#reminder to trade before it vanishes in 2-3 days

[carlosyt14]

"Is this even our checkmate?"

"Hm? What's that? We got the successful strategy?"

"Triangle."

[saber-of-dreams]

...Catches the Worm (Birds of a Feather pt. 4)

Part 1     Part 2      Part 3

She collapsed to the floor, all her energy drained away.  Damian knew that it was his fault.  

He gripped his head, still feeling the echoes of that agony.  She’d said his name, and it was as someone were suddenly beating his skull with a crowbar, trying to shatter his mind.  He’d been assaulted with faces, with scenes of death and carnage and emotions that he’d never known.  

He growled, forcing the pain away.  He turned to look at his despondent savior.  “What is your name?”  He asked.  She did not respond.

It took the howl of police sirens not far off to rouse her.  She looked around her, distinctly avoiding him, and let out a frustrated breath.  “We should get out of here.”

That was the moment that Damian learned that two letters had the power to stop his heart.  “We.”  He had never known anything other “I” or “You.”   But he liked it.  Liked the idea of them as ‘together.’

“My hotel is not far.”  He offered.  Practically pleaded, really.

She eyed him warily.  Assessing if he was a threat.  Damian removed his hood, sheathed his weapons and slowly put his hands out to the side.  The motions were instinct.  Activated by a desperate part of him that  needed her to understand that she was not in danger with him.  That she was never in danger around him.  It was the same part of him that had felt like a man dying of thirst until he’d laid eyes on her.  

“Fine.”  She said at last.  Damian led her out onto the darkened streets.  

“What did you see?”  She asked.

Damian considered.  “Why do you want to know?”

She looked exasperated.  “Because I’d rather not be responsible for the death of the world a second time.  I think I remember because I can stop it this time.  But I don’t remember everything, and I hope that what you do will help me remember more.”

Damian blinked.  That...was not what he had been expecting.  “Death of the world?”  He echoed.

“Just tell me what you saw.”  She snapped.  “And you’ll never have to see me again.”

“What if I want to see you again?”  Damian argued.  Then stopped short.  Where had that come from?  

She too, had stopped.  She gaped at him.  The light from the full moon showed him the barest hint of pink to her cheeks.  

He coughed, embarrassed..  “A trade.”  He decided.

“Of?”  

“Your name for what I saw.”  

“You really don’t remember?”  She asked.  There was a sadness in her words that felt like a knife in his heart.  He was the cause of her pain, and he hated it.  Hated himself.  

“No.”  He whispered.  “I am sorry.  I do not.”  

“But you remembered me healing you?”  She reminded him.

He nodded.  “I could feel your presence in my mind.  I think I hated it.  But I was grateful, too.”

He was relieved to find the slightest upturn to her lips.  

“Raven.”  She finally said.  Raven.  How fitting.  

He bowed low.  “Damian. Damian...Al Ghul.”  He frowned.  Saying his full name had never seemed wrong before.

She said nothing.  And her silence, her expression, told him enough.

“How do you know my name?”  He asked.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”  She deflected.  She began walking again.  

“Try me.”  He insisted, running to catch up to her.

She shrugged.  “I warned you.”

And so she told him.  Of a world not unlike his own.  But a different life for him.  A...happier life.  Him, a hero.  With a family.  Friends.  Her.

“So what happened?”  He asked.

She shrugged.  “I don’t remember.  All I know is I woke up one morning two months ago with memories that I’ve never actually experienced and a need to stop whatever happened the first time.”

“Now.  You’ve avoided it long enough.  What did you see?”  She demanded.

Damian stopped in front of a lavish building.  “I’ll tell you.  After we’ve had something to eat.”

Raven blinked, looked up.  They had arrived.  “You’re stalling.”  She pointed out.

Then her stomach gurgled quietly.  She flushed.  He gestured for her to lead the way.  After a moment, she stepped into the hotel lobby.

Damian had food brought up to his suite.  He left Raven while he went and changed into simpler, cleaner clothes.  When he returned she had apparently switched out her own clothes for a simple black top and dark jeans.  Magic, he guessed.

There was a knock on the door.  Damian answered and allowed the food tray to be brought in.  

“So.”  He said, passing her a plate and utensils.  “Are you with the Teen Titans now?”

She shook her head.  “No.”  

He frowned.  “But you said that you came here when you were very young and that they took you in.”

“In that other life.”  Raven admitted.  “In this one, I only arrived on this world a couple of months ago.”

“From where?”  Damian asked.

Raven looked away.  “My father’s...land.”

Damian gasped as a sharp pain stabbed his forehead.  One word came blazing into his mind like white hot fire.  “Trigon.”  And then, images.  Images of a battle with humanoid-looking creatures around what he thought might be an amusement park.  He saw himself battling...his grandfather?  He saw himself surrounded by volcanic fire.  Heard himself declare “I am a Titan.”

“DAMIAN!”

Then he felt cool hands on him, and then the pain was gone.  Damian groaned.  He was in the fetal position, Raven still had her hands on his forehead.  

She searched his face, only relaxing when she saw the recognition in his eyes.  She sat back on her thighs.  Damian pushed himself up with his elbow.

“Your father...”  Damian didn’t know how to finish that sentence.

“Is a literal demon.”  She finished for him, looking away.

“So when you said you caused the end of the world...”  

“I was not exaggerating.”  She confirmed.

“And...I killed my grandfather, in that other life.”  Damian mused.

“A demonic version of him.  The real Ra’s died long before that.”  Raven explained.  Damian could hear the distaste in her voice.  She was clearly not a fan of his grandfather.

Damian nodded.  “Come.  We need sustenance.”  He carefully stood, offering her his hand.  She set a cool palm in his.  Another vision came into his mind then.  A gentle, sweet balm.  The two of them in an infirmary.  Him saying “When I asked you to join me in leading the League of Assassins...I wasn’t doing it because you’re a good fighter.  I...I had feelings for you.”  

Color flooded his cheeks.  Damian turned away, busying himself with the food tray so that she would not see and ask questions.

“I take it you remember something about us.”  Raven said quietly.  He could hear the amusement in her voice.  

He flushed deeper.  “How did you know?”

“I’m an empath.  I feel strong emotions.”  She explained.

“Oh.”  Because really, what else did you say to that?

He set the food on the small table and took the other empty seat.  

“So.  Tell me what brought you to Gotham.”  She said, placing some rice and vegetables on her plate.

Damian considered where to start.  “Well.  It started out as a dream.”  He said.  “A couple of months ago.”  Raven looked up, interested.  

“What did you dream about?”  She asked.

He flushed again.  “Ravens.”  He admitted.  “White Ravens.”

Her eyebrow went up.  “White?”  

He nodded.  “I didn’t understand it.  And it kept happening.  So I figured my subconscious was trying to tell me something.  I tried everything I could to bring it out, but nothing worked.

“I was doing some research on the topic of dreams one day, and my mother made an off-hand comment of how I reminded her of my father.”  He took a bite, chewing slowly.  Swallowed.  “It was like I’d been struck by lightning.  I suddenly knew that if I wanted answers, I needed to find my father.  So I obtained permission from my grandfather and came to Gotham.”

Raven considered this.  “And if he hadn’t given permission?”

“I still would have come.”  Damian admitted.  

“And the memories...what did you see?”

Damian turned to look out the window.  “Death.  A lot of death.  People that I sensed were important to me dying in horrible ways.  Stabbed.  Ripped apart.  Mutilated almost beyond recognition.  The guilt was overwhelming.  And the fear.”  He coughed as the bile began to rise in his throat.  He took a hasty drink to force it back down.  What was wrong with him?  He was no stranger to death.  Why had these deaths affected him so?

“What else?”  She asked gently.

“I remember demons...flying, winged beasts, and a portal to another world.”  Damian shook his head.  “It’s all so...vague.  I’m sorry.  I don’t...I can’t give you details.”

“Don’t apologize.  I’m just relieved to find I’m not utterly insane.”  Raven said.  She let out a sigh and leaned back.  

“I think our next step should be to find my father.”  Damian said.

Raven raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.  The smile on her face was the only sign he needed that he’d made the right decision.

“I assumed that was what you were doing in that warehouse.”  Raven remarked.

Damian, halfway through taking a sip, choked on his drink.  Raven laughed.

“You did that on purpose!”  He accused.

She gave him an innocent look.  

He snorted.  “Fine.  Yes.  I thought it might...be his ideal hunting grounds.”

“Normally, yes.  But I heard he’s been away on a mission for a few weeks.”  Raven said.

Damian groaned.  “How did you hear that?”  

Raven smiled.  “I’m not a member of the Titans, but I still know where their favorite hangout places are.  It was mentioned in passing that Batman and Nightwing both are out on a mission.  Super secret.  Yada yada.”

“Right.”  Damian said.  Nightwing.  A face flashed before his eyes.  Dark eyes and hair, and tall.  An acrobat.  “Going there might be a way to get to our next target.”

Raven pushed away from the table and stood.  “It’s a date.  I’ll pop back in tomorrow around 6.”  She said, winking at him.  Then she vanished.

Damian stared at the empty place she’d been, the word date ringing in his ears and her teasing smile seared into his eyes.  Tomorrow could not come fast enough.

[thetamrieliclibrary]

Pocket Guide to the Empire, First Edition: Aldmeri Dominion

The Aldmeri Dominion is a relatively recent creation. [1] Formerly divided into he two realms of the Summerset Isles and Valenwood, the Aldmeri Dominion has its origins in CE830, when the heirs of the Camoran Dynasty began to fight over the Valenwood throne. When a faction of the Bosmer (Wood Elves) made overtures of peace to their longtime enemies in West Cyrodiil--territorial concessions in return for Colovian support for the faction's claimant--the Altmer (High Elves) of Summerset invaded the Valenwood Nations. Citing a stewardship clause in a treaty from a thousand years before, the High Elves quickly established a provisional government, the Thalmor, on behalf of their own claimant, Camoran Anaxemes, whose bloodline had struck the pact with the Aldmeri Council in the first place. As the Cyrodilic Empire was still in the shambles of the Interregnum, the Colovians were quickly driven back by the Aldmeri army. The other heirs of the throne were silenced, the Wood Elves thanked their cousins for bringing back stability, and the High Elves reminded Anaxemes the price of Summerset's aid: fifty years' fealty to the King of Alinor. The Aldmeri Dominion was born. [2]

The Thalmor strengthened its hold on the Valenwood Nations during the foundation of the Third Empire. Savage Bosmer tribes skirmished with the Estates along the River Strid, whipped to a frenzy by their High Elven masters. With the Empire now reunified under Tiber Septim, these attacks have subsided; but encampments wait on either side of the Valenwood border, awaiting a decisive battle.  On the occasions when the Elves probe the Empire's defenses, the Legions have sent them back in tatters. Indeed, the Colovians have taken to calling their enemy the "Old Mary" Dominion, for the womanly offensives of its Elven soldiers. The situation at sea, however, is another story, and the Dominion terrorises the southern waters from the Cape of the Blue Divide to the Topal Bay. [3] Their sorcery has made allies of a few Reachmen, the Maormer of Pyandonea, and, as of this writing, perhaps even the Elsweyr Confederacy. Though no formal declaration of war has been made, Tamriel is divided between the Empire and the Elder Races, and Tiber Septim has made it known to the Thalmor that he is the True Emperor of Cyrodiil, and heir to all of its former holdings. The Elves of Tamriel have yet to answer.

Considering we have endured their offenses for two thousand years, we know surprisingly little about the Aldmeri. (Only Morrowind, under Skyrim domination during the First Empire, and open to travel and trade during most of the Common Era, is somewhat better known.). The Elves of High Rock and Cyrodiil were either wiped out long ago or displaced into obscurity. As for the Elves of the Dominion, our knowledge of their regions is limited to brief Imperial occupations, or to the translations we have of their literature (see "The Scarcity of Elven Writings").

Of particular scarcity is information about either the High Elves or the Summerset Isles. During the Second Empire [4] ambassadors were allowed only in the capital of Alinor, and thus any description of the Altmeri homeland is confined to that city alone, and elsewhere (see Places of Note--Alinor). Furthermore, we can offer only this brief but reliable account of the High Elven people. It comes from the journals of Eric of Guis [5]. Reman's emissary to the Altmer, who lived among them ca. 1E2820:

"High Elves consider themselves to be the only perfect race. Over hundreds of generations they have bred themselves into a racially pure line, and are now almost identical to one another in appearance. The theory that the High Elves do not reproduce as quickly or as often as humans is false. Rather, and to my horror, they kill nine out of ten babies born to them in their obsession for purity.

"The Altmer despise other Elves as unsophisticated churls and barely consider the non-Aldmeri races at all. They pay their Imperial tithes, I'm sure, not for fear of war with the humans but rather to keep an invasion from "infecting" their islands.

"Breeding outside the pure line is a terrible, unthinkable crime, and taken as prima facia evidence of the tainted blood of the individual in question--if they were, they wouldn't have the impulse to do it. Exile to the mainland is regarded as equivalent to a death sentence, since there is no purpose to living outside their ideal society.

:They have a high regard for order and gravitate naturally towards wearing uniforms and speaking in formal patterns. Their trees and their livestock have been bred to be as standard and ideal as they are. They have no real names of their own, only combinations of numbers that, when aloud, sound to human ears as such. They feel no real tenderness for one another and have no concept of compassion.

"They are decadent and self-obsessed, and prize form and their own brand of manners or style as their main value. Aware of their aristocratic position, they surround themselves with riches and treasures, the works of great artists and the finest of everything, but have no real appreciation for any of these things. Each of them is concerned solely with himself, and as a result they do no real socialising; they meet and hold courts only to demonstrate their importance and power to each other. Rarely do they speak to the human ambassadors of Cyrodiil; when they do, their speech is full of riddles, or spell-words that enchant one to a satisfied madness."

Valenwood was claimed as a wasteland province of the Second Empire, and its geography is partially described in several Imperial surveys. Valenwood is noteworthy in that it has no cities or townships built by the Wood Elves themselves. Their strict "Green Pact" prohibits the use of wood or other vegetable derivatives as building materials, and they are too improvident to learn the use of stone. The Wood Elves permitted a few roads to be built by the Second Empire, but neglect their maintenance, as the Bosmer do not need roads to move easily through the thickest forest; these roads would be now overgrown were it not for the High Elves of the Thalmor, who have repaired and widened them for rapid passage of their arms to and from the coast. Much of the region is impenetrable mangrove and coastal rain forest, with few grasslands or glade areas until further north near the Strident Coast. Many of the human trading posts established by the Second Empire have been abandoned or claimed by the beastfolk--Centaurs, Orcs, and Imga--that share the forests with the Bosmer tribes. Humans, in general, have learned not to intrude in the forests of Valenwood. While they once depended entirely on the annual Stridmeet caravans of the Colovian  West, the Wood Elves now rely on the sea piracy of the Dominion for whatever they require from the outside world.

Concerning the Wood Elves as people, we must again turn to the prolific Eric of Guid. After a grateful dismissal from the Court of Alinor, he stayed with the Bosmer for a time at the capital city of Falinesti, during its summer migration. As the city strode along the coastal region of the Cape, Eric of Guis recorded much about Valenwood culture:

"No less abhorrent are the Bosmer than their kin at Summerset, but they are far more cooperative. The Wood Elves love the current human activity because it makes them feel important. 

"They are exclusively and religiously carnivorous. They cannot, or will not, eat anything that is plant-based. They eat game, beastfolk, each other, or meats imported from other regions. This part of the Green Pact is known as the Meat Mandate, and, among its other rules, it requires that a fallen enemy must be eaten completely before three days pass. The family members of the warrior that slew the enemy may help him with his meal. Needless to say, the Wood Elves do not like to engage in large battles if they have not undergone a suitable starvation period.

"Though they are excellent archers, the Green Pact forces their bowyers and fletchers to use bone or similar material, or to buy bows from other cultures. The use of woodcrafts created by another race is not forbidden, nor is the sale of their own Valenwood timber as long as it is collected by a non-Bosmeri.

"The Wood Elves, of course, cannot some anything of a vegetable nature. Bone pipes are common, however, and are filled with caterpillars or tree grubs.

"For a brief time the Colovian armies used Wood Elf archers, as in the War of Rihad two years past. The Bosmer proved to be too undisciplined and prone to desertion for further use. They would sometimes walk into the shade of a single tree and vanish. Their forest-coupling skills are remarkable. The title of their most famous poem, the Meh Ayleidion, means "The One Thousand Benefits of Hiding."

"At the trading posts of the Empire, the Wood Elves become very happy. Some creations of carpentry delight them to no end. Most of it has never occurred to them. They bring their own trade items: hides, river pearls, finger-bone charms made from the still-magically-charged hands of their dead wizards. They often buy woodcrafts that they have no use for or whose use they never bother to find out. Some of the bravest Wold Elven warrior use wagon wheels as shields, or as (they think) impressive headgear.

"While sometimes amusing, the Bosmer have a bestial side. They can resort to animal shapes if they need to, or water. Their most dreaded transformation is the Wild Hunt, which killed King Borgas [6] for the "iniquities" of his Alessian faith. The Wild Hunt is a pack of shifting forest-demons and animal-gods, thousands strong, which sweeps through the countryside killing everything in its path. The Wood Elves do not like to talk about the Hunt, and I gather they do not feel proud of this power at all--Gomini, my Bosmer companion of late, tells me that the Hunt is used for justice, but that also, "every monster in the world that has even been comes from a previous Hunt. Those Bosmer that go Wild, they not not return.""

The traveller is advised to avoid the lands of the Aldmeri Dominion. Though the Thalmor have representatives at the Imperial City, and the Cyrodiilic Grand Vizier Zurin Arctus is meeting with the King of Alinor, contact with the Bosmer and Altmer are often disagreeable to the common Imperial citizen. Avoid their books and magic. Wear the permitted weaponry when near their borders. If you are manly and able, apply for service in the Legions.

The Scarcity of Elven Writings

Much of the blame for this can be laid on the Alessian Order, which was tireless in ferreting out and destroying Elven writings during its long dominance. Today, we are left with the beautiful heresies of the Anuad, surviving only by virtue of their popularity and proliferation, and perhaps a dozen more works of lesser renown. This, though, does not explain fully the scarcity of Elven letters. We might turn to Dylxexes, an early human scholar, for another answer. After studying the financial records of the Direnni Hegemony, a High Elven merchant family that exploited the human kingdoms of its day, he had this to say: "These [records] may help to explain why so much of Aldmeri literature is forbidden, scorned, or untranslated, for I have seen [their] like before. The Direnni were either exceedingly paranoid or their system of economy so inextricably linked with dangerous theosophist numeral-symbolism that much of what is recorded here requires... sorcerous precautions on the part of the reader. [Hidden magic] is everywhere incorporated in their writings... signs and preternatural runes and [correspondences]... in expenditure columns, even, or margins [that] can be fatal to the uninitiated. Crucial pages were covered with the spittle of the previous translator, who had babbled idiotically over the text for days before catching fire."

The Great Apes of Valenwood

The Great Apes, or Imga, are native beastfolk of Valenwood. they see the High Elves as their lords and masters, and as a portrait of an ideal, civilised society. Great Apes go to desperate measures to emulate the High Elves: they wear capes, practice with the dueling sword, and attempt to speak with perfect enunciation and courtly manners despite their gravelly, baritone voices. Each Imga bears some kind of title, be it Baron, Duke, Earl, or the like, which they use when addressing the members of the Thalmor (needless to say, there are no landowning Great Apes). More extreme Great Apes shave their bodies and powder their skin white to seem more like the High Elves. They often cut themselves in the process, creating the truly pathetic picture of a naked white Ape, skin dotted pink with blood, strutting around the trading posts of Valenwood with mock nobility. The Imga feel that humans are beneath them as lesser beastfolk, and pretend to find their smell exceedingly offensive--a Great Ape holds a perfumed corner of his cape to his nose when Men are around.

Places of Note

Alinor

A forbidden city for nearly fifty years, Alinor is both capital of the Summerset Isles and the heart of the Aldmeri Dominion. Human traders were only allowed at its ports, and they described the city as "made from glass or insect wings." Less fantastic accounts come from the Imperial emissaries of the Reman Dynasty, which describe the city as straight and glimmering, "a hypnotic swirl of ramparts and impossibly high towers, designed to catch the light of the sun and break it to its component colours, which lies draped across its stones until you are thankful for nightfall."

Falinesti

The walking city of the Bosmer king, Falinesti is south in the summer and north come Hearth Fire. It is the largest of Valenwood graht-oaks, whose magic was invoked at the dawn of recorded history. The Camoran throne is somewhere in the highest branches, as are numerous other dwellings. Wood Elves climb about its surface like termites, or carefully swing from level to level by means of thorny vines. Humans have generally been too unsettled by the city to stay there long, though Great Apes and Orcs are common. The Thalmor has decided to change the campital of Valenwood from Falinesti to Elden Root for the duration of the Aldmeri Dominion.

Annotations

1. Of this pamphlet, this regime, this lunacy 2. I don't know where to begin pointing out the lies 3. !!! 4. My bones chill thinking of such rampant human trespass 5. Does Grandfather remember this fool? 6. Wood Elves of the Wild Hunt, 1e369, still about in Valenwood--Willy the Bitten returned to haunt Silvenar Grove, While King Dead Wolf-Deer stalks the Lynpar March.

~ Follow for more books, journals, and notes from the Elder Scrolls series ~ Updates daily ~

[asimawv]

I write and conceptualize story to music, so I’ve compiled a playlist of 30 Darkest Dungeon-specific songs that I listen to when writing (and subsequently re-writing) in no particular order, which I hope will help you set the vibe too. :+)

Names in bold are links for easy listening - tons of Hozier and Of Monsters and Men up ahead, five minute warning.

1. ‘Fire and the Flood’ - Vance Joy

If you listen to nothing else on this list, listen to this one - it’s the kind of song that’s made for movies about yearning. Folk influences, choruses of trumpets and vocal harmony, and instruments that are layered for a rich, resonant sound. This is the song I imagine Dismas and Reynauld horse-racing through a crowded outdoors market in the hamlet to, and the song I listened to nonstop freshman year when I first started writing The Myth of Sisyphus.

You're the fire and the flood And I'll always feel you in my blood Everything is fine When your hand is resting next to mine Next to mine You're the fire and the flood

The chorus is built around biblical allusions to the fire (the burning bush signifying first contact) and the flood (destruction of the first world), the beginning and end. Every line is similarly evocative of Darkest Dungeon in their simplicity (“I’ve been getting used to waking up with you,” etc.)

2. ‘Soldier, Poet, King’ - The Oh Hellos

By the title alone you can guess who this is for. Even the Guild quote for the Leper approaches these three things as the defining parts of his character (specifically it’s “a ruined man, a warrior, and a poet.”) This song coincidentally has an old world influence to it, with a Medieval Renaissance style from a guitar playing a lute-adjacent melody.

