#id: total mayhem

[blradley]

A powerpoint introduction to Liesmyth!

(I swear the next one will actually be in Comic Sans... shout out to @incandescent-creativity for popularizing this medium!)

Anyway...

Do you wanna read a dark, Norse-inspired Adult Fantasy?

Do you wanna read about queer gods causing mayhem?

(literally every single character is queer lmaooooo)

Do you wanna support a queer, multiply disabled author?

Look no further than Liesmyth! We're out on subs at the moment - so, pretty-please reblog this powerpoint if you like the concept! Let's prove to all those prospective publishers that there's an audience for my book!

Image IDs:

All eleven images are power point slides.

Image 1: Title card reading 'Liesmyth: or, how Sigyn ruined everything, by B. L. Radley'. The words are displayed over a person in (...vaguely) Viking-era garb, against a green background. Only a slice of their torso is visible.

Image 2: A picture of an ash tree against a green, cool, mountainous scene. In a yellow text box, words read: Welcome to a world inspired by Norse mythology, where witches can climb through the cosmos using the boughs of an ancient ash tree, and any magic is possible, so long as it is cast with a suitable sacrifice. Yes, it’s basically a Viking Isekai. Shoot me. Then, a quote in italics: I know an ash tree named Yggdrasil, Nine realms cradled in its loamy arms… Prophecy of the Voluspa, verse 19

Image 3: Meet the characters! An image shows a white woman in Viking-era dress, leaning against a fence, looking pensieve. She is introduced as Sigyn Narisdottir. Her quote is: “It’s a God-eat-God world out there…” Below this, there is a description of Sigyn, reading: Just a nice, normal Christian woman from a nice, normal Christian village. (Totally not a gay witch, haha no, why would you suggest such a thing.) After her father is killed by his own God, Þórr, Sigyn has only one chance to free his trapped ghost from eternal torment. She must confront Þórr and slay him in combat. But how can a mortal defeat a God? Traits are bullet pointed at the bottom of the page. Hers are: Ruthless, ambitious, cunning, and desperate.

Image 4: The next character description is of Loki. His quote is “Monsters lost their menace when they huddled crying in the corner. And when you might use them for your own ends.” His image shows a clean-shaven half-naked man sat against a scandinavian-esque backdrop of rugged rocks and dried grass. He is white, with curly red hair, and is looking curiously off to one side. His description reads: The savior of the Gods, or their bane? A framed innocent, or a prophesized murderer? A victim, or a monster? Loki is a man of juxtaposed polarities, not least of which being that he isn’t a man at all. At least, not when it doesn’t suit him. Sigyn knows he’s dangerous. But in the viper nest of Ásgarð’s royal court, he might be her only ally… or her downfall. His traits are: Sly, wily, and 'not to be trusted'.

Image 5: The two characters introduced on this slide are Freyja and Thor. Freyja's image is of an Arab woman staring directly at the camera, expression serene, curly hair falling around her face. Her quote is: “Goddess of beauty. Goddess of desire. All who saw Freyja fell a little in love—but though silken longing stirred in my belly, I wrung it dead, reminding myself that Freyja was a goddess of bloodshed, too.” Her description reads: Queen of the Vanir, Freyja is an ancient and powerful goddess who takes Sigyn as her indentured servant. Her traits are: Proud, cold, and vicious. On the opposite side of the page, Thor's image shows a white, bearded man in an iron helmet glaring into the camera, viking sigils scrawled across his face in charcoal. He is shadowy and menacing. His quote is: “I saw a rainbow flash over a church. I saw a broken sky. I saw the end of everything.” His description is: Eldest prince of the Æsir. Murderer of Sigyn’s father, and countless more beside. The living embodiment of berserker rage, he is the strongest god around – and next to inherit Ásgarð’s throne. Unless Sigyn can stop him. His traits are: Violent, mighty, and 'a storm made flesh'

Image 6: introduces Angrboda and Baldr. Angrboda's image shows a white woman with blonde braids, wearing chain mail and warpaint (black streaks over her face), with a huge axe over one shoulder. Her quote is: “ ‘Sigyn, meet Angrboða: witch of the Ironwoods, god of a lost nation, relic of an elder age, master of magics that not even my darling brother dares dabble in, cosmopolitan worldwalker, mother and father of my children, and—if I might say so—a practitioner of truly superlative strap-game.’ ” Baldr's image is of Assad Zaman, looking wistfully, beautifully, into the camera. His quote is: “Out strode the most beautiful man in all the Nine Worlds. His gentle smile, his topaz eyes, his black curls, the fawn velvet of his cheeks… Oh, warmth radiated from him. I looked at him and felt, for the first time in oh-so-very-long, safe.”

Image 7: introduces Saga and Menglod. Saga's image shows a Black woman in darkness, with facial tattoos and a nose ring. She raises her eyes to the camera, pulling back a dark hood, her expression difficult to read. Her quote is: “In another version of this tale, I stayed with Sága. We travelled to Ljósálfheim every winter—one for every six of Vanaheim’s years—and raised foundlings as our own (for ever were the elvish freer with their loves than those of my world). But in this tale, we reached Freyja’s palace, and I had a dream.” Her description is: Prophet, witch, worldwalker. The woman Sigyn left behind. Menglod's image shows a Black woman smiling slightly, slyly, as she looks back over her shoulder, her natural hair framing her face. Her quote is: “If I tended the hearth in Freyja’s chamber, I left ash on her floors. If I swept the ash, I left streaks invisible to any eyes but Menglǫð’s. If I breathed, I did so far too loudly and regularly, and if I were a considerate soul, I would stop.” Her description is: Freyja’s attendant, and Sigyn’s main rival for her favor.

Image 8: So, like, wtf happens? Set against a background of dramatic red-on-black fire is a description of the book's plot, as follows: Crumbling kingdoms. Hungering Gods. One woman who will end the worlds. Loki, Norse god of fire and mischief, will be tortured until the end of time. And he shall deserve every minute. At least, that’s how the story goes. Behind every great man is a great woman, and behind every genderfluid trickster-god is a spouse who darns his socks, plots his victories and keeps his secrets, as well as her own. After a thousand years of agony, Loki looks to the woman who kneels by his side – his jailer, his torturer, his wife – and asks for a different story. Hers.

Image 9: a continuation of the plot from the previous slide, this time with a cool blue lake as the background, with a viking-style ship floating atop its surface. The image feels less calming, more unnerving in its stillness and the lack of human life. The description reads as follows: Down with the gods. So swore Sigyn, a young mortal woman, after watching her father die at godly hands. One millennium later, she has joined the same pantheon she once despised. Now, as Ragnarǫk approaches – the end of all Nine Worlds – Sigyn narrates the tale of the Norse Gods’ fall, and her own.

Image 10: Themes. A picture of two crossed axes accompanies a list of themes, which are: 1) Revenge. What is a life worth? And what would you give up, to avenge the life of someone you love? 2) Corruption. Can you ever fix a broken system from the inside? Or will it, inevitably, consume you? and 3) Divinity. What does it mean, to become a god? What might you lose along the way?

Image 11: A picture of Loki as a woman, with red hair, dressed in a Viking-style dress and sat on the edge of a Scandinavian dock, accompanies text that reads: This book is for you if you like... Queer-led, queer-written fantasy, with main wlw and nonbinary characters! Court drama and political intrigue, mixed with a sizzling dash of mythology! A prophecy that cannot be averted; a tragedy that cannot be outrun…

[mutant-mayhem]

[MUTANT MAYHEM SPOILERS] i think mm april x leo was handled infinity better than 2012 april x donnie (obligatory turtles is turtles i love the show but-) with the 2012 show donnies crush on april is like half his character and the romance is executed,, so badly. donnie is being a total creep and every time you think he learns his lesson he gets rewarded for “learning” to not be a weirdo (which should be common sense ffs) with a kiss. most of april and donnies interactions are just that: donnie being a creep and april pretending to not notice. you rarely see them bond or do anything with each other that shows theyre compatible. on top of all that theres no payoff. they never even get together at the end. with mm leos crush on april id really say is just a foot note and is kinda just forgotten about until the mid credits scene. yeah sometimes hes awkward around her but it really just more so comes off as a teenagers not knowing how to handle his first crush and being kinda cringey about it as opposed to straight up stalkerish behavior. april and leo do still bond with each other- well at least as much as you can in a movie with a 100 minute run time without getting in the way of other things. but there was a time skip in the middle of the movie so it makes the payoff at the end where april agrees to take leo to the prom more believable since there might have been a lot of development off screen (especially since i imagine there were more timeskips during the mid credits scene) overall its not a groundbreaking fantastically written relationship (it is literally just a minor side plot) but it does its job and it didnt give me as many nightmare flashbacks to 12 apritello as i thought it would

[reclaimingself]

Alright then!

Could we please get names, interests, and pronouns for;

A fragment who attached to Jonathan Sims from TMA. He currently only has the name "Roland" and the pronouns "He/him" but would like some more options. He's been dubbed "tired smart person" and presents very GNC. Anything related to eyes, paranoia, and the paranormal would be appreciated!

And, a fragment who is very jester-coded. Mischievous and a total gossip. Nonhuman, and related to forest spirits in some way. We don't have as much of a read on this one as Roland, sorry.

Thank you for anything and everything you do!

- @sovereignsystem

phi! so sorry this is late! we just went off the depscription as we don't know this media.

names: norman, salem, jolan, bell, jules, julian, optic, novel, nyx, spence, nocturn, damian, mayhem, aloysius, trix, jinx, fern, desmond, mischief, viren, adair, basil, amory, dacre, ivery, jester, hex.

pronouns: hex/hexself, scare/scareself, spook/spooky, para/normal, spir/spirits, fear/fearself, crea/creature, crawl/crawling, creeping/creeping.

things they may enjoy: researching folklore, researching different kinds of spirits, walking through wooded areas (if safe), playing jokes (safe ones), drawing different kinds of creatures.

[image id: red lace with a red bow in the middle.]

[robiinurheart33]

Thanks for the tag @sergeantwoods !! I went a little crazy on the questions lols,,,

1. how many works?

Honestly no idea lmao (if ur talking on ao3, I don’t have an account there, but I’ve been thinking about it.) (14 wips atm)

2. Total word count?

Again, no idea LOL! My actual works have been around 1K ish per post? So id say in total maybee 10k?

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Currently, COD. I wanna expand more soon though, so stay tuned in the far, far future

4. top 5 fics by kudos?

