#although this one is quite chatty during the fight so you can tell where he is because of that

[rohirric-hunter]

I feel like I should note, whenever I promise screenshots of Angmar Nazgul fights to people, that this is what they look like

[enjennie]

Bottom’s Up

synopsis: the dreamies during a night of drinking somehow end up talking about their exes, revealing the different types of relationships and exes they have or had.

a/n: this has been long been in my drafts so Jisung was still a minor here, thus I didn’t give him any drinks lmao. Enjoy! btw, I’m still deciding if I should make Haechan’s backstory for this, or if the markHyuck one should do…

[10:37]

The boys have arrived, piling into Chenle’s condominium that was set up just to have their long awaited guys night. They planned this weeks prior, promising each other that after their finals they’d set aside time to drink away their thoughts and release any stress they have that built up.

By 10:50 bottles have been popped and cups have been poured, the boys sat in the balcony to feel the cool air of the city night.

“You guys really aren’t sharing?” Jisung watches as the older boys raise their glasses in celebration.

“You wait a few more months, sir,” Mark sets his glass down and pats the younger boy on the shoulder. Guy nights wouldn’t be complete without Jisung, even if he wasn’t allowed to drink yet. He never minded sitting in the living room, playing with Chenle’s console with Jaemin and then later on laughing at his older friends’ shenanigans once the alcohol hit them.

Renjun isn’t quite the drinker, but Haechan made him a bet and unfortunately, he lost. Being an art major wasn’t easy, he knew he had a few more things to finish before his semester ended but with that, Renjun drank to forget.

Besides his plates, he had nothing else to worry about. He’d been getting emails from companies waiting for him to graduate, a family happy to support him, but surprisingly, the boy lacked in the love department.

His previous relationships, only being flings and one night stands, none of them really ever stayed after the cuddles. Except… a particular someone.

On the opposite side of him sat Jeno, who was watching his friends in amusement. Now, Jeno has a high alcohol tolerance. Although he becomes chatty, and starts to excessively clean his surroundings, he takes care of his friends well. Usually he’s the one who tucks them into bed or prevents anything like drunk driving and some other stupid shit to happen.

Jeno the architectural major was the responsible friend in a night out. The single friend who starts playing the guitar to set the mood when 2am rolls in. And, the single friend with the broken heart, which hasn’t quite mended yet even after three years.

Haechan on the other hand, is a messy drunk but handles his alcohol well until the 2nd bottle. The boy has a lot going on in his mind, and was the first to initiate the plan to drink.

His phone rings, but Haechan dismisses it, tapping the red decline button and watching as the screen faded into black. Mark follows his eyes and hesitantly brings it up.

“Aren’t you going to talk to her?”

Haechan only shakes his head before taking another swig. Everyone knows well enough about Haechan and his girlfriend’s on and off relationship. They break up, make up, fight and the cycle repeats.

Mark’s adam’s apple bobs as he asks another question. “Why don’t you just break up? Y’know… for good?”

The boys around them seem to have noticed the tension that built up and had their eyes fixed on the pair.

“I don’t know, man,” Haechan is too drunk to think about Mark’s question. Too drunk to realize how Mark completely sold himself off to be in love with him with that one question. It wasn’t a big secret, especially since Mark has done a poor job in hiding it, but apparently not bad enough for Haechan to see. Everyone knew, except for the clueless boy.

Jaemin was too busy babysitting Chenle, who was having his first drink tonight, to even have shots of his own. He didn’t like drinking, anyway, and used Chenle as an excuse to keep sober.

Jaemin the medical student naturally tells his friends to lay off the alcohol, as it can damage their liver. He can only do so much though, as the others tend to be hard-headed and stubborn.

“I can handle myself!” Chenle protests, reaching for his glass which Jaemin took away. “You’re supposed to drink, eat a lot then drink again,” Jaemin explains. “You’ve only taken drinks so far, you’ll be knocked out in an hour if you keep this up,” He tells Chenle.

Of course, Jaemin knew his way around drinking. He just didn’t enjoy it, doesn’t like the bitter taste of it. Didn’t like how it made him think of his past either. Jaemin’s cup remains half full, and he uses this tactic to not get refills.

It keeps him away from his phone, sober enough to know better than to drunk text her. Even if her presence was all he yearned for at a night like this.

Jaemin x Reader – By My Side

[COMING SOON]

[12:03]

As the night gets deeper, so do the conversations between the close friends. Just like Jaemin predicted, Chenle had his head down on the table already, passed out.

“Jeno, you know what to do,” Jaemin nodded his head, signaling the boy beside him. Jeno gave him his smile, which now looked more drowsy and silly because of his tipsy state.

Jeno lifts Chenle easily, with Jaemin assisting him, leaving the three boys on the table.

“I want ____. Where is she?” Chenle had his eyes closed, mumbling to his friends. Jaemin and Jeno exchanged looks and laughed at the younger.

Poor boy, had a ton of expectations to meet he couldn’t even date around.

Chenle’s main priority had to be his family, and their business. He couldn’t afford any distractions, but to him, she was more than that. She was his driving force, and it hurt the boy to be keeping her a secret. Only the boys knew about his secret relationship, if word got out that Zhong Chenle the son of the most well-respected corporate business owner was dating, it would be the entirety of Shanghai talking about it.

As much as he wanted nothing more than to show the world and tell everyone who he’s in love with, he knew she wasn’t ready to face it all and step into that kind of light yet.

Chenle x Reader – In The Limelight

While the two boys took Chenle into his room, it left the three boys and Haechan’s buzzing phone out in the cold night air that the terrace provided.

“What happened this time?” Renjun asks, in line with the phone that’s close to annoying the hell out of him if it doesn’t stop vibrating the entire table. Haechan had his head down, and he lets out a laugh. Humorless, just cold.

“I don’t get her. She wants me, then the next second she doesn’t,”

When the boy lifts his head, it’s made obvious of all the pain he’s been hiding. His eyes, teary and sullen. Renjun couldn’t help but laugh at his friend’s face, clapping his hands and throwing his head back in laughter. “Aw, c’mon man! It’s only 12am,”

This, however, doesn’t humor Mark the same way. Seeing Haechan in pain was like a bullet through his heart. He gave the boy a pat on the back and watches as his head fall once again. Mark swears he saw a tear fall too.

“I’m not just an object you can set aside, then use when needed,” Haechan continues to wail. Although he was already drunk, Mark felt that Haechan’s words were the most sober when he wasn’t.

As for Mark, the literature major didn’t care much about alcohol. However, it did get his creative juices flowing. Most of Mark’s best written pieces were done when he couldn’t even remember writing them.

During blurry nights intoxicated in alcohol, Mark’s thoughts flow easily through him and onto the sheets of paper that lie around his room. Sometimes, he’ll drink on a school night to get an essay finished for it’s due date the next day.

But seeing as he had no pending things to write, Mark drank for the sake of trying to numb himself somehow. Although it didn’t work well when the person he’s trying to get his mind off of is sat right beside him, thinking of someone else.

Mark x Haechan – Always, I’ll Care

[COMING SOON]

[1:13 am]

When Jaemin and Jeno came back, Jeno was already carrying a guitar. He strums it softly to a random tune he came up with on the spot. Haechan, of course, was singing along. Throwing in words like ‘baby’ and murmuring a few words about love. By now, Renjun’s cheeks were pink and a few hiccups had already escaped him.

“Do you remember that girl Jeno dated second semester of senior year?” he says, out of the blue.

The boys need not ask who, as they all knew who Renjun was referring to. The group of boys burst into fits of laughter and the guitar takes an abrupt stop as its player shoots his friends a nasty look for bringing up his past unprovoked.

“You were smitten, bro,” Mark smacks Jeno’s shoulder as he giggles.

Jeno daggers his eyes to Renjun, who has his head thrown back, laughing.

“How about you, huh? What was her name? _____-“ Jeno begins his avengement by mentioning the name he knew would get back at Renjun. He gets cut off shortly.

“I’ll stop you right there, sir,” Renjun places a hand over Jeno’s mouth before he could speak the name.

“C’mon, how many years has that been though?” Jeno asks after getting the boy’s hand off of his mouth.

“Two, and what about it?” Renjun defensively counters, surprising the other boys.

“He knows! Wow, do you keep count?” Jaemin chuckles, amusement all over his face.

“Shut up, ____ ,” Renjun points a finger at the male, mentioning the name of Jaemin’s past lover. Jaemin’s jaw drops and he crosses his arms,

“That was low,” The corner of his lips tugged into a smile nonetheless.

“C’mon, guys. It’s not like we’re releasing bad omens talking about our exes,” Haechan tugs on Renjun to sit him back down.

“Easy for you to say, you’ve only had one ex and she’s your girlfriend,” Renjun huffs. No one dared to speak the name of Renjun’s ex around him aside from people who have balls like Jeno, Jaemin, Haechan and Mark.

It wasn’t because he was bitter about her. But try as he might, there was a feeling within him that says she’s the one. Or she was. And Renjun was stuck, thinking about all the what if’s. Even after 2 years.

Renjun x Reader – To Be So Lonely [COMING SOON]

“I see things are getting heated over here,” Jisung stood by the door to the balcony now, with a sly smirk on his face.

“Ah right, let’s talk about mister lover boy over here,” Jeno motioned to the younger boy, who surprisingly is the only one to have a love life at the moment.

Jisung was courting the student body president. He could not, however, get her to answer him, but the boy never gives up.

“You must have some balls to hit on your senior,” Jaemin comments. The student body president was in fact two years older than Jisung, but the boy was determined.

Jisung x Reader – Like A Fool

[COMING SOON]

“At least one of us is progressing in terms of love,” Renjun sighed.

“Jeno’s doing well though, isn’t he? Lots of girls always after him,” Jisung gestures to the male beside him who’d started playing the guitar once again.

“I don’t think that counts as doing well,” Jeno mutters, absentmindedly.

“Oh yeah? And how does having half the school pine over you not count as doing well?” Jaemin lightly nudges his friend.

“Because the one I love, is in someone else’s arms right now,”

And cue the exaggerated crying and wailing of his friends, who’d given him sympathetic pats on the back.

Jeno x Reader – We Find Love

[COMING SOON]

“Oh, man,” grumbled Haechan, clearly already very intoxicated. He placed his head between his hands to try and stop his world from spinning. “I got to go to her, I have to say sorry,”

The boys all averted their eyes to the boy who looks to be having his spiritual awakening.

Mark’s heart dropped upon hearing Haechan’s words. He looked down at his hands and sighed. It wouldn’t be the first time Haechan had a sudden realization and wanted to be in his girlfriend’s arms right then and there.

It usually happened when he was smashed drunk, after the 7th or 8th cup. Asking his mates to take him home and running into the arms of his girl.

Mark didn’t know why he wasn’t used to it at this point. It isn’t and never will be him.

“No way,” Jaemin tutted. “You gathered us all here to drink and bothered us for weeks then you’ll flake midway? I don’t think so,” The other boys agreed.

