#but in alternate verses if there are like races or something?? he might join one for w/e reason

[dnangelic]

Does Daisuke have a preference in sports or physical activity beyond his usual phantom thief shenanigans? Does Dark enjoy anything similar?

@remunporium

hmmm! i can give a few different forms of answers to this so let me start by saying in any sort of school / public setting daisuke usually tries to hide his physical capabilities as a phantom thief. there are things like his grades in PE being poor or himself landing really nasty falls when he could easily save himself because he's always trying so hard to not look conspicuous, but he also gets caught up in things like being picked for active roles in school stageplays/performances that requires stunts anyways, so he "flubs" up practice nonstop then does perfectly fine during the real thing.

these are just examples of him sucking on purpose though (and sometimes he really does suck on clumsy accident, like not paying attention and falling flat on his face, or falling flat on his face because he's stealing someone's wallet back from a pickpocket,) obviously he's got stellar acrobatic capabilities overall and has a surprising amount of strength for someone with his build, (this post covers it well, really, nobody's allowed to forget daisuke climbed an entire ferris wheel with his bare hands lmao) but if it's an actual sport you want to see him enjoying, then he's probably going to pick swimming.

group oriented activities generally stress him out, and frankly he'd probably stress out any group he was with too - he's got that sad, awkward 'last kid picked for PE' energy and always does all his heists alone!! this rules out 99% of sports for him. swimming does away with all of that group necessity, and he's canonically a good swimmer too- has to be since his parents trained him for anything. (even though thanks to transforming and wiz trying to cover for him, everybody at his school thinks he almost drowned one time.)

most of daisuke's physical 'skills' he feels only should apply to his 'work,' so on top of the social anxiety ruling out, the range of things he enjoys doing alone is left extremely small - and really, if he actually has that much freetime and is feeling restless, (daisuke is almost always sleep deprived, he should be asleep, just like me fr) then he's probably going to be flying, which is also dark's preference outside of pulling a heist.

dark needs the thrill of pursuit on occasion, but on others he and/or daisuke just want to cruise. azumano is beautiful, and it's even more beautiful from above, so as the freaks(singular) with wings they'll just go for a nighttime flight in the sky, sometimes heading over to tokyo since that's where a lot of daisuke's friends (as in, my muts' muses,) are, and it's supposed to be close by. (azumano is a fictional province, but it's imagined around east japan, not too north or south.) otherwise, dark has even less interest than daisuke in actively participating in sports or anything; he's never gotten to try anything in the past and he doesn't expect himself to ever be able to anytime soon, so it's a moot point for him.

he's still, of course, very flashy and plainly skillful anytime he does manage to get his hands on something to mess around with - for example, hand him a basketball and he can keep it spinning on a single finger without any trouble, he can juggle quite literally anything, and he had no issue twirling a glass shoe around on his finger for fun while he chat with someone else in one of the light novels or catching arrows with his bare hands or dodging piano strings laced up in some woods purely by ear. dancing, forms of it like ballroom, waltz and tango would be something he could deeply enjoy --- but those require a partner, and that loops back to him not usually having the freedom to pursue any of that.

that's about it, i think. dark n daisuke's jock alignments are very very low LOL but that's because their heists nearly kill them all the time and push their physical capabilities to the extreme! if it's not the usual phantom thief shenanigans then this boy should be in bed, but sometimes you'll see him in the sky anyways because what's the point of bearing the burden of black wings if you can't indulge in the occasional gift and itch of flight. 🦅

[everyonewasabird]

Brickclub 5.1.2 “What is there to Do in the Abyss except Talk“

I’m mostly just going to point to @fremedon​ ‘s excellent write-up for this one and work off what she said.

The symbolism is coming thick and fast; almost every new paragraph is a new major symbol.

I remember Pilf pointing out that Enjolras’s friends failing to sleep when he told them to is the inverse of Jesus on Gethsemane, where he asks his friends to stay awake for him and no one does. Enjolras is not a Great Man, he is one among many. And his friends don’t abandon him.

There’s Feuilly staying awake to write “Long live the peoples” on the wall. He’s spent his life reaching out to the whole world, and now that he can’t reach anyone else, he’s reaching out to the people of the future. And he succeeds--his words will be read in 1848, and it won’t be to Hugo’s side of that fight that they’re speaking.

There’s Joly refuting Grantaire’s belief that revolutions are a failure of God with a humble parable about the necessity and rightness of cats.

There’s Javert and Mabeuf’s bodies making a cross--maybe a dark symbol from the convent, but I can’t tell if it’s actually negative here; the convent was a worse and more doomed barricade, but not not a sister of our barricade. Mostly, it’s the fact that Javert refuses to keep participating in that cross that makes me think there might be something positive about it after all.

There are the women of the Corinthe getting away, let in by the neighbors. They’re the only ones to whom doors will be opened here.

There are the bottles consecrated by storage under Mabeuf’s body. We have no reason yet to know they’re not wine, but presumably everyone present knows what they are and that’s why they’re joking so much about them: they’re the bottles of aquafortis--nitric acid--that will be the last weapons of the desperate insurgents on the stairs. Enjolras seems to be trying to treat the exigencies of war as solemnly as he can and put them in proximity to the symbol of what they are fighting for--be that the old man who was stripped of everything by society except his courage, or else the blessing of the original Revolution which also resorted to desperate measures in desperate circumstances.

Combeferre, as Ellen says, is fraying at the seams here, jumping from serious topics to light ones and back and contradicting himself right and left in terms of what he thinks of swords.

This bit

"Harrnodius and Aristogeiton, Brutus, Chereas, Stephanus, Cromwell, Charlotte Corday, Sand -after the deed, all of them had their moment of anguish. Our hearts are so fluctuating, and human life is such a mystery that, even in a civic murder, even in a liberating murder, if there is such a thing, the remorse of having struck a man surpasses the joy of having served· the. human race."

always particularly unsettles me. Surely the cost of murder is the loss of a life, not the murderer’s own grief? But he’s empathizing hard with Enjolras here.

And then he expands on Joly’s cats-as-corrective idea with the murder of Caesar. Combeferre has been succinct to a fault in the past, but I can’t help thinking Joly said it briefer and better--and also, Joly invoked fewer alternative Great Men while doing so.

And finally, Lesgle, that absolute madman, ends this chapter with what’s landed for me every other time I’ve read this as total gibberish.

Bossuet, overlooking the talkers from the top of the heap of paving stones, exclaimed, carbine in hand, "O Cydathenaeum, O Myrrhinus, O Probalinthe, O graces of Aeantides. Oh! Who will grant me to pronounce the verses of Homer like a Greek of Laurium or of Edapteon ?"

Based on talking with Ellen and Pilf, my best guess here is that he’s noticed the growing epic nature of their barricade and is calling out to the democratic districts of antiquity, wishing that in joining them in epic sacrifice, they could also join them in being a democracy. And, like Joly but unlike Combeferre, he’s invoking the idea of ending the reign of Great Men by invoking collectives, not individuals.

And the chapter title. Hat tip to Ellen for the La Fontaine thing.

The chapter title invokes an idea of cowardice via a La Fontaine fable about a cowardly Hare that’s pleased with itself about frightening some frogs more timid than itself--it compares itself to battle drums and a thunderbolt of war terrorizing an enemy camp. Which, as Ellen says, is wild, because there aren’t any cowards here.

That idea of cowardice is then referenced again in one of the more confusing exchanges. Courfeyrac talks about being glad when the torch is put out:

"That torch, shuddering in the wind, annoyed me. It seemed afraid. The light of a torch is like the wis­dom of a coward; it's not clear, because it trembles."

Ellen’s guess seems pretty solid, that some of what we’re invoking is about cowardly soldiers pleased with themselves at finding someone smaller to terrorize.

But also, of course, there’s a fair amount of bravery, or perhaps showing off, or else of shrugging off his own cowardice by speaking, in Courfeyrac’s saying it. Because as long as the torch was lit it was night and no one was going to attack. Daylight means an end to the wait and the beginning of the fight.

Last chapter, soldiers called hiding behind a barricade inherently cowardly, because they weren’t showing their faces in the open; we know that’s absurd. But it may be that the cowardice invoked by the title and by Courfeyrac is a way of talking about how inherently hideous and frightening an experience it is to wait in inaction all night behind a barricade, knowing you will likely be shot in the morning. Everything in this chapter, perhaps, all the various ways of coping, is meant to be read by the flickering, uneasy light of that knowledge.

[the-friday-knight]

Fuck it

Ben 10 OC Time

Name: Jake Mars

Age: 17 (During OS)

Species: Human

Nationality: American

Eye Colour: Bright Blue

Hair Colour: Brown Black

Appearance: Jake wears a red and black hoodie as his common attire, under which he has a range of different t-shirts with various logos or statements on them, usually related to mechanics or rock music in some way. He wears thick blue jeans and brown steel toed boots. His version of the Omnitrix is on his left wrist. It is nearly an exact replica of the Omnitrix designed by Azmuth, but it won’t stay that way for long.

Personality: Jake is kind. Whenever he comes across an Alien, or some situation that seems odd, he gives the Alien the benefit of the doubt first, for all he knows they could just be scared being on a different world. Of course this isn’t always the case and has landed Jake in a few close calls that he quickly had to get his way out of. Jake is also well versed in mechanical engineering, owning a dark red Plymouth Superbird that he uses to travel the country. Jake decided to leave his home after acquiring the Omnitrix, at the start of the Summer after he had just received his drivers license. This is because he discovered that his Omnitrix was not the only one out there, though he still is not sure who has the others. He left because he wanted to find others with a device like his, and maybe they could work together and help each other figure out the strange Alien watch. He likes to consider himself mature, though that isn’t to say he isn’t reckless at times when it comes to people in danger our people he cares about getting hurt.

Likes: Driving, cars, finding and taking apart Alien tech, rock music, country music, apple pie, black coffee, meeting new people/Aliens.

Dislikes: Prisons, discrimination, Dean, people who question his mechanical knowledge.

Flaws: Jake feels like he has something to prove. This is shown most obviously when he is fighting against an Alien that he is also able to transform into. Even if there is an Alien he has that would be better suited to the fight, he will often transform into the same Alien in an attempt to prove that he can beat them at his own game. He also has a bad habit of antagonising those he is fighting against, to the point where it seems less like hero-villain banter and more just straight up arguing or insulting them.

Strengths: His mechanical knowledge helps him in his fights surprisingly often, especially when going against certain robotic drones that might be out to get him. He is usually quite adaptable to his transformations, and situations where he isn’t the Alien that would be best suited. He has a friendly aura about him, making him easily able to hold a conversation or befriend others, even if they are of a different species.

Jake’s Omnitrix: Jake’s Omnitrix is similar to the one built by Azmuth, however there is one key difference. It’s AI.

Omni: Omni is the AI within Jake’s Omnitrix. She has the appearance of an human female with twin green ponytails, a strange black and green shirt and skirt combo and bright green eyes. When she first met Jake, she requested him to call her Omni-chan. Jake promptly refused. Despite the term AI, Omni was actually a member of a once powerful and prosperous race, who transferred her entire mind into a satellite before her races downfall. She remained in that satellite for an unknown amount of time in deep space, but somehow was able to pick up earth transmissions of a form of entertainment called ‘Anime’. Hence her appearance and name choice. While out there, she also discovered encrypted messages of a design for a piece of technology that would allow someone to transform into a different Alien species. Omni realised this device might be a chance for her to bring her race back. So she immediately started constructing it, following the blueprints to almost a t. However, she was unable to connect with the Codon Stream on Primus, as she needed space to put her mind in. Once completed, she locked the Omnitrix and herself in a pod, and shot it towards Earth.

Omni’s Personality: Omni is a very energetic and intelligent girl. She helped Jake understand the Omnitrix when it first attached itself to him, though she may have also gave him a heart attack when she first revealed herself. If there is something Jake does not know, he will almost always ask Omni for help. She is happy to oblige. However, being cooped up inside a watch does tend to make her a bit bored, and sometimes she will either jump out of the watch or transform Jake at inopportune moments for laughs. She will also rarely change Jake into a different Alien than he requested, if she feels like he has been that Alien too much lately. As she has knowledge of what Anime is, she could be considered a weeb. This proves detrimental when Jake ends up fighting a magic user that imbibes origami creatures with magic to make them life sized and attack. She is a big fan of this Villain and often tries to talk to them in the middle of a fight.

Enemies: Canon Villains Dean: Another wielder of a different kind of Omnitrix that seems to only turn him into Aliens from the Anur system. His watch was dubbed the ‘Anurtrix’ and he uses it to commit petty crime. Jake has fought and defeated Dean several times, foiling his thefts. However, every time Dean manages to slip away some how. (Enemy level: Hands. On sight.) Kitsune: A magic user that uses magic to transform her Origami creations into life sized counterparts. She seems to be after magical artifacts, specifically those of Japanese make. However, she seems to be younger than Jake, making him think she is going through her weeb phase. (Enemy level: Why are you doing this crime it makes no sense? I’m still gonna stop you though.) Colonel Rozum: Jake accidentally staged a breakout at Area 51. Freeing wrongly imprisoned Aliens and helping them return home via the theft of an experimental aircraft capable of space travel. Jake did not join the Aliens in leaving Earth, instead trusting them to make it home without him. Colonel Rozum does not know it was Jake who enabled the breakout, as he was transformed at the time. But as far as he is concerned it only confirmed the danger of Aliens. (Enemy level: You’re a government official so I can’t actually attack you but one day I’m going to punch that stupid moustache off your face.)

Allies: The Tennysons. Detective Arnold Mason: A detective in a large city close to Jake’s hometown. It was where he preformed his first act of heroism in front of people. Unfortunately due to a misunderstanding Mason thought Jake was a part of a rival gang. Jake attempted to clear it up. Mason and two other officers are now aware of a supposedly heroic car. (Ally level: Vigilantism is illegal, but you’re literally fighting Aliens so you do you I guess.)

Trouble Gear: Three Planchaküle that were stranded on Earth. Jake brought them to a junkyard and aided them in returning home. The trio were gifted a CD of AC/DC’s greatest hits by Jake. They consider it their favourite item. Having returned to their home planet, they are not currently available to Jake, but would immediately spring into action to help if he requested it. (Ally level: You helped us get home and introduced us to rock and roll. We will die for you.)

Trivia:

Jake is voiced by Dante Basco.

Omni is voiced by Samantha Ireland.

The first Alien Jake turned into was a Planchaküle. He has named this transformation ‘Ratchet’.

It doesn’t matter if you’re human, Alien, or intergalactic war criminal. If you are being driven somewhere by Jake, you wear. your. seatbelt.

The DNA of Omni’s race is available for Jake to turn into. But Jake doesn’t know that, and Omni actively tries to keep that hidden.

Jake’s Omnitrix has access to the Life Form Lock mode and the Scanner mode.

This theme is red and black, which is usually associated with villains but I thought it’d be funny if Jake had it because of association.

His ethnicity is half-Polynesian on his mothers side.

He isn’t sure if there are alternate counterparts in different dimensions. Though he is pretty sure if there were he would immediately throw hands.

Jake currently has no love interest, though I am considering an eventual redemption of Kitsune that might lead to that.

His Omnitrix will go through a serious design change. I shall share it in another post.

[thisweekingundamwing]

This Week in Gundam Wing July 26 - 01 August 2020

Here’s this week’s roundup!

Remember to give your content creators some love! And join in on the events at the bottom!

~Mod Hel

Fanfiction/Snippets/AU Ideas:

@bobo-is-tha-bomb​

Unraveled https://archiveofourown.org/works/25379161

F/M, Trowa Barton/Reader

Trowa Barton, Reader

Romance, Fluff, Reader-Insert, Bathing/Washing, ritual bathing

His little witch, he mused with a slight tilt of lips. Even after years of being with you, he still couldn’t get enough of watching you.

Tonight, he vowed, he would keep you company while you bathed.

Lazy Day https://archiveofourown.org/works/25379695

F/M, Heero Yuy/Reader

Heero Yuy, Reader

Romance, Lemon, Lime, Reader-Insert

You would enjoy this day. Every minute of it. And, you vowed, you would have a repeat of it in New York.

Twenty Kisses (Ch. 6 & 7) https://archiveofourown.org/works/24038704/chapters/61620076

F/M, Heero Yuy/Reader

Heero Yuy, Reader

Romance, Kissing, Drabble Collection, Reader-Insert

Kissing Heero is something special.

Deadly Intent https://archiveofourown.org/works/25576657/chapters/62069890

Mature

F/M, Heero/Reader, ???/Reader

Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Wufei Chang, Lady Une, Relena Peacecraft, Reader

Reader Insert, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Drama, Angst, Romance, Violence, Lime

Eleven years is a long time for a ghost to come back and haunt him. But Heero Yuy finds himself unable to dodge or outrun it. It’s the start of a dangerous cat and mouse game between one of the most powerful organizations in the world and a loner who has every intention of dragging him down with her. After all, she has come with deadly intent.

@coffeetailor​

Emergence (Ch. 12) https://archiveofourown.org/works/13322880/chapters/62023231

Duo Maxwell/Heero Yuy

Duo Maxwell, Heero Yuy, Quatre Raberba Winner, Trowa Barton, Chang Wufei, Sally Po

Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, borrowers fusion but don't call them borrowers, disturbing themes like people trafficking from the bad guys, Size Difference, Will probably be a series, alternate canon events, Macro/Micro

Series: Part 1 of Emergence Series

When the war ended, things went a little strange. First, Duo vanished after never having let them see him in person. Then, years later, a tiny race of people are discovered. And that's just the start of things.

@lifeaftermeteor​

LAM!Verse https://lifeaftermeteor.tumblr.com/post/625293600094355456/private-island-location-redacted-fiji-south

Private Island [location redacted]

Fiji, South Pacific

14 August 211

Une and Sally arrived on-island to blue skies, a functioning jeep, and a personal escort by Lucrezia Noin.

perryvic & Zaganthi (Caffiends)

All Go Unto Once Place https://archiveofourown.org/works/25520368

M/M, Chang Wufei/Treize Khushrenada

Treize Khushrenada, Quatre Raberba Winner,  Change Wufei

Cameos, Anxiety, Mental Health Issues, Aftermath of Torture, ZERO System (Gundam Wing), Alternate Universe - Stargate Atlantis Fusion

He chose the study because it was formal and the least used room in the house, and brought in coffee and water because he needed something to do with his hands. "I'm sorry to request the house call. I haven't been in a reliable enough state to leave the house."

"I quite understand," Bedelia murmured. "Is this the place you feel most comfortable talking?"

He took the coffee and sat in one of the low overstuffed reading chairs rather than at the desk. "Yes. I, what we discussed a couple of weeks ago, you know. Surprising only to me, apparently, it went terribly." He cradled the coffee, watching her select where to sit, posture and movement impeccable as ever.

@simulacraryn​

Higurashi https://archiveofourown.org/works/25592344#main

Heero Yuy 

Higurashi = Mundane life, living hand-to-mouth. This is a VERY old fic of my (from 2008...), about what life might have been like for Heero after the war.

The Manwell

The Silencer and the Sicarian (Ch. 1 & 2) https://archiveofourown.org/works/25478938/chapters/61805053

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Relationships: Trowa Barton/Duo Maxwell, Chang Wufei/Solo

Characters: Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Chang Wufei, Solo (Gundam Wing), Hilde Schbeiker, Catherine Bloom, Kyouju H | Instructor H

Additional Tags: Wufei POV, Duo POV, Trowa POV, Solo POV

Series: Part 4 of The Brothers Maxwell

It was just one vow. A simple but necessary promise to respect life -- both human and fey -- but can Duo hold to it when his resolve is put to the ultimate test?

@tziganecaffiends & Zaganthi (Caffiends)

Dust to Dust https://archiveofourown.org/works/25519633/chapters/61915789

M/M, Chang Wufei/Treize Khushrenada

Treize Khushrenada, Chang Wufei, Mariemaia Khushrenada, Duo Maxwell

Domestic Fluff, Bondage, bottom Treize, Mental Instability, Mental Health Issues, Aftermath of Violence, Aftermath of Torture, Rape Aftermath, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Kidnapping, Subspace, Subdrop, Diplomacy, Alternate Universe - Stargate Atlantis Fusion, ZERO System (Gundam Wing), Graphic Dipictions of Violence

It was unbearable, it was too much, and his heart was trying its best to jump out of his chest. Treize managed to get his knees pulled up, and pressed his forehead against them, struggling to breathe as the anxiety crawled up from his gut and clenched around his heart. Not there, anywhere but there, and he'd been fine seeing it in ZERO, not fine, but okay, livable, but being there, smelling the familiar antiseptic hell and must of the place, took his legs out from under him.

He could play forward on all of the other scenarios he hadn't wanted to explore, and he knew when that door opened it wasn't going to be Wufei. It was never going to be what he'd wanted, no matter hard he'd played at it back home with Wufei.

Fanart/Crafts/Photo Manips:

@2pcbiscuit​

https://2pcb.tumblr.com/post/625195682010120192/am-i-a-furry-artist-now-quatre-is-supposed-to-be

Raccoon!Trowa, and other cute surprises.

@antarespromise​

https://antarespromise.tumblr.com/post/625175674322305024

WuFei Chang

https://antarespromise.tumblr.com/post/625274951362117632

Duo Maxwell

@bobo-is-tha-bomb​

https://bobo-is-tha-bomb.tumblr.com/post/625096842616717312/having-waaaay-too-much-fun-rediscovering-art

Trowa Barton

@grey-sentry​

https://grey-sentry.tumblr.com/post/624917334680829952/next-batch-of-artwork-for-the-gw-art-discord

Heero & Doktor S

https://grey-sentry.tumblr.com/post/624917124777951232/art-made-for-the-gw-art-discord-i-tried-to-follow

Relena & Catherine

@gundayum​

https://gundayum.tumblr.com/post/625232214658056192/i-relish-in-being-a-terrible-human-being

Relena & Heero

@oekakimemo​

https://oekakimemo.tumblr.com/post/625242524130361345/20200728-digital

Relena Darlian/Peacecraft

@tatakaumono​

https://tatakaumono.tumblr.com/post/625240776436252672/its-evens-propaganda-month-dont-tag-as

Quatre/Duo

Photosets/Gifsets/Screenshots/Manga Pages:

@bobo-is-tha-bomb​

https://bobo-is-tha-bomb.tumblr.com/post/625161359751036928/im-so-lucky-to-have-awesome-friends-thank-you

GW T-shirts

@cynthiaandsamus​

https://cynthiaandsamus.tumblr.com/post/625268346914586624/like-everyone-in-gundam-wing-is-a-ridiculously

Zechs Merquise

@janaverse​

https://janaverse.tumblr.com/post/625277358889451521/aannnnndddd-theyre-done-3-the-process-was-a

Heero & Duo silhouettes

https://janaverse.tumblr.com/post/625280260361093120/for-scale-btw-they-are-perfectly-framed-from

For scale - Heero & Duo silhouettes

Head Canons:

@disturbed02girl​

https://disturbed02girl.tumblr.com/post/625254324341194752/gw-fashion-mix-day-off

GW Fashion Mix - Day Off : Duo, Heero, Trowa, WuFei, Quatre

Fandom Discourse:

@lifeaftermeteor​

https://lifeaftermeteor.tumblr.com/post/625289823670927360/whats-all-this-then-although-the-gw-discord

Discord Meet-up! 0900 EST on both Saturday (August 29) and Sunday (August 30)

Quotes:

@incorrectgundamwingquotes​

https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/625002948624318464/iria-father-quatre-youre-family-you-shouldnt

Iria & Rashid

https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/625184158043570177/duo-to-trowa-are-you-trying-to-hurt-my-feelings

Duo at Trowa

Calendar Events:

@gwcocktailfriday​

Cocktail Fridays!

