#v; villain verse

[warlockisaslur]

'til death // @thegreatunifier

Peace was hard-won, and hard-kept, yet the young Emperor and his Consort were a force that could not be ignored. Their union was just the start of countless other victories. Treaties with the Shi'ar and the Spartoi, agreements of non-interference with the Nova Corps and the Ravagers, even foster homes and immigration negotiations for refugees from the final Kree-Skrull War. They accomplished so much in so short a time that many wondered if they ever made time for themselves...

Five years in, the Consort seemed to be the one doing most of the work; of the Emperor, there was seen very little sign, save to appear on a screen or at the balcony of their quarters, give a little wave, and then leave the work in his husband's capable hands. It was soon discovered why -- on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Alliance's founding, the Emperor presented his firstborn and heir, to the resounding approval of the populace. Her Royal Highness Antalya, First of her Name was immediately the darling of court, with her bright green skin and unruly auburn curls and big, inquisitive blue eyes. Formally named Katherine Antalya, nicknamed Katie by those closest to her, she was absolutely doted upon by her fathers and her various and sundry relatives, found-family aunties and uncles and just about everyone she turned that dazzling smile on.

Things were finally slowing down. They could focus on raising their daughter and living their life together -- everything else was second nature by then.

And sure, now and then they got a call that needed them not as the Emperor and his Consort, but as Hulkling and Wiccan, and with that came the tacit agreement that one goes, one stays, if I need to switch I'll call.

Which was how Billy wound up on Earth during a Brood invasion -- and how he fell.

No one told the Emperor for days. At first they chalked it up to the chaos -- namely the magical explosion that had gone off when his life was snuffed out, leveling a city block and destroying the Brood Queen -- but then... maybe everyone was just afraid.

Maybe they had a right to be.

[yearnstarved]

"my reputation precedes me." 「 STARTER PROMPT FROM ( here ) — @darehearts 」

─── ⋆ "GOT YOURSELF A SLICE OF HUMBLE PIE, HUH?" McCoy turned around to face his former captain, finally revealing himself. "Even the folks living under a rock know of your conquests. I hear they're hiding from you."

[djsouled]

crossing the threshold in a dramatic light just isn't in the cards tonight, it seems, as the door hardly makes an opening or a closing sound. and he flops onto the stool with nothing but the soft thud, a swish of hair, and the rattling of all his metal accessories and buckles in movement and impact. mic gives a quiet huff and leans his chin onto a propped up arm, playing absentmindedly with the wood of the long bar table.

" hit me with the same old, (bdown)? i'll tip ya reeeal well if you put an ounce or two extra in there, too. (today fucking sucked.) "

@keshimasu.

[huntershowl-moving]

💭 + stain (bnha)

thoughts meme!! / no longer accepting

❝ DUDE WAS A reckless idiot about it, but he wasn't wrong. the hero system is just a vehicle for mindless fucking idol worship — it's bullshit. it's just politics with a shiny label. ❞

she taps her cigarette, watching ash fall past the window. bitterness seeps into the stony expression on their face as they weather a flash of memory: all might with his sparkling grin, slinging an arm around the shoulders of a man who laughs with him. they take pictures together, they seek each other out, they talk and talk about the other man's plans for a better future.

all might has no idea what lurks beneath masks on masks on masks — a layer of lies so thick it has wound back around into genuine benevolence. the protective, misanthropic part of seph tells her that if he knew, he wouldn't care. she cannot think of the alternative: that he would have done something about it, that he would have listened and taken her side and protected them from further harm. that possibility hurts far too much.

❝ tell you the truth, i don't think he went far enough. ❞ it makes sense coming from the mouth of hellhound, the villain who kills indiscriminately — heroes, villains, bystanders — and without mercy.

to the public's knowledge.

❝ whatever. it mobilized who it was always gonna mobilize. his vision succeeded. like usual, all it took was martyring him. ❞

[nocentis]

Light of the Cove ┆ AU

Name: Jellal Fernandes Age: 29 Home Planet: Evra Status: Intergalactic Fugitive, Vagrant Affiliations: Pyk'ryan Rebel Faction Occupation: Defense Pilot, Supplier Classification: Carbon-based sentient life-form; bipedal, mammalian

Background: The universe at large has been dominated by the Lythrum for thousands of years.

Jellal spent many of his formative years helping to organize and direct his planet's department of defense. When his home was invaded, he helped lead the resistance against the Lythrum army. Unfortunately, the Evran Allied Forces were outnumbered and, subsequently, overpowered. His home was instated under Lythrum rule, and he, among many of his peers, was taken prisoner.

