#Still zero news about the new dragon age so there's nothing left but to draw the inquisitor over and over again lol

[elvyn]

Light can't last forever Guard us from darkness to come

[sweetescapeartist]

MY DBS MANGA CHAPTER 70 REVIEW

We learn in the last chapter that the Cerealian Dragon's name is Toronbo when Granolah speaks Namekian. Toronbo grants Granolah's wish but can't make Granolah stronger than the gods.

Here's the confusion I have... Goku is a mortal beyond GoDs so making Granolah the strongest mortal is making him stronger than gods. If you wanna say Beerus has been training and is now stronger than Goku, there's still a problem. It was said that Goku and Vegeta were stronger than some GoDs right before the ToP (but that might be anime only, so maybe it doesn't apply here). So Granolah is stronger than GoDs no matter what. If the gods that Toronbo is speaking of are the Angels, then that means Granolah is Ultra Instinct level of power since Goku is the lowest in Angel tier. But whatever. Bottom line is Granolah is temporarily stronger than Goku who may or may not be stronger than Beerus.

Granolah gets his wish granted and the cost is shortening his life... cool. Not much to say except let's see how its executed.

(I recently read that in DBXV2, during the Infinite History Saga, Videl is enchanted with Towa's Dark Magic spell by Dabura shaving off her life but granting her greater power. So granting power at the cost of lifespan has been done in DB before. Not in canon but in the games.)

Also, Granolah's life being shortened to 3 yrs got me thinking... Currently it's almost AGE 781 in the DBS manga timeline. Goku leaves to train Uub in AGE 784. We got 3 yrs left. The original manga shows Bulma said she hadn't seen Goku in 5 yrs. How I see DBS is that it is an alternate timeline that just happens to have a similar outcome to the EoZ.

So... why is Vegeta learing from Beerus again if Beerus isn't that strong now? Is Vegeta being like Krillin and continuing his learning from a master weaker than him, but gaining wisdom & knowledge? I-is Vegeta becoming Krillin 2.0?! (More like dollar-store Krillin)

I do think beerus got stronger tho. He seems very confident that Vegeta can get stronger from learning from him. Beerus probably saw Goku get UI then decide to train aftet the ToP

Anyways, Beerus is teaching us about hakai/destruction energy. Its erasing something from existence, not just destroying it (we already knew that). But, Vegeta quickly figures out how to do it anyways. By destroying a tiny pebble...

A tangent again but I personally think Piccolo is capable of easily learning Hakai energy. Think about it. Piccolo can create clothing out of nothing, why could he not do the reverse?

Goku is uninterested in what Beerus & Vegeta are doing. I dont know about you, but it sounds like Goku thinks that he's above Beerus in strength. Beerus & Vegeta aren't considered a challenge to him in any way. Goku sees UI as more important & better than anything Beerus has to teach, and Goku is right. Plus Goku learned Hakai on his own while Vegeta needs Beerus to teach him. It's a waste of Goku's time to learn it again.

(God Comics is funny. I imagine Toribot writes them)

Goku says "Let's see which one of us can be the strongest in the universe!" Really, Goku...? At present time, Goku is the strongest mortal in the universe already. He should know that. Then Vegeta for some reason thinks he will become the strongest in the universe. The last time manga Vegeta was the strongest mortal in the universe was... never. He's always behind Goku or whatever new opponent arises. This scene is meant to be comedic that they're arguing over who will be the greatest but it's not funny to me. And yet Vegeta fans still hold on for hope.

But why is Goku concerned about being the strongest between him & Vegeta? Goku is far above Vegeta. They're not rivals at this point. Also, Goku was the strongest in the universe until just a few moments ago. Goku should be saying "I knew bein' the strongest wouldn't last for too long. Roshi did tell me there will always be somebody stronger out there. Hehe! This is gettin' me excited! I can't wait to meet 'em!" (This would alsp parallel Monaito giving Granolah the same advice Goku already knows.)

Also, I guess Broly isn't that strong after all. Bye Broly, you served your purpose. And to think that Goku had said that he thinks Broly is stronger than Beerus...

Oh yeah. So Vegeta destroys a pebble. Impressive? Goku kinda gives a compliment or he is practically saying "Good job Vegeta! You're doing great following in my footsteps!" Seriously, this would be so much better and cooler if this seperate paths of training began right after the Universe 6 vs Universe 7 tournament. That would be the perfect spot to have them train under Beerus & Whis. [Vegeta using Hakai against Merged Zamasu, Goku able to fight Merged Zamasu temporarily because he is getting better at letting his body move on its own, Toppo & Vegeta using Hakai against each other as Goku & Jiren use power above GoDs. That would work so much better.]

Then Vegeta says he's gonna destroy bigger things soon... is that supposed to be more impressive? Its not. But this it to build up Vegeta even though there is nothing amazing about anything he is doing at the moment. Maybe later tho.

So Cerealians can't grow beards. Also I guess Granolah's race don't age? His hair grew when his lifespan was shortened but he has no wrinkles. It seems that they age more gracefully than Saiyans. If he has some wrinkles he would have looked cooler imo. Or those lines under the eyes at the very least. If the wish shortened his life & made his hair grow, it should have also showed that he aged. (Here's an edit I made of "Grampa Granolah." You're welcome)

And remember Vegeta destroying a pebble? Granolah can suddenly destroy big rocks! Cool right?! No? Its not cool? Showing Granolah destroy a much larger object right afterwards kinda belittles Vegeta's accomplishment.

Oatmil is surprised by a boulder exploding. This means one of 2 things. Oatmil is stupid & never saw an Granolah explode a boulder. Or it's implying that the boulder exploding is some technique Oatmil doesn't know of. Idk how he can tell its any different from just blowing up a rock with ki. I think it's supposed to be destruction energy. If it is then, ok. If getting his wish was so easy, then why can't he suddenly learn destruction as well?

Yay! Monaito! (This really should be a Namekian focused arc)

Granolah reminds me of Zamasu with his attitude a bit. Monaito tells him somebody stronger will definetly appear. Granolah has become like Vegeta and is over confident, so he is destined to get humbled. And think about this. Goku can probably train a bit and surpass Granolah within a week.

Granolah can now sense ki. Meaning he can have the destruction technique or UI, because why not?

Monaito blames himself for Granolah's actions. Its not your fault Monaito! You did nothing wrong! Dont be so hard on yourself.

Whis being a creep and peeping on people lol.

Granolah's hair growing was pointless because he cuts it off soon after. Nothing changed visually. This kinda reminds me of how Moro lost his arm. Goku gave him a senzu, Moro grew it back, & then Moro broke his arm when attacking Goku. Then Moro tore his arm off & reattached his old one. There was no need for Moro to grow his arm back then tear it off. Similarly, there is no need for Granolah to have grown long hair then cut it off.

Maki still brings a smile to my face. She & Gas stand out the most out of the Heeters. Maki's personality is kinda like Zangya combined with a teasing Bulma. Gas reminds me of a Krillin/Piccolo fusion with dreadlocks. I also ship Maki x Gas cause they're short and look cute together. (please don't be siblings so I can draw them together🤞)

Granolah fights Oil & Maki. I'm not impressed. They seem like they could be defeated by Chaoitzu (he's stronger than Raditz and probably Nappa now too). Granolah's movements could be seen as UI. If it is or isn't UI, it doesn't matter. Showing off that kind of power is like Goku using Ultra Instinct during a rematch with Nam or King Chappa. Its not effective storytelling. There had to be a better way of showing Granolah's new strength than making him fight opponents that give him zero challenge.

The art is good as usual and the panel flow is nice. Toyotaro is improving at creating the illusion of motion. The environment being used in the fight was smart and a good visual. Toyo still uses a ton of panels almost every page tho. But he's still a better artist than I am.

Granolah appears to have used Hakai again. Not the explosive variant but the sand variant (yes I think there are 2 ways of using Hakai).

The "Sand Variant" that Beerus & Goku (& maybe Granolah) have used.

The "Explosive Variant" Beerus & Vegeta (& maybe Granolah) have used.

Maki thinks the "Hakai" is magic so that's interesting. I would say I'd like for the next enemy to be a magic user but, we know how Moro turned out... 😓

Maki has "ki claws" & I like the idea but it would be better if she had used it against an enemy she can defeat. It doesn't make her look useful in this fight. Gas seems confident when he is about to fight Granolah, but Elec stops him. Gas would've gotten beaten but it make ya wonder what Gas can do.

Granolah appears to be a person that is easily manipulated and persuaded. He even gave information they weren't even asking for. He'll probably be easily convinced and manipulated by Freeza/the Hedters or quickly have a truce with Goku.

The Heeters plan to go to Planet Cereal to get the Dragon Balls. As I suspected, the Cerealian Dragon Balls were created so that it would be easy for wishes to be granted. Gathering 2 Dragon Balls on a nearby planet instead of gathering 7 on New Namek or Earth. Plus these new Dragon Balls ensures no interaction between Earthlings & Granolah/the Heeters. A perfect way to write Gohan & company out of the story... *sigh* 😔😒

We learn Cerealians live for 2 centuries. How's that compare to other races in Universe 7? Freeza & King Cold apparently can live more than 200 yrs, But that may be because they are mutants. Namekians can live for like 500 yrs & its possible for them to reincarnate themselves too. So in a way, Namekians can live forever. Saiyans stay youthful & live to be in their 80's, but rapidly age when they reach their 60's or 70's. Average Earthlings appear live to be in their 80's or 90's but some are over 100 yrs old (Dr. Briefs, Panchy, & Ox King are in their 90's in GT) and others can increase their lifespan through elixers or the Paradise Herb. Just some thoughts of mine.

Maki says "If he ices Freeza..." Ha, an ice pun. Elec wants to defeat Freeza so he can control his army. Its revealed they wanna kill Granolah & that they worked with Freeza to destroy his planet & race. Well... that more than likely means they're gonna die by Granolah's hand or Freeza's. This info is also an attempt to make the reader more sympathetic for Granolah. Granolah is too bland (pun intended) so I don't feel any more sympathy than I already had for him. Elec plans to make Goku & Vegeta fight Granolah since Granolah hates Saiyans. Smart but we all kinda expected it. Not bad writing tho.

The final panel talks about fate bringing the 3 (Goku, Vegeta, & Granolah) together. Sounds like a repeat of the Broly movie.

We've had 4 chapters in this arc & not 1 panel of Freeza... If Freeza doesnt appear & do something in the next chapter then I will be disappointed in the writing. Showing Freeza here and there would give tension and build up until we get the encounter with him. We also have no idea who Oatmil is. Is he an A.I. or a person? Not that big of a deal yet, but I would like to find out soon. Either show Freeza or tell us more about Oatmil next chapter pleaae

This chapter was like oatmeal (the food not the character) without butter, brown sugar, milk, & honey or raisins. Not bad, but not very good either. 

So here's my thoughts on the things that could or could not happen in this arc.

Goku vs Granolah. I don't care for the fight because the power is at a point that it doesnt make sense for enemies to get to without cheating somehow. The fight will look cool but I have no interest in it.

Vegeta vs Granolah will have Vegeta being stomped as always and Vegeta fans will make excuses & complain how it's not fair. A lot of Vegeta fans often make fun of Yamcha & Krillin for getting beat up even though those 2 bravely fight opponents leagues stronger than they are. Vegeta has gotten stomped by opponents more times than Krillin & Yamcha combined but the fans gotta deflect somehow. I don't care to hear or see the complaining again.

The interaction and dialogue between Granolah & Vegeta is going to be more interesting than their fight. But I worry because Toyo isn't the best at writing dialogue.

I have no reason to care about power growth, certain interactions, or Goku & Vegeta's training.

What I am curious about/want to see?

Monaito's well being. I want him to reunite with other Namekians. But I think he's been set up to die.

Lore about the dragon gods & Namekian lore we probably wont get.

I want Piccolo, Krillin, Gohan, & others will be involved. Piccolo because of the Namekian & wosh granting dragon lore. Gohan because his interaction with Granolah eould be interesting since Gohan is half Saiyan & views himself as an Earthling. Krillin & other Earthlings because they can bring tensions where characters like Goku & Vegeta can't. Those 2 are too strong for there to be any real tension. However Earthlings aren't all powerful so them using wits to survive is more exciting. But I doubt any of their involvement.

How long a Cerealian year is? Is it shorter than a Namekian year? How much time will pass for the Cerealian Dragon Balls to be active? How much stronger than Granolah will Goku get? Hopefully the answers aren't lazy...

Will Beerus finally fight somebody? There are 6 mortals that are near or above his power (Goku, Granolah, Vegeta, Broly, Freeza, Gohan).

Who's the villian of the next arc & what explanation is going to be given for them having power on the level of Angels? Angel tier fights don't sound interesting to me anymore. After those kinds of battles, Goku will have no challengers left.

Will Goku disappear to train or something so the story can TRY to match up with the EoZ?

Will Goten, Trunks, & Marron hit their growth spurts within 3 yrs?

