#went through the betrayal from his adoptive family and his only aid through his life being the melusines who aren't human

[torgawl]

i keep thinking about how “is this what justice means to you, answer me neuvillette”, despite having been used in a case all those hundred of years ago, was probably a question that haunted - and still haunts - neuvilette during the entire time he has been chief of justice. i keep thinking about how they highlighted his struggles through time with both carole and wriothesley's trials. how guilty and powerless neuvillette must have felt for not being able to support and save those he recognised as vulnerable and victims before a system that corrupted their fates but that he wasn't able to change despite his position. the theme of being a casualty of a system no matter if you're the victim or the perpetrator in its eyes. the way neuvillette took, in both cases, things into his own hands. even if it was too late to fix the hurting carole and those who cared for her went through, even if it was too late to save her life; even if it was impossible to change wriothesley's past, his verdict and subsequent imprisonment; neuvillette went above and beyond, making use of his influence, to allow both melusines and wriothesley the opportunity of a better future - to melusines by making sure they weren't discriminated, to wriothesley by supporting his attempt at a second chance in life. i think part of the reason he's so intriguing is our awareness that this internal conflict he's bound to have is so complex. you have a chief of justice, or a judge, that is supposed to be imparcial and follow the law stictly confronted with situations of social injustice, unable to protect those who rely on him. you have someone who understands better than anyone what it means to be an outcast, being able to relate to those who are ostracised and have their pain weaponise against them. you have, in vautrin's case, a friend who cannot even showcase his own pain and is still expected to fullfil his juridical duties despite being personally related with those involved in the case. someone who people constantly turn to but whom he feels like he has no right to turn to himself. it's about the conflict between his feelings and his duty, between what's expected of him and what he can actually do. i think that's why the end of his story quest is so emotional and why it's so heartwarming to have him realise he isn't an outcast anymore, that he has a community there for him too. because a system is a system and he will probably never be able to save everyone, because yes he isn't human, but it doesn't mean he doesn't deserve to belong or that an active demonstration of love towards individuals and people he can relate to rather than the theoretical concept of humanity isn't meaningful. in fact, i'd it's a lot about that, about finding ways to be kind and how community gives meaning to life; how personal relationships and targeted kindness can shape society, or at least i think so

[little-starshark-with-wings]

Evangeline Alaida Astrophel of Ithica, Nixie and Alaida and Aether

Hi? I know im littles but ims part of bigger person? i thinks age regress? but I knows I 8 and names Evangelines? but hi?

i thinks i does oddessy, pjo rp? ion know… but i does?

Pronouns: She/Her/They/Them/It/Its

Nicknames: Eva, Veve, Starlight, Starshine, Little Dragon, Hatchling, Linlin, and Little star, Starry (all also said in other languages)

Species: Star Dragon

Age: 8 (4 in dragon)

Eva notes:

bleeds stardust.

the only star dragon that has feathered wings.

The only star dragon that has black hair others have white or silver hair. Her black hair does have speckles and streaks of silver, reminds me of a meteor shower tbh.

they look younger than they really are.

they look like a toddler despite being 8.

never grew up around or knew gods besides Nyx.

Does not know basic human things.

Now that her horns are broken and wings clipped she constantly bleeds stardust.

Stardust tastes like hopes and dreams.

sharp ass teeth.

dragons age is just half of their human age so she is 4 for dragons

the stars in her tail jingles like bells

Powers: not shown yet

Weapons: Who would give weapons to a child??

Parents: Unknown, Penelope of Ithica (Adoptive), Odysseus of Ithica (Adoptive)

Family: The royals of Ithica and whoever Penelope and Odysseus adopts.

Likes: The night sky, Whale Sharks her adoptive parents, her brother, the beach, NOT DROWNING, shinies, things that make a satisfying noise, plushies, crows, sea shells, giving people things, and flying

Dislikes: Why she doesn't remember, drowning, large bodies of water, her clipped wings, the fact she cant fly anymore, the feel of cut feathers, sirens, falling, heights, people that try to take her new family from them, and shoes (they cramp my feet...)

Why is she here?: Well, in my DID, shes practically a different timeline of me, a reflection of what happened if i didn't leave the sky quick enough, a reflection of betrayal and backstabbing that happened in my life. so to cope with trauma ahaha i need to see my therapist again- imma make it more of a story buckle up.

She was a star in the sky, one of the brightest as the star shined with her laughter and joy. Other stars, dim and bitter, resented the bright star. The more leather winged star dragons grew envious of the feathered hatchling, so when it was newly night, they clipped her wings. Without anything to hold her to the sky, to keep her afloat in the endless space, she fell to the ground, the poorly clipped wings doing nothing to aid her fast descent to the roaring seas below. She crashed into a wave, her horns cracking and breaking because of the pressure. The pain and force of the crash rendered them unconscious. The blood supply in the horn seeped as the now cracked horns provided an opening for rushing shells to cut the delicate skin of the blood supply. The silvery shimmering stardust spread through the water, attracting sirens. (we know they're birds in myth but the epic musical says evil fish ladies so i say evil fish ladies gods damnit also in the universe where she came from theres two types of sirens the birds and the fish ladies-) The stardust, the taste, the shimmering liquid new and exciting to sirens who only tasted the blood of mortals before. In an excited haste they cracked off the rest of the horns, scurrying away with their new snack in tow. The dragon sank further int the sea, her broken horns leaving a trail of stardust in her wake. The stardust, however, caught the attention of an ocean nymph, who took pity on the poor being. The nymph transformed into a whale shark, swimming under her and moving up, placing her on their back as they went to the surface. The whale shark surfaced, little Evangeline on their back as they swam to the nearest island, Ithica. The slow sail and salty wind woke the girl, but she had no energy to move. They laid on the back of the whale shark, clutching her head and wings, and just cried. The nymph placed the girl on the sands of Ithica, swimming away as the girl slowly walked to the civilization, curious of what it was. The streets of houses and markets confused the dragon who had only seen the vacant night expanse save for her fellow dragons, making her run in fear of the humans and noises. In her confusion and fear she ran to a lake with shiny rocks that caught her attention. Something, well someone, caught its attention too. Prince Telemachus. Instead of cowering in fear she picked up a shiny rock, and went up to the man that caught her attention. Well the rest is history I say. How she got adopted was also unconventional but hey, its Penelope. We don’t question Mrs. Penelope.

Eva facts: She loves whale sharks because of Nixie. Does not know who Poseidon is but hates him because Odysseus, Penelope, and Telemachus hates him. Learns curses because a certain merc with a mouth is jumping universes. She collects anything that is shaped like stars. has night vision. will follow shinies and get lost while following said shiny. she ate bees before. scared of bees now. hates shoes bc her feet feel cramped. forced to wear them. she is represented by Wind chimes, Kalimba, And a steel tongue drum. since her fall a nymph spirit helps her out

[inky-duchess]

Court Archetypes: The Dynasty

Royal families are just one big chain of flaws and strengths. All dynasties have their issues. When writing your royal and noble families in your fantasy works, it is best to study some archetypical royal families.

The Wealthy

Some dynasties keep their power by money, splashing the cash in ways their counterparts cannot.

The Medici: The Medici began as simple bankers. Through the years they rose through the ranks, from merchant class to obtaining power in the Florence government and then becoming one of the most powerful families in Italy, perhaps Europe. The Medici remained at the forefront of all arts and finance, as well as intrigue. They were the richest banking family, backing other dynasties and kingdoms in their ventures.

House of Romanov: The Romanovs were a relatively unknown noble family until the reign of Ivan the Terrible. When Ivan died without an heir, the nobles of Russia chose young Michael Romanov to be the new king. The Romanovs were autocrats, building a vast empire on the backs of serfs and their expansive powers. Some Romanovs were brilliant (Catherine the Great, Peter the Great, Alexander II, Elizabeth I, Alexander I) and some less so (Nicholas I, Nicholas II, Peter III, Paul I). But all were fucking loaded. The Romanovs were the richest royal family for many generations. Their palaces were the grandest and their jewels were to die for. The Romanovs came to a violent end in the Russian Revolution, for a list of reasons but chief among them being the extravagant and lavish lifestyle they had lived while Russia suffered.

The Treacherous

You can choose friends but not your family. Some families backstab each other so much its a wonder their arms don't present as a bloody dagger.

Ptolemy: The House of Ptolemy was founded by the Macedonian general Ptolemy, friend and some say half brother to Alexander the Great. When Alexander died, his generals divided up the empire. Ptolemy was granted Egypt. The Ptolemys wed one another for centuries, uncle to niece, sister to brother, daughter to father. The Ptolemys were a treacherous bunch. They betrayed one another for the crown, murdered family members. Just look at the last four monarchs of the dynasty. Blood, incest, betrayal, fratricide, suicide, battles, beheadings. It's Game of Thrones on acid.

House Of York: The House Of York ruled over England for 25 years. Edward IV had two brothers, George and Richard. They had a cousin called Warwick, the Kingmaker. Edward married a woman not of Warwick's liking. Warwick deposed Edward, marrying his daughter to George. When the nobles refused to make George king, Edward regained the throne. In a second effort, Warwick and George crossed over to the enemy House of Lancaster. Warwick wed his daughter to the Prince Edward of Westminster. George betrayed Warwick and went back to his brothers, leaving Warwick to die on the battlefield. George was constantly betraying Edward, even hiring a wiseman to predict Edward's death. George was drowned in a vat of wine. Edward died a few years later and Richard became protector of the kingdom, Regent for the young princes. He seized the throne for himself, disobeying his brother's last wishes.

Julio-Claudian Dynasty: To say the Julio-Claudians were treacherous would be an understatement. The Roman Emperors were volatile. Even the wise Augustus is no exception, having exiled his owned daughter because she was promiscuous. His adopted son Tiberius may have poisoned him as well as the much loved . Tiberius then imprisoned Germanicus's wife and let her starve to death. He then murdered all but one of the sons of Germanicus. Tiberius then adopted the boy, Caligula. Caligula then may have had Tiberius smothered. Caligula then had the other nephew of Tiberius killed. Caligula was killed by his guards and his uncle Claudius became Emperor. Claudius then named his stepson Nero as heir after his son Britannicus was poisoned possibly by Nero or his mother, Agrippina. Claudius was then poisoned and Nero ascended the throne. Nero chafed at his Mother's influence had tried to kill her by sinking her ship. When she crawled ashore, a guard was sent to kill her. Nero was driven to suicide.

The Unhappy Family

Some royal dynasties are nothing more than unhappy families. Whether it be strained relationships between parents and children or between siblings, some families do not get along.

Plantagenet: The Plantagenets were never a happy family. Begin at the start. Henry II married Eleanor of Aquitaine and they had five sons. Henry II fought with his sons over ceding over any control over the empire. The sons went to Henry's enemy for help in their rebellion. Eleanor rode to join them but was captured. She was held prisoner until Henry died. Later down the line we have Richard II who was a bit of a tyrant. He hated his nobles and made their life hell. He had one uncle killed and conspired against his cousins. While he was in Ireland, his cousin Henry Bolingbrook stole his throne (haha serves the dickhead right. Karma is a bitch dickie). Henry imprisoned Richard in a cell where he starved to death.

House Of Windsor: Was there ever a dynasty with such destructive tendancies as Windsor? First we have George V who argued with his son David. David loved an American divorcee named Wallis Simpson and was not exactly the model royal. When he ascended the throne as Edward VIII, he gave it up to marry his love leaving his brother Albert or George VI to be king. George died after the strains of WWII and the remainder of the royal family blamed David for his death. Elizabeth II ascended the throne. Princess Margaret loved a palace aide and asked to marry him. The Church refused to allow the wedding to go ahead and allow Princess Margaret to keep her royal status. In the end, Margaret chose her royal status. She later went on to have an unhappy marriage with Anthony Armstrong-Jones. Elizabeth II's eldest son Charles loved an unsuitable woman, Camilla and was pressured into marrying a more appropriate bride, Diana. The marriage was terrible and they divorced. The cycle of unhappy marriages and family relations still play out before us even today.

House Of Hanover: The House Of Hanover never got on. George I imprisoned his wife for infidelity and fought with his son because he was more popular and stole his children. George II fought with his son and daughter in lawn. George III went mad and had to suffer his sons. George IV shagged and ate his way through the kingdom as Regent, before becoming king at sixty. His daughter died, the last legitimate heir. His brothers married to sire an heir, only producing one, Victoria. Victoria fought with her son, blaming him for her husband's death. The Hanoverians had issues.

The Incestuous & Problematic

These are the houses that have serious issues. As opposed to the last heading, these families love each other a little too much.

House Of Hapsburg: The Hapsburgs didn't begin as incestuous. As their empire began to stretch across Europe covering most of the German and Austrian states as well as Spain, they began to wed the two branches of the House together, the Austrian and the Spanish. These uncle-niece and first cousin-first cousin marriages resulted in deformity. Children born of these incestuous matches were stricken with the infamous jaw deformity, the Hapsburg jaw which made the lower half of the mouth stick out.

House Of Borgia: The Borgias may or may not have had an incestuous relationship between two of its scions, Lucrezia and Cesere. It was rumoured that the brother and sister pair were sleeping together and even more ludicrously rumoured that Lucrezia was banging her own father Pope Alexander VI. It was likely just slander. The Borgias were infamous for their affairs with poisons. Lucrezia alone was rumoured to carry the famous poison Canterella in a ring on her finger, being able to poison any unsuspecting victim. Cesere is rumoured to have killed his younger brother Juan or at least had him killed. The Borgias were a powerhungry and driven bunch, so all these rumours stuck like glue.

[samuraifacts]

The Oda Clan After Honnō-ji

 As a fan of Japanese history, the owner of a Japanese history blog, and the owner of a samurai themed roleplay website I get asked about Japanese history quite a bit. Aside from “Who is your favorite unifier?” and “Who would you side with at Sekigahara?” I think the question I get asked frequently is “What happened to the Oda after Nobunaga’s death?” so today I want to dive into it.    Obviously talking a family’s entire history is difficult and we have to specify what we are talking about here. Now, when some people say Oda Clan they mean Nobunaga’s entire military force. The Oda family, the Maeda, the Shibata, Niwa, Toyotomi, all of the combined forces. We are going to cover those families a bit but not in depth as they all had their own separate fates. Primarily I want to focus on the following list of people 1. Oda Nobunaga - The man himself. He needs no introduction. 2. No/Kicho - Nobunaga’s wife and the daughter of Saito Dosan. 3. Oda Nobutada -  Nobunaga’s eldest son. The heir apparent. 4. Oda Nobukatsu -  Nobunaga’s second son. The survivor.  5. Oda Nobutaka -  Nobunaga’s third son. Full of Oda Pride. 6. Oda Hidekatsu -  Nobunaga’s fourth son. A victim of fate. 7. Oda Katsunaga - Nobunaga’s fifth son. We don’t know much about him. 8. Oda Hidenobu - Nobutada’s son. Nobunaga’s grandson.    Now, Nobunaga did have daughters but sadly their fates don’t really tie into the fate of the Oda Clan as a whole as they had all been married off so we won’t be discussing them in great detail. We also won’t be discussing the three daughters of Nobunaga’s younger sister Oichi. I will, however, encourage you to look up Nobunaga and his family members. They are fairly interesting people.    Since this is focusing on the clan after Honnō-ji let's talk about the event itself and check some of those names off of our list. The Honnō-ji Incident itself happened in 1582 in Kyoto. Nobunaga’s retainer Akechi Mitsuhide surrounded the temple of Honnō-ji that Nobunaga was staying at and his troops burned the temple to the ground causing the death of Nobunaga, several soldiers, and many of Nobunaga’s family and persona guard. Not one to leave his fate in the hands of others it is believed that during the siege of Honnō-ji, instead of letting the enemy take his head Nobunaga instead committed seppuku. Some people that it was his retainer Mori Ranmaru that acted as his second.   Next we have his beloved wife lady Kicho. Sadly Japanese history doesn’t keep good account of the fate of women in the Sengoku Period but we can guess at her fate. Some people theorize she may have broken the siege at  Honnō-ji and went to Tokugawa Ieyasu, or Toyotomi Hideyoshi, for help. Sadly this is unlikely. As you will discover later in this post if Hideyoshi had Nobunaga’s wife relying on him for protection he would have used that to his advantage and we would have countless records of her presence. Ieyasu would likely be the same. Some theories even say she ran all the way to Mino to hide but again, her ability to move out of the Akechi siege seem unlikely. More than likely she died with her husband. During this battle Nobutada (1st son) and Katsunaga (5th son) would also be killed fighting to protect their father. Nobutada’s death is the important thing here as he was Nobunaga’s eldest son.

