#though I guess she would eventually meet him when she goes to the human afterlife

[a-lonely-dunedain]

studying him

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 144 Rundown

Spy X Family: It’s the second half of the season and it’s DOG ARC time! The family goes to get Anya her dog but Loid’s spy shop is just full of bara dogs doing Jojo poses at them like why even take her to that one like if anyone blows the cover on that shop you publically going there is dangerous. But yeah Loid gets called away and busts a ring of college students planning to use dogs with bombs attached to them to murder the foreign minister and start World War whatever world war number this world is up to. This is pretty suspicious as college kids don’t tend to have ‘buy government hyperintelligent dogs to strap bombs to’ money which is a lot more than it takes to buy, you know, a gun. Meanwhile Yor and Anya are at another pet show and Anya trips across one of said Data Dogs who already has a picture of the Forger family in its memories so she wants to go see what the fuck that’s about and runs off after promising not to run off like five minutes ago and Yor has apparently been taking lessons on watching your kids from Stu and Didi Pickles because she doesn’t notice a fucking thing. Anya tries to free the Data Dog but because she’s in the hideout of the afformentioned college students with dog bomb money she gets fucking caught and they just wanna fucking slit her throat like geez guys. Luckily Data Dog frees himself and protects her which… I guess he could’ve done that at any time? Why did he need Anya? But still he’s able to use his Data Dog powers to predict the phone will ring about Loid busting the other hideouts and they use that distraction to get away but turns out Data Dog is in the Anya tier of ‘having superpowers doesn’t mean you’re any less of an impulsive moron’ camp and just kinda runs in circles for a while. Though they ran past Yor when they ran out so you can already see where this is going, Yor beats the shit out of the college students and saves Anya from what she thinks are human traffickers which is supposed to be a funny overreaction but given these guys were gonna snap her neck with their bare hands apparently I think she undershot it this time.

Inuyasha: I feel like this episode must’ve run REALLY short because we have like a five minute intro of Kagome reflecting on meeting Inuyasha and heading back to the feudal era for like no reason, like it makes you think the episode is gonna be a clip show but it does eventually get on with the plot. So back to that gate to the afterlife Hakudoshi had Kagura tell Inuyasha’s group about, like Miroku and Kagome even talk about how this couldn’t be a more clear trap if they tried like they even have Saimyosho fucking leading them to the spot but Inuyasha’s just like ‘yeah, yeah Naraku’s traps, we’ve all seen em, I’ll just shoot sword beams until the trap doesn’t work anymore’. I always did kinda like the setup for this setpiece though, it’s a stone gate to the underworld guarded by two statues that come to life and ask if someone wants to pass through the gate and they’re like ‘Yeah bro you can pass, but it’s the afterlife so we can’t let anybody living in so we gotta fucking kill you’ which I always found kind of hilarious like what’s the point of the fucking gate then like if you die you’re gonna go there anyway (the answer is it’s pointless and ends up being a weird plot point in Yashahime which would be an amazing callback if I ever thought any of this was planned out ahead of time) but yeah, the statues are basically invulnerable as with most gate guardians and even the Wind Tunnel doesn’t fucking work because… yeah they’re still giant dudes made of stone, makes sense. Really feel like Inuyasha is a D&D campaign where the DM realized they let Miroku’s character have a fucking broken ability and had to keep finding ways to nerf it. Myoga tells Inuyasha that the statues go back to sleep once the gate opens and closes so Inuyasha actually fucking defaults to the Red Tessaiga for once (thank god I’m so sick of him hitting it with the regular Wind Scar and then having it do nothing and having to switch or just missing his chance to kill the bad guys) and busts open the gate and Kagura has a horde of demons bum rush the gate to get into it before Inuyasha but turns out all the demons turn to stone because, you know, can’t go into the afterlife while alive, but like what’s the point of the guardians at that point? Like not only is the gate pointless if you need to be dead to get through it because the same thing happens when you die anyway but guarding it is pointless because if someone tries to jump through they just get Dr. Stone’d anyway, this whole system is just full of double redundancy. But yeah Kagura’s not too happy about that and the statues go to sleep but Kagome does confirm that through the gate is a jewel shard. Kagura goes back to Hakudoshi like ‘wtf bro you tried to kill me’ and he tells her to chill out because he sent all the fodder demons with her so there was only like a 40% chance she’d die and more importantly a 0% chance he would die because he wasn’t even fucking there. Kagura tries attacking him but Naraku can apparently long-distance squeeze Kagura’s heart and is just like ‘don’t try that again bro’. Anyway next is the Princess Abi arc and she’s easily one of my favorite tertiary characters like her design is so fucking cool, her and Yura are really awesome underused characters.

Yu Yu Hakusho: So yeah, Spirit World’s Law & Order Special Demons unit arrive on the scene and turns out they wanna fucking kill Yusuke… again, like bro’s already dead but turns out it doesn’t count unless you destroy the body (which was mentioned in the first arc so that’s a cool callback) But yeah turns out these guys can close up the hole in demon world in like ten days AND send a squad to make sure nothing passes through (also neat little lore bit about one of these guys being the one that hunted down Yoko Kurama, the lore in YYH doesn’t always feel the tightest so it’s nice when things come together like that) so basically the living world was never really in any danger, this whole thing was basically so Koenma didn’t have to tell his dad he fucked up. Like to be fair Sensui isn’t here and if he wasn’t kicking Hiei, Kurama and Kuwabara’s asses there’s a good chance he’d be fucking murdering all the SDP guys and they do say that them just being in Living World does kinda distort reality a bit and it’s hard to clean up so there’s a couple reasons why we couldn’t have just skipped to this part but it does kinda take the wind out of the stakes a bit. Anyway Koenma and Seaman stall the cops long about what a good guy Yusuke is for him to start reviving because yeah apparently he’s a demon and if anyone in his bloodline dies while having a power level high enough to activate the devil gene they just fucking go nuts and become a demon. And in true Yusuke fashion he plays up being the lord of darkness and shit despite not having changed a bit and shows the SDP guys as the pussies they are because it doesn’t matter if they’re afterlife cops, Yusuke Urameshi says fuck the police. Also Puu is this badass phoenix thing now that resembles what Koenma said the Spirit Beast would look like all the way back in the first arc so that’s pretty cool. Like I’m torn because admittedly this revelation came out of absolutely fucking nowhere with no foreshadowing but I do kinda admire how Yusuke just kinda rolls with it and makes a badass entrance to go kick Sensui’s ass like it’s an asspull among asspulls but can’t really argue with results.

Jujutsu Kaisen: It’s the conclusion of the Mahito fight and Kento and Yuji are kinda onto his Ditto bullshit now and are just beating the crap out of him before he can shapeshift and on the off-chance he can shapeshift with the two of them there they’re able to whittle down his form and pin him down easier. But if there’s one thing shonen anime teaches us it’s that almost dying makes you more powerful and Mahito unlocks his Domain Expansion which traps Kento in a realm where he can just do the whole ‘squibby squoodle your soul is now a noodle’ deal without actually touching you. Meanwhile Yuji has to murder soul gremlin zombies which even though I don’t think anyone considers them people anymore I do respect the series for actually making Yuji kill them despite his principles like a lot of shows confront the protag about it and then weasel out of it like YYH did or the kinda just forget that the protagonist is supposed to care about murder halfway through despite going absurdly out of their way to not have them kill any humans in the first half like Naruto and Bleach did. Anyway now that Kento thinks he’s gonna die we basically get his whole backstory where he’s revealed to be the only thing more evil than a cursed spirit: a stock broker. Basically what I gather is that Kento is Yoshikage Kira but he grew some empathy before the murder impulses kicked in and his own self-loathing and the feeling of saving people that he feels contribute more than him gave him a reason to live which is why he thinks about the bakery girl he saved and how her gratitude was his reason for living and tells Mahito to fucking shove his gratitude for having them unlock his next form. Meanwhile Yuji is able to punch his way into the Domain Expansion because ‘Why would you want to break INTO the realm of infinite torment where the bad guy can morph your soul at will?’ is valid logic. Unfortunately it seems like Mahito can’t turn OFF the soul-warping effect once you’re I his sphere so Sukuna’s just like “WHAT THE FUCK DID I SAY ABOUT YOUR DIRTY FRANKENSTEIN HANDS ON MY SOUL BRO!?” and just fucking murders him. Since Mahito’s critically injured and basically had all his energy used up by the Unlimited Hand Works he tries to Semi-Perfect Cell and bust out of there but pops like a balloon and ducks down the sewer to get the fuck out of dodge. And to my surprise they don’t do any shenanigans about bringing Junpei back to life or any of that shit, he’s fucking dead and Yuji has to live with that and everyone around Junpei has to own up to their part in making him a domestic jellyfish terrorist which is kind of weird they gave him like a whole power set to let him use it for like five minutes and then kill him and they stuck him in the opening just to be a red herring but okay I can respect not backpedaling the trauma of it and making Yuji want to solidify his goals so he can meet up with Megumi and Nobara again.

Ranking of Kings: Okay so A LOT happens this episode, Miranjo and Spear Guy meet Hilling and her guards and Shield Guy out front of the castle with a bunch of the chimera creatures and two of the escaped criminals and all hell kinda breaks loose. It looks like they’re losing ground and Shield guy gets Hilling to run but Ouken cuts them off and almost kills Hilling’s Guard Captain but Hilling is able to heal her own injuries and save her captain from having a slashed throat while chugging down Gatorade stamina potions to make sure she doesn’t fucking pass out from spamming healing magic. Apparently Hilling DOES have offensive spells or at least status spells and casts a holy blinding spell on Ouken which freaks him out enough to have him stumble into town and start killing people there. Meanwhile Gnasty Gnorc slams down on Shield guy and the beasts are about to kill Hilling but Spear Guy has had enough and saves her, demanding to know why Miranjo wants her dead anyway, man took him long enough, like it’s been like eight episodes of unquestioning simping and murdering for a girl made of glass and he’s finally like ‘babe why we murdering your crush’s ex?’. Turns out Miranjo had Bojji’s mom killed because giant women are one and done when it comes to kids and set him up with Hilling so he’d have a second son that didn’t have all his potential sacrifice to a demon to reincarnate into. Man luckily Hilling didn’t have a girl or else this would be VERY awkward for Bosse to just be in the body of a twelve year old girl. But yeah Miranjo is like ‘man if I sit here and make you watch them kill Hilling and Shield guy you’re just gonna betray me more so let’s go kill Sword Guy and Kirito’ so Spear Guy shouts down to Shield Guy to protect Hilling and he starts beating the shit out of the chimeras but still gets his leg dripped off when they dog pile him. Meanwhile two of the prisoners steal Miranjo because they love chaos and the schemey prisoner is like ‘oh geez sorry we stole your mirror girlfriend bro, here have her back’ and fucking bodies Spear Guy. Meanwhile Bojji and the Underworld Guards have arrived in town where Ouken is just murdering dudes left and right and the Guard Captain remembers Despa telling him not to fight Ouken until he arrives nor to let Bojji fight him since their styles are perfect opposites of each other (supporting my theory from last time that Ouken has Bojji’s sword style of disabling but on the ‘bleed it out’ path instead of ‘knock out and talk’ skill tree) so since the Captain can only obey one of those two requests he agrees to take on Ouken and sends Bojji to go help Hilling.

Vinland Saga: So Askeladd’s group is being held at arrowpoint by the second Welsh kingdom and Bjorn points out that if they wanted them dead they’d be fighting already but this is all just sword rattling so the Welsh don’t seem like pussies who let the Danes come in and demand the shirt off their backs for some protection. Askeladd meets with the Welsh leader along with their own Welsh escort and we get kind of a bombshell that Askeladd is actually the son of a Viking warrior that enslaved a Welsh noblewoman that was actually a distant relative of King Arthur… why does anime always come back to King Arthur I swear. But yeah, Askeladd says he promises a good deal for Wales because he’s half Welsh but knowing Askeladd like we do I don’t know how much we can actually trust any importance he holds on his heritage but he does seem to hate his Danish father who treated his Welsh mother badly so there may be more truth than it appears to his talk of ‘I hate the Danish, all my homies hate the Danish” even though he’s been murdering and plundering with a group of Danes for most of his life, guess that’s something he and Thorfinn have in common. Speaking of our supposed main character, Thorfinn calls Canute out on being a fucking pussy which actually gets a rise out of him in a fashion that I’m sure has yaoi fanfic writers drooling. Like I literally couldn’t write a more generic yaoi fanfic if I tried than ‘spoiled bishie rich boy and gruff warrior boy with a tragic backstory hate each other’s guts and also they were roommates’. But yeah, new plan is to pretend to be prisoners and sneak across Wales and make a MIIIINOR trek through enemy territory to snake around back to the main Danish forces, I’m sure everything will go fine.  

[maleyanderecafe]

have you read the webcomic / manhwa Ennead ??? If you have, I would like to know your opinion about what kind of yandere Osiris, Horus and Anubis could become, please?

Ennead is like 90 chapters so I hope I get some teeth from this. Despite the fact that there is a mature warning, there are only four or five scenes where sex is involved. Ennead was one of those webcomics that made me learn a lot about Egyptian Gods (more of their names and relationships rather than full-on lore though), but it was still sort of confusing? I think the second season of it is more interesting and coherent to me but it does rely on having read the first season, which I still don't fully understand. I'll try my best to summarize it though. It's really awkward though since it's incest in some places, but I guess because it's a god lore thing it's more understandable (Greek Gods and Egyptian Gods for instance often are related sort of to each other but they still marry), but it's still kind of awkward since they address each other as such.

The first part starts out with Seth, the god of war, cutting off his son Inubus's arm. It eventually moves on to Seth and Horus having a contest of sorts, where if Seth wins, he becomes a higher ruling god whereas if Horus wins, he will become a full-fledged god, as currently, he's more in a demi-god position. Throughout the story, we see that Seth's wife, Nephthys is trapped in a cage, presumably by Seth. Horus's mother, Isis, really hates Seth and is partially using Horus to try to get revenge on him in one way or another, whereas Horus seems to have some sort of affection towards Seth. At some point, Seth meets with Osiris, the god of life, and we see that Seth isn't simply just an angry antagonist. While he was granted as the god of war, he was originally the god of sand, and the reason he went to war was so he could protect Egypt. Nephthys had some sort of deal with Osiris, and she presumably had a crush on him. They sorted of cheated (not cheated? It's kind of confusing) on Seth by having Osiris implant his seed in her though it was actually Seth's seed? (I'm really confused by this, it might have just been Osiris's seed), meaning that Anubis was not actually Seth's child. It turns out that Osiris actually had a crush on Seth and presumes to rape him, and Seth is able to trap Osiris (I assume Osiris isn't dead, considering he is basically immortal). At some point, Seth is put on trial for the things he has done, specifically during the war having souls be dusted to the point where they couldn't even be judged during the afterlife. After some interference on the part of Nephthys and Horus, Seth is punished by essentially having to find the souls of those who he dusted and placed in a human(ish) body. In the second season, he struggles with a human body and tries to take control of his cult of Seth followers, who are incredibly suspicious of him. As he goes out, he becomes more sympathetic towards humans, even feeling remorse when seeing a human body that looks like Isis.

One thing that I really liked about the story is how initially Seth is shown as a straight-up bad guy, cutting off his son's arm, being generally angry, and being the god of war, but his past is much more complicated than that. It's shown that he really loves his son Anubis, to the point that when he is given a handicap in the last part of the contest, he refuses to lose it, since it's a gift that he gave to Anubis that made him really happy. He's incredibly afraid that Osiris might hurt him when they have an encounter, despite the fact that he might not be his blood-related child. While he's definitely not a good guy considering he caused wars and doesn't care about human lives, we can empathize with him considering the gods did him really dirty, basically making him a sort of scapegoat when he really should have been the god of sand rather than the god of war. Horus seems to really crave Seth's attention and love as well, even putting the curse on himself that Seth gave to his son Anubis. It seems like Horus really wished to replace Anubis as Seth's son, but no matter what he did, he was never able to do it. I also kinda like Ra in this story, she's just so sassy sometimes that I find it funny as well as the god of information Thoth. All the gods in here are also really scantily dressed and sexy looking, which I guess makes sense since they're in Egypt and also they're gods.

