#like I once ordered to 24 packs of monster which at the time were like $34 each

[narcan-necromancer]

Cheapskate tip to Uber eats, Postmates etc- claim that your food was stale or that's something was missing from your order. You will usually have to post a photo, I'm sure you can figure that out. If you don't immediately get an email with a confirmation of your refund, contact support and if you didn't already get a full refund you will get a full refund if you request a refund receipt via email. Don't do this to locally owned restaurants, keep it to chains.

Cheapskate Amazon tip - if you order food on Amazon, they cannot accept returns. For instance, I used to order two 24 packs of monster every few weeks. If you claim that one or both were damaged, they will refund you. If you ordered them at the same time, they will refund both of them. This also applies to EBT purchases. EBT purchases that are refunded will automatically be refunded to the EBT card. They can also refund cosmetics, although I'm not sure if that applies to expensive cosmetics like tatcha.

Thank you. This has been Kira's how to be a cheap and broke bitch show.

[emily-the-fae]

Every Day is a Lullaby

A oneshot. This honestly came to my mind yesterday night, I do not know how well the idea turned out to be.

Fandom: Supernatural

Pairing: Arthur Ketch x OC

Warnings:probably language, blood, injury, background character death, brief mentions of sex, angst mith mix of fluff

Rated: T

Mr Ketch has many sides, likable and repulsing - but which one of his faces is truly his is sometimes an uncertainty even for him.

Harper reflects on the changes on their relationship as they get out of a hunt gone wrong. While Ketch reconsiders some of his past choices... And reasons why he is still alive.

If he's a serial killer

Then what's the worst

That can happen to a girl

Who's already hurt

I'm already hurt

The first time Harper met him was a coincidence. It was long before the whole nephilim thing, long before she found out what kind of man he was, what kind of hunter he was. Yet even back then in the span of their first couple of meetings  she felt he was no good.

A stupid hunting coincidence.

Harper was not used to hunting alone. She did that to herself - separated herself from the Winchesters. However much she loved Sam and Dean, she could not bear continuously being around them, not after everything that happened. Not after Charlie. Because no matter what Dean said or how Sam reassured her - it was her fault. Charlie was a great friend. Charlie had the brightest soul. Harper was late to help her and now Charlie was no more. It was all Harper's fault.

Driving away and going head first into hunting was the outmost Winchester way of dealing with the guilt and grief. Hunting alone while slowly coming out of her lowest phase - those were the circumstances under which Harper met Arthur Ketch.

The first time it happened it was a coincidence - two hunters choosing the same target is not uncommon. Harper was already on spot and all in the fight when he arrived. "Are you insane going into a whole vampire nest alone?" - those were the first words she ever heard from him. She might have been slightly insane, but he sure was a damn psycho. To be honest if not for him she would have probably ended up dead or turned in that vampire nest that night. Harper hates being honest about it.

The second coincidence happened just a few days after the first one - she would later on doubt if it was a coincidence at all. Perhaps it was. Harper would never really know - what she did know though was that he still had a small scar left above his left eyebrow - a mark of where she hit him with the grip of her gun, thinking it was the witch that was creeping up to her and absolutely not expecting to hear a male voice swearing after her blow. Arthur had not known her for 24 hours in sum and they were already making a scene after a hunt - Harper almost pitied she had not knocked him out straight away.

What happened on the next day? He caught her in the town and suggested to team up to avoid "future confusions". Rule number one how to become friends with Arthur Ketch: hit him in the face. Harper wasn't going to become friends with him - with any hunters for that matter - but fate seldom cared what Harper was going to do anyways.

Harper definitely lied to herself when she said that they were going to be only friends or that she was going to hate him after all the British Men of Letters invasion story. She didn't. Not with the way they met in the first place: him ripping her out of the claws of the angry remnants of the vampire pack - slightly concerned greyish blue eyes and a British accent was what greeted her at dawn that day, even though mid in fight she had accepted she would not see the sun again. It seemed symbolic how he saved her from giving up, from herself. And certainly not after the way their relationship went from mutual curiosity to blind semi-professional trust. Harper did not need a "friend" to console her: if she had wanted that she would have stayed around Sam - she needed someone unfeeling but understanding enough to see through her and consciously let it be.

She remembered it clearly - three hunts into their relationship - a month after their first encounter - they were sharing a hotel room. Two beds, late night after a hunt, she lied on her side and quietly cried. It was a demon hunt. The memories were too much. Arthur came into view and stared at her for a couple of moments before walking to his own bed.

- I'd say you can talk about it when you want to, but I doubt you will ever feel the necessity, - a brief caress of his hand against her shoulder. He did not try to relieve her, he allowed her to get to her own way of coping. For that Harper was grateful more than ever. - We all have skeletons in our closets, it's the downturn of the job.

Oh, dear Arthur, we are both now  aware you knew far too well what you were talking about. Harper doubted any hunter had a closet cemetery as large as Ketch's.

Yet... Even after that - the awkward reuniting with the Winchesters, being pulled away from him as she came back to her old friends and witnessing, luckily from a safe distance, how the man she grew to trust without actually knowing him, uncovered darker and darker sides of his personality. What was worst - after she refused to join the BMoL, he would continue to sometimes keep her hunting company, going on like nothing happened. Like nothing changed. Why worst? It let the image of the heartless killer that she should have seen before her now connect and combine with the image of the man who would patch her up on her darkest nights and put a firm hand on her shoulder when Harper was too deep in memory to restrain herself. His presence around her became a reassurance in itself - because he did not have to know to understand. And because he simply had not been there - looking into his eyes Harper wouldn't get reminded of the times when everything was still right, wouldn't get reminded of that one time everything went very wrong. Probably those were the main qualities that helped him win a spot in her heart. Those and his unending casual flirting.

And now? After everything was over, after his very dark side was revealed, the confessions were made and the redemption was played, what did she think of him? The hunter, turned out just a very well trained assassin - he had served the British Men of Letters, he had served Asmodeus - now here he was separated from any commanding he ever had, living a hunting life of his own and sometimes collaborating with the Winchesters. Therewere many dark moments forgotten for the sake of peace. Many more had yet to come up - judging by how Ketch treated his own history and interests of others.

" - I wonder where Mick went, he was always so nice... Nicer than you, anyways. Pity he went away all of a sudden, - Harper mentioned once after a hunt.

- He did not go anywhere. I shot him in the head just like Hess ordered, - Ketch seemed calm and cold as steel. " Sometimes Harper thought that leaving BMoL would change him, but moments like that she realized how slowly the changes - if any - would have to occur. That night she simply walked away, not saying another word.

If anyone ever asked Harper how Arthur's spot in her heart had shifted after all the mess he had caused? She would say that he never even had one... And think that truth to be told there was no flame hot enough to burn him out of her chest - his name carved on her ribs would have been easier to get rid of than the bittersweet affection she harboured for the moral wreck of a man named Arthur Ketch.

If he's as bad as they say

Then I guess I'm cursed

Looking into his eyes

I think he's already hurt

He's already hurt

Despite that Harper never dared pursue a relationship. Why? She was very sure with people like Ketch the only right strategy was not to expect them to be capable of attachment. The flirting, the sweet promising looks he would give her after a well-accomplished hunt... Harper would dream of believing them to be genuine. She was very well aware thinking him in any way genuine was a risk she was not ready to take. She knew Ketch would not mind letting that affair happen - he made that quite clear. She also knew it would mean absolutely nothing to him apart from some company and a warm body in his bed. Arthur Ketch was cold, unemotional and taught himself well not to get attached to anyone - and even if that was not true, he tried his damn best to make it seem so.

Harper sometimes hoped she saw it in his eyes: a silent "please keep safe" when they would part after a hunt, a sparking "I missed you" when they would meet once again. Arthur sometimes hoped she would see it too - very deep in his soul, deeper than he would ever be able to admit even to himself.

In other words, the outcome of the new hunt would have presented itself sooner or later anyways. They were actually quite lucky to have it present itself the way it did.

The werewolf did not seem such a hard target - away from bigger packs, alone terrorizing the neighborhood - just because he could. Problem and solution crystal clear - a hunt where one clearly sees the root of evil is a blessing for a hunter that's used to all the versions of heartbreaking stories. What Harper did not so clearly see was the gun in their opponent's hands. To be more precise: she did see it, but a little too late.

Two gunshots rang at the same time: her silver bullet hitting right into the monster's heart and his normal one - ... Ketch fell against the wall, sliding down to the floor: his left shoulder bled, the bulletproof vest, even though being pierced in the thinner area, had preserved him from being too deeply injured - but not kept completely safe from wounding.

Several seconds of silence - making sure the werewolf is not a threat anymore - realisation and fear finally hitting Harper.

- Ketch?... Ketch?!... Arthur! - the hunter was too disoriented to answer and his silence was taken as a bad sign. - Oh Lord, Arthur, no! - gone are the self-restraint and professional coldness: the moment she sees blood on his chest, she rushes to his side, forgetting about everything else in the world. She needs to make sure he will be fine. He has to be. - Arthur, please, don't die on me! Arthur! - she calls for his attention, the hunter slowly regaining his senses.

For a moment there he believes he hears Tony. This reminds him of some of his unlucky hunts from the years before, though back then he had certainly had it worse. Besides this definitely was not Tony.

Tony would have said "Ketch's down" and carry on with the hunt, eyes on the target, and when the deed was done she would pass him with a short "How is it?" - more out of politeness than genuine caring. That was exactly what she did the only two times he had been seriously injured infront of her.

- Ketch, answer me right this instant, don't you dare fading out! - panic in her voice, genuine. The idea of someone caring as much as to panic at the thought of his death seems too good to be true - for him at least. Arthur feels hands investigating his chest, checking for the wound: cold thin fingers running over his blood-covered skin. Not Tony - Harper.

- I'll live, darling, it's nothing too serious, - attempting to sound confident, but his voice is rasp. It's nothing serious, but it hurt nonetheless: the blow on the shoulder was much harder than anticipated and the bleeding needed to be stopped.

Harper looks into the light blue, borderline grey eyes - he is staring up at her, his gaze unguarded only for a moment that lets her see the uncommon softness and hope in his expression - just for a moment - she believes the things she guessed about him were true, she believes the pain visible in his eyes is true, only by accident revealed to her. The state lasts only a couple of moments - but even that is more than enough for his visible emotions to imprint into her mind.

Arthur Ketch was able to feel. Arthur Ketch could be in pain. Arthur Ketch was capable of needing help.

I said "Don't be a jerk, don't call me a taxi"

Sitting in your sweatshirt, crying in the backseat ooh-ooh

I just wanna dance with you

Hollywood and Vine, Black Rabbit in the alley

I just wanna hold you tight down the avenue ooh

I just wanna dance with you

It was a wonder that the hotel clerk did not stop them on their way - Ketch looked positively dying - Harper was quite sure there was no legal thing that could have happened to him that would have explained this appearance. This was the reason normal hunters chose motels: less suspicion. Harper briefly wondered where he got the money to maintain his former lifestyle, since he was stripped of the BMoL funding, but she guessed there were other sources on his side and he was just too stubborn to change his ways.

When they stumbled into his hotel room, Arthur made a move to drop himself on the bed, but Harper grabbed him by the collar swiftly, dragging him away in the other direction.

- Ketch don't you dare stain the sheets, they'll report us, - she mumbled, pushing him to enter the bathroom and dropping him to sit on the edge of the tub.

He would have laughed if the sudden movement had not caused sharp pain to shoot through his damaged shoulder, making him wince. Alexandra. He had wondered for so long whom Harper reminded him of and out of all moments they shared it was this that made him realise. The memory reappeared in his mind so vividly now.

"Artie, no! Don't go to your room, you'll stain your carpet! Mum will kill us!" - and the older girl held him under his arms, guiding him to the kitchen.

He still remembered it: the years before school, before Kendricks, him and his sister mostly alone in the house with parents constantly away. Alexandra had brought him up before Kendricks had. Alexandra had a lovely voice, she would read him bedtime stories, she would sing to him, she was kind and caring - probably the only human being in his life that ever seemed to care. When he went to Kendricks was the last time he had ever seen her... Well, alive. Alexandra was kind and caring - and that was probably the reason why she had not made it through the training. In fact her death might have been the only reason why he survived and made it to the top - having no one care about you has a benefit: you don't have to care about anyone too.

After his sister's funeral life had never felt the same and Arthur had been quite certain before that it was for the better. Now, watching Harper rush about, trying to find the medical kit to help him, he thought that he had been terribly wrong all the damn time.

How long has she known him? A couple of years, not more, but the relationship between them reached beyond the borders of friendship or companionship. That little american hunter - the first time he saw her he thought she was suicidal, the second one - bold and full of sass. The following months proved her well capable of combining both while turning out to be so much more, one of which being: to be able to love Arthur Ketch. Of course he knew she loved him - this was among those traits in her that he openly treated with polite contempt and deep down envied more than anything.

He watched Harper come to his side, sliding his hunting gear off his shoulders - her movements so gentle, her eyes filled with worry and guilt.

- I'm so sorry Arthur, I should have... - you're always sorry. You always think it is your fault and none else's. This was most probably the main reason why it was so easy for him to openly reject her feeling: they both knew she loved him, they both knew he saw it, he toyed with her so many times, being suggestive, flirting. "As long as I enjoy the physical aspects of having an affair, the emotional attachment that other people believe necessary to form is rather pathetic" - he told her once. He actually said that, those were his words. I would like to fuck you as long as you shut your disgustingly human little heart. She stared at him for a moment, her beautiful face almost successfully hiding the hurt - then turned away silently, shrugging her shoulders. He was being a jerk. Harper never stopped him from that, Harper seemed to take it all in and believe he was right, believe that her feeling for him was utterly pathetic. That it was her fault.

- It was no one's mistake, love, it was an unlucky accident. Besides it didn't turn out that awful, - he trailed off. She was cleaning his skin over the wound now, preparing to apply stitches. Arthur could sense a little shudder in her at the word "love". He was so used to saying it that he forgot about all the connotations it held. Lord, was he bad at this.

Harper continued her work silently. She felt him studying her face and prayed to be finished as quick as possible - she did not need another heartbreaking hope and she had already made the mistake of looking into his eyes that night. When the last stitch was done, she turned away to put the materials aside and sensed him straighten up behind her back - Harper felt he wanted to say something else, but she could not give him that opportunity. She almost thought he would die that night - seeing him on the floor made her blood run cold - she did not need any more pain to add to the aftermath of the shock.

- I'm going to my room, but please call me if you feel worse during the night, - she spoke, not turning to face him, ready to walk out of the bathroom. Harper felt his hand grab her wrist in a rushed movement and turned abruptly only to see him staring back at her with unguarded softness in his eyes. The only time she remembered Arthur look at her like that was when she twisted an ankle during the hunt all due to his mistake. It scared her a little to see that expression on him.

- Why won't you just stay to keep an eye on me? - his voice low, with an undertone she so often heard when he flirted with her.

- You're a big boy, Ketch, we both know that even stitching you up was superfluous, you can perfectly well tend to yourself, - a smile. Harper tried to brush it off jokingly, ready to make her leave, but his grasp on her wrist only grew stronger.

- Stay.  At least for this night. Please, - the smile disappeared from her face. He sounded wounded, he sounded like he really pleaded. Harper broke away from his grasp, taking a step back.

- You don't need a... - she shook her head.

- But I do, - he stood up, taking a step towards her, not letting her increase the distance between them. His fingers came up to caress her cheek gently. - Harper, stay, - she shut her eyes, standing still and quiet for a couple of seconds, seemingly fighting back emotions.

- You don't mean this, - she said, looking up at him sharply and confidently, but in a moment, failing to restrain herself, she continues more quietly and softly. - Why do you have to be so cruel to me? - he could see tears brimming in her eyes.

They stood frozen in front of each other, her face so close to his, her eyes watering - not because of this particular evening, but because of all those times before he had behaved in similar nature. It was the first time she had so directly addressed the issue of her feelings for him. "Why do you have to be so cruel to me?" She seemed to be waiting for an actual answer. Why was she always so kind to him? Like he was normal, like he didn't hurt her? Arthur leaned down, his hand still cupping her cheek, his lips touching hers gently and firmly.

Harper closed her eyes - not as a girl would do in a pretty romantic movie - she shut her eyes, pressing her eyelids together, holding her breath, shuddering. A single tear ran down her cheek.

When they parted, though his face still stayed just a few centimeters away from hers, Harper opened her eyes again, her breath shaking.

- Arthur...

His free hand circled her waist, pulling her closer to him, as his fingers slid away from her cheek,  moving behind her head, running through her hair. Arthur leaned close to her ear, his breath ghosting over her neck.

- Because I hate how you make me feel like I can still have a life, like not everything is lost. I hate how you make me feel worth being cared about and able to care. I hate how you make me feel, - he said that rushed and quiet. Pressing his front to the side of her head, breathing deeply.

- And what if you are lying? What if this all is for the sake of one night? I'm tired of guessing if you have a soul or not, Arthur, I'm too worn out, - she wispered after some time, leaning her forehead into his uninjured shoulder.

- Then trust me this one time. I promise. Please.

- Why?

- Because I need you. I need you to feel alive.

Arthur felt her let out a deep breath, her petite form pressing itself to his, her arms sliding behind his back to hold him close. She raised her head, freezing for a moment before their eyes met, then leaning up - their lips meeting now less gingerly than the first time.

- Does that mean you'll stay?

- You're such an asshole, Ketch...

- I know.

Harper hid her face in his chest, sobbing quietly, her form shacking, worn out both physically and emotionally. Arthur kissed her temple softly, caressing her back, for once feeling like he did everything right. For once feeling like they had a chance.

Happiness is a butterfly

Try to catch it like every night

It's escaping from me into moonlight

[nemrut]

Epic Seven / Re: Zero Collab Units

So, a lot of units were revealed. Three five-star collab units and five three star regular units, and it is amusing to me that the three-star units are creating more buzz.

Since I am not a big Re: Zero fan, I am also more drawn to the three-star heroes, although, I have to say, the collab units seem solid so far.

Personally, I am mostly drawn to Emilia as of now, at least on paper, simply for her more offense oriented Soul Weaver kit. From what I remember, her kit doesn't really seem to work thematically for her all that much, or to her in show capabilities, but it works for the game.

So, Emilia. Her S1 gives healing based on her own max health to the ally with the lowest health. That's solid. Nothing too special but solid. Makes counter viable on her, similar to Destina only without the potential cleanse from the EE. With the right artifact, she can either heal one target with the same effect twice or heal two different units at once.

Her S2 is her best skill. It dispells two debuffs from an ally, gives increased attack for two turns and increases their CR by 40%. It also increases her own CR by 25%. With mola, the CR on the target can increase to 50% and it is on a two turn CD. SB also heals the target unit for ten souls. That's one packed skill. Can be used for cleavers or units like Straze or LQC or any other offensive unit with no atk buff who is a bit slower than her.

Her S3 cleanses two debuffs from her whole team, heals them and gives a two turn barrier. Nothing amazing but respectable.

So, all in all, she doesn't bring any new skills or abilities on the table. I will probably give her Ray's equipment and call it a day. She is a typical cleanser soul weaver where one should focus on speed, ER, HP and Def in that order. She is still very solid and I would personally benefit because I have no cleanser who provides and atk buff and cr push at the same time. I think she is also better than ML Kawarick even though they have similar kits, lol. But anyone who already has one built could probably pass on her but dunno, she has better animation and her ER imprint does make things easier.

Her artifact is interesting, in that it gives a flat ER of 15% on top of healing an ally once a turn for what I assume is 15% with no copies at plus 15. It serves her well, but of course, soul weaver artifacts are good across the board and all of them can work there.

While her S1 might allow for a counter set, I do think speed/ER set is the way to go. You want her fast enough to use her S2 or S3, depending on the situation and she has to go before the rest of your team. She doesn't even care that much whether she goes before the enemy or not. If she goes after, she cleanses their debuffs, if now, she just uses the S2 and starts an attack with your cleaver or damage dealer. She is definitely going to be useful.

Rem is more interesting in that she is getting new abilities, but that also makes her a bit harder to predict.

Her S1 can defense break the enemy. 35% odds without mola and 50% with mola. If she is in demon mode, she attacks twice.