There will come a ruler Whose brow is laid in thorn Smeared with oil like David's boy, oh lei oh lai oh Lord Oh lei, oh lai, oh lei, oh Lord Smeared with oil like David's boy, oh lei oh lai oh Lord

To be smeared with oil is to be anointed by a prophet and thus chosen by god himself to be king, just as David was and his boy after him (presumably Solomon). There’s something strangely wistful about the imagery, which is just how I like my songs about bygone kings.

3. ‘Exit Hymn’ - Bear Attack!

This song is about the end of the world in a version where everyone simply stands together in silence watching, rather than having the masses swarming in panic.

Lovely shapes to the world descending, Brothers and sisters. Lovely shapes to the world descending, Brothers and sisters Mute.

It defies Lovecraftian horror, which is based on the premise that “common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos-at-large” - it flies in the face of existential nihilism and the despair that it should bring us. That’s why I like this song for deaths in the end-boss fight; it also has a special place for other death-related ideas, like full-party wipes - entire teams of people vanishing into the dungeons, gone insane, holding hands while the darkness surrounds them.

It’s a bare song which has a sanctity to it, mostly just piano and rain and human voices. Just what you would hear at the end of the world.

More under the cut:

4. ‘Pursuit of Glory’ - Jhameel

This song is laid-back. It doesn’t have the Homeric intensity that some of the other songs here do - it’s a guy with a guitar and vocal harmony. By god is it a great piece of writing though (all of Jhameel’s older songs have that quality to them), and all of it is evocative of Darkest Dungeon.

So many eyes set on the path to glory Too many ties, friendship is for the lonely Can't still my heart, my tongue has tasted folly Thirsty for art, hungry for power and money

This is a song for everyone in the barracks, especially the ‘laundry list’ of people and their approaches to the pursuit of glory.

5. ‘Good Old Days’ - Macklemore (feat. Kesha)

This fucker put a Macklemore song in here. I did, yeah. It’s not even the only song with Kesha in it here (I’m sorry.) 

It’s a sentimental pop song, and I am sentimental to a fault. This is Darkest Dungeon AMV material, and I always mishear one of the lines as “we were underground, loaded mercs in that 12-passenger van” so it’s here.

We've come so far, I guess I'm proud And I ain't worried about the wrinkles around my smile I've got some scars, I've been around I've felt some pain, I've seen some things, but I'm here now Those good old days

6. ‘Past Lives‘ - Kesha

Here it is, the other Kesha song - this was introduced to me by a good friend, also in a Darkest Dungeon context. There’s just something about the lovers spanning time trope and finding each other in one life to the next that is irresistible (for the obvious reason in the context of Darkest Dungeon.) It’s a soft song, totally out of place in Kesha’s typical discography, and has a line about losing someone to the crusades, so... you know.

There's just somethin' about you I know Started centuries ago though You see your kiss is like a lost ghost Only I would know But I, I keep on falling for you Time after time Time after time

7. ‘Viva la Vida’ - Coldplay

You cannot fight this. You know that this is the song for King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, you know it is. Did you know the official name of this genre of music is “Baroque pop”? Yes, that means more songs like this exist. You will live with this information now.

Don’t fight it. Just let it wash over you.

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing Roman Cavalry choirs are singing Be my mirror, my sword and shield My missionaries in a foreign field For some reason I can't explain Once you go there was never, never an honest word And that was when I ruled the world

Mirror, sword, and shield, the three other members of his party, his missionaries in a foreign field. Thinking emoji. I typed that out so I wouldn’t have a repeat of the crab emoji incident.

8. ‘The Boxer’ - Jerry Douglas (feat. Mumford & Sons, Paul Simon)

Partly inspired by the Bible, Simon & Garfunkle’s ‘The Boxer’ is a folk rock song about poverty, loneliness, and homesickness. It’s written and sung in a style that’s strongly reminiscent of older times, and the final verse about its eponymous boxer is particularly powerful:

In the clearing stands a boxer And a fighter by his trade And he carries the reminders Of ev'ry glove that laid him down Or cut him till he cried out In his anger and his shame "I am leaving, I am leaving" But the fighter still remains

This is what I use for Dismas’ life leading into organized crime and his foolish abandonment of stable job prospects in a half-baked bid for fame, as well as being punched down over and over again but with nowhere else to go. That last part is widely applicable across the cast.

9. ‘I Will Wait’ - Mumford & Sons

I am but a simple man. I see 'folk rock' and add it to my Darkest Dungeon playlist. This song I use for Reynauld - it has that sort of “salt of the earth,” somewhat biblical humility in its choice of words and style. 

Raise my hands Paint my spirit gold And bow my head Keep my heart slow

10. ‘Little Lion Man’ - Mumford & Sons

Have we not beaten this song to death yet? Can you blame us? This is the people’s song. We reserve it for all of our favorite fuck-up characters, as primal as Saturn devouring his son. We love this song. Jesus.

Tremble for yourself, my man, You know that you have seen this all before Tremble little lion man, You'll never settle any of your scores Your grace is wasted in your face, Your boldness stands alone among the wreck Now learn from your mother or else spend your days biting your own neck

The line about learning from your mother in particular is why I think of this song for Dismas’ introspection, but I also associate it with the Hellion.

11. ’From Eden’ - Hozier

There’s too much Hozier in my playlists. There is so much of it, and it’s all important to me, says the hoarder. There’s something about profoundly intimate folk music that I love, and god put folk, R&B, blues, and alt rock into a Vitamix for 45 seconds to make Hozier.

Honey you're familiar like my mirror years ago Idealism sits in prison, chivalry fell on its sword Innocence died screaming, honey ask me I should know I slithered here from Eden just to sit outside your door

‘From Eden’ is, according to Hozier, about idolizing someone from a distance, written from the perspective of the devil “looking longingly at something he desires - for everything that he does not have.” I associate this song with the Grave Robber for its playfully nihilistic tone - Audrey does say something to the effect of being left for dead by high society and the affectionate bordering condescending address is on-brand.

12. ‘Cherry Wine’ - Hozier

‘Cherry Wine’ is unabashedly about domestic violence, and its sincerity is heartbreaking, the sanctification of the blood spilled in the name of keeping her.

The way she tells me I'm hers and she is mine Open hand or closed fist would be fine The blood is rare and sweet as cherry wine.

This song is strongly tied to the Vestal for me.

13. ‘Work Song’ - Hozier

A song about unconditional love - heaven and hell were just words, indeed.

When my time comes around Lay me gently in the cold dark earth No grave can hold my body down I'll crawl home to her

I think of this song for both Dismas and the Abomination - it’s a song about love transcending spiritual and even physical need, complete devotion, but something about it is also not quite right. It’s morbid and excessive, self-pitying, and almost ugly in its sincerity.

14. ‘Sunlight’ - Hozier

The strong gospel influence with the choruses, church organ, religious fervor - I think it makes a great song for traveling scenes and church/altar scenes.

I had been lost to you, sunlight Flew like a moth to you, sunlight oh sunlight Oh, your love is sunlight Oh, your love is sunlight (sunlight, sunlight) But it is sunlight

15. ‘Arsonist’s Lullabye’ - Hozier

The gospel this time is paired with electric rock instrumentation. Something about the lamentation is unapologetic and matter-of-fact in its disturbing inclinations - this is Paracelsus’ song. Arguably representative of Bounty Hunter and Flagellant as well.

Now that I think about it, it’s great for Abomination as well. Damn.

All you have is your fire And the place you need to reach Don't you ever tame your demons But always keep 'em on a leash

16. ‘We Sink’ - Of Monsters and Men

Of Monsters and Men are closer to the indie rock/pop spectrum with influences of folk, with much less biblical influence and more folklore-inspired lyrics. They make for great trailer and action songs.

We are the sleepers, we bite our tongues We set the fire and we let it burn Through the dreamers, we hear the hum They say come on, come on, let's go So come on, come on, let's go

In Lovecraft’s Cthulu mythos, dreams are how the Old Ones commune with humans on the earth’s surface while they slumber in the ocean depths (Cthulhu fhtagn meaning “Cthulhu is dreaming”); I like to think of the ‘sleepers’ as the heroes being tasked to “set the fire” and the ‘dreamers’ being the Heir and Ancestor driven by some unseen force to unearth the antediluvian underground.

17. ‘I Of The Storm’ - Of Monsters and Men

Very somber song, overwhelmingly piano and snare drum and vocals. Also a great death scene song, or for introspection around the campfire, or played to reveal a major event.

If I could face them If I could make amends With all my shadows I'd bow my head And welcome them

18. ‘King and Lionheart’ - Of Monsters and Men

My favorite OMAM song - it’s clearly written about two children, kind of reminiscent of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ in its fantastical nature, and very upbeat about the end of the world.

His crown lit up the way as we moved slowly Pass the wondering eyes of the ones that were left behind Though far away, though far away, though far away We're still the same, we're still the same, we're still the same

This part is reminiscent of the Leper’s journey, but the mentions of taking over a town, howling ghosts, the end of the world, a black sea and creatures lurking below, etc. are all evocative of Darkest Dungeon.

19. ‘Little Talks’ - Of Monsters and Men

Also very upbeat for its subject matter - according to OMAM, it’s a narrative of a woman speaking with the ghost of her dead husband, or going insane and believing that she’s speaking with her dead husband.

Some days I don't know if I am wrong or right Your mind is playing tricks on you, my dear 'Cause though the truth may vary This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore

The call-and-respond style of the song is haunting. I like this song for expeditions and afflicted heroes.

20. ‘Wolves Without Teeth’ - Of Monsters and Men

Suitable for both Occultist and Abomination, being consumed by an unseen and otherworldly force that inhabits them - well, maybe just rarely seen, in the Abomination’s case. Special mention to OMAM’s ‘Human,’ same conceptual backing but more raw.

You hover like a hummingbird Haunt me in my sleep You're sailing from another world Sinking in my sea, oh You're feeding on my energy I'm letting go of it He wants it

21. ‘Desierto’ (Original Motion Picture Score) - Woodkid

This is a full album, because all of it is dark orchestral cinema music described as ‘unsettling,’ with the sole exception of ‘Land of All,’ which has vocals to it. I reserve this album for writing fight scenes and for particularly unsettling events because it’s tense and wordless. I read Junji Ito to this soundtrack too, it’s insanely high-strung and discordant.

22. ‘Iron’ - Woodkid

‘Iron’ qualifies as Baroque pop - you might recognize this as the Assassin’s Creed: Revelations song. The large-scale, cinematic style of it and thematic lyrics make it great for writing about dramatic encounters or brigands.

This deadly burst of snow is burning my hands I'm frozen to the bones, I am A million miles from home, I'm walking away I can't recall your eyes, your face

23. ‘Never Let You Down’ - Woodkid (feat. LYKKE LI)

Another somber song, orchestral with some industrial noise in the mix - another great introspection song, or one for a scene with some hard decisions to be made.

Will you come along cause I'm about to leave this town In my eyes, a waterfall, all I can hear, a siren call Could you be waiting by the shore, oh I could drown without you Will you be holding out the line when I fall?

24. ‘Run Boy Run’ - Woodkid

Church bells, fast percussion, strong orchestral presence. For chase scenes, obviously, but great for fast-paced sneaking scenes as well. Also has a strong quasi-Medieval fantasy setting style to it.

Tomorrow is another day And you won't have to hide away You'll be a man, boy! But for now it's time to run, it's time to run!

25. ‘I Love You’ - Woodkid

Don’t let the scream effects and aggressive percussion at the beginning deter you (it kind of took me by surprise the first few times too) - it soon fades into more of the church bells and melodic string accompaniment.

Oh yeah, unrequited love song? It’s free (mental) real estate, baby.

Is there anything I could do Just to get some attention from you? In the waves, I've lost every trace of you Where are you?

26. ‘Vagabonds’ - Grizfolk

A rare departure from folk! Grizfolk is alt rock/indie pop. Stylistically it doesn’t match the feeling of Darkest Dungeon, but lyrically it’s almost 1:1 to arrival in the hamlet and the subsequent expeditions. Good song for writing about recruits bonding.

Oh this careless ground, guessing this is home now Oh in no man's land, at least we're still standing And we're all just fighting, some of us will not return And there's no redemption in trying to find your way out

27. ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ - Lorde

Great trailer fuel, if you’ve seen the AC: Unity E3 trailer with this song - I listen to an extended version when writing fights in the Guild, especially one where two heroes are beefing. It’s got a primal kind of thing going on. I also associate this song with the Arbalest - lyrically, it fits her backstory like a glove.

Welcome to your life There's no turning back Even while we sleep We will find you

Acting on your best behavior Turn your back on mother nature

28. ‘Torches’ - X Ambassadors

More alt rock/indie pop - kind of a rallying song for dark expeditions, hopeful but still somber in nature - some gospel elements. X Ambassadors’ more popular ‘Renegades’ is also a fun tavern song.

Come on, carry your flame Carry it higher Leave it in the darkness Carry your torches

29. ‘Passing Afternoon’ - Iron & Wine

This is a song I use for reconciliation or domestic scenes - Dismas with Junia in the garden, for example. It’s soft and kind of meandering, and features vintage piano - you know, the piano you heard in the basement of your church turned community center as a child.

There are times that walk from you like some passing afternoon Summer warmed the open window of her honeymoon And she chose a yard to burn but the ground remembers her Wooden spoons, her children stir her Bougainvillea blooms

30. ‘Some Nights’ - Fun.

You know this song, your mom knows this song, everyone knows this song from like, middle school. Thought it’d be fun to end this list on an uplifting and very popular song. This is the song that a Disney adaptation of Darkest Dungeon would use in the Training Montage™ - from the point of view of Reynauld. It hits all of the points - being their commander rather than their equal, his stern and antisocial zealotry with no true ideology behind it, the ghost of his wife.

Verse 2, starting with “Well, that is it, guys, that is all / Five minutes in and I'm bored again” is where I see it transitioning to Dismas.

Well, some nights, I wish that this all would end 'Cause I could use some friends for a change And some nights, I'm scared you'll forget me again Some nights, I always win (I always win) But I still wake up, I still see your ghost Oh Lord, I'm still not sure what I stand for, oh What do I stand for? What do I stand for? Most nights, I don't know

_____

Well that’s all from me! Feel free to leave your own recommendations in the replies, and I’d love to know what you think about my personal picks. :+)

[brvdleymilligan]

HLO slinks in thru a bead curtain.......... truly sry this took me so long to concoct bt i’m here now, hand on hip, smiling coyly at u all...... i’m nai n i’m rly excited to b here so i’ll just dive right in!! u can find bradley’s pinterest board here n her muse tag here. like this or hmu for plots!

[ cis female, she/her, margaret qualley , twenty-four ] i can’t be sure, but i think i just saw BRADLEY MILLIGAN drive onto the parkway. don’t they know we’re not supposed to be driving on that haunted road right now? maybe it has to do with the fact that they’re so +RESILIENT and -VOLATILE that makes them feel UNPHASED about everything going on. i guess we could also chalk it up to the fact that they’re always reminding me of LEMON IN A FRESH CUT, THE AMBER BLINK OF AN ANGRY ALLEY CAT, GRINNING WITH BLOOD ON YOUR TEETH. either way, i hope they get back safely. [ nai, she/her, 24, gmt ]

aesthetics: singeing a hole in your fishnets with the cherry of a menthol, spitting a pistachio behind the bar just to hear it ping off the nozzle top bottles, lemon in a fresh cut, a war torn poppy standing alone in an empty field, pressing thumbs to yellow bruises, stomping over flowerbeds when there’s a path right besides it, dangling over ledges just to feel your chest jolt, a snarling rottweiler that needs muzzling, limp feet poking out behind a door, ‘I PROMISE I DON’T BITE’ scrawled on a name tag, slapping a bald head in front of you at the cinema like it’s a bongo, not owning a single jacket that isn’t stolen, driving a stranger’s car down the wrong lane against the screaming traffic, hair more feral than a wolf cub and eyes smudgier than a coal mine.  

BACKGROUND:

ok SO. her father owns a strip club in crescent hill named no angels. it’s kind of.... a seedy establishment i won’t lie. hs a red glowing sign like it’s lighting up a window in amsterdam. cigarette butts floating in oil slick puddles outside. unsavoury characters crawling all over like rats in a sewer. despite this it’s a legitimate business on the surface of things n it does pretty well in trade. it’s like.... that place people warn u NOT to have ur bachelor party at unless u fancy urself the type tht willingly enters a lion’s den bt tht almost??? adds to the allure in a way??? ppl r like wow so sketchy it’s the thrill of a lifetime........ i mean run while u still can bt go off i guess

it isn’t Confirmed Public Knowledge bt it’s pretty heavily implied thru the rumour mill that bradley’s father is the head of a gang of rly............ Not Nice people. all the ppl that work for him u would hands down NOT want to run into in a dark alley. while things seem legitimate on the suface it’s pretty clear they’re into shady dealings n the townsfolk that suspect that would indeed b correct! the club’s a front for a drug business n they’re also washing n running counterfeit cash thru it. they probably also have their hands dipped into a few other local businesses to run their cash thru these too n keep it all seemingly by the books so nobody comes sniffing around. they even r friends with a member of local law enforcement that’s working w them for a cut so they honestly have all bases covered to keep things airtight n foolproof. perhaps a business in reed too which bradley oversees bt i haven’t given this Too Much thought as of yet??

so ya she’s grown up fairly local most of her life n would maybe be known around town as such.................. the milligans r certainly Interesting as far as families go so like. it honestly wldn’t surprise me if ppl nudge elbows when they see one of them coming n immediately walk in the opposite direction. just quite an intimidating presence...... they’re like caged animals where ur specifically instructed NOT to stick ur fingers between the bars bc they WILL bite

on a more personal note her dad is pretty much the worst human being alive n bradley hs like….. a lot of issues with herself as a result of years of toxicity n abuse

in terms of more family bkground info her mum’s name was alyssa n she vanished when bradley was 12. jst like…. into thin air. nothing. no note. zilch. gan! n when bradley asked her dad abt it his response was essentially “guess she didn’t love us enough to stay”. as bradley’s got older tho n become (without intention) more involved in the business side of things, it’s become pretty clear there was far more to the story.

(abuse tw) they had a horrible marriage n tony ws emotionally manipulative at the best of times, violent at worst, which didn’t help the fact tht alyssa ws struggling a lot w severe depression n rly just… not in the mindset to b dealing w anything else, even where motherhood ws concerned. bradley p much… would look after her a lot n they’d both b scared of her dad n it was just a whole unhealthy mess.

(death implied tw) anyway im rambling bt basically tony (bradley’s dad) gt wind of alyssa sleeping w men tht worked fr him n he just… got rid. bradley’s kind of worked out over the yrs tht her mum didn’t jst leave on her own accord n tht something must hav happened to her bt she’s too scared of her dad to ever directly accuse him

when her mum went all of her dad’s cruelty pretty mch got channelled straight onto her. it ws diluted between two before bt as u can probably imagine her upbringing was jst…. a steep downhill decline

(drugs implied tw) she learnt ways 2 deal w the incurring trauma bt they weren’t healthy ones at all! bsically jst. will do or take anything fr the distraction. chases a thrill like it’s the only way to remind her she’s alive. has absolutely no regard fr her own wellbeing n often gets other ppl in trouble too bc she’s so insatiably reckless

(hospitalisation tw) she hd….2 separate stints of psychiatric hospitalisation n she never tlks abt it. like ever. acknowledging she’s been vulnerable is her worst nightmare n bc of the way her dad raised her she always thinks any sign of struggling within herself is weakness. truly does…. not kno how to properly emotion

CUT TO!!!! the present. she’s currently living at the motel which is like. the least homely place she cld ever live rly but bradley loves making her life uncomfortable n doesn’t rly believe in growing sentimentally attached to anything if she cn help it <3 probably gets into arguments all the time w her neighbours it’s a whole thing.... atrocious at feeding herself has breakfasts frm the vending machine like her organs aren’t screaming fr vegetables.... plays music too loud n sometimes vanishes for days at a time without a word. she’s a lot.

i honestly feel like the murders haven’t rly phased bradley too hugely....... i won’t lie she probably genuinely is like. oh maybe it’s smthn to do w my dad. n just blinks the other way not rly that phased. on some subconscious level i think she rly just thinks........ death follows her wherever she goes n is like. this is just life for me! kind of depressing. holds her hand bt then screams n pulls away when she inevitably bites me.

PERSONALITY:

the kind of sour cherry only certain people have a taste for

once drank a bottle of whiskey, insisted she could still do a cartwheel and accidentally kicked an old man’s front tooth out in the process. proceeded 2 collapse into a flower bed and laugh so much abt it that she cried

barely takes anything seriously 50% of the time and is angry the other 50%

if she was a coffee she’d be black with five grains of sugar that you couldn’t taste until the last sip

(alcoholism tw) high functioning alcoholic. if u ever see her w a coffee cup u jst kno tht one sniff will confirm high alcohol percentage. honestly idk hw she does it her liver must b yellin

loyal to a point of fault. if she cares abt u (rare) and u murder a man in cold blood (not so rare in the broad scheme of bradley’s life) she’ll brawl anyone that says ur guilty

honestly wld probably fight a person over anything. sometimes she’ll jst be having a bad day n she’ll burst n take it out on whoever says the wrong thing. minefield!

has the worst luck in romance…. ever. ALL her past bfs hav been absolute beasts n as a result she has the ‘romance is dead n love is a lie’ mentality. definitely NOT a romantic. very cut n dry abt these things. sex is mostly just sex n she’d kind of scoff at anyone that wanted more from her

mostly wears stolen clothes from strangers and jackets that swamp her. huge chunky stomping boots with steel toe caps that would RLY bruise if they gave u a kick. hair is p much always a wild mess n she usually hs kind of smudgy/smoky makeup bcos apparently she’s allergic to combs and generally looking presentable… relatable content. the only time she rly looks put together is when she has to do something/go somewhere/see someone on behalf of her father....... he kind of uses her as a sort of. honey pot sometimes fr shit his gang get up to it’s like. not! a way u should ever utilise ur daughter but :/ i cannot stress enough how much i wna drop kick him in the neck

she’s v sarcastic. blunt. kind of has a habit of…. assessing a person n she’s quite perceptive bc she’s been trained to b by the way she always has to monitor her dad’s expression fr the slightest emotion change. she’s very confident n can p much mke a conversation out of whatever if she feels like it. independent too like she hs a bunch of (predominantly surface connection) friends bt she doesn’t care abt going out places alone n does this often. she’s probably kind of known around town bt itd b a 50/50 balance between bein known as intimidating n bein known as that one girl tht always gets into anarchy

likes: drunken snow angels that drag on so long they flirt with pneumonia, stealing cars, throwing watermelons off rooftops to watch them explode, shooting pedestrian’s with bb guns from hidden spots on rooftops. 

dislikes: telling the truth, tulips so yellow it’s like they’re gloating, playing music loud enough to fry your brain and serve it on a piece of toast, going home.