While none of them are yandere as I've read, the question is more about what kind of yandere they might become. For me, Osiris would probably end up being a manipulative yandere, considering he was able to manipulate Nephthys to get with Seth at some point, even attempting to use Anubis's life against him and maybe even trap him at some point. Horus is probably one that would actually trap him, as seen in the not official rape bonus chapter that he had. I'd also assume that he would be a protective yandere since he never really wishes to hurt Seth no matter what the two do. In more recent chapters, he looks jealous of this one guy that is somehow connected to Isis, I believe. As for Anibus, it's a little hard to say. He seems to have a complicated relationship with his dad, with him remembering Seth being kind to him, while also, you know chopping off his arm and trapping his mom. Perhaps a platonic, vengeful yandere? I don't really know.

The story itself is pretty cool, even if I didn't really get the first half. If you like Egyptian stories, this one is a pretty good read.

[chironomy]

what do u imagine the afterlife looks like? im a hellenic polytheist too but what i have the most trouble dealing with is the traditionally ancient greek view of the afterlife, so I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Hi anon,

You’re not alone. When I was thinking of following this path, I had a lot of questions about what I was getting myself into, and a lot of them had to do with the afterlife. I think it’s a question that troubles a lot of us, particularly people who were raised in religious traditions that promise eternal bliss after death. Even my sister, who is all about science and rationality (and who is totally not Hellenic nuh uh no way even though she has devotional relationships with 4 gods) asked me “Did I make the wrong decision and now I’ll be slowly disappearing in a field?”

So, one thing I want to gently push back on is the idea that the vision of the Hellenic afterlife where we become shadows of our former selves, lose our memories, and largely vanish save for how we’re remembered by others, is the one and only traditional view, or the only valid reconstructionist one. Pythagoras believed that upon death, the soul was transferred to a new being. Orphism holds that the soul goes through many incarnations, and there are choices one can make both in this life and the afterlife to ensure a better time, or to be released from the cycles of reincarnation and suffering altogether. Also, I know of at least one scholar who argues that the Homeric epics themselves present multiple visions of the afterlife. That starts on page 5 of this article: A Lively Afterlife and Beyond

[Side note: I went to one of this professor’s lectures during the year I was considering following a Hellenic path, and was nervous about the possibility of a grim afterlife. He suggested that we take Achilles’ famous lament in the Iliad (that he would rather be a slave on earth than a king in the afterlife) as less a statement of the objective reality of the afterlife and more of an indicator that many people in ancient Greece believed the soul had a basic personality that survived death (“See? Achilles is still complaining.”) I laughed really hard, and decided to double down on the self-improvement work I’d been doing. I don’t want to take my own bullshit to the Underworld with me. :D ]

And based on dismissive comments in Socrates’ dialogues, we can infer that there were people who believed in a happy afterlife, characterized by fulfillment and represented as an everlasting banquet, as well as people who didn’t believe in an afterlife at all. The latter seems to be part of the reason why Phaedo exists, which is a philosophical argument for the immortality of the soul, including a vision of a lively afterlife with a system of rewards and punishments leading to either reincarnation or eventual eternal reward. By the way, I really love Phaedo and I wish I saw more Hellenic polytheists engage with it. Here’s a full text link. 

Sure, it’s hard to know how widespread these beliefs were. But based on how diverse ancient ritual was, particularly over time and across different local cultures, I came to the conclusion that ancient belief must have been diverse as well, and this extends to beliefs about the afterlife.

I guess it’s not a surprise that I believe in the lively afterlife, with the continuation of each soul’s basic personality, a system of rewards and punishments related to our behavior in this life, the ability to continue growing and progressing as a person after death, and possible reincarnation after a period of time. Does it look anything like the mythic descriptions where we’re led by Hermes to the shores of the Acheron, where Charon takes us across the river in exchange for a coin (a symbol of the things we’re attached to in this life)? Well, we’ll find out, won’t we?

So why does the lively afterlife feel truer to me? I like the idea that we can always choose to move toward something better, and this continues after we die. And then there’s the experiences I’m having worshipping Hades, and meeting people who report eerily similar experiences with Him. It doesn’t make sense to me that this very busy god would be investing so much energy into encouraging our personal growth and spiritual development, if we largely poofed by the time we got to His realm.

But still, I’m not totally comfortable basing life decisions on UPG, and at the end of the day, none of us know what will happen to us after we die. So what I’ve chosen to do is focus on my relationship with the gods in the here and now, and on becoming the best human I can be for them. Doing this makes me happy, it makes me a better person, and that affects the people around me, which makes human society better. And all of that matters regardless of whether there’s life after death, or what that looks like.

[mingtease]

Ateez & Mythical Creatures ;  The Beginning of the End, part 2

Ateez as Mythical Creatures, part 1

Chapter one and two summaries: Peace is disrupted when Humans decide to try and mess with fate. And just as their parents or blessers did many years ago, they have to put past feuds aside and work together to put an end to it. But only if life was that easy. 

Genre : Angst , Fluff

You flutter your eyes open, hearing loud banging on your door. Quickly, you put on a robe and Answer it to see Hongjoong, your master. Your eyes widen and you bow to him, heart beating faster. You were just regular maid at his castle. You rarely interact with Hongjoong.

“Master Hongjoong, what brings you here?” He motions for you to walk with him. You were embarrassed to do so since you were only in a shirt and panties covered by a robe, but you wouldn’t dare so no to your Demon King. “Well, yesterday I had to punish my NEW main maid for being late to giving me tea. And well, she died” You almost choke at his words. You’ve heard they were bad to the point of death but since you’ve been here his old main maids just find a way to escape.

“So, I thought you would be the best to replace her as my new main maid.” Chills run down your spine as he leads you into his room. Your blood is cold at the creepy feeling of his room. Many people died in here, that thought alone made you want to throw up. He points for you to sit on his bed while he walked towards a seperate room. He grabbed a maid outfit. Different from the regular maid’s blue dress. This was a black dress with red accents, to signify you’re the temporary main maid. Temporary, because they only last about 3 months.

“Here, wear this. I think it will fit you just nicely. Your belongings from your old room will brought to your new room shortly.” He smiles down at you and hands you the outfit. He walks you out and into your new room, the main maids room that conveniently resides next to his. He sighs and looks down, before walking towards you and whispering in your ear. “I didn’t want to make you my main maid because they don’t last long… but I think you will be stronger than the rest. Please don’t make me hurt you.” He kisses your forehead before walking out. What the hell did he mean by that? ~Meanwhile

Yeosang walks outside in the High Garden. The beautiful flowers, all different kinds, all different colors, go neatly along the rest of the luscious garden. The grass is greener and the soil has more nutrients than any other place. He walks to a tree, one portal of many that leads to another fairy garden. The High Garden doesn’t lead straight to the Terrester, that would make it too easy accessed.

Yeosang enters a fairy garden through the tree portal, being checked by High Garden official fairies on his way out, though they all know Yeosang since it's so rare he leaves. Almost immediately he spots the person he was looking for, Wooyoung.

Wooyoung, son of a Fallen Angel family, banned from Heaven and the High Garden from the moment he was born, despite having done no sin. His family lives in Hell, and He lives in the Terrester despite their begs for him to join them. Because of this, the Gods and Goddesses granted him permission to be in the holy gardens, but not the High Garden or Heaven. Yeosang feels deep sorrow for him, as he and every other fairy and creature of all realms know Wooyoung belongs in Heaven and the High Garden. He’s meant to be a Holy Angel, not a fallen one.

“Wooyoung-ah!” Yeosang calls out and runs to Wooyoung, who’s sitting by a river, watching some of the young fairies to do tricks. Wooyoung looks over to Yeosang, and a big smile becomes plastered on his face. Yeosang almost never leaves the High Garden, making it impossible for Wooyoung to visit. Wooyoung stands up and give Yeosang a hug. “Yeosang!”

Yeosang smile fades as he brings Wooyoung the news, “Wooyoung, all the worlds and creatures are in danger from Humans. Hongjoong was put in charge from Hell.” Wooyoung winces at Hongjoong’s name being mentioned, knowing his and Yeosang’s harsh past together.

“He asked me to help him, and to bring someone along. And I thought of you! Because if you help save the worlds, maybe you can be granted access to the High Garden and Heaven!” Yeosang’s smile is bright, knowing that's the one thing Wooyoung wants most. Wooyoung is touched, not ever thinking someone would think about him for this. He hugs Yeosang once more, letting a few tears slip his eyes, before walking to the Terrester, and making their way to Hongjoong’s kingdom.

~~~~~~~~~ Jongho reads his letter from Hongjoong, from his castle in the Dragonstone kingdom. Jongho’s family has ruled Dragonstone since it was built. Being a family of Hell based vampires, they have great ties and connections to Hongjoong’s Kingdom and almost every Prince in Hell. Jongho smirks, happy to help everyone. Not just those in Hell but all creatures. He has nothing wrong with the Angels or High Fairies, as Jongho is naturally kind. But being a vampire, he has to choose between evil and good, and evil just excites him slightly more.

Jongho wants to feed before he leaves, so he walks to the dungeon, next to his castle. All of Jongho’s family just feeds on people randomly throughout the street. But Jongho sees no point in hurting the innocent, since he knows his bite hurts. So rather he goes to the Dungeon where prisoners are kept and he feeds off of them, because they broke the rules of the Kingdom village, they deserve the pain of his bite.

He walks over to a man who was recently convicted for the murder of his own daughter. Jongho looks at him with disgust, “Not only did you hurt an innocent girl, but you betrayed your family. Your human, you pass off and share your blood. And you killed her? You killed your own blood? Pathetic. But I guess that means you won’t mind if I take all of yours,” Jongho smirks wickedly at him. “Guards, I want to feed off of him!” The guards come immediately at Jongho’s request. He never understood why humans kill members of their family. He, and many vampires, value family over anything else. He grabs the man by his neck and pulls him roughly. “I know Heaven is protecting your daughter and giving her a good afterlife, but I can’t guarantee anyone will treat you right in Hell. See you there next time I visit.” And with that, Jongho sinks his teeth in, sucking every ounce of blood the man has left.

Once he’s done, he wipes off his mouth and lets the man fall limp onto the cold stone floor. He heads out the door with a straight face, ignoring the horrified looks of the other prisoners. He makes his way to his wagon to go to Whitehelm, satisfied and filled from a full meal.

~~~~~~~~~~~

You’re cleaning the dishes from dinner along with one other maid. She started crying when she saw you in the outfit, not wanting you to die young as you always kept her company. You can’t help but tremble at the thought of your time alive being limited now that you’re the head maid.

Hongjoong enters the kitchen and almost immediately you and the other maid put your heads down and bow to him. He walks over to the other girl, “I noticed the tea leaves are almost gone, I’m having guests soon so go out in town and buy some more.” He hands here some coins, “Oh, it's late so it's very dangerous out there. So please do worry. Be back in a half an hour or else!” He was stern with his last sentence and she bowed and scurried out. He walks over to me and my heart beats faster. “As for you.. You can go to bed.” He sighs and looks at me in the eye. “San’s coming over along with others. I set up some protection crystals around your bed, it will stop San from entering your dreams.” He squeezes your hand before going off somewhere, leaving you confused. He ALWAYS lets San enter his main maid’s dreams.  Mostly because he doesn’t care.

Not questioning it, you finish up the dishes and walk to your room. You admire the crystals and look around the new room some more, all of your belongings have been brought up and placed almost exactly as they were in your old room. You walk your now walk in closet to get dressed for the night. The room is beautiful, because you might as well live in beauty before you die. You lay on the bed, it was much more comfortable than your old bed. Well, but at the same time Hongjoong’s main maids go through a lot of torture, so it makes sense for them to have something comfortable to lie down on after a day of serving him. Though he was neutral to you today, you know that will all change very soon and your time left will be limited. Your worried thoughts eventually fade as you let the warmth mask you and take you into a deep slumber.

Across from the rooms was Hongjoong’s office, and inside was a combination of bodies no one would have never expected.

Hongjoong, Seonghwa and San, three demons called from Hell to help. Hongjoong had called Jongho, Vampire King of Dragonstone, as well as Yeosang, a High Fairy. Yeosang had brought along Wooyoung, a Fallen Angel looking to do good though his fate has other plans. As for Heaven, they called one of their Angels, the Son of Selaphiel, Mingi to help. Mingi had brought along his human friend, who has nature gifted powers thanks to the Gods and Goddesses, Yunho. Mingi and Yunho both agreed meeting at Hongjoong’s castle was fine. Much to Hongjoong’s dismay, San also brought his Serpent, who he talks to through Parseltongue and no one else can understand them. Which is why Hongjoong hates it.

“I think first we should worry about Hell,” Mingi started. “Remember, Humans so far have only entered the fairy gardens leading to hell. They’ve retreated for now, but who knows if they’ll come back with a bigger army, or more of that liquid they used to get in to it in the first place. There’s many fallen Angels living in the Terrester we can gather and send them to Hell and the fairy garden to protect the gates.” Everyone looks at Wooyoung, who looks irritated and angry.

“NO!” He shouts, “I’m not going to Hell. I don’t belong there-” “Now now Wooyoungie no need to be a brat now~” San interrupts him, smirking. Wooyoung’s ears go red and he looks down, while San snarks and makes a comment to his snake, no one else can understand. Seonghwa clears his throat, “Don’t mind him, but Wooyoung, would you be able to help up track some Fallen Angels in the Terrester? We know, even being demons, that you don’t belong in Hell.”

Wooyoung sighs, “The village of Ironrun is full of them, It’s where I used to live before going to Moralstar, it’s close.” Mingi nods, “I know where that is, I live in Moralstar too.” Yunho speaks up, “What about the other fairy gardens? Humans want to destroy and take over not just Hell, but Heaven, the High Garden, and soon every other realm” Hongjoong sighs, “I know, we know… but we’re going to have to take this one at a time if we’re going to be successful, and work together” He glances at San, “Then when everything’s over we can go back to our rivalries, like its intended to be…” He looks up at Yeosang who’s glaring at him harshly.

“Then it’s settled, tomorrow we all meet at Mingi’s house in Moralstar and we’ll head to Ironrun to talk to some Fallen Angels. Then, we’ll discuss tracking the source of the humans doing this, and how we’ll stop them” Seonghwa says authoritatively.

“Why can't we just kill ALL the humans?” San says. Seonghwa glares at him, “Because” He grabs him by the collar with a deadly look in his eyes, “Then you’ll be messing with fate. Humans are messing with our fate and they have no right to so we’re sent to stop it.” San gulps from Seonghwa’s stern voice, Seonghwa is the only one who can get San to shut up, because San fears him greatly just like everyone else.

“I think this has been a fine intro meeting. You all are dismissed.” Hongjoong says, not wanting to get Seonghwa too angry tonight. Everyone gets up and heads for the door to make their way to their homes. “Yeosang, do you mind staying for a minute?” Yeosang turns back to look at Hongjoong before reluctantly sitting down.

“If all the realms weren’t at stake, I wouldn’t be here, and I still don’t forgive you.” Yeosang says, his voice filled with no emotion. Hongjoong nods as Yeosang gets up and walks out the door.

What can he do for peace between them, after the horrific event he caused many years ago?

[vitosscaletta]

🍓 🍓 🍓🍓🍓🍓 for ALL your vampire kids! 🦇

AIRIKA..TY FOR MY LIFE! ok this is gonna be long 

CHRISTIAN

🍓 — he’s over 300 years old (that technically makes him an elder according to the lore book… overpowered king) & was embraced in the 1600s, he was the son of a french marquis back in the day 😳 He lived in Versailles for a long time & considered it his home even though people would literally shit in the corners there -_-

🍓 — has NO idea how technology works… he has one of those ugly early 2000s flip phones because he saw other people having those but has absolutely no idea how to use them, much less a computer. Most people just think he’s ~romantic or something for writing letters but he really has no idea how to write an email :(

🍓 — He’s the baron of Bel Air.. has a nice mansion there bc living for over 300 years gives you time to hoard that much money ig. 

