#rise shows us that there does exist a bit of an ‘in between’ with portals too

[turtleblogatlast]

Every day I’m met with the knowledge that portal (and by extension teleportation) mystics are insanely OP when utilized right.

So I’ve been thinking about the boys combining their powers recently and I ended up really wondering about what would happen if a supercharged Mikey (time/dimensional powers) mixed his abilities with a supercharged Leo’s (space powers) and all I could think of was:

[our-happygirl500-fan]

While Usagi not getting to appear in Rise is kind of disappointing since it makes Rise the only TMNT show not to have it’s own version of Usagi, I also kind of feel like Rise not using Usagi is a bit of a missed opportunity as Leo’s portal powers gave Rise the perfect chance to recreate some of the original Leo-Usagi meetings. 

The general premise of some of the earliest Leo & Usagi interactions is Leo being randomly transported to & from Usagi’s world no matter what he was doing at the time which leads to Leo being randomly transported to Usagi’s world when he’s trying to get home to his brothers or with Leo ending up being transported back to New York while in the middle of an interaction with Usagi.

With Leo’s portal powers in Rise the original concept of Leo randomly getting sent back & forth between New York & Usagi’s world could have possibly been replicated in Rise during the period when Leo was still mastering his mystic powers.

Leo: I freed you from your pirate prison. You’re welcome.

Raph: Pirate prison?

Mikey: You portalled us to Tahiti!

Leo: Did I win?

Throughout Rise there is a slight running gag of Leo’s portals not taking him where he wants to go & accidentally transporting him or his family to random places regardless of the distance such as when Leo accidentally portalled his brothers to Tahiti in the episode Portal Jacked or when Leo accidentally portalled himself to Paris in the short ‘Race’.

With the trend of Leo portalling himself to random places it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to either have Leo portal himself to Usagi’s world or if Rise wanted to make use of the existence of Hidden Cities & Yokai to have Leo & Usagi exist in the same world there could be the possibility of Leo portalling himself to either Japan’s Hidden City or the area of the Hidden City where Usagi lives, if Usagi was part of New York’s Hidden City.

Though I’m not sure what the Rise team’s original plans for Usagi were I do kind of think that Leo’s portals could have possibly been a good chance to reference the original Leonardo & Usagi meetings as Rise does like to give nods & references to previous iterations of TMNT.

[the-lark-ascending69]

Now I'm thinking about a His Dark Materials x Stranger Things AU and the similarities are just enough for it to make a lot of sense but both stories have so much material (pun intended) in them that I don't even know where to start, other than with the fact that the scientists and Brenner and everyone is the Magisterium, Will is taken by the Gobblers/the General Oblation Board, El is probably from Will's World (Will Parry's world, not to be confused with Will Byers - there are just too many Wills here), and she doesn't have a visible dæmon. Barb is a bit too old to be taken by the Gobblers - she probably got caught finding information she shouldn't know and they got rid of her. I feel like the Byers would be gyptians, too, living in a gyptian boat. Henry Creel was probably the one to first open a gate between world by ripping himself apart from his own dæmon, and that's part of how he kills people - severing from their dæmons, killing them, opening a gate. The parallels are just too strong!

But I wouldn't set it in Europe like the original books... I would set it in North America, in their canon location.

The Globetrotter's Map shows that the United States does not exist in this world - instead you get New Denmark, Texas, and Beringia (Alaska), bordering Hispania Nova to the south and New France to the north. That would make them New Danish, right? And maybe the only General Oblation Board facility is in Svalbard and they need to go all the way across New France and Greenland to get there, or maybe this time around there's a facility in Beringia, or simply in the New French far north. Somewhere far away, hopefully where you can see the northern lights. I like that idea, to keep it more North America inspired.

After whatever experiments they perform on Will, he can separate from his dæmon like a witch, but it also kind of feels like his dæmon can cross worlds without need for a portal, and this happens unexpectedly and without them being able to control it. El, of course, is considered an aberration since she does not have a dæmon, but the party pretty quickly figures that she does - it's just "inside of her".

Jonathan is maybe a photographer who got his hands on some special equipment to photograph dust - something he shouldn't be allowed to own. Steve is on his way to joining the Magisterium's law enforcement arm, though he quickly realizes how horrible the Magisterium really is. Jason is the one who stays there and continues to rise through the ranks. Eddie is the town heretic who just wants to enjoy his fantasy books - banned by the Magisterium for promoting subversive ideas about God, or just not having God be present, or whatever. He has a small secret fantasy reading club where he and the boys like to enjoy forbidden literature about dragons and knights and play board games based on them. The town does not like it. El can communicate directly with Dust. She's like a human alethiometer. Robin is New Denmark's most dangerous polyglot who just accidentally intercepted some weird messages on the radio in multiple different languages about missing children in Beringia. Hopper used to work for the Magisterium as a law enforcer until his daughter mysteriously disappeared and they refused to give him an answer. Max is just there to punch God in the face.

It's almost 6 am and I haven't had any sleep so idk if this makes sense... but it makes sense in my little heart

[powdermelonkeg]

So, BO2W Breakdown

Buckle up, this is gonna be a long one.

Here we’ve got Ganon’s...energy taking over Link’s arm. Ordinarily, I’d call it Malice, but based on what it turns into, I’m just going to be calling it corruption. We don’t get much information from this scene besides this expression:

Link’s grabbing the corruption with his other hand, and wincing. It looks painful. I personally think it’s for cinematic effect that it was included, but it COULD be a gateway into a Phantom Hourglass sort of mechanic--Link has to function on a time limit, or using the corruption’s power could drain his life.

Next we’ve got a closeup of Ganondorf. F in chat to the rehydration theorists.

And the closeups of his jewelry. The only significant thing I can see is his necklace, which looks like a cross between the Gerudo symbol and a Fleur de Lis:

But what I’M most interested in is this tie on his belt:

For one, it’s WAY bigger than it needs to be, and that’s deliberate. Ganondorf’s got a jewelry aesthetic he’s already hit above; everything else is gold, why not this bit?

Most importantly, you can barely make it out, but the designs either look Sheikah or Zonai--they’ve got that same kind of swirly busy pattern to them. The red tint and tan-ish lines in it makes me think it’s possessed Sheikah tech.

Next, we’re shown Zelda falling. This looks like it happens right after these two caps from the first trailer:

So we reach for her as the ground collapses, and evidently, we fail to pull her back up. So my next question for that scene is going to be what the in-game reason is for us not diving in right after her. Maybe we won’t get one, since the appeal of the original BOTW was that you could fight Ganon whenever you wanted.

Up next, we’ve got a skydiving shot:

The first thing to notice is that Link’s pose while skydiving is just about identical to his pose in Skyward Sword:

Second is that, yes, he’s falling towards a floating island, and that in itself is noteworthy, but he’s FALLING. There’s something either above him that he jumped off of, or a force that carried him high enough TO fall, and I doubt Nintendo’s encouraging magnesis flying.

So, there’s a few options: Loftwings making a return (which is unlikely, but a hope I have), something like Revali’s Gale boosting Link up for a cinematic shot, indicating that the corruption arm has that kind of power, or islands higher than the one shown here.

Now the island itself:

In Skyward Sword, Skyloft looks like this:

And (spoiler alert) we loose this island here over the course of the game:

Now, it’s not a PERFECT 1:1 match, as most things between games aren’t, but a quick rotate and overlay shows it’s got the same kinds of shapes between the two. The same “W” shape along the eastern side, the same tiny island off the northeast point, the same relative edges.

Now, I don’t know what happened to the plaza at South Skyloft, or the Knight’s Academy isle, but it could very easily be drift away from the central island.

The presence of other islands through the clouds seems to support that theory. Now let’s look at Link here:

The outfit is new. We haven’t, to my knowledge, seen one of this design in other games. My gut reaction to this image was “oh, we go back in time and we’re the first hero now!” because it’s vaguely reminiscent of Tapestry Hero.

But upon closer inspection, that theory’s null and void. Under Link’s tunic in the image above, you can see that he’s still wearing the shorts he woke up in in the first game. So either Sheikah boxers haven’t changed in 10,000 years, or it’s taking place in present day. Jokes aside, I’m curious to know if the outfit he’s wearing is modeled after Tapestry Hero.

Next thing to point out is the obvious:

Link’s arm here looks less prosthetic and more...withered, I almost want to say. The corruption here’s made his hand look frailer, and armored them up with Zonai patterns before it fades out at his shoulder. Based on how the tattoos look, I think they’re an artifact of the corruption taking hold.

Also, the belt here:

Aesthetic purposes, or specific function? The presence of the second, smaller one on the side reminds me of Skyward Sword’s adventure pouch, which could be how the new game handles inventory size:

Next we’ve got another flying shot:

It seems like he’s flying towards Ruined Skyloft, and you can see the bottoms of islands above it, possibly meaning that the sky serves as more than just a hub world like it did in Skyward.

Now let’s look at the paraglider he’s using. It’s new.

This is how the paraglider looks in the original BOTW. It looks like we still have the Rito symbol in the center, but other than that, there’s a LOT of changes here.

First off is the color. We’re now blue and gold. The shade of blue makes me think of the Kochi Dye Shop’s navy blue:

So, possibly a dyeable paraglider?

The new pattern surrounding the Rito symbol makes me think that it’s combining the paraglider with Skyward Sword’s sailcloth:

Other than that, there isn’t much else to say about the paraglider besides the handles looking like they’re made of bone. Craftable paragliders? God, I hope not.

Back to Link:

Here we have him in different gear than the last shot. He’s wearing the snow boots, he has a shield with a stylized Eye of Truth looking upwards, and he looks like he’s carrying a traveler’s sword and an unknown bow. The presence of the bow makes me think that the shield here is a lower tier item, rather than this game’s Hylian Shield equivalent.

Now, let’s get a better look at the horizon:

The trees here look a lot like the smaller trees you can find in Akkala, but there’s a distinct lack of red among them.

Then it looks like we’ve got some ruins at the furthest isle.

Whatever the rock formations are over there, they don’t LOOK natural.

Another thing I noticed is the bottoms of the islands.

These look a little too geometric to be natural, too. Now, this one, I’m a little muddy on, because it COULD be a stylistic choice. But it also reminds me of the Shrines if you clip out of bounds:

And a little bit of the dormant Gate of Time from Skyward:

My money’s on the cube-like nature of the islands’ undersides being deliberate, rather than just a far-off render.

And then there’s this thing!

What is it? It doesn’t look broken at all; look how nicely the roof(?) is kept. The ribbing on the sides makes me think it might be a Zonai thing, but the shape makes it difficult to figure out. A giant temple? An airship? A sloped coliseum? This thing haunts and vexes me.

Our next shot is presumably from one of the islands, based on the color. Here we can see that there are definitely ruins all over the place. Link is in the same gear as before, so I won’t touch on him.

This, however, has my interest. The design here has more geometric patterns--Zonai ruins?

We’ve got another one off in the distance here. Sky checkpoints, like Sheikah towers?

Now this guy here. There’s a LOT to look at. First off is the eye design, it’s the same sort of upward looking one that Link has on his shield in the previous shots.

The energy that’s pulling this thing towards its base looks like the same green energy that surrounds the arm holding Gan in place in Trailer One:

This stuff. That, plus the fact that the robot has to be pulled into its base rather than just existing, implies that either A: Link activates it himself, like a trial thing, or B: that the green energy here functions in the same way Malice does in the original BOTW.

This pattern at its base is intriguing, too. I don’t recognize the gold symbol in the center, but the green around it reminds me of the portals from Twilight Princess.

Which, yes, everyone’s already said that the Twilight Princess patterns look like Zonai things. But another thing this weird dial thing reminds me of is from Lanayru Desert:

On top of that, the color palette of this guy looks like that of the Lanayru Robots from Skyward:

BO2W robot on the left, Lanayru robot on the right. Given that Skyward is a lot more vibrant than other non-Toon Zelda games, I think this is a fair enough comparison to draw similarities from.

And then we get a closer view of the sky ruins from the last shot. I don’t know if the geometric pattern in the corner is a deliberate carving, or wear from time, but since the pattern looks ALMOST mirrored around the corner, I’m going to go with the former.

A better shot a few frames later. The robot has HANDS, which I do not like in any way shape or form. However, we get a better look at the sky ruins.

We haven’t seen this style of stairs before, to my knowledge. The pedestal out front looks like a light source, and it has the same floral egg thing the robot above has on each shoulder; the eggs could easily be a power source for Zonai tech. And at the top of the stairs, we see a pedestal, backing up the theory that these ruins function as our new Sheikah towers.

This is our next shot. Which...

Unikoblins. Can we talk about that? UNIKOBLINS.

Anyways, Link is here again in his old clothes. This is a very early game shot, because his right arm isn’t corrupted yet; this means we get to explore Hyrule before we embark on the main quest. Which gives rise to a question: Where’s Zelda?

The hopeful side of me wants to say that she’s a tutorial companion, like Navi or Tatl, at least for the beginning here. The pessimistic side of me thinks that she’s waiting for us at a predetermined location, and this is just part of getting to her.

Now the unikoblin structure itself is built on a Talus, meaning that the dev team at least intends to have more inter-monster interactions. But if you kill the Talus, does that mean that the base falls apart, or does it just drop down as a separate entity?

Also, what are these background ruins? The one on the left looks like it’s a distinctly different style than the one on the right. It looks almost like a giant guardian arm.

Our next shot is Link’s arm getting corrupted. Which, first of all, the effects look beautiful.

Now, we can see a corner of Link’s hip here, and we know that this is his right arm. So Link’s lying down here. Unconscious? Knowing how Zelda games like to start with Link waking up, probably. Although it looks like at least part of his shorts got an update.

We can see what looks like circuits here. It looks a bit like the electricity puzzles you can find in the Divine Beasts and Shrines in the original.

Then we’ve got these strange symbols.

Whatever this circular stone he’s lying on is, it looks a lot like the Zonai puzzle from the “A Fragmented Monument” sidequest.

This one that everyone thought was the Mirror of Twilight for years.

Our next shot is Link using the corruption powers against enemies:

The spike ball itself looks solid; the question is, is this a duplication power, or a visualization of how the spike ball is set into motion?

We see it barreling over a poor Unikoblin or two, but I’d like to turn your attention to the Moblin and the background.

The moblins here have helmets, and the bases, while they carry the same design, look like they have more cause and effect in mind. The left base’s rock, for instance; that’s a lot bigger than the rocks we got to play with in the last game, and it looks like we can barrel anything in the screen over with it.

The helmet, though, concerns me a little bit. It looks natural rather than forged; like it’s the moblin’s horn, just very much deformed. Does it mean a harder enemy, or is it just for flavor?

Our next shot is this strange flower thing. Note that Link’s right arm is perfectly fine in this shot, meaning that it’s still early game.

This is what Link’s flamethrower looks like. And this:

Is Zonai art.

So the question is, what IS the flamethrower? My first thought was that it’s either a new item in its own, or it’s a Sheikah Slate upgrade. The latter might sound a little far fetched, but Link in this game is right-handed, and in BOTW, he always held the slate in his LEFT hand when using it.

We have more of the weird faded designs that we saw on the Sky ruins:

And we’ve got some kind of pedestal or stage behind the ground flower thing:

It looks like it’s either an altar or a grave, from what I can tell. The stairs aren’t the same design as the ones in the sky, and there aren’t any patterns on it.

More importantly, though, is that this place is underground. This could be a part of the game you’re required to go through, in order to get to Raisin Gan.

A few seconds later, though, we get our answer to what the flamethrower is!

It’s a shield!

Off to the left side, we can see pillars with more weird scribblings towards the top. These match the Sky ruins’ pillar shape, with a narrow base and a wider top.

Our next scene is...weird.

We see a puddle splash in reverse. It’s hard to tell if it’s actually water or not, but the design on the ground implies that it’s either been there for a long time, or that that’s a dedicated splash spot. And the quality and zoom makes me think that this is part of a cutscene. Return of the timeshift stones?

We then see Link...surfacing out of the island? I don’t know how else to describe it. However, his arm is changed again, and glowing, meaning that this is a corruption power. And the “water” he rises out of here looks a lot like the puddle in the last clip.

We get a good look at the Zonai Lights:

A Sky ruin that looks like it contains a room:

And a glimpse of other isles’ ruins in the far distance.

And then as the camera zooms out...

We can place a location!

We’re right over Thundra Plateau!

We also get a mildly better look at the back wall of the sky ruin, which looks to be some kind of table:

The next scene is Hyrule Castle:

The ground shakes and it starts to rise up. However, notice that the columns surrounding the castle are now missing.

