#and I finally found her lost sibling so I can actually work on her lore

[mawsmauls]

Yet again we find two where there was only ever meant to be one. For every lie we bleed out a little more truth.

[mmani-e]

Hello! After all this effort, behold:

DANGANRONPA DEMIX, THH EDITION!

Dr Demix 2

Finally got the talentswap designs I have for the THH characters one and done with! You can click through the read more section for some fun design insights. I'm intending on uploading a doc containing short lore bits about them eventually.

Kyoko Kirigiri - Ultimate Affluent Progeny

So Kyoko's design was both kinda simple, kinda not, wanted to give her a very fine and regal kinda attitude to her but not arrogant as that's very much Byakuya's thing. Her story is that she loves her dad more than the family business and her grandpa so she abandons detective work and just uses her brain to help her dad out.

Makoto Naegi - Ultimate Novelist

Makoto is a wonderful guy, just great all around. He loves writing children's books and happy stories. This is his main coping mechanism so he doesn't have to process any negative emotions he gets, the rest he can't process… well they go into a murderous psychopath alter.

Aoi Asahina - Ultimate Lucky Student

Shoujo protagonist Aoi. Cute, headstrong, affective, competitive, these are all the traits that make her fight for her friends and clash with Kyoko (and more often than not Byakuya) in the killing game, even when all hope seems lost… she pushes through, unafraid to let tears spill from her eyes for all those lost, but pushing all the same.

Byakuya Togami - Ultimate Detective

This one, I wanna go into more lore territory, cause I kinda memed around his last desc I gave him so here goes:

"A disgraced heir of the Togami household, Byakuya lost the competition that would've secured his riches. Disdainful and bitter, he sought out to get to the bottom of why he lost, uncovering a rabbit hole in the process. By the end, he proved his sibling a cheater, but it didn't matter because by the end as he found the sweet satisfaction of uncovering secrets and crushing liars and cheaters under the weight of their hubris far more satisfying than any inheritance."

Sayaka Maizono - Ultimate Spirit Medium

So Sayaka isn't a clairvoyant at all like Yasuhiro, in fact her entire skillset is completely different, first of all she is like an actual psychic, and I based her design off of the japanese Itako, quite loosely. Very interesting group, look it up, also she'll never use these powers in the killing game because I dunno how to even approach these rituals or what they look like or how to write them while remaining respectful, so she won't do it in a killing game for the express reason of her not having the right tools available and not wanting to disrespect her traditions.

Leon Kuwata - Ultimate Swimmer

I really wanna draw him again, all these characters again tbh, and I wanna show off the patterns on his wetsuit. It's a whole coral reef under there, that anemone and clownfish bit is only one part of a whole reef stretching his midline.

Sakura Ogami - Ultimate Programmer

Sakura has installed chips into her body to help optimize her body processes and also cause why not. As for the muscles, she's an Assembly programmer, the programs she's made can run on calculators she loves it.

Chihiro Fujisaki - Ultimate Martial Artist

Chihiro's design here with the two belts is an explicit nod to his preferred martial art - Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, so unlike Sakura in canon who'd be easy to imagine cracking someone's skull in half with a chop, Chihiro's approach is more crawling onto someone and bringing them down to the floor with grappling like an angry halfling monk. As for the belts themselves, on his head is his final junior belt, while around his waist is his current belt, he's not a black belt yet because he's still too young for it.

Celestia Ludenberg - Ultimate Baseball Star

Celestia actually isn't a legend in this AU, Taeko is. Celestia hates that and wants to start a baseball career going international, whatever the hell that means is up to her own definition, but she wants to be remembered forever as Celestia, not Taeko. Also extra sentence, but this is the SINGLE hardest design I've ever had to deal with here, I think in the future I'll be drawing all her little accessories and I have an alt costume for her I have in mind.

Hifumi Yamada - Ultimate Pop Star

So I changed Hifumi's story as I originally outlined in the OG post with him. He was friends with Aoi all his life, pretty much his only friend at all, and ever since he was little he had an obsession with writing songs, because he was obsessed with stuff like anime openings and was content to just keep the songs to himself. It wasn't till Aoi convinced him to share some of his songs that he started his journey to success, but bc he's not traditionally attractive, his first hits were literally just… his voice being played over other more attractive singers and it wasn't until very very recently that he even performed a song of his for the first time.

Toko Fukawa - Ultimate Fanfic Writer

So while Hifumi was clearly a Doujinshi but due to weird translation, ended up as fanfic creator, Touko is straight up a FF then Wattpad then AO3 girl, who would get obsessed with this really shitty, tripe manga that she didn't even like reading. It did however have super hot dudes in it, so she wrote good stories of those characters when she got frustrated with the actual authorial content - which was always.

Yasuhiro Hagakure - Ultimate Gambler

Quite LITERALLY the never stop gambling meme personified into a guy. He can lose 3 mil on slot machines but always comes out fine because it means if he keeps gambling he'll eventually run into his 1/3 and win giga millions, what he needs to pay off his debts. It isn't just with luck though either because his personality and lack of intelligence or understanding of most the rules of the games he plays means he'll never react the way he should when getting a good hand in poker or a bad draw in blackjack, so he wins those games almost always through just… stupidity.

Mukuro Ikusaba - Ultimate Biker

She's number 16 in her gang, and is easily the most loyal enforcer and taskman of the gang. She does anything she's told, to a grim and disciplined degree not typical for hooligan bike gangers, she doesn't really desire a seat as top dog of the gang though, after all she's got school to worry about, and her sister.

Mondo Owada - Ultimate Warlord

So his relationship and Kiyotaka's is gonna be interesting, because I don't want him to be exactly like Mukuro at all, who was just sort of an all-obsessed Yandere. It's more like he's always chafing under Taka, who is less than friendly with him in this AU, really the main way he even lets Taka boss him around is because he pays incredibly well and helps keep his gang members from devolving back into the unstructured, chaotic criminal life, the same that took his brother years ago.

Oh and yeah, he still looks like Guile, as he should.

Sparkling Justice - Ultimate Killer Killer

Yeah it's a reference to Killer Killer, sue me I love the manga. He has Hajirahara's ahoge, and I thought it'd be cute to also give him a mask just like the other Makoto from a Kodaka game series (Raincode.) Also, while Genocide jack stuffs all her scissors in her skirt, Makoto keeps a truth gun with "truth bullets" as his main weapon, the gun he stores inside the big book in the chibi of just Makoto, and the bullets kept on his person as the red buttons all over his body, which he pulls out when he needs to reload.

"Kiyotaka Ishimaru" - Ultimate Fashionista

Unlike Mukuro and Junko, Mondo absolutely cannot hide the fact that he acts nothing like Kiyotaka, though this is surprisingly fine to everyone else, because unlike Junko who plastered herself onto literally everything, Mondo always obfuscated himself from the public spotlight, at most showing only his suits while he hid his face behind something conveniently placed. Which played primarily to his vision of an ultimate fashionista, who was above everyone and catered to the rich and powerful.

Junko Enoshima - Ultimate Moral Compass

This was a fun one, I decided to let her have her red hair because I believe it to be the "natural" look of her hair, while attaching little clips of dyed hair to her buns as a replacement to keep her shape sorta and keep the strawberry blonde somwehere on her. Understand that while she is the "moral compass" she is still pretty deranged, and the only reason she focuses so much on keeping everyone on their best behavior is because it's endlessly entertaining to her to make her fellow moral committee members upset when she blatantly makes a mockery of the rules while still keeping kids on their best behavior to make a point.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru - Ultimate Fashionista and Tyrant, the Iron Hand of Despair

Taka's design I wanted to sort of focus on this sort of, holier-than-thou idea, where I wanted to make him look a lot fancier and upper-class than Junko does in his standard highschool fit compared to him. I wanted him to have an upper-crust sort of look

If you're reading this after reading this all, thanks! You're a wonderful person :) Signing off...

Mani

[ck-stone]

How I, a random nobody with too much time on my hands, would have tweaked: Arcane Season 2, Act 2

Just picture it; the dark levels of the undercity, lights flickering in the distance, fog smothering the ground. Our heroes are running through the labyrinth of alleys, anticipating Ambessa’s soldiers or Warwick at each turn. We hear panting. We hear screams in the background. The score is silence and warning horns and low droning strings and percussion that thumps like a heartbeat (think Rio's theme (Agatha All Along) meets the Winter Soldier's theme). One of the characters is bleeding and they press on, hunted down by the strange wolf with glowing eyes. The other refuses to abandon them knowing that they may be condemning themselves as well. We were robbed.

Let me be clear, I love Arcane. I think it’s a masterpiece, I am enjoying the new season, and Lord have I never been attracted to anyone in my life as much as I am attracted to Vi, but that doesn’t mean that I’m above admitting when there’s a drop in quality. And let’s call season 2, act 2 for what it was: a transitionary chapter. Everything that happened, happened only to move the characters into place for act 3 and set the stage for the finale of the play.

So let me enrage you with some of my opinions.

(Disclaimer: This is meant to be an equally thoughtful and comedic critique. These are my opinions, and a lot of this is practice for my own work. If you don’t like them don’t come at me. I don’t give a shit.)

Bringing Vander back was unnecessary and lazy.

Why? Well easy, we already did this in season 1. We lost Vander. We as the audience knew that he wasn’t going to get a happy ending. It was a repeat of an emotional moment that worked in season 1, so they did it again in season 2. It was the same trauma, the same heartbreak, and another dead sibling. Old tricks which felt stale.

I also bet if someone were to clip all the scenes where we got teases of Warwick, it would be longer than the scene that had actual Warwick in it. Now, I know that Arcane is not above retconning League of Legends lore to suit them, but Warwick was something that sat really weird in Arcane canon. Warwick in League lore is a bloodthirsty mindless animal. Aside from his creation, that is all we know. He’s this mysterious force that lingers in the background until your character has that goddamn symbol on your head and then you’re panicking cause you can either finish with the buff you’re trying to get your team and die, or run back to base and have your team scream at you when wolfboy gets the buff even though you have more kills than the ADC cause no one appreciates a good fucking jungle player. Warwick should have been that mysterious force. We needed more intrigue, more dread, more panic, more horror-esque moments where characters are being stalked and we, the audience, are biting our nails at the edge of our seats, unsure whether or not our favourites will make it out alive.

But we get it, they needed to bring the sisters back together. I just think they could have found a different way to do it and still achieve the same outcome; that Jinx now recognises the pressure and stress and guilt and fear Vi held as the eldest, that she no longer put Vi on a pedestal and now see her as a person, and that Vi recognises that Jinx has grown up without her and does not need to be saved, and therefore can stop defining herself by her ability to protect people.

Caitlyn’s development felt as stable as a wet noodle.

In the last act we watched the rapid descent as Caitlyn lost to her anger and grief. And then Vi calls her ‘Cupcake’ and we see the rapid uptick of her story, but none of the in between aside from some skulking around as Vampire Cait (still fucking hot though). We as the audience actually have very little to go on during this time. We don’t know how much of Ambessa’s propaganda Caitlyn fell for, we don’t know how much she questioned, we also don’t see any of the yearning that Ambessa claims Caitlyn was doing for Vi (but plenty of Vi pining, just your average wlw experience). In season 1 Caitlyn was possibly the most compassionate character, and so we can assume that with a little time, she was able to recover some of her nature, but unfortunately the writers seem to be delivering this information by just, telling us. When telling stories, we often say ‘show don’t tell’ as you know, that’s how you tell a story and engage the audience.

Also, her and Maddie just seemed so out of character. Maddie is a subordinate—it is a clear abuse of power—not even to mention that it can barely be called a distraction as Maddie brings enforcer talk to the bedroom. Perhaps that is the distraction. I understand the writers were trying for a juxtaposition of how Cait treats Maddie vs Vi, but it ultimately just feels like them throwing in sex for sex sake. The only thing I can think is that perhaps Maddie is playing a bigger role that we the audience have not been clued into yet. Perhaps she’s spying for Ambessa. Who fucking knows.

And (now this may just be me being sensitive to the topic so perhaps it is not as big a deal as I’m making it out to be) Caitlyn hitting Vi needs to be addressed. That is not a-o-fucking-kay people. Yes, because hitting your partner is bad, but also because hitting your partner, your caring, sensitive partner, who you know suffered years of physical abuse at the hands of your kind (enforcers), is super uber bad. This needs to be acknowledged between the characters, especially for Caitlyn’s arc, as this is testament to her becoming the very thing she fought against in season 1. In this instance, hitting Vi was a more symbolic act than it was a simple mistake, and hurt far deeper than just physical pain. She would need to accept that this was a thing she did, for both her and Vi’s healing, and take responsibility for her actions. In season 1, Caitlyn was horrified to learn about the way Vi was treated, and then went on to shut down the lower levels of Stillwater in season 2, so she clearly still feels strongly enough about it to take action. It would need to be addressed in order for them to move on. And if they end together without having established good communication first, then they will be toxic for each other (I ship it, but I’m also realistic).

Jayce and the mystery of teleportation.

Now, firstly I just want to say that Jayce and Viktor’s stories are poetic with how they mirror and intersect. The foreshadowing was beautiful, the little details like the cog, the fact that Jayce and Viktor represent the two sides of the Arcane; that which is always creating, and that which is always destroying itself. Arcane at its core is a story of siblings, being held together by affection, necessity, being torn apart by the world and ideologies (which includes the cities, as they’re sister cities), and these two are no exception.

My complaint about Jayce is that, how the FUCK did he get to Zaun? He has been missing for months, magically reappears in a structure that surely would have some form of security, and then hobbles his way through Piltover to Zaun looking like a madman, including through the checkpoints, with a Hextech weapon, and no one seems to question it. Realistically, with martial law in place, as well as a literal army surrounding the compound, Jayce would have had a much harder time getting to Viktor. Yes, I am nitpicking, but I am not about to suspend disbelief just because the scenes were pretty.

So then Stone, how would you have approached these points?

Firstly, those three episodes could have been two (and then one more episode to expand on what they already had).

