#how does THAT affect him and the vigilantism he participates in?

[navree]

also this show (i think it's a tv show, imdb is saying it's a tv show) has the potential to be either very good or very bad purely based on time period because, well, they've made harley asian-american, jim gordon is black, bruce wayne is a jewish man, and depending how far they get into his life, he has a romani son and a daughter of east asian descent, all of which are identities that come with a lot of baggage in the 1940s in a way they don't in honestly any other time period and idk if i entirely trust bruce timm to handle that

[incesthemes]

the theme of sin is strong throughout hook man, and lori is revealed as the conduit through which divine retribution is enacted upon the people she perceives as sinners. sam relates to her feeling of being cursed: jessica died, mary died, both in the same way. it's unknown yet whether sam blames himself for mary's death, but she did die in his nursery.

lori begins to blame herself, which is in the end the truth, because her necklace is channeling the hook man to punish sinners. if lori and sam are meant to be read as parallels, especially since sam has been blaming himself for jessica's death, then this episode can indicate early evidence for sam feeling wrong or bad in some way, for feeling unclean or impure. the connection between these deaths and sin through a christian lens strengthens this notion of impurity. sam has sinned by causing jessica to die.

the source of both sam and lori's guilt are rooted in the supernatural: sam had visions of jessica's death for weeks before it actually happened, and lori is summoning a ghost to enact vigilante justice according to her morals. both of them are passive receptors of these powers, unwanted and terrifying things that they reject and want to ignore or eliminate. both of them have also been raised in an environment where evil is real, and evil deserves to be condemned. for lori, these evils are embodied by human sin; for sam, these evils are literal, physical monsters.

if the monster that caused jessica's death is his visions, is his inaction toward saving her, does that make him evil? is he the very thing he's been raised to kill?

hook man takes place two episodes after bloody mary, which first hints at sam's psychic powers, and two episodes before home, which further expands on those powers. it's right in the middle, a bridge between these two developments all dressed up in language of sin and justice.

both pilot and hook man put sam in the position of the monster, but in different ways: pilot forces sam into an active role, participating directly in the harm around him through his choices, and hook man suggests his harm is more passive, a result of something inside of him or something affecting him. lori isn't aware that her feelings are causing people to die, and when she finally comes to that conclusion she prays for forgiveness. likewise, sam wasn't aware that his visions would come true, and when they finally result in jessica's death he is heavy with guilt. they both come to blame themselves for the deaths of those close to them.

this all suggests that from the beginning, sam is viewing his psychic powers as a sort of evil, one that should possibly result in his own death as justice for the harm he's done (see bloody mary, see playthings) due to that evil being inside of him.

by the time playthings rolls around, how many times has sam thought about his own death? how many times has he grappled with his own mortality? how sure is he that he's become the monster he's supposed to kill?

[batsandbugs]

Bats Bugs and Boomerangs Chapter 1

A/N: Hey everyone, coming at you with another series! This is actually for a late secret santa gift exchange! My recipient was @m3owww​! Her fandoms were Maribat and Avatar the Last Airbender, so I thought: Why not both? She already had a Maribat characters in the show type fic, so I created a fic where they watched the show. It slowly spiraled out of control though, so this is Chapter 1. I’ll eventually have the batfam (and Marinette) react to the whole series, so comment here and on ao3 what you want to see. So Phi, this is kinda like the gift that will keep on giving? Maybe? I hope you like it anyway. Enjoy! 

Our story begins on a frosty winter evening, outside Gotham at Wayne Manor. Marinette sat in the library working on an assignment for her History of Fashion class. She was alone, because Damian, Dick, Tim, and Bruce were out on patrol, with Barbara on comms. Tikki, unless eating or involved with a transformation, spent her time sleeping due to the freezing weather. While the other Kwami either resided in the box or roamed the grounds, and generally stayed out of the human's way.

Marinette gazed out the window, snow falling softly through the air, covering the ground and the tree branches. A crackling fire warmed the room. She shifted, and a painful ache shot through her leg. Marinette glared at the offending appendage, which was the reason she wasn’t out with the team tonight.

Her Miraculous could cure any injury sustained on the battlefield, it didn’t help her one bit when it came to her own natural clumsiness. She hadn’t paid attention as she’d walked out of class one evening. The dim lighting hid a black ice patch and she slipped and fell. Thankfully, her ankle was only sprained and not broken, but she would be out of commission for at least two weeks. Probably more if Alfred got his way.

Speaking of the elderly butler, he strode into the room carrying a tray of tea and cookies.

“Good evening Miss. Marinette. Need another refreshment?”

She sighed at the cold coffee dregs in her mug. “That would be nice, thank you, Alfred.”

He hummed, grabbing a teacup, and pouring her a serving. “How does your leg feel today? I notice you were leaning heavily on Master Damian after supper.” He handed the cup to her and the warmth was a welcome sensation for her chilled hands.

“Yeah, he’s been nice helping me around.” Nice was a misnomer, more like extremely overprotective. He point-blank refused for her to stay at her own apartment, mostly due to its location on the fourth floor with no elevator access. He all but forced her to watch him pack her essentials to bring to the manor while she recovered. Since then, his attentiveness in ensuring she had what she needed within reach and helping her to class had grown. It was a tad smothering considering his usual aloofness, but she enjoyed his actions for the affection it implied.

“It’s throbbing and hot and feels worse than it did three days ago.” She took a tiny sip of the tea and relaxed into its spiced aroma. Alfred made the best tea.  

He nodded. “It will feel uncomfortable for a while until it starts to mend. Just continue to rest and remain off it and you will be back to carousing around the city like the rest of them in no time.” He poured his own tea and seated himself in the plush armchair across from her spot on the couch.

“Oh, Alfred you say that as if you would not be right there along with us if age allowed,” said Marinette with a grin. The stories Dusu could recount about the elderly miraculous holder were nothing short of entertaining, and she knew damn well Alfred had the same need for action as the rest of the Waynes and their assorted allies.  

“I’d do nothing of the sort,” he said primly, taking a sip of his tea to hide the tiny smirk on his face. Marinette couldn’t help but laugh.

The rest of the evening was spent in pleasant silence. Despite the pain in her leg Marinette pushed through it and finished her assignment, while Alfred read until it neared time when patrol ended. He bustled up the remains of the tea and promise her a fresh cup when he finished seeing everyone arrive safely.

Later, although she could not say how long, she was buried deep in a book and didn’t notice when Damian entered the room until he sat next to her on the couch.

“Good evening angel.” His hair flopped in his eyes, loose and damp from the shower. In his hands, he held a tray with two cups of steaming tea.

“Thanks.” She took the proffered cup of tea with a smile. “How was patrol?”

“Boring,” he sighed. “You certainly are not missing anything.” If he wouldn’t have taken offense to it, Marinette would have described the look on his face as a pout.

“What about the drug seller Tim tracked to the lower docks?”

Damian shrugged. “Gone silent after we busted the last shipment. Seventeen years in and maybe the criminals finally figured out committing crimes in the same city as a relentless vigilante team is a bad idea,” he said with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. Marinette couldn’t stop herself from giggling. It was a common joke among the family that Gotham’s criminals never learned.

“I think it means we’re doing our job right,” said Tim walking in with a steaming mug. Marinette opened her mouth, but he cut her off. “Don’t worry, it’s decaf.”

“Like Pennyworth would let him drink anything else this time of night,” scoffed Damian, while taking a sip of his tea.

“I’m perfectly capable of monitoring my own caffeine intake, thanks,” Tim said in offense, seating himself across from the couch in the reading chair previously abandoned by Alfred.

“No, you’re not,” called a voice from the hallway. Dick walked in with a large mug of what was undoubtedly hot chocolate. “The last time he didn’t check your drink after patrol, you used coffee instead of water to brew another pot, and then added four whole bottles of five-hour energy. You didn’t sleep for three days.”

“I also solved five crimes, figured out where the Penguin was hiding, and streamlined the dropbox submission system for Wayne Industries. Life requires tradeoffs.”

“No that’s just you, ignoring basic human necessities. Anyway, besides Tim’s caffeine addiction, what are we talking about?” asked Dick.

“The reason for the lack of crime,” offered Marinette.

Dick shrugged, “Happens every year because of the weather. Even criminals get cold. They’ll return to their usual transgressions once the weather warms.” He took a sip of his hot chocolate.

“Tt. Weak,” muttered Damian.

Tim rolled his eyes. “Not everyone receives extreme weather training under threat of dismemberment, demon brat. We should take the opportunity to enjoy the break.”

“Tim, your version of a “break” involves paperwork,” chided Dick.

“It’s not my fault the rest of you people don’t have lives. I’m a remarkably busy person. And what is this, the-criticize-Tim-hour?”

“Oh, only an hour?” smirked Damian. “I thought it was a continuous event, one could choose to participate in whenever the mood struck. I will have to file all my complaints immediately.”

Tim pouted. “Marinette,” he whined. “Can’t you control him?”

She shrugged, “What do you expect me to do? I’m his girlfriend, not his minder. Besides, they criticize because they care.” She laughed when all three boys snarled their noses at the prospect of feelings.

“Marinette, angel, please; never say that again. I criticize because I am right, and they should know it. Not because of any high-minded ideals such as genuine affection.”

“Okay, okay, enough,” said Dick. “If we have a bit of a break, we should do something! Together, as a family. I think Cass and Steph come back in two days.”

“Grayson, just because your girlfriend is off-world visiting family and you have nothing to do does not mean it holds true for the rest of us.”

“Exactly!” exclaimed Tim, “Except not quite, because I don’t have a girlfriend, but I just said I’m busy. R&D is rolling out a new prototype next week, and I have two board meetings scheduled and-”

“Not to mention,” Marinette cut Tim off. He could talk about his schedule forever because he just had that many events. “I can’t move around, what would we even do? Play games?”

Tim rolled his eyes. “The list of games officially banned in our family includes, but is not limited to; Monopoly, Uno, Checkers, Risk, Risk: Legacy, Twister, Jenga, Clue, Guess Who, Poker, Chess, and Go Fish.”

“Oh…” muttered Marinette.

“And that doesn’t even include videogames.”

“After the Wii Bowling incident of 2013, the media room wall was never the same,” Dick said, shaking his head in despair.

“I actually apologized for that, okay?” exclaimed Damian. “Why do you always have to bring it up?”

Marinette fully intended to ask about the incident later. “Okay, so games are out.”

“Ooh,” Dick’s eyes lit up, “How about we call a Family T.V. Event?”

Tim groaned, “The last time we did that we blew up the shed, and got the police called.”

“Well, we won’t watch a crime show.” Dick turned to Marinette. “Jason picked; we watched Breaking Bad.”

“I can see how that would spiral out of control.”

“The time before that, we set fire to the media room and started a familial feud,” Damian pointed out. “Game of Thrones,” he added when Marinette looked to him for clarification.

“Even worse.”

“Okay, fine, so we don’t have the best track record picking shows. But I swear I have a good one this time.” He paused for dramatic effect. “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”

Tim snorted. “What? Like the kid’s show?”

Damian rolled his eyes. “Really Grayson, a cartoon? I know you are developmentally stuck at five, but not all of us are.”

“I’ve never watched it, but I’ve heard good things about it,” said Marinette. She knew there was a French translation of the show, but she preferred to watch media in its original language. Before moving to America, before dating Damian, her English had not been strong enough to confidently watch a show and understand all of it.

“Perfect!” exclaimed Dick. “I know you three and Cass haven’t seen it, and neither has Bruce or Alfred. I would bet Jason’s seen some of it, but I’ll have to check. Barbara and I have, but that’s fine, she loves the show. We’ll have to see about Steph too, but I’m sure she’ll enjoy it regardless. There are awesome characters, battles, suspense, comedy, and it’s not likely going to inspire us to blow up the shed or tear each other to pieces!”

“I have in no way agreed to this Grayson. Drake back me up.”

Tim paused for a moment, stuck between his need to disagree with Damian and the need to get out of Dick’s crazy plan. Unfortunately for Damian, the former won out. “Actually, you know what, a show could be fun. The episodes are what, thirty minutes? Shorter than Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones.”

Damian groaned while Dick responded happily, ignoring his brother’s distress, “Around twenty minutes actually. We could have the whole show finished in about a week or so.”

Damian turned to her, eyes wide and hopeful. “Marinette, please tell me you are on my side?”

She patted her boyfriend’s arm, “Sorry, mon amour, I’m stuck either way. Might as well watch a show.”

Damian flopped against the couch with a pout. “Betrayed. I have been grievously betrayed by my own brothers and girlfriend. What is this world coming to?”

“Woo!” exclaimed Dick, a wide grin splitting his face. “This is going to be great.”

“This is going to be awful,” moaned Damian.

-0-0-

It took a bit of convincing on the part of Dick to get Bruce and Alfred to agree to the venture. Marinette, after learning the full details of the last two Family T.V. Events, was wholly unsurprised. She also did not know the full extent of what Dick did to get Jason to agree (apparently, he and Bruce were fighting, again, so this was expected.) although it probably involved a bribe. But by the week’s end, the entire family was together, all under strict orders (and puppy-dog eyes from Dick) to be on their best behavior.

Which, without a doubt, not a single one of them knew what that entailed.

The arguing started with seating placement, then about who controlled the remote, then over the distribution of snacks, drinks, blankets, and pillows. At one point Jason pulled a knife, which prompted Damian to pull his knife, suddenly Cass had two shurikens visible (where she even kept them while wearing a tank top and shorts, no one could say), and then everyone was yelling with sharp pointy objects in hand.

Once the argument was firmly under control, Alfred collected the weapons and placed them in a wicker basket, along with all the mobile devices, until the episodes for the night were finished. The only one allowed to have a phone was Barbara who was in charge of checking police scanners for any major trouble while the family took the evening off.

Marinette seated herself curled up against Damian on the edge of the couch. She set her foot propped up on an ottoman so it wouldn’t get jostled, and she could continue to ice it throughout the evening. Damian secured their own bowl of popcorn, so they didn’t have to share it with the others.