Post responses on Friday, during Happy Hour between 3 & 5 pm in your own timezone.

Here’s the prompt for Friday, August 7th! https://gwcocktailfriday.tumblr.com/post/625255859848642560/cocktail-friday-post-responses-on-friday-august

In need of SUMMER & FALL/AUTUMN prompts!

@gwoc-october​

GW OC October 2020!

Help pick out prompts! https://gwoc-october.tumblr.com/post/621130082429337600/hello-gundam-wing-folks-thats-right-gw-oc

@seasons-of-gundamwing​

Summer of Hilde!

Check the page today! The full prompt list was set to post at 10AM!

We also have an AO3 collection now! Come check it out. https://seasons-of-gundamwing.tumblr.com/post/624191236146855936/seasons-of-gundam-wing-archive

@thisweekingundamevents​

Events Calendar

https://thisweekingundamevents.tumblr.com/post/624053314842230784/event-calendar-update

If you are hosting an event currently, or are planning on one, hit us up with links and dates! We’ll add them to the Calendar and reblog your notices to get the word out!

[thunderbird-one-ai]

Compromised Chapter 3

Finally another chapter done after MONTHS of just starring at it. I’m hoping that Christmas will mean I can type a little more since I’ll be taking a break from university.  This chapter ends on another cliff hanger and I’m not sorry :P I’d like to say now. Kayo is not my wrong point POV wise so I apologise in advance if I’ve portrayed her so poorly.

Chapter 1 - Here

Part 1: Kayo

Kayo made no comment when John said those heart-stopping words to the team. ‘Thunderbird One is missing’. She shook her head, that couldn’t be true, this was Scott just cooling off. She’s known him for so long, getting away from his brothers for some time alone was rare for Scott, and with the argument, she overheard him have with Jeff meant he was probably just cooling off. She forced herself to believe that because the other alternative would be so much worse. But she was a practical woman. She knew that if Scott was distracted even for a second, he would have been jumped on. She thought of many scenarios in her head. Scott wasn’t a pushover; he could handle himself very well in a one on one fight. She hardly needed to teach him many moves since he had got the basics in the military long before they started training together. So the likely hood of Scott being overpowered by one prisoner was unlikely. John had also mentioned that three inmates were not accounted for still. Three verses one isn’t an easy challenge, but Scott’s training meant he might have been able to handle them. This still didn’t answer how Thunderbird One disappeared off Johns scans and hers for that matter.

“Thunderbird Shadow to Thunderbird Two,” Kayo said. “Thunderbird Two to Thunderbird Shadow, did you find anything?” Virgil replied. Kayo heard the worried tone in Virgil’s voice. She would no doubt hear it in every brother's voice, even Johns in this situation. He was remaining calm but Kayo wondered how long that calm deminer would last for. Virgil may not be as hot-headed as Scott, but his passion to protect his family burns just as brightly as Scott’s. She looked outside her cockpit noticing a small GDF post in the middle of nowhere. Probably just to make sure no stragglers got away. It would definitely be a place that Scott would land near. “Nothing yet, I’ve flown over the entire area with no sign of Scott or Thunderbird One. I see a small GDF post out here so I’m going to ask them some questions,” Kayo said through her comms. “FAB, keep up informed. I’ve gotta go tell dad,” Virgil said before Kayo heard him cut communications. That wasn’t going to be easy. Jeff had only been back six months and now one of his sons was already missing on a mission. A mission that coincidently included the possible break out of kayo’s uncle. The mention of The Hood made Kayo’s blood boil, another thought crossed her mind that John still hadn’t told them whether one of the inmates missing was The Hood or not. If this was true, she needed to be even more on guard. Kayo got Thunderbird Shadow to land nearby the GDF truck and jumped down on the ground below her. She walked up to the Guards not trusting a single one of them. “What does International Rescue want now? We’ve already said to the other one that we have this place secure,” One of the guards promptly said, causing Kayo to become concerned. “The other one?” Kayo replied. “Yeah, the tall one with the fast jet. Just waltz right up here with three guys. One passed out mind you. Said he was a high priority prisoner and took that one back to the prison whilst we hold the others for the appropriate transport to arrive,” Kayo took in every piece of information. Well, that was wrong, Thunderbird One had not returned to the prison otherwise she would have seen the silver bird fly straight past her. She kept her poker face shown, knowing if the GDF found out about a missing Thunderbird, they’d never hear the end of it. She walked back to Thunderbird Shadow, arm moving up to start a comm link with the others before something caught her eye. Kayo found herself running back and sliding under her jet, gliding her hands over charred patches of Earth. Thunderbird One was here. The distinct pattern in the ground matched Thunderbird One’s VTOL engines. Scott was right here along with his bird. The GDF said that he just left with one member but the other two were still here. Kayo found herself running again back to the GDF truck, ignoring the protests from the members, Kayo got in the back, looking to the two prisoners. Neither of them was The Hood and that only made her more concerned. “What did he promise you? Freedom?” Kayo said, looking at both of them, waiting for a reaction. She got one. “Funny, that’s what the other one said,” The smaller male replied, smiling. Kayo wished right there and then she could live up to her name and punch this guy into next week, but her mind was racing. They knew who she was talking about. She jumped out of the van and found herself once again running back to Thunderbird Shadow, ignoring the shouts from the GDF members behind her. She had to get to the others, her brother was in serious trouble. “Thunderbird Two, The Hood has Scott,”

Part 2: Jeff Jeff tapped his foot against the varnished floor impatiently. This wasn’t the first mission he’d been leading where Scott had been less than helpful in cooperating with. He was very much surprised at that his eldest son would answer back as much as he did. That never happened when International Rescue first started out, heck even when they were both military personnel, Scott would always follow what Jeff said. But that was over eight years ago. Eight years ago Scott never would have thought his own father would be lost in space. Jeff couldn’t begin to imagine what his eldest had gone through. Losing their mother was a hard blow to the family, then Jeff himself was blown into space. His eldest had to take on everything. As much as he saw the future in his boys he never thought International rescue would become like this. They all exceeded what Jeff thought possible but should have he expected any less. “I never thought that after all this, I would see my boy look so lost in his own chair,” Jeff jumped in his own seat and looked up to see a familiar face. “Mum, you got back here early. I thought you were with Lady Penelope all day,” “I was but I was informed that not all was well here on the island,” Sally said smiling softly, sitting down on the sofa obviously waiting for Jeff to finally speak up. Jeff gave a small smile back, of course, Lady Penelope would say something, no doubt she had Parker overhearing the entire conversation between Scott and himself. He also shouldn’t have been surprised that his mother would want to fly back after hearing that the family was in slight disarray. So far he had re-bonded with almost all his sons, Scott was the exception which Jeff was surprised about. They had argued a lot recently, not even his other sons knew about those arguments he doubted his mother did either. “I’ve become closer with all of them mum…all of them except Scott. I still feel like I’m millions of miles away in space when it comes to approaching him. I couldn’t be more proud of him for his achievements, for what he’s done in the years I was gone,” Jeff finally said, breaking the silence between them. “He took on everything Jeffery, almost got too much for him,” she let out a small huffed breath. “But he’s your eldest son, you taught him everything he needed to know about your company and International Rescue.” “But that doesn’t explain…this,” “For years I saw that boy struggle with many things. The most prominent one was that he felt he could have done better. Scott worked himself to exhaustion. We’re all grateful Virgil became the main paramedic to deal with your eldest because he took on so much. Took the pain, the sadness, the guilt from everyone else and hoarded it himself. Reminds me of a certain Tracy I knew when they were younger,” Jeff looked back over to his mother, who had a kind, warm smile waiting for him. Of course, Scott would take everything on his shoulders, even at his young age. But the guilt was something that took Jeff a little off guard. He felt like he should have the guilt. The guilt of leaving his family. The guilt of leaving his eldest son with five younger siblings. The guilt of never telling him Kayo’s origins. There was so much more Jeff should have told or shown to not only Scott but the rest of his sons. He was so overwhelmed by his own guilt he didn’t even consider Scott had his own. He remembered that dreaded day so clearly, it haunted his mind constantly even when asleep. The last day he spent on the planet before disappearing for eight years. He remembers telling his sons he’d be home for dinner. He remembered Scott following him to the hanger, stating his worry about the mission. Jeff remembers considering letting Scott join him as the backup pilot in case the place was too much to handle for Jeff alone. But that was out of the question. Jeff vowed to not let the Hood get close to his family, especially Scott not after what happened. Jeff sighed quickly. He’d already broken that vow. The Hood had done so much damage to the family, almost ripping it apart. But not anymore, Jeff was certain on that. He would need to talk with Scott properly after this mission was over and safely back home. Maybe even talk about some old demons they both shared. “Jeffery, Virgil’s trying to contact you,” Jeff looked over to the wall that mounted his sons' portraits, Virgil’s lit up, sending a projection of him onto the table. Jeff noticed straight away something was wrong. “Virgil? What’s happened?”

Part 3: Scott To say Scott hated The Hood was an understatement. That man, that monster, made Scott's blood boil with rage. But The Hood was also one of the very few people who could instil a rare horrible emotion as well, fear. The fear that The Hood could take everything away from him in a single second. He knew this fear, he’s already experienced it once before a little over ten years ago. Memories of betrayal and threats surfaced suddenly, catching Scott off guard, melting his poker face stance away. “Remembering old times Scott? I’m rather offended you forgot them. They were, of course, the most defining moments of your life,” The Hood looked down to him grinning. “Young and ambitious wanting to be better than your father,” No, Scott didn’t want to remember those times, those memories were locked away for a reason. He had to focus on the now not then. Focus on making sure The Hood never got to the jet he was asking about. Scott knew what The Hood wanted now. “The jet’s destroyed Hood. It’s gone,” Scott said quickly, not latching onto the words he had said previously. The Hood just burst into a sarcastic laugh. “Oh? You’re being serious? Don’t take me for a fool Scott. I know she’s still in one piece. After all, you wouldn’t have destroyed your precious first jet. She was too good to be destroyed. The perfect machine that couldn’t be matched in either Earth’s atmosphere or space. The speed and weaponry that couldn’t be countered. I would build it again myself if the parts weren’t so rare,” The Hood continued to smile. “You didn’t build it you ruined it!” Scott shouted before swallowing thickly, realising he’d just been baited, again. “Come now, Scott. Even you admitted to it being a beautiful machine, you were in your element whilst flying it. How you were so focused on proving your father wrong, proving him you were better. I wanted to prove that too, prove to the world that Scott Tracy could become so much more than Jeff Tracy,” “You manipulated me,” “I was trying to show you your true potential Scott and you threw it all away when you betrayed me,” “You betrayed us! My father trusted you. Worked with you and you…you tried to kill him,” The hood smacked his hands down on to the metal table, leaning over Scott. Scott looked up to him about to continue his sentence before noticing The Hoods expression. He tensed; Scott knew that look. It was a look he hadn’t seen in ten years. It was the look The Hood gave him all those years ago when he declared Scott had betrayed him and vowed that Scott would pay. There was that emotion again, fear. It seeped through his body relentlessly. He wouldn’t be overwhelmed again; he was stronger this time. “If you won’t tell me then I suppose I’ll have to find another Tracy to tell me the location,” “They don’t know anything about it!” Scott saw The Hoods expression change from angry to delight as he saw the realisation dawn on the criminals face. “You never told them, did you?” The Hood laughed. “You never told your brothers you worked with me,”

[shemakesmusic-uk]

After releasing their album Play With Fire last year via Suicide Squeeze Records, Californian punk trio L.A. Witch are sharing a new video for their standout track 'Motorcycle Boy'. Speaking about the video, L.A. Witch singer and guitarist Sade Sanchez said "The song is inspired by Moto Boys like Mickey Rourke, Marlon Brando, and Steve McQueen, so of course we took a lot of inspiration from our favorite biker movies like The Wild One, Rumble Fish, On any Sunday, Easy Rider, Hells Angeles '69 and The Girl on a Motorcycle. I had worked with (director) Ambar Navarro and Max on another project and loved their other work, so we wanted to work with them on this. They definitely did their homework and came up with a cool story line. I got to feature my bike that I'd been rebuilding during the pandemic. It was nice to shoot a video where you get to do two of your favorite things, riding motorcycles and play guitar."

Margo Price has shared a new music video for 'Hey Child', said to be the heart and “centerpiece” of her acclaimed 2020 album That’s How Rumors Get Started. It’s directed by Kimberly Stuckwisch. In the moving visual, the country star confronts the demons of her past. There are scenes referencing the time she spent in jail for substance abuse, as well as others depicting her struggles with addiction and depression. Price’s vulnerability is on full display here, and she ultimately uses it to heal and find strength again. Watch it down below. According to Price, 'Hey Child' was originally written back in 2012 “not long after my husband Jeremy and I lost our son Ezra.” She continued, noting how fellow country star and album producer Sturgill Simpson helped encourage her to release it: “'Hey Child' was a song that was written back in 2012 not long after my husband Jeremy and I lost our son Ezra. We were playing shows with our rock and roll band Buffalo Clover and occupying most of the bars in East Nashville. We had begun hanging with a rowdy group of degenerate musician friends and partying harder than The Rolling Stones…The song was about how many of our talented friends were drinking and partying their talents away but after a few years had passed, we realized it was just as much about us as our friends. I had retired it when the band broke up but Sturgill Simpson resurrected it when he asked me if I would re-record it for That’s How Rumors Get Started.” [via Consequence of Sound]

NYC collective MICHELLE has today unveiled their first new single of 2021. Titled 'FYO,' the track powerfully recounts the four lead singers’ experiences growing up with mixed race identities. The track arrives alongside a music video directed by the band’s own Layla Ku and Emma Lee. Speaking on the message behind the song, Jamee Lockard from the band shares: “'FYO' is about belonging to different worlds but feeling rejected by both. Growing up as a mixed-race minority in the US, my self concept was warped by other people telling me what I am and am not, pushing and pulling me between identities. Although my feelings of cultural dissonance still ebb and flow, now I have the vocabulary, support system, and perspective to unpack that inner conflict on my own terms. We should never give others the authority to define who we are."

With her new album Homecoming set for release on April 2 via Daemon T.V., Du Blonde is sharing the video for ‘Medicated’. Featuring Garbage’s Shirley Manson, Du Blonde says of the song, “‘Medicated’ is a letter to my 27 year old self who didn’t want to live anymore, from my now medicated, functioning and content self. It might sound depressing or concerning, but really it’s quite joyful. Like ‘look at how things can be if you hang around’. Shirley and I had talked about her adding vocals to a track and when I wrote Medicated it seemed like the perfect fit. She’s been a voice of reason for me many times when i’ve been struggling and it felt really appropriate to have her. I shot the video in my childhood bedroom using a green screen Girl Ray gave me at the start of lockdown,” she continues. “The spiders are a reference to a hallucination I had in my early teens where I pulled back my bed covers to see thousands of spiders writhing around in my bed, which now I see as a result of extreme anxiety. A lot of the scenarios in the video are a celebration of the things about me that I feel people might feel shame about. There’s so much stigma around taking medication in order to ease mental health conditions, so I wanted to express my feelings on the subject which is basically ‘I take medication and i’m stoked about it because thanks to that i’m still alive’.” [via DIY]

Back with her powerful Y2K sound, Spain's Rakky Ripper channels PC Music and Rina Sawayama on brightly catchy new single 'Whatever'. The new EP Xtra Cost is released  February 19. If you are over the age of 25, odds are that you can recall a very specific kind of pop that graced our launch into the new millennium. Since coined as "Y2K", chart music of that short era was flush with R&B beats, synthetic arrangements and sickly sweet hooks. Britney was the industry’s honey-highlighted princess whilst Christina made it dirrty. It’s something that Rina Sawayama has made 2020-relevant again with the release of her debut album Sawayama, whilst PC Music and Charli XCX took it to another extreme with the redefinition of what it means to be pop. Meanwhile, over in Spain, the alt-pop scene is flourishing courtesy of artists such as Rakky Ripper and her own unique blend of Y2K-meets-hyper-pop. Already gaining Charli XCX approval when the Mercury Award nominee asked Rakky to join her onstage at her Madrid show, the Granada talent shows crossover potential with her new single 'Whatever'. Punchy beats and playful synths capture the sticky heat of pop done well whilst its fuzzy guitar gives it an alternative edge, however it’s its hook-riddled chorus and Rakky’s Spanglish lyrical mix that make 'Whatever' a standout moment. “‘Whatever’ is the pop girl in my new EP Xtra Cost,” shares Rakky of her new release. “It’s my 2021 version of Britney, *NSYNC and the Spice Girls. The new video tells the story about two people who are in love but one of them pretends not to care, so the other person is always chasing.” [via Line Of Best Fit]

Things are afoot in the FKA twigs camp. In October, the R&B star revealed that her third album had been completed during quarantine. Now, she’s back with a new song called 'Don’t Judge Me'. It's her first since dropping the masterful album MAGDALENE in 2019. In addition to a stunning performance from FKA twigs, the track features UK rapper Headie One and producer Fred again…, who’s worked with the likes of Ed Sheeran and Brian Eno. 'Don’t Judge Me' appears to be something of a companion release or sequel to 'Don’t Judge Me (Interlude)', an early 2020 collaboration that also featured all three artists. Unlike the intentional vagueness of that song, the themes on this version are a lot more direct. During her verse and the hook, twigs begs her lover to hold her and appreciate the “precious love” she sends their way with a devastating urgency. Headie One takes a different approach in his verse and goes off about racial injustice and police brutality. “Know more about my people from the streets than from my teachers/ I done a million speeches/ No justice, no peace, ’cause we in pieces/ Officer, am I allowed to breathe here?,” he raps with a conversational directness. It’s a really powerful pairing from two different yet complementary artists with voices that demand the listener’s full attention. Check it out above via a dazzling video co-directed by FKA twigs and Emmanuel Adjei, who was heavily involved in Beyonce’s Black Is King visual album. Like all of FKA twigs’ clips, this one is truly something to behold. [via Consequence of Sound]

Girl Friday have delivered a surrealistic visual for 'Earthquake,' the powerhouse lead single from Androgynous Mary, their acclaimed album of 2020 out now on Hardly Art. 'Earthquake' is one of the band's most gloriously raging moments and sees the group power through three and a half minutes of unadulterated catharsis. Girl Friday’s Vera Ellen, who directed the new video, offers this, “The greatest love story is between a song and a video. I wanted to deconstruct the creative process. How do ideas find each other? What happens when the artist lets outside forces get in the way of an idea? How is an idea affected by us, the audience and our expectations? What does an idea have to do to become it’s complete, purest, self. Beyond anything, it’s a story of fighting for true liberation. This will look different for everyone but I hope people can project their own struggle onto the story, and relish in the freedom experienced by the characters (if only for a moment)."

J-Pop girl-group, FAKY has released their first single of 2021, 'The Light' with an accompanying music video. This song was selected as a campaign song for the horror film Jukaimura (Suicide Forest Village), the most recent work by the master horror director, Takashi Shimizu, who also directed The Ju-on (The Grudge) and Inunakimura (Howling Village). This up-tempo and cheerful track was created to add another layer of eerieness and uncertainty to the hair-raising storyline and themes of the movie. 2020 was a successful year for the girl group. FAKY hopes to further their success in 2021 starting with the release of 'The Light'. “Our new single ‘The Light’ is an uplifting song with its pop melody, powerful live band sound, and motivating message to move forward towards the light” - FAKY. The music was composed by up-and-coming music producer, Maeshima Soshi (Hypnosis Mic, Hey! Say! JUMP, Rinne and Sorane). 'The Light' expresses that moment when your heart quivers, just when you are about to change, with the theme being about overcoming conflict and having “power to strike out into the world.”

Kinlaw's dark-pop quest has seen her shatter boundaries. Snapped up by Bayonet Records, her piercing, roving eye deconstructs her personal feelings, illuminating electronic structures in their stead. New album The Tipping Scale is out this month, and it expertly reflects the vagaries of winter, the spartan landscapes and the self-examination. Taken from the record, new single 'Haircut' deals with shifts in her life, with the urge to propel herself into something fresh. "I cut my hair to confuse myself," she comments. "It started as a mission to change who I was, to make a new and better version, but ended with my feeling like I no longer knew what I was mourning." A song about leaving trauma behind and embracing the possibilities of the present, 'Haircut' carries some inspired connotations for these troubled times. Kinlaw says the single offers "a question of personal power, and even speaking on this song today has been challenging because it was written when I was unsure if I had any power left. I think 'Haircut' can be a lot of things to many different people, particularly those who identify with the juxtaposition of in-depth, internal dialogue paired with everyday coping strategies. There is a sweetness to it, but also such substantial, unwavering difficulty. Today, I prefer to think of 'Haircut' as an anthem of resilience and an ode to the ways we keep going, we shapeshift, and we reinstall that there is a way to find what it is we are hoping to find." The visual leans on the intimate, opening up a window into Kinlaw's life, and her true feelings. [via Clash]

The Rhode Island born,  Los Angeles based singer, songwriter, musician and actress Emeline is known for her work with Thievery Corporation's Rob Garza as well as her solo music full of biting lyrics and catchy hooks. Her new music video for '6 Foot Deep' was filmed at the infamous Westerfeld Mansion a.k.a “House of Legends.” Icons like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin have lived there, as well as the founder of the Church of Satan. Covered in satanic etchings and scratches from his pet lions, the energy within the house added to the feel of the music video. Also previously used for the Russian Embassy, the house has featured on "Ghost Hunters" for it's haunted happenings.