We’ve also got red sparks in the air, like we would have in a blood moon. However, due to the sky color, we can assume that this is a conscious decision by Gan himself, and that he isn’t drawing power from his surroundings.

We then see that power bleeding out of the ground. It’s MUCH more red than Malice is, which has always been a kind of burnt pink-ish color.

However, even though Ganon lifts the castle up, he doesn’t lift it very high.

The castle’s about triple the height it was. But since we’re talking Skyloft levels of floating islands, this is still pretty ground-level. What’s interesting to me, though, is that in this shot, despite the game now being about sky islands that we should be able to see from ground level...there aren’t any here. This, to me, means that there’s going to be a sudden appearance of the isles in the sky, rather than them simply being accessible now.

And that’s the whole trailer! I have many questions.

My blog! If you have any opnions/questions/theories, feel free to drop an ask!

Part 2 is up! We missed a lot!

[perfectlypanda]

(Not trying to shoot your ideas down, just discussing the feasibility of what you've suggested based on the geography as presented in canon. This was a fun creative exercise!)

First, I think the trees you've designed sound super cool (although the description of their pulp being "warm and almost flesh-like" gave me visceral horror story vibes). I particularly like the idea of them using endothermy as an adaptation.

However, one of the problems of the hypothetical trees you've presented is that they still need soil. In the first few screencaps in my original write up, you can see that the ground near the coast is snow covering thick ice, not snow covering frozen soil. If temperatures never rise above freezing (which they don't even during AtLA's midsummer), then snow never melts and instead gets compressed down into the ice layer by newer snowfall. If there is any rock or soil below the ice in the South Pole, it's not just a few inches down, it would be meters or even kilometers down (If we use Earth as a model, the ice can get up to 3 miles/ 4.9 km deep).

On Antarctica, there are a handful of places (less than 1% of the continent, and I'm not including a few small islands because they're outside the Antarctic circle and not reflective of the rest of the continent) where there is exposed soil (Antarctic Oases). These places exist because they are so dry that they don't get enough snow or ice to maintain ground cover, or winds blow away what little snow it gets. It's so cold that most of the time the exposed soil is frozen, and the soil itself is rocky/ sandy, and very poor nutritionally. That said, there have been a few nonvascular land plants found there (moss, lichen, algae).

There is no canon evidence to suggest that AtLA's South Pole has "Antarctic Oases" like Earth's does. However, if it does, while it would give plants access to soil (sort of... only the top 1-2 feet ever thaws), these areas are some of the driest deserts on the planet, so they don't provide enough moisture to sustain a plant, let alone a tree.

The South Pole's polar winter presents additional difficulties. During winter, there are stretches where the South Pole gets minimal to no sunlight. Trees need sunlight for photosynthesis.

The animals and plants in AtLA aren't the same as those on Earth, but almost none of them have actual magical powers - by which I mean while they may be incredibly foreign to what lives on Earth, the animals and plants don't generally exhibit behaviors that would be otherwise inexplicable given their presented abilities, physiology, and habitat (exceptions being creatures like dragons, island sized lion turtles, etc). In regard to plants, the only plant that edges toward magical in AtLA (not LoK) that I can think of is the Banyon-grove Tree in the Foggy Swamp, but within the show, that's presented as being very unusual. Most of the creatures or plants that have magical elements are spirits/ connected to the spirits/ from the spirit world, rather than being a normal part of the human world.

Which brings us to the trees in the Southern Spirit Wilds. The problem with the Southern Spirit Wilds... is that Legend of Korra is a mess. A loveable mess, but a mess that is not consistent with the worldbuilding established in AtLA. Based on how LoK frames it, while attempting to interpret it in a way that aligns as much as possible with AtLA, the way the Southern Spirit Wilds works is that in a very limited area directly around the portal, there is some blurring of natural laws between the human world and the spirit world. Flora and fauna in the spirit world does not face the same restraints that they do in the human world, and so in the Spirit Wilds, because a bit of the spirit world is bleeding over, the plants and animals can behave in ways they otherwise would not be able to. In this case, impossible trees can grow.

tl;dr - I don't think your tree design is compatible with the geographical worldbuilding established in AtLA. However, I think you should use them in an original something (a short story? a book?) because they sound really cool and I haven't seen an idea like them before.

The Geography of the South Pole in AtLA vs. the Graphic Novels

Of the many inconsistencies between Avatar: the Last Airbender, and the graphic novels, there is a particular bit of world building that always bothers me; the geography of the South Pole.

In the first two episodes of AtLA, the viewer is introduced to the South Pole at almost peak summer. Sokka makes a reference to this when he first meets Aang:

Sokka: Giant light beams, flying bison, airbenders … I think I got midnight sun madness. I’m going home to where stuff makes sense.

“Midnight sun” is a term that describes how during the summer months places north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle experience consecutive 24 hour periods of sunlight (so the sun is still out even though it’s midnight). From Sokka’s dialogue, it is explicitly summer. 

The two part episode “The Winter Solstice” takes place over episodes 7 and 8 of the first season, and occurs some weeks following the opening episode. It’s important to note that this refers to the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, where the Gaang is at the time. Thus, the summer solstice is simultaneously occurring for the southern hemisphere.

Why spend time establishing that at the start of the series, the South Pole is experiencing the middle of their summer? Well, because it’s important you understand that the version of the South Pole we see is the South Pole at its warmest. At its warmest, Katara and Sokka go fishing surrounded by massive icebergs, snow and ice completely cover the ground, and the Southern Water Tribe has a wall and several buildings made entirely from snow. 

Continues after the cut.

Continuar lendo

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Dream SMP Recap (December 6/2020) - End of Week

What started as a sad but calm day ended with a revolution where morality was questioned and blood was shed. The server’s first canon death since the three lives rule was implemented occurred, and all hell broke loose.

Dream’s motivations have started to be laid bare, but whether or not he’s in the wrong or right remains foggy as ever in a world where everyone’s morals are gray.

Also, the prison’s construction continues and some strange red corruptions called “Blood Vines” have sprouted up on the server.

A short summary of the week’s total events is at the end of the post.

---

- HBomb hosts Niki and Wilbur’s L’Cast

- Fundy continues work on the chess board

- Ranboo is leaving a book with messages to communicate with Tommy

- Fundy and Ranboo visit Tommy and help him through the Nether to find blaze rods. It’s a very...interesting...time... Fundy fills Tommy in on the fact that Dream is officially recognizing L’manburg as a country.

- Tommy falls in lava and loses all his stuff

- Then he burns to death

- Then he falls in lava and loses all his stuff again

- He FINALLY gets an ender chest

- Lazar asks him for help since he’d fallen in lava and needed help getting out. As Tommy does so, Lazar questions why Tommy hasn’t turned against L’manburg. Tommy says it’s because Tubbo is there, but Lazar points out that Tubbo was the one who exiled him.

- Ghostbur comes on and says he has a gift.

- Tommy attempts to rescue Lazar from the depths of the lava pit. Techno starts arguing with him.

- Tommy falls in lava and loses all his stuff again. He gives up on helping Lazar, who is understandably annoyed at him.

- Philza joins the call wondering wtf is happening and why Tommy keeps dying, but Tommy just ends stream

- Psyche! After credits scene. Ghostbur asks Tommy to return to Logstedshire so he dies in lava to fast-travel back. Ghostbur gives Tommy a lodestone compass named “Your Tubbo” that points back to L’manburg at all times. Tommy puts the compass in his ender chest right next to the discs, saying he’ll keep it close to his heart.

- Thunder’s frustrated that Tommy got exiled exiled because the Prank War he was setting up between Dream and Tommy can no longer happen and Thunder’s great villain arc has been cancelled - he is no longer a villain now.

- Now, he wants to do the clay prank to George instead to try and get Dream and George to turn on each other as revenge for Dream burning his house.

- Puffy builds Tommy a second Christmas Tree.

--- Note: From this point on I tried to include more specific details than normal since it’s an important and confusing event ---

- Quackity declares war on the Dream SMP from Mexican L’manburg. He gets George, Sapnap and Karl on to help. He’s rigged TNT under Eret’s castle bridge and wants to invoke the same ideas as the Mexican Revolution. He wants to put M.L. on the map by staging an assassination and using George’s dethronement as an excuse to start a political movement.

- Sapnap wants to take on Technoblade but Quackity tells him that they have to take things step by step and that it’s an extremely bad idea to do it now.

- Eret asks Hbomb to be one of his knights. HBomb agrees.

- George wants his kingship back 

The explosion goes to plan with H and Puffy as witnesses.

--- ---

CANON DEATH: KARL 

Cause: Death by explosion and falling

--- ---

- George distracts Eret while Quackity, Sapnap and Karl steal his throne. Punz joins Eret’s side as one of his other knights.

 - The M.L. side reconvenes in L’manburg and drink invisibility potions. Dream is in Mexican L’manburg. He is tearing the dirt to shreds. Meanwhile, Eret gives a speech to his Knights as they head to Party Island. Dream, alone, is invisible in Boomerville.

- Sapnap gets Dream to log (he says it’s lag). The Dream SMP faction blows up M.L. with TNT. The Mexican L’manburgians kill Puffy. 

- They want to head to the Holy Land. Dream says he wants to talk. They collect at the Church.

- They argue. Dream threatens to kill Quackity permanently and make sure Mexican L’manburg can never rise again. (Also Karl’s acting is genuinely good holy shit)

- Sapnap tells George that he thinks Dream has completely turned against them, and that they’re better off disowning him.

---

Dream: “You’re painting me as this tyrant when I’m just trying to maintain peace.”

He refers to it as his castle, his throne. He calls the people of M.L. “terrorists.”

---

He says that in his eyes, Mexican L’manburg does not even exist, and that he’ll speak to Tubbo about making sure he sees that it doesn’t exist as well.

M.L. argues that putting a human life above a few blocks of gold is more important.

Dream refers to himself as the “ruler” of the Dream SMP, the “leader,” letting it slip that “king” is a meaningless title.

He says that Quackity is causing the most problems, the number one “enemy” of the SMP right now. Similar to how he referred to Tommy defying him.

He says that Quackity is not like Tubbo, who is a “fair, just ruler” and that is why New L’manburg is recognized and Mexican L’manburg is not. Tubbo would never do what Quackity did. Wilbur and Jschlatt and Tommy would. He says that he waited until New L’manburg had a reasonable leader to recognize it.

- “Un-killing” is implied to be a thing, where the person who gave you your canon death can take it back. 

---

 Dream: “The king is a figurehead and he knows that!”

Eret: “I do.”

Quackity: “So that’s what you are Eret -- a puppet--”

Dream: “Yes! -- no he’s not a puppet-- h-he has no power and I have - and - it’s the same thing and--”

(Dream proceeds to deny Eret being a “puppet”)

---

- Quackity decides to dissolve Mexican L’manburg for a clean slate and call it something else. He wants the server to have a precedent of establishing new countries without having to go to Dream for recognition every time.

- Eret agrees to recognize Quackity’s new country if they apologize and return the throne.

--- ---

CANON UNDEATHING: KARL (?)*

* Dream says that the death is still canon later since plot was based around it. I don’t know what Karl considers his death count to be? 

--- ---

- Sapnap declares that he no longer wants to fight Techno but Dream instead. He says he wants to slay Dream in front of everyone.

- Overall, Dream and Eret declare it a “failed coup” and say that the destruction is just a consequence of “what happens when you don’t plan anything” but Quackity is satisfied that his new country has been “put on the map.” 

- Quackity declares the country to be named “El Rapids” in honor of Cedar Rapids.

- Punz no longer wants to be an official Knight.

- Quackity misses Ghostbur and wants to speak with him. He tells Ghostbur about the war. Ghostbur asks if it was a revolution - Quackity says yes! Ghostbur also informs Quackity that he burnt the sacred texts - How to Sex 2 - in lava.

- Karl streams with the intention of rebuilding and preparing for Pokimane’s visit

- Karl steals Eret’s Museum Llamas and gets caught in the act. Fortunately this doesn’t spark up the war again. They take a llama to Party Island.

- They get into trouble at Boomerville and Lazar joins.

- Dream comes online and asks Sam about the prison’s progress. Bad gets annoyed at Sam for destroying the beachfront property value, and he didn’t authorize the seizure of the land. Dream is there helping to shovel but Bad wants him to stop. Bad is angry about the prison being built and starts shouting at Sam.

- Bad tries to negotiate with Dream. Dream refers to the prison as containing a “prisoner.” Singular. And that the prisoner would have nothing, and Bad would be in charge of helping to guard it. There are going to be multiple “layers.”

- The prison will be in the middle of the ocean bit, and Bad would have a terraformed beachfront property. All of the land would be considered property of the Badlands - including the prison.

- People are going to have to go through PORTALS to escape the prison.

- Bad starts to come around to the prison idea. Dream tells Sam he thinks they need more hands to help, potentially Ant and Eret.

- A strange, giant red “egg” has appeared in the corner of Bad’s statue room. He feels a strange aura coming from it, and he’s unable to bring himself to break it.

- Dream says Eret can’t help with the prison but he can help make the beach nicer. Bad says he might want to put Tommy in the prison but Dream says no, Tommy’s already exiled. So the prison isn’t for Tommy.

- Once the prisoner is in there, Dream says they would only be able to be let out “by the server.” It’s got certain secrets that only Dream and Sam know about. Sam says that he could potentially escape from it, but it will be so impenetrable that even if you know the secrets it would still be difficult to escape from.

- Bad shows Dream the Egg. Dream gets creeped out by it.

- Another Red Corruption has appeared near Hutt’s Pizza, and another at the Mansion. Everyone swears that it wasn’t there before, and there wasn’t enough time for someone to place all of it manually in the time that they were down there.

- Bad stabs Dream for trying to “hurt it.” He likes it for some reason.

- Bad asks Dream about who the prison’s for. Dream says “if you can’t kill somebody, you need to lock them up.” He mentions that it’s one of the more powerful people on the server, someone who either provides a threat now or in the future. He has someone in mind.

--- ---

Dream explains to Bad and Sam that the reason he switched sides in the Manberg-Pogtopia War was because Schlatt gave him something.

And that thing is “a card up his sleeve” until he needs it.

A book of great value.

It puts Dream in danger if people know of it, but also gives Dream power.

The “most valuable thing on the server.”

Something pertaining to the prison.

Something where they wouldn’t believe Dream if he told them what he was given.

--- ---

- The corruption grows AGAIN despite Dream, Sam and Bad all being in the middle of the ocean

- Another corruption appears on Tommy’s Power Tower

- The water level in New L’manburg has risen again, covering George and Quackity’s mushroom house

- The prison is going to be as tall as a MOUNTAIN

- Dream proposes the idea of Bad giving him the disc to piss off Tommy. Bad says that Skeppy has it so he’ll have to ask some other time. He might trade some information about Schlatt’s book in return for the disc.

- Bad says he likes the name a dono came up with for the corruption -- “Blood Vines”

- Dream and Sam removed the Blood Vines on the Mansion to Bad’s dismay. Sam burns the Vines and Bad goes on a murderous rampage against him.

- Technoblade got a “Bee our guest” achievement

- Dream burns down the Eiffel Tower again.

- The prison will be reinforced with 15 layers of obsidian, and the guards will have Ender Pearl Stasis Chambers that are alarm-activated.

- The Blood Vines have sprouted up from Schlatt’s Grave.

The prison’s unofficial name as of right now is “Pandora’s Vault,” but it is subject to change.

Upcoming events:

- Karl will be touring Pokimane around soon

Potentially Scrapped:

- Elytra Challenge

- Bad and Skeppy’s plan to burn the disc *

* Bad mentioned it on stream, but it’s unclear if it’ll still happen

END OF WEEK RECAP:

11/30: Fundy bonds with Wilbur, Cursed Lore Day

12/01: Creation of Mexican L’manburg, Girl Dream visits, Mexican Manhunt

Note: not sure what’s up with 12/02. Probably messed up the dates? Whoops.

12/03: Sleepy Bois Family splits in half, dethroning of George

12/04: Day of the Exile, Badlands start to divide

12/05: Tommy’s first full day in Logsted, Sean’s visit

12/06: The Mexican L’manburg Revolution, end of M.L., start of El Rapids

---

!!! SPOILERS AHEAD !!! 

- Wilbur had two special lodestone compasses in his inventory. He didn’t want HBomb to see, but H looked anyway.

