers to one another. For every familiar face, there seemed to be a dozen or so new ones.

Although he enjoyed bonding with Prince Alfonse over tea and teasing Frederick over his incredibly informal beach attire (which usually resulted in him having to dodge a sharpened seashell or two) there was only one person he truly longed to see.

Corrin.

Then, as if in a dream, he heard her voice call for him.

“Oh, Jakob, is that you?”

He stiffened at the sound of the familiar voice and phrase. She sounded as if she was only a few inches behind him. The man whirled around expecting to see the princess he longed to meet again so desperately but could never seen to catch up to. Instead, he turned to see a young woman that, alas, was not his liege. She was a shorter girl with reddish, bobbed hair. Instead of a sword, she brandished a staff in her pale hands.

It wasn’t Corrin.

Only someone who shared her voice.

“Ah, Priscilla, correct?’ he said as he tried his best to not sigh in disappointment. Instead, he forced a smile and greeted her kindly. After all, she hadn’t done anything wrong. How was she supposed to know? “I’m sorry, you just startled me. What do you require?”

“Oh…um, Kiran is requesting your presence at the summoning dais,” she said gently, her voice timid and so quiet Jakob had to strain to hear her. “They said it was urgent.”

“Is that so?” he asked, becoming annoyed almost immediately. Probably another idiotic battle with another’s army. While the fighting wasn’t the worst, he didn’t much care for the team he fought with. They were all strangers, but at least, they were strong together. At the end of the day, he supposed that was all that truly mattered in the world of Askr.

“Excuse me, then,” he said with a deep bow. “I’ll take my leave.”

“Of course,” she said with a kind smile. “Take care, Jakob…and if you must go into battle, please be careful. If you find yourself injured, please find me.”

Thank goodness she was quiet. It hurt to listen to every word she spoke.

“I’ll be fine,” he swore as he darted off.

The man briskly made his way to the dais in hope to get whatever matter of discussion was needed out of the way as soon as possible. He had absolutely no desire to covert around with the ridiculous, caped summoner and talking owl. The only reason he would even long to see then was if, by some miracle, perhaps they would send him home.

“Unlikely,” he thought with dismay.

Jakob arrived as his destination and climbed a series of marble steps that ascended into the sky and beyond a blanket of clouds. As he meandered, he heard Kiran shout something excitedly amidst a foggy cocoon of smoke.

“Woohoo!” Kiran shouted from atop the dais, cheering and jumping about in excitement.

In the distance, he could hear the faint swells of shimmering magic and the clashing of sword and axe blades. Another team must have gone into battle, he thought.

Judging from Kiran’s reaction, he assumed they’d been victorious. Perhaps a greater reward than usual had been at stake. Not that it mattered to him in the slightest.

“Good work, team!” the summoner cried from afar while Feh flying in dizzying circles and hooted in elation.

The silver-haired man took a brief pause to glance down and see four heroes marching off the battlefield below. The only one he recognized immediately was L’Arachel, who was a frequent tome user on their kingdom’s defensive team. Whenever she brazenly ran forward to attack, he’d often pull her back immediately and defend her. It was a shockingly effective technique…although she was rarely careful enough to avoid casualty most times. The other teammates, Seliph and Ike, were nowhere to be found.

This time, the blonde princess was joined by two blue-haired warriors that looked like siblings and a red-haired man he knew as Seth.

“Princess Eirika, are you okay?” said warrior asked as his horse trotted alongside her. His voice ached with reverence and concern, but not delicateness, for the woman. “The battle was hard-fought and quite arduous. Please, my horse can carry us both.”

The woman, obviously tired by not beaten, looked up at him and shook her head. Jakob saw the two have a brief discourse before she relented, and he lifted her on his lap. Obviously relieved, Eirika smiled up at him as the two rode back home.

The other pair was much more obnoxious.

“Come along Ephraim,” L’Arachel commanded as her white pony galloped off the field. As the prince sighed and began to follow slowly, she threw a shifty glance back at him and asked, “My, you seem to be just as exhausted as your much more talented sister. Well, I suppose you can ride with me if you’re having trouble keeping up.”

“What’s that? And kick you off your high-horse?’ he asked almost playfully. “I’m fine.”

“Hmph, you’re quite cocky for a man who barely survived the battle,” she retorted, eyes scanning his body and noticing the bloody injuries. She also noted the obvious patches of bare skin, where her eyes not-so-obviously lingered for much longer than necessary.

Ephraim couldn’t help but notice her leering and seized an opportunity.

“You’re quite persnickety for a woman who just asked me to ride along with her,” he said, staring off in the distance as he feigned cool disinterest. He looked ahead to see Eirika comfortable on Seth’s lap.

The otherwise sweet image only served as ammunition for the cocky prince.

“Was your plan for me to sit on your lap as well?” he asked with a smirk. “That sounds nice, but I’d rather sit on Seth’s. His looks more comfortable.”

The heavy weight of her tome clobbered him between his eyes.

“You’d be lucky to be allowed on this horse with me!” she shot back a little too loudly. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re unworthy! By the by, my lap is most definitely more comfortable than his and most certainly yours, you devilish pervert!”

“Prove it, then” he shot back with a completely straight face, only to be smacked again with her tome.

“As incorrigible as ever,” Jakob muttered to himself as he watched them bicker from afar. Hell, Ephraim deserved it, in his opinion. The damned prince was a fine jock but was an ass when it came to social protocol. Not that L’Arachel was anything close to a shining example either.

Then again, neither was he, he supposed.

The man wasn’t jealous of poor Seth and Eirika in the slightest as he backed away from the sight and their voices slowed faded into the distance.

Well, his suspicions thus far seemed correct. It seemed Kiran was excited about a reward that had come from the last battle if the excited ‘Woohoo!’ was anything to go by.

With a cleansing sigh he often used to prepare his fragile patience for most social conversations, Jakob ascended finals steps of the staircase without hindrance of the ball and chain. The scraping of metal on concrete did alert Kiran to his presence and, when they turned to face him, a huge grin was plastered on their face.

“Guess what?” Kiran asked, balling their fists and doing a thrilled dance on their tiptoes. The small figured danced over to Jakob’s side to slowly nudge him toward the stone monument embossed with summering orbs and rugged stonework.

Jakob replied with exhausted silence.

Kiran continued without prompting.

“I know you’ve been down recently, but I just summoned someone who is going to make you very happy!” they said in a hushed tone.

Jakob’s ivory brow lofted in sheer lack of amusement. “Who?”

The strange stone monument a few feet away from them clicked into the earth and released more smoke.

Jakob’s head darted to the crook of his elbow as a strong zephyr of wind pushed against his body. Kiran pulled down their hood and lifted their cloak, cackling with glee the entire time as thick tendrils of smoke slithered around them. Now Jakob was more apprehensive then he was annoyed.

Then, he saw him.

