#That's inherent to his existence. And he needs to just sorta disconnect from all of that and refresh his brain + perspective because

[cursed-spirit-manipulation]

something about Satoru/Suguru and their approaches to inhumanity. Satoru feels disconnected from his own humanity, above and beyond it, but in the end what he needs to realize is that he is a part of humanity and simply one aspect of it- not an "ideal" or "peak" aspect either, just one that is different, no less or more valuable- just different, in the way that humans are diverse.

Suguru I think would benefit from no longer identifying with humanity- not in that Humanity is bad, or that he is subhuman, but rather just than "Humanity" is a concept applied to him that he may not necessarily connect to. He reads to me like going through the motions of being a good person, and I think considering and exploring his own relationship to humanity would assist in curbing his emotional reaction of trying to dehumanize others. I think he would benefit from detaching from the specific idea of "human" as being Worthy or Valuable, and instead understand that life holds whatever value one gives it, but also he exists as a person in the world and therefore will interact with others. Again, he is not any lesser, no one else is any lesser, he just needs to take the concept of "humanity" out of the equation and formulate a different, less stupid worldview

[nautilusopus]

Serious non-troll: What if you like the cop-outs and the scrambled bullshit plots and the nonsense towers of half-constructed ideas? I agree that for example Nomura is a goddamn crazy person but I find his convulsions fascinating and want to see more of them.

i mean, you’re entirely within your rights to do that. it’s just frustrating that there’s visibly no effort put into any of it, and he’s just writing for the sake of what makes the trailer look good, and that’s been 100% to the detriment of the story ever since he’s started doing it

i’m not even inherently opposed to ridiculous convoluted bullshit. i’m one of those pretentious fuckheads that unironically likes End of Evangelion and thinks it made perfect sense, obviously, duh, with all its absolute nonsense of adam and lilith and rei being a god-analogue from absorbing both the white and black seeds and allowing shinji to dictate the ultimate outcome of third impact in the culmination of a couple of really fucking long and extremely obtuse character arcs. i mean, hell, i’m 38 chapters into a fic that is running off nothing but weird high-concept ideas of how reality and parallel universes work and abstract metaphor andsleep deprivation. in any other circumstances, i’m fine with convoluted batshit nonsense.

i think the best way to explain the heart of the issue is to look at what happened to the matrix trilogy. or actually wait this is tumblr, everyone’s in high school and would’ve been foetuses or something when Revolutions came out. homestuck, then. we’ll look at homestuck. 

okay so homestuck. remember when that was as big as it was? initially, the big stumbling block was the slow pace of act 1 where john just kind of fucks around throwing glass at clown dolls for a while and if you weren’t into that kind of humour that was where the comic immediately lost you, but what ultimately got the ball rolling was [S] WV: Ascend. the general metric back then was if you weren’t hooked by that one, you wouldn’t like homestuck at all, and for many people that was the point of no return. the reason WV: Ascend was as big of a deal as it was is that we’ve been seeing a bunch of disconnected nonsense happening all over the place, and this is the first time we see our first major time loop actually closed, with the promise of a few more being set up. all that supposed joke nonsense we’d been watching the whole time? it actually mattered, surprise! from there, the narrative spends a lot of time introducing a lot of new concepts – we have captchaloguing and paradox slime, and time travel, and doomed timelines, and exiles and future versions of planets from a parallel universe the metanarrative being perpetuated by the author being diagetic and fuck knows what other things i’m forgetting about. and then, to throw you for a loop twelve whole other characters show up on top of that. so then the narrative needs to spend time establishing who these people are and what their relevance to the story is – which it does, by having them be active participants in the first arc as things go on. this ultimately culminates in [S] Cascade, where we see all these different concepts eventually tie into one another because they were deliberately set up to, and it’s at that point that you figure, well shit we’ve hit a point where all the time travel stuff has finally come to a head. and with it, you’d expect it to also bring all the character stuff to a head too, but instead hussie has an entire extra act to go so we can’t have that resolve yet. 

so in the meantime, here are 20-ish whole other characters doing some other things. but we don’t have time to establish what’s effectively the silmarillion by now, so we have to speed past it, meaning we aren’t given a chance to care about these new people. but we can’t have a chance to care about them either, because we still have to tie all this into 5 whole previous acts that are meant to feed into this. at this point, homestuck is visibly collapsing under its own weight. character arcs are forced to fart around in circles because the status quo can’t change because we still need to make it to endgame with these character dynamics more or less intact. but that’s boring to read so we’ll do this entire “what if” thing and then retcon it all out of existence, and then have the fact that you can retcon things suddenly become vital to the resolution of the coming in place of anything we’ve already established previously – not the time travel, not the parallel universe with the trolls, not even the whole thing with the Scratch leading to the alpha kids being here in the first place – when the mechanic was only introduced in the first place to sloppily patch a story together that had long since devolved into infodumps that served to paint hussie further and further into a corner as he was forced to define his lore to get the plot to keep moving forward despite the fact that the narrative wasn’t focusing properly on the people that could make that happen anymore because the story had since switched focus from those people almost entirely. 

and in the meantime the damn thing got eaten up by filler, and suddenly characters from that filler are showing up like they were totally relevant to the main story the whole time even though literally nothing they did in their own subplot had any direct bearing on the story at large, unlike the initial 12 trolls. why yes, Alternate Universe Calliope was a completely necessary addition to the story! didn’t you see our important sidestory thing where they do Stuff, and then her showing up in the climax to resolve some other things that are sorta disconnected from the main plot anyway?

not to mention the shipping. nothing ruins a story faster than throwing in a love triangle or eight, and then immediately invalidating all the character growth that happened on top of that anyway by having it literally never happen. not that it would’ve mattered anyway, because remember, we never actually got to have any of this really developed to begin with. 

