#Steel Brothers Saga 7

[pixeldistractions]

list 5 facts about a favorite sim of yours, and send this to simblrs whose sims you adore ʚ♡ɞ

5 7 things about… Colette

I’m sure nobody will notice, but I changed her eye color part way through. I was revising book 1 and a line came out that she had steel-gray eyes. I felt I needed to go with it because like all of my characters in this story had some shade of brown eyes, If anyone’s eyes were striking in this saga, it would be Colette’s. But instead of icy or piercing blue, I went with steel gray because she’s a cold hard bitch! 😆

Her family is French, and they lived in France until Colette was six. She still has the faintest French accent if you listen closely. She puts it on more when she’s at events or with high-rolling clients if she wants to sound “fancy.”

Colette’s family are alive. Her father is an investment banker with a secret gambling problem. Her mom is a former model who loves credit cards, Botox, and excessive amounts of cannabis. They had a college fund for her when she was little, which she looked forward to in her teen years, but it got lost on a blackjack table and in her mother’s forehead lines. Her older brothers laughed at her when she discovered the money was gone. They thought she was stupid for believing that money would ever be real. (It happened to them first.)

The final time Colette let her family disappoint her was when she was twenty-two and nearly full term with the twins, and her mother made such a stink about missing her Botox appointment to attend her c-section delivery—“It’s scheduled, can’t you change it? I won’t be able to book this doctor for two more months!” Colette vowed to never ask those people for anything ever again for as long as she lives.

Jordan’s father was the only person she could ever depend on, for the short time she knew him, and then he died.

Breast implants when she was twenty-eight. She kind of regrets them. They are very big, and she’s not really sure who she got them for. (Jordan liked them better natural, not that she ever cared for his opinion anyway… spoiler alert: she probably cared a little). Maybe they’ll make her popular on the dating scene?

She is tragically terrible at letting the people she cares about know that she cares.

[Please forgive me that I couldn’t stop at 5. But I needed to do some work on her backstory, so this was useful for me to do. Thank you @igglemouse for the ask!]

[keybladespirit]

Every Piece of Media I Consumed in 2023

Wow! What a year it's been for me watching movies, reading books and manga, and playing video games. I don't know if 50 on the dot is my personal most, but I'm really happy to see just how much I filled out the big stack of TVs that I decided to edit. I'm shocked, like actually SHOCKED that not only was there SO MUCH, but also how much I enjoyed most of it. I even played/watched/read things that came out this year for once. If you want my thoughts on any of it, the full list of links to all of my posts documenting it all throughout the year will be under the ReadMore. So I'll leave you with my 3x3 for the year and if you want details, you know where to look.

Death Stranding

Cyberpunk Edgerunners

Shin Ultraman

Splatoon 2

Parasite

Code Vein

Katana Zero

Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion

Destiny 2: Lightfall

Super Mario 3D Word + Bowser's Fury

Neon White

Bocchi the Rock!

NEO The World Ends With You

Metal Gear Solid

Jojo Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable (Live Action Chapter 1)

Sing a Bit of Harmony

The Matrix: Resurrections

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

I Am A Hero

Jojo Part 6: Stone Ocean

Log Horizon Season 3

Jojo Part 7: Steel Ball Run

Charm Studies

The Twentieth Century World: 1914 to Present

The Mandalorian Season 2

There is No Poverty At the End of Labor (1920)

Pokemon: Path to the Peak

The Million Ryo Pot

The Book of Boba Fett

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Inside Mari

Okaeri Alice

Barbie (2023)

Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse

Adventure Time

Adventure Time: Distant Lands

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake

Yakuza Kiwami 2

Star Wars Andor

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Death Note

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

Death Note: The Musical

Super Mario Brothers Wonder

Death Note (2006)

Kung Fu Hustle

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

Honkai Star Rail

One Piece

Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth

[felikatze]

andaron saga screaming

I KNEW BAUD WAS GONNA GET SIGURD'D I FUCKING KNEW IT

like "haha baud is so disorganized that's why jakka is the convoy character

i know what you're doing

i know

also if you dont take the dawncaller mortimer gives you a SILVER SWORD. HEY

also also like. as soon as aylanda says she's pregnant it's like. yeah baud is gonna die

i really didn't expect morty to be the one to do it

logical brain: yeah out of the steel brothers morty really is most suited to be king. he's the only one with any intelligence

emotional brain, sounding a lot like jakka: MORTIMER STEEL YOU ARE A DEAD SON OF A BITCH

it's so fucking funny how i. saw baud's corpse thru the cell. i checked his stats. all zero. "ah yeah cuz he's unconscious right. this is gonna be an escort mission" checks his con. "still 7? theodor can carry him easy then"

aylanda: "my husband is dead"

me: "ah"

and like. it feels SO logical that morty would be the one to betray him. at first i was ragging on samuel in the scene where baud and morty get "captured" cuz i thought it was just sam but

it's entirely logical that when sam came back to house rose to heal theo that morty would catch wind of baud and aylanda. and that morty could use a) baud hurting theo and b) sam's hatred of aylanda to turn ol' sam against baud

cuz it was morty needling baud into taking the throne when all he wanted was to elope. morty's arguments for killing baud makes sense. baud has the most legitimate claim to the throne of andaron since the rebellion. what really sealed his fate was having a kid, cuz it proved he and aylanda are for realsies. everyone fucking hates the lightbringers, everyone fucking hates house steel, but the worst thing about tradition is that it has weight

morty cant kill aylanda and the kid cuz of the whole "only a lightbringer can stop darkness" thing, which he WOULD know about bcuz he's the biggest momma's boy and lady maria was besties with the lightbringers. (didn't he also learn illusion magic from a lightbringer tome?)

on the other hand of course you're on jakka's side here. from the game you know that baud is just a good guy who dreams of a simple life with the people he loves. there's the whole backstory that he was a bit of a scoundrel, a gambler and a player - but falling for aylanda really changed him, made him want to shape up and do right by her. it's a shotgun marriage after 3 months yeah but that's also game limitation you cant build the relationship up for half the game since you gotta keep the plot moving.

so seeing how baud changed and that he was only convinced to take on randall with the argument it would keep his family safe and then he's killed by his brother. augrh.

and jakka's been his right hand through everything. jakka's a piece of shit in a lot of ways but he cares about his crew and he DOES soften up to jaheira and garram throughout the game. all it really took for him to start dismantling his prejudices was actually meeting the people he kept talking shit about and seeing them as. also just people. like he's not all there he still keeps calling jaheira a scalie but he respects her at the very least.

also the convo with ashley where she asks him if baudimon was really a brother to him and he gets so worked up about it. like i dont think he has a crush on baud NOW but he definetly did at some point. but also this convo questioning jakka's feelings right before he finds baud dead AURGH

and jakka's skill being loyalty. When within 2 spaces of Baudimon-

it's a skill that gives him bulk earlygame when jakka really needs it but now it's just. a dead skill slot. it's nothing. it's just gonna sit there. Loyalty. When within 2 spaces of Baudimon-

I had Baud and Jakka on B support and as for any dead character that's just gone now. AURGH.

rip to everyone who took the dawncaller and didnt get zakarias cuz i am THINKING abt his talk with jakka in 12x. how he said jakka's gonna come to a choice soon and jakka said he'd put baud's life over his own. and zakarias tells him it's always easy to choose in your own head but would jakka really? would he put baud over his family? over femke, a character we've never seen and only know through how much jakka loves his sister?

and i think that can still apply and i am betting RIGHT NOW that jakka will have to choose between his friends/family and his desire to avenge baud. it wont be baud's life he puts first, it will be his war brother's ghost. i am saying this now i am speaking it into existence.

Good game moment jakka vowing to kill mortimer really really hurts. morty i trusted you. i'm gonna kill you so fucking dead. if it plunges andaron into a civil war because the entire royal family is dead then so be it.

[kwebtv]

Robert Dean Stockwell (March 5, 1936 – November 7, 2021)  Film, television, and stage actor with a career spanning over 70 years.As a child actor under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he first came to the public's attention in films such as Anchors Aweigh (1945), The Green Years (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), The Boy With Green Hair (1948), and Kim (1950).

His television roles include playing Rear Admiral Albert "Al" Calavicci in Quantum Leap (1989–1993), Navy Secretary Edward Sheffield on JAG (2002–2004) and Brother Cavil on Battlestar Galactica (2004–2009).

 in 1956. He guest-starred on shows such as Front Row Center, Matinee Theatre, Schlitz Playhouse, The United States Steel Hour, Climax!, Men of Annapolis, Cimarron City, General Electric Theater, and Wagon Train (in 1957 as "Jimmy Drew", brother to Shelley Winters in "The Ruth Owens Story" (S1E3).

As well as working on Broadway and in film Stockwell continued to work heavily in TV on such shows as Playhouse 90, Johnny Staccato, and Buick-Electra Playhouse.  He continued to work mostly on television including in episodes of Checkmate, The DuPont Show with June Allyson, Outlaws, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Hallmark Hall of Fame (The Joke and the Valley), Bus Stop, The Twilight Zone ("A Quality of Mercy"), Alcoa Premiere, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and The Dick Powell Theatre. He appeared with Millie Perkins on Wagon Train playing the lead character in the episode "The Will Santee Story".

He subsequently guest starred on Combat!, The Greatest Show on Earth, The Defenders, The Eleventh Hour, Kraft Suspense Theatre, Burke's Law, and had a six-episode arc on Dr. Kildare.   Stockwell guest starred on Mannix, The FBI (again), Night Gallery, Orson Welles' Great Mysteries, and Mission: Impossible and had the lead in some TV movies, Paper Man (1971) and The Failing of Raymond (1971) as well as a support part in Adventures of Nick Carter (1972).