A man with pale hair, red eyes and pointed ears. Emerged from the smoke. The prince was dressed in traditional Hoshido attire and brandished a themed bow all too similar to his own. He stepped off the platform with the grace of a nymph. He didn’t seem disoriented or moody at all. In fact, he was even smiling as he trotted over to the Summoner.

Jakob was wide-eyed at the sight.

“Happy New Year!” he said jovially, his cheeks snow-kissed pink and his smile as bright as a star. “My name’s Kamui, and I’ve decided to spend this year with…”

“Lord…Corrin?”

The young prince paused mid-sentence and glimpsed over Kiran’s shoulder upon noticing the flashing from Jakob’s Monstrous Bow out of the corner of his eye.

The duo locked eyes briefly and the butler felt his stomach quiver. Jakob wondered for a moment if the prince, no doubt from another realm, would recognize him. He didn’t have to wonder long.

Upon seeing a familiar face, Kamui beamed in elation and pushed past Kiran to run to his friend.

“Jakob, it’s you!” the man cried joyfully. He opened his arms and made a beeline for his childhood companion.

Guided by instinct he didn’t know he possessed, the costumed butler dropped his weapon to the ground as Kamui crossed the platform and jumped into his arms. The force of the hug sent Jakob stumbling back a few paces, but he couldn’t care less. He crushed the prince in the tightest hug he could manage, and Kamui reciprocated with an embrace that could potentially crush bones thanks to his draconic strength.

Again, it was hard for Jakob to care.

“You’re here…” Jakob gasped, breathless with a mix of happiness and confusion. The person before him was most definitely his liege, but the incarnation he held so tightly in his arms was also clearly someone from another world. This version of Corrin was a young prince, and he was dressed in Hoshidan attire he’d never seen before.

It was a Corrin from another reality. Another version of the same person he loved with the same smile he treasured.

And yet, they remembered him. This person, Kamui, knew him and ran to him with the same passion and joy of someone he’d known his whole life. He supposed, in another world, it was the exact case.

“Jakob, I’m so happy to see a familiar face,” the young man confessed, not wanting to pull away from his friend’s arms. He pressed his cheek over Jakob’s heart, finding comfort in the heat of his chest and the definite speed of the beats.

“I…” he drawled, barely able to find the words to describe what he felt.

“Did you miss me?” Kamui asked, his eyes slowly traveling down Jakob’s form. “Woah, you look so cool, and you’re using a bow just like I am! It’s different, but I know I’ll get used to it. Maybe we can practice together?”

Jakob remained stunned and silent.

“Oh, I get it,” Kamui suddenly realizing, chatting up a storm again without prompting. “You must be from another world! That would explain the costume. Were you summoned here like I was just now?”

They might have been from different words, and yet, nothing seemed to have changed. Kamui was still a ray of sunshine and Jakob was still at a loss for words when he caught sight of his liege’s dazzling smile.

“I don’t understand,” Jakob finally admitted, shaking his head. “I mean, I know you’re my liege, but we’re from different worlds. We’re essentially strangers. This is…”

“How so?” Kamui asked honestly. “You’re Jakob, and even if you’re the Jakob from another world, you’re still you.”

Jakob paused and averted his eyes to meet his gaze. Amethyst eyes meant ruby ones. “Wait. You know who I am?”

“Of course, I do!” Kamui replied breathlessly. The poor price almost sounded exasperated. He then looked up at Jakob with eyes full of love and joy. “I’ve known you my whole life. You’re my retainer and my best friend. Right?”

Jakob’s eyes softened, and he buried his face in Kamui’s shoulder. The aroma of cherry-blossoms was sobering and especially sweet when it mingled with the essence of sweet-smelling chocolate from his own festive ensemble.

Jakob relented and decided to let go of his hesitation. Everything else was already so strange and outlandish. Finally, when the person he loved most in all his life was finally before him, why did he let the rules of time and reality disorient him? They didn’t matter for anything else, and they certainly didn’t matter for this.

“Yes, I am,” he confessed, sweeping one of his hands across Kamui’s cheek. “It’s me, my lord.”

The young prince beamed up at him. His arms snaked slowly around Jakob’s neck and brought him down into a slow and almost hesitant kiss. The chaste touch barely registered to Jakob until the moment after it ended. It was then that Jakob’s hand drifted down to where Kamui had rested it on his shoulder. There, he interlaced their fingers and placed a kiss on the price’s knuckles.

“Kamui, I never told you this back home, because I was so afraid to say it,” he confessed slowly, blush deepening from pink to mauve. “But I love you. So very much.”

This time, Kamui’s kiss was much deeper and more insistent. He kissed the man as if he was starving for air or water, and in vital need of something to sustain his being after so much time apart. Thank goodness Jakob was strong enough to lift the prince closer to his mouth and support him.

Kamui frantically murmured the words, “I love you too.”

Jakob fought from swooning. Gods, how long he’d yearned to hear those words. Instead, he closed his eyes and smiled into their next kiss, swearing that everything around him was a fantastical dream and that he was bound to wake up from it soon.

Then, he felt the pleasure-pain of Kamui’s hands knifing through his hair and giving a tug and knew with a euphoric crash of realization that everything was real.

“Jakob, will you tell me that you love me every day we’re together?” Kamui asked between kisses.

“Yes,” Jakob said, his reply blissful. He pulled away just enough for their lips to be a millimeter apart.

“And we’ll be together always?” Kamui asked again, raking his hands through Jakob’s hair and giving another tug. The brisk tug changed the angle of their kiss so he could peck the side of Jakob’s mouth. His slightly fanged teeth barely caressed Jakob’s bottom lip and he shuddered in absolute bliss.

“Yes, always,” he swore feverishly, hands clenching Kamui further into their contorted embrace.

The two kissed until their air ran out and they were forced to move away from each other. When they finally drifted apart, their eyes opened to greet each other. Both smiled and held hands tightly, never wanting to let go again.

The two would have stayed in each other’s arms all day had it not been from a soft ‘hooting’ noise from near that dais. That was right, Kiran and Feh were still nearby. It appeared they hadn’t gotten the hint and wandered away.

As soon as Kamui noticed them, his face turned scarlet and he nervously scratched the back of his head. An embarrassed chuckle fell clumsily from his lips.

“Well, um, shall we go practice together?” Kamui offered bashfully.

“Depends,” Jakob replied, an unusually smug smirk on his face that accompanied his blush quite nicely. “Are we practicing kissing or archery?”

Kamui tried his best to not burst out laughing and failed. Apparently, the joyful sound was so contagious that even the usually stoic Jakob couldn’t resist joining in the romantic revelry.

Perhaps they were from two different worlds, but they were the same two people that shared the same difficult by fateful past.

For them, that was more than enough.

Jakob slowly lowered Kamui back to the ground until his toes could touch the bottom. Then, the prince surprised him by suddenly taking his hand and joyfully pulling him down the stairs and away from the dais.

Ball and chain be damned, Jakob followed loyally and kept proper pace every step of the way. He already promised that his liege, the man he loved, would never be taken from him again.

