#the one right after this to FORGET is hellion | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

acatalystrising · 1 year ago

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Alriiiight! As I promised to @daimyosprincess - here at long last is Small Favors! This fic…sheesssshhh, this fic. It almost destroyed me! It’s absolute pure filth borne of one too many days of Boba brain rot, so buckle up, people!

Enjoy the ride! 🫠😉

(Zwei, this basically ended up being dedicated to you after all the lovely prof Boba content you’ve been giving us. I hope it lives up to your expectations! 💚🖤)

TW: NSFW, minors dni. This contains smut - predator/prey, fingering, dirty talk, pre-discussed non-consensual sex, piv, f!receiving, bondage, dom!Boba, pet names, teasing, slight degradation, all the usual suspects 🙃

Small Favors

The day Boba Fett called you a hellion, you were pretty certain it altered your brain chemistry.

To make things worse? He’d said it on his way out of the door, dressed in full armor, heading down to the throne room for yet another day of rulership.

Leaving you alone to ruminate on his words.

That simply wouldn’t do. You tried to be his good girl - lounging on his bed, boredly counting the cracks in the ceiling, doing as you’d been told…but where was the fun in that? You couldn’t help but let your imagination take over, wandering to a particular scenario that had intrigued you as of late.

Oh, the Daimyo was strong. Powerful, capable of overpowering you in seconds despite your best attempts to put up a fight. You could never forget it, no matter how many times he pleasured you senseless. But it made you wonder…

You knew how Boba the Daimyo handled you. But…how would Boba the bounty hunter? The mere thought of your love hunting you down like prey sent thrills coursing through you. But you’d been hesitant to mention it, given how many times he’d openly stated those days were behind him.

But the day was crawling miserably by, the hours even longer, and you needed a distraction. You knew you’d probably regret it, even as you stood and got dressed. But right now, you felt like doing something dangerous.

You were going to play with fire.

You were merciful (or smart) enough to wait for his last visitor to leave for the day, but not a moment longer. You struck before he had the chance to get up.

Boba still sat on his throne, powerful thighs spread like an invitation too good to refuse, as you made your way to him. His eyes followed your every step, hunger unabashedly flaring in his amber gaze.

But instead of sitting in his lap as he surely expected, you skirted around the throne, tracing a lone nail along his armor as you walked behind him. He reached for you, but you dodged his fingers with a smirk, tapping the back of his head instead.

“See you’re in a teasing mood.” His voice was gruff, tinged with exhaustion from the day’s tedious events, but you pressed on, still staying right out of his reach.

“I don’t don’t know what you mean,” you tapped his pauldron with another grin, and he shifted to face you, eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

“What game are you playing at, little one?” He patted his thigh, a command he expected to be obeyed. “Been a long day.”

Oh, you were at war. You knew it was probably in your best interest to do as he said, and he was tired, after all. Perhaps he’d be too tired to play along. But…you didn’t want to throw your plan out the window just yet.

“Maybe you need some exercise. Wouldn’t want your skills to go to waste.” You raised a brow, stepping around the armrest and stopping before him, still out of his direct range. “Why don’t you come get me?”

Boba arched a dark brow, gaze locked on you, completely still. You realized a moment too late he was waiting for you to continue. Either that, or calculating his next move. Probably both. It sent a thrill coursing through you.

“I…”

“What’s this about, hmm?” He crossed his broad arms over his even broader chest, heaving a deep breath that flexed his beskar plates as he fixed you with a quizzical expression bordering intrigue. “Wanna play hard to get? We both know how that would go.”

Ahh, there it was, your golden ticket. That, or the action that would seal your doom. At this point, you’d already committed, and it was too late to back out, now.

“I don’t think you could catch me, old man.” You smirked, hands on your hips, looking at up at him with a raised brow. “You’re a Daimyo now. Lots and lots of sitting. You’re bound to lose your edge.”

Oh, you knew you were asking for trouble.

Boba regarded you evenly, a small smirk working its way on the corner of his lip. Those thick, skillful, beautiful lips. Oh, he did too.

“Is that so?” He looked down at you, eyes narrowing imperceptibly, a teasing lilt to his voice. Ahh, so he was humoring you. Good. “So confident today, mesh’la.”

You had the audacity, or stupidity depending on who you asked, to spit your tongue out at him. Him, Boba Fett. You were probably one of the few that ever could and live to tell the tale.

“Definitely.” You made a dramatic show of shrugging, making sure you leaned forward just enough to let the low neckline of your shirt do its job. “In fact, I don’t even think it would be hard. I’m fast, cunning too. I bet I’d even be able to outsmart the greatest bounty hunter who ever-”

Boba was on you in an instant, and you couldn’t help but loose a shriek as you were pulled into his lap before you could blink. Damn, that was quick. Quicker than when you had anticipated. And you’d thought you’d given him a wide enough berth. He curled his arms around you, pinning you to his armored chest, and pressed his face against your neck, breath hot and scalding - voice low like the thunder of an oncoming storm.

“Wanna flirt with death, little one?” He nibbled your earlobe between his teeth, a low growl rumbling from the depths of his throat, sending heat pooling between your legs. “Fine. But we both know you’re biting off more than you can chew.”

Oh kriffing gods.

You somehow managed to pull two halves of a thought together to form a sentence.

“Wanna test that? Give me two days. Bet you can’t catch me.” You shot him a smirk and shrugged. “Who knows, it could be fun.”

“And what would I get in return?” Boba’s voice was cold, calculating. Calculating, as he watched you, eyes narrowed, studying your blown out pupils and shallow breaths. He had to know you found this arousing. Especially if his hunter senses were still keen.

“Anything,” you confidently met his gaze, even as his grip on you tightened. “Anything you want.”

He fell silent for a moment, chest heaving, heart thundering beneath the beskar. A sly smirk curved on the corner of his lip, accompanied with a cutting gleam in his eyes, and it was then that you realized you were screwed.

“Anything.” He mirrored, dipping his head to meet your neck, sucking a bite on your pulse point. You bit back a moan despite your best efforts, far too keenly aware as one of his hands slid down your side and settling on your inner thigh, dangerously close to your crotch. “But you’ve already given me everything, mesh’la. Why would I risk losing what is already mine?”

Oh maker, he was playing with you. Making this harder than necessary. Punishing you for disobeying him.

“Umm, I…” you swallowed hard as his hand slipped between your legs, stifling another moan as he slowly, gently, torturously caressed your clothed clit. Gods, this wasn’t how you’d expected this to go. “I…just thought it would be fun, ya know? I’m always…maker…always wanting to try new things with you.”

He hummed, kissing your neck again, then your ear, your cheek, and finally your lips. He kissed you like a starved man, greedily nipping at your lips, tongue carving a path into your mouth, claiming you as his. He slipped his hand underneath your pants, your underwear the only barrier, deft fingers already bringing that coiling heat closer to the surface. You bucked against him, chasing his fingers, and he kept you flush with his chest with a growl.

“So my little princess wants to be hunted, hmm?” He had the audacity to lick a stripe up your neck as he circled your arching clit. “She wants to be hunted like a bounty? Like prey? That what you really want, little one? To feel helpless? Trapped with nowhere to go? Darling, I’ll show you helpless.”

You could only nod, a whimper breaking from your throat when he slowed his movements, delaying your pleasure. It nearly brought tears to your eyes. Dammit, this was supposed to be your game, not his, and yet you found yourself unraveling in his clutches yet again.

“Please, please don’t stop. I’ll do anything, I’d let you do anything,” you pressed against him with a whine, meeting his waiting gaze as you made your plea. “Fuck me bound. Even if I said no. Make me yours, break me, ruin me, I don’t care. I just want…wanna…”

You fell silent, embarrassment flaring your cheeks, but you should have known that he wouldn’t let you get away with silence. His free hand gripped your chin and tilted your face up to meet his, just forcefully enough to make his point.

“Say it.”

There was no room for disobedience now. Not when you were literally at his mercy. Not when his command rolled through you, making you tremble with excitement.

“I want you to hunt me.” You forced yourself to speak, even as his eyes darkened, his fingers slowly caressing you again. “Chase me down, and capture me. Use me as you see fit. That’s…that’s what I want.”

He chuckled darkly, the sound echoing on the stone walls, as he zeroed in on your clit again, your pleasure nearly bubbling to the surface.

“So much begging, poor princess,” his voice was a mocking coo as he wrung the pleasure out of you, your vision going white, jaw slack as your orgasm hit with the force of a speeding train. “You’ll have one day, sweet thing. One day to run, and when it’s over, you’ll be begging me to come for you.”

You should have believed him.

Should have realized how hard he’d make this for you. But you’d been confidently foolish, going so far as to travel off world to some backwater forest planet on a neighboring system - albeit sparely populated…just to be safe.

But as the minutes had ticked to hours, and hours into the evening, there still had been no sign of your hunter. Whether this was because he was toying with you, or you’d actually given him the slip, you didn’t know - but you pressed on anyway. And as the cerulean sky faded to lilac and crimson hues, you started to worry.

You’d taken a one way trip to get here, even hired a smuggler to fly you. Anything to make it more exciting. More real.

But perhaps you’d gone too far.

You couldn’t help but feel a sliver of worry cut through your chest. Maybe you’d been overconfident, going to such lengths. What if he had lost his edge? What if he couldn’t find you? You’d be stuck alone, on a strange planet, with nothing but a short range commlink to try to call for help.

Stars, you also missed him. Missed his voice, his touch. You’d underestimated how quickly you’d tire of his absence - and as you slipped through the trees, slowing to a leisurely walk, you finally let your guard down, too lost in your whirling thoughts to keep playing the game you insisted on from the start.

The shadows had crept over the foliage, enshrouding the trees in darkness, hiding the armor that would have otherwise glinted in the sun.

You didn’t seem him until it was too late.

Strong arms suddenly wrenched yours behind your back, throwing you off balance and against a nearby tree. Your scream broke the silence, unheard in the miles of uncharted wilderness, unable to break free from the vise like grip clamping down on your wrists.

Boba’s breath flared hot like blaster fire on your cheek as he pushed you against the tree. The rough bark bit into your skin, only a minor fleeing pain, the true cause for your panic currently locking your arms behind your back in a vice like grip.

“Really thought you’d give me the slip, hmm?” His deep voice was rough and staticky with the helmet, tone absolutely deadly as he lifted his binders to your wrists. “Poor little girl.”

You clenched your legs at that - unable to stop the reaction from pushing your brain off the edge, diving into a freefall. Damn it, not yet. You couldn’t let him have his victory this easy. You had to be more of a challenge, flustered brain or not.

“Let. Me. Go!” You twisted in his grasp, tucking up your legs and lashing out with a kick to his chest.

He grunted, the force of your attack pushing him back a few centimeters - just enough space for you to work with. You broke free, heart locked in your throat, and spun around the tree to give you some distance.

You knew you couldn’t win. He was the better fighter in every way - an opponent you’d never once been able to beat, despite your own skill. But just because you knew you were going to lose didn’t mean you were going to go down without a fight.

The trees whipped past in a blur as you carved a wild, desperate path deeper into the foliage. All was silent save for the crashing of your boots through the fallen leaves - the first warning that you were doomed. The second warning came too late.

A sharp prick bit into your shoulder, and your reflexes reacted too late - a scream stuck in your throat when a whipcord whipped around your body - throwing you to the ground. You could already feel the effects of the tranquillized taking over - vision blurring at the edges even as you still struggled in vain. Even as Boba stepped into your rapidly fading sight, armor glinting in the sunlight.

“Careful, little mouse,” his voice was cutting, sinfully victorious, as he knelt beside you. Kriffing hell, you knew he was smirking underneath that damn helmet. “Wouldn’t want you getting hurt. You’re worth more alive.”

You felt the moment the binders slapped on your wrists, sealing your fate…

And then your vision went dark.

By the time you awoke, the Slave 1 was already well in sight.

You were slung over Boba’s shoulder like a carcass, arms and legs limply dangling, mind still buzzing from the sedative he’d given you. You tried to open your mouth to speak, but your words were a pathetic slur.

He either didn’t hear you, or was ignoring you. You could feel the strength of him, muscles coiled underneath armor - all sinew and power. He held you with one arm, but you knew you’d never escape, that large gloved hand locked around your neck. You whimpered as the ramp lowered, ushering you both inside - inside to whatever fate he had planned for you. It closed, sealing you both in, and dooming you.

You couldn’t help but feel a thrill as he unceremoniously dropped you to the ground, right outside the cells. You wondered if he’d cage you in one to make the experience more real, but Boba seemed to have other ideas. He grabbed your bound arms and drug you across the floor, ignoring your shrieks of protest when he stopped in the center of the cargo hold.

Boba was quiet - he hadn’t said a word since your capture, and part of you wondered if it was part of the act, or if it was truly upset at the lengths you’d gone to evade him. So, you tried to take matters into your own hands.

“Please, I didn’t do anything wrong. I bet of you, let me go!” Your broken voice was truthfully cracked, parched after your strenuous day. “I’ll do anything, I swear I didn’t do anything wrong!”

Boba Fett had the audacity to ignore you. In fact, he turned his back on you, lifting his gauntlet to key in a code. A mixture of indignation and embarrassment flooded your chest, prompting your next move.

“I know you can hear me under there, bucket head.” You rolled your eyes with a scoff. “Or are you as deaf as you are dumb?”

“You know what you did.” His voice was low like thunder - cutting. A very different tone than the one he oh so often used with you.

This…this was entirely different. Excitement mixed with fear coursed down your spine as he slowly turned, that black t-visor locked on you with deadly focus.

But you wouldn’t be deterred that easily.

“What exactly did I do, huh?” You would have crossed your arms if you could. Instead, you opted to dramatically shrug. “Shouldn’t be too hard to list off my crimes. That is, if big words aren’t too much for a brute like you.”

Boba lunged forward with the speed of a viper, taking you entirely by surprise when his fingers gripped your chin, absolutely wrenching your face up to meet his - albeit hidden behind that helmet. And you were starting to realize why many would find it so terrifying. Heart hammering in your chest, you whimpered when his fingers squeezed your jaw, effectively clamping your mouth shut.

“Mouthy little brat, aren’t you?” His helmet was inches away, your panting breaths fogging the visor as he lowered his hand from your jaw to your neck. “Could just put you away in a cell. Would be what you deserve. But I might have to teach you a lesson.”

Oh gods. You swallowed, hard, and couldn’t resist the urge to wriggle beneath him, breaths growing shallower by the moment.

“You? Teach me a lesson? In your dreams.” You had the audacity to roll your eyes, spitting out your tongue to goad him further. “Sorry, but I have standards. I don’t fuck trigger happy bounty hunters.”

Boba Fett had the audacity to chuckle. A deep, dark chuckle that rumbled through your chest and tingled down your spine. Oh shit…you were in trouble. Big trouble.

“Is that so?” He gave your neck a squeeze, his free hand gripping your binders with another dark snicker. “Poor little kitten’s trying to give me orders? Ironic.”

His hand left your throat, and you yelped as he single-handedly picked you up by the binders, lifting you into the air, and pinned you against the ship’s wall. He magnetized the binders with a soft buzz, then left you dangling there - your toes barely able to touch the floor.

“What the hell?” You huffed, straining to reach the ground, heartbeat hammering so loudly you could barely concentrate, even as you felt his gloved fingers caress your jawline. “Let me down! Stop this, I mean it. Let me go, you kriffing jerk!”

Boba ignored you, helmet titling slowly to the side as if tracking his own journey tracing your neck until it stopped just above your shirt.

“You asked for this, little one.” His tone was impossibly husky, dark and rich like spotchka on the back of your throat. “You have a choice, kitten. You can either fight me, or…”

His hand slipped under your shirt, burrowing beneath your bra, and caressing your nipple with deft, skilled fingers.

“Choose to enjoy it.” He pinched your nipple too hard, and you yelped, thrashing even as he slowed back to a caress. “Your choice - but you’re not getting out of this.”

“N-no, please,” you tried to shy away, but he wouldn’t have it, pinning you to the wall with one hand, the other lifting from your shirt and wandering ever so slowly lower. “I’ll…comply. I’ll do anything. Just…please don’t hurt me.”

He chuckled, hand settling just above your crotch.

“Still giving orders, hmm? That’s not how this works.” He deftly unzipped your pants and slipped his hand into your waiting heat, a dry hiss emitting from his vocoder when he found the evidence of your arousal. “Dirty, dirty girl. Getting off on this? My, my.”

He circled your aching clit, and you cried out, trying to arch against him, breaths coming in near choked gasps as he quickly worked you towards oblivion. Damn, his patience must have flown out of the window. Perhaps he…

Just when you were on the precipice, Boba pulled his hand away. You cried out on frustration, heart pounding like a drum when he dropped his hands to his own pants, pulling his weeping cock free from its confines.

“Little kitten looks like she wants milk.” His voice was a sinister coo as he ran his thick shaft through your slick. “Poor baby.”

You whined - you couldn’t help it. You couldn’t stop the moan that ripped from your chest when his fingers once again found your clit, wringing your pleasure back to the surface. But yet again, when you were on so close, he pulled away.

“Ah, ah, ah, not so fast.” He raised his hand to your mouth, and you begrudgingly licked your arousal off his gloves. “You’ll come only when I tell you too. Can you be a good girl and do that?”

“Boba…I…” you writhed, pleading, but he promptly removed his hand from your clit with a growl.

“Didn’t give you permission to say my name,” his voice was all thunder and hellfire even as he seated himself in you with one brutal thrust. “It’s Sir to you.”

Your eyes widened, moans bouncing off the durasteel walls as he pounded into you, somehow feeling even bigger than normal. Your hands clattered uselessly against the wall, pleasure arcing up your spine as a steady heat grew in the pit of your stomach.

You cried out when he changed the angle, his cock hitting that deep spot that made you see stars. You writhed against him, legs wrapping around his back, trying to force him deeper. He growled, not slowing his pace in the slightest, and you whimpered when a hand reached up and tweaked a nipple.

“Bo-Sir…I…I’m,” you hated how pathetic you sounded, begging like some weak willed thing. But you felt it, your orgasm approaching like a speeding train, and there would be little you could do to stop it. “I’m…so close. Can I, can I…”

“I don’t know, not sure you deserve it,” he slowed his pace to a torturous crawl, slowly sliding through you, the wet sounds painfully loud in your ears even as you cried out in frustration. “Got your manners yet, little one? Have you learned your lesson?”

Oh Maker, he was torturing you. This was not how you had expected this to go - this was calculated, focused, intentional.

“I’m…I’m sorry. So sorry. P-please…” tears pricked your eyes, and you swore he was driving you absolutely mad, edging you with a calculated skill he hadn’t done before. “I take it all back. I’ll be good…I’ll behave. Just please, please…”

He pulled nearly out of you, helmet pressed against your shoulder, rasping voice directly in your ear.

“Please…what?” He stopped moving entirely until the only sound that could be heard was your desperate panting.

“Please, please let me come.” A tear slipped down your cheek, more from the building denial than anything else. “I’ll…I’ll be a good girl. Your girl.”

Boba grunted, pounding back into you with renewed vigor, one hand finding your neck, the other, your clit. He fucked you relentlessly - your back slamming into the wall as the edges of your vision dimmed.

When you finally came, your vision went completely white - all sound reduced to a ringing as burning hot pleasure seared you to your core. You screamed, writhing against him even as he continued driving into you, less focused and more reckless, chasing his own high.

