#while his mom and grandfather have a screaming match in the background

[yudrein-aile]

i should not have mentioned kishiyu child thoughts for analepsis bc now people are under the impression this is going to be happening in my lifetime

[byfulcrums]

Rottmnt Headcanons!! (2)

Leo listens to girl in red because April once forced him to and he fell in love with all the songs. When hanging out, they put girl in red in the background.

Raph has a lot of plushies from his childhood. He doesn't play with them anymore, but they're still they're and he would never give them up (haha just like me fr!!)

There was this one time where the turtles wanted pizza and instead of just ordering like any normal person they crashed a stranger's kitchen and stole every pizza related thing. It's still an unsolved crime.

Donnie always had problem with touching, but it got a lot worse after the movie. Now he doesn't let anyone hug him, slap him or anything. Especially on his shell. He feels bad for flinching when people try to hug him. The others tell him that they don't mind and they get it. He's really grateful for that.

When they were younger, Splinter got these really depressing episodes where he couldn't even get out of bed. Raph was the one to take care of them when this happened. The worst ones could last weeks.

Splinter didn't want to get attached to the turtles, so he tried to be as distant as possible whole still being a good caretaker. Also, he gave them as much freedom as possible because of how he didn't have any growing up, but since he never wanted to be with his grandfather he didn't think they would want to be with him. Which is why he was so surprised when four little children came into his room crying because he wouldn't play with them.

After explaining the whole future thing to Casey, she ran into the Lair, deciding to test her son. He passed immediately.

The twins have their own version of the Lair Games which they play everyday to decide who's the oldest. It can change from rock papper scissors to a fight to the death (Raph always stops them before they actually do anything).

The boys chose their own names. Splinter was reading them a book, and Donnie mentioned the fact that they don't have actual names, just weird color nicknames. So, Splinter tells them to find a name they like and make it their own. They decided to go by the names they have now because they wanted to match.

They all love Brooklyn 99 because I love Brooklyn 99.

Everytime they talk about “the family”, they include April, because she's their sister.

There was this one time where April didn't have anyone to go to the school dance with so Leo joined the school a few months before and went with her using Sunita's cloaking brooch (he had to fight Donnie because he also wanted to go to school).

Mikey tried to give Big Mama a redemption arc like he did with Draxum, but he didn't manage to fully do it so they now visit eachother once a week while still fighting whenever they're on duty.

The Krang is basically the only thing Leo won't joke about. They found out when Donnie said that “the last fun thing I did was two months ago and it was becoming a fucking Krang spaceship” and Leo stared at him for the next ten minutes.

Whenever Mikey or Leo go quiet, Raph is alone and Donnie is handling dangerous weapons without adult supervision it's because something is going down.

April is the only one who has a normal sleep schedule because her mom won't let her stay awake too late.

Mayhem thinks the family is stupid, but he loves them anyway. Sometimes.

Raph screamed when Jake Peralta and Amy Santiago kissed and everyone else worried.

Leo and Raph are basically the scene where Jake says “if I run at Terry he'll most likely catch me in his arms”. Raph would catch anyone else, but it's only Leo the one who throws himself at him.

April goes to the Lair almost everyday and complains about school with any of the boys. They always listen to her rants.

Leo figured out that he had adhd when April told him that she thought he had it. He never got the chance to get an actual diagnosis so he felt like he wasn't even if the sings were all there and he could see them.

Sunita found everyone a therapist at the Hidden City. Her name's Charlie and they all like her.

Donnie likes to threaten people he doesn't like. He also threatens Leo, but he doesn't actually mean them.

Because of being in contact with eachother when they were mutated, the turtles have traits of the other's species. That's why Donnie can go into his shell, why he has purple marks, why Raph's isn't as spiny as he should be, why their colors are different from the original species, etc.

Red eared sliders comunicate with vibrations, so Leo does this really low vibration thing when he feels happy, pleased or just when he's in a good mood that April calls purring no matter how much he complains about it.

[babymetaldoll]

The BAU First online Secret Santa (aka: Rossi vs Zoom)  (Spencer Reid/ Reader)

Summary: Rossi might have said too much when he wasn't muted in the BAU online Secret Santa Celebration. And Reid is too embarrassed to face (Y/N) afterward.

Requested: Yes. My boyfriend asked me to write this, and asked for some specific gifts for some team members. (Based on season 7 of Criminal Minds in COVID quarantine).

Pairing: Spencer Reid/ Reader- feat the whole team 

Warnings: None

Word count: 3K

Masterlist 

.

- “Hello?”- Penelope waved at Rossi, but he didn’t reply. She sighed and stared at the camera on her computer, and nearly started jumping and waving. 

- “Rossi!! Hey!”

- “Penelope??”- Rossi screamed, looking at the screen, unable to find the tab with the Zoom video conference on his navigator. He could hear her but couldn’t see her. 

- “Where are you??”

- “Rossi!! I can’t hear you! you are muted!”- Penelope was already frustrated, and it had been only two minutes. 

Rossi had been struggling using Zoom the whole quarantine. Every online meeting for the last couple of months had been filled with “Rossi, you are muted,” “Rossi, we can see you picking your nose,” “Rossi, you aren’t mute, we can hear you fart.” It had been as frustrating as funny for the team. 

- “Hey!”- Prentiss waved at the camera- “Where’s everybody?”

- “We’ve got Rossi trying to find us and unmute his mic”- Emily chuckled and nodded- “And Hotch just logged in… hey!”

- “Hello everybody”- Aaron Hotchner waved, and his son Jack appeared in the back of the room, waving too. 

- “Did you clean your room?”- he asked his son

- “Yes…”- it was clear Jack was lying

- “So if I go upstairs right now, your room is going to be clean, your bed made, and your toys in their place?- Jack stayed still and just smiled. Slowly, he turned around and ran back to his room. 

- “Hey, how did you change your background?”- Emily asked Garcia, who started explaining how to do it. 

- “Henry! what is it?”- JJ logged into the conversation, but her attention was really on her son, who kept crying somewhere near her. 

- “Hello? Hey? can you hear me?”

- “Hey Spence!!”- Prentiss and Garcia said at the same time and chuckled. 

- “Hello! How’s everybody!”- he smiled and stared at his screen. 

For someone who hated technology, he was pretty comfortable meeting the team online. Maybe because his germaphobic self was glad they didn’t have to go to the BAU if there was a pandemic going on.   

Germs were worse than technology, which was good to know when it came to his phobias. 

- “Baby girl, what are you doing?”- Derek’s voice interrupted Garcia’s class of “How to change backgrounds one on one.” Emily enjoyed her time switching pictures on his background, laughing, while JJ tried to convince Henry to eat his banana. Hotch was reading a case file, not paying attention to anything going on around him. Rossi was lost and muted still, trying to find the right tab in his browser, and Spencer was reading a book, sipping a cup of coffee.  

- “Hey!!”- (Y/N) waved at the screen and stared at the scene. Everyone in the BAU was on their little bubble.  

- “Hello, hey! How are you?”- Spencer closed the book and waved. (Y/N) blushed and waved back. She just stared at him, and all the memories of their last video call came to mind. 

They had literally spent the night together. They started a video call around seven, then cooked dinner. Spencer actually cooked ‘cos (Y/N) gave him an easy cooking lesson online. Both of them ate spaghetti with homemade bolognese sauce. 

They started talking and talking, drinking tea, and coffee, and cocoa, and more tea. They snuggled on their couches and kept on talking, laughing. Somehow they started reading each other their favorite parts of their favorite books. And somehow, they ended up in their beds, drinking one last cup of tea. They were hugging a pillow, wishing they could actually hug each other, but never saying those words. And so they kept talking until they fell asleep. 

(Y/N) had fallen asleep first. Spencer felt he had bored her ‘till she passed out, but the truth was, she had made her best effort to stay awake but failed at four in the morning. She loved talking with Spencer. She loved Spencer, all of him, including all the facts and statistics he would ramble on for hours. 

If only she knew he felt the same. He could hear her ramble about books and albums she loved. He didn’t know half the bands she talked about but always googled them after their conversations to understand her a little bit better. And to add facts to their next talk. 

.

- “Rossi! Rossi! unmute your mic”- Aaron repeated for the hundredth time during the call, but Rossi still had no idea what he was doing. 

- “Ok, ok, don’t touch anything, I’m hacking into your computer,”- Garcia simply said, already tired of waiting. It wasn’t the first time she had done it during the latest months. I wouldn’t be the last either. 

- “Hello? can you hear me?”

- “Yes, David”- Aaron nodded and almost smiled- “Hello everybody, I trust you are all having a nice day.”

It was their annual Secret Santa, and for the first time, it was online. They had all made sure to mail their presents earlier enough, and everybody had gotten theirs already. It was December 24th, and though it was still just noon, Rossi enjoyed the first whiskey of the day.  

.

- “I sent you all cookies!!”- Penelope clapped and smiled, staring into the camera- “Did you all get it?”

- “Yes!”- they all answered but (Y/N). 

- “No… I didn’t”

- “What?! But I sent them yesterday! the delivery said you had gotten them,”- Penelope explained, but (Y/N) just shook her head. 

- “Sorry Garcia, I just got my Secret Santa present this week, and that’s it”

- “Someone stole your cookies, pretty girl!”- Derek chuckled and took a bit of one of his- “Your lost, ‘cos they are delicious.” 

- “Great… not only I get to spend Christmas alone, now I have to bake my own cookies.”- she groaned and sighed. 

- “What? Alone?”- JJ was in shock- “What about your family? Family get-togethers are allowed this weekend. It just has to be less than ten people in each house.” 

- “They live in Seattle, and I can’t travel ‘cos I don’t wanna expose my grandparents to any risk, so I decided to spend Christmas alone”- (Y/N) cut the team a short smile. They all wide opened their eyes in shock. Christmas alone was never a good plan. 

- “Me and Jack are going to spend it with his grandfather and aunt. We would be glad to have you over.”- Hotch immediately said, and (Y/N) smiled.

- “Thank you, but that’s ok, it’s just Christmas…”- that really didn’t sound good. 

- “I’m gonna be alone too,”- Spencer texted her ‘cos he didn’t want to say it in front of the team- “Do you wanna spend Christmas with me? I can save you some cookies”. 

(Y/N) chuckled as she read, and Spencer smiled, staring at her. You don’t usually get to see the reaction of the person you text. And he loved it. 

- “Why are you going to be alone?”- she wrote back

- “Same as you, I don’t wanna expose my mom, and she is all the family I’ve got. She’ll spend Christmas with aunt Ethel”. 

- “Hey! (Y/N), are you listening?”- Penelope waved and nearly yelled. 

- “Sorry, what?”- (Y/N) left the phone aside and tried to focus on the team. 

- “JJ was saying you are also welcome to spend it with her mom, Henry, and Will.”

- “Thank you guys, but… I think I’ll be ok.” 

She blushed at those words and made her best not to look at Spencer as she smiled. Which was incredibly useless, ‘cos no one knew where Spencer’s image was on her screen. And at the same time, it was so easy for the team to profile what was going on. That’s why neither of them said another word.

- “Ok, can we start opening presents now?”- Prentiss asked. Her background was now a beach, and she had put on a big hat and sunglasses. Penelope and JJ laughed at her so loud that they didn’t listen when Aaron said they should make a distant toast. 

- “Wait! let me get something to drink!”- (Y/N) stood up quickly and poured herself a cup of tea. 

- “Ok, now I’m ready, sorry”- and when she looked at the screen, Spencer was blushing, and everybody was chuckling. 

- “What did I miss?”

- “Nothing pretty girl”- Derek just smiled- “Let’s do the presents thing… who wants to start?”

- “Henry is pretty restless today, so if you guys don’t mind, I want to start”- JJ waved and showed everybody her present. 

“You have to guess who gave you your present,”- Emily explained and sipped her cup of coffee. 

- “Alright… let’s see… I got this envelope from my Secret Santa and… it’s just what I needed!!”- JJ smiled and nearly jumped on her seat

- “It’s a whole spa day!! Mom needs a day off when this pandemic ends!! thank you, Secret Santa!!” 

- “Who do you think gave you that?”- Penelope asked, and JJ looked at each one of her teammates on the screen.

- I’m gonna go with… Hotch, ‘cos I think he understands exactly what’s like being a parent in quarantine- Aaron chuckled and shook his head. 

- “Sorry, I would have given you that, though, but it wasn’t me.”

- “Then who?”- Rossi raised his hand and smiled

- “I noticed you were a little… stressed last time we talked. I thought maybe when this whole thing ends, you would enjoy a day to treat yourself.”

- “Thank you so much, Rossi. I really appreciate it!!”

 .  

The whole team continued opening their presents and laughed, trying to guess who was their Secret Santa. Hotch got a horrible (and yet adorable) Christmas sweater with a gigantic Rudolph on it and a matching one for Jack. He guessed right away it was from Penelope. 

Hotch bought García a fantastic pair of high heels and confessed he had picked them himself. Aaron Hotchner had a pretty good fashion sense. Who knew? 

Rossi opened his present and laughed, shocked. It was one costly and hard to find Scotch bottle. He thought it was from Emily, but no, it was from (Y/N). 

- “I remembered you said it was your favorite, and I thought maybe you’d like to share it with us next time we have a real get-together in your house.”

- “It’s very nice and naive of you to think I might actually share this present with anyone”- Rossi smiled and waved at the screen- “Thank you, kid.”

Emily got a weekend in Vegas from JJ to make it up for the “Sin to Win” weekend she lost because of a case a few months before. And again, she refused to explain to the team what “Sin to Win” meant. 

Morgan got a life provision of baby oil to rub on his six pack and biceps each time he took his shirt off. It was a joke from Emily, and Rossi nearly had a heart attack laughing at it. Penelope wanted a demonstration, but Derek promised a private show. Prentiss also got him a new kit of tools for home repairs, which always came in handy for him… mostly to fix all the doors he kicked. 

- “And what did you get, Spence?”- JJ asked, now holding Henry in her arms, trying to keep him calm. Reid opened his present and smiled. It wasn’t a happy smile though, it was a “are you fucking kidding me?” smile.   

- “Dating for Dummies”- he said and showed the book- “And I’m pretty sure this is from Morgan.”

- “As soon as this quarantine ends, you and I are going to a club, so you better study that book, ‘cos I’m gonna make you put it on good use.”

Morgan joked, but after all those years, it just wasn’t funny anymore, not for Spencer, at least. 

- “And last but not least, what did you get (Y/N)?”- Penelope’s eyes were shining. She loved Secret Santa. She had forced Hotch to put on his sweater, and he was now feeling like a dork on camera. Garcia, of course, had taken many screen-captures to save that amazing moment. 