It wasn’t long before the two were dashing down the stairs and back to the kingdom of heroes below. Kiran smiled softly at the sweet sight and Feh hooted in approval as the two lovebirds ran onward with their hands clasped tightly.

Perhaps cavorting around Askr in costume wasn’t so bad if he had someone by his side to pass the seasons, and years with.

--END--

There are too many ideas here. There are gaps in logic and reasoning. It’s super messy, really cliché and beyond repetitive in terms of language.

Most importantly, it was really fun to try something new. I don’t know how well I pulled it off, but I had an absolute blast writing it.

I noticed on my reread that I tend to use…a lot of the localized dialogue. I do really love Ben Diskin as Jakob’s English voice (I love Junichi Suwabe too, of course), so I think I tend to drift toward some lines more than others. If the localized lines are too heavy-handed, I’ll try to be more neutral.

Also, going back to Heroes, if Jakob is with F!Corrin, and H!Jakob is with NewYears!Corrin, and Felicia is with M!Corrin…what am I going to do about Summer!Corrin?

Well…I’ll worry about that when her tanned butt finally comes home from the beach and I can actually summon her. Until then, we’re all square.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to seeing you again next time!

Heroes Friend Code [Kiran and H!Jakob]: 8633436884

[theafictionado]

Time to write up KnK movie SIX, aka Golly Gee That Was a Tonal Shift! feat. Azaka (Also Shiki Does a Whole Fight Scene With a Butterknife and It’s Lowkey the Best Part of the Movie)

-Seriously the opening to this movie is downright surreal in contrast to the rest of them... the peppy piano music over the opening title? Azaka’s first person narration where she tells us about herself and it feels like the voiceover should be over a scene of her running to school with toast in her mouth or something? Azaka looking over her shoulder and winking at the camera??? In a bold experiment with style, ufotable has decided that this movie will be framed as a vlog post

Azaka: That’s all for now my lovelies! If you want more supernatural mysteries like this, make sure to hit that like button! 

Shiki: who are you talking to

-In this opening narration Azaka also cheerfully informs the audience that she’s in love with her older brother and has organised her whole adolescent life around trying to get him to feel the same way, including moving away so they don’t grow up together and the psychological instinct that prevents incest doesn’t kick in 

-Touko never does anything--least of all HELP anyone--without a personal motive. So I’m 99% sure Touko hired Azaka just to see what sort of entertaining disaster would happen by giving this child fire powers

-Touko if the city burns down I am holding you responsible

-(Touko knows this,and probably has twelve fake passports and three fake bodies ready to disappear into the night and have her office replaced by a hardware store within hours of this happening)

-Anyway, Touko forces Shiki and Azaka into a Get Along Shirt and sends them to investigate a school together. Because of course Azaka loooooathes Shiki for getting between her and her brother, because the Universe heard me happily talking about how movie 5 didn’t have a love triangle

This is actual dialogue between Shiki and Azaka:

-Look I’m honestly mad because “I can see someone I care about becoming embroiled in crazy supernatural shit thus I vow to become EVEN BETTER at crazy supernatural shit to protect them” is definitely not a bad character motivation, in fact it’s really quite heartwarming, but here it’s framed a) as comic rather than with any dramatic weight, and b) through incestuous romantic desires and envious rage rather than...... god, anything else would have been fine, really. There are perfectly valid reasons to see Shiki as threatening and someone you don’t want your cherished relatives near, but this potentially interesting moral conundrum of whether or not we should trust the series’ protagonist (which could have made a really tense argument between the siblings as well as a poignant question to the audience) is set aside in favour of love triangle shenanigans that none of the characters beside Azaka herself even seem to take particularly seriously. It’s a weirdly shallow (and as I said weirdly comedic) departure from what’s become the norm in the character drama in these movies. And because this weirdly shallow, weirdly comedic relationship melodrama is given so much focus thanks to this film being an episode of Azaka’s vlog, it makes the other conflicts and character dramas--including those of the villains--feel shallow to match, since there isn’t enough time and weight spent on them to flesh them out properly. 

-If I seem mad at Azaka it is because I’m mad at her wasted potential, lack of depth, jarring out-of-nowhere cuteness and ultimate lack of satisfying motivation or character development. And you know what’s wild?? This problem sounds as familiar as Azaka looks. It serves as foreshadowing for a lot of the problems ufo adaptations will have with Rin in future days. Though at least incest-played-as-a-character-quirk wasn’t one of those problems....

-Someone in power at ufotable has a Type and I’m here to waifu-shame them

-Was there anything I liked about this movie, I hear you ask? Well, as jarring as the sudden appearance of Celtic folklore was in a story world that has so far been pretty rooted in Japanese magic and philosophy, I admittedly dig the memory-stealing fairies. I especially enjoy how they can only steal that which is truly remembered (and thus they can’t steal something a person has themselves forgotten or lost to the back of their subconscious)--it was a fun bit of magic-logic, treating something as conceptual and ethereal as memories like physical objects

-I knew not to trust the teacher dude because he looked just like Kuzuki. This isn’t even about archetypes anymore, this is about character designs giving the twist away. 

-Oh also, I liked the dog, and I liked how nothing bad happened to the dog

-Shiki is a cat-like person who gets along with dogs... truly both Yin and Yang represented within her

-Though this also represents Shiki getting along with an animal better than she is ever destined to get along with Azaka.........

-Like this was the perfect opportunity for them to sort their stuff out and come away bonded but they were bickering (well, Azaka bickering at Shiki, Shiki not caring much) the whole time they were together, and doing separate investigations and action scenes the rest of the time. If you’re going to introduce a character conflict like this the least you can do is give me some closure on it. As it is their relationship is basically in the same place as when the story started, just as Azaka’s relationship with Mikiya is in the same weird place as when the story started, with only the teensiest bit of self-reflection that ultimately means nothing at all

-I just. I go out of my way to not watch anime comedies where one of the jokes is a little sister in love with her big brother and then you go and insert one into the urban fantasy mystery series I was watching while minding my own business

-ANYWAY

-Shiki fighting that dude with the dinner knife was very cool

-HMMM so how ‘bout that after credits scene??

-Bloody Araya sowing the seeds of discord even after he’s dead. I totally forgot about that snippet we saw of the dude in the alley. I think I must have assumed it was Enjou. But sure does look like the third magical nasty is in place to go after Shiki...

[all-my-novels]

BLOODY SUNDAY: Chapter 3

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Chapter Three: Investigation Begins

Jethro was a big cat but even he was intimidated by the chief. Going by the name Tiger, the chief wore the name like a badge of honor. Besides his fiery tiger striped coat, the chief was downright huge for a Norwegian Forest Cat. He probably weighed close to thirty pounds and, at least two-thirds of it was undoubtedly pure muscle. His monstrous head was twice the size of Jethro's and his paws made the average tom's look like dainty kitten feet. Tiger gave off the aura of a cat who was in complete control. Jethro couldn't stop himself from being on edge whenever he was around him. His fur automatically fluffed out slightly while Tiger inspected the area.

