#which I guess is because he isn’t his son…..he’s a golem

[enjolbear]

this show is so fucked up dude. why is this a KIDS SHOW.

[lelliefant]

If you want to know why the Loki fandom has drifted away, just look at what Disney/Marvel did to him.

He was incredibly powerful—they made him weak and helpless.

He was smarter than everyone else—they made him a fool.

He was a prince—they made him a corporate office drone. They literally put him in a cubicle.

Loki was an alien—they made him an ordinary guy.

He was flamboyant and colorful—they put him in beige. They actually made him act as if he was excited to wear a beige uniform.

The real Loki would never have tolerated a uniform of any sort, much less something so bland. He was never a soldier or a cog in the wheel. Loki is the piston.

Loki was a deeply wounded, angst-driven son with complex motivations—Disney made him an uncaring narcissist who suddenly sees the error of his ways (in one episode) and has a total personality swipe.

Loki was iconoclastic—they made him ordinary.

They took the most interesting and volatile character in the MCU and warped him into an Everyman role, and somehow everyone bought it. Apparently because they used the same actor with the same face—?

Really think about it. If another actor had started playing Loki for the series, they couldn’t have pulled it off. Series Loki is not the same character as Loki from Thor 1, Avengers 1, and Thor 2. He’s as different as the moviemakers in charge of the productions are. (The directors of Avengers 1 and Thor 2, Joss Whedon and Alan Taylor, simply had the grace and humility to take their cue from the original vision of Kenneth Branagh.)

If you don’t actually pay attention to Loki’s character, motivations, logical action, or his history, and you’re only interested in being entertained, I guess it doesn’t matter. This is just a superhero movie character, so who cares if they turned him inside out to conform with a simpler, less challenging archetype?

He’s their property, after all. They can use him however they want to. If they want to chew him up and spit him out as a naive, lovelorn mensch because that’s the Disney protagonist formula, they can and will. If they want to put him into a buddy-cop procedural, as if he were an ordinary human person whose shtick is a magic kit, they can.

A lot of you who are constantly defending the Loki Series are not really thinking about it. Maybe you’re just happy he has a show to his name. Maybe you don’t care; you just want more “content.” Maybe you don’t want someone spoiling your fun.

Maybe you think you’re being the loyal crowd by “defending” Loki. You’re not seeing that Disney did worse than kill him off—they unmade him. They put the God of Mischief into a blender with the Disney formula, audience response data, standard storytelling tropes, a limited range of plot lines, and a great deal of money, and out came this golem with Loki’s face on it.

You might revile me for saying all this because that’s easier than facing the truth or questioning the Powers That Be. There will always be people who can’t tolerate having their beliefs challenged.

I have seen nastiness on this hellsite toward people who question and protest what the majority accepts—but that’s just a reflection of the real world. It’s never going to work out well for those of us who see things differently and who don’t shut up about it. So, why do we keep annoying everyone with our dissenting opinions?

In my case it’s because I actually do care about Loki. I care enough to tell the unpopular truth, as I see it. Because, to me, Loki isn’t just an MCU character. He is representation.

He was a survivor of abuse and scapegoating by his own family. He was an outsider who defied convention and took on great challenges, despite everyone in his world trying to push him down. He shirked the role he was forced to play and chose to define himself instead. He saw the hate and scorn directed at him from all sides and laughed.

He struck out on his own into the unknown—which is incredibly hard to do, even if you had been given the support to believe in yourself.

The Loki Series did get one thing right: Loki is a survivor. He’s survived misinterpretations before, and he will survive Disneyfication. Maybe the public will tolerate a warped mischaracterization of him for a while before they lose interest, but the God of Mischief prevails. Thor1 Loki will always be there, smirking triumphantly from the shadows.

[jcspacey]

Frankenstein’s Brother Spoilers

OH GOSH I FORGOT I SAID I WOULD DO THIS. 

So, there’s a two book series written by Annette Shelley called Frankenstein’s Brother that retells the story of Frankenstein but from Ernest’s point of view. In the second book we learn what happened to Ernest after the events of the original novel. 

Spoilers under the cut!

(Warnings: mentions of death, murder, child murder, miscarriage, and disfigurement)

There isn’t too much to say about the first book since we all already know the story of Frankenstein. 

There is a scene when Ernest is about 11 or 12 where he finds his father’s pistol and accidentally fires it, barely missing William. Alphonse and Elizabeth are furious with him and they... never forgive him?? I understand being angry at first but they weirdly hold this grudge for years even though he was just a kid and made a mistake. 

Also Henry has a thing for Elizabeth. While Victor is at Ingolstadt, Henry comes to the house and professes his love for Elizabeth and insists that Victor isn’t coming back. But Elizabeth is having none of it and tells Henry to go away because she “belongs to Victor.” And so Elizabeth hates Henry for the rest of her life :/

While Victor and Henry are traveling, the family hires someone to replace Justine. Her name is Adela and she later becomes Ernest’s wife. 

Okay, onto book 2! This one is called “Ernest”

It begins with after the deaths of Elizabeth and Alphonse, with Victor locked up in an asylum. Eventually Victor is released and he comes home with Ernest, but the dude’s lost his mind.

Then Ernest and Adela get married, and her siblings (two brothers and two sisters) move into the Frankenstein’s home. Eventually Victor leaves for the arctic.

Adela gets pregnant, but then has a miscarriage. Then Ernest becomes obsessed with having children to continue to Frankenstein bloodline. Obsessed with creating life, hmm?

Then Ernest gets a letter from Robert Walton telling him of Victor’s death and asking to meet with him. Ernest is skeptical because at this point in the story he’s pretty much convinced Victor is the one who killed all his family and that he’s completely insane and that Victor wrote the letter himself. But Adela convinces him to meet up with Walton in Paris.

Robert and Ernest meet up and Robert’s like, “your brother was the most angelic, amazing person I ever met” and Ernest’s all like, “lol man who did you meet because Victor was the worst” and they kind of argue for a bit and Ernest decides that he doesn’t like Robert Walton at all D: (What I don’t understand is why Walton doesn’t explain what actually happened to the Frankensteins instead of getting angry at Ernest for trash talking Victor, because Ernest doesn’t know what the frick is going on and Walton should know that).

But anyway, if you’re concerned that they are meeting in Paris during the late 1700s... you definitely should be because the next thing that happens is an explosion that severely disfigures Ernest’s face! AAAAAA

He takes months to recover, and once word of his condition reaches Adela, she comes to visit. The doctors remove his bandages and big surprise, Adela freaks the heck out because now he’s ugly :/

Ernest travels home with Adela who is pregnant. The children of course freak out at his appearance as well, and Adela is disgusted by him.

Then one day, Ernest is sitting outside alone and can you guess who he meets? That’s right, the creature! At first, their meeting goes well. They bond over their shared ugliness. Ernest asks what to call him, and the creature asks to be called Adam. But very quickly Ernest discovers that Adam was the one who killed his entire family and he ain’t too happy about that. Then finally, finally, Ernest learns that it was Victor who created Adam because Adam tells him. 

Ernest goes to Victor’s old room and finds his journal and reads how he brought Adam to life. 

Then Adela gives birth to their child, who they name Victor Alphonse Frankenstein. Which is an interesting name considering Ernest’s feelings toward Victor, but apparently Adela insisted upon that name.

Anyway, Adam then requests that Ernest build him a mate, just like he had asked Victor to do. And if he doesn’t do it, he threatens to kill Ernest’s wife, child, nieces, and nephews. But this time his requests makes no sense because Ernest doesn’t know squat about reanimating corpses! 

But Adam is persistent, so Ernest travels to Ingolstadt to try to figure out how on earth to fulfill his request. But then Adam is like, “jk, I was actually just testing you and I actually have an idea for how you can make me a companion.”

They travel to Prague where an ancient Rabbi once lived who made a man out of clay and animated him to guard the city, but it went on a rampage so the Rabbi deactivated it. Adam requests that Ernest create a female for him in the same manner. But Ernest plans to reanimate the original golem in the hopes that it would destroy Adam. He does this, but it all blows up in his face and Adam is furious. Adam tells Ernest he will murder his family.

They both race back to Geneva, but Adam gets there first. Adam and Golem join forces and murder Ernest’s niece and two nephews. Then they leave together. So... Adam found a friend? yay...?

Adela is obviously horrified by what happened and blames Ernest for everything. She takes their son and his remaining niece and leaves him forever.

Then Ernest wraps up his narrative with a warning to his readers to avoid lust, greed, and power. He then vows to hunt down Adam and kill him. The End.

[apothecarinomicon]

Spring week 1 part 2

It was, in fact, someone looking for my help. Aidan Bankhead, one of the bakers in town (so he introduced himself), stood there practically filling up the doorframe.

He asked me if I was the new witch and I said I supposed I was. He looked me over and seemed to approve. He held up his thumb, showing me that there was a screw sticking out of it. I told him a puncture wound was more the domain of a surgeon, but he shook his head and asked if he could come in.

I hadn’t made it all the way through my “yes” before he was in the door. The instant he made it to the center of the room, the copper alembic zipped from its place on the shelf to slam against his thumb. He winced. It stayed stuck there. Magnetic thumb, he told me. A hereditary disorder, and particularly inconvenient for baking. Not curable, but it only crops up every few months and when it does there’s a tincture that can help. He said the old witch (that’s what he called her, “the old witch”) used to make it for him, though he’s not sure what exactly went into it.

I mentioned that I didn’t think copper magnetized, and he said that pure copper was probably too soft to hold the shape of the apparatus in its pure form and that the alembic was likely made of an alloy—though not in those exact words. Said he’d picked that tidbit up from his best friend, the father of the mining family.

I told him I hadn’t cured any cases of magnetic thumb before, but I had heard of it, and I knew the basic mechanisms. I told him it would be easy enough to recreate my predecessor’s tincture by combining our notes, and that I would let him know when it was done.

It was clear that he hadn’t expected any kind of significant wait, but I knew I’d need time to collect the reagents. So, I told him to feel free to use the stream or the latrine to clean his wound, and lent him the first aid kit I’d brought with me. I figured that would buy me some time.

I got to work immediately, cross-referencing my predecessor’s notes on the environment surrounding Greenmoor with my own knowledge base about which substances cure which symptoms, and in what environments they were likely to be found. More quickly than I expected, I had my shopping list.

I decided to make my way to Moonbreaker Mountain first, both because one of my ingredients was likely there, and because according to my predecessor’s notes there’s a direct (albeit circuitous) route from there to the other place I’ll be needing to go, that isn’t as easy to traverse the other way around.

 ────⊱⁜⊰──── 

It is a strange mountain, mostly due to the land surrounding it. As far as I understand, mountains are typically surrounded by foothills, the land creasing higher and higher until it finally reaches its peak. Furthermore, mountains rarely stand alone: they come in twos or threes in lines or clusters, all formed together. Moonbreaker Mountain has neither of these features. It stands alone, shooting up abruptly from flat ground to a peak past the clouds. Fortunately, I shouldn’t need to climb that far up today.

It occurred to me as I began to scale the side (two feet and one hand on the ground at all times) that with a landscape like this, I might be able to make the best of a bad situation. After all, isn’t mountain climbing an adventure? It certainly felt like adventure, or at least close enough.

I was pulled from my thoughts when I tripped over a rock and almost went skittering back down the path before I managed to find my footing. Only after I’d stopped did it occur to me that as my foot struck it the rock had sounded hollow. I carefully picked my way back up to it for a closer look.

As it turned out, it wasn't a rock at all, but what looked to be a large metal boot (well, larger than mine, at least—although that’s not difficult to achieve). The top of it was buried in a large tangle of vines that coated a much larger form, maybe twice as big as me.

Well, if this wasn’t something presenting itself I didn’t know what was.

When cleared away, the vines revealed a vaguely humanoid form—it had clear arms and legs, though its torso was just a rough cylinder, it had no neck, and the head was a strange shape with only the barest hint of facial features. It was made almost entirely out of stone, though below the knees and past the elbows it transitioned to rusted metal. Running the entire length and circumference of the torso were carved runes. They weren’t the ones I’d have used, but their purpose was clear nonetheless: among them were instructions for life, for consciousness, for autonomy. This was a stone golem, abandoned here and left to the elements.

And it had certainly been dutiful in offering itself up to the cold and rain. Its limbs were rusted, its movement sluggish even once freed from the tangle of plants. It could be of real use around the cottage, but it’d need repairs first.

My gut murmured something to me, and I deemed it worth a try.

I leaned in and whispered to the golem, gently, since it likely hadn’t heard anyone speak in quite a while. I told it that I could repair it (I didn’t actually know how, but left that small stumbling block for later), but that I didn’t have the materials I’d need with me.

I asked if it had enough energy to make it home.

It didn’t move at first. I almost gave up, resigning myself to lugging a bag of anything that might help up the mountain at some later date. Then sluggishly, clumsily, it stood. It looked at me for a moment and I wondered what it was thinking. Then, it began to walk slowly down the slope in the direction of the village.

Among the tangle of vines that had covered the golem, I found exactly what I was looking for: hiker’s helper. Its leaves can be boiled into a tincture that helps with pain. How serendipitous.

I plucked a handful of leaves from the vine and headed on my way.

 ────⊱⁜⊰──── 

When I reached the bottom of the mountain—a different part than I’d climbed up, closer to Meltwater Loch, where I was headed—I came across a small rest stop. It seemed designed for adventurers, with raised platforms for tents (I assume a particularly bad rain could easily cause torrents to rush down the mountain), a pump, a latrine, and complementary bear bags. There was a family sitting by an empty fire pit—a man, a woman, a son, and a daughter. They were absolutely grimy, covered in dust and soot. I wasn’t really interested in talking, but the woman spotted me before I could slink away and called me over.

She was Crystal. He was Angus. The teenagers didn’t introduce themselves. She asked if I was the new witch, and I asked how she guessed. She said it was just a hunch at the same time that he said that no one who wasn’t a witch would choose to dress the way I was. She swatted him on the arm.

I suppose I’ll have to visit the tailor in town.

They are the family responsible for mining the raw materials used in the town’s industry—all four of them share the work among them every morning, and return home around noon. They typically go mining in Hero’s Hollow, but there was currently a party of adventurers in there and working around adventurers is inconvenient. The resources aren’t nearly as rich in the caves under Moonbreaker Mountain, but it’s something at least.

Crystal asked me where I was headed, and I told her Meltwater Loch. I was going to see if I could find any slime shells, whose secretions help with ailments of the blood. Angus, half joking, told me to be careful out there, that there’s a pack of cù-sìth (magical hounds) that like to hunt in the loch. I laughed and told him cù-sìth aren’t real. Neither he nor Crystal responded to this.

I asked them how they deal with the threats in Hero’s Hollow—it is a dungeon, after all. Angus said dungeons aren’t as bad as everyone makes them out to be. Most of the inhabitants are perfectly reasonable, so long as you know how to interact with them. That’s not a perspective I’d ever encountered before. I wonder if it’s worth further consideration.

At this point, their daughter told me to catch (the first thing she’d said) and tossed me a glass vial. Reckless of her—I’m visibly not athletic—but miraculously I actually caught it before it shattered on the ground. I held it up to the light, not believing what I was seeing. At my questioning look, she confirmed it was vampire venom. She said she found it that morning, and after learning I was a witch she figured I’d have more use for it than she would. I told her I would certainly find one and tucked it carefully into my satchel next to the leaves.