He continued to guest for TV shows such as Police Surgeon, The Streets of San Francisco, Columbo, Joe Forrester, Three for the Road, Cannon, Ellery Queen, Police Story, McCloud, Tales of the Unexpected, Greatest Heroes of the Bible, Hart to Hart, The A Team, and Simon & Simon.   Following the end of Quantum Leap, Stockwell appeared in Bonanza: The Return (1993),

He tried another regular series, Street Gear (1995) but it only lasted 13 episodes. Stockwell was in episodes of Snowy River: The McGregor Saga, Nowhere Man, The Commish, Can't Hurry Love, and Ink.  He later had a regular role on The Tony Danza Show (1998) which only ran 14 episodes.

He guest starred on First Monday, Star Trek: Enterprise (reunited with Scott Bakula from Quantum Leap), Stargate SG-1, JAG, and Crash with Hopper. He had a semi-regular part on Battlestar Galactica from 2008 as John Cavil.  (Wikipedia)

[davidmann95]

now that it's over, thoughts on Bendis' Superman as a whole?

pretenderoftheeast said: So, thoughts on Bendis' Superman and Action Comics' tenure altogether and separately now that it's over?

Anonymous said: Best and Worst things about Bendis' Superman run

Anonymous said: Now that it is over, what are your thoughts on Bendis' runs on Superman and Action Comics as a whole?

Anonymous said: Retrospective thoughts on Bendis' Superman as a whole now that it's, I guess, done?

Anonymous said: Hey so since Bendis’ Superman stuff seems to be done, what did you think of the run as a whole?

I decided to hold off a bit on writing on this one, if only so that I could reread the Action Comics side of it since Superman stood out in my memory a lot more. But now I have, and as we’re heading into a bold new era of Superman (and it’s coming in fast - just since I made my Superman in 2021 predictions we’ve gotten Ed Pinsent finally reprinting his legendary bootleg Silver Age Superman, Steve Orlando announcing his Superman analogue book Project Patron, an official shonen Superman redesign for RWBY/Justice League, PKJ’s Super-debut turning out far better than I ever expected, Superman & Lois’s first proper trailer largely taking people pleasantly by surprise, and my learning that there’s a Sylvester Stallone Old Man Superman analogue movie titled Samaritan coming out this summer) we’re ready to take a look back with at least a touch of perspective. I’ll lead with complaints, so everybody who’s been waiting for me to say that Bendis on Superman was Bad, Actually, savor this because it’s as close as you’ll get.

The Bad

* I hate to say it, but rereading that side of the run there’s no two ways about it: the structure of Action Comics as a whole is a mess. It baffled me from day one that it was the more acclaimed of the two books for so long - I guess people are hardwired at this point to think of ‘street’ stuff as where Bendis is supposed to be - because it was immediately clear that Superman had a well-defined story he wanted to tell, while Action was the usual Bendis off-the-cuff improvisation. It’s barely even a story in the same way, and it’s certainly not the ‘Metropolis crime book’ people took it as: it’s 28 issues of Superman and his supporting cast stuffed a pinball machine with the Red Cloud pinging off of each other as we wait to see who falls in the hole at the bottom, and partway through Leviathan and the Legion of Doom and 90s Superboy are tossed into the mix to keep it going a little longer. On an issue-to-issue basis it’s frequently really good, but the core plot of the book is *maybe* six issues stretched out over two and a half years.

* I’ve gone into this some before, but structure-wise Unity Saga also has problems: Phantom Planet rules but either it needed to be cut or the back half needed to be a year all its own in order to accommodate the scale of what it’s attempting. It’s got an interstellar civil war leading into the formation of the United Planets, family drama, Rogol Zaar’s whole deal, and Jon’s coming of age, and I’d say only that last one is really properly served. Even Jon forming the United Planets, while contextually somewhat justified in terms of 1. The situation being so far gone he’s the only one who’d even think in those terms, 2. Things being bad enough that these assorted galactic powers would be willing to try it, and 3. Him having the S on his chest to sell it, isn’t at all built up to within the run itself.

* Rogol Zaar sucks. He’s made up of nothing but interesting ideas - he’s an ersatz warrior ‘superman’ of a bygone age of empires up against the new model, he’s the sins of Krypton as a conservative superpower come home to roost, he’s while not outright said to be definitely Superman’s tragic half-brother and the culmination of everything this run does with Jor-El - but none of them manifest on the page, he’s just a big punchy dude with a dumb design who screams about how you should take him seriously because he’s totally the one who blew up Krypton. Even a killer redesign by Ryan Sook for Legion of Superheroes can’t fix that. There are lots of bad villains with good ideas who are redeemed with time and further effort, but I can’t imagine Zaar getting that TLC to become a fraction of whatever Bendis envisioned him as.

* The second year of Action Comics, after establishing itself in its first as one of the most consistently gorgeous books on the stands, leads with Szymon Kudranski’s weak output and then concludes with John Romita Jr. turning in some career-worst work. The latter is particularly egregious because for that first year Bendis writes a really collected, gentle Superman so him getting pushed into being more aggressive should have an impact, but Romita draws such a craggy rough-looking Superman in the first place that it mutes any sort of shock value.

 * WE NEVER LEARN WHAT’S UP WITH LEONE’S CAR, WHAT THE HELL. You don’t just DROP THAT IN THERE and then NEVER FOLLOW UP.

The Good

* Superman got his real clothes back after 7 truly ridiculous years.

* Bendis fundamentally gets Clark’s voice in a way unlike almost any other writer - even all-around better writers of the character almost never approach how spot-on he is with having Superman speak and act exactly how Superman should.

* Supporting cast front and center! He writes a dynamite Lois, Perry, and Jimmy (even if many of Lois’s more out-there decisions in the run don’t end up retroactively justified the way you’d hope), Ma and Pa are more fun than they’ve been in decades in their brief appearances, he manages to turn having Jor-El in the mix into a positive, and the Daily Planet as a whole has an incredibly distinctive vibe to it like never before that I hope is taken as a baseline going forward.

* The non-Rogol Zaar baddies? All ruled. Invisible Mafia and Red Cloud are both brilliant ideas executed solidly if overextended. Zod as Kryptonian Vegeta, Mongul as a generational perpetual bastard engine primed to be incapable of self-reflection, and Ultraman as “what if Irredeemable but he’d never been a good guy and also he was a Jersey mobster” are the best versions of those characters by numberless light-eons. Lex is on-point in his sparse appearances. Xanadoth as a mystical cosmic monster older than time who still talks like a Bendis character is however unintentionally a hoot. The alt-universe Parasite is a more intimidating Doomsday than Doomsday ever was. And Synmar as an alien culture’s attempt at creating their own Superman and messing up the formula when they make him a soldier can and should be a legitimate major ongoing villain coming out of this run.

* Pretty much all the art other than what I mentioned already. Fabok does a good job bookending The Man of Steel and Ivan Reis does the work of his career anchoring Superman (special props to Reis as well for drawing the first ever non-Steve Rude interesting-looking take on Metropolis), and meanwhile you’ve got Jim Lee, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Doc Shaner, Steve Rude, Kevin Maguire, Adam Hughes, Patrick Gleason, Yanick Paquette, Ryan Sook, Brandon Peterson, and David Lafuente doing their own parts.

* Closely related to the art, all the little flourishes with the powers. Super-speed having a consistent visual with the background coloring changing, Clark internally putting numbers to the degrees of force behind his punches and what situations which numbers are appropriate for, ‘skidding to a halt’ mid-flight before crashing through a window, the shonen-ass major throwdowns as portrayed by Reis, how his super-hearing is handled as a prevalent element. Lots of clever bits that added flavor to what he does.

* While Unity Saga has problems, the whole of what Bendis does in Superman as a means of forward momentum for Clark and his world is excellent. The sort of three-act structure of: 

** Clark is led to question his place in things over the course of a few adventures

** Involvement in the larger cosmos and the impact it has had through and on his family makes him realize the answer to his questions is that he needs to step up in a bigger way because there’s no benevolent larger universe to welcome Earth with open arms, nor a cosmic precedent for everything turning out for the best without some help

** As a consequence of the lessons learned by this change in the status quo Clark is inspired to make his own personal change in revealing his identity (with Mythological basically being an epilogue showcasing a ‘standard’ standalone Superman adventure while simultaneously highlighting his new status quo and how it fits in as a summing-up of Bendis’s take)

…does a great job of shepherding through ideas that lend a lot of forward momentum to Superman of the kind he hasn’t seen in a long time. Not perfect, but far lesser stories with far lesser ambitions have made huge impacts, so I’d certainly hope at least some of this sticks around even if, say, regardless of any retcons to the main line there are always going to be stories with Clark as a disguise and Jon as a kid. Oh, speaking of whom,

* KISS MY ASS, EVERYTHING WITH JON KENT RULED

Ahem. Probably a less confrontational way of putting that.

Do I think there was more gas in the tank for Jon as a kid? Totally, making him likeable and viable was the one really good thing the Rebirth era accomplished for Superman and I expect we’ll continue seeing more of it in the future one way or another. But whether or not him being aged up was Bendis’s decision, or working with marching orders to set up the eventually-(kinda-)discarded 5G, the coming of age narrative here is fire. He keeps the essential Clark Kent kindness and bit of Lois Lane cheekiness that reminds you he’s still their kid, which is a combination Bendis is basically precision-crafted to write, but his trials by fire give him a background entirely unlike the by-the-numbers “and here’s how Superman’s great kid grew up to be a great superhero too” narrative you’d expect while still arriving at that endpoint. If superheroes live and die by metaphors then Jon in here is what it means to grow up written as large as possible: leaving home for the first time (and seeming to shoot up overnight!), getting into the muck of how the real world works, being beaten down by authority wearing faces you’ve been taught to trust, scrambling to get through with the whole world against you, and in the end getting through by learning to rely on your own strength while keeping your soul intact and your head held high, and even managing to speak some truth to power. It gives him a well-defined life story with room to go back to and explore the intricacies of each leg of for decades to come in a way Superman hasn’t had since the original Crisis - someone someday is going to write a The Life & Times Of The Son Of Superman miniseries and it’s going to be one of the greats - and negates any question that he’s earned his stature as the heir apparent.