“Alright, here’s how we’re breaking this down,” announced Dick, who won the battle for the remote, and therefore the episode schedule. “The episodes are short, at least, much shorter than the last show we watched.” He directed a pointed look at Jason.

“I make no apologies.”

“We’ll watch half a season a day, ten episodes apiece. The closed captions will be on but try to keep the chatter to a minimum.” Marinette held back a laugh. Damian explained no one kept quiet during these nights. Watching the show wasn’t the point of these events; if that were the case then they would just watch it all on their own time. The point was the time spent together. This is why even Bruce, emotionally constipated and single-minded in his pursuits as he was, put away the suit for a few days to watch T.V. with the rest of his collected family. Talking was expected.  

“We will, if you will,” called Stephanie.  

“I take offense to that.”

“Aw just sit Dickie, let’s watch the show,” exclaimed Jason.

“Yes, Grayson you already wrapped us into this pointless venture; we might as well get it over with,” Damian grumbled. Marinette found his hand in the folds of their shared blanket and laced her fingers with his. He squeezed her hand, and, when he was sure no one else was looking gave her a small smile. Marinette smiled back, he pretended to be such a grouch, but deep down he was a giant softy at heart.

Dick frowned, saying “Fine, fine, you don’t have to be spoilsports about it.” And pointed the remote at the T.V. starting the first episode.

-0-0-

It didn’t take ten seconds before the commentary began.

“Four elements?” exclaimed Tim.  “Are you serious? I could name at least a dozen off the top of my head. How are there only four nations? 0/10 completely unrealistic. Political infighting alone-”

“Ah, shut up, replacement.”

“Ruthless fire nation?” said Stephanie. “Methinks a little propaganda might be occurring here.”

“A hundred years!? What, has no one competent been born the entire time?”

Marinette shrugged. “The disadvantages of finite magic systems, Dami. It's learned indifference.”

“Honey, after a hundred years that’s not hoping, that’s naivety,” said Stephanie in response to Katara’s impassioned speech.

“She’s right!” exclaimed Dick.

“We know that, but she doesn’t.”

The show moved on to Katara and Sokka in a boat. Sokka held a spear above the water.

“Is he hunting that fish?” growled Damian.

“Ah yeah, I forgot you may hate the entirety of Sokka’s character,” said Dick with a grimace. “Whoops.”

“She’s not very good at the water moving, is she?” asked Marinette

“Waterbending,” Dick and Barbara said in unison.

Sokka chided Katara about her weird water magic. “Oh, he’s not going to be a dick for the whole show, is he?” asked Steph.

“He gets better.”

“They grew up here right?” asked Damian, as Katara and Sokka become caught in a rapid. “How did they not anticipate an event like this.”

“I knew I should have left you at home. Leave it to a girl to screw things up!”

“HEY!” shouted all the women in the room.

They watched as Katara’s fury built and broke the iceberg behind her.

“Good. Use anger, anger is alright,” Cass commented for the first time.

“Okay, you’ve gone from weird, to freakish.”

“This punk is just asking for a beating isn’t he,” growled Jason.

The beam of energy shot into the air after Katara and Sokka broke open the ice. “That’s not going to cause any trouble,” said Tim, rolling his eyes. “Nope, not suspicious or completely conspicuous at all.”

The scene switches to a metal ship.

“Finally! Uncle, do you realize what this means?”

“Oh, look, the bad guys,” deadpanned Tim. “I was right.”

Jason grabbed a handful of popcorn and shoved it into his mouth “What happened to his fucked-up fa-”

“YOU’LL FIND OUT!”

The scene switched back to Katara and Sokka. The figure is revealed to be a hyperactive little kid.

Damian frowned“Oh, I won’t like him either, will I Grayson?”

Dick tilted his head, “Eh.”

Then Appa is introduced.

“Father, could we-”

“No, Damian.”

They watched the children depart, and the scene moved back to the Fire Nation ship.

“Even if you're right, and the Avatar is alive, you won't find him. Your father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all tried and failed.”

“Well considering the Airbender child has been in an iceberg, it’s not surprising they failed.”

“Because their honor didn't hinge on the Avatar's capture. Mine does. This coward's hundred years in hiding are over.”

“Is it just me or does this angry, emo prince remind anyone of demon spawn?”

“Todd, shut your mouth before I remove your tongue.”  

Marinette leaned in close, “Maybe just a little like you.” Damian looked at her with a betrayed pout.

The scene switched and they watched Aang lie to Katara about the Avatar.

“The air child is guilty. Will cause problems later.”

“Narrative Cass, it’s narrative.”

Damian scoffed. “Miscommunication is plot convenience, and it’s a sloppy one at that.”

They watched Aang’s dream of how he ended up in the iceberg, him waking up to Katara and his introduction to the village.

“Well, no one has seen an Airbender in a hundred years. We thought they were extinct until my granddaughter and grandson found you.”

“Extinct?”

“He went into the ice and woke up to find the world different. Anyone getting serious Captain America vibes here?” said Jason, tone-deaf to the clear horror on Aang's face.

“Jason, he just found out his people potentially went extinct!” chided Marinette. 

“It's not for stabbing! It's for air bending.”

“Please tell me the main character is not a pacifist,” begged Damian.

“Well, he is a monk,” said Barbara with a sorry look.

“I sense he's filled with much wisdom,” Katara says as Aang sticks his tongue to his staff and it freezes.

“I switch back and forth between liking this girl and not. One second she’s got gumption, and the next she’s all starry-eyed and naïve,” grumbled Steph.

“I wonder who that reminds me of,” Damian whispered into Marinette’s ear. She felt her cheeks heat up.

"I'm not naive," she shot back. 

He raised a hand with two fingers close but not touching, "You're a little naive." Marinette huffed, but silently admitted to her boyfriend's point. She had a tendency to believe the best in people; she saw it as a strength and appreciated it in this Katara character, but it was so far from how Damian viewed the world, it honestly confused his siblings when they first started dating. 

Damian confided in her that he found it inspiring. She had been through so much, understood the cruelties of others, and still could see the good in people. 

The scene switched to the Fire Nation ship again, and Iroh explained the concept of firebending to an irate Prince Zuko.

“Finally, a display of actual competence,” exclaimed Damian.

“Enough! I've been drilling this sequence all day. Teach me the next set! I'm more than ready!”

“My tutors would have skewered me if I dared to act in such a manner,” he commented again, softer than the first time. More so that only Marinette could hear. Damian’s family was more than aware of his childhood and what it entailed; Marinette slowly learned with comments like this. She squeezed his hand again and received a small smile.

The scene shifted back to the village where Sokka’s failed “warrior lesson” occurred, and then-

“We don't have time for fun and games with the War going on!”

“What war? What are you talking about?”

“Where have you been, frozen in ice for a hundred years?” joked Dick.

They watched Aang offer to take Katara to the North Pole to find a water bending master. The two children go and play with the penguin creatures, but the tone shifted when an old Fire Nation ship appeared on the screen.

“Bad ship” muttered Cass.

“If you want to be a bender, you have to let go of fear.”

“There are so many things wrong with that statement I don’t even know where to start,” said Tim.

They watch Aang and Katara enter the Fire Nation Ship and wander talking about the war.

“Aang, how long were you in that iceberg?”

“I don't know. A few days, maybe?”

“I think it was more like a hundred years!”

“Are you kidding me?” yelled Jason. “How are they just figuring this out now?”

On-screen Aang stepped on the line of wire, tripping the traps.

“Tt. Amateurs.”

"See, she told him it would be a bad idea!"

A flare rises through the air.

“That’s not going to cause any-”

“Oh, shut up Tim.”

The Fire Prince once again appeared on the screen.

“The last Airbender!”

“I was right,” he mumbled.

The screen faded to the credits, and Dick turned to the group.

“So? What do you think?”

“Slow.”

“Nobody has any sense.”

“Are any of the characters actually likable?”

He frowned. “Okay, okay, so the first episode isn’t the best. I swear it gets better. Back me up here Barb.”

Barbara nodded. “He’s right, it takes a few episodes to build the characters up and we see some genuine action. But by mid-season, I swear you’ll be hooked. And then we’ll get to season two and the best characters will arrive.”

“Hey,” Dick exclaimed, pointing a finger at her. “No spoilers.”

“I thought it was fun,” Marinette offered. “It’s very clearly a kid’s show, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.” She wasn’t going to say each and every person in the room had childhood traumas, and a show full of lighthearted fun was probably just what they needed. She could think it, but she wouldn’t say it.   

“Thank you, Marinette,” said Dick with a smile.

“I rather enjoyed the elderly tea drinker,” intoned Alfred. “He’s more than he appears to be.”

“Uncle Iroh? Yeah, he’s the best!” commented Barbara. "But everyone is great." 

“Alright, episode one finished, nine more to go.”

“Let’s hope it’s more enjoyable than the last,” uttered Damian, a chorus of agreement followed his statement, but when the show started up everyone grew quiet again.

Marinette was sure whatever happened next, it was bound to be interesting.

Tag List (Although it is on ao3 too) 

@m3owww​ @your-resident-chimken-nuggie​  @loveswifi​ @fusser90​@animegirlweeb​​ @ihavehomeworkbutistillhere​​

[helaintoloki]

First Date

pairing: Diego Hargreeves x reader

warnings: extreme amount of fluff, nervous Diego, etc.

notes: this piece is for a writing trade I’m doing with @lovcfools !

summary: the story of your first date with Diego

Diego could hardly remember the last time he’d been this nervous let alone the last time he’d been on a real date. He still could hardly believe the fact that you’d actually accepted his offer to go out for a “bite to eat” as he’d put it, yet here he was at your front doorstep with his best shirt on and a decent bouquet of flowers (a first date must have according to Allison).

Diego’s breath catches in his throat the minute you open the door and by god do you look stunning. He gulps nervously and feels his palms begin to perspire, heart beat picking up rapidly when you flash that award winning smile of yours.

“H-Hi,” he greets, cursing himself for the stutter and hoping he’ll be able to keep it at bay throughout the evening.

“Hi Diego,” you grin. Your eyes notice the bouquet of flowers in his hand and twinkle with excitement. “Are those for me?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I uh, I wasn’t sure what kind you liked so I got a little of everything,” he explains with a nervous laugh as he awkwardly thrusts the bouquet upon you.

“That’s so sweet of you,” you compliment, hugging the flowers close to your chest. “I didn’t really peg you as the flowers type of guy, if I���m being honest.”

“I guess I’m full of surprises,” he jokes, his confidence beginning to return to him now that he’s found his rhythm with you. You always have a way of throwing him off, making him slip up, and it’s not on purpose of course. You’re not even aware of the affect you have on him, but Diego always turns to putty whenever you’re around.

Once you’re ready he offers you his arm and walks you to his car, being sure to open and close your door for you as well. He resented his father for many things, but he had to give Reginald credit for the etiquete lessons they’d all had to participate in as kids. He figures he’ll take you a nearby diner; it’s quiet and simple, just the two of you with no distractions, and you can’t go wrong with fries and a burger for dinner. You listen to an old Kiss song on the way, stealing glances from each other and repeatedly getting caught in the process. But it’s fun and every time he shoots a wink at you you giggle, something that’s music to his ears.

Much like Griddy’s the diner is warm and inviting but pretty empty during the night, but neither of you seem to mind as you sit down and look through your menus. He expects you to order a salad (because that’s what most girls eat on date’s, right) and is pleasantly surprised when you instead order a cheeseburger with extra bacon and cheese fries, which you offer to share with him, of course.

“So what do you do for work?” You ponder curiously while playing with the paper wrapping of your straw.

“Oh, you know,” he shrugs offhandedly, “odd jobs around the city. You?”

“Kindergarten teacher,” you reply with a smile. “I’ve been teaching for five years now.”

“So you must be good with kids then?”

“I think you have to be if you want to be a teacher. Others may not share my sentiment but I want the kids to have a place to feel safe, even if it’s just for a few hours a day. Who knows what they have to deal with outside of school?”

Diego smile faintly at that, his mind wandering as he fiddles with his butter knife. Your kind hearted tenderness reminds him a lot of his mother, and he wishes he could have met you sooner. Your presence definitely would have helped during his childhood years. He wonders what your reaction would be if you actually knew what he did during his “odd jobs,” if you actually knew who he was, what he could do, and what he’d done. A nice little school teacher on the arm of a vigilante was a funny picture in his head, and he could already hear his siblings giving him shit for his choice in women. But you were different than what he was used to, a good different, sweet and normal and sane. It was a change but a good one, and he really hoped this whole thing could work out.

Despite how full you both are from gorging on dinner food, you decide to split a bowl of ice cream. Diego lets you pick the flavor, and though he isn’t particularly fond of your choice he says nothing as you smile and talk about your upcoming trip to visit some family. He pays the bill despite how much you protest but agrees to let you be the one to leave a tip, and though you’re reluctant it’s starting to get late so you have no choice but to start heading back home. He takes the longer route this time so you can have more time together, and you’re delighted when he uses his free hand to hold your own as he drives.

Diego makes you feel safe in a way no one else ever has. He’s warm, he’s strong, he’s very handsome, and despite only having been on one real date with him you know that he’d do anything to protect you. Perhaps it’s too soon to tell, but you feel like you could fall in love with him if you wanted to, and you do.

“Do you go on dates often?” You ask, and though you try to remain neutral your obvious prying tone has Diego quietly chuckling in the driver’s seat.

“Nah. I usually don’t even get this far in.”

“So what was different about tonight?”

“I really like you,” he replies earnestly, and you’re grateful for the fact that his eyes are on the road and not casted upon your blushing cheeks.

When you return home he opens your door for you once again and walks you all the way up to the front steps until you’re face to face, waiting with baited breath to see who will make the next move first.

“So...”

“I had a nice time tonight,” you smile gently.

“Does that mean I can take you out again sometime?” Diego asks with a hopeful glimmer in his eyes.

“I think it would be wrong not,” you reply with a cheeky grin. “Will you call me when you get home so I know you got there safely?”

“I will.”

“Okay. Goodnight Diego.”

