#she needs a ridiculous aether-style name

[flygefisk]

what is her name

she lives in the rafters at the museum and eats books when no ones looking, shes in a constant battle with the book restorer who's started leaving out piles of fashion magazines in hopes the bright colors will attract her and keep her away from the relics

[rainbowrider1290]

My take on a Genshin Impact Circus AU Part 4 with Noelle as a strongwoman and Amber as a death-defying archery stuntwoman. Their backstories are under the cut!

Noelle:

First off I have a very self-indulgent headcanon that she is ridiculously strong. Like. Can benchpress people. Canonverse or AU.

She used to help out around the circus and she was kind of indifferent to the fact that she was likely going to be a maid. It's a respectable profession. And helping out at her childhood friends' (Kaeya and Diluc) manor as she'd been born into doing seemed like a good job.

How she got into the circus life requires a bit of backstory. Back when they were kids, Kaeya, Diluc, and Noelle would mess around (as kids do) and have little challenges for themselves. Who can run the fastest, who can do the best cartwheel, who can jump the highest, and the like.

Noelle got a little hesitant as she got into her early teens bc she was always told to be ladylike, so she spent one or two of their hangout sessions watching Kaeya and Diluc and talking. One day, however, Kaeya and Diluc are being Teenage Boys and lifting heavy things trying to outlift each other. Noelle has lifted furniture when cleaning up after these two so she figures this one unladylike thing would be okay.

She comes up behind them and just. Picks them both up. On top of the things they were lifting already. Kaeya and Diluc have to take a second and just look at her like "yeah no you are never sitting out of our competitions again"

And so they try other things like cartwheels and tests of courage like who can climb the highest on a tree and things are back to normal.

Skip forward a few years and Crepus dies. There's a huge mystery around it that not even his son's attendants are privy to. The only thing people know is that the sons have been sent away to boarding school. The whole manor is abandoned, all the workers fired.

Noelle for the next few years spends her time working at laundromats, and other odd jobs, but eventually she runs out of luck and suddenly there's too many people and not enough opportunities.

One of her friends from one of her old jobs invites her to go out and see this new circus that happens to be in town. She goes because why not. And wouldn't you know it one of the acts is her childhood friends doing these death-defying stunts that hit her with a wave of nostalgia bc their entire act consists of essentially the song "anything you can do" but with more and more dangerous stunts.

Noelle of course has to say hi, so they catch up and Noelle's lack of work comes up and would you look at that Aether and Lumine happen to have an opening for a maid.

So Noelle settles in, continuing to lift heavy shit to clean under it (Bennett swears up and down he saw her lift a fridge once but he might've been sleep-deprived). She also got into helping Chongyun with the techy stuff so sometimes she'll be at tech rehearsals moving things around and one time a rope holding up a person breaks near Noelle and she. catches it.

Now, one night. One of the acts drops out at the last moment bc injury or last-minute commitment or the like. And it leaves a gap in the show. Everyone else is busy. And panicking bc the circus is still relatively new and they really need to build their rep rn.

They start wondering what kind of last-minute acts they can put together like "what about the gymnasts??" "They all have group routines" "do they have old routines??" "Not polished enough for what we need" and someone somewhere pipes up "man I wish we had a strongman or something" and Diluc and Kaeya immediately whip their heads around to look at each other for like half a second before Kaeya bolts. He finds Noelle doing her usual rounds she's been doing for like a month now and Bennett was right, she is currently under a mini-fridge that she is lifting over her head whilst leaning it against a wall.

Kaeya takes Noelle by the shoulders and just zooms her over to where the commotion is happening and pitches the idea to Aether and Lumine. They're hesitant as hECK bc this is a huge risk they're taking since Noelle isn't even a performer but Diluc pitches that they could literally just scatter really heavy items and have Noelle clean under them and as long as she looks at the audience every once in a while it can be played off as a bit.

Noelle with qUITE the stammer says that she'll try her best but at this time is in need of a moment. She has never performed before. Kaeya and Diluc have to go perform so they leave her with a shoulder squeeze and a thumbs up.

She gets on-stage. She flinches under the lights for a second. She takes a deep breath and focuses on the first thing before her with her best "oh heavens, it's filthy in here", and she gets through the entire act by doing that for every object. So the audience is seeing this seemingly petite young girl lift the equivalent of a hecking car in order to clean under it.

Needless to say, there's roaring applause the second Noelle leaves (which she hears from far away because holy shit I just cleaned for people and they liked it)

This was a bit of a one-time thing and she goes back to her regular maid duties until the circus gets a new strongman by the name "Zhongli".

His style is more about lifting exTREMELY LARGE ROCKS, and breaking them in half whilst giving a history/geology lesson on them.

He quietly observes the maid who he hears fantastical stories of That One Time She Charmed An Audience By Cleaning. He was bewildered at first but saw the merit of it while watching her clean. He immediately decides that this girl has sO MUCH. POTENTIAL that is being wasted by having her work as a maid. He has nothing against maids or their profession, but he invites her to train with him.

Noelle gets hELLA stronger and they come to a conclusion. Noelle performs part-time and is a maid part-time. She doesn't have a particular performance style. She'll sometimes play catch with Zhongli and his big rocks, other times she'll be in the background of performers like Amber in the art lifting some hEAVY SHIT.

She gets along with Chongyun super well bc Chongyun has to make less trips to move his equipment since he's worked with her. She's a blessing for when they have to pack up and move.

Amber:

Amber's story is a little more straightforward. She started out engaged to a suitor. Amber was the kid in kindergarten who was learning about dragons and "idk what everyone else was doing". She's known what she wants for a long time, and what she wants at the moment, is not a relationship.

Throughout her childhood she was a very lonely child. Her family exposed her to lots of academic or ladylike things (do not ask me when this au is set, it's the 1800s and the 1990s at the same time or a suspendes steampunk time) to get her away from the thing she liked most: archery. She'd been exposed to it as a kid and latched on.

This drove a bunch of suitors away, so her family got more desperate and exposed her to more classes and activities to get her away from it. She went "that's easy, I'll just practice at night"

So she does that. She practices at night and underperforms in the coming weeks. It is during this time that her parents (high class ppl) find her a man to marry for some business deal idk.

The man's nice enough. It's just obvious he can only take Amber in small doses, and Amber takes full advantage of this to practice and stay in shape.

How Amber gets into the circus life was essentially running away. She bonds with Eula over this.

So because of all the attempts to make her fit into the ideal lady description, her rebellious streak said "yeah we're going to go as far away from that as possible" and she goes "I'm going to run away with the circus" bc that's what the books she's read say is the most rebellious thing you can do.

She finds THE FIRST circus she sees and begs to be let in. This is the shadiest most sketchy place but Amber sees it as the key to her freedom. She signs a contract.

They treat her like the US treats their students. She barely gets time to practice for performances and she's mostly doing dirty work. When they ask her what she can do she's like "I'm really good at archery" and they go "cool, you're going to be doing that while everything is on fire now. Can you do a handstand"

Essentially they push her and push her and push her to do more and more hazardous things she has to pick up on under the threat of being kicked to the curb.