* Coming out of this, Superman’s world is fascinating. He’s out but rather than giving up his day-to-day life he’s openly spending part of his life as CLARK KENT: SUPER-REPORTER and part of his job on the cape-and-tights side of things is now KAL-EL: SUPER-SPACE-DIPLOMAT, Lois Lane coruns a foundation helping people whose personal continuities have been fucked over by Crisis shenanigans, Jimmy Olsen owns the Daily Planet but is still doing Jimmy Olsen stuff because that’s how he gets his kicks, and Jon Kent is going to college in the future. I’m not anywhere near naïve enough to think that’s how things are going to be forever, or shortsighted enough to think there’s no value left in the traditional setups, but god I hope these developments stick around for a long, long time to come and potentially become the new ‘normal’ as far as the ongoing shared universe stuff goes, because it all feels like the right and promising next steps to take for the lives of these characters. However it got here, for all the pluses and minuses along the way even if I maintain the former very much outweighed the latter as a reading experience, Bendis has a lot to be proud of if that’s the legacy he leaves on these titles.

* The recap pages at the desks!

[cornwaiidesu]

@saneml I've been packing the past two weeks to move on Thursday and it put it into perspective how much of a fucking W E E B I am. I literally have too much to even list but I'll try anyway >.>

like whole entire boxes of JUST dbz toys.

i have the complete DBZ series on DVD.

I like to specifically collect Saiyan Saga Vegetas where he still has his tail.

I also like to collect any Bulmas I ever come across.

and Krillins.

I had an Usagi shelf where my Sailor Moon and Chibi Moons lived.

I had a Kakashi shelf of toys.

I had a shelf dedicated to just Buu and Mr. Satan toys.

I am currently wearing my Mr. Satan hat as I type this.

I have a Shino Aburame tattoo on my own human body. (not really merch but very weeby)

so many random pokemon knickknacks.

I have a piccolo beanie that has his ears that people mistake for a Yoda hat usually

I have like 9 inch figures of Naruto Sasuke and Kakashi and a 7 inch-ish Zoro that stand with a Barbie that resembles me and its supposed to be my two husbands and my two sons. :)

models of Goku, Frieza, Krillin, and Android 17 that you build like gunpla.

and a Naruto

so many random keychains that I make into earrings.

so many random shrinky dinks me and my friend have made over the years to make into earrings (again not merch but weeby)

MY INUYASHA AND KAGOME SHIRT THAT I WORE TO DOG TRAINING WITH MY PUPPY BROTHER ONE TIME AND DIDNT REALIZE MY IRONY AND HOPED NO ONE ELSE THERE THOUGHT I DID IT ON PURPOSE

two goku hoodies

a kakashi hoodie

a namek hoodie

a handful of naruto tshirts

a chopper hat

buttons. so many buttons.

my aunt always bought my backpack for the new school year when I was growing up, that was our tradition, and for my first year of community college I asked her to get me this vintage dbz backpack I came across at our local hobby store.

I have a Sailor Moon messenger bag for my computer

and the kicker is my ppe nge shoes. they are non-slip and steel toed. I bought a pair of eva 1 and a pair of eva 2 and then wear one of each and old men at work always ask me if my shoes are supposed to be mismatched. they were Expensive. ಠ_ಠ;;

that's just kind of a rough estimate.

[deans-baby-momma]

Seeking Mercy-Chapter 9

A/N: This is the next to last chapter of Seeking Mercy. The epilogue to the Falling saga, Resolutions, will be posted on Monday, August 10. So in 7 days this story will be over. Just in time for my new one, Mommy’s (Not So) Good Girl to start on August 12. If you want tagged for the new story or any of my others, just send an ask HERE

A/N2: One warning, two words. Micheal!Dean.

“Y/N!” Sam’s voice frenzy as he screams through the phone. “Get the kids and get out! NOW!”

“What, why?” The panic and terror of her brother-in-law’s voice rushing through her.

“He said yes. The asshole said yes and let Micheal take over. Now we don’t know where he is or what he is up to. So take the kids and go to Bobby’s cabin in Whitefish.”

Y/N feels like ice water is pumping through her veins as she listens to Sam. Dean promised! He promised he wouldn’t do something stupid. But now here she is running around trying to pack up enough stuff for two babies and get away. Get out of town before Micheal finds her. God only knows what he would do to her or the kids, just to hurt the Winchesters.

Strapping Mavelin into her carseat and then placing the infant carrier into its base is difficult with the shaking Y/N is doing. She’s got to get her family to safety. The cabin is almost a whole day’s drive away and she knows she isn’t going to be able to do it, not with kids in tow.

As she finishes putting the last of the bags in the trunk of her Charger, she opens up the internet app on her phone and looks for hotels on the way. She slides in behind the wheel and inputs the coordinates for a hotel in Casper WY into the GPS. 

The Budget Inn is almost 9 hours away but she hopes it’s far enough for an overnight stop, praying Micheal doesn’t somehow track her and the kids down. 

Pulling out of the garage, Y/N watches as the Bunker gets smaller and smaller and then disappears in her rearview. ‘Life on the run with two kids under the age of 2,’ she thinks to herself. ‘Fun times ahead.’

A week. One whole week since she left the Bunker in a desperation to keep their children and herself safe. Seven days since Sam called and told her that her husband had welcomed in the archangel Micheal to try and save the world.

Damn him! Damn him to hell! He promised he wouldn’t do something rash. He swore to her he would stay cautious and not bow down to anything. He lied. He fucking lied! And now here she is, over a thousand miles away without any idea of what is going on back at home.

Thankfully Micheal has yet to try to seek her out. Y/N bought a prepaid cellphone as soon as she arrived and had destroyed her old one.  She texted Mary from the new number but has not heard hide nor hair from anyone. She wonders if they even got the text.

Maddox has just went down for the night; Mavelin has been out for hours when there is a knock on the cabin’s door. Grabbing her Glock from its hiding spot, she tiptoes to the front and looks out the window.

Standing at the door is her husband. Well, it’s her husband’s vessel anyway. This body is too rigid, standing too straight. Dean would never stand with his shoulders that stiff, what with the weight of the world on them for so long. 

And the outfit! Although her husband looks mighty fine in the stylish ensemble, it is an outdated look. A fashion popular back in the 1920s in England maybe, but in 2018 it is just antiquated.

“Y/N,” her husband’s voice calls out. “I know you are in there. Open up.”

Hearing his voice makes her heart ache. She hasn’t heard his voice for almost 2 weeks, with the last thing he said to her was that he loved her. Tears emerge out of nowhere and she steels herself. She isn’t going to cry. She isn’t going to let him see just how affected she is.

“What do you want, Micheal?” She asks as she props her back against the door frame, out of his view.

“Don’t worry darling. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to talk to you.”

“Why? I have nothing to do with anything. I have no dog in this fight.”

“Oh but you do,” Micheal says. “You hold the key to everything. Just let me in and we can discuss it.”

Hoping and praying that she is making the right decision and that Dean has enough of a hold on his conscience to keep their family safe, Y/N reaches out and unlocks the door. The tick of each tumbler clicking open seems amplified in the room.

Micheal sits in the chair and watches as Y/N paces back and forth. It’s unnerving to her how he is commandeering the room. Sitting there with his legs crossed at the knees, his arms bent and flat against the cushions on the chair, palms flat and unmoving. 

But the look on his face….the look he gives her everytime she chances a glance at him is daunting. He is complaisant and placating; a menacing smile gracing his lips. 

“What do you mean, I hold the key to everything? I haven’t hunted in over 2 years. I know almost nothing when it comes to what is going on. I’ve been busy raising mine and Dean’s children.”

“Ah-ah-ah,” Micheal tsked. “Don’t you mean Dean’s daughter and his nephew?” 

Y/N feels like she is going to puke! This fucking angel just confirmed her greatest fear. But instead of caving, she denies his claim.

“No, Dean is the father to both my kids.”

“Ah, yes. He plays the proud poppa card well. But we both, you and I, know that that little boy sleeping just in the next room-” Micheal nods his head toward where Maddox is sleeping. “-belongs to Adam, the son John hid.”

“No,” Y/N whispers as the tears she had for so long held in begin to make their way down her face. 

“Yes,” Micheal says. “The boy belongs to Adam. And now Dean knows it too. He’s awake in here you know. Yes, he is inside here-” he points to his head. “-listening, hearing our discussion. He now knows you lied all those months ago. And he also knows that it wasn’t just while he was injured.”

Y/N’s eyes snap to Micheal. “Ye-yes it was,” she defends herself but knows deep down it is no use. The angel knows already.

“Now Y/N why must you continue this charade. I have been watching you for a while now. I have seen it all. And now Dean has too. He has seen you and Adam going at it behind his back for months-MONTHS- before the accident. He has heard all the filthy words said between the two of you and how you wanted Adam to impregnate you. How you begged for his seed to load you up, to fill your womb.

“I have almost successfully broken Dean with that, but I do need your help to complete my mission,” Micheal says as he stands and approaches Y/N. “I need you to leave him. He already knows you’ve cheated, he already knows the youngest Winchester is not his son. So, leave him. Do not let anyone know where you are, where you end up. 