We sat and I chatted with the parents a bit longer before I had to be on my way.

 ────⊱⁜⊰──── 

Meltwater Loch was more beautiful than I’d anticipated. I don’t know why I expected it to be more of a swamp. My predecessor’s notes specified that there was a bog somewhere around as well—I suppose I just thought the loch would be part of it.

I wandered along the edge for a bit, combing the crystalline waters for any small mollusks that could be what I sought. After about fifteen minutes of this, I heard a single bark echo out from the trees behind me.

No fucking way.

I froze, listening intently, racking my brain for all I could remember of the myths surrounding the cù-sìth: huge dogs, the size of a small cow; solitary hunters; shaggy green coats…

Then, I remembered the most chilling part. When hunting, the cù-sìth barks thrice, and only thrice. And if it’s prey hasn’t reached safety by the third…

A second bark rang out over the loch.

Frantically, I scanned my surroundings for anything that could help me. The only cover I could see was the trees behind me, and that was where the barking was.

Looking down at the water, I spotted a patch of what looked like seaweed, with just the very tops poking out of the water. I knew that plant. As loath as I was to get my clothing wet, it seemed I didn’t have a choice.

Quickly, I waded into the water and hunkered down until only the top half of my head was poking out over the surface. I held my satchel above my head to keep it dry, and that combined with the surrounding weeds obscured me almost entirely.

Just as I thought, the air within the patch smelled especially clean. This was a species called gas weed, known for expelling excessive amounts of oxygen. Hopefully it would dilute my scent enough.

I waited there for around ten minutes, and no third bark rang out. With a sigh of relief, I stood.

Wading back out of the loch, I stepped on what felt like a particularly rough stone. Looking down, I found it was a slime shell. At least I’d be able to get back to the cottage and change, I thought as I reached down and snagged it.

 ────⊱⁜⊰──── 

The quickest route back led me directly through the village. I tried to keep my head down, embarrassed at my unkempt state, certain everyone was staring at me. If I could just get back to the cottage, then I could change and maybe bathe and feel alright again.

That’s when someone called out to me.

I debated just ignoring him but no, I’d been instructed to be sociable. So, I turned and walked towards the voice.

It came from one of two men sitting at a wicker table outside the bakery. He introduced himself as Evander Bankhead—Aidan’s husband and co-owner of the bakery. His friend was Gowan Leckie, the local blacksmith.

Evander said he just wanted to thank me for taking care of his husband, and asked how he was doing. I said I’d been out gathering reagents, but I doubted he could have gotten into too much trouble at the cottage. Evander chuckled and said he wouldn’t put it past Aidan to fabricate a bind for himself all on his own.

He made small talk and I’ll admit I was a bit checked out. I was cold and uncomfortable and tired and not too focused on first impressions. At the end of it he thanked me again and insisted I take some bread and a songberry, as a tangible expression of his gratitude.

It’s only just occurred to me that songberries are used in potions meant to improve mood. I wonder if that was intentional.

 ────⊱⁜⊰──── 

When I got back to the cottage, here is what I did:

First, I built a little fire in the fireplace.

Then, I filled the small cauldron with water and dropped the hiker’s helper leaves in and set the whole thing over the fire.

I let it boil until the pigmentation of the leaves had leached into the water and the whole thing was a dark green color. Then, I took it off the heat.

Next, I convinced the slime shell to open up just a bit so its slime could drop into the mixture (I must remember to return the mollusk itself to its natural habitat next time I’m there—I’ve left it in a small pool near the river for the time being).

Finally, I briskly stirred the whole thing until it turned a royal blue color, which I supposed meant it was ready.

It was at this point that I realized I didn’t have any cups or bottles or any kitchenware, for that matter. What an oversight.

I went outside to find Aidan, and I located him (copper implement still stuck to his thumb) examining what at first appeared to be a large pile of rocks. As I got closer, I realized with a sense of both pride and uncanny surprise that it was in fact the stone golem, having made its way here from the mountain, and now sitting inactive in the middle of the cottage’s backyard. Maybe there actually was something to this ‘listen to your gut’ business.

Aidan asked me if the golem was mine and I said I didn’t think it was yet, that it needed repairs and I wasn’t sure how to go about that. He recommended that I speak to his friend Gowan (who I realized I’d already met—he had been the one sitting with Evander), and I said I just might do that.

I asked him where I might find a cup and he produced a wooden one from the satchel at his side. He said my predecessor always made her patients bring their own.

Well, that solved the immediate problem I supposed, though I made a mental note to see if I could find some kitchen implements of my own in town.

As I carefully poured the potion from my cauldron into his cup, Aidan asked me what it was called. At my questioning noise, he told me my predecessor always named her concoctions—the easier to tell them apart. Thinking back on it, I realized Edith had done the same thing. I suppose it just never occurred to me.

On impulse, I told Aidan it would be called Bankhead’s Brew, after him. He seemed flattered.

As soon as he took a sip, the copper alembic fell with a thunk into the grass. That was as strong proof of its efficacy as any.

Aidan thanked me, paid me 20 silver, told me again to get Gowan to look at the golem (and I told him again to seek medical attention for the screw embedded in his thumb), and went on his way.

And just like that, I had treated my very first patient.

I immediately set out for the river to collect water for a bath.

⇦●〇●⇨

[l0uk45]

If students from class 1A and 1B were part of the Riordanverse:

Yuga Aoyama: Son of Aphrodite. Not even a good one, unless you need someone blinded by his glitter-gun. Oh yeah, he has a glitter gun with lasers for maximum flare. Is he completely over-the-top? Absolutely. But is he good in a fight? Surprisingly, yes.

Mina Ashido: Daughter of Hermes and legacy of Hecate, capable of inhuman movements and can produce a slime that magically dissolves anything. She also tattooed her eyes black and yellow for some weird masochistic reason.

Tsuyu Asui: She’s a frog-turned-human by Ochako. She still has her tongue, leaps, hops, camouflage, a reversible stomach and poison that can kill a group of whales. And he can still inflate her throat like a balloon, which makes for good scares.Very good scares…

Tenya Iida: Son of Mercury, he never skips leg day. Never. Seriously, have you seen those legs? He could crush a car with those puppies! Or crush monster heads! Which he does do quite often! He doesn’t skimp out on upper body exercises either, but LOOK AT THOSE LEGS OF THUNDER!

Ochako Uraraka: Daughter of Hecate, she specializes in a set of spells that manipulate an individual object’s or being’s gravitational pull. It’s gotten to the point where she makes anything she touches with five fingers on one hand, it will float, no matter what, which is why she wears gloves all the time.

Mashirao Ojiro: Son of Mars, he’s an expert martial artist and very, very good at multiple of them. He’s lost multiple sparring partners because of his profinity with a number of weapons, and his lethality without any weapons.

Denki Kaminari: Legacy of Zeus and Apollo, each by about 50 generations. About as bright as his godly ancestors (not very), but he still makes one Hel of a lightning bolt, and he’s also pretty good with a guitar and lyre. 

Eijiro Kirishima: Son of Vulcan, his blood and skin are pure liquid gold, bronze and diamond he can infinitely harden for a period of time. It also obtains unnaturally sharp edges, and given his tendency to go hard when excited, he has made his friends frequent the infirmary for cuts and broken ribs.

Koji Koda: Son of Actaedon, he can talk with wildlife. He’s also a Legacy of Heracles, hence his size. His hugs are nice, war and gentle.

Rikido Sato: Son of Mars, this guy has a serious sweet tooth. He’s also surprisingly gentle for a guy that can decimate an opponent with a single hit.

Mezo Shoji: Son of Ares, he’s surprisingly level-headed. And malicious. Seriously, this guy always has at least ten different weapons on him, on top of him knowing a variety of potentially lethal moves. His arms are known as the Anacondas for a reason.

Kyoka Jiro: Daughter of Apollo, she’s a top-tier musician, singer and is moderate with a bow and arrow. She can whistle in the ultrasonic range, clap like thunder, sing and play like either a sweet little bird or a whole-ass heavy metal choir without ruining her vocal cords, and she gives the opposite amount of fucks that Zeus does (ie. zero).

Hanta Sero: Son of Hermes, he inherited a pair of magical tape dispensers that can dispense any tape in any amount of any properties he chooses. He uses them to swing around like Spider-Man, which made him a regular visitor of the infirmary until Momo made him a special harness to keep his joints from dislocating. 

Fumikage Tokoyami: Son of Erebos, he suffers from split-personality disorder, but it’s fixed nicely by his inner demon incarnate made of pure darkness he calls Dark Shadow. They have a strangely healthy relationship for a boy and his literal inner demon.

Shoto Todoroki: A Legacy, descendant of Hel and Surtr, capable of making ice that freezes fire, and fire that burns ice. He gives so little shit he’s actually oblivious to social cues, which makes for more than a few funny moments on quests with him.

Toru Hagakure: Legacy of Iris, she can manipulate light around her to turn invisible or project bright flashes

Katsuki Bakugou: Son of Ares, with rage and instincts of war so strong and powerful he can convert his sheer rage into explosions in the palms of his hands. He generated more than one explosion with the explosive yield of a nuclear weapon in his life. How he hasn’t gone deaf yet is beyond most people, though he does still know a variety of sign languages.

Izuku Midoriya: A mortal, capable of seeing through the mist, was gifted the Spartan Spirit, a spirit formed by Kratos, Nike, Bia and Zelus, to protect humanity in its greatest times of need. He ends up breaking his bones an absolute shitton, and is a regular at the infirmary.

Minoru Mineta: Died on a quest. His quest-mates say ‘by accident’. Everyone knows it was very deliberate, but then again, everyone hated him and is fine with him dead. Some people wanted to be the ones to kill him though.

Momo Yaoyorozu: A Legacy, granddaughter of Hephaestus and Athena, capable of making virtually any machine. She’s also very fidgety, and once made an entire army of fully autonomous grass soldiers that went on to terrorize the other campers for a bit. In thirty minutes.

Class 1B:

Yosetsu Awase: Son of Hephaestus, he also likes to make stuff. Though mostly he combines already existing tools, gadgets and machines, and makes weird amalgamations. He once fused an automaton bull, an automaton dragon and a school bus, and it actually works.

Sen Kaibara: Son of Ares, he’s pretty chill compared to his kin (especially Katsuki and Setsuna), mainly due to him bottling up his anger. Which he can unleash as tornadoes around his limbs, which he can use to drill through walls. Thank gods he doesn’t lose it too often.

Togaru Kamakiri: Son of Ceres, he likes farming tools. Especially ones with blades. That’s lead to him using all kinds of sickles, scythes (both farming tools and war scythes) and even a few lawn mowers, shovels, axes...

Shihai Kuroiro: Son of Nyx, him and Tokoyami get along exceptionally well. Given his ability to shadow-travel and use shadows and darkness as materials to make some pretty nifty weapons only he can use.

Itsuka Kendo: Daughter of Athena, she excels in critical thinking and a variety of martial arts. And knocking out her piers with precise attacks when they start to get exceptionally annoying.

Yui Kodai: Daughter of Trivia. She excels in potions and spells that manipulate the size of objects, so much so that she has to resort to gloves because she now naturally makes things smaller with her left hand, or bigger with her right hand. She’s the calm one.

Kinoko Komori: Daughter of Demeter, she has a soft spot for fungi and mushrooms. Which she can make grow rapidly. Very rapidly. She’s fun at parties.

Ibara Shiozaki: Daughter of Demeter, she dyes her hair green with actual chlorophyll for some reason (“To feel one with the beautiful plants,” she says), but she can also grow and manipulate vines and other vine-like plants, along with trees, quite effectively, and she has some rose and poison oak (she’s immune to it) seeds in her hair. Don’t ask, her answers are just as ridiculous as the chlorophyll-dyed hair.

Jurota Shishida: Son of Mars, he’s been cursed by most likely Hera to be a humanoid boar/dog thing. He’s especially good at wrestling, and is very diplomatic in his approach. Until he gets pissed, then he charges like a boar and yes, he keeps those tusks of his sharp on a regular basis.

Niregeki Shoda: Legacy of Hermes, son of Hephaestus, he likes to make explosives and plant them everywhere. More than a few campers were scared. Except Katsuki, who tried to outdo the ground (Niregeki’s mine) in explosive yield and put skylight access in the roof of Bunker 9. Niregeki had to repair it.

Pony Tsunotori: Legacy of Poseidon, she can shapeshift. She likes to shapeshift into horses, bulls, deer and goats (including mooses and buffalo), and she has a nifty gadget from the Hephaestus and Vulcan campers in the shape of horns that transform with her, giving her detachable remote-control horns. 

Kosei Tsuburaba: Legacy of Jupiter, son of Ares, he’s competitive and can make walls and blades out of air. Especially annoying for monsters because they can’t get to him, period, and every time they try, they don’t get past his walls of air for a whole minute before someone either cuts/hacks/slices them to bits, freezes/burns them alive, blows them up with their fists/explosives/expanding stones they previously ingested or some other way of disposing a monster.

Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu: Son of Vulcan, capable of turning to pure steel over his entire body, also increasing his strength. Because of this, and his tendency to go hard whenever he’s excited, he’s made his friends frequent the infirmary for bruises and broken ribs.

Setsuna Tokage: Daughter of Ares, she’s actually been hurt pretty badly in one of her fights (she went on a Quest with Katsuki, and no, it wasn’t him who hurt her) and had to have automaton grafts to replace her limbs, a part of her lower jaw, her eyes and the muscles around her spine, along with parts of the vertebrae. Which she asked to be detachable and splittable in as many pieces as possible, which she can control telepathically and uses to troll other campers. A lot. Especially two certain sons of Vulcan.

Manga Fukidashi: No one knows what he is, they just know his head is a speech bubble and he can make anything he writes real.

Juzo Honenuki: Legacy of Gaia, he can virtually liquify the ground (does not work on metal or wooden floors). He trolls a lot with this ability. And I do mean a lot.

Kojiro Bondo: A golem? A person? His head makes it hard to tell whether he’s a demigod or a monster to be honest. And his glue-like spit doesn’t help much either.

Neito Monoma: Legacy of, you guessed it, Zeus! He has a superiority complex because of this, and he frequents the infirmary on the basis of Itsuka or whoever he was annoying KOing him constantly. All that brain damage probably isn’t helping his mental issues...

Reiko Yanagi: Daughter of Hecate she can make things she touches float and fly around using some sort of incantation. The biggest she can do is double her own body weight, but that doesn’t stop her from delivering high-speed flying punches and scaring other campers.

Hiryu Rin: Son of Mars and Legacy of Poseidon, he can shapeshift into various animals. Most notably a mix of human, hedgehog and a lizard. Sharp, painful and deadly precise. And also meditating. And a lot of it.