PLOTS:

someone tht works at the ‘no angels’ strip club?? either as a dancer or bartender or whtever. just a forewarning it’s probably gna b a pretty….. seedy and Not That Pleasant environment bc it’s like. a crime hotspot inevitably bc it’s a gang hangout so. ur chara wld truly be in fr a rollercoaster ride to say the least

(drugs tw) she deals coke fr her dad’s gang so perhaps ur muse buys off her

anyone….. she’s brawled in the past like. she’s literally a menace i cnt express this enough. wil jst randomly throw a drink in someone’s face fr no reason bc she’s bored. she’s probably pissed off 1000 diff ppl in 1000 diff ways. the possibilities r endless n i jst think tht’s a sexy prospect!

fwbs perhaps??? exes??? (probably ws a tumultuous relationship honestly bradley is. a handful...... it’s also rly not often she ties herself down tbh so this would maybe have to b discussed/be circumstantial/kind of rare)

mayb someone tht she met at an aa meeting when she hd to go fr a court mandated thing one time after bein arrested fr public indecency. i feel like there’s probably a rly expensive statue somewhere thts fancily sculpted n she like. did a flying kick n broke the dick of it off n gt arrested fr it

ppl she……. Goes Wild Goes Crazy w. truly jst the most self destructive person alive so anyone w a similar mindset wld b a hellish bt fun combination

on the contrary a gd influence cld b nice perhaps? like someone tht genuinely cares abt her n she jst doesn’t kno hw to compute it

maybe people who r her neighbours that live at the motel too??

OH it could b fun if ur muse runs or works at a local business maybe like. a bar? idk? n bradley n ur muse have developed a rapport bc she frequents the place n is................ a Character

um. honestly the world’s our oyster. hmu n we cn brainstorm if none of tht catches ur eye!

[bitter-sweet-farmgirl]

Minas Tirith

Part 2 in a five part series in which OC flees from Thorin after he goes mad from the gold-sickness and rages at her.  But his presence follows her across Middle Earth.  Link to Part 1.  Link to Part 3.