Her S2 is her weird new stuff. When anybody dies, she cleanes all debuffs on herself and activates Demon Mode for two turns. This can only happen once every 5 turns so, basically, in pvp/rta that means it can only happen once in a fight. Demon Mode means that she is immune to debuffs, it cannot be stripped and the debuffs she applies ignore ER.

When an ally is attacked, she has a 15% chance to counterattack with iron strike. In turn, iron strike attacks all enemies, decreases their buff durations and makes them unhealable for 1 turn. It also says that iron strike takes priority over counterattacks with basic skills, so that means she counterattacks with Iron Strike instead of her S1. Molas increase her counterattack chance to 20%

Her S3 gives herself an attack buff and aoe attacks all enemies and decreases their hit chance for two turns and increases her own CR by 50%.

Her artifact increases crit chance by 15% and whenever somebody dies, it gives the user a CR push between 12 and 24%. Not sure how much CR push that is for +15 without any copies.

Artifact is meh, tbh. I guess it can be useful, but dunno if I would give her that.

Team imprint is health and on her self it is plus crit chance which would make it easier to go for dps build but have fun getting several copies of her with three collab heroes and artifacts plus summer Iseria and her artifact around the corner.

So, what about Rem? Her kit is interesting at least. She needs for someone to die before she starts going crazy which is somewhat fitting. That means she probably doesn't want to go first if one wants to take advantage of the ignores ER thing. In fact, one can build her with no effectiveness at all, which makes things at least a bit easier. That said, she seems to be a lot more gear hungry than Emilia was in order to use her effectively.

For her S2 condition to activate she needs to be teamed up with an ally who is rather fast and can snipe at least one enemy unit before she takes a turn, in which case one can get away with a bit less bulk. Still, I do think one wants to build Rem as tanky as possible, as she should remain on the field for as long as possible and hit the enemy team with Iron Strike and attack twice with her S1.

So, I am unsure how she would interact with a counter set. Does the sentence "Iron Strike takes priority over a counterattack with a basic skill" refer to all counterattacks she makes or only those which are facilitated by her S2? If only her S2, I would probably go for a bulk and damage with medium speed. So, speed or atk sets. If it refers to all counter-attacks, maybe go with counter. I think one can give her Champion's trophy and hope for stuns on top of everything, although her skill makes it clear that the ignores ER effect does not apply to artifacts, so enemies might resist there, especially if there is no effectiveness on her otherwise.

All in all, I can see two options with her builds: Either go for dmg or go for debuffs. Either way, she wants to stay on the field for as long as possible to counterattack as much as possible. She should be fun, but I don't know how good she will work.

Think will have to sit on her kit for a while longer. I could also see the cockroach approach with her, where you accept that the one person dying is on your own team and hope Rem can turn things around afterwards. If the one dying is on their team, you are kinda wasting the self cleanse but then again, planning for someone on your team to die is not a great strategy, even if you have a reviver on your team. That said, maybe she works really, really well with Arby, who should count for the team death thing. I don't know, it seems fun at least.

Last and maybe least is Ram. She is a mage, gives her team health with imprint or effectiveness to herself.

Her S1 attacks one enemy and has a 60% chance (75% with mola) to decrease attack for 1 turn. If she is buffed, it reaches 100%. Soul Burn allows her to attack all enemies for ten souls.

S2 is a passive and increases her own Atk by 30% and reduces the effect of CR debuffs on her by 80% (100% with mola).

S3 attacks the enemy and inflicts def break on them for two turns and gives herself Greater Attack Buff (also called GAB in case you heard a youtuber say it and didn't know what they meant)

Her artifact increases her ATK by 15% and decreases dmg suffered by elite or boss monsters by 15% at +15.

So, I'll be honest, she seems a bit underwhelming. Her S1 is aptly titled How Boring. because it is a very boring skill. Decrease Attack is not useless, by any means, but it is also not that great. A possible aoe on her S1 with ten souls can be useful against enemies hiding in stealth, but there are better options. Her passive is interesting at least, since it means she can't really be pushed back, and she has a lot of atk. That said, her S3 is okay, but also not great.

With her artifact, she seems more of a pve unit, but she also should be useful in pvp. Like, with 30% atk from her s2, 15% atk from her artifact and GAB on herself, alongside a decent attack set, or a speed set with good atk, that should translate into a lot of dmg with her basic attack, especially if it can be a potential aoe with only ten souls. She can also be paired up with Lilias who benefits from her high attack to cleave, especially if she goes after her and there is someone def broken there.

Could build her with no crit chance and crit dmg in order to get her speed and atk as high as possible, or a bit less of both and go for a more traditional damage dealer for pvp.

As for pve, I don't know, maybe expedition? She could def break for Banshee, but so can a milllion other units. I don't know if she is useful after that, but can't imagine her replacing Baiken there. Also find it hard to believe that someone wouldn't have Leo or Bellona or kluri or any other def breaker for that, so can't see how she is good for wyvern. If she had been ice or fire, I would say good for either one of those two hunts, but banshee might be the one hunt her skill-set is ill-equipped for. Might be overlooking something, though.

So yeah, those were the collab units and artifacts. Seems solid enough, I like Emilia and Rem seems interesting enough. A bit meh on Ram.

Still, the three stars seems more exiting, oddly enough.

[yamithediaperdork]

Two kinks, One love. (Soul eater)

Two Kinks one love

It was just after sun set, but in Death city two boys were about to engage in a very out of the norm date by any stretch of the imagination. They had run into each other while out and about, indulging in their respective fetishes late one night and while both had been shocked, they had also quickly fallen hard for each other.

The first Boy was the son of Lord death, the slightly prissy but kind hearted Death the kid. he'd been wearing his favorite black dress which came down to just above his knees and had been wearing pantyhose too of course, like a proper lady. Black high highs that he could run in without pause and a black purse, his make up had been spot on and he looked fabulous and knew it. It was the worst kept secret that the son of lord death was a trap, but most people just pretended not to notice because either they didn't care, thought he was MUCH nicer in girlie mode or well, who wants to piss him off? The second boy was in a small group of those who didn't know Kid prefer to be a sexy trap, though that was because he was busy with his only little fetish wear love. He was Black star, a legend in the making (if you listened to him) And he was also a goo goo gaga big baby. The night they met he'd been going on a waddle of shame and had been in 3 thick diapers that puffed out the crotch and butt of his black diaper shirt and blue short-all's (that of course, had his trademark sign on the front pocket.) He'd also been sporting blue sneakers with black laces that lit up in the back as he went for his once around the block waddle of shame and it had been by chance (or maybe fate) that the two had stumbled onto each other.

Black had been rounding the corner, after almost going into a late night shop for ice cream but then recalling he had left his wallet at home so no one could id him. (Silly when you consider how well he stood out and his instance on making sure everyone knew him..but it was a well know fact putting diapers on a big baby reduces logic by 40 percent.)  In any case, he knew his store credit was tapped out and decided to call it a night. looking back at the shop he wasn't paying attention to where he was going and bumped into a pretty lady sending them both down to the ground. "Oh Gosh! I-I'm Sorry!" Black whined, trying to scamper but but the bulk around his hips made that a bit harder then normal.  "I wasn't paying attention to where I was.." And Black trailed off as he looked down and recognized in a instant the face of the 'lady' he had bumped into, Kid! "heh..It's ok Little guy." Kid said, eyes narrowing in on the padded crotch. "Little boys like you shouldn't be out here along. where's your mommy?" Black gulped BIG time at that, He had always loved the idea of having a mommy for his diaper adventures but was gay as could be..and suddenly a obvious solution he had never thought of had just bumped into him.

Kid himself had been soaking in the semi attention and had let his gaze drift, looking at a dress on display in a store shop window and so had been just as responsible for the collision as the little guy. Looking up and seeing Black dressed like a over sized un-potty trained toddler Kid almost had little hearts in his eyes. if there was one thing he loved more then being a hot little trap walking the town.. it was being a good mommy dom. Sadly his picks for big babies in the city had been limited to Liz Thompson due to her cry baby ways. it wasn't that the older Thompson didn't make a good baby (she did, very much so) it was more that due to her doing it by request not want she could be difficult at times. But here in front of him dressed perfectly on his own free will.. Meow~ "well, I asked you a question little star~" Kid said getting up and smiling ear to eye and then dusting Black off first then himself. "I..I don't..have..a mommy..Miss Kid" Black said, blushing and poking two fingers together. "Do you want one?" Kid asked and winked. "YESH! I-I Mean..if that's ok with yo-" And Black was silenced as Kid kissed the baby on the lips.

From then on Black had been mommies little guy and despite some of the challenges involved (read: Black's mega poopie diapers) neither of them had looked back on it, and while they both wanted it to be a more 24/7 thing they both knew realistically with their duties and responsibilities that just wasn't possible. Besides, while Kid was more or less out in the open, Black was mostly unknown as a public diaper boy having kept his adventure to around his block. He wasn't ready for EVERYONE to know his favorite place to make boom boom was in the seat of his pants.

But tonight was date night, and it was Kid's turn to host. truthfully either place would of done for their in house date nights butttt Black's place had a funk to it that wasn't from the diaper pail the big baby maintained and more from his poor cleaning habits. Kid had taken the guest room of his place and turned it into any big baby boys dream nursery (and Black had been clear, he was a baby BOY..Mommy might be able to pull a dress off but not him.) and held out hope that one of these days Black would finally take him up on the offer to move in. Their friends knew they were dating of course (just not all the fun details) so it wasn't like that was holding them back. Kid was jolted out of that train of thought as his door bell rang and before he went to answer it he stopped and checked his reflection in a full body mirror. He had gone with a stepford house wife dress for tonight, reaching down past his knees and in a white with pink floral print on it and had a white apron on over it. he was wearing a pair of white socks tugged up high and a pair of pink flat heels and have a pair of pearl earrings in. a light bit of make up was on, some eye linger, lipstick and blush, and he smiled at his reflection and blew a little kiss as the doorbell rang again. "Best not keep the baby waiting darling." he scolded himself and walked to the door with a soft clip clap from his shoes on the hard wood floor. answering the door Kid was a little disappointed (though not shocked) to see that Black had come over in jean's and a t-shirt, though he'd brought his 'diaper' bag so to speak and had it slung over a shoulder. it was of course really just a tote bag but Kid made sure to refer to it as such as while he had loads of supplies, he made sure that Black would bring his own ba-ba and first diaper(s) to help him get used to carrying his baby gear around in public. (and maybe just a tiny bit to try and drive home if Black lived with kid, he wouldn't have to lug the stuff around) "There's my little guy~" Kid coo'ed and smiled, loving how bright the boys cheeks lit up when he was the one dressed like a 50's house wife. Standing to the side he gestured for Black to come in. "well come on, are you gonna stand there and squirm looking at mommy till you have a accident or come in and get di-" Kid started but Black let out a soft yelp and dashed in the house. "..works every time." Kid chuckled and waved to a neighbor who had been watching with quiet amusement then shut the door.

Black was squirming and huffy as he waited for mommy in the living room, having made sure to slid his sneakers off. "I wish you wouldn't do that." he sulked as mommy came into view. That wasn't exactly the strictest of truths.. he didn't wanna be a outed big baby but mommies teasing had a small part of him all excited "Mhmmm.. I know you hate it sooo much.." Kid teased and eyed the front of Black's tight pants that gave him away. "Come on little man, let's get you in a nice thick diapie before you piddle all over mommies floor again." Kid coo'ed and coming in close, tickled onto Black's chin and made the boy squirm and giggle even as he tried to huff. "Mommmmmmyyyy! that was ONE time!" He whined, hating/loving how small and little Kid could make him feel with a few well chosen words and just a chin tickle. "And that one time too many. Come along now." Kid coo'ed and gently took the little guy by the wrist, leading him to the nursery.  "Did you pack one of your super thick diapies like a good boy? or does mommies have to use one of the ones we have here?" Black whined and squirmed. he had SORTA kinda maybe been trying to just bring thin diapers over here..not because he wanted thin but well mommy had SO many thick ones here and he only had about 5 left and was trying to save his. Sadly for the little rascal mommy had figured him out and loved to tease. "I uh..well..see.." Black started up. "That's what i thought. you know, not to beat a dead horse but if you moved in you could have ALL the massive diapies you could want little man. I'll order anther pack and have them ship it to your place tomorrow though. just food for thought." Black star nodded and just let mommy take control, knowing that mommy knew best.

The nursery had baby blue walls with some silly chibi ninja's painted on them here and there fighting chibi monsters and the floor was covered with a plush cream white rug so if the baby lost his balance he wouldn't hurt his tush on the floor. (Of course with the thickness o0f Black's diapers it wasn't likely to happen but hey, Kid paid for all of this so he was allowed to justify it as he saw fit.) there was a wooden crib that had been made to order so could handle a bigger babies weight and left the little guy lots of room to play in by one wall, and it had been painted light black by black's request. (the little guy had wanted to help paint it but Kid had foreseen the mess THAT would of ended with and had told a little fib that the builders insisted on painting it themselves.) there was a cream white colored changing table, again made to order and had a black cushioned top those the cover was waterproof and made for easy clean up in the event of leaks. It also had a set of drawers on the side that held the different baby powders, rash creams and of course diapers that Kid's big baby had picked out one night in Kid's lap squealing and giggling. 'I'm gonna make him a spoiled rotten brat.' Kid mused briefly. 'ah well..he'll be MY spoiled rotten brat.' Adding to the spoiled brat theory was the MASSIVE toy chest that even as big as it was couldn't be fully shut from just how many toys little Black had, and there was a shelf built on a wall filled with nursery tale and story tale books. Of course one of the most important parts of the nursery had actually been the cheapest..it was a large metal diaper pail that Kid had stenciled 'BLACK STAR'  onto and helped keep his little man's nursery smelling like baby powder and love instead of poopie diapers.

"You strip down like a good boy sweetie while mommy goes and picks out something adorable for you to wear..unless you wanna just go in your diapies tonight." Kid said and smirked. "IIIII um..yeah..just diapies sounds good ta me..we're gonna eat soon anyways and then you'll hafa just strip me down after anyways mommy." "oh how true! such a clever baby I have!" Kid coo'ed and more chin tickles. "I guess i can help the silly big baby strip then." Black squirmed and nodded, and then just relaxed and followed orders as Mommy would tell him to raise his arms or the like while 'she' got him undressed, getting him down to his his little ghoulies briefs.(Little Ghoulies of course being Black's favorite toddler show) "oh my.. Somebody either been having accidents or just isn't very good at wiping!" Kid teased, clicking his touge as he looked at the large brown stains in the back of the undies. "and I JUST got these for you last week little man." "S-Sorry Mommy. I um..I just.. I had some not farts an-" Black mewed and pointed his index fingers together. "Shhh it's ok. I knew what I was getting into when I brought a big baby big kid undies. though maybe we better start looking into some pull ups for when your playing big boy." Kid coo'ed and kissed Black's cheek, making him tent out his briefs and shushing any argument, at least for the moment. hooking his thumbs in the waist band he tugged the undies down with one smooth practiced monition and then took a step back and clapped his hands and gestured towards his widdle boy. "Come on, walk out of your stinky undies and over to mommy~" "Yesh mama.." Black gurgled and Kid almost melted as he did so, with arms outstretched. 'it's official. i am the god damn luckiest mommydom trap in the world.' Kid mentally gushed and then helped the big baby up onto the changing table. sure the little guy smelled a little and had a few poo stains on his cheeks, but Kid figured with them having a whole night together he could just give the little guy a bath after din din. "Nowww what kinda diaper does my widdle guy want on, aside from thick. Baby blocks? Space ships? zoo print?" Kid asked tickling Black's tummy and black giggled and coo'ed. "Ummm All three!" he said and giggled more. "oh, somebody want to crawl tonight hmmm? Maybe after your bath sweetie. for now we'll go with baby blocks." Kid chuckled. "Awwww..dun want a bath! I smell nice and sweet!" Black pouted and then to prove his point raised his left arm up and took a whiff of his pit..and coughed.  "Then again..Mommy knows best." "mmmhmm. and don't you forget it~" Kid chuckled.

With baby black padded and a sucking on a white mouth guard paci that was attached to a black cord hanging around his neck (kid couldn't very well use a shirt clip if the little guy wasn't gonna wear a shirt after all.) he helped the baby down and then got out five toys for black to play with, though they were Black's choice as Kid would pick them out one at a time and hold them up for a head nod or shake. Black meanwhile suckled away and enjoyed the sight of mommy's butt when he bent over, sometimes mommies dress would ride up a little and ALMOST maybe give a peek at what kinda panties he was wearing. It didn't really bug Black that while Kid saw him naked and in his 'undies' most of the time, Black could count on one hand the amount of times he'd seen Kid's Bra and panties. that just wasn't the kinda relationship they had, though then did find ways to make love in their own fashion. Finally picking out a stuffed bear in a tux, a green and purple dragon stuffie, a stereo type bed-sheet ghost stuffie, a teddy in a suit of armor and finally a tiger stuffie he started to play with them, mumbling around his paci and making drool go down his chin. Kid watched mentally gushing and while he wished he could hear the cute little adventure that was being played out as Black loved to narrate, it was worth it to hear him mumbling around his paci. he could of stood there watching for hours honestly but the front door rang and he sighed, why of ALL the nights had his usual delivery place had to of lived up to it's 30 minutes or under delivery time? "Din din's here buddy, can you put your toys away and come meet mommy in the kitchen while he goes and pays?" Kid asked, patting Blacks head. Black whined a little and mumbled something, then sighed like ALL of the worlds problems were on him and nodded.

getting to the front door Kid opened it without checking and found himself looking face to face with soul. "Alright ma'am i got a order of...of..Kid?! Kid is that you?!" Soul asked, being anther one of the rare people not to know about the trap. "uh..yeah.. " kid said and blushed then smiled. "anyways, my order?" "I..oh wow. heh. I didn't know you and black were this kinky! wait, is he a little sissy too?" soul asked. "I believe it's none of your business. now can you ple-" Kid started, but then a loud "MOMMY! I SLIPPED COME KISS MY BOO BOO'S BETTER !!" was heard from the living room and Kid facepalmed while soul laughed. "you know what, I think i got a pretty good idea.. Mommy." Soul chuckled, and took the money he was offered for the food and tipped the hat of his delivery uniform. "You and your widdle one have a good supper Ma'am." he said and then took off. "..Hoo boy..this isn't gonna be fun to explain." Kid thought as he closed the door.

The end.

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Rhythm of War Review

PART 1

It feels a little separate from the rest of the book to me at the moment because I read it pre-release, but I think it did a good job setting up the rest of the plot. I greatly enjoyed Navani’s perspective and ideas throughout the book, and the first section established her much more firmly as a character than any of the previous books; her couple of chapters in Oathbringer were more focused on politics and her relationship with Dalinar, so it was great yo see much more of her scientific side.

When I first read Part 1 it felt very Kaladin-heavy, but after completing the book I see how it was necessary to establish his burnout in order to set up the rest of the plot. And Chapter 12 (A Way to Help), in addition to being our only chance in the book to see our trio together, did a great job setting up Kaladin’s later work with mentally ill people, both by establishing the need and showing what kind of help was needed. I was nonetheless quite frustrated by Kaladin reacting to Shallan’s DID with “that would be nice...”. She’s having serious problems, Kal! She’s your friend and could use support, not you regarding her issues as a neat way to take a holiday from one’s own brain! Kaladin’s very kind and caring with those he chooses to protect, as we see with Bridge 4 in TWOK and the mentally ill people in Chapter 25, but sometimes I think he’s not a very good friend. I know he was not in a good place, but in Oathbringer when they were in Shadesmar Shallan had just had a complete breakdown and she still went out of her way to emotionally support Kal, so it would be nice to see his friendships become a bit more two-way. (For similar reasons, I liked seeing the moments of Shallan-to-Adolin emotional support in Shadesmar in ROW, because a lot of their relationship in OB was her relying on him; it felt balanced in ROW as both supported each other.)

PART 2

I loved the Shadesmar arc! The emotional arcs for both main characters were very strong - I had been looking forward to seeing Adolin’s reaction to (in-universe) Oathbringer, and it did not disappoint; the conflict between genuinely loving Dalinar and being unable to forgive what he’d done was well-drawn. I was so pissed off at Dalinar in that last conversation! You burned his mom to death, you do not get to take the moral high ground and lecture him. And I do see a difference between killing innocents, as Taravangian does, and killing someone who’s effectively declared war on you and has a history of treason.