Renjun stretched his arms and fell back onto the chair he sat on. “What’s with the sudden change of atmosphere anyway? It’s like we did release bad omens when we spoke about our exes,”

“You just had to bring ____ up!” Jeno threw a fry at his friend, who was the first to mention his ex and start the discussion. Renjun caught the fry in his mouth, surprising the boys and himself.

“Let’s just drink up,” Renjun raises his glass in the air, although it’s half empty.

“Nice try, here have a refill. We’re all taking equal shots,” Mark had risen and was now reaching for the bottle of beer to pour his friend’s glass.

“To… I don’t know- fuck! To getting fucked up!” Haechan yelled, raising his glass in the air.

The rest of the boys do the same, clinking glasses together and downing it mercilessly to their livers.

Relationships come and go, but the dreamies are always here to stay.

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

Ranking Brotherhood of Evil Mutant members (including all interations) from your, most to least favorite and please expound why. I do like asking for opinions.

Hmmm....there have been several iterations of the Brotherhood, and I’m not very familiar with some of the later versions, so I’m just gonna go with the earlier versions that I know.  Bear in mind, this is entirely subjective, and I like most of these characters, so a character being lower down doesn’t mean I hate them.  Going from favorite to least favorite:  

Pyro:

Anyone following this blog has probably noticed I love this dude.  I’m not exactly subtle about it.  I think he’s interesting and fun, as villains go.  He’s snarky and cocky, and actually rather friendly when he’s not trying to kill you - very Affable Evil.  He’s not necessarily a very good person - he’s self-interested, and can be rather vicious, but he’s a character that I thought could potentially come over to the good side.  He seemed, at times, to get into the whole “Freedom Force” thing, and clearly enjoyed saving people alongside Longshot.  He seems to bond a great deal with his team-mates - Mystique, Avalanche, even Stonewall (although he was a dick to him and Commando when they first joined).  He even pals around with Blob, even though he also snarks at him sometimes.  In AOA, Pyro was the only one helping and being protective of Phantazia.  And now in Marauders he refers to them as his “friends,” and is perfectly happy traveling around with people that used to kick his ass, even appearing impressed with them (especially Storm), and being a surprisingly good team player.  I don’t think Pyro would necessarily become a good guy for altruistic purposes, but I think he enjoys having “adventures” and getting attention and hanging out with his team-mates.  I think if Pyro was on an X-Team, and was made to feel welcome, he’d probably be content to fight alongside them and follow the rules (which is basically what he’s doing right now with the Marauders), and maybe some of his team-mates’ virtues would rub off on him a bit.  (There was apparently a version of X-Factor pitched to Marvel years ago that included Pyro on the team, and I’m disappointed that never happened, although I loved the X-Factor that we got.)  And of course, there was also Pyro’s somewhat redemptive death, where he came to regret his past actions with the Brotherhood and wound up sacrificing his life to save Senator Kelly (fat lot of good it did, since Kelly got assassinated shortly after, but hey, he tried!) 

Along with all of that, I am also really intrigued by Pyro’s back story of being a romance author and journalist.  There’s the whole dichotomy of a guy who callously burns people to death and also writes gothic romance novels in his spare time.  And honestly, it sounds like he’s lived a really interesting life before the Brotherhood - traveling all around South East Asia, working as a journalist covering Indonesia and Vietnam (I’d assume he speaks at least a little bit of Indonesian and Vietnamese to be able to live there and cover news).  His motives for joining the Brotherhood have never been established, and I’m dying to know more about how he met Mystique, and why he decided to leave what was apparently a successful career and probably fairly comfortable life to go be an international terrorist.  Was it money?  A promise of adventure?  Did he really believe in Magneto’s cause?  Was he already getting into criminal activity before he joined the Brotherhood?  There’s a lot of potential for development there, but unfortunately most writers (except Claremont) tend to completely ignore all of Pyro’s backstory.  I’m still hoping that Duggan at least makes some reference to it, even just a throwaway comment about how Pyro used to write novels.

TL,DR: I like Pyro because he’s fun and clever, he makes friends with his team-mates, and he’s a writer. 

Toad:

Toad is a really intriguing character, but mostly I like him because he’s actually got a lot of potential, but he’s had a shit life and can never seem to catch a break.  In the earliest issues, he was just Magneto’s abused lackey, and appeared quite sniveling and pathetic, but later on it was revealed that he’s actually quite intelligent (and good with machines), he just appeared “stupid” due to all the abuse he suffered during childhood.  Toad also has a lot of interesting powers - writers seem to give him a new one every other appearance.  His stamina, agility, and super-strong legs could actually make him a pretty good fighter if he got proper training.  Plus he’s got the prehensile tongue, pheromone secretion, acidic saliva, secretion of a paralytic resin, mind control over frogs - his Marvel bio is a long, long list of secondary powers.  Toad could be quite formidable if he actually got his shit together, and there are AU’s (like House of M and Age of Apocalypse) where we see a much more stable, competent, intelligent Toad who is living up to his potential.  But 616 Toad remains a joke,  He’s either a low-level bad guy (they tried to level him up in the 90′s by making him the leader of the Brotherhood, but it didn’t last) or a pathetic sad-sack used for humor, or both.  His attempt to “join” the X-Men led to him being the janitor and basically getting treated like shit (he literally had no bed?) then getting kicked out when he follow Husk to the Hellfire Academy, even though he did that largely out of concern for Husk, and actually helped her and Quentin escape.

Basically, Toad has been subjected to horrible abuse pretty much his entire life, he has a mutation that makes him appear “ugly”, and everyone treats him with, at best, pity, and at worst, hatred and disgust.  I’ll admit, he’s had a few chances to better his life that have fallen through because of his own bad choices (and he’s done some horrible things, especially when he was leading the Brotherhood in the 90′s), but most of the time he’s just getting continuously kicked while he’s down.  To a certain extent, it’s really a matter of comic writers not being willing to take Toad seriously - he’s considered a joke villain, and therefore gets written that way, because he’s there as an accessory in someone else’s story.  At least the Toad/Husk storyline seemed to focus some on Toad himself as a character, even if it ended badly for him.  Sometimes, I kinda think Toad is written as evil or pathetic so that writers can justify other characters being shitty towards him.  Like, Magneto’s early treatment of Toad was absolutely, inexcusably horrible.  Magneto treated everyone in the Brotherhood badly, including his own children, but it seemed like Toad caught the worst of it.  Pietro and Wanda were also disgusted by Toad, although they had good reason, since his affection towards Wanda was pretty creepy.  Later on, Magneto was revamped into more of a noble, morally grey character, and his past abuse of Toad was mostly forgotten.  I don’t think the writers are necessarily doing this on purpose, but it kind feels like Toad remaining a pathetic bad guy was partially a way to excuse Magneto’s poor treatment of him, since Magneto was being reinvented as a more likable character.  And not just Magneto, but just about everyone who finds Toad disgusting or cracks jokes about how gross he is – it’s okay, Toad is awful so it’s totally fine to have the physically attractive good guys mock him and treat him like garbage.  (Hell, the artists can’t even decide what Toad’s physical appearance should be.  Is he skinny?  Fat?  Does he have green skin?  Is his nose ridiculously long or closer to normal?  Who knows what we’ll get in each issue.  And God forbid he be drawn without his tongue lolling out of his mouth.)

Also, I think that a lot of Toad’s worst personality flaws are at least partially due to the abuse he suffered.  To be clear, I’m not justifying the things that Toad has done. He set up death traps for people who wronged him, murdered Sauron’s girlfriend, and stalked and attacked Wanda multiple times.  That’s pretty shitty of him!  But I also think the abuse had a huge effect on Toad and how he interacts with people. Like, his tendency to obsessively latch onto people, and act like a sniveling lackey – the dude has had pretty much no love his entire life, and he’s always been treated like garbage.  Of course he has no self-esteem, of course he’ll fawn over anyone that shows him affection.  He’s been raised to believe that he is garbage.  Even his tendency to gloat over others being punished, and his whole “I’ll tell Magneto, and you’ll get in trouble!” thing is an understandable survival mechanism – other people getting in trouble means that he’s not the target, for once.  Obviously I can’t condone Toad trying to murder people that wronged him, but his anger and resentment is also understandable after the poor treatment he’s suffered.  In fact, I think it’s actually healthier for him to be angry than to think that he deserves it.  And a lot of the shitty things he did as Brotherhood leader also felt like him desperately wanting to be taken seriously, to be respected – also not a bad thing to want, even if his actions were terrible.  Basically, Toad has a lot of personality flaws, and he’s also had a lot of experiences that created or exacerbated those personality flaws.  The guy needs serious, long-term therapy, and I think he could become a better (or at least more competent) person if he got the help that he so obviously needs.

TL, DR: Basically, Toad deserves better.

Avalanche:

I have to admit, a lot of my love for Avalanche is all about his relationship with Pyro, be it friendship or something more.  (It’s something more in my headcanons, I will forever ship them.)  But he’s also a character that we don’t know much about, in part because he tends to talk a lot less than a certain chatty Australian.  He seems, more than anything, to be a practical-minded punch-clock villain, who is mostly in it for the money.  He doesn’t seem to enjoy putting on a show and reveling in his powers like Pyro, and he doesn’t seem to have the same mean streak that can be seen in Blob (and Pyro, to be fair).  I’m sure there are probably instances of Avalanche being dickish and cruel, but in a lot of his appearances that I’ve read, he seems very practical.  Do the job, get paid.  He also seems fairly content to be a follower or a lackey – happy to take orders from Mystique, or even follow Pyro’s lead when Mystique isn’t around.  That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his own ideas or opinions, but he doesn’t particularly feel the need to be a leader.  Like Pyro, we also don’t know much about his past before the Brotherhood, except that he was married at some point.  Where’s his wife now?  Why didn’t it work out?  Was it because of him being a mutant, or was it his activities with the Brotherhood that drove them apart?  Does he still love her?  Why did he join the Brotherhood in the first place?  

Avalanche also seems to care somewhat about his team-mates, although he’s not as openly friendly as Pyro.  During Freedom Force’s disastrous last mission, he made the difficult call to abandon Pyro and Blob to save Commando, something that he was clearly broken up about.  And of course, he was willing to go on a mission in the Savage Land with Pyro to get a Legacy Virus cure (that unfortunately didn’t actual exist).  Avalanche is selective about who he cares about, but he still shows that he cares through his actions.  I don’t want to make this all about Pyro, but I really love their relationship.  The stoic, quiet guy/chatty energetic guy dynamic is great.  They just love being bros and committing crimes together, and they are quick to work together and back each other up, even in their earliest appearances.  I would totally read a min-series focusing on the early days of Mystique’s brotherhood, especially if it gave us some good Avalanche, Pyro and Blob development, and didn’t just center around Rogue and Mystique (both fantastic characters, but they’ve both got a lot of attention directed at them already.)

Also, Avalanche likes to garden, which is nice. And at one point he just got fed-up with everything and tried to retire and become a bartender, which is very relatable.  Unfortunately Red Skull murdered him after that.  Sorry, Avalanche.  I hope you are resurrected on Krakoa, living your best life.