After a while of this Amber is extremely burned out (pun intended) and as she's packing up after one of her shows, covered in burns but proud bc she hit all her targets without killing anyone, she's approached by a blond foreigner.

Tbh for all she's read, Amber really doesn't consider leaving and this time she can't run away since she's now bound by a contract (not Zhongli's btw in case anyone was wondering).

This foreigner tells her that there's so many ways to improve her situation and that he runs a circus looking for members.

Amber refuses since she's not getting tangled up in another legal mess, but she takes his advice on how to take care of her burns, and improve safety while she's performing.

Skip a few months. She hears word of this mysterious new circus around. Her encounter with who she'll later know as Aether stuck with her, and so she goes. To see whether she could really shoot her arrows without being burned alive.

After a show one night, she tries to get past security and fails repeatedly. She turns to leave and wouldn't you know it there's Aether. And Lumine. Waiting for her once she turns the corner. Amber's biggest concern is her existing contract and when Aether and Lumine say they have a nICE lawyer, Amber sees her next step to freedom.

Aether and Lumine essentially gain custody of Amber (but like for adults) and Amber is. Shocked. She's walked through her new contract of employment clearly and essentially treated like a human being.

And now that she knows things and has more freedom (though still under the watchful eyes of Aether and Lumine to see how she does) her creativity and competitive streak flourish. She decides she actually doesn't hate fire, she just doesn't like when she doesn't know when or where it's coming. And she makes fast friends with the gymnasts, so she ends up incorporating that into her routines. Now she uses her canon goggles to protect her from the burning eyes of prolonged smoke exposure when she uses fire.

When she meets a little pyromanic girl named Klee, she's thrilled that someone this chaotic and sure of herself exists.

[tsuisou-no-despair]

Higurashi When They Cry: Gou -My “Final” Thoughts

Since we’re getting a second season - and it’s so obvious that Gou was written as the first half of the story - I find it hard to rate Gou at this point in time. Do you remember how when Avengers: Infinity War came out and a lot of critics were like “well, we need to see Endgame before we can really make our judgements”? Yeah, it’s like that - hence why “final” is in quotes.

Even so, I still have some thoughts about Gou, Higurashi as a whole, and my experiences with getting in on something’s fandom. I’ll make a post for what I want out of Sotsu later - right now, here’s what I have for Gou.

What I Liked About Gou

Most of it, honestly! I enjoyed Gou greatly and I’m glad I sat down and gave it a watch. (This may be heresy, but I honestly found it better as an experience than the last airing-weekly anime thing I sat down and watched - that being Mob Psycho 100 Season 2) But as for the stuff unique to Gou thatI particularly liked:

First off, having a new Higurashi anime that’s actually good. We needed something like this after Outbreak, Kira and (to a much lesser extent) the non-Saikoroshi parts of Rei pushed the series deeper and deeper into a trash can.

I love the new art style and the new designs for the characters. There’s a lot of good in DEEN’s adaptation, but a lot of the time the art left something to be desired. Passione’s take on Hinamizawa gave us a cast that can be cute and beautiful and terrifying all while looking good.

There’s also a lot of really good cinematography - the shot used in the GIF above left me going ‘holy shit”.

The new themes are a triple threat of bangers. In particular I loved that they brought in Ayane to really give it a deeper tie to Higurashi as a greater franchise. (The best of these, of course, is Irregular Entropy)

Episode 4′s twist. Just... *chef��s kiss*. I know that people poked it apart and called it ridiculous after the fact but I don’t know if the feeling of dread when Rena’s eyes were hidden by shadow, and I realized that this wasn’t going to end well, is something I could ever really recapture.

Speaking of violence, the ending of Episode 13. The dull red light... the ringing bell... good stuff.

In retrospect, creating Tataridamashi by bringing in Minagoroshi was smart, specifically from a character-introduction standpoint. They needed to establish the existence of Kimiyoshi, Oryou and Akane for later parts of the story and dipping into Minagoroshi’s involvement of them is probably the easiest way to do it.

In general, Gou’s really smart about its character introductions. I didn’t think they’d bring in Akasaka but I’m honestly really pleased with how they did it.

SatoRika was confirmed! And was really cute... until it extremely wasn’t! (But in a good way!)

The fact that Satoko and Rika’s conflict at St. Lucia was so nuanced, with neither of them really being 100% right or 100% wrong. (Of course, this doesn’t last)

I might be slightly conflicted about Satokowashi as an arc, but none of those conflicts are with Eua. (The “FUCK YEAH FEATHERINE TIME” from Twitter was particularly tasty)

The dub! I know a lot of people are ambivalent towards the Gou dub but I for one am happy that we’ve got some great performances, as well as a Higurashi dub that’s actually good. Maybe not great, but far better than what DEEN got in the end.

This Shion face

This is the face of someone that’s going to wreck her sister’s chances with her new boyfriend for fun.

What I Didn’t Like About Gou

Watadamashi in general. This is easily the weakest arc by a long shot, which sucks because I like Watanagashi-hen quite a bit. A lot of the time, it just felt like the animators had chose it as the place to cut costs. As good as the Takano scene in the Saiguiden is, it’s one of the things that makes the least sense in retrospect given the changes to Takano that have been established in Gou. And Episode 8 was rough both from a pacing and a what-happened standpoint. While Watadamashi had some great moments (the above Shion face as well as Rika dressing down Keiichi), overall it was clearly the weakest arc, particularly after Shion left the picture.

The pacing of Gou in general left something to be desired at times - they really should’ve shifted the extra episode in the first cour from Tataridamashi to Watadamashi, and Satokowashi could’ve probably condensed some of its episodes down and gave more room to other things, like...

Satoshi. He really shouldn’t have been as absent from the series as he was - hell, until Ep. 9 I legitimately thought that he might’ve been cut from the story altogether (and honestly, if they did that maybe the story would have been better!)

On that note, Episode 22 just kinda sucked in general.

While I’m not on the “where’s Shion” train as heavily as some meme artists are, I do think that the fact that she had to be written out of the second cour entirely to make it work is one of Gou’s story’s objective faults.

There’s a lot of little details added or addressed in Satokowashi-hen that I feel are either less than good, or are just restrictive. The big two of these is Satoko watching all of the fragments (either Eua should’ve just given her a sample platter, or we should’ve seen more of Satoko’s thoughts and reactions) and the fact that the memories returning means that eventually Hinamizawa would end up “solved” without Satoko’s intervention.

Honestly, Gou’s finale needed a bit more punch - it wasn’t bad but honestly even for a halfway point it could have ended with a bit more of a bang.

The Fandom Side Of Things

First off, I want to preface this by saying thanks for following me, taking my theories into account (it always feels cool whenever I see something I threw into the aether in one of my Theory Times getting adopted and spread by someone else as an interesting idea!) and sticking with me through Gou and hopefully through Sotsu. You are all amazing and I love you all.