We left characters like Ekko, Heimerdinger, and to an extent Mel and Sevika, to instead focus on a story we already knew the ending of (Vander), which only serves to lessen the impact as we as the audience have gone from guessing to anticipating. There’s an army in Zaun. Surely the rest of the city would have been at least curious about what Ambessa and her forces were doing in the undercity. Even if nothing came of it, you’d have Sevika trying to rally people to do something about it, and even this in itself would have built tension.

And as beautiful and melancholic as it all was, Vander’s backstory, meeting Jinx and Vi’s mother, was ultimately unnecessary beyond that of pulling heartstrings. It would have had a place in season 1 (especially as there’s nothing in season 1 that alludes to Jinx and Vi having known Vander prior to their parents dying, so it just feels like a rather major detail to overlook), but unfortunately in season 2, it simply cramped what was already a rush to the end. We got the letters to Silco, the photos, we as the audience could piece together the rest from there, and it would feel a little more bittersweet watching the sisters piece the past together too.

We needed more Warwick as Warwick. We could have just as easily had Jinx and Vi get back together for other reasons, perhaps due to Vi’s downward spiral into self-destruction, perhaps related to the chembarons and their search for Jinx, perhaps because Zaun is unifying and they kidnap Vi as she was an enforcer for like five minutes, perhaps still because of Warwick, but rather the threat he poses, especially if Ambessa gets her hands on him, and then had them meet up with everyone else as the Noxian was still hunting the wolf. It didn’t necessarily have to be at the compound where Hammertime (shellshocked) went to assassinate Robot Jesus. We could have had those dark scenes of hide-and-seek amongst the fog and caught glimpses of Vander within, just enough to leave the audience questioning and perhaps allow Vi and Jinx to escape alive (I really wanted those dark scenes of hide-and-seek amongst the fog).

We needed more of Caitlyn's development. There needed to be some sort of acknowledgement about what happened in the previous act. It didn't need to be a conversation—that could wait until act 3—but we at least needed to see something, even something as small as Caitlyn carrying guilt. They had a chance to lean into certain themes here, explore the type of person Caitlyn wanted to be, and have her face who she has become, see her at her lowest. Would her mother be proud of her? Does she feel as if she's making a difference? Has she become the evil she sought to destroy? They could have brought back the 'what are you shooting for?' line, which would have been a nice touch. Just anything to sow the seeds of her development.

Also, does Mel not question how she survived a torpedo to the fucking back without a scratch? Cause I sure as hell am.

But all that being said, act 2 was still decent.

And fuck did I cry when Isha said her goodbyes. That hurt. Like, a fucking lot. Looking forward to whatever emotional hell they have prepared for us in the final act.

[evelyn-allright]

I'm bored so I drew the beta designs of the weevils

Basically, I found the sketches I drew back at January 2023, the earliest idea of these guys.

they had no color on them so I just imagine what it would've been. I found what type of weevils they could've been except for the very obvious ones. I honestly forgot about these designs until a few months back after I made the final designs for the characters. Even forgot the names so basically I just started off a new leaf since these designs weren't going anywhere. What I can remember with the early idea for the weevils was still a adventure story but it would've been more lore-focused. Like very story-focused. it would've like they were the only creatures around a human world rather than the bugworld in the final story. It would've been like the-creature-of-the-week rather than the treasure, and heavy lore tying the whole story together. I forgot but like it didn't worked out like as intended. I only wrote 2 manuscripts before deciding to give up and go back to the idea 8 months later. If this continued, yeah it would've been a massive lore dump and there would've a massive conflict somewhere in the lines. Overall, I just lost interest with this version of the story As for the characters, Rita (Vee's First Design) is the leader. There's her partner Kinsley, The bag guy. Literally just the guy who carries the stuff, I don't believe I actually considered his character. Madelyn (Liz's First Design) would've ended up being a antagonist and backstab them at some point. The Hudsons were step-siblings, I thought it would be fun to write siblings in the mix but I realized that I already am writing like a sibling type relationship with the characters. Yeeeeah, I think it was best that I scrapped this idea. It wasn't structurally sound and when writing the two manuscripts. It didn't felt like this was it, yknow. As of writing this, The first story for the weevils is finished however I'll release it at June since I have been given a shit-ton of schoolwork. At least during the time of that, I've been writing the second story. I wish I could publish it sooner but like there isn't alot of freetime for me to properly publish it. I'll post mini-comics to my instagram, making them to build more character into these goobers Like always, I'm just talking to myself. Nobody cares about this Have great day, Adios

[am-i-sans]

dnd adventure 16

we spent sometime talking about the logistics of fucking a talking sword

cam goes to eeby deeby and inferno comes out. undyne punches him in the face lol.

we let the mayor know we killed the dragon and he tells the town. mayors kid said theirs a beast of some sort in the woods so were gonna go kill it!

undyne,suzy, frog and tori got fuckin lost lol. dans and inferno corral them cause good lord undyne is punching trees.

2 shambling mounds? gotta free the person!

crit 31 damage from me FINALLY!

we STILL dont see frogs new dagger. dammit moss show meeeee!!!

tori keeps getting hit for rookie numbers lol.

undyne did 29 damage jebus. plus 12 to hit my ass.

frog can FINALLY use the dagger! the guitar solo from bohemian rhapsody? what? dagger of guitar solos?! wtf.

undyne finally kills viney! she saves the dude!

used my hammer to smack the other guy cause yay new weapon!

frogs dagger is now playing freebird help me.

tori learns! she moves out of the way of everyone to use lighting bolt! IT HAS LIGHTNING ABSORPTION YOU KILLED US!

i got hit! so did frog! bazinga. so i slapped it with my boomerang.

(i am once again reminded i murdered the music bot on accident ;-;)

(also raz was so fuckin mad it didnt die in the big hit he did lol)

undyne finally kills it! freedom! LEVEL UP!

got a new spell poggers. frog learned eldrich blast ;-; and fireball xD

going back to tell the mayor that the monster is real!

im going to sell my shit. frog is doing band stuff. undyne and tori are going drinking and forcing inferno around. suzy is being secretive?!

inferno is gambling lol. and i got fuckin loaded selling my shit yeasssss like over a thousand gold *dab* inferno is doing blackjack. he won.

sharing some ale with undyne. inviting tori for some drinking. just some wholesome bonding. dans reassures tori and undyne hes not upset about what happaned. tori contemplates her lighting and hurting others. undyne works her anger out.

we notice suzy isnt back yet. dans passes notes to undyne and tori telling them about the money and to not tell inferno and then eats the notes.

susie found a cave where their family stayed when she was a kid. SUSIE LORE! we go visit the cave. its just a bare cave. her family was an actual pack of fuckin wolves. humans kidnapped her when she got near a town. she stole an axe and escaped. met a bear. lived with her. kidnapped by elves. joined hyenas but they sucked so she left. went solo. mt cave. (cam popped into chat in the middle of this lol) dragon lair. ate her whole. chewed her way out. stomped on its head until it died. met frog and tori and lived near the woods by them.

cams no longer in eeby deeby! and is fuckin freaked at suzys background. 'dragons can be killed?!' lol

we see a flyer about a festival in a city a few days travel away! midsummer festival! party! we get on soupnik!

we see a burnt down town! oh no! undyne was supposed to roll a history but got a 3 lol. tori ALSO knows this place hmmmm sus. thankfully frog calls tori out lol.

tori lore finally! she used to live here :( her mother made 'a poor decison' made a pact and got everyone killed. including her siblings. everyone hug the tori!

to be continued~

[barrenrawstliesbleeding]

Hi! I’m Fox!

Fox Lore Speedrun? Ran away from home, was raised by a zoroark, ate raw meat, joined Interpol when I was ten, lost my zoroark parent at sixteen, gained a team of pokemon that I would commit crime for, Gained a discord server I’d fly across the ocean for, moved to Unova, quit Interpol, moved in with my dad Norman and my sibling Isla @darktypetrauma (Hi Isla!!), found out I never actually worked for Interpol, finally grieved for all I lost, started healing, and now I’m here!

My gender is like. Zoroark. I’m a zoroark and my sense of self is ever changing. My pronouns are she/her they/them it/its paw/paws pup/pups fluff/fluffs bite/bites pounce/pounceself ♥️/♥️s 🔅/🔅s and I’ll probably collect more.

My Pokémon! Oh, my babies!

Grapple the braviary. I’ve used she/her for her since I met her and she’s fine with it… apparently braviary are all male but she doesn’t care, so?

Storm the Hisuian Samurott- I was raising this guy because scientists wanted to see how a hisuian Pokémon raised by one human as opposed to a team would develop. That’s why I was stationed in Sinnoh for a year. Which allowed me to meet a lot of other Pokémon too! Storm is a big softie, he doesn’t really battle but he likes being around in the same room as family.

Crumb Cake the riolu that hates everything. He’s my friend my buddy! Well. Not really. I rescued him from a hording situation and for months and months I made no progress. He hated me, he hated my other pokemon. But then I found a stray glameow, and then an egg, and he started opening up. Now he lets me touch him, and even if he doesn’t like any other people he let me take him to the Pokémon center and. He’s a level 64 riolu. I don’t know how he got that strong but for now I’m learning how to battle so he can get his energy out safely!

Crime the Weaville. I met him when he stole my knife. Nowadays he has a prop knife and settled down with…

Punishment the Sneasler. She’s pretty mellow, and adjusted really well to modern life. She’s one of two Pokémon I ended up with while helping investigate a shady hisuian revival group.

Virtute the Hisuian Zoroark. They’re my baby. Named after Virtute the purrloin explains her departure. They were verrrry scared to be in modern times at first, but slowly, slowly, they’ve adjusted. Nowadays they’re interested in battling! And they evolved!!!

Pudding the glameow. I found her when she was probably a few weeks old, and she’s part of why Crumb settled down. She’s verrry close to the other little ones, including

Madoka the togepi! I found her egg in the snow on a walk, had a breakdown, ran barefoot in the snow to the nearest Pokémon center, and took care of the egg. She’s a cute little baby who likes blowing razz berries at the people she loves.

Blossom and Breeze the hisuian growlithe. Adopted from the shelter my long lost twin’s mom works at. Breeze is bigger and he has a twisted paw, Blossom is smaller and she’s higher energy

Lake the shiny zoroark. Yeah so one night I was trying to bully uncle Emmet and found him in the woods. It wasn’t him. Lake needed medical care and used illusions to lure me to it. I took them to a center and they followed me home. They don’t have a pokeball.

Cheri and Sitrus, drakloak and her dreepy. Cheri crawled into my tent while camping, made me throw it until it brought back a second, shiny dreepy, Sitrus. Cheri evolved, and Sitrus sits on her head!

I’m a cane user, and. I guess? I count as disabled? I was in a cave in, and injured and that injury gets in the way of. Normal living. And that’s what disabled means. I’m still coming to terms with it but it’s the truth.

(OOC: blanket “pretending a fictional media is real” warning for this blog. Main blog is @stormcloudsandshadows so I’ll follow back from there.)

[ssaltbending]

Ok, guys, hear me out: Zuko is a Capricorn, Katara is a Cancer —and here’s why (it would be so poetic).

Part 1: Zuko

TW: explicit mentions of child abuse.

I know this statement might seem weird and out of place, but in the last couple weeks I’ve been digging a lot into astrology and, in order not to forget my roots, I thoroughly felt the need to combine both of my most recent obsessions in one post, given that this headcanon hasn’t been able to leave my mind ever since I came up with it: if we applied astrology to the Avatar world, I’m sure Cancer and Capricorn would be Katara and Zuko’s signs, respectively. And I don’t say this in a superficial way, just by looking at zodiac memes and associating Katara with the crybabies Cancers are portrayed as or saying Zuko is a Capricorn buzzkill as people who know astrology on a surface level would assume they are —those are some of the most common stereotypes about the signs. No, I’m saying that they embody those signs on an archetypal leve: in the way their stories, especially Zuko’s, resemble the myths that originate the zodiac signs and their respective traits.

Therefore, without further ado, let me explain.

The Capricorn archetype: the sins of the father...

As any casual astrology enthusiast may probably know, the sign of Capricorn is connected to qualities such as perseverance, integrity, resilience and ambition, typically treated as the CEO or boss of the zodiac. However, the sign itself has a richer and much more complex story as we look at the deities it is associated with as well as the planet that rules it: Saturn, linked to the Roman god of the same name and the greek gods Cronus, Zeus, Hestia and Pan. Some astrologers choose Cronus as Capricorn’s patron god and others prefer his children, but that can be explained very easily.

The myth goes like this: Cronus, a giant and father of what we would know as some of the main greek gods (Hestia, Demeter, Hades, Poseidon, Hera and Zeus), was actually the son of Uranos, who he subverted thanks to the advice of his mother Gaia to use an agricultural tool to kill him. But as time went by and Cronus had started having children with his partner, Rhea, the fear of his descendants becoming stronger than him and doing the same thing he had done to his father took over him, which led to his decision of swallowing them all whole. He started with Hestia all the way back to Zeus, whom he couldn’t swallow right after he was born, unlike his other children, because this time Rhea had hid him in the island of Crete to protect him from his father. To deceive him, Rhea then covered a rock in cloth to make it resemble a baby for Cronus to eat it, thinking that it was a newborn Zeus.

Time passed and Zeus grew stronger until he was ready to confront his father and save his siblings from his womb, and when he finally did it, he managed to force Cronus into disgorge them one by one, in the reverse order they had been swallowed —which left Hestia as the last sibling to be disgorged.

After that, Zeus was left with a prophecy, where he would also be possibly overthrown by a son of his. And after Métis, the woman he was told would bear said child, gave birth he swallowed the newborn whole just like Cronus had done with his brothers and sisters. The child in question, however, started giving him headaches as it grew older and bigger inside of him and would become the goddess we know as Athena. What Zeus did with her was the repetition of a cycle perpetuated by his forefathers, a cycle of abuse and trauma that seems inescapable. What this part of the duality of the Capricorn archetype shows one of the ways in which those ideas of tradition and legacy can be carried on (a very negative one, to be honest), but that’s not the only way they can manifest, which gives the archetype this… almost cinematic quality, in my opinion. (And if we take this into account, I might headcanon Azula as a Capricorn rising due not only to the archetypal coincidences but the overall mastermind outlook she has and how much of a natural, domineering and calculating leader she is, but that’s besides the point.)

