#its basically just his introduction bio for the show and then the times of the broadcast

[inflammatoryfandomblog]

Why is the worldbuilding in ATLA more cohesive than in TDP?

because the writers actually remember it as a context for its story and characters.

........... ok more elaboration.

the worldbuilding in ATLA and TDP is very similar in the respect that they have color-coded elements where each "nation" has each element. in both series the color-coding exists to make each group obviously and immediately different.

in ATLA the cultures deeply matter to the characters and story. as early as the first episode you see hints about the culture of the water tribe from katara and sokka. you know sokka has put this immense pressure on himself to be a Warrior and his sexism is partially an outgrowth of that. katara is fascinated by waterbending and her culture but there are no resources for her to learn because of the war, and you immediately get the idea she's also hoisted on a "mom role" from a very early age. all of this reinforces the patriarchal standards of water tribe culture and also the fact that they're impoverished thanks to the war. the characters would not be the same if you transported them to a different setting.

like some of the dialogue can be clunky and the entire conceit of the world is obviously kiddish ("fire nation" "water tribe" "earth kingdom" "air nomads" is not going to win any realism of the year awards.) but it's a very effective introduction to these characters and ties them explicitly to the setting.

in tdp it matters fuck-all. rayla is a moonshadow elf and the effects of their honor culture are clear on her. out of all the characters i'd say her, runaan, and ethari are probably the most developed in the aspect of "the setting should inform the characters." yes runaan and ethari are shitty parents but honestly like what would you expect from an honor culture society where one party is an assassin who allowed rayla to become one thanks to her guilt complex, even when ethari expressed doubts?

this is basically thrown away to tell her "oh dw all your parents (dads + bio parents) are all Good and Did Nothing Wrong." they also scrub away all of her flaws that she exhibited in the first season, or really anything that might make her seem like a "bad person." the moonshadow elves are just scrubbed to be Vaguely Good Guys With No Problems And Whose Choice to Ghost a Teenager Must be Respected (finger wag from the writers.) this could have been genuinely compelling drama for rayla. the setup is there. but they just forget about this stuff i guess.

how about callum and ezran? how does the culture of katolis or indeed any of the human kingdoms rub off on them? does their culture actually inform anything they do? i mean besides the fact that the human kingdoms aren't magical because of dark mage lords eating magic or whatever, which, by the way, the idea of dark mage lords doing this is like. in supplementary material and there is 0 indication of it happening in the actual show. do they have a particular culture or perspective at all? does even something as simple as the fact that they are princes and might have some differences with the common people ever come up? no. they're just bland POV characters who are high-minded to a kind of absurd degree. their context is very clearly supposed to be "Normal." which isn't a context at all because nobody's context is actually Normal. it should be normal to the character, but a grave mistake for the writer to treat it as such.

with the elves it's a little better but still not great. they have at least thematic set-up but moonshadow elf culture is the best of them, which isn't saying a whole lot. what exactly is the relationship between the dragons and the elves for example? who knows!

the writers frequently forget that their characters are situated in a particular situation in a particular world. i mean my favorite example to throw around is the time one of the writers said (on twitter) that khessa's comment to janai ("have fun with your pet") was meant to be a tease about their relationship. and that's insane to me. "have fun with your pet" does not work as a cheeky little tease when you are talking about a pow who's afraid for her life and you are a cruel monarch that tortures people for funsies? like this is khessa endorsing SA if you decide to take the show's context with any level of seriousness. this isn't a coffee shop au? this isn't a high school au? this is supposed to be a high fantasy with actual stakes that addresses Deep Themes? the context to a situation that these hacks themselves wrote should matter?

etc. etc. xadia does not feel like a real place because the setting is completely disconnected from the characters, and only matters to the story insofar as "wow look at this Cool Place you will find your Macguffin in!" It's just about worse in every way even if on the surface it may appear to contain """nuance."""

[samobservessonic]

We rejoin Sonic midway through a case of “Dammit these people are idiots, but I have to save them from certain doom anyway”. He’s in prison right now, because back in the 90s you could have cops being portrayed as an obstacle and arresting protagonists arrested like that

This leads us to the introduction of the guy who I’d class as the main villain on the Special Zone in StC, Lord Sidewinder. We don’t know he’s a villain yet, but the generic cop guy certainly isn’t happy to see him

Yeah, this guy is probably swell lol. But I’m glad they didn’t drag on the Sonic being arrested bit, since Sonic’s next scene in this story is considerably more interesting

But before that, we cut back to the Chaotix, who are at least feeling some guilt about not filling Sonic in on their situation. Given how they rushed off to join the fight last time without telling Sonic who's who, I’d say that in the same vein it’s more that they were in too much of a rush than they intentionally didn’t tell him, but it’s still good they’re like “Welp, it’s our fault Sonic’s in jail” I do like that their immediate response is just to have Omni-Viewer teleport him out of jail again. But there’s plot armour stopping Omni from doing that

Have an establishing shot of Lord Sidewinder’s residence and team. I like Lightmare best because she’s the girl one

Oh boy, I wonder who that could be!

Yes! YESSSSS! It’s Sonic meets Super Sonic time!!

Let me tell you, me and the one other kid I knew who read these comics laughed at this sequence for a long time back when this first came out. Super Sonic was just standing there and was able to blow up the whole building! The sheer amount of power this guy has is off the charts! I’m not a power-scaler by any means, it’s just not an area of fandom I’m interested in discussing, but StC Super Sonic is the horse I’d back if I was one

Not only did he blow up the building without moving, but he did so while protecting everyone in it with a power shield at the same time, so he can destroy them each slowly. This is how you make a villain with impossible odds to beat! This is how you turn “Sonic can’t lose” on its head to make an insanely compelling conflict!!

Lightmare voices that she had doubts about this whole thing (more on that in another story), but now we get Sidewinder’s flunkies being set up to show off how powerful Super Sonic is. Also, I guess this is more of a Jekyll & Hyde thing, but we’ll have two nickels for each time we come across a character in the Special Zone who’s basically the Hulk. It’s funny that the one who is directly supposed to be a Hulk parody isn’t the green one tho

This is what we actually came to see - Sonic vs Super Sonic

Lord Sidewinder going :0 in the background

Just have the entire last page as it is. I love the sequence of Bio-Hazard barely being an annoyance that Super Sonic shrugs off, before returning his attention to Sonic. We’re all set for their showdown next time and this story is worth more than the price of admission to me! :D 

[missingyanan]

[230423 青年派计划 weibo update]

#青年派首发选手全阵容##有派青年芭莎大片#

深夜刚结束录制突然沉浸在回忆里的π青年闫桉 @/闫桉_PENTAGON 发来了有些慢热的人物介绍：

“我是闫桉，在上海长大，天生带点浪漫细胞，也是在对待自己在意的事情上会投入200%努力的完美型人格。

小时候我就是一个很内向的人，慢慢长大以后稍微开朗一些，但依旧很慢热。希望大家在不了解我的时候，多多来和我这个社恐人士交流，然后你们就会发现我大有不同～ ”

这里有个i人，大家快来和他打招呼！

青年共创音乐竞演综艺#青年派计划#

4月27日起，每周四12:00 芒果TV全网独播

4月28日20:00 湖南卫视联合播出

合作时尚媒体：@/时尚芭莎 @/MiniBAZAAR

[solarwindswriting]

Oh, The Places You’ll Go

Chapter 2

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

Loosely inspired by the song Greek Tragedy by the Wombats

Pairing: Scotty x FemalePresenting!Reader

Word Count: 3313

Summary: The Enterprise welcome party is in full swing, and our two main characters finally meet each other!

Warnings: excessive alcohol consumption (I think that’s it)

A/N: So, I didn’t notice how long this part was until it was too late. I wanted to slip it into two but I couldn’t find a reasonable place to do it. So instead you get over 3k words. Sorry lol. Also, thank you so much to those who showed interest in being tagged, you have no idea how big that is for me!

Tags: @mournthewicked @damalseer  

“Oh my, does this dress make my butt look bigger?” Sara asks, standing in front of the mirror in a shop.

“Is that what you want? If so, yes. Why do you need a new dress anyway? You have so many beautiful ones already.” Y/n wonders out loud while looking through the racks.

“Because I want to make a good first impression. Besides, I heard the crew of the Enterprise are all quite attractive. I’ve got to live up to that.” Sara responds, walking back into the dressing room.

“Sara, you are one of the most attractive people I know. Neither of us would have a problem if we went in something we already owned.” Y/n laughs, pulling out a flowing deep blue dress off the rack. “What about this?”

Sara pops her head out of the dressing room, watching as Y/n holds the dress up to her body. Sara’s eyes widen and shake her head frantically in agreement before her head disappears back into the dressing room, “absolutely. Go try that on right now.”

Y/n walks into a dressing room with the dress in hand. The dress was made with elegant royal blue tulle with embroidered stars speckled over the top layer. It fell over Y/n’s body perfectly, off the shoulders and stopped to about mid-calf, and whished when she moved. Stepping out, Y/n looks at Sara who was now sitting in a chair with the black cocktail dress she had tried on previously.

“You look like a greek god in that dress, Y/n,” Sara mused.

Y/n walked in front of the mirror and twirled. “Is it too much? If I get this, you have to pick a more exciting dress than what you’ve got.”

“It’s not too much but if it takes me getting that dress that makes my butt look good for you to buy that, I’ll do it,” Sara responds while walking over to the rack where she found the aforementioned dress.

With both dresses paid for, the friends left the shop and headed to Y/n’s apartment to pick up the things she needs to get ready at Sara’s.

“So, Let’s see what we’re getting ourselves into,” Sara started, looking at her datapad with photos of the crew while she walks.

“Sara, we’ve looked at these photos thousands of times. We know what they look like,” chuckles out Y/n, weaving their arm with hers.

“Yes, but that was different. Now we’re performing reconnaissance for the party tonight.” 

“And what does your reconnaissance tell you?” Y/n glances at the pad.

“That Lieutenant Uhura is very attractive and only one rank above us.” Sara giggles as she reads Uhura’s personnel entry. “She’s also incredibly smart.”

“And very taken by Commander Spock,” Y/n points to the relationship status on file.

Sara deflates slightly before swiping through the next few personnel files. She stops on Commander Spock next.

“And this is the Vulcan you’ll be working under. Good luck with that, Y/n. I hear he’s rather cold.” Sara comments before continuing to swipe.

“He’s not that cold if he’s in a relationship. Also, isn’t he half human?” Y/n stops Sara before she walks into the busy street.

Sara ignores the potential harm she could have caused herself, and next stops on Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott, better known as Scotty. 

“Cheif of Engineering. I hear he’s basically married to the ship,” Sara laughs and restarting to walk once the crosswalk is open.

“Next,” Y/n chuckles bad.

“Lieutenant Commander Leonard McCoy, Chief Medical Officer. I heard he has a cute accent but is a bit of a hardass. Remind me not to get hurt a lot.” Sara side-eyes Y/n while she talks.

“Good to know. Bet he knows how to make a good drink though.” Y/n speculates as they enter their apartment building.

“And Lastly, for the head of different groups, Captain James T. Kirk. Quite the looker.” Sara smirks to herself.

“And quite the flirt,” Y/n laughs at her friend as she unlocks her apartment. “I’ll be right over. I just need to pick up a few things.”

Living in the same building as your best friend had its perks. Getting ready for events was one of them. After picking up her makeup and a pair of heels that match her dress, Y/n walks over to Sara’s apartment and opens the door.

“Hey, why didn’t you wake me up this morning?” Y/n questioned, setting her makeup down next to Sara’s.

“Oh, I tried, you wouldn’t budge. I figured you’d make it eventually. And you did! So points for Sara.” She muses as she grabs two hard ciders from her fridge.

“I could have missed graduation!” Y/n fakes anger as she takes the cider from her dear friend.

Both get to work on their makeup and hair. Sara loosely curls her auburn hair, whereas Y/n does her hair in her favorite style. Once they were both ready, they left Sara’s apartment towards the location of the welcoming party, an old-style bar reminiscent of old San Francisco. The two stood in front of the main doors, peering into the windows, unsure if they should just walk in or not.

“Lieutenants! Very nice to see you two could make it.” A strong hand falls on Y/n’s shoulder, causing them and Sara to turn towards the voice to see a hand outstretched. “How about a proper introduction? I am Captain James T. Kirk. You’re welcome to just call me Kirk when we are off duty. And this is Commander Spock.”

  Y/n takes Kirk’s hand to shake then trading with Sara to shake Spock’s. “I am Lieutenant Junior Grade Y/n Y/l/n. I just go by Y/n when off duty. And this is-”

“Lieutenant Junior Grade Sara Conners, Sir! It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Well, we should probably get inside and join the party, yes?” Kirk suggests, holding the door open for the other three.

The music playing was just above a comfortable volume, but quiet enough where you could hold a conversation without yelling. Sara and Y/s walk up to the bar to order drinks when a young man approaches them with a wide smile.

“Hello, I’m Pavel Ch-”

“Chekov. Navigation right?” Sara finishes for him, reaching out her arm. “Sara Conners. A pleasure to meet you!”

Pavel chuckles shaking Sara’s hand, “Did your research I see. And you are?” He finishes with a soft Russian accent, looking at Y/n.

“Y/n Y/l/n.” She says, shaking his hand. “Got any suggestions on what to order from here?”

“Well, the midtier brandy is spectacular here. But they do have a wonderful mint julep.” He states before waving over the bartender and ordering himself a brandy.

“We’ll take two mint juleps please.” Sara catches the bartender before he’s able to walk off.

“So, are you two in a relationship? You seem very close.” Pavel questions, sipping from his glass.

“No, just really close,” Sara answers, reaching for the newly arrived drinks and handing one to Y/n.

“Ah, cool,” Pavel beams. “Have you met the rest of the bridge crew yet? I can introduce you!”

Pavel leads Sara and Y/n to a table where Kirk and Spock were sat with two others.

“This is Nyota Uhura and Leonard McCoy. You’ve met the Captain and Spock already, yes?” Pavel introduces the crew with a bright smile. “Everyone, this is Y/n Y/l/n and Sara Conners.”

Hello’s and handshakes were exchanged. Pavel is pulled away by a few other ensigns towards what Y/n now notices a karaoke machine.

“So, Lieutenant Y/l/n, You will be working under me. Is there a particular area of study you wish to work on while abroad the USS Enterprise?” Spock questions.

“Oh, um yes. I’m looking specifically for new worlds with large deposits of Bio-mimetic Gel. It has many wonderful medical applications but very-” Y/n is cut off by Leonard.

“Regulated by the Federation. Do you have the proper paperwork and training to be handling such a hazardous material, young lady?” Leonard questions.

“Hey, we’re here to celebrate and have a good time, not to discuss work. Give the girl one more night of freedom.” Kirk interrupts and chuckles. “Also, call him Bones, he hates it.”

“I would love to answer your question, Lieutenant Commander McCoy. My last two years at the Academy majorly consisted of training and research with Bio-mimetic Gel under the supervision of Erika Biordi. My research has been in stabilizing the gel for transport and more widely used medical purposes. I have papers signed by President Kenneth Wescott and the proper containment materials that should already be aboard the Enterprise. This could be major for doctors all over the Federation. Also, I wouldn’t be able to do this work unless the Captain has approved it.” Y/n smiles thinly at the doctor.

Kirk, Spock, and Uhura all look impressed by the confidence in which Y/n spoke. Bones looks more apprehensive about the situation. Kirk broke the silence, “Y/n have you met Scotty yet?”

Y/n shakes her head no and notices Sara slinked off at some point to talk with Pavel more. Kirk leads Y/n towards the back corner to a table with three chairs. At the table sat a gentleman in a brown leather jacket and a Roylan both embroiled in a heated conversation about… power converters?

“No, Keenser, that will overload the Warp Drive, she won’t be able to take that kind of power without the proper energy suppressers.” A thick Scottish accent talks tensely between sips of whatever is in his glass.

“Can no one on my ship take a day off?” Kirk laughs, clapping his hand onto Montgomery’s shoulder.

“Ey, not when you have a potential explosion risk due to Keenser, Sir,” Montgomery responds.

“Well, I’ve got bad news then. I’d like to introduce you to Lieutenant Junior Grade Y/n Y/l/n. One of the newest graduates from Starfleet Academy. She will be studying Bio-mimetic Gel.” Kirk pulls the third chair out and motions to Y/n to sit. “She’s not getting along so great with Bones and thought you two might get along better.”

And with that Kirk walks away. The three are quiet, Y/n sipping on her mint julep that She’s about half done with.

“Sorry, I didn’t know I’d be interrupting a conversation. You can act like I’m not here.” Y/n said just loud enough to be heard over the sound of Sara and a couple of ensigns poorly singing Africa on stage.

“Why did you decide to study Bio-mimetic Gel?” The question from Montmonery surprised Y/n.

“Oh, um, when I was younger, Bio-mimetic Gel saved my mother’s life while out on a five-year mission. Her ship shouldn’t have even had any onboard, but they had just commandeered some from a smuggling vessel. If they hadn’t found that ship when they did and the doctor on board willing to take the risk, my mother would be dead and I would never have been born. So, when I heard they were wanting to do more research into it to potentially make it a commonly used substance by Federation doctors, I jumped at the chance. Sorry, that’s probably a lot more information than you were asking for.” Y/n found herself rambling.

The Cheif engineer just shook his head slightly, finishing off his drink. “No, I asked, Lass. I rarely get full explanations of why someone joined Starfleet. It’s refreshing. I’ll be right back, I’m going to get a refill. Can I get you anything?”

“Yeah, Sure. I’ll take one of whatever you’re getting. Thank you, Montgomery.”

“Please, call me Scotty.” He said, before walking off towards the bar.

Keenser and Y/n sat in more silence as they finished their drinks waiting for Scotty to return. Peering towards the bar, Y/n notices Scotty being stopped by some ensigns to chat.

“So, how long have you been on the enterprise?” Y/n asks Keenser.

Keenser babbles in his native tongue something along the lines of “not very long.”

Y/n nods in acknowledgment, “very cool. Do you like it?”

Keenser simply nods as Scotty returns, placing a glass in front of Y/n.

“Thank you, Scotty.” Y/n smiles at the man now sitting across from them.

“No problem, Lass. This will unfortunately be my last drink for the night. Going to head up to the Enterprise tonight to get a head start on some undocking prep. Coming with Keenser?” Keenser huffed in response, Finishing his drink and hopping down from his chair.

“Oh, okay. Have a goodnight then. Don’t overwork yourself. It’s supposed to be a night off.” Y/n waves goodbye to Scotty and Keenser.

Almost as soon as they leave, their spots are taken by Sara and Pavel.

“Y/n! You HAVE to get up there and sing!” Sara’s words slur as she waves her arm towards the small stage in the bar.

“Yes, you should take her advice, Lieutenant,” Pavel smiles towards Y/n.

“No, I’m perfectly fine here. And call me Y/n, Pavel. When do you want to go home, Sara?” Y/n looks with a soft smile towards her friend. She isn’t feeling the alcohol as intensely as Sara but she assumes that’s because she’s had significantly fewer drinks than her friend.

Sara looks at Y/n like they’ve just committed the most heinous crime. “What do you mean you don’t want to go up and sing. You have the most beautiful voice! And I bet your dress would look stunning under those lights.” Sara leans further into Y/n, head now resting her head on her shoulder, and whispers, “You can sing that old Earth song you like so much.”