I’m gonna list down my fav fics of all time (multi fandom) if im reading this correctly

1. Anything by buzzcut_season really. Their writing is spectacular and made my heart clench on so many occasions. My personal GOD of writing fluff. And the person that got me through the hells of teenage puberty.(for the record, i am still in puberty lmfao) my firsts in the tag tooth-rotting fluff and the magics of slow burn. (Sk8 the Infinity)

2. Neon Void by sugarpastels. The creator is here on Tumblr with the same user so if you wanna check her out go ahead!! FANTASTIC writing, villain Leo au with heart pounding scenes that leave me dizzy. A fic has never made me breathless and needing to pace around my room more than this one (special shoutout to her sister as well who is writing a mutant mayhem fic that unfortunately didn’t get added to the list but is still super well written!!) (ROTTMNT)

3. Anytime You Need Me by thirteenbullets. I really don’t need to elaborate more. Character analysis + fluff + non sexual intimacy + long fics… it’s the perfect series for me. I felt like a stuck gold when i read this. (COD)

4. The Eldest Brother by dEBB987. Classic 2012 x 2018 crossover, but it doesn’t have ooc and is just such. A. Fun. Read. Made me giggle and kick my legs more than one occasion and good family feels all around. (TMNT)

5. Mutant Ninja Midlife Crisis by a_platypus. Old Leo comes back to the past after the events of the movie to readjust to new life. The right amount of drama with the perfect amount of slice of life. This fic actually gives the old turtle a break but also not letting go of the teenage angst and everything that comes with seeing your dead friends young and alive again. Would have been higher on the list but it’s not completed sadly. The author does write for COD as well though, and it’s worth to check it out! (ROTTMNT)

5. do you respond to comments?

Yes!!! I love love love it when people comment and try to interact if possible.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably the panic attack Ghost fic. Haven’t written much angst if im remembering correctly. I’m a major fluff person

7. fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oh god i really haven’t written a proper fic at all helps. I’m frantically swiping through my robs ramblings tag and just realising most of the ghoap stuff i write is about their undying dedication to each other. Jesus. Happiest ending is probably one of my blurbs cause every time i try to write actual fluff i overheat and explode.

8. do you get hate on fics?

Nope

9. do you write smut?

Nah. I don’t think ill ever write smut honestly not because im asexual its just that I don’t think I can write one accurately if that makes sense. Also im a minor I don’t think im allowed to do that

10. craziest crossover?

None yet

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Thankfully not, but if i have i would take it as a sign that I’ve made it as a writer. Unless it’s more popular than the actual post in that case burn it with fire.

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

Unfortunately and fortunately no. I would LOVE to collaborate, don’t get me wrong. But i would get so anxious about not disappointing the other person or procrastinating and motivation and all the works and just. Yeah I don’t have the mental capacity for that rn.

14. all time favourite ship?

Ooooooh

ghoap, renga, ineffable husbands, solangelo (Off the top of my head rn)

15. what’s a wip that you want to finish but doubt you will?

THE SECOND PART TO DRUNK SOAP. OH MY GOD I NEED TO GET IT DONE ITS BEEN 2 MONTHS

16. what are your writing strengths?

I would say making everything just too dramatic and emotional

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

Dialogue. I can barely talk irl how am i supposed to write witty banter

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language?

Love it. As a bilingual myself i love seeing diff languages it’s like a bonus secret for that language user

19. first fandom you wrote in?

Rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles. That was when i was in my “i think this is so cringy of me and i hold myself back because of it” because wow. I reread some of it recently and it’s horrible it will stay and rot in my notes app. Although i will say it’s so nice to see how far I’ve come in terms of writing and just posting publicly in general

20. favourite fic you’ve written?

The drunk soap one and the Ghoap one where they’re on stakeout together. I didn’t like the second one initially, but i think slaving over it worked. I love how I managed to balance the quietness and mutual respect and fondness of each other.

If you couldn’t tell, i had a lot of fun answering these questions haha

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations!! You know more about me than the average online follower 👏👏👏

[nurdhaniyam]

yk. . .i havent rly address this tag properly nd ik some of you arent rly familiar with qpr marriages well here r my thoughts on this hc;

Personally, id like to think anti cosmo and anti wanda as like, frenemies with benefits, but they aren't exactly**that**, they dont just hate fuck or wtv , to me i think they both knew they were destined to be soulmates, it all started by the two's rivalry from the beginning, with how irritated anti cosmo was to be met with someone like anti Wanda, like how brave she is, full of life, with little to no care abt the environment, he was always up to her and wondered how can an anti female fairy be so different than others, and how she could possibly not fear for him and his powerful magic, and with anti wanda, no matter how arrogant and cold he was to her, she have always had this need to know him more, as annoying as that might sound to her,like how his life is as a king or how it feels to rule a kingdom on his own, she had always wondered if his short-temperedness had to do with his isolation in life, if his arrogance with his power had to do with wanting to project into his insecurities, or if his bitterness had to do with him masking only for the sake of his royalty

And then, here comes the hard part, after they found out abt their counterparts' marriage, from that day on, they had to force each other to like one another (their rivalry was prior coswan's marriage btw) bcuz according to Da Rules, they cannot interfere w/ true love, so this sorta gave them an advantage to get close with each other, but with one problem; they hardly know each other! They were stuck to being arranged with one another just because their counterparts decide to make their life a bigger mess

Fortunately, they did get along, anti cosmo learnt to realize why anti wanda was always how he interprets her, and anti wanda eventually learnt a new side of anti cosmo which she had always wondered deep down, basically bonding when they knew they shouldn't be but the feeling was so new, they both just wouldn't let it go

Starting from that day on, they both are always together no matter where and what they do, they started doing pranks, going out to dinner sometimes, causing mayhem by releasing bad lucks across the Earth, giving kids nightmares, haunting people, anything evil that you could think of, and despite all of this, they were never tired of each other's presence. This made them believe that they're actually starting to fell for each other, so they started experimenting, going on 'dates', gift giving, giving each other pet names, physical touches and they gotta admit, they had fun by doing so! but, even after they did possibly everything they could to feel that spark, there was simply nothing... They were confused, baffled even, they didn't know what they did wrong, i mean they care for each other, spent a lot of time together, they fulfill each other's emotional needs, they keep each other happy, so what rly goes wrong then??

Well guess fucking what, they totally forgot that anti fairies are supposed to do the opposite of what their fairy counterparts do so instead of their fairy counterparts being in love **romantically**, they became in love**platonically**, its in their gene after all lololol!!!!! so long story short they eventually marry after agreeing that their marriage might not be as perfect as it is, but with love, trust and an unbreakable bond, it will always be perfect in its own ways and they wouldn't trade it for anything the end !!!!

[unikittybigbrightworldau]

[Image Description: Two Amino messages from @/ErinThePrettyKitty that read, “Ok, how did these lands as they are now come to be?” and “Were there any, say, wars for the territory or divisions needed to be made?” /End ID.]

I’m just gonna answer this one with text because I didn’t know what to draw for some parts, and because it was taking me too long…

The Unikingdom

The Unikingdom was established on beautiful green hills that basked in the happy sunlight. Its name comes from the unicorns who made their home on these hills many, many years ago. They were silly and over-the-top fun. In their land, quite literally anything could happen.

Other creatures lived on these hills, which the unicorns noticed. And while one unicorn was trotting to the top of a hill, he fell in love with a cat who was relaxing on the top. For a long time, it seemed like that love could never be. No one knew what to make of two completely different creatures being together in this way. Despite everyone’s disapproval and the hardships they faced, the couple stayed positive, hoping they could share their future together.

Sometimes, the constant randomness and mayhem in this land led to excitement. But other times, it threatened to tear the people apart, like when a bunch of massive stony monsters went on a rampage one day. Even as the beasts attacked, that pair of unlikely lovers kept their heads up. They even stepped forward to fight back.

This strong positivity spread to other people who were inspired to put their differences aside and help them. By working together, they struck the beasts down. The couple helped everyone around them see that anything could be possible with positivity and friendship. Thanks to them, all the creatures were getting along much better- and they could finally be together!

Eventually, everyone looked up to the unicorn and the cat, trusting them to be their leaders. They also had a daughter, whom they built a huge castle for. With that, the Unikingdom was born! As the years went by, it became known as the most positive place in all the world.

Much later, someone grew determined to extinguish that positivity…

Swan Lake

Swan Lake began with birds and other woodland creatures settling around the huge lake. At first, these settlements thought they were living next to the sea. But, people from one side of the lake crossed it to the other side, confirming to them that it was a lake.

Most sides of the lake were brought together by one of the earliest Swan Queens. Under her rule, lots of boats and ships were built so that they could travel across the lake, and the rivers spilling out of it, more easily.

The grace and style of the Swan royalty and nobility influenced the people greatly. All around the lake, they tried to emulate their movements and their sense of style.

Not too far away, there were marshes and wetlands home to a special kind of moss that could be used to make clothing. While Swan Lake treated these swamps fairly, Elegancia tried to take more than their fair share. For a long time, it was disputed territory between them, resulting in several conflicts that Swan Lakers know today as the Marsh Wars. There were five of them, and the last one resulted in Swan Lake assuming control of the wetlands. This served as Elegancia’s last reminder to not keep taking more and more.

Swan Lake continued on as a monarchy for centuries, up until an evil sprite named Volehog stormed the palace and overthrew the queen. Even though the people managed to defeat Volehog, she’d severely totaled the palace, and there wasn’t anyone left who could take the throne. A group of swans who had a sisterly bond with one another decided to lead the land, and they became the first swan ministers. They’ve elected ministers to run the nation ever since.

Ice Cream Land

The first civilization in what is now Ice Cream Land is called Daira (because of dairy). It was home to globs of snow who evolved into living frozen treats, as well as tundra animals and ice unicorns. They were best known for their use of bowls and buckets, which they used to collect milk with. Over time, as people discovered more and more flavors in their sugary environment, they started to develop different tastes. This eventually led to Daira collapsing.

For hundreds and hundreds of years onward, the kingdoms that sprung kept breaking up and reunifying again and again. At one point, they were divided into societies based on tastes, such as sweet, sour, savory and bitter. They were then reunified into a land themed around ice. But later on, they broke apart again into lands based on types of frozen desserts, like ice cream and snow cones.

During one era, the people were split into territories based on the three flavors- strawberry, chocolate and vanilla. In the wintertime one day, a group of the citizens decided to combine those three flavors together. Everyone around them loved their combination, and so they went on a tour across the three kingdoms to share it with everyone else. Soon, Ice Cream Land reunified once more into what it is now.

Elegancia

As you may already know, Elegancia sits on a large deposit of gemstones, and so, everything always seems to sparkle there. People noticed this when they first started living on the island. They treated themselves to the luxury and lavishness that the thousands upon millions of gemstones they unearthed brought them.