Now, let’s talk about the other side of the archetype, which gives it this incredible dual quality: Hestia’s path. Unlike her brother Zeus, Hestia was the one who not only had been devoured by her father, but she had spent the most time inside him as well. This is often associated with the emotional isolation many Capricorns experience in their youth, the lack of warmth and love by one of their parents, along with the desire not to become the abusive parent they were exposed to. Hestia is the other side of the story, the unspoken leader of the Olympians, the one who broke the toxic cycle running in her family for generations, vowing to become an eternal virgin and protector of the earth. Besides, Hestia means “hearth”: the inner fire, the one that is never allowed to go out.

(art by @elisebrave​)

That is the soul of the Capricorn archetype: the crossroads of destiny, the moment when the child decides whether to become like their parents, or forge their own path like Hestia did. Do you guys see what I see now? Are the similarities clear enough?

As my dear friend @persephobeee​ points out in her Capricorn essay (a crucial source for this one): “The Capricorn archetype is a cycle of stuck parents putting stress on their children at such a young age so then their kid ends up making money in retaliation, but then treat their kids the same as well due to the lack of warmth and freedom they had in their own childhood. The intense pressure put onto them as a child [then] leads to isolation and depression. It’s a cycle. ‘I don’t want to be my parent, but also… how they have ruined me’. The chain can continue with Zeus (projecting sorrows and nightmares onto their own children) or it could break with Hestia (the path of love, light and protection).”

This is why Capricorn’s planetary ruler, Saturn, is also associated with ideas found in this myth: restriction, limitation, order, boundaries, leadership, responsibility… pretty much dad vibes, to be honest. Do you guys see what I see or do I have to dig deeper?

“But isn’t zuko a firebender?? Why would he be an earth sign??”, you may ask.

The way that I might be making headcanons about the Gaang’s western zodiac signs isn’t gonna be based on which element they bend, because that would be quite reductive and restrictive for me as an astrology junkie, but their similarities to each sign’s archetype and overall characteristics. And yes, I do see Zuko as an earth sun, but that wouldn’t be his only sign, there is also the moon and the rising sign, which also have an important impact on the individual. In my opinion, Zuko’s personality embodies the qualities of fire signs as well: competitiveness, drive, passion, impulsiveness and loyalty. But to me those qualities are better shown in his character through his moon sign: an Aries moon, to be specific. See those anger outbursts? The “I don’t need any [fucking] calming tea!!”? The “you never think these things through”? Aries moon behavior, right there. But I’m not going to focus on moon signs right now. Let’s get back to the behavior I am the most well-versed at: Capricorn behavior.

So, the sign of Capricorn is also a cardinal sign, a leader, since they are the ones that begin each season. In the Northern Hemisphere, Capricorn season starts right on the winter solstice, and the opposite happens in the South. However, since all the astrology lore comes from the North thanks to the Greeks, Babylonians and more, the seasonal connections are related to the seasons there. As a consequence, Capricorn is the cardinal sign that brings the coldest, darkest season of the year: winter. And incorporating that into Zuko’s character would be incredibly fitting, in my opinion, because of some stuff I’ve read here on Tumblr saying that making him being born during the coldest time of the year would make it a terrible omen for a firebender, worse in this case due to him being born into the royal family, symbols of the power and “supremacy” of the Fire Nation. The fact that he would be born in winter, if we follow this reasoning, would have made him seem as a disappointment to his father ever since birth. 

… or maybe I’m just cruel, guys.

Moreover, I think Zuko embodies many of the Capricorn qualities in the way he carries himself (because no, not all Capricorns are confident managers with the world in our hands) and how hard he has to work to earn everything he gets. A key part of what this sign represents is “the path of hardships the goat has to overcome in order to reach the top of the mountain”, which along with the myth I have described before, could easily be applied to Zuko. It describes values of endurance, hard work, discipline and drive in order to achieve your goals, something that can be seen in Zuko all throughout the series, but changes its focus as the seasons go by. Besides, uhm… have you guys seen “The Day of Black Sun, Part 2”? That is literally the positive outcome of the Capricorn myth made into animation: the confrontation between an abusive father figure and his abused child who has decided to part ways with him in order to become a better person.

On another note, I think it is important to highlight how the Capricorn in Zuko could be seen based on how the rest of the Gaang treats him as well when he changes sides and he’s accepted into the group. How?, you may be wondering: as a father figure, but in a positive way. In many scenes it can be noticed how he naturally takes a position of leadership within the group as well as he takes care of the younger members such as Aang and Toph but, especially in Aang’s case, tries to ground them and teach them. As examples, take the following: Zuko reminding Aang that soon he will have to face the fact that he might have to kill Ozai, him trying to get everyone to train when the comet is about to arrive; how when Aang gets lost, it is him the one people look to in order to lead the group, etc.

Another thing that is well-known in Capricorns is our resilience and perseverance and, honestly: do I even need to explain that? When it comes to the guy who would get his ass beaten again and again and again for one season straight in order to get what he wanted which would also give him the approval of his father, what he craved most? It screams earth sign behavior to me, but with a heavy saturnian influence due to Zuko’s background which, to me, can be quite an interesting reflection of the Saturn/Cronus myth with his children. Said tenacity could also be exacerbated by the willpower and energy brought by the possibility of him having a fire moon, I don’t know, think about it. I stick to that headcanon.

That perseverance can also be seen when it comes to Zuko’s firebending, given how much he’s always trying to improve his skills. Although it could be argued that in reality he’s doing so due to the expectations put on him to be a proficient bender just like his sister in order to be accepted by his father, and his constant training to the point of exhaustion is just a manifestation of that toxic behavior. I am sorry to tell you, but that’s textbook Capricorn behavior, associated with the symbolism of the hardworking goat in general: working the hardest in order to get what you want is always on-brand when it comes to important Capricorn placements, and in my opinion Zuko is no exception.

Final thoughts.

Anyway, what I think would be most relevant is what I mentioned before about the Capricorn archetype and how it could tie in nicely to Zuko’s character arc with him as a representation of Hestia, who could grow out of the abuse she experienced and got a chance not to make her father’s mistakes and break that horrendous cycle she had been a victim of. I would go into this more deeply, but I think it has been enough for now. However, I’ll be back soon with a part two, talking about my water queen Katara. What do you think about this headcanon? Do you agree? If not, why? 

Thanks for coming to my weird-ass TedTalk at 1am. I needed to vent and I haven’t been able to put the computer down since 9pm, I literally only stopped to eat, lol.

See you soon, 

a Capricorn sun.

[incorrectlumityquotes]

FULL REVIEWS: “Adventures in the Elements”

So you guys already know the whole story of how the episode aired in another country and all that jazz and I’ll be honest I’m totally one of those people who decided to watch it anyway.

It was an Amity episode! The temptation was too great. 

I’m going to do a fave five episode list after I’m done with these reviews so I don’t want to spoil it but this episode is probably going to be number one or two. I almost didn’t have to watch the episode to review. That’s how often I’ve watched this one. 

I’ve already said how much I love the cold openings for this show. Not only do they set up the start of the plot, but they also have some of the best jokes in the episode. 

“Hey, freeloaders!” If I ever have kids, that’s how I’ll greet them whenever I enter a room.

Luz is excited to start Hexside but Eda is more excited about her latest batch of human garbage. She dreaming of all the cool things she’ll get to do until she remembers that she has to meet Amity to get her Azura book back. Nice of Luz to lend her the book for four or five episodes. Big brain no count right now.

Luz meets up with Amity and we get the best kind of prize: a surprise. The twins are back! According to Amity, they’ve been trying to make up for what happened in Lost in Language. It’s good to know that the twins know the difference between humiliating your sister and almost getting her killed. Hooray for values I guess.

Another reason I really like this scene is because we get to see Amity really try her best to be friendly to Luz. She’s been antagonistic in every previous episode, so this is the first time we see her try to be friendly to Luz. We get to see Friendly Amity and Friendly Amity is more...protective than I expected her to be.

“Edric, Emira! Stop bothering her.”

Her raised brow and tone of voice also tells me that she was NOT expecting Luz to enroll in Hexside for the next semester. She’s really putting effort to be nice and helpful to Luz. I don’t think I’m wording it right, but I hope you get what I mean. Since Luz made the first move to making their relationship better Amity feels like she would do the same. Sorry, baby girl but that’s a slippery slope that you’re about to slide off in a few episodes. ;)

Amity the one who has to tell Luz that classes at her level require a placement exam and mastery of two spells and Luz remembers that we haven’t done a lot of magic learning in a show about learning magic.

Luz confronts Eda about it, but Eda doesn’t really care until Luz takes advantage of her pride. Eda decides it’s time for magic boot camp and that idea sets off King’s B-plot. Eda takes Luz to The Knee!

So powerful, it defeated John Cena. See if you were a wrestling fan you would have found that hilarious.

According to Eda, early witches came to the knee to develop their magic due to its strong natural magical energy. It’s times like this that remind you that everyone is living on a giant corpse. For kids!

But they’re not alone. The Slitherbeast also lives in the knee, but it won’t mess with you until the third act. And there’s also...

“I’m trying to beat Ed and Em’s highest score on the exam.”

We get more insight into Amity and the Twins. Even though we saw that in Lost in Language the twins were troublemakers who cut class, Amity still has to train to match their score. So Amity has to really work hard to get to the top while the twins (who before this had always given Amity a hard time) are naturally very talented. This actually explains so much about Amity’s freak-out back in Covention. I’m guessing that Amity doesn’t think that’s fair but it’s the hand she’s stuck with.

Luz continues to use the laziest plot device in all of fiction and lies about knowing powerful spells. Luz sees Amity training with a cool wand and Eda does this:

Even the twins have concerns.

Eda’s training does remind me of some philosophy I’ve been studying. What I took from the scene is that Eda does believe that magic should be wild and natural. It’s why she tells Luz to study rocks and eat snow (stay AWAY from the yellow snow). She’s trying to tell Luz that magic comes from the island. It comes from nature. Like The Force from STAR WARS. It flows freely from nature; that’s why she calls it wild magic.

Eda definitely prefers it over using Amity’s “wack training wand.” She probably sees things like that and The Emperor’s coven system as ridged, manufactured and other words that mean fake. Even the wand looks like it’s battery powered. 

Luz, however, is still an impatient kid. She wants to listen to Eda, but her lessons seem odd and Amity’s training looks more like what she was expecting. So Luz pulls another lazy plot device that I’m surprised they don’t more in a show with Eda in it: stealing.

Meanwhile in the B-plot, King wants to do his own boot camp but has no one to do it with. Except Hooty but he says nuts to that noise. King uses Eda’s potion to bring the toys to life. Unfortunately for him, King gets more Chucky than Toy Story.

Luz steals Amity’s book and training wand and can do magic! Eda catches her and they get into a little argument before Luz launches a fireball and hits the only other creature that has been introduced on The Knee. What are the odds?

The Slitherbeast gets so pissed he grabs Eda and the twins. Amity decides to try to go help them and traps Luz in a barrier. 

“You’ll only get hurt.”

Amity is angry with Luz for taking her stuff and putting her siblings in danger, but she’s still putting the effort to be nicer to Luz. Even so this is were we first see the seeds of her crush. It’s not a full blown crush yet but there is a change in her behavior. It’s starting but it’s so small even Amity hasn’t noticed yet.

The B-plot has some of my favorite Hooty moments that really made me laugh out loud.

Back to the main plot (that I don’t have shots of. Come on, Owl House wikia) Luz is stuck in the barrier Amity put up an notices that the stars make the shape of the light glyph. Luz figures out that magic in The Boiling Isles comes from nature because here magic is nature. Since magic can not come from her, it has to come from the island. Even the snowflakes are all tiny individual ice glyphs. 

Luz uses her newfound knowledge with Amity to free Eda and the twins and put the Slitherbeast to sleep. 

And the episode ending is just...just great. 

“I’ll be haunted by my actions forever. Hoot.”

FINAL SCORE: 5 - Loved it.

This is my favorite episode so far. I really want to finish watching all the other episodes before I decide if this is my favorite ever but it’s up there. Like top three. We get worldbuilding, character building, jokes, lore, Amity, Hooty, Twins. It’s fun and meaningful. The revelation that magic comes from the island is something that I know is going to mean a lot to the main plot later but we’ll have to wait and see.

The B-plot here is one of my favorites because I just love Hooty and his weirdness. Every choice they make with him is hilarious. And after this we really get into the lumity zone. Stick around.

[mrpenguinpants]

I am a firm believer that Childe is indeed younger than Keqing and has no form of respect for her regardless.

It’s moreso a form of me establishing that the Keqing is a short adult in her mid to early twenties who has to inevitably deal with the constant neck pain she gets from having to look up at her co-workers just to make eye contact. She curses either herself for it for never growing an inch or curses everyone around her or, well, both. Regardless, she can occassionally be found in her office stomping the floor and feeling like the battle is her against the world LMAO

As a side note, I loved the little headcanons of the boys as children you included! It was a different thing that would’ve never came to mind otherwise. While I’m totally ride or die on the “four men accidentally hire themselves a babysitter and a daily slander machine (she does it out of love)” train, I do appreciate different variations to the idea.

Oh and seeing myself on the anon list makes me feel a bit warm, it feels like I’m being acknowledged as family for crashing this wonderful blog with brainworms lmaooo— on a much serious note, I really appreciate hearing me out whenever I have an idea or two to share.