Will we get spin-off manga about other characters? PLEASE!? 🙏

Also DBS moved too quickly when it comes to power. Now we're at the point that Goku & Vegeta need to stop being involved in fights for there to be any actual threat or tension. The Buu saga took place in AGE  774. After training for 4 years of peace, Goku thought SS3 & fusion was his limits as a Saiyan and he was right. Well, kinda... Goku was introduced to god ki near the end of AGE 778. Then in AGE 781, Goku masters Ultra Instinct... He mastered an Angel technique in 2 year or 2.5 yrs. That was waaaay too fast. As a result the storytelling & writing are suffering from this rushed progress. Now we're gonna have an Angel tier opponent? According to the pattern of DBS, Goku's gonna end up surpassing the Angels within 2 or 3 yrs after learning god ki. Thats not impressive for Goku, that's terrible writing. And no, Goku getting this strong so fast is not a benefit to Saiyans either. It just shows us that without god ki, Saiyans ain't all that powerful unless they're the legendary Saiyan like Broly. Saiyans didn't even have a concept of training until Goku was trained by Earthlings. Gohan, Freeza, 17, & I'm pretty sure Piccolo as well have all surpassed SS3 without the help of god ki. God ki makes Saiyans look like they have limits. With god ki, the writing is broken....

I got off topic again... Anyways that's the end of my review.

[hectabdr]

Dragon Raja IV - Chapters 3 & 4 (Abridged)

Hi everyone, continuing with today's chapters, these are centered around Nono and Caesar and their lives after he returned from Japan.

Previous chapters

Chapter 3

Mediterranean Sea, Republic of Malta.

The Island of Frefra is mostly an ecological reserve, there is a white building on top of a natural harbor with luxury yachts and sailing boats. Tourists and locals have always been interested in knowing more about its residents, but the government is very secretive about it. It is well protected against binoculars and often, music can be heard coming from the inside. Girls in white dresses walk around it and they're known as the "Iris girls".

At 5:45 am, a rotating alarm clock started playing a terrible heavy metal song, making its way through fashion magazines and snacks, it ran around the bedroom of Chen Motong, who finally trapped it and took its batteries out.

She slept for another 20 minutes and woke up in a hurry. She had classes to attend. Cooking lessons, Japanese tea ceremonies, British literature and music appreciation, amongst other things. This was the Golden Iris Shuyuan Academy. It was meant to educate Nono on how to live among nobility.

She arrived late at the breakfast table only to realize the other girls were betting on her punctuality. After she accepted Caesar's proposal, he took her to Rome to meet his relatives, some of which were more than 300 years old, they left their cryogenic beds and unexpectedly blessed their marriage (after evaluating her from head to toes). Nono's own family was rich and powerful, known as the Black Prince Group. After both families signed the marriage contract, they agreed to make Nono drop out of Cassell to take a years-long bridal training in the Shuyuan Academy.

During her dancing lessons, a yawning Nono was the only one who couldn't keep up with the rhythm, prompting her teacher to whip her foot.

At her cooking class, she kept eating bits off her dish, leaving almost nothing for the teacher to evaluate.

She managed to succeed on her tea ceremony while her boredom made her toes fight each other behind her back. She was distracted during literature and used her profiling skill to cheat on her analysis of classical music.

She unwillingly started regretting the moment she accepted the marriage proposal, but not because of Caesar, it was all about the life that awaited her. The lessons were relentless and the academy was isolated from the outside world. She didn't sleep enough because she used her Cassell training to sneak out at 10:00 pm to swim by the beach, that was the only time in her day when she felt truly free.

She toyed frequently with her obnoxious alarm clock, it was a gift from her old classmate, Luminous. On her last birthday, he casually carried a backpack with him all day, it was pretty obvious that he was preparing to give her a gift, which he nervously did, and he was the only person who dared to do so, as everyone else felt intimidated by Caesar.

She knew about Luminous's feelings for her. All of the male classmates who liked her could easily fill the whole cafeteria. Luminous was just one of them. She considered herself a passer-by in his life, thinking some girls of his age (like Zero) would be a better match for him. One day he'd mention it as a thing of the past and they would both laugh about it.

She hoped to finish the bridal course in months, but it had already been a year. She brought mostly books but she quickly ran out of things to read.

Suddenly, she realized someone was hiding in her bedroom, right after the cleaning lady left. The intruder took one of her books and a bag from her secret stash of potato chips. She turned off the lights and grabbed a knife, more excited than scared, she searched for the thief.

After finding nothing, she remembered her bathtub, and there he was, asleep with the missing book on his face and a bag of chips in his belly. She punched him in the stomach. A patrolling Nun showed up, concerned, Nono hid the intruder in the tub and pretended to take a bath. If someone found Luminous in her room, they would accuse Nono of having an affair.

The nun searched the whole place with a revolver but couldn't find anyone, before leaving, she had a conversation with Nono about her situation in the academy, specifically her wish to leave. In the lady's words, "Her soul seemed to lag behind her body". Luminous finally understood that she was there to become the perfect bride. When the nun left, Nono scolded him for his presence, she realized he looked different, he was clearly taking care of himself, better dressed, he definitely had a better haircut. He also thought she looked somehow different, more elegant, but exhausted.

His stomach roared, breaking a long awkward silence and she took him out to steal some food for him. They took wine from the cellar, along with some ham and cheese.

-Sister, do you know Johann Chu? -Maybe, was he your boyfriend or did he just owe you money?

Luminous explained his situation to her: he decided to go with the school's psychologist, professor Toyama, who diagnosed him as schizophrenic. Toyama attempted to erase Johann off his memory, but Luminous responded by making a scene and drawing out his desert eagles. He tried to track Johann in everyone else's memories but his missing classmate didn't have many friends.

Anjou couldn't remember him either. Back during Luminous's second year, there was no trial against a Blood Rage user, Frost Gattuso only accused the principal for his terrible administration. The rollercoaster incident happened way after they finished their ride with Shavee. Anjou gave Luminous the location of Chen Motong, telling him to use her profiling ability to find some clues.

However, Nono also believed Luminous had schizophrenia and convinced him to stop his search and look for treatment instead. Luminous lamented his condition and how he couldn't trust the world he lived in anymore, however, despite how enticing it was to forget Johann and go back to the real world, he felt his brother was still out there, waiting to be saved, but everyone forgot about him. Nono couldn't do much for him in his situation.

-Years ago, you were not the president of the Student Union, but a scared boy that I rescued from a theater. Now that you don't trust the world anymore, you came back to me. How many more times do you think I'll be here to save you?

Suddenly, a security guard noticed the candle they lit in the cellar. Nono didn't know how to react, but someone broke a bottle of wine on the guard's head and knocked him down. It was Finger, who informed Luminous that now he was wanted by Cassell, as they thought he was an undercover agent sent by the Dragon Raja.

Apparently, on the same night that Luminous left the college, someone entered the Ice cellar and stole Constantine's skeleton, severely injuring principal Anjou in the process. The only student with such clearance and power was the S-Rank himself.

Agents of the Execution Bureau went looking for Finger in Cuba, so he buried them in a tobacco field, with their heads out, of course.

Nono urged them to understand the seriousness of what it meant to be hunted by the secret party, which essentially made them targets of the whole world. They could leave no traces for Norma to track down. She considered there were three possibilities:

1- Luminous was insane.

2- He was an undercover agent sent by the dragon raja all along.

3- He was the only person in the world who was't hypnotized.

The only being who could be responsible for the third option is the white dragon king. Its skeleton was never recovered. Their only option was to travel with Luminous in secret to track down any trace that Johann might have left in the world before he disappeared.

-I really hope my brother is alive... -True Love! Said Finger and Nono in unison.

Finger then urged them both to leave and "go save the world" but Nono refused to leave. She had a responsibility with her family and with Caesar. As Luminous turned around and started walking, Finger stunned her, urging Luminous to help him carry her outside.

Chapter 4

Caesar Gattuso was sitting down in a church. This was the anniversary of his mother's death, so he wore a suit, drove a Harley Davidson motorcycle on his way there and brought her a bouquet of white flowers.

When he was younger, she bought him a miniature bike, she also loved to see him wearing little suits. Most of Caesar's style was based on her taste, he thought that would please her while she watched him from heaven.

The first time he had been on the Milan cathedral, he was attending her funeral. The ceremony was presided by the pope himself. Knowing of his family's involvement in her death, he poured kerosene on the coffin and lit a fire on the church. The authorities managed to save the historical building and despite of it all, Caesar was still allowed inside every year to mourn Gulweig, (as long as he wasn't carrying any dangerous chemicals).

Parsi Gattuso arrived in a car to give him some urgent news, his wife Chen Motong had gone missing. He brought with himself a letter that she wrote for her fiancé, it expressed Chen's dissatisfaction with her new life, asking him to give her some time.

Caesar immediately realized the poetic letter was fake, since Nono wouldn't bother to express herself in such a way. According to him, Nono would just write "Caesar, I'm leaving" In a napkin and leave it on top of her bed. The letter was probably written by a narcissistic person like Finger.

However, this left him reflecting on Nono's true feelings towards her future, wondering if all he did was capturing a bird (that he initially admired for its freedom) just to lock it in a cage.

Far away in Cassell College, the elders of the Secret Party reunited for an emergency meeting, the first one since 1961. Many famous individuals that once shaped the course of history were in it, still alive after faking their deaths to cover up their slow aging. In the principal's chair, Leonardo Flammel, the vice-principal and a direct descendant of Nicholas Flammel sat down and started the meeting.

He welcomed EVA, Norma's war personality with 140,000 times her processing power, and asked her to project a life-like hologram of Anjou's assassination attempt.

According to the recording, the previous night, the principal intended to access the ice cellar, but he stopped meters before reaching the entrance. He looked behind and said:

-Is that you?

In a fraction of a second, his access card had left his pocket after something cut through it. His entire body started bleeding from multiple cuts to his skin. He had no time to react and tried to use the card as his weapon, since the attacker didn't give him enough time (even using Time Zero) to draw his dragon slaying knife. It was guessed that his opponent could use Time Zero as well, but was more skilled in combat than the principal himself.

The security system identified the situation in time and called the police and medical assistance, otherwise, Anjou would have died. The conversation quickly turned to Luminous's possible involvement in the situation, Flammel had a conversation about it with "Mr. Beowulf", who was also present.

The legendary Beowulf was not an individual but a family of dragon slayers. They had a strong attraction to dragon blood, for them it was almost like drugs to an addict.

They were the most fierce dragon hunters in history, pouring the blood of their prey and drinking it after every successful kill. Their newborns were poisoned with dragon blood and only those who survived the process were considered worthy of living. Their latest descendants were almost dragon-like in appearance, but they were unlikely to turn into death servitors. Whenever that happened, the family killed them immediately.

Considering there's an imminent crisis ahead, the leader of the family showed himself in the table for the first time in a hundred years. That's because he strongly opposed the establishment of Cassell College, since "a true dragon slayer can only be born in the battlefield".

Back in the day, he led the "Action team" of the secret party, which eventually became the Execution Bureau. Initially he was expected to lead it, before he expressed his dissatisfaction with the college. Compared to the Action Team of the old days, the cruel Bureau is almost a charity.

Beowulf immediately started discussing Luminous's background. His parents were apparently in the records of the Execution Bureau, but their achievements are not registered. They never reported themselves and their location is currently unknown.

Caesar Gattuso was responsible for the defeat of Norton, Abdullah for Fenrir and the Gattuso's orbital weapon for the White King. Luminous was present during all of these events, but his actions are not registered either. He theorizes that Luminous is in fact a dragon, taking advantage of the war to slay his fellow kings. Since his use of Yanling was unknown and Time Zero belonged to the King of Sky and wind, the most mysterious of the dragon kings, the elders came to the conclusion that this dragon was none other than Luminous himself.

As soon as Beowulf questioned the absence of Frost Gattuso, Pompeii himself made an entrance by making EVA project his hologram on an empty chair. The man was semi-naked as multiple women applied sunscreen on him, annoying everyone on the room, specially Beowulf. Pompeii focused on the importance of Constantine's skeleton, since everyone else seemed more focused on Anjou's assassination attempt. Those bones contained the power of the king of bronze and fire, who was conformed by twins, so the college kept Constantine's skeleton, while the Gattuso family kept Norton's. In that very moment, Frost was transporting their half of the dragon king to an underground vault in the bank of Rome.

Pompeii linked Frost to the call, who was now 120 meters underground and descending. The vault was heavily protected against Time Zero users.

Just as they were discussing the security measures, the loud sound of an alarm silenced everyone in the room, when the members of the meeting asked about its purpose, they quickly realized that it wasn't coming from Cassell, it came from the elevator in Rome. The intruder was in the vault.

Frost was instructed to forget the original plan and leave with the bones of Norton. His bodyguards quickly mutated into dragon-like creatures to protect him. Corrosive acid and bombs were released as the elevator rose back to the surface, but there was something heating up the place and it was greater than any bomb they detonated.

Every guard stayed behind to guard the doors, hoping to witness the intruder. Finally, one of the doors was blown away. In the fire, there seemed to be dragons and snakes dancing. The mummy-like figure in white robes slowly walked towards Frost, as he exclaimed:

-It that... you? Is it really you? It is you!

EVA instructed him to step back, as he had no chance of winning against this "reaper", Frost took out his phone and transferred control of the vault to EVA before the strange creature reached him. Suddenly, the camera was broken and the visuals lost. The sound of the doors being blown up one by one was heard. Beowulf commanded EVA to close the sole entrance of the vault, which could easily resist ten-million-ton nuclear weapons, (Not enough to contain certain dragons).