Later on, there were a bunch of small kingdoms on the island that were based around different kinds of gemstones. They were respectively based on gems of warmer colors, gems of cooler colors, brilliant green gems, multicolored gems, black and white gems, and diamonds. These kingdoms were eventually unified by a gemstone being from the diamond kingdom who was recognized as their king. They've been unified like that since then, and they had big, fancy celebrations every year to celebrate that union.

Originally, the new kingdom was called the Kingdom of Glim. But then came the time when it was ruled by a royal house of colorful doves with sparkly feathers. They led the land to focus on its broader elegance rather than just the gemstones, and so it was renamed to Elegancia.

Marevi

In the earliest days of Marevi, those waters were not a very safe place to live in. While the merpeople and sea animals there were still learning how to live and be, they didn’t take very good care of the world around them. They seemed to be more concerned with taking and surviving with no consideration of their impact on the earth. A creature from the trench, a viperfish, pressured them all into continuously taking and didn’t let them rest for even a minute. They pushed their ocean closer and closer to falling apart at the bricks.

One day, however, they noticed a rather strange something bobbing along the water’s surface. It was a white water lily that had somehow managed to float all the way out into the ocean. They had no idea what this strange flower was or how it got there, but they were shocked and enthralled at how beautiful it was. Of course, it shriveled up some time later, because it wasn’t going to last there for very long.

Then, everybody was addressed by a mermaid who cared about the sea she lived in. She told everybody that, yes, it was beautiful, but it couldn’t have lived for that long, especially not when it was floating around in salt water, without proper care. She said that the merpeople needed to nurture and honor the life of the world, and if they did, then it would give them as much life and energy as that lily had.

From then on, they treated their earth and the bricks it was built with like a friend of theirs, giving to it what they wanted to get from it. As they farmed, they made sure to care for the land they planted on. They came to respect and love the ocean they lived in, which weakened the influence of the viperfish. They ignored it, and it suffered alone in the trench. That was how Marevi was founded.

As the kingdom grew, spanning across many different undersea biomes, they realized that different biomes required different procedures to be cared for. For instance, a kelp forest would need to be attended to more quickly than a wide seabed of golden sand. So, they divided up the biomes to be different regions of the kingdom.

Botania

Botania is known for pioneering farming techniques when their civilization first started developing. They invented, and I mean literally invented, agricultural tools and processes that are still used by people now. The fairies and sentient bugs created techniques that allowed smaller beings to farm. The different biomes were connected through selling their crops to one another.

The nation itself was first founded around a super important tree, located in the forest where the Tree of Vitality presently is. Everybody respected this tree because it provided shelter for them when it was cold or rainy, and it gave them food to eat and seeds to plant. A butterfly fairy was named the protector of this tree, and he and other creatures of every species and size devoted themselves to living with their land.

In the other biomes, people were getting shelter and resources from rainforest trees, tall grasses, desert cacti and tundra shrubs. They held similar beliefs to the forest residents about valuing their land, so they all decided to unite and become what Botania currently is. They formed lots of routes throughout all the biomes to stay connected with one another.

Charm Valley

An ice age happened in this world. And when it did, there was a glacier so wide that, when it finally melted, it created such an enormous valley. When the elves, humanoid figures and fantasy creatures showed up, they were on deep enough ground for them to unearth magic. Over time, the magic spread all throughout the world, but it is and has always been the most concentrated in the valley.

The people of the valley built up their land on finding ways to capture or use this mysterious force. It helped them with gathering food sources, building shelters, and devising their own kinds of tech. They learned about the ten types of magic and what types of magic would work for a particular situation. The earliest kinds of magic to be named were Air and Life.

The people went on to craft tools that they could wield magic with. The earliest known ones were these kinds of beta wands made with sticks, but magic tools significantly advanced with these little charm things that could cast spells more efficiently and effectively. That’s where Charm Valley is believed to have gotten its name, along with the charming, whimsical nature in the magic itself.

Malicious people from both within the valley and outside it have tried to destroy the magic or steal it for themselves. Once, a band of greedy elves raided a village in the north of the valley to try and take the residents’ magic tools. This attack is known as the Stellar Raid now because they were primarily focused on stealing Space magic. Another time, a bunch of woodland animals charged into the valley trying to extinguish the magic, but the people were able to defend themselves and put that threat to rest. Because of this, Charm Valley spent years cracking down on their security and justice systems, hence the mist cloud that hangs around it.

Frowntown

Frowntown was first established by humanoid figures who relied on the rain to bring them bountiful food and water. They resided in a place with consistent heavy precipitation levels. The name of their land has always had something to do with frowning because a leader of theirs was known for having a deep frown on his face, even when he was generally in a good mood. Historians debate on whether the original name of their land is spelled Frawan or Fawan.

The land eventually grew into a big city, thus becoming Frowntown. Back then, they weren't all that miserable, and there weren't any big disastrous things going on there. They were even on good terms with the Unikingdom, and the two lands helped each other out a lot. It was governed by a mayor.

However, when the Doom Lords emerged, they charged into the city to build themselves an office there. To do that, they took over the mayor's office and prompted him to build a new one somewhere else. They took away power from the mayors and turned Frowntown and the Unikingdom against each other. But, even a long time after they did, the mayors are still trying to do their job and tend to their citizens as best they can.

Today, Melancholia is the mayor of Frowntown, and she's doing her best to help her people. Unear and Pericorn understand that it isn't her fault that the Doom Lords are basically more powerful than she is. They're trying to help her fight back against them.

——

And that’s all of them! To wrap this post up, I’ll link you to…

[the-meat-machine]

Would you mind if I asked you for advice on Caliborn for a fic I'm working on? I love the little guy to death, but I'm currently struggling with my self-indulgent urges to put him in a less dominant role than he'd EVER accept in canon (if only because I'm a sucker for dominant characters being put in a submissive position, and Caliborn is simultaneously the ultimate candidate for that and the hardest to pull off).

How do you think he would react to a situation that makes him feel weak and puts him in a more submissive role, but that he enjoys enough to continue through with it in spite of that, or /maybe/ even because of it? It's difficult for me to even comprehend Caliborn not being totally dominant and still being in character, and I consider you an expert on the matter, which is why I ask.

Thank you in advance, if you choose to answer!

I think there are ways to make this work.

In general, Caliborn is not prone to self-reflection. He's a creature of pure id. He takes what he wants without ever bothering to consider why he wants it. Usually this works out fine for him, since most of the things he wants (to fuck shit up, hurt people, and generally cause mayhem) fit in with his self-image as a badass manly dude who doesn't give a shit about anyone.

The problem for him comes when he likes something that, on the surface, doesn't seem to fit in with his self-image. But even then, he doesn't tend to deny himself the things that he wants. Instead, he comes up with some batshit justification that makes it fit his self-image. Because he's the biggest badass and so by definition he must like everything for badass, manly reasons… right? An obvious example: I'm of the opinion that Caliborn's fascination with "tenderness" is way more genuine than he will ever admit. And then there's the absurd way he manages to justify his interest in "the yaois".

So. In this specific situation, I can see a world where submission is something that Caliborn enjoys. Maybe he gets a weird thrill out of being overpowered, out of feeling like he's in genuine danger, since those aren't things that happen to him much. (You could even argue that there's a basis for this in canon, in that he tries to build up Jake and Dave into heroes who can defeat him.) You just need to figure out a way for Caliborn's brain to rationalize it in the most ass-backwards, self-aggrandizing way possible.

If he can manage to convince himself that the whole thing is his idea (whether that's true or not) and that any perceived "weakness" on his part is just some filthy perverse roleplay where he's just ironically pretending to be weak when actually he's the strongest and best (again, whether that's true or not), it might work out.

Maybe he'll be willing to obey orders as part of a "game" if the prize for winning is good enough or the punishment for losing is bad enough. Or if what's happening is a surprise to him but he finds himself wanting to keep going anyway, maybe he can tell himself that he's actually "tricking" the other person into doing what he wants. Or maybe he can find a way to construe it as them acting out some sort of tender romantic scenario that he can pretend was his plan all along. Things like that. Ways that he can give up control while telling himself that he's not really giving up control.

(Or maybe the first time he gets beaten up it awakens something in him, and from then on he keeps subconsciously steering the timeline in directions that require him to get his ass handed to him at regular intervals. You know, just coincidentally. It's not like he likes getting pinned down under strong, muscular bodies, it just has to happen to ensure his dominance in the end. No getting around it. I doubt this is applicable to your scenario, but I thought of it and wanted to share because I kind of love the idea now.)

[izzyspussy]

[image description: a cropped photo of a bullet journal page showing four banners with geometric icons in green and brown. the icons are a play button, a scene board, an open book, and a writing quill. by each banner is listed something that corresponds to the icon in a matching color. /end ID]

Media I Loved Last Week

My favorite thing I listened to last week was Even Lovers Drown by Abby Bernstein. I was reminded of this song from seeing the poem it's inspired by and quotes in the lyrics and sought it out to listen to again. It's not on Spotify, which is the main place I listen to music so it's been a good long while since I've heard it. I first listened to it back in ye olde days of Grooveshark. Anyway, it's fun and I really like the poem and just the whole vibe. 10/10

My favorite thing I watched last week was Mayhem (free to rent at this link as of 5/12/23). It stars Steven Yeun, he gets covered head to toe in blood, he fucks Samara Weaving, he has so many fun little ideas, and he absolutely obliterates a couple dozen corporate lawyers. And he doesn't suffer any consequences whatsoever! Love that for him. And his bestie really got all tangled up in my heartstrings despite only being on screen for like five nonconsecutive minutes maybe. 10/10

My favorite thing I read last week was Change Partners by avocadomoon. Pretty much immediately post Chapter Two, Richie gets his phone hacked and the contents sold to papparazzi, and thus is outed. The fic manages to be mostly about him and his relationships more than the actual outing though, which is interesting and quite nice. I think it's really in character for the entire ensemble, which with so many characters is a feat. It also never has Richie ascribe to any particular label (aside from in the press, which is Different), which I personally really really like. 10/10

I wrote ~11k words total last week. Most of that was on the second draft of Paid Training, so tbh a lot of that is really more like words edited than words written. I'm re-writing it for the second draft, as I always do with originals, but not much is being added in just yet. I changed the names like usual, but this time I've also changed two main characters' genders. I've gotten to the part in the draft where that actually becomes relevant and a lot more will have to be changed from draft one, so it'll be a lot slower going from here on. I got about 2k added to Curse The Messenger, which I'm not very happy with because I'm still months behind on my ideal schedule lmao. At the same time I'm giving myself some lenience on that because, like, it's tough to write about something horrific as it's actually happening to you in real life even with twelve degrees of fantastical separation. And also it's hard to write a research montage that isn't boring as hell. But hopefully that'll be picking up soon idk, we'll see. I have to figure out how to insert the interesting stuff in there without it being obvious, and then how to move tf on. I'm creeping up on the current end of my outline too, man, idk. Whatever.

