#and I thought standing against someone was Conflict Broken Relationship Bad Evil

[magpie-trove]

Smallville was actually so so important to me because it showed me proof of two types of relationships I didn’t think could exist—“person who is truly deeply annoying to another person on a fundamental level and yet they can grow so beloved to each other doing that” and “someone who’s role is to stand against someone else in life as a manifestation of their friendship”

[maxwell-grant]

Downfall of a Dark Avenger Part 2: Shadows of Manhattan

Having finished reading Al Ewing’s El Sombra trilogy and having had enough time to digest it, I’d like to talk about the trajectory of it’s titular protagonist, the character and series’s relationship with it’s influences. Relating to The Shadow and Zorro and general pulp archetypes, and also the way it incorporates Astro Boy’s Pluto into the mix.

This part is focused on Gods of Manhattan and El Sombra’s first appearences in Pax Omega and the ways in which the urban vigilante manifests itself in the books. 

In Gods of Manhattan, El Sombra takes a backseat to it’s central players, Doc Thunder and The Blood-Spider. I’ve mentioned how Thunder, while ostensibly a Doc Savage/Superman amalgam, also combines aspects that allow the character to condense the entire history of the superman into a single being, but to a character very much centered on the future and in progressive ideals, described in the book as someone considered both the city’s ultimate savior as well as viewed as "a faggot, a liberal and a miscegenationist”. In that regard, the Blood-Spider becomes his opposite. Perhaps the most comprehensive savaging of the dark detective/The Shadow ever put on paper, that has a larger point behind the questions and criticisms it brings up to what this kind of figure can be. 

"You can hardly have a war on crime unless you are the one defining what a crime is. First rule of the war on crime: everyone is guilty or something"

Us am vigilantes! Am us not men? Us use violence to effect social change! Am us not men? Us bring terror to underclass, make streets safer for overclass! Am us not men? Am us not men?

Making them loved rather than feared. Having them fight crime, or the right kind of crime, at least. Created a persona designed to appeal to the worst in people, to bring the citizens of New York around to his cause, his war on crime, which would, of course, then become a war against ‘urban crime’. Or some other little euphemism. ‘Inhuman’, for example. Sounds a lot more relatable than subhuman, doesn’t it? Comes to the same thing, though.

Although The Blood-Spider is an evil take on The Shadow, most of his character traits are taken from characters that followed him. He’s got the moniker, savagery, fright tactics and branded murders of The Spider, he climbs buildings and has a civilian identity akin to Spider-Man’s, with constant name references to characters like Stacey, Jonah and a redhead named Mary Watson, with him sharing a name with Peter Parker as well as Batman villain Jonathan Crane, he’s got Rorschach monologues that are echoed by his associates past his demise in white supremacist organizations dedicated to carrying off Spider’s legacy, predating HBO Watchmen’s take on Rorschach legacy. If Doc Thunder is all about taking the superhero’s past to create a better future with it, Blood-Spider takes the future of the urban vigilante and uses it as a conduit to enact a barbaric and reactionary agenda in service of undoing everything Thunder stands for, even before he’s revealed to be a Nazi agent. 

Blood-Spider is what happens when the absolute worst aspects of said characters are brought to the forefront and twisted by a dose of reality. He’s to The Shadow what Plutonian is to Superman, the most sour way said character and legend can be twisted into something horrendous. He’s the Doutrinador in a fedora, everything I vehemently argue that The Shadow wasn’t, and yet seems sadly ever closer to as more and more comics dehumanize the character. He’s Howard Chaykin’s Shadow, naked and raw and exposed for what it ultimately is. An insult and a wake-up call, if a necessary one.

In fact, said poisoning of a legend is explicitly a plot point in the book, because the book establishes that, before The Blood-Spider, the city’s main vigilante used to be a man by the name of Blue Ghost, friend of Doc Thunder and, although a mysterious public figure, still firmly on the side of good. Unfortunately, moral victories aside, “good” alone doesn’t cut it in the world of El Sombra. 

You took a look at the Blue Ghost - mysterious masked avenger, operatives all over the place, big fan-following with the working classes, and you figured...we need one of those. Just take away the Japanese orphan kid and replace him with a foxy Aryan chick.

Blue Ghost is almost a textbook Spirit analogue, even defined as being beat up a lot as his main asset, except here, he’s placed as Doc’s counterpart that died before the story began and is now replaced by a darker and more horrendous counterpart, and because The Spirit was influenced by The Shadow, it opens a roundabout connection. You can read this as a comparison between the shift from Adam West’s Batman to Frank Miller’s Batman, or a comparison between The Shadow and earlier more straightforward pulp vigilantes like Jimmie Dale, or a comparison between the pulp/radio Shadow and later iterations of him or analogues to his archetype that upped the nastier aspects. Again, nothing in El Sombra is ever quite just one thing. 

And at last we come to El Sombra, who spends much of the book caught in between the duels of Doc, Untergang and players in between. And it’s interesting that here, while El Sombra’s final victories over the story’s major conflict lie in his willingness to team up with Doc, despite knowing of his origins as a Nazi weapon, his victories over Blood-Spider instead come from turning tricks of The Shadow against him. First, when he discovers Spider’s true nature, spying on him by pulling a Fritz the Janitor. And then in the finale, when he schools Spider on what a real shadowy avenger looks like. 

"Amigo...that's my sword"

The voice came from the darkness above them, where the gaslight did not reach. The Spider's blood ran cold for a long moment, and then he grabbed hold of his other gun, tearing it from its holster and raising it to fire a volley of bullets into the darkness. "Where are you? Show yourself!" he hissed, turning in place, the gun raised to fire at the slightest sound or movement.

"You're not the only one who can hide in the shadows, my friend. I've got very good at it, over the years."

"Show yourself!" Another volley of shots, with no result. Was he throwing his voice? Was he everywhere at once? Was he a shadow himself? A ghost?

The voice echoed from another place now, continuing his speech exactly where he had left off. And still that mocking voice echoed from the shadows above.

"See, I didn't know if you were a good guy or a bad guy. I mean, sure, you killed people, and you were kind of a dick about it, you know? But I didn't know if you were one of the bastards. I didn't know if you needed to die or not, amigo."

The gun clicked empty. He was out of bullets. He turned again, and there was the man in the red mask. Just standing there, in the middle of the concourse. His smile didn't look human. And his eyes. Oh, his terrible eyes...

"Stay back." The Spider whispered, and his voice sounded in his ears like a frightened, animal thing, waiting to curl up and die in its hole.

The man in the red mask only laughed. A rich, deep, joyous laugh, a laugh that echoed and filled the whole station, bouncing from pillar to pillar, careening through the great vaulted arches. Such a laugh!

Then the laughter stopped, and he fixed the Blood-Spider with a look that would freeze the fires of Hell.

And suddenly - quite suddenly - there was no Blood-Spider. There was only Parker Crane, the Nazi. Parker Crane, the traitor. Who thought he could destroy America, and only managed to destroy himself. Parker Crane. Just a man wearing a mask. He ran, and left the sword behind him.

"Nice trick," Doc murmured, turning to the masked man. "Throwing your sword from up on the balcony - good aim, by the way - then throwing your voice and a little mental suggestion to make him think you were up in the arches where he'd been. Where did you learn that?"

The masked man shrugged, lifting up his weapon. "In the desert. You can learn a lot in the desert, if you put your mind to it."

By the story’s end, once Lars Lomax, Thunder’s arch-enemy and Lex Luthor, takes center stage as it’s ultimate threat, Parker Crane is left a traumatized, broken shell unable to even move, utterly stripped of any mystique or power that his mask and guns may have brought him. And in the end, El Sombra finds him, neutralized and no longer a threat to anyone. And he makes his choice.

El Sombra knew what it was to hate, to hate so hard and so long that you knew nothing else, to hate so strongly that it crossed that line into something beyond reason.

He lifted his sword, resting the blade in his palm for a moment, considering. Crane only stared, weeping and making his soft, mad noises. El Sombra sighed, shaking his head. "You know, I don't know if I can kill a guy who's already dead. Even if he is one of the bastards."

"Don't let him in here." Murmured Crane, his eyes wide.

"Shhh, I won't let him in," smiled El Sombra in response, trying to be reassuring. "You'll never have to face him again. I promise. It's okay, amigo. It's okay."

It was strange. He knew he should feel hate for Parker Crane. It was Djego's job to bear things like pity and doubt, to feel sorrow and shame. That was Djego's role in their team of one. El Sombra was there to take never-ending revenge and to laugh and to never look back. But to know that his murder of Heinrich Donner - his righteous kill - had resulted in so much harm coming to so many... and now to see the leader of Undergang, the man he'd come to New York to kill, just an empty, broken madman, a shell of a person... El Sombra wondered if he was changing.

"Don't," whispered Crane, a tear rolling down his cheek. "Don't let him back in."

El Sombra smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, amigo. I'm going to go and make sure nobody ever needs to see him again. And I couldn't have done it without you." He squeezed lightly. "You didn't mean to, but you did some good. Remember that."

Then, gently, he pushed the tip of the sword through the front of Crane's skull and into his brain.

He was not incapable of pity. But he was who he was, and he did what he did.

And broken or not, the bastards had to die.

We’ve seen El Sombra struggle and be faced with choices, choices between Djego and El Sombra, choices between kindness and violence, between peace and conflict. We’ve seen the conflict in his soul between things that he knows are right, because Djego is a good man with a good soul who wants good things for himself and others, and things he knows he must do, because he is El Sombra and El Sombra was created to kill the bastards that brought his world to ruin and therefore it’s what he must always do. And in the end, El Sombra is simply stronger. He has to be. But strength and violence and hatred can only get one so far. 

Gods of Manhattan is the trilogy’s moral compass, the book that most clearly defines the morality the series operates on. And in between the spectrums of justice embodied by Doc and Crane’s approach, between the two urban avengers in The Blue Ghost and Blood-Spider, El Sombra made his choice. And it’s the first choice that dooms him.

Enter Pax Omega, and we learn that, 4 years since the previous book's events, El Sombra joined a squad of agents called Yankee Bravo Seven, who work for an organization named STEAM, who enact missions against Nazis to turn the tides of war. He is joined by several other types of characters, including The Blood Widow, Crane’s former assistant Marlene Lang now having taken up the moniker (just as Nita van Sloan did for The Spider, even with the “Widow” prefix). We see that El Sombra has joined a team of bantering heroes and even formed a friendly rivalry with a man named Savate, modeled after Batroc the Leaper. 

But we see that the hunger for vengeance still burns, still burns beyond reason, restless because it’s been 4 years and the war still isn’t over and Hitler still isn’t dead by his sword. And it’s that restlessness that again dooms him, when he once again makes the wrong choice and betrays leader Jack Scorpio, Scorpio who had personally brought him on board and gave him the best shot he ever had at getting to Hitler. 

El Sombra frowned. "We need to make our move now."

Scorpio shook his head. "Not yet."

"What?" El Sombra looked incredulous.

"Wait for my signal, I said! Damn it, I need you to trust me!" Jack Scorpio reached up to brush the back of his finger across his forehead, and realised he was sweating. 

Through his special glasses, El Sombra's aura was glowing an angry, pulsing red, like a throbbing vein. "Just...trust me. I'm asking you to hold back for just five minutes. There's more going on here than you know."

El Sombra just stared at him, his lips pulling back from his teeth in a cold snarl.

"Trust me. That's all I ask." Jack Scorpio looked into the blazing eyes behind the bloodstained mask, and spoke softly, soothingly, almost desperately. "Can you just hold back for one minute?"

The eyes behind the mask narrowed.

"Can you?"

PERSONNEL FILE: DJEGO "EL SOMBRA". TO EYES ONLY: THIS INDIVIDUAL IS HIGHLY DANGEROUS. IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED HE NOT BE INCLUDED IN ANY OPERATIONS CLASSIFIED ABOVE TOP SECRET OR HIGHER. (I'll take the risk - J.S)

El Sombra spat in Scorpio's face.

"Chinga tu madre."

Then he drew his sword and leaped down into the fray.

After the mission is over, with the base destroyed and a major victory secured, although with Jack Scorpio having been killed, the team disbands. El Sombra continues to wander the forests near the Luftwaffe base for about two weeks, killing as many Nazis as he can, until an explosion blast hits near him, knocking away his mask and portions of his leg and arm, and rendering him unconscious for 8 months. By the time he wakes up, the war has ended, and so has El Sombra for the past 7 years.

Djego was afforded the best of medical care at the hospital in Venice. El Sombra was nowhere to be found.

His mask had been torn off in the explosion, along with some of the meat of his leg and arm. He walked stiffly, now, with a pronounced limp, and his left arm was all but useless, hanging limply at his side. The Wildcat crew had salvaged his sword, but Djego had little interest in using it.

Gradually, he regained his mobility. The back of his head itched constantly, and he suffered from horrendous mood swings, when he would rage against the Fuhrer and the bastards, or weep helplessly, like a child. But gradually, he found his personality stabilising in the gentle, antiseptic atmosphere of the hospital. He found that Djego - so long despised as a weakling, a coward and a fool - was capable of a kind of gentle, melancholic wit that made him popular.

Djego healed and grew, and the itch in the back of his skull began to subside, as El Sombra relinquished his grip.

Djego felt his heart seize in his chest. The cloth was missing a scrap at the end, and there was mud ground into the fabric along with the old bloodstains; but it had two evenly-spaced holes in it, and was unmistakably a mask. It seemed to be looking at him.

He takes up gardening and establishes himself in the city of Brandenberg, he becomes a fixture of the city and a friend of it, he enters a relationship, and El Sombra never appears again.

Until a mysterious stranger named Leonard Lorraine, walks through his door one day, saying he’s got a mission to fulfill, and hands him his mask. And, once again, El Sombra is simply stronger, and he makes the wrong choice again. 

Djego shook his head and tried to step back from it, but his legs wouldn't move.

"No," he whispered. "No. Please"

"I was happy," pleaded Djego. "Doesn't that matter to you?" He picked up the cloth in trembling fingers, looking into the empty eyeholds. "Doesn't that mean anything?"

There was no answer. The patrons of the bierkeller did not even notice anything was happening.

"I was happy," Djego choked, and then, in one spasmodic motion, he pulled the mask onto his face, and secured it tightly, so that the knot once again rested in the back of his head, where it belonged: so tightly that it might never come off again.

El Sombra looked at his hands.

He prodded his belly, amused at the rounded shape of it, and took a couple of steps back from the bar. The limp was gone.

He laughed, very softly, so as not to disturb the patrons.

Djego and Lorraine walk through the desolate streets of Berlin, which in the years since has completely sealed itself from the outside world through an impossibly thick dome, and Djego discovers the city completely bereft of life, with only a few lobotomized robotic citizens aimlessly wandering and chewing on the mountains of corpses in the city, as their Nazi ideology reached it’s inevitable outcome of total annihilation of any and all that the party could find an excuse to slaughter in the name of purity, which eventually included it’s few remaining members. In this world, Hitler has been a brain inside a robotic contraption ever since 1945, and it’s amidst this scenario that El Sombra, while thinking about how his final confrontation with Hitler would play out, eventually finds what’s left of Hitler. 

All around them, there were the sounds of machinery, but the Mecha-Fuhrer was completely silent, utterly motionless. In the centre of its chest rested a tank of toxic green fluid, and on the surface of the fluid, a human brain floated, like the corpse of a goldfish.

It was quite dead.

El Sombra stared at the Fuhrer for a long moment. Eventually, he spoke, and his voice was cracked and raw, and choked with rage. "Is...is this a joke?"

De Lareine smiled his terrible smile. "The Fuhrer's body needed a great deal of maintenance and repair, you know. After two years, one of the processes delivering oxygen to his brain failed...and there was nobody left to repair it. He died, slowly." There would have been some pain, at the end".

El Sombra slammed his fist into the great iron throne on which the massive body sat, shattering his knuckles and tearing the skin from them. He didn't seem to notice. "Some pain," he choked, through gritted teeth."

El Sombra was still staring into the empty, dead eyes of the Fuhrer.

El Sombra again chooses poorly. It’s this moment, above all else, that truly damns him to his fate, as we come to see what is it exactly that a persona created for the purpose of vengeance has, when said vengeance is robbed from it. Like Parker Crane, his persona crumbles completely to expose the petty, ugly little feelings that drove it to such grandstanding antics in the first place, and the allmighty El Sombra is exposed for the all-too human failings that damned him once and for all.

"This isn't right," he said, eventually, in a strangled voice. "How...how can it end like this?"

"Why shouldn't it?" De Lareine shrugged. "Here's a thought. Maybe, despite his twenty-year tantrum and all his dressing up, spoilt little Djego is not the centre of the universe -"

El Sombra turned, face red, tears streaming from his eyes, and charged at De Lareine, slashing his sword. El Sombra crashed down onto the floor, into the soot scattered about, as De Lareine walked around him.

"Did you really believe Adolf Hitler would wait around for your sword? Did you not imagine that it might be better for him to seal himself off in a hole to die, instead of murdering and enslaving continents until you finally got around to him? Did you think you were the hero of your own little story, El Sombra, with your mask and your laugh and your-"

"Shut up!" El Sombra cried out, scrambling to his feet, the sword shaking in his hand, tears and snot running down his face. "He was mine! He was mine to kill!" He lifted the sword, the tip trembling. "Bring him back," he screamed, "do you hear me? Bring him back to life!"

De Lareine had to laugh at that.

And in the end, El Sombra is crushed, spiritually and physically as his spine is shattered by Lareine, who begins to experiment on him as he lays dying, ready to fulfill fate’s greater purpose for El Sombra. Ready to become not just the perfect machine Pasito’s conquerors intended, but a superior design. Ready to abandon his former life, ready to abandon everything that defined him, ready to shed any and all traces of Zorro and Shadow and pulp hero in his system, because the age of pulp heroes and superheroes has passed. 

The metal man emerged from his hole, dragging the corpse of the Fuhrer behind him.

The brain in the metal man's chest would, perhaps, live for thousands of years. He wondered how he would spend the time.

He remembered little of his former life; he had been a man named El Sombra, or perhaps Djego. He had been stupid - he realised that now - but that was something he would never be again.

Apart from that, there was only a succession of faces, the memory of laughter and of a final, awful betrayal that had destroyed him. But there was also the sense that a great and terrible mission had ended at last, and it was time for a new life to begin.

The metal man took a last look back at the great dome of Fortress Berlin. Somewhere in there, the Leopard Man was hunting, freed from his own mission. And in the Fuhrer's old office, the empty, lifeless clay of El Sombra - or was it Djego? - lay, discarded, like a butterfly's cocoon.

The metal man thought on this, as the Fuhrer rusted at his feet and the tanks began to approach from over the hills ahead.

He would need a new name.

It’s now the age of Pluto.

[hyuckssunchip]

Innatism

Pairings: Lucas x reader, ft. Kun

Words: 1.7K

Warnings: angst, a little fluff

Synopsis: 

Upon reuniting with your ex-boyfriend you discover that not everything was as it seemed. Through obstacles and answers to can finally come to the conclusion that maybe people aren’t as bad as you thought.

You were sitting in the coffee shop close to campus, not something out of the ordinary. You came here almost everyday after class to get your work done. With your drink just out of your reach you sat typing furiously on your laptop. Your philosophy teacher was slightly insane, and had doled out a write up assignment on whether or not humans are innately evil or not, worth a third of your grade and was due Monday.

You frowned to yourself, not knowing where to start. This prompt was so overused and you wrote the same thing every time, but certain recent events kept coming to you and oddly enough you were conflicted on your decision. 

A few months ago your boyfriend of 8 months broke things off with you. He gave no explanation or any indication to cause such a change. You were devastated and all you remember was the cold look in his eyes as he told you right to your face, “You’re not the person I want anymore. In fact, I don’t love you, I never did.” And before you could reply he up and left you sitting in the very cafe you were at now.

Maybe subconsciously you were brought here to remember. The one thing that was out of the ordinary was that you actually sat in the same spot as you did a few months back when your heart was broken. Prior to this you couldn’t even bear to look at the seat, but here you are. Obviously you didn’t think Lucas was evil, the bad memories of him just kept flooding back, yet you couldn’t let yourself move.

You sighed, shaking your head trying to focus back on the assignment. It had been almost four hours since you started but you didn’t feel even close to being complete with the assignment, or maybe you just couldn’t get yourself to leave.

“Still a creature of habit aren’t you?” A voice you could never forget asked from behind you. You whipped your head around, afraid what you thought was true.

He looked so different, so sad and tired. He looked as if he hadn’t slept or eaten in days. While there was a slight hint of humor in his voice, you could tell that it was forced, and the smile may have brightened his features, but it never reached his eyes.

You coughed looking away,  feeling the prickly sensation threaten to sting your eyes, and the feeling of your throat tightening around the lump that refused to go down.

“I guess,” you muttered, trying to keep all emotion out of your voice. You didn’t want him to see how much he still affected you. You had to be strong.

“Do you mind if I sit here?” he asked quietly, almost begging. Your eyes flitted across the almost empty room, and turned back with a  frown on your face, “I really can’t talk right now, I've got stuff to do.” You said as coldly as you could muster.

“It’ll only take a minute.” he pleaded. As hard as you tried to not look at him, you failed. Your eyes locked and you caved nodding your head as an indication for him to sit.

However, you refused to look up from your laptop and continued working. After 10 minutes he broke the silence with “I miss you.”

You stopped typing mid-word. Frozen, you closed your eyes for a second taking in a deep breath.

You felt a hand graze over your own and you instinctively flinched. At this, you heard him choke on his breath and pull away but not before giving you one last glance of hope.

“I’m telling you Kun, it was really weird, We just sat there in silence, then he said I miss you. Everything got weird and he bolted.” You whined to your best friend Kun over the phone. Unfortunately the bad thing with having your best friend set you up with his bandmate, things  tend to get awkward when you break up.

