#losing the favor of the family baby is a fate worse than death

[brofightiscancelled]

[stigmatvm]

hc-- the family

Ayano and Shigeo Monoma are an odd couple; but they do love each other.

They met in their early 20's, at a party hosted by a mutual acquaintance-of-an-acquaintance-of-an-acquaintance and so forth, but Ayano quickly found herself enamored by Shigeo's carefree and frankly, a little stupid, nature. He was always ready to undercut another model and follow it up by saying something so nonsensical it could kill. She wanted to study him like a bug.

They would continue their occasional meetings through these sorts of events, and that would develop into courtship, which would then be followed by marriage. They had gained a reputation as a rather catty duo; but while Shigeo's temper was hard to incur (he's the sort to take everything as banter and hardly considers it serious at all), crossing Ayano could easily end in disaster, so their social circle was devoid of close friends but full of many, many favors. Shigeo took Ayano's last name; she was inheritor of Monomerch after all, and it wouldn't do to lose the family name.

(Shigeo considers most people his friend anyways. He's a bit shallow)

Despite how fulfilling their partnership is, having a child was...probably not the best decision. Ayano went back to work as soon as possible; and so did Shigeo, unwilling to give up the thrill of travelling once the novelty of a baby wore off. Ayano, having grown up with high expectations placed on her, placed the same on their son with little regard for the fact she was a calloused and ruthless individual that rarely socialized outside of business, and Shigeo had little interest in anything other than the "fun". They had the resources to afford childcare, and stuck to that, especially with the rising health issues rendering him homebound for the most part and the emergence of his quirk. Ayano considered it shameful. Shigeo considered it useless. The best thing to do, then, was to make sure it was used as little as possible.

After all, for all their love of drama, doing anything to actually shame the family was a fate worse than death.

Ayano's work largely placed her in Tokyo, and Shigeo travelled frequently, and both were content to settle for secondhand updates on Neito's status. His behavior would escalate, and so would theirs; discipline largely handled by Ayano, who has little patience for...well, anything.

His transition is a nonissue. They slip up on occasion, but it's more inline with the general distance they have from his life as a whole. And the general lack of tact. But the effort's being made.

Other facts of note:

-Monomerch handles merchandising for most of the biggest heroes; one exception being All Might, who they licensed in his early years but then switched to manufacturing his own merch.

-Shigeo's appearance changes frequently and he dislikes keeping one look for long. These traits become genetic, so if he were to have a child with Ayano while, say, having black hair, the resulting child would also have black hair.

-Ayano is a graduate of the U.A. Business Course. Her ruthlessness was well known even then. She broke sales records, but she also had a reputation as being a bit of a bully and generally aloof.

-They don't really get why Neito acts the way he does, and they're frustrated by him more than anything. They do love their son, but...

Well, they're just not parent material. Really, the two of them should've just locked themselves in their fairytale ending away from the population at large. They don't get why he isn't willing to accept presents as a reasonable substitute for "affection".

-Both of them can be quite cruel and unpleasant, and see it as a reasonable response to things like "criticism" or "competition". Shigeo will gladly push other models out of the space by stealing their "look", and Ayano's willingness to stomp out any rising company both in the corporate space and in the personal space through sheer hostility and intimidation and they see it as a necessary evil to succeed.

-Monoma gets his laugh from his father. You can hear him from a mile away.

[mattzerella-sticks]

Swallow It Whole (Dean/Cas 1.1k coda to 15x16 “Drag Me (Away From You)”)

Read here on ao3

"The older you get... the less lies make everything better"

But when you've told as many lies as Dean has, it's hard to tell what's true and what's not. How can he remove all the rotten parts of himself without bringing everything down? Which lies have ingrained themselves so firmly, that removing them would change everything about who he was?

And, scariest of them all, who would he be without those lies?

           Dean doesn’t stop him. The fire in Sam’s eyes, tense set of his shoulders – it’s suicide. Anything he said would be met with a sharp tongue that cuts worse than any knife and acid words which will scar indiscriminately. He’s tired anyway. Weighed down by over forty years of waking nightmares, a heavy, iron ball in his stomach. They cut his fuel line, letting it bleed along the road home.

           He climbs out of Baby, once the echoes of Sam’s footfalls lessen considerably. Slinks towards the trunk for his duffel. Sam’s still there, untouched. Forgotten in his anger. Dean leaves it, too. Bag swinging with every step, dangling off his fingers.

           His phone vibrates, chirping with a text. Cas, Have you told…

           Rolling his eyes, Dean offers a curt reply. Dean tries pocketing it again, only his phone starts ringing. He answers immediately, “Cas…”

           “Sam knows?”

           “Yeah,” Dean says, shuffling down the hallway. Darkness ahead and behind, reminding Dean of how empty their home is. Haunted. A chill races up his spine. “He wasn’t too keen on it, either.”

           Cas softly huffs over the line, “I had a feeling.”

           “Yeah, yeah… your feelings.” His imagination recreates the night before. Their last conversation face-to-face. Cas looking soft in such a sad way, that cruelly tempted Dean. Urged his hand forward, like he can force a smile with a simple brush of his thumb. A band-aid on a mortal wound. He almost did it, then. Even now, it twitches at his side. Like he can reach through the phone and touch stubble. “You think it’ll make a difference?” he asks.

           “I hope so.” Cas hums, the sounds of tires rolling on asphalt filling the background. He’s still on the road. “Two heads are better than one.”

           “And three?”

           “…Is that an offer?”

           He wishes it was. Dean enters his room, flicking the light on. Dumps his bag without care and slams the door behind him. Shutting himself off from the rest of the world. “This is the best shot we got,” he tells Cas, “and I doubt you’ll find anything in the next few days that’ll top Billie’s.”

           “We will,” Cas says, “we have to… for Jack.” He pauses, finger on the trigger. Tapping at it, Dean waiting for the blow. “If you… if you tell him that he doesn’t… that this won’t make up for Mary’s death, that might change his mind.”

           It would. Cas mentioned Jack’s motivations, and Billie confirmed it… though Dean held no doubt about that. Dean sat with this truth for longer than he’d like, asking himself in an infinite loop if this can really balance the scales. Each time, the answer remained the same. A loss is a loss, and Dean’s tired of losing. Jack’s death won’t heal her absence. Hadn’t when Chuck smote him, and he doubts it’ll hurt less if Jack returns the favor.

           But then he thinks about the other choices. Losing his son or losing the world.

           Caitlin made a point, that lying won’t make anything better. For other people. Tell yourself enough lies, and you can convince yourself of even the most improbable things. Like how he has room for a few more. “I can’t do that, Cas.”

           When he speaks those words, Cas deflates. Verbally, with a low hiss. Visually, he must mirror how he looked under the Bunker’s dim lighting. Weary, dragged through hell with miles to go. Unraveled and strung out for vultures that circle. His chest slams against his ribcages. Beating a mournful drum, the same cadence with which Cas walked from Dean’s side. Onto a ruinous path he couldn’t follow. How he yearned for it, though.

           “Dean,” Cas starts. Voice trembling, unsure. “you can’t do this for Jack?”

           He’d do everything for him. Switch roles, become the bomb, take Chuck and Amara into the sunset with him. Billie laid the plan out very clearly, any deviation from it would be very painful. His wants… aren’t important. Never were. There’s very little he can control. “No,” he whispers, blinking back tears, “I… I can’t.”

           “Would you do it for me, then?”

           “Cas…” It’s easier repressing these. Especially so without distractions like Cas’s hair, his eyes, the little cleft on his chin and the warmth that constantly radiates from his body. “I can’t.”

           “I see…” The detachment in Cas’s words shouldn’t hurt as much as they do. He can’t ever believe this lie. “Then it’s me and Sam, then? Alone…”

           Possibly. Dean bets his brother skipped past his room, exchanging sleep for the Bunker’s trove of secrets. Like they might hold more than the manifestation of Death, herself. Which… “Billie might pop in,” he warns, “not to help, obviously. She’ll be… making sure the house is in order.”

           Cas chuckles, the noise uncharacteristically grating his ears. “I’ll be ready for Billie.”

           “Will you?”

           “I killed her once.”

           “When she was a reaper,” Dean rubs at his jaw, “promise me you won’t take any unnecessary risks… rock the boat too much.”

           “I can’t do that,” he parrots him, uses Dean’s words against him. One lie for another. “It’s getting late… is there more you’d wish to say or…”

           He can apologize. Cry, tell him how Jack’s sacrifice hurts with the same fury Cas must feel. That they’ve bucked fate before, their family can do it again. How there’s hope the four of them can see this final battle through. A peaceful future exists, where Jack is alive, and Sam isn’t angry with him, and Cas stays. With him. And Dean can finally… he allows… he feels…

           Dean swallows each and every prayer, scowling. “No,” he says, “night.”

           “Goodnight, Dean.”

           Cas drops their call. Dean stays on, listening as the ringer flatlines. Then, when the quiet returns, he remains there. Phone pressed on his cheek, rooted to the spot.

           His stomach lurches, startling him into action. On wobbly legs Dean stumbles towards his bedroom sink, leaning over the porcelain. Gagging on all the mistruths and almost-saids he forced down his throat. Sick from his own bullshit. Tears freely flow down his cheeks while he coughs, choking, fighting himself.

           Dean loses. A simple thing slips through, “I don’t want…” Then, the next. “Jack, he –“ Dean gasps, drool pooling around the drain, “He doesn’t deserve this. Doesn’t need –“ He groans, sweating now, too. Eyes burning, blood vessels popping from the strain. “Cas, I want…” It’s stuck there, chained by years of pressure. Millions of lies – little ones he says easily like a blink. And the larger ones, that required gymnastics to make sense. “Please,” he says, “don’t go where I can’t follow, angel. I can’t lose both of you…”

           He glances at his reflection. Expression sunken, face wrecked from it all. Flashes of Jack, with his eyes burned out. Cas on the ground, wings scorched into the earth.

           Living with so many lies, it’s hard to parse through the truth. Dean knows one.

           His life has never been fair.

[dukereviewsmovies]

Duke Reviews: Mortal Kombat 2021

Hello, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews Where Today I'm Looking At The 2021 Mortal Kombat Movie...

Now, I Bet You're Asking Me, Andrew, Why Are You Reviewing This And Not The Original Mortal Kombat Movie And It's Sequel, Mortal Kombat Annihilation? Because I Don't Need A Frying Pan To Hit Me Over The Head To Know For A Fact That Both Of Those Films Are Horrible...

Where This Film Knows How To Handle The Game It's Taking On, Of Course, Some People Will Disagree With Me On This But Intend To Prove Those Haters Wrong Today...

So, With That Said, Let's Dive Into Mortal Kombat 2021...

Expect Spoilers From Here On Out...

The Movie Starts At The Home Of Hanzo Hasashi In Japan In The Year 1617, Where Hanzo Goes To Get 2 Buckets Of Water For His Wife, But Before He Goes, He Tells Her That He Loves Her Very Much...

However As Hanzo Gets Water, His Family Is Visited By Hanzo's Nemisis, Bi-Han, Whose Group Known As The Lin Kuei (Who Controls The Power Of Ice) Is Out To Annihilate Every Member Of Hanzo's Group, The Shirai Ryu From Existence And With Hanzo Being The Last One...He Makes Himself A Good Target...

So, Yeah, Bi-Han Kills Hanzo's Wife And Eldest Son By Freezing Them To Death, Which Leads Hanzo To Create A Makeshift Weapon (Out Of A Blade His Wife Used For Gardening And Some Rope) So He Can Fight The Warriors Of The Lin Kuei Before Fighting Bi-Han Himself Only To Get Killed During The Fight...

But Before Hanzo Dies, He Hears The Cries Of His Baby Daughter But In Attempting To Go To The Baby He Dies...

But That Doesn't Stop A God Named Raiden From Showing Up And Taking The Baby Himself To Find The Kid A New Home, Which Not Only Leads To A Title Card And Brief Star Wars Like Intro Revealing That There Is A Tournament That Decides The Fate Of Earth And Earth Has Lost 9 Of Them And Should It Lose One More, Then Earth Will Be Invaded By A Realm Called Outworld...

However, An Ancient Prophecy Has Revealed That A New Group Of Champions Led By Hanzo's Ancestor Will Tip The Balance For Earth...

Which Leads Up To Now, Where Hanzo's 21st Century Relative Who Now Goes By Cole Young Is Boxing For Money For His Family...

Now, Very Briefly, Let's Talk About Cole Who Is A New Character For This Movie And Is Not In The Video Game...

This Has Fans Debating That The Main Focus Should Have Been A Character From The Game, Namely Johnny Cage Instead Of A New Character To Which I Unfortunately Disagree With As Going With A New Character Works Better In The Movie's Favor...

Think About It, If They Had Made A Character From The Game The Main Focus It Would Come With Expectations That The Fanbase Expects For Characters Of This Game Adding To The Other Expectations For The Other Characters That Are From The Game That Are In This Movie...

Where A New Character Not Only Gives Us A Fresh Set Of Eyes To Look At This World, But A Way To Put Us Not Only Into The Movie But Into This World...

Unfortunately, Cole Loses The Fight But It's Enough To Impress A Guy Named Jax (Played By Jimmy Olsen From Supergirl) Who A Tattoo On Cole Only For His Daughter To Reveal That It's Not A Tattoo But A Birthmark Which He's Had Since He Was Born...

Meanwhile In Outworld, The Ruler Of This Realm, Shang Tsung...

Yes, That Guy,..

Tells Bi-Han Who Has Now Become...

Sub-Zero...

That The Prophecy Is Upon Them And He Wants Him To Go To Earth To Eliminate The Champions, Which Leads Sub-Zero To Attack Cole And His Family While They're Getting Dinner At A Restaurant...

Luckily Though, They Are Saved By Jax Who Reveals He Has A Tattoo Like Cole Does And That He's Been Chosen To Fight But Before Jax Can Tell Him Anymore They're Confronted By Sub-Zero Who Attacks Their Car, But Before Jax Goes To Fight Sub-Zero He Tells Cole To Go To Gary, Indiana...

This An Action Movie, Not A Musical!

Anyway, He Tells Cole To Go There And Find Sonya Blade Who Will Have More Information About Everything...

So, With Cole Taking His Family To Safety, Jax Goes To Fight Sub-Zero Only For Sub-Zero To Freeze Jax's Arms And Rip Them The Hell Off...

Jax Falls To The Ground Which Leads Sub-Zero To Believe Jax Is Dead But We'll See Jax Later...

After Dropping His Family Off, Cole Goes To See Sonya Blade Who Not Only Reveals That People With Markings Like The Ones Cole And Jax Have Have Been Chosen To Fight For Earth In A Tournament Known As Mortal Kombat, But Also That She Has A Mercenary Named Kano Who Killed A Champion That Sonya Was After Only To Get The Marking Himself...

But Before Sonya Can Give More Information, They're Attacked By Reptile, A Minion Of Shang Tsung But He Defeated By Kano Who Breaks Free During The Fight...

Before He Leaves, Kano Mentions Raiden's Temple, (A Place Where Champions Have Gone To Train For The Tournament) So Sonya Makes A Deal With Kano To Take Them There For 3 Million Dollars (Despite Not Having It) And He Does...

Travelling To The Middle Of The Desert, We Get A Small Fight Between Kano And Sonya, Before They Run Into Liu Kang (Played By The Black Ranger From The Power Rangers Reboot) Who Takes Them To Raiden's Temple To See Raiden Himself Who's Not Exactly Pleased With What He Has To Work With...

But Beggars Can't Be Choosers As Outworld Comes To Them Forcing Liu Kang And His Cousin, Kung Lao To Deal With The Intruders But Raiden Interpheres As Shang Tsung, Sub-Zero And Another Minion, Mileena Arrive...

However Despite Ordering His Minions To Kill The Champions, Raiden Creates An Electric Force Field Preventing Them From Entering...

Yeah, Go Cry To Your Mama, Shang Tsung...

So, As Both Kano And Cole Begin Training For Their Arcana (Which Is Their Inner Power), Sonya Discovers That Jax Is Alive And That As Sub-Zero Froze His Arms He Also Cauterised Jax's Wounds And All It's Going To Take Now Is Time...

Which I Think Is Liu Kang's Way Of Saying "We Can Rebuild Him, We Have The Technology"...

And So, Jax Becomes The Six Million Dollar Jax...

Well, I Guess Six Million Dollars Doesn't Buy What It Used To Buy...

With Very Little Success Of Getting Their Arcana On Their First Day, Everyone Has Dinner Only For Kung Lao To Start Insulting Kano Which Leads to Him Getting His Arcana Of Shooting A Laser From His Eye...

But Unlike Kano, Cole Is Having A Hard Time Getting His Arcana And With Time Running Out He Needs To Get It....Fast....

This Leads Raiden To Send Cole Home Despite Telling Him The Truth About Hanzo And How He Was He Was Hoping That The Power Of His Bloodline Would Be Strong Enough For Cole To Get His Arcana...

Meanwhile In Outworld, Shang Tsung Prepares His Minions, Millena, Nitara, Kabal And General Reiko For An Attack On Raiden's Temple...

But How Will They Lower Raiden's Force Field?

Well, Unfortunately, Kabal Knows Kano And Goes Off To Convince Him To Join Shang Tsung's Team And Guess What? He Accepts.,,

So, Yeah, Kano Brings Down The Shield Allowing Shang Tsung And His Minions To Attack The Temple While Cole Is Attempting To Protect His Family From Freaking Goro!