Alongside him was Channary and a few of the other officers from the homicide unit. Some were helping the medical examiner get the deceased into a body bag for transportation back to the morgue, which was really an abandoned building a few blocks away from the church. It offered a good amount of privacy and worked well for its purpose. Jethro rarely went down there because the place gave him the creeps, but this time he might have to. Tom-Tom's family deserved to know exactly what happened to their beloved son, brother, and husband. Jethro wasn't going to make them wait an extra minute if he could help it.

"We've collected the evidence from between his claws," Jethro said when Tiger emerged from the bushes. He grunted in response and Jethro gulped nervously. "I started searching the area for clues but I didn’t find anything. I think he was killed somewhere else and dumped here in front of the Church."

"Figure out where he was killed, than," Tiger hissed. He was notorious for having little patience which even extended to Jethro, who was one of the best members on the team. "Come back to me when you've got more evidence. Far as I'm concerned, there ain't nothin' here." Tiger stalked off, tail thrashing irritably. Jethro and Channary gave a sigh of relief and looked at each other, offering wry grins.

Where were they supposed to start with this investigation? Jethro's facial expression turned into an irritated frown as he sniffed around the church steps. He wanted to  try and figure out which direction the killer had come from. There was little evidence to indicate where Jethro should search next. The human church began its morning service several minutes earlier, so all he could smell was the distinct smell of humans. He could barely even smell cat blood scent anymore, which was very bad.

"Humans," Jethro snarled. "They always muddle up our crime scenes..."

"Maybe that was the perps intentions," Channary suggested, lifting her nose from the ground. "I mean, what if the killer left the body here knowing that the humans would cover up his scent and the fog would conceal his movements."

Jethro huffed. "I don't like dealing with killers who are smart." It made his job a hell of a lot more difficult. Making his way across the church lawn, he finally found what he was looking for. It appeared to be a line through the grass where some of the vegetation flattened and dew had been rubbed off. He'd finally found his first lead. "Channary, help me track this," he called back to his sister as he began to follow the trail away from the church.

The church had been built in a meadow a bit away from the main road. That allowed forest area to surround and separate it from the houses slightly. Jethro followed the trail into the woods, trying to stay on track the best he could. It was an incredibly difficult task because it was hard to tell if the path was made by the body.  He knew there was a chance it could have been made by one of the early morning scavengers. However, a few hundred yards in he found something indicating he was going in the right direction.

Channary bound up to his side right as he'd found it. "Look, it’s blood--and cat's blood too," Jethro announced, pointing at some of the leaves with his paws. "It's fresh, as well. He was likely killed and dragged to the church all in the same morning."

"Does that make our job easier or harder?" Channary asked. Jethro had no real answer to that question so instead of answering, he continued on with his search. He kept his eyes and nose rooted firmly to the trail.

Just as it seemed like it would stretch on forever, the two siblings came to a wide clearing. In the middle of the clearing, Jethro found a gold mine. There was an area where leaves and dirt had been kicked up and a few tufts of fur were clearly visible. This must have been where the fight first took place. He quickly sprinted over to the area and leaned down to sniff it as he tried to figure out exactly what had happened there.

Unfortunately, there wasn't very much to find. There was blood at the scene, which certainly had to belonged to Tom-Tom but the fur told a different story. It seemed that both Tom-Tom and his killer had the same color fur, which was so intertwined that Jethro couldn't separate his scent from the killers’. With a frustrated curse, he stalked off to the edge of the clearing, tail lashing back and forth irritably. Even though the investigation had only just started, he wanted to catch this killer so badly his chest hurt. Whoever had done it was quiet, efficient, and intelligent. Jethro had no doubts that the perp was going to kill again. Killing appeared to be a sport for the murderer.

He was sure that Channary had similar motivations, but she was also worried about her brother. "Jethro, you're getting yourself all worked up again," she said, watching as he paced about the clearing. She knew that he had a tendency to work himself into a tizzy, especially in cases where he was felt emotionally involved. She couldn't blame him since the case was going to be personal for many members of the community. Regardless, Jethro couldn't let it get to his head.

"Of course I'm getting worked up," Jethro snapped. "I want -- no, I need to find this killer. I am positive that he is going to kill again but I really don't want to have to wait for more bodies to crop up before we can catch him. The cats of this town should not have to fear for their lives." He swatted at a small lizard as it scurried past him. It was half-hearted movement so he didn't follow it when it ran off towards a tree nearby. He was focused on the case but he desperately needed something to take some of his anger out on. "What if he's targeting members of the church? Someone like Luke and Polly could be next and God knows they've been through enough as of late."

"If he went after a choir member first, I doubt he's going to go after someone like the reverend next."

Channary plopped her rump down the ground and started to lick one of her back legs, nibbling at some knots in her fur. She did this whenever she was thinking hard about something. "Besides,-” She added, “-it is possible that this killing could be personal. We have to find out if Tom-Tom had any enemies... anyone who would be happy to see him six feet under."

"The chief wants us to find more evidence," Jethro pointed out, motioning with his tail to the clearing.

"Interviewing his friends and family will get us more evidence," Channary said, smiling conspiratorially. "Won't it, Jethro? Plus, you found this clearing. Just go tell one of the other officers and they'll make sure Tiger hears about it. The last thing you need to do today is go up to him personally."

She did have a point. Jethro would much rather be talking to the cats who knew Tom-Tom rather than searching for nonexistent evidence. There was no guarantee he would find anything useful anyways, but it was better than doing nothing. "Right. Well, come back with me and we'll head over to the general store. Luke and the others are probably still there. Then we can see if we can talk with Minerva, ask who he was close to and go from there."

Channary nodded in acceptance to Jethro's plan. He fought back a groan as she took her time grooming before getting to her paws. They walked side by side out of the forest, tracing the trail all the way back to the church.

The M.E and a few other officers had already departed, leaving the scene to be guarded by two of the lower-ranking cats. Jethro quickly passed on his message to a white tom sitting in front of the bushes before he made his way down the driveway. The fog had started to thin out and the sun began to finally show its face again, but the mood was no lighter. The fog might as well have still been hanging over their heads at this rate and nothing was going to make Jethro feel better about what had just taken place.

Luke and the other cats were still in the store, sitting in a crowd near the back where they kept the pharmaceuticals. All of them were solemn and the room was quiet. Each cat was bowing their heads as Luke spoke in prayer. Jethro also stopped his approach, bowed his head and listened to the reverend pray.

"Dear Lord, please receive our dearest Tom-Tom with gentleness and kindness. He was a devout cat in life and he always kept his eyes on You, Lord. Although we are sad to see him go, we know that he will find a home much better than this Earth in your arms. We pray that his journey is quick and his departure was painless. Amen, amen." His final words echoed throughout the shop as the church-goers repeated amen’s under their breaths. There were a few quiet sobs from some cats in the room, but they seemed stifled and didn't last long. After he lifted his head back up, Jethro figured most of it was simply from the shock of it all. Trotting over to Luke, he rested his tail-tip on the reverend's shoulder. Polly was still sitting next to him looking incredibly frightened.

