#constantine (sole survivor)

[secondhand-lions]

here's some Constantine tidbits! (attempted) timeline order. [EDIT: noragirlfriend is now named!!!!! thank you charlie!!!!!!!!!! say hi, Hestia!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

claustrophobia counter: I

- grew up in the Great Plains. home life wasn't the greatest due to his dad. got into motorcross/motorcycling because it was cool and he needed an escape in his early teens

- in his late teens his ma moved them both over to Boston after his parents got divorced to be closer to his ma's family.

- ... even though that family was estranged. what else can you do? money and resources were tight.

claustrophobia counter: II

- spent most of his non-school time running around the alleys and sidestreets and nooks+crannys of Boston. this is where he got to know Nora.

- she was WAYYYYY out of his league; as much as a young punk egg-not-not-cracked trans girl can be.

- nora's his best friend! they loved eachother as much as two people can without being in love.

- she had a pretty shit relationship with her parents. Constantine's ma opened her home for her.

- couple years pass. Nora gets into law school, meets her girlfriend (Hestia). Constantine's ma dies. They both take time off of regular activities to mourn. Nora goes back to law school and graduates with flying colours.

- Constantine dodges the draft.

- Constantine attempts to dodge the draft.

- medic!

- killed his commanding officer. not not caught, but the rest of his squad hated the guy as well, so it's not like this was reported. one more casualty.

- glasgow smiles are from a brief stint in captivity

claustrophobia counter: III

- medical leave. Hestia gets pregnant.

- he was still a field medic by the time Anchorage happened. he saw a lot of kids die because of armour malfunctions.

claustrophobia counter: IV

- his team had secured a building and was trying to get it set up as a fallback point for future assaults when the surrounding buildings started being blown up. when he realized what was happening, he gave his helmet to a non-armoured soldier, just before a missile struck their building.

- building collapses. Constantine is stuck under the rubble, specifically crushing his left leg. develops acute compartment syndrome/crush syndrome.

claustrophobia counter: V

- under there for quite a while. had to be cut out of the armour. the other medics wouldn't tell him how the person he was trying to help was doing.

claustrophobia counter: VI

- only got an honourable discharge because of the above events. can't stress enough that this man was not liked by his superiors.

- gov't was really fucking short on supplies so his mobility aid is a modified power armour frame. that's what was in production, that's what they had, whatever, it fucking sucks as an aid. it's painful and a little lot triggering and honestly not that great at it's job.

- Constantine gets home halfway through january and the following... several months were pretty hellish. a very-late-third-trimester Hestia, Nora, and insanely shellshocked Constantine get Codsworth pretty much as soon as Constantine gets back to basically just make sure the house stays livable enough that everyone can recover.

- Constantine gets back into motorcycling. it's freeing in a way he literally can't get anywhere else. keeps his brain quiet.

- Hestia dies in childbirth. Nora's inconsolable and can't take care of the baby.

- Constantine takes on all childrearing responsibilities. it's his kid in every way that matters.

- the only time he or the baby could ever sleep was when the baby was on Constantine's chest.

- bombs drop, rip. Constantine was originally the one holding Shawn, but the stupid fucking vault-tec people made him hand him over to Nora for the pods; some bullshit about "a mother's comfort" or whatever the fuck, it's stupid to the point where i don't want to think about it, point being Constantine is already terrified of the pods and can't hold his baby, can't comfort his baby, can't make sure his baby is safe.

claustrophobia counter: VII

- frozen. thawed.

claustrophobia counter: VIII

game start!

[talentforlying]

what fascinates me about constantine is that he is well-known for being a very skilled and powerful magus, but at the same time, most of his fellow magic users in the world of hellblazer consider his particular brand of magic to be cheap as sin; one of his more popular monikers is even "the gutter mage". and a lot of it has to do with the way that maguses in hellblazer tend to actively create their own forms of magic, tailored to their strengths.

magic in hellblazer is constantly being reinvented by its users, to the point where some people have created entire subfields that had never been considered before — like ritchie simpson inventing quantum magic, being able to interface with technology in astral form; like map being able to symbiotically draw on the energy of the entire city of london in a way that no other mage Has ever or Will ever be able to duplicate. those two are some of the most powerful magic-users in that entire universe, solely because of their ability to invent. imagination, diligence, and intention are the cornerstones of hellblazer's magic system.

and then you have john constantine, who from the perspective of most of the older folks in the magic community just . . . kinda trails around after them, picking up their bread crumbs. his kit of choice are rituals and spells and artifacts and varieties of magic that already exist, rather than building his own. sure, he's innovative with how he uses them, but there's this general air of like: how the fuck did you accumulate a reputation that puts you in the ranking with all these "Actually Authentic" maguses for being the equivalent of a walking, talking dumpster of other people's used-up skills???

( the trick is: he's fucking worked for it. he's a survivor. he has a reputation as one of the most powerful magic-users because he is one of the most tenacious, the most innovative, and the most ruthless. he's able to be the most tenacious-innovative-ruthless because he doesn't turn tail and run at the first threat to his life. people like map, like clarice sackville, like nathan arcane, they feel that they are crucial to the continued existence of magic and need to stay alive for the greater good of the world, and that's why they will fail where constantine will succeed (and also why they'll call him to do the dirty work for them): because he has absolutely no need to preserve himself or safeguard his skillset beyond his basic human desire to live. because he has no magic that is unique to him, nothing that would go extinct if he did first. because as far as the forward march of magical progress goes, in the eyes of the magic community and himself, he contributes nothing that necessitates his future survival, and he is fucking fine with that, because he's the one who actually helps people. )

[dannymoney]

Books 2023

Here are some notable books I read in 2023.

Tier 1 fiction: EL SUPREMO, MASTERPIECE-CALIBUR:

2666 by Roberto Bolano 

In the Heart of the Country, Foe, Life and Times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee

Pan by Knut Hamsun

The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

My Struggle: Book 6 by Karl Ove Knausgaard

Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe 

Tier 2 fiction: TOP-NOTCH, EXCELLENT:

Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt

Upon Some Midnights Clear by K.C. Constantine 

Quarantine by Greg Egan

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis 

When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut

The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré

The Counterlife by Philip Roth 

Favorite non-fiction: 

Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams-the Early Years, 1903-1940 by Gary Giddins

God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning by Meghan O'Gieblyn

We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland by Fintan O'Toole

Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan by Alex Pappademas and Joan LeMay

The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions by Jonathan Rosen

[uniasus]

I posted 2,791 times in 2022

That's 1,486 more posts than 2021!

493 posts created (18%)

2,298 posts reblogged (82%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@clotpolesonly

@uniasus (gotta self-promote, you know?)

@merlinsbed

@asknotbug

@viktorhargreeves

I tagged 2,460 of my posts in 2022

Only 12% of my posts had no tags

#tua - 696 posts

#the umbrella academy - 642 posts

#yugioh - 377 posts

#my fanfiction - 230 posts

#bbc merlin - 228 posts

#fic rec - 217 posts

#viktor hargreeves - 204 posts

#wip - 126 posts

#five hargreeves - 121 posts

#puzzleshipping - 115 posts

Longest Tag: 111 characters

#it's a systematic thing that 100% needs to be figured out in the court system because it's happening everywhere

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I love how Chet just looks between Viktor and the photos of the Kennedy Six and doesn't bat an eye. Just nods and accepts it, just like he accepts the owner of the hotel looks exactly like the guy who planned it. I like to think all the other hotel guests are similarly odd - aliens trying to blend in, Commission agents on holiday, lost time travellers.

78 notes - Posted July 27, 2022

#4

I've been getting the impression that the DOMA arc isn't a fan fav, but only a few episodes in I'm loving it.

Sure, the expanded worldbuilding is odd (Atlantis??), but parts of it make sense with my understanding of monsters. Plus, it has some GREAT puzzleshipping moments. Which, let's be honest, is the whole reason I'm even watching the show.

They! Hold! Hands!

81 notes - Posted September 28, 2022

#3

I know some people see Klaus's immortality as a plot hole (why wasn't he in the apocalypse?) but I see his absence as a choice.

He saw his siblings die and decided to stay in The Void, or came back and committed suicide when he realized what the world looked like. No one *wants* to be the sole survivor of the apocalypse and Klaus noped out of that situation.

And because I'm mean, I imagine he did it roughly a day before Five appeared. They missed each other by *hours*. And that's the real tragedy.

83 notes - Posted August 13, 2022

#2

fic rec! DP x DC 10K gen fic

Summary: Danny invites the Justice League to the corination of the Ghost King. They hesitantly accept since they don't want to get on the wrong side of this new and very strong king of the dead. But why did Danny deliver the invitation? And why does he seem to be so involved with the whole coronation? If only they had some clue as to who the new king was.

Comments: Bruce's confusion is just so enduring in this fic, especially as it manifests in his protective instincts cranking to an 11 while Constantine is just progressively freaking out at Danny. Jazz is gold in here too, realizing that Danny gave them zero details and then keeps the situation going to have a bit of fun.