I also liked Adolin’s sense of being generally at sea with his purpose in the world. He’s been trained primarily as a warrior and general, and his combat skills have been made virtually obsolete by the Radiants. And at the same time, the reader can see what makes Adolin special, and it’s not combat skills - though those do give him a big heroic moment in a pinch - it’s his care and compassion for others. The way he interacts with Maya and slowly brings her life is absolutely beautiful. Chapter 35 was such a wonderful Shadolin moment (and starspren are amazing!); he really gets her and understands what she needs. Chapter 24 was sweet too, though super cheesy.

I spent the entire Shadesmar arc side-eying Veil and Radiant, especially with Veil’s takeover stunt at the start, but in the end they genuinely were supporting and helping Shallan. So in retrospect I do like scenes like the one with Veil trying to draw Shallan out by drawing Adolin badly.

Spoeking of drawing, I love the spren art, it’s some of the best art so far, and fascianting to see how they all look!

Kaladin finding non-violent ways to protect, culminating in pioneering Rosharan therapy - and Teft insisting on staying to support him - was everything I wanted for him. His arc could have just been that, and I’d have been perfectly happy. Chapter 25 (Devotary of Mercy) is still my favourite in the entire book.

Unfortunately, then Odium’s forces had to show up and SPOIL EVERYTHING. I’m rather appalled by how quickly Urithiru fell - the enemy forces were literally in the pillar room by the time anyone noticed them.

PART 3

Part 3 was a real slog for me, partly because it is a slog and partly because I hit it at the height of my sleep deptivation. (It’s really...not a good thing to be reading on zero sleep at the literal darkest-hour-before-dawn.) Kaladin’s arc in Urithiru is just so exhausting; he’s so clearly worn to the boneand everything feels so hopeless. Kaladin’s had bad times before - Bridge 4 in TWOK, for example - but then the reader could see progress even if Kaladin couldn’t. (Kaladin: I’m getting nowhere and failing at everything! Everyone else: Kaladin, you were literally just miraculously resurrected.) Here, though - well, I genuinely spent the whole book from Part 3 through to the climax thinking that they would lose Urithiru.

Navani’s arc, and Venli’s, I did enjoy.

The other section of Part 3, in Emul, just felt rather disjointed. It had some interesting moments, but it didn’t have a sense of cohesion or of where it was going. I was entertained by Dalinar’s musings on the merits of despositism and the need to free Queen Fen from having - horrors! - a parliament. (I wonder if the Fourth Ideal will be something like “I will recognize that it can sometimes be beneficial to have people oppose my decisions.”)

PART 4

Again, adored the Shadesmar arc. Really strong character arcs for both Adolin and Shallan, combined with excellent plots and a strong sense of momentum. I was pretty sure Maya would be crucial in the trial, but that didn’t make the moment any less powerful (though Sanders probably shouldn’t have tried quite as hard to replicate his “You. Cannot. Have. My. Pain.” moment from Oathbringer). I need to put together a proper post on the theme of choice in Oathbringer, because that moment - combined with Kaladin’s fourth ideal and the conflict with Lirin over the way he’s inspiring the resistance - really crystallized it for me. To treat a person’s choice and sacrifices as something done to them is to devalue their volition, their agency. Maya is put in the horrifying situation of being used as a prop and treated as evidence of a point that she is diametrically opposed to and turned into a weapon against someone she loves, and it’s enough to drive her to regain her voice and speak for herself. I am very curious to know what specifically led the spren to agree to the Recreance!

I did not remotely guess what Shallan’s secret was, even though in retrospect the Cryptic deadeye should have made it incredibly obvious. I think her fear that she’d lose Adolin if it came out was overblown - he already knows she killed both her parents, he’s not going to be fazed by “I was so distraught over having to kill my own mother in self-defence at age ten that I broke my Radiant oaths”. But obviously it’s not something Shalkan would be able to consider duspassionately. Her arc was rather terrifying once I realized that Formless was, well, basically her, but more specifically, Shallan’s idea of the monster that she was, and her breakdown was driving her to “accept who she was” as being that monster. I like Shallan and was never that into Veil - though she was fairly good in this book and went out well - so I’m not sad to see the back of her.

I haven’t managed to work through all the espionage/mole elements. Yes, Pattern used the box to talk to Wit, and Radiant killed Ialai so Shallan wouldn’t, but who’s Mraize’s spy close to Dalinar?

This arc ended too abruptly. I think Sanderson could easily have traded a Kaladin chapter in Part 3 for an extra chapter wrapping up events in Shadesmar; maybe one where Shallan first goes to see Testament.

I enjoyed the Urithiru arc in Part 4 as well. Switching to Bridge 4 points of view other than Kaladin was a good move - we already know he’s worn to ribbons, so we don’t need to be inside his head to see it. “The Dog and the Dragon” was amazing, and the most appropriate story ever for Kaladin. (I get how Wit’s schtick of telling incredibly topical stories and then saying “no, I don’t have a point, what point?” would be really aggravating in person.) It was nice to see him be gentle with Kaladin for a change, the way he is with Shallan - his two previous encounters with Kaladin read as rather baiting, which annoyed me.

Dabbid was - I don’t know quite how to say this, but his inclusion struck an amazing balance in this book. Navani’s arc is all about two amazingly smart people doing science and making incredible breakthroughs, and that is sincerely valued and given importance by the narrative, and then you get chapters like Dabbid’s and one of Taravangian’s emphasizing that a person’s value and ability to contribute is not determined by their intelligence.

Navani’s arc continued to be excellent. All of her research, and the way the story took you through the process, and her complex relationship with Raboniel, was great.

I loved Venli’s character development, and growing willingness to take risks for the sake of others. To me, her arc parallels Dalinar’s in the last book in some ways. If we can love the story of a bloodthirsty conqueror growing to become a good person, why can’t we equally love the story of a coward coming to become a good person? There seems to be a tendency to be more drawn to strength, even in its most terrible forms, than to weakness. To me, Venli’s confession to Rlain and acceptance of his disgust at her was one of the book’s great moments. (And I can’t understand people saying her arc took up two much space. She had 5 chapters in Part 3, and 4 in Part 4. That’s not very many! I’ll grant that the flasbacks packed less punch than some earlier flashback sequences because we already knew the main events - Brandon acknowledged that even before the book came out - but I still liked them well enough, and Venli’s present-day arc was excellent.)

Anyway, the amount of space I’ve spent on this section relative to Part 3 is another strong inducation of the differences in how I feel about them!

PART 5

I should probably start this section with a discussion of Moash. I’ll try to keep it summarized. here - I could, and may, write a short essay on his development through The Stormlight Archive. The first thing that jumps out about Moash’s arc in this book is his reaction to Renarin’s vision in Part 1. I think that vision is showing Moash who he could still be, in a similar way to Shallan’s inspirational drawings of people - both use the Surge of Illumination. So it’s not that Moash is irredeemable; Renarin is specifucally holding out to him the possibility of redemption.

And Moash’s reaction is to run away in terror. Because he desperately wants his decision to be irrevocable. He desperately wants there to only be one possible path forward for him. Because if there are alternative paths, it means he can choose them, and that would mean facing guilt, facing the fact that his past choices were wrong, and his current choices are wrong. And that is exactly what Moash sought to avoid by giving up his pain and sense of guilt to Odium.

Moash is, nonetheless, very much Moash and not Vyre, as evidenced by his continuing obsession with Kaladin. As with his above need to not be wrong, here he needs to feel that he’s right, and the only way he can feel that he’s right is if Kaladin - whom he still deeply admires - makes the same decision as him, and if Moash can convince himself that he’s doing Kaladin a favour in driving him to that point. It’s ironic that he’s given up almost all feeling abd become almost enturely detached, but his worst actions are driven by his attitude towards the one person in the world who he still does have very strong feelings about. By the end of the book, he’s comprehensively broken, to the point that even when his ability to feel is restored he’s unable to even feel genuine remose over the cold-blooded murder of a friend. I don’t know where he’ll go from here - it would be ironic if he was only ever really appealing to Rayse-Odium, and Taravangian-Odium found Moash too much of a flat villain for his purposes and cast him off.

As the plot climaxes go, I thought the ones for Navani and Venli were excellent and very satisfying. I enjoyed Kaladin’s as well and found it cathartic, but it a was moment we all knew had to come, so it didn’t have quite the kick of some of Kaladin’s other big moments. I did love his reconciliation with Lirin. One of the themes of the book was finding common ground despite deeply felt disagreements - with Navani and Raboniel, with Navani and the Sibling, and with humans and singers/Fused more generally - and Kaladin and Lirin’s reconciliation fit well with that. I am far more favourable to Lirin than most people - if you’ve lived as a pacifist in storming Alethkar, which values the lives of its people slightly more than it does crem, you’re going to have been right a solid 95% of the time, where everyone else was wrong. I can make allowances for the other five percent, especially when Lirin’s life lesson from the last five or so years has been “resisting oppression and standing up for what you believe in will destroy everyone you love”.

And on the topic of finding common ground, Leshwi’s reaction to the revelation that Venli was a Radiant was one of the single most beautiful moments of the book, and one of my absolute favourites. It’s gorgeous and moving, and at the same time rather tragic, because - what might have bern different if Venli had revealed herself to Leshwi at the start of the book? How much of the conflict could have been avoided. Singers don’t appear to attract spren as strongly as humans do, which makes Leshwi drawing joyspren particularly powerful. And then the bittersweet note from “My soul is too long owned by someone else”. (Come to think of it, this is another inverted paralell to Moash. This is someone realizing “I was wrong about everything and I’m so glad about that because it means I have a chance to be someone better than I was.”) Oh my goodness, I would love a Leshwi chapter in a later book, just to check in on her and see how she’s doing in her new life with the Singers.

I also loved the climax of Navani’s arc, and was so relieved, because up until that very moment I wasn’t sure if the Sibling would survuve uncorrupted. I know that some people weren’t pleased because the Sibling didn’t even like her, but to me that became a core part of the story, like I said above - people who deeply disagree finding common ground and common cause. That is a key element of being a Bondsmith - the process of bringing people together in spite of their differences - and something that fits Navani so well given the rapport she found with Raboniel. (Though I was conflicted about the latter. On the one hand, she made amazing discoveries that enabled her to save Urithiru. One the other hand, she...kind of collaborated with the enemy and gave them terrible weapons out of intellectual curiosity and a desire to prove herself?) I will grant that it makes the series, and the characters with the most crucial importance to Roshar, rather Kholin-heavy.

For Taravodium, all I can say is - YIPES. I have no idea how to process the implications of that, but I feel like it will be bad. Really really bad. (Taravangian is probably my least favourite character in the entire Stormlight Archive. The attitude of “I am so brave and selfless for doing evil things and look at how wonderful I am for sacrificing my own morality for the benefit of all, you petty selfish people wanting to be good could never make such a grand sacrifice” drives me absolutely nuts. It’s a complete inversion and twisting of morality, and intensely arrogant.)

Dalinar’s encounter with Ishar was fascinating, and I’m very curious to see where this goes. The spren experiments were deeply creepy! And the way Radiant Oaths can temporarily restore a Herald’s sanity was fascinating - I’m very eager to see where this goes in the next book. I suspect that Dalinar may have made a very serious mistake with regards to this trial my combat, and I have no idea how/if they’re going to fit Szeth’s whole arc into the ten days before the duel. I’ve been eagerly anticipating Szeth’s arc ever since The Way of Kings!

[thecreaturecodex]

Aros

“A Quiet Place head adjustments A” by Luis Carrasco, accessed at his ArtStation here

[Commissioned by @justicegundam82​. The aros are referred only as “Death Angels” in A Quiet Place, but the species name and a number of the physiological details have been revealed by John Krasinski. I never thought Jim from The Office had an ecological side to him, but apparently the inspiration came from equal parts invasive crawfish and  The Far Side-esque question “what would happen if you released wolves in a kindergarten?” As such, my design philosophy was that these monsters should be extremely deadly to ordinary NPCs in a D&D/PFRPG setting, but able to be tackled by prepared and experienced adventurers. The CR is the request of the commissioner.

And is it just me, or do they look like the love child of Judge Death and the Cloverfield Monster?]

Aros CR 9 N Aberration This creature looks something like a spindly, armor-plated gorilla, walking on the knuckles of long, clawed fingers. Its face is a mask of interlocking plates, which shift and flex to reveal a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth and large, fleshy ears.

The aros are nightmarish predators from another world that hunt with supremely precise hearing. They can hear a single sound from miles away and zero in on it, stalking prey and tearing them open with long, sword-like claws. These claws can pierce metal with ease, and they will gladly break into buildings in order to pursue prey. Their plated skin is likewise reinforced, shrugging away most mundane weapons and completely ignoring fire and cold. Their greatest strength is also their greatest weakness—their keen hearing leaves them vulnerable to sonic attack, and they can be temporarily disabled by loud, high pitched noises.

Despite their roughly humanoid shapes, aros are non-sapient. They can survive without oxygen and go into prolonged hibernation without access to food, allowing them to spread through space attached to asteroids. The similar propagation strategy suggests a link to the akata, or perhaps as a bioweapon engineered by the Dominion of the Black. This is supported by their disruptive aura—technological devices have a tendency to short out or fail in the presence of an aros. The aros are social in their own way, hunting in groups where the pecking order is enforced with violence.

Aros        CR 9 XP 6,400 N Medium aberration Init +5; Senses blind, blindsight 240 ft., impossible hearing, Perception +17, tremorsense 30 ft. Aura disruptive (30 ft., Fort DC 20) Defense AC 24, touch 16, flat-footed 18 (+5 Dex, +1 dodge, +8 natural) hp 104 (11d8+55) Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +10 DR 10/adamantine; Immune cold, fire, gaze attacks, visual spells and effects Weakness overwhelming volume, vulnerable to sonic Offense Speed 50 ft., climb 30 ft. Melee 2 claws +13 (1d8+5 plus grab), bite +13 (1d6+5) Special Attacks adamantine claws, pounce, rake (2 claws +13, 1d8+5) Statistics Str 20, Dex 20, Con 21, Int 2, Wis 17, Cha 11 Base Atk +8; CMB +13 (+15 sunder); CMD 29 (31 vs. sunder) Feats Dodge, Improved Sunder, Mobility, Power Attack, Spring Attack, Stealthy Skills Acrobatics +10 (+18 jumping), Climb +18, Escape Artist +13, Perception +17, Stealth +13; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception SQ no breath, sprint Ecology Environment any land and underground Organization solitary, pair, pack (3-6) or mob (7-18) Treasure none Special Abilities Adamantine Claws (Ex) An aros’ claws overcome hardness and damage reduction as if they were adamantine. Blindsight (Ex) An aros’ blindsight is hearing based. A deafened aros, or one in the area of a silence spell, is treated as being blind. Disruptive Aura (Ex) Any technological item within 30 feet of an aros must succeed a DC 19 Fortitude save, or the next time it activates it glitches as if timeworn. If the item is already timeworn, subtract 20 from the percentile roll to determine the effect of the glitch. Results of 0 or lower are treated as a roll of 01. Attended items may use the save bonus of their wielders. The save DC is Constitution based. Impossible Hearing (Ex) An aros can detect sounds at a distance of five miles. Overwhelming Volume (Ex) An aros is vulnerable to loud, high pitched sounds, like a signal whistle. When an aros is within 30 feet of such a sound, it must succeed a DC 15 Fortitude save or be stunned for 1 round. An aros that succeeds this save gains a +4 bonus on all saves against a sound from the same source. Sprint (Ex) Once per hour, an aros can move ten times its normal speed when making a charge or run action.

[storysofmyown]

Obey me! A devilish trip

Plot: The brothers decide to take a trip to the beach. It’s all fun and games until a demon decides to ruin it.

Trigger Warning: Foul language, rape attempt, mild violence, mentions of catcalling, stalking.

Word count: 4,254

“Do you think the pastel pink might be a better choice to wear to the beach than the dark pink? I get that both will look good on me because I’m wearing them, but one can only hope to look their best!”

 “They look exactly the same!”

 “You are not even looking! The pastel one is shorter and makes it look like it has a cute lace while the darker one is tighter and makes my butt look better.” Asmo fell onto the bed besides Mc with both bathing suits still in hand.

 “Do you really need me to answer that?”

 “Yeah you are right…the laced one makes the sexiest look”, Asmo packed the bathing suit on one of his several suitcases before looking at Mc.

 “Do you really need five suitcases for a 3-day trip to the beach?”, Mc’s eyes fell on the suitcases before getting their view blocked by Asmodeous.

 “Of course, dear! One of them has exclusively clothes for when we are at the hotel, another has my bathing suits, this one has my creams and face mask for my night-time routine, that one has some special gears in case something spicy might occur, and the last one has some extra clothing just in case.” Mc rolled their eyes at him before leaving the room and Asmo with a mountain to take care of.

             After a while of accommodating stuff in the suitcases Asmodeous piled them up on the side of his bed just in time for Lucifer’s check-ins.

 “No.”

 “EH?! C’mon Lucifer! I need the five of them. Do you have any idea what will happen if I leave any of those here?”, Asmo hugged protectively one of the suitcases before Lucifer took one from the pile and placed it on the bed.

 “It’s only a 3-day long trip. Knowing you, half of the stuff in here you don’t need.”  Lucifer started to open the suitcases and take out things from it. “You really have an entire suitcase for creams?”

 “How else would I sustain this flawless skin?”

 “You can take with you five items from this suitcase.” After a fit from Asmodeous and an agreement on settling for 7 items while ruling out the entire suitcase of special items it was time to argue about the clothes Lucifer did not approve.

 “This shirt is too short, this one is almost see trough, this bathing suit looks like lingerie and those pants are way too short.” Lucifer said as he threw the clothing in the floor. Making Asmo have a heart attack.

 “Lucifer! You always do this! What am I supposed to wear to the beach tomorrow if you take out all my cute clothes?” Asmo tried to put the bathing suit on the suitcase again but Lucifer was having none of it.

 “You call them cute? Those I would hardly call clothes. Even if it’s the beach where we are going that doesn’t mean you have to go walking around almost naked. The clothes that I left inside are appropriate. Don’t worry I still made sure you it fits your style. Now, make sure they are all organized in one suitcase for tomorrow.” Lucifer walked up to the door leaving a pouty Asmodeous mad at his cruel fate.

             While organizing everything in it, Asmodeous may or may not have sneaked in some of the inappropriate clothing Lucifer took out, but that was for him to know...and for Lucifer to get mad at later.

                                                    The next day

“Oi! Beel, stop trying to eat the seat belt. And Belphie, rest your head on the door instead of me, yeah?” Mammon yelled at his brothers while Mc, Satan, and Levi sat in the last row of seats talking about last night’s episode of a detective show Satan had recommended them.

 “This is so boriing”, Asmo protested while yawning, Lucifer side eyed them in the mirror before locking his eyes back in the road. “How long till we arrive?”

 “We are close. Maybe another 20 minutes. Meanwhile, I can let one of you choose a song.”

 “Not fair! They are going to play some normie stuff and not what I want to listen to.”

 “You literally wear headphones almost 24/7, just put them on.”

 “Oi! So, you were not actually sleeping and just decided to use me as a pillow?”

  “I am surprised Lucifer is letting us change the song he has played since we got on the car.” Satan smirked a little.

 “You just lost radio privileges, anyone else?” Lucifer changed the station before Asmo plugged in his phone and chose a song at random.

 “Hey! Why do you get to choose the music?” Mc yelled from the last seat.

 “Shot gun has DJ rights.” Asmo stuck his tongue out at Mc only for them to return the action.

 “Lucifer…”

 “Mhm?”

 “…I’m hungry.”

                                                    ***

 “Okay the lady rang us in already, we are on the sixth floor. Let’s go, I’ll give you the keys to the rooms when we get there.” After a very cramped elevator ride, they all arrived at the floor. “Okay, Asmo, Satan and I will be staying in room in 624, Mammon and Levi on room 625, and Beel, Belphie, and Mc on room 626. Here are the keys. In an hour we will meet on the lobby to talk about our schedule. Be on Time.”

 “Hey! Why do they get to share a room with Mc while I’m stuck with Levi?”

 “You think being stuck with me is bad? Imagine being stuck with an annoying lowlife like you.” Levi grumbled while opening the door to their room.