“That is weird. He told us he couldn’t go to lunch with us because he was meeting up with an old friend. I wonder why he lied to us.” [K]

“I don’t know anymore. I’m just so upset that he had the nerve to tell me he missed me after what he said before. It’s not fair!” [Y/N]

“I still don’t really know what happened before. You wouldn’t tell me why he did that.” [K]

“Because I don’t know! He never told me either. To be honest, I hate to say this, but I’m worried about him. He looked awful. Has he been eating, or sleeping?” [Y/N]

“Y/N… I don’t think you--” [K]

“Wait, no. Don’t tell me. I’m supposed to be over him and that whole situation. Forget it. Just… keep an eye on him will you? I mean, not because I asked… because you’re his friend.” [Y/N]

“Okay Y/N. Hey, don’t let this get to you okay?” [K]

“Yeah. Alright. Are we still on for Saturday?” [Y/N]

“Yep! I can’t wait to see you! Gosh, it’s been so long.” [K]

“I know! Alright I guess I should go, I have a ridiculous paper calling my name.” [Y/N]

“M’kay see you soon!” [K]

You let out a sigh throwing your phone on the bed and flopping down next to it. Your eyes closed, ready to drift to a nap when the doorbell interrupted your peace.

Hmmm… that’s odd. It’s 7:00 PM, I didn’t order food did I? On second thought, I probably did didn’t I?

You made your way to the door reaching for your purse as it opened. “How much do I owe you?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all. In fact, I think I owe you an explanation, and an apology.”

Your head snapped up to meet with none other than Lucas, not looking much better than he had hours before. Although the offer was enticing as he stood in the doorway holding a tub of your favorite ice cream.

You quietly left, running to the kitchen and grabbing two spoons, wagging them in his face before making your way to the couch.

“Open up, bud. You got a lot of explaining to do.” You said as he popped the lid off the tub. 

He gave you a sad smile at the term ‘bud’ and opened his mouth to talk, but not before shoveling a spoonful of ice cream in his mouth.

“I know what I said was harsh and uncalled for and I understand if you can't forgive me, but there was a reason.” You nodded, continuing with your ice cream escapade.

“I want to start off by saying I love you. Ah- before you say anything, let me finish. I lied back then, I loved you then, and I love you now. And no matter what happens from here on out, a part of me will always love you.” The spoon had made it halfway into your mouth before you froze.

“I know I can’t blame what I did on someone else, but I never wanted to leave you, it really broke my heart to do that. To see you in shock and pain, it hurt me more than it hurt you. Whatever you felt, I felt ten times worse, believe me. I haven’t been well lately, I can’t seem to sleep because I always dream of you, and I can’t stand reliving what I did. I can’t keep food down and everything I do gets sloppy. That’s the only reason they're letting me do this right now.”

“Wait a minute... who’s they? Why can’t you do stuff? What are they doing to you? Lucas, if something is wrong, you can tell me, you know that right? If you’re in trouble or need help, I’m here. Okay?”

This earned a smile from him, but you were still worried, the frown never leaving your face. 

“Oh calm down,” he chuckled, “everything’s alright. Just eat your ice cream for now.” he said as he pushed the spoon towards your open mouth.

“I’m not in trouble, don’t worry about me. In fact that’s the last thing you should do for me. I don’t even deserve that.” He said with a sad smile. 

“It was my manager, they never liked our relationship. They said we had to break it off or the band would suffer. I should have never done what I did to you, but I couldn’t let the boys down after all they worked for. That's no excuse for how I told you though. I thought if I was harsh and mean, you would hate me and it would be easier for you, but I was wrong. I only ended up hating myself. I’m not asking for forgiveness or a second chance, only that you know why I did what I did. Although a boy can hope.” He chuckled sadly to himself at the last part, avoiding eye contact with you and grabbing the tub to shut himself up while he still could.

A minute of silence passed before either of you dared to move or say anything.

“You idiot! You could have told me, I would’ve understood!” You shouted smacking his chest repeatedly. It was a sight to see, a grown man getting smacked to death with a spoon hanging out of his mouth and eyes as wide as saucers.

After a bit more playful banter and some reconciliation you and Lucas sat on the couch content in each other's arms, for the first time in months. “Are you sure you’re not mad?” he asked, still timid.

“No, do you want me to be?” you giggled back. “Oh!” you gasped. “My paper! I know exactly what to write about now!” You looked over at Lucas who was staring at you with a hint of a smile sketched on his face and you gave him a peck.

“I’ll be right back!” yelling as you ran to your room, grabbing your laptop and making your way back to your spot against Lucas.

“Everything good?” He asked, digging his face into the crook of your neck.

“Yeah, everything’s good.” You whispered, smiling to yourself, knowing that Lucas’ explanation and decision may have been the factor in changing your answer. Maybe the world is made up of good people after all, it just may not be that obvious. 

© Copyright 2021. hyuckssunchip. All rights reserved.

[fauzhee10069]

JoJolion chapter 107 review (starring Higashikata Caato)

Why not? This chapter does star her.

We’re finally almost free from the crap of Caato’s hypes because she finally does something right now. This chapter is about her fight against Tooru and more about her character.

Previously related post: 

The Long-Awaited Most-Hyped Character Finally Made Her Appearance: Caato

MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD!! Don’t read more if you haven’t read the newest chapter (107) yet and don’t want to get spoiled!

JJL chapter 107: Kaato Higashikata's "Attack"

First, I’d like to try her recipe.

Actually, the reason she is in Higashikata’s house right now is to deliver Jobin’s favorite dish made by her… what a lovely mother. Too bad, instead she found her son’s dead body.

This actually should debunk some Caatofags silly idea of her as an evil person who doesn’t really care about her family. When it looks like more about Jobin, I think she does care to her daughters as well when she asked them to stay in their place.

Also, the speculation of Tooru’s tricking Caato also got debunked, obviously because Yasuho is there to tell her about what was really going on.

Yasuho in this chapter mostly just explains anything happened and her explanation regarding rock-humans and New Locacaca is because she has no reason to assume that Caato already knows about these things.

I like how Caato looks calm when Tooru was pointing knife (more like saw I think) at her, those tears in her eyes are still tears of grief over Jobin’s death, not due to her fear.

read it from left to right -->

That really sounds like a villain speech and it is said by Tooru. At this point I’m getting even more conviced that he is the true main villain of part 8.

Caato then revealed her Stand, the name is 「Space Trucking」 and I have explained its newest mechanism in my other post, so I won’t go in depth in discussing her Stand here. In short, she uses her Stand to hide some of Tooru’s limbs to incapacitate him.

Apparently, the one who called her “K-Kaato-san” in the last page of previous chapter was Yasuho and Tooru also knows about her (Caato). Just like what Maako, the girlfriend of Ojiro said that the news about her murdering a child 15 years ago is a well-known sensational news in Morioh, so it is not surprising if several characters in JJL know her.

I like Caato’s composure and softness here, kinda reminds me of Jolyne… yeah, she has been compared to Jolyne numerous times, her intro in prison is definitely a Jolyne’s reference. Araki once said that Norisuke IV is the JJL version of Josuke in part 4, as his elder counterpart so, what if Caato is also the elder counterpart of Jolyne in JJL? That kinda makes sense.

Caato already knows about the New Locacaca and so, does this mean that Caato was hiding another pot of the New Locacaca?? Or is that the same pot that Tooru and Yasuho had been fighting for in previous chapters?

My guess is that it is the ‘same’ pot, look how the pot that Caato reveals does not have any fruit either. I think Caato is just playing with her Stand’s ability while talking about the New Locacaca  or… perhaps, while she looks like she is playing, she actually manages to hide and steal a part of the plants(?)

Look, a flashback of Caato and Jobin! I think it officially becomes her trait to always barge in unannounced and startled whoever was in the room. They were in Jobin’s beetle collection room where he hid the New Locacaca there.

Look at the window that still looks intact there, then this flashback happened before the fight between Jobin-Tsurugi and Ojiro.

This is so wholesome this scene basically tells that no matter how old Jobin is he is still Caato’s baby.

Okay, I’m not into symbolization but now I want to talk about it just a moment, while this could be simply a JoJo thing that Jobin was wearing such impractical design for the sake of fashion, with that outfit he basically locked his own wrist which might symbolize of being handcuffed.

If you’re willing to take a look at the flashback scene in chapter 64, Jobin started wearing such outfit when he was a teenager right before Caato got caught by the police. Is this a form of Jobin's empathy for his mother who was in prison? Even though this symbolization is slightly missed because he was already wearing that outfit just before Caato got caught.

Told ya, the window still wasn't broken yet.

So, Jobin eventually told everything to his mom, about the New Locacaca, its equivalent exchange ability, the orchard burning and Tsurugi’s involvement.. and the most important thing that’s being revealed here is that the sap has the same power as the fruit! Those beetles show that we don’t necessarily need to have the fruit to get the effect of perfect equivalent exchange!!

Also, this actively debunk those wild theory of Caato being the mastermind of everything, she did not seem to possess any Locacaca before, she did not know the existence of the New Locacaca (and possibly about the rock-humans either), she did not know what truly happened during the orchard burning, she doesn't look like she is a secret rock-wahmen either, etc.

She is not as mighty as those Caatofags want her to be, however…

…her character remains consistent since the early of her introduction, that she actually had a conflicting view with Norisuke IV regarding the family’s ethic and moral value. This is about what we call “selflessness vs selfishness” again, and Caato’s view is more dominant in influencing Jobin.

Caato is not the mastermind controlling Jobin like a puppet like those Caatofags was promoting. Everything Jobin has done in this story is of his own will, starting from his cooperation with rock-humans, the struggle of the New Locacaca and the burning orchards. However, Jobin's way of thinking, motivation and ambition have been influenced by Caato's views and how she has nurtured him.

And in this chapter, Caato is being supportive towards Jobin like she had always been (read: chapter 59 and 64). Plus, Caato and Jobin’s Stand names being references to Deep Purple’s songs may signify their close relationship.

Looks like she just basically activated her Stand on the plant, it could be hidden whenever someone tried to come and get it but it wasn’t truly activated, at least that’s what the translation implies.

read it from right to left <---

「Wonder of U」 starts appearing behind Caato, does it mean that Caato really start harming Tooru? Another new feat of her Stand’s ability that it is able to fully hide a living being, which she uses to hide her grandson Tsurugi.

She makes Tooru to do equivalent exchange with dying Tsurugi while 「Wonder of U」is seen rushing towards Caato… end in cliffhanger. Probably my favorite page here. Basically, what Caato does is ‘two birds in one stone’ movement, breaking the Higashikata family’s curse by saving her grandson while eliminating Tooru.

And what could happen next?

My thought…

This chapter shows how awesome Caato truly is, starting from her soft side as a mother to her toughness against the enemy.

Araki is really doing her well, I thought there was no need to turn her into an antagonist with great power/influence or a silly plot twist that this unassuming grannie is the mastermind behind anything.

Caatofags had once described her as a mother who directs Jobin like a puppet and supervises Tooru as her subordinate whereas in reality, Araki has been portraying the three of them in a more balanced way rather than one being above anothers.

I really like her relationship with Jobin, I once said that they would make good partners if they were to be the final antagonists after Tooru, but sadly at this point I feel that Jobin is permanently dead.

There won’t be Yoshihiro-Yoshikage(like)’s cooperation against Josuke in this part… however, Caato continues to carry out her supportive role towards Jobin by trying to fulfill his main goal of curing Tsurugi and breaking the family curse.

Even so far, I haven't considered Caato as an antagonist, I still think of her as a 'wild card' for Josuke and Yasuho.

The mystery and next chapter prediction…

If this goes well, it looks like Caato's action in doing equivalent exchange to Tooru and Tsurugi will succeed in curing Tsurugi. The cracks on Tsurugi's face seemed to be diminishing. But with the 「Wonder of U」 following behind her, it shows that Caato's life too is in danger.

Then what will happen to the fully healed Tsurugi? Considering that the fusion happened to Josefumi and Kira does not make any of them 'alive' with their consciousness and instead creates a new consciousness we called “Josuke”, the new Tsurugi might not be the Tsurugi we know all along.

Besides, the equivalent exchange that happened on Tooru and Tsurugi is an exchange between rock-human and normal human and so far we still don't know what the effect will be. Will this be the answer to Tsurugi's weird behavior in the flashforward of chapter 83?

Then I also questioned about the harvest countdown of the New Locacaca in the flashforward, that in the previous chapter (106), the fruit in the pot was already gone. But in this chapter, there could be a possibility that Caato might hide the other parts of the plant (perhaps some branches) using her cards.

I think that there is starting to appear a slight hint linking the current events to the flashforward in chapter 83.

[moonlitgleek]

Thank god someone finally said it! Catelyn was a HORRIBLE wife, a worse mother, and an even worse person. The most tragic and overlooked aspect of Ned's story is that he got saddled with her. It made his life miserable, and brought ruin to his house and seven kingdoms as a whole. Getting his head cut off might even be a mercy compared to coming back home and living the rest of his life with THAT. Then again, if it weren't for her, his head wouldn't have been cut in the first place.

Sometimes I really hate this damn site.

You know, it’s people like you that cripple discussion of nuanced or complicated characters through the tendency to take every bit of criticism as a confirmation of your hate and an invitation to spew it all over everyone. I shouldn’t be wary of openly criticizing a character for fear that those who hate them would misconstrue my words and use it to fuel their nonsense arguments, which happens near every time I think to criticize someone, especially when it’s a female character. Even when I specifically say that that I don’t think this character a bad person like in this case. Did you miss the last paragraph of my post? Did you miss the entirety of @secretlyatargaryen‘s post? Because it has been reiterated that Cat is not a bad person or a bad mother. The point is not to bash Catelyn as you seem interested in doing but to point out that her actions with Jon are wrong and that they affected more than just Jon. But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that someone who calls a woman “that” as if she is some thing and who seems invested in blaming her for everything she does is only interested in using our criticism to disparage and vilify Cat.

By the way, your message is as factually inaccurate as it is disgusting, anon. Let’s break it down.

Fallacy #1: Ned was saddled with Catelyn.

In a society that cares not a whit about women’s consent or feelings, it’s almost amusing that you think that it’s the man who gets saddled with the woman. Between Ned and Catelyn, guess which one had any kind of power in the situation? Ned. Hoster Tully might have demanded that Ned honor the betrothal to Catelyn as a price for his support in the war but it was still Ned’s choice to accept or refuse. But the rebels needed the Riverlands if they wanted to win the war, you say. Sure, and Ned made a choice for strategic reasons, but he still had the space to make the choice. Do you think that Catelyn did? Do you think Hoster bothered to ask her if she minded marrying the brother of the guy that she has been betrothed to for years and grew up expecting to marry? Do you think he bothered to consider that it’s callous to marry his daughter off so soon after her betrothed died and to his own brother? And even if he did, a woman who was raised with Family, Duty, Honor so hammered into her psyche and who, like every other woman in Westeros, was raised on how her place was to marry someone of her father’s choosing stands no chance. The system is broken and Catelyn Tully is as much its victim as any other woman in Westeros.

Fallacy #2: Catelyn made Ned miserable and his death was a mercy compared to being with her.

What an egregious (and delusional) thing to say that Ned is better off dead than being with the woman he loves and the children he adores. What an awful thing to say that anything pertaining to Ned’s death is a mercy. The man’s death was a knife to the hearts of his wife and children, but you think it’s better for him than the company of the wife he literally spends a book yearning for. That’s messed up.

I don’t know what book you’ve read or what you’re basing your claims on, but in my copy, Ned Stark is a man who clearly loves and values his wife as a person. He builds a sept for her because he respects her and wants her to have the comfort of her gods. There is a great deal of affection and comfort that shines through their interactions, and clear evidence in Catelyn’s second chapter in AGoT that Ned seeks and enjoys her company. In my copy, I see a guy who shows tremendous political trust in his wife that he leaves Winterfell and the North in her hands when he leaves with the expectation that she would continue Robb’s education and who trusts her to start mobilizing the Northern banners. I see a guy who reacts in wonderment to seeing Catelyn in King’s Landing, and constantly reflects on how he wishes he is with her during his tenure as Hand. I see Catelyn occupying Ned’s thoughts in his imprisonment that one of his regrets is that he’ll never see her again. If that’s being miserable, sign me up. For more of Ned’s so-called misery in his marriage, please refer to this post.

But Jon Snow, right? Yes, but Jon Snow. Jon’s presence has always been a point of conflict between Ned and Cat but that does not change the nature of their relationship. No one says that a loving happy marriage doesn’t have its problems or that it has to be perpetually conflict-free. Also, don’t forget that Jon’s presence in Winterfell was by Ned’s own decision. I’m not saying that Ned was wrong to bring Jon to Winterfell and I’m very sympathetic to his reasons and respectful of his desire to do right by an innocent child, I have a lot of respect for the man precisely because he acted as a father to Jon and gave him a family. But I’m under no illusion that this didn’t come at Catelyn’s expense, which is something that Ned himself was aware of. I am critical of how Cat treated Jon Snow, but it’s important to see that she wasn’t in the best situation either, because this is just another sign of how little control or say she had, even in her own home. The entire situation was inherently imperfect but while I do fault Cat for taking out her lack of control on the one person who had less control that she did and who also happens to be an innocent child, I’m not unsympathetic to her pain and anger over Ned’s indiscretions or to her fear for her children. The patriarchy says that Catelyn should accept that her husband would cheat on her, that this is a situation that she has to accept and has no right to change because her husband has the power, that she can’t be angry and resentful of Ned for the situation. For the sake of her marriage, for the sake of her children, Catelyn had to let go of her anger towards Ned but that anger does not disappear just because she pushed it down, so she redirected it onto the living reminder of her husband’s nominal infidelity who also happens to be a reminder of her lack of control. That is not an excuse for her actions with Jon that are objectively wrong but it is an explanation that shows that Catelyn is not inherently a bad person. She is a victim of her society and its social construct, which is one reason that makes her abuse of Jon gutting to me, since Jon is also a victim of their society and its social construct. Cat took her own disadvantage on the one person who was more disadvantaged than her. I can’t fault anyone for having negative feelings towards her over that particular situation since she was essentially kicking down at Jon and taking her problems out on a child, but this is far more complicated than “Catelyn is an evil person”.

Fallacy #3: Catelyn was a bad mother and person.

People are more complicated than the binary of “infallible” and “monster” that you seem to be operating on. Good people can make grievous mistakes regardless of their good intentions, and it’s not like those mistakes suck out their morality with them. Catelyn’s parenting wasn’t perfect. She pressures Arya to conform out of a conventional viewpoint and a desire to see her daughter lead a good life (as does Ned, btw), but ends up harming Arya. Her grief over Bran’s fall and coma and her exhaustion in keeping a vigil by his bedside puts pressure on Robb and hurts Rickon. Her abuse of Jon echoes through the family and inadvertently hurts her own children. Even the well-intentioned fail sometimes. Would you care to hear about the times Ned did too?

However, it remains that Catelyn’s entire character is build around her love for her family and her dedication to her children. She throws herself between an armed man and her comatose child with no thought to her life. She is constantly tormented by her distance from Bran and Rickon and blames herself for not being there for them. She is literally the only one who thinks that Sansa and Arya’s lives are worth trading against Jaime Lannister’s. She wants nothing but to send Robb to safety when she meets up with his army but recognizes that this would be extremely bad for his position. She bargains for Robb’s life while injured and spares no thought to her own life in the process. She refuses to accept that Arya is dead and holds out hope for her return. She champions Robb’s cause and does her level best to guide him, but also affords him space to grown on his own and is greatly proud of his leadership. No, I don’t consider Cat a bad parent at all, even with her mistakes. Those errors were a result of parental frailty and misguided protectiveness.

Questioning Cat’s personality in general doesn’t hold up either. She defends and befriends Brienne. She tries to reassure Edmure that their father loves and is proud of him. She feels guilty after Rickard Karstark kills the Lannister prisoners and feels his accusations acutely. She empathizes with Jeyne and reassures her of her place despite her displeasure with the marriage. She feels sadness for Mya Stone’s innocence over her doomed love with Mychel Redfort. There are places where Cat’s empathy fail her but if I denounce everyone who has a moment of failed empathy or who ever does a morally questionable thing, I’d be dismissing every single character in this entire series as a bad person. There are no perfect people in GRRM’s narrative, so what makes Cat’s imperfections specifically worthy of condemnation?

Fallacy #4: Catelyn should be blamed for Ned’s death, the ruin of House Stark and the Seven Kingdoms.

Right. Tyrion’s arrest. That did not start the war because the war was already in the works before the royal family even arrives in Winterfell.

I’m growing increasingly irritated with the tendency to blame any random Stark for the war which builds on deliberate dismissal of what everyone else was doing that led to the war. Sorry to say but the war was inevitable even if Catelyn never seizes Tyrion. It was inevitable because Stannis knew that the royal children were illegitimate and was preparing for war. It was inevitable because Renly knew that the royal children were illegitimate and was preparing for his own takeover. That guarantees a showdown with Tywin and the rest of the Lannisters no matter what, and puts Stannis and Renly on opposite sides. Don’t forget that Littlefinger and Varys were invested in pitting the Starks and the Lannisters against each other for their own gain as well. The entire situation was a powder keg waiting to blow long before any Stark stepped a foot in King’s Landing.

