#the loss of his magic leading to his spiral as a vampire and him being ostracised by his family > actual tvdu kol canon

[nerdie-faerie]

I'm once again thinking about the missed opportunities to have Klaus and Kol bond more. Part of Klaus' whole motivation as a vampire is to get his werewolf part back and to finally be stronger than Mikael (sort of, I'm simplifying) both of which can be obtained by breaking his curse. But Kol? Kol is the only other original that can relate to having a fundamental part of themself ripped away from them. Klaus might not have known he was a werewolf until he killed, but he likely still had a connection he couldn't explain, as evident by him going to watch the wolves transform. And something he'd never been able to explain was now gone. He might only be able to realise the connection afterwards through its absence.

Kol though. Kol had grown up with magic, a connection to nature and the world around him in a way the rest of his siblings supposedly didn't have. And then he gets turned. And not only has his baby brother died, his father has just murdered him and the rest of his siblings after forcing them to drink human blood, which he'll later learn. Now, not only does he have to deal with the grief of Henrik's death and also his own but also the loss of his magic. A loss that's likely only worsened by Kol being a self-proclaimed child prodigy.

Kol is pretty much the only one who could understand what Klaus is going through with the binding of his wolf. We know Kol searched for ways to get his magic back/carry on practicing magic in the same way that Klaus was looking for ways to break his curse. While Klaus likely could still feel his wolf there despite being bound, Kol has no access to his magic anymore. I just think they should've been able to bond or connect over their shared loss of an intrinsic aspect of their selves at the hands of their parents

[chewyjellycable]

[AU List Compilation]

Note: This also includes Shared AUs. If you share an AU with me and want it removed from the list, do tell me and I will. Thank you. :] Also, this does NOT include things that are just "canon variants" or "just applied HCs made into an AU".

Sof - Every character has some form of trauma that changes how they act from canon. [Ask Blog]

Moonfort - Roguefort's family worships Moonlight. When Roguefort refuses to do the same, she decides to destroy their family and curse Rogue with afflictions that change with the cycle of the moon. Moon still shows up every now and then to torture Rogue to her liking.

Moonfort, Worship Variant - Moonlight gives Rogue a chance to prove themself worthy of not having to live a life of crime by sending them back "in time". This time, Rogue is immortal, believing it to be Moonlight's blessing.

Cleaner Grey - Earl Grey becomes stressed over his perfectionism to the point where he accidentally commits a murder. This leads him to spiral into deep paranoia to the point where he kills anyone he thinks has it out for him.

Bloody Trio - Cleaner Grey gets buddied up with Sisterless Vampire (silly emo who's trying to use dark magic to bring his sister back) and Shapeshifter Roguefort (a thief of hearts who eats those hearts to survive). [Shared with Majin and Kit]

Reincarnation Apple - Eclair desires to be a famous individual much like those in the tales of history he researches. He discovers a self-regenerating apple artifact that allows one to reincarnate into other beings. Roguefort follows him, knowing what the situation is like, and tries to convince him not to.

Fakes - Everyone is a husk with a set personality to follow. If someone breaks out of this, then they are marked for being 'fixed' back to their original form. What happens when a small group of rag-tag fellows (Cyborg, Roguefort, Aloe, Mint, etc.) wind up defecting and trying to live their own lives? [Ask Blog]

Turnabout Identity - After a deadly accident with siblings Langue de Chat and Bredele de Cassonade, Langue has been acting incredibly odd. Some say it's the loss of their sibling, though Cappuccino has a theory that something deeper has occurred. [Shared with Almond]

Toys of Life - Roguefort is sent to a toyshop as a form of community service for their crimes. At this shop, they discover through snooping through the shop owner Butterbear's belongings that there's a way to bring life to toys- even going so far as to be a form of revival magic with the ability to alter the toy's personalities and memories.

Langueless - Langue isekai'd into a timeline where they don't exist. Instead, Roguefort was imprisoned without their help, Cappuccino now owns a prosecutor's firm, and there's this person named Bredele de Cassonade who's taken their place in the family. Luckily, or unluckily, Bredele is being tried for crimes of medical malpractice... and needs someone to defend him.

Coconut Cheese - In Aloe's grief, they've taken to unethical methods to bring the late Coconut back. Cyborg acts like them, but isn't enough. So, taking a criminal in and experimenting with their brain, Roguefort's mind is mashed and muddled into what is known as Coconut Cheese. [Shared with Majin and Kit]

Lab Rats - An alien force has come down and granted odd powers to a few spare people. Aloe, Coconut/Cyborg, Mint, Rogue, and Earl now have to survive and control their powers while preventing the government from capturing them. [Shared with Majin]

"Oh God It's Fig" - A "chaotic coogies" branded blog around Fig and friends. If you think anything here will make sense, no it won't. [ Ask Blog]

Feast of Cadavers - Known as the Crimson Curse, this affliction causes whoever has it to become a cannibal with the inability to eat regular food. Follow Mint as he attempts to navigate living with this curse and the traumas he'll endure because of it. [Ask Blog]

Broadcasting Bartender - A Welcome to Nightvale-inspired take on Sparkling, who spouts sensible nonsense on air, and viewers get to read the transcripts. [Ask Blog]

Wisteria - A creature made of wisteria plants catches Eclair's attention. Enamored, Eclair offers parts of himself to feed the sapient being in exchange for information. However, when Wisteria starts showing past its elegantly intimidating exterior, Eclair finds himself wishing to care for it rather than research it. [Shared with Majin]

Fusillide Jealousy - Aloe's technology has reached all ends of the world. It's embedded into the world and into the people that live in it. Literally. So when widespread malfunctions start to take hold, it's up to Cyborg to figure out these malfunctions and why they're happening. [Related Writing]

Blossoms/Blooms and Bruises - The world is protected by Magicals, those who are chosen to bear the power of one of few Great Trees throughout Earthbread. Though they're treated as celebrities for risking their lives, the system surrounding the Magicals and what happens to them is... iffy, at best. [Shared with Almond, Ask Blog]

Sciswap - Almond and Walnut swap places with Aloe, with the two detectives becoming famous inventors and the scientist becoming a hard-boiled detective. They're both connected through Coconut, a long-time friend of both sides... who goes missing after a time-related incident involving Alm and Co's machine. Aloe is investigating the disappearance, and Almond is seeking a way to bring them back and right his mistakes. [Shared with Almond]

[johannas-motivational-insults]

Glimmer’s Upcoming Villain Arc

So, I’m pretty sure Glimmer’s going to become one of the villains at some point in the final two arcs of SPOP. Not a Horde-aligned villain, obviously, but I think she’s going to have a villain arc and may even end up fighting against Adora. Sound crazy? Well, there’s actually precedent for all this in the Buffyverse, with the Dark Willow story arc. I will get more into those parallels below.

First, though, let’s look at Glimmer and her situation in isolation.

Glimmer is currently in a vulnerable position. She’s grieving the loss of her only remaining parent (so far as she knows) and she’s now going to be saddled with the responsibilities of ruling Bright Moon, all while lacking a parental/mentor figure to guide her. And who do we know who loves to guide and manipulate young people with magical powers? Shadow Weaver.

Some people saw Shadow Weaver allying with the Rebellion as the beginning of a redemption arc. However, it actually makes a hell of a lot more sense for the writers to have put her there to gain influence over Glimmer and kickstart her villain arc, starting with their unexpected connection in season 3. Though Glimmer clearly hadn’t forgiven Shadow Weaver for torturing her in season 1 or for emotionally abusing Adora throughout her childhood, she decided the Rebellion needed this evil woman’s help. It was a means to an end. But now that that mission to save Adora and disable the portal was a success, she probably won’t hesitate to ask for her help again.

Not only did Shadow Weaver gain a bit of Glimmer’s trust, Glimmer loved the boost in power she got from Shadow Weaver. She’s complained several times about how she thinks her powers aren’t that useful or strong, but Shadow Weaver fed her ego and gave her a chance to increase her powers. When she successfully teleported the Princess Alliance into the Fright Zone, she was ecstatic.

“We did it! I did it! That was amazing!”

Simply put, Glimmer is power hungry. Just look at her eyes when Shadow Weaver is talking about her potential to be a great sorcerer like her father.

This scene and the following scene in the tower gave me the creeps so bad, you could just feel Glimmer being pulled to the dark side by the promise of power. And now post-season 3, not only will she be craving that feeling of power again, there’s an inciting incident prompting her to use it.

With her mom trapped in an empty dimension forever, which is essentially hell (especially for an immortal person ffs), Glimmer will probably do everything she can to get her out. I’m guessing she’ll go to her Aunt Casta for help, but Casta will say there’s nothing to be done (at least not without resorting to dark magic), so Glimmer will go to Shadow Weaver out of desperation. Even if Shadow Weaver could come up with a way to bring Angella back, she’ll say she can’t, because she can use Glimmer’s grief for her own ends.

Shadow Weaver’s motive for defecting to the Rebellion was to take down Hordak and Catra, and at this point she could easily convince Glimmer to help her get revenge on Catra. In fact, there’s a chance Glimmer will go to Shadow Weaver herself looking to team up and get this revenge, though it’s more likely Shadow Weaver will plant the seed and manipulate her into thinking it was her own idea.

Inciting incidents aside, Glimmer has always been someone who had the potential to break bad. Like Catra, she’s power hungry and eager to prove herself, brash and impulsive, and quick to resort to violence. She’s easily blinded by emotion and can be quite heartless, both of which were illustrated in 1x01-02 by how she treated Adora because of what the Horde had done to her father.

She’s also morally gray, willing to go to extremes to achieve an outcome that she considers to be good or just. Her decision to free Shadow Weaver and use her to access the Fright Zone is a great example. Another notable instance was when she had Catra as a hostage in 2x02 and threatened to kill her to counter Catra’s threat against Entrapta. She was eventually talked down by Bow, but only while complaining about how having to take the moral high ground isn’t fair. She was clearly frustrated that entire episode by the constraints of being one of the good guys, and it culminated here.

Fighting for the rebellion, Glimmer is a force for good. But if she decides to chase her own agenda, her powers and personality could easily be used for evil. Especially when there’s someone there expertly guiding her down that slippery slope. 

Now, if the plot does indeed go this way, it will put Adora in a rather unfortunate position. If it comes down to a situation where Shadow Weaver and Glimmer have an opportunity to kill Catra, Adora will have to intervene on Catra’s behalf, for several reasons. 1) Catra is the most important person in her life, as we all know. 2) She cares for Glimmer’s soul. She knows that if Glimmer murders Catra it will haunt her and change her, and she doesn’t want that for her friend. 3) She feels the need to protect the helpless. Catra will probably be all alone in the world at this point, having pushed all her friends and allies away. So not only will she not have allies to fight with her, she’ll be in a poor state mentally, maybe even welcoming death. Even if she was in good shape, she wouldn’t stand a chance against Glimmer and Shadow Weaver’s combined magical powers. And since Adora can’t stand watching defenseless people get hurt, this will force her to step in and protect Catra despite all the negative feelings she has for her right now.

There are two people I could see pulling Glimmer out of this spiral, bringing her back to the light: Bow or Micah. Adora isn’t the best at sympathizing with someone’s dark impulses while fighting tham, as we’ve seen multiple times with Catra. Her job is to protect the world, and she will prioritize that over everything else, including her best friend (don’t we know it?). So that leaves Bow to talk Glimmer down, either by appealing to her morals (somewhat likely, but wouldn’t work at that point) or by reminding her of her innate good side, of the person she is deep down and the love he feels for her. The other way this could go down is Micah escaping from wherever he is trapped (he’s alive, yo) and convincing Glimmer to stand down with a dose of parental love and wisdom (and a big hug).

There are so many parallels to Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this potential situation, and here’s where we get into the Willow comparisons. SPOILERS for BtVS under the cut!

The comparison between Catra and the rogue slayer Faith has been made many times before, along with the relationships these two characters have with the respective heroes of their shows. But if Catradora is Fuffy, that leaves Glimmer in the Willow role. And there are actually a lot of similarities between the two characters, both being fiercely protective but tempermental magical sidekicks to the hero (who hate being called sidekicks, btw). Both have had trouble making friends in the past, and both have a dude they were best friends with for years before the hero came along and turned them into an inseperable trio.

And now, there are notable and worrisome plot parallels between Glimmer and Willow in seasons 5 and 6 of BtVS.

Buffy sacrifices herself to save the world at the end of season 5, and the “Scooby Gang” believes she was sucked into hell in the process, so they decide to try to bring her back via magic. There is some dissent among the ranks, but ultimately they defer to Willow (who leads in Buffy’s absence like Glimmer will be leading the Rebellion in Angella’s absence), and Willow is not afraid of dark magic. In fact, we already saw her use it in season 5 against Glory (that season’s big bad) after Glory temporarily stole the sanity of Willow’s girlfriend, Tara.

Willow’s attack on Glory was emotionally motivated - she went off on her own after the others thought they had talked her down, thinking an attack was unwise. It was clearly motivated by revenge rather than strategy, which was made exceptionally clear by what she said to Glory.

(This scene actually reminds me a bit of the aforementioned incident with Catra in 2x02, only more extreme. The situations were obviously different, but the vengeful overtones and the mages’ frustration with allies trying to constrain their powers were similar. Both of them were struggling with impulsiveness, morality, and vengeful desires.)

Willow is ultimately successful in bringing Buffy back, though it turns out to not be entirely a good thing. If Glimmer fails to bring Angella back, as I theorized above, she could easily skip ahead to the end of Willow’s season 6 arc, the next time Willow suffers a great loss.

(The middle of Willow’s season 6 arc is her getting addicted to magic and using it in morally dubious ways on Tara and her other friends, which causes Tara to leave her until after she stops using magic and recovers from the addiction. SPOP’s writers could include something like this, but I don’t think they will, for time’s sake. More likely they will just continue to show Glimmer being tempted and corrupted by power as she gets closer to Shadow Weaver, rather than using her powers on her friends.)

The end of Willow’s season 6 arc starts with the notorious shooting death of Tara Maclay. When Tara is hit by a stray bullet and dies in Willow’s arms, Willow attempts to use magic to bring her back, but is denied. This sends her into a spiral of rage and grief, and she spends the next two episodes attempting to kill the shooter and his hapless allies. She catches up to Warren and flays him alive, but the others escape with Buffy’s help. (In the finale she tries to end the world because she believes it is for the best, as life is too full of pain. SPOP definitely won’t pull this same plot point twice, but the revenge quest up to that point is absolutely something that would work for Glimmer.)

Speaking of Buffy stepping in, let’s look at parallels to the situation Adora will find herself in, if my theory is correct. 

Buffy tries to dissuade Willow from murdering Warren because she believes it’s wrong and she doesn’t want Willow to have to live with it after. When she finds Warren’s body she decides Willow has gone too far and stands against her when she tries to go after Warren’s allies. Willow is tired of Buffy’s lectures on morality, of living by the good guys’ rules. She wants revenge, and Buffy is standing in her way. She’s also tired of being treated like a sidekick and is eager to show Buffy who is more powerful. They end up having an epic fight scene before she decides to end the world.