“There you go, kitten.” His voice was dark with lust, armor flashing in the dim lighting. “Not so hard, hmm?”

When he came, it was with a deep groan that reverberated into your chest. He had you pressed against the wall, helmet against your neck, breaths rasping as he finally slowed to a stop.

For a moment, all was silent save both of your panting breaths. Boba was completely still, and for a moment, you worried he was genuinely angry. Had you gone too far? Had you done something wrong? Had you-

His hands reached up and unlocked your binders, catching you before you could fall to the floor. You couldn’t help but cling to him as he carried you to the cockpit, gently laying you in the small cot.

“You okay, my love?” His voice had regained some of its warmth, but still carried a dark edge. “Hope I wasn’t too rough with you.”

“I’m okay,” you nodded, meeting the visor with a small smile. “You weren’t. I’m honestly impressed you found me so quickly.”

He grunted, sitting beside you, gloved hand slowly caressing your hair.

“Didn’t expect you to leave Tatooine.” The helmet tilted in your direction. “You had me worried, little one.”

Oh stars. Had you gone too overboard? It hasn’t crossed your mind that Boba Fett would be afraid.

“Oh…I’m so sorry,” you curled into his chest, holding him close. “I’d only wanted to make it realistic. I didn’t want to worry you.”

“It’s okay,” he wrapped his arms around you and held you close. “Only startled me initially. Gotta admit it was fun, watching you trying to give me the slip. It was cute.”

Wait a second.

You narrowed your eyes as he removed his helmet, mirth shining in his own.

“Exactly how soon had you found me?” You tilted your head to meet his gaze.

“Oh, little princess,” he pressed a kiss to your temple, then your cheek, and finally, your lips. “You never left my sight.”

Taglist: @daimyosprincess @hideflen @thirsty-boba-fett-posts @marierg @deewithani @rain-on-kamino @rexxdjarin @ceapa-mica @bobathirstaccount @dukeoftheblackstar

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baradorable · 5 months ago

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Marvel is about to introduce a villain called the Krakoan, who is an X-Man gone rogue. It's pretty obvious that this villain is actually Hellion. And people are split on that. Some feel that it's out of character for him. Some prefer him as a hero, or don't want him to have his character ruined, ala Nature Girl or Beast.

But who IS Hellion? If you're willing to sit through my long-ass post about him, odds are you already know and love him. But let's pretend that you don't know who he is. I'll talk about where he started, what might have lead him to becoming a villain, and why everybody will be investing in #HellionWasRight stocks in a few months.

And if we're all wrong, and Hellion is not the Krakoan? Well, no one will give a shit about the Krakoan anymore anyway, so no big deal.

First off, what is a "Krakoan?"

We'll get to that. But for now, you just need to know that the X-Men had an island nation called Krakoa. Now it's gone and it's all because no one listened to Hellion, despite him being right about everything that has ever happened.

Who is Hellion?

I'm letting you all know right now: this is blatant Hellion propaganda. Everything I said is coming from a place of heavy, heavy bias. But there will be some objectivity, in that Hellion is objectively perfect.

It's tough to summarize Hellion, because who he is has changed over the years. Though some writers might forget this, he's actually a fairly nuanced mutant who has undergone notable shifts in his character.

Introduced in New Mutants (2003) #2, he basically starts off as Draco Malfoy, if Draco was trying to bang Harry Potter.

Julian Keller, AKA Hellion, was a spoiled rich kid from California with advanced telekinetic abilities. Something that will stick out immediate is that he was hilariously petty. Like he would take any opportunity to insult people he dislikes, often for no reason. Half of his dialogue is him choosing to be a jerk to anyone outside of his social group, starting drama, or otherwise being a generic early 2000's bully archetype.

And it was amazing. Seriously, he had some of the funniest lines in the book.

He was so over the top and crude that he ended up being hilarious. He was classist, exclusionist, and a little sexist. When presented with the option of Bullying Others, and Literally Anything Else, he would choose bullying.

Julian was Emma Frost's protege and star pupil, so naturally he shares a lot of that bitchy charisma. When the school was divided into Harry Potter house-style squads, Emma put Julian in charge of his own squad, the Hellions. She also let the Hellions pick their codenames. Guess which codename Julian picked.

Emma advised him to be humble after he and his squad won a school competition. What was the very first thing he did once he got the trophy?

You would hate him so much if he were real. He's every 13 year old boy in 2003. Look at him exposing Elixir's affair to Elixir's girlfriend, solely out of pettiness.

I'd post more, but I already hit the image limit. Which is a shame, because I wanted to share the panel of him making fun of Josh for his parents abandoning him.

Hellion's original creators had this to say about him.

Back when we were working on New X-Men, we had a message board called “The Grind Stone” on the site X-Fan. One of the fans there consistently referred to Julian as “shnasty.” That person defined it as a combination of sexy and nasty. Urban dictionary these days refers to it as shitty, hot and nasty. We think that works for Julian, except when we wrote him he didn’t look like shit - not ever. He just acted like it. Once we left, he got a little more disheveled for a while, and probably better embodied the full modern version of “shnasty.” Either way, we think that’s his secret. He can treat you like shit but then turn around and be a gentleman. He sometimes acts like hot garbage but looks fine doing it.

He's catchy, offensive, brutal and gross, but with youth appeal. And if his character was just that, then bravo. He's hilarious. He wouldn't need depth to be an icon. He'd just be this little gremlin of a being, showing up and delivering devastating one-liners like some proto-Chanel Oberlin. But that's not all to his character. Despite being a supporting character in a book about teen drama, he was actually a complex character.

He's a great leader and strategist. He could lead a team, he was willing to be pragmatic and bend the rules, and his plans helped his team beat out every other student during that aforementioned school competition. It was a team effort, but Hellion knew his friends' strengths and how to get them working well.

He has a natural charisma that draws people to him. He's the big man on campus for a reason. It's best exemplified in New X-Men (2004) #5, where he sees all the other students turning their backs on a mutant called Wither.

Wither had unintentionally killed his father when his death touch power first manifested. The authorities would come bearing down on the school, looking to arrest him and have him face the law for his actions. It was an accident, completely out of his control, and Wither has been wrestling with the guilt ever since. Now there was a chance that he would be thrown in jail for it.

Wither was vulnerable and in pain, but it seemed like so many people were turning against him. Hellion, who had previously been bullying Wither for his powers, saw the scorn, gossiping and scrutiny Wither had been getting from the rest of the student body. And he had to stand up and say something.

He gives a rousing speech to everyone in the cafeteria, pointing out how many of the people who were mocking him had caused others harm with their powers in the past. He derides them for not helping out of of their own, and that any one of them could be next on the chopping block if they let Wither go without a fight. If they're not willing to support each other, they're terrible mutants.

His radical speech gets one person comparing him to Magneto. And that's not entirely wrong.

Hellion and the Hellions (along with another mutant, Wind Dancer) would work together to try and bust Wither out of police custody. It was a stupid plan that would only create more problems for them, and it would ultimately be worse than what actually happened: Wither would face trial, where he would be found innocent in the murder of his father. Wither would be free and no longer be in trouble with the authorities.

But that's the thing with Hellion: he's passionate. He might will think with his heart over his head when it comes to mutant rights. Especially when it comes to those he cares about. He's quick to take the hostile and violent path if he thinks it's right. Despite being an asshole, he's a bleeding heart who will go to the extremes for those he loves.

Wither and Hellion would go on to have a life-long friendship spanning months, as Wither would leave the school, get statutory raped by an immortal vampire witch, become a villain and die shortly after M-Day.

Hellion was always looking down on humans - and why shouldn't he? They're not part of his social group, he's not really one of them. But while he'd call them apemen and flatscans, he didn't believe in killing. In fact, he was opposed to killing even in self-defense.

That last part would change over time. But that's only because this cruel world stole every last bit of innocence and joy out of him.

Or how about the time the villainous Kingmaker offered him and his friends all their wishes, in exchange for working for him? He and his friends would eventually chose to give up their dreams and stop the Kingmaker's plans, because that was the right thing to do. Because the Hellions are heroes.

Over the years, Hellion would mature as a person. There would be less emphasis on him bullying others, and more emphasis on him enduring tragedies, fighting for the sake of others, struggling with anger and abandonment, and be forced to make more radical moves against the world. While he doesn't look that jerkish spark of his (and some writers would roll him back to a generic bully character whenever the plot called for it), he would become a lot more mature than he was at his debut. He was no longer a high school bully, but an anti-hero of young man with a talent for leadership, a lot of charisma, and big heart that got him into trouble.

Since we're on the subject of friends, let's delve more into some of his relationships. A key part of understanding his character is seeing how he treats others.

Hellion and the Hellions

So New Mutants (2003) and its sequel book, New X-Men (2004) primarily focused on the New Mutants squad. Hellion and the Hellions would be so popular that they would get their own mini and eventually become main characters. But the early books were centered around the New Mutants.

The Hellions are antagonists, the Slytherins to their Gryffindors. Except their dynamic is a lot more complicated than you'd think.

The New Mutants are lead by Wind Dancer, who is also Hellion's first love interest. While Wind Dancer has a huge heart and a knack for bringing out the best in others, the team would fall apart over personal drama. Bitterness, resentment and insecurity would bubble for a long time, culminating in the group briefly splitting up. It would take a lot of work getting them to resolve their issues and be friends again.

This is where the Hellions act as foils. Sure, they might antagonize the New Mutants. Hellion might tease some of them. But the group functions way better as a unit, and they don't have the same interpersonal drama as the New Mutants. They're a cohesive team of friends who support each other.

The Hellions got to star in their own mini, and it delivered on the friendship. In the first issue, we see Hellion picking a fight with airport security for his friends' sake. Instead of going for a more peaceful route, he's quick to order his team and bust out their powers. When Dust chases security down to try and reason with them, he's annoyed that she put herself at risk.

The series is peppered with moments between the various Hellions, which is really nice. I recommend it not just for Hellion, but for the whole Hellions squad. Every one of them is a unique character, and I think they deserve love. There's a reason why New X-Men would revolve more and more around the Hellions.

You won't be surprised to know that Hellion doesn't make fun of fellow Hellion, Mercury, when she's feeling some heartache. Without any sense of sarcasm or irony, he sits down with her and has a heart to heart. No ulterior motives, no gotcha - Hellion is there to support his friends.

One fun thing about Hellion is that he's a huge hypocrite. He will regularly insult others outside his group of friends. But he would rarely hurt his friends, and he'd be the first to defend him. This is most evident in New Mutants (2003) #8, Surge's introduction issue. He's quick to accept his friend Anole's strange mutation and chides Elixir for not being as accepting. In the next couple of pages, he insults a homeless girl, tells her she smells bad and refuses to offer any sort of help.

When M-Day happens and Prodigy got depowered, Hellion kicked him while he's down and belittled the guy. He mocked him for being human now. But when he found out that his beloved Wind Dancer is depowered, he tried to comfort her and disregarded everything he previously said about Prodigy. Because Julian holds his friends to a completely different standard than he does others.

He has an incredible amount of loyalty and empathy, but much of that is reserved for his own inner circle. He might be slow to warm up to someone, but once you're in, you're in for the long haul. Unless you really mess up or your name is Josh.

Mutants as a whole are part of that circle, in a way. He won't be friends with every mutant, but he would defend them all with his life. Even though a lot of them don't appreciate his efforts.

Emma Frost

His relationship with Emma is pretty good: she encourages his rowdy behavior because she sees potential in him. He has that same spark, attitude and guile she does. She recognizes that he has the potential to be a great leader, and he does everything he can to meet her expectations. She tends to be lenient on him. She'll bail him out of trouble. When others write him off or turn their backs on him, she's standing with him. But in return, she makes it clear that she expects nothing short of amazing out of him.

Boy, I sure hope nothing ruins this bond.

Prodigy

Speaking of people who don't appreciate Hellion. David Alleyne, AKA Prodigy, was a frequent target of Hellion's bullying. Julian would mock Prodigy for having a lame power [Being able to temporarily absorb skills and thoughts from others around him], and sometimes it would get under David's skin. He really knew how to dig into Prodigy's insecurities and hurt him with them. In turn, Prodigy was always ready to fight back against Hellion and put him in his place whenever he could.

Here's Prodigy's then-girlfriend kissing Hellion, right in front of him.

This is horribly out of context, I just thought it was funny to bring up.

The two would butt heads constantly. Over the years, more tragedies would be thrown at them. They'd mature and function better as a group, but there would always be tension between them, for one reason or another. Both of them are opinionated, and their opinions tend to differ.

Why am I bringing Prodigy up? Prodigy will be a main character in the upcoming NYX book, which is where the Krakoan will debut. The two don't have the most meaningful relationship, but it could easily come into play at some point in the book.

Wind Dancer (Sofia Mantega)

Sofia Mantega was the primary character of New Mutants (2003) and much of New X-Men (2004,) She was the Harry Potter that this Draco Malfoy wants to bang. Sofia was the newcomer to the world of mutants. She was confident, outgoing and stuck to her principals. Despite being very gentle, amiable and friendly, she was strong-willed. She knew how to stand up for herself and others.

Julian and Sofia flirted throughout New Mutants. There was an instant rapport between the two. But that doesn't mean it's all smooth sailings. One of my favorite examples of this comes from issue 3. Julian reached out to Sofia, and she says she liked dancing. As they made plans to go somewhere, Laurie Collins (Wallflower) passed by. While Sofia eagerly makes lunch plans with Laurie, Julian dismissed Laurie and called her a freak.

Sofia responds by hitting Julian's ear with compressed air, making him lose his balance. She and Laurie walked away, leaving him behind.

Sofia knew Julian was a bad boy and a jerk, and she'd stand up to him when she saw him doing something she disapproved of. But she still liked him. She was never afraid to give him a taste of his own medicine, and he loved her for it.

From their first meeting in issue 2, we saw what there were similarities between them. The most obvious would be their powers: they could both fly, and Sofia's power lets her manipulate objects with the same precision as a telekinetic's psychic force.

Like Julian, Sofia was great with people. Unlike Julian, she wasn't one to discriminate. While Julian was quick to brush off and demean Wallflower, Sofia was quick to befriend her.

During class, Julian was quick to tell newcomer David Alleyne (Prodigy) to stay away from Kevin Ford (Wither,) because his powers were dangerous. Meanwhile, when Wallflower worried about how lonely Wither was, Sofia invited him to hang out with them. She dismissed Wither's concerns about his powers. She wasn't afraid to be his friend.

Josh Foley (Elixir), a former Purifier recruit, came to the school after previously turning them down. While Prodigy iwa quick to turn against him, Sofia listened to how Elixir's own family turned against him for being a mutant. She related to him and gave him a second chance.

While Prodigy and Sofia would be co-leader of the New Mutants squad, Sofia was the glue that held them together. However, her caring side did get her into trouble: she followed Julian and the Hellions on a mission to bust Wither out of police custody; she wanted to help, but didn't know what to do and needed some guidance.

Speaking of the Wither incident, it briefly took a toll on Julian and Sofia's relationship. She at first helped the Hellions, but Sofia would ultimately side with her squad and turn against the Hellions, feeling like it was the right thing to do. Julian saw it as a betrayal. It soured their relationship for a bit, though the two would make up in a later arc, when a protective Hellion helped the New Mutants deal with a ghost. He was there for her, even when they were not on speaking terms.

Imo, this was the crux of Julian and Sofia's relationship: they were both popular, charismatic and and good with people. They were passionate about helping those they care about. The difference was that Sofia opens her heart up to more people, while Julian cares more about his inner circle.

The relationship helped to humanize Julian and show that, despite his attitude, there was a lot of good in him. Even if most people couldn't see it. This girl saw that he was a good person and she stuck by him, but she also didn't let him get his way or take advantage of her kindness. And that helped make him a better person.

Conversely, Julian was a fun foil to Sofia. He could give her advice, be there when she needed someone to talk to, and he'd never treat her like he treated her squad. He was a jerk, but he had the purest intentions with her. He was the first student she met at the school, and he was there for her through the good and the bad.

Julian also has a pet name for her: Beautiful. He uses it a few times. And yes, it's important to mention this fact.

It was a very pure, wholesome relationship. Two high school sweethearts who were also on rival teams. Sofia brought the best out of Julian, and Julian bettered himself for her. They butted heads, had their ups and downs, and would let their emotions blind them. But in the end, they loved each other.

Gee, I hope some witch doesn't swoop in and ruin everything with a magic spell.

The two would end up falling out, but they weren't really over each other. After Sofia left the school, we'd see her still dream about being with her friends and kissing Hellion. Meanwhile, Laura would catch Julian muttering Sofia's name in his sleep.

Wolverine/X-23 (Laura Kinney)

"You were dead the second you touched Julian Keller." - Laura, to Lady Deathstrike

When it comes to Laura romances, there are two that are popular with fans: Jubilee/X-23, and Hellion/X-23. Opinions on Laura's other ships tend to range from decent-ish, to mid, to terrible. Hellion/Laura (also known by their combo name, Helix) is, by far, the most popular ship. To this day, 13 years after the pairing was torpedoed, it retains an active fanbase. And they were never officially a couple!

So when Laura first came to Xavier's School of Witchcraft and Mutantry, she wasn't in a good place. She was a former child soldier who was only taught to kill. She was a former teen prostitute who was constantly being abused by others. She had and lost friends. She was forced to kill her own mother. She was barely allowed to feel her own emotions. And right when she meets Wolverine - her father/the man she was cloned from - she's dropped off at a school full of strangers. In the middle of a crisis, where students were being hunted down and killed. Everyone treats her with suspicion and fear, and Emma Frost is doing everything in her power to get her out of the school entirely.

And then there's the school bully. Right off the bat, he was dismissive of her, cracked jokes at her expense, and even teased her a bit. He lets her hang out with his group, but he's not very sympathetic to her trauma. Of course, he wasn't projecting images of her dead mother into her head, so he was better than Emma here.

Things turned around when the students were asked to fight against each other, in order to determine who is strong enough to be on the New X-Men team after M-Day. Emma used this opportunity to try and have X-23 taken out of commission. She wanted Hellion to ensure she got hurt.

Instead, Hellion ended up protecting her. Emma was furious. She picked Surge as team leader over him out of spite, and made it clear that he was very disappointed in Hellion.

Over the course of New X-Men, their relationship would evolve into a close connection. Julian would be protective of her. He would risk his life for her. He pushed his powers to the absolute limits and had Emma break away any mental restraints on them, so he could use them to save her life.

Through her crush on Julian, Laura began to truly experience many of her emotions. All her friends at school helped her process and grow, but the growing romance between these two kids was especially endearing. Despite being partly scared of her, Hellion would stand by her. He'd even go on to call her his best friend. When everyone else treats her with suspicion, or they suspected her of falling back to her violent ways, he was the first one to jump to her defense and see the absolute best in her.

Let's not forget the time Laura was ready to kill her arch-enemy, Karima. She knew Karima was to dangerous to let live, and she told Hellion that they had to kill her. But Hellion declined. He wanted him and Laura to be better than that. Hellion wanted to help break her out of that way of thinking.

Their dynamic sort of shifted as things went on. In that Hellion becomes this sort of damsel in distress who gets horribly injured and needs to be saved by Laura. She even went to Hell with a demon in order to save him. The most notable example of Hellion's Tragic Love Interest-ification is the time Lady Deathstrike shanked Hellion.