“Not Sam. Not Mary. Not Adam. Pick a place and go there, change your identity, your kids’ identities. I promise not to bother you. I need Dean broken and crushed to fulfill my destiny,” Micheal pauses and stares down at Y/N. “So what do you say, Y/N. Ready to become someone else?”

Two days later Y/N finds herself laying in bed at the cabin with Mavelin and Maddox by her side. She has cried all she can cry at this point. The proposition Micheal gave her tumbling through her mind. 

Leave Dean and become someone new, go someplace none of the Winchesters will be able to find or Dean dies. Micheal described in vivid detail how he would gradually and leisurely kill Dean and it almost broke her. 

The alternative was to wait out Sam and the rest of the family in hopes that they could figure out how to overtake Micheal and get him out of Dean and bring Dean back home in one piece.

Micheal’s taunts kept haunting her though. Did Dean know now? Did he know she lied? That Maddox wasn’t his son, although at the time she told him the baby was his, she hadn’t been  sure. Thanks to Micheal though, she now knows that Adam Milligan-Winchester did in fact impregnate her. 

But that was something that could be worked out, right? People raise other people’s kids all the time, right? So it isn’t that big of a deal that Adam fathered the boy Dean has been raising. 

Although, that aspect was resolvable, the fact that Dean also now knows that she and Adam had been going at it for longer than she portrayed was something she didn’t know could be fixed. That right there was a big FUCK YOU. Not only had she slept with his brother but she lied and let him assume that it was only while he was injured.

Dean, knowing that Y/N and Adam had been going at it behind his back, was going to be a hurdle she wasn’t sure she could clear.

It was just easier to disappear, right? Just fall off the face of the planet and let Dean move on. He’d find love again, she’s sure. Although it took a lot of hard work on her part to get him to open up, Y/N is confident Dean could find another woman to be loyal and true to him; possibly even give him more children. Kids that were truly his.

The idea of Dean with someone else, though, breaks her heart and Y/N starts sobbing into the pillow once again.

Another month passes before Y/N finally hears a ping from her cellphone. It’s a message from Mary.

Mary: We did it Y/N. We saved Dean. It is safe to come home.

That night, Y/N and the kids are on the road heading toward the Bunker when her formerly silent phone rings.

“Hello?”

“How far out are you?” It’s Dean’s voice and she can tell it is her husband, not the man who once enraptured his body. The tone and cadence of it is what she is used to.

“I’m in Bridgeport, so about 5 hours. Give or take,” she answers. “How are you?”

Instead of answering, Dean sighs through the phone. “I’ve arranged a place for you and the kids to live comfortably. It’s across town but we all worked together and have warded it against everything possible. You’ll be safe. I’ll send you the address. All I ask is that you allow me to see Mavelin.”

Y/N’s heart breaks in her chest as she hears his words. He doesn’t want her to come to the Bunker. He doesn’t want her anymore. The tears she thought she had all cried out came back with a vengeance; enough that Y/N had to pull over to compose herself.

“Dean, no. Please? Can we talk when I get back to the Bunker?”

There is silence on the other end and she takes the mobile device away to see that the call has  ended. He had hung up on her. While staring at the screen a text comes through.

 “134 Chestnut Street.”

@lostinaseaoffictionalbliss​​ @squirrelnotsam​​ @sandlee44​​  @internationalmusicteacher​​ @kricketc29​ @natura1phenomenon​​ @blacktithe7​​ @spnbaby-67​​ @travelingriversideblues-x​​  @keymology​​ @tftumblin​​ @markofdean79​​ @thevelvetseries​​ @deanwanddamons​​ @winchester-fantasies​ @akshi8278​ @michellethetvaddict​ @larajadeschmidt13​ @leatherwhiskeycoffeeplaid​ @hoboal87​ @atc74​ @maddiepants​ @delightfullykrispypeach​

[sippinhoneylemon]

20+ tv shows to watch during quarantine.

hey guys! so i know everyone’s been super bored. i’ve been occupied by binging on tv shows for the past couple weeks and i’ve compiled a little bit of a list to recommend to you and a synopsis of each tv show along with any actors/actresses you might be familiar with additionally, ill have listed ways to watch these shows. enjoy ;)

1. Marvel’s Inhumans - (Disney+, iTunes, ABC app/site)

This is about a colonization of inhumans (people with powers) who live on a city, named Attilan, on the moon. When the king’s brother betrays him and forms a coup against him, the royal family is forced to leave Attilan and flee to Earth. Down on Earth, they make friends and within all of that, they learn to see the flaws of themselves and their city. They also have to find each other and find a way to regain their throne and save the people of Attilan before the city collapses. (1 season, 8 episodes)

Actors you may know: 

Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones)

Henry Ian Cusick (Lost, The 100)

2. Marvel’s Agents of Shield - (Hulu, Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play)

This is about a group of SHIELD agents who continuously fight to save the world from Hydra, inhumans, aliens, and themselves. They are left to fight the battles the Avengers are too busy to fight. Each season ranges from them fighting Hydra to traveling throughout space and time to save each other and the world. (ongoing)

Actors you may know:

Clark Gregg (Iron Man, Iron Man II, The Avengers, Captain Marvel)

Ming-Na Wen (Mulan, Mulan II)

Adrianne Palicki (GI Joe, John Wick)

Dove Cameron (Liv & Maddie, Descendants)

Luke Mitchell (H20 Just Add Water, The Tomorrow People)

Hayley Atwell (Agent Carter, Captain America: The First Avenger)

3. Spinning Out - (Netflix)

This is about a girl who was performing during sectionals when she attempted to jump and hit her head on the ice, almost sending her to her death. Ever since then, she has been afraid to attempt any jumps while skating and she has given up on her ice skating career. When a new opportunity arrises and she gets the chance to skate, she has to choose between her ego and partner skating. This show is about how she has to overcome her emotions and bipolar disorder enable to reach her dream of skating in the olympics. (1 season, 10 episodes)

Actors you may know:

Kaya Scodelario (The Maze Runner)

Willow Shields (The Hunger Games)

January Jones (X-Men: First Class)

Kaitlyn Leeb (Christmas With a View, Christmas With a Prince)

4. Teen Wolf - (iTunes, Fandango, Google Play, Vudu, Amazon Prime)

This is about a guy who gets bitten and turned into a werewolf one night and has to learn to protect his friends from all the dangers of their town. His best friend is human and his girlfriend is a werewolf hunter. Despite all of that, he has learn to deal with werewolves that are after him and supernatural beings to protect his friends and family. (6 seasons)

Actors you may know:

Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner, American Assassin, The Intern)

Tyler Posey (Truth or Dare)

Cody Christian (Pretty Little Liars, All American)

Tyler Hoechlin (Supergirl)

Shelley Hennig (The Secret Circle, Unfriended)

Colton Haynes (Arrow, San Andreas)

Daniel Sharman (Medici, Fear the Walking Dead, Immortals)

5. The Vampire Diaries - (Netflix, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, Amazon Prime, Fandango, Youtube)

This is about a girl who encounters two vampire brothers who have just moved into town. Her best friend is a witch and together with the rest of their friends, they have to face the evils that are coming after them, the town, and their families. (8 seasons)

Actors you may know

Nina Dobrev (Degrassi, Flatliners)

Ian Somerhalder (V Wars, Lost)

Paul Wesley (Fallen, Tell me a Story)

Candice King (After We Collided)

6. The Originals - (Netflix, iTunes, Fandango, Amazon Prime, Youtube, Vudu, Google Play)

This is about the original vampires and how they’ve managed to survive for over a thousand years by putting their family above all. They are constantly targeted by their past and when a miracle child comes into play, they risk everything to protect her, even their family. (5 seasons)

Actors you may know:

Phoebe Tonkin (H20 Just Add Water, The Secret Circle)

Claire Holt (H20 Just Add Water, Pretty Little Liars, 47 Meters Down)

Summer Fontana (Dark Phoenix)

Danielle Campbell (Starstruck, Tell Me a Story)

Maisie Richardson-Sellers (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow)

Daniel Sharman (Teen Wolf, Immortals, Fear the Walking Dead, Medici)

Torrance Coombs (Reign)

7. Legacies - (Netflix, iTunes, CW app/site)

This is about the miracle child in The Originals and the school she has grown up in all her life. When monsters start attacking the school, she has to make calls that a teenager should never have to make to save the school. She has to also protect her friends as she is haunted by her past and her family. (ongoing)

Actors you may know:

Matthew Davis (The Vampire Diaries, Legally Blonde)

Thomas Doherty (Descendants)

Chris Wood (The Vampire Diaries, Supergirl)

Leo Howard (Kickin��� It)

8. DC’s Titans - (iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Prime, Vudu)

This is about a girl with dark and dangerous powers and how the team of Titans try and keep her safe while discovering more about her powers and where she comes from. They struggle to keep the world safe along with all their friends too. (ongoing)

Actors you may know:

Brenton Thwaites (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Gods of Egypt)

Ryan Potter (Lab Rats: Elite Force, Big Hero 6)

Iain Glen (Game of Thrones)

9. Grey’s Anatomy - (Netflix, Hulu, ABC app/site, Youtube, Google Play, iTunes, Amazon Prime, Vudu)

This is about surgeons in a hospital and the drama of their lives from facing unique patients each day. They also face tragic incidents within the show and struggle to stay friends with each other. (ongoing)

Actors you may know:

Basically everyone

10. The Secret Circle - (Amazon Prime)

This is about a girl who moves into a new town and discovers her powers as a witch. She also discovers the truth about her family and the reason why her mother was murdered. (1 season, 22 episodes)

Actors you may know:

Britt Robertson (The Longest Ride, The Space Between Us, Tomorrowland, I Still Believe)

Phoebe Tonkin (H20 Just Add Water, The Originals)