With the way she gives in to her dark impulses, fights against Buffy and their friends, and tries to end the world, Dark Willow actually ends up being the big bad of season 6. Her best friend Xander is the one who ends up saving the world - not by fighting her, but by blocking her magic with his body, reminding her of who she has been all these years, and telling her repetitively that he loves her. He literally saves her (and the world) with the power of love and friendship, a recurring phrase on SPOP.

The perfect parallel here would be Bow stepping in and reminding Glimmer of the goodness inside her. Perhaps he’d face off with her while Adora is fending off Shadow Weaver. But yeah, for the reasons I outlined above, Bow would be the perfect candidate to call Glimmer back from the brink of becoming a murderer. He’s known her longer than Adora and is more empathetic. Xander is often referred to as “the heart” of the Scooby Gang, the one who lacks magical powers but makes up for it with his empathy, courage, and enthusiasm. Bow fills that same role in the Best Friend Squad and Princess Alliance, and he wears a literal heart on his chest. (Yes, Xander is problematic in some ways but damn it that’s so off-topic and I’m not getting into it.)

I don’t think Glimmer will actually succeed in her quest for vengeance, or at least it won’t culminate in Catra’s murder. SPOP deals with some dark themes but it's meant for a younger audience than BtVS, plus Noelle surely knows better than to kill a fan fave wlw. But Glimmer will probably have an opportunity to kill Catra and be dissuaded at the last second, then have to embark on a redemption arc of her own.

Again, this is all just a crazy theory, but the idea of Glimmer going dark is both scary and exciting. She’s most interesting as a character when she’s struggling with her darker urges, and I think SPOP has been hinting at and slowly setting this up over the first two arcs. Now with an inciting incident at play, she could easily give in to those urges in the wake of her grief, letting her vengeful streak bubble to the surface like it did for Willow. I can’t wait to see where the story takes her in arc 3.

[orderoftheavengers]

Infinity Wand

Summary: I recognize that "Endgame" is now a movie. But given that it's a stupid-ass one, I'm electing to re-write it.

Ashes to Ashes, a new Dark Lord

The Avengers' final school year ends on a low note, with Thanos turning half of the world's population to ash with a flick of his Infinity Wand. Not only are half of all living things now gone, but Thanos has evened out the number of Muggles, Wizards and non-Human Beings in the universe, leading to the loss of almost the entire Muggle population.

Thanos now rules the planet with his Infinity Wand. Muggles were exposed to the magical world overnight, in the most horrifying way possible. Imagine preparing for a zombie apocalypse our whole life, only to suddenly instead see half your family crumble to ash, followed by a grape giant declaring himself your new Dark Lord.

All wizard schools are taken over by Thanos's minions, with a not-quite-dead Professor Squidward named the new Headmaster of Hogwarts. All the surviving students and Avengers must pretend to obey the slimy new Headmaster, and plan their continued fights in secret.

No Trust, Liar

Tony Stark and Nebula are left stranded in the ruins of Salazar Slytherin's palace, with no transportation. (Milano, the dragon that the Guardians of the Realm's house sits on the back of, was disintegrated by Thanos.) The two Slytherins develop a strong bond, and adopt each other. Tony teaches Nebula the Muggle sport of paper football, and Nebula drapes blankets over Tony after he's passed out. Just before they die of starvation and exposure, an unusually powerful vampire appears out of nowhere, hauls them each up in one arm, and flies them back to Hogwarts.

A tearful reunion follows in the Avengers' tower. Tony then lets out two years worth of rage at Steve Rogers, before collapsing to the floor and being taken to the Hospital Wing, where Bruce has to give him a literal sedative. That's when

Pepper lashes out at Steve for lying to Tony about his parents, and everything during the drunken Quidditch brawl. Rhodey tries to pacify her; as a military student himself, he guessed early on the real reason for Steve's lie, hence why he was so forgiving when they reunited during the Infinity War.

Steve then goes to the Hospital Wing, where Tony is still seemingly out cold. Steve finally pours out a real apology, warts and all, no excuses, with real emotion and tears. Mad-Eye Fury ordered Nat and Steve to stay quiet about Tony's parents, because Nick, like Stephanigus Strange , deduced that Tony was one of the world's most important defences against Thanos, and didn't want Earth's best defender getting sidetracked and killed on a quest for revenge. Steve never let Fury's orders stop him from doing what he wanted, and he admits now that the only thing stopping him from telling Tony was that he was a coward and he was selfish. He was afraid of Tony going after Bucky, or simply refusing to loan Steve his resources to look for him. He didn't write Tony a real apology after the "Civil War" because Steve has spent the last seven years shielding himself with corny cliches and heroic trappings. Tony wakes up while Steve is starting to cry, and states plainly that he doesn't think he'll ever be capable of forgiving him.

His rage returning, Tony adds, "Nice of you to finally give a real apology after two years though. Only took all your favorite friends dying." Rolling over he repeats, "No trust. Liar."

Last Hope, Crushed

For a brief moment, the Avengers think they had a chance to undo the Dusting Curse.

"Get Time Turners from the Ministry of Magic!" Nat says. "Use them to get our own set of Infinity Stones, fight Thanos, and bring everyone back!"

Since Hermione Granger was among the Dusted, she can't loan them her own Time Turner. But the Order of the Avengers, and their new allies, are able to break into the now Thanos-controlled Ministry....only to find that Thanos has destroyed all of the Time Turners, to prevent exactly what they were trying to do. Conveniently, everyone who knew how to make a Time Turner has been Dusted. And on top of that, he's also Dusted the Avengers' and Guardians' resident telepaths ("completely random" my ass).

Bruce screams at the purple bastard, "Why the hell didn't you just use the Time Turners, or the Time Stone, or all the stones, to make more resources, instead of killing trillions?!" just before Nat drags him out the window by the tail during their escape.

Worst Summer Ever

This following summer break is the worst the Order of the Avengers have ever had.

When the Dusting spell was cast, Clint Barton is at the family cottage with his younger brothers and sisters. His oldest sister is preparing a picnic, while Clint teaches his youngest sister an arrow spell. Having accepted his expulsion from Hogwarts following the UnCivil Quidditch Brawl, Clint is taking the rest of the school year off, and considering his job options. Then, suddenly, all of his younger siblings are ash. This breaks the Hufflepuff, who promised their parents before they died that he'd protect his little brothers and sisters. Clint drops his Hawkeye moniker and becomes Ronin the Barbarian. Outraged by the injustice of the Dusting Spell, Clint hunts down evil people, wizard and Muggle alike, with the Sword of Helga Hufflepuff.

Bruce Banner undergoes the most obvious change. After weeks of being unable to come out, the Wolf finally returns full force, after seeing half his friends Dusted. It takes Thor, Carol and Nebula to subdue the Wolf. Since both Wanda and Mantis are now dust, only traditional magical science can help the giant green werewolf. Tony teams up with Princess Shrui--who was not dusted--to help solve Bruce's dilemma. With the help of all his friends, Bruce slowly makes peace with "the furry guy," as both are now in 100% agreement in their fury and devastation. Bruce then undergoes a new transformation, becoming a humanoid, rationally-thinking werewolf. He takes on the name "Professor Wolf," and gains some new fangirls amongst the surviving Muggle population (mainly the Muggles who frequent DeviantArt and Fur Affinity).

For Tony and Pepper, there is a tiny grain of happiness, encompassed by more fear, when Pepper discovers she is pregnant. They plan to name the child after her eccentric, possibly-magical uncle Morgan. Tony gets them a cottage by a lake, near Bill and Fleur's place, walled off with protective spells. But everyone still lives in terror of Thanos. Tony's Slytherin will is temporarily snuffed out, save his determination to keep Pepper and the baby safe.

Steve Rogers, who during the Infinity War proved to have recovered from his out-of-character antics during the drunken Quidditch Civil War, is devastated by all the loss, especially Bucky crumbling to dust right before him. Steve often looks at his compass, inside of which he has stuck Peggy Carter's wizard card, not because he is abruptly obsessing over an old flame, but because he's wondering what someone he admired would be telling him to do now. He decides to start leading therapy groups, like Sam did. Steve occasionally goes on tangents about his own comparatively minor troubles, but this is a quirk the world has simply come to accept from the Gryffindor.

Thor is arguably in the worst position. His entire family has died one by one, plus the wise family owl Heimdall, and the mountain region of Asgard has been destroyed, along with three forths of the Asgardian population (first half were slaughtered by Thanos's army, and then half of the surviving half were Dusted). Since Hogsmede now has some extra space, the surviving Asgardians are able to get a new neighborhood there. Thor spends most of his time in his apartment above the Three Broomsticks, playing Muggle video games with his friends, and spiraling into alcoholism and overeating.

Natasha Romanoff locks herself up in the Ravenclaw tower and becomes a workaholic, obsessively monitoring the surviving populations around the world, and organizing remaining vigilantes still fighting to protect the innocent from Thanos. The only thing she does for herself is Metamorph her hair into a cool ombre sunset motif.

Carol Danvers isn't around much. "There are a lot of intelligent species in the magic world, and most of them don't have an Order of the Avengers." She keeps in touch with Natasha via the Floo Network, though. But Mad-Eye Fury didn't contact Carol for nothing. What makes her so special? Her connections. Nick knew Carol had a whole Realm of species to protect, and promised to only bother her with (living) humans if something that directly and immediately threatened all populations came up. Carol is now flying around the planet, rallying Vampires and other Beings in the effort to defy Thanos. She also gets a rather boss haircut.

Nebula plots her revenge on Thanos, while also checking on Tony and Pepper. When the time comes, Nebula is even in the delivery room.

Scott Lang is still trapped in the Spirit Realm, and thought to be among the Dusted....

The Ant-Nimagus Returns!

At the end of his last adventure, Scott Lang entered the Spirit Realm to collect ectoplasm (basically ghost-sh!t) to help his new ghostly friend, Ava Starr. Unfortunately the entire Pym/Van Dyne family was dusted, along with Ava, and Scott was left stranded in Limbo for the entire summer....

Then, just as the leaves were beginning to change, one of the Weasley family rats (Scabbers XIV) chews away at the magic veil Scott vanished behind, and finally opened up a portal wide enough for Scott to escape. Scott is confused and horrified when he stumbles onto the street and finds trees covered in Missing posters, accompanied by Ordinances signed by "the Dark Lord Thanos." And Muggle news sources talking about magic?!

Rushing to his ex's house, Scott is both relieved and frightened to be greeted by his now teenage daughter.

After the tearful reunion, Scott asks, "How many years was I gone Cassie? It felt like three hours."

"It was three months Dad," Casseopia Lang replies. "I had another fay growth spurt in that time."

(Cassie Lang is part nymph, and ages more quickly than her peers.) 

"Wow, we're like, almost the same age now. This is awkward."

"Mom and Jim are dust."

"And depressing."

Scott finds his way to Steve and Nat, who are flabbergasted but overjoyed to find him alive. Scott is crushed to learn that all three of his crime-buddies are now piles of ash in the Slytherin common-room. Scott arranges the three piles into neat circles, into which he draws crude emote faces to represent how he best remembers each of them.

Scott is able to bring something to the table that even Carol Danvers lacks; knowledge of the Spirit Realm, which exists outside the Spacetime Continuum, and thus can be used for Time Travel. In fact, it turns out that this Realm was regularly used by the Ministry in the Manufacturing of Time Turners...

Lab Gang Learning about this new hope, Tony is at first apprehensive. By now, more months have passed, and Pepper has given birth to a baby girl. Tony doesn't want to lose Morgan or Pepper, or endanger more lives, in an attempt to defy Thanos. But a glance at a wizard-photo of him goofing off with his little Ravenclaw has him change his mind. Tony flies back to the Avengers' tower at Hogwarts, and tells Steve he's done letting resentment eat away at him, and presents Steve with a new shield. Since Steve has already given a full, satisfying, heartfelt apology and explanation, that the audience saw every detail of and didn't have to head-canon up for themselves, Tony's forgiveness makes perfect sense and has the exact emotional impact its writers intend for it to (breaks keyboard while typing). Now, the smartest wizards have to figure out how to use the Spirit Realm for time travel. Deep in Snape's old Potions dungeon, Tony, Bruce, Rocket, and Shuri--who was not Dusted!--all get together to brainstorm. The four geniuses exchange ingenuity and banter, and it is brilliant. Rocket, a niffler, is enamored with Tony’s chest amulet, and steals it, causing some health problems for Tony. This angers Professor Wolf, who chases the niffler/raccoon hybrid around the lab until he catches him and makes him into a violent chew toy. Shuri snags Rocket from the Wolf, and the amulet from Rocket. Struck with inspiration, the Wakandan princess makes some adjustments to the amulet, to Tony’s embarrassment and begrudging awe. This leads to a “eureka!” moment for the four of them, in regards to the Time Travel problem, and they finally get it solved. Meanwhile, Nat, using her metemorphmagus spy skills, finally tracks Clint Barton down in Japan, where he is slaying evil Vampires with the Sword of Hufflepuff (an opal-encrusted katana). He apparently also used the sword to try cutting his hair, hence his disastrous new do. Nat tells Clint they may have a way to bring his family back, and possibly even fix his hair. With this new glimmer of hope, Clint returns to Hogwarts.