🍓 — His grand-sire (??) is Helen of Troy 😳 overpowered af bloodline

🍓 — He doesn’t care about vampire politics in the slightest and is sort of aligned with the camarilla bc he has power within them but there’s no loyalty or conviction.. the main reason he’s in it is to start drama and watch it unfold 💅 He and La🥐 can’t stand each other but also can’t do anything about it… Strauss is okay with him but they’d also sell each other out for one corn chip.. He’s sort of frenemies with Gary, they hate each other because… yknow toreador and nosferatu but they’re equally shady so there’s mutual respect… in an odd way 

🍓 — He doesn’t have any other childe..r… whatever the term is except miss Helena.. he hangs around humans a lot but has no real attachment to them (except being kind of a hoe and.. yknow.). She’s the first mortal in a long time he felt anything for which was mostly just good old toreador obsession but he thought it was love.. she vaguely resembled a lost love of his. and had potential I guess so he actually got permission for embracing her babey… just not from her bc he didn’t even consider someone wouldn’t want to be a vampire.. 🙄

HELENA

🍓 — Having OP Christian as her sire did have its perks even though she hates his guts for embracing her… She automatically had a pretty good position within the camarilla through connection alone :^) she works as sort of an informant/spy for the prince directly.. which puts her at odds with a bunch of people - they either think she’s an inexperienced little girl who doesn’t know what she’s doing and works for an incompetent prince OR hate her for being in his sort of inner circle without having to work for it (like Victoria. she thinks that)

🍓 — CRINGE but it be like that sometimes… she’s descended from a looong line of vampire/witch hunters on her dad’s side - he’s from a catholic german family who was largely involved with the society of Leopold. Michael himself wasn’t overly religious (still studied theology but didn’t actually care) and left all of this behind when he moved to america & got married but after he and Jenny divorced he was like “know what… time to become a zealot again”. His ex-wife and daughters are completely unaware of that of course 😳 dunno if Helena sees him again after becoming a vampire 🙄 but yknow.

🍓 — Doesn’t have any of the “vampires are better than mortals” superiority complex that a lot of the others seem to have.. does think thin-bloods are losers though kjdkjdfnms

🍓 — Only video game she plays is the sims!! she bought ts1 when it came out for fun and got hooked.. ts2 is even better!!!!! first thing she did was make a sim that resembles her and marries a business tycoon 💅💸

🍓 — owned one (1) YSL dress she bought from her savings (which was USED)  but she couldn’t afford anything else so she just wears it with something she found at hot topic every time she goes out with her rich fake friends pre embrace. When she works for La🤡 and actually makes some money she can afford a SECOND dress babey! with shoes!!!

🍓 — She’s actually really into some standard 2004 radio pop songs but also emo songs at the same time.. except the genre didn’t have anything good in 2004 except three cheers for sweet revenge (she’s also really into evanescence, green day and blink 182 which isn’t really emo but it was still part of the experience™ nfdkjdf) - which is also her entire aesthetic summed up, emo meets theatre kid prep.. Helena: *googles “how to look like Gerard Way and Britney Spears at the same time makeup tutorial”*

ERIN

🍓 — sdjhsdh cringe but she’s always been kind of a weirdo but was pretty good at hiding it/acting normal & was part if the prep gang in her high school days (not the leader, more the kind of the replaceable third wheel), she always preferred hanging out with the weirdos though. Post-embrace everyone just thinks “lol crazy malkavian” so she’s just like 🤷‍♀️.. 

🍓 — Her sire, Ray, was suuuch a freak but she liked him because he was something.. different in her sheltered, dull life and made her feel excitement she hasn’t felt in a long time. He bails on her after embracing her bc he sired her without permission & fears execution (even though literally no one cares or even knows he sired someone) but has letters delivered to her from time to time instructing her what to do lol

🍓 — Actually enjoys the freedom vampirism gives her? She’s officially dead so she has the option to start again and be whoever she wants to be… it’s scary at first bc she has no idea what’s going on and where these voices come from but she gets used to it, also the voice of her late grandmother in her head is a comforting presence for her… I imagine she’s actually in there kinda like the heart in dishonored, afterlife isn’t her granddaughter’s mind but it’s sort of an echo of her? IDK she tinkered with magic in life so supernatural schizophrenia added that to Erin’s mind.

🍓 — She loves early 2000′s radio pop (yknow.. Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson… etc) but also classical music, stuff from the 20′s, alternative rock, the early 2000s goth music that’s playing in L.A.’s nightclubs …. she’s gonna thrive in 2006 when a fever you can’t sweat out drops!!!

🍓 — She’s part of the anarchs but mostly hangs out in hollywood or downtown (only goes to santa monica to visit the asylum (BEST nightclub ever in her onion. isolated SLAPS)

🍓 — yknow in the 2000s when people had invader zim merch from hot topic.. she owns this backpack 🤦‍♀️ it clashes with the rest of her style which is already a horrendous mix of victorian/early 20th century gothic and 2004 prep style 

VICTORIA  

🍓 — her background is still a BIG wip but she was born at some point in the late twenties/early thirties and embraced in 1954 :^) she was a bit of a workaholic and had an intense work ethic but never made it far within the company she was working for because it’s the fifties (thinking maybe it was her father’s company bc she was RICH.. there was a feud between her & a few male relatives on who’s gonna lead or something)… She was eventually noticed by a ventrue businessman who thought her ambition and no-nonsense attitude would be a great addition to the clan - She was promised a opportunity to rise within a different society without le sexism. Go white feminist queen!

🍓 — her embrace wasn’t really what she thought it would be.. drinking other’s blood REPULSES her and she has a hard time adjusting to it, plus kindred society isn’t really what she imagined - by the time she’s embraced L.A. has no camarilla presence so there’s really nothing for her to do so she moves to New York to join them there.. except she’s stuck with a shitty job and no one taking her seriously because of her age 😒 When they establish a presence in Los Angeles she’s the first to suck up to the prince & be assigned a somewhat high position (I guess adviser to the ventrue primogen and also being tight with the prince is good!!)

🍓 — She dresses very business-y BUT always designer bc she got money 😳 her wardrobe is chic but also minimalist, also with a hint of fifties design because fashion peaked then in her opinion.. mostly in dark colors, reds, browns and mostly black combined with minimal jewelry and high heels… very very elegant

🍓 — genuinely loves romcoms from the 50s and 60s (doris day & rock hudson movies b*tch!!) but also “newer” one from the 90s and 2000′s.. notting hill, pretty woman and 13 going on 30 are her favorites that she watches when she’s off duty, cozy in her downtown apartment.. but don’t tell anyone 😤

🍓 — She’s THE queen bee within the L.A. camarilla… doesn’t have any friends in her workplace but she’s respected by everyone and that’s what matters to her (it does get lonely sometimes but it be like that. She’s not gonna give up her status for shallow friendships 😒)

🍓 — loves those ugly small 90s/2000s glasses but they clash with every outfit she has so she doesn’t wear them

[littlemisssquiggles]

RWBY Musings #63: The Sleeping Prince. What if…Oscar falls into a deep sleep for the Merging of the Two Souls?

‘Sup FNDM fam! Happy New Year from the squiggle meister! For my first theory post of 2019, since Oscar is a perfect little prince now (hypothetically speaking), consider this for a sec. 

What if...for the Merge, Oscar suddenly falls unconscious, putting him out of commotion for when the heroes begin to commence their plan to commandeer an Atlesian airship with the group unsure of what to do to wake him back up.

As Jaune said last episode, they're not leaving for Atlas without Oscar. But what would they do if the Merge suddenly happens and he’s temporarily unable to aid them with their plan for Atlas?

In the fairy tales, it's usually a kiss of true love that awakes the sleeping princesses from their eternal slumber. If Oscar is expected to fall to sleep during the Merge (because I honestly can't picture him being conscious while unceremoniously merging), imagine if… it's love that ultimately wakes him up. Not necessarily from a kiss per say but I have this little hunch where Oscar will start to merge with Ozpin but it’s the love he feels both for and from the teammates he’s grown to care about that keeps him from resisting the part of the process that’s meant to make him disappear entirely; if that makes sense.

Remember the God of Light’s warning to Ozma before his first reincarnation? He told him that where he sought comfort, he will only find pain. In a sense, you can say the God of Light’s heed to Ozma happened twice within the cycle. For Ozma it occurred in his first reincarnation as Diggs after Salem, the former love of his life---the mother of his children---the woman he had refused the peace of the afterlife to return to, killed him with her very own hands as a final sign that she had lost herself to the darkness.

And for Ozpin, it was recently when his own allies turned their backs on him after promising they wouldn’t upon learning the truth. The first deceit came from Lionheart, a friend and member of Oz’s very own inner circle of trusted lieutenants. The second came from the group of young heroes whose lives he had promised to protect and guide. Even Qrow, a former student and long-time friend of Oz who completely devoted to him, turned his back to him and it is his words that made the old wizard turn to grief and isolation for the third time in his many lives (counting Ambroise and Emmanuel---the second and third reincarnations).

Who knows? Perhaps this will be a sign that Oscar is potentially doomed to meet the same fate being challenged by that same love and comfort in others that has left his predecessors crushed by grief? I’m not saying that the heroes will hurt Oscar (at least, not now after what transpired when they thought he went missing). But I can somehow imagine Oscar meeting a dishevelled and grief-stricken Ozpin again within his mental mind palace or Dreamscape and having the older soul mock his young successor for getting himself attached to the love and comfort he feels from the heroes. Imagine…that love and trust is what Oscar will hold onto as a lifeline to keep him from losing himself completely to the Merge?

While I’m aware that Oscar has come to accept his fate now, I can’t help but still feel like that’s all a front from Oscar. It could be just my interpretation, though. It’s just the way how he spoke in V6 C8 gave me the impression that Oscar had technically given up on wanting to resist the Merge while subtly foreshadowing that it could happen this same volume.

“…These past few days, I’ve been scared of the same things you were. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be…me. But I did some thinking and I do know that I want to do everything I can to help with whatever time I have left…”

It wouldn’t surprise me if in a later episode; Oscar does begin the Merge with Ozpin and will reunite with him in his mind for it. Don’t want to anticipate too much but it is a strong possibility of it happening especially since they do have the model of Professor Ozpin. I doubt they just made that for the opening. I feel like Oscar is going to meet Ozpin face to face in his mind and when he does, I think the two souls will have a confrontation that could either be just them standing around and talking (like Raven and Yang in the V5 finale) or end in them literally squaring off against each other in an all-out showdown. We’ve already seen two Maidens duke it out.

Will we get to see the two souls fight next?

I would think we should since it’s something that’s been foreshadowed since the first volume. I love the idea of Oscar literally fighting the Merge. Fighting Ozpin and fighting against losing himself. The thing that has always been hinted about the Man with Two Souls is them fighting for control. So maybe this will be part of the Merge? Oscar fighting against Ozpin for the chance to remain as himself.

We know Oscar has accepted disappearing one day but...what if… it's the love he feels from the team that convinces him he needs to fight to be himself. What if...Ruby shares another Rosebuds bonding moment with Oscar where she basically tells him to fight to be him. And since these words come from the girl we know Oscar greatly admires, it’ll hold a lot of weight and meaning in Oscar’s eyes.  

I didn’t particularly like how Oscar told everyone that he was going to disappear soon and everyone was…I guess, so clouded by their relief of him being safe to feel the full weight of his words in that moment.

I just found the fact that there is Oscar basically talking to group like he’s going to technically sort of die soon (I mean it pretty much had that final farewell sort of tone to it, for sure) and everyone is all happy smiles. Like…what? Why are you smiling? Yes, this is a happy moment but what’s being said and foreshadowed isn’t so…again why didn’t we get the characters briefly looking unhappy when Oscar brought disappearing only to perk up when he showed them that even though it’s bad, he’s still determined to do his best like the best boy he is? I dunno. It was a little weird moment for me and one of my gripes with this episode.

I think eventually when things simmer down and once the Merge actually legit starts happening before the team’s very eyes where Oscar gets down because of the Merge, that’s when the others will start to see the light of the child’s words and begin to truly panic about losing him.

Another thing that needs to be addressed are the group’s feelings now about Ozpin. Following the events of C5-C9 and now that Oscar has become an official valued member of the group (as himself), how does the group feel about Oz? This is why I found the happy-go-lucky smiles when Oscar mentioned disappearing for good to be off putting. The group do realize that if Oscar disappears for good, technically that could spell the team being back with Ozpin…kind of…sort of…maybe-ish. I dunno. I just want to know how the group feel about Oz now? Did Oscar’s disappearance also help them to forgive Ozpin too?

I don’t think that is the case which is why I hope it gets addressed in the remaining 5 episodes.

Overall, I just want Oscar to fight to be himself you guys. This is just my opinion here but personally, Oscar has been way too accepting of his fate. I understand that merging with Ozpin is a destiny that Oscar can’t run from. I understand that fully but…I still feel like he should want to fight to be himself if he could help it y’know what I mean? I don’t know if that’s possible or if it’s impossible for Oscar to not fight against losing himself. But nevertheless, I just want Oscar to fight to be him and for someone to tell him to fight to be him. Because Oscar is pretty great.

Plus I think that’ll be the be all end all to both Oscar and Ozpin’s conjoined stories, right? Either Ozpin’s run will conclude this volume and Oscar will take his place on the cast moving forward as his successor, now complete with his memories, knowledge, skills and magical capabilities (hopefully) while still retaining his personality.

So picture …Oscar accepting his fate but also fighting it at the same time. He wants to be a Wizard of Light like the others before him. He still wants to do everything in his power to fight to protect humanity and stop Salem once and for all. But he will not lose himself. So ...rather than Ozpin absorbing Oscar and his mind becoming dominant, it's the opposite where Ozpin becomes a part of Oscar while the former farm boy still gets to be himself.

Basically what some fans have been saying since the beginning that Oz will disappear and become a part of Oscar with our Barn Prince still remaining as himself but gaining all the memories and skills of Ozpin and all the Wizards before him.

Or…Oscar and Ozpin will fuse and this new fusion will be a perfect blend of them both signifying a perfect alignment between the two soul where it doesn’t feel like one has eclipsed the other. It’s both but at the same time it’s not them. Someone entirely new who is as much Oscar as the original while still having some essence of Ozpin in there.

Whatever the outcome, I do think the Merge could be a plot point set for the final few episodes of V6. Emphasis on could. But if it does happen, only then will Oscar’s true fate be decided once and for all. Either that or it gets delayed and Oscar goes into the Atlas Arc now fighting against Ozpin to let the Merge fully take him over. Who knows?

That's just me. Don’t know if you guys would agree or disagree. But anyways, as always, these are just my thoughts and theories. I guess we’ll see what the Writers got cooking for us when C10 premieres this Saturday.

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

[thorsdiana]

Tell me aaaaaall about Sofya, Helena, Valerie, and Kiara. Put it under a cut if you have to!! I want all the tea!!!

ahhh i love you so much jen!!! you really came through for me 💖💖 okay this is gonna get hella long so i’m gonna put my answers under the cut bc there’s just so much i gotta say!!

SOFYA VOLKOVA

so here’s the tea on sofya volkova! her story is called “budapest” she’s paired up with my queen, natasha romanoff. and her story is full of sadness lol. on new years day in 1937 (aka her 9th birthday), her parents who were well respected scientists for the soviet union were killed in her home and she witnessed their death. she was later taken in by a name named viktor grankin, who encouraged her to join the red room academy under the idea that she could one day get revenge for her parents’ death. it’s during this time that she meets natalia romanova, and the two often clashed that lasted nearly a decade. but they eventually came to respect one another as assassins and eventually led to a relationship that remained hidden from their handlers.

viktor grankin was her handler during her time and he set her on missions that they believed would lead her to her parents’ killer. she would later earn the alias “sparrow” which was given to her by viktor himself. during one mission, she learned that the man behind her parents’ death was none other than viktor. she tried to take him out but failed, but she faked her death (also ending her relationship with natasha) and remained in hiding as she worked up a plan to ruin viktor and kill him. 

she was inspired by the infamous line in the avengers where natasha and clint mention budapest. and since we don’t know what happens, i decided to make sofya and she’s the budapest mission lol. basically clint and natasha get word of a dangerous assassin that they’re meant to take out, and nat is SHOOK bc her old girlfriend is alive and well but also dead set on killing viktor (who basically was given something similar to natasha and sofya). 

her story is so sad bc she’s lost so much and was used by viktor for 21 years. and in order to get her revenge, she had to leave the only person she’s loved since her parents??? and now she’s like a stranger in natasha’s eyes but natasha doesn’t want to lose her again?? i love angst lol!!

