#because we need to start actually setting aside time to a wider variety of fun and relaxing stuff again

[thethingything]

went downstairs and immediately saw a tiny moth. fuck yeah

[boycottyashahime]

Alright, so I’m bad at Tumblr, and though I wanted to just reblog the original post from @strawberrycreampiefluff and put most of it under a cut or perhaps find a way to trim it, I couldn’t find a way to make it work. So, we’re starting a new thread. Here’s the link the other one if anyone reading hasn’t been following the discussion and want to catch up: https://strawberrycreampiefluff.tumblr.com/post/625063196626223104/what-do-you-think-of-this-whole-ppl-shipping

Anyhow, since we discussed this beforehand, I’ll start from the beginning, only working with the storytelling elements from the series, and I’ll leave out the latter part of the post regarding moralizing (which I mostly agree with anyway, so it’s no loss to me).

“I  was trying to convey that considering the methods of storywriting and telling,  it would break the “pattern” Rumiko Takashi built up and lowering the  impact of Sessh character growth he would later experience.  A father-daughter bond is not inferior to a romantic bond, but it  would seem out of place, to have both his father and brother form a  romantic relationship with a human and then Sessh breaking that pattern  by introducing a new kind of relationship-dynamic - when he is the most  crucial character in the series when it comes to demon-human relations.”

I’m still quite unclear HOW the impact of Sesshomaru’s character growth is necessarily lowered from not having a romantic bond with a human. Why is the continuation of this pattern so important, in your view, to the character’s development? From my perspective, introducing a new relationship dynamic into and breaking patterns is actually a good thing in stories - It’s a great way to add variety and a different point of view to a narrative. Having characters take a pattern in a different, unique direction can add meaning in a way the reader couldn’t see coming, give the story unexpected dimension.

And you’ve already said that you and other shippers like yourself don’t see anything romantic while Rin is still a child in the original series, so that is effectively what happened. Since we agree that the relationship wasn’t actually romantic within the context of the original Inuyasha series, Sesshomaru took a love of a human in an entirely different direction than his father or his brother did. Which conveys complexity in how youkai can relate to humans that wasn’t in the established pattern. As a reader, I find that kind of thing fun and engaging, though you may disagree.

“A father-daughter relationship would still put Sessh in a superior position to Rin (as the father), not adding a lot to his character development other than him caring for one other human being.”

I have to wince here, because while yes, technically Sesshomaru is in a superior position to Rin in a father-daughter relationship, the implication here is that this can be compared to the sense of superiority he had over humans as a whole that you referenced earlier. Is a parent-child relationship really comparable to a racist outlook? I feel like these two things are quite unrelated, having two ENTIRELY different connotations from the word “superior”. One is an entirely natural superior position, using one’s greater experience, knowledge, and ability to facilitate the growth and guidance of someone still on their way up. The other is a wholly unnatural and malicious disregard for a person based on superficial features. Sesshomaru’s superior attitude toward humans before he met Rin was not based on a paternalistic concern, but complete disgust and the notion that they were entirely unworthy of consideration. The two connotations of “superior” here are just not analogous in the greater narrative.

“In a romantic relationship, both partners should be equals (anything  other is unacceptable), for this to happen Sessh would’ve had to lower himself  (his pride) to Rins level, since he was the one with the big ego and  humans were regarded as one of the lower creatures of the food chain.”

Again, I think it is entirely possible for Sesshomaru to learn not to regard humans as “lower on the food chain” through a relationship that ISN’T romance, but that aside, this whole notion brings up a question: why didn’t Rumiko Takahashi write Rin into the story as a young adult? We’ve already discussed how romantic implications to the relationship couldn’t exist while she’s still a child in the series, and why Sesshomaru and Rin are definitely NOT equal during the series. So if it was so important for Sesshomaru to be otherwise equal to Rin so he can lower his pride and truly consider her such, why was Rin not written as a fully autonomous adult so we could cut to the chase? It seems that if what you’re describing was really Rumiko Takahashi’s intent, it would have been a lot easier if the girl was already grown up. At the very least, our dear author could have ended the series when Rin was an appropriate age to actually make the point instead of leaving it hanging.

“Doing the exact same thing he criticized his father for, which  for him would’ve been humiliating in the beginning of the series. The  sequel (if you regard it as canon) goes even farther, making him create  his own half demons - the very reason he hated his brother in the first  place. His mother even said he becomes like his father in the strangest  ways - and the only “strange” thing we know about his father was his  romantic relationship with Izayoi.”

Since English isn’t your first language, I’m guessing you’re just mistaken in the map of this sentence, but the word “strange” here is referring to Sesshomaru’s behavior in relation to his father’s. What is strange is how Sesshomaru is like his father, not his father’s ways. This actually makes the opposite point - it seems to refer to the ways in which Sesshomaru is behaving as odd, maybe in relation to a pattern his father fit into.

“That’s why I think it wouldn’t fall apart if we draw the parallel in a wider context as you say, because other characters didn’t have the same starting point  as Sessh. I very much agree with you, that Inuyasha’s platonic bonds  would also count as a dog forming close bonds with humans, but in  Inuyasha’s or Shippou’s case, they didn’t need the same character  development like Sessh, since they had a different attitude towards  humans or “lesser-beings” in the first place (Inuyasha was even past the  stage of lowering himself, also out of romantic reasons btw, since he  was ready to become human for Kikyo).”

I’m curious as to how the parallel and pattern matter if it’s null and void because Inuyasha and the other characters we talked about have different character arcs. Of course they aren’t starting from the same place as Sesshomaru, characters never do. They’re varied and diverse because it would be boring as tar to write them all going through the same issues. My point about the parallel was that even if it could be said that there’s some similarity in how dog YOUKAI form bonds with humans to actual DOGS, it’s not really a good parallel, because there are other “species” of youkai much less friendly with humans doing it too. I’m having trouble understanding what this argument has to do with that.

In reference to the above, I agree, the example characters you cited didn’t have the same level of dismissive racism as Sesshomaru did (I say “same level” because Shippou does carry a bit of prejudice, even as a small child), but when that’s apparent, why is the pattern even relevant? Since the characters aren’t set to all learn the same lesson, their relationships shouldn’t really resemble each other’s in the long run either, should they? Writers use relationships as tools for character development, and they usually want to use the right tool for the right job. Maybe romantic love with a human was right for Inuyasha because he had issues with vulnerability and reconciling his half-heritage. What if SESSHOMARU benefited more as a character from an unconditional bond (free from the conditions of sexual/romantic attraction) to demonstrate to him how even the weakest creature is incomprehensibly valuable for reasons impossible to articulate, and they are worth using his incredible level of “superior” power to protect and defend them? It’s a different kind of humbling oneself than what you were talking about, but I think it’s just as meaningful, and it fits Sesshomaru’s character development neatly into the the original text. It doesn’t require Sunrise make a sequel more than a decade later to wrap up the character development that Rumiko Takahashi meant to do when Rin grew up even though she could have just written her in as an adult in the first place.

“But Rin will obviously not always stay 8/11 years old, she will grow  into her own person and become a woman (while living apart from Sessh),  creating a completely different power dynamic with Sessh. One that would  still be an imbalance, but much different than when she was a child.”

As far as the narrative was concerned, Rin COULD very well have stayed a child forever, though. She was written as a character in a story. When the story is done, so are the characters. You’ve said before and here that Inuyasha is just fiction, and it is, but accepting that means accepting that Rin doesn’t grow up without some prompting. She doesn’t age but through the hand of a creator, fanfiction authors or Sunrise. When you say she’s not going to stay 8-11 forever, what you mean is that actual humans who experience actual time are not satisfied with her age as it stood when the story ended, and actively impose time upon her.

And since applying time to a fictional character is something that has to be intentional, so too do the conditions you mention to create the perfect environment for the ship. The different dynamic that isn’t father-daughter, but still a little bit of not-weird power imbalance. The “lowering” of Sesshomaru’s ego in that specific romantic way (that I’m still not sure I understand, but we’ll go with it). The way in which the romance is developed without either character realizing it so that Sesshomaru can’t be accused of using the power imbalance to manipulate a girl he’s had authority over since she was eight. Returning to what catalyzed the change in Sesshomaru in the first place while carefully treading around the fact that it was built upon an unconditional relationship that now suddenly has conditions on it. That’s a lot of mental legwork to do, which is fine, because that’s part of creative expression. But you have to acknowledge that none of this would be necessary if the pairing were “obvious”.

It certainly wasn’t very obvious to some of us. We came to a very different conclusion, saw everything a bit differently. Now we’re being punished for having a less popular interpretation of this relationship, shut down by SUNRISE and told that we don’t get to have that interpretation, because they’re considered an authority on what is canon in Inuyasha, and they’re taking sides to squeeze more money out of the Inuyasha franchise with a next-gen sequel. It doesn’t seem to matter that Sunrise was never really very good at telling Inuyasha stories, or that next-gen sequels never seem to be any good for lack of stakes and boring plots.

Sunrise’s interpretation is still considered to be more “valid” than ours. And that really hurts. So, if you found yourself wondering why there’s so much vitriol coming from the anti camp, it’s a combination of this, and the fact that they don’t really have the option of avoiding the content they don’t like anymore. It’s kind of EVERYWHERE now.

So, there we are. I don’t want to give the impression from the above that I’m trying to tear apart your arguments to somehow discredit the pairing. Shippers gonna ship, whether it makes sense to me or not. But I did want to highlight how any of the things you bring up can very well be interpreted entirely differently.

Hope you’re doing well, and you did well on that exam. :)

[keeponshouting]

After Infection

This is a rewrite and hopefully eventual completion of a massive multiverse mash-up of my OCs with a couple belonging to @whenromancesmoked and a few others from back in the day. I have absolutely no idea if anyone else is going to be interested in reading this (ok, I know a few people who will probably read it) but psh. I’m having fun and want to share.

Note: This is also a George Romero tribute of sorts. Like I started it for giggles because my PB for one of the characters was in the Dawn of the Dead remake and it just snowballed, which I guess means I should throw a WARNING: ZOMBIES sign up here or something. Anyway!

After Infection: Dawn of the Dead

It had seemed like a good idea at the time – or, well, more accurately, it had seemed like the right thing to do. There was a request from fellow hunters in a small town a few hours’ drive south and things had been quiet lately back home so Nate had figured that they could spare the time and energy. Besides, Dennis had been going pretty stir crazy for a while. Even if it was a hunt, it would be a good excuse to get out on the road for a while, a sort of vacation.

It had not turned out even remotely like a vacation.

They had been a little too late to the original party but apparently just in time for things to get much, much worse. Nate had brought a variety of tools just in case but he had primarily been prepared for an infestation of what locals called “hell rats,” a creature that was pretty common in the south and usually pretty easy to handle if you found their nests quickly enough. Sure they were venomous but as long as you were careful… He had not been expecting an infestation of zombies.

“The lot looks pretty clear right now.” Dennis is hunched over at the door, using the peephole to take a quick survey of the goings on outside their hotel room while Nate brews a second pot of coffee to get him through whatever the morning brings. After all, as long as decent coffee is available, he might as well take advantage of it. Lord knows he might have to go without for a while and God help his poor boyfriend’s patience if that happens.

When Dennis stands up straight again, his head is just about even with the top of the doorframe and he yawns as he leans back against the door, arms crossed over his chest. “So, come up with any plans yet or are we still waiting for the caffeine to kick in?”

Nate snorts into his cup and foregoes actually taking a drink for the moment in order to respond. “You ask that like I have any idea what sort of plan to use here. I’ve met exactly zero hunters who’ve actually had to handle zombies in the past decade at least. I honestly don’t think they’ve ever been a problem this far north before.”

“Well, there sure are a lot around here for something that’s never been a problem.”

“Some forms of infection can spread at an exponential rate in populated areas.” He drains a good half of the coffee in hand. “Our best bet is probably just to find out if there are any other non-infected people anywhere around here.”

Dennis flops across the bed, face down, with a muffled grunt.

Nate just silently continues drinking as the percolator finally finishes beside him and he very seriously considers making a third pot, just in case.

---

Zombies – shambling, groaning, flesh-eating, nearly Hollywood perfect zombies. For fuck’s sake. This should have been such an easy fucking job and now there are zombies.

Viktor strings together another line of curses, voice little more than a low growl, as he chambers another cartridge. Beside him, a terrified little girl whimpers. He simply scowls, sets Glock number one aside, lights a cigarette, and pulls out number two. “Zatraceně zasraný vědci.” Leaning over toward the window, he catches sight of a proper target and empties the last bullet into the back of its skull. What a fucking cliché.

This was supposed to be simple. They had agreed on that fact the moment that the specifications of the job had crossed the table. It should have been routine, easy money. Three towns, three targets, each plan the same; get rid of the scientist, call their employer, and let the clean-up crew come in and deal with the rest. The first two hits had gone off without a hitch. So, of course, it just figures that last one would have to be so much more complicated than it should have been.

“I—I—I w-want m-m-my d-da—daddy.”

Viktor’s jaw clenches as he exhales – slow and even, two thin streams of smoke – as he reloads the gun in hand and wills himself to remain calm. His patience is wearing thin at this point, though. He had not planned for going into this as usual and coming out as a babysitter. The target’s five-year-old daughter was not supposed to be in the house at the time of the hit. She only stayed with him on the weekends. What an absolutely brilliant turn of events that this was apparently the first Monday that she had ever spent with her father.

Dropping his half-smoked cigarette on the floor, he shoves himself up to his feet. He had lost contact with Miguel some time earlier, likely as a result of the scientist’s neighbor backing into an electric pole at full speed after one of the zombies had rushed her car. The impact had cut power to the entire neighborhood and he can only assume that it must be the cause of the interference. With long-range communication down, that leaves only one alternative: he needs to get within the functional range of their radios. Unfortunately, the hit had been planned for the late evening and he had only been able to make it as far as a vacant apartment building a couple blocks away before night had started to set. From here, short-wave does him about as much good as a water pistol.

“Come on.” Viktor has already reached the door and taken quick stock of the corridor beyond by the time he bothers to look back. Unsurprisingly, his unwanted charge remains unmoved, still curled up as small as she can possibly make herself, which is pretty damned small.