125 notes - Posted October 22, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I really love how casual Yami and Yugi are at the start of S5. They're not shy about talking to each other in public, they've sent each other sly looks and Yami plays a prank. But it's also delightful how frequently they check in with each other too, from travel plans to deja vu.

157 notes - Posted October 12, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[everythingheard]

As soon as the sole survivor among the cultists began to speak, it was evident that they would gain nothing of use ( the guy must stand squarely in the camp of ' better to die clinging to what you want to believe is true than living with the knowledge that you were so absolutely fucking wrong ' — the choice of the weak-minded, yet it was among them that beings like Hagarg Ryonis accumulated followers to begin with ). Constantine's new companion must have felt the same, since the leader hadn't completed a single sentence before being silenced by a slit throat. Her technique was impressive, he was forced to admit; not even a drop of blood landed on his black shoes. She knows what she's doing.

Nevertheless, her demeanor eased once the sound of that final body thudding to the ground echoed briefly off the walls. His gaze followed her as she stood, then flickered to the outstretched hand offered to him. Oraia Levantinis — what she rattled off explained why she had been targeted for the blundered ritual ( where had all of these idiots met, on searchingforacult.com? in the summoning rites for amateurs aisle at the bookstore? well, like does attract like ). All in all, it seemed to Constantine that she was a good ally to have.

"Constantine. John Constantine." Pressing his palm firmly against hers, he pulled himself to his feet. "Occult detective to some — but practitioner of magic, exorcist, demonologist, and possessor of true sight to the rest." There are a number of other descriptors people have imbued him with over the years that he could add on to that spiel ( trickster, fallen, the one soul Lucifer would come to collect himself ), yet perhaps he'll hold back on those. "I'd been tracking these assholes for about a week after some weird deaths cropped up in Los Angeles." A brief raising of Constantine's eyebrows followed. "And not LA weird."

He considered, then, the idea of a repayment. While he wasn't privy to everything that was on the metaphorical table as an option, he presumed it was plenty. Still! "If you want me to name a price, how about giving me a way to contact you?" For the first time, a hint of a grin curved his lips. "See, I usually deal in information, like the kind that helped me interfere in this shitshow. And it seems like you've got a lot of it."

If looks could kill, Oraia's eyes would have seared holes through the cult leader's frightened ones--not that she cared. She didn't loosen her grip on him or even shift when the other man (some kind of witch?) took the spot next to her. He freed her, so he gets brownie points as well as the chance to ask the last of the cultists some questions. Part of her, deep in her mind, somewhere under the rage that's certainly dominating everything, wanted to ask why the fuck he's wearing a suit and trenchcoat. Unless the cult had opened a portal and transported Oraia far from where she last remembered being, it should've been a decent, slightly warm day...oh, well. First, she'd deal with the piece of shit in her hand.

Oraia had never heard of a Hagarg Ryonis in her entire 5544 years of living, but she wasn't stupid. According to Mr. Suit, it/she was an evil being from another dimension, who was either destined or just wanting to fuck shit up. The description (however brief) reminded her of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu. She'd read a lot in her time, and she herself was a goddess, so it was rare that she ever dismissed anything as being improbable, impossible, or silly. After all, she'd met giant squids, just as she had met deities from different pantheons. She had even traveled to Avalon and stayed there a while, when the pagan persecutions had become too much for her. So unfortunately, Hagarg Ryonis would be on her mind for a while, at least until she knew for sure that the being was barred from their dimension.

"We are her chosen, her few--" M'kay. Oraia slit the head cultist's throat, and it probably wasn't good that she still remembered how to do that without the blood spurting out a thousand different ways. Regardless, she still needed to take a shower--one in a room with air conditioning, lightly scented soap, working sinks, and fluffy towels. Depending on her mood later, she might have to ask Skadi or 1 of the Vanir for some divinely created mead to take the edge off. The goddess stood, nonchalantly letting go of the dead man so he fell. She glanced at where she'd been held not long ago, making sure she hadn't left any DNA behind besides prints (which of course, weren't in the system) and her blood (which couldn't be ID'd by human cops because it wasn't technically "of Earth"). Then she looked at the dark-haired man in the suit and smiled, offering him a hand up.

"I'm Oraia Levantinis, daughter of Poseidon and Nebet-Het. Publicly, I'm a socialite who goes to auctions. Privately...psychopomp, exorcist, medium. Occasionally I repatriate artifacts, which is what I thought I'd be doing when these little shits captured me. Anyway, I owe you one. Name your price, Mister...?"

[davidmann95]

Let's rework the foundation of Kingdom Hearts to instead journey across the DC multiverse rather than the Disney/Final Fantasy worlds. Who would Sora's Goofy and Donald DC-equivalents be? Would they travel the multiverse in a Gummi Ship or in a Monitor Shift Ship? Would you rather each DC superhero get their own Earth (i.e. Superman Earth, Batman Earth, Swamp Thing Earth, Wildstorm Earth because DC is a very patchwork-y/disconnected universe) or follow the general pastiche model?

If we’re assuming this is full DC - all Disney and Square Enix elements excised, just the original elements - then it would probably be Lantern rings of some stripe in place of the Keyblades, but I’d rather we stuck with those as a wholly new element to the DCU equation and simply removed the little Mickey at the end of the keychain. In this revised context Sora’s definitely journeying around the multiverse in a shiftship, with the originally destroyed world that was home to Destiny Islands (what was the plan with the raft then? Maybe they were going to sail ‘off the world’ with some kind of spell they’d come up with, since that’s a thing they know about in that world) being the classic DCU. Maybe Sora, along with sealing Keyholes and looking for Riku and Kairi, is searching to rebuild his world, and thus is drawn to worlds in the multiverse with similar iconic energies, or maybe the world is simply blown into conceptual chunks of the type you described. Superman would naturally be the Mickey being sought above all; maybe he’s the sole superheroic survivor and going on his own quest into the realm of Nil to find a way to save the universe. Other heroes with ties to the multiverse like Flash would eventually play a part, and the original characters could all play roughly the same roles. But the real question is who replace Donald Duck and Goofy.

Donald is easy, you need a cantankerous magician who hates having to cart the kid around and may in fact betray him at a critical moment but will in the end, with sufficient cajoling, stand by his side given the alternative is the literal end of everything.

The cartoon accent’s just a bonus, chief.

Goofy took me a little longer to figure out. You need a big dude, a well-meaning guy who might occasionally be seen by those around him as a little, if not dense, out of it, but whose good intentions and valor as a defender of the innocent are unquestionable and who would follow Sora into Hell, preferably with a shield. Which in superheroic terms means Captain America, which isn’t on the table.

BUT. The King was in his wisdom so kind as to offer us a tidy DC equivalent:

So Sora alongside John Constantine and OMAC - a solid mix of odd personalities, powers, and archetypes - plunge into the fragmented heart of the multiverse to find his friends and reassemble their world and the Justice League/Guardians of Light to help Superman defeat Xehanort, I suppose with Darkseid in the Maleficent role, until Sora ends up trapped on Earth 33 at the end of III.

[mermaidsirennikita]

books (in the time of corona)

PART I: ADULT EDITION

Let’s get real--we’re all going fucking insane.  

Therefore, I’m recommending some books with which you can kill time.  I’m breaking them into categories--the romance category including several subgenres but by and large covering books that focus more heavily on the romance than anything else.  These will all be adult books; I’m doing a separate page for YA recommendations.

I’ll be adding to this list as I finish books that I feel belong here.

ROMANCE

A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux.  A young woman is abandoned by her scoundrel of a boyfriend, only to find a literal medieval knight in shining armor.  Pure 80′s cheese, a classic in the time travel subgenre long before Outlander ever happened.

The Circle Trilogy by Nora Roberts.  Six sexy people, three men and three women in Roberts fashion, travel across time and parallel dimensions to fight an evil vampire and her undead army.  Come for three fun romances, stay in particular for the “virgin bookworm queen captures the heart of the formerly evil 1,000 Irish vampire” ship.

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne.  Rival coworkers who’ve always hated each other compete for the same job--until maybe?  They start?  Hooking up?

From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata.  A down on her luck singles figure skater pairs up with the pairs champion she’s always despised... Unless they in fact, in a STUNNING TWIST, do not hate each other?

Pestilence by Laura Thalassa.  A BIT ON THE NOSE RIGHT NOW, but I promise that this tale of a hot virgin Horseman of the Apocalypse spreading his plague and the one woman brave enough to fuck him is WORTH IT.  As is the sequel, War.

My Lady’s Choosing by Kitty Curran.  A literal choose your own adventure novel, but the adventures bodice ripping Regency romance plots!!!

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang.  A sweet and smart woman on the autism spectrum hires a male escort to teach her to be good at sex.  Shit goes DOWN from there.

The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary.  She works days; he works nights.  She needs a cheap place to stay, and he needs a roommate.  So they share a flat and even a bed (sleeping on opposite sides and never at the same time) only communicating through post-it notes throughout the apartment.  What could go wrong?