Y/n chuckles at her friend while shaking her head. “You’re going to have to get a lot more alcohol into me before I’m willing to sing in front of the whole crew.”

Before Y/n could finish talking, Pavel was already up and at the bar, ordering a double round of shots. After a couple of minutes, he returns with a tray of purple shots. The trio cheers the first round to their health and quickly follows it with another to their safety aboard the ship. The trio continues to drink and after about an hour, Y/n is successfully sloshed. Sara convinced Y/n and Pavel to sing Sara’s favorite song that her grandmother loved called ‘Shut Up and Dance’. This was not a song to sing well, but more to just yell the word to. They even got a few of the old crewmates to sing along. Y/n was having a blast and finally thought she couldn’t wait to be working with these people. A group of nurses went on next and sang some modern rock anthem.

Y/n cut themself and Sara off after that song and convinced Sara to drink some water and eat some more food. Both slowly started to sober up, Pavel never seemed very drunk though. People begin to leave back to their homes or hotels for the night. It was starting to get late. Y/n shivers.

“Are you cold, Y/n?” Pavel asks.

“A bit, but I’ll be fine.” Y/n smiles at the kind man.

“Um,” Pavel looks around and spots something on the back of Sara’s chair and grabs it, “put this on.”

‘Scotty’s jacket? When did he take that off?’ Y/n wonders to herself as she slides the jacket on. ‘I’m sure her wouldn’t mind. I’ll just bring it to him on the ship tomorrow.’

“Y/nnnnn, come ooon. Barely anyone is left and I got you drunk like you said I had to. Go sing a solo song.” Sara nudges Y/n elbow towards the stage again.

“Fine, but I’m not happy about it!” Y/n laughs, walking onto the stage after the current song ends.

Sitting on a stool on stage, Y/n adjusts the mic to her sitting height. ‘Take Me To Church’ starts playing.

***

Scotty left earlier than he had planned. But talking with the new science officer made him feel odd and he didn’t want to be rude so he lied about needing to work on the ship. She’s much too young for him he thought. She has her whole life of research ahead of them. He couldn’t be with someone who dressed so elegantly, he was a bumbling fool and could never compare. She didn’t need him, some old Scotsman pinning for her. So instead, he and Keenser walked around the surrounding area until they got tired. About an hour had passed when Scotty realized something.

“Keenser, where’s my jacket?”

Keenser looks at Scotty and responds in his native tongue, “you left it at the bar.”

“Damnit, why didn’t you say anything?” He huffs out, turning around to walk back to the bar and get his Jacket.

He had walked further than he realized from the bar and took him about half an hour to return. As he entered the front doors, he watched Y/n walk onto the stage with his jacket on. Confused, he walks up to Kirk who now sat alone at the bar.

“Y/n said you went back to the ship,” Kirk prodded at the engineer.

“Yeah, but I noticed I forgot my jacket.” Scotty’s accent was unmissable.

“I noticed.” Kirk glances knowingly at Y/n who has started singing on stage.

Most people continued to talk but a few people stopped to listen to Y/n sing. Sara and Pavel sat at their table swaying dramatically to the song. Sara even started waving her arms slowly above her head, causing Y/n to chuckle as she sang. Scotty became enraptured in Y/n singing and began swaying lightly to her voice.

On the last line, “Good God, let me give you my life,” Y/n makes eye contact with Scotty, making her instantly blush.

Hopping off the stage, Y/n shuffles towards him while taking off his jacket.

“Sorry, Pavel found your jacket. I planned on giving it to you tomorrow on the ship but I got cold and put it on. Sorry.” Y/n talked fast, face beet red while shoving the jacket into Scotty’s arms and running back towards Sara before he could get a word out.

“Thanks,” Scotty whispers under his breath, looking down at his jacket.

He slides his arms into it, still warm from Y/n wearing it. Her song had entranced him. It wasn’t a song he was familiar with, must be old. He doesn’t usually care for music, but he thought he would listen to music for hours if she was the one singing it. Scotty shook his head free of those thoughts. By the time he came back to reality, Y/n was gone.

“What are you thinking about, Scotty?” Kirk prodded.

“Nothing, Sir. Goodnight” Scotty straightened out his back before leaving the bar and walking to his hotel room.

***

“Sara, it’s time to go,” Y/n spoke quickly

“What? But I’m still having fun.” Sara huffed.

“Yeah, and we both need to be up and on the transport shuttles at 0700. Let’s go, Rockstar. Goodnight, Pavel, we’ll see you tomorrow.” Y/n pulled Sara to her feet and waved goodbye to Pavel.

The cool, damp air was refreshing on Y/n’s skin. The walk wasn’t long to their apartments, which Y/n was thankful for. She helped Sara into her apartment and bed, setting their friend’s alarm with plenty of time to get ready before going to her apartment to do the same. Y/n quickly fell asleep with oddly invading thoughts of one Montgomery Scott.

[infinite-xerath]

Runeterra Retcons 2: Aatrox and the Darkin

I did another one. There’s one more character I have in mind to do, but then I’ll probably take a small break from these))

Aatrox is an interesting case; while I don’t necessarily believe his current lore is BAD per se, I think he’s more-so a case of missed opportunity and wasted potential. Aatrox, to me, reeks of a case where Riot gave zero forethought to the future of this character when they created him. To fully understand why I feel this way, we’re going to have to take a step back and analyze some of the history of League itself, as well as some characters connected to Aatrox. So, with that all said, let’s look back at the history of this angry red swords and see if we can make sense of the changes given to him over the years.

Aatrox was released into the game back in 2013, under the title “The Darkin Blade.” Now, what’s a Darkin, you ask? Well, at the time, we didn’t really know, and it kind of became obvious that Riot didn’t either. Let’s have a read of his original lore, shall we?

I was always a fan of Aatrox’s original lore: an ancient, mysterious figure who shows up to help you turn the tides of a war, but only after you’d effectively surrendered your own humanity for the sake of victory. The fact that there was an entire race just like him became the center of fan speculation of years, and countless theories cropped up as to who and what the Darkin even were. Some assumed that they were related to the Seven Deadly Sins, while others thought they might be akin to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Some thought they might just be a dying race, and that some might actually be benevolent, unlike Aatrox.

Unfortunately, Riot wouldn’t give us an answer for quite some time. All we knew was that Aatrox was a Darkin and that he looked a lot like typical modern depictions of demons. That does raise the question though: why didn’t they just make Aatrox a demon? He helps turn the tides of conflict with no apparent goal beyond just prolonging the chaos and suffering brought about by war. A lot of his voice lines even painted him as a psychotic “artist” of sorts, prior even to Jhin, that viewed conflict and bloodshed as elegant. Well, to better understand the full picture here, we need to take a step back and examine the broader picture here.

Now, admittedly, we’re delving in some speculation territory here, as it’s impossible to really say what Riot’s original plans for the Darkin were, if any. That being said, the inclusion of something like a demon would have had a lot of implications back in the day, as the Runeterra as we knew it then didn’t really have a “Heaven” or “Hell.” Sure, we had “angels” with Kayle and Morgana, but they were treated more like how Asgardians are treated in Marvel: more like a race of super powerful aliens than actual divine entities (keep that in mind for later.) If anything, what little we knew of an “afterlife” in League came from Yorick’s old lore, in which he acted like a psychopomp similar to Charon from Greek myth.

It wasn’t until Tahm Kench came out in 2015 that Riot properly introduced demons as a concept in the lore, retconning several other champions like Evelynn and Nocturne into being demons. For a bit of context: in Runeterra, demons are effectively malevolent spirits from the spirit realm that feed on negativity: fear, pain, hatred, and so-forth. When other characters started getting turned into demons, a lot of people, myself included, thought that Aatrox would meet the same fate. After-all, they hadn’t actually DONE anything with the “Darkin” outside of Aatrox’s bio, and he functioned in a manner similar to them. Some even theorized that the Darkin would be made to represent a specific breed of demon, and this theory gained even more traction when Tahm Kench was given special voice lines for taunting near Aatrox.

Then, on July 12, 2017, we got Kayn, and with him: Rhaast. Rhaast is the second Darkin character added to the lore: a talking scythe with an eye that possess its host. Kayn is able to hold back Rhaast’s influence, keeping it to a single arm through the use of shadow magic, but depending on your actions in-game, you can see what happens if Rhaast manages to win their struggle and take over Kayn’s body completely. With Rhaast’s introduction, it pretty-much cemented that the Darkin were living weapons that took over the hosts of their wielders, which made sense given that Aatrox’s sword was always hinted to be alive and have a mind of its own. In fact, the idea of the Darkin being living weapons, or at least being bound to their weapons in some way, was one of many fan theories raised since Aatrox’s release all the way back in 2013.

Unfortunately, the new champion’s bio didn’t give us a lot to work with. Rhaast was the weapon, but Kayn himself is the Champion, so a lot of his bio tells us more about Kayn’s backstory: how he joined the Order of Shadows, how he acquired Rhaast in the first place, etc. While this isn’t exactly a problem, it gave us no further information on the Darkin; what they really were, where they came from, and why there are only five left in existence all remained mysteries for the fans to speculate about. It still wasn’t even clear if the Darkin were connected to demons, or if they were something else entirely.

Now, it’s around this time that another theory began to start blowing up in popularity; technically, this was another old fan theory, but now that we had a general idea of what the Darkin actually were, there was another Champion wielding a living weapon that fans started to speculate might be connected to them: Varus. Varus is an old character, and though we won’t be deep-diving into him too much into this video, allow me to give you a tldr of his original story.

Varus was an Ionian archer set to guard the Pit of Pallas, a giant hole where his people had long ago sealed some unexplained corrupting purple entity that seemed like it maybe should have related to the Void somehow but didn’t. Varus resisted the entity’s influence for years until Noxians one day showed up and started slaughtering his people, wanting to get their hands on Pallas so that they could use it as a weapon because of course they did. Varus was faced with a choice: stay and guard the temple built around the pit or go back to his village and help his people fight. Varus chose the former and was apparently SUCH a badass archer that he single-handed kept the invaders at pay with his arrows, though this choice came at a cost: when Varus returned to his village, everyone he knew and loved was dead, including his wife and son.

Enraged, Varus returned to the pit and struck a deal with Pallas: he would allow the entity to inhabit his body in return for vengeance against the Noxians. Varus proceeded to wander the world with a bow made from the entity’s own solidified essence in the hopes of finding and killing… Basically every Noxian he could. Yeah, Varus wanted nothing short of full-on genocide, starting with the surviving soldiers that attacked his village. There’s a lot to go into there, but you’ve probably figured out the relevance of this by now: Pallas turned itself into a bow for Varus to take his vengeance in exchange for possession over his body. Not too dissimilar a living sword and scythe who also possessed people and had an insatiable hunger for death and destruction, right?

Riot seemed to agree, and in 2017 they released a music video along with a comic and an entirely new bio for Varus. Together, these updates served to not only retcon Varus’s backstory (a topic for another episode) but finally give us an update as to who and what the Darkin were. In a word: they were aliens.

In short, the Darkin were a race from another planet/dimension drawn to Runeterra for its abundant use of magic. They tried to conquer the planet, causing the Great Darkin War, which ended only when the races of Runeterra figured out how to seal the Darkin in their own otherworldly weapons. Varus, Aatrox, Rhaast, and two others were trapped in their weapons, which an unnamed warrior queen (possibly an Aspect) used to drive back the other Darkin and seal the portal to their world. The five that were imprisoned in their weapons were then scattered and hidden across Runeterra.

This, at last, brings us back to Aatrox’s new bio:

“One of the ancient Darkin, Aatrox was once a peerless swordmaster who reveled in the bloody chaos of the battlefield. Trapped within his own blade by the magic of his foes, he waited out the millennia for a suitable host to wield him - this mortal warrior was corrupted and transformed by the living weapon, and Aatrox was reborn. Though tales of the darkin have now passed into legend, he remembers only too well the destruction of his race, and wreaks his vengeance one sword blow at a time.”

So Aatrox was made into a general for an alien race who sought to finish what his people started by having the Runeterrans fight and slaughter one another in a series of bloody conflicts… For a few months, at least. Literally the next year in 2018, Aatrox finally got his visual and gameplay update, turning him into the World Ender we know today. Along with this came entirely new lore for him, as well as the Darkin.

Insert lore here

So… The Darkin are no longer invading aliens, but Ascended who went nuts and were trapped inside their own weapons. In other words, the Darkin went from being a race to being more of a derogative term for fallen demigods. What’s more, Aatrox received a VERY substantial alteration his character and personality: he went from being a war-loving “artist” who causes conflict for the sake of it to being a tortured soul who wants to die so badly that he’ll end all of creation to do it.

Now, like I said before: I don’t think this backstory is bad. I don’t hate it. It does a lot to flesh out Shurima as a region, gives us more info on the Ascended, and it adds a bit more nuance to Aatrox as a character. Imagine being trapped inside a weapon, losing all access to your senses. Imagine that the only chance you get to move is when you take over someone else’s body, transforming it into a warped version of your own former glory, only to realize that you’re on a time limit and the only way you can continue to walk, talk, see, hear, or feel anything is by slaughter’s people and consuming their blood. Imagine spending CENTURIES trying to find a way out, only to repeatedly learn that any means to free or even kill yourself ends in failure. Imagine being SO desperate to rest that you’re willing to end all of existence just to find peace.

I like Aatrox’s new story. I do. Honestly, the only real complaint I have is that Aatrox doesn’t exactly have a PLAN for how he aims to end existence? Like, he calls himself a World Ender and a god-slayer, but we only know of one god he’s actually slain (Pantheon) and given that Runeterra is still around, it seems like his world-destroying count is still at zero. Honestly, if he wants to end all of existence, I feel like turning the Void, a reality-consuming threat that he has FOUGHT BEFORE would kind of be the obvious solution? Honestly, I imagine that just chucking the sword into the Void would be a good way for him to end his own existence, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

So, if I like Aatrox’s new lore, why am I rewriting it? Simple, really: even if I overall like his current lore state, I feel like the road we took to get here was… Kind of long and unnecessary. It seems kind of obvious looking back that Riot didn’t have a clear long-term plan for Aatrox or the Darkin, as years of unanswered questions followed by multiple retcons kind of entails. From being the last survivor of an ancient race, to MAYBE being a demon, to being an alien, to finally becoming a fallen demigod. Aatrox’s history is practically a whole story in-and-of-itself, and I’ve long wondered how things might have turned out if Riot had, you know, picked a direction and gone with it a bit sooner?

So, here’s the basis of my rewrite: I’m gonna try and incorporate elements from all of Aatrox’s various backstories into a single, coherent biography. Can I manage it? Well, I’ll leave that for you all to determine…

When the skies are blackened by the flames of war and the earth is dyed red with blood, Aatrox draws near. For as long as conflict has existed among the races of Runeterra, the Chaos Blade has manifested to those deemed worthy, turning the tides of battle in exchange for the flesh of whoever wields it.

The true origins of the Darkin have long been lost time. Some say that they are the first weapons ever forged, corrupted by the malice of those who have wielded them over ages. Others claim that the Darkin are a rare breed of demon, of whom only five remain. Only one thing is certain: the Darkin exist only to bring death and destruction, and none embrace this more than Aatrox himself.

Tales of a wicked blade manifesting amidst the heat of battle exists across all cultures, from the frigid north to the blistering south. The sword is said to appear before warriors on the cusp of defeat: those who would give anything, even their own lives, for the sake of victory. Those who wield the Chaos Blade are granted inhuman strength and endurance, often haled as heroes for turning the tides of battle. With every foe slain, however, the Chaos Blade grows stronger, consuming the mind of its wielder and warping their flesh. In time, the hero becomes a mindless vessel, slaughter all in its path until slain. When its host falls, the Chaos Blade returns from whence it came, waiting for the moment that another might heed the sword’s call.

For ages this cycle persisted, until the day the sword manifested before a warrior of Shurima’s Ascended Host. After the Fall of Icathia, the Sunborn were called to face the encroaching threat of the Void, wielding celestial might and magic great enough to crush a hundred mortal armies. Before the Void, however, even the mighty Ascended began to falter.

The horrors summoned by Icathia steadily pushed north, consuming everything in their path and twisting the earth into maddening shapes. As their numbers dwindled, many Sunborn called to retreat, hoping to regroup within the capital and think of a plan. As some fled, however, the Ascended general Aatrox stood his ground. Pushing his draconic form to its limits, Aatrox struck down one abomination after another. When his great blade, soaked in the Oasis of the Dawn itself, was wrenched from its grasp, Aatrox fought with tooth and claw. Even if he were to fall, Aatrox would do everything in his power to slay as many Voidspawn as possible, resigning himself to death so the other Sunborn might rally their forces.

It was then, amidst the sea of madness woven by the Void, that Aatrox saw a sword embedded into the twisted earth. The blade seemed to call out to him, and Aatrox took it without question. In an instant, the general was filled with unimaginable strength and fury, and his allies watched in amazement as Aatrox fought with strength of ten Ascended warriors. Inspired by his newfound fury, the Sunborn rallied, their fighting spirits renewed at last.

When the conflict against the Void drew to a close, Aatrox was haled as a hero among heroes, though many of his former allies became wary of him and the wicked sword he now carried. Some suggested that the blade should be destroyed, while others, such as Aatrox himself, argued that its power would be instrumental if the Void ever returned.

Resentment and suspicion began to grow amongst the Sunborn, and the cracks only grew larger as Aatrox aided the other Ascended in summoning weapons similar to his own. The warriors of the Ascended host began to distance themselves from one-another and the capital, taking up posts across Shurima’s vast empire. They remained united only in the shared goal of protecting their empire.

And then the Sun Disc fell.

Following Xerath’s Ascension and the death of Emperor Azir, years of growing tensions erupted across the desert. Some Ascended raced for the chance to fill the now-vacant seat of power for themselves, while others insisted on finding a means to restore the royal dynasty. Debate soon turned to bloodshed, and Shurima was engulfed in a war that lasted centuries. It wasn’t until the Aspects of Targon intervened that the war was finally brought to an end.

Those wielding Darkin weapons were bound to their armaments with powerful magic, in-turn trapping the wicked weapons in the physical realm. The Darkin were scattered across Runeterra, and yet the souls of the Ascended persisted, stripped of bodies and senses.

For ages, Aatrox stewed within the sword that had become his prison, his soul slowly being corrupted further and further by the Chaos Blade until the two had become a single being. Ages passed and the sword was slowly forgotten, until a band of thieves broke into the Darkin’s prison in search of ancient treasure. When the thieves’ leader touched the sword, his mind was overwhelmed in an instant, his body transformed into a twisted likeness of Aatrox’s Ascended form. The Darkin slew the other thieves in an instant, drawing strength from their blood before breaking free of his long confinement.

Aatrox emerged into a frozen landscape with but a single goal: to bring about a war so violent, so destructive, that it would be the end of all things. He would be the World Ender, herald of a conflict to end all others. With every foe he slays, with every swing of his sword, Aatrox sews the seeds for violence and carnage, drawing one step closer to his magnus opus.

So, what did you think? As stated before: my primary goal this time around was to try and combine Aatrox’s various origin stories into a single narrative. Admittedly, I could only manage to do this by adding an air of mystery to the actual origin of the Darkin; maybe they’re demons, maybe they’re aliens, maybe they’re something else entirely. I know that might seem like a bit of a cop-out, but a large part of what made the Darkin so interesting to the community in the first place was the air of mystery surrounding them, and the room it offered for speculation and theorizing.