“A-are you g-g-gonna take me b-back to da-daddy?”

God give him strength but that stuttering is getting real old real quick. “Ne.” He swings the door open as quietly as possible and waits for a moment, listening for any movement outside, before carefully stepping out and making his way to the stairwell. With the knowledge that their escape route is currently free of hostiles, he takes a deep, centering breath and heads back to where he began.

“Look, holčička.” He crouches down in front of the child and tries to sound as reasonable as possible. Given his current level of frustration, he thinks that he is doing a fairly decent job. Miguel, however, would likely disagree. “Either you just come with me and go wherever I go, quietly and without complaint, or I leave you here. Your choice.” Yeah, Miguel would definitely disagree.

From the way that the little girl’s eyes go so much wider than he would have ever imagined possible, he feels safe in assuming that she disagrees as well and, five minutes later, they are creeping down an alleyway with more stealth than Viktor ever would have expected of a kindergartener.

---

What was taking so long?

That is the question that had led Alex out of the band’s bus and that was the question that he now wants to keep from crossing anyone else’s minds. This is all way too fucked up, like the should not be real kind of fucked up. None of this should be happening.

On the ground, backed up against the flat tire of the car that their driver had originally gone to help, Alex kicks hard into the jaw of what may have once been a perfectly lovely young woman and sends her sprawling backward where she lands on top of the monster still gnawing on the corpse of a man who should have still been living and breathing and driving their goddamn bus. Alex’s hand gropes around behind him for anything even remotely useful as a weapon and lands on the tire-iron just in time to smash it into the face of the dead woman once more lunging in his direction. Another strike as she tries to get up and he cringes and almost loses his lunch at the feeling of her skull cracking open and her brain splattering across the pavement. Hell, he really might have lost it if not for the howl coming at him far too fast. This time, he opts not to look as the hears the wet crunch and just leaps to his feet and starts running back toward relative safety.

“Alex?”

Oh fuck. “Stay on the bus, Val!”

“Don’t you fucking tell me what to do, Niccols! What the fuck is going—”

Alex fails to hear the rest as he spins around to slam the tire-iron as hard as he can into something else behind him. This time it gets yanked right out of his hand as the body drops and he scrambles back onto the bus, practically picking up a protesting Val in order to get her out of the way of the door that he immediately slams closed. He lets her go as he collapses into the driver’s seat, wide-eyed and hands shaking, and it takes him a moment to register the sound of his dog whimpering by his knee, let alone that of his own name. When the world comes back into focus, though, Val is staring at him in horror. It takes him another moment to realize why.

“Alex? What the fuck happened?” Whether she sounds more panicked or angry, Alex is far too dazed to tell. Her hands reach for his face, his shoulders, moving down to check every inch. “Are you okay?”

Taking a deep breath, he raises a hand to wipe at his face. No. No he is not okay. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

Val does not look like she believes him at all. “Is that—Fuck. That—That’s blood! Why the fuck are you covered in blood?”

Breathe, Alex. Always a good plan to breathe. “Shh. Don’t…” Never mind. Telling her to keep it quiet is pointless. Everybody else will have heard it already.

He shoves himself back to his feet, legs weak and wobbly, and stumbles as he makes his way through the curtain that separates the cabin from the rest of the bus. It is instantly evident that the rest of the band did, in fact, hear all of that. All three of them are already staring at him before he even properly steps into view. He is pretty sure that Sasha is the one choke out an “on shit” and it is definitely Macy whose response comes out as barely a squeak.

“Blood?” On his feet now, Macy rushes in to cling to Alex’s shirt, bodily fluids not withstanding. “None of it’s yours, right? You’re not hurt? You’re okay?”

Again, Alex reminds himself to breathe, turning just enough so that he can see where Val still stands in the doorway, Parker lying on the floor a foot or so behind her, his ears back and expression scared. For her part, Val is gripping the doorway so tightly that Alex can only assume that she is trying very hard not move and crowd him any further.

“None of it’s mine.” He looks at the faces around him, all of them staring, all confused and various degrees of frightened. It brings everything right back into focus. “We need to—” It takes a deep breath in and a slow breath out to get his thoughts back in line. “Everybody grab a bag, pack food, necessities, just—just whatever.” Stepping a little closer to Val, just near enough to pull one of her hands down from the wall and give it a quick squeeze. “We gotta get outta here.”

---

Nate leans out of the passenger side window just far enough to level his sights on one of the creatures that already looks less human and fires. One shot, between the eyes, and it hits the ground and disappears beneath the feet of its companions. He hears a quiet gagging sound come from the driver’s seat and finds himself feeling a bit queasy in turn. They are both going to need to make some real changes to their perspective re: what constitutes a monster and they need to make those changes really quickly because as of right now, it is going to be really difficult to get out of this mess without completely rewiring their conscience.

“Um, Nate?”

With barely a glance spared toward Dennis, Nate focuses himself on reloading. “Yeah?”

“How many, uh—how many of them are back there?”

The question gives him pause but Nate squints to get a count anyway. “About a dozen in view. Why?”

“Because we need to, uh—we have to stop for a minute.”

Nate drops back into his seat so quickly that he nearly smacks his head off the door. “We what?”

Not even bothering to look at him, Dennis simply peels one shaking hand off of the steering wheel to point at something ahead. “We have to stop.”

Nate has to squint but he starts moving the moment that he sees exactly what Dennis is looking at. “I’ve got the door.”

It was rather obvious even from a single glance at a decent distance that the man up ahead, standing stock still in his torn slacks and a blood, rolled shirt-sleeves, was staring straight past the car speeding toward him and cursing the sight of the ever-growing number of zombies trailing behind. Dennis hits the gas and is slamming the breaks in what feels like no time.

Nate shoves the back door open and feels like there is really no room for argument when he shouts to the man to get in but he has been wrong before and apparently he is right now. Instead of heading straight for them, the guy curses in a language that they are now close enough for Nate to tell is definitely not English and turns away.

“Hey!” Dennis spins in his seat to look behind them, which Nate is sure that he immediately regrets. “What the hell? What’s he doing?”

“I don’t know. He’s just—” And that is when the stranger pulls his gun, takes out three approaching zombies in relatively rapid succession, and finally turns to sprint back toward the car. “—getting a little girl.”

The child is practically flung into the back seat and their new passenger wastes no time slamming the door behind himself and snapping, “Go. Now.”

Dennis really does not need to be told and floors it the second he knows the door is closed.

“Take a left onto Carver,” the man continues, his tone speaking volumes regarding how unwilling he would be to hear any question or protest. “Follow signs for the mall plaza.” He leans out the window to pick off a few more of the monsters before Nate’s slightly incredulous look catches his attention and his scowl is honestly pretty terrifying. “You’ll be out of gas before the edge of town so, under the assumption that you wish to live—”

Nate’s eyes narrow in suspicion but Dennis has absolutely no qualms against following the orders of anyone with a plan right now and practically takes the aforementioned turn on two wheels when he nearly misses it.

---

“Are you sure you can hotwire this piece of shit?”

“It’s not a piece of shit, it’s a fucking classic.”

Val rolls her eyes at that as she continues trying to calm the utterly panicked Macy currently clinging to her so tightly that he might as well just climb into her goddamn skin. “Fine. Can you really hotwire this ‘fucking classic’?”

Two seconds later, the engine revs up as Alex sits back in the driver’s seat with a trin and a waggle of his stupid eyebrows. Sasha squeals in relief and flings her arms around him from her place in the back seat, as he laughs. “My mechanical genius is wasted on this red wire green wire bullshit.”

He pops the trunk just as something begins to stir inside of the nearby diner and Val shoves Sasha aside to squeeze Macy in so that she can help Nico load their bags at record speed. By the time she flings herself into the front passenger seat, there are already zombies starting to stumble out of the woodwork. Fuck seatbelts. “Gun it!”

Alex hits the gas and they peel out of the parking lot just as the diner’s doors give way.

He had tried to explain what had happened while they packed. It had felt impossible for Val to actually wrap her mind around it at first but once she had seen the mess outside? She had practically dragged Alex and Macy off in search of the nearest source of potential transportation. They needed to find something quickly and it needed to be something fast and she needed to not think about how painfully familiar the blood and gore looked, though she had only ever seen anything like it in her nightmares. When Alex had needed to stop and vomit into the nearest garbage can, she had a feeling that she understood why and a little pocket of rage flared to life in her chest – not because he had to stop but because he never should have been the one to wind up with someone else’s blood on his hands.

“Where are we going?” Macy is the one to finally ask, almost inaudible from where he has curled up against Sasha now, and Val catches his eye in the rearview mirror before she looks toward Alex.

Alex, however, is entirely too focused on driving to really think but so much and instead catches her eye before clearing his throat. “Nick?”

In the back, Nico turns away from the horrors outside of his window. “What?”

“How do you defend yourself against a zombie invasion?”

“Wha—Zombies aren’t exactly my specialty here.”

“No,” Alex agrees, “but zombies are supposed to be a helluva lot dumber than, say, Reavers, right? You know Reavers.”

“So?”

“So how would you defend yourself against an invasion of retarded Reavers?”

The drummer just stares at him for a moment with an expression that plainly says that he may consider that to be the dumbest question that he has ever heard. Eventually, thought, there is an answer. “I’d find the most well-stocked, easily-fortifiable location I could think of and hope I could wait out the attack or find some other way to get through them.”

There is silence in the car and then Alex shrugs. “All right. So, where’s the most well-stocked and easily-fortifiable location we can think of?

Five minutes later, they find themselves screeching into the parking lot of the local mall. The location almost seems somehow normal, given the situation at hand. In fact, were it not for the shrieking horde behind them or the knowledge that Alex is currently doing seventy into a public lot, it might almost feel a little reminiscent of home. Val almost finds it funny, really. What’s funnier to her than coming to a mall for safety, however, is the fact that they were obviously not the only ones with that idea, as they are definitely not the only ones pulling into the place with a bunch of undead goons straggling along behind them.

---

“Miguel.”

There is a burst of static in his ear as Viktor leans out to empty his 22 into the crowd of creatures still chasing behind the car that had picked him up on the highway. Once within range, he takes out a couple of the ones latching on to the other car that had pulled in to the lot at about the same time, too. When his magazine clicks empty, he makes a snap decision to save his 20 for later and drops back into the seat to reload. The driver glances at him in the rearview, looking a little bit frightened, while the original passenger only eyes him for a moment before leaning out of the other side with a freshly loaded shotgun. His fellow gunner might not be terribly trusting but at least Viktor can respect that. Besides, who needs trust? The guy’s a fairly good shot.

“Zatratím tě, Miguel!” The little girl still curled up beside him whimpers. He can hear it over the gunfire, the static, all of the goddamned zombies. It is grating on his very last nerve. “Odpovídáš mě!”

He could hope for no better response than to lean back out just in time to watch as a line of four hostiles drops one by one.

“En ingles, ’mano.” Another line of undead hit the ground as the line sputters out then clears up again, leaving room for easily the most welcome voice he has ever known. “Now where the Hell have you been?”

Viktor nearly laughs. “We can trade stories later, miláčku. Right now, I need cover fire while I try to get these people into the posraný mall.”

“Going shopping?”

“Sklapni. We try the mall or they come to your shop.”

“How many?”

Viktor glances toward the other vehicle still circling around the parking lot with them. “Eight plus me.”

“Well, if they dropped you—”

“Miguel.”

“Sí, sí, the mall sounds like a plan. There’s a garage off to your right. No good angle for me to shoot the lock off but I can keep the number of uglies down while you get in.”

“Děkuji.”

“That means thank you, sí?”

Viktor rolls his eyes. “Sí.”

The line bursts back into static with a laugh.

---

As it turns out, the garage door does not, in fact, require a shot to the lock. It rolls up just enough for the two cars to through before Dennis’s little hatchback even hits the ramp. On the other side, a young woman motions for them to hurry while two men in security uniforms stand to either side of the entrance to help keep the monsters at bay, though it appears that this Miguel guy really only needs the most basic of assistance. His precision is honestly kind of terrifying and Dennis is just as glad not to see any more examples of it as he swerves off to one side so that the other car has room. Nate and their scarier passenger are both out before he even has the damned thing in park, seeing to it that nothing gets in the way of girl at the door to slam the thing shut.

“We saw you on the security cameras,” of the security guards explains as he climbs up to try and jam the gears.

The other car’s driver takes a moment to collect himself, then grabs a wrench and makes his way over to the ladder. “Here. Let me have a look at that.”

“Figured we couldn’t just leave you out there.” The guard climbs down to let the driver up. “Then Shannon said she thought you were headed this way.”

“Thanks.” Dennis finally climbs out only to stretch over the top of his car.

The woman now known as Shannon simply smiles. “No problem. Mercy for your fellow man or something like that.” She laughs and shrugs, looking slightly flustered, though that is probably to be expected, all things considered. “Anyway, come on. Let’s get you all inside. We’ve got food, clothes, relatively comfortable furniture… We’ll get you poor things all cleaned up and sorted out in no time.”

There is a general rumble of agreement as the little group follows her to the door that leads into the connected store, allowing themselves to be ushered toward where another girl is waiting somewhat impatiently. That is, they all follow along aside from one man, anyway, who simply mutters something into his headset before switching it off and making his way back over to the hatchback. Shannon looks back, confused, as does Nate, though he looks more suspicious about it.

Dennis just sighs. “The little girl.” Then he ducks through the doorway and drags Nate away after the rest.

---

“Come on, holčička.” Viktor crouches down beside the open car door with a sigh as the child remains curled up in the center of the back seat. Children. How did anyone actually deal with children, let alone have them by choice?

The little girl simply whimpers and mumbles, “There are monsters out there.”

Well, at least the stuttering has stopped and he supposes he can concede that she has a fair point. “The monsters are outside, not with us.”

Before he can receive a response or think of anything more convincing to say, there is someone else coming up behind him, bending down to look the child in the eye with a painfully sympathetic and all too sugarcoated smile. He might be able to handle the sight of it at any other time but right now, with everything that he has just been through and the way that she has the gall to place one of her hands on his shoulder as if—God, he would really like to wipe that smile off of her face.