Marriage for One by Ella Maise.  She can only get her inheritance if she’s married.  Good thing a glacial attorney has offered to marry her out of nowhere, only for paper purposes.  What could go wrong???

The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa.  Lina is a wedding planner who was left at the altar.  Max is the younger brother of the man who left her, and apparently convinced him to do the leaving.  What happens when they work together?

Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert.  Chloe suffers from a chronic illness, which means that she’s never had a life--and so she compiles a list that will help her get one.  On the list?  Meaningless sex.  Which she won’t have with her building’s superintendent, even though he’s really down to help her cross off all the other items, riiiight?

HISTORICAL FICTION

Passion by Jude Morgan.  The dramatic and intense height of Romantic England, told from the perspectives of Caroline Lamb, mistress of Lord Byron; August Leigh, his sister and lover; Mary Shelley; and Fanny Brawne, fiancee of John Keats.

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier.  Impoverished Griet becomes a maid in the household of the painter Vermeer, becoming his muse after he realizes that she has a natural eye--much to the dismay of his wife.

Snow Flower and The Secret Fan by Lisa See. In nineteenth century China, best friends Lily and Snow Flower follow each other through emotional and cultural revolutions, communicating through the secret language of fans.

The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George.  Cleopatra recounts her life story, from her earliest memory, through her affairs with Caesar and Antony, and her end.

Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn.  In Domitian’s Rome, a Jewish girl rises from the position of lady’s slave to the emperor’s mistress through wiles and scheming.

The Tiger Queens by Stephanie Thornton.  The rise and fall of Genghis Khan’s empire, as told through the women of his family--from his favorite wife to a clever daughter-in-law.

At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen.  A socialite follows her incompetent to Scotland as he struggles to find the Loch Ness Monster and redeem his ancestor’s name--finding herself and questioning her life in the process.

A Year of Ravens.  A collection of short stories by different authors, all centering on Boudica’s rebellion through the eyes of her countrymen and her enemies.

Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King.  A slave becomes a chef in the treacherous household of a social climber struggling to gain the favor or Caesar August.

Fatal Throne.  Six authors tell the stories of Henry VIII’s wives, all from their differing perspectives.

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.  The rise and fall of a 1970s rock band is charted through the recollections of its members--as they recall what drove them apart, and in particular the intense relationship between the leader singers.

THRILLERS

The Girl in 6E by A.R. Torre.  A woman with murderous impulses locks herself in her apartment to keep the public safe, making a living as a camgirl.  She’s left torn between morals and impulse when she begins to suspect that one of her “fans” is dangerous.

Little Deaths by Emma Flint.  In 1960s America, a single mother finds her personal life and image called into question when she’s accused of murdering her two young children.

My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite.  A nurse covers up her beautiful sister’s murders, only to be caught between loyalties when the doctor she loves falls for said sister.

The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine.  A plain “nobody” transforms herself in order to steal a high society housewife’s husband, only to deal with more than she bargained for.

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen.  A woman obsesses over her ex-husband’s new fiancee, leading her to disturbing lengths.

The Other Woman by Sandie Jones.  After meeting her ideal man, a woman must contend with his possessive mother, who will do anything to maintain her hold over him.

Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman.  A couple on their dream honeymoon find something in the water that will change the course of their life together.

The Au Pair by Emma Rous.  The day Seraphine and her twin brother were born, their mother flung herself off a cliff and their nanny disappeared.  Decades later, Seraphine discovers a photo taken of her parents just before her mother’s death--with only one baby.  The only person who holds the key to the mystery?  The au pair.

My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing.  A couple keeps the spark alive through murder.

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager.  A young woman takes a job apartment-sitting in a high-end Manhattan building.  Shortly after she befriends another sitter, the girl goes missing--with everyone else acting like nothing is amiss.

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher.  Thursday is one of her husband’s three wives, though she’s never met the other two.  When she finally does meet the third wife, she discovers a woman far different from what she expected--and covered in bruises.

FANTASY/SUPERNATURAL/HORROR

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier.  Sorcha is the youngest of seven children in medieval Ireland.  When her stepmother curses her six older brothers to live as swans, Sorcha agrees to weave them shirts of painful thistles, all the while remaining silent, to break the spell.

Black Pearls by Louise Hawes.  A collection of dark fairy tale retellings.

The Incarnations by Susan Barker.  A man receives letters from an anonymous source, detailing his supposed past lives throughout historical China.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust.  A dark Snow White retelling, with a stepmother whose goals extend far beyond the princess.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo.  Alex Stern is discovered as the sole survivor of a brutal multiple murder, and is promptly scooped up by a group charged with monitoring the occult societies at Yale.  Now disguised as a university student, Alex must figure out who’s been murdering locals, while also hiding what happened the night she lived.

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell.  A young widow in Victorian England is sent to her husband’s country estate to wait out her pregnancy, and is not alarmed to discover a “silent companion” (a painted wooden figure) in the house.  But when the figure’s eyes begin following her, she is sucked into a history beyond her imagination.

Circe by Madeline Miller.  The story of the woman who would seduce Odysseus, from her beginnings as a plain witch born of Helios and a mother who couldn’t care less.  A classic rise to power story.

CONTEMPORARY LIT

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal.  Down on her luck Nikki takes up a job as a creative writing class instructor for the Punjabi widows in her West London neighborhood.  It turns out that the widows thought she was there to teach them to write in English--which leads to the class becoming a place for them to share their stories orally instead.  And it turns out that they’re a bit... erotic.

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones.  Upwardly mobile newlyweds Celestina and Roy have their lives upended when Roy is falsely accused of a terrible crime and sent to prison for twelve years.  When he’s released early after five, he returns home to find that Celestina has changed completely, and their marriage is entirely unknown.

Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo.  A young Nigerian couple has always been against polygamy; but after the wife fails to get pregnant, her in-laws show up on their doorstep with a second wife.

NON-FICTION/MEMOIR

Harem: The World Behind The Veil by Alev Lytle Croutier.  An examination of the Ottoman Empire’s harem culture, focusing on the women within.

Love For Sale: A World History of Prostitution by Nils Johan Ringal.  Not really a GLOBAL history of prostitution, but a good introduction starting with ancient times and going into the cases of more recent madams in America, with a strong case for legalization worldwide.

Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman.  A readable biography of the famously scandalous and tragic duchess, to be read while you kill time rewatching “The Duchess” starring Keira Knightley.

Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love, and Death in Renaissance Italy by Sarah Bradford.  A fair but none-too-precious assessment of one of Renaissance Italy’s most controversial women, and an analysis of her relationships with her father and brother.

The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn by Eric Ives.  While you’re quarantining, you might as well read the definitive Anne Boleyn biography, yes?  This one is responsible for much of the modern attitude on Anne.

Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution by Caroline Weber.  A fascinating analysis of Marie Antoinette’s political life through her clothes.

The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi.  An analysis of the infamous, unsolved “Monster of Florence” case.  One of the most gruesome serial killers in Italy’s history, the monster’s crimes were pinned on several different men, and even investigated by the prosecutor who botched the Amanda Knox case.

The Forger’s Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century by Edward Dolnick.  An examination of the case of Han van Meegeren, a painter who forged and sold many Dutch master fakes, and the pretentious art world that let him get away with it for years.

The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire by Jack Weatherford.  A study of the women in Genghis Khan’s family, and in particular those that kept his empire from falling to ruin after his death.  A good companion read with Stephanie Thornton’s fiction novel Tiger Queens mentioned above.

Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum by Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino.  How did the Getty Museum end up with so many stolen artifacts?  This book aims to find out.

The Creation of Anne Boleyn by Susan Bordo.  A different kind of Anne Boleyn book, studying her portrayal in culture and fiction--complete with input from Natalie Dormer following her portrayal of Anne Boleyn on The Tudors.

Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses by Sarah Gristwood.  An examination of the women of the houses of Lancaster and York during their famous, long-running conflict--and how these women had an impact on battles and politics alike.

The Dragon Behind the Glass: A True Story of Power, Obsession, and the World’s Most Coveted Fish by Emily Voigt.  The author delves into why people are so obsessed with the arowana, a rare and exotic fish, to the point that they’ll commit murder--and becomes wrapped up in the fascination herself.

The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy.  Over the course of a month, Ariel Levy watches everything she held true in her life--her financial security, her career, her marriage, and her pregnancy--fall apart.  Levy must confront what it means to live an “unconventional” and “free” life, only for that to become meaningless, and pick up the pieces.

From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to find The Good Death by Caitlin Doughty.  Doughty recounts her global travels to observe and study different funerary and death rituals, recounting and analyzing her experiences with respect and personality.

Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History by Tori Telfer.  A collection of female serial killers, analyzing why they did what they did and the cultural legacy they left behind.

Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found by Frances Larson.  A history of decapitated human heads, and what different cultures have done with them.