[artific3r]

TELL ME ABOUT ONE OF YOUR AUS BRO ID LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT IT I LOVE AUS

Hell yeah time to talk about my au- *gets the shit kicked out of me by midterms*

Uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh oopsie doopsie a month passed ANYWAY

Here's my seperated au with extra steps lol (I intend to start posting about my aus more (edit: LOL nevermind I GUESS) so I'm calling this extra steps au) 

Also i think (?) Jennika and Venus were girl turtles that were supposed to be added in the show and then never got to be so those two are in this au but I know nothing about them so uhhhh my characters now >:3

It's a separated AU where Splinter takes Raph, Draxum gets Donnie, Big Mama gets Mikey, and Hueso takes in Leo.

BUT Splinter KNOWS about the other turtles, he just couldn't grab them in time. So a lot of time is spent searching for the other turtles, hoping he could find them.

In this process he finds a very young, very parentless, Cassandra Jones, and he takes her in too. So Raph and Casey grow up as siblings. 

It's a long time later, Raph is around eight, when they finally do find Leo. And it's not Splinter who finds him, its Raph. So Leo and Raph find out about each other young, but they haven’t known each other since birth. 

Draxum in this au is not a like totally shitty father. I, personally, like to think that if he HAD kept the turtles, that he would have dropped the whole “murder humanity” thing in order to focus on being a father. And in this au, he pretty much does that. 

Anyway, Donnie is still a highly skilled and trained warrior due to Draxum teaching him from a young age, but Draxum didn’t force that on Donnie, Donnie wanted to and so Draxum taught him. Also, Draxum is still working on ending humanity, but its like. A personal project lol. He decided to let Donnie come to his own conclusion about humanity, and for the most part Donnie agrees with Draxum. Until, that is, he meets April (for the second time)

Mikey was found by Big Mama, but she didn’t really raise him. Or pay attention to him at all, in fact. She clearly had a favorite in Assistant (who Big Mama also found), and Mikey was left to kind of… wander the endless halls of the Battle Nexus and (to a lesser extent) the Grand Nexus Hotel. Mikey ends up becoming the champion of the Battle Nexus at a young age. Also, Mikey and Assitant are pretty close (at least when Big Mama isn't looking), and he calls Assistant "Tanny". Mikey isn't really given a name, he's generally just called things like kid, turtle, Big Mama's boy/child, little man, etc. That is, until he becomes Nexus Winner after which he's given the name Champion.

Donnie learns about "Champion" watching the Battle Nexus. He’s got it on idly in the background while he tinkers with something. He brings it up to Draxum, who recognizes him as Mikey. Draxum is banned from the battle nexus so Donnie begins training even harder, with the goal of joining the battle nexus to find Mikey and let him know who he is. 

Donnie enters and makes his way through the battle nexus at the age of 14 years old, and while he doesn’t get crazy far, he makes a pretty big impression for a newbie, and the resemblance to the primer champion definitely helps. He finds and meets Mikey, only to realize Assistant is also a turtle, and upon telling them both that they are all siblings, Mikey flees the Battle Nexus with Donnie. Tanny tries to flee too, but they almost get caught, and Tanny stays behind to cover for them. Mikey hides out with Draxum, and the three of them plan to get Tanny, who they now learn is likely Venus. 

April meets all four turtles in the span of like two months at the age of nine due to a series of coincidences, and then just does not put two and two together until they run into Mikey and Donnie again in this au’s version of episode 1. She knows about yokai and just kinda figured that there were just a lot of turtle yokai running around.

The four boys all finally meet each other in this aus version of Mystic Mayhem. This time it’s Leo, Raph, April, & Cassandra, with Mikey and Donnie not being present for… obvious reasons. April is trapped in Draxum’s lair for longer this time though, and actually runs into Donnie and Mikey. 

Of course, the fight after the Mad Dogs arrive ends up going way worse for them than in the original episode, because instead of 4 v 1 it’s  3 v 3, and both Mikey and Donnie are far more skilled in this version than in the original, and Leo is actually even worse at fighting than in the original show because Hueso didn’t feel like training his child in combat was actually super relevant to his life (which, you know, fair), and so Leo only started training with Splinter at around age 11. But both Mikey and Donnie aren’t fighting at full throttle.

The Lab is destroyed not by Mikey’s lack of control over his mystic weapon, but by an unfortunate combination of the goyles getting thrown around and Leo’s portal shenanigans.

The rest of the episode goes similarly, Mayhem is rescued and the Mad Dogs escape but the lab is destroyed and the oozequitoes are let loose. 

Jennika in this au more or less plays the role Cassandra does in the original show.

But uhhhh yeah that's kinda the basics of this au! I have a version of this post that is much longer and ramble-ier (I know, longer and more rambley than this? crazy) but I tried to get the basics down but I do NOT know how to be concise.

I have a LOT of aus though:

Wait: a future!turts +april and cassandra getting sent to the present au... kind of. its complicated, i am making a post for this one

Rise of the Unsleeping: a crossover au with the unsleeping city. also making a post for this one. 

Rising Fantasy Higher (working title, will probably change it lol): another crossover, this time with fantasy high/the seven. its the rottmnt characters in the world of spyre. I haven't thought about this one as much but i just think the turtles should just get to like. chill with kids their age and go to highschool and stuff. Maybe Augefort isn't the best place for that though lol

DGDT (pronounced digit, short for “Doppleganger Donatello”): Donnie is kidnapped and replaced by a robot copy of himself. But the robot copy doesn’t realize he’s not the real Donatello. Chaos (and drama) ensues.

hhhhhhhhh i love my silly little aus :3

[legends-live-in-memories]

Super-Rockin’ Wedding of the Century

AYO! Day 2 of MGI Trope Tussle! Team Enemies-to-Lovers for the win. I bring you another oneshot. but this time i used 3 prompts like a dumbass.

Fics Masterlist

Daminette Oneshot 4.3K words (no warnings except slight cursing)

Summary:

“Marinette is invited to the Super-Rockin' Wedding of the Century and she needs a date. Alya is both her best and worst wingman.”

Day 2 of MGI Trope Tussle, I used 3 prompts to make this thing: 1. "You don't have to like me, you just need to pretend you do." 2. "I like your costume. You look very cute." "Are you making fun of me?" 3. 'Write about a very unusual wedding proposal.' this is the culmination of all my efforts.

without further ado:

It was the biggest news on the internet. Global sensation, international rockstar, Jagged Stone, was officially engaged to childhood friend turned manager, Penny Rolling. Memes and fan theories stormed every corner of the web. Trending topics including #rockstar_wedding and #RollingStone permeated every social media platform. Guest lists were speculated, dress designers were tagged in every post that even mentioned the words ‘wedding�� or ‘bride’. It was total mayhem but none felt it worse than up-and-coming Parisian designer, M. D. Cheng, privately known as Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

The young adult was up to her neck in design templates, and was drowning in half-baked ideas and sketches. While the internet has only heard about the proposal for a solid two weeks at this point, Marinette was in the know for six months. Jagged Stone had contacted her in advance because he needed her help with the proposal itself.

And what a proposal it was.  

Jagged had outlined his idea in simple terms but it was still so mind-boggling that Marinette needed him to draw some visual aids to completely convey his idea. Initially it sounded simple enough but the more the man spoke, the more Marinette felt her brain fry at the mental picture. It first involved recreating a scene from Penny’s favourite movie. Which sounded rather romantic, if you ignored the fact that her favourite movie was Bride of Chucky. Then it involved Jagged dressed as the Tinman from Wizard of Oz. Oh, and the proposal had to happen on Halloween because that was the anniversary of their first date apparently, and based on everything else this plan entailed it might as well have been. Marinette’s role in all of this was to simply re-make the white wedding dress Chucky’s bride, Tiffany, wore because Penny already had the leather jacket to match. Of course she did. She didn’t even want to know how Jagged acquired the Tinman suit. Not her barrel of monkeys.

While many thought Jagged was the eccentric one of the pair, due to his loud personality and being an actual rockstar, the more Marinette worked for the two of them over the years, the more she learned how absolutely wrong they all were. It turned out it was Penny’s idea for Jagged to dye his hair purple, and she was the one to ask him out on Halloween all those faithful years ago. Her calm and collected demeanor was an impressive cover for the absolute weirdo she actually was. And Jagged had planned a proposal that was undoubtedly perfect for her. Regardless of how abso-fucking-lutely bizarre it was.

To each their own and let’s move on.

The set-up for the proposal started with Jagged, dressed as the Tinman, playing the part of Chucky, who begins the body-switching chant from the movie. Everything from that point on was resting on Penny’s love for the movie. Without hesitating, Penny, dressed as Tiffany, and playing her part, knew the lines by heart and immediately began reenacting the scene with Jagged. Her lines involved telling ‘Chucky’ to kiss her while she reaches for a knife that’s supposed to be in his pocket. Instead, as Jagged was still dressed as the Tinman, Penny pulled out a slip of paper. On said paper, the words ‘All the Tinman wanted was a heart’ were written in Jagged’s almost illegible chicken scratch. When Penny was distracted with the piece of paper, Jagged had gotten down on one knee and pulled out the engagement ring. The actual words of his proposal were never actually said because, upon seeing the ring, Penny flung herself into the man, clipping her chin into his metal-plated shoulder, but she wasn’t complaining.  

So that was how the proposal went.

Wedding planning started almost immediately since the newly engaged had already picked a theme. And this is where Marinette began to regret every life choice she has made since she was thirteen; starting with opening the mysterious box she found on her desk and ending with agreeing to being the main designer for the Rockin’ Wedding of the Century. One thing that wasn’t well-known but not a secret about Jagged was that he was a superhero fan. He grew up enjoying the fictional ones in his childhood comic books and he adored the real ones he witnessed in his adult life. His song that he dedicated to the teenage Ladybug was only one part of his… appreciation. His hero-worship went so far as to beieve that a hero-themed wedding was appropriate. Or he didn’t, but also didn’t care about adhering to societal propriety and went with that theme anyways. So the Rockin’ Wedding of the Century was now the Super-Rockin’ Wedding of the Century. And twenty-three year old Marinette was incharge of the entire wedding party’s outfits.

Perfect.

As a small mercy from some god, both the bride and groom to-be had a rather short list of people in their parties. Marinette was also able to design appropriate hero-themed outfits for all of them and scheduled them for fittings in the coming weeks. That, surprisingly, was the easy part as there were plenty of heroes to draw inspiration from. However, that wasn’t the cause of her current crisis right now.

No. Marinette was up to her neck in unnecessary designs and ideas because she’s been avoiding one particular contingency in her acceptance of the wedding invitation.

