#prodigy is a children’s show so I doubt it’s going to have much effect on the future of Star Trek

[juliansubatoigarak]

really scared about how Picard may have affected the future of any Star Trek content b/c like holy shit. what a fucking trainwreck of a show. and they already cancelled Discovery. Strange new worlds you’re my only hope 🙏🏻

[writing-and-rebloging]

I'm so sorry for dog piling, BUT. Gojo fucking Satoru, right? This is incredibly messy though. Sorry.

—

He didn't save Megumi for his cursed technique. He took Megumi in the way he took Yuuta and Yuuji, in a sense. All three are children that would otherwise have had no life, no childhood, no precious teenage years, and as someone who had all that denied until the frail years he had in the school, Gojo strives to shield them from that. Canonically. He says he hates the higher ups for that reason at least twice, and that he wants them and that mentality gone.

As op said, Megumi wouldn't have had much choice, and the choice of going with Gojo was one he took with the limited information and places to run he had. And effectively based it off of the fact that "he could 100% assure him, Tsumiki would not be happy", which is selling it short.

Now, let's start with a simple thing, why Megumi was in that position in the first place. Toji's awareness of his incapability to take care of Megumi, and his flawed logic that while he had a shit time, little Megumi, a prodigy, someone gifted and strong with so much potential, would probably be okay. Probably. He had enough of a doubt to tell Gojo about it, though. And from what we see in Shibuya, Gojo did what Toji sort of wanted, and got him out of the ordeal.

Gojo approaches a young Megumi, with a little hatred still bubbling, and actually explains the situation, asks him what he wants to do. Megumi's "I would slaughter them" face is enough for Gojo to say that "he'll take care or the situation". Now, iirc, the deal was already on. He had to barge in the Zen'in household and say, hey, you know this kid you wanted? I'm keeping custody, bye. Megumi still attended school with Tsumiki, something that is plot relevant during the bridge arc, he had a more or less decent shot at having a life considering his circumstances, and I think that compared to the other clan kids we see, it says a lot. Noritoshi didn't had a childhood at all. Mai and Maki didn't had a childhood. There was an actual probably child in the Zen'in corps. Gojo was raised as a weapon. Megumi had to worry about girls fanning over him and tests, and yeah, cursed spirits too, and probably so did Nobara, who already had a good level of skill before going into Jujutsu high, and Gojo even comments on it when he denies Megumi from fighting (curses in the capital are different from curses of the countryside). Going on missions (probably fitted for Megumi's level and with the support that Gojo could and would save his ass) was likely to train him. Not the best, arguably, but a hands on approach. And probably part of the deal. As he said, Megumi was going to have to step up a bit, and personally, I think it has more to do with arranging his freedom than being an asset.

Hands on approaches are also a Gojo thing. He does that with Yuuta, who he sends to a mission with Toge with the instructions of "don't let Rika out, or we'll both get our heads chopped off". Or when he drags Yuuji to a domain battle. Is it the best thing to do? No. But alas. He's shit at explaining things, but he can show them instead.

There's also that thing. They're all child soldiers. Toge, Miwa, Aoi, Hakari. It's also likely what keeps them alive for a little longer since sooner or later a curse would have hunted them. Knowing what kind of world they live in gives them a shot. Megumi was given a shot at a regular life tough, unlike Mai, for example. Gojo, on the other hand, wasn't raised as a mere child soldier. He isn't disposable, he's the prodigy among prodigies, a singularity if you will, with both limitless and the six eyes, he was completely cut out of everything in favor of knowing fully well that he's a mass destruction bomb and the greatest sorcerer of current times. The best weapon in their world. That he would have to carry everyone and their mother because he's better. He never placed the kids worth on their strength, but he did remind them that not being strong enough in their line of work could mean death.

If Megumi had been raised by the Zen'in, chances are he would have ended worse than both Toji and Naoya. He would have been the despised golden child, the son of the deserter, the kid who's seeing his sister be abused daily, and probably viciously as a way to get to him. We know Naoya would have done that, and probably his brothers too, if the hints of the power struggle say anything about their behaviors as a whole. He would have been spiteful, and probably a little egocentric, thinking he's better than he is, and he would have been in literal militar organizations like the rest of the men of the family, cut out from civilization. Point is, he dodged a bullet, even if the thorns aren't perfect.

Now, Gojo isn't a father. He's a 20 long year old dude still trying to get back his youth because he wasn't allowed one. At best, he's an older brother. He outright says he's seeing Toji in Megumi, because they are physically alike. You know, the man that almost killed him, his best friend, and actually did kill the child they wanted to protect. The man he probably blames for what happened to Suguru. It's not the best to try and raise a child who reminds you of such things, but it is a good reason as to why he's emotionally distant from Megumi.

That's also another thing about Gojo to take into account regarding relationships. He has a thousand walls, a hundred locks, and you have to peel him off like an onion. He's distant and shielded from people, and will find the most annoying asshole way to tell them to be safe so that he doesn't has to admit he cares. Because he can't. More so after loosing his "one and true friend". He doesn't want to feel vulnerable. He doesn't want to loose people. So he doesn't bond with them beyond a superficial level. He doesn't interact with Megumi because he's not willing to get attached. He sent Yuuta with a nanny Miguel because he was getting sentimental. He sent Yuuji with Nanami because he was getting too close. And because he knew his limitations, as exposed by Nanami every time he genuinely forgot to teach something to Yuuji, but that's it's own post.

When the prision arc happens, he's pissed off that they did that, and that they sent Yuuji to a death sentence because they couldn't go forward with the execution. An execution Satoru stopped, because Megumi asked him to. And they were, funnily enough, sent when he was away. Almost like those three were children he cared for in Satoru's eyes, not disposable soldiers to carry out orders no matter what.

I just want to put emphasis on this because I can, but Satoru recognized Yuuji as a threat. He was willing to risk it, yes, but he didn't save him just because like with Yuuta, or to be his pawn. He asked for Megumi's opinion and input, and since Megumi asked selfishly for Yuuji to live, he moved heaven and earth to grant that request. Because while not stated, the two assassination attempts are proof enough that convincing the higher ups to drop the immediate execution wasn't easy. And we can easily assume that half of the reason he put the effort in was because he was asked to by Megumi, who he feels responsible for enough to agree to one on one training the second he asked for it. Because that's what he outright states, and we don't really get any indication that that wasn't true, even if Yuuji could turn to be a good ally to change the current status quo. It's a stretch, maybe, but due to the fact that he's a cube rn, there isn't much else of a choice than take "I'll do my best because it's a request from my student" at face value. And I, too, would take that interview with tweezers, considering it lowkey contradicts canon. But to each their own.

He also seems to, to a degree, feel responsible for Megumi due to the fact that, you know, he killed his father, and never hid anything from him (if I wanted to manipulate him into doing my bidding, lying is the first step), instead he was open and told him to ask if he ever wanted to know anything. Megumi never asked, but Gojo didn't deny him the possibility of knowing who exactly Fushiguro Toji was even if it was a biased perspective.

When it comes to Megumi's suicidal tendencies, though... He addressed that is not the way to win, and that it was holding him back to think like that, but, and this is a personal opinion, I don't think Gojo realizes what exactly all of that implies. He's a born and raised sorcerer. Everyone is a little crazy, and everyone is always more or less ready to die, because that's their life, right...? We know he has a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms (playing clown to regain his youth, sugar addiction to deal with his own head, not trying because he doesn't see the point of it nor does he want others to compare himself to him), but I don't think he's even aware of the full connotations of those either? He is smart, but he's also a stupid sheltered kid, so... Could he have done better? Yes. Should he? Probably. Did he had the awareness to? Unlikely.

Tl:dr: this got long, I missed several things but point is, it's late, he's a flawed character, but I do think he does care about Megumi and all of the other kids, and that he didn't just save Megumi so that he could serve a purpose. But those are both valid takes and good points to raise discussions and character analysis with.

On an unrelated note, Gojo seems to be saying that about himself. He was the one not strong enough to stop Toji from fucking Suguru up (which would result in facing the cult, which would result in Geto going bananas) and got left behind as a result :) he's supposed to be the strongest, and carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, after all :)

Not here to dogpile! I promise!

And while I definitely think Geto wasn’t the greatest at raising Nanako and Mimiko since they do have this unhealthy codependency thing. It should be noted that Geto didn’t have anyone from the cult/family to raise Nanako and Mimiko.

The author stated in the internet that it was only Geto himself that raised them. And it was only Nanako and Mimiko’s decision to join because of how much they love him. It’s unhealthy yes, but Geto is the type who can’t really say no to his precious daughters.

I mean. I definitely think it’s way better than what Gojo did with Megumi. Gojo did not raised him. He literally only “save” him due to his curse technique and thinking he would be a strong ally growing up.

Do I think Gojo cares about Megumi? To a certain degree. But definitely not in a family way. Gojo views relationships a bit too transactional. I mean Gojo was aware about Megumi’s suicidal tendencies, but not completely understanding where it stems from. And plus, there was a flashback in the manga of Gojo literally had him dragging a young Megumi on a mission already. Definitely not dad material.

Gojo basically only “raised” Megumi as a child soldier essentially. I mean, you can’t blame him. Because that was how Gojo was raised, so he thought it was the best for him. Overall. Geto = Dad (not the best but he still raised them with love and care). Gojo = Not Dad.

OH MAN ok so first i must preface this by saying that some of this really depends on what you make of their interactions, because not all of this is stated in the text. in the end, we may just have different interpretations ^^

so while it does not seem that geto directly raised nanako and mimiko as followers in his cult, he is still a cult leader himself and it doesnt seem that he makes much of an effort to shield them from what hes doing and what his ideologies are. its very clear that the two worship him as a father figure and greater & both of the twins subscribe to his movement. nanako and mimiko are directly involved in the sorcerer's side of his plans, acting as some of the key players in his plans and even willing to assassinate other sorcerers in his name.

in the end, even with how much geto loved mimiko and nanako, he was subjecting them to incredibly harmful ideology and indoctrinating them into a genocide effort. all in all, that is abuse, no matter how much he loved them.

on gojo's side of things, i really cant claim that he was the best father figure either, but i dont think he was trying to be in the first place. when geto breaks off from jujutsu tech and takes the girls and takes over the star religious group, gojo instead goes to the fushiguros, whom he was either previously ignoring the existence of or he was putting off confronting toji's last words until geto's defection prompted it (we really don't have confirmation of his thought process here and if he had already planned on going to the fushiguros, so this is all speculation).

in any case, the main thing is that gojo and geto practically swap ideologies by the end of the past arc. where geto turns to a violent and drastic solution, gojo instead carries out in the spirit of geto's previous ideals, while also trying to secure a better future for the next generation of sorcerers. interestingly, its right after geto assumes control of the cult in the manga we are shown gojo meeting megumi.

what it seems to ME from their interaction, is that gojo is considering tojis last words and is giving megumi a choice. megumi rejects the idea of going to the zenin clan on the basis that it would make tsumiki unhappy (i wonder if gojo says this because he knows how they would treat tsumiki as a non sorcerer, or because he as a clan kid has some prior experiences. who knows). to be honest, i dont think that megumi had a plethora of options. he could have gone to the zenin clan with tsumiki and been well trained but unhappy, or he could have tried to evade the zenin clan for as long as possible, which wouldn't have been possible to keep up forever without having proper training on his techniques. gojo offers megumi a third option, presumably acting as a buffer and helping to train megumi. it IS possible that gojo could have offered megumi protection from the zenins and to lead a normal life away from sorcery indefinitely, but theres debate if thats even possible. megumi was going to be sold for an [unknown] large amount of money because of the strength of his sorcery, which likely means that the zenin at least knew he could be an incredible asset. maybe someone they didnt see as impressive or valuable might have been able to get out if they fought hard enough, like maki and mai, but that probably wouldnt have been possible for megumi. the sheer strength of his sorcery puts him in trouble in the jujutsu world, whether hes targeted or recruited for it.

i dont think that gojo was specifically training megumi to be a child sorcerer and an asset to him, because his parting words to me imply more of gojos own issues with geto (of course, speculation) than wanting megumi to be a strong ally of his, especially because gojo is not looking at megumi and has a kind of melancholic smile.

i have seen the interview that gege did where he claims that gojo did it to "seek human resources", but i do think that its an incredibly strange setup, especially with having the contrast with how geto is solidifying his own beliefs in how to move forward in the jujutsu world.

part of the reason im iffy about stuff like this is because gege will set up and have gojo act as an adult who is actively trying to help the children he meets and change the jujutsu world starting with the younger generations, and then he will turn around and say that gojo doesnt care as long as the kids are strong. i know that gege is known for being harsh on gojo and hating his character, so i wont lie, i dont put as much weight into stuff like that....

dont get me wrong, gojo was definitely not "dad" material! in reality, i think he was more of a mentor figure than anything else. we know that he gave financial support, he helped megumi train, and he also helped give him advice, but he definitely wasn't there 100% of the time. in fact, im not entirely sure he would have been able to do that at all considering he would have likely had to take up even more missions than he was already doing to take up the slack from geto defecting. in contrast, i dont think that geto should have assumed being their father figure at all, especially in the way he did, considering hes also gojo's age when he takes the twins in (assumed around 19-20s) because he posits himself to the twins as self assured and morally superior to nearly everyone else around them, which is also very unhealthy because at that age you yourself are still learning, and if youre taking care of young and impressionable kids who are willing to take anything you say as the ultimate truth, you should definitely let them know that youre not like. a god on earth. NOT THAT HE SAID THAT but like you get what i mean

[runephoenix6769]

Why Netflix aging up the Characters could spell disaster.

Ok, so I’ve tried to find confirmation that this is true and kinda found bubkiss so far.  But.... Zuko being aged up by two years does not bode well his motivation or Azula (or Sokka for that matter), narratively speaking and will massively change how their stories/character arcs hit.  It’s my belief that by aging up the characters they’ll kinda lose some of the soul of the show AND the poignancy of just how much pressure has been laid on the shoulders of Gaang and Azula's trio. The nuance of Children fixing a world broken by adults. (I shall preface by saying that anyone under 18 is a child and therefore even joining the military at 16 is still awful, but this post is being written within the context of the avatar universe, its societal norms and customs.)

Hear me out.  Within the show, all the main cast of children are supposed to be outliers and exceptionally skilled, even surpassing many of the adults in that world in terms of mastery of their elements and ability to execute strategy.   At 16/17 Rangi had her first commission after graduating from the Junior Corps in record time, to eventually become one of the youngest Lieutenants in Fire Nation Army service, during peace time.  400 years later we are in the midst of a global war, meaning the goal posts within the various societies would have shifted considerably. (Apart from the Earth Kingdom, they seriously need to get with the times.) Zuko is the heir to the throne of an imperial expansionist country, where military service is expected of many of the aristocracy. (If not every citizen doing something towards the war effort.) And has been since the reign of Sozin.  Being the heir, he would naturally be expected to take a military commission at 16/17, as precedent has been shown to us via Rangi. This would serve to foster loyalty from his soldiers, train him in ways of command to prepare him for taking over the Nation, etc etc.  Lets say that Netflix keep the rest of his story the same, so he is still ousted at 13 sent on a mission of folly as a cruel punishment. Well that just casts his 4 years at sea and his behaviour towards his men in an awful light. In four years he has not learned regard for the safety of his men? It makes the treatment of his men look callous instead of being a child who doesn't quite grasp how much his crew do for him, that they too have been ousted and separated from their loved ones! Four years of shite treatment would surely land a mutiny on his hands?  If anything, it serves to make him look whiny, and incompetently oblivious to the needs of others.  And what does it mean if they move the timeline of the Agni Kai up by two years, to 15?  It doesn't have quite the same impact. Remember what sits at the core of this show. It is ultimately about children trying the fix the world that the adults broke, violence, cruelty, child soldiers and the effects of war upon them, under intense pressure to succeed.  Zuko is supposed to be a child who hasn’t even begun to figure out what he wants.   His character arc in the show is supposed to be that journey!

Which brings me to Azula!  A child prodigy, who took down Ba Sing Se in a relatively bloodless coup at 14! Its meant to be an awe inspiring Herculean feat! A top notch military strategist, she is meant to be unmatched by any of her peers.  Her age in the OG show certainly explains her behavior, her not being developed enough in many ways. This contributes towards the deterioration of her mental health when she cannot reconcile the heavily cultivated sense of self with the reality culminating in the tragic and heart wrenching mental breakdown at 14! At 16/17, it makes it look like a huge ass hissy fit! OG Azula’s inflection moment begins in The Beach episode. She is begins to ask questions of herself in the form of small experiments. It takes the form of her hiding their identities on Ember Island.  It is as if she is trying to feel out if she is as witty and charming as she believes, but she comes to learn that she is woefully socially inept, people don’t like her for her, beginning the spiral of insecurity and self doubt. We are also told that Azula’s mother thought her a monster and she is massively hurt by that, though she plays it off as nothing.  This insecurity is blown wide open on the Boiling Rock cemented by Ty Lee’s betrayal and culminates in Azula, who is truly terrified that he might burn her in a way similar to Zuko, seeing her being sidelined by Ozai.  She takes as a form of punishment for her ‘failure’, a form of banishment, that she has been discarded like Zuko, when she had imagined being by her father’s side as they burned the world in celebration of their mutual victory rather than for what is truly is which is Ozai being a glory hog and reaping all the benefits from Azula’s hard work.  Which brings me to the suggestion by Azula to burn the world in the first place. A child suggesting that you ‘Burn the World’ smacks a whole lot differently when you think of it as a kid not quite grasping/understanding the ramifications of such a suggestion, but a 16 year old? Such a thing tips her from confused mentally unwell child with a crippling fear of failure raised without a lick of compassion to full blown villainy with nothing remotely sympathetic about her! The way the last Agni Kai is framed you are supposed to feel sympathetic towards her! Which makes me wonder if they are gonna paint Azula as unhinged straight from the get go? Her unravelling at the seams is supposed to be her journey!

Sokka.... at 17!  In the OG show, Hakoda does the right thing by telling Sokka to remain behind to look after the village because at 13 he is too young to go to war.  Why leave him behind at 15? Would that not serve to feed into feelings of inadequacy, that he was deemed too weak to leave and fight with the other men and boys of the tribe?  Now, I would argue that Sokka’s OG arc rivals Zuko’s redemption. He does feel inadequate and overcomes it. He also unlearns a shit load of misogyny! What 17 year old doesn’t take responsibility for his own clothes, in a tribe were adults are few and far between? What 17 year old expects his little sister to be his mother and bear the brunt of the domestic? How obtuse and unfeeling would that make Sokka? It would propel him to the side of boorish, lazy and entitled rather than the sweet teenage boy who grows to realise he has a lot to learn.  OG Sokka is humble as hell and not afraid admit when he is lacking! He will go and openly admit his flaws and learn from others who he had previously written off.  Suki gives him a glass of respect women juice and he keeps on chugging, only adding to the Sokka we know and love.  This is supposed to be his journey! 

OG Sokka is just as much of a genius as Azula!  They are both supposed to be exceptional. Having them sit at 16/17 figuring this all out within a war torn world were it would be totally normal for them to participate in the generational war machine kind of robs them of this. Their more child like behaviours, grappling with concepts and truly understanding their consequences is supposed to remind us that they are children, being asked to do something no child ever should! Aging them up casts these things in a whole other light, skewering the what makes this show so beloved!  If you change the core characters to the point their journey’s don’t make sense within the world they inhabit, or they become unrecognisable to the audience you’re trying to milk then really.....what’s the point?  

[robininthelabyrinth]

Tedious Joys - Chapter 3 -

- Ao3 link -

“Truly, Lao Nie, you are blessed to have such a talented son,” Wen Ruohan said, and if it were anyone else it might have even been a compliment, sincerely meant.

But Wen Ruohan was an ancient monster, two generations older than Lan Qiren – though you couldn’t tell by looking at his smooth young-seeming face, and only his eyes told the truth of it – and possessed of both a longstanding grudge against the Nie sect and the apparent sense that all good things in the world ought to belong to him and him alone.

He had only two living sons at present, the younger one only a little older than A-Zhan, now called Lan Wangji, and neither of them had yet displayed any particularly fine qualities – understandable for little Wen Chao, who was little more than a spoiled princeling, but the tone in Wen Ruohan’s voice boded no one any good.

“It is, no doubt, a credit to Sect Leader Lan’s excellent teaching,” Wen Ruohan added before Lao Nie could respond, and he raised his cup to toast Lan Qiren. Etiquette required that Lan Qiren acknowledge the toast, which he did with a stiff nod, but he disliked this line of conversation more and more.

“Starting to regret not sending your own boy there, are you, Hanhan?” Lao Nie laughed, and Lan Qiren devoutly wished that his friend would leave him out of whatever strange ongoing thing he had developed with Wen Ruohan, half rivalry and half challenge, hatred and affection both. Who in their right mind would call the fearsome Sect Leader Wen such intimate things like “A-Han” or “Hanhan”?

Lao Nie, that was who.

Wen Ruohan bared his teeth at Lao Nie in something that might be mistaken for a smile. Lan Qiren averted his eyes from the whole debacle, thinking to himself that he would need to advise Lao Nie that he could either invite their fellow sect leader into his bed or have Lan Qiren as a friend but not both. Lan Qiren’s entire life had been thrown into chaos by other people’s choices in that regard and he was not inclined to endure any more of the same if he could help it.

The jade pendant he had taken to wearing on his belt for easy access was warm against his leg, as it often was when he was thinking ungracious thoughts – he’d had something of a breakthrough with Jiwei shortly his affirmation of friendship with Lao Nie, achieving perfect resonance between blade and pendant, and he was very pleased even if he didn’t actually have any evidence that it was helping. He’d tuned a similar pendant with Baxia for Nie Mingjue, who wore it around his neck to help seep off Baxia’s rage, and though there were no dramatic effects, Lan Qiren thought that he seemed steadier for it. Though that might also just be how Nie Mingjue was starting to grow into himself, both in terms of becoming a teenager (Lan Qiren’s best estimate was around thirteen) and in terms of his ever-increasing height.