 “OI! I am your older brother, show me some respect.” The arguing faded once the door was closed.

 “All right! Who’s on for a movie marathon tonight?” Mc asked excitedly facing both Beel and Belphie.

 “If there will be popcorn I’m in.”

 “Only if we watch some horror movies.”

 “Pst, Satan.” Asmo whispered.

 “What is it?” Satan looked annoyed.

 “Why are we stuck with Lucifer? He ain’t fun at all. He is going to ruin all my plans.” Asmo complained while holding his suitcase.

 “He probably wants to keep an eye on us.” Satan closed the door behind them and claimed the middle bed while Asmo took the bed closest to the bathroom.

             After setting everything up, and Asmo taking almost half an hour in the bathroom to refresh himself, the three of them made their way to the lobby where Levi was complaining about something while Mammon decided what would be worth stealing to profit off. After a few minutes of waiting, finally, Beel, Belphie, and Mc showed. Lucifer gave some rules which none of them listened to and after a warning about ‘not wondering off to get in trouble, you all need to maintain an appearance even if we are not at school or on a meeting, we need to maintain Diavolo’s pristine image and yadda, yadda, yadda.’ The eight of them made their way to the beach.

           Beel, upon arriving, made a v-line directly to an ice cream stand that was there. Belphie put an umbrella and lied in the sand to take a nap, Levi started to play in his phone, Satan took a book out of God knows where and started to read. Mammon, like an idiot, rented some diving gear claiming that the ocean had all kind of treasures and he was going to find them while Mc laughed at him. Lucifer and Asmo both were at the bar that was in the middle of the beach.

 “My, my, Lucifer I didn’t know you were planning to actually have fun during this vacation.” Asmo teased his older brother while Lucifer scanned the beach making sure no one was dead yet.

 “This is the only thing that will keep me sane trough out the day.” Lucifer flashed a smile for half a millisecond before downing his three vodka shots that already had been served. Asmo chuckled before flashing a wink to the cute bartender who immediately was taking his order.

 “I would like a Devils Seacrest Blue.” After getting his drink and sipping on it for a while Satan decided to join them.

 “Aren’t you having fun.”

 “I’ll have more fun once Mammon decides to accept that there is no treasure under water. The idiot is going to drown.”

 “Look at the positive side, Levi actually stopped playing in his phone for a minute.”

 “…I have to see that for myself, be right back.” Lucifer drank his last shoot before checking that Levi was not suffering from a heat stroke.

             Satan ordered a drink as well and started to make small talk with the bartender. While that was going on, Asmo found some demon staring at him, to whom he flashed one of his signature’s smiles. The demon smiled at him as well before Asmo averted his eyes back to Beel, who had eaten at least 5,000 grim’s worth of ice cream.

 “I am surprised you are not flirting with that demon already.” Satan commented sipping from his Margarita.

 “Not my type.” Asmo commented casually.

 “That has not stopped you before.”

 “I have standard you know, just because a demon looks very ‘masculine’, doesn’t mean I’m going to flirt with them.

 “My mistake, I’ve only known you for like, I don’t know, a couple of millennia; my bad for making assumptions.” They both laughed for a bit before carrying on with another subject for a while. That was, until Satan noticed the demon still starring at Asmodeous. “You said he may not be your type, but I think you might be his.”

             Asmodeous looked briefly at the demon before turning to Satan again and rolling his eyes. He was glad Lucifer had left for the moment or else he would have caused a scene because of the demon. Asmodeous finished his third drink before getting up from his chair and announcing he was going to bother Mc and Mammon for a while. On his way to the water he could feel someone staring at him intensely, for some reason, that bothered him. He always loved attention…when he wanted it, he just ignored it and got into the water to find Beel, who had left clean the ice cream stand and Belphie had joined them. Levi had taken Mc on a trip to the deeps while Mammon was pouty about it.

           After a few hours of messing around and Mammon almost drowning Mc, a burned Belphie, Satan destroying a couple of chairs because water got on his book, Lucifer whooping some asses, and Levi almost adopting a sea monster whom he named Henry 3.0, they got back into the hotel. Lucifer had arranged a for them to eat at the hotel’s restaurant, so they needed to get there before 9, the reason why Asmo was frantically searching for what to wear.

 “Why does this matter so much? We are going to be there for only two hours. No one is going to notice that you are not wearing clothes that literally scream ‘I need people to notice me’.” Asmo glared at Satan before nodding.

 “You are right. What I wear isn’t what screams for attention is just generally me.” Satan groaned as Lucifer came out of the shower.

 “You have until 8:30 to finish, go in now.” Lucifer set up an alarm while Asmo sprinted to the bathroom.

             After bathing and doing hair and makeup, Asmo got out fully covered in a towel still wondering what to wear. Before he could even think about it, Lucifer threw at him some clothes and left the room. Asmo raised an eyebrow at Satan who shrugged.

 “Just get dressed.”

             Asmo was the last one to get ready, of course he was, once he got out of the room, he noticed that only Beel was outside. He explained that Lucifer and the other went ahead to apart the table and ordered him that if Asmo was not ready by 8:50, to drag him out. Without stalling too much, they hoped in the elevator. Beel was vibrating of excitement thinking of all the food he could eat.

 “Do you think they will have human world burgers? I have been dying to eat one since we arrived.”

 While Beel rambled about food the elevator stopped and a demon hooped in, at first Asmo didn’t pay much attention, but when he felt someone creeping in closer to him, he decided to look. Turned out to be the demon that had watched him earlier and was not trying to hide it this time. The demon had this look on his face that made Asmo feel uncomfortable. Coming from the Avatar of Lust it may sound weird, but the way this demon looked at him was as if he was undressing him right there.

Asmo had been with a lot of people in his life, but he had made sure 100% of the time that his partner felt comfortable. But that demon did not seem to care about that, with every second the demon was inching closer and Asmo felt his blood run cold. Luckily, Beel seemed to have noticed this because the moment the elevator reached the lobby, he took Asmo hand and basically ran from there. Before Asmo could even process what was happening, they were already making their way into the restaurant.  

 “Who was that?” Beel asked, and while Asmo was grateful that he didn’t ask with Lucifer on earshot, he did not know how to answer...so he opted to joke about it.

 “Probably some fan of yours truly. You should know that by being as desired as I am people will be leaping at the opportunity to get close to me.” Asmo chuckled, but there was an edge to his voice that Beel noticed.

 “Your fans don’t just stare at you; they try to talk and even get your number or something like that. That demon was doing none of those things.” Asmo appreciated Beels concern, but it also made him feel more vulnerable.

             Once thy arrived at the table, Beel did not mention the demon again. Asmo was immensely grateful for it. But he still felt…odd. Throughout the dinner he barely spoke, his mind was in other places. Like, what would have happened if Beel had not been with him? If that demon found himself completely alone with Asmo?

It made him feel completely insecure and unsafe, during dinner Asmo could not shake this feeling that the demon was lurking around, watching him. None of the brothers or Mc mentioned, even if they noticed, the state he was in. After dinner they all made their way to their respective rooms. Asmo was the first to enter the room and immediately took a bath. He wanted to wash off the feeling of the demons stare off himself. Once he got out, neither Satan nor Lucifer had entered the room. He decided to start with his night routine and after finishing he would pop into Mc, Beel and Belphie room and join the movie marathon. But Lucifer had other plans.

 “Asmodeous, you know that tomorrow we had schedule, at night, to go down the bar of the hotel and check it out.” Asmodeous nodded not looking up from the magazine he was reading. “Well, you, Satan, and I will not be attending.”

 Lucifer spoke as if Asmodeous had no say in the matter, like he had all the authority to just state what Asmodeous could and could not do and he would obey just because his older brother wanted him to. Asmodeous wanted to protest but he knew better than that. If he put up a fight Lucifer would only put more restrictions on him, and he was not going to end up like Mammon. No, he was smarter than that.

The next day proceeded as planned during the daytime, all of them followed Lucifer’s damned schedule to do all the activities the hotel offered. The incidents had been an all-time low with Mammon only attempting to steal the silverware during breakfast once, Beel only eat part of a table, and Levi almost losing it when he saw that Mc bought a limited edition Ruri-chan key chain for him. Now, Satan, Lucifer, and him were trapped in the room with Lucifer in the shower and Satan submerged in one of his books.

The moment Lucifer got out, Asmo went in with the clothes he was going to wear to the bar, and a loose pajama to disguise them. He took a long while in the bathroom, assuring that when he got out Lucifer would be already asleep, and he would only need to get past Satan. And so he did, after leaving the shower he used a little of his personal charm on Satan, which gave him enough time to put a tv show of detectives Satan would like for when the charm wore off. Once that was taken care off, he took off the “disguise”. Finished his makeup, put on some shoes and off he went.

 The ride to the elevator was uneventful, once he arrived at the bar, well that was another story. Demons have always been known to party, and there was a reason for that, and Asmo planned on joining them. He was on vacation and he refused stupid details ruin this, he was not going to pay any attention to what had happened the other day and he was going to live a little. Drink after drink, song after song, Asmo was having the time of his life, maybe the drinks were started to get to him a little, because he got on top of a table and started dancing. He didn’t care who saw or who cheered, he just danced because he wanted to and it made him feel happy.

After the wildness wore off, he got down from the table and asked the bartender for a water. He was certain he saw the face of Mammon somewhere in the crowd but even if Lucifer appeared now, he was content with himself.

 “You put quite the show huh?” A voice came from behind him. Asmo laughed before facing who spoke and feeling himself froze. It was the demon that had stared at him. He put those thoughts behind and just tried to be polite. A few minutes of small talk with the stranger turned into him cat calling and making suggestive comments at him while being a little too touchy. Asmo tried to get away from the demon a few times but he felt trapped in the space.

             Before he could protest the demon put an arm on Asmo waist and whispered something in his ear, making sure to kiss his neck before smirking. Asmo pushed the demon away and tried to walk through the crowd but the demon was having none of that. Once he was a bit away from the crowd, he felt a hand grab him and pull him back in. The hands of the demon hold him against a wall as the demon tried to convince Asmo to go with him into his room. Asmo was able to get away from their grip and made a run to the elevators.

             He pressed the buttons, but the elevators were not coming down and as he turned around to make sure he wasn’t being followed his eyes fell on the demon who was walking fast towards him. Without a second thought he started to climb up the stairs with rapid footsteps behind him. Halfway up the stairs the demon got close enough to grab Asmo by the leg making him fall. The demon immediately pinned both of Asmos hands to the ground while staring at him with such a lust that it made Asmo want to scream. He tried to kick the demon, but he evaded them.

             How could he escape from this one? Even if he was one of the most powerful demons in hell he was not physically strong, his powers in this case would not help because even if he got the demon to look him directly in the eyes and charmed him the demon would not stop because, to put it this way, he was already “charmed”. The demon tried to take off Asmos shirt, but he resisted, the demon slammed his wrist against the stairs and got close to his face.

 “The more you fight, the worst this is going to be for you, I recommend you stay still and don’t scream.” Asmo was horrified as the demon started to kiss him and bite him hard. He felt disgusted, scared, dirty, he was petrified with terror and he only wanted to scream, which he tried but the demon put a piece of cloth in his mouth. He felt the wet trial of kissed leading from his neck to his stomach, the demon was sucking on Asmo skin like it was some type candy, Asmo felt the demons hand unbutton his pants.

           Asmo tried to get away from the demon once again, resisting to him, moving, fight, trying to scream, the demon only pulled him from the hair and slapped him. “What did I just tell you? I was considering going easy on you, but it seems like that’s not an option. You brought this on yourself.” Asmo felt the demon´s nails dig in his skin to the point that he bleeds and as tears ran down his cheek, he felt a weight lift off him unexpectedly.

             When he opened his eyes, he saw Lucifer having tackled the demon off him and Satan was holding him down. Asmo felt someone touch him and while his first instinct was to pull away once he saw that it was Beel helping him to his feet he let him. The next few instances flew by in a blur. One moment he was being pulled up by Beel the next Mammon, Levi, Belphie, and Mc around him trying to make sure he was okay. Everyone talked but he could barely even focus on what any of them were saying.

             Asmo decided to take a bath, and while bathing he started crying while looking at his red wrists. How could he be so stupid as to go down at the bar knowing that demon could be lurking around. For the first time in millennia Asmodeous felt disgusted in his own skin. He rubbed a sponge in every spot that the demon had touched so hard that once he looked, they were red. After getting out of the bath and standing in the mirror he noticed the trial of red and purple hickeys the demon had left on his skin. Asmo wanted to scream and to punch himself for being such an idiot.

             If he had listened to Lucifer and stayed with him and Satan in the room, then none of this would have happened. But he had to go and put on a show while calling attention upon himself, right? After getting dressed Asmo left the bathroom and Mc sat him down on the couch beside them. He was feeling exhausted and just wanted to get back to the House of lamentation. He just wanted to feel safe.  

             He cannot tell how, but before Lucifer entered the room he felt this impending sense of dread shake him to his core. Lucifer stood in front of him while Asmo looked nowhere. He was expecting Lucifer to yell, scream, lecture or even hit him because he had disobeyed him, but he certainly was not expecting Lucifer to hug him.

 “I shouldn’t have restricted you. After Beel told me what happened in the elevator I thought it be safer for you to stay in instead of going with you and making sure you were safe…I’m sorry. Are you okay?” Lucifer sounded broken and at the verge of tears. Asmo tried to brush off the feelings and smiled weakly at his older brother, before breaking down in his embrace and crying.

 “No, I’m not okay I’m sorry, I should have listened to you.” Asmo gripped on Lucifer’s coat was the only thing keeping him from shaking.

 “Asmo, listen to me”, Satan sat by his side, “you did nothing wrong, so don’t you dare think this is your fault at all, okay? The only one who’s at fault here is that…that demon.”  Everyone could feel the fire in Satan’s word’s, but they also noticed that glimpse of tenderness and care for his brother.

 “Do you want to go home?” Lucifer asked with a softness in his voice Asmo could swear he had never heard before.

 “We could leave now if that’s what you want.” Beel spoke softly. Asmo smiled at them shook his head.

 “Thank you, but I just want to sleep. Can we leave tomorrow, during the morning?” They all nodded and Asmo smiled at them still feeling a bit scared.

 “Do you want to stay with us?” Mc spoke, Asmo shoot Lucifer a look who only smiled.

 “I think it might be better if all of us stay together tonight.” They agreed and after pushing the 3 beds together and lying down in them, the darkness of the night made Asmo think. None of this had been his fault, for some reason he had thought it was but no. The only one to blame was that demon who tried to hurt him. Asmo finally was able to breathe, feeling all that weight that was crushing him lift momentarily. The darkness of the night made Asmo feel the warm, he knew his family had his back. That made him feel happy, and most importantly it made him feel safe.

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

Hello once again people! Fun fact; this started as something entirely different but halfway trough i was like “But what if Asmo was aware of the concept of consent?”, and this was born. Hope y’all enjoyed it, and remember to stay safe bye! :3

[wedreamedlove]

(Price of) Freedom [Bai Qi Character Study]

JP finished their run of Bai Qi's Mystery Wings event and after reading everything I haven't been the same— LOL much like how I was after his Spring Festival Date, so now I'm subjecting you all to a rambly think piece.

Disclaimer: I use CN and JP quotes, so they'll differ from the ENG version. Spoilers up to Chapter 19 + unreleased ENG cards.

FREEDOM, WHAT IS IT?

I don't think it's a secret now that Bai Qi had a harsh childhood. But, for the sake of my think piece and to refresh everyone's memories, I'll go through it again.

[Rumors and Secrets: Little Guardian] His dad rarely came home, especially after it was confirmed that Bai Qi didn't have any Evol powers. Heck, Bai Qi even heard his parents arguing through a door and saw instances of his mom crying because of his dad.

[Seize SSR: Sad Thoughts Call] Bai Qi reveals that his dad was extremely strict on him and his mom would cry silently in the back for him. The one time his dad smiled Bai Qi felt chills down his spine for the rest of the day.

[Campus Date] Bai Qi thinks about how his dad, and others, would probably be happy to see him die and so, out of sheer spite, he rejects that and decides to live for himself (and MC because she woke his Evol) and not for the recognition of others or the world.

[Main Story 12-18] Bai Qi's mom died in a fire, which is why he's traumatized, and this was another point for his dad to hammer in his uselessness. But Bai Qi re-affirms here that his existence itself is not a point of shame.

[Main Story 15-24] In order to protect MC, Bai Qi makes a deal with the devil (aka. his dad) and his dad says that undergoing the NW Plan has always been Bai Qi's fate, along with his younger brother. In [Rumors and Secrets: Little Guardian] Bai Qi's mother tries to justify to Bai Qi that his dad bears the burden of protecting the country, but you don't sacrifice your family like that and make weapons out of them... lol.

Okay, knowing Bai Qi's past now, I'm going to bring up my header question. Freedom, what is it and how does it relate to Bai Qi? In this case, I think a lot of what Bai Qi is trying to escape is the confinement of his father. "His joining of the special forces symbolizes the difference of his justice compared to his father" [CN Profile].

It's not a coincidence that Bai Qi gets these symbols:

WIND: Classic symbol of something that is utterly free and cannot be controlled. Bai Qi literally controls the wind.

SKY: He's always flying around in the sky. He's not using his power on the ground. He also has a lot of scenes where he's looking up at the sky and contemplating freedom.

WOLF: Putting aside the propaganda about them being monsters that hunt livestock, they're seen as symbols of freedom, instinct, and the wild world. Bai Qi is often described as a wolf [CN Profile + Main Story 19-6].

To further support this, there were two distinct Mystery Wings event entries that referred to the sky too, one with yearning and the other with melancholy:

AMBER

The amber was illuminated by the sun and the sight of its transparent waves concealed a gentleness in their coolness.

She suddenly thought this amber was exactly like those eyes.

It was something that happened in late autumn.

She was walking in the hallway in front of the upper grades’ classes when her eyes unconsciously stopped on a certain classroom.

Shabby curtains blew in the breeze and, amongst them, there was a young man standing by the window and staring at the sky.

His features weren’t sharp, but a glimpse of an indifference and air which prevented people from getting close to him could be seen.

Light and shadow shone in both eyes. Those pure and clear eyes reflected the sunlight and it was as if they were luring travelers to that deep sea at the last stop of oblivion.

Those eyes glimmered far more than this amber.

BAI QI'S PIERCING

The face of the young man in the mirror was indifferent and there was a bruise beside his mouth. His hair, damp from the rain, stuck to his forehead. A dark shadow fell over those amber-like eyes.

He didn't find it painful the first time he put on earrings.

Instead, he felt exhilarated like whenever he raised his fists.

Bai Qi wiped at the blood around the edge of his piercing with his hand. The blood mixed with the crimson color on the back of his hand until a distinction couldn’t be made.

Rain, which fell increasingly harder, pounded at the window as if it were giving praise to a meaningless hero.

He quietly leaned against a wall and looked up at the dark sky.

Just how long would this rain continue for?

I posit that that Bai Qi and freedom are intrinsically linked. It's something he needs and is the bedrock of his character, much like his unwavering sense of justice. Does he get it? Yes! Like I mentioned above, he joined the special forces to separate from his dad.

But also, and what's most important, is that he finds freedom in making MC his home, his flag, and his convictions. If you don't have a place to call home then you're not roaming the world in freedom, you're just lost in the world.

I also like how this can be linked back to his wolf symbolism, because wolves are pack animals. Yes, the lone wolf imagery is romantic but lone wolves travel to find a place to belong because they tend to die when they're alone. "The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack."

In addition to being symbols of freedom, they're also charismatic symbols and social symbols. I feel like this also gets reflected by how inspiring Bai Qi is just from having an unwavering sense of justice. Han Ye and Gu Zheng's presence, and their respect for Bai Qi, reflect his charisma.

Admittedly, it's ironic that I love Bai Qi so much when one of my favorite poems, "For women who are 'difficult' to love" by Warsan Shire, has a line that goes "You can't make homes out of human beings". I'd understand if people who strongly agree with this sentiment don't find Bai Qi an interesting character, and that's a-okay!

But, and I can't stress this enough, we shouldn't deprive or devalue others of their life's choices if it's not actively harming others.

FREEDOM IS HER

For Bai Qi, MC represents his freedom because, without her, he wouldn't have a home to come back to and he'd be lost out in the world. Important things need to be reiterated.