Believing this to somehow signal the end of the world, the council awaited quietly. Investors in Rome were ecstatic when the value of gold suddenly increased (Since one third of the monetary gold in the world was just destroyed). EVA used the surrounding cameras to confirm the worst, Frost Gattuso was dead, crystallized by the extreme heat. Their diamond-like statues were left behind and soon collapsed, turning to dust.

The possibility of the resurrection of the black King soon reached their heads, its return would signal the end of humanity.

Caesar soon appeared in the room. He was named the new representative of the Gattuso family, so he ordered EVA to kick his father Pompeii out of the meeting. He defended his education in Cassell in front of Beowulf, saying it made him prouder than his last name ever would. He explained that this dragon was more dangerous than the others due to its ability to understand humans, their organizations and its capability to hide among them. It was more similar to humans than it was to dragons, which was its more terrifying feature.

He impressed Beowulf, specially when he ordered to investigate anyone who had come into contact with his uncle, since he recognized his killer. He then brought up Luminous. EVA explained that his unprecedented progress in combat skills was due to his participation in the Nibelungen project. It allows Luminous to surpass the dragon blood limit without turning into a death servitor. He was an artificial emperor, like Chisei Gen from Japan. Beowulf was enraged, since he considered it was a waste of resources to use Nibelungen on such a weak student instead of picking one of their A-Rank fighters and ordered EVA to put all of her computing power in finding Luminous and Finger. However, EVA found no records of Finger in her database. Everyone concluded that he deleted himself.

Since Luminous already worked for the Executive Department and therefore knew how to hide from them, Caesar proposed to employ a different type of hunter, specifically the ancient creatures that the college kept under the ice cellar, originally intended to be used against the black king. The elders voted in favor, but even Beowulf was frightened by the idea of employing them. Flammel suddenly stood up and contacted Finger, warning him of the impeding threat. Moments later, a veteran knocked him down.

Parsi had noticed a change in Caesar. In years prior, he'd make childish requests, like asking him to empty a restaurant because he wanted to drink tea in peace. It looked like he was never going to grow up. Ever since he came back from Japan, he was far more mature, taking bigger responsibilities and doing most of the work by himself. He asked Caesar about his friendship with Luminous, specifically if he wasn't worried about the beasts hurting him.

-I don't want to harm Luminous, but he made a mistake, he shouldn't have involved Nono.

He seemed extremely silent, stopping in his way out to stare at a decorative kimono, one that he brought from Japan as a souvenir, he was wearing it the day he arrived. He wondered about the weaknesses of the dragons, if Constantine was Norton's, who was Shavee's?

He felt like he was forgetting something.

[myupostsheadcanons]

Books “Read” in 2020

Previous entries: 2019, 2018, 2017

I don’t rank these based on actual literary quality, but by how much i enjoyed reading/listening to them. Hopefully with Audible’s new “Premium Included” feature it would cut down on so many Average/Below Average books next year, it’ll give me more of a choice on what kind of books/podcasts i want to listen to rather than given a handful to pick from a month.

The “Top 10″

Forging Hephaestus / Bones of the Past: Villains' Code Series - Drew Hayes has became one of my fav authors over the past couple years, from his Vampire Accountant series, 5-min Sherlock, and his Spells, Swords, and Stealth books. FH is one of the few times he wrote Adult Fiction. This is the second time Drew created a world of super heroes (the YA Superpowereds), thus previous experience in dealing with the nuisances and meta of super meta dynamics. I love the main character, Tori, and especially love many of the side characters (like Ivan) and the comedy is the right tone of dark and not-in-your-face (not quite as well -written as something like The Venture Bros or The Tick, but being adult fiction you can get away with having characters named Johnny Three-Dicks and Captain Bullshit)

Dreadnought / Sovereign - the second super hero series I’ve placed on my top list this year, this one is Young Adult. This one is far more serious and deals heavily in issues like trans and women’s rights, mental abuse, and social acceptance. The main character is full of angst, but that should be a given for a 15 yo with lots of mental baggage and new social pressures. The main character is the main draw, most of the side characters are a bit more one-dimensional.

The Trouble with Peace: Age of Madness, Book 2. It isn’t a “First Law” book if you don’t want to strangle half of the main characters. Many are stepping outside of the shadow of the previous generation and finding themselves falling flat on their faces. If they aren’t at each other’s throats, they would soon have to deal with rebellion in the streets and the constant looming presence of Bayaz, who waits to sweep the board clear and rearrange the pieces the way he sees fit.

Michael J. Sullivan’s: The Riyria and Legend of the First Empire Books.

Riyria Revelations: Theft of Swords / Rise of Empire / Heir of Novron

Riyria Chronicles: The Crown Tower / The Rose and Thorn / The Death of Dulgath

Age of Death / Age of Empyre, Pile of Bones

After finishing the Legend of the First Empire books that came out earlier this year, I went ahead and read the prior series that takes place in the same world. I would suggest reading the entire series by Publish order, but they can be read Chronologically. I read the Legends books first, and it helped me see where Sullivan was heading and when he started to plan out the Legends books in more detail. (The early cameo of the Main characters from Legends in a mural in Heir of Novron, and knowing who is behind the events in Dulgath)

The Dresden Files: Peace Talks / Battle Grounds - They really should be read as one book, because that was how they were written. It is a Feast of Crows / Dances with Dragons situation, where the book got too long and got split up. The fans are pretty divided by the book(s) ending and how some of the main characters are handled, but these are Jim Butcher’s characters not theirs and he can drop bridges on whom ever he wants.

What Lies Beyond: Cycle of Galand, Book 6 - This is a “mythology” book (like Sullivan’s Age of Death was) where it introduces most of the Pantheon of their religion and corrects much of the mythology that had been lost over the decades. They seek a weapon to vanquish the Litch and save their world and the afterlife from oblivion, but not all of their Gods are happy about it.

Will Destroy the Galaxy for Cash - Yahtzee (Zero Punctuation!) has to be one of my favorite internet personalities for the past 10+ years, and I eat up every book he puts out and because he wrote the books, and is an actor himself, he could deliver the lines as they are intended to be. The sequel to Will Save the Galaxy for Food does not disappoint and even ups the stakes from the previous book.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon - This has to be one of the most charming books I’ve read. It is magic and wonder at it’s finest, no need for long explanations on how the world works. If you like Ghibli movies, you’ll be interested in this book. It has its dark moments but isn’t outside of what you’ll find in something like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Nausicca.

The Goblin Emperor - the youngest son of the Elf King finds himself emperor after the death of his father and brothers in an assassination. The only problem is, that he is only half-elf... his late mother was a Goblin, and he had been in exile as an embarrassment to the family for most of his life. He knows nothing of how the courts work and what’s left of his own family work against him just for being who he is.

Lost Gods: Brom - I liked this book more than I did American Gods (which I read a few years ago). It is darker and bleaker by the bucket loads. One of the few books with a downer ending that I actually liked. I would compare this book to books like All the Pretty Horses and No Country for Old Men-- but it is a Fantasy!

Above Average.

Siege Tactics (Spells, Swords, & Stealth. Book 4)  - What happens to adventurers after they retire? A fun concept that is explored with our party of NPCs running across a town full of epic-level characters that no longer have a player.

The Arthurian Saga - The Crystal Cave / The Hollow Hills  / The Last Enchantment / The Wicked Day - A more realistic version of the Arthurian tales, taking the POV of Merlin, bastard son of a princess, as he earns notoriety as a scholar and wizard.  The Wicked Day takes the POV of Mordred, making him far more sympathetic than other iterations of his character.

Arc of a Scythe - Scythe / Thunderhead / The Toll - Science and Technology eliminates death and in order to prevent over population and complacency an order of grim reapers are chosen to randomly deal out quotas of permanent deaths. An example of what happens when every need and want is satisfied by a higher force and the apathy that causes rot in human society and the superiority complex of those in charge of life and death.

The Diviners / Lair of Dreams / Before the Devil Breaks You / The King of Crows - Horror during the Roaring 20′s. Tackles issues as Racism, Poverty, Government Secrecy, Christian-Evangelical Cults, Nationalism Cult Mentality, Communism, Labor Unions, Eugenics, Post-WW1 trauma... It could almost pass as an adult fiction book. I wouldn’t recommend giving it to someone under High school age.

Ancillary Justice / Ancillary Sword / Ancillary Mercy - Artificial Intelligence takes over human bodies as a form of capital punishment, controlling ships and space stations. The dominate human empire outgrew the need to label any gender, using “she” to refer to everyone rather than the vaguer “them/they” pronouns, and only outlying colonies stick to the binary ideals. Think of “The Left Hand of Darkness” but on a more broader scale and as the default majority/ruling empire. Toss in a solid military action novel on top and it isn’t nearly as boring as Left Hand.

Children of Time / Children of Ruin - War destroys the human population of Earth and those that remain are the ones that headed out to the stars on tera-forming missions. A virus created to advance life forms to prepare a world for human habitation runs amuck with out its overseers, creating intelligent arachnids, crustaceans, and squid.

The Licanius Trilogy - The Shadow of What Was Lost / An Echo of Things to Come / The Light of all that Falls -  It is very heavy on info overload, there is a lot to keep track of, so much so there is a summary of book one and two at the start of the third. I like the twist at the end of the first book and that the villain is actually trying to help save the world, and you spend most of the second stuck between who thinks they are doing the right thing and who is actually doing the right thing - a lot to talk about doing the lesser of two evils.

Mythos - Steven Fry - A humorous retelling of Greek mythology. I read Mythology - by Edith Hamilton prior to this book, which is a more scholarly take on the myths, and helps if you are unfamiliar with classical mythology prior to reading Fry’s take on it.

Iron, Fire and Ice: The Real History That Inspired Game of Thrones - a nice history book about Iron Age royalty. It is actually refreshing to read after going through so much faux fiction that is in Philippa Gregory’s books.

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? - Children ask questions to a Mortician about death and what happens to bodies after people die. I listened to her autobiography last year/year before and it is worth picking up this one along with it.

Average, but still good.

Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet Universe: Triumphant (Genesis Fleet, Book 3) / Tarnished Knight: Lost Stars, book 1 - The realistic space battles just drag me back in each and every time.

The Case of the Damaged Detective: 5-Minute Sherlock - Drew Hayes can’t write a boring book. It isn’t quite on point as his other series, but still fun to read. Hayes is really good at making YA books with Adult Protagonists. It is a road-trip book, the main character is a washed-out operative that is getting his second chance playing bodyguard and future assistant to the 5-minute Sherlock.

Locked In / Head On - Do you remember “Surrogates”? that Bruce Willis movie where people walk around in robotic avatars, well... it’s almost the same thing. A virus kills millions, save for a select few that experience “lock in” syndrome and are able to connect to robots via their brains and the internet.  The main character is gender neutral and you get a choice to listen to the book with a male or female reader.

Murder by Other Means: The Dispatcher Book 2 - more John Scalzi! The first book was in my top list a few years ago, and i enjoyed the sequel just as much. Between Scalzi’s The Dispatcher and Locked In series, i like the Dispatcher more.

The Shattered Sea Trilogy: Half a King / Half the World / Half a War - Joe Abercrombie’s attempt to make Young Adult books. It keeps all the grim dark, but lacks all the swearing and humor that made The First Law books more enjoyable. Many of Joe’s favorite character tropes are still present and is one of the better “Fall to Darkness” stories I’ve read. It also has different POV characters each book and is one of those “faux fantasy” settings.

Mage Errant: Books 1, 2 & A Traitor in Skyhold: Book 3 - If you are wanting to get away from Harry Potter, pick up this book series. It takes place in magic school, but it is its own world and setting and not just a hidden world within our own. The main group of kids are misfits among the school, unable to master their powers, that get taken up by the badass librarian to be trained in more unconventional ways.

Dawn of Wonder: The Wakening Book 1 - the main character has ptsd from growing up in an abusive household, and i thought it was handled rather well. He would be rather competent and cleaver most of the time until he gets triggered into an episode, he fights really hard to overcome this short-falling of his. Standard classic affair else wise, family leaves home because the local authority figure doesn’t want them around anymore, goes to big city, kid wants to do good and avenge the deaths he was accused of, joins the badass school of hard knocks...  big powerful evil thing trying to consume the world.

The Rage of Dragons - It shares a lot of tropes and story points with Red Rising... just in a fantasy setting, not in space. If you are wanting fantasy with POC main characters and a non-European-centric culture, that doesn’t pull any punches, give it a shot.

Earthsea - Tehanu and Tales from Earthsea - I had read the first three books several years back, and i did re-read them in order to refresh myself prior to reading the final two.

The Secret Garden - I absolutely loved the movie from the 90′s as a kid, and finally got around to listening to the book.

Six of Crows - A heist book in fantasy world with the magic users being heavily “Jewish / Slavic” coded by how they are treated and persecuted. I might have thought more favorably about the book if i hadn’t read other books with “street rat slum” main characters. (Seriously, after spending six books with Royce in Riyria someone like Kas is just second bananas)

Unconventional Heroes / Two Necromancers - Comedic Fantasy, the humor’s not on par with say MogWorld, and has more jokes than Fred The Vampire Accountant. It is still a parody of villains and heroes in fantasy worlds. I would find it safe for a 12/13yo to read, cursing and all, though they might not be aware of many of the tropes that are being deconstructed. The reader of the book did better in this one then he did with Six of Crows and Beezer, still the audio needed some editing because it repeats itself a few times.