Blob:

Another character who is often not taken seriously. Blob is mean-spirited, crass, and often self-interested, much like the rest of the Brotherhood members.  He also was extremely close to Unus, and clearly devastated when Unus’s powers went out of control and killed him.  Blob is one of those characters where I think his physical appearance has led to him being designated as a bad guy by the writers – he’s big and gross, so, just like Toad, he’ll be portrayed as a bad person in order to justify the good guys being terrible to him.  (Yes, I know there are “ugly” good guys, but let’s face it, they are rare.  Most of the good guys look like models.)  Blob also, like Toad, gets a lot of crap for his physical appearance, something that is literally part of his mutation.  I think some of Blob’s nastiness is definitely a defense mechanism, lashing out at others because he is used to being attacked.  It also seems like Blob is really lacking in close friendships, like what Mystique and Destiny or Pyro and Avalanche have (“friendship”).  He was really the odd man out in Mystique’s brotherhood.  He’s willing to pal around with various Brotherhood members, including Avalanche and Pyro when they’re not picking fights with each other, but he doesn’t seem to have a best buddy after Unus’s death.  I kind of admire Blob’s toughness.  It would be easy for him to completely lose his self-esteem, like Toad, but he stands up for himself and never grovels to others.  He is frequently insulted for his mutation, but he also seems comfortable in his own skin, which is good.  He shouldn’t have to feel bad about his own body.    

There was an AU story that showed a softer, more thoughtful Blob who wound up in a relationship with Psylocke, so we know he’s capable of showing a better side of himself.  To some extent, I like Blob’s crass, take-no-shit personatliy, but I’d also like to see writers give him more depth.  I’d especially like to see him reunite with Unus on Krakoa, and the two of them hanging out enjoying each other’s company.  I’m also enjoying the cameos we get of bartender Blob on Krakoa, I hope he is also living his best life.  

Phantazia:

Honestly, I mostly just want to know more about her. All we really know is that she has a PhD (in some kind of scientific field, I think….she is reading a book on astrophysics in one comic), and she was willing to join Toad’s Brotherhood (and she was also the only Brotherhood member that received an invitation from Exodus to Asteroid M). Why?  What was her life before that?  Who knows? Most of the time, she seems rather cold, and a bit distant from her team-mates (but I can’t entirely blame her, the Brotherhood is a rough crowd.  It’s hard to be the new team-mate, and probably especially hard to be the only woman.)  She did seem concerned about Pyro when he was suffering from the Legacy Virus, but she kind of dropped out of sight when the Brotherhood disbanded.   She seems like she was mostly in it for personal gain, especially since Toad’s Brotherhood was more about petty crime than mutant rights.  Apparently she was deeply affected by Wanda’s reality alterations, which took a toll on her mental health, and was last seen in a SHIELD holding cell.  I hope she pops up again on Krakoa.  

Rogue:

The only reason Rogue is so low on the list is that I sometimes forget she was ever a Brotherhood member, and because I like to focus more on lesser known characters.  But I really like Rogue!  She’s tough but sweet, and an incredible badass.  Leaving the Brotherhood for the X-Men meant walking away from her team and foster-mother(s), but she still did it, and became one of the X-Men’s most dependable and valued members.  I love Rogue’s past, her relationship with Mystique, her relationship with Gambit.  I love how she doesn’t take shit, but she also doesn’t go around acting like a jerk, like some of the “tough” characters.  (Wolverine, basically.)  I like the complexity of her struggles with her powers, and her knowing that her strongest abilities, like strength and flight, were basically “stolen” from someone else. I feel like I should say more, but Rogue is very popular and has had loads written about her already.  Rogue is cool, and she deserves the best!  

Mystique:

A truly fascinating character.  She’s also lower on the list because she is fairly well-known and popular, and also because she can absolutely be a manipulative piece of shit, willing to throw everyone except Destiny under the bus.  Yet, at the same time, we see her appear to genuinely care about people, like Rogue, Nightcrawler (after the unfortunate “toss baby off a cliff” incident), Destiny, even Pyro occasionally (she has a nice moment with him on Muir Island, and also calls him “friend” in X-Factor).  She’s a character who can never be entirely trusted, which is a large part of what makes her interesting.  I think she truly does care about a few, select people.  Hell, there’s an early issue in which Mystique fights a bunch of robots programmed to look and act like the X-Men (courtesy of Arcade), and she completely breaks down after having to “kill” the Rogue robot, then hesitates to attack the Nightcrawler bot.  I think Mystique can also be extremely callous, cold and manipulative, but I don’t think she is completely evil, just very self-interested, like a lot of villains. Also, she’s probably seen and experienced a lot of shit over her long life that contributed to that callousness (I figure if I’m gonna cut Toad and Blob some slack, I should do the same for Mystique.)  I do wish she would stop committing rape by deception in stories (meaning sleeping with someone while disguised as someone else).  It’s something that gets glossed over, even though fandom generally despises rapist male villains (and rightfully so), but Mystique pretending to be Blink and sleeping with Mimic is barely a story blip.  

Mystique is also interesting just because she’s such a badass.  She’s cunning, a good leader, a good strategist, excellent spy, good at hand-to-hand combat (she only loses to Arcade’s X-Men robots because she hesitates). She is damn formidable!  She’s also lived a varied and interesting life. There’s a reason she’s gotten so much exposure in comics.  I can also understand her being short-tempered while leading the Brotherhood, as she has to deal with the three stooges of Pyro, Avalanche and Blob.  Then things get even more complicated during the Freedom Force days.  Mystique has a lot of shit to deal with keeping those idiots in line.  Her relationship with Destiny is probably my favorite thing about Mystique, they are beautiful wives, and I hope she gets Destiny resurrected so the two of them can live happily together on Krakoa.  (Unlikely.)  

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch:

I don’t have much to say about these two, even though I like them. I’m starting to run out of steam in terms of character analysis, and I tend to think of them more as Avengers than Brotherhood members.  They both deserve better.  Also, they are mutants and Magneto is their dad. Retcon?  What retcon?

Destiny:

I don’t have much to say about Destiny because she is very mysterious – always working according to some plan that only she knows. So it’s hard to really know her as a character.  She seems like a very intelligent and calm woman.  She’s always chilling while the Brotherhood guys are freaking out or picking fights with each other.  She also faced her own death bravely and willingly.  She seems to have a good sense of humor.  One of my favorite stories is Mystique disposing of Destiny’s ashes after her death.  She is throwing them off a boat at a specific time and place, according to Destiny’s instructions – and the wind blows them back into her face.  Obviously Destiny planned it as a last prank, and I have to like a character who sets that up.  Also, one time she let a rock wall collapse on Avalanche and Spiral because she knew they wouldn’t be seriously hurt, and she hated Spiral and wanted to enjoy her humiliation.  That’s some impressive pettiness.  Destiny is cool, and I hope she comes back.

Sauron:

I don’t really care about him at all.  

Mastermind:

Seems like a real creep, especially with his manipulation of Jean Grey/Phoenix in the Dark Phoenix saga.  At least he apologized to her at his death.  Also, he’s got three daughters, the dude gets around. Regan, Martinique, and Pixie (WTF?! I just read that in his bio.)  I am really confused by there being two Mastermind daughters with the same powers, but apparently it was actually a mix-up between two writers.  Oops!  

That’s all.  I know there have been later Brotherhood iterations with other members, including one or both Lady Masterminds, but that was during a time when I wasn’t reading much X-Men, so I’m not familiar with most of those characters. I might have more to say if I eventually read some of the later Brotherhood stories.  

[whisker-biscuit]

In the Name of Science: Chapter 1

Fandom: Sonic Movie (2020)

Rating: T for unethical experimentation, implied violence and gore, and implied torture

Summary: Tom and Maddie didn’t make it in time to rescue Sonic from Robotnik. Hopefully it’s not too late to save him now. Unfortunately, hope is hard to come by in the labs of the mad doctor himself.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Ivo Robotnik, M.D. Log 1 

Preliminary report: Subject is 3’3”, 14.1 lbs., male. Age and maturity unknown. Vaguely resembles four-toed hedgehog from outward appearance and obvious anatomy. Fur and quill are primarily cobalt blue, with chest and stomach fur light coral peach. Blood sample taken, analysis tbc. Note: internal anatomy to be examined at later date, due to blunt trauma and related injuries.

At 23:30 MST during transportation, subject’s heart ceased regular palpitations. Resuscitation was administered and subject was revived successfully. No other heart or organ irregularities occurred, and subject was transferred to personal laboratory at 1:56 MST for examination. About to conduct preliminary quill count and inspection at time of report.

Subject has yet to regain consciousness since initial containment.

End log

…….

Sonic comes to on a metal table, his face smashed against cold steel and his limbs stretched above and below him, cuffed together. He groans as the aches and pains from the fight with Eggman catches up all at once, and his body’s current position certainly isn’t helping. The hedgehog rubs his cheek against the metal, using the cold to try and ground himself so he can figure out how bad his situation is.

He doesn’t remember much beyond trying to escape at the top of the pyramid. There was heat at his back, and then everything hurt even more than it does now. So that must mean….

Something starts touching his quills. He stiffens.

“H-Hey, who’s there? What do you want?”

There’s no response, and whatever is messing with his quills moves down to their base, meeting fur and skin. Sonic gasps as the same freezing sensation from the table runs along his back. A weird high-pitched whirring fills the air as it goes along. Oh, it’s a robot doing that.

He struggles to turn his head to get a better look at this thing, but he can’t move more than a few inches. The robot continues to probe at his quills, seemingly oblivious to his response, and no matter how Sonic tries to twist and turn, nothing changes at all.

After what feels like an eternity, the robot pulls away and makes a sudden loud clicking sound. It startles the hedgehog into a jolt that he immediately regrets. His body protests, loudly.

“Quill count: 5933.”

“What?” He asks through gritted teeth, waiting for the pounding pain to go away.

The robot doesn’t reply, but then it starts poking at his fur again. Two fingers – are they fingers? Sonic hopes they’re fingers – find a longer quill and pinch at its base. He realizes what’s going to happen right before it does.

“Don’t-!”

It pulls. He sucks in a breath, closing his eyes as the quill is ripped out of his back. He’s no stranger to this sensation, but that doesn’t mean he’s okay with it happening. The robot finds another quill. Sonic flinches and rubs his cheek against the cold.

“Quill count: 5928,” the unfeeling thing announces to nothing once it’s done. It withdraws from the hedgehog who is currently trying to stay calm, holding the stolen quills and moving to some place Sonic still can’t see.

Tired, hurting, and now conflicted between angry and panicked, the teen decides to take a risk.

“Hey Eggman, I know you can hear me! Come out where I can see you! I know you’re scared of people who can kick your butt, but this is ridiculous!”

He yells it out with as much bravado as he can manage, and later he’ll say he was pretty proud of himself for keeping his voice steady. Then he listens, and waits.

For a long while he stays alone in that room, with only the robot doing whatever it’s doing to his quills. But eventually there’s the whoosh of an automatic door opening somewhere behind his left side. Sonic turns his head that way just in time for a long black coat to take up his entire view.