Laura totally lost it and beat Lady Deathstrike's ass.

These were two broken people. They suffered so much throughout their short lives. But then they found each other. They were broken together, but they found happiness. They bought out the best in each other, and showed the other that they are more than the tragedies they've endured.

There are a lot more nuances to the relationship, such as Hellion being more accepting of Laura's quirks and insecurities, how some fans interpret their dynamic as a play on traditional gender roles, how Laura was portrayed in their dynamic, how it styles over every other Laura romance. You can ask pretty much any Helix fan about the relationship, and they'll all have different aspects on the pairing. Some I haven't listed or even considered. I'm really just covering the barest essentials.

I just hope no writer comes in and ruins their relationship.

Other Loves: Ships that Pass in the Night

Hellion dated Shark-Girl for a bit, and once flirted with Armor. He also took three of the surviving Stepford Cuckoos to the school dance, at the same time - though he immediately ditched them for Wind Dancer. However, years later, one panel had one of the girls casually mention that they were going on a date with him.

Remember Prodigy's blue-haired girlfriend? She was the homeless girl Hellion had previously bullied. The two would have some animosity over the years, largely due to them being two stubborn, strong-headed individuals. Neither of them liked to take the other's crap, though to be fair, Hellion was usually the one causing trouble. The two would eventually be the New X-Men team together, and they would come to respect and care for each other. While there wasn't an actual romance between them in the main continuity, the two were shown to be married in one future, in the non-canon Battle of the Atom mobile game.

There was also that time he and Diamondback briefly flirted.

Fun fact: Hellion has a thing for powerful women. Women who can take charge, or are outspoken, are in control, or otherwise strong. If they can kill him, he can bed them. While all of his love interests have different personalities, they're all powerful women in one way or another.

Also, Wind Dancer and Shark-Girl are both Latinas. Laura (at the time) and the Cuckoos were also clones, of Wolverine and Emma Frost, respectively. (Well, I SAY clones, but technically none of those characters are clones in the strictest sense. It's a whole thing, but oddly enough they still share that in common.) Point is, the man has a type.

Ready for yet another fun fact: Hellion went on a date with all three Cuckoos at once. At best, Quentin Quire got with only one of them. He managed to officially date that Cuckoo, as opposed to just going on dates. But Quire was also responsible for another one of the others Cuckoos dying, which I feel cancels it out.

My favorite Hellion ship, you ask? Thank you for asking, reader. And to be honest, I don't know. On paper, the tragic romance of Helix is compelling and dramatic. It's very easy to see why the ship endured nearly 20 years later. It'd be a slam dunk... if Hell-Dancer wasn't so compelling, charming and sweet. For me, these two ships are usually neck and neck.

I'm also partial to Surge/Hellion, and a bit of Hellion/Rockslide. There was also a fake leak going around back in the day, claiming something along the lines of Emma hooking up with Hellion and getting impregnated by him. Fans on Tumblr were going mental over it, even if no one took it seriously. I love that for us. I love that for them. Sometimes you don't want a good romance. Sometimes you want to see nuclear fallout. It's like watching MILF Manor, but it's even more gross. You know it's bad and it's not something you would even enjoy watching. But you still want to see the mess it creates.

The Keller Family

What kind of people would create Hellion? Looking at how their son turned out, they must have done a great job. Only super-parents could have crafted perfection, right?

Actually, no. It turned out that Hellion is perfect, amazing, and the best character in all of fiction, DESPITE them.

We got the first red flag when Parents Week rolled around. Julian manipulated his teacher Northstar into getting him out of work duty. He gave a sob story about how his parents don't want to see him, though as Anole pointed out, his parents really didn't come to see him. Julian casually waved this off, stating that his parents were busy skiing in the Alps.

Hellion was not only bragging about manipulating someone, but he was bragging about his parents blowing off their own son to have fun. He only focused on how they're doing something cool and elitist. At that point in time, they had likely not seen or spoken to their son in months. He was aware how the situation would be seen as unacceptable by others, but was seemingly incapable of recognizing it on a personal level.

In the past, his parents spent 10 thousand dollars on Julian's 12th birthday party. Hellion casually stated that L.A. parties hard to compete with, meaning that this type of excess was normal for people in the area. Considering he mentioned "competing" and his parents would be shown to care about their image, I wouldn't be surprised if all this attention was not just about Julian having a great birthday, but also making the Kellers could look good. Hell, when you get to know his parents more, you could argue that his parents only cared about looking good.

They were powerful and had connections, to the point where Hellion was able to casually call up the Department of Homeland Security to help him out. Hellion clearly got his Trust Fund Baby attitude from.

Hellion's parents would debut in the 2004 mini, New X-Men: Hellions. (That's right. Hellion's Hellions book walked so Krakoa's Hellions book could run.) They were immensely disappointed in their son causing a scene at an airport, using their connections to get out of it, and bringing his friends to their house without telling them.

Julian's father was shown to dislike his son's mutation. He didn't like that his son had to go to the Xavier Institute, and he was glad that his son mutation was easy to hide. While he was angry at his son for using his powers and making a scene, it was clear that he only cared about how it affected the Kellers' image.

Hellion's mother was a little more understanding. She was softer spoken. While she compared him unfavorably to his older brother James, she was fine with her younger child walking his own path. But she also sided with Daddy Hellion, because they worked too hard and didn't want their son to risk their assets.

Hellion's parents had cut Hellion out of the will. The family business and all of their money would go to James. Hellion and his friends were welcome to stay at the house, and Hellion was still family. But no way were they letting their twerp kid make them look bad or endanger their comfy lifestyle.

Then they left Hellion and his friends to go on vacation.

The moment Mama and Daddy Hellion left, Julian enlisted the help of his friends to root through their personal belongings to find something to use against his parents. Despite originally telling his friends that his parents were self-made billionaires, he made his thoughts clear to them once they cut him off. No one could make so much money, so quickly.

We got a rough timeline how things went down: they were making about 30k a year, 18 months before Hellion turned 12. Around that time, their company went international and became incredibly profitable. Considering Hellion was stated to be 16 at this time, this means that they became international moguls and billionaires in less than a decade.

So what was the source of their success? It turned out that they used magic to perform a dark ritual, summoned an evil being known as the Kingmaker, and then formed a sort of Faustian bargain with him for all their wealth and power.

Hellion and the Hellions summoned the Kingmaker, at first not actually thinking it would work. But nah, it worked. Kingmaker would offer all of them their hearts desires. But as we covered earlier, the kids eventually chose to give up on their wishes to stop his evil plans.

Hellion's parents were extremely pissed at Julian for running afoul with their benefactor. Mama Hellion reminded her son that they couldn't protect him from someone as powerful as the Kingmaker. But Hellion dismissed him and pointed out how his parents were the ones who got in bed with a villain, and the Kingmaker would more likely go after them, since Hellion and his friends were strong enough to beat him up.

Yet despite being disinherited, being treated like the family shame for being born a mutant, and finding out his parents teamed up with bad people for their own personal gain, Hellion still wanted to be there for them.

Despite Hellion's loyalty, his family would never return it. In fact, this would be the last thing he would ever say to them. Because they would eventually cut him off completely, sell their house and not even tell him where they moved to. They would abandon their son when he needed them most.

At least the other guardians in Hellion's life weren't letting him down, right?

Abandoned!

We have a character who thrives through his connections with others. But what happens when we take them all away?

Just after the Hellions' big summer blow-out against the Kingmaker, M-Day happened. M-Day - also known as Decimation, which should give you a good idea of what it entailed - saw the Pretender (AKA the Scarlet Witch, AKA the Scarlet Bitch, AKA the Harlot Witch) saying, "Haha no more mutants, eunh 😜" and depowering the vast majority of mutants. Their numbers, previously in the thousands (being in around the millions before the Genosha genocide) were now in the very, very, very low hundreds. Cerebro clocked a 91.4% remaining reduction in the mutant population.

To be fair, Wanda was going through some things at the time, and it's not like she was in the right mindspace after others were taking advantage of her mental breakdown for their own personal gain. She was a victim. But to be unfair, it's also the start of everything going wrong for Hellion.

Xavier's school was absolutely wrecked by this. The vast majority of students were depowered, some of them dying as a consequence.

Among the depowered students was Prodigy, and Hellion was quick to swoop in and make fun of him for it. Including stating that Prodigy didn't belong with them at the school, now that he was human. He assumed Prodigy was ready to abandon the mutants now that he could be "normal."

Unfortunately, Wind Dancer overheard what Hellion said. As it turned out, she'd also been depowered by the Pretender. She turned the situation back around on Julian and asked if she was less "Beautiful" to him now, and not worthy of being loved in his eyes. Angry, Wind Dancer stormed off and stopped talking to Hellion.

Once again, hypocrisy. Julian would think that about Prodigy, and he was ready to make things harder for him. Hellion would never see Sofia as anything less, whether she be human or mutant. The thought wouldn't even occur to him. Julian loved Sofia. He'd never hurt her on purpose. But through his own attitude and carelessness, he ended up hurting her the most.

At that time, Wither was also going through some things. He accidentally mangled his crush's arm with his death power, and that drove her further into the arms of Wither's rival, Elixir. Already heartbroken that over the torment his powers had brought him, Wither became more withdrawn.

Hellion was stuck trying to reach out to both Wither and Wind Dancer, but he couldn't be fully there for both of them at the same time. He was unable to reach out to Wither and stop him from running away from the school. They would not see each other again until Necrosha, half a decade later in real time. By then, Wither would be their enemy.

Sofia also quietly left without telling Julian. The two would never even see or speak to her for over 14 years IRL.

But that wasn't the end of it. Tag, one of the Hellions and Julian's best friend, also felt hurt. Julian was so worried about Wither and especially Sofia, he completely neglected to see Tag's pain. He had also been depowered, and was worried he didn't belong with them anymore. Tag, along with most of the other depowered students, would leave the school. He and many other kids boarded a schoolbus and prepared to leave their old life behind.

And then a missile hit the bus, killing all inside. Hellion and his friends would get injured in the attack, trying and failing to save the other kids. Julian was just about to reach Tag and save him, only for the bus to explode and severely injure Hellion for his troubles.

42 children died in that attack. 15 of them were buried in the X-Men' own backyard because even their families didn't want them.

Well, at least the Marvel universe had a ton of heroes who could help out during these trying times. In fact, here comes Carol Danvers to... Oh no, wait. She's just here to try and get the mutants to help her side in the Civil War event. All the other heroes are too busy fighting each other to protect these kids. That's a shame.

At least the government stepped in with Sentinels, who would stand guard outside the mansion and protect the kids. And by that, I mean that they did absolutely nothing and completely failed at their jobs. Because assassins managed to sneak into the school and kill even more kids.

The remaining X-kids would go on to have several misadventures, including getting themselves involved in X-23's life when her old enemies come knocking, fighting a time-traveling Nimrod robot from the future, fighting alongside the adults to save a mutant messiah baby, and getting kidnapped by a demon (NOT the same demon that would go on to stab Hellion, who had already been stabbed by someone else before. Hellion wasn't even involved with this demon adventure.) I won't go into detail over all the horrible things that happened to Hellion and his friend, but know that a lot happened to them.

The kids were technically under the care of the X-Men, but the X-Men were too busy, were spread too thin, and were fighting the world from all fronts to focus on the kids. So the kid were largely left to defend themselves. This is best exemplified when, after the X-Men failed to protect the kids from several attacks, Surge dismisses their help. "We already know how to die."

One issue was dedicated to the kids trying to find out which among them was the youngest. They believed that the youngest of them would become a target, and therefore more likely to be killed. They singled out the youngest kid, but they truly believed that they were all going to die.

I bring this up because this was what the X-Men tragically considered a good day. At that point, a good day was one where nobody died, nobody was tortured, and nobody's soul was torn apart.

And this isn't me exaggerating. The X-Men were openly remorseful about how they failed these kids. They explicitly stated how the kids had serious emotional and psychological trauma. But despite everything, the X-Men cared for their students. They couldn't always be there for them like they should, but they were still their guardians. They would do anything in their power to make the world a better place for them.

So anyway, Cyclops disbanded the X-Men and shut down the school. The kids they previously failed were now scattered to the wind.

Emma left Hellion. As much as she loved him and wanted to keep him safe, she knew she had to keep him away from the X-Men. He needed to be kept away from the fighting and wars for as long as he could. Maybe now he could find some semblance of a normal life and keep himself safe? At the very least, Angel paid for his hotel and food for the time being.

Anyway, Hellion found out that his parents abandoned him, so he had nowhere to go. He was now homeless and had no support system, putting him in more danger than ever.

Hellion would seek out Magneto (not in hero mode at the time) to team up with him. Magneto calls him arrogant, but desperate to please. He refused to take him in and went on to say this:

"Everything you thought you were is gone, and the only thing you had left, the only thing you held on to so tightly was that you were an X-Man. Your teachers abandoned you. Your friends died. Your heart broke. Your beliefs shattered. The X-Men failed you. So, you find me, their greatest enemy. You love them so much that you want to hurt them. But I won't use you, and I won't kill you."

He says that Cyclops had given Hellion the gift of time. He had a moment of peace and a chance to be away from all the trouble, before war would come for mutants once again. At least for now, Hellion was safe.

Then Hellion was injected with the Legacy Virus (mutant AIDS) and used as a hostage in a wicked supervillain plot. Don't worry about it, it was just a small addition to the tapestry of suffering that is his life.

Hellion Was Right

After the X-Men disassembled and anti-mutant sentiment was on the rise, Hellion took a more radical approach to dealing with issues. He'd openly protest on the street, belittle and even attack mutant bigots and haters. He had enough of the X-Men kowtowing and trying to create peace with people who wanted them dead. No more worrying about the silent majority minority of well-meaning humans, no more trying to police their own or trying to achieve co-existence. Hellion was coming more radicalized.

Hellion's radicalization was bad. He resorted to extremes, violence and anger to hurt anyone who got in his way. His actions, while meant to help mutants, were sabotaging relationships between humans and mutants.

But let's be real: there will never, ever be co-existence between humans and mutants. In real life, the drama, threat and isolation mutants face are a big part of the mutant narrative. Take that away, and the franchise seems a lot less viable.

So Marvel will constantly throw in threats of violence and extinction at mutants. It ramped up to insane degrees by the 2000's, to the point where mutants were facing extinction for over 20 years real time, and things have only been escalating. Society will only grow to hate mutants more and more.

While Hellion's radicalism isn't necessarily right, Xavier's dreams of peace are objectively wrong. If anything, the X-Men are indirectly upholding the status quo. Yeah, they also prevent things from getting worse (Days of Future Past), but much of their strides end up being undone.

Mutants would almost achieve coexistence with mutants via their nation of Krakoa, in that the mutants basically bribed the world into tolerating them and attacking them less. While Krakoa would reach out and help humans with various matters, and the books would rely much less on extinction events for stories, things were nowhere close to perfect.

I'm going to say it: Hellion was right. The X-Men were wrong. Humans can't be reasoned with so easily. They need to force their view onto others. They need to fight humans for their rights. The only reasons why they don't? Aside from status quo, it's because the X-Men and other superheroes would step in and give some speech about peaceful co-existence being the right path, even though it's hard. Not knowing that things will objectively never get better because Marvel civilians are irredeemable.

Hellion wouldn't have helped mutants with his actions. But he couldn't make things any worse at that point, because the world turned against him long before he was even alive. No matter what, mutants were fucked.

But hey, it's not like mutants can live without humans. Coexistence is necessary for their survival. It's not like they have proof that mutants would thrive without the presence of humans. Yet.

Anyway, Hellion protested and Emma & her Dark X-Men arrested them. Emma betrayed the evil fascist government run by Norman Osborn, blah blah blah, it was all cool because Emma helped him. She also punched him in the face and put him through a lot of shit, but let's ignore that. It's island time.

The Hands Job

So the X-Men decided to make an island nation, where they gathered all the stray mutants they could and offered them sanctuary. This time, was Utopia. Next time, it would be Krakoa.

Hellion would return to the field. He'd fight the good fight alongside the X-Men, protecting mutants and humanity because it's the right thing to do. Despite everything that had happened to him, he still believed in the X-Men's cause. Or at the very least, he wanted to protect those he loved.

Anyway, a Nimrod Sentinel ended up blowing off his hands.

It really messed him up. Hellion got metal prosthetic hands to and made due by puppeting them with his telekinesis. He had the option of getting mechanized hands he could control more easily, but since he was deeply traumatized by machines, having little robots at the end of his forearms was the last thing he wanted.

To be fair on Rogue, she reached out to Hellion to try and help him. She'd offer to have him go on a trip with her and others to India, though he'd decline. He wasn't in the mood to have people gawk at his missing body parts. Which, fair.

Also, Hellion got stabbed by a demon-possessed Wolverine and Laura had to save him. It's only worth mentioning because Laura peaced out after this.

He was pretty pissed off that the X-Men could always come back from the dead one way or another, yet they couldn't fix his hands. He lashed out at the mutant messiah, Hope, for doing jack shit when it came to miracles. Really busting her balls.

So the X-Men got involved with rebuilding San Fransisco after the whole... everything that had been happening these last several paragraphs. Rogue decided that Hellion should come along and help them with reconstruction. And let's get something out of the way: the X-Men were sending Hellion on a mission while he is was, self-admitted, still on painkillers following his double-amputation. Rogue meant well; it was meant to be a safe, no-action mission where Hellion could get some fresh air and put his troubles aside. And hell, maybe he could have refused the mission at any time. But like??? This child, trained to be a soldier by the X-Men, just had his hands chopped off and was thrown into work while hopped up on drugs.

Just keep this in mind. Hellion had no business being there, but the X-Men thought it was a good idea.

So Hellion was pissed off, bullied Hope for being a shitty messiah, and wantonly blew up debris, endangering everyone around him. Before he could accidentally hit anyone, Omega Sentinel (some human lady with evil robot programming that makes her turn evil sometimes, whatever who the hell cares) turned evil and started beating up all of the X-Men. Just absolutely wrecking them. They had no chance.

She would turn on Hope and a little human girl in the area. Just as Omega Sentinel was about to kill them, Hellion intervened. A miracle happened, and he got a powerup (implied, but never stated or followed up on, from Hope.) He was strong enough beat the robot lady's ass.

And he did. Repeatedly. He lost his temper and just kept viciously attacking her, all while yelling about his hatred of the machines who ruined his life and took his hands. Omega would return to her senses, but she knew it wouldn't last. She begged Hellion to finish her off. She asked him to kill her, before she could turn against her friends and harm them. She wanted to die human.

And Hellion obliged. Omega Sentinel would be left comatose.

At any rate, he saved Hope's life. Considering she would be integral to the very foundation of Krakoa, Krakoa would not exist if Hellion were not around. Hope was also the key to saving the mutant species multiple times. Mutants would have been doomed to extinction if not for Hellion. Yeah, others saved Hope and had way more of a direct impact in restoring their species. But still.

It was a tragic affair, and as Julian recounted the events of the mission to Cyclops, he was clearly shaken up and unsteady. He insisted that he had no regrets and said that he wasn't going to apologize for what he did. But he was clearly not doing well.

Cyclops was pissed because he felt that Julian's level of violence was unacceptable. Also Omega was still a good person, despite being overwritten at the time. She was a victim in all this, too. Yet Hellion didn't even consider any other option but violence and death.