[rae0fsunsh1ne]

The Order S1E06

I’m rewatching The Order for the 4th time and basically just gonna live blog it so if you don’t want to see my blabbering posts about each episode you can block the tag #Rachel obsesses about The Order

1.06

Okay but when Jack and Alyssa fall off the bed while making out and she tries to climb back up on the bed and he pulls her back down?????  adorable

Renee’s sister is a hot modern victorian gothic bitch

She also is never given a name which is werid, she’s just credited as “sister”

Jack going through compliments alphabetically while kissing Alyssa is so fucking cute like plz somebody do that for me

It’s kind of odd that Alyssa would get up and change into the hotel robe in the middle of their makeout session, when they could have just ripped each others clothes off and gotten down to business

but of course they needed an excuse for her to leave the room so Jack can be a snoopy bitch and open the case

“Pretend I’m a noob” ………”you are a noob.”

In this scene during the phone call the sister says she can see Jack’s future and everything but then later says she can’t because he’s a werewolf so which is it

“she’s trying to freak you out.” “*whispers* it’s working.”

I love a ‘kiss to shut them up’ moment

Good thing there’s nobody in the parking lot or looking out their windows or in the lobby or literally anywhere nearby while this dude gets possessed by a necromancer and killed right in front of the hotel

Jack just knows how to hijack a car

Kyle says it takes magic to bring down a werewolf, but earlier when Jack asked a silver bullet would kill one Lillith said “duh cause it’s a bullet” which implies that magic isn’t required to kill a werewolf

What is that other creature that Gabrielle sees while she has True Sight? It looks like a bit like another golem but that wouldn’t make sense so I guess there are just random mythical creatures running around the campus

I love seeing Hamish in Teacher Mode

Not chill, Kyle. Not chill. You can’t just stab someone in the middle of the damn hallway

The outfit that Renees sister us wearing tho? that skirt? the umbrella? So. Cool.

“I hate being outside”

So she can see Jack’s future, it’s just more unpredictable because he has more power over changing it

“Do you not want Alyssa to know your secret?” “Alyssa wants to know your secret!”

“weirdest car chase I’ve ever been in” so not only does Jack know how to hijack a car but he’s also been in more than one car chase. Good to know

The Den has rock climbing rocks on the walls in the front hall

“You know those order fiends of Jacks? “Hot and hotter?” RANDALL IS BISEXUAL AF

Randall is a protective boi

“I don’t want to introduce you in person” I’m confused, I  don’t know what this line means

The guy in the truck seems like such a good guy, it’s too bad he gets possessed by a necromancer and killed

“Listen you fucking psycho! …. Lillith. Sorry, wrong psycho.”

“I am in the middle of nowhere with a necromancer trying to kill me!” “Yeah? Well…… that… that actually sounds pretty bad.”

’The Sanctuary’ is just……. their basement

Hamish hiding in plain sight in the wolf costume. Perfection.

That was the first potion that Randall ever made and it worked perfectly, he’s a natural practitioner.

But he would hate it if someone told him that

I wonder if Jack’s magic is extra extra strong because he’s a werewolf and also the son of the Grand Magus

“Your father’s gonna love you” But Coventry never finds out that Jack is a werewolf, and he only barely finds out that he’s his son in the last few minutes of the last episode.. kind of disappointing, actually. I wish they’d done more with that plot line considering it’s pretty much Jack’s main motivation as a character

I love when shows combine magic with modern technology, creating something like the necrophone

There should have been more about Jacks mom, what did Coventry do to her that made her so desperately dedicated to him

Pete is an angry, shitty person. Why did he have to break the freaking necrophone??

[mautadite]

may book round up

24 books this month, a pretty good stack. even though i’m working from home i keep expecting work to swamp me and leave me with no reading time but... that hasn’t happened yet? so, good.

silver moon - catherine lundoff ⭐️⭐️⭐️ a paranormal novel about a small town in which certain women who reach the age of menopause find another change happening to their bodies. i.e. they become werewolves. i fucking adored this concept and there was f/f romance, but the execution and the writing was sadly pretty boring.

no-no boy - john okada ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ post-wwii, following a young japanese american man who was just released from prison. called a no-no boy because like all other japanese men at the time, he was asked two questions: will you serve in the armed forces and swear loyalty to the us? he answered no to both questions and was detained. the novel follows him grappling with that decision after the war, looks into his friends, family life, race relations, and what it’s like living in a country that despises you. enjoyed it a lot.

the husband gambit - l.a. witt ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ the kind of tropey romance nonsense that i live for. contemporary m/m slow burn fake marriage between a struggling actor, and the son of a famous hollywood producer. there were some meh parts (like, the plotting and the reasoning behind why they had to get fake married was like... are you SURE marriage is the best way to fix this) but i really liked it for the romance and the tropes.

drive your plow over the bones of the dead - olga tocarczuk ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ contemporary polish mystery fiction, following an old woman living in a secluded community in the woods, when poachers and prominent hunters begin turning up dead. really interesting writing and format, and a really excellent protagonist. not sure how much i liked the actual mystery.

the babysitter - jack harbon ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ quick and dirty m/m romance, a literature-loving babysitter falls for the divorced father of the kid he babysits. pretty fun.

zipper mouth - laurie weeks ⭐️⭐️⭐️ contemporary fiction that follows a queer, mentally ill woman as she hurdles through life, unrequited love, jobs, and lots of drugs. i enjoyed the themes when there was a coherent one, but i really didn’t gel with the style. i guess it was trying to be stream of consciousness, which i have read and enjoyed in the past. but this didn’t do it for me. interesting tho, and honestly, i just might not have been the audience for it.

spirits abroad - zen cho ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ a PHENOMENAL collection of stories drawing inspiration from malaysian spirits, culture and folklore. absolutely loved it, fave read of the month for sure. loved the use of language and dialect, and the writing was simple and precise and wonderful. and there were some great f/f stories in here. 

a cat, a man and two women - junichiro tanizaki ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ the setting: 1920s japan. the characters: lily, a fat tortoiseshell. shozo, her lazy, well-meaning, but ineffectual cat-dad. fukuko, his hot young former mistress, current wife. shinako, his strong-willed, slightly bitter ex-wife. the plot: shinako decides, HEY ACTUALLY FUCK YOU KEEP YOUR HOT WIFE BUT I WANT THE CAT. a great novella about loneliness and comeuppance and marriage. the best part was the cat lol.

the terracotta bride - zen cho ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ really interesting novella about a young dead woman living in chinese hell. she’s married, and her husband has three wives. the first: estranged, conniving, distant. the second: herself, unwilling but resigned. the third: newly arrived, and made out of terracotta. very interesting novella, beautifully written, grim but hopeful, f/f romance on the side.

king and the dragonflies - kacen callender ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ wonderful queer children/YA book about family, grief, racism, coming to know yourself and also accepting yourself. contemporary, but it almost FEELS like a fantasy/magical realism book. 

orphan number eight - kim alkemade ⭐️⭐️⭐️ a novel about an orphaned woman coming to terms with experiments done on her as a child, when she encounters the doctor who performed said experiments, dying in a nursing home. the writing in this was pretty so-so, did a lot of head-hopping which is my biggest pet peeve. i liked the concept, but the plot and the follow through were meh. loved that the main character was a lesbian though, and some of the writing was great.

firm hand - nora phoenix ⭐️⭐️ meh... not for me. m/m contemporary romance following a guy recovering from the car crash that killed his best friend, and his best friend’s son. it went some places that i’m just not up for, lol.

meet cute club - jack harbon ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ REALLY adorable m/m romance, following a dorky, earnest romance novel lover, and the new cashier at his favourite book store. they end up trying to revive the main characters struggling book club, and falling in love along the way. very fun and sweet.

mrs. mix up - candice harper ⭐️⭐️ the concept sounded so so cute: an f/f romance about two librarians with similar last names that go to a library convention and the staff mistakenly thinks they’re married and book them into one room. but the writing and chemistry were lacklustre and it was extremely poorly edited. it’s a shame, i could have liked this.

mine - kim hartfield ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ a sexy f/f romance that i liked a LOT, about a young woman who after a traumatic event in her life decides to quit her job and go volunteer on a farm in the middle of nowhere. she ends up falling for her sexy lesbian farmer boss. it got deep in some areas i wasn’t really expecting it to, though it was a tad... idk, preachy? and the conflict at the end was annoying. enjoyed it a bunch tho.

the hobbit - j.r.r. tolkien ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ nth reread! i’ve been listening to this on audiobook around bedtime since like... march, i think, it’s just such a comfort read for me.

the knight and the necromancer 1-3 - a.h. lee ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ a very solidly good fantasy m/m romance series, about a young prince and a necromancer in a war against an invading sorcerer. sorta enemies to lovers? the three books span their relationship and the war, and though it was only a few weeks in time, it didn’t feel insta-lovey at all. liked it a lot.

the fake game - kim hartfield ⭐️⭐️⭐️ contemporary f/f fake dating office romance! pretty cute; didn’t blow me away but i solidly liked most of it.

what the wind knows - amy harbon ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ historical time travel romance centred around the aftermath of the ireland easter rising. i spend so much time reading solidly gay stuff that it’s so weird reading things where the existence of queer ppl isn’t even acknowledged lol. anyway this was pretty good, i liked it mostly for the historical facts and aspects, but the romance was pretty touching too.

the golem of mala lubovnya - kim fielding ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ LOVELY m/m romance in a small jewish community between a newly created golem and a stonemason. lovely writing and atmosphere and characters. i had my nitpicks with the resolution but holy heck i’m so happy with this.

the electric heir - victoria lee ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ the second part of a queer YA duo-logy that i started earlier this year, set in a future dystopian magic-riddled US, dealing with abuse and trauma and survivors. extremely difficult to read, almost unenjoyable at times (because god these kids go through so much) but very very good.

first everything - kim hartfield ⭐️⭐️ aha, possibly my last try with this author, though i liked the first book i read by her so much i might read one more! f/f romance between a journalist and a fictional first daughter (who’s also like, a domme, lol). the plot was fine but a lot of the character stuff and the shitty parent stuff really bothered me.

and that was may! for june i’ll... read lots of queer stuff, but i mean i do that every month. i also want to try to read less romance, more thriller and historical and just general contemporary? i feel like i say that all the time, but i’ll try. (though i did just get my first ever advanced reader copy from netgalley and it’s f/f romance, so... exciting!) currently reading the 7 deaths and evelyn hardcastle, a thriller. pretty okay so far.

[jq37]

oh WOW that new bloodkeep ep

**spoilers for family in freefall bloodlines and lifelines**

Man this episode was a lot. Probably my fave of the season so far.

Brennan seems to have an M.O. in terms of plotting things. They way we got a focus on each character in a stressful situation reminded me a lot of Family in Flames from the FH season which came at about the same point in the story.

Anyway, we start with Brennan giving the most unnecessarily verbose description of falling ever.

I am actually not sure how big Lilith is supposed to be in relation to everyone else at this point. Or how big her kids are supposed to be. I thought the really young ones were like straight spiders but like Jessa and the boy who’s name I’m forgetting were centaur style like her. But like, idk. 

Efink insisting that she’s still holding the wheel (even though it truly means nothing) was so funny.

Both Matt and Brennan do very good re-entry sound effects.

Brennan: Feel free to do nothing.

Rekha: *SLAMS that induce labor button with no hesitation*

Truly amazing

“You feel your fire break.”

Leiland falling to his doom while bossa nova music plays in the background and rolling his eyes at Maggie is iconic.

Everyone is dying and Sohkbar is just like, fine.

Lilith polymorphs into a full ass spider.

Even though it ended up going sideways (literally) not a bad plan from Markus.

Brennan is so good at scene setting exposition.

Erika acted the hell out of that moment when she and Sohkbar share a look before she tells Russel everything is gonna be OK. She didn’t have to but she did that for us.

The wheel that steers nothing metaphor was such a good turn of phrase from Bren.

Efink’s DOUBLE NAT ONES.

WOOOOOW.

Rekha goes, “THIS is the bad day,” with Kristen Bell’s inflection and I am reminded that it has not even been a full 24 hours in game since ep 1. Wild.

Anyway, Efink’s norn spirit things disappear which is what happens when you roll snake eyes I guess. Amy is legit tearing up.

Brennan’s throwaway joke of explaining story structure low key killed me.

Leiland gets advantage on perception and rolls a nat 20!

Are all of the Vingury just gay for the next person in their chain of command? Because that’s what it seems like.

Matt’s flustered Leiland as Miles implies ~things~ is adorable.

Animal handling 2, electric boogaloo. I love that joke.

Maggie is so OP. Maggie hits the ground and isn’t even at half HP. Leiland is knocked into negatives though.

His first death save is a nat 1. WHICH IS 2 FAILURES. I was so stressed.

Then J'er'em'ih rolls a nat 20 to go save him!

I love the phrase, “J'er'em'ih’s normal form” as if he has a normal anything.

“J'er'em'ihdeserves the credit.”

Anyway J'er'em'ih(w/ an assist from Sohkbar) saves Leiland!

Rekha was so concerned for John. Like, not even Maggie. Rekha.

“It’s gonna be an egg!?”

Samantha Eagles. (Of the Philadelphia Eagles?) I died at that line.

Maggie levels up and gets healing magic. (“Fuck yeah!” says Maggie.) John stabilizes.

The fact that Maggie thought it might be an egg makes me concerned that she maybe isn’t ready to be a mom.

I love that Maggie just wordlessly presents her baby to Lilith (the alpha mom of the group) like a kid showing their mom and art project.

OK, this is such a tiny moment but I love, love, love that Maggie has a good enough relationship with Lilith that when she heard what she thought was a threat to her baby, she just asked, “Is that a threat to the baby?” instead of attacking her or going *Maggie will remember that* and harboring mistrust. The way she asked was so adorable. Also, Lilith would never.

Markus floats basically the exact same plan as Lilith (defect to good, get pardons) but at least he uses it as a plan of true last resort.

Lilith being the keeper of basically all of Efink’s self esteem is great. Also, everyone has to keep reminding her that she is queen.

“As the resident magnificent failure.”

“Allow me to be the basis for your self comparison. That’s the best I can offer you.” LEILAAAAAAAND.

Anyway, Leiland gives a great pep talk to Efink who throws her spell cards over her shoulder irl (”it’s an RP episode. it’s fine”).

Amy to Brennan who is about to start roasting Efink’s entire life: Don’t do this.

So when Brennan said, “Efink gets to decide right now if she’s good at magic.” I was thinking, that’s a big thing to put in a PC’s hands unless you want the answer to be yes. Because, in another story, “No,” might be the better answer narratively, but who’s gonna voluntarily nerf themselves like that?

So Efink dips into an episode of Friendship is Magic which Brennan beautifully picks up the narration for and gets the info they need without rolling for it. She also has some major self actualization and is now dry, less vain, and less dramatic.

It kinda seems like this was leading towards Lilith being the new leader what with her thoughts while she was falling and her being passed up for the promotion but, come on. She would have to make a crazy soul rending deal to just take the crown normally and she has kids and common sense. Otherwise, I think Erika would have made that play.

“Is my son a different player than me?” I love Rekha.

Like Leiland, I fully thought she was gonna name the kids John at first. (Are you ‘allowed’ to jr. a kid who isn’t named after you or your spouse? I’ve never seen someone do that. As in, add the jr., not name a kid after a friend).

I love that Matt roleplays Leiland into so many awkward moments. A good RP-er doesn’t care about their character being cool all the time.