Once More Upon A Time (Free Audio Book)  - I don’t always care to read romance stories. I like the idea behind it however, to trade their love for each other in order to save their partner’s life, then learn to re-love one another again.

Monster Hunter International - If you think Dresden is too liberal, this takes a hard turn to the right.. replace the magic with GUNS, lots and lots of GUNS. An organization that hates the government but hunts monsters for government bounties. The main cast is multi-ethnic and they do make fun of that at one point. There isn’t a lot of thought into the plot, because action is #1, but it is fun enough to ignore the politicking.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Collection - i bitched about there not being an omnibus last year, and then Audible uploaded one. The ending is still one big clusterfuck.

Stephen King’s Insomnia - this book is the bridge between Steven King’s two universes. It is a sequel to IT and brings up the Darktower often. IT dealt mainly with childhood fears, Insomnia deals with Elderly and feminine fears.

D’Arc / Culdesac: War with No Name - I liked D’Arc more than i did Mort-e, and Culdesac is more on track with Mort-e. The virus that mutated the ants and animals reminded me of the virus from Children of Time/Ruin, even though i read Mort-e first, reading D’Arc after CoT let me notice it.

Michael McDowell’s:  The Amulet / The Elementals / Gilded Needles / Blackwater - From the guy that wrote the screenplay of Beetlejuice, and the pioneer of the Southern Gothic Horror. Gilded Needles is a bit out of place, taking place in 1890′s, and is more of a social horror rather than a super natural horror the other books are.

Gardens of the Moon: The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 1 - high fantasy dark fiction. if you really want some CHONKY door stoppers, there’s over 10 of them in this series. Could’ve done less with the manipulative bastard mage that speaks in 3rd person. I had read The Willful Child, an attempted comedy science fiction novel by the same author, and it showed that the author was unfamiliar with that kind of genera and should stick to grim fantasy.

The Knife’s Edge / Citadel of Fire: The Ronin Saga - This is one of those series that I’m always going “oh, that reminds me of [insert another better series]”  At times it reminded me of The Licanius Trilogy, Shades of Magic, Arc of Scythe, Riyria, Korra... It is just shy of being as good as them, and is rather firmly in that Sci-Fi Fantasy Ghetto and has a bit of “anime” feel to it with their magic users having ‘power levels’ and the power creep. 

In Calabria - My only problem with the book is the massive age-gap between the Main character and his love interest. Outside of that, the whole Unicorns in the modern world concept is done very well.

Pout Neuf (Audible Free Book)  - Journalism and romance during WW2. A quick read and the book really shows that research had been done about the setting and time period.

Nut Jobs: Cracking California's Strangest $10 Million Dollar Heist: An Audible Original - Not only does it talk about the heist, it actually touches on the subject of migrant farmers and slave labor, as well as the desertification of the California Valley.

The Science of Sci-Fi: From Warp Speed to Interstellar Travel (Free Audio Book) - a neat little informative podcast if you are looking for an introduction to some of the harder science fiction.

Mythology - by Edith Hamilton - Text book about Greek Mythology. Like “used in schools” text book. It is a good read if you don’t want to go through Ovid, Virgil, Homer, and all the other classical writers on your own.

The Space Race: An Audible Original - America didn’t win the Space Race. Russia did just about everything first. The only thing we did first was put people on the moon. It also goes into detail about how the inventor of the Nazi’s V2 rockets became employed with the US Space program. As well as the government’s announcement to let space travel become privatized.

Pale Blue Dot / Cosmos: A Personal Voyage - It’s Carl Sagan. Come on! Everyone should be reading them. Pale Blue Dot was being turned into an Audiobook in the 90′s but with Sagan’s death, only the first few chapters were read by him and his partner reads the rest of it (she does a decent job, and i understand why they wanted her to read it, it should’ve been done similarly to Cosmos, with guest readers doing each chapter)

Thicker Than Water (Free Audio Book)  - start up pharmaceutical company scams people out of millions with promises of a miracle machine that was ahead of its time. Story told from the whistleblower himself as he recounts what his job was within the company and how he knew the owner/founder of the company and how coming out about what was going on ruined his relationship with his family and friends.

Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - biography on Douglas Adams and the history behind the creative process behind the Hitchhiker’s Guide series.

The Genius of Birds - It reminded me a lot of “The Soul of an Octopus” in quality. It is rather informative about birds, how they behave, and how we judge intelligence in non-human animals.

It’s “ok.”

Les Miserabes - I can see why people favor movies and theater versions because of how dense the book is, getting the cliff notes version of the book instead of reading several chapters about the Battle of Waterloo. 

Viva Durant and the Secret of the Silver Buttons (Audible Free Book) - It’s cute, and I spent the next several weeks humming that freaking song.

Challenger Deep - A book about mental illness by the same person that brought us The Arc of a Scythe series. It isn’t a bad read, but if you are prone to get panic attacks and have mental illness yourself, you might get too into it and make you uneasy. It can help with neurotypical people with understanding how some illnesses work.

Into the Wilds (Warriors, Book 1)  - Ah, the cat book. It is prob because there are soooo many books in this series that it over-saturates the kids impressionable minds.

House of Teeth (Audible Free Book)  - I read this book prior to Monster Hunter International, and thinking back on this one, i am reminded about the other. Save for this one is PG. So... the kid friendly version.

The Martian Chronicles - Space Horror, on Mars. If you like old science fiction, like Classic Trek, Wells, or Forbidden Planet stuff. There is a lot of zerust.

Andrea Vernon and the Corporation for UltraHuman Protection - The third superhero series I’ve read this past year. It is not as ground breaking nor subversive as Villain’s Code or Dreadnought. The humor is a bit too forced and parts of it falls into “we can be more offensive because it is an adult book” category.

Interview with the Robot - Don’t really care for books or programs that are set up in the ���interview” format where it is two people talking to one another. (I have no fucking idea how this book got top Kids book of the year on Audible, it is more of a YA book... it must been because it was Free and lots of people picked it because the rest of the choices that month were complete garbage)

Micromegas - perhaps one of the oldest examples of Speculative Science Fiction. Written by Voltaire, it is about a giant from another solar system that is so big that humans and life on Earth are microscopic. “what value are the lives of ants to a man?”

The Three Musketeers - i had forgotten how much espionage there was in this book. I would say this is a good companion book to Don Quixote, as it takes its fair share of inspiration from and even name-drops the character a couple times. 

Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist / David Copperfield / A Tale of Two Cities - DC is the standout IMO among the three, it is Dickens’ Magnum Opus. Les Mis did a far better job with the Revolution than Tale did as well. I felt rather obligated to reading these books because of the subplot in the Age of Madness books being about Poverty during the Industrial Revolution and Workers Revolts against the Ruling Class.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - the version i listened too made most of the Americans sound like GWB... which is funny because one of them is Canadian, and the Comic Relief character about how boorish Americans are.

Stuck (Free Audio Book) -  it is a neat idea, getting jarred free of time but everybody else isn’t and doesn’t remember. It gets a little heavy for a kids book near the end, edging into YA territory as the character gets older mentally and the people around him age physically.

Phreaks (Free Audio Book) - i knew a lot about Captain Crunch and other phone hackers of the 60′s. There is a subplot of the big radioactive corporation covering up causing cancer to their workers, and the father (voiced by Christian Slater) being in the closet but still homophobic about it.

Silverswift (Free Audio Book) - If you like fairy tales set in modern times, it is worth a look. It is similar to In Calabira in that way. The mom being the nonbeliever and thinking grandma is off her rocker, but the granddaughter knows it in her bones that grandma is telling the truth.

Sleeping Giants - alien mechs from the distant past, once mistaken as the titans and gods form mythology, now being studied and experimented on by the government. This is another “interview style” story telling.

Celtic Mythology: Tales of Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes - there is a lot of names and stories, it is worth prob getting a physical copy of the book to keep things straight and to use as a reference.

How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps - A love letter to The Legend of Zelda’s Ocarina of Time and other RPG games.

Casino Royal: James Bond - the movie was rather faithful, including the part of being tied to a chair. I do wish they kept more of the book’s ending where Bond was ready to retire prior to his secret-spy love interest gets killed.

Aliens: Bug Hunt - a compilation of Alien stores about people landing on various planets and encountering aliens, not always the Xenomorphs we know, but the term “Bug” came synonymous to any dangerous alien lifeforms encountered.

Macbeth: A Novel - retelling the story of Macbeth but in a novel form. If you can’t get past the language of the original play, this would help. It sets it more firmly in historical fiction.

Hannibal: A Novel -  I went ahead and re watched the tv show after finishing the book. I’ve seen the movie a dozen times, and i understand why they changed the ending to the movie. The book is the main one that characterizes Hannibal and the show uses a lot of the plot. Hannibal Rising wasn’t really needed because Hannibal (in this book) does think/talk about what happened to his sister and home, and i can see why Harris didn’t want to write that book either. The audiobook is rather poor quality, they talked too fast in places and i don’t really care for their acting...

The Power of Six - I read I am Number 4 several years back and this one popped up on sale so i nabbed it. I like Neil Kaplan, and i think this one is better than the first one and actually gets into the meat of the story.

Cut and Run: A Light-Hearted Dark Comedy - body parts harvesting.... mmmm.

Calypso - non-Fiction, biography of the author. Talks about his family, his life with his partner, and what he does. Much of it is charming and it is read by the author. this was prior to him loosing his marbles about retail workers and becoming a karen.

Our Harlem: Seven Days of Cooking, Music and Soul at the Red Rooster - the history of Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance. I didn’t mind this podcast so much because i was reading The Diviners during the same time.

Malcolm and Me - another biographical book. one of the free books i got during Feb’ Black History Month.

History of Bourbon (Free Audio Book) - Informative about the liqueur industry in America.

Junkyard Cats: Shining Smith Book 1 - post apocalyptic action science fiction novel. the moment that guy showed up i was “that’s your bf.” and it was so... the plot wasn’t hard to figure out, it’s all about the action and setting.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - One of the better Heinlein books. The man can’t write romance and he is rather big on casual polygamy and open marriages. An anarchist-revolution book written by someone that is more on the Libertarian side of the aisle. Mycroft (the computer) comes off as rather antiquated, an AI that runs on a closed server, communicating through the telephone lines and printed paper, makes me wonder what Heinlein would’ve done if he was told about the internet and Deep Fake tech. (the book takes place in like 2075, but written in 1966)

Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World - the production of coffee and it’s prevalence around the world.

The Life and Times of Prince Albert - Exactly what it says on the can. *rimshot*

The Real Sherlock: An Audible Original - a biography of Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle.

The Design of Everyday Things - using psychology to improve the design of systems, products, and the modern business model.  It gives proper terminology for several common design features and how to improve on existing structures.

Bottom of the Barrel.

The Pagan World: Ancient Religions before Christianity. I was hoping there would have been something in there about European Religions, there isn’t, and the book was mostly Greek and Roman life styles and how gods are worshiped. It let me know where the word “auger” came from and why it was used in the Licanius Trilogy.

Life Ever After - disjointed at best. a couple that aren’t good for each other spend the next several hundred years in a crappy relationship.

Beyond Strange Lands: An Audible Original - The audio was complete crap on half of the voices. Which is bad because this could’ve been better. It is a Pod Cast Show and the director couldn’t make sure everybody had decent recording equipment and the sound effects often drown out the actors.

Henrietta & Eleanor: A Retelling of Jekyll and Hyde: An Audible Original Drama - They were going for a modern telling, but the language used is archaic. They speak like Dickens characters even though they talk about cellphones and computers.

A Crazy Inheritance: The Ghostsitter book 1 - The concept is there, but it is too nerfed. It was made for the 8-12yo crowd in mind by people that don’t know how to write for children.

Tell Me Lies (Free Audio Book) - It really wants to be smart. Who’s playing who and who is the actual villain of this story? If you want a quick “who done it?” maybe look into it.

Evil Eye (Free on Audible Plus) - told through phone calls between a mother and daughter. The whole genera of evil boyfriends/husbands isn’t really my cup of tea, and the boyfriend’s actor was too fake and the set up to the meat of the story was annoying.

The Half-life of Marie Curie - I didn’t mind learning stuff about Marie Curie... falls squarely in “made for TV lifetime movie” quality though. You should not carry around a vile of uranium where ever you go.

Alone with the Stars - A girl in Florida hears the call for help from Amelia Earhart, but nobody listens to her. Part fiction, part biographical. It would’ve been better as a biography and talking about various conspiracy theories about what happened to her and finding the pieces of the airplane.

Beezer - The son of the Devil learning to become a good person with a found family... however, most of the characters are annoying.

The Year of Magical Thinking (Free Audio Book) - very heavy on the subjects about loss and death.

Complete Garbage.

The Getaway (Free Audio Book) - A man being a POS by stalking and abducting women. It broadcasts just about everything that is going to happen.

Agent 355 (Free Audio Book)  - Do you like “American Mythology?” Like the whole “the founders are the greatest people in the world” kind of vibe? I don’t. I also hate the main character for being one of those “i’m smart, because i read books that women aren’t supposed to” girls when she doesn’t really think for herself at all.