MASTERLIST

OC(s) Used:  Estelle

Word Count: 1,343

Translation(s): None

~~~~

It had been weeks, Mahal, weeks since I had rode that black night from the Cursed Mountain.  My first thought of refuge was in Minas Tirith, about a fortnight's ride from the mountain.  There I could finally rest easy, with so many miles between me and other dwarves.

I had been here for probably over two months now, but had stopped counting the days once I'd started to believe that I was never going to be discovered here.  

My first priority had been finding a job to earn money, and hopefully get myself out of the spotlight by becoming familiar to the townsfolk.  It had been relatively easy and I had soon been hired by a cloth merchant to sell his cotton and silk bolts, me being a woman after all.

It was boring, standing there in a hot stall all day, showing off the various rolls of colours and textures for sale to the women shopping in the marketplace.  But it was better than being stuck in that dark mountain day after day, trying desperately to avoid the dwarrow who knew the tunnels better than I did.

I still missed Thorin, my heart ached to see him again, to see him without the veil of the gold-sickness over his mind.  But I shoved those feelings away, trying to forget.

"Deirdra, I'll take over while you get something to eat."  My master, Caibre, said as he walked over.  I smiled gratefully, laying down the bolt of cloth I had been rolling and walking past his tall form.

"Thank you, Caibre."  I said softly, and he just smiled, shooing me away.  I obeyed the motion and headed out into the crowded marketplace.  I knew exactly where I would go.

There was a small tavern that I had first visited at Caibre's recommendation.  It served surprisingly good food given the size of it.  I had quickly become a regular for lunch on my work days.

Glancing up at the now-familiar wooden sign with a golden dragon painted on it, I pushed the weathered wooden door open, walking into the dimly lit room, the soft murmurs of people conversing reaching my ears as I walked up to the bar, and found a seat on one of the lower stools provided for us vertically challenged folk.

The barman, Finian Neow, strolled over, a smile on his darkly bearded face.  "The usual,

Deirdra?"  He asked, and I smiled cheerfully.

"You know me too well, Fin."  I joked, and he chuckled, pushing a plate and glass towards me.

"Aye, that I do.  I've even got your food ready for ya."  He said, and I just shook my head before digging in to the plate overflowing with the tender meat of a young goat and various greens.

As always, my food seemed to disappear a bit too fast for my liking, and I rose reluctantly to return to Caidre's stall.  Placing a golden coin on the table beside the plate, I nodded to Finian before exiting the pub.  

And as he always did, Finian called after me in his booming voice.  "Make sure you tell Caidre that he still owes The Golden Dragon a bolt or two of his finest silks!"

I just laughed, knowing that Caidre would never pay up on that debt.  It was now a well-known story to me, once Finian had told the tale.  It had been years since Caibre had lost that infamous game of cards, and yet he still had no intention of paying Finian back.  "I'll remind him!"

Strolling through the marketplace was strangely relaxing for me.  I felt safer in a crowd, relying on the fact that if anyone from the mountain ever came here when I was working, I would be lost in the crowd.  Not that I seen anyone from the mountain yet.

In the few months that I'd been here, only a few snippets of news had come from the mountain.  The first had been about a massive and bloody battle that had taken place between the Dwarves and the forces of Gunda-bad.  

All had been silent for a few more weeks, then news trickled in that those from the line of Durin had been mortally injured.  I had been struck by a horrible bolt of fear, the faces of Thorin, Fili and Kili appearing in my mind.

That had been the last we had heard from the mountain for the past two months.  I had accepted the fact that Thorin, Fili and Kili no longer lived, and tried to move on.  

But I couldn't seem to.  A part of me didn't want to let go of their memories and forget them entirely.  Of course, I couldn't do that, I had spent too many years beside them to do so, but it was ridiculous to grieve for people I would no longer go near.

My thoughts ended as I reached the stall and took my place behind it again as Caidre left to attend to his other business in arranging trades between other cloth merchants that were visiting Minas Tirith this day.

I busied myself folding and smoothing the wrinkled bolts that Caidre had left out in his hurry to leave.  I swore, the man called himself a cloth merchant, but he didn't treat the goods properly,

leaving them out like this was very unprofessional.  

Shaking out a velvety blue piece, I glanced out over the streams of people.  Then I saw a flash of a familiar bald head in the sun.  I froze as I watched the trio try to navigate the crowds of people.  

Two I had never expected to see again, yet they were here.  Dwalin, Fili and Kili were here in Minas Tirith, and I was convinced that I knew the reason.  

I hurriedly set the cloth down, trying to remove myself from their sight, but the movement of the fabric caught their attention and Kili glanced over in my direction.  I could see his brown eyes widen with excitement and he tugged at Fili's sleeve.

"There she is!  Estelle!"  He called, struggling to push through the crowd to reach me.  Dwalin and Fili were close behind him.  But I didn't wait around for them to get closer, and instead used my knowledge about crowds to hide.

My short stature made it easy for me to disappear within large masses of people, and I hurried quickly past the taller folk, not caring if I accidently pushing someone in my haste to escape.  I could still hear Dwalin behind me, his gruff voice rising above the clamor of the market as he called my name.  "Estelle!  Wait, Estelle!"  

I ignored him, and continued on, vanishing down a narrow passageway that was a shortcut to the stables where Ciara was.  Once I had gotten settled here in Minas Tirith, I was quick to create a small stash of necessary supplies and other articles that I could quickly grab if I needed to escape suddenly.  

Finding the haystack in which I had placed them, I hurriedly dug my hands in, fingers finding the straps of the knapsack within seconds.  Swinging it over my shoulder, I sprinted to the stall where Ciara was.  She whickered to me as I unlatched her door, leading her out and tying her to a post.

I had practiced hastily saddling her many times, and knew that I could do it within two minutes flat to make a quick getaway.  Once that was finished, I cut the rope and climbed onto her back, kicking her into a fast gallop.

We sped through the cobbled streets, the people parting before Ciara as we sped along.  The gates of Minas Tirith loomed before us and I smiled.  I was still free.

Iron gates passed in a blur as we flew between them and out onto the plains.  I curved right, heading towards Eboras.  Dwarves were not normally fond of ponies, so perhaps the Riders of Rohan would be safer than Minas Tirith.  

I could only pray that it would be so.  

[infinite-hearts-333]

Broken pack, Broken wolf

Sander sides, Analogical (Eventually), Logan Angst, Werewolf AU

WARNING: really bad writing, angsty, lack of sleep and starvation, swearing I'll add to this

Before

Part 3- Enter Anxiety

First couple of days were.... Interesting, but soon enough, things fell into a nice steady rhythm once more. Get up (Whether he was awake already or not), get changed- if he found the energy to wear his fluffy unicorn onesie to bed, put on foundation to hide his bags, eat breakfast with Roman and Patton, retire to his room for the rest of the day until he became exhausted and go to bed, repeat. It took three weeks for his stomach to get used to this new intake of food, and it took five days for Logan to be able to hold his breakfast down. He never came out for dinner, always far too full to eat anything else without being sick.

He, after a few trials and errors, found that the other sides awoke at a certain time, so he edited his morning a little so he was the first awake, around seven thirty, so he could read for a bit while he waited. It also helped since when Logan was tired his ears and tail enjoyed popping out for no reason, plus it was nice to sit comfortably with a cup of coffee (his new goddess/god, sorry Artemis) and read in blissful quietness until Patton woke up and began cooking.

Okay, truth time. Logan hated change. He liked following a routine and instructions, in fact, not that he liked to admit it, it took him three days to convince himself to exit his room and meet the others. So it was understandable that he had a hard time getting use to anything new. Like his current situation.

There was a person. Sitting on the counter. Logan blinked, and shuffled quietly, wondering if he should leave and wait for Patton to wake up. The man reminded Logan of Empero, when she had just woken up after staying on guard for nearly half the night, sitting cross-legged on the bench, leaning over a cup of steaming coffee that he was cradling in his hands. His eyes were half-lidded, boring holes into the cupboard from under his purple tinted hair that covered his eyes. He had eyeshadow under his eyes, skinny ripped jeans and a grey sleeve and black hoodie.

After a few nervous moments, the man noticed Logan standing awkwardly in the hallway door, wrinkled up his nose, and hissed. Logan, in reflex, growled back making the man's eyes widened slightly, and dipped his head. Logan became even more confused, for he wasn't sure if the man was human, if he was, what dipping the head may of ment in human body language. He couldn't pick up on any werewolf scent, sadly, but he took the man's head dip as a sign of submission, and quickly stalked across the room to select his galaxy cup and began making coffee for himself.

Logan didn't speak, clicking buttons to make his coffee, and went over to the fridge to collect the milk and the toast, and then to the cupboard to collect a type of jam called crofters which Logan enjoyed quite a bit. He poured the milk into his coffee, and placed two pieces of toast in the toaster. He paused, and then turned to the new side still sitting on the counter. "You..... do you want some toast?" He asked softly, completely turning around. The male narrowed his eyes, taking a long sip from his coffee and then fiddled with his sleeves.

"Yes.. please." he said, equally as quiet. Logan softly smiled. He was just nervous, like Logan was when he first met the others. Logan was determined to make this side feel welcomed, and not have to take time to realise by himself it was safe, like Logan had to. He turned back to the toaster, and once the toast popped, he collected it taking it and some butter and jam, over to the other side with a small smile. He placed it next to him. "There you go. Did you just manifester? Also I should warn that there are two more sides, and both of them are quite loud."

"N-no... I'm from somewhere else... and thanks, good to know." the side gave Logan a small smile back, carefully taking the plate. "Well I'm logan. Do you have a name or something I could call you by?" the man paused, swallowing and staring at the toast. "Anxiety." he said in a bare whisper. "Very well Anxiety." Logan said, turning back to work on his own food, before pausing. "Um, do you mind... if i join you?" Logan asked.

"Y-yer! Sure, h-here let me." Anxiety shuffled around, scooting over and giving Logan some room. Logan smiled, hopping up onto the bench. The two ate in peaceful silence, the only noises in the kitchen were the soft tapping of Anxiety's fingers, clinking of cups being placed down and crunching of the toast. It was nice, calming, and Logan thought he wouldn't mind this change. Both Logan and Anxiety could hear Patton running down the stairs, and Anxiety quickly excused himself, and vanished. Logan's eyes slightly widened, but he couldn't question it, given the side was no longer there.

Anxiety's existence was, well... interesting. The anxious trait was a little all over the show, switching from shy and nervous, softly mumbling questions and answers, to cocky and snarky, capable of bruising roman's ego six times over. He seemed to tolerate Patton, because well, who couldn't? He was nice to everyone. Anxiety slowly appeared in the mornings as well, randomly, not that logan minded. He never stuck around long enough to be caught by Roman and Patton, and since Logan was the only one awake at the hour, he assumed that Anxiety had grown to like him.

Which was... nice, he guessed. The two would trade questions and ideas, theories and knowledge, and occasionally, Logan would bring a book and read it to the darkly dressed side. Eventually, anxiety started to open up about their own likes, and started to strike different conversations than Logan always starting the conversations and asking questions or bringing up topics. Anxiety seemed to always be very interested in things like 'SCP's' or 'cryptids' which then logan spend the rest of the day researching about because, 1) if they were real, Logan was very concerned, and 2) and there is nO WAY THAT AN ORANGE BLOB IS CAPABLE OF HUMAN THOUGHT. (That's SCP- 999 for you Logan-)

Quick visit to google moved they were both very, very fictional, thank Artemis.

Once virgil even brought something of his own to logan. "It's.... a tiny laptop?" Quizzed logan, blinking down at the small rectangular object in Anxiety's hands. "Pfft- no. It's a phone, you dork. I thought logic knew everything?" Logan went red in embarrassment.

"Falsehood. I don't know everything, even as Logic. Our.... past lives affect our knowledge, thoughts and beliefs." Logan hesitated for a second before bringing up the term 'past lives' for apparently he wasn't the only one with a rough past. Virgil tensed, before forcing himself to relax, patting his spot next to him. Logan hopped up with the plate of toast placing it in between them. "So.. it's called a phone? What does it do?" Logan asked quietly.

"It's like a laptop i guess. You kinda do whatever you want with it, you could get games, it lets you communicate from long distances, a lot of stuff." Anxiety said, semi leaning back. Logan made a small noise of approval. "It's kind of, not kinda. And interesting. And what does this have to do with books?" Logan asked, tilting his head. Anxiety rolled his eyes at the correction, but smirked, holding up the phone. "I have something called a audio book. It's where someone records them reading a book out loud and you can listen to it." Logan visibly perked at that.

"Really? That's... quite impressive." he stared intensely down at the phone. Anxiety scoffed. "Whatever ya say teach. Do you remember when I told you about nightvale?" he said, beginning to nervously fiddle with his sleeves, a sign Logan picked as him being unsure. "You not ya, and yes i do recall that. It sounds.... Quite peculiar." Logan hummed, remember that morning ended up being a debate about the purposes of a dog park that no one was allowed in.

"Well..." Anxiety said in an even quieter voice. "It's a podcast... and i was wondering if you would like to listen to it with me. I'll start from the beginning if you want! And it's okay if you don't want to. I just thought it would be nice, since you're always bringing something, and I didn't want to only take and not give something back-'' Anxiety began to rant, and Logan softly chuckled. "Anxiety." Logan said, snapping the others attention from their rant. "I would love to." Logan continued, allowing a small smile.

Anxiety blinked, once, twice, and then began fumbling furiously with a bunch of cables. "Right! Right, right, right..." He softly cursed under his breath as he found his cables in a knot, but Logan waited patiently, picking up one of the pieces of toast and taking a bite out of it. Once Anxiety undid the knot, he passed a single bud to logan, and stuffed the other in his ear. "Put this in your ear. It makes it so only we can hear the audio book and no one else." Virgil explained, giving logan a slight weak smile. Logan returned a reassuring smile, taking the bud and carefully placing it in his ear- thankfully, human ears appeared whenever he hid his wolf ears.

He tried to ignore the warnings flashing in the back of his head, saying that humans are dangerous, and readjusted the bud so it sat comfortably. Virgil fiddled with his phone, clicking on the smooth black screen. The next thing Logan knew someone was talking, crisp and clear in his ear, followed by weird nice non-talking noises. Logan flinched, shocked and confused and Anxiety softly chuckled. "Easy there, it's okay. This is the podcast." He hummed along with the odd melody.

"What's that noise?" Logan asked, straining his ears to listen carefully. "Behind the voice? It's not talking... what is it?" Anxiety blinked, trying to figure out what Logan was talking about. "Do you mean... music?" "Music?" Logan echoed, testing the word out. "Yer, it's the thing in the background, it sounds like.." Anxiety paused, and then hummed a couple of the notes. Logan stared curiously, humming a couple of his own notes. "Yes, that." Logan clarified. "That's music. People write a lot of music in my past life, called songs. You can get songs like this, where there are no lyrics- lyrics are words that people put in the songs, or with lyrics. If you want, i could put on a couple songs after this." Anxiety offered.

Logan hummed and nodded, focusing on the voice that had started talking. After a few minutes, Logan wrinkled his nose, turning to look at a grinning Anxiety. "The glow cloud?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow. "All hail the glow cloud!" Chirped Anxiety, giggling and grinning. "You do realise that a glowing cloud that rains dead animals is ridiculous and illogical, right?" Logan asked, taking another bite of his toast. Anxiety rolled his eyes and snorted, smirking. "Well i find it ridiculous and illogical that you didn't know what a phone or music was." "Touche." hummed logan, closing one eye and then froze when something warm pushed against his back.

He turned his head a bit only to find Anxiety was leaning against Logan's back, eyes closed with a small content smile as we listened to the pod cast. Logan inhaled and softly smiled, leaning back as well, taking in the warmth from the other, treasuring this moment that was sickly alike back when he was with his pack. But in the presence of Anxiety, Logan couldn't find the ability to be sad.

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

Next

[edelwoodsouls]

all roads lead - ch. 6

When his mother dies, Stiles runs away, straight into danger - only to be saved by Peter Hale. Seven years later, after burying their alpha, Stiles and Malia return home.

Word Count: 2,397 | Also on Ao3 | Other Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,

Chapter 6: FLINCH

It takes less than an evening for the pieces of Beacon Hills to begin to fall together in Stiles' mind.

The four teenagers kill time until dinner watching television in somewhat awkward silence, passing around a bowl of microwave popcorn. Stiles still can't figure out what they were watching, his senses too overwhelmed by the two unsuspecting werewolves sitting so close on the sofa beside him, the beta leaning into his shoulder, his father shifting back and forth in the kitchen next door.

Dinner is an even more tentative affair. Melissa arrives just as John sets the shepherds pie in the centre of the table. She stinks of hospital cleaning fluids and that distinct floral perfume that hangs around his father's scent, but her smile is just as warm as Stiles remembers, and when she hugs him without hesitation it feels a little too much like memories eight years gone.

Melissa and John are sickeningly good together. They move around, between, with each other in a perfectly synchronised dance. They touch, and laugh, leaning into each other with the effortlessness of certainty.

They're good for each other, and Stiles is surprised to find any lingering bitterness begin to fizzle out inside him.

But whilst John's cooking has, in fact, come on in leaps and bounds since the last meal he gave Stiles - frozen waffles and ketchup - it's not enough to dissipate the thick tension in the air, like the pressure of clouds before lightning.

Scott manages to carry the conversation practically single-handed, with regular interruptions from Malia. He tells them all about sports practice, about the pretty cool new english teacher, about the cute puppy he treated at the animal clinic.

The topics are noticeably inane. More than once, Scott stumbles over a word, glances sharply at Stiles and Malia, quickly changing the subject. Stiles almost pities him. If he didn't know anything about the supernatural, he'd be more than a little suspicious by now.

Stiles stays quiet for the most part, watching this choreography of a normal life that he has never had the chance to witness so closely. Even in a half supernatural family, real life holds dominion. They worry about how to keep their grades up to stay on the lacrosse team. The fact that the local ice rink didn't get enough funding to stay open. The flashy new rich kids with bikes much better than theirs. Random, normal things that completely pass Stiles by.

He wonders how much he missed in New York, holding himself above the rest, writing them off as petty teenagers who knew nothing of the world. Was it just jealousy the whole time? That they could care about the things Stiles had to leave behind?

He cringes away from this realisation- and finds Isaac is staring directly at him.

Where Scott is a waterfall of movement and sound, Isaac is a silent, watchful stone. They balance each other well - Scott's open sunshine, Isaac's caution. He watches the room the way Stiles does: looking for the exits, assessing the threats. Flinching at any movement too sudden, any voice too loud. The clatter of cutlery against plates, a sharp bout of laughter.

He recognises the signs of trauma - no, the signs of abuse - far too well. The mystery of this strange boy his father and old best friend have adopted unfurls a little more.

Stiles meets his eyes, surprised when Isaac doesn't look away. He may behave like a shrinking violet, but Stiles gets the feeling he would do anything for Scott. The way he leans towards his alpha, instinctively, protectively - the same way he leans towards Malia, a gravity built on years of weight. He wonders if this boy filled the vacuum Stiles left when he vanished. If Scott attracts broken, darkened things like moths to flame.

Maybe magic and werewolves are an inevitability in this town, not the result of an ill-wandered youth.

"Are you gonna start coming to school?" Scott asks out of nowhere, and the tension ratchets up a thousand volts, breaking apart the unnoticed staring contest.

"Uh," Stiles starts. Stops. "I'd like to, yeah."

"I'd rather jump off a skyscraper," Malia all but snarls into her mashed potato. "But yes. I guess."

"Awesome," Scott grins. "It'll be great to have new people who're actually nice." Stiles has to stop himself from snorting. Never did he think someone would describe him as nice. "The new twins are dicks. Isaac got detention because of them."

"Detention?" John asks sharply, a father if ever Stiles heard one.

Isaac flinches a mile. Folds even further in on himself, eyes lost in his lap. "It wasn't what it looked like," he says, so softly the words are almost lost in the sudden silence of the kitchen.

"It wasn't his fault!" Scott leaps in vehemently. "The twins riled him up, got him angry, then framed him for beating them up in the halls-"

"Isaac, we're not angry, honey," Melissa says suddenly, yet gently as ever. "We absolutely believe you. There's nothing to be afraid of."

"Right, absolutely," John stumbles to follow, face drawn in panic. "Even if you did have detention, it's honestly nothing. What's one detention? Stiles had detention every day for a year when he was nine!"

"In my defence, Miss Clarke really hated you because you arrested her brother for kidnapping," Stiles says. "So really I think I was entirely innocent on that front."

The tension in the room eases, air let from an overblown balloon. Isaac uncurls, slowly, like a sunflower as the dawn breaks over the horizon. Scott's hand rests on his arm, not taking any pain but clearly reminding him of comfort, of pack. Stiles knows very little about Isaac, and yet he finds himself wanting to do anything to alleviate his discomfort.

He's not used to allowing himself to care about others. About anyone, really, except Peter and Malia, and- the one or two people who wormed their way into his heart by sheer force of will. Maybe he looks at Isaac and sees a possibilty of his own future, if he had remained trapped in a house of ghosts and overboiling temper. He'd like to think that's all, that his carefully guarded heart isn't beginning to crack more than it already has.

The rest of the meal passes with an added, wary undercurrent, everyone dancing around their words like cracks in the pavement.

Plates cleaned away, Scott stands up. "Mom, can you help me with dessert?" There's a strangled note to the alpha's voice, as if the words have been trying to force themselves out for too long. Stiles watches them leave.

"So why are you here?" Malia asks Isaac, so abruptly Stiles doesn't have time to anticipate damage control.

To his credit, Isaac barely seems phased. "Freezer related incidents," he shrugs, as if this is a perfectly sensible answer. "Why are you?"

"Coyotes."

Stiles leaves them to trade snide remarks at each other whilst his father referees; they seem impressively evenly matched. Instead, he has no qualms about focusing his hearing towards the other room, the murmured voices and distinct lack of movement.

"What happened, hun?" Melissa asks, voice soft as ever, yet firm, prompting.

"The alpha twins," Scott starts, stops, and Stiles has to school his expression to hide his shock. Twin werewolves are rare, believed to be incredibly powerful. Alpha twins are unheard of- except a single pair, blood-soaked and vicious. Why would they be in Beacon Hills of all places?

"The alpha twins?" Melissa prompts.

"They've really gotten under Isaac's skin since they... killed the others. They know exactly how to rile him up, and so they've made him a target. And I got a call from Derek on the way home - he and Cora were attacked at the loft. He almost bled out. I just- I don't know what I'm doing, mom."

Stiles hears the moment when Scott's voice breaks, and finds his heart cracking a little more in kind. He of all people shouldn't have let all those sunshine smiles distract him from the obvious pressure of being an alpha so young. Scott's positivity, even when they were children, had been a result of his suffering, not evidence of its lack.

And he's still an alpha, Stiles has to remind himself. He still has blood on his hands, somehow, and that makes him a threat despite any deceptive kindness.

"You're doing everything you can, sweetie," Melissa's voice is muffled, as if by a hug. "You've only been an alpha for a few months, and it's not easy, being a leader even in the best of times. What you've dealt with? Becoming a werewolf, hunters, now the alpha pack? It amazes me every day that you even get out of bed."

"I really wanted this to be the year I got my life back on track. Getting my marks up so I can do AP classes and stay on the lacrosse team, y'know? And now Stiles is here again and I don't know how to feel about that at all..."

"Because he's been gone so long? Because this house is already lively enough with two boys under its roof?" There's a small smile in Melissa's voice.

"Because everything new in this town seems to be something twisted and awful and supernatural. He's been gone seven years. Why did he leave? Where has he been? Who's Malia? I want to trust him, I've missed him so much, but..."

"What do your magical alpha senses tell you? What does he smell like?" The kitchen goes quiet for a moment, and Stiles feels the uncomfortable itch under his skin of being watched.

"He's human," Scott sighs with a guilt-wrenching amount of relief. "But he smells like concern all the time. The way he and Malia move around each other, I can't help but wonder what the two of them have been through, where they've been-"

"Scott, the best thing about you is your big heart. I often wish you wouldn't give it out so easily, but don't let past burns close you off completely from genuine miracles. Stiles is human, and against all odds he's come home. The rest can come later, when he's ready. We have to give him time. I mean, we're hiding things from him too, aren't we? Unless you'd like to carry this trifle back in there in all your sideburns and fangs."

Stiles pulls his attention back to the dinner table, reeling. There's so much, too much, all at once.

The alpha pack were infamous in New York. They were a favourite horror story, passed between supernatural teenagers like an urban legend, a ghost story. For betas the meaning was clear: don't anger your alpha, or he might murder your whole pack and join the alpha pack. For alphas: don't be too good at anything, don't make yourself special or noticeable, or the demon wolf will stalk you from the shadows.

Peter had scoffed at the stories, but even he couldn't hide how they made his skin crawl.

If the alpha pack are in Beacon Hills, this is the worst possible place he and Malia could be. The blood of his own pack is fresh on Stiles' hand, the obstacle between him and them a singular beta. He is a wolf who has also been a fox, who still has a little magic left running through his veins despite no longer being human.

There is no guarantee they would care about him at all.

But the risk is there, a sliver of ice sliding towards his heart.

They must be here for Scott, but what makes him special? Or maybe they're here for Laura Hale, the current alpha of the prestigious if decimated Hale pack. Scott mentioned her younger brother Derek, so the two packs must be on tentatively good terms, at least.

Unless, of course, Scott McCall is the current owner of the Hale alpha power. Which is an entirely possible and unpleasant reality that leaves an awful taste in Stiles mouth. He tries to imagine Scott stood over a body, claws blood-soaked, eyes flickering from gold to red.

It feels so wrong. He shoves the image away as Scott and Melissa emerge from the kitchen, carrying a towering monstrosity he supposes is the aforementioned trifle.

"You with me?" Malia nudges him gently in the ribs. There's a question in her eyes - she knows his propensity for eavesdropping, and he can see how much effort it's taking her not to ask right here and now.

"Later," he whispers, turning back to the table with as much of a grin as he can manage.

There are too many unknowns in Beacon Hills. At least in New York, there was an obvious hierarchy, the etiquette between packs and other supernatural creatures rigorous and unchallenged. Here it seems like a mess of blood and confusion.

But leaving now would cause more problems thann Stiles has the energy to deal with. A reawakened search for a missing sheriff's son and an Eichen House escapee could make national news, especially now that Scott and Isaac know about New York.

And Stiles finds he doesn't want to leave - just yet, at least. Even in a house of wolves, he has a bed to sleep in, Malia by his side, his father in his life. He's laid the groundwork for friendship that he hopes will make people hesitate and listen before they try to murder him. Yes, there's risk, and the potential for blood in the near future.