[Endless Abyss SSR Beside You Call] Bai Qi returned from a mission but, instead of sleeping, the first thing he wants to do is go and pick up MC to send her to work.

[Brilliant Date] Bai Qi returns from a mission and, again, goes to see her immediately without returning home first because he made a promise.

[Loneliness SR Wind and Care Call] Bai Qi literally says "Because I have a place for my heart, I can fly anywhere."

Meanwhile, in one of the Mystery Wings event entries:

BAI QI'S BRACELET

Before Bai Qi went on a mission, he entrusted his own bracelet to her. She gripped his bracelet and prayed for his safety with a smile.

He looked at her and repeated the same words once, and then once more.

“Don’t worry. I’ll come back right away.”

Finishing his mission, he noticed he received calls and messages on his phone.

The city at dawn was still somewhat lonely.

He went to reply to the messages but, unlike before, he couldn’t find the words to say.

A night wind blew. Urged by that wind, he came to the window of her room as if possessed by something.

Illuminated by the faint moonlight, he could clearly see something shining in the corner of her eyes. Her brows were furrowed like she was having a nightmare.

His bracelet was firmly gripped in her hand.

Bai Qi recalled that fragile call history and messages and went to stand beside her. Then he gently wiped away the tears at her eyes with his hand.

“I’m sorry… I’m back.”

Look, I can't make it clearer that he goes to her because she's metaphorically his home. I'm also not going to repeat it here but if you look at my post about Bai Qi being in love, you'll see how much he focuses on MC in general because his being is attuned to her.

In a sense, Bai Qi is an extension of MC and it also supports how their sense of justice mirrors each other. Upholding good is engraved in their characters.

P-please, don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean he has no personality and has just built everything around her. He has hobbies on his own like basketball, tinkering with gadgets, growing succulents, treating injured animals, riding his motorbike, and astronomy.

Okay, the rest of this section is just going to be me gushing about the Mystery Wings event and the [Brilliant Date] that accompanies it because there was so much going on. First, let's tackle the date:

Ribbing about Bai Qi's naming sense and the play on words was lost in ENG. In CN the dove is called "Little White" which can be read "Little Bai", as in a small Bai Qi, because his name in CN has the character for white. This makes "Pearly" a literal symbol for Bai Qi, and they set the dove completely free at the end.

There's an exchange in this date where ENG goes "Does it mean I get your place?" and "I get your place. Now I give one back to you" but an interesting and cute thing here is that, in CN, the word he's using isn't as simple as just "giving". Bai Qi is specifically using a military word here that means "to occupy, intrude, or seize". He's such a nerd and it reflects his background LOL.

More on the above, because this uncommon verb is so interesting. It carries an aggressive connotation because it's implying military intrusion. The other person gives up all rights to their territory when you're occupying it. But Bai Qi gives the same rights to her for his room.

Freedom discussion and metaphors everywhere in this date, but when MC was talking about how all she needs is the wind and the sun (her monologue reveals that Bai Qi provides the wind and his presence beside her is her light) to feel freedom, Bai Qi never removes his eyes from her. He doesn't express his agreement or disagreement about what he thinks freedom is... he shows it with his actions of focusing his complete attention on her. She's his freedom!

Leaving the date now, I want to point out [Light Bath SSR: Tenderness Call] and how Bai Qi thinks he only shows his gentleness towards select people, for example his mother and MC. This is another mark of how he doesn't let anyone get close to him except for MC because he is her extension.

On that note, there is a reason I keep saying Bai Qi is MC's extension, but not that MC is his extension as well and that it's a two-way link. The reason I say this is, because, Bai Qi continues to need that freedom (MC) and yearns for that freedom (MC).

Below are four entries from the Mystery Wings event that showcase this longing for MC that Bai Qi experienced through high school, when his want for freedom was at its highest:

THE SECOND BUTTON

Life in high school came with romantic but illogical rumors. For example, things like if you confessed on the 7th step of the stairway in the corner of the 3rd floor then it’ll succeed, or if you carved your name and another person’s name on the 6th tree in the courtyard at the back then your misunderstandings will be resolved, of if a guy gave the girl he liked the second button of his uniform on graduation day then the two of them will end up happy together.

Generally, the guys acted as if they didn’t believe in these rumors, but they secretly held expectations inside their hearts.

But Bai Qi marked these all off as being stupid.

One day at lunch, a conversation between girls entered his ears.

“The rumors about the second button are romantic, aren’t they? Whoever gets one is sure to be happy~!”

There was a familiar voice mixed in amongst them. He glanced over abruptly and her face, full of yearning, leapt into his eyes.

“… Graduation, huh.”

He raised his head in thought. He suddenly couldn’t wait for graduation.

However, he didn’t give her the second button he tore off.

That button, together with a brisk air, was stored carefully inside a case.

PINK BANDAID

Bai Qi sat in the corner of the classroom. His lacked the spirit it had shown when he had been in the library.

He mussed his hair like he was at a complete loss and recalled how he had met her at the entrance of the library just now. Her startled and anxious expression floated into his mind.

“… Did I scare her again?”

After a while, Minor came bursting in.

"Bai Qi, Bai Qi!!!”

He waved the pink bandaid he was holding as if he was excited.

“This… Put this on!”

Bai Qi didn’t respond at all.

“She gave it!!”

Bai Qi startled when he heard those words and stared at the bandaid Minor was holding in a daze. The wound at his mouth stung. His fingers also prickled a little.

He carefully took that bandaid, treating it as if it was his world’s most precious treasure…

Later on, this pink bandaid was always taped on his heart and, every time he stepped into the swamp-like darkness of the night, it gave off a faint warmth.

GINGKO CHARM

After he learned about her identity, he went out personally to buy protection for her.

He desperately thought of a way to protect her.

Suddenly, when he saw a ginkgo leaf fall in front of him, a certain memory came back to his mind. The memory of that time when the wind blew and he was guided by the melody she played…

It was possible that, from that time on, they were bound tightly by a thread neither of them could see.

He decided to make her a ginkgo bracelet and made an effort to produce it day after day.

The small gold gingko leave brought trouble to him. The first three he made were all scratched and were a loss. On the fourth, he was finally able to make a perfect bracelet.

The sun had long hidden itself and the moon had appeared. Looking at the bracelet which shone faintly underneath the moonlight, he gave a satisfied smile.

He was sure she would like it.

PAST SCHOOL NEWSPAPER

There weren’t a lot of people who would seriously read something like the school newspaper. Notes were written on the underside of the paper’s surface, which wrote exaggeratedly about the awards of clubs and events within the school, and its fate was to be tossed into the garbage after being scribbled on all over.

Bai Qi also didn’t have much interest in the school newspaper.

On the rooftop, Minor bit into his bread and muttered as he stared at the school newspaper he happened to receive earlier.

“Honors student, huh… Bai Qi, you know, I also have good morals, I’m fit, my personality’s good, and my grades aren’t that bad. Maybe I can be the second honors student…”

Bai Qi didn’t respond and glanced over at the picture on the paper.

There, she was bashfully receiving an award on a stage with a happy smile.

“Honors student”… He digested those words in his heart and then stood up and headed towards the door.

“Bai Qi! Bai Qi! Are you going to a fight!? Please take me with you!”

“Class.”

“… Huh?”

I placed this newspaper one last because it also appeared last in the JP event and KOed me, but also reminded me of his [Love of My Life SSR] and how the CN version does not use plain "love" in the card's quote, and I go into more detail about this in my Bai Qi in Love post.

But, basically, the CN version uses a word that means "attachment or longing". It's a subtle difference because, yes, she is the love of his life but also his longing, desire, and aspiration. She keeps him in this world and is something he feels like he needs to strive towards.

I'm just going to bring up his 2019 birthday card, which ENG will be releasing this year, because there's this line that goes:

[CN Tide of Light SSR Chasing Dreams Date] "That year, I did want to give you that letter personally. But I gave myself a way out and left it up to luck. I knew that, at the time, I was still lacking a lot and so I decided that I had to meet you again with my best self."

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

So, putting aside how one price is Bai Qi feeling like he needs to better himself, the other is that Papergames refuses to give us an easy happiness with this game and, as I mentioned in my Chinese archetype post, Bai Qi is a shoo-in for the Tragic Hero character.

The price exacted for trying to have this freedom is precisely that of his freedom. Unlike the other characters, he has a simple throughline because he literally doesn't care for anything but MC and his justice. Put in other words, he doesn't have anything to lose except MC and his sense of self.

And this is exactly what we see happen in the story:

[Chapter 12] was about losing MC and realizing that, despite all his intentions, perhaps HE is the one who will harm her and cannot protect her.

[Chapter 15] was about losing his sense of self, with another dose of fear of losing MC. Everything he thought he stood up for was a lie.

I might have mentioned elsewhere that it's tragic how he's constantly thrown into situations that try to break his principles. But, now that I'm thinking on this more, I think... he's actually giving up his principles of justice for the MC. Even more tragic is that he's also metaphorically letting his wings get clipped and losing his freedom to preserve MC's safety.

UGH, it's why his character is so tragic and why the end of [Main Story 15-24] was like an enormous blade being dropped on me when there was that descriptive line about how MC had never realized that the sight of someone being unable to stand upright could be so sorrowful.

Maybe I should have said that the price of preserving Bai Qi's home (MC) is his freedom and sense of justice being eroded.

Anyway, oops, I started this off to celebrate how amazingly gorgeous this event and date was and how much it developed Bai Qi's character. But then I just had to tie it back into all the angst LOL.

[echoes-of-the-clockwork]

Book Four: War (Gladiolus x Reader) Chapter Three

"Dammit!" (Y/n) cursed, jamming the crimson blade of her sword into the ground. She glared out across the surface of the large body of water located in the Alstor Slough. The corpses of catoblepases littered the lake, blood pouring from the massive wounds scattered across their bodies. Some were disemboweled while others had appendages torn clean off. The bunyips had claimed the catoblepases and left after feasting on their prey. There were no clear indicators of which direction the pack had went after their meal, leaving the Horseman with nothing more than a dead end.

"These damned things are smarter than they look," War hissed under her breath. Ares walked over toward his rider, nudging his muzzle against her cheek with a faint neigh. She reached up and stroked his muzzle with a sigh. "Thanks, buddy."

Ares neighed a second time, enjoying her gentle touch. The Horseman glanced at the corpses one last time before an idea came to mind. A few seconds ticked by and she suddenly felt a familiar presence manifest beside her. "What're you doing out this far, Pestilence?"

The ivory-haired girl smiled gently at her sister. "I simply wished to see how you were faring, but..." She saw the gruesome scene before her, which caused her smile to vanish. "That would be an ignorant question."

"How goes your hunt?" War asked.

"As well as yours. This draugr is quite bothersome and I've yet to locate it. My next destination is the Leide region."

The two girls fell silent for a few minutes. They still couldn't tear their eyes away from the large carcasses that littered the Alstor Slough. The monsters from the Inner Sanctum were much more powerful than daemons and the beasts indigenous to Eos.

Pestilence shattered the silence after more minutes ticked by. "I know you aren't fond of mortals, but maybe it'd be best if you traveled with Prince Noctis and his companions. With their excursions around Eos, locating the bunyips and dullahan may prove to be an easier task. You could also teach His Highness a few new tricks."

(Y/n)'s head snapped in Pestilence's direction. "You're kidding, right? There's no way in hell I'd travel with mortals."

"Oh, don't be like that. Traveling with them could also allow such distrust to be erased. You need to learn to trust others. I know it's difficult because of your past, but it's been centuries, War. You must overcome it."

"Come talk to me again once the person you loved stabs you in the back. Literally."

"What Gaius did was awful, but you must forget in order to move forward. I have come to terms with what happened in my previous life. It's time you do the same." Those were Pestilence's final words before she vanished.

The (e/c)-eyed girl stared at the spot her sister once stood before looking back towards the blood-tainted water. She leaned against Ares with a groan. "Why does she always have to be right...?"

Ares bobbed his head up and down with an energetic neigh. He nudged his muzzle against her crimson locks, urging her to do what Pestilence said.

Seeing her steed was in agreement with her sister, (Y/n) glared weakly at him. "You're my partner, not hers! Traitor..." Once again, Ares urged her by nudging her gently forward. The girl stopped him before he could push her into the water. "Okay! Okay! I'll head back! You gonna give me a lift or do you want me to exhaust myself by teleporting?"

The horse allowed his rider onto his back. Once she was ready, he took off in the direction of Cauthess Coernix Station where she had left Gladio only a few hours ago.

By the time she arrived back at the rest area, the sun was setting. She dismounted Ares, the horse vanishing in the blink of an eye. She looked around the rest area, her eyes landing on the group of boys as they enjoyed dinner together. However, she noticed their joyful mood dampen when Ardyn walked over and tried to spark up a conversation.

(Y/n) kept her distance until Ardyn sauntered off. When he was gone, she approached the boys. Before she could say anything, Prompto spotted her. "Hey, (Y/n)!"

All eyes fell on her when the blonde announced her presence. She remained level-headed, keeping her temper in-check. "Hi."

"Didn't expect to see you again so soon," Gladio said. "How goes the hunt?"

"Awful," she sighed. "The bunyips have fled from Alstor Slough, leaving behind the corpses of many catoblepases as evidence. However, that's all they left. I've no clue which direction they traveled in after their hearty feast."

"How dangerous are those things exactly?" Noctis wondered.

"Very. The man you gave a lift is lucky to still have his arms and legs."

"Damn..."

"If the hunt went bad, why're you back here?" Gladio inquired.

"Pestilence and I had a small conversation. She brought a few things to my attention and it's only because of her that I'm back here. She mentioned traveling with you four would prove to be beneficial in locating the bunyips and the dullahan." She glanced around at their faces before continuing. "I know you four probably don't like me in the slightest because I come across rude and cold, but I...hope you can look past my behavior and let me accompany you."

"That's...uh..." Prompto's voice trailed off.

"If it's too much, I understand. I'll give you some time to think about it."

"Wow. You're being nicer than usual," Noctis commented.

War was tempted to snap back, but held her tongue. "I'm trying to turn over a new leaf."

"If that's the case, I don't see why you can't join us. Maybe you'll even tell us why you can use the Crystal's power."

"Maybe..."

"I do believe your cooperation would be beneficial," Ignis stated.

"Aw, yeah! (Y/n)'s joinin' us!" Prompto cheered.

Gladio grinned and decided to push his luck. "Welcome to the team, firecracker."

She tried to smile, but it faltered slightly due to the nickname. "Thanks for having me."

After that, (Y/n) fell silent for the rest of the night. She wandered a little ways away from the caravan when Ardyn and the boys called it a night.

In the middle of the night, Gladio was startled awake by a nightmare. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with a heavy sigh before deciding to leave the caravan to get some fresh air.

Walking outside, he immediately spotted (Y/n) leaning against the side of the caravan. Her gaze was locked on the sky, but it was soon turned to him when the door closed behind him. "Never expected to see you up this early. It's only four in the morning."

"Yeah, well, it's a little difficult to sleep when a nightmare won't leave you alone," Gladio retorts.

"Be friendly..." War whispered to herself. She pushed herself off the caravan and asked, "Wanna...talk about it?"

The brute chuckled at her forced question. "You really are tryin' to be nice, aren't you?"

"Don't make fun of me," she hissed. Realizing her rising temper, she took a deep breath and exhaled. "I'm new to this friendly stuff. Give me a break..."

"Didn't you have friends in your previous life?"

"No," she blandly replied. "I was too busy with other things."

"Did those other things have to do with why you can do what Noct can?" He questioned.

"Yes. But there's no way in hell I'm telling you everything just yet. Earn my trust and I'll tell you." She combed a hand through her crimson locks. "Anyway, wanna talk about that nightmare or you just gonna keep making fun of my lack of friendliness?"

"Nah, I'm not a little kid. Besides, it's not like I could make sense of the nightmare myself. It was all over the place."

"As is with most dreams." She looked back up at the starry night sky. "But seriously, you should try to get some more sleep. You'll need every second you can get if you plan on going to the Disc tomorrow."

"Look at you being all caring," Gladio chortled. "It's weird."

"Shut it," she growled. "Would you rather I be a bitch 24/7? Because that can be arranged."

"Hell no."

"Good. Now get your ass back to bed."

"Yes, ma'am."

Gladio, once having cleared his head thanks to his conversation with War, went back into the caravan and crawled on to the couch to get some more sleep. Within a few minutes, he was fast asleep.

<-------------<<<<<

The following morning, the boys and their new companion left the rest area with Ardyn leading them to the barricade that prevented anyone from accessing the meteor directly. Along the way, the four boys conversed while (Y/n) remained silent. Although she was sandwiched in the middle between Ignis and Gladio, she wasn't bothered which surprised her.

Seeing as the Horseman had been silent ever since they left Cauthess Coernix Station, Prompto nervously tried to talk to her. "Hey, um, (Y/n)?"

The redhead's (e/c) gaze locked with his cerulean one. "Yeah?"

Hearing no sass or annoyance in her tone, he asked, "Would you like to see some awesome pics?"

Her brows furrowed. "Pics? What're those?"

"Y'know, pictures!" Prompto turned on his camera and handed it to her.

(Y/n) carefully handled the device she was unfamiliar with. She examined it with curiosity, wondering what it did. "What is this thing?"

"A camera," Prompto clarified.

"Don't tell me you've never seen one," Gladio said.

"Of course I haven't," she retorts with a slight hint of annoyance. "If I had, I wouldn't be asking."

"It takes pictures," the blonde stated. "They're like, uh...still images!"

"So they're like portraits, right?" She pondered.

"Something like that."

War followed Prompto's direction and was able to access the pictures. She scrolled through them, amazed at how many there were. Not only was she fascinated by the pictures, but also how such a device could change the appearance of a picture. "How fascinating," she mumbled with awe.

"It's just a camera," Gladio commented.

"Hey, it's not like...!" She sighed, calming herself. "Eos has changed significantly since my time. We didn't have any fancy technology like cameras. If we wanted portraits, we hired artists to paint them."

"Exactly when was your time on Eos?" Ignis asked.

(Y/n) lowered the camera. "Nearly a millennium ago. I am the oldest among the Horsemen." Her crimson locks formed a curtain around her face, concealing it. "The world truly has changed since then..." Combing her hair aside, she handed the camera back to Prompto, thanking him.

Before Gladio could ask his own question, they arrived at the barricade. Noctis glances at Ardyn and muttered under his breath, "Better not be a setup."

Ardyn had heard the prince and glanced at him. "Have I given you reason to doubt me?"

"You don't exactly inspire confidence," Prompto retorts.

"Yeah, not very straightforward," Gladio added.

Ardyn ignored their comments and called out, "Hello! It's me! Be so kind as to open up!" The gate opens, shocking the group.

Prompto stared in bewilderment. "Wow, that worked?"

"I may not look like much, but I do have some influence. Aren't you glad we came together? Your audience with divinity lies ahead."

"You're leaving?"

"I drop you at the Archaean's open door, and with that, bid you farewell." Ardyn drives away, leaving them.

Noctis drives the Regalia through the barricade as Gladio said, "I've met some weirdos..."

"I hope we never meet that one again," Ignis finished the shield's thought.

"Whoa! Little harsh there, don't you think?" Prompto inquired.

"Oh, please. That man, whoever he may be, even gave me the creeps," (Y/n) said.

After reaching the end of the path, everyone climbed out of the car. They spotted a narrow path ahead and decided to see where it led. Following it all the way to the end, they came across a ledge overlooking the meteor. Upon the ledge was an intricately carved stone sarcophagus. Prompto blinked in surprise. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Didn't expect to find a royal tomb here," Ignis commented.

"Would be a shame not to grab that power, eh, Highness?" Gladio asked Noctis.

"Let's grab it and go." Noctis walks up to the sarcophagus, holds out his hand, and acquires the royal arm residing within. After he claimed the weapon, the ground begins to shake. Prompto and Ignis fall down while Gladio, Noctis, and (Y/n) manage to keep themselves upright.

"Here we go again," Prompto whimpered.

"This one's huge!" Gladio shouted over the loud rumbling.

Ignis noticed the crumbling ground beneath Noctis, Gladio, and (Y/n). He yelled, "Get away! Quickly!"