Blaming Catelyn, or any Stark really, for the War of the Five Kings and all it brought only serves to exonerate those who are responsible for it. Jaime and Cersei have an affair, pass their children as royal heirs and kill to maintain that fallacy. Jaime pushes Bran out of a window and Joffrey tries to have him killed. Cersei plots to have Robert killed and puts her plan into motion before Ned even finds out about the twincest. Baelish encourages Lysa to poison Jon Arryn and frame the Lannisters, then lies about the owner of the dagger used in the attempt of Bran’s life. He betrays Ned to Cersei and conspires till he gets Joffrey to kill Ned. Tywin Lannister sends men to burn and pillage the Riverlands, then plans with the Freys and the Boltons to murder Robb and his army at a wedding. Balon Greyjoy decides that avenging himself on a dead man is the height of power and embarks on an idiotic campaign in the North. Theon betrays the Starks and seizes Winterfell. Imagine having all that awfulness and all these contributing players to the war, but somehow finding the war Catelyn’s fault. Yes, I know the reasoning is that her arrest of Tyrion put the Starks and the Lannisters in open conflict and “made” Tywin attack the Riverlands. Except that Catelyn is not responsible for the fact that the Lannister go-to method is to commit war crimes and go stabby. A normal person could have protested Tyrion’s arrest to the king and painted the Starks as the aggressors but no, Tywin Lannister makes his own laws and he chooses to take it out on the Tullys’ smallfolk. That’s on him. Also, are we going to pretend that the Starks and the Lannisters weren’t already poised for a conflict after two attacks on Bran’s life? Or that Ned’s discovery of the twincest and his execution on Joffrey’s orders wasn’t going to drag the Starks into the war anyway?

Fun fact: of all the fighting factions in the War of the Five Kings, it’s Catelyn Stark who tries repeatedly to put a stop to the war. She pleads for peace in Robb’s council. She tries to broker an alliance between Robb and Renly, and points out that no one but Robb is doing a thing to protect the people against the Lannisters. She tries to get the Baratheon brothers to unify and reach an accord because common sense says that they all of them have the same enemy, and their conflict benefits no one but the Lannisters. Catelyn does not start the war, but she sure tries to end it. Sadly, no one listens to her.

Now please don’t come to me again with your victim-blaming, character bashing arguments.

[rabidfangirlteehee]

Harry Potter rewrite

A lot of the time when I look at fanfiction I kind of think of it as an alternative to read because the original exists. As in I don’t necessarily think Slytherin Harry is better than Griffindor Harry but because Harry is in Gryffindor in cannon Slytherin Harry is fun to explore.

So I started to wonder what would I change about canon if it couldn’t be changed back. If hypothetically I could change the story and what was originally there wouldn’t exist only this book series would exist. What would I do?

So first of all I would give Hermione an arc. There are characters that I think have good setups for arcs but weren’t fully explored. Hermione is one of them. She didn’t technically have an arc over the course of the series. She had an arc in the first book where she learnt that being a good student and clever and respectful of authority isn’t always the most important or valuable thing to be. But despite this her willingness to break the rules is still commented on as if its a big moment for her going against rules and authority. Sure Hermione isn’t the type to vocally sass authority figures like Harry or Ron. But she lit Snape on fire without a second thought in the first book. And has done something or another rebellious on her own accord in pretty much every book. Wouldn’t really say its an arc overall. Often it seems less like she grew or changed but rather you saw a side to her that didn’t exist. Which is fine. But since she does have a good set up for an arc I want to go with it.

Hermione is great but she’s not the best people person. She is usually bad at empathy she tries not to be but it leads her to be accidentally insensitive more so than other kids her age. This can be forgivable if you know where she’s coming from and are understanding of her as a person. But its hard to do that before you know that and kids aren’t always the most understanding bunch. So rather than becoming automatic best friends after the Troll incident what happens is that Harry Ron and Hermione get closer.

They still aren’t the trio yet but the duo with Hermione third wheeling. Her becoming closer to them is an arc with them slowly bonding more with shared experiences and realizing they have more in common than they thought. She is still more involved in their schemes than others but because she’s not automatic best friend she’s not always the one Harry and Ron go to. This also lends a way for Harry and Ron to get close to other students and bond with them too. 

Hermione in the meantime does struggle to get people to understand her better. She’s not the best at communicating her feelings and thoughts and sometimes just does things. She’s most usually right but maintaining relationships aren’t really about who was most right in a situation. But as they get to know her better despite the hiccups she learns to explain herself better and while she never gets the best people skills they grow to understand her better and appreciate her efforts and push others to do the same.

Secondly Draco and other Slytherins. Draco had sorta a redemption near the end by showing he really wasn’t into this Voldemort stuff, and by not telling Bellatrix about Harry in disguise. He also ends up marrying someone in canon whose views go against the views he was raised with and he embraces those views and rejects his parents views. So clearly the intention that he would change for the better but it wasn’t really explored and it happened so near the end it left less of an impact. This is also true for the not all Slytherins are evil idea. I think that was Rowling’s intention but showing good Slytherin’s happens too close to the end so it feels more like exceptions to the rule. So instead we can see moments where Harry sees Slytherins being good decent people and not bigots. So we can acknowledge while some are and they do have influence and power they aren’t all Slytherins or even necessarily most. So we can acknowledge the names of the ones who are bigots and the ones who aren’t the ones who aren’t can even help out Harry occasionally and make temporary groups with Harry for certain issues happening in school. Overtime while Draco maintains a rivilry with Harry you can see him back away from his bigoted beliefs in his behavior, the language he uses, and the friends he has even changing the minds of certain people who used to be bigoted. He might end up either running away from home in his summer over 5th year rather than joining the death eaters. This could also help him parallel Sirius. I personally see Draco in canon as what could have happened to Sirius had he not been exposed to people like James sooner. His exposure to ideas that challenged what he had known as true led him to question more things at an early age.  As a consequence of this Lucius is killed but he Narcissa and Draco discuss it beforehand. That staying is a bad idea that even though there may be consequences they will be fine but despite that Draco should leave. Draco is led to believe they will both survive. He is just a kid he wants to believe that he wants to trust in that so he does. But as they do this Narcissa and Lucius both know that at least one if not both of them will end up dead. Its not that Lucius suddenly decided everything Voldemort stood for was wrong but Voldemort was tyrannical and controlling enough that he didn’t want his son involved despite the fact that tensions were higher between them due to Draco’s beliefs conflicting with his own and that becoming more apparent. Perhaps it was because of that it felt more necessary with beliefs like that Draco was doomed by staying. 

So he ends up running away and when he does Dumbledore has him hide in Grimmauld place. While he might come back 5th year he may refuse to in his 6th year or very occasionally have to leave school due to close calls and hide out at Grimmauld place. To explore more of his similarities to Sirius, Sirius ends up living and mentoring both Harry and Draco somewhat in addition to finally becoming a free man. So he can still be an asset in book 6 and 7 as he survives the war ( as does Remus). Draco is devastated by the consequences of running away but stands by it as if he goes back now his father would have died for nothing.

Next would be Snape. Snape’s redemption in Harry’s eyes always bothered me because it seemed to just be because Snape loved Lilly. I mean perhaps that’s sympathetic. But its lets sympathetic if you consider that its the only reason he went against Voldemort. There is nothing to indicate that his beliefs changed at anypoint. Or that he resented the work he did for Voldemort. Only that he resented Voldemort for killing Lilly.  But to see him as truly sympathetic and to believe that he was redeemed in Harry’s eyes that change in beliefs is very important. 

Another thing that bothered me in the series was how the love potion was handled. It wasn’t explored much in story. But it did strike me as odd how casual everyone treated it when it effectively is just the imperius with a dose of infatuation and the imperius is framed as so awful. Actual incidents referring to people using it aren’t that common. Molly mentions using it casually Romilda Vane uses it and its mostly shown in a comedic light till Ron is poisoned. The only way it’s really shown with any importance is with Merope Gaunt.

Merope had a horrific life and wanted and escape. She had the means to use a love potion to make Tom Riddle Sr. be with her so she did. This is pretty much brainwashing. Dumbledore even said both the imperius and love potion were options and that Merope probably used love potion solely because it would have seemed more romantic to her. However what is focused on here is mostly the heartbreak she suffered after she realized the love she was getting wasn’t really loved and wanted the real thing having never received it. And once Tom Sr. rejected her she lost the will to live and refused to use magic. Her pain his highlighted while her victims feelings aren’t really considered at all. Which is a bit yikes. So I would put in a longer first chapter in book 4. It would begin with Tom Riddle Sr coming back after his random romance with this girl no one even knew really existed and people were surprised he eloped with. They weren’t surprised he broke things off with her they couldn’t even explain why he left with her in the first place. Neither could he. But people didn’t bring it up much. He seemed pretty disturbed by the whole relationship. He’d come back changed much less social and more neurotic. It was a weirdly dramatic shift people were sure she’d done something to him but no one could figure out what. He wouldn’t speak of it. He grew withdrawn outside of his family he only communicated with one person. The gardener Frank. He was always very kind to Frank they got along great. So people were horrified when Frank was arrested for killing the Riddle family. Even though he was released people believed he had done it. The shade being thrown wasn’t only for killing his employers who were prolific members of the community but for betraying a broken man who trusted him. After that the end of the chapter plays out similarly with Frank in his old age going to investigate the abandoned Manor coming across Voldemort and Pettigrew discussing the Triwizard cup and being killed by Voldemort.

The last huge arc I would add is Molly. Molly is an overprotective at times controlling Mother whose entire family is involved in a covert war and constantly worries about the death of her family members. Her arc can involve her understanding that she can’t protect her children forever realizing that by trying to keep them safe by being controlling she could push them into rebelling in very dangerous impulsive ways they may have not otherwise have considered.

So firstly Percy doesn’t side with Fudge he sides with Dumbledore. He is very eager of approval and recognition and acceptance from people who he respects. But he respects Dumbledore and his parents more than Fudge and has always been the good child the obedient one. 

Instead of him leaving the Twins leave after having a fight about the direction of their future. Despite the fact that Molly is no longer keen on the Ministry her trying to push them to be something they are not has had an impact. The last summer she did ruin the inventions they’d be working on all summer. That would be a very big deal I think at their age. And she has been against their aspirations which can weigh down on them At home the rest are acting out more.

The more freaked out Molly gets the more controlling she gets to keep the kids safe and fights to stop the younger ones( Ron and Ginny) from getting involved shes also nervous about Bill and Charlie getting involved and has some tension with Bill over Fleur. Harry also rejects her attempt to keep him from Order related information.

But eventually she realizes even in intense times she still cant protect them forever. And by talking to Sirius realizes that by trying to push them away she might make them rebel and do something real stupid. So she reconciles with Fred and George and supports all of her kids joining the fight even if she’s scared she thinks it’s a worthy cause. 

Percy dies and is the only one who didn’t rebel and didn’t push for independence instead pushing for recognition and appreciation from authority figures he respected rather than following his own wishes. So his death will weigh on her on her worst days. She wonders that unlike the rest of them what if he fought only to meet expectations? Its left ambiguous if her fears are founded or not.

I considered killing off Fred too.

If Fred also died she’d have to do her best to stop George from slipping into depression and get involved in the joke shop finally come to understand the twins while the fact that her stubbornness kept her from being able to show this understanding before Fred died would constantly eat away at her. And honestly I kinda just want to give Molly a break here typing this out is honestly making me really depressed. So just Percy not Fred.

Finally we get to the epilogue and romantic relationships. So my main thing with the epilogue was I cared less about who they ended up with or who their kids and more about what their lives were like .

So for Harry I always thought that him becoming the permanent Defense teacher at Hogwarts would be the biggest snub to Voldemort. Since he got to have Hogwarts as his home when Voldemort wanted to but couldn’t and got the position he wanted to and couldn’t. Plus after all that stuff with Voldemort maybe he’d want something peaceful. As for his romantic relationships.

Harry and Cho go out for longer but don’t workout because both just have too many things to work on but they do remain friends. Harry’s love life is left ambiguous you see several people he had chemistry with but it’s unknown who he’s with or if he’s with anyone. Harry and Ginny never become a thing.

Ron and Hermione however do become a couple Ron is an auror Hermione went into Magical Law. Ron with his desire to not be ordinary and ambitious nature chooses to stay as an Auror and doesn’t help out at the joke shop its not necessary anyway Fred is still alive.

The three have become closer friends with Draco and the non bigot slytherin kids he is friends with. You will see them bonding a lot book 5 onwards but Harry Ron and Hermione were still closer to each other than Draco and his friends. Draco becomes a healer who works at St. Mungo’s.

Bill and Fleur still end up together but not Lupin and Tonks.

Tonks like Lupin and Sirius also survives 

Lupin ends up moving in with Sirius permanently and are a confirmed couple. I always thought he and Tonks came out of nowhere and it seemed like their only function as a couple seemed like it was to die so there would be another orphan from the war at least to me. Plus Lupin seemed so hesitant to be with her. Sirius and Lupin on the other hand have a well established relationships lived together for a time period and give joint gifts. Plus I personally love that Draco gets character growth spurred on by them too. Sirius goes on to teach Transfiguration at Hogwarts after Mcgonnigal becomes headmistress ( she can’t do both and who better to teach it than a guy who became an unregistered animagus before he was 15 ). 

Hagrid retires from teaching to become specifically just the gameskeeper and Lupin takes the care of Magical creatures class. Even when he did teach Defense he seemed to have a tendency to explore magical creatures associated with dark arts. Once a month he is out of commission and when he is Charlie Weasely comes by to substitute as a side job.

As for next gen kids Bill and Fleur already have a couple kids in the epilogue but it takes place much earlier than when the canon epilogue does. So they are still very young and not old enough to go to Hogwarts yet. Hermione and Ron don’t have kids but Hermione has recently been very invested in this program about reaching out to magical children with non magical guardians to offer support  and recently they’ve started reaching out to magical orphanages. So its hinted that Ron and Hermione might end up adopting a magical kid.

The rest of the remaining couples and children remain unconfirmed.

Incidentally if I did add a random couple that came out of nowhere with no basis it would be Fred and Tonks who hooked up years after the series ended based on events you never get to see.

[cartoonfangirl1218]

Winner’s Curse Ch. 11

Yep this is a long one, and I’m sorry since it’s mainly an exposition chapter. But I was trying to set up familial ties and character dynamics and inner conflict so it kinda came out like this...Though I’ll admit it may not be the best, I still enjoy it and I hope you do too. Especially with the obscure references. I hope someone can guess whose children, the new characters that appear at the very end are. 

“Did you get any news last night?” Aziz sighed when he saw Jordan’s pinched frown.

It was early dawn and the small group was waking up to the smell of stale coffee, the garbage cans, and preparing to start the day.

They had been at it for four days now. Jordan, Jay in his goon disguise Calix magicked up for him, and Calix would leave to meet Uma at the castle and look around for any important documents and spy, always coming back around midnight or later when he and Lala were already fast asleep from full day of frustration and confusion.

Their days were like the blind leading the blind since Aziz didn’t know anything or anyone here, and Lala didn’t frequent the urban section of the Isle enough to know who to potential recruit or where anything was.

They did the best they could with mixed results. Asking questions like “Where is the Aladdin-hating club?” or “Do you want to overthrow tyranny?” was met with suspicion. To be fair, most questions Aziz asked were met with suspicion, even what he thought were innocent ones like the bathroom. He still hadn’t got an answer to that last one and he was a bit concerned.

They had tried following particularly bad-tempered and miserable folks to see if they could be goaded into joining a revolution, but it was clear that no matter how unhappy people were, they weren’t willing to fight against the Coven.

Yesterday, they broke through with one small lead. That lots of minor followers like the Forty Thieves and Hun soldiers, and Hook’s crew liked to go to Gaston’s bar, and tended to have loose lips about their bosses’ going-ons after three kegs of beer. Aziz was hoping in their alcohol-fueled state, they would divulge where to find big guns like Clayton or Morgana. Or at least rile them up to join their people’s revolt.

Jay stretched and yawned, and rubbed the dusty window pane that showed the backroom of Jafar’s Junk Shop. The alleyway behind it was their current sleeping place.

Aziz had wanted to ask why they didn’t just sleep inside since it had been confirmed that the Coven members rarely left Maleficent’s castle and that Jafar’s Junk Shop had been closed for weeks. There was no chance of them getting caught but he sensed that would be a sensitive topic.

There was a certain sort of sadness, nostalgia and perhaps even fear that crossed Jay’s face whenever he peered through the windows which was quite often. Usually when he thought no one was looking.

But Aziz was always observing people around him. He just found it fascinating to watch people’s quirks. Those quirks were always so telling of what people, and usually hinted at something going on beneath the surface of those perfect princess smiles or in this case, the suave confidence of a thief.

From what little he knew of Jay’s relationship with his father was that though Jafar had been neglectful, Jay had idolized the man and was still having a hard time breaking away from all the lessons he had been taught and encouraged over the years such as focusing on himself and viewing relationships as a give-and-take rather than a bond of mutual trust and equality.

Perhaps Jay was remembering his childhood sitting in that junk shop with useless shiny baubles, waiting for praise to be turned away to  get something better.

But Aziz’ thoughtful imaginings of the potential inner workings of Jay’s mind soured as he saw Jay take another discreet glance around the group to see if anyone was watching, looked directly past him, and then turned to look through the window again.

Maybe Jay did know Aziz was watching but didn’t care.

It wouldn’t be the first time someone looked right through Aziz. After all, he was apparently a forgettable despite the prestige behind his parentage and what he thought were moderately sizzling good looks.

Very rarely was he featured in Auradon news. Is name was always behind more well-known princes like Chad and Ben or even behind Doug since the media loved the story of the Evil Queen’s daughter falling in love with a dwarf.

It was the same in his own kingdom. He was the third child, third for the throne. Well, second since Zahrat formally relinquished any rights to becoming sultana to Cassima. And he doubted Cassima would ever tire of the job of being Sultana.

It was not like he wanted to be Sultan, but since he was not heir to the throne, people didn’t pay much attention. He wasn’t like the other princes who had royal training for ruling and their marriages and lives planned out.

He was on his own, and his pursuits of parkour, and people-watching and the occasional theft was not that interesting enough to make him stand out.

Unless it was Jay who did it. When Jay did parkour or thievery, people immediately noticed it was he. People easily recognized his swagger and smirk.

Whereas he was a pale imitation of his father, and inferior skill set to Jay to boot.

That’s why Jordan chose him to scour the streets of the Isle without a disguise. In her words, “Aziz you’re great at blending in with a crowd, no one will even notice you. They’ll just think you’re the son of one of the forty thieves or something.”

He blended with the crowd. He looked like any other prince. Like any other thief. Forgettable.

“Day 4 of Castle Reconnaissance has brought no new results. It sucks.” Jordan sighed dramatically, and turned around to pace by the dead-end of the alleyway, tapping at the earchip Carlos had given her. “I’m going to talk Ben and Evie,and see what we should do next if results don’t come quickly.”

“Fine, can you at least give me some baklava before I head out?” Aziz asked which Jordan casually did with a snap of her fingers and a warm piece of baklava appeared in his hands.

“Oh, you’re talking to Ben and Evie. What did the say about Uma?” Jay jumped up to join her and Aziz rolled his eyes.

Jay was still admentally against Jordan’s decision to team up with Uma, and had been hoping the two would agree with him that it was a bad decision and no matter what happened, they wouldn’t help her or Harry or the rest of her crew off the Isle.

However, Ben and Evie both were of the mind to give Uma, and her crew a chance since Ben felt like she had a valid point of how he had broken his pledge to invite other kids off the Isle. Evie believed that every teen on the Isle deserved a chance to grow their potential in Auradon, and that everyone included Uma.

Aziz did agree with Jay that it was probably a bad idea to trust Uma, and an even worse one to promise her a chance to go to Auradon, but he trusted Jordan more. She wasn’t naive, and she undoubtedly was inwardly preparing herself for ways to combat an inevitable betrayal. He also knew that Jordan was still insecure about her role as leader and was probably glad to latch on to Uma who was so put-together and already a respected captain.

“Finally, you’re ready.” Lala got up from where she was polishing her spear, dangerously close to the nose of a still-sleeping Calix.

“Well, you know how it is, I’m a pampered prince. I don’t wake at sunrise like you common hunters.” Aziz faked the haughty air that Chad often used which Lala answered with an eye-roll and mock curtsey.

Surprisingly, he and Lala had settled into a comfortable rapport despite only knowing each other for a week and forced to complete a fruitless, irritating task together.

They worked efficiently together, studying potential targets to follow and ask, and shared the bond of being bored and hangry as they walked through the dusty, surprisingly cold streets. They even shared some jokes over some exceptionally dumb sidekicks getting the boot or wonderings of how one could stoicly walk around with a six arrow embedded into their shoulder like a pincushion. She called him a pampered prince and he jokingly humored her by acting the part.                        

It probably helped that Lala didn’t think much of him to treat him with hostility.

On the second day of their recruiting mission together, she made a joke, and Aziz didn’t stop himself from saying, “The jungle princess is capable of joking?”

Lala shrugged and replied, “Well, you’re not much of a threat to me. I can relax. I mean you’re so quiet and not such a loud-mouth fake like Jay or anything really. You’re like…. hmm like a sidekick. You observe. You’re not going to outshine me or be able to go up against anyone.”

“He was so quiet.” “Not a threat.” Not like Jay who always managed to draw attention. He didn’t come up with witty lines on the spot like his father.

He was like a supporting character. Friendly, smart, capable of surprising people, but not very special.

He tried. Allah knew he tried. He maintained his grades. He was great at conversation with adults, he studied up on foreign affairs and he could charm diplomats with his mom like a pro. He did tourney and he practiced as much as he could, but he didn’t want to get so over muscled as Herkie as to not being able to perform his usual flips through Agrabah’s alleyways. He loved to go to the dances, and going on adventures in the dunes with some street rats during vacation. He did all the things that fellow royals did, his father did, all the heros did.

And the secret thing was that though he had fun, he always felt like an exhausted, nervous wreck after every single event.

He was never able to stop his mind from thinking during the conversation. Thinking of what he was going to say, if what he wanted to say was stupid or lame, what if the other person got offended, what did the person mean. He would think of a bunch of conversational scenarios, ones geared toward topics he knew, and witty remarks he could use, but those never went into effect because it felt awkward to try. He didn’t want to appear like he was trying too hard.