Time Heist! Tony and Scott first attempt to use their combined Slythrin cunning to stal the Mind Stone from the Avengers' first battle with Loki, but succeed only in amusing shenanigans and observing Amreica's ass. Figuring it may be better to combine opposite skills, Tony and Steve then decide to try a Slytherin/Gryffindor team-up, and they go further back to the 1970s. There, they find help from the Maurauders, who are more than happy to break some rules and help with a heist, even for two guys they don't know. Steve sees Peggy, carrying on with her life, and watches her with a mixture of sad longing, and happiness that she's moved on. Tony meanwhile meets his father Howard, and discusses parenthood with him. Howard goes on about how "unqualified" he feels, and how he'd do anything for his coming baby, and Tony is reminded once more how full of sh*t his father always was. But since the bastard died an admittedly horrible death, Tony hugs and thanks him anyway, before yeeting off with the Stone. Steve starts to apologize once again, but Tony cuts him off. Tony's cunning and Steve's daring result in a success, and they return to the present time with the Mind Stone. Thor and Rocket travel to Asgard's past, to get the Reality Stone. Thor reunites with his mother, and sees he's still worthy of his hammer/broom, which he brings back with him to the present. Before he leaves, Queen Frigga tells him, "It's time to start being who you are, rather than who you're 'supposed' to be." "Are you telling me to step down from my throne?" "...step down? After your first five years were less than ideal? You're barely 1500 years old, my son. What I'm saying is, you could  take a bit of time off to find yourself. A decade or two of vacation, having adventures with your rabbit friend, maybe. And you can even stay fat for a few centuries if you want. But why in the world would I be suggesting that you should throw away all you've fought for, just because of how things turned out over the last half-decade?" "I'm sorry Mother...living with Midgardians must've gone to my head. Though, I always was rather impulsive anyway."   Rhodey and Nebula meanwhile travel to the Forbidden Forest, where Star Lord is about to steal the Power Stone from a heavily guarded cave. Rhodey and Nebula get along well, both now being close friends of Tony's, and both having been magically modified against their wills. (Rhodey, still a merman, must rely on his silver broom for transportation above water.) The pair interrupts Quill's opening dance number with Petrificus Totalus, and snag the Stone. Past-Thanos learns what they're up to, and almost follows them back to the present time, but Nebula kills her evil past self and past-Thanos, gaining some much-needed catharsis for herself. Past Gamora, however, stows away aboard Nebula's broom, as she and Rhodey fly back through the Spirit Realm to the present. Bruce gets the Time Stone from fellow a Ravenclaw, the Ancient One. Not battle or trickery is needed for this one; just honest, Ravencalw-to-Ravenclaw reasoning. When Bruce tells her about Strange sacrificing the Time Stone to save Tony, she realizes what this must mean, and hands the Stone over to Bruce. "But you must promise to return it, and restore the timeline." "I swear, my Lady, there is no one amongst the Order of the Avengers who would ever even consider messing up the Timeline for any reason, no matter how tempted they are." Nat and Clint go back in time to the palace of Salazar Slythrin, where Red Skull explains the trade for the Time Stone. Hufflepuff Clint naturally wants to be the one to die; he's already lost his family, he can't bear to lose his best friend as well. And he feels he deserves death, for the violent way he handled the loss of his family. But Nat, ever the pragmatic Ravenclaw, remembers that this death may not be permanent; and if god forbid it is, Clint's family will need him, and the world will need as many stable families like Clint's as possible, to rebuild. And she has a lot more red on her ledger to die for than he does. So she sacrifices herself. This apparent loss crushes the Avengers. The stereotype that Ravenclaws are just cold intellectual machines is BS; Nat was introspective and witty, and at the center of the heart of thee Order. And she never got to have a family. They sit in front of the Hogwarts lake, taking in her death. 

Bruce roars, and tosses a bench into the lake. The kids sitting on the bench, Teddy Lupin and Victoire Weasley, barely react, as they too were close with Nat and are mourning her. Even the Giant Squid is too sad to be bothered by the littering of his lake.  "We'll bring her back," Steve says sternly, as tears stream down his face. "It can't be undone," Clint chokes. "Sure it can't," Tony says clenching his jaw. "Just like Time Travel and bringing back the Dusted is impossible. When this is over, we won't need the Stone anymore, and we'll still have Time Travel." The Un-Dusting Tony builds a new Infinity Wand for the Avengers' set of Stones. Naturally, he designs the wand with the same red motif as his own--but this isn't just Tony's diva ego flashing again. He has always seen it has his own duty to defeat Thanos. His mind is temporarily changed when he attempts to use the Infinity Wand, and nearly passes out just from holding it with all the stones. Only Professor Wolf is strong enough to wield it with relative ease, and even he howls with pain as he flicks it. Thanos (the real, current Thanos, who is not dead) senses at once that a new Infinity Wand has been created and used, and attacks Hogwarts. The Avengers prepare to face him themselves, Bruce still weilding the Infinity Wand in his furry green paw, when suddenly portals open up around the school. Stephanigus Strange is back, along with all of the Dusted! Steve Rogers is frozen as he watches Sam and Bucky fly towards him on their brooms, coming from the left and right respectively. Bucky stares at Steve with scolding eyes, and says, "I told you not to do anything stupid," before barreling into him with a hug. Meanwhile, an adorkable little Ravenclaw in a spider-themed cloak swings up to Tony, and begins babbling about how wild it is to be back from the dusted, only to be interrupted by a tight hug. "Oh, this is nice!" As Tony crushes his surrogate baby brother, his eyes meet Bucky's, who is stilll crushing Steve. It's a silent, wet-eyed, exchange of forgiveness between the two of them. Then Tony notices Professor Squidward raising his wand behind Bucky and Steve. In one slick movement, Tony shoves Peter behind him, whips out his own wand, and blasts Squidward into a thousand gory pices of sushi. Bucky returns the favor a moment later, blasting a Thanos-minion that was coming up on Tony and Peter, before leaping over and finishing the villain off with some loud vampiric slurping. Bruce searches desperately for Natasha, and can't find her. He has a sickening feeling she wasn't revived. Vision and Gamora aren't seen either.... But all of the other the Guardians of the Realm are back. King T'Challa leaps through a portal, roaring and changing into his panther form in mid-jump. Wanda Maximoff soars out of the Wakanda portal, no broom or wand, running purely on her own scarlet magic. A pixie buzzes over to Scott, and Hope Van Dyne reverts to her usual size. A white ghostly blur gradually solidifies into Ava Starr, emerging through a slightly irritated Stephen Strange. Valkyrie flies in on her Pegasus, accompanied by all of the Asgardians, including Thor's new eccentric friends from "Ragnarok." From the next portal comes Nicademus Fury and Maria Underhill, ready to kick ass, and not about to miss out on this epic showdown battle, because that would just be jackalope-sh*t. From the next portal comes Lady Sif, Sharyn Carter, Christine Everhart, Bill Foster, and Galaga Guy. From the next, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron, Hagrid, and all of the main heroes from their generation (all having been Dusted). Portals open from wizarding schools around the world--Ilvermorny, Durmstrang, Beaubaxtons, Mahoutokoro, and Xavier's School for Gifted Wizards. From the final portal emereges Eddie Brock/Venom, Deadpool, and DarkWing Duck.   And now the most epic battle in wizard history begins. Battle for Hogwarts The red Infinity Wand is tossed between the strongest Avengers during the battle, each of whom gets a turn using it against Thanos's original model. Bruce and the Wolf fight Thanos once more, now together, and wielding the red Infinity Wand. Professor Wolf is struggling to simply turn Thanos and his minions to dust, but it's one Infinity Wand up against another. As the two Infinity Wands blast against each other, a light begins to glow in the middle of the two spells. Bruce suddenly hears a familiar voice, half in his head. "Bruce, give someone else a turn." Natasha--or a ghostly version of her--is emerging from the middle of the two Infinity Wands' spells. "Priori Incantatem!" shouts Shuri, from her blue-and-silver panther broom. "Or something like it! Two sets of Infinity Stones blasting against each other, their past spells are regurgitating!" The moment of shock distracts Bruce long enough for Thanos to blast him to the ground. The grape bastard is about to pick up the other Infinity Wand, but spirit-Nat delivers a kick to his face. It's not a huge amount of damage--she only has the typical strength of a very angry poltergeist--but it buys enough time for Spidey to swing by and snag up the wand with his web. The little Ravenclaw trembles with the Infinity Wand in his hand; he's stronger than the average wizard, but maybe not quite strong enough to wield an Infinity Wand without harming himself. Thanos and his minions close in on him, and Thanos raises his own Infinity Wand towards Peter. The two Infinity Wands clash against each other once more, and another ghost emerges--Gamora. "I won't let you hurt another orphan!" ghost-Gamora screams, flying at her "father's" putrid head with her green fists raised. Below, past-Gamora watches in awe, as the revenge she's alwasy dreamed of starts to come true before her eyes. Seemingly all of the witches in the battle fly over and form a motherly wall between Thanos and Spidey, with ghost-Gamora and Nat in the lead. Valkyrie flies over on her Pegasus, and Ava Star comes running out of a Hogwarts castle wall. Pepper Potts is also there, with a new shinny purple broom and wand. Wanda Maxmoff and Jean Gray exchange a glance, silently admiring each other's red magic motifs, while Storm brings in some extra lightning for Thor. While the two Infinity ghosts of Nat and Gamora wrestle Thanos, Carol Danvers leaps over and snags the red Infinity Wand from Peter, just before the poor kid collapses. Thanos throws the two spirits off of him, and blasts at Carol. Now it's Captain Marvel's turn to have an Infinity duel with the Dark Lord. Thanos head-butts Carol, which does nothing to the vampire. An armada of dragons closes in, and Carol blasts them all with the Infinity Wand. She tries to turn Thanos and his minions to dust, but he stops her with his own Wand. Once again, two Infinity Wands clash. Carol's holding it against Thanos good, but one of the grape f**ker's minions delivers a cheap blast to her back, sending Carol spinning into the air, and the red Infinity Wand into Thanos's outstretched hand. The purple Dark Lord now wields both Infinity Wands. Worthy Thor raises Mjolnir, now in hammer form (it can switch between hammer and broom), in one hand, and Stormbreaker in the other, hoping his two weapons might be at least a momentary match for the two Infinity Wands. Unfortunately, Thanos instantly blasts Mjolnir out of Thor's hand, though Thor manages to keep a hold of the ax. A corny Mexican tune suddenly honks through the battlefield. Ant-Man's three friends are back, and they've made a quick heist on the way to the courtyard. They're flying in on their magical musical carpet. "Hey Scotty," Luis bellows, "Sorry we're late. Here, this thing's like a magical-sword vending machine or something, right?" And he tosses down the Sorting Hat. Scott, currently a giant ant, fails to catch the hat in his whale-sized pincers. But Janet Van Dyne flies by and grabs the Sorting Hat. Her daughter, in miniature-pixy form, soars into the Hat. Hope comes out, full-sized, wielding a Japanese-styled Katnana, with an elegant bronze handle shaped like an eagle, encrusted with sapphires: the Sword of Ravenclaw. Janet tosses the Hat down to Sam Wilson, yelling, "Pass it around!" Sam pulls out the Sword of Hufflepuff. "Isn't this yours?" he asks Clint, who refuses it. "I got my arrows." Clint says, blasting his arrow spells from his wand like a machine gun. Sam gives a curt nod. The young animagus then takes his Falcon form, clutching the sword in his talons, and tossing the Sorting Hat to Nebula. The blue chimera draws the silver, serpentine Sword of Slytherin--once her sister Gamora's personal weapon. Rhodey swoops by on his broom, slapping the Hat into the air with his merman-tail, and in midair, drawing the Sword of Gryffindor. There is one last weapon to be picked up. Mjolnir is lifted from the ground, with a clash of thunder.  Steve Rogers is finally worthy to lift Mjolnir, now that he has finally owned all of his past faults and grown out of previous shallow idea of heroism, in a well-done arc that the audience saw in detail and didn't have to head-canon up for themselves (smashes computer and tosses it out the window). Everyone is now armed with some uniquely badass weapon, gathered behind the Cap. Holding the hammer and shield, Steve finally bellows, "Avengers, assemble!" Scott Lang is now in his largest Ant-Nimagus form, putting Them! to shame, tossing Thanos's minions aside like action figures. Assisting him is the Giant Squid. Hope speeds through the field with Ravenclaw's Katana like a samurai Tinkerbell, sending heads flying. Ava Starr runs through a string of Thanos's minions, ripping out their hearts as she does, making a bloody set of dominoes. She tries doing the same to Thanos, but his Infinity Wand makes it impossible for her to go through his body. Scott has also learned that the "going up Thanos's ass" trick won't work, since it turns out that Titans have no assholes. So he continues to kick ass as a giant ant. Pepper and Tony fight side by side on their badass Iron-brooms with the badass Iron-wands. Groot does his vine-of-death thing. Venom eats bad guys, while in the shape of a sexy woman.   Bucky and Rocket are being closed in by a circle of Thanos's minions. So Bucky lets Rocket remove his metal arm. Bucky fights the foes in front of him with his human fist, wand, and vampire teeth, while Rocket rides the enchanted armor-arm like a broom, steering it towards villains that it strangles, punches, or pokes the eyeballs out of. (Bucky can control his arm even when it isn't attached to him.) Wanda Maximoff flies over (no broom required) to help Steve and Thor. The latter two hold off the blast from the red Infinity Wand, Cap using his shield and Mjolnir, and Thor using Stormbreaker and his other bare hand. Wanda Maximoff hisses at Thanos, "You took everything from me!" and with her bare hands, contains the original gold Infinity Wand with her scarlet magic. She puts all her effort into destroying it, with the image of Vision strong in her mind (har, har). She manages to make Thanos's Mind Stone crack, just a tad, and out of the crack flies the ghost of her lover. Tears well up in Wanda's eyes, but she doesn't let go. The ghosts of Gamora, Natasha and Vision join Wanda, each taking a hold of the wand and crushing as hard as their ghostly hands can manage. Finally, Thanos's Infinity Wand is destroyed in an explosion of light, that knocks everyone in a hundred mile radius to the ground. Inevitable There is one Infininty Wand left now. It is sitting in the middle of the courtyard. Thanos and Tony both make a dive for it. As they struggle over the wand, Thanos sneers, "I will destroy this universe down to the last molecule, and create a new one in its place." "They'll never accept you!" Tony snaps. "They'll never know." Tony's face says it all. After everything he's experienced, that is indeed a loaded phrase for Tony to hear. Thanos throws Tony off, knocking him into the castle wall. "I am inevitable!" he says raising his wand....only to realize he has no wand. Tony, bruised and bloodied, pushes himself up, and holds up the red Infinity Wand. "And I...am...Iron Man." No incantations are required for this killing curse; just pure unstoppable will. Thanos's fat purple jaw drops as his minions crumble to dust around him. The Titan's own will and power being abnormally strong, he resists the Dusting for a few moments of struggle. But then, both Gamoras--the ghost that emerged from the Infinity Wands, and the physical version from the past--leap at their "father" from opposite directions, the latter now wielding the Sword of Slytheirn. Past-Gamora stabs Thanos through the heart, and says just loud enough for him to hear, "For my real parents." Before he dies, Thanos sees himself in a field, facing a young Gamora, the child he orphaned and kidnapped all those years ago. "You love nothing," the green child says locking eyes with him. "And so you have nothing. You are nothing." She, the field, and Thanos's entire universe disintegrate, as the Titan crumbles into a pile of ash. You Promised When the dust settles, there is only one Gamora. The Infinity-Ghost has merged with the past body. She shakily rises to her feet, tears falling down her green face. "Gamora!" Peter Quill, who hasn't had a chance to speak to her yet, tears across the field to her. For a moment, it looks like they're about to kiss. Gamora chokes, "Peter..." and then knees him in the balls. She finishes with a hiss, "You promised!" Clutching his shattered bludgers, Quill retorts in a strained voice, "Hypocrite!" He is referring to the fact that Gamora couldn't sacrifice her sister to keep the Stone from Thanos. Gamora makes an admitting face, helps him up, and now they kiss. ...Mr. Stark? "We won!" Peter Parker shakes a barely conscious Tony, who is slumped against the castle wall. Half of Tony's face is burned, and the blue light from his chest amulet is flickering. "Sir! Can you hear me?" Everyone is crowded around Antonius Stark. It's unbelievable that an ordinary human wizard, with no extra powers, was able to wield the Infinity Wand at all, much less still be even a little bit alive after doing so. Tony's willpower is abnormally strong, even for a Slytherin. There was a reason he had Thanos's "respect." Pepper knows Tony literally will not rest, in any sense of the word, until he knows everyone is safe. "Tony, we're all gonna be fine." Pepper says keeling beside him. "You can rest now." The light goes out. Not our Steve! Tony is rushed to Wakanda. He has been declared "dead," but magical medicine is improving every day. Meanwhile, someone needs to return the remaining Infinity Stones to their proper time periods, to keep the timeline in tact. Since Steve Rogers is the only Avenger bland enough not to draw any attention to himself even if he tried, he is the perfect candidate. "Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone," Steve says to Bucky. "How can I," Bucky repeats, "You're taking all the stupid with you." Steve strides through the veil into the Spirit Realm, to begin his Time Travel.... ...and he doesn't come back when he's supposed to. "I don't know what happened!" Professor Wolf says in dismay. "He just missed his jump..." Sam notices someone on a nearby bench, and breathes to himself, "Oh, hell no...."