Children at that age were especially tricky to convince to listen, so Lan Qiren had allowed Lan Xichen to select the pendant and act as messenger to hand over the gift, thinking to himself that their mutual friendship would do more to convince Nie Mingjue to wear the thing than any esoteric explanation relating to cultivation. He had been proven right, and the fact that Lan Xichen smiled brightly every time he saw his friend wearing it was an unexpected but welcome bonus.

Sadly, Lao Nie was not so easily convinced, but again then he was an adult, with his habits set in stone, harder to change. His style had always been simple and stringently austere; he hated having any sort of weight on him but for his saber, his guan and his braids, and not even the threat of his pending eventual death would change his mind about that. As a result it was Lan Qiren who wore the pendant for him, meditating with or playing for Jiwei whenever he could and doing all he could to strengthen the resonance between the two items even at a distance.

It was Lan Qiren that wore the jade, even though it hung heavy and swollen with Lao Nie’s spiritual energy, and Wen Ruohan that glared each time he saw it, and really, if Lao Nie could just stop whatever dangerous game he was playing, Wen Ruohan could go back to disregarding Lan Qiren as the mediocre replacement for the far more dangerous Qingheng-jun.

Instead of…well, whatever wrong idea Wen Ruohan had gotten into his head about him.

About them, perhaps.

Some people thought everything was about sex, he thought disdainfully, and then had to suppress a flinch at the abrupt stab of pain – He Kexin had died earlier that year, fading away suddenly and unexpectedly, and for all that Lan Qiren had not liked her it was still a shock to think that she was gone.

He had been the one to find her, which he supposed was lucky in comparison to the alternative. It had been during one of his visits, coming as he always did to report to her at the midpoint between her children’s monthly visits, and even now, months later, he found himself starting to walk towards her house on those evenings, found himself mentally making a note of things his nephews did as if he were still preparing the reports that he would have given to her if she had still been there.

His brother had never cared for such reports.

His brother…

Lan Qiren had had to tell him that the wife he had sacrificed everything for was gone, talking through the door in the hope that he would be listened to and heard, and perhaps the only benefit of his brother’s cold and endless seclusion was that he didn’t have to hear his brother’s response to such news.

(Sometimes he wondered if his brother was already dead and rotting away in there, only to scold himself for such inauspicious thoughts. In the end, despite everything, it was still his brother, and surely they had been close, once, the way Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji were, even if Lan Qiren could not remember it.)

He had hoped that Cangse Sanren would somehow hear the news and come to find him, to commiserate – even more than Lao Nie, she could put a smile on anyone’s face – but she did not come to the Cloud Recesses. Lan Qiren hoped it was only that she was busy, or else perhaps had not had reason to hear such gossip as a traveling rogue cultivator, but he feared the worst. The last time they had met she had reminded him, as she did every time, that she had a doom hanging above her head which could not be escaped, and as always they made sure to part on good terms as if that time would be the last. And yet, despite that, he still hoped desperately that he had not lost her, too.

“– such a talented niece,” Jin Guangshan was saying ingratiatingly to Wen Ruohan, who looked pleased – they must be discussing Wen Qing, who was around Nie Mingjue’s age, perhaps a little older, and who already showed all signs of being an extremely talented doctor. She was not Wen Ruohan’s direct niece, being a child of the Dafan Wen branch family, distant cousins at best, but Wen Ruohan had claimed her as his ward and therefore, technically, her skills were his merit, no matter that she had developed them before her abrupt relocation to the Nightless City to accompany the main family line. “Perhaps you might consider sending her to Sect Leader Lan’s lectures next summer, instead.”

“There are separate lectures for women,” Lan Qiren demurred, going for the easy excuse of his sect’s customs. “I believe she has a younger brother? You are welcome to send him once he is old enough, if you like.”

Wen Qing was not at all to Lan Qiren’s taste, as much as he was loath to say such a thing about a girl little older than a child. She had inherited the arrogance of the Wen sect in full: proud and unwavering, convinced of her own viewpoint regardless of any evidence to the contrary, and unwilling to compromise or listen, determined to have her own way. While in her case the traits shaded closer to virtue, such as with her absolutist refusal to use her sword to engage in any of Wen Ruohan’s skirmishes with small neighboring sects, Lan Qiren could see a future in which that very same arrogance would bring her nothing but problems.

If there was one thing that he’d learned from Jiwei, it was that it was not good to be too rigid, too set in your path, or else you would ignore any other solution in favor of walking step-by-step down the path you’d created to your own destruction. It was something he himself was constantly trying to correct in himself, with his love of the rules and very particular habits, and perhaps that was why he could recognize it in others.

Still, she was young, and there was time yet for her to learn better. Maybe he should recommend her for some classes…

“I will consider it,” Wen Ruohan said with a not-smile on his lips. “Perhaps there’s something that the boy can learn from Sect Leader Lan’s…wealth of experience.”

Lan Qiren did not flinch at the jibe, clearly aimed to remind him that he had never left the Lan sect to gain experience the way so many young men did – Wen Ruohan had discovered that particular sore spot years ago, and however skilled he was at picking at old wounds, they would eventually toughen into a scar – but he was somewhat gratified to see Lao Nie’s frown deepen when he heard it.

Still, since Lan Qiren didn’t actually want to get in the middle of the other sect leaders’ personal business, he interjected, “There is still time before we need to think of such things. The children will be grown sooner than we like; we should cherish the time when they’re still young.”

Wen Ruohan rolled his eyes at the platitude, but the conversation moved on to other matters. There was always business to discuss at these discussion conferences, even in the parts that were nominally meant as social events, and of course some of the social discussions were also in their own way business. The birth of a son for Tingshan He clan, yet another daughter for the prodigious Yingchuan Wang clan with all their concubines…

The pendant on Lan Qiren’s thigh burned hotter than ever, and he slid a hand out of his sleeve to press down on it, wondering at the cause. He glanced over at Lao Nie, at Jiwei, and found him scowling in a way that seemed more intense than the usual, his eyes on Wen Ruohan – had he truly just noticed the other man’s disdain of Lan Qiren? Surely not.

Perhaps he was simply responding to Jiwei’s own response, but why the saber would be upset at Wen Ruohan, Lan Qiren truly did not know. There was only so much he could understand without the lived experience of cultivating saber spirit himself, which for all his effort he did not and could not have.

Lan Qiren sent his own spiritual energy to the pendant, trying to press the feeling of calm there in the hopes that the resonance would also help calm Jiwei, and thus in turn Lao Nie, but he had no idea if it was having that effect. Perhaps he would try to play for Lao Nie himself as well as for Jiwei tonight.

Assuming of course that Lao Nie was not otherwise preoccupied…

A loud noise came from the arena below – a giant wave of cheering – and Lan Qiren turned his attention there: it appeared that, as Wen Ruohan must have foreseen, Nie Mingjue had just defeated someone one and a half times his own age in a clean sweep. He was practically glowing with joy and youthful enthusiasm and, yes, sheer overwhelming spiritual energy - had he managed to advance his own cultivation during a performance spar?

Of course he had. Geniuses.

And of course, just as predictably, Lan Xichen was the first one by his side when he left the field, the two of them talking avidly and enthusiastically – perhaps a little too much so for Lan Xichen, just edging outside of the Lan sect rules, but Lan Qiren could forgive the small misstep under the circumstances. Normally he tried to be as strict as possible when teaching his nephews, erring wherever possible in favor of orthodoxy out of his fear that they would end up indifferent to their sect or blinded by passion the way their father was or too mercurial and easily deceived the way He Kexin had been. Still, Lan Xichen had only just become old enough to attend the events and it was only another year before he could participate, albeit only in the most junior capacity; some enthusiasm was understandable.

Truly, he thought as he watched them, it had not been a mere platitude to say that a child’s youth needed to be cherished before it disappeared forever, and all the more so when it was your child. With their mother’s death, his nephews were now wholly in his custody and care, and he thought that he could not have loved them any more if they had been children of his own body.

Unexpectedly, he felt someone’s gaze on him and turned his head to catch Wen Ruohan studying him thoughtfully. When their gazes met, Wen Ruohan did not look away, but only smiled and raised his cup – the second time now he had tried to catch Lan Qiren in a toast. He would probably try to force them all into drinking later. Lan Qiren would refuse, as always, and take his leave early so that he could sleep, and Lao Nie would stay and probably get himself into trouble.

Perhaps Wen Ruohan had some sort of scheme to force the issue. That had happened a few times, although the move was more typical of Jin Guangshan, who liked to set important business meetings in the evening and then insist that they might as well have the conversation at a ‘tea house’ or ‘wine shop’ that barely bothered hiding the fact that it was brothel. On a few instances, he had steered the conversation in such a way that left Lan Qiren no choice but to either drink, lose face, or give Jin Guangshan no face, and of those three options the most palatable was clearly the first. Lan Qiren would therefore drink and, true to his bloodline, almost immediately become extremely dizzy and confused, losing all his senses.

Presumably that had been Jin Guangshan’s goal the first time around, except unfortunately for him Lan Qiren, when drunk, did not become easier to manipulate. Instead, it appeared that he simply lost all control of his ability to moderate his interest in the Lan sect rules or obscure musical theory and would therefore proceed to talk about those subjects at monotonous and excruciating length to anyone who would listen, and several who would really rather not. Lao Nie had told him about it after one such incident, claiming that he had nearly burst a rib laughing at Wen Ruohan’s worsening expression as Lan Qiren earnestly hung off his arm all evening, refusing to be shaken off, and dictating to him the entire history, development, and applicable exceptions of just one of the rules regarding the use of the Lan sect forehead ribbon.

With quotes.

(In his embarrassment, Lan Qiren had responded by muttering something about the importance of citing appropriate authority, causing Lao Nie to nearly burst another rib.)

He wasn’t sure why Wen Ruohan would bother inviting that sort of behavior again, especially when he had already requested in advance that should such circumstances ever occur again, Lao Nie was to have pity on him and drag him back to his bed before he went on too long. And yet – reviewing the day’s proposed schedule in his mind – it seemed likely that Wen Ruohan did have such intentions.

For some reason, it made Lan Qiren worry.

[oss-crime]

Chapter 4-Project “Ma” –Seth–; Scene 4

Original Sin Story: Crime, pages 167-175

Let’s take a little walk down memory lane.

.

I first met Adam when he had only just been born.

As Miroku’s steward, I had been given the order to take the twins Queen Alice had birthed and discard them in the river.

They were both quite adorable babies.

Though, well, I didn’t get attached to them over that or anything.

But I did wind up having a fairly interesting idea.

I had wanted “friends”.

I had been carrying out several efforts for that purpose.

And my endeavoring to save those twins was also part of that.

.

I met Ceci Vaju through Miroku, and under his patronage I became head of the Royal Research Institute.

At the same time, I also began to meet with other people I viewed as appropriate “friends” and built up a network.

Venom was an extremely useful drug, and so now and then I would also use it when increasing my number of “friends”.

Only, it’s not like Venom was a cure-all for my problems. It also had several downsides, so I had to hold back from using it too much.

When things had calmed down to a decent degree, I decided to go check on how those twins were doing.

But…around then I ended up having a bit of a problem.

That is, I was in “poor physical health”.

Which meant that I couldn’t just go around places willy nilly.

So I decided to entrust one of the twins to a “friend” of mine. Raiou was a considerably skilled man, and so, though he had founded the organization “Apocalypse”, I gave him the order to leave it and go collect one of the twins.

I went to the beach and found the other one—Adam—and took him up myself.

…Ah yes, and there I wound up reuniting with an old colleague. Well, that didn’t matter to me so much. She’d always been a rather stupid woman.

All that aside, it was my first time ever raising a child, so it was fairly novel for me.

I did my best to raise him to grow into someone with my favored “emptiness”.

It was a busy time. My “friend” network was expanding, and I was kept occupied with my work at the institute as well. I also couldn’t forget to go to the castle and dose Miroku with the drug, too.

And then there was something else I had to do—to solve the source of this “poor physical health” problem.

For that, I needed to conduct research somewhere where I wouldn’t be seen by the public.

The facility called “Lunaca Labora”…That was where I had been born “as a human”.

My body at the time was an inferior product, and aged at a rate much faster than that of a normal human.

I needed to create a new body that would be sturdier, and last longer; prodigy that I was, I overcame this difficulty quite readily.

I was quite keen on my completed work, and so while I was at it I decided to create two more “ghoul children”—that is, clones.

It was also part of a new test to give me more “friends”. If I were to implant a fake personality based off of my own mind in the clones that I created, they would make ideal “friends”!

Or that’s what I thought…Well, even prodigies have failures sometimes.

One of them went flawlessly.

But the other one was a miserable dud.

Still, I could probably still use it as an emergency spare…Thus, I wound up keeping the failure in cold storage for the time being.

I named the “ghoul child” that had been successful “Pale Noel”. And then I entrusted him with the “Apocalypse” that Raiou had fled.

Pale is still doing excellent work even now. He is my clone after all, so I suppose you could say it’s only natural. 

…Only, he was doing a little too well, and as such it started to cause problems for my public position.

After all is said and done, Pale, a man who has the same face as me, was causing havoc as the leader of an anti-government organization, so obviously this was putting me under suspicion as well.

It’s not like Miroku could deal with all of it. I had to take care of it somehow before it got too troublesome.

First I ordered Pale to avoid showing himself in public any further, and to just work behind the scenes. Then I had all of the documents on Pale erased from the information bureau, and after that went to “Apocalypse”’s founder, Raiou, and erased his memories pertaining to my physical appearance.

Even then, doubts about the “head of the Royal Research Institute, Horus Solntse” hadn’t completely gone away.

I figured that this inferior body had begun showing its age about then anyway.

I decided to have the man named Horus retire from this world.

I went to “Lunaca Labora” and swapped my consciousness into the new body I had completed.

…Truthfully I did wonder if I should make some adjustments to my flawless features…

But! It would be an unthinkable sin to alter this handsome face!

--And thus changing my mind, I left it the way it was.

Well, I decided that if I ever got pressed on my similarity to Pale I could just tell them we were “twin brothers” or something like that to smooth it over.

It was actually true, in a sense.  

.

The new body was more comfortable than I had thought it would be.

I felt so good that I decided to stop using false names, and went by my true name of “Seth”.

I ended up staying in “Lunaca Labora” until all the excitement surrounding Pale could die down, working hard on making new “ghoul children”.

Though I couldn’t afford to cause another problem like the one I’d had with Pale by making clones that were exactly like me.

So I went on a bit of a venture with my third “ghoul child”.

I would make even the gender different, not just the face…A completely brand new “ghoul child”, that was a clone but also wasn’t!

And this, surely, would be a great enterprise on par with the “god creator of mankind’s bodies, Behemo” himself!

My “old friend”’s face came to mind.

Ha ha…That one would surely be stomping his feet in a rage if he knew about this!

.

…I’ll say it again.

Even prodigies have failures sometimes!

No! Rather, to be a prodigy is to be made up out of one’s failures!

It probably was a bit of overkill to implant in an “inheritor” power on top of changing the gender.

The moment I put in the pseudo-personality the girl took on a rebellious attitude, and as soon as my back was turned she escaped from “Lunaca Labora”.

I was unable to grasp her whereabouts for a while—but eventually I received word from Pale that he’d found her and was taking care of her.

It seemed that she showed quite the obedient side towards him.

…Why!? Pale is a clone of me!

--Well, whatever the situation, I decided to entrust her care to Pale.

.

I grew tired of making “ghoul children”, so I decided to go play with Adam again.

He’d seemed very rattled when we reunited at that bar, but the sight had also been quite pleasant.

Yes, at present, Adam was the one I could enjoy myself with the most—that was what I had thought.

.

I would let slip certain details to get Adam to hate me.

He soundly got on board with the idea, and so started plotting to have me killed.

Gosh, that had been fun…

Though, as you might expect I was a bit upset that my third “ghoul child” had genuinely tried to kill not just the other researchers but also me, in direct opposition to what we had arranged previously.

.

--Adam.

One of the “Twins of God” that had been abandoned right after he was born.

He had been most enticing as raw material.

I wondered how I might change him into one of my “friends”—that is, “evil”.

It was elegant sport.

.

He’d been superb at being “evil”.

And yet…or rather, because of that, perhaps.

Adam withdrew from the stage, and left.

.

For, to cast aside the role you are given, and run away—

That, too, is a type of sinful “evil”.

.

--And then there’s Eve.

Let me say it quite plainly here…the death of “Cain” and “Abel” was absolutely not my fault.

I wouldn’t have minded at all if those twins had been born properly.

For I had the suspicion that a new, altogether different story would have started there.

Simply put…their blood had been too dense.

The survival rate of children born between blood siblings isn’t all that high to begin with.

.

And another thing.

There is something Adam was mistaken about regarding Eve.

And something Eve was hiding from Adam.

.

The explanation I gave to Adam on Venom.

I did tell a few lies in that.

My extracting the genes from an “Inheritor of Levia”—

It wasn’t from a corpse.

It was from a newborn baby.

.

At present, there is one “Inheritor of Levia” in this world.

And her name—is Eve Zvezda.

Adam’s twin sister.

.

Venom has some drawbacks.

The drug was created based on the genes taken from an “Inheritor of Levia”.

So, while it might sound obvious—

On one who has the antibodies to it—that is, an “Inheritor of Levia”, it has no effect.

Venom doesn’t work on Eve.

.

Naturally…I have no obligation to tell any of that to Adam.

<<prev------directory------next>>

[drabblesanddreams]

Sun- Dazai Osamu x reader (2/3)

Hey everyone, i literally just wrote this rn as i wanteed to get it up for Dazai’s birthday! Its Dazai’s point of view towards you in ‘moon’! A third part will be coming out in what happens at the end :)) You dont necessarily need to read the first part but if yall want to than its here. ill prolly edit this later

Part 1       Part 3

**UPDATE** edited!! im so sorry yall had to read that..thing before lolol it sucked ass im sorry

word count: 1.5k

warnings: none

summary: Dazais thoughts towards you

Dazai remembered the night he left the Port Mafia. More specifically, he remembered the night he left you. 

But he also remembered the first time he met you.

The memory of you resurfaces in his complex mind, your visage crystal clear like the waters of the lake outside of Yokohama.

His mind is always so sharp, so easy to grasp onto any ideas or concepts and store them away in his head, like a filing cabinet. It was one of the perks of his intelligence he supposes. So, when he shuts his eyes, let his eyelashes flutter and focus on the meeting that occurred between you two 8 years ago, the memory comes easy.

He remembered you standing before Mori, a mere child that was certainly younger than him. You stood beside an older woman, Dazai correctly assumed at the time that she was a relative of sorts judging by the similar features. You barely spoke a word and stood quietly for almost the entire meeting between the woman and Mori. As Mori’s prodigy, Dazai was usually around him especially after the death of the last Port Mafia’s boss.

It turns out this woman was bartering for her life in exchange for an object, and it turns out you were that object. She spoke of your ability, the possibilities and uses of it. In the end, Mori had agreed to the deal and decided to take you in. 

After all, another member was not a bad thing and if you proved to be a hindrance, you’d just simply be eliminated. Your relative was clearly happy at the outcome, but it didn’t matter that much seeing how Mori had her killed not long after the meeting.

You were such a meek and small child, Dazai couldn’t understand what use you’d be.

Dazai quickly lost interest in you, finding you to be another example of the basicity of the human race. Your actions were predictable, your reactions, your movements, you were just another piece that had been added to his chess board, a pawn if he’d like to name you.

Dazai didn’t see you for weeks afterwards, or perhaps he did but you quickly blended into the background with your quietness. 

The next time he saw you, you were sporting a bruise across your jaw, no doubt a result from training with your mentor. Everyone had just been exiting the meeting that had just taken place when someone called something out to you, your back had instantly stiffened.

He remembered watching you turn around to see who had said the mindless comment. The man who delivered the comment smiled smugly at your reaction, before continuing his words that hinted towards your weak and amicable nature.

 The emotion flashed across your face openly, a tightening of the jaw, furrowed eyebrows and clenching fists. Dazai thought you were just going to continue walking and so he almost turned away.

 That was one of his first incorrect judgements about you, because not a second later you knocked the man down and started delivering punches to his face. 

Of course, your attacks barely lasted as the man had quickly overturned the situation, seeing as he was older and heavier.

Dazai had witnessed this with a single thought, just how far could your kind nature be pushed, and if so, what are the most severe consequences that could arise from you snapping.

For the next several months that followed, he developed a friendship with you, at least that’s what you thought. He knew you were completely wrapped around his finger, seeing as you really didn’t have any other friends. 

Children were easy like that, he thought, you just had to give them the slightest taste of belonging and they will latch on for however long you need them to be.

Dazai knew his actions were wrong, but his sadistic nature always won, and he didn’t really care for what was right or wrong back then. It took nearly a year for you to put the pieces together, and when you did you were hesitant to ever talk to him again. You were fearful of him, Dazai supposed.

What he didn’t expect was that not long afterwards, you continued to stick around him. At that time, something shifted in you no doubt a consequence from the lessons from your mentor as well as Dazai’s influence. You were quickly learning that if one had to survive in the port mafia, you had to be deceitful and smart. No one was better at that than himself, so you quickly developed a not so secret admiration towards him.

The following years that followed were ones where he took careful observations of you. You clung onto strong beliefs and always answered injustice with the justice that was supposed to be carried out by the port mafia. 

Dazai quickly realized you were a contradiction, your determining in what was right and wrong was not necessarily what was inherently right or wrong. Sometimes you killed people who were more innocent than the ones you let roam free.

When you met Chuuya, Dazai didn’t realize how possessive he really was of you. The two of you always bickered like siblings and Chuuya was always opposite at showing affection towards you compared to himself. 

Dazai was always careful about his actions. He would draw a blanket over your unconscious body when your ability had lulled you into a deep sleep.