HELENA HARTLEY

here’s the tea on my mom, helena hartley! her story is called “second chances”. so’s a revived oc of mine from yeeears ago and i think i love her a lot more now than i did before lol. but she’s the ex-girlfriend of tony stark and the mother of the beautiful lauren stark. she met tony back in 1990 at a science convention and she honestly couldn’t stand him but he always flirted with her and it was cute as heck. they clashed a lot on ideas but they also really enjoyed the bickering?? and formed an interesting friendship. but after the death of tony’s parents, helena was always there for him and something more bloomed.

tony didn’t admit his feelings until like 1992. tony was always supportive of helena’s dreams of being an engineer and even got her a job at stark industries. their relationship resulted in the birth of their daughter in 2001, but they never got married. there were also a LOT of cute dad!tony moments like he spoiled lauren to the point where her only way to sleep was on someone’s chest and listening to their heartbeat. or he loved mentioning her whenever he could during an interview bc he was so proud!!

but tony was prone to self-desctruction and it put a strain on their relationship that eventually ended in 2005. but despite their breakup, they always made sure lauren wasn’t too negatively affected and remained coordial for her sake. helena left stark industries and became an engineer at northrop grumman. but when tony needs help making the jericho missile, the first person he wants on his team is helena (but honestly it’s partially bc he misses her and is still in love with her).

their story is gonna be filled with angst (especially during the iron man movies) bc helena is trying to date other men but tony keeps finding his way back into her life, then tony goes missing and it messes up helena AND lauren (who’s like really young during this time so OW) and then when tony becomes iron man and how lauren is constantly worried about her dad.

i’ve also planned to have helena being an inhuman but it doesn’t get found out until later. and her power was going to be technology manipulation bc i didn’t want her to be a full on hero but have something a little different.

VALERIE BYERS

um so i really love my time traveling bby girl!! she’s one of the three main characters of my fic, “timeless,” and the other main characters are my cyborg bby boy jai graham (who was created by the queen shuri herself) and sarah wilson, who’s the younger sister of sam wilson. so valerie is the only child of tony stark and her mother was an old girlfriend of his named susan byers. their relationship was never liked among susan’s parents and though it ended, susan found out that she was pregnant but never told tony. in fact, valerie never found out about tony being her father until she was 15.

valerie would try to find ways to meet tony, such as going to different conventions he held or was a guest at. but after the battle of new york, she realized how much she needed her father. her mom was paralyzed during the event and it wasn’t until valerie was 20 when susan finally passed. valerie then made it her business to get a job at stark industries, which she luckily did. she would work under tony, but never tell him the fact that she was his daughter.

but due to the events of infinity war, and tony is believed to have died after last being seen going into space, and the avengers fail to save the world from thanos, valerie’s life goes to shit. 

since “timeless” is basically one big au and my own spin on infinity war, thanos actually takes control of earth after the big snap and the chitauri still roam earth. it’s kinda like an apocalyptic setting and humans aren’t as free to do much and the chitauri controls a lot of what happens???

but anyway, valerie meets jai and sarah when she’s out looking for scraps to build stuff and jai and sarah and they come up with the idea fo build a time machine and valerie is the perfect brain needed for the job to help create it. their plan is to go back to different points in time to assist the avengers and stop them from breaking up (bc they believe them being apart was a downfall) and try to find the infinity stones and destroy them so thanos can’t get his hands on them.

and they all lost something in the war; valerie lost her father, jai lost his creator/mother (he really never got to meet her bc she died and her last thing she did was setting him free), and sarah lost her brother who turned to ash. but one happy thing is that valerie is paired up with jai but they’re gonna be hella cute and make s.carlet.vision look like nothing compared to them lmaoo. 

KIARA WILLIAMS

finally, we have my pretty bird kiara! her story is “icarus” and i created her maybe a year or two ago??? she was inspired by the line where sam mentions wanting to impress the lady who worked at the va, and kiara is that lady!! she’s got a younger sister named layla and kiara is also an inhuman (the mcu has ignored them and i love them so i gotta include them lol). her father, raymond, is also an inhuman and he brought her to afterlife where she got the help after going through terrigenesis in her early teen years and gained the power of wing manifestation. when she finally returned to society, her relationship with layla was strained, but they’ve been working hard on fixing it.

she tried her best to live a normal life, getting a job as a receptionist at the va in washington dc and eventually meeting sam wilson (who she’d admire from a distance lol). but when steve rogers comes in and plays a wingman for sam, they start to become friends that eventually leads to something more. 

kiara eventually becomes an avenger and gains the alias “icarus” thanks to a cute interaction she had with sam years prior. basically when it was believed that shield attacked afterlife (which kiara just so happened to be at the moment) kiara was hit in the line of fire and barely made it out with her life and it’s that day when sam finds out about her being an inhuman and her powers. he’s really sweet and helps her heal and he makes a joke saying “i guess icarus flew too close to the sun” and it’s just been her nickname ever since.

[startofamoment]

I HAD THE CRAZIEST B99-TGP “CROSSOVER” DREAM THE OTHER NIGHT

Kevin and Shawn were the same person. For the most part, he was living a human life as Kevin Cozner – Professor and Head of the Classics Department at Columbia University, husband to Captain Raymond Holt. His identity as an Immortal Being was a complete secret that not even Holt knew about.

Somehow, despite being a true human with no idea of his own husband’s immortality, Holt knew about The Good and Bad Places and was trying to help Jake not end up in The Bad Place.

At some point (presumably after Jake did something terrible), Holt decided he was a lost cause. Kevin, not enjoying seeing his husband so miserable and hopeless, tried to tell him everything... except Holt refused to believe him and just kept thinking that Jake put him up to this. 

My alarm woke me up right before this crazy dream could progress further than that, but I created a bunch of additional headcanons with some help from @jokeperatla and @proofthatihaveaheart! (Be warned that this is gonna take a hella cliche turn, as human-demon love stories often do.) 

Kevin wanted to torture humans before they even reached The Bad Place, but he was more interested in causing mental/emotional torment than the typical physical suffering... thus the role of classics professor. 

Meeting and falling in love with Raymond Holt, a man most definitely destined for The Good Place, was the last thing Kevin expected and is possibly the highest form of torture for a demon. 

As head honcho of The Bad Place High Council, Kevin’s free to do whatever he wishes without his worldly actions being monitored. Since he works remotely and only communicates via video conference, none of the other Immortal Beings know much about his personal life. 

Kevin personally arranges the most special of tortures for everyone who mistreats his Raymond for when they reach The Bad Place.

Since he technically doesn’t need sleep, Kevin sneaks out of bed every so often to call up his subordinates and get work done. Holt, while mostly-asleep, overhears a few of these conversations and subconsciously picks up bits and pieces about The Good and Bad Places. This happens enough times that he’s eventually convinced some higher being is speaking to him about the afterlife. 

At some point, Kevin accidentally leaves a page or two of notes from his work binder somewhere around their house. When Holt stumbles upon this, all his suspicions about life after death are confirmed. 

Holt becomes obsessed with trying to get into The Good Place. Of course, if anything, his “good” actions only decrease his total point score because his motivations aren’t right. As much as Kevin would love for his husband to go to The Bad Place and for them to be together for all eternity, he doesn’t want him to have to go through any torture. Holt’s fake altruism streak comes to an end when Kevin, somewhat out of context, says: “You’re a good person, Raymond. This is why I love you.” 

When Holt transfers to the Nine-Nine, Kevin’s prepared to add more people to the long list of Raymond’s Homophobic and/or Racist Co-Workers, i.e. the list he’s passing on to only his most ruthless torturers. He’s surprised when they turn out to be genuinely nice people who love Holt almost as much as he does. Seeing this, he’s suddenly struck with the feeling that he doesn’t really want any of them to be tortured.

Holt knows Jake’s a good person, but there’s just some part of him that’s worried the detective’s done enough reckless, self-serving things to land him in The Bad Place. He takes it upon himself to try to guide Jake, but it quickly becomes obvious that this is a lot harder than training Cheddar to do a new trick. After Jake ignores his advice for the umpteenth time, Holt sits him down and tells him everything he knows about the afterlife.

Jake’s not entirely sure Holt is right about The Good and Bad Places, but he does respect him and appreciate all his help, so he at least tries to make better choices. This isn’t always easy because his robot of a captain has such a strict moral compass, and he sometimes can’t help but just go with his gut. 

Holt gives up after Jake goes against his direct orders and does something gravely wrong despite having the best intentions. This sends him on a spiral of disappointment and helplessness, ultimately leading him to question everything he believes in. Kevin gets home from work to find him in this state and decides it’s time to come clean about everything. It takes showing him his full binder of notes to convince him he’s telling the truth.

Kevin’s greatest fear, apart from inevitably getting separated from the love of his life after he dies, is him finding out about his true self and leaving him altogether. Still, he knows that he doesn't deserve this pure human being at all and only wants the best for him. “Raymond, if you want me to pack my bags and leave, I completely understand." To his surprise, all his husband does is kiss him and nod. “I suppose I always knew you were a demon in bed."

It’s impossible for Kevin to know exactly how Jake is doing in terms of the point system, but he does want to help him get into The Good Place especially if it makes his Raymond happy. He decides to orchestrate Jake and Amy getting together because she seems like the best person to whip his moral compass into shape. He’s floored when, even before he starts to intervene, the two detectives fall in love on their own. 

Kevin’s true identity remains a secret, but Gina once catches him making the snarkiest of comments about Margo and her trip to Scottsdale. Following this, they have weekly meetings specifically to roast people. He thinks that maybe she’d do well as a torturer or architect, if she ever did feel like leaving The Good Place. 

Kevin’s lost count of the number of times he’s tried to figure out how to stay with his husband in the afterlife. He’s considered creating a perfect neighborhood for the two of them, one that he’ll claim is an experiment of a new kind of torture to avoid questions from the High Council. He knows this wouldn’t work though because he really only has jurisdiction over people in The Bad Place; he wouldn’t be able to put his Raymond in any sort of neighborhood since he’ll be all the way in The Good Place. 

After deliberating for ages, Kevin decides that his only shot at maybe getting to be with his husband for all eternity is giving up his immortality. Even then, something like this has never been done before, and it’s hard to say whether the point system will take all his actions into account or only what he’s done on earth. The act of giving up his immortality and power for just one person holds such great value but could also be determined to be something done for his own happiness. As far as he can tell, it’s impossible to predict whether he could end up in The Good Place.

AAAAND... SCENE! Y’all, I honestly have no idea how this crossover AU would end. Does Kevin automatically get placed wherever Holt is because they’re soulmates and his utopia wouldn’t be complete without him? Does Kevin bargain with the higher ups at The Good Place and beg to work for them instead? Does Holt become the equivalent of an angel, and do they then proceed to have the most illicit romance of all time? Really, your guess is as good as mine. 

[girl-q]

The Originals Season 5 Episode 12: Kick me in the face with that Klaroline

Yeet. The last episode is coming out tomorrow and I feel like a fucking butt cheek on a stick.

It´s me your friendly neighbourhood theorist with all the opinions and all the wrong theories.

Summary

Hope is dying of Hollowness and so the fam hops in a car? They said it took like 10 hours to Mystic from Nola so that carries must have been amazing. They drive to the Salvatore school, where Klaus wants to use the chambers in the attic, that never held any fucking body in Tvd to lock Hope up for her wolf transformation, but surprise Klaus is a liar and actually wants Caroline’s twins to siphon the magic out of Hope into him and then sink himself onto the bottom of the ocean. Caroline protests for like two seconds and then is fine. Her kids are being brats and hoes we´ve seen them in Legacy and one is going to be all fun and slutty and the other one shy and stuff. They eventually agree, but then Alaric has to bust in and shoot Klaus. Man Alaric? Really? Can´t we go on episode with that boring ass slug ruining everything? Klaus is restrained for another two seconds and Alaric goes all judgy on Caroline basically implying that she has too many feelings for him and therefore putting their daughters at risk. He says the ocean can´t hold Klaus and a hoe is right, because surprise Klaus lied again and actually wants to kill himself after the Hollow is in him. Conveniently he still kept a white oak stick around, because convenience of the plot. Why though? If all it takes to shut down the Hollow is killing someone while it´s inside someone, why don´t they use a drunken, and homeless child molester? Why does it have to be Klaus? It´s not like he has too many morals to kill someone else.

Anyway Caroline gets pissed for another cute two seconds and then agrees to still help Klaus, because what he is doing after all is to protect his kid and being a good person/ dad. Hoes he became what she always wanted for him. Oh my gawd FEELINGS!

In a different plot Elijah and Hope are out about in my favourite small town infested with supernatural kids and curses. Let’s be honest kids. That line with the Bentley was fucking bomb. They go to get food, where we meet Landon. Hopes love interest of the moment. He looks like a total six and a half with eyes that look like he either never sleeps or tries to be emos next big thing. I give him a 9/10 on Q´s list of characters that are basically Dan Humphrey from Gossip Girl. He loses one point because of the weird hair. Dan’s locks were luscious and his just look like a sad sad poodle. Yeah listen people from Legacy lets not do THAT(Landon) and instead bring back someone that is growing on me just for the reason that he is hotter and seems a little less whiny then Landon, let’s do Roman. He is annoying too, but he is hotter and probably cooler than that dude.

So Landon gets bullied by High School jocks, surprise, and then gets 300 dollars from Elijah. It´s insinuated that Hope likes this boy and he does too and he invites her too something musically in the park, because that´s what the kids of today do. But no I´m sure he has like an old soul or whatever we say about kids, who have no friends and sit around thinking about the Beatles. (I love being an ignorant queen)

Elijah and Hope go to the jocks and it seemed as if Hope was going to do something amazingly, batshit crazy, but then she just blasted the mean dude’s car windows. Hope and Elijah do talking and bonding until the evening comes and of course she goes to meet poodle at the music thing. They dance, because it´s cute and stuff, but the MAIN thing here is the BEST, ULTIMATE conversation between my babies were Klaroline was proven again to still be a romantic thing and that now they are more compatible than ever. Suck it haters. They talk about Klaus as a dad. Then she tells him about the time she drove with the twins to Nola, when she was in trouble in the seventh season of Tvd, but he was trapped in the wall. He looked shocked. Maybe because she trusted him like that. Then she tells him he was never the evil in her life and then the THING happens. They almost kiss, but the clock strikes and she pulls away. She walks away and throws one last longing look at the man she loved.

After that Hope´s transformation is coming up, but Elijah gets wind of Klaus’s true intentions and tries to stop him or take his place. He locks Elijah into a chamber in the basement, which never holds anybody and tells his daughter to transform outside. They talk endlessly about how it´s going to take hours, but the transformation is like a minute long. I feel attacked by that. Julie explain yourself. During the transformation the twins suck the hollow out of Hope and put it into Klaus. Caroline isn´t there and Klaus asks why, but Alaric says Caroline couldn´t watch another man she loves die. Now he didn´t exactly say that, but I imagine it.

Klaus is about to plunge that stick into his chest, when Elijah appears. NO Klaus. The end

Theories and Thoughts

It´s fucking bullshit if Klaus really dies. It is fucking bullshit to not see his daughter growing up. The guilt she must have. She would be kinda responsible for both her parents’ death.

Yeah nobody can deny now that Klaroline is a romantic thing. This episode did it all. They showed that he became the man she always wanted him to be, which is caring and loving. He got saved like she said he was capable off. She trusts him, protects him, helps him, can´t loose him and cares for him. She loves him. Maybe more honestly and openly than she ever did before. She is grown now and he is too and we all know Klaus Mikaelson never lost feelings for that girl. He may have “loved” Cami, but no one can deny that he ever forget his feelings for Caroline. They almost freaking kissed. They are still on and why the heck would the writers put them on the table so hard again, when he is dying so close?

The LAST Episode

It´s go time. Klaus just tried to kill himself but in the trailer we see that he passes out before that or some witch took him out. In my best educated guess they´ll ship him back to Nola were every fucking body is going to go all teary eyed. They´re going to have one last dinner and a “funeral”. It could be just killing himself with his fam around, but also they could do like a TFIOS thing where each characters says something nice about Klaus.