A select few of the Evran people inherited the ability to control the fundamental elements involved in nuclear fusion, such as helium and, eventually, hydrogen. Jellal was one of these generational Evrans, and as such, was the subject of study for a handful of years whilst held in captivity.

The prison ship which held him passed through a highly volatile, atypical magnetic field, which disrupted their technology and caused a shipwide blackout. During this blackout, Jellal managed to escape using an emergency pod and assigned his landing to the nearest heavenly body.

After nearly a week of drifting through the dense vacuum of space, breaking two days' rations into smaller and smaller pieces, his pod finally met the surface of a kingdom-sized asteroid. An ostensibly abandoned Lythrum outpost lay a few miles from where he landed, so he mustered what little of his strength remained, and he suited up for the journey, expecting to scavenge more supplies. When he stumbled through the outpost, he was met with hostility from its occupants — Pyk'ryan Rebel Captain Ynxa and their crew.

Over time, Jellal proved his credibilty to Ynxa and their crew, and joined the Rebellion as an official member. Due to his Evran stature, he became one of their main suppliers, often sneaking into Coves and "borrowing" precious supplies — namely fuel and advanced technologies — from especially heinous fugitives to stoke his rebel faction.

Lythrum: A bipedal mammalian species most often known for their cruel and destructive nature. Most Lythrum have thick skin with short, fine fur in a range of red-yellow hues. Their ears are typically long and pointed, though they come in a range of shapes and sizes. They might be described as fox-like by humans.

Cove: An intergalactic black market typically found on asteroids or small heavenly bodies far outside of claimed star systems. These markets are unregulated and often avoided by Lythrum forces, but they are lawless wastelands wherein there is no true authority and no protection.

[dynmghts]

there are days where katsuki wishes he weren't plagued with consequence; awake at an unknown hour, his arm throbs unbearably, a burning sensation coming and going with every breath he takes, forcing a hiss through clenched teeth. left hand presses on elbow joint as a warm compress. with a slow sigh, red gaze blearily stares at the digital clock on his headboard.

2:18am, it blinks back at him. he groans. he hasn't slept at all.

slowly trudging out of his room with slippers, he fixes skull shirt with left hand, moving downward to the dorm's kitchen. he checks the cupboard first. no pain medication. he rummages through a few more, searching, grimacing when his arm flares and he turns up with nothing. nothing? how can they not have-

he seizes his phone from his pocket and stares at the number on the screen. nobody else would be awake. he would've been fine if he remembered to get more of his own powerful ass-kicking medication, but as it is...

katsuki swallows his pride and bites the bullet, typing with one hand.

[ text: aizawa-sensei. ] need your help [ text: aizawa-sensei. ] bad flare. got meds?

@keshimasu / ❤'d.

[strebcr]

❝Here, come eat something. It won't make it better, but it'll help.❞

"O-Oh, thanks..." Sterber really didn't expect to have lunch with the actual head of the public safety. Especially after only dealing with such a minor devil. But why though? He was just a random civilian, who just happened to get caught in the crossfires of a devil fight. The worst that happened to him was just a bad hit to the head! God if he had a nickel for everytime he nearly died beacuse of something related to a devil. HE'D HAVE TWO NICKELS! Which isn't a lot but shitty it happened twice! At least he didn't lose a limb this time.

Streber wasn't a devil hunter by any means, but he did have a few of them in his friend circles. He heard rumors about the head of public safety. She was prettier in person, but danm was she intimidating. She had a kind face but an oddly tense vibe about her. However she did help save his life, so it's best not to look a gift horse in the mouth! "T-Thanks for treating my wounds too, sorry I caused you guys trouble.."

[a-koschyei]

VER. THE RED SORCERER WILL WAKE THE SLEEPER & SILENCE THE BELLS

♔. synopsis : canon adjacent, mixing in elements of deathless and taking this verse as koschei's alt. tsar of life origin story. rewriting some details & emphasizing the undercurrent of the plot to reveal koschei faked his death in book 2 and was the mastermind behind the events of the series. he usurps medved, and becomes the new summer-demon towards the end of book 3. most plots can take place after the series, when he's on the brink of waging a war to take over medieval rus' and the other chyerti realms, particularly morozko's.

in the 11th cent. during the reign of vladimir the great, yuri, a polovtsian khan who plundered and traversed the entirety of the great steppes with his nomadic warriors, sacked a village near serbia and took a country girl as his wife. the girl's name was danika, and she belonged to a balkan line of witches & sorcerers who worshipped the giver, dazbog (the chyert of summer and tsar of life).

some time later, after confirming she had the ability to see the unseen chyerti, dazbog gave her his jewel, the alatyr stone. he promised to protect her so long as she wore it and did not let him fade from memory. when the time came, she was to pass it down to the youngest of her three sons. she only had two at the time.

that year, yuri led an unsuccessful attack against prince mstislav, son of vladamir. yuri was killed in combat, but danika and her sons were spared, though taken as slaves, under the condition that they assimilate and convert to christianity. danika converted, for the sake of her children and the unborn one she carried, but hid dazbog's jewel, wove him into her prayers and never forgot about the chyerti.