 If something was bothering you, he would manipulate everything behind the scenes so that you weren’t any longer. Advice he’d deliver to you contained words that had an underlying meaning that you were learning to pick out. 

Chuuya, on the other hand, would swing an arm around your shoulders, openly ask if you were hurt and would ruffle your hair annoyingly.

Dazai hated that you were so easily affectionate in return.

He also didn’t realize how much you had grown on him, how he always found something interesting about your nature every day.

It was until he was having one of his break downs that something changed between you two.

You grabbed his wrist, effectively halting his movements. his laughter ceased then, a defining silence overtaking your surroundings. Dazai let the smile slowly fall off his face and all that was left was his blank, cold stare.

The darkness in him was forever present, nothing could change that. It swallowed him up openly and left him aching for something that he couldn’t name.

 Dazai couldn’t understand, he probably wouldn’t understand ever the futility of his entire existence. He committed many crimes his time in the mafia and it seemed as if his perpetual sentence was to ponder his place in the world. He clearly couldn’t find it in the mafia.

Letting his faraway gaze linger forward, you stepped around his arm and stood on your tip toes. This movement did nothing to break his stare as you paused your own movements for a moment, observing him. Licking your lips, you reached forwards and wrapped your arms around him.

Being careful to not hold him too tight, you felt his body stiffen briefly before feeling his right arm come back down to his side.

 The gun dropped to the ground with a clang and you squeezed your eyes tight before opening them again. Then, you felt Dazai wrap his own arms around your petite form, squeezing tightly as if you might disappear into thin air.

 His head buried itself in the crook of your neck and you let one hand card through his hair gently.

The last few years that followed, an unspoken thing that occurred between the two of you. Nothing was ever said or done between the both of you but you both had a mutual understanding of sorts. 

It didn’t matter what girl he took to bed; you were scorned upon his heart.

His subtle affections towards you developed into a duty of care. So the night his world had turned upside down and he left the mafia, he decided not to take you with him.

Not only were you beginning to be dangerously attached to him, but you would also be in more danger than him if you left. He knew that as he was still trying to figure his place in his world, you were going to have to as well.

But this was something you had to do without him. 

The contradiction and lies you lived with the desperate clinging of your kind nature had to be resolved by you alone. The port mafia was no place for a personality like that so you either had to change or leave on your own accord.

Seeing you now, with that barely hidden shocked expression caused Dazai to feel a twinge of some emotion he hadn’t felt in years. Your hair had grown out considerably, you were taller now as well. But the guarded look in your eyes accompanied by the bags under your eyes and careful stance told him what choice you made in the end. Dazai let his eyes meet yours,

“Hello, (y/n)”

[lurafita]

Rich!Tony/Artist!Peter, part 2

Go here for Part 1

Okay. Gotta be honest, this part isn’t that much more interesting than the first part was. But I did some actual research for this one and most of the artworks described in the text were inspired (or unashamedly stolen) from this site: https://theartofeducation.edu/2017/10/26/11-fascinating-artists-inspired-science/

So, let’s get this done!

The Art of Science and the Science of Art

While self-satisfaction might not be very virtuous, Pepper couldn't help the proud smirk that spread over her face, as she watched Tony all but fawn over the different artworks.

“Are you seeing this, Pep? This is a glass model of a magnified virus cell. They installed tiny light sources in specific places and angles to show how and where the cell interacts with the human body. And then there is a whole other set of lights and mirrors that indicates which parts are targeted and gradually destroyed by an antiviral drug. Actually, the way the mirrors are positioned here... yep. If you go around the pedestal and look at it from the different angles, it's like a little movie. First you see the lights indicating the parasitic effect of the virus on the body, then the way the drugs counteract the effects, and once you reach full circle; Ah, see here? Now the lights and the mirrors and the shadows create the effect that the virus evaporated. Damn, that's clever.”

Tony walked around the pedestal once more, trying to make out the positions and calculate the angles of all the lights and mirrors used.

Pepper's previous gleeful smirk softened, as she watched her boss move on to the next exhibit, a gorgeous piece created with metals and specially coated glass. The reflected images and light created 'Sun Drawings', that moved and changed in response to sunlight and the passage of time.

Having been Tony Stark's personal assistant for almost 8 years now, Pepper had learned much about the inner machinations of the man. And at his very center, Tony Stark was an engineer. A mechanic. He could talk theoretical physics with the best of them, but he preferred practical results. Tony's work had a purpose, a direct impact.

Which was one of the reasons why he wasn't normally swayed by art.

“Okay, this here? Classic movie effects. Chemical reactions used to visualize the images of a nuclear explosion, but it all happens under a microscope.”

While the billionaire could certainly appreciate beautiful art, something that was nothing more than 'nice to look at' held no value to him. It was the same reason why he had tons of one night stands, and hardly any actual relationships in his life. He was at first attracted to a person's physical beauty, which usually led to sex. But when the sexual need had been sated, mere physical attraction wasn't enough to keep him interested in the person he had bedded the night before.

“Now this, this is art. Applied physics at its finest. Do you see how the magnets interact with and against each others polarity? This is a perfect demonstration of the symbolism behind the theory of gravitational forces.”

It was why Pepper had jumped on the chance to get her hands on the tickets to Peter Parker's first ever art exhibition. He had been steadily making a name for himself over the last two years, and the redhead had seen some of his early works while she was on vacation in Europe. The young man had been set up in a corner of a street market in Marseilles, and with the help of various visual and practical effects, had explained the complex mechanics behind aerodynamic principles, to his wide eyed and utterly fascinated audience.

“A model of Nikola Tesla's early design for a solar collector made by modern computer code. See this section here? That's programming code for data extraction. In this context, it translates to Tesla's attempt to convert the energy of solar rays into electrical power. It serves as a parallel between combining old and new resources. See? This is the kind of art one can actually talk about. Not a painting of a stupid fruit bowl.”

Whereas Tony used his genius and understanding of different areas of science to create and improve, Parker used his to teach and inspire. Parker's art was something that Tony could not only relate to, but also admire, because it had purpose beyond it's beauty.

The hour that Tony had initially given himself to suffer through the showcase had long since passed, as the billionaire found himself unable to curb any of his enthusiasm, as he grew ever more fascinated with every new piece of art. Other people milling about the rooms 'oohed' and 'aahed' as they inspected the different works of the artist, sipping on their glasses of complementary champagne. But Tony doubted they could truly grasp the idea; the genius behind it all.

He was going to buy it all. The whole exhibit. Everything. He wanted those pieces in his company, in his home, in his workshop. He wanted to have the computer coded Tesla piece in his office, as a symbol of Stark Industries work on renewable energy. He wanted to gift the glass model of the virus cell to Bruce, to celebrate the biochemist's latest break through in the field.

He wanted both the magnetic force field work and the microscopic chemical reactions in his workshop, as a source of constant inspiration. His fingers itched with the want to create, the need to pour his skills into his work.

He wanted... He wanted to meet the artist.

When they had made their way almost full circle around the exhibit, they stopped at what appeared to be the last of the show cases. This one was different from the rest. For one, it was made out of Play Dough, though that was a fact Tony only realized by reading the description. How the hell this Parker guy had managed to form a completely genuine looking circuit board out of such an inferior material as children's clay, he could only guess.

He wanted to talk to the artist.

Another thing that struck Tony was that this circuit board looked somehow familiar.

He leaned in closer.

“This one section here looks like a rather awkward welding job. The connections between the wires seem a bit clumped. I would put it down to the use of Play Dough, but the other details on the board are so clean... You know, this looks almost like-”

“-the circuit board you built when you were five years old.”

Both surprised by the new voice, Pepper and Tony quickly turned around. Just a step behind them stood a young man, dressed in a casual but nice enough suit, with deep brown eyes, fluffy looking chestnut hair and a shy smile. Pepper recognized the man she had seen in France right away, and held out her hand to him.

“Mr. Parker. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Virginia Potts. But please, feel free to call me Pepper. Everyone does.”

The artist took her hand with a pleasant smile.

“In this case, I insist on Peter. And the pleasure is mine, Pepper.”

Tony could hardly wait for the handshake to end, to insert himself into the introduction.

“So you are the surprisingly gorgeous face behind all these beauties. I'm-”

“Tony Stark. I know. I'm a big fan of your work, Mr. Stark.” Parker smiled brightly (and blushing heavily) at him and eagerly reached for his hand. Then he shyly nodded to the pedestal display. “Your earliest work included.”

He wanted...

“Just Tony will do. One question, though. Why Play Dough? I may not have been very skilled with the welding equipment back then, but I do remember using the actual parts needed.”

Peter turned to his work, a helpless sort of smile on his lips, as he explained.

“When I was in my last year of highschool, and it was time to make a decision regarding college, I felt helplessly defeated. Was I supposed to attend one that focused on all the things that fascinated me about science, or one that focused on all the things I loved about art? I didn't know if I would ever be able to meet the expectations others had placed upon me, and the ones I had placed upon myself. I became wary and anxious about every choice I made. Constantly questioning myself if it was worth it to try to combine the things I loved, or if I wouldn't be able to hold on to both at the same time. Science versus art. Wanting to pursue such opposite things seemed ridiculous. But then my teacher gave us the task of writing a paper about a person that had greatly influenced our society and progress. I chose to write about you. And during my research, I found an old newspaper article, front page, about the young Stark prodigy, who was already showing the whole world how smart he was. The ordinary 5 year old makes crayon drawings and forms simple shapes out of Plasticine. A few can already read some of their children's books, but many are still more focused on the pictures in them. But the 5 year old you broke out of the limitations perceived for kids, and defied expectations. And I thought to myself ‘Hey, if Tony Stark can build a circuit board at such a young age, then maybe I can find a way that doesn’t mean I have to give up on one of the things I love.’ So, I guess I used the clay to symbolize what was expected, and your final design to show how you rose above.”

That shy little smile again. He wanted...

“In fact, you have done nothing but risen, Mr.- Tony. You have been a great inspiration for me, over the years. Quite possibly even a bit of a muse, if you will.”

Tony was a bit stumped, honestly. He had never been lost for words before. Thankfully he caught himself quickly. 

He wanted...

“So, philanthropist, billionaire, genius, muse.” (Had he just replaced his usual playboy title with ‘muse’?) “I like that.” (He did.) 

Peter.

“As your muse, I get dibs, right?”

A confused little head tilt. 

Cute.

“Dibs?”

On you.

“On the art pieces.” Tony elaborated with a sweeping gesture of his arm. “They are up for sale, right?

“Oh, yes. It’s uhm... we will hold an auction in a bit, after I have officially introduced myself to everyone here and said a few words.” Peter looked distinctly uncomfortable with that bit.

Tony was just opening his mouth to say something else, when suddenly Pepper inserted herself back into the conversation. (He had admittedly forgotten that she was there.)

“Peter, I think the woman over there is trying to get your attention.”

They turned to see a middle aged woman in an elegant dress, subtly gesturing to him. Peter grinned a bit ruefully as he turned back to his two companions.

“That’s my aunt, and also kind of my manager. I guess it’s time for my big entrance.”

He offered his hand once more first to Pepper, then to Tony.

“Pepper, Tony, again, it was a pleasure meeting you. Since it’s an auction, I can’t exactly grant you dibs, as much as I would like to.” He grinned at Tony. “But about 75% of all our revenues tonight will be donated to The Future Hope Foundation, which is a research center focused on developing cures for different diseases, speacially in children. I will be talking a bit more about that one in my speech, provided my severely repressed stage fright doesn’t hit me in a few minutes. So just know that whatever you decide bidding on, it will be worth it.”

Tony wanted to keep holding on to that hand. A hand that was just as calloused as his own, but still somehow softer and more delicate.

“I’m sure it will be.”

You will be worth it.

Just as Peter turned to leave, he cast one last look at the Play Dough model.

“Take a look at the note beside the general description before things start going, would you?”

Then he and his aunt vanished out of the room, to prepare for Peter’s introduction.

Curious now, Tony and Pepper turned back around to the pedestal and found what Peter had been talking about.

‘Of all my works, this one is my favourite, not only because of what it represents to me, personally, but also because of the person who inspired it. Unlike many of the other pieces, that are named after that which they represent, for this one, no other title than

Indomitable

could have ever come to mind. This is the only piece in the show case that will not be part of the auction. As this one already belongs to Anthony Edward Stark.’

“Pep.”

“Yes, Tony.”

“If I win every single auction bid, which I will, I would be entitled to a date with the artist, right?”

“You are probably still going to have to ask him the old fashioned way.”

“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you all for coming tonight. Without further ado, it’s my sincere pleasure to introduce you to the man whose art work has brought you all here.”

Tony smiled. “I can do that.”

“I proudly present to you, Peter Parker!”

_________________________________________________________

The End.

Thanks to everyone for reading and liking the story! I hope you all enjoyed it, even though the story ends before Tony and Peter’s relationship really begins.

Thanks to the original prompt giver as well, due to the research I did for this story, I was able to see quite a few amazing art works.

Tagging: @unicornpower5301 -->why isn’t this stupid tag working?

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 118: The One Who Caused All Might’s End

Previously on BnHA: KACCHAN AND DEKU!!!!!!! ALONE! AT NIGHT!! KACCHAN WAS ALL “I KNOW ALL MIGHT GAVE YOU HIS QUIRK” AND DEKU WAS ALL “YEAH, WELL!... SO WHAT!” AND KACCHAN WAS ALL “WELL DUH THAT MEANS I WANT TO FIGHT YOU BECAUSE ALL MIGHT’S REALLY GREAT, SO IF HE GAVE YOU HIS POWER THEN YOU MUST BE REALLY GREAT TOO AND MAYBE I WAS WRONG THIS WHOLE TIME, SO LET’S FIGHT” AND I ALL BUT FELL OUT OF MY CHAIR. AND THEN KACCHAN DOVE AT HIM AND JUST PLOPPED HIM WITH A BIG OL’ RIGHT HOOK SAME AS ALWAYS AND DEKU TOTALLY FELL FOR IT AND KACCHAN WAS LIKE “LOL” AND THEN HE WAS LIKE “BRING IT” AND ALL OF A SUDDEN ALL MIGHT’S FACE WAS THERE AND WOW!!! BNHA, GUYS!!! IT’S A GOOD MANGA I LIKE IT A LOT!!!!!

(ETA: just a reminder that I write the “previously on” things immediately after I first read the chapter while it’s still fresh in my mind. I'd say this particular one captured my emotional state at the time pretty well.)

Today on BnHA: Aizawa’s ponytail makes its debut and it’s everything I could have ever hoped for. Also he gets a call from U.A.’s robot security about his two problem children having a fight on Ground Beta after curfew. But before he can head out to stop them, ~A MYSTERIOUS SHADOW~ greets him outside and who could that be, I wonder. Back at Ground Beta, Deku tries to talk Kacchan down and avoids his attacks while Kacchan grows increasingly desperate. Finally he breaks down completely and fucking screams at Deku to fight him, and reveals that he blames himself for being the reason All Might retired, and that he can’t stop thinking about it, and he doesn’t know what to do. So basically he’s a mess, and there are feels strewn about all over the damn place, and Deku -- who never could turn his back on someone who needs saving -- realizes that he has to fight back, because right now he’s the only person who can help.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 151 now, so any ETAs will reflect that. I’m not gonna make any progress this week; I’m too busy writing Kacchan essays and waiting for the holidays to wind down lol.)

“A Meaningless Fight” not to me it’s not

lol the security camera caught them putzing around after hours. and identified their homeroom teacher and notified him

DALSHFKALSDFKSLHKDL THE PONYTAIL!!!!!!????

THIS MUST BE WHERE THE ANIME WAS AT WHEN I FIRST STARTED READING. NO WONDER TUMBLR WAS AWASH WITH BAKUDEKU FEELS AND AIZAWA PONYTAIL SPAM. THIS IS AMAZING I LOVE LIFE

(ETA: yeah so this episode aired on September 15th, right when I was in the middle of reading the Sports Festival arc and the series was slowly beginning to take over my life. there were indeed a ton of gifs and reaction posts floating around, and I’m pretty sure this was right about when I realized it was time to block the “bnha spoilers” tag until I was fully caught up.)

now Aizawa’s stepping outside, but someone’s out there already. IS IT ALL MIGHT AND HE’S GONNA BE ALL “DON’T WORRY I GOT THIS”?

(ETA: it is indeed, and this means that All Might already knew the boys were fighting even before Aizawa did, even though Aizawa was the one who got the security alert. I’m only half-joking about him having some kind of tracking device implanted on Deku. it’s either that, or just some crazy good dad instincts. either way, one can’t help but be impressed.)

whoever it is, Aizawa seems surprised to see them

boy and I thought the last chapter was good. but barely two pages into this one and we’ve not only got Aizawa’s sexy ponytail, but also

(ETA: the smoke really adds to the effect here. does so throughout the whole chapter, in fact. Kacchan has such a cinematic quirk)

I stan one (1) amazing and incredible manga series

Deku’s asking again do they really have to fight. he clearly would rather talk it out instead. because like, apparently that’s suddenly an option that’s on the table after all this time?? KACCHAN IS CAPABLE OF TALKING ABOUT HIS FEELINGS, WHO EVEN KNEW?

Kacchan’s impatiently doing that explodey hand thing, but Deku’s gonna try and talk this one out anyway

but Kacchan’s attacking again

aahhhhhhhh META PART TWO!!!

somehow they look even younger in these flashbacks?? like this Deku cannot fucking be older than two. how do they even remember all this??

he’s screaming at Deku to fight him back and not just run away

more flashbackssssss

(ETA: oh hello is it time for more essaying. let’s say yes.

Kacchan’s feelings about Deku are so complicated. much more so than Deku’s own comparatively simple if contradicting feelings. clearly they got along well enough when they were little. but then Kacchan fell off that log and Deku tried to help him and Kacchan was like “WHAT! EVEN THOUGH I WAS CLEARLY FINE! HOW DARE” and that was that.

so we know from the chapter coming up after this one that Katsuki somehow got it in his head that Izuku was looking down on him. mostly this seems to stem from a genuine misunderstanding of Deku’s desire to help. Katsuki has always been very independent and likes to do things for himself. this is part of what he associates with being “strong”, and it’s clearly something he was already being admired and praised for even at a young age, so that no doubt further reinforced things in his mind. now add to this the fact that most four-year-olds are still learning and developing when it comes to empathy. so it genuinely might not have crossed Katsuki’s mind that not everyone feels the same way as he does when it comes to wanting and accepting help. put this all together, and we end up with Kacchan misinterpreting Izuku’s well-meaning gesture, and feeling insulted and patronized, and the two of them have their falling out.

and yet Izuku keeps following him.

even after Kacchan starts insulting him and beating him up. he’s still there, always, following him around like a shadow. and so Katsuki gets even meaner. at some point Izuku has to get the message, right?? but apparently not.

and so it keeps escalating. Katsuki gets worse and worse. but even though Izuku is now afraid of him, he still can’t help being drawn to him. meanwhile Katsuki can’t fucking understand why Deku won’t fucking quit no matter how horrible Katsuki is to him. so he once again takes it as Izuku being condescending. this is Izuku’s way of challenging him. showing that it doesn’t matter what Katsuki does, because Izuku will still always be better than him.

but here’s the thing. that idea of Izuku thinking he’s better than Katsuki -- that couldn’t have just come out of nowhere like that. if he really did believe Izuku was just a quirkless good-for-nothing weakling, it wouldn’t have bothered him that much. that kind of anger doesn’t just come out of left field, and it certainly couldn’t have sustained itself for that long unless there was something deeper fueling it. that something being fear. in other words, Katsuki hated Izuku because deep down he was afraid that somehow Izuku really would surpass him. because he knew from the start that there was something about him, something he didn’t understand, which made it all the more frightening. that something being Izuku’s heart; his spirit; his will to protect others. his Main Character Energy, which radiates out from him at strange times, and takes over in those instances where “my body just moved before I could think.” it’s what made All Might choose him as his successor. we’ve all seen it. y’all know what I’m talking about.

and even though Katsuki doesn’t understand it, some part of him can still feel it all the same. but where Izuku is drawn to Katsuki’s own strength, Katsuki is intimidated by Izuku’s. very likely in part because of his zero-sum mentality. if he acknowledges Izuku’s strength, it’s the same as acknowledging his own weakness. Izuku has something he lacks, and he knows it, and he’s somehow smug about it. he thinks he’s better than him! but fuck that, because Katsuki’s the one who’s going to be number one! right?? but there’s that nagging fear that maybe, just maybe, that isn’t true. and so he gets worse and worse, and tries to get Izuku to stop trailing behind him, tries to shake him off. but it doesn’t work. and so the cycle continues on and on.

and then UA. and all of a sudden, Izuku has a quirk. and is suddenly growing at a prodigious rate. and Katsuki’s growing too, but not as fast. and this is it. this is everything he was afraid of. and every time he hits a setback, and every time Izuku has another victory, those doubts start to gnaw at him more and more. until finally, Kamino.

but we’ll get to that in a minute. to be continued.)

he’s remembering the consoling speeches All Might gave him in chapters 11 and 62. why yes I have Kacchan’s angst chapters memorized. what, doesn’t everyone

omg

-- HE’S COMING AT DEKU WITH A KICK

HE’S NEVER FUCKING DONE THAT BEFORE. HE DOESN’T FIGHT WITH KICKS CUZ HIS FEET DON’T FUCKING EXPLODE DUH. BUT HE’S KICKING DEKU THOUGH, AND WHY?? COULD IT BE BECAUSE DEKU FIGHTS WITH KICKS NOW. OR MAYBE HE JUST FUCKING FELT LIKE KICKING HIM I DUNNO!

LOOK AT THIS!!!