“Finally awake, I see.” The man says, and it’s hard to tell whether he’s pleased or annoyed by this fact. “You’ve been unconscious for nearly 8 hours.”

Sonic’s eyes trail up slowly, meeting the maniacally-gleeful face of his captor. He swallows, and it takes a few moments to find his voice again.

“D-Dang, that long? Must have been quite the beauty rest. How about you let me go so I can look myself in the mirror and tell you if it worked?”

“Just as chatty and full of hot air as your moronic human guardian. I should have expected that, which I did. Nothing ever gets past me, little alien.” 

The hedgehog falters. For a single second. “Oh yeah? Better get used to failure then, Eggman. I’ve gotten past you so many times already that I’ve lost count.”

Robotnik takes hold of his ear and twists. Sonic’s mouth clamps shut to keep the whine under his tongue, but he never takes his wide eyes off the scientist.

“Here’s how it’s going to go, hedgehog – which is what you most closely resemble in physical structure and biology, despite the incredibly irrational discrepancies.” 

He leans in to speak directly against the teen’s caught ear. 

“I’m going to do whatever I want to you, however I want, whenever I want, and the only words I want coming out of your mouth unless stated otherwise are ‘yes Doctor,’ ‘no Doctor,’ or ‘thank you Doctor.’ Do you understand?”

Sonic takes slow, shallowed breaths as he listens, and he steels himself before offering a nickname he’s only heard Donut Lord say twice ever.

“Sure thing, Dr. Douche.”

The hand on his ear pulls so hard that he thinks it’s going to come off. He chokes back a watery whimper when Robotnik forces his head up off the table.

“Pain receptors and nerve endings appear to be fully functional, although I can’t say the same for your auditory processing.”

“Ow, ow ow…” The teen’s hands clench into fists as his head is held back and kept there. He doesn’t dare close his eyes, watching Robotnik like he might rip his ear off entirely the moment he stops staring.

Finally, the man releases him, and Sonic’s head hits the table with a thunk. He winces at the painful contact to his chin. 

“Ow-uh, easy on the face! We can’t all look this good naturally, c’mon.”

The doctor stands up straight without acknowledging him. “Agent Stone.”

“Yes, Doctor?”

The hedgehog is startled by the assistant’s voice coming somewhere behind Robotnik; he had no idea the guy was even there.

“Set up my recording equipment pronto. Now that the subject is awake and responding in a…semi-intelligent manner, I do believe it’s time to get information firsthand.”

“Of course sir, right away.” Agent Stone’s voice is already fading as he leaves the room. The sound of equipment being shuffled starts up distantly.

Robotnik’s gloved hand returns to Sonic’s head and he flinches, but this time the touch is light and almost examining. He rubs his thumb and forefinger on either side of the teen’s ear, then trails down to run along the fur on top of his head. Sonic realizes with no small amount of disgust that he’s being petted, like what Tom does with Ozzie.

“Hey, quit it, I’m not a dog!” He tries to pull his head away to no avail.

“Those are the first scientifically correct words you’ve said thus far,” the scientist says quietly. “Although it’s such a low bar. Honestly, I thought that hick cop babysitter of yours was the least sapient lifeform on this planet until you opened your mouth for the first time.”

Sonic bristles. “Don’t talk about him like that. You don’t know anything.”

“Ah, I suppose you’re right. I shouldn’t pigeonhole you in the same category as that knuckle-dragger. You are so much more remarkable than that. A peak product of evolution. Well…physically, at least, but it isn’t so difficult to train animals.”

The hand hasn’t stopped petting him. Sonic feels a sick pit in his stomach, and it’s not just from the betraying urge to lean into the touch.

“If you think I’m going to roll over and do what you want, you’re wrong. I’ll get out of here somehow and then you’re going to regret it.”

“That’s the spirit I like to see! Makes the end result so much more satisfying when I’ve broken it.” Robotnik tilts his head to meet the teen’s anxious glare head-on. Then he half turns away to call out. “Stone! Are you finished yet, or do we need to set aside another eternity?”

“All set and ready to go, sir!” Comes the response from the other room. “The holding pen is prepped and secure as well!”

“Excellent, finally. It’s so hard to find decent human help these days.” 

He presses a few buttons on his left glove. A pair of floating egg-like robots appear and connect to Sonic’s restraints, releasing him from the table and lifting him up between them. The hedgehog tries futilely to kick out or make them drop him. Robotnik leads the way towards the other room, not giving his captive a second glance.

“Now the time for pointless chit-chat is over! Time for proper scientific observation!”

All Sonic can do is struggle as he’s carried away.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: I thought Robotnik would be really hard to characterize, but I'm having an easier time with him than expected. Maybe it's cause Sonic is the one fighting me at every turn heh. Also, remember how in the movie Sonic supposedly stopped breathing and then got revived from his powers and friendship? Yeah, me too :)

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy!

Prologue

Chapter 2

[kalis-scribbles]

Fan Character: Evander Lynn Aguilar

The First Solomon Fan Character is here and submitted by @flomaker778800 

Bio data

Name: Evander Lynn Aguilar Age: 14 ~ Birthday: November 11th Ethnicity: Mixed, White/Mexican ~ Nationality: American Gender: Trans Boy/Non-Binary, Assigned Female at Birth Sexuality: Bisexual Pronouns: Mostly goes by He/His, but some days likes to go by They/Them.

Kali’s Note: I’m putting the rest under the cut because it’s quite an elaborate entry.

The Magic Stuff

Previous Practices: N/A - Has never practiced magic but has enjoyed books about magic and loves learning about the various gods and magical creatures. Has very little knowledge about the Practitioners world.

Would like to Practice: Really anything would be great, but has a particular interest in charms and runes. He hopes to use them to bring luck and prosperity to his friends and family, and maybe learn a few hexes… just in case.

Consort: A garden snake with small, blunt horns named Freddie. He’s a piece of the ancient god Aengus from Celtic/Irish Myths. He is dark shades of green and grey eyes, with the small horns sticking up just behind his skull. He’s very clever, charming, and silly, often making himself grow/shrink/disappear/reappear instead of gesturing when he talks. He’s the piece of Aengus linked to young love, youthful exuberance in general, and poetry so he has a tendency to ‘ship’ people at (Seemingly) random and then proceed to tease them in an overly poetic way, even if he’s not very good at it.. Although he may not be the most social Consort at first, he can be very open and chatty when he gets to know someone.

Relationship with Consort: Best Bros

Boon: The ability to balance the energies surrounding any creature or human. To align their Energy (Aura,Chi,Qi, basically chakra balancing.) At it’s most powerful it can fully heal a person of energy related diseases and bring mental clarity and calm. In small cases it can ease anxiety and can temporarily alleviate most types of depression/anxiety and dissociative disorders, giving the afflicted time to process and better understand their condition.

Price: You cannot deny your feelings or run from them. Ignoring your thoughts to appease others or avoid things is strictly forbidden and will result in headaches/migraines, hot/cold flashes, white-out vision, and in extreme cases fainting or blacking out. If you hate something you must admit that you hate it to yourself. If you love something you must admit you love it to yourself. Even if you’re conflicted or feeling both at once. If you are not in balance, you cannot balance others.

Initiation: It was spontaneous for Evander, but Freddie had been watching him for a while and waited until he was old enough before introducing himself. 

School Information

Grade:

1

Class Options: Herbology and Potioncraft, Astrology, Charms and Talismans, Runecraft Cultural Class: Neoplatonism (Mostly because he’s very curious about what the heck that is.)* Phys. Ed.: Gym and Pool Cultural Enrichment: Cuisine (Loves to make Mexican food and is very good at it.)

*a school of philosophy developed by Plotinus in Rome, based on a modified Platonism, and postulating a single source from which all forms of existence emanate and with which the soul seeks mystical union.

The Who

Background: Their birth name is Evelynn, and is the younger of a set of twins. Their twins name is Elise, and they have two older brothers Asa and Martin. His mother is Hispanic and his father is Caucasian (Whitey-white-white). Since they come from two very different ethnic families, they’ve had to deal with the duality of two very different family traditions, so they already have a familiarity with adversity. But it has also caused them inner conflict since both sides also tend to be closed minded. There is also a heavy expectation for them to remain traditionally female for any family events and holidays. Since Evander is very well practiced, they don’t really mind it but it gets frustrating at times when they talk about other gay people. The only one who knows and accepts that their trans is their twin. 

In school, his best subjects were literature and Math, and he would often spend his lunch time in the cafeteria kitchen as a volunteer server (Mostly because he had no real peer group, but also because they like to cook). Or they’d go to the library and listen to music on the computers while they read. He’s become very good friends with the librarian, the lunch personnel, and the janitors. In class, however, he tends to pick and choose what he wants to learn and asks a lot of questions about the things he’s interested in. Driving the teachers crazy. He still manages to do his other work, it just takes a bit more time for him than everyone else.

Appearance: They’re tall for their age, standing at about 5 ‘3’. light brown skin and dark, straight hair cut into a mens comb-over style. Blue eyes and a tube body build, which helps them blend in as a boy. They still need a chest wrap or, in their case, a couple tight sports bras. They aren’t very muscular or particularly flabby, but they aren’t weak either. At first glance, they might have a resting indifference-face, but will always perk up and smile when they notice someone staring at them, usually giving an awkward chuckle or cringe or both.

Other Things About Evander

They’re a fast runner, and somewhat agile,

Has never really been in a fight where they’ve fought back so they’ don’t really know how strong/weak they are. 

They also like to do Parkour and freerunning, but rarely actually have a space to do it effectively. 

He doesn’t live on a farm by any means, but he wants to start raising his own chickens for eggs and meat. And make a garden for other things he wants like grapes and berries. 

His fears include: heights, any small hole/s, particularly strong winds.

Their Boon gives them an advanced ability to understand the people around them. This helps them move easily from one group to another. A lot like a social chameleon, but it’s not really their cup of tea. They prefer working one on one with people and can get easily overwhelmed by intense energies coming from people with emotional imbalances. This is suppose to work as a form of sonar for finding people in need of help, and sometimes it works, but sometimes it ends up hurting them too much and they need time to recoup. Freddie has been helping them learn to meditate and center themselves so they don’t need as much time to escape as they did before. 

The full backstory of how they met

It happened spontaneously when Evan ran from his house, his family had been really getting to him that day, and went to visit their favorite spot. They usually hike down the side trails along the highway by their home; but one trail leads away from the town to a tree growing in the middle of a large, grassy field. A beautiful place to hide. 

After crying under the tree for about an hour they were startled, and tripped over themselves trying to get away from, a random, talking snake that fell onto their head out of the tree. Freddie had been watching him come the tree for a while, noticing his loneliness and anger. But also his openness and want for change. So Freddie made his appearance and offered him an opportunity to become a Practitioner. Evan gladly accepted. 