The old wizard sitting on the bench is hunched and wrinkled, and has a long old-wizard beard tied with an American flag styled bow.

“S-Steve?” Sam stammers. “WTF?”

The old wizard smiles. “I decided to try that 'life' thing Tony was always telling me about. So I stayed in my old timeline and got married to the woman of my dreams.” "Peggy?" Sam exclaimed. "She had her own full life after you! She had a husband and kids! I think her husband was a one-legged veteran! You're telling me you stole a one-legged vet's wife and erased their kids, so you could have a woman you kissed once 70 years ago?" "Maybe the one-legged vet wasn't ever her husband." Old-Steve retorts. "Maybe it was me, all along!"

Bucky interjects, “I don’t suppose in all those years you were with Peggy, you found any time to save me from being Hydra’s puppet, or being forced to kill all those people, like Howard and his wife?”

“Erm…" Old-Steve shifts on the bench.

“Speaking of Tony,” Bruce Banner growls, “Were you able to use this opportunity of time travel to bring him, Natasha, Vision, and all our other fallen comrades back?”

“I mustn't alter the timeline, fellas.” Old-Steve replies.

“Hey wait a sec,” Sam says,  “You spent 70 years letting your wife clock into the Order of the SHIELD knowing the whole time she was working for Hydra and not even knowing it?”

“Temporal Prime Directive,” Old-Steve grunts.

Bruce, clenching his green furry fists, asks, “So did you ever bob your niece on your knee? You know, the one you snogged?”

“Adam and Eve were brother and sister.” Steve defends simply.

Bucky exclaims, "You couldn't use this time-travel to save anybody from any of the horrible things you witnessed over 70 years, but you were fine erasing Peggy and Daniel's kids?!"

"See," Old-Steve held up a hand to explain. “When we travel back in time, it makes a new timeline. So you don’t know for a fact that any of those awful implications are even true at all. I might have saved all of you in that other timeline I created, and stopped Bucky from becoming the Winter Soldier, and Tony from becoming an orphan--" "And abandoned me for a better version of me?" Bucky finishes.

Before Steve can reply, Bruce demands, “If it’s another timeline then how’d you get back to this one? That cop out doesn't work at all Steve!”  

A familiar voice interrupts, "Seriously you guys? You really think that thing could ever be me?”

The real Steve Rogers–still the same age as he was when he went to return the stones–enters the field, his face crestfallen. “How could any of you believe that this bastardization with my face is the real Steve Rogers, even for half a second?”

Sam mutters, “Well it wouldn’t be the first time you were wildly out of character….” "WE WERE ALL DRUNK DURING THE CIVIL WAR QUIDDITCH MATCH!" (real) Steve exclaims. "Can't I ever live that down?" The false-Steve says, "No, but you can live with Peggy, in the past. The opportunity is still there, Rogers."   Another familiar, snarkier, voice cuts in: "Hold on, I've got the remote." Tony Stark comes up behind Steve, half his face scarred with burns, and one of his robe sleeves flying emptily. In his remaining hand, his red Iron-wand is pointed at the impostor. "RIDDICULOUS!"

The old-Steve transforms into a younger Steve, dancing around the field wearing only a whipped cream bra and briefs.

Here's What Really Happened “A boggart!” a dazed Bruce realizes, watching the false "Steve" do a slow strip tease. “But it’s usually the moon for me…”

“Mine’s the Winter Soldier,” Bucky muses.

Sam finishes, “And mine’s a copy of the ‘Star Wars’ Christmas Special." "But all three of you were standing so close together," Natasha Romanoff--very much alive--enters behind Tony and Steve, arms folded. "So it had to take a form that would horrify you all at once." Bruce breaks out of his daze, and barrels into Tony and Nat with a giant furry green hug. "Nat! Tony!...how?" "Same as Gamora," Nat says, returning the hug. "I came out when the two Infinity Wands clashed. Steve made one tiny change in the timeline when returning the stones, to bring me a body. I have memories of falling to my death, even feeling my body hit the ground. But I also remember Steve popping out of a portal just before I fell to my death, and watching him have a badass duel with Red Skull. It's like waking up from a dream and not knowing what to believe." Tony pointed at her. "Don't go stealing lines from underrated movies like 'Frequency!'" turning to Bruce he explains, "I guess when I slaughtered Thanos's minions, I accidentally turned my amulet into a horcrux. I'm down one arm, but Shuri was able to pump some new life into my body with some donated vampire blood from Bucky and Carol, and as long as I keep this thing on, I'll mostly stay in one piece. But I can also take it off and turn into Tony the Unfriendly Ghost. It's pretty sweet, in an existentially horrifying way." "Don't lie Tones," Nat elbows him. "You'd never miss a chance to be the epitome of both angst and scientific advancement."

"Then...everyone's back?" Sam asks. "Not everyone," Wanda replies heavily, entering the field. Next to her is Princess Shuri. "The Mind Stone from Tony's Infinity Wand had to be returned to its original time period," Suri begins. "The Mind Stone from ours is destroyed, with the rest of Thanos's Infinity Wand. I tried to save him, I was sure he could live without the stone...." "It was always highly experimental," Wanda finishes. After some grieving, the Order of the Avengers all go out to the Three Broomsticks for a bittersweet dinner and round of drinks.

Epilogue: Tony Stark has finally found the perfect job for him, as the Defense Against the Dark Arts Teachers of Hogwarts. Tony was born for the job, on its two most important grounds: Iron Man is obviously the epitome of "defense against the dark arts;" and since being a D.A.D.A. teacher always means suffering some horrible fate at the end of the semester, this too is Tony's life in a nutshell. No teacher before has been willing to return for another semester, after ending their first one memory-wiped, disintegrated, locked in a chest, or soul-sucked by a Dementor. But for Tony, such things are the story of his life. He always has the summer to recuperate. He also has a new magical red-and-gold armor-arm, so that keeps him pretty entertained. More important though, he has Morgan and Pepper. "I love you 3000." Steve Rogers decides to indeed "try that life thing Tony's always talking about," but without ****ing the timeline. He returns to his home country, and coaches Quadpod (the explosive American version of Quidditch), at Ilvermorny School of Magic.  Either Sam or Bucky will carry on his moniker as Captain America, and his embarrassing portrait in the Gryffindor Quidditch pit will carry on his inspirational speeches and moral lectures. Thor plans to find a proper new home for his people. Joining the Guardians of the Realm, he is on the lookout for any unclaimed mountain range or forest that can be called New Asgard. In the meantime, he has left Valkyrie in his stead, back at their burrow in Hogsmede. Nat is teaching Transfiguration, and Clint, Magical Archery. And "Professor Wolf" is in the dungeons, teaching Potions. Bruce can alternate between any of his three forms at will, and actually tends to teach in his boring, adorkable human form (with only the green tail). After curing Bucky's mind-control, almost saving Vision's life, and curing Everett Ross's near-fatal wounds in hours, Shuri finally has managed to fix Rhodey's legs. He has spent the last month going through the very long list of "asses that need kicking" that he's been accumulating since his accident. Wanda and Bucky are growing close, though Ava might make it a love triangle. Or she might simply be the couple's "little sister." Tony and Shuri are constantly competing to give Bucky a better new arm every month, and Bucky is... (cough)...stockpiling arms. (Dodges tomatoes.) Bucky, Tony and Nebula regularly have magical metal arm-wrestling contests.  Bucky, Tony and Wanda are also all extremely protective of each other, after their guilt complexes regarding one another. Carol Danvers continues to patrol the non-Human societies of the planet, and is now dating Valkyrie. And Peter Parker is preparing for a trip abroad, and graduation. He's scared of adulthood, of no longer being dependent on Aunt May or Mr. Stark, but he will take it in stride. Notes: Willikers! Holy mustache! This was a trip.  To honestly justify each characters' Sorting, I have to stick to their main defining moments in canon. I basically decided to keep the most iconic scenes of "Endgame," while giving it a better plot and climax. And ending. By god, the ending. By god, Steve Rogers. Many people online peg Steve for a Slytherin, and by the last scene of "Endgame," he seems every bit like a Rowling-esque, self-serving Slytherin bastard. I have only two arguments for still sorting him into Gryffindor. (1)  the Sorting Hat never said Slytherins were selfish; just ambitious, cunning, and power-hungry. Steve's selfish actions in "Endgame" could just as easily be the result of a Gryffindor's impulsive stupidity and self importance. (2) Steve can be literally any House you want, because Steve has no consistent character at all. Not in the MCU. For this project, I chose to sort Steve going by the traits the films indented for us to see in him, and used as many mental gymnastics as I could manage to rationalize those traits with his actions in canon. I am nowhere near done with this series. I still have all of the supporting cast of "Black Panther" among other things. In the meantime, see the blog for more MCU characters at Hogwarts.  

[troominmoll]

"i feel like being bitter and listing off all the things that the 90s show changed about the original stories" as a relative newcomer to moomin-related stuff, i'm curious... what *did* the 90s show change??

*rubs hands because I love being insufferable*  

(Minor disclaimer that this is mostly done in good nature. I understand almost every show that is adapted from existing content is gonna change stuff to suit their story-telling needs. But I am annoyed that some who praise the 90s anime think the new series is bad simply for doing things differently when that show, and nearly every one prior to it, has also put their own spin on things.)

There are 24 episodes of Tanoshii Moomin Ikka (plus a movie) based on the books by Tove Jansson, and I think 11 based on the comic strips she wrote. It would take a long time to cover every single detail in every single episode, so I am mainly going to discuss those that have changes I find more significant, disappointing, personally distressing, or just plain baffling.

(A second disclaimer: I have not read any entire comic stories past the point where Tove stopped working on them. There are some episodes based on strips created exclusively by her brother Lars, The Vampire and Artists in Moominvalley being two examples. I will be skipping those, as well as Bouken Nikki episodes, as I have yet to thoroughly watch each one on account of so few being based on Tove’s work and the headaches they induce lmao. Nitpicks from fans who have read Lars’ strips in full are welcome.)

Now without further ado, let the fussing begin~

01 Spring in Moominvalley: This follows the basic storyline from the first two chapters of Finn Family, but with some notable changes. Snufkin at this point woke up from hibernation along with the rest of the family, Little My had yet to be introduced, and Snork - a child like the rest of the main cast - lived with his sister and the rest of the kids in the Moominhouse. The entire subplot of him being an inventor is merely an invention of the anime.

Moomintroll, in the book, spends a lot more time in transformed body. As he believes his friends are playing a new game when they fail to recognize him, he makes up a story about being “The King of California”. He repeatedly pretends to insult Moomin (himself), and in a touching display of devotion his own friends beat him up to defend his honour.

02 The Magic Hat: Continuing on with a scene based on the later half of chapter 2, we see Moomin rescue Snorkmaiden from the Ant Lion, and along with Snufkin, decide to trap him in the magical hat. In the original story however, Moomin and Snork trap the him. This was rather unprovoked, though Moomin cites a moment from a previous book (read all about it in The Moomins and the Great Flood!) where the Ant Lion allegedly kicked sand in Mamma’s eyes. The gang then takes the hat back inside for more “experiments”, and after making a mess, the adults decide it best to dispose of the hat in the river.

Much like in the story, the hat is soon recovered by Moomin and Snufkin, though a chapter where they hide it in a cave and and end up frightening the Muskrat (who uses it as a shelf for his dentures) is absent. It then continues to the scene where Moominhouse is briefly overgrown with plants. Aside from this happening sooner than it did in the book, and the premature appearance of the Hobgoblin, and the missing Mameluke hunt, and the part where all the children play in the jungle, I think it’s pretty true to that chapter!

03 Discovery of a Wrecked Ship:  First off, I wanna say I’m mostly including this episode on my list just to make it clear that Snufkin’s random sexist comments towards Snorkmaiden and Little My are missing from the book. There is a chapter where him and Moomin go ambling up some rocks, but “the girls” are thankfully absent from this scene.

So then they discover an abandoned boat and the rest of the episode is padded with scenes where they repair it. A charming spectacle, I’m sure, but also absent from the book as the boat they find is already in pristine condition. Shame that Snufkin never got to share his idea for the ship’s name, (it was Lurking Wolf aha ha ha) but that might be for the best.

07 The Suitcase: As seen in episode 06, Thingumy and Bob arrived in Moominvalley. They bring with them stolen goods and and the mother of Grimace, who seeks to recover said goods. Snufkin, once again letting everyone down, decides that a gentle female should speak to them about the contents of their suitcase and soon Snorkmaiden is assigned to the task. Instead the book features a trial sequence, which really helps hammer in the metaphor. Everyone takes part and Sniff acts as prosecutor of behalf of the Groke, who appears and is willing to trade the treasure in exchange for the magical top hat (NOT a pretty scallop).

08 The Hobgoblin’s Magic: Moomin hears that his wondrous wooden woman has washed up on the shores of Moominvalley. But when he rushes to the beach, he finds nothing but sand and disappointment waiting for him. This sends him spiraling into a brief yet no less deep depression which is cured only when Thingumy and Bob share their contents of their secret suitcase. The novel was much more reasonable however. He was saddened by the loss of Snufkin who had skipped the valley for the first time, promising (as we all know) to return on the first day of Spring.

And then there is a fabulous summer party thrown by the family after the recovery of Moominmamma’s handbag. This part is true to the story, at the very least. But the party in the book is much more fantastical, with dancing, music (from America of all places), punch served in darling sea shells, and everyone - right down to the tiniest forest critter - is invited, and gets to make a wish when the magic man arrives. 

09 An Invisible Friend / 10 The Invisible Child: I wouldn’t say that these episodes, featuring the famous character from Tales of Moominvalley, have any life-ruining changes from the original story. But since no episode is complete without a bit of drama, or a pointless cameo from Snufkin, a scene where Stinky traps Ninny with the intention of having her assist in his robberies has been written in. And Little My’s comment regarding the aunt in the English dub, where she states “I hope you told her she hurt Ninny’s feelings!” seems uncharacteristically gentle in comparison to her asking if Too-Ticky “bashed her head in”.

13 The Last Dragon on Earth: As mentioned in the entry above, some episodes will include new subplots or elements for the sake of drama and action. This episode is another example of that, but otherwise it has only minor tweaks. Snufkin states that “the cards” have told him he should leave Moominvalley early if he catches x number of such-and-such a fish, but that storyline is exclusive to this show.