From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home by Tembi Locke.  Tembi Locke was never truly accepted by her husband’s Sicilian family, as a black American woman.  But when Saro dies young of cancer, she finds herself more deeply entwined her in-laws, as she works to pick up the pieces.�� (Warning: one of the most achingly romantic books I’ve ever read; but it will destroy you.)

[eschercaine]

Just my ramblings about Justice League Dark: Apokolips War

According to the sneak peak and to some fan theories, some members of the Teen Titans including the Bat Family will die fighting parademons during their initial fight against Darkseid.

There's a clip in the sneak peak where Damian was thrown into the water by a parademon and Raven almost committing suicide before being stopped by Superman.

-From there, I think that things became messy, most of the heroes were killed, and Damian was gravely injured and thrown into the water and after the fight is over, Raven witnessing what happened, decided to commit suicide before Superman stops her.

And later on in the movie, they show Damian in Al Ghul outfit.

-And from there, Damian survived Darkseid's initial attack on them. He's not dead as everyone assumed he would be. Damian, whom he thought himself as the sole survivor, lost his faith to the heroes and decided to return to being the leader of The League of Assassins. Until Superman arrives with John Constantine and Raven, recruiting him to fight against Darkseid again.

That's all about my ramblings about the upcoming Justice League Dark: Apokolios War movie. Just wanted to vent it out.

[siremasterlawrence]

The Legion Of Death 4

Constantine cast a spell that ravishes the earth in darkness, transporting all hero’s off earth. “Master shall be so proud of me. Oh My! well look who shows up after all Master Strange.” Constantine howls in the dead of a permanent night. “It is Doctor Strange for the last time, not Mr. Strange.” He replies to him in spite.

His hands start moving a mile a minute covers multitude of areas. Creating multiple circular rings around his arms, and stands in fighting stance. He starts to attack me leaping head first in to danger, blocking me every move with those magical bands. My Slave deflects him easily with little effort, but enough to anger him to rage on.

Constantine teleports out of bounds to an unknown location, lacking in information of his own untimely demise he is followed. “Too late shall be the crime, but don’t worry Dr. Strange you will get what’s coming to you.”Constantine says digging his hands in the ground. Alien type plants grab him pulling him under ground to my palace, an he easily succumbs to my charms.

-

Lucifer teleports on Asgard decimating it in a mere fraction of settings. The city fell to his power, the warriors quaking with fear, and soon no one is left. Odin is the sole survivor hiding in the palace he prepares for a fight to the death. Lucifer Morningstar watches him in a mocking tone shaking his head as his palm hits his face. Odin propels in to the air using all his Odin’s force.

“Nice power Thor’s father, but your days are far past numbered. May I keep your powers as a parting gift?” He ask then kills the King of former Asgard, a thunderous clap is heard then appears Thor. From skies he dives to the grounds of his childhood home. Distraught is his only word to describe the sheer look horror on his face. “How dare you attack my home? Who dare thee be? Lest you taste the metal of Thor Odison.” His anger edge in his speech.

“Speak villain for I am Thor, The one an only God of Thunder, and the King of Asgard. You shall pay with your life you fiend now test me if you dare.” Thor screams his body lit with power from within, and skies roar with it as he gathers. He summons mijnor ascending up to the skies, he throws hundreds of lightening bolts leveling everything. Lucifer smiles an with a snap of his fingers The God Of Thunder is crying in pain.

-

Hawk Man sits high on a perch above the entire planet watching over, he sees a familiar set of colors. “Ugh! Blue, red, and yellow it’s that freak from Krypton. What the hell does he want anyway? I have no time for this crap at all so leave now.” Carter yells waving his Nth Metal mace sending a Clark a loud smash on his face. “You need to remove your mace from my face now. Next you need to give up.” Clark Kent’s rage is high.

Carter did not even bother to rebuttal he just attacks hard, Clark is sent flying through the sky. The Kryptonian lit on on fire like a comet about to make impact with the ground an he did. “Kaboom, Splat, Crash, Crush. Hahahaha hahahahaha.” Carter imitating the sounds of his fall like a child, Clark raises his body up fist in hand. Going full throttle he sends Carted in the air flying in to a building, go though he just a Rocky Mountain next.

Using his Nth Metal I use all my slaves body to empower t the mace. It glows with this silver aura around it the next hit cuts Clark’s skin with one scratch. The blood bleeding down his costume, his powers weaken an he is barely able to fly. Carter catches him swoops him in his arms flying him back to me to save him. What he did not know it was my spell that did it. I give him quick once over then cast the healing, and reversal spell.

The end.

[lordirrelevant]

Soleil De Sardet aka “Sol” (as in “Solona Amell”) or “Sole” (as in “Sole Survivor) xD

Seriously though, it’s my third De Sardet, but the first one I actually came up with a name for 😅

Warrior, diplomat and loose cannon. She’s conflict averse and rather relaxed in general, but she finds it hard to hide her frustration when she’s had enough of someone’s bullshit. Anger management issues, yes. That’s why she’s never really considered herself fit for the post of Legate — and the revelation about her uncle’s manipulation didn’t do much for her self-confidence, either. Oh well...

She also swears like a sailor when she’s in the mood for it. And when no one’s listening.

She’s pretty bad at cards. But pretty good at chess. Whether it has something to do with Kurt being really good at cards, or De Courcillon letting her beat him at chess for pedagogical reasons — who knows...

Constantin was more vocal about it, but Soleil hated her uncle’s court — the games, the ceremony and the intrigues — with a similar burning passion.

She’s also a secret supporter of parliamentariamism. And universal suffrage.

Her first crush was a red-headed servant’s daughter. When she didn’t even know what having a crush feels like.

She’s bad at magic. Very bad. Might have something to do with her lack of concentration.

But she has a good heart.

Happy International Women’s Day, btw!

[secondhand-lions]

some profiles of my sole survivor, constantine! tired guy

id in alt, please tell me if there's any issues

[finalfrontierpioneer]

2019 Fic Recs

To celebrate the end of 2019 (and also to procrastinate on my own fics!), I figured I’d round up 19 of my favorite fics of the year! Now, to be clear, these were all written (at least partly) during 2019, and they’re all complete. But that’s like all they have in common. They’re from random fandoms and some are def explicit and they’re in no particular order, but mostly it’s Riverdale lmao. Bc i’m trash and i ain’t ashamed.

Starting out with the Riverdale here babyyy:

Things unrequited by Bearfacedcheek

New Veronica, new type?

Set after S01E01 Veronica decides that Jughead Jones is the perfect antidote to all the bad romantic and moral choices she always seems to make. But making Jughead hers doesn't prove as straight forward a task as she expects

No peace nor rest by Bearfacedcheek

They're not stupid. They know there's no peace in revenge. But the sight of Betty and Archie together makes them stupid and whisky makes them weak, so they take the only revenge they can.

Set post 2x08 Betty and Archie enter a relationship, leaving Jughead and Veronica heartbroken and a night of drunken revenge sex morphs into something far more complicated.

have i been too discreet? by partyhardy

In which Betty realizes she slowly watched Jughead fall for Veronica. 

keep telling myself i'm not the desperate type by Krewlak

The new kid at school argues with Veronica and it sparks something inside of Jughead. 

Supporting Characters by torombolo

Maybe this was inevitable, Jughead thought, staring at the couple in front of him. He spared a glance at Veronica. From the look on her face, she thought the same thing. Betty and Archie. Archie and Betty. Perfect. The American Dream.

“Fine,” the dark-headed girl had told him, “I’m fine.”

“Me too,” he said convincingly. Whether he was trying to convince her or himself he wasn’t sure.

But Darling, Who Ever Said That Love Was Fair? by bothromeoandjuliet

There is no room for blood and thorns in the bubblegum scented word that was Betty Cooper's life, and both Jughead and Veronica know it. But that doesn't mean that they can help what they are or what they feel. Only, nothings fair in love and friendship. 

Hindsight, As They Say, Is Twenty-Twenty by bothromeoandjuliet

Betty's always wondered why Jughead Jones broke up with her, and now, eight years after the fact, she finally gets her answer. (A one shot/drabble ft. past!bughead, and past!veggie, with a healthy dose of jeronica sprinkled all the way through.) ((Also I manage to write fluff that doesn't just turn to angst!)) (((So thats exciting)))

Some Stucky:

This Side of the Blue by notlucy

Tucked against a set of crumbling, stone steps was a tank made of metal and glass, filled to the brim with greenish water, distorted sunlight filtering through and casting strange shadows. Playing tricks on the eye. A trick was the only explanation for what Steve saw floating there. This figment of his childhood. This myth. This legend.

Within the tank, the siren bared its teeth.

Paper Tree by Ellessey

Bucky just laughs and shoves another bite of egg in his mouth, giving Steve a shrug and a full-cheeked smile. He's so damn cute Steve wants to shout at him, but he can't seem to say any of the right things. "Shoulda got you a comb for Christmas," is what he comes up with instead.

"What did you get me?"