Another main concern, though, was that I wanted to find a way to blend old Aatrox’s personality with his new one. The thing I miss most about the OG Aatrox was that, despite being obsessed with war and bloodshed, he wasn’t just another rage monster. He was calm and composed, and a lot of his lines hinted at a deeper philosophy toward the inevitability of conflict rather than just “I wanna kill everything because I’m angry!” League has way too many of those, in my honest opinion. I thought that, by combining his mind with a semi-sentient sword that brings about carnage because that’s simply its PURPOSE, a little but of that old Aatrox might shine through.

But, as always, this is all just my opinion; how I, personally, would have gone about reworking the character. If you prefer Aatrox as he currently is, or think my version of the story is inferior, that’s fine! Feel free to share your thoughts and comments, but please, let’s try to keep it civil. After-all…

The last thing we want is to start a war over this…

[monkeebratz]

Bio!Dad Bruce Wayne AU - Super Meet

Initial idea | How it Happened | Addition by iggy-of-fans | Reply to iggy’s Addition | Summer Begins | Summer Part 2 | Supers Meet (you are here) | Scarecrow Interlude |

SO we have two ways that the Parisian Super Squad meets the Batfam. 

The first, which I’m only writing down because I cannot forget about it, and its hilarious is: the Super Squad gets to Gotham, gets Mari’s texts, gets to their hotel room, throws their stuff in, transforms, and starts running around looking for her. They find her walking around the fashion district with the Wayne’s. Adrien, as Chat Noir, spies Marinette first. And, in typical fashion, acts first and thinks later. 

So basically the Wayne’s watch a young, blonde, male version of catwoman throw an incredibly expandable baton between them and Mari, jump down, pick her up. Say “Bonjour. Au revoir.” And then make his expandable baton extend again and carry the now screeching Marinette to the top of the building where the rest of the Super Squad is waiting. Luka is going to strangle him. Holy shit. Chat Noir? More like Chat NO-ir!

The Batfam, of course, suits up and starts chasing after them. In full daylight. (These are the perfect opportunity for “Only in Gotham tweets” tbh) They catch up to Marinette berating all of them in incredibly loud and frantic French. As Multimouse. Going on about how irresponsible it was to leave Paris unprotected! Yes she knows Hawkmoth was defeated but it is the principle of the matter!! And they left BEFORE she told them about what happened with her bio!family and Batman! ALSO THEY KIDNAPPED HER IN BROAD ASS FUCKING DAYLIGHT IT DOESN’T MATTER IF THIS IS GOTHAM YOU SHUT YOUR TRAP CHAT! 

The whole squad looks so defeated but then Mari starts crying and throws herself into Chat’s arms going on about how good it is to see them and she’s so happy they’re here and they’re so so stupid! And then its a hug pile. Big hug pile. The Batfam looks on in utter confusion bc, again, only like. Two of them know French. Then Batman coughs and they all look up and just. Don’t move. Maybe if they don’t move he won’t see them. 

“... I need to be taking Miss Dupain-Cheng back to her family, now.” 

“But-!” WHACK (why yes that’s the sound of Marinette kicking at them all)

“You kidnapped a girl in front of her family with no warning, in a very dangerous city. I’m sure her family would like the reassurance that she’s safe.” 

So Batman and the Robins take Marinette back to Wayne Manor and Alfred clings to her (like he totally didn’t put everything together already they’re all so obvious). And then the Batfam, minus costume, comes barreling down the stairs and they all tackle Marinette and its another hug pile. Bc holy shit Mari why did you get kidnapped by your so called friends? Oh, they’re stupid? Can relate. 

And then. Of course. Guess who shows up at the door. Just peeks their heads in, detransformed of course. “Uh, hi? We’re friends of Marinette? We’re here to visit her?” 

Bruce is shrieking like WHY. WHY IS THIS SHIT GENETIC?! Internally. Can’t spill the beans QUITE yet. 

Anyway, INTRODUCTIONS GALOR, YADA YADA, Dick and Adrien get along so well. Too well. Kagami and Damien also get along well too (they’re both ready to stab a bitch, don’t test them). Luka is too chill NOT to get along with anyone, unless they insult his friends and partners. Chloe is ready to throw down but also holy shit that’s Bruce fucking Wayne? Damn, Mari. DAMN. Already on social media about this. 

(Also listen, I am shipping trash so I’m going to be vague as hell with things but in my brain this will be a poly!partners au so the Super Squad is just dating each other. But for the sake of everyone they could also just be really good/close friends, as they’ll be sharing rooms and be very touchy feeling and such. Its up to you. But just know, I’m just. Like this.) 

So it basically just devolves into story sharing and puppy piles and the Wayne’s all looking at the Super Squad with side eyes bc HM. HOW FAMILY. ALSO STOP TOUCHING THE BABY! NO CORRUPTING THE BABY!! THAT’S OURS!!!

WE SAW HER FIRST SO FUCK YOU!

I’M LITERALLY? HER FATHER? FUCK? YOU? YOU CATWOMAN KNOCK OFF???

This is all happening with their eyes btw

And of course. The whole squad follows Marinette out as Multimouse to go meet batman, who Bruce told her had something to talk with her about. And she kinda cries bc SHE’S GOING TO GET KICKED OUT OF THE CITY BC OF HER IDIOTS!

Its not, its the Batfam taking the Super Squad to the Justice League tower. They weren’t expecting so many people but its fine. They’ll make it work. 

Because Bruce had called the Justice League for an emergency meeting that night with the tone of voice that clearly said anybody who didn’t show up would have a bat hunting them down and shoving his foot up their ass so far they’ll taste patented leather for the rest of their life. They’ve almost never seen him so angry? And he’s bringing guests? What? The fuck?? 

Multimouse Marinette gets briefed that, as the current Guardian of the Miraculous, and a hero of Paris, she’ll be there to get a formal apology and an explanation about why a bunch of teenagers had to fight an emotionally manipulative super villain by themselves. Chat Noir is maybe hiding behind the rest of the Miraculous Crew and they’re only kinda notice but don’t think much of it tbh. Adrien does NOT want to be the one to explain that his FATHER was said super villain. save him. 

Btw the whole group is having mixed reactions to the idea of meeting the Justice League. Adrien wants to run away but he also doesn’t care? Like. They’re all superhero’s, he gets that they can’t always help, but also. Fuck. He loves being a superhero but having someone with actual experience might have saved them all a lot of heartache. Chloe, meanwhile, doesn’t give a sINGLE SHIT about the JL. Fuck them. Fuck them so hard, so assholes ignored them and they’re going to be high and mighty. She may be a better person now but she will not put up with their nonsense. Not now. Not ever. Fight her. Luka is that sort of calm angry? He’s pissed that they brushed them off but since everything’s over there’s no point in holding onto his anger. There may or may not be a lot of meditating in the Bat Plane on the way there so he doesn’t use his lyre like a fucking BOOMERANG AGAIN and smack them all upside the head with it. Kagami doesn’t care? She’ll threaten them to the ends of the earth should they ever blow off such messages again, but she also just. Has very little emotional investment in them otherwise. 

Marinette, of course, is freaking out and pacing and trying to channel her inner ladybug and screaming internally bc why. WHY. She’s angry but she also understands, but she’s still so stressed. just. please. Tiny squeaks. 

And okay, they get there, and Batman comes in with ALL the Robins AND all these new kids? 

Flash: I’m sorry, you called an emergency meeting because of your extended family? 

Diana: HUSH

Because Diana, of course, recognizes them what and who they are. And is screaming bc holy shit? The Miraculous Holders are active again? Do they need their help? Where is Ladybug? Who is the Guardian? She just has. so. many. questions. 

And Captain Marvel/Shazam (seriously wtf IS HIS NAME) is fangirling HARD. Because that’s the Miraculous Holders! The ORIGINAL magic users! SEVERAL of his people (Hercules/etc) were Miraculous holders on top of Shazam and HOOOLLLY SHIT THEY’RE HERE! IN FRONT OF HIM! HOLY SHIT!!!

Superman, Green Arrow, and several others are sweating bc uh. UH. OH SHIT THOSE MESSAGES WERE REAL?

Yes. They were real. And now they have Batman in full dad mode demanding an explanation. Several people (Superman, other mutation/alien esc powers) claim they went to Paris to check on the damage but they couldn’t find any, OR the supposed supers of villain. 

Multimouse steps forward and starts explains how the Ladybug powers work and if they had bothered to contact them beyond telling them this wasn’t a line of communication to be used for PRANKS, they would know better. Diana chimes in with how she was helped created BY the Ladybug miraculous, etc, why did nobody ask her about this? Hell, why did nobody ask their resident magic user, Captain Marvel/Shazam??? 

Green Lantern: No offense, but doesn’t this all seem a little far fetched? 

Chloe: ... Bitch, you have an alien ring that gives you powers. Shut the fuck up. 

So there’s some arguing, back and forth, and Bruce looses his temper a little bit. Smacks his hand HARD on the table. “Enough. It is your job to investigate. It is not your job to leave the saving of an entire city to my fucking daughter, who was barely thirteen at the time this all started. As far as I’m concerned, this can never, ever, happen again. Wonder Woman, Captain, I assume you’d be willing to go through our notifications for any discrepancies?” 

And there’s a huge moment of silence. Everyone’s staring at him. Multimouse squeaks. Red Hood just. “Good going, Bats. Real smooth.” 

Chat: OH MY GOD YOUR DAD IS BATMAN? WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY ANYTHING, WHY- HOOOOO OH MY GOD YOUR DAD! BATMAN! IS DAD! YOUR DAD WHO IS ALSO-!

Viperion is making wheezing noises and covers Chat’s mouth and then there’s even more yelling and arguing and finger pointing, and Bruce wants a drink. And a nap. In whatever order he can get them. 

Basically he gets Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel/Shazam to agree to looking through messages but also gets the hell out of dodge. 

Next in, the reactions to all this tomfoolery. Also apparently superhero-ism is now genetic. 

Tag List! (Please remember to send me an ask if you want to be added!)

@mystery-5-5 @mariae2900 @vgirl-10123 @iglowinggemma28 @deredereart @synnesstra @dahjokester @destinationdesignation @lordsmeldingtonthethird @emjrabbitwolf @unabashedbookworm @saphiraazure2708 @rhub4rb @romanoff-queen @octoberscorn@littleblue5mcdork @foxyrelina @severelyenchantedwonderland @dast218 @ace-aro-agender​ @rogueptoridactyl​ @kitkatcatfangirl @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @poshplumcot  @iggy-of-fans @schrodingers25​ @two-faced-biatch​ @moonlitarchangels @vixen-uchiha @rikku052 @elspethshadow

People who should be tagged but may not? So sorry, I’m still going to add you until tumblr stops being a dick about this.

@tbehartoo  @wuvpancakes

[aconstantstateofbladerunner]

Blade’s MHA Fanfiction Masterlist

Greetings friends!  This is the post listing all my past, present, and future My Hero Academia fanfictions.  Links are provided to what has been published so far.  Titles, summaries, and chapter counts are not final and will be updated as they change.  Please feel free to ask me about any and all the stories described here, not just the ones that have been published.  Thanks for reading!

(This currently version 14 of the masterlist, updated 9/9/2020)

Link to my Ao3 if you want to browse there: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aconstantstateofbladerunner/works

The Butterfly Continuity

- Butterfly - (Complete) The first over-night trip off campus since the training camp was supposed to be a fun break from more intense work back home.  But between a bleak introduction to chaos theory, a chilly reception from the locals, and the looming threat of a villain attack, Izuku has too much on his mind to properly enjoy the fresh air.  But those worries are a light breeze compared to the hurricane that accompanies what he finds on the outskirts of town.

Or rather, what finds him.

Izuku is stalked by a powerful creature who only seems to be interested in him.

32 chapters.  It’s done.  Beware major character death.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17165612/chapters/40360787

- Moth - So how does Hisashi fit into this aftermath?

11 chapters.  Outline complete.  There will be angst.

- Exit Light [hiatus] - A young Toshinori is just starting to feel truly at ease with his master and his role as her apprentice.  But uncomfortable truths come to light once a villain threatens the lives of their entire town with all-consuming darkness.  “Consuming” in this case is literal.

A prequel story that is referenced in Butterfly, but neither are required to understand the other.

4/9 chapters.  Major events outlined.  Warning for heavy violence in ch. 2.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19233598/chapters/45733516

For Izuku (Bio Dad Might AU)

- For Kurou - For their own safety, Toshinori must remove himself from the lives of his long-time partner and newborn son.  But they’re never far from his mind.  For years, not a day goes by where he doesn’t write a letter or set aside a gift for their eventual reunion.  It isn’t until he’s spent some time with his chosen successor, a young quirkless boy named Midoriya Izuku, that Toshinori’s consistent dedication to his family is interrupted.

Canon divergence fic.  Streamlined to the important stuff because there are already an abundance of fics like this and I want to focus on my original stuff.   Toshinko.  Family angst with a happy ending.

3/30 chapters.  Strap in.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22882870/chapters/54692104

- For a Wider World - Izuku hasn’t decided yet if he wants to go public with his heritage.   On the one hand, he want to make a name for himself, not just as the son of All Might.  On the other, he hates to lie and lying about One for All is hard enough.  Most of the people who know the truth will support whatever decision he makes.  Sir Nighteye isn’t one of them.

10+ chapters.  Basic outline complete.  Internship arc.

- For an End to the Pain - UA is under investigation by the Hero Commission, the world knows about the son of All Might, and the fight with Overhaul has left Izuku severe wounds both physical and mental.  As the weight of all these drastic life changes bare down on him, for the first time ever, he starts to question if he really wants to be a hero.

8-10 chapters.  Basic outline complete.  A whole new level of angst.

- Son Rise - Rumors have been circling of a secret All Might lovechild for a while now.  A new rumor says that All Might will reveal the child as his successor at the next International Heroes’ Summit in Hawaii.  The rest of the hero community has mixed feelings.  

Or, “Izuku goes to another country with his dad and has a bad time.”  Shameless excuse for me to gush about how cool Hawaii was while also hurting my boy.  Some Toshinko on the side.  Family angst with a happy ending.  

11 chapters.  Major events outlined.

Single Fic Dad Might

- Angel’s Egg - Orphaned babies showing up on the stoop of hero agencies is unfortunately not all that rare.  And egg the size of a baby is entirely unheard of. Is the child within just the result of an unusual quirk, or something of far greater, supernatural origins?

Kinda out there au where Izuku hatches from an egg and is raised by All Might.  That question is posed to me, because I’m not yet sure if I want to go down the mundane or supernatural path; I have potential endings for both. 

4/20 chapters.  Structure similar to Full Metal Jacket in that the story will shift gears completely in the second half.  Heavy violence and potential character death

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21009755/chapters/49966448

- The Wails in the Walls - Toshinori was convinced his cottage was haunted from the day he moved in.  He could easily blame the missing objects and little bites in his food on pests, but that wouldn’t explain the faint sound of crying some nights.  

Izuku is a tiny child living in Toshi’s walls who survives by ‘borrowing’ little things.  Gonna jump between angst and fluffy like a seesaw.  Idea originally by @abyssal-glory who graciously gave me permission to use it.

5/21 chapters.  Violence, reference to death, and bugs.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20392885/chapters/48368857

- Hanakotoba - Toshinori always wanted a family, but he wanted to be a hero even more.  He figured the family thing would happen naturally, but as the years go by and it doesn’t, he finds himself sinking further and further into longing.  And then he finds the end of his sorrows in his own garden.

Princess Kaguya au prompted by @agent-jaselin.  This one is for sure supernatural.

18 chapters.  Outline complete.  One scene of attempted sexual assault.

- Son of the Sun - Of all the gods, the Sun is the most generous with its gifts

Fantasy au where Izuku is the only child of the legendary son god Toshinori, and gets swept up in the apocalyptic destruction caused by a few other gods’ petty disagreements.

Outline incomplete, no chapter estimate.  This is the new roadtrip au.

Miscellaneous Multi-Chapter

- All but One - Toshinori is given the opportunity to undo over two decades of suffering by going back in time and ending All For One.  And that’s just the beginning.  He goes on to use his knowledge of the future to correct errors of the past, and makes his new reality infinitely better than the one he came from.  Better in every way but one.

Used to be a oneshot, now multi-chapter.  Open to making it an au but not sure yet.  Based on a bittersweet post by @skygemspeaks

10/18 chapters.  This was supposed to be short.  Warning for some violence.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18796387/chapters/44597800

- The Necromancer - An unseen villain sets hoards of undead upon Japan.  As a designated disaster-relief shelter and a small fortress in its own right, UA becomes host to both the heroes working to stop the onslaught, and several hundred terrified civilians.  Supplies and space shrink with each passing day, and it seems like the end to the nightmare is nowhere in sight.  Someone is bound to take matters into their own hands.

Zombie Apocalypse AU.  Most of the kids stay within the walls to care for panicking civilians, while the heroes take the fight to the outside.  At first.

10+ chapters.  Some events planned. 

- Habitus - Tragedy forces Izuku back into the custody of his father, who he hasn’t seen in years and has a new family of his own.  They uproot him from UA, separate him from his friends, and, worst of all, expect him to be happy about it.

Formerly called Where the Heart is.  Izuku’s step family from America claims custody of him after Inko passes away, and are less than sympathetic to his situation.  He rebels in every way he can, meanwhile All Might and the other teachers comb for any legal loopholes to get him back.

Less than 10 chapters.  Outlined.

Oneshots

- Spiked - There’s no such thing as a free meal.

Gore headcanon request that got out of hand.  Please read the tags.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20062174

- The Road that went Forever - Izuku’s Papa picked him up from kindergarten that day.  He hadn’t done that in a while.

Usually, I write Hisashi as a normal, emotionally distant father.  This is not one of those stories.  A very sad two-shot.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21754498/chapters/51902485

And that’s all for now!  Again, please feel free to ask me about any of these ideas! 

[shenlongshao]

GG Strive: Highlights pt. 2

Welcome to part 2 of the GG Strive highlights! If you haven’t seen the previous one, please go here.  During the livestream, the developers announced the official website for GG Strive(both English and Japanese) will feature content to help people understand the lore of Guilty Gear. The website features manga based on the events of the games separated by chapters. There’s also Youtube videos of the Xrd series’ story modes uploaded directly from Arc System Works.  My perspective of the manga will mainly be from me being a long-time fan of GG. I’ll look at how well and how much information it gives to those not familiar with the series. And, I’ll also be reviewing it as a manga in general with how the writing is, etc. I’ll be using the grade system to judge each aspect. This will definitely be a long post since it’s about the lore.  WARNING: My review will contain some spoilers. If you haven’t read the manga yet or you don’t wanted to be spoiled, it’s best not to read this post.  (Here is the line for the GG manga!) https://www.guiltygear.com/ggst/en/story/ Readability:  The GG Story Digest comics follow the format of reading from right-to-left and turning the pages is from the left side; this is different if you’re not used to reading Japanese material. The font size and style of the dialogue, titles, etc. is generally clear enough. But there are times where it may be hard to see like this one.