14 Our Neighbor is a Touch Teacher: This episode is based on snippets of the comic strip “Moominmamma’s Maid”, but scraps the storyline containing the titular character from the strip, which is nearly all of it. Instead, it is entirely focused on the Moomin’s new neighbor, Mrs Fillyjonk, a strict and uptight mother of three.

After the Moomin’s welcome party leaves Mrs Fillyjonk fearing for her life, she forbids her children from playing with the Moomin brood. They sneak away anyway. A bunch of death defying stunts happen, courtesy of Stinky. Mrs Fillyjonk plans to leave the valley, but the kids have none of that. This is almost an original story, save for the existence of a party.

16 A Close Encounter with Aliens: Once again we have an episode based on the comics. It follows the basic plotline of the Moomins caring for a stranded Martian child.  But a lot of wackiness was cut for time, including invisible Moomins pranking valley residents, a flying fire brigade, and Moomin shrinking down with Mamma, who later bites a Fillyjonk child. Time used for an inserted chase scene with Stinky (one of many across the tv series) feels could’ve been better spent on some of the fun stuff mentioned in my previous sentence.

17 A Change of Air: And yet another comic-based episode, this one taken from “Moomin and Family Life”, which happens to be my personal favourite comic so this analysis may sound bitterer than others. The episode cuts the beginning of the strip, where we see a lonely parent-less Moomin contemplate suicide before being reunited with his long lost Moominmamma and Moominpappa. The comic is a completely different entity from the books and adjustments must be made, so this decision is understandable. But the following choice? Less so.

The episode instead starts with Pappa complaining that nothing exciting ever happens, and I won’t remind him of the events from episode 16 because everyone brings that up. Stinky overhears plans of doing something to entertain him, and during the night makes a set of giant footprints leading to the sea. Whereas in the comic strip, the “giant” prints are innocently left by Snufkin who was wearing boot too big for he gotdamn feet. He nearly perishes for this grave mistake.

Strips where Moominmamma and Moominpappa hang out in a cave, Moomin sheds a few tears tears, and Snufkin offers some half hearted words of comfort provide a basis for following scenes in the episode. But antics with Moomin and friends trying to foil Aunt Jane, who angrily travelled to the Moominhouse after being pranked by Pappa, are sadly missing. 

24 Hurry Up Snufkin: The part where Snufkin meets and later names the forest creature Teetywoo, is based on the short story “The Spring Tune”. There are many potential gripes one can have about such a brief scene.

A lot of the dialogue between the two characters reflects what is said in the short story, but what the episode sorely lacks are Snufkin’s feelings. Gone are his shouts and snaps, his grumpiness about being disturbed, his regret when he lashes out, his desperation to find Teetywoo again. His famous line “I’ll come when it suits me” is “cried violently”, making me wonder how it ever became an inspirational quote (oh wait I know). In favour of portraying Snufkin as cool and chill, the anime sometimes ends up making him look more like an emotionless bump on a log.

The plotline of Snufkin being late to return because he is trying to compose a new song has been cut, on account of either his lack of talent or lack of music budgeting.

25 The Lighthouse / 26 The Day the Lighthouse Lit Up: These episodes actually combine elements of two different stories: the comic strip “Moomin and the Sea”, and the similarly titled novel “Moominpappa at Sea”. Lacking most of the typical shenanigans from the strips, or bleak themes from the book, these episodes feel more like a slightly above-average family outing.

The episodes seems to lean more towards the comic, where Moominpappa takes on the job of lighthouse keeper as inspiration for his writing, and Moomin is terrorised by an equally frightened ghost. Too-Ticky unfortunately is missing from the episodes, alone with the scenes where she shares some spooky suggestions with the spectre, and where Snorkmaiden fakes her own drowning to help Moomin feel brave. 

Borrowing from the books, we meet both the former lighthouse keeper and a little boy named Toft, who apparently got very lost on his way to auditions for a “Moominvalley in November” episode. The episode scraps the element from the book of Moominpappa making the entire family miserable because he has some deluded fantasy about protecting and providing for them on his own, as well as a heart wrenching subplot involving the Groke, which I will not spoil for those considering reading it. But know this: there will be tears. 

28 The Floating Theatre / 29 The Lost Children / 30 Midsummer: This three-parter is based on “Moominsummer Madness”, which is kind of an interesting book. Taking place smack dab in the middle of the series, we see it move away from the more lighthearted tones of the early stories, and begin the shift towards the less fantastical and more serious themes of the later books. But it isn’t quite there yet. And being written around the time Tove still worked on the comic series, some parts of the book would not seem out of place if drawn in her strips.

The most noticeably difference between the original story and anime episodes is the change of the cast. With the number of characters and subplots happening at once in the book, it was inevitable that some unlucky sod would get scrapped from the story - three sods in fact, by the names of Mymble, Misabel, and Whomper. Sniff is inserted into the story, and references to Mr Fillyjonk, the stage manager and Emma’s late husband, are removed. 

Snufkin and My’s subplot is changed and cut quite short, beginning with the element of the two not knowing each other. His assault on the park keeper seems to be done for the sake of rescuing the children more or less imprisoned in the park, but book Snufkin simply took joy in breaking the law. The episode lacks great scenes of him trying to take care of the 24 little children; doing things like making silly noises, threatening to drown himself, and exposing them to second hand smoke. 

With a small handful of characters missing, the plot of the play Moominpappa writes greatly differs from the book. And say goodbye to the ending chapter, where the reunited Moomin family flees the police and gets chased all the way back to Moominvalley. 

45 Moomin Builds a House: This episode is based on the comic of the same title. Although it cuts the story quite short, what is left in is relatively close to the original. Except for the insertion of Snufkin, but I am not offended because that adorable laugh made his appearance worthwhile.

59, 63, 68 Adventures of Moominpappa: And here we get to the episodes based on “The Exploits of Moominpappa”. The first few changes I’d like to point out are a little less notable. As Mrs Fillyjonk was already more established in the show, the Hemulen aunt becomes a Fillyjonk. Edward is a silent character, the Nibling child that Pappa and co look after is absent, and everyone gets real ugly colour palettes. 

Next, as you may know, the original books don’t really follow a solid timeline and canon changes in between stories. So in an attempt to make more sense, the young Mymble that Moomin meets is Little My’s mother, rather than her sister. But strangely, Moominpappa’s other friends are no longer the parents of Sniff and Snufkin. Why those two were still so enraptured by listening to his story is unclear.

Comet in Moominland: Finishing off the list is a movie based on the story of the same name. Being the first in what is considered the “main” book series, there are bound to be differences in how characters are written. But there is no difference here more worth talking about than Snufkin.

As I’ve already mentioned before, he is portrayed in the anime as more relaxed. He is the older and most mature member of Moomin’s group of friends, and tends to be reserved in expressing his emotions. For the sake of presenting Snufkin as a responsible figure, he never teaches the gang his favourite game: rolling boulders down cliffs, an activity which almost results in multiple casualties. We never hear his story about disrespecting a police officer, and his subsequent prison break.

But Snufkin in the earlier books is very much a child like the rest of the main cast. He is playful and talkative, being described as bringing “gaiety” to their adventure, and is always thrilling his friends with epic tales from his travels. He is not shy about expressing himself, he is shown to have some sadness about having no parents and cries his wee heart out upon sees the dried up ocean.

Other changes may seem more innocuous by comparison, snipping a party scene and river raft ride, and including Little My. But with the lack of a noticeable personality for a key character, and some of the action scenes, much of the movie just feels like a boring hike home.

~

In short, yeah. As you can see I’m pretty passionate on this subject, especially when it comes to Snufkin’s characterisation. Anyone who wishes to discourse Moomins with me is welcome.  

[fandomosity]

Ghost Of You

Summary: Based on lyrics from Ghost Of You by 5SOS in which you see how the each of the Mikaelsons would react your death. 

Klaus Mikaelson:

“Dancing through our house With the ghost of you And I chase it down With a shot of truth That my feet don't dance Like they did with you”

You and Klaus had been together for over a half a millennium and yet Klaus had always done everything in his power to keep you safe. You and Klaus were practically inseparable and when you were human you’d joke about how crazy he was for always having one of his hybrids following you in an effort to protect you. Since you were now over five hundred years old Klaus felt more comfortable with you on your own since you were no longer a baby that could easily be overpowered. Yet somehow on the day you died, he had a gut feeling telling him to keep you at arm's reach but you being the stubborn person you were had protested his efforts, instead of opting to stay within earshot you left the compound only to be met by Klaus’s first sire, Lucien. You never thought of Lucien as a threat since his sire was Klaus and instead of running for the hills you helped him find the witch he was looking for.

When Klaus worried he was over paranoid and so when you didn’t show up for dinner and hadn’t responded to his messages he was out the door looking for you before anyone could draw up a plan. When your body was delivered to the compound a day later Klaus fell to his knees so crippled by pain that his thoughts couldn’t process what laid before him. Elijah confirming his first sire betraying Klaus sent him on a downward spiral that caused New Orleans to shake in the wake of your death. When he had met you things had begun to turn around, he slowly stopped unnecessary killings and by the time you had been with him for a hundred years he had mellowed out his murderous tendencies. And here you were dead and nothing stopped the rage that rippled through his veins leaving body after body both vampire and humans alike. Thousands dead because you were no longer there to hear him out, hear his side of things.

Nearly a month after your death Lucien was caught and Klaus kept him nearby as Rebekah tortured him in the effort to cause the amount of pain he had given her family in the wake. Klaus though had slowly retreated into himself and found himself drinking to the point of death if he were human. It was in those moments in his drunkenness that he started seeing what he’d assume was your ghost. It was then that people’s hearts truly broke seeing Klaus, once strong and undefeatable now broken as stumble over his feet as he slow danced with the ghost of you. The once delicately and smooth dance, moving from one step to the next was now clumsy and jagged. He knew you weren’t there but his brain couldn’t cope with your loss and yet he even as he danced through the house you once shared he knew his feet wouldn’t work in the delicate pattern he once used with you.

Rebekah Mikaelson:

“Cleaning up today Found that old Zeppelin shirt you wore when you ran away, and no one could feel your hurt.”

Your death changed everything for Rebekah. You had been her friend for nearly ten years and yet the time spent with you in her life had meant more to her than the millennium she’d lived without. It had been the ten year anniversary of your death and Rebekah had made it a point to herself and to every in the years before that your guys' house was untouchable. In the weeks after your death, Rebekah closed the house up, casting a spell that kept everyone out and everything fresh as when you were still alive. Rebekah would never have admitted it but from the day of your death till the exact moment of her standing on the house’s steps she knew she was running from the pain of packing up your memory.

Now with ten years behind her and her original body back under her control she undid the spell allowing the house to settle around her. The memory of you was so strong that her knees buckled. Rebekah could almost swear that you were just upstairs in your room getting ready for a night out, or taking a nap on the couch. She could smell your vanilla extract you left in the oven, ready to bake to make the house smell like a giant sugar cookie.

Hours had passed and Rebekah had set out to pack up the house, cleaning it up the dust that wasn’t there, writing notes to give the furniture to Goodwill and to transfer some of your clothing to her closet. She had been setting up boxes when the doorbell rang but she couldn’t be bothered to move to answer it. As she listened to her brothers discuss how they wanted to welcome her back into town she whispered a ‘come in’. Since the house had been registered under your name and you had died they were free to let themselves in but her brothers knew to tread carefully. Rebekah’s hands moved to pack a shirt stuffed so far under your bed she nearly had to crawl completely under and it was when her fingers trailed gently over the shirt finding a couple of holes throughout that she recognized it. It was the Led Zeppelin shirt you had worn when you both met. The slightly torn shirt caused an overwhelming sadness to settle over Rebekah.

It wasn’t until Klaus and Elijah appeared at your doorway did they realize how much you had truly meant to her. Rebekah gasped for air as she clutched the shirt to her chest, letting her tears flow as her memory of you in the shirt replayed again and again. “She was running away when we met.” Rebekah felt frail as her voice cracked. Klaus and Elijah sat down on the floor next to Rebekah unable to help. “It was raining so hard and there she was in this torn shirt with tears falling down-” Rebekah’s sobs broke through harder than ever. You both had been running away that day, her from her brothers’ manipulation and you from your depression that followed you everywhere. “She thought no one could feel her pain, th- that no one could understand how deeply she’d been hurt.” Klaus moved closer to Rebekah as she clutched your shirt tighter. It was when Klaus had wrapped his arm around Rebekah that it was clear that no one could feel her hurt that ached in her chest and spread through her body vibrating every cell.

Elijah Mikaelson:

“Here I am waking up Still can't sleep on your side”

You and Elijah were like two peas in a pod. So when Klaus began fighting for a kingdom that wasn’t his to take, Elijah’s feared nothing but you getting in the crossfires. When you had been taken he nearly slaughtered the entire town looking for you and when he did find you he was too late. You had your heart ripped out laying on the floor next to you. This destroyed Elijah. He had loved you, still loved you with everything in his body and then some. He loved your sweet smile and your protective side. Nearly a month after your death he found himself alone. He blamed Klaus of course but nothing changed the fact that you were dead. Beyond dead, as you had been human and therefore there was not even a chance of him seeing you again.

Elijah had taken to drinking in the bar Klaus’s army had spent their time in. His brothers had begun to worried more as each day with you gone Elijah had become unpredictable, always drowning out the noise and the people with drinking and now venom concocted by a witch that could guarantee the death that could kill any other vampire. Being an original kept him from dying but that didn’t mean that the poison didn’t affect him just the same with pain some would consider the absolute worse yet to him did not come close to the pain he felt at your loss. When Elijah had collapsed from the constant poison and lack of blood to feed him Kol managed to carry Elijah’s limp body back to the compound and into bed. Every time Elijah closed his eyes he saw your heart thrown on the floor next to you and there was nothing that kept your gruesome death from torturing him during his unconsciousness.

When Elijah woke up the next morning he noticed his body half hanging off the bed in an attempt to stay away from your side of the bed. The glass of blood in a small glass on the nightstand brought your rosy face to his mind causing him to roll over on the bed letting his nose breathe in your scent. He couldn’t bring himself to sleep on the bed he shared with you let alone your side of the bed. Smelling your strawberry body wash made him cry out as images of you dancing in the rain flickered across his brain. Just being on the bed you once shared made him want to rip his own heart out.

Freya Mikaelson:

“If I can dream long enough You'd tell me I'd be just fine”

Your death had shaken Freya to her core. She never expected you to pay the price that kept her safe but you did and you’d gladly do it again, over and over again. You were her confidant, she had come to you time and time again when her brothers were over-demanding or worst on their vengeance streaks that meant no one was safe from their fury. She had come to depend on you, you both did magic together and had loved drawing from one another. Rebekah was traveling the world finding a spell to resurrect Kol but Freya had stayed to be a buffer between Klaus and Elijah. And yet she’d never imagined that her brother’s actions would lead to your death. The covens paid her the respect when news spread that you had been killed, the vampires and werewolves had called a truce with the news in the effort to make it right with Freya. It had been their fault that you had died in the crossfire and since she was one of the most powerful witches with an original vampire and hybrid on her side it was no coincidence that the man responsible for your death had been pushed forward to collect his punishment. Your death had crushed her spirit nearly to the point of no return. But with you gone she found herself in her bed, unable to connect to her magic. She’d close her eyes in hopes of having a glimpse of you. Sometimes she’d swear to Rebekah that she could see you, feel your presence in the room next to her. Being a witch yourself you had been stuck on the other side staring at Freya’s fragile self. “You’ll be just fine” you whisper as your hands faintly brushed Freya’s hair out of her face. Freya’s sleeping frame turned over and you knew better than anyone how truly broken she was. Freya woke up with tears on her face as Rebekah came in to help her. “I just need to dream long enough-” Freya’s voice trembled “then she’d appear and tell me I’ll be just fine. I just need to see her again, Rebekah.” Freya whispered laying her head back on the pillow closing her eyes.