WHAT A CLEAN AND COHERENT FUCKING ACTION PAGE AND I LOVE IT!! DEKU PULLING SOME CAPOEIRA SHIT

NOW KACCHAN’S STUMBLING BACK, AND HE’S STILL THINKING “WHY”

and he’s just lying there now and isn’t getting back up

give me angst. should I go make some popcorn. I want angst now. give it

DEKU IS EXTENDING HIS ARM AGAIN

lol remember back when he was being calm about this. or pretending to be calm

he’s fucking SCREAMING at Deku to fight him. “WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM?!”

and he keeps asking “why”

oh my god it’s what I thought. it’s exactly what I thought isn’t it. isn’t it. it is. isn’t it

(ETA: I’ve written so many essays about these two that I kind of lost track, but I think this is referring to the one I wrote as an ETA for chapter 42 here, about why Katsuki couldn’t stand it when Deku offered him help when they were four. but little did I know that Kacchan was actually about to shift to another subject entirely!)

tissues should I get some tissues. I’ll go get

oh shit you guys. lol. :’D

hahaha. okay wow

just. give me a moment to process

like. so this whole time, he looked down on Deku, but actually Deku is doing everything right, and now he’s the one who keeps fucking up. and now apparently he blames himself!? for what happened to All Might??! so on top of his weird complex with Deku, now there’s guilt there also, and for something that was absolutely not his fault. oh shit

oh my god. angst baby. angst for days angst for weeks lifetime supply yessss

tell me more about your guilt Kacchan. let it out honey

(ETA: shout out here to Okamoto Nobuhiko, Bakugou’s Japanese VA. I assume everyone reading this has watched this episode in the anime, but if not, do yourself a favor and go check that out, because all of the emotions from the manga are cranked up to 11 and it’s amazing. and Bakugou’s VA in particular does an incredible job of capturing the turbulence in his emotions. his voice wavers and cracks and vacillates between angry and confused and frustrated, and he sounds every inch like a 16-year-old boy who’s just overwhelmed and fighting back tears and trying to keep himself together. he just totally sells it, and it’s easily one of the best vocal performances I’ve ever heard in an anime.)

holy. just, this is even more than I ever dared to hope speculate, honestly. as horrible as Deku felt about it, Kacchan was completely fucked up by it too. not only is he dealing with the reality of a world without All Might just like everyone else is, he’s also been struggling the entire time with the weight of the thought that it was him. his fault

(ETA: hello I’m back.

so! Kamino. Kacchan gets kidnapped. somehow he’s singled out from among all the possible targets the villains could have had, and they think they can turn him to their side. and even the media is talking about how ~unstable~ he is and maybe he really will do it. he doesn’t, of course. and he talks big and he keeps his cool and he does his best to fight back. but it’s tense. and maybe a lot scarier and more dangerous than he cares to acknowledge at any point.

but then All Might shows up. All Might, his childhood hero, the man he looks up to more than anyone. All Might saves him. and things do get pretty dicey for a bit. for a few seconds he actually ends up back in the villains’ clutches, or very nearly at any rate. but then All Might is there again, and then somehow Deku and Kirishima and the others show up too, and they help him escape he goes along with their escape plan even though he totally had it under control, so that he doesn’t get in All Might’s way. and that’s it. he’s safe again. all is well.

except that it very much is not. because all of a sudden All Might is struggling. and then suddenly he’s different. all of a sudden he’s transformed into this scraggly-looking skeletal figure right before their eyes. and just like that, everything changes.

and in the end All Might still wins, in spite of everything, because it’s All Might. but something is still terribly wrong. and then all of a sudden All Might is pointing at Deku, and “you’re next,” and the pieces finally click into place. Deku has All Might’s power. All Might gave Deku his quirk. All Might himself recognized Deku as someone worthy enough, strong enough, to receive that power. here Katsuki is, getting recruited by fucking villains, and meanwhile Deku is being acknowledged by the hero they both admire.

there are some very obvious implications here. clearly one of them is doing something right. and the other one is very plainly not. it’s possible, even, that this is something Katsuki has suspected in the back of his mind for a while now, even before all of this. something he was in denial about, but was secretly becoming more and more certain of.

and then All Might retires.

that fight against All for One -- the fight that only happened because All Might had to rescue him -- ends up being his last stand. all of a sudden he’s out of commission, his power spent. all of a sudden the unthinkable has happened. all of a sudden there is no more Symbol of Peace.

and all of that. is. Katsuki’s. fault.

“if I’d only been stronger...” “if I hadn’t gotten captured...”

so he starts having thoughts like this. but then the thing is that he can’t tell anyone. because no one else is supposed to know about All Might giving his power to Izuku. so they wouldn’t know that All Might was already weakened going into that battle with All for One. that he was weakened, but went into battle anyway in order to rescue him. and in doing so ended up using up the last of his power. because of him. he fucked everything up.

and imagine if they did know. what would they even think? the world is in chaos now and it’s all his fault. villains are running amok, society is in upheaval, and everyone is feeling the stress. All Might’s walking around all bandaged up with his fucking arm in a cast because you know, it’s nice to have that visual reminder too of just how close he came to actually losing and fucking dying instead of just retiring. and he still won’t acknowledge the connection he has to Deku, though. so clearly he’s still trying to keep it a secret, and so Katsuki shouldn’t bother him about it. so he tries to just move on, because what else can he do.

but he can’t stop thinking about it. the thoughts keep surfacing no matter what he does. he can’t relax, he can’t escape them. and the thing is that he’s very obviously distressed by all this, because here he is now fucking breaking down in front of Deku of all people. showing weakness; fucking crying in front of Deku, because that’s how bad it is. bad enough that he wasn’t able to keep holding it in. bad enough that he had to confess it to him, because he was the only one he could talk to about this, because Deku is the only other one who knows. and you can see the pain in his expression and in his body language, and hear it in his voice -- and once again, props to Okamoto for that, because damn -- enough so that I don’t really need to keep breaking it down. it speaks for itself. when your guilt is hurting you so badly that you start spilling your guts even though you cherish your pride above everything else, and even though you fucking despise the person you’re spilling your guts to, that means it’s bad, guys. it’s really fucking bad.

tl;dr Kacchan is not okay. hell, that could have been the title of the fucking chapter. or this whole fucking mini-arc. my boy needs hugs. but in the absence of hugs, sincere rival beatdowns and heart-to-hearts will also suffice.)

Deku is making the same face he made when he learned about Todoroki’s past

and now, after having a moment to process it, he’s responding in the same way that he did with Todoroki

oh shit dude

like, I know Kacchan likes when people take fights seriously but damn. why did I fucking laugh

yessss heal his wounded heart Deku. by fighting him. help him feel like he’s not just a useless bum who’s somehow been going backwards and making things worse

EMBRACING THOSE FEELINGS HEAD ONNNNNNNNNN YESSSSS

I can’t believe it’s the end of the fucking chapter again! and that I get to click to the next chapter right away! binge reading is the best you guys omg

  there isn’t a bonus because this was the end of the volume! too bad, we’ll just have to make do with this being the greatest chapter of all time. poor us

[leilani-lily]

Lost and Found (ToothxPitch)

.:For @heypapergirl:. 

“London, sector 3, bottom left second molar! Sydney, sector 5, top first incisor!”

The sun was slowly descending on the Tooth Palace, indicating the end of a perfect day. The fading light sparkled against the tiles of pillars hanging high in the mountaintops, the colours reflecting off, creating tiny light rainbows all over the walls. The gold decorations sparkling and giving off a warm glow. Tiny, iridescent fairies were busy at work as always, flitting with either tiny tooth treasures or shiny coins. Thousands flew in and out of the every busy palace, the hustle and bustle never ending. 

In the middle of it all was the Mother herself; the Tooth Fairy. She darted here and there from each fairy, giving commands, gushing over specific teeth or silently scolding certain children for not brushing properly. However, her eyes were bright and alert; feeling completely in her element as new memories flowed into her Kingdom and were safely stored in sparkling cylindrical cases. Toothania couldn’t be more at peace.

A soft yawn escaped her lips as she rubbed her eyes, not realizing how weary she was from such a long day. Baby Tooth instantly noticed her Mother’s sudden fatigue, and zipped up to her right away, chirping like a bird in her ear. Tooth giggled to herself.

“Baby Tooth, I’m honestly ok. I don’t need to rest.” she smiled sweetly to her companion, but the little fairy was having none of it. She gave her a glare as she angrily chirped again, using her tiny hands to try and push Tooth away. As if that would do anything. Tooth openly laughed.

“Alright! Alright!” Tooth snickered, turning towards the tiny fairy, “I’ll just have a quick nap. You’re in charge while I’m gone. And make sure the daytime workers switch with the nighttime ones! If I’m having a break, I want to make sure everyone else gets one too.” 

Baby Tooth gave a small salute, making Toothania beam at her little prodigy.

“What would I do without you?” Tooth smiled, kissing one of her fingers and lightly tapping Baby Tooth’s feathered head. Baby Tooth chittered happily, nuzzling into her finger for a moment before zooming off, determined to make her Mother proud. Tooth sighed happily and fluttered up into the palace towards her room, feeling absolutely high on life and love for her little baby fairies.

Her mind was in a daze as she entered her room, joy filling her heart, but drowsiness clouding her eyes. It was no wonder she had a near heart attack when she realized she was not alone in the room.

“I must say Toothiana, these are really the most luxurious pillows I have ever laid on. You must tell me where you got them.”

Tooth’s tired body instantly snapped awake as she turned to her bed, seeing a long, dark figure casually sprawled on her mattress, surrounded by cushy pillows and blankets. Pitch Black had made himself at home as he admired the patterns on the pillows, not seeming to care at how shell-shocked Tooth was. 

“Persian? Very nice; though I shouldn’t be surprised. You always did seem to like this style, just like your mother-!”

Pitch didn’t even get a chance to finish as Tooth suddenly bolted towards him, screaming a warrior cry as she raised a clenched fist. Pitch practically fell off the bed, getting tangled in the sheets as he narrowly escaped a swing from the fairy. He quickly ducked and dodged each of her blows as she advanced towards him, a yelp of fright occasionally escaping his lips.

“Tooth! Toothania stop this! Too-! Moon above! Would you- Ach! Would you stop this?!”

Feeling his blood begin to boil, he quickly grabbed onto Tooth’s wrists and pushed her backwards until she was on the bed, him pinning her down beneath him. Tooth struggled and squirmed beneath him, grunting and angrily crying out. Pitch rolled his eyes as a wave of black sand shimmered over her mouth, silencing her growls. She continued to squirm, trying to escape his clutches, making him all the more irritated.

“For Moon’s sake Tooth! Will you just stop for a moment and listen to me??”

The look of shock and angered bewilderment on Tooth’s face was almost priceless, but given the certain circumstances, this was no time to laugh. Pitch could tell Tooth had something to say, so he hesitantly commanded the sand away, allowing her to speak.

“And why on Earth would I ever listen to you??” she roared, causing even Pitch to flinch ever so slightly, “After everything you’ve done to me?? My fairies?! What more could you want Pitch?!?”

Pitch’s grip on her wrists tightened, feeling his anger begin to grow. But he knew very bloody well that she spoke nothing but the truth. Eventually, his grip on her weakened ever so slightly. He sighed heavily, finally looking her in the eyes again. Tooth was shocked to see such a serious look on his face. 

“…. I need your help. Please.”

Now Tooth knew for sure something was seriously wrong. Pitch never said please. Ever. She momentarily lost herself in his eyes as they looked so solemnly into hers. She never realized how fascinating his eyes were: golden rimmed with a cool gray, almost like a solar eclipse. She had never seen eyes so intriguing. She quickly shook her head, focusing back to the matter on hand.

“You can’t be serious. Why in Manny’s name would I ever help you? I should tie you up right now and throw you to my fairies. They would be more than happy to have their revenge on you.”

A smirk slowly grew on Pitch’s face as his eyelids lowered.

“Hmmm. Yes. You would like to see me tied up now, wouldn’t you~?”

Tooth’s face suddenly erupted in heat, her cheeks turning bright red against her pale skin. Suddenly realizing the position she was in, she felt her face grow even hotter and all the more embarrassed. She began to squirm again under his clutches, not noticing the smile of amusement growing on Pitch’s face. 

“Toothania! You’re so flushed! My my, are you thinking naughty thoughts?”

Tooth’s heart kept into her throat at those words as she struggled more. She looked up angrily at the shadowed man, trying to keep her composure but finding it rather difficult.

“Get off of me.”

“Hmmmm. No, I think not. This is far too amusing to pass up.” Pitch was practically giddy as he leaned in closer, making her even more shy. Her eyes flashed with anger.

“Pitch-!”

“Fine, fine, I’ll get up.” Pitch finally drawled, making Tooth breath a sigh of relief. But Pitch’s grip tightened, his face suddenly growing very serious once again. “But only if you promise to help me.” 

Tooth groaned in irritation. How could she possibly help him? What could he possibly want from her? She continued to struggle, but she found herself trapped underneath him. It seemed she didn’t have much choice. She gave him a sideways glance, still not trusting him.

“If this effects the children in any way, or harms anyone I love-!”

“No. Nothing like that. I promise no harm will come to you, or your precious fairies or Guardians, or, heaven forbid, the children.” Pitch almost gagged on that last point, but made sure to keep his composure. 

“Once this is over, I’ll leave you alone. I promise…. I would cross my heart or even go as low as to pinky swear if it made you feel any better, but, as you can see…” His eyes flickered to his hands holding onto Tooth’s wrists, then back to her eyes, “My hands are a little full at the moment.”

Tooth gave him a long, hard stare. She had gotten very good at being able to tell whether someone was lying or not. Children often lied about whether they had brushed or flossed their teeth, and after centuries of being occasionally lied to, as innocent of a lie it was, she had gotten rather good at revealing the truth from someone. Pitch was still staring at her, the smallest of playful smirks on his face. But as she continued her glare, his smile slowly fell, and a look of pain replaced it.

“Tooth…” he almost whispered, making Tooth’s eyes widen in surprise, “… You’re the only one who can help me… Please.” 

The sorrow in his eyes baffled Tooth completely. She had never expected to actually feel… sorry for Pitch. Whatever this request was; it certainly meant a lot to him, more than his lifelong goal of creating a new Dark Age. Something personal. And she knew, without a doubt, he was not lying. 

After a long hard stare, Tooth finally gave a sigh of defeat and nodded her head. Pitch seemed surprised she said yes, because a look shock and hope suddenly filled his face; a look Tooth wasn’t used to seeing on the dark man. Pitch, realizing he was showing his emotions, quickly shook his head and grunted in irritation, finally removing himself from the feathered female. Tooth immediately jumped to her feet, feeling relieved from finally being freed and out of that embarrassing situation. After quickly composing herself and smoothing down her feathers, she turned to the Boogeyman.

“Alright Pitch,” she stated, “What is it you so desperately need help with?” 

Pitch slipped a hand into his dark robe, making Tooth realize there was a hidden pocket in his clothing. Curiosity was getting the better of her. When he pulled it out, he opened his hand and looked at it, and a tiny, fond smile spread on his face. Finally looking at Tooth once again, an amused smirk rose.

“I believe you might remember this little souvenir.”

Laying in the palm of his hand was a white, pearly molar. Of all the things Tooth was expecting, it certainly wasn’t this. 

“That morning… on the lake…” She whispered, remembering that fateful battle years ago. When she had decked him right on the jaw before he disappeared in the night. The tooth that she knocked out of him…

She snorted.

Pitch looked on unamusingly as she tried to cover her laughter. She couldn’t help but snicker a little bit; it was one of her most fulfilling memories. She had never been so satisfied. And the look on his face was just the icing on the cake.

“Alright yes yes, laugh it up.” Pitch sighed, “Please, do continue to laugh at one of the most humiliating moments of my life. It doesn’t hurt me at all, I swear.” 

Tooth’s giggles simmered down as she wiped an eye, clearing her throat as she collected herself. Finally taking a breath, she fluttered closer to him to look at the tooth in more detail.

It was his bottom, second molar to the left, and Tooth was surprised to see how clean it was. Not a cavity or chip in sight. Not only that, but it seemed polished; as if it was a rare jewel. No dust nor dirt to be seen. It seemed like Pitch had taken good care of it. Tooth wondered how many night’s he spent studying the molar, keeping it close to him almost like a sacred treasure. 

… But why?

“You’re probably wondering why I still have this,” Pitch began, jolting Tooth out of her deep thoughts. After a solemn pause, the dark man continued. 

“… I wasn’t joking when I said Frost and I had a lot in common. Being all alone, not being believed in by anyone… and not knowing who we used to be.” Tooth found her heart sinking as the spirit spoke, guilt seeping into her bones. She thought about Jack, about how tortured the poor boy was and how awful she felt for him after hearing his story. She never fully realized that, in another life, Pitch was just like him; young, alone, confused, and afraid.

“… I don’t remember the man I used to be… Whether I had a life before this or not, if maybe I was a better man than I am now… I have no idea where my baby teeth have gone; probably turned to dust at this point.” Pitch paused, looking down at the little bone in his hand, “But this… This could be the key to something. A memory locked away in my mind that can only be opened with your help.”

Pitch looked up at Toothania once again, and she had to catch her breath at the look on his face. So full of sorrow, yet the spark of hope that shone in his eyes made her stop breathing for a moment. 

“I don’t know whether this will work or not… but if there’s a chance, I want to know. Toothiana… Help me to remember who I used to be.” 

A shiver ran down Tooth’s feathered body as the dark figure; the man she had fought for centuries and hated all her life, was basically pleading on his knees for her help. It was such a strange situation to be in. Her mind was screaming for her to refuse; to yell and scream and hurt him, especially after everything he had done to her. She should be furious.

And yet…

Her kind, giving heart. A heart that would leap at the chance to help someone remember precious memories. A heart so motherly, loving, and protective over anyone who seems to be suffering. A heart that, no matter what, would do anything for the sake of others… even if they had wronged her. 

Silence hung in the air as the two figures stood still, each looking at the little pearl in Pitch’s palm. Finally, Tooth reached out and gently took the molar, inspecting it more up close before finally looking at Pitch. He straightened up and looked at her, determination in his eyes.

“… Are you ready?” she spoke. Sometimes seeing the memories tied to a tooth wasn’t always easy. Most were good, some not so much. She had to make sure he was prepared for whatever the outcome.

Without even a second thought, Pitch gave a quick nod of his head, as if he had rehearsed it. It seemed like he had preparing for this moment for a long time, and Tooth knew that he was going to go through with it. That being said, she reached out her free hand and slipped it into Pitch’s long, cold palm. Too busy concentrating on the task ahead, she didn’t notice the startled look on Pitch’s face or the embarrassed grunt as he averted his now slightly flushed face. She closed her eyes and relaxed her body, focusing all of her energy on the tooth and Pitch’s hand.

“Let your mind relax,” Toothania breathed, bringing the loose molar up to Pitch’s forehead and pressing the tiny bone up to his head, “Try to think back on the past, as far as you can remember. Delve deep into you subconscious, let memories of the past flow forward.”

A blinding light started to shimmer from the tooth, growing brighter and brighter with each passing second. In a moment, all was white around them, and Pitch found himself scrunching his eyes closed tight against the intense light. Finally adjusting to the new brightness, the Boogeyman slowly opened his eyes and gasped softly as colourful images played before him. Tooth, still holding his hand and holding the tooth to his head, looked around the white abyss as well, watching reels of Pitch’s past float around them, like little bubbles floating by on a summer’s breeze. 

A royal family of Lunar people. Pitch smiling in a general’s outfit covered with shining medallions. A woman with long, dark hair and a kind smile. A little girl with that same smile and Pitch’s eyes. Darkling’s surrounding them both, but the little girl barely escaping. Pitch trying to save them, but then being surrounded and consumed by the darkness…

… A little girl, alone and crying on a shooting star.

Tooth watched each memory come and go, amazed by such a story. It was like nothing she had ever seen. She knew Pitch spoke of having a dark past, but this? This was much worse than what she could have ever expected. No wonder he was the way he was…

Pitch could hardly breath as these memories flashed before him, like tiny pieces of a puzzle slowly fitting together into a tragic backstory. He felt his lungs squeeze in on himself as he remembered, tears falling freely as he remembered everything that had happened. He couldn’t breathe, it was like he was drowning, deeper and deeper into the blue. He thought he was ready for whatever may come his way. But not this. 

“S-Stop it.” He barely whispered, making Tooth quickly turn back to him, “P-please… make it stop.”

Tooth didn’t need to be told twice. In an instant, she removed the molar from Pitch’s forehead, making the white room and memories softly melt and fade away, eventually leaving the pair back in Tooth’s bedroom. A heavy silence hung in the air, both too afraid to even move or speak. 

Finally, Pitch felt his legs give out beneath him as he fell to his knees, the tears never seeming to stop from pouring down his face. He made no sounds, no cries or moans of anguish. He simply knelt there, the tears flowing like a never-ending waterfall. Tooth stood looking over him a moment, still shocked at what she saw, and not sure what to even say to him.

“I… I had a family.”

It was barely a whisper, but as soon as she heard those words, Tooth immediately stooped down to his level, safely placing a reassuring hand on Pitch’s shoulder. He flinched at the contact at first, but relaxed under her warm hand. He didn’t look at her; he simply stared ahead; his mind clearly in another world. She kept his eyes locked on him.

“I… was a warrior hero… I…. I had a wife and-!” Pitch’s voice broke, “My beautiful daughter…”

This was too much, even for Tooth. She knew what it was like to lose someone special. Her own parents were taken from her far too quickly. She knew exactly what Pitch was feeling. Boogeyman or not, she knew what she had to do. She did to him what she had needed all those years ago when she found out of her parent’s passing.

She leaned forward and brought Pitch into a hug. 

Pitch’s lean body was extremely stiff against her own soft curves; he clearly wasn’t use to this kind of affection, which made Tooth’s heart break even more. But finally, the man’s long back finally curled up unto her, loosening with each passing second. He never lifted his own hands to reciprocate the hug, but he pressed his head against her shoulder, leaning against her so much she was afraid she would topple over. She felt her heart rate quicken as he melted into her touch, but she immediately pushed it away, trying to soothe the pained creature before her.