The Charli XCX-crafted Nasty Cherry have returned with their first single of the year, 'Lucky'. The new track follows last year's Season 2 EP, and arrives as first taster of a new EP landing this spring. The band say of their new single, "'Lucky' is a song we wrote for each other during the pandemic where the six weeks we got to spend together felt incredibly precious and introspective. It's a reflective, sweet and spiky little song." [via Line Of Best Fit]

Griff has premiered the video for her incredible new single ‘Black Hole’. Launched as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record in the World last week, the striking new visual sees Griff examine a past relationship through a surreal, Alice in Wonderland’-esque journey from the sewing room into self-discovery (directed by duo SOB). [via With Guitars]

Poppy Ajudha has shared her new single 'Weakness' in full. The London based artist blends together jazz, soul, R&B, and a whole lot more besides, resulting in a sound that is truly her own. 'Weakness' is a song about love, and it finds Poppy capturing that nuanced dichotomy between the rush of pleasure and an innate fear of being out of control. In a note, Poppy explains that her new single is "about feeling out of control and at the mercy of someone else because of how crazy they make you feel, but also feeling bittersweet about it, because you’re a bad b*tch and you don’t have time for that ish." The songwriter steered the video, too, a self-admitted "control freak" who oversaw the neat mixture of animation and a superbly styled set. "Self-directing was really fun," she comments. "I’m a control freak so it was great to get stuck into all the facets of making a music video. Choosing the team, the makeup looks, directing the styling ideas, writing the narrative, working out how to build the set. It definitely felt like a challenge to direct, star-in and perform choreographed moves for the first time but I love to push myself and am really glad I did." [via Clash]

GG McG’s latest single, ‘Good Morning’, is her first release this year and second overall, following ‘Boom’ in 2019. The song was written on GarageBand during lockdown and was produced by Japanese Wallpaper’s Gab Strum, mixed by Konstantin Kersting and mastered by Andrei Eremin. “‘Good Morning’ is about the total, complete chaos of the past year and the feeling of waking up every morning, reading the news and being blown away by just how much worse things were than the day before,” McGauran said in a statement. [via the Music Network]

Singer HyunA dropped her seventh mini album I’m Not Cool on Thursday, singing of the ups and downs of being the “cool girl” on stage. The album’s title song 'I’m Not Cool' sings about the nice things she tells herself. “It’s really about my originality. I try to compliment myself before going onto the stage. I tell myself it’s not bad to be myself. I’ve long dreamed of this moment right now, and I feel like I’m a bird flying freely in the sky or a flower blooming in the field. I know I cannot be loved by everyone, but I become perfect with just one person’s love. The song is about these kind of every day thoughts.” Donned in exotic outfits and flashy makeup, HyunA said she “became a snake” in the song that sings “No one’s as intense as I am, like salmosa. I tried to show as much of myself as I could in the music video. I wanted to show how intense the ‘not cool’ HyunA could become when fully set,” she added. The creativity behind the title track comes from the unique minds of herself, singer and the founder of her agency P Nation Psy, and her best colleague and boyfriend Dawn. “We worked on the song while just chatting about it endlessly with each other,” HyunA said. “When Psy threw in a big catchy chunk, Dawn would creatively unfold this, adding fun elements to make it fit my style and state of mind. I personally like writing those rebellious lines. Mingling these three minds together, every day, was just so much fun.” [via The Korea Herald]

THYLA are sharing their first new music of 2021, with new single 'Breathe', a track that the band confirm will appear on their long-awaited debut album, set for release later this year. Putting 2020 firmly in the rear-view mirror, the Thyla ethos of putting one foot in front of the other serves them well as they look toward what a long-awaited debut album might sound like. As self-confessed underdogs they've developed an attitude that aims at turning the possible into the inevitable, and with the hypnotic 'Breathe' they reach for reflective, melancholy sounds to accompany what is a time of intense loneliness for many. It is a theme that has been creeping into Thyla's music for some time, and 'Breathe' sees them further explore the idea that, in a world more connected than ever, we are paradoxically more shut off as individuals. 'Breathe' shows yet again that even at their subtlest, Thyla are capable of carving out an impassioned pop world full of the intricacies of our much-missed IRL interactions. Lead singer Millie Duthie offers these thoughts on the track: "'Breathe' was written in the early hours of the morning. Eventually we chanced upon this really vibey atmospheric lick that you hear in the intro, and the whole song grew from there. The song blossomed into a slightly melancholic dream-pop bop, it’s bittersweet and has a slightly inconclusive feeling to it; imagine a film where the main character never actually gets the happy ending you’ve been so long yearning for. The result of how the instrumental sounded no doubt manifested lyrics that held the same sentiment. The song is about loneliness, estrangement from family and close friends, yet despite this, feeling a sense of inner strength about the situation. It’s like recovering from a breakup and realising you’ve come out stronger, but a reflection of the scar tissue that resulted from the trauma."

[sarcasm-and-references]

hi! here is the spotify link for my Trollhunters playlist in which i chose one song to represent each episode, listed in order:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7mdB5Vss7D0jAAS2S1sbPP?si=RGdbyHgvQY6PUCM_djbRYQ

full list of why i chose each song + some disclaimers under the cut (very long)

first off: it’s named pretty inconspicuously because this is my personal spotify and i didn’t want my friends figuring out what it was

okay so i’m a musician and i love the use of music in media, so i will often draw connections between how i feel listening to a song and how i feel watching a film or tv show

as a result, i’ve compiled a playlist and an explanation for 52 songs (one to represent each episode of Trollhunters). it’s in order but you could also just shuffle it for a generalized Trollhunters vibes playlist

one final thing: this is by no means a definitive list, and it is heavily biassed because of my taste in music which means it is mostly alternative or indie pop and rock music (there are also a few explicit songs, just a warning) so just to put that out there

alright, here is the complete list of why i chose each song:

Becoming: Part 1

Mr. Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra

Nothing too specific, it just gives off the vibes of morning, a small town, and the start of something big. I think the lyrics work a bit too but the sound and energy are perfect in terms of cinematic elements so full send on this one.

Becoming: Part 2

Could Have Been Me - The Struts

Chances are, you know this song if you’re a tik tok cosplayer or have seen any video of that sort. This choice felt right in terms of both lyrics and the music itself. It’s very hopeful and it talks about wanting to make something of oneself. I tend to associate this song with Percy Jackson and there are some parallels there. Kind of a modern-day heroism feel, which is definitely fitting for this show and the episode specifically.

Wherefore Art Thou, Trollhunter?

I Wanna Get Better - Bleachers

This episode seems to me like more basic exposition and is just setting up the first arc of the story, so I chose this song not completely for the lyrics (although I do think they fit for Jlaire in terms of Claire and Jim’s interaction but I’m trying my best not to focus too much on them). I think the sound and energy is pretty good for this song, and if you strip the song to its most simple interpretation, it’s clearly about wanting to improve.

Gnome Your Enemy

I’m Just a Kid - Simple Plan

Ha-okay this choice is a bit of a joke because of the angst but honestly I do think it fits for the gang’s first mission and Jim’s attitude and reluctance towards trollhunting in general.

Waka Chaka!

Killer Queen - Queen

Yeah this is mainly for Nomura and her introduction. Not much thought went into this choice but as I make this list I’m finding that episodes that I choose a song for often end up with a song for a character that’s featured (dw there’s not too many of these).

Win Lose or Draal

Centuries - Fall Out Boy

Jim’s first real fight; showing off everything he’s learned so far. Being a moral person and not ‘finishing the fight.’ A hero in the making.

To Catch a Changeling

Brother - Kodaline

So I think this song could definitely be used to represent Jim and Toby, but I wanted to take the chance to choose a song for the protective trust that Draal starts to build with Jim. Obviously this episode is much more than that, but I see that scene where Jim is reflecting Draal’s fighting moves as the unofficial start of their brother-like relationship. So yes, I did pick a song because of one small scene.

Adventures in Trollsitting

Hey There Delilah - Plain White T’s

This one is a bit of a joke but Jim is definitely simping for Claire in this episode by volunteering to babysit so I have chosen a song to fit with that. (Also, wOw this explanation makes it VERY clear I’m gen z).

Bittersweet Sixteen

100 Bad Days - AJR

Lyrics specifically fit here. Yes, a lot goes wrong in this episode, but the relationships are strengthened (Blinky and Jim) and it’s sweet in the end.

Young Atlas

Number One Fan - MUNA

Not gonna lie, I wanted to sucker punch Jim in this episode. This song choice is kind of satirical but really just for being confident and self-assured. Lyrics fit for the chorus and parts of the verses.

Recipe for Disaster

Carmen, Suite No. 2: VIII. Habanera - Saint Petersburg Orchestra of the State Hermitage Museum Camerata

Wow that’s a long title. Okay this is the only choice that has no lyrics/is classical on this list, but that is mainly because I chose it specifically for Strickler because he seems like a classical music kind of guy (maybe it’s a changeling thing @ Nomura). Also this is a pretty recognizable piece (in my opinion) and I also think it would sound pretty epic and would make for some great cinematic effects if played during the fight in this episode.

Claire and Present Danger

Seashore - The Regrettes

Originally, I was going to go with a song that fit the heroism arc in this episode but! I focus on Jim a lot in this playlist. Instead, this song is a choice for Claire and where she is in the story (finally being brought into the action). I’ve always loved her for being feminine and badass at the same time, so this song is somewhat a choice as an anthem for her (especially her being so headstrong and determined).

The Battle of Two Bridges

Young Volcanoes - Fall Out Boy

Teenage recklessness and power. Reminds me of adventures and young adulthood, plus the whole modern heroism again. I think this song also correlated with a high-stakes battle which is exactly what happened in this episode. Plus? How sick would it be if there was a fight and the strikes and dodges were coordinated with the beats in this song??

Return of the Trollhunter

Kids in America - Kim Wilde

More for the vibes in the beginning when it feels like it really should have been a new season. I think the lyrics fit pretty well here too. Fits with Claire joining the team and the heroes starting to come into their own.

Mudslinging

What’s Up Danger (With Black Caviar) - Blackway

This one was fully for Angor Rot and his first real introduction. He’s presented as an obvious and looming threat. While this song’s lyrics fit more with the more badass side of modern heroism (connects to Jim showing off his skills), I think the sounds fit with Angor and how he has begun to raise the stakes. This also may be a result of me associating this song with teenage heroes since it’s from the Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse soundtrack.

Roaming Fees May Apply

Welcome to the Jungle - Guns ‘n’ Roses

What can I say? The gang finds themselves in an unpredictable situation. It’s an adventurous episode to say the least. I feel like this song is used for action movies somewhat often so I’m throwing it in for this episode.

Blinky’s Day Out

Hooked on a Feeling - Blue Swede

This is almost completely a comedic choice. Barely any thought went into this one, and the lyrics have nothing to do with it. It is purely for the good vibes that always accompany this song because I feel like Blinky’s time on the surface was (at least initially) a “good vibes” situation. The apparent simplicity of being human can feel that way.

The Shattered King

Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley

I’m using this episode to focus on Toby. Although there’s not much character development in this episode specifically, I think Toby deserves a better arc and I do want to give him at least one song. While I think there’s a lot more to Toby than he lets on or that which is shown in the show, he’s often used for humor and is basically the stereotypical funloving best friend. He seems like he’d enjoy a feel-good, upbeat, “classic” song, and there’s silly dancing in this episode so danceable song! (Also if the show were more accurate to today’s teens, I wholeheartedly believe Toby would be a meme-lover).

Airheads

Little League - Conan Gray

I absolutely love the simplicity of this episode, even if it’s just filler, but I have indeed found a way to make it angsty. This song choice is fully for the lyrics (though the sound isn’t completely wrong for the feel of the episode). I think this show gets progressively more emotional throughout the seasons, and, at this point, the kids are competing for Spring Fling nominations while Toby and Claire deal with a ridiculous problem. Something about this episode just seems to represent naiveté and this song talks about longing to return to childhood and innocence.

Where Is My Mind?

Hotel California - Eagles

Seeing as the obvious choice might have been Where Is My Mind? by Pixies, I tried to branch out here. This episode is honestly eerie because the characters face their worst fears but never discuss them or understand why/how it happened. For me, the vibe was a sort of mellow rock song and a dreamlike state. Thus: Hotel California. If I think about it enough, the lyrics work because of the sort of ominous false sense of security that I imagine using this song for in a story. Ultimately though, it’s the sound and energy.

Party Monster

Candy - Robbie Williams

This is solely for the vibes just because it feels like a party song to me for some reason. Sorry I didn’t put much thought into this one. Also though? This song and its lyrics low-key remind me of Mary and this is one of the few episodes in which she was featured somewhat prominently.

It’s About Time

Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones

Definitely not for the lyrics, I think it’s just the sound and the energy almost completely for this song. For me, it just seems very high-energy and almost tense because of a fast heartbeat? I can just imagine this song playing as Jim is racing through town as quickly as possible. It’s a bit stress-inducing, honestly.

Wingmen

Victorious - Panic! At the Disco

High energy, but this is more of a simplistic choice to go with the fight scene and the progress we see from Jim as far as his training goes.

Angor Management

Carry On Wayward Son - Kansas

I chose this song as a representation of the dynamic that we see starting to form between Strickler and Jim. They’ve become unlikely teammates and Strickler is obviously a guiding figure for Jim, but I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s a father figure yet? Lyrics play into this choice a lot.

A Night to Remember

Just Like A Movie - Wallows

Specific to the dance scene. Nighttime lit up by emotion; bright kind of vibe. I thought about some other songs like Don’t Take the Money and Reckless Love (both by Bleachers), also Electric Love by BØRNS (didn’t choose that because I don’t really want to support BØRNS but I won’t get too into that). Ultimately, I think this one works best both with lyrics and overall sound. I’m a sucker for Jlaire so I had to focus on this part of the episode and how cute it was (sorry (not really tho)).

Something Rotten This Way Comes

Lessons - mxmtoon

Thinking about what you’ve learned and how to move forward in the present. Correlates more with where the story is at in this season finale, not as much with what exactly happens in the episode. Definitely a choice made for the lyrics (although Jim probably should have listened to the part about patience).

Escape from the Darklands

Hero - Weezer

Any upbeat, modern rock music for me always seems to fit the vibe for teenage heroes. I think the lyrics hit the nail on the head for characterizing Jim in this episode. He feels a huge responsibility and fear, and isn’t sure he can live up to it. Also I love him but going into the darklands alone? Not the smartest.

Skullcrusher

Off She Goes - Bad Suns

For Claire and her development in this episode. The emotion she has to use and how she pushes herself. The vibes are there but the lyrics in the chorus are what mainly influenced this choice.

Grand Theft Otto

Weightless - All Time Low

Not too sure about the sound with this one but I like the lyrics here for the dual plot of the episode. I think the whole thing with having a hard time and struggling but also not giving up hope resonates pretty generally with the trollhunters, but also specifically with Jim in the darklands and Claire and Toby (& Blinky) getting stuff done because they’re determined to save both Jim and AAARRRGGHH!!!

KanjigAAARRRGGHH!!!

Highway to Hell - AC/DC

This one is kind of a joke but kind of not. Seeing as this is the episode that the rest of the group goes to the *Darklands* to save Jim, I think the lyrics unironically fit in a humorous way. Can’t go wrong with classic rock either. (Can you tell I was struggling with this one?)

Homecoming

Life on Mars? - David Bowie

Okay, this is kind of just an excuse for me to throw this song in here, but it reminds me of a ragtag team of heroes who don’t necessarily win but live to see another day (probably because of this song’s feature in American Horror Story: Freak Show). Lyrics not so much throughout the song as a whole, but the vibes are definitely there in the chorus. A joke song that came to mind for this (for obvious reasons) was My Boyfriend’s Back by The Angels.

Hiss Hiss, Bang Bang

Sophomore Slump Or Comeback Of The Year - Fall Out Boy

Mostly for the vibes, correlates with the energy that Jim has after finally coming home. Also, lyrics fit pretty well here.

Hero with a Thousand Faces

Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants

I was searching for so long to find a song to match the chaos and hilarity of this episode (idc if it’s filler I love it so much), and realized only something just as obscure would work. The song and the episode have virtually nothing in common other than they are both ridiculous and I love them for it (sorry if that’s disappointing but hey). Also ever since I saw The Umbrella Academy use this for a fight scene I’ve loved the idea of this song in shows/movies with heroes so maybe this could fit with when Jim fought Hunter!Jim.

Just Add Water

The Kids Aren’t Alright - Fall Out Boy

I love this episode for the irony of the flour baby assignment. The main group is just dealing with so much more than health class homework at this point and yet they still take it so seriously. I chose this song partially because I really wanted to fit it in this list somewhere but I also think it correlates with the characters being so heavily involved in this dangerous, heroic life and still flying mostly under the radar in their small town. They’re going through a lot yet no one seems to notice.

Creepslayerz

I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramones

This one is for the eagerness that Eli and Steve have to fight the ‘bad guys.’ They’re excited to form a team and I think their dynamic works with this. Also I love their dynamic so much we need more of them.

The Reckless Club

I Was a Teenage Teenager - Green Day.

Really just a fun loving song about kids being kids. Considered Don’t You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds as a Breakfast Club reference but figured I’d try not to make it too easy.

Unbecoming

Generation Why - Conan Gray

Correlates with ordinary life, lack of adventure and wanting something more (both sound and lyrics).

Mistrial and Error

Run Boy Run - Woodkid

Purely for the scene in The Deep where Jim fights his greatest fear. The lyrics are perfect and I could absolutely see this song playing as Jim faces The Deep.

In the Hall of the Gumm-Gumm King

Revolution Radio - Green Day

I think high energy fights + the neon color palette and destruction in Trollmarket fit perfectly with the energy and sound of this song. Obviously also the epic portal escape at the end. I didn’t want to use Children of the Sun by Thomas Bergensen (although that’s a super good song and the instrumental version, None Shall Live, is used in the episode) and thought this one’s lyrics fit well with the team’s resistance/rebellion and renegade status.

A Night Patroll

Next Up Forever - AJR

This is not particularly chosen for the lyrics, but I do think they fit more or less. Correlates with this being the start of season 3, the tension is getting thicker and the stakes are rising. The vibe here is not necessarily being ready to take on responsibilities you know you have to, and being nervous to do so. (I am definitely focusing on Jim a bit much here, but the show is too).

Arcadia’s Most Wanted

Young and Menace - Fall Out Boy

Although the team has been acting as heroes for a while, this is their first time defeating regular crime - the first few phrases of lyrics fit with that the most. Figured it goes with underestimating teenagers. Also I’m noticing while editing that there is a ton of Fall Out Boy in this playlist.

Bad Coffee

The Reckless and the Brave - All Time Low

I chose this one for one of my favorite team-up dynamics: Jim, Toby, Steve, and Eli. The energy and the lyrics in this song I just think are perfect for this group and I think could also correlate with the whole grave sand training thing Jim did in the beginning (‘reckless’ & ‘brave’).

So I’m Dating a Sorceress

Love is Dead and We Killed Her - Doll Skin

Purely for Morgana’s raw badass energy. That’s it, that’s the explanation.

The Exorcism of Claire Nuñez

Rubi - Doll Skin

Specific to Claire, could also be seen as her possession but leans more into her own personal power. Lyrics are definitely important but I think the sound also fits Claire's character.

Parental Guidance

The Times They Are A-Changin’ - Bob Dylan

Not for the energy at all because I can’t really pinpoint that but! lyrics are important here and (even though I think it’s self-explanatory) represent the parents’ reactions.

The Oath

The Ghost of You - My Chemical Romance

The lyrics for this one definitely work - about pain and grief but also moving through it. Definitely chose this one for Draal but his death was the main event of the episode so that feels justified. I think the sound is a bit intense for the energy of this episode but I’m really pushing the angst and sorrow with this one. At least I didn’t use Another One Bites The Dust by Queen >:).

For the Glory of Merlin

Yesterday - The Beatles

This one is a bit of a stretch and it was difficult to choose for a while but I personally see Merlin as a morally gray character (although i wasn’t a fan of how he talked to Claire and manipulated Jim but anyway) and I think he’s got a very complicated past. He mentioned that he used to have a pure heart and I found that very interesting so this song is an ode to who he possibly used to be with its lyrics. Also they literally step back into a frozen moment in this episode in time so this felt fitting.

In Good Hands

California Friends - The Regrettes

More for the sweet relationship building that this episode does, and the potential of a closer friendship (the kind we see in D’aja Vu in 3Below). This song is arguably more about romantic love but I think it could work with platonic. (Also Arcadia is literally in California and we need a sunshiny song amidst all the angst in this season).

A House Divided

Ribs - Lorde

Ha-yeah, sorry guys but I had to do it. Quite obviously specific to the bathroom scene and especially the montage right when Jim steps into the tub, about loss of childhood and memories, growing up. I think a lot of people know and have cried to this song, much like a lot of us cried watching this episode.

Jimhunters

Untitled - mxmtoon

Slowly growing up, having to deal with changing relationships. Dealing with hardships while lonely is clearly a big part of most of this episode, but the song correlation breaks off a bit towards the end; the lyrics focus more on pushing through on your own while the episode talks about counting on one another in difficult times. I think it also plays into being a bit fearful of the future and having to adjust to new situations while remembering the past.

The Eternal Knight: Part 1

Don’t Stop Me Now - Queen

The vibes that go with the battle of the bands and also the onset of the fight when everything is getting more dangerous. Also the part of the battle before Jim takes on Angor Rot and Gunmar, where all the trollhunters, creepslayerz, and citizens are fighting together.

The Eternal Knight: Part 2

Time of Our Lives - Tyrone Wells

I know we’ve all heard this in fan-made edits after a series or show ends, but there’s a reason everyone uses this song. Feels like a very nice culmination, specific to parting ways with those you love after shared experiences. Really just for the last scene. This whole playlist idea came from me listening to this song in an edit and getting emotional so there’s that.

[ofthelabyrinth]

the laws of fae

As I do have a few new partners who have expressed both an interest in and a confusion with the laws of fae, I figured I would take a quick moment to outline some of the bigger ones and how they apply to my particular Jareth. Please, feel free to ask after anything that confuses or otherwise intrigues you!

Never tell a faerie your real, full name. Names are powerful things: more than mere identifiers, they are, in some sense, the key to the soul. One legend says that the popularity of middle names arose as a tactic for dealing with tricky Fae: by having a name you seldom use and do not normally divulge, you had an out from becoming a faerie’s thrall! Knowing your full name gives a faerie control over you, sometimes literally and sometimes figuratively. For the sake of this blog, that power is literal, and is put into effect any time Jareth says your muse’s full name and a direct command. They may conscious and attempting to stop it, but saying the name seals an ancient Fae contract and allows Jareth control of your muse’s body. THE EXCEPTION TO THE LAW. If your muse has been placed in a situation where they no longer identify with their name--if they are trans, for example, of refuse some part of a former identity for other reasons, only the name they recognize as being theirs in their heart will have power over them. It’s all about naming conventions and time frames: the convention for your naming is what gives it the power. In our current society, chosen names are more respected than given ones, meaning the name your muse chooses as theirs is the only one with power over it. To offer a counter and a further exception to the law, let’s consider Jareth. In my mind, faerie naming conventions are based on the name the child is given at birth. Jareth was not given a name before being ushered away into the Goblin Kingdom, where he assumed the role of the previous babe before him--technically even then, he was not GIVEN the name “Jareth.” Therefore, although he uses the name, his name will only offer power over him in some verses/moments, when he is feeling particularly connected to his kingdom. THE WORKAROUND. Never introduce yourself with “My name is” or answer a faerie without preamable when asked what it is. You can say “I am called” or “you can call me” or even “I go by,” but NEVER announce your name! Lying might seem like a smart alternative, but it is not. It’s considered terribly rude and any affront to a faerie is an opening they can take advantage of.

Be very, very, VERY polite. The Fae are creatures of old and will take any slight against their person as a reason to incite a grudge, curse, or debt upon you--especially if you’re “only a mortal,” and thereby likely both younger AND from a younger race than them. THE WORKAROUND. Being polite to a faerie is going to be a lot of dancing around on your end, though, because of certain linguistic ticks listed below. The best way to be polite? Keep refusals to a minimum and make them sound very nice, and then flatter the fuck out of the faerie who made the offer. The more aware Fae, like Jareth, might string you along when they realize what you’re doing, but most Fae will walk away happy if you just flatter their ego and think nothing of it.

No matter how tempting it is, never accept a faerie gift. The measure of acceptance varies according to the mythology at play, but the staples of the rule are clear: if you take a faerie gift, you owe that fairie a debt, and the debt can be repaid in any way and at any time the faerie owning it so chooses. It’s definitely a lose-lose situation for you! THE WORKAROUND. Although some mythologies say not to take anything ever touched or intentionally set down by a faerie, EVER, that’s a little impractical for RP. The best way to deal with “receiving” a gift is to decline it. Also, and this is very important, a faerie just handing you something also counts as a gift! If you take it, you’ve accepted it! In order to dodge this little deception, wait for the faerie to put the item down away from them before taking it. If it’s a gift--a REAL gift--you still shouldn't touch it, But if it’s a regular old household item you were just asking them to pass you? It’s safe again once it’s left their hand and touched something else. In other words, anything announced as a gift is gonna screw you over. Anything they try to sneak to you as a “gift” can be briefly quarantined before being safe again! However, make sure to

NEVER SAY THANK YOU! “Thank you” implies a debt to the faerie, whether you doing it to be polite, to express real gratitude, or even just on reflex! Avoid faerie debts at all costs--but be polite as you do so! THE WORKAROUND. We’re back to that second workaround, folks: be kind and flatter them! Rather than saying “thank you,” tell the faerie in question that they are “very generous” or that you “appreciate” what they’ve done, even if you don’t. A lie told in politeness (as a substitute for thanking someone, for example) is seen as politeness and not a lie--but be careful! A lie told out of politeness (as a substitute for potential offense with the truth) is STILL a lie, and will absolutely land you in hot water!