“Goodnight y/n.”

Neither of you turns to leave, instead choosing to linger there on your front doorstep. Your eyes dart from his intense gaze down to his lips, and a small breath escapes you as his warm hand comes to gently cup the back of your neck. He’s pulling you in closer, guiding you to meet him halfway until your mouths are meshing together in a sweet kiss. He isn’t abrasive or rough, but his lips do glide across your own skillfully and his tongue darts out for a mere moment to lick at your bottom lip. It’s sweet and it’s romantic and it has you wanting more the minute he pulls away. He smiles at you then, thumb rubbing carefully along your warm skin, and he leans in to give you one more firm kiss.

“I’ll call you,” he promises again.

“You better,” you murmur with a small smile.

Diego slips away from you to get back into his car and already you find yourself missing the warmth and comfort his presence brings you. He gives you a wave as he slips into the front seat and doesn’t drive off until he sees that you’ve made it inside alright and are tucked in safe for the night.

With the windows down and the radio playing some old song he doesn’t remember the name of, Diego realizes he’s found himself in quite the predicament. His head needs to be focused on his work, he can’t afford any distractions, but there seems to be one tiny problem: he’s falling in love with you.

[rosesgonerogue]

I didn’t so much fall in love - It kicked me in the face  Chapter Five

Trigger Warning:  There's implied rape in this chapter, kids. It's never discussed or described explicitly, just beware, and keep yourself mentally safe and healthy.

The Wayne family wouldn’t leave Marinette’s head for a number of reasons. Their evident knowledge of the Lazarus Pit was an issue, and there was the fact that their butler was a previous Miraculous user. Tim also happened to have a bruise in the precise spot where she had kicked Red Robin the other day. Too many questions and coincidences were piling up for any one family, it was alarming. 

But the mere thought of Tim was incredibly distracting. A slight blush stole over her cheeks at the mere thought of him. He wasn’t what she had expected of the C.E.O. of Wayne Enterprises. To be completely honest, she had chosen to consult him last so she had time to get in the zone and not make a complete fool of herself. She had to act like a professional! 

But he’d also been kind, so incredibly kind when he had dealt with Leo, and unlike most people, completely non judgemental of the fact that she seemed too young to have a five-year-old. She felt… she wasn’t sure how she felt. She recognized some of the same emotions her younger self had felt around Adrien, but it was also more mature. She didn’t feel like she was going to trip over her tongue every time she spoke to him.

 Luckily Leo was absorbed in scribbling down one of his many ideas in the car, so she was able to try and puzzle some of this out.

Was she really suspecting Tim Drake of being Red Robin? Some of the mannerisms matched, sure, and there was also a possibility of the rest of Gotham’s vigilantes and the Wayne family being connected. It would explain a lot. She hadn’t seen much of Red Hood in action when he’d found her, and she’d seen absolutely nothing of the others, but from what she knew, it fit. It fit eerily well, even the mystery of the butler somehow felt right.

In the hotel room, Marinette and Leo were soon swarmed by eager kwamis. (Initially Marinette had been staunchly opposed to bringing the entire Miracle Box with her to Gotham, but as it was a longer stay, and a dangerous area, they convinced her that they needed to come as well. Secretly Marinette was convinced that they just wanted a sort of vacation.)

“How was it? What were the Waynes like?” 

“Were they handsome?” 

“Gotham is dangerous, are you okay?” 

“We’re just fine, thank you for worrying,” Marinette said warmly. “Duusu, I have an important question for you. Does the name Alfred Pennyworth mean anything to you?” 

The peacock’s face positively lit up. “Oh, did you meet Alfie? How is he? Where did you meet him?” 

“He’s the Waynes’ butler,” she explained, stretching her arms. “So you did know him?” 

“Oh, we worked together for years! He’s my favorite chick I’ve ever had. I would have happily stayed with him for years, but someone stole the brooch,” Duusu said, wilting a bit. “Nooroo and I were sold from buyer to buyer until Gabriel found us.” 

“Can he be trusted?” 

“Alfred? More than any other human I know.” 

Marinette patted the kwami on the head with one finger. “I’ll get a message to him, if you’d like.” 

“Just make sure that none of the Waynes overhear,” Wayzz warned. 

“They aren’t what they seems,” Trixx agreed sagely. 

“But they’re not bad people,” Leo said suddenly, notebook forgotten. “We can trust them when the time comes.” 

A shiver ran down Marinette’s spine as she looked into the eyes of her son. When Marinette was pregnant with him, she had worried endlessly. All previous holders had given up their Miraculous when they were pregnant, but their children were always faster, smarter, and stronger than average. But Marinette was the guardian, which sometimes made her feel like her body was more magic than human. How would it affect her dear child? 

Leo turned out to be the best child she had ever met. He could be mischievous at times, but he was endlessly kind. He was mature for any age, and Marinette often felt magic thrumming through him, though the kwami assured her that he had to be a bit older before that could manifest. All you had to do to see that he was different was look into Leo’s eyes; her son just saw more than other people. 

“I believe you, mon cher,” Marinette said with a smile. “You’ve never been wrong before.” 

“Monsieur Tim is the best, though,” Leo said gravely.. “He showed me their paintings and trophies and books, and it feels like we were supposed to meet him. He’s important.” 

**************

Tim couldn’t help but dive a little too deep into Marinette’s records. It wasn’t the most extensive report he’d ever done by any means, but the more he found out, the more he wanted to know. 

MDC was a saint. She frequently auctioned off commissions publicly for various charities, all respectable and legitimate, and  a good portion of her income was privately donated as well. But more than being a philanthropist, she also regularly organized community service efforts, none of which she connected to MDC’s brand, and all of which she ended up in the thick of, working harder than any other volunteer. 

One particular finding bothered Tim, however. He’d noticed with mixed feelings that there was no father listed on Leo’s birth certificate. That seemed contrary to Marinette’s character, but he very muchh did not want his suspicions to be proved correct. 

It was buried fairly deep, no part of the proceedings were made public - much to his horror, Marinette had still been a minor at the time of the trial. He didn’t know much of the French legal jargon, and most of the records were confidential enough that he didn’t dare go digging any farther. It wasn’t worth causing another international incident. 

The only concrete things Tim was able to learn were, 1.) at seventeen-years-old, Marinette had testified in court, and 2.) the man had been found guilty, and served a sentence that Tim couldn’t help but find too light. It was far too tempting to dig into the man’s past and completely ruin his life on the off chance that the man was ever released, so Tim forced himself to find a distraction. Remembering Leo’s words, that distraction came in the form of a particular Parisian superhero. 

He’d heard whispers of Ladybug, naturally, but he had mentally categorized her as a public mascot, someone that was of very little consequence or threat. There were hundred of PSAs with Ladybug online, and everyone knew about Ladybug Day, a day where everyone participated in some kind of service of kind deed. 

Tim wasn’t sure what he expected to find, maybe the actress’s name, but as soon as he dug any deeper than surface-level, he found himself tangled in a truly impressive firewall. He couldn’t help but be excited - he hadn’t had a challenge like that for quite some time. If Paris was this secretive about Ladybug, there was clearly more to her than meets the eye. 

The firewall took some skill to get around, but he wouldn’t be stopped. When he finally made it past everything, he leaned forward in his chair, eyes riveted to the screen.

Taglist: 

@ii-fox-demon @queen-in-a-flower-crown @novaloptr @saphiraazure2708 @iamabrownfox @smolplantmum @redhoodedtoad @loysydark @slytheringinger300 @finallyaniguana @brokenwordsarehard2 @abrx2002 @mystery-5-5 @zalladane @moonlightstar64  @marinettepotterandplagg @black-streak @purplesundaze @maribat-is-lifeblood @the-fusionist @river9noble @chocolatecatstheron @darkthunder1589 @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen @dast218 @k-poplunardreams @meanids @changelinggarden @ladybug-182 @pawsitivelymiraculous @zotinha456 @tumbling-down-hills-and-stuff @somebodyspersephone @spider-person95 @zestyzealot

Author’s Note: 

I promised you guys some more Leo time, and I delivered! I love hearing your comments about him in particular - kid characters are tricky, but I've had a lot of fun with Leo, and I've picked bits and pieces of his personality from nieces and nephews that I still miss dearly. Let me know what you guys think!

On a slightly different note, I know that Leo’s dad is a different route than most Maribat authors would take. I understand that it’s a sensitive topic, but this is more of a recovery success story. I don’t want to undermine any of the canon characters, and Leo is more of a child of the kwamis than he is his biological father. We’re going to see more of that later, though. This is only really going to be brought up once more in the story. 

[herpronuonsarefemslash]

Satisfaction Brought it Back - Chapter 1 Teaser

The one where Lena ghosted Kara rather than going villain, Kara went into reporting on human rights abuses in warzones and Lena started a project to take medical information for aliens and their anatomy to help human hospitals.

And then volunteer Subject 99 walks in for a full exam and Lena wonders if she can pretend she's doing anything other than "playing doctor" while learning about Kara's unique body. But her traitor heart just wants to play house. ===== Chapter 1 (publicly available) Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/posts/satisfaction-it-56078508 AO3 - https://archiveofourown.org/works/35215366 Teaser - Alana helps the gray-scaled Jorviunan gentleperson down from the exam table. Five genders on a three-pole gradient, the species file says. Subject 98 uses he/him according to the survey. But it's not right. She's gotten enough peripheral glances of herself in a ballroom's mirror, gritting her teeth and using the identity of least resistance when one of Lillian's friends slides a hand around her back. Lena's been in both the human medicine and xenobiology games long enough to know when a word tastes bad in someone's mouth. Or fangs. Or pincers.

Or feelers. Or bioelectrically charged water-filtering membranes.

She makes a note to offer 98 an even larger sum for surface-level interviews about ethnology. What does that culture even look like? How does their art account for that? What did their lush kings of old commission in paintings, as Titian was commissioned in Europe to paint nude goddesses? Two fertilizing genders, two fertilized genders and one dual with enough nooks and crannies and intricacies and if-this-then-not-that to make knocking each other up look like a crossword puzzle. A delicious little cultural tangle.

Subject 98 doesn't look like something that shakes the human idea of the universe to dust. In fact, he looks a bit like a comic book character that should never have escaped the 1970s: golden-tan scales that make him look unusually smooth and uniform in color, a bald head, dark eyes, long, bony fingers, not-quite-hair cropped close around his mouth into a rather hip goatee for someone who's been on the planet eighty three years. This planet, that is. He's probably seen those stereotypes too and he's not going to go around with a racist caricature's mustache.

"Next subject?" Lena asks, looking up at Alana who is tapping some commands to the repurposed attack drone of Lex's they use to burn any biohazards off the equipment. ===== Humans in the control group are being studied by an alien-owned company out of Canada.

Alien volunteers are offered frankly obscene sums for their participation. Lex's cash reserves were larger than anyone realized and untraceable accounts in lax jurisdictions meant it was easily stolen and repurposed for Lena's needs.

What Lena didn't think of was all aliens welcome to apply included any alien on Earth willing to declare as such.

Including Kara.

"Fuck...me."

Lena sets the iPad down with fingers that feel more like Twizzlers than useful appendages. She'd been trying to keep her mind off Kara once she discovered that the blonde was A) lying about her identity and B) stupidly in love with her, according to three different members of the only species capable of reading Kryptonian minds. Trust issues and providing unconditional affection: A Luthor's worst nightmare. She did the only mature thing and ghosted Kara without explanation.

So now she's staring at one Ktharra "Kara" Sali-Zehr In-Tev Zor-El's volunteer file. Actually, Lady Kara so-on so-on Zor-El, of the House of El and heir to the House of In-Ze, as the government of the Kryptonian survivors on Argo is all too keen to remind the US State Department. The local mafia seems generally puzzled how to proceed when they're facing off with a vigilante with diplomatic immunity.

One line in particular flashes inside her brain like flickering neon: Full examination offered. Three hours ago, the idea of having the authority to ask the Kryptonian to remove her clothes and lie down would have been much more straightforward. It would have involved a bottle or two for Dutch courage and Kara wanting Lena to try being in charge.

=====

"Uh, hi."

Rude, is all Lena can think of at first.

Kara seems to have taken being ghosted in stride because she spent the last six months getting somehow even hotter than she already was, which probably violates some United Nations Convention on placing dangerous pressure on the human body or something.

Her hair is the same length, but it's tied in a hasty ponytail that's tied off with a scrunchy made of honest-to-god paracord the same crimson as her cape. She's let the curl come back in–how did she straighten it, anyway?–so it doesn't look like Supergirl's sheets of gold more suited for a damsel in diaphanous silk than the halo of an avenging angel. What it evokes is a stallion's mane, glossy in the harsh light and waving as the beast moves.

The dresses that never suited her are gone, and the button ups are back but now they're a thick flannel or something worn half-unbuttoned over a burgundy tee shirt that clings tight and reveals the corners of the suit's breastplate underneath. She could trace the glyph through it, which means if Lena could only get her out of the damn suit, it would revea–FOCUS, she reminds herself–and rather than CatCo-required chinos Kara is in black denim that hangs loose at rest but molds to her muscles when she walks over to put her coat across the ‘patient clothing' rack. Each flex and tense tells Lena way too much about how powerful her thighs are and also not nearly enough about what it would feel to have the–FOCUS, Lena–and Jesus take the wheel Kara's even wearing combat boots covered in a fresh coat of pale dust that could just as easily be from a hiking trail north of town or a warzone in Somalia.

=====

"I..."

Lena gulps, eyes glued to the expanse of golden skin sprawled in front of her. Something watery and clean bathes her senses of taste and smell, like she'd opened her mouth in the middle of a thunderstorm of peach-flavored rain. The only thing she can feel is her hands shaking and the only thing she can hear is the jittering scratch of her pen ripping up her notebook.

"I am going to use a tape recorder for this, I think. Subject 99. Twenty seven Earth years old, healthy, identifies as..."

"Genetically nonbinary, psychologically female, sexually omni-attracted."

Genetically nonbinary?

Kara sighs.

"In human terms, let's say pansexual demiromantic."

