#get ready to ad another character to the “hates being called a certain name due to Trauma” list

[madmiriam]

My Mando (Din Djarin) /oc's backstory idea (includes alot of rexsoka shipping)

Warning!! : I can't spell for toffee and Tumblr deleted all of my proofreaders edits. Obviously she doesn't want to do it all over again so I've had to make do.

(a clan of three by madmiriam (Me)

We all love the mandalorian, Din Djarin is so sexy as single dad and we all love him for it. But this makes it hard to write and engageing original character to go with this perfect specimen of a man, one that we can really connect with. Well I have a salutation, to connect with a character it helps if that character is also connected to a character/characters that you already know and love. So I give you my original character Jaig.

Look:

Like the picture above, originally I wasn't going to have Din and Grogu in it at first but I have a habit of making life difficult for myself, so your welcome.

Personality:

As an adult, she's calm and patient and has a sarcastic sense of humour.

As a child, she has a bubbly personality, a contagious smile, and an insatiable curiosity.

Strengths:

she finds it difficult to truly hate anyone, no matter what they've done, she proffers to look at the reasons behind the actions of others before jumping in for revenge, that's not to say she doesn't get angry at people, but her anger is not fuelled by hate. She has been fully trained in the use of weaponry, such as guns, granaids and other such, and has had a small amount of training with a lightsaber when she was younger. But afters a experiencing a tragedy at the age of 9 she hasn't touched one since, she proffers the us of DC hand guns. She is also a fairly good pilot and mechanic.

Weaknesses:

back when she was a child she had a hard time using the force when when overwhelmed. If the thoughts and feelings of others got to much, she would become force blind. When she grows older, (for certain reasons you will find out later on in. This story) she completely cuts herself off from the force. Unless her emotions get to much go handle, then the force would almost explodes out of her. She also doesn't do well when she's alown. Having grown up in various large family atmospheres. If she is not around people she cares about and loves, she will become closed off a dipressed.

Back story: (now bear with me, this storyline is set before she meets Din, its just an introduction to this character)

Jaig (due to her small Jaig eye like markings, and her father's personal connection to the simble) is the daughter of ex jedi padawan Ahsoka Tano and her mate/husband Captain Rex. She looks mostly human like her father, with the same amber eyes and his family's dark hair. But with the same facial structure of her mother, and a slightly darker and olive tinged skin tone. She also has distinct white making that were almost identical to her mother's. Except instead of diamond shapes on her forehead, she has jaig eye like markings. She was born 6 years after the clone wars ended, while her parents were on the run from the empire. Rex and Ahsoka had found it impossible to part from one another after the events of order 66, and after travelled from place to place avoiding the empire for a long time. Their feelings for one another grow, and they eventually married through the use of mandalorian marriage vows.

They built a home in the stars, and after a few years, to their great surprise and happiness they conserved and had Jaig. Things were finally looking up with the birth of their new found hope for the future.

(Their new found hope for the future/baby Jaig by madmiriam (me)

But it was not to last. It was hard enough to hide themselves, a clone and a ex jedi from the empire. But now adding a force sensative baby to the mix as well, it made it damn near impossible for them all to stay together. Which; after a terrifying encounter with one of the Empires Inquisitors, forced them to make the difficult decision to part ways. Rex would head off insearch for a new home and hopefully find and de-chip as many brothers as he could. While ahsoka would keep traveling around the stars with Jaig. Avoiding the empire and its ruthless inquisitors, whilst trying to help Jaig build up her Shields. They both agreed to keep in touch and once Jaig's Shields were up and safely secure,(which for the average youngling would take 5 years or so) they would rejoin each other and dicided what to do next. But a year after their separation Rex's comms and messeges had stopped all together, and by the time Jaig had reached the age of five and had built up some suitable shields around her mind, neither she or her mother had herd from her father in over 4 years. Her mother was adament he was still alive, but as she grew older Jaig had a hard time believing her. For if he was alive why hadn't he come to find them? Why was he not answering her mothers messages that she still sent on a regular basis?

By the time she was 6 her mother was approached by Bail Organa, in regards to starting a rebellion, and that is what they spent the next 4 years working towards, staying in the shadows gradually building up a resistance to eventually overthrow the empire.

She and her mother met the ghost crew when she was 9 (the same age Anakin had been when he was found by qui gon) and after an uncomfortably close encounter with a mysterious Sith lord called Darth Vader, Jaig's mother disided it was time to bring her father into the fold, and sent Jaig of with the ghost crew to find Rex.

When meeting her father she had opted to wear a scarf to cover her face markings and, chose to withhold her name, and who she was until she found out more about the man who was her father. She was apprehensive about him. As she had no memorie of her dad, for she was only a baby when he left. The only thing she did have, was this warm comforting feeling that she felt whenever her mother spoke of him. A feeling of being held to a large ferm chest in two equally large and ferm muscular arms. Wrapped in a soft wool blanket. Her mother told her that this was the force making an imprint on one of the more emotional moments of her like. But all the same, she proffered to be cautious.

After spending some time with Rex and his bothers. She found her self really enjoying there company. Aspecially her father's. Who dispite having no idea who she was, had already shown that he had a clear paternal instinct. Particularly when teaching her and Ezra how to fish for "Big Bongo". However Kanan who clearly didn't trust Rex or his brothers had spent most of his time hovering around ether her or Ezra protectively, eventually telling them about his exspirence with order 66, an event her mother never talked about.

After seeing the heartbreak on her father's eyes at the memories he and Kanan spoke of. She desided it was time to tell him who she was. But that decision was cut short however when she overheard Rex telling Ezra that he wasn't going to come back with them. Even though he now knew her mother was alive (1 year after separating when the message's stopped he thought both his wife and child to be dead) Jaig ran of in tears when hearing this. She climbing down the ladder of the the AT-TE and walked ferther in front of the walking monstrosity. Away from everyone else. She had finally gotten used to the idea of her father coming back with them. Had become exited by it even. But now, the fact that he was refusing to come with them. Back to his home, his wife, to her. It hurt and overwhelmed her, more than she could say.

She didn't however see what happened after. When Sebine came out and acused Rex of selling them out, of contacting the empire and never answering Ahsoka's messages; at which point he finds out about how Wolfe had withheld all the messages from Ahsoka for 8 years. Thinking he was protecting his brothers from a potentially vengeful jedi. Rex was furious at Wolfe for hiding his own wife's messages to him, and coursing him to miss so much of his only child's life.

Rex: "we have a daughter Wolfe!!! My Jaig, my baby girl doesn't even know who I am because of you!!!"

Wolfe:(was shocked and full of regret when hearing this) "I.. I.. Didn't know... Rex I'm sorry, I didnt know"

Ezra:(recordnises the name) "wait Jaig? you meen our Jaig, Jaigs your daughter?"

Rex: "wait what?"

At this point they hear a shrill scream coming from down in front of the AT-TE. It was Jaig, she was being attact by the prob droid that had been sent by the empire.

The clones immediately go into action. Rex is handed a rifle and gets ready to shoot the prob as it backs his daughter into the ground. His ames and shoots true, killing the droid with one foul shot and then quickly dashes down to retrieve his daughter from under the sparking remains of the droid.

Jaig is in hysterics at this point. Having been taken by surprise by the droid along with the emotional turmoil of potentially losing her father all over again. She then resigned herself to just sit there and cry over how foolish she was for even seeing the attack coming. But now she was being held in the familiar strong arms of her father as he held his only child for the first time in over 8 years.

Rex: "I'm here sh shh, I'm here Ik'aad senaar (baby bird, a nickname he gave her as an infant) daddy's here, daddy's got you"

He says carefully stocking her familiar dark brown hair (that was now flowing free as her scarf had fallen loosely around her shoulders, revealing her beautiful face to her father who's eyes were now brimming with unshed tears) to calm her down as he picking her up and takes her back to the AT-TE. Where the others are waiting with bated breaths. Wolfe was holding a blanket out to wrap his shacking niece into and Gregor quickly dashing off to get her a hot chocolate hoping to make her feel better.

Jaig: "I was angry. Upset. You said you weren't coming home and, then everyone felt so angry and scared all at once. It was to much. (sighs) I have a hard time controling the force when I get overwhelmed like that. I couldn't even sence the prob. I'm. I'm sorry"

She exsplans after she sits down and has a few sips of the hot chocolate that had been placed in her hands. Accompanied a number of comforting back rubs from both her father and her uncles.

Wolfe apologies to her. Explains that he's the reason her father had been out of her life for so long. That he was just trying to protect his brothers but ended up hurting his other family because of it. And tells her he understands if she hates him.

Jaig: "your Wolfe aren't you? Uncle Wolfe? Mum (she has a slight clone like accent that they haven't noticed before) told me about you, said you worked with Grandpa Plo"

Wolfe: 😳"Grandpa Plo? 😂 Boy he would have loved to have herd you say that"

He said, both of them smile at each other, Jaig having forgiven her uncle for his laps in judgment.

All seemed well again until the empire calls them back to get the clones to hand over the rebels. The clones now fueled by the new found need to keep their new family out of harms way, tells the empire where they can stick it, and quickly try to usher the ghost crew along with Jaig into the phantom so they can escape While they all get ready to fight.

Jaig: "but I just found you, mum told me to bring you home, I can't leave you behind, da.. Please don't go"

She says clutching at his shirt as he huged her tight before holding her out to face him,

Rex:"no one's abandoning anyone. Jaig look at me (tilting her head to look. Into her eyes, eyes that matched her father's) we're soldiers Ik'aad senaar, this is what we were born to do, but this time we have something to fight for.. Its going to be OK, (presses his forehead against hers) I love you my Jaig eyes, I've loved you from the I first held you. Ha you were so tiny. I didn't want to let you go back then and I don't want to do it again now, but like last time it's something I have to do, to keep you safe, my Ik'aad senaar, (kissed her forhead lovingly) tell your mother I'm sorry I couldn't make it home, and... And I love her ok."

He says before sending her back into the phantom, closing the door behind her before she can stop him.

Things then pan out like it does in the show, the phantom goes back to help the clones take down the walkers and Rex then decides he's not gonna spend any more of time away from Ahsoka and Jaig and choses to return with them and join the rebellion.

The reauion between Rex and Ahsoka continues the same, but insted of just a hug Ahsoka goes in for the kiss (how it should have always been in my opinion).

(this art work was done by @nottonyharrison (please note: this image was used with the permission of the artist,) please go check them out, as you can see their art work is stunning)

They spend most of there time with the ghost crew, Ahsoka makes the Ghost her base to return to after missions, and Rex teaching combat and war strategies to both Ezra and Jaig, but mostly to Ezra, Jaig was; in his opinion still to young to get to deep into the oncoming war.

Rex:"let her be a kid for a little longer at least".

Jaig and Ezra had eventually become good friends, Jaig looking up to him as something of an older brother, following him every where he went like a little shadow. At first Ezra was annoyed, and try to get away from her at every turn. But after a while he found he quite like having someone look up to him for a change. As before her, he had been dubed the baby of the group with the most to learn. But now he had Jaig hanging on his evey word like it was gold. He found he enjoyed the new found responsibility.

Unfortunately with her shadowing Ezra so much. This meant she got into all kinds of trouble with him. Trouble that mostly involved them running down the corridor with an angry Zeb chasing after them. Zeb really didn't seem to like Jaig very much. Said it was like having two Ezras, and one was quite enough. However other trouble also included a short but terrible trip to malachor, where after being told she can't come along she choses to stow herself away on the phantom in the small rashon hold built into the floor, shielding her mind from her mother as they flow through space.

Ahsoka: (on a call to Rex) "well I definitely out rank you😉... 😟How Jaig doing?"

Rex: "welp she's not happy, she gone and hidden herself in one of thoughs little critter caves again, I'm making her favorite tonight so I know she'll show up by dinner time, but all the same😔..."

Ahsoka: "hay don't take it to heart Rex, you and I both know this is how she deals with being left behind for anything, she finds a small place to hide and sulk it out, just be ready with a plate of nuna and a hug and she bounces right back😄🙁 when she comes out tell her I love her, and I'll be home soon"

Rex: "I will🙂😟... May the force be with you" they hang up.

It's Ezra who ends up finding her, just after they land. Pointing her out to a stressed out Kanan and a very cross Ahsoka,

Ezra: "ummm guys, I think we have a stowaway",

Jaig: "before you get mad..... consider being proud of me, I stayed still for hours in there AND I shielded my mind the whole time, so you non of you even knew I was there"

Ahsoka: "DON'T push it young lady😠what were you thinking!! Your fathers gonna be worried sick!!!! 😤😔 welp since there's no turning back now, the sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get you back home and thoroughly grounded for a year"

The rest again plays out the same, they find Maul, Maul blinds Kanan, they get the sith holocromb but lose Ahsoka in the fight with Vader, though after seeing Jaig who looks so much like the little snippy girl from his old life, the Anakin in Vader hasitates to kill ahsoka and her child, and insted trys to convince the unwavering togruta to join him with her daughter.

Vader:"the galaxy shall never be safe for her Ahsoka, join me and I can protect her from the emperor. Join me and we can over throw him... Together"

Ahsoka: "how can I trust anything you say. If you were truly Anakin then how can you protect my daughter when you can't even protect yourself"

Jaig: "MUM!!!! MUUUMMMM!!!"

Ahsoka looks at her daughter running to her as the walls of the sith temple come down,

Ahsoka :"I'm sorry Jaig"

She say quietly as she force pushes he child into Ezra outside the temple as it fall around her and Vader out of the site of her family.

When all is quiet and Vader emerges from the rubble, after failing to find his former apprentice, the Anakin in him vows that he will not fail her child, he will do everything in his power to insure his master never find her, even if he has to hide her away himself to do it.

When Kanan, Ezra and Jaig return to base, Rex is in hysterics asking around.

Rex:"have you seen Jaig? Has anyone seen my baby?, its been over two days.. I can't find her..!!."

Jaig:"DADDY!!! 😭"

Rex turns to see her running out of a newly landed phantom in tears. Now knowing exactly where she'd been he quickly runs to her and scoops her up in his arm clucking her close to his chest in relief that she was home.

Rex:"you.. Are going to be the death of me, hey sh shshsh hey, hey what's the tears? what happen? where's your..? ."

(a father's comfort, ruff drawing by madmiriam (me)

He couldn't finish the sentence as he looked around and sure two other people emerging from a now empty ship, neither one of them was his wife. Ezra looked him in the eyes and with out saying a word, he knew. He knew Ahsoka, his Ahsoka was gone. He closed his eyes, sheding one silent tear as he held his girl tighter, and slowly carried her away, away from the crowd, but not away from the heartache.

After the loss of her mother, Jaig's once bubblie personality had diminishes somewhat. She refuses to leave the side of eather her father or the members of the ghost crew. She goes on a few missions with them and liston to every word her father says about ways of fighting, fighting to protect herself and the people she loves. Before heading to a mission on geonosis he gives he one of his old DCs. (its twin had been lost in battle during the clone wars and he had gotten a replacement pear, but he had always kept his first well maintained in case he ever needed it)

Rex: "I know it's no lightsaber, but if will keep you and the others safe when used properly"

Jaig: "I don't want a lightsaber any more, 😔sabers get you killed"

Rex: " not all of them Ik'aad senaar" he sighs kissing her forehead "not all of them".

But even this would not last. When it came time for the empire to attack chopper base. Vader sends his own secret troops of undercover purge troopers to find and retrieve Jaig, and to also fake her death so both the empire and the rebels would not come looking for her. This of corse left Rex in his lowest point yet. After watching the ship he had put his daughter on to be evacuated blow up before it even left the ground. He found it hard to not simply drop all his defences and just calming walk into the flames after her. If it hadn't been for Zeb he probably would have. These kind of thoughts invaded his mind so frequently after that day, it was hard to remember when they didn't. He had lost both his wife and now his child. His hope and his reason for fighting were gone, and he wanted to go after them. But he couldn't. Not while there were still people to fight out there, the people who took everything for him and was still grabbing for more. People who his wife started this whole rebellion to fight against. No, he would keep fighting, as long as there is still even one imperial still left alive he would live and fight, until every last one of then were wiped out of existence. (that's gonna take a while)

Meanwhile Vader and Jaig finally meet properly face to mask. Jaig is having a hard time counselling her fear. But Vader was also having difficulty concealing his pain. Pain that had lingered since the moment he had emerged from that crumbled down sith temple, with no sign in the force or otherwise of his once padawan,. The last family he thought he had, that had not betrayed him, who had(once she had seen his face underneath his freshly cracked mask) said she wouldn't leave him, not again. But she had left him, not by her own design he knew, but she had left him all the same. And she had also left a child behind, a child like the one Padme would have given him if it weren't for both the sith and the jedi.

The jedi, who had forced his hand in turning to the dark side, by telling him he should just let Padme die for the good of the galaxy. The jedi who had abandoned his padawan, his little sister, his first child (if he could go so far as to say) in her time of need, and then exsept her to come back all smiles, acting as though her whole ordel was just a trial to prove herself to them. When it was them who should be providing themselves to her.

And the sith,. The sith who had manipulated him from day one to become what he is now, the sith who had taken every thing he had, his wife, his child, his brother/father figer, his little sister/daughter and his friends. The clones. His home all gone for the sake of his masters new empire😡. Yes he new this had been his master's plan all along, the war the clones, the inhibitor chips. All to gane more and more power for himself and to distroy the jedi in his wake. Dragging Anakin down into the darkness with him, and he would do the same thing to Jaig given the chance. Vader could feel the raw power of the force rolling of her, the energy mix with her fear would be a prime canderdate for Sidious's manipulation, should he ever discover her existence.

No!!! That would not happen, neither the sith or the jedi would have her, he would not alow it.

Jaig:"I know who you are.. I know what you did... You tryed to turn my mother before killing her, but you wouldn't turn me, you hear me, I.. Will.. Not... Turn"

She says her voice shacking with her body in fear.

Vader:"no... You will not..."

Jaig: "then why am I here? I haven't done anything to make you hate me.... At least... I don't think I have"

Vader:"I do not hate you Jaig, like your mother, much to my masters great..... disappointment... I could never hate you"

It was true. He couldn't hate her. Couldn't bring himself to hate her. But he couldn't love her either. He had no more love left in him to give. But he could protector for the sake of someone he had loved.

Jaig: confused "then.. Then please let me go, I won't tell anyone if that's what your worried about, I just want to go home, I want my dad, please I just want my daddy😰"

Vader: "you father's fate is.... Regrettable. However it is a necessary evil, it is emperative that he believes you to be dead"

Jaig: "why what did he do to you? what did any of my parents ever do to you?!"

Vader: "as shocking as it may sound, these actions are not done out of hate. You will know this soon enough but for now, I must focus on getting you as far away and as hidden as possible" he then calls in a trouper with red and black armor.

Vader: "CC-2224 I trust your men are ready"

Cody: "ready and awaiting orders.. Sir"

Cody says through gritted teeth not bearing to even look at his once general's masked face.

Vader:"good, I trust the surgery was a success for all of them?"

Cody: "yes.. Sir.. Though we are all having adjustment issues due to recent ... and.... less recent events"

Vader: "thoughs... issues.... had better not interfere with the performance of your mission commander, you and your men have been chosen for one reason and one reason only, and it is for your loyalty to her safety. I can feel your hatred for me commander Cody (Cody inhails sharply at the sound of his name) but I also know enough about you and your brother's to know that they will not let this anger get in the way. I trust you all know the consequences that await you should you fail"

He ignites his blood red saber to put more emphasis on his point.

Cody:"yes sir"

Vader:"very well, now take her and go, and protect her with your life, I shall make my own way back to base as some as I can, her training with began immediately after my return, so be sure to proper her, but until then you already know what to do".

Cody noded before walking over to Jaig, then bent down and gently but fermly lifts her out of her seat, and quickly carry her out of the cell, down the hall and, through the, docking Station towards a unmarked referbished gunship.

Jaig: "where are we going? "

She said with a soft whimper. She was relieved to be away from Vader but still felt apprehensive with the idea of being taken away yet again in the arms of this.. Purge trooper, at lest she thinks it's a purge trooper, she had never seen one before so she could only guess.

Cody: "sh sh it's gonna be OK little one, I'm taking you some were safe, but we have to hurry now"

Jaig:"why?"

Cody: "no one on this ship other than Vader knows we're here and we have to keep it that way kid"

Jaig:"why would you need to hide from your own men"

Cody:"cuz you never know whos watching, I'll explain more when we get off this ship and into hyperspace"

Once they were on board the gun ship, that had been modified to acomidate long period space travel. The modifications included everything from comfortable seating to a working hyperdrive. Cody set her down in one of the seats and strapped her fermly in before heading to the cockpit, leaving her now surrounded by four more purge troopers (hardcase, fives, dogma and waxer, who I'm gonna say lived, cuz I have attachment issues, boil is in the cockpit piloting the ship) who are all looking at her intensely through their helmets. (hardcase and fives are in borrowed discises, after Fives finds out about the chips he and hardcase desert the army and decide to strike out on their own to try and find out more about the chips and their perpose, unfortunately they were too late to do anything about it before oder 66 happened. They have been on the run ever since, until Vader aproches them, informing them that he has been keeping tabs on them, and had been insuring the empire believes them both to be dead, and tells them of the mission, they agree to help because it's Rex and ahsoka's daughter they'll be protecting, but only under the condition the they only report to a de-chipped Cody and all other clones included in the mission must also be de-chipped as well. Vader had agreed to this as he was going to have their chips all removed anyway, to prevent any itchy trigger fingers being near his new force sensative)

Once they're in hyperspace Cody returns to the main area of the gun ship, where the other clones are crowed around a frightened looking Jaig

Waxer: "is this her? Wow she looks so much like her mum"

Fives: "she has our eyes though, our wonderfully handsome eyes"

hardcase: "and out hair, Ha!! I knew Rex's hair wasn't naturally blonde😂"

Dogma:" technically Hardcase, her hair being brown isn't proof that his is to, she could have just gotten the hereditary Jango gen of dark hair"

Fives:"aww suck the fun out of it why don't you"

Cody: "guys back up, give her some space, your freaking her out, and take off your buckets, I don't think they're helping"

When their buckets were removed Jaig was shocked to see five versions of her father's face looking down at her, all old and a little worse for where's, but all very much clone. She recordnises three of them from her father's holopad.

Jaig: "Fives?"

Fives:😃 "yeah! Yeah kid, that's me your☝️ Uncle Fives (he kneals down taking her hand in his, giving it a quick squeeze, before turning to Cody) she recordnised me first that must kill you😁"

Cody: 😠 "only cus you have a, dirty great 5 on your forehead You Di'kut"

He said before knealing down in front of her

Cody:"hey kid, sorry I couldn't introduce myself earlier, I'm your.."

Jaig:"Uncle Cody"

Cody:😁 "yeah kid (to Fives) SEE!! over there are your uncles Dogma, Waxer, Hardcase and back there in the cockpit is your uncle Boil, I know your probably not used to this many of us, but there's more we're we came from where we're going, though they live un a different fasilaty to ours, but every single one of them would be whiling to keep you safe if they knew. So you don't have to worry, we're not gonna let anything happen to you"

Jaig "but Vader.."

Cody: (places both hand at the side of her head and looks her dead in the eyes) "isn't going to TUCH you, not if we have anything to say about its, he may be our sponser, and he will be coming round every so often to check on you and train you. But you'll have several hundred or so uncles on the planet ready and waiting with fully loaded blasters should he ever try to hurt you, us 6 especially as we're the only clones there that know about you yet and we're gonna be living under the same roof, as you and one of us will always be close by to help you. OK kid, it's all gonna be ok (he says hugging her) your safe now"

Jaig: "but I don't want to be trained by Vader, I said I wouldn't turn and I meant it"

Cody: "it's alright, its alright. The one thing Vader has assured us of, is it he will not be training you in the dark side. And judging by the amount of effort he's putting into keeping you hidden, I'm inclined to believe him. He told us that you must block your self off from the force, what ever that means. Which is what he's going to show you how to do. Apparently it's the only way to keep the emperor off your scent. But like I said, one of us is always gonna be there should he try anything"

Fives:"yeah we'll look out for you kid, I know you miss your dad, and we're pretty poor substitutes, but we're here for you all the same"

Hardcase:"and we're not leaving anytime soon"

Dogma: "well not if we can help it"

Jaig "but where are we going?"

Cody: smile "to the closest thing we clones have to a home... Kamino"

Kamino had changed over the years, once the emperor had ordered to stop to any more clones creation. The cloning fasilaties had been abandoned by the kaminoans, along with all the rest of the untrained cadets who were all shipped of to the mustafa system to be trained and bred as the empires elite force of purge troopers.

The cloning facilities were left to the old now retired clones, to live out their days away from civilisation, many now wolowing in sadness and regret for their actions under the influence of their now un activated inhibitor chips.

The place Jaig and her other uncles were heading, was just a few hundred miles of from the main cloning compound. It had been kitted out with everything they might need, weaponry, shields, a food station, bedrooms, a bunkhouse, a training ground, and a shooting range. The only beings abord were now the clones, Jaig, the cook and the maintenance crew, well I say crew, it consisted of one male Ugnaught named Kuiil and three droid assistants whom he had reprogrammed to help with any and all clean up and maintenance duties.

Jaig would continue to live out there with her uncles for the next 5 years. They would go on to train her with any and all things clone, weaponry, though she had learnt a lot of that from her father's teachings, and the language and teachings of the mandalorian. The boys were insistent that she learn all of what little they knew of their heritage, as they were all descended from Jango, who was of mandolor. Any clone would tell you how proud the clones were of this heritage, and now they had someone to pass it all down to. They even taught Jaig the mandalorian wars songs that they had all learnt as cadets, and the Clone Haka, that had been performed by many clone troops over the years, before battle,. Much to the confusion and quite frankly terror of the B1 battle droids who witnessed them.

Fives: "ha your mum was pritty good at this to"

Jaig: now 12" my mum knew the Haka? "

She said, trying to picture her calm and serene togrutan mother, chanting, stomping and banging her chest along side millions of clones Warriors, all while making different faces and throatle sounds at the droids on the other side of the battlefield.

Hardcase: "oh yeah!! She was a natural, always shouting the chant in her loudest voice and making her scariest war face, like this 🤪😜🤪"

Fives: "and that my dear Jaig, was when your father fell in love🥰"

Vader came over as often as he could spare, when he was sure he couldn't be directed be his master or that anyone following him. Teaching Jaig how to disconnect herself from the force, telling her that if she continues to use it, the consequences would be severe.

Vader:"if the employer was ever to discover you exsisens, he would hunt you down in an instant, and kill anyone who trys to hide you from him. This is why you must never use the force again, and you must never leave. If anyone outside this fasilaty were to learn of your existence, you would be in mortal danger, as would everyone you care about"

Jaig: "but why couldn't my dad come? You could have had both our deaths faked and brought him here with me"

Vader: sighed "he is to mixed up with the rebel alliance, and besides, it was his reaction that sold your death to the universe. A trick I learned from my old master...the hard way"

He said bitterly.

Jaig knew she should hate him, he had taken her from her home, her friends and family. He had taken her mother, and it was because of his foolish decision to trust, a maniac, power hungy, sith Lord, that her family were forced to live in the shadows, and her mother, and father were force into separation when she was just an infant. She didn't like him by any means, she frequently tryed to avoid his at any turn. But she still couldn't feel hatred for him.

Cody: "na that your mother in you, she was never one to hold much of a grudge ether. She got angry at people don't get me wrong but she never hated them. She cryed over the potential execution of a woman who had Framed her for Murder once. And had taken the time to give all her deceased troops, who had tryed to gun her down a funeral. Even though she and your father where now on the run from the empire"

Over the years living there, she became closer with her uncles, or at least most of them. She argued with Boil on an almost daily basis, but they had their moments, she told him and Waxer how she met Numa, who was still fighting for the freedom of her home. She had a difficult time connecting with Dogma. He was very distance from her and didn't talk much. However she did like listening to him read. Dogma who had been a stiff by the book solder his entire life, and had been through so much, found he secretly quite enjoyed the company of his niece. But she spent most of her training with Fives and Hardcase. Both clones always new how to make her smile and told her many stories of her parents during the war, stories not even her parents had told her, (though they never much liked talking about the war), and she had given them a new lease of life, and new perpose. She was probably closest with Cody, he had know her father since they were both cadets, and was determined to teach her everything he knew, but he also showed his softer side with her. There were many a time he would be seen walking down the corridor carrying the young girl who was really getting a bit to big to be held, in his arms fast asleep from a long day.