She needed a date.

She needed a date because she had promised Penny that she wasn’t overworking herself and to prove it, she would bring a date to the wedding. Rather than call any of the people who expressed interest in her at some point in time, she designated herself to wallow in her situation and distract herself with designs. In the midst of her one person pity party, her phone rang under the sea of ripped out pages. She scoured for the device and hastily answered before she could accidently send the caller to voicemail.

“Hello?” She didn’t check the caller ID and was delighted at the sound of her best friend answering her.

“Marinette! How’s it going over there?” Alya’s voice was mixed in with the busy street life of Metropolis. She had moved there immediately after high school, snatching an internship with the Daily Planet and attending the local community college. She and Marinette don’t call often due to time differences, but when they do it’s like they’ve never parted. She always looked forward to her calls.

“It’s going great, Als,” if she ignored her current dilemma, then yeah, everything was perfect. “But you wouldn’t happen to have an available bachelor willing to be my date to the ‘Super-Rockin’ Wedding of the Century’ in your back pocket, would you?”  

Alya’s answering laugh was both comforting and teasing and Marinette felt herself missing her even more. What she said next, however, took Marinette by surprise.

“Actually I do.”

“Pardon?”

“Well,” she took a pause to build suspense. “I know a guy who knows a guy. But it’s nothing shady, I swear.”

“That’s not comforting.” Oh god. What has she unintentionally signed herself up for?

“You know my coworker, Jon? The guy who does the photography for all my field work?” Alya had met Jon as soon as she had started her internship. Both of his parents were top journalists at the Daily Planet so he volunteered to act as tour guide for all the new interns. He and Alya, from the exasperated stories Marinette has heard from Nino, got along like a house on fire. If he was involved, Marinette was starting to doubt even further that this was going to end well for her.

“Yes, I know Jon. How is he by the way?”

“He’s fine, but I remember him telling me how he tried to set up his best friend on several dates over the years and how they all ended poorly. He’s as approachable as a brick wall; not just a prick but the whole damn cactus. Or so Jon says.” How does that sound like someone Marinette wanted to bring along with her to the wedding? “But he’s totally your type so I could ask Jon to wrap him up in bubblewrap and send him your way whenever you want.”

“How,” and Marinette said this with a lot of feeling, “is he my type exactly?”

“Green eyes with daddy issues.”

“ALYA!” Marinette was absolutely floored at her bluntness. She wasn’t even sorry about shouting into the receiver.

“Am I wrong? You have a type and he fits that type. Jon mentioned how this guy and his dad hit several roadblocks when they first met. And I’ve seen pictures of him so ‘green eyes’ checks too.”

“That is not my type of guy.” She can’t believe this was how this conversation was going.

“Adrien.”

“I didn’t even know who his father was at the time, Alya.”

“Felix.”

“His dad is dead! That doesn’t count as ‘daddy issues.’” She can feel her cheeks flaming as the call went on. Any hotter and she was going to set her sketchbooks on fire. “Besides, I dated Luka so he doesn’t fit the criteria.”

“He’s an outlier and that’s only because his eyes are blue.” Okay, fine she had a type. “And besides, you don’t even have to date the guy. You only need him to accompany you to the wedding and you both go your separate ways after. No harm, no foul.”

Right. That was true. No strings attached. She could do that.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this but,” she held her breath and let it out loudly, ignoring Alya’s chuckle at her dramatics.” Give Jon my number to give this guy. And send his number to me.”

“Wahoo! Look at you, girl,” Alya was hooting and hollering over the speaker and Marinette found herself going along with the theatrics. “Okay, I will. But I gotta go, my cab is here. Bye!”

“Bye! Stay safe. Oh before you go, what’s Jon’s friend’s name anyways?”

“Uh, Damian, I think.” The call ended before Marinette could respond, but it was okay she mused. Tossing her phone onto her couch, she flopped down onto her floor and stared at her ceiling contemplatively.

What could go wrong?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Alya had described this Damian guy as ‘not just a prick but the whole damn cactus,’ she was right. Marinette had been texting back and forth with Damian for a month, and the guy was making this idea seem less and less worth it by the day. Whenever Marinette tried to learn more about the guy, he would ghost her for days on end before replying with a half-assed response at best. She knew nothing about him other than that his first name was Damian and that he was from Gotham. She had no idea how the ball of life that was Jon was even friends with someone like Damian. She asked as much to Alya in their most recent call.

“How did they even meet?” She was pacing the floor plan of her apartment, ready to tear her hair out. “Did Damian bully him in school or something?”

“Apparently their dads knew each other and introduced them,” Alya sounded half awake, stifling a yawn; probably because Marinette had called her at 1 am, Metropolis’s time. “Their brothers being friends also forced them to get along.”

“And that’s another thing!” Marinette had paused in her pacing and was now staring intently at a potted plant in the corner of her living room. Any more rage in her glare and the plant would have wilted and died. “He doesn’t tell me anything about him. I don’t need to know all his personal information, but if he’s going to be flying out to Paris on my behalf, I think I at least deserve to know his last name.”

“Hey, M,” another yawn echoed through the speaker, “I love you, truly, but maybe this could wait for holier day time hours?”

“I guess,” a vindictive part of Marinette felt like this was payback for all those inopportune calls when Marinette was busy with clients. “Sorry for interrupting your sleep.”

“It’s no big deal. But have you tried talking to him about it? If he’s ghosting your texts, try calling him. If he ignores you then too then maybe you should try finding another person to be your plus one.”

“The wedding is in two weeks, Alya!” Marinette partially regrets waiting so long to vent her frustration about the situation but she had tried to tough it out. “I would have much preferred if you were my plus one. You sure there’s no way to convince your parents to skip out on the family trip?”

“Sorry, M. Once the news about the proposal hit the internet, I tried everything. I even tried to use work, saying that I could cover the ceremony for the newspaper. My folks won’t budge though. My dad’s aunt is important to him and he wants us all at the funeral.”

“Right, right, I forgot about that.” Now she felt like an ass. “Send you dad my condolences when you see him again.”

“Will do. Good morning, Marinette. And don’t worry too much about the guy. Everything will turn up great. I can feel it.”

“Thanks, Alya. Good night, get some sleep.”

The line went dead and Marinette let out a rather weary exhale. She had no idea how this was going to work. She pulled up her contacts and searched for what she had Damian saved as.

‘Douche’ flashed on her screen and she hit the call button without remorse. She didn’t care that it was also currently 1 am in Gotham. He didn’t deserve that much consideration from her.

“What?” His voice was gravely and deep. And also really pissed if his clipped tone was anything to go by.

“Damian? Hi, this is Marinette, the girl you’re accompanying to the wedding in two weeks?” Her voice was pitched as if she was dealing with an irritating customer. Fake and polite.

“I know who you are. Why are you calling me at this unreasonable hour?” Fair, but Marinette was still aggravated at him so she wouldn’t concede.

“I’m calling because we need to talk.” She heard him scoff over the line and she felt her blood boil even hotter. She took several calming breaths to reign her temper in. “Don’t hang up.”

“Look,” She didn’t give him a chance to refuse and kept talking, getting everything off her chest. “This wedding is important to me and I promised the bride I would bring a date. After that you can delete my number and we never have to speak to each other ever. You don’t have to like me, you just need to pretend you do.”

“Whatever,” he sounded less annoyed from when he first answered the phone. “I will act as cordial as the situation requires, and nothing more. I also have my attire secured for the wedding and accommodations in Paris already prepared. I will see you at the wedding.”

“Than—” The sound of the call ending interrupted her and her frustration was back tenfold. With a cry in anguish she flung her phone onto her couch and stomped into her kitchen to channel her rage into baking.

Three loaves of bread and a dozen eclairs later, Marinette felt calm enough to finish the final touches on her outfit for the wedding.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was the day of the Super-Rockin’ Wedding of the Century. The Rolling-Stone’s, as they were asking to be called, had kept the ceremony small. Relatively. Only two hundred invited guests, few of which were asked to bring a plus one. Marinette was over the moon at the array of outfits people were sporting. Some chose full-on cosplay while others, like herself, went for more subtle nods to the heroes. In honour of a previous Ladybug, Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, Marinette based her outfit off of Wonder Woman’s uniform, Hippolyta’s daughter. A navy blue sequined halter top bodice that flows into a blood red A-line skirt. She paired it with a thick silver belt, silver gladiator heels rather than boots and broad silver arm cuffs. It was simple but effective. Besides, all attention should be on the bride and groom today.

A tap on her shoulder caught her attention and she turned only to come face first with red with black spots. Ladybug. Someone chose her as inspiration. How flattering. Looking up to see who was wearing the Ladybug-themed suit jacket, she stared at a pair of deep forest green eyes and a sneer to ruin that ridiculously handsome face. She recognized him from the photo Alya had sent some time ago. Damian.

“Hi, Damian,” at least one of them had to be civil and Marinette knew it was going to be her. But the idea that of all the heroes for him to choose from he chose her sent her into poorly stifled fits of giggling. Images of him going ‘Lucky Charm’ and ‘Miraculous Ladybug’ were almost too much to bear.

“I don’t know what’s so amusing about my choice of attire,” his face was starting to flush in similar shades to his jacket and that made Marinette laugh harder. “Ladybug is a well respected heroine and I thought it appropriate to pay homage while in her home city.”

“No. No no. There is nothing wrong with it. I like your costume, you look very cute.”

“Are you making fun of me?” His irritation was rather cathartic for the still giggling woman.

“No, I just didn’t think you would have put that much thought into your outfit for today. You always gave me the impression that you were ready to back out at any time.”

“I made a commitment and I had all intentions to see it through the end.”

“Could have fooled me.” And her snark was back. Now was not the time to pick a fight with the guy, he did fly all the way to Paris on her behalf after all.

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” and Marinette wanted to know how he managed to sound so condescending with that statement. “How did you even get an invitation to this wedding anyways? You’re not a celebrity and you don’t look like family either.”

“Actually,” she said it with more force than what was probably necessary but his slightly accusatory tone was just so irritating. “I am the lead designer for the wedding party,” her chest was swimming with confidence at the chance to talk about her job. “I’ve worked with the bride and groom for years; M. D. Cheng, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Marinette will deny to her grave the rush of satisfaction at the absolute gobsmacked look on Damian’s face. A real fish out of water. Mouth open wide ready to catch flies. She wished she could capture this moment forever.

The moment was over too soon because Damian was regaining his composure and slipping into his default stoic expression. He cleared his throat and fixed a look at Marinette. It was rather intense.

“I believe I owe you an apology then.” He looked put-out at admitting something so menial. “I believed you were nothing more than a socialite chain climber.”

“A what?”