Demiromantic. Smiles and soft chuckles over a few lunches. A gentle touch high on the shoulder the first time Kara Danvers went as her plus one. Three layers of chaste blanket burrito on their first movie night. Fast forward a year and thrice-weekly lunches and at least one night of Kara sleeping over. Breath fluttering her hair and Kara's hands sneaking under her shirt to clasp hers to keep them warm and Lena waking up in her bed, hungover from caramel popcorn and out of her mind from being cared for with no accompanying demands.

When they thought they'd lost each other in Kasnia, Kara held her so tight it was like she wanted to pull Lena into her skin for safekeeping.

Demiromantic explains a lot. And I treated her in the worst possible way. Never getting laid.

=====

Kara slides out of her clothes the same way she talks about hope and truth and justice, without either guile or pride.

"Less nervous, she says..."

"Nudity wasn't a big thing on Krypton. Mostly. A post sex culture. Officially."

Post sex, says the woman who's a walking root for queer girls.

Back in med school, Lena learned that there were four pairs of muscles on the human abdomen between breastbone and pelvis but she's never seen a woman with a body so toned Lena could catch her fingernail in the crenellations between all eight. Or she could make Kara lie back, decorate those little valleys with raspberries and use her as a fruit tray. Again, the visual similarities are striking. Looking at Kara from head to toe, she sees nothing that would separate her in any clear way from a human woman...if the woman was an internationally famous fitness model whose full-time job was working out, having a tan, and hair care.

=====

Obedient as a lamb, Kara stands up and lets Lena paw at her and take macro photographs at various angles, and run her run her fingers along her ribs and her hipbones and her knees. Unfair, Kara. Lena's always liked her butches aware of the uses of body hair and this little happy trail is too fucking much. Any pretense of medical interest gone, she traces a starburst of butter-yellow velvet.

=====

Lena lowers the arm that's around Kara's waist and grabs her ass.

"We should probably get out of this lab, then. L-Corp having a zero tolerance sexual harassment and all."

Kara's smirk reminds Lena that if she's told to, she'd tolerate a lot from Kara.

"Yeah."

[appples]

Oh, Cats (3/10)

pairing: Aizawa x Reader (OC)

genre/warning: 18+

words: 1535

summary: An average girl with a cat quirk starting over in a new city, as typical as usual. Until it’s not. You drop into someone’s life unannounced and not necessarily wanted.

Classes were challenging at first. You had never had any kind of teaching position before, and it felt like you were learning the job on the fly. Not having a set class or homeroom designation, you floated between all the classes. Some more than others, depending on which teachers needed you. It was a new program the school was trying. Instead of giving you designated tasks, they allowed you to move around when required. Grading papers and exams were something you looked forward to in the first few weeks because it usually meant you weren't spending time with students. Most of them were great, a few difficult ones. Then there was a group of three friends in class 2-A and 2-B that you swore could already be working heroes. Although one of them tends to leave their clothes behind. That's not to say the students were terrible, but it was still weird having some people come to you looking for advice, answers, and authority. It didn't feel like very long ago that you were the same age as them.

Hands-on and physical classes tended not to ask for you often unless the teacher was behind on paperwork and had you finish it for them. UA was a school for heroes and heroes to be, but you had never had any sort of training or development of your quick. It made you sometimes wonder why they hired you if the average student was more powerful than you. Every day you tried your best to mask that lingering doubt, but there are some cracks you can't always seal up. Every once in a while, someone notices. Students never come right out and say anything, but you think their trust in you has diminished. On the other hand, some students seemed to look forward to the classes they shared with you. It might have something to do with Aizawa's teaching style compared to yours. However, you took your wins wherever you could get them.

Over time you got to know the students and noticed things particular to each student and how that affected them. The students who were falling behind were the most notable. A few of them had support-oriented quirks and struggled with how they would go out into the pro field, questioning their abilities and work ethic. Whenever they hurt, you hurt. After a particularly rough class with Aizawa, you found a student crying. Approaching them, you let them know that you were their biggest cheerleader, praising them for their successes and how much they have accomplished. They were having difficulty accepting it after hearing negative remarks for the last hour, so you sat with them until they were ready.

"You know, not everyone gets their start right away. A lot of great pros grew into it." You feigned a smile.

"I know, but that's what everyone says to someone who is falling behind." They looked far away at nothing. Your heart sank. There wasn't much you could say to them to try and convincer them otherwise.

"Well, I think you're doing great. Maybe it might help if you don't focus so much on Aizawa's criticism right now. Give yourself a breather to work on improving your skillset. The whole class knows him better than I do, so I can't speak with authority on that, but he does care for all of you. He can just…"

"Be an asshole?" the enquired. You snapped your fingers.

"That's it." It was the first time you had seen the student laugh in a while. Soon they rejoined the class exercise and enthusiastically participated in the activity. From there, the class went smoothly, allowing you to catch up on a few tasks from other teachers.

A shadow suddenly cast over you, blocking the light. Looking up, you saw Aizawa looming over with a rather nasty scowl.

"What are you telling my students to do?"

"Excuse me?" You loudly put your work away.

"I overheard you telling them that I was an asshole and to ignore my feedback." Standing up, you tried to close the gap between you too, but there was well over a half-foot difference in height.

"That is not what I said. I don't recall you standing there while we were speaking."

"So, you did say something."

"You really are kind of an asshole," you absolutely did not mean for that to come out. In an attempt to try and save face, you turned and walked away. What am I even doing? This is making things so much worse. I don't want to deal with this anymore. God, I wish I never ran into him before starting here. Or should I say, rammed into him? No, stop. Think of some kind of plan. Aizawa decided to follow you.

"Hey!" You kept walking. This was not the plan.

"Hey! Stop!" You didn't stop. Aizawa gruffly expressing his annoyance.

"No!" you shouted and kept walking. Without any hesitation, Aizawa released his capture weapon, sending it racing towards you and winding its way around your wrist, bringing you to an abrupt halt. Furious, you turned around and stomped your foot.

"I am finished talking with you now. Please, let me go."

"That's unfortunate because I'm not done yet." You struggled against the bindings to no avail. Aizawa was walking towards you, consumed with anger. "What do you think you're doing showing up and telling my students not to listen to me?"

"I didn't say that!" your frustration bubbling to the surface, "You're not listening to me."

"Then tell me again." The binding was digging into your arm, but he was not letting up for a minute. Standing uncomfortable close and looming over you, he stared you down.

"Some of the students… aren't as talented as the others. They're terrified that you're going to expel them, and their basic performance is starting to suffer. After class, sometimes a few of them come to talk to me because they're afraid of you and don't know how to reach their potential. They need someone to cheer them on once in a while. You can't just shout at them and threaten to expel them every week, expecting all your students to respond positively to that. At the end of the day, when they go home, they're still just kids."

"That doesn't mean anything. If students can't handle what I am teaching them, there is no way they will ever become a pro hero, and they should leave now."

"But not everyone works like that. Just because someone needs to be told 'good job' or 'I believe in you' in high school doesn't mean they will never grow and learn."

"Students at UA need to be ready now. They need to be prepared for the worst-case scenario at all times. Only they can rely on themselves. The consequences of not making sure they perform at this level are dire and irreversible. I'm sorry, I don't know how you would understand." Shock coursed through your body; you balled your hands into fists. "You're not a pro, and you don't understand what it takes to get there."

"Fine, maybe I don't, but these kids want to push themselves and succeed so badly. They know they can do it. It's just sometimes …sometimes I just want to help too, and that's my problem." Aizawa nodded and released the binding.

"In your own way, you do help. But please, don't get in the way of my teaching again." Your face burned with embarrassment as Aizawa looked down at you with that disappointed dad stare he's perfected. "It's not logical to tell the students opposing sets of information. In the end, it can become confusing and have detrimental consequences."

"I want to help more, in any way I can," you genuinely meant it. The students had quickly become a part of your extended family.

"Hmmm, I might have an idea. Both 3-A and 3-B have excelled in combat and rescue simulations, but they haven't had much practice taking down vigilantes or above-average criminals. You have enough skill to defend yourself but are just shy of dealing with attack damage. Maybe we can use you in a demonstration, and you can work with the students in groups. Something they haven't had much practice in is holding back enough so as not to injure the person of interest but to use enough force to take them down with no risk of escape." He ran his hand through his hair as he spoke. You could almost remember what it felt like when that was your hand.

"Okay, how about this. I will set up a series of drills over a week or two. You will be running the demo and taking each team aside and run through the drills and demo until you are captured and brought to me," You nodded in appreciation.

"Thank you, I do just want what's best for them."

"Don't ever undermine me in front of my class again." With that, he walked off, leaving you to realize what you just signed up to do. Oh fuck. When was the last time I exercised, high school? Your body felt incredibly soft, realizing that high school was almost ten years ago.

[toflyandfall]

YAY :D! OK, I wanted to please ask what your thoughts were on Dick and Shawn's relationship. Did you feel it was in character? Did you feel it made sense? Did you want them to last or did you feel it came out of left field and didn't make any sense? How did you feel about the pregnancy scare and how they broke up ("I know what I said/did was shitty but we can fix this. We can make this work!") - does it sound like Dick? I'm also happy ur still here. I'm so used to asking you & Shelly so thank u!

I'll be honest with you, anon--DC burnt me hard with the Spyral travesty and then putting Tom King on Batman and keeping Seeley on Nightwing, so I don't keep up with current DC comics.  I don’t enjoy them and nearly without exception I don’t find them to be written well or in character. However, you're very sweet and I want to help fill the meta void in your life, so I read through Dick and Shawn's arc together and here's my analysis.

 I’m dividing this into two parts.  The first half will be as objective as possible and analyze your questions on whether Dick seems in character, what he says during the break up, etc.  It’s roughly chronological, starting when we first meet Shawn and continuing through to the break up itself.

The second half I’ll put under a readmore, as it’ll answer your questions about my more subjective opinions about the arc.

 Let’s start by looking at Dick’s previous and most happy relationships to see what good indicators for an in-character relationship would be.

  Getting physically involved with someone -before- having a secure emotional connection with them is not in character for him.  All of Dick's major relationships have been preceded by extended periods of mutual flirtation and bonding before physical overtures.  His most significant and longest lasting romantic connections began by building emotional and romantic attachment before sexual intimacy, frequently paired with a shared history together that precedes even the flirtation.  

There’s significant canon evidence that he’s demi sexual: a comprehensive, though hardly exhaustive, collection of it can be found here and here (the latter half of the second link relates to the Grayson series specifically, but overall it offers a nice long view on his relationship history since character creation and also addresses beyond-canon factors at DC that impacted some relevant canon writings.)  Whether you use the label demi for him or not, it’s canon that he’s not comfortable jumping into bed without a secure emotional connection.

 So let’s look at Shawn’s relationship with Dick through the lens of relationships in which he was the happiest and most comfortable.  Those relationships have these things in common:  

He has a stable, safe emotional connection to the individual.

He is willing and comfortable engaging in banter and flirtation.  

Relationship is based on mutual respect and affection, often paired with shared history together.

Now, let’s look at Shawn’s relationship.

Their ‘history’ together (as Defacer and Robin) is antagonistic, and their interaction in the past leave Dick feeling uneasy. Sure, he seems to think about her situation, but as this panel reads, the kindest that can be said of any emotional connection there seems to be here is one-sided pity.

Nightwing #10 (Nightwing: Back to Bludhaven)

Once they meet again, she’s his boss.  Even or perhaps especially in the world of #MeToo, it’s important to address workplace relationships, particularly boss/employee scenarios, with care and sensitivity.  Seeley sidesteps this by just…having her later quit the non-profit she founded and giving Dick her position for a while.  However, even if she’d just worked in HR at an equal level with him when they met instead of being his boss, let’s look at the amount of participation he shows in their first meeting:

Nightwing #10 (Nightwing: Back to Bludhaven)

There is a lot of her talking and almost none of him.  He’s not engaged in their interaction here.  Where he tries later as Nightwing to engage more personally, he’s immediately shut down.  The most dialogue we hear from him is in his own head—in their first meeting, the ratio of her dialogue to his is literally 22 sentences to 9.  Of those 9 sentences, one is a lie he gives to avoid establishing an emotional connection with her, another she interrupts, and three of which were less than five words long: “Sorry.” “You can call me Dick” and “Thanks, Ms Chang”.  Even taking the workplace environment into account as best we can, this is not meeting any of the three criteria for Dick to be feeling emotionally attachment or attraction.  No one would look at those 9 almost-sentences and that flashback and say, “Ah yes, this man is deeply infatuated with her.”  

This is made even more jarring by the fact that the internal narration frequently doesn’t match the actual scenes we’ve witnessed.   

Nightwing #11 (Nightwing: Back to Bludhaven)

Nothing about the few sentences Dick has managed to finish around Shawn when this narration comes up has said ‘attraction’, physical or otherwise, but the dialogue here reads like Dick was laying the flirtations on thick every time he saw her.  Same with when they talk about the flashback scene later.  There’s a lot of cognitive disconnect between what Seeley wants to tell us happened and what we actually see and hear and have evidence of between the characters.

If you’re wondering why I’m examining these initial interactions with particular depth, it is because frankly, these are the most interactions the two have together for roughly the first five issues of their ‘getting to know each other’ phase...and when they reunite at the end of those issues, we are supposed to believe they are already heavily, life-changingly in love.  So, for all intents and purposes, this scattered handful of conversations is all we have to analyze to examine whether this fits the qualifications for whether Dick would feel comfortable and emotionally attached enough to approach a physical relationship.

We have three chances in their various guises for Dick and Shawn to meet and start developing that all-important rapport.  This is our first initiation to their relationship and it certainly doesn’t read as a positive one.  The next one, she yells at him and kicks him out—again, a whole page of her dialogue to a fragmented sentence of his.  The third one, the flashback panel posted above, they don’t even speak to each other. Two of them are actively red-flags of being unable to establish a closer connection with that person; the third is a neutral connection.  This is not the kind of two-way interaction we see where he’s comfortable and interested in someone, and this is not an emotionally secure connection.  