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Question, if worm man is hels zed then would helsknight at some point recognize him? I’m pretty sure they would either:

A) have a odd run-in with each other

Or

B) helsknight threatens to tell the server and they become rivals

OOOOOOH BOY i got inspired :D

Helsaph hops out of the portal at the Yes Wings Club and approaches the building. Part of him regrets declining Impulse’s invitation to show him around but Helsaph thinks it’s a good test. The only person he’s likely to meet here is Wels, and Wels likely doesn’t know Zedaph well enough to be able to differentiate between Zedaph and Helsaph.

Speaking of Wels…

“Oh, hello, Zedaph,” Wels says casually, a bit-too-friendly smile on his face, as he exits the Yes Wings Club.

Helsaph keeps his guard up but manages a friendly, if nervous, smile back. “Hi, Wels. How are you?”

“Pretty good. Haven’t seen you around in a while, Zedaph.”

“I’ve been… busy. Good busy though.”

Wels nods. “That’s good to hear, Zedaph.”

A shiver runs down Helsaph’s spine. “Why do you keep saying my name like that?”

“IS it your name, though?”

Helsaph freezes, panic briefly flickering across his face. “...what do you mean?”

Wels’s smile turns into a triumphant grin. “I knew it. You can’t hide from me; I know you too well.”

“I don’t understand what you mean,” says Helsaph, avoiding eye contact. “Excuse me.”

He starts to leave.

“I wouldn’t walk away from me if I were you, Helsaph.”

Helsaph stops dead, his heart skipping a beat. He slowly turns back to face the person who clearly isn’t Welsknight.

“Got your attention now, have I?” the person chuckles. “Frankly, I’m a little hurt that you didn’t recognise me straight away. Or maybe you did and you hoped I wouldn’t recognise you.”

Helsaph does recognise him now. In fact, he can hardly believe he ever thought this person was Wels. “What are you doing here, Helsknight?”

“Just out for a walk.” Helsknight shrugs casually. “Is that a crime?”

“I mean on this server,” responds Helsaph. “Last I heard, you were banished back to Helscraft in Season 7.”

“Oh you heard about that? Good news travels far and wide, doesn’t it?”

Helsaph narrows his eyes. “Helsknight, stop playing around with me. Just tell me what you want.”

“I want to know why you’re running around the server pretending to be Zedaph when you know full well the real Zedaph is back home in his base.” Helsknight’s eyes gleam. “Are you up to something evil?”

“No, I live here now,” Helsaph says. “Wait, what do you mean the real- Have you been spying on us?!”

Helsaph is not encouraged by the grin on Helsknight’s face.

“Maybe,” he responds. “Maybe not. Point is, I know a lot. Including the fact that you’re not supposed to be on this server.”

“That’s not a point, that’s just an ominous statement.” Helsaph frowns. “Are you threatening me?”

Helsknight nods. “Yup. I’d really like you to realise right now that I could go over to Xisuma and tell him a LOT of interesting things.”

Helsaph’s breath catches in his throat.

Immediately, Helsknight grins triumphantly. “Uh huh, that’s what I was waiting for. The flicker of panic on your face. That’s how I knew it was you and not the real Zedaph. I know you too well, Helsaph.”

“Helsknight…” Helsaph stares at Helsknight in fear. “Why would you want to ruin this for me? I’m finally in a place that makes me happy after years and years of-.”

“Because helsmits aren’t supposed to be happy!” Helsknight bursts out suddenly. “You think I’M happy?! I’m stuck here on this server trying to kill my counterpart so I can escape Helscraft forever! Constantly having to look over my shoulder and hide! Trying to gather resources in a world that rebels against my every move! Why should YOU-” He jabs his finger at Helsaph. “-get to be happy and I don’t?!”

“It doesn’t have to be this way, Helsknight,” Helsaph says pleadingly. “Befriend your counterpart. Wels is a loving and understanding person; he’ll take you in the way Zedaph took me in.”

Helsknight stares at him in disbelief. “You’ve got to be joking. You think I’m gonna crawl to him after all this time of trying to kill him and beg to be forgiven?! And even if he does, then what? I’d be stuck in the same position as you! Still forced to hide, not allowed to do anything, stuck under the thumb of my idiot counterpart.”

“He can-.”

But Helsknight sharply waves his hand, stopping Helsaph. “NO. My goal is to kill Welsknight so I can absorb his lifeforce and get the hell away from everyone here. THAT is the goal of a helsmit.” His upper lip curls in disgust. “Not to run around dressed like an idiot trying to fight imaginary crime.”

Helsaph takes an involuntary step back. “Y-You know about that…?”

“Of course!” snaps Helsknight. “You make me sick, Helsaph. I’d rather die than suffer that indignity.”

“Well, it- it was a little awkward at first but I grew to really enjoy it,” Helsaph explains. “It sure beat returning to Helscraft, that’s for sure.”

“You pathetic little-!” Helsknight breaks off with a sneer. “You’re not fit to be called a helsmit! I’m not existing here on this server knowing you’re out there being HAPPY.”

He turns and starts to walk away but Helsaph, before he can stop himself, jumps into his path. “I won’t let you do this to me, Helsknight,” he says, forcing his voice to stay steady.

“Get out of my way,” growls Helsknight.

Helsaph shakes his head. “No. I’ve suffered too hard and for too long for this to just let you take it all away from me.”

“Well then, the only way to save it is to kill me.”

For a moment, Helsaph thinks he heard Helsknight wrong. “Wh-What?”

“Kill me,” repeats Helsknight firmly.

“W-Will you respawn?”

Helsknight rolls hie eys. “Of course not, idiot. You know the rules: if a helsmit dies outside of Helscraft, they die forever.”

“Then why are you telling me to kill you?!” yelps Helsaph.

“Because that’s the only way to save your precious new life.” Helsknight takes a step closer to Helsaph. “Do you want it that badly that you’d murder another helsmit to keep it?”

Helsaph doesn’t respond.

Helsknight snorts. “Thought not.”

With that, he moves past Helsaph and keeps walking away.

Making a quick decision, Helsaph draws his sword and lunges to attack Helsknight, but he makes the mistake of letting out a yell as he does. Helsknight spins round and meets the blow with his own sword.

Helsaph is not a good fighter, so having lost the element of surprise, Helsknight is able to easily disarm him and knock him to the ground. As Helsaph tries to get up, he feels the point of Helsknight’s sword touching his neck, causing him to freeze.

“You never were a good fighter, Helsaph,” laughs Helsknight tauntingly. “You, Impulstor, Foxtrot. None of you could ever beat me even when you all came at me at once. You nev-.”

With a sudden burst of strength, Helsaph tackles Helsknight to the ground and snatches his sword off him, holding it threateningly out with both hands.

Helsknight laughs again as he sits up. “Wow. Genuinely, wow. I’m impressed.”

“Don’t ever bring up Impulstor and Foxtrot again,” Helsaph growls. “Ever.”

“Or what?” Helsknight says challengingly.

Good question, Helsaph thinks to himself.

ALoud, he says, “I don’t WANT to kill you, Helsknight. But you’ve no idea what I’ve gone through the last few decades. How much I’ve suffered to get here. I’m not going back to that.”

“Hm.” Helsknight raises an eyebrow as he regards Helsaph as if seeing him in a new light. “You know what? This could be interesting. You’re running around playing hero, huh? A hero needs a villain.”

“I’ve already got one.”

“Evil Xisuma?” snorts Helsknight. “Don’t make me laugh. They’re nothing but a pest.”

“Don’t you-!” starts Helsaph furiously.

But Helsknight again interrupts him. “So here’s what’s gonna happen. You and I are gonna fight a bit. I’m gonna cause some mischief around the server. If you can defeat me in a fight and get me locked up fair and square, I won’t tell Xisuma about you.”

Helsaph narrows his eyes. “I don’t trust you one bit.”

“Nor should you,” responds Helsknight.

After a moment, Helsaph says, “What if I just go tell Xisuma about me right now? I’m sure he’ll be receptive when he finds out how well I’m doing here.”

Helsknight barks a laugh. “HA! The man who banned his own sibling from the server?”

Helsaph stares at Helsknight with a frown. “What?”

“Evil Xisuma didn’t tell you that, huh?” Helsknight seers. “Well I hate to break it to you but if a man can banish his own sibling to the void for decades and decades, I don’t think he’ll be very happy to learn that an ACTUAL helsmit is living here and has in fact been part of Hermitcraft before. That might get your little buddy Zedaph into trouble, huh?”

Helsaph scowls and says nothing. He hadn’t considered the trouble his counterpart would get into if he’s discovered.

Helsknight rises to his feet and stretches. “Touched a nerve there, I think. I’ll see you around, Helsaph.”

Helsaph lets Helsknight take his sword back and glares down at the ground. “I hate you.”

“Good,” responds Helsknight. “You think I want to be liked?”

“Maybe it’d do you some good,” Helsaph mutters, folding his arms, “to have someone actually think you’re worth something.”

A pause.

Then Helsaph cries out as he feels something sharp slice a cut in his arm. His free hand flying to cover the area, he spins round to find Helsknight standing disturbingly close, the tip of his sword blade glistening with drops of blood.

“I’d watch what I say if I were you,” he says warningly, lifting the sword close to Helsaph’s face. “My patience only extends so far.”

Clutching his arm, Helsaph takes off running back down the path and into the nether portal he came from. He sprints through the nether tunnels back towards Zedaph’s base, his heart hammering in his chest. There are no thoughts in his mind as to how he’s going to explain his injury to Zedaph.

All he wants is to get as far away from Helsknight as possible.

[worstloki]

The Sylvie Show

this got a bit long so i'm putting it under a cut but basically it's episode summaries of what i would do if the loki show had sylvie as the main character instead, since I do think the plot of the show would be better suited to be focused around her rather than 2012 loki. I've tried to keep it so that a lot of existing canon shots/sets/scenes can be reused.

episode 1: the show opens up with young Sylvie on Asgard. The TVA appear and drag her towards a temportal. She wakes up from the apparent nightmare, gasping heavily. cue title card and cool music. a portal opens within a church, sylvie interrupts the man giving a talk on religion, questioning what he's saying with roundabout logic and being generally witty, even managing to incorporate giving a bar of gum she had in a pocket to a child sitting on an aisle seat who is really happy about it. the man is still coming up with an answer to what she said when the doors of the church are broken open and TVA agents start to file in. Sylvie says "about time," and proceeds to have fun slaying the unit and stealing a tempad. She picks up the charge on her way out, sending a blow kiss to the devil mural on the wall on her way out. cut to stepping out of a temportal, throwing the charge behind her over a shoulder (it lands on a mattress) and taking a heavy seat in front of a set of screens which show the inside of a mall. the cameras are mostly empty and where there are people it does not fascinate her (one of them shows someone reloading shelves). she scrutinizes the screens, drumming fingers on the table, but quickly sighs and pulls out her tempad: it flashes with low battery and she rolls her eyes, throwing it into a bin filled with likewise empty devices. she's about to get up when the cameras show a group of agents walking into the store. among them is one with a jacket reading VARIANT in bright orange. "Sh*t," she says, getting up and going to the mattress, rifling through a pile of clothes on the floor next to it "sh*t sh*t sh*t where is it". She pulls out a dark brown jacket, and the camera pans over to the screens again, where the VARIANT turns: it's Loki. A golden portal opens on the beige walls of the TVA, Hunter C-20 stepping through holding a man in 1940s army uniform by the arm and dragging him towards a desk. the man protests but she places a grenade on the counter and tells the deskworker to log it. "it wasn't a dummy," is the explanation she gives. In the background a single guard steps through a portal, looking around and proceeding to the doors out of this room. It's Sylvie, and she walks alone past other guards and rooms labelled Court and Memory Chamber. A group of people run past her saying a variant is loose and she walks faster. She walks past one court room, catching the words "trust me, you can smell the cologne of two Tony Starks," but continues looking around. An analyst (Mobius) rounds the corner in the direction of the court rooms and seems to be in a hurry, and Sylvie takes a sharp turn opening the closest door to her to avoid being seen. She is in a room with a Sacred Timeline screen, and zeroes in on the man closest to her, "what are you--" she places a hand over his mouth and pushes him down into his desk area behind his trolley, shushing him. "Do you know where the Reset Charge Storage Chambers are?" "Why?" *deep breath* *serious face on* "Tell me where the storaGE CHAMBer iS or I'll GUT YOU like a goAT!" "is that... like a fish?" *confusion* "how do you not know what a goat is?!" she spots a poster on the wall with a location guide and pushes Casey away with a hand to the face. "Nevermind." - We see Loki monologuing "the idea that your little club decides the fate of trillions of people across all of existence at the behest of three space lizards, yes, it's funny. It's absurd." an agent walks past in the background pushing a trolley but no attention is brought to it "I thought you didn't like to talk," mobius says. Sylvie pushes a door reading "Storage: Units" open, but looks and finds bodies in little cyro pod chambers lined up. "wrong door," she says, and pulls the trolley across the hall to the door reading "Storage: Charges." She's in a room with shelves filled up with reset charges, and opens the trolley drawer to find it already filled up with useless junk like infinity stones and such. to which she has no reaction. She shoves all that stuff to the side and out of the drawer, making space to

carefully place reset charges there. She individually picks up the two Tesseracts in it though and admires them, saying they're shiny and placing them on lower shelves in the room instead of on the floor. While she loads up the trolley ("a few more should do it") Loki walks past the door in full TVA outfit, happy and carrying a stack of papers that read RAGNAROK in bright red letters. She closes the drawer, takes her Hunter helmet off to shake out her hair and wipe sweat from her forehead, then puts it back on, pushing the trolley towards the door. Mobius has a hand at Loki's back, guiding him out of the Memory Chamber, Loki has clearly been crying and Mobius comforts him "it won't be so bad, you love being useful. and wearing suits." Sylvie walks past, pushing the trolley in the background. Sylvie continues down the hall, and when she sees no one behind or in front she pulls out her tempad and opens a portal, pushing her trolley and herself through. She's already gone and misses Classic Loki with a collar around his neck being escorted through the hall. - Sylvie and her trolley push through the portal and are in a mall, the lights dim and flickering above. Thunder is heard and lightning strikes as she places a reset charge on a shelf, flicking open a panel on it's side, and then walking a bit further and placing another. "May I help you?" a store employee asks, startling her. She considers. "Actually..." and places a hand to the person's temple - it takes a few seconds of effort but her fingertips glow green, and so does the person's eyes and temple, "don't mind if you do." She walks away from the trolley in a rush, and the store worker behind places a reset charge on a shelf. "I'm a bit short on time," she says to herself, pulling out her Tempad. Suspenseful music as the screen fades to black. - Everything cuts to a desert, with a small town in the background. A portal appears high up, and Loki falls from it to the ground. the words "twelve miles east of Puento Antiguo" appear on screen, and we see Loki formed a small crater in the ground, reminiscent of Mjolnir and the one in Stark Tower. "Ow," Loki says, taking the muzzle off with one hand, and then pulling the cuff chains off. The dust settles around him and he's still extricating himself from the hole in the ground and groaning about sand being irritating and getting everywhere when a golden portal opens up (we get a high shot, showing that Loki did indeed land within a larger crater too). Loki puts his hands in the air. "Appears to be a standard sequence violation. Branch is growing at a stable rate and slope. Variant identified." "Beg your pardon but I--" "On behalf of the Time Variance Authority, I hereby arrest you for crimes against the Sacred Timeline." "I didn't meddle with time, that would be the Avengers." "You're coming with us." *agents point pruners at him* "It's been a long day, I'm afraid you'll have to make me." *loki's hands start to glow green but B-15 presses a button, freezing him in place. Any sand blowing in the wind or any dust rising has also now stopped. There is a bird stuck mid-flight. B-15 pulls out a collar and places it around his neck. An agent places a reset charge on the ground and activates it, it starts to fizz purple. Time unfreezes and B-15 drags Loki going "hey!" through a temportal, and it closes, leaving the audience to watch a few seconds of the charge going off and the radius of the charge increasing, washing the ground in a bright neon-ish light.