She had also become quite good friends with Kuiil the maintenance manger, she learnt that he was paying off his debt to the empire through prolonged servitude, he had been in many battles he didn't believe in, until Vader; after seeing his reprogramming skills had, offered him a place on this secret compound. Kuiil had also taken quite a shine to Jaig, she was kind, and eager to learn the inner workings of the machines he fixed.

But yet again, even this would not last. After the destruction of the First Death Star, Lord Sidious had been furious with Vader, he tortured and demoted him. But through his touture he discovered the existence of the child Vader had taken such lengths to keep hidden from him. And through this new information, he devised a plan.

To brake his apprentices even ferther, he would force him to chose, chose between the life of his padawans child, who he had swarn to protect, and the life of his son, that he did not yet know about. But unfortunately for the emperor, he did not bargain for the tactical brilliance of the Clones.

When the empire, came to take the now 15 year old girl, they had already divested their own escape plan. They sent Jaig along with Kuill over to the kaminoan cloning facilities, turned clone retirement home, before the empire even entered the atmosphere. There she was frozen in to carbonite and fastened to the inside of the newly alcoved underbelly of a small one-seater Y wing (to insure the if the empire should come across them she would be well hidden and undetected, Kuiils cover story being that he was delivering supplies to the clones) there Kuiil would then fly far away from any siverlized planet. While, the clones continued to fight and defend the compound as though she was still there, and then proceed to escape themselves, using an old subship left over from the battle of Kamino. But not before bowing the place sky high, making it seem like the empires had fired at the fewl tanks corsing the whole building to be destroyed along with anyone who was inside.

This was not the out come Sidious had wished for, however with the now almost certain death of his ward, Vader plunged ever ferther into the void of darkness and hate. So the desired effect Sideous was planning for was reached anyway.

After being unfrozen from carbonite, Jaig and Kuiil parted ways. She chose to for her father, but it became fruitless. Chopper base had long since been evacuated and the rebel alliance was always one step ahead of her in their attempts to avoid the empire. For 2 years she searched for them, and fought the Empire where she could, until she finally stopped, delving into the belief that what ever family she knew was now gone, she rejoined Kuiil on a deserted planet called Arvala-7, while the galaxy celebrated the fall of the empire. Where for the next 5 years they would both try to live out their lives in peace, working the land and carrying for blurgs, until a mandolorian arrives on their planet, looking for a little green bounty, which starts of a whole new adventure for our now Adult Jaig.

OK guys let me know how I did, and if you would like to see Jaig's adventures with Din Djarin and little green bean Grogu. Let me know. I'm not much of a writer,. But I always got so irratated when reading Din Djarin/oc fics where to make her interesting, they give the oc force powers, with either no build up to it, or she's a run away jedi, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of season 2 were they're trying to find the jedi, so I thought I'd write my own. I wanted to have a character that has both a clear connection to both the mandalorian culture and the force, without making her a mary su. She has a connection to the force. But she can't use it, or control it. Therefore she can't train Grogu to use it. Which would mean they'd have to find the jedi, to help him learn to control his powers. Plus I don't want to just giving her everything with no preplanned reason. So here is my preplanned reason. I know these short scenes and conversations don't really delve much into her personality but that's were you come in. Tell me what you think of her, and what you think she's like as an adult. I wrote a few things like her kind nature and her sarcastic humour. But I could do with some ideas on what you would like to see. Let me know, and...

May the 4th be with you,😉

[killjoyhistoryarchive]

“Conventional Weapons” and the Rocky Road to “Danger Days”

In 2009, My Chemical Romance was buzzing with activity. The band performed several shows and festivals (including Summer Sonic in Japan), Gerard and Mikey Way attended San Diego Comic Con, and The Umbrella Academy was named one of Amazon’s top comics of 2009. Ray Toro held a Whopper eating contest on the official MCR website (no joke), while a certain comic series written by Gerard Way and Shaun Simon was announced in August. And at a show at the Roxy in Los Angeles, MCR performed three new songs from their upcoming album.

But while their next album seemed easily slated for an early 2010 release, MCR was about to hit a series of hurdles that would leave them with a scrapped album, a lost drummer, and a totally new outlook on where their music was headed.

On July 31st, 2009, MCR performed a set at the Roxy that included three new songs–“Kiss The Ring,” “The Drugs,” and “Death Before Disco.” Gerard was enthusiastic about the new tracks, even telling Rolling Stone that “Death Before Disco” was “the greatest song we’ve ever written.” Videos of the tracks soon appeared online, where fans eagerly devoured what they thought would be the follow-up to 2006’s The Black Parade.

As the days and weeks went on, the media blitz kicked into high-gear. While Ray Toro posted short studio clips on MCR’s website, the band gave several interviews where they gushed about producer Brendan O'Brien, discussed their new stripped-down style, and claimed that this would be their best record yet. In an interview with MTV, Gerard described the still-untitled album as a “true love letter to rock and roll,” adding:

“There’s something about being an American rock-and-roll band that we’ve kind of grown into and we’re very proud of. And I think that’s what we’re celebrating with this record. There’s no agenda, there’s no mission; it’s just about rock and roll.”

Meanwhile, Gerard Way and close friend Shaun Simon had another surprise in store: a comic series called "Killjoys.” Dark Horse Comics announced the release at San Diego Comic Con. Jeremy Atkins, the Dark Horse Director of Public Relations, described “Killjoys” as “a psychedelic rock-and-roll road trip adventure geared toward both fans of The Umbrella Academy and My Chemical Romance.” But not much else was said about the comic, as MCR’s upcoming album had become Gerard’s top priority.

As the album drew closer to completion, MCR gave fans more glimpses of what lay in store. They shared the titles of various tracks, including “Still Alive,” “Trans Am,” “Hail To The King,” “Save Yourself, I’ll Hold Them Back," “L.A. Heavy,” "The Only Hope For Me Is You,” and “Black Dragon Fighting Society.” They cited a variety of influences, including Queen, Judas Priest, Bruce Springsteen, The Killers, and Blade Runner. By all accounts, this was going to be MCR’s defining album.

In December, MCR previewed seven tracks for SPIN magazine. A month later, in January of 2010, the album–which was still untitled–was rumored to be released on March 30th. As they continued to rework the songs, they realized that the stripped-down sound wasn’t working. As NME reported in January:

Things turned around with a song called “Trans Am,” now renamed "Bullet Proof Heart,” the likely first single. And perversely, they did it by returning to fiction. Broadly, it’s about a boy in New Jersey, dressed in a Judas Priest T-shirt, called Johnny. And a girl called Jenny who might be his girlfriend, but who also (honk the pop fact sirens!) might also be the missing girl from “Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine” by The Killers.

But in the same interview, Gerard restated that the album would give "the purest, best version of the band you could ever hope for.” And in early February, MCR finally started to wrap up production, telling Big Cheese that the album would probably be released in spring or summer.

“Killjoys” also looked promising–back in January, Scott Allie had reported in a blog post that Shaun Simon and Becky Cloonan were ready to get started. Once Gerard wrapped up the album and finished working on the Umbrella Academy movie screenplay, it seemed like he’d be ready to dive in.

But February was also when the band publicly stumbled for the first time.

Before the Big Cheese interview, MCR had abruptly cancelled their appearance at the Soundwave festival in Australia. In a blog post on MCR’s website, Frank claimed that Gerard was having voice problems (he jokingly implied that it was due to coffee and cigarettes) and required treatment to make a full recovery.

Fans were disappointed, but most understood that it couldn’t be helped. But a month later, the fandom received another shock: MCR’s drummer Bob Bryar had departed the band. In another blog post, Frank told fans:

As of 4 weeks ago, My Chemical Romance and Bob Bryar parted ways. This was a painful decision for all of us to make and was not taken lightly. We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors and expect you all to do the same. We also wanted to give you all a quick heads up on how the record is progressing. We have been writing some very powerful new songs so this week the four of us entered the studio once again, and what has been ending up on tape each night is some of the most exciting and honest work we have ever created.

The fandom was stunned. Clearly, MCR had been experiencing some behind-the-scenes turmoil, suggesting that the process wasn’t going as smoothly as fans had thought. While it wasn’t known at the time, they also parted ways with producer Brendan O'Brien, who had been hired specifically to channel their raw, back-to-basics sound. Where would MCR go from here? And when would fans hear the latest album–which was apparently undergoing rewrites once again?

It wasn’t until late 2010 that fans would finally learn what had happened to this unreleased album.

This moment, says frontman Gerard Way, looking back on what went wrong, “was the hardest part”. Guitarist Ray Toro was “home dealing with some family things”, leaving Way, his bassist brother Mikey, and guitarist Frank Iero alone in the mixing studio. “The sinking feeling was really starting to become loud that it wasn’t right - that the record wasn’t finished, I couldn’t even put them in a track order … "Thinking about it now, it’s kind of upsetting, because I just felt so lost,” Gerard says.

This was discussed in an interview with Herald Sun, where they talked about the process of starting again after the departure of their drummer and producer. Speaking to Music Radar, Ray Toro talked about the struggles the band had with original producer Brendan O'Brien, admitting that it hadn’t gone as well as they once thought:

“He was really trying; he did the best he could with us. He knew things weren’t clicking, and he’d try to rally us. I remember he said, ‘Hey, on some songs, I’d love to hear you do what you did on The Black Parade.’ Because there wasn’t any of the harmonized guitar parts or the stacking that I usually do. He was trying to get us to make one record, and we wanted to make something totally different.

Musically, we wanted to go back to our basement. But just because we wanted to do something different didn’t make it easy. In many ways, we felt as though we were holding ourselves back creatively. We were going through the motions. Some of the songs were good, but we weren’t happy with all of them.”

Needing a break, Gerard took a vacation to the desert that surrounded Los Angeles. There, as he told Terminal 5, he realized “I had started the band after 9/11 when I hated art. Black Parade had been about hiding and punishment. I couldn’t tell the truth so I’d talk about cancer instead. I had to put on a mask to show people who I really was. But now it was time to own it. To be who I was before this band started. And I had something in my back pocket: this song, ‘Na Na Na.’”

Reunited with producer Rob Cavallo, who had worked on The Black Parade, the band kicked things off with “Na Na Na.” Gerard and Shaun Simon’s comic “Killjoys,” once a separate side project that had nothing to do with the band, suddenly became the concept that they formed the album around. Fueled by fresh creative energy, the band wrote and re-wrote tracks, came up with concepts and characters like Dr. Death Defying, and shredded the limitations that had confined them. At one point, Gerard turned to his brother Mikey and said “Danger Days, here we come again!”

Not everything from the previous record was scrapped. “Trans Am” became “Bulletproof Heart”; “Death Before Disco” became “Party Poison.” A few new versions of old tracks appeared on the record, as well as the Mad Gear and Missile Kid EP that came later. But MCR’s fourth album had gone from a rock and roll record that deliberately avoided ambitious storylines, to a vividly realized concept album that invited fans into the world of post-apocalyptic California. In many ways, it was the opposite of what they had originally planned. And it seemed to be exactly what they had been looking for.

During this time, Frank snapped in-studio photos that he sold on MCR’s official website, offering one-of-a-kind peeks into the recording process. In March, Mikey Way stated in a blog post that “One day you will wake up, and nothing will ever be the same again, but it’ll feel like an old friend.” He was talking about upcoming changes to the MCR website, but in a way that statement reflected the band’s process at the time–they had completely reinvented themselves, and yet there was still a certain familiarity in the old tracks they had revamped.

The band completed the album with fresh energy, offering sporadic updates in the coming months. Fans waited with some skepticism to see what MCR had in store. And finally, one day in early September, MCR’s website disappeared and was replaced with a mysterious transmitter. The Danger Days era had begun.

But was the scrapped album hidden away, never to be heard again? Not quite.

In 2012, in a blog post on MCR’s website, Frank talked about the feelings of depression that he had faced after The Black Parade. He felt like MCR had done it all, leaving them with nothing left to accomplish. In November 2008, Gerard called him up to talk about the band. As new ideas took shape, they prepared to start recording the album that would eventually be scrapped after months of work.

Frank pointed out that while the band had limited themselves during the recording of this album, the songs weren’t inherently bad–in fact, some of them were among his favorites that the band had produced. As time passed, he developed a greater appreciation for the tracks. And when the band met up and listened to those songs, they decided to release a selection of tracks to the public–two tracks a month for the next five months, for a total of ten.

After all this time, the album finally had a title: Conventional Weapons. Tracks included “Kiss The Ring,” “The World Is Ugly,” “Surrender The Night,” and the fan-favorite “The Light Behind Your Eyes.” Listening to the tracks, it was clear that MCR had aimed for a rock album with a pure American sound–no ambitious concepts or storylines, just a set of killer tracks. Whether they succeeded is up to the listener to decide, but they provided some insight into what came before Danger Days.

Due to its unconventional release, and the fact that the album was a series of random tracks and not a finished product, Conventional Weapons is not considered an “official” MCR album. But while Danger Days was the final album, Conventional Weapons was the final release before MCR broke up in 2013. Since the split, the release of CW has caused many fans to wonder–will My Chemical Romance’s fifth (and unreleased) album ever be shared in a similar fashion? Or will it be locked away forever, like the other CW tracks that were never released?

Only time will tell. But for now, Conventional Weapons serves as an intriguing part of MCR’s history–a time when the band set out to make one type of album, and ended up making the complete opposite.

(Picture credits: 1 2 3. Other in-studio photos by Frank Iero.)

[Originally published 07.09.2017]

[sinafay-the-defiant]

Nearer to Death

((Story co-written with @grakkar-gorefang / @thefugitivemango . @argonas​ and @avehi-the-adamant for character mention))

~*~*~

So small, so precious… 

Grakkar was always in amazement when he held little Neelah in his arms. She’d grown quite a bit, but the orc could still hold her (mostly) in one hand. He cradled the sleeping little one close, palming the back of her head while her body rested along his forearm. She slept so peacefully… blissfully unaware of anything that had happened these past few weeks. --Well… not entirely. She got fussy around Sinafay, seeming to sense her tension. That didn’t make things any easier, Grakkar knew. A part of him was sure that it was his mate’s need for help that helped him heal as fast as he did… which still took time, of course. He’d died, after all. And he wasn’t the young, sturdy orc he was on Draenor…

Still, now that he could, he helped as much as he was able. Tending to Neelah wasn’t much of a chore for him anyway, but a reprieve from the constant attention she demanded was a boon to Sinafay. Grakkar didn’t mind. She was a gift, in every sense of the word. He never thought he’d have a child of his own; less so with a Draenei! He thought he was infertile, and knew Draenei pregnancies were a rarity. And yet here she was, a beautiful mix of her mother and him-- fortunately, a bit more of her mother-- sleeping soundly in his arms. Even coming back from the dead was only the third-luckiest event in his life. The second, meeting Sinafay. The first, Neelah. 

“... Grakkar��”

Grakkar winced, and grunted. Another nameless whisper echoed from the back of his mind. A voice he didn’t recognize, calling out his name. He heard them clearly more often his dreams, but… sometimes, throughout the waking day, he’d hear them. It wasn’t always the same voice, and they didn’t always call out his name. All of this starting after he came back from that place… from the Maw. In truth, a part of him didn’t believe Sinafay when she’d told him what her Ebon Knight friend had said. It had seemed so outlandish a claim. But seeing it for himself… it was now undeniable. Countless souls trapped in such a terrible, desolate place! He wondered… were they the voices he was hearing? According to clan shamans, near-death experiences often awoke a spiritual connection between a person and the afterlife.

And Grakkar had come as close to death as anyone could get.

For now, he pushed the concerns from his mind. He wasn’t going to let these strange voices dampen his appreciation for lasting to another sunset with his daughter. Gently, he put Neelah down in her bassinet, and swaddled her in a warm blanket. 

“Sleep in peace, my little one.” he smiled, leaning in to plant a gentle kiss on her hardening forehead. “Know that I love you, now and always.”

Sinafay smiled from the doorway as she watched her mate put their daughter to bed. She’d never imagined herself as a mother, but having a child with Grakkar was by far the best thing that had ever happened to her. She hadn’t been able to cherish these moments as of late, too tired and stressed to appreciate them after Argonas’ sudden attack. She’d been far too on edge, suspicious of every odd noise and movement on the farm. 

Avehi’s arrival was a relief in more than one way. Not only did it bring her precious information on what was going on after that horrible event, but it gave her a much needed rest from her exhausting vigil. With the Ebon Knight and her drake guarding the farm, Sinafay was able to get a bath and some much needed sleep. She wasn’t certain how many hours she’d been out for, but she’d woken up on time to see the touching display between her mate and their daughter.

“You’re going to spoil her, aren’t you?” She teased, with only a light Draenei accent in her Orcish now. She kept her voice low, as to not wake the sleeping infant.

Tail swaying, she walked over and wrapped her arms around Grakkar’s torso from behind, pressing her naked chest to his back as she hugged him tightly.

“Fatherhood suits you well,” she purred.

“Only paired with your motherhood.” Grakkar replied, hands closing over his mate’s.

He exhaled a sigh; gazing down at his daughter, feeling his wife’s warm embrace… this was perfect. A paradise he never knew he wanted. A dream from which he never wanted to wake.

“... help us…”

The moment passed, spoiled by yet another voice calling from the back of his mind. The messages were usually similar. “Help up, save us…” most disconcerting. He wished he knew where they were coming from. Rather… knew for sure. He parted Sinafay’s hands from around his waist to turn in her embrace.

“Come, speak with me.” he bid her, before passing her by on his way out of the room.

Sinafay tilted her head curiously. Speaking hadn’t exactly been what she’d been looking for, but at this point, any alone time with Grakkar was a good time. It certainly beat her standing guard over the farm alone. She -did- often wonder what was on his mind since his return to the living. He didn’t enjoy speaking of what he saw, the memories disturbing, so she didn’t like to push. Perhaps he was ready to speak on it now?

She followed him out of Neelah’s room and into their own. The bed was simple, but large and sturdy, covered in pelts from the various creatures Grakkar had managed to hunt down and bring home. The Draenei sat on the bed, tail curling around her form as she took Grakkar’s hands in hers.

“What’s on your mind, My Love?”

Grakkar was silent for a moment, simply holding Sinafay’s hands as he stood before her. Thumbs traced over the backs, then along the sides of her thumbs. He stared off at her chest-- not so much ‘at’ as ‘through’, contemplatively. Slowly, he organized his thoughts, piece by piece, before his gaze met his Mate’s. A natural smile formed over his lips; a reflex, feeling the warmth of her golden globes shining into his. He couldn’t help it, even in spite of the heavy topic weighing on his mind.

“I, uh…” he began, already seeming to lose his focus in her shimmering gaze. “I… think often about our village’s shaman, back on Draenor. Otrok.”

He cleared his throat, before sitting down beside Sinafay on their bed. It creaked, as it always seemed to when they both occupied it. He’d have to reinforce it again, for the second time this season. But that could wait. One hand kept hold of hers, the other resting in his lap as he continued.

“Otrok was a pup, when the Ancestors called on him. We used to tease him for it-- the youngest shaman we ever knew.” the Orc let out a jovial huff at the memory. “His mentor and predecessor, Meshi, she’d whack us on the knuckles or zap us with lightning when we did. Defensive of little pup Otrok, that one. She’d tell us that it was nothing we should tease him for. That ‘the Ancestor’s call can come at any time. At any age.’ And we’d, of course, nod along as we took the lecture.”

Gently, he gave Sinafay’s hand a squeeze.

“... I think they call to me, now.”

“Calling -how-?” Sinafay couldn’t help but ask, tilting her head in confusion.

She didn’t understand at all how shamanism worked, had never bothered to look into it. She’d been averse to the very idea of it due to her alternate self being so immersed. Even now, the thought of Grakkar showing interest in it irked her. Leftover jealousy…

At least -she- wasn’t alive anymore.

For now, she pushed those negative feelings back. Even if her mate became interested in that path, she had nothing but support for him. Especially this late in his lifetime, she wanted whatever would be soothing to his soul. On that note, there was a more pressing question.

“What are you supposed to do when they call on you?”

"Answer."

A logical enough answer, predictable as it was. Grakkar nodded slowly, searching Sinafay's face for… anything. A reaction. A showing of how she felt about the revelation. She understood, right?

She somehow managed not to twitch...

"The Ancestors, they… they mean much to my kind. You know this, I know, but…" he sighed, brow furrowing. "It is an honor, but also a responsibility. They call with a purpose, and to ignore them is to dishonor them. Sina… I need to answer. I need to learn how. And for that, I need to seek out a shaman." 

Sinafay frowned heavily, baring her fangs in displeasure as she turned her head to the side, avoiding eye contact. There was no question. She hated the thought, no matter how supportive she was trying to be.

“We fought so hard to finally be together,” she couldn’t help but voice, “After everything that happened a few weeks ago, you cannot be serious about leaving. There must be some other way…”

She took his hand and brought it to her face, pressing her lips to his finger tips.

“How about you ask a shaman to come teach you here. Neelah needs you,” she took a moment to suckle on his index finger a bit more before adding in a sensual tone, “-I- need you.”

Grakkar’s hand moved to cup Sinafay’s face, fingertips idly massaging the back of her head as his thumb brushed along her cheek. He smiled, unable to help but chuckle at his mate’s… forwardness. It was endearing-- and she had a point. They’d worked so hard to be together. Suffered through all manner of pain and anguish. He didn’t want to leave. But he didn’t want to ignore the call, either. He exhaled a sigh.’

“I have to find one, first. One who would travel out here… and wouldn’t get upset at seeing how we live.” he explained, brow furrowing a bit. “That will be a challenge. And either way, I’d still have to leave.”

The Draenei’s frown deepened. She’d never been good at hiding her emotions. Her tail had gone from swaying to twitching, arms crossing over her chest as she worried her bottom lip. She was upset. Angry. Not with her mate, specifically, but at the situation, as a whole. She closed her eyes and pressed her cheek deeper into his palm.

She hated this. But she knew better than to try and stop him. Orcs were stubborn creatures.

“Not right away. I need a bit of time, my Love. Time with you, before you go on your journey,” she still couldn’t bring herself to look at him as her eyes fluttered open once more, “And you visit weekly when you -do- go.”

“Hopefully more, if I can manage it.” he replied. “I don’t want to be too far from you and Neelah. Whatever the Ancestors have in store for me… it will include us all. I only need to leave to find out what that is, first.”

He tilted Sinafay’s head up, leveling his gaze with hers. Stern as his expression was, his eyes conveyed a deep affection for his mate, and a genuine concern for her well-being. He’d given this a lot of thought already.

“You and Neelah are everything to me. You know that, right?” he smiled, weakly. “The Ancestors must know it, too. This calling… whatever it is, it’s as much for you and her as it is for me.”

She gave a nod, meeting his gaze now, but couldn’t quite shake her anxiety over the situation. They’d barely begun to recover from Argonas’ attack, and now this… Leaning forward, she gently pressed her crest against his forehead.

“I love you, Grakkar. And I trust you.”

[medea10]

My Review of O Maidens in Your Savage Season

How did I get into this anime? This time, I didn’t rely on the randomizer to pick out a random anime licensed by Sentai Filmworks. I wanted to choose a small-sized anime with not that many episodes to its name. Probably because I spent a good year and a half on Rinne that all of these Sentai picks have been short series! So I went with one that came out not too long ago.

Kazusa Onodera belongs to the literature club at her school. Seems decent enough, right? These girls read heavily, sexualized books. And as high schoolers, the word sex is taboo and intriguing all at the same time. Each of the girls in the literature club have their own view on the subject, mostly border-lining on wanting to know more and experiencing it soon. Aside from that, Kazusa is noticing that her childhood friend, Izumi Norimoto has changed since they were kids and other girls are noticing him. This, putting Kazusa in an awkward position of avoiding him when he’s around other girls! Half of it is because jealous bitches glare at her if she gets too close to Izumi. The other half is due to the fact that Kazusa is starting to notice her friend as maybe something more.

One day, the girls in the club get word of one of their favorite authors writing a new book. This one about someone writing a bucket list due to dying! One of the girls (Niina Sugawara) suggests sex. Ever since then, all of the other girls are noticing so many new things in their world. Certain words sound dirty, certain objects can be considered phallic, and boys are starting to look fuckable. And our girl Kazusa gets a heavy dose of reality when she gives her neighbor Izumi some dinner.

She walks upstairs to find Izumi jerking off to some hardcore porn on his computer.

So yeah, coming of age story up in here!

But it isn’t just Kazusa learning about the trials of love and sex. Momoko deals with her own troubles involving sexuality. Sugawara is torn between a past love and a new love. Rika is discovering love for the first time in her life. And Hongo wants to learn more about sex in order to become a great author. All five of these girls deal with that difficult time of adolescence with first love and the curiosity of “ess eee ex”.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: This is licensed by Sentai Filmworks. As of this date and time, an English cast has been announced, but by the looks of things, nothing has been dubbed yet. I am a little excited to hear several new voices in the cast and a few familiar ones including Brittney Karbowski and Natalie Rial. Many of the Japanese voice actors have been around for a while and I’m kinda familiar with. It’s just that I haven’t spent a great deal hearing them in my day-to-day rotations. But I can’t complain with the cast! Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Kazusa is played by Hiyori Kouno (known for Phil on The Promised Neverland)

*Momoko is played by Momo Asakura (known for Ayumi on Charlotte, Iroha on Magia Record, Sumi on Sakura Trick, Manako on Monster Musume, Nagisa on Kaguya-sama, and Lamy on Fairy Tail)

*Rika is played by Sumire Uesaka (known for Dekomori on Chuunibyo, Nanase on In/Spectre, and Anastasia on Idolm@ster: Cinderella Girls)

*Hongo is played by Tomoyo Kurosawa (known for Miria on Idolm@ster: Cinderella Girls)

*Sugawara is played by Chika Anzai (known for Mina on Attack on Titan, Nana on My Roommate is a Cat, Maki on Sakura Quest, and Young Kamui on Gintama)

ENGLISH CAST: *Kazusa is played by Brittney Karbowski (known for Selim/Pride on FMA: Brotherhood, Misaka on Railgun/Index, Black Star on Soul Eater, Wendy on Fairy Tail, Dekomori on Chuunibyo, and Hisako on Food Wars)

*Momoko is played by Juliet Simmons (known for Yukika on My Love Story and Mayumi on Food Wars)

*Rika is played by Avery Smithhart

*Hongo is played by Elissa Cuellar

*Sugawara is played by Natalie Rial (known for Rui on Domestic Girlfriend)

THIS NEEDS TO PLAY ON REPEAT: Can we watch Creepy McPedofuck get socked in the face on loop?

Yes!

It goes without saying that I hated this fucker. I heavily enjoyed him getting knocked the fuck out. And I will go in further detail with the shipping category.

SHIPPING: As this is a coming of age anime with girls in high school just discovering love, lust, sex, and all that good shit, we’ve got some stuff to cover in this category.

*Kazusa x Izumi: The childhood friend scenario! Yeah, these two were quite inseparable as children, but as they grew older, Izumi started to grow somewhat of a popularity streak with the girls at school and as a result, Kazusa found herself inferior compared to these catty bitches. That and these girls are jealous if they see Kazusa even speaking to Izumi.

Throughout the series, Kazusa had to deal with jealous bitches telling her to back off and Kazusa’s friend Sugawara having growing feelings for Izumi every time she’s with him. It seemed like not a big deal in the earlier episodes. But once we see what Sugawara is getting back at, it gets downright love-triangle-ish. It got so crazy that both girls proclaimed their love for Izumi in an open setting during a school festival at the same time. I know Izumi wasn’t going to reciprocate Sugawara’s feelings, but when he started saying things that are friend-zone material, I got worried. I mean, Kazusa and Izumi were childhood friends and there’s been a strain in that due to hormonal changes. I don’t want to bring out the tired old excuse of Izumi being a boy and he’s a dumbass, but I kinda have to. Yes dude likes Kazusa, but he also likes Sugawara and both for different reasons. And when it comes to Sugawara, it’s a sexual attraction. Boy, you are not going to get your cake and pie here.