He was only able to relax and stop those racing thoughts with people he had known for years like his family or Ben and Lonnie. But with others..he always ended up listening more than talking.

He was perfectly fine listening to people. He didn’t feel the need to add useless, extraneous remarks just so he could talk. He would talk when he had something meaningful to say. That’s why he and Jordan got along so well because when she felt like it, she could talk for hours and Aziz could listen to it.

When he listened to others talk about a school scandal, he could hear all the different views and biases and piece together what happened, he could analyze their actions and motives, and why they were reacting in a certain way. It was like a psychological puzzle, and standing behind and listening allowed him to glean more information and more pieces to add in. 

For example, everyone saw that Audrey had dyed her hair to match her mother, and assumed it was ‘save face’ after Ben publicly dumped her for Mal, pretending she was over it. Aziz had seen Queen Leah berate Audrey, and surmised that the hair dye was less a reputational pressure but at the influence of familial pressure.  

Jordan said he was an amateur psychoanalyst which amused her because she liked listening to his theories about the motives of their classmates; Yet it annoyed her when the tables turned and he tried to encourage her to talk about her feelings like a normal person. She always shut it down with, “Not now, Sherlock Freud. Analyzing me is off-limits.”

Yet in this world, he was required to contribute to the conversation or else, people would forget he was there. Being the backgrounder he was he already heard other students discuss party invitations and he was left off the list since he was ‘boring” and ‘just there.” On the other hand, he was also invited to parties for the same reason. He was so forgettable that it didn’t matter to people if he was in the room or if he wasn’t.

Rationally, he knew he wasn’t boring. He had great stories to tell, and if anyone asked, he would take them for an adventure of a lifetime in the dunes of Agrabah, and teach them tips to tame wild horses, but that wasn’t how people saw him. People usually went by first impressions, and he wasn’t interesting enough to warrant a deeper look.

Though he tried to change and be outgoing as was expected for a prince- He asked his dad for advice under the guise of flirting tips, he memorized Genie’s standup routines, he forced himself to attend every one of the Tourney teams fundraising events, games, and afterparties- But he was always outshone by the other extroverted people in the room. He could act outgoing, but it was always harder for him. It was never going to be enough compared to those who were naturally outgoing. There was always going to be someone better than him.

“Aziz,” Lala snapped her fingers in front of him, “Stop zoning out, and let’s go to the bar.” “You know where the bar is? Yesterday, you said you knew where the docks were and led us to Facilier’s shop.” Aziz said. “It smelled like sea water.” Lala defended.

“It was bayou water. I’m pretty sure bayou water should smell different than sea water.” Aziz retorted.

“Whatever. I do know where Gaston’s bar is though. I have actually been there before, and you find it by following the crowd.” Lala nodded toward what was indeed a large crowd of shuffling, drunk-looking men and women shoving each other to enter the large front entrance that boasted moose antlers in front.  

Due to their healthier bodies and sober states, Aziz and Lala were easily able to edge through the sluggish crowd and enter the vast bar area with its permanently wet and sticky floor, numerous wooden tables and roaring French-styled fireplace.

Lala didn’t slow down, tugging Aziz’ arm to go to the backroom where another door led them to a junkyard with more tables, and a hastily constructed wrestling ring with a cage.

They sat down at the nearest table, and began their wait, disinterestedly watching the current match between a Hun and the infamous Stanley that was on Gaston’s team. But their primary focus was on the patrons surrounding them, unfortunately none looked like Agrabahian or like a sea monster in cahoots with Morgana. He did spot one young woman who looked like a more sinister version of Cruella if her black and white hair and maniac smirk was anything to go by.

A few minutes went by when their silent observation was interrupted by a voluptuous yet haggard blonde barmaid with a tray of ribs that were half boiled, and what looked like mold surrounding the edges, “You’re Lala, right? Dad sent this. Good. Enjoy. Bye.”

“Oh, thank you.” Lala flusteredly broke off a bone marrow and handed it to him.

“Your dad’s here?” Aziz looked around trying to spot another Atlantean in the crowd just as everyone jumped up to cheer when the Hun body-slammed Stanley against the cage and began beating him with his own hands. “Wait..you know your dad? I thought most Vks--”

“Most Vks don’t know both their parents, it’s true. But my dad stayed around a little longer. Stop looking around like that, you look like a frantic meerkat. He’s not out here. He must have seen me when we were inside or something. I’m kinda easy to spot with the white hair and all.” Lala said, chewing a bit too nonchalantly on a bone.

“I guess he must have liked you enough for him to send-” Aziz began to say but Lala held up a hand.

“Now don’t get your little happy Auradon beliefs up. He doesn’t like me. I remind him too much of my mom. The women who tried to strangle him. If he comes out to greet us which I sincerely doubt he would ever, you’ll see the marks around his neck. He’ll give you an action-packed story of how he fought off Turblat with only his bare hands, but it wasn’t the gorilla. It was mom.”

“Oh okay,” Aziz deflated a bit. He wasn’t as naive as Lala, and Jay and Uma seemed to think he was. He couldn’t imagine villains like Jafar or the Evil Queen would find it in their selfish hearts to love their children, he was just surprised that Lala seemed to have some sort of relationship with her other parent, and what he thought was a good one with free food. “I can imagine that your dad doesn’t love you as I know most parents love their children. But he hates you specifically because you remind him of Queen La? It’s not like you’re the same.” Aziz said before sheepishly adding, “And would I know who he is? Is he a villain? Or is he just a sidekick?” 

“Ha! My mom sleeping with a sidekick? That’ll be the day. My dad’s Muviro. He came from the same tribe as her. Though they didn’t know each other then, and got exiled at different times. And I am like my mom. I look like her. I’m jealous like her.” Lala fiddled with her food.

“You’re not..” Aziz was about to protest, but he trailed off. The Core 4 had proven that they weren’t like their parents, but that didn’t mean they didn’t share the same flaws as their parents, and weren’t capable of acting like them in some moment of anger or weakness. He remembered that Lala wasn’t helping them out of a sense of moral righteousness, she was getting a wish out of this, a wish to have her own kingdom. She wasn’t one of the good guys. 

“What do you mean?” Aziz asked, automatically getting riveted with what he imagined should be an intriguing backstory.

Lala hesitated and Aziz could imagine cat-like hackles rising as she trained her slitted cat eyes at him. She looked like she was about to snap with some comment to put him in his place, but then her eyes softened as she considered his face.

She must have remembered how she didn’t consider him a threat and began to speak.

“Well my mom, and dad..um I guess. I don’t know how to say this. I know they weren’t in love. There is no such thing here. But they stayed together for a while. They had had a child before me, and my dad stayed around till I was 7. My mom usually cheated on my dad, but then she found out he dared to cheat on her too. That was bad, but what really made her snap was that he said he could do better than her. You do not tell my mom there is someone better than her. She still hates Tarzan for choosing Jane, and she considers him to be her perfect mate. And my dad, someone who is just a warrior, not a prince or anything saying he could do better than the Queen of Opar…” Lala trailed off with a pregnant pause.

“Yeah, that is a bad move.” Aziz inhaled with empathetic pain as he imagined the vicious scene.

“After that he left, and…He actually didn’t hate me then. He invited me over here to this “civilized” area away from the “nutcase.” That’s what he calls her.

“But...my mom kept saying that he was choosing the slut over us, and I thought about how he could have children with this woman. Would he think those kids were better than me like that woman was better than my mom? And that wasn’t right. I’m his firstborn daughter. I’m the one he taught how to hunt. I’m the one who knows how to specially hunt eagle feathers.

I got jealous, I stalked him and his girl around and I found out she was a prostitute, but I thought she was cheating on him. I told him and said it showed that even she thought she was better than him. He couldn’t do better than mom and I. He didn’t take that well. He said I was just like my mom. Was I planning to murder ‘the other women’ so I could have his attention too even though I thought I was better than him?” So he stopped inviting me, and..yeah.”

“But what about now? If he hates you,why is he giving you food?” Aziz asked, surprised to find that he had almost finished the ribs, mold and all.

“He said one angry La mad at him is enough, he didn’t want to deal with two. So we sometimes come here and chat. We hunt. Not much now since puberty hit, and I got my white hair and all. It’s too difficult to look at me and not see her.” Lala shrugged again, looking down at the table, clearly trying to pretend the whole matter was cool with her and she didn’t care.

Aziz didn’t know what to say. He wanted to pull her into a hug and comfort her but he knew that wasn’t the way here. She’d probably scratch his eyes out first before admitting emotion.

But still.. It was slightly infuriating to think about. Lala had only been 7 years old. It was natural, she didn’t want to be replaced by some new family. Even if her stalking was unwarranted, the intention was kind of good, what with her concern that her dad was dating another woman who thought she was better than him. Albeit in a badly worded argument.

“So what about this brother you mentioned? What did he think of all this?” Aziz tried to smoothly turn the subject to a less intense topic.

“Oh umm nothing. He died before I was born.” Lala answered.

Aziz cringed, “Sorry. I mean not sorry. I guess you didn’t miss much since you never knew him. It’s just that I have a lot of siblings so when there’s family drama, we usually like to discuss it. Or sometimes fight about it if we disagree,” He saw Lala’s confused face, “Ugh, I’ll stop talking. I’ll stop. Right now.”

“I had a lot of siblings too.” Lala said, “Two sisters, three half sisters, and three half brothers. Plus Musala. That was the one I didn’t know.” Aziz whistled, inwardly contrasting her past tense with his present, “Wow nine’s a lot. I have two older sisters, Zahrat and Cassima, well three if you count Jordan, which we all do. One younger bro, Amal and another sister, Noor. Plus a nephew. That’s Zahrat’s son.”  

Lala had a pinched smile as she listened to him talk, not because she seemed disgusted but more like she was trying to suppress it. Not that she was succeeding too well, “What do you do together?”

“Uh lots of stuff. Mainly formal banquets because we’re royalty and all, but sand dune surfing, parkour. Though that’s just Cassima and I, but we’re getting the little ones into it. Horseback racing. That’s a big one. We have running tally between all of us, and I’m winning but Zahrat is going to beat me if I don’t win another one before her.” Aziz said, surprised by how enthusiastic he sounded as he talked about them, but then he realized how little he got to talk about his home life. In Auradon, everyone was so concerned with school and fashion and latest Vk gossip/rumors no one cares to ask about home life. They just figure they know all they need to know about Agrabah and his family.

“My siblings and I used to have a tally on our hunts too. We had such fun trying to get many prey as we could in one hour. One time I even convinced Ewuare that a speckled baboon was an actual creature, and he was so determined to be the first to..” She paused, caught in the memory before dismissing it, “I know what you’re thinking. But I didn’t actually care about them. Why should I? They succumbed to the jungle, they were weak.”  

Aziz didn’t buy it. If he had his eyes closed he was sure he would have believed her lie. Her matter of factness betrayed no wistful emotion. In fact, she sounded downright annoyed at the fact that weak people existed.

But her look didn’t match her voice. Despite not looking at him, where she looked was telling. She seemed to be staring out to the wrestling ring where the Hun was still beating up Stanley, with a brick this time, but her gaze was unfocused, and her lips were pursed thoughtfully. He wondered when her siblings died-if she had memories of hunting side by side in the jungle, secure in the knowledge that she had one person to trust on this Isle of liars, murderers and thugs. 

Or alternatively, if one of the siblings died just a few months old and she secretly wondered about it growing up. “When did they die?” Aziz ventured to ask, whispering with what he hoped was the appropriate amount of reverence.

Lala visibly tensed and then relaxed, and looked at him with a calm poker face.”When I was three, no two, I think, my mom gave birth to twins. One didn’t get a name because she died within a few hours. The other was Taytu Betuvira, she was my dad’s favorite because mom allowed him name her after himself.” The pinched smile returned but Lala bit it back, “I don’t remember much of her. I think, I thought she was cute. Like a baby cub. But she died a year later from a snake bite.”

“So when I was around four, my mom tried again with Rourke for a stronger child. You know, since dad’s kept dying off. Rourke didn’t stick around. Actually, I don’t think he even knows he had a son. Anyway, that son was Ewuare. He was the best.” Lala shook her head with a fond smile, clearly forgetting her “I didn’t care about them, they're weak” statement.

“But my mom wanted more than one child, so she slept with Clayton too. She got Leopold out of him. Clayton visited the jungle more often than Rourke but only when dad wasn’t around. His visits were more for hunting than for Leopold. Leopold was my mom’s son rather than Clayton’s. Clay was Clayton’s son.

It was nice for a while. Ewuare, Leopold, Clay and I. Clayton even let us use his gun sometimes so we could get used to a different weapon. But then Leopold got mauled by Sabor three years ago. He was only 8.” Lala reflexively clenched her fist and unclenched as she talked, her face growing stony with focused anger when she got to the part about Sabor.

“By then my dad was gone, Mom cheated on Clayton with Gaston and got a girl and boy, Amina and Shaka. They were the biggest babies by far. 8 pounds each. I was around 7 I think, and by then, I was expected to pick up the slack in the hunting department. It was awful. Ewuare was a natural hunter but Leopold kept dragging us down by wandering off. I mean I guess I shouldn’t expect more from a 2 year old, but by the time I was 2, I was a very obedient child. I don’t get why she was so relaxed when training him. I-“

“What happened to Amina and Shaka?” Aziz asked, seeing Lala was getting sidetracked by her mother apparently treating her differently from the twins.

“Oh, yes. They grew up, lasted a year longer than Leopold. But Amina ended up in quicksand, and Shaka tried to help her….” Lala paused again, thinking and composing herself to continue.

“Moving on. By the time I was 10, my mom decided she got the strong, powerful child she desired with Mozonroth. Her name was Sarraounia and she was mom’s favorite because she was starting to show natural magical powers once the barrier came down. She could make little illusions out of smoke. Her favorite was to pretend she was a panther. She was obsessed with panthers.”

“Oh no.” Aziz muttered to himself, half-listening to Lala’s comments about panthers and Sarraounia.

Lala cocked her head to the side like a cat which Aziz had to muse, so many things Lala did reminded him of a cat.

How quick her moods could change from curious look to ready to hiss and attack. Even her movements were catlike, full of grace and fluidity whether she walked on her two feet or as she climbed trees on all fours. The way she arched her back and stretched in  the morning, and whenever she smirked, it didn’t look human. It looked more like a crafty feline smile.

“What no?” Lala asked.

“Mozonroth’s my uncle.” Little known fact around Auradon was that Mozonroth was Aladdin’s half brother. Aladdin’s very evil sorcerer half brother that ruled over the Black Sands and wanted to rule over Agrabah too.

Aziz should have guessed that Mozonroth had a child. If a man like Lefou could have a child, surely Mozonroth was capable of it. Especially with the alleged hotness that he had heard so much about from Aunt Eden.

“Well, I’m pretty sure he has another child somewhere. I don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl though. It’s not Sarraounia. She died this year from fever.” Lala said taking a few deep inhales and exhales.

“My mom didn’t sleep with only one magical Agrabahian man though. She accidentally had a one night stand with Jafar.” Lala paused, clearly waiting for his reaction.

Aziz’s eyebrows shot up to hide behind his bangs, “So that’s how you know Jay.”

“Not that well. I was 13 and Jay was like 15 and even then he was arrogant and annoying. He kept trying to steal my teeth momentos, and pretended he could fight animals. He still keeps insisting that he is just as good a hunter as I am.” Lala huffed with annoyance at the memory.

“Jafar just came over to the cave to make sure my mom wouldn’t give him parental responsibilities of anything. Not that it mattered. My mom got sick with the yellow fever that was going around here, and almost died. I almost died trying to take care of her and getting the yellow fever. The baby came out dead so that was that.”

“Did Jay get to see it?” Aziz asked, starting to wonder if Jay’s pushed friendliness towards Lala was some sort of attempted almost sibling camaraderie.

“It was a she, and no. Jafar didn’t want to have anything to do with her.”

Aziz realized that she mentioned all her siblings’ deaths, but one. It was obvious she skipped over it, and he knew it must have been something terrible if she was glossing over it completely, but his curiosity urged him to know.

He stopped, opened his mouth and then closed it, and opened before finally asking, “What happened to Ewuare?”

Lala looked away, blinking rapidly, “He died four months ago. My jealousy struck again.”

Aziz waited as Lala pulled herself together after that cryptic comment.

“Like I said Ewuare was the best. He was smart, and fast, and such a good hunter. Such a good hunter. He always knew the right time to strike, and he was determined. My mom sometimes...she’d say Ewuare was better than I am in not getting scratched or I was better than him in hand to hand combat. She was trying to make us compete so we’d work harder. And Ewuare didn’t care who was better at what. But I-I got jealous.”

“Just that week, we got ambushed by coyotes and Ewaure got an awful bite on his shoulder, and I was happy. I knew it was going to leave a huge scar and Mom couldn’t hold my scars over me. So when we managed to fight them off, I continued hunting and let him Ewuare walk home alone. I let him because- “He was the magnificent Ewaure,”- he could heal himself.” Lala turned to face the wrestling ring as her nails dug into the splintered wooden table surface as if she was holding onto a liferaft to keep from drowning in emotion.

“..I-I was wrong. He didn’t get a scar. The coyote bit some vital veins and.. and he bled out as he walked….”

Without thinking, Aziz asked “How did you feel?” and Lala slowly  turned to give him a stony stare, her jaw clenched tightly and her eyes filled with unbidden tears.

The tiny voice in his head that sometimes sounded like Jordan berated him, “Not now, Sherlock Freud. Analyzing is off-limits.”

“I mean..um” Aziz stammered, and started talking about the first thing that came to his head, “Uh I get having a little sibling who's obsessed with big dangerous cats. Amal and Noor love our tiger, Rajah. They have these little posters and stuffed tigers all over their rooms. Noor pretended she was a tiger for a whole year and would only communicate in purrs and growls.”

Lala looked down at the table, and looked up, breathing shallowly in a clear attempt to keep grief at bay. At least she looked grateful for the topic change more than annoyed since she eagerly grasped at the opportunity to move on from Ewuare’s death. 

“Sarrounia was just as obsessed with panthers which made it pretty easy to train her. I would tell her all panthers had to know how to climb a tree properly so she would stop ignoring me and listen. And she was very eager to mimic cat sounds.” Lala followed it by a very realistic imitation of a leopard’s rasping yowl that caused Aziz to jolt back and nearby patrons stopped their cheering to stare at her.

Aziz laughed nervously from the sudden surprise, “Can you speak leopard?”

“No. I just sound like one. It scares other animals, and people.” Lala nodded satisfied with herself, and made a point to growl at a hefty looking pirate who was still staring curiously at her. “You’ll have to teach me that sometime. I tried to copy Rajah’s growling but I suck at it. I’m much better at speaking monkey.” Aziz said.

“You speak monkey? You’re a prince that speaks monkey?” Lala looked at him in disbelief, her lips quirking up in her usual feline grin as she tried to wrap her mind around the idea.  

“Yes. Fluently.” Aziz smiled smugly when Lala began to laugh at his talent, continuing to talk with some mock-indignation, “Though some of my classmates did think I was weird when I started to talk to some monkeys that broke out of the Auradon Zoo which is such a double standard. How come princesses can sing to the birds and the racoons without judgement but when I talk to monkeys in their own language..”

Aziz trailed off seeing that Lala was caught up in the hilarity of the fact he spoke fluent Monkey to listen to him. So he allowed himself the chance to observe her without fear of a berating glare. He was surprised to hear how it breathy her laugh was, ending with a snort after each gasp.

As he looked at her another figure caught his eye and made his heart jump into his throat.

He had seen that face many times in Uncle Genie’s magic “flashback shows.” Though the face was a little dirtier and a little bit bigger as if the man had been sampling one too many baklavas these days. 

There was no doubt that it was Abis Mal in the flesh. A helpful clue was the presence of a skeletal thin man that Aziz instinctively knew was Abis’ lazy and constantly annoyed assistant Haroud Hazi Bin.

“There’s Abis Ma!” Aziz hissed, jumping out of his chair to follow the bald bandit and his servant that were heading towards the alleyways.

As the pair left, two slender shadowy figures peeled away from western side of Gaston’s backyard wrestling ring. The dark side where no moonlight illuminated the area giving all manner of people the privacy to drink, to fuck and do what have they.

The two figures sat down where Aziz and Lala had been, licking their dark paws, their eyes glinting with fiendish delight.

“What would we have here, brother? A chance for a family reunion..” The female purred, her sharp teeth glinted brightly in contrast to her night black fur.

“Yes. Mozonroth and Marcellus should have a chance to kill the child of that infuriating Aladdin.” The male smirked, his shendyt fluttering in the night air caught the attention of a pirate’s kid who tried to grab it only to be scratched by the wearer.

“And not only the child of Aladdin, but...any other do gooder who helped him get here. It’s clear he didn’t come on his own.” The girl added, sharpening the claws of her right hand with her left.

The male laughed heartily, “Imagine how they’re going to lacerate him. This is going to be delightful to watch.”

Note on names: Like Ranavalalona, all the names are taken or slightly modified from real life African rulers like Taytu Betul of the Ethiopian Empire, Musa of the Mali Empire, Amina queen of the Zazzau city state, Shaka of the Zulu Kingdom, Ewuare of the Benin empire, and Sarraounia, the sorceress queen of Azna who was heavily associated with panthers. The only exception is Leopold named after King Leopold of Belgium who was a vicious colonizer of Congo and whose bloody hand would probably been respected by villains. 

[gregellner]

Cover by Stefano Caselli and Emilio Laiso.

Today I’ll be reviewing “Hack/Slash: Son of Samhain,” a miniseries (though labeled incorrectly as Volume 1 despite being cancelled) that acts as a sequel to the original “Hack/Slash” timeline that ended in 2013. Here’s the creative team: Michael Moreci and Steve Seeley on the script with direction by series creator Tim Seeley; art by Emilio Laiso; colors by K. Michael Russell; and lettering by Chris Crank (Crank!). The entire series is published by Image Comics.