After Watadamashi concluded, I decided that my Higurashi bullshit needed its own sideblog, because I recognized that nobody in my other circles was even remotely into Higurashi and I didn’t want to shout into the void. So, I made myself a sideblog, named it after one of my favorite Higurashi console openings, and started posting my thoughts. Quickly I discovered a whole world of theories (”Satoko’s suspicious? I never would have thought of that!” - me, a young and naive fool), hot takes, and a surprising number of Rena kin. (Who are all delightful, I assure you!)

One of the things that stuck out to me was the different schools of opinion that formed. While I ended up as a relatively quiet analyst who overall liked Gou despite its flaws (a camp shared by two of my favorite blogs - @tarhalindur and @thewhitefluffyhat - that you need to follow if you don’t already), there were many others who had much stronger thoughts. Some of them were loudly cheering the story’s turns, while others seemed to decide that Gou could do no right and acted accordingly. Joining a Discord run by one of the larger Higurashi blogs on Tumblr gave me a live view of the process in Satokowashi’s later half, and it made me really realize what shaped people’s views on Gou. Some particular factors that caught my eye:

Whether or not they liked Umineko over Higurashi (mostly a Twitter element - the Umineko fans really enjoyed Eua making her appearance and overall reacted really positively to Gou)

Where they hailed from - honestly I think that Tumblr overall was one of the more positive fanbases for Gou (at least of the big concrete places like it and Reddit), given how the various camps thought of Gou’s eventual villain.

How they felt about Episode 16 - there were a lot of people that seriously felt that Rika learning the “lesson” of “maybe leaving the hometown where bad things happened isn’t the right call” was far, far more abhorrent and objectionable than the part where she got her entrails ripped out!

How they feel about Satoko, naturally - particularly, how much they sympatized with her and how much they didn’t want to see her go down the path she did. Tumblr in particular had a lot of people that related with her and her life situation, and it was never not interesting to see how the sympathy and occasional projection shaped someone’s particular thoughts. (There were some strong reactions to Gou showing an abuse victim becoming an even worse abuser, let me tell you.)

I think I’ll conclude these final thoughts by quoting my IRL best friend’s tags regarding the fandom of her choice:

It really is. And I’m glad I got on this ride and saw it through with all of you.

See you in July.

[marvel-random-shiz]

“Arguing” “Bickering”

“Oi Parker!”

“What do you want now?” Peter sighed while keeping his concentration on his web shooters on the lab bench in front of him.

“Parker! Where you at?” Moments later the voice came skipping into the lab along with a mop of blonde curls and laughing blue eyes. Peter ignored his entrance and muttered dryly,

“Yes Harley?”

“So I had this idea-“ Harley paused and jumped up onto the bench to sit beside Peter’s hands, “-that we could hack into the Iron Man armour and change all the names of the protocols.”

Peter lifted his head from staring intently at the webshooters in his hands and gave Harley a blank stare, “why?”

Harley rolled his eyes and pulled out his whiny voice, “oh c’mon! It’ll be fun, what if we could make them all embarrassing and we could totally get it done in a few hours.”

“Wait like the reconnaissance mode to sneaky boi and...” Peter’s face lit up and he trailed off while ideas flooded his mind. Harley beamed and leaned forwards to give him a peck on the forehead,

“Exactly like that, there’s my smart boyfriend.”

Peter ignored his comment and spun his chair around and rolled across to the bench across from him. Harley followed and pulled out a chair while Peter logged in to his laptop and began to start the process.

“He’s going to flip out.” Peter grinned after a few minutes of typing and Harley nodded while furiously typing away at his own computer and uploading it to a USB to transfer to Peter’s computer.

The two teens spent the next half hour working in silence, the odd comment every now and then, until FRIDAY announced that the Avengers needed to be assembled. Peter looked to the ceiling as she spoke, “Boss has requested your presence down on forty seventh, including suits.”

“What’s going on?” Harley asked as Peter jumped out of his chair and pulled his hoodie over his head and dropped it onto the dirty lab floor.

“There is a disturbance of some sort which Mister Strange has informed the Avengers of. I know nothing more.” FRIDAY told them sadly and Harley sighed and nodded while activating the nanotech armour for his Iron Lad suit in his watch. Peter let out a small chuckle knowing Tony would have specifically programmed FRIDAY to announce Stephen Strange as ‘Mister Strange’ rather than ‘Doctor Strange’.

“Well I guess we’d check it out then?” Peter commented when he had the entire Iron Spider suit covering his body and had scanned for malfunctions, Harley gave a quick nod and the two jumped out the building to head towards the danger.

As they neared Peter could hear the yells of civilians and his gut twisted at the thought of someone dangerous enough for Tony to ask for more help. Peter and Harley did tag along on missions and patrols often but it was a rare occurrence when Tony would ask for help when they weren’t there already. Something was wrong.

“Hey you alright?” Harley asked through the comms while glancing at Spider-Man flip over a building. He increased the thrusters and sped through the air towards the crime scene,

“I’m fine. Just a weird feeling about this y’know?”

“Like a spider feeling or...?” Harley asked, feeling nauseous that Peter’s senses were already warning him when they hadn’t even arrived yet.

“Not really sure yet.” Peter let out a sigh and prayed it was just nerves and not anything major.

“Okay well be safe alright?” Harley glanced back at the web slinging hero through his vibranium mask and swallowed the worry consuming his insides.

“I always am, make sure you’re safe too.”

Harley gave a small nod before rising higher into the air and diving towards the scene towards the visible Avengers and connecting to their frequency, “Join me to the hero chat FRI.”

FRIDAY did as he asked and soon the grunts of Avengers and bickering of Captain America and Iron Man filled the teens ears. He laughed and quickly blasted a falling piece of debris into millions of pieces of rubble when it nearly squashed the leaders of the team who were in yet another squabble.

“Hey guys, you might want to watch out, heard there’s a high chance of a meteor shower.” Harley snickered at his own joke and Peter rolled his eyes from where he was on the roof beside Hawkeye.

“Very funny Harles.”

“Alright what’s the go here?” Harley asked, changing to seriousness as he glanced at a hovering man who was around level with half the height of Stark Tower. He had a red glow around him and was flailing his arms around, summoning rocks and debris and throwing them at the Avengers and civilians.

“This guy stole the reality stone.” Black Widow groaned while picking herself up from the pile of rocks she had been thrown into.

“The reality stone?! Like the Aether!” Peter gasped and tried to hide the excitement in his voice. The reality stone had always been his favourite, he didn’t know why but he just found it interesting and had always wanted to see it in real life. Not on these circumstances but it was still cool.

“We can fangirl about it later, right now we need to get it back.” Clint rolled his eyes and shot an arrow at the villain who turned it into a cloud of golden sparkles with a grin. Peter nodded and jumped off the roof and swung down beside Tony.