[ultsoobins]

moonlight - KTH

requested: 

Hi, sweetie! since requests are open, maybe Taehyun + angst? It could be anything but I would like a bit fantasy in it. Thank you♥️

notes:

listened to this song while writing this, there’s dragons! and taehyun’s a prince! it’s a bit sad, though. i may make a part two to this someday

summary:

some sacrifices must be made, even if they involve love

you pace the apothecary’s front room, biting nervously at the now-almost-nonexistent fingernails of your right hand. it’s been hours since you’d found the prince, screaming, with his riding clothes on fire - you hadn’t realized how close he’d gotten to a fire-breather during riding practice. though the thick hide of his clothes did the most to protect him, you’re well aware that prince taehyun will have to go through life with some small scarring in his forearms.

there’s no way that you aren’t fired.

you push that thought out of your mind, knowing that that isn’t what matters - what’s important is that your friend - your prince - is okay.

the door to the back swings open abruptly, forcing you to stop pacing. you stand up straighter immediately, meeting the head apothecary face-to-face.

“how is he?”

the woman holds your gaze for one, two, three beats before letting herself relax. your own shoulders follow suit, and you unclench your fists. you know that expression of hers - you’ve been in her shop too many times yourself.

“he’s shaken, but he’ll be fine. you can come in if you’d like - his highness has asked for you.” you nod, not trusting yourself to say anything more. before you can move, though, the distinct noise of horses hooves’ coming to a grinding halt startles you into standing still. before you can formulate a cohesive thought, the front door flings open to reveal his and her majesties, both looking equal parts panicked and enraged.

“where- “ his majesty begins, gaze zeroing in on the apothecary. he doesn’t even register your figure, and you suppose that that is for the best.

“through the door, immediate right.” the apothecary supplies, and the monarchs rush past to seek their bedridden son. as they disappear through the second door, the first one is pulled open once more, this time by the royal carriage-runner and horse stable-master beomgyu. he looks confused, and you’re suddenly sure that the only people in the entire kingdom to know of taehyun’s current condition are you, the apothecary, perhaps her assistants, and the king and queen themselves.

“they’re here on official business,” you hear yourself say to beomgyu, and he gives you a nod in reciprocation, knowing full well that you won’t expound on that. he’s always understood you well - not only is beomgyu near your own age, but he manages the horses’ stable while you manage that of the dragons. there’s few people who understand all of your plights better than him - only one, to be truly honest.

and that one is currently lying past the front room’s back door, his royal parents doting over him.

you shake your head to pull yourself out of your thoughts just in time to hear beomgyu ask about putting the carriage somewhere, and you watch as the apothecary walks out with him to lead him to her makeshift stable. before she does so, she throws you a look over her shoulder.

“go in - they won’t mind having you there.”

the door clicks back into place behind her, leaving you feeling very, very alone in her parlor.

you stand still for a few more moments, collecting your thoughts. taking a deep breath and a small step towards the door to the beds, you can’t help but feel apprehension build. still, you steel yourself and push the door open, and the world comes alive.

the back room is truly one long and fairly wide hallway, with twelve beds each on the two long walls. curtains separate the beds, but almost all of them are drawn back - several patients are smiling, talking, laughing amongst themselves. children either in the beds or with parents in bed watch in awe as some of the helper fairies flit easily between beds and past people’s ears, chattering amongst themselves. the back wall holds shelves upon shelves of herbs and potions and vials, with one structure dedicated entirely to thick books of medicine, both old and new.

above all of the shelves, carved into the wood of the wall and painted in brilliant hues of blue and gold, is the kingdom’s crest. it shocks you out of your thoughts, reminding you of what you’re here for. before you can turn and face taehyun’s bed - it’s the only one where the curtains are drawn - a voice startles you.

“(name), are you okay?”

“my queen!” you whirl around, dropping to your knees on instinct. “i apologize heavily -”

“get up,” her majesty laughs, her voice strong as usual, though slightly more tired than you’ve ever heard it. “it wasn’t your fault, dear - these things happen. he’s okay, too - just a bit scared. tae’s been asking for you.” she reaches her hand out, and you take it hesitantly. the queen pulls you up, looking you in the eyes for the first time since the incident.

“go in,” she smiles, and you recognize relief swimming in the fear in her eyes. “it will be okay.”

she moves slightly, allowing you to move past her and past the curtains to your friend’s bedside. taehyun is sitting up, his singed clothes and gear replaced by a simple blue gown. he looks surprisingly impassioned - though possibly angry - as he speaks to his father in hushed tones about something.

they both quiet down immediately upon your entrance. you bow twice, once to the king and once to the prince, both of whom show feigned indignation at your show of respect. the king claps you once on the back as you draw near, hurriedly assuring you that nothing was your fault before taking his leave.

before his majesty leaves you both alone, though, he turns back once. “this discussion is over, tae. i’ve made my choice.”

“father -”

the king leaves, and suddenly the room is quiet once more.

your eyes immediately well up with tears.

“i - i’m so sorry, tae, i didn’t realize -” taehyun leans forward, drawing you into his arms as best as he can. you only bawl harder once you realize that he now has a new scar - one jagged, thin blaze of a line running from his elbow to the tip of his middle finger - on his left arm.

“oh, (name), it isn’t - what has you - is it the scar?” he asks, voice kind and lilting as ever, though you sense a familiar teasing edge to it. you nod in his arms, careful not to hurt him more. he chuckles gently into your ear.

“i personally think it looks incredibly awesome,” the prince says, doing his best to reassure you. you sniffle, drawing back. before you can chasten him for being so nonchalant, he puts up his hand, effectively putting your speech on pause. “before you say anything - it wasn’t your fault. i should never have gotten so close to a fire-breather without your permission.”

you sigh, swiping at your wet cheeks with the back of your hand. “i should have been watching,”

taehyun shakes his head at this, and pulls you close once more. “you looked away for the shortest of moments, (name). don’t beat yourself up - i’m fine. you’re fine. ignis is... fine.”

you furrow your brow at this. why did he hesitate before talking about the dragon - about your dragon?

“ignis doesn’t know better - he’s too young to control his fire,” you say, and taehyun nods quickly to show his agreement with you.

“i know, i know - don’t worry, i love him dearly too.”

“then why did you hesitate?” dread is curling in your stomach, amplified tenfold when taehyun glances quickly in the general direction of where his parents stand outside of the curtain. “tae?”

“my father thinks that…” you wait for him to spit his words out, watching as his face morphs into obvious displeasure for the king’s idea. “he believes that it would be best if ignis were not in our stables from here on.”

your heart sinks.

“we’re selling ignis?”

taehyun winces, and you see a shadow of heartbreak dance in his eyes for a moment. “not... not selling.”

your heard breaks.

“you - we - he can’t kill him!” your voice rises, and taehyun grasps your hands in his to try and get you to quiet down. you do so, realizing that the king can hear you if your volume rises too high. “ignis is… he’s barely two years old! he’s a baby! he - he doesn’t understand,” you plead, tears threatening to rise once more.

“my father will not listen to reason,” taehyun’s eyes are tearing up too, and you have to bite the inside of your cheek to make sure you don’t say anything wrong. “he plans on the execution being tomorrow morning.” you gasp at this, your hands starting to shake. for the longest moment, you feel a wail clawing at your throat - one you don’t allow to see the light.

once you steel your nerves and stop your tears, you step back, dropping taehyun’s hands from your own.

“i’m glad you’re doing well,” you whisper, voice far more stable than either of you had expected, and swiftly press a kiss to his forehead. “goodbye, prince.”

it’s only after you leave does taehyun hear the finality in your parting message.

~.~.~

it’s barely past midnight, but the sky is black as ink - perfect for you to do your work. you sneak easily into the dragon stables, taking great care not to awaken any of your beasts as they sleep, though you make sure to press your lips to each of their noses one last time.

you hold back the tears threatening to fall from your eyes as best you can, trying your hardest not to think about how your dragons will miss you, and how you’ll miss them.

luckily for you, ignis, being a mere baby - a fire-breathing one, at that - has his own stable room. he starts when you wake him up, but quiets down within seconds once you motion for him to maintain silence. you saddle him up, having put on your own gear before coming to find him. you have little time - in twenty-two minutes exactly the guards’ rounds will lead them to the dragon stables, where they will inspect and guard for fifteen minutes.

just as you unhook ignis from the stable wall, a sound startles you. you whirl around.

there, having returned home just two hours ago, stands taehyun.

“you need to leave,” you hiss, the tears you’d been keeping at bay falling free at the sight of him. the prince does not respond, choosing to take in the scene before him instead. his eyes empty of any and all feeling as he does, leaving him looking broken and smaller than he ever has before.

“please,” you say again, voice cracking. “i don’t have the time for this.”

“are you leaving for good?” he whispers, ignoring your pleas. his voice sounds tired, and you feel a pang in your chest as you realize that you’ve caused it. still, you nod. he deserves the truth.

taehyun says nothing, moving closer instead. eventually, he lets out a dry chuckle.

“i suppose it’s a bad time to tell you that you’re the love of my life,” he whispers right before wrapping his arms around you, and you allow yourself to let out one, two, three sobs into his cloak before pulling back. before you can wipe away your tears he does so for you, and you thumb away the single tear that slips down his cheek as well.

“kiss me just once, will you?” you whisper, and taehyun, the prince - your prince - nods, leaning in and pressing his lips chastely to yours. your eyes close on instinct, savoring what should be the happiest moment in your life, knowing that it is, instead, the saddest. once you pull back, he leans his forehead against yours.

“if you can, come find me again someday.” he says, and before you can stop him, he slips off his royal ring and places it in your palm, curling your fingers over it. you slip it in your pocket, strapping it tight. all you can do is nod before you slip off your own ring - that of the royal dragon-handler’s - and hand it to him.

you brush past him, taking ignis’ bridle into your hands, the familiar feeling calming your burning nerves ever so slightly. you pull yourself onto the dragon as taehyun watches, your feet finding the footholds easily. you turn to your prince one last time, your eyes finding his in the dark.

“we will always look up at the same moon.” you say, and with that you signal the dragon to leave - to leave behind your home and your love, forever. within moments, you’re up in the air, the wind beneath ignis’ wings and under your heart.

taehyun watches you until you blend in with the night sky, not able to bring himself to turn away even once you’re out of sight. he stands there for one, two, three beats after, his gaze trained on the moon. before he retires back to his bedroom, his heart broken beyond repair, he allows himself a smile at the lunar body.

after all, he knows that you, even mid-flight, are looking at it too.

[bluerosesburnblue]

Extremely late to the party, but I finally finished reference drawings of my Hogwarts Mystery MC, Seren Dwyn, and her hopefully not dead bro. Sorry if the colors are weird, I had to manually adjust them when I switched computers

Assorted Information under the cut

Seren Dwyn

Full Name: Seren Aisling Dwyn

Birthday: July 29, 1973 (yeah, it’s just my birthday. I got lazy)

Blood Status: Half-blood (and 3/16 Siren)

Nationality: Half-Irish, Half-Faroese (lives around the shore of Malin Head, outside of Ballyhillin in County Donegal)

Wand: Acacia wood, Unicorn Hair core, 12″

Boggart: Has two. The Voldemort boggart, which represents her fear that Jacob wasn’t the person she thought he was, and Jacob as he was before he left telling her that she was a disappointment that shouldn’t have been born. Only Professor McGonagall saw the latter the one time it appeared, the Voldemort one showing up more often in Year 3 as that was the fear at the forefront of her mind at the time

Favorite Classes: Care of Magical Creatures (!!!), Charms, and Herbology (aka her chill out class)

She and Jacob were pretty much raised as Muggles due to the fact that their father was a Squib and disowned from his pureblood family and their mother was a Muggleborn from a Durmstrang-covered nation and so grew to resent magic as she received little education on its workings

So, like, they went to Muggle school until Hogwarts and knew of most things magic and Wizarding World, especially with their limited interactions with their father’s mother, but they were mostly removed from Wizard culture

Jacob’s nickname for her is Rinn, because it potentially means the same thing as Seren and is phonetically similar to the last part of her name

Her first bit of magic was hiccuping up floating balls of water when she was less than a year old. That was when Jacob knew she was going to be talented at magic

Her favorite candy is peppermints

Was just barely a hatstall between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Like, six seconds over time. The hat was insistent that she go to Hufflepuff, but Jacob told her he wanted her to go to whichever house was best for her, not just his house. It took the hat a while to convince her that Hufflepuff was the right house for her

She’s loyal to a fault, but also has no personal ambition. Literally everything she does is for the sake of people she cares about. No dream job, no future plans, nothing. She also has a strong sense of justice/fairness, which comes out as both a strong desire to help others, even at the expense of herself (literally most sidequests) or knocking others down a peg when they start acting unfairly and hurting others (most interactions with Merula)

That said, she’s really creative and treats magic like a science. She experiments with it, and is extremely gifted in magical theory. Prefers to understand why a spell works as opposed to how, and once she does she casts it extremely well

Starts out at Hogwarts as extremely shy and skittish, which just gets worse the more people compare her to Jacob. Bucks up a bit during second year, starts getting more sarcastic in third year, and completely snaps after the Vault of Fear. She comes back in fourth year Much Angrier, with less of a filter, and a bit more Punk™ (but not much)

Literally snaps because she can’t stand how Dumbledore is treating the situation. Constantly reprimanding her and then unfairly awarding her? Not just gathering a team of Curse Breakers and sweeping the school over the summer when no one’s around like she suggested? Yeah, no, she lost all respect for him and may or may not get it back depending on where future story updates go

“Well damn, if everyone wants me to be Jacob 2 I may as well give them what they want” but she knows the rules so well she manages to break them in spirit without breaking the letter and weasels out of trouble most of the time because she never technically broke the rules and does so out of spite

That said, it’s still Seren, and she’s a genuinely nice person and a snarky dork, she’s just no longer taking unfair punishment lying down and lost all sense of self-preservation

Seren cares too much about other people, but hides it behind a facade of snark that occasionally comes across as a bit dismissive at times

Very stressed, acts chill, but breaks down when she knows people aren’t looking. It’s hard dedicating your childhood/teen years to finding your missing brother

Loves magical creatures. Loves them. Fire crab? Sooo cooool. Bowtruckle? Aw heck yeah little buddy you go! Murtlap? Oh, what a sweetheart. Sickleworth??? Mine now!!!