Kol Mikaelson:

“We're too young, too dumb To know things like love But I know better now”

Kol hadn’t processed your death like everyone had assumed he would. In fact, he did the exact opposite, he had sat quietly mourning you, mourning the non-judgmental ear you gave him, mourning his friendship with you that had made him a better person. He hadn’t murdered people or manipulated anyone since he saw you die right in front of him. He hadn’t even murdered your killer which terrified everyone, including his siblings. At first, they had assumed he was in a trance from seeing you die but when he hadn’t even begun looking for your killer something was definitely wrong. Which was true, you were dead and he had curled into himself allowing your killer to walk free but to everyone who knew of Kol’s reputation and even the killer himself had assumed Kol was playing a psychological game but in reality, Kol had just stopped caring.

He hadn’t shut off his humanity simply because he wanted to be better for you, he wanted to show you that he was making an effort to be the man you had always saw him being or becoming and shutting off his humanity had meant he’d turn ruthless and he wouldn’t do that to you even if you weren’t alive anymore. Day after day of Kol’s collectiveness he began to understand why he wanted this for you, began to understand why he’d rather live with the pain without seeking vengeance. He realized how exactly much you had meant to him. How he always thought of you as just a good friend, someone he could depend on to go to the bar with him at midnight to release steam or someone he could call on a long trip to explain the strangest day he had or someone he could vent to about how much he had missed being a witch, being connected to the earth in a way that made everything so small so significant.

‘I love you!’ you said it in such a tiny voice that had he not been a vampire he wouldn’t have heard. But you had said those words to him with such ease that he had just assumed you meant it in a platonic way, the way you both always ended a call or said goodbye. ‘I love you like really love you.’ you spoke much louder and he turned to face you on the bed. You had been sleeping over after you both had hit the town drinking shot after shot, bar after bar that when you both were highly intoxicated Kol didn’t even think twice about letting you come over to sleep, or sharing his bed that you always slept in to take a nap when he was off fighting battles that weren’t his. “Love you too.” Kol’s response that night was platonic and automatic and it hurt your feelings but you had kept going. ‘No I mean, I actually love you.’ you weren’t scared of being rejected because you had known that he loved you just as much so you said how you felt with drunken courage backing you up.

'Y/N, you're too young to know what romantic love is, trust me.’ his response to you was playing back in his head even after it was too late to take it back. That night you had just nodded your head quickly falling asleep but now he knew how much he loved you on a level far beyond platonic and the fact that you had jumped in front of him to save him showed how much you truly loved him. When you had told him he was just too dumb to realize how connected you were to your feelings but he knew better now. Which was why he laid in bed staring at the side you often took regretting everything he ever did after that night that wasn’t showing you how much he cared. Now that you were gone it was too late for him to which was what truly crushed him about your death.

[solarflarefanfiction]

Solar Flare 5

AN: I know Bella is very emotional, but she is 17, and despite what she thinks, she’s highly emotional, coming out of a deep depression, and has an understandable fear of being abandoned.

---

“Jake” the cold night air blowing against my overheated skin tickled against my skin as if I’d been shot through with electricity.

I heard harsh breathing and realized Jacob was not gone, just standing beside the truck, bent over with his hands on his knees and breathing heavily as if he’d just run a very long way.

“Jake!” I scrambled over the seat, banging my knee against the gear shift, and almost tumbling head first out of the cab in my haste.

I reached out a hand, wanting to rest it against his back, see if he was alright. But had I hurt him in some way?

“Jake! Are you okay?” I asked instead, hand half extended.

“You-You didn’t stop me,” Jake said, sounding breathless. He grasped my hand and stood up. His face was flushed, and flushed further when he glanced over at me.

“Stop you from what?” I climbed back into the truck and felt Jake’s hand briefly brushed my hip, as if to steady me.

He was blushing heavily as he climbed in after me, his eyes still glancing at me and away.

“Stop me from—“ He blew out a breath “What we were doing. Bella, you were fine with that? With me- with us…”

Now I was blushing deeply as well, my face atomically hot in a way much less pleasant than the fire that had swept through me before.

“You don’t want…”

He laughed suddenly putting a hand over his face.

“Bells, what part of that felt like me not wanting you?” He ran his hand through his now short hair, as if he’d forgotten that it was now close shorn.

“But you…”

“God, that was—are you trying to kill me?” He laughed again and turned the car back on.

“I don’t understand” I whined, hating myself for doing so.

“Bella…did you really want our first time to be…that?”

Now I flushed anew, in a whole new shade of humiliated.

The truth was, it hadn’t occurred to me where what we were doing might lead. I had been pure feeling; I’d been running on instinct and heat and want.

“I’m sorry,” I said chastened. Why hadn’t I stopped, even thought of stopping? Why had it always been Edward who pulled away, who had never been carried away, had worried about virtue and taking things slow?

Was it something about me? That I got out of control, like some kind of crazy virgin nympho? Or was it that I just wanted him, wanted them, much much more than-

“Bells, no, don’t cry.” Jake looked over at me, alarmed, pulling over the car once again, to reach and pull me across the seat toward him again.

With my face against his shoulder (when had he put his shirt back on?) I felt better and worse, and perversely, my tears fell freely.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…” I cried, nonsensically, while he awkwardly stroked his hand down my back.

“Bells, I’m not mad!” he said desperately. “I thought you would be! I just grabbed you! I practically mauled you! I was surprised you didn’t slap me, push me away. Now that I know you’ve never…never…” he broke off, blushing. “Shit. I want to to be different for us, is all, the first time at least.”

My tears were drying rapidly, my heart lifting absurdly. I was being so so stupid. Assuming the worst. Jacob wasn’t…him. He’d promised to never ever leave me. He loved me. He loved me.

“Really?”

Jacob sighed in apparent relief. “Of course. Jeez, Bells, I love you.”

“I love you too, Jake.”

I peeked up, conscious that my face must be terribly splotchy and red. But we was looking at me with such a look, such a beautiful look. I couldn’t look away.

He coughed finally, looked back at the road.

“So, can I drive you home now? I’d rather not risk Charlie’s wrath tonight.”

“Just tonight?” I teased, leaning against him. I’d been stupid, but I couldn’t really regret it now, filled with relief.

He looked at me, heat in his eyes, the same heat that had stroked its way up my body just minutes before.

“Gotta save up my credit with him while I have a chance Bella.” He grinned at her. “So try not to look too teary when you see him. I don’t want him to think I screwed up. Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he’s gotten a bit more protective lately.

I laughed, wiping my eyes.

“You’d think he’d be used to me falling apart by now.”

“As someone who loves you, Bells, it’s not something you get used to.”

I reached over to pat his hand. “Thanks Jake”

He smiled, “Now, now. we can’t get started again. Keep those hands to yourself, Bells. I know I’m irresistible, but- “

“You are, you know. Irresistible.”

“Ah, come on, you’re making me blush.” But he glanced over and gave me one of the smiles that made me feel like I’d been filled with bubble bath.

It was enough that, when I got home, with my bag of purchases, and now in a kind of breathless good cheer, Charlie was apparently unworried.

If he saw any lingering redness around my eyes, well, he knew better than to ask.

The incident with Jacob started me thinking though.

The way he said, “us,” “our first time,” “when we,” he was talking about the future. Our future. A future in which we made love, and stayed together.

A future in which Edward really never came back.

A future where I moved on?

I knew it was odd. I loved Jake. It was probably too fast, too strange. The Cullens had left, and I’d been gutted for months.

Now I was in love with Jake, part of the pack. How long had I been in love with Jake?

But I still wasn’t making plans for the future. Not really. I’d forgotten how to think about the future.

I’d fought with Edward about going to college, about going to prom. What did those things matter, when I was going to be a vampire. I was going to have forever to go to college, to do everything.

Except I wasn’t.

Edward didn't love me. He'd left, forever. He hadn't wanted my love.

Jake loved me. And I loved him, despite everything that had happened. I loved him enough to want the future that i had left to be with him.

Things couldn’t go on this way. Falling apart, taking Jake with me. I needed to really decide to get better.

Easier said than done.

I needed a plan.

____

It sounded simpler than it was. I’d suffered a loss, a major blow, which had crushed both my heart, and my plans for the rest of my life.

But still.

I’d been in a fog for months. I’d almost died, and I hadn’t cared. I still felt afraid, so afraid, that I would lose Jacob too, and without him once again spiral off into the darkest parts of my mind and heart.

I couldn’t keep spiraling though, clinging to Jacob because I couldn’t bear to be alone, falling apart at each minor hiccough or potential set back. It would be like drowning him to save myself, and he would let me do it. He'd go down with me, fighting my demons when I couldn't or wouldn't until it destroyed him.

I couldn't quite think up a whole brilliant plan forgot to fix myself. But I figured out step one.

say goodbye

Which brought me to this lonely, almost invisible lane early the next Saturday morning, sitting with the car off, just out of sight of the grand house in the woods that had once been everything I wanted.

This is a bad idea Bella. Go home.

Oddly calm, I looked to the side and saw him.

Angelic and flawless he looked as if he were sitting beside me.

I hadn't seen hallucination Edward in a few weeks, likely by dint of spending few of my waking hours alone, and no longer indulging in my pursuit of self-destruction.

He was beautiful, and it hurt to look at him and remember all of my dreams. To remember that I still loved him. It turned out you could love two people at once.

But...it was bearable, somehow. Maybe because I'd been making a new life for myself, maybe because I'd simply adjusted to the pain.

Don’t worry. You’re human--your memory is no more than a sieve. Time heals all wounds for your kind. (New Moon 72)

It was one of the things he'd said that still haunted me. As if i was cursed with this sense that if ever I regained some semblance of peace and happiness I was proving that he'd been right. That I hadn't been able to love him enough for him to stay.

I turned away from Edward, and turned the car back on, continued down the little lane until I pulled up in front of the Cullen house.

It hurt.

If I had hoped that magically- and with the help of Jacob, but also Kim, Leah, Emily, Embry, Quil, Seth, even Paul, Jared, and Sam--that my pain had gone away, well,  it hadn’t, of course.

Here, all alone in front of this place that represented more than almost any other what I had lost, here the pain was still a burning wound.

I was stronger now though. I didn’t turn away and run. I didn’t fall to the ground. I stared at the big, empty house, now quiet and abandoned. It still looked more haunted now than it ever had when it was full of vampires.

“Hello, Edward.” Alice. Jasper. Carlisle. Esme. Emmett. Rosalie. I thought of them too, the strange, beautiful family I’d thought for one beautiful summer would be mine.

“I miss you. It’s isn’t like you said. It isn’t easy to move on.” I was holding myself, like always. Clutching my hands around my rib cage, as if it would keep me from falling apart, or collapsing.

“I wouldn’t have moved on, if you’d stayed. I would have been with you. Even as a human.” my lips barely moved, I felt like I was freezing from the inside out. But my voice still sounded so loud in the empty clearing, with only this vacant house to hear.

“I didn’t try and stay safe. How could you make me promise to be safe? You knew I would promise you anything.” I was so glad I’d broken those promises, and it was strange how that bitter joy sat in the middle of all my pain.

“I did it to break my promise” but that wasn't totally true.

"I did it for you, to feel close to you. But…I did it for me too. And now…I didn’t mean to move on Edward. But…”

The next part of what I want to say still felt like sacrilege “It wasn’t fair, Edward. How could I prove you right and move on? You left because I was too weak, I know. I wanted to prove you wrong.”

“Forever is a long time, though. Even if it isn’t as long as I thought it was going to be.”

My lips were cold and stiff now, and I couldn't get any more words out. That was okay. None of them were really good enough.

I took a shaky step toward the front steps, then another.

Soon I was sitting on the front steps, looking at my truck and the woods beyond. And I was all right.

I sighed around the pain in my chest. How could you say goodbye to people who didn’t want your goodbyes?

Now, when I was waiting for him to appear, my phantom Edward was nowhere to be seen, and it was just me and my memories.

My tears were warm as they splashed onto my freezing arms.

I let myself cry without holding back, or feeling guilty, or pretending I didn't feel anything.

It felt like goodbye. It felt like I would drown. Again.

I sat for a long time, as the sun rose higher in the sky and finally poured full force over the front of the house.

I was stiff from sitting on the hard stairs for so long, and shaky with a mix of too much crying and most likely hunger.

But I was all cried out, and it felt weirdly good. There was relief, rather than the dark never-ending despair I only half-remembered from the time right after Cullens left, or the blank emptiness that followed.

I should go home. See Jacob. My heart was lighter now, though I hadn't done anything but cry over the same pain that’d been bothering me months.

Oh, but there was one more thing I needed to do.

I didn’t really have any Edward keepsakes. He’d made sure of that when he left.

I had the wreck of the speaker I’d pried out of my truck. It didn’t have many Edward memories tied to it (which was probably why he hadn’t take it with him). I’d decided to bury that here, because I needed to be rid of it. Seeing it, all I could remember was the desperate pain I’d felt as i clawed it out of my truck in the first, terrible days after they left. Frantic but tearless, like a wild creature.

But I’d found something real to bury here, to bury with this dead version of my future.

It was my prom dress from last year.

I retrieved the trash bag with the torn up speaker, my pretty, still not me, dress - now tucked in an old shoe box, and a spade I’d dug out of Charlie’s garage.

Luckily, the dirt in Esme’s garden was soft, and easy to dig, because I wasn’t so caught up in my plan as to relish unglamorous hole digging.

Still crouching in the dirt and placing that sad, beautiful, totally wrong prom dress at the top of the little grave felt right. Piling the dirt on top of the box and patting it down until you couldn’t even tell where the hole had been was satisfying and physical.

Goodbye Bella...Cullen

It still hurt to think that, the most forbidden of my forbidden thoughts. But it was true, that was who I was burying. That idea of the beautiful, perfect, vampire me. The me who would keep Edward for a thousand lifetimes.

“Owoooooooooo” A howl in the distance pulled me out of my reverie.

“Jacob?” I asked no one at all. It was absurd to think that I could distinguish his howl from the others, let alone from what sounded like miles distance. But even so, as I heard a second howl answer the first, I was sure it was Jacob.

Was he in trouble? What if the vampires had attacked?

“Jacob!!”

I scrambled to my car, brushing my dirty hands on my jeans and flinging myself into the driver’s seat, fingers shaking and fumbling with the keys. The old truck seemed to take forever to start up, and I turned it too quickly, almost fishtailing out of control before I’d gone anywhere.

