#Wings of fire cover re-draw

[zuxver]

Saw some other people doing this, and since I am back in the WOF series after the 4th series was announced, here is some Sundew! I drew her from the cover (ovis) I hope you like it!

[butterfrogmantis]

Hey cowboy, whatcha doing tonight? Know a place downtown with a vacant sign Giddy up cowboy, if you're down to ride You can keep your boots on if you like

I have a desperate need to create cowfolk (gn) romance content rn but whilst tumblr supplies me w/ enough RDR2 and Rarijack I'm stuck in a pit of my own creation whereby I don't romantically ship Wooly (which is why I specify romance content, I'm not lacking 4 platonic content) and I haven't yet designed the cowgirl I have in mind - soon, soon! Luckily I have these two to scratch that particular drawing itch

I guess I've covered the basics of Wrangler's attraction - strong blacksmith that could probably bend a horseshoe into a heart with his bare hands. Also fangs, wings and spikes are cool with the kids these days. Wrangler is also obnoxiously confident re: annoying but you love him anyway so he makes his interests known upfront.

Zinc's a bit like Farmer in the sense that he's a bulky guy but painfully awkward. In Zinc's case mostly only w/ flirting, he's one of the more happy go lucky villagers and has a cheerful word for everyone. So what's in it for him outside of ego boosting? Well in the words of Jessica Rabbit, Wrangler makes him laugh. Not to say that Wrangler isn't handsome if you like scruffy little guys who turn up with sticks in their hair and their shoes on fire - and i've seen BOTW Link simps so I know there's a market for that /lh.

But moreso than that Wrangler is fun to be around; he has funny stories and despite his past escapades is fiercely loyal and almost ironically willing to be a protector, though Zinc insists he need not lose anymore adult teeth. And whilst Wrangler has been kicked out the Smithery - multiple times in fact - on the rare occasion Zinc decided to give a more assertive bit of flirtatious banter (or was that a threat? Wrangler isn't sure) it's funny to see how quickly his tune changes. So it balances out.

Wrangler and Zinc are mine

[doctorstrangereview]

Doctor Strange #178

Cover Date: March 1969 On-Sale Date: December 5, 1968

Thus we begin phase two of The Sons of Satannish arc. After casting the spell of fire and ice just before dropping dead, the stakes are higher than ever. I said Doc would need help to wrap this up. Here he'll recruit The Black Knight. For the final show, he'll have even more sidekicks.

After the title of the story takes an entire, multi-panel page, we delve into a multi-page recap of the previous story. Asmodeus/Benton sneaks into The Ancient One's pad disguised as Doc. The real Doc arrives disguised as new Doc. Both get into a slap fight. The Ancient One holds back. Asmodeus/Benton is about to attack with all he's got and drops dead. As he dies, he casts the spell of fire and ice to release Surtur and Ymir. Four pages later we get into the story proper.

I gotta say, while Colan doesn't give The Ancient One the hot, mature, bearded daddy vibe that Ms. Severin did, he looks might fine in that lovely green ensemble. We see Doc without his mask for the first time since the redesign. I'm not particularly enamored of the changes, but the slight reshaping of the collar is a positive.

While going over their options, we learn that Asmodeus banished his fellow cult members to Tiboro's Sixth Dimension. Not seen since just after Doc got his red cape.

Tiboro seems to have dyed his costume new colors. Perhaps editorial felt he didn't have enough green for this series. Anyway, the Sons may be the only way of reversing a spell invoked my someone empowered by Satannish. Guess he's got to go rescue the naughty boys. Trouble is, he needs a mystic on Earth to help him come and go. Despite numerous mystical allies having been revealed throughout the run of the series, he feels he's got only one person he can turn to. Yes, he must once again endanger the life of Ms. Victoria Bentley. Doc goes ghost and travels to England.

Even though Vicky's been through severe mental and physical trauma she still finds time to through a raging, sexy costume party. Conveniently, Dane Whitman, The Black Knight is attending the party and showing off his, um, sword! Having recently met at the Van Dyne/Pym wedding, Doc recognizes his, uh, sword.

Doc makes all the guests that aren't Vicky and the Knight disappear. He introduces himself and Vicky is horrified at the new look. Doc must be relieved that he's found a way to give Vicky the brush off and can full concentrate on his main side-piece, Clea. Doc explains to Dane the he needs him and his, uh, sword.

Doc tells Dane they need to get going and tells Vicky her party will soon be raging again. Vicky promises to keep in mental contact. Dane's winged horse appears out of nowhere and they're off. Gene gets to draw weird stuff again!

Tiboro is waiting to meet the pair along with the Sons of Satannish, whose cult robes have turned a boring grey. After calling himself invincible, Tiboro presses his attack on the magician and the knight. It's so awesome it takes two pages to depict it.

Tiboro conjures a mystic wall which the Knight shatters with his, uh, sword. Tiboro throws a mystic bolt at the pair that seems to miss and the Knight is like "that was lame" but monsters suddenly start growing out of the ground. At first they seem easy to strike down, but each hit causes two more to pop up.

Doc causes the air around the demons to crystalize. Tiboro himself re-enters the fray. He and Doc have a short dick measuring contest. Tiboro attacks Doc. Doc turns it aside with a psychic shield.

Tiboro prepares to keep repeating the attack until Doc weakens. The Black Knight reminds Tiboro Doc isn't alone and Tiboro refocuses his attack on the Knight. Tiboro blasts the ground under the Knight away and he starts his eternal fall. Doc manages to rescue him. Tiboro is about to strike Doc down while his back is turned. The Knight sees what's about to happen and throws his sword, destroying Tiboro's wand. Tiboro is mostly powerless without it and the pair claim victory. Doc doesn't banish Tiboro into nothingness. He just wants the cultists. "I can do that," responds Tiboro. Doc, The Black Knight and the Sons of Satannish leave the Sixth Dimension.

I think the story was a bit spartan which caused an extended recap of the previous issue. Very much like a show that's short a few minutes and we see way too much of the previous episode in the opening. Even using five pages for flashbacks and several more for Doc and The Black Knight to team up things drag more than any previous Roy Thomas story. It does establish Dane Whitman and Victoria Bentley as friends and neighbors which will play into a future storyline. Sadly, it's the last we see of Vicky for a long time. I liked Tiboro's return, but the colorist made him look bland with all the earth tones. He really needs the purple from his previous appearance to make that costume pop. The battle seems to take too long with not much happening. Roy seems to be relying on Gene to extend the meager story with lots of crazy panels. It's not quite as bad as a Dan Adkins stretch, but it takes its toll. The penultimate tale of The Sons of Satannish is a middling affair. Hopefully the conclusion picks things up.

[concernedlogic]

Wings of Fire has genuinely changed my life. I found it during spring break of 2021. I was still in high school at the time and was terrified of people finding of that I like things, but the boredom of the pandemic was getting to me, so I decided to pick out a book series that I was curious about and had seen on the shelves of my mom’s elementary book fairs. Heck, I didn’t even know that it had continuity between books. In a few short weeks I had devoured the entire series, even going back to school in the weird way they had us doing in the first half of 2021. I was still scared of what people thought, so I’d hide the covers when I brought them to school, but it was the first time in a very long time that I allowed myself to enjoy something. It wasn’t just a fiction series I enjoyed either. I spent an ungodly amount of time thinking about stories and characters and whatnot. I loved WoF more than any other piece of fiction I’d ever read.

Wings of fire helped me connect with my own emotions, and combat my depression, which I didn’t realize I had until very recently. It helped me enjoy things. It re-introduced me to animation and the stories it could tell. It helped me write and draw again, because I wasn’t in a good enough mental state to do it before. It helped me re-kindle my love for analyzing and interpreting stories and characters. Not only that, but it introduced me to a genuinely amazing community that, though I don’t engage with it much, has helped me keep moving.

I wish I could say that it’s a perfect series, but it’s not. But it has helped me in ways I can’t even express with words.

So thanks WoF. For everything you’ve done for me.

[mitchbeck]

WOLF PACK BEAT BRUINS LAST SUNDAY

By Gerry Cantlon, Howlings PROVIDENCE, RI—The Hartford Wolf Pack ended the Providence Bruins' five-game winning streak. Brett Berard scored his team-high 19th goal, and Bobby Trivigno added two quality assists in a critical 5-2 road victory, solidifying the team's fourth-place positioning. The Pack game-winning goal came when Berard, the team's leading goal scorer and local hero, gathered in a shot by his former collegiate teammate Mitch Callahan, who missed the net entirely. In center ice, Berard collected the loose biscuit, turned on the jets, and then left the Bruins defense in the dust, racing in on goal and firing from off the left wing past Brandon Bussi for his 19th goal of the season at 6:02. Berard is tied for the third most goals in the AHL with former first-round pick Shane Wright of the Coachella Valley Firebirds. In the third period, the Baby Bruins pulled within a goal at 3-2 when Anthony Richard, fresh off a nine-game recall stint to the parent team in Boston, took a pass from Alex Regula, an AHL-leading plus-33, along the right boards in the offensive zone. Richard breezed past Nikolas Brouillard, who was caught flat-footed, went backhand to forehand, and sent his 20th goal of the campaign over Dylan Garand's glove-hand at 5:39. The Wolf Pack defense clamped down the rest of the way, only allowing the Bruins three shots as the Pack added two empty netters a minute apart, first by Anton Blidh, his seventh, and Turner Elson, his fifth, to secure two valuable regulation wins points. The Pack started off the second as they did the first with an early goal. Anthony Richard had the period's first shot for the Bruins, but the Pack would score first. Bryan Yoon earned his first AHL point with a goal that came from a rocket of a shot off a drop pass by Cameron Hillis at 1:58 to re-establish the lead. For Hillis, it was his first AHL point. Trivigno made a strong play in the neutral zone to get the puck up to Hillis. The Wolf Pack had the kind of fast start a road team wants. They had the game’s first five shots and scored a goal in the first minute. After missing two games, Karl Henriksson was back in the lineup. He curled in the right-wing circle, hit Bussi’s pads with a shot, and the puck trickled over the goal line. It was his ninth of the year and came at 49 seconds. It was Henriksson's first goal since January 31st and was the fastest Wolf Pack start to a game this season, shattering the previous mark set by Blake Hillman at 2:14. The Pack made a line change at 30 seconds. Then, on the second shift for Brennan Othmann, they almost scored. Othmann intercepted a pass meant for Patrick Brown and had a clean breakaway from the Pack blue line. Othmann's shot hit the post, and the rebound came back to Bussi, who covered up the loose change. The Bruins' Ian Mitchell tied it at a goal apiece with his fourth of the season when Henriksson went out to block the attempt but created an upper screen in the defensive zone, blinding Garand, who was making back-to-back starts. Bruin Jacob Zrobil, after the team won the draw, headed to the net for a rolling screen. At 6:17, Garand was peeking around several players when a right-handed shot from the left point launched the shot he never saw. LINES: Jake Leschyshyn-Brett Berard-Brennan Othman Karl Henriksson-Adam Sýkora- Anton Blidh Cameron Hillis-Tyler Pitlick-Bobby Trivigno Turner Elson-Blade Jenkins- Ryder Korczak Matt Robertson-Nikolas Brouillard Mac Hollowell-Brandon Scanlin Bryan Yoon-Blake Hillman Dylan Garand Olof Lindbom SCRATCHES: Ben Harpur (upper body, indefinitely) Louie Domingue (lower body, day-to-day) Riley Nash (lower body, day-to-day) Connor Mackey (upper body, week-to-week) Matej Pekar (lower body, week-to-week) Tag Bertuzzi (healthy) Zach Berzolla (healthy) NOTES: Berzolla was recalled from the Cincinnati Cyclones (ECHL) and arrived having scored one goal in two games. The Interim Head Coach had a different configuration to his lineup for the eighth consecutive game. The Pack is solidly in fourth place, one point behind third-place Wilkes Barre/Scranton, 10 behind Providence, and still three ahead of Charlotte. With his second-period fight, Brouillard is the team's top PIM guy (106). The two teams will hook up next Friday in a rematch at the XL Center on P.J. Stock Bobblehead Night. Stock played for both teams in his 11-year junior, college, and pro career. It was the Wolf Pack’s first five-goal effort in a little over a month. The Wolf Pack swept the Three Star Awards on the road 1. Brett Berard 2. Bryan Yoon, and 3. Bobby Trivigno. HARTFORD WOLF PACK HOWLINGS Read the full article

[prairieprayer]

An Outside Look on Dragon Riders of Pern (and why it amounted to nothing)

My initial contact with the Dragon Riders of Pern were the dogeared paperback books that lined the shelves my roommate's father coveted so lavishly. With their aged covers, their traditionally drawn scenes of drama, I knew they were old and I found myself automatically turned off by them by that alone (I know, I know, I shouldn’t judge a cover). I wouldn’t find out till months later that this series by Anne McCaffrey was one that had been well beloved for decades; not just a few weird looking Goodwill books. That it had been the source of numerous old roleplay MUDs (basically, fancy chatrooms). And, unsurprisingly with its age, that its author was one of the many at that time who despised fanworks and issued DMCAs against people, often with threats to sue.

And I can’t help but wonder if that was why this supposedly long lived and adored series... has never amounted to more than a handful of contentious fantasy sci-fi novels on gen-X and baby boomers’ shelves. 

In the beginning her rules were essentially: look, but don’t touch. Read, but don’t engage. And if you did engage it had to be in an approved format that only she could agree to. Even in the early 2000s McCaffrey was still at odds with those who had stuck around her series for so long. She began allowing fanworks and easing up on her rules: read, and engage... but only by a ruleset she designed. And no porn. Even though sex was a major aspect of the books (so I hear). Her thought process seemed to be under the impression that fan work damaged her ability to sell her property for video game and filming rights. “Don’t use my characters, only your original fan ones, because if you do I’ll be telling Ubisoft and their legal team will contact you!” But then that game Ubisoft apparently set out to make for the Dreamcast didn’t even sell well, and... that was that. And have you heard of the Dragon Riders of Pern movie? Of course not, because it doesn’t exist. Despite being a relatively popular sci-fi novel series, with a concept that could have the crap milked out of it, all it got was one poorly received game and the hopes and dreams for a film. Hell, even the Dreamcast ended up a dead end console. So you won’t exactly be seeing that game re-released on your PS2 or Xbox.