But is it really so different? He ran from blood - who knows what would have happened to him and Malia if they'd stayed in New York?

The Argents are not a forgiving family, and Stiles has done the unforgiveable. They would have been hunted to the ends of the earth, and without the power of the nogistune he doesn't think they'd last long.

And whilst there probably isn't a standard punishment for betas who get possessed and murder their alpha and several other prominent figures in the supernatural community, he can't imagine they'd be lenient.

After all, no one particularly cared about Peter Hale, but everyone loved Noshiko Yukimura.

So they'll stay. Act human. Go to school, play lacrosse, hang out with Scott. Maybe even try to help out with the alpha pack, if they can.

And when the blood comes knocking, perhaps they'll stand a chance.

[mirrorfalls]

The Alchemist When He’s Full of Metal, Vol. 13

(Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol. 5, Vol. 6, Vol. 7, Vol. 8, Vol. 9, Vol. 10, Vol. 11, Vol. 12)

In this volume: Al and Gluttony finally bond over their mutual status as Team Baby™ and become the best of friends, going on many adorable G-rated adventures!

Oh, and Ed died or something. Well, guess we’ll be recapping Fullflame Alchemist now! Take it away, Colonel!

Pictured: me walking into any exam ever.

Well, after the last couple volumes I guess we were due a reminder that Mustang isn’t some hypercompetent ass-kicking machine 24/7, but this still feels a bit wrong-footed on Arakawa’s part. If you’re going to put Mustang at the bad guys’ mercy (deliberately or otherwise), why not make them at least a little proactive about it? Mustang getting outmaneuvered is one thing; Mustang walking into enemy HQ with no plan isn’t even in the same galaxy.

On that note: it’s here that the “I can’t kill you now, Mr. Bond Mustang, because if I do you’ll be too dead for the plot to continue.” issue recurs in full-force, with all the “why didn’t Father just toss them in a hole underground??” follow-up that that entails. Fortunately, it’s counterbalanced by our original can’t-kill-you-now poster boy finally being in actual danger from a Homunculus: now that they’re all trapped in Gluttony’s stomach, Envy’s done giving a fuck about The Plot.

And, for that matter, your chances of getting a good night’s sleep.

Straight up: the Gluttony’s Stomach scenes are just one banger after another. First by turning storytelling logic inside-out and making you more worried for Ed the more screentime he gets (a vanished Ed is obviously just the plot waiting for the right moment to pop his Grand Return; an Ed who has visible adventures while being swallowed could actually, conceivably play out all his remaining plot-relevance from there), then by finally laying down a proper rapport between him and Ling (I’d wager that shoulder-carry is the reason Ed/Ling is this fandom’s second-biggest slashship), but most of all by giving Envy their groove back and then some after almost seven solid volumes of jobbing.* I’d known before this that Envy had some kind of “Dragon form” at the ready for his big boss fight with Ed and/or Mustang, but look at it. “Dragon” prepares you for this... thing about as much as “baby harp seal”.

I tell you, ladies and gents, it was a dark day for the horror genre when Arakawa decided she wanted to do Fighting Shonen instead.

And of course, this not being horror, Ed, Edd Ling n Envy find a way out before the volume’s even ended. Here, I like the concept (Ed, utterly exhausted and about to be literally consumed by despair, still manages to talk a sworn enemy into cooperating**) more than the execution (a bunch of ruins = alchemy murals = False Gate = Real Gate = Truth = Escape! gobbledygook that mostly just reminded me of the worst parts of George Perez’s Wonder Woman run), though I can’t deny it snuck one more gut-punch into the bargain:

Our hero risks it all, and gets rewarded with the tiniest guarantee that his overarching goal isn’t in vain. I can’t think of a finer way to celebrate the story’s halfway-point.

Well, okay. Maybe one. Round two of the ultimate Father-Son Smackdown.

*Looking up random clips of the anime(s) on YouTube, I saw one diehard ‘03 fan describe Mangahood Envy as a chump who spent all his competence points to kill Hughes. Up through the second chapter of this volume, I was almost ready to agree.

**Speaking of which: I can’t believe I’m starting to like Yoki now. Team Mustang may be headed for the scrapyard, but Team Scar’s more than an equivalent exchange acceptable trade.

[livingmybestfictionallife]

Live Wire --The Dirt--(5)

Summary: Wren Ledden, Tommy’s best friend from high school has had a rough life and she intends to keep the nitty gritty details of her suffrage to herself until the day she dies. Only Tommy has gotten her to open up about a small portion of her troubles, and it’s only Tommy who she trusts with her life. That is until her life gets turned around sneaking into a concert one night...the same night Motley Crue is born.

@triplehaitches​, @prettyyoungandbored​, @oskea93​, @hot-young-runningfree​, @crue-sixx​, @dancergirl5527​

Previous Chapters:

Live Wire --The Dirt--     Live Wire --The Dirt--(2)     Live Wire --The Dirt--(3)     Live Wire --The Dirt (4)

Mick returned home about an hour or two after practicing some of the band’s songs, and Tommy and Wren decided to crash at Nikki’s, something they had done plenty of times before, only now it felt different. That night would be the first night the three spent together as roommates, which would become a ride crazier than any of the three could imagine.

“Are you going to sleep on the floor every night then?” Nikki asked as he stood in the doorway of what would soon become either Wren or Tommy’s room. The bed was clear of everything besides Wren’s jeans and t-shirt, and Tommy laid stretched out across the dingy carpet.

“Where else is there in here?” he retorted.

“You both don’t have to sleep in here,” Nikki commented as he tried to hide some sort of ugly tone he couldn’t quite identify. “One of you can take the couch.” Tommy sat up and shrugged his shoulders.

“I’ll do that once we’re moved in and all, but I don’t mind chilling with her.”

“You’re not even going to consider making her take the couch?” Nikki asked. The question came out rude and arrogant, but he intended his tone to be more of impression. He didn’t know anyone who cared for their friends as much as Tommy and Wren cared for one another.

“She’s tough and strong and doesn’t take shit from anyone, but she only got that way by having everything taken from her. She doesn’t trust easily and she sure as shit doesn’t trust open spaces or strangers. She’s like a dog in the sense that if she likes someone, you know that’s a solid dude because her judgement isn’t something you’ll ever need to question.” Tommy had stood during this small spiel and was looking at Nikki from a downward angle.

“What happened?” Nikki asked as he glanced up at Tommy, making sure to look past the small tears that formed in his new friend’s eyes at the mere thought of his best friend’s suffering.

“That’s something she has to tell you, not me.” Tommy glanced down to Nikki’s hands and noticed the clothes he held in a wadded-up ball. “Those for her?” Nikki nodded and then shoved the black band shirt and tattered old sweat pants against Tommy’s chest. Tommy wandered into the apartment’s single bathroom and laid the clothes on the counter, because Tommy had the freedom to do so, because Tommy is the one Wren met as a kid and Tommy was the one she trusted with her life. Nikki tried to ignore the simmering resentment within his core as he reminded himself that he can’t change not meeting Wren sooner.

“At least you know her now,” he sighed to himself and took a step back from Tommy and Wren’s temporarily shared room and into the living room. The tall, lanky kid lingered in the living room and held an old pair of borrowed shorts in his hand as he waited outside of the bathroom. Wren and Tommy quickly traded places, and before Nikki knew it, the brunette babe he’d been experiencing so many conflicting emotions toward had joined him on the couch. Her legs were covered with his old pants and he silently cursed himself for even offering them up to her. Then again, he had a respect for her that kept him from actively indulging in an attempt to violate the trust she supposedly had in him, according to Tommy.

“Look,” she sighed as she sat down on the opposite end of the couch as him and stretched her legs out across the cushions. “I know this doesn’t need to be said, and honestly knowing us, we probably don’t want some sort of deep conversation to happen at all, so I’m just going to say thanks.”

“It’s nothing,” Nikki muttered, “you two spend enough time here anyway, just thought it’d be easier if you lived here.” Wren nodded her head slightly as Nikki misunderstood her thankfulness.

“I meant for including me with the band,” she said as she absentmindedly buried her feet under Nikki’s legs, a habitual act she’d done with Tommy for years. Instead of giving her a smirk and wiggling his eyebrows at her initiation of physical contact, Nikki simply adjusted himself on the couch so that she could comfortably position her feet below him; a subconscious action that took both of them by surprise.

“Why are you thanking me?” he asked. With his hair gone flat, black leather abandoned, and dressed in a rather soft looking shirt with equally soft pants covering her toes, Wren saw a different side of Nikki. She didn’t know him well—the ins and outs of his life were as much of a mystery to her as hers were to him—but in that moment, wearing his clothes, hair dripping onto the collar of a cigarette and cologne scented shirt, both of their rigid exteriors had vanished. “Do you really think Tommy or Mick are thanking me?”

“They auditioned and earned their spot,” Wren commented. “I just wandered into the diner and sat down with Tommy.” Nikki tipped his head back and sighed before turning back to face Wren.

“No, you didn’t,” he scoffed as he took in the gentle features of Wren’s face he’d so frequently overlooked due to her sharp jaw and piercing eyes. “You wandered into a men’s room, confident enough to assert dominance over the biggest asshole in the room just to see a show. You picked out Mick’s ad before anyone else and had the follow through to fucking call him. If tomorrow goes well, you will have also found our singer. I don’t give a fuck about if you ever pick up an instrument with us, you’re as important to the band as Mick, Tommy, or even me. Understand?” Wren nodded lightly and fluffed her wet hair with her fingers as Nikki’s hand rested gently on her shin. “Good, now tell me about this Vince guy. Why did Tommy ask if you were okay with him? You two didn’t used to—”

“Fuck, Nikki, why do you always assume I’m trying to fuck the rest of your band? I’m not your damn groupie.”

“That’s not—” upon seeing the smirk falling over Wren’s lips and hearing the soft and intoxicating laugh that left her lungs, Nikki shook his head and changed his tone away from its initially defensive nature. “Fuck off, Wren,” he laughed as she wriggled her feet from underneath him and he reached for her hand to pull her closer toward him. He hated how he felt compelled to hold her close in certain moments, to smell the gentle scent of coconuts and mint that wafted from her hair and skin, but damn it, he didn’t want to ever forget what that combination smelled like.

“You fuck off, Sixx,” she muttered in response as he put an arm around her and she leaned lightly into his embrace, just as she had earlier that day. “Vince got into singing when he transferred to our high school. He was a prick, surfer kid who didn’t give a damn about anything. Once he and his band had this huge house party at his house and when his parents came home in the middle of it and saw him performing, they sat and watched him perform. My parents on the other hand would verbally abuse me anyone even came close to taking first chair away from me in choir.” Nikki’s silence lingered long enough for Wren to decide to continue her story. “I never told Tommy this, but I used to sing in a rock band on the house party circuit. When my parents figured out, they scolded me in a way that kept me from being able to sit for a week. Vince and I ran into one another on the circuit a few times and he always hated me for the comments he got. Sure everyone loved him, but the only criticism he received was ‘You should model your sound after Wren!’ Being someone who was always loved, he didn’t really like hearing that, but I had to be better than him...than everyone if I didn’t want to face a beating.”

“Did you ever explain to him?” Nikki asked as a lump rose into his throat. He’d resented his parents for their neglect and abandonment, and although he had considered how much worse his childhood could have been had his parents whipped him around, they would have been doing it out of anger and spite, not to psychologically associate failure with abuse as Wren’s family clearly did.

“Vince?” she asked with a scoff in her voice. “If you’re a girl, Vince doesn’t acknowledge your existence unless there’s something he can get for giving you attention.”

“And you wouldn’t give him anything?” Nikki asked with a moderate look of pride on his face that fell when Wren shook her head.

“I would never stoop to that level, but it didn’t matter because he never wanted anything from me,” she admitted. Wren’s appearance, both her beauty and edge, took dedication and patience. She’d experienced bullying for the majority of her time in school, was never one of the stereotypical, pretty girls with their petite frames and Barbie like features—she was tall, curved like a woman, not a girl, and for quite a long time wore baggy clothes to hide the fact that she was starving at home, bruised, and scarred. Tommy was the first to break down her walls, which explained why she was so close to him than the rest of the world. Then there was Nikki, sitting here holding her as if they’d known one another forever.

“His fucking loss,” Nikki said softly against the side of her head, his voice getting lost in her damp hair as he once again breathed in the minty coconut smell. Both Wren and Nikki could have stayed wrapped together on the couch all night long, his arm around her shoulders, her resting gently against his chest, two broken souls trying to mend through the other without either knowing what was truly going on; but the sound of Tommy slipping in the tub as the water shut off shocked both parties back to reality. She was a part of the band, she was close to Tommy, she found Mick and quickly bonded with him, and she knows the potential lead singer. Nikki couldn’t risk a Yoko Ono situation, regardless of how high his heart felt when she was pressed against him.

“I’m going to go to bed,” Wren said softly as she adjusted how his shirt fell around her body. “See you in the morning, Nikki.” She only took two soft steps across the carpet, before Nikki’s fingers were wrapped around Wren’s hand—his thumb pressed into her palm and his fingers tracing the bones of her knuckles. That damned curious expression that sent Nikki’s heart jumping to his throat crossed her face. Her eyes danced between their intertwined hands and Nikki’s gentle face, her lips were tense as she tried to keep them from curling into a smile, and Nikki loosened his tender grasp on her hand with a subtle laugh as he smiled at the ground.

“Stick with me tomorrow, when we go to check out Vince,” Nikki stated.

“What? Why?” Wren asked, skeptical of his words and intentions.

“Oh come on, Wren,” Nikki huffed. The sound of Tommy tripping once again alerted them both to the urgency of which they needed to finish their conversation. “Don’t pretend like you don’t want that asshole to eat shit for never looking at you in high school.”

“Thanks for the offer, Nikki, but I never cared about it then; why would I give a shit now?” Nikki’s shoulders raised and then fell quickly as his head rolled from one shoulder to the other.

“Let me know if you change your mind,” Nikki replied as he flashed his teeth through such a sweet smile at Wren. A smile crossed her face as she turned toward the guest room, but Nikki had called her attention to him once more. “Take my room tonight. I’m going to sleep on the couch,” he stated as he paced past her to grab one of the extra pillows from the guest room. Seeing as there was no use in arguing, Wren nodded sleepily and gave a weary smile as she disappeared down the hall and beyond the door to Nikki’s room. With the door closed, Wren curled up in his bed. It was a simple room that was mostly bare, with the exception of dark bedding and posters or fliers from all of Nikki’s old bands. She tried to ignore the smile that crept onto her face as she smelt Nikki on the shirt she wore and the pillows her head rested on, but for some reason, that damned boy was impossible to get out of her head. Wren drifted to sleep with Nikki’s words repeating in her head as she buried herself beneath the warmth of blankets that were strewn across his bed.

When Tommy exited the shower, he couldn’t ignore the expression on Nikki’s face that seemed to tango between a smile and a smirk. He decided against going to sleep right away, and made his way into the kitchen to drink one last beer before bed. “What’s got you in a smile?” he teased Nikki as he joined in him the living room. Nikki laid out across the couch and rested his feet on the arm rest as he turned his head to face Tommy. Words couldn’t leave Nikki’s mouth because his mind was too preoccupied with his conversation with Wren. He couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d said earlier when Mick was around, and now he couldn’t look past how negatively she viewed herself.

“Wren was just telling me about Vince,” Nikki stated, a hiss strung out across the man’s name.

“Yeah, she’s pretty bitter about him,” Tommy explained. “Did she mention her folks?” Nikki nodded his head slightly and pursed his lips in aggravation. “Yeah,” Tommy sighed as pain engulfed him yet again.

“Fuck them,” Nikki said in an attempt to keep Tommy from dwelling too much on the negative aspects of their friend’s life. “Right?” Tommy nodded in agreement to keep the tears that normally fell in regards to his memories of Wren and her parents. “Also, Vince?”

“What about him?” Tommy asked as he picked up his sticks and began to twirl them to keep himself from getting too jittery before bed.

“Why did you ask Wren if she was okay with him being apart of the band?” Nikki prompted in hopes of uncovering the full story. Tommy’s eyes flicked from one side of the room to the other, hesitant to speak in case Wren randomly appeared. Upon realizing she was sleeping soundly in the next room, Tommy spoke again.

“Wren’s been brash and bold for years, but before that, she was a pushover. A lot of people took advantage of her because she was so nice, and Vince was one of those people. She was so sweet and kind for someone who listened to such heavy music and wearing such dark clothes and makeup—and that kindness is still there, but it’s not as readily available. As you could imagine, she’s always been a knock-out,” Tommy quickly noticed the uneasy look that spread across Nikki’s face as he brought up Wren’s appearance. “She’s always been fit, big tits, nice ass, but she never gave it up. Vince was a popular guy, I always liked him and we hung out at parties and shit, but we drifted ways after he started a rumor that would gain his reputation. Well, when we were sixteen, he told everyone he’d shacked up with Wren, which led to a lot of girls dragging her for being a slut, and a lot of guys trying to fuck her.”

“Did she?” Nikki’s voice was weak, and Tommy pretended not to notice this change.

“Fuck no!” Tommy puffed as he kept his voice low. “But that’s a different story,” he again sighed. Tommy stared out across the room at Nikki as he lied on his back, eyes locked on the ceiling, and his hands draped over his chest. Tommy could see the tension spreading across Nikki’s chest, he knew the smile that slipped over his face whenever Wren spouted a snarky response, the way Nikki loosened up around her, the way he’d pull her closer sometimes, but more importantly, he noticed the way Wren acted with Nikki, how she’d lightly lean into him, how she didn’t flinch or harden her expression whenever he looked at her the way she did with every other man besides himself. “Hey, keep an eye on her tomorrow, would ya?”

“Excuse me?” Nikki grunted as his hazel eyes glanced at Tommy below his dark eyebrows.

“We both know she can handle herself with some drunk assholes, but with these people, I dunno man, I can never tell what’s going to happen. There’s gonna be a lot of people from our old school there, and she wasn’t very friendly with many of them. I’ll do all the talking with Vince, just make sure she’s not uncomfortable there, okay?” A knot formed in Nikki’s core, but at the same time, his heart fluttered within his chest. “If someone’s a dick just, scare them off. You’re okay with that right? I mean, it seems like you’ve gotten kind of close, and you’re both assholes, so just be assholes together and tell everyone to go fuck themselves if you have to. I just don’t want to have to bring her back from darkness again, okay?” Upon seeing the melancholy look that fell over Tommy’s face, Nikki could nearly feel the sinking feeling within his friend’s soul.

“I’ll keep her safe for you, bud,” Nikki agreed. “She’s crashing in my room so you can have the bed one last time before you’re exiled to the couch.” With a chuckle on his lips, Tommy smiled back at his friend as he stood to make his way toward the guest room once more.

“Thanks man, I appreciate it, and I know she will too.” As Tommy disappeared into what would become Wren’s room in a matter of hours, Nikki reflected on his parting words and wondered, What the hell does that mean? However, sleep claimed its victory over him before his mind could wander down the rabbit hole reserved for he and Wren.

He’d seen her in his dreams nightly since their meeting. She was never the focal point of his subconscious fantasies, rather she appeared in glimpses as a fleeting figure that filled his soul with regret and guilt. Tonight, however, was different. He could see her before him, clear as day, as she stood defiantly in front of him. The setting of this dream was unstable and seemed to morph around the pair—from the location of their meeting, staring across the diner booth at one another, or simply standing in the living room with instruments slung around their necks--it was always somewhere familiar to them both. Nothing ever happened, just her fiery light shining through his dark, closed off exterior, and him resisting the urge to lean down and taste the peppermint Chapstick on her lips for himself, rather than as some second-hand flavor of her he sampled while sharing a drink.

Continued Reading:

Live Wire --The Dirt--(6)

Live Wire --The Dirt--(7)

[pocket-luv101]

Across Time|| Chapter 14

Fandom: Servamp Ships: KuroMahi (main), LawLicht (side) Characters: Kuro, Mahiru, Hyde, Licht

Summary: Mahiru falls into a well and is taken to a new, fantasy world. He comes across a half-blooded cat demon trapped in a tree. After he frees Kuro, he helps him collect the shards of the sacred jewel. (KuroMahi, InuYasha AU)

Ch.1 || Ch.2 || Ch.3 || Ch.4 || Ch.5 || Ch.6 || Ch.7 || Ch.8 || Ch.9 || Ch.10 || Ch.11 || Ch.12 || Ch.13 || (Ch.14) ||

“The castle was here. How can an entire building disappear?” Licht gawked at the deserted land before him. He took Mahiru and the others to Touma’s castle but it was gone. Despite his injuries, Licht insisted they ambush the castle once it was dark. He only took a few days to recover yet the castle had vanished in that time. Even if he the demon left to find another place to hide, the castle should’ve remained.

“Touma must’ve used a spell to trick you like how he made an illusion to make you think we attacked you. He thought ahead enough to hide the location of his castle.” Mahiru reasoned. He could see how frustrated Licht was. He wanted to recover the bodies of his fallen comrades. Licht slid down the crater where the castle once stood and walked to the center.

A part of Mahiru was relieved that they didn’t have to face Touma yet. He was powerful and he could also use illusions to manipulate people. There were four of them now but he wasn’t certain if they could defeat the spider demon. The first time they fought him, they were lucky his power saved him. He needed to train more before he could fully control his spiritual power and summon the shield at will.

“What should we do now?” Kuro asked Mahiru. He appeared uncertain and Kuro understood his feelings. He didn’t want to pressure him and placed his hand on his back. Mahiru relaxed as he rubbed small circles into his back. The gesture was small but the warmth was reassuring. No matter how anxious he felt, he knew everything would be okay with Kuro.

“Touma holds a lot of the shards and we have to take them back. I don’t think we’ll be able to find Touma’s castle easily. He doesn’t seem like the type who would accidentally leave clues to his location. We can draw him out with the shards.” Mahiru decided. “He wants to reform the jewel like we do. He will come for us and we can defeat him then.”

“That will give him more time to collect jewels and hurt people.” Licht argued. He stomped up the crater with a scowl. Mahiru knew that that he was merely impatient to find Touma and he wouldn’t hurt him. He also understood the dangers of not defeating him immediately. His next words punctuated his thoughts. “Look at what he did to my village in one day! Imagine what he could do to defenseless humans.”

“Troublesome.” Kuro groaned. He agreed with Mahiru’s plan but it was clear Licht was too stubborn to be persuaded. He looked up at the moon while the two debated what they should do. In the distance, he heard drums. “There’s a village nearby. I vote we find a room there and argue about this in the morning. Touma and the shards can wait.”

“My brother’s right.” Hyde said. “I don’t want to hear you two arguing all night.”

“It looks like we were outvoted, Licht. We can continue this discussion tomorrow. We’re a team now so I don’t want to fight.” Mahiru walked to his bike where he left it leaning against a tree. He sat on his back and then patted the rack behind him. “Sit here, Kuro. You can point to where the village is while I drive.”

Last night, Kuro comforted him and they talked until the hour grew late. Neither of them had much sleep and he must’ve been tired too. Kuro sat on the back of the bike and leaned against him. Mahiru looked over his shoulder to him. He had his eyes closed and he would’ve drifted off to sleep if Mahiru hadn’t said: “I need you to give me directions, Kuro.”

“Head to the west. Hyde also has sharp senses so you can ask him for directions. Drive slowly and be mindful of your precious cat back here. I don’t want to fall off.” Kuro could feel his warmth when he leaned against his back and he felt so comfortable that he could fall asleep. Mahiru had a lean body but his shoulders were stronger than he thought it would be.

“We might as well be walking if I have to bike slowly. Wrap your arms around me and you won’t need to worry about falling off. Let’s go, Hyde, Licht. It’s already late so we should hurry or else all the rooms will be taken.” He waited until Kuro hugged his waist before he peddled forward. Mahiru biked at a leisurely pace with Licht and Hyde walking behind him.

“I’ve only known you three for a few days now but I see none of you take this journey seriously. I joined you to help collect the shards and get revenge on Touma. I think it might’ve been better if I went after him alone.” He sighed. Since they had buried his family and they were able to enter the cave, he knew they were good people. Licht had reservations though. “The cat is actually sleeping.”

“If you’re jealous and you want to be carried too, I’ll give you a piggyback ride. You can also ride your Nekomata.” Hyde suggested. Licht clicked his tongue and whispered to the small cat demon on his shoulder. They couldn’t hear him but his order was clear when Kirara jumped onto Hyde’s shoulder and bit his ear. “Hey, get this thing off me!”

“Will you two stop? Don’t make me turn this bike around and force you two to camp out here until you get along.” Mahiru huffed. His words made them stop fighting but Kuro had to wonder for how long. “You two needs to learn how to get along if we’re going to fight together. I don’t have time to stop your fights every few hours.”

Licht often fought alongside other demon slayers and trust was an important part of their work. “Tell him to stop provoking me.”

“There’s a festival in the village we’re going to. You two can spend time together and learn to get along.” Kuro suggested. Mahiru’s warmth was comfortable and familiar and he could almost fall asleep but their argument kept him awake. He recalled how simple and tranquil their travels were before Hyde and Licht joined. He was happy to have his brother back though.

As they approached the village, Mahiru could hear cheers and laughter. The festival was more elaborate than he thought it would be. Most of the rural villages they visited were sparse. Lanterns lined the houses and there were stalls for games and goods. Mahiru wondered which holiday it was. Since he came to the feudal era, he lost count of the days.

“Two of us should find an inn while the other two buy supplies for the journey. Let’s meet here in an hour and then enjoy the festival.” Mahiru suggested and stopped his bike. He moved off the bike and lightly nudged Kuro to do the same.

“I can find us a room easily.” Hyde said. When Mahiru took out his coin purse to give him money for the inn, he held his hand up. He had a mischievous grin as he told them, “I know a nobleman in this city. He’s a little paranoid. If I suggest a spirit is lingering in his castle, he’ll let us stay the night to exercise it. I can get a hefty reward as well. You three go ahead and enjoy the festival.”

“I’m going with you, Demon.” They were shocked when Licht stepped forward and grabbed Hyde’s arm. He stopped and looked back to him in confusion. Licht’s frown didn’t change as he said: “I won’t let you lie to a human. We’re going to secure a room without any of your tricks. How often do you use your ruse of a monk like this?”

“It’s not a ruse since I was trained by a monk. Even a demon has spiritual energy they can use. I’m far stronger than other monks since I can use my demon abilities and attacks.” He said. Licht didn’t comment that he hadn’t answered his question or pressed him for more. He doubted he would tell him the truth if he did. He took his hand and dragged him into the village.

Kuro watched them leave and hoped they didn’t start fighting. He sat on the bike as Mahiru walked it through the festival. He scanned the stalls around them and his stomach growled lightly. The sound made Mahiru chuckle and he stopped in front of a food booth. He purchased a plate of takoyaki and held a stick out to Kuro. “Try these. They smell great.”

“Festivals are fun but they’re expensive. I don’t go to them often.” He leaned forward and took a bite. Mahiru blushed slightly when he realized that it appeared like he was feeding him. Despite how flustered the thought made him, he didn’t pull away. He smiled shyly and ate an octopus ball. “Festivals are more elaborate than I remember.”

“But the laughter is the same. It’s charming, isn’t it? In my time, I would help cater festivals like this so it’s nice to enjoy it for once. I almost feel like a teenager again. Then again, I never had to carry my friends on my bike.” Mahiru said and Kuro chuckled at his joke. “I think that stall is selling noodles. What does your brother like? We’ll get something for him too.”