The story introduction text of Chapter 5 is mixed in with the background image that has some dark shades of gray. This made it hard to see what it says, especially since the website doesn’t have a zoom-in/zoom-out feature for the pages. You would have to use your browser if you have trouble seeing certain words. Other than this, the readability is very good! Rating: A Artstyle & Presentation: The artist chosen to do the GG Digest comics is Sumeragi, whom you may recognize because she’s known to do artwork for Blazblue. The presentation of her art is nicely done from the opening scenery of each chapter to the expressions on the characters’ faces; there’s a good amount of detail on everything. My favorite part about Sumeragi’s style is the beautiful, soft colors implemented at certain moments in the story like this one.

It perfectly highlights how special the moment is whenever I see it, but it also makes me wish all of the chapters were in color. Sumeragi’s art fits the modern anime style that’s been more mainstream for a while. I think her artstyle is really cute of how she interprets the characters’ designs. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Blazblue more than Guilty Gear at times, though. I personally would loved it if they got with an artist with a distinct style reminiscent of the 90s/early 2000s(for example like Outlaw Star or Record of Lodoss War). Other than this part, I like looking at the pages! Rating: B + (Note: I’ll be going by the English version of the manga by the western side of Arc System Works. The translation has gotten better over the years, but I’ll check the Japanese one for any noticeable differences in the future.) Writing/Pacing: The general quality itself is good, so there won’t be errors like “Welcome to die!” or “This guy are sick”, XD. I noticed the dialogue based on the events of the first Guilty Gear game is improved and the personalities of the characters is conveyed well in each chapter. It does a great job of providing brief character bios and the world of GG in a straightforward way. If you were ever confused on which paths took place as part of the main story, the writing will help make it easier. The writing also adds small details in some of the chapters that you may recognize. For example, on this page below...

For GG fans, doesn’t the man Sol is talking to look familiar? It’s the same guy Sol was stepping on from this.

What happens is the following page between them is probably the funniest part to me throughout all the chapters. The final chapter of the manga ends on a cliffhanger, which is done on purpose for you to watch the Story Modes on Youtube. Now for the negative part... The website does state it’s a quick-overview of events, but I think it’s too quick. There’s so many important details missing that the manga completely ignores. Examples include information about Forbidden Beasts, the Assassin’s Guild, the other Sacred Treasures(like Anji Mito’s fans called Zessen), nations like Zepp, the P.W.A.B.(Postwar Administration Bureau), etc. Other mainstay characters that play supporting/vital role to the series(for example Faust) is reduced to being just there for 1 or 2 chapters. There’s some that don’t appear at all like Slayer, I-No, and Anji Mito to name a few. Things like this is essential to world building in general, but especially for introducing new people to Guilty Gear.  Except for Chapters 5 and 3, the chapters of the manga is short. The final chapter being short is understandable, but not for the previous ones. It ruins the overall pacing of the manga because it’s too focused on getting to the point instead of inform you of the details. The second part is something the official GG website lets you know immediately; there will be some events that differ from the games. This itself isn’t an issue, though there are some things I personally disliked. One of them for me is how the Xrd SIGN design of Justice being incorporated in the earlier events of GG(like The Missing Link). That design of her looks like a xenomorph reject with breasts, XD. It’s not as amazing as Justice’s iconic, mech-like design. Another one is based on GGX Plus when Sol encounters Dizzy. It follows the game version at first, but it then changes a bit with creating a scenario where Ky intervenes. How it was done ruined how is in the game with Sol showing some of his humane side to Dizzy and sparing her on his own. It could’ve been done better. I think it’s best to view the GG Digest manga as a basic guide to the world of GG for those new to the series. For long-time fans, it’s just nice seeing more GG related content in general. It obviously doesn’t negate the source material like the novels, Drama CDs, etc. The manga is definitely worth reading, but still important to play or watch the games’ stories for full context. Rating: C  I’m glad the story of the Guilty Gear series is being promoted more in the West. I love the lore of GG and its characters, especially since it has the depth of an JRPG rather than a generic plot in most fighting games. Sadly, it’s not easy finding info due to either it’s Japan only and/or it’s very rare. There are a few fanmade English sites and blogs continuously trying to provide this for years. Each of them do have some reliable info that can be trusted, so it’s good to browse around to put the pieces of the puzzle together. So far, there’s no #1 source for GG lore yet because besides the part of finding info, there’s also still areas where mistranslations, misinterpretations, etc. of GG is still present. Mistakes like this happens sometimes and not always easy to spot, but can be fixed with no problem! But sadly, it isn’t always that simple because some people handling GG information be very... “heavy-handed” instead of helpful.  So I think it’s best to be not afraid to check and dig, dig, dig! I’m still digging for more GG material, XD.  Stay turned for part 3!

[planeis]

Athletic Truth Group / Knees Over Toes Guy program Review: Week 1

A week by week, hopefully, review of this mobility program and updates on how its affecting me. Hopefully for the better.

TL/DR: Basically I was clued into who Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy) by the above video that was in my TikTok feed last week. Did a little digging and decided to take the plunge and pay for a membership to his online training program and coaching at Athletic Truth Group. Week 1 went fine. App works fine. Can’t really say I feel any difference so far, but its only the start.

 https://www.atgonlinecoaching.com/  

Knees Over Toes: A week by week review of Athletic Truth Group rehab training

My history of knee pain or discomfort has been going on for a long time. The first time I can remember really experiencing something that I knew was out of the ordinary was early in high school. I was not a very athletic kid, in the sense that I wasn’t one of these kids that was on a bunch of school teams or community teams, or whatever. But, I did engage in sports. I played sports in gym and would play games before and after school when available. 

I can’t remember the exact circumstances, but to the best of my recollection when I was in 8th or 9th grade there was a period when several of us were playing basketball before school started because our homeroom was in the gym for some reason, and we were playing quite a bit of basketball during gym class, and I was playing a little after school. I was not good, but most people weren’t. But at some point, my knees started hurting. Like, it hurt to run, hurt to jump, I believe mostly centered in my left knee.

I remember it feeling pretty severe, like I felt like my left knee was just going to give out, a feeling I’ve since felt numerous times. But at the time, this pain was brand new to me and confusing. It was bad enough that I asked my mother to take me to a doctor, something I never did and still don’t like to do. I remember getting some X Rays and being examined and the doctor basically saying there was nothing wrong with me and recommended I use a knee brace. This was my first introduction to not only knee pain, but also knee braces.

This thing was monstrous. This was not a simple sleeve or even a thicker brace. This thing went from my mid thigh all the way down to my calf, had to giant straps and metal hinges. It looked like something someone would wear if broke their leg. I needed to wear this? I was a kid playing sports maybe a few hours a week, I wasn’t doing anything extreme, not in my opinion. Why did my knee hurt this way and why on earth did I need this ridiculous knee brace?

But, I started wearing it. It was weird to be asked why I needed this monstrosity, but it went find. It did help. I was able to keep playing, but once it was off I didn’t really feel better. My knee still hurt. And then my right knee started hurting. No doctors visit this time, but we did purchase another brace, this time one that was more like a stiff sleeve. No straps, no metal parts. So then I was wearing two at school, which caused a few more questions. Like, what is wrong with you? Nothing wrong with needed braces, if you need them, but why did I, as a seemingly healthy teenager need them? I don’t know. But I wore them for a while and eventually, I felt better and just stopped. Not sure if that’s because whatever the issue was went away, or because my overall activity level dropped some, or something in between. But I stopped wearing them and I felt fine. For a while….

Its been long enough that I can’t remember how I felt on a day to day or even a month to month basis. But I definitely started to feel like my knees were not as healthy or as good as most peoples. I felt slow, slightly immobile, couldn’t jump. 

The next severe incident that I can remember was the summer before my junior or senior year, I think. I think it was before senior year. I met some friends and a teacher for a run. At the time, I felt fine. But, it was the summer. I was probably playing some, working some, but I was not playing any kind of organized sport or anything like that. Definitely was not running distances at all. So, it wasn’t smart in general to just get off the couch and go for a run. But I was 17, I wasn’t worried. What’s there to worry about a little run at 17?

So I met this small group and we went for a run. Nothing too fast. I’m slow and I had no trouble keeping up. No one was keeping track of the miles, but being familiar with the route, I know it was about 3 miles. It was strenuous, but didn’t really think much about it after it was over. Until the next day. I felt like a total wreck, which I know now was probably due mostly to running a pretty good distance and not having really been running at all. My feet hurt, my ankles hurt, my knees hurt. I felt awful, it hurt to walk. And then it didn’t go away. Weeks later this same group asked me to go for another run and I had to decline. My knees still hurt. Hurt right under my kneecap. It hurt to walk upstairs, and I wasn’t even doing anything. Finally, after what had to be two months later I started to feel somewhat normal. This was my first major lesson in being careful. From then on I knew if I ever wanted to run a long distance, I needed to spend sometime, weeks in fact, to get my ankles, knees, and joints of all sorts to get accustomed to it. 

For years after this, there would be periods where I would start a routine of running, getting up to being comfortable with several miles comfortably, but if I ever had a break I knew I needed to spend some time, walking, jogging, running short distances to give myself time to get comfortable. Even then, I experienced numerous instances where my knees hurt and I would be forced to try various forms of knee sleeves, braces, wraps, straps, shoe insoles. I tried so many things to try and feel more comfortable running. I always wondered why this was necessary for me. I knew I wasn’t doing anything extreme. The most I would ever get up to was slowly, over periods of weeks and months, building up to running 10 miles at a time. Not that 10 miles is insignificant, but I always felt like considering how careful I was being, the knee pain I was experiencing sometimes was a little ridiculous. 

And then there were times when I wasn’t really running at all. Months or years long stretches where I was just lifting weights or maybe spending some time on ellipticals or bikes, not really putting any kind of pounding on my knees at all, and I would still feel like there was something not right. Felt like I couldn’t bend my knees easily, just casually kneeling to look at something or to work on something.  Occasionally I would see a doctor when it got severe and X-Rays or an MRI would always be negative. Sometimes they’d barely acknowledge that my knee was even swollen, which it often felt like it was. 

Anyway, I struggled with this on and off. Knee pain, feeling like my knee was wing, occasionaly feeling like it would just give out, and always feeling like my knees are not nearly as mobile as others. Even when I would be feeling good there were times where, when it came to athletic things like jumping, playing basketball, doing a box jumps, where I would think to myself, “I’m healthy, these people are healthy, why are my knees clearly so much weaker than theirs?”

But, fast forward to my most recent issue and what has got me somewhat desperate for relief and hoping, praying, that the ATG program and the ideas recommended by Ben Patrick “the knees over toes guy” will work for me.  In February 2020 I was doing normal stuff for me. Squatting, deadlifting, running a little (a mile every now and then). I was feeling healthy. Maybe I pushed it a little hard in the gym one day, I don’t know. But I woke up feeling like my knees hurt. Hurt to run, hurt to walk on stairs, hurt to sit down. Mostly my left knee. At first, I didn’t think much of it. I’ve felt this many many many times before. But then a week or two later not only was it not gone, but it was in both knees and had gotten worse. 

I toned it down some. It still kept lingering. I started wearing knee braces again, which felt better when I was working out but didn’t really fix anything. Went to the doctor, got X Rays which were negative, which I expected, and got some anti-imflammatories and a recommendation to go to PT. I could have gone, but I just didn’t have any faith that would work. Then the Pandemic shut everything down and I really didn’t feel comfortable going to a PT office if I could even find one that was open. 

I’m not completely insensible, so I started toning down what I was doing. Didn’t work. The COVID pandemic shut gyms down, so I toned down my exercise even more. I was still working, but I wasn’t running, wasn’t lifting heavy, nothing really close or so I thought. This knee pain kept lingering and lingering and lingering.

Finally, over the summer after having significantly toned down to almost nothing what I was asking of my knee other than just living my life, I started to feel better.  So I tested them a little bit. That was three months ago, and ever since my little tests, they’ve been bothering me every day. It hurts to walk around, hurts to sit down, hurts to go on the stairs. People I work with keep asking me what a doctor thinks. Now, truth be told I haven’t gone since the late winter. I could go, but I don’t have any confidence they’ll be able to say anything. My knees generally feel exactly like they’ve felt before when I’ve had this issue. It’s just lingering far longer than ever before. Nothing has ever showed up on an X Ray or an MRI and I don’t feel like it would now. I never felt anything that felt like a tear and my range of motion is not limited physically, except by pain or discomfort. Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like if I tore something there would be other signs than just pain. Like I wouldn’t be able to run or squat with weight or something, all of which I can do, its just painful. Like I said, maybe I’m crazy, but I have felt like this off an on for decades. Just never quite to this extent.  Plus, I don’t want surgery, so I’m not sure what I’d do even if a doctor found something.

Enter ATG and Ben Patrick “Knees Over Toes Guy.” Throughout this whole time, every now and then I will Google  things about how my knee is feeling, trying to find any kind of answer. Which is, again, something I’ve done many many times in the past and sometimes I have found answers. Like, foam rolling, or a new kind of knee sleeve, etc. And sometimes that did work and I was able to find some relief. But so far, for this, nothing had really worked. I was starting to feel broken, like this is just how I’m going to have to live from now on. And maybe it is

Then Friday of last week, December 11, I was browsing Tik Tok and a post by Ben Patrick “@kneesovertoesguy” found its way to my feed. Why? I don’t know. I had never heard of him before, never searched for him before. Must be because his page is “fitness” related and I’ve liked some fitness things before on there, who knows how their algorithm works. But in this short video at the very top it say “How I Saved My Knees” and shows Ben doing some things with his knees, that appear to be EXTREME, like things that I would never even consider doing or have ever considering doing. Seemingly effortlessly putting his knees into positions that I know I’ve never ever been able to do, while at the same time talking about how he struggled with pain for years and had multiple surgeries. 

Something about this post, spoke to me. It wasn’t that long, but it clicked with me. I started googling him, looking him up on youtube, trying to find out if he was legit or what.  What I found were some genuine people on YouTube who seemed to be trying his program for similar issues as me, long term knee pain that wasn’t responding to usual methods, and were having some success. Not miracle success, afterall they hadn’t been doing it that long, but success enough that they felt much much better to than before. One video the guy spoke of having several days where he didn’t even THINK about his knees and I thought, “Man, if I could get to even that point I’d be so much happier.”

OK, so it definitely didn’t seem like bullshit, so I kept looking. Inevitable I found ATG’s and Ben’s YouTube channel where they show some of their thinking and some of the exercises they recommend and why and show more of his story and more of their customers’ success. These spoke to me even more. I almost felt like they were speaking directly to me. And these weren’t some kind of super slick marketing campaign. The stories from real people seemed genuinely self filmed and their real story told their way. Now granted, that could itself be produced, but it didn’t seem that way. One guy spoke of being athletic for years and then having to get knee surgery and the doctor basically telling him, “Oh, you’re never gonna feel good playing basketball again.” And he was still a relatively young man, and he spoke about starting with the beginner program “Knee Ability Zero” and how it completely changed his knee, after a long time and a lot of work, and that he feels basically completely normal and that he’s thriving now. That really spoke to me. 

Alright, so it seemed legit. I watched more of this videos, checked out the site and found out its $50 a month for online coaching with the program. Whew! $50 a month. Not for a gym membership. Not for physical therapy.  Just for access to his programs and online coaching.

This was kind of a big decision. A lot of the exercises he talks about doing, he talks about publicly and demonstrates on his YouTube channel, his Instagram, ATG’s channels, all of that. Not all of it, but especially the beginner stuff, which is what I’ll be doing, can be found for free. But, from everything I saw, ATG is promising answers to all questions online, video review of your form everyday, advice and critiquing on a daily basis.  In addition to that, they have a promotion for $30 for the first month. But still, $500 basically for one year for online physical therapy basically.

But, I figured a couple things. Number one, because of COVID, I’ve had to suspend a gym membership and also a jiu jitsu membership. So my overall fees for physical training are still going to be much lower now and in the next few months than they were at this time last year, even including paying ATG $50 a month. In addition to that, I kept watching videos and saw a few people who say they basically completed recovered their mobility, if not surpassed anything they did before. And these people apparently have had much worse knee issues than me, including multiple surgeries. I figured, if it doesn’t work, yea I’ll have wasted some dough. But if it does, and I feel even moderately better, it will have been completely worth it. 

So, I signed up, paid the first bill and started using their app. Did the first days of exercises. Now, I’m not going to reveal what they tell you to do for now. But, basically the beginnger program for people with knee pain, has 10 things to do Monday Wednesday and Friday. BUT, several of them you’re only supposed to progress to when you can only do the others pain free. So starting, I’m only doing three little exercises and some stretches. But these three little exercises are surprisingly strenuous and they’re designed, I think, to build up the muscles directly around your knee. We shall see I suppose.

So the first day I did it, the application was easy to use where you can log your work outs and post videos they request so they can check your form. Both were very good. I asked a few clarifying questions and got a response very quickly, either that night or the next morning.  Saturday and Sunday are rest days, but they do have some stretches they suggest on off days which I did on Satruday. Monday was more of the same three exercises with some stretches. I received some feedback from the trainers on Monday and Wednesday and was told to go ahead and try an additional exercise (I think you can describe this as a reverse step up).

So far, so good. I can’t really say I feel any better or different, but its only been a week. Other reviews from normal folks like me talk about feeling better after a few months or longer and Ben Patrick himself talks about a multi-year journey he’s been on, but I’m  not sure at what point he would say he started feeling healthy but I have gotten the impression from listening to a couple podcasts with him that it took him years to figure out what he wanted to do and then another year or so before he started feeling healthy. Not sure about that though. 

I’m hopeful. Which is more than I can say about how I’ve been feeling since February.

[anangelicday-mrwolf]

Wolfsbane : Noblesse Fanfic (post-ending)

(previous chapter)

Chapter 10 – Progress

“Well?”

<Where’s your patience, boss? How could you cut straight to the point without even saying hi? And you happen to be talking to me.>

“Exactly. You’re the one person who would reply to ‘hi’ by recounting the number of times M-21 spoke for the day, the dessert presented at school lunch the other day, and the average size and volume of the crumbles the children spilled at my mansion during their snack time with my master the day before.”

<Aww, don’t be so mean, boss. You know I’m only looking out for you when I relay the updates on Seoul.>

I know. Of course I know. But no thanks. Otherwise I’ll start missing what I’ve decided not to.

Frankenstein choked his inner voice and nodded at Tao’s awkward face blinking inside the monitor.

“So, how did Rael’s meeting go yesterday? I doubt there was trouble. At least not on Rael’s side. Not with you preparing everything for him.”

<He was fantastic. As soon as he takes to Lukedonia the KSA researcher assigned for the job, we’ll get on with the ‘QuadraNet’ project.>

“QuadraNet. Huh. Though it’s a temporary name you came up with, I’m not sure when or if I’ll ever get used to it. But what do you mean, tomorrow? What’s the rush for?”

<This researcher that KSA nominated for the task is really gifted. He specified 2 days would be enough for him to get everything ready. I checked the files from the USB he provided, and I’d say 2 days are more than enough.>

“If you say so. How long would he stay at Lukedonia?”

<He’ll have to see for himself, he said.>

“It’d be best to make it done as quickly as possible. Because werewolves have already booked the same appointment. Speaking of which, how is he? What is that researcher like?”

The question was as harmless as it could be, yet Tao started shifting his gaze, away from the monitor. Frankenstein’s blue eyes steeled in reaction.

“Is there a problem?”

<No. At least, I don’t think he has a problem that can affect this project in a bad way.>

“What do you mean, you don’t think? What’s the issue?”