And Holy Shit, Did They Give Goro An Update!

But As The Fights Happen We Get Lines From The Game Including "Finish Him!" And "Flawless Victory" Kung Lao Kills Nitara Only For Shang Tsung To Kill Kung Lao, Jax's Arms Finally Look Like They're Worth Six Million Dollars And Transform Into Badass Robotic Arms Intead Of Wimpy Ones

And Cole Gains His Arcana (Of Transforming Into Kinetic Armor And Weapon Creation) To Save His Family From Goro Which Leads To The Most Gruesome Death In This Movie...

But Despite Cole Returning To The Temple To Help, Raiden Gets The Team Out By Taking Them To The Void, Which Is A Space Between Earthrealm And OutWorld To Come Up With A Plan

And Their Plan Is Very Simple...

Jax Fights Reiko ( Reiko Gets His Head Smashed In By Jax), Sonya Fights Kano (Kano Has An Ironic Death And Sonya Gains His Mark, Becoming A Champion) And Liu And Cole Fight Both Mileena And Kabal (Kabal Dies By Liu's Fire Dragon Ability And Mileena Gets Blasted By Sonya When She Shows Up)

They Had Intended Taking Sub-Zero Together But When He Shows Cole A Bracelet That Belonged To Cole's Daughter, He's Like "I Have Your Family, Come Get Me Bitch!"

So, Cole Enters A Portal To Face Sub-Zero Alone, Well...Not Really...

Using A Blade That Belonged To Hanzo During The Fight, Cole Summons The Spirit Of Hanzo To Fight With Him...,

But He's Not Hanzo Anymore, Oh, No....He's...

Scorpion!

And He's Like...

So, Yeah, Scorpion Kills Sub-Zero By Burning The Bastard With Fire Breath Before Returning To Help And Cole Saves His Family....

But As Raiden And His Team Arrive, Shang Tsung Also Arrives Saying That Death Is Just Another Portal And Next Time, He Will Come With Armies Before Leaving

However, Though They Won This Battle, The Fight Is Not Over By Any Means As Raiden Assembles A New List Of Champions For The Team To Recruit...

Packing Up His Locker At The Wrestling Ring, Cole Tells His Agent That He's Going To Hollywood As We Look At A Poster That Tells Us Johnny Cage Will Be In The Sequel...

This Movie Was...Pretty Damn Epic!

How This Isn't One Of The Best Video Game Movie Adaptations Ever I Will Never Know, I Guess It Just Comes Down To People Are Idiots And Don't Know What The Hell They're Talking About...

"The Story Is Confusing" If The Story Is Confusing Then You Don't Belong Reviewing Movies Cause You Have No Idea What A Good Movie Is!, "The Movie Has Horrible Writing" Have You Even Seen The Original Mortal Kombat Movie? That And Annihilation Have Worse Writing Than This Movie! "We Should Have Had Johnny Cage Instead Of Cole" We're Getting Him In The Sequel, Give The Writers A Freaking Break And Stop Being Critical Pricks!

So, Yeah, It's Obvious That This Has Become My Favorite Video Game Movie And I Say Don't Listen To People Like Angry Joe Or Hack The Movies Who Don't Know What They're Talking About And Go See This Movie

Till Next Time, This Is Duke, Signing Off

[twentiethcenturymoviesandtv]

M*A*S*H: The Characters, Part 3: Frank Burns, Radar O’Reilly, Maxwell Klinger, and Father Francis Mulcahy

While characters like Hawkeye and Margaret grew and changed, and other characters, like Trapper and Henry, moved on (in one way or another), some characters found themselves doing neither: rather, stagnating, before in a way, moving backwards.

Such is the unlucky fate of Major Frank (Ferret Face) Burns (Larry Linville).

Frank was everything unlikeable about humanity without going quite so far as to be evil.  Hailing from Fort Wayne, Indiana, Frank had a wife and kids back home that he didn’t seem to care much for, choosing instead to have an affair with Major Margaret Houlihan, the only other person who could stand his company.  A Dr. Jerk if there ever was one, Frank’s lack of bedside manner (and even lack of surgical expertise) could make him a liability, not to mention his incredibly strict sense of military discipline, even when it didn’t make any sense.  Definitely The Friend No One Likes, Frank originated as a Foil for Hawkeye, another Gung Holier Than Thou type who put all his faith and trust in the army.  Greedy and self serving, and always seeking to climb the ranks, Frank was The Neidermeyer, a huge stickler for army rules and constantly trying to enforce them, but not possessing any of the guts to go with the army worship

And we’re not even close to done with his problems.

Frank’s job was to represent the dangers of blind patriotism and military fervor.  A Leader Wannabe on top of being a Lawfully Stupid Hate-Sink, Frank existed to make mistakes, act childishly, and overall be a thorn in the side of the 4077th.  In early seasons, he would often pair with Margaret in order to ‘take down’ whatever operation Hawkeye and Trapper had going, but as time went on, and Margaret left him for her fiancé, Frank became more and more pathetic, and by the time B.J. came aboard to replace Trapper, Frank had lost all weight and depth as a character entirely.  His racism and sexism were getting played so ridiculously exaggeratedly, as well as his numerous other flaws, that he was quickly losing any threat as an antagonist, and even his Freudian Excuse of a miserable childhood wasn’t lending him much sympathy.

Without Margaret to back him up, Frank became more ineffective as an ‘antagonist’ character, or even a foil, quickly turning into a universal Butt Monkey and the show’s Chew Toy.  With scarce a victory to his name, and quickly turning into a caricature of his own, already exaggerated, character, Frank had nowhere to go but down, devolved to a point of cartoonish buffoonery that there was no bouncing back from.  To make things worse, the show was maturing, without him, with more nuanced characters like B.J. Hunnicutt replacing Trapper, and Reasonable Authority Figure Colonel Sherman Potter taking the place of the incompetent pushover Henry Blake, Frank was rapidly becoming lost in a show that was becoming more serious and realistic.  As a result, at the end of season five, after Margaret’s marriage, Frank Burns went the way of Trapper and Henry, and left the show: albeit in a completely different way.

In the pilot two-part episode of season six, Frank Burns goes on leave in Tokyo, and (over the telephone, as Larry Linville doesn’t appear at all in the episode) the audience, and the 4077th, are treated to hearing Frank’s mental breakdown following Margaret’s marriage.  After attacking a general and his wife (who resembled Margaret), he’s apprehended, and placed under psychiatric observation, following which he was cleared of all charges, promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and sent home to serve stateside.

In a way, it was almost a level of gut-punch as Henry’s departure, and a bitter taste of irony.  Men like Frank made it home, and were rewarded for their behavior, while men like Henry never got the chance.

It wasn’t fair, sure.  But such is life.

Like Henry and Trapper, Major Frank Burns was never forgotten by the show, or the characters, remembered all the way to the end of season eleven, his absence felt, if not missed, for the remainder of the series.

Which is a distinct dishonor not shared by the last member of the cast to depart before the series ended: Corporal Walter Eugene “Radar” O’Reilly.  (Gary Burghoff)

Radar was the company clerk in position, but so much more in practice.  The embodiment of the Hyper-Competent Sidekick, Radar was the ‘baby of the bunch’, a naïve Country Mouse from Ottumwa, Iowa with a sneaky streak that showed itself when least expected.  The character with the most obvious reason for their nickname, “Radar” had a habit of being able to sense what was about to happen, or what someone was going to say before they knew themselves.  Whether he just had exceptionally good senses and reflexes or was mildly psychic, the show never said, but it’s hard to say that the 4077th didn’t benefit from his ability to anticipate the helicopters arriving with the wounded.

Radar started the show as a kid with a worldly streak and a devious side, before slowly losing these traits as the series went on, becoming more innocent and child-like by the time season four rolled around.  One thing remained the same though: no matter what, Radar practically ran the 4077th by himself.

The person in charge of the paperwork, and chiefly the cog in the machine that made stuff happen, Radar’s position as the Scrounger often meant he was responsible for the critical elements in Hawkeye’s madcap schemes (in early seasons especially).  Radar was always the centerpoint of competency, (the sole one until Colonel Potter showed up) despite his own quirks: sleeping with a teddy-bear and abstaining from alcohol (mostly), preferring grape Nehis, and caring for every animal that happened to cross his path.  In fact, Radar’s chief Berserk Button (besides his height) was anybody harming any animals, to the point where he ended up rescuing the lamb meant for Easter dinner and shipping it stateside, not to mention his explosions of temper at the thought of Hawkeye killing his rabbit to perform a pregnancy test.

Radar tended to follow along with whatever Hawkeye and company were up to, sometimes begrudgingly and sometimes willingly, depending on the situation, always relied upon to make necessary calls and deals, file necessary paperwork, and fill in wherever necessary.  In return, the rest of the unit filled in as ‘family’ for Radar, though never replacing his mother and uncle.

Despite his varying levels of immaturity throughout the seasons, Radar did grow up, and out from under his 4077th family (especially father figures Henry Blake and Sherman Potter).  Early in season eight, Radar got the news of his uncle’s death, leaving only his mother to take care of the family farm, and received a Hardship Discharge.  He got to go home.

And go home he did, although with mixed feelings about how the 4077th would get on without him.  Behind him, he left the symbol of his immaturity: his teddy bear, which would later be buried by Hawkeye in a time capsule in “As Time Goes By”.

“This is my contribution. Radar left me this. Let it stand for all the soldiers who came over here as boys and went home as men.”

Like with Henry (also honored in “As Time Goes By” with his fishing lure), Trapper and Frank, Radar’s departure was felt by the characters, and referenced often.  Unlike Henry, Trapper, and Frank, however, Radar wasn’t replaced in the cast.  At least, not by a new cast member.  

Instead, he was replaced by a fellow corporal, Maxwell Klinger (Jamie Farr).

Klinger was a bit of an anomaly in the M*A*S*H cast in that he had no book counterpart from which he sprang: he was all new, added entirely for the television show.  Hailing from Toledo, Ohio, Max Klinger’s primary character trait was a loathing for the army that manifested itself somewhat differently than it did in the rest of the camp.

Whereas Radar was content to complain, and B.J. and Trapper fine with moderate actions of rebellion, or even Hawkeye settling for vocal disapproval and the occasional mental breakdown, Maxwell Klinger chose to express his displeasure with the draft by doing everything humanly possible in order to get out of the army: specifically by being declared clinically insane.

Throughout the eleven years he spent on the show, Klinger tried everything from wearing women’s clothing to pole sitting in an attempt to get a Section 8 discharge, a pass out of the army.  Medical conditions, family emergencies, wearing heavy coats in a heatwave, sneaking out in a raft, hang glider, or a hearse, Klinger’s schemes regularly made up the subplot of a typical episode of M*A*S*H as he attempted to find a way to escape the military.  (Oddly enough though, his schemes never got in the way of his duties.)

Klinger started out as a one-off joke character early in the first season, played deliberately in a stereotypically effeminate way.  Originally meant to appear in only one episode, reception to the character was incredibly favorable, and Klinger was added to the recurring main cast, going through a little bit of a change.  Actor Jamie Farr suggested that Klinger be a straight man who was just wearing dresses as though they were his uniform, and the matter-of-fact use of his unconventional wardrobe quickly became part of the character’s normal routine, looked on as perfectly normal by all except the antagonistic characters.

Despite starting as a one-note joke, throughout his time on the show, Klinger grew, just like the rest of them.  

While never losing his intense hatred for the military and desire to get out, as time went on, Klinger became more rounded, expanding from just his ‘joke’ personality to having a larger one, demonstrating a deeply caring streak multiple times, notably when he gave Margaret his wedding dress for her marriage to Donald Penobscott.  Throughout the show’s run, more time was given to develop his other attributes: his hard-luck background, his long-distance wedding and divorce, get rich quick schemes, a feud with supply Sergeant Elmo Zale, and his fears that he may actually be going crazy, explored in “War of Nerves”.

In season eight, right after Radar O’Reilly left the show, Klinger found another place on the show: replacement clerk and Scrounger.

At this point, Max’s character shifted slightly, away from the zany schemes and Obfuscating Insanity.  He quit most of the section-8 schemes, notably the women’s dresses, entirely, but remaining a Guile Hero with Hidden Depths, without rescinding into the background.  Initially finding it very hard to take over for the seemingly-psychic Radar, eventually Klinger settled into his new role, even getting promoted to Sergeant, before the end of the show.

And what an end.

In “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen”, after the war has ended, as everyone packs up to go home and says their goodbyes, Klinger makes a completely astonishing announcement: he’s staying in Korea, with his new wife, Soon-Lee.  After all of that effort, all of the crazy things he’s done, from trying to eat a jeep to trying to get into West Point, when he finally gets to go home, he chooses, instead, to stay.

Over eleven years of show, Klinger went from a Fashionista Determinator set on getting out of the army to a clerk and sergeant, who made the decision to stay in Korea to help his wife find her family.  Now that’s what I call growth, especially being one of the only characters who was there from start to finish.

In fact, there’s only one more of those we have left to discuss:

First Lieutenant Father Francis John Patrick Mulcahy (William Christopher).

Father Mulcahy is the 4077th’s chaplain, a dedicated and devout Catholic priest, and the unit’s moral compass.  Although a pacifist by nature, Mulcahy was an amatuer boxer, and occasionally demonstrated flashes of righteous fury paired with Good Old Fisticuffs.

“He’s shy, and studious, and yet he has a right hook that could stop a truck.”

The show’s quintessential case of Beware the Nice Ones, and another Deadpan Snarker to round out the cast, Mulcahy tried to make himself useful wherever he could, often struggling with feeling like he barely contributed to the assistance offered by the 4077th.  

Mulcahy and Radar often occupied the same position as the Only Sane Man in the camp, but while Radar would typically crumble under pressure to participate in whatever chaos was going on, Mulcahy tended to be aware of it, but not exactly involved in it.  He was the Heart, the McCoy, a Determinator who wanted to do the right thing, at all times, focusing on his job and trying to make a difference for the better in the camp, and the war at large.

“When you lose a patient, he’s out of his misery. When I lose a patient, he’s lost his soul.”

Oddly enough, for an irreverent comedy show, Mulchay was portrayed as a good man of the cloth, a genuine person who was deeply faithful and religious, without any ‘parody’ elements or ‘joking’ instances of corruption.  Mulcahy practiced what he preached, constantly trying to help those around him, notably the nearby orphanage (with the winnings of the poker games that he always seemed to win).  He was no Load, and no ‘stick in the mud’, by any means, being a moral character who tolerated Hawkeye and company’s shenanigans in good humor, but had no qualms about calling the rest of the camp out when it was needed.  Overall, although not developing too much throughout the show, Mulcahy was a steady constant with Hidden Depths, a much-needed upstanding character who openly displayed the courage and kindness that other characters often hid with jokes.

And in the end, Mulcahy got to go home too.

Like with the others, Mulcahy left Korea a changed man, visibly shaken by the horrors of war, and physically changed as well.  During the finale episode, “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen”, while rescuing prisoners-of-war in the path of an artillery barrage, a shell explodes very close to him.  Although Mulcahy survived the incident, he did so at the loss of most of his hearing, something that only B.J. finds out about.  Mulcahy returns to the states, intending to work with the deaf, but not before saying goodbye to his 4077th flock:

“I’ll miss hearing confession, but after listening to you people for so long, I think I’ve just about heard it all.”

Mulcahy was the last of the main cast of characters to have begun appearances in season one, and one of only four main characters to last throughout the entire show (Hawkeye, Margaret, and Klinger being the other three), but by no means was he the last character we have to discuss.  After all, for all the characters who faded out, new characters faded in to take their place, bringing their own unique color and personality to the positions they now filled.

(Join us next time, where we’ll discuss Sherman Potter, B.J. Hunnicutt, and Charles Emerson Winchester III!)

[krreader]

friend or foe | chapter 3.

pairing: kim taehyung x reader fandoms (in this chapter): bts ; snsd ; g-idle ; shinee warnings: non idol!au ; supernatural!au ; cult!au ; death genre: angst ; mystery ; smut previous: 1 ; 2 word count: 2.3k+

summary: when you were younger, stories of vampires, demons and other monsters used to keep you up at night, until you grew up and realized none of them were real. that’s what you continued to believe until you found yourself mixed up with a cult that had these same exact monsters as members and you weren’t sure if you were going to be their next meal or if they had something else in mind for you..

a/n: a little bit more backstory, that I GENUINELY enjoy to write. I hope you enjoy the story as a whole too ♥

The clicking of heels made Taemin roll his eyes.

Whoever came here to disturb him was annoying him already. Whether it was Sunmi, Yeri, Yuqi or..-

“Where is he? Where is Taehyung?”

Yoona.

That one was ten times worse than who he had expected.

“I have no idea where he is. I just came here for a drink,” he held up his refilled cup and downed it in one go, placing it onto the bar again and waiting for the bartender to re-fill it.

“He promised he would let me do this. He promised he wouldn't just take her and tell her all of it!”

“You know how he can be. He's impatient. He wanted her.”

“Yeah, well.. he messed up. I doubt she'll want to join our cause after all of this.”

“And you really think he'd care if she wouldn't?” finally he laughed and turned around, grinning at Yoona with his drink loosely between his fingers, “Face it, baby. Your sister is stuck with us now, whether she wants to be here or not.”