  After Honnō-ji the traitor general Akechi Mitsuhide would be killed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. At this point Nobunaga’s forces would stop trying to expand his area of control and the Oda lands and retainers split between Oda Nobukatsu (2nd son) and Oda Nobutaka (3rd son). It was during this split that Toyotomi Hideyoshi summoned Nobunaga’s sons and retainers together. At this meeting, now known as “The  Kiyosu Kaigi” or “The Kiyosu Accords”, Hideyoshi declared that neither son would control the Oda. Instead the Oda clan’s lands would be split among it’s retainers and the Oda clan heir would actually be the young baby Oda Hidenobu, the son of Nobunaga’s first son Nobutada. Of course, since he was just a baby, Hideyoshi would then appoint himself as young Hidenobu’s regent and thus now be in control of the Oda clan. This made Shibata Katsuie, Nobunaga’s prized general and husband of his sister Oichi, declare war on Hideyoshi while backing  Nobutaka (3rd son) to be the next ruler of the Oda. Nobukatsu chose to back Hideyoshi in exchange for keeping some of the Oda Clan lands. Hideyoshi would end up winning this war and Katsuie, as well as Nobunaga’s beloved sister Oichi, would die. His only backing Oda Elder now dead Nobunaga’s third son Nobutaka would be forced to live the rest of his life in exile and history would lose track of him.   This leaves only a few people left on our list. Nobukatsu (2nd son), Hidekatsu (4th son), and Hidenobu (grandson). Since we haven’t brought him up yet let's talk about Hidekatsu. I have named him Oda HIdekatsu here to show his relation to Nobunaga but actually his name was Hashiba Hidekatsu! The young man who held Oda Nobunaga’s memorial tablet at his funeral was actually Hideyoshi’s adopted son. He sided with Hideyosh to defeat Mitsuhide, and even joined Hideyoshi in defeating Katsuie. Sadly we don’t know much about him. Though we do believe he died only a few years after Nobunaga. Many rumors say that he may have been killed by Hideyoshi himself in an attempt to solidify his control over the remnants of the Oda Clan and to make sure the boy wouldn’t be a challenge. This leave us with two Oda men left. The Second Son Nobukatsu and the Grandson Hidenobu. As Hideyoshi took complete control of what was once the Oda domain Nobukatsu turned to Ieasyu to aid him in regaining the Oda Clan’s lost glory. Sadly Ieyasu lost at the great battle of Komaki and Nagakute. This forced the Tokugawa to become subservient to the Toyotomi and after a complete souring of their relations Nobukatsu was forced to become a monk.   Near the end of his life, however, Hideyoshi seemed to forgive Hidekatsu and restored some of the Oda’s lands to him. Meanwhile the infant Hidenobu stayed with Hideyoshi. However, soon after this Hideyoshi would pass away and Tokugawa Ieyasu rose up to claim Japan as his own. This would cause the battle of Sekighara in 1600. At this time Nobukatsu became the Guardian of Hideyoshi’s son Hideyori while Hidenobu was put in charge of protecting Gifu Castle. Gifu was the home castle of the Oda Clan and startioned near the Tokugawa’s territory. At the Tokugawa forced advanced on Toyotomi lands Gifu fell easily to Ieyasu and all of Hidenobu’s retainers committed suicide. However, Hidenobu himself was not killed nor told to commit sepuku. Things get a bit fuzzy here for the young man but it is believed he died five years later in 1605.    This leaves Oda Nobukatsu, Nobunaga’s second son, as the final survivor on our list. After everything Hideyoshi had done in order to take over the Oda clan and it’s territories I’m sure some people find it strange that after their falling out Nobukatsu would come back, serve the Toyotomi, and even be the guardian of Hideyoshi’s son. In many ways Oda Hidenobu’s life was the life of a survivor who did what he felt he needed to in order to live through the time period. This would hold true at the final clash of the Toyotomi and Tokugawa forces at the Siege of Osaka in 1615.  in 1615, he would betray the Toyotomi clan and surrender to Tokugawa Ieyasu. Because of this betrayal he would end up doing better than most of the Toyotomi clan and it’s loyalists. Nobukatsu was allowed to be a provincial lord during the Edo period. Not only would he live the rest of his life in relative comfort in a Japan no longer at war but would make sure that the Oda clan continued on through the generations. In fact, Nobukatsu’s bloodline goes all the way up to modern times! His descendant Oda Nobutoshi, and Nobutoshi’s son, Oda Suemaru actually acted as provincial lords at the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1868! Today, many people can be found in Japan who can trace their family lines directly back to Oda Nobunaga through Nobukatsu’s family line. While Oda Nobukatsu is seen as kind of a bad general, a coward, and an opportunist. However, it isn’t a stretch to say that through the efforts of Nobukatsu the Oda Clan survive to this very day!     I covered a lot of time with this post and several major meetings, figures, and battles. I really hope you guys will check out the hyperlinks I’ve put in this post and take it upon yourselves to learn more about these amazing topics! While Wikipedia certainly isn’t the best source for verified academic info it is a great place to start and to get general ideas of people, events, etc. so go ahead and check them out! Have a great night everyone, and stay safe!

[theleoprotectionsquad]

Betrayal

Leonardo pov.

"You're really are an idiot, baby blue" a voice I knew all to well, I swiftly turned to see, the spider yokai,  walking straight toward me, her heels clicking with each step. A small hissing noise rose in my throat as she grew closer,  "now, now turtlely boo, your trapped under that rubble, no need to be aggressive " she states with a evil grin. She then let out a chuckle,  while pulling out a small mirror " and it's not like your brothers will save you, after all their to busy escaping to even think about you" she then showed the reflection side of the mirror, which showed,  Raphael holding his sword and opening a portal and jumping through with the others. She then took the mirror and placed it back in her pocket, then looking up with a kind smile. "Sorry baby blue, but I think it's time for you to forget about them......and join me." I stared down at the floor with tears threatening to fall, I couldn't think straight.but it didn't matter as I slowly raised my head to meet her eyes.  I nodded "ok, I will join you but...." I stopped and looked at my leg that was trapped under a pile of rocks and cement blocks " I can't exactly move" I said barely above a whisper she stared for�� a moment before turning around and started walking away " stay here turtlely boo, I will be back"she called back, I sighed, not like i could go anywhere,  minutes past one after another, I kept hoping for a portal to arrive and my brothers would save me and everything would go back to normal,  but.....in the back of my mind I kinda knew that I was now alone. The silence was deafening, but what could I do, I'm helpless.  In the distance i could  hear the soft clicking of heels, and another footsteps that sounded hard and sturdy,  who ever it is they were large in size. The sound started to grow, with each passing minute.  My eyes closed, waiting....."OOOHH~ turtlely boo!" Big mama's voice echoed, as she stood a couple feet away and behind her was a dog yokai, gus. "Hey um, ma isn't that one of those turtles? " she turned to gus with a dramatic flare " yes he is, and I need him, so be a dear and free his leg, please. " gus, raised his hand to his head in salute " of course big mama" he then quickly walked to my trapped leg, gently pushing away the rubble. As much as it was uncomfortable to be near the huge yokai, but I didn't have enough energy to try and get away from him, plus I already told big mama that I would join her, so what's the point? 20 or so minutes passed before gus had gotten my leg free. He then went back to big mama, while I tried to stand up right, thankfully my leg wasn't broken, and that I could stand, from the look of it, it's just badly strached up. " can you walk?" Big mama looks at my leg in concern, I took a step forward , it hurt but not to badly, i looked back at her and nodded. She thinks for a second before nodding back "all right but if the pain becomes worse  tell me I can't have my champion, loose a leg now come with me we have much to do" she smiled before turning to walk away while gus follows, as I do the same

                        3 years later

The crowd went wild as I sliced off the head of my challenger, I looked up at my mother, big mama, she down and nodded with approval.  I made my way out the arena and to the medical room where my best friend sat, alopex, she was beautiful white artic fox with purple face paint around her eyes to make it look like a mask, and as soon as she caught sight of me, she sighed "really Lee, again do you have  have to play around, while fighting " I chuckle and put on a large smile " me playing around? That doesn't sound like me". She crossed her arms and looked at me with a 'you act like you aren't my best friend' face "hey don't blame me if you get your self killed " she says as she punches the top of my head. My hand instantly goes to my head " ow what the hell aloe, that hurt" she pushed me into a chair and grabs her first aid kit, "that's the point " she says while laughing,  the next couple minutes is just fixing me up, which means I have to stay silent because I- and quote " when you talk you distract me ". Just as she finishes up the door whips open and big mama stands in the door way, alopex stands up quickly and bows, then goes back to working on her computer. "My son I have mission for you, since you are familiar with topside. I need you to receive something for me, " I nod signaling for her to continue " do you remember how I made a truce with your "brothers"? I tensed at the mention of them "yes I remember you made the truce two weeks ago," she smiled and thought for a moment "draxum who now lives with them has something for me and I need you to go get it for me, will you do that for me my son?" I stayed silent for a moment before looking at alopex, then back at mother " I will only if alopex comes with me" alopex spits out her coffee and glares at me, big giggles and claps her hands a little "splendid , you and alopex will receive the thingamobobble from draxum and your mission will be over, I send you the location " she quickly turns with excitement and quickly walks away

Two hours later

I softly landed on rooftop , both alopex and me had cloaks, since it was a bit chilly and that way "they" wouldn't realize it was me. I jumped into the air and landing on the rooftop, I looked at the location that big mama had given me and It was just two rooftops away, I looked up and in the distance I could make out five figures in the darkness of night," hey....you ready?" I heard alopex say in soft voice. I sighed "ready as I'll ever be" I chuckled back, as i jumped onto the last two rooftops and landed a couple feet away from the figures.  Alopex was right behind me, she stepped in front of me " big mama sent us" she spoke in a stern voice,  draxum looked unimpressed " and who exactly are you two, her minions,." The three turtles smirked and chuckled at that statement. Alopex looked back at me, and nodded, she turned back to face draxum and the others " no.. I'm her medic" she says as she pulls down her hood, on her cloak " and this is her son " she says pointing to me. They all look at me before busting out laughing saying things like, big mama has  son, he is  so tiny though,  and other things.... I let out small growl, through gritting teeth, aloe  noticed this "she adopted him, after his family abandoned him...." as soon as she said that silence echoed through the city, before  Raphael spoke up " hehe, sorry kid we didn't mean to offend you or anything " he said with nervousness coating his voice,  I scoffed, while pulling down my hood "are you now ~" they all stared at me in shock for what it seems like forever " blue... your alive how is this possible red told me that you-" I rose my hand to silence him "what that I died, last time I checked that's not how it went, what I remember was......HE LEFT ME TO FUCKING DIE" I snarled at them. " if it wasn't for big mama I would be,  so I own her my life for so that why I'm here to get an item from draxum and transport to her, and that's what I will do so draxum hand it over." He nodded handing a small box to me, I turned around to alopex " open the portal  we are leaving " I ordered.  "My son please wait, don't leave please you can come back home and we can be a family again,  please just don't go " splinter begged. I turned my head towards him and sneered " and go back with that monster " I gestured towards Raphael "NEVER" I turned and walked through the portal, and as the portal closed, I could hear the sound of my father's voice begging me to stay.....what a betrayal

(P.m)

[petrovabled]

[ NINA DOBREV. 18/544+. female ] was that just KATHERINE PIERCE, I saw walking down the streets of New Orleans? The VAMPIRE is known to be +CONFIDENT, but SHE could also be -TWISTED and can be best described by RED LIPSTICK, BLOOD STAINED HANDS, AND MOON STONES

BASICS

full name: katherine pierve/ katerina petrova. age: 18/544 date of birth:  june 5th species: vampire hair colour: brown eye colour:: brown

BIOGRAPHY

Katherine Pierce, born as Katerina Petrova, was a witch born in Bulgaria. She was one of the travelers, and is the second known Petrova Doppelgänger of Amara.  She is the mother to Nadia Petorva, who she only met during her birth. 

In 1490, she was disowned by her father because she brought shame upon her family after giving birth to a baby girl out of wedlock when she was seventeen. She was forced to give the baby up for adoption and then was then exiled to England. She quickly assimilated into English culture and met two nobleman brothers, Niklaus and Elijah Mikaelson. At first, she was attracted to both men, but in time, she eventually learned that she was a Petrova doppelgänger and that Klaus was planning on using her as a sacrifice in order to break the curse that bound his werewolf side. She sabotaged his plan by running away with the moonstone, which bound the curse, and then tricked Rose into feeding her vampire blood so she could turn herself into a vampire. Because Katherine was no longer human, her blood no longer was a viable component of the ritual to undo the curse. Klaus was so infuriated with Katherine's sabotage, that she was forced to live on the run for over 500 years as he hunted her down.

After this, Katerina took the alias "Katherine Pierce" (an anglicized version of her birth name) and eventually met and befriended Pearl, Anna, and Emily Bennett. In the late 19th century, she traveled to Mystic Falls, where she met Stefan and Damon Salvatore, whose family hosted her at the Salvatore Estate. She later fell in love with both brothers, and subsequently fed them her blood, resulting in their eventual transitions into vampires after they were killed by their father in early autumn of 1864. When the Founder's Council found out the identities of the vampires in town, she faked her death and escaped being sealed in the tomb with the aid of George Lockwood, who helped her in exchange for the moonstone.

During the twentieth century, she continued to keep tabs on Stefan while still hiding from Klaus, including two separate sightings in Chicago in the 1920s and the 1980s. In 2010, she came back to Mystic Falls with the intention of finally earning her freedom from Klaus by handing over the Petrova doppelgänger who came after her, Elena Gilbert. To sweeten the potential deal with Klaus, she killed Caroline Forbes, who had Damon's blood in her system and later transitioned into a vampire, and tricked Mason and Tyler Lockwood into triggering their werewolf curses, just so they could each also serve as the vampire and werewolf sacrifices necessary in the ritual. She even tracked down the moonstone so that she could give Klaus every component necessary to break his curse. However, when her plans ultimately fell through, she fled Mystic Falls again shortly after Klaus broke his hybrid curse on his own, knowing that he was not done punishing her for her betrayal half a millennium ago.

After failing to induce Klaus' forgiveness by securing the cure and handing it over to Elijah in , Katherine managed to draw Klaus away from Mystic Falls by revealing to him in a letter that a witch in New Orleans named Jane-Anne Deveraux was plotting against him. Once Klaus and Elijah officially returned to New Orleans, Katherine moved back to Mystic Falls, confident that the Mikaelsons would be too preoccupied with their complications there to pay any attention to her.

In later months, Katherine initiated a violent fight with Elena, believing that Elena got the life that Katherine deserved. Just as she was about to rip her descendant's heart out of her chest, Elena forced the cure down Katherine's throat, which resulted in Katherine returning to a human/Traveler for the first time in over 500 years.

Following these events, she went on the run for the summer, but when she realized that her return to humanity made her vulnerable to all of the various supernatural enemies she had made over the centuries, she returned to Mystic Falls, hoping to sweet-talk Stefan and Damon into giving her their protection. However, she was forced to flee again when the immortal Silas came looking for her at the Salvatore Boarding House and tried to kill her. Silas later revealed to Damon that Katherine's blood became the cure after she had ingested it, which is why he wanted Katherine so he could cure himself and die so he could be reunited with his true love in the afterlife. She ran from him for weeks, but eventually, Damon helped Silas lure Katherine to the house and fed him her blood, which turned him back into a witch.

Though Katherine should have died after Silas completely drained her of blood, Katherine's survivor instincts won out, and she managed to live through the attack. Unfortunately for Katherine, she learned shortly afterward that having the cure removed from her bloodstream had caused her body to start rapidly aging in order to compensate for the 500+ years she had been "alive" as an immortal vampire. Not ready to die, her daughter Nadia reminded her that as the daughter of a Traveler, Katherine had the magical powers necessary to become a Passenger in someone else's body. She ultimately cast the Passenger spell on her deathbed to transfer her spirit into Elena's body, with help from Nadia and a Traveler named Mia. After the gang discovered this, Stefan stabbed her with the Traveler Knife, expelling her from Elena's body, but not before Katherine made amends with a dying Nadia. Upon learning she was denied entry to the Other Side, and therefore also denied a reunion with her daughter, she was dragged by unseen forces into what is presumed to be a hell of some kind.