by the time we hit end of act 6, there’s been so many new concepts haphazardly stapled onto the story and so many threads brought up and discarded entirely when we already established back with [S] Cascade that the story works best when they actually do this and it is doable, that it stops being merely complicated and off the wall, and starts being spread too thin, incomprehensible, and ultimately no longer part of a whole narrative deliberately comprised of interlocking storylines. shit’s just kinda happening at you, and rather than getting to see parts of a text interacting as a result of them coming from somewhere for the express purpose of then going to somewhere, you’re just being asked to accept that, yup, that’s a thing that’s going on right now. neato. sure is some stuff happening and whatnot. and in the end, for all that posturing, it didn’t even do anything. in pre-cascade homestuck that wouldn’t have even been a full flash. a bunch of nonsense happens, and then They Fightan Good, and then it’s over and there’s not a single time paradox or meta-interaction to be found. none of the stuff they built up to over all these years mattered, and neither did any of the stuff they just threw in, either. 

i’m sure you see what i’m getting at with this. 

(also he treats the women in his stories like shit and quite frankly i’m sick of it and even more sick that people keep giving him a pass for it because it’s practically reached parody levels at this point , so there’s that)

i have no problem with convoluted twisty bullshit in and of itself. but it has to accomplish something aside from just existing, and nomura doesn’t do that. by his own admission, kingdom hearts wasn’t planned, and it shows really badly. characters and entire story mechanics and plot lines are introduced solely for the sake of introducing them. they don’t go anywhere or build to anything, because they can’t, because fuck we have to stall for kh3 shhhh just keep adding more soras and hopefully no one will notice. i think the last time any of this actually mattered was kh2, and even that had a lot of the issues i’ve mentioned here. as a result of all of this, the character arcs suffer a lot, and you’re left with nothing but a big ball of plot twists that goes nowhere, and a bunch of characters that only somewhat have anything to do with any of it. 

i don’t feel like it’s overly nitpicky to find this kinda gross and seriously insulting of the audience’s intelligence. it’s just lazy time-stalling. i get that people sometimes really don’t care about stuff like narrative and character development and are just here to see riku punching mike wazowski in the teeth or whatever, but i think it’s disingenuous to pretend that these aren’t nonetheless important parts of a game’s construction – especially a studio that used to openly pride itself on selling games with a focus on story. 

and the genuinely frustrating part is, no one cares. people are gushing all over everything square puts out because it’s square, so they know they don’t have to put effort into their stories. i’m well aware i’m in the minority for saying that these games are bad. but i also thought we were done with treating, “it’s just a video game, bro! why do you care so much about the story having quality as a narrative? this isn’t an english class!” as a valid rebuttal. 

maybe i should’ve used the matrix trilogy instead. most people hate movies 2 and 3 for the weird “YOU’VE ALREADY MADE THE CHOICE/EVERYTHING THAT HAS A BEGINNING HAS AN END NEO” shit and the bonkers christ-allegory ending. i hate it because neo is about as interesting as the rock that cracked goofy’s skull open.

[bornfromscarletcords]

A Wolf’s Irony

James Wolkinder also known as The Silver Wolf, a sorta kinda Lupine God, was prowling the world with his traveling companion and sorta bestie for eternity and whatever comes after and or eats it, Rose. As far as James could tell Rose wasn’t an actual plant, though some strange encounters along the way had given her some sway with the spirit of the world’s vegetation, in fact her name had more to do with the nature of a compass and she was a great navigator. Rose was a dog, sort of, and a ghost, sort of but to most people she looked like a dark skinned girl with great wavy hair who could pass from anything from hawaiin, to mexican, to the eastern hemisphere’s Indians, to some weird type of black person and so on and so forth. The nature of her heritage was in some doubt these days as enough time with James could leave you doubting many of the absolutes you once took for granted, as well as losing much doubt in the slightly perverse if horrifyingly humorous nature of miraculous circumstances.

Rose and James had stopped in some time or space which had begun to get interesting by their standards of the concept, and it should be noted that although many stories and ideas may seem inherently disconnected at first glance, a bit of bending of perspective and unhinging into cosmic harmony, may reveal that one can hide many differing things within one another. In short, although this story is genuine in that it is it’s own tale and has it’s own personal worth, it does not take away from the truth of other parallel or perhaps even conflicting stories. In a manner of speaking, it’s almost as if each tale was its own household in a neighborhood of strange personalities.

We could discuss the potent spiciness of James and Rose’s emotional proximity to one another, or the very probable liklihood that they often engaged in super hot love making, but a lot of that stuff can get a little too, let’s say, invested in itself. Which isn’t a bad thing, but for the sake of this story, it is almost just as valuable and evolutionary to say that they seemed to share a strange forest of bonds which kept them charged and sparking with warmth for one another. James would be very much so pained and a shadow of himself without Rose, and Rose might feel something equally disturbing, as if she were missing a piece of her heart and soul, if she was deprived of James. Trying to name these plethora of connections would be interesting but it might also obscure the fact that destiny and fated twining often work in mysterious ways. Perhaps it’s more humorous like that. James and Rose didn’t really have to speak about it that much, though they did on occasion, it was like they were two moons with stars between serving as their entwined fingertips.

In super wolf fashion James drove in a grey sports car of superb quality, and illusive denomination. Rose was in the passenger’s seat, possibly as a dog, possibly as a human woman, it was hard to tell. They sort of poured out of the vehicle, in the way comets sort of fall out of nowhere and through the night sky. If Rose was more human in look she’d probably been dressed in leaf green dress, some hiking shorts and tennis shoes, she’d look about as beautiful as a stack of monetary millions, and would have looked effortless in doing so, as if appearances were the last thing on her mind. If she was a dog she’d look just as beautiful but in the humorous way that a once primal and predatorily shrewd creature like a wolf could turn into a jovial, yet cunning, canine socialite. Her fur was probably dark brown, black and violet , fluffy and curly, with ears half flopped and a tail that was almost constantly wagging.