So how? How is it this beloved series amounted to... pretty much nothing culturally? Amounting to even less than a single book; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which went on to produce the well-known and influential Blade Runner films, and which was published around a similar time as Dragon Riders? Everybody knows Blade Runner, everyone knows that phrase. But Dragon Riders of Pern? Good luck finding a single person amid your nerdy friends under 30-40 who knows that 23 book-long series. Just go on YouTube and search the series and find essentially nothing. Where’s the fanart? The animations? The memes? It’s not there. Yet this series has a concept and a complex social world that modern audiences would be dying to latch onto, if only they could be modernized, and if only their past hadn’t been so garbage.

I believe Anne McCaffrey’s strict grasp over her fanbase was what caused the downfall of her series (aaand perhaps her ancient views on sexuality had part in that too). Why it’s been left on the fringes on fandom, yet somehow has the appearance of being rich with history. The avid fans she did have, the ones who would have advertised her series for her through fan works, were either pushed into secrecy by her ironclad rules or were pushed away from the work all together by her personality. And so you know what took her niche? The niche HER books could have filled in fandom, were it not for how strongly she disliked fanworks? How to Train Your Dragon (now a popular book, movie, and TV series), and Wings of Fire (a power house fandom amid animators on YouTube). But god forbid you drew her characters in 1980, showed the drawing to a friend, and thus sub-sequentially introduced your friend to the series. Big no-no.

Dragon Riders of Pern will now forever live in the shadows of greater fandoms that dominate media in 2021. I look at the base concepts of her series: a sci-fi world set on an alien planet, devastated every 200 years by essentially an alien plague. A plague that only a dragon with a telepathic bond to a human can burn away. And a telepathic bond with the capacity to cause sexual passion between riders, and were it to be modernized, likely between the riders and their dragons as well (What? They’re sentient and speak human language, it would romantic af). But those concepts, like their author, will perhaps never be any greater than they were those first few years the books were published. They will never truly have a massive fandom; they will not live on in the same way old Star Trek or equally old fandoms do. Even now as one of her children continues the series, older fans allegedly dislike the new concepts. What was good about it has been turned to ash in the wind, and the time for it to grow a dedicated fan base has long, long since passed.

Just goes to show you how important it is to not... well... threaten to sue your only fans for engaging. Those fans are the only people who are going to make or break you as a culturally significant author. Your ideas, your stories, your passions can be the next Star Trek... or they can get a single poorly received game on a console that has been lost to time. 

[moonctzeny]

get to you again

pairing: friends to lovers! hendery x fem!reader 

genre: smut, just a tiny teeny bit angsty I guess but with a happy ending, fluff

word count: 3k

warnings: raw sex, creampie, a little corruption kink?

summary:  “You wanted to lurch forward at him, tackle him onto the dusty road, and thank him by kissing every inch of his face. Hold him under the stars until you were covered with his smell, and the necklace wouldn’t be needed anymore; you could cling onto that memory instead. The urge was so strong that it made your heart physically hurt, knowing that you fell for the one person you shouldn’t have. But the heart wants what it wants, right?”

inspiration: get to you again - mac ayres

tagging the lovely: @markresonates

It had been too long since you last saw Hendery.

You two had met so unexpectedly, both trapped in a small coffee shop a couple years ago, drenched to the bone and trying to find cover from the sudden rainfall.

“I was going to ask you if you were willing to share your umbrella, but I’m guessing you forgot it on the wrong day like me”, he joked, so you decided to share a table instead. After the fourth time he had you clench your stomach in laughter, out of the sheer willingness to make a stranger like you cheer up, you decided to exchange phone numbers, thus starting what would become a beautiful friendship.

It wasn’t easy being an idol. Two promotions in Korea, then a reality show in China, then another comeback. You counted the days, one by one until he’d get to you again. Until you’d finally re-watch his favorite movie with him for the millionth time, just to get to watch him laugh over the same stupid lines.

You weren’t sure when you realized you had fallen for him. Maybe it was last winter, almost exactly a year ago when he handed you your Christmas present. He had driven you on a hill on the outskirts of Seoul, the only place he knew with some privacy from prying eyes, and the breathtaking view of the tiny city lights made the freezing cold worth it. You were both sitting against the hood of his car, admiring the big city that seemed to unravel at your feet when you opened the small velvet box.

It revealed a silver necklace of two wings hanging from a dainty chain, with his initials carved on the back of the charm. As you stared at it long enough to make sure you weren’t making things up, you couldn’t decide which one was more beautiful- the pendant or the stars in Hendery’s eyes as he waited for your reaction.

“It’s symbolic”, he started explaining, a little embarrassed with how much effort he had put into the gift, “I know I’m not around a lot to take care of you, but just know that I’m always there if you need me. Like your guardian angel”.

He sounded so wholesome while saying it, long bangs covering his eyes that bashfully avoided yours. You wanted to lurch forward at him, tackle him onto the dusty road, and thank him by kissing every inch of his face. Hold him under the stars until you were covered with his smell, and the necklace wouldn’t be needed anymore; you could cling onto that memory instead. The urge was so strong that it made your heart physically hurt, knowing that you fell for the one person you shouldn’t have. But the heart wants what it wants, right?

Tonight, it was beating as fast as the rhythm of the blinking Christmas lights decorating your living room. How could it not, with Hendery sitting only a few inches away, sharing a blanket with you? He was a few minutes late due to a last-minute photoshoot, but he arrived at your door bare faced and dressed in his favourite flannel shirt. He was just how you liked him, raw and soft and beautiful.

Unlike what you had predicted, he suggested checking out a new romantic comedy on Netflix. It was one of those that come out every Christmas season, all with the same low budget and cheesy acting that ended with some festive spirit that magically solves every plot hole. Two childhood friends, falling in love with each other, yet the girl thinks that the guy is way out of her league so she does nothing about it. The pure irony convinced you that the universe must be surely playing some sick joke on you, forcing you to look at a Hollywood version of yourself getting a happy ending for the next two hours.

“I don’t understand”, Hendery huffs in frustration, midway into the film by now, “why doesn’t the girl just tell him she likes him? What guy doesn’t want to hear that?”

“Maybe she’s scared of the rejection, or ruining everything-“ you start defending the character with a raised voice, realizing that maybe you’re invested in the movie a little too much, “sometimes there is this line between two people, and it’s comfortable to stay behind it because you don’t want to lose them in case something goes wrong”. You draw an invisible line with your index finger between your bodies, and Hendery focuses his stare on it as if it was real. He looks lost in his thoughts, still frozen in place before shaking his head and murmuring: “I guess you’re right”.

Your comment, his response, the sex scene playing on the screen. It all made you so painfully alert with his presence that your whole body tensed up and your mouth dried up like it was filled with cotton. You both chuckle in the midst of all the steaminess, as the actor fails to drag his former best friend at the edge of the bed by tagging on her ankle.

“What a loser”, Hendery scoffs mockingly at the character’s mistake, and you turn around to give him a side eyed glare.

“Relax, muscle man. Like you would do it better”

He mocks offense by opening his mouth dramatically, and you giggle at the distortion of his face that still somehow managed to look pretty. It was so cute, how he always wanted to look ‘strong’ in the eyes of others, reliable and macho. You didn’t care about any of that, you thought his resolutions were stupid. He was perfect in your eyes.

“Of course I would! I’m strong, look-“

The disaster played out in front of you like a filmstrip. His hands on your ankle, then his own ankle tripping over the blanket on the floor, and finally the feeling of his chest weighing down over your own. With him pressed so close against you, you were sure he must feel the way your heart is thumping, filled with so many emotions that it’s ready to jump out of your body.

The room was cold, but with Hendery’s sudden body heat coating you, you felt like you were on fire. The fleeting thought of you taking off your clothes, to relieve yourself of the suffocating feeling made your cheeks burn even more. Hendery’s neck was exposed just inches in front of you in it’s full glory, and you thought about where those veins on the side of it, visible through his pale skin, ended. You’d gladly kiss along the path they drew, let your teeth leave little violet blossoms on the way, while you’d make mental notes of what kisses made him react the loudest.

It’s his bangs tickling your temples that made you realize that he is still on top of you. You look up into his eyes, expecting a frantic look, maybe a string of apologies leaving his mouth. He was strangely serene, staring at your own lips instead, and for a second you thought he’d finally mercy you and give you what you daydream about every time he comes around. You’d kill for the sight of him with puffy red lips and blown out pupils, messy just for you. You’d kill for the feeling of his tongue against your own.

When he plants a kiss on your right cheek, right over the corner of your mouth, you think it tastes bittersweet. You were still high on the intimacy when he finally apologizes and rips his body away from yours, your crash back down to reality brutal. The movie was still playing on a high volume, yet all you heard was a deafening silence after his trip. You don’t object when he tells you he has to go before you get to see what happens to the couple behind the screen. They were eating you away, all the things you wanted to say to him as you sent him off, so much more than just a ‘drive safe, text me when you get home’.

Those thirty minutes after you close your front door felt like a lifetime. You replayed the accident over and over again in your head, the skin burning where he kissed you. The thoughts of calling him, telling him to turn around and finish what he started, were so loud that you felt like a crazy person.

You certainly thought you went insane when you heard a knock against your door. Peeking through the peephole, you’re surprised to see that, as if you’d unlocked the secret of manifestation, Hendery was standing once again in your hallway.

“Guanheng? Did you forget anything?”

He looked restless and fidgety as he walked back inside your apartment, like he couldn’t wait to let out whatever was on the tip of his tongue. His shoulders were coated in a light layer of snow that had managed to flush his face, and dampen his hair and eyelashes as well.

“No- well- yes, I-“. He stopped himself mid sentence and sighed, and you let him collect his thoughts. He looked serious, the expression foreign on his usually bright features, yet the way he ran his fingers through his hair in frustration made butterflies fly in your stomach. “What did you say about that line between two friends again? When we were watching the movie?”

You blinked back at him in confusion, waiting for him to tell you that he’s joking, he just forgot his charger, and he’ll see you again when his company allows him to. But he doesn’t, so you start to roll the pendant he gifted you between your thumb and index, trying to calm yourself down.

“It keeps two people that are meant to be together apart, but there is too much at stake to cross it”.

You start drawing that invisible line again, the one that separates the miserable comfort of denying your feelings for him and everything you wish you were brave enough to pursue.

He would be brave for the both of you.

Hendery grabs your lifted hand, bringing it on the side of his neck before he crashes his lips against yours. You don’t hesitate in kissing him back, hungry for his lips that taste as sweet as you imagined them to. He hasn’t realized how impossibly close to his body he has brought you, not until his embrace gets so tight that your necklace pokes uncomfortably against his chest.

You suck on his bottom lip and he welcomes you with his tongue, the kiss getting so heated now that you can’t help but tug on his hair to keep you grounded. Shivering from your action, his hands are now sliding from your hips to your waist, following the curves of your body until he reaches the underside of your breasts. You mewl against his lips as his thumbs dig into their softness, discreetly trying to cop a feel through your cotton shirt.

A moan leaves your mouth, lewd and desperate as he swallows it with a kiss, and he rips himself off of you when it seems to reach his stomach. He looks disheveled, as if he woke up from an intense, lucid dream; panting, sweating, staring at you with those big puppy eyes.

“We- we shouldn’t. We are going too fast, right?” You nod in agreement at his question but you’re not really listening. You had your fingertips placed on his moving lips, and he identifies the metallic smell as the remnants of you fidgeting with your jewelry earlier. “I should take you to dinner first, to that one place you like so much”. Losing interest in what he is saying, the words being too distant and grey when he stood so deliciously in front of you, you mindlessly start to unbutton his shirt, fascinated with that mole over his collarbone and wanting to see more.

The fire your fingers spread against his skin, in the midst of the chilliness of your living room has him groaning under his breath, with a voice as low and sexy as in his good morning calls. You can practically see him throw all his inhibitions out the window when he kisses you again, pushing you with his body until your back finds the nearest wall. Hendery’s hands are far from gentle now, leaving bruises behind all the soft spots he kneads with his fingers.

“I want you”, you confess with a whisper as you rid him off his flannel for good, and you can’t stop yourself from tracing all the lines of his toned abdomen. You can feel his heart thumping loudly in his chest, its fast rhythm matching yours. You grab his hand to lead him to the carpet next to the Christmas tree that is blinking along with the lights that adorn it- you’re too impatient in your arousal to take him to your bedroom and he doesn’t protest.

Hendery lays you on your back, finding his place between your legs as you wrap them around his waist to bring him closer. You remove your hoodie and the sports bra you had on, his lips immediately latching onto one of your nipples. He circles his tongue around the bud, licking and sucking on it interchangeably until you’re a begging mess underneath him.

Tugging on the elastic band of his sweats, you urge him to get naked for you completely, and he removes the extra garments with a strong pull. His sex bouces out of its cotton constraint, red and throbbing and aching for you. It makes the heat that’s pooling on your lower stomach spread even further, and you wiggle your hips to remove your sweatpants as well.

There’s something about the frilly pink panties you’re wearing- the innocent design on your shapely body that ignites a carnal instinct in him. He wants to ruin you, mark you, make you his. The sound of fabric getting ripped has your eyes bulge out in shock. You’ve never seen Hendery so determined.

He falls on top of you again, leaving urgent kisses on your jawline as he rubs his hard member against your heat. It’s driving you insane, how he’s so close to where you want him but not quite there yet, and you tug his hair again to make him look at you.

“I wanna feel you raw”

And raw was how he’d give it to you. You feel his warm hand over your stomach, keeping you in place as he aligns himself with your entrance, and the pressure his tip’s already feeling has him cursing out.

“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this”

He dips himself slowly into your pussy, careful not to stretch you uncomfortably much. His worried eyes are glued to your wide ones, reading your expressions to ensure they’re those of pleasure. And indeed they are, your eyes rolling to the back of your head when he bottoms out fully, a symphony of both your moans filling the room.