And see, Yoona was usually one of the composed ones in this group that they have formed. She had always been very rational and knew that to make this work, you were needed. As much as she had wanted protect you, she knew that there had to be the day you had to find out.

So maybe some people, and that currently includes you, were thinking she only took care of you for their cause of living in a world where they didn’t have to be ashamed and worried about their powers, when in reality, she took care of you because she loved you like you were her own daughter. Not sister, not aunt, but daughter. She was the same age as your mother, she might as well could have been.

And so when someone like Taemin said something like that..

..she revealed her true powers.

One second she was there, the next she was right in front of him, her eyes glowing blue and her hand wrapped around his throat, pressing on his air ways so hard that his black demon eyes showed and he was ready to fight if need be.

But before the situation could escalate any further, the man she had been looking for was standing in the room.

“That's enough, Yoona. Let him go.”

She shook her head just enough to get out of her raging state after a few seconds, then took a step back and brushed over her clothes, clearing her throat before she turned around to look at him.

How come he always looked so confident? She could snap him in half if she wanted to.

“You promised me.”

“I know,” Taehyung's expression changed to an almost.. sad one, but not quite, “But it had to be done now. We're losing more people than we're gaining them. We.. I..- need her,” he admitted.

“That's why I told you to let me handle this,” she crossed her arms in front of her chest, “You threw her into a world she doesn't understand yet, a world she is still afraid of. Worse than that, you made me tell her about her family, without being able to prepare her for it.”

“That is your own fault. I told you that giving her fake memories of a family will make it harder for her in the end.”

Maybe.. but she thought it had been an act of kindness when in reality, giving you those fake memories was ten times crueler than living with the truth. The truth that you never had the parents that you thought you did.

“Just.. do me a favor,” Yoona sighed in defeat, “Stay away from her for now. You, Taemin, Sunmi.. you people scare her. If you want this to work, let her be around the.. nicer ones.”

“I am nice,” Taemin gulped down his drink, “Suuuuper nice.”

“You're also a demon. She sees your eyes, she'll run away screaming. She sees Sunmi's teeth, she'll start crying.”

Taehyung nodded, “Alright. For now, I will keep my distance. And you will too,” he looked at Taemin.

And only when Taehyung was gone, did Taemin mutter, “I really can't stand him, you know? I wish one of the others had gotten his position.”

You looked out of your window with a small smile, watching an elven girl play with her father, pure bliss on their faces as they ran around in the gardens, hid from each other and then chased the other one again.

They're not all bad, you told yourself. Some of them are kind, like Jieun. Like Yuqi. Like Yeri.

But it wasn't easy to forget about the ones that weren't.

You didn't try to run away anymore, but you weren't happy here either. You were still confused and most importantly, heartbroken, over the fake memories that had been implanted in your brain.

It dawned you more and more that you were completely and utterly alone in this world. 

You had no one.. well, maybe..-

When someone knocked on your door, you turned around and saw the person that was responsible for said heartbreak.. indirectly.

“I don't want to talk to you.”

“I know,” Yoona said with a sad smile, “I.. just wanted to properly introduce you to someone.”

Yuqi had always appeared out of nowhere, scaring the shit out of you, but now she was walking in after Yoona with a smile that made you smile too.

“Hello. I'm Yuqi.”

“I know.. you're.. a ghost, right?”

“Ghost.. spirit..,” Yuqi shrugged, “I don't really care what you call me. I just think I'm super duper cool.”

“(Y/N).. Yuqi is very talented. She can't just disappear, but she can.. show you what once was.”

And you instantly knew what your 'sister' was trying to tell you.

“I'm sure it's very hard to believe everything you were told,” Yuqi grabbed your hands with a small smile, “So I'd like to show you.. because I think that if you see it with your own eyes, it will be easier to understand.”

You were scared when she said that.

Because deep down, you knew that what you were about to see would trigger something inside of you. It would erase those last hopes you held that all of this might just be a dream. 

You were scared because.. you knew they were right.. and you weren't ready for the truth.

“I don't want you to look at me anymore like you look at me now,” Yoona said, still keeping her distance, “I want to prove to you that all I ever did was to protect you. That I love you and always have,” she choked out those last words, then bit down hard on her lip and lowered her head, “I want you to understand that you’re not as alone as you might think you are.”

Yuqi's smile faded, first looking at Yoona, then at you, “It won't just be a memory.. it will be like you're there. I will be with you every step of the way and if it becomes too much, I can pull you out.”

“I'm really scared,” you whispered to Yuqi

“Don't be.. you're strong, (Y/N). You can do this.”

And to Yoona's surprise, you reached out to her when you decided for the whole thing. She instantly approached you and held your hand, showing you that she'd be with you.

Like she had always been and like she always would be.

Despite you being angry with her, in all of this, Yoona was the only one you felt safe with here. Truly safe.

After taking one, two, three deep breaths, you nodded, giving Yuqi the go for.. whatever it was that was about to happen.

You closed your eyes, only for a second.. and only opened them again when you heard.. war.

It was an unfamiliar place, yet it felt like you had been here before.

The sky.. the sky looked different. It might have been beautiful once, but now it was gray, ash from the raging fires polluting the air, something that looked like air fighters flying above your heads and exploding, metal pieces falling to the ground, making you flinch, afraid they might hit you.

“Don't be scared.. this is the past, nothing here can hurt you,” Yuqi assured you.

But she was wrong.

This would hurt you. Not physically maybe, but emotionally? 

It would probably ruin you.

Yoona interlinked her fingers with yours and gently pulled you towards a castle. It was massive, looked like it was built purely out of steel, but at the same time it looked like it was built out of diamonds. Even with all this ash around you, it still had a shine to it. Once, it was probably magnificent. Unbreakable.

But now it looked like it was on the brink of falling apart.

And while you were walking towards it, Yoona once again told the story of what had happened: “Your parents were good rulers. They were just, gave their people everything they needed and more. This war.. it never should have started. People and supernatural beings were living together peacefully.. but see, supernatural beings were and still are, a lot more powerful than any human being ever could be. And humans.. they can be greedy, cruel monsters when they want to be. They didn't think it was fair that supernatural beings existed. So they decided that getting rid of them would only be fair to them..”

Yoona gulped down hard, stopping when she saw four men pin down a boy not older than seventeen and killing him without batting an eyelash, then laughing.

Only because his ears were sharper than theirs.

Your eyes widened, taking a step back and bumping into Yuqi, who immediately wrapped an arm around your shoulder and smiled encouragingly.

“There were too many of them.. and they took us by surprise. Most of us didn't have a chance. They caught us while we went home from work, stabbed us in the back like the cowards that they were. They killed babies, children, women, elderly.. it didn't matter to them. The moment they had powers that the humans could never have, was the moment their fate was to die.”

“Why.. didn't you fight back?” you asked carefully.

“We tried. Parents trying to save their children.. elders sacrificing themselves for the youngest.. but we had nowhere to go. Despite the galaxy being very advanced, none of us were prepared for an attack and while we were powerful, only a handful of us could travel between galaxies or to another planet. We used to be thousands..-” Yoona continued walking, past the screaming masses of her people that were being slaughtered, “In the end.. only a couple hundred survived. That's all that was left of our people in this galaxy. Every single planet rioted. Rioted against peaceful folk..”

“And.. what about.. the galaxy now?”

“It still exists. But.. there are no supernatural beings anymore. It is now ruled by humans.. they took what was rightfully ours and made it theirs. And now they tell stories of how they defeated the big, bad wolves, us, and saved all future generations from our wrath.”

Humans were always assholes. It didn't matter which galaxy they were living in, apparently, they would always take and then portray it as if they had no other choice.

“You said my father.. he died first?”

“He was a skilled fighter. The moment the war started, he was the first volunteer to help protect his people,” Yoona watched your father fight the people, ten against one. An unfair fight, but he did his best, “Your mother begged him not to, but he was a good king.. the best. He'd never abandon his people when they were in need.”

You stared at him for as long as you could, but Yoona didn't want you to see his death, so she pulled you along.

At least she didn’t change his face in the fake memories that she had given you. He looked like you.. remembered him.

“If it hadn't been for him, they would have broken through the gates of the castle a lot sooner.. then your mother never would have had the chance to send you away with me.”

“Why.. did she.. not come with us?”

“She thought she might still be able to save a few more people.. and.. she did. She saved around twenty more, most of them children, but.. by the time she wanted to join us, it was too late and they had gotten to her already.”

And then you saw her.

God, she was as beautiful as you remembered her, but her hair was long, wavy.. even during all of this, she now truly looked like how you had always imagined a goddess. 

She was out of breath, clearly running to, or from something, looking around for a moment, before she let out one final breath and stopped moving.

All she did was turn her head and look directly at you.

Not through you, but at you. Into your eyes.

Like she could see you.

And all three of you froze.

Because, from what Yuqi said, this shouldn’t be possible. This was merely a memory, a vision from the past. 

But your mother looked you dead in the eye and surprised you by saying: “Save our people, (Y/N).”

Yuqi was so shocked that she instantly pulled you all out of the memory, too worried about what had just happened and too worried about what it might do to you if she let it continue.

Your mother knew you were there. Not in that moment, not at that time, but.. years later, you would be there and you would look at her when you were so unsure about what your role was in all of this.

And she made it all clear to you in one single sentence.

You knew. 

You were certain.

You could hear Yuqi and Yoona talk, but it was so faint, despite them being right next to you. All you could see were your mother's eyes, so full of sadness and.. guilt. Guilt that you had to be the one who was burdened with that task. All you could hear was how her voice was on the brink of breaking, how she was so close to tears..

Their death would not be in vain.

“Tell me what I need to do,” you suddenly said, making both Yoona and Yuqi look at you. Both of them were confused, but then you turned to look at them, your voice a lot more determined now, “I'm in.”

[ultimavolatusrpg]

ACCEPTED // OAKLEY PEMBROOKE

41 years old, 72nd Hunger Games, FC: Emily Blunt

Captivating, Dynamic, Ingenious, Loyal, Resilient

tw: death

THE ARENA

The arena of the 72nd Hunger Games launched at the edge of a massive canyon.  The cornucopia was right at the edge with a mile long drop. In front of them was canyon.  Overhead blues skies and fluffy clouds painted the picture of a beautiful warm day. The breeze was warm and it would have been beautiful if not for the dark reason the tributes were there.  Paths made in the side of the canyon allowed the tributes to descend into the depths of the true arena. Those who turned away from the canyon and ran when the countdown ended, soon bounced off a forcefield.  They had two options, stay on top with the cornucopia or descent into the heart of the canyon. Those who were able to reach the bottom were rewarded with an abundance of fresh water as the river cut through the canyon.  The water was too dangerous to swim, making it near impossible for tributes to reach the other side.

When the bloodbath began, tributes fought over weapons while others ran into the canyon, braving the winding rocky paths while seeking safety and a chance to regroup before facing the other tributes.  Tributes paired off into ally groups and the Gamemakers unleashed the mutts. Vultures circled overhead as a continual reminder of the death all but one would face before the Games concluded. Lizards, spiders, scorpions, and snakes were a constant risk for the tribute.  One sting or bite and it could all be over. Baking heat during the day brought forth cool nights and the howling of coyote mutts, eager to rip tributes to shreds or chase them until they fell to their deaths from the numerous pathways along the canyon walls.

After the mutts had done their work, there were limited tributes remaining.  In the end, Oakley was left to fight it out with the boy from District Nine on a crumbling path near the base of the canyon.  It felt like it lasted hours, but soon the final two were falling. They hit the ground with a sickening crack as the vultures circled above them, waiting as the minutes ticked by for the final cannon to sound, a slow death ending the boy from Nine in one of the most anticlimactic finales of recent memory.

BIOGRAPHY

Life for Oakley had always been average.  Save for the story of her mother escaping District Eleven as a teenager, leaving her world behind in the hopes of finding a better future.  Pepper Monroe did find that better future when she stumbled into District Eight after weeks in the wilds. So when Pepper found love with a factory worker named Bobbin, everything was looking up.  Oakley was born, a name chosen to honor both her mother’s native district.

However, it was the story of her mother’s harrowing escape through the wilds, those weeks she spent trying to survive, that had ignited a spark of adventure inside Oakley.  She was curious, always looking to have an adventure or tell another exciting story. Her parents encouraged it, and that was the world Oakley grew up in. She had her parents, and eventually she had her baby sister.  Her father worked hard in the factories and her mother worked as a midwife and nurse. Oakley learned a lot from her mother watching her work, but her parents were busy and much of the responsibility fell to young Oakley’s shoulders.  She didn’t mind it though. Oakley knew it was preparing her for life.

School was something Oakley enjoyed.  She liked learning and it gave her a chance to have fun with her friends.  Her friends were a chance to have some fun beyond the expectations and responsibilities she had at home.  She could just be a kid, if only for a short period of time. One of those friends was named Taylor. When they were fourteen they started dating and at sixteen Taylor was reaped for the Hunger Games.  

While the Hunger Games was always something that had been on her radar, Oakley never paid much attention to it.  She always assumed the Capitol’s reach wouldn’t touch her. Oakley cried hard as she hugged her boyfriend after the reaping.  Even if Taylor stood a chance, the odds weren’t in his favor. By the time the train pulled out of the station, Oakley knew she would lose her first love to the Capitol.

She was right.  Taylor died in the bloodbath.

Things couldn’t possibly get worse.

Until they did.

Oakley’s name came out of that bowl the very next year.  She was seventeen and terrified. She wasn’t strong enough.  Sure, she knew how to use a knife and knew some basic medicine, but the careers would get her.  Oakley thought all she could do was bide her time. Even thought she wanted to go home, it seemed impossible.

When the Games began and Oakley found herself at the edge of a massive canyon, she did the only logical thing.  She ran. Escaping the bloodbath was the smart choice, and in the aftermath of that first day, she found the young boy from District Six.  The pair became allies, though she was sure people back home questioned why she decided to ally with a twelve year old.

They stuck together until the Gamemaker’s coyote mutts chased them into a career boy. He was strong, lethal, and Oakley knew in that moment she had to stand her ground.  If she tried to run, he’d kill her. So, the pair fought while the boy ran off in the chaos. Eventually the career’s long sword sliced open her arm during the fight and Oakley lost a lot of blood, but she tripped him and got the sword away before she drove it into his abdomen. Oakley took the sword as her prize and stumbled away.  She sat while blood poured from her arm, ripping off a piece of her shirt to try and stop the bleeding before a second gift arrived. It was enough to bandage the wound and at least stop the bleeding.

She saw her young ally’s face in the sky some time later and cried again.

The rest of the Games moved quickly until Oakley realized it was only her and the boy from District Nine left in the arena.  He cornered Oakley on one of the rocky pathways along the side of the canyon near the bottom. The sound of rushing water had been too tempting for Oakley to ignore.  Her sunburnt skin and dehydrated body had been called by the sound of the river. Luckily, both tributes lost their weapons early in the struggle, so Oakley and the injured boy scuffled on the edge of the cliff.  Pushing and shoving, kicking and punching. It felt like hours but really was only a few minutes. The boy grabbed her and Oakley thought she would die, but she struggled just enough that he stumbled backwards.  

Suddenly they were both falling.

They both hit the ground hard.  While her life flashed before her eyes as she fell, she didn’t see the light.  Her breathing was shallow and she couldn’t move. The boy didn’t either. Oakley didn’t hear a cannon.  Was she dead? Wouldn’t it be nicer if she was? Ever so slowly, the pair laid there broken at the bottom staring up at the high canyon walls and the vultures circling overhead, desperate to claim the final victim.  Minutes ticked by and everyone watched with bated breath. Who would die first?

What felt like hours for Oakley was less than five minutes before the boy’s cannon sounded.  Almost immediately the hovercraft appeared just as Oakley lost consciousness. The Capitol couldn’t allow them both to die.  What would the Games be without a victor? And live Oakley did. When she woke up she was told her back was badly damaged. Surgery to stabilize her spine had been performed, but it did little to stop her pain or the numbness in her legs that made the mere act of walking difficult some days.  

After her Games Oakley was forced to come to terms with her newfound disability. While many victors turned to morphling for the high it brings them, Oakley was forced to use it to manage her pain.  On good days, Oakley can walk. On good days, her pain is manageable. On good days, she can do the things she wants to do. On bad days she can barely get out of bed. On bad days she can’t leave her wheelchair.  In some ways, Oakley’s life has become dependent on her family to help her. She can’t simply do things like she used to be able to. A warm bath to soothe her back on a bad day is a two person project. It’s the unfortunate reality she’s forced to face.  The once independent and responsible girl, curious about the next adventure, had her wings clipped far too soon.

But eventually her wings grew back.  Upon moving to the victor’s village, Oakley became friendly with one of the other victors: Birch Pembrooke.  He was from District Eleven and had one a few years before she did. He was nice. It was nice to have someone to talk to about everything she felt.  After all, her parents didn’t understand what she went through. Birch did. And eventually, the pair started dating.

Oakley hadn’t thought anyone would want someone like her, broken as she was, but Birch did.  He saw her as a whole person and made her feel special. It was love she never experienced with Taylor.  Birch was her home. For the first time since her name left that Reaping Bowl, Oakley wondered if it happened for a reason.  Maybe everything was fated to happen this way, so they could find their way to each other.