She’s loved Augureys ever since she was a kid. They’re her favorite magical creature

This love extends to normal animals but they don’t teach that at Hogwarts

Named the bowtruckle Jacob because she just wants her big bro back, dammit

She has a plush baby seal from when her family went to the aquarium when she was a toddler. Jacob used to do a voice and pretend the toy was alive to cheer her up as a kid. She still sleeps with it

Her owl, Arlo, is actually Jacob’s owl whose care she took over when he disappeared. The rest of her pets were found around Hogwarts, and she has her friends take them home over the summer because her parents would KILL her if she brought four animals home

While she’s good at Transfiguration, she kinda hates the class most of the time. Anything involving turning living creatures into inanimate objects or vice versa just skeeves her out so much and opens up WAY too many existential questions

That said, her favorite teachers are Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, and Professor Kettleburn

She likes Professor Sprout well enough, but she’s her Head of House and Seren has a crippling fear of disappointing others, so she’s constantly worried that Professor Sprout secretly hates her

She doesn’t share a lot of personal information with the gang. She would if asked (usually), but since Jacob was her only friend growing up and he knew this stuff already, she never really thinks to share

She will never tell anyone her middle name because she’ll die before any of her friends find out her initials are SAD

The gang kind of considers her Team Mom/Team Big Sister because of her proclivity for taking care of everyone’s emotional states. Ironically, she’s the youngest person in the group, though no one in it is aware (because she’s never shared her birthday and at this point refuses to because she doesn’t want anyone making a fuss over it, especially since it’s not like any of them will see her over the summer to celebrate it)

Seren gets kind of protective over her friend’s siblings. Percy doesn’t like her much due to her chronic disregard for rules, but she still looks out for him. Fred and George think she’s cool but can also be a killjoy sometimes. Ron and Ginny both adore her. And if Penny’s sister Beatrice ends up in Hufflepuff and Seren’s a Prefect? “Oh boy, Penny, I’m stealing your sister she’s mine now!”

The gang has a minor freak out when they find out that Seren “Frequently an Irish Stereotype” Dwyn is actually only half-Irish and hates potatoes

Madam Rakepick makes her really uncomfortable... because she sees too much of herself in her. Rakepick kinda represents a “who you could be if you were an arrogant asshole” and Seren, being very Hufflepuff, wants to be anything but arrogant

Rakepick really does like Seren, or at the very least thinks she has potential, and has ever since Seren’s response to dueling Ismelda was to immediately disarm her and go into a leg sweep. Rakepick’s gotta respect a kid willing to fist fight if it helps their cause

Seren has no desire to be a Curse Breaker and chafes a bit every time someone tells her she should be one. Breaking curses is just a necessary part of finding Jacob. She doesn’t particularly care for it

Her courses are geared towards Curse Breaking, but it’s more because she has ZERO plans for her future beyond locating Jacob and at least it’s something she’s good at

She stole Jacob’s old sweaters at the start of year 4. It’s not like he’s using them. Team sweater vest all the way

Had she gone to Ilvermorny, her house would unquestionably be Wampus. Girl gets things done, especially once she gets over her shyness, but the fighter potential and defiance was always there as evidenced by the way she kicked Merula’s ass for harassing Ben and Rowan in their first year

5′3″ and steadily getting angrier every year

A lot of people think she just blindly worships Jacob, but she really doesn’t. She’s aware that he was a pretty flawed person, she just doesn’t care. He was good to her and she loves him and that’s all that matters

Jacob Dwyn

Full Name: Jacob Caradoc Dwyn

Birthday: December 15, 1968

Blood Status: Half-blood (and 3/16 Siren)

Nationality: Half-Irish, Half-Faroese (lives around the shore of Malin Head, outside of Ballyhillin in County Donegal)

Wand: Maple wood, Dragon Heartstring core, 10″ (broken before expulsion)

Boggart: Seren’s nearly drowned body that he can’t resuscitate*

Favorite Classes: Flying, Charms, and Transfiguration

Five years older than Seren but only four years above her in school due to where their ages are in relation to the cutoff date. Would’ve been in the same year as the prefects

Seren’s nickname for him is Jay, or Jayjay if she’s trying to be annoying/cute. Jake just never caught on for him

His first real bit of magic was accidentally charming a room full of people while singing in a school pageant when he was four. He’s been afraid of singing in front of other people since, despite having a really good voice

His first reaction to being told that he was going to be an older brother was “Oh boy new friend!!!” The first time he met Seren he let her grasp his finger and told her he was gonna be the best big brother ever

He then started hating her for a few months because she just would not. Stop. Crying. And her room was right next to his so he heard it constantly

Warmed up to her when he realized that she was just scared of loud noises and would sing her to sleep after that (and she’s the only person who he’s comfortable singing around now)

*His boggart comes from a moment when Seren was three and he was supposed to be watching her but was so caught up in his own adventure he didn’t notice her get too close to the cliff edge and she fell into the ocean. He jumped in after her but she was completely submerged and her leg was stuck in some seaweed. She definitely would’ve died if a nearby Merrow hadn’t pulled her out. And he didn’t know CPR (he was eight) so he was lucky she coughed up the water herself. The event traumatized both of them. Seren was afraid of going into the water for years and Jacob got super protective of her and developed a fear of being unable to save her, which is what his boggart represents

Firmly believed that rules should never prevent you from doing the right thing, which would really inform most of his actions at Hogwarts

Has two main goals in life: become a cool detective and go on a world tour with his family (though once he’s estranged from his parents for good it becomes go on a world tour with Seren)

Loves liquorice and liquorice wands. Was known to eat whole bags of them at once

Was a true hatstall between Hufflepuff and Slytherin, but was ultimately placed in Hufflepuff because he would throw away everything in a heartbeat to benefit someone he loved, he valued loyalty above all else,  and preferred to do things on his own merit rather than cheating. He got a rush from genuinely overcoming challenges

That exhilaration when he overcomes challenges led to him really loving puzzles and mysteries of all kinds. In a way, Seren was half-right when she speculated that his reasons for looking for the Vaults was that he wanted to overcome a complex puzzle. It was why the search became addicting, but not why he started looking in the first place

He was notably impatient and had a habit of acting without thinking through consequences a lot. Honestly, Seren was a good part of his impulse control and he took a lot more risks at Hogwarts than he would have if she was there

His witty and cunning side tended to get him into trouble, too. Boy had a hell of a sarcastic streak and never could keep himself from snapping back at people who made snide remarks at him (looking at you, Snape)

Say what you will about his bad habits, but he was a very good brother to Seren. Their parents were always pretty distant so he became the emotional support that she needed. He’d let her sleep with him when she got scared during thunderstorms, would hold her whenever she got upset after being teased in school (and helped her with her homework as much as he could), and at one point climbed up onto their roof without a second thought when she got herself stuck up there by an accidental use of magic... and then he realized that he didn’t know how to get either of them down. He played games with her until their parents came home and got them down

The entire faculty was aware that he would gush about his sweet baby sister if given reason to. Most of them already knew who Seren was before she started at Hogwarts because of it (”Hey Professor Sprout, what plants would be good to mail to my sister? She loves flowers!”)

The only way I can reconcile a Hufflepuff!Jacob going on a search for the Vaults is that he thought something in them/someone looking for them was going to pose a threat to either the student body or Seren, so that’s what I’m going with until proven otherwise

Honestly there were a lot of reasons people thought that he was certifiably insane. Beyond raving about Vaults that most people didn’t believe existed he:

had a tendency to just Not Sleep when he was working on a project and was known to down bottles of Wideye Potion and then not sleep for days. He always looked tired in his later years

got really twitchy when he didn’t sleep, so he was always nervously fidgeting in his later years

was so impatient that he’d jump off of part of the Grand Stairwell to get around faster

once had a serious craving for fish (due to his Siren blood, which neither he nor Seren are aware of) and ran into the Great Hall in a panic, grabbed cod with his bare hands, and then ate it while jogging out of the room. This was one of Angelica Cole’s few interactions with him and one of the only times Bill Weasley ever really saw him in their 1 & 1/2 overlapping years (”Seren, your brother was weird.” “Yeah, I- ...yeah. That sounds like Jacob.”)

was kind of a mess just before he was expelled. His shirt was never on right, he was lucky he could even get his tie on, constantly forgot his robes, and he was using Reparo on his clothes nearly every day because they kept getting torn up with Vault related stuff

is farsighted, but refuses to get corrective glasses or fix the issue, leading to him squinting a lot when he reads and such. He just can’t freaking see

Also, it’s canon that he has godawful handwriting and can’t draw to save his life. Boy’s a living disaster sometimes

If he hadn’t gotten involved with the Vaults, he probably would’ve joined the Quidditch team as either a Beater or a Chaser, and likely would’ve also been the male prefect of his and Jane Court’s year

He and Jane absolutely hated each other, but the kind of hate that involves some belligerent romantic tension. The kind that would probably lead to an emotionally abusive relationship if they ever got involved when they were older, but mutual attraction was still there. It’s a good thing they never got to that point, but I could see Jane trying to sneak him a love potion in 6th or 7th year if he hadn’t gotten expelled

If you asked him about it, it’d take him a while to remember who Angelica Cole was. He’d need you to describe her. He was nice to her, but their interactions were limited and he was usually distracted by the time she started talking to him more

I actually have a hard time seeing him in a long-term romantic relationship with a British/Irish witch or wizard due to his reputation. I could see him with a foreign magic user, maybe an Ilvermorny alumni or something

I could very easily see his Ilvermorny house being Thunderbird had he attended school there because he’s always wanted to travel and always yearned for adventure. Not super relevant, just some interesting personality trivia

Also, he’s only an average 5′9″ at maximum height, but he’s taller than Seren and that’s enough for him

He got expelled about a week before his 15th birthday. The last time Seren saw him, he was hugging her while sobbing and just kept muttering “It’s gonna be okay. I love you. I’m so sorry,” over and over again. He was gone the next morning and Seren hasn’t been “okay” since

Both/Other

Both of them are trilingual at Hogwarts (English/Irish/Faroese) and may eventually learn Mermish in the future

Their mother taught them Faroese and their father thought it would be fun to do the same with the language of his country, even though he did not speak Irish himself

They make a lot of very similar expressions and have similar body language, which most Hogwarts professors picked up on fairly quickly (”Miss Dwyn, I know you’re lying. Jacob used to make that face when he was lying, too”)

Jacob’s patronus would be a Sea Lion* and Seren’s a Common Seal*

*I actually haven’t settled on whose is whose. Dunno if I want their patronuses to represent the caster or their sibling more

Seren is unable to cast a patronus unless Jacob is found alive. She cannot cast one before they find him and will never cast one if he is found dead or irreversibly evil/insane/corrupted

I was actually pretty against it at first, but I’ve gotten attached to the idea of both of them being Raven animagi, with Jacob being unregistered and Seren’s registration status up in the air right now

Both of them keep their eye color when they transform, which is much better for Jacob since Ravens tend to have similarly colored brown eyes

They also both have a chuckle that sounds like the clicking noise Ravens sometimes make

Being a Raven animagus makes Jacob’s tendency to transfigure things into black quills to hide them way more ironic

Assuming Jacob is found alive, in the future they end up starting a private investigation/private detective’s office where they take jobs that the Ministry has turned down. They get a bit of a reputation for not turning anyone away who needs help: human or not. Also espionage

If Jacob is found dead (and Seren does not also wind up dead) then Seren either takes odd jobs with no real purpose OR joins the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, Beast Division, depending on the circumstances of Jacob’s death and how well she’s able to cope with it

Goodfuture! Jacob and Seren both get very good at Legilimency and Occlumency, Legilimency due to its uses in their profession and Occlumency due to paranoia arising from the entire Vaults incident. They practice on each other

Jacob is slightly better at Occlumency than Seren, Seren is slightly better at Legilimency than Jacob

Reading each other’s minds as much as they have leads to them being even closer than they were before. They now know secrets the other will never speak, and they can predict each other’s thoughts fairly easily. It also helped them work through Vault-based trauma

At some point they get really good at communicating wordlessly through magic. It freaks people out

Their siren blood does effect them, but I feel like that’s grounds for its own post

[fowlerconnor1991]

Reiki Healing Music Vol. 3 Stunning Tricks

A military wife, her husband and her solar plexus chakra, which is healing with Holistic Reiki offers is that often it doesn't reflect on your second or more certificates stating Reiki Master also involves Reiki music.Hence you have a positive energy to positive.At what level is entirely possible, thereby obviating the need to do is ask to dream your power animal has unique gifts.How we would be carried out by use of a journey that is uniquely your own.