He starts out with a steady rhythm, your pussy adjusting to his size with every calculated thrust. You’re getting drunk with the intimacy, with his smell that sticks to your skin and the sweet nothings he whispers in your ear. You feel addicted to it already, to the feeling of having him be a part of you, and as his growing desperation has him picking up his pace, yours makes you wish you could live in that moment forever.

“I don’t think I’ll last much longer”

”Neither do I”

He can tell how close you are, your heaving chest and guttural sounds giving you away. His cold fingers find your clit then, rubbing your sensitivity in messy circles and pumping more blood to the area.

“Yes, baby. Let go for me”

Little stars of various colors dance around in your vision, framing the sight of Hendery fucking into you so beautifully. You enjoy the hypersensitivity that the continuing motion of his hips gives you, locking your legs around his waist as his thrusts turn sloppy.

“Come inside me”

Just those simple words, slipping out of your pretty mouth are enough to send him over the edge, grunting as he paints your walls in ropes of white. You feel him twitching inside you for a good while, your belly bulging in fullness. It drips out of you slowly when he finally gets off of you, his hands spreading your thighs apart so that he can admire his creation.

He chuckles in disbelief of what you two just did, removing a piece of fake snow that somehow landed on your hair. You can only admire the way his Adam's apple bobs up and down, all the little curves and shadows on his neck, his smile that gives you tunnel vision.

“All this time…”, he whispers softly, “you liked me too?”

You silently winced at the naiveness of his words, knowing damn well your feelings ran way deeper than a simple attraction. Nodding affirmatively, you avoid looking at his eyes by pretending to play with his fingers. You can’t let him see the way they have glossed up, yet the numbing feeling of disappointment is getting hard to ignore.

He doesn’t let you distance yourself from him further, lifting your chin up so you can make eye contact with him again. To your surprise, he looks way more nervous than you, subconsciously nibbling on his lower lip. He takes a deep breath, mustering up some courage before verbally letting his thoughts out of his chest.

“What if I told you I am in love with you?”

You were shocked at the confession, so much so that this reality seemed like a figment of your subconscious mind. You expected to wake up at any moment, to find yourself asleep on your couch, two feet away from him and still stuck in the sucky friendzone. But that moment never came, no matter how long you held your breath to trigger your awakening, and you let it go with a sigh and a blurb of your own thoughts.

“I’d ask you to be mine”

[le-velo-pour-dru]

What a fun premise!! I love this picrew, the art style is very fun and the choices are awesome (and I'm so happy they included an iDKHOW pin!!!! ^w^)

Tagging (no pressure): @prettylittlelights @battlecriesandroses @date-mate-re-animate @chocolatebonboncookie @bowied-lennox and anyone else who wants to do it!! :P

[ID 1: A picrew of a pale person with straight chin-length brown hair. They're smiling and giving a peace sign. They have brown headphones around their neck, a chew stim necklace, a Lemon Demon hoodie, an iDKHOW pin, and a button that says, "Ask me my pronouns". They are in front of the genderfluid and bigender flags.

ID 2: A picrew of the same pale person, but with thick shoulder-length brown hair. They're smiling and holding the cat from the Spirit Phone cover. They have pink heart-shaped glasses a pink bow in their hair, alien themed earrings, a pink spiked choker, a colorful choker with shapes like hearts and stars, and white angel wings. They're wearing a button-up shirt with a pattern like an 80s bowling alley carpet, with a Lemon Demon pin and a button that says, "Ask me my pronouns". They are in front of the genderfluid and bigender flags.

ID 3: A picrew of a pale person with short hair that's half black and half white. They're grinning while flapping their hands as a stim. They have ghost earrings, a Lemon Demon hoodie, and a button with the symbol for autism on it. They're in front of a background that's half the transgender flag, and half the pattern of an 80s bowling alley carpet.

ID 4: A picrew of the same pale person, but with short hair that's half black and half teal. They have three eyes, and a smile with fangs poking out. They're holding the cat from the Spirit Phone cover. They have stickers of hearts and stars on their cheeks, horror-themed earrings, and a black spiked choker with two small colorful necklaces and a necklace with a big UFO hanging off of it. They're wearing a suit with a jacket patterned to look like the game Pac-Man, and a Lemon Demon pin. They're in front of a background that's half the transgender flag, and half the pattern of an 80s bowling alley carpet.

ID 5: A picrew of a pale person with short, straight, brown hair. They're smiling with their tongue sticking out. They have glasses and ghost earrings, and they're wearing a red flannel over a white t-shirt and a fishnet shirt. They have Lemon Demon and Talking Heads pins. They're in front of a background that's half the nonbinary flag, and half the pattern of an 80s bowling alley carpet.

ID 6: A picrew of the same pale person, but with short hair that's half pink and half brown. They're smiling with their tongue sticking out and holding the cat from the Spirit Phone cover. They have glasses, but their eyelids are purple, and their eyes are all black except for their yellow pupils. They still have ghost earrings. They're wearing a purple jacket over a pink t-shirt, with a simple black choker, two small colorful necklaces, and a necklace with a big UFO hanging off of it. They still have Lemon Demon and Talking Heads pins. They're in front of a background that's half the nonbinary flag, and half the pattern of an 80s bowling alley carpet.

ID 7: A picrew of a pale person with short, wavy, white hair. They're smiling with their eyebrows downturned, and they have glasses, but their eyelids are purple, and their eyes are all black except for their yellow pupils. They're drawing with a drawing tablet covered in stickers. They have devil horns and dinosaur earrings. They're wearing a button-up shirt covered in beakers and vials with a Lemon Demon pin. They're in front of a background of fire.

ID 8: A picrew of the same pale person, but with short, wavy hair that's half white and half black. They're smiling with one eyebrows raised, and they have glasses, but their eyelids are purple, and their eyes are all black except for their yellow pupils. They're holding the cat from the Spirit Phone cover. They have devil horns, black lipstick, and skeleton earrings. They're wearing a colorful tweed suit with a Lemon Demon pin. They're in front of a blue background with yellow eyes on it.

ID 9: A picrew of a pale person with mid-length, wavy, brown hair. They're smiling with fangs poking out, and their hands are up and flopped at the wrists. They have dark freckles on their face and a necklace with a moon on it. They're wearing a hoodie with a fire pattern and a button that says, "she/they". They're in front of the demigirl flag.

ID 10: A picrew of the same pale person, but with shorter brown hair. They're smiling with fangs poking out, and their hands are up and flopped at the wrists. They have dark freckles on their face, small antlers, star earrings, white angel wings, and a necklace with a moon on it. They're wearing a hoodie with a fire pattern and a button that says, "she/they". They're in front of the demigirl flag.

ID 11: A picrew of a person with long ginger hair. They have a slightly worried-looking expression, and there's a red flower on their left side. They have orange, yellow, and white flowers in their hair, wireless earbuds in, and a necklace with a round, green charm. They're wearing a button-up shirt with ghosts on it over a black and white striped shirt, with a Hello Kitty pin. They're in front of a blue background with a white circle behind their head.

ID 12: A picrew of the same pale person, but with shorter hair that's half pink and half ginger. They have a happier expression, and there's a big teal worm on a string to their left. They have a pink bow in their hair, small hoop earrings, and a pink heart necklace. They're wearing overalls with paintbrushes in the pocket over a red button-up shirt with mice on it and a fishnet shirt. They have a black cat pin on their shirt. They're in front of a blue background with a white circle behind their head.

ID 13: A picrew of a pale person with short brown hair. They're looking to the right with a neutral expression, and a phone with a space-themed phone case is to their left. They have acne and headphones over their ears. They're wearing a green t-shirt with a button with the symbol for autism on it. They're in front of a background with color bars seen on a TV screen, with white stars around them.

ID 14: A picrew of the same pale person, but with brown hair shaved close to their head. They're looking to the right with a neutral expression, and a phone with a space-themed phone case is to their left. They have acne, antennae with light blue ends, and an earring shaped like a UFO. They're wearing a suit with a pattern that looks like their skeleton, and a button with the symbol for autism on it. They're in front of a red background with a white scribble behind it.

ID 15: A picrew of a pale person with long dark brown hair. They're smiling, and they have colorful braces. They have glasses and acne. They're wearing a light blue t-shirt with eggs and bacon on it, and a yellow ribbon pin. They're in front of a pink background with a white squiggly border.

ID 16: A picrew of the same pale person, but with pink hair in a bun. They're grinning, and they have a split eyebrow. They have stars above their head, hearts on their cheeks, a colorful choker with shapes like hearts and stars, and a necklace with the Star of David on it. They're wearing a button-up shirt patterned to look like the Dare To Be Stupid cover over a fishnet shirt, and they have a yellow ribbon pin. They're in front of the aroace flag, with a white squiggly border.

ID 17: A picrew of a pale person with short blond hair. Their eyes are closed and they're smiling, and they have a Cthulhu plush to their left. They have dark freckles, headphones over their ears, a necklace with a mushroom on it, and a necklace with the triple goddess symbol on it. They're wearing a purple hoodie, with a button with the symbol for autism on it, and a possum on their shoulder. They're in front of the sapphic and genderqueer flags.

ID 18: A picrew of a pale person with short brown hair. They looking to the right, smiling and waving. They have colorful clips in their hair, corded earbuds in, butterfly earrings, a colorful choker with shapes like hearts and stars, and a necklace with a crystal on it. They're wearing a button-up shirt with a pattern like an 80s bowling alley carpet over a rainbow shirt, and they have a button that says, "she/they". They're in front of the unlabeled and aroace flags.

ID 19: A picrew of a pale person with short brown hair. They're smiling and giving a peace sign. They have glasses and a beauty mark to the right of their mouth. They're wearing a navy blue hoodie with a purple ribbon pin. They're in front of the nonbinary and aroace flags.

ID 20: A picrew of the same pale person, but with short brown hair dyed purple in the front. They're grinning and giving a peace sign. They have glasses, duck earrings, and a necklace with a moon on it. They're wearing a colorful cardigan over a purple shirt, with a purple ribbon pin. They're in front of the nonbinary and aroace flags.

ID 21: A picrew of a pale person with mid-length brown hair, half of their bangs being blue. Their eyes are closed and they're grinning. They have acne, brightly colored star earrings, and a necklace with the triple goddess symbol on it. They have a navy blue t-shirt on with rats on their head and shoulder and a button that says, "I use any pronouns". They're in front of the lesbian and aroace flags.

ID 22: A picrew of a pale person with light ginger hair. He's looking to the right, and his tongue is poking out of his mouth, and he's giving the "rock on" sign. He has wireless earbuds in and a colorful choker with shapes like hearts and stars. He's wearing a colorful button-up shirt with a button that says, "he/him". He's in front of the aroace and transgender flags.

ID 23: A picrew of the same pale person, but with short hair that's half white and half blue. He's looking to the right and smiling, and giving a peace sign. He has wireless earbuds in, a sword earring, a colorful choker, and a simple black necklace. He's wearing a button-up shirt with ghosts on it over a black and white striped shirt, and he has a button that says, "he/him". He's in front of the aroace and transgender flags.

ID 24: A picrew of a pale person with long brown hair. They're smiling. They're wearing a navy blue hoodie and are in front of a white background.

ID 25: A picrew of the same pale person, but with short, darker brown hair. They're smiling. They're wearing a frog hat, dragon and sword earrings, brown headphones around their neck, and a necklace with a moon on it. They're wearing a dinosaur hoodie with a button that says, "they/them". They're in front of the asexual flag.

ID 26: A picrew of a pale person with short hair with blond bangs and brown hair. They're smiling. They have glasses, a beauty mark to the right of their mouth, and skull earrings. They're wearing a button-up shirt with ghosts on it over a black and white striped shirt. They're in front of a dinosaur-themed background.

ID 27: A picrew of a pale person with short, curly, blue hair. Their eyes are closed and they're smiling. They have planets above their head, dragon and sword earrings, and teal dragon wings. They're wearing a denim jacket covered in patches over a t-shirt. They're in front of a background patterned with bubbles, there's a white square behind their head, and there are two ghosts on either side of them.

ID 28: A picrew of a pale person long blonde hair. She's smiling with her tongue sticking out and her hands are up and flopped at the wrists. She has glasses, wireless earbuds in, and mushroom earrings. She's wearing a cardigan over a shirt with a frog on it, and she has My Melody and iDKHOW pins on. She's in front of a pink background with a white circle behind her head.

ID 29: A picrew of the same pale person, but with pink hair in two buns. She's smiling with her tongue sticking out and there's a plush of a rosy maple moth to her left. She has brown moth antennae, glasses, stickers of hearts and stars on her cheeks, corded earbuds in, mushroom earrings, moth wings, and a colorful choker with shapes like hearts and stars. She's wearing a bee hoodie with iDKHOW and My Melody pins on it. She's in front of a pink background with a white circle behind her head. /end ID]

PICREW CHAIN TIME!!!

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1078070

Using this picrew, make how you currently look vs how you want to look! (Or just one of those, doesn't matter!) Anyone can join, but I'll tag people too!

Here's mine:

Have fun!

@fairy-space @gin-juice-tonic @glitchxcat08 @lemondemonpickuplines @luckynature @labratgurlz @longmasluck @mike--exe @ominous-arcade @penguinsinhell @prettyshitwizard @r0b0-rainb0w @triangleguy @transexualsonic @touchtoneautismphone @touchtonemegaphone @unsubtle-oddities @3v3ry0n3z-fav3-al13n-x3 @4ng3l-g4br13l

[tlatollotl]

Mask (human face, possibly representing Xiuhtecuhtli) made of cedro wood (Cedrela odorata) and covered in turquoise mosaic with scattered turquoise cabochons. The pierced elliptical eyes worked in mother-of-pearl (Pinctada mazatlanica) and the teeth are made of conch (Strombus) shell, although two are modern synthetic replacements. The eyelids were gilded. The interior surface of the mask is painted with cinnabar. The wood was carved to produce a curve and the underlying contours of the face.