- “Well, I’m pretty sure this is from Spencer”- she smiled, ‘cos he was the only one left. He blushed and waved. 

- “I hope you like it”- (Y/N) unwrapped the present carefully and smiled, surprised. 

- “Where did you get this?”- it was an original edition of The Little Prince, in french. It was tough to find. 

- “You said you loved the book ‘cos your mom read it to you when you were a kid, so… I thought you’d like it.”

(Y/N) couldn’t stop going through each page, as a million memories of her childhood came to her mind. Her mother had passed away when she was in high school, and the book meant more to her than anyone could imagine. 

- “Thank you”- she whispered and bit her lip, making her best not to cry. 

- “Jesus Christ! When is he going to tell her he loves her!?”- Rossi nearly yelled. He was in the back of his office, pouring himself a glass of his Secret Santa present. 

The whole team stayed quiet, making their best not to laugh. Spencer wanted to die. He rested his head on the desk and controlled the urge to leave the conversation. 

- “Hey, Rossi… just so you know, you weren’t muted.”- Prentiss managed to say and chuckled. He looked at the screen and stayed quiet. 

- “Ok... I think I’m gonna go now. This Scotch is already getting to my head, so… see you guys!!”- Rossi waved and tried to leave. 

- “Fuck! I hope I didn’t ruin it for the kid. Well, someone had to say it anyway”- he whispered, embarrassed.

- “Rossi, we can still hear you. You didn’t close the conversation, just minimized it”- JJ warned him, and that time, everybody burst out laughing. 

- “Ok, I’m gonna go now…”- Spencer couldn’t even look at (Y/N) anymore. He just waved and closed Zoom. 

- “I’m gonna go too”- (Y/N) whispered- “I hope everybody has a nice holiday!”- she didn’t even wait for anyone to say anything else. She just left the conversation and walked to the kitchen to get herself a glass of water. 

What the hell had just happened? 

.

Spencer had a panic attack. What was he supposed to do now? Confess his feelings? Rossi had already done it for him. Should he call (Y/N) and tell her it was just a joke? Tell her the truth? Invite her over for Christmas, again? 

- “Fuck!!”- he shouted and walked to his kitchen. Some whiskey Morgan left last time he visited was still there, and though Reid wasn’t much of a drinker, he needed one. 

He honestly had no idea what to do. He knew he couldn’t face (Y/N) now. How? he would fluster just to be in the same room with her. Rossi really ruined everything. It seemed it was the end of the world. 

- “I’m gonna have to quit, move from DC, change my name, start my life from scratch…” 

Yes, Spencer was making a drama out of the whole situation. But in his defense, he had never been in that kind of situation before. 

.

It was eight pm when Spencer heard a knock on the door. He had been lying on his couch most of the afternoon, trying to read. Still, his mind kept coming back to (Y/N) and the embarrassment he felt after Rossi’s comment.

- “Hi”- (Y/N) whispered as soon as Reid opened the door, and his heart stopped- “You said I could come for Christmas… so…”- he stood still and just nodded. She was there, wearing a Dr. Who mask, with some snowflakes on her coat.  

- “Can I come in?”

- “Sure! I’m sorry, I just…”- Spencer moved from the door and watched her taking off her shoes, leaving a few paper bags on the table, and smiling at him as soon as she removed her mask. 

- “Can I wash my hands?”

- “Of course, the bathroom is…”- Reid stopped himself. She knew where the bathroom was. That wasn’t the first time she was there.    

While she washed her hand, he made his best to clean a little, folded the blanket on his couch, and piled all the books that were lying around. 

- “So… I hope I’m not interrupting anything…”- (Y/N) started apologizing again, but Spencer just shook his head. 

- “No, not at all, I just wasn’t expecting you to come after… what…”- he couldn’t even mention it.

- “After what Rossi said?”- she turned around and avoided looking at Spencer. She walked to the bags she had brought and started taking things out

 - “Should we worry he was getting drunk so early?”- she simply said, and Reid chuckled

- “I don’t know, maybe… what are you doing?”

- “Well… I’m not into chicken tandoori for Christmas, so I cooked some things.”

- “It smells delicious”- Reid smiled, and so did (Y/N), feeling her cheeks blushing. 

- “It’s mom’s turkey recipe, so it better be good”

- “Let me put that in the fridge”- Reid held the turkey, roasted potatoes, and many other things (Y/N) had cooked and walked to the kitchen. 

- “I also got you this”- (Y/N) giggled and followed Spencer. As soon as he left everything he was carrying, she put a Santa hat with red and white stripes on his head.

- “You look like the cat in the hat”- she joked, and Spencer laughed, feeling like the happiest nerd on earth. 

- “I’m gonna take that as a compliment.”

- “It is…”- (Y/N) stared at him and sighed, both of them smiling in silence for a second. 

- “Did you get one for yourself too?”- he finally asked.

- “Yes! so we can take dorky pictures and send them to Garcia, she is gonna love those”- she made a pause and bit her lips for a second. 

- “So… do you like Christmas traditions?”- she asked and looked down at her shoes 

- “Mmm, sure… like watching Home Alone drinking hot chocolate?- Spencer asked, thinking he hadn’t really lived many Christmas traditions growing up. However, he knew his mother had made her best to make him happy each holiday. 

- “Yeah… that and… maybe this”

(Y/N) took a mistletoe from her pocket and lifted her arm to place it right on top of their heads. 

Spencer didn’t move. He just wide opened his eyes, staring at (Y/N), who was now smiling, completely blushed. 

- “Since we are spending Christmas together, I thought… we… could…”- but she couldn’t finish talking, ‘cos Spencer leaned in slowly, very slowly until he reached her lips and kissed her. His hands cupped her cheeks carefully, and her arms ended up wrapped around his neck.  

- “Merry Christmas, Spencer”- she whispered, rubbing her lips against his when the kiss ended, but neither of them wanted to move apart.

- “Merry Christmas, (Y/N)” 

.

[storydays]

Season 1, Episode 2, p1

".and in the final round, the Buzzard-Wasps, won with a decisive knock-out." Korra read the newspaper eagerly before peeking over at Tenzin. "What do you say we go to the arena tonight, catch a few pro-bending matches?" She grinned hopefully at the airbender. "That sport is a mockery of the noble tradition of bending." He snapped, ignoring you as your coughed into your morning (tea/coffee/hot chocolate). As intelligent as he is, the man hadn't a clue of where or why you spent so much time in the city. You couldn't keep it a secret from your Aunties, and Aunt Lin or Pema were usually the ones who patched you up.

"Come on, Tenzin, I've dreamed about seeing a pro-bending match since I was a kid, and now I'm just a ferry ride away from the arena." She gestured out towards the city. "Korra, you're not here to watch that drivel. You're here to finish your avatar training. So for the time being, I want you to remain on the island." He took another sip of his tea, as you took another bite of your breakfast. "Is that why you're keeping the White Lotus sentries around to watch my every move?" She waved her hand towards the soldiers, who were standing around the room. "Yes, in order to learn airbending, I believe you require a calm, quiet environment free from any distractions." Tenzin finished sternly.

"All right, you're the master." Korra relented, looking out the window, longingly. It was quite yet tense before you abruptly stood up from the table and stormed off angrily, catching the attention of everyone in the room. "(Y/N)? Where are you going?" Korra asked, confused by your behavior. "Fine! Going to meditate!" You grumble, feeling guilty at your Aunt's concerned look. You quickly made your way to the tree you and your Grandfather planted when you were younger, and sat down, crossing your body into a half-lotus position, breathing in through your nose and out of your mouth, praying for a peaceful session.

Your prayers went unanswered.

--Vision start--

You found yourself watching a middle aged Aang look around curiously. The old monk smiled seeing a small figure curled up on the tip of Air Temple Island, before sitting next to said figure. The two remained silent until the smaller sniffed, and pulled his tunic tighter in its fist. "Are you ready to talk about it, grandson?" You walked closer, to see a young you, look up at him with teary eyes. "Hi, Papa." Younger you sniffled, wiping a tear away. "I'm sorry I left dinner like that." Aang merely pulled you to sit on his lap, and wrapped his cloak around you, waiting patiently for you to say what was wrong, because he knew you wouldn't cry over something so little.

"Now, it's not nice to lie about something so small like that. What's really bothering you, my little monkey?" Aang asked with a mischievous grin. Your (e/c) eyes peered at him from under your bangs. "I'm just scared, of the future." You admitted. "What do you mean?" asked Aang. "When I'm sleeping, I see things. I see the next Avatar, but I can't see their face. I-I know their a waterbender because of their clothes, but that's it. And then I see different endings based on her choices, and the world keeps changing and I am afraid--" "Okay, okay. (Y/N), take a breath, you're hyperventilating. You need to relax, before you pass out. Copy me, alright?"

Aang put your hand on his chest, and mimicked deep breathing. He'd dealt with plenty of panic attacks with the Gaang, and of course with his own kids. Eventually you calmed down and that's when Aang spoke again. "I know the future is scary, and no one can truly prepare for it, but what we can do, is be ready to make the future brighter. And if you're seeing the future Avatar, that must mean your destinies are intertwined tighter than I thought. I know the Spirits have a plan for why they're allowing you to see the future. You've already made us so proud, (Y/N). You're a dual bender, and a master of both air and water at such a young age.

"I know you'll make the world proud." Aang stood up, and began carrying you into the library, as your stomach growled at you. The Airbender laughed, and gestured to two plates of dumplings. "Thanks, Papa Aang." You mumble, curling next to him, as he set a small fire up. "Of course, monkey. Now I believe I owed you the story of how Zuko found his mom.."

--Vision end--

You slowly opened your eyes, as you heard multiple steps heading towards you. Your cousins, Uncle and friend all looked back at you with varying smiles. "(Y/N), are you finished with your morning meditation?" Tenzin questioned. You stood up, stretching your back and legs, before answering him. "Yes, Uncle. Is it time for Korra's first lesson in airbending?" "Yes, now come along everyone." You all headed towards a airbender's best friend. "What is that contraption?" Korra asked aloud. "A time-honored tool that teaches the most fundamental aspect of airbending." You rolled your eyes before muttering to the kids, "Or the first step to airbending. Unless, you preferred the long winded version of saying it." You smirk at Tenzin's irritated face.

"Jinora, would you like to explain this exercise, while (Y/N) demonstrates?" Tenzin said, sending you a raised eyebrow, as you got ready. "Well, the goal is to weave your way through the gates and make it to the other side without touching them." Jinora explained. "Seems easy enough." Korra stated. "Jinora forgot to mention you gotta make it through while the gates are spinning." Ikki said, cheekily.

Tenzin stepped forward and sent a sharp gust of wind through the gates, as you then stepped forward. You then began dancing in the wind, fast, fluid, and soft in your movements. "The key is to be like the leaf. Flow with the movement of the gates. Airbending is all about spiral movements. When you meet resistance, you must be able to switch direction at a moment's notice." Tenzin finished, as you sent an equally strong wind, letting Korra know that it was her turn. "Let's do this." she stated, confident.

Now being a air nomad monk, you shouldn't feel as smug as you were. But your mother was from the Northern Water Tribe...so you could feel as smug as you wanted. This was a lesson she needed to learn to be a better airbender, Avatar, and a person. She ran in head first, grunting as she ran into different gates. You snickered, as she fell on her butt, in front of the other Airbenders. Growling, Korra ran back inside, not learning from her previous mistakes. "Korra, don't force your way through!" Jinora called, climbing on your back, to get a better look. "Dance! Dance like the wind!" Ikki encouraged. "Be the leaf!" Meelo danced.

Not listening, Korra groaned, as the gates made her dizzy. Tenzin rolled his eyes groaning. You chuckle, landing next to him, as Jinora jumped down and went with her siblings to look down at the Avatar. You raised your hand, before turning to your uncle. "Well, that was fun. Same time, same place tomorrow?" Your grin widen at your Uncle's annoyed glare, before walking down the steps, whistling softly, feeling Nevermore land on your shoulder. "Hey Nevermore. Ready for some practice?" The (fav color) dragon squealed happily as you made your way to the training area.

You turned towards the sound of footsteps following you. "Yes, Jinora?" You smiled as she blushed at being caught, but she spoke up. "Well, I was just wondering if I could help you with Nevermore's training today?" She asked hopefully. You nod, gesturing her to come forward. "All right, now we're going to work on her flight today. She's getting bigger and it's almost time for her to mature. I need you to keep a steady wind flow, okay?" And this was how Pema found you both before lunch. "Thanks for your help, Jinora." You ruffled her hair, before helping your Aunt serve lunch.

--Later that night--

You stretch your limbs before putting on your uniform, and walking out with Bolin and Mako. "All right, guys. We got this!" You grin, making Bolin mirror your grin and Mako smirked. As soon as the game started, you could hear the announcer speaking over the speakers. You tuned into what he was saying, letting your body take over for the fight. "Ladies and gentleman, I'm coming to you live, from Republic City's pro-bending arena, where tonight, the best in the world continue for a spot in the upcoming championship tournament. Grab your snacks and your kids because this next match is going to be a doozy!"

You grin underneath your helmet, focusing on the game. The announcer rambled on in the background, as you were dancing behind Mako's quick movements and Bolin's sturdy form. Catching the other team off guard was your forte. "This Mako's got moxie! He advances, fires two quick shots. Yomo is hammered back into zone three, by the Fire Ferret's sneaky waterbender, oh! I stand correct folks, Yomo was sent into the sink by (Your fake name)! Now it's up to the rest of Yomo's team to earn their spot! Clock is winding down, can they hold it? The Fire Ferret's line up to pull out their famous Guilt Triple! One, two, and three and the opposing team is in the drain! The Fire Ferrets are in the championships! They're in the championship!!"

The crowd went wild! Screaming your names, as you all walked off to the locker room, chatting happily. "You really came through with the move, (Y/N)!" Mako chuckled, unwrapping his knuckles, as you ran a hand through your hair, ruffling your bangs, ignoring Bolin's wide eyed stare. "Take a picture, Bo. It'll last longer." You snicker, as he blushed at being caught."Sorry, it's just so cool having a airbending master," He whispered those words softly, "Right in front of me! I wanna see you do it!" He begged, using the puppy eyes on you. "No, Bolin. We already talked about this. No one can know. Now, are you gonna sit there, whining, or are you gonna come eat with us?"

You and Mako were waiting by the door, dressed in street clothes(First outfit; instead of sleeves you have one fishnet glove going up one elbow). You were wearing Water Tribe clothes, and waiting for the Earthbender. Mako snickered, watching his brother get dressed quickly, before following you to a restaurant to relax and act like teenagers for a change. You walk with your hands behind your head, looking at the stars, sighing contently, but you couldn't help but wonder:

'What are we going to do now, Mom?'