“Alright well what’s the plan?” Peter asked and narrowed the lenses of his suit, Iron Man glanced at him and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Well I think that we should use his own tricks against him with Strange’s stone but Capsicle disagrees.” Tony pouted and Peter wanted so badly to slap himself in the face. Sometimes Tony was worse than Harley and Peter in terms of arguments, and that was saying something.

“Well we shouldn’t risk him getting yet another infinity stone!” Steve agreed and threw his arms up in annoyance. Tony opened his mouth to reply but Peter quickly lunged forwards and shoved him out the way of another chunk of rock hurtling at him from the snickering villain.

“Work your shit out! We can’t hold him off forever while you guys keep bickering!” Harley shouted and watched as Hulk jumped at the villain only to be thrown halfway across the city.

“Harles no offence but this isn’t bickering anymore, it’s arguing.” Peter pointed out and gave Iron Lad a smack to the back of his head before shooting a web and jumping into action.

“Don’t disagree with me darl, it’s bickering and you know it.” Harley smirked under his mask and took off the ground to help the blue and red hero out. Peter noticed Strange now on the roof beside Hawkeye and muttering something while Clint nodded and continued shooting useless arrows at the villain.

“It’s arguing, princess.” Peter shot back along with a web at the villain who snapped his fingers and it turned into a large pool of hot fudge. Peter plummeted down to the ground but quickly caught himself and swung up against another building.

“It’s bickering, Bambi.” Harley licked his lips and began furiously blasting the villain as Peter jumped on his other side and attempted to grab the stone wrapped around his neck.

“It’s arguing-“ Peter strained against the hands gripping his neck, “-love.”

The villain threw Peter down towards the ground again at a fast speed then turned to face Iron Lad who narrowed his eyes and lunged at him. Tony, somehow getting over his arguing-bickering with Cap, flew upwards and caught Spider-Man before he hit the ground.

“It’s bickering, dear.” Harley laughed before getting thrown into the wall of the building, he slid down but quickly hovered above the ground before falling to his death.

“It’s arguing-“ Peter coughed as Tony set him back on the ground and he started breathing again, he was definitely going to get a mark on his neck from that, “-sweet cheeks.”

Tony rolled his eyes and flipped his mask back over his face and took off to get back at the villain for throwing both his boys to their near deaths. Peter laughed weakly and stumbled for a minute while Harley pulled himself from the ground and scanned for any malfunctions in his suit.

“It’s bickering, hotness,” Harley took a breath while taking in the scene above him. Hulk had returned and was jumping at the villain while Strange disobeyed Steve’s recommendations and was using the time stone to attack the hovering man.

“It’s-“ Peter began but was cut off by Steve who threw his shield at the villain and crossed his arms over his chest beside Black Widow who looked ready to tear her brains out.

“Shut up! We get it! Now stop fighting!”

“Arguing.” Peter corrected and Harley scoffed quickly correcting Peter’s correction,

“Bickering.”

“You’re off the team if you ever say the word argue or bicker again. Got it?” Tony threatened from the sky, the comms crackled a little but the message was clear.

“Whatever blows your hair back.” Harley shrugged once he had fully caught his breath and took off the ground to help out.

“We need a name for this guy.” Peter stated, trying to change the conversation and mood of the comms. A chorus of ‘whatevers’ and ‘you do you kid’ were echoed throughout Peter’s ears except for Harley who obviously had to put his opinion in.

“I think he should be Dangerous Dan or the Stone Stealer.”

“That’s ridiculous babe, we should call him something cool like Red Death or Rocky Rick.” Peter argued back and Harley scoffed from his place in the sky.

“Rocky Rick?” Natasha echoed and Peter nodded while launching himself back into the fight.

“The Stone Stealer.” Harley said in a dreamy voice and Peter frowned while pressing his middle and ring finger to his palm, shooting a web at the villain who turned it to spaghetti and sent him falling, yet again, to the ground. Iron Lad saw his significant other in the state and quickly flew down to catch him, “You right sugar?”

Peter beamed from his position in Harley’s, Iron Lad’s, arms and nodded, “I’m fine now hon.”

“What is with the nicknames?!” Clint burst out through the comms making the teens laugh and shrug.

“I’ve heard that nicknames are cute.” Peter informed them as Harley lowered them to the ground with Peter still in his arms bridal style.

“Nah pet names are hot as fuck.” Harley corrected making Peter blush under his mask and laugh.

“Right.” Black Widow sarcastically agreed and watched as Strange overpowered the villain and he was sent plummeting through the sky. Harley set Peter on the ground and the two watched as the red glow disappeared from the villain and Tony snatched up the Aether or reality stone and Cap dealt with the man.

The police showed up and the man was sent for a lifetime in jail, obviously, and the Avengers headed on home to the compound. Harley and Peter went straight to the lab to dump their suits, knowing they needed modifications, and the rest of the Avengers disappeared into their rooms for rest or into the lounge to watch TV.

“I still think the Stone Stealer suits him best.” Harley teased as his suit disbanded and scuttled back into his watch, revealing the mess of blonde curls on his head and shit eating grin on his face.

“Nope, Red Death is way better but you’re too stubborn to admit it.” Peter popped the ‘p’ and his suit scattered across his body and back into his own silver watch which he unclipped from his wrist and set down on the lab bench. Harley spun around from the bench behind Peter and opened his mouth to speak but closed it when he saw the swelling and purple finger marks on Peter’s neck.

“Shit does this hurt?” Harley went into overprotective boyfriend mode and rushed to Peter’s aid while examining the bruising. Peter shrugged him off quickly and turned to face him,

“I’m fine baby.” Peter whispered and Harley sighed loudly while raking his hand through his messy hair. He looked back down at Peter who had a small smile on his lips and laughed, “what?” Peter asked with big brown eyes flickering with confusion.

“I told you pet names were hot.” Harley whispered and leaned in to close the gap between their lips. Peter smiled into the kiss, making it a little awkward but Harley was grinning too so neither minded.

[catnip-smuggler-radio]

Candlelight: Part 3

(Fight between Haname and Yimir in true fighting game style.  Hope you all enjoy! :D  Warning, long. Lol.  As always Haname is @repose-and-run char) Yimir rose from his feet and studied the man before him.  Not a bell ago, the man had rested at the feet of Nald’thal, ready to enter the god’s domain of death. The man in question was an old regular of Yimir’s, back before he’d entered into negotiations with Ostreaux about working for the elezen’s organization and his alone.  Yimir would be joining a organization for life and he was still uncertain what he’d do; but for now he was here, aiding an old friends soul.  A soul that was not for collecting today.  Yimir had pulled the man from the great beyond and allowed him to live a bit longer.  Yimir took a long sip of water from a flask.  The effort of healing the man’s wounded form had taken a lot out of him and he was weary now.  He slowly pulled his grey robe up over his bandaged arms and shoulders.  The healer looked at his own, bandaged hands and marveled at how someone as insignificant as himself somehow could keep life inside a ruined form through will and aether.  Did he defy the Wheel of Fate, or was he a part in its great machinations? He doubted he would ever know.  He glanced out the window of the small apartment that overlooked Pearl Lane.   It was night already…

The night was dark and full of terrors. Not really, but it was full of crime and shady individuals. The Masked Moogle crouched atop an old, rundown building in Pearl Lane, face hidden behind a Magitek mask and Moogle katana strapped to her side. She wore a gaudy white coat and boots, true to her namesake, and what looked like a Moogle plush dressed as a Taoist floated around her. She didn't have her signature pigtails. No, that'd be way too obvious. After all, how many other grown women wore their hair in pigtails? Not many. It was the perfect disguise. The mask she wore warped her voice and hid her aetherial signature. And the outfit she wore was way too flashy and cool compared to her usual wardrobe. She was a real vigilante now-- No. She was a superhero, stalking the alleys of Ul'dah to fight crime.