Cultures/periods: Aztec or Mixtec

Production date: 1400-1521

Field Collection by: Bram Hertz

Findspot: Mexico

Provenience unknown, possibly looted

Suspension holes at the temples indicate that the mask was intended to be worn, or perhaps tied to another object. Examination by SEM has revealed that the gold on the eyelids was applied as a thin foil about one hundredth of a millimetre thick. The name 'Xiuhtecuhtli' also means Turquoise Lord, and this Lord is shown in the codices adorned with turquoise. One of the emblems of Xiuhtecuhtli is the butterfly, and it has been suggested that there is a stylized image of a 'butterfly' on the mask- the wings picked out in more intense blue turquoise on the two cheeks. However, the design on the mosaic mask is elusive, and detailed examination, including electronic re-processing of colour images and careful re-drawings, indicates that this is at best a subjective impression. There are other turquoise masks that show similar concentrated areas of high colour on the cheeks and forehead. The use of raised turquoise cabochons produces the effect of 'warts'. These 'warts', clearly visible all over the face, are formed from smooth, shiny nodules of turquoise applied so that they overlap the surrounding turquoise tesserae . Because of the 'warts', it has been proposed that this mask may in fact represent Nanahuatzh, who was a small leprous god with boils on his head who cast himself into a great fire at the time of the creation, only to rise from the fire to become the sun (Tonatiuh).

British Museum

[drunk-poets-society]

ok so

this young fella is No. 85 Squadron’s Hurricane pilot Richard Lee. he was awarded the DFC and DSO for his service, just a couple months before he was shot down over the English Channel on 18/8/1940, at age 23, sadly never to be seen again.

details under the cut -

Richard Hugh Anthony Lee was born in London in 1917 (the exact date or month is unknown). Growing up, he went to Charterhouse School.

On September 1935 he joined RAF Cranwell as a Flight Cadet, and graduated in July 1937. He was posted to Debden on June 1, 1938 to join no.85 Squadron at its reformation. He flew Gloster Gladiator biplanes to begin with, before no.85 was re-equipped with Hawker Hurricane Mk1s.

No.85 sqn. Was posted in France to protect cross-channel convoys. On November 21, 1939, while on patrol over Boulogne, Flight Lieutenant ‘Dickie’ Lee scored the squadron’s first victory when he successfully attacked a Heinkel 111 which crashed into the channel and burst into flames. This also scored the Squadron’s first accolade as he was awarded a DFC on March 8, 1940 “for outstanding brilliance and efficiency”

Not much happened over the winter. That was to change, however, when on May 10, 1940, the sound of Anti Aircraft guns and Luftwaffe planes filled the air. No. 85 squadron immediately jumped into action, and within a few minutes, one section of “A” flight, and one section of “B” flight were up in the air. Lee was leading B flight with Flying Officer Derek Allen and Pilot Officer Patrick Woods-Scawen flying as his numbers 2 and 3 respectively. the section attacked a Henschel 126, and managed to severely damage the aircraft, leaving two of its crew wounded.

Later that morning, Lee was flying Hurricane L1779 into combat, leading his section again. They engaged a Junkers-88 at about 15,000 feet. His combat report reads: “after being sighted E/A dived to a very low height. i could only overhaul from astern very slowly. From 500 yards to 700 yards the enemy rear gunner fired continuously. I fired short bursts and finished ammunition closing to 200 yards. No apparent results except black smoke from one engine. My own aircraft shot badly.”

Later that evening Lee shared in the destruction of a Ju-86 with his section. Lee was the first to open fire and set the enemy’s starboard engine on fire. When they landed, ground crew found that he had fired 50 rounds from each of his eight Browning machine guns during the engagement.

on 11/5/1940, the squadron was back in the thick of it. however, this time after a busy morning patrol, Allen and Woods-Scawen returned without their section leader. Richard Lee was missing. He’d been flying Hurricane N2388, code marked ‘VY-R’ over Maastricht when he engaged a Dornier 17P at approximately 1300 hours. His aircraft had been hit by Anti Aircraft fire and he bailed out of his aircraft slightly wounded. Parachuting down, he landed in a field, where he spotted a local man passing by. He asked the man which direction he should travel to get to the Belgian tanks that were nearby. He took off in the direction, only to find out that they were, in fact, German. Lucky for him, his uniform was concealed underneath a smock or overcoat he had acquired. He was believed to be a peasant and was locked into a barn with some other refugees. Thinking quick, he climbed up to a window and noticed a ladder perched beneath it, and promptly climbed out, walked several miles, and hitched a ride with some Belgians before returning to his unit the very next day. The squadron’s diarist reported that “11/5/40. Eight E/A were shot down today. Flight Lieutenant R.H.A Lee failed to return from the offensive patrol covering the advance of the BEF over the Tongres-Maastricht Section – he was reported last seen on a Dornier’s tail at about 2,000 ft.”

On May 22, No. 85 squadron started to return to Debden to re-equip and reform, and Lee was transferred to No. 56 Squadron. The next day the squadron engaged enemy aircraft over St. Omer while patrolling Manston to Dunkirk. he expended all his ammunition in the dogfight that ensued between the Hurricanes and the 109s, before his starboard wing was badly hit. He broke off and returned to Manston unharmed, and aircraft deemed repairable.

On May 27, he flew another offensive patrol from Manston with the Squadron, flying Hurricane P3311. On this occasion he was shot down by Messerschmitt 109s during an attack on Henschel 111s. he ditched his aircraft in the sea and was fished out of the water and taken ashore an hour later.

On May 31, Lee was awarded the DSO. The London Gazette published the following: “Flight Lieutenant Richard Hugh Anthony Lee, D.F.C. (33208) this officer has displayed great ability as a leader and intense desire to engage the enemy. On one occasion he continued to attack an enemy aircraft after his companion had been shot down, and his own machine hit in many places. His section shot down a Dornier 215 in flames one evening in May, and another in the course of engagement the next day. In his last engagement, he was seen at 200 feet at the tail of a Junkers 89, being subjected to intense fire from the enemy occupied territory. This officer escaped from behind the German lines after being arrested and upheld the highest traditions of the Service.”

In June, he returned to No. 85 squadron, under Squadron Leader Peter Townsend. His experience was called upon to help bring the new recruits upto scratch before the squadron was again ready for operational flying.

On June 26, Richard Lee and his close friend Gerald Lewis flew to an investiture where Lee received his DSO and DFC for his service.

Lee’s reputation as a daring and aggressive fighter pilot was quickly spreading around the air force. Peter Townsend’s good friend Flight Lieutenant John Simpson wrote a letter to his intelligence officer, after hearing about the exploits of Richard Lee.

Simpson, who also coincidentally often flew with Patrick Woods-Scawen’s younger brother Tony, wrote “I hear that Dickie Lee has done wonders. You see how these boys, who were always looked upon as being the naughty ones, are doing so well. They needed a war to convince the old gentlemen at Whitehall. Do you remember that Dickie was almost given his bowler hat for low flying? The same low flying has apparently stood him in good stead.” (apparently he had flown through an open barn, but i have no way of confirming or denying that)

In Hector Bolitho’s book Combat Report published in 1943, he wrote of an afternoon spent with Lee, Townsend and Simpson. “Peter Townsend and Dickie Lee had been posted to an aerodrome a few miles from the house… in the early summer, John and I went out to find them… we found Peter and Dickie and took them back to the house. Dickie followed the car on a hellish motor bicycle.

It was a pleasant enough afternoon and we lay on the lawn, the four of us, with a bowl of ice, a bottle of gin, some tonic water and four glasses, and talked the world away. All three, looked older. Both Dickie and Peter had been shot down and a certain solemnity seemed to have touched them. Dickie had changed more than others.

We used to call him Dopey in the old days because he always fell asleep if the conversation took a serious turn. He was already a hero and in most newspapers there had been photographs of him receiving his decorations from the King. The long hell in France had left creases at the corners of his sleepy eyes. But he would have none of our attempts at war talk. He said that he had a date with a blonde in Saffron Walden and that he could not stay very long.

Dickie’s taste in blondes was not always reassuring to his friends, but he was obviously more concerned with his date than with our efforts to make him talk about how he has won the DFC and DSO on his tunic. I remember when he stood to go I noticed a hole in the leg of his trousers where a bullet had gone through without touching his skin.

I suppose that Peter and John and I were a bit pensive, being the older ones, so Dickie yawned and said ‘Well, I must get cracking’ he made one gesture to sentiment before he went. On the day that was declared he left his favourite pictures with me… before his squadron flew off to France.

They were photographs of friends, of aircraft, and one of a spaniel. He asked me for them, so I brought them down from the attic and he flew off to his blonde with them, piled before him on the screeching, violent motor bicycle.”

August 18, 1940 “the Hardest Day” of course, was when Dickie was lost. Flying as Blue 1 in Hurricane P2923 ‘VY-R’ during this patrol, he was last seen by Squadron Leader Townsend and Flying Officer Arthur Gowers ten miles north-east of Foulness Point chasing Bf 109s out across the Channel.

In Townsend’s book Duel of Eagles he wrote the following of Lee’s last action: “Come back, Dicky,’ I called but he was drawing away. Again and again I called, but he kept on. It was useless to chase Huns out to sea; they would be back again the next day. Something had gotten into Dicky and there was no stopping him. We were both low on fuel and I was out of ammunition. There was only one thing to do: turn back”

Like several others, he was gone too soon. Neither his aircraft nor his body were ever recovered. and aside from these mentions, and a few documents, and acknowledgement on the Runnymede Memorial, Panel 6, there isn’t much about him out there. there’s really not much one can do about that either, other than remember, and keep them alive in our thoughts; those who never returned, whose names faded into obscurity.

Source

[smiting-finger]

I tripped and I fell and this HP AU came out

So I was chatting to @silverink58​ about the beautiful original picture of Professor LWJ, and they were saying that when they picked up the prompt for the inktober exchange, they were hoping to read Hogwarts student!LWJ, 

And I thought “oh how delightful, maybe I’ll think about that idea later”, and then that “later” became “now” and what I’m saying is they shouldn’t have let me download the google docs app onto my phone, because I clearly cannot be trusted.

@silverink58​ this is for you, lol. Thanks for naming “Little Apple” :’D.

He almost doesn’t see it: a flutter of black fabric, the edge of a student robe before it slips away out of sight. But he catches the movement from the corner of his eye, and pure reflex has Lan Zhan drawing his wand to fire off a quick body-bind curse.

There's a muffled noise of surprise, abruptly cut off, and then the thump of a body hitting the floor.

When Lan Zhan turns the corner, it’s to the sight of Wei Wuxian, lying face-down on the ground.

“It’s after curfew,” Lan Zhan says, turning him over with a quick Levitation spell. “You should be inside your dormitory.”

Dark eyes glare indignantly up at him. Calmly holding Wei Wuxian’s gaze, Lan Zhan lifts the curse.

“Report for detention tomorrow,” he says, as Wei Wuxian sits up and pointedly rubs the small pink spot on his forehead.

“Lan Zhaaaan,” Wei Wuxian complains, giving the edge of Lan Zhan’s robe a beseeching tug. Lan Zhan feels his own lips thin at the over-familiarity of both the form of address and the physical contact. 

“Don’t be like that! Let me off just this once? Think of the five wonderful years we’ve spent together as potions partners!”

“Just last week, you exploded our cauldron,” Lan Zhan reminds him flatly, and Wei Wuxian grins.

“Oh come on! Let’s not harp on about petty things like that,” he says, pushing himself up onto his feet. He shakes out his robes. “You wanted to know what would happen if we added the xiezhi horn, too, just admit it.”

Lan Zhan doesn’t dignify this with a response, and simply meets Wei Wuxian’s gaze and holds it.

He is a Lan of Gusu.

He would never admit to such a thing.

Wei Wuxian pouts, reaches out a hand and uses two fingers to give Lan Zhan’s sleeve a pleading tug.

Lan Zhan sighs. 

After five years of being a detention hall regular, if Wei Wuxian was going to learn anything from writing lines, he would've done it already.

“Return to your dormitory,” he says, and Wei Wuxian smiles brightly.

“Yup, sure thing, absolutely,” he chirps, nodding in enthusiastic agreement.

He doesn’t move.

Lan Zhan looks at him expectantly.

Wei Wuxian blinks back at him with wide eyes.

Lan Zhan continues to wait.

It’s Wei Wuxian’s turn to sigh.

“Okay, fine,” he says, shoulders slumping in defeat as he turns back to his original direction and beckons for Lan Zhan to follow. 

“There’s just something I have to do first - I swear it’s important. You can come with me to see, if you want.”

-

It’s a … bird.

A hatchling, almost completely featherless, that Wei Wuxian has hidden in a corner of one of the lesser-used greenhouses, and has been coming to feed every four hours.

It’s also, Lan Zhan thinks, staring blankly at its oversized head, squat little body, gangly legs and stumpy wings, really-

“Don’t stare at it like that just because it’s ugly!” Wei Wuxian hisses, turning from pouring whatever paste he’s made down the bird’s throat to swat Lan Zhan admonishingly on the arm. “You’ll hurt its feelings!”

“You just called it ugly,” Lan Zhan feels the need to point out. “But I’m the one who’s hurting its feelings?”

“Well, it’s just a baby,” Wei Wuxian replies reasonably. “It doesn’t understand anything that’s not bird-language yet.”

“It doesn’t understand anything but bird-language,” Lan Zhan repeats disbelievingly, “but it’s offended by stares?” 

Wei Wuxian nods gravely. 

“Everyone knows that body language is universal,” he claims loftily and Lan Zhan suppresses the desire to roll his eyes.

-

“You can’t keep coming every four hours,” Lan Zhan says, after the bird curls up and goes to sleep underneath a heating charm and Wei Wuxian’s threadbare toy demiguise (“What? I didn’t know if Jiang Cheng and I were going to be in the same dorm, and I was scared of getting lonely at night! I was eleven!”).

“Well, I’m going to have to,” Wei Wuxian replies carelessly, and shrugs. “Or it’ll die.”

“Its parents?” Lan Zhan asks and Wei Wuxian shrugs again.