“Cheese and ham.” Kuro told him and thought of the family they once were. “Hyde loves festivals like these. Lily and Hugh did too. It was hard to keep track of all six of them since they enjoyed different things. You can always count on World End being at a food stall though. He’s lucky that he can hide his demon traits easily.”

Mahiru was focused on Kuro so he didn’t notice the people staring at them until Kuro reminded him that he was a demon. He looked around him and found people regarding him with a mix of fear and distrust. He stopped his bike and lowered the bike stand. Kuro was confused when Mahiru took off his white sweater. “Do you want to trade jackets, Kuro?”

The warm smile he wore compelled Kuro to take off his jacket even though he didn’t fully understand his intention. Mahiru placed his sweater on his lap before he shrugged on his red cloak. After Kuro did the same, Mahiru reached up and pulled the hood over his ears. He grinned up at him and scratched his ear beneath the hood. He whispered, “No one can judge you now.”

“I’m used to their stares but… Thank you, Mahiru.” His kindness and compassion warmed Kuro’s heart. People had already seen his ears so he doubted the hood would trick them. He didn’t voice that thought and he pulled the sweater tighter around him instead. Mahiru’s subtle and simple scent clung to the fabric. “Your cloak covers my ears but I might get stares from how strange your clothes are.”

“It’s called a sweater. I don’t think it looks strange on you. If we were in my time and I saw you at a festival, I would give you a complimentary takoyaki.” Mahiru said and fed him another one. He pushed the bike forward and they enjoyed the festival together.

“I bought two rooms for us, Shit Rat. Let’s go back to the entrance and wait for Mahiru.” Licht said as he stepped out of the inn. He ordered Hyde to wait outside because he worried the residents would be frightened by the demon. Hyde could disguise himself as human but someone with spiritual powers could sense his demonic presence.

When he walked outside, he couldn’t see Hyde immediately. Licht’s first thought was that he went to trick the lord like he initially planned. He clicked his tongue and marched forward to stop him. At least he wasn’t attacking the festival like other demons would. He fought many demons and some were as intelligent as Hyde. Yet, he was one of the few who had compassion for humans and protected others.

He didn’t walk far from the inn before he found Hyde. Licht was a little shocked to see him surrounded by laughing children. For a moment, he watched him play a goldfish game. A boy pointed to a fish and Hyde expertly scooped it into a bowl. All of the children had a fish and Licht realized that he had caught them for the children.

“That one next!” Another child asked and Hyde nodded with a small chuckle. He was certain he would spend all of his money on one game if he didn’t stop soon but he handed the stall owner another coin. In the water’s reflection, he saw Licht. He looked up to him with the expectation that he would be angry he didn’t wait like he was told.

Hyde scooped the fish into the bowl and handed it to the child. “Here you go, Kid. I have to go. You all should run back to your mothers before they start to worry.”

He waited until the children were gone before he faced Licht. Hyde expected him to kick him so his next words surprised him. “You’re good with kids but you need to be careful or else they’ll discover that you are a demon. You were using your powers to cheat in the game.”

“Most of these games are rigged so I’m just evening the odds. The stall owner gets money and the kids gets a fish so everyone is happy in the end.” Hyde countered. He was a little impressed that Licht could tell that he used his powers to manipulate the game. Licht was sharper than he thought he would be. He had controlled the water to keep the fish from swimming away.

“We have a place to stay so let’s go. Kirara is hungry.” Licht said and rubbed his finger over the tiny nekomata’s forehead. He had a soft smile as he regarded the cat.

“I’m surprised you have such a dangerous demon as a pet.” The thought had crossed Hyde’s mind several times since they met.

“Kirara isn’t a demon. She’s an angel.” Licht corrected him and his answer made Hyde pause. “I don’t hate demons aside for Touma since he killed my family. As a demon slayer, it’s my job to protect humans from the more savage demons.”

“You’re a strange angel.” He believed he knew the type of person Licht was but he was different than he first assumed. The same thought crossed Licht’s mind about Hyde.

“I think it’s time to meet up with Hyde and Licht. I hope I can leave my bike in our room. It’s tiring to push this everywhere, especially in such a crowded place.” Mahiru said. They walked side by side through the crowded street. Kuro didn’t want to make him push through the sea of people. “After we eat, do you want to come back and enjoy the festival more? We only visited the food stalls so far. I would like to play a few games and win a prize.”

“We passed an archery game and you can easily win that now.” He said and the compliment made Mahiru blush. Kuro glanced down at his face. He thought the rosy hue on his cheeks was from the lantern around them. Mahiru was a little disappointed they couldn’t stay longer but he didn’t know why. He liked Hyde and Licht yet spending time alone with Kuro felt different.

Mahiru’s body stilled when he sensed something familiar. A jewel shard was nearby. At first, he didn’t notice it because he thought the shard he sensed was Hyde’s. He realized the jewel felt slightly different though. He looked around the festival stalls but he couldn’t see its faint glow with so many people crowding them. The festival was peaceful so a violent demon didn’t have it.

“Is something wrong, Mahiru?” Kuro saw a concerned expression pass over his face. He quickly smiled to reassure him. Mahiru didn’t want to worry him when there wasn’t any immediate danger. He hoped he could find the shard by himself without causing a scene. It was possible that a human found the jewel and they didn’t know what it was.

“I saw something that caught my eyes.” Mahiru gestured in the direction he sensed the jewel. He hated to lie to Kuro and he couldn’t meet his red eyes.

“If it’s a prize or something, we can try to win it quickly. I’m sure Hyde and Licht won’t mind that we’re a little late. They managed to not kill each other this long so a few more minutes will be okay. I hope.” He said. Kuro thought his expression was strange but he trusted that Mahiru would tell him if it was something important.

Mahiru nodded and he followed the faint power of the shard. His eyes fell onto a cat mask hanging on a prize wall. Decorating the mask’s forehead was a sacred jewel shard. He was relieved that a demon didn’t have it and he could recover the shard easily. Mahiru asked the woman standing behind the counter: “Excuse me, I would like to play. How many pots do I need to knock down to win that mask?”

After she answered him, Mahiru handed her a few gold coins. He stood behind the line with a ball in his hands. His gaze drift to the mask and he thought the jewel appeared strange. The colour of the shard was a dull purple compared to its usual pink hue. He reasoned that the festival’s lights made the colour appear different. He turned back to the pyramids of pots and tossed the ball.

Mahiru only managed to knock down two of the five pots he needed to win. His second throw missed as well. He looked down at his last ball and sighed, “Why couldn’t this be an archery game? I was never good at baseball.”

“I don’t know what baseball is but I can try.” Kuro offered. Usually, he wouldn’t bother with the games at festivals since he wasn’t competitive and he thought they were a waste of money. But he could see that Mahiru wanted the mask and the determination in his brown eyes pulled at him. He handed him and ball and Kuro stood on the line. He threw the ball and easily broke the pots with his strength.

“You did it, Kuro! That was wonderful. Thank you for winning it for me.” Mahiru clapped and beamed up at him with a smile. His honest glee made him smile as well. The woman handed the mask to Mahiru and he thanked her. He held it in his hand and stared at the jewel shard.

Kuro stood next to him and asked, “Aren’t you going to try it on?”

“I can be a cat like you.” Mahiru joked and slipped the mask over his face. “How do I look?”

He didn’t know how to answer him. While Mahiru said he wanted the mask, Kuro preferred to see him without it. Between his doe eyes and soft smile, he had a beautiful face. His kind personality only highlighted those traits. He realized his thoughts had wandered and he shook his head.

Mahiru walked to his bike and Kuro assumed he intended to go back to the entrance to meet with Hyde and Licht. He was confused when he took out his bow and arrows. His movements were slow and precise as he aimed the arrow. The snap of Mahiru’s bow pushed Kuro out of his confusion and he barely managed to dodge his arrow.

His attack caused a panic and people began to scream. Mahiru didn’t regard the chaos caused by his arrow and nocked another one. Kuro didn’t understand why he would suddenly attack him and his mind raced with questions. “Mahiru?”

He didn’t answer him and released another arrow. Kuro swore beneath his breath and evaded the arrow. He also pushed a boy out of the arrow’s path. He didn’t know what overcame Mahiru but Kuro was certain he would feel terrible if someone was hurt by his arrow. His instincts screamed for him to run to Mahiru but he would be hit by his arrow.

“Mahiru, whatever’s controlling you, fight it!” He pleaded. Since Mahiru had a strong heart, he hoped he could resist the force controlling him. The only thing Kuro could do was dodge and keep the humans from being hurt. He searched the crowd for the scent of a demon who could be manipulating Mahiru. He heard Hyde call his name and Kuro looked towards his brother. A moment later, the sound of Mahiru’s arrow overwhelmed him. He turned around sharply but he knew he couldn’t dodge the attack.

“Sit, Kuro!”

He was dragged to the ground and the arrow flew over his head. The command had saved him from the arrow. Kuro sat up and looked back to Mahiru. He saw his body trembled. “Run, Kuro. I don’t want to hurt you but I can’t control my body anymore. When I put on the mask, I heard this terrible voice telling me to take your shards. Please, just run away from me!”

“I’m not going to leave you, Mahiru. I’ll save you.” He stood and faced him. The pain in his voice tore at his heart and he had to help him. Mahiru said the mask was controlling him so he needed to remove it. Kuro didn’t know if he would be faster than his arrows though. “Hyde, you’re a monk. Do you know about cursed items and how to purify them?”

“I’ve dealt with a few. Whatever is controlling him won’t let us take the mask easily. Even if we stop him, we can’t simply pull it off. I have to purify it.” Hyde said. He took out a few spell tags from his sleeve. “Licht, you and my brother distract him so I can get close enough to the mask and purify it. I don’t want to hurt him but this is the best way.”

“No, don’t harm Mahiru!” Kuro stopped him when he started to chant a spell. He trusted that Hyde wouldn’t injure Mahiru badly but he refused to hurt him. An arrow came between them and his attention turned to him. From how his body shook, he knew Mahiru was doing his best to resist the mask. They didn’t know how much longer he could do so though.

“Why are you two arguing in the middle of a fight? Until either of you can think of a way to remove the mask, focus on protecting the humans.” Licht yelled over them. Since Mahiru had a ranged weapon, it was difficult to close the space between them and stop him. They outnumbered him but no one wanted to fight him. “We can’t wait for him to run out of arrows.”

“I can use my wind tunnel to suck in his arrows. That should stop him for a while.” Hyde loosened the beads from his hand. The crowd had already fled from the festival so he didn’t need to worry that a human would be caught in his wind tunnel. “I’ll close the wind tunnel before Mahiru can be hurt.”

Kuro nodded reluctantly and stepped back. Once they were behind him, Hyde released the seal on his wind tunnel and the vortex pulled Mahiru forward. The arrow slipped from his bow but he kept his footing. Mahiru took another arrow from his quiver yet he didn’t nock it to shot them. He stabbed the arrow into the ground and created a barrier around himself.

“You found a strong mate, Nii-san. I thought you said he was still learning to control his powers.” Hyde said warily. The mask controlled Mahiru and likely drew out the power locked inside him. He bit his lower lip and closed the wind tunnel. “That plan failed. I don’t like our previous plan of dodging his arrows. Even if he uses all of his arrows, he can use his spiritual powers.”

“Kuro,” They turned back to Mahiru when he called his name. “I don’t want to hurt you so please let Hyde perform the exorcism.”

His body moved despite his best efforts to stop himself. Mahiru set his arrow and pulled back the string of his bow. A soft glow surrounded his arrow. His eyes met with Kuro’s and he summoned enough strength to lift his arms so he would shoot his arrow into the sky. The force of the attack knocked him back and broke the barrier around him.

Kuro raced forward and embraced Mahiru so they fell to the ground together. He wasn’t hurt since he placed his hand on the back of his head. His bow slipped out of his hands and he could barely move in his strong arms. Mahiru was relieved to feel his warmth around him. “How can you ask me to run away when you’re in danger?”

I won’t be able to forgive myself if you were hurt. Mahiru didn’t voice the thought because the mask stopped him. While he asked Kuro to help him collect the shards, he never imagined it would be so dangerous. They were able to persevere through everything by protecting each other. Memories of their time together filled his mind and he closed his eyes. I want to protect you because I love you, Kuro.

A light enveloped them and Mahiru heard a small crack. The mask split in two and fell off his face. Kuro cupped his cheeks and looked into his brown eyes. They stared at each other for a moment and then Mahiru hugged him. He stroked his brown hair in return and whispered: “Thank goodness, Mahiru.”

“Where did you two find this mask?” Licht’s words came between them and they pulled away from each other. He didn’t notice how tense Mahiru and Kuro were since he was focused on the mask. He turned the broken pieces in his hands to examine it. “There’s a jewel shard on the mask. It must’ve made the curse more powerful. I didn’t notice the shard before because it was tainted.”

“The jewel has been purified. If only you did that sooner, Mahiru.” Hyde used his sword to break the mask further until he could remove the jewel. “For someone to manipulate the souls in the sacred jewel, they must be a powerful person.”

Mahiru stared at the shard that had returned to its previous pink hue. “I didn’t recognize the voice who made the curse. They ordered me to take Kuro’s jewel though. Do you think the person could be working with Touma?”

“We can worry about that later. How do you feel, Mahiru?” Kuro asked in a worried voice. “Let’s go back to the inn to rest.”

“I don’t know if they’ll let us in after the mess I made.” He joked but his smile didn’t reach his eyes. Mahiru glanced at the festival around them and bit his lip. He felt Kuro’s warm hands around his and he felt less nervous. He was glad that he didn’t leave him.

“Kuro, are you awake?” Mahiru leaned over his sleeping bag and lightly shook his shoulder. He opened his eyes and sat with a small groan. They had decided to camp in the forest. It was dark but he came awake when he saw the conflicted expression Mahiru had. “Are your wounds bothering you, Kuro?”

“I wasn’t hit by your arrows and that light you used to purify the shard didn’t hurt me.” He told him. Kuro looked into his eyes and saw that there was something more he wanted to say. “Is it about the jewel shard? You can sense them so you must’ve known that the mask had a shard.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it.” He apologized.

Kuro wasn’t upset like he thought he would be. He gently tilted Mahiru’s face back to him and said, “I can guess why you didn’t. You wanted to deal with it on your own but that’s troublesome. Rely on me.”

“Okay. I was just afraid I was relying on you too much and becoming a burden. I want us to be equal partners on this adventure.”

[ahnsael]

I’m back at the hotel. I’m beat. But dang it, that was a great time.

I got to meet up with Andrew today (he texted me while I was on the Submarine Voyage and I didn’t see it until I got off, but the timing was perfect -- when I replied and told him where I was, it turned out that he was right on the other side of the Matterhorn). We watched the Tiki Room together before he went home to work on school stuff.

I didn’t run into anyone else I knew today (no random encounters with former bosses like yesterday, even though I kept my eyes open for one in Star Wars Land).

I’m rambling again, but this time I’ll include a cut so I don’t take up as much of your dashboard as I did this morning.

One thing I found amusing: after going to Oga’s Cantina, I decided to buy a DJ R3X Funko Pop (it was that or the DJ R3X bluetooth speaker, but...we’re talking $25 vs $150). I remembered seeing them earlier in the day, and I went to every store in Batuu trying to remember where I saw them. In the last store, I asked the cashier for help.

“Um, I think those are sold off-planet. We don’t have them on Batuu.”

(Which seems odd since that’s where DJ R3X actually is.)

I took the hint and realized that I must have seen them in the Star Trader, so I went there and sure enough, there they were.

But I wondered, if I really didn’t get it, if he would have been more specific. Like, I get that cast members are strongly encouraged to play roles in that part of the park (I overheard one lady talking about a friend’s ex-boyfriend who got his arms ripped off by Chewbacca for doing her wrong -- some people are INTO their roles, and I dig it), but...if I had been confused by the “we don’t sell them on Batuu” statement instead of putting together the clue, would he have sent me to Tomorrowland?

Ooh, a good hint could have been “I believe the travel company Star Tours services a planet where they are sold, maybe check the shop in their terminal if you happen to find yourself in that part of the galaxy.” That way he can keep it “in-universe” while being more specific.

Of course, he may have already thought of all that, and just didn’t need to use it because what he said was enough to remind me that I’d seen it in that other part of Disneyland that is full of Star Wars stuff, and I told him that I now knew where I had seen it.

This whole trip, cast members were great (with one singular exception, but not enough to mention it to anyone in authority -- she may have been having a bad day). Sure, there were cast members who weren’t 100% in it (but, honestly, I probably saw more great examples of great cast members in the past two days than I have in the past several trips combined); there were those I overheard talking about the party last night, or a dating issue that two security guards were talking about at the bag check, but...that stuff is going to happen all the time (and the guards did stop talking about it as I went through the metal detector and then gathered my things from the tray to re-stock my pockets with my wallet, phone, portable phone charger, charging cable, and the trading pins I brought, which I didn’t trade in the end because nothing I saw on cast member lanyards seemed “better” to me -- but I had a LOT squeezed into my pockets so I could avoid bringing a backpack or fanny pack so it took me a little time to get back together when I went through Security).

There was one cast member at the Temple of the Forbidden Eye today, though, that bugged me. We were in the film room and she was telling people to fill in all the available space (odd to me, since the FastPass merge point is at the temple entrance, and then I walked all the way to the atrium before running into the rest of the line inside, so it’s not like she was trying to get more people out of the hot sun -- as a guest I hear “fill in all available space” and I think “How many of these people are going to try to use this to cut ahead of other people in line?”).

She, in a very monotone voice, just kept repeating “Move forward, fill all available space, side by side, two by two, three by three.” I heard her repeat that, verbatim, at least 15 times within just a couple minutes. It was just annoyingly repetitive, especially with the same “ugh, why don’t these people get it?” tone that came across.

But, again, maybe she was just having an off day. 

And while I’ve had rides on the Submarine Voyage before, years ago before it was a Nemo thing, where a more accurate name would have been “body odor in a tube,” today was something else.

I mean, I’m in there for maybe 15 minutes with a handful of people who figured that since they were going underwater in a submarine today, they could skip the shower. And it was...like...GAG bad today. Even in the Tiki Room with Andrew, I was still coughing like I was trying to get the stench out of my throat (not HIS stench -- I detected no noticeable smell from him at all -- just from having breathed in the B.O. Cigar before that).

But I really feel for the pilot. They’re right in the middle, higher than the rest of us (and in comics, “stink lines” always go up, so I assume they do the same in real life). I hope they’ve got better ventilation up there than those of us under sea level have. Otherwise that’s got to be a miserable position to be in.

My portable phone charger worked like a charm, though. While I carried it and the phone in separate pockets most of the time, it was small enough that the two times I used it today, I could put it and the phone in the same pocket with my lightning cable connecting them.

When I got in line for the Submarine Voyage, I was down to about 30% battery (and this was at noon, about three hours after I got to the park). I got off the attraction at about 12:35, and I was already up to just over 80% (and the remaining battery in the charger was still 94%).

Granted, as I kept using the phone as it charged (I’d just bring the phone and charger out of my pocket together and hold them back to back as I used the phone), it was about 3 hours later that I unplugged it with the phone at 92%.

I recharged again later while I was in Oga’s, and got back up into the 80% range in the 45 minutes that I was in line for Oga’s and inside (I didn’t use my full 45-minutes of allowed time -- the sun was BEATING down on the line to get in, as I knew from having been out there, so I figured I’d help people get into the shade since I’d already had my two drinks).

Oh, and the Disneyland app LOST my Oga’s reservation.

Twice today it forgot everything about me. Even though I used its “touch ID” feature to sign in when needed, on one of those times I put my thumb on the main button and the app said I had entered the wrong password. I had to reset my password.

Then, even though I had seen the reservation for Oga’s on the app on my walk from Pirates (had to ride that one a second time) to Galaxy’s Edge, when I got there the reservation had completely vanished. There is a Guest Relations podium with a computer at the center of the three entrances to Galaxy’s Edge, so I stopped by there and said “This is probably going to sound like I’m making it up to get something I didn’t actually reserve, but...I had a reservation for this hard-to-get-into place and now it’s gone.”

(I didn’t think about the fact that I had an email verification...but at the same time, I also had email verifications for two other times since I modified the timing of the reservation twice this morning).

But the Guest Relations cast member assured me that if I did indeed have a reservation, then Oga’s would have my name, and I would be fine. And, sure enough, when I got there and explained, they asked for my last name and the time of my reservation, and verified that I did indeed have it.

But the Guest Relations guy said that they’ve had a lot of these types of glitches with the app.

I mean, it is a complicated app on their end -- keeping track of dining reservations and FastPasses for tens of thousands of people per day can’t be an easy feat. So I won’t say “Disney has got to be better than this” but...it would be nice. But still, the reservation wasn’t LOST lost, just lost on my end. They still made good on it, so I’m happy.

I can’t wait to do this again someday...but next time I may fly and pay for a shuttle to whatever hotel I stay at (this one isn’t bad; about a 20 minute walk to the main gate, but I could see maybe spending a little more to be closer next time). That drive into SoCal was rough, and I have to make it in the other direction tomorrow. It would probably be more expensive to fly, but would be an ease on driving stress.

I have zero regrets about the past couple of days. And maybe the date no-show was a blessing in disguise. I do like her, and it’ll be interesting the next time I talk to her to see whether she’s mad at me for not trying harder to get her here with me or whether she just actually blew me off, but...thinking back over the past couple of days (plus the day before, when I “met” her -- we had seen and talked to each other several times in the casino, but that was the first time that I spent that much time talking to her and ended up with the whole crush thing going on), either (1) I would have been moving too fast for her (she mentioned on that morning in the casino that she couldn’t believe how quickly I walked -- and I’m even faster in the park), or (2) she would have been annoyed at how I bounced around instead of taking the park in a clockwise/counter-clockwise direction (especially today -- I kept booking whatever the next available FastPass was until I had FastPassed everything, then I FastPassed some of them again), or (3) mad because she came all this way for me to call it an early both days of the trip (granted, I probably would have struggled through if she was keeping up, just out of pride, but still...whether that happened or not she would have gotten gross sweaty Kenny, not suave tie-wearing casino manager Kenny).

All in all, to the best of my recollection, here’s the list of rides I got in (not in the order I did them, but in the order that they’re listed on the Disney Wiki):

• Main Street Cinema (so glad they rescinded the “put merchandise in there” thing) • Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (I didn’t score as well as I would have liked, especially since I KNOW the diamond-shaped targets are worth the most -- my aim just wasn’t good today and I got just over 100,000 points) • Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage (I had heard that the show building was drained and that the subs just ran through a trough of water in the middle of otherwise dry scenes -- and while that seemed true in some scenes, in others I could see the surface of the water in the distance; I’d love to see a “water map” of that show building). • HyperSpace Mountain (twice -- once as a walk-on in the standby line with a 3 minute wait, the second with a FastPass because I HAD to do that one again, it was amazing, and it put Smuggler’s Run to shame). • Star Tours (every scene after leaving the spaceport was new to me). There was no Rebel Spy on our flight. After the cast member left the cabin and we heard the gangplank move out of the way, there was a couple minutes where nothing happened, then we heard an announcement that it was “taking longer to load R2D2 than anticipated,” and then when the ride did start and the Stormtroopers stopped us to check for the rebel spy, the area of the screen that is usually a photo of someone in the StarSpeeder was just a blank rectangle (and we had no empty seats, so it’s not like the cast member hit some “choose random” button and the computer chose someplace at which nobody was sitting). Still better than Smuggler’s Run. • Okay, why does that Wiki still list “Innoventions” as a “current” attraction? It’s been the Star Wars Launch Bay for a while now (and is currently closed so I didn’t go in). Then again, it also lists the Starcade as a “current attraction,” so maybe that wasn’t the best site to link to. • Snow White’s Scary Adventures. This one pissed me off. Nothing about the attraction itself or the cast members therein (though I was disappointed to see that the brass “book” at the entrance has been worn down to the point where it’s almost impossible to read the indented words). But I was in line behind a family. One lady, two guys, two kids. The two guys were going out of their way to tell the kids (probably one three years old, the other four) that the Evil Queen was going to throw them in her dungeon. And throwing in evil laughs (which I’m afraid I may have prompted because I touched the brass apple at the entrance and elicited an evil laugh from the Evil Queen, which they were emulating). By the show scene in the queue (where there’s a spell book an fake stairs and a bunch of money people have thrown in there for some reason but I know it goes to charity so do your thing if you’re ever tempted to throw money in there) they were telling the boy that they were going to put him in there, even lifting him up the bars in the windows and telling him that they could fit him through and that he’d be trapped forever. The mom was trying to reassure the kids that it was “a baby’s ride” and that it wasn’t scary (meanwhile I’m thinking of the dungeon scenes, and the scary forest, and the fact that “Scary” is IN THE NAME OF THE ATTRACTION FOR A REASON and that the kids are going to get off hating that she lied to them, but MORE angry at the guys who instilled all this fear into the kids, and then MADE FUN OF THEM for being scared. I had hoped the kids would handle it okay, but when I got off (I was in the car behind them), they were still in the exit walkway and the boy was crying so hard after the ride that he was drooling. People don’t realize how well kids remember things like this (as I can say from personal experience). I saw the cast member (who hadn’t heard everything that I had heard) hesitate before letting them ride, but I can’t blame him -- that’s on who I’m guessing was the kid’s dad and uncle (I don’t know those relations for sure, but both of those guys were complete assholes). I hope the kid ends up okay -- that came across, to me, as a scarring experience for him, and I hope I’m wrong. • Pinocchio’s Daring Journey -- I thought I was filming this one, and was really proud of how I framed everything as the ride went on (I was in the front row, holding my phone on the front of the vehicle, and adjusting the angle to get everything JUST right -- then realized at the end that I had been in photo mode, not video mode. I took a photo of an empty part of the queue as the ride started (which was blurry so I deleted it), and got no video at all. • The Sleeping Beauty Castle walk-through -- a group passed me in the first set of scenes, and literally tried to open every single door in the castle. Fortunately for Disneyland, all of those doors were locked. The effects in there have come a long way since I was a kid. • It’s a Small World. I live-broadcasted this one on Facebook, then got a copyright violation. I thought that song was copyright free, as it was written by the Sherman Brothers and then not copyrighted since they wrote it for UNICEF as “a gift to the children of the world.” I contested it, but then I researched and it seems that maybe the song WAS copyrighted (and the copyright renewed). I sent Facebook a message telling me that they could re-mute the video  since I had already claimed that I had permission to use the song (since I thought nobody owned it -- maybe it’s just the attraction recording that is copyrighted?). It got more attention on Facebook (both from Facebook and from friends) than I thought it would. • Matterhorn Bobsleds - Only one side working still after part of the mountain fell off not long ago. The side that was working (the right side/Teacups side) was not the one I thought would be working; but there’s still scaffolding and scrim up next to the Main Street-facing waterfall (which is currently turned off) where the rockwork fell off • Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I rode it twice. Both times were on train #4. I was just glad it wasn’t train #6. They have a new track and, I’m told, new trains since the accident (I rode it once after the crash that killed Marcello Torres on the old track but never rode it again until the track replacement because I didn’t feel safe). But train #6 was the one that crashed in 2003 (it crashed twice more after reopening from the initial crash, though those ones were minor incidents of trains bumping into each other at the station). I didn’t do “the goat trick.” • Mark Twain Riverboat - This was the attraction on which I closed out my trip. A nice, relaxing ride around the newly-shortened (at least “newly” since the last time I was here” around the Rivers of America. Another guest pointed out kids on the WRONG SIDE OF THE RAILING along the river, and the cast member acted quickly. Good show, guest who reported it and cast member aboard the boat who handled it. • Jungle Cruise - Don’t remember skipper’s name (I was half-asleep by this point). They were middling-to-good. Decent deliveries, not the best bote of guests (it’s spelled “bote” when it’s the Jungle Cruise). • Indiana Jones - I mentioned my beef with one particular cast member. Do the “air jets” that are supposed to signify things landing on you ever fool anyone? Even when the attraction opened, it was an obvious play. • Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room -- saw this with Andrew (aka disfan here but he hasn’t posted in almost a year). My parents and lil sis were in Walt Disney World last month and the version they saw was shortened, mine was not. So I have that over them • Haunted Mansion Holiday -for the fist time (even though I had been here once since his re-debut) --- worked, and the effect is amazing. • Splash Mountain -- I tried to keep my phone dry. I succeeded (last time I was on this I broke my stepdad’s cell phone with water damage so I’n GOOD now since I kept my phone and charger dry), • Splash Mountain -- I did Single Rider and the cast member told me to go over a bridge that was roped of. My first time separating/disconnecting ropes since I was a cast member.