Episode 2: this one is a combination of the Loki episodes 1 and 2. Basically, Loki goes on trial, the TVA has no reason he's committed a crime, but Mobius who had been at the church crime scene saves him and takes him to the memory chamber to break. What gets him to stop acting as if he actually wanted to rule all of space and whatnot is Mobius bringing up the topic of choice in Avengers 1, and asking if Loki knew the mind stone was effecting him too, along with him explicitly asking about the torture which happened before, even during - he pulls up footage - the invasion. Mobius pulls up footage of Frigga and Loki pickpockets the collar remote etc. everything else remains the same, including most of episode 2, with Sylvie fighting to "I need a hero" etc, but C-20 is left behind after being enchanted. When the TVA show up C-20 is tied up hastily in leather belts and rope. She's mostly out of it saying stuff like "it's real, it's all real" but she also says "we're variants, we're all variants" which Mobius obviously brushes over casually. Loki narrows his eyes though, and says stepping out of the renaissance fair tent would have them winding up dead like the agents scattered around here, B-15 calls bluff and Mobius says to wait but the people walking in front of the ones holding C-20 up to take her to the TVA for medical help fall dead upon stepping out. Loki was stalling for time with the wold anecdote, and doesn't tell how he knew the death thing would happen ("I see a scheme, and in that scheme I see myself" "bullsh*t" "it's true. my reflection looks quite good, too." "you *sshole." *he smiles softly, as if t'were a compliment*), and everyone gets back by opening portals from within the tent. The dots between the gum and the apocalypses is drawn, they see Pompeii, end up going to Roxxcart, where we see Sylvie watching the screens, now in her leather gear. B-15 and Loki split up together, the guy at the 'hurricane sale' placed a charge on the shelf but no attention is drawn to that bc Loki and 'Loki' are talking. Sylvie emphasizes that she holds a grudge because he's a traitor, specifically for working for the TVA because they're "condescending time fascists." Loki assures her he knows, and that he's seen the charges around the place. She comes to the realization that he's been undercover/faking. We're shown Mobius and co. finding the room with screens but it's just got Sylvie's random junk, nothing really useful. They talk some more, no physical fighting but the vessel sizes get bigger and Loki calls it 'real mature'. While they still disagree on what to do with the Time Lizards (destroy or overthrow) Sylvie settles on leaving the portal open for him at the end and giving him a chance. She waits for him to go through first, with Loki looking back at Mobius meaningfully determined and then walking through.

Episode 3: Young sylvie is going through the stripping/signing/temporal aura process. She's sent into the court room. she bites and runs out of the room, putting distance before fiddling with the tempad she took, figuring it out, while Renslayer gets stuck answering the Judge. Sylvie appears back on Asgard, but there's already a Sylvie there playing with her toys. a TVA portal opens and she presses another "Asgard" on the device to escape quickly. "I just want to go home," she says to herself, appearing in the same room, but the child is a bit older (a teen?) and a boy and black and reading instead of playing but he's clearly also in green/gold and a loki. the kid turns after hearing her and she panicks and goes through another portal. another one with adult loki in the same room, she looks hopeful as if she could ask for help but then sif walks in with insults and slaps him but spots her. "who's the kid," sif asks and a portal opens up next to her. Agents step through and Sif punches one that does, asking Loki what trick this is now. Sif/Loki fight them while they're still coming through, sylvie presses another asgard but sees a knocked out agent has a tempad on his belt and takes it before running again. no loki in the room, it's empty, but a group of people rush across, talking hurriedly about 'the goddess of death' and 'odin's real heir' and 'thor and loki dead' and 'seeking refuge in the moutains.' Sylvie looks lost. Cue titlecard and cool music. They step into the TVA. Sylvie is determined, telling Loki to hurry because they won't have much time the TVA remains in disarray from the reset charges everywhere, but stops when he says he needs to get a weapon. "Why didn't you use magic to get some earlier," she asks. "Spares," he smiles, "magic doesn't work here after all." Sylvie notes that it explains her last attempts to infiltrate failing so badly. They fight some guards together on the way to the elevator rather than fighting each other. The elevator to the time keepers opens but Renslayer and a bunch of guards are in it waiting. Sylvie grabs Loki and tries to use him as a bargaining tool. Doesn't work, obviously, and Sylvie is shaken upon coming face to face with the same Hunter who had caught her as a kid, she doesn't react in time to stop Loki taking her tempad and dropping them somewhere. Same plot from here, the two of them fighting over the tempad, with Sylvie wanting to go back and Loki telling her they clearly already failed and she should explain what's going on first. She says she doesn't need to and if he wants to help defeat the TVA he needs to trust her and give the tempad back. He makes it vanish and she gets frustrated, asking if he gives up on everything that easily, and maybe that's why he's the first Loki she's seen working with the TVA. Etc. They need a power source anyway and get to the train hoping it'll lead to the ship that won't get off-planet anyway. Loki acts a fool Sylvie naps, wakes up to singing. Sylvie calls him out for not actually being drunk and also he downs a glass and offers her one, and when Sylvie asks how he's paying for it he says it's on the house and points to the barkeeper (male. we're implying/showing flirting. maybe a wink at him or a cute wave.). It's blatantly clear he's trying to get info on her backstory along the way and she's not falling for it but allowing him to know a bit of stuff. (eg. "I know everything is watered down ale for an Asgardian," "watered-down watered-down, more like. But you know of Asgard? Do go on...") She softens at hearing his backstory, and shares hers too. The people appear and ask to see their tickets, everything is the same from here forward. The episode ends with them watching the ship getting destroyed.

Episode 4: different music when sylvie and loki look into each others eyes since i didn't like that. cue titlecard and song after the TVA portals open on Lamentis. this episode remains the same mostly with Sylvie and Mobius driving the plot. No narcissist comment but Mobius gets to act jelly of what Sylvie and Loki have going on. Instead of it just being a bad memory loop with Sif we get her three times and then it alternates to Thor who is also angry. If he's not already down Thor will punch him (even though Loki is just happy to see him bc he didn't think he'd see him again--) and then tell him to hold still so it'll hurt less. It's framed as bad and Thor will imply it's only a fitting punishment. Thor is only shown twice, the first time the scene cuts at Loki being hit and held down, the second is Thor leaving the room, chuckling about how Loki didn't need to talk to anyone anyway bc he's alone, says he'll heal soon anyway. Loki isn't shown, but Thor's fingers have blood on them where they hold mjolnir. the loop resets and Loki is back to standing in the middle of the room and ghosts a hand over his mouth and then Mobius arrives. Loki calls the repeated memory boring and cruel, says he hates when Thor is drunk and feeling rash, with Mobius saying at least he didn't send him to Thanos or something and gave his crotch a break. Sylvie asks what her nexus event was and Renslayer doesn't remember. The end of the episode is the same, with Sylvie 1v1-ing Renslayer and beheading a Time Keeper, Loki getting pruned. The credit scene remains the same.

[wonderduorising]

Bakudeku Fic Recs

Wonder Duo: Rising has reached 500 followers on twitter! To celebrate, we decided to come together and create a list of Bakudeku fic recommendations. All fanfics on this list are SFW, are within the range of 300 kudos or less, and were recommended by one or more of the anthology’s contributors!

*

Fic: stones at the starlight by Shousanki

Length: 2.9k

Summary: Katsuki and Izuku struggle to survive in an adult world not kind to (not-quite) childhood sweethearts as they search for the small and good things amidst petty indignities.

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Fic: to the moon and back by Rejectimate

Length: 1.4k

Summary: Training camp has nothing on Katsuki's strict sleep schedule. But Deku's embarrassing ass sure does.

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Fic: don’t misunderstand by Kokushibo

Length: 1k

Summary: three times that kacchan addresses him. one time that he does it differently.

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Fic: Twin Stars Week ficlets by Hollyandvice (series)

Length: Varies

Summary: A collection of Bakudeku ficlets for Twin Stars Week.

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Fic: CORDIPUGUS by Greatcloudninja

Length: 3.2k

Summary: Katsuki Bakugou, a slave-turned-gladiator, has one more fight to win to earn his freedom. His goal? To be able to marry his beloved Izuku Midoriya, noble son of Senator Toshinori Yagi. But first, he has to get through his toughest battle yet.

*

Fic: when the saints by Flapkack

Length: 2.5k

Summary: In Bakugou Katsuki’s humble fucking opinion, parade blocks were one of the most effective forms of torture. Telling someone to walk straight forward, eyes ahead, shoulders square, rolling their feet, playing the exact same damn cadences over and over and over again was already bad enough. But then, toss in a string of other people to keep in line, bad marchers and freshmen, to make matters even worse.

*

Fic: Small Town Change by CommanderSipShady

Length: 12.2k

Summary: They say nothing ever happens in this sleepy town, but that night everything changed for the better. 40 year old BakuDeku real world AU. 

*

Fic: At the Mountain’s Edge by Anzul

Length: 30k (multi-chap, WIP)

Summary: Muromachi Japan, 1465. Soulmates - once nothing but a flightful fancy among the Heian nobility - have become the political currency of the century. Blessed with telepathic communication and the ability to sense each other regardless of their geographical distance once a bond has been established, they are an invaluable commodity to any warrior hoping to amass power in the wake of the Ashikaga's weakening rule.

Bakugou Katsuki is no exception. But no matter what matchmaking house his family visits, they all tell him the same thing: that at the end of his red string, there waits no one. Katsuki is destined to walk his path alone.

Now forced to become a candidate for political marriage, Katsuki must learn the traditional arts and proper courtship etiquette to attract more suitors. Izuku, the adopted protégé and matchmaking master of the Midoriya House, is hired to be his tutor. Izuku himself is not only without a soulmate, but Bondless - someone without a red string at all, but capable of seeing everyone else's.

[Or: An alternate soulmate x historical AU where everybody has soulmates except Katsuki and Izuku.]

*

Fic: all the savage soul requires by Majjale

Length: 50k (multi-chap, WIP)

Summary: Bakugou seems to have exhausted his patience for words and no longer acknowledges that Midoriya exists, so Midoriya crosses his legs, stares down at his hands limned in firelight, and makes a list of things he knows.

One. His name is Midoriya Izuku.

Two. He is a Godmarked, future god of life, heir to the divine throne.

Three. The gods have been fighting Death for eons, and now he's coming for recompense with everything he’s got.

*

Fic: to measure a year by Shousanki

Length: 4.7k (multi-chap, complete)

Summary: The dance of two leaves around each other. Collection of Katsuki/Izuku drabbles, originally written between the winter of 2017 and summer of 2018.

*

Fic: we run in antiparallel by Kokushibo

Length: 1.1k

Summary: there are different ways in which a boy can be saved.

*

Fic: this is not a night for tragedy by Keigeyama

Length: .6k

Summary: Katsuki looks at him, forehead creasing, his expression somehow at once angry and soft—then he smiles, simpering. “Well, aren’t you just the best”.

*

Fic: once more, with feeling by OneshotPrincess

Length: .8k

Summary: He’s not Yamikumo, Katsuki tells himself fiercely. He’s not Yamikumo, he thinks as he watches him play in the grass with a kite with Kouta and Eri. He’s just fucking Deku.

So why does he still make Katsuki feel this way?

*

Fic: of all kinds by Coldbones

Length: 4.3k

Summary: A story is never just a story, and a dragon can never change its scales.

*

Fic: I Don’t Have Any Roses But I Have A Rabbit? by Teaandtumblr

Length: 3.3k

Summary: Midoriya has just stepped into the world of rabbit showing only to run into his childhood friend...who is apparently also into the same thing. Lucky his rabbit is so cute!

*

Fic: Starshine by Blueslove

Length: 1.3k

Summary: Deku’s eyes always light up when he talks about that book.

It’s as if his being lives to praise the pages, like his lips don’t know how to form any other words. He speaks of the characters like they’re friends, the story as if he’d lived it himself, and the place like he’d seen it with his own eyes.

Katsuki can’t stand it.

*

Fic: another old space odyssey by Sorethroat

Length: 2k

Summary: “Car-di-o-meg..aly,” Deku fumbles around the words. “I can’t see the moon with you.”

He stands there, Deku smiling tight like if he moves his tears will spill over, and they’re too young to laugh at the idea that the insurmountable obstacle in front of them is a heart that’s just too big.

Bakugou is an astronaut but he's forgotten why. Midoriya wants him to come home.

*

Fic: Butterfly Wishes by Sushirapper

Length: 4.2k

Summary: Deep in the middle of a forest out back of a little town in the country, there lay a wishing well.

It was not particularly pretty, nor particularly deep. It was not even that magical. But it was, at the very least, old—and all folk knew that with time came the strangest of truths, best left unbelieved or unseen altogether.

Izuku was one of these truths.

Or, Izuku can grant wishes, Katsuki is a mortal who doesn't know any better, and even the most innocent things always come with a price.

*

Fic: Beyond the Veil by Seeress

Length: 11.9k (multichap, complete)

Summary: A locked door. A ghostly presence. A long forgotten name.

Katsuki goes back to his grandparent's old house and finds a presence he barely remembers, still waiting for him.

His grandmother’s stories all had the same cautionary theme: Do not stray off the path. Keep your hands to yourself. Be polite to those you meet. Be wary of undeserved generosity. Do not be deceived by masks. Remember your way home.

But Katsuki was a child of skyscrapers and 24 hour convenience stores. He walked on streets lined with man-made lights that turned on before the sun goes down the horizon and never went out until the sun rises again. He lived in a house full of noise, in a city full of living, breathing people.

He had never known true darkness; nights when even the moon sheds no light and the world is silent, but you know deep within your bones that you are not alone.

*

Fic: Nowhere I’d Rather Be by Dat_heichou

Length: 1.8k

Summary: It’s 3 a.m. on the coldest sunday of the year and Izuku is too excited to feel tired. It’s release day of the newest All Might figure and he made sure he woke up early enough to buy one.

It’s freezing and dark and Izuku is sore from the rigorous training that U.A. third years go through, but he still excitedly shifts from one foot to the other. There’s nowhere he’d rather be.

“It’s cold as fuck out here,” Katsuki gripes beside him, burrowing his nose deeper into the collar of his thick, thermal lined jacket.

*

Fic: solar by Kindaopps

Length: 7k

Summary: Here he is, a god, wanting a mortal.

*

Fic: Sunlight Moving by Peredhils

Length: 3.8k

Summary: The night air was cool but not as damp and depressing as it had been when leaving England. The sea breeze was refreshing and it was crisper than it smelled standing from the shore. Although the rocking of the boat made him a bit nauseous, coupled with the unease that came with being unable to see any land on the horizon, Katsuki liked it more than he thought he would. Standing at the ledge and looking up at the stars, all so bright and clear, was easing the day’s troubles.

He wasn’t alone for long.

Katsuki, a duke organizing the creation of a new university in England, meets astronomer Izuku on board a voyage overseas.

*

Fic: let me hurt you, until we don’t by DeKatsu

Length: 3.3k

Summary: Deku decides that using his quirk with his hero license suspended is a smart idea. Katsuki doesn't understand why he's thrown into the holding cell as Deku's accomplice.

And then they talk about feelings.

Which isn't even the weirdest shit, considering that their cell mates end up giving them the push they need.

*

Fic: last days of war by antisora

Length: 38k (multi-chap, WIP)

Summary: When the first Kaiju climbed through the portal to their world, Izuku and Katsuki were six years old. And from the tender age of six, they knew they were going to be rangers.

All Izuku wanted, all he ever wanted, was to save the world alongside his best friend.

[cescalr]

u kno how everyone has their own version of Reverse Falls?? well i have one of those lol but rn what im saying is: my version of the au where the pines twins swap places (grunkles for mystery,,,, u kno,,, i think its called Gravity Rises? Anti-Gravity??? I can’t remember damn) yeah i have little bits of dialogue written,,,, if only i could draw... anyway all under the read more:

[[the scene where Mabel cheats off of Dipper in class; prev the scene where Stan cheats off Ford. Flashback to convo;]]

Dipper: Look. All you need is decent grades in math, right? Just copy off me. 'S not like the teachers pay attention during exams, anyway.

Mabel: I dunno, Dipper...

Dipper: Come on. We need scolarships. Our parents can't afford two full rides to college.

Mabel: It feels kinda... fraud-y, though.

Dipper: Think about it this way, hey - those rich kids pay their way past exams to a full ride, this is no more unfair than that. Just levelling the playing field. They're cheating at life - you're just opening up opportunities.

Mabel: True...

Dipper: Anyway. Nobody gets left behind, right?

Mabel: Haha. Yeah. Who's to say I won't leave /you/ behind? [punches his arm, with a smile.]

Dipper: Hah. Very funny.

Mabel: Thanks, bro-bro. Awkward sibling hug?

Dipper: Awkward sibling hug.

[hug]

Both: Pat-pat.  

---

[[Big argument! Replaces the ford accuses Stan of breaking his machine. The conversation with the headmaster [uhhh, principal? in america?? i dunno im sorry] of the school is done w/ Dipper replacing Stan and Mabel replacing Ford bc I Like To Make Things Interesting!]]

Mabel: Come on, Dipper! I mean. Just - what kind of money is in /paranormal investigation/, anyway?

Dipper: What kind of money is in sculpting?

Mabel: That's not fair.