It was revealed that Katherine was sent to Hell where she manipulated Arcadius since the minute she was sent there. She eventually returned became an ally of Kai Parker and after Cade's death and became the queen of Hell. Shortly after, she was killed by the Mystic Falls Gang after Bonnie sent hellfire back to hell while Katherine was there. Hell was destroyed and Katherine's fate remain unknown, either she was destroyed with hell or moved on and found peace.

Katherine's notable ancestors include Amara, who was Silas' true love and presumably the world's first immortal woman, and Tatia, whose blood was involved in the creation of the adapted spell of immortality that was cast on the Mikaelson Family by Esther, as well the curse that bound Klaus' werewolf side. She is also the maternal ancestor of Isobel Flemming and that of Isobel's biological daughter, Elena Gilbert. She was once the romantic interest of Stefan and Damon Salvatore, as well as Mason Lockwood. Since the late 15th century, she has also been the romantic interest of Elijah, with whom she was involved in the 21st century until he effectively ended their relationship by leaving to join his half-brother, Klaus, in New Orleans.

[leviiackrman]

Introducing my latest OCs:

Rob Young: Pinterest | Faceclaim

Sakiya: Pinterest | Faceclaim

Rob is an old uncharted oc I never fully fleshed out (until now!) and Sakiya is my new earthbending baby!

More info under the cut (i apologise, theres a lot of info/context for sakiya...):

Rob Young:

is best friend to J. Drake’s father, being around often when she was little until becoming her mentor later in life (also her godfather)

is the reason she got out of Panama (he bailed her out after tracking down her runaway ass)

helped to guide/train her (left that mostly to lara tho - and yes I like to think uc and tr are in the same universe, lara and nate would NOT get along to begin with)

works as the ‘informant’ in the treasure hunting business - knows the contacts and finds the jobs for everyone basically (including jess + charlie)

old friends with one Victor Sullivan - though they but heads often on how to do things ‘properly’

runs an underground bar where he conducts his ‘fortune hunting’ business, yknow, totally legal stuff...

likes to think hes classy enough for a suit - ‘the business man’ aesthetic,m but then wears dirty jeans/old leather jackets that smell of ash over the top so hes still ‘down with the cool kids’

doesn’t have a family or kids but considers jess his adoptive daughter - later grows to like sam too but deffo does the whole ‘im the dad, i will kill you’ thing

prefers being the ‘stay behind’ type during jobs - leaves his office only if necessary but enjoys a good adventure

is scary to his employees to keep the reputation up, but has the best sense of humour and cuddles

hes about 6′4, so can be intimidating - even to the gangly fucker that is sam

shaved his head when he was younger to be ‘cool’ (*cough* more like more streamlined... *cough*) but soon went bald anyway so it didn’t phase him

is the definiton of ‘bad grandpa’ to jess + sam’s kids - deffo didn’t give tobin a switch blade for his 6th bday...

Sakiya (translates to ‘cherry blossom growing’ in Japanese):

father Chozu was a part of the fire nation military (and experienced fire bender), mother Kaiya was a civilian earthbender from a small village in the earth kingdom

parents met during a patrol, her father was instructed to monitor the village for a few weeks and soon fell in love with her mother

kaiya used a carved staff to channel her earthbending, later teaching sakiya a few tricks with it - and later giving it to her

to keep her safe, he thought that bringing her willingly back to the fire nation would be safest - ‘right under their noses’ as it were... he was wrong...

years pass and they have Sakiya, raised as tho she were fully fire nation

mother worked as a handmaiden in the royal palace

she began bringing Sakiya with her to work to keep her out of trouble, where she later met Zuko and Azula - their mother encouraging she be a friend for Zuko while Azula played with Mai and Ty-Lee

grew friendly with the group over the years, eventually sneaking her pet puma Hayami with her for their play dates (at the other kids request)

hayami loosly translates to ‘rare and unusual beauty’ in Japanese, due to her abnormal puma size and powerful roar - she ain’t a normal puma if ya catch my drift

Azula grew frustrated with her preferring to be best friends with Zuko, and so out of jealously when Sakiya was 12, she discovered her families secret

Chozu was arrested and sentanced to death for his betrayal, while Kaiya was poisoned in their home, later discovered to be by a hired assassin of Azula’s doing

Sakiya was arrested while at the palace (in front of Zuko mind you) and taken into prison where she was interigated (whipped with fire on her back basically, to put it bluntly)

later covered her scars with tattoo engravings of a cherry blossom tree

Hayami - not being your average puma - helped her escape and brought them both to the earth kingdom

kept herself safe by cutting her hair off and running into the woods after being pursued by A LOT of assassins and bounty hunters

found a collection of ‘Elders’ - a group of older woman living in the canopies of the forrest - using the resources around them to survive + make poisons

they taught her how to balance herself emotionally, channeling her wisdom and tranquility into her earth bending skills

had taken her mothers staff with her upon her escape and so utilised her unique bending technique

they also named her Shen (loosly translating to ‘spiritual’ + ‘deep thinking’ in Chinese - to erase her past)

spent 3 years with the ‘Elders’ before leaving the safety of their camp as word of the Avatar’s return spread

saught out team avatar to aid them, proving she could help them through the guidance and wisdom she shared - also her earthbending but she’d prefer to resolve things without using it

she and Toph grew v close - their mix of personalities proving opposites do attract and they were practically besties

also assumed Zuko was involved in her families fall, so held a quiet grudge when he reoccured often in their adventures

saught him out at one point when she heard he was banished but was only faced with his anger - didn’t help the sitch much huh?

didn’t last v long tho as they grew close again when he joined the team

has a new family with team avatar and travels with them often

zuko taught her how to dance because she’s a monk of sorts, so she never knew how

has never seen snow before so katara was keen to show her

later also becomes chancellor to zuko when he becomes fire lord! because besties!!

whole other plot line of how her staff was techincally cursed with a ‘defence’ spell by her mum to keep her safe when she used it but backfired when she activated as it used her tranquility against her, releasing all the anger she surpressed over the years

general point - has never really been attracted to anyone and so never saught out romance, she was content with what she has which is her found family and amazing pet puma *heart eyes*

[soulmate-game]

Crack One shot

Soulmates were real, but there was no universal type of bond. The only agreed upon fact was that everyone only had one soulmate, and that was whatever that person needed most in life. If what they needed most was a romantic partner, their soulmate would be romantic. If they needed family or a lifelong friend more, then that would be the bond they would have. It could show up in any way, some more common than others but many unique to that pair or trio of soul bonded individuals.

Marinette had arrived in Gotham last week. She had won the Wayne Enterprises International Scholastic Competition for her and her class, the reward for which included a month long trip to Gotham. Three of those weeks would be spent in Gotham Academy during the week, with the weekends spent in personalized internships with Wayne Enterprises employees.

Except Marinette, who as the winner of the competition, got her internship with Bruce Wayne and Tim Drake themselves.

And after finding out that Robin was her romantic soulmate on her first night in Gotham? She was really hoping this internship would go smoothly without any life altering discoveries.

Someone needed to flick Tikki for not giving her enough good luck though, because that did not happen.

Marinette thought stumbling through her and Robin’s game-styled Bond would be more than enough confusion and complication for at least the rest of the year for her. But no. No, of course not. Because when she met Bruce Wayne at his manor for their first official day of internship on Saturday, nine days after arriving in Gotham City, she shook the billionaire’s hand for the first time.

And when their hands connected, the only thing in either of their favor is the fact that Alix had turned down the invitation to come with Marinette and therefore the only other people in the mansion were Bruce’s family (including Alfred, of course). Because as soon as their hands touched, bright silver light shone for a moment before what was basically a holographic screen popped up. On it in bold black font were the words:

— SOULBOND INITIATED STATUS: Familial FAMILIARITY LEVEL: Introductory BONDED INDIVIDUALS: Bruce Wayne (AKA:REDACTED) and Marinette Dupain-Cheng (AKA: REDACTED) INITIATE SOULBOND GUIDE? (Y / N) —

“B-But I already met my soulmate on Thursday!” Marinette objected, eyes wide as she pulled her hand away like it burned. “This can’t— this is a prank, right? New WayneTech or something?”

Unfortunately, Bruce stares at his own hand in similar shock.

“Miss Dupain-Cheng, I also already met my soulmate,” he informed gravely, poking his palm with the index finger of his opposite hand. “But look. I did not get a physical mark from my romantic soulmate, but…”

Marinette knew. She didn’t want to acknowledge it, but she knew. Everybody with a physical soulmark said that you knew when it was real, when it wasn’t paint or a tattoo or anything else, because it felt real. In some intrinsic, magical, mysterious way, everyone intuitively knew if a physical mark was or wasn’t genuine.

And the little, silver bat signal on the center of Marinette’s palm was definitely genuine. Her eyes went wide at the sight of it, and the information on the holographic soulbond-board changed.

BONDED INDIVIDUALS: Bruce Wayne (AKA: Batman)

Bruce showed Marinette the small silver ladybug symbol on the exact same spot on his own palm.

And Marinette Dupain-Cheng (AKA: Ladybug)

“What the fuck?” That was Dick, who was the first to get over his shocked silence. But not very well. “What. The. Fuck? If Bruce had a familial soulmate, I would have thought it would be me. You know, first adopted son and everything,” he waved at himself, but his tone wasn’t jealous. It was just confused. “Or any of this other adopted children,” Richard gestured to the line of them next to him. “Why get a familial soulmate now? And why have two soulmates?”

The last line on the hologram began to flash insistently.

ACTIVATE SOULBOND GUIDE? (Y / N)

“I, uh, think we should click yes, Monsieur Wayne,” Marinette suggested, lifting her hand to do just that before pausing and glancing at her new (what? Father figure? Uncle figure? Oh my god if Bruce was Batman, did that mean Damian was Robin? The builds and estimated measurements matched up. Did that mean Bruce—) “Mon dieu, you’re supposed to be my father in law figure,” Marinette realized aloud, her face suddenly paper white at the realization.

“... I agree, let’s see what this ‘Soulbond guide’ is, exactly,” her familial soulmate decided to say, ignoring her realization entirely. He pressed the ‘Y’ with one finger before Marinette or his other children could protest. The silver screen changed, the text melting away in favor of showcasing a horizontal line. Until that line spoke, and moved to show the wavelengths of its voice as it did so. Like a digital mouth. Occasionally text would pop up to complement or supplement the spoken words.

“Hello. I am your SOULBOND guide, A.I.D.E, or Autonomous Introspective Destiny Escort. I am a pocket personality created by the Universe and Fate Itself as your guide and informant regarding your soul bond, and nothing but your soul bond. My knowledge may extend to some aspects of your personality, memories, background, and motives behind actions, but otherwise does not delve far beyond the specificities of your Bond. Even my knowledge of your timeline and social structure in your reality are limited. That being said, do you have any questions regarding your Bond?”

“Oh my god, it even reflects Bruce’s emotion issues,” Jason breathed, thoroughly intrigued and entertained.

“But what does that say about Marinette?” Tim shot back. “She isn’t emotionally stunted like both of her soulmates.”

Yeah, everyone agreed at that point that trying to hide their identities from the French girl was a moot point.

“No,” Marinette agreed slowly, eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t even want to ask what you mean by emotionally stunted, because if Robin is any indication…” she winced, and several people in the room chuckled. Jason outright cackled. “But after dealing with HawkMoth for so long and not being able to let out any of my negative emotions, I developed a kind of mental system I guess. I just kinda… click and delete my anger or betrayal as often as it takes, if that makes sense.”

“That is not healthy, and we will talk about that later,” Damian said instantly, not looking pleased. Marinette just shrugged and grinned at him sheepishly.

As usual, Bruce was the first to actually begin to interrog— ahem— ask questions.

“Why do we have two soul bonds?” He asked, getting right to the point.

“In your case, it is due to your alter ego BATMAN. BATMAN has been a separate part of yourself, or at the very least you have seen him as separate from yourself as Bruce Wayne, for more than eighteen years. This grants BATMAN his own soulmate, as if he were his own entity. People such as Superman do not have this attribute, as they are fully cognizant of the unity of their two identities. BATMAN’s soulmate is Marinette, a familial soulmate. In her case, Marinette is in possession of the Ladybug Miraculous, which holds the power of Creation. This, along with the fact that Marinette is what is classified as a TRUE LADYBUG and/or a CREATION SOUL, gives rise to the possibility of a second soulmate being created for her as the need arises. This was compounded by the fact that she, like you, also sees LADYBUG as being a separate person from her own identity as Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Since she has held both a true CREATION SOUL and maintained this mindframe of being two separate people for several years, LADYBUG was granted a soulmate of her own, which is you. Does that suitably answer your question?”

“The first of many,” Bruce admitted grimly, turning to Marinette. “Do you want to ask anything else, or get on with the internship?”

“Just one question today,” she answered immediately, her mind buzzing. “What does the soul bond allow us to do, and how do we activate it?”

“You can activate the Soul Screen and myself by tapping your soulmark with that intention in mind. Your abilities are as follows; Mental Communication link— a two-way telepathy activated on command only when the Bond Mark is activated. Surveillance— the ability to see through your Soulmate’s eyes through the Soul Screen in emergency situations only. Bond Text— The ability to send written messages to your Soulmate by holding onto your soul mark, imagining the contents of the text, and sending it. Nobody except your soulmate will be able to see said message, and it will appear on the palm that hosts that individual’s Soul Mark. SOS— If one member of the soul bond is in life threatening danger, the other member’s bond mark will glow and a meter showcasing the endangered member’s life force will appear next to the mark. Upon the life force extinguishing, this Bond will permanently dissolve. Resurrection, time travel, and magical Cures will not revive this Bond.”

“In other words, the Universe is calling both of you out for being reckless and is only giving you once Chance here,” Barbara surmised ruthlessly. “Good luck. Alfred, what’s for lunch?”

As everyone filed out of the room with the dissolution of the Soulbond’s novelty, Damian, Bruce, and Marinette were left standing in awkward silence. Silently, Marinette shut off the Soul Screen and A.I.D.E with it.

“... we won’t be able to keep secrets anymore,” Marinette said, seemingly just thinking out loud. “Once we activate the Soul Screen, AIDE will totally rat out any we try to keep.”

“She was my soulmate first, Father, so I’m stealing her now,” Damian said by way of warning Bruce before he picked Marinette up and carried her away. The billionaire playboy philanthropist just stared after them, wondering what the hell he did to taunt the Universe into making him the butt of all of its jokes.

He tapped his ear twice, a different bond awakening. “Selina? Please tell me you’re in town. I think I’ll crack out some of the good alcohol tonight.”

“Celebrating something?” The familiar voice purred in his ear.

“Coping.”

—*—*—*—*—* This is not at all canon to the original story, but takes place in the same universe. Just an idea I had for a second that I wanted to write a stupid one shot for. This is crack and I’m okay with that.

[pandawritesmanythings]

Chapter Summary: Frigga helps you rethink some things, she truly is a blessing.

Word Count: 1,907k

Warnings: Mentions of arranged marriages.

A/N: I’m really excited about where all this is going! Some interesting revelations going on and I can’t wait to see where this story ends up! I have the general structure, but I’m still discovering a lot about this world, if you have any thoughts I’d love to hear them! Take care lovelies!

Masterlist

-

The rest of the day went by painfully slowly. Loki didn't even look in your direction, and the ladies of the court really did have the veracity of wolves that Loki spoke of.

"He looked upset! Have you seen him? He's been frowning all day!"

Oh, boohoo. Poor baby. You rolled your eyes internally.

"He had a lot in his mind." You tried to excuse with a faux worried expression.

That was your job, all day. Try to keep up appearances. Despite everything, you had agreed to play the perfect royal couple, and you would go through with it!

After the dancing, and towards the end of the night, you saw queen Frigga looking at you, intently. You saw where Loki got his conniving looks from.

She called you with a wiggle of her finger and you called Steve so he could follow you from a safe distance.

"I would like to speak to you in private, my dear."

"Of course." You smiled.

"Shall we go to the palace library?"

That piqued your interest. "That sounds lovely."

She linked her arm with yours and together, with Steve trailing behind you, you made your way towards the gigantic library that the royal family had.

Frigga pushed the wooden doors and rows after rows of books became visible to you.