Now I’ve been in Kazusa’s position before of wanting to be in a relationship with a best friend. A lot of the time, it does not go well and can strain the friendship you once had making it hard to go back if there’s a crap-up. By the looks of things at the end of the anime, these two seem to be on a sure-footing in their relationship.

*Rika x Shun: Rika has always been seen as an outsider to many of the main cliques of school. But it wasn’t until Shun’s kind words in class one day that changed something inside of Rika. But it doesn’t stop there with this boy! He writes fifty pages of “I Love Yous”, he insists on wanting to be with Rika in any class activity, and goes out of his way to ask her out (which she eventually accepts). And Rika with these new feelings doesn’t really know how to handle it as this is the first time she’s experienced these feelings outside of reading them in a novel. But I gotta say, their confession in front of the school was just downright too cute for words. It definitely deserves a round of applause.

*Hongo x Milo-sensei: Oh dear God, not this again! I don’t know whether to think Hongo is just using this guy for her novel or if she’s really developing something for her teacher. Milo-sensei seems to have a thing for his teaching colleague. But does this fool have a side-thing for one of his students as well? I’m getting Marmalade Boy and Domestic Girlfriend vibes here. These two go beyond a lot of boundaries throughout the series including panty flashes and a spontaneous trip to a motel. This ship I’m not fully on board with! But this is still leaps and bound ahead of what I’m about to discuss next.

*Sugawara x Saegusa: Oh for fuck’s sake! Everything about this sounds so wrong, Domestic Girlfriend is demanding an apology for all the bad things said about that. Even Izumi finds this guy pedophilish. An old acting coach has a thing for little girls and finds Sugawara pure when she’s at a young age and Sugawara eventually grows to like him. It’s just that when she figured it out, she’s a young teenager in high school and according to Saegusa, she’s too old.

Too old?! Fool! You are clearly in your late 40s at the earliest. And Sugawara is at least 14 and SHE’S TOO OLD?! I’m about to slap the glasses off your dumbass-face and call Chris Hansen because this is too much. Sugawara, please for the love of all that’s cream pie, stop going after this creep and making him jealous with trying to get with Izumi! You CAN do better! And also, you’re really fucking with the Izumi x Kazusa ship. But more importantly, you CAN DO BETTER THAN THIS CREEPY FUCK!

…

And now it’s time to talk about Momoko. I thought that this anime was going to be all about these girls falling in love with different boys. At first, it looked like that with a boy named Satoshi coming in the picture saying he remembers Momoko when they were kids. But then, we get a surprise from Momoko when she finds girls more attractive (particularly Sugawara). Okay, I didn’t see that coming. And frankly, I’d prefer that or just about anything else to that old-ass actor with a little girl complex. But with Momoko, I feel like she’s going to be the one character that doesn’t get to be with someone in the end. Kazusa gets Izumi, Rika gets Shun, and Hongo gets Milo-sensei. Momoko does come out to Sugawara, but I’m unsure if this is one-sided or if Sugawara ends up together with her.

ENDING: All five girls are learning that love and sex come with a mixed bag of everything. Sometimes everything works out, sometimes things fall apart, sometimes actions have consequences, and sometimes a dick comes in and ruins everything.

Because of the blooming relationship of Kazusa and Izumi, Sugawara got jealous and did some risqué things on a train with Izumi. Hongo takes things to another level when she goes to a cheap hotel with Milo-sensei and she was ready to take the bull by the horns. Yeah, she was doing most of this for her novel, but this escalated into full-blown infatuation of her teacher. And Rika was feeling pretty good around school now that she has a boyfriend and is on speaking terms with one of the popular girls. Too bad Rika’s friend is never coming back to school because she’s knocked up! See, consequences!

The high school administration was upset by some recent incidents including a student getting pregnant. But what set them over the edge were reports of Rika and Shun outside of a love hotel. But as we all know, they did no act of sex. They were spying on Hongo and Milo-sensei. But you can’t tell these prudes that. They made an example of Rika and Shun by expelling them and putting out an updated P.D.A. rule at school. Not even Milo-sensei confessing to being at the love hotel could calm this storm with the heads of the school. So the girls of the literature club decide to take drastic measures.

They shut the school down, hold Milo-sensei hostage, and demand that Rika and Shun are reinstated at school. I wasn’t expecting this anime to go down the route of The Simpson’s classic episode Grade School Confidential, but here we are.

Yeah, the principal and vice principal had a Groundskeeper Willie attitude to their fight and left them to cool down for the night. This night in the school things kinda went a little crazy, particularly when Shun and Izumi came inside. Especially when you have Izumi admit that he likes Kazusa, but is sexually attracted to Sugawara. Then, you have Momoko irritated that all Sugawara is interested in is Izumi and she’s got this huge crush on her. Add to the thick layer we got already, Shun opens is dumbass mouth to mention he has kissed girls before Rika. Oh, dude. Shut up! But the girls found a way to fix things…sorta! A few episodes back, the girls had a pillow fight to let out their frustration. So, they’re going to play a simple game where there seems to be a happy conclusion for all involved. Rika and Shun share a cute forehead kiss and Shun admits his love for Rika once more. Momoko and Sugawara share a moment. As for Izumi and Kazusa, they both admitted to feeling anxious and uncomfortable jumping from friends to boyfriend/girlfriend. So it looks like they’re going to stay together. Sure looks like it in the epilogue. But we’ll get there soon enough.

After a full night of revelations, the principal and vice principal return to school the following morning to the entire building covered in protest paper to reinstate Rika and Shun and to get rid of the P.D.A. ban. I guess things worked out since a lot of students saw this and the principal is about as useless as a Band-Aid on a toothache.

At the end of the episode, we see the cast from what looks to be one year later as Rika and Shun are in college now. Rika’s friend and former classmate had her baby. Milo-sensei and Hongo are holding down the literature club with a few new members. It also looks as though they’re still in a relationship (possibly getting married later). I am unsure if Momoko and Sugawara ended up together or not. But at least they’re still friends. And it seems as though Izumi and Kazusa made it through that awkward time of adolescence and they seemed to have stayed together.

This was a fun romp! I think we all remember a time in high school where we were young and naïve about the concept of love and even sex. I can’t say there was one particular character I connected to in this series. I think I’ve been in all of the girl’s positions at one point or another. I’ve been friend-zoned like Kazusa. There was a boy I wasn’t into that wouldn’t leave me alone like Momoko. I was curious to a point where it did affect my own writing like Hongo. I had jealous fits over a friend’s boyfriend much like Sugawara. And once I got in a relationship, I felt as awkward as Rika. See, I’ve been all five at one point.

It’s a confusing time being an adolescent. Along with the changes in your body, there’s that gnawing pressure of noticing blossoming feelings for some person. And you’re not sure if you should talk to them, kiss them, or rip off their clothes in the heat of passion. Not sure if everything from the manga was covered. I’d like to assume it was due to the fact that both the anime series and manga were short. And I think all viewers can agree that…Can we see that gross dude get punched again?

Oh yeah, that’s so delicious.

So if you’re ready to re-watch possible flashbacks of your awkward high school moments again, check out this anime.

If you would like to watch O Maidens in Your Savage Season, all 12 episodes are available to watch on HI-DIVE.

Okay, what’s my next Sentai Filmworks anime?

*gasps*

In association with Pony Canyon & TBS!

What the…?! THEY ALL LOOK LIKE THEY’RE FROM K-ON!

[bluefirewrites]

Sky High Mall!AU Part 2

Hey this is another excerpt from the Sky High Zach x Magenta WIP that I never finished (hence WIP). 

It’s a Mall!AU where the characters are kids with summer jobs at the mall. No powers and it’s set around the time the movie came out- 2005. 

Part 1: https://bluefirewrites.tumblr.com/post/636284063233327104/sky-high-mallau

Would be Rated T and there’s excessive use of language throughout. 

This excerpt would be Zach’s perspective working at the music store at the mall. Enjoy!

_____________

Zach booked it down the mall, zooming past the crowd gathered at Sonic Boom, the music store

The music store he worked at.

The one he was supposed to be at right about now.

He pushed through the crowd, getting to the front where his coworker was working the register, seeming to throw the albums at the customers because it was that busy.

Zach loved his job... on any other day. He was a total musichead and he thought it was a long shot to even snag the job, considering it was common knowledge that it was run by Boomer who was a total hardass and pretty unforgiving to those who he deemed had shitty music taste.

He had seemed to wow him enough during the interview, which had been merely them talking about the music he listened to. Thank god, he had just enough of an eclectic music taste that he was able to keep up with whatever soft rock ‘80s classic question that Boomer threw his way.

The Black Eyed Peas album just dropped today and everyone had been clamoring to get in to grab it, so it meant all hands on deck. But only the hands that Boomer could afford to pay right now, so it was only Speed there at the moment.

Zach leapt over the counter, shedding his jacket to reveal his shirt already sporting his name tag, “Yo, is Boom here yet?”

“Cutting it close, freshie,” The senior looked like he wanted to throttle him for leaving him hanging longer than he should have. But it was only like 5 minutes, and Zach had been rushing from summer school to make it home, get ready, then come straight to the mall. He did the best he could.

“You know you can stick a hat on it right?” Speed ruffled his hair while tapping his own cap, messing up the gel that he had put in there before he came to the store and greasing up his hands in the process.

“Hey!” Zach cursed him out for deflating his hair as well as making him pick up the slack while Speed wipes off the hair gel.

Speed always pulled shit like this on him. He hated having shifts with a guy who loved to pick on him, and not in the friendly-joking way that he was used to.

For the next couple of minutes, the two of them were able to go ring up the crowd quickly, even shrunk down the amount of people in the store to half of its capacity. It was still busy, but it was more manageable than before that it actually freed up Speed to do his laps around the store, trying to quell the crowd and mitigate whatever problem came up that would have resulted in calling in the manager.

20 minutes later, they both had a lid on the situation. Only because they were pretty much no more copies of Monkey Business. Zach was about to check if they had more when he realized that the store was eerily quiet. He had just noticed that the TVs around the place were turned off and no music was playing in the store.

Zach went for the sound system dial towards the back of the store but Speed came from behind and beat him to it, “You snooze, you lose, freshie.” His coworker sliding in a Snoop Dogg CD he had snagged from earlier.

He groaned. Zach didn’t mind Snoop, but Speed would play it almost nonstop every time Zach can’t reach the dial fast enough. Speed had almost no taste, always playing chart toppers and whatever cute girls would request (which usually would be chart toppers).

Speed waltzed over to the records, getting high-fives from a couple of customers on the way over, “It’s what the people love!”

“Not Boomer,” Zach pointed out, whilst walking over to the main displays up front. The crowd had kept bumping to the table so he had to make it look tidy.

“But Boomer ain’t here. He’s never here,”

Zach looked up and caught a glimpse of his hair on the main monitor that was supposed to feature the Black Eyed Peas music videos. Shit.  It was sticking out in weird places and looked deflated in others. He ran his hair through it and tried to zhuzh it up with his fingers but nothing seemed to be staying.

“Aww.You’re still pissy about your hair? Did you a favor, dorkwad,”

Zach rolled his eyes. Normally, he would try to steer clear of Speed and try not to notice him. But his co-worker seemed to be in such a talkative mood today, “It was fine the way it was, Speed.” He finished resetting the table cloth and arranging the display how it was supposed to look before turning around to help a customer find a Celine Dion CD.

“Stop being such a tryhard,” Speed said to him as he passed with the customer, “The ladies like it when you’re chill.”

“How would you know that?” A new voice added. Once Zach successfully helped the customer, he whirled around to find his buddy, Will. He took notice of the blue shirt and gray khakis and figured he had work today at Champs. He barely saw Will anymore due to Zach having summer school and their schedules never seemed to match up.

“Shut the fuck up, Stronghold,” Speed sneered at the newcomer.

Will paid him no mind while he shook Zach’s hand before bringing him in for a quick hug, “Zach-Attack!”

“Will, like it’s not great to see you, cuz it is. Great. To see you, that is,” Zach kept on the lookout for Boomer while walking towards the register because Speed had left it unattended, “Kinda not a good time right now, man.”

Will greet a few other people he knew around the store. He scanned the big displays and the cardboard cutouts on the front, “BEP?”

“BEP,” The blonde confirmed, “And I’m already on Boomer’s bad side for fucking up with the Mariah Carey launch.”

His friend clicked his tongue, recalling that certain incident. Zach remembered that Will had been working his shift downstairs when he heard Boomer let him have it. He had heard Boomer all the way from down there- that was how bad it was.

“How were you supposed to stop a bunch of nimrods from defacing her cut out?”

Zach shuddered at the thought of all the obscene Sharpie marks all over Mariah Carey’s cardboard figure, “I swear, Speed had something to do with it. That guy has got it out for me ever since I started working this joint,” he whispered.

“It’s because out of everyone here, you’re the customers’ favorite. You actually know your shit,”

Zach figured that it was somewhat true. They would get regulars pretty often and they always seemed to gravitate towards him. Zach did enjoy making connections with everyone no matter what their music taste was.

One time, this one guy came in, all in orange, who had been tentative in asking where the classical music selection was. Luckily, Zach got to him first before Speed could roast him. And good thing too, because that guy became one of his favorite regulars. He might be working at Radio Shack, the last he heard from him.

“Thanks, man,” Zach really appreciated it. Sometimes he couldn’t help but get all up in his head at his job. He wanted to do really well and hopefully one day he would have worked enough hours to save up for a car. He had been getting real tired of having to rush on his bike everywhere and being constantly late.

“But seriously, scatter. Don’t make me have to kick you out.” he joked to his smaller friend.  

“Yeah, Stronghold. Go back to dealing with smelly feet all day,” Speed yelled from his side of the store.

“You’re just jealous because I got the job and you didn’t,”

Zach had to hold back a laugh seeing Speed getting worked up so quickly. He had heard Speed bitching about being passed over the job at Foot Locker constantly. The guy had been a total sneakerhead so it had been a crushing blow to his ego that a freshman got the position while he was stuck working for cantankerous Boomer.

“Whatever, man. You probably got it because you’re a Stronghold,”

Will shook his head, the jabs of his dad being the Mayor never really fazing him much anymore, “Remind me again, how did you get the name, Speed, again?”

The rotund bully growled. Everyone knew that there were two stories that could have explained how Speed got his infamous moniker. One was because  all the joyrides in his Jeep that resulted in property damage. The other well… had to do with distributing contraband. Bringing up either, was cause for a beatdown.

Speed advanced towards Will, ready to punch him square in the face, no matter how many onlookers in the store gathered around to watch the debacle. Zach had to vault over the counter, to get in between the two when all of the sudden a resounding yell broke through the clatter that made all parties involved wince and cover their ears.

“Ladies, enough!”

Boom strolled in, aviators perched on his crooked nose, commanding the attention of the room- as if his voice didn’t do that already. He came up beside Zach, poking at Will to step backwards until he was out of the store,“Shouldn’t you be downstairs, Stronghold?”

“Yes, Boomer,” He shouldered his bag before throwing a passing glance at Zach. Good luck, he seemed to emote.

Rightfully so because all of the sudden Boomer marched over to him, “Why if it isn’t Superstar, here to grace us with your presence,” His eyes landed on the BEP display and noted the dwindling number of albums, “Restock those will ya? And Speed” he turned to the older boy, “you’re relieved of your post.”

Speed looked up to the heavens, “Thank fuck.”

“Language!”

He straightened up, “Sorry, sir,” Then he ducked for the back, switching off Snoop Dogg as he did so. Zach followed suit to where they did inventory and found another box of the albums and hauled ass back out to replace the albums on the display.

“Now, get to that, will you,” Boomer ordered while counting up the till to see if everything was where it should be, “And if I see a hint of Sharpie on either of those cardboard figures, your ass is mine, kid.”

Zach almost let out a laugh but remembered it was Boomer. He meant everything to be a threat, “O-okay,” he managed to get out without laughing. Then he saw Boomer closing up the register and heading for the door, “Wait? You’re leaving already?”

“Yeah. I’m the owner. I can do what I want,”

“I mean, since I’m like the only guy here and it’s a pretty busy day- I thought-”

“You thought what? That you need help?” he seemed to project the full force of his voice at him that Zach cowered against his better judgement.

“Listen, I started this shop to fill it with music,” His boss went off, “Real music. Not what passes off as music these days. Those hip grinding degenerates are showing up by the boatloads today and I don’t wanna be here when they do.”

A little boy approached the man, tugging against his cargo shorts, “Excuse me, where are the Eminem CDs?”

Boomer looked at the kid with disgust and shimmied him off, “That’s my cue,” He scrounged his pockets for the keys and tossed them Zach’s way, “Here, you’re closing up today.”

“What the-?” Zach nearly fumbled with the keys, “Again?” He had been closing every night this week, despite not actually being allowed to, with him being 15 and all. But Boomer had an arrangement with Ron Wilson, security guard who patrols at night.

“Don’t mess this up for me, Blondie!” His boss yelled just an influx of people arrived at the store, hungrily grabbing the CDs off the display he had just finished restocking.

“I’ll try,” he responded, knowing full well that Boomer could not hear him. Speed sped by, sticking his tongue at him on his way to freedom. The line of people had started forming and Zach cracked his knuckles- no choice but to face them on his own.

[craftypeaceturtle]

Sanders Sides- Am I Original? Analysis

General:

This one I’m kinda a bit lost on if I’m honest. I don’t have many points which is weird because it feels like this should be one of those videos where I have a lot to say. But I kinda don’t... Anyway! Here’s what I’ve got!

ANOTHER NAME REVEAL! Welcome Roman/Creativity! Roman’s name reveal I feel is both very suitable for him but also weirdly uncharacteristic. It makes sense for Roman to reveal his name so to have a more serious conversation with Thomas. Roman had yet to have his proper one on one moment with Thomas and so it makes sense for him to want to take this seriously and honestly. But... I also feel like a character as egocentric and gloaty as Creativity would make a very big deal out of his name. But it’s just... “My name’s Roman... right moving on”. 

The idea of giving a side complete control is established in this video but I feel like this later gets confusing when partnered with the idea that the sides have rooms. Spoiler Alert for oncoming videos I guess? Giving Creativity complete control is when you’re just sitting there day dreaming- that makes complete sense. But that then raises the question of what would it look like if the other sides had full control? Would giving Logan full control be like going into that intense sense of concentration you get when you write in an exam? Would giving Anxiety complete control just be a panic attack? Or maybe just a fight or flight response? Interesting discussion but I feel like giving complete control seems really similar to focusing on an aspect so to gain access to their rooms. 

No real point to be made here, but I do think it’s weird that Thomas just doesn’t trust his Creativity. Excuse my nightmare quality pictures:

Like that’s a good point. He has a career focused on creativity but doesn’t trust his own ideas? It’s just such a weird point of contention. I can’t think of why Thomas would feel this way. (SPOILER ALERT for future episodes) Like maybe you could justify this as the split between the creativities? Like Thomas is worried of having a ‘bad creativity’ and so just avoids creativity all together? On this subject though, do you think giving full creative control to Roman here then makes Remus powerless for the next few minutes? 

Characters:

Logan- I found it funny how he rejects to the idea of being involved when Thomas is in day dream mode.

 I feel like that shows how proud and important Logan views his role as logic. He sticks to his job and intends to do it well and therefore shouldn’t be involved in anything else! Also him being good at rapping I feel kinda works for the idea of logic in general. Like rapping has a lot to do with quick thinking and also keeping track of the beat and is just weirdly technical. So it makes sense for Logic to then appreciate and be good at it! 

Roman/Creativity- I’m just going to say this now. I don’t really like early on Roman- he’s too egocentric and we don’t see why he thinks so highly of himself so he comes across as just obnoxious and lying. Like Logan can be pretty egocentric but we see how important his role is so it feels less gloaty and almost justified. But this could be resolved later as he’s only recently been given some semblance of a character arc, so maybe this will change or at least we’ll see why Roman is justified to seeing himself like this. Right now his emphasis on being the grand and amazing Creativity just feels like gloating- which is weird because none of the others really react to it? So who’s he gloating to? A certain other side of Creativity? A “hey look, I must be important because I’m here and you’re down there”? But, in all seriousness, as much as I like linking Remus to this, it feels a bit cheap. At this point in the series, he doesn’t exist and even his idea doesn't exist in the series so to say he was foreshadowed that EARLY on feels... iffy at best. They’ re fun points to make but don’t think that I seriously absolutely believe these points. 

Morality- Quite a small role in this video. He’s more just an adorable side kick intended to make the audience laugh in this episode. Nothing wrong with that! Obviously to have a 10 minute episode focused equally on all four characters would just be a headache. 

Anxiety- Not much new to say here either, still taunting and shooting down ideas while suggesting sleep. Nothing really worth dissecting here! BUT! There’s a point to be made here that will then link to the theory section! This moment here when Logan calls Anxiety a defeatist:

This won’t really make sense by itself but partnered with the next episode, this moment gains significance. In the next episode, Anxiety remembers and brings up the fact that Logan called him a defeatist. Added also is the fact that we see Anxiety’s response to that insult which hasn’t been done before so the fact that Anxiety is insulted clearly matters! Thomas in editing is clearly shouting “LOOK HERE!” So that means that, no matter how light hearted the comment was, these sort of labels truly get to Anxiety. The fact that this one was so just thrown out there, no bite behind it, shows off how insecure or fragile Anxiety truly is. 

Theories

1) So to further the point above, this makes the other’s treatment of Anxiety just plain really mean and abusive. Every off handed insult thrown his way by Roman must’ve stuck just as much. In my opinion, this is a weird realisation as it does make the other’s treatment seem really unjustified and harsh. Like, there’s now so many moments that I wrote off as funny bickering that are now implied to be scarring. But there is a point to be made as to how harsh this was. Maybe I’m just wanting to see the best from these characters, but I think that if any of them knew how much these comments meant to Anxiety then I believe they would stop. Throughout even just this episode, Anxiety and Logan have had their little moments of bonding and sighing at the others- so to suggest that Logan then wanted to truly hurt Anxiety in this moment feels off. It wasn’t Logan’s intention to hurt him. Morality doesn’t really make these sort of comments but does come across as patronising towards him and again I’m not sure how either character feels about that. I have no idea if Morality is juts dismissing him or genuinely believes the meaningless compliments he throws his way. Roman’s treatment of Anxiety can’t be argued this sort of way. While I don’t think Roman is harsh enough to truly want to hurt Anxiety, he’s not an idiot. He can't expect bluntly saying he hates him to go by fine. He must know he’s hurting Anxiety to a point. An argument could be presented though that he’s still caught up in the idea of being a prince and Anxiety is nothing more than the villain (last episode showed that as well). We saw that in the Valentines episode where he thinks slaying a beast is a reasonable flirting tactic- it’s clear that Roman isn’t very realistic or aware of himself. But, I feel iffy on that too. Roman has never been presented as an idiot so to suddenly state that as fact feels weird. I get that you could argue that if Thomas wanted these moments of bickering to be serious then the editing would draw attention to it, just like how he did with the defeatist moment here. He didn’t draw attention to it in the past so surely this is just a moment where Anxiety WANTS to be accepted and so this hits much harder? Maybe it’s the fact that it’s Logan who insulted him- someone who doesn’t really let himself get that emotional to insult people? But then again, he’s also insulted Roman before so! My take on this is that it’s a weird moment that redefines a lot of the series’ interactions. Due to how HUGE this changes the context of Anxiety and even the series, that kinda makes me believe that Thomas didn’t intend to suggest the others were abusive. I think he was trying to show that Anxiety is more emotionally involved with the sides and to help sympathise Anxiety ready for his redemption arc coming up! Maybe that’s me trying to be optimistic and missing all this, but! This series is fun for me! I don’t want to hear that the characters are all assholes. I get that trying to guess what Thomas intended for the series is an endless impossible chase but I think it’s still a point worth making in my opinion because that’s what's going to stop completely unreasonable huge theories. For example, thinking about what Thomas intended stops me from thinking this episode then foreshadows Remus. 

[heartfeltheart]

Alchemy: Magic Vs. Science

Chapters: 8/25 Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist/Harry Potter Rating: T Relationships: Edward/Winry, Lan Fan/Ling, and May/Alphonse. Primary Characters: Edward Elric, Severus Snape Additional Tags: Crossover, Teacher!Edward, BrOtp Edward/Severus. Sassy beyond measure. Series: Part 1 of 9. Summary: Magic and Science, are they the same or are they completely different? It just takes one person to point out all up and downs. Along with breaking the stereotypes that come up with being a wizard, alchemist and most of all being human. Thank you, @amynchan! D/C: I do not own Harry Potter or Fullmetal Alchemist. Discord: La Red(Mesh Mash of… stuff.): https://discord.gg/KYjmVAb Alchemy Series: https://discord.gg/DejEYNJ

“English and Edward’s accented voice.” “Amestrian or another foreign language.” “Written notes.” ‘Thoughts.’ First Name: Informal Last Name: Formal (Or used to annoy others)

"My ears... My head... What the truth happened?" Edward muttered his breath, his brain screaming out in pain at the constant ringing

"He's waking up."

"About time."

"At least he wasn't sent to a complete coma."

"Was that necessary to say?"

"What? You do know it's true."

"Boys...."

"Sorry Professor..."

Reluctantly, Edward opened an eye to see Severus, Fred, George, Pomona and an unfamiliar woman he never seen before. They were all standing around the cot he rested on. With a groan, Edward closed his open eye and pulled a thin sheet over his head. He paused when he felt that he was no longer wearing his shoes. Swiftly, the golden Blonde shot up and lifted the sheets up. Letting out a sigh of relief, Edward was glad to see that he was still wearing a pair of thick socks. That was one secret he was not ready to tell anyone yet. Always wearing socks to hide his automail leg and to not ruin his good shoes far too quickly. "Truth..."

"Vat the truth vas dat ding!" Edward grumbled out, rubbing his forehead with his right hand.

"Mandragora." Pomona said she looked at Edward with complete sympathy.

"It's also called Mandrake." Fred added in.

"It let out screams that could either kill or knock out any person." George continued off after his brother.

"Great..." Edward muttered under his breath, he remembers reading that name in one of the many books that belong to Severus. He mentally went through what exactly he read about the plant along with the picture of it. The pictures he saw in the books and that single moment seeing Pomona pulling out a baby-plant like thing. "Hov long have I been out?"

"Little over a day, it's now lunch time." Severus stated, he walked towards the small table next to Edward's cot. On the table is a pitcher of water and a glass. "Do not worry about informing the other Heads. That has been taken care of by Professor Flitwick and myself."

"Dank you..." Edward thanked Severus and took the glass of water that the Potions Professor had offered him.

"It was also approved by the headmaster." Severus stated and this prompted Edward to spew out his water in shock. Without much motivation, Severus handed Edward a cloth napkin and slapped the blonde on the back. "Don't die now..."

"Shut up!" Edward coughed out, glaring at Severus from the corner of his eye. "Who blabbed?"

"...When we mentioned this to Professor McGonagall, she quickly went off to inform Professor Dumbledore."

"Vat did he say about it?"

"He finds it enlightening how anyone and everyone as an opportunity to attempt alchemy."

"Hah..." Edward snorted under his breath at that notion. He slowly sipped his glass of water as water, his eyes became distant as many memories ran through his mind. Many of them made his growl out the next couple of words. "Dere are people are dere that have no business learning alchemy."

The twins actually huddled together, taking a nervous step back. In the short time, they knew Edward; they never saw this side of him. Dark, menacing, and right down scary. Nothing like the easy-going, light-hearted, and bamboozling professor they have become to know.