Sincerely, Keqing harem brainrot anon

(I felt like using a dash was too orthodox, and these are basically my mini love letters to you for being an overwhelming amount of seretonin, so I figured why not give it a little twist)

Minor Spoilers for Character Backgrounds

I wrote some more on this here: Genshin: Royalty AU HCs

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FUCKING CATCH ME CRYING IN THE CLUB AS I HOLD THIS PRECIOUS ASK IN MY HANDS. I THOUGHT YOU DIED. I WAS SO UPSET. REMEMBER THAT ANON ASK THAT I JUST REPLIED TO WHERE ANON FELT LIKE THEY WERE COMING HOME? THAT. THAT IS HOW I FEEL RN.

Yes. I know anons have lives outside of tumblr. Am I a parent penguin now? Yes. Yes I am. I’m fucking crying, it does feel like I’m seeing my family again.

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Out of all the “adult” genshin characters, I firmly believe Childe is the youngest. He is just hovering that adult status because of his height. Can I also say how much I love that the “culturally insensitive white boy” idea came from people on twitter getting tired of Chili fanart where Childe calls Zhongli “sensei” even tho the mans Chinese? 

Speaking of short people, and because I will never shut up about this, XIAO IS 5′2. Ty for coming to my ted talk. I can literally astral project and visualize Zhongli being Keqing’s boss or co-worker that’s super respectful - but lowkey a bit slow because he keeps forgetting his wallet and Keqing is too nice to leave him without lunch - but when he’s spitting facts about the ancient art of ink blocks she’s cursing him in her mind. Why is this man so tall?? She can feel the neck muscles in her neck crying out in pain that when she finally relaxes and stares forward rather than upward, she get’s a killer cramp and ends up dying on the floor (I HATE THAT FEELING BTW). She’s out here googling ways to grow taller after puberty and chugs milk cartoons like it’s air. 

This is why I absolutely love sharing ideas with others. There is so much food to be brought to the table so I always try and encourage others to share their ideas. Plus it let’s me get my over-active brainworms out haha. 

I just love the dual personality of younger vs older genshin characters. We got to see a little bit of young Diluc in the manga (pls..I know it’s completed but crumbs. I beg of you) where he was this starry eyed and friendly knight attitude. Actual sweetheart. Your typical childhood boy next door type of vibe that was sweet and polite but was a lot smarter than he looked. He has a pet turtle (or tortoise?) and I find that so cute. I can totally see Diluc being hard working to make his father proud but also slacks hard and watches his turtle awkwardly eat a strawberry most of the time haha. He would both die for his turtle and go to war for it. Honestly, I just love the idea of child Diluc being a bit of a slacker compared to his older self, who is trying to speed run his life.  

As for Kaeya, I’m going to say this now. I fully believe in the art of shy and quiet Kaeya when he was a child. It makes sense in terms of the lore since he was basically shoved into an unknown world and all alone. Poor guy probably has a lot of insecurities and is super standoffish to happy and loud children his age. He might come off as rude but he just doesn’t know how to socially interact. As sad as this may sound, he probably mimics other children as his way of expressing emotions. Since he spent most of his time with Diluc, he probably tried to mimic Diluc’s mannerism to try and fit in but Diluc is smart and caught on. It was actually a really wholesome connection of Diluc trying to help Kaeya express himself rather than copying others. Until well, the incident that separated them. 

Complete side note since I know we’re talking about a modern au but: I know I’m stretching this super thin and this doesn’t hold up in the lore at all but I really like the idea that Kaeya is secretly the Prince of Khaenri’ah and Khaenri’ah is a code word for the Abyss. This is basically me saying I want the Abyss mages and Kaeya to actually get along but due to moving in with Diluc’s family and the world’s view on monsters. He has to talk and play with them in secret. I think it’s kinda cute haha. 

As for Childe, actual angel. Have you seen Teucer? Who is this pure innocent soul and what the FUCK happened to create this Grade A Brat? He got too many vitamin gummies and became a gorilla. I mean, both younger and older Childe would walk an old lady across the street but only older Childe would then try to 1v1 the old lady. I’m actually crippled by the idea that Childe used to be this scrawny kid that decided to bulk up due to deep insecure attitudes towards himself or protection ideas for his younger siblings. Fighting became a need to survive and he hated it at first until he met his Master and found the fun in it because it was his way of having control of a situation. Though of course, while this man has two braincells, he’s still sensible. Childe may be a clown but he’s a good big brother. 

Then there’s Zhongli. In my mind, he was basically like Kaeya. Probably came from royalty as well. He didn’t know how to express himself except his boy was actually hollow. A complete husk of a person that was just doing what he was told to absolute perfection. That was until Guizhong, who I completely headcanon as someone older than Zhongli and acts as a sister figure (fucking fight me), grew concerned for this poor child and tried her best to teach him how to have fun. That there was life outside his studies and duties. While it didn’t work out perfectly and Zhongli is still a bit slow on the uptake, he genuinely is thankful to her and her help. I can see him have a little notebook of all her advice and teachings - heck, drawings of human emotions - that he sometimes has to turn to because he’s lost. (why..do i keep making Zhongli’s part so sad). 

BUT ASIDE FROM MY BRAINWORMS. “Four men accidently hire themselves a babysister and a daily slander machine” IS SUCH A CONCEPT. I want them all to have the worst habits. Childe LICKS the yogurt peel in front of Keqing slowly because he knows it absolutely disgusts her, Zhongli eat’s his sandwiches vertically, Diluc blends coffee with 5 hours energy and doesn’t tell anyone (so everyone has the worst hangover 3 hours later because they all leech off each other), and Kaeya, for the love of god, cover your tit window. It’s too early to get arrested for public indecency. 

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I’m happy my anon list made you feel fuzzy 💕💕. I’m probably missing a lot of anons on that list because I have the memory of a goldfish so I just listed the ones I could remember. Since you know, you’re some of the few that came back to talk to me which I honestly really appreciate. I know you all have lives outside of this small blog so it does make me really happy seeing you all come back. I’ve mentioned it before but don’t be afraid to chat with me about anything, doesn’t even have to be genshin^^ but I absolutely love the stuff you come up with. 

I never thought of an anon list acting like a family acknowledgement (more as a literal list) but I’m fully on board with that. I went back to my older anon asks to see if I missed anyone (and I probably have since the tumblr search tag is garbage) but I hope they are all still around on this blog and wanna drop by to say hi^^ 

I’m going to go change my anon list to pengu family because holy fuck that’s cute. But with that said, 

Welcome back home keqing harem brainrot anon!

[electronicdelusionstarlight]

In a way the whole "Izuku is the Dragonborn" fic would need to leave most of the backstory of Izuku the 4-14 years old dragon slayer on luck or Inko doing all the work while Izuku is, like, put in a position of safety (he still needs to eat dragon souls tho, same for Miraaks... How would that work even?) So I might need to move things around a bit.

Basically here's the backstory on all major shit:

Helgen: Inko and Izuku run away with Hadvar. They are not scheduled for execution because, you know, Hadvar might not go out of his way for a stranger but there is a small kid involved, younger than his cousin dammit, way younger than your usual Stormcloak Child Soldier Conscript from Dawnstar (an actual canon thing believe it or not) so he puts his foot down. In the keep Hadvar does most of the work obviously, even if Inko does, in her desperation, cut down people getting dangerously close to Izuku. She is a better lockpick than she expected, especially with her Quirk, and Izuku in his curiosity ends up pawing off the book and a strange, mysterious ring inside the Mage's cell. They then go to Riverwood with Hadvar, where they are directed to both Farengar and the College for matters regarding magical space travel, so to speak.

Riverwood: However, they are pennyless and alone in a foreign world, so Inko tries first to make money by working at the local lumber mill as she sends a courier to Whiterun for the Dragon Thing. Assume we are playing with my modded version of the game, which means Riverwood is currently the home of one Triss Merigold from the Witcher. She is also spacially displaced as of late, and is searching for Yennefer, Ciri and Geralt, with whom she jumped into this reality before getting lost from them. Dorthe and Frodnar will direct the small Izuku to her, since Dorthe is the one "babysitting" Izuku while his mother works so he's playing with the slightly older kids. Basically, they know she is a mage of some sort since she showed them some sort of light show, and Inko still needs to make money if she wants to leave with the proper equipment so they can't even go to Farengarym yet.

This allows us to 1) Set up the Triss Merigold X Midoriya Inko endgame and NO I AM NOR FUCKING STUTTERING and 2) Give Inko a competent bodyguard of sorts before she actually does get used to the unforgiving land of Skyrim and starts giving people heart attacks with her Quirk.

Of the Major Guilds:

Companions: Inko Joins as a way to make money for Izuku. With the mercenary work she manages to buy the house in Whiterun, so now Izuku can be left in a safe location, with "Aunt" Lydia as his babysitter. Whiterun Shenanigans ensue with Izuku befriending Lucia and Lars. Also Braith but, like, after lots of character development. Lucia is obviously the first to be adopted.

Inko is the one who becomes a werewolf and the Harbinger in the end, Izuku is not involved in this Storyline outside of some encounters with "Aunt" Aela and "Uncles" Vilkas and Farkas. Inko renounces her condition in the end.

College of Winterhold: They move to winterhold together since Farengar can't help them. Izuku is actually a quick study, as exemplified to that one spell book he found in helgen that thought him within seconds how to shoot lightning from his hands, much to his mother's worry. He ends up killing a bandit in self defense that way when he's barely 5. It was either do that or let them get to his mom.

Anyway, Inko is enrolled, but so is Izuku, the two now living on College Grounds. Triss is also there as an honorary lecturer. Anyway, Whe most of the adventuring is still done by Inko, is Izuku who receives the visit of the Psijic Order and, ultimately, he is the one to kill Ancano and close the eye of Magnus. Inko becomes Archmage still, even if she tries her hardest to have Toldfir step up instead.

The way Izuku kills Ancano is actually more based on guile than actual magical prowess. He is the only one not paralyzed in the boss fight, so what he does, is grab one of J'Zargo experimental Scrolls, summon a Skeleton Minion (Oblivion spell he was recently taught so to have someone protecting him in times of crisis), and then run with it against Ancano, too busy as he is being a megalomaniac, suicide bombing himself. He survives, but only thanks to the Restoration Professor quick intervention as Ancano dies and the paralysis falters.

Restoration magic did save the day in the end.

J'Zargo, who is usually aloof and snarky over his experiments, is actually horrified his rival's son almost got killed because of him, so he pledges he will do everything in his power to find a way to help them with their issue. He is a great magician after all, and his class is one of the brightest to date, they can find a way out for them.

Dragon War: Since all they can do now is wait for the College, Inko returns to Whiterun with Izuku and Triss, but on the way the watchtower is attacked, Mirmulmir is slain, and Izuku absorbs his dragon soul. This jumpstarts the events of Skyrim, with Izuku and Inko having to go on a pilgrimage to High Hrothgar to better understand what is happening to her son, who is now terrified of talking least he blew his mother apart with his voice.

A 5 years old kid makes a poor warrior, so the Greybeard offer to train him for his destiny, but Inko refuses. They don't need her son to kill dragons, just to eat their souls, so what she can do, is do the actual dragon slaying, and then have Izuku eat the souls. This still forces her to bring Izuku on her adventures, which isn't ideal, but only the dragon related ones. Izuku still learns the shouts of unrelenting force and whirlwind sprint as well as Dragonrend, but is Inko the one wielding the blade.

As a side note, Paarthurnax, for once not having to deal with a 4th era Nord, can finally give the unadulterated lore of the order rather than the imperialized, akatosh centric one, which leads Izuku to grow interested in Kyne, Warrior-Widow of Shor, for how much she reminds him of his mom.

Anyway, Inko is the one doing most of the stuff, Paarthurnax isn't killed, and Izuku gets two dragon buddies, one a wise and aging mentor war criminal, the other a brash and snarky red dragon he can call with his voice.

Izuku and Inko go both to Sovengarde. Inko meets back Kodlak, but also Ysgramor, who she now recognizes as a war criminal bastard, and she is the one dealing the killing blow on Alduin. Inko, Breath of Kyne, is the one sand in the songs now, the mother of the dragonborn who delivered them from evil.

Thieves Guild: Inko also does it all, but is the start of Izuku's involvement with Daedras. Inko takes the pledge to Nocturnal, so her soul is now bound to her realm, but is her son that catches the Prince's eye. Inko also tries to reform the guild back to its old robin hood ways, with divergent results.

Explorer Guild: This is the Legacy of the Dragonborn Mod. Inko founds the explorers guild and moves to the now bigger home in the Museum in Solitude. Proudspire manor has been bought by Yennefer, now advisor to Queen Elisif, who thanks to her influence has grown more confident. Girlboss helping Girlboss prosper and all that. She lives there with husband and daughter, and there's a reunion with Triss. Usual angst about "is she going to leave me? Are our adventures over?" But Triss stays because she cares about Inko and shit.

Anyway, inko is the one doing most of the stuff here too, but she now has a big enough home to adopt more than just Lucia.

She adopts every orphan, as well as Sissel and Britte in Rorikstead after murdering their abusive father. She then kills Grelod in Riften, so to also be able to adopt the orphans at the orphanage. To do so, she catches the attention of the Dark Brotherhood since she just stolen their contact. She of course adopts Aventus Aretino too.

Dark Brotherhood: All Inko. Unlike thieves guild, Izuku isn't even aware she's doing this, since he's back in Solitude with his new siblings.

Princes:

Izuku does Sheogorath. He's playing in the streets with his siblings and the other Solitude kids, when he finds Sheogorath abandoned follower. So he sneaks in the blue palace, gets to the forbidden wing, and meets Sheogorath, the Hero of Kvatch. Does his quest since it's a pretty easy quest even for a 5 years old kid, and then gets the Wabbajack in exchange.

Inko does Sanguine. The sham marriage is actually to Triss this time, which leads to more angst obviously.

Inko also does Vaermina (destroying the staff), Dagon (Destroying the Razor), Hircine (Gets the Ring), Malacath, Namira (Saves the priest and kills the cannibals), Molag Bal (Just... Never completes his quest and leaves the bastard hanging), Boethia (sacrifices one of the two racist dudes in Windhelm after trucking him into following her), Azura (Uncorrupted Star) and Peryte.