When Birch proposed, Oakley was over the moon.  They were happy. She was loved. Everything seemed right for the first time in her life.  And the day they got married was the happiest she had ever been. At least until the birth of their first child.

There were concerns about pregnancy and Oakley’s disability.  How would pregnancy exacerbate her chronic back injury? Would it be fine?  Would it paralyze her? It was something they had to consider. But Oakley’s first pregnancy went incredibly smoothly.  Oliver Pembrooke was born screaming and Oakley couldn’t believe how much love she had for such a tiny person.

Three years later, after another smooth pregnancy, Paisley Pembrooke joined the family.  Again, Oakley never thought it possible to love someone so much upon first meeting them until she held her newborn children in her arms.

They’d always wanted a big family.  It was something they discussed even before Oliver was born.  Birch had one and Oakley always wanted one. The house should have been filled with the laughter of children, so when Paisley was three they started trying again.

This time, the pregnancy wasn’t smooth sailing.  It was hard and painful, a struggle for Oakley compared to the first two.  She knew before the halfway mark that this would be the last one. If pregnancy would be like this now, instead of as easy as it was with Ollie and Paisley, then she couldn’t put herself through it.  It was too hard on her damaged body.

But that didn’t mean Oakley felt less overwhelming love when Clementine was born.

For a while their family felt complete, but eventually both Birch and Oakley decided they needed to expand their family.  The couple decided to adopt a little boy from District Eleven, which meant Birch would be alone in deciding which child to bring home to their family.  When he came back with a little girl named Summer that stole his heart, Oakley wasn’t the least bit upset. She was thrilled to have another daughter to care for and dote on.  Clem was especially pleased to have a new sister around her age. Things were good. They were lucky.

Now Oakley is happy.  It’s been a few years since Summer joined their family and things are good.  Oakley and Birch have been married for nearly twenty years. She couldn’t have been happier, but she’s always worried.  Whispers of rebellion have Oakley concerned about what will happen to their children, especially since the houses were vandalized in the village.  The sense of unease she feels is not easily handled, but she wants to make sure that no matter what, her family is safe. Things are good now. Why would she rock the boat?

PENNED BY: MADI

[worldofcelts]

Celtic Fantasy Books List #1: Popular

In this first list of Celtic fantasy books, we will see mostly popular books with Goodreads summary and links to each for further reading. Long post under the cut. Upcoming lists will be #2: Indie books, and #3: Classics, so stay tuned and enjoy!

Sevenwaters Trilogy (Juliet Marillier)

Lovely Sorcha is the seventh child and only daughter of Lord Colum of Sevenwaters. Bereft of a mother, she is comforted by her six brothers who love and protect her. Sorcha is the light in their lives, they are determined that she know only contentment. But Sorcha's joy is shattered when her father is bewitched by his new wife, an evil enchantress who binds her brothers with a terrible spell, a spell which only Sorcha can lift-by staying silent. If she speaks before she completes the quest set to her by the Fair Folk and their queen, the Lady of the Forest, she will lose her brothers forever.

When Sorcha is kidnapped by the enemies of Sevenwaters and taken to a foreign land, she is torn between the desire to save her beloved brothers, and a love that comes only once. Sorcha despairs at ever being able to complete her task, but the magic of the Fair Folk knows no boundaries, and love is the strongest magic of them all.

The Mists Of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)

Here is the magical legend of King Arthur, vividly retold through the eyes and lives of the women who wielded power from behind the throne. A spellbinding novel, an extraordinary literary achievement, THE MISTS OF AVALON will stay with you for a long time to come....

The Chronicles Of Prydain (Lloyd Alexander)

Taran wanted to be a hero, and looking after a pig wasn't exactly heroic, even though Hen Wen was an oracular pig. But the day that Hen Wen vanished, Taran was led into an enchanting and perilous world. With his band of followers, he confronted the Horned King and his terrible Cauldron-Born. These were the forces of evil, and only Hen Wen knew the secret of keeping the kingdom of Prydain safe from them. But who would find her first?

Deverry (Katharine Kerr)

Even as a young girl, Jill was a favorite of the magical, mysterious Wildfolk, who appeared to her from their invisible realm. Little did she know her extraordinary friends represented but a glimpse of a forgotten past and a fateful future. Four hundred years-and many lifetimes-ago, one selfish young lord caused the death of two innocent lovers.

Then and there he vowed never to rest until he'd righted that wrong-and laid the foundation for the lives of Jill and all those whom she would hold dear: her father, the mercenary soldier Cullyn; the exiled berserker Rhodry Maelwaedd; and the ancient and powerful herbman Nevyn, all bound in a struggle against darkness. . . and a quest to fulfill the destinies determined centuries ago.

The Dark Is Rising (Susan Cooper)

On holiday in Cornwall, the three Drew children discover an ancient map in the attic of the house that they are staying in. They know immediately that it is special. It is even more than that -- the key to finding a grail, a source of power to fight the forces of evil known as the Dark. And in searching for it themselves, the Drews put their very lives in peril. This is the first volume of Susan Cooper's brilliant and absorbing fantasy sequence known as The Dark Is Rising.

The Iron Druid Chronicles (Kevin Hearne)

Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, lives peacefully in Arizona, running an occult bookshop and shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbors and customers think that this handsome, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty-one years old—when in actuality, he’s twenty-one centuries old. Not to mention: He draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit, and wields an even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer. Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants that sword, and he’s hounded Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power—plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of attorneys, a bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good old-fashioned luck of the Irish—to kick some Celtic arse and deliver himself from evil.

Ashling (Mary Mack)

A freak hang-gliding accident plunges Ashling through a rip in the fabric of Time and catapults her into Ireland’s past, where Fomorian Giants are battling Elves of the Tuatha Dé Danaan for lordship over the downtrodden, enslaved Humans. All Ashling wants is to go home, but the only way back is through the inter-dimensional travel hub on Mount Olympus, which is jealously guarded by Fallen Angels — the all-powerful and violent gods of mythology. In her seemingly impossible quest to outsmart these creatures, the transplanted university student gathers together a band of misfits, repels an invasion of Giants, rescues a besieged Elf princess, masters a ferocious dragon, and sparks a Human revolution. But her arrival has fulfilled an ancient prophecy and triggers events that will eventually culminate in the destruction of the gods’ sacred mountain — and Ashling must race against Time and Fate to reach the quantum portal before it closes forever.

Shadowfell (Juliet Marillier)

Sixteen-year-old Neryn is alone in the land of Alban, where the oppressive king has ordered anyone with magical strengths captured and brought before him. Eager to hide her own canny skill--a uniquely powerful ability to communicate with the fairy-like Good Folk--Neryn sets out for the legendary Shadowfell, a home and training ground for a secret rebel group determined to overthrow the evil King Keldec.

During her dangerous journey, she receives aid from the Good Folk, who tell her she must pass a series of tests in order to recognize her full potential. She also finds help from a handsome young man, Flint, who rescues her from certain death--but whose motives in doing so remain unclear. Neryn struggles to trust her only allies. They both hint that she alone may be the key to Alban's release from Keldec's rule. Homeless, unsure of who to trust, and trapped in an empire determined to crush her, Neryn must make it to Shadowfell not only to save herself, but to save Alban.

War For The Oaks (Emma Bull)

Eddi McCandry sings rock and roll. But she's breaking up with her boyfriend, her band just broke up, and life could hardly be worse. Then, walking home through downtown Minneapolis on a dark night, she finds herself drafted into an invisible war between the faerie folk. Now, more than her own survival is at risk—and her own preferences, musical and personal, are very much beside the point.

The Age Of Misrule (Mark Chadbourn)

When Jack Churchill and Ruth Gallagher encounter a terrifying, misshapen giant beneath a London bridge they are plunged into a mystery which portends the end of the world as we know it. All over the country, the ancient gods of Celtic myth are returning to the land from which they were banished millennia ago. Following in their footsteps are creatures of folklore: fabulous bests, wonders and dark terrors As technology starts to fail, Jack and Ruth are forced to embark on a desperate quest for four magical items - the last chance for humanity in the face of powers barely comprehended.

The Subtle Beauty (Ann Hunter)

A cursed prince. A vain beauty. Glory is the seventh daughter of Balthazar, High King of the Twelve Kingdoms. Glory hopes that - of all her sisters - she can escape the fate of a loveless marriage. But on the night she plans to elope with the royal falconer, her world comes crashing down: Her father announces Glory's betrothal to Eoghan of the Blood Realm - a prince no one has ever seen. The prince is said to be a recluse, cursed and deformed by the gods for the sins of his power-hungry father. Yet when Glory is trapped in Blackthorn Keep she discovers that not everything is what she expected. An insulting gryphon, a persistent ghost, and a secret plan to usurp the prince keep Glory reeling.

Song of Albion (Stephen R. Lawhead)

From the dreaming spires of Oxford, Lewis Gillies drives north to seek a mythical creature in a misty glen in Scotland. Expecting little more than a weekend diversion, Lewis finds himself in a mystical place where two worlds meet, in the time-between-times - and in the heart of a battle between good and evil. The ancient Celts admitted no separation between this world and the Otherworld: the two were delicately interwoven, each dependent on the other. The Paradise War crosses the thin places between this world and that, as Lewis Gillies comes face-to-face with an ancient mystery - and a cosmic catastrophe in the making.

The Forgotten Beasts Of Eld (Patricia A. McKillip)

Sixteen when a baby is brought to her to raise, Sybel has grown up on Eld Mountain. Her only playmates are the creatures of a fantastic menagerie called there by wizardry. Sybel has cared nothing for humans, until the baby awakens emotions previously unknown to her. And when Coren--the man who brought this child--returns, Sybel's world is again turned upside down.

Moonlight (Ann Hunter)

One vow. One curse. One thousand moons. While Princess Aowyn's six brothers are favored by their father, Aowyn is the jewel in her mother's crown. When the Queen dies, Aowyn takes a vow to protect her brothers and father from the hungry eyes of the queen's handmaiden, Ciatlllait - who is more than she seems.

In order to save her family, Aowyn risks a dangerous deal with the dark creature Sylas Mortas. But magic comes with a price: and Aowyn soon realizes the one she has paid is too steep. Only true love can reverse the spell...but it will take one thousand moons.

The Dreaming Tree (C. J. Cherryh)

It was that transitional time of the world, when man first brought the clang of iron and the reek of smoke to the lands which before had echoed only with fairy voices. In that dawn of man and death of magic there yet remained one last untouched place---the small forest of Ealdwood---which kept the magic intact, and protected the old ways. And there was one who dwelt there, Arafel the Sidhe, who had more pride and love of the world as it used to be than any of her kind.

But fear of the world of Faery ran deep in the hearts of men, and when Ciaran Cuilean, Lord of Caer Wiell, a man with Elvish blood in his veins, found himself the object of increasing distrust and suspicion from his men, his king, and even his own family, he knew he must once again put his humanity aside and return to Ealdwood. For shadows of a newly awakened evil swarmed across both lands, and unless Ciaran reclaimed his haunted weapons from the Tree of Swords and joined Arafel, he would see this evil overtake not only the warm hearthstones of the mortal keeps but the silvery heart of Ealdwood itself!

Faery In Shadow (C.J. Cherryh)

Avoiding other humans because of the curse placed on him, Caithe mac Sliabhan nevertheless aids a strange couple who claim to be husband and wife but look like twins to Caith and who are under the spell of a witch.

The Winter King (Bernard Cornwell)

Uther, the High King, has died, leaving the infant Mordred as his only heir. His uncle, the loyal and gifted warlord Arthur, now rules as caretaker for a country which has fallen into chaos - threats emerge from within the British kingdoms while vicious Saxon armies stand ready to invade. As he struggles to unite Britain and hold back the enemy at the gates, Arthur is embroiled in a doomed romance with beautiful Guinevere. Will the old-world magic of Merlin be enough to turn the tide of war in his favour?

The Perilous Gard (Elizabeth Marie Pope)

In 1558, while exiled by Queen Mary Tudor to a remote castle known as Perilous Gard, young Kate Sutton becomes involved in a series of mysterious events that lead her to an underground world peopled by Fairy Folk—whose customs are even older than the Druids’ and include human sacrifice.

The Mcgunnegal Chronicles (Ben Anderson)

The McGunnegals are all strange, and it has been that way for generations. They are too strong, or too fast, or too smart, and odd things happened when they are around. The neighbors say they are witches or devils, or have been snatched by changelings. Mothers hold their children close when they walk by, fearing they might catch the McGunnegal strangeness. But misfortune besets them when their mother, Ellie, disappears, followed by their crazy grandfather, but not before he reveals a family secret to Colleen and Frederick - a secret that reveals the source of their strangeness, and also threatens to cast the dark shadow of famine on Ireland.

He has opened a portal to the world of the Others, where their mother has gone, and a dark creature - a goblin - has come in her place and is spreading death and disease. They fall through this portal, and find this strange land filled with dark creatures that are crushing its people and now threaten to come through the portal and take up their abode in the world of Men, as they once did long ago. Yet in this dark world of oppression, this poor family discovers who they are, and also what it means to be truly human.

Caledon Of The Mists (Deborah Turner Harris)

After the death of her brother in a battle against a shape-shifting demon, Mhairi takes up the struggle to unite the Caledonians and must use all her Feyan powers to overcome a tyrant's dark magic and regain her rightful throne.

Legend Of The Fae (April Holthaus)

For centuries, stories of the Fae have been passed down from generation to generation throughout the Scottish Highlands. Over time, the truth of their existence was reduced to nothing more than childhood fairytales. Until now! To foresee the future, she had to forget her past. On the eve of war between Good and Evil, Ella of Andor, the Fae Princess of Darkness embarks on a journey that would ensure her kingdom’s victory as prophesied. But in a twist of fate, Ella is led to the mortal world where she soon discovers a mystery about her past that could destroy everything she has ever known. After returning home from battle, Laird Galen Graham stumbles upon an injured woman in desperate need of protection and care. Wanting to return her to her family becomes a difficult mission when he discovers the lass cannot speak. While trying to solve the mystery behind who she is, Galen finds himself falling in love with a lass he knows nothing about. Forced to return to the Fae world, can Ella stop the war threatening to destroy her kingdom, or will she give up her destiny to return to the man she loves in the mortal world? After discovering the truth about the mysterious lass, will Galen be able to let her go?

The Little Country (Charles de Lint)

When folk musician Janey Little finds a mysterious manuscript in an old trunk in her grandfather's cottage, she is swept into a dangerous realm both strange and familiar. But true magic lurks within the pages of The Little Country, drawing genuine danger from across the oceans into Janey's life, impelling her--armed only with her music--toward a terrifying confrontation.

The Forged Prince (Michael Laird)

The only future seen clearly is a single howling wilderness, in a land both barren and dead, an unmarked grave for the dreams of Man, with all the great castles fallen. Six hundred years past, High Queen Boudicca unified the three great peoples of the south and fought the Roman Empire to a standstill, forcing Nero's retreat from the land once called Brython by some and Prydein by many. Thus was the Kingdom of Tethera founded. The victors spoke only of the will of the gods and the great heroes that had made their victory a reality, yet rumors persisted of a triumph attained only at the expense of secret bargains with the ever duplicitous Fae, and of druids meddling with forbidden enchantments . Now the last high king is dust, his line long ended by treachery and murder, while the great kingdom itself lies in ruins a century old. Immutable prophecy dictates neither will come again: "Tethera cannot be restored until High King Pwyl's heir takes up his crown." To the people of the five kingdoms, "until Pwyl's heir takes up his crown" is just a an elaborate way of saying "never." The fragmented lesser kingdoms, all that remain of what once was, are failing, unable to prosper on their own. The wilderness grows, the barbarians press, the warlords feud, the Fae grows ever bolder, and even the very waves of the sea become hostile. In the end, none of that may matter for Annwyn, that otherworld also known as the Land of the Dead, creeps forth upon the world, growing larger with each passing year while its lord gathers his forces to crush all and end everything. Nevertheless, the Lord of Annwyn has a rival in the Queen of Deceit. She readies her own final stroke with the forging of a very special weapon. It is a weapon intended to sunder prophecy itself and one which even the Lord of Annwyn may find reason to fear. Yet even a weapon forged for evil can turn in its maker's grasp and strike in an unexpected direction—most especially a weapon with a mind of its own.

Gods Of The Nowhere (James Tipper)

The ancient Celts believed that the veil separating the worlds of the living and the dead was at its thinnest on Halloween; it was then that the dead could get through. But could it work the other way? Could we go to them? High school senior Sam McGrath is convinced it can be done. For as long as he can remember, The Nowhere has been beckoning him, reaching out with cold and ancient fingers. Crippled from a childhood injury, Sam has always been different, but he knows now that his differences go far beyond the physical. Only his best friend since childhood – a brash and beautiful Latina named Lucia – knows of his strange gifts, and she has vowed to help Sam. Together they intend to find the world where their nightmares are born.

Feel free to add additional titles below, or check out more lists on Celtic fantasy books here.

[gaslightgallows]

500 Prompts

I’m resurrecting an old chestnut from LJ/DW. Some of the best things I’ve ever written started as prompts from this list. Send me a character or a pairing and let’s see what I can do. (Or several! Multiple prompts are A-OK!)

The vacuum of time.

Terror in the night.

Flashes of euphoria.

Dancing with the devil.

Fatal accident.

Haunting melody.

Black ice.

