#teasing Miles Morales as a future character

[gay-dorito-dust]

can you write atsv characters reacting to a masc or Gn reader being super motherly/fatherly to a kitten? Just romantic stuff no smut

Miles Morales felt the beginnings of a smile stretch across his lips when he caught you helping the kitten dip their paws into some paint and then letting them parade about the canvas, leaving colourful paw prints in their wake with a variety of colours that meshed well despite their opposing components.

(He secretly thanks that it ain’t acrylic paint cuz that’s a bastard to get out, trust me.)

It made his heart swell at the wholesome sight that he couldn’t help but join in on the fun by drawing about the paw prints, making adjustments so that they’d look like a portrait of a field of unique paw shaped flowers, whilst adding his own flair of art style by sketching out the sky before bringing out the marker pens and colouring pencils that he had laying about.

Bonus if he has some music playing in the background because it means you and the little kitten get a private concert when Miles starts singing the lyrics under his breath as he’s taken away to his happy place. You loved getting to see his art in process as you got to appreciate the dedication he puts into each of his works and it brought an even bigger smile to his face when the brown kitten would try to follow the lines of his pencil as though it were a laser; so much so that the finished product was made of lines that stopped and started elsewhere but Miles was talented enough to make it into a work of art worth having in a museum somewhere.

‘Watch out Miles, you’re not the only artist in this family anymore.’ You teased as you both watched as the kitten dipped their paws back into some paint and walking across the bottom of the canvas so it would look as those some of the petals of the flowers had wilted off. ‘He takes after me, don’t you little man?’ Miles says as he puts a hand out -palm up- for the kitten, uncaring that there’d be a smeared purple paw print there afterwards, he was use to getting a little messy. You chuckled at the interaction, ‘so does that mean I’ll be expecting frequent collaborations between you two in the nearby future?’ He shrugs but before he could open his mouth, the brown kitten mewled at you both, making you look at him as he sat next to the canvas that looked to be filled with more colourful white paw prints that doted the sky like stars, ‘that’s to be discussed.’ Miles tells you, pressing a kiss to your forehead before picking up the kitten to wash his paws whilst you put the canvas somewhere safe to dry.

Pavitr Prabhakar felt as though he could die of cuteness overload when he caught you and the kitten you both had rescued engaging in a multitude of playful games; one of which being based off is something you’ve noticed that the kitten would do whenever you disappeared from it’s sight, where it would then mewl loudly, only stopping when you gave in and poked your head out from the doorway as though it did nothing. So now and then you or Pav would purposefully hide yourselves from the kitten and wait until it either starts mewling or looks for you both themselves; then and only then would you reveal yourselves before repeating the process to see whether or not the kitten had gotten closer then last time.

Another thing you liked to do with the kitten was have them in your lap as you lightly tickled their tummy before pulling away as the kitten imitated your movements by stretching their paws above their head before you proceeded to tickle their stomachs some more and repeating the process; each time dying at how cute your little kitten was that you couldn’t help but cover them in a flurry of tiny kisses against their fur.

You didn’t acknowledge Pavitr until you heard the sound of a photo being taken which was when your head whipped in the direction the sound came from, only to spot Pav with his phone in hand. ‘How long have you been standing there?’ You asked him as the kitten had started to drift to sleep in your lap, leeching off of your warmth. ‘Long enough to capture a photo of my two beloveds and make it my Lock Screen.’ He responded as he turned his phone to show you the picture he had taken and needless to say his photography skills were phenomenal; the picture has captured the moment beautifully and the way the light from a nearby window beaming down onto you and the kitten, silhouetting you both somewhat, as you smiled down at the kitten with an abundance of love and affection in your eyes as the kitten looked to have reciprocated those feelings by looking up at you in an admirable way.

‘It’s a beautiful picture but it’s missing something.’ You tell him.

Pavitr makes a face as he sits down next to you, where the kitten then shifted from your lap to his, purring in content as he ran his fingers over the kittens fur. ‘What would that be?’

‘You.’ You said blatantly as you grabbed his phone from him and took another picture but this time with all three of you; that picture picture quickly became Pavitr’s favourite as it took over as his new screen lock that he loves to look at whenever he felt down or needed a reminder of what he’s got waiting for him after the day was over. The life of being Spider-Man was hectic but it was made all the more worth it when he got to experience moments where it was just you, him and your little fur baby.

Miles, gwen and Hobie would have these types of photos shoved in their face whenever they meet up, but they didn’t mind as it was a sight to see Pavitr beaming as brightly as he did when you or the kitten were brought into the conversation. He’s a proud cat dad with a whole album dedicated to capturing the kitten within every moment of it’s life.

Gwen Stacy stood at the doorway, watching with slight amusement as you set up a makeshift bed for the kitten -a russian blue, you later found out- that was drifting fast asleep on your pillow. Gwen wasn’t that partial to keeping the kitten, mainly because in due to the amount of commitment you’d both have to put in to raising them, but it seemed as though you were more then willing to put in the work as the moment you both found the poor thing seeking shelter underneath a parked car after Gwen heard it’s mewls for help.

You personally made sure that the kitten was being fed, hydrated, bathed, and just overall taken care of while she looked for a good family that would properly take care of Blue; a name you had only just recently picked out after a week of temporarily housing the kitten. However it seemed as though overtime your bond with Blue had deepened significantly to the point where most of the spare space you had became play areas for your newest addition. ‘They seemed to have made themselves quite content there don’t you think.’ Gwen points out and you couldn’t help but internally coo at content Blue looked upon your bed and how their entire body was almost submerged within your bedding, you didn’t have the heart to move them in fear of disrupting their sleep.

‘Yeah, seems as though they have, cheeky little bugger.’ You said fondly as you moved away from what was originally going to be the designated place for Blue’s bed and knelt by the side of your bed, lightly running your fingers through Blue’s soft fur as a soft smile beamed across your face at their comfortability to be vulnerable in front of you and Gwen. ‘You love them don’t you?’ She asked as she moved into the room and knelt beside you and resting her head against your shoulder, having watched you build a trust bond with this kitten made her rethink her whole ideology on have a pet, that if she did find a proper home for Blue. She doesn’t think she could handle seeing how heartbroken you’d be in having to give up the kitten you’ve spent countless hours and sleepless nights raising as though they were your own; which was why she had stopped looking entirely weeks ago but never told you.

You rested your head atop of Gwen’s as you sighed, ‘of course I do,’ you tell her, ‘as tiering as raising this little primadona was, it was all worth it.’

‘Then it’s settled then.’ She tells you and you looked at her in confusion. ‘We’re keeping the kitten and besides,’ she shrugs, ‘I couldn’t find a suitable home for them and you’re both too adorable to split apart.’ Upon hearing this your eyes brightened, ‘does that mean we’re cat parents now.’ You whispered excitedly to Gwen as she could could only smile back from how infectious your happiness was and how she was happy in being the one to bring that happiness out of you, knowing firsthand how deeply you loved Blue and now she wanted to be apart of that too. ‘Yes y/n, we’re cat parents now.’ Gwen agreed as she looked at Blue as they slept. ‘Welcome to the family Blue Stacy.’

Hobie Brown could tell there was a change in your demeanour when you returned home, completely drenched and with your jacket bundled in your arms as though you were crawling something; It also didn’t help that it had been raining for the past week.

‘Are you mad?’ Was the first thing he asked and you shrugged, knowing he was more worried then he was upset, ‘I’d like to think that I’m mentally sound.’ You replied without a hitch. Hobie sighs, crossing his arms over his chest as he leant against the wall. ‘Would you at least tell me what’s so important that you had to take your jacket off, whilst in the rain no less.’ Before you could speak, your bundled up jacket moved in your arms restlessly until you eventually unraveled it to reveal a scruffy looking kitten with dirty brown fur.

Hobie should’ve known that you went out of your way to make sure that the kitten was kept out of the rain, even if it resulted in you catching a cold the next day from doing so but he knew you’d do it again in a heartbeat; It was in your nature to uplift others into your arms. If anything pissed him off, it would have to be the fact that many people only viewed pets as an accessory they could shop for whenever rather then the lifelong companions that they were; he hated it even more when those same people abandon them out on days like these, despite knowing damn well that they wouldn’t survive.

‘Now before you say anything, I found this little guy in a alleyway in a cardboard box that was soaked and rotting, I couldn’t leave him there Hobie, the poor guy was too weak that I could nearly hear him meow.’ You let the kitten down gently onto the floor where it then proceeded to run towards Hobie, looking up at him defiantly. Hobie couldn’t help but chuckle as he knelt to floor, holding his hand out -palm up- which the kitten then proceeded to sniff and upon deciding neither him nor you were threats, the orange tabby then allowed for Hobie to pick him up.

‘I like the fire in this one’s eyes,’ he tells you as he began to stroke the tabby’s fur as it purred, ‘though we do have to give him a wash soon before we do anything else but I’m sure I can find something to make a collar out of.’ You gasped, running up to him and the tabby in his arms, ‘you hear that little buddy,’ the kitten only blearily blinked at you in response, ‘you’re staying.’ You whispered, gingerly scooping them out of Hobie’s arms, lost in the plans you had in store as you wandered off to prepare a bath, leaving Hobie to watch on with an amused look upon his face; brainstorming his own plans with the little tabby that looked at him from over your shoulder in a desperate plea for help.

Yeah, he loves his little anarchist family already.

[vhstown]

miles morales x you headcanons

— 1610!miles x gn!reader (friends to lovers)

warnings: just fluff lol (miles is a dork)

note: normal spider-man au, a little tiny bit long. v self indulgent and oddly specific but i tried to keep them in character + inclusive 😭 wrote this at 3am, somewhat edited

For context, you were Miles' first real friend at Brooklyn Visions. You kept running into each other, and he had a strong liking to you after you helped him escape the wrath of the hall monitors without question. Becoming fast friends, Miles is quickly involved in every part of your life at the academy, and he even more quickly develops a crush on you. Luckily for you, he completely forgets about the shoulder touch. The man has no game when he's around you, his best friend, though it's not like he needs to.

Miles draws you a lot, to the point where it's almost obsessive. You're in his sketchbook, class notes, a loose scribble on the back of a receipt. You have your hair different one day and he scrambles to capture it somewhere without you noticing. He has it down to a science, and he tries to convince himself it's absolutely normal to be able to draw you perfectly from memory.

When you find out, he wants a portal to open up and swallow him whole. It's more endearing than anything, though. It's not like you haven't been stealing glances of his portraits in the middle of class anyway.

You may or may not tease him relentlessly about it, but eventually, you get comfortable whenever he slips out his favourite pencil and you pretend not to catch his subtle, studying glances.

Miles loves his headphones, sure. He begged his mom to get them for him ages ago, promising he'd put them to good use. They're basically glued to his ears, that is, unless he's talking to you. He always takes them off, listening intently to whatever you have to say, even if you're making small talk or just saying hi.

Sharing music with you is always at the back of his mind until he finally caves and buys a pair of wired earphones. It becomes routine to listen to something together whenever you hang out, pulled a little closer to each other by the wire playing Sunflower between you.

And yes, he made you a playlist. He's definitely embarrassed about it at first, and listens to it a number of times beforehand to make sure you'd like it. It's full of songs that make him think of you and ones you expressed interest in. He's definitely overthought it, but it's worth your reaction and seeing the Spotify like count increase to one. He listens to it more than you do, though.

Miles is nervous about telling his mom about you. About the both of you. Yeah, he's already told her every detail of you and your life, but he's scared of what she'd think of meeting you in person; it's not like she's hyperaware of the boy she's known for all his life suddenly changing when you're brought up, right? Rio is definitely a mama bear, even if Miles gets the brunt of it sometimes, but when he brings you over for the first time you feel more than welcome. Miles' mom and dad are constantly whispering to each other during dinner trying to make you feel comfortable, and you catching one of Rio's half-scowls at her husband when he asks a stupid question. Either way, there are hugs and kisses at the door, and you leave with your heart and your stomach full. They might just be your new parents. (Maybe in the future?)

Miles definitely helps you with school when he can, especially with more technical subjects. He always drops everything when you message him with a math problem or right before your science finals. He's up on call with you til the sun's up, the both of you questioning your sanity and basic reason when it's really just an excuse to spend time with each other (though the circumstances are unideal.) You send him your English essay to read over one day and he painstakingly looks through it to find things to compliment you on; he has no idea what you're talking about.

And calls with you are one of his guilty pleasures. When he's sure Ganke's not paying attention or his mom's checked his room for the last time, he drops you a hopeful message. You're tired, but you find yourself justifying each time you call until 3 in the morning, talking about the same couple of things. He likes hearing about your day, where you've been, what hilarious or strange thing happened in your classes. He likes hearing your voice most of all; it's even more comforting when it's muffled by sleep and your thoughts come out in jumbled repetitions of the same thing. One day, you fall asleep on call. Miles doesn't bother to decline it, pulling his blanket over him and letting his eyes close to the sound of your breathing.

When the two of you actually get together, he's even more nervous than he was bringing you over for the first time. His brain short-circuits when you say you like him back, and he just says "yeah" or nods to everything you say. He can't believe you like him. Outside of being Spider-Man, he's a bit of a nobody (he just likes keeping to himself). Not to you, though. You're his only other friend besides Ganke (more like the sneaker thief) at Brooklyn Visions, and now he's yours. Despite the ample advice from his uncle, he misses your first kiss. (You try again after a lot of laughter and it's all okay when he gets used to it.)

But... he might be getting too used to it. In fact, now that he knows you're okay with the scary concept of kissing, he's always holding your hand, brushing away strands of your hair, even just holding onto your sleeve by his fingertips. Miles always steals kisses, especially before he runs off to his class on the other side of the academy (he insists on walking you to yours. Yes, he's been late multiple times.) You swear you'll get him back for those one-sided kisses, but the debt piles up, and you eventually get used to it too.

When he hasn't seen you in a while (after slinking off for his friendly neighborhood duties), he pulls you into the most enveloping, bone-crushing hug. His head is pressed into your shoulder and arms almost double-wrapped around your torso like he hasn't seen you in years. It feels like he could pick you up, no matter how much you insist he'll never be able to lift you. It gives you a strange sense of security, and you never question why someone of his stature could probably throw you like a tennis ball.

Though, when you do manage to show him affection before he slips away, he totally melts at your touch. It's like his crush forms all over again, like it's your first kiss all over again. You like to bombard him with love just to see him go quiet and flustered and hear that very specific laugh he's had since his crush formed. He likes having you close, no matter what you're doing. Even if you're both on your phones, he always lets you lean against him or has an arm around you. When you catch him off guard with a little peck on the face, you notice him frantically looking through his home screen like it's the most interesting thing in the world.

You'll get him back one day. Until then, you'll chase him around the whole of Brooklyn if you have to. He's happy to be caught, even happier to be your boyfriend. Maybe one day he'll even give you his drawings of you. Or his entire sketchbook, it's basically all just you. Recently, it's been made up of your smiles. Maybe he'll just keep the sketchbook for himself.

🕸️💫🎧

thank you for reading ^^ this is my first post so any suggestions wld be appreciated. this is my secondary blog so i can't reply but feel free to drop an ask! (not taking requests atm)

read the rest of my atsv headcanons here!

[kanohimineka]

LOOK AT THESE X MEN

So, I just want to talk some comic books, because some stuff is looking cool. But it requires some context.

So, near the start of the 2000's, a little book called Ultimate Spider Man came out. It was meant to be a reader friendly alternative to the main Spider Man comics that had been running since the 60's. You know, something a bit less overwhelming. It was mostly written by Brian Michael Bendis, and it ran up to 2015. It was a massive success, and it led Marvel to make many other "Ultimate" comics adapting many of their other characters, such as the Fantastic Four, the X Men, and the Avengers, rechristened the Ultimates. Many of these influenced their modern film counterparts, with USM inspiring much of the Sam Raimi Spidey films and the ASM films, and the Ultimates heavily influencing the MCU Avengers. However, in the 2010's, it started to peter out, the only real notable exception being the creation of Miles Morales, the second Spider Man. As such, in 2015, the universe was destroyed by the event Secret Wars (2015), written by one Jonathan Hickman.

Hickman got his start at Marvel working on some Nick Fury stuff, but really got his start when he began writing Fantastic Four, pushing it forward to new heights. In which, he introduced the character of The Maker, a corrupted evil version of the Ultimate Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic). From there, he began to write The Avengers, creating a grand multi year epic that all led up to the new Secret Wars, Marvel's closest equivalent to DC's many crises, where the multiverse was destroyed and reformed by Dr. Doom into Battleworld. After this event, the Ultimate universe (World 1610) was destroyed, and the main universe (World 616) was reformed, with a few changes (Such as bringing in Miles). From there, after a brief period of independence, he reformed the X Men into the Krakoan era with HoX and PoX, though he left that period to other creatives to focus on other things. Then eventually, he came back.

After a decent amount of teasing, Hickman began work to bring back the Ultimate Universe... kind of. Hickman brings back the Maker in this four issue mini to mess around with universe 6160, futzing with it to make his own epic universe. However, things don't go exactly to plan, but it doesn't really matter, because a new Ultimate universe comes back, with new characters like a young Iron Man and so on and so forth, introduced this month in the book "Ultimate Universe #1"

This book kicks off this grand new universe, but it will be flanked by others in the near future. Hickman himself is taking over Ultimate Spider Man, a story of an older, married Peter who gets his powers after living a longer life. Cool. There is also a Black Panther book. I don't have too much to say, but it does look neat. However, why we are here is for Peach Momoko's Ultimate X Men, which got a backup preview in Ultimate Universe.

This is a big book for Peach Momoko, a Japanese artist who was hired by Marvel as mainly a cover artist, but with some of her own works as well. It seems to focus on the character of Armor, one of the many mutants by Marvel, seeing her grow into a mutant in this universe. And it looks FUCKING SICK!

Again, it got some teaser images in Ultimate Universe, though it won't come out until next March. However, this brief look gives some interesting images that I'm just obsessed with.

I am obsessed with this seeming adolescent body horror approach. It feels right in line with this idea of younger mutants dealing with all these ideas in a new, cool looking way. The artstyle really helps it, since a lot of the given teasers are very dialogue light. It lets the art and the emotions therein shine.

It does, at least at the start, seem to focus on just a few dorks hanging out. They're both mutants by the way, the white haired kid is a character created for a cover by Peach Momoko, and she's getting integrated here.

Overall, it looks really promising. How will they integrate the actual X Men, who knows. But, I'm excited for this interesting take on this gaggle of mutants

[ognimdo2002]

Chiara Wilson (Homo sapiens) - Demon of New Zealand

“ Though my directors blunted most of them because they were cursed, I was not possessed by an evil plan monster. ”

– herself

Chiara Amira Wilson Miles (Maori: Kiara Amira Wirohono Mairuhu; Japanese: キアラ・アミラ・ウィルソン・マイルズ; Romaji: Kiara Amira Uiruson Mairuzu), later known as Ahorangi Yamamoto (Japanese: 山本・明るい / ヤマモト・アホランギ), is a fictional character introduced in Two Lights, a prequel to the Worldcraft series, as part of Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure set in the future.

Take Note: All of my drawings and photos of people, animals, plants, mythology, disasters, organizations, events, and more are purely fictitious. These are included in real-life situations and events with fictional characters or creatures that aren't real, be at your own risk. For nationality or indigenous, be advised. Ognimdo.

Physiology

Chiara is a 328-year-old New Zealander girl of British, Maori, and Japanese descent who looks like she is 18 years old. Chiara had pale brownish skin with Maori tattoos on her left arm and right leg, pinkish lips, brownish black hair and eyelashes, and brown eyes. Chiara's hair was drastically changed to pure black when Ryomen Sukuna possessed her, and the tattoos on both arms and legs showed up.

Personal/Early Life

Chiara is the descendant of Peter Jackson, Lee Tamahori, and Akira Toriyama, all of them are film directors. Chiara's parents' names were unknown, but some archives are kept in Hirawhassa and Ityosel, better known as Berbania and Reinachos, two exoplanets. These parents, Anne and James, are both Pakeha or Europeans, with Japanese and Maori bloodlines, but James is descendant of three film actors in 21st century.