It's Steve's turn to shrug now, and if he looks more terrified than cheeky as he does so, he can only hope Bucky doesn't catch it before Steve hurries out the door.

--

On December first, Steve wraps up a letter for Bucky and sets it under their Christmas tree. Now he has twenty-four days left to figure out how to tell Bucky what he wrote, face to face.

Political Animals by crinklefries, Deisderium

Okay, so the real problem is that you shouldn’t fuck your arch-rival, political enemy, and the person you loathe the most in the world where you work. Or like, at least, you shouldn’t keep doing that.

But okay, the thing that Descartes or whoever didn’t know was that Steve really tries, but Bucky Barnes has a mouth that should probably constitute an eighth sin or something.

Jesus fucking Christ, Sam’s going to kill him.

(or—Steve’s best friend is the U.S. Constitution and he can’t seem to stop fucking a hot Republican. They shouldn’t fall in love, but somehow they do. That’s it, that’s the fic.)

like heaven stood up in you by napricot

“You said you were gonna miss him,” says Bruce slowly. “He was supposed to be back in five seconds, but you hugged him and said ‘I’m gonna miss you.’”

Bucky’s face is serene again now, and gives nothing away. “I know Steve,” he repeats. “You think you can hand him a time machine and some rocks of unspeakable power and he’s just gonna go put ‘em right back where they belong?”

Steve does put the Infinity Stones right back where they belong. He just does a couple other things too. Or: three timelines and a Reverse Time Heist.

Drive It Like You Stole It: A Bodyswap by AggressiveWhenStartled

Steve had gone fully red-faced with pedantic altar-boy fury. “Did your computer forget how to Google translate?” he bellowed, sticking his head up and over. Bucky yanked him down again. “What are you even trying to say?”

Bucky tried to shake the sparkles off the grenade he had been planning on lobbing over the divider. “It sounded like Latin to me,” he said reasonably, pursing his lips and frowning at the explosive. It dripped a sparkle, and a puff of purple smoke curled up where it hit the concrete.

“That’s because you spent Sunday school flirting with Sarah Cunningham,” Steve accused, bobbing back up to throw his shield and ducking back down to dodge a shining ball of blue light. “You wouldn’t know Latin if it came up and kissed you on your ugly mug.”

“I’d sure know it if Sarah Cunningham did, though.” Bucky grinned, struck by the memory. “That gal really knew what she was doing.”

Some DC stuff (Halbarry):

Iconoclast by the_mythologist

When an alien race’s covert invasion and assassination spree decimates the Supercommunity, the survivors must band together to defeat against an unseen, invincible enemy. With many of their greatest heroes off-world or dead, the remnants of the Justice League, Teen Titans, Birds of Prey, Batfamily, and a few unaffiliated ‘heroes’ are all that stand in the way between the ‘Iconoclasts’ and Earth’s annihilation.

John Constantine is most unamused.

Slowing Down by Cinderstrato

It hadn’t been long after they first met before Barry began to suspect, in a vaguely-formed way, that it would be easy to fall in love with Hal.

sweating out a hot day by magnetocent

it's a hot day, but barry decides it's not hot enough 

Okay now some one-offs from random fandoms/pairings:

Off The Record by crookedswingset

Peter Parker is a corporate lackey whose sole job is to root out problem executives who waste Oscorp’s money and time. Wade Wilson is a reserve Avenger on the hunt for a prize even Iron Man couldn’t nail down: the real identity of everyone’s favorite webhead.

Too bad most people think Spider-Man is Harry Osborn.

Stars Beneath His Skin by ElloPoppet

On the white piece of paper was a smattering of small, black dots. McCoy turned the paper, in search of a pattern or alignment of some kind but not finding even a trace. The dots appeared to be drawn at random or rather, McCoy noticed as he squinted, printed. He looked up at where Spock was standing over him and returned a cocked eyebrow of his own.

“If you need help cracking some kind of code, this isn’t exactly my specialty, genius.”

Rather than banter back, Spock responded immediately and smoothly. “It is not a code. That is the alignment of stars that would have been visible in the night sky from Earth should one have been standing at the coordinates where my Mother was born at the moment of the occurrence.” Silence blanketed the room, McCoy not having a goddamn clue how to respond to that. Luckily, Spock wasn’t finished.

“I wish to memorialize her with what most races would call a tattoo, and I would like your help with the matter.”

Too Close To Love You by stylescoalition 

Aleks used to have a big crush on Brett but he doesn’t anymore, which is great considering they work together, on top of being good friends (suuuper lit). Now, Aleks is going to be living with Brett in LA until he finds a place of his own, but just because he isn’t crushing on Brett doesn’t mean that Brett isn’t crushing on him. Suffice to say, it makes things complicated… except it really isn’t as complicated as they think. 

drawn to wilder nights by detectivemeer

Scott and Derek start a frenemies-with-benefits relationship, and it goes about as well as one would expect.

[douxreviews]

Legends of Tomorrow - ‘The Eggplant, The Witch, and The Wardrobe’ Review

“Mikey! Mikey, Stop!”

Legends continues to ramp up the action as it moves into the final phases of its too short fourth season, and on the way makes the most important statement about relationships that's ever been uttered on genre television.

Have I mentioned how much I love this show?

One of the most consistently impressive things about the way Legends of Tomorrow tells its stories is the way that they're able to take what should be standard, if not cliched, plot set-ups and somehow turn them into something unexpectedly fantastic. Last year, Zari's turn at reliving Groundhog Day gave us the amazing 'Here I Go Again'. This week we get that thing that genre shows love to do wherein one character physically enters another character's mind in order to 'save' them from whatever has caused them to fall unresponsive, and therein finds a world built almost entirely of visual metaphors that help them work through a bit of character development before we get back to the season's larger plot.

So, yes. It's essentially Sara Lance as Willow Rosenberg in 'Weight of the World'. With the small difference that Ava, our Buffy-surrogate in the set-up, is actually able and willing to have a profoundly frank and adult discussion with her inside the, for lack of a better term, 'dreamscape'.

And really, I know that this gets mentioned in these pages a lot, but that's the greatest strength that Legends of Tomorrow has; the way that all of the characters are allowed to behave like rational and emotionally available adults, despite also being time travelling superheroes. It's sure as hell that none of us saw that coming, back in the Vandal Savage days.

Case in point, look at the way that they completely skated past the obvious 'everyone but Ray blames Nora for Hank's death' plotline here. That was obviously what we were being set up for back at the end of 'The Getaway', and yet within the first couple of scenes this week we have the Legends find out that Nora is on the Waverider, she says 'I swear I didn't kill Hank', and Constantine essentially responds, 'Yeah, we totally already figured that out. It was actually fairly obvious, and just the tiniest amount of follow-up on our part established what was really going on. We're totes good, Nora.' And everyone immediately gets on the same page on the issue, because they're all behaving like reasonable adults. That is huge. That just doesn't happen on television.

Even Nate only needs to take the smallest of moments questioning whether or not Nora is guilty before he processes what he's being told and accepts it, and that's the one instance in which they could have legitimately gotten away with a character responding in a destructive way because he was responding emotionally to his father's loss. But they didn't go there, and it cannot be overstated what a positive and refreshing example that is to see.

It's particularly clever of them, because of the way that they pulled the rug out from under us at least twice this week regarding the heavily foreshadowed Nate/Ray schism that we were all bracing ourselves for. Nate finds out that Ray has been harboring the woman he thinks killed his dad, and he responds by listening to what his friend is telling him, accepting what he's being told, and reaffirms their friendship. A little later on we see him accidentally punch Ray in what we assume is going to be the beginning of their 'Civil War' style breakup, only to immediately get ahold of himself, apologize, and embrace his friend. An apology that Ray accepts without hesitation, I might add, because Nate's actions were both completely understandable under the circumstances and immediately apologized for.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the world's greatest ever example of positive male friendship. I'm starting to believe that if we can just get enough people to watch this show, we might actually find a way to counter toxic masculinity. Wouldn't that be nice?

All of which is a roundabout way for me to get to the point that I've been growing to realize that it's really the character relationships that make this show. Witness, for example, the curious level of kindness that Constantine shows to Gary when he wants to hold vigil for Ava. Gary, by rights, should be pure dorky comic relief. Constantine, as a character type, exists almost solely to deflate that kind of comic relief character. And yet when push comes to shove, John goes to Gary's D&D nights. John cares about Gary. That's a nice detail. Similarly, it's notable the way that Mick is willing to help out Zari in something as trivial as crafting sexy text messages to Nate. Mick of even two years ago would absolutely not have been doing that.

Which brings me back to my initial point as regards that important statement about relationships. After a truly enjoyable series of sequences in the 'evil purgatory Ikea', Ava and Sara have some incredibly frank and direct talk about their relationship. And during that talk, they're both so amazingly emotionally available to one another and so willing to be vulnerable with one another. I honestly cannot think of a healthier relationship on television, ever. Not in the sense that they don't have problems, because they clearly do, but in the way tat they're willing to acknowledge them, and admit when they're in the wrong. It's messy, and it's real, and I love every second of it. And just when I think it can't get any better, Ava says;

"Let’s be honest, neither of us needs anybody. But you are who I want."