Shelley Hennig (Teen Wolf, Unfriended)

Chris Zylka (10 Things I Hate About You)

11. Charmed (2005) - (Netflix, iTunes, Youtube, Amazon Prime, Vudu, Google Play)

This is about a group of sisters and how they discover their powers. Monsters and demons constantly try and attack their family because they want their powers for themselves so they must constantly defend themselves and their friends. (8 seasons)

Actors you may know:

Holly Marie Combs (Pretty Little Liars)

Alyssa Milano (Insatiable)

Brian Krause (Blue Lagoon, Return to the Blue Lagoon)

Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory)

12. V Wars - (Netflix)

This is about a doctor who discovers a new virus that quickly infects everyone, including his best friend. He also discovers that the people with this virus are called bloods because they have to feed on blood to survive. He has to choose and try and prevent a war between humanity and the bloods. (ongoing)

Actors you may know:

Ian Somerhalder (The Vampire Diaries)

Nikki Reed (Twilight Saga)

13. The Shannara Chronicles - (Netflix, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, Amazon Prime)

This is about a post dystopian fantasy world, taking place in present day San Francisco. A demon is trying to destroy their world so a group of people must go and save Shannara before it is destroyed. (2 seasons)

Actors you may know:

Austin Butler (The Carrie Diaries, Switched At Birth)

Poppy Drayton (The Little Mermaid)

Malese Jow (The Flash, The Vampire Diaries)

Vanessa Morgan (Riverdale, My Babysitter’s A Vampire)

Brooke Williams (Agents of SHIELD)

John Rhys-Davies (Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Indiana Jones Films)

14. The Witcher - (Netflix)

This is about a rare witcher who’s purpose is to destroy evil beings. He has an unknown past with a princess which is hinted throughout the film and he has to work to save the princess from her kingdom which is being overthrown. (ongoing)

Actors you may know:

Henry Cavil (Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman, Justice League)

15. Outlander - (STARZ app/site, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Vudu, Youtube, Google Play, Roku, Sling)

This is about a woman who is on her honeymoon in the Scottish highlands with her husband when she gets magically transported back in time during the 1700′s. She must work to go back to her time period even when she’s falling for someone who doesn’t belong in her time period. (ongoing)

Actors you may know:

Sam Heughan (The Spy Who Dumped Me)

16. Once Upon A Time - (Netflix, Fandango, iTunes, Amazon Prime, Vudu, Youtube, Google Play)

This is about a woman who is approached by a child she left years ago. He leads her to a town where fairytale characters exist but are under a spell which caused them to forget who they were and why they were there.  (7 seasons)

Actors you may know:

Rebecca Mader (Lost)

Jamie Dornan (Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy)

Sebastian Stan (Avengers Series)

17. Beauty and the Beast - (Netflix, iTunes)

This is about a woman who is a cop and was saved when she was younger by a “beast”. She discovers the man behind this beast and how he was experimented on in the military, causing him to turn into a “beast.” Together, they must face the dangers of his strength and his past. (4 seasons)

Actors you may know:

Kristin Kreuk (Smallville, Street Fighter)

Jay Ryan (IT Chapter II)

Rachel Skarsten (Reign, Birds of Prey, Batwoman)

18. The Haunting of Hill House - (Netflix)

This is about siblings who work their way through grief after their mother killed herself in their family home. They must work past their grief and discover the truth about the house and why it made her kill herself. (ongoing)

Actors you may know:

Victoria Pedretti (You)

Elizabeth Reaser (Twilight Saga, Ouiji: Origin of Evil)

Michiel Huisman (Age of Adaline, Game of Thrones, The Guernsey Literary and the Potato Peel Pie Society)

19. The 100 - (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Youtube, Google Play, Vudu, iTunes)

This is about a post apocalyptic Earth and how a crew of people managed to survive the poison on Earth almost a century ago. They decide to take the risk and come down from space to encounter a group of people who have been living on earth all this time. (ongoing)

Actors you may know:

Eliza Taylor (Christmas Inheritance)

Alycia Debnam-Carey (Fear the Walking Dead)

Henry Ian Cusick (Marvel’s Inhumans, Lost)

Isaiah Washington (Grey’s Anatomy)

20. Travelers - (Netflix)

This is about a group of people in a futuristic, apocalyptic Earth who are able to send their consciousness back in time to a person who is moments from death. This group goes back in time with the hopes of trying to save Earth before it is destroyed. (3 seasons)

Actors you may know:

Kind of unlikely

21. Quantico - (Netflix, Vudu, Amazon Prime, Fandango, Google Play, Youtube)

This is about a woman who volunteers for the FBI academy in Quantico but finds dark secrets about her teammates as they get pick out and booted from the academy one by one. (3 seasons)

Actors you may know:

Blair Underwood (LA Law)

Priyanka Chopra (married to Nick Jonas)

Karolina Wydraw (Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD)

22. Reign - (Netflix, CW app/site, Fandango, Amazon Prime, iTunes, Microsoft Movies and TV, Vudu)

This is about Mary Queen of Scots as she explores France and it’s secrets that lie within the kingdom’s walls. She has to get married to Francis, son of Catherine de Medici and struggles to balance her feelings, friends, and the darkness all together. (4 seasons)

Actors you may know:

Adelaide Kane (Teen Wolf, The Purge)

Torrance Coombs (The Originals)

Anna Popplewell (Chronicles of Narnia Series)

23. Marvel’s Runaways - (Disney+, Hulu, Vudu, iTunes, Google Play)

This is about a group of childhood friends who come together and accidentally find their parents murdering a young girl. Some discover they are mutants and they team up to try and stop their parents. (3 seasons)

Actors you may know:

Greg Sulkin (A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish, Avalon High, Wizards of Waverly Place)

Annie Wersching (The Vampire Diaries)

Olivia Holt (Kickin’ it, Girl Meets Monster, Cloak and Dagger)

Julian McMahon (Charmed)

[betweenthepage]

Mini Reviews

As always, you can find my reviews on Goodreads and you can also follow my Instagram

Review’s for: 

1) Beyond the Black Door by A.M. Strickland 

2) Scammed by Kristen Simmons

3) The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu

4) Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare

5) Ember Queen by Laura Sebastian 

6) The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh 

7) Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger

8) Tithe by Holly Black

Beyond the Black Door

The book read a bit like early 2010’s YA (which isn’t a bad thing, I was fine with it. But some people don’t enjoy it). While I enjoyed the general plot, I wish some parts of the book were left out so that Kamai—the main character—could get the ball rolling sooner. I feel like it would have made for more interesting situations. I really enjoyed reading all the characters—especially Vehyn and all his villainous ways! The diversity in sexuality was beautiful and I am so glad that people are finding themselves in these characters. I think it was done beautifully, and will hopefully open the door for more books like this. Overall, I felt like the conflict was resolved very well and realistically for the book—aka no, “everything happened because I say.” 3 out of 5 stars!

Scammed

I enjoyed the first book, but this book? LOVED. The writing is great and the twists and turns? Did not see a lot of it coming! I’ve been conned! I LOVED that we got to see more of the secondary characters (Henry and especially Charlotte who I love x3 now) and I hope even more of the other students get some screen time in the third book. Beyond Charlotte, I was surprised to see how attached I got to Moore! More Moore! Lol Some of my only problems with Scammed were that a lot of the events that happened could have easily been solved with honesty (but then...no drama!) and that Brynn—our main character—was an easy pawn. For someone who’s good at what she does, she sure got played. I’m still spinning at all the twists that happened, trying to piece things from the first book. Seeing if maybe I missed clues, suspecting everyone, questioning who the real villains are and their true motives. That makes for a good book. @ Kristen Simmons/ Tor Teen, please send me the third book today, I am ready for third book, today. I will eagerly be waiting the third book, which I am ready for today. 4 out of 5 stars!

The Kingdom of Back

Marie has once again written a beautiful book with emotion and grace. As a pianist, I’ve been obsessed with many composers, Mozart being one of them. I knew he had a sister but didn’t know how she too was just as talented as Wolfgang. This books scratched the surface of her talent and used their imagination to write a different world. While I enjoyed the writing itself, I did feel like the otherworldness was a bit confusing and for me, didn’t make a lot of sense some of the time. I had to ignore things or add my own things in order to make more sense of it. Some times I was a bit bored due to the plot slowing down. Beyond that, I was filled with rage at the real life injustice portrayed in the story that Nannerl had to face. Not only from society/the world, but from her own father. I wanted SOMEONE to shout at him. It truly is a sadness and loss to the world that her compositions were lost to the world and she didn’t get her chance to be just as great as her brother. Marie Lu talked about how she believes her music lives on through Wolfgang, I believe so too.

Chain of Gold

Normally with so many characters, I mostly enjoy them but really only care for a few. With Chain of Gold, I LOVED every single character. They all stole my heart in different ways. Though, Matthew is my favorite by far. I have a soft spot for sassy men who like clothes.

I absolutely loved all the minor plot lines; I can clearly see how they’re going to develop into bigger plot lines. Though since there were so many small ones, it made for the overall plot to be...lacking? Not that it wasn’t good, but I just felt like I wasn’t at the edge of my seat. But given everything that happened, I know it’s only going to give me more anxiety as the books continue. I also had to pull up a family tree to see who’s kid was who’s because there are so many Lightwoods. They’ve kept busy haha

I loved seeing all of our characters from TID and I LOVE how much EVERYONE knows Tessa and Will love each other. Makes me feel even more lonely lmao.

And the ending with some of the main characters...it’s a troupe I haven’t read in a while but I’m so excited.

4 out of 5 stars!

Ember Queen

I’ve finally read this! I didn’t get to it because I travelled for a signed copy and then school but finally!!