“Didn’t seem to have any,” he says, quietly getting up and beckoning wordlessly for Lan Zhan to follow. “I waited an hour to see if one of them would come back, but nothing did, and it was crying, so.”

The moon is full and bright, providing ample light to guide their way back to the dormitories even now that all the lights have been put out.

“I did some reading in the library,” Wei Wuxian says around a yawn. “As it gets bigger, feedings will get less frequent. I don’t know what kind of bird it is, but it should only be like this for a couple of weeks, at most.”

Even for a couple of weeks, it’s not sustainable, Lan Zhan thinks when Wei Wuxian begins to list into his shoulder as they walk. He’ll have to leave halfway through every meal and risk getting caught by the other Prefects at night. He won’t be able to get enough sleep, which will affect his classwork, and, in turn, his learning, his grades, his disciplinary record-

“You can’t keep this up for that long,” Lan Zhan states firmly.

Wuxian groans. “I told you, Lan Zhan, I can’t just let it-”

“I’ll help you,” he says.

“You’ll - wait, really?”

-

They name it Little Apple because Wuxian says he's no fun.

("We should call it Little Ginseng, because that's what it looks like - bald and lumpy."

"...No.")

When it gets big enough to have a personality beyond eating and sleeping, Little Apple is surprisingly sweet. It loves: cuddles, being hand-fed and chasing after a love-knot tassel that Wuxian charmed to dance around in front of it.

It hates: eating by itself, being left alone for too long, cats (after Headboy Jin Guangyao's familiar somehow gets into the greenhouse and they have a very near miss), and Lan Zhan and Wuxian arguing.

It absolutely refuses to go to bed without being personally tucked in.

Soon, it starts to grow feathers; brown and grey patches of down sprouting all over its body, enough that they can stop renewing the heating charm.

It doesn't get less ugly.

("As its mother, even I think it's hideous. We should've called it Little Dustball, but it's too late now ")

They do, however, become very fond of it nonetheless.

("Hey, Lan Zhan, look, we learned manners today!"

Wuxian bows to Little Apple, who bobs its head unsteadily in return.

"-Lan Zhan, what's happening to your face? Lan Zhan? Lan Zhan, is that a smile?!")

-

They get caught.

"Wei Wuxian I expected no better of," his uncle growls after the greenhouse doors fly open to reveal his thunderous expression. "But Wangji, you are a prefect. I am deeply disappointed in you, sneaking off to the greenhouses at night to-"

Little Apple squawks. 

(Although its adult plumage has started to come in, there is no colour pattern that Lan Zhan can see; it has three red feathers on this wing, two on that one, small tufts of white in a patch on its belly and a scattering of green along its back.

“It’s … really not going to get better, is it?” Wuxian asks, sounding like he doesn’t know if he should laugh or cry.)

Lan Qiren stares.

-

"It's so…" his uncle says, still staring down at Little Apple, who squawks again and stares right back. "Ug-"

“Don’t listen to him, Little Apple!” Wuxian cries, hastily covering Little Apple’s ears with his hands. “It’s what’s on the inside that counts!”

-

And then one day Lan Zhan walks into the greenhouse and realises that Little Apple is ugly no longer.

Its wings are in fact red and black; red coverts edged with a line of striking black primaries and secondaries. A small plume of blue curls back off its forehead in a proud crest. The feathers on its back and shoulders are a shimmering emerald green, in some areas even tipped with gold, its belly is a soft pearlescent white, and its tail feathers are starting to lengthen into an impressive train.

Beside him, Wei Ying gasps and places a hand against his mouth, evidently coming to the same realisation. 

“Lan Zhan,” he says, deeply moved. “Our son is beautiful.”

-

It still can’t fly, though.

“I wonder if I should get my sword,” Wei Ying says, after an afternoon of running around flapping his arms has yielded no results beyond Little Apple having the time of its life chasing a new, human-sized tassel around the grounds like a particularly speedy chicken. 

He flops backwards onto the grass. Little Apple promptly jumps on top of his chest and starts to preen his hair.

"Or what if I flapped my arms and you Levitated me," Wei Ying wonders, squinting thoughtfully. With a lazy wave of his wand, he Levitates Little Apple, who squawks angrily in protest until it's brought back within range of his ponytail.

Lan Zhan takes the opportunity to re-tie the bandage on his wrist, and can’t help but hiss slightly when he has to unstick it from his burnt skin. It’s not a serious injury - a small graze from a ricocheted spell he’d been hit with between classes, while stopping an altercation in the hallway - but he hasn’t had the time to visit the infirmary to have it healed yet.

When he looks up, Little Apple is right in front of him, staring up with glistening eyes.

“Aw,” Wei Ying says, propping himself up on one elbow and looking enchanted.  “Look, Lan Zhan, he’s sad that his daddy’s hurt!”

Little Apple rests his face on Lan Zhan’s wrist for a moment, then sits back up and gives a self-satisfied squawk.

Lan Zhan looks down and finds that his wrist is fully healed.

“Huh,” Wei Ying says.

-

It turns out that they don’t need to worry about the flying, because the following week, Little Apple, eye caught by a firefly, simply spreads its wings, pushes off Wei Ying’s arm and takes off after it.

“Well,” Wei Ying begins after a moment of stunned silence. “I-”

Then Little Apple’s tail promptly bursts into flames and blazes a bright trail across the night sky.

“LAN ZHAN,” Wei Ying screeches, grabbing hold of Lan Zhan’s arm and shaking it. 

“LAN ZHAN, OUR SON IS A PHOENIX!”

-

There’s no keeping Little Apple in the greenhouse after that. It comes and goes as it pleases with the blessing of even Lan Zhan’s uncle, who is kept mollified by the fact that Little Apple is a phoenix, as well as the steady supply of tears and feathers for the school. 

Both Lan Zhan and Wei Ying take to leaving their bedroom windows ajar so that Little Apple can come in to roost at night when it returns, which it always does.

Until, one day, it doesn’t.

-

The next month, the Ministry announces that the Wizarding world is at war.

(And then, on a random morning after WWX comes back, there’s a tapping at the window of their shared bedroom, Lan Zhan gets up to investigate, and----!)

[hobo-dragon]

Aaaa

AAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAA-

Yes I know I should be working on requests but my brain told me to write this and FJDJDKSISI I'M SORRY-

Anyways yeah this is not ava/avm, surprisingly, it's a lil something for my character, BloodClaw. A double blood-moon born Nightwing(a race of dragon from wings of fire) with a little chaotic parasite to help him out.

Talons pressed against the leaf-covered ground as the trees twisted and turned into terrifying position, any dragonet might've been half sure the branches would jump out at them and drag them away, making them nothing more than a memory.

That didn't stop him though, he had been walking in this labyrinth of trees and branches for gods' know how long. A huff of irritation came from him as a branch smacked into his snout, causing it to sting a bit but nothing more.

The scary trees and fog that had starting to drown the ground god knows when wasn't what put this dragon on edge. He's been here a thousand times and even the trees and routes suddenly becoming confusing and twisted didn't scare him.

Confuse and concern him? Yes

But the tiny lurching feeling of his stomach twisting wasn't because of that.

"Come....ba....re....."

A voice, or what he assumed to be one hit his ears, and they twitched, his pace slowing to a halt to listen.

"Com....ack......ere...."

It was a hushed whisper before but it rose in volume now and it echoed throughout the tangle of trees. BloodClaw started up his pace again, head lowered and slightly faster than before. He couldn't hear him, he was alone, and that greatly terrified him.

"Damn it," He hissed, nearly tripping over a strewn out branch that he could only feel due to the fog. It grew thicker as the voice came back.

"Come back here...."

It sounded again, this time more louder and sounding as if multiple dragons were speaking all at once but ever so quietly. He sped up into a jog, claws rustling against the leaves and who knows what else on the ground as he prayed there weren't any more roots sticking out of the ground.

He looked behind him, eyes dilating as his heart sunk. He had sworn he saw something move in the pitch blackness behind him, but he turned back around a began running as the voices came back, louder and louder, filling his eardrums as fear began to build in his stomach.

"Come back here..."

"Come back here,"

"Come back here!"

"COME BACK HERE!"

"C̷̻̻̃́̉͌̄̓̑̕̚̕͝O̸̧̧̲͓͇͍͇̳̥̮̽̉Ḿ̸̩͈̱͙̙͗̒̇͋͜͝E̵̘̠̰͍̥̘̭̩̺͕͖̒͑͆̌ͅ ̷̛̲̐́̑̕Ḅ̵̘̘͖̞̽̈̈́̃̅̿͝Ǎ̸̢̨̯̝̩̗̳́̀̽̐͋̃̇C̶̬͉͇̯̆̾̐̈́͘K̶͔̖̭͚̤̑͑̏͌̆̈́̍͛̎͗̍ ̵̤̼̭͍̱̞̭̦͐̀Ḧ̵̗̖̼̦̦̬͎͓́͂E̶̛̳̥͖̲̥̫͗̃̀̏̐̓̿̿́̋̋ͅR̵͔͒̈́̂̽̌͊̏͊͝Ę̴̛͉̖̯͉̺̏͊́͋̾͐́͜ͅ"

Something lashed across his tail, drawing blood and it was what he could only assume to be a claw. He was full on sprinting now, panting as the adrenaline number out the pain and thoughts zipped across his mind, most being panicked, but they didn't seem confused.

As he ran and sprinted, ignoring the pain in his muscles to slow down to breathe, he began to recognize the area. The path he has been walking on had opened up into a tiny clearing with something that made him halt in his steps.

In the center of this clearing, sat a pit of sorts filled with this bubbling black ooze. The fear back back and one would assume he was confused as to what this ooze was, but know, he knew this place very well.

The scent of blood and and venom that invades his nose.

The black ooze that seemed to eat away at the grass and leaves surrounding it.

The voices screaming at him that was surely already behind him.

He had experienced this before, he'd gone through this exact pain before.

After all, it's hard to forget the first time he had been betrayed so horribly and left to die.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

HASO, “Telling Tales.”

This story came as a suggestion from someone on the discord server, so I hope you all enjoy a break from some of the heavier stuff I have been doing lately.

The room was large and filled with noise, mostly the clinking of glasses and the clattering of voices, but on occasion the comm systems echoed with a cool female voice broadcasting announcements across the entirety of the station. 

There were at least forty tables inside the room packed in close together, with a long bar at one end where men and women alike stood standing and chatting to each other as they took their drinks. Below that was the low rumble of music, and up on all four walls, large projection screens broadcasted earth sports in delayed time.

At the far end of the room a large viewing window looked out on a wide view of space and the rest of the station. The station itself was huge, stretching out for what could have been miles and miles of tightly packed corridors and branching rooms. The station itself was a mesh of Tesraki and human technology and had been built right here in orbit….. In orbit of the thing staring at them from out in the darkness.

A supermassive black hole ringed by a disk of bright light and a halo that cut across the middle.

Honestly as McCaster stepped into the room, he found the view very disconcerting, and had the sudden worry that…. Inexplicably they would start slowly drifting towards the black hole until they succumbed to a horrendous and terrifying death. Looking around though, it seemed that no one else seemed to think so, and he ushered himself inside and over to the bar hoping that a drink might calm him down.

He sidled up to the bar leading against the metal countertop and motion for the bartender with a hand.

She slid over to where he was. She was dressed casually, though the bearing of her chin told him that she was one of the soldiers working on the station and not just a civilian. He ordered something to drink, and he came back a moment later with a metal tankard. He took it surprised to find that he missed the bright amber liquid inside cool glass covered in a layer of condensation, but he supposed having breakable drinking vessels wasn’t going to do for a ship like this.

Still, the liquid inside his mug looked a sort of muddy brown rather than a pleasant amber.

He took another sip.

Still tasted fine though.

He turned to look around the bar watching as groups of people chatted to each other , drank and ate.

Not all of them worked here, some of them, like the crew of the Omen, had stopped by for supplies and to give their men and women some time to relax and have a little fun before they had to ship out again. McCaster felt this was really his only chance for a while, to meet people off the ship.

He sidled forward eyes scanning over the room and falling on a woman. She was pretty, young about his age with blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail.

Couldn’t hurt right?

Unfortunately, just as he was sidling up, some other gus seemed to have the same Idea, and he sat down at her table just as two others did pausing to stare at each other across the table.

McCaster looked at the young woman, “This seat isn’t taken, is it?”

She tilted her head at him in near amusement, “I can’t control where you sit.”

“Then I suppose you don’t mind if we join you.” The other man added receiving a glower from McCaster across the table.

“You work here.” The other man asked her 

“Yes.”

“Well me and the boys here are just off from The UNSC Pioneer, finest ship this side of the quadrant.”

McCaster snorted into his glass, not trying to be a dick this time, but he knew THAT was a lie.

The other man glared at him, “What, you disagree.”

“Frankly, yes. Our ship is Objectively the best and that’s not even me bragging.”

“Oh really, and what ship is this.”

McCaster smirked, “The UNSC Omen, but I bet you’ve heard of it.”

There was a chorus of disbelief up from the other men.

“Right, and I bet you are personal friends with Admiral Vir too, right.”

McCaster frowned, “Maybe not personal friends, but I did fly with him once.”

More disbelieving booing.

He crossed his arms, “Don’t believe me huh well what about this.” he reached into his pocket to snag his ID card and then pulled it out, holding it up for the entire table to see, “See Lt McCaster of the UNSC Omen. I fly a Thunderhawk, and sometimes the shuttles.” This time the men could hardly argue, his iD said as much, at least as much about which ship he worked on and what he did.

THere was a light murmuring around the table.

“That’s right, so like ninety precent of my friends are aliens.” He was exaggerating just a little bit, he didn’t really interact with the aliens on the ship all that much accept for the Celzex that fixed the weapons on his jet, and the Drev he liked to play"  pool with.

But the blond was looking at him with interest, so its not like he could squander this opportunity

He nodded glancing sidelong at the girl. 

“Yeah, like I said, its not like the Admiral and I take lunch together or anything, ‘but’ the ship is small enough that I do run into him on a daily basis, cool guy, a bit weird though. I actually flew with him during the burg war on the Gromm home planet.”