Don’t eat or drink the faerie food. The reasoning is partially the debt of a favor, of course, but it’s a little more complicated than just that. Faerie food is tempting by nature and of course the Fae around you might act like eating or drinking it is no big deal, but it definitely is. For one thing, it ties you to the faerie lands--and with no power or lineage of your own, that puts you in a bad position right off the bat. For another? Some faerie foods are rumored to be sweet poisons for mortal creatures--sometimes fatal, and sometimes only damaging to your psyche. Either way, don’t risk it! THE WORKAROUND. Since this is another impracticality to deal with in an RP setting, know that the water--as long as it’s neither sweet nor sparkling!--is not a faerie food, and can be imbibed without penalty when stuck. Some breads are also considered of mortal making, although these are rarer and less likely to be seen at big events like parties. Stay sharp!

Never mention a newborn babe. Some rumors say that the Fae cannot repopulate on their own, and so must rely on kidnapped babies and changelings to keep their lineage going. Either way, letting a faerie know where a newborn baby is, or a new mother is!, can be life-threatening and will almost guarantee one or both will go missing. THE WORKAROUND. There really isn’t one: just don’t bring up a baby you don’t want to see kidnapped, and if you accidentally do, don’t reveal their age! I think it’s fairly clear at this point, but the goblins have no issues with kidnapping children of any age, and I do headcanon that Jareth makes goblins out of the babies who are so carelessly thrown his way. They are less goblinoid than natural-born goblins and grow to be more like feral children: however, very few make it to adulthood thereafter. Best not to risk it.

Never step into a faerie ring. Faerie rings are natural portals through which the Fae pass between our realm and theirs: stepping into one will transport you to the faerie world, and it isn’t always a guarantee that things will work out if you try to step through the other way! This is, again, a real non-workaround situation. Just don’t do it.

Be wary if joining a faerie dance. As well as the documented issues with faerie time versus mortal time--meaning you could dance for an hour and leave a century later than you arrived--as well as the fact that mortals can’t always keep up with a faerie dance and may well end up dying trying, there is a lesser-known danger to a faerie dance that actually persists in all of the above dangers as well. The realm of the faerie is an impossible one: impossibly beautiful, impossibly warm, impossibly inviting--impossibly cold, cruel, vicious, brutal. A mortal may well end up mesmerized by the world of the faerie, and even the most tenacious spirit may be worn away by it all and into a state of complacency. You may well never want to leave if you enter it, may never want to stop if you eat or drink of it, when you dance in it, when you feel the gifts of it. It is itself a trap, and a poison. Sometimes, even after you leave, you find you never really left it. You can’t stop thinking about it. And you die--you die trying to get back to it, or despairing that you never will, or knowing the world will never be as beautiful again, or trying to get it out of your mind. The biggest danger of the faerie world isn’t the Fae, but the world itself, and all the terrible and beautiful things it can do for you. THE WORKAROUND. Walk away. Leave it behind. Never enter it. Never speak to any part of it. Pray you are safe in your bed and will never be so haunted by such strangeness in your lifetime.

[slightly-nerdy-rambles]

Robstarweek Day 3: These Winding Halls (Prompt: Lost)

Today’s story is a bit unusual. It takes place in… not exactly an AU, because it still technically fits with show canon, but what I guess you could call an “alternate future” or an AU to my normal set of headcanons. I call it the “Royal Family Verse” for reasons that will be made clear in the story, and I’m planning to set one Robstar Week entry for each year in this same ‘verse. It’s a bit of a self-indulgent concept, but one I really enjoy playing around in from time to time, so I hope you enjoy it as well!

These Winding Halls

There was no way around it: Emperor Mar’ikesh was well and truly lost.

Again.

Nightwing, as the new name translated, groaned inwardly, though he put on an air of perfect calm and complete awareness of where he was going. This was what he got for insisting the guards leave him to wander the palace in peace. It was also what he got for moving to a planet whose architecture took advantage of its inhabitants’ ability to fly, but he was trying to stave off those thoughts.

It had been about two months now (Earth months; he was still working on Tamaranean time scales) since Starfire had received the news that Galfore could no longer safely hold his position as Grand Ruler, and that she was his best option of successor if the planet was to avoid political strife. After many discussions and plans and preparations, she had been coronated a month later, by necessity moving back to her home planet in the process.

And Robin – Dick, Nightwing, Mar’ikesh, whatever he was supposed to call himself now – had moved with her.

He somehow found himself on one of the many high balconies ringing the palace. After checking to see that he was truly alone, he leaned his arms on the railing and allowed himself a low sigh.

Normally he would have Starfire with him, showing him how to navigate the alien (to him at least; here he was the alien) architecture and pointing out places that she remembered from her childhood. But she was in a meeting with some dignitaries from halfway across the planet, and he did not yet have the political understanding to join her. So instead, he had gone and gotten himself lost.

They were lucky, he supposed, that Tamaraneans were so readily built for space travel. It meant that interplanetary relationships were far from a new concept to them – and indeed, royalty taking outworlder spouses could be spun as a way to strengthen alliances with other planets. That certainly explained Blackfire’s scheme during her brief tenure as Grand Ruler. He was just happy that Starfire – and he, for that matter – had been able to make a proper choice this time.

But that wasn’t going to do them any good if he couldn’t even find his way around a stupid BUILDING!

Heavy footfalls approached, and Nightwing stood up straight and schooled his face into a neutral expression. He mentally checked on the translator in his ear – he was still learning the Tamaranean language, and he was not about to stumble through a half-coherent explanation of what he was doing here to one of the guards – and turned.

It was Galfore, alone for once and leaning on a cane as thick as a man’s neck. He’d suffered a debilitating injury fighting off a would-be assassin, and a Grand Ruler who couldn’t defend Tamaran at full strength was liable to attract challengers.

“Masking your emotions does not become a Tamaranean, by marriage or otherwise,” the old ruler said. “We are an open and passionate people.”

That comment stung far more than it was meant to, but at the same time, Nightwing noticed that Galfore was speaking English for him. He relaxed a little.

“Something tells me it wouldn’t end well if the people knew what I’m feeling right now,” he said, leaning back on the balcony railing and allowing himself a small frown.

Galfore joined him on the balcony. “Oh? And what is that, Your Majesty?”

Nightwing fought back a grimace, though whether it was at his own thoughts or hearing that title even he couldn’t quite say. He shifted his gaze and looked out, along the walls of the palace and off to the vast Gikha Desert surrounding it.

“…Fear, mostly,” he said at length, his voice soft. “Uncertainty. I don’t know if I can do this.”

Galfore chuckled, a low rumble that came from deep within his chest. “Starfire is the Grand Ruler, not you,” he replied, “and she is well able to handle the responsibility. All you must do is support her and be prepared to protect yourself and your family if it becomes necessary. Two tasks which you excel at, I must note.”

Nightwing scowled. “I don’t think I’m so good at the supporting part. She needs someone she can bounce ideas off of, and vent to when things get difficult, and ask for a second opinion on hard decisions. But I don’t know anything about running a country, let alone one that covers an entire planet! And I’m starting to think I never will.”

He ground the heel of his hand into his forehead, the words just pouring out now. “And don’t try and tell me that a lot of this isn’t about how people see you. They need to know that Starf– that Koriand’r is a strong and wise and effective ruler, and stupid as it is, part of how they see her is going to be reflected from how they see her family. Which at the moment technically consists entirely of me. How am I supposed to present myself when I barely have any idea what’s going on half the time?!”

Galfore said nothing, just waited patiently as his young liege laid out his worries. Nightwing drew in a shaky breath. When he continued, his voice was soft again and a little hollow.

“I… When I first decided to do this, I told myself that it was so Starfire wouldn’t have to leave everything from her old life behind again. That if we got married, we’d be there to support each other always, and wouldn’t that be good for Tamaran anyway? To have a Grand Ruler who didn’t have to go in alone, and a royal family whose members were there for one another?” He let his gaze drop and swallowed.

“But now, I’m starting to think that maybe I was just being selfish. That I just didn’t want to lose her. I don’t…”

There was a heavy shifting as Galfore settled against the wall beside him. After a short pause, he asked, “Is it selfish to want to be with the one you love, and who loves you in turn?”

Nightwing looked up at him. “I…”

Galfore smiled. “It is as I said before: we are a passionate people. For many of us, you simply being here is enough.” He studied Nightwing for a moment.

“And you are passionate as well, Mar’ikesh. You are a fine Tamaranean, even if you sometimes mask your emotions.” He chuckled. “Do you know, I realized you and Koriand’r were meant to be together after your first visit here. Had she not told me she intended to arrange her own marriage, I may well have betrothed the two of you myself!”

Nightwing started at that and stared up at him, eyes wide. “You wanted to what?!”

If Galfore noticed the outburst, he made no acknowledgement of it. “And as for everything else: give it time,” he went on. “You have only been here a short while yet, and you will learn. I suspect you have already learned more than you realize.”

Nightwing said nothing at first. He just stared at the old ruler for a long moment, searching his face for any signs of insincerity or false reassurance. He found none, but as his racing thoughts began to slow, he recognized a sort of distant familiarity to his situation.

He realized all at once that Starfire must have felt something like this once: alone, unfitting, lost. No – she most certainly had felt it before, had told him as much. And he had always encouraged her, always let her know she had a place on Earth.

Maybe it was time for him to take his own advice.

At length, he let out a low sigh and said, “You’re right. I guess it’s just... hard sometimes.”

Galfore shook his head. “If this life were easy, I would not have needed Koriand’r as my successor.” With that, he stood up and started to make his way back into the palace. After a few moments, though, he stopped and looked back.

“By the way, I came out here to let you know that the Empress is nearly finished with her meeting; by now it may already be over.” He smiled. “Take a left when you go inside; you will find her down the second hall to your right.”

Nightwing perked up at that, and as Galfore left he started heading that way.

Sure enough, he found her as soon as he turned into the hall. Starfire was talking with one of the visiting dignitaries, but her expression brightened when she spotted him.

“Mar’ikesh!” she called out. “I did not expect to see you so soon.”

Nightwing laughed a little as he approached her, giving her a quick kiss by way of greeting (there were some Earth customs that neither of them were about to give up). “Honestly? Neither did I.”

The nobleman decided to take his leave then, bowing his head respectfully to each of the royal couple as he said his goodbyes. Starfire saw him off before turning back to her husband with a furrow of concern on her brow.

“You did not get lost again, did you?”

Nightwing blushed and reached up to rub the back of his neck. “…You could say that, yes,” he admitted. “But I did somehow end up pretty close to your meeting room, so I think my subconscious might be getting the hang of this place.”

The worry in Starfire’s face melted, giving way to a warm smile. “Then we will just have to explore more together,” she said, extending her hands toward him. “Come with me?”

Nightwing returned the smile and placed his hands in hers without hesitation. “Always.”

[thathelplesshomeschooler]

Humans are space orcs (with magic!) *taking notes*

Tygeria paused, she sensed that she was being followed. Whoever it was knew how to follow prey without being heard or seen; however she had taken various survival classes and now her senses were far more fine tuned than the rest of the species. Tingles rushed over her carapace. Here in the belly of the Narrtor there should be no hostiles. Even if a prisoner were on board, and she knew of none, and had managed to escape, the brig was floors away.

She quickly turned around, her spine covered forelimbs ready to attack or defend. To her surprise it was a quite unbelievably startled human. "Oh dear Lord! now that's a fright."

Tygerias' suspicions were raised, "Why were you stalking me?"

Taurus was taken aback by the question, "I wasn't stalking, I was just following. I'm not some creep." he paused, an odd expression on his face, "Sorry. I may not be a creep I do have a tendency to creep." He saw her puzzled position and explained, "For humans a creep is someone who gives unwanted attraction, usually it's some guy who likes a girl, but in a weird way and she doesn't appreciate it. And creeping is just some left over instinct from being prey mixed with predator. It's usually just a human accidentally moving in a way where they won't be detected."

Tigeria wondered at this. Could humans still be so close to their savage origins that they still unconsciously stalked prey. Again her carapace tingled with unease. She would have to be more wary of her surroundings lest the humans catch her off guard at an awkward moment. She returned her attention to Taurus once again as he began to speak, “I understand that we will be stopping at the WayCenter Station in the Fornax Cluster. I was wondering if we could add this particular item,” He gestured to his holotablet, “to the ships inventory when we dock there?” She took the holotablet from his hand and adjusted the settings so that the light was visible to her. The more she studied the item the more intrigued she was by it. It appeared to be a hollow device in the rough shape of an oval, though it had concave curves on either side. A long protrusion with several metallic strings came out from one end of the device. A circular portion of the hollow body was cut out and the strings ran above it.

Tygerias' interest was piqued. What possible function could such a device serve? Was it possible that it was some death world instrument of chaos? She had heard that some humans had asked to bring specific items or creatures aboard their ships and they had wreaked havoc. With this in mind she asked, “What purpose does it serve?”

 “Well it’s a guitar. It’s used for making music.” Music? Tygeria had heard of that before, both from the historical documents of her race, and from other species’ stories of humans. She clicked in curiosity. “What is, music?”

 She let out more clicks of curiosity in response to the humans face. His facial muscles had gone slack and his draw had dropped a few centimeters. “You mean...Are you saying you don’t know what music is?”

 “Our species developed music when we were young, but we eventually realized that it serves no true purpose and thus we abandon it. I myself have never heard this ‘music.’ But you are correct and - are you all right Taurus?”

 “I just...wow...that’s...honestly ma’am that’s really kinda sad. Music, it’s...well it’s music. It moves you man, and the fact that you guys just abandon it...that’s, wow, that’s pretty...pretty crazy.”

 “This music must be dangerous if it’s able to physically displace a person.”

 “No not physically move you. It moves you, in your heart and soul. I dunno man, it’s hard to explain. It’s not dangerous at all, and it would probably help the crew in some ways. At the very least it would help us humans and any more that we might meet.” He shook his head and muttered something under his breath, but Tygeria ignored it and made her decision. “Very well, I shall put this ‘guitar’ on the ships manifest for incoming items. Is there anything else you would like to request?”

 Taurus shook his head, both in response to Tygerias’ question and in disbelief. How anyone could simply live without music was beyond him.

* * *

 A couple of adzs later Tygeria was returning to her quarters when she heard the unmistakeable sound of Drerzii the medical officer rapidly approaching from behind. She turned and had nearly faced him when he began to speak. “Tygeria, you must tell me if this is true. I have heard from the humans, both through their voices and their minds, that we shall be acquiring one of the humans ‘musical instruments.’ Tygeria, I beg of you, answer me quickly, is this in fact so?”

 She clicked a few times. She had never seen the little telepath so excited. “Yes. Taurus asked for me to get it when we dock at the WayCenter Station. If you will excuse my asking, why is this of interest to you?”

 Drerzii closed his eyes and all his tentacles shuddered with excitement. “Ahh this is joyous news indeed. Tygeria, it has come to my knowledge, both through my studies and anecdotes I’ve heard, that the humans can behave very peculiarly to this ‘music.’ Humans are interesting enough to study in and of themselves, but with this added factor...” He paused, his excitement causing him to stop for a moment. “Tygeria, this ‘music’ has both bonded and torn apart human clans. And there has been very little study in the aspect of human behavior with music. In short, it will be a pleasure to examine them. Now, I must depart and prepare my instruments.” With that the little tripodic creature scurried away. Tygeria let off a storm of clicks. It seemed that the more she asked questions, the more confused she was. 

* * *

 Another few adz later the Narrtor had arrived at the WayCenter Station, resupplied, and taken off, and just a few dadz past she had delivered the guitar to the humans bunking room. She entered the lounge and saw Uhris sitting on a box, the two females lounged on one of the couches, Taurus was on a chair and Jason sat crossed-legged on the floor. All of the humans were positioned generall around Taurus who had placed the instument on his legs. His right hand was poised above the strings near the hole, and the fingers on his left hand were spread over the elongated part of the instrument, which, she now noticed, had raised bumps at regular intervals. Anne passed him her holotablet and said something to him, but it was to far away for Tygeria to hear. Taurus laughed and nodded, glanced at his left hand, back to the holotablet, and then it began.

 Taurus started stroking the strings with his right hand. Every few times he did this he would switch the position of his fingers on his left hand. Tygeria stood, transfixed. The humming coming from the instrument was incredibly steady and had an unquantifiable feeling of comfort. She closed her eyes and let the sounds wash over her, then reopened them seconds later when the humans began to talk. But, she realized, they were not in fact talking. Their words flowed with the music like two streams of water smoothly combining. She chirped in surprise. The humans were making music with their vocal chords! Singing, she believed the word was. And, she realized, the words that they were singing seemed to verbally convey the feeling the instrument was trying to communicate. Then one of the humans split the pattern of their voices, no longer singing in unison, but rather branching her voice into an alternative but complimentary pattern. They all stopped singing in unison while Taurus kept playing, bobbing his head to the rhythm. Uhris playfully cuffed Enara on the shoulder, “Okay girl, I heard that harmony. Going all fancy on us. Ay Imma give us a little rhythm on the next verse a’ight.” Taurus nodded his acknowledgement. A few seconds later Uhris began striking the box he sat on, constantly switching between his palm and fist. Another few seconds and the humans began to sing again. 

Tygeria stood transfixed for several minutes before she noticed Drerzii standing beside her. He was constantly looking back and forth between the humans and a holotablet with which he was taking notes. His colors were constantly changing with excitement: red, lime, yellow. Once he realized that Tygeria was also observing the humans he quickly scrambled up her forelimb and sat on her shoulder. "Is it not simply fascinating my dear Tygeria. Almost no species reacts to this 'music' the way humans do. They're mental activity has increased and their endocrine systems are all letting of large amounts of serotonin, oxytocin, and dopamine. Apparently other ratios in the vibrational frequencies can cause the complete opposite effect. Is it not bizarre Tygeria, that 'wiggly air,' as they call it, can cause such emotional changes in humans? I find it truly fascinating." Although she stayed quiet, Tygeria completely agreed.

After a few more songs, Enara noticed the two standing off to the side and motioned them over. "I know your species' don't really do music, but would you guys want to join us instead of being awkward over there?"

Tygeria paused, unsure if she should join, after all, she didn't actually have vocal chords with which she could sing and her translator would most definitely be inadequate for this type of activity. Before she could respond, however, Drerzii answered, "Oh we would indeed find the utmost pleasure in accompanying you."

Jason scooted over to make space for the two, "Tygeria you could help Uhris with the percussion, er, beat rhythm thing of the song, and Drerzii you just do what you do man. Make those snorkel noises." Drerzii made a little trumpet noise in response.

Uhris showed Tygeria how she could click, snap, and chirp to the beat while Anne and Taurus demonstrated to Drerzii how to match the pitch and follow a melody. After a few minutes of instruction the group started a new song. Even though she wasn't singing, and that was, as she had heard, the most soulful part of music, Tygeria still felt something move inside her. Something that connected her to the sway of the notes and the pulse of the rhythm. She knew not what it was, but she knew that whatever it may be, she was falling in love with it.

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

Adz - an intergalactic measure of time, approximately one and a quarter days

[snowbellewells]

“Run to Me (in the Dead of Night)”

Well, folks, here we are at last - the final installment of my CSSNS MC.  I can’t believe it’s really over (or that it has carried all the way into the new year.) But I have had a lot of fun exploring the world of this werewolf AU, and I am so thankful for everyone who read and encouraged me along the way as I wrote.  I am sorry I kept you waiting for the loose ends to be tied up and the happy ending achieved, but I hope you will enjoy this last segment.  I may check back in with these versions of the characters and this verse with a shorter look into the future if there is a second CSSNS. (After all, I did leave a small hint or two for things that might yet be brewing in the plot!) But for now, here we are at the finish line complete.

***Thank you once again to @wingedlioness for the gorgeous story banner she made for this piece that I have been using throughout.  Enjoy the final story pic she made for this as well. It’s just a fun little fluffy glimpse at a part of their happily-ever-after! :)

epilogue ~ moments in the moonlight

A few days after Emma and Killian’s successful deal with the Dark One, a hesitant sort of waiting peace had fallen over Storybrooke as life seemed to return to its version of normal. Gold had made no noticeable moves to break his word, and though none of those who had fought for a sense of safety against he, Cora, and Regina were going to quit watching him closely, the intensely charged atmosphere of the previous weeks and the sense of constantly awaiting the next calamity or attack, had begun to subside. Henry and Snow, both as student and teacher, had returned to their regular school routine. Emma and Graham had gone back to regular shifts at the station handling once-more mundane complaints of dwarf squabbles, Mr. and Mrs. Sprat’s domestic disturbances in the grocery aisles, and Widow Shue’s numerous kids making too much noise in the backyard and bothering the neighbors. Killian seemed to be settling into town as well, planning to make it a more long-term home. When not with Emma and Henry, or out and about with David and Graham, both of whom were becoming the closest friends he’d had since the loss of his brother, the pirate puttered around on his ship, either cleaning or seeing that it was airtight and warm enough to remain habitable in the fast-approaching winter months.

Tucked away in her cozy office in the very back corner of the library however, one evening just a few days before Thanksgiving, Belle French fought to keep recent events and the distressing tangle of emotion knotting her gut from overrunning her mind. It was easier, admittedly, now that she wasn’t alone. Graham had stopped in after he was done at the sheriff’s station for the day, Granny’s takeout in hand for their dinner, and they had just finished eating in warm companionship, both of them more than anything grateful to no longer be eating alone, to have the other’s presence beside them to dispel the regrets and doubts whispering in their minds.

When at last she looked up to gaze full in his focused, understanding face, already looking back at her and seeming to read behind her attempt at a casual smile and false normalcy, Belle found herself catching her breath at the zing of warmth and electricity that went skittering through her. Tossing the napkin she had already crumpled into the paper bag on the table between them, she reached for the sheriff’s large, calloused hand, already held out open and waiting for her on the wooden tabletop. She couldn’t have imagined before this just how much comfort there was in simply being known - truly known, accepted, and understood intrinsically by someone else. She had come to feel nearly invisible with Rumple quite quickly upon regaining her sense of self (and more memories of the Enchanted Forest). There had been good moment long ago, but in truth she had been more of a shadow of the brave adventuress she’d always hoped. Yes, Rumple had needed her, but as an extension of himself, to keep him behaving as the good person he should have already been.  Graham needed her too, but in the way any person would need someone they cared for; moreover, it was the same way that she needed him as well.

There was no judgement or impatience on Graham’s face, only concern and a desire to help as his thumb rubbed soothingly over the back of her hand. “What is it, Belle?” he asked, voice low and calming in the dim light of her single desk lamp in the silent echoes of the library closed for the day. “Something is clearly bothering you… Maybe it would help to share it?”

Belle squeezed the hand that held her own reassuringly, before wrapping her free hand around their interwoven fingers, wanting to hold onto him that much more for his compassion and his intuition, traits she knew had made her initial gratitude and attraction to him swell into all that she felt for him now. It wasn’t that she couldn’t share her worry with him, she thought as she shook her head in agitation, it was that she didn’t quite know how to try. Finally, she bit her lip and then, with a released whoosh of breath, she plowed ahead impulsively, “It’s just that...well...I don’t really feel relieved. You know? I mean, I assumed that if we were able to stop Rumple - and Emma and Killian forcing his hand into that deal seems to have worked, at least for the time being - then I would feel more at ease, like I could safely move on. But I don’t feel any better about it… more sort of hollow...and anxious too, like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

Graham scooted his chair closer, obviously trying to offer a shoulder if she needed it; despite her having noticed that in most situations he didn’t tend to get overly close in proximity to other people unless absolutely necessary. “If you’re worried that we’ve dropped our guard, we haven’t. Everyone knows Gold is quite possibly only safe until he finds a way out of the deal he struck-”

But she interrupted him, shaking her head and turning away from his searching, deep eyes that she felt could look right into and read her very soul if she let him. “No, it’s not that. Well, there is the worry that he’ll find a loophole and attack us the first chance he gets, but it’s more that I can’t believe I was ever foolish enough to think he would change, that he could be different. So much wasted time, so much of my own life lost for a cause that was always hopeless.”