Breathtaking reality.

Sensation of loss.

Shooting star.

Broken spirit.

Aurora Borealis.

Left behind.

Unguarded touch.

Last time.

Dying sun.

Devastating explosion.

Alone in a crowd.

Fragmented truths.

Gaping chasm.

Arise from the ashes.

The end of the beginning.

Remember me.

Flash of lightning.

Emergency evacuation.

Immortal laughter.

A whisper on the wind.

Electrifying sacrifice.

The calm before the storm.

A life of lies.

The winds of change.

The hand of fate.

Desperate plea.

Nightmare.

Whitewashed walls.

Caught in the act.

Wake up, the day is dying.

Close your eyes.

Beyond the horizon.

Finality.

Releasing the sparrow.

Something's out there.

Golden miracle.

I covet you.

The eye of the storm.

Screaming silence.

Her body was found...

I used to remember you.

Gasping confession.

Betrayal.

Uncontrollable wrath.

Dragon of shadow.

Natural disaster.

Leap of faith.

Faceless and nameless.

Harsh revelation.

A path to follow.

The power of goodbye.

Through a child's eyes.

One final look back.

Crumbling heart.

Ignored instinct.

Seductive danger.

Jumbled truths.

Shallow grave.

Why they call it falling.

Volcano.

Dying land.

A child's truth.

Antiseptic air.

Chained to mortality.

Dim as an ember.

Acid tears.

Unexpected emptiness.

Miraculous relief.

Letting go.

What Earth once was.

Frantic search.

Tragic moment.

Beneath the smiles.

Across the worlds.

In the still of the night.

Counting years.

Kidnapped innocence.

Tears of desire.

Ring of sunlight.

Trembling cold.

Missing planet.

Suffering rain.

Parched ego.

Toxic tease.

Horrific distortion.

Miracle ruin.

Wailing shadows.

Barren abyss.

Ravenous time.

Approaching doom.

Eternal danger.

Vacant arch.

Recoil.

Vehement grace.

Urban legend.

Gentle warmth.

Rippling tide.

Fallen haze.

That's all I ask of you.

Think of me.

Promise me.

A white rose.

Never let go.

Ghost of a rose.

Fire.

Enchanting surrender.

Cowering sunrise.

Deliverance.

Resisting temptation.

Leaves of amber.

I remember when she loved me.

Heart of a child.

Don't scream.

Bereft confusion.

Mysterious stranger.

Subconscious reality.

The truth about forever.

She's burning up.

You were supposed to be watching her!

Lost soul.

Wandering spirit.

Touched by an angel.

Shattered reflections.

Central power.

Lightning fast refusal.

Don't you dare.

Emerald eternity.

There will always be a monster.

Infinite embrace.

It's too late.

Cabin by the sea.

Guardian.

Amusingly inconsequential.

Ignited illusion.

Forsaken stealth.

Corrupted intrigue.

Kindle my soul.

Majestic memories.

Breathe, baby, breathe!

Resonating hunger.

Relinquished radiance.

Transcendent joy.

Silent watcher.

Her eyes believed in mysteries.

Last breath.

Sweet nothings.

Unfinished tale.

Endless darkness.

Suffocating darkness.

Passing warrior.

Shield maiden.

Old oak.

Ancient willow.

Off the map.

Deserted riverbank.

I never thought...

A walk along the shore.

The valley of echoes.

The family nobody wanted.

Dancing in the fountain.

Laughter from the flames.

A time for tenderness.

Sleeping storm.

Islands in the sky.

Unheeded warning.

Voices in his/her/my mind...

Spellbound.

It wasn't his/her/my/your fault...

Tempting enigma.

His/her/my/your compassion is like a shadow...

Even he/she/I have forgotten his/her/my name...

I hate love.

Irresistible coercion.

I offer no excuses...

Tumbling clouds.

Blue mists.

You think you have it bad?

His/her/my pain was like a desert...

Nothing could bleed that much.

Nothing lost, nothing gained.

Delicious tragedy.

The in between.

Into the river.

You're/He's/She's/I'm/They're only sleeping.

What can you see?

They're calling me/you/he/she/them home.

The end.

Somewhere out there.

Lamentation.

The moment…

Suddenly…

Childhood's end.

Broken weapon.

Gazing upon the sky with dampened eyes...

Vast horizons.

Entrapment.

Quaking need.

Memory of a dream.

Dangerous illusion.

Firestarter.

Enraged superstition.

Guilty morals.

Fragile as a dream.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Portals of discovery.

Fall from grace.

Balance of power.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Diamond in the rough.

The essence of life.

Nostalgic numbness.

Desire, ask, believe, receive.

A fate worse than death.

The razor's edge.

Reach for the stars.

Touch me.

Unrequited accusation.

Tragic shadow.

Forbidden laughter.

Starved for affection.

Between a rock and a hard place.

No man is an island.

Critical vengeance.

Rough hands.

Mystery.

After tonight.

Farewell.

And the edges blur.

One thousand promises.

A broken sensitivity.

A curling shadow.

A darker pride.

A deluge of dancers.

A fallacy in your head.

A four leaf clover.

A golden shield.

A love remembered.

A lustful lie.

A magical time.

A perfect rainbow in Hell.

A queer sort of clockwork.

A secondhand heart.

A story never to tell.

All sorts of complicated.

All the tears of God.

Alone I break.

And that's when I stopped believing in gravity.

No one mourns the wicked.

Die alone.

Asleep at dawn.

Assassin for hire.

Based on a dream.

Once upon a December.

Before the next tear falls.

The beginning of goodbye.

A lonely tomorrow.

Beneath the blue.

Better left unsaid.

Between a rock and your mother.

Beyond the galaxy's walls.

Birthing black and white.

Blood and moon.

Blood wars.

Bribing the Devil.

Broken promises and broken hearts.

False gold.

By midnight's favor.

By the light of a million stars.

Castles in the sky.

Catastrophe in the making.

Crawling nightmare.

Crimson orchid.

Crown of ivy.

Call of the wild.

Darkness becomes me.

Dawn of night.

Dawning upon a crimson ruin.

Death becomes you.

Demon tongue.

Desolation row.

Destined jealousy.

Burning star.

Do you remember the end?

Don't look into its eyes.

Dragons in your eyes.

Make a wish and toss a penny to the moon.

Ecstatic pain.

Edge of sanity.

Elemental rain.

Equinox rising.

Ethereal blood.

Evening shadows.

Exquisite and unforgivable.

Face down I cry.

Fallen fae.

Light step.

Faery-eyed child.

Fail with honour.

A childhood dream.

Fields of dust.

Final breath.

Finding infinity.

Flame in the twilight.

For the child I will sing.

Foreign serenade.

Lost beginning.

Forgotten, not forgiven.

Fractured reality.

Fragile hearts and candy-coated dreams.

Angels among us.

Haunting lonely pools.

Portrait in black.

Approaching Flood.

Technological reality.

I am the night you die.

I believe in God. I can hear him laughing at me.

I appeared here to vanish there.

I close my eyes and you disappear.

I loved you mommy, the day I killed you.

I miss who you were...

I thought you were alive.

I was here two days from now.

I wish upon tonight.

I write sins, not tragedies.

If looks could kill...

Illuminated darkness.

Death by imagination.

Pierce the sky.

Unfathomable truth.

Shackles of the mind.

Growing fonder.

A time to grieve.

Fire in your eyes.

Tales of long ago.

Live on your toes, love on your knees, die on your feet.

Prisoner in her mind.

Hold still, I'm trying to kill you.

Breath of the devil.

The innocent can never last.

Too wide to cross.

Arrogance and beauty, painted in ugliness...

Falseness in acquaintance.

Beneath the shade of the Sycamore...

One summer's/autumn's/winter's/spring's eve.

In the shadow of Mount Gloom.

Intoxicating the mind.

Island of light.

It ends tonight.

Jilted dreams.

Night of fire.

Knowledge in death, wisdom in immortality.

Liberating release.

Life on white wings.

A beacon of hope.

Like shattered glass.

Listless winter.

Little girl's downfall.

Lonely by candlelight.

Silent angels.

Gazing out a broken window.

You cannot lose what you never had.

Blood and tears.

Love's pretty follies.

The gift of lucidity.

Mint and lilac.

Missing Heaven and roses.

Mother Earth's last stand.

How do I/we/you say goodbye?

Where does the sky end?

Breathtaking innocence.

Dangerous stranger.

Lost in dreams.

Found in reality.

Forgotten sanctuary.

Treacherous deceit.

Warped.

Disenchanted crystal.

Laughing at the moon.

Yesterday's tomorrow.

Future of the past.

Supernova.

Whispers in the dark.

Letters from nowhere.

The one no one sees.

Beautiful disaster.

Passionate desires.

Remnants of darkness.

The bitterness of mortality.

An exquisite extreme unknown.

More Heaven than a heart could hold.

Flames of disaster.

Miraculous discovery.

Trusting in a soul.

Twilight surrender.

When love turns to hate.

Lost and alone.

When the river runs dry.

Lapping at the shores of sleep.

Landing among the stars.

Reaching for the moon.

When stillness descends.

On the brink of forever.

Clinging to the edge of control.

Abandoned resistance.

Eyes within the Heart.

Heart within the eyes.

When forever fades away.

Grave acceptance.

Flying amidst a rainbow.

Falling from a cloud.

Alone with forever.

Sunrise upon a soul.

Prisms of a fragmented whole.

A glittering cavern.

Disembodied voices.

Dancing beneath the moon.

Dancing on the water.

Gliding over glass.

A tale rewritten.

Exiled child.

Letters and vowels, spinning and tiles.

I'll try violence.

Who named the stars?

Mysterious beyond.

Ocean tears.

Sleepy death.

Sea bed.

Whispering nightmare.

Bound by silence.

A twinkle in the night.

A waking slumber.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

My lips are sealed.

Sometimes it is better not to follow your own destiny.

An invitation to Heaven.

Attacked by a dream.

Caressed by a nightmare.

The ravages of time.

Ancient tale.

Faces in the clouds.

Ripped apart.

The end of something better - The beginning of something worse.

The space between.

Look beyond.

Edge of the knife.

A human voice.

Dream the impossible.

Forgotten roads.

Flowers in the ashes.

A bitter pill.

Another fine mess.

The life inside.

Still crossroads.

Frozen bridges.

Fear of the fall.

Illusions of the darkness.

Sacrificial tension.

Path of a child.

Imitation of life.

Behind the mirror.

Through the fire.

Echoes of bondage.

Freedom in chains.

Parting regrets.

Something unheard of.

Hidden tales.

Laughter of the ages.

Frozen fire.

White shores.

Lights out.

Liquid sunset.

Silver glass.

When words fail.

A death of a thousand screams.

Those who do not remember the past.

When laughter's lost in peaceful silence.

The sands of time.

When death's lips left mine.

Cataclysm.

When Earth dies.

When worlds collide.

A mortal's forever.

Flight of disaster.

When tomorrows run out.

Kisses of a night terror.

Dashed against a rock.

Invisible defender.

The tattered, the torn.

A little happiness.

London by gaslight.

He sees the map back to her in the scars of his hands.

She never really leaves him...

And the thunder rolls.

[thedistricthq]

If the sinful streets of The District could talk, they would whisper about ANGUS FLORENCE’s arrival. Rumor has it, they are a little bit CAPRICIOUS & ECCENTRIC. Maybe we should find out for ourselves, they could be DAUNTLESS or SELF-RELIANT. All we really know is they will be working as an ARTIST. Someone said they saw them listening to BODY by MOTHER MOTHER on repeat, it’s like their theme song or something. Don’t trust the gossip though, come find out for yourself. You can see them coming from a mile away in FOCALE by the tell tale signs, CHARCOAL STAINED FINGERS, THE MUFFLED SOUND OF ROCK MUSIC COMING FROM HEADPHONES, DARK HAIR MESSILY SPILLING OVER THE EDGE OF A BED. [ EMILY HAMPSHIRE, GRIM, CIS FEMALE, 33, SHE/HER]

heavy themes of death, curses, mental illness/instability, and self-destruction

STRENGTHS

death premonitions & veil vision

shifting

short-distance teleportation

slowed aging

WEAKNESSES

unpredictable visions that often immobilize her at inopportune moments

limited control of when her grim decides to send a death message

disorienting black-outs caused by unplanned shifting

physical vulnerability

CONNECTIONS

WC01. blood is thicker than water. Angie has never been very close to her sibling due to the fact that she unfortunately picked up the family curse. They’ve always done their best to take care of her when they can, but she makes this extremely difficult by never being honest with them and lashing out when they get too sentimental. She knows they mean well but is afraid that they’ll become “tainted” if allowed to get too close. She’s never told them how she feels and holds them at bay for their own sake.

WC02. bad habits. In order to escape frequent nightmares, Angie doesn’t sleep. She functions very well for someone with horrible sleep patterns, and this is largely due to the fact that she buys magic charms for herself. This individual is the supplier of these charms. At first, Angie might have seemed like an average person just looking for a daily energy boost, but her behavior has gradually become more erratic. Each new request is for a charm stronger than the last. How this person feels about her is up to interpretation.

HEADCANONS

HC01. Angie is known as a very energetic person but nobody is quite sure where the energy comes from, considering she hardly sleeps. She is often plagued by nightmarish visions of death in her sleep. This causes her to avoid sleep altogether for as long as she can, running on pure willpower and the strongest, most concentrated coffee one could palate. It’s actually gotten so bad that she eventually had to buy charms that amplify what little energy is stored in her body. The severe lack of sleep makes it so that when she does eventually sleep, it’s so deep that nothing disturbs her.

HC02. It’s always been suspected that even if she weren’t born the family curse, Angie would have been a strange child. She developed an interest in the darker things from a very young age. Before her powers as a grim emerged, she was already fascinated with death and horror films. Things that should have scared her, never did. It wasn’t uncommon to find her giggling at imaginary friends, asking questions that made others uncomfortable, and being awfully aware of the macabre. Her parents kept her away from their magic practices as best they could, concerned that she would lose herself like all the other grims in the family had. It wasn’t until her powers emerged that Angie began reacting negatively to the idea of death.

HC03. Though some premonitions happen while she’s going through her daily routine, she can sometimes feel them coming. When this happens, she’s able to stabilize herself to prepare for the emotional wound it will open. She also enters a trance-like state in which she begins painting. The painting, ultimately, becomes the vision that she’s seeing. Hundreds of these paintings, of all sizes, are in her home and in a storage unit. Most are covered in sheets, some were splashed with black paint immediately after she regained consciousness, and others were bought. Hundreds more, the worst ones, have been completely destroyed.

BACKGROUND

From a long line of mages, Angus Florence was expected (or more accurately, hoped) to be a baby boy, the second born of the family. After a few generations without an actively cursed child, the Florence coven had hoped their century-long curse had someone worn off, or they would continue to be blessed with sons. The fact that the last female born into the family had been the one right before an active child, tensions had been high regarding Angie’s arrival. Her family knew their hopes had not been listened to the day a dark storm cloud rolled over their town in the middle of Sleepy Hollow, NY’s dry March season. The storm was a familiar one, a darkness that blanketed the village every 10th daughter born into the bloodline.

The Florence coven curse was created to punish a greedy human, the weak husband of a witch that had wished for power that surpassed his wife’s. He located the ritual to summon a crossroads demon, under the belief that incomparable power would be his if he gave them his soul. Unfortunately for him, the demon had decided to exercise their funny bone that night. The demon told him that instead of his soul, they would require his last born daughter. Much to their surprise, the man agreed without hesitation. Displeased that their request hadn’t caused any emotional distress, the demon changed their terms at the last minute. They would require his soul and the daughter. The man gained magical power that was equal to that of his wife’s, though he didn’t have very long to use it. When word of his actions reached his wife, she became outraged. The two fought, and the inexperienced warlock lost to the well-trained hand of his wife. The ten years he had bought himself with the deal had become one short week before he met his demise. In her emotional turmoil, the witch inadvertently warped the terms of the demon’s deal, creating an endless fate for every 10th daughter of her future bloodline.

Centuries later, the Florence coven is still feeling the consequences of this selfish human. A handful of generations had been able to avoid it by having as few children as possible, and getting lucky that most of those who were born were male. Then came Angie. Her family shielded her from the truth for as long as they could, though it proved difficult with how often she asked why she couldn’t use magic like the rest of the family. Always the outcast, she entertained herself in unconventional ways. She spent much of her time alone. Often, she would see people and animals that others couldn’t seem to communicate with, unaware that these were early signs of her abilities. Eventually the rare appearances of these “imaginary” friends became common. She estranged herself from the rest of the village by indulging the spirits and hallucinations, favoring them over the people her own age that always seemed to be afraid of her. She was ten years old when she took up painting, determined to show everyone else what it is she saw. She was thirteen when she had her first vision. It wasn’t a very gruesome vision, not like those in the future would prove to be, but an unsettling one considering it was of her own elderly neighbor. Her first instinct was to run across the street to her neighbor’s home from school, but she realized that she was already outside the house. Not only was she confused, but the fatigue of the teleportation made her unsure of what had just happened. Still, she ran inside, only to find the deceased woman. Having never actually faced or dealt with death before, Angie was understandably upset. She declined to tell her parents how she had gotten into the neighbor’s home, or why she had been the one to find her, but they already knew. It was later that night that they revealed to her what was beginning, and that it would only get worse.