"You may wait out here captain. I'll take care of her." Frigga instructed Steve when he tried to walk inside.

"With all due respect, your majesty. But my duty is to-" He began but you quickly interrupted him.

"It's alright captain." You smiled softly at him, trying to reassure him from a distance. "I'll call you if I need anything."

He wasn't convinced, you could tell, but he gave a quick bow and posted himself outside of the room.

The queen then turned to you and with a placid smile pointed towards the seats by the window to signal where you would be sitting.

You wordlessly walked on over there and placed one of the soft cushions on your lap, softly hugging it.

"It has been quite an eventful day, wouldn't you say, dear?" She asked turning a book she had picked out of the bookcase on her hands.

"I suppose."

"Well, I believe that getting to know your soon-to-be lawfully wedded husband must be quite eventful, is it not?" She pointed a look at you. "Especially when it comes to my son."

"He definitely hasn't made things dull. I believe we're still both wrapping our heads around the matter."

"That's understandable. After all, not marrying the woman he loves has taken quite a toll on him."

Hold on. Does she know?

She raised an eyebrow in your direction. "I believe you already know about this, do you not?"

"W-Well..." You tried to cover for him. Why? No idea. But you wanted to.

However, you could not find it in yourself to lie to the queen. "I... Must admit that I do..."

She had an unreadable expression. Sort of like Loki's. It was sort of scary how they looked nothing alike and yet he and his mom shared the same pointed looks, deep in-thought expressions, and poker faces.

"And does it not bother you?"

Could you trust her? If she was trying to help Loki, or looking only for Asgard's benefit, could you really tell the queen?

"Well, it is none of my concern. It certainly is unfortunate, but it wasn't his or my decision to enter the alliance."

"However, it was certainly your idea."

"Of course, but, your majesty, your husband is the one who offered your son." You explained. "I would have married any noble that you put across me. But it was Odin who decided it was to be Loki. I never chose him. He never chose me. So neither he nor I am to blame."

"I take it he understood this explanation?"

You smiled, when you thought back on it, he had been kind enough to understand that both of you had been powerless under this situation. "Yes. He was very understanding, actually."

"Then I am wondering what did you do to upset him so much that he would go from teasing you to ignoring you in the span of a less than an hour." She thoughtfully looked out of the window to the shoreline and the night sky.

"Your majesty." You called her and she turned to look at you directly in the eyes. "Everything I've done is in my people's best interest. I hope you understand that."

"So you've distanced yourself from my son for the benefit of your people?"

"I'm only trying to decide if I can fully trust him yet."

She nodded. "I believe then that his reputation has been brought up to you."

"Unfortunately."

"Whoever told you, they are not wrong. My son has the tendency to trick others into aiding his own plans." She agreed. "But my son underestimates the frailty of his own heart."

"You're saying I've hurt him?"

"He doesn't give people the silent treatment unless they have." She smirked and you chuckled at that.

You looked outside to find the stars twinkling down at you. At Midgard, you had never seen so many. That was the advantage of living close to the beach, wasn't it? It was absolutely mesmerizing.

"What should I do, your majesty?"

"Oh please, call me Frigga."

You looked back at her in surprise but a small smirk formed in your face. "Only if you call me by my name." You conceded telling it to her.

"Fair enough. Now, about your question, that I cannot answer." She said, a twinge of regret in her tone.

"I know... I just hoped..."

"My dear girl..." With her soft hand, she lifted your chin to make you look at her. "You've already done all that you could. Now, let everything unfold how it's supposed to. And don't close yourself off. You have a very powerful ally in my son. And I should know. I raised him."

You laughed and nodded at her response. 

"Help him and let him help you. His trust is not easy to earn, and you might have just made it harder for yourself today. But don't wait, before those scrolls are here, you and Loki must have come to terms and give each other the trust you deserve before they arrive."

Her voice suddenly had a grave tone to it. "If you don't, Loki can be still a very powerful enemy."

You nodded slowly, understanding how you needed to proceed. "Thank you, Frigga... Please know that... I really appreciate that you took the time to advise me."

A knot formed in your throat. You bit your lip to avoid to become a mess in front of the queen herself.

"Oh, my dear! But what has come over you?"

"Nothing! I just-!" You tried to look away, the heaviness of the tears pressing in the corners of your eyes. "It's just, only my mum has been like this with me."

Frigga sat, her face showing understanding. She placed a hand over yours. "You miss her much, don't you?"

"I do." You nodded, a stray tear falling down your cheek. You quickly wiped it before more could come down. "Pepper has been... The absolute best with me."

"I never got to meet her, she wasn't at Yggdrasil. Is she much like you?"

"You could say that. She helped my dad raise me, even if she only married him about a decade ago."

Frigga's confusion was obvious. "Forgive for asking, but... I must have been mistaken by believing that Pepper Potts was your biological mother?"

"Well, dad never hid it from me or Peter that we were both adopted." You shrugged. "But Pepper was always there, just like Tony, so they are in a way our mum and dad."

This left Frigga pensive. A shadow crossed her face. "You are very open for a person who still is looking for who to trust."

You nodded. "True. But that is because I know I can trust you."

"How could you?"

You smiled. "Your highness, when I look you in your eyes. When I see your kind words and actions, how could I not? I have not seen anyone else in court be the same for me here, besides my handmaiden. I trust you both."

"If so," She took both your hands in hers, "Please, my dear girl, promise me this: That you'll have patience with my son. He will be your greatest ally. But you must allow him to open up.

"I promise you that it won't be easy. He has secrets of his own that I know he will have a hard time sharing. But do not take his secrecy for betrayal. Will you promise me?"

You mulled over her words. In your heart, you had already decided to give Loki a fighting chance despite all the rumours, but your mind finally caught up to it. "Alright, I promise I'll try."

-

Steve was beginning to fidget where he stood. It was the most anxious feeling to have left you there with the Queen alone. Although, after all, you were with the Queen. You were her guest of honor. What danger could befall you?

Any. Literally, anything could happen. His own brain admonished him.

He didn't remember the last time he was this tense and fidgety. It was an unusual feeling. He had always been protective over you, but never to this degree.

Maybe it was because you were somewhere strange with strangers surrounding you. Yeah, that was totally it. 

There was no other reason.

None whatsoever.

...

Okay. Maybe yesterday had left him a little bit confused. 

Oh for God's sake, I'm not fooling anyone, am I? He mentally cursed himself. 

It had been such a strange feeling. The panic that settled in his bones when Vision told him that he and Wanda hadn't seen you for a while. The fact that the infamous dark prince had been last seen with you. And then suddenly you had disappeared and he was absolutely about to lose it.

King Stark had given him the chance to prove himself by caring for his daughter in this dangerous mission.

And it's not like he wanted the mission to fail. But since that night at the beach, he had suddenly seen how much of a woman you had become.

And when he saw you deal with the Asgardians, and answer questions, and strike deals... He just loathed the idea that all of the life that was inside you, your care, your kindness, it was all going to go to waste on a man who didn't know you. Someone who didn't see you as more than a political pawn.

It enraged him and made him wanted to sweep you off your feet and run away with you to keep you safe.

But he knew you wouldn't forgive him for that. Not when your family and your people were in danger. 

However, he had served his country ever since he and Bucky were young boys. He had done everything in his power to make Midgard a better place. He had fought valiantly against the Jotuns. Lost many friends and companions to the enemy. He wanted to be selfish for once. He wanted to forget about his duty to his country, to his king, and to you as his princess and be selfish.

But he couldn't... Because he loved you too much.

-

TAG LIST:

@chxrryycola - @midnightmystic   - @deathkat657

[characternerdocs]

🖊 + Lilith

🖊 Me gushing over an OC 🖊 |||@chickypoodoodloos

Ooh Lilith! So Lilith is one of my characters that makes up the lore of my characters’ world. Lilith was the child of traveling nomads that died during an extremely brutal winter. Lilith herself should have perished in the bitter cold, seeing as she was only an infant at the time. however, a living sentient plane known as Khavak saved her. To do so, occult historians believe that this was the first animous plane as Khavak brought Lilith into itself and linked their life forces to one another. By doing this Lilith was no longer “human” but something more. First of all, her whole eye turned this golden hue, and as she grow-up her baby teeth fell out and were replaced with teeth that were much sharp and pointed that made it easier for her to hunt and devour that small prey on which she lived one, her ears were pointed like that of the fey creatures that she lived amongst. And she learned to shapeshift, her most favorite forms were that of a barn owl and a snake.

Despite growing up amongst the fey and the wilderness, Lilith didn’t completely lose her humanity. In fact, she was very intrigued by humans and their lives. She’d often visit villages as she’d wander from forest to forest. Similar to her adoptive fey family, Lilith would play tricks on the village folks at night and often would help or hinder the populous depending on their attitude towards her. But she absolutely loved their celebration and festivals, and often she would return to specific towns for their different feasts. 

While some towns viewed Lilith as a nuisance, others started to think of her as a sort of patron spirit and believed that if she was humored that she would provide plentiful harvests, safety when entering the forests, or general protection from the hazards of nature.

But with more and more tales of this daughter of Khavak started to spread is when the trouble started. Feed up with the sway this feral child seemed to have on villages, two brothers and archangels, Lucifer and Samael, were sent out to find and rain her behavior in.

The brothers first attempted to teach her “right from wrong” and how to behave in the civilized world. But it came abundantly clear that Lilith cared very little about what was considered proper or not, and felt like the archangels themselves knew and cared very little about the ways and lives of anything besides their own kind. So she decided to educate them on the knowledge she believed they were lacking. including things like how friends exchange gifts, in which she demanded a token of friendship from both Lucifer and Samael, both choosing to bestow upon her a feather from their wings. Lucifer was quick to take to Lilith’s teaching, finding them both amusing and enlightening, and in turn, Lucifer asked for a token of friendship back, so Lilith plucked a lower rib from her chest. Samael however was not so easily swayed but humored Lilith’s notions nevertheless.

But after some months without any change in Lilith’s behavior, Samael was ordered to arrange a marriage for Lilith, in hopes that being a wife would force her into a submissive role. And while given to a chauvinistic and unfavorable husband, Lilith quickly made her escape from that dwelling as an owl. When finding out about her departure, Samael forbid Lilith from ever setting foot on her former husband’s land. Which she agreed to, as she saw no reason or want to return. That is until the man took another wife. Knowing the man’s cruelty first hand, she felt it was her duty to try and warn the new woman about his nature. A task that Lilith completed with the aid of her snake form and Lucifer’s new pension for finding loopholes in the rules.

Despite Lilith’s continued disobedience to his orders, Samael found himself becoming more and more obsessed with Lilith as months stretched into years. He could not understand why or how to describe the hold that unruly tree-dweller had on him. Samael began to neglect his duties and dismissed his orders from higher up concerning the feral girl as he became more infatuated with Lilith. He was stricken for the first time with feelings of want and jealousy when seeing Lilith interact with anyone but him. Finally one night, Samael followed Lilith back to Khavak, and overtaken by his growing need to be with Lilith, he slept with her in the long grass near the river. But when morning came, Samael explained his intentions clear, that now that she had given herself to him, that Lilith belonged to him. A claim that Lilith simply laughed off as she stated that she would belong to no one; no matter their knowledge of her, carnal or not. A sentiment that displeased Samael, and he left enraged.

However, he would soon return to Khavak, conceding that Lilith could not be claimed through intercourse. Lilith, thrilled that her friend was beginning to accept her differing viewpoint, went to embrace Samael but found a knife in her abdomen. Since Lilith would not let him have her as his wife, Samael decided to instead take her life, killing her where they had laid the night prior.

But with her dying breath, Lilith cursed Samael, so that he may never wash her blood from his hand.

Still, with Lilith dead, Samael and other members of his faction started to spread ghastly rumors about her, of her twisted and demonic nature. And despite Lucifer trying to come to his late friend’s defense, Samael wrote his older brother’s claims off as proof of Lilith’s power of corruption to turn one of the brightest angels into a heretic. Angered by his brother’s betrayal of his good friend, Lucifer played into the tales of his dark nature. Soon lines were drawn and sides were taken as what is known as the war between evil and good begin, and the world that once existed in shades of grey was divided into black and white.

It wasn’t until many centuries later, due to a wicked project taking place in the walls of an abandoned asylum and a subject numbered 161094, did Lilith finally make her not so great reentrance.

Thanks for the ask (or request?) to hear about Lilith, @chickypoodoodloos. Sorry, the reply was so long. I have never actually written down the lore surrounding Lilith, Lucifer, and Samael before. And honestly, it was fun to finally put it down, even in this somewhat abridged form.  Despite its length, I hope you enjoy it.

[adora2723]

Supercorp

It was a precarious situation. Lena wondered how she always seems to find herself in the middle of those. Right now, Supergirl was tied to a wall, barely conscious due to the Kryptonite conveniently placed all around her; just the right amount to subdue her yet keep her aware of her surroundings.

Lena had just come to after being knocked unconscious by Eve in her office. She should have seen that coming, she thought to herself. Her head throbbed in sync to the beat of her pulse. She watched her brother pace back and forth in front of a screen, replaying what seemed like every interaction she ever had with Supergirl on a loop. Something wet and warm trickled down her forehead, and when she reached she found her fingers sticky with red, hot blood.

“Ah, finally! You’re awake. We’ve been waiting for you to wake up for 13 minutes Lena. You know it’s rude to keep people waiting, I taught you better than that. Sit up straight! Respect is built on the foundation of propriety and composure. Show your big brother some respect! Then again, it is not entirely your fault is it? Miss Teschmacher may have been a tad bit... overzealous in her execution.”

“What am I doing here Lex?” Lena bit out.

“Yes of course, straight to the point as usual. You see, I told you, Lena, to always mind the company you keep. And sure, I can disregard many things... you sending me to jail: sibling rivalry. Changing the company name: petulant yet expected. But, working together with that alien scum to take me down is a betrayal I wasn’t expecting from you!” Lex’ voice started out as mild taunting but by the end had been consumed by rage. He was living up to his reputation as a mad man; wildly gesticulating, spit flying everywhere. If he had had hair it would be sticking out in all directions. So much for composure.

Of course Lena knew what this was about. She’s known for three weeks, ever since Lex escaped from prison, that he was going to come after her. She wasn’t really worried about herself; she knew their confrontation was inevitable. Neither could live as long as the other survived. If only her life was as magical as these novels. Unlike Harry though, she was all alone. No dependents who would suffer from her proximity, no family to mourn her untimely and cruel death, and no friends who would miss her during random lunch dates or impromptu game nights. Well, one friend. Kara. Kara was her solace in an otherwise dreary existence. Kara who she had come to care for as more than the best friend she pretended to be. Kara who she should have cut ties with as soon as she received the first foreboding letter. The letter, sent anonymously by Lex, that seemingly was just fanmail by a devoted admirer, sweetly relaying his adulation through Ancient Greek song. Turns out she could have avoided a tragedy, but she was Icarus flying too close to the sun, incapable to resist. She will pay the price for this.

“Let her go. Please! It is me you want. Take me!” Supergirl feebly tried to fight off her restraints. Her voice barely audible, rough and scratchy from exhaustion. Lena admired her perseverance. Supergirl’s sense for justice never seemed selfrighteous, a feat her cousin couldn’t quite pull off. Despite their dissent Supergirl didn’t falter in trying to protect her; maybe in a promise to Kara? Wishful thinking.

“There won’t be much of you left to take, Kryptonian! Besides, you have no value to me, no. This is personal. This time I came here to quench my thirst for revenge. You see, most people think we Luthors don’t have emotions. And usually they would be right in their assessment, however limited it might be. Average brains produce average results. But nothing about us Luthors is average. We are eminent, exceptional, extraordinary. And so are our feelings. And you,” he turned his burning eyes to Lena, “hurt mine. It is not just that. It is a matter of respect, isn’t it. How dare you drag our name through the mud-”

“Me?! I wasn’t the one who went on a suicidal mission-”

“How DARE you use MY company, my brain, my knowledge, my tech for the empowerment of those roaches ?!  HOW DARE YOU. Everything you have is because of me. Everything you built, every business deal you closed, every prestigious award you got, the recognition, the applaud, the esteem. EVERYTHING you are, is because of me. Without me you are nothing. I made you who you are and you go against me.” He closed his eyes and exhaled sharply, seemingly gathering his composure. “How dare you betray me like that, sis?” He turned his back to her. Supergirl was stunned speechless, deliriously following Lex’ tirade. Lena used this opportunity to scan her surroundings. They were being held in what looked like some sort of cave. It was dark and moist, and the air smelled of sulfur. Against the confinements of the cavern Lex had constructed his head-quarters. The only exit was a tight tunnel, pitch-black and not very promising to aid them in their escape to daylight, it was also very inconveniently located on the opposite end of where Supergirl was tied up. And Lena was not leaving without her. Their future seemed dismal.