“When Jon reached out to me saying that a friend of one of his coworkers needed a date for an event, and when that event turned out to be the wedding of someone of such popularity, I figured you were only trying to increase your own social status by showing up with me on your arm.”

“And you said ‘yes’ anyways?” Marinette was confused but pieces of the mystery that is Damian were starting to fit in place. But something else stuck out as odd to her. “Also, how would you being my date increase my social status anyhow?”

He scoffs before answering. Bitch.

“What? It wouldn’t be the first time one of Jon’s set-ups ended that way. Besides, we’ve had an agreement that I can’t turn down an offer until meeting the person face to face.” Weird deal but some friendships are just like, Marinette supposes. “And being seen with me is enough to make anyone more popular.”

“...And you are?”

“Damian… Wayne…” He spoke as if he was talking to a small child. As if it should be obvious who he was like he was some celeb— Oh shit.

A name had flashed into her mind. On the finalised guest list, Marinette had only seen it once in passing, there was a name that belonged to someone Jagged was rather excited to see. He said the friend was an old college buddy. She remembered that much. She had completely forgotten that ‘a billionaire playboy’ was also attached to the name. Damian was the son of Bruce Wayne. Suddenly everything in the past few months made perfect sense. The cold shoulder, the ghosting, and his prickly disposition. He was overly guarded because he had justified reasons to be. Now she felt like an ass.

“Oh.” Real intelligent, Marinette.

“Oh? What, you didn’t know?” He sounded incredulous at the notion and he had every right to be. Marinette could only shake her head. Words were failing her now, her brain trying to rewrite the memories of every interaction the two ever had.

She was saved from further mortification by a call for everyone to find their seats. The wedding was about to begin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ceremony was beautiful. Penny’s dress was a silver grey, tied back with a golden belt. Instead of a long train, Marinette had attached a black cape that shimmered in the right lighting. Penny wore a tiara with two peaks to imitate the ‘bat-ears.’ A Batman-themed wedding dress was not something she ever saw herself making, but she was proud at how beautiful and confident Penny looked in it. Jagged was adorn in a royal blue suit with bold red lapels. He also had a matching red cape. His hair was styled in the familiar sleek way Superman wears it. The two made quite the pair.  

The reception was a lively affair. Jagged had dedicated several songs to his new wife and they dazzled the crowd on the dance floor. Marinette didn’t pay much attention to the speeches beyond a quick glance at Damian when his own father stepped up to the podium. He had buried his head in his hands, looking like he wanted the floor to swallow him whole. A courtesy pat on the back was all Marinette gave to him.

The two hadn’t really spoken much since the revelation that they had completely misjudged each other. The awkward tension was almost palpable. As Marinette was gathering the courage to speak to him, to try and officially clear the air, she was being dragged by one of the bridesmaids onto the dancefloor. It was time for the bride to throw the bouquet. All the unmarried women were being corralled into a tight cluster and Marinette got swept up in the tide.

Marinette wasn’t focusing on the actual game, trying her hardest not to get trampled, when she saw something move in her periphery. Years of being Ladybug had left her with finely honed instincts so she could not be blamed when she immediately jumped and caught the incoming object. The bouquet. She had caught the bouquet. Oh that was just her luck. Deafening squeals of delight brought her out of her own head and she was suddenly being embraced in Penny’s arms. She returned the hug, sharing in her delight, before breaking away to sit down.

“Nice catch.” His voice had surprised her, she hadn’t expected him to speak to her for the rest of the night.

“Uh, thank you. Just lucky, I guess.” Damian didn’t get the chance to respond because he was being dragged by his own father to join all the bachelors in catching the garter. Marinette was equally uninterested in this spectacle and had let her mind wander to other things.

A loud uproar caught her attention again and her eyes zeroed in on Damian holding the tossed garter. He made his way back over to her, dropping himself into his seat gracelessly. The two sat in silence, contemplating the implications of them both catching the garter and bouquet. The games were done purely for tradition’s sake, with total disregard of what it was supposed to symbolise. Still. One’s mind couldn’t help but wander. Minutes ticked passed and Marinette was beginning to wonder if someone was going to talk about the elephant in the room.

“So,” Damian’s voice was slightly strained, like he wasn’t used to being this flustered. It was kind of endearing. Wait what?

“So.”

“While marriage seems far out of reach for right now,” Oh god. He was going to talk about it. “How does dinner sound, next Friday?”

“Wait,” he wanted to spend more time with her? After their disastrous first impressions? “Really?”

“Really. I believe we started off on the wrong foot,” he let out a soft chuckle, almost self-deprecating. “Which isn’t really new for me, but it’s not everyday I meet someone who doesn’t recognise me at first glance. I think you’re someone who I would like to get to know better. If that is something you are also interested in.”

“Yeah,” Marinette knows all about wanting to get acquainted with someone who she’s had a bad first impression of. Just look at her past relationships. Wow, she really does have a type. Damning thoughts for later. “Friday works for me. Seven pm?”

“Perfect. I’ll text you the details then.”

“Wonderful, I can’t wait.”

The rest of the evening was spent in companionable silence with small bouts of conversation in between. They shared a couple dances on the floor and parted ways at the end of the night with budding anticipation for Friday.

As Marinette was preparing for bed that night in the comfort of her apartment, she sent a text to Alya that her friend would see later in the day.

You were right, I do have a type :(

[vergaytim]

horror movies i think the marauders + friends would survive in

james would do really really well in a movie like friday the 13th. he may seem like a dumbass, but he’d be smart and leave anywhere as soon as someone goes down. actually has braincells (just one, but also athletic skillz).

remus would survive a nightmare on elm street. man doesn’t sleep, remus could literally stay awake for days. and he probably wouldn’t be afraid of freddy anyways, let’s be honest he’d probably just defeat him with the power of extreme sarcasm.

sirius would survive scream. he’d pull a randy and because he’s watched literally every horror movie in existence (i self reflect okay) he’d just be like “YEAH I KNEW IT WAS YOU FROM THE START *insert person here*!” smartass in a dumbass disguise.

i was gonna say peter would survive truth or dare, but his true horror universe would be ari aster’s world, specifically the plot of midsommar. if you know what happens in that movie...you’ll agree with me. if you don’t know what happens...you don’t wanna know.

lily, aka the true boss bitch, would survive halloween. she’s smart and resourceful, and likes rules but isn’t afraid to break them. plus, i can see lily very much loving kids. and spoilers- pentunia would make the perfect michael myers tbh.

marlene would totally survive ready or not!!! plus my personal fancast for her is the actress who plays grace so that helps. marlene isn’t afraid to fight for herself and she’d just dominate her way through a situation like that.

dorcas meadowes would survive i know what you did last summer!!! she’s one of the only people who seems to actually have braincells, and would honestly solve the mystery in five minutes and then leave town cause she’s smart unlike someone who didn’t just leave the estate and decided to kill everyone first. not saying who exactly i’m talking about. 

let’s be honest, regulus would survive basically any situation you throw him in, but he’d take that pent up rage against his family and go all out if he was put in a you’re next type of situation. also this guy is really damn smart and should’ve been in ravenclaw i said what i said

bonus!!!

lol sirius and marlene would’ve had a really good time in mayhem. pure id, and no crimes you commit go against you? they’d literally just battle their way up to dumbledore and say bye bye to crusty old man once and for all, preventing the potter’s death cause james would have the cloak! woohoo! also samara weaving, the ultimate fancast for marlene plays mel (also grace in ready or not) so i mean...it has to be done

marlene as bill, sirius as richie, remus as eddie, peter as mike, james as ben, lily as bev, regulus as stan. the marauders are just the losers club in disguise

[kookaifoundation]

im such a bad genji that for me the fun part about playing genji is being so bad. like as a dps it's my job to go out there and kill but as genji i just go out there and distract the enemy, not killing anybody, but keeping the payload/point contested and generally being annoying for enemy tanks

[hotwings0203]

Hello!!!

I'm here with some Muslim Hawks headcanons!!

Okayyy soooo you that headcanon of how Hawks collects trinkets? Yeah Muslim Hawks would definitely flirt with you by giving you churiyan (probably gold or red ones lol) and when you wear them, he feels so possessive and can't control himself and play with your hands and fingers telling you how he can't wait to put a ring on you and how these colors look so pretty on you

Speaking of jewelry, when you guys get engaged (which you will cuz he knows how to keep a good reputation with the elders), he gives you jewelry that has his feathers incorporated in it

Okay! But if its not churiyan, I think he would get you an anklet bracelet (payal?), and lmao he would corner you and would crouch down and just softly touch your ankle while putting it on you, and to tease you, he would slowly trace his fingers up your leg while looking up at you with his sharp and playful gaze and he would relish in the way you blush and squeak Hawks! And run away LOLL

Also! He loves it when you feed him, will coo and chirp like a god damn bird. Again you know that trope of the bride feeding the groom, he would totally grab your hand to feed him, and maintain eye contact the whole time, his hawk like gaze pinning you in space and you're just trying not die from blushing

Nickenames!!! Has a plethora of nicknames for you like meri jaan, meri chaand, etc. but his main ones are 'meri chhoti churiya' (my little bird) or 'meri methi churiya' (my sweet bird)! And everytime he utters these names, it'd make you soooo flustered! And omg if he calls you that in front or near the elders, you'd blush so hard while subtly glaring at him and he would just smirk and wink at you lolll

Also I feel like he would be that asshole who scares you when you're at a party and telling djinn stories LOL like the kids and others are all gathered in a room after dinner, its after maghrib, and you are telling djinn stories or watching a horror movie, and when the scary part comes, he would send one his feathers to tickle your feet or touch your shoulder or ear, and you'd squeak and jump right into him (cuz of course hes sitting right beside you, even though you tried to move away from him, you know halal distances and stuff) and he's just sitting all smug and being like "don't worry jaan I'll protect you" LMFAO

Okay okay, that's enough for now, I'll send more soon!!!!

WIAFHFHFHFFN THE FIRST SENTENCE I WAS SOLD!! man I’ve been so excited and literally WAITING to tackle these cuz you always deliver the best headcannons

I could totally see over the expanse of him trying to court you your wardrobe if accessories would slowly shift over to red and gold colors, and if you don’t wear them then he gets all pouty and moody until you catch his drift and run back to wear his colors:)

OO FUUCCKKKK YO PAYAL IS SO SEXY AND FOR WHAT?? Like maybe you’re at someone else’s wedding sitting down from dancing so much, or just stuffed with food when he pounces on your vulnerable state.

“Hey there churiya(bird), I hope you liked my churiyan(bangles),” he snorts at his cringe joke and you can’t help but loosely suppress a laugh yourself.”

“Ha-ha Keigo, verryyyy funny. Arent you supposed to be schmoozing up to your usual harem?”