Unfortunately, at the time, they didn’t quite realize that they were so in denial and conflicted about their sexuality and their families manipulations, so the first two weeks was full of mind splitting migraines, hot flashes during sleepless nights, and fainting at school. After being admitted to the hospital and put under special watch, they began the process of understanding themselves. Freddie by their side and offering them words of understanding to help them through. After beginning to accept themselves, the symptoms lessened and, over the course of five more months, went away almost entirely. They admitted to themselves who they were and switched his reading interests to world religions and mythologies, Freddie guiding him to certain ones and telling him what was true and false.

They just about died the day they received their Application Form*, but was also thoroughly terrified. They decided to start off at this school 100% new and completely changed their style. They cut their hair, got new clothes, shoes, and a new music player fully stocked with anything you could imagine. He’s stoked to be away from his family and learning more about this Magical new world. Even if he regrets it. 

Kali’s note: *Spontaneous students don’t get so much a invitation letter as two agents of the inquisition to gently brainwash their relative and possibly not so gently drag them to Solomon Academy.

Flo’s comment: Lord have mercy, i’m so sorry (TuT)

[becuzpurple]

Hospital - A One-Shot (pt 1 of 2)

I was asked for some Cuddly/Caring Ed and came up with this idea.  The bulk of the cuddles and caring will actually come in part 2, though (sorry!).

I wrote a part of this from Ed’s point-of-view for the first time, which was really weird for me since I’m so used-to and comfortable using Kate’s voice.  But she was unavailable (you’ll see why soon), so Ed needed to step up!

Enjoy!

Something was definitely not right. I’d had a stomachache since late morning. It was just below and to the left of my belly button at first, and then it traveled right.  Eating didn’t help, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t intestinal pain, either. Painkillers did nothing - it actually got worse as the day went on.  It was unfamiliar to me - I’d never felt pain quite like it before.

We’d had plans to visit my parents that evening, and celebrate my mom’s birthday.  I wasn’t sure if I should cancel or not, or maybe just stay home and let Ed take the kids without me.  But I decided to suck it up and go.  At about 4 pm we all piled into the car and made the short ride over to my parents’ house.

My mother loves to cook.  And even more than that, she loves to feed people. The old adage ‘Food is Love’ is a motto she lives by.  Even though it was for her own birthday celebration, she happily spent all day preparing a delectable feast for her loved ones.  She said that seeing her family together around the table enjoying both each other’s company and the meal she prepared for us was all she needed.

But not even my mom’s lasagna could fix this.  I didn’t feel like I could keep much food down, so I just picked at it, taking a few small bites here and there.  The pain was still getting worse.  

Ed said I looked pale.  He was concerned, as were my parents.  My sister-in-law Amy, a nurse, was the first to mention that maybe I should go to the ER. Once I started running to the bathroom vomiting every 10 minutes or so, I reluctantly agreed with her.

I apologized profusely to my mom for ruining her birthday, and she predictably hushed me, assuring me that my health was infinitely more important than a silly party.  

Nate and Lucy stayed with my parents while Ed took me to the hospital.  We had no idea how long we’d be there, so figured it would be best if they spent the night with them.

Ed had to pull the car over twice on the way to the hospital so I could throw up.

What is this?  

Worry was etched all over his face as he drove us through the stop-and-go city traffic.  We didn’t talk much during the drive, but he kept his hand on my knee the whole time.

We were in the waiting room for almost an hour before anyone saw me.  It was a Saturday night - the busiest time of the week for an emergency room.  I visited the bathroom no less than 6 times to vomit while we waited.  Nothing was even coming out anymore - it was all just dry heaves.  I was in significant pain, I was miserable, and I was baffled.  I came back to our seats from one of those bathroom visits, shaking my head and shrugging, feeling discouraged.

“Has this ever happened before?” Ed asked softly, his voice laced with concern.

“No,” I slowly shook my head.  “I don’t know what this could be…gallbladder, maybe?  Appendix…?” I felt my eyes go wider as I thought of another possibility.  I didn’t voice it, though.

Which didn’t matter in the least, since he’d apparently had the same thought.

“Could you be pregnant?”

——————————————————————————————-

I was finally called back to triage, where I was asked a series of the usual questions:

Describe the abdominal pain.  When did it begin?  It started late this morning - dull, kind of centered, a little to the left.  A few hours later it moved right and down and got worse - much more sharp.

Do you have a normal appetite?  Not really.  I don’t think I can keep anything down.  

Any nausea or vomiting?  Yes.  I’ve been vomiting every 5-15 minutes for the past few hours.

Are you experiencing any vaginal bleeding?  No.

When did you begin your last period?  Umm, almost a month ago I think?  I think I’m due in a few days.

Do you experience any pain with intercourse?  No.

Any dizziness?  No.

Any pain in your shoulder or back?  No.

I also told the nurse that I’d stopped my birth control pills the previous month. It seemed like something worth noting.

She was the only person we’d shared that information with at that point.  It was a decision we’d come to together, at the tail-end of what was honestly the most stressful, intense, nerve-racking, heart-wrenching, soul-baring near break-up/fight I’d ever been through.  It lasted days, but in the end we were both clear and honest with ourselves and each other about where we wanted our relationship to go.  Not that he hadn’t been forthright about that before.  It was I who had been fooling myself, and by extension, him.  But now it was voiced. It’s real.  We are stronger, completely committed, and in it for the long-haul.

We weren’t exactly trying to get pregnant, but we were no longer trying to prevent it, either.  It was a huge step, for sure.  Given my age and my past miscarriages, we thought we might need to see a reproductive endocrinologist once we officially started ‘trying’.  But we weren’t quite there, yet.

I knew that if I was pregnant, then it was very early, and something was probably very wrong.  So, at that point I was praying that it was my appendix or gallbladder.  

After another 40ish minutes of waiting my name was called again, finally, and we were led back to an examining room.  But before we even entered, I was handed a sterile sample cup and redirected to the nearest bathroom.  

I did my duty and returned to the small curtained-off area where Ed was waiting.  I changed into the hospital gown the nurse had given me, and then she returned to take my vitals, including my temperature.

“Hmm.  98.5…no fever…”  She looked a little surprised by this.

We waited an interminable 15 or 20 minutes, during which time I continued to dry-heave.  I’d been given a clean, plastic bucket, but nothing was coming out, anyway.  I was miserable.  Ed was trying to distract me with stories of his own hospital escapades.  He’s broken a lot of fingers and toes!  Boys…  

Finally, the doctor came back with the results.  She glanced at me and then at Ed, and if she recognized him she made no outward sign of it.

“Everything was negative.  You’re not pregnant so no ectopic pregnancy, you don’t have a UTI, and there are no kidney stones.”

I nodded.  “OK…”

“There is definitely something going on.  I suspect it’s appendicitis, but I’d like to run a few more tests to be sure.  I’m ordering blood work and an MRI.  But first I’d like to do a quick physical exam.”

I laid back and tried not to worry too much while the doctor applied pressure to various parts of my abdomen, observed my reactions, and asked me to rate any pain I felt on a scale of 1-10.

My memory of that night is a bit fuzzy, so my awareness of how time passed is not great.  But I do remember waiting around a lot for tests and results and room availability and doctors.  My blood was drawn right away, but we waited a while for the MRI to be done.  Then we waited some more for someone to tell us…anything.

It was after midnight before Dr.  Pianga returned.

“I’m confident that you have an angry appendix.  Your white blood cell count is high, which indicates that you’re fighting an infection…although you don’t have a fever, which is atypical.  The MRI images clearly show that your appendix is inflamed, and I do see what looks like a blockage in your appendiceal lumen, which is the hollow part of the appendix.”

“Does she need to have it out?” Ed asked.

Dr.  Pianga nodded.  “Yes, I’m afraid it needs to go,” she said, nodding at him, then me.

“OK.”

“I believe you’re a good candidate for a laparoscopic appendectomy.  It’s less invasive than the open surgery, and has a shorter recovery period.  It’s actually performed as an outpatient surgery, so you won’t even be admitted.  You’ll be home by mid-morning.”

——————————————————————————————-

Ed’s POV

While we waited in pre-op, they hooked Kate up to an IV and started some medicines - antibiotics, a pain reliever, something to stop her vomiting, and a sedative.  She became very sleepy, but also really hyper and chatty - even more so than usual.  She spoke quickly and emphatically.

“I can’t believe I’m having my appendix out?  This morning I had a stomachache and now I’m having surgery?  That’s crazy.  I’ve never even had surgery before.”

“No?”

“Oh, well I had a c-section.  I guess that’s surgery, isn’t it?  Oh, god I’m so glad it’s not an ectopic pregnancy.  I was really worried that’s what it was…”

“Yeah,” I replied softly, nodding.

“I want a baby, Ed.  I want to have a baby…babies!”, she said a little too loudly.

“Shhhh, OK.  OK, darling.” I smiled down at her, smoothing her hair back away from her face, and then took a quick glance around to see if anyone else could hear our conversation besides Ebony, the nurse who just re-entered our curtained-off ‘room’.

“No, no…your babies, not just any babies…”  she seemed to be under the impression that I might have mistakenly thought she wanted some random, general babies.  

I was sat down on the edge of her bed, right next to her, and couldn’t help the smile that broke out at hearing those words.  

I softly kissed her forehead, and then took her hand in both of mine.

“I want that, too,” I whispered softly.

I hated seeing her in pain, worried, and so vulnerable.  This was new territory for me.  I’m not very familiar with American hospitals or surgery procedures, and felt quite out of my element.  I wasn’t going to let her see that, though.  I knew it was a pretty common surgery, but I was worried, all-the-same.  

The possibility of an ectopic pregnancy had scared the piss out of me. The idea of losing our baby before even getting to know him or her?  No.  Just no.  And Kate has had more than her share of losses in her life.  It would kill a good part of me if that were to happen to us.  To her.  

The anesthesiologist came back and administered the drugs via her IV to put her under.  Kate looked a little nervous, so I whispered sweet and silly and entirely inappropriate things to her to get her to smile, and she was out almost immediately.  Ebony was trying to hold back a smirk after everything she’d just overheard, and wasn’t doing a very good job of it.  I grinned sheepishly back at her.

“Will she remember any of that?”

“Probably not.  But believe me, she means every word she said.  That stuff is truth serum.”

——————————————————————————————-

Pt. 2 - Home

As always, likes and reblogs are mucho-appreciated, as is any feedback you might care to offer.  :-)

-BP💜

[pickalilywrites]

Sweet 

A/N: I ate a custard-filled doughnut hole yesterday and it was lovely. Remember to treat yo’self to something sweet every once in a while. Like this fic. Ayyyy. 

Word Count: 2,339

She hates being here but it’s not all that bad. At least that’s what she’s thinking as she bites into her delicate pastry. The crispy outer shell crunches between her teeth and she licks her lips, making sure not to waste any bit of sugar from her doughnut. A moan of absolute pleasure escapes from her lips before she can help it. It’s been a while since she was able to indulge herself in her favorite dessert – they never had any in her hometown and the trainees visits to the civilian districts only came twice a month – but it always tastes as delicious as she remembers it. When she opens her eyes, she’s surprised – and embarrassed as hell – when she sees Eren and his friends standing in front of her.