“Hi, there,” she says, voice floating in a way that speaks plainly of a familiarity with appeasing people under the age of seven. “I’m Shannon. What’s your name?”

Caught slightly off-guard, the child squeaks. “Um. I—I’m—” The little girl shoots a quick glance toward Viktor then, almost as if asking permission to speak with this new stranger before she finally answers. “I’m Amanda.”

Shannon’s smile becomes even brighter, even sweeter, if that is even possible, and Viktor has to dig his nails into his palms to keep himself from taking out her kneecaps when she leans even further over him, hand squeezing his shoulder. “Amanda? Well, that’s a pretty name! Are you hungry, Amanda?”

The little girl nods.

“Well, we’ve got all sorts of food inside. We’ve got toys, too, and games and books and all sorts of neat stuff.”

“And—and no monsters?”

Shannon laughs. “And no monsters.”

Still curled up in the seat, Amanda chews worriedly at her lip for a moment longer, eyes flashing back and forth between the two adults still there in the door. Shannon keeps smiling, encouraging. Viktor just stays crouched there with a clenched jaw and a headache starting to build behind his eyes. When the girl finally moves, though, it does not go entirely as expected. Rather than reaching for Shannon’s offered hand, she instead launches herself forward to wrap her little arms tight around Viktor’s neck and duck her head in under his chin, completely unaware of the rather undignified look of surprise that he is entirely unable to keep off of his face. Unhelpfully, all Shannon does in response is giggle.

[thoughtsofalostwitch]

Hi how do I become a male witch for real to support to women I love who is a witch and because I'm honestly curious and interested in being a male witch

✧･ﾟ:* Sᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴘʀᴀᴄᴛɪᴄᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʀᴀғᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ʟᴇᴀʀɴ sᴏᴍᴇ ᴍᴀɢɪᴄᴋ ᴀs ᴀ ᴍᴀʟᴇ ᴡɪᴛᴄʜ! *:･ﾟ✧ Merry Meet!  ☆ Thank you for being my first ask! First I would like to begin with the fact that being a witch means something different to everyone.

” Witch for me is my most powerful self. Deeply grounded. Always healing and protecting myself and those I love. Bending attraction into my direction. Spreading peace and love wherever I go. Respecting nature. Following my intuition. Calling on my guides. Working with my inner wolf. Connecting with myself on all levels. Increasing my vibration. Meditation. Gratitude. Love. Light. This is what witch means to me. ” -Lunas Grimoire " I think that magic plays a part in my day-to-day effort to visualize goals, deal with problems, and connect myself to nature. Spells and visualization are all about intentionality and channeling your life force!"  -HS “To put it simply, witchcraft is the practice of magick. This isn't to be confused with magic, which is what magicians do. Magick is a series of techniques a witch uses to harness energy (both external and internal) in order to change one's surroundings as well as one's self. It's also important to note that being a witch is not the same thing as being Wiccan. Unlike witchcraft, Wicca is a religion. However, it is common to meet witches who are Wiccan and vice versa. And most importantly, anyone can become a witch. Witchcraft is truly for everyone.” -The Witch Mommy ☆ So what is a witch?! ”First, many people do still use “witch” to mean “someone who worships the Devil and/or evil and who engages in gratuitous malevolence.” Present-day Witches generally feel that such a definition of “witch” results merely from Christian politics and propaganda. True, there are now “Satanic” churches, the most prominent having been Anton LeVay’s Church of Satan and the Temple of Set, and its members do call themselves “witches,” which certainly confuses outsiders. However, as J. Gordon Melton has pointed out, the members of these churches are actually atheistic, hedonistic, and egoistic in their ethics. Pagan Witches regard Satanist witches as Christian heretics and not Pagan at all. Setting all that aside, we can look at the more positive usages of the term.First, “witch” is often used to mean “someone who practices some form of magic.” But “folk magic” is ubiquitous, and those who practice it usually consider themselves to be devout members of the faith community around them, just with a special gift. They very rarely seem to think that their magical practice constitutes a unique religion. Nevertheless, there are quite a few such “magical witches,” and they logically must be considered part of the Craft movement.Second, “witch” is often used to mean “someone who has and uses unusual psychic talents.” It can thus be applied to Spiritualist mediums, to clairvoyant readers, to diviners, and so on. Again, such people almost always consider them to be members of the surrounding faith community, just with a special talent, and likewise do not regard that talent as constituting a different religion.Third, “witch” is now (and only recently) used to mean “someone who honors or worships the Old Gods” of whatever pantheon, though “Pagan” is also used with this meaning. Here the self-concept is that one is pursuing a religious path different from that of the surrounding community, but such pursuit does not necessarily involve any use of magic or psychic talents.It is only within the Pagan movement as inspired by Gardnerian Witchcraft that these three different meanings have been bundled together into the current concept of the Pagan Witch as practicing a unique and magical religion.At first, before the rise of the festival movement in America about 1980, a fourth meaning of “Witch” was included in this bundle: “someone who has been initiated as a member of an organized group (yes, a coven) that practices Witchcraft as a Pagan religion or as an apprentice of a master teacher of witchcraft.” Once the festivals had evolved to provide people with a way to celebrate the Wheel of the Year, and once enough “how to” books had been published to give people all the information they needed to practice the Craft as a solitary or only within their own families, joining a coven was no longer the only way to follow Wicca or a more generic form of Witchcraft as a spiritual path.There had been some solitaries even in the 1960s and 1970s, but as a result of the festivals, around 1980 the movement divided into two categories, one being a laity, who now constitute at least 90 percent of all Witches in America, the other being those who have been initiated into and practice the Craft within a coven or equivalent group. However, a First-Degree initiate of a coven is not regarded as having any special authority or expertise, given that anyone can learn from the published books about 99 percent of what that initiate would know. Instead, there is another level of meaning.” -Aidan Kelly Before you get started you must understand, there are many different paths or well types of witchcraft. ☆ The most common types usually include: 1: GARDNERIAN WITCH: A Gardnerian Witch is someone who follows the belief system of Gardnerian Wicca, which was created by Gerald Garner in the 1950s.  Gardnerian Wicca is hierarchical system that consists of a high priest and priestess as well as various initiations. So, one is not a Gardnerian Witch until they have learned their specific traditions and have gone through proper initiation. 2: ALEXANDRIAN WITCH: Alexandrian Witchcraft is like Guardian Wicca in that it is a formalized belief system which contains it’s own traditions and initiations.  Alexandrian witches follow some of the similar traditions in Guardian Wicca, but also incorporate ceremonial magic as well as the Qabalah. 3. SOLITARY WITCH: A solitary witch is someone who performs spellwork and rituals alone and without a coven.  This may be by choice, or perhaps they just haven’t yet found a group of fellow witches they would like to work with.  A solitary witch can incorporate various different paths based on their interest and may or may not use witchcraft as part of a wider spiritual path or religion. 4. ECLECTIC WITCH: An Eclectic witch is someone who pulls from various witchcraft traditions for their spellwork and rituals.  They rely on a variety of different cultures, beliefs, and systems to formulate their own personal witchcraft practice which may change and evolve over time. 5. TRADITIONAL WITCH: A traditional witch is someone who takes a historical approach to witchcraft.  They look at old grimoires, witch trials, various witch lore, and historical accounts to lay the foundation for their own spells and rituals.  Often traditional witches focus on working with the nature and history of the place they live and may work with the genius loci, or the local spirits. 6. HEREDITARY WITCH: A Hereditary witch is someone who was born into a family that practices witchcraft.  Usually their knowledge is passed down through generations and each family may have their own traditions and belief system.  Though, just because someone is born in a witch family it does not necessarily mean that they will be more knowledgeable or powerful than a non-hereditary witch. 7. HEDGE WITCH: A Hedge witch works with the liminal spaces and the spirit realm.  In the past a ‘hedge’ would mark a boundary of a village or settlement and thus represents the boundary between our physical reality and the spirit world.  A hedge witch may be skilled at crossing that boundary through practices like astral travel. 8. KITCHEN WITCH: A kitchen witch enjoys making their home and surroundings a sacred space.  They often like to incorporate witchcraft with their cooking and put their energy and focus into to the food and the meals they create.  They care deeply about the ingredients, and may have their own herb and vegetable garden. 9. GREEN WITCH: Green witches are extremely nature based.  They are likely to be in-tune with the seasons and often use natural materials to create their own magical tools.  They most likely try to perform all their spellwork and rituals outside in nature when possible. 10. COSMIC WITCH: A cosmic witch incorporates astrology and astronomy into their witchcraft.  They most likely closely follow the alignment of the planets and they will often will coordinate their spells and rituals based on the location of the planets and the moon. ☆ Labels.. Labels.. and more labels! Also, here are a few labels that are commonly passed around as well! It’s very important to remember that labels should never limit your practice. These are just classifications that I find useful in describing myself, and others have used to describe themselves. This list was made purely for fun. This is, by no means, a complete list. You do not have to ‘fit’ into any of these. A person’s craft is unique to them, that’s what makes it so awesome. (Warning: you may see some repeats from the previous list!) Omni Witch: A bookworm and a know it all, this type of witch studies and practices all the fields of magick. They are innately curious about everything, and love to learn. They are talkative and eager to share the massive amount of knowledge they have absorbed. Eclectic Witch: The Boho witch. She uses a combination or mix of whatever paths suit her best. Typically specializes in 2-4 different sects of the craft. She often will wear a mix-match of clothing, but enjoys long flowing things. She tends to be very random and eccentric, but is friendly nonetheless. Kitchen Witch: This type of witch uses easily obtained items and weaves magick into every aspect of their life. They are particularly fond of cooking, arts and crafts, sewing, cleaning, gardening and baking. They are skilled in potions, herbology, and subtle magick. Cottage Witch: A Witch who focuses on hearth magick. Much like the Kitchen witch, but with less emphasis on the cooking. They are the homemakers, the ones who decorate the house for the holidays. Usually empaths who are very sensitive to the people around them. Practical Witch: A branch of kitchen witch, they are adept at spellwork, and use their magick for everyday, mundane things. They adore the use of sigils and put them everywhere. Very down to earth individuals, who enjoy experimenting with ways to use magick to may their daily life easier and more enjoyable. Stitch Witch: A brand of Kitchen and Cottage witchery that holds magickal fabric work in high regard. They focus primarily on knot and stitch magick. Very scatter-brained individuals. Their room are always in disarray, fabric and thread everywhere. Usually fond of cosplay. LOVE making Halloween costumes for their family and friends. Green Witch: The woodland witches, these earthy individuals protect plants and love to garden. They usually are adept at spirit communication, hearing and responding to the needs of their many leaf-bearing friends. They thrive in natural environments such as forests, lakes, rivers and gardens. Green witches enjoy sunlight, growing plants and collecting rocks. They focus on holistic medicine and are learned healers. They are very familiar with their local region, having memorized all the species of plants, trees, insects, wildlife and flowers. They truly love the earth. Crystal Witch: A branch of Green witchery, these witches primarily work with stones, gems, crystals, and rocks. They LOVE geology, spend a lot of time hiking and collecting crystals. Usually very organized individuals that are in tune with the earth. They always know when the next local rock and mineral show is. Usually broke because they are always buying new rocks. So many rocks. Fucking rocks everywhere omg. Creature Witch: Another branch of Green witchery, mixed with spirit working and hedgecraft, these witches primarily work with Magickal and Astral creatures and spirits. They are very friendly people, and get along with all kinds of physical, and not so physical creatures. They collect fossils and bones and skulls and know the names and personalities of each spirit attached to them.Hedge Witch: A witch that lives between two worlds. They easily cross over into Elsewhere, the astral realm, and do so with ease. Often skilled at working with magickal creatures and familiars, they are very creative and artistic individuals. They are also very adept at psychometry, spirit communication, energy work, and time travel. Also called Astral Witches. Energy Witch: Witches that perform all of their magic internally. Their magic is one of pure energy, using circles cast in their heads and their imaginations to bring their will to life. Are usually shy and keep to themselves. They enjoy divination and astral projection. Also called Intrinsic Witches. Shadow Worker: A combination of energy and hedge magick, the shadow worker tames and summons Shadows of their own past and personality. They regret nothing, are very in tune with their emotions, and spend a lot of time meditating. They are not afraid to confront their mistakes, because accepting the flawed pieces of their personality gives them power. Spirit Worker: A Witch who communes with the dead spirits of humans, animals, and others entities. Some can even communicate with the spirits of trees, rocks, and man-made items. They are usually very outspoken, opinionated people. They use spirit boards and pendulums, among many other tools. They enjoy taking strolls in graveyards and having casual chats with the dead. Also called Mediums. Exorcist: A branch of Spirit Worker. They are usually hereditary, clairvoyant and raised into their practice. They learn their craft as it is passed down from their family members. They practice the archaic tradition of exorcism, aka banishment of dark or foul entities. Very somber individuals, who try their best to be optimistic. Oracle/Diviner: Branch of Spirit worker. Witches who primarily focus their practice on divination. Tarot, runes, pendulums, spirit boards, scrying, crystal gazing, aeromancy, stichomancy, sea gazing, animal gazing, bird watching, lynchomancy, ceromancy, astrology, numerology, amathomancy, dream interpretation, shufflemancy, tea leaf reading, people watching, palm reading, face reading. You name it, they probably know how to do it. Usually clairvoyant and have a number of other psychic abilities. Chaos Witch: A witch who uses baneful magick in their craft. They enjoy working with bones and are skilled at channeling and communicating with spirits. They will sometimes use demons, storm magick, blood magick, and cursing in their practice. They fear nothing. Commonly mislabeled ‘black’ or ‘dark’ witch. Which is not correct. Tsk tsk. Necromancer: A branch of Chaos magick, these witches take spirit working a step further, and are adept at communicating and controlling the dead. Necromancers usually have a familiar ‘wraith’ that acts much like an astral or spirit guide. Some can even raise the dead for a period of time to converse with them. Blood Witch: Another branch of Chaos magick, these witches primarily use blood in their rituals. They have a high pain tolerance, care little about what others think or say, and are very set in their ways. Some do it to prove how strong they are or devotion to their deities. Nonetheless, nice people once you get to know them. Perhaps a bit misunderstood. Sun Witch: A witch who draws their power more from the sun, than the moon as most witches tend to do. Adept at fire magic and are usually very spirited individuals. They use candles often in their practice, and love to throw barbecues and bonfires with their many friends. They enjoy sunbathing. Their magick comes in giant bursts and they will often use a lot of energy at once. Lunar Witch: A witch who primarily draws their power from the moon. They adore her and are usually adept at making moon water and knowing exactly what phase of the moon it is at any given time. They do not fear the dark, do much of their magick after the sun goes down, and have the ability to speak with the Lady Luna herself. These witches also may choose (or be chosen by) one of the moons of another planet, such as Miranda or Europa., and will work with that particular celestial body. Star Witch: Not to be confused with a Space witch, who works with all of the cosmos, primarily aliens and astrology. Star witches draw their power from constellations, stars, and the sun. They love star gazing, have star charts hanging on the walls of their room, and never miss a meteor shower. Very chipper individuals who always want to go to the planetarium rather than out to see a movie or to the park. They may also work with planets as well as stars. Storm Witch: This breed of witch is both terrifying and thrilling. They have a great sense of humor, and are usually very cryptic. They give zero fucks what people think of them and march to the beat of their own drum. They whistle up the winds and summon lightning. These witches are usually very adept at cursing and fear nothing. They like horror movies, cloudy weather, and casting emotionally charged spells. They are empathic individuals and always feel things to the extreme, there is no middle ground with them. Its black or white. Winter Witch: Witches who reside in the colder climates of the world. They cast snowstorms, collect hail and make poppets from snow. Blizzards are their best friends. They love cold weather, and usually draw their power from the snow and clouds, rather than the sun or the moon, as neither are usually very visible during storms. Despite their chilly disposition, they are warm and friendly once you get to know them. Sea Witch: These witches hone their craft near a body of water, and center their practice around it. Some sea witches will work with fresh water, such as rivers or lakes (in which case they will usually call themselves ‘river’ or ‘lake’ witches), some with the ocean. Sea witches without immediate access to a body of water are called ‘land-locked’. They often form connections with fish of all kinds, know their local areas very well, are good at predicting the weather, and are friendly with the nymphs, fae and dragons of their region. They enjoy collecting sand and seashells and are adept at storm and sun magic. Swamp Witch: A witch who works in the rivers and bayous of the world. They are adept at spirit communication and are versed in the traditions of their area. They enjoy wandering around their swamps, meeting familiars and befriending creepy crawlies. Their craft is usually a mix of traditional southern witchcraft and Hoodoo. They are very warm, hospitable individuals, but you should NEVER cross a Swamp witch. They are not afraid to curse your ass. These witches favor the healing powers of mud, enjoy mixing potions, reading next to a roaring fire and being with their family. Witch of the Waste: Desert witches who work with sand and limited supplies. Hardy herbs are their best friends and they often use a lot of bone magic. They have an extensive fossil and skull collection and are constantly pouring over old field guilds for their local area. They can whip up sandstorms in the blink of an eye, and befriend scorpions, snakes, and coyotes alike. They are an enduring species of witch, weathering everything the world has to throw at them. Few things dampen their spirits. Urban Witch: City witches who graffiti sigils on abandoned buildings, grow herbs in pots in their apartments and are very technologically savvy. Technomagic is their jam, usually rocking enchanted headphones, weaving spells from their favorite songs and using their cell phones as scrying mirrors.Tech Witch: A branch of Urban witchcraft, they work with html and other computer codes, have virtual altars to their deities, use old circuit boards as wards, old keypads from cell phones and laptops as spirit boards, and old broken electronic screens for scrying. They typically keep their grimoires as blogs. Very intelligent witches who are always on tumblr. Pop Culture Witch: A branch of Urban witchcraft. Witches that craft their spells based on popular music, movies, books and poetry. They are artistic and very educated and love to laugh. They can also curse the hell out of you. It’s not all Disney movies, folks. Artistic Witch: A witch usually covered in paint from head to toe. They draw, paint, dance, sing, and sew their way through their practice. They enchant their tablet pens and paintbrushes, use storm water for their watercolors, and strike real emotion into their audience. Dance Witch: Branch of Artistic Witch. They use dance in their practice, and are very physically sound. They may practice one on many kinds of dance, or even martial art. And they do so skillfully. They are usually very quiet people, but not at all shy or unsure of themselves. They would rather express their thoughts through movement and body language than actually speaking. Theatrical Witch: Branch of Artistic witch. A player. They act and perform in plays to honor their deities, spend countless hours perfecting their lines and adore being dramatic. Very charismatic people who take pride in their work. Persistent. Never take no for an answer. Melodic Witch: A branch of Artistic that primarily uses song and musical instruments in their practice. They are very busy people, constantly practicing whatever instrument has currently caught their fancy. They easily make friends with Sirens and Lorelai in their common love of song, and attract Fae and Nymphs alike with the sounds of their voices. Fae Witch: These witches are educated on all types of faeries, but usually prefer to work with a certain species or one they are familiar with. They are usually very playful and mischievous individuals, mimicking the creatures they work with. They are very attracted to shiny things and are easily offended. Nymphatic Witch: These cutie pies are usually Hellenistic in their choice of deities, and are well versed in all the species of Nymphs, what they like, and where they live. They usually work with the ones that live in their local area and mirror them in their personalities. They hate wearing clothes, but when they do they prefer pastel colors. They are very whimsical, pleasant people to be around. Draconic Witch: These witches are fearsome. They are knowledgable in all the species of dragons, their personalities and their migration patterns. They usually will have one or more dragon companion from their local area. They are skilled in astral projecting, storm magick and cursing. They love to collect things such as books and crystals. Vampiric Witch: A witch that either works with or is a vampire. They feed off the energy or emotions of others and use it to power their magick. They tend to be kind of clingy, but they are loyal as fuck and treasure their few friends. They have many secrets, and usually a dark past. They enjoy using blood in magick and are adept at healing and cursing. They are kind of vain, love gothic clothing, jewelry and expensive things. Astro/Space Witch: A witch who works with aliens. Usually very paranoid individuals, they adore star gazing, always know when the next astronomical event is, and love the documentary TV Show ‘ancient aliens’. They are usually adept at astral travel, astrology and sun magick. Demonic Witch: These witches work with Demons. They differ from Exorcists in that they actually summon them and get them to go their bidding, rather than casting them out. Can usually hold a grudge a hella long time. Not people to mess with. Stubborn and bull headed. Otherkin Witch: A witch who is Otherkin. They relate to an inhuman or an animal in either personality or spirit, or believe they are a reincarnation of such. They behaviors and choice in deities and certain practices in their craft will usually reflect their kind of Kin. An example would be that a Felinekin might like using catnip in their rituals, and might call on Bastet, Sekhmet or Freya in their magick. Ceremonial Witch: A combination of ceremonial magic and witchcraft. They focus on rituals and formal casting of magic. With robes and altars and everything. Also called Ritualistic Witchcraft or Traditional Witchcraft. Solitary Witch: A witch who works in isolation. Usually very independent and stubborn, they take orders from no one. Subtle Witch: A witch who cannot be openly witchy due to their family, friends or environment. Hereditary Witch: Someone who is born into a witch family and brought up learning about witchcraft, or folk magic. They take great pride in certain traditional magic passed down through the generations. Secular Witch: A witch who does not involve religion in their craft. Now that you’re a bit more familiar with the paths and labels- ☆ Let’s hit the books! Many people assume that becoming a witch simply means giving yourself the title of witch and then casting the occasional spell. This would be like buying yoga pants and mala beads, and calling yourself a yogi. But the truth is, becoming a witch takes a lot of hard work, discipline, and time. Therefore, after you decide which kind of witchcraft you are interested in, it's time to start studying. In order to learn about your craft, get your hands on as many books and articles as possible. Thanks to the internet, you can now watch videos online about becoming a witch, and you can even take witchcraft courses. Being a novice witch can be very overwhelming, so it's also a good idea to find a guide. An experienced witch can recommend reading, teach you some techniques for spells, and encourage you along your journey. ☆ Next gather your supplies!! You can never have to much in my opinion! Of course, you may also wish to buy some supplies in order to practice magick and cast spells. While you don't need to buy everything at once, here are some of the most common witchcraft supplies and tools: Mortar and pestle: These are used to mix herbs and other ingredients in order to create your blends and remedies.