Though it's not like he actually had the luxury of options, considering Omega was annihilating senior X-Men, he only had a split second to save Hope and the girl from danger, and even his victim supported his actions with her dying breath. Hellion lost his temper and was flippant about his actions, but he did the right thing.

Hellion then delivered this take-down to Cyclops, basically saying how Cyclops is a hypocrite who did shit (including killing people!), but apparently it was okay when he did it? Things aren't all black and white, it's not like Cyclops was some crazy psycho who killed and always got away with it. But like... Hellion was right. Cyclops had a very "ends-justify-the-means" attitude at the time. He was a revolutionary who was fed up with the way mutants had been treated. It's just that Cyclops had main character privilege and Hellion didn't.

So yeah, the X-Men were shitting all over Hellion for saving them, an innocent child and the fucking mutant messiah, because he wasn't sad enough about it.

But wait, it gets better.

Hellion Was Right: Omega Sentinel

Hey, remember how everyone shat on Hellion for killing Omega Sentinel? How he refused to apologize for doing what needed to be done, when no one else would? Yeah, the X-Men really chewed him out for being so cool with killing for the sake of protecting innocent lives.

Anyway, Karima would come back as a major antagonist in the Krakoa era, after a future, fully-roboticized version of herself would travel to the past, take over her body and dedicate her life to ending the mutants and humanity. Something she nearly succeeded in, when she helped create the terrorist organization known as Orchis.

Rogue especially took this hard. She crapped all over Hellion for attacking Omega Sentinel in a fit of rage while she was down. She would later assault him over it.

Here's Rogue in 2024, after the X-Men finally defeated Omega Sentinel.

Hellion's only mistake was not finishing the job.

But despite all this, Hellion had morals. He would spend some time debating if he felt sorry for what he did to Omega Sentinel. Which goes against him confidentally telling Cyclops that he wasn't sorry about it. Coupled with this, Rogue going on to say that Hellion felt guilty and wanted to atone, and later stories showing him wrestling with the incident and verbally trying to justify his actions to himself, it's implied that Hellion did, in fact, feel guilty after all.

Also, Hellion would not talk to his friends and classmates about what had happened. After his battle with Omega Sentinel, he briefly passed by his friends. He didn't reach out to them, they didn't acknowledge him. Later, fellow classmate Blindfold would straight-up call Hellion a monster. Hellion was all alone.

Fractured But Whole

Before we continue, let's circle back to Hellion getting a power-up earlier. I said it was implied to be from Hope, performing some sort of miracle. But either she gave him a permanent power-up, or Hellion just unlocked his own natural talent. Because the same run later showed Hellion using his powers to remove an explosion out of someone's body, showing he can mentally manipulate heat and energy on a cellular level. Yeah, fellow X-Man Rachel used her telepathy to spot him, but for those keeping count: Hellion could move energy through people without harming them, move at subsonic speeds, create force barriers, shoot telekinetic blasts, control heat and energy, and work on a cellular level at minimum. Laura once told Julian to create a telekinetic bubble inside of a villain's brain or heart to kill them. Hellion was against this on principal, but he doesn't say he can't do it. Considering he could weave his energy into someone's body and remove a fucking explosion, I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that Hellion could bubble some jerk's brain.

Now keep this all in mind. The X-Men had one of the most powerful telekinetics alive. He was hurt, vulnerable, and becoming increasingly isolated due to the mistreatment and trauma he had been enduring. Which was largely made worse by the X-Men just being inconsiderate assholes. And despite everything that had happened, despite his growing cynicism with the world and his disillusionment with the X-Men, he still worked to be a hero. Surely this is the type of mutant the X-Men would want to nurture, help and encourage.

Anyway, Hellion was probation unless they needed to use his powers for missions.

Okay, Cyclops and friends were a bust. They treated Hellion like shit and degraded him when he needed help. Maybe he could find help from somewhere else?

So Cyclops and Wolverine broke up over (among other things) the ethics of raising child soldiers and letting these kids kill. Cyclops is pro child soldier, and Wolverine was against it. You'd think this might be in response to them letting down their students and helplessly watching as they got gunned down. But they go back to using them once this event is over, so it's kind of pointless when you think about it.

Hellion choose to side with Wolverine during the Schism. He joined the school Wolverine has built. He was still a brash bully, but he was supporting the more idealistic and good-natured path of righteousness Wolverine is offering. Despite Wolverine treating him like shit and his daughter breaking his heart, he believed in what Wolverine has to say.

Wolverine was suspicious of him and threw him into a special class with other troublesome kids, so Spider-Man could spy on them and see which one might be a traitor. Still better than being with Cyclops though. And Hellion even got to go on crime-fighting adventures with Spider-Man, protecting New York!

But then this was ignored and never acknowledged again. Hellion would never talk to Spider-Man again and this whole thing might as well not have happened.

Hellion would become a shut-in. Trapped in his smelly room, he pretty much cut off all contact with everybody. He made it clear to a belligerent, antagonistic Wolverine that he didn't want to be there anymore. But he couldn't leave, since people saw him as a threat and would come after him the second he stepped out. Wolverine takes the opportunity to antagonize the disabled child soldier war hero with PTSD, whose life he helped demolish. Wolverine even said that he didn't give a damn about Julian's troubles, and was only getting involved because people were complaining about Hellion being a ticking time bomb.

One day, Laura came to visit him. Julian was quick to forgive her for leaving him on read for several months after he became an amputee and had his life destroyed. And to be fair, she was going through a lot of stuff on her own, which Hellion recognizes. He did briefly lash out at her in his anger, but quickly corrected himself and apologized. He also grabbed her arm when she tried to leave him without an explanation again - uncool, but he at least checked himself and let go when she told him to.

Gambit got involved to try and protect Laura... by threatening to blow off Hellion's arms and legs, to match his missing hands. Hellion was being an asshole, but keep in mind Hellion is a child soldier who had his arms blown off in the line of duty, and has spent the last few months being mistreated by pretty much every X-Man he has come across.

Hellion was also jealous of Gambit, but also worried that he was a groomer who was trying to put the moves on Laura. He was wrong, of course. But maybe he heard about a certain student named Foxx (aka Mystique,) who tried to frame Gambit a banging one of his students.

Hellion stalked Laura asked around and located Laura at the Baxter Building, where she would be spending the night babysitting Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman's two kids. They would get attacked and abducted by the Collector, leading to this whole adventure. It was a thing. Julian helped save her and the kids from dying in the cold recesses of space. Also Julian made fun of the Collector to his face multiple times.

But while this was going down, Hellion showed his insecurities to Laura. He knew she had her own issues, but he didn't know the extent of what she'd been going through. She didn't talk to him about them, and he would have liked that. He felt abandoned, and wondered if him being disabled now was one of the things driving her away from him. But she assured him that she didn't abandon him, and kept watch over him when he was injured and recovering.

When all is said and done, Laura was ready to part ways with Julian. But he didn't want to go without talking things out. He still loved her and wanted to be with her. But she didn't feel the same way and rejected him. Julian lashed out and accused her of being an unfeeling machine - something that would hurt her. She still cared for him, but her feelings for him had changed as the two of them had changed.

This whole debacle is very controversial with fans. Who was right? Who was wrong? How justified were either of them? Was Julian abusive? Was Laura unnecessarily cruel? Generally, people will agree that they both messed up. But who was more in the wrong usually depends on which character you stan more. Hellion's behavior near the end is never really justified, though many people at least understand where he's coming from.

Despite being a Hellion stan, I lean more towards Laura. Despite their mutual feelings for each other, she wasn't obligated to put her feelings aside to take care of him. Her life was also falling apart and she had her own struggles. Yes, she could have handled the situation better. But I don't blame her for focusing on her own life when she was drowning. And it's not like this girl, raised from birth as a tool and still coming to terms with her own humanity, pain and emotions, was capable of dealing with him in the best way, even though she wanted to.

But I can't be mad at Hellion because he suffered way more these last couple of months, didn't have the support Laura would come to have, and, oh yeah, he had his hands blown off by an evil robot. That didn't entitle him to lash out at her the ways he did, but he absolutely didn't deserve to be brushed off. Which is what Laura did, even if it was unintentional.

It was a failure to communicate. They both wanted different things. They had their own issues and that kept them from being there for each other. They were hurt by other people and situations, those warped them and made it harder for them to reconnect. Ultimately, the Laura and Julian we were seeing now, were not the same people they were when they met and fell in love.

I see the vision, but it still feels kind of abrupt and it looks like largely happened just to write out the romance, while not really doing anything to address their issues. It's a story about them growing apart, but not really making it feel like they grew apart. It just looks like Laura is avoiding Hellion even after he explains that her how her behavior also hurt him, but only Hellion's behavior is treated as heinous. And to be fair, grabbing onto someone the way he did, lashing out at them and poking at their insecurities around their humanities, is arguably worse than anything she did to him. But shutting yourself off from someone without explanation, ignoring them when they're begging for help, not showing much concern for their suffering and ignoring multiple pleas to be honest about their problems, is also pretty nasty.

Again, Laura wasn't obligated to deal with his baggage. And it's not like she was in the right headspace to help. But she was involved with Hellion's life and problems, and he was with hers. To ignore this connection was very insulting. Neither of these traumatized, PTSD-ridden child soldiers handled this complex emotional situation well.

So I get it. But the story was written in a way that downplayed Laura's faults and felt like it had to force the issue in order to make it work.

Anyway, Laura would get into a poorly-received, crappy romance with a time-traveling teen Angel from the past. She would also spend hundreds of years in a Vault with Synch as her only companion, where they'd fall in love under dubious circumstances, largely off-screen. She'd forget all this and Synch would accept this, then get back together with another version of Laura, who is also the "real" Laura, and an old MILF. But most fans don't care about old Laura or accept her as the "official" Laura, and she ends up dying, living inside of Synch's head and then dying again. So this whole paragraph means nothing.

But at least we would get a couple shots of Hellion looking at Laura through some bushes like a creeper, just to twist the knife and make sure that the ship was properly killed.

The Fart Cloud

Remember that time the Inhumans unleashed a stupid fart cloud onto Earth in the hopes of activating latent Inhuman genes in some humans? But the fart cloud was poisonous to mutant and started killing them? The X-Men had to hide their numbers in a Hell dimension for safety.

So Julian was poisoned by one of those clouds, and the X-Men totally failed to find and save him when he went looking for their help. Thanks again, X-Men. You're always there when Hellion needs you.

Hellion would visit the Inhumans on their Earth turf. Now dying from the cloud, he was determined to be a martyr. Let the Inhumans witness a person they'd harmed with their actions.

His powers wrecked New Attilan as he lost control over them, endangering everyone around them. Luckily, an Inhuman named Synapse was able to turn off his powers and stop him.

Synapse argued to the ruler of the Inhumans, Medusa, to help Hellion despite the damage he caused. Medusa didn't need convincing though; they were not going to persecute the infirm, and they were going to help this poor, suffering mutant as best as they could. He was going to get the best medical care and they would work tirelessly to see him recover.

Yes. The Inhumans who nearly gassed him to death treated him better than the X-Men. Hellion would be so grateful for their help, he would volunteer at their hospital as an orderly.

Not much would happen to Hellion after this. Despite being told (by everyone) that he was a dangerous mess they didn't want to deal with, Hellion... never really did anything beyond sometimes teasing classmates sometime, briefly date Shark-Girl, and help the X-Men whenever they asked. Many of his cameos consisted of him being in the background, having been beaten up by whatever villain the X-Men were facing.

Also, another fun fact: The X-Disassembled event saw the adults chiding the students as young, inexperienced kids who should stay out of real missions. Which was disrespectful to the kids who rose to the challenge when the X-Men failed them. But at least they weren't interested in using them as child soldiers.

Except one of the adults telling them this was Jean, who has their fellow student Laura as a member on her team. AND she had Laura's 12 year old sister, too. Hellion was notably absent from the majority of this conflict, since his very existence would undermine the adults' message entirely.

Also the school got blown up. It got blown up quite a few times while Hellion was a student. It got blown up so many times, the kids were cracking jokes about it. Surprisingly, none of those explosions were caused by him.

But just because Hellion wasn't active, doesn't mean he wasn't still pulling out Ws.

Hellion Was Right: Etc.

Hellion was right about a lot of things, but I can't sit here and list every single one of them in great detail. So here's a bulletpoint list of his other truths.

During the Utopia era, he knew that humans would eventually round up mutants and put them in camps. We know that happens in a few bad futures. This would also happen during the fall of Krakoa.

He knew the Brood were irredeemable monsters and hated Broo on sight. And in the end? Their only "redemption" was the X-Men to use them as weapons against the terrorist organization, Orchis. They could never truly be saved.

He ended up siding with Wolverine during the Schism, despite him and Logan hating each other. Guess who won the Schism in the end?

Right away, Hellion knew Wind Dancer was a catch. He also had a thing with Laura, dated Shark-Girl, and in an AU he married Surge. The man just can't stop picking Best Girls. He has a supernatural sense that allows him to figure out which girls are superior.

Remember that school competition, and Hellion bragged about how none of the other squads could ever hope to win it again? Shortly after Hellion and his squad won it, the school was hit by the mass depowering event known as M-Day. The majority of students were depowered and many were subsequently massacred by anti-mutant terrorists. Even when the school recovered, they never had these school-wide competitions again. So yeah, no other students would get to win that trophy.

Hellion had been open about his dislike of robots, after they took his hands. Who was behind Orchis? Omega Sentinel. Not only that, the group was primarily run by robots, and they wanted to wipe out all organic life - especially mutants, but they had plans to kill all organic life to preserve themselves. Humans would be their next target, after they finished killing off mutants.

Hellion thought it was weird how Wolverine kept picking up teenage girls as his sidekicks. He joked that Wolverine was a perv, of course Wolverine isn't a predator, he has no ill intentions with those girls, and some of them just dropped into his lap. But it's still pretty sus, even if no one else wants to point it out.

Northstar thought Hellion was making a mistake, picking Emma as his advisor over him. He thought Hellion needed the discipline. Considering Hellion thrived under Emma, she stood up for him when no one else did, and Northstar abandoned him just as the others did anyway... Yeah, Hellion made the right choice in picking Emma.

New Edit: I just saw this post. So you know how Hellion thought mutants should ignore past incidents and accidents, because they need to look out for each other and humans wouldn't judge them fairly? And then the X-Men were all, "NO, we need to listen to human laws!" Yeah, so anyway, the X-Men would basically say the same thing Hellion did, in the Krakoa era. Except now they had the power to enforce their will.

Hellion hated Quentin Quire and beat him up. No explanation needed.

The Gays Love Hellion (And Hellion Loves Them)

So weirdly enough, Hellion has a big LGTV fanbase. Which is weird, because he's from Academy X, not Fraternity X. Why would gay fans gravitate towards a straight, cis, masculine jock who regularly dominates others an- Oh.

Well, it goes beyond that. The X-Men in general have a huge queer audience. But Hellion has multiple factors working in his favor: he's sarcastic and has great quips, he takes after Emma Frost, he's canonically ripped, and he's had his moments of fanservice.

Most importantly, there was that one arc where he was on a beach for a mission. He thought the mission was casual, so he was the only one in swimwear, and nobody told him because they wanted to see him in short-shorts. He's smart, but that scene would go on to imprint himbo energy into the minds of many readers.

Also, he spent the entirety of the Age of X event with his tits out.

I don't find Hellion sexy at all, personally. He's not my type. But he IS a sex bomb. I can see the appeal regardless.

I'm iffy on the femme-y himbo depiction among fans. It's amusing, but I feel like it tends to paint a shallow picture of an otherwise manly, cool, intelligent and tragic character. But Hellion is perfect even if he's a himbo, he's perfect no matter what. I stan the alternate universe black Hellion who was like 5 years old and only appeared in the background of one panel, who may or may not be Hellion at all. He had metal hands, so I like to think he's meant to be Julian Keller.

Krakoa

So the mutants formed a mutant nation, an island paradise called Krakoa. It was this whole thing, it was great, I loved it. I recommend reading House of X/Powers of X if you haven't already. But the tl;dr is that mutants were able to resurrect the dead and give depowered mutants their powers back.

Hellion was given a sanctuary in paradise. The X-Men who had abandoned him had finally given him protection and safety. He had every single one of his deceased friends back, and they were there with him. The days of M-Day were a bad memory, there would be no school attacks, and he wouldn't have to live in fear of M-Pox. If he wanted to, he could die and come back with his hands, fully restored through the Resurrection Protocols.

You know who else came back? Wind Dancer. After fourteen real-life years, the two were finally reunited.

Hellion had regained almost everything he'd lost. All of his suffering was worth it, because he finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel. All the work he put into helping the X-Men, saving Hope and working tirelessly to protect others has paid off.

But if this post has taught you anything, it's that Hellion isn't allowed happiness.

Krakoa would fall through the machinations of an evil organization called Orchis. Lead by such villains as Omega Sentinel and Nimrod, Orchis would frame Krakoa for crimes in biological warfare and sabotage, wanton murder of humans, and plots of world domination. The whole world stood back and did nothing as the mutants were attacked, scattered across the world and hunted 'till near-extinction. Many people even cheered Orchis on. Some governments even assisted them in making life more difficult for mutants. Mutants were rounded up, jailed, put under inhumane conditions, forcibly injected with "cures," and even murdered.

Where was Hellion during all of this? Well, he was in another dimension. Xavier had sent mutants through portals, per Orchis' demands. They wanted Xavier to telepathically force every mutant off the planet, or Orchis would use biological warfare to wipe out millions of humans. Wanting to spare humans, Xavier forced the majority of mutants through portals, which would end up leading them to the White Hot Room. The strugglers were left to deal with Orchis.

Hellion either went through those portals, or he had been killed during the Orchis genocide and gone through the Resurrection Protocols in the White Hot Room. He'd be there for several months, struggling to survive in a desert with 200,000 other mutants.

Hellion and most other named mutants would return to Earth, thanks to the X-Men. But also the X-Men and the ruling leaders of Krakoa were kind of to blame, since they failed to strike down Orchis earlier, despite them being a known threat. They tried some things, sure. But the plot basically forbade them from making any real progress against them until now. So yeah, the adults let Hellion down again. If they stopped playing by the rules and killed Omega Sentinel, they'd be happier.

Also, Krakoa would still exist beyond this point. Or rather, a splinter of the island nation would exist in the White Hot Room. It was shown that, without any humans or other groups coming down on them, they could thrive and grow as a healthy, enlightened and thriving nation. Mutants had the option of giving up life on their home planet to go to the White Hot Room's and have sanctuary, or stay in the trenches and spend their lives under constant threat of humans, aliens, demons and robots.

Look at Hellion at the start of his journey, and look at him now. He lost his friends, his loves, his wealth, his family, his identity as a leader, and any confidence he had from his body. The only thing he has left is his telekinesis.

The Villainous Path

Little hellions, kids feeling rebellious Embarrassed, their parents still listen to X-Men

So now we have a better picture of Hellion. He's a person with a big heart and a huge sense of loyalty, but he's been constantly let down by people around him. He's been kicked while he's been down, treated like a monster, and had the people he loves most walk out on him. His own insecurities, ego and attitude have held him back. And just when everything seemed to be turning around, just when he had everything he had lost... his home is taken away from him and he's left alone all over again.

You can see why Hellion wouldn't want anything to do with the X-Men after all of this. They took him in, but they treated him like shit and failed him constantly. He was constantly pointing out the truth, but they punished him for it and insisted that he was wrong.