♔. the polovtsy / polovytsians. turkic nomadic warriors (aka the cumans). the name comes from the old slavic word for "blonde" "pale yellow" due to the color of their hair and/or their cream colored akhal-teke horses, known for their speed and golden metallic sheen. by the events of the book (14th cent.) the polovtsy fled from the mongol invasion of rus' to different countries, but many also joined the golden horde and became generally referred to as tartars, along w other turkic groups. (koschei's fairytale is based on a famous polovtsian, khan konchek) ♔. dazbog / medved. a slavic solar deity who resided in buyan but also the underworld. in the summer, he was a man in his prime, accompanied by wolves. in winter, he was a one-eyed old man who wore a bear skin during his hibernation in death's realm. canon doesn't say this explicitly, but medved is lame daba, aka dazbog after his demonization, which christianization (and koschei) caused. very few know him by his old name & nature. ♔. alatyr stone. in this verse, it's a red-gold jewel connected to dazbog's power and a gateway to buyan. it's his equivalent to the sapphire morozko passed to vasya. in book 2, it's the stone koschei uses as a decoy death.

i. three roads, three sons: koschei was born and raised in tmutarakan as a slave, serving first as a groom, then a farmhand, and when he came of age, he and his brothers were dragged into a war between princes for vladamir's throne. koschei's mother gave him dazbog's jewel hoping it would protect him, and it did, but during the winter march, his brothers were taken by the frost. in the spring when the war was in full bloom, koschei's contact with dazbog became more direct and frequent. he often carried him away from the brink of death in the battlefield in the spirit of a wolf to buyan, where he'd heal him, feed him, and teach him the art of war and magic.

eventually, dazbog aided koschei in deserting the war. during this time, he traveled the principalities around kiev freely, but the past, the threat of death and imprisonment, and the growing disdain for witches and sorcerers chased him out of every place he hoped to settle. he went to baba yaga's midnight country where he formed a romance with tamara and earned the favor of the golden mare and firebird, zornitsa, the fastest horse of yaga's flock. with her, koschei was able to outrun any threat or foe, and was carried to farther lands, away from kiev and the church bells.

♔. the golden mare / firebird : diverting from the book, koschei's mare is named zornitsa, the morning star, and she's the same in every verse. koschei wins her favor on his own, as he was a worthy rider at the start. later, he loses favor and that's when tamara & the golden bridle ( without spikes !! ) come into play.

ii. the wolf, the firebird, & the horse with a golden mane: he ended up in the newly founded village of moscow when it was still pagan, and was set on making his home there. ivan yurovich was the name he used to avoid recognition (given his growing reputation in kiev), and upon his arrival the lord offered him riches, land, and a seat at his table if he sold him his golden mare. koschei accepted, but used sorcery to transmute a wolf into the likeness of zornitsa, then asked her to hide in the wood in her firebird form.

the lord's sister, yelena tomislavna, had the gift of sight too. she caught on to the ruse, but kept koschei's secret. in time the two fell deeply for one another, but koschei was not a preferred match. he contrived a plan to have the lord spot the firebird during a hunt, and as he suspected, the lord promised yelena's hand to anyone who'd manage to catch it for him. koschei rose to the occassion, again presenting a wolf who simply forgot it was not a firebird, and the wedding was set.

♔. ivan yurovich : his birthname in this verse (see this post to dive into the rabbit hole). after his brothers' deaths, their nickname for him (due to his lankiness) continued to be his preferred name. he goes by koschei yurovich through his pre-immortal travels, then later koschei bessmertny. kasyan lutovich is the current alias. after his identity reveal he goes back to being referred to as koschei bessmertny. it's a name he's proud of, so if you ever call him ivan, it's on sight !!

iii. the midwinter feast : during their engagement celebration, morozko was an honorary guest, as it was his midwinter holiday too. he took great interest in yelena and had her tend to him the entire night, much to koschei's agitation and moscow's speculation. when the frost demon left, a panicked idea took root among the folk that yelena could not marry. she would need to be morozko's tribute for maslenitsa, the sunfeast, or else they'd face a late summer and risk another deadly famine. to escape the hysteria, koschei and yelena fled to a secret place tucked between realms in the midday road which koschei called yaichka for it's golden wheat fields that looked like a sea of yolk.