Lex took a deep inhale. “It is vile. What you did to me... I want you to feel it to. Before I kill you, I will see the same betrayal in your eyes and on your dying breath you will realise, that you were alone all along, just like me.” 

“She is not alone! And she will never be like you. Don’t listen to him Lena.” Lex laughed hysterically. “Oh, that’s rich coming from you, Supergirl. See, I realised some while ago that people with feelings tend to be more concerned about their loved ones. Indeed, they care more about those who are near and dear to them, completely disregarding their own self in the act, which turns out to be the grounds of their demise. And, unfortunately for you, Lena, you are as selfless and tempestuous as they come.” Lex paused for seemingly no other reason than dramatic effect. For a guy so aversed to theatrics he had a flair for ostentatious performance.

He side-eyed Supergirl surreptitiously. “Say, how is that reporter friend of yours? Kara Danvers?” Lex smirked mischievously. Supergirl began fidgeting frantically. Lena’s brain whirred to life. She started working through all the ways that this could play out at a highspeed. “What about her?” She chose nonchalance. She knew she had been putting Kara at risk by befriending her, but staying away seemed impossible. If anything happened to the bubbly reporter just because Lena wanted to indulge in a hopeless little crush, Lena would never forgive herself.

It might have even been more than a crush. Lena remembers the night vividly that she realised she was in too deep. They had known each other for a little over a year by then. Eventhough they were colleagues now (well, technically, she was her boss) the acquisition of Catco brought with it a shitload of paperwork, board meetings, and late-night phone calls that had to be dealt with, and Lena was stretched even thinner than usual. They hadn’t seen each other for a month after their reconciliation, and Lena was just happy to spend some quality time with her best friend who finally seemed to be over her ex. When Kara had initially invited her over Lena wanted to decline. Abstaining that long from Kara’s cheeriness had made her revert back to old customs. Lena had resigned herself to go back to being lonely, writing Kara off as a shooting star that briefly flew by to illuminate her firmament for a precious while, too good to last. But Kara had insisted and she couldn’t resist her pull. 

So she had made herself comfortable on Kara’s couch, dressed down in comfy clothes that no one was allowed to see her in except for Kara. She had ordered Chinese food, knowing Lena’s taste by heart, and while Lena was animatedly telling her about her childhood before she was adopted, Kara not so sneakily stole some chicken from her box. There was nothing new about that; Kara was known to be a voracious eater and often snuck some food in from foreign plates. What she did next, however, was unprecedented: she replaced the chicken with a potsticker from her own plate. She had spent enough time with the Danvers sisters to know that Kara sharing food had near-apocalyptic implications. But for her to do it so casually, while keenly and earnestly absorbing every word of Lena’s most treasured tales, that’s what made Lena’s heart simultaneously expand and implode at once. In the warmth of the fairy lights, lounging on the snuggly sofa, Lena lost her heart to riveting eyes and giddy laughter.

Now, she wished she would have closed her eyes and made a wish. Letting the shooting star take its destined course. Now, that star was gonna crash and burn, diminishing all hope in its wake, all because Lena could not stay away. Because Lena was selfish. “Don’t play dumb now, sis, inanity doesn’t suit you. We all know how you feel about that bimbo. Though I have to admit, you always had a keen eye for beauty. Unfortunately, you never bothered to look beyond what’s on the surface. Well, how do they say? ‘Love is blind.’ Isn’t it right, Supergirl?”

If they weren’t in a situation of life and death Lena would have been petrified. She was very careful to never show even an ounce of her overwhelming affection to anybody. Least of all people who she knew were connected to Kara and might tell her about Lena’s deplorable feelings causing Kara to finally abandon her, kindness be damned. Least of all people who had a unyielding sense of rectitude and might believe Kara had a right to know about what Lena was so desperately hiding. Least of all people like Supergirl.

Alas, she had more pressing matters to attend. “Don’t you dare touch her! You hear me, Lex, you go after her and you will regret the day you were born!” Lex’ grin turned from smug to wicked. “Oh, don’t worry little sis, I won’t even come near her. You see, it just happened to be the case that you, dearest Lena, embraced the provenance of your own demise. It just happens that delay is the deadliest form of denial. And you’ve been in denial for so long. We Luthors, we do feel emotions. Just not all of them, no, only the crucial ones. Avarice, pride, rage, and betrayal. Fuelling our power. And once you feel that betrayal, Lena, you will kill for me two birds with one stone. You will drive yourself to death in your quest for revenge and you will take that pathetic Supergirl with you. Feel the rage Lena. Feel the betrayal.”

Lex turned towards the screens mounted on the cave walls just as Supergirl tore free of her restraints in an anguished scream.                    

[demigodofhoolemere]

Long bitterness below because I saw something that drove me crazy and I wasn’t gonna be able to rest until I articulated my frustrated thoughts

~~~~~

@ the person who wrote this I just wanna talk

https://screenrant.com/mcu-avengers-most-shameless-things-loki-ever-done/

Most of these are just outright wrong and it only takes the slightest glance at canon events to prove them as such, and the ones that have any amount of accuracy to them are devoid of critical context.

I don’t remember seeing much of this stuff before Ragnarok but it’s everywhere now and it’s kind of telling of the narrative bias that movie planted in everyone’s heads that people are now looking back with a lens that’s colored to be against him from the outset without bothering to take into consideration context, critical thinking skills, or empathy. The narrative tells us that he’s just bad so let’s not look any further than that I guess.

Wasn’t gonna debate each of them but the more I think about it the more it’s gonna bug me until I do, so here comes the bitter canon police...

Number 10

1) Right from the off: “Loki and Thor have always had a love/hate relationship — though it gravitates more toward the ‘hate’ part.” Um... always? Because last I checked, despite their differences, they grew up as best friends. Their problems that we see onscreen span from 2011-2017, a measly 6 years compared to over a thousand years of life together. This is a blip on the radar, one that certainly doesn’t constitute leaning towards mainly hate for each other. Heck, even during this time period, they’re clearly shown to love each other. Loki definitely gets angry, but I wouldn’t say he outright “loathes” Thor, at least not in a way that diminishes the love he also has for him.

2) “As such, Loki has betrayed Thor and his adoptive family many times.” This is so wrong I barely have the energy to explain why. People love to give examples of all of Loki’s supposed betrayals and they pretty much all fall down under scrutiny. The only ones I can understand listing are lying to Thor about Odin being dead, along with his attempts to kill Thor at the climax of the first movie (this stuff was when he was waaay out of his right mind, btw — not that he’s not responsible for his actions, but context is still important when taking into account anything he does), and various things in Ragnarok that were out of character for him to do in the first place. Anything else, even if it’s bad, cannot be counted specifically as betrayals against his adoptive family, since things like coming to Earth weren’t about them. If only a couple of instances are able to qualify as betrayals, then no, he has not done this “many” times, no matter how much people like to push that idea.

3) “Of course, Thor often got the brunt of it.” I’ll let that one stand because Thor got a fair number of screams aimed at him, but honestly, I’d say the person most negatively affected by Loki’s actions tends to be Loki. Thor really didn’t get more than he could handle. And as much as I love him, he’s not innocent of dishing his own stuff onto Loki as well. Wording it this way makes it sound like he’s Loki’s abuse victim (when more than anything, they are both the victims of Odin’s awful parenting rather than each other).

4) “So, it’s basically a normal sibling relationship that they portrayed. Oh, and Loki is never apologetic about his violence against Thor — siblings through and through.” First of all when I see stuff like this I have deep concerns for other people’s relationships with their siblings and am reminded of how grateful I am for my sister, but secondly, I don’t get the impression that Asgardians do much apologizing overall. You don’t see Thor apologizing for violence against Loki either. Terrible habit, but it seems to be the culture they were raised in. Besides, I feel like dying for Thor multiple times is decent substitution. (And while it’s not totally clear what he was specifically referring to, it’s worth noting Loki did profusely tell Thor he was sorry on Svartalfheim.)

Number 9

1) Oh my word, I am tired of seeing this. That scene was filmed as a real death, and everyone from Tom Hiddleston to Kevin Feige continued to refer to it as such after the reshoots. I wouldn’t know where to find it right now but I know there’s a quote from Kevin about it being real and that it was only just non-fatal enough for him to survive it. The only place anyone ever says he faked it? In Ragnarok, which is already filled to the brim with retcons, and it’s said by Thor (or whoever that is in Ragnarok who took Thor’s face) who has no knowledge of what really happened, he just makes assumptions and accusations that Loki isn’t given the chance to refute. It. Was. Not. Fake.

2) “He was rather casual about it and didn’t care much about how the rest of his family would take the news.” Source? We don’t exactly get the time to see his feelings on the matter. Also, Thor is the only one who would have cared anyway. Frigga was killed and Odin wanted him dead.

Number 8

1) “One of the reasons why Loki faked his own death was to seize a great opportunity [...]” He must not be good at carrying out his own plans then, since he immediately genuinely tried to offer the throne to Thor. Thor turned it down. Was there still satisfaction from getting the chance to prove that he can be a king? Yeah, because he’s still never felt like he’s been able to prove himself as equal. The chance to prove people wrong about him, and especially the chance to prove his own worth to himself, is exciting, hence that grin at the end. He’s certainly not upset at that opportunity. But that only happened because Thor didn’t take him up on the offer.

2) “The worst part was that he cast a spell on Odin and exiled him in a retirement home on Earth.” The... the worst part? That he removed the man who would have killed Thor upon return and was willing to have all of Asgard and everyone in it destroyed? And still had the mercy to send him somewhere that he’d be safe and taken care of every single day? Uh... okay.

3) “For a time, Loki ruled the Asgardians in their process of recovery from the Dark Elves’ attack.” Yeah, exactly. Thanks for aiding my point. Even Ragnarok of all things, despite the issues I have with the way Loki was portrayed as king, still manages to prove this point by showing things on Asgard being peaceful and repaired.

Number 7

1) Mostly correct this time, but missing the context of why Loki is angry enough at Odin to want the Dark Elves to go after him. Without considering all of the lies and heartache Odin caused that sent Loki’s mind spiraling in the first place, let alone the fact that he left him to spend the next 4,000 years of his life in solitary (which is outright torture, and Loki knew it would be because he seemed to have no problem with the thought of being executed instead), it makes it sound like it was a purely petty betrayal rather than based in any reason. Loki does everything for a reason.

2) “One would think that Loki would’ve learned a lot from this but he kept on being his usual self after a short bout of guilt and anger in his cell.” First of all I think you greatly underestimate how long that’s gonna stick with Loki. Secondly, if by ‘kept on being his usual self’ you mean the immediately following scenes wherein he helps Thor go get revenge on the monsters that killed Frigga and ultimately dies to avenge her and save his brother’s life, then you forgot the actual events of canon again and also inadvertently complimented him by saying that’s normal for him.

EDIT: You know how you can watch something a thousand times and somehow it takes that thousandth time to catch something? Yeah. Anyway, Loki directed Kurse to Asgard’s power plant so he could turn the shield off. THAT is what he was directing him towards, it was to let the Elves in to get to Odin. He didn’t even unknowingly lead Kurse to Frigga, Kurse just went where Malekith was, and Malekith found Frigga because she was guarding the Stone. Kurse would have killed her anyway, Loki’s actions had no bearing on that. Hold him responsible for getting the shield shut down and letting more Elves in (while still referring to point 1 for why), but Frigga’s death never had anything to do with him because Kurse got out anyway. Loki just doesn’t know that. But a character blaming themselves doesn’t mean they’re right.

Number 6

1) Another thing I wish would stop cropping up in all discussions of Loki. Stealing the Tesseract isn’t his ~thing~. I’m annoyed with this one just on principle lol.

2) “Throughout all the MCU movies, Loki has stolen the Tesseract at least thrice, each in three different movies. He just doesn’t know when to give up.” None of those times were just for the lolz like people say. In Avengers he had to get it for Thanos to save his life. In Ragnarok, what the heck was he supposed to do, leave an Infinity Stone floating around in space for anyone to get? It’s not like it would have been destroyed with Asgard. Better to take it and keep it safe. And in Endgame, while I felt that was starting to lean too much into ‘haha I love taking the Tesseract’ territory, it was to get away from the imprisonment and possible death that would have been waiting for him in either SHIELD or Asgardian custody. Loki does everything for a reason.

Number 5

1) “[...] he immediately embraced his evil tendencies.” ROFL I’m sorry but the idea of THIS kid having had prior evil tendencies is actually hilarious.

2) “[...] killing countless innocents on Earth [...]” In canon, there were 74 fatalities in the Battle of New York, which were caused by the Chitauri that Thanos sent rather than directly by Loki. Loki’s personal kill count on Earth can be listed on one hand — literally, it’s something like 5 confirmed onscreen deaths by his hand, with several other unconfirmed ones because we just see him attack but not how badly people got hit. The 80 people that Natasha mentions were the SHIELD agents that went down with the base in the beginning, which wasn’t Loki’s doing, outside of the few guards he killed when he got there. That was pretty easy to count.

3) “[...] and probably other planets as well.” Supposition. Not even the slightest bit of hinting of that in canon. Next.

4) Loki himself was being tortured and under extreme emotional duress and mental manipulation during this movie. Not that he’s automatically 100% absolved of responsibilities, because he did make choices of his own, but again - CONTEXT. This was a fight for his life. He was not well, physically, mentally, or emotionally. There is almost nothing he did in this movie that he would do under normal circumstances in his right mind.

5) “In addition to that, he also put his homeworld of Asgard in constant danger. Odin’s words about Loki being followed by death and destruction wherever he goes definitely rang true.” If you’re referring to the first movie when he lets the Jotuns in, both instances of that were planned in such a way that no Asgardians were supposed to be in danger; he couldn’t have known the guards to the vault wouldn’t be able to take them (and that first plan was intended to protect Asgard from a young and arrogant Thor’s reign; another of few instances that can count as betrayal, but done with reason), and the second time he brought them in was specifically to kill them because, with the combination of his unstable mind and the kind of things Odin praises, he thought it would finally gain him approval from his father (and he was raised with no regard for Jotun lives therefore he didn’t even grasp that it was wrong). That’s the only time Asgard was even slightly jeopardized by Loki. In every single other instance, he is pretty darn devoted to protecting Asgard. Time and again. Odin’s words are a load of crap. Loki has only been surrounded by things like that in the last couple of years, when out of his right mind or coerced or both. This is not something that has always been, and it’s certainly hypocritical for Odin of all people to be making accusations like that when he and his favorite son have done worse things. Heck, Thor’s body count on Jotunheim in the very beginning is on its own a larger number than Loki’s body count in the entire MCU, all for being called a princess. Many of the heroes in the franchise have worse — even significantly worse — body counts than Loki.

Number 4

1) Tortured and controlled by Thanos. Next.

2) “[...] the culmination of all of Loki’s plans ever since he left Asgard to become a villain.” For one thing I love how this makes it sound like he made the conscious decision to run away and be a villain lol, but I just... you remember how he left Asgard, right? When he made a suicide attempt by falling into the void that he could not possibly think he would survive through? He didn’t exactly have future plans in mind. He was trying to die.

3) Now you’re only assuming people died? I thought it was countless?

Number 3

1) This wasn’t a takeover of Asgard. Frigga, who knew that he’s a Frost Giant, appointed him as regent for the time being. What he did with the power is what’s questionable, but the way he got it was completely legit. There was no scheming — he didn’t even want it at first. The thought of proving himself got to his head but he didn’t take the throne purposely nor was it illegally, or done in deception or under false pretenses.

2) While the things he did were wrong, it was not technically a betrayal of Odin or Asgard. He did what he did precisely because it was the sort of thing his father and his people would usually see as heroic. If you wanna call it a betrayal of Asgard for taking the risk of having Jotuns there, I guess, but not of Odin, and it was not done maliciously towards them. The ones who actually suffered for this were the Jotuns.

3) “[...] quickly transformed into one of Asgard’s most dangerous enemies.” He transformed into Odin’s enemy. If he were an enemy of Asgard he wouldn’t have spent his years on the throne protecting it.

Number 2

1) This one is mostly fair and I consider this to be the worst thing Loki’s done. However, this is hardly about shamelessness. This (and seemingly all of the article) is written in the assumption that his actions were done in his right mind. Again: he was in the middle of a mental breakdown. That doesn’t exonerate him but it’s sure as heck important context.

Number 1

(covered the image because no one needs to see that)

1) “[...] betraying the whole universe just because you can is pure evil.” Yeah, it would be. Good thing for Loki then that that’s not what he did. 

2) “Loki consciously served Thanos with the initial goal of becoming ‘king’ of the Earth.” Loki was consciously fighting to stay alive because disobedience and failure would mean unimaginable horrors.

Working with Thanos is NOT something he would do just because. As far as wanting to be king of Earth goes, Thanos canonically messed with Loki’s head. He made him think that was what he wanted, just like he dug into his mind to make him angrier at Thor. Thor himself, who has known Loki their entire lives, noted that his behavior and goals were uncharacteristic of him.

3) “It seems like Loki got his just desserts on that front.” Gotta say, I’m genuinely a little horrified when I see people say that Loki deserved that death. No one deserves to have their windpipe crushed and neck snapped brutally by their abuser. That was the most gratuitously graphic character death I’ve ever seen. Even if you think he wasn’t tortured by him before and willingly joined forces with him, he still wouldn’t deserve that fate. It’s too morbid for anybody. ‘Just desserts’ is supposed to be about justice. There’s no carrying out of justice here. It’s just senseless and cruel, and done to a man who had gotten out of the dark place in his life to start anew.