--The next morning--

You tied your hair up in a man bun, before dusting off your airbender clothing from any wrinkles, and heading out the door. You'd overslept from how exhausted you were from last night's match, and now you rushed to join your family for morning meditation. "Hey, (Y/N)! We missed you at breakfast." Ikki clung to you like a monkey, as you swung her back and forth. "Hey, Cheeky Ikki. Sorry, I was really tired last night, but I'll grab a quick bite to eat after this." Your Uncle smiled at the scene before clearing his throat. "Nice to see you joining us for meditation, (Y/N). It's been a while." He admitted, as you sat next to Jinora.

"Yes it *yawn* has." You covered your mouth, before grinning sleepily at your uncle's confused glare. "All right, everyone. Begin." He commanded. You closed your eyes, breathing deeply, finding your self, sagging in relief as you did not have a vision around your family. You twitch, hearing Korra shuffle and move around. Korra kept shuffling and you cracked your eyes open, irritation flooding them. "Korra, relax." You snap. "I think I'm doing it wrong." She huffed. "There's nothing to do! Let your mind and spirit be free, for air is the element of freedom." Tenzin reminded her.

Korra laughed sarcastically and you snort quietly. Tenzin was not amused. "Is something funny?" He asked, raising a bushy eyebrow at the two of you. "Yeah, you're telling me to embrace freedom, but you won't even let me listen to the radio. And forget about leaving this island." The blue eyed avatar pouted. "Please, Korra. Look at Meelo, he's able to meditate peacefully." Tenzin gestured to his only son. You snicker, looking at the smallest airbender. "Actually Uncle, I think he's asleep." Meelo snored loudly, as Tenzin balked. "Wait, what? Ahh, at least he's got the relaxing part down.: He tried weakly.

"Whatever. None of this airbending stuff makes any sense to me." Korra grumbled. "Korra, I know it's seems frustrating, but the way he's teaching you, it's not only going to help you airbend, but this will help you learn to be patient, and as the Avatar, peace keeping and patience go hand in hand." You spoke up, as your cousins finished their meditation and you picked a sleepy Meelo.

"Yeah, like you know anything about being the Avatar, (Y/N)." Korra said sarcastically, yet arrogantly. You paused in your steps down the mini temple, and turned your (e/c) glare into the Southern Water Tribe girl. "I know more than you think, Korra." You hiss, storming off with a sleepy Meelo, and an worried Ikki and Jinora.

Korra scoffed, looking at Tenzin.

"What's his problem?" She asked, as his gray eyes barred into her soul. "Korra, you need to apologize once he's calmed down. That was rude, and he was only trying to help you. Just like I am. There will be a time when you will want his help, and he may not be there or want to help you if you continue to act like this. Grow up, girl." Tenzin said, sternly before walking off to find you.

"Please, like he's one to talk." Korra did feel guilty, but was too proud to admit it. But she wasn't dumb enough to find you right now.

Even she doesn't want to be on your bad side.

[mostly-megan]

Triple Frontier Boys Background Headcanons

(Will, Benny, Frankie, Santi)

(A/N: As always, shoutout and big hugs to @pedropasscals for encouragement/beta reading/screaming with me in dms 💚)

Will:

Will used to write big stories when he was a kid about aliens and cowboys and knights and dragons and ghost and everything little boys want to read about. They were pretty good. He always shared them with his mom and then with Benny.

After their mom died, he tried sharing them with his dad. The poor man was so tired after working and shared Will’s quiet nature. He tried to be encouraging, but never quite found the words to express how much he liked the story.

Will still writes stories, but now he rarely shows anyone. Sometimes, Benny gets to read them. If he’s really serious with you, he can be convinced to read excerpts to you.

He’s kept a journal since he first left for boot camp. His dad suggested it would be a good way to keep himself grounded. He considers it one of his few good habits the army gave him, keeps it up back in civilian life.

The entries are all different types. Sometimes, it’s just writing out the events that happened since he woke up. When he’s nervous about the next day, it’s basically a to-do list. Most are letters: to people he misses at home with words he could never say, to his mom when he feels like he doesn’t know what to do, to Benny when he’s mad about some immature decision he knows he’ll end up having to support. Sometimes they aren’t addressed, he’s just writing to someone out there.

He has written out character traits and descriptions of each of the boys, in case he ever decides to write that book he always tells Benny he’ll write. He secretly likes doing character analysis on them, though.

Benny:

Benny’s the one who gave all the others their nicknames. The others thought they were stupid at first, but he liked them. But by the time they all came around, it had been too long to give Benny one and no one could figure out a good one.

He’s a pretty good artist. His mom liked art and took the time to get him interested in it when he was little, to give him a way to get out energy when sitting still. It still calms him down and gives his brain a good release of energy when it just keeps spinning.

He would draw illustrations for the stories Will wrote when they were little. He was more than a little hurt when Will stopped sharing a lot of his stories with him, so he is thrilled whenever Will gives him the chance to read a part of one. He’ll draw the odd doodle of whatever it’s about and text it to him.

He doesn’t remember much about his mom and he’s always felt guilty about that. He has some memories, but he was do little when she passed away that there isn’t much he can recall. He remembers playing with her and her singing and drawing with him.

After he left service, he went around and asked his mom’s friends what kind of perfume she liked and tracked down two bottles, one for him and Will. The smell of it helps him remember some different times with her and makes him feel better about not having many memories.

When they were teenagers and he was sick or upset about something, Will would tell him stories about their mom. Some were Will’s and some from their dad. They gave him something to focus. There are late nights where he still calls Will to ask him to recall an old story. His favorite is how their parents met: his dad accidentally tapped her fender and, when he got out to apologize, she said he was cute and asked him out. They went skating.

Frankie:

Frankie liked reading about old myths and legends as a kid. His favorite were the old knight stories with dragons. He named their Dalmatian George, after the Saint who fought a dragon. He favorite thing was playing pretend that he was a knight getting to save the day.

His dad made and painted a cardboard sword for his 7th birthday. He spent everyday running around on his hobby horse, defending his mama from the deadly dragon, played by the very accommodating George. But if George barked too loud, Frankie went bolting behind her legs, too startled by the noise. She just take off his tinfoil helmet and ruffled his hair with a soft “Ah, mijito”.

He still often buries himself in old stories. Sometimes he would look up legends from wherever they were deploying. Santi used to snort and say it seemed silly, but they all listened intently while Frankie recounted stories of magic and heroism during stressful moments.

During one of their first deployments, Benny drew him a dragon as a birthday present. It was pretty small and just in pencil. Frankie keeps it hung up in his house because it meant a lot to get something like that when he was not in a great place.

Whenever he visits his mom, they pull out the old photo album. Frankie sits quietly like a kid again listening to her soft, rapid spanish retell stories from his father’s army days. The two of them remembering his booming laughter that seemed to rattle the walls and how you could always hear where he was by his near constant chatter.

Her favorite picture is of Frankie sitting on the front stoop with father and grandfather. The two older men are smiling down at the boy, with his little ballcap, his father’s flatbrim, and grandfather’s wide fedora balanced on his small head. Frankie’s eyes are obscured, but his smile matches the mens’.

Santi:

His dad worked as a carpenter at the local theater. His mom was a dancer at there and that’s how they met. Santi spent a lot of his childhood backstage and he loved it. Getting to watch all the different acts that went on weekly and the rehearsal made him value preparation.

Most of the time, he would help his dad, who always showed him how to make things and taught him with his hands. His mom taught him dancing and movement, sometimes making him come to dance classes to help demonstrate.

His parents were like embarrassingly in love. His dad always watched every one of her performances from backstage and his mom would perch herself on top of his workbench into the earlier morning to keep him company. They danced in the living room every weekend, even though his dad was bad at it.

Santi watched from the staircase, quietly thinking about doing that with his wife one day.

His dad was SUPER into magic. Santi always tried to be cool about it, but he was always pretty mystified with the tricks. His dad taught him lots of coin tricks and he learned a lot of card tricks from books.

He doesn’t do them much. He always pulls out coin tricks with little kids because it never fails to get a smile. He used his card tricks to be a bit of a card shark in his early service days.

Sometimes, on poker nights with the guys, he’ll pull out the card tricks. Will quietly just watches, but you can tell the gears are spinning. Benny always yells, “Well goddamn!” and slaps the table laughing at least once. Frankie nods and is pretty quiet, but every few minutes for the rest of the night “So, you stacked the deck, right?” “Are the cards dog-earred?”

He’ll pickpocket Frankie at random points and waits for him to notice, sometimes hours.

“Has anyone seen my keys?”

“You mean...these?”

“Motherfucker, STOP doing that!”

Tagging: @plexflexico @mylifeliterally @catfishingmorales @softpedropascal

[featherymalignancy]

This is totally up to you if you want to answer this ask: What were Nesta's parents like? Their names, personalities, jobs, where they came from etc. Also curious about Nesta's aunt and uncle too :)

Okay, I SWEAR, I was gonna try and keep this brief. I literally whisper-screamed said to myself, “Keep it brief, Cara.”

Nesta, Elain, and Feyre’s Parents: Tim and Ines (neé Afonso) Archeron. Tim was a third-generation native Californian, Ines was, as we know, from Portugal 🇵🇹

Archeron Grandparents:

Tim’s dad Rick was an attorney (and an antisemtic prick, see Nesta’s mention of him in Fucking Lawyers for an example).

His mom Marie was a housewife.

Rick was a functional alcoholic “big drinker” and died when Nesta was 14, Marie died while she was in college.

Afonso Grandparents:

Ines’s father Sebastião was a professor of Antiquities at The Univeristy of Coimbra

Her mother Heloísa worked in her father’s butcher shop until she had Ines (she a dope cook, y’all).

Sebastião died two years before In Vino Veritas starts. Heloísa is the only of the four grandparents still alive.

(SIDENOTE: can we fucking TALK about what she’s gonna say when she meets tall dark and gorgeous Portuguese-speaking wine expert Cassian??)

Heloísa: *in Portuguese* Amorzinho, why have you not married this man yet?

Nesta: Avó, stop!

Heloísa: *still in Portuguese and well within earshot of Cash* If I was forty years younger I would marry him myself!

Tim & Ines (background):

They were both lawyers, they met in law school at Stanford (high achieving runs in the family).

Tim was worked as an M&A (mergers and acquisitions) attorney (can be boring shit but a lotta moneyyy). Ines was a special prosecutor trying drug companies for malpractice and fraud (social justice warrior FTW)

They both worked a LOT, especially when the girls were really little, so the girls were raised by a nanny named Benigna (Beni). Ines had insisted on a nanny who spoke Portuguese, and Beni was from Brazil.

Beni got unexpectedly sick when Nesta was 10, and she died after a too-brief battle with breast cancer.

It was Nesta’s first real experience with loss and she was inconsolably heartbroken, making Tim and Ines realize that they’d allowed their children to be almost completely raised by someone else, and that the girls had basically just suffered the loss of a parent.

At that point Ines decided to cut back to working half time to spend time with the girls, who were 10, 6, and 4.

Between losing Beni and her parents having been gone so much when she was little, Nesta was incredibly anxious to please her parents and make them proud. She was involved in a lot of activities and was very hard on herself, especially for a child. She was serious and dedicated, and though Ines tried to calm the best of Nesta’s outward fretting, she didn’t know how to cope with the more deeply-routed issues of Nesta’s compulsion to be the best. Instead she wrote it off as Nesta being incredibly bright and kept signing Nesta up for activities and paying for any private lessons, competitions, workshops etc. that Nesta expressed interest in. (Look, Nesta had to have something to tell her therapist about)

Starting the year Beni died, they began to take trips to Portugal every summer to see Nesta’s avô and avozinha.

before that, they’d only gone a handful of times, and Sebastiâo and Heloísa were thrilled.

Tim wasn’t close to his parents because of his dad was verbally abusive and his mother was permissive and enabling, so Nesta and the girls were much closer to her avô and avozinha.

Her grandfather spoke English but her grandmother didn’t really, so they spoke almost exclusively Portuguese when they were there (Tim was just sorta...j chilling with his incredibly mediocre Portuguese—he only usually stayed a week anyways, and he worked the whole time).

At home they spoke a mixture, Ines often spoke to the girls in Portuguese and they replied in English unless she insisted otherwise.

Family Ties...

Tim’s closest friend from law school (and the best man at his f*cking wedding) was Beron Vanserra.

Ines was not really a fan but she just sort of tolerated Beron for Tim’s sake, and Beron was clever enough to mostly behave when she was around, though he was definitely the friend who was always trying to coax Tim on a coke-filled bender to Vegas every time her back was turned

Whereas Tim and Ines had children later in life (Ines had Nesta at 35, Elain at 39, and Feyre at 41), Beron married his college sweetheart right out of law school, popped out two boys—August and Adrian—and fucked off for a younger wife. They got divorced without kids after like...a year

His third wife, Flavia, became good friends with Ines. She had her first boy, Eris, three years before Ines had Nesta. They were both pregnant around the same time with their seconds, Lucien and Elain.

The two couples were close and they took vacations together etc. AKA...the kids played together a lot as kids.

Tween/teen Nesta had an ENORMOUS crush on Eris. A senior in HS when she was a freshman, he...did not give a shit. When they ran into each other three years later (Nesta: 18 and two years into raising her two tween sisters and Eris: 21 and a swaggering senior prick at USC) and he hit on her that she was decided she hated him, lol

When Nesta was 14 (Eris: 17, Elain/Lucien: 10, Feyre: 8), it came out that Flavia had been having a longgggg term on-again, off-again affair with her college sweetheart. Screaming matches and paternity tests ensued...and it came out that Lucien was not Beron’s

Ines supported Flavia when Beron filed for divorce and came after Flavia with a VENGEANCE. Ines got Flavia a sick-ass divorce attorney, and sis cleaned up in the divorce 🧹 🧼 🧽 💵 . She and Beron had a very strained custody agreement, where Lucien mostly lived with his mom and saw his “dad” (Beron) only occasionally. Eris, who was about to go to college and was mad at his mom for this embarrassing secret, lived with Beron.

Tim, put off by how Beron handled Lucien’s paternity, distanced himself from Beron, and they were never close after that.

When Tim and Ines died, Flavia was one of the people who stepped up the most to help. Nesta was fiercely independent about the whole thing, but Flavia did babysit for Nesta when she had her own activities, and sometimes she would fill the Archeron fridge with groceries or do the mountain of laundry or take the younger girls back-to-school clothes shopping. Still, she was quiet about it knowing that Nesta considered herself a failure for any little thing she couldn’t do for her sisters.