They all have different expressions on their faces after observing her enjoy the sugary snack. Eren’s eyes are wide with wonder, Armin looks a bit confused (or maybe that was concern?), and that Ackerbitch has that ever-present frown her on her face.

After hastily swallowing her last bite, Annie wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. “What,” she says gruffly.

“H-hey, Annie,” Armin says, looking nervously between her and Mikasa. The tension between the two isn’t a secret among the trainees. The only people who don’t know were those who either didn’t care enough to notice (such as Ymir) or those who were too stupid to notice (such as, well, Eren).

Eren, that oblivious idiot, pulls up a chair across from Annie and takes a seat. She’d be pissed, but the infuriated look on Ackerman’s face makes her a bit smug that Eren’s sitting down with her. “We saw you across the square and wanted to say hi,” Eren explains happily, ignoring the seething glare that Mikasa was giving Annie.

“Hi…” Annie says cautiously, being careful to keep an eye on Ackerman.

When Mikasa doesn’t say anything, Eren jabs his adopted sister in the ribs and she mumbles a reluctant “hey” before telling Eren, “We said hi, could we go now? I just remembered that there were a few things we should pick up before we have to head back.”

“Then you can go ahead with Armin then,” Eren replies, waving a hand to dismiss her. “Just leave a few bags here so you don’t have to carry them. I’ll meet you back with everyone else in a bit.”

Mikasa opens her mouth to protest but Armin tugs at her sleeve, probably knowing that if Annie and Mikasa were in the same place any longer a fight would break out.

“We’ll see you later, Eren,” Armin says, half-dragging Mikasa away. “Bye, Annie!”

Annie can’t help but have a smug smile on her face as she watches Mikasa get dragged off. “Goodbye,” she smirks.

Eren’s not watching any of this, only amused at the smile on Annie’s face. “You look really happy,” he observes, tilting his head. He glances back at Mikasa and frowns. “Sorry about Mikasa, by the way. She was in a pretty good mood today but she can be kind of moody sometimes.”

“I wonder why,” Annie replies. After hearing Eren’s multiple speeches about his stupidly naïve goal of defeating all Titans, she’s pretty familiar with just how stupid he can be. Still, he always seems to find new ways of surprising her with just how high his level of idiocy is. Just like now.

Eren only shrugs, laughing. “Don’t let it get to you. Mikasa’s actually a good person even if she seems a little scary.”

Annie can’t help but scoff. “I’ll have to take your word for it then.”

“What was that thing you were eating?” Eren asks curiously. It’s obvious that that’s the question that’s been on his mind since he sat down by the way he transitions into it, with no obvious connection to the last topic in their conversation. He makes a big O-shape with his hands and held it up to his face. A green eye blinked through the hole. “It looked like you really liked it. Did they have those a lot in your hometown?” He does that sometimes, starts the conversation with something casual and then suddenly asking about what he’s really interested. (She’s had him sit down with her for dinner and ask about the food and then out of nowhere ask her about the combat technique she was using during training. His ability to switch from topic to topic so quickly sometimes gave her whiplash because of his poor transition skills.)

She pauses, not quite sure if she should be answering any questions regarding her hometown. Then again, it appears that Eren is only curious about the food she was eating rather than her origins so she doesn’t see the harm in pulling out the pastry from her bag and tentatively holding it out to him. “A doughnut?” she asks. “They don’t really have these where I’m from… Did they not have any in Shiganshina?”

“Not really,” Eren says, staring wistfully at the doughnut. “We had cakes and cookies for special occasions at my house, but nothing like this. I don’t think any of the bakeries in my district had these.”

Although she had intended on eating these all herself before returning to the training camp (there was no point in saving them since Sasha would usually find any food other trainees came back and eat them behind everyone’s back), seeing Eren longing stare at the sweet treat she held in her hand made her feel a bit, well, guilty and before she knows it she finds herself offering the doughnut to him.

His face lights up, eyes wide in surprise and a giddy grin spread across his face, and he asks, “Really? I can have it?”

“Just take it,” she mumbles. Kindness was not her forte and giving her things away for free, even if it’s just one measly doughnut, makes her feel a little embarrassed.

He takes it delicately, much more delicately than she’s ever seen him handle anything before, and he takes a few seconds to be awestruck by the dessert he’s never had the luxury of tasting back in Shiganshina. The first bite he takes is small, a little cautious, but with the first swallow Annie knows he’s hooked by the pastry’s sugary goodness. He wolfs it down, not unlike how he eats all of his food, but he’s careful not to drop even a crumb of it. He’s even sure to lick his fingers afterwards and Annie’s a little pleased with herself with being able to introduce him to something so delicious. After he’s done, he sits back and lets out a satisfied sigh. “That was amazing,” he finally says. He sits up and leans forward suddenly. “Annie, that was really good! I can see why you like them so much!”

“Well, you can have another one if you’d like,” she says, already reaching for the bag to pull out another one of the fried dessert but Eren interrupts her.

“I couldn’t possibly!” he says, waving his hands about. “You probably bought those for yourself and it’d be kind of rude of me to eat another one. Oh! But I should probably give you something back as thanks.” He’s already pulling one of the bags Armin and Mikasa left behind and looking through it, trying to find the perfect gift to repay Annie.

“Er, you don’t have to give me anything,” she says. She has to admit, it’s a little nice that he’s even thinking of giving her something else.

“Hm, I don’t really have anything to give you though,” Eren says, completely ignoring her. He frowns when he pulls out a loaf of bread. “Bread’s too ordinary – Mikasa always makes me get that every time we come into town even though we always eat a ton of it at the training camp – and the rest of our food is pretty boring too… Hey! What about this?” He pulls out a hoodie that looks similar to her own in style, just a shade of green a few sizes larger.

Having never seen Eren in anything other than his military uniform, Annie was rather taken aback with the hoodie. “Why do you have that?”

“Oh! I bought it!” he says rather proudly. “Mikasa said we should all buy a jacket or something when it started getting cold. I always thought your hoodie looked really cool on you and I saw this one in the store and decided to buy it. Er, Mikasa wasn’t too pleased with it but she thinks I’m kind of an impulse buyer. I still think it looks neat though, but you can have it since everything else I bought is kind of boring in comparison.”

“Eren, I couldn’t possibly…” she begins.

“Or do you not like it?” Eren asks. He’s visibly deflated at the idea of Annie rejecting his offer. “Ah, maybe you don’t like this color or you’re already content with the hoodie you’ve got on? It’s a little late but we can go into one of the shops and I can buy you something you like?”

For some reason, the thought of visiting a shop with Eren by herself makes her cheeks redden and she grabs the hoodie from him before he can say anything else. “It’s fine. Green is…great.” She clears her throat. “It’s just that one doughnut isn’t worth a hoodie.”

“Then I guess you’ll just have to buy me more donuts later on our next trip to town,” he laughs. A goofy smile sits on his face and Annie doesn’t know whether or not she wants to punch him for being so nice or smile back. “Those were really good though. You’ve got great taste, Annie.”

It’s not like she doesn’t like compliments, she doesn’t get them very frequently so getting one always makes her fidgety. She mumbles an almost inaudible thank you but it seems to be enough for Eren.

He’s about to say something else when the loud bing bong of the clock in the town square reminds them of the time. “Oh shit!” Eren says when he glances at the clock tower. “We should head back before Shadis scolds us. Do you want me to carry your bag for you?” His hands are already full from the bags Armin and Mikasa left behind but it’s so like him to offer anyway.

“It’s fine,” Annie assures him. It would actually probably be much better if she handled a bag for him but he refuses her help (typical Eren) so she just clutches the hoodie he gave her in one hand while her other hand holds onto the bag holding the few doughnuts she has left.

He’s as chatty as ever, talking up a storm as they make their way back to the rest of the trainees. She really wants to ask him what he was going to say before the clock tower interrupted earlier but she’s not the best conversationalist and before she knows it he’s back with Eren and Mikasa and she’s back with, well, Reiner and Bertholdt. Bertholdt, nervous as ever, splutters a hello while Reiner teasingly asks her what she’s doing with the suicidal bastard so she tells him to shut the fuck up, shoving a doughnut in his mouth so he’ll stop talking.

She spends the rest of the return trip back to the training grounds wondering what Eren was going to say, holding the hoodie Eren had given her and thinking about whether she should actually wear it.

It takes a while for Annie to finally wear the hoodie. She doesn’t want to seem too eager and wear it right away so she just keeps it next to her while she sleeps. A few nights later she feels guilty about leaving it unworn – after all, it was a perfectly good piece of clothing and she didn’t want it to go to waste – so she wears it to bed and finds that it’s surprisingly warm and comfortable. She’s never really considered green to be her color but she supposes it doesn’t really matter since she doesn’t plan on wearing it out. Until one day she stumbles out of her cabin half asleep and forgets to change her hoodie. She’s already eating breakfast in the dining hall when she finally notices thanks to the rather odd stares she’s been getting from her peers. Looking down at herself, she notices that she’s wearing the green hoodie rather than her standard white one. “Ah, fuck,” she mutters. Changing would require her to go back to her cabin and make her late for training. She’s too lazy to walk back and too tired to deal with scolding from Keith Shadis so she ignores the weird looks and continues to eat her bland oatmeal. Besides, everyone’s too afraid of her to say anything to her. Except, of course, Eren.  

“Annie! Is that the hoodie I gave you? It looks really good on you!” a voice says excitedly. She looks up to see none other than Eren Jaeger. Because duh. “Er, not that your normal one looks bad on you. You look nice in that one too! I just mean to say that you look, um. Nice.”

“Thanks,” Annie mumbles.

“I was afraid you weren’t going to wear it because you hated it,” Eren says, smiling sheepishly. “Not that I want you to wear it just to make me feel better or anything! It’s just that it’s good to get someone something they like, you know?”

“It’s a nice sweater,” she tells him. Sure, it was a little large on her and the color stuck out more than she liked but it was amazingly soft. “You have good taste.”

His face lights up when he realizes she’s echoing the very compliment he gave her just a week ago. “Thanks,” he says happily and gives her a big grin.

There’s something about his smile, she thinks. There’s a word for it. It’s not happy or pleased. It’s sweet, she realizes.

[rememberthemonster]

Twitch Plaze Blazed Glazed 33: Just Go With The Flo

When we last left our honey of a heroine, she just came back from another dimension, where she met Luke, one of Luke’s friends, and a shiba that was definitely not an Uxie. 

But don’t worry -- she’s back in the REAL world again.

Will the Poke Mart be her first stop?

Apparently not, as she’s headed over to “Soheal’s Strait.” I’m not sure if that’s supposed to mean something or if it’s a corruption of “Spheal’s Strait”, but either way, it doesn’t look like the kind of place a Spheal would hang out, so it still doesn’t make sense.

Okay, THIS looks more like Spheal territory. But not knowing Surf, we head back and checkpoint at the Pokemon Center.

“...are delicious...”

Yes, it’s weird that an entire region’s name is donut backwards.