Yes. That. A million times, that. Can we amplify that message about a billion times, until it drowns out all the rom-com 'I need you to complete me' bullshit? Because that would be wonderful.

Be more like Nate and Ray, people

So what have we learned today?

To stop including this section in the reviews, because trying to condense a logically consistent universal rulebook of how timeline changes work in this fictional universe is absolutely nothing compared to what we should be learning from the character relationships. Also, clearly no one involved in the show is worrying about it.

Everybody remember where we parked.

This week the Waverider pretty much stayed where it was in Washington D.C., 2019. At least, it logically must have been sine Zari could send texts to that year, and Ray bounced back and forth between the ship and the Time Bureau.

Sara, meanwhile, went to actual literal purgatory to rescue Ava's soul. Purgatory, in this case, being an obvious Ikea knock-off called 'Megastor', complete with umlaut.

Quotes:

Ray: "Hey Sara! Great news. Hank was killed by a demon!" Nora: "'Great' was not the word he was looking for."

Ray: "She’s not a liability. She’s a survivor."

Sara: "You two are with me. (To Zari) Woman the ship."

Gary: "Conspiracies, embezzling, paper trails. I feel like Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich."

Nate: "If this is my dad’s mistress I’m gonna jump out a window."

Sara: "Ava, if you check out, you die." Ava: "Well that’s kinda on the nose, isn’t it?"

Charlie: "Being honest, wind powers- just not that scary." Mick: "Yeah, you’re like a magical hair dryer."

Nate: "Yeah, hi. We’re looking for Mr. Uh… Mr… T."

Zari: "I don’t even know why I’m talking to you two about it. You don’t even date humans." Mick: "Love’s love."

Nora: "I know how hard it is to watch someone you love become a demon." John: "Yeah, well too bad there aren’t any Beebo’s around to hug it to death."

Mick: "Here. Use words. It’s erotic, but vulnerable."

Bits and pieces:

-- Yes, I realize that they were actually in purgatory, where her soul was currently stuck, but all the semiotic rules at play here clearly were working on the understanding of 'dreamscape'.

-- So apparently Neron wanted Ava's body to host somebody called Tabitha, I assume she's his demon girlfriend.

-- The trope of the bad guy having a favorite whistle-tune so that we can identify what body he's jumped into later is super clichéd and tired. I still didn't see it coming that he'd end up in Ray though.

-- You should absolutely never pay less than $800 for a mattress. Under any circumstances.

-- It's not clear what actually happened to Nora in that ritual. Are she and Ray going to end up as Tabitha and Neron? I'd be down for that.

-- Absolutely nothing about Hank's magical creature zoo makes sense, and he certainly wouldn't have needed a demon's help to set it up. I hate everything about that plotline, with the exception of Mikey T, who is awesome.

-- Zari, Charlie and Mona giggling about texting boys shouldn't have been charming, but was completely 100% adorable.

-- Dirty secret time, I adore assembling flatpack furniture. Honestly, it's my favorite thing in the whole world. I'm not kidding.

-- The effect of aging and de-aging as the sat on the mattress was really nicely done. A very clean low tech solution which worked well.

-- I'm actually really surprised at how quickly Mona has begun feeling like a natural part of the team.

A really good episode with a lot of really positive things to say about adult relationships, both romantic and otherwise. I just wish it hadn't involved the stupid magical creatures zoo plot, because it's stupid and muddies the waters as to what Neron actually wants to accomplish.

Three out of four flatpack dressers.

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water.

[anemoiarp]

Hey guys! So here on Anemoia, we will be allowing character histories and personalities from the three primary canon comic timelines (new earth, prime earth, and rebirth), with any amount of in-mixing from those or any other DC adaptations. For example, if you wanted to play Bruce Wayne from New Earth but preferred the way rebirth handled a specific event or facet of his personality, you’d be more than free to add that to your characterization! The same concept goes for DCAU/DCEU/etc timelines, or other adaptations. Anemoia is meant to be a mixing of canons, so we definitely encourage making characters your own!

Because we won’t solely be following any one single canon timeline from the comics for the site’s history, we’ve written our own timeline specific to the Anemoia universe. These are the only solid, unalterable events in our universe, so they’re pretty important! As such, our TIMELINE will be the first site preview and can be found under the cut! Enjoy, and feel free to send a message if you have any questions about specific events!  

** Lastly, this timeline will largely remain the same but it IS subject to minor changes by staff before the site is actually open.

334BC Vandal Savage, under the name Alexander the Great, begins a series of campaigns that lead to him conquering the Persian Empire.

45BC Under the name Julius Caesar, Vandal Savage wins the Great Roman Civil War assuming total control of the government.

1200S Vandal Savage begins a successful campaign across Asia and Eastern Europe, creating the Mongol Empire under the name Ghenghis Khan.

1400S Ruling Wallachia three separate times, Vandal Savage, under the name of Vlad III Dracul becomes a national hero and considered one of the most important rulers in Wallachian history. He ultimately goes on to inspire stories of Dracula

1888 Vandal Savage murders at least 5 women in London, England becoming known as Jack the Ripper. This is the last public persona Vandal Savage takes, deciding to work from the shadows from then on out.

1918 Diana Prince arrives in the world of men.

1961 Justice Society is formed.

1979 Jonathan and Martha Kent find and adopt a young Clark Kent.

1995 John Constantine (19) attempts to save a young girl from a demon, ultimately failing and Astra Louge is dragged to hell by the demon Nergal.

1997 Bruce Wayne (23) becomes the Batman.

1998 Reverend Richard Jiwe is murdered by his half brother General Maksai in order to claim the Tantu Totem.

1999 Jefferson Pierce (24) returns to Southside, Metropolis. Finding it overridden by crime, he takes on the mantle of Black Lightning.

2000 Alec Holland (25) is transformed into Swamp Thing after the explosion of his lab releases a bio-restorative chemical he had been working on into the Louisiana swamp.

2000 Dick Grayson (8) is taken in by Bruce Wayne after the death of his parents. He becomes the first Robin and works closely with Batman.

2001 Clark Kent (22) begins his superhero career officially -- newspapers and media beging calling him the Superman.

2001 Oliver Queen (20) is stranded on a desert island. When he returns home he becomes the Green Arrow.

2001 Ted Kord (21) becomes the second Blue Beetle, but does not inherit his mentor's ability to use the Scarab.

2003 Dinah Lance (18) becomes the second Black Canary, assuming her mother's mantle.

2003 Hal Jordan becomes the Green Lantern for sector 2814.

2004 Arthur Curry (23) becomes Aquaman.

2004 Donna Troy (13) becomes Wonder Girl.

2004 Roy Harper (14) becomes Speedy.

2004 Barbara Gordon (15) becomes the first Batgirl.

2005 Barry Allen (22) becomes The Flash.

2005 Guy Gardener receives a green lantern ring, becoming a backup lantern for sector 2814.

2006 Attempted invasion by Apokolips prompts the formation of the Justice League by Aquaman, Batman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Superman, and Wonder Woman. They add to their ranks over the years.

2006 Wally West (15) becomes Kid Flash.

2006 Garth becomes (15) Aqualad.

2007 The Teen Titans are formed by Aqualad, Kid Flash, Robin, Speedy and Wonder Girl. Over the next few years, they add to their ranks.

2007 Due to a crippling accident, John Stewart is recruited to the Green Lantern Corps to replace Guy Gardener.

2009 Dick Grayson (17) assumes the new alias, Nightwing.

2010 Jason Todd (11) becomes the second Robin.

2011 Michael Jon Carter (29) travels back in time from the 25th century and using his knowledge of history, stages high publicity heroics.

2012 Barbara Gordon (23) is shot by The Joker. After recovering, and in spite of paralysis, she assumes the new alias, Oracle, and continues to aid others in the field.

2012 There is a lab accident in STAR labs while Silas Stone is investigating Apokoliptan technology. His son, Victor Stone (18) is caught in the blast and subsequently becomes Cyborg.

2013 Jason Todd (14) is killed by The Joker.

2013 Dick Grayson (21) moves to Bludhaven.

2013 Mari McCabe (25) returns to Zambesi, reclaiming the Tantu Totem from her uncle. Mari becomes Vixen.

2014 Tim Drake (13) becomes the third Robin.

2014 Doomsday crashlands on Earth and immediately begins a path of terror and destruction. When the Justice League is deployed to battle him, they fall in a matter of minutes. Eventually, Superman is able to defeat Doomsday, but not without sacrificing himself.

2014 Superman's body is taken from his mausoleum by Kryptonian technology, but not before Lex Luthor is able to obtain a sample of his DNA.

2014 Black Adam with a small team he assembled stages a military take over of the country Kahndaq, freeing it from the reign of a brutal dictator.