Graham’s fingers were tender, barely brushing over her skin as he ever-so-softly touched her chin to move her face back to his. “Please don’t say that,” he husked, his voice raspy with strangled emotion as he continued. “Your faith in others, your hope, your belief that we can overcome and change, that we do control our own fates… I… I love that about you.”

Her breath caught at his admission, long lashes blinking rapidly as she met his eyes now, transfixed and unable to look away.

“Don’t let him take that from you,” Graham finished breathlessly, his chest heaving as if he had just run for miles, and a surprising red flush climbing up his neck before his eyes dropped to the wood of the desk between them and then finishing with a murmured, “I couldn’t bear it.”

It took Belle a minute to get her wits about her, her thoughts pinging and racing in every direction at once and her heart beating as though it might pump right out of her chest, but she felt the sheriff beside her tensed to move, as if embarrassed to have said too much and preparing himself to withdraw. Quickly, she gripped his hand a little tighter, until he looked back into her face.

“You...you love me?” she whispered, not at all certain she could believe her ears.

Graham wordlessly nodded at that without saying anything more aloud. She could read his expression just then, as much as she had ever felt that he could read hers. She had been beating herself up for her own mistakes, both in the past and the present, fearing that her failures would always be laid out before her, but she could see in that weighted moment that her werewolf boyfriend carried all the same self-doubt and fear. He wasn’t sure that what had happened to him, what he had been made into and forced to do, would ever be fully behind him, or if anyone could look at him without seeing the damage, and yet despite it all, he was reaching out to her.

Belle didn’t know if it was right or if it was wrong, too much or too fast, but in that moment, with the flood of emotion he’d brought forth in her, she couldn’t hold back. Leaning forward over their joined hands, she pressed her mouth to his, savoring the soft feel of his lips in a first kiss full of the hope he had just reignited within her, and everything else she felt for him besides.