<Uh... Well...>

With a bashful smile, not so big, not so small, Tao unraveled what Rael told him after his trip to KSA.

*****

The day before, at KSA Headquarter

“It appears the recovery has been going on progressively. That’s good.”

“S-sorry? Oh, uh... I... Yes. Thank you.”

Sangin hurriedly produced a reply, whom Yeonsu gawked at as if holding back the urge to snap at him. Nevertheless, her eyes were basically no different from those of her husband – tap-dancing to the silent tension.

“So, uh... How long are you planning to stay in Seoul...?”

“I will be on my way as soon as your researcher is all set to leave.”

“I... I see. I cannot imagine how... Uh, I mean...! I do not mean to be nosy! I...!”

This time Yeonsu feigned nothing. She happened to be just as nervous, with the director’s office just two steps away.

“Welcome. We’ve been expecting you.”

Upon Rael’s entrance, the director rose and smiled, so stiff that it almost seemed he was doing it on purpose. He was not alone; the doctor in charge of Yeonsu and Sangin’s body modification was attendant.

“On behalf of Lukedonia, I’d like to give my deepest apology for proceeding with the project too hastily.”

“N-no, it’s nothing. Quick progress would only do us good.”

“So, is your doctor the one appointed in representation of KSA?”

“Uh... Unfortunately, no.”

The director waved his head apologetically, and the doctor stepped in.

“We’ve decided I cannot leave my lab, not even for a moment, since I’m in charge of all technological aspects of KSA. It’s not that it’s utterly impossible for me to provide any help or advice, but I don’t believe I can leave this building. I am very sorry.”

“In that case...”

“We have chosen the best of the lead researchers among us. Had he been employed before me, or had I resigned from my seat as the head of the technological department, this researcher would have been made in charge of body modification and regular checkups for these two agents. When it comes to his competence, we are more than ready to guarantee it.”

“Would you like to meet him?”

“I should.”

The doctor walked past Rael to guide him through the corridor, with Sangin and Yeonsu striding by Rael’s sides for more details.

“‘Yuhyung Jang.’ Age 28. He is currently the lead technological assistant and one of the lead researchers of KSA.”

“He used to major in Bio And Brain Engineering at KAIST, but he was considered a freak among his classmates due to his theories, brilliant if put in a good way, unrealistic if put bad. But 6 years ago, I had a chance to speak to him in private during my visit to KAIST as a guest lecturer. At once I realized I was met by a genius and offered him a position at KSA.”

“Immediately he dropped out and filed an application to KSA. And when it comes to research, he has never failed us.”

“Which is why he is the only researcher, excluding me, with a personal office and a lab.”

Rael recalled the time when he just made himself an occupant at Frankenstein’s house. First there was not much he could do, so when he had no chores at hand he used to pull out several books from Frankenstein’s library, to which he was granted access by the man’s courtesy.

Some of the books he read included an introduction to astronomy (with which he taught himself about geocentrism and heliocentrism) and a couple books on “universities.” From the latter, he learned that KAIST is always listed as one of the top prestigious institutes in Korea, which allowed him to comprehend the level of intelligence and expertise this researcher would possess.

The moment Rael inwardly sighed in reassurance, Yeonsu, Sangin, and the doctor scrunched their faces in an uneasy, unnatural way.

“Uh, there is one thing we must tell you...”

“First of all, we’re sorry.”

They were staring at Rael with eyes teeming with ruefulness and pity, which raised concern in Rael’s clueless heart.

“No matter what kind of stupidity unfolds, I’d like to ask you to please be patient and understanding.”

“This fella can be sort of... Ridiculous. And crazy.”

“But he means no foul whatsoever, so please. Be generous.”

Rael was trying his hardest not to let his disquiet-slash-panic get ahold of him, as the three humans fanned his puzzlement with eyes spawning apology.

“Here we are.”

The doctor cleared his throat before he knocked a sliding automatic door.

“Aaack!”

Rumble. Clang.

Clank. Screech.

Rael wondered for a moment if his ears were deceiving him. Normally one would not be met with such noises in a series after a knock. He realized that the three KSA personnel conveyed nothing but tranquility, with ‘here-we-go-again’ grimace.

“Coming! Coming right up!”

Thuds of footsteps escalated, only to be interrupted by an ear-splitting siren inside the room, which caused vortexes in the KSA officers’ eyes.

“What is this?! Don’t tell me...!”

“Aaaah!! I-it’s nothing! It’s nothing at all! Everything is okay!”

“Okay my ass!”

Faithful to her temper, Yeonsu nailed the door with her foot. The broad piece of metal fell flat on surface with a deafening ‘bang,’ promptly unleashing pungent smoke onto the entrance and part of the corridor.

“Ugh!”

“What is this smell...?!”

Yeonsu and Sangin darted their eyes around the room in search of the source of pitch-black cloud and charring stench relentlessly assaulting their eyes and noses. They spotted a ball of flame overgrowing in midst of a lab table at the corner, with a man pouring out all the sweat he could ever secrete, while clutching a fire extinguisher that was equal to a pesticide in terms of size.

“N-nobody panic! Please, nobody panic! I... I’ve got this perfectly under control! So... So please, remain calm and...”

Swoosh.

An abrupt current of wind blasted at the table. The air compactly brushed the fire that was by no means miniature, instantly smothering sparks and smoke that filled the chamber, and the remainder of smoke began to subside, now that its origin was gone.

“Thank you.”

Sangin and the doctor nodded their heads at Rael, who managed to douse the flame with the wind pressure from a mere act of slashing the air with his hand. Not feeling the need to reply, the Kertia took a step closer.

The first thing he could make out was a pair of rectangular glasses thicker than any other pairs he had seen. Then stood out brown curls of hair visibly in dire need for nutrients, and Rael’s gaze lastly arrived at the man’s lips arched in a sheepish, silly curve.

“Allow me to introduce our researcher – Yuhyung Jang.”

“Oh... So this must be...!”

Yeonsu nodded, and Yuhyung urgently jutted out his hands for a shake. That was when he noticed that he was still clinging onto the fire extinguisher. Out of haste he flung the object towards the bookshelf behind him, packed with utensils and books of various types and uses. He waited to witness the crimson cylinder very precariously settling on the bookshelf before re-sticking out his hand.

“Pleasure to meet you. Yuhyung Jang is my name.”

Recollecting that this is one of human etiquette in introductions and greetings, Rael held the man’s hand as gingerly as possible.

“I... I have heard so much about you. I was told you are one of the heads of clans from Lukedonia.”

“Indeed. And I will escort you safely to my homeland. I wish to leave as soon as you are ready. How long do you think it would take?”

“Uh... Uhm, two! Two days would be enough! Yes, of course! I, I only need to pack a couple more equipment, so...”

Almost making a show out of himself trying to express how honored he is, Yuhyung suddenly lunged at his desk and rummaged through his drawer. Once he excavated from his drawer a variety of stuff – such as, and not limited to, mechanical pencil, tape, a bottle of half-empty gums, and tiny rubber ball – the researcher brought back a USB for Rael.

“Could you please deliver this to the, uh... Whoever’s in charge of technologies among your team? This contains a program required to set up a connection with KSA’s network, with a couple files that I chose as reference. You’ll need this to install and launch the new communicative system.”

“Very well. I’ll make sure it reaches the right person.”

“You should start packing. Now. The director officially granted you permission for a business trip. Now all that’s left is for you to be ready.”

“Yes, sir! I’ll go ahead and do that ri...”

Yuhyung threw himself towards the bookshelf to drag out a tattered traveler’s bag. And the next moment –

CLANK!!

The man was hammered on the head with the fire extinguisher that was stationed too unstably to withstand the tremor from his action.

The two agents sighed in unity as they watched Yuhyung slumping unconscious, his eyes already rolled towards the back of his head. The doctor collected his hands as a display of embarrassment.

“We’re very sorry. Could you spare a few moments, please?”

“...It’s fine as long as he wakes up by the end of the day.”

*****

What a dumbest genius I’ve ever seen. Or should I say smartest dummy I’ve ever seen?

Frankenstein was educated enough to know that it is not courteous to dub someone dumb. Alas, his mental dictionary failed him at the moment.

“I have a feeling this trip will be a nightmare for Rael.”

<But let’s trust him, shall we? He said he can do this.>

“We should do that. There’s nothing else we can do for him on that matter, anyways. So pack him a nice lunchbox or something on his way back. The boy’s got a long voyage ahead of him.”

<Aye, aye, captain!!>

After an exchange of couple more comments, Frankenstein exited his communication chamber, only to freeze roughly at the same time.

His eyes were drawn to a bundle of grey hair, a hue now highly familiar to him, draped where it could not even reach his waist.

‘Seriously? She’s sleeping here?’

The consistent, soft ups and downs of her shoulders and rhythmic ebbs and flows of air through her respiratory system signaled that she was asleep. Frankenstein was not surprised to see her in the building, for he did notify her that there are only two places he will ever be while the sun is alive – his communication chamber or his lab.

What did catch him off guard was the fact that it presumably took only 10 minutes for her to fall in slumber, not sleep. It is possible for people deprived of rest to doze off when there is a brief opportunity, but Lunark is a werewolf. Expecting a werewolf to be exhausted is like expecting a cat to enter the tub on its own paws for its bath. Not downright impossible, but awfully rare.

‘Just what on earth is she tasked with when she’s away from this place...?’

Frankenstein stared down at Lunark, debating with himself whether he should wake her up or take her to one of the bedrooms so she could recharge herself.

He decided at least he should not leave the guest crouched at the corridor, when he cannot remember when was the last time he ever swept or mopped this place. Without further ado, Frankenstein kneeled and placed his hand on Lunark’s shoulder as lightly as possible.

There was no push or pull in his motion; it could be barely defined as a touch. However, Lunark’s head wobbled in the air like a roly-poly toy and dove straight towards Frankenstein – right onto his chest.

(Illustration by. RyO - you can find her DeviantArt page here)

In a flash, the pulse from his heart thundered through his vessels, and the entire world quaked with an electrifying ‘thump.’ At least that was what he could make most out of his gut reaction.

The man was startled not by the unforeseen contact but by a phenomenon that made him question his cardiac status; he was lost at what to do. At then Lunark’s eye slid open, and light slowly dawned upon her pink pupil. Her gaze was not yet focused, enthralled by sleep, until it landed upon Frankenstein’s face.

“...Am I dreaming?” Whispered Lunark, her voice a hush no greater than flaps of butterfly’s wings.

Being a human whose abilities far surpass those of humans, Frankenstein should have captured every letter she spat out. And he would have, if only he did not happen to be writhing in a pit of confusion. The most he could manage therefore was narrowly getting himself out of his chaotic preoccupation.

Concentration kicked into Lunark’s eyes as soon as they met his cerulean eyes. Simultaneously, she apprehended the fact that she was laying her head on Frankenstein’s bosom and scrambled to her feet straight away.

The only problem was that she was not awake enough to perceive that they were so close. Close enough to smash her lips into his with little adjustment to the angle her head was taking.

WHAM.

“Ugh!!”

“Aack!!”

They avoided violently brushing their lips, to their relief, but they could not avoid ramming into each other’s forehead, thereby producing reverberation of a sound that only an Eiffel Tower would yield upon breaking one of its legs.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry!!!”

Lunark first and foremost fired an apology, even though she could not grasp the right direction and was busy trying to steady her head.

“Ugh... You okay?”

“Uh... Yeah......”

His voice told her exactly where he was standing, but Lunark could not dare lift her eyes at him.

‘What happened? Why was I squatted with him half-embracing me...?’

Lunark visited with a new piece of data, unlocked by Adne after he went through pains. When she could not pick up his trail anywhere outside the building, she figured he would be at the lab or the communication chamber.

Her plan was to wait until Frankenstein was done. Just then the fatigue from days of insomnia threatened to raze her mind, and a blink of an eye was all it took for her to black out.

The void of her memories was made null by a concoction of Frankenstein’s natural scent and aroma of wolfsbane. Hence she woke up to this disaster.

“Just how many tasks do you have at hand these days? I’ve never dreamed I’d get to see a werewolf warrior fall asleep in daytime, albeit shortly.”

Lunark could not bring herself to answer. It was true that this secret ambassador was not the only role she assumed. After all, a Union elder is listed as one of her career; it is only reasonable that she takes a major component in tracking down and eliminating what is left of the Union.

However, that is not the only reason why she fell defeated to drowsiness today. Recently she was made victim to the lack of sleep. Because of the man right in front of her.

And she could not tell him why. She could not admit that ever since she began to see him on semi-regular basis, she could not help getting conscious of his every single day, if not his every whereabout. She could not complain that her eyes just would not stop taking a snapshot of him into her brain and put it on infinite replay. She could not confess that lately he began to infiltrate her dreams, some of them definitely deserving at least a hundred slaps in the face.

“I-I’m fine. I’ve gotten busy, so I had to give up on sleeping for the past few days. And it looks like I really need some sleep.”

Ultimately she chose to keep the truth to herself, and Frankenstein’s forehead furrowed much more precipitously than she had imagined.

“You’re not getting any sleep? Why?”

“There’s a good reason.”

Lunark painstakingly ironed her face to stare at him, lest they get caught in an endless banter of questions and excuses. Thankfully for her, it worked.

“I’m not sure what’s keeping you awake, but you’d better get some sleep as soon as you return. It’s much bitchier than you’d think to stay awake for an inevitable reason.”

Frankenstein turned away as he spoke, because of which Lunark did not need to hide the flinch of her shoulders. She has never seen him handling his tongue so ferociously, unless he were in the middle of a battle or crisis. Which meant he was close to torturing himself by staying awake.

So why would you go this far?

Lunark was nearly yelling at him in her mind, but her mouth generated something very far from a reprimand.

“Here. And Dr. Adne said he’s sorry. The locks on Ignes’s data are turning more and more complicated, as if they learned they are being manipulated by someone other than their master.”

“I see he’s working very hard. I owe him so much, so I’d appreciate it if he does not let his duty harm his body.”

“I’ll make sure to tell him that. Now see you.”

“You’re leaving already?”

Lunark had already spun on her feet when he finished his sentence.

They would have had time to exchange a few more words, if not a complete conversation, if only he had left his communication chamber a little faster. In fact, Lunark was grateful that she could avoid lingering for the remainder of the day to talk to him.

“I told you I’ve gotten busy lately. Which is ongoing. And don’t give me that look. I’ll do as told as soon as I’m done with the most urgent ones.”

Lunark twisted her tone as she left, a deliberate action intended to be relieving, even jesting. Contrary to her intention, Frankenstein stood fixed to his spot even after she was gone.

‘Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. She sounded quite offended.’

Her action begot an effect not at all like what she had hoped. Which at least did not last long.

‘Who am I to care about someone else?’

Shaking his head, Frankenstein walked to his lab.

Before taking a seat at his desk, as disorganized as always, he poured out the liquid from the flask he held ready at all times. He downed the cup of wolfsbane tonic in a gulp before flipping the first page of a document, and as if on a cue technical terms and explications, so complex only the professionals in body modification would make out, commenced attacks.

Of course, it is impossible for printed letters to actually attack his eyes. Nonetheless, Frankenstein had to repeatedly blink and force his pupils back to the file.

I feel like my eyes are being less cooperative today. Am I imagining things?

His groggy head mumbled after he wasted 5 minutes while trying to dissect the first line of the next paragraph. Yet he tried again.

Again.

And again......

*****

Frankenstein blinked. He could seldom remember the last sentence he was reading. It was as if his brain cells had been buried in mist.

He attempted to stretch and straightened his back. Then he noted how he was on his feet in the middle of a dark purple space.

The dark purple that he would never fail to recognize.

Right at that moment, ice exploded through every crook and junction of his capillary vessels.

‘No, this cannot be...!’

(next chapter)

I give you my second OC - Yuhyung Jang.

He is my OC from KSA side who also happens to be a perfectly ordinary human. I tried to make this chapter comical on purpose to show what he’s like - genius but crazy XD

Also, I was super-excited to add a little Frankie-Lunark moment in this chapter lol. I know it’s not much, but they can always make a progress XD

The illustration was provided by RyO, my wonderful friend AND one of the most talented artists I know. Try visiting her DeviantArt page (the link under the image) to see what kind of wonders she has created! Thank you again to my friend RyO for the illustration!

Additionally, here is a background story on how come Rael, a native of Lukedonia, knows about Copernicus and Ptolemy and their respective astronomical theories. Frankie let Rael read in his personal library on the first few days upon his arrival to Seoul, and an intro book on astronomy happened to be one of the books he read. Hope this clarifies! Lol

[historyy]

The Oxbridge Applications Masterlist✨✨✨

I’ve had a ton of people both online and irl ask me for this, so here it is. I’m sorry its a month or so later than I initially promised but I’ve been pretty busy. This is basically a breakdown of the application process, some advice, and my experiences as an applicant for History and Politics to Oxford in 2018-19; because of that its pretty Oxford / humanities specific. I was lucky enough to have some great resources available at school but applying for Oxford was still daunting, so I wanted to demystify it and give some advice. Hopefully you find it helpful!

Personal Statement

How you write it: 

My main advice with the PS is to get started early, because Oxbridge is early entry so you’ll have months less time than your friends. Do a first draft of your personal statement in summer Y12. Mine was pretty much done by September and it made that early deadline much easier to reach.

Keeping a list of everything relevant you’re doing will be useful when you come to write the PS, as well as for developing your ideas for interview. My list was split into Books, Academic Papers, Extracts, Documentaries, Podcasts, Lectures / Online Lectures, Other Publications, Courses, Newspapers, and Extracurriculars. I also had a list of my particular interests related to my subject. 

It will need lots of editing, but thats what teachers, friends, and former applicants are for! I edited so many personal statements for people in my year, because they knew I was a writer and thus good at cutting words and finding shorter ways to express.

With your first draft, write big. Go way over the character count and put everything you want to in it, then cut. A few tips for cutting: 

Don’t waffle on about irrelevant anecdotes 

‘Such as’ ‘like’ ‘indeed’ ‘including’ are useful but overused 

Rearranging sentence structure can cut lots of characters and make your syntax snappier. E.g I interviewed a civil servant which showed me… versus Interviewing a civil servant showed me…  

Semicolons will save your life.

It will hurt, but kill your Oxford commas 

You don’t need to give each author / source a bio, assume the reader knows their stuff, and you don’t need to use full names / titles 

What you write in it:

With the PS, a catchy opening is vital; you need to show why you’re interested in your subject and why you’re the right choice. Mine was:

The 2015 Leaders’ Debate sparked my interest in politics and the language surrounding it, when I realised I was focussed both on what the debaters were saying and how they were saying it.

The best advice I got is to treat your PS like you’re narrating your journey with your subject. Start with why you got into your subject, show what you did following on from that sparked interest, then how you built on that action, and so forth. You might want to map this out before you start writing. An example might look like this (this isn’t mine, but assume its for HistPol):

Saw an exhibition on Renaissance artists - interested in social and political context of the art - researched Italian city states focussing in on famed patrons of the arts who were politically eminent  - read Machiavelli’s The Prince as is based on Cesare Borgia - interested in other theories of rule and governed/govt relations - read Locke and Hobbes to compare later theories and the development of these ideas - entered an essay competition about the development of the state citing Locke’s ideas on the social contract

Then you build on this journey, talking about your reading and research. Cite specific papers / books / articles you’ve read, and engage with them. Did you agree with everything they said? Or not? How do they link to other things you’ve read? For example, I wrote:

D’Ancona’s ‘Post-Truth’ with its discussion of disinformation and the collapse in trust also influenced me, though I disagreed with his assertion that the post-truth era only began five years ago (Orwell springs to mind).