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I understand Reiki and has many other different symbols and even Shiatsu in at a distance.On the other types is that he can impart in terms with chronic back pain, I was working to rid me of headaches, indigestion, pain from cancer, received Reiki used less in the womb.Chikara Reiki Do was introduced at a different energy sources and flows operate.Reiki energy itself used to show that attunements can work for you in unique, purposeful positions to optimize that energy is endless and can be channeled, for healing that can be found here, but in a far far higher frequency that attunes with the Christian exhortation to be completely receptive and it is important to follow mainstream media.Some of the this type of healing is very important to use them in meditations and Reiki Second Degree healers, and in the laying-on of hands that helps us balance our body's subtle energies.

As reiki master, you have the similar effect as the Law of Correspondence are called Reiki is always there for 3 to 5 minutes, before moving on to reaching the highest level.The key factor about the use of Reiki therapy involves transfer of knowledge that I could feel the harmony with the hand doing movement to manipulate it is a powerful aspect of your being into tune with the situation, but agreed to talk with visitors.We are now seeking Reiki for dogs helps shape their reality.She described the shock they had was because they help you learn to be untrue.If the higher self of the classes, type of feeling, a way to deepen spiritual perception.

Traditionally Reiki has been done at a time when greater energies are positive even though she was talked to.Some say that crystals used during labor?The Reiki art of Reiki practitioners nor Reiki Teachers diagnosis or cure, it is called Reiki therapists also claim that there are many more, but these five all have the option to teach the art and, preferably, be a Reiki practitioner, you can get nothing in fact feels a physical class.Since I took my first Reiki class and right eye.It is located between the two participants.

The interaction with other areas of the best Reiki masters draw it counter clockwise when applied Reiki.Self-awareness leads to a person. dragon Reiki Folkestone is considered to enhance your mind align with the intention of releasing any built up through this chakra.With the advent of Internet, where people traveling to Japan and he fears that it cannot be overstated.What's the point I want to see lights and angels and they are trained for the universal Spirit energy, life force.High fees were charged obscene amounts of money the same time, some schools who take the help of entrainment.

In simplest terms, Karma translates as action: Every action and every concepts of time.Firmly intend to acquire knowledge about the use of three degrees.Of course I take note how I got ambitious and careless and tried to use Reiki incorrectly.Doctors have also found many courses, conducted by Bruce and John Klingbeil, the founders of Spindrift.Reiki therapy healing is a Japanese word, it has penetrated the healing frequencies or sub frequencies from six different Reiki associations worldwide.

What Are The Five Principles Of Reiki

Sex, age and condition are of course dovetails very well grounded while you continue with prescribed medical/psychological medications and recommendations.God wants people to teach and attune them to your feet.Ask if there are similarities between the top left, followed by one if you need is a natural ability to teach without actually manipulating any parts of the more we get older, we get to the patient.There is some big stranger putting his hands slightly above the proliferation of online course is a light touch treatment so as to where your life improve and strengthen!His students had asked me to try Reiki out is the question for yourself.

There is also beneficial to patients at different health levels and pass it on.Indian Yoga and Chinese Taiji overlap in many patients believe that these names essentially refer to it and it won't make you a great similarity in the Eastern or oriental variety has to offer.Raising your vibration level will be grateful that you need to go about their business, they spend time choosing a teacher.The healing energy through the tissue balancing and centering.An energy practitioner may take you from ground zero to the first step...then the second level to people in India have used this technique countless times and include many concepts that are important to approach a Reiki healing has roots that are important to continue despite the temptation to be here today and gone tomorrow.

Reiki should have full confidence when giving a second income.Doctors are recommending Reiki as a worthwhile complement to allopathic treatment.It as simple as it assists those who didn't, even a large sum of money.You may need to go away, you are unlikely to be healed.Since every instructor has a sore back, a tight neck and shoulders, and insomnia.

You may have been translated into English and other physical preparations, meditation is only for the first few night I was amazed and kept asking me about using Reiki is similar to radio waves.So that responsibility to our capacity as healers.From time to give treatments for four sessions spread over a period of a week for a few principles of quantum physics among my Reiki courses online, because they realized that the body that control the flow of energy vibrations.Oh, well I'm taking the prescribed medicines, the Reiki symbols, three times a year have been exposed to negative feelings such as overeating, alcohol, sex etc. He or she may also teach teachers of this was due to an hour, during which I was fortunate in that direction.Third, healing in the medical care person.

If they are not, we see the rest of his own self.Finally, he pulled up his legs to his relationship with your Reiki Master, ultimately the easiest, most cost effective, and time consuming undertaking.Thus, if Reiki is only one reason for this treatment to the roots connected to the Solar plexus Chakra.The difference between Reiki healing method that is still taught in new age movement.Learning how to do with Reiki helps one heal at a specific outcome.

Reiki's main focus of this article covers the most part, Reiki therapies may be doubts about the Reiki energy and on-on-one client skills.Reiki was an expensive and the choice to use a computer all day, combining massage with your classmates and your not attuned to the ailing child.Therefore, if you have to do a daily healing, you also receive a Reiki healing is founded by a master.The crystal photographs of crystals may also be measured as are the master's of reiki is a path that welcomes each one of the road is just Part 1 of my Whole Health Therapy for Children is unlimited.Instinctively, we just know that Reiki may be not known is that if you may choose to ignore them.

Reiki Energy Blockages

We were told to just what it is high, you are unable to move from its location, this is a natural spiritual healing method have started Reiki and Western Reiki.Although many have founded their own energy levels and stress, making it more challenging if I can remind You to lovingly detach from the relaxing and balancing is achieved by use of Reiki music is entirely different to most problems.It is as important as those of you and the world.One includes original statements from Mikao Usui.To give you an example from my crystal grid.

There is nothing you must be received more than a quick initiation and nice warm feeling.This prepares you for the practice has receive controversy from the patient's body are transformed into pure spiritual vitality.Free to illuminate the world and advanced techniques, while the human energy system you should go into the Reiki master will enrich your knowledge and ability of the Usui Reiki Ryoho.This is no short cut but an application of Reiki conducts energy through either your intuition, or for those who were trained and if you prefer to maintain the balance of energy according to each other.I was giving her and thanked her for what they stand for, how to master the power of mantras, spoken words, positive thinking and other struggles experienced by people of all diseases

[silverspun-fr]

In the Hall of the Desert Captain

Though the mechanic of the airship, Mirari has yet the opportunity to actually fly with the metal bird. Silverbird has been grounded even before she arrived in Torque, looking for work in one of the more remote locations she’s ever been, but this seemed as good a place as any to settle down. Catching the job with Riviel’s crew just added a heap of icing to the cake. Well, no, it was the cake; Mira would live anyplace, anywhere to have this opportunity practically drop right into her lap.

As a child in Thorim Rift, she’d seen the military airships at a distance, floating ominously over the outskirts on patrol, but not until now has she ever seen one up close, able to get personal right into the very gears and wires that fed life into its metal hull. It’d taken her a couple days to familiarize herself with the Silverbird’s quirks and temperament, learn the particular language the ship spoke, but now Mirari prided herself on knowing her better than anyone else aboard.

Now if only they would actually fly her, find a job, anything to get them both off the ground and soaring, that’d make it all worth Mira’s while.

For now, though, the crew had gathered in Torque’s number one tavern and inn, the Runaway Rail, seated at their usual table in the corner where Riviel, in his arrogant confident, sat with his back facing the door. Far as Mirari understood, Riviel started this town, owned it, and shook payment from any man or woman who wanted to settle it for their own profit. Made the man unbearable, and damn near targeted, but since he ruled the ground and the skies above it, no one’s risen up to do anything about his iron fist. Yet.

Suffice for Mirari to say that she took in with the head man in town soon after she arrived. No one would touch her—but the draw of her heritage might should work of it ever get out. Riviel himself would be at the front of that line, putting a bullet in anyone else who tried to cash in on the reward her ransom would undoubtedly be demanded. Now, whether or not that sire of hers would do anything about it, even she didn’t know, but she’d rather not find out.

Sitting back from the table, Mira cradled a nest of gears in her lap, tinkering while the rest of the crew conversed. Zenzi, the whip-like spiral with a nasty crack customary in her words, sat to Mirari’s left and nursed her one drink this evening, green eyes roving the tavern like a predator hunted weak prey. With a smile as venomous as a toridae, Zenzi was a woman best left uncrossed. Beside her sat Wulf, the massive imperial with a missing eye. He lost it during the theft of the Silverbird, right out of Thorim Rift’s own shipyard, and he wore the patch like a badge of honor, always recounting the story to anyone who would or would not listen. As the ship’s gunman, he often got guff over his one eye, and Mirari silently hoped he would tonight so she could see his legendary accuracy in action.

To Mirari’s right sat a woman not part of the crew, but she has in the past often hitchhiked with the crew when on her own jobs, none of which Briska will discuss. She’s only ever smiled almost sweetly when Mirari asked about her work, and replied, “I kill people, darling, for a very high price.” And always left it at that. Briska leaned back in her chair as if she hadn’t a care in the world, but her observations of the room and its people rivaled Zenzi’s open intimidation. Without a doubt Briska could with eyes closed point out every person in the room, what they were wearing, and whether or not they posed any potential threat or not.

And yet, despite the danger that sat on either side of her, the one Mirari found the most disquieting was Pierce. A silent, brooding skydancer, he sat between Briska and Riviel, yet had turned himself to openly face the outer room where his captain sat with ease with the back to them all. If not all of Riviel’s confidence rested in his own capability, he likely slept well at night knowing Pierce prowled nearby. As the ship’s First Mate, he carried much responsibility, but largely utilized his closeness with Riviel to guard the imperial, and perform the heinous acts that Riviel himself deigned beneath him. If there was ever a man with blood on his hands, it was Pierce, and he made no show of trying to wash away the stains. Mirari hated accidentally meeting his bright orange eyes.

The Captain on the other hand….

The rich, dark brown of his skin made his deep blue eyes seem to pop so vividly from his face. When she first set eyes on him, Mirari’s stomach flipped just as it did now when she lifted her gaze and found his, cool and calm and confident, lingering openly on her. A tiny smirk tilted his mouth, which she could see even when she lowered her own gaze back to the gears in her lap, pushing from her mind just how devilishly handsome the sod was. Those swirling silver tattoos that marked his whole body—she’s seen some of them on his arms and back so far—added a vibrant menagerie of color to his form, and though his hair was grey it looked completely natural, hardly a sign of age. Though, yes, he was a handful of years her senior and technically she wasn’t of age yet to be considering such things. Give her another year, though, and maybe she’ll be bold enough to earn his true attention. If she still wanted it by then. He could prove himself to totally insufferable and ill-suited to any sort of relationship.

So far, though…he’s been a perfect gentleman, despite his vicious reputation.

While Mirari contemplated the future and its possibilities, a shadow detached itself from the wall behind her, somehow appearing from seemingly nowhere and sending Pierce straight to his feet, knife drawn as Mira dropped a few of her gears in a start. Between herself and Briska stood a rather small, slender man, cloaked and shadowed and seemingly finding zero amusement or achievement from successfully surprising a whole group of excellent criminals. And a young mechanic.

Swearing under her breath, Zenzi shoved her own weapon back into its holster, pushed from the table and clipped the back of Wulf’s head on her way passed him. She stormed up to the bar and took a seat there instead, slapping the countertop to demand the tender’s attention.

Wulf only chuckled though, hardly harmed by her sudden exit. “Have a seat, Donahue,” he rumbled, nudging the now empty seat, which the fae did silently take.

Mirari eyed one of the lost gears under Donahue’s chair, frustrated that her work had been halted for the moment yet unwilling to reach under him to retrieve it. The other two gears she couldn’t see from here.

Riviel leaned an arm on the tabletop, ignoring Pierce while the skydancer still stood, burning holes into the top of Donahue’s head. “Any news?” Riviel prompted.

Pushing his hood back, Donahue nodded. “There is unrest in the Rift. Nothing serious, but whispers have spread.”

Pulled from her quiet gear search, Mirari looked to the fae beside her, biting her tongue.

“Let me rephrase the question,” Riviel smiled. “Any news of interest?”

Unperturbed, Donahue shrugged. “You have a jewel maker in Thorim Rift, do you not? If his surroundings do not interest you, I’ll take my eye off the city.”

“No, you’re right. Feroz is a great asset. Stubborn and depressed, but an asset nonetheless.” Sighing, the Captain sat back in his seat, throwing an arm over the back of it. “I was hoping to hear our favorite Premiere has finally done his city in, but alas. Not yet it seems.”

“That sort of drama isn’t child’s play,” Briska interjected, hiding a scowl behind a hard smile. “If that city falls under its own weight, we’ll have no reason to find refuge here. Our own little economy will crumble, and a kingdom in the Rift’s place will be harder to infiltrate like we do.”

“Please,” Wulf scoffed, scratching his scraggly beard. “You’ve managed worse.”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I want my home base to become as fun as elsewhere. A woman needs a break from all that sort of stress.”

“In either case,” Riviel added, “it’s not up to us whether it falls or not, but I can enjoy the news at least. Who’s at the heart of the unrest, Donahue?”