Shawn disappears for three issues or so, during which they have, obviously, no interactions.

The very next after that, by the end of it, she lunges into him to kiss him.  

The next issue after that, they’re evidently in honeymoon heaven and already shacking up.  

Trust me, we’ll be going over that under the readmore later.

Back in the area of the objective, if you ever need to know the number of days Tim Seeley thinks is needed for two people with self-admitted enormous trust issues to form the ideal Hollywood manic pixie dream girl relationship, we were given a careful timeline.  

68 days—first date

Nightwing #15 (Nightwing: Back to Bludhaven)

62 days—first intercourse.

Nightwing #15 (Nightwing: Back to Bludhaven)

Six days.  Not even a week.

They’ve met each other, then met each other’s parents and are living together and are one baby scare away from the suburbs in less time than it takes for someone to finish a semester at college.  It took literally longer for the issues of Nightwing where Shawn was an absent character in her own arc to get published in our real lives than it did for their on-panel romance to go from not even knowing each other to Nightwing (not Dick, but Nightwing) kissing Shawn (not Defacer, but Shawn) upside down in the middle of the city.

Trust issues, amirite?

Nightwing #15 (Nightwing: Back to Bludhaven)

Meanwhile during that mostly off-panel ‘dating’ period we have these wildly out of character moments. In particular, there are two noteworthy things.

Shawn says she never would have pinned Dick for being a traditionalist.  

That directly contradicts…well…most of the statements people close to him have made of his dating views, and also his own self-stated views of them, whose top tracks include things like “…this might sound unhip, but I feel strange about living with someone I’m not married to”, “I gotta be honest, Roy—I couldn’t make love to someone I didn’t really love”, and “Love should be between two people”.  

We have a direct parallel of an in-character Dick moment walking someone home after an early date to use for comparison.  

Nightwing #31  

Things Dick does in this panel: reassures his date there is no pressure for sex and the night will not be ending that way, plan out just about the most traditional date experience, and engage in light-hearted mutual bantering.  

Additional relevant context around this panel: Dick and Clancy have known each other for months and have a friendly, mutually respectful connection.  Dick’s turned down a sizable number of invitations from her because despite living in the same building, the vigilante life made it difficult for him to make and keep plans.  This is their second date because Dick had to bail in the middle of their first.  It took months both in comics-time and in real-time of developing a mutual interest to lead up to that first real date.  And by then, the reader is invested in the status of that relationship, too.

To contrast the then vs now, we also have in that same moment with Shawn Dick, of all people, ignores a phone call without a second thought in favor of trying for a booty call. On the first date.  Let’s take a look at Dick and Clancy’s first date, 9 issues earlier than the one we just saw.

Nightwing #22  

Dick is a chronic workaholic, with all the associated inability to disconnect from his work while in relationships even during date night or intimate moments. It’s perfectly reasonable, considering that with his lifestyle choice, that phone call could be life or death for someone he loves, a stranger, or many, many someones, and it’s put significant strain on his past relationships when dating those not actively in the superhero lifestyle.  Clancy is, again, a great example of this--despite genuine interest on both sides, he blew her off at least half a dozen times because of vigilante emergencies before they even got to their first date.  And then despite their great rapport and a genuine interest in being there, he still ditched her in the middle of it when his phone rang.

What we see in Seeley’s Nightwing #15 not only runs directly contrary to significant chunks of his history and personality, it also tells a deeply upsetting story of a world where exists a horndog Dick Grayson who would risk other people’s lives to get laid with a chick he’s known less than a week.

They handle vigilante interruptions more in character in later issues once the relationship is established, but...yikes. 

Not in character.

We’re going to take a little jump here to move from discussing whether their relationship is in character for Dick to whether their breakup was in character.  

In general, it actually is pretty in character for Dick to panic himself into commitment in a romantic relationship even if he’s not really sure about it.  Dick is very interesting that way: he runs away from platonic relationships under tension, either by throwing himself into casework or by literally setting up in a new location.  If his romantic relationship is undergoing trauma, however, he's very capable of reacting the opposite, like in this example with Kory.

Team Titans #2

There’s even an awkward Devin Grayson incident where he thinks a woman is serial-murdering her husbands, fake-marries her to solve the case, uncovers the real killer who wasn’t her, and feels bad enough afterward that he offers to date her for real. (An interesting side-note: this makes Devin Grayson responsible for not one but two of Dick’s emotionally compromised almost-marriages. This one, at least, came before she jumped the shark with the dreaded Catalina Flores arc.)

Nightwing Annual #1

So let’s take a look at where Shawn’s exact circumstance falls in against those.

  To me, the lines that sound the most like Dick are actually the lines he says that cause their break-up.  

Nightwing #23 (Nightwing: Back to Bludhaven)

Dick has a lot of darkness and anger in him. He’s a lot like Bruce and he’s a lot scared of how much he’s like Bruce.  We’ve seen several timelines where Dick’s had biological children and we’ve also seen how he tempered Damian’s darkness when Bruce was lost in the timestream.  Though this arc and timeline does not show it well (and that’s a whole different meta), we have the advantage of having known how Dick behaves as a father in a way this particular Dick has never had to experience.  And we know that when kids are in the picture he does work hard at repressing or concealing his anger and darkness to be a good role model, often in a way he isn’t sure he has the capacity to do when there are no children involved.  Despite some of the specific phrasings being iffy, the general sentiments here do feel like legitimate concerns Dick would have.

With this knowledge, that moment felt significantly more honest to Dick Grayson’s character than most of the rest of their relationship.  

Nightwing #25 (Nightwing: Back to Bludhaven)

The actual break-up dialogue itself is…well, it’s not out of character, exactly, because as shown, Dick has been known to clutch onto potential romances hardest when he feels they’re about to slip away. But the delivery of it isn’t in character.  Yes, in general, Dick has a temper and he lashes out. However, he’s clearly aggressive and angry in this panel, where previous experience has showed us he should be at his most emotionally vulnerable and pleading.  Dick, who is a generally emotionally closed-off person despite his extroverted demeanor, reacts to these kind of romance scares by showing emotional vulnerability in ways he frequently is unable to do during the relationship itself.  And the panel that he’s apologizing for as being a crappy thing to have said, is…as mentioned, the panel that comes closest to a consistent Dick Grayson.

And the thing they’re fighting about is that Dick missed a job interview because he was doing Nightwing things.  Shawn fell in love with Dick knowing he was Nightwing (somehow), he’s been Nightwing the whole time they dated, constant interruptions and all, but she breaks up with him because somehow 'the thing I always loved most…you.’ apparently wasn’t one that included the Nightwing schedule.  She also seems to be both blaming him for wanting the baby and also accusing him of not wanting it.  At the risk of getting off-topic and subjective, I’ll be honest and say Shawn’s dialogue here makes no sense to me at all.

Dick’s tried not being Nightwing, in both pre-52 and new-52.  Dick spends a fair amount of pre-52 time either bouncing from job to job or lacking a day job entirely.  In both pre-52 and new-52, the Dick she’s claiming is the one she’s always loved the most…doesn’t exist anywhere I can think of. Certainly not anywhere during their on-panel relationship.

Now that we’ve looked at what we see of Dick and Shawn on-panel, it’s time to talk about the impact this has off-panel.

I happen to have been re-reading a lot of Chuck Dixon’s original Nightwing’s run lately.  And here’s the thing.  Clancy’s been showing up consistently in that run as someone Dick could be attracted to for for oh, about...two full graphic novels now (that’s 17 single-issues) and they haven’t so much as gone on a date, let alone shared a smooch. It takes 20 issues before they make it to the first date we saw from Nightwing #22.  I don’t remember if she’s in every single issue of that period, so I’m going to round down by probably a lot and say that’s a minimum of a year when this was getting published for us as readers to get to know her and how she interacts with Dick, to get interested and invested in a potential relationship.  In comics-time, it’s weeks before Dick actually sees her face, not just hears her voice.  Even if you’re reading post-publication like me, that’s hours and hours where we watch she and Dick bond and banter and develop a mutual interest.

That’s build up.  That’s emotional investment developed over time.

I’m not saying every single relationship has to take more than a year’s worth of issues on-panel to develop.  However, she does summarize one of the single biggest struggles for DC’s cadre of writers over the last few years.  Basically, the problem I have with this beyond just the characterizations is the same that made me stop reading from New 52 onward: DC constantly trying to skip out on the process of creating meaningful emotional build-up or connections but still expecting to cash in on an emotional payoff.  

You can’t go from ‘kissed once’ to ‘been together for years like an old married couple couple vibes’ off-pages like Nightwing #15 tries to do.  Even if you expect the readers to believe the protagonist now feels that connection (which, frankly, I don’t), we don’t have that connection to the relationship.  It’s a cheap paper cutout with no actual emotional content behind it--why should we care if it tears under pressure?  We have no stake in it; we don’t know why the protagonist has a stake in it.  It’s meaningless.  

As a reader, my experience with Shawn and Dick’s relationship is as follows: a) they meet in a scenario where she is his boss (strong do not date vibes) b) they meet as vigilante and paroled ex-villain and she doesn’t even let him finish a sentence (would not date) c) they show a flashback where they don’t even speak to each other (Robin pities her; no ‘date/no date’ vibe data gathered), d) they share a confusingly out of nowhere ‘emotional’ moment that didn’t match up with my prior understanding of either what I extrapolated from the flashback or what I saw in their on-panel interactions (vibe check, please??) then she disappears for several issues into police custody (no ‘date/no date’ vibe data gathered)  The very next time she sees him, she betrays him  (STRONG do not/would not date).  Then all of a sudden at the end of that issue she kisses him.  

My context for their relationship is based on two ‘emotional’ conversations of dubious quality and consistency, one ‘look’ where their dialogue contradicts my own understanding of the on-panel events, a shouting match or two, and a very major betrayal that just happened to work out alright for everybody but is never actually addressed.  Most of her introductory arc where we’d be piecing out how she fits in with Dick and how they interact together, she isn’t even there for.  They’ve known each other for less than a week.  I the reader have known them for, in my case, maybe an hour of read-time. 

And the very next time I see them, I’m supposed to believe, and more importantly, feel emotionally attached to the fact that They Are The Most In Love Couple To Ever Be In Love.  

Trying to put a timeline on intimacy as a gimmick instead of establishing genuine emotional connection never works.  Yes, maybe we knew that one person in high school or know someone in college who falls hard and often and met and married someone within two months, but Dick Grayson has never been that person.  Maybe this style of flashback manic pixie romance would be more believable if they’d tried it on a different character with a different history and personality, but it especially never works on a character like Dick Grayson with a strong history of being slow to decide his feelings and even slower to jump into bed. 

In order to work, the entire arc that follows with the kidnapping by Pyg is predicated on the fact that I, the reader, am supposed to already care about Shawn’s relationship with Dick, and that I, the reader, believe in the validity of Shawn’s relationship with Dick and in Dick’s commitment to it.  But I haven’t been given time or reason to do either of those things by the time that arc starts.  

You cannot shortcut relationships and expect them to be meaningful to the reader.

So they threw in a baby.  Because even if you don’t care about a relationship, everyone cares about babies.

Throwing in a baby to up the emotional stakes is just a further step up that same problematic cheap-shortcuts ladder I was talking about: like in a stereotyped failing marriage, if you feel like you have to add a kid just to put meaning into your relationship again, maybe what you actually need to do is take time and consider what that relationship is built on.

[sensoriella]

CANON DIVERGENCE: CRIME SORCIERE’S PARDON.

disclaimer: please note that this analysis does not necessarily reflect any personal out of character opinions. people who have murdered and committed violent crimes are obviously bad and deserve punishment. whether i think people like that can be redeemed in a realistic setting is a concept i don't even feel like fathoming in a casual roleplay setting. it’s simply incomprehensible to me because well, i don’t know any murders or criminals in real life. and if i did, i would probably pick the sensible answer and say no, or that it would take an immeasurably long time and probably lots of psychiatric council. ( much longer than the span of the fairy tail series ) BUT, i didn’t major in human psychology or criminal justice unfortunately, so i’m going to work with this pardon thing in a fictional sense the best i can.

it’s difficult to understand how exactly the justice system of fiore works. but given the amount of excused ‘crimes’ and disregarded acts that have occurred for other mages ( not in dark guilds ), the crime sorciere pardon isn’t that hard to believe. also please consider the fact that fiorian royalty isn’t exactly clean of non-violent acts themselves. i mean, they have a group of mage executioners than kill people ( maybe brutally, for all the royals know ) on their behalf! 

mind you, crime sorciere is not pardoned easily. per plotting with other crime sorciere muses, these former dark guild wizards participate in a series of ethic / criminal trials to answer for their sins and past crimes. their trials go on for weeks to months. after the alvarez war, they were held under strict probation ( via magic resistant trackers ) and were not allowed to leave the city of crocus during those trials. their pardon does not occur absent of conditions. so be aware that their freedom doesn’t come without a price, and their lives do not necessarily become easy nor more peaceful.

so how did this become possible ? why were ex-criminals and former fugitives allowed to walk free ?

firstly, why would crime sorciere wizards agree to the pre-trial terms at all? why would they all consent to magic trackers and even bother facing the trials ? they could’ve ran again, fled the country even, in the smoke of post-war chaos. yet it’s hard to believe that a guild who took arms against an enemy in support of fiore would abandon their home now. they could’ve just left the country ages ago, before the war got ugly at least. i personally theorize that they want their voices to be heard. they want to be forgiven in the eyes of the public in pursuit of a better future, because they do not enjoy the fugitive life! isn’t it the main purpose of crime sorciere to atone for their sins and find peace within themselves–––to be able to lead lives where they don’t have to feel shunned and hated by the world? one could argue that defeating zeref was the main purpose, but i truly can’t see that being a strong enough reason for them to risk their lives for years in service of fiore, when they can just leave and forget everything–––let the dark wizard be the light guilds’ problem! it’s always been about a bigger picture for them, whether it be survival, redemption, or just simply being able to live with themselves after all their lives hit rock bottom. it’s also possible that many, if not most, of them had no intention of returning to jail if things went sour. they are tired of running nonetheless. 