2014 Sue Dibny, wife of the Elongated Man (Ralph Dibny), is murdered, her body horribly burned.

2015 In the wake of Sue Dibny's death, Bruce Wayne begins work on project Brother MK I.

2015 Following Superman's death, four men claiming to be Superman emerges in Metropolis. The Eradicator, Cyborg Superman, Superboy and Steel -- all using the name Superman, some even sharing some of his memories.

2015 Mongul invades and subsequently destroys Coast City with a large spaceship, reducing the city and everyone in it to a giant crater.

2015 The real Superman reemerges from the kryptonian matrix which had been healing him, originally he returns with only a fraction of his powers.

2016 Possessed by the entity of fear, Parallax, Hal Jordan nearly destroys the Green Lantern corps, leaving those few survivors to salvage what has been lost.

2016 Kyle Rayner becomes the new Green Lantern after the fall of the corps, wielding one of the last green rings.

2016 Young Justice is formed by Impulse, Robin, Superboy, and Wonder Girl. They add to their ranks over the years.

2016 Anissa Pierce (18) and Jennifer Pierce (16) take up the superhero mantle like their father, calling themselves Thunder and Lightning.

2017 Jason Todd (18) returns to Gotham with the new alias, Red Hood.

2017 Stephanie Brown (17) becomes the fourth Robin for a short time. She eventually trains under Barbara Gordon to become the third Batgirl.

2017 Bludhaven is destroyed in a chemical attack known as "Chemo" and is quarantined.

2017 Having learned from his first defeat by the Justice League, Darkside employs agents to earth to destabilize Earth's power structure, he does this by trying to shake humanity's faith in their heroes. The most prominent of these agents is Glorious Godfrey, or G. Gordon Godfrey as he's known in his television personality.

2017 The United Nations creates Checkmate, a chartered metahuman monitoring force.

2017 Wally West takes up the mantle of The Flash, alongside Barry. Wallace West takes the title of Kid Flash.

2018 The first Observational Metahuman Activity Construct (OMAC) is officially created, with the intention to gather information on metahumans throughout the world -- both hero and villain.

2018 Young Justice renames itself ‘Legacy’ as they become increasingly stable and serious as a team. They earn a government sanction.

2018 Simon Baz (17) becomes a new Green Lantern for sector 2814.

2018 Children across the globe are being tested for the metahuman gene and many of them are going missing, sold into metahuman trafficking.

2018 Bruce Wayne is “killed” by Darkseid. Dick Grayson takes over the title of Batman.

2018 Damian Wayne (17) arrives in Gotham after Talia al Ghul reveals that he is Bruce Wayne's son. He’s mentored by Dick Grayson, and takes up the mantle of Robin. Tim Drake becomes Red Robin.

2019 Jessica Cruz (18) becomes the newest Green Lantern for sector 2814.

2019 Jaime Reyes (18) is found by the Scarab, becoming the third Blue Beetle.

2019 Bruce Wayne is returned to his proper place in time. Damian Wayne (18) creates a new branch of the Teen Titans separate from the Titans, primarily lead and mentored by old members of the original team. 

[vinodiriso]

CHARACTER SHEET --- TIMELINE.

NAME: Adrian Mihai Lupei.

PLACE OF BIRTH: Alba Iulia, Transylvania, Romania.

NATIONALITY: Romanian.

CALLSIGN: Prototip.

ALIASES: Lup-ul [formerly], Dmitry Blatov.

BIRTHDAY: 15/11 (Scorpio).

OCCUPATION: Soldier of fortune.

BASE OF OPERATION: Bucharest, Romania.

AFFILIATION: Romanian-Moldovan Fourth Anti-Omnic Regiment (Românesc și Moldovenesc Anti-Omnic A Patra Regiment) [formerly].

BACKGROUND: read more ‘cause it’s pretty long.

It’s hard as fuck to be a boy and grow up without a father. Shit, do you have any idea how goddamn disheartening it is to feel lost, hopeless, and seeing nothing when you dare looking back? Who the fuck was supposed to be my model? Who the fuck should I have been inspired from when choosing the man I had eventually to become?

But, hey, somehow I managed. I’ve become a man�� and a fucking ugly one. The name’s Adrian — no, not Edrian, you fucker, it’s Adriàn — you know what? Call me Prototip. It’s gonna make it easier. Nowadays it feels more me than my actual name regardless.

I went to school for I think 8, maybe 9 years. My grades weren’t half bad, I was a smart kid, always been, but mamă alone couldn’t bring home enough money to sustain the family. It was only the two of us, sure, but when at every corner of the street you can find a fucking tin can doing whatever job better than a man in flesh and bones, who the fuck would hire a slow, sloppy, fragile human person? Soon enough, I was off my way. Already mentioned I was a smart boy, didn’t I? I learned not to shy away from anything. I am not lying when I tell ya I have literally swum in sewage, punched my way through asbestos and other cancerous shit (tsk, like today I should care!), breathed in mouthful of the toxic, radioactive wastes of old, abandoned Omnic factories to raid spare parts… surviving is surviving, dude. And surviving in an underdeveloped, poor, rural zone of Eastern Europe usually means to deal with the nastiest shit you could imagine. You want to know when was the first time I was clobbered over a job? The first time I had to shove a knife between a man’s ribs? Yeah, better.

Managed to stay in the world this way for six years, right before my beloved country, trăiască!, decided they had to do something to stop the raids of the Western Russia Omnium that had brought, in 10 years, Eastern Europe to its knees. Or rather, that we had to do something to stop the raids, because we had to enlist to the new formed Romanian-Moldovan Ally Military Force to save our houses and our families. I was… shit, 20? Yeah, somewhat around that. No future, no family, no home, no expectations… the army promised it would give me a job, warm food when I was hungry, some blankets when it was cold as fuck outside… I mean, for me, back then, it was a radiant future.

It was not only me anyway, if that face of yours want to hint at that. Do you have any idea how many fucking loners like me war in my country has produced? Finally the government had found a way to make use of us; turning us into meat to slaughter and butcher, testers for their new, shiny toys. There were others… shit, the names have become so hard to recall… Bogdan, Daniel, Eugen, Isabela… yeah, those were my friends at the boot camp.

Ha… it’s funny, at times, when I think back of it… six months of training non-stop, day and night, the food was even scarcer than what I used to eat, scrawny boys and girls sent off to die because, after all, it was not like the world was ever going to miss us.

However, I proved to be different. I don’t remember exactly what the head trainer back at the boot camp said, something like “a talent for shooting” or some shit along these lines. Apparently, my aim was naturally trained… yeah, ‘naturally’. Not like I had been aiming down the barrel of my American magnum for the previous six years. What a fucking retard.

I got signed up for something a little bit more special. Two years more off the front, Adi was about to become a sniper for the Fourth Regiment, the big names: Alexandru Averescu, Constantin Prezan, Ion Antonescu… never heard of them? Oh my God, remind me why the fuck I am still talking with you? Yeah, those were big names for us, mareșal, nothing to kid with. I was good, I mean, I don’t want to come out as big-mouthed or anything, but--- like, shit, I had proved to be worth my place. Again, it was not like I wanted to protect my nation, forget about that shit, but like… I finally had a place to feel good in, you know? Call me a romantic, but that was a good thing to have in your chest. And I was so sick of dealing only with anger and bruises.

The Regiment fought the Omnium on the Ukrainian border for 4 years. I got many a commendation for my work, started to make a name for myself little by little. It was like I was born to have a rifle in these scarred hands of mine, a gift from above I had just found out. They called me “Lup-ul”, back in the day; it means “the wolf” in Romanian, a reference to my surname, Lupei. Yeah, I know, pretty basic, but it does have its kick, no? Anyways… good times are always so fast to pass.

We were based in Lysychansk, lovely place to raise kids if you ignore the bomb dropping on your head every 3 hours either from the regular army, the anarchists or the fucking bots. Mission was going smooth, backup was waiting for us just a couple of kilometres away, but it happened: my whole team got captured. There is a reason why I mentioned the anarchists, my friend. Ever heard of Beznă? Mh, at least what Romanians call Beznă; the Polishes, Ciemność; the Ukrainians, Темрява; the Russians, темнота́… and I don’t know what else. Terrorists. People that believe that a  world strangulated in chaos would be better than the mess we have now. At this point, I don’t know if they are entirely wrong.

At first, we thought we would have been sort of pieces to trade for Beznă to seal an unregistered deal with the Romanian Army… no, we were too naive to think that. I can’t and won’t tell you just what they did us, because the last ten years of my life I have tried to tear those memories away from my brain as hard as I could. If you really are eager to know, I was detained in their Siberian facility for four years before I broke free… I was the sole survivor of my team. The shit I got exposed to made me faster, stronger, smarter, more sensitive to stimuli. Paradoxically, I became a better soldier than I already was by getting captured by the enemy. I already knew a bit of Ukrainian back when I was detained so I got to catch some whispers, some gossips, but still I couldn’t understand why we got experimented and tested after, for what goal. Apparently, we were weapons for the Beznă to take over the Eastern Europe regimens. The shot didn’t miss the mark any which ways: my companions still died for ideals they did not stand for.