Edward saw Fred and George taking a step back away from him. He blinked several times in confusion, his entire expression shifted from confusion to understanding. Then in complete 360, his entire persona shifted to one of foreboding to complete comical amusement to everyone around. When he tried to wave his hands in front of him he has spilled his water all over, get entangled in the thin white sheet that was covering him and tumble over the cot. There was a loud smack that rang out when Edward's head hit the marble floor.

Silence. Complete silence.

"Mr. Elric!"

"Edward!"

"Professor Elric!"

Edward groaned out in pain and responding to everyone that called out to him. He felt two people helping him up and back onto the cot. Someone had taken the now empty glass from his hand and took away the sheet from him. Now all that is left is a throbbing headache. This one injury was nothing compared to his many past injuries. However, at that moment he had allowed his guard down due to the pain, the weird presence that surrounded the school suddenly felt like it was attacking him. Like it was messing with his mind, making him see things differently and change his mindset. Taking in a deep breath, Edward pushed out that presence that was attacking his mind. Oh, how it felt all the times he had met Truth and feeling extremely annoyed by it. "Stupid school that hates me..."

Someone had firmly placed a hand on Edward's shoulder and that seemed to help him through that funk. His vision cleared up and he no longer felt the need to strangle something. Looking up he saw that it was Severus that placed his hand on his shoulder. "I think this school hates me..."

"What makes you think it hates you, Mr. Elric?" Severus asked, raising an eyebrow upward questioningly.

"I thought I told you not to call me that!"

"You did?"

"Stop dat."

"Stop what?"

"Dat!"

"That?"

A loud cough interrupted the escalating argument, everyone turned to see Minerva McGonagall standing a good way from everyone. She sent a pointed look at the twins; the twins glanced at each other before they said their goodbyes and quickly scurried off.

"Fred! George!" Edward called out after the Weasley Twins. Both boys turned around to look at the Alchemy professor. "Continue with your studies, there might be a chance you could get into my class this year."

The way the twin's eyes brighten and their smiles made Edward grin at them. "If you only pass a test."

"Come on, Mr. Elric."

"A test!"

"Go study!" Edward yelled out the boys before they ran off after getting another look from their Head of House. The Golden Blonde glanced over at said Head of House with a frown. "Vat?"

Minerva expression frown deepened, looking like she wanted to say something to Edward but turned her gaze over to Severus. "A word? In private."

Severus glanced over at Edward, who actually looked relieved for not having to speak with the woman. Edward shrugged and went back to lying on the cot, wincing when his head hit the stiff pillow. "Ow."

Severus snorted, which earned him a glare from Edward before he followed Minerva out of the Hospital Wing. Once the loud audible click that signified that both professors had left the room, leaving Edward, Pomona, and Poppy alone in the Wing.

"I think she does not like me all that much..."

-.-

Severus slowly blinked at the Transfiguration Professor as she stared back at him with questioning eyes. She has just expressed her excessive worry about Edward being a legitimate Professor, or even allowed in the school for that matter. Only for the fact, Edward is a Muggle in all ways and other reasons she managed to sprout out. The main point she will not let go is Edward not being a wizard. He didn't want to remember the argument they had over the laws that were broken.

"In all honesty, Severus...this is something you would never do. I haven't seen you this friendly with anyone since..." Minerva caught herself out before she uttered a certain someone's name. She looked at Severus face to gauge his reaction, to only see her fellow professor calmly picking up the cup of tea that she had placed in front of him earlier. It wasn't the type of calm that could be described as the calm before the storm. If anything he looked resigned to the simple fact that Severus actually has a friend. "Severus...?"

"We have a similar taste in humor." Severus shrugged not denying what was said to him. Severus sense of humor, or sense of offending people, Edward doesn't take it to heart. If anything, he knows how to turn the tables against Severus. Edward doesn't take crap from anyone and they could have intellectual conversations, even if it sounds more like they bickering with each other. Although Edward has his idiotic moments, he has his moments that even surprise Severus to a high degree. The main one is that Dumbledore cannot control Edward like he has too many others. "And... There is more than what meets the eye for this so-called Alchemist..."

This caught Minerva's attention, she signaled for Severus to continue on talking.

"He comes from a country that no Wizard has ever heard or been to. A place where only Alchemy is the norm and public knowledge... How is it that someone you consider to be a full-blooded Muggle, able to see Diagon Alley or let alone enter Hogwarts without any sort of magical help?" Severus allowed his words to sink in. These are questions that even have himself questioning Edward own background. Not even his background but the place where Edward hails from. Amestris. "This world has far more secrets than what we originally anticipated..."

"I had assumed Albus did something to help him..."

"No, Mr. Elric may not be capable of doing magic, but what he knows and does, defies what we everything we know as a whole."

-.-

"Achoo!" Edward sneezed out loud, he wiped his nose with the back of his hand. He glanced around the corner hoping to see no one. Seeing that no one was there, he quickly took the hallway hoping to find Severus or Filius. He was lost and had no clue how to return to his classroom or room in general. After managing of escaping Madam Pomfrey's watchful eye, Edward made his escape. Magic or not, a doctor is a doctor. "Where am I now?"

After thirty minutes of walking around, getting lost on the constantly moving staircases, Edward was nowhere near where he needed to be. "I need a flipping map! This place is impossible."

Edward stuffed his hands into his pockets and decided he might as well continue on, there was no point figuring out the school. He did not need a headache he already has to grow. With not much on his mind, the Alchemy Professor allowed his eyes to wander around taking everything in. He made it a point to ignore the moving and talking paintings. If he allowed his mind to focus on them, it would lead to unnecessary complications. "Now where to go..."

-.-

"Here I thought we would avoid them..." Führer Grumman mused, looking over the letter that Mustang received from Elric. Mustang stood in front of his desk, his expression serious. "How is it when something happens of this level occurs, you somehow get sucked into it?"

"To be honest... I have been asking myself that same question for years." Mustang stated, mentally cursing Elric penchant for getting in trouble. Here he thought the golden blonde would learn and stay out of trouble. But no... If anything that the idiot managed to get him into is something they never would have anticipated happening. To get in contact with a world that as no complete power over them and of course everyone's favorite, saving a country from complete destruction. 'Even with the evils of the Transmutation Circle, it did provide us protection from that side of the world.'

"Do you want to bring him back?"

"No, it would be a matter of time before this would happen. Keep this to yourself and maintain contact with Colonel Elric about this."

"Understood."

"...Tell more about this owl of his...?"

-.-

"How did I end up here?" Edward said to himself, he had somehow ended up on the rooftop of one of the tallest tower of the school. He had thought if he got on the roof he could have a better insight of where he was. Well, that did not work out well as the first thought of it in his head. "How do I get back down now?"

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[calliecat93]

Top 5 Things I Liked About RWBY Volume 5

(Top 5 Dislikes)

As I said in the Dislikes post, this volume is probably the most hated so far. Which is a real shame. Yes, there are legit problems with it, but that doesn’t mean that there was nothing good at all. There was a lot of good in this volume and I don’t find it fair to just brush it into the same pile along with the bad stuff. So let’s talk about some of those good things with my Top 5 Things I Liked About RWBY Volume 5~!

#5. Weiss is Best Girl

Weiss was the best character in this volume, honestly. While she doesn’t get as much stuff as Blake or Yang, she still got enough screentime and things to do that I was happy. She got it better than Ruby, at least. He successfully escaped Atlas. She defeated an entire horde of Lancers. She’s perfected her Summon enough to use it in combat. She survived a plane crash. She wasn’t intimidated by the Branwen Tribe. She would have escaped if Yang hadn’t appeared, and even then that just meant she couldn’t use stealth. She called Raven obnoxious. While people complain bout her relying on her Summoning too much,  she did a fairly good job of holding her own against Vernal. And once Jaune restored her Aura? She went right back to thrashing with her Queen Lancer Summon.

Weiss is the queen. But even so, we see a lot of her maturity in this volume. In the first two episodes, she wants to help the people being attacked by Grimm, but can’t cause it’ll give her away But when they stumble upon it in CHapter 2? Screw doing nothing! Weiss is a Huntress, ad she proves that she’s dedicated to that task there and then. But the best scene, of course, si when she talks to Yang in Chapter 8. Yang is correct that Weiss doesn’t know what it’s like for people to just leave without a word, but she does understand not having support from loved ones. Even with her large family, it fractured and split apart, and she was truly alone. She gets Yang to understand that Blake had reasons for leaving and that she will come back, and when she does then the best that they can do si give her support.

Not only does this help Yang cool down enough to be willing to let Blake back into the group, but it shows how much that Weiss has grown. This isn’t “The innocent don’t run, Yang” Weiss from Volume 1. Team RWBY became her new family, and she cares about all three of them more than either her brother or father cared about her. She doesn’t want to see another family fracture and her left to endure the fallout. Weiss understands why Blake did what she did, and believes that she will come back. And she’s willing to support her, as well as Yang. It’ one of the volumes best moments and really shows how much that Weiss has grown. She was such a great part of this volume all the way through, and this proves it.

#4. The Menagerie Plotline

While the Blake Plotline in V4 was not a favorite of mine, this one? This was what redeemed Blake for me. She’s done with running and is ready to face the White Fang, and in turn Adam, head-on at Haven. But, of course, she can’t do it alone. Their best chance is to get the citizens of Menagerie to help… but they’re not so willing. Not only because they’ll be risking their lives, but because they’ll be helping the humans. Humans who either hurt them or did nothing to stop it in their eyes. Ilia’s interference where she points out exactly how horrible their mistreatment had been did not help. But still, Blake was going to try.

We see a lot of Blake’s growth here. As I said, she’s not running anymore, but that’s not all fo it. She talks to Sun about Adam and if V3 hasn’t been enough, it and V5 Chapter 2 make Adam’s spiteful nature very clear and only makes it even more clear why Blake left when she did. She knows that Ilia is heading towards the same fate, but there’s still hope, and she wants to save her friend even if Ilia doesn’t want it. Ilia isn’t a bad person. She has noble intentions and we see that she still feels guilt and uncertainty in what she’s doing. She doesn’t want to hurt the Belladonna’s. She has to justify Sienna’s assassination as necessary for the betterment of the Faunus. She tries to get Blake to leave while there’s still time. She had the chance to hurt her in the Blake Trailer, but in the end, she couldn’t do it. She outright says that she hates hurting people, but in her mind, it’s the only way to get results.

Ilia is what I think that certain fans thought that Adam was. While Adam truly only serves himself and was beyond the point of return, Ilia did genuinely want to make Faunus lives better. She could have passed as a human if she had really wanted to, but she didn’t. She wore her Faunus status on her sleeve and was genuine in trying to improve their lives sot hat no one else died in a Dust Mine like her parents did. But she felt like the only way was to use fear and violence because otherwise no one did anything but stand around and let it happen. But she knew that it was wrong and she was still hesitant. Which Blake knew. She knew that there was still a chance before Ilia became another Adam, and she was going to help her before it was too late.

Indeed, it all leads to their fight in Chapter 10. It’s a really good fight all things considered, even if Blake burned down her own house… I wonder if they ever got that put out before they left Menagerie… but indeed, Blake tackles down Ilia, points out to her how there’s always another choice, and asks the million-dollar question: would Ilia’s parents want her to live like this? Ilia can only tearfully snap back that he doesn’t know what to do before all fo her resolve breaks then and there. After that, Blake’s words and Ghira saving her life finally pushes Ilia to make her choice. he stops Corsic (I think) in his tracks and finally breaks down.

After all of this, what does Blake do She steps up before the entirety of Menagerie. She points out that all the current chaos? They did it. Not the humans. Them. The White Fang is making people afraid and setting a bad example for the Faunus while they do nothing to contradict it. Blake has no answers on how they can truly achieve equality, but she does know that they can be better. They can show humanity that they aren’t like the White Fang by going to Haven and standing up against them. By standing alongside humans. And the first person to stand up and say that they’ll fight with her? Ilia. The girl who previously called the Belladonna’s traitors for this notion is now taking another choice. And this gets everyone else, everyone who was previously afraid to do so, rise up and all claim that they will go as well.

Indeed, Blake and the Faunus arrive at Haven and stop the White Fang. Blake faces Adam with no hint of fear. She rightfully knocks him into the ground, but that’s just the icing on the case. No, when Adam tries all of his little manipulative tactics on her, it fails. He tries to talk her down. She doesn’t budge. He thinks that he’s just going to run again. She doesn’t. Hell, she outright tells him that she is there for Haven, not him. He doesn’t matter to her anymore. Unlike Adam, Blake has friends and allies all around her while everyone that Adam had has either been arrested or walked out on him. Blake has better things t deal with, and thus this time, it’s Adam who runs. With this act, he made the White Fang turn on him, and now he’s the one running away. All while Blake is reunited with her team, this time having no intention of leaving and ready to repair the damage.

...okay I didn’t mean to go full-on analysis there, but the short version is I loved this plotline. Ilia’s a really good character who is very sympathetic and who you want to see do the right thing. And she does! Blake here is freakin’ fantastic in every way, and I love how far she’s come. Sun was great. Kali and Ghira were great. Adam having everything fall apart around him and it being entirely his own fault was great. Him running away was very satisfying. Everything was great~! Maybe some of the execution could have been a little tighter, but I don’t care. I loved this plot and I love Blake Belladonna.

#3. Spring vs Fall

I’m gonna lie, they totally fooled me about the Spring Maiden. I truly believed that it really was Vernal. Mainly because we saw her using her powers at least twice. We didn’t see Raven do anything, so how could it be her? They played us all like a damn fiddle. She wore her mask to hide the magic eye effect. Vernal was a Spring-inspired name, so those of us who like to look up stuff would just think that it cemented things even more. Raven was a good enough actress and liar to sell that Vernal was the Maiden without hinting at all that it may be her. She not only fooled Cinder, but she fooled Qrow. They framed things just enough to make it look like Vernal, like in Chapter 4 with the lightning where you see Vernal lowering her arm and, of course, her shouting ‘Enough!’. Or Raven telling Vernal to not use her power on Weiss, just to keep it up and have a reason for why Vernal doesn’t go full-on Maiden and since she’s a Bandit who would have years of combat experience, none of us would question it. Plus there was the earlier backstory, further pointing it at Vernal.

They had a well-crafted charade going, and CRWBY executed it perfectly. But of course, Cinder finds out when she fails to get the power out of Vernal. But due to it, we get by far the best fight int he entire volume. Say what you want about the Battle of Haven, but this fight they executed perfectly. It’s the first Maiden vs Maiden brawl and has two very strong and capable fighters duking it out. It is a true visual spectacle. And unlike all of her previous fights, Cinder isn’t confident or smug. Raven can match her. In fact, Raven is stronger, more experienced, and much smarter than her. Once again, Cinder is made to feel powerless and brought down from her high just as Ruby did in Volume 3. And you can just feel the hate radiating off of CInder due to ti, especially when she tells Raven to shut up when she mocks her near the end.

But indeed, Cinder loses. She muddied up their plan just to get a shot at the Maiden powers and for Ruby to get some damage since she’s not allowed to kill her. Raven overpowered her. Outwitted her. And it ended with Cinder getting thrown over the ledge, frozen, and sent into the abyss below. Yeah, we know that she survives, but it as still quite the beatdown. One that she brought onto herself because of her thirst for power.

The fight was just great. The whole Spring Maiden plot was great. They did such a great job with o many little details to sell the ploy to us, and we bought it! It’s why I can’t call Volume 5 bad. We have stuff like this that just gets swept aside, and that’s wrong Good writing should never be brushed aside just because we don’t like every other plotline. This on they did very well, and they deserve praise for it. I really enjoyed the plot and of course, the Maiden brawl. Although the final fate of the actual Spring Maiden is… dark. That isn’t a bad thing, it perfectly aligns with Raven’s character.  Speaking of which...

#2. The Yang and Raven Storyline

I’m gonna be honest. I don’t like Raven. Not because of bad writing, Raven is very well-written. I just hate her as a person. V4 already gave me a bad impression, but this one… ho boy. She’s emotionally manipulative of Yang and pretty much dismissed her when it was clear that Yang had no intention of joining her. She made a jab about family only showing up when they want something, which we all remember V4. She had zero problems with setting it up so that her brother could get killed just because he knew about Spring. Even if it was just to have a diversion to get the Relic, she still put her brother and daughter in harm’s way just for her own needs. And let’s not forget how she destroyed Shion, which knowing that she’s the Spring Maiden make sit even worst, and had no remorse in how any people got killed by them or the Grimm.

Raven’s a bad person and an even worst mother. And she knows it. She knows that abandoning Tai and Yang was bad. She knows that she’s selfish and hypocritical. She knows that murdering a young girl for her power was horrible. But in her mind, she’s doing what is necessary to survive. She justifies her actions as being strong. After all, the strong survive. She justifies killing Spring as mercy because she wouldn’t last in the world and her powers made her a target. She has this persona of a strong, clever warrior and leader, but that’ what it is. A persona. In truth, it’s all excuses to cover up how she’s really a scared young woman. Why? Because she’s afraid of Salem and like with Leo, feels that there is no beating her, so why try?

You know who is strong though? Yang. This girl lost her arm and is still suffering for it. Yet she got back up and went after Ruby. She finally meets the mother who abandoned her and uses her to get to Ruby and Qrow, her real family. She’s understandably angry about Blake still, but she actually listens to Weiss and starts to work through those emotions. She doesn’t just go rampaging in at the enemy, she finds other ways around a problem as Tai taught her. She doesn’t even use her Semblance at all because she doesn’t need to. She’s thinking smart and not wasting energy or taking attacks that she doesn’t need to take. We really see how much she’s grown as a fighter and see her evolve as a person. Despite all that happened to her, she still went to Haven. He still fought by her friends’ sides. She still went down into the Vault, and faced her mother.

Watching Yang call out Raven on all of her bullshit was immensely satisfying. Earlier, Raven planted doubt about Oz and the world in Yang’s mind and told her to as questions. Now this in itself was actually a good thing since it meant that Yang was actually wondering about things and didn’t just follow orders. Oz has done dubious things and as V6 showed, he does lie and manipulate. Raven pointing that out was good… she just didn’t expect Yang to also question her. Raven painted the bird thing as being forced on them, but Qrow made it clear that wasn’t the case. Raven kept trying to convince Yang to join her, acting cold towards her when her gestures were rejected. She feels like she should be Yang’s mom still, despite abandoning them, never being there despite being able to freely go there and back whenever she wanted, and just acting pretty shitty to her when they do finally meet. She was justified in leaving Ozpin. She wasn’t justified in turning her back on her family.

What Raven had done wasn’t strength. It doesn’t matter how many times she faced death, it doesn’t excuse murdering Spring due to her warped view of the world. She uses people. She abandons people. She puts people in danger to get what she wants. Everything that she does is self-serving. Even if she regrets it, she still did it. She may have been remorseful about Vernal, but she still used her just to protect herself. She wants to avid Salem, but took the Maiden powers and tried to take the Relic. But most of all, in the end, Yang points out how Raven will be a target if she takes the Relic. So she can either do it and re-enter the conflict that she claims to want no part of, or she can let Yang do it and put the target on herself. Raven weakly tells her that she doesn’t have to, but otherwise? She tearfully says that she’s sorry… and teleports away. In the end, despite knowing that Yang is right about everything, Raven once again chooses her own self-interest. Her own survival. She lets Yang take the fall, and abandons her once more.

Yang knows it too, taking the Relic and then breaking down. She spent so long wanting to meet her mother. Even if Ruby was her primary concern, I do think that she legit wanted to finally find Raven and get to know her. To see if she was the woman that her father described to her. But that Raven was dead. Qrow told her about Raven’s twisted world view, and it was proven true. I believe that Raven doe slove Yang, but in the end, she’s too stuck in her ways and in her own cowardice. She ran, but Yang stayed She was trembling, but she stood firm against Raven and called out her skewed view of strength. She may be powerful, but she isn’t strong. Yang was scared, yet she still made it to where she was. She was standing there. She took the Relic, fully aware that there was no turning away when she did. This arc showed why Yang is such ana amazing character and while it ended poorly with her mother, she has a family who loves her. And while one person left again, another came back.

On that note…

#1. The Team RWBY Reunions

The last time that we saw Team RWBY on-screen together was in Volume 3, Chapter 12. In it Yang was dismembered, Blake was a broken mess, and only Ruby and Weiss were left standing. After Ruby and Weiss ran in Beacon, that was it. The only time any of the members are together in some form is when Ruby went to see Yang after waking up. Yang was broken and could only tell Ruby that Weiss and blake were gone, and she just wanted to be left alone. That chapter was in February of 2016. V5 began in October of 2017. We hadn’t seen Team RWBY together in over a year and a half, and the last time was them at their darkest hour.

Fortunately, that wait ended here.

In Volume 4, we watched the girls overcome their hardships and set off on their new paths. RUby to save Haven. Weiss to escape her father. Blake to take back the White Fang. Yang to find Ruby. And they succeeded. Ruby made it to Mistral, and int he end did save Haven. Weiss got away and while she was too late to reunite with Winter, she still made it out. Blake stopped the White Fang from destroying Haven and re-ignited the Faunus on a more peaceful path. Yang found Ruby and held her own despite her PTSD. They all succeeded in their separate goals, but we still wanted them back together. And fortunately, we got three beautiful reunion scenes.

We had the Freezerburn reunion, where Weiss is just so relieved to finally see the face of someone that she cares about. The second that the Bandits backed off and Weiss jut threw herself at Yang and is clearly tearful as she tells Yang how much she missed her… it both breaks and warms your heart. Then we get their reunion with Ruby. One where Ruby drops everything (literally) and immediately begins to break down as she tries to apologize to Yang for leaving her. She thought that Yang didn’t want her around, and considering Yang’s last onscreen words to her were “Just leave me alone”, can you blame her? Yang’s response this time? To hug her tight and tell her that she loves her. Finally responding back after their not so happy final talk in V3. If that wasn’t sweet enough, they immediately open their arms to invite Weiss in, considering her to be their sister just as much as they do each other. Weiss tearfully, but happily, run into their arms and you’re crying right along with her. They are just such beautiful scenes and very much worth the payoff.

But it’s still an incomplete set, so let’s fix that.

Blake had no idea that RWY would be at Haven and seeing them, of course, shocks her. Seeing Yang back up and actually okay shocked. She didn’t have a lot of time to take it in yet though, having to deal with Adam. But after that? She jumps into the fray to help Ruby and Weiss and while we, unfortunately, don’t get to see the fight, they’re as sharp and coordinated as ever. Then the fight is over. The White Fang is dealt with. Her family and Ilia have that part covered. Sun yanks Blake towards the others, wordlessly gesturing her to walk forward and go back to her team. Her friends. We see her take in a breath before facing the three girls that she left behind. She’s clearly not sure what to say or do, but when RUby says that why they’re there is one of life’s great mysteries is a long story, Blake says that she’s not going anywhere. Ruby and Weiss are ready to accept her back, but they turn to Yang for her response. Ruby said that them being together was all that mattered… and sure enough, Yang smiles, nods, and agrees. That was the moment that Blake knew that while there was plenty to answer for still, she wasn’t going to be rejected for it. Yan saw that Blake came back so even if her mom left her again, Blake wouldn’t. Weiss opens up for arm as the sisters did for her before. Blake happily kneels down to join in. All as All That Matters plays in the background.

At that point, V3 was on the verge of becoming two years old. Last time the girls were together, they were broken and torn apart. Now? They grew. They healed. They somehow found a way back to each other. They all lost so much and endured so much, but somehow, despite all of it, there they were. Together once again. That group hug is one of my favorite RWBY moments of all time and still makes me tearful now. It’s why I will never hate this volume. That scene where they hug and are just so happy and relieved to be together… how the Hell could I hate that? I can’t. Every reunion was beautifully done, especially the final one. It was a perfect payoff to the split plotlines and everyone’s arc, and it will always be what I treasure most about this volume.

V5 gets hated. A lot. But there is value in it. A lot of value. So no, I refuse to hate it. I don’t hate any volume and have yet to hate any volume. I hope that I was able to show some of the good parts of it. But with that done, five volumes down. One to go. Two more posts to do folks. We are in the home-stretch people. Let’s see if I can make it to home-base now.

[youremypride]

Child of Satan.

Title: Child of Satan 

→ Inspired by: Case 39

Genre: Angst, Horror, Thriller

About: Strange occurrences arise when Y/N, a social worker takes in 10-year old Lilith Langdon under her care from her abusing grandmother who calls her the spawn of Satan.

Warnings: minor sexual content, mentions of killing, murder, character(s) death

Disclaimer: The plot of the story remains the same, with a few changes to fit the story I had in mind. Michael only appears near the ending of the story but he is still an importance to one of the characters. There are parts which I’ve added in from the movie, and parts I’ve changed or taken out. 

A/N: This marks the start of the Witching Hour series! It took me a lot of time because I wasn’t sure how I wanted the story to be since I planned this on a whim while watching this movie. Please feel free to leave comments on your thoughts about this, feedback is much appreciated! Until then, enjoy the movie! 

Reoccurring nightmares flooded your head in the late of night. Your body would be paralysed, refraining you from any movements from danger when something bad is about to happen. You were lying in bed, covered and secured over your comforter. Your hands were on your side but you couldn’t move them no matter how much you struggled.

Beside you stands the same man that would sit on the chair next to your bed. He would give you an endearing smile as he caresses your hair and brushes the stray hairs away from your pretty face. He places a small kiss on your temple before flipping open the book in his hands, reading off a part of the storybook, something he does to get you to fall asleep.

When he’s finished, he places the book on your side table and tucks you in one last time before wishing you goodnight and walking out of your room and closing the door. In the last seconds before you were consumed by the heavy feeling of fatigue and sleep welcoming you, you could hear your mother shouting from the lower floor, yelling at the person she was referring to not leave, until the front door slams with a loud bang and you awake from that nightmare.

Jolting up from your bed, beads of sweat trickled down your forehead. The back of your shirt felt damp from all the sweating and you felt your body heat increasing. You hated to relive that moment every time you went to sleep. The once bitter memory now forming into a nightmare that would continuously haunt you, taunting you and reminding you how your father had left you and your mother.

You once asked her why your father wasn’t in the picture when you got older and it made her agitated and distraught. She screeched at you, warning you never to question about him. You saw first hand what it did to her so you obeyed her, afraid something like that might happen again.

The absence of a man in the house, a husband and a father didn’t only affect your mother. It affected you too. In order to cope with your neglect and rejection, you started seeing older men that were way too old for you when you reached legal age. You would often go out to bars and solicit them, seeking solace in their presence as they are balls deep inside of you.

The pleasure and comfort these men had given you made you forget about reality and it only fuelled your need of having a cock inside you rather than drinking your problems away. Your sinful deeds would’ve made you feel guilty when your partner, Hayden is oblivious of your pussy slavering away to another man’s cock as you ride them off into the late of night, thinking you were working overtime.

Although those days are long over, you still get off from the memories, reliving them to bring you the feeling of satisfaction, one that Hayden had tried countless times but ended up giving you an unfulfilling orgasm as they always cums before you.

You had come to terms that you had issues. Daddy issues.

Another file plops down onto your desk, rounding a total of 39 case files that were assigned to you. Your manager, Wayne gave you an apologetic look and shrugs telling you that the others had their hands full just as you are. As he walks away, you scoffed and sighed at your misery.

You opened the file, greeted by a picture of the said victim. Reading through her file, you gathered that her name was Lilith Langdon, a 10-year old girl currently living with her grandmother. It states that she’s exhibited signs of apathetic, lack of interest in studying and often isolate herself with her peers. You mull over certain scenarios and why such an innocent girl could have been in such a situation.

Closing the front door behind you, you throw your keys on the console table, putting your coat and bag on the chair right beside it. Walking towards the living room, you plopped yourself onto your comfy brown couch and shuffled your hand through your front pocket to get your phone out.

As if on cue, a few messages appeared on the screen.

Hayden: hey baby, you home yet?

Hayden: miss you a lot, you still up for some thai food?

Hayden: if you’re tired, i could bring take out to yours, how ‘bout that?

You were kinda tired, and having to go out again a few hours just brings your body into a feeling of agony. Thankfully, Hayden was kind enough to know of your tiring schedule and you replied them in an instant.