“I’m naming him after the name of yours that I prefer.” That was so sweet.

“First of all, J'er'em'ih’s an excellent judge of character.”

Everyone coming together to make Leiland feel better was so so sweet. These guys are like the exact opposite of murder hobos in a game where they 100% have the right to be.

The baby tells Leiland to kneel and he just does it because of course he does. (Leiland later: I HAVE A VERY PARTICULAR SET OF SKILLS)

Maggie after Leiland swears total fealty to Leiland Jr: Can’t you keep anything at like 80%?

Efink rolls a nat 20 on her check to navigate the Bloodkeep, basically completing her self actualization arc.

Leiland resists the urge to chase Hamhead, completing a portion of his arc.

The running thing of people giving Maggie biologically incorrect info on kids because of their drastically different biology.

Aww all of Lilith’s kids.

Lilith dispel magicking the book golem, implying she could have done that at any time and just chose not to.

Leiland apologizes to Maggie for being bitchy to her out of jealously, which I thought was sweet but was just the warm up act for what was about to happen.

But, before that, Maggie��s dad calls and Efink hangs up on him for her. For a second I thought that cutting off the call meant we wouldn’t get to see what was behind the doors but, luckily, that wasn’t the case.

(Also Sohkbar and Lilith eating popcorn as Maggie and her dad fight).

Did Efink appoint herself high adviser?

“Please don’t bite him,” *Leiland Jr. bites a spider*

So, anyway, Leiland and Maggie go into the portal and see visions of (1) weird sex between Zaul and Lilith and (more importantly), (2) Zaul bagging on Maggie when she’s not around/thirsting after Leiland when he’s not around.

The simile about winning the lottery after you find out money can’t buy you happiness was so good.

“What a fucking pig!”/“I agree.”/“Oh, do you?”/“Actually I do.”

I’M SO PROUD OF THEM.

Instead of being mad at Leiland (or Lilith for that matter) she just doubled down on being mad at her dickhead ex. And Leiland, instead of being all winner winner chicken dinner just felt bad for Maggie and Decklan.

“Was this something the baby should have seen?”/“No.”

“This is one of the lesser times it’s bad to say your father’s name.” Yikes Leiland.

Anyway, the whole hang makes plans to take Sohkbar shopping and it really fits in with the theme of this ep of everyone boosting everyone’s self esteem. This ep has a lot of genuinely heartwarming moments.

“Sohkbar yes. Sohkbar yes. Sohkbar yes.”

“What did you roll? [28] You see everything.”

Leiland Jr. as new king seems like a questionable decision imo but I’m not gonna backseat RP.

“You guys start engaging in a fun conversation about statecraft.”

“Lilith, I’d like a hug.” Lilith hugs her and kicks her legs up like she’s in the climax of a romcom.

The whole group hugs and Brennan calls them out and has a NPC call them out, even though he’s the person who led them to this path!

Man, the promo for this ep really made it sound more dire and less heartwarming that it actually was.

YOU’RE DEFINING GOOD

“Imagine there’s 9 squares in a grid.” TRAPP

That like 20 seconds had so many good lines. “We’re cutting out the middle man and taking evil straight to you.”/“We’re evolving evil.”/“We’re disrupting evil.”

Now that I think about it, they really haven’t escaped the bloodkeep so far, have they? They’ve been going back and forth between it but not really trying to escape it per se. 

Olag is back because, again, of course he is.

Final battle y'all!

Sounds like we’re getting actual Gollum next week so that should be fun. Also, very curious to see what that last, “No,” is in response to. These guys are good at cutting trailers so it could be nothing serious, but who knows?

[ogdoadfates]

Bakudeku or just bnha prompt

Fantasy au, this gonna be really long

Themes and such: Romance, angst, hurt, violence, mature stuff if you want, slow burn like really slow, this thing is practically a series, guts and such, adventure, ect ect.

Kacchan is a werewolf and one of the alphas of a hidden pack (along with his parents). Werewolves will sometimes ‘adopt’ other species into their packs.

Kirishima is half kitsune half werewolf (basically a werewolf with multi tails, his magic isn’t that strong at all only allowing him to harden his hide/skin a fair bit since his natural element is earth) adopted into Bakugo’s pack

Iida is a centaur, centaurs are semi secretive and very very strong believers in their rules.

Uraraka is a selkie, she is friends with iida making him break one of the centaurs rules (don’t associate with lower and/or weaker creature, or something close)

Tsuyu is a kappa (who didn’t see that happening)

Todoroki is a vampire (big surprise there)

Jiro is a fairy (fairies can disguise themselves as humans). Hangs around the elf kingdom and even helps out sometimes.

Momo is a Elf her elven magic is either nature or metal based (prefer nature because an ol’ fairy weakness is some metals), is either royalty or related to it.

Hagakure is an will-o-wisp (can’t really take a see-able human form but can interact like one)

Aoyama is a griffin (Griffins can have a human like form, but still have wings and lower half of a griffin just a little more human like so they can stand properly)

Mineta is an imp (need I say more)

Denki is an electric mage. Adopted into Bakugo’s pack after kicked out of his village for his magic even if he’s a mage and not a witch.

Ojiro is a sphinx.

Sato is an golem. (a brick golem to keep up with that baking theme, brick ovens were used way way back so yeah)

Tokoyami is a Hippogriff (human form he is stuck with a bird head) Darkshadow is his friend which is a regular crow/raven. (yes he can communicate with birds). He’s a wanderer and eventually finds Shoji

Mina is a Pixie. adopted into the Bakugo pack.

Shoji is a mutant. (basically he has multi arms and thats it) wonders around alone. Till he met Tokoyami and then proceeded to travel alongside him.

Sero is a  Arachne (think centaur but half spider instead of horse) Adopted into Bakugo’s pack.

Aizawa is a Church grim/black dog/Bergahest (you get it, it’s a giant black dog thing, sorry for it not being a cat but it makes sense with him to be one of these). He haunts around an old graveyard, guarding a childs grave. (since they start off as dogs in the first place, it’s his old masters grave)

Shinso is a Nekomata (a two tailed cat, they are told to live long long lives and in this case have some magic, Shinso’s being illusions. I guess also think of them semi like cheshire cats). He wasn’t liked since his powers could trick humans so humans kept chasing him away.

Present mic is an banshee (but in this case they aren’t spirits instead they are just born a banshee, kinda rare)

Midnight is a pixie.

Toga is a shapshifter

Dabi is a vampire (he a todoroki my guys)

Shigaraki is half Bogle half human (Bogles are scary lookin creatures)

All for one/sensei is a Demon 

All might is a sea-goat (those suckers are HUGE!!! but can also have a human form, they look kind of like a satyr when in that form tho)

Inko (deceased, sorry) was a witch. She died via a hanging.

Hissashi midoriya is a dragon and a bastard, not a nice guy. (or he was nice and died somehow you pick)

Deku is half dragon half witch (his dragon traits don’t show till later but give him a semi immunity to fire, he also suffers from some dragon like instincts), his magic is storm or nature based. This is an imbalanced hybrid combo combating magics sometimes causing him to accidentally hurt himself thanks to the overflowing amount of magic he has (think of sleigh beggy from ancient magus bride and thats kinda whats happening to him)

Nedzu is a chimera.

Hatsume is a human.

Monoma is a priest/monster hunter.

Ships

Deku x kacchan

Mina x kirishima

Tokoyami x shoji

Jiro x Denki

Momo x todoroki

Aizawa x present mic

iida x urakaka (or urakaka x Tsuyu )

Oijiro x hagakure

and any others you can think of

Story/true prompt

It’s be a long story with different paths to follow, each paring or even lone characters can have there own story to follow

Deku’s would be how he escapes from being burned (witch burning and no he’s never met Kacchan, but his mother new kacchans.) So Deku’s journey begins with him running away and trying to figure out how to fixes his magic before it kills him (clocks ticking, he gets worse over the course of the story. and he doesn’t tell those he becomes friends with this at first, just claming to be sick with some normal illness when asked) he’d stumble apon others and become friends with them (Urakaka, shinso and possibly Tsuyu ) one noticeable one being Aizawa which Aizawa later becomes his familiar. Deku ends up getting known to the villians (shigi, dabi, toga, ect) as a giant magic source (though this would/will kill deku if they got him) and end up trying to capture him to summon sensei. So he ends up having to run from them later finding the Bakugo pack (Kacchans mom would vaguely recognize Deku’s sent/looks and at some point find out he’s inkos son, causing her to learn inko is dead) This gives Deku and kacchan time to meet it would not go off well at first at all and only get worse when the villians track Deku down and end up killing Kacchans parents and most of his pack. But thanks to this the humans/monster hunters now know the packs location so the pack has to move to the packs old territory with kacchan as their new pack leader. This is where deku and kacchans group split up. While all this is happening Momo is helping hid todoroki from his father, later they meet Aoyama and sato when trying to hide todoroki when his father visits the elf kingdom. Some of these groups meet and become friends/acquaintances of the others and annoyed by mineta. Deku on his journey will meet all might learning about the demon the villians are trying to get him to summon, all might says he’ll join up with them soon. Later kacchan and dekus group will be forced to meet up and camp together thanks to injuries and the two will start to work together (begrudgingly at first) eventually they decide to travel together they end up finding present mic and All might again they introduce them to the elf kingdom (Banshee’s are kind of like royalty since so rare and very powerful aka best not to piss one off and all might is known as a great hero to them for warding off the demon the first time, you can change the way they get to the castle). This is where all of these groups start to get together and the threat of the sensei is back. During all of this Kacchan and deku get a lot closer and even start to develope feelings for each other, but later kacchan learns the horrid truth about how Deku’s magic is literally killing him and making him weaker as time goes on, causing him to even ask Aizawa to tell him when deku needs to sit out (this is asked while deku is knocked out via his illness, his illness also affects Aizawa a bit).Eventually the elf kingdom and the vampire kingdom end up in a war thanks to momo hiding todoroki being found out. Which causes everyone to flee but this time together as one big group, this is where they regroup/meet up with everyone else, the groups get split up at least twice. They later find a place to stay again and Deku is finnally starting to figure out how to help with his magic issues thanks via finding Nedzu who walks him and aziawa through it. The ending is basicly everyone who’s gonna be together together (tho that is not the main focus) and them sealing away Sensei once and for all.

Feel free to contact me to talk about this or if your gonna write it I’m more then willing to help or even proof read. basically need anything for this talk to me.

[ebaeschnbliah]

CONDUCTOR  OF  THE  UNIVERSE

________________________________________________________________

This post is part of another one - of ‘Love, actually …?’ from Feb.14th 2019. Only recently I noticed that I’ve overlooked one of the elderly ladies in Sherlock BBC. And a rather important one too, I guess. Therefore I decided to do an OUTTAKE for this one because it grew more lenghy than I first thought it would. But I will also incluce it into the original post for the sake of completeness. 

Love isn’t always blind

Another elderly lady who plays a very interesting part in the story is professor Cairns. She isn’t among the hostages in TGG, but nonetheless she is a victim in the ‘Lost Vermeer’ case of the same episode and she shares the fate of the blind old lady, the hostage in the Prince’s case … the case immediately prior to this one.

More under the cut ….

Professor Cairns works in a planetarium and she possesses a profound knowledge about the universe. Alex Woodbridge consults her in the case of the ‘Lost Vermeer’ painting, which he suspects to be a fake. Professor Cairns confirms his assumption and sends a message to the phone in his flat:

Alex? Love, it’s Professor Cairns. Listen, you were right. You were bloody right! 

Alex Woodbridge and professor Cairns know how to prove that the ‘Lost Vermeer’ painting is a fake. They know that a certain supernova exploded later -and not as early as portrayed on the painting. Because of that both are murdered by the Golem, an international assassin, who suffocates his victims. And Sherlock has to find this little detail to prove that the ‘Lost Vermeer’ is a fake and to save the fourth hostage, the little kid, just a voice on the phone, who is never seen on screen. 

Presumed this lady is also an ambassador/a representative of LOVE …. how to explain her on a metaphorical level? 

Professor Cairns is busily engaged in the planetarium, preparing a film for future visitors and while that scene plays out, three celestial bodies are mentioned … in this order:

Jupiter, the fifth planet in the solar system, the largest one, a gas giant 

Gas can be associated with air, just as Jupiter (Zeus) in Roman and Greek mythology, who is most commonly known as god of the sky and supreme ruler of all the other deities

Titan, the largest moon (of Saturn) 

A titan is a great one in every way. In Greek mythology giants were ruling the Earth in the Golden Age prior to the Olympians. A great man, someone who stands out in size or power or for greatness of achievement, can also be called a titan                                                

Neptune, the eighth planet and farthest from the Sun. Professor Cairns is searching for him in the scene 

Watched through a telescope or strong binoculars, Neptune appears as a small blue disk. In Roman and Greek mythologie Neptune (Poseidon) is very well known as the god of the sea and of fresh water, often wielding a trident. 

It seems that professor Cairns finds Neptune, the missing planet, the very same moment she gets attacked by the Golem. The blue celestial body behind Sherlock (next to John) looks at any rate very much like Neptune. 

All in all, that’s two planets …

one connected to air, the sky and rulership  

the other one to water and the colour blue  

Between them a moon has been placed … a titan, a great one. Sherlock’s close connection to the moon is a main theme of the story, just as Mary’s, which makes sense if she represents Sherlock’s facade and by that an aspect of Sherlock himself. The journey from a great to a good man is also theme of the story … as is Sherlock’s physical appearance in some scenes (’You look taller in your photographs’ ASIB - ‘Not as tall a people think’ TSOT) … and first names like Max (the great) and Claudette (the lame) or Magnussen (son of the great).

air & water

high & deep

being hit by the blast of an explosion & drowning in water

cockpit & well

intellect & emotion

the one & the ohter one

Jupiter and Neptune

... and Sherlock, the Titan, between them. That’s a concept that seems to be mirrored especially in TFP ... not least with Sherlock confronted to choose between Mycroft/Jupiter and John/Neptune. 

Love orchestrates the universe

Professor Cairns stands at the mixing desk of a planetarium. She is in charge of the visuals, of the narrative and of the music to accompany the show she creates to teach people about the ways of the universe. She knows about stars and planets, moons and suns, about their history …. about the times when they exploded into supernovas. And she finds them when they get lost somewhere in the void. The universe is rarely lazy ...

Presenting LOVE as conductor of the universe, as someone who can zoom into the most distant places, someone who knows about life and death of whole worlds …. that’s fantastic, lovely and very romantic. 

The ‘Lost Vermeer’ scenario ends with the same result as the one from the Prince’s case prior. Both times Sherlock imagines an old lady - the blind one and the all-seeing one - murdered by Jim Moriarty, respectively someohne who is closely connected to him. Blind LOVE and all-seeing LOVE, both die in this single episode ... most importantly, professor Cairns is attacked and dies the very moment she finds Neptune, the missing planet … and (to say it again) Sherlock reacts accordingly … in another scenario that ends on Bart’s roof … to save LOVE from being killed by SEX.