But you can also see why he would have a grudge against a world who supported his peoples' genocide and the destruction of his nation. The same world that largely stood by and ignored his plight during those 2 other genocides he directly endured, and several others he would have been witness to.

Marvel's also on a sliding timescale, where their time passes much slower than ours. So bear in mind, he has probably been active in-universe for 2 to 4 years. 5, if you want to be generous. Everything you have read has been happening non-stop in a very short span of time.

Almost everyone around Hellion is terrible. He literally cannot count on anyone to help him out, because they are either grossly incompetent, unequipped to deal with things, or outright trying to kill him.

If everyone just listened to him, everything would have been fine... Or humans, machines and other heroes would have wiped them off the planet, and things would be even worse. But I choose to believe that Hellion had the right of way. After all, he'd been right about everything else.

Hellion proved himself to be a real hero, despite everyone doubting him. But he has also done things you wouldn't see most traditional heroes do, because he's cynical and willing to do harsher things if it means helping others. At the very least, he's firmly an anti-hero.

There is precedence for having him taking on an antagonistic role and going against traditional heroes. The context was always him doing what he thought was best.

So he could easily work as an anti-villain or antagonist; someone who will take the role of the heel, but still be sympathetic and have the capacity to be redeemed.

Right now, many fans are worried that that Hellion won't be portrayed sympathetically. That he'll be suddenly and drastically changed into a villain, solely there to cause trouble, do despicable things and be defeated. To be a strawman of what he once was. And to be fair, that's a fair worry; we recently saw a mutant, Nature Girl, go from a mild-mannered student supporting character, to a genocidal villain at the drop of a hat. Her character was irrevocably warped to facilitate a story. Anyone who liked her original characterization would be turned off by this change.

Or how about Benjamin Percy's take on Beast? The loveable furball was now a vile, manipulative, genocidal villain who would torture his friends for his own gain.

There was room for these characters to become darker figures - let's not forget how Nature Girl had a small story dedicated to her being painfully aware of the torture Christmas trees go through before they're tossed aside by humans, unaware of the pain they have caused. But these characters went from A, to B to Z. Things jumped wildly and they became extreme caricatures that barely resembled their original selves. And even if Beast did some questionable things in the past, no way would he naturally fall as far as he did under Percy's pen, much less so abruptly.

There's also worry that the Krakoan will be used as a strawman against Krakoa. He'd be used to portray the worst aspects of Krakoan culture and somehow prove to the audience that no, Krakoa was actually really bad and you should be glad that it's gone.

The Krakoan is specifically twisting the dream of Krakoa to rule the masses. I'm not paying too much attention to these, since preview blurbs are known to be inaccurate at times. But at the very least, they make it clear that what he's doing is not meant (out-of-universe, at least) to be an accurate representation of Krakoa. He's an in-universe example of Krakoa being misused and represented.

Despite this, if the Krakoan is Julian, I think he will be respected a bit. One of the writers of NYX, Jackson Lanzing, was asked about Hellion. He had this to say.

I think that's a pretty fair take on him. Lanzing acknowledged that he's not some simple character. Hellion has the potential to be a big player for mutants - for good or for ill - and that stems from him being somewhere in the middle of the Xavier-Magneto spectrum. He has some desire for peace and co-existence, but he's also not shying away from the reality he faces. If they're writing him, I fully expect them to portray this depth and nuance, even if it's on a small level.

They acknowledged his ties to David and Laura. The latter is important because there's a lot they could mine here beyond their romance. Hellion was there to show Laura a life outside of the darkness. He wanted her to be a better person and break free from her past as an assassin. While the writers might focus on the duo's romance, they should at least be aware that it's built on a foundation of seeing past the bad side of someone, and getting to the real, good person underneath.

Further, both writers are now on record as being big fans of Hellion. They not only like him a lot, but they clearly have a grasp on his character. I doubt they'd do something that would destroy his potential for future stories.

I'm cautiously optimistic about Hellion's villain era. I could be wrong and the writers could totally flub it. But for now, things are pointing towards him being treated with respect.

And if not? Well, he'll probably be right anyway. He's the new Cyclops/Magneto. As the saying goes, they were right. And Hellion has already proven that he has been right this whole time. If Hellion is reduced to some baby-eating monster, I would defend him. That baby was probably racist and had evil vibes.

From the Ashes

That's telekinesis, Kyle. How 'bout the power to move you?

The new relaunch will see other books release alongside NYX. And yes, they're going to be notably less popular because they don't have Hellion in them. But with Hellion's new role, who says he can't be a key figure in the world of mutants going forward?

Exceptional X-Men will feature Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost mentoring three new mutants. They'll be protecting these kids and guiding them through a world that hates and fears them, ensuring that they grow up to be heroes. Meanwhile NYX's main villain is likely one of their previous kids they trained, who they failed, mistreated and abandoned several times, who was explicitly stated to be unstable after his experiences on the field and under their care.

These kids are fucked. Hellion needs to come in and save them from the X-Men, before Kitty Pryde ruins their lives with her "help."

X-Men will feature Cyclops and his band of heroes (plus Quentin Quire), acting openly and proudly as mutants. They won't return to their evolutionary era, but they will still but heads with the government and are in a place that might put them in opposition with the mainstream opinion. From the looks of it, they will fight for their rights and do what they feel is right, even if it makes humans uncomfortable, because they need to be heard and- Oh wait. Hasn't Hellion been doing all of this from the get-go? Hmm.

Don't worry, I'm sure Cyclops will tell the Krakoan that his methods are super wrong and go too far, and that the X-Men are fighting for their rights the right way. Hurting innocent people to promote your cause is wrong! Then Cyclops and his team will get a few more innocent children killed before moving on to their next project.

What about Uncanny X-Men? Rogue's leading that team, and Gambit and Wolverine are on it. All three of them owe Hellion an apology. Jubilee's also there. She always busted Hellion's balls for how he handled his relationship with Laura... when she wasn't ogling his ass on the beach. Which was fair, but maybe she could apologize for not being a little sympathetic after his hands got blown off by an evil robot while fighting for their cause.

X-Factor will apparently pit the titular team against an underground mutant revolution, lead by Polaris. Hey, you think the Krakoan might want to get involved with that down the line?

Wolverine has a solo book. He can use the 5000 issues he'll get to beg Hellion for forgiveness. That's almost enough time to make up for how he treated Julian.

Dazzler's getting a mini. And guess who's going to be part of her crew? Hellion's exes, Wind Dancer and Shark-Girl. Wonder how they'd feel about him breaking bad?

And Now?

We wait see what comes next. We hope for the best, expect the worst, but know that this book will be the best of the From the Ashes era, simply because Hellion is gracing us with his presence.

I recommend reading more Hellion stories when you can. This post only touches on the basics. There are a lot of things I had to cut out. There are a lot of things that I missed, or didn't include because I they weren't as important to be as they might be to you. You might read things completely differently, even though I am objectively right because Hellion is perfect and could never do wrong. I might have purposely skewed things to favor Hellion because this post is Hellion propaganda. But whatever the case, you absolutely should follow my boy.

I had a whole section about Hellion's telekinesis. He's a telekinetic in a world filled with telekinetics who ALSO have telepathy and other powers. But he was able to stand out with how he varied in its use - he could create energy blasts and projectiles, fly at subsonic speeds, make things combust on a molecular level, and blast through just about anything. I cut it because I hit the image limit and didn't have enough space to show them, and they need to be shown because his powers are visually distinct. It was either keep them and cut out the tiddy pic, or keep the tiddy pic and cut out the displays of power. And I think I made the right choice.

#Marvel #x-men #hellion #julian keller #nyx #nyx 2024 #hellion was right

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augustjustice · 3 months ago

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Wiggly Wednesday 🧠🪱

I've been a disaster for the last month and a half and kept forgetting to post my wiggly Wednesday thoughts, but I am FINALLY getting around to it today!

Thank so much for the tag this week @tinytalkingtina and all the lovely folks who have tagged me before!!🖤💛Consider this a tag back to share those wonderful brainworms (if you'd like to):

@ataliagold @penny00dreadful @soaringornithopter @steddie-island

Because of a comment @theohohmoment made on a gif set of Eddie Kaspbrak saying it gave huge Steve de-aged by Upside Down nonsense vibes (which, I completely see the vision), the idea of Steve having to deal with being de-aged has had me in a chokehold for a couple of days now.

My brain defaulted to Steve finding Dustin first--and though he's curious at heart and more than accustomed to the weirdness of the world at this point, it still takes some effort for Steve to convince him that it's actually him. Secret handshakes and hair care secrets have to be divulged before Dustin is gasping, "Steve?!" in disbelief while Steve rolls his eyes, one hand on his hip as he deadpans, "Yeah, dude, it's really me."

"But you're...you're..."

"A pipsqueak? Kinda already had that part figured out, Henderson, thanks for that."

Dustin hums, thoughtfully, before his face breaks into a wide grin. "Technically speaking, does this make you my little brother now?"

"Not mentally!"

Dustin rallies the troops (the party) and then takes Steve to Robin and Eddie for help--maybe they were already on the lookout for him, if he hadn't shown up to pick Robin up or meet Eddie for their customary afternoon hangout session of smoking a joint and relaxing. After the initial confusion of assuming Steve must be a friend the kids have taken into their fold, it actually doesn't take nearly as much convincing as it did with Dustin to get the two to recognize him, since, well...

Robin and Eddie--they're Steve's peers, give-or-take a grade on either side. They remember Steve at this age, but with the lens of having been kids themselves. And, sure, the high school hierarchy hadn't yet been established, but Steve was still a sporty kid, a rich kid, still popular by 13 year old standards. So they know who they're staring at, once Dustin gives the whole spiel rapid fire. Realizing that Steve is now all awkward, gangly limbs and chipmunk cheeks, thought--that's a real shock, and a delightful one at that.

"Guess I can't call you big boy, anymore," Eddie comments wryly, earning him Steve's most fearsome scowl.

Even after the initial surprise of things passes, the pair of them can't stop cooing at him, pinching his face and ruffling his hair, prompting Steve to pout and grumble and tell them to fuck off about a thousand times over.

It's not much better with the kids. They aren't teasing and fussing over Steve the same way, sure, since age-wise he's landed himself right smack dab in the middle between them and Erica. But they barely listened to him before, the little hellions, and though Steve still defaults to playing babysitter, pretty much any and all authority he had has been totally lost.

By the third or fourth time they've pulled the we're older card to overrule him, Steve's had enough.

"You don't pull this shit with Erica! And she's way younger than you!"

Dustin scoffs. "Uh, yeah, that's cuz Erica could kick all our asses."

Mike and even Lucas simply nod sagely in agreement while Erica looks triumphant in the background. Even Steve can't argue that particular point, although he does huff back, "Oh, what, so you're saying I can't?"

Dustin ruffles his hair--God, but Steve really does not appreciate being on the other side of that one--and simply says, "Steve, little buddy...even before there's no way you could have."

It takes Eddie himself to break up the (mostly playful) wrestling match that ensues immediately afterwards.

It's not all bad, though. Even though at 19 Steve lets himself be a bit of a goofball, he's still used to being the "one in charge" when the party is around, at times the literal grown up in an emergency and worrying over making sure everyone is okay. That instinct is still there, of course, but...lessened when the entire situation opens up possibilities of just being a kid, even for a little while. Eddie and Robin both are only all too happy to encourage and indulge that, knowing that the general absence of Steve's parents forced him to grow up a bit too fast, and the last several years of monster hunting haven't exactly helped with things.

It's Eddie often egging Steve on to take the final step--try to win enough tickets at the arcade to claim the largest stuffed animal hanging on the wall, betting Steve he can't swing himself over the top of the swingset at the park--with a teasing, "Come on, Harrington, you know you want to."

And the thing is, Steve does, and for the first time in a long while he feels free enough that he can.

"You know, it's probably a good thing this happened now, and not, like...senior year," Steve muses, peering at Eddie where he's settled in the other swing, their shoes dragging gently through the smooth pebbles under their feet.

Eddie frowns, trying to follow his logic. "Gonna need you to walk me through that one, Harrington."

"Well, these days, I've got you and Rob."

"What, to help you figure things out?" Eddie isn't sure how much of a boon he really is for that part--Robin, sure, braniac that she was. The odds probably would have been in Steve's favor even before, though, given what mini-geniuses Dustin and the rest of the party turned out to be, especially when it came to Upside Down shenanigans.

"So I'd have a reason to even want to figure things out," Steve murmurs quietly.

Eddie's head whips to stare at him, blinking owlishly, expression a mixture of confusion and alarm.

"Stevie, I don't--what do you--?"

He shrugs one shoulder, smile sheepish, the self-deprecating shine of his eyes jarring in a face still soft with baby fat.

"I mean..." Steve starts to count off on his fingers, "I'd just barely managed to survive my second round with all this bullshit. Nancy and I broke up. School was shit. Tommy and Carol--not like I could talk to them, or would even want to, after everything that happened. And Hargrove totally had it out for my ass. The only thing I really had going for me at the time was, you know. Looking after those little hellions."

"Sure, not being able to drive, that shit sucks, but...I'm just saying, back then, staying thirteen would have looked a lot more tempting. Plus, it'd be kinda nice to just--I don't know. Get a chance at a do-over." Pressing his face the chain of the swingset, his big, hazel eyes peeking out around it, Steve adds in an undertone, "Maybe not be such a jackass the second time around."

Eddie feels a pang in his chest. He can't resist the urge to walk his swing over so he can lay a hand on Steve's shoulder and squeeze--less forceful, more careful than he usually is. "We've all got shit we'd change, if we got another shot. Christ, I sure as hell would--you're talking to a third year senior here, after all. But, I think you're being way too fucking hard on yourself, man. You did just fine the first go-around, no retcon necessary."

Steve smiles, a soft, hesitant thing. "...Thanks, Eds."

"Anytime, Stevie."

And then, of course, from there Robin and the kids use their big brain power to break whatever curse Steve's been placed under, and Eddie helps him learn to still embrace all his silly, childish indulgences even now that he's back to being one of the 'big kids.'

#pre steddie #steddie #de-aged steve #my writing #wiggly wednesday #tag game #tag games #this kind of ran away from me #but then what else is new lol

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newx-menfan · 3 months ago

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Moments I REALLY want to see in Flashbacked to in NYX (part 2):

(Warning…this is a LONG POST lol)

9. Laura and Hellion going to save Cessily/ Hellion’s speech on Morality

I will admittedly LOSE MY SHIT if we don’t get a flashback of this panel!

Out of all the people that tried to reach into Laura’s morality…I would argue this moment was the MOST important.

More than Kiden. More than Logan. More than Gabby. More than ANYONE.

Julian was the FIRST person who believed Laura could be more than a weapon- even her own MOTHER often doubted Laura (which is why Henry Sutter and Megan were so important to Sarah).

I know X-23 fans will argue it with me- but Hellion was the first person to encourage Laura to no longer kill, for her own good.

In general- I would say this issue was really important for Laura, from the fact that it taught Laura she COULD depend on other people to help her…to Julian asking Laura who she “was”…kicking off Laura’s search into self discovery…

10. Laura’s Creepy Crush on Hellion, in General

Laura took a somewhat…possessive…FERAL interest in Julian…that we have NEVER really seen in any of her OTHER relationships….

Again, the thing I hate about Liu, is it’s totally made fans forget that Laura was the one obsessed and borderline stalking Hellion in the beginning.

For better or worse- Laura has ALWAYS had strong reactions to Hellion. Hellion WAS for a long time Laura’s chink in the armor and it’ll be interesting to see if he still IS….

11. The KISS

Ah- the KISS. The petty childhood grievance that changed the group dynamic completely.

The moment that seemed to bring back all the Hellion/Surge/Prodigy animosity from the pre- “No More Mutants” days…

The moment where Laura realized she had the full potential to thoroughly feel emotions like jealousy.

The moment that killed David and Noriko’s relationship.

I’d put it lower on the list of things I want to see pop up, but I would be surprised if it doesn’t at LEAST get referenced….

12. Hellion and Karima/O.N.E. Sentinel

The moment EVERY Hellion fan remembers. The tragic rebound to Julian losing his hands and constantly being seen as the next “Magneto”.

The moment you see just HOW MUCH the years of CONSTANT TRAUMA affected him.

The line where “child soldier” starts to show…

You CAN’T NOT have some flashback of Julian talking about wearing “robot claws” in Dr. Rao’s lab or beating Karima while ranting about what Sentinels took from him, in a story about Hellions descent. Hellion’s FALL from “X-Men” into “Villian”.

13. THIS MOMENT

Ironically…Liu wrote my favorite Hellion/X-23 moment.

The art, Hellion’s insecurities, Laura’s line “I have missed you”, and Hellion seeing his feelings returned….it gets me every time!

It would be wrong for Laura NOT to have a flashback of it at some point.

I will 100% CRY if after first panel of Hellion reveled as “the Krakoan” to Laura…there is a flashback of her standing there…telling him “I have missed you” 😭😭😭

14. The Falling Out

What’s compelling about Laura and Julian, is how much their relationship opened up their vulnerabilities.

Hellion’s insecurities painfully bubble up throughout this entire story.

Julian admitting he felt like Laura abandoned him STILL TO THIS DAY makes me sad. Julian obviously desperately wanting SOMEONE to tell him he “did the right thing” hits me in the heart.

I will give Liu this- this story STILL packs a punch, even if I disliked the outcome of it. It WAS a well crafted arc, even if I HATE that she threw Hellion under the bus to do it.

There 100% HAS to be a flashback to “Babysitters”. It was undoubtedly the end to Laura and Hellion’s relationship, let alone friendship.

It was the beginning of their lives taking different paths.

15. The Yearbook

I know- it’s a small moment…but I would be sad if it’s not referenced.

Some character flipping through the yearbook, or HELLION himself, and it landing on “MOST LIKELY TO BECOME AN X-MAN” after the big battle…

It’s just the perfect, most heart wrenching scene ever lol

Honorable mentions:

Hellion’s desire for “Fame and Glory”

I would love to see Hellion remember this moment- back when he was still innocent and saw superhero-dom as just a means to become famous…

Hellion’s talk with Northstar and switching Mentors

If ANY choice probably DAMNED him…it was this one lol; Emma doesn’t have a great track record of keeping students alive…

While not AS POWERFUL as “the Lunch Table” scene… it is a nice callback to how much people saw Julian as possibly “the next Magneto”…

Emma abandoning him at a hotel

“You’re taking away everything I had”

While not the most gut wrenching moments…it’s still pretty tragic and the best story done that examined Hellion’s psyche post “No More Mutants”…

Magneto and Hellion meet

I had a hard time NOT including this one, and this was ALMOST #15…because Kyle did SUCH a GREAT JOB at pinpointing Hellion’s pain and desire to lash out at the people he loved….

Ultimately though, I think the unmet potential of Julian being a “great hero” and his personal attachments to his old team SHOULD be mentioned and referenced than this one….

“You’re my BEST friend”

This and the moment where he calls Laura the “Bravest person I know” while talking to the Collector, gets me EVERY.time.

While it’s nice to see them both acknowledge their relationship…I think, ultimately, there is better, more tragic moments to reference….

David’s Parents Reaction to him being a Mutant

I think it WOULD be interesting to see David recall this moment, especially if he ends up SACKED…

David was always the mutant that faced a lot of judgement because he “passed”…

Hopefully we get a speech where David kind of calls out Sophie, saying that his whole life everyone has judged him because he had a more “subtle” power set….