James probably looked like a victorian england aristocrat with buttoned vest and suit, pocket watch and general swagger which was definitely detached from the present time zone. He probably looked fit, strong and powerful, perhaps humorous though in a dangerous way. In a vague sense he probably looked dreamy, like he’d just walked out of a dream, or was constantly dreaming. His hair was probably wild and roguish, and perhaps he had some stubble around his chin to give him some mountain man flare. To the more aware of extrasensory disturbances he might have had some type of strange aura around his being, like an argent cloak of light which may or may not have added to his wolfish characteristics, though it most certainly made him someone you didn’t want to bother unnecessarily. In general though, if you believed in such things, he probably just looked like a god.

Rose pried him around the arm, locking their elbows and leading him towards every landmark, regional treasure, arcade, mall, and park she could sniff out, and few people had her sense for adventures waiting in the norms. He didn’t mind as her being happy often made him happy, and the longer he was their the better a sense he got for how he could best help the person he’d come to see. Still the two also had to consider that the longer they were there the more likely their own trouble might start affecting the local’s. Ah but what is life without risk. 

They took in the nature of the city, much of what it was, what it could be, and perhaps some of the hopes that hads gone into it, answered and unanswered. They contemplated the nature of good and evil, and how both nurtured one another. How one could learn more about good from studying evil and how following the greatest of people could turn you into one of the worst.

“We’ve seen many of creatures, some monsters, some just strange beings of peculiar habit or direction. Any one of them could be behind half the evils and blessings we encounter, so I simply wonder how a person could find any cohesion or strength of purpose in this almost storm or breaking ship of conflicting truths.” Rose said.

“The way someone said it to me, or maybe showed is more accurate was that for all the strangeness that a person encounters there's a bit of it in them as well. Things were sort of made to connect even if awkwardly positioned to do so. At any point you could choose to become or unbecome those strange things, to beat them, befriend them, or succumb to them. And, well as far as I understood it, it’s the strangeness, the beast you feed that defines you and steers the course of your destiny. A fire through the storm, a glint of light in the core of darkness.” James said. She ruffled his head, and though she was not as perky as she was when their outing started she had a sort of sobered yet warm contemplation, a little more insight and appreciation for the patient things. When the last of twilight ended with the setting sun they went to find their person of interest.

Olivia Anders had long curly hair down to her waist, a cinnamon complexion which seemed to match some of the spiciness in her scent. She had a somewhat cherubic face making her seem innocent or compassionate when she wasn’t beautiful. She was of arabic and hispanic descent and was rarely seen without her guitar which most had to admit, she was pretty damn good at. But mostly Olivia was a bad person. She was manipulative, inclined to lying more often than not, and seemed to have a certain affinity for attracting the darkest and potentially least helpful of energies/entities. You could say that in many ways it was a miracle that James remembered her at all, let alone took an interest in her survival. He hadn’t given Rose the specifics of why he knew her but she had a way of feeling out his intentions and understanding the emotions he could not vocalize. There was an issue of time surrounding the woman, something that James could or would not address before but something he felt he needed to now lest she be lost for eternity or damned for a similar length of time.

Whatever had happened in the other temporal paths had not happened yet and would not be happening if James had anything to do with things. Suffice to say it was horrible, and though he did not exactly like Olivia, no in fact he probably hated her to the bottom of his soul, their was the universe to consider but more personally, it was a great shame to let such a deep (though troubled) soul waste it’s pilgrimage through destiny. Olivia was masquerading herself as a witch, and though a number of denominations could be used to describe her, witch was probably not the most helpful. She might have been a witch before, though when things started out she could have been any number of amazing and beautiful and compassionate things. Circumstance and general pettiness on her part ruined that, so now, if James was being honest with himself, she would most resemble a sorceress. Some descriptions vary on just what those creatures happen to be but generally they have sway with the darker regions of existence often having to have sacrificed much, either in themselves or in others, to achieve the ridiculous amount of power they could command. As powerful as they generally were the power often consumed them and only the truly smart and strong survived the title or condition. Olivia was smart, but she wasn’t strong, not in the way she would have been had she made some different more harmonious choices along the way. James could help her find her strength though; he would.

James and Rose sort of dropped in on Olivia while she was on her way home. She smelled like darkness, and when the two didn’t immediately get out of her way she flicked her fingers undoubtedly sending a wave of evil in their direction. James sort of ignited his soul for a moment and her spell or force was burned away to dust and wind.

“We need to speak.” James said.

“I’ll call the police, leave me alone.” Olivia said.

“You really believe the police could do something to him, as he is right now, as he is here.” Rose said.

“I don’t know you. Whatever people said about me, it isn’t true, go away.” Olivia said.

“I don’t have time for your insanity you damn child. Grit up or something damn.” James said.

“We just need to talk, for now, we could do that in your home, or if that makes you uncomfortable we could do that in the park or something.” Rose said.

“Home would not be good. People isn’t good either, too many dark things in them I draw out. Park better ish, with you at least, you can protect me from other dark things.” Olivia said looking crazy and desperate. Whatever was happening to her was reaching it’s deadline fast. James grimaced, he wondered if it had been this bad the last times, he couldn’t remember exactly, it was always at least a little different.

“Take my hand. I’m here to heal you.” James said, he didn’t mention that death was a good cure for many things. Olivia sort of shivered over to him, and placed her hand in his, he took a step and then they were in a park. Just like that as if space and time was putty to be molded. The three sat on a bench. Rose was on James’ left, and Olivia was on his right. Although she was pretty enough on the surface, he used a bit of his other sense to peak at her energy and it was like watching a boar thrashing in an oil slick. Not something you wanted to be twelve feet near let alone a couple of inches away from.