Abilities

Chiara didn't acquire her own magical abilities until she was twelve years old. Many stories about Ryomen Sukuna come from Hida Province, the Tohoku region, Whakaari Island, and the Aoraki, and her parents think her mother was of Japanese blood. These stories are well remembered for Tangaroa and Susanoo's legends.

Because to Ryomen Sukuna's unique falling technique, Chiara—one of the characters she was introduced to in Leap of Faith—is more advanced than the Assassin Order, the Templar Knights, and the Monster Hunter. Chiara survived in many years as depicted in her genes are actually a demigoddess and human hybrid, and hibernate herself in the South Island caves.

Personality

Without any encounters or being portrayed by Ryomen Sukuna, Chiara is a gentle and lovely girl. Because Chiara firmly believes in "the value of life," she will work to ensure that others have a "proper death." As a result, she feels that it is morally wrong for her parents to take another person's life and will only do so in extreme cases. Because Chiara was considered unlucky, she was teased by many ethnic groups, including Chinese, Indians, Filipinos, Indonesians, Hawaiians, and British. As a result, her birthday fell on Friday, the 13th, and Good Friday was her birthday.

Story

Chiara Wilson was born in unknown year as she was one of Anne and James' thirteen children in New Nagoya (Nakōia) or Auckland, New Zealand before being occupied by Japanese Empire in Fourth Wave. Maoris in New Zealand worried that about the story that how Ryomen Sukuna killed in New Zealand as Pakeha or European descent, but Sukuna is a Japanese people or Tangata Nipono.

Sukuna possessed Chiara after being reincarnated via the cursed jade found in Poneke State, Prefecture of Aotearoa. The Cursed Jade was the temporary soul vessel for Ryomen Sukuna who was killed by Tangaroa for being ruthless and racist towards Maori people. His body was buried on Mount Tarawera and his soul was hidden and kept secret on Haast's eagle's nest.

Anne finally birthed Chiara and make her 13th children, but the New Zealand government want to killed her for in fact that she was reincarnated by Ryomen Sukuna. During the Japanese–Maori War on Dunedin/New Osaka (Tagalog: Digmaan Hapon–Maori sa Dunedin), Anne and James were hiding and now captured by the purebred Japanese people to kill Europeans and non-Japanese Asians, and make Polynesians dominated and leaving a New Zealand government into more related to Shinto influenced in existence the outside power evades all responsibility, while at the same time successfully paralysing the British government they tolerate Maoris and Japanese people.

Chiara is captured and incarcerated by the Japanese government for the experimentation, but she's reincarnated by Ryomen Sukuna and now worshipped by the Shintoists and use her as part of New World Order. Throughout New Zealand more than a million Europeans and non-Japanese Asians, composed of mothers, fathers, boys, girls, babies, and gay men, some as young as 1, were imprisoned, forcibly taken as "comfort women", and kept in sexual slavery for Japanese military personnel during the occupation. Each of the Japanese military installations in New Zealand during the occupation had a location where the women were held, which they called a "comfort station".

The worst part of Maori's religion was none other than State Shinto, displaced Maori religion, described as any state-supported, Shinto-inspired ideology or practice intended to inspire national integration, unity, and loyalty against Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania countries were all controlled by Japanese Empire. Chiara's birth religion was Calvinism, but she was possessed by Sukuna, and she was executed to death under Japanese law along with Sukuna because he's a demon.

According to the Japanese government, they wanted to Sukuna died because he hated Japanese royal family long time ago. Chiara was strongly encourage to become a Shintoist that emphasized the Tenno or Sukuna as a divine being.

The Tenno arrived in New Zealand to hunt down Chiara, but she turned into Sukuna and the Tenno used the jade sword that was used by Tangaroa for stabbed Sukuna's back and chopped Sukuna's fingers. Killing the Tenno and his military personnel by Chiara's powers like earthquake, and she was trapped in South Island. The Tenno is executed to death by the earthquake and Chiara knocked unconscious while falling on high places.

Chiara was awake on June 2996 AD, from unknown cavern in South Island, and she was rename to Ahorangi Yamamoto to avoid being Pākehā, but she's mixed (whakauru tangata) with White British, Maori, and Japanese descent. Chiara is reside in Whangarei and stayed in many years until Solcorvauld and Morrison families arrived in New Zealand or now Aotearoa, which now owned by British government, as Nihon (Japan) become part of Commonwealth under the British royal family.

Gallery

Lyrics

Verse 1] Non existent and Tennō (numb?) Anaesthetics kicked in I want to sleep in Are you a victim of creation?

[Pre-Chorus] I'm fighting for the smallest silver of hope Suffocating in the shaddows Finding my air to breathe To release the truth of me

[Chorus] Look in to my eyes I understand I'll empathise Together we'll stand You don't have to hide Just take my hand Because we, we are human

[Verse 2] Oh broken mirror on the wall As I lay in the pieces on the floor A silent cry, slowly tearing me apart Will I be able to survive?

[walkingstackofbooks]

DS9 1x20 In the hands of the prophets thoughts (rewatching; spoilers for future episodes abound probably)

The opening MilesxKeiko scene is sweet. I don't like irrational jealousy, but it was more teasing of Miles' obliviousness and was just funny and cute

Man I've missed Keiko. l thought she was around more in early season when I was missing her in later seasons, but I guess that was just rose-tinted memories

Oh. Winn's appeared. Ugh.

Keiko using her teacher voice to answer Winn's interruptions - "Yes, on Bajor the entities are worshipped as prophets." *continues lesson* 👌👌👌 Winn's point is not completely unreasonable, but the manner she brings it up is.

I love you Kira, but you don't *really* believe in Bajoran separatism, do you??

Oh my god I hate Winn's fake piety so much, you can tell she resents Sisko with every word she says. Don't you speak about Kai Opaka, she wouldn't stand for you

Yeah ever since Neela started showing up in the past few episodes consistently I knew something was gonna go down with her because frequent side characters are not normal

(side note: what happened to the Federation security bloke? I felt for sure he was dodgy but he never was he just disappeared)

"I've tried to be reasonable" FUCK YOU NO YOU HAVEN'T YOU'VE JUST PRETENDED AND GIVEN NO REAL OPTIONS. STAGING A "DISCUSSION" WITH AN AUDIENCE IS NOT THE SAME AS ACTUALLY HAVING A DISCUSSION YOU ASS

I hate her so much

I cannot

I lowkey love how petty Keiko is in teaching Galileo. Like, honey, no, that's not the way to keep the moral high ground here, and Jake's conclusions from the lessons are very wrong - but it is a Queen Move.

Sisko is best dad and I love the understanding he shows Bajorans when explaining to Jake they're not wrong.

BAREIL. Oh man. Now I'm re-watching I'm just going to be sad about how the Kai elections turn out instead of wildly optimistic whenever I see him, aren't I?

Nah I'm still gonna hope he wins

And I'm still gonna hope Kira elopes with Dax rather than ending up with him -he's fine as a spiritual leader but nah as a love interest

Odo and Quark just doing their thing :3 both "just doing their jobs" my ass

YES SISKO go off on her

FUCK I knew she'd influenced Neela but I'd forgotten about this scene SHE EXPLICITLY SENT A YOUNG BAJORAN GIRL LOOKIGN TO HER FOR SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE TO HER DEATH FOR A CHANCE AT POWER I HATE HER SO MUCH maybe I don't wanna watch the rest of this again I'd forgotten how awful Winn is

Lol the build-up to assassination is so tense and then there's the slow-mo with Sisko shouting "noooo" and I just can't XD

Oh, Kira. Once again, you deserve to have a break.

Welp, I'd forgotten how much I hate Winn and I'm already missing Season 1 and it's lack of her presence up until now.

Guess I'm just gonna have to make peace with the "I know how it turns out but I'm still hoping what was recorded on TV can magically change to become better" feeling.

Like, I don't mind the characters being massively traumatised by every other event. But Winn, being allowed to exist, let alone eventually become Kai? Nah. Nope. Can we not.

[rey-jake-therapist]

I agree with most of what you said! Especially with the idea that all headcanons regarding his sexuality are valid, since canon never says about it :)

I have personally no doubt about the fact that Sherlock and Irene were physically attracted to each other though. I can't think of one man who wouldn't be interested in women at all and yet would watch a woman's body closely enough to determinate her measurements. Even Irene, who first joked that Sherlock probably didn't know where to look acknowledged her mistake a few minutes later when he cracked her password: he knew where to look. It's even possible that he doesn't only "confiscate" John's laptop but that he sometimes uses it to look at the pictures too ;)

Also in the next season, while he's in his mental palace, resolving a case and coincidentally surrounded with women, Irene shows up before him and teases him sexually, star naked again. He even asks her to leave because he needs to focus on the case lmao Of all the memories of her dressed he has, why would he be taunted by this one if he wasn't attracted physically to her?

Oh and there's also Benedict Cumberbatch who said in this hilarious interview he gave about Sherlock and sex that Sherlock shagged Irene after he rescued her. Now what actors say isn't canon and he was probably mostly joking, but the simple fact that in Benedict's head it could be true is enough for me to be convinced that it wouldn't be out of character ;)

For the record, I don't think that Sherlock is gay but I don't think he's straight either. I think he sees past genders and that's how he and Irene are the same: the very rare time Sherlock will be physically attracted to someone, it will be because he'll first be aroused by their intelligence, or in John's case, his kindness and his high moral values? The gender won't matter, imho.

Irene wouldn't have interested him that much if she had only taken her clothes off - though I think he secretly admitted that playing that game to someone like HIM was, in fact, rather smart. She destabilized him after all! - Just after he regained his composure, he dismissed her move. Then she resolved the boomerang case all by herself and that's when he realized she was at least as smart as him, that she would challenge him in an exciting way.

Now of course it's just my personal interpretation, I've watched the show entirely only once, but I rewatched Scandal in Belgravia yesterday and yeah, even though it's toxic and with no future, it was still romance. For the record I don't ship Sherlock and Irene - I'm not into ships in general - , and I still don't understand why John would advise his best friend to date her knowing what he knows about her.

There's a reason why Mycroft suspects Sherlock would fall back into his drug habits after her fake death, and that's because he strongly suspects that he had developed feelings for her. When he scolds Sherlock because he cracked the code for Irene, he says Sherlock fell for "the promise of love, the pain of loss and the joy of redemption". If Sherlock's ideas about Irene had always been clear, it would have seen her coming from miles away. I was surprised to see it was debated, because it seemed very transparent to me, and I think it was to many casual viewers as well 😅

And it doesn't change anything regarding JohnLock... At the end, Irene's gone and never to be seen again, while John's the one who always stays by his sides. Whatever Sherlock felt for Irene, it didn't break him. Nevertheless he felt something strong for her that was surely not platonic friendship - I mean we see how he acts with Molly and Mrs Hudson, two women he isn't in love with, he's very different - , wrote a music for her (!), a music he played when Eurus asked him to play the real him... Don't get me started on the music "The Woman" and "SHERlocked" which are two of the most romantic sounding music of the soundtrack. All the codes of romance are here! Even this, the way he side-eyes her when she kisses his cheek:

And I say that as someone who doesn't even like it :) I don't like rushed romances and prefer Doyle's version. Still, my personal preferences won't change what was written.

Talking about that, I have the headcanon that if Mycrosft was so quick to call John and ask him to check his apartment for drugs, it's because it's not the first time that Sherlock lost someone he cared about, and when it happened it probably got very ugly. When Sherlock complains that he gave him a light cigarette, Mycrosft points out "you barely knew her", as implying that he will quickly get over her and doesn't need something stronger. He didn't add "this time", but then again if he expected Sherlock to lose it, my headcanon's that it was because he experienced it before. Not that we'll ever know :)

Ahemmm... *picks up mic*...

Once again for the people in the back: What do you think was the point of ASiB if not the topic of romance/sentiments/feelings (whatever) between Sherlock and Irene and Sherlock being almost defeated by it??

Like - people actually twist their brains into a knot trying to explain the Adlock tension away....how, why?? What do you think that ending was then? How is this a discussion - still - 11 years later??

Really, this is hurting *my* brain.

(Read bad takes on Reddit today, so I had to vent here 🥲)

[lurafita]

Petvengers Chapter 3

Read chapter 1 here: Chappy 1

Read chapter 2 here: Chappy 2

:-) Guess now what kind of animal Stephen gets, and see if you guessed right later in the chapter! Cookies for everyone who knows who Detective Davis is. :-)

To stave off any confusion that might come, MJ's parents are divorced, and Michelle has no blood-related siblings. *Insert name here* has no blood-related siblings, and his mother died.

Regarding the pet introduced in this chapter, please remember that this is a fanfic. I therefore take some liberties with the laws on which animals can and can not be held as pets. 

Dr Strange

America may be the land of the free, but it was sadly not the land of good tea. Not if you asked one Dr. Stephen Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts.

He could have sworn he still had a stash of the fine leaves he had brought back from his last visit to Kathmandu, but he hadn't been able to find it anywhere. His quest to find a vendor that sold decent tea, had taken him almost all the way to the ends of Manhattan, but at least he now had something to tide him over with, until the next time he was due to visit the monastery. If it weren't for the almost unbearable summer heat outside, the trip might not have been so bad.

Since he was in his civilian clothes, he headed for the nearest alley to open a portal to the Sanctum. No need to draw attention to himself, after all. He wasn't Stark.

He had barely stepped foot into his home, when he heard the voice of the boy, Peter, coming from the sitting room.

"-which is why MJ is currently getting ready for a 'get to know you' dinner with her possible new stepfather and brother. Ned and I researched the guy beforehand, of course, but he checked out. He is a police detective with the Brooklyn devision, and so far we haven't found anything that would point at him being dirty or the likes. No shady connections to the Mob, no underhanded courtroom deals, no crooks or witnesses that vanished under suspicious circumstances while connected to any of his cases, and no secret Swiss bank accounts."

Stephen could only shake his head at what he heard, even as a fond, little smile stole itself across his lips. Kid was watching too much TV. It seemed Wong shared this perspective, as he could hear the other man next.

"While your devotion to assure your friends safety is admirable, don't you think that hacking into the police stations database is taking things a little far?"

How Wong could say something like this, and still sound completely relaxed, was a mystery to Strange. He himself was contemplating to inform Stark of his ward's latest shenanigans, so that the man could perform some damage control.

"One can never be too certain. But don't worry, we made up for the hacking by strengthening the departments firewall. Their data was almost as easy to get to as the hospitals. I actually think I met Detective Davis as Spiderman once, and he seemed like a pretty nice guy. I'm not actually too worried, but I will be keeping an eye on things."

By then Stephen had made his way to the room, where Peter and Wong were talking, both had a glass filled with cold water before them on the table, while the Cloak of Levitation had draped itself beside the teenager on the couch, apparently listening in on the conversation as well.

"As long as you don't commit any more felonies while 'keeping an eye on things', Spiderman, that's perfectly alright."

The boy immediately grinned at him.

"What's up, Doc?"

Stephen sighed. Sometimes he really despised Bugs Bunny. Wong nodded at him in greeting and the Cloak fluttered one of it's corners, which was it's way of waving hello.

He continued on to the connecting kitchen, and started boiling the water in his teapot.

"What brings you here, Peter? And how come your canine companion isn't with you?"

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Peter pout.

"It's too hot for Hope. We went for a walk yesterday morning, and he burned his paws on the asphalt. Colonel, too. Tony sectioned off a few yards behind the tower, and had a company deliver some soil and fast growing grass seeds. And pavilions for some shadow. So any outside activities for the animals are restricted to the new backyard, until this heatwave passes. But it's just as well, because Arthur is still getting used to his new leg Dad and Bruce built him, and he still needs to take things slow. And Eames can more easily stretch his wings there, without bumping into anything and having to maneuver around walls and stuff."

Stephen, thanks to Wong, knew all about the little arachnids efforts to turn Stark tower into a zoo, and could deduce that Colonel, who had also burned his paws, was one of the pets that Peter had coerced someone into adopting. 'Eames', likewise, must be an avian type of animal that now belonged to one of the Avengers. But he had no idea who or what 'Arthur' could be.

"Arthur? Did the Avengers get a new member?"

To his surprise, Wong answered the question.

"Arthur is Sergeant Barnes adopted, young raccoon, who lost his hind leg to a hunter trap. He is very cute. Peter sent me pictures."

Said teen scowled at the Sorcerer Supreme.

"Which you would have gotten, too, if you finally accepted my friends request on Whatsapp."

Thankfully that's when the kettle let out a shrill whistle, and Stephen could finally start brewing himself a cup. He would not be able to get through what was to follow, without a nice cup of tea.

"Peter, you have my number for emergencies and other important things, not to spam my phone with pictures of every cute, little critter you come across. I remember the day you adopted Hope. Wong's phone vibrated so much with received messages from you, it fell off the table. Also, I don't have Whatsapp."

Completely ignoring everything else the man had said, Peter zeroed in on that last statement.

"What about twitter?"

"No."

"Instagram?"

"No."

"Tumblr?"

"I don't even know what that is."

"You gotta have Facebook at least! Even Steve has a Facebook page, and he uses a flip-phone!"

"Definitely not."

Peter, seemingly beyond shocked, turned to the older monk beside him.

"How do you live with him?"

Wong sighed, shook his head, and took a sip of his water.

"'Tis the cross I must bear."

Thank the Ancient One that his tea was done! He took a long drink, disregarding the scalding temperature, and sighed in relief. Better.

"Why don't we get back to my first question, shall we? What brings you here, Peter? Do the Avengers need assistance?"

Peter grinned and dove for his backpack.

"Nope! I just brought over the next part of the Harry Potter movies for Cloakie!"

He quickly yanked the movie disk out of his backpack and held it aloft triumphantly. And then the Cloak of Levitation, an ancient, magical, powerful artifact, that was revered by many, fluttered in absolute excitement and tackled the teenager in a hug, while also grabbing the movie.

Peter laughed, Wong smiled, and Stephen resisted the urge to burrow his head in his hands, and instead took another sip of his tea.

After he had managed to untangle himself from Cloakie, Peter downed the rest of his water, thanked Wong for the beverage, and stood up.

"Alright! I should be on my way now."

"Do you want me to open a portal into the tower?" Stephen offered, remembering the sweltering heat outside. Peter shook his head.

"Thanks, but I wanted to fit in a little patrol before going back. Though I don't expect a lot to be going on, with the temperatures outside. Thank God the suit has air conditioning. Bye Doc, bye Wong, bye Cloakie!"

Two "Bye Peter"'s and a full body flutter from the Cloak, and the young superhero was gone. With the closing of the front door, Strange sat down on one of the couches and relaxed. He liked Peter a lot, but the boy could be a bit taxing at times. As he drank his tea and watched the Cloak fly off in search of his laptop to watch it's new Harry Potter movie, he never noticed the deeply amused, knowing and conspiratorial little grin Wong was wearing.

                    -------------------------------------------------------------

"So, MJ said the dinner went really well. She likes the guy, said she had a good feeling about him."

Ned told Bethany, the shelter worker who had been there when Michelle and Peter had guided Sam and Bucky into pet adoption. Peter had boosted himself up on the reception counter, and was carefully stroking the soft feathers of the big snow owl perched on his arm. While Bethany wouldn't normally allow a visitor to have one of the animals in the open like this, and in the buildings lobby to boot, she had made an exception for Peter. Not only was the boy extraordinarily good with handling the animals, he had also needed a little pick-me-up, seeing as the persisting hot weather had not allowed for his dog to accompany him to the shelter.

Peter added his own little tid-bits.

"The son had apparently been a bit quiet, but she said he seemed very sweet."

Bethany nodded.

"Well, I believe anyone would feel a little awkward, meeting their father's new girlfriend, and girlfriend's daughter. How old did you say the boy was?"

Since Peter was very busy smiling over the cute faces the owl was making as he pet it, Ned answered the question.