But idk if we will see it.

Hellion’s Trophy Acceptance Speech

While not the MOST important scene… it WOULD be hysterical to get a callback to it in a panel…if nothing else, but to remember the more light hearted X-Men days….

#NYX #flashbacks #marvel #new xmen #x men #new x men #academy x #new x men academy x #bring back the new x men

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robininthelabyrinth · 1 year ago

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So, I've been staring at the wall for a while, then I had a bit of thoughts:

1- Did LQR, at any point (maybe even currently) dislike talking to people/socializing? This idea really stuck with me right now because I've been silently reviewing his childhood in mind (unconsciously, so now I think I need help) and I realized that he didn't really interact much with people as a kid. The most he did was with his teachers (which is, obviously, not much), or kids his age who I don't think really liked him much. In that case, socializing came to him as a change. I bet he really struggled with it. What age was he when he was forced out of his comfort zone and into the world of socializing? Was it just a while before his brother's seclusion, after he started doing his work; or was it even before? Or maybe when he took over the position?

2- Crazy how LQR had VITAL factors to be a troublemaker as child, namely the fact that he most likely (tell me if I'm wrong?) was running around the sect the way LWJ and LXC has been doing lately and the lack of attention which children typically seek so much. TERRIBLE lack of attention – the kind which leads kids to misbehaving just so they could get some. Yet went in the complete different direction. (And, love him as he is, I still can't help but feel that the Lans deserve to deal with a little hellion just so they can realize how trash their raising of a child is.)

3- I have this blurry memory of remembering something about baby LQR hiding somewhere near the ladies doing the laundry in the cloud recesses, and I thought: could this have something to do with his socializing? Was he curious about it and wanted to listen to the ladies as they conversed? Or did he just appreciate being close to people without being addressed/entering their field of attention?

4- Then I thought back to LQR's tendency to overwork, and wait – does it also have something to do with his childhood? Exerting himself and doing too much as a kid to earn a word of praise from his father? Til the point that it became a routine?

5- There's how LQR keeps on pointing out how similar he and LWJ are, it's hard to not forget that little LWJ and little LQR don't really have similar personalities. I feel like the reason why they seem (and are) so alike is the fact that they both are on the spectrum, and it's how the more unusual things that LQR does LWJ also does, so everyone would draw the connection pretty quickly. But – little LWJ is so confident, not very verbal most likely because he doesn't see the point, and has terribly solid foundations. Little LQR, on the other hand... I might even say insecure for obvious reasons, very shy and conservative and that's why he probably wasn't very talkative, and DEFINITELY had no one to give him that foundation.

6- LQR not liking to be the centre of attention might have also stemmed partly from the fact that it's a CHANGE. Nobody paid him any heed as a kid, so why should they now? Especially since when they DID pay some attention, they probably only judged his tendencies and demanded he cuts them off (moving a certain way, for example)?

7- AND Last but not least, moment of realization that LQR would most probably start considering Nightless city as his home after a while BECAUSE he did so DECADES ago as a child in an unhealthy environment mostly by his own!!

(Also, forgot to add this in the last comment. But LQR hurrying after WRH without even properly saluting the Wen wives is just so hilarious. Like, the man was so embarrassed he even forgot his manners.)

I love character analysis like this XDDD do send me any future staring at the wall thoughts! This is also what I randomly ponder :D

answers and more random LQR headcanons below the cut to save people's dashes:

1 – I certainly headcanon that LQR definitely does not like socializing. When you’re the Weird Kid (in LQR’s case, due to a mix of status, family isolation, and being non-neurotypical) and you don’t understand people very well, it’s really hard to connect with people, and socializing is a completely mystery. Why are they talking about what they talk about? Why do they not like what you’re talking about? Why are there unwritten rules for conversations you constantly seem to be messing up but no one will explain to you how or how to avoid doing it in the future? On the other hand, he was lonely and *wanted* to connect with others, but he felt like he was bad at it, so he was really self-conscious and reserved and had an unsteady temper that he couldn’t fully control. And despite all of that, because of the family he was born into, he was forced to be a politician – a job that requires and in part hinges on socializing. Not ideal!

Personally, my read on it is that he started getting pushed into doing more in his teens, when his teachers essentially gave up on him ever developing social skills naturally and started going “this guy is going to represent our sect whether he likes it or not, we need to start putting him into leadership positions”. Some of which were actually really good for LQR – for instance, I see him becoming an assistant teacher around age 15-16, responsible for modeling good behavior to his peers, mentoring those in need of help, and teaching junior class (a bit like I imagine LWJ to have been doing for LQR). He is actually a good leader, even though he’s not much for socializing, and having a formal position gave him comfort and confidence, so that helped a lot. From there, he started also doing more support work for sect leadership (again, a bit like what LXC would have been doing with LQR: talking about what the sect is doing with elders, hearing reports about visits to other sects, making suggestions and listening to guidance, making decisions in their absence, etc.), though in LQR’s case, the slow creep of increasing duties suddenly started to ramp up more rapidly than would have been normal because of the combination of his father stepping away from sect leadership and then, a little later, his brother getting distracted by HKX. He’s supposed to be the back-up sect leader, and for one reason or another he’s suddenly doing a lot more of that, getting overworked and stressed – and then suddenly he’s acting sect leader for real, and the workload goes even more insane.

It's a lot better than what NMJ had to go through, since LQR was an adult and had some experience doing sect leader things already (and, you know, was not at war with another sect or dealing with internal succession rivalries), but it was still came as a terrible shock.

2 – LQR absolutely had the lack of supervision necessary to be a troublemaker, and unfortunately for him, was probably sometimes seen as *being* a troublemaker in the way non-neurotypical kids often are. He was even more socially tone-deaf as a child: he’d start talking about one of his interests and not stop, he’d follow people around, he wouldn’t understand hints, he’d sometimes get overwhelmed and have meltdowns (often misread as temper tantrums)…luckily his main hyperfixation was with the Lan sect rules, which made his behavior more acceptable than it might have been otherwise, but it also gave him a reputation for being fussy. Like a little kid that yells “keep both hands on the wheel while driving” every single time you so much as scratch your nose – cute, but also annoying.

3 – LQR is totally one of those cats that likes to chill in the vicinity of people. No, don’t pet him or talk to him or pick him up, he just wants to sit and be *near* you.

4 – Hard work was probably one of the only ways LQR could get attention, so yeah, he definitely has some drive to work himself too hard that comes from childhood.

5 – yes, this!!! LWJ and LQR have similar mannerisms (including autistic traits), but their personalities are in fact completely different! LWJ is Precious Baby™, doted upon and allowed to get away with just about anything (right up until he commits actual literal crimes, and even then my headcanon is that his punishment was meant to keep him safe from *worse*). He had a lot more freedom to explore who he is and how he wants to behave, rather than LQR who is always trying to meet a particular standard, not always successfully, and who has a much more unsteady temper as a result.

6 – I do think that LQR had more of a steady shift to being more in the center of attention over time, but he’s used to prioritizing the sect over himself so it’s still weird for people to pay attention to him for *his* sake, rather than because of sect reasons.

7 – :D

#mdzs #lan qiren #mdzs meta #Megafic #I guess

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mickmundy · 2 years ago

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Big Post of some of my bushmedicine headcanons... hehee... my personal thoughts on medic and sniper as a couple, my favorite dynamics, etc!

starting it off by saying that i think this ship works best when its post-comics. i like the idea of the two of them Knowing each other as teammates (but not really Friends), and then sniper's revival being the Strange Insane Catalyst that.. "brings them together".

that said i don't think medic loves sniper Solely because he's his greatest achievement; him Defying Modern Medicine for sniper (of all people) was definitely Not something either of them expected! medic has always held appreciation for sniper as a teammate and respects his craft

but didn't really come to appreciate him as a Person until after the gray mann stuff. because they’re both workaholics it was hard for them to really ‘get to know’ each other. both value the other as teammates but simply never thought of getting any closer.

i think it would take Effort on both of their parts to “get the ball rolling” in terms of talking to one another a bit more personally. they’re socially very different after all! but i think they'd both be Pleasantly Surprised that they find each other very Easy to be around!

and, no, i do not think sniper is “afraid” of medic or what he does. sniper’s been around gore and death for as long as he’s been alive and willingly volunteered to get the uber implant! i think it would be more likely that he’d ask medic to give him gills or claws before he’d be running away screaming in fear lol. but that’s just me!

love to think of them both as Weird Only Children but on complete opposite ends of the spectrum. sniper is shut in and felt Both smothered And abandoned by his parents. medic is Just A Hellion and always has been. doesn't feel one Dramatic way or another for/about his parents and that's that! i think medic loves/d his family but just thought it was like... Funny that they ever tried to Contain him! medic is Sympathetic sniper's complicated family issues but can't Relate. his family was Very Direct, just like him! LOL

they have very different energy, but i don’t see that as a flaw or a bad thing, nor do i see either of them seeking to change the other. sniper likes that medic loves to babble and medic likes that sniper is quiet and likes to listen!

at first i think both of them would struggle to read one another, since they are So different! but medic and sniper love to learn things, especially(/sometimes Only) if they’re interested in the person they’re learning from!

part of what makes this ship so charming to me is that they aren’t like. love at first sight, or second sight, or third sight… they’re two people that Saw A Spark in each other and work at their relationship! it makes them feel very Real to me!

medic knows sniper’s body really.. intimately. before they started dating he knew it of course as the team’s doctor, but when they got together… it’s like exploring something that’s been right in front of you the whole time… for the first time…

which excites medic because i think he’d be like “hooh! all of this in front of me this whole time and i didn’t even think to-!” and he leans down and kisses sniper’s scars which makes sniper soooo……………………ummm………………h*rny………. i mean……………….. Silly!

that said i think they also have had Aesthetic Appreciation for one another and/or would be like “yeah i’d absolutely **** him if i got the chance but i’ll just leave it at a fantasy” but as far as wanting to Date or Become More… that’s super new for both of them…

sniper hates/fears commitment and medic just never really enjoyed the idea of Entertaining any Romantic Connections long-term (work comes first for both of them!) but once medic is invested he’s like “if you don’t ask me out by letting me take a nap in your ribcage then forget it”… he loves the Passion!! he wants to know his partner is just as Devoted to him as he is to him!! and sniper is Very Passionate and has a lot of love to Give! once you get him to confess that hehe… but i think medic enjoys “the chase” and thinks of it like a fun game!! he likes that it's Only Him that elicits Those Feelings/Reactions in sniper... it makes him feel Special!

imo they’re the perfect delicious physical manifestation of their work (sniper is medic’s greatest achievement! and medic saved his life!).. so they’re both just woven into so many different parts of them that when they Finally come together they’re just… One…

i don’t think sniper is/was traumatized by his death. i think he’s someone who knew/accepted death and that it could come for him at any time, so he’s never been afraid of dying. but i don’t think anyone could be prepared for being Revived…

and i think sniper is always saddled with Complicated Feelings of Being Worthy of/Deserving Things. he was raised to live humbly and appreciate what he had, so anything “extravagant” (by his standards) being done for him always leaves him kind of Perplexed. feels like he has to Earn something to Deserve it, even when it comes to feeling things. “i can’t feel bad/mad/sad/glad/etc if i don’t have a Reason”. feelings should be put into categories and Understood for him. he’s very “in his head” about every single little thing! which is why he clings to the Ideal of “professionalism”!

whereas medic very freely feels and says and does whatever the fuck he wants because thats how He was raised. he doesn’t think he should smother himself for anyone for any reason and if you imply that he should he’ll knock you in the mouth LOL.

“aren’t you tired of being professional? don’t you want to go apenshitten?” medic trying to encourage sniper to have Fun and Live A Little! and sniper can’t really resist medic’s charisma and Charm… hehee… its fun to think about sniper being wrapped up in being Professional and medic being like “we’re being professional, we’re Doing our Professions! who says we can’t also have FUN with it!” (medic is being Sadistic about it whereas thats Against sniper’s Beliefs) and that makes sniper laugh and shake his head and smile…

i believe that sniper is the more emotionally-immature one. not in touch with his feelings whatsoever and is more prone to “breaking down” (usually isolating but sometimes Lashing Out). medic is impulsive but has great self control (Only when he wants to!) and is Very in touch with his own feelings at all times.

sniper sees his job as A Job. a Duty a Task Things He Is Contractually Obligated to do. but medic sees it as a total wildcard playing field where he's constantly testing the limits to see what he can get away with, what he can do and how much fun he can have!

at first sniper is taken aback/a bit overwhelmed by medic’s In Your Face demeanor but comes to really love it. he likes that medic doesn’t mince words or play mind games (when it really counts, anyway) and he can rely on the doctor to mean what he says when he says it. he hates having to “decode” people!

medic typically doesn’t bother with trying to “decode” people, but he’s patient with sniper and his lack of communication know-how/willingness. sometimes sniper can be very stubborn! but medic just giggles and sits with him and is like “i could sit here all day! >:) so take all the time you need!” and sniper’s never had anyone Actually Willing to Sit Here All Day for him so medic’s love for “a challenge” becomes something really endearing to him… and he doesn’t feel like a Burden or a Challenge to his doctor…!

petnames!! if you’ve read my fics you already know of sniper calling medic dovey, and medic calling sniper spatz/spatzchen, which means “sparrow”, because house sparrow face markings remind medic of sniper’s sideburns! i also love the idea of sniper calling medic his plover and medic calling sniper his krokodil, like the symbiotic relationship of the bird that hangs out in the mouth of crocodiles!

sniper also calls medic pidge/pigeon, or nurse too! if they’re alone, sniper will pepper in a “-darling, -sweetness, etc” after the petname of choice! medic loves cooing at sniper and really laying the petnames on thick, and while sniper still isn’t As Bold as medic in public, in private he loves smothering medic right back! hehe

“you gonna behave yourself out there today?” <- sniper says things like this before they Fight and it makes medic giggle and shake his head and be like “ABSOLUTELY NOT! >:)” and sniper chuckles and is like “mhmm… ://)”.. sniper also calls medic Death or RED Death, whispering it low in his ear before they go into combat… and it makes medic shoot through the roof with heart eyes like in loony tunes…. his mind is NOT on medicine for the rest of the match! hehe!

medic knows sniper doesn’t like drawing attention to himself in public, so he does his best to be respectful of that. they both like keeping things Professional in combat, but sometimes medic will scoop sniper up clean off his feet and spin around before putting him down with a shrill laugh if he just had a particularly exciting kill. sniper loves medic’s excited outbursts of energy and it always leaves him wobbly-legged and breathless!

sniper’s friends (demo, engie, scout) love breaking sniper’s balls about dating/being in love. they’ll tease the crap out of him and make him light up red with fluster because ha ha! Stoic Professional Turned Loverboy! medic’s friends (spy, heavy, pyro) have much more insightful talks about their relationship and give medic advice (or listen to medic gush about how cute he thinks sniper is)!

both bond over medicine… obviously! sniper is a survivalist and therefore extremely resourceful and medic eats up all of his advice and wisdom! he also loves listening to sniper talk about his days as a hunter before he came to mann co. the one where he slept in the corpse of a water buffalo is medic’s favorite!

they also love talking about exotic animals (medic is very curious and sniper is very knowledgeable), jazz/classical music, botany and nonfiction literature! they’re not Literary Buffs like spy and heavy, but they enjoy learning new things and like to read things they can put down and pick up again a week later.

they’re both very touchy-feely! in public they’re a bit more reserved but sniper will still hook his finger in one of medic’s belt straps and pull him close to him, or medic will slip his hand into sniper’s back pocket (and squeeze his butt just to fluster him! hoo!)

sniper is absolutely the earlier riser and is very Routine Based. medic makes his own schedule and if you don’t like it you can ***. if he knows medic had a late night, he’ll go and feed his doves and put a pot of coffee on for him and leave a shirt of his next to him in bed so medic can wake up smelling him!

they love cooking for/sharing food with each other; often nothing too fancy, but something as simple as peeling an orange and sharing it is as intimate as a kiss… they’re both guilty of getting too wrapped up in their work to remember to eat, so one will often remember when the other doesn’t! plus, eating together accomplishes two things: spending time together and eating, so they both enjoy the Double Productivity of it!

i do not think sniper stinks like pee or keeps jarate in his van and i’ve talked about that in the thread i made for him specifically BUT anyway. i think they’re both Very Hygienic people who also love getting their hands dirty. they love a good sweat session on the field (or.. alone… elsewhere… hehee <3) and love the Smell of each other.

they love being silly! medic tends to bring this out in sniper and he might have thought it was originally Cringe but medic has shown him how to be silly and fun-loving and full of whimsy! they play chase (medic will pinch sniper’s butt and take off running and howling with laughter and sniper will snicker and Eagerly Pursue) and hide and seek, which is their favorite… medic loves seeing sniper in action and showing off his skills that aren’t Just sniping! tracking, Hunting… and of course, he loves being the thing he’s Hunting >:)! its a very fun flirtatious game for them!

another merc being like “where’s sniper?” medic giggling and being like “hoo! <v< hoh! >v> i don’t know!! isn’t that exciting!! ehee hee! ^v^” and the other mercs being like :|? KSDKFDSF.. i think they’re very Weird and Cringe and Free as a couple and while the other mercs might not Get Them they are happy for their friends :)

sniper is very quiet and medic is often easy to sneak up on (sniper likes to do so >:)) and when medic tries sneaking up on sniper (he is not as good at it….) sometimes sniper will be like “aht aht. heard you comin’ five miles away!” or he’ll be like “GASP!! awh you got me. you sneaky thing!” just because he likes to see his pretty dovey win ://)

sniper's "gotta make a necklace outta your teeth" line. medic hears him say it on the field and is like "wait. do you really do that?" and sniper's like “y’wanna find out?" and medic's like ">//u//< JA!" sniper surprises him with a necklace of human teeth... fit for a king <3

we know medic is Weird but i also like to imagine sniper being Weird too. he and medic are putting their hands in the dirt finding worms bugs snakes etc.. sniper giving medic bird heart pendants and snake venom etc etc.. medic's like "ohh hee hee! we are married now i think! ^v^"

#the way these are only a small amount of them that i have in my mind... <3 #tf2 #bushmedicine #sniper #medic #HEHEHEHE >:)#i am crazy and i love them. so #here you go #sniper x medic #dutchfoolery #dutchiehcs #medsnip

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scryptids · 2 months ago

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emma myers / she/they ——— no way is that DAISY PORTER.. they’re a 22-year-old HUMAN notoriously known for being MISCHIEVOUS & ADVENTUROUS but there are some people who have seen them being LOYAL & LOVING. if you ask me, they remind me a lot of hours spent zoned out on the couch while staring at their phone, messy hair that they never know what to do with, walls painted black in preparation for the creativity to flow, and being a menace to their siblings, but that could just be because they’re considered the PRANKSTER around town. just keep an eye on them & see if their true colors shine through..

full name: daisy mae porter birthdate: april 2nd age: 22 height: 5’3” occupation: professional troublemaker (aka she walks dogs for a living) ship status: closed bio:

when it comes to blending in, daisy is incapable

the identical twin sister to lily and one of seven children, daisy made their entrance into the world by making a big fuss, making it clear that they would never let anyone forget about them

they were always running rampant through the porter family home, making herself everyone else’s problem by annoying them until they paid attention to her

but it was only because she loved her family too much; daisy liked how close they all were, and even though they could be annoying, they all looked out for one another

unlike lily, they were very outgoing and didn’t shy away from making friends, though most of them came from online forums, as daisy is a very lazy person even on a good day

they loved to lay around doing nothing all day, their face usually buried in a screen of some sort while they scrolled aimlessly

daisy built up a reputation of being somewhat of a hellion, because after watching one too many youtube videos of people pranking their friends, she soon took on that hobby

none of her pranks were ever malicious in any way, but she did love to watch the shock and amusement on people’s faces after one of her antics were successful

needless to say, her friends were just as chaotic and hard to pin down as she was, but that’s how she knew she was surrounding herself by the right people

as daisy got older and made it clear that school wasn’t their priority, their parents stopped hounding them about doing something productive with their life

they never did so in a rude way, but they figured having one wildcard child out of seven was a better outcome than they could’ve had

much like most of their siblings, daisy chose to live at home in the upper district to be as close to their family as possible

to make some semblance of an income, daisy is a dog walker, and that’s about the only physical activity that they do willingly

they’re an animal lover through and through, so dog walking felt like the perfect profession for them because it requires minimal effort and she gets to be around dogs all day

overall, daisy is just a very outgoing, if not annoying, person to be around

she loves to make people laugh and smile, and if she doesn’t achieve that at least once a day, she’s convinced that she’ll cease to exist

#daisy porter: intro #cyberplexintro

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cryptid-writer · 3 months ago

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More fighter izuku scenes in no particular order, and from several in progress pieces I'm working on for the AU.