going into the trial period, they’re smart enough to know that their participation in the war helped the country immensely ( yes, i do believe they helped. even if most of what canon shows us is members being K.O.ed by august. ) every action, every collaboration, and their appearances at the war, some members making a bigger impact than others, made a difference in bringing down the common enemies. members of crime sorciere are smart enough to know that fiore can’t just ignore that.

so let’s go back to the beginning, to remember the extent of their past transgressions. jellal deceived fiorian leaders, abused his council authority, kept a slave operation afloat, murdered, and attempted to destroy many lives–––all under the influence of a higher manipulator. ultear did . . . most of the same, on top of her allegiance with grimoire heart who were involved in the destruction of various villages and mass killings. meredy was associated with grimoire heart, and it’s likely that she too took part in violent crimes. ( whether she personally killed mages or not ) the oracion seis also participated in the destruction of various guilds and mass killings. the oracion seis members, and this is canonly mentioned, killed for money or as a result of completing jobs. were those deaths warranted? does that make things better? not really, but it makes them slightly more manageable than the others, i’m sorry to say, with the proper conditions. the problem with the oracion seis, is they haven’t been freed from prison for very long, so they appear more unpredictable than jellal, meredy, and ultear. whereas, the original crime sorciere members proved that they are able live ‘peacefully’ in fiore for at least seven years. again they didn’t attack innocents only dark guilds, and they exclusively carried out their work in a non-public manner, for their own sake.

now, breaking convicts out of prison is definitely frowned upon. ultear and meredy participated in the prison break of jellal, freeing him well before the end of his sentence time. in regards to the oracion seis ‘prison break’, please note that one wasn’t even a prison break! the oracion seis was set free per official order of a man of the magic council. if anything, he should’ve been penalized for the same crime that ultear and meredy committed. but he wasn’t because justice is twisted in fiore. so these crimes are also hard to overlook, but with enough persuasion and the right ‘connections’, not impossible.

crime sorciere was always meant to be a stealth operation. they were quiet and lived under the radar. they didn’t disturb the innocent public, or interact with anyone else unless it was absolutely necessary. there main targets were always dark wizards and dark guilds, which provided more help than harm through the council’s eyes. meredy and ultear watched the grand magic games from a mountain, because they didn’t want to be within sniffing distance of the rune knights. it’s clear that they probably spent most of their crime sorciere years that way. while in crime sorciere, the oracion seis didn’t commit violent crimes under jellal’s rein. not just because of jellal watching their every move, but because they were smart enough to keep their heads down. given that fact, one of the platforms that they used to argue is that they have not truly committed any illegal acts after ‘disbanding’ from their original designated dark guild, under their original leader ( re: jellal participating in the gmg. since that act more so involved the grand magic games society, it’s not really within the jurisdiction, or concern, of the magic council. basically, cheating is bad, but it doesn’t warrant incarceration. ) this is assuming that it’s not necessarily an imprisonable offense to be an unofficial guild, so long as they don’t accept illegal jobs or disturb the innocents. which they hadn’t. i assume it’s not warranted to arrest to be in an independent guild, because crime soricere operated for seven years, while the council knew of their existence, without being caught. either the rune knights are terrible at their job ( probably ) or they didn’t care enough if said guild wasn’t bothering anyone innocent.

a huge argument that can be made in favor of their freedom, is their ‘community service’ to fiore that extended for up to 2 years. ( 7 years for some members ) yes, their actions were very ‘vigilante’ like, but their acts were more annoying, yet helpful, to the council than wicked. they also argued on how it would be unjust to criminalize them for being quiet and non-destructive as an independent guild, when some legal guilds are capable of demonstrating unethical and destructive results of their behavior, without receiving arrest. ( tips hat to fairy tail ) 

when it came to past transgressions, some could argue that they had received punishment. most of them were imprisoned for seven years. others were forced to live life in solitude, forcibly exiled from fiorian cities and towns. is that a suitable punishment? not really, but something is better than nothing. 

during their trials, individuals may have testified against or in favor of the pardon. it's safe to say an array of opinions came flooding in.

parents of children, whom which erik had saved from human trafficking, were in favor of the conditional pardon. human trafficking is a huge issue in fiore and often slips under the council’s nose. some found that this was an example of demonstrated acts of good will and capabilities of change. 

those affected by the nirvana incident, were not in favor. nirvana’s awakening specifically affected three official guilds. blue pegasus and lamia scale took the most damage at the hands of the oracion seis. unfortunately for them, some could say that having the original proprietor and mastermind of the nirvana plot, Master Brain, left behind bars was sufficient justice ( hey this headcanon where Brain was left alive came in handy! ) especially since many of the other oracion seis members were under the age of 18 during that crime. ( i’m not saying this is adequate justice nor does it excuse the oracion seis of their crimes. trust me, it’s a brutal situation and many people would’ve been rightfully angry. but it's a small detail that helped them down the road to granted redemption. )

some fairy tail members were also in favor of the pardon, due to personal / professional ties with certain members of the guild–––and due to lack of suffering by the guild. yes there’s biases were involved unfortunately! but this happens all the time in fiore canon, so why can’t it work here too? fairy tail may have fought all of these members at one point, but since they didn’t receive grave injuries ( and some even bonded with / forgave them after ) they simply didn’t feel the need the vote against a pardon. and unfortunately for some, fairy tail is a very powerful guild both physically and politically. fairy tail’s guild master has pulled enough strings in the past to make their voice exceptionally influential.

villagers, non-mages, mages, and anyone else who suffered as collateral damage at the hands of grimoire heart and the oracion seis would not have been in favor. it might not have been personal for the dark guilds, but it was personal to them. but given the amount of many years that have passed since their conflicts with those guilds ( both of which were disbanded, guild masters either dead or imprisoned ), and it’s difficult to place designated blame on ex-guild individuals. those witnesses may have to settle for probationary terms and certain pardon conditions. 

other guild members personally affected by some crime sorciere wizards like kagura, who have valid reason to hate jellal for the death of her brother, for example, may have also taken part in the trials. complicated opinions may have been made in favor or opposition of the pardon. ( i will not go into too much detail about this, as decisions of certain character opinions rests with those who write as them. ) 

unfortunately for anyone else who didn’t favor the pardon, most enemies of members of crime sorciere and the oracion seis were also dark guild wizards, or dead. so their input could not be presented before a judge as reliable input. yes, this is a loophole that really benefited crime sorciere the most. 

after the rigorous trials and ethnic screenings, crime sorciere was granted a conditional pardon. several terms had to be abided by for this to come to pass. the independent guild of crime sorciere, under the rule of jellal, was forced to disband. the council just couldn’t bring themselves to allow a guild, run by a man who betrayed the council in the past, to exist. per a idea thought of by jana and marcy, the crime sorciere members had to participate in a reintegration program. following disbandment, former crime sorciere members were made to enter this program if they wished to remain in fiore, otherwise leave the country in exile. the reintegration program was a means to encourage those ex-convicts to learn to live in the fiorian society as model citizens. members were not allowed to pursue jobs without supervision of approved s-class mages of legal guilds. the ex-cons of crime sorciere had to demonstrate ethical behavior and were forbidden to accept jobs without a ‘mentor’ consent. this probationary period may last between months to years, depending on the behavior of said member. crime sorciere ex-members were not allowed to pursue any independent jobs, until the probationary period was complete. of course, the mages of crime sorciere were not happy with this arrangement, but the outcome would far benefit the possibly of incarceration and, for some, banishment. crime sorciere ex-members were also held financially responsible for any transgressions they caused in the past ( ex: medical expenses of mages they harmed ). another condition would be that psychiatric / cognitive counsel ( aka. therapy!! ) is also a necessity in order for the ex-crime sorciere members to be confidently released independently back into society.

after the conditional period was completed successfully by all members, a new crime sorciere was eventually allowed to be legalized, providing a more trusting and suitable master ( in the eyes of the council ) would lead. meredy, a former crime sorciere / grimoire heart member with mostly misdemeanor crimes ( all of which occurred under the age of 13 ) was permitted to reform the guild under certain guidelines and close monitoring. meredy would present the idea before the council ( perhaps a year or so later ) and inform them of the benefits crime sorciere could have on the country. it was meredy’s goal, inspired by jellal and ultear, to rebuild the guild so that it would be recognized by the council to help reformed convicts and troubled mages to rehabilitate and integrate into society. most new members would most likely be those who recently served their debt to society, but were not trusted enough to be left alone. it would be the renewed crime sorciere’s aspiration to help future problematic mages become functional members of fiore. while other wizards may have been suitable for the role of acting master, meredy would demonstrate the most ethical improvement in character, the cleanest record ( of previous crime sorciere wizards ) and pose as a model mentor for mages who previously strayed from a moral path.

[mwolf0epsilon]

DBH Superhero AU pt.2

Some more cast members for you guys! If you have any questions about their powers or how everyone found out about their abilities, just ask!

Enjoy

---

Deviants:

Kara Curry/Sneak: A troubled and often times unlucky young woman, Kara has had it rough. After a series of unfortunate events lead to her moving to Detroit to live with her abusive uncle Todd, Kara was forced to drop out of college after being forced to become a servent to her uncle. After a particularly bad night, she found her Deviant ability, invisibility, which helped her not only escape the abusive household she was stuck in, but also rescue her younger cousin, Alice, as well.

It was hope and trustworthy friends that lead her to Jericho, and it is determination that drives her to fight for a better world.

Note: Kara's role within Jericho is that of an informant since her abilities are highly useful for stealth missions. Much like Simon and Daniel, Kara also requires a highly specialized suit to use her powers on missions, otherwise her powers are virtually useless (Nudity is not an option and should not be suggested more than it already has, please don't bring it up again).

Alice Williams: Alice is the young daughter of Todd Williams and Kara's young cousin. While it's unknown if she is Deviant or not, Alice's mother was a confirmed Carrier.

As such, Alice is under Jericho's protection and is currently under watch in case of any signs of Deviancy appearing early on.

Note: She seems to have a strangely accurate intuition when it comes to Deviants, being able to point out if people are more than they seem.

Perhaps this points to a more aura based ability if Alice is in fact a Deviant.

Luther Parke/Goliath: Once one of Zlatko's test subjects, Luther's Deviancy was forced upon him by the deranged scientist, in an effort to get something controllable in between a true Deviant and a Red Ice Mutant. While Luther did momentarily lose himself thanks to the cruel tests he was subjected to, his will was restored by Kara and Alice who nearly fell victim to another one of Zlatko's twisted experiments. Sadly, while Luther did regain his senses, he's lost all of his memories except for his name.

Endowed with super strength and inhuman endurance, Luther is a challenging Deviant to go up against. Loyal to a fault and highly protective of those he cares about, it's unwise to cross this superhuman.

Note: Like North, Luther's muscle mass is beyond what is considered normal for his age. Unlike North, however, there isn't much he can do to hide it since his height has also been affected by Zlatko's experiments. At full height, Luther stands at a staggering 9 feet tall, and his skin is as thick as armour. His metabolism is slower than the twins's but Luther also requires a high calorie diet and regular exercise to stay healthy.

Ralph Vladimary/Bruteroot: A 2nd generation Deviant who showed signs of having plantomancy abilities early on in his youth. Once a bright and cheerful individual with a love for gardening, Ralph was a victim of misfortune after accidentally using his powers in public. Attacked and brutally beaten by a group of bigots, a traumatized and wounded Ralph only escaped with his life after retaliating violently, resulting in the deaths of his aggressors.

Found in an abandoned building by Kara and Alice right after they ran away, and eventually taken to Jericho to help him recover, Ralph is a caring individual, but also easily scared and mistrustful of others. He seems to be afraid of his powers and has a hard time controlling them.

Note: Ralph's wounds have never closed properly because his powers seem to have caused plantlife to highjack his body. As such, Ralph seems to be part plant himself, and seems to attract insects and other critters as a result of his bizarre hybrid biology.

Jericho has decreed that Ralph is not allowed to do field missions unsupervised. Should a mission require his contribution, it's advised that Lucy, Kara, Jerry or Rupert be paired up with him to keep him in check.

Jerry(s) Bosch/Legion: Jerry Bosch used to be the cheerful only child of an old Navy veteran who took him in, after he found the poor boy wondering the woods on a freezing cold winter night. Several years later after hitting puberty, Jerry woke up feeling different, while also finding he had an extra arm growing out of his torso.

While still cheerful and an overall ray of sunshine, Jerry is no longer one being, but many beings all linked by a hivemind. His Deviant ability is that of multiplication, which provides Jericho with an intricate communication web of clones that are eager to help anyone in need.

No one is quite sure how Cyberlife hasn't tracked down Jerry or his many clones, since his father has done a lot of reconstruction to accommodate every single one of his boys, and hasn't really hidden the fact he went from having one son, to over 10 of him.

One thing is certain: the world gets a little bit brighter for Deviants in need, one Jerry at a time!

Note: Jerry's biology is comparable to that of an amoeba, since his body seems to have somehow become unicellular without turning him into a blobby mass. Multiplication isn't painful, as the Jerrys cannot feel pain, but it seems to be very uncomfortable for them, with all clones sharing the feeling through their mental link.

Overall the Jerrys are a bit odd but everyone is quite fond of their helpful and kind nature. If you ever need help just ask for Jerry, there's bound to be one positioned near you.

Important: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD ANYONE ASK THE JERRYS TO REUNITE AS A SINGLE BEING. IT'S POSSIBLE BUT THE RESULTS AREN'T PRETTY AND NO ONE WANTS TO SEE THAT.

Rupert Travis/Eagle-Eyes: A 2nd generation Deviant who's ability came in a little late, Rupert used to be a honor roll student with a veterinarian scholarship, until his ability manifested. A college dropout and pushed away by his own family for his oddities, Rupert is a survivor and a vigilante known as Eagle-Eyes, who will on occasion help Jericho.

It's not in his nature to stay put for long, and his closest friends are all of the winged variety.