"11. Though MJ did get him to talk a bit about hobbies and stuff. She said he has a real interest in art, especially graffiti painting."

Peter chimed in then.

"Which means he and MJ will have plenty to bond over. Hopefully she doesn't make him take up her 'painting people in distress' thing. Otherwise my frowning face will likely be the first of many, to one day appear on walls all over the city."

Ned paled visibly.

"Dude, that's horrifying."

Bethany laughed softly.

"Now, now boys. You shouldn't fret about things like that. My wife always says that artists carry old souls. Anything they draw, is worth drawing. Even a frowning face."

She winked at Peter. Bethany was totally cool. She was 58 years old and had been together with her wife since they were both 20. When America finally lifted the ban on gay marriage, they had been one of the first same-sex couples to tie the knot in 2015. Peter opened his mouth to reply, when his ears picked up the distant (though rapidly closing in) sounds of screaming and cursing. He grinned.

"Ned, get your camera ready. Operation: Harry Potter, is about to begin."

The other boy obediently pointed his camera towards the entrance, and before Bethany could ask what the boys were talking about, she heard a male voice screaming at someone or something to: "Stop it, goddammit! You insufferable piece of magical cloth! If you don't let me down this instance-"

And then suddenly the doors burst open and what looked to be a man, swaddled in... a red cape?.. came literally flying in.

Peter jumped from the counter (carefully though, so as not to unsettle the owl still perched on his arm), and took a few steps forward.

"Cloakie, you made it!"

Then the cape seemingly unraveled itself from the man (giving the poor guy quite the spin in the process), and came floating over to the teen and owl.

While Bethany was still trying to cope with the fact that there was an apparently living article of clothing, hovering in front of Peter and seemingly ogling the owl (which ogled back just as much), the man the cape had dragged into the shelter (and boy, that was definitely a line of thought she never expected to have) was slowly getting his bearings again. Then he pinned a very pointed gaze at the two teenagers, and made a notable effort to keep his voice calm.

"Peter. Ned. Would it be correct for me to assume, that you are to blame for my unwilling journey through the streets of Manhattan?"

As Ned tried to shrink back behind his camera (that he still kept resolutely focused on the sorcerer), Peter just grinned brightly at the man.

"Absolutely. Very astute of you. Guess that's why you are the Sorcerer Supreme."

 (Oh, so that was that magical superhero that her wife had told her about. Really, her love was such a fangirl where New York's hero community was concerned. Well, at least that entrance made sense now.)

The man, (Dr. Strange, if Bethany remembered correctly), narrowed his eyes at the teen.

"And for what possible reason, do you require my presence?"

Cloakie had extended one of it's corners to lightly pet the white owl on the head. The owl seemed to like it.

"We need a designated adult to sign the adoption papers for Hedwig. She is a 9 year old snow owl. Her owner was a huge Harry Potter fan, which is why he named her Hedwig. He sadly died in an accident not too long ago, and his remaining family didn't have the kind of space to take Hedwig in."

The eyes narrowed further.

"If you want to adopt another pet, then get your aunt or Stark to sign the forms."

Peter shook his head.

"But Hedwig isn't for me."

Bethany looked on intrigued as suspicion formed in the sorcerer's eyes.

"Peter, I'm not getting a pet."

The teen rolled his eyes.

"I know. Hedwig isn't for you, either. She is for Cloakie!"

As if to underline his point, he lifted the arm with the owl a bit, drawing all eyes to the way the Cloak of Levitation cooed (could a cloak coo?) at Hedwig.

The look on the doctor's face right then, was one that Bethany had seen many times on her sister in law, when she had to explain to her 4 year old daughter why she only got one birthday every year.

"Kid, the Cloak of Levitation may be a sentient being with it's own will, but it cannot adopt an animal."

Peter gave the man the most deadpan look that Bethany had ever seen him make.

"I. Know. Which is why we need you to sign the paperwork. Didn't I say that? I thought I said that."

He looked questioningly at Cloakie, who nodded in agreement, and then went right back to petting the owl.

Stephen decided not to suffer any more of this lunacy, and waved his hands to open a portal to the Sanctum. Before he was able to fully step through, however, the Cloak had settled around his shoulders and dragged him back into the shelter's lobby. He directed his stern gaze at the Cloak.

"I don't care how much you love Harry Potter, you will not keep an owl in the Sanctum."

The Cloak folded both of it's lower ends together, in an imitation of a human folding their arms over their chest. Stephen pointed a finger right at it.

"Don't give me that look. We are not taking that owl home, and that is final."

Hedwig, (with a little whispered encouragement from Peter), took matters into her own hands (claws? Wings?) and gave the teen an affectionate headbutt, before flying off his arm and right through the still open portal, into the Sanctum. While Stephen was still trying to process this fully, his magical cloak fluttered in excitement and dove right after it's owl. The portal closed right behind them. Stephen stared.

Before he had the chance to chase after his wayward magical artifact, Peter was suddenly before him, shoving a bunch of papers and a pen into his chest.

"Great, doc! I knew you would come around, though there was really no need to get Hedwig to your home in such a rush! Now, let's just quickly take care of the formalities. You wouldn't want Bethany to think that you were kidnapping her animals, right?"

The wide, brown eyes looked meaningfully first at him, then at the older woman behind the counter, then at a still filming Ned.

Master of the mystic arts, Sorcerer Supreme, protector of the magical realms, Doctor Stephen Strange, let out a long suffering sigh, and grabbed for the adoption forms.

                       -----------------------------------------------------

When roughly twenty minutes later, a portal opened up in the sitting room of the Sanctum Sanctorum, through which stepped a thoroughly annoyed Stephen, Wong was already prepared with a cup of steaming tea.

"The Cloak and Hedwig are in the upper level, playing a game of tag." He quickly handed the cup over, completely ignoring the calculating eyes his friend was bestowing him with. "I have already placed different perches for our new roommate all over the house. The special bird feed is in the kitchen."

Then the older monk calmly sat down in his armchair, and resumed reading the thick tome of incantations before him.

"You were in on this, weren't you?"

Wong casually turned a page.

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

Stephen swore loudly, took a sip of his tea, and vowed to find a way to get revenge.

[heniareth]

I was really curious about what your opinions on the DAO companions are :) I know we have talked about some, but I'd love to hear more and about the others as well :D I hope it's ok to pose this as an ask :)

Sure! That sounds like a ton of fun. This might be a long one tho. Mind you, this is not the finished version of the answer. I'd like to link stuff and add a cut, but rn that's not possible. I'll update it when I can.

Edit: I have updated it ^^

Let's go alphabetically bc why not.

Alistair:

Sweet guy. So sweet. There was a moment when I was hard pressed chosing between him and Zevran (alas, Zevran won). Also, he's weirdly tall according to the wiki? How did I not notice that before?

Let's get a bit more serious now, Alistair is a great guy. The only reason he's not the hero of the story is because he doesn't want to. He has all the qualities of a leader: he's good at dealing with conflict (as evident with the conversation with the mage at the beginning. He gets where he wants to get without antagonizing the mage, but without allowing him to trample all over him). He's a solid tactitian and knows how to make allies (he suggests to use the Grey Warden treaties, after all). I bet if he was in the leadership position, he'd even not bicker with Morrigan. His moral code is pretty tight; some might say too tight, but I think it's less about the moral code and more about learning to judge people by their actions, not by the labels they fit into (Morrigan is a proud apostate and therefore bad. Wynne is a humble circle mage and therefore good). He also has a bit of a black-and-white way of seeing the world. I empathize a lot with Alistair, especially with his experience with the Chantry and his subsequent reluctance to deal with it. I really wish I had gotten to know more about concrete experiences he had during his training as templar, but he seems reluctant to talk about it (gee, I wonder why).

Since I've only played the game once, I haven't really picked up on Arl Eamon's abuse towards him, which apparently exists (Isolde, however... I mean, even if he were Eamon's illegitimate son, he's a kid, ma'am, he didn't exactly get to chose his parents. So that's so not okay). Alistair's way of speaking about them both, however, is either sign that he has not come within a hundred miles of acknowledging how much it hurt him, or that he's already gone through the whole process and has decided to forgive them. The latter shows a very strong character; yes, he relies on the approval and leadership of others, he has his issues, but he's already started working on them.

That being said, irl Alistair would be like a little brother to me. I'd tease him relentlessly (all in good fun and I promise to stop if it makes him uncomfortable, but he's just so teasable). I still wish the videogame gave him the chance to take important decisions for himself. But that, of course, would somewhat defeat the point of the game.

Leliana:

Another sweet, sweet person. Her singing voice is amazing. Her belief in the Maker inspires me (I'm a religious person and seeing religious characters represented in a positive light is Very Cool. It's also sometimes a source of discomfort, because the Church has done a lot of very messed up stuff and positive representation can sometimes veer into apologetics for things that should not be excused, but that's a whole other can of worms. The bottom line is that religious characters sometimes work for me and other times don't and Leliana works for me very much bc she's an outsider inside the Chantry).

Leliana is best friend material, tbh. I'd love to get to know her irl, discuss theology and philosophy and maybe even politics? She makes mistakes and has prejudices, but, tbh, so do I. And I do get the feeling that she tries her best to learn. From the times she intervenes in a conversation between the Warden and an NPC, she shows herself to be compassionate and open to the needs of others. What I get from her character is that she genuinely wants to help, which is something that I adore of her. I suspect that she sometimes has a hard time deciding wether she's a good person or not. She has killed and seduced and worked for a morally dubious person, and she doesn't show the same nonchalance about it as Zevran (though they both do discuss their line of work in very... professional terms). This is, however, more of a headcanon than actual factual canon.

I also very much enjoy her girly side, like her interest in shoes and dresses. She's one badass woman who also looses her cool about the latest fashions in Val Royeaux. I like that. Between her and Alistair, a non human noble Warden has as good a help to navigate the Fereldan court as they're going to get. Leliana is also, I can't forget that, clever and insightful. It'd be easy to write her off as the innocent chantry girl, but she's so much more than that. Her kindness is paired with foresight, I think. She knows that taking on the trouble to help now can go a long way in the future. I just have a lot of respect for her.

Loghain:

This one's gonna be short bc I didn't recruit him. He's an amazing villain and would probably be a great Warden as well. He reminds me of Denerhor from LOTR; once a hero/stewart of his people, ambition and desperation have driven them both down a terrible path. I have also only little idea about his past. People say he lost a lot, and I believe it wholeheartedly; it doesn't excuse the fact that he plunged the country into a civil war in the middle of a Blight. I don't have a lot of sympathy for short-sighted politicians. I wish he hadn't made himself regent. That's what I take away from his character.

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention that really impressed me was his death. I had Alistair duel him (that was a rough duel), and then it kinda just jumped to a cutscene of my Warden nodding and Alistair executing him. That didn't sit well with me. I didn't want to kill Loghain, and less so in front of Anora. But what impressed me was that Loghain just accepted it. That takes a whole lot of guts. Compare that to Howe's death, and how he screams out that he deserved (more, probably, or anything but death) and it's crystal clear who the more noble of the two is. Loghain strikes me as very lawful neutral, and any neutral alignment has the particularity that it can be dragged towards good or bad, sometimes without the characters noticing it (which is interesting from a DnD perspective; neutral is often concieved of as just as stable as good or evil, but that may not be true. But that's a different post). Anyway, Loghain's death was impactful.

Morrigan:

I could kick myself for not maxing out her approval in the first play-through. I got to enjoy a bit of her friendship by the end of it and boy was even that little bit worth it. Friendship with Morrigan is something that is hard-won. It's all the more precious because of that.

Morrigan is full of paradoxes, I think. She's incredibly wise in some ways, yet also very short-sighted (”just kill them, don't solve their problems”. Morrigan, dear, I'm not going to gain a lot of allies if I kill everybody who poses a problem to me). She is so intelligent, but emotionally... not so. She knows so much about some things, and very little about the next. She's incredibly wilful and knows what she wants, but follows Flemeth's orders all the time through. She hungers for power and independence, yet craves closeness, but won't allow herself to have it. She asks you to prove yourself to her and is extremely critical of your actions, I think, because she's afraid. She bites the hand that feeds her because it might hit her next.

Like with Eamon, I haven't managed to catch the undercurrent of abuse that seems to permeate Flemeth's relationship with Morrigan. Except there are signs, because there must be something Morrigan is scared of and who has instilled all that rage in her, and that's Flemeth. Also, she clearly hates/does not care about her and wants her dead (unless killing Flemeth was part of Flemeth's plan as well? Hm.)

Morrigan is that one person who you are nice to, continuously, because nobody else is. And suddenly she becomes less cold. And then friendly. And suddenly you're asking yourself why everybody hates her, because she's a really good friend! I just wish the other companions came to a similar conclusion, especially Alistair and Wynne.

Oghren:

They did this man dirty. He has such great lines and I'm convinced he was a great person before Branka disappeared. He has that dwarven warrior spirit, and while he looks like Gimli, some of his most impactful lines remind me of Dwalin or even Thorin Oakenshield himself. He could be so noble had he gotten some character development, damnit!

Oghren as he is written is somewhat disgusting. I hate the lechering comments and the drunkenness. And still, I don't hate him because of those amazing lines he has when he's actually sober. It's frustrating and I'll give him that character development myself if the game won't. I strongly associate the song Whiskey Lullaby with him, bc that's how he would have ended up if the Warden hadn't taken him along (warning: the song talks about suicide and alcoholism). Like I said, they could have done such cool things with his character. As he is written now... it's just sad. Moments of lucidity drowned in alcohol and creepy jokes. As you can see, I don't blame the character for either. The alcoholism happens all too often irl. The creepy jokes... I put that one on the writers' tab.

I actually think Oghren could have been a great mentor figure (I know, I shock myself as well sometimes). Next to the Grey Wardens, the ones who know most about fighting darkspawn are the dwarves because they have to deal with them constantly. Especially a warrior caste dwarf like Oghren could have brought a lot of that invaluable knowledge to the team, especially since there are no Grey Wardens in Ferelden but two extremely green recruits. Next, you get the chance to give Oghren the command of the teammates you leave behind in the battle of Denerim with the reason that he has lead men into battle before. Where did that suddenly come from? Oghren should have been right up there telling my Warden that they were doing this wrong, that they needed more food (and booze) and a confident leader to keep the armies they've called together going. Oghren should have been able to tell my civilian city elf who got recruited into the Grey Wardens a six months ago how one leads an army. How one presents oneself to inspire confidence, how one doesn't crack under the pressure, how one gets the leaders of said armies (some who hate each others guts i.e. Dalish elves and humans) to work together. And, last but not least, Oghren could have had a great story about grief. This is a man who has lost most of what made him (and what he hasn't lost he's spilling down the drain with every mug of ale). This is a man who, if you take him into the Deep Roads, has to see what his wife did to his family, how his wife got absolutely obsessed, and can be forced to kill said wife or watch her die. All Wardens loose their home and families at the start of the story. It would really have rounded the whole narrative out if the Warden and Oghren could have recognised their grief in each other and hashed it out somehow. Such as it is, Oghren is a depressed drunkard and there is nothing we can do about that. I find that frustrating.

Rascal (a.k.a. Dog):

Best boy. 100/10. I wish we had gotten to see the reaction of the different origins to the mabari (because elves probably have a whole different experience with them from mages or humans. And dwarves just... I think they straight up have none? XD). Other than that, no complaints. The name Rascal was the one I gave my dog because you have to be a right rascal to survive what he did and play the pranks he plays. Smartest breed in the world indeed.

Shale:

Shale is one of those characters that I recruited rather late in the game, so I haven't had the chance to explore their personality and worldview, really. I didn't even get to take them to the Deep Roads (this will be ammended in playthrough nr. 2). As such, I don't have particularly strong opinions on them (or her? The wiki refers to Shale as 'it', but that sounds weird). But, because I know so little about Shale, I have a lot of questions. First, what were they like before they were a golem? Shayle, as she was called then, was the best warrior of her time if I remember correctly. Why did she become a golem? Was it to be able to eternally protect her people? Was the sarcasm the golem Shale exhibits also part of the dwarven warrior Shayle or did that come later (if for thirty years you have nobody to talk to but yourself, you better be entertaining. And I can imagine how it could make somebody terribly jaded as well).

Next, how attached is Shale to their golem form, exactly? According to the banter, they infinitely prefer it to a squishy fleshy form. If that is the case, however, why go to Tevinter to try and become a squishy dwarf again? It's not like that process could be reversed if they wanted to become a golem again; if Shale survives to the end of the game, the Anvil of the Void is destroyed and Caridin is dead. Was the whole spiel about their indestructible form a façade? It might have been, but not because Shale actually disliked their form. I think it would have more to do with the loss of their memories and with the very invasive experiments and alterations of Shale's body made by the mage Wilhelm. The loss of memories means that Shale is unable to remember life as a fleshy creature. They might be deflecting by pretending that they didn't care for that experience anyway because of the superiority of their golem form. The modifications made to their form by Wilhelm would have alienated them from their body. In light of this, it's significant that Shale asks the Warden to decorate their form with crystals.

All of this is, of course, pure speculation. I may have easily missed or forgotten details that would disprove the above thoughts. All in all, I like Shale and I hope we meet them again in DA4 (given that it's mostly set in Tevinter). It's a liking from a respectful distance, because Shale is tall and made out of rock and also way more experienced than I will ever be (they are literally the oldest member of the Warden's little Blight fighting squad).

Sten:

Sten is another person I'd keep a respectful distance from physically. That seems to be the what he would prefer, at least. I've enjoyed his character a lot, especially because he seems pretty clear-cut at first, but slowly lets the nuance of his person show (gruff and stoic, but then he has an eye for art, a sweet tooth and he likes cute animals). It's also very interesting that there's no moment when you learn "the truth" about him the way you do with Zevran or Leliana. There's no big reveal about his life under the Qun before coming to Ferelden. He says he was sent to monitor the Blight, but honestly? If neither Ferelden nor Orlais knew there was a Blight, how could the Qunari know? I think he's lying, and he takes his secrets back with him when he leaves Ferelden. And yet I think I know him enough to say that a Warden who has become friends with him has nothing to fear from Sten.

One thing I find very interesting about Sten is how he thinks. His conversation about how women can't be soldiers has been analysed a lot on this page I think. He seems to be arguing based on a different paradigma than the one the Warden has. He also seems to have a very clear-cut view of the world. What is fascinating to me is that, when arguing with the Warden and learning about their culture, he is not necessarily becoming more lax about his worldview. I think it's more likely that he is expanding his paradigma, the structure of thought through which he understands the world. I don't think that he is now convinced that women can be warriors as well. I think he rather understands that, in Ferelden, the relationship between occupation and gender is different than under the Qun. Which of the two he thinks is more right or more agreeable, I have no idea. I'm also not very interested in that. But I find it fascinating how he always seems to be looking on quietly, gathering data, classifying it and trying to fit it into his understanding of how the world works. I wouldn't be surprised at all if his original party was a scouting party to see how vulnerable Ferelden was at that moment to outside forces. One thing I don't understand with all of this is why he urges the Warden to meet the Blight head on. No smart soldier would suggest that, except if they are foolishly proud (and Sten doesn't seem like that kind of guy tbh). I get that the Warden takes way longer to gather allies than expected because they first have to solve all of their allies' problems. But surely Sten sees the need to have allies? Is he just that impatient? Does he have a death wish (à la, I lost my sword and am without honour, better to die sooner than later and in glorious battle)? Was he his group's previous commander and is he now having trouble following somebody else's orders? Or maybe it's his way to make sure the Warden knows what they are doing? To push them into becoming the self-assured commander their allies will need once they're all gathered? I really don't know. I like the last option best, however.

For me, Sten is my fellow, more experienced soldier. Like Alistair, he can potentially be the Warden's brother in arms, but he's definitely the older brother here. He probably doesn't take kindly to tearful confessions of how hard everything is, but I feel like he's otherwise a solid rock to lean on. I feel like the Warden can trust him to do what is necessary and count on him no matter what, especially after they get his sword back. His devotion from that point on is honestly so powerful.