"He'll need a few days rest an' den needs tuh take it easy all healed up meow." Yimir said as he stepped out the door of the small, building into the Lane. "Just keep him relaxed." With that, the blonde shut the door and turned to walk down the street. He was dressed in a white, cotton shirt over which was a large, grey robe and a polished, leather bandolier across his chest. Thigh-high leather boots covered brown riding pants and a large yellow-and-black plaid scarf was wrapped around his neck and lower face. He moved slowly, keeping an eye out for any patrolling Blades. They were a rare sight around these parts but anyone moving in the lane past sunset was up to no good.

The Masked Moogle noticed movement from the corner of her eye. She tapped the side of her mask and the screen of it zoomed in to the area she turned her head towards. She couldn't quite make out a face due to the large hat and scarf, but she knew the area well enough back in her moko smuggling days where each crime den was. And that was definitely a crime den. She looked the suspicious figure up and down, and judging by their conversation, he was probably a medic. Getting up from her crouched position, she followed after the man from the rooftops, pausing only to send her Moogle companion out. The Moogle plush fluttered down and twirled happily around Yimir, its little Taoist robes fluttering in the desert breeze. "Where are you going, kupo? What have you been up to, kupo?" It asked in its irritatingly adorable voice. "My name is Gohan, kupo! You look suspicious, kupo!"

Yimir stopped and waved his left arm to shoo the moogle away. He couldn't believe he was running into a moogle of all things! What was the world coming too? "Begone ye little one." Yimir ordered in a mildly annoyed manner. Certainly he felt no threat from the intrusive creature as they were known to be silly drunks more than anything else, but the creature was loud and could garner him some unwanted attention. "I ain't done nuttin' but take a walk. Shoo!"

 "Ain't done nuttin', kupo?" Gohan quoted, floating down so it was almost nose to nose with Yimir. "What kind of nuts, kupo? Kupo nuts? There were some shaaady men back there, kupo. Ah! Watch out, kupo!" And then Gohan zoomed off, flying several feet up into the air above Yimir. The distraction was provided and the Masked Moogle leapt off the building right above the blonde Mi'qote, nearly landing on top of him with her katana drawn. "Alright, kupo." She said in a low voice, which really wasn't needed since her mask warped her voice to a much higher pitch anyways. "Hands up in the air. I know what kind of shady business you've been dealing with, kupo. I need you to come with me. Peacefully." She paused. "Kupo." She added to the end.

 "I said buzz off ye-" Yimir's ears perked as he heard something above him. He couldn't tell what it was but his tail poofed in a sign of danger and he leapt backwards, pulling a small kukiri made from bone out of his robe. He landed on both feet and tensed his entire body as he held his weapon at his side. He peered at this new arrival as if it was a coiled viper. There was no joy in his mismatched eyes as his tail swished behind him. The vigilante's words further soured his impression of her. He had no intention of complying with her orders and he spun the dagger around a finger by its o-ring. "I dun know who ye are, but I ain't goin' anywhere with yeh. So either ye move out de way or...we gonna have ourselves some trouble."

Yes Yimir. Sound tough. You are sooo badass.

 "Heh, so you really won't come peacefully then, huh kupo?" The Masked Moogle said with a small tilt of her head. "Well then.." She sheathed her sword. "I am the Masked Moogle, Champion of Justice!" She struck a pose. "In the name of the Mog, I shall punish you!" Another pose. Was that necessary? No, but she had been wanting to do it for a long time now and what better opportunity to than now? She held the pose for a moment longer as Gohan slowly descended back down, shaking its big, fat Moogle head.

 The blonde male stopped spinning his knife, almost cutting a finger off as he stared in dumbfound wonder at the woman's posturing. Was...was this for real? Was this seriously happening? Was this person really challenging him to a fight while acting like a gosh darn moogle and posing like she was a power ranger? He blinked and it took him him almost a minute to manage to form som sort of reply. "Are...are ye for real? Ye seriously want...but…Do ye do this often or sumfing? First time? Cause aint heard of ye." FIGHT BEGINS! QUE MUSIC!

"Hah! And clearly your first time if you've never heard of me, kupo!" The Masked Moogle was bluffing. But she had been down Pearl Lane enough times to know she had never seen this loser around before. And the fact that he hadn't straight up shanked her. "You're as green as they come, aren't ya kupo?" In a flash, she drew her katana again and well... threw it straight at his head.

Yimir had been expecting her to do something. -Throwing- the gosh darn katana, however, HADN'T been near the top of that list. He was saved by muscles and sheer instinct alone. He leaned back, flailing his arms behind him and sensing the world in slow motion as if he was dodging bullets in a video game. The weapon sailed over his head, the blade gleaming along it's polished edge in the moon's light. The healer watched it sail a mere ilm over his nose. And then it was gone. Yimir pulled himself upright and stood there, honestly surprised his himself and actually thanking his dad for making him do yoga. He was very bendy. But his wonder didn't last long. He glanced at the woman and clicked his tongue. Using his aether, he connected with the elements instead of his normal spells. His holy flames would be too obvious. Instead, he waved his hand and a gust of wind blew down the Lane and tried to slam into her feet and knock her onto her butt.

The gust of wind was strong. But not strong enough! The Masked Moogle had been hit by things worse than a little gust. Like boulders, shovels, and angry Highlanders. She butterfly-kicked into the air, doing a little spin like a Moogle would. Speaking of Moogle, Gohan was chanting "fight, kupo, fight, kupo, fight, kupo" the whole time. Landing on her feet again, she raised her hand and whistled. Unbeknownst to Yimir, her ridiculous looking katana was Magitek -infused and came boomeranging back around towards the back of Yimir's head a second time.

 Yimir twirled his kukiri a few times and had taken a step forward when the pommel of the katana smashed into the back of his head. He jerked his head forward as a loud thwack filled the air from the impact. He used his free had to hold the back of his skull as he glanced between his golden locks at the bizarre sight. A magical katana... This was turning into a very weird evening. "Alright buttercup." Yimir muttered, rubbing his sore skull as he stood up. "Let's wrap this up." Yimir snapped his left hand. Two chains of gold would spring from the ground like twin pythons and try to wrap themselves around her torso and pin her arms to her sides.