The trailer is quite sad. It shows a lot of family and a scene of him with Hope putting their heads to each other. I have to say I have a little doubt about the Elijah theory, because they did the same thing in the last episode of The Vampire Diaries. Stefan sacrificed himself to save his brother and then in the afterlife reunited with someone that was really special to him. I doubt it a little. There is also a scene where the siblings burn paper without Nick.

It will definitely be quite emotional. I sincerely hope he makes it out alive. What is so true though is that someone really important is going to die. This is also supported by the title “When the saints go marching in” is a song very popular with something called the “Jazz Funeral”. It´s a song first and foremost associated with the city of New Orleans.

Remember the photos from Candice and Joseph in New Orleans? Yeah they still will need to come into play and given that it´s very bright outside when that happens that could be a scene from after Klaus is saved.

Here is the last thing I will say before the finale. This show is about more than three people. It was about a whole family, so what is going to happen to the rest? Keelin and Freya could live a normal married life with children and it would be fine. They´ll die. But then there is Rebekah, who wants to be human so much. Will she just be miserable for the rest of eternity now? Pining for what she can´t have? Maybe eventually deciding it´s too much and do something fatal? Rebekah wasn´t much in this season but her story needs to be tied up. I changed my mind and I don´t think she can just go back to Marcel. It would lead to nothing again and break ups again, because what is hurting Marbekah most is something neither of them can change. Rebekah needs some justice. Then there is also my daisy Davina. She is mortal and with Kol, and eventually she will die and leave Kol behind. The sibling’s weren´t a focus much on this season, but what about them? What about Vincent? I know I trash him a lot, but he just lost another love. Is he going to find peace?

In this way this final needs to be a close copy to the TVD finale. I overall liked the ending for each character. It was truly about peace and closure. This finale need to be about that too. Elijah will find peace in death, because he will find Hayley again. Klaus won´t get any peace from death. Everything he holds close to his heart is alive. Some kids will argue that he´ll reunite with Cami and that will give him peace, but Camille has been almost irrelevant in this season and those are just facts.

Here is what I want if I could have everything I want: Freelin is shown in the future with children, Vincent finds happiness not in love, but in a task, Rebekah is human and married with kids, because Rebekah deserves better or at least she is seen raising something like a child. Marcel is right there with her. Elijah is dead and reunited in heaven with Hayley. Hope goes to school and learns to be better than her family and lastly Nicklaus Mikaelson will survive and love his daughter and to excuse him and Caroline for not being in Legacy they will charter a plane together and visit some places. Paris, Rome or even Tokyo. He can do that now, because his daughter is safe and loved and he learned that she is a strong capable girl that can deal with the world on her own. Caroline also realizes that her daughters are with their father in good hands at the school and finally she can go and see some places.

That is my happily ever after for the Originals, which I would love and welcome dearly.

Before I finish this chapter let’s talk about some dead people. Mikael and Camille are listed as guest stars. This seemingly supports Klaus´s death, but I don´t think so. They could appear in a ghost form like Vicky and Tyler for Matt in the Tvd finale or Klaus temporarily dies and sees them ,but if that happens hoe that make him human that would ruin everything. Side note I once saw a pic of a blonde kissing a bearded man in a wedding dress and it was said it was about TO. I was so confused and the girlies shortly thought it was Klaroline, but I don´t think so. It just came to my mind btw where we could see Camille again. In the pictures from Nola with Candice and Joseph they stood in front of a panting much like he did with Camille in the first episode. Maybe they are talking about his life and will insert Camis ghost for a few seconds looking upon them.

I´m finishing this chapter now. It was a hot mess and unstructured, but I´m too lazy to restructure it. The finale will be there tonight. The last chapter of this out tomorrow.

Good final day girlies

I´m out

XOXO

Q

[nautilusopus]

The Number I

Chapter 15: Aeris Also Buys a Snack but Does Not Get Hit by a Truck in the Process

So this thing was originally one 12k+ chapter. That’s enough for two short chapters but pacing wise it’s meant to be one thing, so I’m gonna split it in two and post the next chapter the very next day.

Thank you @auncyen, @limbostratus, @cateringisalie, @cloud-and-tifa, and @fury-brand, the latter of which is indirectly responsible for a couple of the bits in here. 

There are holes in the world, and spaces between numbers. Neither should exist. Cloud starts noticing them, and he isn’t the only one who has. And unfortunately for him, he’s both. (Contains graphic depictions of violence.)

Aeris had been staring at Zack and Cissnei huddled around her phone for the last three hours. She knew it was three hours because the battery finally ran down on whatever terrible game they'd been emulating and Zack complained loudly about the fact that it was supposed to last longer. She was supposed to be reviewing the transcript -- she'd been the one the most pushy about their schedule, after all. It's not like there wasn't anything to review, either -- new information on how families were structured, this time without any nonsense about larvae and eggs; the absolutely clusterfuck awaiting her with the fact that she'd have to explain they were in contact with a civilisation that took an "anything goes" approach to both warfare, human rights, and diplomatic relations, that would be fun to deal with; and a few interesting tidbits that seemed to hint at a religion of some sort -- a mention of gods, plural, except on occasion only god, singular, and something rather curious about the planet asking for a name, and a mention of returning to it, clearly hinting at some sort of implied afterlife. She'd have to ask about that later. She had scribbled a note in shorthand that she probably wouldn't remember to check later and had let her attention wander.

Instead, she was thinking about how to best approach her coworkers. Waking up next to someone like that back in Cloud's room, it had been nice. It had been a long time since she'd experienced something like that -- maybe when she was eighteen and had begun dating for its own sake? She'd never really had much in the way of peers, due to being repeatedly jumped grades and put in classes with people several years her senior. And after that, her work had always made her too busy for any sort of social excursions. Besides, who would she even go out with in the first place?

Cissnei was already friends with her, or at the very least was an acquaintance, though she wasn't sure how comfortable she'd be with casual human contact (which was such a strange thing to be uncomfortable with, in her opinion). Zack was fueled by fifteen percent coffee and eighty-five percent machismo, it seemed like, which could either mean he'd been looking for an excuse to get extremely familiar with everyone, or did not even remotely consider anyone else here his equal. Tseng was allergic to fun. Angeal seemed good-humoured enough, but in a dry, professional way. Lazard was technically her physician and they weren't really supposed to get overtly familiar with their patients.

Teachers were easy enough to get along with, though. She wheeled her chair over to Angeal with a good shove off the counter.

"Busy?"

Angeal shrugged. "Not particularly. Much of my work won't be starting for another week or so, though I have gotten portions of it done early... was there something you needed?"

"A sounding board, preferably. I'd like to get my thoughts in order." She straightened her printed copy of the transcript out from their last conversation, reading over some of the more interesting parts of it. The interference seemed to be gone for now.

I talked to your friend.

Teefah (sp?), or Reeve?

Teefa. She seems nice. How long have you known her?

Years. you'd have to ask her that.

I see. How long is a year for you out of curiosity?

like in days?

Perhaps? For that matter, how long would you say a day is?

24 hours (clarify cesium-133 second standard later?).

Good. So how many of those in a year?

358, except when it's 360 every 6 years.

So then how old are you?

25, I think.

You don't know?

No. I don't remember a lot from before I was 14 (age of enlisting, maybe coincidence)

Any reason why?

Mako poisoning I think. It does funny things to your head.

Is it all just a big blank?

I remember Ma. don't know how she looked, or what she was like. she returned to the Planet when I was 16.

I'm sorry for asking but does that mean she's dead?

Yes. That's what that means.

I'm sorry for your loss.

Why are you apologising? you didn't kill her. hard to miss something you don't remember

Doesn't it bother you?

Of course it bothers me. but she's gone, and nobody's alive that remembers her. So there's no point in trying to get her back. it's not like I don't have a family now anyway.

"He's obviously hiding something big," said Angeal. "The question is, is he hiding it because it's personal or is he hiding it because he knows it's relevant?"

"How do you go about asking that?" said Aeris. "This is the first conversation we've had where he didn't tell me to fuck off once. If he knows it's relevant, he'd tell us, wouldn't he? So we have the information we need to move onto the next stage and stop messing with his head."

"Would he?" Angeal gestured to another page of the transcript.

Why are all the doctors afraid of you? Are they prejudiced? Are you a minority subspecies?

the last time I was in here I broke a lady's arm.

Why?

Said I would. I said, you stick me with that needle, I'll break your damn arm in half. I told her. I warned her. I'm a man of my word. Didn't need her fucking flu shot anyway.

"He doesn't seem to have much sense of what's good for him, is the point I'm trying to make," said Angeal.

"But what we're trying to do is going to directly benefit him --"

"I'm not certain he cares. He's very... spirited. Try appealing to his better nature."

Aeris gave him a look, then shook her head. "I'm going to try speaking to Tifa about it. She seems interested in his wellbeing. If I just explain to her we're trying to help... what do you think he could be hiding anyway?"

"...Maybe he's just embarrassed," offered Angeal.

"He's done all this over embarrassment? He said he'd tell me eventually. I don't understand why he's like this." She looked over the papers again. "He's younger than I thought."

"He's your age."

"He is." She's been thinking of him as older, but it seemed he was actually a year younger give or take. She'd gotten used to most people she knew being her senior by twenty years or so. The fact that she was technically the "adult" in this situation in more ways than one was something she hadn't considered. Perhaps that's why he'd calmed down as she'd stopped trying to prove herself to him. She went back to reading the transcript.

What does it mean, to return to the Planet?

It means a lot of things to a lot of people. But we all come from the Planet, and when we die, our souls return to it. For a long time, everyone thought that's what the Promised Land was, too

So you're Jewish?

I'm what?

Never mind. It's a religion. For instance, I'm a Jew. We have one god, and one day hope to return to the Promised Land. Do you have religions?

Yeah.

What's yours?

I don't know.

So, you don't believe in any of them?

I didn't say that. I just said I didn't know. I don't remember anymore. Same as Tifah's, I guess. With the gods of the hearth and the gods of the mountain and the sky, and their circular war.

And when you return to the Planet, do you meet these gods?

I mean, some people think that. I guess maybe I did too. I don't know. What are you asking, exactly? Returning to the Planet isn't a belief, like the gods of the hearth. It's a fact, like gravity.

I'm sorry. I didn't intend to be rude.

You weren't rude. I just don't get how you don't understand that.

"He's very devout," commented Angeal. Aeris shook her head.

"It was more than that. The way he said it..." she pondered, "he wasn't angry. It was... it was as though he really didn't know how I didn't know about his culture. It must be very ingrained. You know how every culture on Earth, or very nearly, has some sort of flood story, suggesting something like that really did happen?"

"So you're suggesting there was some... mass earthquake?" asked Angeal.

"Maybe. We could do with an anthropologist, too."

"How many spare rooms do we have left?"

"...Not enough for an anthropologist," admitted Aeris. "Nobody expected to find anything more than rocks and germs. They might shut the project down even if I hadn't thrown our ambassador into traffic, just because we're underprepared for this. Come back to it in another year or two."

"You think they would, after all this?"

"I don't know. Maybe." She stared at Angeal. She wasn't actually sure if they were closer or not. Suddenly it didn't seem to matter much -- they might not see each other again for a while if the entire thing was shut down. It was such a stupid thing to try and engineer, too.

Instead, she just got up and hugged him. She made her way around the room with everyone, even managing to get a confused hug back from Zack and Cissnei before heading back to her room to organise her findings.

There wasn't anything that was scientifically helpful. The atmospheric content had been useful information, at least. Though she couldn't imagine them ever getting to a point in her lifetime where she'd get to walk around on another world with no isolated air supply. She looked over the transcript again.

If you're not sure how old you are, is there any way you normally keep track of it?

We normally mark it based on the day you're born. I think I was born sometime in the summer, so we just decided it should be the first day of August.

August as in the month August? Did you have an Augustus Caesar?

I don't know. Haven't heard of them. But I'm not good at history.

Sorry. Continue.

So, every year we celebrate the day you're born with a small party. We call that a birthday.

We have those as well. Please continue to tell me about your celebratory customs.

She smiled a bit. That wasn't quite how the conversation had gone...

Do you do presents?

Yeah. Do you?

Aeris had been examining a patch of skin on her arm where she was sure there had been a needle hole. Injuries didn't seem to stick here, between this and the coma. She'd made a note to ask Cloud about that as well. But she hadn’t yet.

Yes. I got a bottle of very fancy champagne and some garden tools from a colleague. But my birthday is in the winter, so I had to wait until the ground thawed out to use them. The tools, I mean, not the champagne, she added with a hint of distaste. She hadn't really cared for the champagne, either. It had tasted terrible and not at all sweet, which probably meant it was extra expensive and it was extra undignified to say you didn't like it. Apparently she wasn't even supposed to open it, she was just supposed to let it sit on a shelf for another ten years.

I get tools for my birthday sometimes. Wrenches and screwdrivers, not garden tools. Don't really need 'em anymore, but it's nice when someone remembers I like that kind of thing. One time I got a knife, though.

What kind of a knife?

Hunting knife.

That big one under your pillow?

That's the one.

Have you ever stabbed anyone with it before?

No. There's never been any reason to. Not until recently, anyway, but then that's what I've got my sword for.

Was that a present as well?

It was, yeah. But it was from me.

Why a sword? Why not a gun? You have guns in your world, right?

Because I'm better with a sword. Duh. And because swords are better. If you're going to kill someone, you should do it with your own two hands instead of pressing a button. Have some respect.

Yes, but a gun would be a lot more efficient.

No it wouldn't. Not for me. And guns are stupid.

Yes, but --

Have you ever used a gun or a sword?

...I can't say I have.

See? You're in no place to talk.

So you're telling me, you've used a sword.

Yeah.

Instead of a gun, when a gun was an option.

Yeah. I don't know what part of this you're not getting. Maybe this is why someone got you gross champagne for your birthday instead of a real present.

It was expensive gross champagne, thanks. It's a huge honour to get gross champagne from your boss.

Are you sure it was even gross? Maybe you just don't like dry stuff. There's no shame in that. I get a lot of customers like that. Some people just can't handle it.

You work in a bar, that's cheating. Piss off.

And then he'd laughed. Or, something like it. A strange little burst of amusement that had her own mouth curling into a smile involuntarily.

Didn't think you had it in you, "ma'am". I bet it wasn't even bad. I bet it was really subtle and complex and you're a big baby that can't handle anything that isn't ginger ale.

Well, maybe I am. And maybe ginger ale is just good.

I never said it wasn't.

She'd begun editing what went into the transcript at this point. She was supposed to be learning about another culture and forging a path ahead for humanity, not debating with someone about swords and guns and birthday presents. Not to mention, with sections like the above, she'd been a bit too distracted to take note properly and had to hastily fabricate a couple generic lines on the spot so Lazard wouldn't think something had gone wrong because she had stopped "writing". She'd been getting more and more spotty lately. Hopefully no one had thought much of it.

She didn't know why she disliked the project so much now. This should have been a big turning point.

She awoke to someone shaking her and found Zack and Cissnei leaning over her bed.

"Don't do that," she reprimanded. "It's creepy."

"Sorry," shrugged Zack. "We were thinking -- do you wanna hit up a bar or something? To celebrate."

"This might be the last time we will get to work with each other for a while, depending on how things go," said Cissnei. "We should make the most of it. Grab something to eat."

Aeris smiled. "I'd like that. Maybe I can try out the champagne."

Zack blinked. "I... I guess you could, yeah."

Going back out through decon was much faster than coming in -- an hour later they found themselves switching places with the inspection crew, which was already waiting outside for them. They'd have a week to decide what to do from here while the facility was re-cleaned and restocked.

They found a small cafe several hours away, closer to civilisation. Cissnei had to do most of the talking for them, though Aeris insisted on ordering her own drink in broken French. Zack stood there, looking lost.

"The others didn't want to come?" asked Aeris, after she'd received her cocktail. They wound up getting a pizza to split. Zack had gotten a sparkling water, and Cissnei had surprised them both by requesting straight gin.

"Don't know. They left earlier this morning," said Zack. "We got three, right? Good enough. So..." he continued, lowering his voice, "no ovipositors, huh?"

"No," she said flatly.

"How do you know? Did you look?"

Aeris smacked him with her napkin. He shrugged.

"In all seriousness... we aren't gonna get to use any of the pictures. Everyone's gonna think they're fake."