February 20th, 2019

@gosherlocked @raggedyblue @sarahthecoat @possiblyimbiassed @sagestreet @sherlockshadow @loveismyrevolution @spenglernot

[huntertales]

Part Four: Home Is Where The Heart Is. (Everybody Hates Hitler S08E13)

Episode Summary: Sam, Dean and the reader investigate the death of a Rabbi who spontaneously combusted. The case becomes ever more confusing when they learn that the Rabbi was researching Nazi Necromancers. The trio are attacked by a Golem who turns out to belong to the Rabbi’s grandson, Aaron. The key to the case lies with the Golem but Aaron doesn’t know how to control him, which leaves everyone in danger. Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader Word Count: 2,993.

Previous Part | Supernatural Rewrite Masterlist

You didn’t have much of a choice other than to do what the enemy wanted, unless you preferred the other option they thought was going to come after obtaining what they were here for in the first place. You kept your hands up in the air and slowly sat yourself down on the floor while Sam was dragged a foot away so he was leaning against the wall before sliding himself down on the ground. The attention was taken off you for a moment, giving you a small window of opportunity to try and do something, but you feared it was a little stupid to take on three men at once. So you waited for your next chance to take these sons of bitches down before they could do anything stupid that might get all of you hurt.

You and Sam spent over an hour trying to figure out how to control the golem to help Aaron out in controlling him. But there was too much lore out there to figure it out. Erasing non existent words off his forehead was just a myth, and you had your doubts on the scroll lore. It seemed that one was true from what you witnessed. You just needed to know what to say in order to get the golem to do what you wanted. And Eckhart knew exactly how to.

"I command you by the covenant of your makers—clay of Adam, surrender your bond unto me." A scroll, no bigger than the size of his pinky, fell out of the golem's mouth and into Eckhart's palm. He took it upon himself to untie the little white thread around the scroll. The man who had been standing next to Aaron grabbed him by his shirt and pushed him forward. Eckhart examined it for a moment before he chuckled to himself at the foolish mistake the younger man had made. "So you are the golem's rabbi? You woke him...but you didn't take possession of him. You write your name on the scroll, boy. That's how you...yifalchunbee.”

Aaron nervously swallowed at the pediment he was in, unsure of what the right thing to do was that didn’t end up with him dead. "I didn't know what he meant.”

"Knowledge is power, right?" Eckhart said. He thought the smart thing to do was to backhand Aaron right across the cheek, making the man stumble to the ground. You felt yourself slowly becoming overwhelmed with anger at what was going on. While Eckhart decided to take a seat and make himself comfortable, he nodded his head for one of his men to start searching through the place to find his precious book. “Now, which of you is going to tell me where I can find the a certain red ledger?”

"How about you go screw yourself, you Nazi bastard." Sam decided to lend the man a nice little insult, knowing there was no way he was going to let them back it back so easily.

“Can we…” Eckhart frowned slightly at the title he didn’t like hearing after the name had lost its meaning and purpose after so many decades. He slipped off his leather gloves and put them into his pocket for safekeeping, you noticed he was wearing a ring on his left hand. If you had to guess, it was apart of the Thule society.  “Could we put the Nazi thing aside for the moment and just talk about this like—”

"Nazi necromancer dicks? Pass." Dean said, the man chuckled quietly at the insult.

“So I take it you’re the commandant?” You asked. From your tone of voice and glare alone, it was clear to see you didn’t think very highly of the man you read about in the red ledger he was trying so hard to look for. "The one that authorized all those horrible experiments.”

"Invented.” Eckhart corrected you. He didn't find your glare the least bit threatening when he smiled, almost making it seem like you were complimenting him.He didn't find your glare or harsh words the least bit hurtful, for his ego was too big for anyone to shatter. You found yourself shaking your head in disgust when he smiled, almost making it out to seem like you were complimenting him. "Those experiments. Thank you."

“Du bist nicht willkommen.*" You replied, your lips stretching into a forced smile. While one of his goons was tearing the place apart to find their special book, you noticed the gun peeking out of Dean's jacket that was conveniently not too far away from him. And not to mention the shotgun lying not too far from Aaron. If you distracted Eckhart long enough, maybe there was a chance all of you could get out here alive. "You sick bastard.”

*You’re not welcome.

“Ah. Du sprichst Deutsch?” Eckhart asked you, speaking in his native tongue. You nodded your head slowly, knowing it was the reason why you knew about his experiments in the first place. Dean took his opportunity to look at Aaron and point his attention to the shotgun not too far from where he was sitting on the ground. The man had his perfect opportunity to grab it, but it was Aaron's nerves that made him shake his head no. "Funny. Someone who looks down upon us knows our language.”

*Ah. You speak German?

“The country isn’t a reflection for your disgusting way of thinking. And I always wanted to tell one of you to go ‘screw yourself’ in your native tongue. So, what your deal? I mean, you’re not... undead. What did you do?” You curiously asked him. “You cast a forever twenty-one spell on yourself? Like your little friend at the library?"

"His name was Torvald." Eckhart said. "And you will suffer for that."

“Sort of like how your friend did?” You taunted him, a smirk spreading across your lips.

You weren’t the least bit scared of his threat, knowing if his attempts were anything like his friends, it was going to end with him suffering. You found your head turning slightly to the side when you noticed one of the men discovered the red ledger hiding underneath the bag, a hiding spot that was the last minute place to think of on such short notice. You felt a curse word or two slip underneath your mouth when it was delivered to Eckhart, making things go in the wrong direction.

“You know, I got to say, spell or no spell, he broke easy, so...” Dean said, doing everything in his power to get under the Nazi’s skin.

Eckhart paid no attention to what the older Winchester said, his focus kept on the book that he had searched high and low for. He flipped through a few pages to make sure it was the exact one he lost. “I'm sorry. So…Let me tell you what I see. A magic Jew at my feet, not a master in sight, and, finally, our secrets secret once again. Which reminds me of a story.” You rolled your eyes in annoyance from how he was still talking. He pushed himself out of his chair to stand up for a moment. “‘A Jew, two gentiles, a lady and a Golem walk into a bar’—and it doesn't end with them coming out.” It seemed he gotten the story mixed up where it ended with all the Nazi necromancers dead by three hunters and a rabbi. You made your move when Aaron grabbed one of the legs from the table the golem had broke, taking Eckhart by surprise and knocking him on the back of the head. You went diving for the gun while Sam fought off the one after he saw what you were doing. Before the Nazi could pull the trigger, you pointed the loaded weapon at him, shooting him straight between the eyes to put him down. Dean seemed to have gotten the same idea as you when he reached for his own gun and shot at the other Nazi. Both of the men dropped to the ground, leaving Eckhart all by his lonesome when the other one of his goons attempted to grab Aaron and run, but got cold feet at the sight of two loaded weapons pointing at him. You might have let him run off, you knew well enough his days were numbered. You moved your gun to the last remaining Nazi and gave him another smirk, finding it amusing at how worked up he was getting, knowing the tables had turned on him.

"Fools!" He shouted. "You can kill me. But you will never kill all the Thule."  

You weren't the least bit threatened by his words, because they would be the last he'd ever speak. You shot off another round, putting a bullet in his head, watching as his body drop to the chair he previously had been occupying. While you knew he was right about not being able to take one down hate group today, you felt good wiping out the ones who messed with you, making the group smaller. Every little bit helped. While there is evil out in the world that takes on many forms, it was people like you that put them where they belonged, making everyone just a little safer for everyone.

+ + +

Everything was once somewhat calm in the world again; a handful of Nazi necromancers were dead and rightfully burning in hell where the belonged. Aaron was finally understanding what he needed to do in order to live the legacy his grandfather told him about. All of you headed back into the very trashed motel Aaron had been renting for the meantime, the golem continued to stand where it was since you left him a few hours ago to finish up loose ends, waiting for the man to yifalchunbee. “Well, now we know—paper beats Golem, fire beats undead Nazi zombie freaks.” Dean said, his humor made a small smile and a chuckle escape your throat. A sense of relief came over you, along with accomplishment at what all of you did. You had a feeling Henry and your father would have been proud of all of you for what you did today. “So...What do you say, Aaron?” Sam asked the man, getting down to the giant in the room. Now the Nazis were out of the way, all of you had to worry about the golem that had reeked havoc on Aaron’s life. “I mean, we got a place we can keep him.” “No. I mean... Eckhart might be dead, but you heard him. The Thule are still out there... hidden, active.” Aaron pulled out the small scroll from his pocket, unrolling it just enough to see his grandfather’s last name on the paper. Soon his own would join the legacy. “That's my grandfather. He left me something important. Something only I can do.” Aaron took a pen out from his pocket and wrote down his name on the paper before putting it back into the golem’s mouth like he should have done in the first place. You watched as the golem inhaled a deep breath, coming back to life as he straightened out his shoulders and looked at the man in front of him. “It looks like I'm the Judah Initiative now.” The first word that came out of the golem’s mouth was the infamous yifalchunbee—take charge in Hebrew—that Aaron had grown to think was a bad thing. But when the golem said it this time, it was in respect, Aaron had done exactly what he needed to do. You felt a smile spread across your lips at how everything turned out. Maybe legacies weren’t such a bad thing after all. + + +

You and the boys were back at the bunker by the next morning, and after a hot shower followed by a long nap, you made your way to the library had grown to feel like it was the heart of this place. Somewhere you and the boys were going to be spending a lot of your time in. You made your way to the record player when Sam said he wouldn't mind some music as background noise while he worked and put on a Louis Armstrong record, letting his voice echo through the bunker. Soon enough you joined him at the table, wondering what he had been working on and the things he discovered while doing his own search.

Dean found you and his brother talking among yourselves, you were leaning over the table with your elbow perched up and your palm cradling your head. A look of complete concentration was on your face while you listened to his brother going on about something. Sam had his head down, writing something on a pad of paper, every so often you glanced down to see what it was. Dean found the sight, with the old timey music playing in the background, almost picturesque. The sight gave off an ambience he couldn't quite understand. It gave off...comfort. Content. Relaxed after a long day, happy to be home.

"What're you and Y/N doing?" Dean curiously asked. His voice made you look over to see that it was him. You greeted him with a warm smile before directing your attention back to the younger Winchester.

"Ordering. I'm making a card entry for our copies from the Thule's red ledger for our collection." Sam explained to his brother what you and him had been doing. "And Y/N wanted to know how the filing system works, so I've been going through it with her.”

“It’s very riveting stuff." You might have sounded sarcastic, but in all honesty, you were learning a lot about how the Men of Letters worked. "I mean, the things that found during the time of being active...I can't wait to discover it all. See what else we can learn and add on."

Dean grabbed two beers from the mini fridge, but he found himself feeling like it wasn't right for this moment. He put them back when he remembered there was a scotch he discovered in the kitchen that was dated, but like most things, they got better with age. "So, uh, what? Aaron's a J.I. and you're a Man of Letters now, Sammy? And Y/N, possibly becoming the first Woman of Letters?"

“Hey, it’s the twenty first century.” You said. “Women can do anything men can.”

Dean chuckled to himself at your quick wit, knowing it was something he loved about you. He made his way over a small table to fix himself and two crystal glasses of scotch he'd been eager to try. Dean looked around the place for a moment to really look at the interior; taking in the endless books to hallways of rooms that he was still discovering. A few weeks ago he was a little hesitant about letting himself get used to the idea that this place could be good, because it wasn’t in his nature to settle down so easily, that something good might happen for him.

Dean had a thing about not letting himself get comfortable in just one spot. No home felt safe enough, no woman he loved felt like they would be able to really hold him for long and the insecurities that came with him. And his family slipped away from him too many times to count. Why get comfortable with something temporarily if it only was going to end in misery? Because not everything bad lasts forever. You taught him that.

Here Dean was at thirty-something, his baby brother with the love of his life sitting at one table, in a bunker that kept out everything they hunted. A wicked sweet pad that he had fell in love with and never wanted to leave. Dean grabbed three glasses and made his way over to the table to set two down, one for you and his brother, the other was for himself. You and Sam looked up to see him smiling down at the both of you. He mumbled a good—about the fact that you were warming up to the idea of starting something new in your lives. This wasn't a new chapter, no. This was a brand new book. A new journey all of you were about to embark on.

Sam grabbed his own when his brother took a seat at the other table, giving him some room to kick up his feet and sit back. You found yourself reaching for your drink when you saw both of them about to take a sip. Before they could, you raise your glass in the air, wanting to be a bit cheesy. "To us—the Winchester and Y/L/N, the new generation of the Women and Men of Letters.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Dean said. You smiled to yourself as you put the glass back down on the table, silently adding to your toast about the future generation to come. The man also had something else to say that took you a bit by surprise. “Maybe in the future it’ll just change to the Winchesters.”

You knew well enough what the older man was trying to say. The both of you had talked about marriage once or twice, knowing it was something you wanted to do when things calmed down. Yet he hadn't exactly popped the question just yet. Maybe he would in the near future. You weren't in a rush, but you felt overcome with a sense of happiness at the fact he was still thinking about it.

You looked over at the man, your lips stretching into a bashful sort of smile when he winked at you. You had been with him for almost five years now and he still made your stomach fill with butterflies. You leaned back in your seat and stared at the two men in front of you, three words drifting into your mind that felt right to end with. Home sweet home.

[Next Part]

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[emperorsfoot]

Osmosians

Whether you choose to accept the Omniverse ret-cons that Osmosians are mutant-Earthlings, or still remain loyal to the Alien Force/Ultimate Alien canon that they’re aliens, you have to agree that they deserve more development. One of the “core three” main characters is an “Osmosian” yet deplorably little is actually explained about them. Not only is that not fair to the character, its also just plain bad writing. 

But this post isn’t complaining about that. This post is suggesting a Fan Theory and sharing a head canon. 

Using Omniverse Ret-cons...

 Osmosians are mutant-Earthlings:

Okay, so they’re not aliens. Osmosians are humans from Earth that just happen to have super-powers. That’s fine. This is fine. 

But we should have been shown more of them. Other human-Earthlings with “Osmosian” powers. Or, if they didn’t want to create a whole bunch of other characters, then give us more information. Servantis seemed to know what he was talking about. Give us some statistics. “1 in every 11 people has the mutation”. Too common? Okay, the mutation is unique to [x] demographic, but only 1 in every 11 people in that demographic have the mutation. 

If its a genetic mutation then it’s passed genetically. Mrs. Levin does not appear to manifest the gene, so how did Kevin get it? “Devin” Levin might not have ever existed, but he had to have some kind of father. Since Mrs. Levin doesn’t carry the mutation, it had to come from him. Is the Osmosian mutation attached to the Y-chromosome? 

After all, all the Osmosians we actually see are male. 

My main man, Kevin. Our central Osmosian! 

Aggregor, our Osmosian warlord. Terror of the Andromeda Galaxy, Predator of Celestialsapians, and super-sexy badass spear-fighter. (Sure, because of the Omniverse ret-cons he’s no longer his own person but a failed “clone” of Kevin. Servantis trying to reproduce the Osmosian mutation. But he’s still one of only 4 Osmosians we ever see on screen.)

Devlin, Kevin’s son from the future who’s super cool and (much like the next one on this list) was only ever seen in ONE episode. 

Finally, our sexy space-dad, Devin Levin. Sure, Devin doesn’t exist. But we actually get to see him on screen. That’s more than can be said about a lot of other characters that supposably exist in this franchise. 