A warning: given this series is a sequel to the main comics, expect spoilers on the Tim Seeley run, especially the events of the second ongoing series that ran on Image Comics from 2011 to 2013. The fact that this volume is labeled as “Volume 1” does make it seem like a jumping on point, but technically it is not. If you do want the actual beginning, the better position to start from is either the first Omnibus edition or, in smaller trades, the “First Cut” volume. Essentially, “Son of Samhain” can be considered a sixteenth volume of the main comics (after 13 main volumes [collected in five omnibuses], “My First Maniac,” and “Army of Darkness vs. Hack/Slash”) and a technical prelude to the later “Resurrection” series that began in 2017.

First, it seems best to look in on the basic concept of this arc. After the tragic events of “Final,” the conclusion of the main “Hack/Slash” comics, Cassie seemed to have settled down with Margaret Crump as live-in girlfriends and parents to the orphaned Cassandra “Sandra” Krank. Despite seemingly having moved past the deaths in her life, Cassie has trouble with the quiet life, and instead has, after certain issues (to be discussed below), left her lover and become a bounty hunter in Texas, having cut off all ties to her former life aside from Catherine “Cat” Curio of Cat and Dog Inc. (formerly, and later again known as Cat and Dog Investigations). Even the relative stability of her bounty hunter job is ruined when an aged monster hunter named Delroy recruits her to face down an army of genuine subterranean monsters (unlike the usual slashers to which she is more accustomed) that look and act not unlike classic fantasy Orcs in the vein of J.R.R. Tolkein, albeit at times somewhat smarter.

In general, the feel of the story therefore shifts from a horror comic to a classic two-fisted tales pulp story on some level. Due to Delroy’s influence, Cassie is shown more as an action heroine than a huntress of horrors, facing down armies with only some difficulty. The closest that the series got to this type of thing before was in the ‘Monster Baiting’ arc of the second ongoing, with a bit of it present in ‘Sons of Man’ from the first ongoing.

On another hand, the Black Lamp Society does show up, but are much more openly villainous, with the group shown outright saying to Cassie, when pressed, that they are working to bring up Samhain’s evil in conjunction with the efforts of the aforementioned monsters to resurrect a monstrous god, rather than to continue his work of “purging the children of Bacchus.” Of course, this is only a small group, and could easily be either a random splinter faction that found the scientific work that acts as a major part of this arc, or even a way of demonstrating how the cult has degenerated since the fall of their “murder messiah.”

With its very different feel and certain changes in characterization, it’s easy to tell why some fans look down on this arc of the comics. However, while it does take some breaking into, “Son of Samhain” is not necessarily a bad story at all, and is actually quite fun, even if it does take a large part of the arc to get to the most fun, interesting part of the team dynamics.

Our next focus is on our protagonist, Cassandra “Cassie” Hack.

Cassandra “Cassie” Hack has changed somewhat since her last outing as the Serial Killer Killer in “Army of Darkness vs. Hack/Slash.” Despite how it seemed she could have a family with Margaret Crump and Cassandra “Sandra” Krank, that she could be happy and move past her problems, that’s simply not the case. Much as with many other parts of the “Hack/Slash” horror epic, reality ensues with a vengeance. She never has gone into therapy (no, Doctor Edmund Gross does not count) for her countless issues, and her hereditary slasher bloodline doesn’t help either (if that part of her is still latent). Having walked out on her happiness due to her lingering post-traumatic stress disorder, she has taken to a freelance job as a bounty hunter, seemingly based in Texas, has taken up improvised weapons like a lug wrench instead of her signature bat (temporarily), and has picked up some new skills like lockpicking along the way, along with, for whatever reason, having decided against using firearms in her hunts anymore. Even her fashion style differs, with her putting her hair behind her ears instead of letting it hang in bangs in front of one eye, and having traded in her primarily goth, highly revealing ensemble for tight black or white shirts, jeans, and hooded sweatshirts that do not reach her midriff.

It is perhaps best to let Ms. Hack herself give the explanation of why she did this, as she does to Delroy when pressed. “I was in a relationship with someone I cared for, deeply. What we had, it was good. It was healthy. But what’s a relationship? It’s a shared illusion. You and this other person, you build a world within the world. Or maybe outside the world. I couldn’t do it. And it wasn’t that I was bored, or that I was, like, damaged. None of the Psych-101 bullshit. I’ve seen too much. When I close my eyes, I’m back to my days hunting down slashers. And that’s never going to go away. I know that now.”

Her speech can be unpacked into separate pieces, each of which contributes to her personality when we first see her again.

On the one hand, there’s her talk about relationships, and how she fundamentally does not believe in them. Over the course of the start in particular, before she went back into hunting nonhumans, she continuously uses terms like how a relationship is “playing make-believe” or related words. As a nomadic young woman by nature, she of course has trouble settling down. She can try, but even in her darker thoughts during “Army of Darkness vs. Hack/Slash,” she seemed very willing to keep away her girlfriend to go right back into hunting, even if it was just to solve a problem for the time being. Her problems with intimacy go even deeper by this point in her life, as one panel of the title card shows, with her not even going for the random one-night stands she attempted in “Final” or used as seduction in “Army of Darkness vs. Hack/Slash.” Much like her early days, people who hit on her are likely to be hit in return, either having broken bones or being knocked out. This kind of regression is sad, but hardly surprising given her plethora of issues.

Next comes her post-traumatic stress disorder. She’s had it ever since her mom’s death (or at least since the second time), and it, along with a hefty guilt complex, has been driving her ever since on one level or another. Couple that with the sheer horror of the things she ran into during her career, and you’ve got a pretty messed up mindset, with enough symptoms to officially diagnose her with the chronic variant of the disorder. Every one of her memories would be tainted at this point, anyway, from her loving time with Margaret Crump and Sanny connecting to the slasher menace, to her attraction to the Samhain personality in Akakios, to many, many other things. It’s no surprise that the only people she lets herself still keep in contact with are those who will directly help her hunts, even for normal people.

Notably, her antisocial personality disorder has been severely downplayed with the exception of her willingness to kill people and not feel any remorse about doing so. Even she admits that part of her life is not normal for people, but blames it on the Black Ambrosia.

In fact, shifting blame is another part of her earlier life that carries over, though it may be a little difficult for people to see due to being relatively downplayed compared to other the instances in her teen years and the first year or two of her twenties. The main focus of this blame shift is in her choice of names, specifically for some people in her past. She has gone back to calling Margaret Crump “Georgia,” her alias as a stripper, a name she only really used as a means of showing some distance before they became a couple. Before, she only really did that to either protect Margaret’s privacy or because they were not close enough for her to feel it had merit, but her decision to go back to using that name shows that she is trying to externalize all of her feelings and act as though they were never real at all, despite some pretty blatant evidence to the contrary. Another example is in calling Akakios “Samhain,” the identity of his amnesic self-preservation-based personality after which she had lusted. Much like how she blamed Akakios for “seducing her” despite her being the one to come on to Samhain on almost every occasion, calling him “Samhain” seems to be her means of establishing distance. In the case of the name being used elsewhere, it is entirely possible that the others of the Black Lamp Society consider him to be a “reborn” Akakios, but it’s admittedly slightly harder to swallow for returning readers.

However, Cassie’s attempts to shift blame do not mean she is without remorse, though not for lack of trying. In a one-page hallucination of Margaret, she seems to be completely aware, on some level, that what she is doing is bad for her and she should go home to her lover, but just argues with herself over it instead of accepting her own guilty conscience. The result is that Cassie is, as ever, a conflicted character, one who does awful things people would hate her for, and makes decisions people find aggravating, but is filled with a sense of tragedy that makes her difficult to avoid pitying.

Now, let’s discuss her supporting cast this time around: Delroy and October “Ocky” Bourne.

First, we have Delroy, the first sidekick type. A big, older man, heavily muscled, especially in comparison to Cassie’s still relatively slight frame, it’s easy to see what kind of role he is shaped up to play from the very beginning, something so obvious that when Catherine “Cat” Curio arrives with the Nef lowbeast (read: hellhound) Pooch for a brief time, she notes he fits the bill of Cassie’s sidekicks. However, his comparisons to previous partners end there. Rather than favor blades to contrast against Cassie using firearms, the positions are actually reversed, with his primary arsenal being in the form of a shotgun and various explosives, in no small part a likely reason why he has survived so long in his chosen profession of a more general monster hunter (as opposed to Cassie being primarily a slasher slayer).

Third to the team is the eponymous son of Samhain, Ocky, or as the concept art calls him, October Bourne. Essentially an eight-year-old clone of Akakios formed on the very same island that was the main location of the ‘Sons of Man’ arc of the original comic, Ocky was created from some of Akakios’ DNA when he was Samhain, in a secret project underwent by Samhain’s first known lover and eventual victim, Ava Park, while she was working under the watchful eye of the monstrous, but completely human Andrew Rodin on projects like his “Venus” models of the Sons of Man program. The entirety of the reason for his existence is unclear, but some things are not. For instance, he is borderline feral, biting people who come close to him or even starting to eat one of the monsters that tried to hope him captive, and is prone to kill anyone near him with his knife (and later katana) until he comes across people who aren’t trying to use him. In essence, he is what Samhain could have been like if he were a little boy and an actual true individual, rather than an alternate personality of a truly evil person. In fact, Cassie seems to even recognize this, and her experiences with Ocky are some of the most heartwarming in the book, showing her develop into a kind of mother figure to a new Samhain who has potential to be an actual hero, as a way to absolve herself for her actions in the ‘Monster Baiting’ arc of the second ongoing of the original run and how she had caused his father’s “demise,” so-to-speak. On another hand, she also might see him as a younger version of herself, struggling with the Black Ambrosia taint on his blood as he tries to fight to be good.

The two act as a kind of “devil and angel on the shoulder” type of dynamic, with Cassie acting as a relative middle ground between the two of them. Delroy’s behavior with regards to Cassie’s problems is a polar opposite to the likes of Vlad. While Vlad would often try to get Cassie to engage with other people to help her be happy, be it her friends in Eminence, Indiana or the aforementioned Margaret Crump, Delroy not only accepts her post-traumatic stress as a matter of course, but encourages her to do so as well, actively driving her into his monster-hunting lifestyle. When Ocky joins the team, he also acts the same way around him, even giving the eight-year-old boy a katana despite Cassie’s annoyance. In all, while Vlad or even Samhain served as restraining actors or at least neutral, Delroy’s actions seem to be, though perhaps not intentionally, poisonous to Cassie’s psychological wellbeing and a surefire way to make sure she cannot engage with normal people even if she did try. On the other hand, as Ocky learns about how to be good, he acts as a similar kind of chain on her morals in a similar way to Vlad, driving her to be good in order to feel good, even if that mentality is inherently immature on some level. Then again, considering Cassie’s state of being nearly perpetually stuck in her late teens, having someone also immature to talk with may be the best possible option.

When it comes to psychology, the main element under examination is the debate of nature versus nurture, in particular with regards to Ocky himself. Despite his bloodline and that of Cassie, the latter tells him up front that just because his father turned out badly (with Cassie deliberately ignoring the fact that he was always that bad and that “Samhain” technically didn’t exist), doesn’t mean that he has to. She even uses a “not so different” style speech to explain.

“Look, there's only so much you can control about who you are. You're born a certain way or shit happens to you and before you know it, you're the person you see when you look in the mirror. For better or worse, you can't escape from you.”

At its core, her argument is that it doesn’t matter where he came from as long as he can try to be good on his own, divorced from his circumstances, since at the end of the day, how he is will be a consequence of everything both in and around him, with who he decides to be as a person derived from what he does with that knowledge. For instance, while she has her many personality issues, Cassie decided to use the increased emotional volatility that comes with being a hereditary potential slasher to try to do good in the world, and never regretted that fact in and of itself (even as it cost her again and again).

Ocky’s existence is even more profound, as not only is he a clone specifically created for evil (not just extremism, but actual evil), but he was supposed to aid the monster army in its rise, breaking away not unlike many a rebellious antichrist in fiction. On account of Cassie’s parenting, he learned how to be a good person and have people to genuinely care for, something that Akakios never really bothered with at all, and never even truly understood on even the most fundamental level. To quote the dragon Paarthurnax from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, “No day goes by where I am not tempted to return to my inborn nature. […] What is better? To be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?”

Emilio Laiso returns for the artwork, having previously worked with Michael Moreci and Steve Seeley on the one-shot story ‘Hack/Slash/Repeat’ that acted as issue 19 of the second ongoing series, just before the ‘Final’ arc that closed out the original run. While that art was more haunting in keeping with its theme of an inescapable, unending horror, this style is more fun, with definite parallels between the two. The action is hard-hitting, highly animated, and fast, the faces very expressive, especially when it comes to Cassie and Ocky. Both youth and age are emphasized, with Delroy’s age lines and scars at the forefront of his appearance, and the youthful, softer faces of Cassie, Ocky, and Cat showing the idea of a different generation of hunters (and investigators). Even Pooch benefits from this kind of softer style, emphasizing the “cute” nature of the horrible looking dog-thing over the unnaturalness other artists would work toward.

Of particular note is the use of a title card in the place of a narration of exactly what happened to Cassie after the initial introduction of the monsters in the opening pages. Each letter of the title shows a different stage in Cassie’s devolution as she moves from her prior life to her new one, without using a word of actual dialogue. Everything is neat and concise, ranging from standing at a grave to talking with a loved one to walking out the door to other stages, while using only the absolute minimum of words to illustrate the protagonist’s single-mindedness and inability to stay in one place to be happy. Rather than use some narration that would take up several pages or lingering too long, the title card alone manages to get through nine different scenes in a single page to get readers where they need to go in the story, before a more complete context is given to Delroy some time later.

Some of the best shots focus in on unique perspectives, from seeing an attack coming from the reflection in a victim’s eye to seeing how dead someone is inside emotionally from how there is no such reflection when sitting still. These shots rely heavily on K. Michael Russell’s colors, ones that continue to grace the series into its successor “Resurrection” two years later. Russell’s coloring is soft at times, hard at others, working into a realistic style that relies on light heavily to give an added depth to the characters and their emotions. While Laiso’s art is amazing, Russell’s colors truly bring it to life, much as Rosario Costanzo’s colors did in the aforementioned ‘Hack/Slash/Repeat.’

Chris Crank, a.k.a. Crank! (not to be confused with Chris Krank, the father of Sandra Krank), acts as the letterer on this series, much like he does on most if not all of the other “Hack/Slash” main series works. He is, as ever, very good in his use of letters, but where he really excels is in atypical lettering choices, such as using the background to showcase onomatopoeias. A rumbling in the distance wouldn’t be nearly as shocking if it were in a speech bubble, but in one case, it is portrayed as being actually outside of the window of a moving car, coming up on both the characters and readers alike by surprise before something intense happens.

In all, “Hack/Slash: Son of Samhain,” while not perhaps the greatest of “Hack/Slash” materials, is still a worthy addition to the epic, even as a brief interlude between more slasher basher takes on the series. Hopefully Ocky will come up more in the future, but you never know until Tim Seeley decides what he wants to do with the series.

[porgthespacepenguin]

first thoughts about episode 11

So a few hours behind most people, I have finally watched episode 11 and … what a ride!

First let’s start off by comparing what I had predicted earlier on with what actually happened:

The eye injury Michael inflicted on Voq in episode 2 ended up super important (Correct)

Voq revealed (Correct)

Voq fighting against mirror!Voq (Correct)

Lorca being revealed in the same episode (Wrong)

Ash/Michael going down in flames (Correct)

Ash vs. Voq being the only prime vs. mirror showdown (Wrong)

4/6 isn’t too bad a score, and the episode honestly exceeded my wildest hopes (which I keep low on purpose). I am happy to get stuff wrong as long as it’s better than I anticipated! And it was.

And I admit I’m pretty proud of figuring out the eye injury was important, as it was what almost immediately clued me in to Ash being Voq and I have not seen it discussed anywhere else (if someone else did figure it out as well, feel free to comment and I’ll amend my post).

Now onto the analysis. Beware, this is not a meta, just some ideas after watching the episode a few times.

Ash/Michael – welcome to tragedy, population: us

Forewarned is forearmed: the show definitely did warn us, though not in so many words, that this could only end in tears. Regardless, witnessing Ash and Michael’s relationship crash and burn was beyond painful.

I wrote in my earlier meta that I didn’t believe that Ash/Michael could come back from all this. I stand by my opinion more than ever after episode 12.

First and foremost, there is the fact that as soon as Voq got his memory back (and therefore his full agency) he made his choice, in full conscience.

And that choice was to murder Michael.

Let that sink in for a while.

He chose to murder her in cold blood.

Worse, if mirror!Saru hadn’t intervened, he would have gone through with it and succeeded. It was only because of Michael showing kindness to Saru earlier on that she didn’t die.

Later on in the episode, Voq shows no remorse. No regrets. Not even a hint of internal pain.

To me, more than anything, this highlights that their relationship is dead in a romantic sense.

You can come back from a lot of things – lies, double-crossing, even betrayal – but attempted murder without a hint of remorse or regret is more than a line crossed.

Especially as they are an established relationship, not two adversaries on a battlefield (I would not hold their first fight in episode 2 to the same standard, for example – that was a clearly different situation).

If the show did walk that back, and put them back together, I don’t think I could continue watching. I liked Ash/Michael but after watching episode 11, I’m out.

Some people have speculated that Michael could potentially find mirror!Tyler and pick up the relationship with him instead. I see many issues with this:

Assuming there is even a Tyler…

And his mirror!version is not a racist jerk…

Michael did not have feelings for Tyler, she had feelings for Tyler/Voq…

And just picking up a spare right after losing the original guy feels a bit… cheap?

I know, I can hear some of you saying: wait, aren’t you the one who wrote that long boring meta about how Lorca had a past relationship with mirror!Michael?

Yes, I am. And I stand by it, by the way. I truly think it would be really lovely storytelling to have Lorca finding his lost love in another universe after tragedy struck (and if Michael hadn’t been sentenced to life in prison, to a literal “future full of misery”, I’m not sure he would have interfered at all – just a gut feeling).

When it comes to Michael and Ash, trying to replace the original guy (who attempted to murder you) with a lookalike equipped with a better personality is problematic to say the least.

It would cheapen their actual relationship (past or not, it did exist!) and totally erase Voq from the equation, leaving us to wonder what purpose this whole arc served. Unsatisfying on so many levels, so that’s a  pretty firm no from me.

In the future, what will happen with Voq?

Until we go back to the prime!universe, probably not a whole lot. Michael might have to face him again to come to terms with some things, though.

Once we are back, from a story perspective Voq will have to resume his own narrative arc, which means potentially breaking out with L’rell and going back to the Klingons.

Perhaps a resolution to the war can then be found before the end of season 1 but it would necessitate a time jump: no way can we go believably from murderous fanatic Voq to “humans are not so bad” Voq in 2 episodes.

We might get there eventually, if his experiences as Ash can bring him the same wisdom mirror!Voq displayed. But again, this type of character development takes time.

Before we move on… in hindsight all of Tyler’s declaration of love and protection sound pretty hollow right about now. And yes, I’m bitter about it on Michael’s behalf.

Michael deserves better, dammit.

Michael/Lorca

The agony booth scene

So much to unpack here, it almost deserved its own post.

Before anything else… poor Gabriel. I mean look at him. He needs a hug and a stiff drink, is what he needs.

So, the agony booth scene. They are both standing. Lorca looks like hell, he is shaking and barely holding together. Importantly, this has stripped away a lot of his defenses. He is not in control the way he usually is, not anymore.

Michael is conflicted about what to do with the rebel base. Lorca’s response is immediate, do what you have to do and bomb them if you have to.

Now I have seen some people react to this as confirmation of Lorca being evil or being out to grab the throne for himself.

But let’s keep a few things in mind:

Lorca is familiar with the Empress, and he correctly foresees the fact that she will be mightily displeased at her orders not being followed. Michael is taking a huge tactical risk by being merciful, and it ends up having huge consequences.

Even if he is not affiliated with the rebels, it doesn’t follow that he would not be leading a rebel Terran faction of his own. As far as we have seen, the rebel group led by Voq doesn’t seem to have any Terran members. It would be fairly logical that there would be dissent within the Terran ranks beyond the non-human resistance.

The conversation that follows is pretty amazing. This is one of the first time we see Michael inspire Lorca, pulling him toward her idealism and Starfleet morals and away from the mirror universe’s darker, more ruthless standards.

After all, wasn’t that explicitely one of the reasons he chose her?

You chose to do the right thing, even at great personal cost.

That moment, all the way back in episode 3, made me certain that Lorca isn’t evil.

Dark? Maybe. Morally grey? Sure.

Evil? No.

I mean let’s be logical about this. If I were a villain intent on committing a villainous plot, I wouldn’t go ahead and specifically pick a person with a strong moral compass to help me with it. They would of course try to thwart me at every turn. It would make zero sense.

Ah, penguin, I can hear some people say, but what if Lorca needs her, specifically, to access the Empress? Wouldn’t he recruit her and then manipulate her into doing his bidding then?

Sure. So let’s take a detour to “How to manipulate someone 101”:

Destroy your victim’s self esteem

Use gifts and favors to create a feeling of obligation

Isolate them from their support system: family, friends, romantic attachments

Denigrate their achievements

Undermine their self confidence

Punish the victim for perceived transgressions

Right. And in contrast, so far Lorca has:

Helped her rebuild her confidence on her own (contrast the start and beginning of episode 3, it’s such an amazing change)

Given her a job and a place aboard a starship again, while avoiding her gratitude as much as possible

Helped her maintain or rebuild her support system: mounted a rescue for Sarek (family), gave her Tilly as a roommate (who was the only one good hearted enough to look past Michael’s transgressions and befriend her), and kept his opinion to himself concerning her relationship with Tyler (though he was undoubtedly jealous)

Praised her for her strategic mind and her strong sense of morale

Encouraged her to take pride in herself (“You did well, Burnham. You should be proud.”)