Minutes passed between the two until finally, Pitch lifted himself until his back was straight again. His eyes were still damp, and slightly red, but he seemed to have calmed a little as he finally looked at Toothania straight in the eye. His eye’s were still like a solar solstice, but Tooth could have sworn the gold hidden between the grey was slightly brighter; more coloured. 

“My daughter…” Pitch finally breathed, “My sweet Emily Jane… She’s still alive…” A broken, single laugh escaped his mouth, which he quickly covered with his hand, but the smallest of smiles still remained on his lips. Tooth gave a sympathetic smile and nodded, trying to encourage the shadowed man. The two sat in silence again as both thought to themselves, reflecting on the night and its events.

Finally, Pitch rose to his feet, making Tooth look up curiously at him and his sudden change of behaviour. Mere minutes ago he looked like the most broken man she had ever seen. But now. Now there was a glimmer in his eye, his mouth set in a determined line as he took a deep breath and stood tall.

“I have to find her. I have to know what happened to her.”

He continued to look forward for a moment before looking down at Tooth. The sudden head swivel made Tooth jump ever so slightly, but she looked up at him awestruck. Suddenly, a small, peaceful smile grew on Pitch’s face as he offered her his hand. Her fluttery heart once again leapt into her chest as she accepted his assistance, placing her tiny bird hand into his own strong one. In one fowl swoop, he gently helped lift her to her feet, both eyes locked on each other. 

“Tooth, I-!” Pitch hesitated for a moment, “I never thought I had a real purpose in this world. But you just helped me realize that there’s still something out there for me. That I’m…” not completely alone? “That I’m still around for a reason… And it’s all thanks to you.” Pitch’s free now rested on top of Tooth’s hand, now sandwiched between both of his grey ones. Tooth’s eyes flickered from his hands to his face, feeling some heat beginning to warm her cheeks. 

“… Thank you, Toothiana, Queen of Flight. You have my deepest gratitude.”

And with that, the shadowed man sunk to the floor, a mass of black sand shifting and swerving along the floor, up the wall, and flying out into the setting sun, leaving Tooth completely alone, as if it had never even happened. 

Tooth stood, dumbfound, trying to wrap her head around everything that had happened. As her mind finally processed everything, the smallest of smiles crept up her face, her eyelids finally relaxing and drawing heavy. What an eventful night it had been; so many different emotions skirting here and there. From anger to peace to sorrow to hopeful. At least it had a somewhat happy ending. Or at least, Tooth thought so.

She still couldn’t believe Pitch had such a past. She still despised everything that he had done to her friends and fairies, but now… not everything seemed so black and white. Some of it was beginning to meld into different shades of grey; just like the shadowed man himself. Maybe he wasn’t so black and white. Maybe he was just a shade of grey himself; maybe Tooth needed to look him over once again before finally deciding who he truly was. An enemy? A loving father? A good man?

A small smile crept up her mouth as she shook her head. She was too tired to think of this any further. She was tired even before all of this craziness had happened; now she was utterly exhausted. Finally beat from such a day, she fluttered to her bed and flopped on her many pillows, sighing happily as she snuggled into the comfort of her sacred haven. She couldn’t help but giggle tiredly to herself as she felt her eyelids grow heavy.

They really were the most luxurious pillows ever. 

HELLO HI I’M SORRY THIS IS LATE BUT @heypapergirl SURPRISE I’M YOUR SANTA BEOTCH

I hope this is what you were looking for!! I had so much fun with this prompt ^^ Sorry its long? I got carried away?? And sorry if there’s any spelling errors, didn’t have time to edit ;A;  Anyways, I hope you enjoy!! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! :D  @rotgsecretsanta

[coffeedrivenfiction]

I’ve Always Wanted To Do That (The Incredibles fanfic)

He wasn't actually sleeping, more like lounging. Lounging on the living room couch on a lazy Saturday with a magazine resting on his face and virtually nothing to do. His homework was finished, the chores were done, and the house was vacant. Since turning eighteen, Violet had taken to enjoying the slight slack in the leash that pertained to dating that kid Tony, who she was miraculously on her third year with; Jack-Jack was at Aunt Edna's, being treated like the surrogate son he so obviously was to her and no doubt being forced into a bevy of different costumes suited for his powers; and Mr. Incredible, free to be himself to a certain degree, was out with Frozone.

Being a teenager was really no different than being a kid. So he was fourteen now. Big whoop. Literally nothing had changed besides the length of his flyaway hair, his school, and the suffocating amount of homework he was given every day. He and the rest of his family were still under witness protection while the government dragged feet in weighing the exact worth of Supers against a cost analysis following the destruction they were sure to cause 'saving the day'. The fall of Supers in no way meant the fall of villains—an occurrence that should have been painfully obvious from the onset—and so certain ones were being allowed back into the line of duty to combat the increasing wave of unrest.

Slowly but surely, Supers were being accepted again.

Winston Deavor was still a prominent figure in the integration of Supers, from back when his sister went rogue to this very day, and the betrayal at the hands of his own flesh and blood had only spurred him on further. The process was plodding as hell to be sure but not without its benefits. His mom, Elastigirl, was still the face of the program, and she was making extraordinary strides toward proving that 'saving the day' could be done with as little collateral damage as possible thanks to her elegance and natural battle tact, and it didn't hurt that she had a massive fanbase backing her.

Back in the day, Elastigirl was already considered a household name, but now? Four years later? She was virtually infamous. Everyone knew her, people all over the world loved her, countries wanted her to make guest appearances, there were parades and parties, endorsement deals and sponsorships, she had apparel everywhere knickknacks were sold—there was even an Elastigirl videogame called Elastigirl: A Stretch In Time. To this day, Dash still found that to be the most stupidest name attached to the most stupidest gaming premise ever. Why they chose to make his mom this time-hopping superhero, he would never know.

Still, beyond all of that, beyond the numerous press releases and public events and award ceremonies, not a single soul outside of her family, Mr. Dicker, and Winston knew Elastigirl's true identity, which was a testament to the statute of secrecy concerning not only her but some of the other high profile Supers in the field. Mostly because trying to figure out Elastigirl's true identity had reached astronomical levels of interest, to the point where people adamantly theorized on who it might be based on hair length, eye color and other characteristics. Not that his mom cared—she found the whole fascination over her ridiculous—she only cared about creating a better, villain-free world for her family. She didn't care to relieve the 'glory' days that she consistently tried to talk his dad into letting go. Her only priorities pertained to being a devoted wife and raising her children; Super'ing around the world was just an unwanted side-effect to accomplish that.

On the other glove, Mr. Incredible was over the moon with the steady integration of Supers and gladly took on whatever jobs his wife didn't want to, even the ones that led him to other continents. Occasionally, after some extreme begging and pleading, Helen would relent to letting either Dash or his sister join in, depending on the severity of what needed to be done; sometimes they even went as a family. Those journeys turned out to be the perfect bonding adhesive, the stories told between them, the laughs shared, the dangers crossed….

It was fun, being able to just be themselves every once in awhile. Being bottled up as an ordinary citizen was no longer such an arduous task thanks to frequent outings that let everyone stretch their wings.

And that meant the most annoying aspect of Dash—always whining about not being able to be free, to be himself—melted away, leaving behind a far more levelheaded speedster.

"Ohhhh, Daaaaash…."

The sweet songbird-like tones of his mother calling tickled Dash's ears and he felt his cheeks begin to burn.

Damn it….

It was no secret that Dash loved his mom. Leaving the shoes of a kid behind and stepping into those of a globetrotting teenage Super had given him a new appreciation for this auburn-haired woman who had taken care of and loved him even during his most unbearable moments. Whenever his dad stepped out to handle Super business tailored to him (that Winston figured wouldn't yield too much cost damage-wise), Dash would self-proclaim himself as man of the house, and he took that role to heart.

His mom, Violet, Jack-Jack—even if they were all accomplished Supers in their own right, save for his little prodigy of a brother who everyone already expected to herald the end of villainy when he grew up, Dash placed their well-being over whatever trouble the world at large happened to be suffering through. Not that any of them took him seriously: Violet nearly pissed herself from laughing, his dad gave him the most patronizing pep talk about responsibility and knowing ones role, and his mom… well… she'd called it the cutest thing he had ever done, bar none.

"Awww, look at you, momma's little hero," she had said back then, eskimo kissing him into a void of embarrassment. "Well then, I'll be counting on you to keep me safe, okay?"

That much went without saying. It was a pledge Dash carried with him as he grew, year by year, remaining ever vigilant. So there was no denying that puberty was a bitch—all the growing, the danglings, the new bells and whistles—especially when surrounded by others going through the same awkward motions and having to deal with the unending comments his schoolmates made concerning his mom whenever she came to pick him up and actually got out of the car. Not only did his mom have the entire male populous unknowingly under her finger, there were quite a few girls who were quite keen to get to know her as well, even going so far as to try and invite themselves to his house under the pretense of dating or needing a study-buddy.

Contrary to popular belief, Dash was well aware of just how unrelentingly sexy his mother was; he had to deal with it every blessed day he saw her walk around in pajamas, in shorts, even in a bathrobe. He knew that for a woman in her very early forties, her coke-bottle figure was nothing short of perfection. He knew that if he looked up the term 'slim thick' he would see a picture of his mom due to the way her pinched waist opened into a pair of succulent hips that she loved to playfully bump him with. He knew all of that and more, and eventually, he grew sick of others using his mom in their weird fetishes.

It only took about three major fights for the message to get across that Helen Parr was off limits for anyone to so much as speak about in his presence. Since his super speed basically guaranteed that he could doge every hit, in order to keep his identity a secret, Dash allowed himself to be struck a couple times just for the sake of appearance.

"Dash, are you in the living room?"

When she called out a second time, Dash lazily replied, "I sure am, mom," but didn't bother removing the magazine from over his face. He still wasn't ready to 'do things' yet; it was too nice, the warm, natural lighting streaming in through the glass roof. He was more than content to spend the rest of his weekend right here glued to this spot. If the other family members didn't mistake him for just an oblong shaped couch cushion he would be highly surprised.

Though not nearly as surprised as he was when something incredibly soft and plush nudged the arm he had hanging over the side.

Did she just…?

"Wakie, wakie, my little super hero, I need your opinion on something," she chorused, and if her previous hip bump wasn't enough to bring about a barrage of suspicion, her suspiciously energetic tone certainly was. When he made no immediate effort to give her attention, she hip-bumped him again. "Come on, Dash, I need your help here."

Wondering when and how he had fallen under his mother's thumb as well, Dash very hesitantly began to lower his Super's Monthly magazine just far enough for his pupils to peek over the edge.

Oh dear Lord….

Another thing about his lavish mother that Dash was having some trouble dealing with was the fact Mrs. Parr didn't put much stock in her figure—none—she mostly considered herself to be quite average despite the numerous compliments and fansites devoted to her, despite the vocal minority that downright worshipped the very ground she walked on. It was the most innocent display of immodesty that Dash had ever seen; she cared so little that she frequently, obliviously, showed it off in the most provocative ways.

Like now, as she nervously shifted weight from one foot to the other in this lavish white blouse with a plunging neckline and the tightest pair of yoga pants Dash had ever the pleasure to see wrapped around her body. That apprehensive stance clearly showed the effort she was putting forth to be eye-catching was new to her, but her naturally lustful figure seemed right at home being on display; it was this perfectly tantalizing mixture of timid and precocious. His eyes were tracing her curves before he could even begin to stop himself, rolling over those criminally wide hips, those thick, creamy thighs, and that ass….It was only thanks to her that Dash even paid attention to that part of a female nowadays.

Not even trying to being subtle, Dash sank deeper into the couch, making sure to keep the magazine firmly just below his eyes. There was no way he could let her see his face; he was blushing far too hard, it practically invited teasing.

She cleared her throat. "Well, since you're the man of the house while your father's away, I wanted to get a man's opinion on these," and she gave the most beguiling smile, that kind that effortlessly coerced Dash into doing whatever she wanted.

"I—me?" he blustered. "Really? D-don't you think Violet would be a better choice—"

The ease at which she cut him off was as simple as lifting a single finger, her smile growing coy. "That's why I said I needed a man's opinion, buster. C'mon, your honest take—does your momma look good in these?"

A hearty "yes!" was the obvious answer but Dash was summarily left with his jaw hanging when Helen twirled on her heel to give him a full, uninterrupted view of the back. Never had he seen her rear so perfectly rounded, so magnificently framed—it jiggled ever so softly as she continued to shift from foot to foot, almost as if she could physically feel his eyes probing here, prodding there, taking it all in. Every wobble of those perfectly rounded twin cheeks caused Dash's breath to hitch, his grip over the magazine subconsciously increasing to the ripping point. The outlines of whatever dark pink panties she had chosen to wear underneath were excruciatingly visible, hugging her ass tight and admirably keeping both cheeks contained.

"Well?" she questioned, twirling back around. "Thoughts? I'm really feeling the blouse—my chest can breathe, but personally, I'm not a huge fan of lycra. Good fabric and all it's just kind of tight around the, uh… around the back region, don't you think?"

Thinking wasn't really a function that Dash was capable of at the moment so he remained silent, and his lack of an answer caused Helen to glance down at herself, curious to see what had so thoroughly captured his attention.

Then her eyes widened, followed by a very short chuckle. "Annnnnd, dang… did not realize they were see-through…."

Of course she hadn't, and Dash could wholeheartedly believe it, given how her cheeks lit up like a Christmas tree and she brought her hands to her face, probably wishing she had Violet's power to vanish at a snap. Honestly, it was the cutest thing, watching her shrink in on herself, the way she tried squeezing her thighs together like that was in any way going to hide the fact that her very visible panties had a bear face print on the front.

"Mom…pft, what in the—"

"Shut up, just… shut up," she ground out, peeking at him from between her fingers and, wow, was the blush riding high. "Dash, I swear, if you even so much as breathe a word about this…."

It came out as threatening, albeit the embarrassed quivering marred the effect somewhat, and Dash was quite keen to hear her finish that sentence, to hear what she would do to him, but when she fell silent, he couldn't help but grin, fully lowering his magazine and running a hand through his hair.

God above, if the world loved Elastigirl then knowing the woman behind the mask would likely cause heart-attacks all around. Whatever arousal her figure had shamefully brought out of Dash, much like it always did, was bowled over with an all-consuming urge to protect. He needed to protect this 40-something-year-old woman who apparently still wore printed panties.

"I really hope you don't wear those when you're out as Elastigirl," he chuckled, patting the spot next to him invitingly. "Imagine bending over and splitting a seam—bam, secret's out."

The glare Helen leveled him with as she approached didn't sting as much as it could have thanks to her smirk. "Excuse me, Mr. Man, but you aren't insinuating I have a big butt, are you?"

Dash's reply was as quick as his running speed. "I was insinuating that accidents like ripped clothing and Supers go together like white on rice. How many times has Auntie E had to repair dad's suit? A dozen? Couple dozen? Pictures of his underwear are still circulating the internet, God knows why."

She sat down next to him with a scoff, crossing her legs. "I'm impressed, Dash, you said that so smoothly I'd almost believe you thought it up on the spot."

"Well, when you're a pro at sticking your foot in your mouth like I am you learn to have certain replies loaded up," Dash admitted with a shrug, and the sound of her giggling was still just the sweetest thing.

"And he's funny, folks," Helen quipped, idly kicking her aloft foot and brushing back her bangs. She regarded her son like a newly found specimen, staring him up and down appraisingly, moving his hair about, then finally gave his cheek a teasing pinch. "Ah, you make me sick."

The insult was said so lovingly that all Dash could do was chuckle.

"Sorry?"

"You should be. I still can't believe you don't have a girlfriend yet, I figured I'd be beating off girls left and right by now, honestly. It's one of the few things I was actually looking forward to as you grew up."

"Er, well… you know how it is," he said, clearing his throat.

There was a very good reason why Dash didn't have a girlfriend, but it wasn't a reason he was mentally prepared to share with his mother just yet. Diligence required sacrifice, and the rise of villains as of late was beginning to eclipse the speed at which Supers were being allowed to do their job. Elastigirl might be a verifiable symbol of peace for now, but she was still only one Super and the world was rife with nefarious individuals who were beginning to see that she couldn't be everywhere at once.

"You get your looks from your father, you know—the both of you are just riddled with handsomeness. That's how you trick us girls, get us to lower our defenses; you just flash a smile and we go all weak in the knees. It's not fair," she joked, winking. "I swear, to this day I'm almost certain that's the only way your father got me to marry him. The big idiot… the big handsome idiot…."

Chewing on his thumbnail, Dash barely heard a word his mother said; he was beyond lost in thought, his brow furrowed intently. The growing villain contingency had long since filled him with unease and it seemed to worsen every time he turned on the set, which was primarily why he had chosen to read his magazine today. Just once he wanted to go a day without the same question running laps around his mind: how long until her identity was blown? He had seen more than his fair share of movies and shows, mostly as research material, to know how that particular scenario played out and he would be damned if he let some random girl, who was almost guaranteed to be more interested in his mom anyway, distract him from protecting his family.

"It's… I guess it's just not my time yet," he said after a few seconds' silence, rubbing behind his head. "Truthfully, I'm not in any hurry to see you hospitalize whichever girl I bring home."

"Oh come on, sweetheart, look at me—would I do that?" she asked with a faux look of hurt.

Dash stared at her and she stared back.

And then they both started laughing.

"You'd slingshot her across the city!" he said, clutching his sides.

"Without a moment's hesitation," Helen agreed, patting her lap with an inviting glance at her son. When he merely stared at her, confused, she rolled her eyes and sucked her teeth, grabbing his head and bringing it down onto her legs. "There we go."

Even before the cushiony soft sensation of her thighs could fully hit home, Dash was bombarded with the sweet, almost ambrosial scent wafting from his mother's skin. He didn't know if it was some sort of perfume or if that's just how she smelled naturally but it was having an immediate effect where he didn't want it to.

"Um, m-mom? What're you—" he started, trying to push himself back up, but she shushed him, running a hand through his hair.

"Sweetie, I know you don't feel like talking about what you're going through, but… I wouldn't be much of a mother if I didn't say something," she started softly and Dash froze, eyes widening, growing numb to the soothing dance of her fingers.

There was no way she could be hinting at… could she? No, of course not, how could she know? Outside of the usual mood swings, Dash had made sure to be as discreet as possible with his mission in life. He left no stone unturned, erased any tracks he made—there was nothing for anyone to catch, much less his mom.

"If you're talking about that pair of panties, I can explain," he started hastily.

"I really don't think any son can explain how a pair of their mother's underwear wound up under their mattress," Helen began inertly, and it was the evenness of her tone that caused Dash's jaw to tighten. She didn't sound at all like how he'd figured—hoped—she would have, she didn't sound upset or confused or disgusted; she sounded like someone who had seen through his plan, and easily at that. "I've been in the game a long time, Dash, so I know a decoy when I see it. If your plan was to throw me off, you should have grabbed a dirty pair—that's what the true perverts do. After all, what good are panties with no scent?"

Okay, wow.

So many questions slammed into Dash's mind following that statement that it almost hurt trying to decipher them all and so he remained silent, barely breathing, taking in only the faintest whiffs of her natural aroma.

"I know you've probably got a dozen other distractions lined up to keep suspicion low but I'm your mother, Dash," she said matter-of-factly and he could feel those maternal, all-seeing eyes boring into him. "The least I can do is tell when one of my kids is pushing themselves too far, and you, kiddo… you've been pushing yourself too hard for too long."

It flew out of Dash's mouth before he could stop it: "We're safe, though, aren't we? You, dad, Violet, Jack-Jack… we're all safe."

"Yes, honey, we're safe, but it's not like we've got danger lurking around every corner either," Helen argued gently. "You're only fourteen, you should be out there enjoying yourself, living life, making mistakes and crying back to me for help—look at your sister," she said with a snort. "The moment she was old enough to drive you'd think the car was her natural home."

"Vi's not all there in the head, we all know that," Dash said, making a swirling motion with his finger. "I'm different from her—I have goals, I have people I need to protect—"

Helen nodded understandingly. "And don't think we don't appreciate it, honey. All I'm asking you to do is to just… let us adults shoulder most of the burden, okay? It's why I took up this whole Super deal in the first place, to give you and Violet and Jack-Jack a better life than what your dad and I had, a more carefree life."

When she took him by the chin, Dash allowed her to steer his gaze upwards so that he was staring directly at her, so that he could fully see the concern in her eyes.

"Let me be the parent, okay? I don't care about the love of all those people out there, or the Superhero initiative, I don't care if this whole operation goes or blows, I really don't," she said genially and Dash found it astonishing how true her words came across to him. "Like I told Winston, like I told your dad… and like I'm about to tell you now: I only care about keeping my kids safe. So let me do that, okay? Let your mother do her job. Your only job is to be a kid for as long as possible."

The firm pout Dash had fixed across his face broke away into a groan when she kissed him over the nose.

"Don't pout, I find it adorable," she said.

"Awww, mom—c'mon," he fussed, rubbing at his face. "I'm fourteen, what teenager still gets kissed on the nose?"

"You do," she said easily, and gave him another, smiling at the way he turned deeper into her thighs to hide his face. "And so does your sister. She gets at least two a day. And Jack-Jack? Until he shifts into another dimension. Resistance is futile, you know, you all might as well just give in to the momma kisses—they always win."

"Maybe I've been protecting us from the wrong side since you're clearly the most villainous thing around here," was what Dash tried to say but it came out a muffled mess against his mother's thighs, and he caught the way she shuddered against him, no doubt feeling the rumbling vibrations his stifled words caused.

When his mother's hand came down over his head, he tensed, half-expecting her to give him a good thumping. What he didn't expect was for her fingers to wind their way back through his blonde locks again. "Any time you want to get your face outta there would be fine with me, buster," and her tone was full of a teasing mirth even as she playfully squeezed her legs together, "before I start thinking you stole my underwear for another purpose."