~~~~~

That was longer than I ever intended to let myself get worked up over a dumb ScreenRant post but I feel better with that out of my system.

Here’s to fact-checking before making accusations that have no basis 🥂

[callededie]

𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦  𝐛𝐨𝐲 .      i  still  don’t  get  it  right  sometimes ,  i  just  don’t  get  it  as  wrong .     /      a  STARSCREECH  playlist     !          now  streaming .

title sequence  :      brothers &  —  the wonder years  (  no closer to heaven )      /      edie will likely never forget that he was the one who was with pendulum when everything went wrong. to a certain extent, he knows it cannot be his fault, but there’s a voice that finds volume on dark nights or lonely mornings that are a bit too quiet. the lyrics ‘ we’re no saviors, if we can’t save our brothers ’ puts the word post deluge into context. he’s more determined than ever to make sure that those around him are safe, and that this new world he’s found doesn’t meet the same fate as the one he was born to.     /     we’re no saviours, if we can’t save our brothers. we’re no saviours, we’re no saviours.  

personal  theme  :      be more kind  —  frank turner  (  be more kind  )      /     while it doesn’t always appear as such due to a calm and patient nature, edie is highly aware of the threats any future might bring, he’s seen a world break and knows how little it takes. his home world was not always at war; he was a hopeful kid with a decent childhood, and then things changed. he wants to help keep earth from the same fate, but the truth is he doesn’t necessarily know how to. that fate was never avoided for his people, so he has no guide or blueprints, he is only trying his best. he thinks perhaps just a little bit of kindness, however, might go a long way.    /     history’s been leaning on me lately, i can feel the future breathing down my neck, and all the thing i thought were true, when i was young, and you were too, turned out to be broken and i don’t know what comes next. in a world that has decided that it’s going to lose its mind, be more kind, my friends, try to be more kind

preparation  [  before  the  battle  ]  :      go get your gun  —  the deer hunter  (  act ii: life and death  )      /     edie is a soldier, and has the mindset of one. he’s good at taking orders and will do what has to be done, and retains faith that it is all for a greater purpose. he feels guilt for those they are unable to save, but truly believes that the exemplar are doing the most good that they can. he’s never truly considered the moral implications of having justice placed in the hands a few  ( albeit a few that are so carefully guided, but not with the true consent of the public ), as all the villains they’ve fought he’s seen as true threats.     /     go get your gun, get your gun, imposing penance one by one, you’ve got a virtue in a vice, it forces fate, you’re taking lives, with all the history to guide, you’ve got passion in those eyes, so aim it straight and true, and to those who’ll die, please try to understand, that for those who die we’ve tried the best we can

realization  [  adjustment  period,  part  i  ]  :      dream boy  —  waterparks  (  fandom  )      /     when the american public loved starscreech, edie felt like he belonged on earth. maybe he struggled with the delicacies of human interaction, but people seemed to care for him anyway. when the exemplar disbanded edie came to realize that the world loved an image that had been constructed for him, and the true version of himself was not one that garnered friends in the way he hoped. people had different expectations of america’s first alien, and those expectations were usually that he was a little more human or a little more alien.     /     build your expectations, saturated and inflated, ‘cause i was born to be your favorite. make me complicated, i’m modern and i’m dated, because i was born to be your favorite. build - a - boy, pick my pieces, overjoyed, never leave your heart destroyed, i’m your boy.

rationalization  [  adjustment  period,  part  ii  ]  :      figuring it out  —  swmrs  (  drive north  )      /     edie still hasn’t completely come to terms with what exemplar is, something to inspire and, more than anything, be a source of palatable nationalism. he wants it so badly to be something, for it’s what he’s hitched his identity to. he spent his time in isolation hoping for a return because it is within the context of exemplar that he understands himself, even if it is “made for mass production.” even if it was because “everybody want[ed] to be somebody” that they cared, at least they did. edie continues to rationalize the team as something great and believes a return is what he needs.    /    we’re just scapegoats all too dumb, body paint and day glow, where do trends go when you’re numb? when everybody wants to be somebody, they all care, and everybody wants to know themselves. we’re too scared, we’re still figuring it out. made for mass production, is it hard when you want more? was i made to function, or create, or just get bored?

promise  made  :      fortress  —  mat kearney  (  crazytalk  )      /     edie was quick to adopt earth, and more specifically america, as his purpose. this song is his promise to his new nation and its people when he arrived. when he arrived in the 70s, he was as hopeful as he was still hurting for the world he had lost, and if he could stop needless war and violence from taking even just one planet, he’ll feel as if he has done something meaningful, what he was unable to do when he was younger. however, america adopted him as much as he did it, and they were what allowed him to become the hero he wanted to be.     /       let me be your fortress, i’ll let you in. hideaway your secrets, i’ll carry them. you’re the one i’ve wanted to defend, if you let me be the hero i’ve never been. let me be the war already won, you can be the nation where i come from. we can be the kingdom yet to come, if you let me be the one.

the alien  :      burning man —  dierks bentley  (  the mountain  )      /     the most human thing about edie is how badly he wants to be, perhaps more human than anyone sees. he’s, at his core, a man who’s trying to find himself and help others. he’s calm and obedient, but he has a passion behind his somewhat robotic exterior. he’s constantly trying to both understand and emulate the human condition, without realizing that his desire to fit in is the most humanizing aspect to him.     /      i still don’t get it right sometimes, but i just don’t get it as wrong. i still go a little bit crazy sometimes, yeah, but now i don’t stay near as long. i’m a little bit steady, but still little bit rolling stone. i’m a little bit heaven, but still a little bit flesh and bone. little found, little don’t know where i am. i’m a little bit holy water, but still a little bit burning man. 

controversy  /  conspiracy  :      made in america —  waterparks  (  double dare  )      /     for the most part, edie has been unaware  ( either actually or by sheer force of will )  of the  “ conspiracy  ”  that the exemplar were only puppets. however, that doesn’t mean that those ideas don’t impact the way people see him. to some the alien’s promise of defense and aid was cheapened by his donning of a skintight colored suit and red cape. even he thought that the team was a bit showy at times; however, to him it was a sacrifice that was made to do real good.      /      counting back down from showtime, and selling you a filtered frame. we, we’re made in america, we’re classic hysteria, we’re culture clashing, hazard smashing, maybe someone’s. we, we’re made in america, we’re fucked and don’t care at all. aesthetically, yeah, we’re so pleasing.

genesis  :      superheroes —  the script  (  no sound without silence  )      /     while it is often not seen, it is what edie experienced on his home planet that made him into a hero. it’s not that heroism is innate in his form, but something he grew to see as necessary after seeing such total destruction.     /      ‘cause he’s strong than you know, a heart of steel starts to grow. when you’ve been fighting for it all your life, you’ve been struggling to make things right, that’s how a superhero learns to fly. everyday, every hour, turn the pain into power.

rejection  [  adjustment  period,  part  iii  ]  :      save myself —  ed sheeran  (  divide  )      /     between being separated from the team and the strange series of attempts at connection after the exemplar was disbanded, edie found him on unsteady ground. it was a choice to keep himself save to isolate. yet, even as he kept himself separate from the world, he hoped a new one would call to him, or  (  even better  )  that he would be recalled to the team, taking up the mantle he had come to wear.      /      and all the ones that love me, they just left me on the shelf, no farewell. so before i save someone else, i’ve got to save myself. but if i don’t, then i’ll go back, to where i’m rescuing a stranger just because they needed saving just like that.

family  :      one of us —  new politics  (  lost in translation  )      /     when the team was together, they were like family to edie. he had traveled across the galaxy and was alone when he came to earth. while he had taken the entirety of the earth under his wing, at least in his mind, living with the members of the exemplar was the time he felt closest to those around him. a new family to make him feel less alone, and ease the lost of his own family, his own people. edie is loyal to the team, almost in excess. he has their backs no matter what.     /      is this your staring role or just a cameo? who are you living for? when can’t take no more, cause when it rains, it pours. i don’t got much, but i got heart and soul. everybody needs a place to call their home, everybody needs someone to call their own, every when you’re lonely, know you’re not along. you’re one of us, one of us, one of us.

isolation  :      over my head  (  cable car  )  —  the fray  (  how to save a life  )      /     there was a small feeling of betrayal that edie felt when he realized he didn’t quite pass among humans in the way he thought he did, wishing that someone would have told him sooner. maybe then he would have been able to learn the intricacies better before he was on his own again.      /      i never knew that everything was falling through, that everyone i knew was waiting on a cue, to turn and run when all i needed was the truth, but that’s how it’s got to be. it’s coming down to nothing more than apathy, i’d rather run the other way than stay and see, the smoke, and who’s still standing when it clears.

return  /  reunion  :      get better —  frank turner  (  positive songs for negative people  )      /     when edie returned to hq, it was with a feeling of hope. he was sure that this was what he needed. any problems that occurred while the team was on hiatus could be fixed. he’s ready to take on whatever the world throws at them with a brave face, and he’ll encourage his teammates to do the same.     /     i got no new tricks, yeah i’m up on bricks, but me, i’m a machine and i was built to last. i took a battering but i’ve got thicker skin and the best people i know looking out for me. i’m trying to get better because i haven’t been my best. try and get better and don’t ever accept less. take a plain black marker and write this on your chest, draw a line underneath all of this unhappiness. come on now, let’s fix this mess. we could get better, because we’re not dead yet.

nostalgia  :      lost in nostalgia —  the maine  (  lovely little lonely  )      /     even though he was never sure he would answer a call that took him from earth, it was the hope that he would hear one that kept edie from focusing too much on the past. he knew he had to keep looking forward, even if that meant looking somewhere else. yet, there were certainly moments when he slipped back into thinking about the good old days, probably more than he would like to admit.      /      don’t you get lost in nostalgia, no, turn something softer and lighter, yeah. don’t you get lost in nostalgia, no. it’s not too late, it’s not too late.

[dragimal]

TROS thoughts? TROS thoughts.

just some thoughts abt TROS and the trilogy as a whole. I don’t actively talk abt SW much so this’ll prolly be p disorganized, but I just wanted to throw some thoughts to the wind lmao. also thanks @cobwebbing for bullying me into watching TROS as quickly as possible and also yelling abt all these jumbled thoughts with/at me

overall I rly liked it! with a lot of criticisms! and I’ll expand under the cut

so, as usual, everything reylo was p spectacular. Rey trading off her light-saber to Kylo? that last bombastic kiss? Kylo fading into a force ghost to presumably reunite w/ his family? the mutual healing of one another-- and in particular, Kylo not only sharing his own life-force, but that which Rey had previously gifted him for the stab wound??? the DRAMA! the ROMANCE!! I was going absolutely (mentally) HOGWILD during those scenes, AAAAA I couldn’t have asked for better! Rey and Kylo are totally gonna have a force-ghost honeymoon and I’m here for it

my one big criticism w/ anything involving them was Palp being Rey’s grandad. Star Wars has always had weird hangups abt bloodlines, so it felt very fresh to see the protag be a whole-ass nobody-- u don’t need to come from some line of force-sensitive heroes/baddies to be somebody! ANYBODY can be somebody if they choose to be! yeah, she technically still renounced her “evil blood” to be a good person, but it felt a lot cheaper than just letting her be a nobody that chooses that path. I feel like there’s a nugget of good to be found in her adopting the Skywalker name at the end (y’all know I’m a sucker for adopted family~), but compounded w/ all the other hangups w/ bloodlines, it kinda felt like another affirmation that only Skywalkers can ever be the big important heroes or something, idk

that all said, I don’t hate Palp’s existence in TROS, I just don’t want him related to Rey in any way. tho his existence was still a bit awkward at parts (Snoke was a clone? who were all those cultists in the stands around the throne? how did he even survive the first trilogy?? hello???). but overall I rly liked the idea that the reason Sith kill their masters is for some reincarnation-death ceremony. when u hold that against the fresh new cast of heroes in this trilogy, you get this theme of, “evil ideals are always the same-- stagnant and unchanging. good must evolve and grow to combat it.” if that makes sense? I just rly like that implication

it was weird how easily Kylo seemed to drop any connection to Vader? like when Rey knocked Vader’s mask on the ground, I thought Kylo would either feel angry that she almost destroyed it, or betrayed by the reminder that he was never rly talking to Vader anyways, or SOMETHING, but he kinda just left it there in the snow? it was just strange, after all the build-up

now aside from anything involving Rey and Kylo, everything else was..... well, it was abt as I expected. which wasn’t good, coming off the heels of TLJ’s treatment of anyone that wasn’t Rey, Kylo, or Luke. while JJ and Rian do a fantastic job w/ reylo stuff, they seem to just let everything else fall to the wayside, which is unfortunate in a lot of ways

for one, Finn is one of my favorite characters in SW as a whole, and it’s heartbreaking to see his character arcs fall apart before they even start (post-TFA). he has so much depth and potential-- enough to even be the main protag, as some have pointed out. while I don’t agree that he’s a better foil to Kylo (and that’s not just my reylo bias, like they rly don’t have the same personality chemistry or thematic conflicts imo), I could totally see a SW trilogy centered around him instead (tho idk if I’d be able to properly doctor the script to THAT degree on my own... 🤔...)

either way, Finn’s potential was rly squandered the last two movies, and I’d love to see that rectified. I’ve always been disappointed that Finn immediately went to shooting other stormtroopers in TFA w/o any hint of hesitation, so I’d ideally like to give him some conflicted feelings during TFA to start off with. then, I’ve always thought his plot in TLJ should’ve been focused completely on stormtroopers-- no casino, no fox-horse racing or anything. he and Rose would IMMEDIATELY sneak onto the FO ship from the beginning of the movie as undercover stormtroopers, gathering info for the Resistance and trying to shut down the FO’s tracking tech, while also feeling out the thoughts of fellow stormtroopers. maybe some troopers would be gung-ho abt the FO, while others would like to rebel but are too scared, while others still had never considered the option of rebellion until Finn planted just a little seed for them. however, by the end of TLJ, his efforts might’ve *seemed* useless, like the FO might’ve killed off any defecting stormtroopers. then we’d hit TROS, and Finn might be a bit colder, and bit more willing to kill stormtroopers, b/c even if he could convert them, he wouldn’t be able to protect them, so he might as well end it as quickly as possible. but THEN he’d meet the former stormtroopers-- not just strangers this time, but some of the troopers he’d met while on the FO ship in the previous movie! they’d escaped, and his efforts weren’t for naught! his actions still mattered, and continue to matter as everyone moves forward!

also, can I just say, fucking weird that Finn’s suddenly force-sensitive?? I’m not necessarily against him being force-sensitive, but I’m attached to the idea of an important character that doesn’t have any significant connection to the force-- he was just a talented dude! but even then, I think I’d be more open to it if not for how it was introduced. apparently, the only reason he (or any stormtrooper, as far as we know) defected is b/c the force told them to. no personal decisions based on morals or logic or even basal fear, just some “force-instinct”. that’s just.... so insulting to his character and the potential for stormtroopers, I’m reeling lmfao