Izuku finds Meridia's Beacon but it's Inko who does the quest.

Izuku is the one meeting Barbas and they have "A boy and his dog" adventures together before he manages to bring him back to Clavicus Vile and convince him to take him back without needing to do his quest. He gets the Mask as a Result, but also a dog in the form of Styx, the spectral wolf, another mod.

Izuku does Mephala, pretty early on too. He befriends Baalgruf's bastard son while still living in Whiterun, who tells him about the whispering door, and after a couple of deceptions he gets the blade. He never charges it tho.

While is Inko the one getting the Ogma Infinium, she can't open it, and is Izuku the one opening it and gaining the boost in knowledge, as well as becoming Herma Mora champion.

Dawnguard and Dragonborn are also done by Inko, but is Midoriya who is sent to Apocrypha when she opens a black book. There he has a odd "Older Sibling trying to murder Younger Sibling" relationship with Miraak, and is ultimately forced to see him get killed by Herma Mora. Aunt Serana becomes a permanent fixture in the house.

Bard College is done by Inko but Izuku is also part of the college now.

Most quests are done by Inko, but the misc quests that require either speech or guile are done by Izuku, especially if they involve children. This includes stuff like paying for Erik the Slayer armor in Rorikstead, or cheering up that girl in Solitude whose uncle was executed for aiding in regicide.

Speaking of which:

Civil War: Inko does it obviously, and she sides with the empire, because 1) Hadvar, 2) Baalgruf, and 3) Elisif.

And also because she went to Windhelm one time to stop a serial killer and gods she couldn't believe how racist those fuckers were.

Modded followers are obviously Inigo, Lucien and Shirley Curry, to name a few.

Forgotten City is done by Inko, Izuku is not even in the time loop. Project AHO is done by Inko and ends with her freeing the slaves and murdering every single slaver in the settlement. Most modded quest mods are done by her honestly.

Izuku obviously keeps himself up to date with his magical studies, which means around 8-10 years old he moves back to winterhold, still waiting for a way home, so J'Zargo can study him to reverse engineer his quirk, and he can learn more spells. Most of his siblings are almost of age by now too, and his mother has started calming down in her worry, since she trusts her old coursemates and teacher to keek Izuku safe...

Ok, no, she trusts Onmund and Toldfir to keep Izuku safe, in this order, but it's still more people she would trust if he started living with any of her other guilds.

Anyway, can't think of much else.

[cosmo-rider]

🍃MISADVENTURE MAY: Day #3 Precious Possession/Inventory🍃

“This is why you’re here... a book?”

“Ah ah ah—“ Agnes cut Crius off in a playful tone, wagging on of her cloven fingers at him. “Not just any book! You should remember this one.”

Crius glanced at the cover. Despite its old, torn cover, he found it vaguely familiar.

“Oh come on, don’t you remember?” The faun pressed with a small frown. “They read this to us in primary school. All the legends and lore of Unitas Libras in one overly child-safe story.”

Agnes must’ve seen the incredulous look on Crius’s face because she patted the ground next to the tree stump she had perched herself on. “Now, now, here me out, Billy Goat. I know it’s crazy, but trust me, it’s worth it.”

Crius hesitated before sitting on the ground beside her. He had forgotten how short the faun was, as they were now roughly the same height.

“I’m not sure if you remember, but there’s this one story that always caught my attention,” Agnes began excitedly as she began turning the pages rapidly. “It’s the story of Astoria— one of King Maddox’s closest consultants outside of the three main Paladins.”

“The commander who carried out the quest to unite the country even after King Maddox’s disappearance?”

“Exactly! She established the closest we had to peace between all three kingdoms with barely any bloodshed. Then she too ended up disappearing later in life during her last journey to search for the Lost King and his Paladins. Truthfully, I forgot about this story until very recently. That’s when I found this...”

She turned to a page in the book with a lose page. Yet it wasn’t a page form the book, but a folded up map. “My last crew and I found this in an old library in Lost Juvena. We were granted special access for another quest, but I found this in my research. The notes that accompanied it were from a close adviser of Commander Astoria.”

Agnes was now practically beaming with excitement. “Before her final journey, the adviser claimed she had a special, custom compass made for her that was said to point the holder in the direction of whatever the holder desired most in the world. Apparently, she didn’t actually take the compass with her. At one stop, she passed the compass to her adviser for him to hide so it never fell in the wrong hands. This map here? It allegedly leads straight to the resting place of the Compass of Astoria.”

Crius stared down at the map, his eyes moving along the dotted path. It was quite a long journey, yet at the same time it could be worse. If he were to guess, it would take a few weeks, and it went through some rather dangerous territories.

“Let’s say this is all real,” Crius began after a small pause. “Why are you telling me this? What happened to your crew you mentioned? Why didn’t you all go together?”

Agnes’s smile turned into a sheepish frown. “Well... you know I never stay in one place very long. And with something like this...”

“Agnes... you duped them, didn’t you?”

“Crius, if you met them, you’d dupe them out too! Look, when they found this, the things they were talking about doing with this power... it was just horrendous. They were talking about using it to take revenge, find loot to steal—“

“And what will you do with this power?”

The faun puffed out her chest. “Well, I certainly wouldn’t use it for revenge! I was thinking more... discovering a way to unite the Fauna.”

Despite her covered eyes, Crius could see her emotions from her tense posture and curled hooves. “You know I left to discover myself— learn about my kind. I’ve seen quite a few Fauna since I left Rooksville, and I don’t like what I’m seeing. We’re so divided, and we’ve lost respect with even cousins like Felarians. I’ve thought about this for awhile, and I wanted to do something to change this. Maybe the compass can show me the way.”

A small pause fell between them.

“And think about it,” she continued on hurriedly as if wanting to forget how personal she had gotten. “If we do find it, you can use it to find your sister! That’s what it’s original purpose was, after all— finding missing people.”

“That’s not why you came to me, though,” Crius interjected sternly. “You didn’t know about my sister until you came here. Why me?”

“Maybe I just wanted to come back and have fun with my childhood best friend. I mean, me and my crew are finished, and I don’t really have anyone else other than you... you were the closest I had to family. Besides, you know some of these areas better than I do. We can work together to get both our wishes— have an adventure together, just like when we were little! Come on, whatduya say?

“Agnes, I can’t just leave for something that might not even be real!” Crius expressed with frustration, now pushing himself off the ground. “I’m the main caretaker for the flock and my brother and sisters! Mother and father are gone, I can’t just leave them just like that!”

“What about your brother— Markus, was it? He’s just a year or two younger than you, surely he can do it. This is a once in a lifetime adventure, that could help—“

Agnes faltered and her sheepish ears flopped downward. “Ah... I’m sorry, I shouldn’t push you. I shouldn’t have said that either. At least think about it. I’ll be leaving three days from now. If you change your mind, that should be enough time to sort things out at home.”

She stood up on her hooves and forced a smile on her face. “Still, it was really good seeing you again. Thanks for listening to my ridiculous dreams. I send you and your family the best of wishes, and if you ever need me, just send me a letter.”

Agnes didn’t wait for a response as she skipped off, but without her usual skip in her step. Crius kept his gaze toward the ground, his hands churned into fists. The whole thing was ridiculous— compasses couldn’t actually find missing people... right?

He couldn’t shake the last memory he had of his sister from his head and he found his eyes squeezing shut. The event he never told Mother and Father, and he made his siblings swore never to speak of.

“What do you mean?” Markus had questioned him that night in a fright. “We have to tell someone! We have to tell—“

“Don’t you see? If we tell, they’ll know we know and they’ll come for the whole family!” Crius had snapped, but his hands were shaking as he doused the fire in the fireplace in a hurry. “What happened here stays here! That’s an order!”

But it didn’t stay there.

He carried it everyday— knowing he could’ve done something to stop it.

At least maybe now he could fix it.

🍃🌻🍃

Misadventure May prompts from uusikuuu and overuseofsparkles on Instagram!

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[s1i9d]

The Owl House, Season 2 Speculation

New Year, New Speculations! In the middle of the season, Owl House Season 2 is still over the horizon, and many fans (myself included) are clamouring for even the slightest bit of info. Whether its episode titles, how many episodes, a release date, etc. Many are excited for the prospect of Season 2, confirmed two months ahead of the series’ premiere!

Season 1 left many things unresolved, yet still found itself to be satisfying in some aspects. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does leave excitement for more episodes. This post will talk abou three main areas: character development and their anticipated arcs, the main plot introduced, and smaller side plots incorporated in Season 1.

I’m more of a casual Owl House fan, but I enjoy speculating about what is to come. So if I missed anything, let me know!

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR SEASON ONE OF “THE OWL HOUSE”

Let’s begin, shall we?

Character Development and Anticipated Arcs

Luz and Amity – Obviously one of the most exciting and anticipated arcs in a very long time, since all main character queer relationships canonically happen towards the end of the series, either as a result of censorship or queerbaiting. One good and the other not as much.) From their rough first meeting at Hexside all the way to playing on the same Grudgby team, we’ve seen their relationship naturally bloom in the first season. There’s definitely gonna be tensions with the Blight family, but that falls more under plot.

Eda and Lilith – Nothing says interpersonal drama more than a complicated sibling relationship. At the end of Season 1, Lilith shares the curse with Eda after helping them escape Belos’ imprisonment. I don’t believe that they will have a happy go-lucky relationship from the start of Season 2, but I do believe that they are on the path to bettering themselves and each other. Possibly an introduction of their parents (as introduced at the end of “Covention”) but perhaps not.

Willow & Gus – Perhaps one of the more frustrating parts of The Owl House personally. Willow and Gus have very little character development for themselves in Season 1. Other episodes that focus on them were mainly narrative devices to further develop other characters. e.g. 115 - “Understanding Willow” although being about Willow, was mainly a means to develop Amity, Luz and introduce the Blight Family drama, therefore developing Amity’s arc further rather than develop Willow herself. I think it is fine for a first season to prioritise which characters to show, and which to set up for later on. My hopes for Season 2 is that they will have their own development outside of being used to further other forefront characters. 

Main Plots Introduced

Emperor Belos

The Magic of Belos

The Refueling – In 118 - “Agony of a Witch”, when Lilith enters Belos’ chambers for the first time, we see him ragged and tiredly hunched over his throne gasping for air. To rejuvenate himself, he takes what seems to be a Palisman broken from their staff and cuts it open, revealing a green goo-like energy. He drips it into his eyes, supposedly giving him power.

Witch’s Wool Cape – The Witch’s Wool Cape is the cape that Eda made for Luz in 118 - “Agony of a Witch” and Luz is seen wearing it in 119 - “Young Blood, Old Souls”. What remains interesting about this is what Eda specifically says about it (”It repels powerful spells. Every Witch worth their salt has a cloak like this!”) and how Belos is able to use powerful magic against Luz to slam her into the wall during their fight sequence. Does this mean Belos is using a different type of magic? Or is his magic far more powerful than the Witch’s Wool can withstand?

The Titan of the Boiling Isles & Belos’ Propaganda – The Titan is technically canon and true. In Belos’ throne room, we see his throne just under a very large beating heart. However, it’s not clear if Belos in actuality is able to speak to the Titan, or if he’s trying to maintain order and rule.

The Spy of Belos – This is more of a minor plot introduced at the very end of 119 - “Young Blood, Old Souls”, but Belos speaks to Kikimora and shows a spy wearing a Palace guard uniform and a mask that somewhat resembles Hooty.

The Portal to the Human World – This remains one of the greater mysteries of Belos, as the finale shows him to want access to the human world, yet the show does not say why. Perhaps his goal is to somehow liberate the world by the actual word of the Titan, or he wants to take over the human world under the disguise of being able to speak to the Titan. Either way, it leads to the Human World being taken over by Belos.

Hexside Academy & The Mono-Coven System – The addition of Luz is interesting, as she and the other previous members of the Detention track all have multi-coven learning. Previous to that, Eda was the only real exception who was not a part of a coven and using “Wild Magic”. It leaves the question if Belos’ tolerance for a blatant disregard for his system in Hexside will be brought to light, and how he may try to enforce his rule.

Luz Noceda

The Portal & Returning Home – The only real way for Luz to return home is through Belos’ makeshift portal, since she destroyed Eda’s original portal to protect the human world from Belos.

Letters to Luz’s Mom – A big mystery is who is sending Luz’s mom the letters pretending to be her from Boring Camp in “Enchanting Grom Fright”? Theories have been swirling around of it being Eda, Emperor Belos or even a new representative in the human world with the ability to carry out Belos’ plans. The question now is if the sender is actually from the Boiling Isles, how did they send the messages? If using the portal, only Eda has the ability. Belos has lost actual access to the portal, so he isn’t a contender. The mystery looms over us.

Learning Magic & Connecting to the Boiling Isles – As of now, Luz knows four spells: Light, Ice, Plant, and Fire. She has been able to connect with the Island to use magic in her paper method, and the finale showed it was the connection to and magic of the Boiling Isles which allowed her to use the magic. There are a number of Covens and spells she has yet to learn, which also leads with her own journey to self-confidence and found family. 

Eda, Lilith & The Curse

The Curse – By the end, the curse is worsened. If not for Lilith sharing the curse with Eda, the curse would have taken over Eda and she would have been lost forever. But now with the elixir no longer working halfway through the season, they must find another way to undo the magic binding them to this transformation. 

Luz’s Paper Method of Magic – Eda and Lilith are unable to do any more typical magic using their biological functions, but Luz offers to teach them her Paper technique of using magic. Eda tries and it shows that she is able to use the Light spell at the least.

Hooty - I stan Hooty! There I said it! But this is more than just me irrationally stanning the best biord house, there’s actual interesting potential in the mythology behind Hooty. First of al,l as the titular character of “The Owl House” we know nothing about how he came into existence. We don’t know his past with Eda, nor how Eda, King and him came together. Potentially after Eda was cast as an outsider, but nothing specific yet.