Lots of moving parts to this book, which make sense considering they’re in the middle of a war. A lot seemed a little too easy, and while many were lost on the pages, it wasn’t anyone we really knew. Thus, the feeling of it being too easy.

The big heart ache towards the end of the book, I knew was going to happen. It no longer had a plot or arc to move the story forward unlike everyone and everything else so it was made clear to me. Regardless, I was still incredibly sad as it was one of my favorite things. (Trying to be vague and avoid spoilers lol)

I LOVED that after everything Theo has gone through, even all the growth she has had, she still remained a soft hearted person, unafraid of her emotions. Embracing her tears and everything she felt. I love a strong willed woman, but we need more soft hearted women. Both are equally strong and Laura did an amazing job at capturing that.

The ending was great, I think. It took something Theo often thought about and was a big thorn to her plan and made her embrace it. It was fitting.

I was fortunate enough to start this trilogy early via an arc, and I’m so glad I got to see it to the end.

4 out of 5 stars.

The Beautiful

Right from the start, I fell in love with Celine. I love everything about her but especially that she wasn’t afraid to want power AND love. The setting and time that this beautiful (haha get it?) book was written was a time where POCs were still treated badly. I liked the fact that Celine—and others—acknowledge this as well as enjoy that all people from everywhere could have a place where they could work side by side. There wasn’t a character I did not like or love. I enjoyed them all, even when they annoyed me or broke my heart. Even the potential lives interests (plural). I love both though I have my heart set on one boy. I didn’t like that even though a lot of things were revealed, those things were still vague. I have to think it’s because grander things will be revealed in the next book, but for now, it’s left me a little confused. This would have made this a 4 star read for me. But I just loved Celine SO MUCH that I have no choice but to make this a 5 star read. She literally made this whole book for me. 5 out of 5 stars.

Steel Crow Saga

Listen...it’s an Asian inspired book filled with LGBTQ+ INCREDIBLE characters, found family, POKEMON-ESQUE things? Just buy the book already. Don’t even finish my review.

This book was great. Every character in this book was amazing in one way or another. Lee warmed my heart (we love a sarcastic thief) but Tala owns it. She was by far my favorite character. Everything she went through, has done...she’s amazing and her growth through the book speaks loudly. She fought a lot of inner turmoil (NO ONE WOULD BLAME HER IF SHE PICKED DIFFERENTLY THAN WHAT SHE DID IN THE BOOK...but I’m glad she didn’t) and all the emotions she felt? I felt them too. I just want to wrap her in a hug and make sure nothing bad ever happens to her again. I did find one of the characters, Jimuro, annoying up until the end, where his growth was finally tangible. He was big talk but finally led with actions. Good job, dude. Still want to mildly slap you, but it’s all good. The pacing of the book was perfect and I want to live in this world where I basically can get my own Pokemon. Or metal bend. I do wish some smaller details were talked about more, as it left me with a couple questions, but overall I enjoyed it. And I hope one day there’s a sequel. :(

4.5 out of 5 stars!

Tithe

Story wise, I felt it was rushed and definitely could have been longer for the pace. But I liked it for the most part. Beyond the pace, everything felt a little too easy. If that’s the case, I can make it in the Unseelie court too lol The main character, Kaye, was something. While I generally liked her, she’s very selfish and unaware of the emotions or well being of her friends and family. Possibly it could be because of what she truly is...but still. And while she apologized for some of her actions, it seemed very surface based and it just rubbed me the wrong way. Her one real friend, Corny? LOVE him. Felt for him too. I hope if he pops up again that he gets nothing but happiness because poor king. Roiben? He was cool. I generally liked him! He was kind of the calm to Kaye’s chaos. He didn’t have much character to him but I know the later story revolves around him more so I’m excited to see his development. 3 out of 5 stars.

[ultima228]

Stolen from @eatupbud

Top 10 Songs that I can’t stop listening to and have stuck on loop, but improved because I’m adding Youtube Links to where you can find them so that you can get them stuck in your head too, because I am a bastard like that.

1. Fire, Blood and Steel - Brothers of Metal

2. This Storm - Blind Guardian’s Twilight Orchestra 

3. Devil Trigger - Metal Cover by RichaadEB (ft. Lollia & LittleVMills)

4. New Saga Begins - Rhapsody of Fire

5. Incense & Iron - Powerwolf

6.  Day of Fate (METAL VERSION) - Jonathan Young

7. The Islander - Nightwish

8. It was Metal - A Sound of Thunder

9.  Live Or Die -  Apocalyptica feat. Joakim Brodén (Sabaton’s Lead Singer)

10. Cry Out For a Hero - Beast in Black

I tag whoever the heck wants to do this. I just saw this and was like “this is one of those stupid chains I’d actually participate in cause music is my soul” so whoever wants feel free to keep this going. Make your own, tag me and share what you love

[soloragoldsun]

Pride Month Recommendations- Day 7

We’re back today with an awesome fantasy book: Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger. It’s a standalone novel that draws obvious inspiration from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and has a similar tone.

It takes place in a world recovering from a recent war, during which an empire of metal-pacting (essentially Metalbending) soldiers invaded several other countries and forced their ideologies on them, but was ultimately defeated. In the aftermath, several characters struggle to find their way while also preventing a new war from breaking out.

The main characters include Tala, a suffering soldier from a shade-pacting country (essentially, one bonds to an animal, turning it into a spiritual warrior that can be summoned at will), Jimuro, the prince of the fallen empire, Xiulan, a princess who has little standing in her family and works as a pipe-smoking detective, and Lee, a thief from a land that was oppressed both before and after the war. You also occasionally get a POV chapter from Dimangan, Tala’s older brother.

Out of the five POV characters, four are either gay or bi. There’s also a prominent transmale character who, while an antagonist, is treated as a very three-dimensional character who you can understand, even if you don’t agree with his actions.

This was a very enjoyable book with a good LGBTQ cast, as well as a cast consisting entirely of POC characters. If you want a great fantasy story with amazing representation, this is a book to check out.

[aion-rsa]

The 7 Greatest Comic Series Based on Toy Lines

https://ift.tt/35Ng3I0

Set your nostalgia rays to the '80s. Some toy lines actually ended up as even better comic book series.

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Comic book icons and heroes have been appearing on toy shelves since the days of Captain Action and Mego. But sometimes, toys that win the hearts and minds of kids of all ages are given their own comics, allowing toy fans to see their favorite bits of plastic in action by some of the best writers and artists in comics.

Many toys have graced the pages of comics over the years, including memorable curiosities like Sectaurs, Madballs, Visionaries, Go-Bots, and so many more, but there have been a few properties that have transcended their humble plastic roots to become the stuff of comic book legend.

Here are but a sampling:

The Saga of Crystar: Crystal Warrior

Back in 1983, Marvel published Crystar, a concept they had developed specifically to sell the license to a toy manufacturer. Remco was wowed by the world Marvel had created and produced one line of figures in 1982. Marvel then followed the toys up with a comic written by Mary Jo Duffy with absolutely stunning covers by the great Michael Golden.

The toys were things of beauty, produced in translucent plastic, and the Crystal Warriors stood out on the toy shelves. Remco produced a bunch of good Crystal Warriors and an array of evil Magma people. The toy company also produced two dragons, one magma and one crystal (which is a sight to behold), a castle, and some accessories.

The story of Crystar was pretty simple: the good agents of order, the crystal warriors, faced off against the agents of chaos, the Magma people, led by Crystar’s brother, Moltar (because what else would you named the leader of the Magma people?). The world of the comic was well built and functioned within the parameters of the toys and still holds up pretty well today. Marvel must have wanted the book and toy line to succeed because there were frequent Marvel Universe guest stars in the Crystar comic including Dr. Strange, Nightcrawler (from X-Men), and Alpha Flight.

It seems that Marvel still holds the right to Crystar as the character made a cameo appearance in one of the six million Marvel Zombies series. The  property might be obscure, but as far as toy/comic tie ins go, Crystar was a (I shouldn’t) diamond in the rough (I did).

Shogun Warriors

Is there anything cooler than giant Mechs? How about giant Mechs based on an ultra-popular Japanese toy line stomping around the Marvel Universe? For two years, Marvel fans got to experience Shogun Warriors as a legitimate part of the Marvel Universe proper.

Shogun Warriors was a Mattel property that united a bunch of robot toys from Japan under the same banner. There were tons of toys and vehicles produced by Mattel, in many different sizes, but Marvel only had the license for three of the robots, Raydeen, Combattra, and Dangard Ace, piloted by an American stuntman, a Japanese test pilot, and an oceanographer from Madagascar, respectively. The humans and their Mechs had many adventures written by the great Doug Moench with pitch perfect artwork by Hulk legend Herb Trimpe.

Things took an odd turn in Shogun Warriors #16, when the Warriors’ human handlers were slaughtered by the villainous Primal One creating an odd last few issues that were kind of ponderously depressing. Marvel’s Shogun Warriors had an ignominious end, as all three Warriors were destroyed off panel by the Samurai Destroyer in the pages of Fantastic Four once Marvel lost the license.

While it lasted, the Shogun Warriors was an entertaining book that really displayed the talents of Trimpe, a man born to draw '70 eras Japanese robots, and featured luminary guest stars like Reed Richards and Tony Stark. The oddity of Marvel destroying an in-continuity property to explain a lapsed license makes Marvel’s Shogun Warriors a great point of curiosity of the Bronze Age.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

The original Masters of the Universe toys, produced by Mattel, came packed with mini-comics of their own. These mini-tomes fleshed out the world of He-Man and his allies and enemies, and they were just the beginning of a long standing relationship between He-Man and the world of comics.