“I will give you the short version. You are sick, you are degrading, which might end in death, though it will not be an easy one for you or any of those who care for you, or it could end in something far worse though no less altering to your existence.” James said.

“I won’t die, I can’t die.”

“Death is not the worse thing, if there was no end, how could you appreciate the beginning, how could you change. And you should note that he said the other option is probably far worse. ” Rose said.

“So you are here to kill me.” Olivia said.

“No, are you even listening to us.” Rose said.

“She is beyond most words right now. Her language is violence and control, and evil. Just keep that in mind as we deal with her.” James said.

“The thing inside, it stirs, it calls worser things even when I don’t tell it to, they watch, constantly.” Olivia said.

“Yes well, that’s what happens when you sacrifice puppies, or torture your former friends. Power is a means to an end, not the point of existence, and even as a means it is hardly all that worth it. Strength is more important, as far as I’ve seen. As powerful as you could say I am, it is forever faded by my strength, which comes from inside, which comes from depth and understanding.” James said. Olivia was breathing a little more heavily now, but she wasn’t trying to run or fight.

“I can burn out the evil, but if you just reach for it again, it will be wasted, and I’m not in the habit of wasting my time. If I help you, you need to stay helped, you need to grow and save yourself.” James said.

“Why.”

“Would you rather I leave you now, I’m offering you a way out of this nonsense you’ve surround yourself with.” James said.

“No why do you want to help me.” “Because we used to be friends, or at least we could have been. It was many lifetimes ago, in a place most people don’t remember anymore. I don’t want to be your friend Olivia, but I don’t mind being your guardian angel every now and then, when you need it, when you deserve it. Few things are unfixable. Existence is simply, by being, miraculous.” James said.

“Burn it, burn it out, all of it.” Olivia said after a second of consideration.

“If I do it will be like hollowing out your soul, like losing all the blood in your body. It will replenish itself, I’ll make sure of that, but for you to be able to function afterwards, I’ll require a service to cement our bond. A symbol of echange, a type of unspoken oath heard to those intangible and invisible things.”

“Yes I will...you are kind.” She said.

“Don’t jump to conclusions just yet. This will hurt a whole lot.”  James said. He touched two fingers to her forehead. A sigil burned there for a second in bright red heat. It was an “M” , and then it rearranged itself into silver essence, like a star going supernova; there was a “W”. Then the letter dissapeared, and though Olivia had started screaming, James silenced the banshee like screeching, but Rose noticed the air still rippled as if she hadn’t been put on mute. When she was done she passed out, and James caught her.

“They won’t have heard her, but her enemies and dark things will most likely feel the change and her...weakness I suppose. We should move her. I’d go to her house, but it’s probably loaded with all manner of half assed evil dumbness.” James said.

“She looks so frail.”

“Well knocking an idiot out of a power trip tends to make them look a little bit lesser. Don’t be fooled, she was on a rampage of self destruction and the regular kind.”

“You get pretty destructive yourself sometimes.” Rose said.

“Yeah but my stuff’s productive and artful, her stuff is just tasteless and full of pointless chaos.”

“Well I can’t say she looks like mother theresa.”

“Maybe like vampiric brood mother theresa.

“Oh now you’re just being mean.”

“She started it, and plus, you don’t know how many times I’ve had to do this damn thing. This is like the first time it’s even shown some sign of going right.”

“Well if she’s that stubborn I know why you like her.”

“I don’t like her, I hate her, but I’ll be damned if I let her waste everything she could become and has sacrificed for human dumbness.”

“So I take it we’re going to a hotel then.” Rose said.  

“Yes if you could make a reservation or whatever that’d be great.”  James said.

“Cash or credit.” Rose said.  

“Silver?” James said.

“Hah, you’re cute.” Rose said picking out her phone and typing in commands at superhuman speed, perhaps even super dog speed.

When Olivia woke up she was gasping for breath. She tried to move but her movements were sluggish and lacking the aura of dark majesty she seemed to possess before.

“What did you do to me?” She said.

“Exactly what I said I would, I burned out your evil, well your negative and I mean downright corrupted and depraved energy.” James said.

“I feel like a corpse.” She said looking a little grey.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself girly, you’ll have to wait for that sweet release like the rest of us. No you aren’t dead, or at least if you were more aware you wouldn’t describe yourself as such. Your gas tanks just running on empty most likely after thinking, erroneously, that it had all the time in the world to simply muck everything up. As I said your energy will come back, differently of course, but it will be tethered to my energy, to an extent, so if you don’t help me here and now, it will leave you or destroy you when I move on.”

“Why would you give me your energy?”

“Because If I left you like you are with only your own magic or whatever to rely on, you’d probably just go back to the dumbness you were indulging in because it’s all that you know, all the people you wronged would take this as their golden oppurtunity to get their vengeance on, all that evil you were communing with would twist you into a ghoulish breeding ground for darkness, or you’d just sort of collapse and never get back up like a body without a soul.” James said.

“You seem to have thought this through.” Olivia said.

“You could say I’ve had a lot of time to prepare.” James said.  

“Or times.” Rose muttered to herself cracking a small grin.

“So what are you some type of angel or something?” Olivia said.               

“I don’t believe I’m anything you would believe in, outside of some petty symbols you’ve attached to those that thwart you. I have served many roles and causes in my time, I have been protector, healer, justice, order, forgotten king, and hopes smallest brightest spark. I suppose you could call me an angel if you truly believed in it, if it truly mattered to you. Otherwise call me James Wolkinder, a very strong guy who is occasionally very powerful, who can be a wolf, and who likes to mess around with silver. Though I do go by James for short.” James said looking very much like a normal guy and very much like a god all at the same time.