Crystals: Crystals can help purify a sacred space before a ritual, as well as provide healing and protection.

Wand: This is a short stick (often selected from specific trees) used to cast a circle

Salt: Typically used to cast a protective circle

Book of Shadows: This is where you will organize and record things you are learning within the craft, as well as spells and rituals.

Herbs: These are used in spell workings, rituals, and magickal preparations.

God and Goddess statues: Used to decorate the altar and as a focal point during rituals, to draw attention to a particular god or goddess.

Altar: This is where you will hold sacred space, practice your craft, as well as keep your crystals, statues, and other witchcraft supplies. While there is more we could include on this list, these are the basic supplies witches use. As you refine your area of focus, you will have a better idea of the supplies that your brand of witchery calls for. ☆ What about spells?! Now, you're probably wondering, "Ok, but how do I cast a spell?".. The truth is, as frustrating as it sounds, there is no exact answer on how to cast a spell. This is because every witch is different and every witch has their own path. This means that a spell that works for one witch may not work for another. Learning to cast spells that work for you takes research, practice, and introspection. That being said, it can help to have some basic guidelines to get started. Then, you can tweak spells based on your own individual needs. This Simple Pleasures in Life spell is a great place to start. As you can see, becoming a witch and practicing witchcraft involves a lot more than just waving a wand around. ☆ Witch Youtube Channels: https://www.youtube.com/user/VideoJamGarden https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZfyjjVFNqNBLRg6p964AWQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO6HYyldrzr3fTUWXLyJ3yg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChHS4NI6U4XgCuYgsrygVCA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoJQafFd9es78EhaqXl4WNA ♡  All credit goes to their due sources.  ♡

[post-itpenny]

Blacklight

@grotesquegabby Alex and Peregrine being Alex and Peregrine on a visit to see Magpie. I had way too much fun writing these two, Hope I got Alex’s reactions right uwu.

Alexander popped into the reality that was Adeline’s pocket dimension. He was on his way to visit Magpie again. Something that he had continued doing ever since the first visit with Maggie.

Today he had a battery powered CD player tucked under his arm, Magpie wasn’t the best at communicating but she clearly was still having trouble with her memory, besides she had been very much out of the cultural loop before. He had given a couple of choice CDs for Fanny to hold and today he planned to start educating his friend.

Alex was musing over if he should let her listen to Journey, Nirvana, or Whitney Houston first before stopping in his tracks.

There was someone else standing before Adeline’s cottage.

And damn if the white hair wasn’t a giveaway.

Magpie has mentioned her brother on only rare occasions but the message was clear on their relationship.

From her place around Alex’s waist Fanny gave a deep growl. Alex’s smile dropped just a fraction. So big brother finally came to visit huh?

Peregrine turned, surprised that another person would be he and frowned at the sight of Alex. Vespers had mentioned his Aunt’s friendship with the chaotic clown, something Peregrine knew could only promise disaster.

Alex grinned, “hey there old man how’s it hangin? Name’s Alex.”

Peregrine’s frown deepened, Vespers wasn’t kidding about the 90’s thing. “Peregrine, and I’m here to visit my sister. I do believe Adeline had prohibited most visitors however.”

“Ah well, Granny and I go way back, it’s all good. Besides, gotta check in on homegirl. Surprised you didn’t do so sooner. Being your baby sister and all.”

Peregrine sneered at the comment and knocked on Adeline’s door. “Well we all can’t be so popular as to have acquaintanceship with elders… or is it more that you’ve just the kind of person that gets under everyone’s skin?”

Alex gave his sweetest smile, “naw man she’s real chill. Not salty like the ocean or some people you know what I mean?”

There were tiny salt shakers on Alex’s sunglasses. Peregrine growled but before he could say anything the door opened to reveal Adeline.

Who had sliced peaches in her hair.

“Oh good you must be the brother, I see you got my message then.”

Peregrine gave a deep bow, Madam Adeline, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Adeline chuckled and ushered Peregrine in before turning to Alex. “Hello Alexander, not sneaking in this time I see.”

Alex chuckled. “Well now no need to be trippin Granny. How did you know anyways?”

Adeline smirked, “You’re not the quietest when sneaking in through a window Alex dear.”

“With a jacket that loud he’s hard to miss,” Peregrine mumbled under his breath.

If Adeline heard she did not comment, Alex on the other hand had a grin that grew even wider.

“So she’s been making it rain fruit in the house.”

Both Peregrine and Alex stumbled to a hail tat Adeline’s statement. Alex laughing and Peregrine with his head in a hand.

“May I ask why?” Peregrine asked with a sigh.

Adeline gave a tired smile, “it’s been the past two times I fed the animals.” She answered with a sweep of her arms at the variety of creatures that scurried and flew about the place. “I always keep carnivores separate for obvious reasons. Most of these are vegetarian or insectivores.”

Peregrine sighed again, “she’s trying to be… helpful.”

Adeline chuckled at the answer, Peregrine frowned in embarrassment.

As they walked through the halls of the Elders home Peregrine noticed more and more of Magpie’s influence. Flowers like thistles and bluebells growing out of the floor boards. Strange blotches of color on the walls. Peregrine continued to apologize over and over on his sister’s behalf and over and over Adeline waved him off.

“She’s recovering dear and struggling to express her thoughts and feelings. If this helps then at least the biggest worry is peach juice in my hair.”

Alex smirked the whole time, all Peregrine seemed to care about was that his sister didn’t make a mess. How was that huh?

Alex made a point to stroll through Magpie’s door first. She was clearly happy to see him and once again did not mind when Fanny tried to swallow her face. The creature giving her a lick on the cheek before making its way to the bed and forcing itself under Magpie’s limp hand.