Poe is an interesting case for me b/c I don’t feel any particular way abt him. like, he’s fine? but I care far more abt reylo and Finn than I do Poe, so I haven’t put as much thought into how I’d change his arcs, BUT I do have a few ideas. since I’d nix Finn’s casino trip in TLJ, I’d have Poe kinda take the helm of that-- rather than a slow crawl thru space on low fuel, the Resistance’s problem would be their space-jumping tech (+ the FO tracking them of course), so they’d have plenty of fuel to jump, but for some reason they’d have to recharge or re-fix something after each jump? so it’s more like a lil space roadtrip for Poe’s plot, where he’s jumping the Resistance to different planets, hiding their ships somewhere before the FO catches on, and waiting until the can jump again to the next hiding spot. all the while, Poe’s keeping in touch w/ Finn, trying to keep the FO off their tails for just a little bit longer, or gathering info on their plans. I rly liked Poe’s TLJ arc of, “sacrificing a few for the cause is actually kinda shitty,” so I’d like to keep that, like maybe he makes a few risky decisions while running? and then later, when Finn tries to sacrifice himself to the FO’s canon (in this case b/c he thinks his efforts w/ the stormtroopers didn’t work, so maybe he can do just this one thing--), Poe’s like Oh Fuck No and smacks him outta the sky. so Poe has this moment like, “wow, perhaps I’m not as ok w/ all this sacrifice as I thought? also I might have a crush?😳” and then in TROS he’s coming to terms w/ his crush on Finn (and Zorii’s like, *nudges* “OH-HO??~”), but Finn’s still a bit broken up over how everything w/ the stormtroopers turned out in TLJ, so he’s been difficult to connect to. then when Finn meets the former stormtroopers, he gains back some of that confidence in connecting to others, and he finally *sees* Poe for the first time in a while and it’s all romantic and junk heheh

tbh I don’t actually feel particularly strongly abt finnpoe as a pairing, BUT I rly like the potential it has for Finn and Poe’s respective character arcs, and especially how it could so lovingly tie into TROS’ theme of, “we are only as strong as we are together, and together we can beat this.” unfortunately, that theme in and of itself is also kinda awkward coming on the heels of TLJ, where the Resistance was abandoned by the galaxy when there was only a small fleet of FO forces to deal with, yet the galaxy comes to aid when there’s a fuckin billion FO ships w/ PLANET-DESTROYING TECH on-board each?? I know the 2nd movie’s supposed to be a low point, but the huge turn-around in TROS just doesn’t make a whole lotta sense to me, and I don’t know how to fix that one lmao

Rose is.... a difficult one. I rly want to like her b/c I love Kelly and she has cute moments, but TLJ already didn’t give her a lot to work with, and she had insultingly little to do in TROS. I think that perhaps she’d work well as Poe’s thematic foil in TLJ? Rose’s sister was one of the ones sacrificed under Poe’s direction, so she prolly wouldn’t be too pleased w/ that, and would bring up counterpoints to Poe’s risky maneuvers w/ the Resistance whenever they check in w/ him. then when Poe goes to rescue Finn from the canon, Rose’s words are what play thru his head. for TROS, I’d gladly replace C3PO or Chewie (or both) w/ her, lmao. I can’t necessarily think of an arc for her, but TROS was already juggling so many anyways, I think it would’ve been fine for her to maybe be a lynch-pin for the squad-- someone trying to hold everyone together through these dire circumstances, but everything starts to fall apart... until some significant moment where she helps pull everyone back together, thus completing the theme of the film. also I would’ve felt FAR more distressed if it was Rose that was supposedly on the destroyed transport ship (tho that scene was already kinda stupid like... why couldn’t Rey sense that Chewie wasn’t on there... hm..)

the Hux betrayal was obvious even from as far back as TFA, but it was weird he was replaced by a nobody we never met before and don’t care abt lmfao. I mean I don’t rly care for Hux at all, but I care even less for this stranger who has no personality lmfao

[incognitowetrust]

I finally got this done. Now I can move on.

Bruhs I guess this technically has been, like, a month, huh? Fuck. 

Well, I know for most of you following me, this won’t be very relevant, but because I got into MK, I had to make two OCs. It took me a long ass time to make the references, because I wanted to have decent enough shading/coloring. I often spend a lot longer on the 1st drawing of a character, because I’ll be designing the character as I go along, and it’s all about planning out and making an idea into a actual image, which is why I often add a lot of detail, because it’s another thing that’s part of me thinking out and processing what I want the smaller details of a character to be like. 

Well... I hope you can get some enjoyment outta this friggin’ mess. Lol, now proceed to watch me never draw or use these characters again. Jk Jk... probably. 

Adding the text details and backstory garbage under the “read more”.

Naknada OC, “Strayer” also known as “Mama”:

Personality: Difficulty trusting others, solitary, critical, resentful towards greed, resentful towards Outworld, respects the shaolin, soft spot for children and young adults, surprisingly caring.

Fighting style: She doesn’t like opponents to get within stabbing or grabbing distance, that’s probably why she gravitated towards using a halberd, which has some reach to it, as well as a whip, which can be used to snag or snap at foes. Knives always have their uses, so she carries those as well. Due to being self-preservative, she would rather avoid dangerous situations, but she’s no coward, and will fight tooth and nail if she has to. 

Overview: Strayer is a female naknada who was originally a slave in Outworld. She once had a son, and though being slaves is obviously a rough life, Strayer wasn’t willing to attempt an escape or something of that sort in fear of the punishments she or her son could face. Her son was quicker to break obedience, and became extremely defiant, as well as being a troublemaker, which ultimately caused him to get killed. Distraught, and deciding she had nothing left to lose, Strayer lost much of the fear that kept her in line, and decided she was going to leave her slave life one way or another, even if it was death. She managed to escape, and, figuring she was pretty much done with Outworld altogether, decided she’d be better off if she fled to Earthrealm. Not that she expected to meld with human groups or anything, far from it, it was more of a matter of her believing Earthrealm would be an easier place for her to be safe in. Before she did move to Earthrealm, she spent a while gathering and stealing supplies, some of which included items with magic properties, so that when she left Outworld to be a loner she would feel at least a bit more prepared. 

It had only been in earthrealm a matter of days before Strayer encountered Kitty, who was only around 6 years old at the time. Strayer’s reaction to Kitty was perhaps comparable to how humans react to finding orphaned baby animals (in fact, based off of this and Kitty’s name, Strayer sometimes refers to Kitty as “kitten”). Other species babies are always cuter after all. It wouldn’t be hard to argue that as a naknada, Strayer’s decision to take in Kitty could have been motivated by greed, but she would have helped Kitty regardless, she is far from heartless and if she acts selfish, it is likely from self preservation and survival, not greed. After all, Strayer was once a mother, she doesn’t want to see children getting hurt, and wasn’t willing to assume that the next person who might stumble across Kitty would be benevolent. 

Strayer would have returned Kitty to her family, but upon inquiring to the young girl about the circumstances of her situation, Kitty confirmed that she didn’t really have anyone she could turn to (or at least, that’s what she thought. Jun Shi had a lot of recovery to do, and was a lot more of a brotherly than fatherly figure, but he would have attempted to watch over her). With that, Strayer basically adopted Kitty right then and there. She isn’t an outwardly affectionate type, but got attached to her new weird daughter very quickly. At first, she attempted to discourage Kitty from calling her “Mama”, but when she got used to it, she simply accepted it as another name. 

Mama now takes her protective role pretty seriously. Sure, there is technically some selfishness in how she is overprotective of Kitty, sometimes it may be difficult to decide if some of her behaviors are protective or possessive, but ultimately she cares a lot about Kitty, and does make efforts to keep her happy. She does feel some guilt around the fact that due to their lifestyle, and often strict rules, contributes to Kitty often feeling lonely from being largely isolated from other people, but Strayer tries to do whatever she feels is best for both of them. She is distrusting towards the world (er… worlds), having had come from such a rough background, and does not believe she can rely on others to help or protect her. 

Knowing that there very well could be a time when she cannot keep Kitty safe herself, Mama Strayer at one point made the decision to move to and stay around the Henan province. Strayer isn’t exactly someone who socializes easily, so she doesn’t like to get “too” close to where the shaolin monks are… but she actually has a bit of a soft spot for them, considering them a trustworthy group of people. Strayer has instructed Kitty that if a dire situation should arise, she should flee to the shaolin. 

Human/earthrealmer OC, “Kitty”, also known as “Kit”, “Kitten”, and “Gilder”: 

Personality: Open, friendly, fearful of loss, fearful of electricity and deep water, lonely, blunt, well-meaning, innocent and a little naive but not entirely dumb, can be goofy and flirty, dislikes blatantly selfish people. 

Fighting style: She uses her gold magic to smash, pound, burn, melt, and jab her opponents. She’ll throw whatever she’s got. Opponents within close proximity had best watch out for her molten metal vomit, she can spew it at will. She has a habit of going all-out, but over time will tire, which will leave her with more vulnerable openings to be countered by an opponent who has high endurance or evasive skills. 

Overview: Kitty Gow Gilder was originally born in Scotland. Her mother (Maisie Gilder) also had magic to manipulate metal, but didn’t produce gold. However, it’s safe to assume that Kitty most likely inherited the gold trait from somewhere in her family line. Her parents weren’t fighters, instead opting to use metal magic to assist in their metal smithing/crafting. Kitty’s father (Gavin Gow) passed away when she was a toddler, and her mother remarried a few years later. The stepfather was Chinese (Cheng Li), and, seeing the idea of moving to a new region as a good way to have a new start, Kitty’s family moved to China, and took up residence in a modest village, where Kitty’s mother continued metalworking, and Kitty’s stepfather made elixirs with all sorts of uses, as well as overseeing the growth of two pupils. The stepfather didn’t have any children of his own, and was perfectly happy to see his stepdaughter and pupils as his children. 

Kitty’s young childhood was stable and decent for a few more years, but when she was six, both her mother and stepfather died via a betrayal from one of the stepfather’s pupils (Qi Fan), who attempted to frame the other pupil (Jun Shi) so he could succeed their master. Kitty’s mother got sick, which wasn’t all serious, but Jun Shi wanted to make her feel better anyway so made an elixir to do just that, however, Qi Fan poisoned it, resulting in Maisie dying. But things didn’t really go as planned, and Kitty’s stepfather and Jun Shi figured out that something was up… so, long story short-ish, “shit went down” at Kitty’s family’s house, and during the skirmish Cheng Li was killed. Kitty was present for the event, and was beyond a state of panic and confusion. She hardly knew how to use her magic yet, but the surge of adrenaline and fear caused her to projectile vomit a large amount of molten metal, which nearly killed Qi Fan, but he survived, and was driven away to flee in agony. Jun Shi has been terribly injured by Qi Fan, and though he did survive after his fellow villagers came to his aid, he had fallen unconscious, to Kitty appearing dead, and she didn’t stay around long enough to see him be safe.

Confused, disoriented, and so frightened she hardly understood what was going on or what to do, she fled from her house and into the forest outside of the village, and subsequently wandered aimlessly, and became lost. Though, she did not believe she had anyone to turn to regardless. 

She found aid from an unlikely source when she crossed paths with Strayer by accident. Both were pretty surprised at each other, but considering how scary a naknada look to some children, Kitty wasn’t startled at all. Due to the fresh trauma, it took her time to climb out of a shocked, exhausted, and frightened shell that had left her struggling to even think or speak straight, but her condition improved dramatically after Strayer took her into her tent, fed her, and allowed her a safe place to have a hard sleep. 

Kitty struggled with stress and grief early on in Strayer’s care, by no fault of Strayer of course, she was troubled from what she had to go through. Over time, she found happiness again as she and Strayer became comfortable around one another, and slowly developed their own type of family. The first times Kitty referred to Strayer as “Mama” were actually accidental, the same way a kid might slip up and call a teacher “mom”, but after a few years Kitty started saying it in earnest. 

Her life wasn’t perfect, but Kitty settled into her new existence pretty well. She and Mama Strayer took care of one another, and lived in their own sense of “normal”. Having a good deal of spare time on her hands, Kitty spent hours a day self-educating herself on how to use her gold magic through experience. She never received much in terms of formal training to fight besides whatever advice and guidance Mama could offer, but she gained enough self control to which she could fight and hold her own. Since she has reached adulthood, Strayer has allowed Kitty to have a little more independence, though she is strongly discouraged from being overly friendly towards strangers. She is especially discouraged from flirting… yeah, no bringing dudes home to the tent or staying overnight anywhere. Kitty complies with most of Mama’s rules, with the understanding that Mama has a lot more life experience, and has never really done anything to her that would give her a reason to distrust her, so she tries to keep a good level of self-awareness with her actions. Despite not being able to know a lot of people, Kitty still wants to be friendly, so does this by secretly giving people gifts, often gold, or made of gold. She has a want to be helpful and kind, or to at least make people happy, even if she doesn’t get to see it all the time. Like Mama Strayer. She has a strong dislike for greed, if someone was to hound her for gold, namely if that person doesn’t need it, she may possibly respond with violence. If someone in need comes to her out of desperation, she will likely not respond with aggression, but demand that if she grants the person the gold they ask for, that they do not speak of it or her. 

 Item guide. 

1 and 2- Bags

Strayer/Mama and Kitty each have their own bag they use to carry useful items in. While the bags' space is not infinite, they bear a magic property that allows them to carry a lot more than they look like they should. Strayer/Mama is not above stealing items she feels like she needs to. After meeting Kitty, her need to steal in order to get by decreased significantly, since the two can use gold to trade for pretty much whatever necessities they need. Though, ol' Mama Strayer still maintains a certain level of social avoidance. Despite the often distrusting naknada being overprotective towards Kitty, as an earthrealmer if the two gotta speak with earthrealmers, Kitty naturally has the home field (and resting friendly-face) advantage, and Strayer accepts that being glued to Kitty 100% of the time may do more damage than good. The two only part ways for short periods of time when they do, and remain within a reasonable distance. They're rather nomadic, as well as preferring to keep a low profile. Kitty often feels lonely and isolated, due to the lack of people she actually gets to be friendly towards. 

3- Peanut butter and honey

Kitty has a fondness for honey and peanut butter. When Kit was younger, Mama would let her have a spoonful here and there as a treat for good behavior. 

4- Some whistles

A whistle is a good item to have if you need to get someone’s attention in a pinch. Sometimes it’s easier than yelling, and Strayer and Kitty don’t want an avoidable accident killing or badly hurting either of them, so they usually each bring a whistle with them if they have to be out of eyesight of each other, so that if one gets hurt, the other can rush to help. 

5- “eyebaubles”

A pair of magic trinkets. Two people each carrying one can see what the other is doing, or at least get an idea, because one eye shows what’s in eyesight of the other, and vice versa. 

6- Tenthouse

The set up tent that Strayer and Kitty use as a house a good deal of the time. Like the bags, it is bigger on the inside than the outside. Strayer doesn’t bother collecting tons of items she does not consider useful, but she has collected some wall hangings to make the makeshift house more customized and homey. The tent cannot be taken down while there are sentient beings occupying it. Otherwise, when the tent needs to be moved, it will disappear when the anchoring spikes are removed. To set up the tent, someone simply needs to get one spike in the ground, and the other three will move to the appropriate placement on their own. 

7- Purification flask

A container with magic properties. It purifies water to a crystal clear high quality. Water filtered in this flask may assist in keeping wounds safe from infection if poured on, or soaked into the wound. 

8- Sewing and knitting

Both Mama Strayer and Kitty know how to sew and knit, though Mama is better at it. 

9 and 10- Bouncey ball, and Kitty’s doodlepad and crayons 

Strayer wasn’t always obvious about gestures of affection towards Kitty, but one thing she did regular give Kitty as a child were toy balls with a good bounce (because Kitty liked seeing how high she could launch them), and basic drawing supplies. Though grown up, Kitty still enjoys making drawings with crayons. 

11- Gold objects

While a lot of the gold Kitty produces comes in the form of molten metal and chunky nuggets, she is able to manipulate her gold with a decent level of skill. She likes making little figurines of people and animals, and she can also mimic/print her own coins. Though she does not get to socialize a ton, sometimes she’ll sneak little gifts to people in the form of objects she has made, or non-specific shaped gold if she is not carrying a region’s usual currency and feels like someone deserves a bit of money. Strayer has mixed feelings about Kitty secretly gifting people, because she likes that Kitty is good hearted, but is concerned that Kitty may draw unwanted attention to herself if she isn’t careful. 