Dipper: Neither is you repeating our parents' talking points, but here we are. It's not about the money, Mabel.

Mabel: Well if it's not, then what's the point of you being on the opposite kind of the country to me?

Dipper: What's the point of you being on the opposite side of the country to /me/? Oh, that's right. You got a full ride anywhere you'd like, and there I am, trouble-maker, crazy-guy extraordinaire with the weird interests and stuipd belief in the supernatural. There was only one film school that'd take me, Mabel. You're the one who locked yourself into California.

Mabel: Why didn't you /tell/ me?

Dipper: I didn't think you'd want me around that much. What have I ever done, except pull down your stupid reputation?

Mabel: You can't still be on that. You know I don't-

Dipper: Still didn't say anything, though did you?

Mabel: That's not fair at all, Dipper.

Dipper: You never say anything. And here I am, always defending you. Maybe I felt we needed some space, huh? Maybe you give off the aura of wanting space. I'm not fun to be around.

Mabel: I didn't mean that. I just meant - you can get... kind of into a headspace I can't follow. I'm not - I don't believe in all your -

Dipper: Dumb conspiracies?

Mabel: Yes! Dipper, just - there's nothing down that road. You know that. You'll be -

Dipper: A laughingstock? Been there. Used to it.

Mabel: It doesn't have to be like that. You're really, really smart-

Dipper: So the only thing I can want to do is science?

Mabel: No, that's not it at all -

Dipper: He's a punk, he's headed nowhere, 'Mabel's a good girl, a real talent, smart and artistic... Dipper has the brain for a good life, but not the mindset. There's Fantartstic Academy, it's in California, so it's not too far from home, but it's on the other side of the state, a good distance away - I think it'd be good for your daughter to get independence, to find friends and a life outside of the trouble her brother brings. Mabel could have a real good go of it -'

Mabel: Stop it! Dipper, you know I don't believe-

Dipper: But you do! You always have!

Mabel: Just because you're /anxious/ doesn't mean you're right! We're okay! You're just paranoid!

Dipper: That's not fair.

Mabel: Oh, so now /I'm/ the unfair one? I get it. Things are only unfair when it affects /you/.

[pause]

Mabel: Why d'you have to do this?

Dipper: I - I have to prove that I'm right, Mabel. I have to. This stuff exists, I know it does, I've just got to find it.

Mabel: And, what? You're going to prove something people have been trying to figure out for centuries? Dipper. How can you tell me to get out of dreamworld when that's where you're staying?

Dipper: Screw you.

Mabel: Screw /you/.

---

As for other stuff;

Mabel makes the portal! It takes Dipper 30 years to activate it after she’s pushed in bc her instructions are Terrible. Partly because she didn’t understand much of it. Bill painted the whole thing as like, a monument of the arts or w/ever im still figuring that one out 

Dipper takes Grunkle Stan’s place as the person they’re sent to visit. He’s been pretending Mabel’s been in various foreign countries for years @ this point. Uses either magic/tech to create voicemails for the family, has her be bubbly but distant, w/ promises to visit that she never keeps, which. you know he feels bad about but he needs to make people think she’s alive

Dipper had a ghost hunting TV show! For like three years, then went off the air bc of low ratings. Apparently real ghosts scare people! And kill them. Who knew. Also everyone thought the special effects were bad. Whoops. Anyway he runs a tourist attraction out of Mabel’s old ‘nature living art lodge’. It makes a good haunted house during high traffic at halloween/Summerween. The entrance to the basement is in his office, which used to be one of Mabel’s art studios. Dipper took all the bill art down because he pays attention to warnings written in blood. 

Im swapping all ages here, so Dipper is good friends with Pacifica and Wendy. Gideon is ... a threat. Lee, Nate and Thompson are still in town. Tambry and Robbie are not. 

Soos is 8, Fiddleford is 13, Stan and Ford are 12. Etc. 

Because of how we’re swapping this, some people’s parents might have to become their children. I’m not a fan of that, but we’ll see. Filbrick Pines was the youngest sibling of Mabel and (Mason) Dipper. He’s not well liked by the family. And he doesn’t like his own family all that much, hence the distance between them. He likes his kids even less, though, so Gravity Falls they go! I hate that guy. 

Ma Pines may or may not come with them? Hmm.

[skylarmoon71]

Harry Wells x Witch Reader (Flash) Short Story: Chapter 1

“Harry get down!” The male ducked at Iris’s words, and Iris flinched, barely dodging the blaze of fire that blasted in her direction.

“Whooo! Next time make sure those cuffs are on!!” Their present metahuman had not very safe fire wielding powers. After just barely stopping him from blowing up his old job building, they were now struggling to contain him. Barry was dealing with another situation, so they were fighting to hold their own.

“Killer frost would come in handy right about now.” Iris squealed, ducking behind an overturned table, and Harry frowned, jumping to the same location. Without his gun he was a sitting duck.

“What’s the plan?” Harry asked.

“Wait it out.” she advised. They couldn’t exactly face him off. Harry raised his head to glimpse the spot of his weapon. It was on the other side of the room. If he was fast enough, he could make a break for it. Iris followed his gaze. “Harry no, we wait for Barry and the others. I don’t want to explain why you got barbecued!!”

The laughter of their assailant wasn’t very comforting.

“Come on old man, let’s see if you can outrun my flames.” He challenged. Harry’s mood was quickly depleting.

“Ready or no-” The bright flash of a light temporarily blinded the meta, and both Harry and Iris turned in the direction. She sighed in relief, assuming it was Cisco vibing in, but was surprised when a young woman jumped through the circular portal. Sporting a duffle bag too. It disappeared almost as quick as it appeared, and now all the attention shifted.

“What do we have here?” the male snickered, raising his hands as flames erupted.

“W-Watch out!” Iris yelled.

Your eyes shifted between the man standing in front of you and the two people hiding behind a desk.

“You’re kinda cute, might not set you on fire.” He spoke. Harry thought for sure you would at least react to the man that was holding fire in his palms, then again, you’d just jumped through a portal from who knows where.

“Damn it, so much for a vacation, I was so ready to kick back and relax, now I gotta deal with this.” you dropped the bag, stretching your limbs. The meta raised an eyebrow, a bit annoyed at your reaction.

“Hey! Don’t you realize you’re in some real danger. Don’t ignore me you bi-”

“Somnum.” As soon as the words left your lips his eyes shined blue, and he fell to the ground, unmoving. Iris and Harry released a breath, now they were facing an entirely different problem. When you saw the guarded way they were looking at you, you waved your hands around.

“O-Oh shit no I didn’t kill him or anything, he’s just asleep!” you said hurriedly, running over and flipping him unto his back. Iris felt a bit more reassured when she saw the steady rise and fall of his chest. “See, completely fine. Maybe a moron but fine.” you grinned, and Iris picked herself from behind the desk. Harry wasn’t as welcoming. He squinted, taking slow steps to his gun, just in case.

“You really saved us there. Thank you.” Iris moved closer with a friendly smile which you returned. “Of course, fighting demons is sort of my thing.” Iris’s brows furrowed. “Demons?” you nod. “Yeah, what else could he be. Humans don’t exactly have magic powers am I right?” you laughed at your own joke, and Iris realized at that moment that maybe she didn’t really understand this. She thought for sure you were a meta. “He..he wasn’t a demon, he’s a meta.”

“A what now? “

You had no idea what metahumans were, so the theory of you being one was completely off.

Harry grabbed his gun, charging it up and pointing it at you.

“Who are and what do you want!”

“Harry!” Iris scolded.

“What, she just pops up from a circle light and knocks that meta out without so much as a flinch. I think we should be a little more cautious. “

You were still smiling widely at Harry. He didn’t know what was more unsettling, the fact that you didn’t look the least bit intimidated, or the way your smile directed at him was giving him weirdly calming vibes.

“I’m a witch!” you chirped.

“Come again?” Harry spoke.

“Witch, you know, magical powers, fighting demons and other evil magical creatures. I know what you’re thinking, brooms and pointing hats which personally I’d like to say is a bit offensive if you really think about it and-” The whiplash of wind smacked into your face and your eyes widen at the man now standing at the dark skinned women’s side. He was wearing a suit and all.

“Woah, that’s a lot of red..”

“Iris are you okay, what happened? I got a notification that the lab was under attack. “ He seemed distracted with his worry for the woman, and she quickly reassured him.

“I’m good Barry, after you guys dropped that meta off he kind of went on a rampage. The cuffs got loose.” Barry looked over, now noticing the way Harry was still holding a gun, when he followed he saw the very unconscious male, and an unfamiliar woman.

“Uh, hi.” he said a bit awkwardly.

“Sup.” you greeted.

“Who umm, who is this?” he inquired.

“(Y/N), (L/N) at your service. Full fledged witch.”

“A...witch?”

“Yep! So you guys get any food around here. Been travelling for a while. “ you just started walking around, in search of a fridge it would seem. Barry’s brows knitted and Iris sighed.

“Interesting...”