Wynne:

Wynne was such a support for my Warden (except with the whole conversation about love vs. duty and that she may have to choose between Zevran and ending the Blight and that she should therefore break up with him. Wynne had a point. Astala was so not willing to sacrifice her relationship with Zevran. But the whole conversation came at a point where she was already so disillusioned that she blew up in Wynne's face (”can i please just have one (1) nice thing????”)). But all in all, Wynne is great.

She has a lot of flaws. She was very marked by her life in the Cricle and, for all her age, she has little experience living outside of it. She is also a conformist despite her strong moral core. In a way, her ability to find peace with her lot in life impresses me deeply because it speaks to a lot of strength of character. Sadly, however, strength can be ill applied and used to suppress. I think she has convinced herself that the Chantry is right under (almost) all circumstances to be able to rationalize the life that mages live. She's had her son taken away from her as a baby and an apprentice killed. Her reaction seems to have been to convince herself that this was right, or for the greater good (and now I'm thinking about the Guardian's question at the temple of Andraste's Ashes; are you wise or do you just repeat what others have told you? The answer is not as clear-cut as it might be). This is why she is so irritated by Zevran and Morrigan. By aligning herself with the Chantry, she is, in her eyes, good. Zevran and Morrigan are not; they do not conform to Chantry morality and they defend themselves tooth and nails against somebody who would try and convert them. This is something Wynne never allowed herself to do; she always did the "right" thing and it has cost her so much. I'm not saying she was right (it would probably have done her some good to rebel from time to time, and to trust her own gut instinct more), but in light of this, it hardly surprises me that she's so judgamental. She has to be, or she would be forced to confront all the evil she has not fought against all those years and all the hurt that has been caused to her by the very institution she protects (and thank God she only tries to argue and can appreciate it when people have found a good life outside of her comfort zone. If she tried to convince by force or, for example, drag her former apprentice back to the Circle... boy oh boy that would get ugly). If you think about it, Wynne really is a good example for what happens if you live by a philosophy of always choosing the lesser evil.

Something that I keep forgetting over her grandmotherly and dignified character is how damn powerful she is. She has escaped the carnage at Ostagar; HOW!? She protected those mage apprentices in the Circle tower for God knows how long. In the battle of Denerim, she wades through an army and comes out alive on the other side. The wiki lists her age at 40, I think, but that doesn't make a lick of sense unless 75 years of age are the Fereldan equivalent to 100. This lady, about whom people make grandmother jokes, did all that. It's impressive.

Zevran:

You know, I would really love to know what Wynne thinks about the events at Kirkwall in DA2. It might be a disaster for her, or it might pave the way for one last bit of character development. She certainly didn't want to return to the Circle after fighting the Blight. That may be an indicator of some change in her stance on the Circle of Magi.

Edit: I forgot that she is what the Circle considers a literal abomination! Holy cow, how could I forget that?? Anyway, her conversation about what being an abomination means is so... heartbreaking, actually. It's so tentative. So careful. "Am I an abomination? Am I the same thing that has killed my students? The same thing as Uldred? Am I lost and damned? Did I invite this spirit in? Is this my fault?" Like wow, Wynne is going through something huge right there. I love it. I have to continue playing the game to see what it ends up as, but it's fascinating and such a huge thing that she allows the Warden in on that.

Ah, Zevran, my beloved (he has stolen my heart so much it's not even funny anymore). He's funny, he's charming, he's so so loyal and it breaks my heart. Zevran is the one about whom I've read most meta: these three wonderful posts for instance, as well as this one about his possible lack of scars, and this one about his lack of freedom. All of these have influenced my opinion of him and they are great reads.

I have talked about Zevran with you before, so I'll just skip to the new stuff. I have come to conclusion that Zevran is an artist at heart. This is totally not biased by the fact that I also do art, but hear me out. One of his preferred gifts are bars of silver and gold. While those have the obvious utility of basically functioning as money (they can be sold to any silversmith or goldsmith and their value is pretty stable through time and in different countries), there's also this from his codex: "Zevran shows an affinity for the finer things in life—hardly surprising for an Antivan Crow—but his appreciation can be more poetic than he lets on. A simple bar of refined silver or gold, uncomplicated by a craftsman's hammer, is elegantly valuable." Tell me that is not an artist's eye that sees that gold and sees the beauty in it. Then, there's also the meta about Zevran the Seducer which I linked above and link here again. It talks specifically about how he lets himself enjoy the target and be seen in his enjoyment. Tell me that is not an artist's eye that beholds the beauty of something he is set out to destroy. Even his talk about his assassinations show this. He talks about it as an art, the way somebody would talk about the brutal intervention in stone that produces a sculpture. Yes, it's a rationalization of the act of killing and yes killing is still wrong. But he doesn't go on about it on a moral tangent the way Alistair or Wynne would (”this person was bad, killing them was necessary”) or even through the argument of survival like Morrigan would (”it was either them or me and it sure as Hell wasn't going to be me”). He talks about the pleasure of a job well done, of the satisfaction of striking the precise point and executing a plan to the perfection so as to minimize chances of discovery and to make a clean death possible. And pleasure in seeing and in doing, this I firmly believe, is absolutely fundamental for an artist.

My favourite part about my Warden and Zevran as a pairing is that Zevran precisely brings out that ability to take your pleasures as they come and to really savour them. Fighting the Blight is tough; it's so important to find good things amidst the chaos to stay sane. If Astala saves Zevran from himself by offering him a place to stay and a purpose, Zevran saves Astala from herself by keeping her from running herself into the ground trying to save the world.

There are some things I don't like about Zev. The incessant flirting, for example, sometimes makes me uncomfortable (it becomes enjoyable for me once the Warden and him are in a relationship, but before that? Nah, no thanks). I wish he would also leave the other female characters alone (and there's so many more shameless comments of his aimed at Morrigan, Leliana or Wynne than at Alistair or maybe even Sten).

---

And that's my take on the Origins companions (this was rather long. Whew ^^' I hope it was still readable and that you enjoyed it!!) Thank you so much for the ask!! It's been a joy thinking about this. I was worrying at first that the less prominent companions like Sten or Shale wouldn't get as much content but... well XD

[thunderheadfred]

❄️Todoroki HC's🔥

Aged-up pro hero Shouto. NSFW under the cut. Minors do not interact.

- - -

General

Might as well be tied with Bakugou for the #1 pro hero spot; they seem to pass the crown back and forth every other year. Everyone knows about their intense frenemies uber-rivalry. Well. Everyone but Shouto.

He's asked to speak at a lot of charity events. If he has time to prepare (and hire a speech writer) he is capable of stirring crowds to standing ovations. But if caught unawares... he gets cornered into hilarious on-the-spot interviews. He's been memed. Mercilessly.

He's an OP character, but unfortunately he rolled -500 in fashion sense. Eventually he wises up and hires a stylist. When he finally cuts his hair a slightly different and even more flattering way, it's a national event. People faint in the street.

Does god-awful sleight-of-hand magic tricks when he meets young fans, even though nobody asked him to. The second-hand embarrassment is palpable. But he keeps doing it. God, why does he keep doing it?

Has hovering arm syndrome in every fan photo.

Super into pop music. Not a fan of any particular group or artist, couldn't tell you the name of a single song. But every time he turns up the volume on the radio it's like... really? THIS? Probably pumps that shit through his hero agency to keep up morale. Has no idea what you mean when you tell him his music taste doesn't match his personality.

Similarly, he enjoys brainless romantic comedies and old silent movies. Doesn't laugh at jokes but loses it over physical comedy. Thinks Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd are the funniest people who ever walked the earth.

He's long and limber. Runs practically a hundred miles every day just to "relax." Doesn't even get sweaty doing it. A filthy yoga addict. He'll probably live to be 200 years old.

He can regulate his body temperature for quirk use but in everyday life he's always half a degree outside the Goldilocks zone. It drives him quietly insane; he has an epic love-hate relationship with his thermostat.

Has a therapy animal pet. Doesn't matter if it's a dog or a cat or a bird or an iguana or a teeny tiny rodent. It's the best-behaved animal in the country and speaks more languages than you. It has its own room and an instagram account with millions of followers.

Lives in a traditional Japanese estate that doubles as a national treasure. Probably has government-appointed snipers at the gate, and he's just like, "don't worry about it." You are afraid to touch anything. Fuck, don't even look at anything, just to be safe.

Has an outstanding personal chef who only gets to cook five things unless (thank fuck!!) company comes over. Impossibly picky eater. He rotates between a few "safe" foods and suspiciously side-eyes everything else. If you cook something unfamiliar for him it will be the most awkward meal of your life, because he'd never tell you he doesn't like it. But oh lord, just look at his face.

This clashes directly with his love of traveling. Frequently uses his hero earnings to visit exotic foreign locales over long weekends... but rarely tries the food.

- - -

Dating

A grey-ace demisexual disaster. You could count the number of people he's been attracted to on one hand. He falls madly in love every time and always gets his heart smashed to pieces when his crush can't magically intuit the meaning of his frigid longing glances and generically courteous romantic gestures.

Which is stupid, because he gets propositioned constantly. He can't walk out the door without being flirted with. People keep slipping him their phone numbers and he always directs them to his agency like a moron. It's a good thing he will never understand how attractive he is because that's the only thing keeping him from total world domination.

Conventional attractiveness does not compute. Shouto doesn't have a type, doesn't care that he's an eleven whilst you are merely mortal. He will fall for your personality above all else.

Probably falls head over heels because your schedules overlap in a completely ordinary way and he witnesses you doing something endearing or brave or most likely: utterly mundane.

Pick a favorite, because you're his favorite coworker, or his favorite barista, or his favorite random bystander in line at the grocery store. You made him smile once; then he spent the next three months daydreaming about your future together before you accidentally stomped on his foot, initiating your first real conversation.

He's big on healthy communication. HUGE. He goes to therapy and it shows. Will talk through literally everything to the point of delirium. Sometimes his dedication to resolving every issue right away can get overwhelming; sometimes you just need some frickin time alone. But it pays off, because the two of you have practically never have a "real fight." There's just no way for bad vibes to fester.

STILL, his family wasn't exactly... erm... verbally or emotionally supportive, shall we say. For that reason, he might not give you all the compliments you deserve, because it simply doesn't occur to him to do so. He assumes you know how he feels. If you're self-conscious or insecure in the relationship, it might take him a while to notice. But when he figures it out (or even better, when you tell him directly) he will make it up to you with enthusiasm.

Will take you on lavish dates. Spoils you rotten without actually intending to. He's clueless about money. If you wanted a sugar daddy, you just hit the fucking jackpot. But if the word valet makes you uncomfortable, perhaps suggest some romantic picnics instead. He can still go all out with the food and five-star location without making you see cartoon dollar signs.

Chronic Insomniac. Stays up too late watching YouTube every night. His viewing history is an incomprehensible blur of k-pop music videos, serial killer icebergs, and super girly crafty ASMR channels. When he's watching a video, he is unreachable. Please call back later and try again.

He's disgustingly cute when he sleeps. Doesn't snore, but drools. Sometimes the drool freezes and leaves frost trails on his face in the morning. Still sleeps with the giant stuffed cat pillow that his mother gave him when he was like, zero. He'll inadvertently suffocate you with it, and you will welcome death with open arms because awwwwww!!!!!

The first time he tells you he loves you will be after your traditional Japanese shinto wedding. You won't hear it again until you start a family. Honestly, it's a good thing he doesn't say it often and is always holding you when it happens. It's a knee-buckler.

- - -

Icy-Hot

I don't even need to say it. Shouto is as old-fashioned as they come. You will never open another door or pull out another chair for yourself as long as you live. He will ask before he holds your hand. He will ask before he kisses you. He will stop and check in if you so much as breathe funny during sex.

If you don't orgasm at exactly the same time while staring into one another's eyes, he'll consider himself a failed lover. God forbid you want him to pound you into the futon... cause you are going to have to present that scenario to him in writing first.

Physical intimacy rarely leads to sex. He loves cuddling, craves physical affection. He'll sprawl all over you and turn into goo while you hold him close. He's an amazing, astounding, phenomenally good kisser. And that's... nice and all... but sometimes you have to grab his face and say, "Shouto, I'm horny," before he's like so that's why you're currently dry-humping me?

Even if he isn't technically a virgin the first time (or the millionth time) you sleep together, you won't know the difference. He's a blushing violet. Every. Fucking. Time. This doesn't mean he's a bad lay, oh no. But there's always ten minutes of confused bumbling before he hits his stride and remembers oh yeah, I DO know how to fuck good.

Absolutely silent during sex. Focused. Intense. Sometimes you have to push him a little to make any kind of noise at all, just so you know you're pleasing him (oh don't worry, you are).

His cock is Just Right. Not to big or too small. Perfectly proportioned and symmetrical. Somehow pretty. Like a fucking factory prototype. It truly is not fair.

Gets handsy and restless at night, even if you both have work the next day. Seems to crave sex at three in the morning. You've given him more than one exhausted handjob.

Gets offended if you don't cum. Will go down on you for hours. Of course he uses his quirk to tease you. He doesn't typically use it during actual intercourse, but he's all about foreplay, and he'll use every tool in his arsenal.

His sex drive is completely fucking unpredictable. Sometimes he's all over you, other times he's an icy slab. His line of work leaves him busy and stressed on a near-constant basis, so you can't entirely blame his personality for this one. Just give him some time and help him take care of his basic needs. He'll come back around soon enough.

[fe-semi-decent-scenarios]

FE3H Love Language Series: Blue Lion Edition

[What love language would each fe3h character dominantly express?]

Check out the previous submission!: {Golden Deer}

Dimitri: Words of Affirmation, Giving Gifts, & Physical Touch

When Dimitri is happy, he shines like the sun. When he’s angry, he’s feral as a predator. The same applies for when he loves! When Dimitri cares for someone he glows when they’re near. They’re magnetic pull yanks at him to follow wherever they go despite his desperate grasp at some sense of self-control. His long for close proximity grows more intense the morfe he resists. With his life as cold as it is, if there’s any sign of warmth he will latch onto it desperately. If they’re bonds are close enough, he might occasionally slip them a present, all of which are homemade. He isn’t a materialistic person in the slightest, but what he does like is to see the joy on someone else’s face when they receive something. His heart rarely allows him to hide his emotions (good and bad), so often he’ll vocalize his feelings. In short, Dimitri is an overall open book.

 Dedue- Acts of Service & Quality Time

Dedue is a man of modesty who treats those that he cares for with integrity and respect. He may not be verbal with them, but his sentiment shows through his actions. It’s a known fact that being a retainer to the future king does not leave him much free time. He also prefers to use his time wisely, and hates being unproductive. If he cares for someone then he’ll show it by sharing his time with them. He’ll accompany them on errands, help with tasks, engage in conversation, and join them in their hobbies (or offer for them to accompany him). It’s all a matter of choice with Dedue since he won’t give up any of his responsibilities despite Dimitri’s insistence. So, if he chooses you over being alone -everyone knows he works more efficiently by himself- then the action speaks for itself.

 Felix: Acts of Service

If there’s one word to describe Felix, it would be ‘dependable’. He may not be the nicest, he may not be emotionally expressive (aside from anger, determination, and annoyance), and sometimes he’s downright just an ass. However, once someone breaks past his walls, they’re stuck with him for the long run. It’s what makes his affection special. On the outside it might appear to onlookers that he hates everyone and everything, but when the going gets tough he’s the first one you can call. It is not simply over large issues either. Albeit begrudgingly at first, Felix will never turn down a request from someone he cares about. He may make a stink over how it’s a ‘pain,’ but he won’t say no. Loyalty, honesty, and dependability are what he uses to show he cares.

 Sylvain- Giving Gifts & Words of Affirmation

 ‘Truth’ is what defines Sylvain’s affections. Everyone pegs him as the smooth-talking Gautier heir that would probably use wind magic to send skirts flying up. While it may be partially true, he doesn’t have the confidence that everyone assumes he does. Sylvain can be a smart mouthed brat, and if he cares about someone then he’ll show it. Not because he’s comfortable but instead to see if they’ll accept it. That they won’t try to change him. With those he cherishes his heart is on his sleeve and they get to see all sides of him. Angry, happy, sad, and loving. Sylvain values communication and affirmation because he’s seen what negligence can do to someone. He can and WILL remind the people he cares about of how he feels.

Ashe- Acts of Service & Words of Affirmation

Ashe likes to help, everyone knows this. He loves to see people happy and to hear laughter. It reminds him of what he’s been working towards while at the same time proving that the world is still worth living in. You don’t have to be someone he personally cares about for him to help you but connecting with him on a personal level does change the situation. The hurt of people he cares for is his own. Their wounds sting him just as much, and in addition to helping he will offer moral support. When Ashe loves he does so with his whole heart and won’t hesitate to remind people of all their good qualities. He’s as open as his books even though his communication skills sometimes flop on him.

 Mercedes- Quality time & Giving gifts

The best way Mercedes knows how show people that she cares is through simply spending time with them. She’s the person who will stay awake through the night to help someone. She could be lost in the hottest desert and still offer her last ration of water to another person. There is only so much time one can live, and Mercedes plans to use her time to live for others. If she cares for someone, they are always a priority. If she doesn’t have time, then she will make it somehow. At bare minimum she will be sure to greet them whenever their paths cross, no one will ever feel as if they’re alone or ignored with Mercedes by their side. She’s aware that being with everyone always is impossible, and that there will be times that she might be too late. However, her thoughts are and always will be with those she cares about.

 Annette- Words of Affirmation & Physical Touch

She’s a touchy-feely person in general. Annette is always open to give out free hugs, high-fives, etc. at the drop of the hat. If there was a personification of optimism in Fodlan is would be Annette-hands down. She’s the type to offer encouragement when someone needs it most, and to stick by their side when the going gets rough. While she has her down moments, everyone does. Though during those times she’ll remember all the people in her life that she cares for, and all the happy moments that they’ve shared. When Annette cares for someone, she does her best to be a driving force. They won’t have time to feel down because she’ll always be there to pick them back up. There will be plenty of laughs, much encouragement, and more than enough hugs to fill her quota. She’ll link her arms with them when walking and talk about anything and everything. There’s never a dull moment with this clumsy ball of sunshine involved.

 Ingrid- Physical Touch

 Despite her rough exterior, Ingrid is human. She’s not the most verbally eloquent with expressing her feelings. Some believe it’s pride, but she is just as embarrassed over being expressive as the next person. Hence why her tells can mostly be found within her actions. How far away she stands, her posture, etc. When it comes to body language Ingrid is one of the most expressive lions because she rarely lets her guard down. She only will act casually with those she trusts and cares for. A hug from her may seem like it’s miles away, but they’re not that rare to those she is close with. In addition to this, her teasing side shines through the stone exterior strangers see when Ingrid is with people she cares about.