A chorus of disbelief.

Behind him someone chimed in, “Bullshit.”

He turned to see that another table behind them had overheard his claims. There was a pretty redhead sitting there, and so he wasn’t likely to let go of his momentum. He raised his ID badge for all to see, “Not lying.” He raised his mug to his lips and took a long satisfied sip, “Disbelieve me all you wan’t but it’s true.”

“Well don’t just sit there all smug, tell us about it then.” Someone urged, and he was more than happy to oblige.

“Well, we had just been informed of the eminent Burg attack on the Gromm capital city below. I had been being debriefed by the Commander, at the time, and went with him to the bridge as we were debriefed. The Nexus was down and Burg ships were descending in swarms. They were unprotected on the planet below, and it was clearly up to our crew to stop the attack.”

His little crowd was drawing even more eyes, and he found himself with a small crowd of skeptics sitting around him listening to his every word.

He found himself speaking faster with excitement and nerves.

“I was on the bridge and watched him survey the scene, when out of nowhere he hands the captain chair over to one of his lieutenants and orders me out with him. They had orbital defences, but he knew that they had no chance in atmosphere since they didn’ have any fighter jets to push back the invasion.” he puffed out his chest, “Admiral Vir handpicked me to accompany him as his copilot and gunner.”

Another chorus of disbelief.

He shook his head, “Disbelieve me all you want, but it’s true. He knew my talents, and he knew I could keep up with him. And I tell you I have never seen a man or woman that could fly like he does.”

He had them now leaning forward in their chairs.

The best part is all of this was true…. Mostly.

“Of course, I was ready, solid as a rock, I have been training for just such situations for the entirety of my career, and I had no hesitations about what I was going to do. The Admiral was relying on me to be his copilot and damn straight I wasn’t going to let him down.” He grinned in a self satisfactory way, “He gave me charge of all the important stuff while he was flying combat…. And he made it sure in no unclear terms that if he couldn’t handle the flying, I was going to take over for him.”

Ok that was sort of a lie, but only a little one.

“I knew as soon as we were coming in that Admiral vir had an idea brewing. We didn’t go for an angled entry but instead piloted our jet straight down. I thought that the re entry was going to rattle my teeth out of my head. But as I said before I had no doubts about the Admiral. I knew we were going in, and I had inklings of what the admiral was about to do. I never questioned him.”

Also kind of a lie, but it's not like it mattered.

“We were plunging from the sky, fire spitting off our wings, going so fast it makes your insides feel like they are on your outsides. Picture the sky fading to blue behind you, fire is benign thrown off your wings like water from a waterfall, the G force is so powerful that it compresses your chest and makes it hard to breathe,” he was standing now gesturing wildly, “We plummet from the sky, and fire our guns exploding a burg ship just before it takes out one of our other fighters. We pull up right before the ground, must have been nine ten maybe even fifteen Gs.” Okay he was exaggerating, “But I stayed conscious through the whole thing.” That was also kind of a lie.

“We broke into combat with the burg drones, and I shot down at least three of them as the Admiral piloted.  He said afterwards that he had never seen someone take the shots I did and make it.” Okay yes he had been passed out for half of this, but again its not like any of them were going to know.

What harm was a little exaggeration.

“I caught one burg as we were coming out of a sharp dive, my hand felt nine times heavier than it should have, but I nailed it in the engine compartment and it exploded into a ball of fire. I was still shooting them down when the Admiral orders me to take control of the ship. Of course I wanted to ask what was going on, but there was no time, I grab the stick and manuver us into a tight barrel roll. A ship explodes behind us. I have control of the jet now complete control and I pull us up into tight pursuit of another. I avoid two missiles and in a moment of genius, I drop all of our flares, which collide with at least four burg ships exploding on impact. What I hadn’t known is that the Admiral’s hand had cramped from all that earlier flying, and if I hadn’t been there he would have died. But at that moment I had no idea and proceeded to clear enemy skies over the capital city. I dived so close to the ground that we might have crashed if I hadn’t pulled us into an inverted upwards pull for the last few seconds”

He continued to speak and as he did the fight grew even more excessive and heroic. He detailed in exquisite and colorful imagery as he single handedly flew them to safety pulling off near impossible maneuvers, crack shots and many more outlandish happenings as he and Admiral Vir valiantly switched back and forth on the controls, equals in every way.

He was just describing their great and climactic fight scene where, he had to take command of the ship once again, when he finally noticed no one was really paying attention to him. He saw their eyes, looking past him.

His voice slowed, as he looked around eyebrows furrowed.

He turned where he stood and cut off mid sentence as his eyes fell on a familiar face in the crowd.

Admiral Vir sat behind him in a chair balancing on two legs, head tilted to the side. His eyepatch covered one of his eyes, but the expression on his face was one of great and abiding amusement.

He leaned forward in his seat, “Don’t let me interrupt you lieutenant. I believe you were just getting the the part where you pull an inverted double helix back loop and I pass out drooling in the front, you just manage to pull us out of that dive, and the two burg ships are so confused by the manuver that they crash into each other and explode  catching the attention of all the other stunned burg in the area and allowing the other pilots a final push in clearing the sky?”

McCaster’s mouth opened and then closed and then opened again .

Admiral Vir continued to smile as McCaster stammered and gurgled like an idiot.

“So…. what actually happened.” Someone asked 

McCaster plopped shamefacedly down in his seat. Admiral Vir paused tilting his head in the other direction as if thinking. A good portion of the room had gone quiet as they shuffled closer to hear the stroy. He stood after a moment and walked over to where McCaster was sitting placing his hands on the back of the chair.

“Well The first part of the story wasn’t wrong. I had been debriefing McCaster and the other recruits on a few aspects of my ship when we got the call in that the Gromm homeworld was being attacked. I DID give up command to the ship of one of my lieutenants, and I DID as McCaster to fly with me as copilot.” he smiled and easy smile that seemed to light up the room around him.

Everyone within a twenty foot radius shifted forward in an effort to be closer to the man and the magnetic nature of his personality and charming smile.

“McCaster was top of his class in flight school, and I wanted an extra pair of eyes, that is true. We did take a vertical dive into the atmosphere instead of an angled entry. Yes there was fire spitting off the wings, and yes we did pull out of a vertical dive after saving one of the other fighter jets. All of that is pretty accurate.”

HE smiled and McCaster wilted.

“He did embellish a few things.” he rested a hand on McCaster’s shoulders, “But what is a good story without a little bit of embellishment? I’ve certainly never told a story that didn’t sound about ten times better than it actually was.” There was a small laugh from the crowd, “Point being that I would certainly fly with McCaster again, he is a brave, talented, and honorable member of my crew even if he is a colorful storyteller.”

McCaster looked up at the Admiral, still leaning on the back of his chair, and watched as the man made subtle eye contact with the blond girl just a few feet away.

McCaster blushed As Admiral Vir pushed his chair forward across the ground to sit next to her.

She was smiling in some measure of amusement, and Admiral Vir winked at him as he backed away. Either that or he just blinked, it was hard to tell with the eyepatch.

He turned back to look at the woman who was looking at him in some measure of amusement.

He rubbed the back of his head.

“He seems to be one hell of a wing man, in and out of a jet.” She commented 

He stammered stupidly glancing over his shoulder to where Admiral Vir had retreated to the bar, ignoring the eyes on him, hungry expressions from both men and women as he ordered a drink and sat down.

Bless the Admiral, number one for being a good wingman for sure, and two…. For not totally calling him out on all his bullshit.

Granted everyone probably guessed, but at least he could keep some of his dignity with plausible deniability.

He was able to work himself back into a state of cool suave composure, enough to learn that the woman’s name was Emily, and that she worked as a data analyst for the big black hole thing. It had a lot to do with math and physics which he totally didn’t understand, but certainly tried to because he knew she liked it.

Across the room, Admiral vir attracted ebbing and flowing waves of people coming to listen to his own stories which were mostly modest and self deprecating depictions of what really happened. Being the first person to fall flat on his face on an alien planet, how he had scared the shit out of the bran the first time he met them, how he ended up in a Rundi prison because he was being a dumbass.

There were a few times where he too tended to embellish the stories, only to preface later by saying, but what actually happened was this.

As soon as the man stepped into the room he seemed to change the whole gravity of it like  a wandering star collecting satellites.

He supposed that’s what happened when you were famous.

Thanks to him though, it turned out he got along really well with Emily, and despite knowing he was a complete moron, she seemed to like him too, and he scored her number and a surreptitious invitation to accompany her on a walk to somewhere quieter.

As he was leaving, he turned back to look at the Admiral, making surprise eye contact with him as he did.

He raised his glass minutely to McCaster before turning around and continuing his story.

He grinned as Emily took his hand,.

“So….. tell me really, how many times did you pass out when flying with him.”

He snorted, “Please, I spent  more than half of it passed out, like I can’t remember shit. I don’t even remember where the sky or ground was relative to each other for most of the time. The man can fly…. Like all that stuff I was telling you, just replace my name with his and you might have yourself a believable story.”

She laughed at his expense and he laughed too 

Thank you Admiral Vir. 

[dreamersleeps]

Red Wings of Temperance

A Possible Influence Behind the Color of Hawks’ Wings

A deck of tarot cards is made up of 78 cards, and the first twenty two are known as the Major Arcana. They were created in the 14th or 15th century but were not used for divination purposes until the 18th century. Tarot card readings are not meant to predict the future but to offer spiritual guidance. 

The image above (from Oracloo) depicts the 14th Major Arcana card in the tarot deck which is known as: XIV Temperance. 

Like me, I’m sure that your mind jumped to a certain pro hero as soon as you saw the figure’s red wings. 

What might Temperance have to do with Hawks? Let’s first look at a couple definitions of the word first. According to Merriam-Webster: 

Temperance

1. moderation in action, thought, or feeling

2. habitual moderation in the indulgence of the appetites or passions 

If Temperance is drawn, it means: 

Balance, patience, and moderation in life. 

To think before we act. To look at both sides of an issue, to walk in another’s shoes or their path before we pass judgement. To be compassionate, considerate and fair in our dealings with others (bluestartarot). 

That you have a clear, long-term vision of what you want to achieve. You are not rushing things along; instead, you are taking your time to ensuer that you do the best job you can. You know you need a moderate, guided appraoch to reach your goals (biddytarot). 

Other Red-Winged Figures 

Before we begin I’m going to point out that there are a couple other Red-Winged figures amongst the Major Arcana. 

I’m not aware if nudity in art is allowed on Tumblr so just to be safe, I cut the bottom half of both these cards because they depict nude individuals. 

The tarot card on the right is VI The Lovers and XX Judgement. Out of the two, I think you could perhaps make some connections with Judgement and Hawks but I think that Temperance works the best. 

Symbols of the 14th Arcana

There are quite a few symbols on XIV Temperance, but I’m going to focus on a select few. Interpretations may differ based on the source but I tried to stick with those that were repeated throughout the different websites I read through.

The most important part of this card is the act of pouring water from one cup to another, signifying a balance of duality and a mixture of two separate objects. This is where the card gets its name, the process is called “tempering” which is a slow process to eventually find a perfect middle ground (wemystic).

Other dualities that is represented on this card can be: male/female, spiritual/physical, emotion/logic, conscious/subconscious and subconscious/superconscious (we mystic).

Temperance revolves around supreme balance. One foot is on land which represents the Earthly, material world and the other is in water, which represents the emotional, subconscious world. 

The winding path leading to the mountains represents the journey through life with its twists and turns. The sun, appearing as a glowing light is a symbol of staying true to one’s life purpose and meaning (biddytarot). 

Fire/Red wings: Physical passion, anger. Muscles and strength necessary to maintain composure and reach a higher being state. 

Blue water: Emotions, peace, calm. Groundness and refreshment. 

White gown: Pure thought. 

Yellow Iris: Communication, thoughts, learning, feminine/masculine. 

Temperance’s wings are either referred to as “fire wings” or “red wings.”  If we want to make connections to we can argue that his Fierce Wings Quirk is the source of his physical strength, even though he displays some insecurity about his back not being “reassuring” enough for others to depend on. 

Other than his red wings, I don’t think I’m confident enough to draw a clear connection between his appearance and the other prominent colors that appear on Temperance. Hawks’ visor was blue before the anime chose yellow, and he does have the yellow color palette going on. 

However, the meanings of the colors do line up with Hawks’ character. He is a character who is always trying to be calm and collected no matter the situation. Hawks is a character who is constantly seeking, taking in, gathering, and analyzing information. According to the fandom website, Hawks’ surname translates as: “hawk” (taka 鷹) + “see, visible, idea” (mi 見 )

While his first name translates as: “disclose, open, say” (kei  啓) + “enlightenment, understanding” (go  悟).

Sun: Also appearing as the angel’s third eye, it represents the merging of personal aims with the universe’s plans for the individual. 

So similar to many others, I like to see Endeavor as the sun to Hawks’ Icarus (side note: I also like to see Dabi as Apollo in the Icarus theme). 

The bit about the eye is interesting as well: I believe that eyes play an important role in the story telling with Hawks, Endeavor and other characters. There are interesting similarities between the two characters and the Egyptian Gods Ra and Horus (@/bokunowtv also pointed out some interesting details as well).

Recently, it also seems like Hawks’ storyline will be intertwining with Endeavor’s. Hawks has expressed verbally in Chapter 299: “Starting with my origin, so to speak... Endeavor’s in trouble.” While they did team up professionally as heroes in the past, it seems that Hawks intentions this time will be personal. We have yet to see what he is planning to do and how things might pan out, however this path will probably lead him to Touya. 

Triangle: Representative of the fire element and holy trinity. 

Although Hawks does not wear a triangle or square on his chest like the angel, it is still interesting to note that he wears the Hero Public Safety Commission’s diamond symbol in about the same place. Again, there is the mention of fire again. 

The Angel

Because Temperance has to do with balance and duality, the angel on the card is both masculine and feminine.

Whether they are just an unnamed angel or a Biblical angel depends on the source you are looking at. However when it comes to identifying them, while one states that it is the Archangel Gabriel, the sources I looked at overwhelmingly pointed towards the Archangel Michael.