[dungeonsmith]

Golden Voyages Random Encounters

I recenty finished reading through Ghosts of Saltmarsh and it reminded me of some random encounters i wrote for my old nautical campaign that was loosely based on the golden voyages for Al Qadim. Although I never really intended to share them with the world, I figured why not. Maybe someone can use them. 

Random Encounters

Sea travel encounters. 1 roll every 8 hours. 18+ for a day encounter, 15+ For a night encounter..

D12+D8 (remove D8 If in known waters or aided by guide)

 Day                        Night

 2    Night Encounter               2    Day Encounter               

3    A Dolphin Pod                  3    A Frenzy of Sharks

4-5    Merchant Ship              4    Strange Phenomena   

                                              5    Mephits   

6    Strange Phenomena       6    Merrow

7    A Frenzy of Sharks         7    Harpies       

8    Pahari                             8    Pirate Boats   

9    Fishermen                       9    Sea Spawn   

10    Pirate Boats                 10    Wreckage       

11    Pirate Ship                   11    Smugglers

12    Warship                12 - 14 Hazard

                        13    Hazard               

14    Wreckage               

15    Harpies                      15    Ghoul Pirates   

16    Giant Crocodile         16    Giant Crocodile       

17    Sahuagin           17 - 18 Sahuagin    

18    Mephits                   

19    Water Elemental      19    Ghost Ship   

20    DM Special              20    DM Special   

 DM Special (Roll, Pick or Make up your own encounter)

 1    Zaratan

2     Marid

3     Reef Giant

4     Deep Scion

5     Sorcerer

6    Djinni

7    Roc

8     Sea Hag   

Dolphin Pod

A pod of of dolphins (1d20+1d10) swim up and surround the ship. Following it for several hours. Sailors take it as a good sign and morale improves.

 Merchant Ship

A merchant ship is meet head on. The ship is either. A) A large and overladen transport heading to Bandar al-Sa´adat or the pearl cities. B) A smaller travelling merchant by the name of Umar Abu Karim, happy to stop and exchange wares, services and a warm meal.

 Strange Phenomena

Something odd happens. (1D6)

1-2 The waters shine brightly in a vast spectrum of colors. A large patch of bioluminescent algae and small fish are the source of the light. It is strong enough to sail by.

3-4 A pair of large eyes seem to appear in the skies above for a brief moment, as if a giant figure was watching the ship from afar. It is unclear if this is just an illusion or mirage or if it could be someone scrying on the party.

5-6 A haunting/uplifting melody is heard on the wind, perhaps drifting out from the nearby coast or seemingly without origin.. Perhaps just an illusion, perhaps the singing of some ocean folk such as merfolk or a lure of something darker.

 A Frenzy of Sharks

A group of sharks (1 hunter shark or 1 giant shark or 4 reef sharks) surround the vessel and stay with it until bored, hoping for scraps or to catch a sailor overboard. They are harmless unless someone enters the water. A giant shark may attack the ship.

 Pahari

A group of Pahari are spotted sunbathing on a group of nearby cliffs. If approached they quickly throw themselves into the wave and disappear.

Or) A single brave Pahari named Nawfar approaches the ship, pulling herself up to the railing to converse with the sailors. She is happy to help out if there is need, especially if offered gifts in return. She can collect a small amount of shellfish and edible kelp if the crew lacks food and can bestow water breathing if asked.

 Fishermen

The group spots either a large fishing boat from one of the large cities that has ranged out far.

Or) If far from civilization it is instead several small boats from a nearby island village. They are guarded towards strangers but willing to guide the ship to their village if asked.

 Pirate Boats

A small fleet of boats carrying well armed warriors seek to board and plunder the ship. It is either. A) A group of Zakharan pirates in three boats, two of them carrying 4 Bandits. The last one carries the leader a Bandit Captain and 3 more Bandits. They will leave the crew in peace if allowed to plunder the ships stores. B) 6 canoes carrying 2 Tribal Warriors each. They demand tribute to allow the ship to pass unharmed through their waters. If winds are high both groups can be passed easily.

 Pirate Ship

The pirates will appear to be a normal merchant vessel at first until it spots the player's ship and shifts its course to intercept. Once caught the pirates will attempt to board, plunder the holds and capture the crew to enslave them. There are at least 20 Bandits ready to fight, lead by a Bandit captain or Swashbuckler. The Pirates will spare those who surrender and will break of if meet with to much resistance.

 Warship

Belonging to the fleet of the nearest large city and looking for smugglers and pirates. The Warship might pass the players by if they look harmless enough but will most likely demand to board and inspect their ship. The captain is in no mood for resistance and will judge any attempt to escape or resist as proof of piracy. If any contraband is found it is seized and the players may face imprisonment.  

 Hazard

A natural hazard threatens the ship. (1D6)

Each hazard can be spotted and avoided, requiring successful proficiency checks (Perception, Navigation Tools, Water Vehicles) from the crew or party.

1-2 Reef. Will do serious damage to the hull and threaten to strand the ship. Can be avoided on future trips if marked in the logs.

3-4 Sandbank. Often change and move so cannot safely be avoided again in the same area. May do minor hull damage and might strand the ship.

5-6 Submerged Logs. Will impact the hull and do some damage, will drift of and may be encountered again in the same area.

 Wreckage

The remains of other less fortunate sailors of the crowded sea. (1D8)

1-2 Floating planks and debri from a destroyed ship or boat, there is no sign of any survivors. A crate, chest or barrel of supplies or cargo may be amongst the wreckage if searched.

3-4 An empty boat. It is damaged, leaking and half filled with water. There is blood stained across the wooden benches.

5-6 A corpse draped over a plank or log, perhaps tied to it. He is clutching a Trinket in his death grip.

7-8 The broken mast of a ship sticks out of the waves, tattered remains of sails fluttering in the wind. There is cargo and perhaps treasure onboard, but the players would have to dive down to recover it. There may be monsters around the wreck.

 Harpies

A trio of harpies stalk the ship and wait for an opening to attack. At a distance they can be mistaken for a flock of large birds. They are hungry and most likely desperate, but will prefer to flee rather than fight to the death. If able they will swoop down and steal several crew men to torture back in their nest.

 Giant Crocodile

A massive monster with little fear and no respect for a ship full of adventurers. It will strike the ship, damaging it and try to throw crew overboard before climbing on to deck. It will leave after eating a few crew members, its appetite temporarily satiated.

 Sahuagin

A group of Sahuagin have come to slaughter the crew and drag their remains into the deep. They are equal in number to the players on lower levels, twice that amount on higher ones. Higher leveled groups may contain a priestess, baron or both.

 Mephits

A group (1D8) of mischievous and potentially dangerous Mephits have come to harass and torment the ship. Perhaps servants of a genie, escapees from the elemental plains or just native to the area. (1D6)

1-2 Mud Mephits. Only encountered if near jungles, swamps or coast lines. Won't travel far and will leave if their home is being left behind.

3-4 Smoke Mephits. Having been expunged from a erupting volcano, these may be far from home and dangerously bored.

5-6 Steam Mephits. Bubbling up from a underwater vent. Most likely encounter far out at sea.

 Water Elemental

Nearly invisible while underwater, this elemental might be out on a task for a master and may just ignore the players. It may also have been sent to test or destroy the players for intruding on a powerful creatures territory.

 Merrow

Seeking to cause destruction and chaos, the merrow will launch itself on to deck and attack. If outnumbered it may retreat back into the deep.

 Sea Spawn

A group of sinister Sea Spawn (1D4+1) try to sneak on board. They might be there to capture the ship or just to raid it.

 Smugglers

Travelling by night and with minimal lights, these smugglers are carrying goods of a dubious nature. They won't attack the players unless it is to escape. They might be willing to trade but are paranoid of strangers. There is a chance that their vessel might crash into the players if neither is well lit.

 Ghoul Pirates

Under the cover of darkness the ghoul pirates of Kaff have come to feast. There are around a dozen ghouls and one or two ghasts unboard their deadly vessel. They are not interested in treasure, only in the flesh of men. If evenly matched they might be willing to trade the safety of the players for several of their crew. Handing crew over to be eaten by ghouls is likely to cause a mutiny later.

 Ghost Ship

A mysterious and empty ship appears in a fog bank. It seems solid enough, although it makes no sound. If boarded it can be explored, although old and damaged, the ship seems seaworthy. Strange things happen on board and the ship is haunted by several ghosts and/or spectres. Treasure can be recovered from onboard (roll once on random magic item table B) but otherwise the holds are empty. Once dawn breaks the ship vanishes into nothing, any creatures still onboard fall into the sea. The magical item remains if taken of the ship or if carried by one of the players at the time.

 Zaratan

A small strange island blocks the ships course, most likely in the middle of a usually busy route. It appears on no charts or maps and if players have sailed there before it has never been seen before. The Island is actually a sleeping Zaratan, a kind of giant turtle, the mountain like island its back. If stayed on a long time it is eventually discovered that the island is slowly moving along with the tides. If the players manage to find a way to wake or hurt the Zaratan it will submerge, leaving them in the middle of the ocean.

 Marid

A haughty Marid introducing itself as Bahri ibn Kadhi the Supreme Mufti of the Coral Gate and Keeper of the Seven Pearls of Wisdom, emerges from the sea in front of the ship.He has just arrived from the Plane of Water on business he would never discuss with lesser beings such as mortals, but it has put it in a bad mood. The Marid seems interested in finding out from the crew where it has landed, what is nearby and where they are from in painstaking detail and expects them to answer all of its questions, possibly delaying them for days if it feels the need.

With bribery or flattery the players can convince the Marid to let them be on their way. If he is not treated with respect or is angered the players may find themselves cursed or worse. If the Marid becomes to impressed by the player characters it may just decide to kidnap them and force them to be its slaves.

 Reef Giant

A massive giant with long white hair and bronze skin is wading through the waters, only its torso sticking out of the waves. He is not directly hostile towards the ship, but may demand tribute for them to pass undisturbed by its home. It has a small island nearby with semi-feral goats it can trade if the ship is lacking food, but expects to be paid for them. If the players poach goats his anger will be great. (Use frost giant stats if combat breaks out)

Deep Scion

The player's spot a piece of driftwood with a body lying on top of it. The man, Kamal Al-Ajayib claims to be the sole survivor of a shipwreck and is eager to be brought back to civilization. In truth he is a deep scion, recently changed by his dark master and of to spread chaos and evil in Zakhara. He will rave about the dangers of the sea and how he hates it, but can often be caught staring longingly out at the ocean. Seeing the player characters as his best chance to navigate to a large city, he will not attack them unless threatened.

 Sorceror

A flying carpet comes soaring through the air, circles the ship three times, then comes in for a landing on the deck. A turban clad man with a well groomed beard introduces himself as Khalid al-Hiyali, although it is not his true name. He claims to be a sorcerer out seeking rare components for his magical research, which is mostly true. In truth he is a member of the Brotherhood of True Flame and is on his way to a Firenewt colony to trade for rare minerals to use in a ritual. Although evil, there is nothing sinister about his visit. Bored after a long flight, and starving for good food and coffee, he is hoping to be invited for dinner and to rest and will be on his way the next morning. If attacked use the stats for an Evoker.

 Djinni

What appears to be a beautiful woman with pale blue skin is flying casually through the air. If the players try in some way to get her attention she will approach curiously. The Djinni is named Jamila bint Farid and she is more than willing to help the crew out should they need. She might conjure food or water, or guide them to the nearest island. There is a hidden price to her attention though. The more interesting the players seem, the more likely she is to follow them for a while and play pranks on them. Jamila is young for a Djinni and was heading home to her father's home in the material plane, but is easily distracted by anything that she finds entertaining.

 Roc

A huge majestic Roc passes far overhead, soaring towards its mountain home on one of the islands of the crowded sea. It cares nothing for the players, unless they attack it.

 Sea Hag

A foul smell of decay comes with the wind and ahead of the ship the crew spot what looks like a large dead whale. Its mouth hangs open and set into it there is a wooden door and a small pier, flanked by two lit torches that never go out (unless removed). If the players are brave enough to enter the carcass they are welcomed into the home of Jaddah Yrja (Kindly Grandmother) She has deemed the players as useful in her schemes and is willing to make deals with them if they would approach her. She will however not go out to them, they must enter her lair. One thing she might offer is fulfill their wishes for a month of each of their lives. Should they accept, she will claim that month immediately (as it was never specified when during their lifetimes the month she owned was to be had), forcing them to run an errand for her. (Uses lair actions and other tricks and minions from Volo´s).

[imagine-always-and-forever]

Flutterings & Tequila - Part 9

A Klaus Mikaelson Imagine

Pairing: Niklaus Mikaelson x Reader

Summary: you’ve decided to go clubbing with your best friend the last summer before college starts to take your mind off of the Mikaelsons who have invaded your life this summer. Specifically, you’re trying to distract yourself from Niklaus Mikaelson and the flutterings he has caused you. Tequila is your friend tonight. 

Part Summary: the exchange

Warnings: typical stuff you’d see in the show

Word count: 2,242

Tags:  elle88531,  violentmommabear42 (let me know if you want to be tagged or I missed you out on the tag list!)

Authors note: an update the very next day? I know, I’m just as surprised as you are. But here it is! I hope you enjoy this part and please let me know what you think! Are you excited for any more???

Part 1  |   Part 2  | Part 3  | Part 4  | Part 5  |  Part 6  | Part 7  | Part 8 

You couldn’t have guessed where you were if you tried. The drive itself had been just under an hour and involved mainly backroads that twisted and turned through thick forests. Jess and Cooper sat up front while you were placed in the backseat, ties around your hands and feet. You watched the last rays of sun vanish behind the trees as you took a sharp turn and headed down a gravel road.

A short distance later and dull yellow lights started illuminating your surroundings. Large concrete buildings surrounded a long, rectangular, gravel parking lot. Cooper stopped the car at its entrance, and when you peaked out the windscreen, you could see the outline of another car and a man in the distance.

It looked like Klaus had decided to show up for the exchange. Jess turned to his brother before glancing back at you. He smirked. You glared back.

Jess and Cooper got out of the car. The doors slammed shut and the lights in the car went off. You watched helplessly from the back as they walked to stand in front of the car. Klaus didn’t make a move to step forward.

“Let’s make this easy,” Jess said, not bothering to raise his voice too much. “You give me the box, and I give you the girl.”

Klaus didn’t move. You frowned. That wasn’t like Klaus. He was more do now and think later when he was in these kinds of situations. That box must be really something.

“Now I don’t have all night,” Jess sighed. Klaus again didn’t move. “Seriously? You just going to stand there?” Jess asked, and from his tone, you could tell his patience was waning thin.

This was your chance.

With your magic freed, a simple spell sliced the ties like an invisible knife. They fell to the floor and you stretched out your legs and rubbed your wrists. Now you had to get out the car without raising any flags. That would be hard considering the vampire hearing.

You gently pulled on the latch of the door handle. Ever so quietly, you heard the mechanism unlock. You paused and glanced to Jess and Cooper. They hadn’t heard it. Klaus was still being encouraged to join the conversation and hurry up.

Jess’s patience would be all but gone soon and you had a feeling his motivation for Klaus’s participation in this trade-off would involve you and that knife of his.

Testing the door, you applied a small amount of pressure to it. You just about stopped yourself from sighing in relief when it opened without a sound. You pushed it just open enough for you to slip through. The night was chillier than it had been all summer. You closed your eyes in realization. You didn’t have Jess’s phone. There was no way for you to get it now.

Maybe you could make your way through the forest. There might be a highway or something on the other side. If you’re lucky, there might even me a few houses. Even all the way out here there tended to be the odd recluse’s house. They’d have a landline at least.

“I think we need to remind Mr. Mikaelson of his stake in this exchange,” Jess said with an impatient bite. You froze. He turned to his brother. “Cooper, go get the girl.”

Your eyes closed in defeat. Too late.

“Where were you going?” Cooper asked as he appeared at your slightly open door. You stared at him, not moving a muscle. The door was pulled open the rest of the way with a gruff smile. He grabbed you by the collar and pulled you roughly towards the front of the car.

“Trying to escape?” Jess asked as your eyes landed on him. His tone of voice told you that he knew you knew better than that and what he had promised he’d do to you. You didn’t let yourself look as scared as you felt. Jess laughed. “Spirited little witch, aren’t you?”

You didn’t bother answering him. Instead, you look across the parking lot to Klaus, still shrouded in darkness. He didn’t move but you felt his eyes on you. Cooper hadn’t let go of you.

“The box or she dies,” Jess yelled, all patience gone.

Klaus again didn’t move. You felt a spike of hurt. You knew you weren’t as important as whatever was going on here, but you had felt something on that… whatever it was. You thought he did too. You stared at the gravel beneath you as your eyes pricked again with tears. He was really just going to let you die.

“Have it your way,” Jess yelled again.

Cooper let you go as Jess pulled you towards him and spun you around. You gasped as he held you in a death grip against him. His mouth hovered above your throat. Your lips trembled and you debated if you could run fast enough before he recovered if you gave him a quick aneurysm.

“I thought so,” Jess whispered against your neck before lifting his head.

Your eyes snapped up to see Klaus walking forward. Relief rushed through you. Jess held you tight as ever, clearly set on getting his box before he let you go. You struggled in his grip. Ignoring you, he nodded to Cooper to be ready.

From the darkness, the figure emerged. As the dull yellow lights hit him, you went blank for a moment and stopped struggling against Jess’s hold.

Elijah was standing several feet in front of you. He didn’t seem worried. More annoyed than anything, actually. He pulled his sleeves down and fiddled with his cuffs for a second, glancing up at Jess, Cooper, and you as he did so. You stared. Where was Klaus?

“Well then?” Jess asked, tugging on you to make a point.

Jess wasn’t startled by this revelation. He clearly knew he was meeting with Elijah all along. You wondered why Elijah was doing this and not Klaus. Was it Elijah that had called?

“I’m going to need you to release Miss Y/L/N,” Elijah said very amicably.

Jess huffed out a laugh. “Yeah and I’m gonna need you to hand over that box,” he said, less amicably.

Elijah watched him for a moment, his attention solely on Jess as if nobody else was there. His eyes narrowed on the young vampire. You could see the calculation in them. There was even a slight amusement.

“I don’t have it,” Elijah said calmly.

You could feel Jess freeze behind you. Then his arms around your body tightened and dragged you back as he stepped away from Elijah. You stumbled in the gravel as he pulled you. Elijah watched without a word, just his calculating gaze scrutinizing every move Jess made.

“We had a deal,” Jess accused.

So it was Elijah who had called.

“Yes and you’re very lucky that I was the one that intercepted your little message,” Elijah told him. You struggled against Jess, who was tense and alert as he thought through what was being said to him and trying to create a new plan. Elijah took a quick breath. “I assure you if my brother were here you would be dead by now,” he said very clearly, very simply, to Jess. Before Jess could reply, Elijah stepped forward, making Jess backup once more. He hit the front of the car. “Let her go,” Elijah ordered without much fuss.

“I want my box!” Jess screamed angrily. Elijah narrowed his eyes. “Give it to me!” You watched for Elijah’s reaction to the petulant demand. He was carefully assessing Jess and his eyes never strayed for a second to you or Cooper, who was standing by his brother’s side. You wondered what he expected to do against the Original. “Give it to me now or she dies!” Jess yelled and pulled your head back, exposing your neck.

Elijah seemed amused by this. You hoped that was because he was confident that he nothing was going to happen that he didn’t want to happen and that he didn’t want you dead.

“Are you challenging me?” Elijah asked with a hint of a smile.

“I’m telling you,” Jess countered.

Elijah’s lip quirked up. For the first time since the standoff started, Elijah acknowledged Cooper.

“I suggest you talk some sense into your brother before you both end up dead,” Elijah told him.

“You aren’t getting that girl without giving us that box first,” Cooper responded.

Elijah sighed. He seemed to be tiring of this game now. You wondered if you should still wait to see what he was going to do or if you should make your move now. Jess laughed at his brother's easy cooperation.

“No box,” Jess said, glancing to his brother, “no girl,” he said to Elijah.  

He walked backwards, around the front of the car, holding you roughly to him, ready to kill you in seconds. He opened the passenger door and shoved you in as he got in himself, slamming the door shut and making sure Elijah saw that you were still at his mercy.

“Cooper,” he called to his brother.

Cooper opened the driver’s door and got in. He spared one last look at Elijah, who calmly watched. He smirked at the Original. “Guys this means more fun,” he muttered with an awful gleam in his eye as he closed the door. The way his hands had lingered on your naked body came back to you in a nauseating wave.

All three of you jumped when Elijah yanked the car door from its hinges. Your head snapped up as you watched Cooper get dragged out of the car.

Elijah picked the large man up by his neck, lifting him off the ground. Cooper struggled in his grasp, but he wasn’t going anywhere. He sputtering as he tried to breathe through Elijah’s grip.

“What did you say?” Elijah asked Cooper.

Cooper couldn’t get any words out.

“Am I to understand that you touched her?” Elijah asked. His eyes took on a different calculated look than before.

Jess turned to you as Elijah was distracted by his brother. “New plan,” he whispered into your ear, barely loud enough for you to hear. “You’re going to stay alive until you prove your worth and get me that box,” he told you, gripping your face harshly as he stared into your eyes. “Don’t forget, if they catch onto you, you’re going to kill yourself,” he ordered, the compulsion washing over you.

In Elijah’s grip, Cooper tried to respond but Elijah didn’t loosen his grip enough for the man to get any air out. Before Jess could respond, before you could even think of using your magic to knock Jess out and run for it, Cooper’s body hit the floor. Elijah stood over it, a bloody and still pumping heart in his hand.

Jess moved faster than you thought possible. He was out of the car and had disappeared into the woods before either Elijah or you noticed the car door opening. You sat in the back seat of the car, staring out the open door into the darkness of the forest that Jess had run off into, in shock.

Slowly, you brought your eyes to the front of the car and looked out the windscreen to see Elijah considering the trees before him. You wondered if he’d decide to go after him just as Elijah turned to lock eyes with you.

“We should get back,” Elijah said, calm once more.

You nodded and got out of the car.  When you walked around to the front, you saw Cooper’s body in the pool of blood from the hole in his chest. You averted your gaze and looked up at Elijah.

“This way,” he said, and started walking to the car on the other side of the parking lot.

You walked by the body without another glance. The gravel under your feet felt tricky to navigate in the dark and it didn’t help that the exhaustion you felt from the last several hours was starting to show itself now that the night was over.

Elijah walked slowly to allow you to keep up with him. When you reached the car, he opened your door and you climbed inside. He got in and started the car as you numbly put your seatbelt on. He drove out of the parking lot without a word.

The entire drive home was spent in silence as you watched the world through the windscreen without really seeing it.

By the time you reached your house, it was quarter to eleven. Neither of you had yet to say a word. Elijah pulled into the drive and parked the car. He didn’t make a move to get out or even take his hands off the steering wheel.

You sat in the dark for a few minutes. Elijah was the first to break the silence.

“You should shower before you go to sleep. You’ll feel better for it,” he told you. You nodded numbly. “We’ll talk in the morning.” You nodded again.

You both stepped out of the car at the same time. Elijah walked off in the direction of the guest house. You got several steps from the doorway before you paused.

“Elijah,” you called in nothing above a whisper, “thank you.”

You didn’t need to turn around. You knew he had heard you and with that, you opened the front door and walked in.

[elven-oracle]

the siren, act i: serenity |p.p. / part 1|

moodboard credit to @candycornparker

[teaser] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5] [part 6] [part 7]

SUMMARY: When merchant ships start mysteriously going missing, Tony Stark enlists the help of Peter Parker to discover what could possibly be causing them to vanish from thin air. Unbeknownst to them, some mysteries go deeper than the sea itself.

PAIRING: Peter Parker x Siren!OC

WORD COUNT: 3.8k

Peter Parker was not engaged in his modern politics class.

School was miles away. The only thing he was engaged in was the phone that had vibrated in his pocket at the beginning of seventh period. He would have gotten it confiscated if he hadn’t suavely talked his way out of the predicament. Now, the phone was burning a hole in his pocket, and his leg was bouncing out of control. Happy Hogan’s name appearing on his screen was a rare occurrence, and it sucked that it had popped up almost milliseconds before the bell rang. He stole a glance at the clock for the millionth time that afternoon and realigned his focus for the last ten minutes.