Now, one could easily just say, “Renkon, you’re thinking too hard. We don’t see any other Osmosians because its a NEW mutation. For all we know, Kevin is the first. That’s why all the Osmosians are directly related to Kevin. That’s why Servantis took it upon himself to coin the name ‘Osmosian’ in the first place.”

Well, ya know what, you’re probably right. 

But I have an alternate theory!

And now, the actual Fan Theory:

So, in the original series, Max says that almost all of Earths myths and legends can actually trace their origins to alien encounters. I suggest that Osmosians are old as any other Earthling myth. Just nobody noticed because the myth -and Osmosians themselves- are from a small ethnic group that has been marginalized (and persecuted) consistently across human history. 

I have said it before on this blog, but “Levin” is a Jewish name. 

And guess what, we Jews have a mythical monster that actually fits Kevin’s powers pretty damn well! 

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, גולם the golem.

But what makes the golem such a good fit for Kevin? Allow me to explain.

Golems are mostly male. There are a few instances of creatures fitting golem characteristics that are female. But, over all, the vast majority of golem we see in the mythical canons are male -just like every damn Osmosian we actually get to see in canon is male. 

Golem are not creatures for “good times”. They are meant to be threatening and ominous figures. Rather like Kevin. Yeah, he’s a good guy, but he’s also got a dark streak to him. He’s edgy, and dangerous, and violent, and kinda gets off on people being afraid of him. 

But while they might be dark and threatening figures, golem are not malevolent creatures. In fact, they’re guardians and protectors. All that ominousness and intimidation is for the purpose of deterring outright attacks and intentional harm to the Jewish people. Now think about Kevin and how territorial and defensive he is. Ben raises his voice to Gwen, Kevin turns around and tells him to shut the fuck up and respect her. Kevin’s house is destroyed and he straight up murders the guy who did it. Just imagine literally any scene when his car is involved. Kevin is territorial and protective, just like a golem. 

Finally, lets talk powers. 

Golem are creatures molded from cray, or sculpted from stone. They are stone men. And Kevin’s most used power is the ability to absorb and copy stone (among other materials that would make acceptable golem).

But that’s not it. Golem are also supposed to be shape-shifters. And what’s Kevin’s second favorite power?

His shape shifting.

And, let us not forget that Kevin was shapeshifting before he ever learned to control it. 

“Osmosians” are actually golem, or at the very least the decedents of golem, and the “Osmosian mutation” or “golem gene” is attached to the Y-chromosome which is why the only Osmosians we ever actually see are male. 

So, that’s my theory. 

Y’all are free to disagree with it. In fact, I’m pretty sure most of you will disagree with me. But I’ve been thinking about this for a while and felt it was about time I shared. 

Obviously, Kevin himself is secular. 

But that doesn’t mean he can’t be of Jewish decent and descended from a line of golem. Or that “Osmosians” are just what a stupid goy like Servantis calls golem. 

[ Part 2 of this post can be read HERE ]

[tomioneer]

Yyh rewatch post 3

After watching several episodes without much to say, I've arrived the very upsetting episode 12.

I know Rando brutalizes Kuwabara, and I expected it to be awful--Ive seen this before and read the manga--but it's so much more horrifying because all I can think of is that Kazuma is just a kid. He's tall and tough, sure, but he's still a child. He's scared and overwhelmed and in a lot of pain after a long, confusing fucking day

Kuwabara sought Genkai to have her turn OFF his spiritual powers. Now he's in a death match on a haunted battlefield on which he has already confirmed he can see the ghosts of slaughtered soldiers. Theyre leaving it out of the plot because it's not relevant, but this kid isn't just seeing a field, he's seeing a nightmare every way he looks

And on this ancient battlefield he gets shrunk to about four inches in height picked up by a sadist, squeezed so hard his ribs crack, and tossed around like a fucking doll. All before his arm is deliberately broken

Tl;Dr I'd kill rando myself if I fucking could

I always remembered the upcoming fight as being desperate and high stakes, but this is just. Beyond the fucking pale. How dare he touch my stupid ginger son.

And I remember that it gets worse from here out.

randos random fucking chant is bullshit Latin and English and I just. Hate him so much

Kuwabara is weirdly obsessed with fighting Yusuke even though they're like. Best friends already, they just don't wanna admit it.

Good job, Yusuke. Announce your real identity to your fucking MARK

Daaamn baby's whole fist glows. That was kickass. I only wish we could have this with the more fluid, probably higher budget animation I remember from the sensui arc.

Oh hey the shoulder wounds I remember. Yusuke: ouch.

Genkai: it appears your friend is a fool. Botan: no, just mad.

Yusuke fights a disguised, red headed demon with wind attacks. Sound familiar??

FOLKS THE FIGHT AINT OVER

Botan assumes kuwabara is dead because he hasn't been talking. GIRL, his ribs are broken

Why, pray tell, does rando's transformation cause the ground to split beneath them.

Kuwabara does the 'next time!!' trailer, which spoils that Rando is going to steal Yusuke's signature attack. WHICH WOULD HAVE SURPRISED ME, given how few details from this arc I've remembered so far

Yusuke just shouted 'and here's the kill' which (judging by my soul deep recognition of the words in that voice) was either a catch phrase in the dub, or a like from a frequently played Toonami commercial bumper.

I'm betting it's the latter

Rando has Yusuke tied up, and that's two mini arc big bads in a row to do so, counting hiei

Kinky

Rando has some fucking Issues he needs to work through

Genkai claims she's getting old now but does she ever permanently die within this series?? I'm remember crying over her death for like. A week. But I know she came back

Rando's speaking another bullshit chant but I think this one summit a giant fish with teeth

Oh, yup.

OH, SEVERAL.

"hate fish"

Rando bitch summons a demon just to make a point about the fish

Randos nail game is on point

Betcha Togashi never thought the say would come that 'rando' was itself considered a word lmao.

DUMP MY GREASER CHILD IN A POOL OF MAN EATING FISH ONE MORE TIME MOTHERFUCKER---

Ooh smarmy internal monologue. I do love this boy.

Yusuke agrees hate fish is a stupid name 😂

Kuwabara projects his ENTIRE SOUL to save Yusuke in a weird about face from the first few episodes.

I told you I'd get new ships out of this show.

Current ship count: 3/400

Yusuke blows up a lake because he's mad his more-psychic boyfriend is going to steal his job

If it wins him the fight I'm not complaining. I know we're close to the end now, and then we get a small time skip.

Botan tells her stupid child to shoot, not shout. I think we can all sympathize

"As for my Spirit Gun technique, you're doing it all wrong! You hold too much back!" Badass boast, anyone?

Isn't rando like. Fucking tiny.

Uh, nope, full size and full angry.

"even though it looks like I can't move right now, I'm very dangerous"--Yusuke Urameshi

RIGHT THE STUPID SPELL ONLY WORKS IF YOU HEAR IT. And Yusuke's been swimming in mossy swamps.

I love this stupid greasy angry tired child.

open has A LOT of work to do, just from those few hours.

Hey, Rando got fern gully'd after all. I remember more than I thought!

If Genkai can do such incredible healing on kuwabara, and Yusuke gets her dull power during the dark tournament... Can he heal like that too??? DOES HE EVER??

I just noticed my son kuwabara is voiced by Christopher Sabat. Doesn't he do All Might now...?

On second thought I guess I do have something to say about the Artifact Recovery arc.

Couldn't hiei's green, many-eyed full demon form have come in handy at LITERALLY ANY TIME during the dark tournament. I know he doesn't do it but like. He was floating around and using reiki rings to bind Yusuke in place and just--NONE of these powers ever come back up and I am Fucking Tired of it.

Also--the dub calls Kuwabara's spirit sword Materialization and one of the other competitors in Genkai's tourney uses his power to Enhance the strength of his arm. Don't think I don't fucking notice you refining and re-using those powers in HUNTERXHUNTER Togashi!! I fucking see it!!!

The bat Yusuke fought in the yyh version of Naruto's Forest of death is voice acted as... Basically golem, tbh.

Don't you bitches lie to me and tell me Kurama only had four tails.shoukdnt he have had, like, at least six or seven?? Given how much of a badass he is and the way demons remember him as this be all end all threat??

[kaette-kita-slayers]

Slayers Special 2-6 - Little Princess 2 (Part 1)

I’m splitting this one into two parts, since it’s longer than usual. (Here’s part 2)

(If you haven’t already, you might want to read the writeup for the first “Little Princess”, since this story is a followup to the events there.)

“Help! Someone, please, help!”

I could hear the desperate, panicked voice of an old man coming from the area where the highway reaches the forest.

“Give up, old man. Nobody’s gonna help you!” a brutish-sounding man’s voice said.

This is where an ordinary person with no guts for a fight would pretend they hadn’t heard anything and move on, but Lina Inverse isn’t like that! Without hesitation, I ran toward the direction the voices had come from.

It was probably a traveler being threatened by a bandit or something like that. In which case, I could demand a huge reward for saving him!

Lina catches up to them and sees a bandit, sword raised, advancing on an old man on the ground. Behind them, there’s a girl struggling with two other men.

Lina draws her short sword and dives for the sword-wielding man. The two cross swords, and then Lina spins to the side and elbows him in the jaw. As he falls, out cold, she thinks to herself that he’s no better than any other generic thug.

One of the remaining men yells at her not to move, and Lina looks over to see that they have the girl restrained with a sword to her throat.

It’s an effective tactic, if stereotypical.

“Help me!” the girl cried out. She was blonde and petite… wait, what the–?!

“Make a move and she dies, bitch!”

I ignored the man spouting cliches and made a mad dash for the three.

“H-hey, I told you not to–”

The men went into a panic, but I still ignored them!

“How dare you show your face in front of meeeeee?!”

My jump kick hit the hostage–Laymia–right in the face.

The story resumes in a simple restaurant in a nameless little village near the highway, with Lina apologizing awkwardly to Laymia, claiming that her “foot slipped”. Lina had had trouble with a girl claiming to be Laymia before, but…

She sorta turned out to be the real one. It’s hilarious, really. Normally, this is the kind of thing that we could all laugh off (I think), but in this case, unfortunately, I was dealing with the daughter of a nobleman, complete with an attendant.

Said attendant–the old man–is furious, veins popping out on his forehead, yelling at Lina that “I’m sorry” isn’t good enough. Laymia says nothing, fiddling with a rose she’s holding.

Lina assumes she’s trying to strike some kind of pose, but the mark left on her face from Lina’s kick ruins it. Lina also notes that the two of them aren’t wearing the kind of nice clothing she would have expected, presumably to keep from standing out while traveling.

Laymia’s servant continues berating Lina.

“This girl that you kicked is the daughter of Duke Turadia, holder of lands entrusted to him by the king himself! And even worse, you kicked her in the face! If the mark doesn’t go away, Lady Laymia will… Lady Laymia will… be stuck with this hilarious face for the rest of her life!”

“Well, excuse me for having a ‘hilarious face’…” Laymia muttered, side-eyeing the old man, who quickly bowed his head.

“Eh… heh. Forgive me, my lady! That just slipped out. Please forgive your humble servant, Crambe!”

Laymia lets it slide, but orders him to stop berating Lina and especially to stop referring to her aloud as the duke’s daughter, since they’re traveling in secret. Silently celebrating, Lina apologizes to her one more time.

“By the way… judging by your appearance, I assume you’re a sorceress…?”

I nodded in response to her question.

“I thought so.”

“Even a cat could figure that out.”

“Old man…”

“Oh, just another slip of the tongue!”

Casually flinging her rose under the table, she asks Lina if she would agree to accompany them as a bodyguard. Lina doesn’t want to, but she knows she can’t refuse outright after what happened earlier. Still a little suspicious that she might be dealing with a fake, she asks Laymia why they didn’t bring soldiers with them.

Laymia says that she would have preferred to do so, but her father’s lands are in an economic crisis. Crambe interrupts, protesting that she shouldn’t reveal that, but she counters that Lina needs to understand the situation.

Picking up a leafless rose from under the table, she explains further.

“You’ve probably heard rumors about this, but a short time ago, an ambitious chancellor in our lands did something unwise…”

Believe me, I know.

“Thanks to the strange golems he unleashed, the city suffered massive damage, and we’ve exhausted our resources trying to rebuild.”

I started in shock, and froze. T-that… that couldn’t be… don’t tell me…

“Er… that… that sounds awful…” Sweating profusely, I forced a smile.

Damn it, Naga, you picked the perfect time to disappear on me…

Laymia tells her that because of the disaster, they were left without money to pay their soldiers and staff, and now only the old man with her is left. As she attaches a leaf to the rose, she adds that she has to make artificial flowers to earn money.

She begins to cry, and Crambe puts a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t cry, princess… that’s just acknowledging that you’re one of the worthless poor now.”

“Are you trying to pick a fight with me…?”

“Why… how could you ever think that? You have my deepest apologies! It just slipped out.”

This old guy… I think maybe he only stuck around with them because no one would want to hire him if he left the castle.

Returning to the subject, Laymia tells Lina that they’re on their way to Figaro City to see Duke MacGarrell, a relative of hers, to ask him for a loan.

“So please, I beg you! I… I don’t have anything to pay you with right now, but I will as soon as I can raise some money! And if that’s not enough, I’ll rub your shoulders! Make you tea! I’ll be your slave!”

“Princess… you’re abasing yourself a little bit too much…”

“Stop crying, old man, and you bow too!”

Both of them were sobbing. Naturally, I couldn’t refuse her request.

The trip to Figaro City goes well. Laymia gets caught running out on her bill a couple of times, and they encounter some bandits and other assorted lowlifes, but nothing worse happens.

Despite being roughly the same size as Tyrell City, it’s a very different place, with an oppressive atmosphere. In contrast to the run-down areas populated by commoners, the castle is surrounded by opulent mansions. There are clearly far more impoverished than wealthy, and Lina thinks that lords of places like this are almost always rich.

The group heads straight for the castle (Lina suspects because Laymia has no money for sightseeing and shopping, anyway). When the guards at the entrance stop them, Laymia announces herself as Laymia Ul Turadia, the daughter of Radius Von Turadia.

The soldiers call her a liar, rendering her speechless. Furious, Crambe demands to know why they think so, and the soldiers reply that she’s too suspicious. She has no soldiers accompanying her and looks too poor to be a duke’s daughter, and besides, they were never notified that Laymia would be coming to visit.

“You didn’t contact them and let them know you were coming?!” I asked Laymia in a low voice.

“Come on! If I had enough money to send a messenger, I wouldn’t have had to skip out on paying for my meals!”

A soldier in armor decorated with gold emerges, demanding to know what’s going on. Judging by the extravagance of his armor, Lina guesses that he must be officer-class or even part of the duke’s personal guard. He’s solidly built, with close-cropped hair and a square jaw.

One of the other soldiers addresses him as “Captain Barrell”, but before he can continue, Lina cuts in and tells him that he needs to teach the soldiers under his command better manners. He retorts that she’s got a big attitude for someone so tiny.

The other soldier tells him that Laymia claims to be the daughter of the duke from Tyrell. Barrell laughs scornfully and pulls out a few silver coins, telling the soldiers not to bother with people like them, just to send them away with a little money. He then flings the coins on the ground in front of Lina and the others.