Don’t just name drop books etc, actually engage with them, or you might as well not have read them.

In terms of what to include, Oxbridge don’t give a damn if you do Grade 5 piano or were the lead on your ballet show; you should focus your PS on the subject you’re applying for. When I mentioned extracurriculars it was in relation to the subject; I was editor of the school magazine, and I interviewed a senior civil servant on Brexit’s impact for it, increasing my understanding of current affairs and I gave a presentation on sexuality in the Weimar Republic at our LGBT society, exploring oft forgotten facets of history.  

I would suggest that only 10% of your PS should be about extracurriculars, and even those should be related to your subject, or linked to transferable skills.

You should end your PS with a brief concluding statement or paragraph which summarises why you want to study your subject.

Aptitude Tests 

I did the HAT so this is skewed towards that, but other tests are similar.

The aptitude tests are stressful but formulaic, so once you’ve worked out the formula and done as many practices as you can, you should be fine. You don’t need to get a high mark, only pass the benchmark to secure an interview, so it won’t be perfect. No one gets full marks; I think the benchmark for the HAT was 60% last year. 

My main advice on the tests is to go to all the sessions on them with your teachers that you can, and if your teachers don’t offer sessions ask them to hold some, or find a former applicant. Do lots of practices, starting not in timed conditions and work up doing them in time. Talk through your completed papers in detail with your teachers. If there are other applicants doing the same test, talk with them — orally write the essay together and bounce ideas off one another. 

Learn how to pull together an argument in a way which will grab the reader’s attention and show that you’re interested and engaged, and that you think outside the box and are different to the other candidates. For example in our HAT, the source was on a 16C woman’s relations with her servants, and I talked about her household as a microcosm of a class stratified and hierarchical society with moral expectations of servitude.

Basically, its an exam paper, treat it as such! 

Interview

The interview is, on the whole, more important than the PS. If you’re lucky enough to get one it means you’ve already done better than most people. I found the experience to be a mix of absolutely terrifying and weirdly enjoyable. 

I had two interviews, one for History and one for Politics, but you can be called to interview at other colleges. I know someone who had six…

The interview is basically like a tutorial will be if you get in, and there are different types (this is a bit humanities specific, sorry). You can get asked about your PS and reference, though this is rare. Extract interviews are common, for my Politics I was given an extract about citizenship. You can also get asked about your submitted work, as I was for History. 

In terms of prep, make sure you’re familiar with your submitted work and PS, as well as all the stuff you say you’ve done in your PS and your reference. You can get asked about any of it. Bring copies of these and your reading notes with you to interview so you’re familiar with them. Also look into some other key concepts of your subject, for example I looked at a lot of historiography, and in the interview talked about the concept of history as teleology and how I disagree with it. I think I was actually asked if I agreed with the Idea of Progress, having read on that a lot I felt equipped to answer it. 

Do as many practice interviews as you can. I got lucky as we had teachers who could do these, and I also did one at my sister’s school. However even if you don’t have that access, ask a friend, parent, teacher, a previous applicant, or even someone online. Even just talking about your subject helps. On the flip side of all this, don’t do so much prep your answers are stale and formulaic, you need to show you’re thinking on your feet. 

Both my interviews were only 20-25 minutes. My Politics interview was really chill, I had an hour reading time before in which I made notes on an extract and basically wrote a script for myself. The questions I was asked were actually given to me in this time so I had lots of material to work with. The man was really nice as well, and I enjoyed the experience. In contrast my History one was a disaster and I felt like I was being interrogated by the two women the whole time, though they were nice.

Don’t be scared if you screw up, in my History interview on my Tudors essay on Tudor parliamentary changes (which I’d been studying only 2 months), my interviewer was an expert on Tudor parliament, writing a book on the subject. This one question about groups of people represented strongly in parliament really threw me, and I went through three answers before I found the right one (lawyers). At another question I blanked for thirty seconds before speaking. I came out in tears and was certain I’d failed, but clearly I did okay…

General advice

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Go chat to that scary teacher who told you your essay was too journalistic and not historical enough and just because you want to be a journalist you can’t write like one in academia (personal experience? me?). Ask them for advice and just talk to them about the subject! 

Leading on to: JUST TALK ABOUT THE SUBJECT. Talking nonstop about History and Politics helped me know my interests inside out and it gave me a way to develop my speaking skills as well as my love for my subject.

Also, read. JSTOR is your bff for academic articles and Niche Stuff here, but you can find plenty of good books at libraries and shops. The A Very Short Introduction series is amazing for this, as they’re all really short and written by Oxbridge academics, I read tons of them. You can even just dip into longer books or collections of articles. 

Keep asking yourself And so? — take your ideas further. This was my History teacher’s advice for essays, but it works for PS, tests, interviews, and general critical thinking. 

For example in the HAT (I’m making up this example, it might have asked you what you could learn about social norms of a time from a source): You could say: The woman bosses her servants around but is subordinate to her husband so we can learn about gender and social roles. Or you could say: The woman commands her servants, yet remains servile to her husband, indicating the prevalence of hierarchical gender and class relations in the society of the time; her role as wife is clearly interlinked with her position as ‘head of the household’, which she is unpaid for. Viewing this through the lens of feminist theory, one can infer that an unequal sexual division of labour exists in this society, and women’s contributions to society are not appreciated, as when the husband ‘dismisses’ his wife. While her command of the servants shows she is elevated by her ‘great wealth’, her subordination to her husband suggests that a woman in this society was unable to further her position as easily as a man could. 

Don’t fret about choosing a college on the form, 1/3 of people (including me) get pooled. 

And finally, don’t set your heart on Oxbridge. They’re by no means the only good universities out there, and they’re not for everyone. If you’re not enjoying the research for the PS, or are finding the aptitude tests unbearable and the interview style uncomfortable, it might not be for you. But if you do decide to apply, good luck!✨

[caffeinatedfantasy]

The Seal pt 5: Markings

{ Chris: [bio] Pt [1] [2] [3] [4]/ ?? [ Set: Vaguely after Lesson 5 ] [ AO3 Link ]

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised by Mammon tagging along. Since my room had been destroyed and Beelzebub wasn’t letting the Avatar of Greed into his room, he’d become needier. Sticking by my side at basically any chance he could get, I should have expected that he’d insist on following me to the House of Purgatory to see Solomon. 

“I, the Great Mammon, am supposed to make sure you don’t get into any more trouble, and Solomon seems like trouble.” He’d insisted in his familiar theatrical way. Insisting that it was for my sake and not because he’d been there when Asmo had insisted that I wanted to fuck Solomon and he was trying to stop that from happening. [ He’d even insisted to Asmo that was definitely not the case. He was just doing his job protecting me! Duh! ] 

I did not mention that I didn’t really have much virtue that needed protecting in that department. Or that sex would definitely complicate things there too. 

So I didn’t really argue when he tagged along. And he ended up being pretty useful, all things considered. 

Solomon showed me how he was able to summon Asmodeus. And, with Mammon’s help, I showed exactly what I could do with the pact. 

Which was basically give him commands like a dog and have him listen. [I refused to say it out loud in case he decided that he was too embarrassed, but his love of getting his hair pet made that image stick a little bit too well.]

And that was my introduction to anything visible when it came to the pacts. 

“I believe its just the power of the pact that’s acting, then, and not you.” Solomon explained, his fingers to his chin in thought as he circled around Mammon [who was currently stuck in place by a ‘Stay’ command and pouting about it]. “But I’d have to take a look at the pact’s mark to be sure.”

“The pact’s mark?” My hand went to my stomach absently, rubbing the skin where my own ‘mark’ hid as I frowned in confusion. 

“Yes. When you use the pact’s magic, a little symbol should show up on Mammon’s skin since it would be primarily drawing from his magic.” I... Liked the sound of that. Seemed safe. Except. 

“I haven’t seen any symbols on him though...” I reached forward and kind of tugging on Mammon’s jacket, as if it was hiding just underneath and he started blushing and swatted my hand away.

“Unless you’re using the pact on him in bed, I doubt that you would have.” Asmodeus’s tone, and his expression, were primed to get a reaction out of Mammon, who started on one of his rants about how he, the Great Mammon, was not interested in a human that way and of course I hadn’t seen him like that! And besides, he would never let me do that... Like that. He wasn’t a pervert, unlike some demons he knew of.

I was glad Mammon had gone on that rant, because my cheeks had started to heat up, but after a little bit of him so vehemently denying it. The idea was more funny than anything. 

“Mammon, is it somewhere you can show us?” I was curious now. I kind of wanted to see it. He paused, face still red, and nodded. “Can I see?”

There was a long moment where he didn’t say anything, just kind of stared at me like a deer in headlights. Asmo started to say something snarky and teasing [about how it was cute that he was getting embarrassed] and that did it. Mammon tugged off his jacket and shirt and pointed to a spot on his shoulder. 

I didn’t see anything there, though. Frowning, I reached forward and felt along his skin there, as if I could feel it somehow. But it just felt like skin. Soft. And very warm. 

“You have to give an order first before it will show up.” Solomon explained, stepping closer to look as well. 

Maybe a little too close. Because I could feel his heat as well now and having two hot guys standing so close to me and the only command I could think of to give to Mammon was. “On your knees Mammon.” 

He went even redder, trying to resist for a moment, before a symbol flared up dark red against his skin and he listened, a small glow to it, and it was right under my fingers, surprisingly cool compared to the rest of him as I traced it gently. 

Arms suddenly around my waist made me jump though and I glanced over my shoulder to find Asmo grinning wickedly at me. Solomon was looking at the mark now, and Mammon had been stubbornly looking away the whole time, so he managed to whisper into my ear unnoticed. “I felt that.” 

I pulled away from him a little bit, cheeks warm, and decided that maybe I could ask a question I’d been wondering because it wouldn’t seem so weird right now and Asmo had reminded me with what he said. “I didn’t even know it was there. Is that because I can’t use magic, or...” 

I trailed off, waving vaguely, trying to figure out how to ask. “Should I have been able to... I don’t know, sense it or something?” 

Solomon shook his head, his expression still thoughtful. “Unless the mark was infused with your magic, then no. Even if the marking was your own creation, you’d need to add that into the spellwork. His own inherent magic would mask it too much.”

And all my anxiety about the Seal flew right out of the window at that. So chances were low that he could even sense the tattoo, so I didn’t have to worry about that, at least. And since it had been done by some cheap trainee for fifty bucks, I doubted there was a way Solomon had secretly imbued magic into it. [Not that I was going to announce to him that it was there because there were still too many questions.]

I had a few more questions after that. Letting Mammon put his shirt back on, and finishing up the short mini lesson, we all had to be back to the House in time for curfew, so we headed out. [Which I still thought was absolutely ridiculous, I’m an adult damn it and I was going to argue with Lucifer next time he brought it up, especially since this time my walk home I had two demons with me.]

Asmodeus left Mammon and I shortly after we got back, giving me a such a grin that I knew he was going to tease me about my moment of lust later, and Mammon walked me to Beel’s room, going on about an idea he had to make money. I smiled slightly as we stopped. 

“Thanks for coming with me today.” He started on about how of course because he couldn’t let a weak human like me just go there by themself and I just laughed and gave him a hug before ducking into Beel’s room. 

[mutantsrisingrpg]

Congratulations BECK! You’ve been accepted as EUROPA with a FC change to ELIZABETH OLSEN.

Bea’s skeleton was one of my favorites when I wrote it, and you definitely brought her to life and reminded me so much of why I loved writing it, Beck! I love the straddled lines between facade and feeling, of power and control, of protection and obedience that you explored through her eyes. There’s a tangled web she left in her wake, and her ties to others outside the mob only give her an extra dimension I can’t wait to see you explore! 

Welcome to Mutants Rising! Please read the checklist and submit your account within 24 hours.

Out of Character Information:

NAME/ALIAS: Beck

PRONOUNS: She/Her

AGE: 22 in January!

TIMEZONE & ACTIVITY LEVEL: GMT. I am in my final year of uni, so admittedly there will be times where i’m not as active as I would like to be. Though no doubt writing will be the only break I have from work so i’m gonna want to write as much as possible lmao

In Character Information:

DESIRED ROLE: Beatrice ‘Bea’ Einfalt // Europa

GENDER/PRONOUNS: Cis Female She/Her

DETAILS & ANALYSIS:

Bea is a cataclysmic event of her own making. It is hard to tell how solid she really is, and how much of the forced calm demeanour is just an optical illusion. As if this carefully balanced and closed off exterior is like a thin sheet draped over a gaping hole, of something much emptier and bleaker beneath. It was once such a conscious effort to keep those walls high, to keep herself two steps away from everyone else. That distance soon became a comfort, second nature, a feeling of security. Was that security for her or whoever she was distancing herself from though?

She would have been happy to play on no ones team. Stay a free agent but more importantly, keep herself far from anyone she could remotely care about, for fear of hurting them too. In her mind she’s the the pin of a grenade, finger on the trigger, a molotov cocktail waiting to be thrown. Her’s is a mind so shredded by it’s own teeth that sometimes, there are glimpses to be seen through the holes and tears. Her expression slips carelessly for a moment and something twisted and suffering is there instead, peering out from the body that has been forced into a prison.

Bea is similar to a flower growing through the cracks on the side walk. Other flowers look nice with their neat and pretty garden beds, but rest assured this wild flower had to fight like hell to be where it is now. It takes an observant eye to take a moment to appreciate the violet growing by itself and see the little beauties in her simplicity.

BIO:

Beatrice does not have an origin story; nothing is known about the girl she used to be, before she came to Chicago that one fateful day- a skin-and-bones rag doll girl dragging herself and her sister through the world, starved and desperate. At least, that’s the truth everyone has been led to believe.

There was always something off about the Einfalt girl. Something unsettling. People had been talking about her since you first came into this world, bright eyed and big lunged. There never seemed to be a reason for you to cry, but she was one of those babies desperate to be heard. She came rocketing into the world begging for attention, but her cries got quieter every year until she was quiet enough to make some adults around her uncomfortable. No wonder she had so few friends growing up. The kids called her mouse. Oblivious to her social ranking among some circles. Kids didn’t care that her father was quietly raising in political rank. They didn’t care that she became so quiet at home because he was so loud about what he saw as terrible world issues.

Growing up the word ‘mutant’ was always followed by ‘freak’ or ‘menace’ or ‘problem’. They were made to be the monster under her bed, the creak of floorboards at night. Bea can’t count the times her mother had to tuck her back in at night, begging her not to listen to her father and his wild thoughts. It wasn’t until years later that she found out why her mother was so gentle when her father was cold and angry.

Everything had always just felt so empty to her. The houses lined up one after another. Straight like the teeth every one of your father ‘associates’ seemed to smile at you with. Everyone seemed to be trying so hard to cling onto the façade that they were happy. They might have been. She herself was happy enough but she never understood why it just felt so ungenuine from everyone else. Her life was silver spooned perfection, but she always felt like a dove in a cage. Raised to be gentle but with fiery strength burning her your skin, threatening to burn its way out.

Bea’s childhood never seemed like anything to think twice about until you were older. To her, everyone had full days of classes, learning languages no matter how hard they were to comprehend. She was raised amongst wealth, the few friends she had were just as busy learning through the days, leaving little time to play. It was years later when she realised her father was trying to mould her into his own shadow. Unaware that she was everything in life he seemed to hate.

Growing up with so much fear of even the word ‘mutant’. When her powers reared their ugly head, Bea was rightfully terrified. If her father ever found out about her, it was unimaginable what he would do. A quiet child, her voice hadn’t raised in years. So when her mother dropped a glass, and Bea came running into the kitchen, treading on the sharp scatterings, her scream was surprising. In more ways than one. Bea will never forget the way her mother was propelled across the room, or how calm she was even as Bea couldn’t stop crying. Pressing a cloth to the back of her mothers head to stop the bleeding, all her mother could do was try to reassure her it was okay. The story of the mutant gene in their family was a long one, but Bea’s mother managed to tell the tale before her father got home.

Life was always going to be difficult after that point. Bea went from quiet to almost silent, terrified if she spoke something awful was going to happen again. It took years for her to allow her mother to tell her more about their family, about her mothers own power. It wasn’t until her little sister, Ellie, showed signs of the gene that anything really kicked off, however. Where Bea had kept this secret so close to her heart, it was basically sewn into her. Ellie was never as subtle.

The day their father found out was the end of it all. For someone who’s voice felt like a caged bird, a locked away box to never open. She had no trouble using it when she found her father ready to turn over her sweet, harmless little sister to people that would no doubt poke and prod or even worse. There was no literal blood on her hands that day, but Bea will never forget the light leaving her father’s eyes, or the way her little sister cried and clung to her.

Bea would never have gotten away with this normally, and her father was no normal man. A politician with strong Anti-Mutant views was always going to be well known. It was her mother that took the fall. Persuasiveness weaved through her DNA, literally. Convincing officers and officials that she was the one to do this was easy. Too easy. While some looked deeper, suspiciousness rampant, others were just glad to have this cruel man out of the way.

It’s been years since that day that Bea and Ellie were made practically orphans. Several cities, several lives. Bea’s mother is granted a visit once a month that never goes unanswered, and hearing the pride her voice when Bea mentioned The Jem Family eases a hole in Bea’s heart each time. Guilt still rages rampant at where her mother will be for the rest of her life. Now that she’s older however, knowing that she took out a horrifically evil man, and saved so many mutants? Makes it all a little more worth it. What if the truth is revealed, however? There will still be her fathers supporters, even years later, still digging for the truth. Each day Bea works that little harder, to work on her own powers to protect herself and her sister in case that day comes.

EXPANDED CONNECTIONS:

When there was no one in the world Bea could trust besides her sister. It was a small, lonely world. Then there was her introduction to Jem and those involved. She went from having no one, to people who actively wanted to know and care for her. It was far too much all at once, and frankly Bea pulled away more than she wanted to.  Sensible distance was always kept from people, but it felt like she was digging a ravine between her and them all. The first to start building a bridge was Shae. When Bea took a step back, Shae stepped forward. When someone would usually write her off as too broken, too distant, too uncaring. Shae was always there. Never pushy but always actively trying to get to know Bea. If her life was a constant storm, Shae was the sun behind the clouds. It was impossible to make friends, and Bea will admit that was on purpose. It was a comfort to be unknown. Now its a comfort to know she can call or visit Shae and be understood and wanted. She’s the one person in the world that has some idea of what might have happened in Bea’s past, however no matter how close they become, Bea knows she’s always going to keep Shae that little bit away from the truth.

EXTRA:

Pinterest Board here!: https://pin.it/fnymedfualhdfq

Her father raised her with every intent of moulding her into his own shadow. With his wealth he enrolled her into more classes than a child was ever capable of keeping up with. This included languages like German and French. As a result education is exhausting for Bea, and she avoided going to further education and instead learns in her own time. Alone.

There are very few people that can pull a full, engaged conversation out of Bea. She isn’t rude, she’ll always talk to people when talked to first, but her interest is often elsewhere. She’s well aware this makes her come off as uncaring at times, and she doesn’t bother to correct people.

There’s fear of the unknown weaved between her bones, born from years of fear. But there’s an adventurous streak that brings out the bold and the brave within her. New experiences and the thrill and power that come with them are calculated and thought out butare often craved.