Typical warnings for fighting, underaged drinking/substance use, classism, systematic discrimination, implied child death

Bonus headshot I did of Izuku

He's still running with the neighborhood. They all learn the same way, brawling in the streets. They tussle like feral cats, hissing and spitting, it is graceless and dirty. But they'll never survive by playing fair in a world where the odds are stacked against them. The neighborhood teens celebrate his return to fighting by setting dumpsters on fire. They all get their favorite snacks and eat in the empty parking lot next to Suzuki's corner store afterwards, and then someone mentions they have fire crackers, and suddenly they're running through the streets outside the neighborhood chucking fire at each other. Izuku finds himself howling in joy, surrounded by the hyena calls of his fellow compatriots and co-conspirators. His boys are right there beside him, grinning and celebrating with just as much joy as him. It ends in a big brawl and a bonfire, and Izuku knows deeper than ever that he wouldn't trade this for the world. Maybe that's selfish of him, but he finds he doesn't care.

---

Let it be on record that Izuku isn't nice, but he cares. His boys will say he's kind. Ms. Tamayo will say he's a hellion of a kid, but he's dependable. Mr. Shin will say Izuku is a protector at heart who rages for the people against discrimination. Izuku belongs to a neighborhood born of ash and dirt and blood, he is stained with the same colors as them. The neighbors will say he is another lost kid they welcomed home with open arms. Grandmama Yumi will say he helped fill her kitchen with children she could pass on her recipes to. Kids will say he tutors them because their teachers failed them, that he taught them to fight so they might survive longer than him. Izuku is going to do whatever it takes so that maybe one day the neighborhood will no longer hang too large shoes that should still be on small feet. Will no longer have to hold candlelight vigils for children the rest of the world forgot. He doesn't want them to turn out like him, broken and burning and raw. He may not have been born here, but he's welcomed home just the same. The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb after all.

---

Izuku gets 1312 tattooed on his collarbone after his second arrest leaves him more pissed off and burning brighter than ever. Eraserhead and Tsukauchi have no right to tell him he's at fault, that he should be a kid, that he can't be on his own. Tell him he shouldn't have fought Katsuki because now his career is potentially at risk. Please, tell him what fucking career outside the pits will welcome anyone who looks like him. Maybe in America, but not in Japan where his appearance generally makes him taboo. That's if they look past the damning “NULL” stamped in big red letters on his ID. The quirkless teenager is not a vessel for their good intent. He's a stray dog on the streets, an aggressive one at that who snaps and snarls at the people who aren't his. A broken bottle boy with a sharp tongue and sharper teeth and even sharper edges. Izuku is the supernova and the storm, lightning blood and fire rage. Dripping with the venom ichor of some angry-bitter thing inhabiting a hollowed out body. Those with quirks seem quick to forget that. They see his display and tell him he needs to apologize for having been made this way by their hands, for not simply laying down and dying. Admonish him for being angry and throwing stones at a regime with guns and ammunition and bombs. Then blame him for ever having existed at all. He and his boys have a party, and it is raw and burning. The angry, dead, and destitute neighborhood teens join them in drinking and smashing glass bottles and brawling under the light of street lamps. Tempers flare and grudges are dealt with on the asphalt. They snarl and fight like the street dogs they are, burned baked raw. They take their anger out on each other and leave the remaining rage behind in the ring. They decorate each other with bruises and blood, roll in the glass shards and grin all the while. (Ken isn't thrilled about sewing them up and pulling glass shards out of them later but the underground doctor understands. They did the same shit after all.)

---

“From what Inko was saying, Izuku has been out on the streets since he was thirteen. He was fighting before that. He's had to fight his entire life brat, it just seems he finally caught fire.” Katsuki thinks back to every sign of smoke he's ever brushed off when it comes to Deku and disagrees. “No. He's always been burning, we all just ignored it.” His mother sighs, far more solemn than he expected she could be. An unusually gentle hand just rests on his head, carding through blond locks softly. It's jarring. “Listen kiddo, you and Izuku come by it honestly. Fire is your birthright, you just manifest it differently. Your grandmother and I are the exact same way as you, the blaze that draws attention. The fire in city limits, “Inko and Izuku are far more dangerous. The fire unnoticed until it's far too late, theirs is a back draft. Calm in appearance until they explode.”

#cryptidwriterdotcom #mha au #bnha au #mha #bnha #fighter izuku au #midoriya izuku #izuku mydoria #bakugo katsuki #current wip #wip #snippet #writing #disabled writer

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starlitangels · 2 years ago

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Excerpt of a Fic I’ll Probably Never Finish

@zozo-01 remember the conversation we had a long time ago about Alexis meeting and later getting together with a Really Old demon? Have a vague idea on that

—

Alexis sighed. “I know you’re there. Come out, Stealth!”

After a moment, a figure appeared from thin air. “I’m not a Stealth,” she said. “But I was cloaked.”

Alexis eyed the wicked horns twisting up from her head. “You’re a demon.”

The newcomer nodded. “I am.”

Alexis ran old lessons through her head. “You’re a Sadism Demon.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Your horn shape. The color of your eyes when you decloaked.”

The Sadism Demon smiled. “You’re smart.”

Alexis scoffed. “Try telling that to my clan.” She folded her arms, digging sharp nails into the skin of her arms. “Let me guess. You’re following me to get a decent meal for once?”

The Sadism Demon tilted her head to one side. She was tall—definitely over six feet—but willowy. Almost unhealthily thin. “No,” she said. “I can’t feed on your feelings.”

“The hell you can’t. I’m the Solaire Clan Hellion. The one they all call a monster.”

“You have nothing for me to feed on right now. I was following you because I’ve never felt that much deep sadness on a human before. Especially one as young as you are.”

Alexis barked a laugh. “I’m pushing eighty-five, demon.”

“My name is Ursa.”

“Hello, Ursa. I’m Alexis.”

“Pleasure to meet you. I’m over two-thousand years old.”

Alexis blinked, her mind slamming to a halt with a record scratch. “Really?”

Ursa nodded. “Yes. That’s why you are young. To me, even the oldest of your kind tend to feel young.”

“My Maker is a fourth your age.”

“Mm. Yes. A young spring chicken.”

“Alright,” Alexis grumbled. “So. Sadism Demon Ursa. What do you want with me? If you can’t feed on me—which I still have a hard time believing—you must want something.” She waved vaguely, lifting one hand before tucking it back into her folded arms.

Ursa shrugged. “There’s nothing I want. I’ve never felt sadness like yours on a human so young. I was curious.”

“I’m not human.”

“You are. Vampires often forget they are still, simply, human. With a more complex magical Core than perhaps any other. But human, nonetheless. Kept alive by the blood of others. And great amounts of magic.” Ursa hummed. “Your empowered society looks at me much more fearfully than you. You feed on their blood. I feed on their worst emotions. Ones none of the ones trying to be good like to admit to feeling.” She wiggled her fingers gracefully. “So I take them away. I take the emotions they hate most about themselves away. So that they never feel hateful or malicious again.

“But you have nothing for me to feed on. Not right now. I see great pain in your mind and your heart, but I don’t see lasting, deep malice. Most humans feel hateful and sadistic sometimes. I’m not hand-waving that away and saying you never have. But it doesn’t linger. With you. It’s not a core part of who you are. You called yourself a Hellion and said others call you a monster, but that’s not what I see in front of me.”

Alexis scoffed. “And just what do you see in front of you?”

“A lost, lonely young girl looking for fulfillment and struggling to find it.” Ursa tilted her fine eyebrows. “You want to seek happiness. But you don’t think you’ll find it. So you choose to settle for indifference.”

Alexis’ fangs poked out of her mouth. “It’s better than pain,” she spat bitterly.

Ursa hummed again. “Perhaps it’s not as different as you’d prefer. Indifference is a wall between you and what hurts you. It’s not erased. Just can’t be seen. Happiness won’t erase the pain either. But happiness can… diminish the size of the pain long enough to learn to live around it.”

“Bullsh—”

“It’s true. I’m a lot older than you, Ms. Getty. I’ve seen it happen. Plenty of times. I call it a human experience, but demons experience such things too.”

Alexis rolled her eyes. “So… what? Gonna teach me enlightenment?”

“I don’t believe I can. But, if you’d like, I can point you in the direction that leads to learning to heal yourself.”

Alexis’ silver eyes flashed in the moonlight. “I dare you to give it a shot.”

Ursa smiled. “Don’t dare a demon as old as I. You’ll always lose.”

#redacted asmr #redacted audio #ficlet #Redacted Alexis #Alexis Getty

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nvrcmplt · 6 months ago

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Waking to the sound of eggshells, though knowing he was far from any farm, kitchen or marketplace - the Hound could only lift his lashes to stare upon the world with resign. Blinking once and adjusting his position upon rooftop, he rose his hand to stare upon his palm and fingers - the large crack through his skin was the source of the sound… Though it wasn't alone, since it began to crack more and more as he moved.

A startling flame burst from his cheekbone, burning at his hair which would never of done, if this body wasn't coming to its last of use. Burning, cracking, melting as he felt his clothing bleed back to his pores. Weissager was silent in the midst of it all. Though it wasn't a common change, it wasn't something he needed to ever panic about. He was however just a little annoyed at himself for forgetting that this time of the timeline in the same body was bound to come to an end.

He should mention things like this to his persons more readily however - it was going to be a hassle to explain to his hearts chosen few. If he wasn't of such a high status and power, he wouldn't need a new face every few centuries still, as parts of his face fell off his corrupted form, he watched as it shattered and turned to dust in the passing breeze. Igniting the flames to devour his frame as a whole - removing the cocoon of a human body once a being of his own mind.

As all evidence was burned away - removed like ashes to the wind. The hellion beast moved to step forwards, to think he'd plummet was silly as a vortex opened with ease to swallow him back home. He was in need of a new vessel after all and although the process should take years to select that perfect one. Weissager was not a demon of unpreparedness… As he landed upon the burning landscape and manor once his birdcage. He entered inside to the vast halls filled with the bodies of those whose souls have been eaten by himself.

A new face was never hard to find.

He just had to find the right one that suited his desires at that moment.

Might just take him a week to go through his collection of beings.

#« ( Weissager ) » IC.#━━ ｢ Drabble ｣

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therealbeachfox · 8 months ago

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Look, despite what some people might think, country folk aint stupid. Simple sometimes, sure, but not stupid. So when three events happened in quick succession, it wasn't hard to connect the dots.

First, there was the shooting star. Meteor. Meteorite. "That green blaze of light that went cross the sky screaming like a banshee's flute". Whatever you're going to call it. Anyone who was up at the time saw it. But nobody heard any sound of it hitting ground. And with all the fuss it was making, you'd figured you would. Everyone would've just figured it burnt itself up while stretching through the sky. Except.

Second, there were the very clean, well-groomed men in their suits and their near-identical close-cut haircuts who showed up within a few days. On their own or in pairs, just asking around in that sort of way that super serious people who are trying to be casual for the first time think is casual. Asking about if anything 'strange' had happened. Asking if anyone had talked about 'finding something'. Asking if anyone, or anything 'new' had shown up.

Aside from them, of course.

And despite what some people might think, patriotism and trust in government officials do not always go hand in hand. So everyone was degrees of blandly pleasant and polite to the men who were certainly not from the government and gave friendly non-answers before hurrying behind closed doors to gossip and compare notes and try to figure out exactly what they were all on about.

Third, the Kents had a baby. Martha was a skinny twig of a woman back then and certainly hadn't been anything but a skinny twig of a woman just the week before. And though the hair matched Johnathan's just dandy and the skin-tone was a perfect match for Martha, neither of them nor their kin ever had eyes of that perfect piercing blue.

It was an absolute delight of a baby, though. Martha and Johnathan were good people. However it was they'd gotten whatever it was they were calling their son, they'd manage it right. You could trust them with that sort of thing. You certainly couldn't trust some federal agency of serious be-suited men with identical haircuts and stiff awkward ways. Eventually, those men gave up finding whatever it was they were after and everyone breathed a sigh of relief and got on with their lives.

I mean, yes, the Kents were raising some sort of secret space baby, but aside from the initial flurry of community-wide confirmation of the fact, it really wasn't the sort of thing worthy of gossiping about. The McConnals had that daughter they'd brought home from Vietnam and it was mostly agreed that gossiping about that was poor manners, so why should the Kents' boy should be any different?

Then that was that, at least for a handful of years, till the Kent boy started attending school. He was a sweet kid, a kind kid. The Kents were raising up a good one, everyone could agree on that. And sure, he seemed to have an uncommonly keen ear and sharp eye, and was a hellion on the little league field, but you could chalk all that up to good genetics. And heck, everyone had been going along with the Kents' story so long it was easy to forget he weren't their actual blood. Not that that should matter much in any case.

By middle school, though, the happenings around the Kent boy were getting downright peculiar. The boy was fast, the boy was strong, the boy was tough. And not in the sort of way that made the high school coaches eagerly anticipate them entering freshman year, no. He was trying to hide it, 12 year olds aren't good at hiding normal things, let alone the fact that you tried to keep someone from getting run over by a thresher and wound up with mangled thresher blades, shredded school clothes, and an otherwise completely unharmed Kent boy looking abashed and trying to put together some excuse about a hidden rock getting in the gears or something.

But the kid was obviously mortified by the whole thing, so Dormick didn't push it. He did make a few comments to others though, and once people were looking, the Kent boy's uniqueness was plain to see.

The boy could outrace cars. He could pull tractors out of the muck all on his own. He could stand between a classmate and a thresher and the only thing that'd get wreaked was the thresher. Honestly, it would've been more than a little concerning to folk if it wasn't for the fact that the kid was just so dang nice. He was a good boy, kind, considerate. Any hint to him being, well, better was met with either embarrassed denial or fervent denial depending on how it'd been phrased. So instead of being the sort of thing that lead to muttering behind closed doors and maybe an eventual rousting of the whole family out of town, it instead just became a local secret. An open secret, but a secret.

There were still outsiders with short sharp haircuts and awkwardly stiff manner who'd come through from time to time and ask leading questions about whether there was anyone 'strange' in the community and very obviously trying to play off the assumption that they'd all be a bunch of bigoted fearful 'simple' folk.

There was no way in hell any of them were going to hand the Clark boy over to anyone like that.

It was when he was getting towards the end of high school and began talking about his plans of moving off to one of the big cities to pursue college and a career that folk begun to get worried. The cities weren't like Smallville in a lotta ways, and Clark was such a good decent boy. They worried.

It wasn't some sort of great plan. No one got together and came up with it. It was just a lot of people coming to the same decision in pretty much the same way, then others seeing what they were doing and deciding that they had the right of it and following course.

"That's a strong shake you got there." Mr. McCormick would say down at the store, feeling his bones grind against each other slightly, "You gotta watch that when you hit the city or everyone's gonna think you're one of those asshole highroller types who've always gotta be proving themselves top dog or something." Clark would apologize and start shaking more gently.

"Thanks Clark, that was right quick of you." old Ms. Narri would say when the boy arrived with her weekly groceries, running up so fast he's almost a blur until he slows down at the gate. "You should be careful with running that fast when you get to the city, though. Lotta more people out there, and none of them watching where they're going or what they're doing. We don't want you crashing into someone just cus they don't notice to get out of the way." Clark nodded with understanding and slowed himself down.

"Yer a lifesaver, kid." would say Lenny when Clark would haul a shipment of tractor parts into the shop. "Might want to avoid letting folks know you can do that up in the city, though. They'll think all those muscles left no room for your brain and instead of college, they'd have you lugging boxes at the docks till you go grey. Or spend all your time moving their fridges from apartment to apartment." Clark wasn't sure he fully believed that, but he was more careful about considering what he was about to lift and carry around.

And so on and so on. If they'd all known Clark had wanted to move out of Smallville from the beginning, they would've been coaching him all his life, but the two years of gently nudging the sweet kid on how best to pretend to be normal would have to be enough.

And, well, judging from what you can see on the TV or read in the Daily Planet (which now gets issues shipped out all the way to Smallville for the corner store because everyone loves their hometown celebrity), they must've done alright with it. They're real proud of their Clark. He's a good kid, his parents raised him right. (And while it's not right to brag, everyone does feel more than a smidge of pride at being able to help with it.)

And when any outsiders come through with pointed or leading questions, everyone will just smile blandly and have no idea what they could be getting at. Because honestly, anything beyond the fact he's a good kid who's done well is nobody's business but him and his, thank you very much.

Starting to think a cooler headcanon for Clark’s upbringing might just be that the entire town of Smallville collectively decided to just go with it and accept that Martha and John's kid has superpowers, but we don't talk about it.

Someone's tractor gets stuck and nothing can get it out? "Be a dear and run down to the Kents, would you? Ask for Clark?"

"Why Clark, we need a machine--"

"Run along now."