That was an understatement.

~~~~

“So while we were out superheroing, you guys found a wizard?” Cisco voiced.

“Witch.” you corrected, munching on your fries.

“Well, I’m just glad you came in when you did, you really saved us.” Iris thanked.

“We had it handled.” Harry groused from his side. He was messing with some type of machine, and you just scrunched your nose at him. In which he blinked in confusion. “Please tell me why again we’re entertaining this kid.”

“Excuse me I’m thirty-five! Although I’m flattered by your compliment.”

“You’re older than me?” Barry asked in confusion. You nod. “What, do I really not look like it.” It did make sense why those bouncers always asked you for ID before entering.

“What can I say, got good genes.”

Iris was still watching you with a little smile. You smiled back of course, a bit confused, but still happy that she wasn’t as mean as Harry. Barry noticed, and he had a feeling he knew why his wife was looking at you so fondly. He reached over, giving her arm a squeeze, and she looked up at him, glowing. There was a secret exchange between the both of them.

“Can I just comment that you guys are so cute, kind of remind me of Harry and Macy, if they ever stop avoiding the obvious that is.”

“Wait, there’s a Harry in your world too?”

“Well yeah, but he isn’t like Mr. Grumpy over there. Plus he british. He’s a whitelighter.”

“What’s that?” Cisco was as expected curious about all you had to offer. He’d been quizzing you since he got back from as he phrased ‘superheroing.’

“They're like guardians, they protect witches like me. Macy and her sisters, their witches like me. I needed to take a break from the whole helping save the world thing. It seemed safe now so I thought I’d do a little universe jumping. My day job was getting a little stressful too. My brother thought I could use the relaxation so he’s running our business right now. I wonder sometimes if we’re even related because the guy loves working. Guess you get that way when you work long enough and I feel like I’m rambling, am I rambling?”

“Annoyingly.” came Harry’s flat response.

“Kay..so do you guys mind if I stick around town for a while. I can even help with your little meta problem which is even crazier than fighting demons every once in a while. “

You were grinning so widely, Barry didn’t really have the will to turn you down.

“S-Sure why not.”

“Are you serious Allen, for all we know this whole story could be made up. Witches, really? What if she’s just some psychopathic meta.”

“First of all, ouch, I’m not some psycho.” he looked utterly unimpressed.

“Is it really that hard for you to believe in magic, you fight superhuman people on the daily. “

“They were brought about by science, logical explanation. Magic isn’t real. No proof, no logic.”

You shifted from your seat, dusting your hands. Stepping closer, you stopped when you were face to face with him. He was pretty tall now that you were closer.

“Handsome.”

He was still somewhat glaring at you, and the others in the room were watching in anticipation.

“Let our eyes reveal what cannot be seen, and show those what seems make believe.” you turned your palm, and Harry’s gaze shifted to the pink light now emitting from your hand.

“Terra, ventus, ignis, aqua.” 

Right before his eyes, he could see the elements swerving in your hand. The four major elements connected, right before they rose, in seconds the light from you dissipated, flashing quick and evaporating, leaving nothing but bright specs of what appeared to be crystals. Harry gaped.

“Awesome…” Cisco muttered.

“Somethings in life aren’t logical Harrison, doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Love, fear, hope...these are all things that exist, but we can’t see it, touch it, does that deter the belief in its existence?”

Harry was speechless. This time when you watched him, you were just beaming, and he couldn’t comprehend why it erupted a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. You just stared at each other, after a few silent moments, Harry moved his gaze to the floor, clearing his throat and adjusting his glasses. Without another word he was walking off. You watched him until he made it around the counter.

“I think he likes me.”

Cisco laughed, and so did everyone else in the room.

[sidecarghost]

15x18+ Spn Coda Happy Destiel Ending Fic

Dean was in a hospital bed. His eyes stared blankly at the ceiling. There were no doctors, but Sam brought him here to take advantage of the medical equipment. He found his brother like a corpse with his eyes open sitting with his back against the wall of the bunker’s dungeon.

Chuck stopped by now and then to make sure Sam and Jack still looked miserable. They had not disappointed Chuck yet.

Jack could visit Dean’s dreams, and he brought Sam too in an attempt to awaken Dean. But Dean was blind to their presence. No matter how loud they screamed, Dean couldn’t hear them. And Dean couldn’t feel them, no matter how violently they hit him.

From what Sam could tell Dean was dreaming they were working with Michael to take Chuck down. And that Jack had some kind of power vacuum ability. Michael and Lucifer were throwing fireballs at eachother like a couple kids having a snowball fight. Lucifer somehow snapped Death out of existence, and now they had a pet dog running around the Bunker.

“It’s not supernatural, Sam,” Jack said. “I can’t fix him.”

“I know,” Sam held his brother’s hand and watched the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest. “That Heaven he is stuck in is so depressing though Jack. Jeez I can’t believe our dad is there with him. John definitely didn’t deserve to go to Heaven after the shit he pulled. Then Dean was talking like he was an actor from the AU where our lives were a tv show on that bridge. It’s just so bizarre I wish we could ease his mind.”

“Me too, but what can we do?” Jack asks.

“Something must have happened to Cas,” Sam says, “Dean keeps starting the same dream over and over telling the dream us that Cas saved him. By summoning the Empty somehow.”

“Cas had made a deal with the Empty. Maybe that let him summon the Empty here,” Jack said. Sam raised an eyebrow in question, so Jack explained the terms of the deal to Sam. The deal was a contract to save Jack’s soul, and the Empty would wait until Cas was happy and then strike him down and drag him away.

“So maybe the Empty has something to do with Dean going catatonic,” Sam says.

Sam and Jack watch the still body of Dean in the hospital bed.

They were the last three souls on an empty planet.

~~

Jack started performing the ritual he had seen Nick do to summon Lucifer from the Empty.

As the spell finished, Cas and Billie, emerged through a portal from the Empty.

Sam was surprised to see Billie and after glancing towards Jack it looked like he was too.

“Jack!” Cas hugged Jack and then Sam. “Hello Sam, where’s Dean?”

“He’s gone into a coma Cas,” Sam tells Cas. “We found him sitting against the bunker’s dungeon wall, and he hasn’t been responsive since then.”

“We have business Castiel,” Billie tells the angel.

“Billie, the CE, and I have decided Chuck needs to be stopped, and we have put aside our differences for the time being,” Cas says. “Jack can you help Billie with whatever she needs. Sam, show me where Dean is.”

Jack and Billie find Chuck and use a powerful spell that Billie learned from the CE to free Amara so she becomes the dominant form and Chuck is left trapped inside her mind for safe keeping. Amara snaps her fingers and the Rapture is undone. The world is full of noise once more as people and animals once again appear as though they had never left.

Amara tells Billie and Jack that she needs to leave and work to get Heaven fixed. Now that she understands light and darkness she is confident she can restore what her brother left broken. And she has ideas that may help the CE in the Empty too.

Billie thanks Jack for his help and leaves to restore order to her library and her reapers.

~~

Meanwhile, Sam took Cas to the hospital room. Dean was still staring at the ceiling. Cas walked up and cupped Dean’s face in his hand.

“Hello Dean,” Cas says softly staring down into the blank eyes of the man he loves.

Dean remained motionless. And a moment later Cas appeared in Dean’s dream.

Cas looked around and saw he was at a gas station. Dean was carrying a dog towards the Impala.

“Who would think finding a dog would be a miracle?” Cas overhears Dean tell the canine.

“Dean!” Cas yells.

Dean looks up, but he doesn’t see Cas. He looks right through Cas to something across the street. Cas turns and sees Chuck standing there laughing like a lunatic. The dog disappears in a puff of smoke.

Cas can’t get Dean’s attention. He runs up to Dean, but Dean can’t see him. He yells at Dean, but Dean can’t hear him. He punches Dean, but Dean can’t feel him.

Cas attempts to burn down the church where Michael is hiding but no one reacts to the raging inferno. They keep talking about some plan to defeat Chuck.

“Stop Dean!” Cas yells “Its not Chuck. Michael would be dead Chuck isn’t going to be fooled by some human house of worship.”

Dean is in the bunker, and Cas follows him through his dream never leaving his side. Dean hears the phone ring and answers “Cas!”

Cas wonders if he’s about to meet his dream self. He wonders if dream Cas is going to be taller. Cas watched Dean sprint up the stairs to meet him at the bunker door. And he sees Lucifer?

Well at least Lucifer is an enemy they have confidently beaten before. Cas ignores dream Lucifer and starts looking through the lore while dream Michael and dream Lucifer engage in some embarrassing snowball fight. Cas tries to tune it out while he searching desperately for something in the library that could help Dean’s condition.

Suddenly they are all at the side of a lake. Chuck killed Michael. And now he was beating the snot out of Sam and Dean. Cas tried to put his body as a shield between Chuck and the Winchester’s but no one was affected by his presence. Cas screamed in bitterness and frustration, but no one paid attention to him. Jack walked over and knocked Chuck down. Cas was relieved that Dean wasn’t getting hit anymore.

They got into the Impala and drove to some town. Jack made people appear and then Jack disappeared. Sam and Dean drove to the bunker. Dean drank himself to sleep and Cas watched over him.

The brothers started working a case and Cas watched in horror as a vampire in a mask pushed Dean into a spike.

Cas couldn’t watch Dean die not even in a dream. Cas grabbed his angel blade and slit his own throat. Cas was cutting his grace out. He hoped that if Dean had angel grace he’d snap out of it. Cas began to feel light headed from the quick drop in power.

Cas knelt down on the barn floor. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and saw Dean smiling at him. The dream vampires and dream Sam all had disappeared. Cas and Dean were alone in the dark barn. Dean looked unhurt to Cas.

“Cas, why are you hurt?” Dean asked.

“You are in a coma Dean. I couldn’t wake you, and I thought angels don’t sleep. So I wanted to give you my grace,” Cas said.

Dean knelt down beside Cas, and put Cas’s hand to his own neck. “Heal yourself Cas!” Dean said with worry furrowed on his brow.

“I can’t Dean. I gave it all. I’m human now.” Cas smiled. Cas knew his situation was dire and now he’d bleed out. But he got to see his Dean again, and he couldn’t help from smiling. “I thought I lost you. Dean, does this barn remind you of the night we met?”

“Forget about the memories Cas. I want the real you. I’ve been stuck in this dream over and over. And I knew if I could just find you I’d snap out of it. You can’t leave buddy. We just found each other again. I thought you were gone forever. Because you never told me goodbye before,” Dean whispers to Cas. Dean puts his own hand over Cas’s throat and to his surprise his hand glows and Cas’s throat is healed.

“Cas, what the fuck?” Dean asks Cas.

“Uhh, you have my grace so now you have angelic powers.” Cas tells Dean.

“I don’t want them, Cas. Can I give them back? How do I fix this?” Dean asks. Dean stands up and offers Cas his hand to help him up.

“There is nothing to fix, Dean. I don’t need those powers anymore. I’d like to live a human life.” Cas looks at Dean.

“Cas, I think losing you. It broke something inside me. Everytime I lose you it gets harder for me to recover. When you pulled me out of Hell, I was torturing souls and I enjoyed it. Ever since then I’ve been barely keeping it together. I close my eyes and see myself ripping limbs off of humans with a smile on my face. Cas, you are the only one that knows that and still loves me. You have seen me at my worst and love me for me.” Dean tells Cas.

“Who you were then, that’s not who you are now. That doesn’t define you,” Cas says. “You—” Dean leans in to kiss Cas on the lips. Then Dean pulls back and looks at Cas. Cas appears totally astonished, and Dean smiles at Cas because he’s beautiful and amazing.

“I love you, Cas. I never believed in angels or a greater power before we met. I only believed in the things I could see. But then I met you Cas. You gave up Heaven, and everything you had ever known because you believed in doing the right thing. You believed in us. You fought for us.” Dean said, “You are more than an angel to me. You are my Cas.” Dean wraps his arms around Cas. “Cas, can we get out of here?”

“Yes Dean, you just need to wake up,” Cas says.

~~

Cas blinks and is back in the hospital with Dean and Sam. The hospital also has nurses and technicians walking along the hallways.

“Hey Cas! It looks like the Rapture got reversed.” Sam looks at Cas. “Um... any luck with Dean?”

“Yes Sam, actually Dean was the one that pulled me out of the dream,” Cas said.

“Oh wow really?” Sam walked over to the side of Dean’s bed and leaned over to see if there was any change in Dean. Dean’s eyes were still open and looking on the ceiling. Then Sam felt an arm grab his shoulder and shake him, and Sam found himself flinching involuntarily.

“Got you!” Dean laughed.

“Go to hell,” Sam rolled his eyes and then leaned in to hug his brother.

Dean hopped out of bed, and asked Sam if he could borrow his knife. Sam nods and hands his brother his blade. Then Sam announces he has a text from Eileen, and he’ll be back in a bit.

“Where’s Jack?” Dean asks.

“Here I am,” Jack appears in the room. An orderly screams. “Oh don’t worry I’m a magician, and that was part of my magic act,” Jack tells the frightened orderly.

Dean grabs a specimen cup out of a drawer and slices his neck. The grace drips into the specimen cup. After it’s filled Dean replaces the lid on the jar.

“Dean, I meant it before I don’t want my grace back,” Cas says.

Jack reaches out to heal Dean’s neck. “Here Jack can you keep this in a pocket dimension for safe keeping?” Dean hands Jack the jar.

Jack nods his head and disappears. Another orderly screams but the first orderly explains it’s part of a magic act.

“I’m glad you still don’t want your grace,” Dean walks over to Cas and reaches out to hold his hands. “I’m ready to try new things. The stress of hunting has been wearing me down. I’m running on adrenaline and I am barely coping anymore. I’m too tired to feel anything but anger most of the time. I want to find some peace, and I’d like to grow old with you Cas.”

“And I’d like to grow old with you, Dean Winchester.” Cas says.

They share a kiss and then another. “Dean if we’re still in your coma, I don’t want to wake up,” Cas says.

“No Cas, we’re not dreaming. This is real. We’re real,” Dean tells Cas while punctuating the answer with kisses under his jawline. “And now that we have each other, nothing can drag us apart.”

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

"my hatred of Ahsoka" - okay, you've got me curious. What's the beef?

Hey anon! Warning this is going to get very VERY long and their will be major spoilers for Star Wars Rebels (SWR), The Mandalorian and The Clone wars (TCW) so if you don’t want to be spoiled please watch those shows before reading this. Also if you like Ahsokas character please skip this because this does get salty. Obviously if you like the character that’s fine I’m just explaining my beef. Also I’ll be going into a fair bit of details to give background and context to the scene just in case you haven’t seen certain series to try and minimize confusion.

So I’ll break this down into parts because as I said I have a lot to say.

-Jedi or Not?

One key feature about Ahsoka in SWR is that she repeatedly insists that she is not a Jedi. However despite insisting she is not a Jedi she continually participated in Jedi activities, Din goes to find her to train baby Yoda, she goes with Kanan and Ezra to Malachore, the Jedi council contacts her for help even with Mandalore and she was even planning on returning to the order shortly before Order 66 happens, and during the Rise of Skywalker every voice we hear is a confirmed Jedi that is dead, BUT we also hear Ahsokas voice and Filoni himself said she’s not dead. Why is Ahsoka able to do this trick of speaking to Rey when not dead? Why is she even participating in this VERY Jedi moment and acting as a Jedi guide to Rey despite her continued I distance even in the Mandalorian that she is not a Jedi? And this is all that I remember off the top of my head. She insists she’s not a Jedi while overall trying to pretend she is one and this seems like it’s solely for the purpose of her being allowed to not die while all the other Jedi characters are brutally killed in a lazy way to explain Yoda’s line about the Jedi in the original trilogy which goes on to my next point:

-Ahsoka comes back to life when no one else can

In TCW their is an episode where Ahsoka, Anakin and Obi-Wan are trapped in this strange planet where the force seems much more powerful and the Son and Daughter live who are embodiments if the dark and light side of the force respectively. During the events of the episode Ahsoka is killed by the brother and then subsequently saved by the gravely injured Daughter who gives Ahsoka her remaining life force. Given that the father (also seemingly a manifestation of the force itself) the scene reads as the force interfering to prevent Ahsoka from dying.

In season 2 of Rebels, Ahsoka comes face to face with Darth Vader himself and goes into a battle to the death. Later on in an episode I loath with every fiber of my being “A World Between Worlds” after being forced to watch his mentor Kanan die a very brutal death Ezra finds a realm that seems to have inspired the portals in RWBY where time is meaningless and their are portals showing various events in time. Ezra finds the portal showing the dual between Ahsoka and Vader where we see Ahsoka stab the crumbling ground beneath her and Vader in attempt to save him from being killed by the holocron s blast and he raises his saber to kill her. In order to keep her from dying, Ezra pulls her out and saves her life. In this moment Ezra realizes he could save Kanan, his mentor and father figure whom he just had to watch brutally die, with Ahsoka, whom Ezra had just saved in the same manner, follows him and prevents him from saving Kanan saying that he wanted to save his family and thus wanted to die this way and Ezra shouldn’t interfere, which really to me reads as Ahsoka realizing Ezra saving Kanan via time travel risks HER then actually dying and selfishly saying that to save her own ass rather then believing Ezra shouldn’t interfere with events of the past. The whole way Kanan died also has some ableist undertones which I won’t get into which also further makes these episodes that much harder to swallow and I’ll be happy to elaborate for anyone whose curious as to why I think this. Anyways since again Loth Wolves which are again heavily tied to the force was the one who guided Ezra to this place that exists outside of time we ONCE AGAIN have the force going out of its way to keep Ahsoka alive. It’s especially frustrating since the force refused to help the Jedi slaughtered during Order 66, refused to help Kanan despite him doing what the force basically ordered him to do which lead to his death, and refused in general to help like anyone doing the will of the force which led to their death.

What is Ahsoka doing that is so important the force over and over again feels she has to be saved but no one else ever does anything that is deserving of being saved in the same way and just has to die and stay dead? Why is no other character that is a good guy ever allowed to come back and be saved like Ahsoka?

- She is being shoved into EVERYTHING

This statement may feel like an exaggeration but it’s kind of hitting a point where it’s not so much anymore. She’s obviously in the Clone Wars, she makes another appearance in season 7 despite leaving the order to figure things out on her own and again participate in Jedi business (while this is honestly an understandable return it does show a bit of a pattern). She then makes her appearance in the Rebels era acting as Fulcrum over several seasons. Her next appearance is in the Mandaloran as the Jedi Din is searching for to potentially train baby yoda (avoiding the name to avoid unnecessary spoilers). I can’t help but wonder why they threw in Ahsoka other then to tease at the Ahsoka series and completely throw off the line time and actively retcon the Rebels timeline.

For those of you confused by this, let me explain. Originally when the Rebels epilogue took place we where told it was 5 years later after the fall of the empire. However we also know the Mandalorian takes place 10 years after the fall of the empire. This is important because in the Mandalorian Ahsoka is currently looking for Thrawn and Ezra ALONE but in the Rebels epilogue Sabine and Ahsoka leave together. The original plan of leaving Ezra lost for 5 years was bad enough but now it’s been changed to 10 years and the show and description have no mention of Sabine and is all about Ahsoka.