“That’s pretty...heavy.” Olivia said.

“Many of the worthy things tend to be. The most important thing is that I am generally reliable, if you are loyal, and if you give a damn about how this all turns out. If you believe it’s worth it to actually matter and better, well...everything.” James said.

“I do…kinda sorta, It feels like I popped like twenty morphines.” Olivia said.

“Yes well, you can convince me in the morning, by then you should be capable of walking and we can begin cementing our pact or whatever you want to call it.”

“So you’re energy or aura or whatever, it can actually like protect me?”

“It can’t protect you from making dumb choices, or from getting what’s coming to you from people you’ve pissed off. But it can shield you from general evil which I’m not sure if anyone person is really responsible for, and though you might get your just deserts that may not translate into being locked in some torture dungeon, though you might get punched in the face or a couple of parking tickets or something. It will work as well as you connect with it, and I’m hoping you won’t disgrace it, or give it cause to cut its losses and slay you itself. In short not a toy, not a gift, it is a promise and a hope, and an armor against tragedy. It will help you stand, when and where you believed you could not, it will show you how to be strong, and help you know why?”

“You should sell cars.” Olivia said.

“I’ll settle for salvaging your essence.” James said.

“We could actually make a lot of money that way.” Rose whispered to him.

“Something to consider for after then.” James said nodding along.

In the morning they went to work. Olivia had trouble walking so James offered her his arm to keep her steady, but also to prevent her from accidentally harming Rose. He could feel her testing out his energies, trying to rip or pull here or there but it wouldn’t move for her, like she’d been burdened with iron sneakers. It was not unlike a cobra hissing at the walls of its cage, or a kitten scratching at the hand petting it, very much like nature; impulse and instinct rather than an overtly conscious choice. They went to find a wizard.

“I should kill you.” The wizard Gail, said to Olivia with hushed menace. In truth James wouldn’t have minded if she smacked her a little, but he hadn’t come here to kill if he didn’t have too, and he wanted to create as few ripples as possible. Gail was blonde with short hair and a fit body which looked like it might have run track when she was a teenager and found it hard to fully abandon it’s former habits. Like Olivia she couldn’t have been much older than twenty seven if that, but a person didn’t have to be old to be dangerous. Gail’s wand was sparking with all but caustic magic and if they weren’t careful they’d be dealing with a couple of fireballs firing. If we were giving a general difference between a witch and a wizard, you could say that wizard’s were more drawn to the magic of the dead, whereas a witch’s domain dealt more with the living. James liked wizards better, but he supposed that was a personal preference, they just were a little more clean with their craft from what he’d seen.

“You wish you could...bitch.” Olivia said heaving a little heavily but still managing to put some fire into the last word. Unfortunately Gail looked like she was ready to shoot off a little fire herself.

“We didn’t come here to fight. And I know it’s sounds hard to believe but Olivia’s here to atone or something like that.” Rose said.

“She doesn’t know the meaning of the word.” Gail said. She was dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans. They were in her apartment, but Rose suspected that would hardly stop her from trying to kill them if she felt cornered.

“I know plenty of words.” Olivia said still sounding a little sluggish.

“I have expunged the corruption within her, it is her choice what she does with this change. So far she has agreed to repay her debt and assist me in a task.” James said.

“Well she doesn’t have the same spawn of satan vibe I usually got from her, but who the hell are you, and why are you bothering me.” Gail said.

“I am James, I am also a wolf who enjoys silver. This is Rose, my beautiful and awesome partner in...what do we do again?” James said cracking a smile.

“This and that.” Rose said returning his with her own.

“We know that you are one of the many wronged by Olivia. I have learned that few things can be more dynamic, if not strong, than the resolution of a powerful feud, an enemy turned, if not friend, than a productive neutral.” James said. 

“She tried to steal my magic and destroyed a family artifact in the process. Aside from being extremely versatile and strong, though meaningless to her because she couldn’t use it to make children cry, it was the last thing I had that really connected me to my grandmother. She was like everything to me in case you don’t understand why that is important.” Gail said, the last sentence pointed with much rage towards Olivia.

“Well like I’m sorry or whatever.” Olivia said.

“Go to hell.” Gail said.

“I don’t believe words will accomplish what we need. She isn’t here to try and be your friend but to make steps towards bettering herself and if not healing the wounds she created then preventing other wounds from being made.” James said.

“So...like...uh this is awkward… so what do you need me to do?” Olivia said.

“To die damnit.”

“Please, as terrible as she was, she can accomplish that much betterness or whatever you want to call it.” James said.

“Fine, she can help me upgrade the wards on my apartment or whatever, and make me a new pendant to pass on my children if I ever have them. And she can set up my new tv stand.”

“I’m not a carpenter or whatever.” Olivia said.

“I know I just want to see you suffer with normal people problems.” Gail said.

The set to work doing whatever it is they were doing. Olivia seemed to understand the basics of what Gail required but either the new pool of magic she had to pull on, or her change in karmic alignment made even the simplest of spells difficult to form. Which meant that it took longer than expected but not that it didn’t work. While that was happening James and Rose were chatting.

“So what is like a wizard or whatever? Like as far as this place is concerned” Rose said letting her hands drift wide as if trying to encompass the entirety of the strange world in one motion.

“That’s complicated. As you know it becomes a battle of semantics half the time as far as ‘who’s this’, versus, ‘that’s what’ or whatever. Still as you also know subtle changes or differences  can shift the cosmos. Most of it is based on belief and alignment of a person’s choices or whatever. Wizards here have more access to a lot of the more forgotten magics rather where as the witches have a lot of modern magic it’s just relatively weaker. Neither have a high survival rate but I suppose you could say Wizards are more grey whereas witches are more dark.” James said.