“Hey, hey Chica how's it hanging?” Alex greeted with a smile.

Maggie smiled back, she had been working very hard to be able to do so. Only… the smile left when she saw Peregrine in the doorway.

Alex watched the two. Peregrine was clearly a mixture of guilt and relief at seeing his sister but Magpie was much harder to read. A strange combination of too many emotions at once flickering through her eyes and a mouth caught between a smile and a frown. It was almost ironic but it seemed she had full memory of her brother.

“Hello Magpie,” Peregrine quietly greeted.

Magpie’s eyes flicked away, she seemed as if bracing herself for something.

Peregrine entered the room slowly but then stopped, realizing he was to get no response from her.

“She can’t speak,” Adeline said from the doorway. I’m working as quickly as I can with her before muscle apathy becomes too much of an issue but her movement is limited. She still seems to get locked up sometimes but she is becoming quite expressive. She does tend to “lock-up” however so I try to keeper relatively calm” Adeline’s eyes flicked back and forth between the siblings. “I’ll… give you some time to visit.”

Her eyes then landed on Alexander for only a moment, and it occurred to him perhaps she was placing trust to not let things get too out of hand.

Once again, Alex’s smile dropped just a fraction.

Peregrine stood in front of his sisters bed and said nothing, Magpie watched him completely unable to say anything.

Alexander- quickly decided he was over this.

“Heya Pie I brought some tunes!” Alex announced as he sat the cd player on the bed. “Come on Fanny spit them out.”

The fanny pack creature compiled by opening its mouth wide and spitting out several cds.

Magpie appeared surprised but also fascinated with Fanny’s trick, Peregrine was clearly disgusted.

It was actually really entertaining to introduce Magpie to different bands and music artists. Some she very clearly did not like, others however Alex watched as she tried to bob her head along.

Alex grinned as he changed cds. “Anyways, here’s Wonderwall.”

Peregrine groaned.

Alex whipped his head around, the white-haired clown had stepped back at some point. Begrudgingly observing his sister’s so-called “music lesson.”

Alex smirked, “let me guess. Not a fan of the classics bro?”

Peregrine sneered, “I’m not your “bro,” and none of what you’re playing is a “classic.”

“Chill now homeslice.” Alex chuckled. “Sorry my music is not your vibe.”

Peregrine pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, clearly trying not to lose his temper. “Could you please just speak like a normal person?”

“Says a guy with that accent.”

“I live in Scotland!”

“Relax dude, I’m just saying you sound like some reject Scrooge McDuck.”

“Ah leas I don like sound some blethering radge with is heid full o’ mince!”

Peregrine slapped a hand over his mouth. Alex busted out laughing. Magpie watched the two going back and forth with a worried- yet helpless expression.

Outside thunder boomed.

Alex looked out the window, Peregrine to his sister. “Magpie please calm down.”

Alex whipped around, “dude let her be.”

Peregrine sighed, “if you really were her friend you would know she’s causing the weather.”

Alex smiled, “oh yeah man I get its her but no need to wig out on Pie.”

“I’m not.. Whatever the hell you just said.”

Outside it began to pour, heavy sheets of rain came down so thick you couldn’t see. The garden outside Magpie’s window quickly turning to a mud pit.

Peregrine reached out to shake his sister’s shoulder. Her eyes were still squeezed shut, mouth in a deep frown. She did not respond to him.

Peregrine called out to Magpie with no response. When Alex tried it was the same result.

Adeline came barging in she took one look and grabbed both men by their collars, tossing them out of the room. “What did I say about making her lock up? Go wait in the kitchen both of you.”

Peregrine and Alex were sent to the kitchen. The two sitting across from each other at the table. Alex with his usual smile and Peregrine looking as if he was ready to burst at the seams.

Outside it was still pouring rain.

“This is your fault,” Peregrine hissed. Why are you even here?”

Alex sat back, propping his feet on the table. “I’m just visiting my friend old man. Cause you know, that’s what friends do. Thats what family does. If it were my baby sister Bella then none of this would have happen you know what I’m sayin?”

Peregrine narrowed his eyes but said nothing.

Alex’s grin widened. “I’m just sayin no way I’d let some creep near my baby sis. No way I’d let her get hurt and I’d go after anyone that tried. I would certainly be visiting every day if she was hurt. But you know... To each his own fam I guess.”

Peregrine gave a very thin smile. “That’s right, so why can’t you mind your own business?”

“Or both of you stop acting like petty children?”

They two looked towards the door where Adeline stood with her arms crossed. “I just got her to unfreeze and it seems here I walk in and find the problem.”

Peregrine looked away in embarrassment, Alex giggled.

“You,” Adeline said with a finger pointed at Peregrine, “You need to set aside whatever crawled up your ass.”

Peregrine nearly fell out of his chair in shock. Alex nearly fell out of his trying not to break down into laughter.

“You,” Adeline pointed at Alexander, “you stop goading him. Now I don’t care who started it but I’m finishing it now because my patient is upset and flooding my yard.”

Peregrine rolled her eyes. “Just tell her to stop-”

“She is upset! She cannot speak! She cannot move! Young man I will not tell her to stop, if this is the only way she can express her distress then so be it! Do you have any idea how awful this must be for her? To be forced to listen to the people she cares about going back and forth with each other and she cannot do anything about it?”

Peregrine flinched at the elder’s words, Alex frowned. Frustrated with the slight guilt he now felt.

Adeline rubbed her temples, “both of you need to leave.”

They were shoved out into the rain. Peregrine giving a heavy sigh as he leaned against the frame of the cottage,he actually looked defeated.

“You don’t need to rub it in that I’m a terrible brother.” He growled as he rubbed the scar on his face. “But you have no idea what we’ve been through.”

Alexander shrugged, “shit happens my dude. Families fight and crud, the difference between your fam and mine is that you all will get over it at some point.”

Peregrine gave Alex a very long look as his words clicked into place. His frown softening.

“...oh.” Was all he said.

They started to walk off when Alex patted his waist in shock.

“Fuck I forgot Fanny!”

He ran around the cottage, Peregrine left with little clue as what to do but follow.

As big as Adeline’s cottage was on the inside the outside of it was quite small. Soon enough they were at Magpie’s window which Alex already knew how to jimmy open.

Magpie opened her eyes as the two climbed in. Fanny still resting under her hand but as soon as Alex was in the room the creature leaped out and swallowed his head.

“Good to see you girl,” came his muffled chuckle as he attempted to pull the creature off. Peregrine sighed as he walked up to his sister’s bedside and took her hand. He looked as if he wanted to say something but couldn’t seem to get the words out. Magpie gave him a sad smile nonetheless. She understood.

Peregrine then stepped back and looked around. With the growing evening the room had become quite dark. He turned to his sister with a questioning look. “Magpie do you not have any light in here at night?”

Magpie almost seemed to give a pleading look to her brother, Peregrine nodding with understanding as he walked to the door.

Alex looked between the two in confusion. “Where ya going old man?”

Peregrine looked over his shoulder. “Magpie is afraid of the dark and Adeline doesn’t have light in here for her.”

Little question marks appeared on Alex’s glasses. But then his signature smile appeared on his face. “It’s all slammin dude, Alex has the fix.”

Alex opened Fanny’s mouth before reaching inside, seeming to be rummaging around for something.

“Lucky you Granny’s got electricity in this joint now. A-ha!” Alex shouted in triumph as he pulled out the object he had been looking for. A small blacklight.

Alex plugged the light in and set it on Magpie’s bedside table. The dim purple light just strong enough to banish the nearest shadows and of course make both Magpie and Peregrine’s hair glow.

Magpie watched the light in wonder before having a supposed moment of clarity, looking to Alex in excitement.

Alexander grinned, “yeah just like the lights at the clubs. Do you remember?”

Magpie grinned, nodding her head.

Alexander’s smile broadened, she remembered more of him. She was remembering the fun they had hanging out together.

The two were clearly caught up in their excitement. Peregrine stepping back to watch with just the tiniest smile of relief.

From the doorway Adeline watched all three of them as they were completely unaware of her presence, she rolled her eyes with a smile and left them be.

[meta-shadowsong]

Some Thoughts on the Jedi/Jedi Doctrine

So, I’m sometimes hesitant to write meta about the this topic/set of topics, because I kind of feel like I have to make a huge disclaimer that the more critical of my points don’t mean I think that the Jedi were Really Evil/Wrong/what have you, because they weren’t. Like, there are clear Bad Guys in SW and the Jedi (overall/as an institution; obviously there are outliers like Krell running around) are not among them. Fortunately for me, Star Wars fandom is big and broad enough that it’s easier to curate my experience and avoid the Super Polarizing Debates than it has been in some other fandoms I’ve participated in, but the nature/relative Goodness of the Jedi Order is one of the ones that’s just...a fact of life in the PT-era/Clone Wars sections of the fandom that are my focus. And it’s basically Discourse™ bait.

(Which is not to say I don’t want discussion! If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be posting this in a public/semi-public forum, lol. Just that…IDK, there’s a difference between discussion and Discourse™, especially on topics like this.)

Anyway, all that aside, my stance can basically be summed up as: “The Jedi did far more good than harm and were, on the whole, well-intentioned people doing the best they could with the resources and information they had; however, I feel like there are some notable issues in their doctrine and practices which are worth discussing.” In other words, I generally lean more towards the Jedi Positive end of the spectrum – but, given the polarization in fandom on this particular topic, this occasionally makes me feel almost guilty when I make any kind of critical comment. Hence, massive disclaimers, to make up for that and attempt to be clear on where I’m coming from. But when my disclaimers start to feel almost as long as the actual essay I’m trying to write, that starts to take the fun out of it for me, hence my occasional hesitation.

That being said, for a variety of reasons, I decided to write up a few things that have been percolating in my head for a while, because why have a meta blog if I’m not going to use it, right? So, here we are.

This post is kind of a grab bag of three or four things, discussing both the Jedi themselves and how they’re sometimes portrayed, on varying levels of specificity. Being a grab bag, it’s not necessarily super coherent/a nice flowy essay, just some Thoughts. Oh, also, as a note – since, as far as I know, we lack a good canon catch-all, I use ‘Force adept’ as a general term for trained Force-users who may or may not be Jedi or Sith.

All right. Once again reiterating the massive disclaimer that I don’t think any of this makes the Jedi evil – here we go.

First, one of the things I have a problem with is more a perception/discussion thing than an in-universe thing – the idea that comes up sometimes in Jedi-positive discussions, that the Jedi path is The Right Way, or at least The Best Way to be an active Force adept without being Evil. Full stop. For all people, under all circumstances.

I think I’ve touched on this before, but my feelings on this particular issue really boil down to, “The Jedi aren’t wrong, but that doesn’t mean they have a monopoly on being right.” And I tend to come away from some Jedi-positive meta, even if I overall agree with the point the person in question is trying to make, with a bad taste in my mouth, feeling like it’s been framed as a One True Way type of thing. This is, admittedly, my problem, and not anyone else’s – which is why I’m discussing this in my own post, rather than derailing any of the ones I’ve seen that rubbed me in this particular wrong way. But it’s part of why I’m somewhat uncomfortable discussing my thoughts on Jedi practices and philosophy with anyone other than a select circle of fandom friends who I know for sure don’t skew that way. Even, as I said, when I lean more towards the Jedi-positive end of the spectrum.

Anyway, back on topic.

Practically speaking, there is a certain amount of truth to this idea by the time the PT rolls around, because of the relationship between the Order and the late Republic, and the overall sociopolitical setup of the main/focal portion of the galaxy. The Jedi have authority and reputation and presence in a way that other orders, if they’re out there, and/or independent Force adepts don’t. For example – off the top of my head, I believe the Guardians of the Whills, whether Force-adepts or not, whether Jedi-affiliated or not, seem to work in a pretty narrow geographic range; Dathomir (which, as I believe I’ve discussed previously, seems to be an entire planet/culture of people who are Force-sensitive to a perceptible degree, though not everyone necessarily reaches Jedi potential) also tends to mostly concern itself with its own affairs, apart from Mother Talzin and her ambitions. (There’s also the fact that they tend to read as/be grouped with Dark Side adepts, and I have some Thoughts on that/the Nightsisters as Dark Side adepts vs. Sith as Dark Side adepts as well, but that is a topic for a separate essay.)

But this isn’t about practicalities, it’s about philosophy/doctrine, and that’s where it starts getting sticky for me.

Okay. The Jedi basically have a core principle, and everything they do/believe comes from that – be more compassionate than you are selfish. And that’s great! That’s a good foundation for just about any philosophy/religion/culture. Quite a few IRL belief systems can be broken down to something similar, or even if it’s not a fundamental tenet, would still generally be considered a good/ideal way to live one’s life(1).

The problem is, when you break Jedi philosophy and doctrine down that far, it kind of loses a lot of its actual meaning? Which is to say, everything that makes it specifically Jedi philosophy – since, like I said, this is not an uncommon precept.

But the Order, like most belief systems, then takes the next step and says “okay, we’ve accepted this premise/goal, now here is our view on how to actually do that.” And at that point, when we start getting into the specifics, there are things that are not universal.

For example, considering the idea of avoiding attachment – not as it’s normally used in discussions about the Jedi, i.e., in the individual/interpersonal relationships sense, but in the broader/community sense.

The Jedi are more or less a closed community; while they do interact with the wider world when called upon, to provide aid, they’re pretty insular in their daily/personal lives outside of missions. And that is one way to achieve this core goal, to set the organization up as truly objective outsiders/advisors/judges/what have you.

But another would be to be fully integrated in a wider/outside community, either as individuals or as smaller groups/lineages, with connections to the overall Order that can be drawn on to share knowledge/resources/etc. as needed. Basically, trading outsider perspective for insider knowledge. Different ways of gaining the trust of the people you’re trying to help, with advantages and disadvantages to both. (For an IRL analogy, consider the way different orders of, say, Catholic monks and nuns operate, some more cloistered than others. Not a perfect comparison, necessarily, but something in the ballpark. Same goal, different approaches.)