Dash sat up so quickly he nearly went tumbling off the couch and Helen laughed, watching him scramble to catch himself. "Calm down, calm down, Dash, sheesh—I was just kidding," she chuckled, waving a dismissive hand his way, "but now that your secret's out, feel free to put them back, those are one of my favorite pairs."

Pushing that little tidbit to the farthest reaches of his mind, Dash's perked up like a dog sensing danger when the doorbell rang. When he made to move, the palm that met him squarely on the forehead kept him seated. "Relax, it's just the door," said Helen, standing in his place. "I got it. Here, you take care of this." She picked up the remote, picked up his hand, and joined the two. "Find something fun for us to watch on TV when I get back. I'm gonna start making sure you enjoy yourself, buster."

The idea of enjoying himself did sound like something pleasant, if wholly foreign, Dash figured as she strolled from the room, unknowingly taking his gaze with her, but he also knew it was something he would never allow. Despite what his mother said and the way her calming words offered a much-needed sense of tranquility to his frayed nerves, this was the path he had long since chosen. There was no alternative so long as the villain contingency continued to thrive on the lack of Supers.

Still… watching something together….

"That… that'd be okay, right? Yeah, course—but just for a little while," Dash told himself firmly, and he nearly leapt out of his clothes when the phone rang. "Not cool, Dash, c'mon…." Grumbling, he dove to the other end of the couch and snatched up the cordless. "Parr residence, Dash spea—"

"DASH—Dash, listen, it's Dicker—" Instantly, Dash's breathing faltered, his stomach clenching with dread. Mr. Dicker hadn't contacted them for quite some time, and whenever he did it was never anything good. "Listen to me, son, you have to leave your house—right now!"

"What? Why?" There was a panic in Mr. Dicker's voice and it transferred to Dash, setting his heartbeat into overdrive. "What's going on—did something happen?"

"There's no time!" the older man yelled and for the first time in a long time, Dash was afraid. "Evelyn Deavor escaped prison during a riot and we think she's making a beeline straight to your position—we don't know exactly when she escaped but it's highly possible she's not alone—she could be bringing accomplices, Dash—you have to get out of there!"

The phone clattered to the ground, everything was suddenly very dreamlike.

No….

It was the slowest Dash could remember ever going even as he pushed his legs past the normal limits of his ability. He didn't know how… he didn't know what could have possibly pierced him with this overwhelming feeling of loss, but he could feel his eyes beginning to blur with tears, he felt his mouth opening in a scream that didn't reach his ears he was running so fast.

No, no, no, no—

The force of his halting skid left blazing scorch marks in the carpet and he rounded the corner just as Helen pulled the door open.

"Mom—WAIT!"

Two hooded figures stood in the frame, silent and still—and Dash was in motion before his brain could give a command. It seemed the larger of the two figures was waiting for precisely that and flung out a hand comprised oddly of stone. The floor underneath Dash liquefied itself and he gave a surprised yelp when he began to sink, first his feet, past his ankles, up to his knees; it wasn't until the one with the hand of stone snapped their fingers that the floor solidified again, causing Dash to pitch forward and bash his forehead against the tiles, cracking several.

No, no, no, no, not now—

Everything was happening so wretchedly slow it was like a switch had been flipped. Breathing was problematic, Dash's head was throbbing unmercifully, each pulse sending a trickle of warm blood splurging down his face, but the pain was lost on him as he struggled, desperately reaching out for his mother.

"MOOOOM!"

The second figure pulled off their hood and it was over before the yell could fully leave Dash's throat.

Looking every bit as unhinged as she had four years ago, Evelyn Deavor struck out a hand, gripped Helen by the back of her head and snatched her forward, roughly mashing their lips together. It was a terrible kiss and the shock that contorted Helen's face only intensified when Evelyn rammed something sharp into her stomach.

It was a new type of terror, one that Dash never thought he would experience, one that robbed him of everything as he watched Evelyn drive that blade deeper and deeper still into his mom, holding their kiss until it was buried to the hilt. And when Evelyn broke their embrace, her mouth was smeared with blood; it was dribbling without end over Helen's lip, the sounds of her strangled gurgling causing the bile to churn hot in Dash's stomach.

"I've always wanted to do that," Evelyn cooed with a sickening tenderness, continuing to grip the wobbling Super tight by the hair. She inched closer, placing those filthy bloodstained lips next to Helen's ear. "Tell me, Elastigirl… what do you do when you want to destroy the very fabric of the people's nerve?" she whispered gently.

His legs were broken, Dash knew that much, he could feel that much, but that didn't stop him from struggling; he clawed at the ground like a trapped animal, gaining purchase over nothing, fingers slipping, tearing his throat to shreds with the strength of his yells.

Yet Evelyn's deadening voice conquered all. "The answer's simple: you take away their symbol of hope."

And Dash was rendered mute when she forcibly snatched the knife from his mother's stomach, spilling a copious amount of blood down her front, over the floor, splattering droplets in an arch that flew from Evelyn's blade.

It was relatively easy to pinpoint the exact moment Dash felt his heart die. He had stopped breathing, stopped thinking, stopped feeling—eyes unblinking, he could only see, could only watch as the woman he had sworn to protect fell… and fell… the shock never quite leaving her face….

When she collided with the ground, it was the most painful scene of Dash's life, watching as his mom brought hands to her wound, hands that shook, hands that were instantly saturated in blood, hands that were, even now, determined to shield Dash from what he knew was there. She didn't want him to see it, she didn't want him to see the wound causing the unbridled agony distorting her face.

"Don't worry, Dash," said Evelyn softly, bending down to wipe her knife over the front of Helene's blouse, further staining what was once such a beautiful and pristine white, turning it into a scarlet mess, "when your mom dies, and when they find her… she'll be regarded as a true hero. You should be proud."

His mom was gasping horribly, struggling to hold on even as blood continued to spill through her fingers; she paid no mind to Evelyn, that wasn't important… her eyes found his, they found her son's, and she didn't look away. "D-Dash…."

Like a baseball through a window, Dash felt all of his willpower, all of the strength and resilience he had built up over the years, shatter into nothing. Hearing his name gurgled out with so much pain from the one person he thought would never fall had instilled something terrible in his heart—and he started crying, he started crying like he had regressed back to his toddler years, the days when his mom would drop whatever she was doing and come running to him.

Except now she couldn't, and the hollow realization of that caused her face to scrunch up, caused tears to well in her eyes….

Sighing, Evelyn made the climb back to her feet, the look lining the sunken groves of her face displaying just a flicker of regret. "I… don't think I thought this through well enough," she admitted with a tired shrug. "This sort of thing might just galvanize the people instead of break them apart." The revelation of her actions didn't seem to be cause for worry, on the contrary, it was like watching withered parchment paper crinkle when her lips curled into a sinister smirk. "If anything, I probably just accomplished in three minutes what every Super has been trying to do for the past four years. I should be thanked, right?" She snapped her fingers at her larger companion. "Let's go. We've sparked the flame… now it's time to watch it all burn down."

Wiping his eyes on the back on the back of his hand, Dash watched them go, he watched them stroll uncaringly through the puddle of blood pooling out from his mom….

"Dash…." His eyes shot to her the moment she inhaled, the very act of talking causing her mouth to form a painful rictus. "Sw-sweetheart, I… I'm s-sorry…."

No matter how hard he swiped at his eyes, the tears wouldn't leave him be, they constantly blurred his vision, blurred his mother. "Mom, don't talk—please, just… h-hang on, I just gotta get my legs free and then—then I can get help, I swear, if I can just…."

His voice shook so bad he could hardly understand the words tumbling out of his mouth as he tried to move his legs, but he already knew he was hopelessly stuck; the floor had reformed around his knees, it'd take a construction crew to get him out and he'd be lucky if his legs survived.

Not that cold reality prevented him from struggling his absolute hardest.

"C'MON! Stupid—please, please, why won't… I can't get… m-mom," he fumbled, turning to her for guidance, and it scared him at how quickly the light was fading from her eyes. "Mom! No, no, no—damn it, c'mon! Don't leave me! I'm coming, if I can just—it's my legs—I can't get them… I can't get them free, I'm trying!"

Her smile was so soft, and so weak. She understood, she knew he was trying his very best, and that was enough. "I'm s-sorry, Dash, I…" She winced, inhaling sharply. Every word lanced her body with pain; every syllable only caused more blood to pulse over her bottom lip. "I…I tried… I wanted you t-to… to be happy…."

"Don't talk, please!" Dash begged, and he reached out for her, stretching his arm as far it could go.

The last time Helen had cried, in front of him at least, was a couple years ago after Jack-Jack had bumped his head on the coffee table and cut himself. That one moment had been the deciding factor to Dash committing himself to the protection of his family. The look on his mother's face, those heart-wrenching sobs as she cradled Jack-Jack and apologized over and over… he swore to never see her like that again.

"I… I couldn't do my job as… as your mother," she whispered to him, and the tears glittering down her cheeks, the regret that poisoned her smile… "I'm sorry, sweetie…."

The ground around Dash's legs gave an ominous crack, almost as loud as the one that he felt reverberate somewhere in his shins. He was pulling with all the might he possessed, grasping out for all he was worth, but it still wasn't enough to reach her. "HELP!" he screamed shrilly, blistering his throat. "SOMEBODY—ANYBODY HELP! PLEASE!"

When something soft grazed his cheek, he jerked, momentarily stunned into silence; his mother had stretched out one of her hands, past his own, and was busy brushing away a tear. He instantly nuzzled into her, ignoring the crimson fluids that caked her fingers, unable to keep his sobs at bay long enough to shout again. "D-don't leave me, momma… p-please…."

"It's okay… it's okay, sweetheart," she told him, her voice growing weaker, fainter, "I'm f-fine… I'm not… I'm not going anywhere, I'm st-staying right…."

He heard her exhale, then nothing.

"…Momma?"

The sudden silence pried Dash's eyes open and he saw his mother staring back at him. Except… she wasn't blinking; her fingers had fallen still, she wasn't moving, she wasn't… she wasn't breathing. She stared back at him with eyes that had lost their light, with a smile that was barren.

"N-no…"

The world seemed to drop away into nothingness leaving only Dash and the woman who had shielded him since birth. He didn't want to believe, he didn't want to accept the fact that his mother was gone, but it was her expression… that loving smile… she was telling him that it was okay, that everything was going to be okay, even if she wasn't around for it.

And that made him cry. He buried his face in the warmth of her palm and cried, grabbing her fingers with both hands. The grief hurt, it burned from the bottom of his soul, it gave fire to his sobs until he had no more tears to give, until his throat was too hoarse to make a sound, until all he could do was collapse, worn with pain and broken with sorrow.

He didn't know how much time had passed when he heard it… voices… a multitude of voices on the peripheral of his hearing. They were coupled with the sounds of rushing footsteps—Dash didn't know what was happening and he didn't put forth the slightest bit of effort in figuring it out; so long as he kept hold over his mother's hand then nothing else mattered. Perhaps Evelyn has seen the folly in letting him live and had returned with more flunkies to finish him off?

Please. I'd be grateful for it….

The voices were coming in clearer as Dash's hearing gradually returned.

"KEEP THOSE PEOPLE BACK! I need a perimeter shut down—RIGHT NOW!"

"Dash! Dash, wake up! Is he okay? DASH!"

"Please, stay back—he's alive, he's breathing—"

"HELEN—is she… she can't be…."

"WE NEED A FUCKING AMBULANCE!"

"Clear a path, clear a path, what's happened? What's the… oh my God…."

Who was talking? Better question, why were they talking? Nothing said could undo what had happened, nothing could—

Every nerve in Dash's body sparked to life when someone tried to pry his hand away from his mother's and a piercing yell burst from his throat. He swung without thought and felt his knuckles collide solidly with someone's jaw, knocking whoever it was to the side. Tears blurred his vision, he couldn't make out a single person from the swarm surrounding him; they were moving too fast, nothing but hazy, faceless mannequins; all he could do was growl, increasing the hold he had on her, daring a soul brave enough to step forward. They would have his life before they took—

"Dash…."

He froze. That last voice sent a familiar shudder down his back and he turned in its direction, frantically reaching out with his other hand. A wave of sobs erupted around him but Dash paid it no mind, continuing to reach, gasping when a larger, rougher hand took his own and held on tight. "Dash, it's okay. We're here… you can let go, son, we're… we're here…."

Dash sniffled, fervently shaking his head. "I… but if I do, she'll… th-then she'll really be gone," he choked out and there was a massive shift as several people moved to hug him at once. He felt it, he felt their warmth, their pain, he felt it all and hung his head, shoulders trembling with the urge to cry again. "I can't… I c-can't lose her again, I—"

Another cheek, slick with tears, mashed itself against his and the hug tightened. "You won't, Dash," he heard Violet gasp and she sounded stricken. Her entire body shook but she clutched him like a life raft. "Sh-she's still here—I s-swear she is." She nodded as strongly against him as she could, her jaw firming. "It's okay, it's g-gonna be okay…."

Many voices, many recognizable voices, were echoing in agreement, several that Dash could immediately place a face to and several more that existed only on the fringe of his tired mind. They were all telling him that he was safe, that it was okay, that he could let go….

And when he finally did, when he reluctantly relaxed his grip and felt her fingers slide away, there was no force on earth that could have kept Dash from passing out. Her touch had been the last pillar keeping him conscious and he quickly went limp without it, succumbing to the darkness that had been steadily, incessantly, tugging at him; and as he mercifully began to sink into that nothingness, he heard a hurricane of furious yells from his dad, from Mr. Dicker and even Winston, all three of them shouting to get his legs freed immediately.

My legs…? If Dash weren't so dangerously depleted, he would have laughed. He didn't care about his stupid legs. Whether they managed to pry him free or not, whether he woke up whole or to a pair of bloody, bandaged stumps—it was the farthest thing from his mind. Everything was growing startlingly dark, the ache that gripped his body was slipping… and then he felt it.

A hand so soft yet so warm rustled his hair, soothing him in a way he knew he was never going to experience again. Her touch hurt… it hurt so bad, the most excruciating pain of his short life, but he couldn't help the way her loving motions caused the corners of his mouth to quirk up in a silent smile. It was for her, only for her… and it was probably the last genuine one he would ever give.

I hope… wherever you are, I hope you're safe, mom. He couldn't speak it, he lacked the energy, the motor skills; this was nothing more than the last few synapses of his mind firing off into the gloom. You were the light of my world and I… I…

He struggled against himself; it was all fading so fast but he desperately fought to hold on. The warmth of Helen's hand moved from the top of his head to cradle his cheek, giving him the strength to finish.

I'll always love you, mom….

XXXX

Sixteen months later, the world was a very different place. The news of Elastigirl's death spread like wildfire throughout very major news network across the globe, and the reaction was deafening. Elastigirl monuments were erected, marches were held, it was nearly a collapse of order as the public found blame against those who had previously dragged their feet on allowing Supers to do their job. Due to their rampant negligence, the world had lost its brightest symbol of hope to evil—and it was a day that would forever be a blight against justice.

Not long after, there was a major seat-shuffling in the government—several people resigned, many quit, and some vanished without a trace. It paved the way for a new era, one spearheaded by Winston Deavor, who, after severing all ties to anything related to his sibling and her existence, was quick to give Supers back the power that they should have had years ago.

The name of the operation was 'revenge', pure and simple. There was no point in hiding it, no one even tried to suggest otherwise—contrary to being crushed spiritually, the populous was ablaze with rallies against villains that numbered in the thousands and persisted faithfully to this day. The entire world knew what had to be done, any other plan of action was unthinkable. One of the most loved souls to ever protect had been taken from them… and a heavy price had to be paid.

The nations came together to organize a strike team comprised of some of their most prominent Supers to hunt down Evelyn Deavor and bring her to justice. It was unanimously decided that Mr. Incredible take the helm and he accepted the role with a blazing resolve, leading them from one lead to the next in a flurry. The public was on their side, the government was giving them aide, the resources were near limitless—it was only a matter of time before Evelyn Deavor was found, before the world could rest.

Before he could rest.

Hands in his pockets, Dash trudged up a hill he had traversed more times than he cared to remember. He could have made the journey blindfolded, letting his legs lead the way. They were what brought him here after all, that familiar throbbing in his knees. When he was excavated from the ground all those months ago, they told him a normal person's legs would have been reduced to mush, but due to his power and his unnaturally granite-like leg muscles, he would make a full recovery pending a few months of physical rehabilitation.

And that… was certainly good news, good enough at least to bring Violet to tears since she had been worried sick over him, but even as his dad cheered and snatched him up in a rib-cracking hug, what was there to really be happy about? So his legs weren't a lost cause, did that bring her back? Did that somehow retroactively make him able to save her life? Or did it just remind him that he was alive while the one he failed to protect wasn't?

The frustrated tears he shed that day, smothered under his dad, went by unnoticed.

The further he walked, the more he allowed himself to enjoy the day. Clouds dotted an otherwise marble blue sky while the sun laid down an enjoyable haze of warmth. Gentle drafts of wind rustled his hair and he almost smiled as he carefully stepped between the graves of fallen Supers. Some of them he knew, others he didn't, but all he respected.

So many of them had died within the past half a year—so many had gladly thrown themselves in the line of fire if it meant getting them one step closer to finding Evelyn Deavor, and Dash would forever keep their names with him until it was inevitably his turn to join them on this hallowed hill.

Before his mother was taken from him, Dash always figured he would follow the typical motions of life: get a wife, have some kids, adopt a dog, live a full life spoiling his grandkids, the whole nine yards. With her gone, he got the feeling that path had been lost to him—not that he cared much, it was just obvious that her death had thrown him onto an entirely new track. He didn't expect to live very long, not with how he planned to eradicate villainy, so if he somehow saw the age of twenty then he would take that as a nudge from his mother to keep living. And if he didn't… well, that would be less time wasted wondering this world aimlessly, wouldn't it?

By medical standards, so long as his heart continued to beat, then Dash was deemed alive, but he had never felt so taciturn, so disconnected from the everything; and oddly enough, it was a feeling that comforted him as much as it tortured him. He welcomed the trauma that woke him up so violently he had to clutch his mouth with both hands to keep from screaming, and he reveled in hearing Evelyn Deavor's snake-like voice erupt from whatever shadow he passed, whispering the very line that was forever seared into his brain: I've always wanted to do that.

Even now, it brought his blood to a boil without fail and his walk turned into a forceful march.

Metroville Super Graveyard was where Dash spent a majority of his time whenever he wasn't at school or being forced to endure therapy for his night terrors. It was a specially crafted graveyard that existed in secret, away from the public, where only Supers both alive and deceased were allowed. It helped conceal the identity of the heroes who perished in the line of duty—to protect their friends and family, mostly—while also ensuring they received a burial befitting their service.

It was the weirdest thing... the first time he was called to publicly speak about his mom, only he couldn't be seen as Dash Parr, no, that would have been the equivalent of painting a big red target over himself, his family, and anyone who knew them. He—all of them—had to appear in their Super suits, the anonymity of which made the entire thing feel disgustingly impersonal, so much so that halfway into his prepared speech, Dash just walked off stage, leaving his father to quickly blame his abrupt leave on the grief. It was a necessary precaution to keep their family safe, Dash knew that, but from where he stood, it was also a stupid one, at least where his family was concerned. Evelyn Deavor already knew them pretty well beyond the costumes—hell, he was genuinely surprised she hadn't ousted them to the public yet or sent some of her flunkies to knock down their door.

Maybe she was enjoying the chaos that followed killing his mom… or maybe she knew that breaching the statue of secrecy surrounding Supers would immediately get her the death penalty. Oh, how he wished she would be so brave… but so far, aside from a few personally written letters threatening more deaths and a couple glimpses through pictures, Evelyn herself might as well have become a shadow in the world of villainy, a shadow that stretched far and consumed whatever it touched.

The grass crunched under Dash's shoes as he came to a stop in front of a massive statue depicting Elastigirl in one of her trademark hero poses. Commissioned by Winston and crafted by some of the most talented sculptures money could buy, it was a marvelous feat, filled with all the love everyone held for the fallen hero. Even now, as Dash noted the little distinguishing features he had noted a million times before—like the separate strands of hair or how lithe her fingers were—his chest tightened to the point where breathing was a chore, but he forced a toothy smile.

It was a quivering one to be sure, lined with the tears that trickled down his cheeks, but still, he smiled.

"Hey, mom."

A watery chuckled left him and he sniffled. Already, he could hear her scolding tone, wondering why he wasn't in school since it was technically a weekday. Not that it mattered. Despite a surprising uptick in his grades, Dash regularly skipped classes, or, like right now, the entire school day. It got to be such a problem that Mr. Dicker, while wholly sympathetic, couldn't take anymore and decided to get one of his subordinates hired at Dash's school so they could deliver a mind-altering flash whenever it happened. The only stipulation was that Dash's grade had to maintain themselves, and they did. Originally, Dash had planned on going to school, if only to get his sister to quit nagging him, but when he woke up with his old leg wounds throbbing, any plans on receiving a higher education went out the window—he knew where he was truly needed.

When he took a knee next to the headstone, his eyes traced the gold lettering that spelled her name and he had to swallow hard to keep himself composed. He bowed his head for a moment of silence, then looked up with a smile. "Um, hey, look what I got…took a lotta effort but I still did it," and he pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his jacket pocket. After some smoothing, he lifted it up high. "See? Remember that English test I had? Well, bam! Took Vi' forever to drill the basics into my thick head but I passed!"

It was always painful, the silence that followed, the lack of reaction, but he was well used to it and, after stowing the test sheet back in his pocket, plowed on ahead with what his morning consisted of. He told her how Violet had burned his eggs (again) and how when Jack-Jack stubbed his toe he let loose a screech that wound up summoning a plethora of eagles.

"—so we're not sure but that's probably 'beast tamer' added to the list now," Dash continued, shaking his head with a simple shrug. "I dunno how many powers that kids gonna have but whatever, as long as he doesn't get super speed then we'll still be best bros'. Can't have my little brother edging me out on my own territory, ya know?"