You: yeap i’m home

You: yes please, thank you baby <3

Grabbing the remote of the coffee table, you turn the tv on and surfed through channels until you settled on some reruns of The Simpsons. The drowsy feeling in your eyes slowly starts creeping until your lids became heavier and heavier until your sight was nothing but obsidian.

Knocks on the door awoke you from your nap and brisk walk towards the front door. You were greeted by the sigh of Hayden, holding up the takeout of Thai food and greeting you with a grin from ear to ear. “Your delivery of Thai food is here!” They pipped, leaning in to give you a quick kiss on your lips before allowing themselves in.

They placed the takeout on the dining table as you get ready two glasses of water. They hand one of the Styrofoam boxes to you along with the utensils. You thanked them and said your prayers. “Ah, my favourite. You know me too well, baby.”

“I know my little girl enjoys chicken as much as I do.”

You love it when they call you their little girl. It brings up bubbles in your stomach and makes you feel giddy at the pet name they had given you. You insisted on them to continue calling you that when they decided to stop, saying it would made you uncomfortable due to your age.

It didn’t matter, you enjoyed it regardless. Even when Hayden was the same age as you. “So, any new updates with your recent case?” You nodded, swallowing down your food before you reply to them.

“Diego’s father missed his blood check the other day and a few other appointments he was suppose to come the last week. What bothers me is that Diego is denying everything of what he’s father is accounted for. His father has a history, and I’m afraid he’s being abused emotionally, that’s why he’s defending his father.”

Hayden nods in understanding, “He could be, but you could see how he’s trying to make it up to his son. Surely there’s a good reason why he’s been missing out lately. You did say he was working three jobs just to keep their family afloat, right?” You sighed, your eyebrows joined forming a crease in between.

“I hope you’re right about that.”

“Okay, enough talking about it. Let’s talk about what really matters right now.” They take your hand in theirs, soothing your upper hand in gentle strokes. “About us. Our relationship.”

You had wished they didn’t bring this up. It was difficult to say to them that you weren’t just ready to get married and settle down. Hayden had given you a month to think about it when they proposed to you after you gave them your answer. You had to admit but you didn’t see a future with Hayden at all. There was no point of being tied down to somebody whom you’ve lost interest since got knows when.

Finding the right words and the right reason to break it to them had your brain pulsing hard against your skull. You would’ve come out as a bitch, wasting away their time and years on you if you admit it now. Sooner or later, you have to tell them the truth.

You placed your free palm on top of theirs, mirroring the same action they did seconds ago. “I know you want an answer, but I just can’t give it to you. I’m sorry that I’m delaying it for so long and not giving you the answer you want. But I-I, I have so much to think about and I’m just too... too...” You stuttered.

“Too what, Y/N?” There was pain and sadness in their voice, but you could hear that little small hope voicing out.

“I’m afraid. I’m afraid of you losing me.” Lies. “That you’ll leave me and say that you’ve made the wrong decision in marrying me.” Lies. “That I never give you the time and affection you need and that I had distance myself from you.” Lies. That’s how you’ve managed to keep them wrapped around your finger all these years.

“No, no I would never think that baby.” They cupped your face in their palms, making you look at them. A concern expression washed over their face as they brush your cheeks with their thumb. “I’ll never leave you, what makes you think I would?”

“B-because, I’m not giving you what you want. You want a family. I don’t. Not right now, and I’m the obstacle that’s stopping you from getting what you want.” They pulled you into a hug as you wrap your arms around their neck. They sat you on top of their lap as your legs dangle over theirs. You feel their arms resting on your hips, soothing them by drawing circular patterns on your skin.

“You’re not an obstacle, baby. I’ll understand if you still need more time. Remember, I’ll always love you, okay? Don’t let those negative thoughts get to you. Come on, let’s clean up, wash up and get ready for bed, how’s that sound?” They pull you up so that your legs were wrapped on their hips before placing you on your feet and prepared to sleep.

Driving your black sedan up the roan, you read off the signs to find the right street before taking a right turn. The street was your typical suburban area. They were children playing on their lawns, some adults taking the time to mow them until you found the house you were looking for.

The roof of the house was tiled in red tiles, the wooden white planks had paint coming off from it, and streams of vines decorated the walls as they climbed up towards the roof. The windows were grimed and only the top floor had the windows opened. The lawn was unkempt, with weeds and bald patches popping up here and there. The house was surrounded with tall iron fencing that reached the height of your shoulders.

You caught movement coming from the corner of your eye and looked up to see a lady, her blonde hair in an updo bun as she takes a drag from the cigarettes she’s holding between her fingers. She only glances you for a second before disappearing into the darkness of the room as you make your way towards the front door.

Three knocks were all it took until you head heels clicking against the wooden floor on the other side. The door opens, a gap wide enough to see the person behind the door as it was secured by a safety chain to prevent it from being open any wider.

“Mrs. Langdon? I’m Y/N L/N. I’m here for your appointment.”

“It’s not the 17th yet.”

“Yes, it is, Mrs. Langdon. It’s the 17th today.”

“No, you’re wrong, sweetie.” Annoyed, you grab out the newspaper from your file bag and showed it right in front of her. “It’s the 17th. Today’s paper says so.”

She slams the door in your face, the sound of chains unlocking from behind and the door open, wider this time. She steps aside as she eyed you, gesturing you to enter. Once you’re in the foyer of the house, you take a good look at the place. It was cosy and homey, a different contrast as how she was dressed, elegance.

A little girl appears from the top of the staircase, looking down at you emotionlessly. Slowly, you call out to her, “Hey there. I wanna talk to you. Could you come down for a while?”

Light footsteps creaked the steps, as she descended down ‘til she was starting at you at eye level. “Hey there, sweetheart. My name’s Y/N. What’s your name?”

“Lily.” Her voice was soft, almost feathery. “Lily, what a beautiful name.” You turned to her grandmother, “Is there someplace we can talk?”

“Are we expecting Lily’s parents to be coming home soon?” You pipped.

Mrs. Langdon, or Constance as she preferred, only gave you a look, her dull eyes boring into yours before she takes another drag of her cigarette. “Lily’s parents are dead. I’m the only one she has left.”

You shifted uncomfortably in your seat, “I’m so sorry. The file didn’t say anything about it.”

“What is it you want, darling? I haven’t got any time and you’re wasting precious hours. On with the questions.” She scoffed softly.

“Oh, right, sorry, um... I’m here because we received a call that Lilith has been showing serious signs of neglect. Now at this point we can only assume it’s the result of family problems.”

Constance chuckles, “I presume it must’ve been one of those nosy neighbours who called in? Family problems you say? It’s only darling Lilith and me in this house. We get along just fine. I’ve been taking care of Lilith since she was a baby. Her mother died from childbirth and her father is god knows where. We don’t have any family problems. Not that I know of.”

“Well, many families aren’t aware that they’re having family problems, not until they’re too late. And that’s where we come in. We help families communicate and learn healthier ways to resolving conflict.”

“I appreciate the kindness, but we don’t need your help. I think our time here is done. You can show yourself out.” She puffs thick white smoke as she gestures you to the front door.

A few days later, Constance was called in by your manager after you’ve given him many reasons as to why you might think Lily is in trouble.

You leaned against the wall inside of Wayne’s office, looking at the Constance and Lily who was sitting on the couch. “Well, I know I’m not the perfect grandmother for Lily, I know that but she knows I show my love and care for her in other ways. She knows how I feel about her.”

You could see Lily’s face churning and twisting in discomfort, “So, tell me, Mrs. Langdon, does it concern you that Lily’s grades have dropped from A’s to D’s in three months?”

“Of course, she’s my granddaughter.”

“So, you have no idea why your granddaughter falls asleep in class every day? Why she can’t sleep at home? No idea?” You turned to look at Wayne.

“And you’ve never slept in class before, Ms. L/N? I know I did.”

Staring out at the pair from inside your office, you turned towards Wayne with an annoyed expression, “Don’t tell me you felt for that?”

Wayne sighs, “Look, cut her some slack, she the only breadwinner of her family here. We can’t guarantee every kid here has a happy childhood. I wish we could.”

“Let me talk to her, alone just for five minutes.”

“We don’t have the case, Y/N.”

“Just five minutes. Talk to them about happy children and how much they love kids.”

You approached Lily who was standing beside the water cooler. A pair of girls had rushed right in front of you with their mother behind them, telling them to slow down. You smiled at the sight. “I’ve always wanted a sister growing up, don’t you? To play with and to talk to, things that you just can’t tell anybody else, you know? Did you ever wish that? That you had a sister?”

Lily remained silent, and you cursed yourself for forgetting that her mother had died ten years ago so the idea of having a sister wouldn’t have crossed her mind.

Sensing the awkward feeling between you too, you purposely lean over the water cooler and let the cold water hit your neck, prickling your skin at the sudden temperature. Lily giggled beside you, having caught her attention by the act you did.

“Well, that was a silly thing to do, wasn’t it?” You smiled at her. “What’s happening to you?”

You kneel down, so that you were at a child’s height. “You know I can help. Let me help you.” Lily starts to look distressed, looking around her and over her shoulder.

“What is it sweetheart?” You gently place a hand on her arms.

“She hates me.”

“I’m sure she doesn’t hate you.”

“She does. I hear her talking to herself in her bedroom.”

“What do they talk about?”

A few seconds of silence filled the air until she begins to talk again, whimpering and tears pooling in her eyes. “Sending me to hell. She calls me the spawn of Satan, and that I should’ve not been born.”

“You heard her say that?” She nods franticly.

It was a major bust to get Lily to say what she had told you. The recording evidence you need against Constance failed when Lily had said the opposite, allowing Wayne to close the case and told you to let it go.

Desperate, you seek help from an old friend.

“Y/N, what brings you here to my office?” Mike asked. You slide Lily’s case file across his desk.

“Well, well, well. It’s sitting right in front of me so I’m guessing our good friend Wayne has decided it fails to meet the criteria of child endangerment and has told you in no uncertain terms to leave it alone.”

“Surprise, surprise.”

He pushes the file back towards you, “Sorry, Y/N. I can’t.”

“Please Mike, I’m really desperate here.”

He tells you that the department doesn’t pay him enough to stake out potential child abusers and reminded you how it almost cost him his job the last time he helped. You chided in and told him how Lily’s grandmother wanted to send her to hell and called her the spawn of Satan. In the end he gave in and asked him to send him the evidence and files over, which you thanked him.

You laid across the brown couch, surfing through channels until your phone starts ringing. Thinking it was Hayden, whom you left voicemails minutes ago, you answered it in a cheery tone. “Too late, met someone else.”

“Y/N.”

“Lily?”

You could her the fear in her voice and the panic that was slowly increasing, her pants soft but sharp. She tells you that she’s scared and that Constance was waiting and ready to get her, her voice getting sleepier.

Quickly, you rushed out of your house and drove over her house, calling Mike for back up. Once you got there, the scene unfolding in front of you brought you to a shock. Constance had Lily locked in her oven, duct tape securing the handle to stop her front busting the door open. You struggled when you tried to rescue Lily out, having to fight against Constance as she pushes you away from the oven.

That is until Mike fends her off, knocking her down as you were quick to get Lily out from the oven before it could burn her.

As ordered by the judge, Constance had to undergo psychiatric evaluation until she is deemed fit for trial. On the other hand, Lily had been placed into a state home until they’re able to find her a new foster home. To help Lily fit in better in socialising and interacting with others, she would attend a group therapy in which children would voice out their opinions and share their problems with one another.

But something kept nagging at the back of your mind. You recall back to the day you met Lily at the hospital and how she wanted to stay with you instead. Also, when you had accompanied her to the state home, she brought it up again, giving you pleading eyes and a sad look that almost felt pitiful.

After going through documents and meetings, you got approval to become Lily’s temporary guardian before they find her a new foster home. When you reached your home, you showed her around, her eyes were twinkling like stars and her lips formed into a waxing crescent moon smile. She was happy, and you were happy too.

“What is this?” She asked, sipping the tea from her cup as you brushed her hair, detangling the strands to straighten them. “It’s chamomile. Helps me sleep.”

She takes a sip again before you spoke, “You know none of this should ever have happened. If I could make it go away, I would.”

“You did.”

You took away the cup from her and tucked her in bed.

You stared at the house from inside of your car. A dark ominous aura seeping out from the cracks of the walls. The longer you stared at it, the more it begins to bite back at you, shaking you to your bones with its soul-stirring presence.

The floorboards creaked against your shoes as you made your way up to the second floor. Turning to your left, you find Lily’s room, picking a soft teddy bear from the pile of toys placed near her window.

Adjacent to her room was Constance’s room. Nothing out of the ordinary seemed to caught your attention. There were Christ signs placed over the bed, a bible laying on the top of the dresser. How religious, you thought. That is until you saw strange white marks on the wooden floor that were hidden under the rug.

You flipped it over, and the mark continues towards the door of the room. You notice a few marks on the door as well, finding it perplexing that heavy bolts and chains were screwed behind it. It made you repulsed, thinking she was locking herself from her granddaughter.

“Wayne’s looking for you.”

“Wayne wants to see you.”

Reaching your cubicle, you find Wayne sitting on your desk, Diego’s file opened in front of him.

“What’s up with Diego?”

“Oh hey, Y/N. Why don’t we talk inside my office?”

“No, tell me what’s going on?”

Wayne sighed, “Well, we don’t... We don’t know why yet but he killed his parents last night.”

The information made you shudder, almost twisting your stomach in ways you could never thought it could.

You rushed to the scene, wanting answers on why he would do something like that.

“How did this happen?”

“Gets a tire iron from the garage, heads back inside. Locks all the doors and windows, kills them in their sleep.”

The parents’ bedroom was painted in red all over. The walls were splattered in blood, the pillows were soiled deep with blood, the sheets that were once white had turned red. The crime scene almost looked like it came out of a slasher movie.

“You expect me to believe a 10-year old could do such a thing?”

“I was there when they brought him in. Took three guys to subdue him, and the kid was climbing the walls.”

“You can’t blame yourself for this. Things happen. It’s unfortunate what happened with Diego but you can’t let that haunt you. You’re only one person, Y/N. You can’t save the world. But I know one person you did save.” Hayden comforts you, both their eyes and yours directed towards Lily who was playing with sticks near the lake.

Lily knew Hayden from group therapy, Hayden being the therapist for her sessions. They had worked with kids longer than you did, and that’s how you met since your field of work worked hand in hand with each other.

She had sensed something troubling you, stating how your job was stressful and hard. You admitted how she was right, telling her how parents are just complicated.

“Is that what your parents did? You said you were alone?”

“Yeah, my dad left me when I was young, and my Mum... my Mum passed away a few years ago.”

“Your parents must’ve made you lonely.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You don’t talk about it.”

One morning you caught her with a picture of your parents, one that was taken before your father left you, when everything was fine. She said she wanted to know you better. You reprimanded her nicely, telling her not to go through your things anymore. The same day, Mike had told you how Diego received a call coming from your house. You denied, saying you didn’t call them. Lily was suspected to have called him since he was in the same group therapy as she is. You could’ve guessed she took his phone number from your back up files that you stored in your cabinet. She refuted again and again. Saying she was telling the truth and that she didn’t call him that night. Everything was leading to nowhere.

It got more confused when you visited Diego, saying that Lily did call him that night. Except that it was a man who had called him, which got you puzzled.

“So, I want you to tell me, what scares you?” Hayden asked.

“I’ll tell you want scares me if you tell me what scares you.”

“Fair enough.” Hayden pauses, trying to gather his thoughts before answering her. “When I was young, I hated using the microwave. Silly right? I would get really terrified when the light turns on and the plate of food keeps spinning around. I get paranoid when the timer doesn’t go off, thinking the microwave would explode.

My brother thought it would be funny to put popcorn in it and let me watch. I saw how it slowly swell up, the packet getting bigger and bigger. Hated them ever since.”

“You can’t be that afraid of popcorn too?”

“Sure, you can, the popping noises brings me anxiety sometimes. Now’s your turn. What scares you?”

“Me.” Lily says simply. “You scare yourself?”

“Sometimes.”

“Why? What about yourself scares you?” Hayden asked, baffled.

“I have bad thoughts.”

“About what?”

“People.”

“People in general or certain people?”

“Certain people.” Lily answered.

“Like who?”

“You.”

“You have bad thoughts about me? Why?”

She smiles at you, “I just do.”

It went on a couple of minutes before Lily and Hayden walked out of the room. You could see tiny beads of sweat forming on their forehead. “I’ve talked to many kids, I don’t think I’ve ever felt like that before.”

“Like what?”

“Threatened.”

The news broke your heart. You couldn’t think straight the whole day. Mike had given you in detail everything that happened.

An explosion had occurred in Hayden’s house, the cause of it came from the microwave. It was said to be malfunctioning while they were using it and the sudden impact and radiation had caused Hayden’s skin to burn, killing him instantly.

You loved Hayden, you really did. Mixed feelings intoxicated you, it was hard to come into terms, accepting that your lover was dead. However, a part of you felt lightened yet eating you away with guilt.

You snooped around the office, finding a package that was labelled and had a USB in it. Locking yourself in a secluded office far from the others, you plugged the USB in, which contained a video recording of Constance being interviewed.

You clicked on it, waiting for the video to load.

A man hidden behind the camera was talking to Constance, who was shown in the video.

“Take me through the conversation, Constance, about the oven.”

Constance spoke, “I was sending her back where she’s supposed to belong, in hell in fiery flames.”

“Why did you say that it was God’s will that you should kill your granddaughter?” Constance laughed, scoffing when she heard the question.

“Why is that funny, Constance?”

“Cause she’s not my granddaughter.”

“You think your daughter is the devil? Evil incarnate?”

She glances away from the camera, “I don’ care what you call it.”

“But you have stated that she kills people?” The man questions her. “Not by her own hand, they just die.”

She starts sobbing, “I had five children, three sons and two daughters, and three beautiful grandchildren.” She covers her face with her hands, whimpering as she spoke. “My youngest son was expecting his firstborn at the time with his wife. Soon as she was born, they just started dying. I guess she couldn’t get rid of me until she found somebody else.”

She looks back into the camera, almost staring into your soul from the screen. Shivers ran down your spine. You needed more information. Something wasn’t right about Lily lately.

The two guards sat her down in her chair in front of you. She was strapped in a straight jacket with an emotionless expression.

“I know I’m probably the last person you want to see right now, but you’re the only one I could talk to.”

She looks up to meet your gaze, her eyes in slits, squinting at you. “Who died?”

“A friend.” You spoke. “You’re scared. You ought to be.”

“Is she... What is she?”

Constance smirks, before a vexed look washed over her. “I can tell you what she’s not. She’s not my granddaughter, that’s for sure. She’s not a 10-year old having trouble in school and she’s not some innocent victim whose door you busted down and life you saved. She’s not going anywhere soon, darling. Not till she’s good and done with you.”

“Done with me how?” You asked. “However she wants. You think it’s an accident her ending up with you? She saw you coming a mile away.”

“Why me? I don’t have anything.”

“You have that you’re good, kindness, decency. That’s what she feeds on. Bleeds you dry, moves on to the next. We were a big family, she went through us like a wrecking ball. It’s like she sees everything, and what she doesn’t see, she senses.

Like when you call a friend and they pick it up before it rings? They say when you’re born, you’re given your eternal soul. The part of you that lives on, lives again. Whatever evil she is, didn’t come from my daughter. It was already there.

From the moment she came into being, she brought something with her. Something older, destructive. Soul of a demon.”

It takes you a moment to suppress all the information to you head. “What does she want?”

“To know what your idea of hell is, and make you live there.”

“Y/N, you petitioned for custody, you got it. She’s your responsibility, make it work.”

You sigh, “How? How do I make it work if it’s not working?”

Nancy explains, “With the same coping skills you teach these Mums and Dads every week. Walk the talk, Y/N. Walk the talk.”

As you wait for Lily’s group therapy to end, you see her walking towards another kid, whispering something inaudible in her ear. She was doing it again, until she saw that you were staring at her. You grabbed her out of the room, walking towards the elevator. “You are not going back there.”

“Why Y/N?” She repeats continuously until the both of you got inside. The elevator starts to shake vigorously before coming to a halt.

“Can I go to group next week?” Lily asked, innocently. “You’re not going back there.”

“Are you sure?” You could hear the cable starting to break and soon enough your descending down at a high speed, the lights flickering and you begin to feel the strong force against your chest.

The bell chimes and the elevator turn normal like before.

The obsidian sky turns dark, flickers of thunders spark with the occasional roar of thunders. You locked yourself in your room, ignoring Lily as you returned home.

Knocks on the door startle you, “Y/N? Y/N? Please, I know you’re in there.”

You brought up the knife towards your chest, ready to attack if anything happens. The knocks turn to loud bangs. You could hear screams and Lily pleading you to open the door.

“Let me in. Let me in. Let me in. Let me in. Let me in. Let me in.” The deadbolts on your door was the only thing securing you from her.

“GO AWAY!” You shout. It turned quiet, silent almost. A soft thump made you turned your head towards your closet beside you.

Bringing up the knife in your hand, you use your free hand to open the door in one swift movement. There was nothing, until a horrified deformed creature jumped at you. Its skin was burning off, exposing the red flash and arteries of the body. You scrambled away from it, quickly unlocking the bolts and running out from your house.

A bus with its light on was the first thing you charged for, seeing that the bus driver was still inside. You banged at the door, pleading for him to open it. The creature slowly catching up to you.

In the last second, he opens it and you yell at him to drive. He tells you there’s no one outside, and that only it was in your imagination. Leaving the bus, you head towards your car, grabbing the back up keys from under the boot of the car. Slowly you got in the driver’s seat.

“Leaving the child unattended is a jailable offence.” You screamed, shocked to see Lily in the backseat. She leans in closer, “You have to do what I say. If I say I want to go to group, you have to do it. If I say I want a new dress, you have to do it. If I say I want ice cream every day, after school, you have to do it, okay?”

You started sobbing, laughing almost at your unfortunate misery. “Don’t be sad. This is your new beginning.” She states, repeating the same word you once told her before. She caresses your hair in a loving manner, one that almost filled you in disgust.

“It they take her...”

“The whole thing starts all over again. You can’t let her go, you can’t let her stay. Leaves you one option.”

“I can’t.”

“You have to.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Don’t tell me I don’t understand.” Constance argued. “You’ve had her, what, two months? I had her ten years. I had her for ten years. Think of it as a test of faith.”

“I don’t wanna have any faith.”

“How about anger? You got some of that?”

Silence past a few seconds.

“How? How do I...”

“Kill her?” Constance finishes for you. “In her sleep. That’s the only time you got the upper hand, is when she’s sleeping, but she almost never does. We checked on her room, every night for three months. First night she slept was the night that you busted in our front door.

I’ll tell you what I’d do different, count yourself dead at the outset. Accept that going in, use It to your advantage. If you’re not afraid, she can’t hurt you.”

You could hear the sound of Constance recording playing. You followed the sound to the living room, Lily was watching the recording from your laptop. “She did what I asked for a while and then she stopped, and started with the secrets. But they weren’t really secrets, I guess. Because I always knew what they were thinking. She stares back into the laptop screen, watching her grandmother with a look so indescribable.

Hours later, you received a call informing you that Constance was dead.

Panicked, you went to meet Mike, who said he wanted to show you something.

He had gone through you call logs, saying that Lily did call Hayden and that she was using your cell phone. He also believed that she called Diego too when he played you two recordings, one of Diego’s and Hayden’s.

“Her grandmother says I have to kill her.”

“I’ll help you.”

You’ve gotten prescription pills from the doctors, faking your insomnia and lack of sleep.

When you reached home, your entire place was a mess. You followed the trail of papers into Lily’s room where pictures of the children from her group therapy laid on the floor.

You found a cock board slipping out from underneath her bed. There were pictures pinned on them, with Diego and Hayden’s picture flipped, probably indicating of her recent kills. The next one in line was a picture of you and Mike. A dark heavy feeling sets on the pit of your stomach.

Vibrations came from underneath her mattress and you find your phone, ringing. You answered it, with Wayne telling you that Mike’s dead. You don’t know what to feel, pain, anger, frustration clashes inside you, Lily being the point of the reason, slow burning till you wish to rip her apart.

The sound of the flat screen playing startled you. Lily was sitting on the couch, eating popcorn. Irritated, you slammed the tv towards the floor, smashing it into pieces as glass flew all over the wooden floor. “Get out, get out of my house!” You yelled.

She brushed off the popcorn remains that you had slapped out of her hands, standing up and glaring at you. “Don’t yell at me!” Her face morphing into something sinister and her voice almost deep and inhuman.

You backed away from her, running towards your room to barricade yourself from Lily, or what was a manifestation of a little girl. You pushed every heavy furniture you had to the door.

“Emily, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. Can I come in so we can talk and work it out?” Lily called out. At this moment, that little girl outside your room wasn’t human to you, not anymore. That little girl was nothing but a demonic creature disguise as an innocent being.

You picked it the screwdriver on the floor to protect yourself against the demon. The door suddenly starts bulging unusually, a strong force trying to break it down. The walls start cracking off the concrete, the bolts on the doors unhinging and coming loose.

The door starts to open and you used every single strength you had left to pushed it closed until the entire door is being sucked away, leaving you exposed and vulnerable. You moved quickly, shifting under the bed to hide away Lily.

“Y/N. Y/N. We need to learn healthier ways of resolving conflict, Y/N.” She swats away the dresser in front of the bed effortlessly. “Most families don’t even know they have a problem, until it’s too late.”

She grabs on to the screwdriver that you left, walking around the bed till she stops by the side. In a blink of an eye, the screwdriver plunges into the wooden floor, the hand holding it was now bigger and veiny.

She crawls down to you, mocking you with her innocent bright smile as she tilts her head. “What are you doing, you silly pumpkinhead?” You could only stifle a choked laugh. “You don’t want me to come under there and get you, do you?”

“No.” You answered sharply. “I’m going to count to three. One, two...”

“No.” You shook your head, “Two and a half, two and three quarters, three. Here I come.” She teased. She crawls towards you. “No! What do you want?” You screamed.

“What you wanted from your father.” You blinked. “I want you to love me.”

“Okay,” You nodded. “I will.”

She backs away from the bed. “Come tuck me in.”

You smashed the sleeping pills into powdery form, mixing it together with the chamomile tea you just brewed. “Emily.” Lily calls you softly.

You smile at her as you enter her room, giving her the cup of tea for her to drink. Before she takes a sip, she stares at you, “Chamomile. Maybe you should have it, you look stressed.”

“I’ll have one later.” She gives you a look but it disappears after a second.

“I’m really sorry that I let things get like this.” You apologized. “We’ll do better from now on.”

“We have to.” Lily agrees. “Someone could get hurt.”

“What shall we do tomorrow?” You asked. “Surprise me.”

“I’m not so good at surprises.”

“You’re getting better.” She jibes at you playfully.

You made sure she was asleep, before you execute your plan. You locked her bedroom door, splashing crude oil all over the house and more on her door. You watched the matchstick as it starts to light up, trailing the entire house with flames. Walking out of the house, you see the flames start engulfing everything in its path, licking the exterior and burning them in seconds.

“Everybody got out okay?” A firefighter approached you. “Ma’am, anyone else inside? Yes or no?” You tuned him out as you saw Lily just a few metres away from you, unharmed and untouched. “That was mean.”

You followed the police from behind to go downtown you find you someplace to stay for a while. The ride was quiet until Lily spoke up, “Maybe we can find a hotel with a swimming pool.”

You swerved the car, exiting out of the freeway. “Where are we going?”

“You said I should surprise you.”

She smiles from the corner of your eye. Her legs tugged closely towards her chest. You could feel her staring at you.

“He hated your mother. He hated you too. Your mother lied about you, you were never his. You were just the product of one of your mother’s affairs. The day he left was the day he found out about the secrets, the lies. That’s why you kept delaying your answer for Hayden, refusing to marry him as you kept him chain to you.

But you weren’t any better than your mother, aren’t you? You let those men use you because you couldn’t cope over your father, isn’t that right, Y/N? You need a man to ground you down to fill that void inside you. That’s what you’re afraid of, isn’t it? Rejection.”