“My harem?” He pretends to look shocked and places a hand on his chest. “I’m insulted, truly. It’s not a harem, it’s a cult.”

“Ugh!” You get up to leave when he drops to a kneel and grabs your foot, preventing you from leaving.

“What’re you doing?”

“You know, I might have a cult following, but I think id rather keep you as my high priestess. What do you say?” You feel sturdy fingers dancing along your feet and you giggle as he tickles the bottoms.

Then a cold lightweight chain is looped around your toes and around your ankle. You angle to look at it in surprise, and open your mouth to ask why he’s putting payal on you when his fingers start to wander.

Your mouth is stuck open as you watch in shock how his nails lightly rake your smooth skin, and trace up your kameez, letting the cloth ride up your bare legs in a teasing taste of what was his to come.

“Yeah? You enjoying that churiya? There’s more where that came from,” he whispers as he draws his head near and drills his golden eyes into your fluttering ones.

“You-what-“ you sputter as he grips your knee as draws small circles at the back of it.

“If you want me to to higher, you gotta take me out on a date first. Or put a ring on it, either way doesn’t matter to me.”

“Hawks!” You try to pretend you don’t enjoy the sound of his boisterous laughter as you spring up and run to hide your face.

You know he’ll be back though. He always comes back.

As for the bird chirping noises, YES. ABSOLUTELY AND 100%!!

It’s on your wedding when he’s sitting next to you, clad in gold and white while you’re in a deep red (much to his pleasure).

The adults are chatting amongst themselves and turned away from you both when you decide to indulge him. You delicately pick up a piece of laddoo and bring the food to his mouth, turning his chin with your hand under it to face you.

He looks at you with wide eyes and then grins when he sees what you’re doing.

“Come on lardki. Don’t you know feeding mithai is bad for birds? They could die, y’know” he simpers yet accepts the food heartily, chomping away and looking at you with a twinkle in his eyes.

“Hmm, that’s too bad. And here I was thinking birds mate for life.” You flick your hair and get a taste of rasgullah yourself, licking the milky substance off your fingers slowly and relishing when he swallows hard at the sight.

It’s hard to hide your grin when his chirps come throughout the rest of the evening during the randomest of times, his face turning as bright as your lengha when he remembers the erotic sight.

I guess there really is a way to shut him up after all.

AND YESSS YO THIS ASSHOLE JUST LOOVEESSS DJINN STORIES😭

I bet y’all would be at a party, the kind that ends at 1 in the morning when all the kids are tired and delirious.

“Alright guys, gather around. I’m about to lighten this party up.” He claps his hands and waits for all the kids and young adults to circle around him excitedly, their fatigue washed away by the prospect of hearing how another one of their great ancestors was possessed.

It just so happens that you find yourself seated next to him (with the help of his feather with poked the butts of 8 year olds away with subtle yelps).

He makes sure to give you his signature wink and grin especially for you before he starts the story, and you cover your mouth to hide your smile and roll your eyes.

12 minutes in, the lights are all off and everyone is leaning forward, hooked on his story.

“And then, you know what happens to the girl?” He asks lowly in the dark. He can sense everyone’s holding their breaths, yours included.

“N-no, what happens?” One girl asks timidly.

“He POSSESS HER!” Keigo shouts and uses his feather to disperse around the room, sliding under people’s feet’s and knees, causing absolute mayhem as they all run around in the pitch black room and scream.

You weren’t given any mercy either, except your special feathers lift up and tilt your body to dump on his lap.

When he feels your hands searching in the dark in panic of who it is, he grabs your wrist and pulls you close to him, using the void of the room to relish in wrapping his arms and wings around you.

It’s just you and him in that moment, amongst the screams and shouts.

“K-keigo?”

“I’m here meri jaan. I’ll protect you from those big bad djinn,” he chuckles and brings his head near your neck, not touching exactly but rather brushing his nose against the column of your throat and growling when you shudder at the goosebumps racing across your arms.

[littlezas2]

[fireinmywoods]

the heart of the matter (is Leonard McCoy)

Followers...friends. I come to you today, hat in hand, to ask for your support in a certain fandom matter, a trifling concern of little real consequence which nevertheless has been driving me absolutely cross-eyed bonkers for some years now.

Simply put: can we please all agree that Bones is the heart of the Enterprise???

In AOS, I mean. I’m not aware of any debate over this when it comes to TOS, where the roles of the triumvirate have always been explicit, though there are a few different ways to identify them:

Spock = logos = superego = head

Bones = pathos = id = heart

Kirk = ethos = ego = soul

So clear! So clean! So universally accepted by Trek fandom at large!

Oh, but things get murkier in AOS, and there are plenty of posts floating around which suggest that it’s Kirk, not McCoy, who serves as the heart in the Kelvin timeline. Even the writers of the first two AOS films have outright stated that their interpretation of the triumvirate had the original roles switched, with Kirk as the highly emotional one and McCoy as the arbiter between Kirk’s passion and Spock’s logic. It’s true that this technically counts as a Word of God pronouncement by the actual creators of 2/3 of the series thus far, which some would argue renders it canon. However, it’s equally true that those same creators also felt that Kirk was a fuckboi and that Benedict Cumberbatch wonderfully embodied their vision for Khan Noonien Singh, so honestly, who gives a hot hollerin’ fuck what those dingdongs think. This seems as justified a time as any to invoke Death of the Author, and in fact, it’s my firm belief that despite the writers’ intentions, Star Trek and Into Darkness both support the original triumvirate breakdown.

Under the cut you’ll find a long-winded and self-indulgent ~*~character analysis~*~ of the Kelvin-timeline incarnations of Jim Kirk and Leonard “Bones” McCoy, reviewing why Leonard is still unmistakably the heart, unpacking what the hell Jim’s deal is, and finally taking a look at some key examples from canon, because ya girl believes in showing her work.

Let’s get down to business.

[A quick warning, as this is starting to spread beyond my own followers: if you don’t like McKirk as a romantic pairing, you ain’t gonna like part IV, so I’d bow out before then or just take your leave now.]

i. Leonard

Independent of Jim’s characterization, it should be blindingly obvious that Leonard is the heart. He’s by far the most nakedly emotional of our seven core crew members, a trait we see writ large and small throughout the films. He’s reactive; he’s passionate; he’s humane. He cares, first and foremost.

Not about Starfleet, of course. Leonard doesn’t give a damn about playing the game or advancing his career, or even really about the Enterprise’s mission - he has no desire to explore strange new worlds, he’ll pass on seeking out new life and new civilizations, and he spends half his time trying to convince everyone else that boldly going where no man has gone before is a great way to die horribly. Fuck exploration, fuck space, and fuck the Federation while we’re at it. Leonard is perhaps the most improbable of the Enterprise’s senior officers for the simple reason that he seems to resent everything about the job.

Well. Almost everything.

See, what Leonard cares about is people. He cares about their lives, about their stories, about their hopes and dreams, about their suffering. That’s why he entered and has stayed in an extremely taxing caring profession, and it’s why he’s still on the Enterprise despite his incessant bitching about everything they do. He wouldn’t trust anyone else to take care of the crew he’s become so attached to, and he finds fulfillment in helping the people they encounter out there in the nightmare of space.

In every timeline, Leonard McCoy defines himself by what he can do for others: the pain he can ameliorate, the wounds he can heal, the diseases he can cure, the small amounts of good he can bring to a galaxy filled with so much absolute horseshit. Unlike most of his colleagues, he’s not motivated by curiosity or an adventurer’s spirit or a burning desire to make sense of the universe. (Fuck the universe, too, as a matter of fact.) Instead, he’s driven by the incredible depths of his compassion and empathy and concern for the people he serves alongside and those they meet along the way.

Sure sounds like the heart to me.

ii. Jim

I actually totally get why some people characterize Kelvin-timeline Jim as the heart. He’s quite literally a different man than the original timeline’s Kirk, and he definitely has more of the pathos qualities to him. Early on, he’s a total spitfire, fierce and hot-blooded, quick to anger and other sharp-edged emotions we’re not used to associating with James T. Kirk. Even as he grows into himself and leaves some of those traits behind, he remains spontaneous, passionate, protective, and self-sacrificing - easy enough to mistake for the heart if you squint.

But let’s not confuse having a heart for being the heart. Sure, Jim is more openly emotional and reactive than his TOS counterpart, but there’s still a marked difference between the way he and Leonard express and act on their emotions.

AOS Jim definitely has a lot of feelings - big ones - but at the end of the day, he’s not driven by his heart. He’s driven by his gut.

Whenever there’s trouble, Jim makes a beeline right for the center of it. He’s impulsive as hell, rarely pausing to think past his first instinct, because he just wants to be doing something, no matter the odds, no matter what it costs him. He explicitly calls himself out on this in ST:ID when arguing with Spock: “I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. I only know what I can do.” He doesn’t have the patience or the constitution to sit and debate all the options, either internally or with his crew. If there’s a path forward from where he is, even a bad one, Jim’s gonna take it.

[Sidebar: One could make the case that the roots of Jim’s instinct to act reach back to his childhood traumas - canonically ignored abuse and neglect on the one hand, and the Tarsus IV famine and massacre on the other - but that’s a whole post on its own and we ain’t got all day here.]

Jim can’t not act, and while that gets him into a lot of trouble, it also saves lives. Sulu probably appreciated that Jim’s gut drove him to leap off Nero’s drilling platform without a moment’s hesitation after a man he’d only just met. He may have been a real shithead about it, but Jim’s impassioned insistence on going after the Narada and not wasting time on the possibility of a better option was key to saving Pike and Earth itself. And I don’t know why Spock was so surprised that Jim intervened to save him on Nibiru, considering that the reason they were there in the first place was because Jim couldn’t sit back and watch the Nibirans die when there was something his crew could do to help them, even if it meant risking a violation of the Prime Directive.

Jim is a good man with a big heart, and he cares about people, absolutely. But he cares most of all about Doing The Right Thing - which in the heat of the moment often translates to Doing Something, Anything, Hold My Beer.

iii. heart vs. gut (i.e., time for some receipts)

I think one of the main reasons Leonard and Jim’s characterizations get confused is because they both tend to act on instinct, only lightly informed by higher reasoning. However, I’d argue that their motivations and the nature of those actions are super distinct, and those distinctions remain relatively consistent throughout all three films. (And y’all know I really mean this shit if I’m out here calling ST:ID consistent.)

Jim is a big picture guy, figuratively and often literally heaving himself full-body into the mix of whatever problem the crew has encountered for lack of any better alternative. That energy propels the plots of all three films: the chaotic path he carves through the events of Star Trek and ST:ID, and the slightly calmer but still undeniably bananas course he charts for himself and his crew in the second half of Beyond.