“So witches are unlikely to start summoning fireballs.” Rose said.  

“They might but yes it would be unlikely, and it would cost them dearly. You might even say it’s a subtle difference in emotional trajectory or intention.” James said.

“Magic’s pretty wierd.” Rose said.

“That I’m pretty sure we can all agree on.” James said looking at Olivia and Gail’s work.  

When they were done Gail gave James her number saying that she owed him for smacking Olivia down a level, or a thousand. Then the crew went out into the woods oddly enough, and James nearly got an arrow in the face when they chanced on their target.

“Not a step closer.” The man said.

“We mean you no harm.” James said.

“If you’re walking all chummy like with that one I severely doubt it. You can leave with your life, but she stays, and she dies on our terms.” The man said.

“Our terms?” Rose said. The man whistled and the forest sort of shed a layer of itself and revealed, though obscured, a party of heavily armed men and women all with weapons aimed at the three.  “You must have been really popular in elementary school.” Rose said to Olivia.

“I ate alone a lot.” Olivia said.

“Of course you did.” James said, trying not to make any sudden moves while still observing their predicament. The men and women seemed to be garbed in some type of military camouflage, but it could just as easily have been leather and furs or any other strange gamesmen garb from throughout the centuries. “You are the Hunters, correct? As in, you accept this term?”

“It works as well as some of the others, so sure, but those are terrible last words.” The man said pulling back his bow string a little tighter.”

“I am here to make up for the terrible things I did. Like I know I may never be able to fully erase the scar it left but I can help ease the pain which was born because of it.” Olivia said.

“You’ve been practicing your kindness.” Rose said almost proud. James snickered.

“We sent seven of our own to take out this mean ol’ monster that everyone and their mother seemed to be complaining about. Most of what we do is for sport, the thrill of the hunt, or simply to cleanse an evil from the world. She tortured them and left them for us to find in pieces. We try not to get too sentimental, they tried to kill her, she killed them instead,  but we do have to honor our own.”

“I can teach your young ones how to defend against or defeat witchcraft. If your weapons need extra tuning when it comes to tracking or ending more magical evils, I can assist. I have even brought some of my grimoires as a sign of good faith. They’ll be hard to read without my help but you guys are pretty good at gathering stuff up, so maybe you have something which can do the job. I will not help you harm the innocent or court malevolent energies however. I will not try to stop you unless you intend to obligate me to your aid by force, then I may have to kill you.” Olivia said.

“Those are bold words.” Said another hunter.

“She’s a bold girl.” Said A hunter. There was some low whispering which James and Rose tried not to hone in on which was hard. The hunters lowered their weapons slightly, and one of their women stepped forward.

“I’m Candace, and your fire or spirit or whatever seems to check out. Whatever evil was in you before it seems to have been replaced by something a little brighter, well a lot brighter but we thought that was just this guy,” Candace said nodding to James, “We were still going to kill you, you witches are pretty tricky after all, but you seem genuine, and we are not allergic to educational competition.”

“Well you are Hunters.” Olivia said.

“Yes I suppose that does make sense. Well you leave us with the books and some way to reach you and we’ll call it even until a bad moon rises or whatever. This is for you.” Candace said, her last sentence addressed to James. It was their contact info.

“What’s this for?” James asked.

“Because one of our own says that energy which seems to have washed her clean, belongs to you. In a manner of speaking you helped avenge our fallen, and for that you have our thanks. Call on us and we will come...once.” Candace said.

When they were out of earshot Rose whispered to James “Why do you get all the thanks I was there to.”

“Poor simple woman, this is a man’s world, I’m like the CEO and you are but a poor regional manager. Be grateful for your sad salary deprived of those beautiful extra digits and make me dinner when I get home.” James said, Rose gave him a knuckle sandwich.  

James silver blade was busy was flickering left and right, and stabbing up and down as he dueled with his foe. The man Zephyr had attacked them as soon as they entered his territory, and unlike the hunters, there had been no warning, only one near brush with decapitation or disembowelment after another. He was dressed in a strange armor, black with rough scales and a golden cloak. His face was hidden behind his helm. Being godly meant James could heal from most mortal wounds, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be put in compromising situations, in fact it meant he had to be that much more aware and skillful than less durable creatures. Being stuck in an infinite loop of pain and confusion would be devastating and a huge waste of psuedo immortality. Bearing this in mind, James was about as skilled in forms of combat and survival as a person could get, some had even called him overly paranoid to which he often replied “just overly fond of maintaining my appendages...and dignity”. Aside from being one of the greatest trapmakers and disarmers amongst the divine James was also a pretty slick talker, once convincing himself back into existence, after laughing himself back to pieces. Still he’d have had a hard time convincing this Zephyr of anything, as he was a Dragon Slayer. Dragon Slayers were more or less dragon descended or dragon blooded creatures who were also bonded to some other dimensional alignment which made them unlike the more full blooded creatures. In many regions of confirmation this hybridization was important to the destruction of the draconic creature which was more or less the purpose of Dragon Slayers. One dragon fighting the other could end in any number of ways but it usually resulted in the energy of the dragon returning to their source. Dragon Slayers served as a sort of alternate channel from which the dragon energy could be directed to more unlikely destinations, perhaps even non existence itself. With this said, Dragon Slayer Arts could, under certain circumstances be nearly as effective in slaying gods. With this said, James was very cautious about the edge of the man’s black iron blade with it’s golden veins.