For years, Angie tried pretending her abilities didn’t exist. It began as ignoring the spirits that tried speaking to her, then turned into self-destructive behavior like self-medicating and isolating herself from others. What little advice her parents tried offering her was completely ignored. Music became a good tool that drowned out the noise in her head. When the visions began seeping into her dreams, she stopped sleeping as much. Her mind slowly became accustomed to working overtime to fight off the visions and voices, turning her into a semi-functioning shell of a young woman. She was eighteen when she realized that art helped ease the exhausting effect of her visions. This became some of the only solace she could find, and she hid most of it well for some time. When she was 25 her family became concerned and tried forcing her to stop using the only coping mechanisms that worked, pushing Angie to run away. She left Sleepy Hollow and didn’t look back, hopping on a boat headed across the ocean, to a town supposedly made for people like her.

ANGUS IS CLOSED & WRITTEN BY PIXIE.

[stxrmwithskin]

Name: Esmeralda Rae Hastens.

Nicknames: Esme, Es.

Biological Age: 24.

Birthday: December 21st, 1993.

Star Sign: Sagittarius.

Place of Birth: Falls Church, Virginia.

Current Town: Falls Church, Virginia.

Sexuality: Pansexual.

Marital Status: Single.

Species: Death God.

Occupation: Stay at home mom, Heir to Heaven.

Education: General Studies, University.

Faceclaim: Phoebe Tonkin.

Relations: 

Parents:

Brett Hastens (Father)

Adelya Petrova (Mother)

Landon Sandell (Step-Father)

Siblings:

Delilah Aurora Hastens (Twin Sister)

Adeline Avalina Petrova-Hastens (Eldest Sister)

Phoebe Hazel Hastens (Elder Sister, †)

Blair Elena Hastens (Elder Sister)

Jade Zoe Hastens (Younger Sister)

Sophia Gemma Hastens (Younger Sister)

Roxanne Chloe Hastens (Younger Sister)

Kyle Scott Hastens (Eldest Brother, †)

Matthew Zander Hastens (Elder Brother)

Gillian Sandell (Half-Sister)

Mark Sandell Half-Brother, Twin of Maia)

Maia Sandell (Half-Sister, Twin of Mark)

Other Relatives:

Zander Hastens (Uncle)

Veronica Claw (Non-Biological Aunt)

Octavia Hastens (Aunt, †)

Emberly Hastens (Aunt)

Nesryn Hastens (Aunt)

Children:

Iliana Phoebe Hastens (Adoptive Daughter, Biological Niece)

Vasilisa “Lissa” Adeliah Hastens (Daughter).

Romantic Partners:

Nathan Forbes (On/Off Boyfriend)

Julian Adello (Ex-Boyfriend)

Jasper Reese (Ex-Lover)

Rhysand Verselle (Ex-Lover).

Friends:

Elain Silvena (Best Friend, Former Handler)

Elody Killip (Best Friend, Roommate).

Physical Features:

Build: Slim.

Weight: 123.5 lbs.

Height: 5’7 ft.

Ethnicity: White.

Skin Tone: Olive.

Hair Color: Dark Brown.

Eye Color: Hazel with dominant green shades.

Tattoos: “Joy” in cursive on outer side of left wrist.

Birthmark: Crescent moon on right shoulder.

Scars: N/A.

Species Information:

Main Powers: Telepathy, materialization, elemental powers, flying, healing, resurrection, death prediction within family, aura reading, ability to see spirits, telekinesis, superhuman strength, speed, agility, dexterity, enhance senses, self-regeneration, shapeshifting into wolf, spell casting, immortality, ability to kill others with a thought. Main Weaknesses: Seraph blades are harmful but not lethal to Esmeralda. This will delay her regenerative capabilities for a certain amount of time depending on the grade of the wound. Seraph blades are blades angels are susceptible too, and because one of her more dominant species is angelic, she too is susceptible. Mort daggers are lethal to all death gods. If struck through the heart with one of these blades, Esmeralda would die. Mort daggers were five daggers created by Lucifer and hid all over the world meant for the original five death gods that original were born into existence, since Esmeralda is the child of one of the children of those death gods, she too is vulnerable to them.

Species Features: White feathered wings, wing slits, crescent moon birthmark originally meant for the Heir to Hell as she was supposed to be.

Diet: In order to maintain and keep up her extensive set of powers, Esmeralda must drink blood. This blood can be the blood of any other species.

Personality:

Esmeralda wasn’t always as cold and cynical as she’s become. Despite her family troubles, she was rather innocent and looked at the world hopefully. However, over the years she’s become colder and has had her eyes opened to what she believes to be the way of the world. There are a few exceptions for her iciness, and those are her children and her siblings. They get to see a warmer, more compassionate side of her. With them, she is understanding and kind. Esmeralda tends to avoid intense feelings and emotions using wit, a blunt attitude, sarcasm, and deflection. She feels a great deal, but is known for bottling things and pushing them down, so when she does deal with something head on, it brings all the other emotions to surface and she gets rather overwhelmed, often falling into states of depression. Because of the one constant of people walking out of her life and sometimes never coming back, she’s learned to push people away, to keep them at an arm’s length, which is another reason she avoids emotional honesty and intimacy, because it keeps people from getting too close to hurt her. She prefers superficial relationships with no true roots because they don’t result in a broken heart. She has trust issues, so if she ends up letting someone in and allowing them to get close, it’s not a common occurrence. She will be completely loyal to those she develops this bond with. However, if she’s hurt or betrayed, she can be extremely spiteful. Esme had a high temper and tends to snap first and ask questions later, though the exception to this is her kids. Her temper is volatile, and if someone she loves is especially threatened, violence tends to be a medium of that rage. She often finds rage and anger are the easiest emotions for her to feel, and knows if she dips far into the others, she won’t be able to control it, which is something she’s had a great deal of difficulty with, losing control. In most things, Esmeralda is blunt and uncensored, she has the tendency to say the things that if people noticed, they wouldn’t talk about. Though, the one thing she isn’t quite as blunt about is the rejection of her ‘destiny’. She fears the angels taking action against her, or worse, someone she loves if she full out rejects what they believe she is to do. And so, she lives her life just within the lines they’ve set for her, if only to avoid getting tortured, or having someone she loves targeted. More so than her sisters, she has the tendency to be reckless and impulsive, something that goes hand and hand with her blunt attitude and her temper. She acts and thinks on how she’s feeling in the moment, and doesn’t always take the time to sort it out. Despite a constant show of bravado and a generally cocky defect, Esmeralda is insecure, and believes herself to be expendable, something that started as early as her parents mistreating her, and developed more so with struggles in other relationships. Despite not wanting to get close, she’s rather extroverted, though she keeps the deeper parts of herself reserved, she tends to be more outgoing, however not everyone can get along with her attitude. Her biggest weak spot are her two children, and her biggest fear is that one day the angels will use this against her if she steps out of line. Despite her tendencies favoring rash actions, she’s intelligent, and she’s capable of being calculated.

Biography:

Background & Birth:

From the beginning of her pregnancy, Adelya knew that something was different. It had not been like her other pregnancies in any sense. She wasn’t sure what it was, but there was something. As the pregnancy developed, she found her own health declining rapidly. She grew weaker and weaker the longer she was pregnant. Finally, Brett took Adelya to a shaman healer. Upon seeing her, the shaman was struck, and with a deeper, more magical search, he realized that the children Adelya carried had a far greater purpose than even their lineage would suggest. He informed them there had been a prophecy, long foretold within both the Hell and Heaven realms, that one day the time would come for new heirs to rise to take over Heaven and Hell. The heirs would be twin girls, with the first born being destined for darkness, meant to be future Heir to Hell, and the second born being destined for light, meant to rule Heaven. At first, neither was willing to believe it, but eventually came to terms with what their daughters were meant for. In preparation, they did as much research as they possibly could on the prophecy, something Adelya had a great deal of time to do with all the time spent on bedrest.

Adelya’s health continued to rapidly decrease. Near her seventh month of pregnancy, it was evident that she would not survive carrying the children to term. Even her vampire nature would not be enough to save her and her children. Two weeks into her third trimester, she discovered she was bleeding. Both she and Brett knew they had to save the children, so an emergency c-section was performed, which is where it all went wrong. The procedure was complicated because of her vampire nature, but alongside of that, the twins were not born in the natural order intended. Esmeralda, in line with the prophecy was intended to be heir to Hell, and was meant to be born first, however, because of the c-section, Delilah was born first, and despite the way fate was meant to swing, she was to be the Heir to Hell. Esmeralda was removed second, taking place as the Heir to Heaven.

Childhood:

Using complicated to describe her childhood would be a severe understatement. From day one, people doted on her twin sister over her. Where Delilah had been an easy, happy baby, Esmeralda had been a difficult one. While Delilah had a natural light charm about her, Esmeralda always had something darker about her, even when she was innocent, she was not her sister, and life had seemed set up to remind her of that fact. Though, despite being ignored, strangle enough she bore no ill will to her siblings that got more attention, to her it was a tragic but given fact that she came last. Anybody putting her above others often was met by surprise from Esmeralda. As long as she was able to comprehend the environment around her, she can remember the fights between her parents. More often than not, Esmeralda found herself caught between the fights of her parents. The couple did not simply squabble with each other or have small disagreements – when they fought, the house hold shook with the volume of their screams. They’d go on for hours, and more than often her relations with her parents were one or the other trying to sway her towards their side of the argument, if they even paid attention to her. If it wasn’t for the fact her elder sister Adeline was there to look after her and care for her, to give her the time of day when others would not, she might never have held onto her innocence and hopeful nature as long as she did.

She was eight the first time her father left. Even though she wasn’t always the closest with him, she mourned his departure. A lot of the times she questioned herself, what she could have done to make him stay, or what actions she had done to make him leave. The cycle continued each time he came back. She lost track of the times he’d leave, disappear for weeks, sometimes months or years. During those times, she couldn’t rely on her mother. She was either occupied with a new boyfriend or child. The only thing she could rely on were her parents abandoning her.

Teen Years:

The pattern of her father’s disappearances carried well on into her teenage years. The cycle became so normal, she began to forget that her father’s patterns had laid the groundwork to her always keeping a distance from people. Even as in her youth, she found ways to avoid intimacy, often through avoiding people in general. She was more introverted. And though her mother had them attending a human school, no true connections ever came of it. In class, she focused only on her courses and tasks at hand. She didn’t gossip with the other students or pass notes in the back of the class. The only time she was really open was when she was around her two sisters, Delilah and Adeline. While she and Delilah would always meet for coffee in the local café, in school, they were often avoided each other.

When Esmeralda was thirteen, her mother told her and Delilah about their prophecy. Though it had remained clear from the start to her that she wasn’t exactly like her other siblings, at least in terms of powers, she knew that. But she hadn’t expected the bomb that was dropped on her by any means. She had always believed that she was meant to be in the background. Delilah she could imagine as a leader, but herself, it hadn’t dawned on her in any sense. She spent almost two years scoffing at the idea, finding new ways to deny what she was meant to do. While she didn’t rebel against the idea in so many ways, she rejected it.

When she was fifteen, she started to shift, losing the innocence and optimistic nature. It started rather simply, in fact, with something that might have been normal by most circumstances. She got involved with a man. His name was Rhysand, and he was from an ancient family of hybrid vampire-werewolves. She found him wounded, and offered him her blood to heal. She knew the risks at the time, knew that her angelic blood could be addictive to those who craved blood, but she wanted to ensure he healed. And so she fed him her blood. Predictably, he got addicted to it, and she too got addicted to him in a way. He was escape from all the things at home. Her mother and father’s flightiness, the stress of the prophecy. For a time, she could just be carefree. She started skipping some days of school, spending most days at his house, often letting him feed off her just because she enjoyed the thrill. Eventually their relationship became sexual, and he took her virginity. They continued the rather unhealthy interaction for about a year. Unfortunately, Esmeralda fell for him, yet he hadn’t wanted that type of relationship with her, so when she told him of her feelings, she was rejected, and not kindly.

She was changed by it. The cruel rejection from the man she had loved stirred up all the feelings of a similar rejection from her parents and it basically took the lid off the bottle. She snapped. She started partying, often taking supernatural drugs to feel alive, to let her hair down and be out of control of something. She slept around, and didn’t regard anyone’s feelings but her own. Despite her close relationship with Delilah, they grew distant over the next two years as Esme changed. Delilah kept confronting her about her problems and habits, and Esme didn’t want to face them. Instead she grew closer to her sister Phoebe, who turned into her party buddy, someone who wasn’t trying to change her back into the girl she’d been before.

When she was seventeen, the angels took her for the first time. They had been watching her since birth, certain she would mess up since she hadn’t been intended to be the heir at all. Seeing her behavior, they believed it to be a disgrace to heaven and wanted to nip it in the bud immediately. They’d use a series of torture techniques. Physical and emotional. Whether they were messing with her mind, or ripping into her body, they found their ways to make Esme fear their wrath. The first time, they released her after a week. The second time, she was not nearly so lucky. They kept her for three months that time. No one came to save her as they simply believed she’d gone off the rails partying. And even though after two times of being tortured by the angels enough to fear them, she still went on partying. The third time she was taken for half a year. They allowed her to experience the fall from heaven to earth. She collided in her hometown in an alleyway, slamming hard enough into the ground to make her bones shatter. The pain knocked her unconscious.

Upon waking up, she was at the house of a male named Nathan. He had bandaged up her external wounds and had watched over her while she had healed. She had been more than alarmed and paranoid at first, but after spending a few days in his home, their relationship switched to the blossoming of a friendship. And perhaps it was because she didn’t know him, and he didn’t have expectations of her, but he was the first person she told about being tortured by the angels. He helped her come up with a loophole for the angels strict rules so she could continue to be her partying self. They spent three months around each other, and her platonic feelings for him developed into something more romantic, though she kept them hidden because Nathan had a girlfriend at the time. Eventually he broke up with his girlfriend two months after meeting Esme, simply because of her attitude and behavior. Eventually, he fell for Esme too. She let him in, trusted him and they started a relationship. It didn’t last long, eventually Nathan returned to his ex, breaking Esmeralda’s heart in a much deeper manner than before, and further affirming her trust issues.

Determined to go back to her lifestyle, she moved to Los Angelos with her sister Phoebe. For a while, they went about partying, doing so under the radar with Esmeralda dancing around the angels set lines. Phoebe started growing paranoid and carried an odd behavior. Esmeralda was scared she was losing it. Things only got worse when Phoebe discovered she was four months pregnant. It seemed to be her undoing. She spent most nights pacing the house, muttering about how something was coming for her. She gave birth a month before she was due, to a little girl.

Later in the evening after Phoebe had given birth, Esme woke up to the sound of the infant child crying. At first she thought nothing of it, until the crying persisted on. Eventually she got up, worry striking her. She went down to her sister’s room and found the child alone in her sister’s bed, and next to her, a letter. Esme calmed the infant down despite her confusion, then settled her back on the bed to read the letter. The letter was from her sister. Most of it was scribbled thoughts of her paranoia, but there was some clarity to it, telling Esme she loved her and that she was sorry.

Adult Years:

With her sister’s disappearance, there was no one to look after the daughter she’d left behind. Esmeralda was left to take on a child she had not been prepared for in any sort of way. But, despite her lack of being prepared for such a thing, she took it on. It was difficult, extremely so. But it was good for her, because it gave her a reason to smarten up. It gave her something to care about, to drive her. She became a mother to the child, adopting her as her own. She became more responsible, stopped partying and got sober of the spell ridden drugs she’d been relying on to take her from the cruelty of the world she’d been in. She struggled with it, but she always had something to anchor her, something to drive her to keep going. She ended up naming the child she adopted Iliana Phoebe, in honor of her sister and Iliana’s biological mother. It was one of her better kept secrets, at an early age she even imprinted a copy of her own birthmark onto Iliana’s shoulder, knowing that any biological child of hers would have it, and it would be necessary to make it seem as if Iliana was her true child.

She ended up meeting Julian two years after taking in Iliana. He was everything that she needed. He was safe, reliable. He had a daughter the same age as Iliana named Rose. They ended up getting together, but despite the fact that he was safe and secure with him, there was no passion. She loved him, but she was not in love with him. She made it work for as long as she could. Things started getting more serious, and when he proposed to her, she almost accepted, but realized it wouldn’t be right because while she loved him, she could never be in love the way he was. She ended things.

When Iliana was three years old, she felt a familiar echo of power, one she’d felt only three times before – when family members of her had fallen. Only this one was different, closer, it felt like a part of her. She knew what it meant, that her sister Phoebe had died. She wasn’t sure how, but she spent over a year trying to find her body, or her killer. She couldn’t find anything. It was hard to deal with the loss, but when she was finally no longer consumed by trying to find her, she mourned for her sister.

It was just after the death of her sister when Nathan came back into her life. She couldn’t believe it. At first, she kept him at a distance, scared to let him back in after he’d left her for his ex. She was terrified of being hurt. But she was vulnerable, with the death of her sister, and more than that, despite her better efforts, she still loved him, she ended up getting close again, and they became close to getting back together again. One morning she woke up, and he was gone, leaving her heartbroken all over again.