My phone rang as I was barreling up the Cullens’ long drive, but I couldn’t answer it without crashing the car, and so I ignored it, instead turning, too quickly, onto the highway, heading for La Push, and hopefully, if not Jacob, at least one werewolf who could tell me what was going on.

The empty highway seemed ominous, even though I knew the stretch from Forks to La Push was never high-traffic. I couldn’t focus on anything like speed limits, not that my truck would be winning any speed awards anyway. I jumped whenever I thought I saw something in the forest beside me, and the truck jumped too, almost swerving off the road a couple times.

It seemed to take hardly anytime, and also much too long, before I was pulling up in front of Emily’s house - where I’d driven without consciously choosing my destination.

“Jacob?!” I cried, in a stumbling run toward the front door.

“Bella,” two voices said, almost as one. Emily was coming out the front door to her house, looking concerned and confused. And Leah was striding out of the forest, looking relieved and annoyed.

She was also naked, and I shot my eyes back to Emily, feeling my face heat up.

“Leah, did something happen to Jacob?” Emily asked, coming towards me with concern to grasp my shoulders and hold me upright.

“Bella!” Leah repeated. “What's wrong? Where the fuck have you been?”

“I was—I heard the howling, was it Jacob? I thought—something must have happened, so I just came here. Emily, where’s Sam? Where is Jacob?”

Emily looked more concerned now “There was a distress call, from Jacob. I don’t—Leah?”

I followed her gaze back to Leah, keeping my eyes trained on her angry face.

“The distress call was for Bella. Somehow, someone slipped through our patrol. And when Jake went to the house to check in—you were gone, had been gone for hours. No fresh leech smell, no sign of a struggle. But gone.”

A car was pulling up, recognizable as Jared’s, with Kim looking a bit pale in the front seat.

I turned to look for a split second and out of the corner of my eye saw Leah explode back into a wolf and give one more howl.

Jared, halfway through scooping Kim out of the car, slowed, setting her on her feet beside him and taking her hand to gently tow here toward Emily and me.

“What’s up guys? I heard the call, but I had to go get Kim. False alarm?”

“It looks that way.” Emily sighed, dropping her hands from my arms and smiled tentatively.

“It sounds like we’re about to have more company. Why don’t we all go inside.”

Kim, looking dazed, widened her eyes at me in question. I shrugged.

Jacob hadn’t actually thought I was missing, had he?

Leah was the first to follow us in. She’d thrown on a long, loose cotton dress, and stalked in as if in full battle armor.

“I repeat: What. The. Fuck.” She said, glaring at me.

“I don’t understand! I just went…to run an errand. I didn’t sneak out! I didn’t think anyone would worry! I’m fine!”

Leah gave me a measuring look, then blew out a breath, looking calmer.

“So what you’re saying is, Jake’s an idiot?”

Jared snorted, dropping heavily on the couch, which made a creaking protest, next to Kim, an arm draping over her narrow shoulders.

“Nothing new, then. Now what?”

“Now, I guess I break out the emergency rations.” Emily seemed to have regained her calm, and headed for the garage. Kim perked up, snapping out of her apparent confusion.

“Ooh! I’ll help, do you have any blueberry? I’m starving!”

"But, Jake--"

Leah snorted. "Oh, he's coming, don't worry. They all are. In fact-"  She tilted her head, scowl deepening, then turned back to the door.

A moment later I heard it too, the unmistakable sound of Jacob, bellowing in anger and pain.

"BELLA! Bella! Damn it, Sam, get off me! I know what Leah said! Bella!"

"Jake!" As always, his pain called to me, and I hurried toward the door, only to find Leah immovable, blocking my exit. She flung the door open, but shook her head and block me when I tried to duck around her.

"No. He's not in control. Idiot."

"Bella!" Jake shouted, striding unbelievably quickly toward me, looking like a storm cloud and shaking all over. "Where the hell were you!? Are you allright?"

"Leah, it's fine, let me go." She didn't. Jake saw and his face darkened with fresh anger.

"I'm fine Jacob- I just was running errands!"

Sam and Paul, who I'd paid no attention to, stepped in front of Jacob as he stepped toward the steps up to Emily's.

"Get the fuck out of my way Sam." Jacob snarled.  Literally, it was a sound not meant to come out of a human throat.

I made a failed attempt to duck around Leah and saw Embry and Quil lope up to flank Jake, smiling but looking nervous and placating.

"It looks like she's fine, Jake, you saw what Leah showed us. Now just take a breath. You'll scare her." Embry smoothed. Quilt seemed less calm, shaking slightly himself, in that unsettling way the wolves all did when they were in danger of changing.

"It's fine, I'm not-" I tried to interject, but several things happened nearly simultaneously: Jacob's hand shot out and he shoved Embry, hard enough to send the smaller (well, less giant) boy flying back across the drive, narrowly missing impacting with my truck. Quil danced back several feet and exploded into a wolf, narrowly missing stepping on Seth, who'd been hanging back, uncertainly, causing Leah to curse and burst away from the doorway toward her brother.

"Enough!" Sam ordered sharply. "Jacob, you need to focus. You are not going into that house if you are in danger of shifting."

A hand dropped onto my shoulder and I started.

"Not so fast, Bella" I could feel the tension humming through Jared, but his face and voice were mild and calm. "Jake won't thank us if you run out there and he really does lose it."

Jacob was glaring between Sam, Paul, and Jared. He looked suddenly at me, face unreadable, and then cursed, and dropped his hands to his knees and took several deep breaths, shuddering, but moving toward normal human movement. The werewolves and I (and Kim and Emily too) all watched silently for a moment. Quil lay down with his head between him massive paws, and Embry limped to sit on the front step, scowling, but not looking seriously angry. Leah dragged her brother toward the house, glaring at Jake.

After only a minute, though it seemed much longer, Jacob was just bent over, hands braced on his knees, no longer breathing hard, or shaking as if he was bursting at the seams.

Jared relaxed fractionally, letting go of my shoulder and I darted forward toward Jake, tripping down the stairs with no control, but miraculously on my feet, I flung myself at him, arms extended. He caught me and held me for a too-brief moment, and I could feel the echo of his recent fear.

"What happened Jake? Why did you think I was missing? Did she come near the Charlie's house again?"

"Where in the hell were you Bella?"

"I just had to run some errands?" I repeated what now somehow felt like a very lame excuse, still bewildered. "I didn't think--"

Jake held me back at arm's length and frowned down at me.

"So you just snuck out, not letting anyone know, not warning anyone, for some errands?" He demanded. Like I'd purposely avoided him.

Well, I was glad that nobody was around to follow me. That was private.

It wasn't fair. I could feel tears building up somewhere deep down, but it wasn't fair. Why should I feel bad? I didn't want to worry Jake, or any of the wolves. But I wasn't some prisoner, or a helpless child.

"I didn't sneak!" Not a great comeback, admittedly, but it felt good, in a way I couldn't place.

"Well, you didn't tell anyone where you were going--"

"I didn't know I wasn't allowed to leave my own house without your permission."

One of the wolves, who of course we're all still there, inhaled in a pained sounding sympathy.

"We are trying to protect you, in case you haven't noticed!"

"In case you haven't noticed, I've never complained, and I appreciate you doing so much, risking yourselves, hunting Victoria..." I was losing the initial flush of my anger, recalling all the sacrifices the wolves, most of them my age or younger, were making for me. Tears of frustration were burning in my eyes. Why could I never fight for myself?

Because you need him to love you.

I glared Jacob, with the most sincere anger I could manage.

"I came over here as soon as I heard the howls. I was worried about you, you jerk!"

"We tried to call you," Leah said, in a carefully neutral tone from the steps.

I remembered my phone ringing and colored.

"I was driving over. I couldn't answer without crashing the car, I was driving too fast."

Leah nodded, and I realized what the movement I’d seen out of the corner of my eye had been.

“Yeah, that’s true. She was a menace on the road. Almost crashed like 5 times.”

A huffing laugh came from one of the other wolves, as Jacob closed his eyes as if in great pain.

"Jeez, Bells, you are going to be the death of me."

I half-glared, confused now that the tension was quickly dissipating.

Jake sighed and shook himself, looking at me with a less certain glower.

"You should have left a note or something."

I scowled at him, despite feeling like the world was righting itself.

"You could have called me before jumping to conclusions." I paused, noticing how tired Jake looked now that he was no longer furious.

I reached out a tentative hand, pausing just for a moment in hesitation before I grasped his.

"I'm sorry I scared you, Jake.”

He ran a hand over his head, in that way that always tugged at my heart, because it meant he’d forgotten again  that he’d cut all his beautiful hair off.

“Yeah, well, I guess I could’ve…” he trailed off, looking uncertain and weary. He would have always over reacted. Who knew better than me, except perhaps the pack, how absolutely deadly the vampires could be.?

I stepped forward hesitantly, placing my hands over his still tense arms.

“Nothing is going to happen to me, Jake.”

He pulled me toward him and wrapped his arms around me.

“Shh. Don’t jinx it, Bells.” His voice had a smile in it now though.

“You don’t believe in jinxes” I poked him in the side.

“I might start.”

“Jerk” But I was feeling pretty unjinxed as he tugged my toward the house, and the telltale smell of warm muffins and family.

[gadgetgirl71]

October 2020 Reading List

After last months Birthday Celebration reading list of being able reading any books I wanted, so this month its back to normal.

Most of the books I’ve chosen to read are from my ARC list. If I manage to read these books then I will then pick something off my GoodReads TBR list again.

Don’t forget to pop by again on the 6 October to see what book I pull out of the Random Jar of the Month.

October’s Books:

The Fate of Us by Tori Fox, Page: 261, Publication Date: 27 August 2020

Ghost by Dolly Alderson, Pages: 336, Publication Date: 15 October 2020

The Illustrated Child by Polly Crosby, Pages: 400, Publication Date: 29 October 2020

Reflect (Reclaim Trilogy #1) by Jess Booth & Joanna Reeder, Pages: 507, Publication Date: 8 September 2020

F*THS (Friends that have Sex #1) by G L Thomas, Pages: 216, Publication Date: 17 February 2019

Synopsis: Anna May Cooper owned my heart. Until she did the one thing she promised she wouldn’t. She ran. I cannot live without her. But my ghosts aren’t gone either. And they have the power to destroy everything. Now I need to fight for her.

It should be Anna and me forever. But now I am not sure about the fate of us.

Synopsis: Nina Dean has arrived at her early thirties as a successful food writer with loving friends and family, plus a new home and neighbourhood. When she meets Max, a beguiling romantic hero who tells her on date one that he’s going to marry her, it feels like all is going to plan.

A new relationship couldn’t have come at a better time – her thirties have not been the liberating, uncomplicated experience she was sold. Everywhere she turns, she is reminded of time passing and opportunities dwindling. Friendships are fading, ex-boyfriends are moving on and, worse, everyone’s moving to the suburbs. There’s no solace to be found in her family, with a mum who’s caught in a baffling mid-life makeover and a beloved dad who is vanishing in slow-motion into dementia.

Dolly Alderton’s debut novel is funny and tender, filled with whip-smart observations about relationships, family, memory, and how we live now.

Synopsis: Romilly lives in a ramshackle house with her eccentric artist father and her cat, Monty. She knows little about her past – but she knows that she is loved.

When her father finds fame with a series of children’s books starring her as the main character, everything changes: exotic foods appear on the table, her father appears on TV, and strangers appear at their door, convinced the books contain a treasure hunt leading to a glittering prize.

But as time passes, Romilly’s father becomes increasingly suspicious of everything around him, until, before her eyes, he begins to disappear altogether.

In her increasingly isolated world, Romilly turns to the secrets her father has hidden in his illustrated books, realising that there is something far darker and more devastating locked within the pages…

The truth.

The Illustrated Child is the unforgettable, beguiling debut from Polly Crosby.

Synopsis: Their romance only lasted a short few months… but that was more than 100 years ago.

Ever since his fiancé, Gemma MacLugh, was killed at the hands of a dragon shifter, vampire Leif Villers has mourned his loss. Still, a part of him never gave up on her. He could hear her voice, feel her love even through the grave, relive her memories over and over until they were stripped from him.

Now Leif has discovered the final piece to bring her back from death’s clutches. He carried her brooch, never knowing it held the key to resurrecting his love.

Too bad it’s now in the hands of the formidable kraken shifter who nearly destroyed the Shifter Academy in the recent vampire/shifter war and then slithered away, never to be seen again.

Across time, powerful selkie Gemma MacLugh–a magic user who can shape-shift into a seal–should have a wonderful, comfortable existence at her home in New York in 1897. But jealous sisters target her with their cruelty, making life miserable. If not for her Grandmother and her best friend and fellow selkie, Frederick, things might have been truly unbearable.

But when a mermaid seer foretells her upcoming death and opportunity arises to leave her home and travel across the country to a boarding house in Washington, she takes it. To get away from her cruel sisters.

To escape her destiny. But is it luck or fate’s final joke when she meets a tall, dark and handsome man by the name of Leif Villers?

Their love will challenge time and death itself, but can Leif get Gemma back? Can Gemma truly escape her fate?

**Reflect is the first book in the Reclaim Trilogy within the Shifter Academy Universe written by USA Today Bestselling Authors, Jesse Booth and Joanna Reeder**

Synopsis: If Teddy’s dark secret is discovered, even her wealth and good looks won’t save her.When Asher Rose met Teddy King, he knew it’d be trouble, but it was just the kind of trouble he didn’t mind falling in. What he hadn’t planned on was falling hard for the girl no one could tame. Strap yourself in for a sexy ride fill of intensity and disaster that spirals all the way down.

Note: This is the second edition of this title. It features bonus chapters that were not featured in its first edition. It is also part one of a New Adult I/R Romance. Suggested for mature audiences due to its explicit sex and moderate drug use.

Let me know if you’ve read or reviewed any of these book, and tell me what you think of them. Or just let me know what books are on your reading list for October.

#ARC, #BookBlogger, #Books, #Bookshelf, #GoodReads, #NetGalley, #NetGalleyuk, #October2020, #October2020ReadingList, #ReadingChallenge, #ReadingList, #XpressoBookTours, #XpressoTours

[sulietsexual]

You did a similar thing with Charmed, so what would you say is the most traumatic thing each of the scoobies went through? (Within btvs universe)

Okay, so I’mjust going to go with the Core Four Scoobies (Buffy, Giles, Willow and Xander)otherwise we’ll be here forever, given the rotation of characters on Buffy. So,here we go.

Buffy

So, for me,Buffy’s biggest trauma is somewhat complicated, because what I believe to her biggest trauma and whatthe show presents as her biggesttrauma are completely different. So I’m going to list both, and explain myreasoning behind both.

Narrativelyand within the context of the show and the character and the way the seriestook her characterisation, I would list Buffy’s resurrection as her biggesttrauma. While Buffy undergoes numerous traumas over the series and we have seenher previously suffer PTSD in the Season 2 opener When She Was Bad, herresurrection at the beginning of Season 6 seems to have traumatised her onseveral deeper levels, and it  takes hernearly the entire season to recover from the after-effects.