As we head in the direction of the Seaspray Dam to presumably finally deliver that package, Honey gets roped into a double battle.

It’s against Beauty Gabrielle and Youngster Joey. Notably, Joey is trying to impress Gabrielle so she’ll go out with him. The chat didn’t seem to notice at the time, but now that I’ve written it down, I can already hear the TPP headcanon triggers going off.

And yes, this Joey has a Rattata. Sorry, no loophole. He also has a Taillow, btw, and Gabriella has a Pidgeotto and Clefairy.

After the fight, Gabriella informs us that the Seaspray Dam provides renewable energy to the entire Tunod region. Hmm... if I were an evil electric rodent seeking to do bad things and stop the plans of anyone trying to stop me, I’d probably make a stop there. 

Just saying.

Yeah, I’d say things aren’t looking real great for AJ.

After wandering into some tall grass, Honey does some badge farming.

This Houndour has no name, and isn’t the same as the one Honey eventually adds to her team... but shh, spoilers.

There’s also Growlithe, Pikachu, Marill, and Mareep in this tall grass. 

Quite frankly, my dear, I... think the joke is just too obvious. 

He thinks otherwise, though, claiming that the dam fills him with glee.

Welcome to Seaspray Dam. Who wants to bet that some sort of hostile takeover is going to happen here?

See? The nice man is giving us a warning. Or maybe he just doesn’t want our sticky fingers on all the machinery. Or maybe he and the other guy are going to challenge Honey to a Double Battle. 

Which they do. She wins.

This guy informs us that nobody is allowed on the upper floor. Given how much effort Honey went to to try to get the elevator into the Penthouse despite not having the key, I don’t think she’ll listen.

She doesn’t. Either despite her dad’s advice, or because of it. I guess she thinks this is the time and place for breaking rules.

It seems like the flow of the electricity determines where Honey can walk and where she can’t. It also seems like the water is flowing straight off the edge of the endless void of the fourth wall.

“And now is not the time or place to electrocute yourself.”

Aha! I knew something was up here! Even if that something is merely supply and demand, and thus simple economic problems...

Although when said demand is for regionwide electricity, and said supply is in finite numbers, I guess it’s pretty serious. Still simple, but serious.

And this is where the lag bites us, and Honey spaces out again.

What is this person saying? “Evening”? “Every”? By the time the Stream picks back up, this is what Honey hears:

“...needs of Tunod...”

Yep, it’s economics. Simple, potentially devastating economics.

Seems safe enough for you, uh... sir? Madam? 

The lag returns, and Honey’s ability to completely blank out to what people are saying strikes again. This next scene goes by pretty quickly, but I managed to capture the split second:

“...need, kid, I’m busy.”

Honey, who by now is used to snappy women being rude to her, hands Flo the sensor that Professor Willow gave her.

Whatever Flo says next, Honey appears to tune her out. Possibly the talk got way too technical for her. By the time the stream picks back up, Flo’s at this point of talking:

Honey affirms this.

Sure, Honey is used to doing favors for rude people.

And Honey phases out again. Her mind’s elsewhere. Possibly the human world, the one without Pokemon... possibly just thinking about Luke, and wondering if that ‘friend’ of his is his girlfriend, and if not, if he’s available.

Eventually Flo commands her attention back.

Say, Tongo’s sort of a greenish-blue Gem... 

OOC: Bill here is referring to Tongo the Lil’ Monster, who was born from the Nail Gem during the pre-Chatty Yellow intermission game “Lil’ Monster”. In some TPP canons, notably those of N8, Pioxys, Emoji_Master, and the author, Lil’ Monsters are the children of the fossil deities of the TPP universe, and as such are sort of deities themselves. 

Tongo was considered to be the child of Sail (Connections) and Plume (Technology, Cheating/Hacks), and the author considers him as the fossil of dreams, imagination, reality paradoxes, and pirated ROMs, and as largely (or at least partially) responsible for all the dimension-hopping that Monster Rancher host Aya did during the pre-Chatty Yellow intemission. This dimension-hopping broke the universe to the point in which the Voices and Emotes were literally everywhere all over Kanto by the beginning of Chatty Yellow, and even the major trainers were transformed into Emote-headed abominations.

But to be fair, Tongo had been pretty much kidnapped by a guy named  '666fR that he couldn’t stand, so maybe it wasn’t his fault. Maybe.

ahem But, anyway, back to Honey:

She tells us to take the card to pass through the corridor that the guards are blocking, and to “HURRY UP!”

Yeesh. Rude, lady, rude. Yelling at people isn’t cool. Yelling at disabled people is less cool. Yelling at disabled people with hidden reality-warping superpowers is likely to get you in all sorts of troubles later on, especially when and if you have to fight them for a gym challenge.

But in the meantime, Honey has a job.

To be continued...

OOC: I now imagine this song mashup to be Honey’s theme. Funny how her greatest asset -- her dimensional powers -- seem to be hindering her ability to function as a normal person, because she’s always halfway in another world. As a woman with invisible illnesses and oversensitivity issues, I feel I can relate to that. Honey, so far, seems to be very much like me IRL.

[zabchan]

Legacy: the Legend of Honu

Chapter One: Stories

There are three stories that the Waialiki family hold sacred, one for each member of Honu’s family. (illustrations beneath the cut!)

His dad’s favorite, either to hear or to tell, is how the legendary chief Moana sailed across the great ocean to deliver Maui, demigod of the wind and sea, and restored the heart of Te Fiti. Dad gets super into the telling, especially during the fight scenes, waving a branch around, bowling over imaginary kakamora or fending off the deadly fireballs of Te Ka with a near-perfect imitation of a hawk’s screech. His dad’s rendition of the greedy crab Tamatoa singing to his hoard of shiny objects is a crowd favorite, the song stuck in Honu’s brain for weeks afterwards. It’s a long story, and Dad doesn’t break it out unless it’s a special occasion or he wants to show off…which is pretty much all the time, but he keeps recitals limited to feast days at least. Mom tells it ok, but she tends to focus on the ocean and how it came to choose Moana, citing the great chief’s compassion for a baby turtle being harassed by crows, and how showing kindness to even the smallest among us can lead to big things. Mom is always trying to put extra lessons into stories, while his dad is all about the big magical showdowns and explosions.

 It’s best when Honu’s parents tell it together, with a practiced ease of cooperation and easy banter. Its hilarious when Mom joins in mid-telling and voices Maui, forcing Dad to continue the story from Moana’s perspective. But their best rendition is when Mom handles the narration, describing the dark, traitorous wonders of Lolotai, the chaotic, bizarre and deadly ships of the kakamora, the glorious blooming rebirth of Te Fiti, using her arms and hands to carve the images in the air and make the words come alive. Dad is the best at doing all the voices and sound effects, by far. He also makes up songs at each major story point; and here is often when Mom joins in, her rich alto twining through his father’s warm baritone like a canoe through the waves.

Aside from his favorite epic, Dad delights in recounting all the Maui stories, from ‘How Maui Stole Fire’, told in the depths of stormy season, when the gift is the most appreciated as the village huddles in their fales, to ‘The Invention of the Coconut’ at harvest, when he can be surrounded by heaps and heaps of the patron crop, punctuating the tale with sounds of cracking the husks in his massive fists.

Honu’s mom likes to tell Maui stories too, but with a twist. She always prefers the ones that reveal some aspect of Maui’s humanity: his generosity, his bravery, the heart among the heroics. So her favorite story is how the great Maui humbled himself for the love of a human woman, how he gave up his hook and his immortal life to be with her and her people, to savor each day as it came and love like there was no tomorrow. Honu pretended he was bored by the story when he was younger, but secretly he wished that someday he could find someone to love as much as that. to give up so much of yourself but still consider it a price well paid; wow.

(He thinks he might see it sometimes in the way his dad looks at his mom, or the way his mom smiles at the whole village when they return from sailing lessons. Whether it be for love, for family, or community the thought that something or someone is worth giving up eternity for, that’s the real lesson Honu learns.)

And then there was Honu’s favorite story; not least because it was about himself. When Honu was little he’d ask for this story nearly three times a day, sometimes right after having been told it the first time.

The day Honu was born, his father was out hunting sea turtle, whose meat and blood are rich in iron and perfect food for pregnant women and new mothers. As the village champion was aiming the killing blow he thought he heard his wife’s cries of labor from the shore. It made him jerk and miss his shot. The spear flew from his hand and scratched a long mark across the turtle’s shell. Honu’s father raced back to the island, swimming the last ten feet himself, and bursting into the birthing hut dripping wet in his clothes. (Which is a terribly rude thing to do in the presence of the chief; some might have demanded his head for the insult, but of course grandfather would never be so petty.) He arrived in time to hold his wife’s hand during the final push to birth his firstborn son.  They gave the child the name of Honu, meaning turtle, in honor of how his first act in this world was to save the sea creature. It is said that the turtle saved that day grew to an enormous size and became a legend on the island, identified by the long scratch mark on its shell.  It is also said that when it appears, it gifts the island with extra hauls of deepwater fish, tuna and marlin and sturgeon, (all Honu’s favorites), and chases away all the stinging jellyfish (Honu’s decidedly least favorite).

The blotchy pink scar on his leg twitches when Honu hears that part of the story, and he cannot help but wince at the memory of the week-long fever, nausea and burning agony that resulted from half a second’s brush from the purple tendrils.

The turtle story is Grandpa’s favorite too, and while Honu loves his parents dearly, Grandpa Tui is special.  Grandpa Tui tells him stories of their ancestors; of the meanings in the patterns on his skin, on how this uncle invented a new way to catch fish, or how that great-grandmother painted the tapas in their fale. Tui teaches Honu the pride of the craftsman, of a job well done, of carving a lasting legacy with your own two hands.

Grandma Sina teaches Honu how to be quiet. Not in a bad “be quiet I’m trying to sleep” way, but the patient, kind, listening way. To still your heart and mind and be open to the sound of the breeze, of the growing things, the earth beneath your fingers. How, when you are quiet, other people tend to talk more to fill the silence and often let something slip they didn’t mean to. And when they do you smile, and stay calm, and ponder these things and in the silence find wisdom. Wisdom, hiding in plain view, hiding in the quiet places and the attentive ear.

So, unlike his loud and boisterous father or his chatty instructive mother, he grows up to be a thoughtful, quiet young man who smiles and loves to listen. He tends not to speak until all else is quiet, and on Motunui that is rarer than most people give credit for. That isn’t to say he doesn’t love people and being around them. In fact, Honu tends to feel drained and empty when he’s separated too long from people, but he’s happiest when he can be in a big crowd and not say anything, just listen to their chatter and stories while he works on yet another project, be it whittling or weaving or mending nets.

He is learning boatbuilding from his father and from studying the canoes of his ancestors. He learns to sail and wayfind as a matter of course, the son of two master wayfinders on the island of wayfinders descended from- you get the idea. But mostly what this inspires in him how to make better, stronger boats with more decoration and more design and functionality. He learns of different types of tree and their virtues, of the nature of waves and how they crash over a deck and just how much water it takes to sink a canoe…and in the process learns a deep and profound respect of the sea and her moods. When all you have between you and the deepest, darkest fathoms is a bundle of sticks held together by some tar and rope; you learn how much you need to be able to trust and rely on your boatmaker. His people have boats that have lasted over a thousand years. His dream is to make one to last a thousand more. One he can proudly sail a family of his own on one day, discovering new islands, new treasures and new materials to fuel his endless list of projects.