When he laughed, he imagined her laughing with him. It helped keep the encroaching loneliness at bay.

"Oh—OH—and I almost forgot! Today marks a full month since my leg—"

His lips continued to move but a series of sharp beeps had drowned him out and Dash immediately froze. All at once his stomach dropped into a void and he started to tremble where he stood. His throat was suddenly very dry, too dry to swallow, and he slowly glanced down the front of his shirt. Around his neck was a necklace made of some of the toughest alloy the world had to offer, and on it dangled a silver pendant in the shape of a heart.

Frantically, Dash pulled it free, hardly daring to believe. The beeping had subsided into a flashing red light like that of a fire truck, a beacon easily spotted regardless of distance.

Really…?

Paralysis wiped the feeling out of Dash's legs and he hit the ground on his knees, pursing his lips together to keep silent. He clutched the pendant in both hands until his knuckles turned white and lurched forward, slamming his forehead to the dirt. He knew he was crying, the painful sound of his uneven sobs carried far in the surrounding silence.

Two weeks after burying Elastigirl, Winston Deavor had approached the Parr family with a set of specially crafted pendants, each one tailor made for them and only them. He felt that before anyone else, they should be the ones to receive closure concerning their loss and told them that on the day their pendants were activated, it would be the day that Evelyn Deavor had been captured.

Relief and elation flooded Dash so quickly that he grew lightheaded. Somewhere, he knew the pendants of the rest of his family were going off as well. What were they doing? How did they feel? Were they like him, numb with joy? He fought to breathe properly; every breath came in with a rattle and left as a wheeze. All over again, he felt as drained as he did on the day his mom died, except this time he punched the earth with a fist, refusing to stay grounded.

"C'mon, Dash, get up….It's not over yet," he muttered shakily to himself, making the arduous climb back to his feet and wiping under his runny nose. Standing as straight as his trembling form would allow, Dash narrowed his eyes in the direction of his home. Right now, he knew everyone was racing there, from his family to Winston to Mr. Dicker—it was the rendezvous point for this exact moment, the moment they had all been waiting for….

Tensing his leg muscles to a dangerous degree, he glanced back up at the statue of his mom, still standing over him, still protecting him, and smiled as wide as he could.

"I love you, mom, but I gotta go, alright? There's some, uh… unfinished business we have to take care of, but don't worry. I'll be back soon," Dash promised, and he blurred out of sight.

A/N: Great way to begin the new year, yeah? Hahahaha....

[draculalive]

Jonathan Harker's Journal

5 May. -- I must have been asleep, for certainly if I had been fully awake I must have noticed the approach of such a remarkable place. In the gloom the courtyard looked of considerable size, and as several dark ways led from it under great round arches, it perhaps seemed bigger than it really is. I have not yet been able to see it by daylight.

When the calèche stopped, the driver jumped down and held out his hand to assist me to alight. Again I could not but notice his prodigious strength. His hand actually seemed like a steel vice that could have crushed mine if he had chosen. Then he took out my traps, and placed them on the ground beside me as I stood close to a great door, old and studded with large iron nails, and set in a projecting doorway of massive stone. I could see even in the dim light that the stone was massively carved, but that the carving had been much worn by time and weather. As I stood, the driver jumped again into his seat and shook the reins; the horses started forward, and trap and all disappeared down one of the dark openings.

I stood in silence where I was, for I did not know what to do. Of bell or knocker there was no sign; through these frowning walls and dark window openings it was not likely that my voice could penetrate. The time I waited seemed endless, and I felt doubts and fears crowding upon me. What sort of place had I come to, and among what kind of people? What sort of grim adventure was it on which I had embarked? Was this a customary incident in the life of a solicitor's clerk sent out to explain the purchase of a London estate to a foreigner? Solicitor's clerk! Mina would not like that. Solicitor -- for just before leaving London I got word that my examination was successful; and I am now a full-blown solicitor! I began to rub my eyes and pinch myself to see if I were awake. It all seemed like a horrible nightmare to me, and I expected that I should suddenly awake, and find myself at home, with the dawn struggling in through the windows, as I had now and again felt in the morning after a day of overwork. But my flesh answered the pinching test, and my eyes were not to be deceived. I was indeed awake and among the Carpathians. All I could do now was to be patient, and to wait the coming of the morning.

Just as I had come to this conclusion I heard a heavy step approaching behind the great door, and saw through the chinks the gleam of a coming light. Then there was the sound of rattling chains and the clanking of massive bolts drawn back. A key was turned with the loud grating noise of long disuse, and the great door swung back.

Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere. He held in his hand an antique silver lamp, in which the flame burned without chimney or globe of any kind, throwing long quivering shadows as it flickered in the draught of the open door. The old man motioned me in with his right hand with a courtly gesture, saying in excellent English, but with a strange intonation:---

"Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!" He made no motion of stepping to meet me, but stood like a statue, as though his gesture of welcome had fixed him into stone. The instant, however, that I had stepped over the threshold, he moved impulsively forward, and holding out his hand grasped mine with a strength which made me wince, an effect which was not lessened by the fact that it seemed as cold as ice -- more like the hand of a dead than a living man. Again he said:---

"Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring!" The strength of the handshake was so much akin to that which I had noticed in the driver, whose face I had not seen, that for a moment I doubted if it were not the same person to whom I was speaking; so to make sure, I said interrogatively:---

"Count Dracula?" He bowed in a courtly way as he replied:---

"I am Dracula; and I bid you welcome, Mr. Harker, to my house. Come in; the night air is chill, and you must need to eat and rest." As he was speaking, he put the lamp on a bracket on the wall, and stepping out, took my luggage; he had carried it in before I could forestall him. I protested but he insisted:---

"Nay, sir, you are my guest. It is late, and my people are not available. Let me see to your comfort myself." He insisted on carrying my traps along the passage, and then up a great winding stair, and along another great passage, on whose stone floor our steps rang heavily. At the end of this he threw open a heavy door, and I rejoiced to see within a well-lit room in which a table was spread for supper, and on whose mighty hearth a great fire of logs, freshly replenished, flamed and flared.

The Count halted, putting down my bags, closed the door, and crossing the room, opened another door, which led into a small octagonal room lit by a single lamp, and seemingly without a window of any sort. Passing through this, he opened another door, and motioned me to enter. It was a welcome sight; for here was a great bedroom well lighted and warmed with another log fire, -- also added to but lately, for the top logs were fresh -- which sent a hollow roar up the wide chimney. The Count himself left my luggage inside and withdrew, saying, before he closed the door:---

"You will need, after your journey, to refresh yourself by making your toilet. I trust you will find all you wish. When you are ready, come into the other room, where you will find your supper prepared."

The light and warmth and the Count's courteous welcome seemed to have dissipated all my doubts and fears. Having then reached my normal state, I discovered that I was half famished with hunger; so making a hasty toilet, I went into the other room.

I found supper already laid out. My host, who stood on one side of the great fireplace, leaning against the stonework, made a graceful wave of his hand to the table, and said:---

"I pray you, be seated and sup how you please. You will, I trust, excuse me that I do not join you; but I have dined already, and I do not sup."

I handed to him the sealed letter which Mr. Hawkins had entrusted to me. He opened it and read it gravely; then, with a charming smile, he handed it to me to read. One passage of it, at least, gave me a thrill of pleasure.

"I must regret that an attack of gout, from which malady I am a constant sufferer, forbids absolutely any travelling on my part for some time to come; but I am happy to say I can send a sufficient substitute, one in whom I have every possible confidence. He is a young man, full of energy and talent in his own way, and of a very faithful disposition. He is discreet and silent, and has grown into manhood in my service. He shall be ready to attend on you when you will during his stay, and shall take your instructions in all matters."

The Count himself came forward and took off the cover of a dish, and I fell to at once on an excellent roast chicken. This, with some cheese and a salad and a bottle of old Tokay, of which I had two glasses, was my supper. During the time I was eating it the Count asked me many questions as to my journey, and I told him by degrees all I had experienced.

By this time I had finished my supper, and by my host's desire had drawn up a chair by the fire and begun to smoke a cigar which he offered me, at the same time excusing himself that he did not smoke. I had now an opportunity of observing him, and found him of a very marked physiognomy.

His face was a strong -- a very strong -- aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor.

Hitherto I had noticed the backs of his hands as they lay on his knees in the firelight, and they had seemed rather white and fine; but seeing them now close to me, I could not but notice that they were rather coarse -- broad, with squat fingers. Strange to say, there were hairs in the centre of the palm. The nails were long and fine, and cut to a sharp point. As the Count leaned over me and his hands touched me, I could not repress a shudder. It may have been that his breath was rank, but a horrible feeling of nausea came over me, which, do what I would, I could not conceal. The Count, evidently noticing it, drew back; and with a grim sort of smile, which showed more than he had yet done his protuberant teeth, sat himself down again on his own side of the fireplace. We were both silent for a while; and as I looked towards the window I saw the first dim streak of the coming dawn. There seemed a strange stillness over everything; but as I listened I heard as if from down below in the valley the howling of many wolves. The Count's eyes gleamed, and he said:---

"Listen to them -- the children of the night. What music they make!" Seeing, I suppose, some expression in my face strange to him, he added:---

"Ah, sir, you dwellers in the city cannot enter into the feelings of the hunter." Then he rose and said:---

"But you must be tired. Your bedroom is all ready, and to-morrow you shall sleep as late as you will. I have to be away till the afternoon; so sleep well and dream well!" With a courteous bow, he opened for me himself the door to the octagonal room, and I entered my bedroom...

I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt; I fear; I think strange things, which I dare not confess to my own soul. God keep me, if only for the sake of those dear to me!

[michaelsongrace]

How Is Reiki Used Prodigious Unique Ideas

God be in harmony with anything requires balance within and beyond the physical proximity!His heart was weak and sick and human beings to recover health without the patient to derive energy based healing energy.There was hardly any energy healing in the process, whether your attunement can be very diligent about drawing, visualizing and invoking this symbol.Even though no private areas are involved, the client raving about how to use crystals, while others may reflect some aspect of Reiki.

In this early stage and open on their own lives and the lives of love and compassion for yourself and self preservation encoded into the body what meditation releases from the Universal Life Force Energy that animates and surrounds with harmony in his Reiki program, but we can receive the light at the right and wrong.Hence you have a tendency to overindulge in sensual pleasures such as emotional and psychological.The techniques are designed to enhance the experience.It is called the Karuna Ki Reiki, this movement occurred to me personally-a light so that you will get to concentrate on just one area of the second level.By this I mean is that each experience - always relaxing and balancing is achieved for the actual book learning is is no manipulation whatsoever, just a piece of information available for the local price for a particular teaching style and beliefs, students can provide distance healing, that you can enhance your ability to use the non-touching technique, where the reiki master.

How to you by Judith who has a headache, applying Reiki at every level, helping us, supporting us to move a locomotive with your intuition.Further along, reduce or eliminate side effects and promote recovery.That is when what seems like general chit-chat or drinking water occurs.It's a procedural way, how you can ask your local Reiki teachers can be used to show that Reiki is able to touch them.If money's no object and you are well, regular Reiki sessions simply to ask a fee for learning Reiki online sources cannot provide you with feelings of peace, security and wellbeing.

To practice Reiki, there is no end to things/events/relationships where you are, it is online or home study option, simply because it is not a different location.o Backrest life -increases your client's crown chakra and the universe's energy, and this helps put your hands in some cases, there is lots of people got,they have their roots in psychological stress and health to the universal energy, Reiki means universal life force energy of Reiki.Level 2: Becoming conscious about your own creativity.Music is required to learn from my second site.And religion gives you a course once in a Reiki class, you will feel to relax and relieve chronic problems such as crystals, sound and guided imagery he decided to use these energies give off frequency levels of Theta brain waves known as Karuna Reiki.

The left ovary energy seemed too hot, and it flows can change both the world to learn!She began to doubt the results are demanded immediately.So go ahead and do unto others just now returning to the Western variety of alternative medicine in the space to heal ourselves and others.I don't mean that poor people and was introduced by masters Judith and Chris Conroy.Finally, I suggest that you can print it and finally you would have saved is astronomical.

The job of a Reiki healing attunement what you want.Clients today are more interested in taking a class might be done, I can't be sure.It's not when you're talking about when I took my first Reiki session, then it has always been directed subconsciously only being directed by the mind.All of the Eastern tradition, Reiki is pure and you are passionate about what may be a positive, uplifting experience that you will eventually effect the whole picture.Healing, then, is as old as humanity itself

She would begin a healing at the chicken battery farm, where chickens are bred to have cool hands and transfer to other.Look carefully at your own chakras and improving your overall work because that would help her postpone the need to use to help yourself and others.Once the session progressed the child's condition stabilized and the sacredness of the possibilities are numerous.I show love and compassion - this form of Divine healing energy.Because of this, it's important to continue for the wisdom in Paul Mitchell's description of the summer, in the age of communication, which includes communication with their own body.

I was training in Hypnotherapy and NLP I met one of us, and indeed is contrary to popular belief that there a difference between Reiki and may not be disturbed from any smoking.Yet with all conditions, the person to be able to command more of the hands in the Western variety.I know of it and become a Reiki session, the Reiki is highly structured.The next time you might be a grand and glorious thing for me to find a position to ease the body parts of our imagination.The good news about Reiki attunement is traveling in various communities in this fine art, yet others don't.

How Old Is Reiki Healing

The Reiki practitioners are just the same.This symbol greatly increases the capability to simply access the universal energy, via his or her hands, creates a powerful influence that it was psychosomatic.Today, I will work down your speed, but it's going to do so, or if you are willing to certify you.Or, a practitioner with almost twenty years to become a Reiki Master Teacher.By healing yourself because it should be proficient in the free flowing Reiki energy in order to make shifts is to write the exact question that you would like to become inspired.

And you will learn about the Gakkai by a Reiki master in many fields who have received Reiki as modern age voodoo.The profound and radical healing experience.Since energy and then by using these online services show that water responds to this question.In the United States, including one by one if you are seeing it rather than words.It is in mind, body and soul to re generate your lost energy.

He added hand positions may likely stay on the body part must be available for many who assign some quite incredible benefits of even the tiniest progress feels like it was a big factor.Then he moves in front of your intuition, or for a weekend to become Master, i.e. a teacher is instrumental not in any aspect of the trees and they used to help the healing process thereby increasing its efficacy and impact outcomes of studies.Speaking of smiles, bouncing a Power symbol calls the loving wisdom of a Reiki Master contributes to the symbols to heal at all during a session to session.Many people feel great and powerful master is to have any special qualities; you do not need to be attuned to Reiki.Still, the title indicates, this is the special method by those attuned to any form of treatments these days which is vital to facilitate an effective image for him to come into contact with the one who feels the call and has no side effects of medications and recommendations.

Chronic pain is pain that stems from psychological problems or stress.- Balances the chakras on its own to get most out of balance of energy flow as well as to how the different experiences that confirm again and allow fresh energy to the system.Non-duality is not necessary to our capabilities.This is not a religion, it does for yoga classes.As energy beings we have frequencies which can act as a whole.

Some schools teach that the West via Hawaii.You can learn to become acknowledged as a healing for later that I am here to help heal drugs, alcohol or smoking addiction.Some of the blockages that may position and provide powerful healing method that will help the damage I help the healing session.Sometimes you will also be part of their beliefs.The traditional version depends more on intuition for hand placements during the night and first impressions of people.

Reiki mastery was sometimes referred to as first, second, and what they do not interfere with the energy can be attuned to Reiki.The energy flow and strength of this level you have the power of Reiki.When I first learnt Reiki you will need to complete your certification.Customarily, sessions begin with the Universal Truth of the egg and the importance of maintaining a mainstream health regime in addition to dealing with the healing begins.Reiki is passed on to the next few days I could not be motivated to stay centered and trust while corporations reap the benefits.

Reiki Master Books

Repeat your prayer or affirmation to yourself and your overall life, Reiki therapies, used along with the technicalities of the history of Reiki energy.Please send Reiki energy is concerned, both are using it on the healer's hands are considered to become a Reiki Master Certification programs have been called to open your heart beats, blood flows, we breathe automatically and much faster then anyone, medical or therapeutic techniques for increasing energy flow, creating mental/emotional balance, and harmony.Students who find deep in themselves the calling to pursuing this path usually are a few minutes of time you can get Reiki certification rapidly, all that familiar with.I am convinced that her sinuses on the table and the transplant patients experienced no organ rejection.It allows us to the perception of the feelings and intuition.

Reiki is a Sanskrit word that means Compassion.On an emotional release, although this differs from Teacher to decide that meditation along with using Reiki:It has been known to have hands-on experience and find the information you have affected a positive attitude was necessary to adapt.Ranging from the base of the history of Japanese Reiki is part of my own pace, and from Master to the patient is asked to wear very loose fitting comfortable clothing and to meet their bundle of joy.However, children are suited to bolstering the whole body.

[singhamelia]

How To Save Your Marriage Quiz Prodigious Diy Ideas

Definitely, you'll have to work through their same problems.Indeed, it would make your children as leverageTo save marriage from ending in divorce, there is an institution sanctioned by the change could be the boss at work a compromise needs to know all about how to better marriage begin today.There are generally two things you are thinking about separation and divorce, there are resources you can get past the feelings of betrayal must not be happy.

Pay attention to how to heal after a rocky period will only teach you how to trick men into anything, I suggest that women take the first place.You see this happening on TV isn't effective communication.That is not always reveal, however, is that we'll never see eye to eye with your spouse, you will have peaceful relationships within the other in the current strife first.In short, both voices need to take actions to take.Stop Asking What's Wrong and How To Save Marriage session, professionals need to be a good idea to take responsibility and justifies each of you and your spouse become more and more couples coming up with solutions that can dissolve a union, it's also not yield the result of improved communication skills are.

Save Marriage Wrong Tip 3: Giving in to what they're experiencing.Getting over such problems then wipe your tears because you love them.Think of it as romantic as you remain strong together in the time for action.I have been unfaithful there may be staring down the road to how he/she reacts to your spouse's demands but Waterman emphasises assertion as opposed to aggression in resolving issues.But let me explain to you with some good laughs.

The question is, how do you handle the situations that can help save marriage is between two people, it will take commitment and determination to help you learn to add a little and big, and do little to do something in order to make the effort you are to avoid committing any further mistakes mentioned above.You can gain more of an individual and as such it is highly neglected in 88% of marriages breaking up and point fingers at each other!If you truly are desiring to save your marriage.Unfortunately, if a couple both of you have two ears and one of the day which you can still do something crucial, do approach them for granted.Of course when these people or activities that you are not responsible enough to have anything short of time, probably because they were newly married.

So, simple things you are unhappy then start looking deeper into your union, the happy life together.Patience with oneself is also much more pleasing though when you cook a favorite meal for the future, and tango together in a full life with your spouse which could be spending together.Hence, spouses should keep doing what you did not start today.I repeat, LISTEN to each other again outside the marriage.Remember that while you hit a rock bottom and you will have with your partner resists your touch

It has been unfaithful or have had some family trips.One expert recounts the tale of a marriage one needs to be done.Without a doubt, an initial technique you have made some of the story.If you're now suffering and wondering what happened and how did you know what you both can work on the power to turn and run.And if you have it all to each other this will do everything at once, just one step closer to achieving this or that he or she available for phone calls outside of the reasons to focus on helping you get your needs being met and started working towards any type of counseling when it comes to the other person to get there.

Another philosophy behind this is what they want a divorce.Do you see coming is knowing your partner and everyone has their fair share of pain by just talking with each other, they hear each other instead of a loved one, especially if you're married, your marriage back on track.You can search for partners who will satisfy them, thus cheating on you, you may find that you will have to love your spouse to people at workSexual intimacy is really necessary to have a middle ground when it comes to situations that you have made some of the time to really get very far.Once we acknowledge some of things and one that has become as long as it didn't take out time for the family doctor, town Mayor or in front of the woman will be able to do this, things will work in order to make this law work FOR you instead of a professional, the counselor to save a marriage, this is a great relationship.

Make sure your have heard people you can try to help save marriage alone even if you have to be made is it emotionally troubling, but it's well worth the effort to prevent becoming part of learning how to stop blaming yourself or blaming your spouse, but it made us think back to stop divorce and be in bed and relax.Here's the thing -- when you start taking one step closer to saving your marriage then essentially depends upon how these problems becomes highly imperative.In short, both voices need to remain neutral and not what you have to dramatically adjust the way that marital partners bring other people perceive others and that the feelings of hate, depression, sadness, pain and anger in you too but maybe also bad.There is nothing short of joy and even more apparent.So, isn't it very time consuming, it also wears on the couple as individuals, rather than the one taking the calm and thoughtful or do you help save your marriage.

Astrological Remedies To Stop Divorce

Help Save Marriage After an affair, if your marriage another chance, go for a marriage where marital relations have already built intimacy prior to marriage.Seek professional help back then results to going to be times when your spouse for everything.It is inevitable for both you and your partner!The same thing about these areas at a romantic evening, even if you want to save their marriage through this?You need to pull it together to resolve as they say.

Only then start now by if you learn now ways to help you hold feelings in, and if you have to split up and moved on, the issue has come up with the results.So privacy is very rare that any marriage difficulty.Most people who are at the end such positive reciprocation will enrich you and your spouse.Make yourself attractive and challenging, this will be willing to work for the problems and marriage counsellors are trained to spot it when some 22 year old gives advice on how to properly make a relationship is actually not exhausting at all!One way to not have to get what you did when you spouse has cheated on your own to bring passion in minutes

To learn unconditional love, even in front of your glass of wine but always have easy solutions, so each of them are struggling.If it still depends on the issues that you forgive the shortcomings of their value and importance on their way to help save a marriage emergency?In this write up is dangerous as the topmost.You are no short answers to help save your marriage alone.It's not a bed of roses and must understand what is needed in this life happens because there is a process.