Lina is furious.

“I said, don’t mock us! You think you can throw a few coins at us and make a mockery of us and our pride and our situation?! And you, Miss Laymia! Don’t pick up any of the coins this jerk dropped! It’s disgraceful!”

“Miss Lina…”

“What?”

“I think you’d be more convincing if you weren’t picking up the coins yourself…”

… Oops!

“Oh, uh, it’s kind of a reflex… Even silver coins are still money–no sense wasting it!”

Moving on, Lina asks Laymia if she has any proof of her identity, and Laymia remembers that she does have a letter from her father. As she begins rifling around in her basket of crafting materials, Lina exasperatedly thinks she should have just done this in the first place. Having trouble finding it, Laymia wonders aloud if maybe she sold it somewhere along the way. Finally, she remembers that she’d used it to put under her flowers while applying starch to them, and pulls out the letter (well-starched) and hands it to Barrell.

Barrell pales, but, still suspicious, he takes the letter and starts to open it to see what’s written inside. Lina interrupts, telling him he’d better be prepared for the consequences if he’s planning to open up and read a letter from one duke to another without permission. Getting even paler, Barrell disappears inside with the letter.

After a long wait, Duke MacGarrell emerges with a group of soldiers. Barrell is not among them.

Later, the three of them, plus the duke and his five sons, are seated at a narrow table in a room deep in the castle. The duke is a seedy-looking, lanky man in his forties, with a short mustache that only makes him look worse. His children resemble him, with unremarkable faces.

The food they’re being served, in contrast to the grandeur of the castle and the duke and his family’s clothing, is all commonplace fare. The duke offhandedly apologizes for the solders’ behavior, and Lina thinks that they don’t seem too thrilled with Laymia’s arrival.

Laymia and Crambe appear not to notice, both staring at the food.

“Look, old man! There’s dressing on the salad! They really went all out!”

“Oh, to think that I would once again be able to eat a fish larger than the palm of my hand… It’s been so long…”

“And… is that chicken?! Oh, I wish I could box it up and take it home to everyone…”

The duke awkwardly invites them to go ahead and eat, since the two of them are already stuffing their faces. He doesn’t even bother saying anything until they start slowing down a bit, then says that Laymia’s father must be in trouble, if he’s sending his only daughter out on a mission for him. Blushing, Laymia agrees that it’s shameful, while stuffing some fried chicken into a pocket.

He tells Laymia that he will give them the amount her father requested. Lina thinks to herself that he must have mistaken her for a servant of Laymia’s in disguise, to be willing to announce that in front of her.

The duke adds that he’s not talking about a loan, either–he’s offering the money outright. Lina is puzzled, since everything so far had indicated that he was unhappy to see them (unsurprisingly, since they’d shown up out of the blue asking for a huge sum of money). She wonders if Laymia’s father might have actually requested less than she thought.

Wiping up some sauce on his plate with a piece of bread, Crambe protests that, regardless of how desperate they may be, it would shame Duke Turadia to accept that much money without giving anything back. Lina would have just taken it with a “Don’t mind if I do!” but she supposes that rulers do have to take things like honor and reputation into account.

The duke muses that he can’t very well go back on his word and insist on repayment. After a short silence, he suggests that they do something for him instead, since it will take a little while for him to gather the necessary funds anyway.

Laymia asks what that “something” is, but the duke says he hasn’t thought of it yet. Nevertheless, they agree to his terms.

He ends up giving them a simple job to do: deliver a letter to an old associate of the duke’s, now retired and living in an old fortress by a lake north of the city. The journey should take about four days, total, and the duke assures them that his men have eliminated the bandits that used to attack travelers along the route.

Of course, it doesn’t work out that way–it’s only noon on their first day when something happens. As they’re walking, Lina suddenly grabs Crambe and tells him to stop.

“W-what is it, all of a sudden?”

“Don’t tell me…!” Laymia looked at me with an expression of shock and horror. “You dropped your wallet?!”

Does she ever think about anything but money?

“No! Somebody’s after us!”

A muffled voice congratulates her for noticing, and Lina mocks them for staying hidden, asking if they’re that afraid of just three people. Taking the bait, they begin to emerge from the trees, somewhere between twenty or thirty people in all.

They aren’t simple bandits, either. All of them have matching armor and weapons–plate mail, longswords, and full helmets–and they move like a trained unit. It’s obvious that they’re soldiers from somewhere.

“Hmph… I don’t know what you’re trying to do here, but I don’t have any money to give you!” Laymia suddenly stepped forward, delivering her proclamation firmly.

She hadn’t had any money before, but right now, she had a bit of money for expenses given to her by Duke MacGarrell.

“Rather than hand over my money… let me apologize!”

“Uh… we don’t need you to apologize…” said one of the men, who seemed to be the leader, sounding puzzled. “First and foremost, we don’t want money, we want–”

“Our lives?” I interjected.

The man shook his head and said, “No. We want the letter you have.”

“What…?! How do you know about the letter?!” The shocked voice belonged to Crambe.

“I don’t need to answer that.” The man bluntly stated, “If you hand over the letter and don’t give us any trouble, we’ll spare your lives. We’ll even pay you for it.”

“It’s all yours. <3”

“You can’t just hand it over to him with a smile, Miss Laymia! You won’t get the money from the duke!”

“She’s right. You shouldn’t be so disloyal.” For some reason, the man was nodding in agreement with what I had said.

Laymia comes around and refuses to give up the letter, and the men draw their swords.

The story resumes that night, at an inn. Lina had taken care of the soldiers easily, leaving them to scramble to run away from her.

Eating some fried crab, Laymia says that she’s worried about the fact that the men knew about the letter. Lina responds that the three of them may have gotten caught up in some kind of plot. Since the men after them knew about the letter, it’s reasonable to assume that there’s a spy among MacGarrell’s people. Lina lowers her voice before continuing, telling them that she has a theory about what’s really going on.

Her guess is that MacGarrell is preparing to go to war against someone, and when the three of them arrived, he saw the opportunity to contact someone connected to his plans without the enemy noticing. She doesn’t have any idea whether they have the real letter, or if they’re just serving as decoys for other messengers, but either way, the enemy probably learned about them thanks to the spy in the castle.

Disbelieving, Laymia points out that the duke had originally offered her the money with no strings attached. Lina tells her that she’s being naive; the duke must have known that, as the representative for another duke, she wouldn’t have been able to accept his initial offer. Besides, it defies common sense to think that, in return for nothing more than an ordinary letter delivery, the duke would be willing to give them the kind of money it would take to fund the government of an entire region, even if he is related to Laymia.

Laymia and Crambe begin brooding over the idea. Keeping her tone light, Lina tells them not to worry too much, because all they need to do is deliver the letter as quickly as possible. Besides, Lina can handle anything that the enemy could throw at the group. Laymia and Crambe aren’t convinced, but then, they have no idea how powerful Lina actually is.

Finally, Crambe says that they can’t turn back now, regardless of what the duke’s real intentions might be. Laymia agrees, and Crambe continues…

“Then all we can do is continue on! We’ll reach our destination by afternoon tomorrow. We might be ambushed again, but who cares about that? If we die, we die. We could have avoided all of this if we’d gone looking for Lord Phraon and adopted him into your family, but what does that matter?”

Lina interrupts Laymia attempting to strangle Crambe, asking her who Phraon is. Looking sad, Laymia replies that he's a cousin of hers, an orphan who was, at one time, the only person other than Laymia with the right to inherit her father's title and lands.

Unfortunately, the chancellor had planned to force her father to abdicate in favor of Phraon, then control the government from the shadows as his advisor. Phraon wasn't actually involved in the scheme, but after everything came to light, people grew suspicious that he might have been an accomplice. Finally, he renounced his right of inheritance and left the castle.

Blushing a little, Laymia says that it must have been difficult for him, since he's so sensitive. Lina puts two and two together and asks Crambe if she's in love with Phraon, and he tells Lina that it's true.

Unfortunately, Crambe can't resist getting in another jab at Laymia, and the two don't stop arguing until late that night.

Notes

Not really much of anything, except that the story mentions Laymia using tape to make her roses. That struck me as a little... technologically advanced for the setting.

Edit: There’s one major thing I forgot! The word I translated as “chancellor” really means minister, but there’s a reason for that. The story hinges on how stereotypical the plot is (until Naga gets involved), and I get the impression that more people are familiar with the trope referring to “chancellors” rather than “ministers” thanks to games like Chrono Trigger. (That’s what the TV Tropes page is called, even.)

[oldmangilmore-blog]

Stolen Light

CHAPTER 2

After their fun at the beach Shieru and Haiba set off to different directions. Shieru journeyed to meet Darius at the old sawmill on the far east side of the Grimwood forest while Haiba set out on a personal quest. One that involved getting reacquainted with past foes... While they were travelling Darius was already busy with training at the old sawmill.

-Aargh!!!! Not good enough!!! - he yelled while desperately trying to pick up a massive log. His hands were covered in bruises and cuts and his face was no different. He had been training the whole time after he left the tavern. Feeling that his body isn't responding to his commands he tried to push himself even further.

Shieru arrived at the spot and saw Darius training.

 - My, my. What determination.. Reminds me of Haiba - she smirked. She watched as Darius made his final attempt to lift the log up, however he turned pale and fainted. Shieru walks up to him:

-Yup, you're a mirror image of Haiba in his prime, I guess. - she stared at him for a moment then kneeled down to see how he was. - So reckless.. - Shieru put her hand over his chest and healed him. The wounds on his arms started fading right away, his pale face returned to normal. Darius opened his eyes to see Shieru smiling.

- ... What? Lady Shieru..? What are you... When did you get here? -  A few moments ago. You know, you don't have to push yourself so far.

- I must.. If I ever hope of becoming as strong as Haiba sensei!

- sigh.. I don't think that's possible Darius my boy..

- WHAT?! Why?

- Haiba gained his power when he joined the Raven Claw. He sacrificed a part of himself to become what he is now, but that power comes with a huge price. A shadow assassin is only able to use the power of darkness while he creates chaos and destruction, but Haiba somehow found a way to bend that rule.

-Whoa... Maybe I could learn that too..

Shieru hits Darius on the back of his head.

- No. Haiba said that your future lies with life and nature magic.

- But Lady Shieru! --he rubs his head

- No buts.. While you're our student you have to listen to us. Don't like it, train by yourself.

- I'm sorry. Please, teach me. -- he bowed.

- Well there's  no need for bowing, haha. (I frikin love this - she thought while smirking). - Now.. Let's start your training! Are you ready?

- Yes ma'am!

- First of all let me explain how aura's work. The world around us is filled with all kinds of energy sources, for example my light magic or Haiba's shadow magic. There are all kinds of different sources of magical aura's around the world. In my time I fought with a lot of different opponents with fascinating powers. For example one of them could create animated golems from earth and make dirt as hard as steel. Another one manipulated the power of lightning. He was so fast that even I couldn't beat him by myself. My former master stepped in to help and that's how we defeated him.

- Awesome!!

- Indeed. Now for types of aura's that you can use. You can actually use any kind of magical aura, but specific ones are more powerful than the others. For example I could use Haiba's dark magic, but it be weak. If you are a life and nature aura, then using death and chaos magic will be near impossible to you. Did you get everything so far?

- Umm..  I guess..

- Excelent! (He didn't get shit, did he...?) How about we skip the boring theory and try practice, huh?

- Okay, sensei!

- Awww, he called me sensei! -- she thought.  Now I'll teach you how to form a weapon from the energy you wield. Hold out your hand like this and close your eyes. Now, feel the energy around you, we are in a forest for a reason. This is your main battle environment, you can accumulate the most magical power here. Draw energy from your surroundings into your hand. *a faint green light starts glowing around his hand* Good, now to actually form a weapon, you have to imagine it's shape and size. Try it. *the light starts taking shape of a dagger* Good!  Now to make it into solid matter you must infuse it with your own energy. The feeling in your chest is your own life energy, send some of it to your hand to form the weapon. *a bright white light flashes and a green dagger appears in Darius' hand*

- I DID IT!!!

- Well done, now.. Try making a sword.

- Yes ma'am!

Shieru and Darius practiced for 5 days straight. In the mean time they got close and started bonding like mother and son. After almost a week of training Darius had already learned the basics of creating objects from magical energy. Seeing that Shieru knew it was time to pass on her student to his next mentor.

- Well, kiddo, your training with me is complete!

- Really Shieru-sama? Did I do as well as you expected??

- To be honest you did even better. I didn't think you could get the basics in just 5 days. I'm proud of ya!  --- winks

- Awesome!!! - he yelled as he jumped in the air

- Alright, your new sensei should be waiting for us already.

- Who will teach me now, ma'am?

- You'll see -- she says while smirking. -Jesus.. I hope they don't flip when they see each other -- she thought to herself.

Shieru and Darius travelled to the town of Asur where a new mentor was already waiting.

AT THE TOWN OF MATTREFORD

The market of Mattreford  was as busy as ever. Shieru asked Darius to get her a few groceries while she went to take care of business.

- Meet me at the farms outside of town in an hour or so, alright? Ohh and take this necklace. It's enchanted to protect you whenever you get hurt, but it doesn't mean you can get reckless with it. - she hands him the necklace.

- Yes, sensei! - Darius replied as he ran off.

Shieru smiled and was on her way as well. After running the errands Darius met Shieru at the farms. She was talking to someone, but Darius couldn't make out who it was, because the person was sitting behind a tree. The boy got closer and got noticed by his sensei.

- Heyyy Darius!!! Come here!

He quickly ran over to her, bowed and gave her the groceries.

- Darius meet your battle training instructor.

The boy stared with fear and excitement into the dark figure behind the tree. He was shocked and got frightened after he realized it was Haiba.

- Whaaaat??? Him!? He'll kill me! - he screamed with a pale face.

- Now, now.. Don't freak out, I talked with him and he agreed to train you. Didn't you Haiba?

- As much as I hate to admit it.. Hmm. So, you say you taught him the basics?

- Yup!

- Well, then show me, boy. Form a weapon and attack me - Haiba said with an emotionless face.

Darius was shaking and didn't know what to do.

- Come on, you can do it! - Shieru yelled.

- Right. Here goes! - he calmed down and started channeling energy into his palm.

Darius instantly made a sword which was a lot stronger than the one he forged when he first started training. He formed a fairly tough green elven sword and looked Haiba straight in the eye full of determination and courage. After a brief moment to focus he charged Haiba head on.

- Take this!!! - he yelled while swinging his sword.

Haiba just stood there unarmed and waited for the attack. He then blocked the incoming blow with his arm and shattered the sword. He then punched Darius in the gut and kicked him away a few meters.

- Hmm.. Well she did teach him how to create a weapon.. But he clearly has no idea how to use it. -- he thought to himself

- If you get up after my next attack, I will train you. If you don't I'll finish you off - Haiba said with a stone cold face.

Shieru continues watching. Darius slowly gets up.

- Now, show me are you truly worthy of being trained by me! - he yelled while releasing a dark shock wave at the boy.