12- Kitty’s gold magic

Kitty is by no means a violent person, and she does not look particularly threatening either. However, over the years she has figured out and honed her magic pretty well, and if she ever needed to defend herself from an attacker, she’s far from completely helpless. Gold, being a heavy but soft metal, is not the best metal to make stabby things with, but because she can mix in an alloy of other metals, she can harden her gold up enough where she could make a good jabbin’ spike. She is better at simply forming big chunks of heavy gold and battering foes with it, because she can lift her gold with a good deal of ease even if she couldn’t lift another object of the same weight. One of her more nasty offensive moves would be related to her magic also being able to manipulate molten gold. She can spew large amounts of the hot melted material from her mouth, and will willingly projectile vomit on someone she deems as being too much of a threat. She will “clean up” after herself and cause gold to break down and poof into dust, which could be needed if she had to hide any evidence of her having been somewhere. She doesn’t typically wear footwear, since keeping metal on her feet acts as a makeshift shoe via being harder than skin. 

Kitty’s hands, feet, mouth, and insides can heat up. She is more temperature resistant than an unprotected average human, but extreme temperatures aside from her own can pose a threat to her without much trouble. She has a fear of lightning and electricity, because she is naturally a strong conductor. 

[cometeclipsewriting]

Strowlers

Season 1: Episode 1

Chapter 1

AO3 Link

Summary: In a world where magic is both real and illegal, a librarian tries to help protect a young girl discovering her powers, while her girlfriend makes a device that helps to find unregistered magic users.

Full video episode can be found for free here!

You want the truth? I think the old magic found it’s way back into our world in a dream.

Just a dream. Nothing more.

***

A typical grey Seattle sky spread unbroken over the Yesler Branch of the Seattle Public Library. Birds sang in the trees of the old neighborhood, plants green and lush from moderate summer rains. From the early morning quiet, a young woman strode up the brick walkway of the library, dancing slightly to music playing through her headphones. She bopped and swayed as she paused. Coming strong or weak, stand and face your equal, and we’ll turn this world around. SJ Tucker was a goddess.

Whit smiled as she moved to the new album her girlfriend had surprised her with. Amanda didn’t always get her taste, but she made the effort to try. Even though it was Amanda’s big week. Her presentation should be starting any time now. Whit made a face, a bad taste growing in her mouth at just the thought of A.R.C. That soulless organization. Thankfully Amanda wasn’t like the Preceptors; she was a beloved professor and a skilled researcher.

Shaking away her pall, Whit pulled her silver compact from her backpack, checking herself. Her bright yellow beanie rested on her tight ringlets and small braids, framing an oval face. Only a little eyeliner and mascara used to enhance the dark brown of her eyes and scattered little moles. In the circle of the mirror, her smile was hidden, reflected eyes serious and masked. This was her ritual, she supposed. With a snap she closed the compact and slipped it back into place. Collected and settled, she walked up the steps to the library.

“Hey, Pepper,” Whit flashed a smile to her boss, the small woman already at work behind her computer. “Where should I start today?” She slipped into her shared desk space, quickly logging in. Their desks were in the entrance to the open foyer, Pepper’s lovely smile and incredible depth of knowledge ready to aid any knowledge seekers. Whit had been a librarian for a while, but she fully acknowledged that she had a long way to go to catch up to Pepper’s knowledge.

Pepper straightened, her bangle bracelet clinking softly as she brushed her hair from her face. “Hey, sugar.” Her smile lit up her timeless beauty with a welcoming glow. “Maybe get the holds started?”

“Sure thing,” Whit slipped her badge over her head, fluffing her hair out from under the lanyard and started towards the task.

“Oh,” Pepper pulled her attention back, “You still want to take the first story time today?”

Whit smiled crookedly and reached down into her backpack and pulled out a worn book, the binding fraying and pages well loved. Another gift from Amanda, from when they had first started dating. A lucky and rare find from Twice Sold Tales, she had been told. “Got it covered.” Reading aloud was one of Whit’s favorite jobs at the library, she almost always volunteered to adopt silly voices and encourage the kids to play. Plus, she and the regulars had been slowly working their way through the unusual collection encased within the pages.

“Fairy tales,” Pepper’s blue eyes went distant for a moment, a memory taking her away. Whit always bit back the urge to ask where she went in these moments. Pepper certainly had more wisdom, more history, than anyone she had met before. But she never asked; delving into other’s lives wasn’t something she did. They might want to return the favor.

Pepper’s smile broadened again, eyes crinkling in genuine warmth. “Always an excellent choice. Children always need some truth in their world.”

Whit nodded and faked a smile, turning to get to work. Very seldomly were fairy tales truth. She would have magic if it were.

“The Goldfinch and the Magic Mirror.” Whit sat on the floor of the second level, holding up a book to display the detailed illustrations to the gathered children, reading aloud in a dramatic voice. “A bird catcher’s daughter was checking traps along a stream and found a goldfinch ensnared. As the girl was about to drop the bird into her bag, it spoke. ‘Human child, show me mercy. My family will starve if I can’t fly home to feed them.’”

The children were entranced, eyes trained on the librarian, mouths slightly parted in concentration to reveal missing and pre-braces teeth. Their wriggles of childhood were settled into crossed legs, one little girl held her bracelets over her eyes, imagination glasses to better see the story unfolding. Parents sat in comfortable chairs around the outside of the circle, listening in relaxed detachment.

“’Free me, and I will show you a secret wonder.’” Whit paused her narrative and looked at the children, lifting an eyebrow in question. “Should she do it?”

Immediately hands shot up, waving in eagerness to be picked for such an important task. Whit suppressed the smile that tried to break through, keeping to the gravity of the moment. She pointed to one of the little boys in front, “Omar.”

His grin grew bigger, and he nodded emphatically, “Yes!”

“Really?” Whit drew out the word, “Do you all think she should do it?” Chimes of mostly agreement came from the diverse little crowd, but there was one who shook her head in a silent no.

Whit whispered mysteriously, “Let’s see.” She turned back to the old book. “The girl was very curious and loved to have secrets to keep from her sisters.” A few giggles from sympathetic siblings floated through the air. “So, she let the bird go. Away it flew, as fast as it could, deep into the forest. ‘Wait!’ the girl cried, ‘wait for me!’ The bird fluttered from oak to elm, and the forest grew dark and menacing.”

Unseen to all but one pair of young eyes, the library started to darken, a purple mist creeping into life around the sitting storyteller and her audience. “A wind rose and chilled the girl’s skin,” leaves rolled down the aisles of books, their rustling unheard except for by little ears. “And in the distance, she could hear the howl of wolves.” Shadows of branches moved along the ceiling, chilling howls underlying Whit’s voice.

Whit continued on, adopting a frightened tone, “Oh little goldfinch, I-I’m scared. I wanna go home.” An indigo light highlighted the young face, her only betrayal of her ability to see the forest from the story was in the flickering of wary eyes. She slowly took in the new surroundings and to the children bound by the magic of the story. Omar in particular; his eyes fixated on the book. “The bird stopped and looked at her, its eyes dark and cold. ‘How can I show you wonder if you are afraid of the forest,’ it said.”

To the girl, they were no longer in the library building. Bookshelves faded into the depths of a forest, becoming more translucent with each passing word. The carpet melted into leaves and twigs, little mysterious lights flickering and heavy shadows moving in the distance. Yet none of the others saw what she did.

Whit’s voice deepened in urgency, “’You must run now, night is falling, and the wolves are on the hunt!’”

***

The clinical beep of machines was the loudest noise in the sterile room. A man, his antiseptic clothing inline with the room, was strapped into a specialized chair. Chest, wrists and ankles bound tight. On either side of his temples, the machine waited.

The man sat patiently, anticipation and trepidation mixing as he awaited the next step of his career. It was finally time for his Focusing. Rubber clad hands went to the metal collar around Recruit 291’s neck, the locking mechanism opening for the technician, and she removed it for the first time since it had been put on.

Immediately his magic was released, exploding from suppressed energy into all the rooms surrounding him. Monitors fizzled, warnings displayed of the danger of the psychodynamic breach. But it was expected, the facilities built for just such occurrences, and the technician continued with her work.

“Oh god,” he whispered, fear and awe roiling. A smile vied with terror, eyes flickering around the scenery his magic transported to him. A forest, deep and varied, with life and secrets. His throat caught, the fear leaving him as he knew it again. Knew the magic. No more theoretical study of his power, no more memories of what it had been like before the collar had been placed on him. Now he saw it, felt it down to his soul.

Joy and sorrow rose twofold. “It’s beautiful,” he whispered through his trembling smile, tears springing to his eyes. And knew that he would never feel either duality again.

Separated by a mirror in an adjoining room, two men in A.R.C. suits stood motionless. Dispassionately, they observed the emotional man, feeling the energy strain from him and cause the high-tech electronics to crackle and blink. The smaller of the two looked to his senior to decide how to handle the situation.

Behind both, a woman stood back against the wall, uncomfortable and slightly frightened. But she made no sound, mute as she observed the path her future would lead her to. She touched slightly trembling fingers to her lips and breathed deeply.

Decisively, the senior member reached out towards the window, his hand making a grasping motion in the air. On the other side of the glass, the magic faded until only a little sphere remained as the arcanologist exerted control over it. The suppression was enough to snap Recruit 291 out of his emotions. He calmed, still watching what was revealed before him.  “I see a door opening,” he panted, concentrating. “A forest. A library. It’s all the library.”

The technician came back to him, a mouthguard in hand, protection for the procedure he is about to go through. His emotions got the better of him, the importance of what he saw making him struggle with his confinement, pushing himself as far from her as possible. His determined gaze locked onto the man suppressing his chaotic magic. “Director Rodrigo. It’s a Level Five anomaly. At the Yessler library.”

No hint of reaction crossed the Preceptor’s face nor pulled at the scars at his temples. He remained as he was, hand held out. But the woman behind him blanched, her skin paling even more. And around her throat, her utilitarian collar blinked rhythmically blue.

The smaller man, Director Rodrigo, pulled out an old-fashioned walkie, calmly relaying the message. “Code 37. Yessler library.”

In the room, Recruit 291 calmed, accepted the mouthguard and his future.

***

A few short minutes later, men in SWAT gear, rifles at the ready marched into the library. The white logo of A.R.C. was stamped onto the black of their left shoulder. Leading the team, an arcanologist strode in boldly, his uniform proclaiming to everyone who he was. An Enforcer. A witchhunter. He halted between the front desks, an intimidation tactic with his armed men. Behind the desk, one of Whit’s coworkers froze, terror on his face, and he shrunk down into his chair. Silence followed them; everyone knew to stay out of A.R.C.’s way. But Pepper stood instead, noiselessly watching as the arcanologist took a moment, waiting for something. The feel of magic being worked. A moment later he caught it, and he slowly looked up to the second level, arching a finger towards the ceiling. His men moved out, bringing rifles to their shoulders and quietly moving towards the stairs. An overweight cop tried to blend with the group, his hand on his gun. He was there for protocol, supposedly the higher authority, but everyone knew that A.R.C. were the ones who were really in control. The Enforcer swept wide, eyes creeping dispassionately over Pepper, his scars stark on sallow temples, and dismissed her, falling in with his team.

Upstairs, Whit continued to read from her fairy tales, “The girl ran and ran, but the bird flew further ahead of her.”

Pepper’s worried expression followed the last of the team disappear around the curve of the stairs. She looked to her employee, saw his terrified state, and she slipped from behind her desk to follow their path.

“Now she could hear the wolves making tracks ever closer, swift and strong.”

The policeman now had his weapon out as well, the armed members of the A.R.C. team crouched and stealthy as they slipped down the aisles of books, heading towards Whit’s voice. And the Enforcer strode forward confidently, he could feel the magical energy of the one they were coming to find.

Pepper slowly ascended the stairs, making sure to stay out of sight, slipping along the shelves she loved. She knew, repeatedly knew, that this would not end happily. She needed to be close by.

“Suddenly,” Whit continued oblivious to the approach, “she broke into a clearing, and there in the very center was the goldfinch, perched on the rim of a small golden mirror.”

To the girl listening, she could see the other children around her, could see Whit and the illustrations of the book. And the forest, the forest spreading wide around them, everyone else disappearing from their sphere. She didn’t know anyone was approaching. Didn’t know that there was someone who could feel the energy of her magic.

“Having sympathy for the girl’s plight, the bird whispered, ‘The wolves only want your body, not your soul.’”

“GET ON THE GROUND!” One of the men shouted at the gathered children, rifle aimed at them.

Immediate chaos exploded. The carefully balanced magic exploded in fragments, as uncontrolled as children's screams. Some fell to the ground, terrified. Others raced to their parents, throwing themselves into arms that had protected them in the past. “Hands above your head!” Lights flickered and popped, wind rustled, and a girl dashed into one of the side aisles, dropping to hide behind the scant protection.

Whit whirled around on her knees, throwing her arms out wide to block as many kids as possible, trying to figure out just what was happening. Behind her Omar sat up still, his hands held in the air in the universal sign of innocence. “Get on the ground!” The armed man screamed at Whit again, his gun right in her face. Cries filled the library, and Whit dropped down to her stomach, frantically trying to see all the A.R.C. team at once.

Another armed man moved behind Omar, his gun pointed to the lower back of the child. Omar sat frozen still, hands held rigid, magical energy crackling wildly around him. He couldn’t move, bound in terror, in the effects of uncontrolled magic. Frightened, he stared unseeing ahead of him.

This was when the Enforcer stepped forward, fanatical eyes trained on the little black boy. He lifted his hand, splayed his fingers, and Omar dropped, unconscious, to sprawl on the ground.

Pepper crawled further down the aisle she had slipped along and was able to make eye contact with Whit. She silently mouthed, “What did you do?”

Whit shook her head slightly, lifting one flattened palm slightly in a motion of rejection. She hadn’t done anything. No one had done anything. There hadn’t been any magic, nothing strange had happened. No reason for arcanologists to be here… right?

Out of the corner of her eye, a flash made her look to the side. A leaf?

She frowned, and then focused past it. Peeking out behind a little gap in the bookshelves, just over the top of the books, her eyes connected with another’s. Scared eyes, young, dark. They locked gazes for a quick moment, but Whit looked away, not giving a clue that there was something of interest to be investigated. Hopefully she hadn’t given anything away.

The girl knew she had to keep hiding. She could still feel the remnants of her magic, tried to hold it and suppress it. They would find her if she didn’t control it, hide it. A breeze ruffled her hair, sucked more leaves away from her. Slowly, inexorably, she looked to where she was being drawn. There it was. There He was. Full of power and magic.

A boy, fair blond hair in a haphazard cut fell over delicate features. His knowing, cocky grin was echoed in the casual way he leaned against the shelves, out in the open, one foot crossed over the other. He knew that no one else would be able to see him. He had no need to hide. Tattered leggings and a leather vest adorned his slim frame, a mysterious pouch hung on his hip. She swallowed. There was something about him she instinctively knew. He was not of this world. His smile grew just a hint wider.

In the cluster of prone bodies, the Enforcer nodded slightly to the police officer, the man looking far out of his depth. He accepted the illusion of leadership, now that the Enforcer had given it to him, and gestured to the unconscious Omar. “Collar him,” he said as he put his gun away.

The man who had continued to train his rifle on the boy now stepped forward, pulled a temporary collar from his pocket, and carelessly lifted Omar’s head to slip it under his neck.

Incensed, Whit looked up at the two leaders, “What are you doing?” She demanded. Another of the team reached down and pulled her badge out, checking her credentials. He grabbed her by the jacket shoulder, hauling her up just as the other locked Omar’s restraint collar into place, twin red lights burning on.

Anger boiled in Whit’s veins. She had to do something. They were going to take Omar; she knew the stories. She glanced around, looking for something, anything… and realized she somehow was still holding onto her book of fairy tales.

She kicked her chin up, raising the book into the air as the man still held her roughly in place. “Need some fuel for your next book burning, gentlemen?” She forced her sarcasm and anger into the words, belligerent. Maybe they would forget about Omar if she angered them enough.

It certainly got their attention. The cop and Enforcer both made some sort of gesture, and the man holding her pushed her forward. She would be going with them.