Or if he kicks too hard and the football vanishes into the upper stratosphere, no it didn't, we all collectively saw it land over there *vague hand movements*

#DC comics #Superman #Clark Kent #headcanon #Smallville #Smallville's residents are good people who're down right proud of their hometown celebrity reporter who also sometimes fights aliens on tv

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sofarsofastmp3 · 2 months ago

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this month i declared love for an author and then immediately discovered a major problem. whoops.

helloooo. i’d been writing all of these at once at the end of the month and for september i decided to attempt some level of organization by writing my comments right after finishing the book! this did make for longer “reviews” but. we move.

prodigal summer by barbara kingsolver

barbara!!!! what the hell, girl!! i’ve owned prodigal summer for over two years and i regret all the time that we’ve occupied the same space without becoming acquainted. i inhaled 90% of this book over the course of a 12 hour travel day and the next afternoon; i am obsessed with it. there are three main story threads that become more clearly entwined as they each unfold. i do have a favorite, but it took the entire novel to decide. since finishing, i’ve fallen in love with the incredibly vague blurbs for this book on its goodreads page and on the back of my paperback copy. all it gives you going in is that this is a story about connection and the environment of southern appalachia. all the author pull quotes are calling it sexy and lush. and yeah, it’s all of the above!! kingsolver puts her biology degree to work in this thing. even when i had no real idea where this book was going, i had already fallen in love with the writing and setting. it’s also incredibly tender in a way that sneaks up on you. i just love it. my one single qualm is that sometimes the women’s internal monologues lean a little on the gender essentialist side, but i see what kingsolver is doing with it and also it was 2000. i have one of her short story collections on my shelf already (another one that’s been in my orbit for over a year. barbara i’m so sorry for ignoring you.) and i’m feeling drawn to demon copperhead which won her the pulitzer last year.

ne’er duke well by alexandra vasti

another one for the book fest spreadsheet <3 i like vasti. back in early 2023, i read her self published novellas that you get for free when you sign up for her newsletter, and i was jazzed when i found out she was getting traditionally published! ne’er duke well has the things i liked about the novellas (lovable, funny characters with tangible feelings and inner worlds), but it’s also missing something. several scenes, actually. at multiple points in this book, a new chapter starts days or weeks ahead! normally i wouldn’t mind but it felt like she was glossing over kind of important stretches of time. an entire wedding is skipped!! this combined with a severely cheesy conclusion to both main conflicts left me wanting a bit more. i’m hoping her next one is paced a bit better to have that depth.

a halifax holiday by alexandra vasti (halifax hellions #4)

it’s cute! a 40ish page holiday epilogue for a trilogy of novellas. not much to say, and honestly i read the novellas so long ago i kept forgetting which of the twin sisters was which and who they married.

i am made of death by kelly andrew

third time was the charm with me actually reading kelly andrew arcs before their pub date lol. i got physical arcs of both the whispering dark and your blood, my bones but read both books a couple months after their releases. i put in a netgalley request for this one last week; it doesn’t come out until march. it’s 2:30 am and i just finished it. i haven’t been sleeping great recently. but also this book was just really engaging! i’ll have to write a real review at some point so the arc people don’t get mad, but for here in my little ramble diary i’ll just say i really like andrew. your blood, my bones is still my favorite, but i think she’s continuing to evolve and create such a fun, twisty voice. i like how gross these last two books have gotten, and i think her characters’ sharpness feels more honest than a lot of ya protagonists i’ve read. this one in particular felt that way. i love vivienne; she is so real and dear to me, and hearing how andrew kind of channeled some of her younger self’s feelings about being disabled into this character was super interesting. you can really see her tap into that with vivienne, who is mute. some of the finer details of her world building and lore could use some work, but her characters are really the main focus and are also one of her strongest points. her imagery goes crazy. that’s the best part by far.

her wanton wager (mayhem in mayfair #2) by grace callaway

this is my second grace callaway and i think i have to accept that for all people rave about her online, she’s not for me. both her male and female characters kind of run together in the same, boring (to me) framework. even when i can see clear cameos of couples from her other works in the book! there’s only so many times i can hear about an ultra masculine scoundrel with a tragic past and secret heart of gold. especially when it’s done so similarly every time

antigonick (sophocles) translated by anne carson

brief, yet impactful. obviously antigone and polynices are the focus here but ismene and antigone’s exchange of “i want to row the boat with you” “save yourself” “i’ll be so lonely” is so. i have 3 siblings. you understand. i’m excited to read more anne carson, this is the first full work of hers i’ve read and i liked it a lot. great rhythm and it’s such a funny translation/interpretation but also contains these truly walloping lines. i think it’s always interesting getting the full context of tumblr’s poetry darlings. “but who can grow me a new brother” has circulated thousands upon thousands of times clipped by itself, pasted into a scrapbook web weave, and edited onto succession stills. you can feel the force of it in all of those places, but none like in here. also, i’m a little obsessed with thinking about translation or adaptation as the john ashbery “trying to peel off the wallpaper in my room, not out of animosity but because it seemed there must be be something fascinating behind [it]”

the earl on the train by kerrigan byrne (victorian rebels #6.5)

i’m a sucker for a stupid pun. was scrolling hoopla unable to sleep and this was only 170 pages! had a blast, kind of wish this was a full length novel, and now i really want to read more of this series/byrne in general. i’ve read in-series novellas from people before where it was just full of name and lore drops that made it impossible to enjoy if you haven’t read every book in the series (tessa dare i love you your spindle cove novellas are incomprehensible), but this totally stands alone while making me incredibly intrigued by the installment these two characters hail from. okay WAIT. the installment in question is called “the duke with the dragon tattoo.” using two goofy puns on popular mystery novels to link your stories? ms byrne i Love you.

a dark and drowning tide by allison saft

i have been SO anticipating saft’s adult debut and i liked it so! much! it honestly doesn’t feel too distant from her ya, it has the same kind of close feel and she still utilizes highly political plot points, but you can sense that she wanted to up the ante a bit. this is an expedition gone wrong, a murder mystery, a political conspiracy, and a lesbian romance. there’s a lot going on!! but it’s all contained well. a worse author would have dragged this into at least another book. i know her next book is ya but i’m kind of hoping for a continued venture into adult fantasy. again, i’m selfish!

the highwayman by kerrigan byrne (victorian rebels 1)

prefacing this with the fact that i am pms-ing. severely. but i spent like a third of this book on the verge of tears my GOD. i have ~qualms~ with the way some of blackwell’s baggage is handled and there’s a kind of comically evil third act villain that doesn’t feel necessary given how much conflict this book already grapples with lmao BUT!! i read this in one sitting and i was so invested

the hunter by kerrigan byrne (victorian rebels 2)

incredibly weird stereotypes of like four different cultures in the first 30% ish of this book that are then never mentioned again. it was so bizarre, even with its eventual absence, i still kept thinking back on it as i was reading. it was like in an effort to diversify her story, byrne overcorrected into two dimensional nonsense. i have no clue if i’m going to keep going in this series, but even if i do eventually, i need a break from it. just weird.

#kind of a weird month #the good was Amazing the rest was. hm.#also i fucked up the order on my graphic which is killing me but i have something else i wanna work on tonight #so. picking mybattles #books #wrapup

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kurt-wagner-official · 2 years ago

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Post #60: NM issues 26-28

After 2 years of foreshadowing, we're finally getting our introduction to Xavier's son, David Haller, in the Legion story arc. It opens on Muir Island with Tom and Sharon, the people that Demon Bear enslaved and then turned into Native Americans. Again, this is a very strange storyline and really would not fly today, but at the very least I'm eternally thankful that the transformation didn't change their personalities to be obsessed with tribe honor or something, which has been a very frequent issue with Claremont's Native Americans. They're discussing how their lives have changed; Sharon is still mourning her old life, but Tom is excited by the borderline superhuman physiques that the Demon Bear also gave them. They see a strange astral projection of a young man and then an alarm sounds and there's a telekinetic storm. They find the source is in David's room. He's flailing around screaming for help, apparently completely out of control, until he starts grinning and laughing in a completely different voice. Cut to the next morning, where the Blackbird arrives with Sean, Xavier, Dani, Rahne, Doug, and Warlock. Moira is overjoyed to see Sean alive again after the events of the last Uncanny storyline. When Rahne sees her greet him first, she begins to cry, assuming her mother has abandoned her, but Moira comes up and hugs her. It's sad to see Rahne hate herself so much that she assumes her own mother would forget about her, and I'm glad Moira is being supportive and loving. We really don't see a lot of their relationship, but whenever we do it's a lovely side of Moira and a great moment for Rahne. Meanwhile, Dani and Doug watch in astonishment as Warlock attempts to flirt with the Blackbird. Doug tells Dani how excited he is to be a New Mutant and live in the world of superheroes. Doug hasn't really been strongly defined as a person yet, but we're starting to get an idea of him as an outgoing people person who can also be a bit of an awkward nerd. Unlike the rest of the team, he's always had a stable life and has yet to develop any sort of tragic backstory, and the brutal realities of life as a superhero haven't sunken in yet. Moira finally gets to the reason she called- an explosion occured last night that leveled a building and apparently wiped the minds of Tom and Sharon, leaving them as vegetables. Xavier is shocked to see Gaby Haller, his old therapy patient/lover (in case you forgot he's kinda a creep) who's now an Israeli ambassador. She tells him that her son, David, is schizophrenic (he actually has DID, but at the time people, including Claremont, referred to having multiple personalities as schizophrenia) and withdrew from reality when he was ten, but she doesn't tell him that he's Xavier's son. Meanwhile, at the Massachusetts Academy, Emma yells at Empath for how he treated Firestar and telepathically turns off his powers as punishment. Emma is still kinda a conundrum. Under Claremont's pen, she's basically completely evil, and the Hellions are tools she uses in her grand plans. But at the same time, it sometimes seems like she truly cares about to kids under her care. With a few exceptions, most notably Magneto, Claremont prefers to make his villains reflections of the worst parts of his heroes rather than morally complex people in their own right, so he would probably say she doesn't care about them. She's one of the characters who I think gets noticably more interesting when Claremont leaves and she starts her redemption arc, but that redemption is built on the idea that she always cared for her children on some level. When you read these old stories in retrospect, keeping in mind where she ends up adds a interesting new dimension to Emma's character, even if Claremont didn't have that in mind. I also have a lot more thoughts on Empath, but I'll save those for later. Back to our main cast: while Xavier talks to Gaby, the kids go to the nearby town to hang out. Warlock eats a bird, and Dani is upset with him for risking their cover in public. Warlock's another character who hasn't gotten much panel time yet, although he's more defined than Doug. He's naive like Doug, but he's also been through as much horror as any of them. Usually with a tragic backstory like Warlock's, the character end up distrustful of everyone they meet. But when Warlock met the New Mutants and the my weren't like his father, he assumed they must be the exact opposite and trusts them completely. His main challenges as a person will be learning about the shades of grey that exist between happiness and torment. The idea of an alien with the mutant ability to feel compassion is such an interesting one for the book to tackle. The New Mutants run into Reverend Craig, the man who raised Rahne and then tried to kill her. She's legally under Moira's protection, so he can't attack her but heells at her for being the spawn of Satan and she doesn't fight back, just bows her head and leaves, asking her friends to let it go. Back on the island, Xavier tries to enter David's mind and help him the way he did Gaby 20 years ago. Like his mother, David has a wall around his psyche, but unlike his mother, an astral form comes out to meet Xavier. It doesn't look like David, but a young Arabic man, the same one Tom and Sharon saw, who seems to be about to communicate Suddenly Xavier hears laughing and is blasted out of the room, both psychically and physically. Thousands of miles away, Lee wakes up to find Magneto having a nightmare and shaking the island. She wakes him up before he hurts himself and he thanks her and they start kissing. Back on the island, Xavier talks to Gaby, and says he was wrong to start a relationship with her all those years ago. He's absolutely right and I'm glad that at the very least he recognizes it. She begins to tell him about the trauma that sent David into his shell, but we don't get to see that because we cut away to Rahne. Seeing Craig again has just made her self doubt and hatred even worse, and she goes to Moria to ask for guidance. She begins to offer it when the astral form of the mysterious man appears and tells them to flee just before an explosion decimates the building.

Xavier finds Rahne and Moira in the same state as Tom and Sharon- physically fine but with no psyche, similar to people who Anna uses her powers on. Notably, Rahne is still in werewolf form, even though knocking her out usually makes her revert to human. Xavier realizes that David had several powers and each seems to be linked to a different personality. He believes that the catatonic people may have had their psyches absorbed, so Dani volunteers to try to follow her mindlink with Rahne. Xavier accompanies her astral form, but it's a trap, and both of their minds, along with Gaby's and Doug's, are pulled into David's head. Warlock is spared because his alien brain works differently, but without his friends he quickly falls into a pit of despair. Xavier, still weakened from his mugging, is struggling to defend himself and his friends from the battle he's fighting inside David's mind. Although David's wall wraps around threatens to crush them, Xavier finds the strength to tear a hole in. Through it, the heroes see a whole city in David's mind, and Dani senses Rahne's presence in it. David appears and cries out for Xavier to help him. He's ready Gaby's thoughts and calls Xavier father, which shocks him and makes him lose his grip on Doug and Gaby, who are pulled into the psychic storm. Xavier sees three giant heads in the sky. One of them is a man who says the dilemma can't be helped and introduced them as Legion. The second is the guy who's been astral projecting, who tries to warn Xavier he's in danger. The third is a younger girl who says he should give up, and it'll be nice to have new personalities stuck in the mind. Off to the side, he sees the true David, a tiny child begging his father to save him. Xavier could flee and save himself and Dani, but he can't abandon the son he just discovered, so he flies into the storm towards the city. It's a combination of Paris and Beirut, filled with war and people screaming in agony. It seems to be a combination of David's childhood in Paris and the memories of the one helpful alternate personality, with both of their worst experiences magnified into a hellscape. Horrified at the thought of David growing up in this mental reality, he tries to figure out where to start searching. First, he mindscans for all his friends and students that were pulled into this city. Dani, Doug, and Gaby are together, and so are Rahne and Moira. Both groups are fighting for their lives against the monstrous tanks and planes that are attacking the city. Dani tells him they'll find each other and Tom and Sharon while Xavier goes to put an end to the chaos. He sees the guy who's been astral projecting, who runs off as Xavier is hit by a strafing plane. He's saved by the telekinetic personality, a charming adventurer named Jack Wayne. He says that the other guy is the telepathic personality, and he's imprisoned David in a giant done and is feeding him these nightmares to make them a reality. The telepath isn't a natural personality, he's an invader into the mind, and Jack and Xavier set off to take him down. Elsewhere, the telepath approaches Dani, Doug, and Gaby, who tries to attack him, saying he's a terrorist who killed David's godfather and tried to kill him. Rahne and Moira find Cyndi, the pyrokinetic personality, who helps them save the others from a group of demonic soldiers. Gaby and Moira figure out the truth, which Cyndi confirms: when the terrorist tried to kill David as a child, David's powers manifested and killed him, bringing his consciousness into his own mind. The invading personality ended up in control of David's natural telepathy. Jack tells Xavier the only way to save David is to kill the other personality, and Xavier takes the knife Jack offers and prepares to enter the dome and end things.

The team catches up with the duo as they try to climb the mountain to the dome at the top, where they'll find David. Although Xavier loves Jack, who reminds him of his own fantasies as a child, Dani and Rahne don't trust him. Across the ocean, Lee and Magneto have been living together on the island for a few weeks now, but she can't stop thinking of all the things he's done in the past. She tells him she can't forgive or trust him, and that their relationship is over. Magneto is reminded of his first wife Magda, who ran in terror when he uses his powers for the first time and never saw him again. He tells Lee he's changing as a person, and he needs her help, but she refuses to take his hand and he walks away, heartbroken. Back in the brain, our heroes are approaching the peak of the mountain. Cyndi has been flirting with Doug the whole journey, which is creepy but also kinda funny. When they reach the peak, they find the invading personality, who we finally learn is named Jemail Karami. They attack him, and the whole mountain disappears, revealed to be an illusion all along. Jemail flees into the wall of the dome of darkness, but that's also an illusion, and the group follows him in. They find a room full of floating crystals with images of memories, and Xavier says this is David's soul. Each crystal represents a memory or another small part of what adds together to form David the person. Some of the crystals are shattered, which Jack says is Jemail's doing. But Xavier says that these bits were shattered during David's original trauma, and some of them have been repaired by Jemail. Suddenly, another cluster of crystals comes flying out of the darkness with Jemail flailing at it's center and crashes into everyone, wounding Cyndi. As memories fly everywhere, Gaby finds herself face to face with the day David's godfather Daniel was murdered and David merged minds with all the terrorists and then killed them. The trauma was what sent David back into his own mind, accidentally pulling one of his victims in with him. Gaby tries to kill Jemail, but Xavier has a change of heart and stops her, saying nobody else dies. Jack chooses that moment to reveal his treachery and attack. Before Xavier can react, he's hit with an external psychic wave that puts him into a coma within his coma. For some reason, the book cuts away from the climax for half a page to give a scene of Empath. He tells a mysterious woman who represents "the Gladiators" that the New Mutants would be perfect combatants for her arena. Back at the soul battle, Dani summons Jack's greatest fear, a healthy young David living with Xavier as a loving father. It sends Jack catatonic, and Dani then moves over to Jemail. He was knocked unconscious, but she wakes him up by nudging the good memories in his head. He wakes up and reads Doug's mind, finally giving himself the ability to speak English and communicate with Dani. He explains the story: when he was first pulled into David's mind, he hated the boy, but when he read his mind, he saw what a gentle and kind soul he was. It was an epiphany that led him to decide to undo the damage he did and fix David's broken psyche. The task became increasingly difficult as Jack and Cyndi manifested and began to fight him, knowing that if he succeeded they would cease to exist. He had almost finished with the repairs when Jack smashed the two crystal clusters together, undoing all his work. He says that now that David's powers have manifested in the real world, he has no time to start over, and must take permanent control to avoid collateral damage, but Dani has another plan. She wakes up Jack and, by threatening him with another taste of her powers, coerces him to help Jemail. When Xavier wakes up two weeks later, he hears this whole story. He commends Dani on her heroism and leadership in saving everyone, including Tom and Sharon, who Jemail had been taking care of. Xavier goes to see David. To his surprise, David switches rapidly between the angry voices of Jack and Cyndi and Jemail, who apologizes tells him that Jack manipulated the process so that they would all share control with David. When control reverts to David, Xavier hugs him and swears he'll never leave again. He tells Gaby that David may never be fully healed, but he'll never stop trying to help him. Privately, he wonders if it's worth it, because the weird external psychic blast he felt earlier was the return of the Beyonder.

I've always loved David, but I haven't read much stuff with him. This was my first time reading his origin story, and it did not disappoint. This might be X-Men art at its peak, with Sienkiewicz going absolutely insane on the hellscape of David's mind. It's perfectly paced, except for the weird thing at the end where it cut to Empath for like four panels, the mysteries and twists are all masterfully set up, and instead of fading into the background during the climax, Dani gets to be the MVP of the ending for the first time in a while. As for David himself, he's one of the best characters this book has introduced since the initial roster. His main personality doesn't show up much, but through Jack and Cyndi we get insight into his subconscious. Jack is the man he wanted to grow up to be, a swaggering adventurer who can defend himself from any attack. But beneath the surface, he's actually the asshole David could have become if he'd grown up with all his power but no moral guidance. He wants control, and is willing to sacrifice anyone to get it. Cyndi has less panel time, but I think is even more interesting. She's David's most cynical side, a child who lashes out with fire to destroy things that threaten her. She's the part of David that feels abandoned by his parents and can't trust anyone. I might be reading into this part too much, but I think her crush on Doug reflects how she really just wants to be understood. This is probably even more reading too far in, but I think Jemail kinda parallels Magneto. He attacked David for being Israeli, but when he failed to kill him he was forced to confront David's innocence and the monster that he had become, kinda similar to Magneto and Kitty in issue 150, although with some of the motivations different. Jemail decides redeem himself by helping David grow and keep his other selves in check, and Magneto will soon find redemption in teaching the New Mutants. David's dominant personality doesn't really appear until the very end, but he'll return in future stories and get a lot of development himself. I don't know if I'd rate this story or Demon Bear higher, but this is definitely in the top two that the series has had so far, and is overall one of my favorite stories in the X-canon.

#wes reads xmen

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