it was in that field, while koschei was stealing food from buyan, that the noon wraith, sent by dazbog, lured a lounging yelena into a trance and danced her into midnight and then back into moscow. when koschei found out, he and zornitsa raced through the midday road from buyan to moscow, but a devotee of dazbog could only find the middays of spring and summer. what felt like hours of riding were actually weeks. he arrived on winter's last sunset, through the red flash of the last day of the sunfeast, but the people of moscow had already strangled yelena in the snow and tossed her body into the sacrificial fire.

koschei begged morozko and dazbog to undo what the people had done, using the water of life and the water of death, but the twins refused to intervene with fate. herein laid the trappings of a secret war, where koschei set his heart towards revenge against the people of rus' and the twins who'd wronged him. for the moment, they were none the wiser. dazbog took koschei into buyan and continued to mentor him until he eventually used the knowledge to formulate a spell that would have him take dazbog's power and remove himself from death's reach so that he could confidently enact his revenge on the frost demon and people of rus'.

♔. the chains of the winter king : this feast was the memory vasya found morozko imprisoned in, and the man she saw was koschei ("ivan"). as tamara's sister later explains, kasyan's face is not koschei's real face which is why she did not immediately recognize him. so this is the first glimpse we get of him in the series. i'm establishing that koschei, working through medved, was responsible for the creation of this prison memory, but it was just that. a magical simulation on loop. no historical events could be changed by meddling.

iv. the golden bridle: zornitsa urged koschei against his plan, but he needed her speed to catch dazbog's chariot in his journey towards death's country, when he was most vulernable. he created a golden bridle that would bind zornitsa's will to his own. then he seduced tamara once more, and tricked her into placing the bridle on zornitsa. with the bridle on, koschei seized his opportunity and struck his fatal spell on dazbog just before he could reach morozko's country. but the spell was complex and too slippery for a human mind. they both tumbled into rus', and when koschei finally came to, he found himself immortal and alone, but not entirely successful.

v. lame daba : killing a dual natured god in one blow was impossible. in the fall, dazbog split in two: his primary form (the summer wolf) was killed and absorbed by koschei; but the winter bearskin of his hibernating form still remained, and koschei's spell had inadvertently reanimated the husk in the effort to make himself deathless. koschei's life force was removed from his body, but was stored in medved, the eater, whose mind and memory became a mangled and rotted version of dazbog's, tainted by koschei's essence and vision of him. medved then represented a mockery of life fueled by it's hardships and became the tsar of the upyr, the insatiable undead.

medved had no true recollection of his previous life and neither did anyone else. koschei then realized that to kill and usurp a god meant to erase them from memory, and when medved began to wreak havoc on rus', morozko imprisoned his brother with a murky recollection of the time before they were at odds. likewise, the world had an obscured recollection of koschei and who he was before -- but the witch women of midnight and the crossroad demons who had witnessed what he'd done remembered. they did not have the means to intervene, but yaga did cast out her daughter tamara, and shut all the roads of the chyerti realms to her and koschei so they could never come back.

vi. the tower of bones. now unable to reach buyan and the sleeping bear to retrieve his death and finish what he started, koschei set up camp in a place he called, bashnya kostei, the tower of bones. he offered tamara a place at his side, but she refused and left him. thus began the campaigns against the people of kievan rus' that inspired the tales of koschei the deathless. eventually, he took to keeping a lower profile, used sorcery and glamors to hide his rotting appearance, recruited the surrounding chyerti to do his bidding, and conjured scrying spells to keep morozko blind to his machinations and whereabouts.

vii. the bear & the nightingale. in dreams, koschei could sense any perturbances with medved given their inconvenient entanglement. after years of nothing, he saw a young girl with familiar green eyes and the gift of sight approach the bear at his clearing. if koschei could not get to buyan, he figured the sacrifice of a witch could summon medved into rus'. so he riled the bear awake in secret and planted the idea in his subconscious. the bear was successful, through the death of a different witch, but when he was foiled and bound again by the sacrifice of a father. koschei moved on to the back up plan: a counterspell to yaga's banishment using the alatyr stone, the red flash of the last winter sunset on maslenitsa, and the power charge of a witch from her bloodline.