Noctis' headache suddenly returns, bringing him down to one knee. He recovers as fast as he can and tries to run away from the crumbling ledge. He is unable to get far before the ground falls out from under his feet, dropping him against a slope where he slides down until he briefly lands on a small ledge below. Unfortunately, the boy quickly slides off the ledge and turns to try grabbing on. His desperate attempt to grab anything to stop his descent was futile.

Gladio, who was safe on another ledge, noticed the steep plummet Noctis was sliding towards. "Noct!"

(Y/n) was dangling from a narrow ledge when she heard the shield shout the boy's name. Looking down, she noticed the ravenette's dilemma and huffed in annoyance. "Dammit..." Summoning her sword, she released the ledge and plummeted downward. Tossing her blade, she warped just below Noctis and grabbed his wrist before he could fall out of reach. Jamming the blade into the rock, she halted their descent. Due to their combined weight, the blade was slowly slipping from the stone. Seeing they were in such a dangerous position, (Y/n) remained level-headed and addressed the boy. "Noctis, summon the weapon you can throw furthest. Throw it up to where Gladio is and warp."

Noctis glances up to where the brute was and noticed how far it was. "There's no way I can warp that far!"

"Yes, you can!" She hissed, her arms shaking. "If I can do it so can you! Besides, if you fall, I'll just catch you again."

He was still unsure, but trusted the Horseman's judgement. "All right, but what about you?"

"Did you already forget who I am?" War snapped. "Just hurry up and warp!"

Noctis summoned a dagger and tossed it as high up as he could. The short blade pierced the stone just below the ledge where Gladio was and he warped to it. The shield helped the prince up and over the ledge. Once Noctis was back on his feet, he and Gladio peered over the ledge at War. They both watched as her sword vanished, causing her to fall.

Before either one of them could shout her name, the Horseman's body vanished in a puff of smoke. She reappeared beside them, rolling her shoulder. "Let's get moving."

Just as the trio went to proceed forward, the Meteor begins to rise before them, revealing Titan, who has been holding the chunk of space debris on his back for many years. Noctis was bewildered at the sight. "What the-?"

Titan says something indecipherable in the language of the gods, but (Y/n) understood him clear as day. Of course, she remained silent knowing the god wasn't calling out to her. Her time as the chosen was cut short and now she was a nobody to the Astrals.

"Goddamn... This is the Archaean?" Noctis murmured as he gazed at Titan.

"Seems we woke the big guy up," Gladio said.

"He's trying to tell me something... But what?"

Prompto suddenly calls out from high above, grabbing the trio's attention. "Noct! You okay?"

Ignis also peered down at them with a sigh of relief. "Thank heavens you're safe. Is there a way back up?"

"No, but there's a path. Gonna see where it leads," Noctis replied.

"You two try to get down," Gladio stated.

"Very well. We'll look for a way. Be careful, now," Ignis advised.

"You, too," Noctis said.

"What? We're going where!?" Prompto shrieked.

The trio wandered down the path. As they did, Noctis' and Gladio's tempers were slowly rising with the heat. (Y/n) gritted her teeth, annoyed at the two. She kept her lips sealed, knowing she'd say something out of line and risk losing her chance to travel with them. Deciding to ignore them, she pushed past the two and walked ahead. She led them down the diverging path where a group of dynoaevis birds flew overhead.

Gladio noticed their strange behavior. "They're on edge-let's not ruffle their feathers any more."

"Um, try shutting your beak," Noctis groaned.

"Just offering sound advice."

"Yeah, like a parrot in my ear."

Unable to stand another second of it, (Y/n) snapped. She manifested a large fireball in her palm and threw it at the flock of birds. The flames fried the creatures' bodies, resulting in a rancid odor to waft through the area. Noctis and Gladio were flabbergasted at the suddenness of such a powerful spell and eyed the Horseman.

"Uh, (Y/n)?" Gladio called out to her. "You okay?"

War spun around, glaring daggers at the two. "No, I'm not okay. I'm annoyed. You two are acting like children in the middle of a dangerous situation. Excuse me if my sanity snaps all because you two are irritated and can't stop bickering with one another." She placed a hand on her hip. "There's a god trying to swat us like flies, or have you already forgotten?"

"Of course not," Noctis retorts.

"Then do as the bastard demands so we can make this quick," she growled.

His eyes narrowed. "What're you talking about?"

"You may not understand the language of the gods, but I can. The Archaean has led you to him directly so you can prove yourself. Do it and don't screw up or you will be crushed along with everyone else."

The prince's eyes widen. "You can understand him...?"

"That's not the point here! Both of you man up and get over this little spat you have going on! One person alone cannot stand against a god." Turning her back to them, she pressed onward. She heard them call her name, but she ignored them. "Why am I stuck with these two...?" She sighed.

[im-a-space-gay]

Our Own Normal AU Notes-

(In case you didn’t know, OON AU is what I came up with while drawing the one drawing. Y’know... the one)(I’ll add it at the end of the post just in case)

Virgil Blacc:

14 years old

Human ??

Always wears a mask

Mostly silent

Despite being the most physically normal, he is anything but

Basically the glue of the famILY

Was the one to find everyone in the famILY and adopt them, despite now being the youngest of everyone

Patton Blacc:

18 years old

Werewolf

Ages very slowly

Can become a wolf at will, not including full moons

Anger issues depending on who or what’s happening around him

Still acts like a pup most of the time

Somehow the only one convinced Virgil’s not a human

Many centuries ago, his pack was brutally killed by hunters when he was still a young pup, not even being old enough to transform into anything but a wolf

When he was two, Virgil found him; a starving wolf pup in the forest, staying far away from the kind that murdered his flesh and blood. Virgil, somehow knowing he was more than a wolf, immediately adopted him, and Patton trusted the kid wholeheartedly, as this boy didn’t smell like the species known as humans.

Needless to say, they were best friends right from the start

Logan Gale:

16 years old

Y’know the stories about Frakenstein’s monster? Yeah, he was what they were inspired by

Does not age

Very insistent on wearing Virgil’s T-shirts over his long sleeve. No one knows why this is

If he’s ranting and your not listening, consider yourself dead

The smartest of the famILY, but everyone sees him as the emo kid for some reason

Many centuries ago, he was brought to life with electricity dancing through his veins. When he woke, his creator celebrated until he realized that Logan could only make random noises, and deemed him unintelligent even as Logan tried to prove him wrong. Logan’s creator died from a town riot not three days later

At least fifty years passed before someone dared to enter the laboratory where Logan spent every day, trying to make sense of the notes his creator left him with. A Virgil Blacc with a wolf pup in his arms

When Virgil found Logan, he knew again to not judge from appearances, and stayed to help Logan make sense of everything even if the four year old pup kept growling at the taller (how could someone that smelled like a dead human be alive? No thank you). He even helped Logan do surgery on himself in order to correct the many mistakes in his communication area.

He became part of the family after that, whether he liked it or not

Roman Kingsley:

20 years old

Ghost

Does not age

Wails dramatically at random. He says it’s instinct, which yeah, only two of them believed

For the most part see-through, and he can become more solid and look human at will, but can only hold that image up for a couple hours

Seems harmless, is relatively harmless, but if he’s mad, you need to run for the hills

Many centuries ago, way before Patton was born, Roman hit his twentieth birthday as one of the princes of his kingdom. However, a curse had befallen his other half on that damned day, and if he couldn’t cure his brother, he would actually die

Okay, turned out, trying to help his brother is what would kill him. Roman still didn’t know what drove it to this day, but his brother killed him in a rage. He woke up as a ghost just in time to see his brother realize what he had done before running into the tree line crying. Roman had tried to follow, but he couldn’t keep up

Forward a few centuries found him crying in despair in a cave, wishing for things to have turned out different. These cries would grab the attention of a five year old pup named Patton, which would drag a curious Virgil Blacc and a reluctant Logan Gale behind him. It didn’t take long for Roman to follow them everywhere, even if it did take him nearly three decades to like Virgil

Janus Blacc:

23 years old

Snake Witch

Ages very slowly

A literal wine mom, no joke

Couldn’t care less about anything, but if you hurt one of the others then oh boy are you in for a bad time

Roman for the longest time called him a dragon witch, which is just, no

If you asked anyone else, he is totally the mom of the group

Many centuries ago, he was a seemingly human orphan that was left on the doorstep with nothing, not even a name. The orphanage called him Deceit, for the many lies he told and the fact that nobody wanted such a horrid thing. However, as he grew, scales started to grow, and his ears became sharper, and his left eye had started turning into a snake one. He was chased out of the town by a mob, barely making it out alive

A few centuries pass where he hides, discovers his magic, and runs. Until of course, he got caught in barb wire when he was nineteen, which he had no hope of getting out of on his own unless you counted death

Enter; Virgil Blacc. The boy was all alone this time, appearing out of thin air before cutting the barbed wire, even as Deceit hissed and thrashed, which resulted in him getting a huge gash from near the corner of his mouth on his snake side and almost reaching his ear. Virgil paid his rude actions no mind when he got Deceit out of the wire, and started treating his wounds which Deceit calmed down about, even as a worried trio of interesting creatures found their clearing and started mother henning the masked boy. The boy in the mask would quietly name him Janus Blacc, which okay, yeah no this was Janus’s child now and anybody who told him differently could actually f*ck off

Remus Kingsley:

24 years old

???

Ages very slowly

A lot of tenticals on his back, and where the whites of eye would usually be there was black, and don’t forget the VERY sharp teeth and snake like jaw in the fact it could unhinge way too easily

Sometimes can’t handle looking at Roman without breaking down

Sometimes has fits of rage, and the others know to either leave him be until he’s cooled down or send Roman after him (they refuse to send Virgil after the first time despite his insistence)

Has very pretty patterns on his tenticals

Many centuries ago, way before Patton was born and Janus was chased out of his village, Remus hit his twentieth birthday as one of the princes of his kingdom. Unfortunately, on the same day he was cursed to be a beast, the only cure being simply unattainable no matter what time era he found himself in

His brother, his great, stupid brother tried to help, but he fell into one of his fits of rage and murdered his dear brother before he could even process he was there. When he fell out of it, he was so devastated at what he had done and had run, not ever wanting to return to their home

After centuries upon centuries of isolation and the occasional murder, he found himself enraged. This is where Virgil Blacc came along, attracted by the noise. Once again he was all alone, but he tried to calm Remus down despite it. Needless to say, that ended with him wrapped in multiple tenticals upside down in the air, Remus glaring at him with the intention of squeezing until all of Virgil’s bones became dust

Until of course, four equally enraged creatures burst through into the clearing with the intention to kill Remus. At least, at first. Roman calmed down immediately when he recognized Remus, and when Remus saw him back he just, dropped Virgil head first onto the ground, which the other three most certainly didn’t like. They talked it out, and while Roman, Janus, and Virgil forgave him, it still took a long while for Patton and Logan to trust Remus to even be around Virgil (can you blame them? Virgil raised one of them while he was the first friend for the second)

General stuff:

After not finding another odd creature for three centuries, they found themself living in a giant house in the middle of the forest surrounded by a brick wall

They now live in the same house, well into the twenty-first century where they live as the strangest famILY

Of course, they are their own normal

This is the drawing, for anyone who didn’t see it

[rosezure]

Songbird 2 - New Beginnings

Songbird - Chapter 2

A/N:  This chapter focuses more on certain BNHA characters, but there's still some Asa thrown in there.

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the BNHA/MHA universe, nor its characters. This work is intended for entertainment purposes only. My own characters are, however, of my creation.

Content warning: mentions of jumping from planes, talk about character deaths, !spoilers for the manga!, some AU stuff cause what is cannon if not a suggestion, tattoos, talk about physiotherapy and injuries, swearing/language. If I forget anything, please let me know so I can correct/add it!

Summary | Chapter 1

If Keigo knew anything, it was that he hated the Hero Commission more than he hated Endeavor. And that was saying something, considering his longtime idol was a child abuser. He hated that they made him into a monster. They took an innocent child and distorted his reality. 

Keigo decidedly hated a lot of things. 

But he couldn't hate Aizawa. Not after everything that's happened. Not ever, actually. The man was every bit the hero Keigo once thought Endeavor was. Yet, he couldn't help but feel like the teacher had ulterior motives. The two sat across from each other on a small wooden table in a secluded pub. It was just on the outskirts of Musutafu, which made it the perfect place for this kind of encounter.

"I want you to teach at the UA."

There it was. The ulterior motive the hero Hawks was trained to identify. Keigo cursed in his mind. He really didn't want to find a reason to be suspicious of Aizawa of all people.

The man had literally sacrificed an eye and a leg for others, for fuck's sake!

"Shota... I don't think I can. What could I possibly teach? I'm a monster... These kids need an actual role model. Not some bastard murderer with a hero title." Keigo's voice was small and quiet. He was miles from the great Hawks he was supposed to be.

"We've all done things we're not proud of, no matter how big or small. You did what you thought you had to do. In the heat of the moment, it was your only option." The older hero sighed.

Aizawa looked at the young man in front of him. He looked so broken and fragile. But he understood. Killing Twice, someone so vulnerable yet dangerous, weighed more than Keigo let on. The Winged Hero Hawks died then and there in Keigo's mind. And Aizawa knew it was taking a long time to heal from that loss.

"Look," Keigo looked up from the table, "Killing Twice-" He visibly flinched, but Aizawa pressed on, "That wasn't the best thing you could do. The man could've been helped. Maybe he could've become a great hero or teacher even." 

Keigo was about ready to stand up and leave at that. He wasn't going to sit and listen to yet another person throw his wrongdoings in his face. He didn't need it. His mind was cruel enough.

"You're right in feeling like shit. But I'd be more worried if you weren't. You're still a hero, Keigo. You saved lives that day, even if you took a drastic measure. Even if your decision was a horrible one." Aizawa took a deep breath. "You know it was wrong. You know it was cruel. But you had good intentions-"

"Hell is full of good intentions, Aizawa." Keigo gritted, hitting a fist on the table and standing up. 

Aizawa stood up as well. "Then teach those kids to not make that mistake. Teach them about good intentions and good actions combined."

With that, the older male went to the cashier to pay for their drinks. Neither of them had taken one stingy sip, but Shota still thought ordering drinks was the polite thing to do. 

The two left together. Being grounded was new to Keigo. Sure he walked every once in a while, but he'd be flying to his penthouse by now. He'd be soaring through the skies. The thought of the wind blowing through his feathers made Keigo look up to the sky. He longed for the day his wings grew back, then he'd flee and never return.

"I know that look," Aizawa's voice snapped him back to reality.

"The day I have my wings back..." The blonde whispered, "I'm leaving and never coming back, Shota. I'll be free."

"Will you?" 

"Will I what?"

"Will you actually be able to leave?"

Keigo stopped in his tracks, making Aizawa pause as well. Would he really be able to run away? Would he be able to just take flight and never look back? Keigo wondered if he'd have the guts to do that. 

"I don't know," He admitted with a sigh before starting to walk again.

"But I'd sure love to have the chance to find out."

On the other side of the world, Asa was packing her bags. She had very little time to prepare, and she wondered why the Queen and Santos hadn't informed her of this mission weeks ago. From Asa gather through the reports and files she read, the confrontation between heroes and villains in Japan was months ago. So why was she only being sent now?

She'd have to go through the other files Santos gave her. Maybe then Asa would know what was really going on.

"Asa!" Caique's voice rang from behind her door. Asa smiled softly.

"Come in, punk!" She shot back.

"Can you believe it? I'm Commander! I went from Captain to Commander!" He looked like a puppy that's just been given a new toy.

"Oh, shut up!" Asa laughed at his happiness. 

"So, my subordinate," Caique sauntered over to Asa, putting an arm on her shoulder, "My first order is that you let me kick your ass once." He grinned cheekily.

Asa rolled her eyes and pushed his arm off her. "No way in hell, babe. I've got a rep to keep, you know?" She winked over her shoulder as she walked to her closet to gather more items.

"Hey!" Caique pouted. Asa giggled at his face, shaking her head.

"Don't pout," She scolded playfully, "It makes you look five."

"Right, and you hate children," He added teasingly.

"I do not!" Asa shot back laughing, "It's them that hate little ol' me." She shrugged.

"That's not true," Caique huffed and took a seat on her king-sized bed. "By the way, I never really understood why I got the position and not one of the generals."

"Cause I've been preparing you for the position for three years now. I was gonna retire right before the summer festivities."

"Retire?! Girl, you're like 23! The fuck you mean retire?"

"I've been at this for almost 16 years, Caique. And I'm unhappy."

Her words silenced Caique. He knew very little about his Commander. Asa was strong, intelligent, agile, cunning, and charming (if she wanted to be). She was 23 years old, soon turning 24, and she was quite attractive. But that's all he knew about her.

"You never really told me how a 7-year-old became a soldier."

"And I don't think I can ever tell you. I can't remember it myself without having a breakdown!" Asa tried to play it off as a joke, but they both knew this was a sensitive topic.

"So, are you done packing?" Caique quickly changed the subject. It was her last day here, and he didn't want Asa to be tackled by ugly memories.

"Almost. Most of my things are already on the plane." Asa gave him a small smile. "I slept a total of zero hours last night. Santos was adamant that everything needed to be loaded onto the plane before sunrise. And I mean everything!"

"That man is wound up way too tight," Caique shivered. "Is there a way I don't have to deal with him directly?"

"Sorry, but that stick in the mud is your issue now." Asa bit her lip to stop herself from laughing at Caique's disdainful expression. 

"Thanks, that's really encouraging," His sarcasm made her lose her composure and laugh, "What's the mission anyway?" He looked at her attentively.

"You know I can't tell you that..." Asa trailed off, unsure how to keep her promise to the Queen without shutting Caique out. 

"Ah, you're right. If the Queen asked you to keep it a secret, then you must," Caique offered Asa a small smile.

Ever since they met six years ago, Caique and Asa were joined at the hip. Neither went into battle without the other. It was common knowledge among the guards and soldiers that one should never mess with either of them. Now they were being separated, and it already felt like they were miles apart.

A few more minutes pass as the two make jokes and chat. Asa began to think about how she could remember her last moments in Pindorama forever. She needed something to look at or touch every day. Asa never dealt well with homesickness. As Caique helped her fold some clothes, an idea hit her. She grabbed his hands, inspecting the many drawings inked into his skin.

"What's up? Why are you suddenly so interested in my tattoos?" Caique chuckled as he let Asa twist and twist and turn his arms around. 

"Let's get a tattoo together."

"What?! Now?!"

"Yes, right now. Call the artist!"

Keigo couldn't believe this was happening. He took Aizawa's offer and applied to a position in the UA High School. However, he didn't think they'd actually accept him. And he was even more surprised to learn the Commission authorized it. Had everyone gone insane?

The world really did turn upside down...

But here he was: sitting in Nezu's office and listening to him drone on about the rules, the teaching plans, and other things Keigo wasn't paying attention to. Shit, he actually got in. Now what?

"If you have any questions, feel free to ask Aizawa. I've put him in charge of your training. Please be prepared to start in April next year." Nezu smiled at Keigo, standing up to shake the blonde's hand.

After that, Keigo left the headmaster's office in a daze. The last six months were hell: grieving the loss of fellow heroes, dealing with his demons, going back and forth from the hospital and his residence... Keigo couldn't remember a time in which he felt carefree and at ease. And now he's shaking whatever peace he still had.

"What have I gotten myself into?"

"Probably your greatest challenge yet." Aizawa lazily lifted the corners of his mouth as he limped towards Keigo. 

"Oh, I don't doubt it..." He muttered to himself.

"Follow me. I'll give you a short tour, then we can head out for some coffee." Shota offered as he pointed his chin to the hall he came from.

"A tour would be nice, I guess..." Keigo shrugged his shoulders and followed the older man. 

Aizawa could be surprisingly chatty, it seemed. He showed him as many classes as he could. He took Keigo to see the event arenas and other facilities. Last but not least, he took him to the teachers' room.

"We prepare our classes here," The hero explained, "Over there, we have the cabinets with students' tests and reports. Next to that, we have the teachers' lockers. You can keep some personal items in there." 

Keigo walked over to the lockers, tracing the names of the heroes that taught at the UA. He recognized some of them. These lockers had belonged to some of the fallen heroes. Keigo's back ached with phantom pain. Seeing those names triggered the torturous memories from six months ago.

"They haven't had the heart to remove the names," Aizawa explained.

"They shouldn't." Keigo placed his fingers over Midnight's name tag, "She'd want us to remember her."