Tim and Ines (personalities):

Tim

Tim was easy-going and fairly mild.

Of the three girls, Elain is most like him in temperament.

Like his dad, Tim was a total workaholic. He loved his daughters a lot, always bragging about them to colleagues and friends, but he wasn’t really around enough to really show them.

As a result, his main role as a parent was spoiling them with things.

Tim’s dad had been the diciplinarian, so Tim hated “being the bad guy” and was thus incredibly permissive. On the rare occasions that he was in charge of the girls alone for a weekend, there were...literally no rules.

Had he been alive, Tim would have strongly encouraged Nesta’s decision to pursue law school. He likely would have been more skeptical of Feyre’s choice to pursue fine art.

Ines

Ines was more type-A in her personality

Of the three, Nesta is most like her

As the daughter of a classics professor, she had a great love of classical art and music. She would have been pleased that Elain planned to be an academic like her Avô. She also highly encouraged Nesta’s pursuit of opera even though HS Nesta secretly would have rather done musical theatr (like literally any other teenager?)

Ines had been very close to her parents growing up and had planned to return to Portugal when she graduated law school; even though she loved Tim, she was sad when that didn’t happen

She was very nurturing with her girls, but less tolerant of them acting out. Appearances were important to her, and she expected her girls to be well-behaved.

Nesta, always desperate to please, was praised by every adult who ever met her for being perfectly well-behaved

Elain, easy-going and somewhat shy, was quiet and complaint by nature. She never caused problems and rarely even cried

Feyre, a fiercely independent spirit from day one, did not give a FUCK about making a scene if the need arose. Oh, it’s Christmas and Mamã bought Feyre a pretty dress to wear in the Christmas photos? Who cares; not Feyre! She wants to wear her Jasmine costume from Halloween, and if Mamã says she can’t, Feyre is PERFECTLY happy to make a good huge scene in the middle of the bougee photography studio...

OKAY FUCK THIS IS WAY TOO LONG BUT REAL QUICK THE AUNT AND UNCLE

Ines was an only child, Tim just had the one younger brother named Mike. Mike was the “disappointment” according to Rick, because he chose to major in communications and had no interest in law school.

Mike is incredibly unassuming and lived in Tim’s popular, affable shadow. Not lame but definitely unremarkable

The Archerons grew up in the affluent Beach town of Santa Barbara, but Mike was so vexed by his parents he move 385 miles away to Sacramento (if you know California, WEIRD flex on Sacramento of all places, but you do you Mikey)

He married a very sweet middle class girl named Linda and got a job in Insurance

They never had kids of their own, and though he and Tim were friendly, they didn’t really get together much because they just had vastly different lives/lifestyles

Mike and Linda were shocked and sort of bewildered when Tim and Ines died and they were awarded custody of the girls (literally do you not really know what it is to agree to be someone’s legal guardian, Michael ???) and they sort of started haphazardly making plans to move the girls up to Sacramento, even though every time Nesta called they weren’t much farther on arrangements.

Elain and Feyre FREAKED out when they were told they’d be leaving home and their friends and moving to Sacramento with Uncle Mike and Aunt Linda (10 yo Feyre: I HATE Sacramento, it’s a shithole!) and when Mike and Linda still didn’t really have any helpful insights on schools, etc (the Archeron girls all attended private school) Nesta decided the move made no sense.

She basically announced that they weren’t gonna move and that she was just going to handle the girls. Mike and LInda sort of (vaguely) protested before being like “yeah you right, we suck at this”. They still controlled Tim and Ines’s estate and helped Nesta deal with all that, but she took it over the MINUTE she turned 18 and they didn’t really have any part after that besides sheepishly calling like “so...hows everything going? Are you liking school okay?” 🤦‍♀️

Nesta tried to make an effort to be closer with them when they were all younger but like...as adults the Archeron girls have sort of tacitly agreed that Mike and Linda are sweet and they’re family but like...they aren’t that much fun to be around. They’d much rather go to sushi and get drunk on Christmas Eve rather than go to Sacramento and force polite conversation with their aunt and uncle

Okay so yeah! There is a far too detailed thing about her parents, hope you enjoy!

[razorblade180]

Twin Snowflakes part0: Prologue

[Atlas, ???]

In the colder part of Remnant there are many mysterious places that remain hidden in the snow. Old castles and mansions lost to time because of grimm, bandits, or even family.... A pair of twins, age 15 find themselves in one of those so cold places; both of them calm and armed to the teeth. The air is just as cold inside as it outside. Everything inside ruined and battered by time. The in front takes the lead. He’s a boy with shaggy white hair that goes to his shoulders in the back. Beautiful blue eyes and smile as white as snow itself. The twin in the back is a young lady a few inches shorter than her brother. Despite being twins her hair is a really faded blonde with blue eyes darker than his. A ponytail similar to a former heiress is the style she chooses. Both of them are in snow gear.

Nick:So this is the old Schnee estate? Looks a bit like home.

Summer:Only with more snow. Apparently this was our great grandfather’s first attempt to settle down but he abandoned it. Maybe there was a lot of grimm.

Nick:Or he wanted to be closer to the people. This place is a bit out of the way from everywhere else in Atlas. Just perfect for a final test.

Summer:More like a final resting site. You sure we’re up for this? Mom said we’re not ready for this yet. She didn’t do anything this crazy until she was 18!

Nick:Yeah but even she tells us that we are extremely talented and have the benefits of having more aura thanks to dad.

Summer:I’m pretty sure am Arma Gigas will cut through it just as easily, and there’s supposed to be two in here!

Nick:Yep! *puts hands on his hips* one for you and one for me! We’ll show up at home afterwards a little sweaty and cool summoning under our belt. You know.....whenever we actually manage to do a summoning that is. *nods* I say that’s worth a few scratches.

Summer:*pouting* I already have more than enough of those....

His body flinches at those words. He should’ve picked a better choice of words knowing just had many scars the poor younger twin had. Scars he blames himself for.

Nick:*grabs her shoulder* Hey, if you really want to turn back then we can turn back. Last thing I want to happen is go home alone, or not go home at all. I’ll follow your lead on this one.

Just like Nicholas Schnee to put his sister’s feelings before him. It was a trait he shared not only with the man he was named after, but their father as well. She also knew he wouldn’t have dragged her here if he thought she wasn’t ready for this. What’s the harm of going?

Summer:Sigh, If anything goes bad then please bail out. I’ll give you a holler if anything goes bad.

Nick:Sweet! *starts running off* Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!

Summer:Wait! Do you even know where you’re- and he’s gone..... *gets a text message* huh?

Nick: “The ballroom, I pay attention when you talk you know.😜 Stay warm okay?”

The moment she read that she was already messing with a fresh pack of hand warmers in her snow jacket. Getting cold is the last thing she wants to happen. An incident here would be rather unfortunate. If all goes well Nick will find is grimm in the ball room while hers would be somewhere upstairs. Abandoned or not, Schnee architecture doesn’t change; it was like home for the most part. Without delay she ran upstairs; no way she’d let Nick have the chance to witness her match.

Nick:*Sprinting* (Kitchen, bedroom, spare office, cellar, garden exit...this really is home huh? Just a few rooms out of place but a ballroom should always be....) *stops in front of grand door* In the center for all to enjoy. Glad to know somethings are timeless; better make sure I’m prepared.

Soon enough he dressed down to black pants, white long sleeve button up, and a icy blue vest. A long sword is placed on his left side with the trademark arc symbol on the guard and chamber to hold a vile of dust in the hilt. A nice blend of old weapon style and modern day technology.

Nick:All right Mort Froide, it’s time to really test your metal... *walks through the door*

•

Summer: *approaching a giant door* The piano room, maybe I should’ve brought my own sheet music. Would’ve been nice if I could sing this grimm to sleep and kill it.

All the heavy snow gear comes of except for the wind breaker/ heat insulated jacket. Underneath is a pale blue turtle neck and wears compression white jeans. Fluffy calf high snow boots help keep her feet warm as she walks into the spacious room. The only thing in there is a smashed piano and an Arma gigas staring at her from behind it as she grips her specialized version of Myertanaster.

Summer:Not a fan of music I take it? What a shame, guess the sound of our blades will have to be your swan song.

Gigas:*picks up its sword and bellows. The eerie sound of wind through its armor fills the room*

Summer:.....Why did I agree to stay? *dashes toward him*

Gigas:*continues screaming as it charges*

In most cases anything learned about a foe in a book will only get you so far. Against an Arma Gigas though, knowing was 80% of the battle. The giant swung his sword to sweep feet but she was already airborne and launching off a glyph into its helmet. Instinctively it reached for her only to stumble to the ground as slammed her foot against it with a gravity glyph. Hit hard and hit fast was the name of the game. Carvings in her blade began to glow white as her finger trailed it. Her training was paying off; a simple bounce of the gravity glyph onto its sword hand and freezing it with a stab.

Summer:(So far so good. It’s huge but it’s fast...Just like mom said. Slow it down and keep moving before it-) *jumps off*

Gigas:*slams his free hand on top of the other one. Freeing it immediately.

Summer:(Ugh that didn’t last long. Maybe I should’ve mastered time dilation before we attempted this.) *spins revolver to fire* You’re not gonna let me get that close again easily are you?

Enraged the Gigas slams his sword creating a wave of slush; another move already predicted. Summer spears her way through with her sword now burning hot. Both her and Weiss’s weapon is basically identical in every way but one. Summer’s has the benefit of holding onto a bit of the last elemental dust used to create unique combinations. With fire know on her blade and ice still lingering in it, she creates a new glyph to form a thick steam and hides. Forcing the grimm to swing blindly.

Summer:*circling around* (Good, it has no idea where I am. Still got a bit of fire dust left so...) *switches to wind*(I got this I got this I got this) *begins to twirl with each step like a dancer*

Rapid swings and the ice cold room quickly elementals the steam but not her attack is set. A circle of glyphs surround the Gigas glowing a mix of green and red. As it tries to move a vortex of flames erupts from the ground, causing it to once again make its ghostly scream.

Summer:*sweating* Phew....that should keep you still for a mo-

80% still leaves 20% of chaos to creep through. That percentage was a giant sword flying out the flames and right at her. Quickly dodging saved her but not the new hole outside that let a rush of cold hair disrupt her hard work. There was no time to get up before a giant hand grabbed her and slammed into the floor. It proceeds to drag her across the floor by her arm fast; hitting anything and everything.

Summer:Agh! (I got to confident...he’s gonna grind my into powder at this rate! I gotta think of something! I-) Ahhhh!

Unexpectedly her arm slid out her jacket and sent her crashing into a wall. At least she’s free but now the cold is quickly seeping in...

Awww someone looks cold....

Summer:*stumbling* (I do not have time to deal with this...)

You always have time for me. What’s wrong, out of breath and option? Why are you always so weak?

Summer:(Shut up and let me concentrate!)

Stakes were quickly rising pass the point of no control. Desperately she sprinted for her jacket but was met with sword blocking her way. Her own blade was hastily brought to guard her body as the Gigas sent her into another wall with a punch. Aura might save her one more time but after that there’s no guarantee.

Summer:I’m going nowhere fast. *reaching for her scroll* I’ll keep my distance and wait for Nicholas to-

As usual you need his help. Can you really do nothing on your own? Useless.....

Summer:......(Am...am not....) *shivering*

Denial doesn’t suite you. Accept your place and fade into the background already. The only good thing about you is me...

Summer:......*picked up by the Arma Gigas*

It’s okay sweetie, I won’t let you die though. That doesn’t help me in the slightest. So do us both a favor and just.....

The room begins to freeze over with ice. Summer’s hair goes white and her eyes a faded blue. A chill breath escapes her and freezes the hand trapping her, then it shatters. Ice comes up from the floor to meet her. What once was a room filled with screams is now drowned out by sadistic laughter.

???:FREEZE....

•

Nicholas moves across the ballroom on glyphs like a figure skater. His fight being challenging but not overwhelming. The ballroom is now in shambles as the Arma Gigas runs at him like a deranged man.

Nick:That’s not becoming of a knight now is it? Maybe it’s about time to finally end this; can’t keep Sum- *sees ice creep along the ceiling* Summer? No....that’s too much ice.

Gigas:*swings downward*

Nick:*Blocking* Sorry....can’t spend anymore time on you. Possible family emergency.

The young man slicks his hair back with his free hand before going all out. It would be a bother to mess up because of something like hair. A glyph glows over Mort Froide and onto his hand. Nick jumps back as a solid version of his blade forms out of ice. Regular and ice glyphs form around the room; each ice glyph creating a sword.

Nick:*takes a breath* Iet me show you what happens when an Arc is born with Schnee talents....

He dashes straight for its leg and slashes it, breaking the ice blade. Continuing to slide, he grabs another one and ricochetes back at his target by kicking off another glyph. This assault only gets faster as he keeps speeding towards the calculated glyphs he placed. Each ice sword shattering and quickly replaced by another until all off them are used and the Gigas brought to its knees.

Nick:*winded* twenty eight ice blades...*huff* and one real blade. Personally, I hate odd numbers.

All the ice glyphs merge underneath the Arma Gigas to form one giant to form one big one. The shattered ice swords form a giant one that stabs up right into it; immediately killing the grimm.

Nick:Piece....of......cake. *takes a knee* (I should really come up with a name for that move. Now is not the time for that though. Need to find Summer)

After a minute rest he heads out out the room with his snow gear back on. The only thing keeping him going is concern and the resilient aura he was blessed with. Not as crazy as his dad but it’s given him the second wind he’s needed many times in training. Finding his sister didn’t take as long as he thought; following the cold helped a lot. It led him to a door frozen shut.

Nick:Summer? You in here?*gripping his sword*

???:Don’t ask questions you already know the answers too little knight. Haven’t seen you in awhile. Let’s change that.*shatters the door*

The chill of death surrounds him fast as hand pulls him into the room and pins him to the ground. He takes notices of the Arma gigas slowly dying as it lays on ice spikes. Poor thing never stood a chance. Not against his sister the way she was now. Confident and dangerous to everything around her; including herself. All because of accident years ago by a stupid five year old version of himself that couldn’t keep his cool.

Nick:Summer you-

???:Don’t talk to her, talk to me. Make that mistake again and I might just have to give you a scar that matches dear old mommy as a reminder.

Nick:Shiva.....don’t do this.

Shiva:Do what? Be perfect in every way possible? Not my fault Summer is pathetic. If she doesn’t want me here then maybe she should’ve been strong enough to keep me contain.

Nick:Talk bad about my sister again and I’ll beat you until you’re too weak to keep control.