As the heart, Leonard operates on a more micro level. His concern invariably lies with the individual people caught up in those grand events Captain Chaos is busy dragging them all through. While Jim’s zooming around flipping plot switches, Leonard can always be counted on to bring it back to the personal.

We frequently see this juxtaposed right there on film. Think of that slow pan through medbay in the first movie after the Narada’s ambush and the destruction of Vulcan: while Jim is stewing over what to do about the Big Bad, Leonard has stepped into the CMO role without fuss or fanfare to care for the wounded crew and traumatized survivors.

Or jump ahead to Beyond: during Krall’s attack on the Enterprise, there’s a gorgeous cinematic shot of Jim sprinting down the corridor with two crew members to take on the invaders - and then we cut to Leonard moving slowly through those same ghastly red-lit corridors, searching for casualties in need of help, visibly affected by what his scanner is telling him about the downed crewman he tries to save.

Actually, Beyond as a whole does terrific justice to each of their roles. (Perhaps because it was not written by dingdongs.) The first act finds Jim flailing around for a sense of purpose and forward momentum - an understandable consequence of a gut-driven character having stalled out for too long - and he ultimately gets his mojo back by spending the rest of the film careening through one insane seat-of-his-pants ploy after another. Meanwhile, in the quieter moments between all the mayhem, Leonard serves as the empathetic sounding board for both Jim and Spock as they struggle with deep emotionally charged secrets and Big Life Questions, helping them untangle their feelings and reminding them of the emotional attachments which are ultimately key to their respective decisions to stay on the Enterprise.

More examples, you say? Don’t mind if I do!

Star Trek

GUT: Jim hurtles around the Narada, improvising almost every step of the way and paying the price for his and Spock’s scheme in bodily harm, and ultimately succeeds in rescuing Pike. HEART: Leonard calls out for Jim as he runs into the transporter room, overwhelmed with relief that he’s made it back, and takes Chris Pike’s weight literally and figuratively onto his own shoulders to begin healing him while Jim runs back off to the center of the action.

Star Trek: Into Darkness

GUT: Jim argues with Leonard, Spock, and Scotty in quick succession as he’s preparing to drag them all off to Qo’noS, immune to their attempts to reason with him because, unraveled as he is by grief and pain, he can only focus on his visceral drive to Do Something. HEART: Unlike the others, Leonard is upset not about the larger moral questions of whether it’s right to go after John Harrison or bring torpedoes aboard the ship, but about the fact that Jim himself is hurt and hurting and won’t accept help.

GUT: Jim makes a snap decision to sacrifice himself by hurling his body against the warp core to realign it and save his crew. HEART: Shellshocked by the emotional grenade of his best friend’s death, Leonard suddenly realizes, through the haze of his own numbness and upswelling grief, that he might still be able to do something for this lonely radiation-ravaged body he’s been brought and the life it represents.

Star Trek Beyond

GUT: At the tail end of an improvised plan to out-maneuver Kalara, Jim quite literally shoots first and asks questions later, igniting a fuel tank and setting off an explosive series of events which he and Chekov just barely escape. HEART: The next time we see Leonard, Spock is opening up to him about Ambassador Spock’s death and his own plan to leave Starfleet for New Vulcan - and while he’s empathetic toward Spock (I can’t imagine what that must feel like), Leonard’s thoughts go immediately to the emotional impact of Spock’s plan on the other people he’s closest with. (I can see how that would upset [Nyota]. / I can tell you, [Jim]’s not gonna like that.)

GUT: Jim frantically strains to reach the final switch in the life support hub, believing that he’s going to die either way since the vent has already opened, but spurred on by the knowledge that his ability to move that switch is the only thing standing between Yorktown and annihilation. HEART: Knowing exactly what’s at stake, with the fate of the station and millions of lives hanging in the balance, Leonard’s greatest concern is that Jim won’t make it out in time.

iv. never bet against the heart

Let’s wrap this up with a deep dive on one of the absolute best examples of Leonard as the heart: his decision to sneak Jim onto the Enterprise in the first movie.

As relentlessly as I drag him for the, you know, poisoning and kidnapping aspects of that whole deal, there’s no denying that it is a god-tier heart move. Is it logical? Absolutely not. Is it really the right thing to do for either himself or Jim, as far as he knows at the time? Nope. It’s 100% the wrong choice for his own job security, reputation, and relationships with his fellow crew, and it’s almost guaranteed to get Jim into even worse trouble. Leonard is a smart dude who must understand that this course of action will likely end up coming back on them both in a real bad way. For someone who argues loudly and often in defense of self-preservation, this is a shockingly bad idea.

But none of that matters, because Jim shakes his hand and tells him to be safe with that horrible empty-eyed smile, and it gets him right in the heart, one-two-three.

One: sympathy, worry, and affection for Jim - his best friend, his wild and troublesome stray, his only family.

Two: guilt over adding onto Jim’s pain, and the instinctive urge to fix whatever‘s hurting him.

Three: fear of heading out into the unknown by himself, the agonizing uncertainty of not knowing what’s coming, craving for the security and reassurance Jim’s presence would give him.

“Dammit,” Leonard says, as his heart wins out over his brain. He knows this is a garbage plan, and he doesn’t care. His heart chooses Jim. That’s all that matters.

So he goes back for Jim, and to his own surprise it turns out that this Very Bad Idea was actually a Very Good Idea because Jim’s impulsive instincts end up saving Earth, and Leonard’s not in the habit of fixing what ain’t broke so he figures he may as well keep on chasing Jim’s crazy ass around the galaxy for a while, through jungles and off cliffs and into the goddamn afterlife when need be, until finally one day Jim’s gut drives him right into Leonard’s arms and he suddenly realizes that this is what his heart was choosing all those years ago: Jim’s wide terrified eyes, Jim’s voice breaking over his name, Jim’s hand pressing hard against his chest, reaching out for what’s his.

But that’s another story.

[crossoverworldtree]

Kree/Kherubim (Variable Quality)

The Kree are probably the most successful offshoot of the Capelleans and Eridaneans.  They formed their own separate, more long-lasting empire, but stagnated due to rigid military thinking, and a poor ability to adapt as time wore on.  They stagnated HARD.  Today, they clash against the Goa’uld and the Changelings but are getting nowhere on either front. 

Similarly, they are physically quite different from their ancestors and have in fact speciated into several unique groups. 

Kree are functionally immortal, only dying through violence, accident, or extreme illness.  A violent warrior society and low birth rate keeps their population from expanding exponentially. They have a +3 to Strength and Constitution, +1 Dexterity and Perception.  They have 3 levels of Hard to Kill and can have up to 10 Hard to Kill.  They may raise these attributes to superhuman levels. They recover their Constitution in Life Points every minute.  

Kree are extremely rigid thinkers and almost all of them are trained to be soldiers.  This burdens them with the Honorable (serious) drawback as well as Mild Cruelty and Mild Anti-Social Impulses to Violence.

Because of their status as colonizers, they have Adversary 3, primarily with the Rutan Host/Changeling/Skrulls.  

The Standard Kree is a 7-point quality.

Some Kree use genetic and nanotechnological alterations to become akin to Kryptonians in power and strength.  The quality is the same in either case, but only the richest and most powerful “Kree Lords” or simply “Warlords” will do this to themselves.  They add on the Mild Cruelty and Anti-Social Impulses as well as Honorable, reducing the quality’s cost by 4. 

Kree scions with human ancestry tend to have +2 to Strength and Constitution, +1 to Dexterity or Perception and may raise these attributes to superhuman levels.  They have 1 level of Hard to Kill, which they may raise that up to 10, and they regenerate their Constitution every hour.  However, they are not all trained to be soldiers and thus avoid the mental drawbacks, but those who dislike the Kree like them about as much, so the adversary level remains the same.  

So, a Kree Scion quality costs 4 Points.

There are also a few subspecies (or rather, species considered part of the Kree collective) that are also available.  

The Adrastea are psionic soldiers of the empire.  They start with the Standard Kree quality, they add on 1 level of Telekinesis, 1 level of Telepathy, and the Empath quality.  

An Adrastea costs 17 Points. 

The Coda are a warrior sect of standard kree.  Effectively Kree Amazons, the Coda receive an additional +1 to their physical attributes, as well as +1 to Armored Mayhem/Getting Medieval, Fisticuffs/Hand to Hand, and Acrobatics/Athletics.  However, they are so rigidly trained, they gain the Humorless drawback. 

A Coda warrior costs 12 points.  Many carry hyper-dense swords, these are considered Adamantine Swords but are purchased separately (costing 9 points). 

Titanthropes are one of the few species fully assimilated into the Kree empire.  These beings can grow to tremendous sizes, but at the cost of their intelligence shrinking.  They start as a Standard Kree with the effects of that quality, at standard human heights.  By growing 8 to 9 ft tall (3m), they gain +5 to Strength, get 2.5 times heavier, and +20 Life points, but have a -1 to Intelligence.  When they reach 10-12ft/4 meters, they gain a further +5 to Strength (+10 Total), their weight quadruples, and an additional 30 life points (+50 total), but they have a -2 to Intelligence.  However, at this size, all dodge tasks are at -1, and everyone targeting them does so with a +1 bonus.  And if they grow over that (to a maximum of 20ft/5m), They gain a further +5 Strength (+15 total), +50 Life Points (+100 Total), but they have a -4 to Intelligence.  Worse, dodges are at -4, and enemies have a +2 to attacking them.  

If changing size reduces their Intelligence to 0, then they become a childlike idiot (or an ID driven moron) in the GM’s control until the other players can convince the giant to shrink down again.

Within Kree society, Titanthropes are minorities, viewed as brutes who are best used for physical labor. This acts as the minority drawback.

Titanthrope is a 27 Point Quality.

The last type is the Bladesmen.  Despite being at war with Shape Shifters, or perhaps because of it, a few of them have become nanotech cyborgs to give themselves the ultimate multitools for hands.

They start with the standard Kree quality and build on it from there. Namely, these beings have replaced their hands with nanotechnology. They can appear as normal hands, but also form any tool they can imagine. As long as it can fit in one hand, they can make it.  It may be a wrench, a crowbar, or lockpicks, they can make it.  They also have a +1 to their use.  As weapons, they can make 3 x Strength Slash/Stab or Bash Damage.  And anything below that.  

They can also make shields that provide a +1 to Parry with one hand, and an armor value of 9, and a +2 to Parry with two, and an armor value of 12.  

Bladesmen are a minority within the Kree Empire and viewed as mechanics or foot soldiers rather than of any other value.

Being a Bladesman is a 37 Point Quality.

The Kree are a Kardashev Type 1 (medium) civilization (3 Points, purchased separately).