Not only isBuffy’s trauma linked to being violently pulled out of Heaven, she is furthertraumatised by the fact that she is resurrected in her own grave, effectivelyexperiencing what it is like to be buried alive which, thanks to the Season 1episode Nightmares, we know is one of Buffy’s biggest fears. The entireexperience, coupled with the depression she was already suffering from Season 5, combines to cause so much trauma to Buffy that she literally shuts down andcloses off from human emotions in order to cope.

That beingsaid, I personally believe that thebiggest trauma Buffy suffers is the abuse Spike puts her through. She spends allof Season 6 being victimised by Spike, emotionally and sexually. What we watchunfold over Season 6 is a classic example of an abusive relationship, and whileBuffy is trained/used to dealing with supernatural threats and living inconstant danger, she is not used to apartner who emotionally manipulates and abuses her, pushes her sexualboundaries, sexually assaults her and then attempts to rape her. Buffy might bethe Slayer but she is also human, and abusive relationships have devastating effects on the victims,often leaving them with trauma and PTSD for years afterwards.

Of coursethe show completely ignores this in favour of having Buffy prop up, coddle andcomfort her abuser, and so the trauma and PTSD she would definitely have suffered as a result of the relationship is neitheracknowledged or explored.

Giles

I would saythat Giles’ biggest trauma was losing Jenny and being the one to find her body,especially considering the manner in which he found her body.

As aWatcher, Giles is somewhat used to death and he mentions that he has lostpeople before, but Jenny seems to be the first death of someone truly close tohim, someone he loved. And while he does lose Buffy down the track, as aWatcher, he was always prepared for the day when he would lose his Slayer.Jenny’s death, however, came completely out of the blue and just as he was acknowledging hisfeelings for her again and moving towards a reconciliation, so the trauma andpain of her death cuts through him sharper and deeper than any other loss he’shad, up till that point and after.

As I pointedout, there’s also the way in whichGiles discovered Jenny’s body, which would definitely have added to his overalltrauma, as Angelus set everything up to provide maximum horror and trauma, withthe implied romantic evening, candles, roses, all leading to Giles findingJenny’s corpse in his bed, her eyes wide and dead and seemingly looking at him,a final message that he couldn’t save her. Giles’ breakdown after her death andthe way in which he recklessly goes after Angelus really shows how deep thetrauma went, as Giles is usually quite adept at keeping his emotions in check.The visceral reaction to Jenny’s death has me convinced that it was and remainsGiles’ greatest trauma.

Willow

I think theentire fandom can agree that Willow’s greatest trauma was Tara’s violent andabrupt death. As with Giles, losing a partner in such an unexpected andgruesome manner severely impacts Willow, and her subsequent rage and griefdrive her magical roaring rampage of revenge.

It’s nothard to pin down why this death traumatised Willow so much, as we know frompast experience that Willow does not handle grief or people leaving her well.When Oz cheated on her, her reaction was to cast a vengeance spell, and when heleft for good, her grief caused her to spiral so badly that she lost control ofher magic and power and put her friends in danger. So it’s no wonder thatlosing Tara in such a violent way – and actually having Tara die in her arms –had such a deep and traumatic effect on her, and given Willow’s previouscharacterisation and unhealthy coping mechanisms, it’s easy to understand whyshe went off the deep end following Tara’s untimely demise. I wish Season 7 hadexplored this grief and trauma better, instead of hurriedly shoving her into anew relationship, as the show never really allowed her to grieve properly forTara, nor work through the trauma that was so clearly still with her.

Xander

As withBuffy, I believe Xander has two traumas that vie for top billing, and evenworse than with Buffy, the show tends to gloss over both in favour of keeping Xander as the comic relief character, asopposed to trying to explore the effects of these traumas.

The firstone is somewhat of an ongoing trauma in Xander’s life, and that is his abusivehome life. Xander’s home situation and the abuse and neglect he suffers throughis alluded to numerous times throughout the show and many hints indicate that the abuse is not only emotional butphysical too, with the episode Restless all but confirming this. This ongoing abusehas an extremely detrimental effect on Xander and we clearly see this in hisday-to-day behaviour, his attitude towards women and his fears in the laterseasons of becoming an abuser, just like his father. A childhood filled withthis kind of emotional and physical abuse would have and very obviously didhave a deep and lasting impact on Xander.

The secondtrauma, and this is the one that the show completely ignores, is losing hisbest friend in such an abrupt and violent way, and being given no grieving timebefore he is instructed to kill Jesse if he gets the chance. I have spoken numerous times about the effect thistrauma had on Xander and how it is clearly shown in his attitude towardsvampires and his reaction to the Angelus period. Without re-hashing old points,Jesse’s death was traumatic enough to Xander that he was never able toreconcile Buffy allowing not one, but twovampires to survive and thrive next to the Scoobies, and he never fullylets go of his distrust towards the undead.

[halekingsourwolf]

Have you ever considered it possible, that Derek being all zen after 3A, might actually be detachment? If you just look at how he pretty much avoids anyone, really, who'd resemble any kind of emotional connection for him other than hurt (Peter, Chris even bc he's an Argent, in S4 Braeden bc let's be real that relationship is fucked up as well). After all he's been through I'm just having a hard time believing that a few weeks with Cora'd fix it. I think he'd rather go to great lenghts to (1/2)

avoid her catching on, that he's till far from being okay. I imagine he'd want her to feel like it's okay, that she doesn't come back to Beacon Hills with him. And seriously, after Kate kidnapping Derek in S4, there should've been some kind of fall out. That shit must be traumatic, no matter if you thought you'd processed it by now. (2/2)

This is a really interesting thought. Suddenly zen!Derek is never something that made sense to me, especially after everything that happened in 3A. Losing two of his betas –– and then a third to Scott, albeit by his own choice, to protect him. Losing his Alpha status. Being magically spelled, abused, and betrayed by another woman. And then, yes, finding out one of his family members was alive... but having to leave her in another country only weeks after reconnecting with her.

And we all have to remember that 3B started about a month after 3A ended. Derek wasn’t traveling around for a year working through his issues, moving past his losses, and learning self-empowerment. It’s... a few weeks. Some of which he spent being abducted and tortured (again).

So the idea of Derek slipping into some form of emotional detachment actually makes a lot of sense. And the idea that he does it at least somewhat consciously, that he makes the choice to flip that switch and stop feeling (...ok that sounds way too Vampire Diaries, sorry) makes sense too, because we know Derek has practice at hiding his emotions. That he’s incredibly skilled at putting on bright smiles and false friendliness and just seeming totally together when he has a mind to. And that’s not the same thing, but I do think it’s related, and I do think that too much of one could segue into the other. We also know he hid his guilt, at least on some level, from Laura for years. Pushing down his pain for his other sister’s sake could even happen out of habit, and then once he’s in that headspace again –– he’d lost it after Laura, there’d been no one to act happy for after Laura and he’d deserved to be in pain anyway –– it’s probably easier to just keep on slipping back into it.

So we have someone who’s purposely pushing down his emotions, pushing away his pain, and burying his traumas under false brightness instead of dealing with it because it’s easier that way. Derek’s also separated from Stiles throughout 3B –– the one person Derek actually trusts, the one person he might be tempted to let his guard down with.

Derek can’t open up to Scott because, despite being allies now, despite being friendly, how many clumsy attempts to reach out did Scott smack down over the past year? Derek’s attempts to be “brothers,” his angrily offered advice... and let’s not mention the one time Derek really opened himself up, brought Scott to his vulnerable uncle’s hospital room and told him how their family died... and Scott said it was probably their own fault somehow. *calming breath* So yeah, even though their relationship’s changed, I can’t see Derek making himself emotionally vulnerable to Scott. And he can’t talk to Isaac, maybe the most obvious choice, after having thrown him out. Can’t talk to Peter for obvious reasons. So the pain stays bottled up even more, all leading up to the clearest snap of emotional detachment that we see in the season:

Emotional detachment often arises from psychological trauma and is a component in many anxiety and stress disorders. The person, while physically present, moves elsewhere in the mind, and in a sense is "not entirely present" [X]

And seriously, what moment does that make us all think of?

At the end of 3B, we see Derek completely dissociating from reality to deal with the reappearance of Kate. And this is an important point: the sight of Kate again is enough to make Derek retreat into his own mind (to his safe space, to Stiles) be able to cope.

But later on, after Derek’s been captured by Kate, had his body and mind altered and abused again by Kate, when his very wolf seems to have been tampered with by Kate...

He’s totally fine.

This does not add up. Yes, the 3B dissociative episode was caused by shock as much as anything, but are we seriously to believe that Derek would come out of that kind of experience with no emotional fallout? To come out oddly... happier, more friendly and personable, more trusting and willing to be vulnerable than he’s ever been on the show before? Or is it more likely that Derek’s slipping back into that unhealthy behavior, burying his pain, distancing himself –– consciously or not –– from his feelings, falling into bed with Braeden as part of an old self-destructive spiral (see link above for thoughts on Derek sleeping around in New York) and then pushing himself into a relationship with her because “that’s what healthy people do, isn’t it?”

Derek’s personality and behavior in s4 only make sense if he’s covering something up, if the trauma’s pushed down somewhere deep under the surface, and I don’t know what’s going to happen to our poor boy when it slams its way out.

[serrarisen-blog]

History of Serra

The first mention of Serra actually predates her character; the famous and well-loved Serra Angel from Alpha. And in fact, according to an interview with a well-informed angel, it wasn’t a reference to anyone at all; it was supposed to be a serrated angel. As in, an angel wielding a serrated blade and not, as per Kirbster’s Gatherer comment, an angel with praying mantis arms.

Serra as a character is first referenced in-game on Cathedral of Serra from Legends, though there isn’t a lot to glean from the card itself and its sense of mystery is probably undermined by its lackluster ability. According to the Homelands comic (illustrated by the talented Rebecca Guay) the cathedral was built over Serra’s tomb on Dominaria. Poor Serra, dead before we even met her. Her story is suitably tragic from both a Vorthos and meta perspective.

Serra had the misfortune to be heavily featured in one of Magic’s early sets that while they may have been flavor successes were game-play failures. Though not quite earning the ignoble distinction of threatening Magic’s future like Fallen Empires, Homelands was perhaps even worse. Whereas Fallen Empires gave us some tribal support for well-liked creatures (goblins, thrulls, merfolk, and dwarves) and some playable cards, Homelands gave blue two more good cards while leaving everybody else with… Serrated Arrows (a callback perhaps?). 

Despite all that, the real travesty was how Serra was treated by Homeland’s storyline. Serra was married to a fellow planeswalker named Feroz (lover of didgeridoos) and together they protected a plane called Ulgrotha/the Homelands from planeswalker interference. Which was a noble cause considering the amount of destruction Dominaria has suffered due to various planeswalkers throughout the ages (and Dominaria is certainly not alone as Alara can attest). Though there were some vampire problems (another Alpha card given story significance), all was well on Ulgrotha until a very strange series of events happened. First Feroz and then Serra died. This was not an impossible occurrence, even for powerful planeswalkers before the Mend– what’s that? There was no epic planeswalker battle, no successful vampire apocalypse, no rending of worlds? How then did these godly beings then die?

A lab accident and the lethal one-two punch of a mugging and a broken heart. Yes, dear reader, you read that correctly. According to the comic, Feroz was experimenting on a fire elemental encased in ice. At some point this elemental exploded which gravely wounded Feroz who, despite being a nigh omnipotent being and married to the premiere healer/angelic creator Serra, then died. Not a great way to go but Feroz was made for Homelands and perhaps it was fitting that Homelands would take him out. Serra had a little more presence in Magic the Gathering and surely her debut wouldn’t also be her end. Alas.

Serra, after burying her husband, left Ulgrotha (much to the delight of Baron Sengir) and eventually ended up on Dominaria where she was accosted by a man who was very interested in her wedding ring. Not unusual for a mugger, even if that mugger sensed it was a magical artifact. What was unusual is that this mugger claimed to be a planeswalker! Serra was all ready to rain heavenly fury upon the man who would take the last reminder of her dead husband… until she decided she would rather die than live in a multiverse without Feroz. The mugger deals a fatal blow but then is surprisingly taken out by a random human who had recognized who Serra was in her fleeting moment of glory. He then takes care of her until she dies, raising the aforementioned Cathedral on her tomb.

So much potential wasted (I’m not bitter or anything), which is probably what the Magic Creative team thought. Outside of two cards printed in Weatherlight (if you count Serrated Biskelion which we will), Serra and her angels reappeared in the Urza Block, albeit in the past as Homelands happens after the events in the Urza Block. Serra lived in an artificial plane she had created, a sanctuary from the multiverse where she ran a matriarchal utopia of sorts. She healed Urza Planeswalker after one of his failed attempts to destroy Phyrexia; an action that would lead to tragedy as interacting with Urza so often did. Though it took him five years to recover, it was not long after Urza left that the Phyrexians came to Serra’s Realm and though they were defeated, they had irrevocably tainted the world she had made. It was at this point that Serra abandons the plane, taking with her anyone who would come with her (probably to Ulgrotha), leaving the rest under the charge of her head angel, Radiant.

This was, unfortunately, an even worse decision than it seems on its surface. Putting aside that eventually the plane itself would be destroyed without Serra working to maintain it and thus killing the remaining inhabitants, Radiant soon became (or perhaps had already been) corrupted/mislead by Phyrexia and lead ever more destructive raids on the mortal inhabitants of Serra’s Realm to “weed out the Phyrexian taint”. When Urza returned to Serra’s Realm (to use it to power his planeswalking ship the Weatherlight) he saved who he could and collapsed the corrupted plane into an orb to power the ship.

After this point, aside from a questionable appearance in a questionable novel during the Onslaught block where Karona, the False God may or may not have met several important lore characters or weird simulacra of them, Serra disappears from the story. Serra’s name does pop up from time to time on the cards themselves. Time Spiral block saw a few new Serra themed cards with the latest new card being Serra Ascendant in M11. The latest appearance was Serra Angel in Origins and FTV: Angels, showing the staying power of the most iconic (if retroactive) creation of Serra.

Whether Serra’s demise will be glossed over and make a return is unlikely due to several factors. With some notable exceptions (Karn and Nicol Bolas) most oldwalkers have been shelved due to death, loss of planeswalker spark, or have simply been forgotten (like Sandruu, another Ulgrothan planeswalker). This is coupled with the creative focus on the neowalkers that have been created with the Magic brand more in mind. Serra is also tied to Homelands which, in addition to being poorly received thus making most story hooks from this set unlikely to return (sorry Baron)  appears to have been thematically replaced by Innistrad.

Still, with the Commander 14 creation of planeswalker cards of Teferi and Freyalise, it isn’t impossible that Serra might make an appearance in a future supplemental set, assuming she doesn’t suffer from Urza syndrome ie that whatever card would come to represent her would never live up to her reputation.

And that is the history of Serra.

Information taken from my own memory, the Homelands comic, and supplemented by the MTG Salvation Wiki.