Note: Rupert's flight powers while highly beneficial for scouting missions, have caused him to grow two massive feathered wings out of his back. This of course has made him an outcast in his family's eyes, despite his condition being a result of his parents being Carriers.

Rupert is known for having several eyes in the sky in the form of trained pigeons. He seems very fond of them, and in return they seem very fond of him as well.

Shaolin Being: There are many things about the Shaolin Being that people know, and that is that they do not know anything about him.

Not his real name, where he came from, nor if he even has any family.

A mysterious Deviant, the Shaolin Being came to Jericho to offer his assistance as a healer.

He is very good at his job, and seems to be in control of his powers. However there seems to be something troubling his mind.

Something quite terrible.

Note: Shaolin Being's powers are energy based and seem to follow the law of equivalent exchange. With this in mind, it's advised not to ask him to heal someone who is near death. A life for a life, is not worth the emotional damage.

Echo and Ripple: Like the Shaolin Being, no one knows much about Echo or Ripple. They are very reserved 2nd generation Deviants who seem to know North personally, although the latter refuses to disclose any information on both. It's assumed that they were two of the girls she has saved in the past, but the rumors are plentiful and stories change all the time.

The two seem to have discarded their past names and identities and have assumed their Deviant personas as their true selves, making them two of the hardest people in Jericho to track. This makes them ideal for covert missions, and they like Kara and the twins, are favoured for such missions.

Both of them have inhuman endurance and agility, although Echo seems to have mild shape shifting abilities, while Ripple has mild technokinetic abilities. They are the perfect duo of infiltrators and hackers.

Note: Hyperlife has been trying to link the two to a double child sex slavery case that has been archived for a while now due to lack of evidence. Whether or not Echo and Ripple are the missing Tracy and Stacy, is up for debate.

Lucy Wandera: A 1st generation Deviant, Lucy has known pain and loss and become something of a legend among her fellow Deviants. A guide and healer to those in desperate need, Lucy is a respected member of Jericho, and often acts as a voice of reason in the most difficult times.

Her primary abilities are healing and divination.

Note: Lucy does not participate in field missions, acting instead as an advisor and healer. She is in complete control of her powers and is an inspiration to the younger generation of Deviants. Her eyes seem to have turned completely black, due to her usage of her second sight.

Humans:

Hank Anderson: An old grizzled cop with a grudge against Hyperlife, due to their specialist doctors having failed to save his young son's life after he suffered a horrific car crash caused by harsh weather. Once the pride of the DPD's Red Ice Division, Hank has been trying to drown himself in the bottom of a licor bottle, but one chance encounter has slowly lead to a second chance at life. There's just something about Connor that feels strangely familiar...Like he needs to protect this odd kid who doesn't know how to behave his own age.

Carl Manfred: Markus's adoptive father and Elijah Kamski's most trusted friend, Carl is an esteemed and brilliant artist who's spent the last three years trying to do right by his son while also raising a dangerous bioweapon to be good.

Sharp minded and with an eye for detail, Carl can only hope for the better as he tries to lead his sons in the right direction.

Leo Manfred: Markus's adoptive brother and Carl's biological son, Leo is a bit of a mess but he's trying hard to get his life back together after his mother has died.

He seems to like Markus, but his jealousy towards the Deviant often makes him act hostile towards him, something which has only worsened after he began taking Red Ice.

Recently he's began showing signs of mutation, and has tried to go to rehab to stop his addiction before the chemical drug consumes him. Whether or not he'll be able to stop it in time, is to be seen...

Elijah Kamski: Hyperlife's original founder and the man who not only discovered Thirium, but created the T-Vaccine as well. Kamski is an enigmatic man who meant well when he introduced Thirium into the world. Whether or not he is the same person he was before the world began to crumble around him, is up for debate.

One thing is clear however: He has faith in Markus and hopes to still be around when the world finally embraces Deviency. Until then he'll remain in self-exile in the company of his most loveliest creations, the Chloes.

Chloe(s): Elijah Kamski's personal assistants and favoured creations, they are bioengineered beings that are the perfect blend of organic and machine. Very doll-like and passive, people are often unnerved by their unusually calm presence.

Amanda Stern: Elijah Kamski's old mentor and one of Hyperlife's ranking officers, Amanda is in charge of the Rook Division, working as the Hunters's handler.

Strict and ruthless, Amanda is both the calm before the storm, and the eye of the tempest. Everyone is a little intimidated by her.

Zlatko: An ex-Hyperlife employee obcessed with the effects of Red Ice and Deviency, Zlatko is a deranged scientist with a god complex, who wants to create the perfect spliced Deviant. Something which is neither man nor animal, but that can be controlled like a machine. He has yet to succeed, but he's got a basement full of tormented beasts to content himself with.

[rawstreetjournal-blog]

Anonymous Publishes List of Antifa Members Many of whom are Teachers

Antifa members violently attacking "freedom of speech" protesters in Berkeley, California. May of Antifa's ranks are filled with college professors and teachers.

Washington, DC - Following the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, a left-wing radical decided to publish the personal details of participants in the Unite the Right rally, in order to affect their livelihoods and threaten their security. In mid-August, Logan Smith, who runs the viral Twitter handle @YesYoureRacist revealed on the account the identities of about a dozen people who participated in rallies in the Virginia city over the weekend. The mass outing led to one demonstrator losing his job and another being publicly disowned by his family, while another man who was speaking out in defense of decency and arguing that participation in a rally should not cause a person to lose his job, was violently stabbed outside his home by an Antifa mob.

RELATED: MAN STABBED BY ANTIFA MOB FOR ARGUING TO DEFEND UNITE THE RIGHT ACTIVIST, "HIS LIVELIHOOD SHOULDN'T BE TAKEN FROM HIM."

The victimization of activists who were rallying to prevent the desecration of American history, many of whom simply happened to be in the same space as neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremists who were seeking to hijack the rally for their own agenda, has now drawn the response of digital vigilantes.

The vigilante hacking group known as "Anonymous" has posted a listing on 8Chan, claiming it is an extensive, nationwide list of the anti-free speech group Antifa's members.

The list, containing thousands of names and Facebook links to personal profiles includes many professors, school teachers, and other education staff as well as many journalists, writers, political activists and programmers.

The accuracy of the list has not yet been disputed, but many on the list are connected to radical Communist groups, like the National Bolshevik Party (NBP), a Russian group which advocates violent overthrow of the government to install a communist government. Several on the list are also linked to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has known links to the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas.

Protests such as this one in Birmingham, Alabama calls for the extermination of anyone who slanders Islam and can be traced back to organizations such as CAIR who also fund Antifa.

If the list is accurate, the constitution of Antifa's membership is worrying for several reasons. Antifa, despite touting liberal values, practices a brand of fascist thuggery meant to silence conservative voices and values under the banner of "liberalism". The irony is not lost. By inciting violence at peaceful protests, Antifa attempt to claim the moral high ground, yet manages to simultaneously silence any narrative which does not accord to their anarchic worldview.

RELATED: WHO BENEFITS THE MOST FROM RE-WRITING CONFEDERATE HISTORY?

That Antifa consists of a large pool of educators is particularly disconcerting. There is already a movement in this country to re-write school textbooks for the purposes of political correctness as opposed to historical accuracy. With many of our nation's educators active members or supporters of Antifa, their political affiliations will no doubt poison future generations with hateful rhetoric and divisive teachings.

The Plan to Disenfranchise the White Working-Class Population

For decades, fringe white supremacist groups and white nationalist movements have languished. Falling memberships, declining subscriptions have lead to a decrease in their effectiveness as well as their relevance. Yet in the last decade alone, the Obama administration has single-handedly managed to fuel a resurgence of race-based hate groups. How was that possible when the President of the United States of America was an African-American?

The honest, hardworking Americans who helped build this country have seen their country ripped away from them.

Through a system of ostensible affirmative action policies, the Obama administration systematically prejudiced whites, disenfranchising them and depriving them of jobs under the cover of "diversity" quotas. The problem with these quotas is that they make it more difficult to hire a white person than a person of color. Over 8 years, more whites became despondent as they saw their economic fortunes plummet while Obama opened the doors of our country to unrelenting waves of immigration. Many new immigrants were from Muslim countries who displaced whites further, especially in places like Hamtramck, Michigan, the first of many Muslim-majority cities in the United States.

Obama then went on his third leg to destabilize the country by entering into Free Trade Agreements (FTA) which opened up the U.S. market to overseas goods and services without equal access to the foreign markets from where these goods and services were coming from. Which is why today, the U.S. has huge trade deficits with countries like China and Mexico, but limited market access. The FTAs also made sure that American manufacturing and mining jobs, typically occupied by the white working class were lost to other countries.

RELATED: TRUMP MAKES AMERICAN COAL MINERS RICH AGAIN

Individually, none of these measures would be sufficient to disenfranchise white working-class males, but in combination, their effect was devastating.

Use cover of Affirmative Action to hire other races instead of white men.

Open borders to dilute white population, especially to people from Muslim countries who would not assimilate, thereby diluting white American culture.

Open markets, allowing free access to the U.S. market whilst limiting access to foreign markets to destroy American manufacturing jobs, the livelihood of the working-class white man.

Charlottesville, Virginia and epicenter of the Antifa revolution. By stripping ordinary white Americans of their dignity, many have turned to fringe groups such as the white supremacists to find solace and comfort.

With limited economic prospects, whites were forced into the corner to organize and to find solace within their own racial groups. It seemed as if no one was speaking out for the average working-class white man until President Donald Trump came along. Yet when President Trump spoke up for their plight, he was immediately branded a "racist" and a "white supremacist", which fits the narrative that Antifa want to propagate, so as to continue the racist policies which favor the interests of its hidden backers.

What is Antifa's purpose?

We've seen Antifa turn what started off as peaceful protests into violent melees which claim lives in places like Charlottesville and now in Berkeley. In the confusion of the clashes, the instigators of the violence, Antifa are lost in the unfortunate racist rhetoric of right-wing extremists who are baited into clashing with them. The bigger question which everyone needs to be asking then is, what is Antifa's purpose?

Democratic Representatives John Lewis and Nancy Pelosi at the steps of the Capitol need things to be as they were during the Obama administration, to keep the swamp running.

Antifa's ultimate goal is to serve its political masters, to ensure the kleptocracy in Washington remains firmly embedded, the 1 percent have their interests secured and the average working-class American continues to remain without a voice. Antifa achieves this by violent means to make conservative protests so dangerous that local, state and federal authorities will be forced to cancel or ban protests, thus silencing right-wing voices once and for all. It already happened in San Francisco, where a "freedom of speech" rally was banned as law enforcement officials cited the risks of left-wing violence and their inability to ensure safety of protesters.

Even before the first canister of tear gas was fired, Antifa already achieved the objective of its masters, which was to silence the voice of Middle America.

If Antifa succeeds, who does it ultimately benefit?

There's a saying that if you "follow the money", sooner or later you'll find the answer. It's a well-documented fact that billionaire hedge fund investor George Soros contributes large sums of money for the upkeep of left-wing extremists such as Antifa, but what is his purpose in doing so?

Soros is not an anarchist, he's an investor and unfortunately, anarchy and the current global order suit his investment strategy. Soros made his first billion betting against the United Kingdom's inability to pour in money to maintain the fixed exchange rate with Germany's Deutsche Mark. In a nutshell, he was betting against the Bank of England. When the pound was devalued, Soros made billions, but millions of average working-class British people, saw the value of their savings and pensions evaporate as the pound could now buy far less than before.

George Soros is the new master of the universe. He separately funded Facebook's new "Fake News Fact Checking" Group, another means by which to control the narrative to suit the liberal agenda.

To ensure that Soros continues to dominate the global market, similar to the way the Rothschilds, an 18th century Jewish banking family, did before him, Soros needs for the current world order to remain as it is. In other words, free trade, free movement of people and a liberal world order with no distinct value system. Such a world order, with no labor unions, rising automation and the free movement of peoples and capital allows people like Soros to exploit the poor of the world through a financial system which takes power away from the working-class American and concentrates it even further into the hands of the 1 percent.

The other group which stands to benefit the most from the work of Antifa are Muslim immigrants. It is a well-documented fact that Islam views all other religions as heretics and non-Muslims are branded as infidels, for whom death is too merciful a punishment. If Antifa succeeds, open borders will allow a flood of Muslim immigration, the likes of which this country has never seen.

RELATED: MUSLIM'S CHEER REMOVAL OF CONFEDERATE STATUES

It's already happened in Europe. In France, millions of Muslim immigrants now occupy neighborhoods and cabals across the country which are off-limits to French citizens. Muslims also draw down the most heavily on the French social welfare system but contribute the lowest amount to French taxes. The French economy is already buckling under the weight of the strain and to top if all off, Islamic terrorist attacks have now taken on such a degree of regularity that unless it's a major catastrophic attack with large scores of French dead, the attacks are normally reported in passing.

A group of Muslim women in hijabs look oon disapprovingly as a young American couple embrace in public. Physical proximity between sexes is strictly prohibited in Muslim culture. This is what it's like to live in Hamtramck, Michigan, America's first of many Muslim-majority cities.

With the media attention focused on the violent clashes between the Left and the Right, Muslims can quietly file into our cities and neighborhoods and Islamize entire tracts of American land. That the ultimate goal of Islam is to create a territory must not be in doubt. Whether those means are violent, as in the case of the so-called Islamic State with their conquest of Iraq and Syria, or more subtle through demographic shift, as was the case in Hamtramck, Michigan, that occupation of land is the ultimate goal cannot be called into question.

RELATED: WESTERN CIVILIZATION IS UNDER ATTACK, TRUMP OUR BEST HOPE

Which is why you'll find that there are both representatives from CAIR as well as other Soros-linked groups who are listed as members of Antifa, because they both share the same end goal, the creation of a new world order, which erodes traditional Christian values, undermines the role of whites in the world and dilutes western culture.

Why Antifa needs to be formally recognized as a Terrorist Organization

A petition to the White House to formally recognize Antifa as a terrorist organization has already shot past its target of 100,000 signatures by over three times. At the time of publication of this piece, there were over 310,000 signatures to have Antifa formally recognized as a terrorist organization.