She never truly got that close to anyone romantically after that. The closest she came to romance was Jasper Reese, who came into her life two weeks later when she took Iliana for a check-up. He was a doctor known for treating the supernatural, and Iliana had a worrying fever. At first it was strictly professional, she relied on him solely for medical help with Iliana. It shifted when she discovered he was Iliana’s birth father. Knowing what it was like to be raised without a father, she told him that he was Iliana’s father, and let him be part of her life, even though she was scared he would try to take Iliana from her. Esme got involved in a physical with Jasper, and feelings started to develop, but then he too left. She discovered she was pregnant two weeks later, but knew because of the date that it was not Jasper’s, but Nathan’s. However, because the answer was easier, because Jasper held less power over her, she lied and told those who asked about the father that he was.

She had a daughter whom she named Vasilisa, though it was an incredibly rare day that she ever used her full name. Often she affectionately called her “Lissa.” She had her hands full with two daughters, but during her pregnancy she had taken the time to fully repair things with Delilah, whom she’d pushed away but always held closer than others. Those were her main emotional ties, as she swore of almost all romantic connections, certain they could only lead to pain. She still rejected her destiny in a more quiet manner, but never quite said it allowed, because she feared the angels may come and take the two most important things in the world to her, her daughters.

[mdwatchestv]

Game of Thrones 7x06: Run Joe, Run

Woo boy that was A LOT. Like a lot, a lot. In so many different ways. I would even go so far as to describe some elements as 'extra'. Yes there was excitement, action, and feels. I even admit to screaming bloody murder when the zombie bear came from a direction I didn't expect. But when all was said and done I couldn't help but feel a bit...used. This season, although boasting some great moments, has felt undeniably different than previous years. Instead of focussing on building out a world and the characters that inhabit it, the show is now rocketing towards a foregone conclusion. If the world of Game of Thrones is a chess board and we have spent the past several years watching knights and queens slowly slide around the squares jockeying for position, this season is the equivalent of knocking it all to the ground and letting the pieces literally fall where they may. Alternatively, if the world of Game of Thrones was a high-end Barbie collector's basement, this is the season his eight-year-old niece broke in, ripped 1993 Holiday Barbie out of her box and made her make out with 1960 1st edition Ken. And neither of those things are inherently bad, playing with dolls and knocking a boring game on the floor are both entertaining in and of themselves, but they are also a departure from what we have come to expect.

Before this season I never thought about things like "Wait- how many long miles IS Westeros? What is the land speed of a laden Raven? What's the MPH on a dragon? How long by air? How long by sea?" I wasn't worried about the logistics, the tech specs. We had other things to worry about, like battle strategies, familial strain, and tyrannical kings. But now it feels as if the curtain is starting to be pulled aside and we are for the first time seeing the mechanics at work behind the scenes. While there were thrills to be had in this super-sized penultimate outing of season seven, they came at a price. In the after-episode special Benioff and Weiss openly admitted to essentially reverse-engineering the entire episode in order to get the final shock of zombie dragon, rather than letting it be the consequence of an organic series of events. One of the reasons Game of Thrones works so well is that consequences, even the upsetting ones, feel earned. The Red Wedding, for example, tragic as it was, was ultimately palatable because it made sense in the larger story. It was the tangible result of a series of connectable actions, not a gambit for ratings. Often the killing of beloved characters leads fan to become disillusioned with a show because it's done in the service of shock value, rather than organic storytelling. But as major characters drop on Game of Thrones, it only acts to draw the audience in further because it’s done in a way that rewards previous storytelling. The idea that characters are existing in a real world with real stakes and consequences is compelling and rare. Up until this season Game of Thrones never had characters rendered immortal by their series regular contracts, or even clear-cut heroes and villains. Yes, we root for different characters and houses, but at this point no one has a clean moral conscious. Those qualities are exactly what made Game of Thrones so good, and what it is seemingly starting to lose.  It's worth pointing out that up until recently the show has had source material to rely on for guidance, and is now having to pick it's own path to the end. Viewer’s theories about the show’s endgame have become increasingly out there, perhaps in response to a world where outcome is not necessarily determined by prior events. For better or worse, anything is possible. 

This episode was some moments of interest strung together with moments of "what?!?!?". Let's begin. ZARTF (Zombie Acquisition and Retrieval Task Force), as well as a few randos clearly marked for death, sally forth into the north. This whole episode gave me greatest hits of Lord of the Rings vibes, including "walking in a straight line across a mountain", "being rescued by a giant winged beast at the last second", and "rolling up half dead on a horse". I really gotta carve out 10 hours to rewatch those. To pass the time tromping through the snow our seven "heroes" try and work through their daddy issues (a little late imo), and Jon makes a half-assed attempt to give Longclaw back to Jorah (conveniently failing to mention it's like the only thing that kills White Walkers). The first sign of trouble comes when the group is set upon by a zombie bear! You hate to see that. Some of the red shirts are killed, Top Knot McGillicutty is wounded, and Jorah saves the day with his dragon glass dagger. Which I guess they all have? Or just Jorah? Unclear. This scene is what we like to call in the biz a foreshadowing.

Meanwhile in Dragonstone Dany is mooning over Jon Snow, even though he is a short stack (he IS super little) and ignores Tyrion who is attempting to invent democracy. In their exchange it's reiterated that Dany can never have babies (beyond her dragon babies), making a potential hold on the Iron Throne tenuous at best (Jon is still the *true* heir, but doesn't seem like Bran is going to tell anyone that anytime soon). Dany would rather not talk about any of that though, and would rather crush/not crush on the King of the Short. Speaking of women on the edge, the Sisters Stark are also failing to see eye to eye. After discovering Arya's BAG OF FACES (I have so many questions about the logistics of face wearing, but I am simply too tired to get into it), Sansa is understandably concerned. These concerns are heightened when creepy-ass Arya pops in to play a decidedly threatening game of questions. Arya seems to think Sansa is out to usurp Jon because she is a Cersei-in-training. Sansa thinks Arya is a terrifying demon child. This is a relationship that has also become frustrating centering around a conflict that doesn't ring true. While it's true that Arya and Sansa have become very different young women, there is more that unites than divides them at this point and Arya's extreme aggression towards her sister feels unwarranted. The core characteristic of the Stark family is that they ARE the Stark family. Arya put aside her dreams of Cersei killing in order to reclaim her heritage, and with the pack dwindling the remaining wolves have to stick together now more than ever. Both of these women have been through extreme trauma, both of them have had to make unthinkable choices in order to survive, and both of them have been continually underestimated by their male cohorts. I'm not saying this is a relationship that should not be without conflict, but their animosity lacks nuance. Granted this show doesn't have a lot of experience with complicated female relationships, but Sansa and Arya attempting to reconnect as complex young women in a time of crisis feels like a real missed opportunity.

And I have seen the Twitter theories that say that the two girls are gaming Littlefinger together, that Sansa sending Brienne away (to an I think prematurely scheduled zombie viewing) right after Littlefinger advised her to use Brienne against Arya is concrete proof. As much as I hope this is all true, it just doesn't seem likely at this point. But maybe Sansa's bizarrely abrupt send off of her last loyal subject really was a clue to a larger plot, or maybe it's just an excuse to put Brienne back in Jaime's path to give him a last second shot of moral obligation. I would love nothing more for my pessimistic theories surrounding two of my long time favs to be proven wrong. These two characters, no matter their ultimate fate, deserve the chance at a final team up.

Back up north, our band of brothers conveniently stumble upon a manageable squadron of zombies led by a White Walker. After dispatching the Walker all the zombies but *one* turn into dust. The plan is going smoothly! However the last zombie calls the rest of the hoard and they are well and truly fucked. The group sends good old Gendry to run back to the Wall (an unknown distance) to raven Dany for help, while the rest of the pack becomes stranded on a rock in the middle of an ice lake surrounded by the entire undead army. Here's where I have questions. Question 1: If Ole One Eye and Top Knot McGee can make fire whenever they want, why cant they have a fire on the island? Or at least gather around one of the swords? Question 2: Can the zombies not use bows? It seems like our group would be pretty easy to take down with a couple dozen arrows. Question 3: How long are they waiting/expecting to wait? How long does it take for the raven to get to Dany? More questions to come later. Anyway Top Knot succumbs to his wounds, meaning that One Eye is now on his final life. The Hound, who was pretty useless most of this episode, continues to be useless by alerting the zombie hoard that the ice is safe to walk on. Our party engages in a seemingly hopeless battle against an untold number of assailants, hoping against hope for a dragony miracle to happen.

And it does! Dany swoops in with her brood in the last second, blasting the zombies with fire, and rocking a seriously fabulous white fur coat, to save the day! Not only is her winter wardrobe literally to die for, it also looks like she may have skinned Ghost to make it, symbolizing her new allegiance (romance?) with Jon. I also have to ask at this point why this wasn't the original plan. Dany made pretty good time getting up there, didn't have to tromp through the snow, and likely could have had Drogon pick up a zombie in his talons-  all in seemingly less than a day! But I guess that would have been much less macho than grimly marching through the snow. It looks like the tables have turned in favor of our hereos when suddenly....the Night King picks up an ice spear and takes out Viserion! Nooooo.

This was a genuinely heart-wrenching moment, as an audience we have watched Dany's dragons grow from hatchlings to giant death machines, and seeing one of them ripped out of the sky was just as painful as losing any beloved human character. Again this was a moment that delivered an emotional punch, but the journey to that payoff was not as satisfyingly authentic as it could have been. Jon, realizing the White Walkers are somehow ready for dragon combat, sacrifices himself so Drogon can take off with his payload safely. But it's an empty sacrifice, because Jon is last minute rescued by BENJEN STARK, who is part ice monster, part North of the Wall lifeguard, all Stark all the time. If you recall Benjen, or Cold Hands I guess is his nickname, previously came in for the save with his swinging lantern when he rescued Meera and Bran. But Benjen's last minute saving days are over as he is eaten by zombies in order to allow Jon to escape. Sad.

Back at the wall Dany ignores Daddy Jorah in favor of wistfully staring out over the tundra, hoping for Jon to appear. And appear he does! Jon is more than fine, especially shirtless and wrapped in furs on Dany's pleasure yacht. The two have some weird flirting where Dany reveals she can never have children, and Jon actually refers to her as 'Dany'. Good thing they are both so hot, because that banter wouldn't cut it anywhere else. Also she's his aunt. I simply cannot stress that enough.

As a final coda to this decades long episode, we see the Night Army dragging the corpse of Viserion out of the lake only to reanimate him into an ice zombie dragon! Gah! Shit is most definitely getting real, as the Night King adds some real power to his arsenal. Will zombie dragon still breathe fire? Ice? Freezing rain? Excited to find out. Next week (the season finale???) looks like it will be the zombie summit down in King's Landing. I have zero predictions for this. My only hope is that Euron will be there, I miss him. In a world of uncertainty, Euron brings the party.

Stuff I didn't get to:

Stop shipping Dany/Jon, START shipping Brienne/Beardy

They almost took Beardy from me after I SPECIFICALLY asked them not too.

Beardy learned the word dick <3

Beardy rode a dragon!!!

MVP: Beardy. I don't have to defend myself.

XO MD

[huntertales]

Part Four: Hollow Fate. (Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid S05E15)

Episode Summary:  Sam, Dean and the reader investigate Bobby’s home town where the dead are rising from the grave but instead of attacking humans, they are happily reuniting with their families. Gif Credit: frozen-delight. Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader Word Count: 2,968.

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“Nothing like burning flesh to wake you up in the morning.”

You licked your front teeth with your tongue from your tasteless remark, for some reason, you were trying to make light of this situation and how it ended. You and Sam stood in the exact same cemetery where, not too long ago, people were crawling out from their graves to join their loved ones. While it wasn't their flesh that went bad, it was their homicidal rage to kill that did. You watched as the bodies, each one that all of you had found and collected, laid together in a bonfire for one last funeral they would ever get. But there was no loved ones here to shed tears, just your guilty conscious of what you couldn't do to save them, like always when hunts when bad. And it had been happening an awful lot with you. You win some, you lose some.

“Well,” You looked over your shoulder when you heard Dean’s voice come from behind after he and Jody had arrived back from their sweep of the town for anymore rabid folks. “If there’s any zombies left out there, we can’t find them.”

“Great.” You muttered underneath your breath. You weren’t exactly happy at the thought of leaving Sioux Falls with a few possible zombies lurking in the shadows and waiting to make their next move. But all of them knew what to do if one of them tried to attack. You looked over at Jody from your question you asked next. “How are the townspeople?”

“Pretty freaked out. Hell, traumatized.” She said. “A few of them are calling the papers. As far as I can tell, nobody’s believed ‘em yet.”

“Would you?” Sam wondered. Jody looked over at the man, a quiet scoff was her response from his question. All of you drifted off into a silence for a moment or so. None of you knew exactly say at this moment of time. While things had been rough, the day was saved, the only true casualties that you had was Ezra Jones’ husband and Jody’s too, the rest of the people that died were already past their expiration date. But it didn't mean their passing once more would mean grief would be a thing of the past. Sam knew Jody had lost someone more dear than a spouse or a sibling. She lost her only child. It was hard on the younger Winchester himself, being the one who had to do one of the worst things in his entire life, but it was what he had to do. Kill one to save them all. “How are you holding up?”

Jody fell silent from the question. While it could have been answered with a simple, "I'm fine." you knew she would be lying. So, instead she decided to say nothing. You gave the woman a sympathetic smile at her situation. Just in her eyes you could see the pain she must have been going through. But from what you had seen from her, she was a strong woman. She got through losing her son once, and she could do it again.

“Is that everyone?” Dean asked, getting the focus back to the conversation again.

You let out a sigh and turned your head to look at the burning bodies. “All but one.”

+ + +

Karen was the last person that needed to be put to rest. You and the boys wrapped up things at the cemetery before heading back to the Singer residence to help Bobby say his final goodbyes to his wife. You found him in the junkyard with the fire already going, while his back was turned to you in his chair, you could feel his true emotions lingering around in the air. But you didn't say anything. You stood beside him and allowed him to work through what emotions that he wanted to express. None of you lost someone close to you all over again. Bobby was there for you at your worst. And it was now you who needed to return the favor.

“So, thinking maybe I should apologize for losing my head back there.” Bobby said, breaking the silence that had been around the four of you over the past several seconds.

“Bobby,” You spoke the man’s name with a soft tone. “You don’t owe us anything.”

"Hey, look, I don't know squat from shinola about being married, but..." Dean tried his hardest to be supportive to the older hunter. While he was tempted to say that he didn't know squat about true love, he refrained himself, knowing it wasn't true, and how hurtful words could be. He looked at you from the corner of his eye before turning his gaze down, trying to find some sort of silver lining here. "At least you got to spend five days with her, right?"

"Right. Which makes things about a thousand times worse." Bobby admitted. You tried to be supportive of him when you reached out a hand to rest it on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "She was the love of my life. How many times do I got to kill her?"

“Are you gonna be okay, Bobby?” Sam wondered. While he was trying to be helpful, you looked up at him, and slightly shook your head no. This type of thing wasn't something he could take like any other death. None of you would understand what kind of degree of grief Bobby would go through. Whether it last months or years, time would only tell.

“You kids should know, Karen told me why Death was here. I know why he took a stroll through a cemetery in the sticks of South Dakota. He came for me.” Bobby said. You furrowed your brow and leaned over to the side, giving the man a confused expression from what he was talking about. “Death came for me. He brought Karen back to send a message.”

“You? Why you?” Dean asked.

“Because I’ve been helping you, you sons of bitches.” Bobby snapped at the oldest Winchester. “I’m one of the reasons why you’re still saying no to Lucifer, Sam.”

“So this was a hit on your life?” You asked him, suddenly not liking the sounds where this was going.

“I don’t know if they wanted to take my life or...my spirit.” Bobby muttered. His gaze went back to the fire, the sight of the flames growing bigger from the quiet breeze that passed by every so often. “Either way, they wanted me out of the way.”

"But you're gonna be all right." Sam said, now it sounded like a statement that he wanted to believe in, and not like a question. "Right, Bobby?"

Bobby answered the younger man's question by looking up at him to show the look on his face. You could see in his expression alone that he couldn't just brush this off like nothing. Death had knew exactly where hit the hardest in the man. It wasn't one of you, an old hunting buddy, and the man sure didn't have any friends to call his own. It was bringing a ghost from his past and making the man relive the pain all over again. It was just the effects of dealing with this apocalypse business. All of you knew it was going to be hard. But this...this was worse than you could imagine. And it was only gonna get more complicated in the upcoming months ahead.

+ + +

Chapter Thirty Seven: Hollow Fate.

Does anyone know what their purpose in life was? Why all seven billion, and growing each second, were placed on this earth? Everyone has a different answer if you ask them. Some speculate each human soul has a purpose, what it is, they won't know until they're happy. It hits them like a freight train, and this stupid smile spread across their face. “This is what God [or insert whatever religious belief you have here] put us on this earth for.” People think that fate has a special plan for them that will lead to an entire life of happiness. Others aren’t so optimistic about that philosophy. Others think it's just an endless cycle of misery. You come into this world screaming and confused, and you die the same way, the feeling like you missed something is the last thought you have until it's nothing but darkness. If there's a bright light, that's for you to decide. It's true that some will die with regrets because they felt like they had no purpose in life. But for three people, they were running from the path which was chosen for them.