Up Next? : Some eagles that make even the goth kids seem pop culture

[hinasaki]

okay i finished arise so here are some thoughts:

(non-spoiler thoughts first, spoilers below the cut)

combat is very fun. everybody is fun to play as. i am bad at game but i still had a ton of fun trying everyone out in the arena

boost artes and strikes are good and useful. mystic artes are real easy to trigger, even advanced ones. i’ve triggered some of the advanced ones by accident, that’s how easy they are

i was dubious about the skit style change at first but i got used to it, and it’s fine.

camping is good and i loved the little scenes you could get between party members

the world is gorgeous. the painting style they went with really just looks amazing.

okay, spoiler time

some specific thoughts on characters first:

alphen: he’s fine. i’ve been spoiled by velvet in all honesty because i love a protag who isn’t all Good and alphen is definitely Good. they did a good job keeping the mystery of his past going and he has a lot of very nice interactions with other party members. he’s fine.

shionne: my wife is a bitch and i like her so much. shionne has a good arc and the way her relationships with each of the party members grows feels really natural. saw the reveal about her thorns coming a mile away but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. i care her and want her to be happy. I especially like her very cute friendship with rinwell

rinwell: baby. rinwell also has a really good arc! the way her opinion on renans changes over the course of the story feels very natural - she doesn’t immediately stop hating renans after meeting shionne and dohalim and even after she grows to love them she still occasionally slips up. she’s good. i like her

law: baby #2. most of law’s story is front-loaded which had him feeling a bit detached as far as the story went in the later chapters but i still very much enjoyed having him around. he’s a sweet idiot. he’s absolutely a teenager.

dohalim: i love him. consistently good interactions with other party members, he has very good scenes with alphen, shionne, and rinwell. i was VERY pleased that he got a lot of focus during the lenegis part of the game. i loved his arc of learning to cope with his guilt and growing from a Ruler into a Leader.

kisara: i wanted to like kisara. i really did. i tried. i kept hoping for a magilou moment (aka a single moment late in the game where everything crystallised and i fell in love with them) but it never came. and i’m sad about that because there are some genuinely cool things about her! there are good bones! she has some really nice interactions with alphen! unfortunately a lot of her scenes end up being either her talking about her brother or her trying to mother everyone and i am just.... not here for that

overall i liked the party. they’re not my fave but i did like almost everyone quite a bit. i felt like their evolution from working together out of necessity to found family way very well done. it was natural. i keep saying “natural” because the arcs really did feel that way. they flowed nicely and almost never felt forced or hurried. it was nice!

now, because this game has basically attempted to pair up all of the party members.... the ship opinions....

alphen/shionne: holy shit tales did a het ship that didn’t feel forced! their relationship flows very nicely and they grow closer slowly over the course of the game. i don’t feel like it’s a luke/tear tier canon ship but it’s good. Them getting married in the end credits was very cute

law/rinwell: very very cute. not entirely sold on rinwell’s feelings but that’s fine, it reads pretty much entirely like law has a crush and has decided that saving the world isn’t really the time to bring that up. it’s cute.

dohalim/kisara: bad. bad. bad. i’m glad it’s just tease because i can pretend it’s not happening. they have some really good platonic moments! they have a nice dynamic as people learning to be equals! it’s extremely uncomfortable to throw romance into that mix! and i feel like it was a *huge* disservice to kisara for the writing to push her into this ship. it just felt bad. not to mention this alongside the haha she’s like his mum jokes just ughghghhghghghghgghhg NO.

as far as the plot goes, it was pretty good. we had a clear goal from the beginning which is always appreciated, only to have the rug pulled out from under us at the end in usual tales fashion. i saw somewhere someone said it had a plot structure sort of like legendia and LMAO TRUE with the one month time skip. the game as a whole reminded me quite a bit of tales of rebirth funnily enough - similar plot structure, themes regarding race dynamics, some nebulous force being the cause of a lot of suffering... it’s a tales plot. it’s not particularly groundbreaking but the characters really carried it and made it compelling. also i just loved the design of the final dungeon. the thorns are Aesthetic.

The main problems I had with the game were the amount of spelling mistakes in the subtitles, or where the subtitles didn't match the dialogue. It's most noticeable with the battle lines but happened in other places too. I didn't have a problem with CP because I kept an eye on it and I was playing easy mode but i can see it being more than a little bit of a pain. Like. Why? And also, just as a side note, did they ever mention how shionne got to dahna? Because I might have just missed it but HOW DID SHE GET HERE? did she come down for the crown contest and just chill for seven years? Did she steal a starship and come down by herself - in which case what happened to her ship that we couldn't use it to get to lenegis? This feels like an important piece of information that we just.... never find out.

speaking of reminding me of other tales: oh boy! there were a lot of times i felt reminded of older titles, which made me real glad i’ve played almost all of them now. i talked about legendia and rebirth vibes above but also MASSIVE graces nostalgia what with going to space. i know twin worlds could be referencing a number of games too but the specific dahna/lenegis/rena structure reminded me a lot of eternia with inferia/orbus barrier/celestia and it was just nice. i can’t remember where? maybe pelegion? but the general aesthetic gave me big xillia vibes. i’m not sure how many of these were deliberately intended to invoke nostalgia but i’m glad for it - it really felt like a love letter to older titles (like zesty was supposed to be) while also clearly moving towards a new future for the series.

I'm not sure how I felt about there not being much of a primary antagonist. I guess it helped push the theme of forgiveness because really how can you blame a sentient planet for everything wrong with the world when it has no concept of human morality. I guess it's just my personal preference since I prefer the conflict to be a clash of ideals or wills (again, I'm spoiled by berseria). The sidequest where you get tiny little bits about the lords felt tacked on too. The lords largely felt cartoonishly evil but I guess that's probably so we don't feel bad killing them lmao. Vholran needed a whole lot more build-up IMO as a foil to alphen because he ended up feeling like he was just... there. There wasn't much to him. I wanted to know more about why he was the way he was but I guess we'll just never know.

overall i wouldn’t say arise is one of my favourite games but it was definitely an enjoyable experience! i’d absolutely recommend playing it yourself if you get the chance!

[thegoodprincess]

Together We Are Apart, but Apart We Are Together | KTH Ch. 8

Author: thegoodprincess Pairing: Kim Taehyung | Original Female Character Genre: romance, fantasy, action, forbidden love, human KTH | angel of death OC, supernatural au Word Count: 9.7k [series, ongoing] Rating: N/A Warnings: A few swear words, Jungkook acting like a jerk [but it’s because he’s protective of his hyung], mentions of blood Summary: After admiring a handsome boy from afar, an Angel of Death reluctantly rescues him from his own demise. As a result of going against her better judgment she inadvertently invites him into her world.

Author’s note: Again I’m sorry my update took so long again. I had a midterm, had to work, and I also dealt with some neck pain from sleeping on it wrong (invest in good pillows guys). This also took me longer to edit because not only did I write more, but I experienced some writer’s block, so I needed a break as well. I also wanted to take my time editing my writing so it didn’t sound like complete crap. Welp, that’s pretty much it. Just for future reference I won’t always be able to update once a week because I have a lot going right now. So don’t worry if I don’t update frequently. I try to shoot for updating on Fridays but since I’m posting this on Saturday, I’ll probably just shoot for the weekends. Also I wanted to shout out and thank @ggukkieland for reblogging my last post. I really appreciate it 💜💜💜. Hope everyone has a pleasant weekend. Until next time I bid you adieu 🤗.

Together We Are Apart but Apart We Are Together

Chapter 8. Return Home

“What if, you and I were meant to part ways, only so that we could find each other again.”

Malachi gave me a pointed look. “Hot chocolate. Hot chocolate is going to get him to leave Mistress.” He was dubious in his delivery.

“Well we can’t just return him home by leaving my cottage in the middle of the forest miles away from the city. We’ll look like some backwoods inbreds looking to peel his skin off and wear it.”

“Is that not two different movies?” Malachi questioned factiously to no doubt be an ass.

“That’s not the point.” I brought my fingers to my forehead to rub my temples. “We need to take precautionary measures and teleport him back to the bolt hole apartment in the city, then return him home.”

“And why can we not just teleport him directly home and wipe his memory and call it a day?”

“Because he may live with family, friends, or a-,” I hesitated before swallowing, “a girlfriend … or boyfriend.” I said disheartened. “Although he did think we ..uh, copulated last night.” I added as an afterthought.

“You’re forgetting humans can be unfaithful in their pursuits,” Malachi advised. “He also may already be married or have children.” He added as if he wanted to pour copious amounts of salt on my wounded heart. I looked at him annoyed. Malachi gave a mischievous smile while attempting to make the rest of him look as innocent as possible.

“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, we can’t just drop him off on his doorstep unconscious with no recollection of last night. That would surely raise lots of questions or worse it’ll lead to some sort of an investigation. If we return him conscious then it will look less suspicious because whoever he lives with is probably aware of his absence and is worried. I can briefly explain what happened and then wipe both of their memories from them. Plus it makes me feel like less of a criminal for breaking in, tip-toeing around, and whispering incantations into people’s ears who are asleep like some ghost in the night.”

“Suddenly you choose to follow morals now?” Malachi asked with skepticism, but I could hear the tease in his tone of voice.

“Oh, hush Malachi,” I bit back a his snarky comment. “Just recite the incantation.”

Malachi rolled his eyes before leaning down to bend his upper body over the cup. Closing his eyes and focusing his energy, he whispered the lengthy spell straight into the liquid of the hot chocolate.

“My voice lulls you to sleep Allow the darkness of your mind to seep Through the crevices of your conscious mind And into the unconfined Depths of your plentiful dreams. There you will find what seems Like the edges of both what is real And what is surreal Begin to blur. When this occurs, Do not resist, surrender. I desperately urge you to remember What it is you so dearly desire And mold it into something you can truly acquire. Find peace within this thought And do not be distraught When you feel as though You are too slow To rise awake. Do not shake With irrational fear Knowing that you now reside here. Darkness may cloud your vision But if you just envision Looking past the mist, You will bear witness to what exists. And once the veil is lifted, Misjudged shadows will have shifted Shrinking away to eventually lead To the glimpses of light that bleed Through the cracks. Welcome the luminosity as it wraps Around you, bathe in the warmth As you push forth On your path. Know that the darkness holds no wrath It is only there to shield From the Misfortunes that yield Chaos and corruption, That pave way to destruction. Instead willingly allow the shadows to consume you While their energy flows through, Sink your way down As if to drown. Remember, wield the light as your sword Until you are restored To a more conscious state. But until then, this is your fate.”

As his voice rang out sounding like church bells on a crisp morning, the air in the room seemed to shift. It was as though there was a light breeze that had blew around the room. I could feel the hair on my arms rise as an electric current seemed to surge. The drink began to bubble furiously causing the melted marshmallows and chocolate to drip down the edge as a shadowy mist began to emanate from the tips of his fingers. Once Malachi was finished, the room felt calm once again and the drink no longer gurgled but was frothed instead.

“Here,” he slid the cup containing the hot chocolate turned elixir towards me. “Make sure he drinks all of it or the intention will not be set.” I nodded to convey my understanding. “Also would you make sure he changes back into his own clothes before he drinks this, because it should take effect rather quickly and I would like to have my clothing back without having to change him like a newborn child. Plus if he happened to spill that drink, the stains may make it unsalvageable. And those articles are hard to come by in that particular cut, color, and fabric.”

“Yeah, sure thing Mr. fashionista.” I sarcastically quipped gripping the tepid cup handle. Malachi only narrowed his eyes at me in return.

Before returning to Taehyung’s side, I went to retrieve his clothing from in front of the fireplace. All the garments were a bit wrinkled but fully dry none the less. Folding them neatly over my forearm I walked back to my room.

“I brought your hot chocolate,” I announced from the doorway. “By the way Malachi says he’s sorry.” I lied.

“I did not.” I heard Malachi telepathically respond from somewhere else in the house.

“He went to tend to the garden.”

“I am also not doing that.” In the background I could hear him purposely rustling the pages of a book. The distinctive sound of the crisp paper rubbing against the pads of his fingertips echoed in my head. He must have been currently reading in his library.

“Oh, really. Thank you and uh, I guess let him know it’s fine.”

“I do not care.”

Ignoring Malachi’s sour mood, I only shook my head at his unpleasant reply. “Okay. Uh, before you drink that though, could you please change back into your clothes. Malachi just doesn’t want you to potentially ruin his. He thinks the stains would be difficult to remove if you happened to spill any chocolate in them. His words not mine.”

“Finally,” Malachi dramatically emphasized the pronunciation of the word, “you are saying something I can actually agree with.”

Annoyed, I called out Malachi for his nosiness. “Would you go back to reading your book and stop eavesdropping on our conversation.”

“Hey, I am not prying. You are the one carelessly broadcasting your thoughts. Do not think I just did not hear you contemplate how the huma-, er Taehyung’s, hands are so big and if they would cover the expanse of your thig-,”

“Malachi! Don’t you dare finish that thought.” I hastily cut him off. I could hear him snickering to himself at my reaction.

“Uh, are you okay?” Taehyung questioned concerned, his voice ripped me out of my thoughts or rather the ones I was hearing from Malachi.

“Yeah…I, uh, was trying to remember if I, uh, turned the stove off.”

“Did you?”

“Huh, what?” I was still distracted by Malachi telling me how I needed to learn how to lie better. “Oh yeah, let me go check while you change.” I went to leave the room.

“Wait! Aren’t you forgetting something.” Taehyung hurriedly said. I was confused, Taehyung looked down towards my hands. I was still holding his clothes.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Mortified by my flightiness, I walked back over to his side and handed them to him. He only smirked at my flustered state. “I, uh, washed them and then dried them by the fireplace last night. They’re a bit wrinkled from air drying them but otherwise they should be fine to wear.” I added blushing.

“That’s fine. I appreciate it. Thank you.” He sounded genuine.

Stepping out of the room so he could change, I quickly turned around and left closing the door behind me. Through the door the sound of the bed creaking was able to carry, followed by the rustling of fabric and the brief sharp hiss of a zipper. The memory of how he looked last night in the firelight came to mind as I imagined him changing. I felt my face grow hot.

“You are hopeless.” Malachi taunted, although it sounded more like he was poking fun at me rather than making a serious insult.

“I’m done.” Taehyung announced a few minutes later, his voice muffled from the sound of it traveling through the wood of the door.

Coming back into the room, Taehyung was dressed in the same pants he was the night prior as he was seated back on the bed, this time on the edge of it. Noticing he was still wearing Malachi’s shirt I was confused.

“I made your bed for you.” Taehyung declared guiding my attention to the covers that had been neatly tucked back into place.

“Oh, thank you.”

“But, I, uh, need help changing my shirt. It hurts.” He limply raised his arm to emphasize his point.

“Yeah, sure.” My voice cracked as I sat down next to him. Knowing I was now going to see him shirtless while he was conscious suddenly made me extremely nervous. But taking a second to collect myself, I attempted to make my voice sound more confident. I reached towards him and directed him to first pull his good arm through the shirt hole. Then after lifting the shirt over his head to reveal his bare torso, I hastily willed myself to focus on the task at hand. Gently I guided the fabric down his hurt arm to reduce whatever pain he was experiencing. Taehyung now sat completely shirtless in front of me. I expected him to be blushing and unwilling to make eye contact, but that wasn’t the case. Instead he stared intently into my eyes trying to gauge my reaction to him. I couldn’t help but eye the expanse of his chest, noticing the few red angry scratches and blooming blue bruises that decorated his body.

“Don’t they hurt?” I asked my inner thought aloud looking up at him.

“I’m fine.” He gently whispered reassuring me. His pupils were so blown they barely looked brown anymore.

Tearing my eyes away from his, I reached for his shirt. Again I helped guide each of his arms through the sleeves, taking extra care of his injured one before I went to button his shirt. My hands shook slightly whenever they accidentally brushed over his warm skin. I could feel him continue to eye me curiously amused by my flustered state. His breath fanned over my face as he quietly chuckled. While he hadn’t yet brushed his teeth, his breath still smelled sweet like the fruit he had eaten earlier. Somehow by some shear miracle I managed to fasten the last button before I looked up at him again to meet his gaze.

“All done.” My voice unintentionally sounded breathier. I was somewhat taken aback by its tone.

“Thank you.” He offered me a boxy grin.

Awkwardly directing my eye-line towards the nightstand, I remembered the hot beverage sitting a top it. “Well, your hot chocolate should have cooled off enough by now.”

“Oh, yeah. I can smell it from here. It smells delicious by the way. Uh,” Taehyung paused to look around, “should I drink it sitting on the bed or…”

“You can sit on the bed. It’s fine.”

“Are you sure. What if I spill it?” Taehyung was unconvinced by my carefree reaction.

“It’s okay.” I reassured. “The blankets can be washed if anything happens.” I knew it would be best if he drank the drink sitting in the bed. He would surely pass out soon after drinking it, but I wasn’t sure how soon. So the safest bet was to have him just be already in the bed. It would be too difficult to try to move him when he was unconscious and I didn’t want him to feel uncomfortable if he fell asleep in an unusual upright position.

“Okay.” He took his first sip, still cautious of the temperature. He was given an unintentional mustache from emerging his top lip in the rim of the drink. While he didn’t say anything in terms of a reaction, his eyes suddenly lit up at what I assumed was the taste of the silky chocolate. “Mmm.” Cherishing the flavor at first, he slowly sipped the liquid before he hastily chugged the remainder down. His Adam’s apple bobbed in sequence as he swallowed with large audible gulps. A small exhale of air immediately followed by a burp and hiccup caused his cheeks to redden from his questionable manners, rather than the after effects of the warmth provided from guzzling down the hot chocolate. “Sorry.” Taehyung lowered his head sheepishly and looked up at me from under his eyelashes.

“I’ll take it that it was good then?” I laughed the query.

“Good? It was amazing!” He declared excitedly like a child. He licked the frothy mustache away from his upper lip.

Then almost instantly it was as though his state of awareness had shifted. His uneven eyelids began to droop and his facial features relaxed. Succumbing to the blissful state, he unwittingly announced, “It’s funny, I feel so tired now.” His voice sounded hoarse and had an evident rasp to it.

“That’s fine, go back to sleep for a little while if you want Tae.” I encouraged softly.

“Hmm. Okay.” He nodded lazily before completely passing out. His head gently fell back on the pillows.

Taking a few minutes to make absolutely sure he was asleep and would stay asleep, I then called Malachi to my bedroom.

“Did it work?” Malachi questioned while walking through the threshold. He was nonchalantly examining his nails before he made eye contact with me.

“Yeah.” Then it dawned on me, “Wait, what do you mean ‘did it work?’”

“If you think I do not know what I am doing, then you have no faith in my abilities. And I am offended.” Malachi stated with mock hurt. He even placed his hand on his chest to really drive the point. I narrowed my eyes at him, pursing my lips. “What I meant was,” he dramatically exhaled, “is that I am surprised he fell under the spell so quick. The fastest it has ever taken affect was within ten minutes, not ten seconds.” Malachi scrunched his eyebrows in response to his thoughtfulness. “I knew it was fast acting, I just did not think it was that fast acting. I suppose it is because his subconscious is more prone to accepting influence though.”

“Oh. Well in that case, are you ready?”

“To be rid of him, yes.”

I rolled my eyes. “Can you grab him then.”

“Sure.” Even though I could hear the annoyance in his voice at the mild inconvenience that he had to carry Taehyung, Malachi still reached down to pick him up. While he was gentle in the way he initially grabbed him, the way he moved his arms to swing Taehyung over his shoulder, troubled me.

“Hey, don’t hold him like that.” I warned. Malachi readjusted his hold, and instead held Taehyung bridal style. Taehyung’s head calmly rested in the crook of Malachi’s neck. Malachi had disgust painted across his face as plain as day; he looked as though someone had told him to pull soggy bread from the dirty dish water of a sink. He visibly shuddered when he felt Tae’s breath on his neck. “Could you be more amicable, or at least make the effort to try.”

Swallowing down his revulsion, Malachi turned his attention back to me. “Why is he so heavy? Did you have to feed him so much?” He complained.

“Are you calling him fat?”

“Well I am not calling him thin. At least he does not feel that way. He is a lot denser than he looks.” Malachi flippantly replied.

“Would you be quiet. You’re being insufferable.”

“What is insufferable is the fact that I have to carry him around as if we were just married.”

“He isn’t a sack of potatoes you can just throw over your shoulder y’know.”

“He sure feels like one.” Malachi riposted.

“Malachi!” I warned.

“Hmph.”

“Let’s just go, shall we.” I linked my arm around one of his and he teleported us to a bolt hole we owned in the city.

Upon our arrival to a bedroom of an apartment we barely ever used, Malachi gingerly placed Taehyung back in a wooden platform bed.

“Gross your human drooled on me.” Malachi complained wiping off his collar where Taehyung’s head previously resided.

“My human?”

“Well he surely is not mine.” With his nose turned up, Malachi said it as though he was stating the obvious.