Rather then using a character that wouldn’t mess up timelines or even just in general let us find out other characters fates instead Ahsoka is used and at times it feels like people think she is the ONLY animated female character to exist in all of Star Wars. Why not have one of the Padawan from the clone wars be Fulcrum? Why couldn’t say Ventress or Cal be the Jedi Din searches for? Why couldn’t Kanan be allowed to live and be the one to search for his Padawan? Their are just so many options to give other characters a chance to shine but over and over again it’s given to Ahsoka.

I know she’s a very popular character and most people would disagree with me, and that’s fine these are just my frustrated and pissed off opinions. Feel free to disagree with me it’s just my two cents after all.

[cheshiresense]

Oh, can I ask for Ichigo in a Witcher AU (if you've watched the show ? Medieval Fantasy Generic AU if you haven't...)

I’m afraid the only thing I know about the Witcher is that the main character is this really strong antisocial grumpy dude that nobody likes, who goes around killing monsters for money, and one day he saves a guy who becomes like his PR manager/best friend or something. That’s it. So I’ll have to go with a generic medieval fantasy AU instead.

1. Ichigo is a mercenary, a monster-killer-for-hire (which is the only bit of the Witcher I can incorporate lmao). But yeah, he’s a mercenary, trained by his family, who have been hermits in like the Forest of Menos or something since before Ichigo was born because the Kingdom of Seireitei exiled them ages ago for dabbling in dangerous magic. Oh, normal magic is fine, the healing chants that their clerics learn, the potions and elixirs that their druids make, the purifying prayers their priests all know to defend the kingdom from ghosts and demons.

But the Shibas had always been a little too curious for their own good, more interested in pushing the boundaries of magic than being afraid of it, and even before their exile, they’d been fairly well-known for their summoning magic, which already made them powerful, one of the biggest noble families of the kingdom with a specialized branch of magic passed down through their line. But then they discovered elemental magic, and even worse, they refused to hand over their research and knowledge to concerned parties who would’ve been able to monitor its usage more responsibly. That was the last straw, as far as the church and the other nobility and the government were concerned. Some wanted that magic for themselves, others wanted to erase all traces of it. Most of the Shibas were hunted down and killed, the rest scattered, and summoning magic was banned in their wake. Elemental magic left with them, not a single page of notes left behind in their wake, a final fuck-you to the kingdom they’d once served so faithfully.

Decades down the road, the Shiba name is barely remembered and never spoken of. Ichigo’s left home after deciding the hermit life really wasn’t for him and he’d like to see more of the world. He knows his history, knows to stay out of Seireitei, so he makes his living by wandering the lands around his ancestral kingdom. Mercenaries like him can find work so long as there are monsters, and there are monsters everywhere, and Ichigo is good at his job, especially with his family’s magics at his disposal. There was a reason Seireitei drove the Shibas to death and ruin the same way they annihilated the Quincy kingdom in the east, too scared of the exorcist warriors they trained to tolerate their existence. Fear has always been a powerful motivator.

2. Meanwhile, back in Seireitei, a huge fuss is kicked up when one of the Kuchikis’ youngest up and coming officers ends up freezing the entire sparring yard one day at the Academy after snapping under the stress of constant bullying for coming from lowborn roots. She collapses immediately after, but there’s no taking back all the frozen trees and grass and buildings in the vicinity. Incorporating ice magic into her blade definitely counts as elemental magic, one thing leads to another, and by the time she wakes up, she’s been locked up in a cell somewhere because half the kingdom wants to know how she did it so they can do it too while the other half wants her dead. Everyone agrees that they can’t risk her falling into the wrong hands or under the wrong influence. Weeks later, when her execution seems imminent, her brother-in-law and head of house manages to sneak her out of the prison and back to the Kuchiki estate, where he then practically throws her at a portal gate already open and waiting for her.

“You cannot remain here,” Byakuya tells her, cold and aloof like he doesn’t care at all, but the grip he has on her shoulders is almost bruising. “Seireitei is not kind to those who are too different.” He shoves a bag into her arms. “This is all I can do for you. This portal will take you to the outer edge of Rukongai. Do not use ice magic. Do not come back. If you are found within Seireitei after tonight, I will not save you again. Do you understand?”

Rukia wants to cry and rage and beg Byakuya to make this all go away, she’s actually still not entirely sure what she did wrong, accidental magical outbursts don’t happen every day but they’re pretty common in students just beginning their magical studies. What did it matter if she froze a few things? She didn’t even hurt anyone! Was ice magic really so terrible? She’d never even heard of anyone using it before.

But she also promised herself that she wouldn’t do anything to dishonour the Kuchiki name after Byakuya was kind enough to continue looking after her just because he’d loved her sister.

So she swallows down her protests and takes the supplies, and they both pretend she doesn’t have tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes.

“Will I see you again?” She can’t help asking.

Byakuya’s face looks carved from stone. “I sincerely hope not.” And then he pushes her through the gate.

Rukia staggers out somewhere on the outskirts of Rukongai, the surrounding expanse of land that lies between Seireitei and the other kingdoms. The portal snaps shut behind her, and then she really is well and truly alone. It isn’t as if she’s never been in Rukongai before, she and her sister were born here after all, but she’d never been here, so far out, so much closer to the rest of the world than Seireitei.

So she does what she’s wanted to do for weeks but wouldn’t let herself when there were guards watching - she spends the next ten minutes or so huddled on the ground sobbing her eyes out, because now she has no family, no home, and no idea where to go from here. She’s no stranger to survival - at the very least, she knows how to barter and trade, look out for pickpockets and navigate towns without standing out too badly, which is actually more than she can say for a lot of highborn kids, but she’s also completely alone, and she wasn’t even out of the Academy yet. If she stumbles on monsters, which is more likely the farther away she is from Seireitei, she’s probably going to end up very dead.

Eventually, she stops, scrubs her face clean, and digs through her pack to see what Byakuya had given her. Money, clothes, a bit of food and water under preservation spells, a map of Rukongai, a couple daggers, and some healing salve and bandages. It’s better than she expected, less than she hoped for, but anything less than a magic wand to turn back time is less than she hoped for.

In the end, all she can do is shoulder her pack and begin trudging her way towards the nearest town. Whining about the unfairness of it all isn’t going to help her, and night will fall soon. The last thing she wants is to be caught out in the middle of nowhere when the sun goes down.

3. Of course, it’s just Rukia’s luck when two weeks later, trouble runs into her. One moment, she’s counting coins in the room of another inn (she’s already running low, with no real job prospects in sight), the next, there’s shouting and screaming from outside, and in the distance, a lone wolf’s howl splits the night.

In the room next to hers, Ichigo’s eyes snap open. Oh good, his meal ticket has arrived.

By the time Rukia’s good sense is overridden by the desire to figure out what is going on, someone - from the room beside hers - has already leapt out the window, more shouting and screaming and running footsteps have stampeded through the streets below, angry snarls has followed, and Rukia bursts outside with a dagger clutched tight in her hand just in time to see a cloaked figure whirl around the fangs and claws of a beast, a werewolf, a blade of silver in his hand, and Rukia barely even sees the rise and fall of it before the werewolf has lost both arms. It barely has time to howl in agony as it collapses to the ground, and then orange light sparks at the stranger’s fingertips, and a moment later, the werewolf has burst into flames.

Rukia gawks like an idiot because she’s definitely never seen a spell like that before, and more than that, the stranger made the whole fight look easy. Against a werewolf.

The street is silent once the werewolf dies. No one else is around, and the stranger simply straightens and turns. It takes her a few seconds to realize he’s leaving.

It takes her less than that to run after him.

If this man knows fire magic, surely he would know something about ice magic too? But, more than that, he is strong. If she can be half as strong as him, then maybe, maybe, even if she can never go home again, she might at least be able to make something of herself.

4. Ichigo would like it to be known that he had not agreed to this. But this stupid, ridiculously weak girl won’t stop following him around, and the one time he’d shaken her and left her behind in between towns, his conscience had forced him to double-back when he’d heard from someone in the next town that there’d been a pack of wargs roaming the surrounding hills. Of course, because either his luck was shit or the girl’s luck was shit, he’d arrived just in time to prevent her death-by-warg.

She really was useless with those daggers.

“So teach me how to be better then!” The girl demands, a humiliated flush high in her cheeks but a stubborn tilt to her chin. She looks scruffy and tired, and Ichigo has no idea what she’s doing on her own because it’s pretty fucking clear she’s not used to nomadic life. But she seems to want to get stronger, and everybody has to start somewhere, so Ichigo supposes he can’t begrudge her ambitions, whatever they might be.

Still, “I don’t do anything for free,” Ichigo tells her, even though that’s not strictly true considering he’s already saved her life for free.

The girl glares at him because they both know full well she barely has enough money for meals and a roof over her head these days, but then she offers, “Teach me, and once I get strong enough, I’ll become a mercenary too. Then, I’ll give you a portion of my pay for however long it takes me to clear my debt.”

Ichigo stares dubiously at her, at her dirty but expensive clothes, at her daggers that would probably cost Ichigo half a year’s worth of bounties, at delicate hands unused to the wilderness. But he also takes in the way she crosses her arms and scowls back with a desperate sort of defiance and steel in her spine, and in the end, he heaves a sigh.

“You better keep your word,” He warns her. “Or I’ll take your head myself.”

The girl brightens. Ichigo already regrets everything.

But from that point on, he gains a travelling companion/pseudo-apprentice. Her name is Rukia - no last name - but it becomes pretty clear why when he starts her magic studies by telling her to show him what she already knows. It’s all basic stuff, and she’s not even that good at it, but then she also haltingly admits to an uncontrolled burst of ice magic, and Ichigo gets a pretty good idea why she’s wandering around like a ruffian.

After that, he tells her of Seireitei’s glorious history, specifically the parts the kingdom has swept under the rug, and the consequences of using elemental magic even outside of Seireitei. Not illegal, but not wise to flaunt either.

“But you know it too!” Rukia points out. “Fire is elemental magic, isn’t it?”

Ichigo grunts an affirmative. “Yeah, and I either make sure nobody’s around, or if they ask, I show them some matches and pretend they just didn’t see it.”

And then, fed-up with talking, he shoves her into the river at their feet. She screeches the whole way in and the whole way back up. “ICHIGO!”

Ichigo smiles meanly. “If you want to learn elemental magic, you need a better foundation first. Let’s start with meditation.”

If she gets good enough one day to even halfway succeed in murdering him the way her furious black glare tells him she wants to, he’ll consider these lessons worth it.

5. And basically I just want these two to become badass mercenaries together. Ichigo was totally fine and prepared to spend the rest of his life alone, with maybe the occasional trip home to visit family. But then Rukia barrelled into his life and refused to leave, and as he gets to know her and vice-versa, he supposes there are (significantly) worse people in the world. She’s a quick learner, and she doesn’t complain, she works hard, and their somewhat antagonistic relationship smooths out with time, enough that eventually it becomes second nature to look for her first. And even after Ichigo deems her good enough to strike off on her own, all she does is remind him of her debt to him and refuse to leave. He feels like that’s going to become a theme in their lives.

Their little group probably expands over time. They bump into a Quincy exorcist, one of the last of a lost kingdom. Ishida is even pricklier than Ichigo but he can shoot a target blind and he takes to following them too after the three of them lay waste to a cave full of vampires with a combination of elemental magic and fancy arrows. Apparently, the scholar in him just can’t leave a completely unknown branch of magic alone.

They pick up more people - Kisuke and Yoruichi, two survivors of a caravan train that had been travelling from Seireitei to Las Noches (”Shihouin,” Rukia whispers to Ichigo the moment she lays eyes on Yoruichi’s eyes and hair and skin) that had been overrun by nightwraiths. For apparent nobles, they don’t seem to be in any haste to return to their kingdom or call for better aid than three suspicious mercenaries. In fact, Yoruichi seems overjoyed to cut her hair and purchase a concealment tattoo for her eyes from Ichigo and basically take to monster-hunting with the enthusiasm of a child let out to play for the first time. Kisuke didn’t even look like nobility to begin with and won’t stop pestering Ichigo about his magic the moment he spots him making a campfire without flint.

They get Mizuiro, a bard who smiles through the massacre of the bandit camp that had abducted him, and the enhancements he hums in battle are impressively efficient in speeding up their movements or strengthening their blows or reinforcing their shields. Then they get Inoue, a healer with spells in her repertoire as unknown as elemental magic, and her friend Tatsuki, a martial artist without a drop of magic in her but can give Ichigo a run for his money in a spar.

They  probably bump into another group of bandits except this one’s a bit weird (”We’re not really bandits,” One of them, Yumichika, claims), but that’s the label people have slapped on them, it’s what happens when you loot the rich (”They can usually afford strong fighters,” The leader Kenpachi grouches) and give to the poor (”What the fuck am I supposed to do with a mountain of gold?” Kenpachi demands). And somehow or other (obviously when Ichigo wasn’t fucking looking), Kenpachi and his people don’t leave either, and by this point, they’ve pretty much gained a bit of a reputation as some kind of mini-organization of protectors roaming the countryside, it’s fucking ridiculous and Ichigo regrets all his life choices but especially when Renji and Ikkaku and Rukia and Tatsuki get into another knock-down drag-out fight at an inn or a tavern and Ichigo’s the one who has to pay for the damages.

But anyway, eventually, Ichigo probably takes them all home where they can be his family’s problem instead. Needless to say, they get on like a house on fire, Kisuke invents like three new branches of magic in the Shiba library in the space of a week, Yoruichi and Kuukaku take to each other like long-lost soulmates, and in general, there’s just a lot of Found Family Feels. Kenpachi is in heaven, he’s never had this many people who can knock him on his ass and be down for another round.

And EVENTUALLY, someone from Seireitei probably comes to poke their nose into where it doesn’t belong because How Dare some lowborn mercenaries go around taking all the monster-hunting business away from the kingdom? Also Kaien may or may not have started spreading rumours of elemental magic and summoning magic and other never-before-seen-or-heard-of magic that makes Seireitei Very Anxious. It devolves the way it always does and results in the usual - Seireitei sends a bunch of their military in to seize everything that should be under their control and to get rid of any loose ends.

Ichigo, already stressed from the madhouse inmates he lives with (THIS IS THE WHOLE REASON HE LEFT IN THE FIRST PLACE, AND THEN HE CAME BACK AND MADE IT TEN TIMES WORSE), and he is Absolutely Delighted when Seireitei gives him the perfect excuse to blow off some steam.

And then idk there’s probably a revolution cuz the citizens and surrounding kingdoms are sick of Seireitei’s shit, none of the Shibas want to be crowned though because wow, what a waste of time, sounds boring, so Rukia is like maybe my brother can do it, he’s responsible and stuff, so they give the crown to him, and Rukia gives him an awkward hug, no hard feelings but she’s not sticking around, and the Shibas are given a place back in the city and everybody knows not to fuck with them and Kisuke starts publishing all their inventions and spreading them so even normal everyday people can learn. And then Ishida’s probably like I wanna rebuild my kingdom but there’s an asshole living in it at the moment who leads a cult and pretends he’s a messiah come to save us all so we need to kill him first, and Ichigo’s like DID YOU SAY MURDER AND AWAY FROM HERE I AM SO DOWN, and then basically Ichigo’s Menagerie of Misfit Mercenaries go to take back Wahrwelt from Yhwach, but that’s another story.

[moonlightreal]

Strange Fate linkdump: Questing, Empathy and Endgames

Huge long post!  Linkdump and many many thoughts that wandered through my mind while going through these links.

Last Lullaby stuff:

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/hachette-signs-new-l-j-smith

About the international licensing of The Last Lullaby in 2013.  Strange Fate is the big obvious lost book but it’s not the only one.

https://booknode.com/the_last_lullaby_0705503

French bookseller page about The Last Lullaby, with back cover blurb in English but no cover picture.  So whatever happened happened before an artist could be commissioned. The book seems to follow unscarred teen Brionwy rather than scarred child Crispy who we met in the Strange Fate chapter

https://spotlightreport.net/featured/burn-bright-presents-l-j-smith-interview

2013 interview about The Last Lullaby.  In this interview Crispy and Brionwy are two different characters, though I’d always had the impression that they were the same person and Brionwy was Crispy’s real name.  Maybe just because Brionwy is the name in the title and then it’s Crispy’s story, back in whatever first incarnation I read of it whatever incarnation that was.  And it’s poetic nfor the scarred child to have a beautiful name.  

So we have the short story Brionwy’s Lullaby about Brionwy in the harem and the Strange Fate chapter about Crispy in the ruins.  Two pieces.  Less than we have of Strange Fate, but there is a looooot of worldbuilding in Brionwy’s Lullaby.  Lots of worldbuilding but no hint of where the story goes next.  Do Brionwy and Crispy meet?  Is there some connection between them?  How does the story end?  In the Strange Fate incarnation of the story this future is traded for a happier timeline when characters in our time avert the apocalypse but as a separate story how would it conclude?

Honestly I’m sadder about this book than I am about Strange Fate; I loves me some YA dystopias and the whole dragons and vampires thing is just neat.  But this book’s as lost as lost can be.

Recent Stuff:

https://www.reddit.com/r/YAlit/comments/krlvr1/lj_smiths_night_world/

Reddit thread from two months ago.  The rabbit hole is real and nobody else seems to have found the bottom.

https://deadline.com/2020/05/greg-berlanti-productions-adapt-the-forbidden-game-novels-lj-smith-as-tv-series-the-vampire-diaries-author-1202944224/

Article about the upcoming Forbidden Game TV series.  Forbidden Game is a Simon & Schuster series, not Alloy, so while I’m sure Ms. Smith has no say in how the show will go she will at least get royalties!  However much royalties book authors get from TV shows, no idea how much that is.  

https://micky.com.au/the-vampire-diaries-writer-reveals-new-fantasy-horror-series-the-forbidden-game/

“LJ Smith has just revealed that its horror trilogy novels...”  Um.  Not quite.

I looked through half a dozen articles about the Forbidden Game TV series and none of them had anything from Ms. Smith.  I knew the chance that this would draw comment from her was only a tiny chance, but it seemed worth looking.  

Interviews and Stuff:

https://www.saltlakemagazine.com/qa-the-vampire-diaries-creator-l-j-smith-on-writing-and-losing-the-series/

2012 interview about Vampire Diaries

https://peoplepill.com/people/l-j-smith-1

Just a biography page.  

http://theliteraryconnoisseur.blogspot.com/2014/05/an-interview-with-new-york-times.html

2014 interview with a blogger.  Ms. Smith does seem to be an absolutely lovely person.

https://areiterowski.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/author-profile-l-j-smith/

2013 Blog post about Ms. Smith, ending with a quite long list of “things she’s currently working on.’ the medical stuff didn’t happen until 2015 though with six projects in progress it’s believeable that she didn’t finish any of them before being felled by illness in 2015.