In 1982, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe appeared in a miniseries from DC that saw He-Man dwell in a much more Robert E. Howard world. He-Man was introduced in DC Comics Presents #47 written by Paul Kupperberg and drawn by iconic Superman artist Curt Swan. With Swan on board, you know that He-Man went toe-to-toe with Superman, as the Man of Steel was mystically transported to Eternia. The special team-up introduced the world to Skeletor, Beast-Man, Teela, Man at Arms, and Battle Cat. The issue, which remains a hotly sought after back issue to this day, led into a three issue series written by Kupperberg, with art by George Tuska and Alfredo Alcala which briefly established He-Man’s world as an alternate dimension to the DC Universe. DC only published five He-Man stories in the '80s but they established the foundation for everything that would follow. 

After DC, Marvel’s Star imprint, a line of comics for young readers, tried their hand at He-Man, but the books were watered down versions of the already watered down cartoon. Marvel also featured an odd little adaptation of the 1987 Dolph Lundgren movie where all the characters looked like their toy counterparts instead of the actors that portrayed them on the big screen (except Beast Man for some reason). The property returned to the edgier roots a bit in the early 2000s series published by MV Creations before returning back to DC in recent years, which features revamped versions of the classic characters.

But those original DC books remain some of the most beloved toy comics of all time as DC really fleshed out a back story that would become the inspiration for cartoons, films, and future comics. DC was the first to give life to Mattel’s enduring line of heroes, warriors, monsters, wizards, and whatever the heck an Orko is.

Micronauts

According to legend, one Christmas, the son of comic book great Bill Mantlo opened his Christmas presents, and lo and behold, Micronauts! As Mantlo watched his son open his toys, the writer supposedly began constructing a backstory for the little metal men. At Mantlo’s request, then Marvel got the Micronauts license from Mego and the rest is history.

Like Shogun Warriors and Transformers, Micronauts were Japanese toys from a number of different toy lines joined together under one branding umbrella. The toys were cool, but unlike many toys of that era, they arrived on shelves without much of a backstory, until Mantlo came along and crafted one of the finest examples of innovative world building of the era.

Once again, Marvel incorporated Mantlo’s Micronauts into the Marvel Universe as the heroic team consisting of Acroyear, Bug, Commander Rann, Biotron, Princess Mari, and Prince Argon, took on established Marvel villains Plant Man, Psycho Mann, Dr. Doom, Molecule Man, and Hydra agents Fixer and Mentallo, plus their own adversary Baron Karza. The ‘nauts even teamed with the X-Men in an early '80s mini-series that was quite a big deal at the time. The book featured complex characters that often flipped sides between good and evil and firmly established the team as important parts of the Marvel Universe.

It was so enduring that, despite not having the Micronauts license anymore, many of the characters that Mantlo created that never had their own toy remain part of the Marvel Universe, like Bug for instance, who was a founding member of the modern Guardians of the Galaxy! Micronauts stands as one of the greatest examples of what a skilled creative team can do with toy property. Despite its simple premise, Micronauts remains one of the best executed comics of its day.

Rom, Spaceknight

The toys covered in this article all were very successful and each made their respective companies a great deal of money. That’s what’s so amazing about Rom, which had a very successful comic series that ran an amazing seven years, yet, the Rom toy arrived on toy shelves stillborn, selling only 200,000 - 300,000 units for Parker Brothers in the U.S. The toy barely survived a year, but the comic thrived and became a regular part of Marvel’s publishing schedule for the better part of the decade.

This was thanks in part to writer Bill Mantlo and artist Sal Buscema, who brought the character to life in a way that the noisy and stiff toy never could. Yes, the same writer who breathed fresh life into Micronauts, wielded the same world building magic with Rom. Rom the toy was a barely articulated hunk of plastic that made noises, Rom the comic was a richly detailed science fiction epic centered on a group of brave Space Knights taking on the evil of the vile Dire Wraiths.

Rom’s war with the Wraiths brought more than one major Marvel character into the battle and Rom was even summoned to the first Contest of Champions. Even though he didn't participate, his inclusion in Marvel’s first event book shows how important Rom was to the tapestry of the Marvel Universe in his day. The Spaceknights and the Dire Wraiths are still part of the Marvel Universe, while Rom has moved on to IDW.

Oh, and both Rom and the Micronauts are now part of Hasbro's shared movie universe that includes the Transformers, GI Joe, MASK, and others. 

Transformers

Transformers is one of those toy properties that lives in perfect symbiosis with the world of comics. The comics, first published by Marvel for a good nine years, before other companies like Dreamwave and IDW took over the license, all fueled the stories and histories of Hasbro’s Robots in Disguise.

You might think that robots that disguise themselves and vehicles would be hard to justify in any sensible plot, but one would be wrong. Writers, particularly Simon Furman for Marvel, fleshed out their world in the pages of the Transformers comics, and gave each Transformer human motivations and personalities that went hand in glove with the toys kids were consuming at an unheard of rate. As Transformers remains a huge part of the cultural consciousness, the stories and characterization of the robots continue to be fed and informed by the work Marvel did for so many years. 

Like many other Marvel licensed properties, the Transformers started as part of the Marvel Universe, with guest appearences by Spider-Man and Death’s Head (who first appeared in Transformers) but the Autobots and Decepticons were soon shunted off to their own reality. Dreamwave and IDW continue the legacy in many different forms and iterations feeding multiple generations of Transformers fanatics.

G.I. Joe: A Real America Hero

There has seemingly always been a comic called G.I. Joe on the stands in one form or another even before anyone heard the term Kung Fu Grip. From a syndicated strip from King Features in 1941, to a comic published by Ziff-Davis in set in the Korean War beginning in 1950, to two issues of DC’s Showcase published in 1964-1965. But it was in 1982 that Marvel began publishing a comic series based on Hasbro’s new line of G.I. Joe toys that the entire comic industry changed. 

Writer Larry Hama was tasked by Hasbro and Marvel to create a group of modern day soldiers with specialties, codenames, and personalities that could drive the new toy line. Hama and a host of artists also came up with adversary for his Joes; a colorful group of terrorists with a perfectly colorful array of gimmicks. This new enemy, Cobra, would come to define the modern day Joes and bring to life a story that continues to this day in toys, films, comics, and television.

The Marvel Comics series allowed these characters to grow far beyond their static plastic origins. This was no easy task, as Hasbro continued to introduce new toys that had to be inserted into the story no matter how far-fetched they might be. At the time, ninjas like Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow became as popular as Wolverine and Spider-Man.

Many kids who grew to love comics in the '80s owe this love to G.I. Joe. Marvel even went so far as to advertise each new issue on television bringing in droves of new fans to the newsstands and into the comic shops with each animated advertisement. The G.I. Joe comic legacy continues today with multiple titles by IDW, but the original Marvel series shaped a generation of comic book lovers, making it the most important toy to comic adaptation ever published.

Read and download the Den of Geek Lost in Space Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Feature

Culture

Marc Buxton

Dec 18, 2019

G.I. Joe

Transformers

from Books https://ift.tt/2PCSa0u

[tastywordgasms]

Blog Tour for Shattered by Helen Hardt @HelenHardt @bnwauthorservices #steelbrotherssaga

Shattered (Steel Brothers Saga #7)

by Helen Hardt

Release Date: 29th August

Genre: Contemporary Romance

#steelbrotherssaga Buy the Book Today!Synopsis Ryan Steel is known in Snow Creek as the handsomest Steel brother with the most jovial personality. Now that his busy grape harvest and winemaking season is over, he’s happy to spend time with his family and help his brothers, Talon…

[coolgirl]

what are ur favorite talia al ghul comics

I put together a list of comics that I use/have used as reference for Talia’s personality in my mind or for fics etc. 

This is like MY preferred comics. Firstly some basics  

Detective Comics #526 (1983)

Batman: Birth of the Demon saga (1987-1991)

Batman and Robin #0 (2012)

Batman Chronicles #8 (1995)

Tower of Babel (2000)

Detective Comics #750 (2000)

President Lex Secret Files #1 (2001)

Batman: Death and the Maidens (2003-2004)

Villains United (2005)

The Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul (2007-2008)

First appearance

Detective Comics #411 (1971)

Pre crisis list 

I guess this part isn’t canon anymore, but i still use bits and pieces of this characterization for my Talia PLUS some of these issues are still canon, like Batman #232 which is still brought up every time Ra’s shows up after a long time lol

Batman #232 / 235 (1971) 

Batman #240 / 243-244 (1972)

Batman #257 (1974)

Detective Comics #444-448 (1975)

Black Lightning #2 (1977)

DC Special Series #15 (1978)

Brave and the Bold #159 (1980)

Detective Comics #490 (1980)

That time Talia lived with Bruce & we got a taste of everything we could’ve had (possibly one of my favorite Talia arcs!)

Batman #330 (1980)

Batman #331 (1981)

Batman #332 (1981)

Batman #333 (1981)

Batman #334 (1981)

Batman #335 (1981)

-

Batman Annual #8 (1982)

Detective Comics #526 (1983)

Batman #400 (1986)

Post Crisis / Modern Comics  

this part is like. more canon compliant i guess?