She’s not naive, she knows how this world works. Its good at times yes but there’s so much bad and so many people that fall under that darker side. That she knows to keep her wits about her at all times. Those she has befriended still know only what she wants them to know about her.

The memories are never going to fade, everything a constant reminder of the past. However the longer she spends pretending her past didn’t exist, the easier it becomes to believe it herself.

Theres a rage inside Bea she tries so hard to pretend doesn’t exist. It built her entire childhood, when she had to face fear every single day. Or as she lacked the friends she needed. The comfort she needed. It exploded out of her when her father threatened her sister, and  ever since Bea has tired to lock it away. The only person who ever saw that anger since then was Ciara and it keeps Bea up at night that she saw that side of her. No matter how angry their break up, she knows she could have kept more control.

ANYTHING ELSE: A FC change to Elizabeth Olsen please?

[siriuslymarauders]

Coffee Stain Introductions

Summary: You and Newt Scamander have a messy introduction 

Word Count: 1410

Warnings: None 

Previous works: This is based on a Head-canon I had did Newt. You can find this HC on my Masterlist which is linked in my bio :) 

 You stared in awe at the tall blackened tiled walls, making and pushing your way out of the buzzing rush hour crowd. It was your first day on the job, being assistant to the Auror team. It was not the dream job you had always wanted, but it was a start. It has been three years since you had graduated from Hogwarts, and through those years you have bounced from career to career, always losing your interest in the tasks. But here you were, the Ministry of Magic. You were a firm believer in fate, for everything happens for a reason. And if Merlin wanted you to spend three long years of repetitive firing and rehiring, then so be it. You were meant to end up here at this time, for whatever reason. With your head held high, dressed to the nines in your new works clothes, coffee, and papers in hand you began to march your way through the crowd. You somehow managed to escape the busy main hall and into the Auror department with ease, but as you turned the corner you collided with something, or rather someone. The force was hard enough to knock you on your bum, with your papers flying and coffee spilling everywhere. You forcibly closed your eyes and mumbled a spell to reduce the burning hot coffee now seeping its way through your clothes and onto your delicate smooth skin. As the heat began to reduce you opened your eyes to see a freckled man quickly compiling your papers, muttering quiet apologizes your way. Once all the papers were collected he went to hand them to you before realizing you were still seated on the hard wooden floor. Helping you onto your feet, he clumsy handed you the papers and reached within his pockets searching for some napkins to help with your wet attire.

You smiled as he kept on handing you paper towels as if he had an endless supply. He even went to help you pat the dampness but stopped once he realized he was about to touch your breast. In any other situation you would be upset and angered at the man, but the way his adorable face was looking anywhere but your own, you let out a breathless laugh. You said your goodbyes and began to walk away, but looking back once more you were left speechless as the man was now laying on the floor, reaching for something underneath a bench.

Confused and quite frankly concerned you made your way back over the messy hair man, “Sir, are you okay?”

He seemed alarmed by your voice, hitting his head on the backside of the bench. But he continued on to crawl as if searching for something that had fallen, “Hm? O-Oh, hm, yes. I just lost my Niffler, should be somewhere around here. Ah yes, that bugger.”

Hearing something move from the far corner of the hall, the strange man quickly stood up and ran in the direction. You laughed at his eagerness and made your way back to work with questions filling your mind.

You explained to your new boss of the situation that had happened and you heard him quietly curse before showing you to your desk. You expected the day to fly by with bright colors, but instead, you boredly sat at a desk filling out the appropriate paperwork. As you read each line going by, you couldn't help yourself but think of the adorable man that had knocked you off your feet. Literally. You wanted to find him again, and you knew it would easy. There were not many people who would be crawling around searching for a Niffler, so it was safe to assume that this man belonged to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. But you didn’t just want to walk in without a trace of reason, you needed to find an excuse.

It wasn't until lunchtime that you were sitting at your desk when you saw something shiny move out the of the corner of your eye. Hearing tiny pitter patters dance across the room you were left dumbfounded as the most adorable created sat on top of your desk, slowly taking your gold pen out from your hands. You laughed at the Niffler and loosened your grip on the pen, letting it slide into the paws of the treasure hunter. The Niffler seemed surprised by your willingness and tilted its head in confusion. You smiled as you reached behind your neck to unclasp the necklace that laid between your breasts. Slowly holding the jewelry outward you were able to grab on the Niffler and bring it close to your body, trapping it from escaping. Standing up you began to make your way out of the office with your necklace in one hand and the Niffler in the other. You were too distracted by the giddiness filling your body that you completely ignored the strange looks from your passing coworker named Walter.

“Miss. L/N?” the strange questionable tone broke through you happiness, making you look up at the man who stood in front of you      “Oh hello! Don't mind me! Just returning this little thing to where it belongs” you laughed, slightly holding up the Niffler cradled in your small hands.      You saw him eye you up and down before resting his eyes on the creature in front of him. With a disgusted tone, his reached for the Niffler, “I can get rid of that thing for you if you’d like.”    Staring dumbfounded at his response, you backed away, pulling the Niffler deeper within your arms as if to protect it, “Wait, what? No!”

Quickly turning away from Walter you basically ran to the Creature Department. Once at your destination, you were able to spot the ginger hair from a mile away. He seemed to be distracted, looking and searching around. Blowing the hair out from your face you confidently made your way over the man, stopping right before him. Expecting to get his attention you were left ignored until you made a loud clearing of your throat. With that he slowly looked up, eyes resting on the Niffler cuddling its way into your body.

Slightly holding the creature out, you spoke: “I believe you are looking for this?”

With wide eyes and a red face, his hurried his way over to you, gently taking the creature from your arms. Holding it up, you giggled as he scolded the creature in such a way it reminded you of your mother. With your laugh now filling the room he looked up staring into your eyes with a glisten of happiness. It wasn't until his eyes shifted downward towards your coffee-stained blouse that his face somehow turned even redder than before as if suddenly remembering the incident that played earlier in the day. He began to mumble apologizes left and right, but this time he was looking at you directly in the eyes.

Shaking your head in amusement, “No need to worry. It was surely my fault, I wasn't looking where I was going”

His eyes widen at your statement as if you had lied in testimony. His voice cracked a smidge as his exclaimed, “No, no. I was running and not paying attention”

You two continued to banter and put the blame on yourselves until you had finally given up and called it a tie, “Then why don't we put both ourselves at fault? How does that sound, Mr?”

His hand instantly shot up to met yours as he introduced himself, “Scamander, Newt Scamander.”

Giving him a firm handshake you grinned ear to ear as a blush made its way up your cheeks at the sudden and new contact. Your hands and eyes lingered on each other for a bit before he slowly pulled away, looking leftward and smiling in embarrassment. You stood there like a fangirl basking in the adorableness. But realizing your own awkwardness, you briskly nodded your head and began to walk away. You heard some shuffling of feet as you slowly made your way out of the room. Turning around to say your final goodbyes, you were shocked to see Newt standing so close to you. Taking a step back you smirked at the man, “Say, Mr. Scamander. I was just about to go get lunch? Would you care to join me? I’d love to hear more about this little Niffler of yours”

Notes: This is my first Newt short fic I have ever written! To be honest, I felt like I had rushed it, but I was trying to follow my Head-Canon as closely as possible. I might write a second part to this since it is really fun to write for such an adorable man :) 

[wardensantoineandevka]

A couple hours late but I just saw you saying how Jesse and Fareeha are more inverses of each other and I completely agree! I personally see Sombra and Jesse as more paralleled, and would be interested in hearing your thoughts on that idea? You tend to be very well-spoken and are good at analyzing concepts, I've come to notice.

EDIT - NOVEMBER 3, 2018: With the release of “Reunion” and Ashe’s hero reveal, the majority of what I wrote about Deadlock in the first three sections—Sign of the Skull, Those Left Behind, Revolutionaries and Rebels—is incorrect. Despite this, I maintain that the socioeconomic context outlines in Those Left Behind remains relevant to the American Southwest in-universe and maintain my belief that it is applicable to McCree specifically, even if it does not apply to Deadlock. I will be writing a new post on Sombra and McCree soon. Stay tuned.

in reference to this post… from months ago

Lucky for you, I was thinking about Jesse and Sombra the night before you sent this! Deadlock and Los Muertos, actually, but I’ll get to that. I absolutely agree that the two of them make much more direct parallels than Jesse and Fareeha, who are interesting as a pair in their own right but they aren’t direct parallels.

I often joke that Gabe adopted the same child twice: smart-talking, hyper-competent Latine who tote around skull logos and are from gangs with the word “dead” in their names. It’s a joke—I don’t consider Gabe’s relationship with Sombra to be that of a parent-child, for one thing—but I believe that Jesse and Sombra are very similar regardless.

They both have similar backgrounds: joined local gangs at a very young age and earned later membership into a high-level covert organization through resourcefulness and an admirable natural aptitude in a specific desired skillset. Although both at first look to be unserious and overly laid-back, they prove themselves to be precision operators who indeed execute plans and achieve goals with immense gravity. They’re both supremely confident in their abilities, to the point that one can accuse them of having too high an opinion of themselves and being overconfident.

They come from similar backgrounds, having been orphaned during the Crisis and suffered under economic disparity driven by infrastructure changes in the rebuilding period. They both similarly drop off the map and resurface under new identities. They both have a deep concern in seeing done a justice that is beyond the reach of the law—or when the law refuses to deliver it.

All this, and more, under the cut. The post is very long.

I would also like to thank @segadores-y-soldados for all he’s written, especially on Sombra and especially recently. I make heavy reference to his writing on Sombra in certain portions of this post. I also must admit that reading his posts on Arturito has motivated me to finish this after three months of slow progress, though I still have a nagging feeling I’m forgetting a point.

Sign of the Skull

To make a quick run-through on Los Muertos and Deadlock Gang themselves before moving onto how these organizations inform Sombra and Jesse specifically. Sort of a section to outline basic things about the gangs that doesn’t neatly fit into other points. It’s mostly to establish their context, and some similarities between their structures and presentation.

Screenshot from the Sombra Origin showing members of Los Muertos. Each member has painted skeletons onto themselves with phosphorescent paint in varying colors.

Los Muertos is a Mexican gang with apparent regional influence with members in both Dorado and the nearby Castillo, and it even has some international reach judging from the Los Muertos graffiti on the Hollywood map. Little is known to us about their structure besides this, and even in-universe they are noted to be mysterious with little information publicly available about them.

However, Los Muertos openly broadcasts their intentions: to right the wrongs committed by the wealthy and powerful against the disadvantaged of Mexico. They position themselves as transgressors of the law specifically to disrupt the lives of the “vipers” in power. More on that later.

The name translates to “The Dead”, and they are identified by skull motifs, specifically the calaveras associated with the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead. Individual members openly identify themselves and indicate their membership by painting skulls and bones on their bodies with phosphorescent paint.

Screenshot from the Route 66 map of five motorcycles parked in front of The High Side bar. The Deadlock emblem is spray-painted by the entrance.

Deadlock Gang is an American motorcycle club and organized crime ring occupying a Southwestern town on an abandoned stretch of Route 66 running across Deadlock Gorge. It’s unclear where exactly the Gorge is, and the Visual Source Book’s pin for the map is highly unspecific, but I tend to believe it’s in somewhere in northern New Mexico because Jesse’s base of operations is listed as Santa Fe, NM.

In one lore piece, Deadlock is holding a national rally, suggesting they’ve got chapters nationwide and the founding chapter is in Deadlock Gorge. While it’s unclear what their reach is, there is a possibility of international chapters. (Torbjorn’s motorcycle-themed Deadlock skin may suggest this, but it does not have any Deadlock iconography, notably showing a bear where one expects the Deadlock emblem.)

This does not necessarily mean all of the Deadlock Rebels Motorcycle Club is a criminal organization, nor every single member a criminal, but… y’know, the founding chapter is a weapons trafficking racket. They’re a one-percenter outlaw motorcycle club, and there’s a quick and easy comparison in the real-life Hells Angels, whom the show Sons of Anarchy models itself after.

Deadlock, besides naming itself after the concept of death like Los Muertos does, also uses a skull in its emblem. We haven’t seen any member of Deadlock pictured, but extrapolating from the typical behavior of motorcycle clubs, they likely openly identify themselves and indicate their membership by wearing standardized jackets or most likely vests. Members likely have tattoos indicating membership as well, seeing as Jesse has a tattoo of the Deadlock emblem on his inner arm in his Blackwatch skin.

Those Left Behind

Sombra, orphaned during the Omnic Crisis, was taken in by Los Muertos, a gang that positioned themselves as champions of the underclass ignored during the post-Crisis rebuilding process. They’ve done this most notably by opposing the CEO of LumériCo Guillermo Portero, who they’ve described as having exercised his social influence to have many wrongfully imprisoned and who we know is working with the not-as-noble-as-they-put-forward Vishkar. 

The social context of Los Muertos and Sombra is very directly told to us. From Sombra’s official bio:

After ░░░░░░ was taken in by Mexico’s Los Muertos gang, she aided it in its self-styled revolution against the government. Los Muertos believed that the rebuilding of Mexico had primarily benefited the rich and the influential, leaving behind those who were most in need of assistance.

From a lore post published to the website:

…its members style themselves as revolutionaries who represent those left behind by the government after the widespread devastation of the Omnic Crisis.

And Michael Chu on Los Muertos at Blizzcon 2016 (transcript):

Mexico really suffered a lot at the hands of the Omnic Crisis. The war destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure. […] They claim to be kind of revolutionaries fighting for people who were left behind during the rebuilding of Mexico after the war.

Despite their noble stated goal, they seemingly also cross a line in their illicit activity enough to earn the ire of Jack, who isn’t exactly on the straight and narrow himself but still seeks the right side of things. As Chu added:

Whether or not that’s really what they are up to, because they’re also engaged in a lot of other shady activities. It is up to you decide.

Given a lot of other suspect activity they engage in, that noble work might not be the only story to be had on them—especially depending on where you’re standing. Saviors with their thumbs in certain pies not meant for them, possibly.

The social context that Sombra rises out of is made very plain for us. But what does it have to do with Jesse?

While we know few specifics about his circumstances growing up, other than he also lived through the Crisis and was likely similarly orphaned during it, the description and in-game environment of the Route 66 map suggest the area is one of difficult social and economic circumstances, emphasis mine:

Though the travelers and road trippers who used to cross the US on historic Route 66 are gone, the Main Street of America still stands, a testament to a simpler time. The gas stations, roadside shops, and cafes have gone into disuse, and the fabled Deadlock Gorge is mostly seen from the comfort of transcontinental train cars. But amid the fading monuments of that earlier era, the outlaws of the Deadlock Gang are planning their biggest heist yet.

Concept art of The High Side, showing the abandoned bar in disrepair with boarded windows and faded paint.

At least one building, the Cave Inn (ba dum tsh) in the streets portion of the map, is visibly abandoned, and the theme of disrepair and long-gone halcyon days is especially prevalent in the concept art for the map. This all paints a portrait of a Deadlock Gang that operates out of an area that suffered immense economic hardship in recent years, likely particularly after the introduction of the transcontinental train cars, one of which is featured in “Train Hopper”, a comic which takes the time to emphasize the wealth of the passengers traveling on them. So, the Deadlock chapter is localized within a region that suffered economically under infrastructure changes that largely benefit the wealthy and powerful. It’s possible that these infrastructure changes were made possible because of efforts to rebuild after the physical devastation of the Crisis.

Without going off on a tangent about it, there’s a bit of a difference between “Deadlock comes out of the lower class in a geographic region beset by poverty” and “Deadlock gang itself currently has no money”. Apparently, well after the effects of financial misfortune set in, Deadlock was and is making enough money to maintain long-distance shipping, as suggested by their semi-trailer truck, and keep an entire town functioning well enough as a cover for their criminal enterprise. Also, missiles don’t sell for cheap. Deadlock might be financially comfortable now, but their context still involves deep socioeconomic disparity.

This is especially poignant against the Route’s invoked nickname, Main Street of America, which conjures images of the average American person. Those average people who owned gas stations, cafes, diners, roadside trinket shops, dive bars are the ones who are forgotten while the more affluent folks pass them over, traveling in style. There’s also a historical precedent in poverty and social disparity as driven by infrastructure changes specifically affecting the way people travel across regions and the country, specifically in the history of the freeway.

To sort of make the clarification, Jesse’s tattoo states that Deadlock was established in 1976—happy centennial, Deadlock—so they’ve certainly changed a lot as their social context and membership make-up changed. There’s much to be said about social non-conformity, outlaw motorcycle gangs, one-percenters, community integration, and how these intersect with both the politics and economics of the local communities along Route 66, especially given how the Route was recently listed as one of the country’s most endangered historic places, even in Deadlock’s apparent founding in a period of American social unease after the Vietnam War and during the late Cold War, and extrapolate a lot about Deadlock from all that, and even about Jesse himself from some of it, but that’s for a different post.

Revolutionaries and Rebels

In that context, it’s worthwhile to note that in their insignia, seen in the graffiti all over the Route 66 map and in Jesse’s tattoo in his Blackwatch skin, they calls themselves the Deadlock Rebels. Generally, outlaw motorcycle clubs are also known for their contempt for social convention and disdain for status quo.

Screenshot of the Deadlock Gang hideout with their insignia, which includes the words Deadlock Rebels, spray-painted onto a wall.

Deadlock is quite the opposite of Los Muertos, though. Deadlock maintains a law-abiding public face—holding innocuous and even advertised national rallies and hiding their illicit activity under numerous cover businesses—and are more discreet in their disrespect of law. One can double down on this by looking to how successfully real-life one-percenter clubs maintain their public image: openly contemptuous of social norms but keeping public knowledge of any legal transgressions to only the small indiscretions while hiding the major ones.

Taking a look at Deadlock’s primary targets, military installations: the train cars on the map are military-related, the gang traffics military hardware and weapons including missiles. Although Deadlock comes from a similar social context as Los Muertos, these aren’t targets seeking to effect a change in society like how Los Muertos seeks to. Deadlock appears largely self-interested, with little interest in changing the fortunes of anyone else in the American lower class. Los Muertos bills itself as other-interested, seeking to change the fortunes of the Mexican underclass as a whole.

Archetypically, Los Muertos are revolutionaries, Deadlock are rebels. While they both groups reject the status quo, the revolutionary seeks sweeping social change but the rebel rejects the status quo on a personal level. The revolutionary wants society to change to suit their vision of what it ought to be while the rebel positions themselves outside of society and will redefine themselves as society changes.

The difference is apparent in their choice of targets. Los Muertos targets institutions and people who directly have a hand in the building of their social context, and attacking those targets will potentially affect a social change. Deadlock targets institutions and people who may have a hand in their social context, but such targets are chosen primarily for the gang’s financial gain.

Los Muertos is politically motivated. Deadlock is financially motivated.

Admirers in the Shadows

Sombra and Jesse don’t remain in their gangs. They both end up joining shadow organizations with global reach, the terrorist organization Talon and the covert ops organization Blackwatch, respectively. Both organizations were wooed by their specific skillsets.

Sombra launched an even more audacious string of hacks, and her exploits earned her no shortage of admirers, including Talon. She joined the organization’s ranks…

With his expert marksmanship and resourcefulness, he was given the choice between rotting in a maximum-security lockup and joining Blackwatch, Overwatch’s covert ops division. He chose the latter.