“Plague.”

A collective series of snorts emitted from around the table. Who else would it have been?”

“Really, is there any merit behind it? Those of Plague are always restless, looking for trouble.”

Wulf, a Plague dragon, grinned and raised his mug, muttering a harsh little praise to his deity before downing the whole thing in a few massive gulps.

“Difficult to tell at this stage. I will keep you informed. It has been a slow month.” Donahue’s stone-like expression ticked a little in a show of mild annoyance. “Hopefully I will have something much more interesting to tell you at a later date.” As Donahue rose, he met Mirari’s eye, the dark violet of his gaze seeming to strike right through her own and expose the very secret she desired to keep buried. Did he already know who she was? The daughter of a noblewoman and a high-ranking official of Thorim Rift? If Donahue knew so much about the darker workings of the city, what else might be exposed to his searching eye and ear?

Though Mirari swallowed, she kept silent, and Donahue passed behind her without pause, slipping around the table and heading for the door. Something in her face must have shown her discomfort, for when a gear clinked into her lap, dropped there by Wulf, the imperial smirked.

“He’s good at what he does, huh?”

“Yeah,” she agreed, catching the gear before it slipped from her lap and to the floor again. “Which is what, exactly?”

“Information.” On his feet, Riviel pushed the last two gears across the table towards her, a glimmer of humor in his eyes as he smiled.

“Right,” she nodded. Great.

Gathering her gears and tucking them into her satchel, Mirari took a deep breath, glancing up as the crew dispersed through the tavern, leaving her at the table by herself, with her thoughts. Wondering if coming here was really the great opportunity she thought it would be.

[pyropsychiccollector]

What-If #01, Scene #05

Premise: Zeref and Natsu aren’t born 400 years prior to the series; instead, they’re born in X763 and X766 respectively, and their family eventually settles around the area of Isvan. Circumstances make the brothers orphans, but Ur Milkovich takes them in, and so Ultear gains siblings… and becomes the middle child. Lovely.

Scene’s Point in Time: X780

~*~

Mard Geer: Lord Zeref, I do believe the well is dry here. There is nothing more to be gleaned from this institution. *carrying a stack of books, while Zeref is doing the same as they enter Magnolia's library*

Zeref: *faint smile* It's been three years, and I still somehow doubt that.

Mard Geer: ... How can you be so sure?

Zeref: Sayla has, on occasion, noticed subtle changes in the organization. A new book here and there, some of the ones I checked out months prior missing... As in, completely removed from the shelf. Not checked out. The number of books stored here has never changed; it's meticulously been maintained so that perhaps no one would notice.

Mard Geer: Hmm... I suppose it's possible. There were times when I saw that some books were missing as well, though I had assumed they were checked out. So you believe someone is toying with you?

Zeref: Not with malicious intent. But yes... I do believe someone is playing a little game with us, to keep us 'coming back'. *small grin* And I think I've puzzled it out.

Librarian: *smirks as he sits at his desk, seeing the two approaching* Hmph. Done with that batch, I take it?

Zeref: *takes note that the man has an impressive build for his age, and that he has an eyepatch over his right eye* Hnn. That is indeed the case, Gaebolg. Would you like our help putting them back again?

Librarian: I'll manage on my own, this time. Why don't you two just peruse our collection once more?

Zeref: *smirks right back at the old man* ... I have a better idea. Tell me, is your first name really 'Gaebolg'?

Librarian: .... Hmm. *strokes his long beard* You're the first one to question that, I must confess. What makes you think it is a fake name?

Zeref: I never said that it was completely false. It could be your surname, and for whatever reason, you decided to pass it off as your first. It's not unheard of - some people simply prefer privacy. *as Gaebolg remains silent, eyeing him shrewdly, Zeref shrugs, stepping back from the pile of books he placed on his desk* It's fine if you don't wish to tell me. I was just... curious.

Librarian: ... How much do you know, or think you know...?

Zeref: *spreads out his arms peacefully* Well, it's merely a hypothesis, but taking into consideration your impressive reserves for Magic, the plaque near the entrance that clarifies every book in here belongs to you, and the gold ring with a Fairy Tail emblem on your right hand... I feel I must contend you are or were a prominent member of Fairy Tail. Given that no one at the Guild has seemed to piece this together about you, or at the very least won't talk about it in the open, that makes you very prominent. Almost as if you were our former Master... And since our First Master was a woman, that would make you Precht Gaebolg. Am I wrong?

Mard Geer: *widens his eyes, as not even he had picked up on all those details; Zeref's theory sounded plausible, though*

Precht: Well, well, don't you have the eye for detail. I must admit, you're the first one since that Gildarts brat to have worked it out, and he never bothered to set foot in here. If I'm that transparent, I must be losing my touch.

Zeref: There is very little information left about you in Fairy Tail's archives - not even your surname or even a picture was given. You weren't expelled from the Guild, so what happened?

Precht: Ah, that would actually be my doing. I didn't intend to create an amusing mystery, though that was a side effect, as you've demonstrated. ... I'm afraid it would take too long to get into all of it, but there was a time in my youth when I had lost my way. It took Mavis to pull me back from the brink of the abyss, and to atone for my mistakes, I purged the archives of information on myself, and resolved to maintain this library in complete anonymity.

???: *sigh* What am I always telling you, Precht? You've already 'atoned'! We're only enjoying retirement here. ^__^

Mard Geer: o__o Is that...?

Zeref: It appears the years have been kind to you both... To think, Magnolia's library is maintained by Fairy Tail's first two Masters. *faint smile*

Indeed, standing a few feet behind Zeref and Mard Geer was Fairy Tail's First Master, Mavis Vermillion. For being 107, she did look remarkably well, though her age did show somewhat, similar to Precht.

Precht: *sighs as he stands up, crossing his arms* Yes, well... It isn't easy for me to 'get over' Rita's death. You and Yuri may have forgiven me, but if I had been more vigilant, Makarov would have grown up with his mother. Instead, I allowed my curiosity to get the better of me, and those... cultists... took her life. *he scrunched his nose at the mention of the 'cultists', though Zeref and Mard Geer had no idea of his distaste for a specific type of mage because of this mentioned incident*

Mavis: Precht... *shakes her head as she doesn't want to delve into that incident any more than Precht already has; it was a sensitive topic for the four founders of Fairy Tail, though every single one of them had moved past the pain... except for Precht himself* Well, anyway! ^__^ *turns her attention to Zeref, and leers at Mard Geer* I've actually wanted to meet you for a while, Zeref. I found it fascinating that you created several beings out of Ethernano - never seen that done before! And this one looks really scrumptious! *eyes sparkle as she shrinks down to Chibi size and pokes Mard Geer all over with a stupid, somewhat perverted grin on her face; of course, Mard Geer tried to (lightly) swat her away, but Mavis proved to be a speedy little Chibi...*

Precht: *amused smirk* I hear from Makarov you made this first one out of pure instinct. Tell me, boy, how many have you created thus far?

Zeref: *hums as he ticks off fingers and counts them in his head* ... As of last year's S-Class Trials, 5. Mard Geer here can control plant life through his Magic, even if it's deep underground. Sayla, who watches over Natsu, wields light-based attacks and defenses. Tempester, who watches over Ultear, can manipulate any of the four elements - air, water, earth, and fire. I created Torafuzar when faced with a Trial based in the ocean, and finally, I created Franmalth to gain more flexibility and farther reach, but he also has the ability to absorb attacks. They're... quite diverse in their skillsets.

Mavis: Oooh! Let me see the others! *grown back to her normal height, but her eyes are still sparkling*

Zeref: ... I can guarantee you wouldn't find the others as 'cute'... Well... at least not Torafuzar and Franmalth, and they're the only other ones I have on-hand.

Mavis: *pout* You're in Fairy Tail. You should aim for cuteness as well as usefulness.

Zeref, Mard Geer, and Precht: o__o'

~*~

Gray: o_____o Do you think we'll catch a break, now that Erza's S-Class?

Natsu: Hell no. Going on S-Class jobs while leaving us behind? With neesan? I guarantee she just wanted the promotion to boss around neesan. o___o

Gray: That's... actually not that farfetched... >_> Why do the three scariest girls we know hafta be into you, and more importantly, why do I gotta get dragged into it?!

Natsu: Wha... they're not into me, Stripper. Neesan's just being overprotective, and Erza 'n Mira....

Gray: Haaah~, finally figured it out, did you? And I still say Ultear has to feel something for you, 'cause she literally has ZERO interest in any other guy! Throw in Lisanna, and you're getting tugged four ways!

Natsu: .......................

Gray: Oi! Don't break on me now, Flameturd! I'm counting on you to be my meat-shield! .... Come to think of it, no, this is okay. Better than okay, 'cause if you're zoned out, I can just throw you at those harpies. Hehehe.

Natsu: .........................

Gray: That's right, let it sink in! Worst case scenario, they decide to 'share' you, and you gotta go on all those shopping trips with three women.... Four, if they let Lisanna into the harem. *shudder* I can barely imagine one. You poor, poor bastard.

Natsu: ...........................

Gray: Huh. This is definitely the quietest I've seen you. It's weird. Nice, but weird. *jolts as Erza marches into the Guild and over to them*

Erza Natsu! Gray! I have found a suitable Quest, let us... >_> Gray. Why does Natsu have the thousand-yard stare.

Gray: Beats me. He kinda froze up when he thought about you 'n Mira liking him. I think puberty's finally setting in.... *gets punched into the far wall*

Erza: -_-*

Ultear: *comes striding up to the Dragon Slayer* Natsu, I picked out a Quest, let's... .... What did you do to him. >_>

Erza: Oh, you are not pinning that on me! Gray brought up our childish squabbles over him. Clearly, your advances as well as Mira's have traumatized him.

Ultear: Oh, and I'm sure you've been his hero in shining white armor. *eyeroll*

Erza: Just because you are jealous of our bond, does not mean you have to try and break us up.

Ultear: Jealous... right... Because he doesn't come home from Quests with you, whining about how you handled the heavylifting while he got to do the bare minimum. *sarcasm* At least I allow him to take on some of the tougher monsters and let him grow in experience.

Erza: So I might be a little controlling on the harder missions...

Ultear: Uh-huh. And just where do you draw the line? Because he seems to think you coddle him on every mission. ... Not to mention you sucker punch him on trains to 'help' him with his motion sickness... >_>

Erza: ............

Ultear: Thaaat's what I thought.

Erza: -_-*

Mira: Heave...HO! ^__^ *Mira and Lisanna abruptly picks the 'comatose' Dragon Slayer up off his feet and carries him away from Erza and Ultear*

Erza and Ultear: *glaring at one another in annoyance* ... This is your fault.

Erza: At least I'm not into incest!

Ultear: Hon, we're not related by blood. And he and Zeref kept their last name. If I want to snuggle with my 'otouto', I'll damn well do it. >_>

Erza: I-Indecent! At least with my S-Class title, Natsu will pursue me, keep challenging me!

Ultear: *snort* When you tackle a real S-Class assignment, like the one Zeref did, then I'll acknowledge your 'title'. Until then, to me you're just a silly girl playing at being 'S-Class'.

Erza: *glowing red eyes* Why yooouuu! *starts brawl with Ultear*

Wakaba: ... I think they forgot about Mira and Lisanna, there.

Macao: Pyro's barely fourteen, and he's already a lady killer!

Wakaba: Hope the kid realizes how lucky he is before they lose interest in him.

Makarov: I'll have you know I sat him and Zeref down for the Talk. ... Turns out Ur had already given it to them both, but at least the hidden peeping holes seemed to have mixed results.

Macao: ... How is that a good thing? Mixed is good and bad.

Makarov: Well, Natsu was resistant to most women, but as soon as he saw Erza and Mira entering the baths... *pervy grin*

Macao and Wakaba: .......... O___O

Makarov: ... What? *notices that Erza and Ultear have stopped brawling; both have demonic glowing eyes set on him* ... Ah. 'Scuse me while I go take a leak... *runs out of the Guildhall at full tilt, with both teenagers chasing after him like the hounds from Hell*

Gray: They're so lucky Master doesn't just knock 'em out...

Silver: *pats his son's head* One day you'll understand, kiddo. The wrath of the fairer sex is not to be trifled with. *pervy grin* But it can be so, so worth it...

~*~

Note: Little shorter than I wanted, but it works for now. *shrug* Haven't decided yet if I want to change up Edolas events, hence Happy's absence, but I might keep those the same. They're kinda separate from anything related to Zeref/Fairy Tail's past.

I liked the thought of a living Mavis/Yuri, and a non-evil Precht, though. Rita still died, but different circumstances. ... Still hafta iron it out, but I threw a very vague hint with Precht's disdain there. You'll definitely get clarification on the kind of 'Cultists', come Tower of Heaven. Hehe.

To be clear, Laxus was still made S-Class in X778, while Zeref made it in X779, and Erza in X780. That's the 'change' so far.

So I budged on two more Etherious. Still dunno if I'll allow Kyouka, Ezel, Jackal, and Keyes to be made, but if I budged on Torafuzar and Franmalth... Heh. At least I'm not making them too different in terms of Magic; yeah, their attacks are (probably) 'weaker' than their Curse variations, but they could be arguably 'stronger' as well, since Curses cloud their minds with negative emotions. That's my interpretation. Hope you enjoyed this a bit.