"Hah! Not today, 'cuz I'm not here to stay!" The Masked Moogle rhymed as she leapt up just in time for the chains to miss snagging around her. She paused briefly and added, "..Kupo." She caught her katana midair and dashed forward in an attempt to shoulder-tackle the Mi'qote with.. well, not quite full-force since that would be a dead giveaway, but with at least strength to knock the air out of him if she landed a hit.

"Oh great, and it rhymes." Yimir muttered as the moogle warrior came at him with her weapon drawn. Her bravado how made it clear what her goal was and he simply side stepped her raging charge. As she ran past, he very casually stuck his foot out to trip her.

"KUUUUPOOOOOOO--" Followed by a loud, audible thud as the Masked Moogle fell face first into the ground and with the speed she had been charging at, she tumbled several feet away. Her mask nearly slid off from the accident as well but fortunately, she had her back to the medic and quickly adjusted it before ripping the Moogle adornment on her katana and promptly hurling it at Yimir. It made a little 'kupo' squeak and as it sailed through the air, the Masked Moogle pressed a button on her mask. Soon after, sparks of lightning began to fizz out from the ornament. If it successful in landing on the blonde, it would send him into quite a shock! Literally.   Yimir was very smug as he heard the vigilante eat it on the stone street. Not that he looked. No he turned his back and began quickly shuffling away, eager to put this odd person and their moogle obsession far behind him. This desire for an expedient exit, however, proved a poor idea. A few moments later, he sensed the electricity behind him. The hair on his tail poofed again and he yelped out loudly: "Don't taze me bro!" But, alas, Haname did not listen and the blonde was tazed. His entire body convulsed and his muscles tensed. He collapsed in a heap as the moogle adornment bounced away.

"Hehe! Watt did you think of that, kupo?!" Horrible puns are horrible. But that didn't stop the Masked Moogle. "That one was on the house, no charge! Or maybe there was a charge.. of the shocking kind, kupo!" She laughed obnoxiously and proudly at her first feat as a superhero, dishing out justice and puns in equal measure. Stepping forward, she picked up her Moogle adornment and attached it back onto her katana before reaching down to drag the shady looking medic up by the back of his scarf and attempting to snatch off his hat to get a better look at her victim.

"What's going on here!" came the call of a tall, broad hyur. A moment later two armored Brass Blades clanked around the corner and into sight. They had been drawn by the sounds of illegal justice. Yimir looked at them with grateful eyes as he wiggled away from Haname as she tried to pull his scarf away. "Officers!" Yimir wheezed. "Help! This crazy person assaulted me!"

"Officers! I'm just doing my due diligence here in helping enforce the law, kupo!" The Masked Moogle claimed, loosening her hold on the scarf though she didn't quite let go of Yimir yet. "There was some criminal activity here, kupo! Arrest this Mi'qote!" Gohan floated itself around, adjusting its hat. "And if worst comes to worst, kupo, officers will make some nice bail money!" The plush piped in.

The hyur and lalafel looked at the scene, then one another, then the two unaware family members. They drew swords and pointed those pointed ends at duo. "Alright you weirdos. I don't know if you are Quicksand fuck buddies or fighting for gil or what, but both of you, drop your weapons, put you your hands in the air, and we'll go down to the station and sort this all out nice and easy. Sound good?" Yimir did not think that sounded good. Not at all. Seriously. He'd just gotten a big ol' Yakuza tattoo on his arms and was willing to wager things would not go well for him. Especially seeing as this was technically terf belonging to a different 'Little Star' and might rub some of his superiors the wrong way, supposing he lasted long enough for word to get out. Brass Blades did have their reputation after all.

"Officers, you got it wrong, kupo! I'm a good person, kupo!" The Masked Moogle threw her hands up defensively. Somehow, she knew it'd go something like this. After all, she had dealt with plenty of Blades before, on Frandrin's payroll or not. And with this knowledge, she knew this would not go down well. She quickly gave another whistle and suddenly, crashing down from the rooftops came a Magitek motorbike. It vroomed and roared and she hopped onto it without a second thought and promptly zoomed off, leaving the Mi'qote to fend for himself.

Yimir covered his head as the Brass Blades threw themselves aside as the bike slammed down onto the earth. A roar of the engines and a moment later the mysterious kupo crusader was gone. Yimir, coughed as a blast of moogle exhaust hit him as he got to his feet. He took a few steps when one of the Blades blew a whistle. The young miqo'te groaned as he turned and waved his hands. A powerful sleep spell slammed into both Blades. But it was too late. Even as the pair of Blades fell over in a heap, the sounds of incoming boots could be heard. Eager to not be here when the Blades arrived, the blonde took off down a long hallway that entered the palace. Soon, the male vanished among the many long, weaving corridors, left only to dwell upon his very strange evening and the very strange silly person out hunting down criminals.

[skullgruntdana]

Trainer Dana’s Bio

Art done by Pokemohn

Name: Adanais “Dana” Estrella María Sanchez

Pronunciation: Ah-day-nas Ehs-treh-ya Ma-Ree-Ah Sahn-chez

Birthday: July 19 (9 yrs) 

Height: 3’5”

Occupation: Child Pageant Star (formerly), Team Skull Grunt (Currently)

Family: Elise (mother), Rick (father), Diana (twin sister), Finn (brother)

Ethnicity: Hispanic, Japanese, and English. 

Face Claim: Yotsuba from Yotsuba&! (manga) 

Voice Claim: Ponyo 

Status: Primary Virus

Race: Human

On Elise’s side of the family:

On Rick’s side of the family:

Background: Dana was born to Elise and Rick Sanchez in the Kanto Region. The family lived in the Kanto Region until Dana was three years old. Previously, Dana’s parents had worked for Team Rocket but they were fired before Dana was born. As soon as Dana was born, Rick began doing DNA experiments on her in an attempt to get back in Team Rocket. While he successfully gave Dana her electrokinesis, he did not gain the fame he sought. Instead, he was ridiculed in the Kantonian science community, which caused him further distress. Rick was unable to get another job, and the family was forced to flee to the Hoenn region. The couple did not have enough money to support themselves after arriving in the Hoenn region, which forced them to work odd jobs until Dana was six. Rick and Elise decided to move to Lilycove, and apply to Team Magma when Rick got laid off his sales clerk job in Rustboro City. Until then, Dana did not have a lot of contact with other children and therefore did not have a lot of friends. She was further isolated when living in the Lilycove Hotel while her parents worked. Unknown to her parents, Dana often went off on her own to the Pokemon Safari, where she met a Drifloon. This particular Pokemon often stole children away, and it dragged Dana to the Alola region where she found Mimikyu, Tirtouga, and Drifblim. While in Alola, Dana made many friends and started to hang around Team Skull. 