Shiva:Tough talk for a worm that’s on the ground. Maybe you should learn who you’re dealing with again. *grabs his sword* I’ll make sure not to blind yo- *hands begin to shake*

Nick:Is someone losing control already? Maybe you’re not as in control as you think, or maybe it’s the body heat and hand warmers I stuffed my jacket with.

Shiva:You what!?

His sword falls out of her hands and she tries getting up quickly. Nicholas doesn’t give her the chance and tackles her with his jacket open. Essentially preventing a long fight before it even began as he already feels her getting weak. Summer’s hair and eyes slowly becoming normal again.

Shiva:Damnit, I’ll be more careful next time.... better count your lucky stars.

Nick:There is no next time.

Shiva:Ha....you’ve.....said that.....before....... *exhales*

Nick:Summer? You here or do I have to keep aggressively hugging you?

Summer:*crying and hugging him* I’m here but don’t stop anyways....

Nick:Phew....Hey stop with the water works. I’m fine, we’re fine.

Summer:I....couldn’t keep control.

Nick:Maybe one day, just not today. *gives her his jacket* let’s go home okay? Final exam completed.

Summer:I’m a step behind you as usual it seems. Once again you rescued me.

Nick:That’s what siblings do. Also, there’s no way you’re behind me. *puts her on his back* because I don’t move forward without you. Shiva or not, you���ve gotten your target killed. We’ll just leave how exactly out of the story when we get back. *starts walking*

Summer:......

Nick:......A pair stuck together that on closer inspection is slightly different. Yet also extremely similar. Such a beautiful phenomenon is......

Summer:A twin snowflake. Next time....I’ll be stronger. *hold on tight*

Nick:*smiles* Yeah.....we both will.

[blissfulalchemist]

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 for every oc? (Character solidifying!)

Thank you for asking! ☺️💖🌺Sorry for any spelling errors 😣

1. How does your character think of their father? What do they hate and love about him? What influence - literal or imagined - did the father have?

Catlina: She actually has a pretty good relationship with her father. He’s more of the quiet types of dads but he’s always been there for her. He just wasn’t always one to pick up the phone for a “Hey how are you doing?” kind of conversation. She loves him dearly and has always appreciated his sense of humor and never hated him even when her mom tried to make him out to be the bad guy during their divorce. Coming from a military background, Navy, he always put an emphasis on being able to defend yourself no matter what, he was never one to pressure his kids to take classes for guns or things like that, but more on the emphasis of if you can avoid a fight, do. Be smart of your surroundings and know what’s around you, be as observant as possible. He also influenced her to be well read and to just head strong for what you believe in. Overall she holds her father in well regards but he was never her hero but she loves and respects him dearly.

Chance: Oh man...Oh boy this boy only ever knew his father and his father’s father. They drive him and his character so much. He loved them both so much and Chance was absolutly heart broken when they both died. Chance doesn’t hate much about them really, he does wish his dad was a little more present and not so focused on his work at times, but loves that he was there when Chance asked or needed him most. Chance also loved how selfless his father was, this was a man that saw a young college girl going through a hard time, saw her potential and so he opened his home for her and her child(Chance!). He gave Chance a home and family after she abandoned Chance instead of putting him in the system, knowing there would be talk about him and his “relationship” with Chance’s mom. And then years later saw someone in trouble and wanted to help them, that plan didn’t happen but he tried. Chance’s grandfather now here was another person that raised and cared for Chance when he didn’t have to. Once Ray died Chance’s grandfather could have given him to the system but chose to keep Chance despite his age and health. Chance did hate how old school his grandfather was and how strict he could be, but he knows now that it was for good reason. Chance also loves the amount of things he learned about the outdoors because his grandfather taught him. This boy just loves them so much, they were his heroes even if he didn’t always treat them like it.

Lance: Lance didn’t know much about his father other than that he was married when he had an affair with his mom. Given that it was a bit of a small town where he grew up he did learn that his father was notorious for sleeping around. Lance grew up hating his father once he found out but that soon quelled as he came to realize it didn’t matter who his father was so long as he didn’t repeat the same mistakes. He’s very indifferent to him and the only influence his dad hand on him was being lesson one in what not to do in a relationship.

2. Their mother? How do they think of her? What do they hate? Love? What influence - literal or imagined - did the mother have?

Catlina TW:mention of suicide: She...does not like her mother in the slightest. Catlina will be in a room with her if situations called for it, but interactions with her are very limited. To Cat her mother stopped being one when she emotionally abandoned her daughter after a suicide attempt. Cat’s mom made it all about her and calling Cat really crazy and dramatic, not believing much about what the doctors said about Cat’s mental state. Cat tried to have a better relationship with her mother but each time it seemed her mother’s love was conditional to when Cat could be happy and normal. Despite all this though she still holds a love for her mom and would care for her if she was to get sick but Cat hates herself for it. The influence on Cat her mother has is one that Cat finds to be very negative. To Cat she was the one that worsened her depression and anxiety in trying to please her mom and be everything she wanted. SHe also sees her mom as an example as to why one should not feel anger and let it out, her mother was well known for the screaming matches between...well almost anyone. It was her way or the highway. Overall despite feeling some love for her mom, she is everything negative about Cat, which makes it harder for Cat to feel like a whole person, and has been a negative influence on Cat’s life.

Chance: There are spoilers if I was to write this to the extent as Cat or Lance but here we go. Chance didn’t know his mom much and was always a little sad about it especially because his dad wouldn’t talk about her much other than saying that she had her own problems and that’s why she left Chance with him, so she could give Chance the best life he could have. After reading his father’s journals Chance finds out about how his mom hurt him in a way that would end in paralysis or death had there not been intervention, Chance does hold an anger and resentment for her. Though he is curious about her and does want to find out what happened to her.

Lance: Lance loves his mom and appreciates all that she did for him growing up despite the hardships. Her influence on him was his caring and softer side that never left. This is the main reason he was so involved with Sage’s life and why he develops soft spots for a certain deputy and herald. His mom LOVED the stories of Camalot and used it to teach him ways in being noble and a fighter for good. While Lance finds her views a little black and white and too optimistic he does still try to live that kind of life. Hence why despite looking like he caved in he is still so willing to help the Resistance and actually has disobeyed orders from them, he just knew how to make it look like he succeded or failed really well.

3. Brothers, sisters? Who do they like? Why? What do they despise about their siblings?

Catlina: She has two sisters, Maya and Xander, and she loves them both so much with all her heart. She would do anything for them, even willing to cross a few lines. She misses them and hates how she got seperated from them. Cat only despises how their relationship with their mom is a lot better than Cat’s. Cat is glad she was the exception but she still feels envious of it.

Chance: He has no siblings that he is aware of. He has no idea who his birth father is or if his mom had any other kids.

Lance: He had three half siblings that he went to school with. He did hate how much better off they were while Lance and his mom struggled. He did remain friends with them never telling them he knew about their dads affairs and he being a product of one of them.

4. What type of discipline was your character subjected to at home? Strict? Lenient?

Catlina: She was raised in a semi-strict house. She was able to go out and do just about anything so long as certain criteria was met. Much of that criteria being that she maintained decent grades in school with no missing assignments, though once her depression started it was harder to maintain the missing assignments and deccent grades. Cat was grounded many times for it though she still found ways out of it and did sneak out of the house or snuck people in on occasion.

Chance: Chance’s father could be very absent at times with his work, but was there for Chance when he needed him. There wasn’t much in terms of harsh punishment since Chance’s dad saw mistakes as learning opportunities. When Chance lived with his grandfather there was a little bit more leniency with rules, think more like Iroh was with Zuko. There were a few strict groundings though when Chance tried to act out and even a few nights spent in the Hope County jail. If I have to classify the kind of parenting style Chance experienced it would fall into Authoritative Parenting. You’re free to do what you want but there are limits.

Lance: His mom worked a lot so he was free to do as he liked but his mom was not opposed to him spending a night or two in the local jail if he got out of line and got caught, where he was promptly grounded at home. Lance was never one to get in trouble other than your typical small town shenannigans

[fcb4]

My eulogy to an old friend.

“I grieve for you...my brother. You were such a friend to me. Your love for me was more wonderful than the love of women. How the mighty have fallen and the weapons of war have perished!” -2 Samuel 1:26-27

I don’t know how many heterosexual men can say this about one of their male friends, but I can confess this about a handful of men over the years of my life and Ken Masterson was the first.

I had become a Christian in high-school during a pretty significant decent into my own personal darkness resulting from a poltergeist of common cultural devils. Through a series of events, conversations and an eventual reading of a gospel tract, I responded one afternoon with a prayerful, private confession, surrender and invitation to the Lord to take over my life and I was born again. For me, it was a small match of a moment that led to a wildfire.

One unforeseen consequence of my spiritual rebirth was the impact it had on my social circle. At 15 friends are life for most teens, and for me they were my family, a dysfunctional one, but the ‘Stoners’ were my tribe. I quickly discovered that there wasn’t going to be much enthusiasm mixing Jesus with dope, drinking, doing drugs, sleeping around and all the other general madness and mayhem that went with such pursuits in Garden Home, Oregon.

I began to feel the pain of dissonance, debate, isolation and disregard and after some acute rejections, I began to pray earnestly to the Lord for help. I needed friends that could understand, support and hang with in my new life.

One day coming home on the bus, I noticed a new guy and he had a button on his jean jacket that had ‘777’ in red letters on a background of white. I was familiar with 666 from my affinity with death metal and all things devilish,dark and spooky, so I imagined it had to be the counter reality somehow. So I asked him what the button meant and he explained to me that it was a pin put out by a Christian metal band called Stryper (http://www.stryper.com/).

We chatted some and as we approached my bus stop, I started getting my stuff ready and noticed he did as well. When we came to the stop we both got up to my amazement. As we exited he explained that his mother and him had moved into the same apartment complex where my father and I lived. It was one of the first profound answers to specific prayer that I witnessed.

God had heard my cry and sent me Ken.

Through my friendship with Ken, I was introduced to a group of other young men and women my age, a new church and an unfolding journey of faith that would forever impact my heart, mind and soul.

Our hearts and lives got intertwined in ways that I now know as I approach 50, isn’t the norm for many. We really loved each other and that love grew to expand and connect with others who were before my introduction to Ken and others that followed.

We prayed, witnessed, read and studied the Bible. We listened to untold hours of music, went to concerts, services and bookstores and drank ungodly amounts of bad coffee. We read fantasy novels, watched movies and made our own, we hosted stick battles in the woods that always ended in bruised, battered and mud covered wildness. Our band of brothers, and a few sisters, held our own retreats, traveled to musical festivals and slept in the car. We started small groups on our own, did door-to-door evangelizing, spent weekend nights downtown Portland on Burnside witnessing to drunks, addicts, gutter punks and the homeless.

In our street evangelization we saw God do some amazing things, answer prayers and stun us with His love and power. We would often word wrestle with a certain sectarian barefoot, robbed prophet named ‘Rollo’, who had one of the best churchy lines ever said to me. I was holding a bible down in Pioneer Square in Portland one night while we were witnessing and I stopped to smoke a cigarette. He looked at me with one of those penetrating fundy looks and said “You should have left one of those at home.”. We never did make any headway with him lol.

We caused a bit of trouble for the church folks caught up in our whirlwind. Poor folks didn’t know what to do with us using the handshaking time in the church service to go out and smoke cigarettes. We were too pagan for some and too religious for others and the zeal we had was often out of control, self-righteous and obnoxiously legalistic. We were full blown immature zealots. We were radicals and started more fires than I want to admit, not all were holy fire. But I wouldn’t trade those days for anything, they were heavenly, holy, heroic and harrowing, hellish and hurtful but Jesus never gave up on us, even when we did on Him.

Inter-personally we were often a mess. We fought, punched, screamed, argued, pouted, rebuked, shunned, confessed, repented and forgave. We sinned, backslid together, or judged each other when one of us lagged behind or stumbled.

As time went on, I got married, and Ken was my best man in my wedding. He lived with me and LeeElla a number of times and once we had his mother living with us too. We shared life, faith, hearts and home in a deep manner that I don’t think will ever be quite reached again in my lifetime.

Unfortunately our friendship was severed in a season when we all got wrapped up in a man, a message and a manner of being a ‘outside the religious system house church’ that eventually ended brutally due to the sin and error of the leader and others. LeeElla and I were excommunicated from the ‘fellowship’ for me confronting the leader and challenging, disrupting and seeking to divide ‘the work”.

In that unraveling, I lost my friendship with Ken and many others.

Ken and I never talked again.

I tried to connect in some manner through Facebook and if you look on his timeline, there are many public posts that reflect my longing to figure out how to reconcile, but it never happened in an honest and meaningful way.

To get a message that one of your best friends in life died, is a difficult pain to absorb. I realize now that I had an unresolved story-line that I thought in the back of my mind would someday resolve itself. Now I know It won’t and the finality of that reality has hit me hard in the last couple days.

In the last few years I have rolled through a string of significant physical deaths: my mother, my grandfathers, my father-in-law, a cousin, a friend and former leader in my ministry, a dear church member and this week...Ken.

I am grateful for you brother, I did love you and do still.

You will always have a place in my heart.

I remember you.

Your raised eyebrow, Spock look.

Your laughter.

Your strut.

Your love of miracle whip and ketchup on whitebread sandwiches.

How you ate spaghetti out of the can, cold with a fork.

Your dream of being a guitar god.

Listening to Bloodgood together.

The way you would smoke your Marlboros.

How I almost died in your apartment from doing too much crank.

Dragging you into that guys apartment to fight anyone who was there.

They way you spoke in tongues and how your mom tried to make me do it too.

Your passion for the Bible and the words behind the words.

Your eccentric premillennial oddities like telling LeeElla that you knew who the Antichrist was.

Your black raven hair and it’s inability to grow as long as you wanted it too.

The way you would wrap the car seat-belt under your armpit to the horror of my wife.

Your mom, and all the stories, oh the stories.

Me having to make a “no prophesying’ rule when you and your mom lived with us.

How you struggled so often in your walk with God.

Your pain and loneliness.

The day you walked off the job because of that lying manager who fired me.

The way you idolized Rick and his white leather jacket.

How we bullied Dan into burning his Journey and Amy Grant albums.

All the girl talk.

How I can’t listen to Guns & Roses and not think of you.

I could go on but I will close this personal eulogy with a quote from a fantasy world that we both inhabited in different ways.

The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien:

“At last the hobbits had their faces turned towards home…“Are you in pain, Frodo?' said Gandalf quietly as he rode by Frodo's side. 'Well, yes I am,' said Frodo. 'It is my shoulder. The wound aches, and the memory of darkness is heavy on me. It was a year ago today.''Alas! there are some wounds that cannot be wholly cured,' said Gandalf. 'I fear it may be so with mine,' said Frodo. 'There is no real going back. Though I may come to the Shire, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same. I am wounded with knife, sting, and tooth, and a long burden. Where shall I find rest?' Gandalf did not answer.”