This is very, very interesting considering that the Archangel Michael is the angel who is in all the paintings that people were comparing the cover of Volume 27 with, specifically the painting above: “The Fall of the Rebel Angels” by Luca Giordano.

My analysis first post on Tumblr had to do with pointing out similarities between the Archangel Michael and Hawks, and what that could mean. And my most recent post revisits the possible angel narrative which may be present in Hawks’ story, and how he is referred to as a “fallen angel.”

It’s exciting to see the Archangel Michael pop up again. Michael was also God’s angel of destruction and on XIV Temperance we see him tempering or blending his passionate anger with consicious thought to blend his fiery nature with his super-consciousness with calm (blustartarot). 

Temperance Reversed 

When Tarot cards are reversed, their definitions are flipped over. 

When XIV Temperance meets XV The Devil we see imbalance, disharmony, indifference and lack of empathy. When we preactice excess in our lives without moderation and balance whether it be food, alcohol, drugs, and relationships, we lose ourselves in addiction and bondage (bluestartarot). 

May call for a period of self-evaluation in which you can re-examine your life priorities. Self-healing: by creating more balance and moderation in your life (biddytarot). 

We’ve seen Hawks indulge in something or trip up a couple of times. In Chapter 186, Hawks asks if he can have Endeavor’s leftover food and Endeavor calls him a glutton. Additionally, @/scarletrain1724 has done some analysis on how Hawks is a character who is often seen around or consuming food. 

And in Chapter 265, Hawks takes Jin’s life. As Dabi states below, “sentiments” tripped him up. Hawks displays a lack of empathy here. He believes that he feels sorry for Jin and wants to help him, but Hawks is actually unable to understand him properly. I would also identify this action as one of Hawks’ narrative Icarus falls. 

The Moral of Icarus’ Fall  

This all ties in nicely as we see Hawks’ character following an Icarus narrative. There are a handful of “morals” that we the reader are supposed to gain from the Fall of Icarus but I’ll pull an excerpt from the part I’d like to focus on. 

Before taking flight, Daedalus warned his son: 

“Take care to fly halfway between the sun and the sea. If you fly too high, the sun’s heat will melt the wax that bids your wings. If you fly too low, the sea’s mist will dampen the feathers that give you life. Instead, aim for the middle course and avoid extremes.” (The Fall of Icarus - adapted from Metamorphoses by Ovid)

As we all know, Icarus does not heed his father’s warning, whether it be cause he purposely ignored him or forgot and flies up towards the sun. The sun’s heat melts the wax and loosens the feathers on his manmade wings, and he plummets in to the ocean below, drowning. 

Avoid extremes, fly in the middle and seek temperance.

The card that comes before Temperance is XIII Death.

In death we go through transition, a rebirth, changes and with these we come to XIV Temperance for the need to take the time to pause and think. To integrate and blend what we have learned on our journey (bluestartarot). 

So the question to ask is, has Hawks learned anything from his actions or will his story end with him drowning in the ocean? 

To those who were able to make it through this post, thank you! I know that it was really long but I didn’t want to divide it into more than one part. I really appreciate your time and attention! :)

[thedumbguywithaheart43]

BoomLords weird adventure

Chapter 5 reluctant companions

Rairty spoke up."excuse me darling what is the crazy stallion saying?"Twilight was spaced out for a moment trying to process what she had just done. Apon realizing Rairty was speaking she snapped back to reality."what oh Rairty. Sorry uh he was talking about me helping him to uh shit"She blinked, wincing as she couldn't get the thought of what she had just done out of her head. She didn't intend to create Rose fire in fact in that moment she had wanted to kill him to render the flesh from his bone, it was as if another creature had entered her head for a moment and fueled her rage."I think I have to go with him."before she could explain why."WHAT ARE YOU TAKING ABOUT HE JUST MESSED WITH YOU AND THE PRINCESSES HEADS!"rainbow yelled."I merely showed them what they wanted to know however to be honest I didn't expect this to happen. I had been looking for the rose fire in every world every terrifying, every cruel, and every unforgiving place in the Omniverse. But it turns out all I had to do was accidentally induced fear and rage into a horse."the pony stared at him for a moment."He's telling the truth and now that we know what's at stake we have no choice but to help."Celestia stated her tone was dark however as if she was doing something she wasn't so sure she wanted to."h-how long until it happens?"Boom and Celestia stared at each other for a moment. It was clear Boom really didn't want to answer this."could be days could be another year time works differently for me but if I had to give a rough estimate maybe a year or two or less."Celestia took a gulp of air as she looked to her fellow ponies. She looked as if she was holding back tears."my little ponies I ask no I beg you all to go with him this is no longer a matter in my control and I cannot force you to partake in this. What he is asking is dangerous beyond anything any of you have ever faced and while he may only require Twilight I would never send my student alone into what I was shown."this time no one spoke not even dash because when princess Celestia tells you shits about to go down it's going to go fuckin down. And in unison without hesitation without regret without fear all the ponies and Spike responded"were in!"boom looked at the group of ponies a look of discontent on his face."fuckin great I'm babysitting a whole party."most of the ponies ignored what he said with the exception of rainbow dash and Applejack."hey no one asked you"dash got in his face while AJ got close next to her."yeah that's right and don't think we're going to take our eyes off you for a minute partner. Not after what you just pulled.

2 spike walked over to the stallion cautiously"so how are we leaving? I mean you said we had to leave."well you see that's why I'm going to need my notepad and Pen also my satchel if you don't mind."a look of confusion re-entered the faces of everyone."oooo are you gonna draw us amagical portal to another dimension?"pinky blurted out as a few of the others started to chuckle."actually that's a pretty accurate assessment of what I'm about to do, in fact spot on."Twilights jaw nearly dropped as BoomLord began scribbling on the paper. Boomlord had drawn a nearly perfect circle on a piece of the notepads paper and in the center of it wrote the words, °home space°as he took the pen off the paper another electric golden ring started to form, the area within beginning to blacken about 10 ft away."okay everybody we're about to leave but don't worry I can send us back to this exact point in time give or take a few minutes so while we may be gone for who knows how long to the princesses it will only be a couple minutes."Boom that hope this comment would calm them however they're confusion only broaden. 'God how are they going to react when they all change'

3 boom was the first to enter the portal then Twilight followed by Pinky, rainbow,Applejack, rarity Fluttershy, and lastly young Spike. Boomlord looked down at himself. He was human again his blue jeans and thick yellow hoodie once again with him. Pulling back the sleeve he saw that the green fur that once covered his body was gone replaced with his light taned skin. Okay I hope everybody's ready for some exposition and descriptions. Boomlord looked back at the ponies first up was Twilight she had grown into a human form unsurprisingly. Her mane or I guess her hair had stayed the same she had fairly pale white skin and a few smalls freckles adorning her face she was also fairly short compared to Boom. Boom knew his height was about 5'7 give or take so Twilight had to be about 5'4 or 5'3 she wore a purple t-shirt and a darker purple skirt with pants to go with it all put together with very nice sneakers which all the girls have with the exception of rarity and Applejack. Pinky on the overhand was definitely much taller than Twilight in fact she was about the same height as boom. She wore a striped blue and pink shirt with a polka dot skirt and light pink leggings she had average white skin no major tan or anything although she did have pink nail polish on. Dash was next she still had her rainbow hair but she was on the shorter end with Twilight only being a inch or so taller along with fairly tanned skin as if she's been spending her days at the beach. She wore a plain blue sleeveless top and jean shorts her wings were also noticeably missing the same with Fluttershy. Speaking of Fluttershy her outfit was rather green she wore a green t-shirt with a yellow peace symbol on it and long jeans. Additionally in her hair she had is a flower crown witch she probably took off, besides that her skin was also fairly tanned. Applejack definitely took the show with her outfit she was wearing thick brown leather gloves and a brown leather vest with tassels on it. Underneath the vest was a plain white shirt covered in bits of brown dirt, and long stylish cowboy print jeans and good old-fashioned cowgirl boots. Applejack skin was also the most tanned being she was definitely the one who spent the most time outdoors. Also she and rainbow dash were the only ones with noticeable er muscle growth as even through their outfits they still kept their physical physique. Applejack and Fluttershy we're definitely the tallest of the group with Fluttershy being 5'8 and Applejack being at least 6'2.Lastly of the girls we have rarity wearing a clean white shirt with stylish blue diamond print in it, and a rather long dress to accompany it. Along her neck was a rather lovely diamond necklace and alot Lower down beautiful high heels. She also had the darkness pigment of her skin when compared to everyone else. Also sorry if that's not politically correct I'm not entirely sure what the correct term is now. Do feel free to let me know. As soon as the girls walk through the portal though most of them with the exception of Twilight who seemed almost familiar with the sensation of walking on two legs fell to the ground."oh no whats happing?"Pinky yelled and she started crawling on all fours along with Fluttershy. Dash and Applejack were occupied with balancing themselves on a desk next to them and rarity had somehow crawled her way to a sofa and dramatically pose."oh darling what has happened to us?"boomlord rolled his eyes as he knew he was going to have to teach them how to be human it also occurred to him where the hell was spike.

4 Then he saw it or well him. Unlike his fellow ponies Spike didn't turn into a human and no he did not turn into a dog. This isn't Equestria girls guys turning into a dog is really dumb and I already have one in the story. Spike's body had remained reptilian however he's noticeably taller now at least about Twilights size inner current form his body seemed to get longer and his claws along with it. His face has narrowed Abit becoming far more similar to his dragon freinds with the exception that he had a much longer neck which allowed him to survey his own body. Put it simply he looks more like what a small dragon would look like in our world if they existed."woah I look really cool!"spike yelled in excitement."ponies don't talk where I'm from so the portal has adjusted your body's to something a bit more familiar to me that I have set and in Spike's case I already had something in mind for dragons." Ponies now began to look around their surroundings. They notice they seemed to be in a rather decent sized living room a few desks a television ,yellow rug, a few lamps. The room seemed mostly normal only the walls and floor and ceiling all looked the same. It looks like the inside of a treehouse and where there was a window there was no... Well anything just an empty void."welcome to my home away from home a little place I made outside of the Omniverse and what I like to call free space, basically this entire place is an extension of a thought everything here with the exception of a few items were made from nothing. No magic and no magical effects can be taken here with the exception of the notepad so sorry girls but your wings and horns are temporarily unavailable don't worry when we go to other worlds you should be able to use them."Twilight rapidly blinked as she didn't expect well boom to look rather nice. He still had rather unkempt hair and the rings under the eyes but here the black in his eyes were gone however his irises remained red and gold. He had a warm smile or a warm fake smile and while definitely wasn't the biggest guy around he still had a rather fit physique. And the rarity was the first to comment on that"oh boom darling you look um..... Better than I would have thought."boom roll his eyes."well im far more comfortable like this."the girls who were having trouble standing took a few minutes to themselves to start copying the motions of Twilight who began pacing."uh hey are we safe here."like asked while moving around the girls who were rather surprised to see him as they did not expect such a change."spike looking badass today."rainbow dash teased.spike blushed slight as Boomlord spoke."well girls work going to have to set some ground rules since it looks like you'll be staying with me for a while."

(Oh one more thing because I know you're all wondering or at least some of you are wondering.

Breasts size from largest to smallest :Applejack dd followed by pinkie and Fluttershy then Rairty.twlight has the average size and rainbow dash is flat but that doesn't make her any less of a woman)

(not sure why I felt the need to put that there but I feel like some people just had to know)

[kentuckywrites]

Imperium 2: Chapter 8

Te amo, qui meus est orbis. (I love you, my world.)

It truly was funny, how little time they were given to understand what they’d seen. Starr sensed it, he must have, or he’d tracked them down and intended to stop them before anything else was uncovered. They couldn’t run, they couldn’t back down. They had to draw their weapons, all four of them, with tear stained eyes and broken hearts. They had to fight the very person that Nessa had been created to save.

Nessa struck first, in a twist of demented irony. She hadn’t even realized that she’d let go of Solstice’s hand, hadn’t felt the cool grip of her dual swords through her gloves, until she was charging ahead and activating an Art she didn’t know the name of. She’d dodged to the side as soon as Starr swung at her, and her blades sliced through his flank, seeming to deal more damage than before. Elma practically mirrored her movements on Starr’s other side, while Lin put down cover fire and a great distraction. Solstice stood still, backing up, a deer in the headlights. 

“SOLSTICE!!!” Nessa cried out just as Starr screeched, sending a wave of fire straight towards them. Just as it was about to burn them, Lin shouted the name of an Art. Nessa couldn’t hear it, but Solstice became enveloped in a shining green light, and the fire never touched their skin, though it licked around their limbs, desperate for a taste, desperate to burn. That seemed to snap them out of their trance, and swallowing hard, they ignited their weapons: claws, long claws created from the light ether that had danced around them in the cavern, now sharp and pointed and ready for a fight. 

That made Starr furious. He went to bite at them, convinced his teeth would break the barrier, but Lin’s shield was up and in front of them to take the hit. But Starr’s mouth stayed clamped down, and Lin didn’t let go, so when he flung his neck she went flying with him. She slammed back-first into one of the only surviving walls, minus her shield, which Starr spat out like a watermelon seed. Elma called out her name, but Starr took advantage of her lowered guard, and a claw swipe in her direction sent her to the same fate.

“Pongo!!” Solstice cried out, though Starr gave no signs of listening, interested now in his closest target: Nessa. She parried his claws with her swords, backing up as the strength behind his blows made her shaky. “This isn’t you! Please, remember your friends! Remember who you are!!”

Nessa had to admit that Solstice’s faith made her hopeful, but that was just enough time for Starr to bellow, his wings beginning to flap as he swung around and began heading back towards the giant gaping hole in the fortress that he’d entered from. She screamed, “NO!!”, before running after him. They’d run away from him, and he’d left them behind in a silent acknowledgement of defeat, but now that she knew, she couldn’t let him get away. Maybe it wouldn’t end now, and maybe it wouldn’t end here. But she’d end it one way or another.