“What are you?” She smiles slyly at you as she turns to look out the window. You stepped on the gas, accelerating at high speed. “Slow down.” Lily demands.

“What the hell are you?”

“You’re upset, you shouldn’t be driving.” You increase the speed, cruising down the street and avoiding other cars.

Your vision begins to cloud, and a new image emerges, bringing you back to the same nightmare you were having.

“Sweetheart.” You looked up to see the same man hovering above you as he strokes your hair endearingly. “Dad?”

“That’s right, sweetie. Daddy’s here.” You rise up from your bed, startling him as you pulled him into a hug. You sobbed into his shoulder, “Please, don’t leave me.” You begged.

“Please don’t leave me. I know what Mum did was wrong. It wasn’t my fault. I never wanted this either. Don’t leave me, don’t leave me please.” You hugged him even tighter, afraid he would disappear. You begged and begged until you felt his arms around your waist.

“I know it isn’t sweetheart. It’s not your fault. I love you, so so much.”

It wasn’t your fault indeed. What Lily said was the truth but your father didn’t leave you because he found out you weren’t his biological daughter. He left because he was sick. He thought that by leaving, it would take the pain of losing him easier when he died if he stayed.

He was wrong, it traumatized you into thinking that he didn’t love you and only increased your fear of rejection from men. You didn’t know because you couldn’t keep in touch. But it was time to let go of the past and your fears with it. Setting free your inner demons and to be at peace with yourself. It was time.

You were no longer afraid. You let those bad thoughts get into your head that’s why you couldn’t think and see clearly. Now that you’ve overcome it, everything felt different. You could breath easily without having the ghosts of the past hung over your shoulders and weighing you down.

“Are you scared?” You asked Lily. “I’m not.”

You swerved the car, accelerating it towards a nearby port – nosediving the car into the water. The car sunk deeper and deeper until it reaches the bottom. Lily unbuckles her seat belt, trying to escape as you reached for her hand – restraining her. She smiles at you, a smug look appearing on her face. Her side of the door opened – revealing a man who’s trying to free her, dragging her up towards the surface.

The pressure of the water starts pressing against your skulls, your lungs compressing sharply as your heart starts to pump more blood through your lungs and entire body. When you regain consciousness, you were laying down on a stretcher, and oxygen mask around your nose and mouth. Your body temperature felt really cold despite the layers of blanket covering you.

As they lift you into the ambulance, you saw the demonic creature – dissimulating herself by painting a scared and terrified expression on her innocent face. I’ve failed, you thought. Now, all that’s left is the consequences that awaits you.

“Where is she?!” You slammed your cuffed hands against metal table. “WHERE IS SHE?! Is she with that family? I need to talk to them, I need to talk to them! Do you hear me?!” You pleaded with your lawyer. He could only sigh, frustrated over your uncooperativeness. The door behinds you open, “I’m afraid your time’s up.” The officer spoke. “You have a visitor, Ma'am.”

A visitor? You wondered. Could it be Wayne, you figured. The officer grabs you off your seat and escorts you down to the meeting room. There were a few families there, visiting the other inmates of the prison. “Over there.” He brings you towards a young man, wearing a suit all clad in black with a red tie. He had wavy curled blonde hair reaching till his nape. His eyes swirled of apatite.

Like he had sensed you coming, he shifts his bored gaze from the table to you. You take a seat opposite from him – studying his features and enigmatic demeanour.

“Hello, Ms. L/N.” He greets, his voice sultry with a tint of firmness in them.

“Do I know you, sir?” You questioned. He bids you a smile, one where his lips are pressed to form a thin line. “My name’s Michael. Michael Langdon.”

“Langdon?”

“I’m sure my mother has talked about me before. Of how all her children had died? Is that right?”

“How are you here? How are you still alive?” He chuckles. “I must say, I do applaud your bravery for trying to kill my precious daughter. However, I wasn’t very pleased with your doing. Not at all.”

You stared at him, baffled. “Daughter? You’re Lily’s father?”

He gestures his hand, “That’s right. I’m Lily’s biological father.” He leans further into the table. “I’m sure you’re keen to know how and why, aren’t you?”

“Well, my story is really heart-wrenching and painful to talk about.” He expresses sarcastically. “It’s almost on par as yours.”

“And why is that?”

“Because, sweetheart. You and I are much more alike than you think you are.”

“In what way?”

“We both have daddy issues.” He giggles. “Apart from my siblings, I’m the only one in the family that does not share the same father as they do. I was a bastard, you could call that. The product of one of my mother’s affairs. Little did she know that she had just let the devil himself fuck her before planting his seed to grow inside her.

Alas, I was born. I knew something was fairly off about me and when I realised who I truly was, I concealed it from my family. In time, they all started growing their own family. You could say I was getting a little jealous.

So, I breed the first virgin I laid my eyes on – casting a spell on her to act as my loving fiancée then wife. She died from childbirth, pushing Lily out took a toll on her body, and when I laid my eyes on the precious little bun in my arms, I knew she had it inside her all along, that darkness.”

“Why did you leave her then? Why you let your mother take care of her?”

“It was irresponsible for me, I know. Leaving my child under her supervision, faking my own death and not being there for her really wounded me. But I needed to do all this for what’s coming.”

“What is coming?”

“An uprising. A war shall arise in which we will rule over Earth and everyone – or what’s left of them. Together with Lily, we shall bring down everything into ashes.”

“You’re trying to make the end of the world happen?”

“I’m not trying, sweetheart. I’m making it happen.”

Your meeting with Michael ended and it was back into your prison cell. You pondered over what he had told you hours ago. The memory still fresh and lingering around you. Was he really going to do that? And what’s the use of Lily for his plan?

“Did you meet up with her?” Lily asked, looking up from her ice cream cone, licking at it.

“I did.” He takes her hands in his, the little one enclosed in his large ones. “Do you like her?”

“Hmm... almost. Maybe if she cooperates with me after a few more visits, she’ll come around to accept the offer I’m about to propose.”

“Really? What are you going to offer her?”

“To be your new mother. Would you like that, my angel?” Lily nods, laughing giddily in excitement over the news as she wounds her little arms around her father. “I’m sure you do.”

[amysgiantbees]

Avengers: Endgame Spoilers

Much like Avengers Infinity War, my feelings on this film can most succinctly be put that overall I found it average to infuriating but there were some truly wonderful parts in between that I’ll always enjoy. I’ll come to this later but here are some notes on my feelings on Avengers Endgame...

THE GOOD

Wanda and Captain Marvel (but I still needed more of them)

Wanda and Captain Marvel fighting Thanos

Steve wielding Mjölnir

Valkyrie on a pegasus

King Valkyrie

Carol’s haircut

Rhodney and Nebula bonding!

Nebula and Tony playing paper football!

Pepper fighting in an iron suit

Sam is Captain America! (He better be Cap in the films, not just this new show, I know the MCU has a history of keeping the TV shows and films separate but please not in this case!)

THE BAD

Bruce dabs. I just can’t.

Clint’s hair and tattoos

Thanos’ ecofascism being justified by the narrative in certain ways like with Cap’s look on the bright side about the environment line.

The time travel plotholes. I do not understand time travel at all in this, feel free to explain if you do. Also, Thanos not having knowledge of anyone due to time travel really took a lot of impact out of the climax for me. My biggest issue with the time travel logic in this though is how can Nebula kill her past self? 

The limited time given to emotional character arcs is a real issue for me. For a movie that goes on for so long, I felt like more attention would be given to this and less to action. Like having characters that had rivalries with members of Thano’s Children never confronting against them again.

Thor never mentions Loki. He never grieves him. He was meant to actually legitimately be dead in this one so it would have been nice if not only there was more emotion and time spent on the scene with his mother but if he said goodbye to Loki during it too. Or told Freya to check in on Loki for him, make sure to tell him he loves him form him. I know she is destined to die but if they’d come earlier in the day and let there be time to do all of this it would have been more emotionally satisfying I think at least.

I HATE fatsuits. The fat jokes and the jokes at the expense of Thor’s panic attacks and mental health are REVOLTING. It’s just sad and frustrating that they decided to throw out all of Thor’s character development from Ragnorok for a few cheap laughs. His fat suit doesn’t even look real. It doesn’t match his neck and face and he doesn’t move right. Shockingly enough you move easier when it’s your own skin. This article and the author sum up my thoughts on all of this really well: https://medium.com/@kivabay/the-centr-of-controversy-cba6f23c692e. Also, Bay has a really great quote unrelated to Thor but also sums up another issue I have with the film and I just want to highlight it here, “ I also couldn’t help but view the movie with the knowledge we pick up on the internet about who is leaving the MCU, making the character deaths feel melodramatically goofy and like executive-level calculations.“

Also, somewhat silly critique but doesn’t Thor need special Asgardian beer to get drunk not “mortal” beer in a can. Damn, Thor was just poorly thought through. And I could almost find him fighting against Thanos with zero weight loss aspiring if the whole idea of Chris Hemsworth portraying him and every other way he was handled wasn’t disgustingly terrible. Fat Thor as an idea is amazing. I’d love to see him portrayed as such in the comics as long as he’s treated with respect. 

They can’t just have the film be cathartically separate and contained they have to hint at more film’s with the “Where’s Gamora” mystery ready to go and Thor joining the Guardians. They have been advertising Homecoming for months and have the next few years of movies already planned, people aren’t under any illusions that there won’t be sequels. Just let it be self-contained. Especially since it’s already so long. 

Just personal taste thing here but the “Avengers Assemble” bit was too cheesy and the ruin of the Avengers mansion was a boring background for the battle.

Dr. Strange was wasted stopping that tsunami. Did they need that? It was such a boring use for him in the battle. This battle had so many heroes but it felt like it really used their powers significantly less creatively together than any other battle previously. 

Why weren't Fury, Carol and Maria all standing together at Tony’s funeral with their arms around each other like everyone else? It was really strange and took some of the emotion out of the scene, they’re close to each other. It could have been such a beautiful moment and tied the whole Captain Marvel “Where’s Fury?” scene together if they had them beside each other with her smiling sadly at him or leaning against him. They’re friends and it would be nice to see Fury further fleshed out and more three dimensional. 

I don’t mind that Loki is dead but it does make me retroactively annoyed that “You... will never be... a god” was seriously his last line. He had nothing nice to say to his brother before he dies? So he really did die trying to use a knife on someone who can take on the Hulk. I hope that at least in his show that’s coming soon he’s genderqueer and given the opportunity to properly show off his magic. I feel like his magic has never been displayed properly or used in particularly interesting ways so far.

I would have rewritten the scene where Banner and Rocket look for Thor. Banner, Thor and Valkyrie’s interactions are stale and strange. It would have been better (so as not to erase all of his character development) if he was still dealing with his PTSD or the loss of his people poorly but was at least trying to help the Asgardians. But then show Valkyrie having to help him and being the clearly stronger leader due to being able to deal with this grief better after having experience working through grief from losing her Valkyries. She could also be helping him with his alcoholism instead of judging him since she has been there! It would have shown her mentor abilities and kingly traits. You could still have him join the Guardians in the end but now he’s just less negligent. Then he isn’t passing a burden for convenience but because he recognizes Valkyrie was there for his people when he couldn’t be and is the better, more loved leader. Instead of what should be a great moment for Valkyrie that she’s shown as earnt and is deserving of it just seems like Thor was like “Well it turns out ruling was too hard for me I’m going to f*ck off to space now look after them for me.” Still, love that she gets to be king. 

Did I mishear her name or is Clint’s daughter not called Kate? Why aren’t we getting Kate Bishop? I know she isn’t Clint’s daughter in the comics but they’ve changed people’s backstories before and after seeing Clint training with a young girl in the trailer I was just really excited for her. I love her character in the comics, but maybe she has a name change here? 

Also, why does Clint go overseas to fight people? I’m sure there are more than enough bad people in America for him to fight for YEARS. There are Neo-Nazis for F*CKS SAKE. It just seems racist to imply he’d have to look in places predominantly occupied by POC to find bad people. Also, that Sword scene was strange. It felt really unnatural and fake like it belonged in a completely different movie. 

Also, little nitpick but I just found it to be a weird moment when that kid Ant-Man talks to didn’t say “What do you mean?” or “How do you not know?” I get not wanting to talk about the snap but how could he not be mildly curious or confused as to how someone seems to be ignorant to the biggest tragedy in world history.

Also, I really would have loved if the final battle had more consequences. More deaths and injuries. I think it would have been more realistic and added more to it. I especially really would have loved it if they had shown Clint getting injured in such a way that his hearing was permanently damaged. It would be nice to finally have him have that important comic book trait. 

Also, that scene where Joe Russo, a straight man, plays a gay man is bullshit. Let us have gay superheroes. That is such a pathetic attempt at representation. Make Loki Genderfluid, make Carol a wLw, Give Okoye and Valkyrie a girlfriend or acknowledge they’re wLw. 

Furthermore, I understand that the shot of all the women at the final battle was probably foreshadowing A-Team but I don’t think the creators realised that, One: it makes it look like they’re trying to hide that they killed the only original female member of the Avengers while giving all the men satisfying endings. Two: that there are A LOT fewer women than men but also that there’s enough of them that more of them really should have been featured before then and had more time spent on them. Just so many women yet so few films focussed on them. Furthermore, for those people who don’t know about A-Team it also just feels like a moment of pandering.  

Look, Black Widow has never been one of my favorite characters but she deserved better. As soon as she was proclaimed infertile in Age of Ultron it was a death sentence because what use is a woman who can’t reproduce. She didn’t even get a funeral. Clint should have died. The snap forced Natasha to fully commit to her found family and lead the Avengers for years. The snap sent Clint into a debatably racist murder rampage. Natasha did something good after the snap it gave her more purpose. Clint’s purpose was to bring his family back and he could still do that by sacrificing himself. It’s honestly far more satisfying to see Natasha get her happy ending than Clint because Clint’s ending is just far too similar to his story in Age of Ultron. It is just hilariously underwhelming when everyone else has an emotional ending just to have Clint’s be a regurgitated version of him retiring with his family in Ultron. Also, Natasha dying for guilt over some vague bad that’s she’s done in her past that we know nothing about is so unsatisfying. This video I feel also sums up a lot of my feelings on this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A81p1N2gnNY&t=649s. Also from a monetary standpoint, not that Disney needs more money, but there’s way more demand for Black Widow films than Hawkeye. Just why Hawkeye, no one gives a sh*t.

More so I’m not against Tony using the gauntlet but I think it got in the way of Nebula having a fully satisfying conclusion to her arc. At least one woman should have had a satisfying, fully realised arc. It would have been great if Nebula got to finally kill Thanos but honestly, I wouldn’t be as mad at it if she hadn’t got wrongfully blamed for doing it by Thanos or had her arc conclude in an otherwise satisfying way. She gets abused further by Thanos for something she never did and never gets an opportunity to even just face him and confront him about ANYTHING. 

Also, Vision is barely mentioned in the film. Which wouldn’t be so frustrating if he wasn’t the reason why an ENTIRE ARMY of predominantly black people was sacrificed in Infinity War. They had to save him because they all apparently cared so much about him but can’t remember to mention him more than once afterward. 

I really hate that they were so scared of spoilers that they didn’t let all of the actors read their scripts ahead of time and cut out massive chunks of their scripts and didn’t tell them who they were playing against. I would rather spoilers than poor acting that ruins the timelessness of a film. This is meant to be epic! 

[kakosindustries]

in which you get some wiser words to ponder over, you consider the nature of texture issues, you think about beastly appendages, you step in a puddle of Dana, and Red Renton “wins” the Ruin-A-Life Drawing. Do Evil Better.

Transcription:

Kakos Industries is ad-free. To help keep it that way, please visit KakosIndustries.com/Patreon, that’s p-a-t-r-e-o-n, and consider a pledge of a dollar or more a month.

Intro: What you are about to hear may inspire you to create your own new political party.

Hello and welcome to the Kakos Industries corporate shareholder announcements. At Kakos Industries, we help our clients and every single living thing down to the microscoping level to Do Evil Better. I am Corin Deeth III, and I am CEO of Kakos Industries. I am now back at my full capabilities, and I have returned to all of my job tasks. This includes testing the monster meat, determining which naked photographs will do the most harm when put on the Internet, stepping on employees that can only be motivated to work when their submissive fantasies are fulfilled, and looking at an enormous number of reports and formulating where the company should go to maximize both profits, and general nastiness throughout the world. I am also, for whatever reason, consulted any time the carpet needs to be replaced, which is relatively often. And not just when that carpet is in my recording studio and stained with my blood after my closest ally shoots me. After seeing how capable Junior is, we gave him a few new responsibilities. We put him on certain divisions as a consultant. He does have good ideas and he does know Evil, even if he is a bit strange at times. He has helped the Division of Automata to create a new android servant, that, by my estimation, is just a fancy sex toy. He helped the Division of Hygiene to invent a hose attachment that, when the hose is turned on, will pretty much clean anyone or anything that water hits. He also helped the Division of Tactile Textiles to make an even smoother fabric. He has some texture issues. And most recently, he has locked himself in his cave because he hates working. He wanted responsibility, but then it was too much effort, I guess.

Soundman Steven is back to his former stature. You see, new shareholders out there, when we built this fine facility where we record and transmit my voice to you via whatever strange and high concept device you have received, he was so impressed with the gear that his heart grew three sizes, and he became quite erect. This erection was first viewed as a nuisance by anyone   who had to work with him or otherwise accidentally bumped into it. But once we all learned that it meant us no harm, we became inspired by it. It became a mascot. Look, people would say, at what Evil has produced. An unyielding, ever present icon of what Evil can do. People would work harder after seeing it. Posters of it were created by adoring fans and posted around the building to inspire all of us to be at our best. And then, I shot it. I needed some quick Evil, and I was desperate and perhaps a bit myopic, and my aim isn’t very good, so I shot it. We gave him a new one, but it seemed that the bond of trust he and I had developed was broken, and without it, the erection could not return. Until Soundman shot me. Not in the dick, just in the leg, but I’m told I could have died. The memory of that violence has been keeping him strong and proud, and most importantly erect. No, Soundman, I’m not going to mention the shame that you feel. I have forgiven you. So we have him back. And that is quite possibly the most important thing.

Today’s broadcast is coming to you from the particularly pungent aroma from a permanent marker we mailed you. No, we didn’t expect you to inhale it on purpose. It is strong enough that when you opened it to see what was inside or how it might write, you caught a sufficient whiff to let us get into your head. This chemicals are very sensitive to radio frequencies, and by modulation them very carefully, we can change what your mind is perceiving as far as sound goes. You are almost certainly completely blind at the moment, but that should pass, assuming you were sighted before. I would recommend not trying to get up to do anything, and I do apologize if you were driving. The Internet tells me that this might be a decent time for your to try to beat Punch Out. This product comes to us from a collaboration between our Division of The Cheapest Thrills, and Marker Island, a company that only makes markers, and never pens. If you are not a shareholder, then it is possible that your mind is not fully calibrated to resist the allure of smelling even more of this marker. The broadcast will then grow much louder inside your head, ultimately resulting in serious damage to your brain. Shareholders will of course know their limits by now and cap up the marker for the time being.

The Division of Figuring Out What All of These Keys Go To has unlocked another Kakos Industries rule book. Well, I shouldn’t call it a rule book. It say The Kakos Industries Book of Proverbs, and is then followed by two diamonds. I have no idea if these diamonds are just a decoration, or maybe an indication that this is volume two. According to Grace Rule, our contracts master, this book tastes quite official, and we must take it seriously. The trouble is that the proverbs have been encrypted. Or they are in a character set we do not understand just yet. It is taking us some time to translate the proverbs, but I have the first completed on here. It reads “It is better to be a two-headed bear feasting on wolves than to be a coyote eating a cottontail rabbit.” Grace was unable to tell me exactly what this meant and what we should do about it, but it gives us something to think about. I will be sure to give you updates as I get them.

The Shareholders’ Ball, as always, was a blast. It was a great way to celebrate having been CEO here at Kakos Industries for the past five years. There was one snag, though. When it came time for the blood orgy, I found myself surrounded by interesting and beautiful people. That’s not a bad start at all. I was ready. But I have a bit of trouble just diving in without getting to know people a little bit. It’s far more interesting to be romantically involved with someone you know and perhaps care a little about. It adds something extra to what can otherwise seem kind of mechanical. And the issue was, they all had the same name. Or similar names, I suppose. If you’ve been following along with my personal stories during these broadcasts, then you probably know what I’m about to say. There was Tabitha, Tabitha, Tabbs, Tabbi, Tabby, Tubs, Tiber, and maybe a few others. Now, it seemed to me as though the basement ballroom started to run away from me, bringing the exit door ever closer, but I think in hindsight I have to admit that I was probably just fleeing on foot. Once I found a place to hide and catch my breath, I had some time to clear my head and think. This has been too many coincidences. This has been too strange. But it can’t be something big and scary. I thought back to the people that Bernice Largo, the head of my support staff, must have hired to see to my sexual needs. What if they have all taken on a name to signify their goals? But I have to say that, if this is true, Bernice has made a terrible mistake. I have missed out on more opportunities due to this fear and frustration than I would have for any other reason. Unless that is actually the point. Perhaps I was supposed to be freaked out. Perhaps it has nothing to do with my sexual needs, but instead what makes me the most Evil. I will need to do some looking into this. It may be true that this makes me more Evil than anything else. But it may also be true that knowing this has ruined the experiment. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Bernice. It seems that she has been out of the office. For a while. Like, a really long time.

The Chili Cook Off didn’t go according to plan. There was some sort of hang up and most regular attendees were late. Something to do with our transit network. Junior was not late, and he had finished almost all of the Chili by the time anybody else got there. On the plus side, we did get to enjoy the remaining aroma in each of the pots. Some were quite spicy, and definitely Evil.

We are now making preparations for the Celebration of Affirmation, which is ordinarily the celebration where we say nice and reaffirming things to one another. While this is fine, I gave the Division of Dionysia a challenge. I said, what if we affirm ourselves through actions instead of words? The head of the division scratched his chin and thought for a moment before going off to start working on some ideas. We shall see what comes of this.

We are also preparing for the Big Black Hole celebration. It is usually a good time to remind ourselves what Evil can do when we don’t apply it carefully and thoughtfully. It reminds us that an experiment can go wrong, destroy a whole branch of the company, and create a wormhole to Costa Rica. Or wherever the hole goes now. The dirt was grape flavored, but it is now strawberry flavored. And, you know, dirt flavored.

I have just received word that they have translated and/or decrypted another proverb. “The wind is best when it dries your enemy’s skin. Best to invest in emollients.” Huh. That one seems pretty straightforward, but perhaps I am missing something.

Last time, Junior discussed Dana Govern in great detail. She is the woman who was given a staggering number of genetic modifications, and we have just sort of been waiting to see what would happen. Most of the time, she just seems to be a woman. Late thirties. Average figure. Generally attractive, but not in an unusual way. We have had some strange reports. One person claims they saw her grab her lunch from the fridge using one of her many tentacles. She does not have any tentacles. Another person reported seeing her cook a meal by setting her hand on fire. She has no severe burns. Another person claims to have stepped in a puddle, but then there was only Dana on the ground. This is all very exciting, though we have yet to catch any of it on video. So far, our most reliable way of finding her at any given moment is using Junior’s nose. I’m not sure how he finds her, but he always finds her.

Kimzzzzzzzzzzz has eased up on the dyed hair thing. I think she just got bored of it, because we’ve been refusing to pay her off. Now, the only thing that matters about you is how glamorous your nails are. Your face doesn’t matter, your hair doesn’t matter, your hygiene doesn’t matter. It’s only your nails. Long nails with fine decorations and intricate artwork are the best. I do not like having anything on my nails. It’s a texture thing. So I’m really unappealing right now. Except to people named Tabitha, apparently.

We now know that Meredith Gorgoro is alive. For those of you who are new, Meredith Gorgoro was in charge of the labor camp we built in a huge cavern we dug once looking for the biblical Hell. We caught her on camera again. But where she lost her left arm, she has now replaced it through some sort of field surgery with the arm of one of the monsters she has slain. It is an enormous and powerful arm, covered in white fur, and the skin underneath appears to be green. And from what we caught on the drone footage, it would appear that she can control it incredibly precisely. I probably don’t have to tell you this, shareholders, but an attachment like that would require meticulous and excruciating work attaching all of the nerves to their new destinations. But there she is. With a monster arm. I’m a little jealous, but I don’t know exactly why. It looks really cool. It would be hard to type with it, but I think I would get my way in meetings a lot more often if I would just whip that baby out any time someone questions me. Oh, you don’t think lemon skin is inedible, well, fuck you. Monster arm. Wait, maybe we should market monster arms. That would be sick.

I walked in on a heated argument between Jasmine Aashna and Dr. Dunkelwissen, head of the Division of Erotic Experiences and rogue scientist respectfully. I got the impression what they were arguing about wasn’t what they were really arguing about. They are still trying to answer the question “What is most sex?” but it doesn’t seem to be going very well. From what I could gather, they are having a hard time narrowing down any physical activities that can be said to always be sex, or super sexy sex. Yet the mental and emotional stuff lacks a certain edge necessary to be the most sex of all sex. They turned to look at me. I gently waved and saw myself out. For what it’s worth, on their whiteboard, they had the phrase “really long nails?” written and underlined several times. I can’t know for certain what that means out of context, but I felt like passing it along anyway.

They say that Evil once released a hundred thousand balloons, each destroying the drive and ambition in someone nearby when it fell to the Earth. This is Things We’re Taking Credit for Now. Today, we are taking credit for social media celebrities, an undying desire to be adored, and butt bleach. Now, you might be thinking, that seems a little unreasonable. With the exception of butt bleach, those other two things seem like they probably come about on their own. Well, you should stop right there. Stop thinking like that. Because thinking like that gets your butt extra bleached. And nobody needs that. We did these things. We made them. They’re ours. And extra butt bleaching kills.

Red Renton has won today’s Ruin-A-Life Drawing. As a result, Raz Razelton, the selected target of Red Renton, will have his life ruined. We gave the Wheel of Misery a nice pep talk, and then a mean spin. It landed on the space for Undecipherable. From this day forward, or as soon as the Damnation and Ruination Squad can get it done, Raz Razelton will be 97% more undecipherable, feeling the need to speak in ways where his meaning cannot be easily detected or understood. This will get annoying fast. For Evil measure, Red Renton will speak 22% more plainly, losing a little bit of tact in the process. Congratulations on the win and best of luck.

This brings us to the end of our broadcast. In a few minutes you will be permitted to destroy this marker. I will say it is excellent for writing your handle on toilet seats or bathroom mirrors, but you might go blind again in the process. Kind of hard to get away when that happens. Anyone who wasn’t a shareholder is almost certainly dead by now. The numbers are next.

18

22

23

44

56

73

122

199

337

338

449

567

3

Don’t cut the feed yet, Soundman. I just got another proverb. It says when the star Burgeron is closest to the Dark Planet, and the moon is at its highest point near Fuffeni, and a cool mist sweeps across the land, it shall be time to party hard. Let me just take a peek out of the window here. Wait, that one must be Burgeron, and… yes, Fuffeni, the dark planet, and the moon is so close! Call the Division of Dionysia! There’s not much time! We need to party! We have to party! It has been foretold. Or proverbed. There is no time to waste!

Credits: Kakos Industries is written and produced by Conrad Miszuk, who is also the voice of Corin Deeth, and the composer of the music. The introduction is read by Kim Aiello, and the credits are read by Kelsey Kemmer, know detangler extraordinaire. Please visit KakosIndustries.com for news, extras, and more episodes. There are also transcriptions on the website if you’d like to read along with the Kakos Industries announcements. That’s K-A-K-O-S-I-N-D-U-S-T-R-I-E-S dot com. Please visit store.KakosIndustries.com for merchandise and special offers and get wonderful benefits by becoming a subscription donor at kakosindustries.com/patreon. Questions, comments, or a strong desire to collaborate? Drop us a line at inquiries@kakosindustries.com. If you like Kakos Industries, be sure to rate and review us on your favorite podcasting service, and connect with us on YouTube (YouTube.com/KakosIndustries), Facebook (facebook.com/kakosindustries), Tumblr (kakosindustries.tumblr.com), and Twitter (@KakosIndustries). We encourage fan art and listener participation on all our social media platforms. Please visit our website for cast details and the credits for all of our social media contributors.