"What's fake about them?" asked Cissnei.

"What do you think? 'We totally found aliens, you guys. They look just like us except they have cat eyes'."

"I mean, maybe it's a statement," said Aeris. "About how humanity thrives, so on and so forth." She paused to take a sip of her drink, then stopped. "Actually, maybe that's something to think about. People are the same all over, aren't they?"

"I guess," said Zack. "I don't know if they'll see it that way... man, we're getting shut down for sure."

Aeris glumly dug an ice cube out of her glass. That would probably be for the best, she knew rationally -- Cloud would probably be glad to never see her again, and no one would have to deal with any ugly politics in the event that two entire worlds' worth of geopolitical conflicts came into contact with one another. She wanted to continue, she knew. She also knew perhaps it was selfish to want it to continue, but she wasn't surprised she felt that way. What did surprise her was why.

The entire point of it had been furthering humanity as a species... well, actually no. No one actually bought into that. The entire point of it had been finishing her parents' work and following in their footsteps and clearing their names by showing her discovery to the world. That was the point, wasn't it?

When she'd been sitting there in that waiting room talking about guns and birthdays, the thought hadn't entered her mind. She found herself wondering if Cloud would want to talk to her again, and if she'd get a chance to pet that not-a-dog, and if Tifa would be willing to talk to her again about something less boring than the atmosphere.

She still wanted to do the project, of course. What did it matter why, as long as it got done? But it still felt like a betrayal of why she started this in the first place. Remaining professional about this wasn't a matter of her pride -- it was a matter of... family tradition? Maybe. It was important, even if she didn't have the right word for it.

"...I mean, because no one will believe what we found," amended Zack, getting the wrong idea from her silence, "not because we're all gonna be jailed for human rights violations."

"Keep your voice down," hissed Cissnei.

"I'm just saying. Maybe they'll be too distracted by the weirder bits to even notice the whole... y'know."

“Why are we still talking about the project?” said Cissnei. “We have been talking about the project for weeks.”

“Not me,” said Zack. “I just got here, remember? In comparison, anyway. If it weren’t for this thing I’d probably have just let them pick me up with the next draft. That stuff pays crazy good as long as you don’t do anything stupid like beat your girlfriend or make your pet dogs snort cocaine.”

“Draft for what?” asked Aeris.

“Basketball, probably. In case you hadn’t guessed,” he said, gesturing vaguely above his head to indicate his height. “I’d have probably gotten some free press just for being the first pro player with multiple doctorates. Get my career started early.”

“That was the deciding factor?” asked Aeris. “Your career?”

“Well, what about you? What did you do before you went and dumped your life into bothering some random asshole from Jiffy Lube?”

“Well… I finished school obviously. Then I went into physics after my parents. They were always talking about how important the project was, and since I had the skills to help --”

“You’re talking about it again,” Zack interrupted. “We need a non-project goal. Hobbies. Something.”

“...I’d always wanted to be a pilot, actually,” said Aeris. “At first it was just space shuttles, but then I got interested in aeroplanes for a while. That was what I was set on for a while, was flying.”

“So, why did that not work out?” asked Cissnei.

Because it was all entirely false and Aeris had never had more of a passing interest in flight before. But that was better than admitting that there hadn’t been a non-project goal; that her entire life had been working towards this moment, and now that it was here, it was…

...Ordinary. She didn’t know how something like that could be ordinary -- she’d met a bunch of aliens that were all sitting on some sort of enormous secret-that-wasn’t-a-secret. She’d made… if, perhaps not a friend, at least an acquaintance. It was all very exciting. But…

She don’t know if she expected some sort of epiphany. She certainly didn’t feel like one was coming on. An entire world had been opened up in front of her, quite literally, and she didn’t really feel like she cared. That didn’t make sense. She obviously did care, she did strongly hope they weren’t shut down after this. None of it made much sense.

Though, now that she was spinning a ten-minute lie about it, the plane thing actually seemed interesting too. She knew more about the subject than she thought. She wondered if Cloud knew how to fix a plane. If they had planes. They probably had planes, right? Reeve mentioned airspace violations, so they definitely had planes that maybe one day she could have a look at.

“I haven’t been on a plane in years,” said Zack. “Not until recently. Suddenly a bunch of ‘interested parties’ are in my face, and I’m being flown around everywhere, and there aren’t enough barf bags in the world.”

“What kind of interested parties?” asked Aeris.

“Same ones that started throwing money at you, I guess,” said Zack. He opened his mouth to continue, then shook his head and took a drink from his soda water.

“I like planes,” said Cissnei, shrugging. She was pushing around the ice cubes in her drink, looking glum.“I think they’re exciting.”

“With the rush to get to the terminal, and a bunch of strangers shoving you around?” said Aeris.

“No. It’s just fun to up and go somewhere else. Even if it’s work, it still feels like a vacation.”

“And how often do you actually get to go to the beach on these vacations?”

“Almost never. It’s usually a conference room full of old angry men.”

“The beach is overrated,” said Zack. “It’s nice, but it’s overrated.”

“You’re just over-beached,” said Aeris. “You’re spoilt on a beach that isn’t piss-cold all year.”

“It does too get cold.”

“Ten degrees is not ‘cold’.”

“Well, tell you what -- when all this is over, we’ll wait until the winter and we’ll see for ourselves.”

“How do you know you’d remember to keep in contact that long?”

“How do you know we'll even be in contact that long?" he retorted. Something must have shown on her face in response to that, because he suddenly looked uncomfortable and went back to eating.

“I’ll cover it,” said Cissnei as they got up to leave. “First useful thing I have done in weeks, no?”

“Come on,” Aeris huffed. “You’ve --”

“No, you come on!” snapped Cissnei, angrily throwing her money down on the counter. “I was only there that long because I wasn’t allowed to leave. Chances are I will not be reapproved for the second part of this, if there is one. It is the least I can do.”

Aeris exchanged an uncomfortable look with Zack, who was already on his way out the door. She left after him. “Look…”

“Tell me one useful thing I have done for the project,” she said, shoving the door out of her way.

“...You dumped what we had of the transcript the other day,” suggested Zack. Cissnei rolled her eyes. “Alright, whatever. You were useless. You happy?”

Aeris glowered at Zack. “Oh, come off it --”

“She was! I’m not saying anything everyone wasn’t thinking already,” he protested, as Cissnei sat there and glowered at him.

“...Alright, fine. Why’s she need a use? Maybe it was nice having her around,” Aeris fired back, standing on her toes to try and get her point across. God, he was tall.

“I’m right here!”

“Well then fine!” shouted Aeris crossly, rounding on her. “It was nice having you around!”

“Then thank you!”

“You’re welcome!”

Zack was staring at them both, looking rather bewildered. “Is… this a European thing, or…?”

“Shove it, Fair,” said Aeris. Zack raised his hands in defense and turned away, still looking nonplussed.

“...I mean, I thought this was going pretty well,” he said after a few moments as they drove back to the airport. “Good talk.”

Aeris and Cissnei both made a general noise of assent.

“So… now we wait?” asked Aeris.

Zack nodded. “Seems so. Best case scenario, we’re all back in a week.”

Aeris didn’t ask for the worst case scenario. In truth, she wasn’t sure what it would be. The project continued, but they’d have to double down on the work? Or perhaps she’d be removed from the staff for mishandling the whole thing? Or maybe she’d be invited back, but everyone else would be gone. It wouldn’t really feel the same. Or perhaps they’d all be jailed, that wasn’t out of the question either. Or maybe the project would continue, but her backers would pull out and no one would believe the research. Or maybe CERN themselves would just shut the whole thing down. Or perhaps…

There really wasn’t anything to be done about the whole mess. She’d just have to hope for the best. At least Cloud would have a week to recuperate -- she got the sense he seemed high strung in general.

So, a week to mull things over. Just her and Shithead, and her work. For the project.

Zack tapped her on the shoulder, and she started slightly. "Thought I said not to do that."

"I tapped you. Doesn't count. Anyway..." he shrugged. "You and Cissnei already live here, and I don't really feel like getting on another twenty hour flight back to Hawaii just for a week. Would you care if I hung out at your place? Just for the week."

It was the kind of question he'd almost certainly asked on purpose. Had she really looked that disappointed?

"I know it's kind of out of the blue," continued Zack, as though he wasn't obviously asking for her benefit, "and I don't even know if you have a spare room, and I totally get it if you want your space, but..."

She really shouldn't, she knew. It was vastly inappropriate. But then, she'd also been living with these people for days on end anyway. And Zack seemed decent. And all professionalism had gone out the window the minute the medically advanced civilisation they'd made first contact with had been revealed to know the phrase "fuck you".

"Yeah, alright," said Aeris. "But I hope you're not allergic to cats."

They'd parted ways with Cissnei shortly after the plane ride, when she'd been nice enough to drop them off at the kennel first to pick up Cassiopeia, who yowled angrily the entire bus ride home.

"Is she usually this grouchy?" said Zack, as he swiftly withdrew his finger from the carrier as a set of claws swiped at it a moment later.

"No. She's an attention whore, and she's mad I didn't dote on her for ages," said Aeris. The bus rolled to a stop a few moments later.

"I got it," said Zack, and before she could say anything else he'd hefted their combined luggage in one hand and the carrier in another, its contents still hissing and spitting at everything she could see through the door.

She remembered, all too late, that the pan she'd cooked her eggs in was still in the sink. The house probably reeked -- yes, there was definitely a smell, she quickly realised as she stepped inside. At least she'd remembered to empty the litterbox.

Zack set down the carrier once they were inside and knelt by it. "Can I let her out?"

"Yes. Just keep her away from the patio. She likes to eat the plants."

She saw Zack carefully unlatch the door to the carrier, and watched as a very grouchy tortoiseshell streaked past him a moment later.

"She'll say hi later," said Aeris in response to Zack's somewhat offended look. "She's gonna have a good sulk first."

"So, am I staying on the couch, or...?" questioned Zack. If he noticed the smell, he wasn't acting like it.

"I've a spare room you can use," said Aeris. "I'll get something for us to eat later. Snacks are in the kitchen."

"It's just you here?" he asked.

"Well, me and Shithead," she said, gesturing towards the direction Cassiopeia had sprinted off in. "It's not all bad, really. I've got my work..."

Her work. Her parents' work, at least. Hers now. Her very very important work. Humanity. Something or other.

"Something wrong?" asked Zack. Aeris realised something must have been showing on her face and quickly flashed him a small smile.

"No. Just thinking about what to do in the meantime. We could try and organise our findings into something we could publish, but the whole thing might be pointless in a week, depending on how things go."

"Well... why don't we check the news? See if we're famous yet."

Aeris fetched her laptop from her room. She could have used the desktop computer, but she wanted to sit on a couch. She'd missed couches.

There wasn't much on the news about it that wasn't already common knowledge -- obviously they'd be debating about whether or not to publicly release the information.

Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of focus put on their age. A quick self-google had revealed Zack already had a small following of people interested in more mundane aspects of him than his scientific achievements. Aeris, too, had something of a following, though her name also turned up a number of conspiracy theories surrounding the failed bridging experiment, and how her parents had been taken in by the aliens on the other side and ascended to a higher plane of existence.

Aeris would have liked to believe that. She'd never been brave enough to look at the photos herself, but apparently there was a great deal of viscera everywhere that had clued authorities into the fact that, perhaps, there might not have been any survivors.

The computer was right there, though. Perhaps she should look. For closure. If there was ever a time for it, it was now, before everything they'd worked for came crashing down under its own weight.

She sighed and searched "gainsborough gast explosion remains". Zack, who was still sitting next to her, gave her an alarmed look.

"Are you okay?" he asked quickly, clearly convinced she wasn't.

"Yeah. Just... I wanna look," she said as nonchalantly as she could. She only succeeded in alarming him further. Too late now -- the picture had already loaded.

It wasn't actually as bad as she'd thought. But it was about what you'd expect from someone standing next to a very small hydrogen bomb. There wasn't as much... paste, there was no other way to describe it, as she thought there would be. Still a lot, though.

There. She'd looked. She closed the tab and went back to self-googling, then closed that tab when she inevitably found her head badly photoshopped onto a porn star's body.

"You're not worried, are you?" asked Zack. "It's totally safe, I promise. And we'll send rats through first, obviously..." He rubbed his neck nervously. "God, I shouldn't have been petting them. If any of them survive, at least one is getting dissected."

"I'm not worried," said Aeris distractedly. They wouldn't need to dissect all of them, surely. They'd need some alive to observe over the next few days anyway. And maybe if Cloud wound up dying from anything that developed from doing this, they'd find some other waypoint and whatever was left of his corpse would be used for educational purposes. And there would be others, probably, because there would be more visits now that there was an entire world to develop relations between, and it was her project after all, hers, she'd made such a fuss about that, her project, not her parents', she was doing this for her --

In that minute, she saw the whole of her life stretching out in front of her in two long, narrow paths -- one of more projects, and more terrified mechanics she'd have to possess. More guilt. More objective being put in front of her to complete, walling it in, stretching it further. More refining this project that had sucked everything she knew into it.

The other path was empty.

Aeris curled up further into the couch and turned the volume up on the television. Zack looked at her concernedly, but said nothing for a long while.

Cassiopeia had finally warmed up to her again by the time she went to bed -- perhaps the fact that she'd been living in a clean room for several days had removed her scent? Or perhaps she was getting used to smelling her again after it had faded from the house. That wasn't likely, though. The scent of humans tended to permeate whatever they were around. One only really noticed it was there when one stopped smelling it for a while.

God, it was so bizarre that she knew that now. So far, the smell thing definitely had to be the strangest part of that world, bar none.

Aeris had another strange dream that night -- one she'd had several times before she was eight years old at the zoo with her parents in front of her favourite exhibit, the ostriches. She'd always wanted a pet ostrich in those days. In the dream, they always came up to the fence and permitted them to dig her grubby, cotton candy-encrusted fingers into their feathers. A voice from behind caught her attention.

"Aren't you Dr. Gainsborough?"

Aeris turned around, but of course they weren't talking to her. Her parents had been approached by another pair of visitors. Her mother nodded graciously.

"You were in the news recently -- about the parallel universe thing, yes?" said one of them. "Amazing stuff, never thought I'd see something like that in my lifetime." He leaned in closer, looking at Aeris. "Is that your daughter?"

Her father nodded proudly. "Aeris. She's eight years old, and already in her ninth year."

The man laughed. "Well, now! The apple certainly doesn't fall far, does it? I expect she'll have quite a bit to contribute to the field when she gets older." The man crouched to address her directly. "Do you like physics, Aeris?"

"I like ostriches!" she had said proudly. That earned another laugh out of everyone present.

"With that kind of enthusiasm, she'll make a great scientist," said the man. Her parents leaned over her pen in the zoo with great interest.

"She's too small right now," said her father. "She can't help us yet. She'll have to get bigger first."

They had all hunkered down to watch her. She was exposed in the pen. She wanted to hide behind something, but there wasn't anywhere to hide in the fifth ring. There were thousands of people watching from the rails now, and her parents were lost in the crowd. Their faces blurred together into a leering, flesh coloured mass. They all had cameras, wanting to take a picture of the alien she had discovered, and she and Cloud were exposed for the world to see, the scientist and the project bound together in a single exhibit. She was trapped in skin that wasn't hers, and Cloud was desperately screaming in her ears to be let out. They were twisted together too deep, and when Tseng pulled her, she woke up inside the tank in Cloud's body again, and was moved back into the exhibit. She woke up again, in her bed, and she was still Cloud, and he was still pleading to be let out, and she woke up again, and was still Cloud. She was here, in this body, in this exhibit, forever.

She woke up a fourth time and immediately grabbed a mirror. Just her own sweat-slicked face staring back at her this time. Her own hands, not pockmarked by battle scars, but not familiar either -- no dirt under the nails from her garden, due to the thorough decontamination weeks ago.

She got up right then and there and went downstairs to the patio. She'd never gardened in the middle of the night before. First time for everything, she supposed. She needed the dirt back right now.

She was woken up by Zack, who looked rather alarmed at this point. He tossed her a blanket.

"Jesus Christ, do you always sleep outside in the dirt?"

"No. Just... wanted to check on the plants. It's been a while, you know?"

"Whatever, lady. Aren't you cold?"