Trusted her with the most important missions

Ignored at least one transgression that could have landed her in the brig (that fight they had on the bridge in episode 9)

I’m sure I’m forgetting things but you get the idea.

Honestly, if he needed her only as a tool, it would have been much smarter to keep her under his thumb with her confidence broken. Look how pliable she was at the start of episode 3.

(Again, I do think that the fact that Georgiou is the Empress is significant, and that having Michael on his side against her is a tactical advantage – but that’s not the whole of it, by a long shot.)

Anyway, moving on.

Michael sweetens the deal by adding the part about finding out how the Fire Wolf leads his coalition, but essentially it all boils down to:

She appeals to his moral sense

She asks him not to force her to commit such a terrible act

And it works. Partly because after so much torture, Lorca’s defenses are way down. But I think it’s mostly because of Michael’s ultimate secret weapon: she says please.

Seriously.

She says please, and… that’s that.

Just like with the Sarek rescue mission, Lorca just gives in and makes an illogical tactical decision (which, I might add, results in the Empress coming straight for them at the end of the episode).

Visually, I don’t have much to say beyond the extensive use of choker shots. Those are very often used to create emotional intimacy and tension, as I’ve mentioned many times before. This is not a shot you’d use for people who are not developing a strong relationship of some sort (be it friendship or romance).

And finally… Lorca’s “Hurry back. Please.” just kills me.

That’s not an order. That’s a plea.

The meeting room scene

Their second scene together is quite different. Lorca is looking a little better, while Michael seems shattered by her recent betrayal.

By the way. I love how Michael (who is a tough cookie) is psychically exhausted after 3 days in the mirror!universe and how much reflection (pardon the pun) she is doing on it.

Hopefully it will help mitigate her anger at Lorca when she finds out he is from the mirror!universe too (and has spent his entire life there without turning into a human-shaped demon spawn like the rest of the Terrans). At this point, overthrowing the Empress is starting to look like a moral imperative.

Lorca informs her they have to stay longer, for reasons that are both tactically sound and highly convenient, because I’m pretty sure he plans to face the Empress at some point (though probably not right there and then).

There also a lovely little morsel I wasn’t expecting: Lorca sounds jealous. He can’t bring himself to say “liked” or “loved” (that little pause is very telling) and when he says “Tyler”, you can tell he truly wanted to say “what’s his face”.

As an aside, I think he only noticed Michael’s partiality for Tyler in the previous episode, when Ash had a panic attack in the worker bee. I don’t think I mentioned it in my main meta, but I adore the way Lorca manages to sound at once gruffly protective (“You can relax too. He’s safe.”) and jealous despite himself.

Moving on.

Michael just can’t take it anymore, she’s scared, and she just admits it to him, leading to this amazing exchange:

“I don’t think I can survive this place alone.”

“You are not alone, Michael. We will survive this place… together.”

And then Lorca takes her hand. This is the first touch we have seen him initiate with her. It’s also the second time he calls her Michael, and that’s not a coincidence.

Not Michael Burnham, not Burnham, not Specialist Burnham.

Just plain Michael.

Right there and then, Lorca is not being her captain. He’s just being a man, comforting a woman.

Even more importantly, @trashywestallen made a brilliant point in one of our discussions, which I hadn’t noticed until she pointed it out.

This scene is meant to be the mirror of the scene in episode 10 when Ash reaches for Michael’s hand during their discussion in the mess hall.

Both Ash and Lorca are on seated the left, while Michael is sitting on the right. (Very quick aside, the man on the left/woman on the right is imagery commonly found in classical paintings, with the Arnolfini portrait commonly cited as an example.) Both contacts are initiated by the man.

That’s where the similarities end, because everything else is inverted.

In the scene with Ash and Michael, the camera zooms in on their joined hands but very noticeably, the shot is obstructed by a teacup.

Contrasting this with Michael and Lorca: their hands are in plain view. There is even a shot with the light streaming in from behind through the window and onto their joined hands.

Another major difference: Tyler grabs Michael’s hand possessively to reassure himself. Lorca lays a calming hand over Michael’s to reassure her.

Ash takes Michael’s right hand with his right; Lorca covers Michael’s right hand with his left. Symbolically, this is hugely significant. The left hand is the hand (or arm) a gentleman or a knight would use to escort his lady: keeping the right hand, his sword hand, free to defend her.

Lastly: Ash asks her to let him handle things on his own; Lorca says they will figure it out together.

Point taken, I guess?

Everything else

Stamets! I am pretty glad to have been wrong about there being only one twin encounter. Go save your love, Paul. (Though mirror!Stamets freaks me out a little).

Empress Georgiou is utterly terrifying. I love it.

Michael lying to spare Saru (while Saru lies to spare her) is just lovely. Also interesting to note she is willing to lie for a good cause (not unlike other people I could name…)

Michael’s kindness to mirror!Saru coming back to save her is almost karmic.

Mirror!Voq was awesome. Wise, strong, everything a leader could be. Unfortunately, that means prime!Voq is the evil twin. Bummer.

Mirror!Sarek, who’s met Michael all of 5 minutes, is more validating and full of praise than our own Sarek. Seriously, dude, you’re going to have to step up the dad game, presto.

[mydarlingklaus]

Deleted Kiss Pt. 2

First off, thank you to everyone who shared/reblogged my drabble, means a lot! By popular request, I decided to write a second and final conclusion. I promise it is not as angsty!  Part 1 can be found here 

Everything happened so quickly. One moment she and Klaus were having a nice time at the pageant then he kisses her and then he’s gone.

Caroline felt sick inside, mainly because she didn’t want him to leave. A big part of her wanted to go after him and apologize for what she said. She wasn’t angry at him for kissing her, she was angry at herself for wanting him to. Klaus was so angry and disappointed, he had never looked at her like that before. It was more than a broken ego. She was breaking his heart. This wasn’t supposed to be difficult. Klaus was everything wrong and bad and obviously not right for her. So why was she having conflicting feelings about him? Why did she want him to kiss her when she’s supposed to be in love with Tyler? Why was she feeling guilt for hurting him and having an urge to go after him and make amends? She clutched her crumbled Miss Mystic Falls application, that Klaus carelessly threw on the ground, in her hands as she walked back into the mansion to gather her things. The pageant was thankfully over just a few minutes after Klaus vanished. Caroline wasn’t in a pageant mood anymore and just wanted to go home and yell into her pillow for the rest of the night. She jumped when she walked into one of the dressing rooms and Elena was there as well. “God Elena you scared me.” The blonde said breathlessly. “Sorry, Care.” Elena faintly grinned as she hastily threw her change of clothes and other necessities in a bag. “Looks like I’m not the only one in a rush to get out of here.” Caroline claimed in a curious tone. “Well, with Jeremy trying to kill me, Damon being distracting and Stefan hating me, kinda puts a damper on the pageant mood.” Elena explained. Caroline nervously nibbled on her bottom lip. “Can I ask you something?” The brunette answered with a nod. She gulped. “When did you realize you were falling for Damon?” Elena’s head shot up. “I mean, you were so in love with Stefan yet you began falling for someone else. How did you come to that realization after being in denial for so long?” The question making her want to vomit. Caroline did not approve at all of Elena’s sudden feelings for Damon, to be honest she loathed the eldest Salvatore brother. But she was in no position to judge her on having questionable feelings for questionable men. They were in the same boat now and Caroline needed advice without giving herself up. “You actually want to know about me and Damon?” Elena laughed. Caroline rolled her eyes. “No details, if there are any, just curious that’s all.” The brunette sighed, sitting down in one of the chairs at a makeup table. “It definitely wasn’t planned, for starters. It would have been a lot easier on me and everyone if I shut my feelings for him off. But…I can’t. Stefan was a great boyfriend and great guy who I did love with everything in me, I still love him but I realized I’m not in love with him anymore, if that makes sense.” - More than you know. Caroline thought. She simply nodded. “And that’s where Damon comes in?” Elena grinned. “Damon, kinda just snuck up on me.” She sighed. “I always felt something for him but becoming a vampire only intensified those already existing feelings. He’s dangerous, manipulative and defiently nothing like Stefan but…he gets me. I can’t explain it but he makes me feel, everything.” Caroline bit the inside of her cheek in an attempt to control her emotions. “Coming to that realization was hard because I was so worried what people would think, what Stefan would think, but I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t feeling what I felt anymore.” “Even if you knew you’d possibly lose people close to you?” Caroline’s biggest fear of opening up about her feelings for Klaus was losing all her friends. No one shunned Elena for liking Damon but she was still losing. The brunette sighed. “Sometimes, you have to make those leaps. Everyone isn’t going to agree with every choice you make, so why not go for it? I don’t know what, if anything, is happening between Damon and I but I wanna see where it goes. You could be missing out on something great if you don’t take those chances. At least that’s what I’ve been told.” She concluded. Could she? Be missing out on something great with Klaus? Could he give her everything she needs? They had eternity to figure everything out, Klaus could give her a fulfilled life. This was too much, she’s already talking about being in a relationship with him and having a possible future. Coming out about her feelings for Klaus wouldn’t be the same as Elena coming out about Damon. She would get the cold shoulder treatment from everyone and possibly kicked out of the little Scooby gang all together. That’s what scared her more but, she can’t ignore her feelings and she can’t put her life on hold forever. She liked Klaus and needed to tell him. She owed it to herself and him to see where this could go, her friends had to wait. Caroline stunned that she finally admitted to herself what she felt for him; step one complete. “Where are you going?” Elena asked when Caroline abruptly stood to her feet with her bag of clothes in hand. For a second, she forgot Elena was even there. “Umm, I just need to do something right now. Don’t wait up for me okay?” Elena was confused as much as she was curious, but nodded anyways. In a flash Caroline was already in her car, heart speeding rapidly as she drove to the Mikaelson mansion.

The coward side of her wanted to detour back to her house and forget this ever happened, but the curious side of her knew she had to see this through. Caroline couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t at least tell Klaus how she felt, and she didn’t want him hating her either. Even though she doubted he did, she’s never seen him that hurt before. Who would have thought Klaus Mikaelson had a heart? Her palms were sweaty as her hands tightly gripped the steering wheel. She almost forgot how huge Klaus’ home was until she pulled into the driveway. Granted  she hasn’t been to his mansion since his family’s ball, where he made her feel like the most beautiful gem with just a glance. - Stop it Caroline! She cursed herself as she finally parked her car. This was really happening. There was no turning back now. Her stomach was in knots, hands a sweaty mess and mind clouded with possibilities. Caroline rested her head back against the seat, eyes closed and taking deep breaths as she gave herself an inner pep talk. She was being completely out of character putting herself out there like this. Well, the worse that could happen would be Klaus rejecting her and wanting nothing to do with her. A scenario she didn’t even want to entertain. Before she could second guess herself any longer, Caroline heavily sighed before opening the car door and climbing out. She could hear her heartbeat thudding through her chest as she made her way towards his front door. Caroline couldn’t remember the last time she was this nervous for a confrontation; probably freshmen year when she started liking Matt. But this was no pointless high school crush, she was admitting her feelings to Klaus Mikaelson. The man she’s to see as evil and wrong but has been nothing but lovely to her. Who frustrates her every being because he understood her better than anyone and she couldn’t even deny it. Who terrified her because he’s capable of giving her everything, making her feel everything. She was tempted to turn around and hop back in her car till she realized she was already standing in front of his door. - It’s now or never. Taking a deep breath, the nervous vampire knocked her fist against the door. It didn’t take long for the door to open, revealing the hybrid standing behind it. He defiently was not in the mood to talk to her, if the emotionless expression on his face was any indicator. But she needed to do this tonight before she goes back home, overthinks it and drops the situation completely. That would be too easy. Easy wasn’t going to get her to where she wants to go. Caroline sighed. “Hi.” Klaus didn’t respond. His face hard and stiff. - Really, the silent treatment? Is he twelve? She thought, now feeling uncomfortable but she refused to leave. Caroline gulped, looking around. “Wow, I almost forgot how huge this place is. Haven’t been here since your family’s ball. Seems like forever ago…” She softly laughed. “What do you want, Caroline?” He coldly asked Even though his question was harsh, at least they weren’t on no speaking terms anymore. Caroline nibbled on her bottom lip. “I know you might not want to see me right now, but we need to talk.” Klaus shrugged. “I think we both said all that needed to be said.” Of course he was going to be difficult. It wouldn’t be Klaus if otherwise. “Can I come in?” “No. I don’t think you can.” He crossed his arms over his chest. She sighed. “Klaus-” “What do you want from me, Caroline? You made it perfectly clear at the pageant that you want nothing to do with me. I’m a terrible person who has done nothing to help you besides for my own selfish gain, right?” Klaus spat back the hurtful words she threw at him earlier. Caroline pressed her lips together. “I’m not playing silly school girl games with you anymore, I’ve had enough. You can’t use me as your punching bag then expect me to still be open arms when it’s convenient for you. I won’t be made as a fool by you any longer. What’s said has been said, nothing more is necessary and we both should just move on now.” He claimed. That stung. “You hate me, you still have the Lockwood boy to fawn over, your friends and everything is right in your world again.” “I don’t hate you.” Caroline abruptly said. Klaus’ eyes slightly softened at her confession but he quickly brushed it off. Contrast to popular belief and expectation, Caroline didn’t hate Klaus and never has. Dislike, occasionally, but Caroline didn’t know much about Klaus enough to hate him and he never directly hurt her. But now she’s falling for each discovery she made about him and it drove her insane. She could hear the hurt in his voice with each word and, oddly enough, it pained her. Just because Klaus acted like a big bad doesn’t mean he was, not when he’s with Caroline. “I know I haven’t exactly given you a reason to trust me and I understand you not wanting to talk but, just give me the opportunity to explain myself. Please.” Klaus raised a curious brow. He knew Caroline was as stubborn as he was and would never beg. This had to be more serious than he anticipated. With a heavy sigh, he opened the door wider gesturing for her to walk in. Caroline entered the mansion, stunned by how its beauty, just like she remembered. Her eyes wandered around from the extended staircase to the ballroom where she and Klaus danced for the first time. Seemed emptier than she before but nonetheless extravagant. The usual bright chandelier was dim and low. “See something you like, love?” His voice sent chills up her spine. Caroline turned around to face him again. “I’ll just never get over how gorgeous your home is. I’m sure you don’t appreciate it, huh rich boy?” She teased. “It has its charm.” Klaus said with a small grin. The tension not completely gone but definently lessened. She playfully rolled her eyes before they caught the multiple moving boxes in the middle of the dining room. No wonder it looked so empty. Caroline furrowed her eyebrows as she turned to him again. “What’s with all the boxes? Are you leaving?” Her question so soft as if she was afraid of his response. Klaus was thrown off himself. He wasn’t expecting her visit so he definently wasn’t prepared to provide her an explanation for his departure.  "I am.“ He blankly stated. Caroline scoffed. "When did you make that decision?” “Why does it matter to you what I do?” Okay so he’s still mad, good to know. She gulped. “Where are you going?” “New Orleans. I think a nice change in scenery is well overdue, it was never the plan to stay in Mystic Falls permanently in the first place. I only came for Elena but now she’s a vampire and is of no use to me any longer. Hence, there’s nothing else keeping me here anymore.” He coldly explained. Ouch. Caroline opened and closed her mouth a few times, thinking of what to say next. It was hitting close to home that Klaus was packing up his life in Mystic Falls and moving away. Moving away from her, and he wasn’t shy about making that point clear. If Caroline didn’t drop by and waited till morning like she first planned, he would already be gone. Selfish prick. “So, that’s it? You were just going to leave without saying goodbye?” Caroline asked. He shrugged. “Wasn’t exactly given the impression that you would care, in your mist of insulting me and whatnot.”   Caroline threw her hands up in the air. “I’m sorry. Is that what you want to hear, Klaus? I’m sorry, okay!” Klaus crossed his arms again. “What I said…” She closed her eyes taking a deep breath. “I didn’t mean it…I-I was just so frustrated!” “Because of me?” “Yes! No. I don’t know.” Caroline huffed, pacing in a circle and massaging her temples. This wasn’t going according to her plan. She was letting her nerves get the best of her but she couldn’t help it. Klaus and this whole situation made her anxious. There was no going back now though. She was already here and Klaus was leaving, no more room for nervous breakdowns. Caroline licked her dry lips before facing Klaus again. “You do frustrate me and you know you do, that’s why you always have that stupid smug look on your face every time we’re together. You do it on purpose and I still let you get to me, knowing your games and it’s frustrating!” “What is it that I do, exactly?” Klaus innocently asked. She scoffed. “Like you don’t know.” “Afraid not, love.” He teasingly answered. “Stop.” Caroline demanded taking a step back. “Stop doing that. Stop acting like you don’t know what I’m talking about, you always know! Stop doing things like digging up my old Miss Mystic Falls application because you want to get to know me. Stop being charming with your annoying teasing tone and making me forget who you are. Stop making me like you when I’m supposed to hate everything about you.” Klaus’ eyes widened at her confession. - Did she just say that? Caroline didn’t give Klaus a moment to respond, clearly she was on a roll. Klaus’ demeanor calmed as he stared at her curiously and fondly. Caroline growled. “Stop looking at me like that. I can’t breathe with you looking at me like that so just stop!” The hybrid was dumbfounded but also amused by how much of an affect he actually had on the baby vampire. Caroline was losing it. Her words were jumbled and she looked as if she was in the verge of angrily crying.   She pressed her lips together and heavily sighed. Running her fingers through her blonde locks attempting to catch her breath. “I-I don’t understand what I feel for you or why, it’s not right because you’re you and I’m me. We’re on different teams. You’ve done so many awful things Klaus.  Things that shouldn’t be forgivable and I know that when I’m with my friends. But then…when it’s just you and me, all judgment goes away. I don’t forget what you’ve done but I don’t hold it against you either, I don’t want to. I like seeing the good before the bad in people, it’s who I am and underneath all that rage and mayhem there’s a man. The Klaus I see is the Klaus you hide from the world, but I catch myself caring for all sides of you.” She confessed softly. This was really happening. If he wasn’t so amazed, he’d pinch himself to prove he wasn’t dreaming this. “I wasn’t mad at you for kissing me today, I was mad at myself for wanting you to. I was mad that I’m supposed to be in love with Tyler yet I craved your kiss. That’s insane right?” She nervously laughed. He shook his head. “I don’t think you’re insane at all, love.” “Ugh, you’re doing it again.” She softly said with a grin that Klaus reciprocated. “Everyone always expects the best from me, expects me to do the right thing all the time. That was never a problem, until you. Until you were the only one who took the time to get to know me and make sure I was okay. The only person out of all of my supernatural friends to say it’s not a bad thing to embrace that side of myself. You opened my eyes to newer and scarier possibilities that I’m not sure I’m ready for yet, I’m only 18. But I do know that…I like you, Klaus.” Klaus’ eyes glazed over at Caroline’s admission. His mouth was dry and body still. “I like you and it has become harder and harder to deny it lately. It scares me that I want you just as much as it scares me that you want me.” “Caroline-” She shook her head. “You’re an a thousand year old species who has seen and done everything. It was intimidating having to live up to that. I’m just average, I haven’t even scratched the surface of all that you’ve experienced.” “I can assure that there’s one thing you’re not Caroline Forbes, and that is average. You never have to be anyone but yourself with me.” He said honestly. She briefly smiled. Nodding while looking down at her feet briefly. “Look, Klaus it took a lot for me to admit this, not just for my pride’s sake but because I could possibly lose everyone  I’ve ever cared about. If I wanted to see what could come out of this, I would be sacrificing so much and that’s terrifying. But then there’s the exciting part that makes me feel like it will all be worth it, that you’ll be worth it.” Her eyes hesitantly met his. Klaus never expected the night to end like this. After abruptly leaving the pageant, he took Caroline’s rejection to heart. Only one person has managed to break his heart after capturing it so quickly, and that was the baby vampire standing in front of him. He decided leaving Mystic Falls was best when he assumed all hope was lost with Caroline, not to mention this town was growing more unappealing by the second. Never imagining she’d show up an hour later on his doorstep confessing her hidden feelings for him. Feelings he knew were there but was growing impatient with her delay of realizing it herself. Yet here she was. “I should go…” Klaus was snapped out his thoughts from Caroline’s voice. One blink and she was already at the door. He quickly grabbed her arm, spinning her around so they were face to face again. Caroline’s breath hitched as they were nose to nose, her back pressed against the door as his chest was inches from touching hers. Klaus trapped her body between his and the door, his hands on the door and both sides of her head. They heavily gazed into each other’s blue eyes. Caroline was at a loss of words, saying everything she needed to already. What more could he say now? “Ask me to say.” He softly demanded. Well, there’s that. She furrowed her eyebrows. “What? Klaus-” “Ask me to stay, Caroline.” “I can’t ask you to do that.” “Sweetheart, you completely underestimate the affect you have on me.” Klaus grinned. She briefly grinned back. “You don’t realize how long I’ve waited for you to say everything you just said. To finally be honest with yourself, with me. The only reason I decided to stay in this toxic town after everything was you. I only decided to leave when I thought all hope was lost.” He confessed. Klaus has said a lot of heavy confessions to her in the past, she wasn’t sure she could handle another one after what she just delivered to him. “From the moment I met you, I was intrigued by the courageous baby vampire who wanted to live. Who shot down my every advance, which only made me desire for you more.” “So if I wasn’t a bitch to you, you would have gotten the hint?” Caroline amusingly asked, much to Klaus’ dismay but he chuckled. “It would take a lot for me to give up on you, Caroline Forbes. Like, saying you want nothing to do with me for starters.” Klaus teased back. She laughed, sniffling. “You know I didn’t mean that, right?” “I know.” Klaus nodded. Caroline relaxed into his touch as his knuckles brushed against her soft cheek. Why was this so calming? Klaus’ eyes burning through her skin with admiration, Caroline could feel the blush creeping up her face. His hand cupped the side of her face, his eyes searching for an answer in hers. “Ask me to stay.” The coolness of his breath kissing her skin sent welcoming chills throughout her body. It felt weird asking that of him, even if she wanted him to stay. That’d be selfish of her, oh god she was already being selfless with Klaus. She’s in deep already. “Klaus-” Caroline sighed. “Ask me to stay.” He asked again. The blonde nibbled on her bottom lip briefly. “You can’t kiss me again.” He grins, sliding a strand of hair out her face. “Ask me to stay, Caroline.” Ignoring her plea. Caroline hoped that might distract him but Klaus is nothing but persistent. Oddly, that was something she secretly liked about  him. A guilty pleasure of hers. She would love to be kissed by him again, a real kiss where they both enjoyed it. This was becoming too real too fast. If she asked him to stay, that would mean they would give this a chance. That meant Caroline would be leaping into the unknown of Klaus Mikaelson. Was she ready for all that he was and could give her? Klaus felt so infinite. There was no going back to average after him. He was 1000 years old who has seen and done almost everything. That was as intimidating as it was thrilling. All he could show her, new experiences for her to live, worlds he can take her to and heights she never knew were possible. But there were also possibilities and experiences she could show him as well. Could she handle him ruining her in the best way? Caroline’s body was shaking, mind reeling and fingers fidgeting. She wanted him here, she wanted to see this through. It was all or nothing. Caroline’s lips trembled before she spoke. “Stay.” Her voice so soft if Klaus didn’t have supernatural hearing, he wouldn’t have heard her. Klaus softly exhaled in relief. He knew this wasn’t easy for her, he didn’t want it to be. This was a decision she needed to take seriously, given all that she would giving up; though it was ridiculous she felt she couldn’t just be with her so called friends. He wanted to be the one who challenged her and made her want more. He could give her more, everything she wants and needs. Klaus wanted to be it for Caroline and vice versa. A sweet grin crossed his face as he stared down at the nervous blonde vampire. She was so damn beautiful even with tearful puffy eyes and red cheeks. He wish he could capture this moment on paper; the night she chose him. He cleared his throat, feeling a slight knot in his throat. “Well, now that we covered that part, let’s discuss what that means hm?” Klaus smirked. Caroline nodded with a grin. “What it means is that you’re not selling this beautiful home before you have another party.” Klaus rolled his eyes making Caroline laugh. “Caroline…” She placed her hand on top of one of his that was on the side of her face. “I’m only teasing. I do want to see where this could go, I wouldn’t have embarrassed myself with that confession if I wasn’t serious. No more games, no more denial I promise. I’m giving you a chance so use it wisely, got it?” “You know how sexy you sound ordering me around? If it were anyone else I would have dragged their heart across the floor by now.” Klaus stated with a smile.. “I guess I should I feel pretty special, huh?” She teased. “Always.” Caroline playfully swatted him against his chest. Klaus caught her hand and pulled her closer so their breaths brushed each other’s lips. She couldn’t deny that her eyes wandered down to his tempting red lips. Only experiencing the taste of his lips once and she was already fantasizing about them. The hybrid shamelessly expressed his want for her through his eyes and Caroline has never felt so desired in her life. “Caroline…” “Hmm?” She hummed. Dragging her eyes back up to his face. “Can I kiss you now?” It was almost laughable how shy Klaus seemed in this moment. The usual smugness was gone. He was acting like a teenage boy asking to kiss a girl after their first date. It was odd but incredibly adorable, even though he wouldn’t think so if she told him. Blood rushed from her head to her core, imagining tasting his lips again. The sinful lips that took her breath away with just a surprise peck. This kiss wouldn’t be a quick surprise though, it would be lasting which only made Caroline more eager. She leaned into him more so they were now chest to chest and her eyes stuck on his lips. Caroline nibbled on her bottom lip, nodding. “Please.” Her tone much more breathless than she anticipated but she didn’t have time to dwell on that as Klaus’ mouth already molded against hers. He was urgent and demanding but so damn good. She has imagined kissing Klaus before, as awful as that might sound given that she’s been in a relationship, but this surpassed her expectations. Their mouths gracefully moving together as if they’ve kissed on a regular basis. Caroline gasped when Klaus bit her bottom lip then probing his tongue into her mouth. They both softly moaned into the exchange, feeling the rush of being together like this Caroline felt as if she was floating on a cloud. Her mind hazy as his tongue tasted the inside of her mouth, as her own tongue clashed with his while indulging in the moment. It was as if their mouths were made for each other’s. Klaus could still taste the faintness of champagne lingering on her pink lips. So sweet and perfect. He grabbed her by the waist and pressed her back against the front door. His hands traveling from her waist down to her hips. He couldn’t get enough, feeling her and touching her and the surreal thought that she was actually allowing him to do so. Of all the times he’s imagined this moment, he didn’t think it would happen so soon. Caroline surprised him and he wasn’t a man who was easily surprised. She deserved to be worshipped. He wanted to be the one to show her how beautiful she actually is. Caroline tugged on his hair; he hadn’t even realized she wrapped her arms around his neck. She tilted his head to seek a better angle, deeply moaning into another kiss. He let her take control for awhile after all, he did like a woman who knew what she wanted  and Caroline Forbes wanted him. Their hips ground into each other’s roughly, making Klaus groan in her mouth at the contact of their clothed centers making contact. “God Klaus…” Caroline moaned, breaking their heated kiss and leaning her head back against the door. Klaus nearly came on the spot just from hearing her moan his name. He stared with hungry and lustful eyes. Her porcelain neck on display for him. The hybrid took that as an invitation to lower his head towards the flesh. Caroline didn’t mean to let his name slip from her lips, stroking his ego even more, but she couldn’t hold it in. His kisses were hypnotizing and his hips were sinful. Caroline hissed when she felt his teeth scrape her neck but contently sighed when his tongue swept over the wound. He was careful not to let his venomous fangs drop. They needed to work up to blood sharing first. She bit down on her lip with closed lids, simply indulging in the pleasurable feel of him exploring her neck with licks and kisses. Klaus’ hips continued to move up into hers which only added to the pleasure. Caroline’s fingers snaked into his curls, keeping his face as close as possible. “You’re so beautiful.” Klaus whispered against her collarbone. Caroline grinned to herself at his compliment, moving her core against his rhythmically which elicited a groan from the hybrid. She was wondering how a simple kiss resulted in them practically dry humping against Klaus’ front door. This felt too damn good to be considered wrong. Caroline couldn’t remember the last time she was so enthused from just making out with someone. She’s never felt this wanted and she’s never wanted someone so much. But as amazing as this felt, she knew if they didn’t stop then they would have sex. Not that Caroline was opposed but, not like this. Not when she still has a lot on her mind, lose ends to mend and things to figure out; like how to explain all of this to Tyler. She wasn’t looking forward to that confrontation but it was something that had to be done. She wanted everything to be settled with her friends before she moved forward with Klaus. Klaus would be a new beginning, a fresh start. When he cupped her breasts through her dress, Caroline knew they needed to stop. No matter how burning his large hands felt over just her clothes. With one more desperate moan as he began kneading her mounds, Caroline tugged on his hair to lift his head up from her neck so they were now face to face again. Her hands pressed against his chest to create space between their bodies. Both breathless and flustered. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Klaus asked with concern in his tone, lowering his hands. She nodded, liking the fact that he was more concerned about her well being than his hard on. “Yeah. Nothing is wrong at all, trust me.” Caroline smiled, reassuring him that he did nothing wrong. “This is really, really nice…�� She softly confessed, nibbling on her lip. “If you keep doing that, I won’t be held responsible for my actions.” He mused, cupping one side of her face with one hand, stroking her cheek lightly with the pad of his thumb. She sighed, trying not to get lost in him again. “I’m totally going to regret saying this but, I think we should slow down a little…for now.” Klaus raised an eyebrow. “I got the impression you were quite enjoying yourself, love.” He smirked. Caroline blushed. “I was, a lot actually. I’m not saying I don’t want to because I obviously do…” “Hmm…” Klaus smuggly hummed, brushing his nose against hers. She fought back a moan. “But I still have some things to figure out and explaining to do. And you should know that I’m technically still with Tyler, we didn’t really break up.” “I know.” Klaus sighed. She furrowed her brows. “How?” He grinned. “I’ve been around for a thousand years Caroline you think I can’t differentiate between a real and fake break up? Not to mention, the Lockwood boy has very little talents as is and being a convincing actor isn’t one of them.” “Hey! Don’t be mean.” She scolded, not being able to hold back a small laugh. Klaus pulled her by the waist so they were chest to chest. His arms safely wrapped around her body, leaving a sweet kiss on her nose and cheek. Caroline smiled at the affection, never taking Klaus Mikaelson for the gentle type. “Take all the time you need. I waited this long just to kiss you, I can wait a little longer for the whole thing.” He began. “When you’re with me, if you choose so, I want it to be something you want. I want to be who you want, and for you not to be ashamed or scared about it. Not worrying about Elena, Tyler or anyone else.” Reality was hitting harder and harder. “And just know, that if you do decide to give us a real chance, I’ll never let you go.” Caroline sucked in a breath at Klaus’ promise. Suddenly she wanted to take back what she said about waiting. Klaus was overwhelming and extreme but he was exactly what she needed. “Okay.” Caroline agreed, casually pecking his lips which stunned them both. They were already acting like a couple who have been together for years. It was almost scary how comfortable he made her feel. Klaus reciprocated the kiss, gradually deepening it with his tongue. Caroline allowed herself to enjoy it for awhile. Moans swallowed by his mouth, her hands brushing over his stubble cheeks as they cuffed both sides of his face, and her body already craving to be destroyed by his. She planted one more kiss on his lips before leaning back with her hands still on his face. “You’re not making this easy.” “I didn’t intend to.” Klaus smirked, grabbing one of her hands and kissing the palm. Caroline rolled her eyes. “I really should go.” Klaus nodded. “May I at least drive you home?” He offered. They were both aware that Caroline drove herself to Klaus’ place but she didn’t question it. She wanted to be with him as much as she could tonight, who knows when they’ll have time alone after she breaks the news to her friends and Tyler. But she was ready for that, at least she thinks. This evening took such a huge turn. From Klaus storming off to Caroline storming after him to heartfelt confessions to passionate make out sessions. One surprise kiss literally changed everything for the both of them and Caroline couldn’t be more excited. “Okay, but no funny business.” Caroline said, poking her finger towards him. He chuckled, putting his hands up in defense.“No funny business.”