When Graham opened for her, drinking her in with a low hum of pleasure and kissing back, it was so enthusiastic that before she knew it, he was pulling her toward him over the table until she was curled, giggling in his lap, sheltered by his warm embrace as he peppered more kisses to her hair, cheeks, and forehead. They might both still be broken, but together they were going to mend the jagged edges.

~~~~~~***~~~~~~***~~~~~~~

High on the hill overlooking Storybrooke, later that same night, Emma and Killian sat on the hood of her VW Bug, alternately stargazing and making out like the two carefree teenagers neither of them had ever really gotten the chance to be. Emma was just pondering the fact, when the idea of her deputy father on duty tonight catching them up here, flashing lights and stern expression and all the trappings he would have certainly pulled out if he’d actually been able to parent her when she was sixteen, seventeen, lost and living on the wild side. A chuckle escaped her at the both preposterous and yet utterly plausible mental image, causing Killian to pull back with an affronted look as she buried her head in his shoulder, her own shaking with silent mirth.

“And just what is so funny?” he questioned. “A man could begin to doubt himself when his lady love begins to laugh instead of melt at his romantic overtures.”

“Easy there, Wolf Man,” she soothed, trailing her hand along his open collar and into the exposed hair of his chest with idly stroking fingers, both their heart rates picking up at the gesture. “No need to get your hackles up. You’re doing just fine, trust me.”

A teasing grin quirked her delectable lips as she stared up at him, offering a seductive wink for good measure, even as she decided for herself that though she would definitely tell him later what had made her laugh and let him gain a chuckle from it as well, it wasn’t the time just then, nor did she want the heavy chemistry rippling between them broken with humor.

Killian, for his part, saw her green eyes darken from sparkling jade to forest deepness with want and was more than happy to let the matter drop for the present. All sensible thought fled him at that moment anyway, as Emma’s hand crawled up his neck to scratch behind his ear, making it all he could do not to whine in the back of his throat like a mere pup begging a treat from its owner. Emma did own him, body and soul, in all the ways that mattered. Killian saw no purpose or sense in denying it.

However, once he managed to gather a few threads of coherent thought, he leaned forward to growl warningly against her skin, not quite willing to let her win the upper hand so easily. “You’re playing with fire, Emma...as you well know. Toying with me that way wakes the beast within…”

She shivered at the husky intonation of his words, his meaning all too clear. In truth, she couldn’t help thinking that might be just what she was after; she was only too eager to let him devour her with tooth, tongue, and claw. Still, there had been a reason they’d chosen this particular spot for the evening, and the time was fast approaching. The full moon above was nearly at its peak.

Seeming to recall himself just as Emma did, Killian pulled back from her slightly, his forehead resting against hers as they both tried to catch their breath. Finally, with a quick kiss to the tip of her nose, he slid off the hood of the car and stood, looking back at her with hope and uncertainty warring in his eyes. “Swan, in all seriousness, are you sure about wanting to wait for me? It could get quite chilly up here tonight.

Emma could only nod her head at him at first, wondering how he still didn’t quite see his own worth in her eyes, how intensely she wanted to be with him every moment she could. “Yes, Jones, I’m sure,” she said at last, with some exasperation, not failing to notice the affection and joy that flooded his face with her confirmation. “It’s only a few hours, right?  Go - have your run. Maybe it’s the loosed beast I’m anxious to see when you get back.”

Killian visibly swallowed hard at her last words, but then a devilish gleam entered those mesmerizing eyes of his, and she could see his tongue poke into the corner of his mouth as he replied with a promise that set the blood in her veins on fire. “Have it your way, Love. I can say with some certainty that he’ll be salivating to see you too by the time I return.”

With that, he divested himself of his shirt, pulling it up over his head and baring his scarred and heavily furred chest as well as the ripple of stomach muscles that accompanied the action. Emma’s mouth went dry at the sight, even as she reached out her hand dumbly to take the shirt from him, along with the pants, socks, and boxers that followed. Looking up at her once more with a smirk, knowing that she was staring at his nude form as she clutched the discarded clothing to her chest, Killian then jogged into the treeline and was gone.

A few minutes later, Emma heard the singular, haunting and powerful howl of a wolf from well within the forest and knew that his transformation was complete. It had taken Killian a huge amount of trust to bring her here and let her into as much of the process as he dared, still not completely willing to shift into lupine form right in front of her; knowing that for a brief amount of time, just when the change was complete, he was purely a wild animal. Though he could swiftly regain control of his mind, he refused to risk even the slightest chance that he might hurt or frighten her in that minute lapse of time.

He had told her that he could actually hold the transformation off completely, but she sensed within his statement that it wasn’t a pleasant option, and when pressed, Killian had admitted that it was distressing - like an itch under the skin that couldn’t be scratched - if not downright painful, when one continued to fight nature. He didn’t know if it could do permanent damage, but Emma hadn’t wanted him to test the theory anyway. Yes, Henry was with her father tonight - out on a camping trip with him, Graham, his friend Nicholas, and Nick’s father, but she could wait a few hours. Plus, if she were honest, she was more than a bit curious, and not in the least turned off. So there she was, waiting for her love’s return.

It really was almost more than a cynic like her could believe, all that had happened in the last few months. At Thanksgiving this year, she had more to be grateful for than she could have fathomed possible not so long ago. She had the son she had lost - that she’d broken her own heart to give up for his best chance - back in her life, she had parents who loved her and had always wanted her, she had found love with a man she knew was devoted and true, she had genuine friends in Graham, Ruby, Belle, and many more of the quirky inhabitants of their little hamlet, and she had a job she enjoyed, that she was respected for doing well. Most of all, the lost girl who had still been hiding beneath her armour, had finally found her home.

Musing on all of that, Emma also had to concede that of course life still wasn’t perfect. There might yet be dark magic and curses that could come their way, along with everyday human heartache and trial, and of course she wasn’t going to turn her back on Mr. Gold, deal or not, but things were as near perfection as she had ever known. She felt stronger in belonging to a place and to these people than she had ever been before all alone.

A rustling of dried leaves and underbrush alerted her to turn back to the forest just in time to see a familiar dark black wolf emerge from the trees, its startling blue eyes intense and knowing, even in the face of a different being. The majestic animal lifted its snout slightly, as if catching her scent on the wind and savoring it before gazing back at her and taking another step forward.  Speechless, Emma could have sworn the animal licked its chops before pacing toward her. Then, as suddenly as he had appeared, he seemed to stretch and rearrange before her very eyes. She blinked disbelievingly, even though she had known it was him and what he was capable of, and when she looked again, it was Killian stalking toward her purposefully, nearly knocking her off her feet as he reached her and swept her up in a breathless, hungry kiss.

Tagging a few who may enjoy... @cssns @kmomof4 @laschatzi @jennjenn615 @therooksshiningknight @aloha-4-ever @spartanguard @searchingwardrobes @hollyethecurious @linda8084 @branlovestowrite @winterbaby89 @teamhook @revanmeetra87 @resident-of-storybrooke @kday426 @quicksilvermad @capswantrue @kiwistreetswan @bubblegum1425 @ultraluckycatnd  @gingerchangeling @bmbbcs4ever @thislassishooked

[ryanmeft]

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Movie Review

Spider-Man 2 set the standard for the wall-crawler’s celluloid escapes, and the movies have been trying to catch up to that ever since. Thanks in large part to poor decisions by Sony, it never came close until Marvel got a hand on the property again. The last thing I ever expected from Sony’s own spin-off movies was that they’d be any good, especially after surviving Venom. As it turns out, the soul of the character just needed animation to set it free. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is not only a great entry in the webslinger’s mostly forgettable filmography, it’s in the top tier of superhero films, period.

Miles Morales (Shamiek Moore) is a black teen being sent to a private school after winning a scholarship; his father (Brian Tyree Henry) is a by-the-books cop who struggles to understand his growing son but loves him anyway, which sounds cliche but works because the character is so well-written. His mother (Luna Lauren Velez) is unfortunately sidelined, and spending more time on her in the sequel would be welcome. He looks up to his uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali), who shares Miles’s love of graffiti art but who is also some sort of a criminal. I mention Miles’s race because it’s important: the movie elects for a happily stable family and a smart kid with a bright future, a rare focus for African American characters in cinema. The movie is not political in the slightest, and treats this as if it’s not uncommon, because it isn’t. It’s a deliberate contrast to Peter Parker, whose life is a constant mess. Miles gets his powers with a similar spider bite and without much fanfare.

Speaking of Peter Parker, he shows up, voiced by Chris Pine, and gets in a big fight involving the Green Goblin (Jorma Taccone) and the Kingpin (Liev Schreiber), classic Spider-Man villains somewhat re-imagined for the setting. When things go wrong trying to stop a dimension-combining device, Miles lands the gig of stopping the machine from firing again, but can barely use his own powers. Another Parker (Jake Johnson), an older and out-of-shape one who has given up on life, shows up and doesn’t make a very adequate mentor. He’s eventually joined by numerous other versions. Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), who is clearly here to launch her own spin-off, is cynical and calculating. Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn) is an anime take on the character whose powers are actually invested in a machine that I think is piloted by a spider itself. I’ll be honest, I lost the details in the rush, but she works because she’s more homage to the form than parody. Spider-Ham/Peter Porker (John Mulaney) is sadly underutilized and didn’t really add as much as he could; there’s too many other Spider-guys for him to stand out. By far my favorite was Spider-Man Noir, a version who is almost all shadow, wears a fedora and trench-coat, and is voiced brilliantly by Nicolas Cage, who channels Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney. Indeed, the voice cast is so stuffed that Lily Tomlin and Zoe Kravitz end up in tertiary roles. Each of these alternate heroes got sucked into Miles’s universe and will see their molecules fracture like a bad radio signal if they don’t get back. For this, they seek the help of a batty-but-brilliant scientist (Kathryn Hahn), who provokes one of Parker’s best lines. Each is accompanied by a quick and humorous rundown of their respective origins, which both serves as a nice send-up of the now-tedious origin story and fills in whatever small amount of info the audience might need.

A disclaimer for those who are understandably confused about Spidey’s cinematic history: none of these Spider-People are the same one from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that interconnected place of Guardians and Avengers. The Parker here appears to be some version of the one from Sam Raimi’s first trilogy, and considering the divided reception of that line, it’s an interesting choice (it still contains the best Spider-Man movie, and a couple lackluster ones). It matters far less than it does in the MCU, because this movie feeds more on energy, humor and heart than on continuity. To my recollection (it’s been a while), all of these characters exist in some way in the comics, but you don’t have to care. On screen, they play off each other wonderfully. The jaded Parker is like those wizened mentors from every movie ever made about a plucky kid finding his way, except this guy, while having the skills, doesn’t care. That’s a decidedly different look for Spider-Man, one that only an animated film, specifically only an animated film this unique, could pull off; an apathetic hero is just not something audiences would accept if he were the main character. The Noir version has the most potential for his own movie, as his universe is the most different from what we’ve seen before. Like Rey in Star Wars, Spider-Gwen is unfortunately given the least interesting character, but there’s room for development later. For some reason, the same people that decided we need more female heroes (which we do) also decided they always have to be---pardon the expression---the straight man. Will we maybe have a female take on Tony Stark at some point? I won’t hold my breath; the culture just isn’t there yet.

The heroes are of course opposed by the afore-mentioned villains, joined by many others: Prowler, a Batman-esque fighter, Scorpion (Joaquin Cosio), Tombstone (Marvin “Krondon” Jones III) and a surprise bonus pick who I will not mention because you should discover it for yourself, except to say this person really works while, in a way, bringing back a long-absent, long in demand foe. When machines are activated and villains are fighting, the movie does occasionally veer somewhat close to confusion, but it always recovers, with the exception of some of the villains being rather generic. Animation has unshackled the agility, speed and wit Spider-Man has always evoked in the minds of people flipping through comic panels. There’s a litheness to the movements of the characters that no amount of CG could ever replicate, and a boundless energy that the unique animation style---designed to look like comic panels in motion and, to my eternal shock, actually successful in this---works perfectly with.

Still, the most surprising thing is how the emotions carry through. Each Spider-Dude-or-Dudette has their own tragedy and loss, and the sense that no matter what universe he exists in, he’ll always have to deal with that is sadly poignant, especially for anyone who grew up on the Spider-Man mythos. There are actual stakes here; even the motivations of the Kingpin have real heft. The movie has been handled by Lego Movie producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, with a small army of co-writers joining along the way, and the surprise is that for once, so many cooks have managed to concoct something that feels so sincere.

If you aren’t a comic person, don’t worry. There’s enough heart here to sweep you up even if you don’t know your spiders from your bats. Stan Lee’s posthumous cameo feels fitting, in a movie that does right by his (and Steve Ditko’s) best creation. Nerds tend to declare amazing absolutely every comic movie that comes out. And every once in a while, they’re right.

Verdict: Highly Recommended (3 1/2 out of 4 stars)

Note: I don’t use stars, but here are my possible verdicts.

Must-See

Highly Recommended

Recommended

Average

Not Recommended

Avoid like the Plague

 You can follow Ryan's reviews on Facebook here:

https://www.facebook.com/ryanmeftmovies/

 Or his tweets here:

https://twitter.com/RyanmEft

 All images are property of the people what own the movie.

[wowheadquarters]

I have a little idea for the 1k followers. As I followed this blog recently, I was wondering about his history. If you feel like it, could do a summary? Like, why did you start it? Your first joy/disappointment. Any thing that we haven't see that you might want to share. Absolutely anything about the blog and you. (If you're comfortable with it of course)

This is a very good idea, lovable anon, I’ll try.

History:

It was 17th November 2015, somewhen in Tuesday afternoon. I don’t remember what exactly sparked the idea of starting this blog, but I can say for certain that it was heavily inspired by the @bleachlists (which is, if you ask me, better humor than canon Bleach). And thus the first list was born.

(I never expected this blog to get famous. Or followers besides bots for that matter. I hoped, maybe, for a little circle of, like, 5 actual readers. I certainly didn’t think I would keep this blog for longer than 4 months. That’s how it is with me usually, I have bursts of inspiration but lack long-term dedication. The fact that this blog is still going is a miracle.)

At first the lists were written in the “chat” style. I had to make up my own prompts, because the two followers or so only hearted the posts but didn’t interact with me at all otherwise. That’s why the activity was very irregular at the time, I was writing when I was inspired and thus a month could pass without a word from me and then boom, three posts in a week. Additionally, I wasn’t writing only lists, but also short stuff, kind of like “Slice of life from Azeroth.” Of these the most famous is Chromie and Dragons and in my opinion the best one and not enough appreciated one is Kel’thuzad’s Heard Of Sylvanas’ Plans.

The first breakthrough came in January 2016 when an anon, who made me happy so much that I called them “lovable” in the list and kept on doing so for all following anons, requested the very first requested list, the Care of Babies list. For a long time this has been the list with the most notes. Now there are too many lists to keep count and Tumblr doesn’t do “the best of your posts,” but still it is one of the most popular posts I have and along with the Chromie and Dragons it still pops up in my notifications. Around April 2016 I had stable enough queue of requested lists to stop making up my own prompts, thus I could completely rely on prompts from followers, most of them from anons.

Another important milestone was August of the same year: First of all, I came up with a posting schedule (Fridays and Mondays, but two months later I understood that was too fast - It ate the prompts faster than they were prompted, and I wasn’t managing it). Then Taedal was added to the lists, at first he was meant as a joke, as I keep reminding him and everyone else, and somehow it happened he stayed here. Additionally, Varian and Vol’jin’s deaths were acknowledged, putting Anduin on the list. Soon after, Garrosh joined in from beyond the veil to annoy Vol’jin in his afterlife.

About this time the blog began to create it’s own lore (and not only the L.O.R.E.), and I even had the (short-spanned) will to mystify people that Taedal is going to get his own expansion. I even had a sideblog dedicated to Taedal (in fact, it was Taedal’s own blog, intentioned as a RP blog but somehow it never…got much traffic) and even a wiki. The wiki still exists! I like to think of this as the Golden Age of HeadQuarters verse, when I even got fanfics on AO3 and a dozen of drawings for this blog even. This blog lives in an alternate universe where there is a new isle west of Pandaria and Garrosh adopted 37 dead children in the afterlife and learned to be a better person (not necessarily the same as good person, but let’s not lose hope).

I don’t remember exactly on what occasion in the 2017 the Interviews were added, but they were the first not-list which were requestable (that is, they weren’t the short filler stuff I used to make before). I think it was to celebrate the first 100 followers but I might be wrong. The first Interview was held with Taedal, by my decision, and ever since then the Interviews went by request every twenty days, moved to every other Wednesday, later as of not-so-recently, every other Tuesday. In the history of the Interviews, there happened to be only one which wasn’t published, because nobody asked any questions. (It was Interview with Kel’thuzad, pt. 3, and I jokingly said that “ when we met, the Archlich thought I used the Interview as an excuse to go out for a date with him and things went awkward” which resulted in this Top N list).

From there things went rather fast. To here actually. As a celebration for 600 followers (or was it 500? Memory fails me) I began writing Top N, sort of as of a filler in between the Interviews, so actually now this blog has moved back to the biweekly posting scheme very close to the one from 2016. Earlier this year (2018), there was a list about attack on not-Theramore, where I made up a character especially for my timeline speculations - because timeline shenanigans, it is a bronze dragon, and because it is representing me, the character is called Authormi. That is a very poor play on the word “author” (because I am the author of this blog) and the “-ormu/ormi” suffix characteristic for the Bronze dragonflight. Coincidentally, it was also the first time I have referred to myself with any sort of name here on this blog (besides the FAQ where is a link to my main blog) and I am using it since.

An important part of the blog is post maintenance when I try to at least twice a month (but if I’m very responsible, then every Friday evening) go thorough the blog, update the Interview, Top N, and L.O.R.E. pages, delete old request asks and so on. However, over the years a good number of not-request asks had piled up in here. They were…not filtered here and the blog seemed messy with them. Which is why Authormi vs. Inbox tag was created and from time to time when too many not-request asks pile here, I dump them into these post as a sort of archive. I admit that it is not, uh… ideal in case you are looking for something specific, but it keeps the blog clean. Well, cleaner.

The most recent new development of the blog was the addition of the Allied Races leaders - Alleria Windrunner for the Void Elves/Ral’dorei, High Exarch Turalyon for the Lightforged, Jaina Proudmoore for Kul Tiras, First Arcanist Thalyssra for the Nightborne Elves/Shal’dorei, Mayla Highmountain for the Highmountain Tauren Tribes, Overlord Geya’rah for the Mag’har Orcs, and Princess Talanji for the Zandalari. The choice of the leaders is taken from the information on the Allied Races from Wowpedia.

Speaking of Wowpedia, it is my primal source, besides personal experience, when it comes to writing the lists. I used to rely on WoWWiki, but, uh… that one turned a bit messy a couple of years ago and I never get around to check on it now. When I don’t know something, I look it up on Wowpedia. If it’s not on Wowpedia, I consider it a Free Real Estate lore wildcard, which means I can bullshit it out as long as it is lore/character consistent. I pride myself on giving the characters (leaders) some actual character, because, now correct me if I am wrong, Blizzard writers confuse character personality for that wind flapping pole. I am not saying that I am writing “good” or “pure” characters. They have faults, they are prejudiced, foolhardy, depressed (in not romantic ways), mean, holding grudges. Some, like Garrosh, Genn or Gallywix, are more straightforward in their flaws than others, but I am pouring a cup of sour traits to everyone here. (What I am saying here is: Be critical when you read your favorite leader’s opinion. They might not be right and/or honest.)

Overview, as of today, Monday 19th November 2018:

Published 174 lists, 24 more in the queue + bunch of requests hanging in the asks among the posts. (Somebody needs to do their maintenance)

Published 25 Interviews, 9 more in the queue + some in the asks too, I think I saw one request or two.

Published 21 Top N lists (most favoured number for N is 10), 0 in the queue.

1009 followers, woooo! I love you all. Except the 1009th one who is a porn bot, you can go fuck yourself. ‘Xcuse me. 1008 followers now!

The blog is 3 years and 2 days old. Happy birthday!

Authormi’s pick of lists to read (besides the one linked):

What they say far too often: Vintage one, so you see what the old style was like.

What do the think of the heroes: Meta one!

Their pick for a movie night: There were no guesses on what movie is a Ayeroth-verse of what Earth-verse. I am proud of some of those titles.

No Orc Invasion: The first timeline speculation, which I really lvoed. If somebody was to write that AU, I’d read it actually.

If they could erase one person from existence: Another timeline speculation. I like making those!

Draw the squad: Maybe you could draw the squad?

Watching Les Misérables: This one was an especially important journey for me, because this list is why I saw the musical in the first place. Later I read the book too (I love the book), got into some Les Mis RP, made some very good friends out of that… Yeah, I owe this one lovable anon who requested it a lot. (More or less, now I am also a professional Valjean RPer, except I don’t get paid for it. Whenever somebody who knows me joins a new RP server and they haven’t got Valjean, they usually ask me. Like… what? How? Why? Why do you all think I am a good Valjean? Why- Never mind, this is a Warcraft blog. Moving on.)

Spell of the Violent Tongue: The first time it has been brought to my attention that I think about the characters in a way a lot fo other people doesn’t, because this list surprised a lot of readers, and by surprised I mean hit into feels so hard they complained to me. I talked about it with my mum later (family support is an important thing for me and mum is fan of Warcraft), and I’ve been told that “I treat the characters maybe a bit too realistically.” PSA for everybody: Warcraft is a story about broken people and violent racism.

Their God Tier: For the people who are fan of Homestuck too. (Homestuck itself is good. The fandom is weird)

Garrosh’s 37 ghost children: By which they became more or less canon on this blog, a regular stuff which is to be counted with.

How do they insult people: The most recent popular post.

Interview with Azshara: My personally favorite thing I have ever written for this blog, as in, I don’t think I am going to peak it.

Interview with Luxien: Because I want to press Taedal’s story and “expansion” to everybody, read the interview with his older evil sister.

Top 10 favorite characters: I suppose you are a bit curious who my faves are, so here you go.

Top 10 changes to the story I would do: By heart I am a storywriter. I give such things a lot of thoughts. But as I’ve mentioned earlier, lack of dedication is… making things hard.

Other cool stuff to check out (maybe?):

Taedal’s expansion wiki, of course. I have a lot of thoughts about that world and story and… I would love to went about it a bit, too.

This very cool fanfic on AO3.

The official portrait of Taedal.

The official portrait of Authormi.

The description of this blog, as taken from my personal blog:

wowheadquarters (WoW HeadQuarters, World of Warcraft Headquarters, WoWHQ) is by far my most popular blog, despite being younger than SNTS. I add new content twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday. I never thought I’d make more than 10 posts in total, but there we go. I admit that the original idea comes from bleachlists, but it has sort of evolved since then. I am trying to keep the blog not contradicting the canon, but some things in the HeadQuartersverse might not always agree with the official lore

Final words from Authormi:

Oh my fucking god, this is really unbelieveable that this thing is still going on. I never expected this blog to live beyond a month. I never thought I’d get more than 20 followers. I have 1000 now? That’s… is that Tumblr-famous? I’ve never had this many followers. Do you all read this? All the stuff? Am I shaping your view on the Warcraft universe? This is too much power for one person to have.

You want to know what’s actually my happiest memory connected to this blog? It was actually some time back (because my memory is a mess, I can’t tell you how far back), I had a really, really stuffed couple of weeks. A lot of to do, but also mentally exhausted, I was in a bad place for a bit there. Usually I am able to kick myself in the ass, sit down and make up the list on the go, even if it is bound to be miserable wreck of text, I write it. Sometimes when I am super done and tired, I write it on Saturday evening and pretend it’s Friday and so far everyone’s been so kind and there’s been no comment to that. But in those two or three weeks I just… couldn’t. Even clinging to this self-made structure was too exhausting. I wasn’t on Tumblr for basically the whole time (my main blog was fuelled by the queue). Sometimes when I am in a good place, I write lists in advance and schedule them, but at that time no such a thing took place, so this blog went silent without announcement and I couldn’t care less. When I finally found it in me to come online, my inbox greeted me with various people who were asking me if I was okay and whether or not I am still alive written in a very worried manner. And you know… reading that helped me a lot at the moment. It was a reminder that somebody here cares for me and cares for what I do and… Yeah, it was a damn motivation to get myself together a bit and write stuff and do some stuff. Since then I’m trying to announce in advance if I think I am not going to make it, and even then I am still trying to write the list as soon as possible when I am fit to.

A story for your amusement on this “write it when possible” note. This summer I was with my 4 younger siblings (my oldest sister, still younger than I, turned 18 last Thursday, the youngest sibling who also happens to be a sister is 4, but I don’t live with all the siblings, blah blah divorced parents blah blah, not related) and dad and grandfather in the beautiful village (or town?) of Au in Austria. I took my old laptop with me (I’ve got a new one recently) which had battery that could live on it’s own for, like 10 minutes. The house we were living in had no wi-fi, but there was a village-wide public wi-fi… which din’t reach the house. The nearest was at the bus stop, but that one was shaky, and the good reliable hotspot was at the park, 10 minutes of walk away from the house. Now, it was nearly Friday and I needed to post the list. So I wrote it int he laptop’s notepad, then turned off its life support, took it and dashed across all of Au to the wi-fi hotspot, formatted the document into a list, and hit post. About 2 minutes later, the laptop died.

I am thinking about making another blog directly meant for the asks, request or not, and those would stay there. What do you all think? Maybe I would lose things there, I am quite capable of it.

I’d love to talk about Taedal and his demons and his entire story a bit more. But I haven’t got, like, a reason to do so. I am sort of insecure in this matter, I sort of have the feeling that nobody really cares for Taedal here. “What are you thinking, a ‘good demon’ OC?” (Ask me about Taedal and his faction and the Broken and Distant Worlds expansion. I have an expansion and half planned in my head.)

There is some kind of an expectation or anticipation in me to have someone from Blizz discovering this blog and some big consequences happening. I am not sure whether I want it to happen or not. I mean, I am a bit… too-critical of their work in attempt to please the crowd here. (It’s easy to search for flaws when you take the good stuff as the norm. You are actually doing a good job, Blizzard, in the terms of game developing and marketing. But there is that one post going around which says that Warcraft lore/story is written by 9 people who cannot talk to each other. In this spirit, I am sure that there are 4 people writing charcter psychological profiles who don’t know of each other’s existence. Your animation is a snack, though.)

Wow. I suck at summaries. This is as brief as it gets.

[timelxrd-victorious]

The Vortex Diaries || A Family Affair

Summary:  "Faction Paradox. It's a family affair." After Martha walks in on the Doctor (allegedly) sleepwalking after a nightmare, a late night cup of tea and conversation leads to her learning more about the Doctor's past than she'd thought possible—and some similarities between the Time Agency and a certain time-traveling voodoo cult. Notes: The Martha Jones seen here belongs to fellow Tumblr RPer doctorandsoldier and comes from a verse where she joined the Time Agency in the 51st century after the Rift picked her up during a U.N.I.T. mission and spat her out in Captain Jack Harkness' home century. She met up with Teine  during one of his visits to the 51st century and he invited her into his TARDIS for as long as she was willing to stay—or for coming and going whenever she felt like it.      This was originally a RP thread we wrote back in late-2015/early-2016.

Martha descended the stairs from the upper levels of the TARDIS, having just used the nearest loo. As she made her way down, the top of the Doctor's spiky chestnut crown of hair rose above the horizon of her sight.

What she didn't expect was to quickly see him naked by the time she'd reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh, blimey!" she exclaimed, quickly spinning around until her back was to him. "I'm sorry!"

The Doctor jumped at the sound of Martha's voice, head snapping round before he dove for the nearest place of cover.

"For Rassilon's sake, Martha, give me some warning, won't you?!" he snapped, eyes scanning the floor for any sign of his shirt.

Nothing.

"Um, you wouldn't have happened to see my shirt anywhere, have you?"

"Um, no." Martha still had her back turned. "And what're you doing in the console room like that anyway? I just went to the loo—I didn't expect to see you half-naked in here!"

"And I wasn't expecting company!" he retorted, realizing the half-second the words were out of his mouth how ridiculous he sounded. He ducked his head, rubbed at his eyes. "Sorry. But if you really want to know… I have somnambulism." It was a lie—he didn't—but saying he was a sleepwalker seemed better than the alternative: that he'd woken from a nightmare and gone to the console room to try and calm down, or maybe work on the TARDIS's rather faulty wiring and circuits before going back to what passed for sleep in Time Lords.

Sleepwalking. Martha wasn't completely sure she bought his explanation, but her gut told her it was a little close to the truth. But she felt sometimes, that she was peering at him through a crack in the door that only stayed open for seconds to let light through. Surely, he'd seen horrors…way before she'd even met him at Royal Hope Hospital. Was his sleepwalking provoked by nightmares? Trauma?

She wasn't going to pry. She decided, rather, to start to help him in the best way she knew how. She was not about to enter his bedroom and rummage through his things…but she had an idea.

"I'll be right back, Doctor," she declared, then ran back up the stairs and darted into the spare bedroom where she used to sleep when she traveled with him. Diving into the closet, she found…an old, dark red bathrobe she'd left behind. Yanking it from off the hanger, she rushed back through the doorway and sprinted down the stairs to the console room.

"Doctor…" she began softly. "It's one of my old robes, but…you can wear it for right now, if you like." She gazed at him, her dark eyes enlarging and shining a little in the golden light of the console room.

"Thanks," he said quietly, reaching for the robe and wrapping it around his skinny frame. He stuck his arms through the sleeves, wriggled the ends of his fingers a little before drawing the front of the robe over his chest and tying the sash.

As the Doctor put on the robe, Martha studied him a little more. Her gut told her, again, that something was really bothering him. Pondering for a moment, she decided that it was not a good idea to thrust her hand through the proverbial crack in the door, let it shut on her.

But she wasn't going to leave him alone, at least not for long. "Would some tea help…maybe just a little?" she offered as she gazed up at him. She half-felt stupid for it, but she figured it was a start.

A faint smile, then it was gone. "Yeah, thanks. Have some for yourself if you want."

Martha nodded, and said nothing else before turning and heading past the console up the steps into the upper corridors of the TARDIS. She wasn't exactly thrilled to leave him there by himself, but she'd only be gone a few minutes, to make the tea and then bring it back to the console room.

The old girl must have been trying to help, because she moved the kitchen a little closer to Martha: she saw the warm yellow glow of its overhead light ahead on the right.