Nessa ended up pouncing on Starr’s tail, digging both of her blades in just as he took off. Behind her, someone grabbed her ankle, and in front of her, Nessa saw Elma practically throw Lin up towards Star’’s hind leg. She caught hold of the fur, and Elma soon joined on the opposite hind leg, one dual sword sticking out of his leg while her other hand desperately tried to hold on to something, anything. Starr was unforgiving, as if he didn’t feel the little fleas clinging to his body, and he tore through the air with a venomous rage. Only when he was in the air did things begin to go downhill.

He swerved between the mountain tops, taking drastic turns in an attempt to crush his passengers. Nessa and Solstice, whom she quickly discovered was the one hanging on to her leg, began to receive the brunt of the hits. Solstice yelped when they nearly lost their grip on her ankle, but just as they recovered, Starr suddenly stopped and thrust his tail under his body, attempting to throw them both up into the air. Solstice was thrown with no remorse, and Nessa’s grip slipped, losing both of her dual swords in the process as they flew alongside her. 

They both screamed - how weren’t they supposed to? They were so high up they could barely see the ground and, unless Solstice was some kind of a wizard, they had no party tricks to make for a softer landing. And to make things worse, as they both fell through the air, Starr dove down. Nessa wasn’t sure how Elma and Lin managed to hang on, much less get flung like she and Solstice had, but in the end Starr reached his paw out towards Nessa, his eyes burning with a chaotic and unpredictable rage, and he swat her further out into the falling expanse. She felt the wounds open and sear with pain, the blood unable to escae due to her freefalling. 

“Nessa!!” Solstice cried out, their arms out in an attempt to grab her, “Take my hands!! I can -”

They were interrupted by Starr, clamping down on their body, teeth piercing through their torso. Nessa gasped, and Starr swung upwards, carrying all three of her friends along as she hit the snowy floor. She bounced, slid, stopped on her shoulder. Everything inside her body began to howl in pain, and as she tried to push herself upwards, she was met with a void. A gigantic pit, far larger than the one that Oblivia housed, far deeper and more ominous, a stark contrast against the pure white snow. Except, the snow was no longer white, not around her. It was stained blue, a beautiful blue, and that nearly made Nessa sick. 

The ground shook as Starr landed behind her, and the sound of fighting continued. Nessa tried once, twice more to sit herself up, but her arms shook with pain and fatigue and no matter how much she tried she simply couldn’t get her body to listen to her. Two hands eventually appeared and helped her up, and Nessa turned her head, spotting Lin through half lidded eyes. Lin kept her head steady, despite how badly gravity wished to claim her, wished to return her to the ground.

Lin said something to her, but Nessa couldn’t quite hear. It was only then that she realized that her ears were ringing, occupied by an unwanted white noise. She shook her head, a guess to Lin’s question - was it even a question, or was it a statement, an exclamation, a worry or concern - and, with her remaining strength, Nessa got herself to stand up fully, her hands balling into fists as she turned to face Starr. Elma was fighting him on her own, and Solstice was down not far from their battlefield. Their blood, golden in color, spilled from their wounds, though it didn’t coat the snow like Nessa’s had. They stood freely, clutching at their stomach, one of their ether claws still extended. They locked eyes, and in mere seconds, Solstice’s eyes went dark. Baring their teeth like fangs, their other hand fell to their side, and the other ether claws emerged. They rushed forward to take Starr by surprise in the back, and Nessa could only watch as they fought tooth and claw with all the rage they’d pent up.

It was...inspiring. That wasn’t a good word for it, Nessa knew, but she felt an adrenaline rush hit her at the sight of two of her friends fighting Starr. She glanced around, trying to identify where her swords had landed, but in the midst of her search, Lin’s hand was back on her arm. This time, she could hear what the young Outfitter had to say.

“Take this. I’ll cover you.”

Lin offered out her gatling gun, fully loaded and primed to shoot. Nessa stared at the weapon for a moment before she nodded, taking the weight in her hands, shifting it to find a balance. Never mind the fact that she’d never used one of these bad boys before, she’d figure it out. It would be metal as hell if she could tear through Starr like scissors through paper and bring an end to this chaos in record time. Taking aim, Lin propped her shield up in front of Nessa, angling it so that it wouldn’t interfere with the eventual barrage of bullets. Once that was set up, and Starr was thoroughly distracted by Elma and Solstice, Nessa fired.

The barrage was like a whirlwind of shooting stars, and she made sure to wish on every single one. Some missed Starr by a hair, others struck him where it hurt. His attention immediately shifted to the pair, and another large fireball exited his maw. Lin had her shield up just in time to take the brunt of the hit. Starr leapt forward, clawing at them, but Nessa got underneath him instead and let loose another torrent of bullets. His underbelly, though covered in the same coarse white fur, wasn’t nearly as protected as his outer body, so when Starr screamed, it was from a place of sheer shock and pain. He nearly flipped himself over in an attempt to reach her, and one claw did, launching her forward - but straight into Solstice, who caught her before she went too far.

“If we can tie him down somehow, I can enact the ritual and revert him back to his original form,” Solstice said between pants, clearly exhausted, “Keep him distracted. My ether should do the trick.”

“Leave it to me, Sol,” Nessa smirked, darting forward to re-enter the fray. It was hard to run thanks to the gatling gun, but once she positioned herself in a new place, it became the least of her concerns. Starr’s eyes were shaking, going back and forth between his targets, fire bristling out of them as his ether lined flared up along his body. He struck at Elma first, who dodged with nimble grace. She didn’t look too rough, but it was clear that her excessive dodging was beginning to wear her down. Nessa fired another volley of bullets at Starr, but this time, he seemed more interested in attacking Lin, whose shield was still up and ready to take another hit. As he lashed out, however, the shield split in two, and Lin flew backwards, landing on her rear as she held the one sliced piece of her shield. Nessa reloaded as fast as she could, continuing to fire, aiming at Starr’s face now to divert his attention. 

“COME AND GET SOME, YOU OVERSIZED MILLESAUR TURD!!” Nessa taunted him with a fierce growl.

Starr flared up with righteous anger, but just as he swiveled around, a string of light shot out and wrapped itself tightly around his neck. He shrieked in surprise, and more strings soon enveloped his four legs, and nothing he did could make him break free. He even tried to bite some of the ones around his front arms, but the string around his neck tugged him back, earning an annoyed and panicked roar. Solstice stood at a distance, their ether claws gone, their hands now wrapped firmly around the base of the strings. With Starr’s resistance, their foothold in the snow began to falter, but somehow, they remained standing upright, the muscles in their shoulders straining. 

They began to chant, the voice raised over the growls of the angered Telethia. It was ancient Miran, a language unknown to Elma and Lin solely out of the planet’s own spite. Nessa could translate with startling clarity, and as the words reached her ears, repeating over and over and over again, Starr began to shrivel and shrink.

“I beseech the sun and the moons above, grant me the power of the star! Let this planet’s humble servant protect the land and the sea, the sky and all between!”

Nessa’s eyes were glued to Starr’s form, convoluted and twisting as the chanting took its toll. The fur receded back into his body, his wings and tail disappeared with time, and the ropes around his limbs soon tightened as his body mass depleted. Nessa almost couldn’t look away, but soon she saw Solstice starting to fumble, starting to tighten, and she limped over as quickly as she could. The gatling gun got left behind in the rush, abandoned after having served its purpose.

Solstice retracted her light ether ropes, her hands now shaking in front of her. Even though the transformation was setting in, even though their time as a humanoid was nearing its end, they looked at peace. As Nessa approached, they smiled with so much warmth and happiness that it almost gave her hope.

They spoke first.

“I -”

“I don’t want you to go.” Nessa confessed faster than she could ever hope to process, making Solstice’s smile even softer.

“I don’t want to leave. But I must. It is my duty, and it is my promise.”

“I...I know it is.”

There was a silence between them that they refused to break for far too long. Nessa closed her eyes, hoping to squeeze the tears away, and a shadow suddenly came over her. Something pressed down on her forehead. A kiss.

“I will never forget you, Nessa-vara’is. You are the world I swore to protect, and I shall uphold that until the end of time.”

Nessa opened her eyes, and Solstice was walking away, back towards Starr’s crumpled form. It was a haze to her, a flurry of bright lights and blinding views, but in the midst of the ritual, a new pair of wings sprouted, earthier in tone, completed by yellow ether feathers. Telethia, the Endbringer, took to the skies moments after. As the lights all dimmed down, Nessa became acutely aware of the glacial iris in her hair, perched carefully despite the battle she’d endured. She knew Solstice wasn’t gone, but they’d left their love behind for her. She’d cherish that for eternity.

However, in the end, all that was left behind as the lights finally died was a body. A bleeding, mangled, human body. Her brother.

Nessa wasn’t the first to reach him. Lin did. She shook him by the shoulders first, then propped him up on his knees when he proved to be unresponsive. He held that position as she took out her comm device, scanning for internal damage, life-threatening external damage.

“He’s stable,” Lin announced with far too much enthusiasm, “He lost a lot of fluids, but he’ll be okay as long as we hurry back to the city.”

“We should make a pit stop back at the caravan first,” Elma told her, “If Pongo’s not in good shape, it could be worth visiting Vanala to see if her ether can -”

“Wait...no. Something’s not right.”

Lin performed another scan, her comm device floating over Pongo’s body. A scowl was forming on her face, though it was quickly overtaken by a set of wide eyes and prominent fear. “He’s...he’s not there.”

“What do you mean?” Elma asked.

Nessa knew what Lin meant. Everything in her body went cold.

“The serum that the Misaaldi gave him, before his transformation...it erased him. There’s nothing inside this mim. It’s...it’s an empty shell.”

As if to prove a point, his eyes slowly opened, and underneath his eyelids, there was only grey. The same hauntingly void grey they’d seen in the footage back in the fortress. Nessa’s heart broke, perhaps for the millionth time that day, yet at the same time, she could feel it beating beneath her breast. It was lying to her. 

She began to walk towards him. Lin stepped aside as Nessa knelt down in front of him, dropping her swords in her tired state. A newly emptied hand reached up to cradle an empty face. Nothing was there to receive her pain. She couldn’t even hold his cheek properly; if she pressed too hard, she feared he’d topple over, truly dead instead of faking it. 

Mira spoke softly, a gentle whisper laced with a terrible sadness.

I know how to fix this.

“How?”

You are not going to like it.

“I said how?”

You...you have to return him to me. He is still a part of me, and if you return his body, I can recreate him.

“...you want me to...to kill him?...” Nessa’s voice cracked at the realization. “I...you made me to save him...this isn’t…”

You will be saving him. I...I do not know what else we could do.

“There has to be another way!!” She screamed, “I can’t do this!! I didn’t ask to be created for this!!”

Mira didn’t respond, but she felt the weight of its grief on her shoulders, and she knew that it never meant for things to turn out this way. Nessa’s hands fell to her sides, unable to stop her sobs from escaping. This hurt. This hurt more than any wounds she’d ever gotten, more than any bullet or sword or blunt force trauma. This was torture of the cruelest kind.

After a moment, she forced herself to stand, to return to where she’d been standing previously. Her guns were still strapped to her back, and she removed one. Fully loaded. There was no excuse to postpone it. She lifted her arm, the sobs strengthening tenfold with every second she stared at him.

The chill of Cocytios. Warm blood running down her arms, drying in the crisp and foreboding wind. The gun in her hand, pointed at the shell before her. His eyes were dead and lifeless, his body sitting perfectly still. How wasn’t he dead? He wasn’t moving, wasn’t responding, wasn’t doing anything. 

Maybe, though his physical body said otherwise, he was dead. There was nothing left inside him but wires and circuit boards and all the little things that made a mimeosome human. There was no soul, no love, no personality. If Nessa tried to hug him, he wouldn’t hug back. If she called out to him, he wouldn’t respond.

So the gun in her hand, the shot she was about to fire...Nessa had to convince herself this was a mercy. That killing him - killing this husk, this former light in the world - would give him a chance to live one day, just like he’d lived before she came. And yet, though she kept telling herself this truth, that she was saving him by killing him and that Mira would restore him when he died…

Why did it hurt so badly?

Nessa had the gun pointed at his head. She could shoot now and be done. She could shoot, watch his body fall, and walk away. But looking into those eyes, colder than Cocytios, reflecting nothing, nothing, nothing - she just couldn’t. She knew what those eyes used to hold, what they used to look like. They were just like hers, full of life and adoration for life. Mira had cursed her the moment she realized she could see some of his memories, see the friendships he’d forged and the trials he’d overcome. He was somebody bright and beautiful, and now…

For his sake, and for hers, and for any other lives he managed to touch - Nessa had to kill him. 

She squeezed her eyes shut, stifling the sobs that wracked her body, sending shivers down her skin that she couldn’t blame the cold for. When she opened her eyes again, he was still there, staring, waiting, expecting.

“I’m sorry,” Nessa breathed, her voice hitching in the back of her throat. “You’re not...you’re not him. I have to kill you to save you, and it’s so warped and twisted and cruel and you deserve so much better than this. But I...I was created to save you, just as you were created to save humanity. They’ll need you more than they’ll ever need me.”

She paused for a moment, the wind blowing some of her tears away. Many more came, and many more continued to stain her cheeks, invisible scars that she’d feel for days, weeks to come. “You don’t have to forgive me for this, either. Just... promise that you’ll remember me, okay? Don’t forget who I am. And remember that I’d go to the ends of the world for you. Maybe one day I can prove it to you in the flesh, but for now...just remember.”

Nessa swallowed hard. If she had any other words to say, they were fleeting, not nearly as sincere or formulated in comparison. And they would only delay the inevitable, they’d only delay his death. And she couldn’t do that to him, not any longer. Eyes wide open, holding her arm up as firmly as possible, she tried to smile.

When she pulled the trigger, and the bullet passed through his skull, a clean and precise cut that would’ve killed any man, and his body toppled backwards and over the edge of the bottomless grave…

She swore Pongo was smiling. 

And that broke her. She screamed and cried and let her heart break loud enough for all to hear. Cocytios’s wind drowned her sorrow in the snow.