Rose was terrified, but also, slightly shamefully, hot all over at getting to witness this awesome exchange of might and skill. She pulled Olivia this way and that as they avoided arcing swings, and powerful throws, while looking for something that might end the battle in their quickly...without James being cast into oblivion or something. James muscles uncoiled like guns, battling the slayer with viper like poise and strength of spirit. Just when Rose, still feverish and a bit more moist than she felt particularly comfortable with (if only out of a embarrassment), found an ace in the whole a slamming kick to the chest sent Zephyr across the room, in a heap against the wall. That was when James appeared before him, in wolfish silver armor and cloak which seemed as radiant and divine as it it did solid metal; his blade pointed at Zephyr’s throat.

“I yield, that is a fine blade, but that armor is top knotch.” Zephyr said.

“I could say the same about yours.” James said, sounding like he was smiling under that wolfy helm. He extended an armored hand, Zephyr took it and was hoisted to his feet.

“Ah, I see you found my apprentice.” Zephyr said to Rose.

“Dad, you’re embarrassing me.” Said the voice of a young girl from inside what appeared to be a miniaturized version of Zephyr own ensemble, though she boasted a spear instead of a sword.

“You shouldn’t be embarrassed. This is the pinnacle of what it means to be a dragon slayer, minus the pointed lack of dragons. A quality fight, and the potential end by a worthy enemy who fights with their soul as much as their mind. The falling teaches you as much as the rise, maybe even more.” Zephyr said, limping slightly, but otherwise striding over to the ladies as if he was a lord of great renown who’d merely stubbed his toe. Perhaps he was, there were a couple of things strangers didn’t know about James upon first sight.

“Dad, says that some things can only be known after you’ve fought a person. Sometimes blades and armor can say things that humans can’t.” The little slayer girl said.

“Your dad sounds like a smart man.” Rose said, still a little steamy under the collar, Olivia gave her a questioning glance.

“As I’ve heard it, a conversation between dragons is often interpreted as great cosmic or earthly disturbances by the mortals who see them. Not unlike a duel or war of the fates.” James said.

“That is one way of saying it I suppose. Dragons are beautiful and magnificent creatures, but like all things they must end. It is not exactly a task full of praises or rewards, but everything has it’s balance and providing an honorable end to those great creatures who both deserve it and require it, is not entirely without its joys.” Zephyr said.

“I’m surprised you have such quality company, mean lady.” The girl said.

“I’d apologize for my apprentice’s words, Jade can be a little brash sometimes, though I don’t particularly mind people who can push past the nonsense...but uh yeah I feel the particular need to second her statement. You surprise me Olivia, I thought you damned for all eternity, and maybe whatever comes after that, perhaps a pizza dimension or something.” Zephyr said.

“Pizza would be something, with like onion shavings, garlic and chunks of ham or something.” Rose said slobbering slightly, and her hungry look made James a little hot under the collar himself.

“People change.” Olivia said.

“That they do, though I’ll admit I am rarely one to settle for a weak alteration in character. Still from the company you keep I can tell this path of yours is worthy, if not entirely good.”

“Those words mean a lot.” Olivia said, she wasn’t lying.

“Do they now?” Zephyr said.  

“I have a lot of respect for you.” Olivia said.

“That’s...interesting.” Zephyr said.

“What exactly is the story between you guys.” Rose said.

“Something dragon-blooded or of relation to a dragon was at risk of breaching this world. Olivia hired me to destroy the creature, but what she didn’t say was that she had a hand in corrupting the creature. I killed it but it’s essence could not be put to a more useful purpose, too tainted, so it’s essence wavers in unrest, mostly harmless, but it’s echoes are a pain in my heart and it keeps the darker things out their agitated and active. I did not seek retribution from her though I might have in another life, but we were also far from comrades or friends.”

“I can help you clean what remains, and help the essance move on. I have learned new things, better ways of existing with my skills.” Olivia said.

“That would do a lot to heal the pain in this world and the distance between us.” Zephyr said.  

“It was a very dangerous distance.” Jade said.

“It will take time but I’ve already drafted a plan if you are willing to go over it.” Olivia said.

“That sounds just fine.” Zephyr said. They chatted and schemed for a while before Jade mentioned something to Rose and James.

“Dad says I should give you this. You can use it to call him should you ever need help or you find a dragon who needs killing. Or if you’re up for a rematch. That last bit means you’re really good. Just touch it and speak the word that appears to you or the emotion you feel from it.” Jade said handing them a black and gold  serpentine scale the size of hand. James touched it and it glowed slightly.

“Justice.” He said. Zephyr snapped to attention and looked his way.

“It’s not a toy ya know.” Zephyr said and they all started laughing.

Rose, and James paid for another hotel room to get to the root of their increasing heat. Olivia was alone in her room for much of the day, though she could still sort of feel the other two and that they could feel her, so she hadn’t been abandoned. When they returned they looked like a million years had past but they’d only gotten more vibrant and healthy, and that unbalanced aching heat which had been there before seemed to have settled into an even hotter sustained ignition. They were all but glowing.

“You two look happy.” Olivia said. “Positively thrilled.” Rose said sounding like she was still on an island resort.

“You said there was one more person we had to meet with, want to tell me so I can prepare for any pitchforks getting tossed or particular grade of hatred to look out for.” Olivia said.

“Well that would be pretty complicated considering as I’m looking at the last person.”

“That’s cute but I don’t really have time to sit down and introduce you to ‘the real me’. What do you want my diary or something.”

“No that’d be weird.” James said.  

“Right.” Olivia said.

“He’s already read it.” Rose said.

“What?” Olivia said.

“It was riveting.” Rose said.

“People rarely change even when they can, change isn’t always the easy thing most people want to pretend it is, though it’s far from unachievable. Olivia you are and were a hard person to change, which would have been an insult a couple of days ago, but we are not so much enemies now. Not friends, but I have enough experience to know some bonds are not so fond of labeling. Suffice to say, your stubborness is endearing, but also indicative of the formerly dormant internal strength of a woman who was often too smart for her own good, but that is something men are fond of saying when they’ve been outwitted by a quality dame a time too many. So with that I tip my metaphorical hat off to you.” James said but then, midbow an actual hat fell from his head and onto Olivia’s. It shouldn’t have been possible but it sort of somersaulted through the air. It was a quality magician’s hat like argent platinum.