May your soul find rest

and I look forward to the day

when we will sit together in the Kingdom, again.

Much love to you Ken,

you were a mighty weapon of war.

[withachanceoflaxus]

grand magic games circa x791 - the Jones family perspective 

GMG DAY ONE—x791

“Of course, that old bastard would be there at the Games.” Isley said, glaring at the Lacrima as it scanned the Fairy Tail section of the crowd and there he was, Makarov Dreyar, looking like the proud parent he presented himself to be. Isley huffed and tended to her indoor plant. “I bet he’s only in it to regain some sense of former glory. Bastard.” From the couch, Jio teetered softly and sipped her tea.

“It’s not all bad, Isley. Look—there’s Laxus!” and at that, Isley turned back and saw him. There. Leona’s son. Isley couldn’t help but smile at seeing him there, though she thought he could do without that fur coat and frown. She remembered him as a small, sickly, sure, but happy child. He was always happy to assist Isley with the guild plants even though the only thing Isley let him do was water them with her. Leona would always be there in the background and cooing over him, my beautiful boy, she would say her voice gone so soft. He was a handsome young man now and if Isley closed her eyes, she could imagine an older Leona in the crowd, cooing over how handsome he was. Even with that frown. Though, Isley thought bitterly, maybe he wouldn’t frown so much if Leona was alive. If Makarov was a better guild leader. If Ivan hadn’t…

“He looks so much older.” Isley said instead, finally sitting down on the couch. “I don’t trust that Raven Tail though. I hope Ivan doesn’t have it in for his son.”

“Ha! Leona’s child?” Jio raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think he would ever seriously injure Laxus. Granted, him and Makarov probably did a number on him already. He looks so…uncomfortable.”

“But strong.” Isley added. She looked at the image of her old friend’s son and sighed. “I hope he kicks everyone’s ass.”

Jio elbowed her and Isley smiled over at her. “We should have kidnapped him. You are his godmother.”

“I’m a shit godmother.” Isley said and. Well, she felt that was the truth.

“No, none of us could have seen the future.” Jio told her and she put the tea down and wrapped an arm around Isley, putting her head on her wife’s shoulders. Isley felt herself comforted by this action and breathed out slowly. “We couldn’t have known. We left the guild and…do you really think Ivan would have let us get away with it? He loves his son—I know it. Gildarts was there for him, too.”

“Gildarts is a sensitive fool who probably cried himself to sleep whenever Laxus so much as smiled at him.” Isley told her.

Jio laughed. “Maybe. But Gildarts has a good heart. There’s no way he would have stayed in Fairy Tail without something anchoring him—other than misplaced guilt. Ivan may have fallen, but we know Porlyusica and Gildarts were there. That’s all we can count on.”

“If he ever comes around, then I will owe him.” Isley said softly and she smiled when Jio kissed her cheek.

“If he comes, we will have to invite the kids home. I’m sure after this, little Laxus will be a celebrity and they will never forgive us.”

Isley laughed, thinking of their kids. Georgi was the head of a restaurant now and probably in Crocus at this very moment. And Carol, well, she was off in Era being a bookkeeper in Era. “I forgot that’s what we called him back then. Little Laxus.”

“Leona was right—he was an adorable child.”

“Beautiful boy.” Isley corrected and the two, for once were able to laugh at the memory of their old friend. Because they both knew if she was there, standing with them now, she would correct them. And probably complain about being third wheeled as they were now cuddled up on the couch.

GMG DAY 3—X91

“There’s no way Leona’s son would get beat so easily!” Isley was standing now, watching the screen. Jio was still sitting, but still in shock. “C’mon Laxus! Pull it together, boy!”

“Maybe he’s just playing that Raven Tail guy along.” Jio said from her couch. “I don’t think he could be taken advantage of so easily.”

And then—it happened. The Illusion fell apart and Isley squinted and then swore loudly as Ivan and the rest of Team Raven Tail was on the ground and there stood Laxus. Lightning zipping around him and standing tall. Jio clapped but Isley glared at the image of Ivan. “What the fuck is wrong with you, Ivan?” Isley said as she fell back onto the couch.

“Let’s not ponder that.” Jio said next to her. “Look at Laxus instead! Oh, he reminds me of Leona so much right now. She did have quite the punch.”

“Ivan’s fucked up nose shows it.” Isley huffed.

Jio laughed. “And that was an accident.”

Isley found herself smiling, though she was still angry. At least, at the very least, Laxus was crowned the victor of that battle. Good for him, Isley thought. Though Leona would be rolling in her grave at the idea of Ivan purposely trying to fuck his son over—again. But. Then again, if Makarov wasn’t such a terrible excuse for a Guildmaster, none of this would be happening.

“Isley—don’t let your anger get ahold of you now. We left the guild for a reason.” Jio said softly next to her and Isley breathed in and out. “It’s not good for your heart to hold onto such anger.”

“I know.” Isley said and when she looked at the cheering crowd, she felt a little better. “It’s hard sometimes.”

“I know.” Jio told her and Isley looked over to her wife. She was frowning now, too, and in her light eyes, Isley could see her old sadness there. What they carried were wounds that turned into ugly scars. They were young once and happy. They were still happy, most of the time, but the thought of what became of their friend’s family after her passing was something that hurt them both so much.

But they couldn’t have stayed. Not after witnessing for a final time what careless leadership wrought. Ivan had fought with his father—everyone in the guild heard the screaming match. Jio was about to jump in before Leona did and put an end to it.

And then Gildarts…he was so broken after.

But they all were.

“Oh!” Jio jumped up. “Carol’s calling us!”

Isley’s mood lifted then. Carol was a good kid—er adult now. It was always good to hear from them. If only Georgi called them more. Though he was no biological child of her’s, he seemed to inherit Jio’s hard working sense and worked himself ragged. Carol often sent over gifts to Gerogi, to make sure at least he had clothes that were not too old. They were good kids.

Isley peered over at the screen again, a reply of Laxus’s victory playing. So was he, Isley knew. Because no child of Leona’s could be anything but.

GMG DAY 5—X191

“HA! Another landing punch! Take that Jura!” Isley jumped up as she cheered. Beside her this time was Carol who came home to watch the final day with her mothers.

“No way Jura Neekis is taking these games too seriously. Besides, I doubt the terrain is fit for him to seriously go all out without killing everybody.” Carol pointed out and Isley huffed as Jio laughed.

“That’s his fault then, isn’t it?” Isley said. She was too busy smiling at Laxus’ victory. “You never met his mom, little girl. Her punches were legendary.”

“She used to say electrifying.” Jio added with a smile. Carol laughed and Isley shrugged. Leona sure did do that.

“He is strong, though.” Carol pointed out. “I’m surprised you guys are rooting for him, considering you certainly don’t hide the fac you hate his grandfather so much.”

“Because as much as we don’t like Makarov Dreyar—we loved Leona Floros more.” Jio told their daughter. “The world can compare him to that man, but we are smarter than that.”

Carol hummed and watched as her mom looked at the Lacrima crystal with pride. It was the same look her mom gave to her and her brother when they so much as remembered to put their pants on right. Ever since she was adopted by these two, she’s felt nothing but unconditional love from them. Even when Carol went through her regrettable ‘I Hate you’ phase in her teens. They never attempted to replace the family she lost, but instead gave her a new one.

She looked past her mom and to the form of Laxus Dreyar. She hoped he had something like that. It wasn’t until he disappeared seven years ago that she found out about her mom’s old friend Leona Floros-Dreyar and why her moms were against her and Georgi joining any guild. But Carol put her magic towards work for the council, as not very dependable as they were (seriously, making a Saint out of someone who did their job?) but at least she could help somewhere. And Georgi just liked cooking and he was good at it.

“As much as I want Laxus to win—I’d hate for a Fairy Tail victory.” Isley said finally sitting back down on the couch. “That Bastard doesn’t deserve it.”

“True.” Jio said and Carol looked over at her Momma then. It was not often that her Momma agreed with bitter words like that. “He doesn’t.”

Wow, Carol thought, Makarov Dreyar must really be a fuck up to anger even her Momma.

X794

Isley was tending to the plants outside of her house. War had come and gone and even though Isley didn’t have evidence for it, she felt like the entire reason why her garden was supplanted, and she was separated from her family was Makarov’s fault. It was only too easy to blame catastrophes on him, after all. Still. The world moved on as it always tended to do, so she used her magic and began to regrow her garden. It was fun and busy work. And if her and Jio were thinking of taking in more child again because there were always innocent casualties again, then that was only a good thing. Isley was feeling some of that empty-nest syndrome for a while now and Jio always did have a bigger heart than most.

A shadow came over her and Isley frowned and fixed her hat as she looked up and blinked. Before her stood none other than Laxus Dreyar. She found herself smiling as she stood up. A part of her expected this, she thought, for him to come here.

“Are you Isley Kane?” he asked her. He was uncomfortable, she could tell by his body language even if his face looked confident. He was huge in person and he was definitely no longer Little Laxus.

“Jones now,” Isley corrected him kindly and she found herself smiling bigger now. “Ever since I got married to Jio Jones. You know—I always wondered when you’d come find me, Little Laxus.”

“You know—”

“Of course, I do.” Isley interrupted him. “I am sorry I never reached out…but well, I was never a fan of Makarov after. Everything. Does he know you’re here?”

“I don’t have to report everything I do to him.” Laxus told her and she laughed. He seemed quite petulant! She liked that.

“No, you certainly don’t. My wife is in town right now—our son, Georgi is visiting soon, and she is intent on getting him a new wardrobe. But please, come in, stay for a while. I am guessing you have…questions?”

Laxus nodded. “If that’s alright with you.”

“Oh, Little Laxus.” She said fondly. “I loved your mother; she was a sister to me. I will answer any question I can for you but only if you promise to stay for a while.”

He swallowed. “I can do that.”

Isley walked past him and towards her front door. “Later, you can help me with my plants. I’m sure now at twenty-six you will be a better helper than you were at three.”

[grs-the-neighborhood]

Bella Utonium Wilkins 

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Birthday (Zodiac): March 10; Pisces

Species: Chemical X/Human Hybrid

Alignment: Synonymous

 Powers/Abilities:

                Flight

                Superhuman Strength

                Superhuman Speed

                Heat Vision

                X-ray Vision

                Supersonic Screams

                Advanced Intellect

 Relatives:

Cameron (father), Blossom/Bubbles/Buttercup (adopted aunts), Professor Utonium (adopted grandfather), Alex (cousin), Cayenne (cousin), Persephone/Bluebell/Chrysanthemum/Rosie (cousins)

Background:

        Having already mastered the art of robotics at the age of 18, Cameron wanted to explore into new fields of science. He did his research and found out about the Powerpuff Girls and Professor Utonium in Townsville. Wanting to learn more he moved to Townsville to be closer to the older scientist, and applied to be his apprentice. 

        Becoming more and more intrigued with the PPGs, he stole a vial of the Professor's Chemical X and began trying to merge it with his DNA. As he did these experiments in secret, the girls and the Professor found out that Cameron had betrayed their trust. Blossom alone, Buttercup was a new mom and Bubbles was supporting her, confronted him while he was in the midst of completing his experiment but her confrontation caused him to accidentally spill extra amounts of Chemical-X. And BOOM! After the explosion died down, in it's place was a crying baby girl. 

She was homeschooled by Cameron and Blossom. Her father taught her about science, math, and literacy while Blossom taught her how to use her powers, how to cook, and how to fight. Even though Bella was sheltered she still developed social skills from interacting with her relatives.

                She graduated high school at the age of 15 and afterward she decided to take an online college course to dodge having to attend long lectures from a professor who wasn’t as smart as her father or grandfather. Since she didn't have to take time out of her day to go to a physical university she used her free time to train to become a hero to fight crime and defeat villains. 

 Personality:

                Bella is a sensitive girl; she becomes emotional watching sad movies, she gets angry when someone intentionally tries to hurt her feelings, and she tends to hold a grudge. However, she is a compassionate person, and does her best to comfort others when they are upset or feel lonely. If she ever has something that she doesn't need and knows someone else does she will instantly give it to them--people say that she is the most selfless person they know. 

                When she is in situations where she is bored or doesn’t care that much she tends to daydream about inventions she could make that would make life or crime-fighting easier to handle. And even though she works hard in training, inventing, and cooking; Cameron knows that she can be lazy. She is bad at organizing and cleaning, and will wait until last minute to do so. 

                She is a big time romantic. Since she hasn’t had a lot of real world experiences she has always imagined and fantasized what it would be like if she were to meet an attractive guy, they would fall in love, and she’d plan dates and activities the two of them could do together. Because of her lack of experience she has a hard time understanding when she is actually being flirted with, and tends to crush on guys just for their looks. 

                                When times are getting rough she finds herself becoming pessimistic and always thinking about the worse-case scenario. When she thinks of an idea that someone is against she usually stands by what she thinks is correct and will argue and fight for her idea because she KNOWS her idea is the right one.

 Appearance:

        There are some characteristics of Bella that you can tell she inherited from her father, and there are some that make you think "how did that happen?" She has her father's medium brown skin tone and his dark brown hair color. However her hair is wavy and has a natural razzmatazz streak through it that matches her eyes. Her father think's that the unnatural colors that make up her eyes and hair is due to the chemical-x within her DNA.

        She usually wears a long sleeve jade shirt with tight-ankled jeans. Her pants have a hard time hanging onto her waist, so she wears a brown belt that matches her shoes. To tie the outfit together she wears a short sleeved short pale yellow jacket. When she goes out on missions she wears a purplish-pink one-piece suit with a light-gray t-shirt underneath and white boots. Her father handmade her utility belt and emergency weapon bracelets. 

        Relationships:

        Cameron: 

Being raised majorly by her father, Bella of course is closest to him. He taught her everything she knows about technology, encouraged her to expand her knowledge and invent items that could help her around the house. Even though he gave her freedom in knowledge, he kept her locked in the house for most of her childhood. He had always been afraid that she could be unstable or something might happen to her if she were without him or her aunts, so he kept her close by. 

        "Cousins": 

Bella loves being a part of the Vanguard League, but what is more important to her is family. She loves her parents the most, and after them are her cousins. To Bella her cousins are like the siblings she never had. She has tried her hardest to get close to Alex, but due to how cold her cousin can be to her she can never find a way to get close to her little cuz. That is why she tries her best to make sure he is happy, and stands up for him or comforts him whenever people are trying to make him feel like a freak because he is gender fluid. Though because of her strong attachment to her cousin, and even though she loves being in the Vanguard League, if Alex were to tell her that he would be happy with her being apart of the Young Blood Alliance...she would join. Anything she could do to make her little cousin happy. 