Standing in some motel with Castiel passed out on the bed and a round of cheap whiskey to comfort the emotional wounds after another defeat, Dean had come up with a catchy nickname for the group; Team Free Will. Mr. Comatose, a high school dropout with six bucks to his name, an ex blood junkie and Rosemary’s baby, all grown up. All four of them, Bobby included, were the only people who trying to stop the end of the world. Stop themselves from accepting their fate. But in the process of trying to change fate, they were slowly changing themselves. And not for the better. These poor people were turning into a hollow shell of who they once were.

Bobby Singer; the man who was good at just about everything, except for knowing how to love somebody else. He had killed his wife, for the second time. The man thought putting a gun to the woman’s head wouldn’t be as painful like the last time, but it was worse than before. While he watched the fire continue to burn on and his wife's ashes slowly get caught into the wind, drifting off to hopefully another part of land that wouldn't bring her more pain than she ever deserved. Bobby's fate in this apocalypse was about losing everything; the ability to work his legs, his wife again, and—no matter what he said, or even tried—he was slowly losing his will to live.

Sam Winchester. For a man striving tirelessly to better himself, he'd been failing an awful amount of times. It wasn't too long ago he tried to make himself feel complete by sucking down demon blood from whatever black eyes that looked in his direction. But that was the past. Sam was trying to hollow out the evilness inside of him. He tried running away, apologizing and fighting each side that was pushing him closer to the edge. Sam has only known his entire life to fight. But he was beginning to feel himself wondering if the Devil was right. What if, in a cruel twist, he stops fighting who he was meant to be and ends up embracing the darkness?

Castiel; an angel without wings and shunned out from Heaven. He'd grown to accept his new role as what it was. He learned from the Winchesters that life was about sacrifice, and living long as he had, it was time to change things up a bit. But he was learning the hard way that fighting his own kind wasn't easy as he thought. The trail to finding God was slowly starting to grow cold. Mr. Comatose was supposed to be a strong fighter in Team Free Will. But this angel was losing faith in his own father. And without realizing it, he found himself slowly being pushed back into his old role when he was an angel of the Lord. He was being obedient again, following the rules of how fate wanted things to be.

And Dean. Poor, poor Dean. He appears to be hollow, he makes everyone believe there's nothing going on in his head from the hard expression that he lets sit on his face. But it's all been an act for months now. He wants to be hollow. He wants to feel nothing. But he can't. He feels every damn thing that crosses his mind with too much crippling emotion that even spending a night of binging on his favorite sins can’t wash away. He's drowning in his emotions from everything that was going on around him. The man who once thought he could never have a normal life suddenly craves it all the time. He wants a way out of this. But he knows it's not that easy. The team leader was breaking down from the weight that was slowly growing heavier.

Dean’s thoughts were constantly about his family; Bobby earlier that day when he was grieving over his dead wife and what kind of man he used to be. (And the realization that Dean put him in that chair.) He's been trying so hard for twenty six years to make sure his baby brother made the right choices and was protected from those terrifying creatures. And Cas, that pain in his ass. Dean was hard on that angel any chance he could and got annoyed easily from his stupid naivety about everything. But he knew, deep down, Cas was something special. Maybe that angel wasn’t so bad after all. He called that son of a bitch his friend, the only one that had stuck by his side. And Dean couldn’t forget about Y/N...the woman that he loved. The woman who was damned to a fate that was the worse of them all.

They called her many names over the years, but the one that stuck the most was mutt. A term commonly referenced to a creature that was of a mixed heritage. Y/N was a mutt; a mixture of humans and demons. The worst of the worst. While Y/N had heard her own backstory over and over again, it never got any easier. She remembered when she first started hunting with the boys when the only problems she had faced was tracking down John and trying to put a bullet right between Azazel’s eyes. She was twenty four, a newbie at hunting, and she thought the struggles that she faced were terrifying as they come. And her nightmares that she rarely expressed about her turning into a demon.

She remembered making a joke to Sam when they were investing a man named Andy Gallagher, one of the "special children." While Sam was worried about going dark side, Y/N knew the demon had plans for her too. She tried to ease the tension by making a joke that if he went crazy, she would grow some black eyes and the urge to kill. All those jokes were just to help keep her mind at ease. Five years later, it was the truth.

She was turning into a demon. She was tempted to hurt people. Y/N couldn't deny the truth any longer or make some joke to help ease the anxiety in her head. While the men around her were emotionally feeling hollow, she was being scooped clean of her soul, and she couldn't do anything about it. But that didn't mean Y/N was going to lay down and take what life was trying to give her. She was trying her hardest to keep her optimism alive for everyone and herself. She wanted everyone to believe that there was a way out of this, and on top of it, she could somehow become human again. Somehow she could find a way to destroy everything that made her who she was and still keep the best parts of her that weren't rotten.

While she put on a smile everyday and pretended like everything was all right for the past twenty three years, at this point in her life, it was becoming hard. Being her empathetic and kind self was becoming emotionally and psychically draining. Y/N was fighting tooth and nail everyday to do the right thing. Who knew, while her role was so small, could be so demanding. She was just the pretty face to fill the role, the boys had the title  fight everyone cared about.But it didn't mean the story being written out for the three of them was fair. All of it was equally terrifying and soul crushing when they took a moment to acknowledge it.

Y/N and Dean were together, soulmates—that special word that made each of their hearts skip a beat—but for all the wrong reasons. Dean was being forced to watch as the woman he loved turn into a monster. Y/N was trying her hardest not to succumb to the darkness and lure in her best friend to saying yes to the Devil. Y/N was made the habit of squeezing herself in the middle of the boys, from the age gap, to how she would sit or walk with them. But not like this. Y/N couldn't be the reason why the both of them would take the swan dive right into their fate. She was supposed to find a way to save them, not destroy them.

+ + +

Chuck lifted his hands from the keyboard and leaned back in his seat, knowing the last chapter of "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" was complete. There was nothing else that he needed to write down. It took him most of the day and a half bottle of whiskey to get the words flowing just right. The man took a moment to read his words quietly back to himself as he leaned his head down with his reading glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose. He'd written what felt like a thousands of words on you and the boys. While he had learned his own fate of what his role in this world was, nothing compared to the burden on yours and the Winchester's shoulders. Chuck let out a heavy sigh and closed his laptop, thinking his work was done for tonight.

Rewrite Taglist: @deansquirreljerkwinchester@lotsofspnshitposts@everything-i-tried-was-taken @starswirlblitz @albot-e@supernaturalismydrug @we-are-band-sexuals@cleo-is-my-doggy @eeyore1988@kaylinfayezink@owhatshername1@kgbrenner@princessofhorrors (Message me if you would like to be added!)

[ageofindigox]

BASIC INFO

LEGAL NAME: Trenton Cole Goode

ALIASES: Trent Goode

NICKNAMES: Goodie, Ross (added as given)

DOB/AGE: November 11, 1989 / 27

HOMETOWN: Boston, Massachusetts 

INFLUENTIAL AREA(S): Mesa, Arizona & Marseille France

CURRENT RESIDENCE: Brooklyn, New York

LIVING ARRANGEMENT: Inhibits a studio apartment with an open floor plan, perfect for his creative pastimes. The home is suited for one person with little additional space for company aside from what is necessary for his daughter and canine companion. 

RELIGION: Trent does not identify with any religion whatsoever nor has he ever. He also does not believe in luck. .

EDUCATION: Trent is an intelligent man with a passion for learning; however, the traditional classroom setting made his academic career difficult. He merely graduated in 2008 from Fenway High School and took several miscellaneous courses at Columbia University from 2012-2015.

OCCUPATION(S): The neighborhood butchery, The Meat Hook, being that he is the lead butcher his responsibilities are vast. He also has some involvement in the black market.

EXPERTISE: Manipulation

BRIEF BIO: The first four years of his life consisted of significant abuse suffered at the hands of his bitter, recently widowed mother. The Boston law enforcement was assigned to the case. The lead officer formed an immediate bond with Trent, relinquishing the career he loved in order to adopt the dysfunctional child. He hesitantly learned to trust again relying heavily on two imaginary friends to guide him. Therapy was nonnegotiable due to the trauma he endured and underdeveloped social skills. His mental illness (see below) was discovered at age ten and speculations were proved true - his imaginary friends were two alternate personalities. The extensive therapy, the medications it was all very expensive for the lower middle class family of four. Acutely aware that the struggles plaguing his family were a direct result of the kindness they had shown him guilt was a heavy burden. Desperate to free them of poverty he resorted to his roots and became involved with drugs. What began as a last ditch effort transpired into a way of life. Within that same year, he was recruited at a skateboarding competition and later offered his first sponsor with Vans. School mattered little with fame beckoning him. Life on the road was a never ending party with his passion at the center of it all. Money was no longer an issue, he had no need to hustle any longer and yet he persisted. Curiosity mocked him until he experimented with the narcotics he once sold to pay his parents’ rent. He developed an infatuation with skating, drugs, and the idea of love which caused him to not only lose his opportunity at success but serve an eighteen month jail sentence as well. Released at twenty-two life became a living hell. Alone, lacking proper medication, and with limited resources available he was forced to make a come up by whatever means necessary. He found quick work at the local butcher shop, somewhere that did not require sociability, and slowly began to rebuild.

CRIMINAL RECORD: Lengthy criminal record including possession with intent to distribute, aggravated assault, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct.

BLOODLINE + INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE

FATHER: Reece Goode NPC

Adoptive A great father and all around good man, he taught Trent to trust again with patience and kindness.

MOTHER: Amy Goode NPC

Adoptive The ideal mother, overbearingly optimistic she gave Trent no choice but to love her... eventually.

SIBLING(S): Aubrey Goode NPC

Adoptive, Conceived shortly after his adoption was officiated Trent initially did not want to share his parents or his life with an ugly, loud alien looking thing. He plotted her death several times and once smothered her face with a pillow until her breathing ceased but Troy wouldn’t allow him to follow through with it. Gentle coaxing from Reece helped him come to accept his baby sister. He became very protective of Aubs lashing out (particularly at Amy) on the few occasions she was treated harshly due to the trauma inflicted by his own biological mother, making it difficult for the parents to discipline their youngest at all. She was the first person to interact with all of his personalities, treating each as their own person rather than a figment of his imagination, and one of very few people who are able to help when he loses himself in the midst of chaos. She understands him as best she can. She does not shy away from the truth when it comes to her brother often exposing the reality of many situations that no one else will. Altercations are frequent though rarely marked by long periods of absence because these two genuinely care for one another. Icy as they come, at his core he is a family man with a soft spot for his little sister.    

DAUGHTER: Genevieve Loren Goode NPC

Biological The child Trent never wanted but was forced to accept. Her existence was life altering for the unstable man perpetually sealing his fate with her mother, Elouise. A bold, fearless child Gene inherited all of their darkest qualities. An absolute terror with an extremely short fuse his daughter can push the boundaries of his sanity with her rage induced tantrums. There were many occasions he fantasized about killing his child with his own hands by thrusting her head into the nearest wall or simply strangulation. She finds amusement in testing her limits with her father, often making him question himself again due to his haphazard relationship with his biological mother, and when she does not get her way Elouise is thrust in the middle of their crossfire forced to chose between the two. In doing so a winner is silently declared among them which is usually Gene. When these two aren’t in the midst of a power struggle they have a wonderful relationship. Fatherhood did not come naturally for Trent, it has has been a learning experience and throughout he has learned to love his daughter for the nightmare she is.

PSYCHOLOGICAL INFO

MENTAL DIAGNOSIS: Trent suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder previously known as multiple personality disorder.

DESCRIPTION OF DIAGNOSIS: Dissociative Identity Disorder is caused by severe trauma during early childhood which includes extreme physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. The disorder is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct or split identities or personality states that continually have power over the person’s behavior. The dissociative aspect is thought to be a coping mechanism — the person literally dissociates himself from a situation or experience that’s too violent, traumatic, or painful to assimilate with his conscious self.

SYMPTOMS: Symptoms include but are not limited to inability to recall key personal information, distinct memory variations, extreme headaches, amnesia, depression, suicidal tendencies, sleep disorders, auditory/visual hallucinations, eating disorders, loss of time, trances. More crucial symptoms include self-persecution, self-sabotage, and acts of violence.

SMOKES/DRINKS/DRUGS: Tobacco use is fervently frowned upon due to his once athletic lifestyle. A social drinker, lack of inhibitions make him a fun addition to most parties. Favors opioids and depressants.

CHOICE SUBSTANCES: Drugs did not pose an issue until later in life. Heroin became his favorite mistress and he struggled with an addiction that caused him to lose sight of himself. He is recovering but struggles daily.

NOTABLE STRUGGLE(S): Swift elevations in mood from ecstatic to depression, uncontrollable anger, violence

BENEATH THE SURFACE

PERSONALITY: Described as the type of person society either loves or loves to hate, he couldn’t give a fuck less in either respect – in fact, he’s likely to laugh at how wrong the assumptions are. The warmth he exudes in the workplace seldom transcends into his personal life. Most are fooled by the narcissist’s pseudo kindness and have a difficult time believing he does, in fact, have a disorder until they witness a violent outburst for themselves. Anyone who gets to know him beyond a surface level is no stranger to his sinister personality. His issues (specifically with attachment) and insecurities interfere with his ability to lead what society deems a normal life. Temperamental, vulnerable, and susceptible to pain he tends to behave irrationally. The smallest forms of betrayal are magnified although rarely addressed. He has difficulty expressing his feelings properly, particularly positive ones, and will become hostile when pressed to do unless manipulated by venomous rage or, worse, Trevor. When his wrongdoings are made apparent or he feels overwhelmed he chooses to ‘ghost’ from those closest to him rather than confront the issues. Contradictory to his solitary nature he will search endlessly for someone to love him through his mania in spite of being told he is undeserving of love by both his mother and reminded frequently by Trevor. His lack of sanity is an everyday battle he is forced to cope with making life alongside this bastard unpredictable and interesting.

ADDITIONAL PERSONALITIES: Everyday an eternal war to come alive takes place between his secondary personalities – namely Trevor and Troy. Trevor is described as aloof, arrogant, calculated, cruel, destructive, manipulative, resentful, sadistic, unstable, and vindictive who is responsible for violent crimes and bloodlust. Troy, on the other hand, is the complete opposite described as accessible, appreciative, cheerful, compassionate, dramatic, generous, honest, expressive, kind, and overbearing who values friendships/relationships.

ZODIAC SIGN: Scorpio

Those born under this zodiac are natural born leaders due to their ambition and determination. They are independent and, unlike the majority of the zodiac, are not social butterflies preferring solitude. Both friendships and relationships alike are destined to be complicated by emotional extremes. Possessive and easily jealous these individuals are notorious for holding a grudge. They do not forget, rarely forgive, and will seek vengeance on those who wrong them; however, they will always remember a kind gesture as well. These individuals harbor the ability to be the most loyal friend anyone has known and will earn one’s trust. Be honest and respectful and one cannot go wrong. Scorpios must be in control or else they feel threatened and can become unpredictable. They are excellent at restoring chaotic situations yet equally as skilled in manipulating a situation their own greed and benefit. Keywords: passionate, resilient, resourceful, dynamic, observant, jealous, obsessive, suspicious, manipulative, unyielding.

PERSONALITY TYPE: ENTJ – The Commander characterized by bold, imaginative and strong-willed leaders, always finding a way or making one.

FAVORITE QUOTE: “A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.” – Leonardo da Vinci

FONDEST MEMORY: Indulge in a conversation to uncover a few.

SECRET(S): Granted the gift of eternal life, he will never know death or old age. 

FEAR(S): Knowing that he cannot die by his own hand and is no longer in control of his mortality is something that he loathes; Trent’s biggest fear is living... forever.

RELATIONSHIPS

SEXUALITY: Heterosexual

MARTIAL STATUS: Trent will likely remain single as his affections are fleeting and often unreciprocated  when someone does capture his interest.

PAST RELATIONSHIP(S): A combination of personal issues has led to a lifetime of doing as he pleases, with who he pleases at his leisure hurting female companions before a relationship has the opportunity to evolve; however, when involved romantically he is often overbearing displaying many telltale signs of codependency.

ROMANTIC INVOLVEMENTS: Include a notorious, stringent involvement with Mica Devilas throughout his young adult years followed by a dynamic relationship with Elouise Beckett. Both relations could be summarized as radical, intense, and severe with moderate levels of abuse which further scarred the mentally ill male obscuring his view of love.

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Author’s Note: The format of this outline was designed by myself alone a few years prior and subject to change at my discretion. Should anyone find themselves interested in Trent simply message me. I ENJOY coming together with other writers to create. As someone who puts a tremendous amount of time and effort into character development connecting with other writers is a vital aspect of writing for a character contentiously (in my opinion). I cannot stress enough that I am always willing to collaborate.  

Forewarning: A romantic relationship will not be considered without continuous storyline development. I edit all connections as I see fit. I refuse to acknowledge empty relations that are not developed through continuous writing. This is especially true in regards to potential romantic relationships. I will notify any writer so that adjustments can be made before completely eliminating a connection or, if substantial to his growth/SL, replacing with a NPC.  I am 195% understanding of real life issues but I only know the information provided at said writers’ discretion. Connections take communication, patience, and effort - I am willing to give those things if given in return. If you do not have intentions on WRITING in multi para style (novella likely) please do not waste my time.  

*Above statements are not intended to be malicious and/or offend anyone. All information has been provided in hopes of avoiding future conflict.*

Last Updated: 09/23/2017