"We'll have a proper ceremony for him as soon as the M.E is done with the examination," Jethro assured Luke. The smaller tom sighed, bowing his head and looking down at his small white paws. They splayed apart, claws gently scratching at the wooden floor as the rest of the congregation spread out, murmuring amongst themselves. Some of them were in shock and some were rightfully angry. Unfortunately, there was nothing that anybody could do. Jethro would make sure that none of them took the law into their own paws. The last thing he wanted to see was one of his friends in jail... or worse.

"Tell me you are going to bring his killer to justice?" Luke asked, lifting his head to look at Jethro. The tabby nodded resolutely.

"Of course I am. I'm not going to let him get away with this and neither is Channary. Or anyone else on the force, for that matter. We will catch him and he will pay for what he's done."

"The Lord will make him pay, no matter what," Luke said, as if to reassure himself and Jethro. "Thou shalt not kill, one of the ten commandments."

"If only everyone followed the commandments, Luke, then there would be no need for police departments in the first place." Jethro leaned over to touch his nose to Luke's ear, and then to bump heads with Polly. She seemed to relax a bit more at his presence and returned the bump, albeit less willingly than Jethro. "Are you alright, Polly?"

She jumped a little at his statement but her fur didn't rise. "I don't think any of us are alright, Jethro," she sighed.

Her voice, which was the epitome of that of a Southern belle, was quiet and morose. "Tom-Tom -- why, I've known him since we were kittens. He was only a little older than me...and to think someone could take his life like that..." She sniffed, rubbing at her nose with a dainty ginger paw. "Do you think some human did that to him?"

Jethro shook his head. "No. His injuries were made by teeth and claws, and we found tufts of fur between his claws. Unless humans are using cat hitmen for hire to take out other cats, I don't believe that humans had anything to do with his death." That didn't make her relax, and Jethro understood why.

Humans were deadly, especially because they were so much larger and stronger than cats. They had their troubles with humans who didn't like them in the past, and took to killing cats as a pastime. While knowing that the killer wasn't a human was relieving in a way, but it was not relieving to know that the killer was a cat. It meant that the killer was still among them.  He was a nearly invisible force, waiting for his next target. In an attempt to console her, Jethro licked at her ears.

"Think of your kittens," he urged. "They need their mother's strength right now more than ever. They may not understand what's going on and that's probably for the best, but they'll pick up on it if you aren't acting yourself." Polly nodded numbly in response, giving a heavy sigh as Jethro moved away from her and into the crowd. He had to find Minerva.

She wasn't hard to spot. The elderly queen was sitting in the middle of the floor, her head bowed so low her nose was nearly touching her paws. Jethro's heart ached for her, and he approached her gently, reaching out with one paw to touch hers.

"Ms. Minerva?" Jethro asked politely. "I need to ask you a few questions about Tom-Tom. If you feel like you can answer them, it would greatly help in the investigation."

Minerva sniffed in response and looked up at Jethro with puffy green eyes. They were identical to her recently deceased son's. "Thank you, young tom. I think I can help you with that, at least." She got to her feet slowly, the ache of her joints almost palpable as she followed Jethro into one of the back rooms. They were quiet and secluded, which offered them privacy and safety from prying eyes or ears.

"Did Tom-Tom have any enemies?" Jethro asked. Minerva shook her head.

"Oh, no. My boy -- my boy was so kind. Everyone loved him. He didn't have a single mean bone in his body," Minerva explained. "Ever since he was a kitten, he was that way. Sure, he was big, but he was soft as a teddy bear. I can't imagine why..." Her voice trailed off and her eyes seemed to stare past Jethro at something neither of them could see. Jethro felt like a pin had been slowly inserted into his chest.

"I believe you. He was a good cat and a good follower of the Lord," Jethro said, if only to make the process easier for the grieving elder. "Do you remember the last time you saw Tom-Tom?"

"Yes I do, as a matter of fact it was just last night. I live in a barn you know, and I just can't catch mice like I used to. The farmer's no good with giving me food so Tom-Tom came over to help out. He caught me five big fat mice, and all by himself!" A shaky smile came to her face as she recalled the last fond memory of her son. "And he told me 'Mother, I'll see you in the morning, okay? I'm going to talk with an old friend.' He left after that and I didn't see him until..." Again she trailed off. Jethro set the tip of his tail on Minerva's shoulder for reassurance.

"It's alright, you don't have to say any more," Jethro murmured. "Now, about his wife, Kiki -- do you know where she is or what she was doing last night?"

"You don't think she did it, do you?" Minerva asked shakily. Jethro shook his head.

"Everyone's a suspect right now, but I don't believe Kiki had the power to take him down." Kiki was a small white Persian who rarely ventured out of her owner's yard. She and Tom-Tom had been together for about two years but they never seemed to have any problems. "Do you know who he meant when he said 'an old friend'?"

"He didn't say a name," Minerva replied sadly. "I don't know where he went after that or where he might've been going."

That meant he had to go to Kiki next. Perhaps she had more information on this mysterious friend.

After thanking Minerva for her time and sending her on her way, Jethro came back out to the main room to watch as the rest of the congregation slowly filed out. Naturally, Luke and Polly waited until the last straggler left before getting up to leave themselves. Jethro caught them before they went, wanting to speak with them one last time.

"I don't think you're in any danger right now," he started to say, looking at them seriously. "But I'd be careful if I were you. Keep your guard up." Jethro was looking them in the eye, which was generally considered a huge no-no in cat society; it was usually a sign that you were about to get into a fight but in that instance, Jethro wanted to let Luke and Polly know just how serious he was. "I don't want anything to happen to you two, alright?"

"We will stay safe," Luke assured him, putting his tail around Polly again. "For now, we have five hungry kittens to tend to. The nurse can only keep them for so long." With a respectful nod, the couple made their way out of the store, leaving Jethro on his own to think about what his next move was going to be.

[imsfire2]

Marvel asks: All of them! Sorry, can't choose! ^^'

AAAAARRRGGHHHH!!!  Well that’ll larn me!

Marvel asks

Tony Stark: favorite movie? 

Close call; I’m very fond of “Avengers Assemble”, “Thor” and “CA:TWS”, but the one that has wowed me the most of all was “Black Panther”, which took everything to a new level of brilliance.

Drax: what character would you wanna be friends with?

I’m going to make this “characterS” and say Jane Foster, Aunt May, and General Okoye.  A lot of my other faves probably wouldn’t be so easy to be friends with (too prickly, messed-up, hyper-focussed, downright dangerous, etc) but I would love to be mates with these three!

Valkyrie: favorite director? 

Ryan Coogler, no question!