Batman: Birth of the Demon saga — the ground for the Al Ghul lore and stuff

Batman: Son of the Demon (1987)

Detective Comics Annual #1 (1988)

Batman: Bride of the Demon (1991)

Batman: Birth of the Demon (1992)

-

Azrael #5-7 (1995) not a lot of talia but i thought her interactions with Lilhy were cute lol

Batman Chronicles #8-22 (1997/2000)

Batman/Spider-Man (1997)

Black Lightning: Year One #3-4 (2009)

Batman: The Chalice (2000)

Azrael #29 (1997)

Azrael #30 (1997)

Action Comics #760 (1999) (rlly small but cute)

Tower of Babel

JLA #43 (2000)

JLA #44 (2000)

JLA #45 (2000)

Detective Comics #750 (2000)

That one absolutely bonkers Birds of Prey arc

Birds of Prey #26 (2001)

Birds of Prey #31 (2001)

Birds of Prey #32 (2001)

Birds of Prey #33 (2001)

Birds of Prey #34 (2001)

Birds of Prey #35 (2001)

LEXCORP Arc— not all these issues have big Talia moments but i love ceo talia :( the * are the ones where she has small roles

President Lex Secret Files #1 (2001) 

Action Comics #772-773 (2000)

Superman #170  (2001)*

Batman: Our Worlds at War #1 (2001)*

Gotham Knights #20-21 (2001)* (NO TALIA AT ALL but im a sucker for brutalia & gives some context on what Ra’s was up to while Talia was working with Lex)

Superboy #89 (2001)

Superman: The Man of Steel #120 (2002)

Adventures of Superman #600 (2002)

Superman: The Man of Steel #123-125 (2002)

Batman #611-616 (2003)

Superman #190 (2003)*

Superman #194 (2003)

Superman #198 (2003)

Batman: Death and the Maidens—oh brother. oh brother this arc. I feel like this was the point where they decided to make Talia lean more into an evil role rather than the anti-hero she used to be. 

Batman: Death and the Maidens #2 (2003)

Batman: Death and the Maidens #3 (2003)

Batman: Death and the Maidens #3 (2003)

Batman: Death and the Maidens #4 (2004)

Batman: Death and the Maidens #5 (2004)

Batman: Death and the Maidens #6 (2004)

The Society arc (again, small roles will have a *)

Villains United #1 (2005)

Batman: Gotham Knights #66 (2005)

Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1 (2005)

Villains United #2 (2005)

Villains United #3 (2005)

JSA #76 (2005)*

Villains United #4 (2005)

Villains United #5 (2005)

Villains United #6 (2005)

JSA: Classified #6-7 (2006) [ties in with death and the maidens)

Batgirl #69 (2005)*(Talia does not appear for the rest of the arc but you might want to read it to know what’s going on lol)

Villains United: Infinite Crisis Special #1 (2006)

Secret Six #1 (2006)

Manhunter #23 (2006)

Damian Intro—OH BROTHER HERE WE FUCKING GO. 

First of all you know what. i’m gonna fucking say it. Re-read Batman: Son of the Demon (1987) neat. that’s how Damian exists. Idgaf about retcons, that’s CANON.

Next read the letter Talia wrote for Bruce from The Batman Files (2011)  that’s also what happened in canon. Ok. now carry on.

Batman #655 (2006)

Batman #656 (2006)

Batman #658 (2006)

Batman Annual #26 (2007)

The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul

Batman #670 (2007)

Robin #168 (2008)

Nightwing #138 (2008)

Detective Comics #838 (2008)

Batman #671 (2008)

Robin #169 (2008)

Nightwing #139 (2008)

Detective Comics #839 (2008)

Nightwing: Freefall #140, #144-146 (2008)

NEW 52/REBIRTH. 

oh here we have it pals. when talia was just thrown out of a window for the sake of giving Bruce & Damian more angst lmfao.

Batman and Robin #0 (2012)

YUP that’s it thanks for participating.

ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSES 

Batman Odyssey (2010)

Batman: Arkham Unhinged #38-40 (2012)

Li'l Gotham #11-12 / 21 (2013)

Injustice 2 #50 (2018)

ANIMATED/VIDEOGAMES

Arkham City

Batman the Animated Series: Off Balance, The Demon’s Quest and Avatar. 

Batman Beyond: Out of the Past. 

Superman The Animated Series: The Demon Reborn

[karkkidoeswriting]

WIP Questions Tag

@thedrowningtsarevna​ tagged me, thank you! I think I’ve done this for Bear Castle, so I’m doing it now with The Shield-Maiden Saga.

1. Describe the plot in one sentence.

A young daughter of viking lord is met with a tragedy and she then dresses up as a boy to join a viking crew with a goal to avenge her family.

2. Pick one sight, smell, sound, feel and taste to describe the aesthetic for your novel.

Warm light of fire flickering from a steal sword, smell of seaweed and salt, whispers of elves, humid sea breeze with drops of splashing water, sweetness of honey mead

3. Which 3+ songs would make up a playlist for the novel?

Helvegen - Vardruna feat. Aurora

 I Hope Your World Is Kind - Auri

The Longest Journey - Ensiferum

Suru on kunnia vieras (”Sorrow is a honorary guest”) - Jenni Vartiainen

Tale of Revenge - Ensiferum

Lemminkäinen Suite, Op. 22: II. The Swan of Tuonela - Jean Sibelius

4. What’s the time period and location in which the novel takes place?

Viking Age in Europe, about 850. The story starts in archipelago of Sweden, but most of it takes place in Finland and various places in Eastern Europe.

5. Are there any former titles you’ve considered but discarded?

It was first The Saga of a Shield-Maiden and I think I had couple of more ideas but settled with Shield-Maiden Saga :D

6. What’s the first line of your novel?

The Norns, sisters of fate, weave the destiny of every mortal from rays of sun and shimmer of moon, from twilight of dusk and shadows of night, from glitter of sea and whines of winds, from souls of fore-fathers and immortality of elves.

7. What’s a dialogue you’re particularly proud of?

I was choosing between funny and angsty dialogue and I went with angsty:

“But I deserve it!” Helgi hissed, suddenly eyes burning. “I deserve to die.”

I shook my head violently. “You are wrong. What you deserve is a change to be better than you were taught.”

8. Which line from the novel most represents it as a whole?

But now I will weave my own rug. I tell my own story. Story of a shield-maiden, who struggled against the will of the Fates, but yielded in the end.

9. Who are your character faceclaims?

I do have! I don’t know who they are, but here are the pictures, because I’m lazy. If you go see, you might notice that Sigurdr and Tyrfingr doesn’t have real faceclaims and it’s because Sigurdr’s face is full of scars and something like that with correct other features is impossible to find and Tyrfingr is an elf and I don’t believe I will ever find a photo that fits him.

10. Sort your characters into Hogwarts houses.

Sváfa - Gryffindor Refil - Ravenclaw Láilá - Slytherin Helgi - Gryffindor Tyrfingr - Slytherin Vígi - Huffelpuff Sigurdr - Gryffindor Ilmatar - Ravenclaw

11. Which character’s name do you like the most?

Vígi, Láilá and Ilmatar. Don’t make me decide on one!

12. Describe each character’s daily outfit.

Refil: Red tunic made with golden embroidery, gray pants, yellow cloak (that goes over one shoulder) and his pitch black elven sword, Tyrfingr. All of his clothes are fine wool. Armor: padded armor, chain mail, a helmet with bronze details, spear and red shield with yellow knot patterns. Sigurdr: Green tunic also with blue embroidery, dark brown pants, dark green cloak and a sword. His clothes are also fine wool. Armor: padded armor, chain mail, helmet with barn owl mask as a visor, bow and arrows and half green, half blue shield. Vígi: Blue tunic with red embroidery, dark brown pants, light brown cloak and a sword. His clothes are regular wool. Armor: padded armor, leather armor, helmet, ax and blue shield with white dragon. Helgi: Natural white tunic, brownish pants and a slave’s collar and white wolf pelt. Láilá: Long leather tunic with colorful embroidery and long strings of leather and fur and also some bones hanging from it, shoes made from reindeer pelt, fox pelt, witch’s drum, bow and arrows. Ilmatar: Thin flowing gown weaved from winds and clouds (according to her), silvery diadem and golden jewelry. Tyrfingr: Black steel armor, gleaming steel gray tunic, black diadem made from shards of metal. Sváfa: At the beginning she uses wool dresses of a noble girl, then she starts using tunics of boys her age and eventually she starts using a wool dress with armor.

13. Do any characters have distinctive birthmarks/scars?

Sigurdr’s face is covered in scars and he is missing part of his nostril. Sváfa and Vígi both have light freckles, Refil has more obvious freckles. Láilá has a scar in the side of her neck that stretches across her cheek. Helgi has a lot of scars all over his body. (Sváfa doesn’t have scars in the beginning, but she will get her fare share of them.) Tyrfingr and Ilmatar has marking in their faces. Tyrfingr has red downward triangles on his cheeks under his eyes. His skin is also bluish black. Ilmatar has a blue circle in her forehead. Refil, Vígi and Sigurdr have all blue tattoos in their torso and arms.

14. Which character most fits a character trope?

There’s this very specific character trope of a (almost always black) sword that has a will of their own and usually speaks. Tyrfingr fits that perfectly. Though he is an elf who is cursed to be a sword and eventually will be able from time to time to appear in his humanoid form.

15. Which character is the best writer? Worst?

Most of them can’t even read :D But probably Sváfa. She’s not very practiced in the actual technical writing, but she is a avid storyteller.

16. Which character is the best liar? Worst?

Well elves are very good liar usually, so Tyrfingr and Ilmatar would be great bets, however though Láilá is not a liar, she has this chaotic energy that makes it impossible to know when she is being serious and what she is thinking.

17. Which character swears the most? Least?

Sváfa probably least, at least in the beginning. Refil most, when his father or brother are not seeing.

18. Which character has the best handwriting? Worst?

Sigurdr has definitely best. And again, most of them cannot even read.

19. Which character is most like you? Least like you?

Probably most like me is either Sváfa or Refil. Tyrfingr is least like me. 

20. Which character would you most like to be?

Yeaaaah but no. None of them. They are not the greatest people and though Viking Age is cool and all, I’m quite happy with my comforts here in 2000s.

Tagging: @cawolters @siarven @gaslightwestern @contes-de-rheio​ @lady-redshield-writes​