Even though they are opposites in a lot of things, Bella loves her cousin (well she loves all her cousins) even though she finds her harsh language and attitude to be hurtful. Since they are so close in age they had always been set up on play dates, even if they were against Cayenne's wishes. Though Bella, even though she is older, can be pretty gullible at times much to Cayenne's amusement. When they are out together and Bella is annoying Cayenne, the pepper named cousin would trick her older cousin into doing something embarrassing and she usually will because of her lack of teenage social skills. Other times Cayenne will trick her cousin into doing something she doesn't want to do. However the two cousins are protective of each other and will look out for one another if they are ever in trouble. 

        Niko: Even though Niko and Bella aren't SUPER close, Bella is happy that she is able to fight alongside another Chemical-X child. 

        Ethan: Ethan has seen how sweet Bella always is to Niko, and appreciates her for that. Bella respects Ethan as a leader, and because of her love for romance novels she can tell he has a thing for Tamara.

        Andrew: Andrew's dorky/nerdy attitude always makes Bella giggle. There are moments where he tries to prank her; where she makes his pranks backfire onto him, and there are moments where he tries to flirt with her; to which she cannot tell because she's never been flirted with before. 

        Tamara: Bella and Tamara are also opposites as well. However Bella really respects Tamara's strength and tough attitude.

                She has a slight crush on Raleigh and thinks Drake, Charles, and Victor are “hunky”.

Trivia:

                -Her favorite color is jade

                -Her father is the winner of Total Drama Revenge of the Island

                -Her favorite food is strawberry cheesecake

                -The movie that makes her cry the most is "A Dog's Story"--dogs are her favorite animal

                -Personality Type: Defender-Turbulent (ISFJ-T)

                -Bella was originally made for PrincessCallyie 's 2018 contest

She is created by @shorty-tori

[this-life-so-far]

Title 2: Something in the Air

Something in the Air Tonight

Throughout my childhood, things would weave in and out of different levels of sanity. Too many times I would remember coming home and either things were in chaos, or my parents were normal and asking me how my day had gone after a long day of school. When things were “normal”, I was always unsettled. Even as a kid, the Psycho Circus that I had become accustomed to, felt “normal” to me. If my parents weren’t arguing or fighting, something always felt off. It’s such a bizarre concept to look back on, but it’s the thing I knew so when it wasn’t present, it felt like something was missing.  

My parents always argued. It’s not speaking negatively of them, it’s just the truth. They constantly argued and if they weren’t arguing, they would just start fighting. It was heavy as a kid to watch because my mother was the one that always started the physical confrontations with my father. If something didn’t go her way, or she didn’t get what she wanted, she became aggressive. Too many times I would watch my mother smack my dad and belittle him. I will always say this, my father always tried to avoid confrontations, but at times, they could be too much to avoid. Something had to come to a breaking point. Sadly, this breaking point had more server consequences than just an awkward dinner with the family.  

The day was simple and short for any ordinary fourth-grade student in a rural school setting. A good lunch and a long talk with a couple of friends about various secrets in the “Zelda: Ocarina of Time” on the playground. The ordinary autumn Friday school day was near completion. Towards the end of this simple school day, I was deemed “student of the week” in my class and got to choose a prize out of the gift box Mrs. Collins had prepared for us. Out of the gift box I chose was a window paint set that I planned to create a masterpiece with later in the evening with my family. As I got on the school bus and waited for the arrival at the trailer park, I was a particularly proud trailer park kid. Here I was coming home as “student of the week.” I hoped that once I got home and my parents saw my achievement; we could all paint on the windows and then head out to Wal*Mart where I could try and bribe my parents into buying me a pack of Pokémon cards.  

When I arrived home my sister was gearing up to go stay with my grandparents at their home. I wasn’t even bothered by the fact that I wasn’t going down there to stay this weekend because I was “student of the week.” On this day I was better than my sister and I wanted a celebration with or without her. As I came home to my parents with the exciting news, I could already tell that mom wasn’t “super mom” today. I showed her my paint set and she quickly gave me a shallow promise of painting with me later in the evening. I could tell that she had business to attend to. I would later find out that this business consisted of her wanting some more pain pills from my father. As I sat in the back junk room alone with my toys, I began looking for pictures to paint. I eventually discovered a picture advertising the latest “Metroid” game. In a WWE magazine. I thought this was perfect and something my mother would love to paint with me since she loved playing Super Metroid on our Super Nintendo. I thought my father could help us out as well since he was actually a very talented drawer.  

As my sister finished packing up her things for the weekend and my grandfather came and whisked my sister away to the magical land of Bandanna without a proper goodbye to me; the trailer got awful quiet without my sister’s music blaring in the background. As I sat in the back room still planning the painting with my mother, my father arrived, and my excitement kicked back in. This man would have to be proud of me tonight I thought to myself. I was “student of the week” for goodness' sake. I pictured him automatically giving me a hug and congratulating me on a job well done once he found out the news. Did that happen? No. Instead, he went straight into his bedroom and sat quietly. My mother charged into his room, and I knew that everything would be okay once she got her pills and would become the mom who enjoyed hanging out with her son. I thought we could all just start painting this Metroid masterpiece I had envisioned in my mind. That didn’t exactly go as planned though.  

As my mother raced into my father’s room; the two started yelling at each other like they were two professional wrestlers getting ready to square off for the World Heavyweight Championship. I heard so many cuss words come between the two. Words that I hadn’t even heard of at this point in my life. I was honestly scared of these two people who were my parents and not the professional wrestlers they were acting like as the argument was getting pretty heated at this point. I didn’t have my sister to talk to during this situation, so I ran into the back room where I had planned my events for the evening once getting home and I began to paint the Metroid picture on my own. I thought maybe if I painted this picture, both of my parents would be so damn proud of me, they would forget about the arguing and the pills altogether. As I finished the painting on the old dirty cracked trailer window, I waited for it to dry. Once it was done drying, I ran back to my parent’s bedroom and what I saw has never left my mind.  

I don’t know exactly how the events happened because they just seemed to happen so fast and it’s a lot for a nine-year-old kid to take in. As I arrived in my parent’s bedroom, I was treated to the sight of my mother taking down one of my dad’s shotguns from his gun rack and pointing it at his chest. I’ll never forget hearing the words “go ahead Terri and blow me to hell.” I screamed as loud as I could and begged my mother to put the gun away. She didn’t seem to care I was witnessing this act; she was on a mission to get her pills. I didn’t want super-mom anymore, I didn’t want Pokémon cards, and I didn’t want to paint anymore. I just wanted all of this to end. I wanted away. I wanted my escape. I wanted my parents to see what they were doing to me.  

The showdown continued for a few more minutes with my mother splashing coffee on my dad from his prized Pizza Hut mug (yes those were a thing) and later hitting him with it, to just straight up punches to his face. My mother was fired up. I’m not sure what her agenda was now at this point since my father had refused to give her the pain pills several times. I’m not sure why my dad put up with it as long as he did or even why two adults would let their child witness these acts. I had seen my mom hit my dad before and even try to cut him with a butcher knife. Me and my sister witnessed these events almost weekly. The violence between my father and my mother was almost normal. I’m not sure why this time was so different to me. Maybe it was because I didn’t have my sister there with me. Maybe because it was the first time, I had seen a gun up close. Maybe it’s because these people didn’t seem like my parents anymore. I don’t remember how long this moment lasted. All I know is it all ended with my dad shoving my mom out of the way and heading for the door. My mother chased after him and I sat in the hallway of the trailer so lifeless. I was frozen in time after witnessing everything my parents had just done. I didn’t know more was to come.  

My mother decided that instead of pain pills she would really like a milkshake from Burger King. Somehow it went from my mother pulling a gun on my father to all of us in the vehicle heading towards Burger King in the span of about thirty minutes. The night seemed so dark as I sat in the backseat of the car. I couldn’t see a moon or any stars in the sky. I just saw black. As my mother got her prized milkshake from Burger King, she begged my father to take her to Western Sizzlin. This wasn’t for a nice family meal to celebrate me being “student of the week” but to just stop by and say “hello” to my grandmother who was working there. My father was hesitant but eventually gave in to the request. As we arrived at the restaurant, I was ordered to stay in the car as my mother hurried into the restaurant. Me and my father sat in some awkward silence that I could even pick up at my young age. Looking back now I guess he was either too embarrassed to try and explain to his nine-year-old son what happened, or he had too much pride and didn’t deem it necessary to apologize for something that my mother had started in his eyes. I never doubt either of my parents loved me. They did try and shelter me from some of their evil, however, my father knew that I knew everything that had happened this night.  

While me and my father continued to sit in the car not speaking and me occasionally taking some sips from my mother’s precious Burger King milkshake, my mother and what seemed like half the waiters at Western Sizzlin were coming outside and headed towards the vehicle. In my naïve young mind, I thought they might be coming to congratulate me on being “student of the week”, however, my father knew better than this and as I heard an “oh, shit” muttered under his breath I assumed something not so good was about to happen. My grandmother quickly came up to my window and started cussing at my father. This was the last thing I wanted was for all of this to continue. My mother had gone into the restaurant and accused my father of hitting her in the face. I never saw the faithful blow to the cheek that my mother had told everyone about, but then again, I was a kid so who would listen. Later, my father would tell me that my mother faked a hit to the face and made a bruise out of makeup under her eye.  

The shouting match between my father and grandmother continued for some time. With all of the waitresses cheering on my grandmother she did the unthinkable and slapped my father. My father instantly started the vehicle up and started backing out with my grandmother still in the window cursing at him. My father did start rolling up the window and before he could get the window all the way up, my grandmother gave him one final smack in the back of the head before my father could drive off. The car ride home was short but very quiet. My father I don’t think spoke a word the whole ride home. It was late in the night before we got home. I do remember my father letting me in his bedroom to watch Cartoon Network. I’ll never forget him telling me not to be afraid if he wasn’t here in the morning, he would be back home soon. I didn’t know what he meant at the time but as I laid in the bed and watched an episode of “Courage the Cowardly Dog” I drifted off. I remember waking up later in the night and Dragon Ball Z was on the TV and there were strangers in the living room. I could hear my father’s voice, so I didn’t think too much of the situation. I would later find out; this was the cops and a social worker coming to the home to have my father removed from the home.  

When I fully woke up that next morning, my father was nowhere to be found. My grandfather, sister, and mother were sitting in the living with a pile of trash bags. My mother explained to me that my father was in jail for hurting her and they needed to leave the house because it wasn’t safe. I wanted to see my father so badly and I remember my mother constantly denying me the request. My grandfather helped me pack a few things and put them into the trash bags. It would be the first of many times that my belongings would be put into trash bags. Is this what the “student of the week” is? Just trash. Without knowing what else to do I went and looked at the Metroid painting that I had done on the window while everyone was packing. I don’t know if either one of my parents ever saw that little painting I did. I’m not sure it would’ve made any difference to them. After a quick game of “throw your life into a trash bag in five minutes,” we loaded up and stopped by Hardee’s for a family breakfast. My mother did have a black eye at our family breakfast, but once again I was always told she made it with makeup. It did appear to be on her face sometimes and sometimes it wasn’t. My mother talked to me and my sister about the new place we were going to live. It was called “The Safe Place.” This was going to be a secret place where my father couldn’t find us anymore and we could be a happy family....if only it would’ve worked like that. As we finished our breakfast and started heading towards this house that was surrounded by a big old ugly wooden fence, I didn’t know this would only be home for a short while. I also didn’t know that once I left that trailer, I wouldn’t be returning to my home for quite some time.  

[talabib]

Leadership journey : “The Greatest,” Muhammad Ali

Few people embody the tumultuous social climate of the United States in the 1960s as well as Muhammad Ali. At the time, there was unprecedented social upheaval due to the civil rights movement and widespread protests against the war in Vietnam. And speaking up on both of these matters, with an electric presence and poetically blunt words, was Muhammad Ali, an amazing boxer who forever changed the sport with his vibrant personality and unorthodox style.

Every time Ali stepped into the ring, due in large part to the fearless public stances he took in calling for peace and equality, it felt like more than just a regular boxing match; it felt like a powerful political event, with this uncommonly gifted man somehow fighting on behalf of the disenfranchised and all those who were fed up with the status quo.

Lets go back to the turbulent 60s, when a young Cassius Clay went from being an Olympic hero to a divisive figure after making the personal and public shift to Muhammad Ali. Few people led quite as dynamic a life as the man who would come to be known simply as “The Greatest.”

Muhammad Ali had a troubled family tree.

To understand who Muhammed Ali was and what motivated him in his life, it’s important to learn about his family background. Like many other African-Americans, Ali’s family tree included slaves and slave owners.

Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay, a name that can be traced back to his great-grandfather, John Henry Clay, a slave whose own name came from his owner, the Kentucky politician, Henry Clay.

Despite being a slave owner, Henry Clay was a close colleague of Abraham Lincoln, and held similar antislavery views. Clay was also a founder of the American Colonization Society, which proposed freeing slaves and shipping them back to Africa.

At some unknown date, Muhammad Ali’s great-grandfather, John Henry Clay, was emancipated and obtained a small amount of property where he grew his family. But in the years following emancipation, the lives of black Americans were anything but easy.

In particular, trouble followed Muhammad Ali’s grandfather, Herman Heaton Clay. As the story goes, around the year 1900, a 24-year-old Clay stole a quarter from an acquaintance by the name of Charles Dickey. Later, a friend of Dickey’s approached Herman with a heavy cane and demanded he settle his debt. Not only did Clay refuse to repay the quarter, he shot Dickey’s friend with a pistol.

For this, Herman Clay spent six years in jail. When he got out, he married Muhammad Ali’s grandmother, Edith Greathouse – but more trouble was on the way.

Herman and Edith’s first child, Everett Clay, was sent to prison for murdering his wife with a razor. But their second son, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr., made a living as a painter of billboards and signs, and eventually became the father of Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., who was born in January 1942, and would go on to lead a fascinating life as Muhammad Ali.

Cassius Clay was a precocious and stubborn child who experienced a relatively pleasant upbringing.

Even as a baby, Cassius Clay found ways to get attention. Legend has it that no other baby in the hospital ward screamed as loud as Cassius could. Fortunately for this rambunctious child, Cassius wouldn’t have much to scream about, as the Clays managed to carve out a life of relative peace and quiet.

While the Clays lived in a tiny house in the neighborhood of West Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay, Sr. worked hard to make it as comfortable as possible. He planted a vegetable garden, dug out a goldfish pond in the backyard and even painted the house pink, since it was his wife’s favorite color.