Pepper Potts: top 3 fave characters

Ugh, very hard to choose!  Most of our protagonists are pretty cool, in their different ways.  Let’s pick three of the women; Okoye, Gamora, Natasha.  But I could just as easily have said Nakia, Hope and Hawkeye.  Or Rocket, Groot and Shuri.  Or...

Yeah, very hard to choose.

Sam Wilson: funniest scene?

Unlike a lot of people I loathed the relentless humour in “Ragnarok”.  So I’m going to say, Sam and Cap’s first meeting in TWS, which is gentle and kind, and character-driven. 

And (although it’s rather sick humour) “He’s adopted” is very funny.

Bucky Barnes: most heartbreaking moment?

The bit in TWS when the pilots try to take off and provide air support and are shot down before they can get to their planes.  Reduces me to tears every time.

Nakia: character you wish had a bigger role?

I want to see more of Shuri!

Rocket Racoon: best nickname?

I don’t think I know the scripts well enough!  “Legolas”, possibly?

Natasha Romanoff: favorite ass kicking scene?

Another one that’s very hard to choose. 

Natasha’s first scene, maybe, when she’s barefoot and unarmed and still beats the shit out of half a dozen brawny guys.  It’s such a great use of an action scene to establish character.  I also love her fight with possessed!Hawkeye. 

But on the other hand, the Dora Milje’s team fighting style is unbelievably awesome...

Ned Leeds: favorite villain?

Killmonger, no contest.  He’s rounded, believable, well-motivated, and even though you know he’s wrong you empathise with him.  Masterclass in how to write a top-notch antagonist.

I also really liked Toomes/Vulture in “Spiderman Homecoming”.  Again, because he had good motivation and was an interesting rounded character, not a cardboard “I wanna rule/destroy the world >snarl snarl

Bruce Banner: guardians or avengers?

For sheer fun, Guardians.  But I’m enjoying seeing them all meet up!

Thor Odinson: most attractive character?

Still Hawkeye.  Give me those Renner arms.

Gamora: favorite pairing?

As in Ship?  T’Challa/Nakia, and Gamora/Peter Q.

As in Best mates?  Rocket & Groot, Peggy & Jarvis, and Peter P & Ned.

Mantis: what do you think will happen in Avengers 4?

I’m with @hanorganaas on this; it’ll have to involve time travel in some form, to bring back at least some of those lost.  Also I have it on good authority from @spectralarchers that Hawkeye will come back as Ronin.  And clearly a certain Carol Danvers is going to be involved.

There’ll be an opening section where the traumatised survivors are trying to regroup in a shattered world.  Somehow or other the script will have to contrive another “lowest ebb” moment even lower than the end of “Infinity War” (& I don’t envy the people tasked with that!) because that’s how script dynamics work.  But ultimately the big purple knob-head will be defeated.

Shuri: most rewatched movie?

Either “Avengers assemble” or “Guardians of the Galaxy”; I haven’t kept count, but they are the ones I go back to for a happy evening slobbed out in front of the telly with a big bag of tortilla chips.

Peter Parker: best outfit/suit?

As a Superhero Suit, I love the Ant-man suit! 

As actual wearable clothes, I’d like to have Gamora’s leathers, especially the red coat; practical and sexy.

Happy Hogan: what ‘superpower’ is the coolest?

Well, I’ve always wanted to be able to fly, so any of the superpowers that give you that would be great! 

I also love the way Mantis’ abilities take something that culturally is just expected of “nice good girls” (being empathetic, reading others emotions and reactions, being able to soothe down even the most aggressive person) and make it a fucking superpower!

Aunt may: most painful death?

After those brave pilots in TWS?  Pietro.  Really didn’t see that one coming.

Pietro Maximoff: Peter Quill or Peter Parker?

Aww, don’t make me chose!  Quill is so cute! 

I was never a Peter Parker fan until Tom Holland but now - ok, Peter Parker.

Heimdall: would you like a Deadpool crossover?

Properly done, then hell yeah!  But it would need a very, very good script to juggle the emotional/tonal switchbacks required.

Steve Rogers: who resembles their role the most?

From what we get to see as fans?  I’d have to go with Chris Evans.

Rhodey: who resembles their role the least?

Karen Gillan certainly doesn’t sound much like Nebula!

T’challa: favorite non-romantic pairing?

I’ve already suggested a couple of Best-mates relationships; so how about some siblings?  Gamora and Nebula; so much tension, so much anger and yet so much torn, blood-soaked loyalty.  It’s just as interesting a dynamic as the one between Thor and Loki, with a lot less screentime than that has had. 

I also liked the sibling loyalty and love between Wanda and Pietro.  Always good to see a happy sibling relationship, when Screenwriting 101 would have it that only sibling rivalry is interesting...

Peter Quill: favorite place in the mcu?

That’s going to be a tie between Know-where, for the visuals, and Wakanda, for - well, everything really.

Loki laufeyson: best line/quote?

Ugh, there have been a lot of great lines.  Right now, I’m going to go with Okoye’s “For Wakanda?  Without question.”  Such a fantastic use of a single line to cement how her character is the embodiment of honour. 

Scott Lang: do you think you’d have died in the snap?

Hmm.  I kind of hope I would, to be honest; life afterwards is going to be spectacularly hellish until they manage to fix it.

Stephen strange: favorite song used?

The opening of “Guardians of the Galaxy”, with Quill slogging through the rain and then putting on “Come and get your love” on his walkman and starting to dance.  Just gorgeous; as a sequence, as framing, as a way of telling us something about him very economically, as a device to show us this is going to be a hell of a fun ride...

Phil Coulson: the moment you fell in love with your favorite character?

Seeing as I find it impossibly difficult to pick a favourite in the first place, this is one I can’t answer! 

Okoye: which movies did you see in cinema?

All of them bar the first two “Iron Man” films.

Maria Hill: favorite special credits?

What, as in “Mr Evans’ marmalade sandwiches made by” kind of thing?  I’m not sure I pay enough attention to the credits to have ever noticed one (I made that one up, needless to say). 

Or are “special credits” like cameos?  A nod to the mourners for Yondu, then.

Erik Killmonger: favorite press moment/interview

Way back during the press tour for “Avengers assemble”; a journalist asked RDJ in-depth questions on Tony’s motivation and development, and then only asked Scarlett Johansson some ridiculous thing about her diet; and instead of answering with a patient smile she called him out on it. 

It was only, what, five years ago, yet it was almost unheard-of then for a female actor to bite back publically like that.  And the good thing is, that already seems pretty extraordinary. 

Wanda Maximoff: favorite relationship of the actors?

I don’t know enough about their relationships to have one, really.

Nebula: favorite minor character?

Luis.  An “ordinary person” character who is highly likeable in his own right and who does the right thing even when he knows it’s bloody dangerous & could get him killed.  For similar reasons I’m also very fond of Cameron Klein and Dr Helen Cho.  