Special thanks to our esteemed shareholders Iain Croall, Dan Shumway, William Brandon, Floyd Singh Power, and Jack Attack. Also thanks to honored employee Dorkpool Dorkuss, who made sure to distribute valentines to everyone who wasn’t going to get one otherwise, and Chris Leclerc, who reorganized the DVD collection after they all catastrophically fell from the shelves. And thanks to our division heads Britney Garcia, head of The Division of Beanies, Booties, and Construction Projects That Are Probably Too Large for Yarn, Valerie Koop, Director of the Division of Inappropriate Games to Play in Public, Patrick Green, head of The Division of Oceanic Micro-Cryptozoology, Carl H, Director of the Division of Unanswered Messages, Xavier Jarman, Director of The Division of We Know Magic Doesn’t Exist But We’re Going to Keep on Trying, and Craig Czyz, director of the Division of Obscure Vintage Technology. The Division of Beanies, Booties, and Construction Projects That Are Probably Too Large for Yarn has begun designing a ferris wheel. It sounds even scarier than normal ferris wheels.  The Division of Inappropriate Games to Play in Public has introduced The Real Life Drinking Game. Whenever your boss says something passive aggressive, take a shot! The Division of Oceanic Micro-Cryptozoology has lost the puddle-cabra, and are now much more focused on the unicorn actinopod. It uses its horn to gather food. The Division of Unanswered Messages has ignored their morning alarm for sixteen months. In that time, they’ve gotten up and went to work, but the whole time, their alarm has been going off, annoying many. The Division of We Know Magic Doesn’t Exist But We’re Going to Keep on Trying has begun using a Divining Rod to look for wells all around Kakos Industries. So far, there are no new wells, but many new holes. The Division of Obscure Vintage Technology has dragged out the old crate of 78s. The crate is only the finest pressings of people’s last words. They are truly haunting. Our esteemed shareholders, honored employees, division heads, and other Patreon patrons are the best. If you want a thank you in the credits, your own division, or other great rewards that help to keep this show running, please head to Kakosindustries.com/patreon. That’s Patreon: p-a-t-r-e-o-n.

Kakos Industries can be heavy sometimes. Try flipping off a wild animal to bring about catharsis.

[agentnico]

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019) Review

"Two coffees please! One black, and one with just a touch of cream and twenty-five sugars." Now we know where Emmet gets all his energy from!

Plot: It's been five years since everything was awesome and the citizens are facing a huge new threat: Lego Duplo invaders from outer space, wrecking everything faster than they can rebuild.

Everything is not awesome anymore in the world of Bricksburg (now renamed appropriately as Apocalypseburg) as The Lego Movie franchise takes on its most serious topic....sibling rivalry. Hey, to all the bros and sis’ (that’s the abbreviation for sisters, right??), we’ve all been there. We’ve all had many many (ohhhh so many!) arguments between each other, so I’m sure many can connect with this element of the film. In fact, for anyone who was worried about the goodness of this sequel (me included) can relax. The Lego Movie 2 is funny, charming, quirky and endearing, and though it’s got nothing on the first film (though that basically is an impossible feat) it gets damn close. The reason why I personally went into this sequel quite wearily was due to the marketing. Am I the only one who thought the trailers for this movie were, well, kinda crap? 

The Lego Movie 2 retains that signature sarcastic tone that this franchise is know for and though the surprise element is now missing (I mean, who expected the obnoxious product placement that was the first The Lego Movie to actually end up being as great as it was??) the film as a whole is still very fun. As to be expected, this movie is filled with pop culture references. All for our audience amusement.So this is the time where I’m going to have to call myself out. It’s happening. Right here right now. I’ve called myself out. For usually I give films a lot of slack for inserting too many pop culture references for the sake of having pop culture references. Heck, that was my main big complaint with last year’s Ready Player One. So why such favoritism towards The Lego Movie 2? Just cause, deal with it! No, in all fairness the reason for that is the WAY that the pop culture references are used within these Lego films. Nowadays you can find a Lego set of basically anything. Lego DC? You got it. Lego Marvel? Right there in the third aisle. Lego Lord of the Rings? Just go on Amazon. A Lego set of a guy on a toilet taking a number 2? Well, not sure why you’d want that but I’m sure that can be found somewhere, somehow, for some reason. Basically, my point is that in case of Lego (or is it Legos when plural?) product placement is kind of part of their thing. So when you make a film about Lego then I assume it’s kind of a must to have pop culture references. Also, these said pop culture references in these Lego movies are a cause for some great humour. The Lego Movie 2 is no exception. You can really tell that Phil Lord and Chris Miller had a lot of fun writing the screenplay here. Also, might I add, another win here for Lord and Miller. Can these guys do any wrong? Jump Street films, Spider-Verse... Damn, this makes me only want their version of Solo: A Star Wars Story even more! Also a shout out to director Mike Mitchell, who thus far had mainly only been known for Trolls, as he managed to do a good job keeping the same a feel and tone from the original film whilst trying to make something new also.

As with the first film, the animation here is fantastic. The creative and imaginative uses of the various Lego bricks to create these worlds is quite incredible, and now also the introduction of the sister means we now get see a different side to these Lego settings (cleverly named as the Sistar System). Yes, if you haven’t seen the first film you probably should see that before this, as the major twist at the end of the first film is basically at the forefront of everything in this one. There is also now a musical aspect added (and I looooove musicals!) with certain characters breaking out into song and dance and though none of the tunes reach the heights of the original “Everything is Awesome” there are still some very “catchy” tunes. Yes, I am giving a clue there. Also, a certain duet sung by Tiffany Haddish and Will Arnett about dating Batman is very amusing.

The voice cast is also sublime. Christ Pratt returns as the loveable, optimistic and innocent Emmet who just wants everything to be awesome. I might be giving a lot of slack to Pratt for having possibly allowing his current fame to begin to get to him a little, but when it comes to him here he is as good as in the first movie. He still keeps that naivety and good-will that he portrayed so well as Andy Dwyer aka. the chubby guy from Parks and Recreation. To add to this in this sequel Pratt is doing double duty by voicing a new character who goes by the name of Rex Dangervest who is basically a reflection on who Chris Pratt has turned into in real life, the muscular leading man who is either off guarding galaxies or training raptors. Pratt does a good job with this, putting on his best Kurt Russell impression. Elizabeth Banks is back as Wildstyle who at the beginning tries to do her best impression of Charlize Theron’s Furiosa from Mad Max: Fury Road and actually gets a lot more to do here than she did in the previous film. Will Arnett is back as Batman and he’s as brooding as ever which comes as no surprise as Arnett is no stranger to voice acting. There’s a reason why he’s also BoJack the Horseman, don’t act like you don’t know! Other cast members also do great and on the contrary of the marketing hiding it Will Ferrell is in this sequel too, and I can say with ease he’s sure as hell better here than he was in Holmes and Watson. Gosh I hate that movie and will trash on it till the end of time and beyond.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part does not break any new ground but is such a fun time with consistently funny lines, great gags, on point cameos, slick animation and colours and a genuinely good time as a whole. With this and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World it seems animated films are the big genre to look out for this year. Now, I only have one question left: honey, wheeeeere are my pants??

Overall score: 7/10

[alyssamayo]

A rant that concerns the book and some things I’ve been thinking about

I guess this is mainly for anyone who has ever wondered about whatever happened to that book series I was writing about.

This is sort of a book problem going through my head that I’ve been trying to avoid thinking about for a while now. But like now that I’m actually talking about my book with people on here, it has sort of come up in my thoughts.

It kind of explains some things that I feel awkward about. Stuff like making friends and well actually a debate about keeping some characters in the book.

I guess, please sit back and relax as I start at the very beginning. And probably grab a snack and drink cause this ended up getting very long and real. Feel free to read or not read. Sorry if some parts don’t make since, I’ve try hard, but some stuff might’ve slipped through or get interpreted differently than how I intended.

The process of writing my book has been affected by the things I’ve gone through and how I’ve handle them. I always felt that if I was going to include myself in my book, then it would be all of me and that includes things that have happened to me.

I started writing my book a while ago, I think it was the summer after I was in 5th grade. And when I did I asked some people if they wanted to be in the book. Including my friends in the book was fun and it really helped with my writing starting out. I thought it was really cool to be in a book with my friends. It was nice to talk about and they seemed to get a kick out of it.

Unfortunately, I ended up taking a break from writing the actual book after the second half of my 8th grade year. Things just seemed to implode on me all at once that second half. 

According to my Nana, who is a retired middle school teacher, kids tended to have either a great 7th grade year or a great 8th grade year. I ended up with a great second half of 7th and first half of 8th.

The only thing that hadn’t been great during that time period, was how I felt when one of my friends ended up moving away that summer. We ended up talking less and less as that year went on, until we stopped talking after May. The thing is that, so far, she’s the only one I’ve actually took out of the book all together, which relates back to the debate I’ve been having.

Anyway, the whole experience of feeling like that friendship was slipping away ended up causing me to worry about some of my other friendships, especially the ones that I cherished the most and what I had thought of as close. I thought that if I didn’t do anything to find some way to be able to talk to them frequently, then the same thing might happen to those friendships as well.

I ended up finding reassurance about all my other friendships, except for one, who was another friend I included in the book. Ironically, said friend was probably one that I shouldn’t have worried over because she’s one of the ones I still manage to see the most. Yet this friendship was the one that really suffered the most from all my panic. 

Even now, I still really hate the fact that if I hadn’t gotten so worked up over this, then the whole mess that resulted from trying to fix problems in that friendship wouldn’t have happened and all of this would’ve been part of a nightmare that I could’ve woken up from. Instead, I still feel like I’m still in that nightmare. 

The whole mess that resulted from me trying to fix problems that might not even had been there, was hands down, the most cringiest series of events, that I unfortunately still remember and probably one of my go to thoughts on stupidest things I’ve ever done in middle school.

What really didn’t help that mess, was how left out I felt in that class. It was so bad that I thought that I was close with that friend. At that time, I thought we were already pretty close and I guess just getting closer. I wish I would’ve seen it as her just starting to feel more comfortable around me. But for me that was close. 

Especially when she started joking around with me, like that was something that really no one outside my family would do. I was so unused to that I found myself getting caught off guard, so much so that towards the end of that she stopped. I wish I had been use to that so that I would’ve known how to react and make sure to actually show my appreciation. Yeah, I did ask her to stop, but that was just because the people around us were making me uncomfortable, it really wasn’t about her.

I had felt really held at arms length in the class, except with some people. So while she might have hinted that things were wrong, I didn’t really catch on the way she probably meant for me to. And yeah, I still feel like an idiot due to not catching said hints. But at the same time, I don’t blame myself for not catching them when it just felt like she was just treating me like how everyone else seemed to. I really was shocked when my mom told about me about it at the end of March.

And after that all happened, I ended up taking a break from writing in my book. I still wrote down stuff on my phone whenever I thought of something, but during that aftermath, I could barely open that book.

It took a long time for me to even decided to start typing the book into a word document. I eventually started doing that cause I rather not lose everything from the book if something bad happened to what I had written down on paper. Same with the stuff I saved in notes on my phone.

I still haven’t typed it all into a word document, mostly because of me either procrastinating about it or not having enough time to do so, but sometimes it still get hard opening that book up.

Things have gotten better between us. She actually suggested that we could be friends a year after the fact when I was just trying to get closure. I don’t really remember the school year that came after that at all. When junior year hit me, I had so much stress going on that I ended up not talking that much to my friends and not wanting to play basketball my senior year.

I think I was so stressed out my junior year, I think that it was what had triggered my iron deficiency. But, at the same time, I really don’t know how long that has been going on or when it really started. The fact that feeling tired or having a lack of energy is a symptom of an iron deficiency is what makes me pause. Cause honestly, I can’t remember a time when I actually felt this good overall. Like some days when I get enough sleep, I actually feel energetic and happy. And the iron pills I’ve been taking only started kicking in towards the end of April this year. Since the last time my iron levels were checked, they’re still not technically considered that up to par. 

Also, notice how I said iron levels? Apparently if you have a high red blood cell count, you’re not anemic. Unfortunately for me, my red blood cell count kept getting tested instead of my iron levels, so it took longer to figure this out (my mom had to actually ask the doctor to test my iron levels). All in all, the whole thing with that kind of makes me wonder what would’ve been different if my iron deficiency was found sooner.

I wish I wasn’t so bad at friendships, in general. I know there’s some things that aren’t my fault and I had no control over, but that doesn’t make things any easier. I ended up losing the remainder of my friends in my senior year. All except one.

Not much really happened as far as friendships in my first year in college. But now that I transferred and I’m talking to people (especially since I’m feeling better), I’m kind of a little scared to call some of the people I’ve met this year as friends cause of how often I’ve messed that sort of thing up.

I wish I didn’t give certain people what was technically a second chance. Some of the friends I lost senior year weren’t that great in middle school. The other thing that went on before and during middle school that didn’t have anything to do with the friend I lost in 8th grade. This is just the things I’ve noticed, I haven’t included the things my sister and my mom noticed cause I don’t remember what they told me.

I had two friends who were later inducted into what became a really large clique. When they all were together, I felt so left out and not really cared for, so I never enjoyed hanging out with them when they are all together.

I ended up feeling really pushed to the side when new people started entering the picture. It was the last person got added that really solidified the whole me feeling left out thing and them only seeing each other whenever they are together.

Their lunch table ended up becoming so crowded, it felt a little suffocating to me. They also didn’t ever talk about things I would enjoy, so there weren’t that many perks to sit with them. So, once I hit middle school, I was done with wanting to sit with them, so I started sitting with the friend I slowly lost during 8th grade and stopped talking to in May and the friend I lost in 8th grade.

I got invited to get ready with them for the dances when it was at my still current friend’s house. There were times when I would just get ready at my own house.

There was this party at one of two that I enjoyed handing around with originally’s house. I ended up being super left out and started texting one of the people who weren’t there. I ended up getting really freaked out during that party because I accidentally almost ate a almond hershey’s candy bar. I quickly spat it out and wiped my mouth with a napkin once I realized. Thankfully, it’s just cashew’s that I’m allergic to, so I didn’t end up with an allergic reaction, but it still really freaked me out.

On Valentines day in 8th grade, I took too long passing out candy cause I just had to write everyone’s name on the cards/candy I ended up not really having anywhere to sit. I don’t think that I ended up sitting with them or something else also made me feel left out cause I ended up feeling really sad that day. I ended up talking to my mom about it.  

There was a special dodge ball tournament in 8th grade for us. But only eight people were allowed per team, so I ended up on the helping team that the teachers made up.

On the last day of 8th grade, they locked themselves in a bathroom together and cried. They threw a shoe at my little sister and her friend (whose older sister was in there) when they were sent in to see how long they were going to be. I had to wait on them to be finished so that I could actually bowl at the bowling party. Once they got to the party, one of their moms brought all of them gifts, which they opened in front of me.

Freshman year, I felt included, cause there was an effort for all the girls to sit together. Since a lot of us were from the same middle school, we sat together. I think I had like one class with “my friends” There was only one person from the earlier group.

For my Spanish Final Sophomore year, I decided to work on a project myself because I figured that would’ve been better and less stressful than getting my ideas shot down by my “friends.” I got someone else, who I wasn’t “friends” with to join.

I almost got left on the Science Olympiad Trip in Junior year. I was really tired and dehydrated and really out of it. I ended up walking out some random door and then into a dead end, the crazy thing was that the door was gone when I turned back around and tried to walk back. I’m pretty sure I blacked out or  something. Science nature girl who was part of the middle school clique didn’t notice I was gone and didn’t think to call me.

For the winter dance in senior year, we were meeting for dinner. I was really running late, so I texted one of them what I was planning on ordering, so that at least I wouldn’t be the only one not eating something when I arrived and so I wouldn’t have to stress about that. I was late, but I was one of the first two to get there. They arrived like 30 minutes after the agreed upon time.

For senior prom, my mom thought that it would be a good idea to invite them over to our house since that was a lot closer. They pretty much avoided that question and ended up taken forever to decide what they wanted to do. I later saw a picture on instagram that showed where they ended up meeting up. They didn’t even ask me about it. I also ended up finding out about their group chat that day too.

There was a month I couldn’t find them at lunch cause they all decided to just sit somewhere else one day and I’m not sure they figured that out. I ended up sitting with my little sister and her friends at lunch for the rest of the year (like 2 or 3 months). I only figured out where they were sitting for lunch when it rained and they were talking about a picnic and asked me to bring or make something. I talked my way into bringing a veggie tray.

On the trip to six flags, I hung around them a little bit. It was fine until the only person who didn’t want to ride certain crazy rides left and the rest of them wanted to go on the worst roller-coaster they had. It had multiple loops and huge drops and a warning on the map. I later heard one of the teachers talking about how she passed out multiple times during that ride. I have glasses, if I would’ve passed out, there was a chance that they would’ve fallen off without me knowing. The glasses thing and the whole passing out thing really freaked me out. I ended up waiting a really long time outside the ride until I decided to leave with some other people from my class.

On one of the nights leading up to graduation, there was a reception where each of us were given a poster to for others to sign for us. Only five people from my class signed my poster, one one of them was from that group (her name is Logan). I ended up cutting up that poster so that I didn’t have to see the white space that was there even after my parents and grandparents wrote something.

Honestly, I’m happy that I was able to talk about them without crying because that means it doesn’t bother me as much anymore. It really hurt a lot when it happened and kept happening, but thankfully it doesn’t.  

Ironically, I ended up spending a week on a mission trip with the friend I lost in 8th grade and I felt more included in that week than the entire time I spend with those people. And now, it’s gone full circle.

The fact that my thoughts tend to be this connected is probably what gives me so much trouble with being put on the spot. If I haven’t put that much thought into what’s being asked, then I’m going to have a harder time wording things into a way that would make since or at least feel that way to me.

Anyway, as far as how I’m feeling now towards that friend I lost in 8th grade and the book, I mean from a writing standpoint, it kind of helps keeping her in it, but then I feel really stupid cause like we’re not friends and haven’t been for a while.

I don’t have the same resentment towards her that I still have towards them. I would say that maybe that’s because a lot of time has past. But that’s never something I’ve felt towards her, just them.

I just mostly don’t know what to do about her in general and concerning the book.

 Maybe taking her out of the book would be a lot easier if I didn’t write the way that I did. I reread some of the old scenes that I included in when I was trying to type everything up one summer. And a lot of the scenes where my character and her character are just joking around are still my favorite. I even added some more when I was just typing it up because of how strangely easy it is for me to write those types of scenes. I guess maybe that highlights on how much I miss that, just getting to spend time with her. I guess it still feels kind of crazy to me that writing those scenes actually helped with a little with missing her, but it’s nothing like actually getting that opportunity.

And I guess that’s the reason why or at least part of the reason I’m having such a hard time taking her out of the book, even if I feel so weird about it. Honestly, I guess the main thing is that I just don’t know how to feel about it. I mean it’s not like I would even get a chance to talk to her about it, not unless she would actually want to talk to me. So I guess, since she hasn’t ever said anything to me, it’s fully up to be as far as including her in the book. I’m not even done with the first draft and I’m trying to make these types of decisions. I guess not really knowing how she would feel about it bothers me a lot too and is a major part of why I feel so weird about it.

The only time she’s ever really said anything to me recently about the book was like during one of the mission trips we went on. It was just a quick reference, but she still mentioned it.

Stuff with her doesn’t seem that bad anymore, just really awkward, as far as I can tell. I guess, maybe if we actually talked and spent time with each other consistently it wouldn’t be that way. It’s really hard for me to know, since I’ve only ever got my viewpoint on all of this and never hers.

Even if things aren’t that bad with her, I’ve already failed so miserably at trying to talk to her. Like there was one time when we ended up stuck in a hallway together, that she looked so unconformable, I was beginning to get uncomfortable, so I actually resorted to using small talk. I asked her like the first thing that I thought of, I asked her if she thought a fake plant was real and she actually answered and elaborated about what she knew about the plant. It was so cringey, you could probably put what I said it over that one scene in Pride and Prejudice (2005) where Mr. Darcy says “this is a lovely house,” and then leaves and that scene would still have that same amount of awkward energy.

And that hasn’t been the only thing, as far as me being bad at this.

Anyway, like I said, it’s not as bad as it was, but I don’t really know what it would take to make that friendship work. I would have to know what she thought about that and everything thing else that it would involve. And then, with things like college and not really being around each other that much that’s even more at a disadvantage. As far as me having any ideas for finding anything out from her or actually being able to spend time with her, I really got nothing and that really bothers me. And that has honestly never really happened before for something that I’ve taken the time to think about.

So yeah, I’m at the end of ideas when it comes to her and I really don’t know what else I would do. I’ve tried my hardest at trying to find some way to make it work, but I haven't been able to. Thankfully, I know more about my failed attempts and what it took to actually try to get myself to talk to her than she does. I just wish I wasn’t so bad at this sort of thing, but I guess since it was the first time I’ve ever tried becoming friends with someone again, I should probably give myself some slack. I wish I didn’t run out of ideas or time with this.

I guess in a way, I’m sort of asking for help, I don’t know. Or just trying to feel like I’ve been heard in some way and that I’m not crazy for bring bothered by all of this. The thing that is asking for help has never been a strong suit for me, I’m bad at it and feel so awkward trying to ask for it. Though, despite that, I’ve started asking for help more this year for classes. It’s been alright, I’m certainly not use to that for sure.

Some of the reasons I really don’t like asking for help or feel that comfortable with it

I feel more comfortable asking some people for help rather than other people. I don’t like to get lectured about my feelings or about people who might have caused those feelings. I really don’t like trying to explain things to people who just start giving me advice instead of just letting me vent and try to get it all out.

Sometimes it feels like I’m making a bigger deal out of something than needed, even though it might actually be really serious.

It seems like someone else is able to do that just find, so why shouldn’t I?

Sometimes it feels like when I’m asking for help, I feel like maybe there’s a possibility that I’m twisting things and playing the victim. When at the same time something actually is bothering me, so I don’t really know which makes me not want to say anything.

None of this can be immediately called on at a moment’s notice. Which is part of my whole, not liking to be put on the spot thing.

I really don’t like the whole explain myself part of asking for help. Cause I either feel like I’m taking too long to think or like I’m talking too much.

Thankfully, those sort of thoughts are getting better now, which I think is due to the iron pills. That actually was one of other symptoms listed on iron deficiency. 

Anyway, that’s pretty much it, I’ll tag in the reblog.

Over and out

[animaginistgalaxy]

A Way Out [Cyrus x Reader [13RW] Imagine] Part 1

Premise:

You and Cyrus used to be best friends, but as you slipped into an abusive relationship without realizing it at first, you two start to drift apart.

The story sets in at the beginning of Season 2, when you finally decide to get out of your relationship and reconnect with your former best friend after months of silence.

Maybe he can even help you to get out of that toxic cycle?

Warnings: (mentally) abusive/toxic relationships, harsh language (probably adding more but I’m not sure?? We’ll see where things are going!)

[Y/N] = Your Name; [Y/BF/N] = Your boyfriend’s name (I didn’t want to pair you up with an already existing 13RW character for that relationship. Even though I can imagine that some of them might follow this controlling pattern just fine, I didn’t want to give them any non-canon characteristics. Also I’m just plain bad with coming up with fake names. I let you decide if you like it that way or if I should change this to an actual name later on! Just note: it’s a non-existing character!)

- A Way Out [Part 1] -

Letting out an annoyed groan, you slammed your locker door shut. Your phone was buzzing constantly in your bag, signifying that your boyfriend was experiencing a meltdown again. By meltdown, you meant the behaviour that he’d started showing when the two of you were dating for about three months: sending you constant messages whenever you were on your break to check up on you, wanting to know what you’re doing or who you’re with. This would become even worse when the two of you were having a fight. Which, by now, was the constant state your relationship was existing in.

By now you were ignoring him for almost twelve hours straight and he had reached a point of insanity. Since you’d woken up this morning he was constantly sending you messages in regular intervals, the occasional phone call being for diversion, trying to figure out what you were doing. More importantly, though, who could potentially be with you. As if it would be that important, you didn’t have any friends left anyway to spend your free time with.

Frowning, you got out your phone and unlocked it.

54 new messages.

6 missed calls.

You didn’t want to open them because then he would know that you’d read them. But you didn’t want him to know. You wanted him to understand that you weren’t giving in this time and that you couldn’t continue on living in this micorcosm he wanted you to live in.

Contemplating whether you should open the messages or not, phone still in hand (you glanced over some of the messages he’d sent to you

 [10.56 am] ‘[Y/N]!’

[10.55 am] ‘Please answer me.’

[10.54 am] ‘Listen, I’m sorry about the last one.‘

10.53 am] ‘Stop being such a fucking bitch!‘),

 your eyes wandered around, scanning numerous faces, some of them familiar, some of them not. Your eyes came to a halt at two boys walking inside the school. One being lanky with spiky black hair and a leather jacket who was talking to a taller, even lankier guy with curly brown hair. Both proudly wore grey shirts with red fabric paint on it that spelled out ‘Assholes’.

 Cyrus had moved on, he had found himself a replacement for you. A new best friend. And as it seemed, they were having a blast. You couldn’t even blame him, and you weren’t bitter about it, too. It was a natural reaction to your shitty behaviour of the last months. You were the one who’d abandoned him suddenly.

 Looking at Cyrus and Tyler at the end of the hall, you suddenly felt a lump in your throat. Thinking that you abandoned your best friend for a guy that was treating you like shit – it had dawned on you several times that you did something wrong. But because you knew that you’d been the one that had fucked up everything, you never had the courage to go up to Cyrus and explain yourself. You could never bring yourself to tell him that you were a fucking idiot, that it was horrible to leave him standing in the rain like this and that you wanted to make things up to him. That you wanted your best friend back.

 You shook your head, trying to shake off the tears that were dwelling in your eyes and looked down at your phone. You unlocked it and looked at the flood of messages again. Suddenly, sadness turned into anger. 

You hated yourself for being so anxious around him all the time. Before this relationship you’d never been like this. It felt like you’d lost yourself. You hated him for keeping you away from your friends, and most importantly, from your best friend. And you hated yourself even more for the fact that you’d allowed him to keep you from your best friend. But what you hated the most about this entire thing was your fear of breaking it off.

Sometimes you stayed up all night long, staring at the dark ceiling of your room, your mind going in circles, trying to figure out why the hell you were staying with this guy. Going over all the times he didn’t want you to go out or blaming you for being yourself and living your life.

But it was the same conclusion all the time: you hadn’t realized the signs at first. You were too blinded by that first relationship, that first love, that you didn’t understand at first that he was manipulating you into believing that you needed him. He controlled every minute of your life, even when he wasn’t around. A part of you – a part that had grown bigger and bigger the more time had passed – was glad that he was living in another town, attending another high school. You could only imagine how things could be so much worse if he would attend Liberty High as well. But created this fact a better situation in general? Not really.

 He would ask you why you were home later than usual, why you didn’t reply his texts immediately, why you were treating him so horribly by ignoring him - himself ignoring the fact that there sometimes was no chance for you to text him while you were at work at Monet’s or in class. It was always you to blame and you let it happen. Whenever you tried to speak up about him guilt tripping you, he would turn angry at you and guilt trip you even further into this toxic cycle by telling you that “if you weren’t happy with this relationship, you should just break up with him”. And as soon as he’d pushed you to your breaking point, he’d comfort you again. Telling you that everything’s gonna be alright, you just needed to change. You just needed to stop making trouble. Because you loved him, right? You didn’t want him to leave. Right? In fact, he knew very well that you couldn’t bring yourself to actually leave him because he knew your weaknesses all too well.