"No," she said as she began to shiver. Good thing it had been late summer.

"...Alright. Well, if I've got permission to go through your kitchen, I wanna make breakfast. If there's anything I missed, it's cooking."

“You cook?” asked Aeris, following him inside. Everything was sore. This was a mistake. She was never sleeping outside again, ever.

“I mean, as a hobby, yeah.” He began going through her cupboards. “Do you cook much?”

Aeris shook her head. “I was never much good at it. Never learned before, and haven’t really bothered to.”

“Well, you’re missing out,” said Zack, as he began chopping up some of the vegetables he had insisted she buy, even though she really didn’t bother with cooking from scratch, with a couple exceptions. It was a lot easier to just buy something canned, season it, and get back to work. “It’s really just chemistry, you know -- monosaccharides will brown if you heat them at this temperature, but introducing lipids will slow that reaction by this percentage -- and then you get to try and figure out how exactly long in your head.”

“And that’s fun for you?”

“What is? Cooking? Yeah, obviously.”

“I meant, guessing at things, for its own sake.” Aeris began to feel a bit useless, and decided she might as well make tea with what little space the stovetop offered.

“Oh, that too. Part of why I got into basketball, you know. If you know where the ball is gonna be before anyone else, it makes the game a lot more interesting.”

“So, why didn’t you just go into basketball?” asked Aeris. Whatever Zack was doing with those vegetables, it smelled amazing. “Seems like you’d enjoy it a lot more.”

“I don’t,” he said shortly, as that odd look passed across his face for another moment. “...I mean, not as much as theoretical astrophysics,” he said, flashing her another obnoxious movie star grin. She rolled her eyes. “Although I guess at this point it’s not really theoretical anymore…”

“Now, cooking,” he added, as he switched the stove off and dumped the contents of two different pans into bowls and fetched them a couple plates, “cooking I could get into. Who knows, maybe once we’re all fired I’ll go on Chopped or something.”

Aeris helped herself to a few generous spoonfuls of everything and took an experimental bite. Her eyes watered.

“Oh, wow,” she said.

Zack raised an eyebrow. “That bad?”

“No, it’s fantastic -- what is this?”

“Not anything fancy or anything -- sauteed some mushrooms and onions in butter, and, uh… we didn’t have sausage or anything, so I improvised,” he said, gesturing to an empty tin of corned beef hash. “Mixed the eggs and rice in with it, threw in some red pepper and a little cheese. Shit, we shoulda got some fruit too...”

“I have fruit,” said Aeris, and quickly got up and left the table for the patio again with an empty bowl. She came back with it filled with strawberries.

“Grew them myself,” she said, as she began rinsing them off in the sink. "I've got edible herbs out there as well."

"Wish I'd known that earlier. Remind me about that later."

"Remind yourself," said Aeris, taking her plate and the bowl of strawberries and sitting on her couch next to Shithead. Zack uncertainly followed her. She dug the remote out from under the blanket she'd left it buried in a lifetime ago and switched on the television.

The news was on. Some important-looking doctor was discussing Tseng's presence on the project and his credentials, and what a huge deal it was that he was involved in this monumental endeavour.

"I think we should change the channel," said Zack quietly. Aeris nodded and flipped to a competitive baking show as Shithead marched her way across her lap to demand attention from Zack.

They spent the week stubbornly ignoring the outside world. Aeris went back to fending the cat off from her herbs. Zack didn't even bother changing out of his pyjamas for most of it, except to make another grocery run. He seemed to have taken her comment about his cooking skills as a personal challenge, and it had become clear early on that he was showing off, although Aeris had no trouble admitting she was actually impressed, even if it did make him insufferably smug. She preferred smug to the grinning mascot she'd encountered in the facility, though. He seemed less on-edge here. And perhaps it was just his face, but he seemed to look happier when he wasn't actually smiling.

She'd miss him when he left.

[scientifically-strange]

Poltergeist

High key though this has been in my inbox for weeks now

Submitted by: Guest on fanfiction.net

Okay idea the avenger hear about Danny but due to the episode with the ghost zone portals taking him to different time periods the avenger think he is thousands of years old and appears when bad stuff happens you know like the fire in Rome and the destruction of a temple in ancient Asia that plus the time Walker and Freakshow framed him the now think he is some kind of old evil spirit

——-

The Avengers had grown up learning about Phantom just like every other child of the earth. He was known for the destruction of some temples in Asia, the big fire in Rome, and it had been hinted that he was one of the main causes of the destruction of the Library of Alexandra. He was hundreds of years old, but nobody could ever tell what he looked like because his face was hidden by a black cloak, but it was little nown fact that he had hair whiter than snow, and toxic green eyes that could freeze you in your spot with just a glance. Like Medusa, but with ice.

He was the kind of story you’d tell your friends around a camp fire or at a slumber part. Bruce’s parents in particular told him that Phantom took little boys who refused to eat their vegetables. But eventually, he became less real. The more this band of friends grew up, the more of a myth Phantom had become, until they were just a small, insignificant memory in the back of their minds that was only used for reminiscing. After all, he was just a ghost story.

Or at least, he was supposed to be.

The thing they were starring at could have only been Phantom, except he wasn’t scary at all. Not by any standards. Even Bruce, who had a small fear of Phantom, didn’t seem intimidated. Because jowhere in any of the stlries did anybody ever saw Phantom was a kid.

He was a scrawny thing with white hair and green eyes, bit nothijg about hik seemed even remotely evil. In fact, he gavenoff the vibe ofna good guy.

“What are you?” Clint asked, raising his bow and arrow at the floating being. He held up his hands in defense, looking very worried for his afterlife.

“Um…” he replied, still starring at all of them like they had grown two heads.

“Well, come kn, spit it out,” Iron Man said.

“Sorry, it’s just-when I imagined meeting you guys it was never like this. Um. Okay, right, my name is Phantom. Hi, how are you?”

So it was him. But how? He was just a scarred kid-ghost thing that could take over the world, and here he was, practically trembling at Hawkeye. It was strange.

“Looks like we better talk first, shoot later,” Captain America said, stepping forward. He placed a hand on Hawkeye’s shoulder, and Phantom seriously couldn’t believe it. The Captain America was sitting right in front of him. It was amazing, to say the least.

“I don’t understand,” Bruce said, pushing up his glasses. “Where’s the cloak? The fangs? The evil demeanor, and being able to freeze enemies where they stood? You don’t seem like a big time legend, really.”

“Uh,” Phantom said, looking highly confused. “I’m sorry, I think? Gotta be honest, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Cap turned to Natasha, who shrugged, silently telling him she wasn’t detecting any lies. Maybe there’s some other evil ghosts that destroyed entire civilizations, but Cap doubted it.

“We’re talking about the fire of Rome, the temples in Asia collapsing, the Library of Alexandra being burnt to the ground, to name a few,” Iron Man said. Phantom just stared at him, confused for a moment longer.

“Um, I didn’t do any of that. Who told you I did that?” The boy seemed intrigued as he took a more comfortable spot in the air. His arms were behind his head as he floated on his back. He let his head hang so he saw everybody upside down. Just by watching that it made Cap wonder how this kid could have done all of those things. And then he briefly reminded himself that this was a ghost. They didn’t have to look old and powerful to be old and powerful. But even then he sensed no malicious intent with this guy.

“There are several counts throughout history describing a white haired green eyed ghost destroying everything,” Hawkeye said simply, his fingers itching to shoot something. Phantom’s head tilted to the side as he thought for a moment.

“Oh!I know what you’re talking about! That must have been when Vlad stole the Infi-Map!”

“When who stole the what?” Bruce asked, shifting his weight from foot to foot. Phantom groaned and flipped over to his stomach.

“Okay, so Vlad is this evil ghost-my arch nemesis. And the Infi-map is this super powerful ghostly artifact that can take you anywhere you want at any when you want. Vlad stole it from my pal, Frostbite, and me and my friends had to stop him, but there were some complications along the way. Like the colusseum thing and when we ended up in Salem and my girlfriend almost got burned at the stake. But we beat him, so I guess that’s cool…” Phantom trailed, rubbing the back if his neck nervously as he made eye contact with each Avenger. He seemed more guarded now that the Avengers had almost hurt him. Steve almost felt bad.

“How long ago did this happen?” Natasha asked, placing a well manicured hand on her hip. Her eyebrow was raised, but other than that she showed no emotion, and part of him couldn’t help but be intimidated. The other part of him was reminded of Sam. Danny rubbed his chin in thought. It had happened around the time he got his powers, so maybe a year ago? Time has become a sort of blur since he had become a ghost.

“Uh…I’m not sure, really,” Danny answered honestly. “I don’t keep track of time very well. But it was recently, like, within the past year. Why?”

The past year? They had been expecting an answer like one thousand years, not just one. That meant that their childhoods had been haunted by this ghost because of something that happened a year ago? Because he decided to play cat-mouse with a guy named Vlad? He couldn’t be serious…Could he?

This kid who didn’t know any better had completely changed history, and they couldn’t help hut wonder if all of that stuff would still be around if he hadn’t been there.

“Who is this Vlad guy?” Hawkeye piped up. Right, Phantom had been chasing him. So really it was him to blame.

“He goes by Plasmius but his name is Vlad Masters,” Phantom replied, not bothering to hide the venom in his voice.

“The billionaire?” Iron Man asked. Phantom nodded and huffed angrily.

“Yeah, he’s a halfa too. Gets on my goddamned nerves, always planning something.”

“Halfa?” Natasha questioned.

“Half ghost, half human,” Phantom offered.

“Why do you hate this guy so much? Other than the fact that he’s obviously evil,” Bruce asked. Anybody who would destroy that much knowledge was a villain in his book.

“He has this thing for my mom and wants me to be his apprentice or whatever,” Phantom waved off. “It’s been going on for years now, but he’s always hated dad for marrying mom. Thinks I should be his. If you ask me I think he should just get another lonely guy cat.”

Mom? Dad? This ghost had parents? Wait, he said he was a halfa. That means he’s also human. Do his parents know? And how does one become a halfa? More importantly how does he know Vlad has a cat? Every time any of the Avengers tried analyzing anything Phantom said they always ended up with more questions, and it was really starting to get annoying.

“Parents?” Iron Man asked, confused. “How can you have parents if you’re dead? Theoretically speaking of course.” Apparently Stark hadn’t listened to the ghost’s word choice like Natasha and Bruce had.

“Uh, dude I didn’t become a ghost like a year and a half ago. My folks are still alive. Geez, you’re as dark as my girlfriend.”

There was a ping from Phantom’s pocket, and he grimaced as he looked at his phone.

“Damn it…” he muttered.

“What’s wrong?” Iron Man asked.

“Well, speaking of girlfriends, I’m gonna be late for my date because of you guys, that’s what. Listen, we can pick this up some other time, but right now I gotta go. See you around!”

With that he disappeared-literally, leaving the Avengers in a state of shock.

“Uh,” Hawkeye drawled, “What just happened?” Iron Man shrugged.

“I have no freaking clue, Legolas. Not a single one.”

[shima-draws]

I'd love to hear you sing! And can we hear about the MBAV au? And you're right about Benny's hair, I've been sitting here for an hour attempting to do it and aaaaaaaaa

PPFPFT I’ve gotten a lot of positive response so I guess I. Will post that tomorrow hhGHH

Omg yeah seriously;; Benny’s hair is impossible I don’t know how it DEFIES LOGIC??

Anyway

NSKDBBJDDB SURE I would love to talk about it!!So uhh it’s called the Grim Reaper AU? It’s pretty obvious where this is going but allow me to further enlighten youBut yeah get ready for one helluva ride this is SUPER SUPER LONG I’M SORRY it’s like 3k words (the length of a good oneshot holy shit SHIMA WHY) but hey I have been developing this AU for three years now sOOkay here we goIt all starts out when Benny and Ethan are on their way to school and Benny notices they’re being followed by this strange girl dressed in black—but for some reason nobody else is able to see her except for Benny. After school he corners her alone and starts questioning her (he also kinda threatens her a little bit;; tells her to stay away from Ethan since he’s an overprotective cupcake). She reveals that she’s a Grim Reaper and her job is to, well. Bring lives to an end as they’re written down in her book. Basically everyone is fated to die at a certain time in their lives, and Grim Reapers are the ones to carry their souls over to the other side. And after a bit more goading she admits that yes, Ethan is fated to die in two days’ time and she’s been assigned to carry his soul over.Rest is under the cut to save yourselves from endless scrolling whoops