I couldn’t help myself from breaking out into a smile. Quickly making an effort to compose my features, I placed my hands over my mouth to hide my beaming face. Malachi didn’t miss my reaction and only rose a single eyebrow in a silent question. “Shut up.” I mumbled out flustered. He dramatically rolled his eyes and sighed out.

Taking a moment to examine our surroundings, the first thing I noticed was the citrusy scent that filled the room. The pleasant aroma of freshly cut lemons tickled my nose, almost as though someone had been baking a lemon meringue pie. Wondering why it smelled this way, I figured Malachi had left some sort of an automatic air freshener in the apartment rather than actually practice culinary skills in his spare time. Because while it smelled clean, taking further inspection of the vicinity, I could see a thin layer of dust coating the surface of most of the furnishings in the room.

I walked over to the window to let not only some much needed light, but some fresh air as well into the room to combat its dust-filled condition. Upon pushing the curtains aside, the incoming sunbeam only illuminated the flecks of hovering dust motes in the air. The way they seemed to sparkle in the light vaguely reminded me of the drops of dew caught in a spider’s web. There was something wondrously phenomenal about the scene. I turned the latch and cracked the window open. Immediately a crisp breeze blew through the room, and while it was cold, it still felt refreshing. Tucking Taehyung tightly under the blankets, I wanted to make sure he would stay warm despite the slightly chilly temperature. When I deemed the room to be less stale, I closed the window. Immediately sensing one less presence in the room, I knew that Malachi had left.

“I left to straighten up. I suggest you do the same. The condition of this place looks as though it is an estate that has been abandoned for centuries.” Malachi voiced from inside my head. While I knew he was purposefully exaggerating the untidiness of the apartment, I could still hear his utter distaste for what he was seeing. “Dear god, there are so many dust bunnies.”

Leaving the bedroom to go retrieve a duster from the living room, I took note of the state of the rest of the apartment.

“Horrid, is it not?” Malachi joked while distracted. He was rigorously dusting off a massive metal bookcase full of leather bound novels, decorative vases, and other specifically curated knick-knacks that were quintessential to the aesthetic.

“Mm-hmm.” I nodded, biting my bottom lip in worry.

The apartment was contemporary in décor with its minimalistic elements of incorporating neutral colors, geometric shapes, and lots of natural light. The sofa was a soft leather texture in a shade similar to butterscotch, it sat near a walnut wood and glass coffee table that was round. Accompanying the set up were shapely velvet accent chairs that were black. Oversized abstract art hung on the backdrop of the beige and white colored walls. Globe string lights, cute ambient pendant lamps, and an interesting Sputnik chandelier provided an extra warm glow to the room. Various potted plants of different sizes not only filled any noticeably empty space but occupied a few corners of the room. Surprised by their jungle green leaves, I quickly remembered that they had been enchanted to not wilt when we were away for too long to properly water them. The birch wood floors were decorated with a ivory colored woven area rug that seemed to complete the look. Overall, the chic and refined atmosphere that looked almost museum-like gave a completely different vibe in comparison to the more romantic and rural nature-filled elements of my cottage.

While the aesthetic was satisfying to the eyes, it wasn’t as cozy as my cottage. I couldn’t help but feel like it was missing something in terms of comfort. It felt almost impersonal, like a stage meant to display the appearance of the perfect home. That was one of the main reasons Malachi and I never resided here in the city. This apartment was just a bolt hole, a place we could use when we needed to stay in the city or escape to when our energy wasn’t at its fullest and we needed a place to rest. For Malachi it was also a place to store his books; as one of the rooms was completely lined with shelves that went all the way up to the ceiling and were filled with books of every genre. He even had a rolling ladder that swiveled along his makeshift library. We never really found ourselves taking up residence here, which was why the apartment was in the state it was in. Therefore, it desperately needed to be cleaned so that it was more presentable and at least gave the illusion that we really did live here.

“Do you think it looks bad?” I nervously fluffed the gray pillows on the sofa.

“No, we just need to dust for now. Are you planning to give him a tour of the place or something?”

“What? No!” I was growing irritated at Malachi’s incessant accusations that I was trying too hard to befriend Taehyung. “I already told you, we’re taking him home as soon as he wakes up.”

“Then he should not notice. From what I have noticed humans are not ones to really analyze such small details, otherwise they would not find themselves in such predicaments where they expose themselves to situations that result in dangerous and often deadly outcomes. They are too fickle for that.” He shook his head in disapproval. “Plus he will probably be too busy staring at your face to notice the lack of cleanliness in the apartment.” I knit my eyebrows together at his assertion. “Forgive me I have said too much.” Malachi went back to furiously battling the army of dust bunnies that had taken over the shelves.

After finding a worn rag, I returned to the bedroom to clean up. Wiping off the headboard, tops of tables, shelves, between table top decorations, lampshades, and picture frames where dust had collected, I found the room’s appearance greatly improved. I even managed to clear some of the spider webs that had been gathering in the corners of the upper walls. Combined with the smell of lemons, fresh air, natural light, and no longer dusty furniture, the former room that had stood idle for an unspecified amount of time, was now a more open and inviting space. There was only one more precaution that needed to be taken care of.

Looking around the room there was an obvious difference in the layout of this bedroom and my bedroom. This bedroom was more attuned to the refinement of an IKEA with its white walls, wooden accents, and hanging planters than the quaint cluttered coziness of my own room. Taehyung had been conscious for quite some time in my bedroom, so I feared he would definitely notice; the first thing being the bedding. They were a powder blue cotton material as opposed to my white silk sheets. I decided it would be best to cast an illusion charm on the room to mask this bedroom with my own. Closing my eyes I softly uttered the spell. When I opened them, I recognized my own room.

It looked almost identical [and I say almost because the natural sources of light and the way it shone throughout the room could not be replicated]. The walls were now painted a dusty pink and while the wooden accents of the room remained, they were white instead of their more natural woodsy color. The semi sheer linen curtains were replaced by frilly lace ones with delicate eyelets. Floral printed pillows, wicker baskets, candles, and fine china ornaments filled the empty space. The hanging plants still remained too, but dried flowers, fresh flowers, and numerous other houseplants accompanied them on the walls and table tops as well to create an almost indoor garden. Even my bed had changed in appearance. Taehyung now slept in a white metal bed frame with whimsical curves and was wrapped up in the familiar white silk sheets. When I deemed the arrangement of the room acceptable, I left to go find Malachi again.

Back in the living room Malachi lounged lazily on the sofa with his legs propped up on the coffee table. “Mistress I am not going with you to return him.” Malachi nonchalantly stated with his back turned away from me. He didn’t even spare so much as a glance over his shoulder. Instead he carelessly flipped through the pages of a random book he was attempting to read.

“Why not?” I pouted, taking a seat next to him.

“I can barely stand his presence. What makes you think I want to be around more of them. Plus I am sure the bolt hole needs to be more thoroughly cleaned. You know swept and mopped… the whole works.”

“Whatever, “ I grimaced. “But you know once I wipe all their memories, I’ll be significantly weaker.”

“Ah, the solution to your predicament would be to simply summon me. Easy, is it not?”

“No,” I childishly whined out, lengthening the vowel.

“What would you possibly need me there for then?”

“Moral support.” I smiled mischievously at him, aware of the blatantly low brow pun I made.

“Seriously,” he answered impassively. Malachi didn’t seem to be amused.

“Please.” I begged.

“I refuse,” he turned his nose up.

“Pretty please with feathers on top.”

“That does not even make any sense.” I opened my eyes wide and tucked my top lip into my bottom one.

“Oh, no.” He became flustered. “Don’t give me those awful puppy dog eyes you’ve learned to mimic from those bratty cherubs you’re so fond of. It will not work this time.”

It was a few hours later when Taehyung finally awoke. He claimed it was the best sleep he had ever had. That was good considering I was worried the spell would cause him to experience something akin to sleep paralysis, but I couldn’t help feel a bit guilty knowing the true reason behind his sweet dreams. After agreeing to accompany him home to properly meet his friends, two boys he lived with, he had explained that he would need me there to provide backup. Since he hadn’t been in touch with them since he left for work early yesterday morning, he wasn’t exactly looking forward to the wrath he would be facing as a result of the extreme worry he put them through.

That’s what led to Taehyung, Malachi and I standing outside of Taehyung’s apartment knocking on the door. Malachi looked incredibly peeved to be standing there beside us. His shoulders where hunched with his arms crossed, but the worst part was he was agitatedly tapping his foot on the ground.

“How long does it take someone to open the damn door. I loathe people who take their time.” Malachi bit the inside of his cheek, irked.

“Behave.” I warned.

“Let us just get this over with.” Malachi groaned in annoyance. “I can not believe you suckered me into coming here.” Malachi complained to me.

“I can’t believe you’re gullible enough to have puppy dog eyes actually work on you.” I snickered. The sound of Malachi grunting irritated reached my ears, just as the door to Taehyung’s apartment swung open to reveal two unfamiliar faces. Worry followed by shock, and then confusion flashed across their faces in a succession. With open mouths their eyes darted back and forth between the three of us. They both appeared to be trying to piece together the dynamic of how we knew each other. The one with a more petite stature and pink hair looked mildly intrigued. His eyes held genuine interest and his eyebrows bounced as if awaiting an explanation. The other one with more of a muscular build and dark hair had more apathetic posture. However, it was his expressive doe eyes that gave him away. Looking beyond the calm and composed nature of his gaze, there was an unmistakable glint of concern reflected in his dark and glossy irises.

“Taehyung,” one with pink hair and a higher pitched voice stuttered out sounding shocked, “Oh, hello.” He continued when he noticed Malachi and I standing there beside Taehyung. He looked a bit startled to see strangers.

“Who are you?” The other immediately questioned without hesitation, his voice stronger than the other’s. He suspiciously eyed both Malachi and I, while doing absolutely nothing to hide the fact that he was scrupulously looking us up and down. But before I could answer, Taehyung spoke up instead and gave him a warning glare.

“They’re my new friends.” The one with black hair furrowed his eyebrows taken aback for a moment before he schooled his features. The pink haired one sensing the slightly awkward discord that both boys were exuding, suddenly spoke up.

“Hey, no need to be rude Kookie,” the petite boy said disapprovingly. “Don’t mind him, he means well.” Kookie gave him a dirty look. Ignoring the scowl, the petite boy continued, “Why don’t you guys come in and we can all introduce ourselves.” The petite one stepped aside, pulling the one with black hair along with him. We politely removed our shoes after entering through the door, and were led into their living room.

Observing their décor, I noticed that while their apartment was smaller than ours, it was decorated with more personality. It was somewhat fascinating to witness. The items that immediately stood out to me were the countless pictures that lined the walls and were scattered across various other surfaces. While the picture frames at our apartment often displayed art and other decorative pieces like printed quotes; theirs’ were filled with photos of the individual boys, them with each other, their families, and their other friends. Just from their pictures I could tell the three of them were apart of a much larger group of friends. Their candid moments were captured, showcasing their seemingly happy lives through their smiling faces.

“Have a seat.” The one with pink hair kindly gestured to their sofa while he sat in a love seat adjacent to it. Taehyung sat next to me on the sofa while Malachi sat down on the opposite side of me. The one referred to as Kookie chose to stand at first, leaning menacingly against a wall with his arms crossed before the petite one scolded him. He told him to pull up a chair from the kitchen table to sit in and to quit putting on such an intimidating façade when we all knew he was nothing more than an overgrown bunny. In response to the playful yet slightly demeaning tease, Kookie nearly snarled. Stomping his way over to the kitchen, he dragged a chair over. The unpleasant sound of wood roughly scraping against wood filled our ears. Finally, he begrudgingly sat down with a huff and spread his legs wide as if to assert his dominance. Taehyung only shook his head to show his chagrin.

“Where have you been and why didn’t you think to call?” Kookie suddenly questioned breaking the silence. There was an antagonistic undertone in the way he articulated his speech.

“Yeah, we were worried.” The petite one agreed.

“Sorry. I lost my phone.” Taehyung sheepishly answered.

“Aren’t you going to introduce us to your new friends?” The petite one inquisitively implored.

“Oh, this is Thalia,” Tae pointed towards me. I politely waved. “And her roommate Malachi.” Malachi only casually nodded in response.

“Hello Thalia. I’m Jimin.” The petite one acknowledged, offering his hand.

“Nice to meet you.” I briefly shook it, but he seemed to be more occupied with wanting to receive Malachi’s attention.

“Malachi,” Jimin seemed captivated by him. I made sure to telepathically warn Malachi to behave so we wouldn’t have a repeat of the earlier incident when he first was introduced to Taehyung.

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Malachi forced out. I could hear the edge in his voice. It was rather amusing to see Jimin shake Malachi’s hand for a prolonged period of time and Malachi’s mild annoyance at the situation.

“Why will he not let go?” Malachi sounded genuinely perplexed. I bit the inside of my mouth in an attempt to keep myself from outright laughing. “Well a least his hands are soft,” he sighed out.

Distracted by the interesting interaction between Jimin and Malachi, the other boy curtly introduced himself. “I’m Jungkook.” He quickly raised his eyebrows to signify his lack of enthusiasm. “Hyung, are you now going to explain how you ended up gone for like thirty-six hours?”

“Actually I was going to have them explain.” Taehyung pointed in our direction.

“Coward.” Malachi declared.

“Long story short, basically I slipped on some ice and blacked out. They found me and took me to their apartment to recover.” Taehyung was nonchalant in his retelling of the story, even choosing to laugh near the end. He nervously scratched the back of his neck, smiling while his eyes turned into half moons. His friends didn’t look amused though, instead they were shocked. Their eyes nearly popped out of their skulls.” Jimin looked as though he needed to pick up his jaw off the floor. Jungkook just looked pissed that Taehyung was treating the topic so lightly.

“Oh my god. Are you hurt? How’s your head? Why didn’t you call us to let us know what happened?” Jimin offered the series of questions slightly upset.

“I’m fine. I don’t have a head injury. I actually hurt my arm, but the pain is minor. I already told you I lost my phone.”

“What hyung meant was that you could have used their phone.” Jungkook pointed at us. The problem was that we didn’t have a phone. I started sweating trying to think of an excuse.

“I will handle it.” Before Malachi could calmly cover our asses, Taehyung intervened with his own proclamation.

“But I don’t have your numbers memorized.”

“What! Bullshit. We’ve been texting for years and you don’t remember our numbers by heart.” Jungkook exclaimed offended.

“I have you saved in my phone as kookie and, uh, soulmate.” He whispered the last word a bit embarrassed that he referred to his best friend as his soulmate. “Platonically of course.” He made sure I heard that part. “The only number I know by heart is my mom’s.” Jungkook rolled his eyes at Taehyung’s confession.

Jimin spoke up, “Well, uh, that’s fine then.”

“It’s not fine.” Jungkook complained.

“Jungkook-,” Jimin warned. “What’s important is that Tae is safe. Uh, are your friends going to fill us in on the details you failed to leave out? Or-,”

“Yeah, they’ll explain how they found me. I need to take a shower anyway, I feel gross.” He looked down at his clothes and pulled the fabric away from him. “You two will still be here when I come out right?” He turned to make eye contact with me. His face looked anxious.

“Yes, we’ll be here. Don’t worry.” I nodded smiling in reassurance. Malachi didn’t seem too enthusiastic about the issue. But we didn’t have much of a choice, considering we needed to wipe all of their memories of them ever encountering us.

“Okay, I’ll be back as soon as possible.” He got up and hurried off to what I assumed was his room. Minutes later the spray of the shower head could be faintly heard from down the hall.

While Taehyung was occupied with freshening up, Jimin had offered Malachi and I some refreshments. Malachi requested tea while I just opted for sipping some water. And whilst doing so I reiterated the story of how I found Tae. This time it was much less daunting to tell the white lies as I had had practice rehearsing it with Malachi and actually recited it to Tae, but now I also had Malachi by my side to fill in any of the mildly concerning blanks. Thankfully the two boys seemed to wholeheartedly believe us. They never even asked any intense questions. From the looks of it though I could tell Jungkook wanted to question us more harshly, but each time he had the chance to Jimin sent a reprimanding look his way that deterred him from doing so.

Just as soon as he left Taehyung returned. His hair was damp, curling slightly at the ends and the smell of lavender scented lotion wafted off him when he took a seat next to me. He was wearing a simple T-shirt and a pair of black basketball shorts. This look was much more relaxed compared to the more elegant dress clothes he was wearing earlier. While it was simple, it didn’t take away from the fact that he was just as handsome as ever.

“Careful, you are drooling.” Malachi taunted. Jimin was currently conversing with him and Jungkook seemed dazed. He looked as though he was staring off into space trying to process every detail of what I had told him about how Malachi and I had found Taehyung. I wouldn’t put it past him to be looking for any slip-ups in our story. Suddenly I felt a shift in the sofa cushion. Taehyung’s bare thigh brushed against my clothed one.

“Hey can I talk to you alone for a moment.” He whispered in my ear as the others were distracted. His peppermint breath fanned over my ear in the process, and I had to suppress a shudder. I nodded. We both quietly rose from the sofa in an attempt to sneak away from their unsuspecting eyes. Unfortunately Jimin picked up on our antics and sent Taehyung a knowing wink, while Jungkook only looked away blushing. It was the first time he appeared more shy in his demeanor.

“You keep those two busy for the time being, while I deal with Tae.”

Malachi clicked his tongue and shook his head. “So this is the reason you brought me here. To babysit.”

“Hush Malachi and just do as I ask. Plus you may find that you actually enjoy the company of humans.”

“I thoroughly doubt that. I am not a proponent of mingling with their kind. But I will do it. I just will not find it pleasant.”

Taehyung showed me around his room, pointing to pictures and interesting objects he possessed or were gifted to him. When he had his back to me, I sneakily ran my fingertips over some of his belongings and was able to pick up on the energy that was attached to the sentimental pieces. Flashes of memories played through my head as if they were snapshots. I was pulled from the mental photo book of images when I heard him speak up.

“It’s funny, I feel like you’re my guardian angel with you helping me and all.” he joked as he fidgeted with a random trinket he had in his hands. I forced a smile and laughed awkwardly at the irony of it all.

“We should hang out sometime. I could maybe buy you dinner or something. You know as a thank you. I mean if that’s something you’d be willing to do… with me.” He said as he scratched the back of his neck. “It doesn’t have to be a date though, unless you want it to be.” His voice softened towards the end. He was being awkward, his eyes shifting around the room only to make eye contact with me at the end of his offer to gauge my reaction. An almost feverish blush broke out across the bridge of his nose and spanned across his cheeks.

“That would be lovely,” I lied knowing I couldn’t actually accept the proposal.

“Great.” He said a little to excitedly. “Can I have your number or would it be better if I gave you mine.”

“Isn’t your phone lost?” I furrowed my eyebrows playfully at him.

“Oh yeah, shit, I forgot. Uh, how about you just write your number down for me,” he scrambled through his desk drawers for some stationery. Finally, he just settled for a slightly wrinkled piece of scrap paper. He then pulled a pen with its cap moderately chewed on from a cup of writing utensils. Offering me the two writing materials he continued, “I’ll text you as soon as I get a new phone. Which will probably be by tomorrow or the day after at the latest.” He rambled. Anxiety welled up inside me because I didn’t have a phone number to give him, I only nodded stiffly making no attempt to grab the items from his hands. Staring at the pen and paper, I struggled to remember just how many digits were even in a phone number, so when I gave him a fake one he wouldn’t find me strange. He must have sensed my panic, mistaking it for apprehension, because he quickly suggested another alternative. He hurriedly set the paper and pen aside on his dresser. “Or if you’re not comfortable with that I could just give you Jungkook’s number, no scratch that I’ll give you Jimin’s instead, so you can keep in touch. Jungkook never even looks at his texts anyway.” He hastily offered. “I’ll go get it.” Just as he was about to leave the room, I abruptly called his attention back to me knowing now was the time to sever our ties. This interaction had gone on way longer than I intended and I knew Malachi would begin to get impatient if I didn’t act soon.

“Tae?” My voice wobbled.

“Yes.” He immediately turned and stopped in his tracks, he sounded almost breathless.