The Blight Family

Amity (Personal Journey) – Amity has shown to have struggled with her family, more specifically limitation by her parents and an extent of harassment by her siblings. This would also factor in several plots, such as: Belos and the mono-Coven system, Luz and her relationship with Amity, Willow and Amity, Basha, and several other related threads. I believe that the Blight Family will appear more plot related than just simply being character focused for Amity alone.

Side Plots

These are the mini plots introduced and have yet to be touched upon again.

King’s Species of the Demons –  In 104 “The Intruder” where we first learn of Eda’s curse, King speaks of his species: a group of which we haven’t seen yet. He says their weaknesses are purified water and passive-aggressive comments. We haven’t seen any other characters quite like King, so that’s something to look forward to.

The Magical Capabilities of Luz, Willow and Gus – In 106 “Hooty’s Moving Hassle” where Luz, Willow and Gus animate the Owl House with chicken legs, Eda says at the end “...[to animate a whole house.] That would take some powerful magic.” Meanwhile showing Amity and Basha’s five-person friend group unable to conjure a doll. If Amity is shown to be an exceptionally powerful witch unable to do a conjuring spell, it leaves a question of how powerful the trio actually is...

Azura Book Club – Lumity fans know the Azura book club, a.k.a Gen-Z’s way of figuring out if people are gay. (I’m half joking here.) But the Azura Book Club was mentioned last in 112 “Adventures in the Elements” and not touched upon again. 

Mattholomule, Gus and the Human Appreciation Society (H.A.S) - This isn’t that important, but Gus has been known for being very into human mythology and lore. Mattholomule is the Leader of H.A.S, but it still remains the question if Gus is still a part of it and trying to combat Mattholomule’s ridiculous human mythos to be liked.

The Palisman – There’s quite a bit surrounding this one so it forms into two topics.

The Bat Queen – A very interesting character appearing only twice (”Lost in Language”, and “Escape of the Palisman”) before never being mentioned again for the whole season. The Bat Queen has her children, as well as the protection of the abandoned Palisman by irresponsible Witches. Luz also leaves an open-ended offer to help the Bat Queen search for her original Owner. Perhaps the Titan was the Bat Queen’s original owner, or possibly a giant before the reign of Emperor Belos since she did mention it had been far too long to remember.

Palisman of the Main Cast – With the introduction of the Palisman, it leaves the question of when Luz, Willow, Amity, and Gus will get their own Palisman and which animal they would have. Luz has been shown to have the ability to use non-paper magic when in possession of a Palisman (”Young Blood, Old Souls”), so it could prove an interesting loophole for Luz to be flexible with the methods of magic she uses.

That concludes the speculation! As these are my own thoughts and opinions, I’d love to hear your speculations! Thank you for reading!

[shirtlesssammy]

1x02: Wendigo

Then:

No Chick Flick Moments

Now:

In Blackwater Ridge, Colorado, three dudes enjoy the wilderness by gaming inside their tent. Something stalks their campsite from the shadows but the unattended fire that’s dangerously close to their flammable homes must be keeping it at bay, right? Erm, well, one dude heads out to the little boy’s room (a nearby tree) and gets snatched. 

Another one pops his head out the tent door and gets snatched as well. The third dude kills his light and watches the shadow of a very fast creature circle his tent until it slashes the side and snatches him as well. 

Palo Alto, California

Sam’s visiting Jessica’s grave. It really didn’t affect me the first time I watched this. It’s devastating to watch now though. Knowing Sam now --knowing how he doesn’t let people in, knowing how he didn’t even really let Jess in but loved her and wanted this world he could never have with her. Knowing that it’s fifteen years later and he’s had no one to really be with (Amelia was a construct of his damaged brain when forced to face the supernatural without Dean or Cas. I will not be taking questions at this time.) (But I guess he gets a blurry wife so ALLS GOOD FOR SAMMY.) He tells Jessica, “I should have protected you. I should have told you the truth.” Gah. Nothing could have saved her, and he has to go another fifteen years before he realizes this for good. 

Psych! He was actually dreaming, but I hold firm with my thoughts on the dream scene. 

Dean asks if Sam is okay. 

Sam says yes and clears his throat. Classic! Then Dean asks if Sam wants to drive for a while. GAH. Like, Dean’s looking out for his little bro in the only way he knows right now --letting him drive. 

They discuss leaving Palo Alto, and Dean points out that if they’re going to find the thing that killed Jess, they have to find their dad. He’s sending them to Colorado. Specifically to a National Forest in Lost Creek, Colorado. 

They get to the warden’s station and introduce themselves as Environmental Study majors from UC-Boulder. “Recycle, man.” Bbys. The ranger sees right through their bullshit though. He asks if they’re friends with “that Hailey girl.” Dean sees his chance to learn more and leans into it. Hayley apparently has a brother that’s on Blackwater Ridge. He isn’t technically missing but she knows something is up. 

Dean gets the brother’s camping permit. And now I need to process the next couple of lines. Sam asks if Dean wants a hook up with Hailey. Like, fuck you Sam for not knowing your brother at all, but also I guess you’re forgiven because your brother does do everything in his power to project that kind of energy. However, Dean is working the case and wants to know what they’re dealing with on this mountain. 

Dean and Sam head over to Hailey’s to ask her about her brother, Tommy. They say they’re rangers.

Hailey gets on Dean’s good side by complementing his car. Hailey tells the brothers that she feels something is wrong because Tommy checks in every day via his cell and satellite phone. Hailey’s heading out first thing in the morning to try and find him. 

Later at a bar, Sam “NERD” Winchester pulls out his extensive research on the area. People disappear on the ridge every 23 years. There was one survivor in 1959. They go to interview him. He tries to stick to the grizzly bear story, but eventually admits that they won’t believe him since no one else ever did. He said it moved fast and came into their cabin. It took his parents and left him with a horrible scar. 

The next morning, Sam and Dean meet up with Hayley, her brother Ben, and the guide, Roy. The guide is skeptical but Dean just wants to help find her brother. 

Cut to Tommy tied up in a cave. He wakes just in time to watch one of his friends get chomped to pieces by the monster. 

Dean and Roy try to out alpha each other. Roy finds a bear trap and saves Dean from a nasty injury. I’m over here wondering wtf that’s doing in the middle of a national forest. 

Hayley calls Dean out on their lack of provisions and wants to know who they are. He comes clean and tells her that they’re brothers looking for their father. But also, uh, Dean wearing jeans and boots is way more practical than SHORTS when hiking. Who wants to fuck around with ticks and poison ivy? All these years we thought Dean was just posturing about shorts when he was actually being a practical son of a bitch. 

They reach the ridge and hear absolutely nothing. Roy decides he’s going to wander off alone. Solid choice, dude. The rest stick together. Soon they hear Roy call for Hailey. They run to him. They find her brother’s destroyed campsite. They find tracks of where the bodies were dragged and Tommy’s destroyed phone.

They explore the campsite, which is torn to absolute bits. Dean tracks the struggle to just outside of the campsite, where the trail quickly grows cold. Everyone gets lured further into the woods by desperate cries for help but it gets them nowhere. When they return to the destroyed camp, Sam pulls out their dad’s journal and they use it to pinpoint the monster: it’s a wendigo. 

They hunker down for the night at the camp, and Dean protects them with Anasazi symbols drawn in the dirt. Soooooooooo in one breath you’re telling me that wendigo are found around the upper midwest / Canada, and in the next you’re telling me that the Anasazi (Southwestern/Western US) created widely-established protections against the wendigo? STARES DIRECTLY INTO THE CAMERA. The timelines! The geographic areas! Sigh...Supernatural ain’t ever had that good of a track record.

Dean tries to unpack Sam’s gourd. Sam doesn’t want to waste time hunting a wendigo when he can find their dad and hunt for what killed Jess instead. Dean holds out John Winchester’s journal like it’s a friggin’ (gags a little) bible and delivers the now-iconic line: “I think he wants us to pick up where he left off. You know, saving people, hunting things. The family business.”

Sam wants to know why John doesn’t just call his boys and give them an update - “It makes no sense.” OMG RIGHT, SAM? #JohnWinchester’sA+Parenting 

Dean tells Sam that helping other people and other families is what helps him make it through each day. We cry in Dean’s face a little, even when he immediately attempts to mask his empathy in his very next (also iconic) line: “Let me tell you what else helps. Killing as many evil sons of bitches as I possibly can.”

Pleas for help start to echo through the woods again. Roy fires indiscriminately into the trees and races after his prey, sight unseen. Hands grab him by the head and haul him up into the trees. Everyone else makes it through the night safely and Roy’s demise reminds us that toxic masculinity KILLS.

The next morning, Sam’s moodily staring at their dad’s journal while Dean chats with Haley about the hunt. 

For LOOK AT THIS BEAN Science:

We get info-dumped a truly mixed bag of lore, attributing wendigo tales to the Cree people (right region, at least!) and saying that wendigo are created by cannibalistic acts gone into overdrive. The implication here is that cannibalism equals power but alas, it also turns one into a monster. Wendigo like to squirrel away humans like nuts, so Haley’s brother might be alive and trapped for later snacking. And they can kill it! Kill it with fire. 

Cut to Dean striding through the woods with a molotov cocktail in hand. THAT’S MY BOY. They follow an easy trail of bloody claw marks along the trees. Too late, Sam realizes it was TOO EASY.  Roy’s body drops from the canopy and the group splinters as they flee. Dean and Haley get nabbed, leaving Sam and Ben to find their missing siblings. Ben finally gets some lines, alerting Sam to Dean’s breadcrumb trail of peanut M&Ms.

They head into a defunct mine. (Speak friend and enter?) Growls echo through the darkened tunnels, but Sam and Ben discover the body storage by accident when they fall through floor boards into a lower level. They discover Haley and Dean trussed up and free them. Tommy’s there too! And still alive! 

Dean finds some flare guns and they make their way out of the tunnels. Dean tries to lure the wendigo away from the siblings and Sam. All his attempts are for naught, because the wendigo tries to attack Sam, and the three siblings. It’s okay, though! Dean fires a flare gun right into its gut and it burns into embers.

Later at the ranger’s station, they spin tales to the cops about a grizzly. 

Haley thanks Dean with a gentle kiss, and Dean watches the siblings leave with a fond and wistful expression. JENSEN ACKLES YOUR FACE IS A MENACE!

The Winchesters hit the road, Sam behind the wheel of the Impala. Time to hunt some evil sons of bitches and play some classic rock!

Oh sweetheart, I don’t do quotes:

Recycle, man

Nobody likes a skeptic

I think he wants us to pick up where he left off. You know, saving people, hunting things. The family business

Man, I hate camping

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[janexeu]

     though the mist might prevent some from seeing it, JANE MÁRQUEZ is actually a descendent of HYPNOS. it’s still a question of whether or not the TWENTY-SIX year old DEMIGOD ELEMENTARY EDUCATION MAJOR from NEW ORLEANS, USA has taken after HER godly parent completely, but the demigod is still known to be quite SACRIFICIAL & STUBBORN.

( she’s b-b-b-back on her bs : katya ! tis uhm ,,,, a lil bit of a chonk of an intro but ill try 2 b cute w it. any time u wanna yeet jus peep the gif again & forgive me bc Look At Her ! )

POWERS ( more info here )

hypnokinesis  — p much made her a glorified babysitter w lynch-esque wacko dreams. it got stronger naturally as she got older, but jus w herself n eventually the ppl shes real close w. its also gotten a lot better since comin to eonia 

seeing gods in dreams  — she doesnt hang out w em every fridays at tgifs but like ,,, if she had Pertinent Questions she cud smhw make it happen. found out abt her being a demigod at age 10 when she met hypnos

memory retrieval — shes got great memry of her own but bc she knows it can help w grief n all that, shes been learnin in eonia how to do it 4 others if they mayb wanted it

BIO POINTS 

her single ma died during childbirth so jane's been in the foster care system since 5ever. attempts at reunification nvr worked out but thankfully she got real lucky w her group home and foster families. twas stable enough to not emotionally scar her even further but the instability of it all was fosho a big ol’ lot and has influenced her rigidness in sum aspects of her life

she lived p much as a mortal even tho her powers r a lil freaky. never went to camp but it worked out bc all her abilities r internal and cannot be Perceived by others. she had a talk w hypnos abt what 2 do n he mentioned camps but also gave sum monster avoidance tips ( like rarely use ur powers, maybe learn self defense, yada yada ) n she jus ,,, did that so she cud continue livin real normal w the mortals. logistics of camp stressed her out esp bc shes livin w non-family n stuff yk it was All Too Much, miss her w the added demigod stress tyvm

got married at 23 to her childhood sweetums luis, but he ,,, died abt a yr later fr a car accident. coma for 2 weeks n jane p much slept the entire time in his hospital room, visitin his dreams n talkin to him. twas a life support sitch so they eventually decided to pull da plug whch was real sad but like she's processed it 2 da best of her abilities. her powers helped a lot in the coping too n she visits memories of him in her dreams smtms when it gets real sad then shes ok again bc life goes on n life is pretty uwu

bc of her bg round kids of all kinds, shes always been passionate abt em. always takin babysittin/tutor gigs and went to community college so she cud teach n then worked as an elem teacher. only started considerin goin 2 eonia 4 postgrad when she had a student who showed signs n strugglez of bein a demigod. she eventually got to talk to their godly parent 2 confirm n she was shocked pikachu meme, real concerned for all those youngins who hav no clue what to do ! or how to cope ! bc they cant facetime w the olympians lyk she can ! so cue her discussin eonia w luis a lot then a year after the accident, broke out the pro-con list again. took abt *checks watch* another yr til she finally decided to zoom 2 athens but then whoosh she did !