She pressed her lips into a wide grin as Klaus reached behind her to open the door, leading her out the mansion and closing the door behind him. 

You can also find this drable and my other work on my fanfiction account (:

[saskhal]

On Division

After moving from Mexico to the United States, Elena began to lose her children to the American culture. Her worst fear is that she will not be there for her children when they need her most, because she cannot learn English. Vamos a pedirle dulces a mama. Vamos.They no longer need her. Elena slowly becomes dumb. If she doesn’t lock herself in the bathroom with her English book every day, she will become deaf.

           I wasn’t sure if it was because times are changing, or if the world was always so blocked off. People protest and rally for freedom in a place that claimed to already have it. After the nation had its first black president our idea of freedom was still not fulfilled. People are still divided in as many ways as water can be shaped. There will always be people who cannot adapt. There will always be people who cannot hear more than one thing.

           My parents have been separated for most of my life. I have only two short memories of my mother and father together. After my dad got full custody of my sister and I, my mother would ask me the same thing. What did I do wrong? She said it for years. All throughout junior high and high school. What can I do? sorry mom. We’ve told you many times what you did. She would cry either right before we left or right when she picked us up from our dad’s. I felt awkward. Tight and strained. I wasn’t a human anymore. Instead I was outside the car looking down through the windows and sort of through the roof of the car.  I was look at myself as I stared at the floor waiting until my mother would stop crying. Eventually it would just be me in that car. My sister no longer has a relationship with our mother. My sister and mother also divided. She grew stronger than me, but she never learned to forgive.

           Middle earth has always been harsh and unforgiving. Different species, races, even families clash. The One Ring is pure evil, and holds the ultimate power. Mankind easily gave in and became servants of evil. Trapped with and evil that cannot die. The Ulairi are covered in all black robes. The hoods are thick and shape the head of nothingness.

           I opened the door to my Nazgul’s lair. The young adult smell no longer exists; instead there is sweat and marijuana. The shadows felt more awake, because of all the trash and bottle caps. The bedsheets were navy and mint. The air was like winter, but smelt like summer. A small clutter of medicine was in the corner. It was purchased last night says the receipt. The cough he didn’t have must still be bothering him I bet. He is lost forever now. Divided from his family and his consciousness. Lost all his power of will.

           Tucson unified school district, in Arizona, had once realized that 50% of their Mexican-American students dropped out of school. They attempted to fix this by implementing ethnic studies classes. There was a huge improvement, and about 90% of the students enrolled in these classes graduated high school. Imagine being a student, and no longer feeling like your school system was trying to get you to drop out. In ethnic studies, students learn about their culture and others. Teaching values that allow unity between different cultures and idea.            The statistics were showing that marijuana was good for people and their health. It was legal and seemed like everyone was smoking it, even if they were under aged. I never had a problem with it. I never smoked. I had responsible friends who were going to college and always had better grades than me who drank and smoked, so why would it be such a big deal? 

         My Nazgul has had issues growing up, but he was the only one with substance abuse problems. His younger brother was doing good in school and even took harder classes. I spent the night at my grandparents one night. I couldn’t sleep. The alarm clock read 3:13 in black letters with a slimy green glow. The light was bright enough to hurt my eyes after I lowered the blanket from shielding my eyes. I heard the basement door shut. I could hear my grandma’s chanclas smack against her feet as she walked outside. I looked out the window and thought the same thing as I always do, why is the sky so bright even in the middle of the night? It was summer. And I was afraid of lights, because I knew I wasn’t going to sleep. I need darkness in my life, so I can rest.

           The sun was hot on my way to school. I dressed accordingly. The cool air came in and caused a storm which brought rain and wind. I was soaked walking home. If it is nature for opposites to fight and cause destruction, then it makes sense for humans to do the same.

           During the industrial era, feudal Japan wanted to become a more civilized nation and become a strong and united nation like many western countries. The Japanese Empire fought against smaller territories. When one battle was won, the rest of the losing side would accept their defeat and kill themselves, but Tom Cruise kept fighting. Accepting defeat was not part of his American culture. He learned more about his opposition while in captivity. He was one of the last samurai. The Last Samurai holds the bridge somewhere. What can bring one side and connect it to the other? Whatever it is, war is part of it. 

         It was in the late 2000′s when I played hockey against the Canadians. Tacoma versus Vancouver. We fought hard for 90 minutes. The temperature was freezing for obvious reasons. But our bodies were creating so much friction that we couldn’t keep cool. I had sweat that stung my eyeball like salty peppers. I sat on the bench for the first time in 15 minutes of nonstop moving. I saw the twinkling white lights as everything started to dim. One streak of lighting across my eyes after another until finally it stopped, and the world became bright again. This was just a game, but sticks were still broken. Skates sliced the slippery ice. Whistles blown and cracked like a whip. We even hunched over after our stomachs where smashed by a big hit. All this was for fun, but we fought only because we were on different teams. We shook hands and said good game afterwards, but we never shake hands before we battle.

           Even my younger cousin started feeling the quake of my Nazgul’s dysfunction. The Nazgul isn’t a bad person, it’s just that he trapped himself in this disassociated state, and now my younger cousin has to live amongst the hate and separation within his household. My cousin is having a harder time in school now. He is physically sick because of mental stress. Our battles hurt everyone not just ourselves.

           The Tucson districts abolished its ethnic studies classes because it divided children by their race. In class they read books based off communism that had ideals written by dictators and fascists. The children were taught that the American history was filled with bloodshed and hatred of other cultures. The politicians who helped ban these classes never even attended a class. And the one time they did, they did not listen to the positive and look for every opportunity to bring it down. The film Precious Knowledge was released in 2011 to inform people about the struggle in Arizona, and how media can totally manipulate what is true. Many other school districts followed the message and make their own ethnic studies classes to help educate kids, and even made it a required class. However, it wasn’t until August 2017 that the law was deemed unconstitutional by the supreme court and the Tucson unified school district was free to hold ethnic studies courses. 

         My grandma saw it one way and one way only. Weed is a drug and drugs are bad. They are a terrible way to “have fun” and will lead to worse drugs. Alcohol is bad. For the Nazgul at least. He cannot handle it, and everyone can see. But maybe she was right. As of now she is right. Evil cannot die. He is forever a servant of the dark lord.

           He believes that everything is someone else’s fault. He is in jail because we won’t bail him out. He believes that he doesn’t have to pay if he steals. He believes that downing cough syrup won’t have a bad consequence. Maybe he should fight the people who keep giving him more chances to make bigger mistakes, because it’s their fault for letting him out of that cell.

           People will always have a different stand on a subject. The good thing about conformity and socialization is that there is less conflict when everything is the same. The bad thing is that those who are different are viewed as sickly and handicap. An open mind helps people stay free. An open mind helps people work together. The reason we teach art majors calculus is because math helps with problem solving. People need to adapt and build bridges and roads. The only divider would ideally be something that connects those two things together.            The Ethnic/ Raza students at Tucson high were dangerous to some people. Those people did not want Latinos to be educated. They wanted to keep using second grade students of color data to know how many prisons they’ll need in the future. What makes a person want to shut down a program meant for all ethnicities and for all students? Why would a person think that students graduating school and enjoying education was a bad thing? The division of power was being threatened. New ideas where not accepted because order keeps us alive. We do not know what will happen if there is change.

           I learned that I cannot expect anything to change unless I was willing to lose something. I did not know what was going to happen to me when I started working at panda express. I could have worked at a company where I got money and never built any relationships with anyone and played the game safe. Instead I gave up my comfort and I was placed a workspace with people who cared about me. I gained confidence and could speak. I will volunteer to speak with younger people and hopefully they will be better than me. I can become a leader now. 

         I have been to a counselor before. The first few times it was required by law, because of my parents. The next time was because I wanted to. I wish I was diagnosed with something just so I had an excuse for being how I am, but I was never tested or went in for something like that. I looked up my problems on my own. I am not what people call antisocial, because that would mean I have no morals and I act against society and its laws. I am not avoidant because I do not like to be in my room by myself. I prefer to be with others, although I do act awkwardly at times and fear rejection. Maybe I just have rubatosis. I can always feel my heart. I ask around and everyone says they feel their heart too and it’s normal. But they don’t know what i’s like I’m sure.   

Jackson, P. (Director). (2001). The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

 Mora, P. (1985). Elena.

 Palos, A. (Director). (2011). Precious Knowledge.

 Thorne, Craig R., and Richard R. DeBlassie. "Adolescent substance abuse." Adolescence 20.78 (1985): 335.

             Swartz, Marvin S., et al. "Violence and severe mental illness: the effects of substance abuse and nonadherence to medication." American journal of psychiatry 155.2 (1998): 226-231.

             Zwick, E. (Director). (2003). The Last Samurai. Warner Bros.

[ourheroregina]

Dark Outlaw Queen Week - Day7

Day 7 - Regina checks in.

You’ll find mentions of Dragon Queen here.

(…)

Regina comes back to her office after a very annoying lunch break with Snow to find the door unlocked. It makes her frown for she’s sure she locked them before leaving. Her whole posture changes immediately as she inhales sharply and pushes the door open, ready to fight with whoever the intruder is.

However, instead of an enemy, she finds her son there, sitting at her desk, eating doughnuts. As the door hits the wall (Regina pushed them too hard) his eyes move from the box of food to the doorway. He looks startled for a moment, eyes wide, but then he sees Regina and grins.

“Henry!” she sighs in relief.

She really wasn’t in a mood to fight.

She smiles to her son, but still looks confused. It’s his week with Emma and during these days he barely comes to her because he’s always occupied with Emma and Guyliner. He’s not an unwelcome guest, far from it, she’s just really surprised to see him.

“Hi, Mom,” Henry says cheerfully, waving his hand at her.

“What are you doing here today?” She asks interested as she walks into her own office and closes the door behind her, comes to sit in front of Henry.

For a second Henry’s smile drops and he becomes serious. He puts the doughnut back into the box and looks at Regina before giving her a small smile.

“I have some news for you,” he finally says and licks his lips, becomes serious again. “I opened the book last night and found a new chapter that wasn’t there before. It was about the Queen.”

“Oh” Regina sits a little bit straighter, already preparing to hear some kind of a crazy adventure the Queen is having again.

“She and Robin got married.”

For a moment Regina is stunned. Her mouth drops open in surprise as she stares at her son. She knows the Queen, knows her demons, after all the Queen was created in a loveless marriage as Regina’s salvation, and it’s a real surprise to hear that that woman managed to silence these awful thoughts about marital life and get married again.

Surprise wears off rather quickly and then she feels a bit of hurt. Of course, Regina and the Queen aren’t friends, but Regina liked to think about her as a family member. They’ve been trapped in one body for many years, there was some kind of connection between them.

Now Regina feels betrayed. At least the Queen could’ve sent a letter or find another way to announce something this important.

“Are you sure?” Regina snaps out of her thoughts and looks at Henry who’s watching her closely.

“Yeah, look,” he pushes the storybook towards her.

Inhaling Regina looks down and finds a picture of the Queen dressed all in black, in her regal clothes with Robin in his usual thievery clothes kissing. It doesn’t look like a wedding, more like a normal kiss between two lovers so she turns to read what is written on the other page.

That day the former Evil Queen and Robin of Locksley got married.

One sentence is enough to have Regina’s heart beating just a little bit faster. She looks to the picture again, takes a closer looks to the Queen’s face and for the first time in forever she sees a smile that’s genuine happy.