You saw your own reflection in your dark phone screen. Heavy bags under your eyes signified your lack of sleep that you couldn’t even cover up with all the concealer known to mankind. Eyes, void of any life or happiness, completely different to what they once were. And pale, sick-looking skin, due to that constant exhaustion, that constant controlling, that constant blaming and fighting.

You hated the person you’d turned into. You hated the person he had turned you into.

 You put your phone into your bag after silencing it. You knew that these 54 messages wouldn’t be the only messages you’d receive today but you didn’t want to let that get to you. While silencing your phone and throwing it in your bag, your feet had started moving towards a certain punk boy. It wasn’t a conscious decision you’d made, but it was the only decision that felt right. You gripped your bag a bit tighter while you made your way across the hall.

 When only a few steps separated you and Cyrus, you opened your mouth to greet him like you’d always done in the past. You wanted to say ‘Hi’, you wanted everything to be as it always was, before all the bullshit had happened and, most importantly, you wanted him to forgive you. But no words came out. They were stuck in your throat and you felt like choking.

 ‘What the fuck is wrong with you?’, you asked yourself.

 Before you could do anything, though, before Cyrus could even spot you in the crowd of chatting students, it was Mr Porter who appeared behind the two. “Mr Down?” he called out. Both, Tyler and Cyrus turned around to face the student counsellor, who looked at Tyler specifically, saying “My office” before leaving into the direction of his office. A part of you was feeling lucky about this coincidence, ready to bail out and run away before Cyrus could potentially spot you. Tyler gave a quick look to Cyrus and then followed Mr Porter into his office.

It was this moment, though, that Cyrus turned around again to continue on with his day, when he suddenly saw you standing in front of him.

 You looked at each other and you felt lost in the moment. You should’ve left when you still had the chance! How the hell do you talk to someone you were once so close with after months of mere co-existing? You were hoping for Cyrus to say something, maybe even just ignoring you and walking past you, but he seemed just as bewildered as you in that very moment.

You didn’t really know what to say but you knew that plain staring wouldn’t help anyone, just as you couldn’t again walk away, so, taking a deep breath you finally got some words out:

 “Can- can I talk to you for a moment?” Your voice sounded like it didn’t even belonged to you, but it seemed to snap Cyrus back into reality and his surprised look changed into something different. Hurt. He adjusted the strap of his backpack and seemed to take a deep breath before answering you: “So you talk to me again?” These words cut you like knives. They weren’t even particularly mean, maybe a bit passive-aggressive, but it was the truth, and that’s why they hurt so much.

 You opened your mouth but then closed it again. You felt – and probably looked – like a stranded fish that tried to breathe. “Yeah – seems like I do…” There was a moment of awkward silence between the two of you before Cyrus nodded, a look on his face you couldn’t quite interpret and signifying with a gesture of his hand to follow him out of the school building, towards the parking lot.

_______

A/N: ‘sup everyone! I thought about opening my own imagine blog for a while now and here we go. It’s been a while since I wrote something creatively the last time, so I believe I’m quite rusty, but I hope it’s still somewhat entertaining. I wanted to start my new writing adventure with an imagine of everyone’s favourite punk boy Cyrus as this story was going around in my mind for a while now and finally, I had the courage to write it down! This’ll be a kinda lengthy story (I already wrote like 4 parts down but going back and forth everytime to fix certain stuff) but I hope you guys won’t mind and enjoy this adventure!Ideas and opinions are welcome 24/7 as I wanna grow and expand my writing skill as much as I can!

I really hope it was only semi-enjoyable to read, I’d love to hear from you if you liked it or not, even though it’s hard to judge from this one part alone, haha---

So yeah, wish you all a great weekend still!

[nathanfryerwoods]

Lucky Stars - Blurb and Introduction - Nathan Fryer-Woods

Comically depressing… Lawrie is trapped in an undisclosed location in southeast Asia. It's undisclosed, as Lawrie is a real life boy, still stuck, still in danger. An illegal alien, through no fault of his own, and now a father for the first time. As a mysterious disease ravages the world outside, Lawrie is trapped on the edge of the jungle and civilization, in the most tribal part of the country with the feral in-laws he now calls family. While trying to teach and help his son to grow, he's constantly battling against the bad habits, tribal practices and the deeply embedded superstitions, passed down over the generations. No matter how futile his attempt would seem, all he can do is try… what could possibly go wrong??

www.gogetfunding.com/luckystars        www.paypal.me/whliteraryagent

Introduction.

I hope you like reading…

They say, it's all about the first line. So now that's over and done with, hi, my name's Nathan. Originally from the UK, but now (and I've always said this as a bit of a joke, but these days it has new meaning), happily trapped in south east Asia. My almost 9 month old Son is doing just great. My wife's family are certifiably crazy, which wasn't a problem till we started living with them. Unfortunately, it's rubbing off on me, and I'm stuck here between a rock, and a bit of a pickle. Not the place I intended to be, whilst raising my first and probably only child.

Thanks to the madness currently possessing the world, my options, just like most people's, are thin on the ground. But as a foreigner in this country, with no government bail out like I'd be getting back home, I expect I'm currently somewhere towards the top end of the world's poverty chart… I've chosen not to openly disclose where I am exactly, as publishers in this country need to exercise a very careful caution, and the laws here regarding slander and defamation of character, mixed up with my legal status, could end up making my situation much worse. I'm not trying to cast a negative light on this place, but it might sometimes seem that way, with how I write about it. I love this place, I just hate this situation and feel so helpless.

I realise I may also at times sound very unappreciative. That's because I am... my body doesn't appreciate white rice every meal of every day. And though I'm used to picking things out of my food, when bugs are a part of the recipe, it feels a bit rude. My lungs don't appreciate the smell of burning bottles every night, and I'm sick of moving the big piles of plastic that mount up outside the room where my son sleeps. I'm also not too keen on the kitchen knife under his pillow, this turned up there, not because of my wife's heavy hands waking him up in tears, but the bad dreams caused by the ghosts. And even though we all know the only way to scare a ghost away is with cutlery, I think I'd prefer a bad dream every once in a while, than one time having a kitchen knife lodged in my neck.

All this being said, I have chosen, for many reasons (and very few alternatives), to ride this out as long as possible for the sake of my Son. The book I am writing explains my situation, and by reading it you should be able to fill in the very odd, small gap. But if not, fire me a message and we'll have a chin-wag.

In a nutshell, I was robbed of the money for my renewal of a very important document by a tour operator. Due to my own naivety, and being busy working in a different city, it was almost 3 months before I realised there was a problem. At the time, my wife was pregnant, and the little money I had was to take care of the hospital bill. After taking some bad advice, I scraped together $500 and paid someone who's family are high up in government and the police, to sort the problem out (at the time, the standard practice was to lock people up waiting for someone back home to cough up). Now, I'm down an extra $500, and the document I need to pass through ports is nowhere to be seen. Which is a bit of a worry. I've been here long enough, seen it all before, and by now have learnt that there's nothing much I can do to sort this, without having the cash to pay the overstay. And going to my embassy wouldn't do any good either, they can't help me out of this, not if I don't have the funds.

The area we now live in is very rural, nothing but farmland for miles around. My skill set is absolutely useless out here. I've spent most of my time in this country working in tourism, mainly managing guesthouses, a skill I'm very thankful for being able to pick up. At the time the world began to fall apart, I was project managing the build of an eco-resort. I wasn't making much, but the potential was there. My manager made the right decision at the time, and cut his losses. A few months later my wife gave up and went back to her parents while I kept trying. But when she told me her and her family (that day there were 5 people not including children), were sharing 2 eggs between them, I decided to come back too. I know what these people are like, and can't let my son grow up like them.

When he was born, I was told it would be 6 weeks before we could get out and back to work. It had been 2 months when I was told the in-laws wanted us to go back to work, leaving my child here. Another month later and they finally got the message. There's no way I'm leaving my boy with a man who gives 3 year olds energy drinks at 8am, while the rest of the family spend their time beating and screaming at him as he's got too much energy, or is crashing from the sugar. This poor boy has all black stumps for teeth on the top row, no pants on all day as he rolls around in the dirt people have been pissing in, and takes worming tablets. This boy, does not need energy drinks. Grandma, loves giving the 22 month old, the dregs of her antihistamine medicine. It tastes nice, so it must be good. Ma can't read the back of packets, instructions or warnings. 

Now, the only real option I have is farm work on the family plot. I did this last time we were here when our son was born, usually earning somewhere between $3.75 & 7.50 every 2 days. This time of year, the farm is out of season. Once this years crop is ready, the total worth of the farm's produce will be around $5.00 every 2 days as the 1st month creeps by. This time around, as it looks like I'll be staying for the foreseeable future, I've got to come up with a real plan, I can't put up with this much longer. I used to be vegetarian, and though we're surrounded by farms, I haven't seen a vegetable in 10 days. Now I eat fish heads.. the cheeks, the brains, their faces. I give the eyes to my wife's brothers…I had to draw the line somewhere.

My only way of making a decent wage out here, is to work online. Ideally I'd like to teach English. But most of the day, we're in a black hole for data connection, and with the lack of a certain document, signing up as a teacher isn't possible anyway.

So what's the plan? Well, I guess I'll carry on clutching at straws, keep writing the book, prepare the land for this years harvest and raise the boy. Plenty to keep me busy, but I need way out of this, before my boy grows up like his feral cousins. I feel like I'm living in a George Orwell book, and I don't mean 1984, that's the outside world. We're still stuck on Animal Farm.

I always thought I'd be somewhere in my 50s/60s, when I finally thought about penning my first book. When I had something to write about, and my fingers couldn't handle playing music any longer... As it turns out, I have plenty to write about, and it's spilling out with ease. I've always written, but a novel seemed a little too daunting to even think about. I wouldn't like to guess just how many songs I've written since my first, 25 years ago (which was terrible, and I hate that I still remember it). But the 2 albums trapped in my head are pretty good, at least I recon so. Hopefully they will see the light of day, at some point in the future.

I started the novel on the night of the 21st December 2020, and as of today - 29th Dec, I'm over the 10,000 word marker (though I've been doing a daily, rough edit as I go, I've been advised to try and avoid this, but I wanted the intro to be somewhat polished for upload). I'm hoping to entice some of you in, with the first few chapters. If it's something you're into, super duper. I'm looking for 'donations', to help my family out of this situation, but all donors will receive a copy of the book when finished, and after it's final edit.

A little can go a long way out here, and anything would be much appreciated as I'm raising my little champ. The link to the funding site can be found below, or by clicking here.

If you're not able to spare anything, no worries, but do keep checking back to my blog as (and don't quote me on this), I'll probably be adding to and updating as I go, up to the point of a ghastly cliffhanger, obviously, nerr... Once I've finished writing and editing, anyone who's helped out will be sent a link to download an e-book copy, and if and when I'm lucky enough to have it published in printed form, each will receive a copy of that in time, a few things depending. All will get a mention in both copies on a dedication page as a huge thank you (unless requested otherwise). And I'd like to offer people the chance to leave an inspirational message/joke/clue to where buried treasure may be hidden, or of course, just absolute nonsense, for the outside world to read alongside their dedication. Heck, use it to promote your auntie's dog wash service, see if I care. Could be quite interesting, and sounds like fun to me.

At the rate that I'm writing, I expect to be in the final editing stage by about mid February.

The novel is written as a fiction, but at the same time, is almost completely autobiographical. Names and places have been changed to help protect our safety here, but the story, and its characters are real. I can promise that, as I'm living it.

And just before I get back to work, I must say… I know that sometimes my use of punctuation, Capitals, and commas, may be a little unorthodox,,, but just so you know, I do know most of what I'm doing wrong, I did fairly well in school (not so bad)… but, I knew better… and still think that I might. And besides, I've got some good friends back home with already published work, who are going to help with the final cut… I've not pestered them so much as of yet, and what's down currently, is me with very little coaching, but with a little help from my friends, in the end, it'll brush up alright. Any questions, comments or advice would be more than welcomed, you can find my email address below.

Oh, and no matter how important the first line of a story must be, I just couldn't help myself… A tongue-in-cheek nod to my future self, hopefully showing how far I've come. I'm sorry, you'll get over it.

Thank you for reading, you're welcome to carry on, and I hope you do.

Nathan Fryer-Woods

[The light that shines from within me, bows to the light that shines within you]

www.gogetfunding.com/luckystars

nathanfryerwoods@protonmail.com

NOTE TO POTENTIAL PUBLISHERS

I know for any publisher, having a plot outline is very important and often essential for most first time authors. Although I am a true 'pantser' in life in general and writing this whilst in the thick of it, day by day. I do have my main outline. The middle marathon (with all potential real life disasters averted), being based on one or more of the many fears I have for the future, and twists in the plot coming from actual past events which have happened to me whilst being here. But as I say, this is all providing nothing major happens as I'm writing, and with all that's happened here already, would be an unexpected, and highly unlikely surprise. I have also been writing daily outlines, more detailed and over a smaller time frame, for the following days work. I will happily provide the main plot outline, and an up-to-date manuscript upon request. Nice one.

N-F-W

[kohakuhime]

The Reluctant Guardian, ch. 12

Hey look! The last update of the year and for this particular act, and then we’re into Act 2! You can expect the next update by January 7th, haha~!

Disclaimer: this takes place post canon, and this refers to events that take place in an alternate verse. Michael, Isabel, Mikomi, and Kazuo belong to @mpuzzlegirl, though they don’t appear in this chapter; Edmund Belmont, Brock Turner, and the secretary belong to me; and YGO and its associated characters belong to Kazuki Takahashi.

He was playing a very dangerous game.

He was confident of the hand he had been dealt and of all the pieces and pawns he had in motion. He was secure, had been secure for months as he had started this project. All loose ends were tied up, gone, or controlled and monitored. He had felt prepared.

And yet, with the presence of a ten thousand year old king behind him, he felt the slightest shiver run up his spine. Most men with healthy senses of self-preservation might call it fear—he called it “anticipation”. All of the preparations he had made were about to start paying off. He was about to start the real game by going toe to toe with Dartz. He would be lying if he said he was not excited by the very idea.

“Are you going to dignify me with a response, or would you like me to bother you some other time?” Dartz’s voice was smooth and calm, carrying no edge. Even so, there was a warning hidden in that voice.

This was not some rich egotistical braggart who was posturing, this was not some hired hand or some mindless grunt. This was someone dangerous, someone with real power and real strength—and this was the opponent he had been waiting for.

It was time to see how he fared in this first round of the game.

He turned in his chair to fully face the other man, a smile spreading across his face. “I appreciate you cutting straight to the heart of the matter, Dartz. I never appreciated a man who made small talk.”

                                    +++++++++++++++++++

Dartz did not immediately reply, studying the man before him. The man in the leather office chair appeared to be somewhere in his thirties, if not forties. His short dark hair and beard were well kept, without a hair out of place, and it was stark contrast against his pale skin. His green eyes glittered in the light from his desk.

The man leaned back in his seat, folding his fingers. “I do not believe I’ve had the pleasure of meeting you. I am—“

“—Edmund Belmont, son of the late Peter Belmont and current CEO of Belmont Industries,” Dartz said coolly. “I know of you.”

Belmont did not seem upset at being found out so easily. On the contrary, his smile grew wider and his eyes shone. “That’s an honor,” he said, something of warmth in his voice. “You were always so reclusive and did not let just anyone meet you, let alone see you. I wouldn’t have even known you existed if it had not been for a dinner party you appeared at just once. The fact you know my name speaks volumes.”

“Hardly. It just means I’m not that far removed from current events,” Dartz said. “Now, you are wasting my time.”

“Ah, yes yes, you want to get on with our discussion. You know, I should reschedule this appointment altogether. You’re not even here in person, just projecting from whatever little hideaway you’re in. Still, my father raised me to have manners.” Belmont reached for the intercom and pushed a button. “Would you be a dear and bring me a cup of coffee?”

“Yes, sir.”

Belmont offered a small shrug when Dartz rose an eyebrow. “It is rather late for our meeting and it’s been a long day. Coffee would not be amiss at this point. You don’t mind, do you?”

He did, actually. Projecting from a distance took a considerable deal of effort and magic, and he was on a time limit. Perhaps that was something Belmont knew as well, and if nothing else this was a tactic designed to rattle him or disarm him—it was one Dartz utilized more often than not.

So he stayed silent.

“While I’m waiting, I do wish to ask: the children. Are they all right? They had a rather trying day.” Belmont’s voice was as insincere as the smile he wore.

“They are fine.” No thanks to you. “Any particular reason you wanted their presence?”

Belmont’s smile spread. “I can’t give everything away now, can I?”

“I am surprised that Seto Kaiba has not caught onto you yet,” he remarked idly. “It is exceedingly difficult to pull one over on him, especially here in Domino.”

Belmont waved a hand dismissively. “I’ve gotten by harder challenges in life. Though, ah, Dartz—I would so greatly appreciate it if he does not find out. I would hate for any more children to be made orphans, and trust me when I tell you I would know if he was told.”

It was not a threat, but a statement of fact. Dartz did not outwardly react, but already he started figuring out how he could keep unnecessary parties out of the way. He could not protect everyone, no matter how hard he tried. He was stretched too thin as it was — but he would figure that out later, when he had a chance to think.

Dartz heard the sound of the door opening, followed by the clicking of heels on the tile—

—and then he felt the surge of magic as it entered the room.

Dartz did not immediately flinch, but there was something sharper in his gaze as he watched the woman silently pass him. Even though he was not there in person, the taint created by the Orichalcos was all too palpable through the connection.

“Coffee, sir,” she murmured as she placed a tray on the table. Dartz’s eyes narrowed.

“Thank you, dear,” Belmont said, his tone light. “Why don’t you stay here a moment, hm? We have a guest.”

The woman turned to face Dartz, standing behind Belmont with her hands folded neatly in front of her. Her hair was pulled back off her face and into a simple bun, and like her employer not even one hair was out of place.  Beneath the makeup she was ghostly pale, and in spite of himself Dartz felt something within him twist as her deadened, nearly black eyes met his. He had seen such eyes very rarely, but one of the few times he had was with his beloved queen in the aftermath of her death.

At her throat gleamed an all too familiar stone.

“My secretary,” Belmont said casually. “I can assure you, she will not be a distraction.”

Dartz returned his attention to Belmont. “You have your cup of coffee now.”

“Ah, yes.” Belmont took a sip, stirring in a small spoonful of sugar. “Now we can discuss business. Dartz, do you need to have a seat? It can’t be comfortable standing, even if you’re a magical variant of a hologram.”

Dartz ignored the jab. “I’ll manage.”

“Very well.” Belmont took another sip and then set his mug down. “It’s funny, I’ve imagined this first meeting and felt ready to speak my piece, but oddly enough I can’t seem to come up with the words to start this conversation.”

Dartz did not say anything.

Belmont shrugged and then rose smoothly to his feet. “You know my name, but what do you know of my company?”

“Your father ran it until ten years ago, when dementia set in. He passed away and you took his place as stated in his will, and you turned it from a company primarily focused on oil into a company focused more on technology. In the aftermath of your father’s gradual decline and death, the change saved the company,” Dartz said. “You yourself have a variety of interests, from trophy hunting to collecting fine art, and your interests were a far cry different from your father’s. I’m guessing your pursuits in the arcane is rather recent.”

Belmont clapped his hands, looking delighted. “Very good!  I expected nothing less from the former king of Atlantis!”

Dartz’s frown deepened. For someone he had hardly heard of, this man knew far more about him than Dartz was comfortable with. He would have to determine just where Belmont had gotten so much of his information.

Belmont paused, tilting his head thoughtfully. “Well, good sir, I can see you have questions. Perhaps you’re wondering how I know so much of you, let alone of your Orichalcos.”

Dartz continued to remain silent, but there was something expectant in his expression.

“It started around the incident involving the so-called malfunction with Kaiba Corporation’s Solid Vision technology. I recognized the potential of magic combined with technology, saw its full potential even if my father dismissed it as mindless ramblings. However, I didn’t have much to go on—I knew you were involved, since Paradius had bought out first Industrial Illusions and then Kaiba Corporation.”

“I had believed those to be covert take-overs. I certainly never publicized them,” Dartz said mildly.

“Nothing is covert if you know what you are looking for, dear man. You’re a king, certainly, but I am a businessman and one of the best,” Belmont replied with an airy voice. “Once I had a lead to go on, it was all too easy to figure out who was pulling the strings. Besides,” he added, “during that week where you became the most active, there was a raid where Kaiba Corporation employees tried to transmit certain information to their employer.”

Dartz sucked in a breath. “It was not my men who stopped them, was it?” he asked, his voice light.

“Oh no, yours did! In fact, mine were simply following yours when Seto Kaiba made his move. In all the chaos of that particular night, you never checked to see how much information was accessed—and you never did check on those men who retrieved it.”

So then. That was how Belmont had so much on Dartz’s business dealings and enough knowledge to infer to Atlantis. Now it came down to just how much he knew of the Orichalcos, and of its history. “I find it surprising that you waited so long to enact your plans,” he said aloud.

Belmont sighed, offering a small shrug. “A large part of it was due to not even having access to your Orichalcum reserves. I did not have an idea of where you stored any of your stones when I first began this particular journey.”

“Clearly something changed in that regard,” said Dartz, and he looked pointedly at the secretary as he spoke.

“Ah, I wish I could tell you that part of my story, but alas—we’re not partners yet, and I don’t want to give away everything. Which leads me to the next topic of our discussion, my dear Dartz.”

Belmont fixed him with an even gaze. “How much would you say you know of my intentions?”

“Some would say you plan to utilize the Orichalcos in your technology, elevating it above Kaiba Corporation’s and beating out the other competition. Others would suggest something grander, though I do not intend to give you any ideas with my own thoughts. Me? Knowing you, even as little as I know of you personally, I think this is because you have conquered everything else and you do this out of boredom.”

Belmont’s smile flickered. He recovered in a moment’s pause, raising an eyebrow. “I wonder if you had the same problem, given how long you’ve lived. Yes, Dartz—I’m bored. More so than I care to admit.”

He began to pace. “I have been trophy hunting for years. I’ve bested hunting on land, air, and sea. My art collection, car collections, and my other hobbies have been completed. Corporate wise, I’ve crushed all those who I can—there’s no beating out Kaiba Corporation’s empire. Not yet, at least,” he remarked, his eyes moving to his right hand. Dartz caught sight of a particularly large stone on the man’s ring finger, a familiar hexagram engraved into its surface. “And, as a bonus, I get to be immortal like you. Even after all the powerhouses die off and their family trees grow short, I and my company get to live on.”

“So ruining lives and playing with an ancient power beyond your understanding is merely another hobby to you?” Dartz could not quite keep the disdain from his voice.

“Think of me what you will, Dartz,” Belmont replied, and there was an undercurrent of something dangerous in his voice. “You certainly have no room to criticize me over using the Orichalcos. But I assure you, I’m not going into this blind. I know what I am doing.”

“Do you, now?” Dartz’s voice held ice.

This time Belmont’s smile completely disappeared. “If you have something to say, Dartz, by all means. The floor is yours.”

“How much power does it have left? How are you using it, and over what platform?” Dartz asked immediately. He did not allow Belmont to continue, pushing his questions relentlessly. “How are you containing the souls it gathers? What do you even intend to do with the souls you’ve gathered, since there is no Great Beast to revive? How are you treating those who the Orichalcos rejects, or those it corrupts?

“And what of those you do take from? What of her soul?” he said, his arm sweeping towards the silent secretary. “I would be willing to bet that you cannot even tell me where it went when the Orichalcos claimed it, nor why she is still standing and still conscious in the loosest sense of the term.”

There was a long silence. Neither man spoke, nor did the woman move from her spot behind the desk.

“You cannot answer any of my questions, because you do not know the answers,” Dartz said softly, his voice menacing. “You are attempting to build on what I started without the experience involved. You are doing this for sport,” he added, his voice rich with disgust.

“So what if I’m doing this for sport, or if some woman loses her soul?” Belmont said coldly. “I don’t know her personally, she has no family in the city, and if anything it’s keeping her complacent. I fail to see the issue about one secretary’s soul, if in the grand scheme of things it brings me closer to keeping my interests piqued. When you’re about to release a product there are always setbacks or failed prototypes. It’s no difference here.”

Dartz’s eyes slitted. “A human soul is not something trivial, replaceable, nor  some product that you can play with and warp before trashing it. There is only one soul each human receives, and there are unimaginable consequences to mishandling soul magic.”

“Oh yes, living ten thousand years with magic at my disposal to settle all troubles is such a terrible consequence. Oh no.” Belmont was amused, his voice rich with sarcasm. “If I wanted a lecture, Dartz, I would revive my father.”

“No magic is without price,” Dartz said icily. “It is a fundamental rule of magic, one that you clearly do not understand. I had to pay that price, Belmont, and you will too.”

Belmont waved a hand dismissively but did not say anything further.

“You say you have control of the situation, but I fail to see it,” Dartz said quietly. “You are meddling with something beyond control. It is weaker than it once was, but by no means is it less dangerous. It is sentient, manipulative, and has its own agenda. To me, you are nothing more than a child waving a gun, and it will only come back to destroy everything you have built.”

“Then teach me, Dartz!” Belmont said, his voice sharp. “If you know so much, then teach me! Help me utilize it to its full potential! Stand with me, so we can use it together! Think of what we could accomplish! A hobby always has the potential to turn into something life-changing!”

Dartz did not bat an eye. “No. It should never have been brought back, especially for such an idiotic reason. The time for Orichalcos has passed and it needs to be destroyed. I will not help you, but I will take it from you so that I can dispose of it.”

Belmont’s eyes narrowed for the first time. “Very well then, Dartz. If that’s how you wish to proceed from here, so be it. I will warn you, however, that any time I see you I shall gauge you a threat. Set foot on any of my properties and my men will, ah, eliminate the threat.”

Dartz turned away. “Duly noted. We are done, unless you have any other outstanding comments left. The next time we meet, I will not be nearly so calm and lenient. I will stop you, no matter what I have to do to achieve that goal.”

He had nearly allowed the connection to break when Belmont spoke. “It was a shame about your Swordsmen, Dartz. I had hoped they would offer more of a fight.”

Dartz stilled.

“You hand-trained them, didn’t you? It was why I was interested in them, since they were so close to you. Yet they were taken so easily, and my endeavors proved mostly to be useless. Which does bring up an interesting point: if you could not prevent the fates of your Swordsmen, what makes you think you can stop me?”

The room darkened and a distinct chill settled in the air. The lights flickered wildly, the corners of the papers beginning to turn. The woman’s Orichalcum pendant began to crackle, as did Belmont’s; her eyes lit for the briefest of moments.

“Choose your next words…very carefully.” Dartz’s eyes were golden flints.

Belmont laughed, eyes glittering with malice. “Oh don’t tell me you grew to care for them? I’ve read their files, Dartz, I know what you—“

“You…KNOW…NOTHING.”

His seething voice was a thunderclap, one that caused even the woman to flinch. Shadows pooled around his body, shrouding him until there was nothing but darkness and green crackling lightning. Dartz’s eyes shone with eerie, green light. The windows and computer monitor cracked, and papers flew wildly through the room.

“THEY SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN INVOLVED IN THIS AND YOU SHOULD NOT BRAG ABOUT YOUR HAND IN THEIR DEATHS SO READILY TO ME. YOU TOUCHED WHAT WAS UNDER MY PROTECTION AND YOU WILL PAY FOR IT DEARLY.”

There was a blinding flash, an ear-splitting shriek as all the electronics in the room burst and popped and the lightbulbs shattered. The window panes all cracked, coming dangerously to breaking. Then, all was still.

Belmont did not have to wait for his vision to clear to know Dartz had gone in that outburst. In fact, he was already beginning to laugh even as Turner came back into the room with a panic-stricken expression and his gun drawn.

To think that Dartz could have that much power, even channeling magic through a projection and from such a far distance! And that was without using the Orichalcos for almost twenty years! The potential was so great for his own growth in power, he could hardly stand it.

And best of all, Dartz did not seem to know anything of what Belmont was truly up to. Let that old fool think what he would! In his eyes, Belmont had won this round.

“Oh this will be fun,” he murmured, a smile stretching across his features.

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