The petition reads,

"Terrorism is defined as 'the use of violence and intimidation in pursuit of political aims.' This definition is the same definition used to declare ISIS and other groups, as terrorist organizations."

"AntiFa has earned this title due to its violent actions in multiple cities and their influence in the killings of multiple police officers throughout the United States."

"It is time for the pentagon to be consistent in its actions – and just as they rightfully declared ISIS a terror group, they must declare AntiFa a terror group – on the grounds of principle, integrity, morality, and safety."

There are many reasons why Antifa should be classified as a terrorist organization, but one of the key reasons is to prevent Antifa members from inciting violence behind a veil of anonymity. Antifa is currently no better than hired thugs for liberal donors, but once it is classified as a terrorist organization, its shadowy sources of funding would come to light.

Antifa protesters are well-funded, well-organized, well-armed and uniformed, making them look more like Nazis than ever before.

Whichever side was in Charlottesville, only Antifa were actively trying to disguise their identities and with the support of the left-wing media, they have continued to keep their personal identities hidden. Contrast that against legitimate and peaceful Unite the Right activists who were not associated with white supremacists or white nationalists who have had their livelihoods destroyed and now suffer constant harassment.

Make no mistake about it, "political correctness" when argued to its extreme is a form of oppression. If we as a country do not recognize Antifa for what it is, a terrorist organization, hell-bent on instituting their ideology through a systematic campaign of violence, the attacks on peaceful protesters will continue and more American lives will be needlessly lost. Antifa is only the attack dog of a larger more sinister plot to undermine the very fabric of our country and to leave it vulnerable to external forces which seek to destroy our democracy, by muzzling the attack dog, we can then begin the hard work of going after its owners.

[happymetalgeek]

In the words of a rather famous band “Welcome, I bid you welcome…..” This spectacle, HRH XII in beautiful Pwllheli, North Wales, though is no electric circus, it’s the real deal but with a real undertone of the weird and macabre cabaret part of the circus as the opening ceremony has everyone mesmerized. The troupe of incredibly talented women set the tone beautifully – enjoy all that rock has to offer, dip into a weird wild fantasy world that Freddy Mercury would tip his hat to, and don’t be a dick.

HRHXII is already kicking ass!!

EDEN’S CURSE

The Opening Night of the HRH XII , if somewhat wet, is greeted with the arrival of opening act Eden’s Curse, who might have been forgiven for being overwhelmed due to the huge crowd in attendance. But after a short circus themed intro tape they hit the ground running with “Masquerades Ball” – these guys knew the score! – then without drawing breath “Break The Silence” rattles out the speakers. As the sound now balances itself out “The Great Pretender” maintains the momentum with the keyboards and backing vocals adding more layers to the traditional “Edens Curse” sound.

“Unbreakable” with full audience participation with the encouragement of vocalist Nikola Migic got the place rockin’ and is hands down the set highlight, with full use of the large single screen at the back of the stage projecting the group with wonderful coloured computer imagery enhances the performance even more. “Evil and Divine “ followed closely by “Angels and Demons” rounded off a very strong 7 song 40 minute set highlighting the best of what this amazing 5 piece can offer.

  MYKE GRAY

With the intro music of Queens “We Will Rock You” blasting out the speakers we get a shredding short instrumental from Myke Gray that kickstarts the set as “Stand Up For Rock n Roll” hits you between the eyes and BOOM this tiny little woman who I’ve never seen or heard before enters the stage going bat-shit crazy and working the crowd with ease. The woman in question is Kymberley Anne Jennett and what a voice and what a star in the making before the opening number has finished she is in the photo pit but climbs out and back on stage for “House of Love” which I have to admit at first is a bit strange to not hear Neville McDonald singing this classic track, But weird as it sounds it just does not matter as the female human dynamo just nails it!! If you plugged her into the national grid she would easily light up the whole of North Wales. Skin classics are peeled off one after another with “Love Like Suicide” and “Take Me Down To The River” with the dual guitars working to good affect.

Myke Gray smiling his usual happy self must have been amazed with the reaction especially on “Look But Don’t Touch” which saw the contented crowd peeling back the years to their youth with much singing and clapping and a little bit of dad dancing for good measure. The set was rounded off with a frantic version of “Shine your Light” with Kymberley losing the plot again and exiting the stage lost in the photo pit and I think she may have ended pretty much in the crowd such was her enthusiasm. I hope from a personal point that Myke can involve her in some future project either in the studio or live, with the musical chops that Myke Gray has in his arsenal and with his talented band that back him so well the only way is up.

  ROCK GODDESS

Rock Goddess – the name that strikes fear into many a band!! This ferocious 3 piece pack a punch that Tyson would have been proud of in his heyday. Fronted by the simply amazing Jody Turner, who has steered the ship through thick and thin. With a guitar sound sharper than a surgeon’s scalpel we are treated to both old and, very impressive, new material “Gonna Let Your Hair Down” showcases Jody’s lung power and, wow!!, what a voice. “To Be Betrayed” with its doom laden slow riffage and thunderous drums hasn’t aged in its 30 years existence and is still such a relevant track in 2018.

“Why Do We Never Learn”, a new track from the as yet unreleased new album, is huge and what I just witnessed was enough to make your fillings rattle and your arse shake. “Start Running” takes everyone back to the 80s and is still such a creepy song and new girl “Jenny Lane” delivers a solid bass line that underpins the track. If you ever need to understand the importance of a bass guitar then look no further because “Start running” needs that groove for Jodie Turner to weave her magic.

New  single “Are You Ready” steam hammers along at breakneck speed with a crystal clear sound stunning light show, old songs, new songs “Rock Goddess” have me and hundreds more transfixed, the new material is just so strong and slots in perfectly with the classic songs we all grew up with. Versions of “Back To You” and “Heavy Metal Rock n Roll” could strip the paint of your walls without you having to leave the comfort of your sofa with your paint thinner and scraper!!

Now here’s the thing – I’m very fortunate to attend many hundreds of gigs and see many amazing acts but the performance the band offered is one of the best shows I’ve ever witnessed and I’m talking about 35 years!!

  PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS

Guitar legend and HRH award winner 2018, Phil Campbell, has the punters filling the venues nooks and crannies and the place is rammed to the gills, “Big Mouth” sets the stall out in aggressive fashion followed by “Freakshow” which is one of the highlights from the debut album and thankfully comes over even better live, even going as far as to creating a very small but, never the less, impressive mosh pit.

Serious twiddling from Mr Campbell is met with gratitude from the onlookers and, backed by his talented sons, the band is like a runaway train gathering momentum all the time. First of the “Motorhead” covers duly arrives with “Born To Raise Hell” reminding us all of the great sadly missed Lemmy, then up steps Phil who peels off a solo that merits his well-deserved award the previous evening. “Get On Your Knees” with its nod and a wink to old school metal is bolstered big time with the dual guitars and on command everyone obliges the request to raise their middle fingers in the air!!

A quick blast through R.A.M.O.N.E.S gets the mosh pit stirring just a little bit more then its straight into album opener “Ring Leader” and once again takes over a life of its own in the live arena. Wrapping the set-up is the triple whammy of “Silver Machine”, “Ace Of Spades” and a spine snapping version of “Bomber”. Talk about spoilt rotten and slightly emotional in a rock n roll way. Cracking stuff from a true down n dirty, rock n roll band.

  MICHAEL SCHENKER

Closing the first night proper is the unbelievably gifted Michael Schenker and his festival of former lead singers, this has to be one of the most chaotic and arse about face shows I’ve seen in a long while! It goes against the grain of what most bands try and achieve in a live setting. But fear not because it works!!

First example the intro music is AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell” so the crowd are pumped. Schenker walks onstage and what do we get? “Blackout”? or possibly “Another Piece Of Meat”? Oh no. No. No No. We get an acoustic soothing version of The Scorpions “Holiday” then he addresses the crowd regarding his long and impressive career then its straight into what everyone presumed would be the encore song “Doctor, Doctor” where various singers all appear on stage these include Graham Bonnet, Dougie White, McCauley, by which time they were only 2 songs in.

“Vigilante Man” gets Dougie White up on his own singing the track with his usual enthusiasm. New track “The Church” is another chance for the stage to be filled with no less than 4 singers. In-between many of the songs Schenker chats away to the crowd all about his time in various groups and how old he was when certain tracks were written and personally I found this set up really refreshing. The songs on the other hand need no introduction, with the following just an example “Natural Thing”, “Shoot Shoot”, “Armed and Ready”, and “Only You Can Rock Me” with instrumentals from his “Scorpions” days thrown in the mix for good measure.

The great man can’t go wrong.

Then the moment everyone was waiting for “Rock Bottom”. Were we going to get a 10 minute version or a 15 minute version? I never timed it but take my word for it, the man isn’t human!! With solid bass and drums keeping everything in time, Schenker just cast his magic over his fretboard he explored it like a kid would explore a sweetshop, then just to take the piss he picks up a camcorder starts filming the crowd whilst still creating a mind blowing solo. “Lights out” finished the set and basically everyone went home gob-smacked, inebriated and happy after a brilliant first night of booze great company and 5 great bands.

  Review by Steve Bruty

Photos by Edyta Krzesak

GIG REVIEW: HRH XII Kicks of the Weekend With An Incredible Start with @edenscurse @MykeGrayMusic @RockGoddessOff1 @PCATBS @MW_Schenker @MetalPlanet72 @bruty_steve @EdytkaK @CentralpressPR In the words of a rather famous band “Welcome, I bid you welcome…..” This spectacle, HRH XII in beautiful Pwllheli, North Wales, though is no electric circus, it’s the real deal but with a real undertone of the weird and macabre cabaret part of the circus as the opening ceremony has everyone mesmerized.

[movietvtechgeeks]

Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/marvel-brings-great-surprise-cloak-dagger/

Marvel brings a great surprise to 'Cloak and Dagger'

Out of nowhere, Marvel and ABC Freeform surprised fans by releasing the Cloak and Dagger trailer. The trailer does reveal a few things about the show such as tidbits about their lives, how they meet, how they get their powers and who they’ll be up against. Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger features Olivia Holt as Tandy Bowen (Dagger) and Aubrey Joseph as Tyrone Johnson (Cloak). You can watch the trailer below. Before discussing the trailer, let’s first discuss the pair’s comic book origin and why creating the show about them is timely and relatable to modern viewers even though they debuted in the mid-80s. Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson are a couple of runaways who end up in New York City. Tandy Bowen comes from a rich family but runs away because her rich supermodel mother has no time for her and her father left them on a journey of self-discovery. Tyrone Johnson is a poor teenage African-American who ran away after witnessing his friend get shot by a cop and was unable to stop it due to his stuttering speech impediment. The two become friends and were approached by men who offer them some money to participate in a medical experiment. They accept the offer for their need of money, but the company turned out to be a criminal organization testing a new form of illegal drug. The pair escape and were the only survivors of the experiment. The drug activated their dormant mutations thus giving Tandy the power to create light daggers capable of stunning her enemies and purging toxins from their bodies while Tyrone is given the power to tap into the Darkforce dimension enabling him to teleport great distances and when he engulfs his enemies in his cloak, they experience their darkest fears leaving them catatonic and at the same time drain their life force. The pair work as vigilantes protecting runaways like they were and keeping the streets clean from illegal drugs as well as getting involved in fantastical adventures with other Marvel heroes. Back to the trailer, it seems they switched a few things around. This time, Tandy and her mother live in a state of poverty while it seems that Tyrone’s family are the rich ones with Tandy seen walking around the trailer park while Tyrone lives in a nice house with his mother. One big deviation from the comic books is the loss of Tyrone’s speech impediment which plays a big role in the comics and his relationship with Tandy. The stuttering disappears when Tyrone assumes his Cloak persona. Could they possibly have switched the speech problem to Tandy? Her bits of dialogue suggest otherwise. In another scene, they bump into each other in a park where they seem to hit it off due to familiarity with each other. As for their powers, it’s suggested that Tandy gets involved in a vehicular accident with a Roxxon truck and both vehicles fall into a river or sea, and Tyrone manages to save her. This happens while they’re children which would probably be the first time they meet. The Roxxon truck may be carrying the toxic chemicals which affects their bodies much like what happened to Matt Murdock in Daredevil. As for their powers, Dagger exhibits light field generation as well as the ability to create seemingly solid shards of white light. In a scene where Tyrone is chasing Tandy, she hits him with her power which throws him aside but doesn’t really affect him which surprises Tandy. We don’t get to see Tyrone’s powers except that he finds himself on top of a building perhaps naked but wearing a cloak which waves around in the wind. He is seen standing behind a large neon Roxxon billboard which suggests that the big bad in the series would be people from Roxxon. Not exactly liking what they did with the origin but there might be a timely and PC reason for doing so. How they get their powers might come off as too grisly for a network such as Freeform aka ABC Family. It would have been great if the two will still deal with the issue of runaways and illegal drugs. Their original origin is a great motivation for doing so. Unfortunately, this time we’ll be in the dark on what they’ll be fighting against until the show airs on 2018. But maybe we’ll get more trailers before that. Why did they show the trailer this early? As a screening test perhaps to try to gauge the internet’s reaction to it and maybe further tailor the show’s other episodes? The trailer is centered around the pilot episode which finished a few months ago. The other episodes are rumored to be on-hold. The trailer looks good and has a cinematic feel in certain parts like a made-for-TV movie suggesting good direction and production values. Olivia Holt and Aubrey Joseph look great as Cloak and Dagger respectively. Marvel is keeping its touch when it comes to casting. The logo meanwhile is an improvement to the original with dark letterings for Cloak and his outline on the A, while Dagger’s is brighter with an outline of a dagger on the A. The origin’s a bit off but this Cloak and Dagger fan is already excited but remains impatient as the trailer seems to be a year too early. Much like that Captain Marvel teaser starring Brie Larson whose movie won’t be shown until 2019. Way to build the hype, Marvel.

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