Vision: Steve with or without a beard?

Without, definitely.  Not a great fan of beards to be honest.  There’s the odd face that looks great with one (thinking of a certain Mexican actor and rare fern collector) but mostly they’re just fashionable face-fur. 

Nick Fury: what actor would you like to see join the mcu and for what role?

On one level, I’m content to wait and see what they come up with.  I’m not a comic-reader, so I know almost nothing about any of the characters until they appear in the MCU, which makes dream-casting any of them pretty difficult.

On the other hand, I did read a rumour that John Boyega is in line for a future role; and as I’m a huge fan of his I would love for that to be true!

Hope Van Dyne: expectations for ‘Captain Marvel’?

As a non-comics person, I don’t know anything about the character or her story.  Hopefully we’ll get an interesting, well-rounded female lead with solid motivation and her plot-line isn’t primarily about a) a man or b) not being able to have children.  Or c) her children being dead.

Groot: I am Groot?

We are Groot.

Grandmaster: which characters would you like to see interact more?

Shuri with all the scientists!

Peggy Carter: Hulk or Banner?

Both.  Both is good. 

Luis: favorite Chris?

I’m sure they’re all lovely chaps.

Michelle Jones: would you like a Black Widow movie?

I’d like to see lots of the female characters get stand-alone films.  So, yes please to a “Black Widow” movie, but also, hmm, let’s see; how about a “Shuri and Jane Foster Science the Shit Out Of This Mess” movie?  A “Peggy Carter and the early days of SHIELD” movie?  A “Nakia the Super-spy” movie?

Sif: long hair Thor or short hair Thor?

Long hair.  Markedly more appealing with long hair.

Jane Foster: favorite character development?

I love the way Steve Rogers’ story kind-of goes in cycles of effort and hope and bitter experience, and always comes back round to situations where he affirms who he essentially is.  It’s good to see a non-liner pattern of development like that, which is much closer to how real people deleop and change, instead of the standard narrative “A to B” model like Dr Strange (”was a jerk, learned to do better” - okay, he saves the world, so that’s good; but as for development, pish).

Yondu: favorite after-credit scene?

The Shawarma joint. 

Also Hope seeing the Wasp suit for the first time.

Wong: favorite marvel intro?

Not sure I pay that much attention to the intros, tbh.  I’m just sitting there thinking “Give me the story, folks!”

Thank you for asking! - and thank you, if you’ve had the patience to slog through all this, for reading!

[recentanimenews]

Attack on Titan – 67 – A Few Miscalculations

Here it is, the rematch you’ve all been waiting for. Eren vs. Reiner. Attack vs. Armored…aaaaand just like that, it’s over. Reiner’s down for the count. He didn’t have much gas in the tank to begin with, and neither did Eren, who hops out of his Titan and gets picked up by a waiting Mikasa.

After last weeks Titan battle-heavy episode, I was pleased that this was only a brief struggle, with Reiner’s consolation prize being he managed to rescue Porco and Jaw. But even if Eren and Reiner are done for now, Gabi isn’t. She grabs her gun and runs after the airship. Falco follows close behind.

When Mikasa carries Eren up to the airshop, Armin is waiting there to help lift them up into the cabin, after the exchange of weary, haunted stares. I can’t help but think back when the three were just little kids running around Shiganshima laughing without a care in the world. If Armin’s a bit chilly, Levi is downright disgusted to see Eren’s face again.

Compare their thousand-yard glares to the still-strong camaraderie of the B-Team, Sasha, Connie and Jean, with Connie taking a moment to hug dear his siblings from other mothers out of relief they all made it out of this crazy operation. Indeed, we learn the Survey Corps only lost six men, against untold hundreds of Marleyans.

Of course, not only has the airship not ascended or cleared Liberio, it hasn’t even finished gathering up all of the corpsmen. One of them is Lobov, an older man but new recruit who sought to do more than he was doing in the garrison. He is unfortunate enough to be in Gabi’s line of fire.

But before that, Gabi is stopped by Falco, who tells her it’s impossible to chase an airship on foot. She tells him how Zofia and Udo died, and shocked she was by how protective of her the soldiers at the gate were despite her being an Eldian. All her life, Marleyans have cursed and spit on her, and all she wanted to do was prove Eldians could be good people.

Then tonight happened, with Paradis stomping on all of that. So yes, she’s going to chase an airship on foot. Falco tells her “we stomped on them first”, but it’s only an abstraction for Gabi, like the Eldians and Paradis themselves. To her, they’re cruel demons who deserve to die, end of story. She slides, gets a lucky shot off that kills Lobov. He crashes to the ground, but his ODM cable is still connected. As Gabi prepares to retract the cable and ascend to the airship, Falco again tells her it’s pointless and she’ll be killed.

Gabi doesn’t argue the latter part, but believes it will be far from pointless. She wants Falco to tell everyone how she fought to the end, and they’ll surely inherit her feelings. She tells him he’s a good person, then pulls the trigger…but Falco grabs hold of Lobov and rises with her, honoring what Reiner told him to do: save her from a grim fate.

When she asks why, he doesn’t say because he loves her—she wouldn’t understand—he tells her he’ll be the next Armored Titan. Of course, none of them know how the ODM works, so they end up banging against the belly of the airship. In the midst of the totally off-guard jovial celebrating corpsmen, Sasha hears their bump. But again, virtually everyone else aboard is in the midst of a celebration, before leaving the battlefield…before the battle is over.

It’s a shocking lack of discipline and training for such a dangerous operation. Before anyone knows the source of the bump, Gabi rolls into the cabin and fires the gun she’s been clutching tightly since the battle began, just waiting for her chance. The bullet goes straight through the heart of Sasha, the woman who killed the guards at the gate.

As she bleeds out, the corpsmen swarm on the two kids and beat them bloody. Floch wants to throw them out of the airship, but Jean, who is not an out-and-out monster (yet), won’t authorize it, because if he could, there would be no end to this killing. He takes them to Eren instead, so Gabi can curse him in person. The thing is, someone else they know is aboard the airship: War Chief Zeke.

Back on the ground, a recovering Pieck tells Magath she finally remembered the somewhat-“off” soldier who dropped her and Porco down a well. He, or rather she, was a follower of Zeke’s. We learn her name is Yelena, and she was wearing a fake beard when she escorted Pieck and Porco. Zeke was in on the operation all along, and to hear Eren say it, it was a victory: the operation killed the leaders of the Marleyan army, sunk their main fleet, and destroyed their major military port, and he was able to inherit the Warhammer.

While it was a tactical success, it may turn out to be a massive strategic blunder if the entire world unites against Paradis. Even so, I guess Eren demanded that the people who created the people who destroyed his home and family needed to be hit and hit hard, no matter the cost. As Hange remarks, Eren used his trust in her and the corps to rescue him, but by being taken hostage again and forcing them to attack, they’ve now lost their trust in him.