Honu is a craftsman. He speaks more through his work than his words. Honu loves his people’s way of decorating even the smallest objects, the ones where you wouldn’t think decorations would matter, like fishhooks. His hands are always itching to carve or paint or inlay something, and it’s rare to see him without a tool in hand. fortunately he inherits some decent artistic talent from his dad, although his dad’s sense of taste is more questionable. The story of how, when his dad met his mom, Dad had been working on a giant statue of himself in a cave covered in hand carved pictures (also of himself) is another family favorite, albeit not in the top 3.

and then there came the day when Honu learned not only were the stories all true…his mom and dad not only shared names with the two famous heroes…they were the heroes of the legends.

And they weren’t the only things from the stories that turned out to be true, as Honu was soon to learn…quite violently.

(whether or not I continue this story depends greatly on the amount of support and interest i get so please, dont hesitate to send me your feedback!) 

[purrcraze]

5 Reasons Why Your Maine Coon Is Crying

Is your Maine Coon crying a lot and you just don´t know the reason for that, or you don´t know what you can do to help your Maine Coon? Let us help you!

Why Is My Maine Coon Crying? Maine Coons cry because they’re lonely, stressed, scared or simply to demand your attention. They often cry for several different reasons beyond just wanting food. What’s more, Maine Coons will use their special cries to tell you exactly what they want and when they want it.

This article explains five important reasons why your Maine Coon is crying, what she’s trying to tell you and how you can better understand your pet’s moods and wants.

A Quick Look At A Maine Coon´s Communication

Before you read the 5 reasons, there are a couple of things you should know.

If you own a Maine Coon, you’ll know how vocal they can be; in fact, they’re a talkative cat breed who likes to trill (that’s a combination of meowing and purring) as they follow you around the house.

Although Maine Coons are usually pretty big for their size, instead of a deep, commanding meow (that you’d expect) they have a high-pitched voice.

Often known as the ‘dogs of the cat world’ due to their friendly and sociable nature, Maine Coons are quite smart in vocalizing to communicate with human beings.

The reasons and type of crying vary among breeds as well as across individual pets. Some Maine Coons may cry a lot more than others – for example, female Maine Coons are known to cry more than their male counterparts.

At times, you may give your pet fresh water, food, toys or carry him for a cuddle and find that your Maine Coon still persists with crying. Understanding the different type of vocalizations can help you interpret what your cat is trying to say.

Here’s a closer look at the five main reasons why Maine Coons cry and what you can do to help your cat stop.

1. Your Maine Coon Wants Attention

Maine Coons may often cry for physical or emotional reasons and we need to do our homework regarding possible causes before deciding that they’re seeking attention.

What started out as attention-seeking behavior soon becomes a reinforced habit; sometimes, your little Maine Coon will simply cry all day for the fun of it especially if you’ve been giving him a cuddle every time he cries.

If the crying is accompanied by pawing and walking around your feet in figure-eight formations, your Maine Coon wants your attention. The sensible thing to do ideally is to wait for your cat to be quiet before playing with him or giving him a cuddle.

In all likelihood, being a Maine Coon, she just wants your company and nothing else – your cat just wants to bond and connect with you.

At these times, play with your cat, talk right back – even if you two don’t really understand each other. You can also consider buying your Maine Coon some large soft toys. Many times, kittens cry to snuggle against their mother. If you need some toys for your Maine Coon, we recommend getting these.

You don’t have to provide attention to your cat for hours; frequent but short bursts of attention are adequate. Maine Coons – like other cats – respond well to routine and it’s a good idea to incorporate lap time at regular times every day. (If your Maine Coon likes to sit on your lap)

While Maine Coons are known to be notoriously chatty, plaintive crying may very well indicate a need for attention from you.

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2. Your Maine Coon is Ill and Needs Medical Intervention

Excessive crying may be a sign that your Maine Coon is sick and needs your help. This form of crying is usually long, guttural and persistent.

If you’ve provided food or water or cleared the litter box and your Maine Coon still continues crying, it could strongly indicate that your cat is ill.

Maine Coons are known to be extraordinarily resilient and strong and are usually good at hiding signs of sickness. Prolonged crying is one of the first signs of illness.

Make sure you check your cat gently but thoroughly for injuries, scars or tender spots.

Keep a close watch for any deviation from normal habit and routine. Observe closely to check for a reluctance to walk or a tendency to favor one or more of its paws compared to others. Similarly, discharge from the eyes, ears or nose may merit an urgent visit to the clinic.

Maine Coons may also cry at night with increasing age or deafness. This sort of crying sounds rather sorrowful and often resembles howling. However, if the crying is accompanied with fur rolling on the back, this could be due to a condition known as ‘feline hyperesthesia’ or rippling skin disorder. If this is the case, you may need to seek veterinary intervention.

Crying accompanied by changes in appetite, behavior, activity, moods, sleeping patterns or weight could indicate sickness. Your Maine Coon could also be suffering from anxiety, hypertension or hyperthyroidism.

For example, urinary tract blockage could make your Maine Coon cry as the condition can be extremely painful to endure.

Your pet may also cry due to mental discomfort like disorientation, confusion and decreased awareness of their surroundings. Resolving your cat’s health problem and helping him feel comfortable will help stop the crying too.

3. Your Maine Coon is Stressed, Frustrated or Lonely

If your Maine Coon is a rescued cat, she may be afraid of the rain as it could trigger memories of being cold and damp – this could be the reason why she cries and ducks for cover at the sign of the first drop.

You can try playing or cuddling with her or giving her treats during storms to create positive experiences.

While Maine Coons are not as friendly and clingy as dogs by nature (but close), they are not antisocial creatures either. They enjoy company (just like the rest of us) and don’t like feeling lonely.

Your pet may cry because she is lonely, depressed or bored. If your pet clings to you all day in addition to crying, it could very well indicate that she wants company.

Also, if you notice that your pet is crying and given to excessive grooming, it could indicate loneliness.

All cats love grooming themselves but if your Maine Coon licks her fur and chews her nails excessively, give her a cuddle, play with her and spend time with her. Apart from crying, lonely cats also tend to get into a lot of mischief in the house.

They may claw up your furniture, dig things out of your cupboard or scatter mud from your planter pots. For example, your Maine Coon may exhibit long, low crying (like a baby’s crying) when she wants to be near you or maybe sit on your lap.

Cats also love touching or sleeping on things that belong to you; she may start crying if she doesn’t find your familiar slippers to sleep on.

Your Maine Coon could be crying from loneliness if she also displays these signs:

Excessive sleeping: While most cats sleep for about 12 to 16 hours a day, any deviation from normal sleeping habits could mean she’s lonely

Pica: This is a condition where your cat may chew and eat non-edible substances including plastic, tape, yarn, fabric, plants, human hair, and shoelaces – just about anything.

Aggression: Your pet may be more aggressive and ‘acting out’ his loneliness and frustration by crying. Pay special attention to body language; lonely cats may not only cry but also take a swipe at your feet or claw you as you pass by.

Change in vocalization pattern: A depressed Maine Coon may cry – or purr – more or less than normal.

A Companion Is The Best Way To Avoid Loneliness And Depression In Your Maine Coon

4. Your Maine Coon is Scared

Your Maine Coon may be crying due to sheer fright. Cats are particularly scared of loud noises and your cat may be scared of thunderstorms or fireworks.

If crying is accompanied by hiding, trembling or withdrawal, your Maine Coon may be showing signs of extreme fear. For example, they often take cover under blankets or couches before a storm.

Cats often display heightened sensitivity to atmospheric pressure and can sense a storm beforehand.

Just like other cats, Maine Coons get frightened with strange, sudden and loud noises as well as new voices. Some cats may run for cover as soon as a stranger enters the room; others may cry at the sight or sound of dogs or even other cats.

By carefully observing your cat, it’s important to know what the fear trigger is.

Scared Maine Coons emit a low-pitched, yowling cry and this is often accompanied by one or more of the following body language signs:

Ears pulled back

Fur standing on end

Tail tucked in.

If you have adopted a rescued Maine Coon, she may cry and exhibit other fear symptoms if she experiences a familiar situation that is traumatic to her.

For example, they may cry if you try to crate the cat; this is because she may be reminded of stressful experiences of being locked in a crate box.

Your pet may also cry due to separation anxiety – especially if she has a history of abandonment. Once you identify the underlying cause, you can alleviate their fears and phobias with behavioral conditioning.

5. Your Maine Coon Wants Her Food

If you’ve delayed or changed your cat’s eating schedule, she will cry out loud and let you know about it. Maine Coons – like dogs – like a structured routine and they often cry when they’re hungry. What’s more, she may continue to cry until you feed her.

If you store your cat’s special treats in a specific place, she may cry and run over to the spot and wait to be fed.

Although cats are not as motivated by food as dogs, they do enjoy their mealtimes and resent it if they’re not fed on time – or fed adequately. Mealtime crying is distinct from other types of meowing in that it’s often more insistent.

In fact, at times, your Maine Coon may continue to cry even while eating and may quickly eat her food whole without taking the time to chew.

This is especially true if your pet was a stray or part of a large litter where she often had to fight for a larger portion. Also, make sure you’re feeding him the right number of calories and correct portions so he feels satiated.

In general, Maine Coons need about 400 calories per day (depends on weight and activity); out of these, limit additional treats to no more than 10% of their overall intake.

To calm down your cat’s mealtime crying, offer her food when she has quietened down. Talk softly but firmly and wait until she stops crying.

Then make eye contact, feed her out of her spoon while mouthing encouraging words such as ‘good girl’ or ‘yes’.

Avoid starting to feed your cat while she cries as this will tend to reinforce the behavior pattern.

When you calm down your cat, start forming desirable behaviors for about 30 seconds and gradually extend it for longer times.

If your Maine Coon is excessively vocal, consider playing with her for a few minutes to let out the extra energy before settling her down to the meal.

When you teach your cat that calm and quiet behavior will get her what she desires, she will automatically learn to reduce her crying.

Crying Is Different from Meowing

Unlike the happy, expectant and chirpy sound of a meow, a cry is more like yowling and is longer and more drawn out. Yowling is more in line with cat-to-cat communication and often indicates a desire to mate or a dislike to other cats in the vicinity.

Similarly, in a multi-cat household, your Maine Coon may cry because another cat encroaches onto her space. A hollow-sounding, abbreviated yowl indicates that the Maine Coon is searching for a mate.

When crying sounds like yowling, it usually means that your Maine Coon is either physically or emotionally disturbed.

Pet owners swear that Maine Coons communicate clearly through a series of sounds including crying, growling, and trilling. These sounds often indicate a desire to play, get your attention and communicate hunger pangs and much more.