"Other teachers survived and will be returning."

"They won't be the same."

"No one's the same."

"Nothing's the same. Everything and everyone is different," Keigo sighed, "And different is bad."

"Different allows growth."

"So it seems." Keigo scoffed at his own words. 

Was he even still capable of that? Growth was such a foreign concept for someone who was fabricated. Oh, the irony. He was built from scratch, molded to the Commission's wishes. He "grew" under their supervision. Would he have grown at all if they hadn't taken him in?

"How about that coffee?"

"I think I'll pass. I want to start working on the material I'm gonna present in class."

"I suggest a more hands-on approach. Depending on which class you're assigned to, theory won't get you anywhere. I speak from experience." Aizawa thought of the many setbacks a specific class had due to the students' tempers.

"Right. Still, I'd like to-"

"Form a strategy? Make a plan? You're not patrolling, and you're definitely not in an undercover mission. This is teaching," Aizawa paused, trying to think of the right words, "You need a base, but you're gonna have to improvise from time to time. And these are teenagers, not villains. The most they can do is piss you off." He smirked teasingly.

"Got it," Keigo answered simply, already flipping through a book on teaching methods he found lying about.

Aizawa rubbed his face, watching the ex-hero with something akin to pity. The boy had never been a real teenager. How was he supposed to deal with so many of them at once? He'd need a lot of support, that's for sure.

The two sat at the table near the pantry. Keigo was reading aloud some parts of the book he found, asking Aizawa for his input. Whenever the older hero gave a tip, Keigo immediately recorded it on his phone's note app. Halfway through the fourth chapter, Principal Nezu walked in.

"Aizawa, I just received great news from Tokyo!" His ears twitched in excitement.

"What news?" Aizawa raised an eyebrow.

"The Prime Minister has successfully contacted Pindorama. They're sending the hero we discussed last week. She'll be arriving next week!" Nezu informed with a smile.

"You mean the one with the practically extinct quirk?"

"Yes, exactly."

"I heard she was trouble."

"Oh, I doubt she'll be a burden to us."

"Sorry to interrupt," Keigo lifted his head from the book, now curious about the person they were talking about, "Who are you talking about?"

"Oh! Hawks!" Keigo stiffened at the use of his hero name, "I forgot to mention it to you earlier, but you won't be the only newbie. A special guest is coming from another country to help with things around here. She has a very rare quirk, which will greatly help us as a country bounce back from the events of March." Nezu beamed, folding his paws in front of his chest.

"What kind of quirk?" Keigo squinted his eyes.

"It's of a healing nature, but no one is sure of how it works," Aizawa explained, "There's not much written about this quirk. The only group of people that knew everything about it are all gone." He slumped in his seat, feeling sleepy already.

"So, there are no records on it? How can we trust this stranger?" Keigo frowned. 

"That's a reasonable question," Nezu lifted himself onto one of the vacant chairs and looked at Keigo, "But there's no need to worry. She's a show of the alliance between the two countries. If anything goes wrong, it'll be a war declaration."

"That just makes her even more dangerous. I don't think we should let someone so-" Aizawa interrupted Keigo by clearing his throat.

"Rest assured, Keigo, that she won't be a problem to any of us," Nezu added. He smiled widely once more before hopping off the chair and bidding the two heroes goodbye.

A few minutes passed as Keigo continued to read the book and ask Aizawa questions. Meanwhile, the raven-haired man was fighting to stay awake and help the young man understand the methods and concepts. But he had drained himself during his physiotherapy session that morning. He needed a nap, or he'd pass out right there.

Sensing the older man's tiredness, Keigo decided to excuse himself. He told Aizawa he'd continue reading at home and that he'd take notes of any doubts that might surface. After packing his things, Keigo bid the teacher goodbye and left.

The next time the two men met, Keigo was at the school to look for more teaching supplies. They greeted each other at the gates with a quiet nod each. Aizawa seemed better, stronger, Keigo noted. Maybe his physiotherapy sessions had been paying off. Eri's contribution probably helped too.

Aizawa had once told him that Eri wanted to heal him and give him his wings back. But Keigo had refused. He didn't want them back, not like this. Hawks died, and if Keigo had any say in it, he'd stay dead. So, if his wings grew back, he wanted to earn them and start anew.

For days, he and Aizawa would sit together near the pantry in the teacher's room. Keigo would read excerpts from teaching books or bring teaching plans and ask for Aizawa's input. Day in and day out, the older man would reassure the blonde that the material was suitable. And day in and day out, Keigo would create different versions on the same plan. He swore they were only backups in case he forgot to prepare for a class or something. But Shota Aizawa knew very well that the young man was scared of messing up.

After what happened in March, Class 1-A was going to need a lot of support. So Aizawa often found himself praying to a whatever higher energy that they'd be okay. That every student and teacher would find solace in being a hero and saving lives. He prayed for everyone to find a way to cope.

These prayers always startled Shota. He wasn't religious at all! He never cared about gods or spirits or ancestors. But he sure as fuck hoped that something was watching over them and that things would be fixed. He knew better than anyone how naive thinking like this was. But he also knew it was better than wallowing in self-pity.

Yet, Aizawa felt like Keigo would be the one getting support from the students.

Aizawa just wished Keigo would accept any form of support.

"Ready when you are, Siren!" The pilot yelled over the radio system of the plane, "We are one minute away from the drop-off point!"

"Roger that, Captain!" Asa shot back, preparing her equipment and adjusting her suit.

Her first mission was to infiltrate the HPSC building and bug the president's office. If she had time, Asa was going to try and bug any other high-ranked offices too. She had to be precise and fast. One slipup and the whole mission could be compromised. 

Once they reached the drop-off point, Asa removed her protective headset and put on her goggles. She waited for the crew to open the plane's doors while she made sure everything was ready. The plane's doors opened, and Asa saluted the soldiers behind her before throwing herself out of the plane.

Asa had missed the exhilaration of jumping into the night. She forgot how thrilling it was and how powerful she felt. The dropping point had been 14000 feet (around 4267 meters) high, so Asa had about a minute of free-falling before she could open her wings. Having done this many times before, Asa successfully landed on top of a building south of the HPSC headquarters. 

She retracted her wings, thankful for her suit being backless, and prepared to jump onto the next building. They dropped her off a little away from the premises to not alert any busybodies. 

Asa wasted no time getting to work. In just under 10 minutes, she had made it onto one of the windows on the 14th floor of the HPSC's building's south side. And in less than 20 minutes, Asa had located the president's office.

Asa managed to open one of the smaller windows and slithered in. She placed a bug on one of the far corners of the giant window behind the desk. She also placed another under the desk table and one behind a few books. Asa put the fourth and last bug under the clock that hung over the entrance door. After that, as quickly as she got in, Asa was out. She checked her watch. Asa had some time left before a helicopter picked her up at the designated rendezvous point. So, she decided to find the vice-president's office, or maybe a lab of some sort. 

Flying around the building, Asa used her enhanced vision goggles to see if she could locate any useful information. On the west side, she found a lab with the words "authorized personnel only" printed on the door. Squinting, Asa flew closer and found a way in. Smirking at her findings, she bugged the lab as thoroughly as she could.

Once she was outside again, Asa dropped onto a nearby building and sprinted to the rendezvous point.

"This is Siren speaking," Asa's voice was barely above a whisper, "Heading to the pick-up point." 

Asa dropped down from a building, disappearing into the night.

Chapter 3

[cowtale-utau]

Oohh I have a small idea. Demon girl finds the skeletons interesting and decides that she’s just gonna be their little protector mostly just for funsies. She also plays minor little pranks like sticking car keys to a wall or making the remote float around the room at various times. She doesn’t live in their house, just pops in sometimes and keeps an eye on them though they can’t always see her. How would the boys react?

Aight, fun with our lil Demon. So for this we're fast-forwarding a few decades outta the old west, which, as I've previously discussed, is still on brand. Monsters are long-lived, if not in some ways arguable “immortal” (in the ageless sense, immortal, not invincible). So jumping to a modern era is no hardship, and a lot of my writing is kept vague enough to place in anytime period anyway. So for my needing to keep track, we'll specifically say for this we're in the 21st century.

And haha, yeah, it's well known at this point that I have no self control whatsoever, so there are 24 skeletons. And I work on the other cast bit by bit, but they are there and technically also requestable.

Now, our demon friend, who we'll call “Dee” has motivations all their own. If asked, they claim that monsters tend to attract the worst sort. The sort no one really gets mad about if they become unwell or disappear. They'll staunchly deny and fondness or care for the skeletons, but don't let them fool you, they are quite attached. (this is entirely Lief's fault. Don't be nice to demons Lief, they never leave!)

Dancetale Sans/Shuffle & Dancetale Papyrus/Foxtrot – Dee isn't limited to human forms, and abuses this frequently. Shuffle is well known to be popular with stray cats. Another fact Dee exploits. Mostly by possessing one and then tripping him as often as possible. And he can't do much about it without looking like a total dick. So when he's not tripping over the cat, he's picking up things it insists on knocking down. He lets it slide, as once Dee possessed a member of security at one of Foxtrot's performances and managed to “deter” an aggressive human. Plus the tricky little being never messes with any of the kids in his classes, so it can be all bad.

Outertale Sans/Saturn &  Outertale Papyrus/Mercury – Saturn is probably the one most annoyed by Dee. They have a tendency of moving the things that will most irritate Sat. Like his coffee. They'll rearrange papers and blueprints out of order, move coffee cups across the room, and even likes to hide keys in weird but “easy” places, like the hood of Saturn's hoodie. Mercury doesn't mind quite as much, and tries to take it in good humor, as Dee is also occasionally helpful. Things that have been misplaced turning up back on desks, and they've run off a few human aides that ended up having less than good intentions. The most notable was when a machine started to catastrophically fail, and the power cut out before it could blow, despite no one being anywhere near the power source. This is probably the only reason Saturn never put into practice those demon banishment techniques he looked up.

Farmtale Sans/Sage  &  Farmtale Papyrus/Thyme – Gates to animal pens are often left open, water spigots tampered with, feed bags have corners cut. Inconvenient but ultimately harmless little things. The animals never seem to stray further than just enough to be a nuisance, the animals all still end up fed, and well, if someone gets soaked, oh well, they'll live. Dee has also stopped fires, scared off crows, and run off ill meaning teens. Sage finds Dee's antics to he hilarious, while Thyme pretends to get increasingly more annoyed. Sage will sometimes leave small gold trinkets unattended for Dee to take, and although Thyme will act annoyed he does nothing to stop his brother.

G!Sans/Aurum & G!Papyrus/Viridis – Dee is both help and annoyance. It's a frequent game played, where Dee will lead them in some form or another (usually small animals) down the safest path through the ruins. But at some point will have circled back and dropped whatever they were looking for back in camp, making the whole trip a moot point. It's mostly harmless, as they enjoy the exploration regardless, and getting a clear, safe path makes further exploration easier. But it gets exasperating for the one specific thing they were looking for to already be in one of their packs. Dee however has never done anything to harm Aur or Vir, and has warned them of someone with dangerous intent heading their way. And if the occasional tainted soul has been dropped into some ruins where no one but the most tricky of beings could reach, well. That's between the three of them. Ace has given up on telling Aur not to feed the demon.

Fun fact for anyone who cares. Demons do not have genders or even physical sexes in their base forms. If they have a humanoid base form (not all do) then they tend to have Ken/Barbie syndrome. As for pronouns, they usually use they/them or it, or whatever the pronouns of the person they've possessed are.

Another fun fact, I haven’t mentioned if any of them have seen Dee’s true form, because I have yet to decide what that is. Whether they’re a humanoid-ish demon, and more animal-y type, or some other strange thing.

[rosaxlunar]

❝ I NEVER HAD THE CHANCE TO BE SOFT. I WAS ALWAYS BLOODY KNUCKLES AND SHARDS OF GLASS. I WANTED PEOPLE TO BE AFRAID OF HURTING ME❞

 &&. ( catarina volkov ) was just spotted in amsterdam. rumor has it ( she ) is a ( 32 ) year old ( alpha werewolf ) who resembles ( juliana harkavy ). ( she ) has been said to be ( determined & loyal ) but also quite ( vengeful & merciless ).with all the chaos surrounding the magical underworld, ( she ) has chosen to align with ( no one / the russian bratva ). ( she ) is currently serving as ( the sovietnik to the russian bratva ). hopefully the city doesn’t devour them whole.

001 ☾ THE BASICS

NAME: Catarina Volkov AGE: Thirty Two Years Old DOB: May 8 - Taurus GENDER: Cis Female SEXUALITY: Bisexual  NATIONALITY: Dominican Russian  SPECIES:  Alpha Werewolf ALLEGIANCE: Russian Bratva THEME SONG: Desperado - Rihanna PERSONALITY TRAITS: ( + ) Charming, Determined, Protective & Loyal  ( - ) Stubborn, Vengeful, Merciless & Bloodthirsty.

002 ☾ IN DEPTH

When one has lost everything, fear ceases to exist. When the heart is crushed, defensive walls rise to protect whatever shattered pieces are left behind. and when a little girl comes back home to find the bloody wreckage that left her a complete orphan, when she sees the dead bodies of her mama, papa y hermanita… something inside her dies too. For the rest of her childhood she was but a shell of her former self. Forever haunted by the tragic loss, the sounds of her screams still echoed in her dreams, those cursed nightmares that immortalized the horrid sight. Sometimes she would close her eyes and the metallic smell of the blood pooling on the ground would invade her senses, making it hard to breathe. 

She used to have everything, born and raised in the outskirts of St. Petersburg, Russia, Catarina lived a relatively normal life, loud and colorful with the right amount of messy, but it was a blessing in an otherwise monotonous environment. Her papa would always say his prayers and thank god for bringing the dominican beauty that then became his wife, into his life. He would often tell Catarina stories of how he saved her from the bloodthirsty monsters and the following journey that led to them falling in love. Stories of how he learned spanish for her, and she learned russian for him, how even before the verbal communication was set, they still managed to understand each other without ever saying anything at all. These are the stories she would fall asleep to late at night before bedtime and then they became the stories she would repeat to her baby sister when she was introduced into her life. With stars in her eyes she would share the fantastical story of how love conquers all and how she and her sister were born from that love. She was happy and everything was wonderful…but that was when they were still alive.

If she had been any other child, the tragedy that left her with no parents, and no other family to take her in, would've seen to her being placed in the system. A more likely alternative would have seen her running and fending for herself in the wild. However she was the child of Anatoly Volkov, her papa had been a brodyaga for the brotherhood. Proudly serving under the previous Pakhan, he did his job and he did it well. He could have been more, could have made it to Kapitan, but her papa always put his family first, refusing to climb the ranks if it meant more time away from them. Her father’s devotion to the Bratva meant that instead of being left to fend for herself, someone in the brotherhood felt compelled to take her in, and so she became the ward of the Brava’s bookkeeper. This moved her life in a direction that was unforeseen. Being the bookkeeper’s ward meant she was taken deeper into the harshest reaches of Russia, where the prominent Valentina family lived. And it was there where Catarina met her best friend, the one person that was able to spark a flicker of her old light. Viktor Valentina. It was in his company where she learned about the truth of who was behind her family’s murder, and it was there where Catarina pledged her eternal loyalty to the brotherhood if they would help her get revenge for what was taken from her.

So she grew up, training and working beside Viktor, ignoring all the normal things kids and young adults would do, and instead perfecting her hand to hand combat, mastering various weapons training, perfecting her russian, spanish and english and focusing on becoming the strongest version of herself in order to fulfill the promise of revenge she had sworn. She blossomed from a scrawny girl with wild curls, into a woman who could skin anyone who tried to hurt her alive with her very claws. She embraced the power she had from her Alpha status, and on nights of the full moon, indulged in the rut with those brave enough to take her on. This never distracted her from her mission and on the twelfth anniversary of her family’s murder, as a twenty four year old soldier of the bratva, she was finally able to enact the revenge she had thirsted for so long, the goal that had given her purpose all those years. She hunted and slaughtered the very same though much older hunters who had taken her whole family from her. She also ensured to kill their families (if they had them)  for she knew better than anyone, how dangerous revenge could be, and would not tolerate anyone targeting the bratva for her revenge. She never once, felt an ounce of regret for it in her soul. They might have been her first set of kills, but the certainly weren’t her last and she didn’t discriminate based on species. If they were a target, they were eliminated. Were it not for the Valentina’s opening their hearts to include her in their little family, it’s quite possible Catarina could have been driven to a fully corrupt soul and mindless killings in her wake. For she enjoyed the rush of power that came from taking a life, a little too much. Instead she channeled that energy, that thrill, to climbing the ranks of the brotherhood and doing whatever was necessary to help the Bratva rise in power.She may be an orphan at heart, but she had found her pack and she was never letting go.

003 ☾ FUN FACTS

Timeline Recap: ages 0-12 happy with family, age 12 : family murdered by hunters, age 12 meets the Valentina’s, ages 12-24 trains and is indoctrinated into bratva, age 24 : retaliation after the hunters who killed her family, ages 24-32, climbs the ranks of the bratva till she is second in command and Viktor’s right hand. 

Not many know this, but Catarina is a classically trained pianist. A musician at heart, in the quiet moments between missions she also taught herself how to play the guitar,  the flute and other random instruments at her disposal. Sometimes she’ll just serve herself a bit of vodka and play and sing at the piano whenever she wants to not think about anything, or more accurately when she wishes to escape the nightmares that still plague her. 

Catarina is very protective over the Bratva, the brotherhood were her saviors, they kept her safe and when it comes to the Valentina’s they saved whatever piece of her heart she had left after her relentless pursuit for revenge. She’s willing to do anything in the name of Bratva, even if it comes at the cost of her soul. Bratva is the only family she has left.

While she is undoubtedly the closest to Viktor, not just as his right hand man, but also as his best friend, she also loves and cherishes Tatiana and Dimitri Valentina, so much so would be willing to risk her life for their safety, no questions asked. Which is why ever since Tatiana’s kidnapping, Catarina has been worried sick, her nightmares and flashbacks of the loss of her very own sister intermingling with the new horror for the Valentina’s. 

Catarina originally stayed behind when Viktor rushed to Amsterdam in search of his omega sister Tati. She stayed to help Dimitri with his new responsibilities and enforce his rule now that Viktor was out of Russia. Now weeks later, she is finally joining in on the search, and will do her utter best to find the youngest Valentina so they can all go back home.

004 ☾ WANTED CONNECTIONS

hookups/flings: my girl hasn’t had time or the frame of mind for love, not really, but she has needs and never goes too long without a little loving, so lets plot for this if you want!

bratva relationships: even tho she loves the bratva, that doesn’t mean she loves everyone in the organization, we can have them be friends, or be frenemies or be little shits to each other! I’m open to everything!

Literally any other kind of plot! I am open to all sorts of connections! 

[mutantsrisingrpg]

Congratulations DEAN! You’ve been accepted as ARIEL.

Dean, you don’t know how overjoyed I am to have you and your take on Lenox back in my life! Lenox is one of my favorite skeletons and you just capture him so perfectly. For Lenox, the devil is literally in the details, since he has the ability to control how they’re perceived. I love everything about him, especially when I view him through the lens you crafted (or is it the lens he crafted, and I’m actually under the spell of his powers right now? my brain hurts)! I can’t wait to see the havoc you and Lenox unleash on this dash.

Welcome to Mutants Rising! Please read the checklist and submit your account within 24 hours.

its britney bitch

NAME/ALIAS: Dean

PRONOUNS: She/her

AGE: 22

TIMEZONE & ACTIVITY LEVEL: GMT, i’m fairly active bean and am always here to plot

In Character Information:

DESIRED ROLE: Lenox Syed

GENDER/PRONOUNS: Cismale, he/him

DETAILS & ANALYSIS: This is where you show us who the character is to you! The format of this doesn’t matter, whether it’s in bullet points or in para form, and can be as long as you’d like it to be. Feel free to get creative!

Lenox as a boy’s name is of Scottish and Gaelic origin, and the meaning of Lenox is “with many elm trees”.

Syed or Sayyid or Sayed (Arabic and Urdu: سيدعلی) is a family of Syeds in South Asia, notably India and Pakistan. Syeds are the direct descendants of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.