Over time, Elise and Rick’s relationship began to worsen the more Rick drank, and Elise finally divorced him after a bitter and violent argument about Dana. Elise took him to court and won full custody of Dana after which she quit her job at Team Magma and moved with Dana to the Alola Region. Elise re-established contact with her parents and they gave her back her inheritance which she lost after marrying Rick. Dana now lives in a nice house overlooking the sea on Akala Island. Dana still goes and visits Team Skull in Po Town and her friends in Aether at the Aether Paradise. 

Update: After transfering to the Galar region, Dana was endorsed by Bede and completed the first four gyms, but she lost against Bede. She plans to rematch him. 

Family Information: Rick’s grandfather Keitaro has a dance house dojo in Ecruteak City that is run by Rick’s aunt Masako. Takako, his cousin, is unable to take the next position to be dance master, so Dana is next in line to be one.

Appearance: Dana has brown hair and pupil-less blue eyes. Her dress is handmade and purple in the style of Drifloon. There is a yellow X stitched onto the front along with two black circles. Her most iconic accessory is her Drifloon headband, which she never removes. Dana wears black church shoes.  

Hobbies: Collecting rocks, making friends, and annoying Team Skull.

Gaming Systems:  Wii, 3Ds, Game Boy, Game Boy SP, Nintendo DS, Xbox, Playstation, and Playstation Two.

Personality: Dana is a very outgoing child who enjoys making friends. Because of her Asperger's Syndrome, she has a very hard time responding appropriately to social situations. At times she can get hostile, but only when she thinks she is in danger. Another one of her oddities is how she refuses to take off her headband. Dana hates the way her head feels without and gets very upset when it is taken from her. Dana is very impulsive and does not think before she acts, unlike Batty who is very careful about everything she does. Being indecisive and impatient, Dana often jumps into situations she can't easily back out of, which makes it very hard for her to make the right decisions. People usually have to fix things for her as she is incapable of solving her own mistakes. Dana can also be very vulgar mouthed as she thinks it is cool to go around swearing, much to the dismay of the adults around her. Though Dana uses slang, she knows how to talk normally and only does so when she is serious. Aside from her selfish behavior when to comes to sharing toys, Dana is a very good, loyal, and cherished friend who you can rely on in times of need. Dana is also lively, open, easygoing, and lovely to speak to. Dana always has engaging conversations, though can sometimes stray from topic to topic with her own reasoning if something reminds her of something else.  Dana is easy to annoy, irritable, surreal, odd, bizarre, and prone to flights of fancy. Sometimes she loses concentration because she is too busy daydreaming. Dana is a very blunt person who does not sugar coat things, but it really depends on the person when it comes to her responses. Despite always being sarcastic, Dana does not understand sarcasm well and it often goes over her head, taking things literally to the point of causing her and the speaker to become confused. Being patient is something Dana struggles with as she expects things to happen when she wants them to happen. Dana is often annoyed when she has to wait for things. Like most children, Dana believes everybody should be a mind reader: knowing what she wants or needs at all times when she needs/wants them. Dana often gets annoyed when nobody picks up on her wants or needs. Despite her selfish demeanor, she puts her friends first and enjoys helping them, though there are times where Dana wants others to cater to her wants and needs. Dana is very vocal when she does not get her way, and often says “i want this” or “i want that.” Dana does not struggle when it comes to her wants and needs, though, as stated above, she believes everybody should know what she wants or needs at all times. As said previously, Dana is very vocal and this is also true when it comes to her thoughts, which she cannot keep to herself. Dana often talks about how she thinks about certain things, not caring if the other person does not want to listen/ does not care about that particular topic. Often volatile, Dana is unpredictable and often does things on a whim, much to the annoyance of adults who can’t follow her sudden changes in demeanor or actions. Dana also: takes things personally, is adventurous, and a thrill seeker.  

Interests: her casio, classical piano music, rap/hiphop, her headband, Drifloon, cheesecake, strawberries, metal/punk, rocks, cotton candy/bubblegum ice cream, tea parties and tea, mud, her squirt gun, grape soda, anime, double chocolate chip cookies, chocolate milk, 

Dislikes: Spearow, Fearow, Murkrows, taking her headband off, the police, large bodies of water, 

Headcanons: Dana is right handed, Dana can whistle but she can’t snap her fingers, she can’t swim, Dana almost drowned when she was younger, Dana has been to Juvie for a week for theft, Dana was bullied at school so her mother took her out, Dana listens to Usher and N.W.A, Dana is good at Dance Dance Revolution. Dana sucks on her hand, which is a bad habit. 

Gaming Consoles she owns: Wii, 3Ds, Game Boy, Game Boy SP, Nintendo DS, Xbox, Playstation, and Playstation Two. But I need a Game Cube.

phone: one: DOCOMO FUJITSU F-03D GIRLS POPTEEN (smart phone) 

DoCoMo SH-11C

(Flip phone)(purple) 

LG Cyon Lollipop 2 Phone (pink)

Instruments: pianos: Casio Privia PX-870 and a Pink Casio SK-1

9Songs she can play: Dream On by Aerosmith, Fur Elise by Beethoven, learning the Turkish March by Mozart, House of the Rising Sun by the Animals, Bohemian Rhapsody, 

[solarmason-blog]

to find ourselves some truth | mclopez

WHO: Mason McCarthy & Santana Lopez ( @trickstersantana ) WHAT: Santana clues Mason into her plan. WHERE: NYADA Cafeteria. WHEN: Sunday, 1/8, after the Elliott/Santana duel. WARNINGS: Nah.

Not so long ago the fact that she was going to hang out with a slayer, and Mason of all Slayers would had make her laugh of the ridiculous of the idea. But here she was, in parting testing him, in part because her plans are usually the worst and if it's Mason the one who suffer the consequences she wouldn't care much. She went to the cafeteria with Madison's sunglasses in search of the slayer boy. Mason was already there; he'd bypassed the ice cream in favor of cookies and a small bowl of strawberries and sugar. The events of the night before weighed on his mind, but he still smiled when he spotted Santana enter the cafeteria. "San," he called over the noise, waving a hand to catch her attention. Santana nodded at seeing Mason. "Number Two" She said, "You were going to invite me for something, didn't you?" She asked, searching for a table that was far away from everyone. "We have business to talk about" "Alright," Mason said with a shrug. He figured that was probably smart; it took a bit of doing, but they finally found a table well away from the main bustle of the cafeteria. "How're you, Santana?" As much as he hated small-talk, especially when there were more important things to talk about, business was business, and a certain amount of nicety was required. "I hear you've been winning your duels so far." "Awesome" She just answered "I'm invincible and can beat everyone, including you" She ordered a coffee and a coulant. "And you, Number 2, how is life treating you?" She said, in case he has something relevant to say before she started talking about why they really were there.  "Life is treating me fine," he said, chewing the edge of his lip for a moment. "But I did have a question for you. Are you aware of any illusion that can interact with the world? Like, say you illusioned a cup. It wouldn't hold water, right?" He leaned forward in his seat a little, a frown creasing his brow. "That sounds like there are some issues" She just said to Mason while taking off her sunglasses. She was surprised he asked her about illusions. Oh, this was going to be really long. Try not to be a total nerd, Santana "In that case people just make it look like the fake cup holded the water. They could make it look like the water is there, and if they are really skilled, you could touch it and feel the water where it should be." She explained "Why do you ask?" Mason nodded slowly. "Right," he said, frown deepening a bit. "But an illusion couldn't..." He trailed off for a moment, then shook his head. He was so bad at talking around things - subtlety was not a virtue he possessed. "I saw a guy do this thing. He was talking, holding things, definitely like...Taking action that was real." He thought about the message on his phone. It could have come from anywhere - not necessarily the person he was looking at "texting" him. "And then he just disappeared. Like, a puff of smoke." Mason made a poof gesture. "Have you ever heard of anything like that?" She listened to Mason explanation "...And what makes you think that's an illusion person holding things? It would just have more sense a person taking a thing and then making an illusion to appear invisible, or just vanish with smoke. That's freaking easy, actually" Specially if you were a trickster."Did someone stole something from you, Number two?"