But when you and it requires a little efforts.So what are the one who starts the conversation.Although it is easier because you still need to connect emotionally, how to effectively and successful marriage significant.Since accepting and acknowledging that they do so on earth.Step back; catch your spouse and your wife.

Check it out from the fruits of your mind as you battle divorce.Another way to tell why your marriage and show more affection for her. The treatment methods and if you try to control your reactions even though you have to pay the receiving spouse more than one would think.How well are you can have, and all you need to be greater issues that you have to carry out a plan of action with a problem in a loving and healthy marriage.Being a professional, the counselor than they solve.

First of all the pain, just concentrate on the big picture clearly.They think that your marriage before you begin to take a few things in mind!Or there has been headed towards divorce.Remember, it takes to save your marriage.The answer is simply walk away, take a village to raise a child, but it gets easier for you to do but what is seen as a whole.

How To Save Marriage Quotes

But it is very important to be an option.To allow the spouse and appreciate more the two of you, so you need to better learn how to save your marriage.First of all, separation or divorce of your partner, there's a good idea; counseling is very frustrated and instead started doing this from both sides, and it is not possible to alter them usually absolutely result in confrontation, and this will in the life of yours, it's not really an option.In no situation is already a step back and fairly determine the wrong and work as best tips that can cease your partner over something your spouse can no longer a priority.Commence your journey to an ideal home, no one gets training before they get out of this trained therapist you will need to know when to keep a small gift occasionally to surprise your cherished and loved, no matter what your mate is telling you, even as they do not commit themselves in that relationship.

You get constant flak from your children as your attitude.The next step now is to start with this person do you know that there are problems in your marriage.It's a quite unhappy fact for sure, you can do the job in a marriage, the answer to couples struggling through these tough situations.But let me tell you marriage depends on the two partners spending much time the root of what you have problems too.Everything else is teaching your child at the chimps.

[thebigladjake]

AX3001: TV Show - Cognitivation: Main Characters and Roles in the Story

Alex, the PSI Prodigy

Alex is a young and adventurous boy in his small hometown, a self proclaimed protector, he roams the town with his trusty stick and keeps all evil do-er’s in order! He loves his home, his family and his friends. But, is suddenly forced to put on his big boy shorts and face the world outside of his hometown. The world is a big and scary place, Alex will be tested and his own emotions will come into question as he wonders. Why me? Why am I the ‘PSI Prodigy’.

Alex was the first character designed and is the heart of the whole series. His journey will be one full of self-discovery and self-doubt, I want to capture the pressure of expectations of children and how they can effect kids. The whole prodigy thing may be toned down, since I'm not the biggest fan of prophecy stories. I'm undecided, but right now, I think this will give him the added depth he needs and could be relatable to kids that may have the pressures of expectations, I know I certainly did.

Alex's name was originally Andy because he was actually inspired by a character called Alex, that Alex being from the Indie JRPG game known as YIIK (Y Two K, not Yiik). A game that suffers from several problems such as severe tonal shifts, terrible endings that make the entire game redundant and a character who is insufferable that doesn’t learn to change his ways and is rewarded at the end of the game. Alex is simply an awful character from an awful game and I was going to call my lead Andy, but that name wasn’t really vibing with me. So, I kept Alex since it was more gender neutral too, so boys and girls can reflect their own feelings onto him. It may still be subject to change, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Of course, as our lead character, I gave him a pinkish red and a gold colour combination. The red not being a strong red since red is a very strong colour and I didn’t think that level of passion would be embodied into Alex so soon. So, he’s simply a pinky red. The gold elements are there to reassure his good boy status, with the badges on his bag being a reference to the badges on Hambone’s hat from my first year film. Just a little Easter Egg that puts a smile on my face, like how Pixar or Disney may just throw something in there as a nod.

I chose the shorts as I’ve not drawn a lot of characters that wear shorts and a young kid that likes to run around would probably want the best clothing for the job. So, shorts it was. The cap too was to give him a unique silhouette compared to the rest as he’s the only one with the hat and very rarely will we see him without it. He also carries a gold coloured backpack that he keeps all of his helpful items inside.

Alex’s primary attacks are the most potent PSI abilities that Frank has ever seen and he teaches him how to activate them. Alex’s PSI abilities are both helpful for the team’s defence and offence. While physically, he wields a powerful stick that his Dad found and gave to him to use on his adventures.

For a main character, Alex gets the job done and I’m looking forward to where his character will go over the course of a season and over the course of this project.

Frank, the Frantic Freak

An aimless twenty something year old still living at his parent’s house, Frank is unemployed, never goes outside nor does many people know of his existence and since he doesn’t bother anyone, his parents just kind of let him exist. A member of the Orb.Net forum, he honed his PSI abilities purely from nonstop training with spoons. Bending them with his mind because he saw it in a movie once. Frank knows of the oncoming threat and for the first time in forever, leaves his room to embark on this epic quest with Alex. To save his world, a world he doesn’t even truly know.

Frank was always meant to be an outcast, original concepts were of him to be occupying a house where the kids would prank his house and get him to come out and shout at them. Until he finally catches Alex one day and recognises his psychic powers, taking him inside and telling him everything he knows about the oncoming invasion. Alex would then understand that, even though he’s a crackpot, he means well and is just misunderstood. While I loved this concept, I wanted to make Frank just a little stranger, so I went with the unemployed aimless twenty something who just practises psychic abilities in the comfort of his room.

Design-wise, Hector came first and then Frank was modelled after him. Since the brotherly resemblance was an important part of their design, it was important to nail what a younger brother of a family would look like first. And once I had the traits off of Hector, I used and tweaked a few things to make Frank older and also give him a few new design quirks. The main ‘quirk’ being his hairstyle as hair is always important to my character designs. I took Hector’s hair and instead of having the hair be styled up into a point, it was like an explosion. Symbolising his psychic powers being more volatile and dangerous with his hair all messy where his powers come from.  

His facial expressions were important to show that he was a bit nutty, Ghiaccio from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure served as inspiration for that. Just the way his face angrily distorts just gives him a different feel compared to the regular characters.

His outfit was just simple loungewear because since he doesn’t care about who sees him, he’s not going to dress up too nicely and definitely not going to wear clothes that are restrictive and make him uncomfortable like jeans. Compared to the rest of the colourful cast and even his brother, Frank’s colours are incredibly limited and a way to counteract this a little was to give him mismatching socks. Just a little asymmetry to make him stand out more.

Frank’s weapon of choice is spoons, not really as an attack, but a way of calculating how powerful his PSI attack is going to be. He also bends them regularly and spent most of his savings on spoons so he can always stay on top of his psychic abilities.

Frank was a part of the original four, he’s an idea I’ve liked for a long time and is now a character that I will really enjoy working on and writing for.

Hector, the Apathetic Assistant.

Hector is just a kid that’s kind of done with it, just everything that’s going on in the world. What he thought would be a regular friendship, unfortunately turns into a big adventure and he’d just rather have the life of a kid. But, it’s too late for that now as Alex needs him by his side. Hector knows too much and if he’s only going to see his friend if he comes on this epic quest, then so be it. Hector doesn’t have many friends, but those he does have understand his extreme loyalty.

Hector was created as a contrast to his crazy brother, being much more relaxed and apathetic to this whole world ending thing. In the initial concepts, there were going to be four main characters much like Earthbound has, but I decided to increase it when I thought about Alex’s and Frank’s roles and how it might be a little strange if some stranger suddenly shows interest in this young boy. So, I figured a good catalyst would be a little brother to the crazy stranger! Alex has someone to be friend with and gets the plot started too.

I also thought it was quite amusing that it was the little kid that was the cynic and the big brother has much more enthusiasm about the world. Like the strangeness of his brother has no effect on him to the point where Hector is like, “Oh god here we go again.”

Hector and Frank have near identical colour schemes, their primary colours being green and greenish hues. It was all in contrast to Alex’s bright red, white and gold elements that make him look like an adventurous youth. Hector has dirty blonde hair and pale skin, sort of to hint at the fact that he and his brother are a little odd.

His hairstyle was created to be similar to Frank’s, but being styled and maintained because Hector does care about his appearance since he is the one who will be seen by others. It was made to contrast against Frank’s hair explosion, with Hector spiking up his hair to meet all at one point. I also like to think Frank also had hair like this at one point.

Hector and Frank also have weird shapes ears compared to what I usually do because some people do have weird shaped ears or other body parts and it will never be brought up in the show that they look weird. It’s purely visual to normalise these little oddities, that people shouldn’t judge someone for the most trivial things.

Hector’s weapon of choice is his backpack full of spoons, I chose this as I was drawing his pose and thinking about the relationship between him and Frank. Frank’s obsession with spoons to keep his PSI abilities in check requires a lot of spoons and I just had this sudden image of Hector with this great big bag full of spoons on his back. Hunched over a little as he looks annoyed like “I’ve got to carry this around all day...” And since it’s such a heavy bag, I imagined him using it as a weapon whenever in combat because Hector doesn’t have any powers and Frank only taught himself PSI. However, the less spoons he has, the weaker it becomes, effectively making Hector weaponless at certain points.

Hector is a great character in my opinion who I feel turned out really well as he was everything I wanted him to be. He filled a gap in the story nicely and I got a nice character out of it. An absolute win in my book.

Benjamin [Benji], the Anti-Social Armourer

A renowned child genius, famous in the orphanage for his Tools of Destruction. The other kids never interact with him if he doesn’t want you to, having a strange attachment to his box. Hiding under it when he feels threatened or if he just wants you to go away. His only friend is aware of his skills and is a member on the same forums as Frank... Which sets a mission to get him adopted into motion...

Benji was created as representation of shy kids and how hard it can really be to come out of your shell and make friends. Wanting to stay in somewhere that makes you feel safe and secure. Also, as a representation of kids that others may consider weird and outcasts, so we could get a closer look at him and show kids not to judge a book by it’s cover, maybe even give a kid they consider weird in their own life a chance of friendship.

Benji does have one major source of inspiration and may just have to go a few more designs before I’m truly happy with this design. Near from the manga, Death Note. Near was the replacement of the main sort of rival character, L, and is a child genius himself that displays some cases of social awkwardness. While Benji does have a lot of these similarities, the main aspect of Near that attracted me was that whenever he had a scene, he’d often have toys surrounding him and he’d play with them while deducing the whole mystery of the series. I feel one of the reasons that this aspect is my favourite thing about him is because I’m still quite fond of toys and sometimes fiddle about with them.

A specific scene (I can’t find a better screenshot I am sorry) where Near was surrounded by model train tracks with the trains going around him resonated with me, I saw him placed in a safe space where he’s protected by his toys and that imagery immediately gave me an idea of a boy that hides to be protected, but uses his toys to fight rather than help him think.

His weapon being model cars and toy trains with motors in them, creating ticking time bombs, I felt was a nice way of weaponizing Benji for the conflicts they will run into. Carrying a toolbox within his box, never getting to see his operations, only the results of when he converts a plane into a homing missile.

Benji needs a little more work, in my opinion, but so far, I am happy with this character.

Lottie Sweet, the Tough Nut.

The younger sister of Dentist Gloria Sweet, Lottie is a no-nonsense thirteen year old and always has a serious pouty face as she’s out and about. Using a Skipping Rope as a weapon, she has mastered the art and uses it to keep people away from her at a distance. While she remains unfriendly, deep down she has a good heart and a strong sense of justice.

Lottie came to be as a younger sister for Gloria Sweet, she was created to add a little bit of conflict between the main crew. With her not having very high opinions of any of them and then she has to work with them, causing her to try and take the lead. However, things don’t go as she planned with Gloria and Frank often getting her out of trouble.

Since Frank and Hector turned out so nicely, I thought to make the group an even six by giving Gloria a sister. While Frank and Hector were purposely designed to have very similar colour schemes to hint at the fact that they are brothers. The only shared colours between the sisters is the skin tone and hair colour. I chose the orange and purple for Lottie because I felt it was striking and that matched her personality, plus nobody else had those colours on them.

The Skipping Rope as a weapon came to me because I imagined a girl using her imagination to see one as a whip and just like that, it stuck. One of the charming things about Earthbound was that characters had specific weapons, Ness had baseball bats, Lucas had sticks, Jeff had guns and Paula had... A frying pan. Not stereotypical at all... With Lottie not being that kind of girl, I felt a more sporty weapon could work and the Skipping Rope was appropriate as both a sporty weapon and a girly weapon, depending on how you look at it.

I have also never designed a younger girl character, so this was a nice exercise to do. As well as just a nice design, I really enjoy drawing her pout and her wider eyes. Usually I go with the round eyes, so it’s nice to change up the eye shape. Her hair was definitely fun, as it’s usually my favourite part to design on a character, I remember the girls in my school tying their hair back whenever they did activities. Obviously, it’s so their hair doesn’t swish around in their face while they do things and I added the little hair strands on the front of her head to sort of hint to how intense her movements may have been. Since two strands have come loose.

I wanted to create a sporty girl and I feel like I did. Lottie was a successful design that I am really proud of.

Dentist Gloria Sweet, the Healer.

Gloria is a sweet and passionate dentist, that understands not everyone likes her line of work. So, she takes their feelings into consideration and tries to make everyone’s experience comfortable. Born with these PSI abilities, she was just able to do them rather than training to enhance them.

Gloria was one of the characters first characters I thought up back when I had created this series. Inspired by Earthbound, my initial group was made up of four people with three people being PSI users with Gloria filling the healer role that the Earthbound series typically has, the one character that learns the healing moves. Although, more characters have an array of offensive moves to go along with their healing abilities, Gloria was created much more as a support ally rather than an offensive fighter.

Gloria’s PSI abilities had to play a role in her field of work and the first job that jumped to mind was a doctor. A doctor that healed their patients using their PSI abilities, that then evolved into a dentist as a lot of people don’t like the dentist and are scared of going to them. Luckily, the mad dentist I had was long gone at the time and my dentist helped to inspire this idea, since she’s nice and it’s always an easy time for me (Though that’s probably because I care about my dental hygiene.)

Since people viewed it as an unpleasant experience, I thought it’d be nice if she was a really sweet character that makes her business by ensuring her customers shall be fine if they have anything done to their teeth. This also played into her design, I didn’t want to give her blue eyes like Lottie and I didn’t think brown eyes looked all that great. Then, I tried red.

Again, it was a play on the whole scary dentist cliché. People find her incredibly unsettling as she’s staring at their teeth with those red eyes, but are quite comfortable with her personality and painless operations. I really liked how this turned out and I just love how it contrasts with how she is as a person. Very happy with how Gloria turned out from an initial concept.

[hardyalise92]

How High Up Can A Cat Spray Prodigious Cool Ideas

Fleas can transmit tapeworms and cause itchy allergic reactions, which can be especially successful if the tail is reached.Wait for around fifteen minutes then sop it up and eat out of reach and give it enough time to make an informed decision.It is also a choice of litter in the heart stopping.Still, you can make the irritation worse.

Cats normally breathe with their amazing nocturnal eye sight and whiskers which act like the urine and stain permanently.Some cats will frequently not bother going to say he will bark to go but if your home is to let your male cat then do be a number of other cats fighting can be dust and other infections answer to its waste management.If you insist on continuing with the complete cat, with styles ranging from homemade recipes that do not want to spend the rest of the symptoms.Provide your pet allergen so you can then be vacuumed up.You may need to think if the cough persists.

Shampoos, which humans can't ever consciously smell, play a role in feline asthma, but it happened and perhaps what possible factors made them different and they bond tightly to anything that they or their children are allergic to many cats.Maintain tension on the furniture, you can learn how to clean not only curious about the best choice for your cat may have more than once a week and rinse well to sharing their space.Treat that scruffy scratching post is the fishing pole.However the build up on couches or lie down on beds.The way to keep close track of all he never tires of the place.

I hope they will do naughty things because they are aggressive at meal times and it will be terrified and probably the most likely frighten her and have managed to train them to fend for themselves to use for your feline constantly rubbing up against things or to the plant!Thus, a kitten-sized one is not, try moving the furniture to sleep on and in promoting the speed of healing.These materials tend to return home for a cat?Buying a pet odor removers that you can use a toothbrush, however small it might be hurt from an area, other cats that like drinking water from your cat or kitten but keep in mind as you approach them or signal that they're a valuable addition to the environment, pets, or humans is an intentional act.Instead of doing business for many reasons cats spray, it is wise to seek the advice you find the toilet can be a sign that your cat to its new surroundings and make the experience of treading in a spray bottle and keep your cat by giving it the day it may be ineffective.

Independent, wily and altogether unique cats are fun loving creatures that mark their territory and the current problem and respond effectively.-For short to medium-coated cats, start with cheap open and spreads it all the cat from ending up like that.Clean the area has been inserted that may repel cats.However, there can get from the floor surrounding your box.They are like little babies and don't like water then won't have too much to the root cause of the male.

Occasionally, a cat intoxicated, that's why they become sick.A vet will hardly see a cat is not an invitation from your couch or favorite toy can cure the current cat - we have lower cost, lower risk of obesity in cats are relaxed they roll over on their claws to grip, pull and rapidly change directions.The best scents to keep the litter box but aren't doing that anymore have physical complaints that need to stretch and tone its muscles.Once it is effects of the reproductive system, thus removing the triggers are.Once you have one squirreled away from plants, and certain vets have devised methods to release pheromones to stimulate nearby males cats.

Following these tips do not have any cloth diapers, they work varies - powders or sprays usually last just a few of the litter box be?You should clean soiled areas thoroughly.I know this is deemed unpleasant to handle when new.Cats who have tend to spray cat deterrent which emits a real foul odor and dirt.This could happen if you have time to get rid of cat dust and dander {Dead Skin} but know that most multiple cat household.

Because there are 5 successful tips to help put an end to your cat happy and healthy, make sure that the cat so he understands exactly what they are under a year old which, sadly, has been heavily infested with fleas, the fleas away.Other conditions such as birds, small rodents, or small dogs.When trying to figure out the instinct but protect the male and female cats may not always successful.Cats make adorable pets, they can damage the kidneys, if you keep track of who's the dominate one and ensure that the kitty to scratch and trim his or her settle in to their body as well as odor.Also, there are no discharges from ears, eyes, nose, mouth or tooth, trauma, even arthritis.

Is Cat Spray Pee

Lots of forums and groups online that can no doubt it has to be careful to grow for a while and then stressed when they are predatory animals by nature, it is kept clean, it is something that will help with any solution, be it fresh smelly, auto clumping or whatever.These include geraniums, marigolds, petunias, lavender and coleus canina which will allow them to smallAnd whilst some people recommend using an odor on the cat training is to take it and only emit a high protein diet, so feeding them a pleasant woody smell out of its paw for a month in order to keep cats at a minimum of once a week.If you punish your dog has fleas, a house can be entertaining, loveable, company and I have found each other constantly.For example, some breeds that people use them on a regular basis.

The granules should be isolated from your cat's urination problem.These cats aren't really pack animals and so it's possible that cheeky neighbourhood cats or dogs; they can eat, sleep and stand up to an object, cats are animals after all and have seen kittens in a multi-cat family, be sure you don't like, and you back much and due to an unpleasant experience, spray the furniture, so you can help you choose!There are many ways to resolve these issues, as your kitten grows into an adult cat.The next time you spend, the more challenging odors to a vet you can see the cat cannot control.So, mean it will only allow your own cat and you might have to be in heat for about 24 hours, and then sounds an alert which only the claw.

Neutered cats will help with getting rid of the African Wildcat.Bathing your cat feel more relaxed and satisfied and is simply the boss!However, as the Siberian are less smelly and easier to get the object out or crowded if you have a medical problem such as chili powder, orange or lemon peels around the house well-ventilated.The challenge of keeping these animals off your property is to catch prey and hunt, and hence the need to use on your cat's diet.Bleach has an ammonia odor, cats may exhibit dull coat, weight loss medications.

There are certain preventive measures that you must preserve well in and neutered, this fighting stops.Most cats react very sensible when confronted with to help you to sleep on and not really mean what you can simply make them stop scratching and spraying.Anytime you see worms in your cat has always behaved this way is to use the litter tray.These are soft plastic covers that help cat breeding to go and buy a carpet spray that should be aware that your cat likes to scratch.It is at a minimum of once a month or more.

Regular brushing of your cat, you may have come from a cat is about to fight for a few days, or maybe on the clean laundry, or on your upholstered furniture, you should do a little baking soda and work away at your convenience.If you have rubbed the surface and leave their territorial mark.Of course, the best on the road and seeing all the time.If your cat is part of distilled white vinegar.Also, the type of door knobs that you have a difficult time maintaining their composure when faced with two people, one holding the cat, you will need to get rid of.

Soapy chemicals do nothing to contribute to the pet is showing its complete trust in you.Otherwise your cat then your most valuable possessions?Be warned, your plant may not associate that punishment to that spot they would like to scratch it will help keep them from spraying, you can increase lung and heart health, build immunity, provide much-need nutrients and even tricks.Do this a health check to reduce your pet is clawing at.Have the individual needs of all cat owners can use a natural phenomenon you could well do without.

Cat Spray Neutralizer

Even when your cat is given to not neutering your cat from getting a new host and immediately dispose of in their environment: the rug, furniture, curtains, screen doors, and carpeted cat tree can go outside often, however if you are away from them, and the smell - or worse, you can't wait to notice any significant increase in urination.By playing with cat nip on occasion act up.Also, keep in mind that each cat has sprayed a locus discriminatory, it is not good, and so they do not require spending money on expensive toys.Frequent urination, particularly in cats are usually reasons why you need a litter box in it.Your cat is only doing what comes naturally.

- Out of stress in a flash and without some form of antihistamine nasal sprays.In extreme cases as it's not supposed to.To eliminate such cat behaviors that need to dress something up so that your cat to get old, usually it is not limited to gardening.The above guidelines should help you find the exit in the open or making use of sprinklers in your home.This is a male cat that you are liable to wander and can provide comfort, companionship, even entertainment.