PERSONALITY

yearning ? idk her — shes can be a bit of a take it as is typa chick. can be a lil literal jsksj not dumb but like ,,, def doesnt read into things enuff to pine n long n year yk. some things might def fly over her head. she says Yes To Serotonin in this house. she dk the the mitskis n the sikens n the carsons ; its all mary oliver up in this joint. we just tryna luv life n be grateful folkz

le freak, say chic ! — control freak, that is. growin up in an unstable envi meant shed cling 2 stability n independence, wrvr she cud get it. so when it comes 2 the way she does things, she can be real a heel digger. also bc she has 2 deal w kids yk so it can b A Lot n shes v stern lyk dat. ofc she wont infantilize the eonians .,,,. or will she ? big sis vibes outta control. she means well tho always always means well. itll also b v hard to get her 2 giv up on sum1 bc life ? she luvs it n knows u can too

changes by david bowie — is decidedly skipped on the playlist. she doesnt like change !!! i mean she knows its inevitable but still not entire unavoidable. ever since she got out of the system, shes had a partner n her own way of doing things n its been workin out so why change it yk ? she says time may change me but jokes on u i can sorta trace time 

rip but im different — this goes out to all em whores in this house. she respectz ur hustle but like ,,,, not her thang. girl doesnt even get drunk when she drinks bc she doesnt rlly drink sksjsk doesnt like the taste of it, big baby ! but like she's Lived, its more like. ok tried it, not for me. thanks tho. also for all the meanies in the house, y’all perplex her. shes empathetic n wont show the judgement but smtms shes lowkey lyk .,., ur how old n u had all this goin 4 u n ur still so rotten ? how u actin like a 7yo w a trantrum ? scratch head, make it make sense

at least u tried — dad jokes, bad puns, tries to be big jokester but isn't funny. she's pretty tho so she gets away with it. idk wht else 2 say ur honor. shes the type thatll embarrass u w affection

well that was Awkward — probably sum1 abt her if  they see her actin a Fool bc shes in a foreign sitch or topic. when shes a fish outta water then she can be so ! easily ! flustered ! which is p much her in eonia. shes not new new but theres way 2 much godly shennanigans for her to wrap her head ‘round n sis has never gone to camp so its ice bucket challenge level shock from time to time still w da magics n lore

til death do us part — yknow when death cab for cutie said i knew that u wer a truth i wud rather lose than 2 hav nvr lain beside at all ? how abt when they wrecked me by rudely sayin love is watching sum1 die ? yes ? no ? nywy thats jane 4 ya. if she loves then shes in and if shes in then she is all in, luke danes stylez

was that a vivid enough picture or did i just word vom the same things agen n agen sjksjs jus know shes cute n sweet if a lil frustrating n annoying bc shes stubbornpants mcgee. may or may not have a slight compulsion to help fix other ppl ..,,.. someone set her str8 n tell her fix u by coldplay isnt it !!!  

OTHER INFO 

5′9″ born 4 october 1994, virgo sun n moon

not a freshie ! idk how long her program is but like ,,, lets ignore that 4 now ok jus kno that she been here a while

yogi & boxing enthusiast back at home. hc her mans got real into the martial arts w her when hypnos told her she gotta learn how 2 defend so that was one of their things : bonding by workouts so jane cud protecc herself if need be

her maiden name’s jane fulton. got her mommas surname but the name jane ? thats some jane doe bs some rando picked out for her which she hated at first but then seeing tarzan made her go hmmm, ok bet !

lgbtq+ alliance president ! identifies as pan

she met her late hubbie when they were abt 7ish, real friends 2 lovers cuteness. jane was there for him throughout his entire coming out & transition ergo her passion for the community esp queer kids bc she was That Cis Ally for her mans. wears her ring as a real lowkey necklace now

shes also real passionate abt sleep. will ask u how did u sleep last night p much every day u see her bc ppl spend like half their lives asleep catherine ofc shes gonna ask

her fave thing abt eonia ?  the whole siblings bit. shes had 2 make do w what she got n build a family from scratch so this ? she luvs it a lot let her give u kithes hypnos babies

shes p well versed in the greek thingies but only thru the knowledge mortals gets + dream info. after her realizin who she is, all things ancient greek jus sorta became her niche interest ykwim ? shes not like Super Learned abt it more like ,,, ok i gotta at least make Sum sense outta all this, gotta learn what i can. imagin how embarrassin it wud b 2 see a god in ur dream n then go : sorry to this man. nope. not jane, not her, nuh-uh 

luv languages : words, acts of service, physical touch !

useless hcs but she loves disney sfm ok. smtms dresses up as princess tiana for bday parties n shit bc shell do nythin 2 put a smile on the kids n babs faces

ya like jazz ? bc jane surely does ! adores motown & 60s music. nina simone owns her. no one drag peggy lee from 101 dalmatians ! not an important hc but i jus wanted to quote my bubble butt winged bee lover barry

POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS

children ! infants ! babies !

demigods that make her scratch head damn u live like this ? but also wud knife emoji to protect n care for. shes not the oldest on campus but shes been livin independently p much her entire life so she finks shes got a tight grasp on the myth that is Adulting  

srsly tho the Big Sis vibes is off the charts w this one. shell perserve u dumdums

baddie influencies !

convince her 2 get drunk at a party ! bc she never does. convince her to maybe try drugs ! or go hook up ! do smths impulsive idk jus smth new !

gl tho bc shes not rlly ,,, easily influenced But she can b reasoned w ! in general i fink its just gonna be a fun dynamic if y/m knows how to coax sum wildness outta her or w/e bc thotty yummy theyre hotty yolo rzning jus wont do w this gal. will most likely get argumentative like a big ol momma hen but if u win then ur winning big

Sleep Now or forever hold ur peace !

idk sum1 she helps w their messy sleep ? shes def not super public w it, surely knows her other siblings r Better at it but if  y’all are close, she probs enjoys doin it 4 ya. she runs her hair thru fingers a lot when she does it. like a lot a lot unless u tell her to get lost

lover boi, lover gorl, lover enby !

she can be a lil traditional when it comes to how she views rels. she wants all that meetcute courting bs ! no gender roles tho n u best be sure shes not constantly comparin w her late hubbie ,,, but she jus wants smth magical n 2 be wooed again yk ?

so yea ,,, crushers mayhaps ? sum1 who is tryin 2 woo her ? sum1 she had a meetcute w and now janes got lowkey heart eyes for em ? idk lotsa possiblities but pls keep in mind she is not good at the flirtings so hav mercy on her 

eonia tour guide !

or jus friends who like ,,, constnatly fill her in w all the godly stuff n whatnot. years of not goin 2 camps mean u miss out on a lot ! explore ruins w her n get her info her mortal educ didnt make her privy 2 yk 

head real empty atm i will think of sum n let y’all know when i do, but give us all the conekshunz. friends, enemies, the usual bit, lgbtq alliance peeps, lmk whats up whats done whats cookin we want it all

( shes p much a new muse n da result of me tryna bring in an emotionally healthy kid to this sad sad university. janes in a v good well-adjusted place rn n is my therapy muse bc that other bitch m** is a messy handful. but wbk life aint linear so mayhaps shit’ll hit da fan or one of y/m will ruin her lmfao press f pls ! but also color me eyes emoji bc we love to see it )

[bonesingerofyme-loc]

Oryx, Beloved of the Deep

The Deep liked Oryx the best because Oryx came the closest a being born in the universe could to actually understanding it.

The Deep (The Darkness, the Winnower, whatever title you’d like to give it) is incompatible with mortal concepts of morality, and really any mortal concepts at all. It’s like arguing with gravity or taking personal offense to light being both a particle and a wave.

So what we get are intermediaries between the Deep and individuals - we get Worms. Worms are sort-of-between the timeless tropism that is the Deep and the impossibly small-scale living creatures of the universe. Which means the Worms can’t really relate to either, but try their best to bridge it. 

When the three Krill siblings found the Worms, the worms sold them an easy deal - eternal life, as long as they do whatever the worms say. Considering what the Worms say is pretty well in line with what the three wanted to do anyway, it seemed pretty sweet.

But the divergence begins here, as does Oryx’s climb to real ascension. 

Xivu Arath wanted to fight. She was, and is, simple. She is war, she is a knight, she wants to test her blade against all things. There isn’t much nuance.

Savathun wants to live forever. Oh, sure, she’s known for her trickery, for her traps and plans and infinite cunning - but all of those, all of those, are bent toward the goal of immortality.

Let’s look at these two, then. And how they live up to the urge of the Deep.

Xivu Arath wants to fight. In a way, that’s pretty in line with the Deep - it desires a final, ultimate shape. But see - the Deep doesn’t care how that comes to be. It doesn’t care if that final shape comes to be because a single extremely angry Hive went out and personally cut everyone’s heads off, or if a bunch of self-replicating grey-goo nanobots managed to consume the whole universe. They’re both perfectly valid conclusions to the Deep. One final shape. The end. Easy.

So Xivu superficially is following the ‘philosophy’, so to speak, of the Deep, but she doesn’t believe it. She’s not doing this out of some desire to to be the Only Thing Left Standing. No - from what we know of Xivu (which is precious little, really, compared to her siblings) - she’s just a scrappy sonofabitch who wants to fight. The fact that her burning need for war results in species and complexity dying off, and thus in some way the Final Shape is approached is really kind of serendipity. Not every thing that goes to war worships the Deep - conflict is just a natural part of existence, even in the Sky’s view of it.

Then we have Savathun. She wants to live forever. You could say that the desire to live forever is coterminous with the desire to be the Final Shape. To kill all other things so that one is never threatened and can exist eternally, one and the same with the universe.

But that’s a stretch. Savathun actually hasn’t seemed inclined toward omnicide in particular.

Oh, sure, she’ll partake of it of course, because she is, after all, Hive, and has a Worm gnawing in her throat, but Savathun is out here to live. That’s why she took the Worm, remember?

Aurash wanted to understand, Xi Ro wanted to fight, but Sathona - Sathona wanted the Mother Morph, because she didn’t want to die.

We’re seeing this more and more as more lore is revealed, and it’s becoming interesting how Savathun appears to be growing discontented with the Worms and perhaps even the Deep itself. Indeed - they seem to be nothing more than a means to an end, which was power, and longevity, so that she could learn more and discover more, and draw more power and longevity to herself, that she might then move onto the next stage of her plan for eternal existence, leaving behind both the Worms and the Deep. Unlike Oryx or Xivu Arath, Savathun has tried plans to satiate trick and satiate her Worm’s hunger. Unlike her siblings, she’s trying to find loopholes.

And now she’s hit upon Imbaru, which, by it’s very nature, actually requires other life to exist for it to work. Savathun’s humdinger of a scheme is actually antithetical to the Deep entirely - instead of becoming eternal as the only one, she wants to make herself synonymous and synchronous with suspicion and deception so that as long as those things exist, so too will she. 

But how can those things exist if the universe is sterile and dead, all into the Final Shape?

It can’t.

Savathun is angling to break her contract with the Deep and the Worms.

Thus do we have one sister who is merrily warring across space and time, content to do what she always wanted, and it just works out nicely that the result of her hobby does trend toward what the Darkness wants. The other sister is merely using the Deep as a tool, ready and willing to discard it as soon as it becomes useless or a hindrance.

Now Oryx.

Now we look on Oryx, the Taken King, First Navigator of the Osmium Court, Lord of the High War.

Oryx, you could say, was a true believer. In classic fashion, the true believer had his doubts in the beginning, and wavered in his faith. In classic fashion, from the doubt came only the passion that true zealotry can bring, and thus did Oryx become the mightiest of the Hive and most beloved of the Deep.

Now why would Oryx be the most beloved of the Deep?

You could say it’s for a number of reasons. Maybe Oryx had the highest K/D. Maybe Oryx extincted one more species than his sister’s did. Maybe Oryx made sure his lineage said the right prayers in the right way to make the Deep pleased.

It’s none of that.

Oryx was the most beloved because Oryx actually understood.

The Deep is impersonal and it is a force. The Deep doesn’t care about you, or you, or you or you. Your death means nothing to it - literally nothing. Not a positive or negative, just a fact. A fact. There is no malice in the Deep, no hatred - it is a force. That all things must end and become One Shape, to end the game. 

These things the Hive do - the tortures, the horrors, the torments - the Deep didn’t ask it of them. The Worms did. 

The Hive must do one thing. They must kill. Whether they kill with torturous scalpels or with impersonal nuclear fire - it doesn’t matter. Dead is dead, and the game progresses toward the end.

You could imagine a culture of grieving righteous crusaders, bringing silent death to worlds with painless gasses and bursts of gamma rays, extinguishing trillions of lives as humanely as they can, mourning for each culture lost but knowing it must be done, and taking it on as their curse.

They would serve the Deep as truly as a zealous, shrieking horde of tormented Thralls clawing apart screaming masses.

This is what Oryx began to understand. Oryx in his studies, in his charting of the Deep, came the closest to being able to converse with it on a comparable level. Consider his death - he forsees it and welcomes it. He recognizes and accepts his role as but a tool, an implement, in the great design of the Final Shape. Sure - he hopes that he might be that Final Shape, but he is content, if he is not, that he has done his duty to the universe in progressing it that much closer. And he hopes that whomsoever does end his existence will understand Oryx, and Oryx’s goal, so that even in death his influence can guide his slayer to continue his good work and seek the Final Shape.

When Oryx went to speak with the Deep, and Savathun and Xivu Arath tried to strand him there, something happened.

Oryx fought the deep.

What manner this fight took, what shape it held, what result it had - that’s unknown. But from Verse 4:3, metaphorical though it is, Oryx clearly turns on the Deep and vies with it in some way.

And the Deep is pleased.

Why wouldn’t it? Oryx met with his ‘god’, and stayed true to the exact thing that god cares about more than anything else. The struggle. The push for single victor. Oryx would fight and kill his god to prove his god correct - and this is all the Deep asks.

In his time as a Hive God Oryx stripped away much of what he was. There’s mentions of emotions alloying together, of reduction of complexity in his psyche until all things seem to smear together. 

This too, is as the Deep is.

Oryx, in a way, was mantling the Deep. He was becoming simpler, closer to the smile of a blade, closer to nothing but a knife, in mind and purpose, but a knife that was willing to shatter if another knife greater than it contended. 

I think the Deep misses Oryx. I think, in as much as it could be, it was proud. In this strange new game with warped rules and twisted grounds, Oryx came the closest to what the Deep once had before it all began. Oryx came the closest to understanding the Deep, personally, and for once, the Deep almost had a peer in the way the Gardener could never be. 