Darius had no chance to dodge that so he braced himself, focused all his energy towards his crossed arms and took the direct hit. The blast sent him flying away. He felt down with his clothes burned up and his body fully covered in bruises and burn marks. Darius clenched his fists and slowly stood up. Barely standing and shaking he looked at Haiba with a smile, as if he was trying to say "I beat you".

- Hmm.. I see.. - Haiba noticed the necklace Shieru gave to the boy. - So you gave him a healing talisman too, huh?

Shieru smirks.

- Well a promise is a promise. I never go back on one. You are now officially my student!

Darius smiled and fainted.

- He's one tough fucker - Haiba smiled as he looked down on the boy.

- His determination reminds me of you a bit.

- Maybe.. Listen, Shieru. I want you to  go to Asur and find Old-man Sho. He used to run a small guild in the city. See if he still does and if so aid them. I owe the old geezer a favor and he sent a letter asking for help.

- Why do I have to return your favors???

- Because I agreed to take this kid as a student for you!

- Touche~

- Before you leave patch the kid up, so he's battle-ready. I want to start his training as soon as possible.

- Understood.

Shieru sat down to heal Darius while Haiba stared into the distance thinking. Few moments later Shieru stood up, nodded and left Darius with his new master.

Haiba took him to a tavern in the far east side of Mattreford.

-Eat up, kid.. We have a long day ahead of us.

- Yes... S-sensei..

- AND STOP CALLING ME SENSEI!!!  Come on.. Eat or I will eat everything myself..

As soon as  Haiba finished his sentence he started mowing down the food from the table like some sort of beast.

Staring at the food being demolished with surprise. - Boy.. His appetite is as big as he's scary.. Right I need my strength - he said as he started eating as well.

After a full 5 course meal the two left the tavern and went to enjoy a relaxing stroll through the park.

- Umm.. Master? Why aren't we training?

-Training comes later, right now we are digesting our food. Just go with it..

After a few hours they wandered to the hot springs.

- You have to be kidding me... HOW IS THIS PART OF OUR TRAINING?!

- Just shut up and get in - Haiba said as he leaned back in the steaming hot water.

- I swear this guy is just finding excuses not to train me..

After spending the rest of the evening in the hot springs Haiba and Darius set out to the tavern in the southern side of town. While walking through a dark alley Haiba asked:

- Yo kid.. Do you know why we did the things that we did today..?

- To waste our training time?? - he shouted with anger

- To show you the good side of life.. But now.. You must experience the dark side too..

As he finished his words a dark aura started surrounding Haiba and the alley seemed to be fully covered in darkness. Dark images of Haiba's past started showing up. Darius saw horror filled images of entire villages being slaughtered cities razed and people begging for help.

- This.. This is the dark side of life.. My side of life... If you trully think you can deal with images like these on a daily basis.. -- The atmosphere turned back to normal and Haiba's aura disappeared -- Then we'll continue your training tomorow.

Paralyzed by fear Darius just sat there, shaking. He spent a few moments thinking about all the horrors that his master showed him, then stood up and followed him to the tavern. He wanted to ask about his masters past, but every time that thought crossed his mind the images kept showing up again.

THE NEXT MORNING

Haiba and Darius went back to the forest near the sawmill to continue with training.

- Alright.. Seeing as you are still determined to fight after all the things that I showed you..

Darius clenched his fists and nodded.

- Let's begin your training. Firstly form that sword of yours, just try to make it stronger than last time..

Darius silently closed his eyes and started accumulating energy in his hand. He managed to create a sword even more powerful than in the past.

- Good, I see you're improving. Now.. (Haiba forms a blade similar in size) Your real training begins now! - He said as he charged his student head on.

Darius managed to block the incoming attack and was surprised to see his master smiling.

-Very good.. Always keep your eyes open while in combat and always be aware of your surroundings, not all enemies use weapons like these some might control the environment and attack your from any direction. Keep your guard up! -- A shadow that formed behind Darius slashed at him but he managed to dodge the attack. Seeing his student smile Haiba knew they were at a mutual understanding.

A month has passed and Haiba decided that Darius was ready to take his training to the real world and left the training grounds at the sawmill. The two heroes made their way towards Asur. When they exited the forest Darius gazed at the Town of Asur. It was every bit as beautiful as he imagined. In the town of Asur several guilds took residence. Among those guilds were such as small factions of Raven claw and the Sky Brotherhood, but their factions here were relatively small compared to the Capital. Haiba and Darius entered through the gates and made their way to the eastern side of town where a small guild called Wolf's Fang. The two lads approached the guild.

- So cool.. -- He looked up at the emblem above the guild's entrance.

- Alright let's go in - Haiba said as he pushed open the doors.

The guild wasn't what Darius expected it to be. There were only about 10 people all looking grey and moving around slowly.

- What happened..? -- Darius asked

Haiba is approached by Master Sho, the current guild master of Wolf's Fang. The old man was half the size of Haiba and skinny beyond belief.

- Hey Old man Sho.. How are you holding up, where's Shieru?

- Ohh you know trying to hold this guild together.. This guild is like family to me.. But after you left the whole family started tearing itself apart. Some left for other guilds some took up wandering and some passed away.. How is Maya holding up?

The atmosphere in the room changed for a second, you could actually feel the tension and the sadness that filled the room.

- I see, I am so sorry my boy.. I didn't know..

-It's okay Master. Where is Shieru?

- She is on an escort mission for some fancy lord. Our work has been low paid and we barely had enough to keep the guild running but Shieru brought a new line of work to our guild. She should have been back by now I don't know what-- Sho couldn't finish his sentence as Shieru jumped Haiba from behind and squeezed the life out of him:

-HAIBA-CHAAAAAAN!!!! I missed you sooo much!

- Let go! You-you're killing me...!

- So, how did you do my boy, did Haiba hurt you? - She started checking Darius and poking him all around.

- No lady Shieru, I'm actually fine, sensei was rough but I think the training he gave me really paid off!

- Good, we'll test out your newly acquired skills in our next mission - she said.

- Wait what? - Darius got confused

- You are now a part of Wolf's Fang, boy. You will form a team with Shieru and carry out several missions to boost the guild's income. In the mean time I will go recruit a few old friends of mine to the guild. Take care. -- And with those words Haiba turned into a shadow and faded away.

- Alright, let's go meet the others! -Shieru pushed Darius foward

- There aren't many people left but those that stayed are really kind and caring. This is Rey, he is a very skilled bowman and could shoot an apple from 3km away!

- Hi, I'm Rey, it's short for Reinold. I really hope we can be friends! - he said as a heartwarming smile covered his face

- Hello Reinold, I am Darius, I really hope so too! -- They shook hands and hugged.

- Alright, meet the others, this Buzzer, our barkeep. He is really good at cards so watch out! - Shieru laughed

- Nice to meet ya kiddo, friends call me Buzzer but the name's actually Bernard, feel free to use either! - He smiled and Darius saw his yellow teeth. Buzzer was a big fellow, probably twice the size of Haiba, had a big brown beard and a bald head. His chest was covered in scars and he was missing two fingers from his left hand.

-Next off we have Arno, the cook.

- Heya! -- He waved and dropped his hat which revealed his bright red hair. He was quite clumsy.

- Also we have Tina (she smiles and waves from her desk while filling in paperwork), she handles all the paperwork and business related stuff. Also Tunner..

- WHAT'S UP LITTLE MAN, THE NAME'S JEFF BUT YOU CAN CALL ME TUNNER! - He yelled as he jumped all around sticking his tongue out.

- Yes.. He's weird like that but don't be fooled, he's quite a strong mage. He uses his aura to generate music which either makes his enemies move the way he wants to or he can animate surrounding objects.

- YEAAAAHHH!!! -- He shouted as he made the tables dance.

- Anyway.. The last but not least are the Nami sisters, Kitto and Yuro. They come from the eastern kingdoms.

- (simultaneously) Please to meet you, Darius-kun!

- I am Kitto, the telepath.

-And I am Yuro the water mage.

- Kitto is a really strong telepath mage that comes in handy when you need to dish out orders to guild members that are away. And Yuro's healing magic is really powerful, she may in fact surpass mine one day. -- Shieru explained while patting Yuro.

- Alright, since you met everyone.. I think it's time. Darius, as the master of Wolf's Fang I hereby accept you into our guild, you are now officially a member of Wolf's Fang! (Everyone's cheering and come in for a group hug)

-Thank you so much guys!!! -- Darius sheds a tear.

A few hours pass as Darius gets to know the other members more better. Shieru and Master Sho start talking in the distance.

- He really is forming a bond with Rey. I think they will be a great duo one day..

- Like you and Haiba?

- Maybe even greater.. Speaking of Haiba.. When will he come back?

- I believe we will see him soon, he gathered info on the people he wants to recruit some time ago.. Right now he just needs to convince them to join us.

- You didn't exactly explain to me why are we doing this.

- Raven Claw is planning something.. I don't know what, but.. Over the past year a lot more guilds have been completely wiped out.. We survived only because of Haiba. He may not be an official member, but every time we were attacked he was there and we managed to pull through.. And Sky Brotherhood isn't doing anything about it.. I fear that they have conspired and are planning something together..

- Well whatever it is we'll stop it. Together.

- I really hope we will.. Not many strong guilds are  left in the kingdom of Lucudiana, but those that are fear Raven Claw too much to do anything about it.

- Don't worry master, if I know Haiba, he'll fix this. (Thinking) I hope... To be continued...

[aquaticsmoresblocksaboutmcsm]

Even more screenshots for episode two! Thar be spoilers.

So I was looking at some earlier screenshots and...

Of course ‘Vos’ doesn’t remember. OF COURSE.

This also means that the Admin isn’t omniscient and doesn’t know everything that’s happening in the world at all times. Or at least doesn’t know everything that he doesn’t care about. Just like me in high school and my science classes.

Also the ‘screenshotting blinking’ curse continues.

Anyway, where was I?

Petra, it’s pretty much obligatory at this point to activate every single lever and button in Jesse’s vicinity.

You gotta admit, the snowadmin really does know how to put on a show.

I was about to say ‘well, Stella might be a little weaker compared to everyone else’ but then I remembered she’s not a friend.

So the ‘My friends aren’t weak’ comment is still true, HAH.

EVERYBODY CLAP YOUR HANDS!

Aw, come on, Admin. I pretty much LIVE for lame puns.

Maybe he needs to chill out some more.

And then everyone died. The end.

AND LLUNA STICKS THE LANDING! WOOOOOO~!

Jesse, you’re looking a little too creepy with the smile and the lighting.

jack too op plz nerf

*loud internal sighing and screaming*

Also, ‘handsome’. Hurr hurr.

Hmm... spiders or arrows? Spiders or arrows?

Is there a third option involving cake?

Stella, there are times where I want to laugh because you’re so full of yourself but there are other times where I want to slap you upside the head for being so full of yourself.

LLUNA DESERVES BETTER!

Oho, I bet you do know better.

Admittedly, Radar might not be up one hundred percent for some of the trials, but this is his first adventure so what better way to learn other than training somewhere safer!

As for Lukas... well, admittedly, he’s certainly not the strongest in the Order and writing a novel in a cabin away from most people would make some fighting skills a little rusty, but there’s no better shooter of the group!

At least, I think he is? If not him, then Olivia. The only time I remember Lukas really using a bow before this was the first half in season one. In the second half he mostly used his sword and fisticuffs and promptly got his butt handed to him most of the time (EX: Aiden, the White Pumpkin, and he got owned in Spleef).

Lukas, have you ever considered the possibility of using tipped arrows? No? Okay...

“‘Wasn’t the coolest?’ Oh, no. Misfiling your acacia wood during material orgination week ‘isn’t the coolest’. That was, that was a stripe too far! Just because I’m not some sword-swinging meathead, they think they can just walk all over me! Th-th-they think... They look at me, and my, well, skinny little arms, and they think they know me? They think the know me? Well, they are wrong, dead wrong! I mean, I have been an embarrassment sometimes... But it stops here! It ends today! And, I-I guess I’m done. Sorry!”

First time I ever let him finish and what a show!

I can’t tell if she agreed with them because she thinks it really is good for everyone, she doesn’t want them hurt, got peer pressured by Vos and Jack, or what. Kinda hard to tell.

MY GOD, SUCH A DIFFICULT CHOICE. HOW COULD I EVER DECIDE BETWEEN THE TWO?!  THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE HARDEST CHOICE I EVER HAD TO MAKE! WHO WILL I EVER-

I chose Lukas and Radar because, let’s face it, I’m extremely predictable. Of course I choose the two cinnamon rolls. OF COURSE.

Sorry, Petra! Maybe in my silent playthrough!

Awww, noooo! Don’t give me that look! D:

And here we have these cool looking entrances for rooms that we’ll never, ever, ever get to see! Which is kinda sad because they look kinda cool...

This is honestly the weirdest place to find a parrot. Maybe the Admin likes parrots too?

MAYBE THE PARROTS ARE SECRETLY WORKING FOR THE ADMIN. THAT’S WHY THEY’RE EVERYWHERE!

HE SEE THROUGH THE EYES OF THE PARROTS! THIS EXPLAINS EVERYTHING!

I’m kidding... mostly. But ahaha, can you imagine? Admin the Parrot King.

I say the same thing with everything I ever do.

Radar, don’t you know that you’re not supposed to eat anything before getting on a roller coaster?

I never found out about the karma part, actually. I just assume you get hurt if you messed up.

I kind of wanted to try the mushroom island biome instead. Dang it, Lukas. You got the one I wanted. :(

I am completely fine with spoilers! ........ After I play the episode, that is.

If you dare spoil me about a important plot point, you’re dead to me.

Not really, but I will be really sad and disappointed.

A wild ‘Vos’ appears!

Oh, I bet you know what you’re doing.

*Nothing but awkward silence and stares*

HAH! I’ll admit, I laughed way too hard at the ‘I get along with everyone!’ option. Oooooh my gosh. xD

I noticed a lot of people in the tags like to think that Radar is like Jesse and Lukas’ adoptive son.

... And I am completely on board with that because SERIOUSLY! LUKAS IS LIKE A FATHER/MENTOR FIGURE TO RADAR AT THIS POINT. :D

Yeah, I’ma be honest, the shooting thing wasn’t that hard. My years of playing Skyrim have taught me well!

... Or, you know, I’m an adult playing a game more geared toward kids. But whatever, po-tay-to, po-tah-to.

... Radar, please tell me you’re not secretly working for Stella.

I will be seriously crushed if that’s the case.

Aaaannnnnndddd there goes the floor!

Don’t think I didn’t see that little look, you little sneak.

....... Well, I only notice it now in these screenshots. BUT STILL!

Mutant snow golems! No one told me we had mods installed!

SNOWBALL FIIIIGGGHHHHTTT!

PROTECT THE SMOL BEAN!

Well, hello there, big guy. How you doin’?

Eh, the fight wasn’t that hard. Only got hit for two hearts.

Was pretty cool, though. :D

Precious smol bean being helpful. :3

Dat snow golem face. xD

Awww. Someday, Radar, you will master the art of witty banter during fights. :3

I missed the actual moment of the hug because I was too busy going ‘awwwwwww’. :D

And I’ma stop it right here. Next screenshot post will be the last one for episode two.

And then maybe finish up episode one? But episode three is coming out the 19th. Ooooh, decisions.

Fare thee well~, folks!