My point here is not to imply or say that the Jedi path is a bad one, because it’s not. My point here is, as I said before, the idea that it’s the only correct path, or even the best path for all people (and/or Force adepts) in all circumstances, really sits wrong with me. Of course, this is all reflective my own personal beliefs, which tend to be pluralistic and avoid like the plague anything that claims to be the One True Way. Because that doesn’t even really hold up on Earth, which is a single planet with a single sentient species(2). If we expand that to an entire galaxy, with multiple species, it seems even shakier. And, yes, I know that Star Wars doesn’t actually do a whole lot with the idea of making alien species and their thought processes Different from humans beyond superficial details/attributes(3), but there’s still a point to be made here.

TL;DR: the galaxy, and, by extension, the Force, is far too big and complex for there to be only one right answer/path. Even building on the same baseline premise of “be more compassionate than you are selfish.”

Okay. Moving on to my next point, which is less about the way the Jedi are talked about and more about the Jedi themselves, and how they communicate with outsiders.

Short version: the Jedi are really, really bad at explaining who they are and how they think/operate to outsiders.

And, you know, I’m not saying they have to be good at it, or even necessarily that they should be. They don’t owe anyone those answers.

But it is something that can very much work against them, especially when they play a public role in galactic life. It’s easy for Palpatine to turn that on its head, especially when the Jedi don’t have the tools or the experience or the desire to play the propaganda game themselves. Again, not saying they should, just that they don’t, and there are downsides to it as well as advantages; and they’re up against someone whose primary wheelhouse is playing against exactly this kind of disadvantage.

That’s not the thing I want to focus on, actually, but it’s the most obvious thing so I felt like i should mention it. But that’s really more about the role of propaganda in the galaxy itself and other people, who are much smarter/more focused than I am and have put a lot of work into that topic have done it a lot better than I ever could.

But another way this comes into play is with their recruitment practices. For at least the past thousand years(4), the Jedi have only taken in infants/toddlers/very young children. Meaning, everyone that they do need to make understand Who They Are and How They Do grows up steeped in all of this, learning more or less by osmosis (because early-childhood neuroplasticity augmented by the Force) so there isn’t all that much need for overt explanations of How and Why the Jedi do things This Way, because it gets absorbed on a subconscious/instinctive level from the very beginning.

And, obviously this isn’t 100% successful – see, the Lost Twenty, not to mention any who left the Order as Padawans/before whatever marker makes them Count among the Twenty/as I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before, I’m pretty sure we only have actual identifying information about like 1% of the Jedi Order (~100 out of ~10,000), so any broad statements should be taken with a grain of salt.

But what I’m trying to get at here is that this practice has put the Order in a position where they’ve basically lost the skills and reference points needed to teach people who come to it late. Converts, in other words.

And then it becomes sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy/a cycle which continually reinforces itself – older students have difficulty adapting to the lifestyle/culture, but is that because they’re past a set point where they can’t learn it/adapt, or because the Order’s approach has left it with a weak point when it comes to helping them through that transition? Which then leads to older students having difficulty adapting, which leads to the Order not taking in older students unless they Have To because they can’t adapt, which leads to further adjustment/integration issues for the few they do take, and on and on.

This is especially the case when it comes to older kids from…let’s call them complicated backgrounds, which we see with both Anakin and Ventress.

(Again interjecting a disclaimer – this is in no way saying that Anakin was justified in what he did, or that the Jedi Order deserved it, or anything like that. I have a meta buried somewhere that uses an elaborate road-building metaphor which I should probably post at some point about the various factors that go into Anakin making all the wrong choices; jumping off from that metaphor, this is probably one of the ways the Palpatine got his paving materials, but that doesn’t make the Order responsible for either what Palpatine did with them, or Anakin’s choice to walk on the road Palpatine built for him.)

Anyway.

With Ventress, Ky Narec keeps her away from the Order as a whole, so she’s deprived of the community aspects of the culture – but also insulated from the can’t-fit-in problems she probably would’ve faced with her peers (because, even without the additional communication issues I’m talking about, this is a thing that happens when outsiders/newcomers attempt to join tight-knit communities, even if no one is being overtly/deliberately exclusive). Assuming he’d have even been allowed to keep her if he’d brought her back (which is not at all a guarantee; look at what it took for the Order to accept Anakin). …y’know, on that note, I really wish there was more about the two of them and their relationship/how he taught her/why he decided to handle her this way/etc. But I digress.

Of course, in the end, Narec’s choice ends up being a negative – when he dies, she has no one else to turn to. As far as I know, we don’t have any information on whether she attempted to reach out to the Order and explain herself/hope for acceptance there before running to Dooku, so there’s maybe an additional story there. Either way, we know where she ended up. And this issue of how to handle/communicate effectively with candidates who got locked out of the loop because of when and how they were identified probably played a significant role in her story. If only because it almost certainly informed Ky Narec’s choices.

With Anakin, of course, he’s raised within the Order, and gets the full impact of the community – both the positives and the negatives, being essentially an outsider. We don’t have a lot of canon about his first couple years there, but given everything we do know about his early childhood and the culture he was trying to join, I think there were major cracks in the foundation from the start, despite probably everyone involved trying their best to make things work.

The background radiation of Anakin’s childhood, whether he experienced this directly or not, was that he has to prove he’s worth keeping, or he’ll be thrown away. So, bearing in mind that a lot of this is conjecture, my guess is he spent the first couple of years really trying to measure up, and hiding where he was having problems, because he doesn’t want to seem like a bad investment. Fake it til you make it, essentially(5). Especially given the way his induction was botched – and I’m not saying that the Jedi should have automatically accepted him, but the back and forth on the issue and the way initially refusing him was handled (he really should not have been in the room for that conversation) didn’t help matters/reinforced this issue/made him hyper-aware of how hard it had been for him to even get here, let alone keep his place(6).

Meanwhile, on the Order’s end of things, once they did accept him, I believe they genuinely tried to help him adjust. But, again, they’re making this up as they go along, too; so I feel like those first couple years was a lot of not-quite-meeting in the middle. They get close enough that the deeper issues are masked, but they still just slightly fall short of one another. Which, at least at this point(7), is not really anyone’s fault, just a difficult situation because of the conflicting backgrounds and expectations of the various parties involved, that didn’t necessarily actually get resolved, so much as compensated for. But those foundational cracks still present, leading to a complete collapse later.

Again, this doesn’t excuse the particular way Anakin handled that collapse at all. Also, IMO, none of these issues are necessarily insurmountable – without Palpatine actively working towards the worst possible outcome, my guess is that things would’ve come to a head in a much less destructive manner, and maybe earlier, as well. Whether the resulting course-correction/repair would’ve kept Anakin in the Order or not…IDK. Could go either way. The point is, between Anakin’s particular background and the Jedi Order’s general lack of facility in dealing with older students/kids from complicated backgrounds/outsiders in general (and some active reinforcement from Palpatine), there’s a not-insignificant gap in understanding/communication/trust right from the start, and it’s never entirely healed.

Insert clever segue here, and we move on to my third point, about the Chosen One prophecy.

As a note, I come at this mostly from a fanfic writing perspective, rather than a literary analysis perspective. And in my fic, I don’t actually deal with the prophecy all that much. But when I do, I really like the reading that the Chosen One is intended to be a catalyst for change. To put the Jedi Order/galaxy as a whole in a position for the final defeat of the Sith, whether by defeating the SIth with their own hands or by sparking a shift in the way the Order interacts with the threat/the galaxy as a whole.

Basically, per my reading of the situation, the Order has, over the past thousand years, become a little bit ossified/stagnant(4) in terms of its doctrine and practices. They’re pretty inwardly focused on their traditions and This Is How To Jedi (as an group/institution; as in most practices/cultures, this varies from individual to individual, with some being extremely flexible in their application of doctrine and some much less so), with intervention in the outside world in specific crises as they arise. This approach is at least in part a result of the way things were restructured following the Ruusan reformations, because that is what the Order needed to be at that point in time. But then they just sort of got…stuck there. This is, again, not necessarily a mark against them/proof they’re Really Not The Good Guys or any BS like that. Like I mentioned before, they still do way more good than harm, and are genuinely well-intentioned on the whole. It’s just a Thing that tends to happen. Institutions – and the Order is an Institution, in this sense – are slow to change on their own, and tend to just become The Same Thing But More So. Especially when they’re put in a position where they don’t necessarily need to change, and attempting to do so might cause a fair amount of short-term, maybe even long-term, damage, which could be either internal or external.

But this tendency, and the particular way they’ve become The Same Thing But More So, has left the Jedi Order woefully unprepared and unequipped to deal with the particular threat that Palpatine, and the generations of Sith legwork he’s building on, present.

Which brings us to the Chosen One.

Who is, in this reading(8), essentially a wakeup call from the Force, that the shit is about to hit the fan.

But Anakin and his induction/relationship with the Order were mishandled, as previously discussed. Once again, I feel a need to disclaim – I am not in any way blaming the Order for what happened. Anakin may have a Destiny, but he’s also a sentient being with free will and he actively chose to fulfill said Destiny in the worst possible way.

What I am saying is that the response to this warning was maybe not as thorough/helpful as it could have been. Both on a small scale, when dealing with the individual beings directly involved, and on a large scale, in terms of the questions Anakin and all that he is (with or without the full weight/text of the Prophecy as a factor) could have raised about Order doctrine and practices, which might have put them in a slightly better position when Palpatine initiated his endgame. It may still have been too little, too late – or it may have been enough to significantly change the outcome.

And, to be fair, I think that the Order – or, at the very least, Master Yoda – realized this over the course of the Clone War. That the Order had become stagnant/too attached to Tradition/not as dynamic as it needed to be, I mean. And, if Anakin had made better choices or if circumstances had fallen out differently, I genuinely believe that the Order would have seen some significant change, to adapt to the galaxy as it had become, not the one it was at their last major shift a thousand years ago. Which they do anyway – granted, we don’t know much about how Luke was running things in canon, but in Legends, he took a slightly different approach to the core philosophy and the doctrine built on it, adapting what he’d been taught to the galaxy that he’d grown up in. But, again, that’s as a result of Anakin serving as a catalyst for change in the worst possible way because he made all the wrong choices.

…yeah, that last section, in particular, I’ve been sitting on for a long, long time, trying to figure out how to word it without sounding creepy and victim-blamey. As I keep stressing, none of this changes the enormity of Anakin’s choice, because he had other options and he chose this one. And while the Order could have handled things better in the lead up to that final crossroads, which might have put all of them in a better position when they got there, they didn’t make that choice for him any more than Palpatine did.

So…yeah. There it is. Some of my more critical thoughts about the Jedi Order of the PT/Late Republic era. Like I said. I’m not sure how coherent this is, it’s just…sort of a grab bag of thoughts.

To sum up: The Jedi were well-intentioned and did more good than harm; they were not wrong, but that doesn’t mean they have a monopoly on being right; there are some flaws in their approaches to certain issues such as communication, particularly with outsiders, and change, which in no way mean they caused or deserved what happened to them; however, in the full knowledge that I am looking at this from an outside perspective/with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, there are better choices they could have made which might well have improved the situation.

(1)Disclaimer: it’s been at least ten years since I’ve done any serious comparative religions study, but this is broadly true to the best of my recollection.

(2)Debates about cetaceans, etc., aside.

(3)Which is actually one of the things I really liked about Alliances, and the way Timothy Zahn handles the Chiss in general – it’s a little closer to the CJ Cherryh style of sci-fi, where aliens may be similar to humans, but there are fundamental differences in the way they think and organize themselves; so the fact that Chiss Force adepts function very differently from Force adepts in the main part of the galaxy is pretty cool to me. Whether the two approaches could adapt and learn from each other in the long run is a fascinating question…

(4)Going by Legends canon here; current canon has yet to give me any deep backstory, so my approach to anything more than 100 years pre-TPM is ‘canon until proven otherwise,’ because there’s little to no historical context for things without that. And I feel like discussions on this topic are really hard to have/missing something significant without that historical context.

(5)I also think that this particular strategy – fake it til you make it, excel in specific areas which cover up the deep flaws in others/your foundation – is something that the Order is vulnerable to in general, even with children who did grow up in the culture. See, Barriss. …there’s probably a whole essay or three, talking about the ways Barriss and Anakin and Ventress and their stories parallel one another, but that is a topic for another day.

(6)Granted, he does get past this, at least to some extent, later (as we can see in the way he deals with his superiors in AOTC and ROTS; if nothing else, he’s identified how much wiggle room he has and is confident enough to go right up to the edge of what he can get away with, even risking going past it in certain contexts and on certain issues), but that doesn’t necessarily mean that this has actually been fixed, just that he’s found ways to get around it and function in his new environment.

(7)As sort of implied in the last footnote, there does more or less come a point where Anakin kind of stops trying with anyone other than a few close, trusted people – and, again, on the one hand this shows a remarkable success in rewriting some of the coping mechanisms he developed in childhood which are no longer helpful for him in his new life, in that he’s less focused on Being Worth Keeping apart from not wanting to disappoint, for example, Obi-Wan; but it also doesn’t necessarily address some of his root issues. And because of this gap in understanding, Anakin comes away with the impression, accurate or not, that he’s never really going to win the trust/approbation of his peers and superiors, which alienation Palpatine can prey on later. Again, none of this excuses the way Anakin eventually acts on that alienation. But it’s there.

(8)There’s another reading that I kind of like – though it leans a little harder into the Fate end of the scale rather than free will – which is that Anakin is at the nexus of both the Jedi Chosen One prophecy and the Sith’ari prophecy from Legends. I.e., some ancient Jedi and Sith did the same thing Ezra and Maul did, bashing a pair of holocrons together to seek some kind of Revelation, and came out with conflicting but not necessarily contradictory answers. But, again, that hits the Fate end of the scale a lot harder than I normally like, though the possibility of it is interesting to contemplate when I write stuff where ROTS happened as in canon (i.e., I referenced this idea in Sanctuary.)