“Okay,” his teacher, Mr. Ellis, looked through his lesson plan, “We have ten minutes left, let’s briefly touch on the missing merchant ships.”

The class erupted into excitement, every student turning to each other to dive into the various theories they had heard, and some that they had come up with themselves. It was a topic of particular interest and had been dominating the news. Peter had a decent feeling the notification had something to do with it as well; this type of mystery was like candy for Mr. Stark.

“Okay! Okay!” Mr. Ellis sighed, trying to settle down his class, “Yes. It’s insane. It’s crazy. We’re not here to talk about aliens, or the Bermuda triangle, this is a politics class and I want you to tell me how this affects international relations.”

Peter wanted to zone out again, even though he knew the answer. He looked over to Ned, who was sitting across the room and rolled his eyes. The Friday blues were hanging over their heads, the weekend just a hop away.

“Attacks on trade ships have started world wars,” MJ said, she was sitting next to Ned. If there weren’t assigned seats, they would all be sitting together. In usual MJ fashion, she hadn’t not bothered to raise her hand. She shrugged at Peter and returned to her sketch.

Mr. Ellis affirmed this, “Correct. The mysterious disappearance has already caused tension. Since there is no viable evidence that this is an attack, not a whole lot can be done, and next week we’ll dive further into the problem trade relationships can cause. Have a good weekend.”

Before Mr. Ellis had finished his sentence Peter was out of his seat, packing up his notebook and laptop to leave school. He bounded out, racing towards the door in a childlike glee and whipped out his phone from his back pocket. Sure enough, there was a text from Happy waiting for him, along with a sleek black car in the front of the school. Happy Hogan leaned against it, looking unamused. He adjusted his sunglasses on the bridge of his nose and opened the door. 

“You got my text, Mr. Parker?”

Peter skimmed it, Boss needs your help with an important project. Might have to stay overnight. Will pick you up from school. He nodded.

“Have you let your aunt know?”

“Will do!” he shot him an enthusiastic set of finger guns and fell into the backseat, shooting May a text to let him know what his weekend might hold.

Happy wasn’t much of a talker, and it was hard for Peter to shut up when he was bursting with excitement. He kept his mouth shut, anyways, not wanting to say anything stupid. This was the first time he had heard the phrase “important project” in all the time he had been working with Mr. Stark, and the potential was endless. It had been a painfully long month since anything interesting had happened, and even then, interesting was an understatement. Taking down Mr. Toomes, who Peter had now nicknamed The Vulture, was terrifying, but in the best way possible. He finally felt like he was doing something right. Petty theft and muggings could only fuel his need to help for so long. The responsibility he carried with his abilities seemed to grow with every day that was put in between the last time he had spoken with Mr. Stark. The fact that he had enlisted his help, he couldn’t help but be thrilled.

His phone buzzed again, a text from Aunt May.

Okay, Peter, next time maybe call and ask? I know that you haven’t been putting yourself in too much danger, but the Spider-Man thing still worries me.

He sighed. The care that he felt for Aunt May was unparalleled, which was precisely why he had no intention for her finding out. She obviously had been struck with quite a shock, walking in on him wearing his suit, but with further explanation, it had all made sense. She wasn’t dense; she knew he had been sneaking out. After probably the longest conversation of his life, she finally gave in to business as usual, as long as he kept open communication with her.

He twiddled his thumbs until the Avengers Complex came into sight. The place felt like Disneyland to Peter, and it took everything in him not to jump from the car and take off running.

Mr. Stark, dressed in his usual formal attire, met them outside. His expression was unidentifiable thanks to the sunglasses that shaded his eyes, and he didn’t speak a word as he led Peter inside. His confident gait remained unaffected by Peter’s eager nature.

“Mr. Parker, how have things been? Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man keeping you busy?”

“Yes sir, I-“

“And your aunt? I heard she found out?”

“She did Mr. Stark but-“

“And school? I can only do so much to get you into MIT.”

“School’s all right and wow I really appreciate that Mr. Stark but-“

“You got a girlfriend yet? Boyfriend? I don’t know your preferences I guess but-“ “Mr. Stark!” Peter finally cut him off, frustration and curiosity getting the better of him. Sometimes his mentor’s wittiness was humorous, but when it was knowingly teasing, he didn’t want to beat around the bush. Mr. Stark raised his eyebrows and took off his shades, stopping the steady pace they had been keeping

“Peter. Suit up. I’m assuming you brought the suit. Happy will take you to my lab where I can explain everything. Kapeesh?”

Peter nodded, nervously fidgeting with the straps on his backpack. He watched Mr. Stark confidently put on his sunglasses and walk away, unsure of how to feel. In front of him, Happy gestured him towards the restroom.

Being able to take his time changing into his suit was a new feeling. Normally he would be hidden in an alleyway, doing all he could to remain unidentifiable, but now he stared at his reflection in the mirror, unfazed. He paused before taking pulling the mask over his head, examining the expression in his chocolate eyes. There was a bit of fear in them, but like every Spider-Man duty, he brushed it away and pulled the mask on, his suit coming to life.

Good afternoon, Peter. How was your Friday?

“Good, Karen. Good,” Peter exhaled, unaware that he had been holding his breath.

Glad to hear it.

Feeling somewhat clownlike standing next to Happy, he followed a maze of hallways and a few flights of stairs to their final destination. A few times, Happy had to scan his hand to get through, which Peter found incredibly impressive. One day he hoped to be at that level of trust with Mr. Stark.

The lab was not of the tradition he was used to, but it was a prime example of who Mr. Stark was as a person. Music boomed and reverberated off the walls, various AI’s and robots assisting their creator at every command. Happy stood at the door as Peter, eyes wide as saucers, gawked at his surroundings.

“Like it? It’s gone through phases. Variations. Had to move it a couple times. Especially when my house practically burned down,” he searched for Peter’s eyes through the mask. “Mind taking that off for a moment?”

Peter scrambled to remove it, “Oh! Yeah of course. Sorry.”

He added a nervous laugh for good measure.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y. pull up my research on the missing boats.”

Right away.

Holographic images, articles, and videos all materialized directly in front of Peter’s eyes. They layered and piled on one another, and if these had been physical documents, it would have reached the ceiling. The devastating mystery continued. 64 lives had been lost, no one knows if they were stranded or dead. It had been months since these ships had been heard from, and no one knew where they were going. No bodies, no remains, no rubble, nothing gave any sort of lead to where or why they were vanishing. The only information they really had was-

“After the United States made a slight variation in the route they were taking, ships went missing left and right, luckily, they were smart enough to figure that minuscule clue out. Thoughts?” Mr. Stark looked at Peter quizzically.

“I-uh-well-“ Peter started to fumble over his words, but regained his composure to add on his ideas, “They have sent rescue boats through that route though, correct? The video and audio footage from the last five minutes before vanishing show silence. Complete silence. There’s no viable explanation yet.”

“Yet,” Mr. Stark looked at Happy with a mischievous smirk. “That is precisely why I have brought you here Mr. Parker. You have a scientific mind. Reminds me of me. Don’t you think, Happy? Don’t answer that.”

“Okay, Mr. Stark but I don’t really see what me suiting up has anything to do with-“ “Let me finish, Pete. Can I call you Pete?”

“I guess so.”

“You’re suited up because we are headed to an area in the Atlantic Ocean that I suspect is where these ships are going missing.

Peter furrowed his eyebrows, concerned, “Isn’t that sort of…dangerous?”

“Not if we take a plane. I have some good ones as well. I’m not guaranteeing we’ll find anything, but it’s worth a shot, and a sample of the water. Maybe a giant octopus. We might be there for a while, sitting. Observing. Science,” Mr. Stark brushed away the holograms and threw a pen behind his ear.

“Science…” Peter couldn’t put a finger on how to respond. The fact that of all the people he could have called (which was probably a lot), he called Peter. It was validation he hadn’t felt since Mr. Stark returned the Spider-Man suit to him. Mr. Stark trusted Peter with a top secret and delicate mission, and that was remarkable.

“You do like science, don’t you?”

Peter snapped out of his shock, “Right! Yes, Mr. Stark, I do. This-this is right up my alley.”

Mr. Stark smirked again, “Good. Follow me to the aircraft. I have everything we could possibly need, so all you have to bring is your person.”

Peter waited while Mr. Stark gathered things, various papers that he shoved into a briefcase. He turned around expecting to find Happy, but all he saw was his back walking away down the long hallway and into the elevator. When he turned back, Mr. Stark was already on his way, Peter needing to jog to catch up with him.

The first time Peter flew on an airplane he was headed to Germany to fight Captain America. The second time Peter flew on an airplane, he wasn’t on the inside of it, he was on the outside. This was the third time Peter had flown on an airplane, and it wasn’t even that. The jet looked like every single Stark Jet he had seen on TV. He never thought he would see one in person, nonetheless ride on one. Stepping on it felt completely out of reality. As they approached the cockpit, Mr. Stark gestured for him to put his mask on, which he did promptly. A pilot and a co-pilot sat in their respective seats, preparing for takeoff.

“Don’t worry, Spider-Man, they know that this is a top-secret mission. They’re sworn to secrecy. Right boys?”

The two women flying the plane looked unamused by Mr. Stark’s obvious sarcasm. They turned to Peter, looking at him nonchalantly.

“Taking a break from protecting Queens, Spidey?” the Pilot’s black hair was pulled into a tight bun. It hardly bothered her that Queens’ crime-fighting hero was in her midst. Not that Peter chalked himself up to that, but generally people had to take a moment and confirm that what they were seeing was actually Spider-Man.

“I-I guess yeah.”

The pilot looked confused, “Why does he sound like he’s 12?”

“I-“

“AND that’s our cue to leave. Thank you, Ms. Tran, your endless services to my company are continuously appreciated,” Mr. Stark took Peter by the shoulders and guided him away from the cockpit and into the main cabin. He sat in a seat, anxiety starting to creep into the back of his throat. He knew that Mr. Stark would never purposefully put him in danger, but he couldn’t help but explore the idea that what was causing the disappearances could cause a jet to go missing as well.

The plane rumbled, shook, and hovered above the ground and into the air. The jet moved faster but was more stable than a standard passenger cabin. The latest in Stark technology would probably make a five-hour trip less than 30 minutes.

“We’ll be there before you know it,” Mr. Stark was reading something on his phone. “I don’t know exactly what we’re looking for, kid, but I have a feeling we’ll know it when we see it. We’re essentially doing a stakeout.”

Observational science had provided plenty of breakthroughs but sounded incredibly boring. As Peter listened to Tony’s plan to watch and record every half hour, he secretly dreaded what was to come, unsure of how this could possibly get interesting. They were going to be there until midnight, when if they didn’t find anything they would return to the complex for the night. It was 4 P.M., and this was about to be the longest six to seven hours of Peter’s life.

They came to a stop, and Mr. Stark moved to the side Peter was sitting on, opening a window that covered the length of the jet. It provided a complete view. He opened the other identical window on the left side.

“Are you willing to sit on top of the jet, kid? I have equipment you can set up there, and an emergency button in case something dangerous happens,” Mr. Stark rolled in a cart. A laptop was mounted on a device designed to stick to the plane, as well as a desktop with notebooks, pens, highlighters, anything he might need to effectively record data.

“Y-yeah I think so.” “Good. You’ll do good, Parker. Let’s get you set up.”

The pair worked together to set up Peter’s station, lots of crawling and webbing to keep them stable. When Peter was finally comfortable, they exchanged some thumbs up, and Peter set to work. He opened the laptop and started the notes that Mr. Stark had carefully instructed him on how to take.

Hour .5, 4:33PM, water remains still save for the natural oscillation of waves. Fortunately, nothing seems out of the ordinary. Weather is clear, a couple clouds here and there. It would really suck for me if it started raining. That’s beside the point. If there’s any variation I will record, but for now, I will return to watching the sea.

And that was that.

He didn’t have much to do unless something drastically changed, so he rolled up his mask to just above his nose and inhaled, the clean, unpolluted air utterly refreshing. He asked Karen to notify him of any variations of his surroundings, then laid out onto his back, eyes glossily transfixed on the pure blue sky.

“Karen, can you play that song…that one sea shanty…it’s really creepy and stuff.”

Peter, I’m not entirely sure what you’re referring to.

“Oh come on…the first line is like, ‘My heart is kissed by Cupid’ or something like that.”

Now playing Jolly Sailor Bold

“Yeah.”

My heart is pierced by Cupid.

I disdain all glitter and gold.

For nothing can console me,

but my jolly sailor bold.

Peter pictured himself on the sea, a pirate. He had always enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, even though he was conflicted by the fact that these men were traditionally violent, raping criminals. Plus, Johnny Depp was now everything that he didn’t want to be. He eliminated pirate from his head and changed the image to a sailor. A white, linen shirt, damp and windswept hair, leaning off the side of a ship as it plowed through the ocean. It was an interesting fiction.

Hour 4. 8:02PM. Over halfway there. The sun is barely starting to set. It’s getting cloudier, and the ocean is just as calm as it was when I first started. A couple of birds have landed on the surface and have floated for a few moments, and nothing seems to be causing them to vanish as mentioned in hour 2.5. Other than that, no changes.

It was getting painfully boring, but Peter persisted. Every so often Mr. Stark would check in on him, they would compare notes and then go back to it. Dinner was at 6, but the pangs of hunger had come out of nowhere an hour ago. Peter shifted to a position onto his stomach, grateful for the fact that he was sticky and would never fall off. His eyes drooped, tempting him to close them and take a nap, but he was almost there, and he knew that Mr. Stark would appreciate his efforts.

His sailor imagery reappeared in his mind, but something about the picture was clearer. It sat behind his eyes like a movie. On the banks of an island, a mermaid brought him, battered from a shipwreck to shore. It wasn’t anything from a Disney movie; scrapes and bruises scattered his body, and his left eye was swollen shut. The mermaid hoisted him onto land, her gentle hand lightly cupping his face. She cried heavy tears, sobs erupting from her chest over and over.  

Peter tried to look closer, knowing that he was certainly not asleep. The harder he looked, the less that the sailor looked like him. Startled, he opened his eyes, wondering why and how his imagination had taken him to that place.

Come all you pretty fair maids

Whoever you may be

Who love a jolly sailor

That plows the raging sea

He was about to record hour 4.5 when Karen notified him of a change on the surface of the water.

This isn’t like the other ones, Peter. This came from underneath rather than above. I’ll zoom in on it for you.

Karen did so, and Peter squinted under the mask to try and find what she had been referring to. She was right, there was a ripple that was growing and expanding until a figure emerged, and Peter had no idea what to think.

“Peter, are you seeing this?” Mr. Stark said in his ears.

“Yeah, Mr. Stark I am…”

He had planned on saying more, but what he saw in front of his own eyes took over. The figure looked human initially, but the more it revealed itself. . .herself. . .he saw that she was unlike anything he had seen before.

When she floated on her back, she confessed her true identity.

“Is that…”

Mr. Stark finished Peter’s thought, “A mermaid. Don’t be so surprised, Spider-Man, a majority of the sea is undiscovered.”

A mermaid. Not too unlike the mermaid he had imagined just moments before.

“But here…now…”

“I know.” An unfamiliar urge pulsated in Peter’s chest, calling him to investigate, “I’m going to go interact with her.”

“I’ll be watching. Be safe.”

Cautiously, above the misty water, Peter lowered himself down to the figure, suspending himself upside-down. He gave Mr. Stark a glance on his way down, still completely unsure of what could happen. The creature looked like nothing he had ever seen before. Long, blonde hair surrounded her head like a crown, and instead of legs, a flesh-colored tail that resembled every mermaid fairytale he had read as a small child. He hovered a few inches above the water, not wanting to disturb her. If she was sleeping, it had to be soundly, but it was very possible that she just had kept her eyes closed to fool them.

When they fluttered open, it startled Peter who almost lost his grip on the web. He placed another hand on it to stabilize himself, and when he looked back down, she was staring at him in the eyes, her wet hair pushed back out of her face. The eyes he looked into were a piercing silver, a color that no human was naturally born with. Then again, there was no way that this being was human. He lowered himself another inch to get a better look, but she quickly set her hand on his mask-covered forehead.

She shook her head but didn’t speak. In the depths of his mind, he felt a thought inexplicably emerge that wasn’t his own. Do not touch the water unless you seek to be greeted with death.

He could hardly focus as a longing feeling ached in his chest. He wanted to dive into the water with her and never return to the surface, the only thing preventing him from doing so was the hand on his forehead, a plea to follow her simple instructions. Reality felt distant, and he couldn’t determine where he was and what he was doing. Her face convulsed into a grimace, and a tear rolled down her face as she opened her mouth and began to sing. The fog that had already began to form thickened, and the question of reality died, transforming into a desire to be with this newfound woman for all of eternity. He had no idea what eternity felt like, but the ethereal angel in front of him did. He felt her peel down his mask, letting his lips brush against the cool, ocean air. Reaching out, he was almost able to make contact with her skin; she was barely out of reach.

It all came to a violent and jarring halt as he was ripped from the haze he had free fell into. 

“Peter, can you hear me now? Pete? Kid?”

“Wha- what yeah. Yeah. I can. What’s going on, Mr. Stark?” he did everything he could to sound as nonchalant as possible, but he sounded like he had just awoken from an all day nap.

“We lost you for a sec,” Mr. Stark sounded frantic, “Quick, web that thing and bring it onto the ship. I’m ready to get out of here.”

M A S T E R L IS T

CLICK HERE TO BE ADDED TO SERIES TAGLIST

T A G L I S T

@tinkeringtony @plushparker @spideyboipete @darlintom @vinndetta @starksmile @rainbow-marvel @pumpkinsandparker @upsidedownparker @m4shtyx @quietgeekygirl @bigunknownpolice @butwhyduh @shamelessbookaddict @spiderlingsweb @mendes-vuitton @roses-hxlland @sectumsempra-beaches @tomsfireheart @pbnjparker @saturn-aka-six @tomhiddleston-is-myboo @nasa-parker @starksparker @ohhparker @lovelyh0lland @blushypeter @spxcxrrxid @starkravingparker

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 3 June 2019

Quick Bits:

Batman #72 essentially gives a bit of recontextualization for what has been going on during the series, giving a summation of events, in this third part of “The Fall and the Fallen” from Tom King, Mikel Janín, Jorge Fornés, Jordie Bellaire, and Clayton Cowles. It’s all right, with some glorious artwork as always, but it kind of feels like we’re treading water here.

| Published by DC Comics

Bettie Page: Unbound #1 builds on what’s come before and the magic of her unicursal hexagram pendant, but you needn’t have read anything previously as this first issue does a good job of weaving in the relevant information to inform this adventure. I quite like what David Avallone, Julius Ohta, Ellie Wright, Sheelagh D, and Taylor Esposito have been doing long term with Bettie Page and this is another fun start to the next chapter, blending Lovecraftian horror with a jaunt through pastiches of Dynamite’s current properties.

| Published by Dynamite

Birthright #36 returns from the trade break with the start of the next stage in dealing with the weakening walls between realms and what terrible things may happen as magic keeps building up on the threshold of our world. The artwork from Andrei Bressan and Adriano Lucas remains absolutely stellar as they, Joshua Williamson, and Pat Brosseau continue one of the best fantasy adventure series that strangely keeps flying under the radar.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Black Cat #1 is a highly entertaining debut, leaning hard into history and heists, with three tales spotlighting the Black Cat and the Black Fox. Jed MacKay pens two of the tales, one in the present illustrated by Travel Foreman, one in the past by Mike Dowling, both coloured and lettered respectively by Brian Reber and Ferran Delgado, that play stylistically off one another as they build up the respective crews and show them in action. There’s also a very cute two-page heist with cats by Nao Fuji.

| Published by Marvel

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #5 begins a long dark night for Xander’s soul as he’s struggling with overcoming the demon trying to take control as a vampire. Great bits building what he means to Buffy and Willow. David López takes over line art duties here, and it’s definitely a change, darker and scratchier than what’s come before, but it suits the raw emotion of the story.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Captain Marvel #6 begins a tie-in to War of the Realms with Carol and Natasha trying to find Doctor Strange in South America. It’s a fun start to this story from Kelly Thompson, Annapaola Martello, Tamra Bonvillain, and Clayton Cowles with a Freaky Friday twist as they try to stop Enchantress.

| Published by Marvel

Criminal #5 begins “Cruel Summer”, which Ed Brubaker promises to possibly be the longest arc yet, kicking off an investigation into a woman running from an abusive affair. Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Jacob Phillips give us an intriguing start to this arc through a sad sack private investigator in Dan Farraday 

| Published by Image

DCeased #2 continues the destruction of the DC Universe through a “not zombie” zombie plague. Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, Stefano Gaudiano, Rain Beredo, and Saida Temofonte are telling a great horror story here, with some big casualties wiped off the board pretty quickly.

| Published by DC Comics

Deadpool #13 is another War of the Realms tie-in, dropping Deadpool into Australia to tackle Ulik and his trolls. It’s a decent start from Skottie Young, Nic Klein, and Jeff Eckleberry with some funny Wade/Blind Al moments and Wade trying to convince the Australian heroes of his worth as an Avenger.

| Published by Marvel

Deathstroke #44 is part one of “RIP”, with Priest, Fernando Pasarin, Ryan Winn, Jeromy Cox, and Willie Schubert kicking it off with Slade’s funeral. Some interesting bits of possibility as to who might pick up the Deathstroke mantle.

| Published by DC Comics

Descendent #2 continues this conspiracy-laden thriller from Stephanie Phillips, Evgeniy Bornyakov, Lauren Affe, and Troy Peteri. This one’s a bit heavy on the shadowy organization being shadowy and light on explanation, but there are still some entertaining character moments.

| Published by AfterShock

Eclipse #16 brings this series from Zack Kaplan, Giovanni Timpano, Flavio Dispenza, and Troy Peteri to a close. I find it kind of funny that the reason for the solar activity and underlying state of the world aren’t answered, but that’s been part of the through line of this final arc, focusing more on the characters and the heart that keeps people going.

| Published by Image / Top Cow

Fallen World #2 continues this wonderful exploration of the new state of 4002 AD by Dan Abnett, Adam Pollina, Ulises Arreola, and Jeff Powell. The threat of Father-possessed Bloodshot in horrifying and the future is looking pretty bleak. Also, I think this is some of the best artwork I have ever seen from Adam Pollina. He’s really giving it his all for this series and it shines through on the page.

| Published by Valiant

Giant Days #51 deals with the fallout of McGraw’s loss as we head towards the end of the series. The shift in behaviour for Esther to more responsibility and adult attitudes also seems to be a sign that John Allison is giving us that the end is near.

| Published by Boom Entertainment / BOOM! Box

The Green Lantern #8 is one of the weirdest Green Lantern/Green Arrow team-ups you’re going to come across. With awesome demons from Liam Sharp.

| Published by DC Comics

Guardians of the Galaxy Annual #1 gives us a trio of tales and a framing story, focusing on the other heroes who were sucked into oblivion in the first issue, and where some of them have ended up now. Great work from all of the creators involved and hope to see them usher more stories of the characters.

| Published by Marvel

Incredible Hulk: Last Call #1 is another of the 80th Anniversary specials, this time reuniting the classic Hulk team of Peter David and Dale Keown for this one-shot. It’s an interesting tale of Bruce wanting to kill himself and an old co-worker of Betty’s trying to talk him out of it.

| Published by Marvel

Justice League #25 concludes “The Sixth Dimension” from Scott Snyder, Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sánchez, and Tom Napolitano. Gorgeous art as always, and an interesting bit of the League being more than the sum of their parts to choose a different way. There’s also a prelude for the “Year of the Villain” even from James Tynion IV, Javier Fernandez, Hi-Fi, and Napolitano and it’s a little grim. While they were gone, the world has been doomed.

| Published by DC Comics

Meet the Skrulls #5 brings this excellent series to a close, with hints of something even bigger than a Skrull invasion lurking within the Marvel Universe. Robbie Thompson, Niko Henrichon, Laurent Grossat, and Travis Lanham have provided a taut thriller through this series, but also shown that the tightest bonds in the field are really with your family.

| Published by Marvel

Savage Avengers #2 continues slowly bringing together the team in the Savage Land, along with revealing the long time Conan villain pulling the strings. It’s bloody, violent, and great. Mike Deodato Jr. and Frank Martin are making this look gorgeous.

| Published by Marvel

Stronghold #4 goes in some very interesting directions as Michael and Claire escape from the Stronghold’s clutches and go searching for the Apostate. Some absolutely marvellous artwork from Ryan Kelly and Dee Cunniffe, with some great repeated variations on layouts as Michael cycles through different lifetimes.

| Published by AfterShock

Uncanny X-Men #19 catches us up with what’s been going on with Emma Frost since her X-Men: Black story across Astonishing X-Men and the beginning of this series, and, well, it’s also bleak. And there’s more death. Also a reminder that the Vanisher’s name is Telford Porter. TELFORD PORTER.

| Published by Marvel

War of the Realms #5 is kind of a mess of pieces, I don’t recommend anyone trying to reconcile appearances and locations in this book with any of the tie-ins, but on its own, it’s one hell of a gathering storm for the finale. Russell Dauterman and Matthew Wilson are unparalleled here with the artwork. It’s drop dead gorgeous.

| Published by Marvel

Witchblade #14 slips back to the present to deal with what happens after Alex and co. get ported off to the future. I love how Caitlin Kittredge, Roberta Ingranata, Bryan Valenza, and Troy Peteri are presenting this, rather than just leaving us confused in the future.

| Published by Image / Top Cow

Young Justice #6 concludes “Seven Crises” with some answers, kind of, but not any particularly satisfying ones, more just a bunch of hand waving. Which is not to say this isn’t good, Brian Michael Bendis, John Timms, Gabe Eltaeb, and Wes Abbott deliver a very entertaining excursion into Gemworld, with some funny moments and great action. It’s just that the questions about how and why any of this is happening or who these versions of the characters are and out of which continuity remain.

| Published by DC Comics / Wonder Comics

Other Highlights: Age of X-Man: Prisoner X #4, Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III #2, Beasts of Burden: Presence of Others #2, Black Hammer ‘45 #4, Dead Man Logan #8, Domino: Hotshots #4, The Dreaming #10, Elvira: The Shape of Elvira #3, Female Furies #5, Hashtag Danger #2, Hotel Dare, Jim Henson’s Beneath the Dark Crystal #10, Jughead: The Hunger vs. Vampironica #2, Marvel Action: Avengers #5, Marvel Team-Up #3, Noble #18, Old Man Quill #6, Paper Girls #29, Red Sonja #5, Ronin Island #4, Section Zero #3, Shadow Roads #8, Sharkey: The Bounty Hunter #4, Six Million Dollar Man #4, Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #9, Star Wars: Age of Rebellion - Luke Skywalker #1, Star Wars Adventures #22, Thumbs #1, Tony Stark: Iron Man #12, Vampirella: Roses for the Dead #4, Volition #6, War of the Realms: Journey into Mystery #4, War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas #3

Recommended Collections: Avengers - Volume 3: War of the Vampires, Captain Ginger - Volume 1, Cemetery Beach, Cloak & Dagger: Agony & Ecstasy, Die - Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker, The Dreaming - Volume 1: Pathways & Emanations, Hack/Slash Omnibus - Volume 6, Impossible Incorporated, Maxwell’s Demons - Volume 1, Mind MGMT Omnibus - Volume 2, Mirror: The Nest, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars Adventures: Destroyer Down, The Thrilling Adventure Hour - Volume 2: Residence Evil

d. emerson eddy is all thumbs.