http://luanatormesdemattos.blogspot.com/2013/11/interview-with-one-and-only-l-j-smith.html

2013 interview with a blogger.

Into the meta: Aubrey Clark and the ghostwritten books

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/5760167.Aubrey_Clark

Books by Aubrey Clark.  Secret Circle and Vampire Diaries.  I assumed Aubrey Clark is a woman and the other book listed is by a man with the same name, but Aubrey is traditionally a male name and modernly a female name so who knows. Hardly the first time a dude wrote a series aimed at girls under a female name.

https://www.romance.io/authors/54558f9b87eac323ffb2cc31/aubrey-clark

Bio listing Ms. Clark as a she, and classifying her books as romances.  Says she’s been writing for eight years.  Just on the VD/SC stuff or did she write before?  Alloy hiring an existing writer to ghostwrite and that existing writer using a pen name so her new work wouldn’t be connected with her old work is perfectly possible.  I swear I read somewhere that Ms. Clark was Ms. Smith’s editor, or her “person” with Alloy, making her signing on as ghostwriter a bit of a betrayal… but I can’t find my source.

And how much of a betrayal is it really, if Ms. Smith got fired it’s not Ms. Clark’s fault if the series got offered to her, and who could say no to getting to write for a series you know?  It’s a job and a chance to be a published author and nobody should be judged for grabbing that candy if offered it.  

I wish we could hear what happened from Aubrey Clark’s side, just because the story of What Happened to Strange Fate is a mystery I to figure out… it’s easy for me to forget this mystery isn’t a Nancy Drew video game, it’s people’s real lives.  Ms. Clark is not the villain, she’s a writer in a situation we don’t fully understand but she’s just a writer like any writer.

http://debrasbookcafe.blogspot.com/2012/11/book-review-secret-circlethe-divide-by.html

Review of Secret Circle: The Divide

http://bookandbroadway.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-temptation-tsc-6-by-aubrey-clark.html

Review of Secret Circle: The Temptation.  The reviewer was not impressed.

http://yepireadbooks.blogspot.com/2013/04/book-32-temptation.html

Another review of The Temptation.  This reviewer was a bit more impressed than the last one.  I admit I ragequit the ghostwritten books after Ms. Clark started killing off characters, I don’t remember if I even hit book two…  

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/The_Vampire_Diaries_(novel_series)

Publishing history of Vampire Diaries

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304058204579495491652398358

2014 “Vampire Diaries Writer Bites Back.” we’ve all read this one...

https://uniquelygeekygirl.com/2013/05/20/1223/

2013 “LJ Smith vs ghostwriter” from a blog called uniquely geeky girl.  The next article on the blog is more about Alloy and its practice of hiring ghostwriters.

The Rise and Fall of Kindle Worlds:

https://the-digital-reader.com/2018/05/15/amazon-to-shut-down-kindle-worlds/

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Kindle_Worlds

https://www.thebookloft.com/fanfiction-and-kindle-worlds

https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/amazon-closes-kindle-worlds/

https://gigaom.com/2014/08/17/amazons-fan-fiction-portal-kindle-worlds-is-a-bust-for-fans-and-for-writers-too/

https://www.wired.com/2013/05/kindle-worlds-fanfic-copyright/

http://www.roxannestclaire.com/barefoot-bay-world-kindle/kindle-worlds-faq/

https://www.bustle.com/articles/36237-amazons-fan-fiction-site-kindle-worlds-is-flopping-but-why

It rose, and it fell.  As far as I can tell Alloy is the only publisher to put its works out on Kindle Worlds, I guess because that’s what they were already doing with their hired authors!  Other authors seem to have opened their worlds individually and I guess not many of them signed on.  

LJ Smith and Kindle Worlds

https://www.theawl.com/2014/02/the-writer-who-beat-the-system-how-one-woman-resurrected-her-sexy-vampire-brothers/

https://www.mhpbooks.com/fired-vampire-diaries-writer-takes-to-kindle-worlds-for-revenge/

http://floor-to-ceiling-books.blogspot.com/2011/02/l-j-smith-fired-from-writing-vampire.html

A blog post with some comments so you can read the state of the fandom at the time.

https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/fandom/vampire-diaries-lj-smith-kindle-fanfiction/

http://leegoldberg.com/tag/alloy-entertainment/

“Read the contract.’  This one is interesting because it’s the only one that isn’t in defense of Ms. Smith.  She should indeed read her contracts unless she wants to just be a fanfic writer, which… I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an author going from published to fanfic, but why not?  

Also, good question, where was Ms. Smith’s agent?  And where is Ms. Smith’s agent these days when someone should maybe be being the Strange Fate Police?  

Unrelated: I swear I read an article from Alloy’s perspective about what happened.  Maybe it was this one and I thought it was from Alloy when it wasn’t.  It is the only article not in support of Ms. Smith that I could find.

https://editingeverything.com/blog/2014/04/25/fanfiction-is-letting-lj-smith-tell-her-vampire-diaries-story/

https://www.tvovermind.com/vampire-diaries-lj-smith-fired-book-series/

https://thegameofnerds.com/2018/03/03/originals-10-facts-about-the-woman-behind-the-vamps/

https://dc.uwm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1952&context=etd

https://www.cbr.com/the-secret-circle-why-the-vampire-diaries-author-l-j-smiths-other-cw-series-failed/

I watched one episode of the Secret Circle series because I loved the books so much, but the CW style is not my jam.  But it is interesting to read the pitch for a fewer-character second season.

https://anovelbookblog.com/2014/06/12/leeching-off-the-talent-writing-for-hire-the-dark-side-of-publishing/

About the Secret Circle sequel novels and Alloy

https://www.jeanienefrost.com/2019/02/ghosts-in-the-machine/

Ghostwriting and plagiarism and ethics.

https://www.fanpop.com/clubs/stefan-and-elena/articles/94267/title/lj-smith-fired-from-writing-own-novels

This is the full letter from Ms. Smith about getting fired.

https://teleread.com/thanks-to-kindle-worlds-fired-vampire-diaries-writer-continues-her-own-series-as-fanfic/index.html

http://iswimforoceans.blogspot.com/2011/02/help-lj-smith-vampire-diaries.html

2011 blog post

https://indecisiveturtle.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/assignment-4-ghostwriting-in-the-vampire-diaries-by-l-j-smith/

A long blog post that goes into detail about the writing of some of the books, how to tell Ms. Smith’s style from the ghostwriter’s, sentence length and similes and stuff, all very academic!  I’ve retyped a couple pieces of Ms. Smith’s writing and I noticed she handles punctuation-with-quotes differently than I do, making it very weird to retype.  This is an interesting one.  Someone dived way deep!

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/10/19/the-gossip-mill

New Yorker article about Alloy

https://www.publishingcrawl.com/2012/05/29/the-not-so-secret-backdoor-to-publishing/

Article about Alloy and package writing

https://www.vogue.com/article/the-secret-circle-young-adult-witch-fiction

Just an article about the Secret Circle books and how they’re kinda bad but actually good.  Which they are.

That’ll keep y’all busy for a while!

Quest wishlist: I wish we could ask someone in the publishing industry about rights to series and rights to “publication canceled” books and how all that stuff works.  And I wish we could hear Aubrey Clark’s side of the story, but it just seems unkind to reach out to her to ask about this.

But the problem is… I call it “the quest for Strange Fate” because I’m melodramatic and like calling things quests, but what it the victory condition for this one?   The obvious: we win if we find and read Strange Fate, but I don’t think that will ever happen.  No matter how much we learn about what happened that won’t make Strange Fate appear.  

I do wish we could tell LJ Smith that plenty of authors these days have a Patreon.  If the people who still care about the lost books and the story of Ms. Smith could turn that caring into actual useful help for the people and maybe the books too that would be the best outcome.  That would be a successful quest.    

A darker timeline possibility: maybe S&S read Strange Fate and it wasn’t any good. Ms. Smith is a good writer.  But take a good writer and give her 20 years off from writing, and make those the 20 years where the teen experience of life changed radically, her genres of choice became big and popular and evolved and built up tropes, and language itself did… things…

I stan language but it’s a little sus how new lettery bois go brr everywhere I look.  I love it, but it’s humbling having to ask my niece what all the new words mean, and why so many of them seem to begin with S!

And Ms. Smith is sixty and has twenty years of rewriting Strange Fate, pulling it apart and tinkering until it probably doesn’t much resemble the book she started in 1998. Stir up all this in a pot and we’ve got a recipe for making a talented author drop a mediocre book.  Maybe S&S read it, said “it’s a dud, the fandom is 20 years old, let’s just not” and Ms. Smith retired from public life in defeat.  

This makes an unhappy sort of sense, but it doesn’t answer the question of why The Last Lullaby never appeared either.

Anyway. This has been a long post, lots of links and some thoughts on the philosophy of questing.

[lynne-monstr]

Writers Month 2019: Day 17: Accidental Baby Acquisition (malec)

requested by anonymous

(note that i cannot write children so no actual human babies will appear in this.)

summary: In the event this monumentally stupid stunt gets him gets killed, Magnus only hopes Alec has the good sense to lie to his friends about the cause of his death. He knows for a fact more than one of those bastards has money on him dying of his own bleeding heart.

ao3 link

“Alec, no!” Magnus lunges, grabbing Alec’s sword arm before he can attack.

Alec twitches beneath his hand but doesn’t shake him off. Later, Magnus will marvel that he’s learned to trust Alec so deeply he'd put himself in the path of a Nephilim weapon without hesitation. But that’s a thought for later. For now, he’s more concerned about what he’s come home to.

It had been such a nice date night, but it already feels like a distant memory.The perils of being a powerful warlock with an equally powerful boyfriend.

All the lights in the loft are off save for the entranceway at their backs. In front of them, the living room is dim, lit only by the faint glow of the city’s light pollution filtering in from the balcony windows. Everything is wreathed in shadow. Magnus feels the weight of his glamour dropping and the room sharpens into the full spectrum of night. Which is when he sees it. In the darkened depths of the living room, there’s a darker smudge under the coffee table.

He and Alec aren’t alone.

There’s something in the room with them, lying in wait beneath the furniture. Magnus tastes the air and the hair on the back of his necks stands up. With his natural vision, he can see what his instincts warned him of, what Alec saw with his heightened Shaowhunter senses. There’s a creature pressed tight against the far leg of the coffee table. But he also sees why he stopped Alec’s attack. The creature is huddled as far away as it can get without leaving the shelter of the furniture.

It isn’t attacking, or preparing an ambush. It’s cowering.

Something that feels like a memory curdles in Magnus’ stomach. He hates to see anyone or anything cower.

Beneath his grip, the muscles of Alec’s forearm twitch. He shifts on the balls of his feet but doesn’t interfere. Warmth expands in Magnus’ chest. Alec’s battle instincts must be screaming but he’s willing to yield to Magnus’ expertise in this particular area.

Edom.

There’s an Edomei in their home.

The Edomei is curled into a ball of pitch-black scales. Its very presence warps the light around it, making the space under the coffee table darker than it should rightfully appear. A pair of equally black wings shoot from the creature's back. The wings look wrong—crooked and grotesque, deformed and hanging in ways that make Magnus shift in discomfort.

“It’s injured.” Alec’s voice is soft, though his body remains a coiled spring. “What’s it doing here?” he adds, keeping his voice low, as if the thing can understand English.

Maybe it can. Magnus has never looked too deeply into the native inhabitants of his homeland aside from strengths, weaknesses, and hunting patterns. The only thing he knows about these creatures is how to kill them.

“I don’t know. It’s not like I invited it over for drinks,” Magnus whispers back. He swallows down the rising dread at the reminder of the place he once called home. He’d prefer to forget this part of his heritage but here it is, not even on his doorstep but inside his home.

Alec, his wonderful Alexander, attempts to lighten the mood. “Well, you did once tell me you made the best cocktails in North America. Maybe word spread.”

Magnus lets out a silent huff, and gives Alec’s arm a squeeze. It never fails to amaze him that Alec can read him so well. He clings to the comfort as he makes his decision on what to do with his uninvited guest. His logical mind says to kill it. The rest of him balks at the thought of killing a child. Because that’s what this is, a tiny, young Edomei that somehow found its way to his loft.

Slowly, he releases his grip on Alec and takes a tentative step forward.

The Edomei under his coffee table backpedals in a flurry of wings. It makes it about three steps before listing off balance, stumbling onto its side with a pained cry. Its wings flap uselessly and a thready screech fills the air.

Magnus is moving before he can convince himself what a terrible idea this is.

“It’s okay,” he says, walking forward with small, tentative steps.

It was never really a decision at all. A child is a child, regardless of species. He only hopes that in the event this monumentally stupid stunt gets him gets killed, Alec has the good sense to lie to his friends about his cause of death. He knows for a fact that more than one of those bastards has money on him dying of his own bleeding heart.

Behind him, Alec keeps pace, hovering at his shoulder. His unsheathed blade glints in the evening light but he doesn’t raise it.

As Magnus gets closer, he can hear the Edomei breathing in weak squeals. Its scaled chest continues to heave, faster and faster as he kneels beside it, a string of nonsense reassurances spilling from his lips in the same low, hushed tones that work well on all types of children.

Around them, the loft is perfectly still.

The eyes that meet Magnus’ gaze are deep red with no pupil but he gets the sense of being studied by a predator. A very small one in need of help, but a predator nonetheless. Magnus doesn’t flinch. This tiny Edomei is hardly the only predator in the room.

After a beat, it lowers its head.

The urge to let out a breath is palpable but Magnus resists. No showing weakness now or it may be the last thing he does.

He leans in for a closer look. The small dragon-like creature isn’t just dark in color but filthy. Caked between the scales are layers upon layers of dirt and grime. Magnus wrinkles his nose. It must have dragged itself through half the gutters of Brooklyn in search of shelter.

“Alright, let’s patch you up. This rug is a lost cause but we can still salvage the hardwood if we work fast.” There’s no response, which is a shame but ultimately not a surprise. He’s not sure if it’s because the Edomei doesn’t understand human language, or because the denizens of his father’s realm don’t have a sense of humor. Either is equally likely.

Raising a hand, he prepares to summon a ball of magic to his aid.

“Magnus be careful,” Alec interrupts before he can cast the spell. He’s in a defensive stance at Magnus’ shoulder, blade poised to plunge into the Edomei’s heart at the slightest provocation. “You don’t know why it’s here. It could kill us both the moment you heal it.”

They both remember the battle at the beach, the sheer amount of devastation even a single Edomei can wreak. Even a small one—practically a baby, Magnus realizes with an ache—is incredibly dangerous.

“It’s a child, Alexander. It’s here because it has nowhere else to go.”

Alec’s eyes go a little bit soft, his blade slowly lowering though he doesn’t drop his guard. His Alexander has always had a soft spot for the young.

“It must have come through that portal and escaped detection all this time. Unsurprising, considering its size. When it got hurt and tried to go home, the portal no longer existed and there was no magic for it to follow back to Edom. I suppose it found my magic instead and traced it here.” Magnus swallows down the memories of filthy alleys and rancid food and the absolute knowledge that no one in the world cared for him enough to save him. “An easy mistake to make, considering where my magic comes from.”

A warm hand settles on his shoulder. “You’re nothing like him, Magnus.”

“I know,” he says, and isn’t that something, that those are words he can say without a hint of sarcasm.

He spent his entire life doubting, convinced that there was no atoning for the sins of his past. He still has his moments of weakness, but he can’t deny the impact of Alec’s stalwart acceptance. In this moment, he’s intensely, absurdly grateful that he trusted Alec enough to take that leap and tell him of his heritage. To trust the man he loves with his most closely guarded and shameful secret.

Alec’s hand falls away and Magnus doesn’t need to look to know he’s readying himself for a fight if things go wrong. “Do what you have to do. I’ll cover you.”

Before he can regret his choice, Magnus sends out a stream of magic into the Edomei’s mangled wings.

This time, the creature’s cry is pure excitement. The moment the last of the hollow bones knit together, it launches itself into the air, circling the remnants of magic coming off Magnus’ fingers. Magnus nearly blasts it but years of helping untrained warlocks control their magic stays his hand.

Alec steps in close but doesn’t attack, still following Magnus’ lead.

Following a hunch, Magnus shoots out a few harmless sparks. The the Edomei flies after it, landing in a tangle of wings on the far end of Magnus’ couch. It bounces on the cushion, trying to grab at the dancing points of bright blue magic. When that doesn’t work it breathes out a tiny jet of fire, no larger than the flickering flame of a lighter. Magnus presses his lips together, not wanting to laugh and scare the creature. His resolve nearly breaks when he looks over at Alec, whose eyes are wide, a lopsided smile painted across his face as he watches what should be a fearsome beast pounce on bits of magic.

“My poor couch,” Magnus laments with a frown, sending out a couple more bursts of magic. Some of it races around the Edomei, the rest erases the tiny burn marks from the upholstery. At the same time he he spares a burst of power to gradually brighten the lights in the room. He's getting tired of not seeing in color.

Alec presses his lips together but can’t hide his amusement. “We’re keeping it, aren’t we?” The words are resigned but there’s a hopeful tone in his voice that tells Magnus he’s just as enamored with their unexpected visitor as Magnus is. His voice turns contemplative as he adds, “I wonder why this one is so different than the others.”

“Well, we did save it. Maybe it’s grateful,” Magnus says, though he’s not convinced at his own glib answer.

“Or maybe there’s nothing inherently evil about being from Edom,” Alec replies, pointedly. “Maybe the other Edomei were taught how to be destructive and this one never learned how to hurt people.”

Magnus can’t help himself, he leans in and kisses Alec. Just a light press of lips but enough to let him know how much his words mean.

They both tense for a split second when the Edomei flies at them but it merely settles on Magnus’ shoulder.

“It needs a name,” Alec says, watching the two of them with a fond expression that’s usually reserved for Magnus himself.

“He needs a name,” Magnus corrects. He considers whether or not to be jealous of Alec’s affection and decides against it. The Edomei is adorable, after all.

As if it can sense his thoughts, his new shoulder companion gives another happy noise and plops it’s head down to rest in what was until that very moment a perfectly styled hairdo.

Mischief lights up Alec’s face, now clearly visible in the well lit room. “How about Michelangelo, since he’s clearly a master artisan.” He points to Magnus’ hair, which has become a birds-nest in an almost literal sense. “And now the next time you try to tell me you shared quarters with Michelangelo, it will actually be true.” One corner of his mouth turns up, clearly pleased with himself.

Magnus pretends to pout. “Are you insulting my flirting?” He still remembers the look of confusion that pickup line had earned him from Alec in those early days. Nothing like the smile that lights up his face now, or the warm glint in his eyes that Magnus can feel all the way down to his bones. He pretends to pout, for old time’s sake. “Fine, but if he tries to crawl into our bed at night, you have only yourself to blame.”

Alec grins in satisfaction. “Michelangelo it is.”

The Edomei kneads its claws into the expensive fabric of Magnus’ silk shirt. Magnus grumbles about Versace but his heart isn’t in it. “You’re going to be a handful, aren’t you?”

The tiny creature flaps its wings, stretching out its long neck and letting out a high-pitched honking noise completely at odds with its small frame. Magnus assumes it’s some form of agreement and scratches its belly in reassurance.

It looks like there were going to be three of them in the loft for the foreseeable future.