“Was that a compliment?” Olivia said, blushing slightly and admiring the texture of the hat.

“Oh heavens no, a savage like me would not be capable of such civilized behavior. I’m not even entirely sure what a compliment is, can you eat it, does it cook? Regardless, I will say that I am sorta kinda proud to call you my very strange and challenging acquaintance of unorthodox connection. You have proven that even the worst of us are not beyond bettering ourselves or inspiring others. You’ve shown that hope can and often is found in the simplest or more unlikely locations. That the universe still has it’s crafty surprises up its sleeve. I’d thank you but that’d be bizarre.”

“Oh yes downright bonkers.” Olivia said smiling.  

“Oh, I’m glad you agree. With that said, oh let me check the time,” James said pulling out his pocket watch, it read “Half Past Lunacy”,  “Ah we are running a little short on it aren’t we. Well best to get down to business. I, James Wolkinder, also known as The Silver Wolf, Also Known as James The Amazing, The Magnificent, And Potentially The Best Looking Guy That Ever Did Step Out Into The Verse, dub you, Olivia whatever your last name is,” James said Olivia and Rose were all but laughing their pants off, “Guardian Of The Hearts; Watcher Of Hopes”. There was a pulse through the air, and Olivia felt something shivering about her form but it past, the fire in her core did not though.

“That it, I don’t get a medal or anything.”

“We could get you a sticker, or a coupon or something.”

“Here I know.” James said, he pulled out his watch again and stuck his hand into its shadow, “Not in here,” he said pulling it out, “hey wait, it’s always right under your nose or something, girly, if you’d…” James was saying.

“Already on it chiefy.” Olivia said lifting up the hat, allowing a silver heart shaped watch to fall into her other hand.

“Is that a necklace?” Rose said.

“Don’t look at me like that he gave it to me?” Olivia said.

“Wrong you earned it, so it came to you of it’s own volition. Don’t look so down Rose, we haven’t even gotten to the best part.

“And what might that be?” Rose said.

“A Surprise.” James said. He crossed his arms extending his hands to each of them. “If you’d be so kind my beautiful company.” He continued. The girls put there hands in his and from one moment to the next they were gone.

They landed in the park where they had talked to Olivia on the first night, though it wasn’t exactly the same park, it was like a brighter, happier, more wild version of the same park. Like its evolved form or unconscious dream or something. Candace, Zephyr and Gail were already there standing in front of something that looked more or less, like a, well silver wolf the size of a toy doll. It was not animate as far as any one could tell.

“I was considering going with a snake because snakes can like shed their skin or whatever and it’d have gone well with the whole aspect of change or whatever, but you know, wolves are just awesome.” James said.

“Can you get this show on the road, there are things to be tracked.” Candace said.

“I took a day off from work for this.” Gail said.

“I only said I’d need like an hour, you could have chose a lunch break or something.” James said.

“Yeah well...the point is I have stuff to do too.” Gail said.

“I am pretty free for most of the day, though I will admit. As...chipper as this place is, I’d rather be training my apprentice.” Zephyr said.

“Don’t worry this will only take a second.” James said. He arranged them together, first Gail, then Candace, then Zephyr, then Olivia. James and Rose stood with each other.  James turned to address the little wolf figurine.

“Determination of the Wizard, for vitality and creativity.” James said and Gail Knelt to the ground her glowing energy swirling about the wolf.

“Cunning of the Hunter, for clear sight, and strategy.” James said and Candace knelt to the ground, glowing and a bit of her energy swirling around the wolf.  

“Honor of the Dragon Slayer, to value one’s kin and enemies, to know how to stand when other’s will not, and why we fall.” James said  and Zephyr knelt to the ground, glowing and a bit of his energy went to the wolf.

“Strength of the Timely Guardian, to know that the impossible can be changed and that change is not impossible. But most importantly that even on the darkest of nights sometimes it is okay to smile.” James said, and Olivia knelt to the ground laughing a little and her energy glowed to swirl about the wolf. Then James gave Rose a fevered glance.

“What are you doing?” Rose said. Then he clutched her close and pressed his lips to hers parting them with much fire, they stood like that all but melded to each other.

“A short sacrifice.” James said to Rose, who looked both irked and pleased as she ruffled his hair, which was already pretty wild. He stalked over to the wolf, and knelt beside it. “There’s a song about this somewhere or something. A thing about a kiss from a rose or something. Well from her lips to mine, and mine to yours, I lay on you the weight of my hope, and the fire of my love. It could consume the world.” James said to the wolf before kissing it on its head. There was a flash, and the park began to shake. When it was all done. A man stood where the little wolf had. He had silver eyes not unlike James’ own, but he would have said he had Rose’s good looks.

“That’s a sexy creature.” Gail said, a little hot under the collar herself. He wasn’t exactly dressed, but also not undressed either until James clothed him. He was fit, and though he wore the veil of humanity there was always, almost certainly a beast behind the illusion. His hair ran down his back and shoulders.

“Little brother, I’ve found in my existence that names, although risky and not always as clever as we would like, make us a little more relatable, a little more like people which is not a concept monopolized by humans, so if you would allow, it would be my privalege and my joy to bestow upon you a name, from my heart sung.” James said,

“I will allow it.” The man who had been a little silver wolf said. It was not a human voice but it used their language in a way that was not unrelatable; like an earthbound angel reborn.

“How about Frederick.” James said.

"That would make me happy.” Frederick said.

And The Rest Was His Story.