She rummaged very briefly through one of the cupboards and found a box of good, old fashioned plain black tea; in short order, she found the kettle, filled it, and set it on to boil. Once it squeaked, she pulled it off and steeped it in a teapot. Gathering up the pot, a couple of cups, some cream, and a small bowl of sugar lumps, she carefully brought the tray from the kitchen down to the console room.

The Doctor was lounging in the jump seat when she returned and toying absent-mindedly with the sash on the robe. He glanced up at the smell of the tea, accepted one of the cups from the tray and took a sip.

"How's everything been at the Time Agency lately?" he asked her.

Martha's eyes followed the Doctor's hands as he picked up one of the cups of tea and sipped on it. At his mention of the Time Agency, she let out a long sigh.

"I'm thinking of leaving, actually," she finally admitted, after setting the tray down on the floor grating just inside the railing around the console and picking up her own cup of tea. "What happened to Jack…made me really think. And me myself, I've done too many things that I'm not proud of."

She blinked a moment, took a sip of her tea, and standing in front of the Doctor, gazed back at him. "In theory, he should have recognised me on Malcassairo, but he didn't. That's because of them erasing two years' worth of his memories. I joined the Agency in that two-year period."

She shook her head sadly. "Even if he did remember but refrained from saying anything to avoid corrupting my own timeline, there would have been something. A look in his eyes, maybe. Something that might have struck me as odd back then, but would make sense to me now."

Lifting the cup to her lips, she drank another small sip of tea before continuing. "I know I had to be very careful of what I said to him at the Time Agency. I couldn't tell past Jack about his future. I wouldn't." She sighed again. "But they took away two years of his life, Doctor."

"I know. He told me that when I first met him with Rose in 1940s war-torn London. Don't know if he ever got his memories back—I never asked, didn't want to find out. And even if I could do some telepathic trick that would help him regain the memories… I won't."

He took another sip, then held the cup in his lap, glanced down and pretended to be very interested in the dregs swirling around. After a few moments of silence, he spoke again: "What did they make you do, Martha?" Another thought struck him. "You never ran into any Victorian-robed figures wearing skull masks, did you?"

He wouldn't have been surprised if any Time Agents had run into Faction Paradox members, considering their similar lines of work. But then again… maybe she hadn't. The Faction, after all, preferred to shroud themselves in myth and legend—much like his own people. Considering their founder had once belonged to one of Gallifrey's Great Houses… it wasn't all that surprising.

Martha nodded. What was done, was done. She herself could tell Jack at least some of what they'd taken from him. But she hadn't. In fact, she'd tried to avoid hopping back to twenty-first century Cardiff unless she was on assignment…and when she did, she watched Jack from a distance, to make sure he was doing okay. Well, relatively so, considering he was still with Torchwood Three.

Surely, Jack thought she was gone for good. Let him think that for now.

Martha froze a little at the Doctor's next question. "I'm not sure I even want to talk about it," she said quietly. "When I was with U.N.I.T. and Torchwood, I had to kill. But…I did it to either defend myself or save lives. But…" She paused for a moment, staring down into her own cup of tea, and then gazed back up at the Doctor with troubled eyes. "I've killed a lot more times than I ever bargained for."

She tilted her head and looked at him curiously when he asked about strange beings. "I haven't," she admitted. "But…I heard rumours about them from the other Agents. Thankfully, no one really had a serious run-in with them. The rumours were is that they were some sort of aliens or something, but nobody every figured out what they were."

He snorted at that. "Hardly. The Faction recruits from all sorts of races, though most of their agents are human."

"I beg your pardon?" Martha cradled the bottom of her teacup with the palm of her left hand while she stared at the Doctor. "What's this faction you just mentioned?"

"Faction Paradox. It's a family affair." He waved his fingers in a spooky manner, then shrugged. "They're necromancers. They summon into our time-stream things that never were, things that were never meant to be. They revel in paradoxes, causal loops, anything that tangles the Web of Time more and more, until the order of the universe is lost in a mass of exceptions and impossibilities.

"These are people to whom the whole reason for linear existence is to see that existence transcended. Or, as we would see it, destroyed.

"There are those who say the Faction create their paradoxes through the use of… other Spirits. Then again, there are those who say they're just a bunch of jumped-up charlatans putting on an impressive act.

"Then again," he added with another shrug, "they say the same thing about me."

Martha gazed back at him. "So…basically instead of escaping the material world, they choose to fuck it up by using paradoxes until the whole mess destroys itself." She shook her head. "Well…what if after all this is gone, there's…nothing? Who would they find in the dark aftermath of it all to chat with and compare notes to see if they'd even succeeded?"

"I don't think they'd really care, to be honest. They live in the Eleven-Day Empire—it's sort of a splinter universe from ours. Trust me, you don't want to go there. And really, right now they have their own problems to deal with, what with the aftermath of the Time War and the Eleven-Day Empire being eaten by Lolita.

"Besides…" Here, for once, the Doctor looked almost uncomfortable. "Their founder, Grandfather Paradox, used to belong to one of the Houses on Gallifrey. Then he became disinterested with their diseased pretensions to immortality and separated from them, and turned his House into a timetravelling, time-active, ritualistic cult based in part in the beliefs of voodoo, time travel with the marked interest in paradoxes and death fetishism that is now their trademark, both rejecting the immortality the Houses sought and ridiculing the Laws of Time. …Did I mention that he's the first one to ever go back and murder his own grandfather? And he's pretty much the embodiment of all potential evil in the universe?"

Martha shuddered. Eaten? She didn't even want to think about the possibilities, so she decided not to ask just exactly what the Doctor meant by that.

When he mentioned Grandfather Paradox going back in time to murder his own grandfather, she shuddered again. "I don't doubt that," she replied, taking another sip from her teacup and glancing back up at him after he explained more about the Faction; then suddenly her mind brightened, and an old memory flooded with new light. "So that's why you looked at me real strange when I asked about accidentally killing my own grandfather back in 1599 London."

"Yeah. That's how the Faction initiates new recruits: if you're human, you go back and murder your father—or grandfather. It makes them more resistant to time-based attacks."

"Blimey," Martha muttered. "Not the sort you'd want to mess with." She paused to drink another sip of tea before continuing. "But I asked that because it was my first experience time traveling. I didn't want to, you know, accidentally cause a paradox."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "We were in 1599 London. What were the possible odds of you killing your grandfather?"

"I pulled that one out of my arse," she admitted. "When I was younger, I remember reading something in a science magazine once about theories in time travel…I was trying to remember time paradoxes and I couldn't think of the name. It was the grandfather paradox. But…I remembered the concept. That's what I was asking about."

"And now that you know Grandfather Paradox actually existed?"

"Can't help but wonder if the theory was named after him," she mused, gazing back at him with unblinking eyes. "In any case, the whole idea of him—and the Faction, to be honest—sounds bloody frightening."

"It wouldn't surprise me if it was. As for him being frightening… Yeah, he is, considering he's a monstrous undead paradox whose shape changes depending on who's looking at him—and that shape is a twisted image of everything you swore you'd never be. The Faction, on the other hand…" He snorted. "Dangerous? Like hell they are. They go in for the skull masks and voodoo and biodata rituals and fancy costumes. They're very big on aesthetics. And when you get the shadow weapons involved…"

"Wait. Hang on a tic. Shadow weapons?" Martha stared back at the Doctor in partially disbelief. But…after what she'd seen with Torchwood and U.N.I.T. it halfway didn't surprise her.

Flashing back to her time at Torchwood before she was snatched up by the Rift, her mind drifted a little; the Resurrection Gauntlet flashed briefly in her memory but she shoved it away quickly. She made a strong mental note to herself never to mention it around the Doctor. ever.

"Yep," he said, popping the 'p.' "Godfathers and Godmothers can even time travel using their own shadows, though they tend to degrade with use. Cousins have independent shadows called sombras que corta—it translates to 'shadows that cut'—that they graft weapons onto. A cousin's shadow can rip a room full of enemies to pieces while the cousin could just be sitting at a table drinking tea. Fascinating, isn't it? And that's not even counting the biodata virus."

"What?"

Martha's eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open. She'd heard of tales like this: mysterious deaths where entire roomfuls of people were decapitated, dismembered, ripped apart like gingerbread men…but no assailant ever seen, no weapons every found. And she remembered whispered rumours…that something like that had happened on Jack's last mission.

But if this was the cause of the chaos on jack's last mission…how'd he get out alive?

"You heard me," he said with a faint smile. "Trust me, you don't want to contract the biodata virus. Biodata… it's like a 4-dimensional DNA pattern. It maps out who you are and how you affect a timeline. The virus latches onto your biodata and messes about with your history so that you become a servant of Paradox before you even contracted it." He pulled a face. "It happened to one of my companions. Not good. Not fun."

Martha nodded. "We encountered some strange sort of thing fitting that description when I was still working at U.N.I.T. Definitely was a virus. But before I could continue my studies of the sample we'd found, U.N.I.T sent me over to Torchwood Three. They'd only intended for me to be gone a few days, maybe a week…and that's when the Rift snatched me up…"

Her eyes suddenly widened and she bolted up. "Hang on a tic!" she exclaimed, staring hard at the Time Lord and leaning closer to him. "Do they have the capability to manipulate the rift?"

"Maybe…? To be honest, I'm not entirely sure how their technology works. Even they don't completely know how it works—if it's just highly advanced tech or if some of it's magic and guided by the Spirits. They might be able to manipulate the Rift, but then again, they might not. This is, of course, assuming they even know about the Rift in the first place. I mean, why else would anyone want to go to Cardiff?"

Martha nodded slowly. This was giving her more questions than she had answers. "Before today, I've always thought the Rift was kind of a random thing…a wound in time and space doing what it will," she offered. "It was the only explanation I could give myself after it'd had snatched me up. During those ten years I was in fifty-second century London, and being stuck there, with no way back." She chuckled darkly. "Popped out some grey hairs in that time period, that's for sure."

"And that's when you joined the Agency, I'm guessing. So, are they actual time police, or are they just more like the Celestial Intervention Agency and muck around with time for their own gain?"

"Best comparison I can make is a time traveling black ops," Martha replied. "Sometimes we just investigate, but a lot of times we've altered events. The purpose being to change without interfering, to leave an effect with no evidence of cause."

He snorted. "Sounds like the CIA to me."

Martha shrugged. "That's a fair comparison," she admitted. "Similar tactics, different operators."

"I was a member of the CIA once," he commented off-handedly. "Suppose I still am, technically." There was a sarcastic twitch of his mouth. "Not that there's any members left. And as for the Celestis… They turned themselves into beings of pure energy in order to escape the War in Heaven."

"That musta been a while back for you," Martha mused, gazing back at the Time Lord. When he mentioned the final fate of its remaining members, she wrinkled her nose. "Blimey. That's one hell of a way to escape."

"Didn't do them much good in the Last Great Time War," he said darkly. "Or in the war against the Enemy."

"I'd imagine not," Martha quickly replied before taking one last gulp of her tea, which was nearly cold by now. "So how'd you get roped into working with them?"

"They forced me. The Celestial Intervention Agency had a tendency to do that—force Time Lords to join. Their official purpose was to protect whatever lay in the Time Lords' best interests, though their motives were often questionable, and we never could be certain as to which side the Agency belonged to—it was largely neutral, rather than a specific force for good or evil. Still…" His voice trailed off as he stared into space in a frozen way for a few seconds, then abruptly he abruptly shook his head as if to clear away the memories.

Martha nodded. Deciphering that there were horrid memories behind his eyes, she decided not to ask him anything else about the CIA. "Blimey," she replied softly. "I'm not really surprised to hear you say that. Seems like that sort of thing is a constant no matter where you go in the universe."

The Doctor barked out a harsh half-laugh at that. "No kidding. I mean, my people didn't have a concept of sin or of good and evil, but still…"

Martha sighed and ran a hand through her long, dark hair. "You know what's really weird? I feel like I should remember the Faction. But I don't. I'm sure in two year's time I would have been told about them, considering the Time Agency is sort of in the same line of work, really."

The Time Lord shrugged. "Like I've said, the Faction's got their own problems. Besides, most people think they're just myths anyway. Jack thought the Time War and the Daleks were a myth. He probably thought the same about my people until he started traveling with me."

Martha nodded, leaning back against one of the coral pillars. "I do remember other Time Agents speculating about Gallifrey and Time Lords. Real, or not." She chuckled. "And I can personally vouch for what Jack thought. To him, Time Lords were like unicorns—mythical and non-existent. Of course, I didn't bother to correct him."

"Of course you didn't." One corner of his mouth twitched in a sardonic half-smile. "Although… I've seen a lot of things in my time. Werewolves, Yeti, vampires, actual witches… and yes, even unicorns. One tried to spear Fitz in San Francisco with its horn and then we realized it just wanted some chocolate. We came across a herd later, and there was a Kraken in the bay at the time. …"

Martha laughed. "I suppose I'm a kindred spirit with that unicorn then," she joked.

But the mention of the Kraken caught her ear. "I used to think they were mythical." She gazed at him, eyes brightening with interest. "I'd never think that one would get in San Francisco bay, however."

The Doctor shifted uncomfortably. "Normally there isn't. But my biodata had been strung all across the city by a certain time-travelling cult and there was an 'unnaturalist' hanging out in his ship bringing in mythological creatures from different dimensions so he could study them. There was also a space-time rift caused by the Master opening the Eye of Harmony when i'd first regenerated into my eighth form in San Francisco, and the kraken was drawn to it. It's complicated."

"I don't doubt it," Martha mused, listening intently. "Before I got snatched up by the Rift, we were trying to find out more about it at UNIT. Our initial findings suggested it's not of Earth origin, but I never found out any more than that. Got sent to Torchwood and, well, you know…"

"Well, the Rift in Cardiff is an actual space-time rip. It's just… there. Even I don't really know why, to be honest. The one in San Francisco was a scar, one the TARDIS threw herself into in order to help close… but it was in agony and tearing her apart. We closed it on account of Dark Sam—the original Sam—running into my biodata, but when she did that she created the blonde Sam that had traveled with me—that Sam had gone missing." He shrugged. "As the Faction would say, a neat little paradox."

Martha listened intently. "Certainly sounds like it," she mumbled, then a quite seriously look washed over her face. "I've had near misses meeting other Marthas from other timelines, but I've lucked out so far. Once I was given a flash drive of classified information that was meant for the version of me who worked for UNIT at the time." She sighed. "Which got me hauled into Scotland Yard."

The Doctor quirked an eyebrow at that. "Really? You weren't arrested, were you?"

"Thankfully, no," she replied with a soft sigh, folding her arms across her chest. "I had no reason to keep the bloody thing. It had nothing to do with my mission at the time, so I just handed it over. It was Mycroft Holmes who dragged me into there, and in that universe Scotland Yard worked closely with UNIT and Torchwood. I figured the other Martha needed it way more than I did." She ended with a bit of a sly grin.

"I bet she did," the Doctor muttered. He leaned back, crossed his legs. "So, anything else you want to know about the Faction?"

Martha peered up, scrunching her nose in thought. "Hang on, I think I might," she murmured before looking back at the Doctor, her eyes widening with a sudden thought. "Actually, I do. If they go back and alter someone's timeline, is there any sort of logic to whose timelines they choose to alter."

As silly as it might sound, Martha was hoping they hadn't altered hers. After all, the Agency, in a sense, was in the same business as the Faction, minus its drama and cultish aspects.

"Well…" For a brief moment, the Doctor looked uncomfortable. "They wouldn't necessarily have to go back on someone's personal timeline. Change that person's biodata, you change the person."

Martha felt a mild shudder ripple underneath her skin. "And they'd know nothing at all," she murmured, not liking the way she felt at all right now: the dread creeping behind her navel, her abdomen muscles tightening.

"For most humans, no. You're nowhere near time-sensitive enough, but your subconscious might pick up on a few details that weren't there before. Dealing with memories is… tricky. False ones can be planted and are so vivid you think they're real; given long enough, your memory of past events will be colored, altered. Some can be erased altogether. When you've been alive as long as I have…" The Doctor cleared his throat. "Anyway. You—along with my other companions—have traveled through the Vortex, which may or may not make it a little more difficult." He slid her a sideways glance. "And what with you being a Time Agent and former companion of the 'Evil Renegade'… they'd be interested in you, don't you think?"

"That's exactly what worries me," Martha confessed. "I can't explain it, but I do feel as if I'm missing a few memories. I don't have any proof of this, yet. Not sure if I ever will."

She let out a long sigh and ran her hand through her dark hair, then gazed back at the Time Lord with sober eyes. "Then again…I was trapped in the Void," she added, swallowing a small, dry lump. "For only a few minutes…at most…but I'm not ruling out that being there hasn't mucked about with my head, either."

The Doctor tilted his head slightly as he studied her, thought for a moment. "The Eternals called it the Howling. Others called it Hell. So It wouldn't surprise me if being trapped in there mucked about with your head." He decided not to mention the effect being trapped in the Divergent universe had on an alternate eighth incarnation—being somewhere where time didn't exist was literally like having a limb torn off. He imagined that the Void would be worse.

"Hell's about right," the Time Agent mumbled, still gazing soberly at the Doctor. "I'm half-tempted to go back and tell Dante a thing or two, but…"

Quickly, she shook her head, as if to clear the awful memory from her mind, but she knew the truth; there was no ridding herself of it. She could distract herself – as she did with all the space hopping – but the feeling of being suspended inside sheer nothingness was only a thought away.

Martha decided to quickly change the subject. "You feelin' any better, Doctor?" she inquired, studying his eyes, or…well, as close as she felt comfortable looking at them. Truth be told, when she could do that for more than a second or two, she found them beautiful, yet unearthly; but she always had to glance away. From what the Time Agent sensed, she imagined that looking too much longer would like staring at both the sun and into an abyss at the same time; those who were wise just didn't.

"Yeah, thanks." Xir mouth quirked in a half-hearted attempt at what xe hoped was a reassuring smile. "If there's anything you want to know more about…" xe started to offer, then stopped. The Doctor wasn't quite sure if she asked xem about information regarding xir past in the War or xir home planet how much more xe would tell her—xe'd spilled enough closely-guarded secrets as it was for one night. (Well, insomuch as it could be considered night on a timeship modeled out of pure mathematics floating through space when it wasn't piloting itself through the Time Vortex.)

Xe cleared xir throat and ducked xir head from her questioning gaze, unsure of what she'd seen in xir eyes—if she'd seen anything at all.

Martha could sense the Time Lord's discomfort, a little. Well, as much as she could, even for the walls he always seemed to be ready to raise at a moment's notice.

She decided not to pry any further; the Time Agent sucked in a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. "Right then," she said, after waiting through a space of (somewhat) uncomfortable silence.

"I think I'll go to bed. If you need me, you come find me, Mister." The last words, she added with a (partially) easy smile, reaching out and clasping his shoulder, squeezing to reassure. "G'night," she said, watching him for just a quick moment before turning to walk past the console and up the stairs to the corridor leading to her bedroom.

"Good night, Martha." His gaze tracked her path up the stairs, stayed there while she disappeared. Already he knew that he wouldn't be going to her room tonight.

He hardly ever did.

[wumblr]

All of the allegorical chapter intros from Warped Passages

Entryway Passages: Demystifying Dimensions

“Ike, I’m not so sure about this story I’m writing. I’m considering adding more dimensions. What do you think of that idea?

“Athena, your big brother knows very little about fixing stories. But odds are it won’t hurt to add new dimensions. Do you plan to add new characters, or flesh out your current ones some more?”

“Neither; that’s not what I meant. I plan to introduce new dimensions--as in new dimensions of space.”

“You’re kidding, right? You’re going to write about alternative realities--like places where people have alternative spiritual experiences or where they go when they die, or when they have near-death experiences?* I didn’t think you went in for that sort of thing.”

“Come on, Ike. You know I don’t. I’m talking about different spatial dimensions--not different spiritual planes!”

“But how can different spatial dimensions change anything? Why would using paper with different dimensions--11″ x 8″ instead of 12″ x 9″, for example--make any difference at all?”

“Stop teasing. That’s not what I’m talking about either. I’m really planning to introduce new dimensions of space, just like the dimensions we see, but along entirely new directions.”

“Dimensions we don’t see? I thought three dimensions is all there are.”

“Hang on, Ike. We’ll soon see about that.”

*Questions I’ve actually been asked.

Restricted Passages: Rolled-up Extra Dimensions

Athena awoke with a start. The previous day she had read Alice in Wonderland and Flatland in order to seek some inspiration about dimensions. But that night she had the strangest dream, which, when fully conscious, she recognized as the result of having read the two books on the same day.*

Athena dreamed she had turned into Alice, slipped into a rabbit hole, and met the resident Rabbit, who had pushed her out into an unfamiliar world. Athena had thought it a rather rude way to convey a guest. Even so, she had eagerly looked forward to the upcoming adventure in Wonderland.

Athena was in for a disappointment, however. The resident Rabbit, who was fond of puns, had sent her instead to OneDLand, a strange, not so wonderful, one-dimensional world. Athena looked around--or, I should say, to her left and right--and discovered that all she could see were two points--one to her left and another to her right (but in a prettier color, she thought).

In OneDLand, all the one-dimensional people with their one-dimensional possessions were lined up along this single dimension like long, thin beads strung out along a thread. But even with her limited purview, Athena knew there must be more to OneDLand than met her eyes because of the outrageous din that met her ears. A Red Queen was well hidden behind a dot, but Athena couldn’t miss her strident yells: “This is the most ridiculous chess game I have ever seen! I can’t move any pieces, not even to castle!” Athena was relieved when she realized her one-dimensional existence shielded her from the wrath of the Red Queen.

But Athena’s cozy universe did not last long. Slipping through a gap in ONeDLand, she returned to the dreamworld’s rabbit hole, which had an elevator that could take her to hypothetical, other dimensional universes. Almost immediately, the Rabbit announced, “Next stop: TwoDLand--a two-dimensional world.” Athena didn’t think “TwoDLand” a very nice name, but she cautiously entered all the same.

Athena needn’t have been so hesitant. Almost everything in TwoDLand looked the same as in OneDLand. SHe did notice one difference--a vial labeled “Drink me.” Bored with one dimension, Athena promptly obeyed. She quickly shrank to a tiny size, and as she became smaller, a second dimension came into view. This second dimension was not very big--it was wrapped around in a fairly small circle. Her surroundings now resembled the surface of an extremely long tube. A Dodo was racing around the circular dimension, but he wanted to stop. So he kindly offered Athena, who looked rather hungry, some cake.

When Athena ate a morsel of the Dodo’s dreamcake, she started to grow. After only a few bites (she was quite sure of this, as she was still rather hungry), the cake very nearly disappeared; all that remained was a very tiny crumb. At least Athena thought there was a crumb, but she could see it only when she squinted very hard. And the cake wasn’t the only thing that had vanished from view: when Athena returned to her usual size, the entire second dimension had disappeared.

She thought to herself, “TwoDLand is very yodd indeed. I’d best be getting home.” Her return journey was not without further adventures, but those will be kept for another time.

*Or perhaps this story is a result of my having begun my education at the perhaps questionably named Lewis Carroll School, P.S. 179, in Queens. 

Exclusive Passages: Branes, Braneworlds, and the Bulk

Unlike the studious Athena, Ike rarely read any books. He generally preferred playing with games, gadgets, and cars. But Ike hated driving in Boston, where the drivers were reckless, the roads were badly signposted, and the highways were invariably under construction. Ike always ended up stuck in traffic, which he found especially frustrating when he could see a nearly empty freeway overhead. Though the empty road would be tempting, Ike would have no way to quickly reach it since, unlike Athena’s owls*, he couldn’t fly. For Ike trapped on slow roads in Boston, the third dimension was no use at all. 

[*nb: owls are mentioned in the chapter body:]

When you peg someone as one-dimensional, you actually have something rather specific in mind: you mean that the person only has a single interest. For example, Sam, who does nothing but sit at home watching sports, can be described with just one piece of information. If you felt so inclined, you could picture this information with a one-dimensional graph: Sam’s proclivity to watch sports, for example. In drawing this graph you need to specify your units so that someone else can udnerstand what the distance along this single axis means, such as the number of hours Sam spends per week watching sports on TV. (Fortunately, Sam won’t be insulted by this example; he is not among the multidimensional readers of this book.)

When we describe most people, however, we usually assign them more than one, or even three, characteristics. Athena is an eleven-year-old who reads avidly, excels at math, keeps abreast of current events, and raises pet owls. You might want to plot this too (though why, exactly, I’m not really sure). In that case, Athena would have to be plotted a s point in a five-dimensional space with axes corresponding to age, number of books read per week, average math test score, number of minutes spent reading the newspaper per day, and nubmer of owls she owns. However, I’m having trouble drawing such a graph.

“Hey, Athena, is that Casablanca you’re watching?”

“Sure is. Want to join me? This is such a great scene.”

You must remember this, A kiss is just a kiss, A sigh is just a sigh, The fundamental things apply as time goes by.

“Hang on, Ike. Don’t you think that last line’s a little weird? It’s supposed to be so romantic, but it almost sounds as if it’s about physics.”

“Athena, if you think that’s strange, you’ve got to hear the opening verse of the original:”

This day and age we’re living in, Give cause for apprehension, With speed and new invention, And things like fourth dimension, Yet we get a trifle weary, With Mr. Einstein’s theory...

“Ike, you don’t really expect me to believe that, do you? Next thing I know you’ll tell me Rick and Ilsa escape into the seventh dimension! Why don’t we forget I ever said anything and just sit back and watch the movie?”

[nb: actually true]

Relativity: The Evolution of Einstein’s Gravity

Icarus (Ike) Rushmore II couldn’t wait to show Dieter his new Porsche. But as proud as he was of his car, he was even more excited about his Global Positioning System (GPS) that he had recently designed and installed himself.

Ike wanted to impress Dieter, so he convinced his friend to drive with him to the local track. They got in the car, Ike programmed in their destination, and the two of them set off. But to Ike’s chagrin, they ended up in the wrong place--the GPS system didn’t work nearly as well as he had thought it would. Dieter’s first thought was that Ike must have made some ridiculous error, like confusing meters and feet. But Ike didn’t believe he could have made such a stupid mistake, and he bet Dieter that wasn’t the problem.

The next day, Ike and Dieter did some troubleshooting. But to their dismay, when they went for a drive, the GPS was even worse than before. Ike and Dieter searched again for the problem and finally, after a frustrating week, Dieter had an epiphany. He did a quick calculation and made the startling discovery that without accounting for general relativity, the GPS system would build up errors at the rate of more than 10 km per day. Ike didn’t think his Porsche was fast enough to warrant relativistic calculations, but Dieter explained that the GPS signals--not the car--travel at the speed of light. Dieter modified the software to account for the changing gravitational field the GPS signals had to pass through. .Ike’s system then worked as well as the readily available commercial variety. Relieved, Ike and Dieter began to plan a road trip.

Quantum Mechanics: Principled Uncertainty, the Principal Uncertainties, and the Uncertainty Principle

Ike wondered whether Athena was making him watch too many movies or Dieter was talking too much about physics. But whatever the reason, the previous night Ike dreamed he met a quantum detective. Dressed in a fedora, a trench coat, and with a stone-faced expression, the dream detective spoke:

“I knew nothing about her except her name, and that she was standing there before me. But from the moment I set eyes on her I knew Electra* would be trouble. When I asked her where she came from, she refused to say. The room had two entrances, and she must have come through one. But Electra whispered hoarsely, ‘Mister, forget it. I’ll never tell you which.’

“Although I saw that she was shaking, I tried to pin this lady down. But Electra paced frenetically when I started to approach. She begged me to come no closer. Seeing she was agitated, I kept away. I was no stranger to uncertainty, but this time it had me beat. It looked like uncertainty was going to stick around here for a while.”

*The name refers to the electron, not the character in Greek mythology.

The Standard Model of Particle Physics: Matter’s Most Basic Known Structure

Of all the stories she had read, Athena was most thoroughly perplexed by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Princess and the Pea.” The story tells of a Prince who searched unsuccessfully for a suitable princess to wed. After he had searched in vain for weeks, a potential princess arrived by chance at his palace, seeking shelter from a storm. This soggy visitor thereby became the unwitting subject of the Queen’s litmus test for princesses.

The Queen prepared a bed, which she piled high with mattresses and eiderdown quilts. At the very bottom of the pile she placed a solitary pea. That night, she showed her visitor to the carefully prepared guest room. The next morning, the princess (as indeed she proved herself to be) complained that she had not been able to sleep at all. She had tossed and turned the whole night, and found she had actually turned black and blue--all because of the uncomfortable pea. The Queen and Prince were convinced that their visitor was truly of royal blood, for who else could be so delicate?

Athena turned the story round and round in her head. She thought it fairly ridiculous, even the most sensitive of princesses, would ever have discovered the pea by lying passively on top of the pile of mattresses. After many days’ deliberation, Athena found a plausible interpretation, which she rushed to tell her brother.

She rejected the common interpretation that the princess proved her royal nature by demonstrating delicacy and refinement with her sensitivity to even something as minor as a pea under a pile of mattresses. She offered an alternative explanation.

Athena suggested that when the Queen went away and left the princess alone in the room, the princess threw decorum to the wind and gave vent to her boisterous youthful nature. The princess ran around and jumped up and down on her bed until she was exhausted, and only then lay down to try to sleep. Through her rambunctiousness, the princess compressed the mattresses so much that for a brief moment the pea stuck out like a sore thumb and gave her a small bruise. Athena thought this princess was still rather impressive, but found her revisionist interpretation much more satisfactory.

Experimental Interlude: Verifying the Standard Model

Ike once again dreamed he met the quantum detective. This time, the sleuth knew what he was after--and he had a pretty good idea where it should be. All he had to do was wait--sooner or later, if he wasn’t mistaken, his quarry would appear.

Symmetry: The Essential Organizing Principle

Athena uncaged three of her owls and let them fly around. Unfortunately for Ike, he had left the top of his convertible down that day and the curious owls flew right in. The most mischievous of the owls pecked at the car’s interior and ended up tearing it a little.

When Ike saw the damage, he stormed into Athena’s room and demanded that she watch her owls more carefully in the future. Athena protested that her owls were almost all well-behaved and she need only keep an eye on the bad one. But by that time the owls were back in their cages, and neither Ike nor Athena could identify which one was guilty.

The Origin of Elementary Particle Masses: Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking and the Higgs Mechanism

The stricter enforcement of speed limits made long-distance driving a nightmare for Icarus III. He longed to race as fast as he pleased, but police pulled him over nearly every half-mile. The cops never bothered with dull, neutral cars, but harassed only the lively, turbo-charged vehicles, like his own.