book 2 & book 3. from here, we set up the events of book 2. koschei's core motive is a power grab, particularly for buyan and the chyerti. not knowing where vasya ran off to, he took on the alias of kasyan lutovich to infiltrate moscow and investigate vasya's remaining family there, hoping to find another witch/sorcerer with the sight who could charge and destroy the stone, thus "killing him" but really his body disintegrated and reappeared in the water of life in buyan, where he began to gather his own chyerti forces and used medved as a puppet & distraction in book 3 to buy himself time.

taking over moscow & destroying the bells was supposed to be an added treat that went a little haywire (understatement), but was not the primary goal. this was getting medved bound again at the right time while koschei was in buyan, getting his death back, hiding it somewhere else unknown, and merging with what remained of dazbog's power so he could become the new tsar of life. when vasya returns to the clearing seeking medved's aid, she finds his bearskin limp and koschei standing in his place. further notes & divergences can be discussed and/or will be posted as hcs.

[blackrosesmatron]

|| Continuing from Here @everybodysenemies

LeBlanc made herself comfortable on the couch of the greatest popstar of the moment. No need to ask how she got inside, it was not the first, nor it would be the last time Emilia did that.

"Me? I was shooting a new movie elsewhere. Secret project, I was under a contract to keep my mouth shut." That, of course, could not be the only reason why the woman' went MIA for so long. "That, plus spending time with a certain King." By the malicious grin on red painted lips, Evelynn knew her friend was not out on a new affair. "I have to keep things going, working as an actress is no excuse to fall back on my duties."

"Now, how about you? I have listened your latest song. Loved it to bites, it is certainly You! Are planning on starting a solo career?"

[eric-the-bmo]

flipping through the book of nod and i love how we’ve got like. vampire bible commandments. im so gonna use these as captions for art and just. ough /pos

[tumblestonesa]

"To further my field? I will do whatever it takes."

[i-remember-youaddie]

The whole Villains/Extra-Ordinary series would be so much shorter if Viccy boy had just given Eli a little smooch. A kiss on the lips. As a treat.

We didn't have to be villains

If I'd stolen your heart.

We could have been heroes

Or not had any part

In these grand schemes whatsoever.

It could have just been me and you

Forever.

[heavenlywine]

"My goodness, I had this nightmare that I shanked somebody while being totally nonchalant. That's wild, isn't it?" Akihito put a hand to his chest, as if the idea of murder has upset his delicate sensibilities. "I could never even hurt a fly."

[herstoriies]

Tell me that I’m not lost --

Oh Raven won’t you sing me a happy song?

You want me to be alone

Remind me of what is gone

Singing from dusk till dawn: Nevermore nevermore nevermore

Raven can you hear me?

Thought you loved me but you fooled me

You drove me to madness. No one here to witness

Vicious and relentless

A villain in a black dress Too late, I should have listened --

[mutherlessarch]

"Close your eyes and spare yourself the view."

" but i did this! " and it's enough. for hitoshi's brainwashing to wipe over isamu's mind like a cool towel on a fevered forehead. their mind blissfully blank for the first time since leaving home to pursue antagonism but now. it's selfish to back out now. she knows that. but is it selfish to give into the cool surrender of parental authority and familiarity that she has denied herself since izuku died two rotations prior.

the truth of the matter is, she is not a brave girl. isamu midoriya is a coward who wants to go home and hug her dad. to feel the cool sand of mustafu's beach under her toes and her siblings laughter at her ears. but she does not deserve that. she has destroyed. she has killed in order to prove her loyalty to a cause that has done nothing but get her friends killed and isolate her from family. which is core of the issue. impact wants to go home. because isamu is not cut out for what it takes to be impact.

her eyes do close. and she gets to be spared the worst of the gored shapes of her former team mates. hitoshi does not want her to see what's about to happen here. a chance to get her away from the carnage before it becomes something even more awful. all she has to do is stop fighting. she can go home the cool surrender tells her.

but i don't deserve it. she says again.

[itsumoegao]

❝  does this make you feel happy ?  be honest with me .  ❞ (nuravity for any quirkless villain verse)

heroes → enemies starters:

@nuravity

📗 With a scarlet mask covering half of his scarred face, an initial deadpan stare directed her way turned wide eyed. Did she really ask him that? Green eyes narrowed to a glare. "Are you serious?" Did it make him feel happy? Did the Ace of Clubs question his feelings about proving a point? Proving something the Black Swan had known deep inside but no one would listen to? The look in his eyes shifted to delight. "Of course it does." They briefly closed as his hand rose slowly. Just under the ear, fingers twirled around the elastic of the surgical mask, looping over his digits as he lowered the fabric from his mouth, revealing a largely spread grin. However, his sharp eyes warned this wasn't a sign of friendliness.

"Why do you think I smile every time I defeat another pro?"