Back to the story, I learned that the Fourth Regiment had me and my teammates listed as deserters and we were actively sought after by the hounds of the Romanian Army. So I decided to hide in Siberia for the following year, got a new identity, lived off a nomadic style, killing animals and humans alike to eat; animals for their meat, humans for their bounties. What? Do you think I am some sort of cannibal? Oh, yeah, just because I am Romanian you think I am a vampire? Fuck off, dude.

Eventually the Romanians gave up… mostly because they lost the war. That was a hard blow for the country, but we didn’t crumble under the weight of that defeat. Romanians are tough people. We have come back from worse. As long as I was regarded, I came out of hiding, intentioned to get my name back, a new life away from conflicts, blood, war… it was impossible. Believe me, I have tried, I have tried hard, but I was no longer fit for the society. PTSD, maybe, or just I got too used to have my hands drenched in blood, whatever shit it is, I have never been able to be Adrian again. So I just embraced what I had become: Prototip AE92890, Prototip for friends.

Killer for hire, undercover agent, soldier, terrorist, I have been everything. But the job that signed me for my life was probably the only one I did for the big shots; yeah, you know who I am talking about, the heroes of the world, or rather the self-proclaimed heroes. Worked with late Commander Reyes Gabriel and Sarge Gérard Lacroix at the Lacroix Extraction Operation; intended to be back-up, I was given a more relevant position when Commander Reyes got a taste of what I was worth. I remember that day like it was yesterday, not because I was particularly attached to that job –- or at least, I wasn’t before I met him. Clarence Duncan, daughter of James Duncan, an American senator. God, I remember those bright, baby blue eyes looking up at me in fright and confusion when we got him and Madame Amelie out of the Talon labs. I was so in fucking rapture after seeing those eyes; yes, he was sickly pale, and he smelled like that chemical miasma I grew to hate when I was detained by Beznă, he was skinny, weak, frail, unable to stand on his own, but those eyes spoke to me at a level deeper than I could have ever imagined.

Even after the mission, I kept in touch with Clarence. He knew I was a mercenary, that I risked my life out there everyday, and many times he had asked me to give up that crap and join him in a normal life but… I have already told you. I was no longer fit for society. He ended up entering my world, although from an external point of view: he became a member of Overwatch council board. I was so proud of him, watching him as he fulfilled her dreams made me foolishly think that maybe if he was by my side I could have succeeded being a civilian… we tried, after Overwatch was disbanded.  Rainy Washington D.C., a small house as far as possible from his dad he started to fall out with. Those were good days, dude: got a job as an omnic repair operator (what? no, never did it once in my life, but after all the strains they got into me to enhance my ‘brain capacity’ do you think I could care less?), he was getting into politics, he was doing good, and the bed was warm every night, if you know what I mean. He was my dream, dude--- he still is. A dream I fucking destroyed.

Blame it on the drink, blame it on the fact that I was growing restless without gripping a weapon, blame it on whatever you wish, but blame it on me. I sent everything to Hell. I guess I don’t deserve to have nice things after all, uh? I can’t keep them. He kicked my ass back to where it belonged: the dark alleys, the rot-smelling corners of the metropolis, the cold world where being Adrian would only mean being weak, the world where I can be what I need to be: Prototip.

[hermanwatts]

Science Fiction New Releases: 28 December 2019

Ring in the new year with an action-packed collection of new releases featuring cloak and dagger espionage, assault mecha, giant robots, and renegade starships.

Combat Frame XSeed: CY 40 Second Coming (Combat Frame XSeed #3) – Brian Niemeier

It’s not over.

Genius or madman? Monster or Savior?

Arthur Wake is missing in action. His fragile HALO alliance shatters under the Coalition’s counterattack.

Desperate to recoup their losses, the Coalition turns to a pilot with a grudge against HALO. Brutal false flag attacks soon jeopardize Hainan Island’s hard-won independence.

Sullia Zend uses the fray on Earth as cover for her secret agenda. But can even the Sentinel manage a ruthless lawman, her own estranged sister, and a HALO defector on the eve of a cataclysmic reckoning eons in the making?

Confrontation (Baldwin’s Legacy #1) – Nathan Hystad

A new flagship. An unfamiliar crew. An old nemesis.

Thomas Baldwin has been appointed captain of the state-of-the-art cruise ship Constantine, named after his heroic grandfather. When their first diplomatic mission turns deadly, all signs point to the return of a former adversary, one the Concord claims to have defeated five decades earlier.

No one has seen Baldwin’s commander, Treena Starling, since her previous ship was destroyed in a gruesome battle, leaving her the sole survivor. Can her secret help them rescue one of their crew members from captivity at the enemy’s hands?

When the Concord advises Baldwin to walk away from a fight, he must rely on his new crew, including the AI based on his younger grandfather, Constantine, to make the right decisions. One wrong step, and Captain Baldwin could be throwing the entire Concord into another intergalactic war…and this time they might not be so lucky.

Earthlings (Soldiers of Earthrise #2) – Daniel Arenson

Conquering this backwater planet should have been easy.

But the natives are fighting back hard. The bodies pile up. The bombs keep falling. There is no end in sight.

Jon is an Earthling, a soldier eager to serve his world. But now he’s bogged down in the jungles of an alien planet. And the enemy is ruthless.

Maria is a Bahayan, a native of this world of deep forests and deeper secrets. Her ancestors came from Earth, Filipino colonists seeking a better life. But Maria was born on Bahay, and she would die to defend her homeworld.

Jon knows she is the enemy. That her betrothed, a cruel warlord, murdered his brother. Yet Jon cannot help it. He is drawn to Maria like a moth to the flame.

And this flame might burn the galaxy.

Return of the Corinari (The Frontiers Saga: Rogue Castes #13) – Ryk Brown

A host of new allies… A plethora of advanced technologies… A daring gamble to advance their forces… A chance to retake lost worlds once and for all…

The Dusahn have been backed into a corner, barely able to hold the worlds of the Pentaurus cluster, let alone the entire sector. Forced to dig in, they may have to resort to drastic measures to save their fledgling empire.

Captain Scott must use all his military and diplomatic skills to prepare his forces for the final assault on the Dusahn Empire. But he cannot do it alone. He needs help, and lots of it.

The Silent Fleet (The Messenger #4) – J. N. Chaney and Terry Maggert

Recruit. Fight. Build.  

As Dash and his team begin expanding the Forge, they must focus on Dark Metal as the one thing that can give them an advantage in the coming war.

Using drones and a map from an ancient library, Dash and Leira must seek out the source of a transmission coming from far away.

That source, however, is something far more valuable than they could have hoped: a fleet of ancient Unseen ships, waiting to be salvaged.

With the Golden forces closing in, Dash will need to enlist more help as he prepares to engage the enemy.

He must choose his next battleground, all while the Forge works to arm his team with new weapons that could turn the tide once and for all.

Star Legacy (Ascension Gate #2) – Justin Sloan

Stranded on an alien planet and left for dead. They’ve never felt so alive.

The attempt to colonize a system on the other side of a gateway to the stars led to serious problems. Massive storms, sandworms, and strange beings that threaten to end any chance our team has for survival.

Espinoza and his fellow Marines struggle to reconnect with Earth while battling the environment and those who attacked their ship on the way through the gateway. Shrina searches for her sister and answers to where the strange beings on Earth came from. Trent forms new bonds as he learns about powers beyond our comprehension.

Will Espinoza be able to figure out what the Goldies are, and why the storms attack? What made Shrina mutate in this powerful way? How can Trent survive in a world of gods?

Through the Nether (Galaxy’s Edge: Order of the Centurion #4) – Richard Fox, Jason Anspach, and Nick Cole

Nether Ops works in shadows, and those shadows taint all they touch.

Soren Voss believes in the Republic. But when he puts a promising Navy career on hold to serve as a covert agent, he encounters truths that throw everything he knows into turmoil. After weeks in deep cover living life with ruthless gangs, Soren uncovers a stolen cache of weapons, a mysterious upgraded form of legionnaire armor, and a written oath of loyalty for someone named…Goth Sullus. The agent follows leads that bring him face-to-face with crooked legionnaires, slimy politicians, and a powerful smuggler and gunrunner named Scarpia.

Soren follows a darkening path to the heart of the Republic, and what he uncovers leaves him wondering not only if the Republic can be saved, but if he’s even on the right side.

From Barsoom to Malacandra: Musings on Things Past and Things to Come – John C. Wright

Science Fiction Grandmaster John C Wright here presents never before published essays on topics both deep and trivial surrounding the strange and wonderful worlds of science fiction and fantasy. Thoughtful, humorous, deep, or absurd, Wright travels the width of the cosmos and plumbs the deeps of eternity through the lens of simple space adventure stories to say what these flights of fancy say about life on earth, and the secrets hidden in the human heart.

Science Fiction New Releases: 28 December 2019 published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/