“May, I hug you goodbye for now?” I asked, my voice nearly breaking. It wasn’t for now, it was for the last time, for forever.

“Sure,” he promptly answered, not even taking the time to think over my request or notice my odd wording. He immediately opened his arms wide to receive me.

Nearly running towards him, I hugged him tight as I breathed in his scent. I noticed he not only smelled like the sweet calming scent of lavender but a hint of chamomile as well. His own unique natural musk was faintly mixed in too.

“This is nice.” He hummed out, hugging me back with just as much intensity.

I laughed halfheartedly knowing what I was going to do next. “I’m sorry.” I whispered in his ear, a few stray tears escaped over the rims of my eyes. They dripped carelessly onto the warm skin of his neck. He must of felt them because he flinched slightly at the unmistakable moisture.

“Wha-,” he sounded confused before I began, I took a steady breath to recite the spell.

“Remember to forget That we have ever met, Wipe me from your memory. Let this be your remedy To make it as though You will never know Me, even in your dreams. While it may seem That this is unfair, You must be made aware That it is for your safety. Forgive my frailty For allowing myself to get so close. Greedily taking the most Only to pull so far away. I should have kept you at bay, Knowing it was forbidden. Yet like a moth hidden From your unsuspecting view, I was drawn to the flame that was you. But now like a discarded ember, I urge you to forget to remember.”

I whispered the memory spell in his ear. Almost immediately he went stiff as if he were immobilized. From where I stood, I witnessed goosebumps break out on his arms and his hairs stood on end. His arms then fell limply to his sides and hung there. As if waiting for the next command, he stood up straight with a frighteningly blank expression reflected in his irises. They were void of all their warmth and intensity making it seem as though he was an empty shell of a person.

Instead they were clouded in a haze the color of dark pewter. The color seemed to swirl around like a raging storm at sea in his glassy stare. He was pliant under my influence, standing at the ready to receive orders.

I rested my forehead against his, I then kissed him to fully seal the spell. Perhaps it was my own self deception, but I swore it felt like he was kissing me back. Pulling away his eyes still held no emotion, which I was somewhat hurt by, even though I knew it was irrational to hope for him to be affected by it when he was incapacitated. I grabbed his hand and led him over to his bed. I pulled back his blankets and guided him to lay down.

“Go to sleep. And when you wake, it will be as though I never existed.” His eyes instantly flickered closed at my instruction.

Since arriving here I had been conflicted with the idea of giving Taehyung a parting gift or rather a kind of amulet that would protect him from bad omens. I was reluctant, knowing Malachi wouldn’t be so fond of the idea; however, I knew if I didn’t, I would regret not doing so. So I decided to go through with creating one.

Plucking exactly five strands of white hair from my head, the snap of the fibers could be faintly heard in my ears when they were delicately tugged from my scalp. Each strand pulled seemed to glimmer when they were held up towards the light. The sheen was something akin to spun starlight.

Each strand was specifically chosen with the purpose to embody a significant essence: one to represent my own self, while another represented him, the third my resolve to protect, the fourth his emerging future, and the last was the strand that would bind my protectorship to the prospects of his future.

After all the strands were pulled taunt, I began the practice of meticulously winding the hairs around each other. The first strand that represented myself was twisted around the one that represented my protection and was subsequently set aside for later. That same procedure was done to the strands that represented Taehyung and his future. A few moments later, the strand symbolizing me that I had previously set aside, was grabbed and placed next to the one that symbolized Taehyung. Reaching for the last strand, it was then firmly wrapped around both of the two separate newly thicker strands, to prominently intertwine them together. When I deemed my work satisfactory, I took the singular braided strand and weaved it around my fingers to create a cat’s cradle.

But just as I was about to recite a protective incantation, Malachi’s voice rang out through my head. “May I so kindly inquire what is taking so long?” Malachi wasn’t so much rude, as he was at most anxious. There was a nervous edge in his voice. I could imagine him restlessly fidgeting with the buttons on his shirt and adjusting the collar to make it more comfortable. He probably assumed I was having trouble with carrying out the task of wiping Taehyung’s memory.

“Malachi I have already done the deed. Now if you would be so good to award me sufficient time and privacy to have my final goodbye, it would be much appreciated.” I said as though I was mourning a loss. “Please.���

“Fine. I shall allow it,” He sighed out. “Take all the time you need, Mistress. Til then, I will be waiting.”

“Thank you.” When I was sure Malachi could no longer tap into my thoughts, I took a second to focus my dwindling energy and then initiated the narration of the charm directly into the freshly woven plait.

“Protect him When things look grim. Keep him safe Having faith That all is well. As my final farewell Ward off evil And those considered lethal. Do away with danger Now that I am a stranger. But with my love Have him sail high above In the billowing clouds. Looking down on the crowds Of sorrowful souls lost Who have paid the cost Of lying in a watery grave Never to be forgave Only to be forever tethered In the desolate pressured Abyss of the sea of peril. Its nature alarmingly untamed and feral. Instead have him prosper And conquer His trials and tribulations. Not be bound by limitations. To flourish like a garden, His mistakes pardoned Learning slow and steady Being ready To weather all life’s storms. Rejecting malformed And misshapen intentions Set by others’ pretensions. Have the world be his oyster, His hopes and dreams not be cloistered. I wish him luck on his path, As I will now not be apart of his future, present, or past. While uttering the ritual incantation, the newly fashioned strand was intricately looped around itself to create a closed circle in the design that currently resided between both my hands. As soon as that was complete, the strand was sharply yanked taunt again with a single precise pull, and wrapped once around Taehyung’s wrist. The two ends were then coiled together to not only secure it in place, but indefinitely bind the spellwork inside the pieces of hair. Consequent to its closure, the once white strand had transformed black, meaning the magic had successfully been incorporated into it.

A few tears still remained on my cheeks, I gently brushed them away with my fingertips. Upon closer inspection the beads of moisture had legitimately crystallized. Closing my palms around the crystals and shutting my eyes, I elaborately envisioned the crystal lattices being transfigured into tiger’s eye quartz. I imagined their golden color and silky luster replacing the transparency and rigid structure of my crystalline tears. Soon I began to feel something cool to the touch and weighted in my palms. Startled by the realization that the alchemy had worked, I opened my eyes to discover that there were several of the chatoyant gemstones with their beautiful striations nestled in the palms of my hands. Then performing the final and most grueling step, I offered my hands with my palms facing up and raised them out in front of me. Silently asking for something to attach the gems to the makeshift bracelet, I was presented with silver rings from seemingly out of nowhere. Flinching at the cold feeling of the metal, they laced like slithering snakes between the gaps of my fingers and interlocked around themselves. Slowly I slid them over my knuckles to get them off. Immediately upon coming in contact with the tiger’s eye, they proceeded to penetrate straight through the quartz. To my surprise the rings smoothly glided down the contours of my hands and sought to entwine themselves within the hairs of the bracelet, as if they were green ivy wound around Greek columns.

“This will protect you in the event you find yourself in any sort of trouble.” I thought aloud.

At my declaration a warm wetness slid out of my nose. At first I thought it was mucus dripping from my runny nose. After all I had been crying. However, upon further observation, I realized it was blood after the offending liquid ran over my lips and I went to wipe it away. The unmistakable ruby color and metallic taste were obvious signs that my nose was bleeding. I knew it was the result of me pushing my powers beyond their usual limit. But I couldn’t find it in me to care that I now had blood messily smeared along the lower half of my face. The only thing that was occupying my mind was the fact that this was the last time I would be able to interact freely with Taehyung again.

Grabbing his hand, I held it in both of mine and pressed it to my forehead. I continued to cry. The little self composure I had broke under the flood of emotions I was experiencing. I reminisced the small but significant encounters we had with one another, some being from before we officially met and others from the little moments of him just being in my presence and sharing seemingly meaningless conversations. I thought of the first time I saw him, the first time he smiled his boxy grin and the way his eyes turned upwards, and the first time he genuinely laughed with his whole body. I could remember the sound as clear as a bell. I recollected the first time he addressed me and how there was so much wonder reflected in his eyes. The way he said my name and how his mouth formed the syllables was something I would never forget. In these last few instances I could pull from my memory the feel of his skin and the warmth he emitted when I hugged him goodbye. I felt kind of pathetic for having such evocative feelings for a boy I barely knew. While those memories were intense and a melancholic reminder of what once was, I knew in due time they would eventually bring a comforting smile to my face whenever I thought of them.

But for now, I only wished to be human. I currently felt like one, with all the intense emotions I was feeling. If I had been one, I would have at least had the pleasure of knowing him and maybe even had the chance to be something more to him, something meaningful. That’s what broke my heart the most, simultaneously being so close to him and yet so very far away knowing we could never be together. Now as I sat watching his sleep enchanted figure it felt as though I had flew too close to the sun, only to get burned and be sent falling perilously back to the ground.

Haphazardly wiping the heated tears off my face, “Well, this is where our paths part,” I hiccuped, “I bid you farewell.” I muttered softly squeezing his hand, the words nearly getting stuck in the back of my throat. Reaching out I lovingly stroked his cheek. I couldn’t bear to say goodbye because it was too painful. Then without taking so much as a second glance, I left the room. Paired with the new knowledge that I was finally able to figure out his name and actually get the opportunity to engage with him, it made walking away so much harder than the last time.

Greeting Malachi in the living room, I noticed the two other boys passed out peacefully on their couch, looking as though they were fast asleep. Malachi only nodded at me to acknowledge my presence.

“Done?” Malachi tentatively asked the closed question. He could tell I was hurting, his eyes solicitously searching into my red ones. They softened as he awaited my answer.

“Yeah.” I sounded dead inside.

Attempting to distract from the pain of the situation, Malachi joked pointing to the two boys. “I can not believe you left me with those two. All the muscular one with the bunny teeth and piercings did was sit there quietly and stare. He looked as though he was judging me the entire time. Like he had any right to,” Malachi scoffed. “While the one with pink hair and pouty lips just asked me a bunch of questions and then proceeded to giggle at my deadpan delivery. I know I am not that funny. And he would not stop touching me.”

I shook my head at Malachi’s inability to pick up on when a human was attempting to flirt with him. “You’re dense you know that.” Mentally I sent him flashes of people flirting in similar ways that I had seen in media, as well as ones I had witnessed in my real life pursuits. His eyebrows rose in realization. “And you’re awfully observant of the humans you are so-called appalled by.”

Catching on to what I was insinuating, his eyes shot open again, but this time they looked as though they would nearly pop out of his skull. “Hold your tongue. I just have eyes and I choose to use them. Do not misconstrued my words or delude yourself-,” I rose a single eyebrow questioning his defensive tone and he brought his rant to a sudden halt. “I apologize Mistress.” His shoulders deflated a little and his head hung low, ashamed of his combative outburst.

“S’okay. You wiped their memories of us right?” I eyed each of the boys.

“Yes.”

“Good.” I granted him a smile, but it didn’t reach my eyes.

“This is for the best.” He kindly offered, reaching out to rub soothing circles on my back.

Looking up at him, “I know. Or at least that’s what I keep trying to tell myself.”

“Shall we leave?” He wiped his thumb over my chin to try to remove some of the dried blood on it.

“Yes. Let’s go.” I voiced.

“Come then, little bird.” Malachi nodded reaching for my hand. He grabbed it and teleported us back home to my cottage in the forest.

Like the night, we were cloaked in a billowy plume of dark mist, seemingly gone from sight.

[peacensafety]

This is everything about WandaVision up to Episode 5, with most of it concentrating on Episode 5. I have seen Episode 6 at this point, but I will respect the one week spoilers rule that is part of Nerd Culture.

:read more:

First of all, some basics about this series. This is an homage to different American sitcoms. Why American sitcoms when the main character is Sokovian? No one knows.

In the comic books, Wanda Maximoff is a mutant, not a science experiment like in the MCU. She and Pietro are the twin children of a Mutant named Magneto and a human named Magda (who is sometimes a Romini, and originally from Transia). Magneto is referred to as an Omega level mutant. Wanda is born with mutations, able to control Hex Powers, which is whatever the comic book writer needed to move the plot along. Sometimes her original powers have to do with probability, but like, 30 years ago, they started calling it chaos magic, and then she had extra reception to magical powers, and basically, it’s all very vague and ill-defined. She’s like the only one immune to Phoenix powers, and that’s a huge deal. She is not considered an Omega Level Mutant because she does not have completely mastery over her powers, not because she isn’t powerful enough. In the comic book series House of M, she is powerful enough to rewrite the entire universe, that was retconned in The Children’s Crusade, but then her powers are called Mutant Magic in A vs X and she’s got cosmic chaos magic. She’s supposed to serve The High Evolutionary at this point, which has made her more powerful. In the MCU, she was genetically altered by the Mind Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones. So when Wanda, AKA The Scarlet Witch, is in a story you can expect it to be about ridiculous amounts of power.

The assumption that you can make pretty quickly in the series is that Wanda Maximoff is in charge of this alternate reality, and quite possibly created it. Knowing what we know about Wanda, we assume it’s because she broke after the death of Vision and couldn’t deal with that death after the death of her parents (because of the Sokovian civil war) and Pietro, her twin brother, who was killed by Ultron. It’s stated pretty early on that Wanda could have defeated Thanos by herself (this is most likely true, one time in the comic books she decided to remove every mutant power in the known universe and she did for a couple of years. Is she more powerful than Jean Gray? Sit down with some nerds and listen to them argue, because that call will never be settled in a peaceful manner). Wanda has brought back Vision (who was killed by Thanos before he made his wish on the Stones, making him dead dead instead of mostly dead like half of the population of the universe) and in the MCU, this makes almost sense as her powers were given to her by the Mind Stone which brought Vision to life in the first place, with some interference from Tony Stark (Iron Man). In the first couple of episodes, they bring in Billy and Tommy (Speed and Wiccan) and the twins make themselves grow up pretty quickly.

Other characters that come in and play a part are Monica Rambeau (from the Marvel Comic Book Universe and the movie Captain Marvel, who is also the future Captain Marvel), Darcy Lewis (MCU character last seen hanging out with Thor), and Jimmy Woo (another MCU character, an FBI agent in charge of Scott Lang’s house arrest from Ant-Man and the Wasp).

Let’s also talk about some background about where Disney plans to go in the next 5 years. First of all, they have already acquired rights to do an X-Men series. If you have DisneyPlus (which you do unless you’re pirating this series), you know that the X-Men movies have mostly been added to the Marvel Channel rather quietly and unobtrusively. Also, there are rumors that all three movie Spidermen have signed on to the next Spider-Man movie (Toby McGuire, James Garfield, and Tom Holland). Also also, Disney has made a statement that Deadpool will be in the universe pretty soon. So we know that the endgame for Disney is a combination of all of the Marvel Comic book universe.

Things that I have noticed that are fun about this series: all of the commercials are nerd shout outs. The commercials all have something to do with time, with two being blatantly about clocks or innovation. The commercials for the most part have the same two actors in it (are they SWORD agents?). The first is a Stark toaster, which is weird, but okay, and it is the first time we see color (red, maybe an Iron Man shout out?) used in the series. The second is the Strucker watch, a blatant time reference, and Strucker if you recall from the movies is that dude who was experimenting on Wanda and Pietro when they were in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In the comic books he’s Wolfgang von Strucker, or Baron Strucker, a former Nazi officer and agent of Hydra, and he never ages, and he shows up to try and do a genocide in the books all the time. The third commercial is about taking a break? HydraSoak bath powder. We all get the willies anytime Hydra is mentioned, so relaxing with Hydra is something we don’t want to do. This is also the first time that I think maybe this isn’t all Wanda? Also, this isn’t time appropriate (and this might be an influence from my real world job, and not some intentional message from Marvel) but mixed-race kids on a commercial in the 70s? That would have never happened. Are things starting to unravel, because this would have been super weird at that time and Marvel has been strict about time appropriateness so far, even so far as including gender roles. The last commercial is Lagos, the paper towel commercial. Paper towels are about cleaning up, right? Because these folks in the commercial spill everything. Also, we see the first incident of gender roles not being respected in WandaVision, because we see a dude wipe up his own spill. Anyway, Lagos is that Nigerian city where Wanda killed a bunch of people, including the King of Wakanda, on accident in Captain America: Civil War.

So in episode 2, SWORD is teased with the little logo on the beekeeper’s outfit at the end of the episode when he comes out of the sewer. The group outside Westview is verified to be SWORD in episode 4. Let’s talk about them a bit. These dudes in the comic books were all about space and going into space and doing space things, but then Thanos does a snappy thing. After the snappy thing (and this series is set 5 years after the Snap) they start doing nanotech and AI. In the comics Maria Rambeau is in charge, and after she dies, dude named Tyler Hayward takes over. Watch Tyler Hayward. I personally do not think he is actually Tyler Hayward, and if someone is acting and looking like someone else, we know which villain has probably just inserted himself into the show (if you’ve been watching the interviews, Tom Hiddleston shows up as a call-in fan of the show and demands to know why he didn’t have a series because he’s been dead a couple of times and Vision is stealing his Schtick). I don’t know that for sure, it could be sloppy writing? Maybe they ran out of character archetypes?

At the end of episode 5, this is when the next five years of the MCU comes into play. Wanda is missing her twin, probably because of her sons, and the doorbell rings. Standing there is Pietro Maximoff. Now the crazy part of this is that he is the wrong Pietro Maximoff (the better one, not the one that has been in the MCU movies, the X-Man Quicksilver). He’s standing there and does the weird Uncle Jesse thing from Full House, (which, if you’re paying attention to the real world, Wanda Maximoff is played by the younger sister of the Olsen twins who played Michelle on Full House in the 80s), but Wanda recognizes that he is the wrong Pietro. Darcy, who is watching the broadcast from outside the Hex, states that Wanda has recast Pietro. But has she? This woman is incredibly powerful, why would she bring back the wrong Pietro? What if she is not in charge? Wanda is really freaked out by this, and that is when I realized I needed to write everything down.

Here are my lingering questions: We have all seen Into The Spiderverse a dozen or so times. Is this how Disney is going to handle the Multi-Verse? Is Pietro the wrong Pietro because of Miles Morales and his rag-tag group of Spidermen? Does this mean that Nicholas Cage is going to be in the MCU? Is Wanda as in charge as we think she is? Can we expect to see Magneto (Wanda’s and Pietro’s dad in the comics) show up to either support his children in the Hex or fight on the side of SWORD? Maybe Professor X will come and get Wanda, Pietro, Timmy, and Billy? Will we finally see if Jean Gray is more powerful than Scarlet Witch (she’s not). Is Hayward a problem of inconsistent writing or is he Loki? Is a multi-verse a way to address Chadwick Bosemen’s death for a proper replacement of Black Panther? Hurry up and watch Episode 6 so we can talk about this stuff!

[ramblingguy54]

Binged The Owl House in one sitting recently and besides the interesting chemistry Luz has with Eda being such a rough around the edges mother figure catching my intrigue and Eda & Lilith’s very complicated sibling history between each other, another highlight of the series that struck a serious chord with me would have to be Amity Blight’s character arc and her development thus far.

In its first several episodes the way Amity acted caught my interest. Particularly her interactions with Luz in early episodes gave me the idea that she was raised to be an arrogant student not only due to the stereotype of magical natural talent she was born into that was expected by her peers, but also that she had an abusive upbringing, much like Pacifica Northwest from Gravity Falls. However, what sets Amity apart from Pacifica’s much harsher attitude in Season 1 is that she isn’t as intense as the latter was per say to the main character of their own respective series anyways. Amity in the Covention episode lashes out at Luz when she’s faced with the reality that Lilith had amplified her magic powers in the Witch’s Duel against Luz, showing her serious insecurities and visible regret for how much she’s had to sacrifice up to this point, like say her close friendship with Willow, to achieve what she’s been forced to believe is the “correct” path. This is more than just being upset at what happened in their Witch’s Duel. It’s Amity showing the years of regret she’s been bottling up and seeing that it hasn’t made her feel any happier about the choice of reluctantly following what her parents demanded the kid follow. Mae Whitman’s performance really nails that.