Lenox is lost in his own fantasy world. Creating so many illusions for people each day that he has become lost in one of his own. With a lack of attention through his childhood, he craves the limelight and approval of everyone around him and will do pretty much anything to get it, even if it’s false or trickery.

He’s so painstakingly constructed, he’s his own work of art. Each detail of his personality and appearance delicately manipulated into something strikingly beautiful. Someone you can look at with awe just by the way they talk or move. It’s almost hard to realise there’s another man beneath the mask, someone raw and damaged. Like a bird with a broken wing.

BIO:

Tw: Drug mention

His mother is just fifteen when she gives birth to him, swaddled in a blue blanket and passed immediately to the arms of a doctor; she never held him, never looked at his freshly reddened face as his cries wailed down the corridors. It’s not because of his mutation, not because his birth family couldn’t bare to raise a being burdened with powers. She was a child herself, naivety leaving adoption as the only logical decision.  

A foster home decides to take him in, raising him from infancy without any awareness of any abnormality. It’s where he stays for the first nine years of his life, a cosy house in Oregon that housed five other children. But the dormancy of his powers didn’t stay concealed forever. It started with his foster siblings sleepwalking, Lenox’s dreams imprinting on them accidentally as they’d trample through the house enthralled by the vivid illusions of his fantasy worlds. Then it began intertwining into everyday life, emotional outbursts of temper alluding unsafe situations like fire or monsters that hid under the bed. Games became near impossible to differentiate between make believe and reality from the second he joined in.  

“You’re unsafe,” it’s a comment he’d gladly wear as a badge of honour once he’d matured. But to the little boy being dragged away from his foster family, betrayed by his caregivers and turned in for research, the words grazed his skin like stinging nettles.

The four plain walls of the room only further ignite an overly active imagination, a tool that was dangerous to have with a power like his own. The eleven years he spends there does the opposite of what society would have hoped, boredom allows for focus and practice, it sharpens his talents and he’s able to put them to good use. By the end of his stay the doctors had favoured him among the rest, because he wills it so. They go easy on him, carefully placed illusions write false notes on his reports. Detailed and intricate enough so that he doesn’t get caught out, handwriting remarkably identical to each nurse or scientist that take their turn testing on him. He starts to admire the way it feels, too chaotic to be part of society and embedded with more potential than anyone could have known.

It’s when that potential reaches a point where imagination can no longer be imprisoned by those four walls that he decided enough was enough. The process of discharging himself was a meticulous operation. Theatrically staged and miraculously timed with an annual cell collecting test. Before he can be sedated he’s enticed the nurses into an imaginary induced coma, deep enough into his intoxication that he can use the poisoned needle on them. The theater only has the two women on the floor when the doctor enters, sly projections manipulating each person he’d bumped into on his way to the exit into that same sleep, a psychedelic world of kaleidoscope landscapes and stained glass colours, once awakening they would never see this boy again.

“You’re unsafe,” the same words, just a different context. An ally ushers him to leave Oregon and head to Chicago. A place where policies were loosened and his own kind somewhat tolerated.

The new city put Lenox’s own fresh start in full swing.

Fragile reality was a vehicle for his reinvention, so easily malleable that to change it was simpler and more natural to him than breathing. He’s masterful in the way it’s applied, diminishing a past life of shame and grit in place of high strung worth and superiority. He’d created himself with utter royalty, his own nobility evident by the way in which he moved, regally eloquent and unmistakably ethereal to anyone who crossed his path.

He builds his career on the sins he knows other’s desire. Selling crushed up aspirin as a party drug in the underbelly of the city’s night clubbing scene, using his power to make it seem as if it were the legitimate stuff and not something that cost him a couple bucks from the convenience store across the street. Lenox could make them see whatever he wanted, turn their evenings into a production of his own design and leave with none of the being any wiser. It’s how Benjamin Granger catches word of him, a supposed mutant that was living life as if he were a king. He’s the first person to ever acknowledge his capability, strikes him up an offer he couldn’t refuse. Drawn like a moth to a flame after the slightest suggestion of power and the infatuation that he was finally wanted by someone and to belong to something.

EXPANDED CONNECTIONS:

Chance Matthews: He’s the face he can’t erase from his mind, the curve of his lips engraved in deep fixations when he couldn’t fall asleep on a Sunday night. Perhaps it’s the fact that he shouldn’t do it that makes it more enticing, a lust to ignite underlying passion to unearth exactly what they had both been burying.

Jordan Rojas: Jordan is somewhat of a curiosity for Lenox to unpick. A closed book that is intriguing because of their close association together. Always keen to show his worth, to prove himself to those around him, perhaps it’s a dangerous combination should Jordan utalise the other’s naivety in combination of his powers in the way that Benjamin does.

Jack Mizuno: He likes that he can get so deep into their head, that he can have full control of a world that wasn’t Jack’s domain. It’s all to do with power and annoyance, a deep craving to see exactly how far he can push people before they hit their breaking point. Even then, it’s fun to flip that breaking point into a place of pure bliss and drop it again just when his subject is at ease. He’s like a lab rat, someone he tries his tricks on before taking them to the main show.

EXTRA: 

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/dean_ie/ariel/

Lenox spends a lot of his spare time writing and doodling. It’s all extremely sketchy, there’s never any sort of final draft. It helps his imagination, which is a much exercised tool in his life.

He is probably more invested in mental health than most. Meditation and yoga being a crucial part of his daily routine after a bowl full of sugar packed cereal.

He’s naive and eager to please anyone that might create a bond with him, he craves companionship after never really understanding it due to the absence of it in his life.

Lenox works as a part-time artist and painter, he’s guilty of using illusions to get clients to buy his art by playing into their preferences .

He also works as a drug dealer, never selling legitimate stuff but using over the counter medicines with the combination of his powers to masquerade as the real stuff.

He has an unruly sweet tooth. He keeps lollipops in his back pocket and will order dessert off a menu at a restaurant instead of a main meal. His favourite thing on the planet is warm cookie dough and ice cream.

He listens exclusively to Grunge music. Celebrity Skin by Hole is his absolute jam and he only ever sings Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet is his go to karaoke song.

Lenox is openly proud of his sexuality as a homosexual, though he’ll flirt with anyone and anything for the fun of it.

He prefers tea over coffee.

He’s a bit of a poetry dork, he collects first edition poetry books and his most prized possession is a first edition of Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg.

He’s very judgemental of how others present themselves and will tell you if your new shirt is ugly.

Lenox lives in a small apartment, anyone that enters he’s carefully to make them see it as 3 times bigger than it actually is with far more light.

He has a fear of heights.

[tomeandflickcorner]

Episode Review- The Real Ghostbusters: The Boogieman Cometh

Hmmm.  I wonder if the people behind Monsters, Inc. drew some inspiration from watching this episode.

We open with the Ghostbusters in pursuit of Louie, a stereotypical gangster ghost.  The ‘you’ll never take me alive, copper’ type.  At present, Louie has hijacked a truck, resulting in a car chase with the Ecto-1. However, the Ghostbusters manage to trap Louie in the end and bring him back to the Firehouse, where they’re greeted by Janine, who is actually the most on-par with Annie Pott’s portrayal of the character as I’ve seen her in the episodes so far, so that was cool to see.  Shortly after returning, the Ghostbusters decide to retire for the night and go to bed, with Peter instructing Janine to not let anyone in. Which is a bit strange, when you think about it.  Does Janine not go home at night?  Is she there at the Firehouse 24/7?  That poor woman.

Anyway, we then cut to the Ghostbuster’s sleeping quarters, where we get a seemingly pointless scene of Peter finding his pillow drenched with slime.  Realizing that Slimer has been sleeping on his pillow again, Peter threatens their pet ghost with this prototype ghost bomb that Egon has apparently invented offscreen, which is supposed to disintegrate all ghosts in a 50 yard radius.  Once Slimer zooms off in fear, Peter goes to sleep. But not for long, as the Ghostbusters are woken up during the night by Janine, who informs them that they have a late-night visitor.  She goes on to say that, while she knows they instructed her to not let anyone else in, she felt that an exception should be made in this case.  The late-night visitor is then revealed to be two small children, Megan and Kenny Carter.  The children explain that they’re being terrorized by the Boogieman, who lives in their closet, and even offer to pay the Ghostbusters with the money in their piggybanks if they agree to help.  At first, it looks as if the Ghostbusters will simply chuckle this away.  Because ha-ha, little kids are scared of the Boogieman. But Egon insists that they take this seriously.  Because he knows that the Boogieman actually does exist.  It eventually comes out that Egon himself encountered the Boogieman when he was a little boy, and it was that encounter that led him to want to study the paranormal in the first place, since he wanted to find a way to stop the Boogieman.  Which is why he insists that they’ll handle Megan and Kenny’s case at no charge.

So the Ghostbusters bring Megan and Kenny back to their apartment, where their parents are still asleep.  (They apparently snuck out without their parents’ knowledge.  Which is impressive, as it indicates these two kids managed to find their way to the Firehouse on their own.)  Shortly after they enter the children’s bedroom, they determine there is indeed a high reading of paranormal activity emanating from their closet.  And at midnight on the dot, a portal opens up within the closet, allowing the Boogieman to enter the room.  However, it’s quickly determined that the Boogieman is not actually a ghost, so the Ghostbusters are unable to catch him in a Ghost Trap.  Instead, they can only force the Boogieman back into the closet with a full proton stream.  While they are successful in driving the Boogieman back, the Ghostbusters realize that he will most likely be back.  But the noise they made in their efforts has woken up Megan and Kenny’s parents.  They take the presence of four grown men in their children’s bedroom surprisingly well, but that’s probably just because they were able to recognize the Ghostbusters, seeing as they were big celebrities in the city and all.  Although, they don’t believe their claim that they were facing the Boogieman and suggest that the Ghostbusters leave.  The Ghostbusters comply with their request and return to the Firehouse.  Except for Winston, who, out of concern for Megan and Kenny’s well-being, opts to stand guard out on the street in case the Boogieman decides to come back that night.  And a good thing too, because the Boogieman does attempt to return later on, prompting Winston to scare him back with a well-aimed proton stream through the open bedroom window.

Back and the Firehouse, the Ghostbusters discuss how to best go about dealing with the Boogieman if they can’t actually trap him. They soon come up with a plan which involves them luring the Boogieman into a different kind of trap.  Basically, if they can lure the Boogieman out of a closet portal, the Ghostbusters can use that to their advantage and actually enter his domain.  Once on the other side, they can use Egon’s Ghost Bomb to set off an explosion that would effectively close all the portals connecting the Boogieman’s world to the closets of children around the world.  However, there’s a small catch.  Not every closet contains a portal to the Boogieman’s world.  So for this plan to work, the Ghostbusters have to track down a closet that does contain a portal.  Especially since it’s doubtful Mr. and Mrs. Carter would be very accommodating if they tried to use the one in Megan and Kenny’s room.  After all, they don’t believe the Boogieman actually exists.

As such, the Ghostbusters search around the city, checking out every available apartment for rent.  They eventually locate a closet with a portal in a rather expensive apartment room.  While they’re not thrilled with the steep price attached to the place, they’re left with very little choice.  (I wonder what they did with this apartment afterwards.  Maybe they gifted it to Janine so she’d actually have a place to go after closing time?)  Anyway, the Ghostbusters promptly get to work in dressing up the apartment room to resemble a child’s bedroom.  Once the stage is set up, all they need is the bait.  They quickly select Ray, on account of how he’s clearly the most childlike of the group, which is highlighted by Ray’s exuberance upon noticing a plushie of Dopey Dog among the stuffed animals Egon was able to locate.  (Dopey Dog is apparently the star of a popular in-universe cartoon show for kids.)  And I readily admit I got a chuckle from seeing Ray milking his role as a ‘child’ for all it’s worth, asking for a glass of water before bed as well as requesting that Peter tell him a bedtime story.  The Ghostbuster’s plan ultimately works, with the Boogieman emerging from the bedroom closet in order to scare the ‘child’ that is Ray.  Unfortunately, when the Ghostbuters moved in to attack, the Boogieman manages to slip back though the portal, forcing the Ghostbusters to give chase. Which leads to a rather entertaining sequence of the Ghostbusters chasing after the Boogieman through the bedrooms of random children. Including the bedroom of a child living in Hollywood.  Eventually though, the Boogieman manages to give the Ghostbusters the slip.  

Not to be deterred, the Ghostbusters proceed with their true initiative by managing to locate the Boogieman’s innermost sanctum.  There, they begin working on hooking up Egon’s Ghost Bomb to all four of their Proton Packs. Basically, Egon abandoned the concept of perfecting his Ghost Bomb because he couldn’t find a sufficient way to power it.  But now he theorizes that, if they hook up the Ghost Bomb to their Proton Packs and set them to overload, it should provide the Ghost Bomb with the power it needs to detonate.  Right before they could essentially light the fuse on the Ghost Bomb, the Ghostbusters find their escape route blocked by the Boogieman.  Egon, on account of his personal experience with the Boogieman as a child, volunteers to essentially sacrifice himself to hold the Boogieman at bay so Peter, Ray and Winston can escape the Boogieman’s realm before the Ghost Bomb goes off and seals off the portals back to the Human World.

Fortunately though, it doesn’t come to that.  Because it turns out that Megan and Kenny have witnessed this confrontation through the portal inside their bedroom closet. Remembering what Winston told them earlier about how the Boogieman is only powerful against them if they’re afraid, the children manage to face their fears and stand up to the Boogieman, with Kenny even tripping the Boogieman up with marbles.  Because of Megan and Kenny’s efforts, the Ghostbusters are all able to successfully set off the Ghost Bomb and return safely to the other side before the portals are sealed off, imprisoning the Boogieman once and for all. With the day saved, Egon tucks Megan and Kenny into bed, wishing them both a goodnight.

The episode ends with the Ghostbusters returning to the Firehouse.  There, they get a brief scare when a hand emerges from Peter’s personal locker, which momentarily makes them think the Boogieman somehow came back.  But it turns out it was only Slimer playing a prank on them, possibly in retaliation of Peter threating him at the start of the episode.  Which, of course, irritates Peter.

Watching this episode did make me wonder if at least one person over at Disney/Pixar saw this episode as a kid.  Because the scene where the Ghostbusters are chasing after the Boogieman does remind me of the climactic scene in Monsters, Inc., where they’re running through the various doors and ending up in random places all over the world.  And the way Megan and Kenny manage to face their fears to stand up to the Boogieman in order to assist the Ghostbusters does seem to parallel the moment where Boo got over her fear of Randel in order to defend Sully.  Then again, it could just be a huge coincidence.  Who can say?  Either way, it was a really good episode.  And the design of the Boogieman was particularly creative, from his oversized head to his cloven feet.  Props to the animation team on this one.

(Click here to read more Ghostbusters reviews)

[fox-mother]

Smol Harry Potter AU Kushi profile!

Introduction

Name: Kushina Uzumaki Also Known As: Kushi, Red-Hot Habanero, Tomato Girl Titles: The Bleeding Heart of London Age: 24 Birthday: July 10th Astrological Sign: Cancer Nationality: Japanese Species: Fox-Demon Blood Type: B Sex: Female Gender: Cisgender Pronouns: She/Her Orientation: Biromantic and Bisexual Past/Bio: Kushina was born in Japan to a couple of Fox-Demons. Their species is primarily found deep within Japans natural forests and as a result, they are hard to come by. Their hair (and pelts) are very valuable and rare because of this. Most commonly their hair is used as the centre of wands/adornments on the clothing of Japanese high-ranking wizards. Their form of magic is far more nature-based and they can shift forms at will. As they can only be found in Japan, they are a very unknown species in other countries. Kushina herself was born and raised to be wary of people who didn't share her packs distinctive red pelt or red locks. Her mischievous nature also got her into a fair amount of trouble with her parents and pack elders, especially a powerful demon called Mito. While the elderly fox-demon tutored Kushina extensively, she was also more of a grandmother to the younger rather than a teacher. One day, it all changed. A particularly volatile member of their pack decided to try fighting back and lost. Their place of hiding, a sacred forest in which humans dare not tread was set ablaze to drive the demons out. Her pack fought and fought hard, but ultimately they were overpowered and a good 98% of the pack was decimated. Only 8 escaped and managed to smuggle themselves away. Kushina, Mito, Nagato and a few others were among the lucky ones. They decided to split up, with Mito and Kushina going to England. Kushina spent the rest of her time in England, growing up with Mito. That was until her guardian told her that Hogwarts wanted her. She decided to attend Hogwarts, which she deems as her best choice yet. There, she met Namikaze Minato and Uchiha Mikoto who soon became her two best friends. She never, not even to them, revealed what she really was. They too were Japanese so she knew that they'd know what she is. Kushina left Hogwarts and eventually married Minato. The two lived quite quaintly, sort of isolated until Kushina got a business proposition. She accepted it and works as an Unspeakable for the Ministry. Kushina got pregnant a few years into her career and both her and Minato were ecstatic. The Uzumaki caught up with Mikoto and found out she had a son, Itachi, and was expecting another. The two became inseparable, with Kushina and Minato being babysitters for Mikoto and Fugaku as the three children grew.

About Him/Her

Personality: Kushina is a quick-to-anger, brash young lady with a heart of gold. She is fiercely protective of Minato, Naruto, Sasuke, Itachi and Mikoto, to the point of murder in some cases. She is kind, motherly and sweet to anyone who truly knows her. Occupation: Unspeakable Likes: - Her job - Her family - Chocolate - Strawberries - Dislikes: - Muggles - Pushy people - Rude people - Fugaku Uchiha - Hobbies: Sewing, baking and pranks Fears: Losing her family, friends and hope Strength: She's got a strong draw to nature and a lot of her power comes from that Weakness: She struggles with learning spells sometimes Talents: She's a talented Animagus, a talented Seer, can Apparate and perform Wandless Magic

Appearance

Height: 5'4 Cup Size: D Skin Tone: Pale Ivory Eye Color: Indigo Hair Description: - Colour: Red - Highlights: None - Length: Shins - Style: Loose - Worn: Up in a bun and in a ponytail Extra: - Scars: None - Piercings: Her ear and nose - Tattoos: A spiral on her upper back, between the shoulder blades, signifying her clan/pack - Facial Features: She's elegant, has sharp-ish fangs and large eyes with long eyelashes - Scent: She smells of fire, dust and nature

Relationships

Father: Uzumaki Marihito Mother: Uzumaki Tsukiyama Siblings: Uzumaki Kyoumi (sister) Relatives: Uzumaki Mito (grandmother), Uzumaki Nagato (a distant cousin) and Uzumaki Karin (niece) Family Line of Work: None Family Background: Fox-demons were once a rare species who were known for their connections with nature. Their fiery red hair and pelts often made them targets for poachers and slave labourers. Naturally, all of them were peaceful and meant no harm, unless directly provoked by a passing hunter or muggle. Muggles didn't know what they were and caused them to retreat further into their woods to survive. They were shifters, able to naturally change their shape into that of a fox from birth. Their magic also was directly linked to nature, with them able to cast shielding spells from young ages. They are naturally very curious and a few who got too close to the wizards and witches who hunted them were often never seen again. Their whole pack/clan was decimated by wizards when one firey upstart decided he wanted revenge. It left the few that lived scattered over the globe as they struggled to survive. There are very few fox-demons who are still alive, as some were hunted and some just naturally passed away. Best Friends: Uchiha Mikoto Friends: Haruno Mebuki and Sabaku no Karura Love Interest: Namikaze Minato Enemies: Uchiha Fugaku

Education

School: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry House: Hufflepuff Best Core Class: Herbology Worst Core Class: Transfiguration Elective: Care of Magical Creatures and Divination Quidditch: Beater Extra-Curricular: Earth Magic

Magic

Wand: - Length: 12" - Flexibility: Reasonably supple flexibility - Wood: Rowan wood - Core: Unicorn hair Pets: None Boggart: Hunters Animagus: Fox Patronus: Black Stallion Amortentia: A bouquet of roses

Affiliations/Alliances

Home Town: Rural Japan Residence: A quaint cottage a few miles outside of London Loyalty: Neutral Organizations: Ministry of Magic, Order of the Phoenix

Extra Information

Quotes: "It's nothing personal, but you need to shut up before I rip your head off." Theme Song: Monster by Skillet Food: Anything spicy or sweet Drink: Water or sake if she's feeling down Colour: Red Animal: Fox Flower: Sakura blossoms Season: Summer