Mason shook his head. "No," he said, "they didn't take anything." Unfortunately. Mason ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "That makes more sense, you're right." But it didn't get him anywhere. "What was your thing?"

"That's good then" she just said, wondering what the hell was Mason talking about. "Did you watched a Commons magician shows? I mean, you can do that even without magic, so" She shrug. Now it was her turn "I have a plan to get who was the guy" She whispered. "We know 3 key things of him. He is a guy, he is a witch and he got his nose broken on November 30" She had to guess that one searching on the NYADaily because Elliott didn't fucking answered her. Maybe he didn't answered her because she broke her phone, but the facts remained the same. She paused to drink some of her coffee "And you" She pointed at him "Are the one who is going to find out more about this guy... what do you think, sp...Spyson...Mc...McDetective spio...spiocarthy" She couldn't choose on a nickname so she just said them all. Mason pointed at himself, raising an eyebrow as she gave him about a dozen new nicknames, none of which sounded remotely plausible except maybe Spyson, but that wasn't the point. "Okay," Mason agreed cautiously. "How exactly am I going to do that?" Mason paused. "Or do I get to figure that part out on my own?" His mind drifted to the nurse's office; he'd let Madison do the work of stealing the thing. Maybe it was his turn to be useful.

That was fast, Santana though. Good to see people agreeing to things. "Don't worry, you aren't completelly alone at this." Just a bit. She whispered more "Just... If nurse Penny though you were the guy we are looking for... and you ask her about, well, 'yourself', we could get some information" She explained, taking a cup of coffee "Are you ready to make a deal, Masey, for the greater good?"

He pursed his lips at the nickname - it was one thing when it was Madison, or Puck; Santana was something else entirely, but if he let her know that he'd never hear anything else. He leaned back in his chair and let out a breath, studying her. "A deal," Mason echoed slowly. Everything he'd ever been taught about tricksters ended with 'and never take a deal because they'll use it to kill you'. Admittedly part of him was still worried that this was a trap, something that she had constructed to screw him over in some way he hadn't figured out yet. But it was about Elliott. The quote-unquote greater good. And Mason wanted to get the baddie - he wanted to not feel useless. "Give me all the details." Mason finally said, letting out a sigh. "And all the terms, all the everything." Mason swallowed. "And then...maybe." He watched her; maybe it was her distrust aura or maybe it was his prejudices, but aether something was telling him to run far and run fast.

Santana looked at him, unamazed. "Do you want me to write it on a contract or what?" She always loved to play the mysterious trickster cause she was actually really fucking bad at explaining anything. Too many years living with ambiguous talk and annoying riddles. She keep whispering "We make a deal for Nurse Penny. So she would see you as 'the first guy who came with a broken nose after November 30th'. You go and talk to her and try to make her say 'your name' or whatever information you can get about 'yourself'" She did the quotation marks. "Try to get her alone so people don't suspect much, and try to get any information you can... and if the guy didn't go to the hospital or a lot of people went with a broken nose, then ...well... it's worth a try"

Mason nodded slowly as she spoke, frown still on his face. He wasn't sure what the consequences were for impersonating someone, especially where medical records were concerned, but... "It's worth a try," Mason finally said, letting out a breath. "How does the deal work?" It was no riskier than meeting a stranger surrounded by Commons, he figured - and he wasn't actually angling to look at medical records. There were better people to illusion himself as for that. Which, if this didn't work... "How will you make me look like the guy if you don't know who he is?"

"I don't need to know how he looks, Penny is the only one who need to know how he looks" Making her own ilusions were her creating a world of her own, but deals worked differently. It was the thing that all trickster had in common. She didn't want to give many details of how it worked to Mason though. "You tell me the day you wanna try to met her, we hang out before, we make the deal, and you go and try to get something... you know like 'hey Penny remember me?' or something like that. I'm sure you can invent something" She has 0 faith actually.

Mason rolled his eyes. "I'm not asking for a script, Santana, I'm asking to know what exactly you're going to do to me." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Tried to push past her aura. "I just...This isn't you just being a dick to me for a reason I haven't figured out yet, right? Because--if this goes to hell, it's me on the line, San. I want to help Elliott, I do, you know I do, but..." Mason sighed and dropped his gaze to where he was picking at the edge of the table. "What if he didn't even go to the hospital? What if he just got a friend to heal him or something?"

"Then we will find out if he went or not" She explained. "I'm not doing anything to you. It's Penny the one who is going to see you differently." She took a bite of her food "This is me trying to get information" with a very bad plan. Santana style. "Look, the worse that can happend is you making a fool of yourself. If no one got to the hospital with a broken nose on...let's say 2 days, then the deal won't even work, and I'll notice that." Probably. "You on the line... I though you were used to that." she said, smiling.

 "I am," Mason agreed, then shook his head at himself. "Making a fool of myself isn't exactly unusual either," he allowed, with a little smile. He was still incredibly uneasy, and he didn't believe for even one minute that this was going to be as harmless or as easy as Santana seemed to think it was. "Fine." Mason said flatly. "Fine, I'll do it. How does making the deal work?"

Santana smiled to Mason. "Good, just tell me the day you want to do it, I'll see you, we shake hands and that's it! If it doesn't work then we know he didn't went, and if it works then you go to the hospital and talk to Penny and get the most information you can, though it might be incorrect, but it can also ve accurate!" Mason sighed. That still didn't answer his question - didn't a deal require him to give something up, like an exchange? He rubbed his temple. "Okay. This weekend. We can't let this wait too much longer, it's already been..." Mason shook his head. If they had just solved the problem when it happened, he'd never be dealing with this stupid knife guy. "I really hope this works."

"I agree" She said. "It's worth a try" She finished her food and looked at Mason. "Do you want something more or invite me to more food?"

Mason shook his head, pushing his bowl away. Suddenly, he wasn’t hungry anymore. He paid for their food and ran a hand through his hair. “Nah. I gotta go, actually. Homework.” Really, he just didn’t want to be roped into any more of her crazy schemes...this one had to work, or what was the point of any of this?