Pacifica took until Season 2 of Gravity Falls to actually start really socializing with Dipper & Mabel Pines, but Amity here is more than willing to interact with Luz from the get go, despite how much of snobby attitude she tries to carry at first. Even so much as encouraging and in a sense compliment Luz, too. Amity makes a strong first impression of being a kid with a lot on her plate emotionally to deal with, as well as lingering regrets of turning into what she is currently. The writers did an impressive job of hitting this right spot that while Amity can be a jerk, she isn’t without her moments of moral clarity either in Owl House’s starting round of episodes. That’s never an easy thing to accomplish in writing like this. It’s no wonder Amity started to have an eventual romantic connection with Luz, given that no matter how much of the odds are stacked against her capabilities, she still aspires to be what resembles her inner desires and that’s something Amity was robbed of in early childhood. Luz’s unwavering determination is bringing out the best in her conflicted nature as a blossoming aspiring Witch. That’s why she broke the Everlasting Oath between them at the end. Amity’s respect for Luz was beginning to grow toward her optimistic nature.

Human’s don’t have magical capabilities, but I doubt that will stop you.

Soon afterwards we get to see another big hint laid out of Amity’s family background and how that reflected upon the kid’s emotional growth in the episode, Lost In Language. Amity’s older siblings, while nothing like her parents, do like to tease her a lot. So much so, they wanted to go the extra mile and make copies of her private diary to not only get back at her uptight attitude, but also teach her a lesson about lightening up as a person and spread those copies around school, which Luz doesn’t take that idea too well. That was when the notion really started to cross my mind more that Amity most likely had very tough parents that contributed to her stunted emotion issues. There’s clearly makings of a troubled family life that stirred up Amity’s behavior into becoming this cold, emotionally distant, and harsh character. Quite a few poetic seeds are planted throughout Lost In Language’s story that surround Amity’s character and the kid herself comes to a realization that she needs to be better.

I saw that human girl again. I may have overreacted. I don’t want to come off as cruel. I just can’t show weakness.

I’ve been trying to figure out what your deal is. Are you a poser? A nerd? I know... you’re a bully, Luz.

Why are you doing this!? I’ve been reading you since I was kid! I know you’re not like this! Someone changed you!

Maybe you’re not a bully. I haven’t exactly been the friendliest Witch, either. I’ll think on that...

All of this comes to a headway in my favorite episode centered around Amity’s character, Understanding Willow. This story hit all the right notes for me on what a character’s redemption arc should be like. The emotional payoff between Amity & Willow’s dramatic tension against each other is terrific, as it shows both perspectives are empathetic. You feel for Willow getting turned down so badly by her best friend and being led to believe that she wasn’t good enough for Amity. However, you feel for Amity too because she only turned away Willow to save her from never being able to attend the same school since her parents threatened to pull strings to have their way, giving this a bittersweet new light over Amity’s conflict with Willow. Regardless, this doesn’t take away from Amity’s actions either that are brought into question by Willow’s emotional manifestation of raw anger. Amity may have been manipulated by her parents that much is greatly true, but who is to say she couldn’t have eased up on Willow after cutting her off as a friend? Amity’s parents aren’t obviously always around, so whenever she was at school Amity could’ve simply not just paid her any mind at least, instead of going above and beyond to mock Willow as a late magical bloomer with help from her so called friends too for years no less. That’s what made this episode around Amity a real stand out. Amity understands that she gets a fair share of the blame for treating Willow the way she did and could’ve made things easier for her former friend at school, as well. This particular statement from Amity’s deep remorse spoke to me.

That line, “I was too weak to be your’s...”, made me tear up because I’ve had my own fair share of being a shitty person to an old former friend I used to speak to years ago before having a nasty falling out with him. Granted, he was toxic toward me and did some nasty stuff, but I also returned that toxicity back at him, which only added more fuel to the fire between us and ended the friendship on bad terms. I did email him months or so later to clear the air giving my sincerest apologies, regarding being so awful toward him after seriously reflecting on it afterwards and went my separate ways from there. The point I’m trying to make here is I understand Amity’s pain of hurting someone you once had as a friend and feeling so terrible after the fact. This is where I grew to love Amity’s arc because even after she’s apologized for all the crap she put Willow through, she doesn’t look for forgiveness, but only wants her to know the painful truth.

Amity’s one of my favorite characters from Owl House for how well they tackled the idea of someone who was once close with someone, but had a falling out, due to an abusive upbringing that had a negative affect on their personality.

Can’t wait to see more of her development in Owl House’s future.

[ranger-report]

Opinion: DC and Marvel’s Multiverses Are Crucial To The Future of Superhero Film

Alright, buckle up kids, this is going to be a long one. Get some soda and some popcorn, or some green tea and avocado toast.

Back in the long-distant year of 1989, a little film called Batman released into theaters and became the film of the Summer. Directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson as Batman and the Joker respectively, it was a cinematic triumph that heralded a new wave of superhero films taking their source material seriously. Followed up in 1992 by Batman Returns, a sequel which increased the fantastic elements but was criticized for its darker tones, Batman’s role in movies was cemented in place by continued success. Of course, Keaton and Burton would leave to be replaced by Val Kilmer as Batman with Joel Schumacher directing for 1995′s Batman Forever, with George Clooney stepping into the cape and cowl for 1997′s Batman and Robin, a wild disaster of a film which nearly destroyed Batman’s chances in movies. But then, in 2005, Christopher Nolan brought a gritty realism to the caped crusader in Batman Begins, and continued this successful experiment with 2008′s Best Film Of The Year, The Dark Knight, and 2012′s The Dark Knight Rises (which was....fine). By this time the DCEU was beginning to get started, so a new Batman was cast for Zack Synder’s 2016 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and this role went to Ben Affleck. He reprised the role in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad and Joss Whedon’s Justice League, but bowed out of the opportunity to write and direct his own solo Bat-flick. So director Matt Reeves was tapped to direct a new Batman film starring a controversial choice of Robert Pattinson as Batman. With all of this, the question of the past 30-odd years is: which is your favorite Batman? Which one was the best? And how do these films fit into an increasingly convoluted canon in which a film series is rebooted every ten years or so?

What if the answer is: they’re all great and they all fit into canon?

Now, before we think too hard about that, let’s take a look at Spider-Man’s cinematic installments, which is almost more convoluted and in a more compressed amount of time. Beginning with 2002′s Spider-Man directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire, the amazing wall-crawler enjoyed a fantastic amount of success on the big screen, followed up by one of the best superhero films of all time, 2004′s Spider-Man 2. But Spider-Man 3 in 2007 took all of that goodwill and smashed it into the ground with a failure almost as bad as Batman and Robin a decade earlier. Plans for a Spider-Man 4 were scrapped, and eventually in 2012 director Mark Webb and star Andrew Garfield would bring a brand new Spidey to life with The Amazing Spider-Man, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014. Both films were lively and energetic, but criticized for trying to stuff too much into their films -- especially the second one. Sony Pictures was attempting to ramp up a cinematic universe much like Marvel Films was doing at the time, but it was too much too fast. 2017 brought another reboot of the moviefilm version of Spidey, this time directed by Jon Watts and starring Tom Holland, with Spider-Man: Homecoming, this time under Marvel Film’s banner (thanks to backdoor dealing), and another cinematic triumph in 2019′s Spider-Man: Far From Home. But, unlike Batman, Spider-Man’s dealings behind the scenes are nearly as convoluted as his series. Sony Pictures owned the rights to make Spider-Man flicks for years, until Marvel managed to make a ludicrous offer after Amazing 2 failed to catch on the way producers hoped. So Spidey came to the MCU under a joint production, which is how we got Homecoming and Far From Home, but also maintained a different universe with the Amazing films, and then 2018′s Venom, and a little animated motion picture also in 2018 by the name of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.

Class, this is where I would like to direct your attention to the origin of the extraordinary events we are discussing today. Or is it the origin?

Into The Spider-Verse successfully proved that not only is the idea of multiple universes all connecting on screen a good idea, it’s an Oscar winning idea. Spider-Verse is hands down the best animated superhero film ever, and one of the best superhero films period. But here we must take note of certain ideas. The film provided much setup for a world where young Miles Morales begins to emerge with spider powers, but then Spider-Man is killed right in front of him before he can learn how to use them. Enter a Spider-Man from a slightly different parallel dimension, who not only turns Miles around, but find himself inspired to realign his own life. Spider-people abound through the film, all of them having equal weight and the possibility of spawning their own franchise without having to worry about impacting the canon of other universes. This is something comic books have done for literal decades, but Spider-Verse did it with such care and devotion that it won Best Animated Picture and became a mainstream smash hit. Marvel and Sony both sit up at attention; could this work with the major mainstream films they’ve been producing? So the experiment begins: we have a teaser trailer for Morbius, based on a vampiric Spider-Man villain, which features a cameo from the Vulture character first seen in Homecoming. And after dropping hints that Tom Holland’s Spider-Man could cross over with Tom Hardy’s Venom, Jamie Foxx recently posted about being cast as Electro -- a role he played in Amazing Spider-Man 2 -- for the third Tom Holland Spidey flick. Pictures went up on his Instragram seeming to confirm that not only was this the same Electro, but that all three previous Spider-Men -- Maguire, Garfield, and Holland -- would team up for the film. Multiple universes collide, a live action Spider-Verse, where everyone is crossing over with each other. Now, this lines up perfectly with Marvel’s MCU plans, as Doctor Strange has established in his film that multiple universes exist, and his announced sequel is even titled Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It’s here. It’s happening. Every Spider-Man film is canon, they’ve all happened, and we don’t need to worry about which of them make sense or belong. They all make sense.

But just before this announcement, a month or so ago DC let slip that their plans for an upcoming Flash movie are taking cues from the Flashpoint comic books, in which Barry Allen goes back in time and accidentally creates a brand new timeline that he has to correct. Michael Keaton has even been cast as Bruce Wayne, the same Bruce Wayne that he played 30-odd years ago, a casting choice many fans have been clamoring for for years. On top of that, once word was put out that Keaton’s role would be similar to Samuel L. Jackson’s role as Nick Fury in the MCU, Ben Affleck was reported to be joining the picture as Batman also, a team-up no one saw coming. Even Christian Bale is being courted to join the universe-spanning flick, but reportedly only if director Christopher Nolan gives his blessing. Multiple Batmen teaming up together in a Flash movie to combat crime? Of course I’ve already bought tickets. Batman is the biggest box-office draw outside of The Avengers. And this concept opens up plenty of opportunities for DC, who’ve done Elseworlds stories in the comic for years. Joker with Joaquin Phoenix proved that DC films not directly tied to the DCEU can and will do well on their own; The Batman with Pattinson will no doubt further confirm that. But now Batman Returns is once again a viable film mixed into a comic book cocktail of wonder and excitement? And what’s wonderful is that this isn’t DC’s first big attempt at this. Slowly and surely, The CW’s Arrowverse TV shows -- Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow -- have been doing multiverse crossovers for years, building up to 2019′s mega-event Crisis on Infinite Earths, which saw Brandon Routh reprise his role as Superman from 2006′s Superman Returns, which itself is a sequel to Christopher Reeve’s Superman and Superman II. And for one wonderful scene, TV’s Flash, Grant Gustin, got to interact with the DCEU’s Flash, Ezra Miller, confirming that these TV and film universes are indeed one big cocktail of parallel lives and dimensions that all interconnect while still being separate. Hell, we even saw Burt Ward, Robin from the 1966 Batman show, alive and well an in his own little world. Batman ‘66 is part of the wider DC Multiverse! How crazy is that? And we even got a small tease that Batman ‘89 is part of all of this as well, when we got to see reporter Alexander Knox look up to the Batsignal in the sky as Danny Elfman’s iconic score played. In one fell swoop, in as few as a casual couple of cameos, DC made all of their live-action properties canon in the multiverse, meaning no matter which version you like the best, they all work together and work from a franchising and audience standpoint. The 1978 Superman and the 1989 Batman both existed in worlds that ran sidecar to 2019′s Joker and 2011′s Green Lantern. It’s wild, unprecedented in cinematic history, and wonderful for fans of all ages.

Why is this the future of superhero flicks, though? It ought to be simple: no matter what movies come out, no matter how wild or crazy or outside “canon” they seem to be, they all can work and they all can coexist without having to confuse fans. Many people were feeling the reboot fatigue as early as 2012′s Amazing Spider-Man, and while there was a huge tone shift between Batman Returns and Batman Forever, the Bat-films were considered all part of the same line until Batman Begins started all the way over. Now we have Batman 89 and Returns in one world, Forever and Batman and Robin in another (which was already a fan theory, mind you). Sequels that don’t line up with their predecessors can just be shunted into a hidden multiverse timeline and left alone without the convoluted explanation of having to “ignore” certain sequels. Superman III & IV were ignored when Superman Returns chose to connect only to the first and second films, but now we can say that they definitely happened....just somewhere else. There is now a freedom of ideas and creation that can once again occur when making big-budget films based on superheroes. No longer do creative minds need to be restrained to the canon and timeline and overarching plots defined by studios years in advance; “creative differences” don’t need to drive frustrated directors away from characters or stories they truly love. Possibly -- just possibly -- good ideas can become the gold standard once again for comic book films, not just ten-year plans for how to get Captain America from scrawny Marine to Mjolnir-wielding badass. Remember when filmmakers decided to make Joker the same person who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents? Or when they decided to give Spider-Man the ability to shoot webs from his body instead of technology? That certainly wouldn’t fly these days; studio mandates would require adherence to previously established guidelines, or at least what has been seen in the comic. What if now we could get a three-episode limited series on HBO Max of Gotham By Gaslight? Or a big-budget adaptation of Marvel’s 1602? Simply trying to wedge old comic book storylines into existing Cinematic Universes no longer need be a thing! We could get some of the wildest interpretations of superheroes this side of Superman: Red Son. At least, that’s the hope, anyway.

When comic books can step away from canon for just a few minutes, worlds open up and expand. An entire multiverse of ideas can become a feast of entertainment for many. And when there’s already so many beautiful, well-told stories set in alternate universes as comic book precedent, so too can there be beautiful, well-told stories set in alternate universes for film. And the best part? Now they all matter. And I think that’s the future.

[hellyeahheroes]

Heroines of WOCtober: Kamala Khan

Kamala Khan was a normal nerdy Pakistani Muslim girl from Jersey City until the day she was caught in the cloud of Terrigen Mist that was released during a battle between Thanos and Black Bolt - leader of the Inhumans, secret  society of genetically engineered by Kree superhumans. Everyone caught in the cloud who was a descendant of an Inhuman would be transformed, gaining superpowers and Kamala got abilities to shapeshift. She decided to become a hero and protector of Jersey City, taking up old codename of her idol, Carol Danvers - Ms. Marvel

Recommended Readings:

Ms. Marvel #1-19 - Kamala’s original series that introduces us to the character and her supporting cast.

All-New All-Different Avengers #1-12 + Annual - Kamala meets Sam Alexander and Miles Morales, who will become her closest superhero friends, as three of them become protegees of a new Avengers team.

Standoff: Assault on the Pleasant Hill - A crossover with Uncanny Avengers, new Avengers and Captain America: Sam Wilson that ANAD Avengers took a part in issues

Ms. Marvel #1-38 - Kamala’s second solo series, first issue is set after ANAD Avengers #3.

Champions #1-27 - Pick it after #11 issue of her second series, it has Kamala, frustrated about Avengers’ various failures as of late (*cough*CivilWarII*cough*) set of to start her own team with Miles, Sam, Amadeus Cho the new Hulk, Vision’s daughter Viv and time-displaced teenage Cyclops. 

Avengers #672-674 - Part of crossover with Champions issues #13-15

Secret Warriors #1-12 - Happening during Hydra takeover of USA Kamala was absent from an issue or two of Champions and this is where she was - teaming up with other Inhumans - Daisy Johnson, Karnak, Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur and Inferno - to stop Hydra from hunting down members of that species.

Generations: Ms. Marvel & Ms. Marvel - Kamala is transported to the part to team-up with Carol Danvers during her Ms. Marvel days

Champions #1-10 - Direct sequel to the original series, Champions go globally but things quickly start to go wrong once a classic Marvel villain takes an interest.

Marvel Rising: Squirrel Girl & Ms. Marvel - A miniseries for some godforsaken reason published as a series of one-shots with confusing titles, it’s about Kamala’s team up with Squirrel Girl to stop one of her schoolmates from descending into supervillainy. Thankfully also collected as a Graphic Novel.

Marvel Rising #1-6 - Second Marvel Rising series, now a proper team-up with other teen heroes liek Squirrel Girl or America Chavez against Morgan Le Fay.

Avengers: Back To Basics #1-6  - what starts up as Kamala watching recordings of unknown Avengers’ adventures turns into her having to fight one of their deadliest foes.

Marvel Team-Up #1-6 - Has two stories where Kamala teams up with Spider-Ma and then with Captain Marvel, ends in November

Magnificent Ms. Marvel #1-ongoing - Kamala’s current series by Saladin Ahmed.

Guest Appearances

Amazing Spider-Man #7-8 - Kamala hears there is a supervillain impersonating Carol Danvers and runs to fight her, joining forces with Peter Parker in the process.

S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 - Kamala teams up with agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and she and Phil Coulson try to outnerd one another.

Nova #3-4 - set during the ANAD days, Kamala, Miles and Sam go on a patrol together.

Spider-Man #3, #8-10, #239-240 - Respectively - in #3 Kamala shows up to tease Miles a bit during ANAD days; #8-10 deal with events of Civil War II, first with Kamala, Miles and Sam coping after witnessing Hulk’s death and then Kamala and Sam searching for Miles as he goes missing; #239-240 has Kamala among Champions who come to aid miles against new Sinsiter Six.

Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur #9-11, #18, #37 - Kamala’s team-ups with fellow Inhuman, supergenius Lunella Lafayette and her pet T-Rex Devil Dinosaur

Nova #2 - Kamala and other Champions are called by Sam when he runs into his suddenly resurrected predecessor, Richard Rider, it’s few pages but they’re hilarious.

Totally Awesome Hulk #15-18, #23 and Incredible Hulk #715-717 - #15-18 has Kamala and Amadeus among Asian superheroes who participated in a charity event together, later went for dinner and then got to fight aliens; #23 has her among heroes Amadeus asks for help reining in his inner Hulk and #715-717 has her among heroes who try to stop Amadeus once he loses control of that Hulk.

Spider-Gwen #17 and Spider-Man #14 - Yes, Kamala shows up to basically shill on the idea of Miles and Gwen hooking up, buuuut she is also the best part of these issues.

Shuri #6-7 - Team up between Shuri, Kamala and Miles

Tony Stark: Iron Man #11 - Kamala is among other Champions who try to stop Controller’s rampage

Gwenpool Holiday Special 2015 - Not on ComiXology. It has Kamala in her own story and also on Avengers’ Holiday party with Gwen.

Alternate Versions

Exiles #1-5, #11-12 - An old, grizzled veteran Kamala from postapocalyptic future.

Attilan Rising #1-5 - Set during Secret Wars on Battleworld, a mash-up of alternate worlds, ruled by Doctor Doom, in this one Inhumans are torn in conflict between Black Bolt and Medusa and Kamala is

Secret Wars: Secret Love - Another Secret Wars story, this time with alternate versions of Kamala and Robbie Reyes

All-New Wolverine #33 - Set in utopian future where Kamala is THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Other Media:

Kathreen Khavari voices Kamala in animated Avengers Assemble and Marvel Rising series as well as in video game Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

Kamala is main character of the novel Ms. Marvel’s Fists of Fury

Sandra Saad will be voicing Kamala in the upcoming Square Enix’s Avengers games

Kamala also appears in video games Lego Marvel’s Avengers, Avengers Academy, Marvel Future Fight, Marvel Contest of Champions, Marvel Heroes, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 and Marvel First Strike.

- Admin