Anyway understandably Benny FLIPS OUT and starts begging her to maybe not kill his best friend? Please? But she says that it must absolutely be done, it’s fate that’s already been written and if she isn’t there when he dies to take care of him his soul might get snatched up by a demon or a witch instead (so yes, Grim Reapers are seen as GOOD in this AU). She apologizes and says that he just needs to come to terms with it (hint: he’s not going to do that ever no thanks). The next day Ethan definitely notices something’s off with Benny, but he can’t get him to spill about what’s going on. Ethan becomes super worried about him and goes to Sarah for advice, while Benny goes to confront the GR again. And he asks something extremely…risky.Benny offers to trade his life for Ethan’s, if it’s possible. The Grim Reaper is shocked and tells him the only way that would work was if Benny signed a contract to become a Grim Reaper himself, but that would mean cutting off all ties to the human world and his friends, and that his mortal body would die and it would basically mean he’s actually dead to everyone. Benny signs the contract and takes the deal, and bam. He becomes a Grim Reaper ;w; (Also one of his eyes turns red so that’s cool. Usually when one becomes a GR both eyes turn red but since Benny also has magic that part of him is shown in his green eyes)Meanwhile Ethan suddenly has a massive panic attack, almost like he can TELL that something’s very wrong with Benny (since they’re connected in that way :3c)  He runs home to find that Benny isn’t there, and that, well—Benny isn’t anywhere. Benny’s grandma is out of town at the mo, so he decides to search himself with the help of Rory and Sarah. They look all night and they’re about to call the police when Benny’s grandma shows up and tells them the news. Ethan passes out from shock, and the next day he wakes up and tries to deny the fact that his best friend is gone forever. Eventually the truth hits him hard and he shuts everybody out, even Sarah. He goes into a major depressive slump and doesn’t speak or even leave his room for days. It’s really bad;;Benny, on the other hand, is learning the basics of how to be a Grim Reaper, and is mortified to know that sometimes fate doesn’t take care of things the way it should and that for some of the deaths he has to take the person out himself (and he gets a wicked scythe he uses to end lives. Ooooh) He refuses at first, saying he doesn’t want to kill anybody, but that’s part of the job description and he signed a contract so he absolutely has to. Benny runs off from the mission, enraging Grim Reaper Girl, who sort of acts as his superior and tutor (I’m going to call her GRG for short). Benny decides he’s going to check on Ethan, which is a HUGE no no in the Grim Reaper world—any ties to old friends and family must be forgotten and it’s super forbidden to try and peer into your past life, all that jazz. Normally when one becomes a GR they forget about their past life but!! Our boy is special so he remembers everything. And yeah Benny doesn’t give a shit about getting in trouble and comes back to White Chapel to see his boyf and make sure he’s doing okay.Unfortunately Ethan is NOT doing okay, and after sneaking in through his window Benny starts rambling on worriedly, thinking that Ethan can’t see or hear him since GR’s are invisible to most people. Buuuut he kinda forgot that Ethan’s a seer so in most cases he can see things other people can’t, and Ethan FREAKS the fuck out when he sees Benny standing in his bedroom with this badass cloak and GR clothing. He immediately bursts into tears and like TACKLES Benny to the ground in a hug and doesn’t let him go for twenty minutes while Benny explains what’s been going on.They talk for a while and Ethan is so fucking relieved that Benny’s okay and he’s also really pissed that Benny didn’t warn him or try to figure out some other way to avoid the consequences but?? It’s too late now so. Ethan begs Benny to come back and visit sometimes even though it could get him into BIG TROUBLE and after a moment of hesitation Benny’s like “yeah okay” and then he spends the night and they cuddle in Ethan’s bed and Ethan has a nightmare and cries on Benny and it’s a sad but fluffy timeThe next day GRG comes to Ethan’s window and chews Benny out for both running out on the mission AND for visiting old friends when he knows he’s not supposed to. Benny, being the adorable muffin he is, is able to convince her to let him visit White Chapel every once in a while, or at least get more jobs near there so he can keep an eye on his squad. Ethan wakes up during their little spat and Benny tells him he has to leave. Of course Ethan protests and begs him to stay longer but he can’t because he has to work so!! Ethan tells him to come back soon and that he’ll be waiting and Benny makes him promise to go to school and try to act normal and ABOVE ALL smile when things get hard. Ethan gives him one last hug that becomes super intimate oops and now they’re sort of realizing that they might have a thing for each other??Ethan goes back to school to the amazement of his friends and apologizes for acting like such a dick to them. They can tell that he seems happier for some reason and they’re still bummed about Benny. Ethan wants to tell them that B’s fine but he doesn’t want to risk Benny getting in trouble so he decides to keep his GR status a secret (though he’s pretty sure Benny’s grandma knows, since she’s been acting normal, if a little bit saddened).Benny returns to work and completes his very first mission, having getting past his fears of “killing” others. And it’s amazing when he ends lives (I know that sounds awful bear with me) because he can see all of the memories the person has had—their most joyful and sad and everything else. Benny meets the soul and ushers them on to the afterlife, being able to do so easily after seeing their life story, and something that will happen every time somebody dies. He talks with GRG about a lot of things and they have a Moment™ as she shares her past and how she wishes she could remember who she was as a human. At this point she’s sort of become like a sisterly figure to Benny—she cherishes him and wants to protect him from the bad things but she also wants him to be careful and avoid getting caught sneaking off. So she’s like, unsure of what to do, torn between covering Benny’s tracks and her job as a GR overseer…Things continue on as normally as possible after this point? Ethan’s suddenly more popular at school now since his bff is “dead” and everyone feels bad for him. Benny is completing mission after mission and is hailed as a GR pro and sort of graduates from his underling status and starts going on REAL missions—these are more dangerous since they involve battles with other supernatural beings after the souls of humans, demons especially. He’s officially partnered with GRG and she covers him whenever he sneaks off to see Ethan.It isn’t often that Benny comes to visit but when he does Ethan becomes just a ball of sunshine. They go do things together which is sort of awkward since nobody else can see Benny so we see Ethan talking to himself at dinner or the movies or wherever lol. Both of them are like “Are these dates we’re going on? Like? I’m really enjoying this and you wow” and it’s VERY GAY. It hits Benny first that he’s in love with Ethan and after the realization he visits more and more, skipping out on important meetings and other vital GR stuff in his contract. Yikes! As this is going on Ethan is starting to realize that he may like Benny as more than a friend and that’s a problem since he’s also been hanging with Sarah more lately and he gets the notion that she might like him back so he is. Torn over who he wants to be with since they’re both dead (?) but he can be in an actual relationship with Sarah while with Benny it’s way more complicated but he’s sure he loves Benny more and always will ;w;Benny suddenly vanishes for a few weeks which leaves Ethan on edge and the others notice but he’s still a loyal boy so he refuses to indulge them about what’s going on, which frustrates Sarah and they kinda get into a fight about it. During this time, surprise!! A giant battle happens in the GR world between them and the demons, a fight over souls, and Benny is caught right in the midst of it. He’s torn over his love for Ethan and his duty to serve the GR’s and fight with them—he’s become pretty famous amongst the ranks since he still has his magic so he’s a lot stronger than the average GR and the higher ups are like “THIS BOY IS HELLA STRONG WE NEED HIM FOR ALL OUR BATTLES YA FEEL” Finally when the battle ends after days and days of hiding out and striking whenever possible, Benny flees to see Ethan once again. He’s totally exhausted and covered head to toe in demon blood and also a little out of it? So something weird happens with his magic to make him visible to other people aaaaand. He shows up at the high school looking for Ethan and everyone is like “What the FUCK is that Benny Weir I thought he was dead???” Ethan freaks out of course but that’s after he runs right into Benny’s arms and hugs the CRAP outta him. Rory, Sarah and Erica start screaming in confusion and they’re like “ETHAN what the hell is going on why is Benny here and dressed like that and is that blood? WTF” Ethan sort of spills to them what’s going on while Benny’s chilling out in his arms, too tired to speak, and the rest of the students watch on in shock like?? Yeah. And one of those people is Della and she’s crying because she never thought she’d miss Benny’s stupid flirting so much and she was sad to hear about what happened to him and she’s happy to see him but also really confused just like everyone else!! It’s a crazy timeEventually when it all calms down Benny knocks everyone out with a sleeping spell and they wake up thinking it’s a dream (except for Rory, Sarah and Erica of course, who he trusts to keep his secret). They all hang out for a little while and they’re like “It’s really good to see you Benny” (YES, EVEN ERICA). Then Ethan and Benny go back to Benny’s house so he can say hi to his grandma, who lectures him for like twenty minutes “I cannot believe you Benjamin Weir what on earth were you thinking? You couldn’t have waited for me to come back so we could figure out a better solution and blah blah blah blah” Benny starts crying because he didn’t realize how much he’d missed his grandma’s lectures. She sends them both up to bed. Benny strips out of his bloody clothes and takes a shower and then he and Ethan cuddle in his bed for a long while, not saying anything. Benny knows that this can’t continue on forever no matter how much he wants it to so he decides he’s going to confess to Ethan about how he feels before it’s too late to do so. Of course he has second thoughts like the most obvious, “What if he doesn’t like me back” and then getting deeper into things like “I don’t want to burden Ethan with the truth about how I feel about him he deserves somebody better, somebody that can actually be around to take care of him and provide and I can’t do that anymore” but Ethan starts asking him to say what’s been bothering him so Benny, fed up with everything, spills.“So um hey dude I think I might be in love with you?”And Ethan is ecstatic like “Hey I think I might be in love with you too” and then it’s happy happy time and they kiss and it’s very cute and gay againThe next morning Benny knows he has to go back to work but not before he kisses the living daylights out of Ethan and Benny ends up almost getting caught since he loses track of time and makes out with Ethan for like ten minutes OOPSEthan goes back to school to see that everyone is still confused about the “dream” they all collectively had about Benny Weir miraculously coming back from the dead. Sarah corners him and starts asking more questions and he accidentally lets slip that they may or may not be dating it’s complicated? Understandably she gets upset, more because she’s worried about them getting into trouble and less because she’s jealous (she just wants Ethan to be happy after all he’s been through and if that’s with Benny she’ll give him up she is a GOOD GIRL). She starts admonishing Ethan for his own good, telling him how dangerous it is and how it probably won’t work out and she just wants to let him know now before he gets his heart broken later. Ethan bitterly agrees but he’s not going to stop dating (?) Benny since he’s in love with him and she’s like “Whatever okay just be careful”Benny shows up to work and GRG is REALLY pissed. She tells him that she’s been covering for him for so long that others are starting to get suspicious and suggests that Benny stop seeing Ethan altogether, but Benny tells her he absolutely cannot do that. Then they get into a big fight and she yells at him a lot before she finally spills that the higher ups found out about his memories and plan to have them erased permanently—they just haven’t done anything up til now since they thought he was keeping to the contract and not visiting people from his past life. But lately they’ve been catching on to the fact that he has so they’re gonna wipe him clean and erase all of his ties so he can actually focus on his duty to them. Benny freaks out and starts crying because?? He doesn’t want to lose his memories of his friends and of Ethan that’s always been his worst fear. GRG becomes sympathetic and tells him he has twenty four hours to say goodbye before they cleanse him for good. Benny immediately goes to Ethan and tells him what happens, breaking down and sobbing about how he doesn’t want to forget and he doesn’t want Ethan to forget him after he’s gone. Ethan tells him of COURSE he’ll never forget Benny, he’s the person he loves most in the whole world! They cry together for a while before going out and having the BEST last day ever (like my Life Ticket AU OOPS) and Ethan says a sappy line like “You might forget this day but I’ll remember it forever” AWWWW EThat night Ethan sleeps over at Benny’s house and they talk about a lot of different things. Eventually tho they stop talking and start kissing and things get really;; heated wooEthan tells Benny he wants Benny to leave on him proof that he existed so yeaaah I’ll leave whatever they did up to your imagination wonk ;) This may or may not be an MM reference //shotThe next morning Benny has to leave and it’s a SUPER SAD moment and they’re both crying and Ethan kisses him goodbye and promises Benny he’ll always ALWAYS remember him for the rest of his life (or eternity if he somehow gets changed into some immortal being) and then Ethan. Smiles for him keeping the promise that they made and FUCK BENNY UP he is so fucking wrecked and distraught that he almost just collapses on the floor and refuses to leave but he is a strong boy so!! He takes off and after he’s gone Ethan breaks down and cries and calls Sarah over to comfort him and it’s so…heartbreaking ;m;Benny hands himself over to the higher ups and GRG sees how fucking DEPRESSED he is and how he looks like he’s lost all hope and she feels super bad but there isn’t anything she can do. And then they wipe his memories clean;; She immediately notices that Benny isn’t the same as he was before, without those memories of Ethan and the others to anchor him he’s not the same person.Ethan starts missing school again and he knows he promised Benny he’d try to stay happy but it’s really hard and he misses him so so so much and Sarah tries everything she can to cheer him up but? Yeah it’s just a difficult time for everybody; Ethan is in a slump, Sarah is out of her wits trying to make him feel better, Erica is avoiding everyone, and Rory has lost his normal cheer. And Benny doesn’t even remember them. RIP.Things in the GR world are progressively getting worse, the demon attacks come more frequently now and they’re having a hard time fighting them off. They’ve lost a lot of souls to the demons in the process, and the higher ups are trying to come up with a strategy to get rid of them for good. Unfortunately for them the demons are plotting big time and they’re ready to form a fucking army to take down the GR’s and claim all of the souls for themselves. Benny and GRG overhear them planning this and they freak out, and then the higher ups freak out and it’s a horrible time! But suddenly GRG is struck with a BRILLIANT idea that she knows the higher ups wouldn’t approve of so she does it in secret. Guess where she goes for help? White Chapel!Ethan is surprised to see GRG asking for help, and he’s like “Is this going to help Benny?” And she’s like yeah dude so Ethan says “I’m in” and gets Sarah, Rory and Erica to join the fight as well. They round up a couple of other vamps and supernatural beings and devise this huge strategy to defeat the demons with Ethan’s wicked smarts. AND THEN THE FINAL BATTLE BEGINS!!The higher ups are furious with GRG for bringing outsiders into their conflict but they change their minds as soon as they see Ethan’s plan working. As they’re battling Ethan bumps into Benny and almost cries when he realizes Benny doesn’t remember him (but he is like “You seem familiar, do I know you from somewhere?”) They team up and kill tons of demons together and Benny’s like wow me and this cute guy have awesome chemistry I wonder who he is?Then surprise surprise Ethan gets taken hostage by the main demon king and everyone is like “ETHAN NO” and right before he gets taken out Benny miraculously recovers his memories and takes the hit for Ethan, getting “killed” in the process (which is kinda impossible since he’s already dead but whatever). Totally distraught at seeing his boyfriend die AGAIN Ethan’s psychic powers amp up to the max and he fucking wrecks the demon by using mind games to corrode at its will and he wins the battle!! Woo hooThe higher ups, upon seeing their victory, decide to give Ethan and Benny one wish. Ethan obviously wishes for him to come back to life (once a GR dies their soul is sent to the afterlife, GRs sort of live in an in between world of life and death. Like, purgatory). And Benny? At first he considers using his wish to grant GRG her memories back but she says if he wastes his wish on her she’ll kill him again. Lol. So Benny wishes to be human again instead. To live, basically. The higher ups are like “Usually we wouldn’t allow that but uh yeah you saved our asses so sure” but then they’re like “but we will call on you whenever we need you and your friends for something important otherwise it’s a no go son” and Benny’s like “SURE now please revive me so I can make out with my boyfriend”And so, Benny is brought back to life and stripped of his GR powers (he still has his magic tho, no worries). He bids a tearful goodbye with GRG, who confesses her (VERY PLATONIC) love for him. She promises to visit when she can. Benny’s grandma casts a spell on the town so they think Benny had been in a coma for half a year instead of dead. Erica and Sarah start dating, Rory gets a cute girlfriend (possibly GRG?) and Ethan and Benny live HAPPILY EVER AFTER THE END //throws confettiWow sorry that was so fucking long but well I have been developing this AU for three years so it would make sense that I have the entire plot written out right? //waggles eyebrowsANYWAY I hope you enjoyed KUDOS for reading all the way through you’re AMAZING and god jesus ASK ME QUESTIONS about this AU it’s one of my all time faves and I’m so glad I finally got to share it after so loNG

[warlordess]

OHH NICE, now we're both dead from all that went down!! Watching all the attempts was so entertaining that it totally caught me off guard when things got real with Chidi and Eleanor. For once I'm actually grateful for Mindy, hehe. Too bad she didn't ALSO sleep with Tahani another timeline (as far as we know - flashbacks to Attempt #218 when? :P) Oh and the whole thing with Vicky and the twist at the end...I'm always impressed with how they keep the show fresh and us guessing!!

Oooh gawd, all those attempts though. JASON FIGURED IT OUT?! Oooh, this is low. Yep, this one hurts. Lmao! It was so much fun!

I also enjoyed the blink of an eye attempt where Tahani was supposed to be Eleanor’s soulmate, even if it was purely for fanfare (and kinda confusing because the whole point was to keep the four humans separated at first after the initial attempt proved they would just connect and help each other grow to be better and stronger together; so what’s the point in making Eleanor and Tahani soulmates?).

I think the other reason I was intrigued though was because of the confident saunter Tahani put on as she posed in Eleanor’s doorway. For all the times we’ve seen Eleanor give her a compliment or announce her sexual orientation self-discovery, Tahani has never really reacted positively to it. She’s always got some confused pout/frown/neutral expression on her face when it’s brought up. Her smiling and posing intensely in Eleanor’s doorway as she’s announced to be her soulmate really makes me wonder how their eternal afterlife would have gone. (I especially wonder about it because, when Chidi first meets Eleanor in season one, he says her name and calls himself her soulmate upon entry into her house without any prompting; that means that Michael had probably preemptively explained a little about her to him before that intro scene took place. In my head, the very mention to Tahani during a similar chat would at the very least give away Eleanor’s gender, right? So she must not mind the possibility somewhere deep down.)

Still sad that Michael said one of the things the humans hated was “Tahani hates Eleanor”, like no, where did that come from? I mean, sure, they don’t have the strongest/most positive connection (and I hope that theirs gets explored more in this season), but their relationship is probably 65-75% good and building each other up over the 25-35% bad and tearing each other down.

I’m aaaaalso really hoping that one of the eventual plot threads of the series is the introduction of the actual Good Place and some tinkering with the point system (if what we’ve learned in the canon is accurate/not a lie the Bad Place told the humans for the sake of their plot) and the way that one’s motivation can completely fork their chances at getting into the actual Good Place. Maybe a more sufficient Medium Place will be created or maybe, somehow, Eleanor and friends will actually be elevated to the Good Place (though I’m not sure that’s possible)?

I’m also still waiting for further verification that Janet is retaining knowledge/memories from the first fake Good Place attempt. It doesn’t really make sense that the rebooting she goes through ends up erasing her memories when the whole point of her mainframe is for her to gain more social experience/knowledge/etiquette/etc each time she’s restarted/uploaded with the mass amount of data she’s known for having. Once she’s re-uploaded everything, whatever she’d learned of previously should still exist in there because that’s the point, isn’t it? That’s why she feels like “each generation of new Janet” represents personal growth, like she said to Chidi in season one, so…

Anyway, any theories/hopes from you, anon?

EDIT: Oh, I forgot about the Eleanor x Chidi bit you mentioned! OMFG, ANON. OMG. I’ve always known they were teetering on the edge of br/otp, but I think what hit me hardest about that VHS tape was the fact that CHIDI ACTUALLY MADE A HARD CHOICE. I mean, sure, perhaps there was no second or third woman to confuse him/scare him into worrying he’d devastate them in this attempt, but still. Chidi’s natural response when things get real is to complain of a stomach ache and deflect to anything else. Can you imagine how sure he had to be of his feelings for Eleanor to say “I love you” even once with that much confidence?! A guy who’s openly stated before that he’s never once had a girlfriend he truly loved in all his time on earth??!?