[wolfeyeslonelynights]

Strip Club III

Liam was seriously starting to wonder when his life became a series of sexual dance offs. Sure once could have been considered random Mason induced insanity. Twice, maybe an odd fluke he had admittedly instigated in petty revenge. But three? Three was starting to feel like a pattern.

And lap dances? Of course he’s watched a few naughty videos, what teenage boy hasn’t? Although those had generally been of the female variety and with a specific task in mind. Now though, Liam felt like the world was turning an odd joke over him. With a name of Theo fucking Raeken.

Because here he was, sitting in a ridiculously tall chair, feeling beyond awkwardly embarrassed while Theo tried not to laugh standing about five feet from him. From the edge of his sex throne Liam could see Mason in a similar position, although his expression was far less humiliated and more eager. Corey at least looked slightly uncomfortable. Leaning forward just as the lime green booty short dressed instructor stepped into the room, Liam hissed under his breath.

“I am never answering your guys 911 phone calls again!”

He kicked his feet, which were hanging about four inches off the ground, in irritation. When Mason replied he didn’t see the grin so much as heard it.

“We needed two more people to get the discount.”

Liam harrumph, knowing damn well that his friend was just being a busy body. Since the club incident Liam had been doing everything he could to not pay attention to anything beyond school and lacrosse. He didn’t answer most texts, ignored phone calls, and even took to actually locking his bedroom window at night. His mother was ecstatic on his grades improvement. Liam was, he would only admit to himself, a grumpy little shit.

“Oh come on,” Theo practically purred at him- soft enough that only their sensitive hearing could pick up- “I’ll make it good for you.”

Liam scowled at the hazel stare sparkling with laughter before Theo was turning to listen to whatever the flamboyant teacher was saying. He just pushed himself farther back into the chair, arms crossing protectively over his chest. It wasn’t that he was denying the reactions and emotions to the chimera; in fact the only reason they hadn’t ended up in Liam’s bed or the back of Theo’s truck after the night of dancing was only because of Mason and Corey’s presence. No, Liam was avoiding the issue because he didn’t want to get hurt.

Watching the teen in front of him, not really a teenager anymore at nineteen, reach up to absently run a hand through his hair, Liam felt shook. He didn’t think the older boy would hurt him in the way murderous asshole Theo would have done- and honestly even then, he had been trying to help Liam; albeit with slightly more horrific and malicious intent. No, he was afraid that it would be similar to the punch in the soul that Hayden abruptly leaving had caused.  

He suspected it would be worse. Not that Hayden hadn’t been important; she will always be his first love, first loss, and a few other firsts. But their relationship had been created on remorse and protectiveness that was formed during a highly stressful time in their lives.

Theo though.. he was a foundation. That saw everything and still was like ‘okay, that was stupid but lets not be too stupid.’ And when It came down to it, when shit got really bad and the body count was growing; Theo didn’t leave Liam behind. Nope, the chimera showed up even when he had no real reason to.  Even when Liam tried to push him away.

“Alright everyone, think of a song you wanna dance to while you and your lucky partner connect to the small blue tooth speakers.”

The instructors bubbly voice broke through Liam’s thoughts. Looking up he caught Theo watching him closely; the usual smirk replace with a thoughtful expression. The sincerity of it made him more nervous. Tightening his arms and shoulders he grumbled “What?”

The chimera dug into his pants, dark gray joggers, for his phone taking a minute to connect it to the small speaking next to Liam’s chair. There was a brief blast of Celine Dion causing Liam to flinch before Theo was able to press pause. He stared up with at the big bad chimera; eyes wide before he was grinning.

“All by yourself huh?”

Liam’s grin grew as Theo looked speechless before the chimera lifted his shoulders in a shrug that tried for nonchalance but was too self-conscious to totally pull it off. Laughing softly he relaxed in the chair. Theo narrowed his eyes on him, while reaching over to snag Corey’s fedora hat.

“Don’t even think that is adequate blackmail Dunbar, because it really isn’t.”

His reply was interrupted by the teacher clapping and telling them to get into their places. Liam ignored the droning on about how this was just for fun and practice before giving a couple claps to set them off on their own. Glancing around he saw that a lot of couples were mostly goofing off to various songs all talking about how it was hot in hurr or get low, too uncomfortable to really get into it.

FKA twings Two weeks started playing loud next to him snagging his attention as Theo easily slid back into a relaxed stance. He had placed the fedora hat at a jaunty angle, upper half of his face shadowed as he rolled his shoulders once. This didn’t seem like a particular lap ‘dancey’ song but then Liam didn’t think much more as Theo slide a leg out in a smooth movement.

The words were breathy as Theo twirled slowly in a way that reminded Liam of a ballet,  hand coming up to grip the back of the hat just as the song crescendo; rolling it down a forearm and popping it in the air at Liam, tank top covered chest rolling deep that sent muscles rippling under the tight material as feet skimmed in rotating steps that had him suddenly much closer to the chair.

He barely had time to toss the hat blindly aside before Theo was there in his lap. Crouched like some damn cat instead of werewolf; hips moving in slow undulated waves, inches from Liam’s chest. Hot hands sliding from the chair letting  fingers grazing skin and shirt before gripping the top of his thighs hard - jolting heat through Liam’s jeans as Theo was sliding down, down, down until Liam could only see brightened eyes at the level of his crotch.

There was a pause, Liam trying to not to groan at the picture in front of him, how his body was responding painfully, and then Theo was up and around the back of the chair, a hand moving up his shoulder and neck before a finger tip touched the corner of the his lips, slipping inside enough to wet it before it was gone.

Liam was pretty sure he was silently mouthing words that he would no doubt be mortified if anyone could read. Expecting a fast dance of thrust and jerky movements, maybe something silly like the sexy chicken dance but Theo’s slow actions were ten times worse.

The chimera did something with his feet that made it seemed like he glided around the chair. Not that Liam cared about his feet, his eyes were having a hard time moving from the region of his midsection and face. Especially when Theo stopped right in front of him, eyes locked on; stare intense as his body slowly, excruciating slow that had Liam biting his bottom lip and tasting Theo, rolled until it reached his hips, then he reversed the move until he was straddling Liam’s lap. Rough hands coming up to cup either side of his neck, thumbs lightly pressing against the racing pulse.

Several things occurred to Liam in this moment. A: He was going to be super mortified when he had to stand up and let everyone see the raging hard-on he was currently sporting. B: Theo was crossing a line with that damn finger leaving a tase of him in his mouth that had Liam almost begging. C: Begging for something he actually had no idea what he wanted, but it needed to happened and fucking quick. D: Theo was semi-erect and it seemed wrong to only be halfway there. E: He definitely heard the unsubtle sound of a phone’s camera shutter, indicating that his best friend was going to have to die.

He hadn’t realized he was holding his breath until Theo whispered “Breathe Liam, breathe.”

Looking up he wasn’t sure meeting Theo’s gaze was a smart move. The desire he was feeling echoing in the chimera’s face with a dash of that infuriating arrogance. He didn’t realize he had slipped his hands underneath the tank top, softly brushing the skin on Theo’s side until he noticed the slightest shiver through the body on his. He smiled broadly, opening his mouth to comment when a loud voice burst into their bubble.

“Well! Magnificent performance! Though I dare hazard a guess that you are not an amateur no?” When the instructor was smiling over them Theo quickly slid off Liam, hands quickly slipping in the pocket of his pants. Liam caught his eye, raising a brow in amusement, ignoring the glare sent his way.

He bit back a laugh when Theo turned away from him to mutter a “Yeah you could say that.”

There was a brief pause as the other groups stopped staring to go back to their half hearted attempts, leaving Liam to shoot a dirty look at Mason and Corey’s smirks while trying to get his pants to be comfortable again without bringing attention to what he was doing. Theo was busy with his phone when the teacher called that it was time to switch places.

Liam froze as Theo whipped his head up grinning like the devil.

“Uh no.”

Theo smiled wider, “Uh yes.”

Frantically thinking of a way out because if Liam had to dance like that in a room full of all these people who were side eyeing them in hopes to see if he was as good as Theo. He was going to die. Or puke. Possible both in either order.

Theo didn’t help, simply yanking him out the chair, leaving him to stumble for balance while collapsing back into it as if it was a recliner. Scowling he glanced over to see that Mason’s eager expressions was dimmed now as he too looked over at Liam.

“I, uh, didn’t think this through.”

Feeling his irritation melt away as the need to help ease Mason’s anxiety away, Liam cracked his neck and dramatically rolled his yes.

“You two never think things through.”

Ignoring Corey’s muttered “Like you two can talk.” he pulled his phone out to start browsing through his music. Just because it was a lap dance didn’t mean he had to do everything in Theo’s lap right? Simply thinking that had his cheeks warming. Also, this was definitely not a place to play a song he would one day like to be fuc-

Liam paused at the last thought, face rapidly losing its color as he realized songs were getting nixed because they were ones that he could picture them, jesus him and Theo, having sex to.

“Young man? Are you having trouble picking a song?”

The teacher’s question knocked him out of the downward spiral that his mind had been going. Looking up he saw his friends giving him slightly guilty looks of concern. Theo’s expression was unreadable; stance still disgustingly relaxed in the chair, legs spread apart as he watched Liam have a mini existential crisis. Actually, he smiled up at the mostly naked older man receiving an automatic one back.

“No sorry I’m good now thanks.”

Waiting until the man had nodded and backed away, Liam had flashed a devious smirk at his friends before taking the few seconds to connect his phone to the speaker.

“This better not be that barbie doll song or something stupid Liam.”

Theo’s voice was a warning and a tease and he was going to enjoy wiping that goddamn kissable smirk off his smug face. Instead of saying anything, he simply pressed play and slid out to stop in front of the chimera.

Feeling the same weightless exhilaration similar to when they were just goofing off in the club, he felt the smile linger as he started a few shoulder jerks, legs matching the movements as 3OH!3’s Touchin’ On My blared. Throwing in a few heel steps he waited until the chorus hit before starting to pop lock in earnest; grin growing at Theo’s snort of surprised laughter, the chimera’s body leaning forward as he returned the smile.

When the second verse kicked in, Liam spun fast, hands yanking his shirt up and over before launching it at Theo. Using the distraction he slid on his knees between Theo’s still spread legs. There was an instance, hazel eyes flaring wide, before Liam basically crawled up into his lap. He let fingers trail over pants, pressing closer on the inside of Theo’s thigh. Slightly brushing on something more. He was still grinning even if the chimera wasn’t; mouth tight with restraint as Liam’s nose slid up his neck, continuing up with a brush of their noses, passing until he was standing.

Liam let a few seconds pass, hands pressed on the back of the chair behind Theo’s shoulders, listening to the chimera breathe shallow.

The next time the chorus played, he slid away from Theo - noticing how hands had started to rise like the teen was going to pull Liam back. His own hands were still on the back of the chair, holding fast as he twirled around to stand behind it. Ignoring the song now, he used his arms to tip the chair backwards, Theo tensing as his head fell back to look up at Liam - face paused level with Liam’s erection.

Liam beamed when Theo’s eyes darted from his face to his pretty obvious bulge and back to his eyes again before muttering “Christ almighty Liam.”

Abruptly righting the chair, he walked over to shut off the speaker as the next song started playing. Turning he sputtered when his t-shirt slapped into his face. Yanking it down he scowled at the glowering chimera walking towards him.

“What the fuck?”

Theo waited until they were inches apart, “That song and move is going to come back to bite you in the ass…literally.”

Yeah, it was definitely becoming a pattern. He was in absolute deep shit. Liam tried to hide the pleased smile.

[imaginetonyandbucky]

Savor the Flavor

777 - I just want a fic where Bucky just smiles all the time because of Tony. And maybe Steve is excited for him, and teases him that he found someone, and Bucky just smiles even wider, because Tony is amazing. (Steve is probably not thrilled that it's Tony at first, but when he sees them together he knows that they are both serious about it and more importantly, happy with each other, he judged Tony too quickly, and he's sorry.)

https://www.walgreens.com/store/c/smackers-best-flavor-forever-lip-balm-set-assorted/ID=prod6339164-product

“What is all this?” Steve crossed massive arms over his ridiculously oversized chest -- no, really, his chest wasn’t that big, Thor was at least another twenty percent larger in every direction, but Steve wore his shirts entirely too tight, which made him look enormous -- and scowled.

Bucky was cross-legged on the sofa, going through his stash. He picked up a brown bag of hard candies and threw it at Steve. “I didn’t forget you, punk,” he said.

“No, seriously,” Steve said, snagging the horehound candies out of midair and opening it. Steve was a sucker for sweets, but they couldn’t be too sweet. His tastebuds still hadn’t come out of the forties, so Bucky always looked for something “old fashioned” for him. Steve thought Bucky was making fun, but really, Bucky was just keeping track of what Steve would actually eat. “What… what is this?”

“Lip balm,” Bucky said. He flicked through his collection and picked out one of the beewax sticks. The same way Steve didn’t much care for a Snickers bar, he wasn’t going to like honey-pear flavored lip wax.

Steve glanced at the tube. “You’re dodgin’ the question, jerk,” Steve said.

“Blame Nat,” Bucky said. “I bite my lip a lot, apparently. An’ the serum does a lot, but sometimes when I’m tense, it gets all chapped. She let me have one of hers, but I didn’t like the way it smelled.”

“So you bought fifty of them?” Steve ran a hand through the tubes, the click of plastic rubbing was oddly soothing.

“Mighta got carried away,” Bucky admitted. He was oddly fascinated by the sheer variety of things in the future. Everything from soup to nuts had a million different options. When he got it into his head to try something new, he wanted to try all of it. Over compensating for decades of having no choices, perhaps.

Steve’s fingers faltered. “Um, Bucky?”

“Yeah?”

“Red, white, and blueberry?” Steve was holding up one of the tubes between two fingers like he thought it might be toxic.

Bucky smirked. “What, they had a whole line of ‘em,” he said. “You think I honestly wasn’t gonna buy one of each?”

“What do you mean, the whole --”

Bucky plucked several tubes out and lined them up on the coffee table. “Invincible Chocolate, Vanilla Em-power-mint, Cotton Candy Dream Team…”

Steve selected another tube from the line up. “You’re smearing something called Billionaire Root Beer on your mouth?”