Zeke calls the sacrifices made “noble” as they will “bring freedom to Eldia.” It’s clear that unlike some like, say, Gabi, he wasn’t satisfied with Marley simply allowing Eldians to exist under their bootheels. True freedom means liberating all Eldians from the yoke of Marley forevermore. He’s willing to go, and indeed has gone, farther than someone like Gabi even believed was possible to even go. Call it the narrow perspective of youth.

Alas, there is one noble sacrifice no one in the corps was ever going to be able to bear. Connie reports that Sasha has died. Beautiful, capable, eternally hungry Sasha Blouse. And not in a blaze of glory, or by a Marleyan, but by the hand of a indoctrinated little Eldian girl, grief ridden, enraged, and desperate for revenge.

Mikasa and Armin race to her body. Eren asks if she said anything before passing away; Connie says “meat.” Eren fights back a chuckle which twists into a grimace as Jean tells him Sasha is dead because of him. I doubt she’ll be the last, because as much as Eren cared for Sasha, her death won’t be enough for him to stop. If anything, it’ll only motivate him to keep going. Like Gabi, he can only keep going.

By: braverade

[grecoisms]

title: all the blue ethereal sky (2/5)

pairing: Sakura Haruno / Kakashi Hatake

rating: T

summary:  “Kakashi. In this pace and with this attitude, your daughter will not become a ninja."

When he picks up Manami in the afternoon, Neji Hyuuga - her sensei - is already there, his face all storm. Manami looks unfazed under her heavy lids, but her pink hair is in shambles, shirt torn, and her mouth is bleeding all over the place. She refuses to look at her father. Kakashi's heart falls into his stomach.

"You should see Shikamaru's boys" is what Neji greets him with, and he is tense and he is disappointed. Kakashi sighs.

"What happened?"

Hyuuga crosses his arms. The fact that both Tenten and Hinata are out in town must add to his scowl and Kakashi wishes Sakura was here.

"We were supposed to do a D-rank mission. Farming. And I caught her reading this."

It is not Icha Icha, thanks the spirits. It is, on the other hand, a medical book on the dangers of pregnancy. Manami must have eavesdropped at breakfast without either of them noticing; and he suddenly feels more proud than mortified.

"This does not explain why she is all bloody."

Neji pales. Whether from anger or from fatigue, Kakashi cares not.

"The Nara twins thought it was Icha-Icha and tried to pull out from her hands. She responded. A fight begun."

"And you?"

"I managed to separate them only when your daughter already got a fist in her face and she broke Hajun's leg. Oh, and she bit me."

"Let me talk to her" he says quietly, calmly.

"Kakashi" Neji's voice is warning, all heavy gravity - wanting him to understand the weight of the situation. "In this pace and with this attitude, your daughter will not become a ninja."

He knows this and loves her for it. And as Neji's lanky figure and long hair transform smaller and smaller in the horizon, he turns to his second daughter, the one born by the sea, during a mission.

"Yo" he says, lightly. When he is sure they are alone, he pulls down his mask for he has nothing to hide. "Can I sit down next to you?"

Manami nods, but still refuses to meet his eyes. Kakashi scoops closer, and together, they sit in silence for a while, a comfortable, warm one. He waits and she waits, because Manami is the most alike his father, her spirits shy and reserved.

"That cloud" she says, at last. "looks like a shuriken."

"You are good at throwing those." Kakashi says, eyeing the cloud, and yes, its edges are sharp. A storm is nearing the village for autumn is close. "Hanako told me she does not dream competing you."

Manami's face shift, just a bit, but enough for her father to know there is a great distress in her.

"She is better at everything else." her voice is even, just a hint of bitterness.

"Nami" he says, very gently, using the name he called her when she was smaller. Kakashi turns her face towards his and begins to wipe away all the red from her face, the blood which should not be outside this vividly, this angrily. "Do you not want to be a shinobi?"

She tears herself from his hands, but remains seated, and her cheeks are pink.

"What do you want, Dad?"

Be serene with her, Sakura said a month or two ago, she is like you and hates confrontation.

"I want to know why are you so angry." Kakashi says honestly.

Manami deflates, like someone giving in. Her narrow face contorts into sadness that makes her look older than her eleven years. When she speaks, her voice is a ghost of tremors; almost inaudible.

"I heard about mom."

"Yes."

"Will this baby go away too?"

It would be his turn to look down or away, but Kakashi finds himself unable to break the eye contact with his second daughter, the one most alike him. A tremor kicks in his hand, the one he developed between Manami and Kazue, an irrational fear of the future.

"I hope not" his voice cracks a bit, as if ill.

He is, in a way, ill that is - remembers how Hinata told him that Manami was the one who found Sakura, covered and coated in blood, a year after Kazue was born. 

Miscarriage, added Hinata her eyes white-hot sympathy that he did not want to see. Sakura must have caught yellow fever in the hospital. Kakashi was away with Naruto to see the cause of said epidemic. He was two hundred miles away as Sakura was being sedated. Hanako had her chuunin exam at Suna. Manami and little Kazue stayed at the Hyuuga compound and at Tsunade's gardenhouse, confused. When he returned, their house was empty and the terror was unimaginable.

"How can you be sure?" says Manami, drawing him back to the here and to the now. "Will you go away again?"

Her eyes are a very dark shade of gray, like his. She is not angry, he notes, she is just very afraid. He puts his hand on her head, as a comfort, draws her close. Then shows her his right palm, and lets her hand draw something on its wide surface; an old game they played when she was very little.

Manami draws the symbol ki that means hope. She draws a heart, ko. She scoops closer and whispers, draws her own confession with words now:

"I don't want to be a ninja." then, in an even smaller voice. "Are you angry with me?"

She opens her palms.

Kakashi's eyes sting with something inexplicable, but it is a warm sensation, crawling from his throat. He cannot speak now, so he shakes his head and draws on her palms, across both.

"What does this mean?" Manami asks, knitting her brows.

"The last syllable of your name - mi, the sea, where you were born. And mi, as in blessing. Whatever you choose, your life is a blessing to your mother, to your siblings and to me. But what is more important," he says quietly. "Is that it should be a blessing to you as well."

"You are not disappointed." Manami is smiling, all joy. He laughs and kisses both her hands.

"Nope. The day you were born was my happiest."

"You always say that to Hanako and Kazue too."

"Well, all those days were my happiest."

"Sarada said you cried." Manami crosses her arms, grinning smugly.

He is horrified.

"This is a lie. Who else did she tell that?"

"Well, everyone who ever asked?"

Not being a Hokage anymore means that he cannot exile the whole of the village, which seems like a downright shame at the moment.

"Dad, is it true though?" Manami is uncertain, but still grinning.

Instead of an answer, Kakashi sticks out his tongue, then pulls up his mask. Stands and holds out his hand to take, which his daughter does. She matches her pace and stride to his. They get something spicy for Sakura and stop to apologize at Neji's. When they bid goodbye, Manami hugs Hyuuga.

And peace travels home with them.