When Cassius Clay, Jr. was two years old, his brother, Rudolph Arnett Clay, was born. And some time afterward, their father built an extra room onto the house so that they could have more space to play.

Make no mistake: the Clays were poor. Their clothes were purchased from Goodwill and their shoes sometimes had to be mended with cardboard linings. Yet the boys were well taken care of and never went hungry.

As time went on, the boys did benefit from some extra money coming the family’s way. Cassius and Rudolph were able to get pet animals, an electric train set and even a bicycle to share.

According to his mom, Odessa Clay, young Cassius was quite the precocious and stubborn child. She remembered that he was always trying to jump out of his stroller and see what was going on around him.

By the time he was ten months old, little Cassius Jr. was already eager to make his voice heard and refused to let anyone help him. Whether it was getting dressed or eating, Cassius wanted to be independent and take care of himself. As a result, things in his bedroom and in the kitchen would often get pretty messy.

After losing his bicycle, Cassius Clay started on the path to boxing glory.

Getting your first bicycle is a common rite of passage for a lot of children, as it gives them their first taste of freedom and independence. But, unfortunately, experiencing your first stolen bike is also a common ordeal.

For Cassius Clay, Jr., the transformative event of having his bicycle stolen occurred in October 1954. Cassius, who was 12 years old at the time, was particularly upset because the bike was a treasured Christmas present from his father. Cassius and his brother had been biking through Louisville when they were suddenly caught in a bad storm that forced them to seek shelter in the Columbia Auditorium. When the storm finally passed and the boys emerged, Cassius was furious to find the bicycle gone.

As angry as Cassius was, the event had a silver lining. Adults at the scene advised the brothers to report the stolen bike to the police. And as fate would have it, the officer on duty at the auditorium that day was Joe Elsby Martin, who helped run a boxing club in the basement of the Columbia Auditorium.

Martin couldn’t help but notice how eager this scrawny, 90-pound 12-year-old was to fight whoever had stolen his bike, so he recommended that Cassius join his group of teenagers at the boxing club. Indeed, the sights, sounds and sweaty smells of the boxing club, transfixed Cassius and he eventually made the fateful decision to take Martin up on his offer. And so began the young boxing career of Cassius Clay.

Though he was at best a mediocre student at school, Cassius became a devoted trainee at the boxing club and used the sport as an opportunity to prove himself. And thanks to his passion, it wasn’t long before the young man was winning matches and working his way up the amateur rankings.

While Cassius Clay’s first amateur boxing match was in 1954, it is estimated that over a hundred matches followed in the next six years, leading up to his big break in 1960.

Cassius Clay’s big break came at the 1960 Rome Olympics, where he won gold.

In 1960, Cassius Clay was 18 years old and making a name for himself as a light-heavyweight boxer. But that year, his career got a huge boost when he was chosen to be part of the US Olympic Boxing Team.

The 1960 Olympics took place in Rome, and Clay’s boyish enthusiasm quickly made him a fan favorite – if not exactly a favorite to win gold.

While he was considered to be the best the Americans had to offer, the US team was not expected to beat contenders like Australia’s Tony Madigan, Poland’s Zbigniew Pietrzykowski or the reigning Olympic champion, Russia’s Gennadiy Shatkov.

Things got off to a brilliant start, however, when Clay beat a Belgian competitor in the second round of his first fight. Then, he surprised everyone by defeating Shatkov while barely breaking a sweat.

Things were tougher when it came time to fight Tony Madigan in the semifinals. Madigan managed to go the full distance with Clay, leaving it up to the judges to decide unanimously in Clay’s favor, since he’d been by far the more aggressive of the two.

Then came the final match against Pietrzykowski, who, like the American boxer Amos Johnson, the last man to beat Clay in the ring, was left-handed.

Clay had learned his lesson from his fight against Johnson, and this time made sure to change his game to suit his opponent. This time, Clay didn’t rely on his speed and the strength of his left arm to win the match. Instead, he held his ground and relied more on his right.

While Pietrzykowski landed some strong punches in the first two rounds, Clay remained unfazed as he stepped up his aggression in the third round, leaving his opponent’s face bruised and bloodied. The decision was again unanimous, and the gold medal was Clay’s.Now an Olympic champion, Cassius Clay was on the fast track to fame and fortune.

When Cassius Clay joined the Nation of Islam, he began to address social and political issues.

In the four years that followed the 1960 Olympics, Clay continued to win one boxing match after another. But the 60s were also a time of significant personal changes for him.

After an epic victory against Sonny Liston in 1964, Clay cemented his status as one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. And it was at the after-party of this match that Clay met Malcolm X, a prominent spokesperson for the Nation of Islam and the Black Muslim movement.

It was no coincidence that Malcolm was a guest that night, since Clay had already expressed a long-held interest in joining the movement and supporting their efforts to bring dignity and independence to the black community in the United States.

Clay was not only close with Malcolm X, but also with the Nation of Islam’s leader, Elijah Muhammad. Both of these men were eager for Clay to make the public conversion to Islam, which would also mean changing his name.

For Clay, this spiritual conversion would be an opportunity for him to use his stature to address racial issues and promote the ongoing battle for civil rights. And this is exactly what he brought up at the press conference the day after meeting with Malcolm X at the party.

The press were eager to question him about his status as a so-called “Black Muslim.” Clay also firmly corrected reporters and made sure they used the movement’s correct name, the Nation of Islam. Clay then told the press about his personal beliefs. He explained that he was renouncing Christianity, that Allah was his god and that he believed in peace.

During this press conference, he also explained that, as a member of the Nation of Islam, he was opposed to the principles of integration, which suggested that black people should try to fit into white society. Instead, he wanted to promote a strong, proud black culture.

A few days after the press conference, on March 6, 1964, the bombshell dropped: Elijah Muhammad issued a statement on the radio announcing that Cassius Clay was now officially a Muslim, and would therefore now be known by his Muslim name: Muhammad Ali.

After refusing to serve in the military, Muhammad Ali was suspended from boxing.

Along with the civil rights movement, there was also social turbulence in the 1960s due to the war in Vietnam, and Muhammad Ali had strong opinions about this as well.

In April of 1967, Ali’s political and religious convictions caused him to speak out against the US military’s involvement in Vietnam. As a Muslim and a man of peace, he told the press that he would refuse to serve as a conscientious objector.

In Ali’s opinion, the military was exploiting black people in their efforts to recruit soldiers, while allowing privileged white people to avoid the draft. So Ali filed a court order saying his injunction into the Army was based on racial discrimination and should be stopped.

Nevertheless, Ali was unable to convince state courts or the US Supreme Court to consider his argument, which meant he was ordered to appear at the US military headquarters in Houston. On April 28, 1967, Ali and 26 other men were scheduled to be processed by US Armed Forces staff, though Ali was the only one to have a lawyer with him.

When they called his name, Ali refused to stand up and a Navy officer warned him that if he didn’t comply he could face up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. But Ali still refused and would only present the officer with papers stating his objection.

After the incident at the recruitment office, Ali gave a press conference confirming his continued refusal. Soon afterward, he received the news that his actions caused the World Boxing Association (WBA) and all other major US boxing associations to annul his championship titles and suspended his right to fight professionally in the US for three years.

The unjustified severity of the WBA’s reaction made it clear that this was a political move on their part to punish an athlete because they didn’t agree with his beliefs.

Nevertheless, if Ali was angry, he didn’t show it. When asked for a response, he simply said he was looking forward to going home, visiting his mom and enjoying some of her cooking.

Like others, Muhammad Ali was banished due to the strict commands of his religious leader.

Muhammad Ali’s suspension from boxing was a good thing in the eyes of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. According to the guidelines of the faith, smoking, drinking and other acts of frivolity are strictly prohibited.

In March of 1969, Elijah Muhammad summoned Ali to his home, after he’d heard that Ali had been hinting at a comeback now that his suspension was coming to an end.

This sort of last-minute request was unusual, and made Ali nervous – and rightly so, as it turned out. While Elijah Muhammad was small in stature, he was an intimidating figure to many of his followers, Ali included. Plus, when he greeted Ali at his home, his usual charming smile was nowhere to be found. Elijah made it clear that he could not accept Ali’s desire to return to boxing, as the sport did not align with the values of the Nation of Islam.

So Ali was faced with a choice: either boxing or Elijah. His choice was soon made clear, as not long after the meeting, Muhammad Ali was officially banished from The Nation of Islam. According to Elijah, all followers were to go back to calling him Cassius Clay.

Muhammad Ali’s exclusion was not an isolated case – there were many others who refused to obey Elijah’s wishes and were ostracized by the people to whom they had previously devoted their lives.

Meanwhile, many other members of the Nation of Islam followed Elijah’s orders and gave up their careers and relationships in order to avoid being shunned. One such man was the Calypso singer, Louis Farrakhan. He gave up his career as a musician and eventually went on to become the new leader of the Nation of Islam after Elijah Muhammad’s death in 1975.

However, Muhammad Ali would not give up his career or his legacy. Instead, he was determined to reassert his greatness.

Muhammad Ali returned in “The Fight of the Century,” which provided his first professional loss.

After three years of suspension, Ali was ready to return to the world of boxing with a high-profile fight against the heavyweight champion at the time, Joe Frazier.

The fight was scheduled to take place on March 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and it was to be one of the most anticipated and feverishly hyped boxing matches of all time.

The reward money for what would come to be known as “The Fight of the Century” was also unprecedented, as each fighter was guaranteed to receive $2.5 million, win or lose. This would be the equivalent of $15 million in 2018.

The ticket prices were also astronomical: after selling out in mere seconds, tickets were soon being resold at prices exceeding $700. Meanwhile, some 300 million people are believed to have watched the fight on television.

And the contenders did not disappoint; Ali and Frazier gave audiences a full 15 rounds of spectacular fighting.

Most witnesses agreed that Ali landed more punches and outperformed Frazier in the first two rounds, but it also seemed clear that Ali was the more exhausted of the two after the sixth round. In the second half of the fight, Ali spent a lot of time leaning on the ropes just to stay on his feet.

Still, Ali did indeed stay on his feet for 14 rounds, despite Frazier landing a good deal of powerful punches. But then, in the fifteenth round, Ali took a massive left hook to the head that sent him crashing to the mat. It was later revealed that this left hook shook Ali’s brain so hard that it tore some of his brain cells.

Remarkably, despite this damage, Ali somehow managed to get back on his feet in less than ten seconds. And what’s more, he stayed on his feet for the remaining two minutes of the match.

That night, the judges delivered a unanimous decision declaring Joe Frazier the winner. But another story was also told during the match: one of the greatest fighters that ever lived was still capable of going the distance.

The Rumble in the Jungle became legendary, while a rematch against Leon Spinks would be Ali’s last championship win.

Ali would go on to fight Frazier in two more hotly contested matches, winning both, and he’d also find a new rival in Ken Norton, who managed to break Ali’s jaw during their fight on March 23, 1973.

Ali’s defeat in the Norton match cost him his world championship title. But never one to back down, he was soon plotting his comeback with another epic battle, this one billed as “The Rumble in the Jungle.”

This instantly legendary fight earned its name by taking place in Zaire (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo), on October 30, 1974. And this time, Ali was fighting an undefeated George Foreman, who’d recently won the championship title by beating Norton.

Over 50,000 people turned up to watch this massively publicized fight, and in the eyes of many, Ali was definitely the underdog. But this time, he would deploy a remarkably effective tactic that became known as the rope-a-dope strategy.

During the match, as well as prior to it, Ali mercilessly taunted Foreman, while spending a lot of time playing defense and leaning back into the ropes while Foreman tried in vain to land meaningful punches. Then, in the last 30 seconds of each round, Ali would spring to life and land deadly combinations on his tired opponent.

The strategy worked like a charm, and by the eighth round, Foreman had completely exhausted himself, giving Ali the prime opportunity to land a devastating sequence of five punches that sent Foreman to the mat and down for the count.

Against all the odds and conventional wisdom, Ali had regained the heavyweight title once again, and he would hold it for the next few years until he met an up-and-coming fighter named Leon Spinks.

Leon Spinks shocked many by defeating Ali in their first match, in February of 1978. But that September, Ali got his chance at a rematch in New Orleans – and once again the hype machine was put into overdrive as the Louisiana Superdome filled to the brim with 63,000 spectators.

This time, though, the match did not live up to the high levels of anticipation. Blinded by his newfound fame, Spinks had hardly trained for the match, while Ali was himself far from prime health or fitness. During the match, Ali would frequently hook his arm around Spinks’s neck in order to lean on him and catch his breath. Still, Ali fought with a level of determination that he hadn’t been made to muster in over four years.

At the end of the match, the unanimous decision went to Ali, making him the first heavyweight to win the championship for a third time – and it would also prove be the last.

After his boxing career, Muhammad Ali continued to entertain and use his fame for good causes.

Even though Ali continued fighting into 1981, his health was rapidly deteriorating; the thousands of blows he’d taken to his head were starting to show their effects. Clearly, it was time for Ali to find a different outlet in life.

Ali’s gift for gab and his cemented status as a popular celebrity made him a perfect fit for the talk show circuit and television interviews. And even in this forum, he was able to find creative ways to overcome challenges.

It wasn’t uncommon for the ailing Ali to become drowsy and nearly fall asleep in the middle of a televised interview. But Ali found an entertaining way to make the best of his situation by pretending to actually fall asleep and be dreaming about boxing. With his eyes closed, Ali would start punching the air, gently at first but then more forcefully until he would pretend to be throwing a punch at the interviewer.

At other times, he’d act like he was nodding off and then suddenly spring to life while singing a tune from the popular 50s group, The Platters. In both scenarios, the audiences were always left laughing.

In the 80s and 90s, Muhammad Ali also put his fame and stature to work in international diplomacy.In 1985, Ali was part of an official delegation sent to Beirut, Lebanon, by Ronald Reagan, in an effort to gain the release of dozens of American hostages being held by Muslim extremists.

Along the way, Ali stopped off in London to speak with the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khomeini. After the meeting, an American hostage was released. However, the timing was later proven to be a coincidence, as Khomeini was never involved with the hostages in Lebanon.

While this operation proved unsuccessful, Ali would continue to offer his services in similar situations, determined to contribute however he could despite growing increasingly weak. Ali was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease around 1984, and it would stay with him until his death on June 3, 2016.

Until his final days, Muhammad Ali never stopped campaigning for more funding for Parkinson’s research and more peace in the world.

Muhammad Ali found remarkable success as a professional boxer, and his tremendous talent and charisma allowed him to lead an extraordinary life. He was not only one of the greatest boxers of all time, but also utilized his position in the spotlight to fight for peace, racial equality and religious freedom.