“What, what’s this?” Tony said, coming into the common room. “Did someone say my name in vain?” He glanced down at Bucky’s horde. Bucky resisted the urge to gather all of his lip balms up and flee the room. His cheeks burned, but he couldn’t quite help peering at Tony though his lashes.

Tony snagged the tube out of Steve’s hand and admired it. The cap was bright blue, the tube itself orange, with a print of comic-book Iron Man on it. “Oh, wow, I didn’t know they made these. JARVIS, would you look ‘em up and get me a full set, yeah?”

“Of course, sir,” JARVIS said, his voice somehow reflecting amusement, exasperations, and disapproval all at the same time. “Do you wish to acquire a set of the keychains as well?”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Full. Set.”

“Yes, sir,” JARVIS said. “Expect delivery within the week.”

So, does it taste like me?” Tony selected another one. He read the label and snickered about it before putting the Sour Apple Smash in its green tube back on the table

“Not like I tasted you before,” Bucky said.

Steve inhaled, just a little more sharply than before, and suddenly Bucky realized what he’d said. His neck heated uncomfortably. It wasn’t like he hadn’t thought about kissing Tony before, but…

“Oh, well, Queen Elsa, I can think of a few ways to fix that,” Tony said, his eyebrow going up. Bucky might have thought he was kidding, did think Tony was kidding, right up until Tony’s tongue darted out of his mouth to wet his upper lip. All the blood in Bucky’s body rushed straight for his groin. Oh, god.

Bucky popped the cap off of Berry Cool Armor and twisted the bottom. The smell from the tube was sugary sweet, the taste on his tongue was strawberry and sticky.

Tony grinned and before Bucky quite knew what was happening, Tony was in his lap, straddling Bucky’s thighs. Tony hesitated not at all before leaning in and pressing his mouth to Bucky’s lip. His tongue flickered out, brushing against Bucky’s top lip, sending tingles through Bucky’s spine. Dear Jesus, and it wasn’t even a serious kiss, and Tony was sitting right on Bucky’s fuckin’ lap and there was no chance in hell that he wasn’t going to notice that Bucky was sportin’ an erection.

“No, no, absolutely not,” Tony said. He blotted his mouth against the back of his hand. “That doesn’t taste like me, at all. Try another one.” He offered Bucky the tube of Invincible Chocolate.

A gleam of challenge lurked in Tony’s eyes. Laughing, and yet utterly, absolutely serious. Bucky leaned forward to snag the tissues on the table to wipe his mouth with, knowing now, that Tony was going to feel the thick, heavy weight of him, rubbing against Tony’s belly. It was okay; there wasn’t exactly nothin’ going on in Tony’s pants, either.

“Yeah, you know, on that note --” Almost impossible to pay attention to Steve backing out of the room to give them some privacy, aside from a fleeting sense of gratitude.

“Don’t forget this, Cap,” Tony said, snatching up Patriotic Peach and throwing it to Steve.

“Uh-huh,” Steve said, and then Bucky was alone with a lap full of wriggling and grinning Tony Stark.

“So, where were we?” Bucky asked, his arm going ‘round Tony’s waist and pulling him in closer. Tony squirmed, rubbing against Bucky, and there was no doubt at all that this was going somewhere...

“We were going to find a chapstick that tastes like me,” Tony announced. “Better start with a clean sample first, just for science’s sake.”

Bucky took that invitation for what it was. He wanted to taste Tony, to breathe him in, devour him. Find out everything about the man. Drink from his lips. And he’d finally been offered everything he wanted. He leaned in, and Tony’s lips were already parted. Tony moaned, soft and eager as Bucky’s mouth came down over his, and that was Bucky’s undoing. Wanting surged up in him, need greater than anything he’d ever felt before.

He cupped Tony’s jaw with one hand and kissed him, tongue sliding past his lips to tempt and tease at the warm hollow of Tony’s cheek, licked along his square teeth, flicked against the roof of Tony’s mouth.

“Oh, god,” Tony murmured as Bucky drew back, then, “was that a sufficient sample?” He offered the Billionaire Root Beer.

Whatever would get him more kisses, Bucky thought, blurry with lust, longing. He tugged off the cap and smeared the soda-sticky wax over his lips. Tony swooped and came down on him again, tongue tracing the line of Bucky’s lower lip, flicking up to tickle at the join.

“Close,” Bucky murmured, the flavor was sweet, with a little zing to it, like the tang of Tony’s cutting wit.

“You know,” Tony said, looking over the collection, “I’m shocked that there’s no coffee-flavored selection in here.”

“We’ll write a letter and complain,” Bucky said. He twisted, deposing Tony on the sofa and pulling himself over the other man like a blanket, feeling the heat and hard muscle underneath him. Tony rolled his hips, pressing against Bucky, rocking up, testing his reactions.

“Oh, I don’t think I’ll be complaining about this at all.”

A/N I might actually own most of these lip balms, and the Black Widow doll lip balm holder. I mean, first off, I have a serious addiction to lip balm, and then combined with my Marvel obsession, I am EXACTLY the person these were made for.

[thehungrykat1]

Novotel Manila Welcomes Summer With Opening of Ice N Cream (Part 2)

Summers in the Philippines are excruciatingly hot. They say that you can even fry an egg outside just by placing it on a hot concrete floor, and I totally believe that. So what’s the best way to cool and refresh ourselves during these sizzling summer months? Let’s have ice cream! Novotel Manila Araneta Center has the perfect solution to our problems as they open the newest and hippest ice cream parlor in the city, Ice N Cream by Novotel. The Hungry Kat was invited to the media launch of Ice N Cream last April 11, just two days after I had checked out from my summer staycation at Novotel Manila. It was great to be back at my new secret hideaway in Cubao and try all these fantastic ice cream flavors. 

But before that, let’s get back to my overnight staycation at Novotel Manila (read part 1 here) where I found another way to beat the summer heat. Their Swimming Pool is located on the sixth floor and is open from 6:00am to 7:00pm. I did not imagine this hidden tropical oasis sitting right here inside the busy Araneta Center, so it was so refreshing to get my feet wet and take a dip inside their lovely pool.

Families will definitely enjoy bringing their kids to the swimming pool for a morning or afternoon of fun and bonding. They can also learn essential swimming skills this summer through the Bert Lozada Swim School from March 29 to June 19, 2017. Kids and even adults can have sessions of learning and fun before the school season starts again.

I wanted to avoid the crowds so I decided to hit the swimming pool early in the morning after I woke up from my relaxing slumber. My massage service at In Balance Spa last night was really effective and it was so tempting to just lie in bed all morning, but I also wanted to take a quick swim.

Just beside the pool is the 6th Pool Bar and Lounge. This is a casual pool bar by day but it transforms into the trendiest outdoor club at night. Guests can groove to the beats of the resident DJ and experience a pool party during weekends and special events.

I just love having the pool all to myself which is why I usually wake up very early to catch this serenity. After a few laps around the pool, my tummy was already telling me that it was time to head down to Food Exchange for a yummy breakfast buffet. 

Food Exchange Manila offers its breakfast buffet from 6:30am to 10:30am. Guests at the Club floors can actually have their breakfast either here or at the more private Premier Lounge, but I always like the wider selection at the hotel cafe so this is where I usually have breakfast first. I did have an indulgent dinner last night so I really needed their Juice of the Day to keep my appetite healthy.

A wide selection of breads and pastries are available like the Ube Ensaymada which is a highly recommended item. Early risers can also get as much Puto Bumbong as they want as well as crepes, salads, fruits and more.

They also offer a good range of hot dishes like the Homemade Corned Beef which is a thicker and meatier version of those canned items. The Canadian Bacon was also a popular dish with its low fat bacon. I had some fried eggs prepared which I placed on top of my garlic rice and that was all I needed. Noodles and even pizza are also on hand with several juices and beverages to choose from.

After my breakfast at Food Exchange, I went up to the Premier Lounge to check out the breakfast setup there. The lounge is a better venue for those who want a quiet and more private breakfast experience. While the selection may be smaller, you get a much better view of the city. As expected, I could not help myself from having a second breakfast so I ordered a cup of hot chocolate and helped myself with a plate from the buffet table. That is how The Hungry Kat enjoys breakfast.

The best thing about staying at the Executive Room is that you can request for late check out as long as it is available. My check out was scheduled at 4:00pm so that gave me even more time to explore the hotel facilities. The one area that really impressed me at the hotel is their expansive bridal garden and tent called the Versailles Garden. This 2,500-square meter outdoor events venue can be found at the back of the swimming pool area and offers a spectacular place for weddings and celebrations. Many special occasions have been held at this venue which gives its guests an exclusive and enchanting area.

Would you believe that this picturesque garden paradise can be found right inside Cubao? I would have never thought that a place like this even existed here at the Araneta Center but Novotel Manila has definitely transformed the way we see this busy commercial district.

Novotel Manila is even taking it one step further this summer with outdoor movie screenings and garden picnics at the Versailles Garden all weekends of April starting April 15. Take a break and bond with family and friends while watching exciting movies at this outdoor oasis.

Another reason to visit Novotel Manila Araneta Center is the newly opened Ice N Cream by Novotel located at the lobby floor just beside Food Exchange Manila. The newest ice cream destination started scooping to the public yesterday, April 16, 2017 and gives everyone the coolest and sweetest reasons to beat the smoldering summer heat.

This hip ice cream parlor is not just for hotel guests but for anyone who wants to get out from the heat and enjoy their fun and creative ice cream flavors. There are around 30 different and unique ice cream flavors to choose from which you can enjoy on a cup or cone starting at only P100 per scoop. I think that’s much better than going to those crowded coffee shop for a cup of coffee that is twice as expensive.

Novotel’s ice cream are made from premium local and imported ingredients from Germany and France. These are all homemade and gluten-free, with less sugar and absolutely no stabilizers, resulting in a very creamy texture with high quality and consistency. Some of these flavors, like the Purple Dream with ube and langka, are found at the dessert section of Food Exchange Manila but diners loved these so much that Novotel decided to set up their own ice cream store.

Ice N Cream by Novotel showcases many creative and yummy flavors like Cocoyeah, creamy coconut milk mixed with slivers of young coconut meat; Breezy Berry, a mélange of berries married with the cool breeze of mint; or Sugar-Free options like Oh Honey Honey, local lime zing blended with Tagaytay honey. 

Other Philippine flavors are also highlighted like the Leche De Almond with its velvety leche flan crowned with crunchy Almond Florentine. The Passionista, on the other hand, has a pleasantly sweet and tart silky passionfruit goodness.

Ice N Cream by Novotel also offers classic flavors with catchy names such as Oui Vanilla, Choco Goes Nuts, It Match-a Been Love, and Wake Me Up Before You Go Go which has rich notes of coffee with real coffee bean crunch. They even have alcoholic ice cream flavors like Kirsche Me, a black forest ice cream with high quality couverture chocolate and sponge infused with fruity Kirsch brandy. Or try the Papa Don Preach with plump, juicy raisins enhanced with a kick of warmth from rum. All these exciting flavors are sure to keep ice cream fanatics coming back for more.

During the media launch last week, I was privileged to be one of the first to sample their myriad of delicious flavors. I ordered two scoops of ice cream on a cone with Choco Goes Nuts and Oui Vanilla flavors. I was really surprised with the creaminess of the ice cream which are almost similar to other imported ice cream brands. Novotel Manila takes pride in their homemade ice cream flavors and I can attest to the quality of their creations.

Guests can also choose to have their ice cream inside a cup for the same affordable price. You can also add toppings to your ice cream to personalize your treat.

Aside from the yummy ice cream offerings, Ice N Cream by Novotel also features freshly made pastries and baked favorites like Buko Pandan Layer Cake, Coconut Cheesecake, Chocolate Praline Cake, Croissant, Danish breads, Double Chocolate Chip cookies and much more. They also offer milkshakes and Carmen’s Best ice cream flavors for even more variety.

One ice cream monstrosity that is available at the Gourmet Bar by Novotel is the 15-scoop Le Mont Gourmand which is now also available at Ice N Cream. Media guests were invited to participate in a fun ice cream challenge to design and create their own bowl of Le Mont Gourmand. 

We had all these toppings, syrups and sauces at our disposal to create the best and most creative bowl of Le Mont Gourmand ice cream. It was not as easy as I thought because this bowl is huge! We also had to act quickly because the ice cream was melting fast.

Here it is! Presenting our own Le Mont Gourmand. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to win the top prize but we did have fun sharing and devouring this colorful bowl of ice cream.

Here’s another great treat from Novotel Manila. From April 16 to 29, 2017, Ice N Cream by Novotel will be having a Buy 1 Take 1 offer for the purchase of one scoop of any ice cream flavor (diner pays for the higher priced ice cream flavor). What’s more, if you are social media savvy and aspiring “IT” girls and guys, you can join the search for the Novotel iScreamers: The Ice N Cream Dream Team. Simply follow Novotel Manila’s Facebook page and look for their Ice N Cream contest video (here’s the link). Share on the comments why you should be part of Novotel iScreamers and take your shot to be part of the lucky five to win exciting prizes such as a year’s supply of ice cream at Ice N Cream by Novotel, one overnight stay in an Executive Suite with breakfast and Premier Lounge access similar to my summer staycation, exclusive passes to product tasting, events and new flavor launches, plus a meet and greet with the Bb. Pilipinas Candidates on April 28, 2017 during the Ice N Cream grand launching! Check out the full contest details here.

I never thought that I would enjoy having a staycation at Cubao, but everything during my stay at Novotel Manila Araneta Center has been magical. It has been a while since I last stayed in the Cubao district, but Novotel Manila has truly transformed the way I see Araneta Center and I’m sure this is the case for other travelers as well. Other higher priced luxury hotels may be more popular in Makati or at Roxas Boulevard, but Novotel Manila is now my favorite secret hideaway this side of the city.

Novotel Manila Araneta Center

Gen. Aguinaldo Avenue, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City

990-7888

www.novotel.com/Manila

www.facebook.com/NovotelManilaAranetaCenter