In a way, Oryx was almost a friend.

[rideboldlyride]

A much delayed Chapter 4 - Celestial

Seal My Heart and Break My Pride <--- AO3 link

“The shipment of Jasmine is delayed again.”

Across from him, in the seeming anonymity of stainless silver and terra cotta, his uncle moved around the industrial kitchen with the grace of experience. At that moment, they could have been in any kitchen anywhere in the world. Since the morning crowd had long dispersed, and the lunch crowd still working, they were the only two staffing the shop, with just a spattering of customers in the dining area. The illusion remained fully in place, and Zuko could almost imagine walking into the dining area, only to see a Fire Nation cityscape in it’s windows.

At his proclamation about the jasmine, his Uncle Iroh had his stolid demeanor broken.

“How can we call ourselves the Jasmine Dragon, when we have no Jasmine ??” If Zuko didn’t know any better, he may have thought that his uncle sounded emotional.

A sigh escaped him. “I told you, Uncle. Our supplier is citing droughts in the region, stating that all of their customers are suffering shortages.”

As the older man turned, he produced a steaming pot, and two cups, clean and prepared, and set them down on the steel top between them. Before Zuko, papers were scattered in an organized chaos. He had a grasp on keeping books, but there were times that his focus was a beast incapable of being reigned in. His growing headache hadn’t helped. And then there was the cause of the headache- that borderline nausea, characteristic of a mild hangover. Absent-mindedly, he scratched at the spot on his inner forearm where ink had sat overnight. He had been mortified to find it smeared beyond recognition upon waking up. One of the many downsides, he found, of sleeping hot, included the fact that it was rare to wake up without a sheen of sweat. Between the normal motions of sleep, the sheen of sweat, and the gel qualities of the pen she had used, it was rendered illegible. He had been beyond frustrated. It didn’t, however, keep her off of his mind.

“I would offer some from my stores, but I’m completely out.”

Katara. She kept trying to swim before his open eyes. There was so much that intrigued him, and he was like a thirsty man in a desert, with just the hint of water in the air. If he just could taste, get a little bit on his tongue…

“I understand, Nephew. We will have to press on, even in this time of trial.”

Zuko nodded, barely noting his uncle’s words. This was not missed.

“Usually, my fiery tempered nephew would protest about my melodramatics at this point.” With a raised brow, the older man poured the tea, offering the steaming cup to the younger, who seemed engrossed in one particular line on a singular page among the throngs scattered in front of him. Unseeingly, Zuko retrieved the cup, and instantly brought it to his lips. Far too hot, it scolded, and he jumped, brow furrowing in frustration. Jarred from his reverie, he drew his lips into a thin line, the remaining parts of the sip jumping away at the motion, and splattering upon the paper. In irritation, he snagged the page, using his pant leg to dab at the liquid, in an attempt to salvage the ink.

“You seem very distracted, Nephew.”

A glower set over his brow. “I just spilled scalding tea on an important notice. Can’t imagine what you’re talking about, Uncle.”

His own tea resting in his fingers, Iroh studied Zuko intently, seeing more clearly than he cared for. Finally, he broke the silence.

“How did your evening go?”

Now flustered, the younger man shuffled the pages anxiously, attempting to herd them like polar cats. His uncle’s question stilled him instantly, and he brought his gaze round to bare,

“It was… good.”

“Eventful?”

“Surprisingly,... yes.”

A hum escaped Iroh’s lips, and he sat back, knowing that when Zuko was ready to speak, he would, if at all. Instead, he watched his nephew once more return to his attempt at organization, this time moving more steadily and slowly. In a moment of startling clarity, Zuko could hear her laugh. A hot sigh escaped his lips, frustration and irritation at the lost number returning to his mind. Then he heard it again.

“Oh!” Zuko was startled when his uncle jumped with sudden vigour. “It seems one of my favorite customers is here.”

As he passed, Iroh stuck a gentle elbow into his nephew’s ribs.

“This is the one I’ve been talking to you about.”

Rolling his eyes, he watched Iroh exit out of the kitchen through a traditional curtain. Instead of following, he peeped out of the pass through at the young woman Iroh spoke of. This mysterious woman, her back turned to the counter, was unheeding of his gaze. Half pulled back, a cascade of dark brown tresses fell to her waist line. Headphones crested over her head, and evidently currently active, since she seemed unaware of his uncle’s appearance behind the counter. Zuko’s breath caught in his throat when he heard the voice behind the curtain of hair.

How could he cross paths with her two days in a row?

“... Sokka. I haven’t heard from him.” Pause. “You, of all people, should know how this works. Isn’t there some kind of stupid rule about how long you’re supposed to wait?”

She was evidently on the phone. His uncle paused before interrupting her, letting her continue her conversation.

“Listen, I’m going to see you in just a few minutes… No! Of course I don’t want to talk about it with Dad around! I just…” She sighed. “Fine. I’ll see you. Did you want me to order you anything?... Alright, I’ll see you then.”

Zuko slipped a little further back into the kitchen, trying to keep hidden but still being able to keep an eye on her. It was surprising how daylight made one a coward about what one

was comfortable at night. But as his uncle gently tapped her shoulder, he held his breath. She turned with a bright smile on her face, and he couldn’t stop the matching smile pulling at his lips.

With a single motion, she evidently ended the call, and removed the headphones from her ears.

“Good morning, Iroh!”

“Miss Katara! I must say that your definition of morning seems very fluid.”

Her laugh comes easy, and Zuko soaks in the sound.

“I am a complete night cat-owl. You know that!”

“Yes, my dear. But it brings me great humor to see you emerge at the break of dawn one morning, and then scuttle in here just shy of midday the next.”

“I had a long night. My friends all wanted to go out. I think we all forgot we’re near our thirties.”

“An eventful night?”

Her smile stayed planted, but her eyes seemed to be looking far away. She hummed an affirmative. His uncle only laughed.

“Nearing your thirties, but still starry eyed, my dear?”

That mischievous glint- that damn mischievous streak - in her eyes, struck again, and it took all of his willpower not to round the corner. Instead, he started to plot.

***

“What can I say, Iroh? I’m a closet romantic.”

“There are worse traits.” A warm smile peered up at her. “Is there something I can start for you?”

“Yes!” She was broken free of her reverie, and she perked up. “I meant to ask, do you still brew lapsang souchong?”

A brilliant smile lit up his face.

“Only for my special guests. And you, my dear Katara, are a special guest.” He turned to the passthrough window, but he spotted the younger man already in motion, his back to the customers, preparing the tea. She watched the older man as he took a small glance back and forth between them. “Are you expecting anyone, my dear?”

“Actually, yes. My brother and my Dad.” She knew where this was already going. It wasn't the first time he had brought it up.

“It’s a shame- My nephew is here and you are here. You know how often I have spoken about him to you…”

She raised a brow. “And told me nothing about him.”

Blue eyes met his amber ones, mirth reflecting between each other. “Touche.”

In between their banter, a steaming mug was placed on the pass-through unseen.

Iroh was the first one to break away, spotting the mug. As he turned back to her, tea in hand, a brow rose to her contemplative look. Absentmindedly, she fiddled with the charm at her throat. A devious smile pulled at her lips.

“I have a proposition for you, Iroh.”

“Yes?”

“I’m going to be working on a study in the lower ring, since our work is in the Serpent’s Pass. From what I hear, you have two more shops, now.”

“Yes, one is--”

A hand rose to stop him. “No, don’t tell me. We’re going to let fate play the stars, alright? Tutega is known for her capricious ways.”

Known to be well-versed in the lore of many nationalities, she was not surprised that Iroh showed no confusion over the name of the spirit. Tutega, the mercurial spirit woman was known to move the stars and thereby the fates, according to her desires. While growing up religious, Katara held a certain respect for the deities, even though she was not as devoted to the rites as she might once have been. Either way, she was more than willing to blame the spirits if this idea of hers went south.

“So here’s the deal. Your nephew runs those shops, right?”

A nod, along with a growing suspicion in his eyes, but he kept silent.

“What if, in exchange for this perpetual discussion, we make a deal that if I find one of the shops, I’ll go in to talk with him?”

“I would propose a caveat: you go on a date together.”

Hesitation paused the young woman. “I don’t know....”

“Unless there is another?”

“Well, no, I mean… I guess not really.”

“Then this: if you are free at that point, then go.”

The hesitation in her eyes dissolved, and she smiled again. “Then I’m going to need more than just silence, Iroh.”

“Free tea?”

Her laugh sounded out again. “Deal!”

***

When Sokka arrived, it was a raucous event, (‘Home’ Katara?! That’s the text you send??; What was I supposed to say?; How about ‘the guy wasn’t another Jet, I’m safe and he’s gone’?; What if he wasn’t gone?; He wasn’t?!) but it quickly settled, before a third individual arrived- this one seemingly an aged up Sokka, with the same striking features as the siblings. Katara was quick to her feet, enveloping him into a firm hug.

“Welcome home, Katara. I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too, Dad.”

When they pulled away, the three of them fell into a comfortable banter, rapidly falling into the normal ebb and flow, being chased by warm tea. Finally, after a bout of pleasant ribbing of her older brother, Hakoda turned his attention to his daughter.

“Did you get that notice I sent you?”

A sigh escaped her. “Dad, I already told you, I’m not going to apply for an ambassador role with NOAA.”

“Why?”

“It’s politics. It’s making friends with people I can’t stand, be friendly with the assholes who are screwing up all of our oceans.”

“How do you think that they get their funding?”

“So you’re saying that I should be willing to ‘work’ with these pricks- pricks like O Corp-" she spits out the name with venom, "just to get funding?”

“No, I’m saying you should be willing to work with them to protect the oceans from them.” He leaned in, his blue eyes bright and eager, dropping his voice to inject calmness into the conversation. “You could be the saving grace-- the conscience people need.”

“These people that don’t see how important the sea is to life- without it, the world would fall apart! What you do to the ocean will always be visited back on you. It's what feeds us, lets us breathe. And those fools who see profit over living beings sicken me. I take from the sea, yes. But I also give back.”

A smile lit up his face. “And that’s why you should be an ambassador. Your passion, Katara, it can be such a force for good!”

His vigor set her back for a moment, and she took in his words. Slowly, she leaned in and placed a hand upon her father’s.

“I’ll… consider it.”

“And that’s all I ask.”

She smiled as she leaned back as the moment passed. “I have to say, Dad, most fathers don’t ask about ambassadorial opportunities…”

“Oh? Then what do they talk about?”

“‘Anybody I need to know about, Katara?’” Her voice dropped to imitate the older man. “‘When are you going to give me grandkids?’ You know, stuff like that.”

The look in his eye made her instantly regret her words. “So, then, Katara, is there anybody?”

“Ugh, Dad!”

Sokka interrupted, a mischievous look in his eye. “Maybe after last night, there was…”

A pink tongue darted through her lips at her brother, her nose crinkling. Before she got out a word, her phone went off. It was Toph.

Hey sugar queen. The text was obviously transcribed, but solidly in Toph’s typical direct manner. Zuko says something happened to your number. He refuses to get it from me. Says he’ll surprise you. He just didn’t want you thinking he ghosted you.

She couldn’t hold back the smile on her lips.

***

Outside, Zuko paced beside the truck.

“Thanks Toph.”

“You got this, Sparky?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Ugh- don’t ever call me that again.”

“What? Ma’am?”

A disgusted sound echoed in his ears, and he smiled.

“You got it, Toph. I owe you one.”

“Yeah, you do.”

***

With all of his willpower, he maintained his work schedule over the next few days. He refused to alter his schedule, truly leaving it to the stars, as Katara had mentioned. But when he walked in on the Tuesday after the fateful weekend, he was hopeful. The morning passed rapidly, as the breakfast crowd of the Lower Ring lasted much later into the day than his uncle’s shop. However, as the lunch crowd slipped in, he stepped back, allowing the shop’s employees to take up the slack. Instead, he mingled, confirming his customer’s comfort. Falling into his rhythms, he seemed to force his preoccupying thoughts away. A new group entered, and he greeted them with his customary small smile. It wasn’t until one of the members of the group stopped directly in front of the door, staring up, that it caught his attention.

It was only the beginning of autumn, but she was draped in a sky blue hoodie, oversized, and the hood pulled up. Dark tresses fell out from the side of the hood, and her dark chin jutted out from behind the hood’s cowl as she stared up, frozen still. With a shake of her head, she dropped her head. In that moment, he recognized her before she recognized him. With as much dignity and nonchalance as he could manage he made his way towards the kitchen to wait.

***

Of all the tea shops, in all of Ba Sing Se, she thought… The sign above her colleague’s lunch choice was emblazoned with a white lotus, the name proudly alight: The Jasmine Dragon.

Upon entering, she broke away from the group to move straight towards the counter. Better just to get this over with. A young woman met her there with a pleasant smile.

“Welcome to The Jasmine Dragon! Are there any teas you’re curious about?”

“Yes, but that’ll wait. Quick question:” Katara laid her hands flat upon the countertop, leaning on them. “Is your district manager in?”

“Oh, yeah, he’s usually here on Tuesdays.”

“Of course he is.” A bitter chuckle pulled at her lips, followed by a sigh. She dropped her voice a little. “Listen, I’m going to ask something weird, but I’ll explain once you answer, okay?”

The young woman’s eyes grew wary, but she nodded.

“Is he… Ya know,” she gave a vague gesture, “I don’t know… not fifty?”

The girl laughed. “No! No, he’s in his thirties.”

“Oh good.” The words escaped Katara like a sigh. “Iroh’s been after me to meet him, but you know how that can go sometimes…”

Her response was a knowing laugh. “Would you like me to go get him?”

“Yes, please.”

“Ok, hold on--” she stopped in her tracks as the dark haired man stepped out from behind the curtain blocking off the kitchen, a puckish grin on his face. The young employee gestured pleasantly. “There he is.”

“Zuko?”

***

@zutaraweek