Regina’s heart swells from happiness for that woman for she really deserved to be happy.

Swallowing a knot of tears (she doesn’t even know why she’s so emotional about this), Regina looks at Henry grinning, “Well, I think it’s time we congratulate them.”

(…)

Regina refused to let Henry to travel with her. Traveling in realms weren’t a trouble anymore, they’ve had enough magic beans but she still felt conflicted. Gods only know what is happening in the Enchanted Forest but her son is too good at convincing and after a few hours of doing just that, she finally agreed to let him go.

They decided to travel on Sunday, planned to stay only for a few hours because Regina might have let Henry travel with her but this trip wasn’t a good enough reason to skip lessons. They’ve bought a bouquet of flowers, taken the bean from the vault and traveled.

(…)

Regina opens her eyes when she hears someone moaning and that someone sounds just like her. As soon as she is able to see properly, she figures out that she’s standing in her castle’s hallway and there, right in front of her, is the Queen, pushed against the wall by Robin who is kissing her exposed neck.

“Oh my God,” Regina couldn’t help but gasp. “Henry, turn around,” she orders and hopes to all the Gods above that her son hasn’t seen anything. He already had a difficult life with all the curses and stuff, he didn’t need an image of his other mother making out with her new husband.

The gasps follow Regina’s words and she turns Henry around as quickly as possible while Robin and the Queen pull away from each other, Robin’s eyes are wide as he turns to look at them while the Queen’s turns all shades of pink as she looks from Regina to Henry.

“Regina!” The Queen almost squeals as she desperately covers herself –  she wouldn’t felt embarrassed in front of Regina, if it were only her, she might have given her a show, but there is Henry and she really doesn’t want her son to see her like that. Quickly she fixes herself and tries to put her breathing under control as Robin turns around, rests his hand on her lower back. “What are you doing here? Don’t you remember that you need to knock?”

“It’s literally the hallway, I wasn’t expecting you to-“ Regina trails off, gesturing towards them.

“Well, next time you decide to visit, please, let us know,” the Queen says sternly and then she leaves Robin’s embrace and walks towards Henry. “Hi, dear,” she greets her son, pulling him into a tight hug which Henry gladly returns.

“Mom,” he says and for a moment the Queen lets herself think that there was a little bit of longing in his voice. “We came here to congratulate you two,” Henry tells her after pulling away.

“Yes,” Regina agrees. “We read that you’re married now and…” she trails off again, feeling a knot of tears in her throat. She’s over it, she tells herself, she’s moved on, and she’s happy for the Queen but every time she thinks about it, she imagines herself in the Queen’s situation for it could have been her and Robin, her Robin.

“Thank you,” The Queen says, pulling Henry into another tight hug. Then she lets him go and the boy goes to shake hands with Robin who is standing behind them awkwardly.

Regina hugs the Queen, whispers into her ear, “Thank you for telling me,” sarcastically and then pulls away.

“You’re welcome, dear,” The Queen returns with a smirk and takes the flowers from Regina, turns around to look at her husband and her son chatting.

“Why doesn’t Robin show Henry the castle while we talk?” Regina suggests and the Queen nods, looking at her husband with a wicked grin.

She is smitten.

(…)

“So,” the Queen starts, putting down the cups on a kitchen table.

Regina is sitting on the chair like a real guest, looking around. So much have changed since the last time she’s been here. There are no maids now, and the kitchen’s atmosphere definitely has changed.

The Queen puts a plate with apple turnovers on the table and finally sits down in front of Regina, smirking, “So I see that you know a lot about my life, but don’t be mistaken, I know bits and pieces about yours too. For example, tell me about your new relationship.”

The cup of tea almost falls from Regina’s hand as she curses under her breath. She then looks up at the Queen with wide eyes, “How do you know?”

Yes, she’s been in some kind of a relationship for quite some time but no one knows about it, not even Henry for it’s still so uncertain.

The Queen only shrugs, grinning at her wickedly.

“Yes, I’m not alone,” Regina finally admits, her voice shaking. “But I haven’t stopped loving Robin. I’m trying to move on but I still feel bad about it and she’s making me feel better and I’m trying, I really am.”

“Maleficent is good for you,” The Queen agrees, taking a sip of her tea. “I’m glad to see you finally acted on your feelings.”

“I wouldn’t say that it was me who acted on her feelings, but yes, I'm glad too,” she admits. “But even though we’re together for quite some time now, I still feel-“ Regina’s voice trails off and there are tears in her eyes and she hasn’t cried for so long, but now, talking about her new relationship with someone makes it feel real and she feels as if she’s forgetting Robin, as if she’s betraying him.

“I know. I feel it too.”

“But we moved on. Both of us.”

“I guess we did. I mean look at us – you’re finally with someone you’ve had feelings for a really long time and I just got married to a man who makes me the happiest woman.”

“But I still remember him. Every single day.”

“So do I.”

They fall silent after that, both of them stuck in their thoughts. Regina takes a deep breath, tells herself to calm down but when she looks up to the Queen, she finds that the woman is struggling just as much as her.

Regina pushes these sad thought away, and tries to think of everything she wanted to say to the Queen when they meet again. But now when the time has come, her head is empty. Damn it, she really needed to make the list.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” Regina says, breaking the silence, when she remembers what she figured out a few weeks ago. “I talked with Rumple about you and me living on our own now. And he told me that the infertility curse is broken for you. I just thought you should know that now.”

“Oh, trust me, I know,” The Queen chuckles and rests her hand on her stomach.

“You’re pregnant?”

“About two months,” she tells her with a small smile. “We’ve been on our honeymoon when I started having symptoms and then Robin basically made me do that spell which showed that I’m definitely pregnant.”

“Oh my!” Regina cannot hide her surprise. Instantly she’s up and walking around the table to hug her former biggest enemy. She feels tears of happiness filling her eyes as she pulls away and looks at Queen’s stomach which’s still as flat as always.

But there’s a baby.

“I’m going to be her Godmother,” Regina announces making the Queen laugh.

They talk and talk and talk, about the baby, wedding and honeymoon, about Regina and Mal, about Henry and Violet, they both agree that he’s not old enough to have a girlfriend. The Queen tells her about their life now, about the crimes she and Robin commit together and just how happy she is now.  

“Hello, ladies,” It’s Robin’s voice that cuts their conversation and they both fall silent as they turn to look at their boys. Robin walks over to the Queen while Henry takes a seat beside Regina.

They talk for a little bit more and then, when the sun goes down, they hug each other one last time and Regina with Henry travel home while the Queen and Robin return to their crazy activities that were interrupted by their guests.

(…)

I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who read my one shots for Dark Outlaw Queen week!! I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writting! :)

[broken-winged-sparrow]

Is there a particular reason as to why rape and sexual assault is considered more severe of a crime in Asmodae rather than in Elysea? I mean, they look and act like vicious killers, I find it hard to believe that rape of the enemy would be considered such a severe war crime when they say "blood for blood" instead of "good morning". I also find it kinda weird how Ariel would turn a blind eye to the abuse of her own people(Nico) and Azphel punish his own for abusing the enemy

As previously stated: the opinions of the author that are canon to the Lay are not always canon to Aion.

The Lay is written as an alternate history. The first part of understanding what that means is realizing that there will always be some form of cognitive dissonance between modern values and morals and those of the past, and it only gets stronger the further back you go. Consider that civil rights for minorities in the RL West have really only been a thing for 50-something years, in a society which is much more technologically advanced and with immensely more swift currents of cultural change. I have living relatives who remember what it was like to live in the middle of segregation - I even have one living relative who remembers what it was like during World War II. That’s not even a century removed, in a society where people who actually live to be a century old are relatively rare.

Consider how much greater the cognitive dissonance in a society where those in power live hundreds of years. Thousands of years. Picture the difference in attitude between yourself and your parents, your grandparents; now imagine how vast the difference in attitude and thought between Jaya, barely out of her teens, and someone like Ariel, who has been a Daeva since the dawn of recorded Atreian history, for whom mortality is a distant glimmering memory at best.

For Ariel, the idea that the patriarch of the Sethes would sell his family to House Beltaine as indentured servants is not even strange, because such practices have happened in her lifetime before and may again, if need arises. Such alliances between a noble house and a much lesser one were once a reasonable move to secure safety on the part of the indebted and security and service on the part of the debtor. Admittedly, the Sethes are perhaps the very last example extant of such a practice in Atreia, there are none left in Asmodae, where such a practice never really took hold anyway.

Now, to someone raised in the current atmosphere, such as Jaya or Oros or even Kit, the very concept is as abhorrent as slavery or segregation or discrimination would be to us. This is why Oros was so moved to extract Nico from her precarious position - and why he refused to let Taion do it in his stead, as much as Taion wanted to. As Taion is a prince of Helios, monetary buyout of Nico’s debt to Beltaine would be viewed, legally, merely as a transfer of ownership from one House to the other. Oros, acting as his father who was not of noble standing, instead took the third option.

As far as Ariel is concerned, House Beltaine has kept to the agreement they had with the Sethes line. As this agreement predates any legislature that might make it moot or null, it is grandfathered through and stands until she has interest in seeing it broken - which she might see fit to do, if, say, Nico brought charges or demonstrated evidence against Liath Beltaine and his house for the mistreatment of herself and her family.

As Nico herself has not made such a move, in Ariel’s eyes, the matter is settled. She has other concerns to hold her attention.

Secondly, Asphel is just as old as Ariel, maybe even a handful of years older - which is splitting hairs when we’re making comparisons on a scale of tens of thousands, really, but it bears saying. To his mind and eye, there are certain behaviors that are tolerable on field of war and certain ones that are not, and like Ariel and the Sethes debate, what he considers honorable and right does not always jive with the modern perception. But consider this: Asphel’s greatest drive, the thing that makes him the happiest and keeps him on the front lines thousands of years after he could have comfortably retired to Pandaemonium, is the hunt for a worthy opponent. Very few can hold their own against even the bridled might of Asmodae’s greatest Lord - and half the point of seeking a worthy foe is being a worthy adversary in his own right. He yearns for that sense of challenge, of balance, of knowing that the one who stands unyielding before him will change him as surely as his presence changes them. Ariel fills her years with courtly plots and idle dalliances with lovers; Asphel fills his searching for those strong enough to make his pulse jump in battle.

A rival worth the name demands the utmost of respect, even in defeat; Asphel has wept for such foes, when they pass from Atreia into the hands of Aion. There are Elyos warriors whose entire bloodlines have died out, powerful Daevas whose names are no longer recorded in Elyos history, but Asphel remembers them. He still speaks their names, grants them some measure of truth in immortality, because they stood the test of his blades without flinching. They each made a mark on his soul that demands to be honored, to be exalted.

And the unwilling sexual domination of a defeated foe, to Asphel, is the ultimate disrespect to what he perceives as the most sacred bond a warrior like himself can have.

Now, willing sexual dominance is a whole ‘nother ballgame. Consent is king, among Asmodians. Sex can get crazy when you’re talking about a society of people who admire scars as badges of strength, when a people as a whole have urges that might all too easily be classified as violent or even abusive; bondage, submission/dominance, blood play, blade play, all that shit is par for the course for the average Asmodian relationship. Kink isn’t derided, it’s embraced, if behind closed doors - because that kind of thing is between you and your partner/s and no one else. Trust is paramount when you’re talking about claws and teeth that can irrevocably harm or kill at a moment’s notice, and without the consent of everyone involved, there is no trust. 

Now, as mentioned before, that isn’t to say it doesn’t happen. You are always going to have cases where things get out of hand, and every society has its predators and people who make bad decisions that result in permanent trauma to others, and Asphel is only one being, albeit a ludicrously powerful one. But as far as Asphel is concerned, if he catches you breaking such a sacred trust - with the enemy or with your own - you deserve every bit of what happens to you afterwards. No quarter and no fucks are given.

Thirdly, because this is, again, an alternate history in a timeline that may or may not fit in with current Aion canon, you can’t compare the current culture and behavior of Asmodians in the game to the culture and behavior of Asmodians in the Lay without having to account for what might have changed in the hundred-plus years between one and the other.

The language used here also troubles me. Does Jaya, raised wholly Asmodian no matter the questionable muddle of her bloodline, strike you as a “vicious killer”? Does our resident favorite bastard, raised by an Asmodian mother, Oros? Jaya holds her honor more dear than her own life, and Oros, while proficient with a blade, is not cruel in battle. Would you describe the calculations and plans of the White Dragon as marking him a “vicious killer”? How about the mercies and kindnesses he shows, or his refusal to bow before racial prejudice? Do these make him more vicious?

Painting one side of the conflict with bold and bloody strokes does not for a realistic, or even interesting, story make. The point of the Lay is not to portray one side as wholly right and the other wholly wrong. If the characters you saw in the Lay were all cardboard cutouts - if those antagonists arranged against the protagonists were laughable caricatures - then would you be as interested, as invested in the events as they unfold? If Jaya were a boring perfect hero-figure, would you give the first damn about her story? If the White Dragon were a villain dripping with obnoxious evil instead of a complicated antagonist with his own motives and morals, would you care at all why he does what he does? For that matter, why should Ariel not be a sweet, saccharine angel or Asphel a bloodthirsty, immoral murderer? Are these more true portrayals?

I refuse to write characters like that, as flat stereotypes. It’s a disservice to the readers who are expected to swallow them, and to the characters, who are expected to be people and not cartoons.

The point of the Lay is to show you that good people sometimes do bad things, and that bad people sometimes demonstrate a great depth of goodness. I’ve said it before, the overarching theme of the Lay is duality. No one here is completely right or completely wrong - completely guilty or completely innocent. 

[old-long-john]

(1/8)Oh my good golly gosh darn, Laura!!!! I would drown in your words if I could. That bit from your unfinished fic, I'm in awe. I am completely smitten with your interpretation of Silver. I wish I could articulate a response to your answers besides !!!!! (Also you're a saint for humoring me.) I could listen and talk to you about John Silver all day. You touched on some really good points in previous answers that I didn't acknowledge, so I'd like to address some of them now because wow.

You do such a good job unpacking the minutiae in each scene, but then I feel the need to further explicate your meta because you bring up so many brilliant points. 1.“Funny that Silver’s learnt so much shit from Flint, except that allowing yourself to be blinded to rationality and truths is a ruinous mistake.” God this ties in so well to our discussion of Silver believing his own bullshit. It’s almost as though he learned the wrong lesson from Flint and became more accomplished at lying to himself as the story goes on. Or perhaps those untruths just kept piling up. 

So very true. Honestly, I think so much of it is due to Silver letting himself get too comfortable in the little bubble he’d created for himself. And I feel so awful for him, because it was always going to have to pop in the end. He’s always been so good at reading people and at manipulating situations for his own gain, and he seemed to be incredibly honest with himself (and others) about his own failings and limitations, and those things are fine when nobody depends on you and you don’t depend on anybody else. But as soon as he developed loyalties and relationships, and with them wants and needs that he couldn’t provide for himself alone (love and friendship and respect), it suddenly wasn’t very convenient to be honest with himself about his own shortcomings or the things which the only two members of the John Silver’s People Club would value as more important than him. Because I completely believe he valued(/still values?) them more than anything else in the entire world. It’s such a horrible imbalance to face honestly and accept.

2.“Not much slips by Flint” lmao except a big cache full of gems on his own damn ship. Sorry I just had to bring that up. I feel like that was one of those leaps of faith the show expects us to take, and I just can’t. I still can’t believe Flint didn’t know the cache was on board the Walrus.

Mm, I know what you mean. Though I can make it work in my own head. Flint is such a micro-manager, but he has been far more relaxed this season in general. I mean, he went off on his little Fortress B&B break with Eleanor and trusted Silver to make everything work in his absence, with no plan given. But that’s part of the problem. Even if Silver was wrong about Flint’s investment in their friendship, and in his assertion that it was only a convenience insofar as it helped him to use Silver to have things done his way…Flint kind of still did that, a little bit. Flint loves him, I have no doubt, but he put so much faith in the idea that Silver would see his way as right and fall in line that it made him blind to the daylight that was growing between them. He was still doing it on that damn island when he was talking to Dooley. I can buy that he didn’t know the chest was on board, because he truly hadn’t made room in his head for the possibility that Silver would go against him in that way. So he let his plan fall into place, as his plans always fell into place with Silver by his side, without noticing that Silver wasn’t with him in the way he thought. Poor Flint. Like we said, speaking of masters of blinding oneself to dangerous truths…

3.“I wonder though how much he was motivated by pride in that moment, or anger, or even just vulnerability.” Honestly Laura just let me rEST. You have a Flint-like way of cutting straight to the heart of a scene or action. We (you) covered Silver’s vulnerability (god so vulnerable–remember when he left the hilltop when Flint asked about his past? He sounded SO young and broken as he went gosh. I’m pretty emotional over his emotions.) but I really want to address the others. Because I actually had some thoughts concerning his pride. He always made a point to set himself apart from the men and claim freedom from Flint’s influence (“You will account for me;” “I don’t believe in him”). I think once there was a break in their relationship (once daylight could seep between them) all Billy’s and Hands’s warnings fueled his determination perhaps to disprove them or maybe just to prove to himself that he can still hold his own with Flint and not be moved, even to the point of ignoring logic (John, why :’( ). And I’m thinking these conflicting, complex emotions feed into each other? Like maybe the anger also stems from the vulnerability, the perceived betrayal–is a reaction to being hurt. Anger is an easy emotion, and to someone who is new to emotions like Silver, I imagine it’s simpler to embrace. I mean, remember his face at the end of the episode? He’s so in love (romantic, platonic, whatever I don’t care); he’s in awe of this thing between them. This is his first (at least that we see) important relationship. The feelings are mutual, that’s what he says, and for him to feel like Flint broke his first foray into attachment, of course he’s going to be hurt. 

I suddenly have that scene from Pride and Prejudice playing in the back of my mind and it’s the worst. (”Perhaps these offences might have been overlooked had not your pride been hurt by my honesty…”, “My pride?”, “…in admitting scruples about our relationship…”, “…from the first moment I met you, your arrogance and conceit, your selfish disdain for the feelings of others made me realise that you were the last man in the world I could ever be prevailed upon to marry.” *cue sexual tension so thick you could spread it on toast*) Oh, pride. You know, come to think of it, we were told right at the beginning of the episode that pride should not be a thing that ought to come between them at this point, and I imagine that wasn’t accidental. 

I think you’re completely right about the influence of Billy and Hands’s words. However that pride is framed (either being for Silver’s own peace of mind, or to prove the point to them), having that ‘mistake’ seen by them, and commented on constantly, must have had some effect on his impulse to prove he could even the score and show just how very invulnerable he really was to Flint. I think he’s probably almost as angry with them for pointing it out and making it ‘a thing’ as he is with Flint for giving rise to it. I’ve wondered a lot, actually, just how this season would have gone without the corrupting influence of Hands. He really has been an evil little snake, whispering the things that should only ever have been thought by Silver, not said aloud. I suppose that was his purpose really. To give voice to those things that we as the audience needed to hear, but which wouldn’t normally be spoken. He’s almost been as much a narrative device to show Silver’s state of mind as those S3 dreams were for Flint. 

What you say about Silver’s complex emotions feeding into easier ones, like anger, sounds exactly right too. I’ve been kind of viewing Silver as a bit of a teenager in a lot of respects this season, and that fits in with that view. Flint was totally his first foray into attachment, yeah, and Silver does definitely love him in his way - he’s basically experiencing his first break up, and it’s a brutal, world-shattering one. He’s so inexperienced with feelings (seemingly deliberately, as one of those suddenly inconvenient lines of defence - fuck do I empathise with him there), and so like a teenager his reaction to big feelings that he doesn’t know how to quantify or cope with is to boil them down to easier ones, like anger and hurt, and to express them through spite and cruelty and self-pity. He’s a goddamn mess, but I don’t think he’d know how to stop everything from spiralling, even if he wanted to. Flint might though, if he’d only stop raging long enough to listen to him. 

(And don’t even get me started on Luke Arnold and his freakish ability to de-age himself by about 10 years in the blink of an eye. He’s looked and sounded so young several times this season, and every single time it’s broken me. I could write a whole essay just on that.)

One final thought I had regarding the narrative of Flint and Silver’s relationship is that though they frame it as the war vs Madi, as soon as Flint took the cache, the conflict became him vs Madi. And the fandom had some compelling arguments that the writers weren’t going to be that predictable, but they really were and. That’s probably the most disappointing. Like I didn’t find the episode disappointing but this season as a whole, while not bad, has not been up to parr. Anyway sorry for the incoherent jumble. But I truly love how you process Silver. 

I’ve had this thought too. All of last week I was worrying that there would be no rug-pull and that their division really would be as simple as it seemed, and I was ready to be so disappointed by that…but then episode 9 was so damn good that I kind of forgot to be annoyed. And I still can’t quite find it in me to pick holes yet. I don’t know how it will all stand up to rewatches, but I agree with you, I think. In comparison to most tv, S4 has still been something special (in my eyes), but there have definitely been things that seemed a little rushed or contrived. I suppose the writers felt that they didn’t have enough story left for two more seasons, but what they had was still too much for just one. Perhaps a final season of 12 or 15 episodes would have worked a little better, and given all the storylines and relationships a little more space to breathe. As it stands though, the thing I’ve always loved most about this show is the characters, and I think for the most part they’ve been as well written and thoughtfully developed this season as in the past three, so I’m willing to overlook a few more bumps in the storytelling than normal. And I’m just so glad that the pieces have finally fallen into place for everyone else to ‘see’ Silver again too, because it’s started to feel a little lonely in the John Silver Defence Squad lately. 

This got ENORMOUS. But I’ve had fun answering it! I am not ready to let these pirates go. :( I think they’re going to live in my head for a very, very long time. (I’m at least 40% John Silver at this point. Maybe more.) Someone carve ‘Know no shame’ on my tombstone, please.