Ike resigned himself to driving only short distances, since that way he could avoid the police altogether. Within the half-mile-wide region around where he started, police never interfered and he could always drive impressively fast. Though the Porsche engine’s force was unknown outside his neighborhood, closer to home it became legendary.

Scaling and Grand Unification: Relating Interactions at Different Lengths and Energies

Athena often felt like she was the last to be told anything interesting. She didn’t even hear about Ike’s adventures with his car until after he had owned it for over a month. And she didn’t learn them from him directly--she learned about them from a friend of hers who had heard about them from Dieter’s cousin’s brother, who had learned about them from Dieter’s cousin, who had heard about them from Dieter.

Through this indirect route, Athena was told Ike’s remark, “The influence of forces depends on where you are.” Ike’s uncharacteristic pronouncement completely mystified Athena until she realized that the message must have been distorted along the way. After thinking about it for a while, she decided that Ike’s real remark must have been, “The performance of Porsches depends on the model of the car.”

The Hierarchy Problem: The Only Effective Trickle-Down Theory

Ike Rushmore III came to an ignominious end when he drove his resplendent new Porsche into a lamppost.  He was nonetheless happy in Heaven, where he could play games all the time. He was a gambling man at heart.

One day, God Himself invited Ike to a rather strange game. God told him to write down a sixteen-digit number. God would roll the heavenly isocahedral die. Unlike a normal, cubic die with six sides, this die had twenty sides, with the digits 0 through 9 written twice. God explained that He would throw this die sixteen times and construct a sixteen-digit number by listing the results, one after the other. If God and Ike came up with the same enormous number--that is, if all the digits matched in the correct order--God would win. If the numbers weren’t exactly the same--that is, if any of the digits failed to match--Ike would defeat God.

God began to roll. The first side that came up was the number 4. This agreed with the first digit of Ike’s number, which was 4,715,031,495,526,312. Ike was surprised when God rolled correctly, since the odds were only one in ten. Nevertheless, he was pretty sure the second or third number would be wrong; the odds of God’s rolling both numbers correctly in succession was only one in a hundred.

God threw the first die for a second and then a third time. He rolled a 7 and then a 1, which were also correct. He kept rolling until, to Ike’s astonishment, He had rolled all sixteen digits correctly. The chances of this happening randomly were only 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000. How could God have won?

Ike was a bit angry (one can’t get very angry in Heaven) and asked how something so ridiculously unlikely could have happened. God sagely replied, “I am the only one who could expect to win, since I am both omniscient and omnipotent. Howeer, you must have heard, I do not like to play dice.”

And with that, GAMBLING FORBIDDEN was posted on a cloud. Ike was furious (of course, only a little). Not only had he lost the game, but he’d also lost the right to gamble.

Supersymmetry: A Leap Beyond the Standard Model

When Icarus first arrived in Heaven, he was directed to an orientation seminar where the authorities explained the local rules. To his surprise, he learned that right-wing religious groups were essentially correct, and family values were indeed a cornerstone of his new environment. The authorities had long ago established and traditional family structure premised on the separation of generations and the stability of marriages; a top would always marry a bottom, a charmer would always align with a strange bird, and an uptown girl would always marry a downtown cool cat. Everyone, including Ike, was satisfied with the arrangement.

But Ike later learned that the social structure in Heaven had not always been so secure. Originally, dangerous energetic infiltrators had threatened the hierarchical foundation of society. In Heaven, however, most problems can be solved. God had sent everyone a personal guardian angel, and the angels and their charges had heroically worked together to avert the threat to the hierarchy and preserve the ordered society that Ike could now enjoy.

Even so, Heaven was not entirely safe. The angels turned out to be free agents, with no contract binding them to a single generation. The fickle angels, who had so bravely rescued the hierarchy, now threatened to destroy Heaven’s family values. Ike was appalled. Despite Heaven’s well-advertised attractions, he was finding it a surprisingly stressful place.

Allegro (Ma Non Troppo) Passage for Strings

Fast forward a millennium.

Icarus Rushmore XLII was trying out his new Alicxvr Device, Model 6.3, that he had recently purchased from the Spacernet. (Icarus III’s interest in speed and gadgets had apparently been passed down through many generations.) The Alicxvr was designed to let the user view things of any size, from the very small to the very large. Ike was pretty sure that most of his friends who had purchased the Alicxvr Device would first try the large settings, of many megaparsecs, so they could see into outer space beyond the known universe. But Ike thought, “I know just as little about what is happening at extremely tiny distances,” and decided to investigate a miniscule scale instead.

However, Ike was an impatient sort. He couldn’t be bothered to read the extensive instruction manual accompanying his device and instead decided to plunge right in. Blithely ignoring the red indicator overlapping the smallest sizes, he adjusted his dial to the 10 -33 cm setting and pressed the button labeled “Go.”

To his horror, he found himself space-sick in a wildly oscilllating, precipitous landscape filled with strings. Space was no longer the smooth, anonymous background he was accustomed to. Instead it was jiggling rapidly in places, heading into pointy sections in others, or wandering off into loops that pinched off or later rejoined the surface. Ike fumbled desperately for the “Stop” button and only just managed to press it in time to return to normal with his senses intact.

After recovering his stability, Ike decided he probably should have read the manual after all. He turned to the “Warning” section and read: “Your new Alicxvr Device Model 6.3 works only for sizes larger than 10 -33 cm. We have not yet incorporated the latest string theory developments, whose predictions physicist and mathematicians connected to the physical world only last year.”

Ike was very disappointed when he realized that only the newer Model 7.0 included the latest results. But Ike then caught up with the most recent string theory developments, souped up his Alicxvr, and never got space-sick again.

Supporting Passages: Brane Development

Ike Rushmore XLII decided to dive down once again to the miniscule Planck scale. Happily, his souped-up Alicxvr worked perfectly and he smoothly arrived in a ten-dimensional universe filled with strings. Eager to explore his new environment, Ike cranked up the hyperdrive attachment he had purchased from Gbay. He watched with fascination as strings collided and tangled in mesmerizing ways.

Although Ike worried that the Alicxvr might break down, he was curious to learn more about this novel world. So he increased the pressure on the hyperdrive lever. At first strings collided together even more frequently. But when he cranked up the lever still more, he entered a new, completely unrecognizable environment. Ike couldn’t even tell whether spacetime was intact. But he kept cranking up the hyperdrive, and, strangely enough, emerged unscathed.*

However, his surroundings were now quite different. Ike was no longer in the ten-dimensional universe he had started off in. He was instead in an eleven-dimensional universe filled with particles and branes. And, odd as it seemed, nothing in this new universe interacted very much. When Ike looked back at his controls, he discovered the hyperdrive lever had mysteriously reset to low. Confused and rather exasperated, Ike cranked up the lever once again, only to find himself back where he started. When Ike checked thee controls, he discovered that the hyperdrive lever was once again back at low.

Ike thought his Alicxvr was probably malfunctioning. But when he checked his up-to-date manual he discovered that his device was operating perfectly--high hyperdrive in ten-dimensional string theory was the same as low hyperdrive in an alternate eleven-dimensional world. And vice versa.

The manual didn’t say what should happen when the hyperdrive wasn’t very low or very high, so Ike entered the spacernet and put himself on the wait-list for an improved version that would solve the problem. But the Alicxvr designers promised only that the release date would be some time within the millennium.

*Actually, according to the duality we learn about in this chapter, even the probes used to study a given version of string theory change character when the coupling becomes strong. So if Ike really was part of the string world, he, too, would change.

Bustling Passages: Braneworlds

Icarus III was becoming increasingly disillusioned with Heaven. He had expected it to be a liberal, forgiving environment. But instead, gambling was prohibited, metal silverware was forbidden, and smoking was no longer allowed. The most restrictive constraint of all was that Heaven was stuck on a Heavenbrane; its residents were forbidden to travel into the fifth dimension.

Everyone on the Heavenbrane knew about the fifth dimension and the existence of other branes. In fact, the righteous Heavenbraners often whispered about the unsavory characters sequestered on a Jailbrane not too far away. However, the Jailbraners couldn’t hear any of the slander that Heavenbraners spread about them, so all remained peaceful in the bulk and on the branes.

Sparsely Populated Passages: Multiverses and Sequestering

Despite its explicit prohibition on the Heavenbrane, Icarus III ultimately returned to gambling. After ignoring repeated reprimands, he was sentenced to confinement on the Jailbrane, a distant brane separated from the Heavenbrane along a fifth dimension. Even after he was sequestered on the Jailbrane, Ike doggedly tried to contact his former buddies. But the distance between their two branes made communication difficult. He was reduced to flagging down passing bulk mail carriers, many of whom ignored his entreaties altogether. The few who did stop always conveyed his messages to the Heavenbrane, but at a frustratingly leisurely pace.

Meanwhile, back on the Heavenbrane, disaster loomed. The guardian angels, who had so bravely rescued the hierarchy, had no respect for the other residents’ family values and were on the verge of creating intergenerational instability. Heaven’s fallen angels considered all pairings acceptable and encouraged everyone to mix with a trophy partner from another generation.

When Ike learned of the threat, he was aghast and he resolved to redeem the situation. Ike realized that by using the slow and deliberate manner with which he was constrained to communicate with the Heavenbrane, he could judiciously feed the massive egos of the unruly angels living there. Thanks to Ike’s helpful intervention, the angels stopped threatening the social order. Although Icarus III still had to serve his sentence, the relieved residents on the Heavenbrane honored him forevermore in urban myth.

Leaky Passages: Fingerprints of Extra Dimensions

Athena had to admit that she missed Ike. Even though she had often found him annoying, she was pretty lonely without him. She was looking forward to spending time with K. Square, an exchange student who was planning to visit. But she was appalled by the closed-mindedness of her neighbors, who were all apprehensive about K. Square’s arrival. It didn’t matter that he spoke the same language and behaved the same way as everyone else. In the current climate, K. Square’s foreign origin alone was enough to make them wary.

When Athena asked her neighbors why they were so anxious, they replied “What if he sends for his heavier relatives? What if they’re not so well behaved as he is and stick to their foreign laws? And when they all arrive together, what will happen then?”

Unfortunately, Athena heightened their suspicions by telling them that K. Square and his relatives couldn’t possibly stay long in any case, since they were all very unstable and the K. Square family could visit only during the commotion of energetic gatherings. Recognizing her unfortunate choice of words, Athena reassuringly added that the foreigners would stick to local laws during their brief and exciting visits. Convinced, her neighbors then joined her in welcoming the K. Square clan.

Voluminous Passages: Large Extra Dimensions

Now that K. Square’s visit was over, Athena spent a lot of time at the local Internet cafe. She was exhilarated by her recent discovery of some mysterious new websites, the most intriguing of which was xxx.socloseandyetsofar.al. Athena suspected that these suggestive sites were a consequence of the recent AOB (America On Brane)/Spacetime Warner multimedia merger, but she had to go home before she had time to investigate.

When Athena arrived at her house she rushed to her computer, where she once again sought the exotic hyperlinks that had been so readily accessible at the Internet cafe. To her frustration, however, CyberNanny prevented her from reaching the forbidden dimensionally enhanced sites.* But by cloaking her identity with her secure alias, Mentor, Athena vanquished her cybercensor and succeeded in finally returning to the mysterious hyperlinks.

Athena secretly hoped that K. Square had sent her a message that was hidden in a webpage. But the sites were not easy to understand, and she managed to pick up only a few potentially meaningful signals. She resolved to study their content some more and hoped the merger--unlike the other merger with a similar name--would last long enough for her to figure them out.

*Physicists post their papers on a website that begins with “xxx”: check out xxx.lanl.gov. Internet filters have occasionally forbidden access to this site as well.

Warped Passage: A Solution to the Hierarchy Problem

Athena awoke with a start. She had just revisited her recurring dream, which had again begun with her entering the dreamworld’s rabbit hole. In this episode, when the Rabbit announced, “Next stop, TwoDLand,” Athena ignored him and waited to hear the choices that remained.

At the three-spatial-dimensional stop, the Rabbit announced “If you lived here, you’d be home by now.” But he refused to open the doors, despite Athena’s pleas that she did indeed live there and very much wanted to return home.

At the next stop, uniformed six-dimensioners tried to enter. But the Rabbit took one look at their inordinately large girth and abruptly closed the doors, saying that they couldn’t possibly fit. They quickly departed once the Rabbit threatened to cut them down to size.*

The elevator continued on its extraordinary journey. When it stopped again, the Rabbit announced, “Warped Geometry--a five-dimensional world.”** He gently pushed Athena towards the door, advising her, “Enter the funhouse mirror--it will take you home.”

Since the Rabbit had mentioned a fifth dimension, Athena found this highly unlikely. But she didn’t have any choice but to enter and hope the tricky Rabbit was right.

*As we saw in Chapter 18, extra dimensions can be uniform, large, and flat. The Rabbit is skeptical about this idea. **This counting includes a dimension of time.

The Warped Annontated “Alice” ¹

Athena stepped out of the dreamworld’s elevator into the warped five-dimensional world and was astonished to see only three spatial dimensions. Was the Rabbit playing games, pretending to take her to a world with four spatial dimensions when in fact there were only three? What a funny way to travel to what looked like an ordinary world!²

With great gallantry, a local received the puzzled new arrival. “Welcome to Branesville,³  our glorious capital. Permit me to show you around.” Athena, who was tired and confused, blurted out, “Branesville doesn’t look all that special. Even the mayor looks completely normal,” although she had to confess, she wasn’t entirely sure as she had never seen a mayor before.

The mayor to whom Athena referred had arrived accompanied by the Cheshire Fat Cat, his Chief Advisor. The Cat’s job was keeping tabs on everything in the city, which was greatly facilitated by his skill at catching people unawares--especially surprising in lgith of the Cat’s enormous bulk. The Cat loved to explain that he owed this skill to his ability to disappear into the bulk, but no one ever understood what he meant.⁴

The Cat materialized next to Athena and asked if she would like to accompany him as he made his rounds. He warned her tha she had better be comfortable ith bulk, to which Athena eagerly responded that her favorite uncle was in fact very, very fat. The Cat looked skeptical, but agreed to take her along. He offered Athena cream cake with butter frosting, in which she happily indulged. And off they went.

Athena wondered what it was she’d eaten. She now appeared to be on a four-dimensional slice of a five-dimensional world, and as far as she could tell, she was no thicker than this thin four-dimensional slice. She exclaimed, “I am like my paper doll! But whereas Dolly has two spatial dimensions in a three-dimensional world, I have three spatial dimensions in a four-dimensional world.

The Cat grinned sagely and explained, “You are now conscious of what I like to call The Bulk. You are still in Branesville, but will be leaving (and growing) momentarily. Branesville is in reality part of a five-dimensional universe, but the fifth dimension is warped so discreetly that Branesville residents are completely unaware of its existence. They have no idea that Branesville is the border of a five-dimensional state. You too mistakenly concluded on your arrival that there are only three spatial dimensions. The new Athena, untethered from the brane, is free to travel out into the fifth dimension. May I suggest for our destination another village called Weakbrane, at the other edge of the five-dimensional universe?”

What a strange five-dimensional journey it turned out to be. After leaving Branesville, Athena found herself moving in another dimension, and growing as she did so.⁵  When the observant Cat noticed the confused look on Athena’s face, he reassuringly explained, “Weakbrane is close by and we will be there very soon.⁶ It’s lovely, but don’t be alarmed when you see that, like the Branesville residents you encountered, Weakbrane residents scoff at the notion of four spatial dimensions. You, who can see out into the bulk, will see a huge shadow on Branesville, ten million billion times bigger than the one with which you started. Almost everything else will seem to you and to them to be entirely normal.”

But upon her arrival in Weakbrane, Athena noticed one other thing. The four-dimensional graviton had quietly accompanied the travelers on their journey and was softly tapping on her shoulder. He touched her so extremely gently that she had barely noticed.⁷

But she couldnt’ ignore the graviton when he launched into a litany of complaints. “Weakbrane would be so exciting, were it not for the superior influence of the entrenched hierarchy. The strong, weak, and electromagnetic armed forces on the Weakbrane permit me only the most feeble strength.” The graviton whined how everywhere else he was a force to be reckoned with, especially in Branesville, which is ruled by an oligarchy with comparably strong forces.⁸  Weakbrane, where gravity was the most suppressed, was the graviton’s least favorite place.⁹ The graviton turned to Athena in hope of enlisting her in his plan to wrest power from the reigning authorities.

Athena thought she had better leave immediately and looked around for the rabbit hole, but couldn’t find it. She did find a white rabbit, whom she expected to be an efficient guide. But the Weakbrane rabbit had an alarmingly sluggish gait, and kept repeating how happy he was that his date would wait.¹⁰ Athena realized that this rabbit wasn’t going anywhere, so she found a more anxious rabbit she could follow, and worked her way back home. Once she understood the physics implications, Athena enjoyed her dream enormously--though it should be noted that she never again ate cream cake.

¹ This title borrows from Martin Gardner’s delightful Annotated Alice, in which he explains the wordplay, math riddles, and references in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. ² The brane itself is large and flat and has only three spatial dimensions. Only gravity makes contact with the additional dimension. Remember that the five-dimensional space has four spatial dimensions (and one of time), whereas the brane has three spatial dimensions. I’ll still call time the fourth dimension, and I’ll call the additional dimension the fifth. ³ Branesville is the Gravitybrane. ⁴ The Fat Cat, unlike Branesville residents, is not confined to the brane. ⁵ Everything is bigger and lighter near the Weakbrane. Athena’s shadow over Branesville grew as she got closer to the Weakbrane and further away from the Gravitybrane. ⁶ The fifth dimension does not have to be very big in order to solve the hierarchy problem. ⁷ Gravity is feeble on the Weakbrane, where the graviton’s probability function is so small. ⁸ On the Gravitybrane, gravity is no weaker than the other forces. ⁹ The petulant graviton is complaining that on the Weakbrane, gravity is much weaker than the electromagnetic, weak, and strong forces. Gravity would be much stronger (and have a strength closer to that of the other forces) closer to the Gravitybrane. ¹⁰ Things are bigger and time is slower on the Weakbrane.  The rabbit’s laxness is accounted for by rescaling time. 

Profound Passage: An Infinite Extra Dimension

Athena woke up with a start. Her recurring dream had once again taken her down the rabbit hole. This time, however, she asked the rabbit to take her straight back to the warped five-dimensional world. Athena arrived back in Branesville (or so she thought). The Cat soon appeared, and she eagerly turned to him, anticipating her dream cake and a delightful excursion to the Weakbrane. She was sorely disappointed when the Cat told her there was no such thing as Weakbrane in this particular universe.*

Athena didn’t believe the Cat and thought there must be another brane further away. Proud of herself for understanding how, in the warped geometry, further-away branes had weaker gravity, she decided it was probably called the “Meekbrane” and asked the Cat whether she could go there.

But once again she was in for a disappointment. The Cat explained, “There is no such place. You are on the Brane; there are no others.”

“Curiouser and curiouser, thought Athena. This clearly wasn’t exactly the same space as before, since it had only a single brane. But Athena wasn’t ready to give up. “May I see for myself that there is no other brane?” she asked in her sweetest tone.

The Cat strongly advised her against it, warning, “Four-dimensional gravity on the brane is no guarantee of four-dimensional gravity in the bulk. Once I nearly lost everything but my smile there.”

Athena was a cautious girl, despite her many adventures, and she took the Cat’s warning to heart. But she often wondered what the Cat meant. What did lie beyond the Brane, and how would she ever know?

*The geomery of this chapter is warped, as in the previous ones, but now there is only a single brane--the Gravitybrane. Although this means that there is an infinite fifth dimension, this chapter will show why this is perfectly fine with the warped spacetime. 

A Reflective and Expansive Passage

Ike XLII as ready to live large. He wanted to test the Alicxvr’s ultra-high settings of many megaparsecs, with which he could explore places beyond the Galaxy and the known universe and experience distant regions no one had ever seen before.

So he was thrilled when the Alicxvr took him to distances 9, 12, and 13 billion light-years away. But his excitement diminished when he tried to go farther and his signal strength fell precipitously. When he aimed for 15 billion years, his exploration aborted completely: he no longer received any information at all. Instead, he heard, “Message 5B73: The Horizon customer you are trying to reach is beyond your calling area. If you need assistance, please contact your local long-distance operator.”

Ike couldnt’ believe his ears. It was the thirty-first century, yet his Horizon service still provided only limited coverage. When Ike tried to contact the operator, a recording said, “Please stay on the brane. Your call will be answered in the order in which it was received.” Ike suspected that the operator would never respond, and was wise enough not to wait.

Extra Dimensions: Are You In or Are You Out?

Athena’s dreams about OneDLand, branes, and five dimensions were passed down for generations. When Ike XLII heard them, he wanted to check whether there was any truth to her stories. So he took out his Alicxvr and went down to a very small scale--not so small that strings would appear, but sufficiently small to check whether there was a fifth dimension. The Alicxvr answered Ike’s question by sending him off to a five-dimensional world.

But Ike was not completely satisfied. He remembered the bizarre things that had happened earlier on when he had fooled around with the hyperdrive option. So he once again cranked up the hyperdrive lever--and once again, everything changed drastically. Ike couldn’t identify a single familiar point. He could tell only one thing: the fifth dimension had disappeared.

Ike was mystified, so he searched the spacernet to see what it could tell him about “dimensions.” He waded through numerous sites that he recognized from his more embarassing spam, but soon realized that he’d have to refine his search. When he still couldn’t find anything definitive, he conceded that he wouldn’t know the fundamental origin of dimensions any time soon. So he decided to turn his attention to time travel instead.

(In)Conclusion

Icarus Rushmore XLII used his time machine to visit the past and warn Icarus III of the disaster that awaited him should he continue driving his Porsche. Ike III was so astounded by his visitor from the future that he heeded Ike XLII’s warning. He traded in his Porsche for a Fiat and subsequently led a full, contented, and slower-paced life.

Athena was ecstatic to be reunited with her brother, and Dieter was happy to see his friend, though both of them were confused since it seemed as if Ike had never left. Athena and Dieter realized that the time travel that Ike reported to them was pure fiction. Even in dreams, the Cat never looped through time, the Rabbit never reached a stop with extra time dimensions, and the quantum detective refused to contemplate such odd behavior of time. But Athena and Dieter preferred happy endings. So they suspended disbelief and accepted Ike’s fantastic story all the same.

[arwenkenobi48]

The Feral Opress Headcanon Masterpost

Now updated and expanded!

Canon Star Wars Timeline:

Feral was the youngest son of Mother Talzin. He was born almost two months premature and had a twin who died at birth. Feral himself almost died because he was very weak. Talzin rejected him because of this. However, the Nightsister Kycina believed there was hope for him and raised him in secret. Once he was strong enough, she delivered him to the Nightbrothers, directly to Savage Opress.

Feral was very quiet and shy as a child, preferring to stay Savage’s side. He would cry at the slightest thing, resulting in his peers calling him a crybaby. Savage would defend him every time.

There are a large number of blue moth-like insects that live on Dathomir, in the caves surrounding the Nightbrothers’ village. Feral watched them when they come out at night. They often settle on his nose and/or horns.

Feral was a late bloomer when he reached adolescence. He even still had four of his milk teeth. As a result, his markings developed later than other Nightbrothers and it made him very self conscious and physically uncomfortable. Poor little babby </3

Feral, like most Nightbrothers, was illiterate until he became a tribal leader, alongside Savage. Even now he can barely count past 23.

Feral was born on a leap year. Technically, although he should be 20, he’s only 5 years old. <3

AU: A Galaxy Far Far Away

Feral is never choked by Savage. Instead, he tags along with Obi-Wan and Anakin, is taken to Coruscant and starts a new life as a Republic officer. He becomes friends with Ahsoka and gets along very well with the Clone troopers. He and Rex also happen to fall in love, as well. <3

Feral has a crush on a fellow Nightbrother, Lash, but doesn’t meet him again until the latter becomes a bounty hunter and finds work on Kamino training Clone cadets.

On one occasion, Feral is captured by Separatist spies, frozen in carbonite and transported to the remote system of Tau Cheti. The planet of Tau Prime - located on the edge of Wild Space - is home to a race of hostile bird-like aliens who have a deep hatred for Zabraks.

Feral barely makes it out of there alive. Lash teams up with Rex, Ahsoka and Anakin to rescue him and they succeed! :D

After finding Savage again, Feral stows away on board the ship that takes them to Lotho Minor. He and Savage have a tearful reunion.

When he finds Maul, Feral is horrified, to say the least. He’s even more shaken up when he realises his home world is in ruins. After Maul is healed, Feral is further frightened by his lust for revenge.

After Obi-Wan is captured, poor Feral finds himself torn between his loyalty to his brothers and the Republic. In the lightsaber fight between Jedi and Sith, Feral loses his right hand to Maul’s lightsaber. He would have lost more if he hadn’t escaped with Obi-Wan and Ventress.

Feral later receives a prosthetic hand, but the poor bab is still very upset. He can’t stop thinking about Savage and Maul. During this difficult time, he meets Yoda and discovers that he is Force sensitive like his brothers. Although he is too old to begin Jedi training, Feral gets an idea of what it’s like from Ahsoka.

After having a vision of Savage’s death on Mandalore, Feral travels to the war-torn planet, much against the will of everyone else. There, he tries to persuade Savage to join him and the Republic. However, he is shot by a Death Watch Commando. The shot doesn’t kill him, but he loses consciousness and Savage, grief-stricken, believes he is dead.

Taken back to the Republic by Obi-Wan, Feral remains comatose for a few weeks. When he regains consciousness, he is heartbroken to learn that Savage is dead. He constantly blames himself for not being able to save his brother. Try as they might, neither Rex nor Ahsoka can console him. </3

When Ahsoka travels to Mandalore to fight Maul after leaving the Jedi Order, Feral goes with her and Rex. There, he and Maul fight once again. Maul ignores Feral’s pleas to join him. Feral bravely states that he has no hatred for Maul and forgives him, hoping that they may meet again someday.

Sure enough, Maul and Feral do meet again by the time of the Rebellion. After Maul’s redemption, he joins Feral in Phoenix Squadron. In that same Rebel cell, Feral reunites with Rex, Ahsoka and Lash, who has become an A-Wing pilot.

Feral survives the Battle of Scarif, the Battle of Yavin, the Battle of Hoth AND the battle of Endor! :D He and Rex are overjoyed that the Empire has fallen and they both live peaceful lives.

Feral, Maul and Rex all pass away on the same day. About twelve years before the events of The Force Awakens, all three of them die peacefully in their sleep. (sry if this is too sad)

AU: Legend of the Night Watcher

Feral and Savage both live relatively normal lives on Coruscant, running a small delivery service.

However, Feral dresses up as a vigilante every night and goes to fight crime in the Coruscant underworld, earning himself the alias of the Night Watcher.

Nobody else knows the Night Watcher’s true identity except for Savage and Maul, who is the ruler of Mandalore. Maul is openly proud of Feral, whereas Savage is very protective and wants Feral to be safe, despite his risky job.

Feral is notably more confident and sassy in this AU, but he’s still the cinnamon roll we all know and love. <3

He and Rex are married as well :D

AU: At Home With The Zabrak Brothers

Feral lives a normal suburban life with his brothers and spends his days playing the guitar in the streets, singing Ed Sheeran songs and the like. He hopes to become a professional musician someday. <3

He is obsessed with Luke Skywalker and watches the Original Trilogy on an almost daily basis. He even has the Jedi’s name tattooed onto his abs in Korean script. XD

Feral vapes frequently, mostly just to annoy Maul when he’s reading so he can blow a huge cloud of steam into his face. :D

His relationship with Mother Talzin is shaky, to say the least. She barely even knows his name half the time.

Feral has a red panda plushie named Luke Skywalker, which he sleeps with every single night <3 In addition to his, he still uses a pacifier and Savage reads and/or sings to him at bedtime.

Feral loves Disney movies and listening to trap music. He always sings in the car when he and his bros are travelling somewhere. Savage now has A Whole New World stuck in his head for eternity XD

Feral has two exotic shorthair cats named Nightwish and Starset, after his favourite bands. Yep, Feral listens to some pretty hardcore music XD Those cats are spoiled rotten and Feral pampers them and pets them so much that he’s basically turned them into bratty sentient pillows that follow him around demanding treats 24/7.

Feral is addicted to junk food. When Savage bought a giant box of cookies, Feral snuck into the kitchen in the middle of the night and ate them one by one for about three months solid before he was busted.

He once mistook wasabi for guacamole, which eventually led to him and his brothers being thrown out of Itsu.

In this AU, Feral is basically a big kid. He eats messy, is super innocent and loves playing and having a good time.

AU: YouTuber Life

In this AU, Feral and his bros are youtubers, of course :3

Feral has his own solo channel, called Forever Feral. It’s basically a little like dangmattsmith. Video topics include mini-vlogs, reactions, life hack experiments and LEGO Star Wars gameplay. Feral has his plushie with him in every single video :D

A number of Feral’s videos contain little skits in which he plays three different characters: Luke Skywalker, (the plushie), Inspector Whitby, his Sherlock-esque British alter-ego and Tariq, a blue dragon that speaks in verse and lives in an Arabian magic lamp.

Feral also has a channel that he shares with his brothers, just called The Zabrak Brothers, which has vlogs, Battlefront 2 gameplay and sketch comedies.

Feral has a habit of making cute commentaries on everything and has become famous for his catchphrase: “Sheesh-kebabs!” which he says whenever something dramatic happens.

AU: Nightbrothers: Ghosts of Dathomir

This AU is basically an alternate ending for the Son of Dathomir comics, tied in to A Galaxy Far Far Away in some aspects, as Feral and the other Nightbrothers are all relatively safe there (well Feral is anyways) until the Shadow Collective and Separatists bring the war back to their world. Instead of being exterminated, however, the Nightbrothers simply escape and try to find their own place in the Galaxy.

During the age of the Empire, Feral returns with his brethren to Dathomir, only to find the entire place populated with Nightsister Ghosts. After Brother Viscus resurrects Savage via an eerie blood-theme ritual, Feral explains what’s been happening to his brother as best he can, but the poor bab is pretty much traumatised by all the spooky stuff happening around him. Nonetheless, he joins his fellow Nightbrothers as they basically become the Star Wars equivalent of Ghostbusters and seek to purge Dathomir of the Ghosts and leave the past behind. 

Feral is rather skittish and meek in this AU, but has something of a boastful streak despite that. He’ll claim to be hard to scare, then cling to Savage screaming “Mommy!” Not ideal when you’re a ghost hunter XD

Misc/General Headcanons

Feral is gay and asexual. He’s been questioning his sexual orientation since he reached puberty and it’s taken him some time to come to terms with it, but he’s happy with it <3

Feral is also a demiboy and only feels vaguely connected to the male gender. He’s pretty much always known what he was feeling, but couldn’t find the words to describe it until recent years. Sometimes he worries that he ends up supporting the ‘flamboyant gay’ stereotype, but Savage and/or his S.O. reminds him that he’s perfect just the way he is <3

Feral will always be a kid at heart. He might have brief moments of cynicism but overall he has a very innocent and optimistic outlook on life.

Feral is on the autism spectrum (possibly Aspergers, but nobody’s really sure). He also has a bit of social anxiety, but the stronger his connection to someone, the easier communication is :)

Canon fact about Feral that few people know: 

He was only 20 when a certain event happened... </3

So yeah, this is it, finally completed! Yay! :D Hope everyone enjoys this! <3 May the Force be with you, always :)