A young Jesse McCree was recruited into Blackwatch after Gabriel Reyes saw his potential and gave him a choice: join Blackwatch, or rot in prison.

The difference here is that Sombra was offered a place, but she did not necessarily need that offer to continue on with her life. She takes it because Talon resources allow her to more effectively pursue her goals. If McCree did not take the offer to join Blackwatch, his life effectively ended. (There’s a whole thing to be said about this offer, why it was the best offer that could have been made to him at the same, and criminal rehabilitation—but that’s another post.) McCree’s decision to join Blackwatch isn’t motivated by pursuit of a specific goal. He just didn’t want his life to be over before it started. In that regard, his entire life is shaped very directly by his relationship to Overwatch as an individual and Blackwatch, even more than simply its role in ending the Crisis and overseeing the rebuilding efforts.

Sombra, as someone who survived the Crisis, similarly has that more distanced influence of Overwatch in her life, but there’s the possibility she may have a more direct one.

With the recent spawn interaction between Sombra and Hammond showing a sentimentality for her stuffed Overwatch bear, seen in her den in Castillo, there is a possible picture to paint of a Sombra who may have some sentimentality toward Overwatch and might be aiding individual members on the sly not only because she wants to uncover the Grand Conspiracy they’re caught up in but also because she has a personal motivation.

segadores-y-soldados has a lot of good and very recent speculation on what this could mean for Sombra, either working with the room in her background for her to have worked with Blackwatch or having her as never having worked with Overwatch. If she worked with Blackwatch, which is admittedly a shakier theory, it creates a direct and clear mirror with Jesse: given a second chance at life through working with Overwatch and Blackwatch. If she did not and the influence is only the distant one, and she simply remained on the edges of society and making use of the space available, it is an inverse of Jesse. I recommend reading these two posts on the idea: one, two, three.

Name: REDACTED

One could compare Sombra attempting to eradicate her identity as Olivia Colomar and later returning as Sombra to Jesse going underground after leaving Blackwatch and later resurfacing to work as a bounty hunter. Their decisions to drop off the map have different motivations and different degrees of extreme, and there is a different tenor in how one disappears as Olivia and returns as Sombra and the other disappears as McCree and makes a resurfaces in a return to that identity.

Sombra accidentally stumbled onto a massive conspiracy that controlled the world and drew their attention, compromising her security and forcing her to destroy all trace of Olivia Colomar to go into hiding. She came back as a completely new person with no trails to her old identity, a transformation so complete that it took years to connect the two.

It is possible to draw a stronger parallel between them here. Jesse similarly has parts of his identity that he’s hiding (but which Sombra knows about):

Sombra: Pleasure working with you, McCree… if that is your real name.McCree: Don’t know what you heard, but my name’s not Joel. Best remember that.

There’s a strong case for the Jesse is the journalist Joel Morricone theory: at some point in his life, he created a second identity for himself and is working to keep the two separate. It’s currently unclear exactly what the details of the arrangement is or why he goes to these lengths. Given that he disappeared for “several years” after quitting and before reappearing again as Jesse McCree, gunslinger for hire, it stands to reason he spent the intervening years living quietly under the Morricone identity. 

We don’t really know much about the specifics of what motivated Jesse to go to ground, but based on his official bio, it seems related to the infighting following the Talon infiltration at Overwatch and Blackwatch that also drove him to quit. It could likely be motivated by security reasons—in a similar but less drastic way that Sombra burned her old identity to protect herself.

Justice Against Law

One of the building blocks of McCree’s character is his stance on justice. He makes it very clear: he is concerned primarily in dispensing justice to the point that he only accepts jobs as a bounty hunter if he believes the cause just and constantly gets involved in vigilantism, putting a stop to crimes both petty and serious.

Through this dogged pursuit of seeing justice done, he seeks a self-redemption for the wrongs he committed early in his life: “he came to believe that he could make amends for his past sins by righting the injustices of the world”. At the same time, he makes it clear that he believes justice and law run on different wavelengths. He appreciates Blackwatch for its “flexibility” to move “unhindered by bureaucracy and red tape”. The Morricone article seems to suggest a belief that justice can be defended by law, but everything else about him strongly states that he does not believe justice is exclusively defended by law.

The short version: McCree has a rigid sense of justice and dedicates his life to seeing it carried out, but he does not equate it with the law. Both of those points are amply evidenced and are at the forefront of McCree’s character. 

Edited sequence from the “Searching” comic where Zarya and Lynx-17 go door-to-door, showing everyone a photo of Sombra. Zarya’s internal dialogue in the last panel: “But no one has seen Sombra. Or nobody admits it. They see her like our Stepan Razin—attacking the rich to defy the czar.”

Sombra is (perhaps surprisingly) similar. As stated previously, she was brought in by a gang who billed themselves as seeking a justice for the Mexican underclass that they believed could not be achieved through legal means.

On her own? She holds to those ideals and that goal. She attacks and exposes the CEO of LumériCo, creating an opening to see some justice done for the Mexican people. (The attempt failed, and Portero is reinstated, but that’s besides the point.) Her continuing interest in seeing the Viper Portero removed only makes sense if she continues to have a personal investment in seeing justice for the underclass of her country.

This leads to Sombra being seen as an extrajudicial force of change and good by the Mexican people, particularly those in the Castillo and Dorado region. Zarya compares her to Stepan Razin (Wikipedia), who as I understand it led force composed in part of peasants in uprising and, though he failed, was immortalized as a folklore hero.

Though her methods are different and her goals much more specific, her actions, at least in Mexico, are similarly driven by a search for justice that cannot be delivered by the law.

The Enemies of Talon

I don’t have a lot to say about this, and segadores-y-soldados has summarized it quite better than I have, but it’s important enough to get it’s own section. But, Sombra working against Talon actually puts her technically on the same side as Jesse is—even though Jesse as of “Train Hopper” doesn’t seem that interested in actually ending Talon’s activities or denying them what resources they want, only in preventing them from hurting and killing innocents. (Though, I doubt Jesse is going to remain in that mode for long.)

It is entirely possibly, maybe even likely, that Sombra is aiding Jesse somehow as well as aiding Jack and Ana. I linked a couple of segadores-y-soldados’ relevant posts earlier, but I’ll link them again: linked before, new link.

Miscellanea, Smaller Comparisons 

Sombra is embraced by her old gang Los Muertos, even though she has broken ties with them for her safety, as evidenced by the gang’s enthusiastic and open support of her attacks on LumériCo. Deadlock openly rejects Jesse and is suggested to have a “shoot on sight” policy for him, as evidenced by the numerous photos of him accompanying rifles and his photo pinned to a dartboard; it’s possible that they resent him for having avoided prison and taking the presented opportunity to turn over a new leaf.

Even after leaving their respective gangs, both Jesse and Sombra still make use of variations on the gangs’ symbols in their personal iconographies. Sombra identifies herself through a simplified graphic calaveras. While in Blackwatch, Jesse openly displays his tattoo and wears a buckle of the Deadlock winged skull; after leaving Blackwatch, his prosthetic arm features plating shaped like a skull. (The iconography extends to the game’s UI also, with EMP represented by a calaveras and Deadeye with a skull.)

Both take somewhat similar relationships to Gabriel: Jesse is framed as a surrogate son and a right-hand, Sombra is framed as a young accomplice who takes a more familiar tack and a frequent trusted partner. They’re opinionated and vocal about it, unafraid to talk back to Gabriel and criticize his planning.

Further in the personality vein of things, they’re characterized as deeply confident in their abilities to the point of cockiness and overconfidence, and they can be accused (and have been, by Gabriel, though with dubious sincerity) of having too high an opinion of themselves. But despite the breeziness, they are highly competent, thorough, and conscientious, and although they may appear to have a lot of things to say about other people’s plans, they execute their own plans with precision and utmost gravity. Arguably, both are playing a bit of the fool to mask how sharp, observant, and cunning they really are.

[pinkvhs]

JSE Ego Content

( UPDATED FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2018 )

this was a post I made as an answer for my friend a while back. Here is a full info dump of everything I know so far when it comes to Seán’s ego stuff. 

Please add on or send me info if you got more. 

Heads up, its a long read. 

Here is a mayhem2k18 master post and Here is another post describing past events too

Mayhem2018 or Mayhem2k18 is also a tag people used this year to talk about the mass ego videos Sean did back in May so there might be more posts there too that I missed!

Egopocalypse is another tag too!

So basically, back in August of 2016 we were first introduced to Marvin the Magnificent during a Jacksepticeye Power Hour. At first these videos were named different titles but Sean changed them to be the introduction videos to his characters. Marvin is a magician video and it ends with him getting frustrated with magic and ends up coloring a cat mask. Thats the only video to this day that we have of him until later in May of 2018 when we got a mask hiding in the background on Sean’s white board both on his Insta story, during the Am I Color Blind video, and on his Twitch stream. However, when someone pointed it out during the stream he went for a bathroom break and when it cut back the mask was gone. Later on in videos like First Winter it is debated if Marvin shows up in a glitch near the end of the video because people have pointed out a shot of him wearing the mask. He also seems to briefly show up in a glitch like form in Try To Fall Asleep along with Jameson Jackson (who I’ll get to in a bit). Its also debated if Marvin is actually powerful since during Sean’s tour it was asked what the egos majored in with college and he said “magicians don’t go to college but maybe literature so he can say some Shakespeare as he sends you into the mirror dimension.”  But again, it is unsure. He is also suppose to have long hair as stated that Sean liked the idea of long hair Marvin over some fanart he saw and during the tour he mentioned that Marvin wanted a haircut for his birthday. The most recent we have seen him November during Sean’s tour he posted a photo of him dressed up as Marvin on his instagram story with a wig and mask a fan gave him

Next is Jackieboy Man, a superhero character who was introduced in July 2016. He has been in videos like south park for game play, however, Sean has said those videos are not canon. It also seems like he shows up in Ninja Sex Party’s music video Cool Patrol and some fans think this is Jackie’s back story but that has yet to be confirmed so it is mostly a fun thing. There is sadly nothing of major or hints of him except for an occasional “Where is Jackieboy Man when you need him?” from Sean during the summer of this year. We don’t know much about him at all he is in a similar boat as Marvin.

Next is Henrik von Schneeplestein or Doctor Schneepletein. He is a doctor character we first saw in September of 2016. When it comes to medical videos like Bio Inc he shows up. He is a German doctor who has a family but there seems to be some issues with that as it was briefly mentioned in his first appearance. In August of 2017, Kill Jacksepticeye was posted and it involves him, Jack, and Antisepticeye. After the events of what seems to be Say Goodbye, Jack is dying and Henrik doesn’t want to lose him again. Henrik is good friends with Jack along with Chase Brody and has saved him before and got Chase help (who I will get to soon). Slowly during that video, Henrik begins to be taken over by Anti. He starts to laugh manically, tries to “hang” himself with his own headphone cords, each time he says antidepressants the word Anti is emphasized and glitches / echoes sounding. More glitches occur on screen both to Henrik as his eye bleeds, voice changes, and begins to beg for us (the viewer) to please help him, “I need your help! Save Jack  Anti “. It ends with Jack dying and Henrik crying out for his friend and it cuts to black. Then Anti appears. Since then, it was months since anyone has heard of Henrik till Sean uploaded a postcard saying Wish You Were here with a beach that can be found in Germany. Then the start of Mayhem 2018 happens with The Doctor is Back . Its a doctor game but “Doctor Jacksepticeye” plays it but the video ends with Henrik opening the door and Jack seeing him asking “Who are you?” and Henrik being angry saying “I am the good doctor and that is MY chair!” and it ending there. Since then we haven’t heard or seen Henrik.

Chase Brody we were introduced to in April of 2017. He is a dad who runs a Dude Perfect like parody channel called Bro Average. He seems like a happy fun dad who is energetic and kind of like a “suh dude” kind of guy. Later in his video we see he is having family issues with his wife and she is taking their kids away from him. It cuts to him sitting down on the phone talking to Stacy, his wife, back to him doing trick shots and playing with nerf guns and a puppet named Chad, then back to him sitting down asking her to “please just let me see the kids”. He briefly gets on the phone with one of his children saying “hi sweetie, daddy loves you “ but getting cut off and him crying (comedically but still). It then cuts to him being passive aggressively angry but still smiling and doing tricks. It ends with him putting a nerf gun to his head and pretending to shoot himself and falls to the ground. However he gets up and is fine at the very end. The next video we hear from his is Stories Untold, at the end of the video we hear him calling out to his friend Jack saying “Jack! Jack! This is Chase…you need to wake up” with the morse code saying “Where Am I”. The know for sure we see him in is May 2018 with TIE, a game about depression. This slowly grows from Jack playing and cuts to him being in Chase’s shirt explaining how his friend is in a coma and how things have been rough for him and he wishes things could go back to how they were “Back to when I was happy. When I had people in my life”. It is also revealed that this whole time we have been watching Chase take over the channel for Jack since he is in a coma.  It then cuts to a live action bit with Chase sitting in a dark candle lit room, sitting alone, face hidden as he drinks many cups whiskey and looks at and old photo (assumed to be his family) and cries. He then walks off leaving his hat on the table and the video ending there. The next video, as confirmed by Robin (Sean’s friend and editor), was Dark Silence.  At the end of the video we see Chase walking around his house with a lighter hearing children’s screams and cries. He walks up the stairs and the whole hallway turns red. Standing in front of him is Anti with his back turned and then slowly turning around. Chase screams out “Where are they?! What do you want from me?!” as Anti walks towards him in a new glitchy way and the video cuts to black. The only recent theory of him being in a recent video was 60 Parsecs with the mentions of Stacy. Sean is also the most excited to go deeper into Chase’s character as talked about recently this year. He was also mentioned in The Watson Scott Test video with the “wake up Ja-” “Ch@se”  and face camera glitches. 

Jameson Jackson is the newest character of his and was introduced in Halloween of 2017. He is a silent film type of character that you would see in old 1920s films with the dialogue appearing on title slides. It starts off with Jack giving his intro and it fading / cutting to him dressed as Jameson or JJ. The video is cheery for the most part and he is carving pumpkins but later on it spirals when he slips and cuts his hand with a knife and is in pain. Anti once again shows up and seems to have possessed him as he makes neck slicing gestures to JJ’s neck, slides saying “watching” “puppets” “smile” “still here”, holding up the knife used to carve the pumpkin, laughing,  and music takes an eery turn. He removes JJ’s mustache while grinning but also cuts back to JJ still having. But then it stops and JJ seems fine and cheery then the video ends with an outro too. As mentioned, he then seems to be in Try To Fall Asleep with Marvin back in May of this year. The next video we have any word of him was Akinator when Sean tried to see if the game would guess JJ. Here we got that JJ is British, but also didn’t get many answers to things such as “is your character a puppet”. Along with glitches in that video too and it ending on a note with Jack screaming into a dark, static, broken septiceye sam tank outro screen. There is also apparently Anti’s laugh at the end too. Its also seems that JJ is mute or has no voice again as stated that for his birthday Jameson wants a voice

AAAANNND for the glitch himself, Antisepticeye. First video back in October 10th of 2016. The concept of Anti has been around awhile, some calling him darksepticeye, but this was the first time Sean actually started to have fun and turn him into a character. During October of 2016 there were many Anti videos in places people today, and even during the time, didn’t think he would be.  [playlist of all October 2016 Anti videos and a few 2017 vids ] However, the major appearance we see him in was Say Goodbye where Jack carves pumpkins and things slowly start being strange like giggling, camera glitches, Jack’s nose bleeding, him hearing footsteps and noises in his house. It escalates where Jack looks dead in the camera and with a shakey hand, slices his neck with a knife and falls dead into the pumpkin. Anti then gains control of Jack’s body and laughs as he reaches out to the camera and it cuts to black with a distant “HELP ME!” yell coming from Jack. It fades to Anti laughing, waving his knife at us and himself as he talks about how Jack is gone forever with it ending “say goodbye”. He then shows up again for a Pax panel opening video in March 2017 called Always Watching. Again, its Jack talking to the people at the panel and the screen starts to glitch and Anti shows up again saying that “he is always there. always watching” till it ends saying “enjoy the show”. This was more of a fun Pax intro than anything but its still an Anti appearance.  August of 2017, Kill Jacksepticeye is when we see him in video next but before that Jack had left pictures and other things leading up to his appearance so we were all on edge. But then again, this is nothing new. Once the screen fades to Anti he says “Who do you think you’ve been watching this entire time? My puppets” and “I wonder what will happen to your favorite boy next time?” meaning, all the other characters are in control of Anti and are his “puppets” and our favorite can die next time we see them again. Next video he is in is Jameson Jackson’s in October 2017  and then Overnight Watch in December 2017. This happened during Jacksepticeye’s Holiday Special charity live stream but Sean pokes fun and denies this ever happened (even though it infact did). From then on we didn’t hear from Anti until May of this year with his full body and completely different appearance in Dark Silence. Leading up to this, its important to note that the colors red & blue are shown throughout mayhem like an indication that yes, this is an ego video. Since before that, Jack(or Chase) wakes up from a nightmare with whispers saying “I remember what he did to me” at the end of Stories Untold and seem to go together due to the noises.  Not too long after Dark Silence, Exiles was uploaded and it has an abrupt Jack showing up on screen confused as to where he is until he finds out he is in the hospital. It ends abruptly with Jack staring blank in the camera, his eyes and mouth opened and gasping for air as blood runs down his eyes with whispers saying “you did this its all your fault” and the ending screen is Sam covered in red light playing in reverse while a siren goes off and some think its an evacuation or warning siren . Shortly after that First Winter is uploaded and close to the middle of the playthrough it shows a dead Jack looking at the camera with blood still running down his face along with a door opening. There was also added Anti bits in the audio that some believe he is saying “Let me out ” along with other things that were not part of the game audio. Close to the end of the game, Jack expresses how “he has never been happier to be home” when even more Anti glitches happen and it seems like a body is walking behind him.  Now the most recent Anti appearances are from Transference of September 21st, 2018 . The first video there was nothing (from what I know of) but the second video there are plenty of hidden Dark Silence Anti moments that are VERY hard to spot the first time viewing. He was then brought back with Three Scary Games 1 Video. There are Many glitches  that  happened in face camera and an eerily similar pitched voice is spoken. There was also a glitch transition in Four Scary Games 1 Video. He was also mentioned in The Watson Scott Test video with the face camera glitches and as mentioned the text of the game being manipulated (thanks Robin). The Next Anti video is from December 1st with Umfend (also titles Time Is Broken..subtle) it has glitches once again and with a very ominous “Do you remember?”. The most recent, December 7th 2018 is where at the end of Sally Face Chapter 4 part 1 with the Sam ending screen being completely glitched out and having distorted audio  (also wanting us to watch to the end)

Some other mentions are:

Sean changing the FNAF Sister Location video titles back in August of 2018 and how the description has been this from the start

Sean changing his twitter header to Anti after Dark Silence

Some skeptical connections with Chase and some other Power Hours

Sean possibly hinting the First Winter video since the first Stories Untold video. He has done date hinting in thumbnails in the past.

Comparisons to Anti now and other Anti videos  

Sean reblogged this post with Chase and Anti involving Dark Silence 

There is also connections with Jack’s fears and Anti where Sean talked about his fears during the Visage play through 

Sean has also said that we have missed some things in his videos before and that alone is enough to make me want to commit perish

There was no major video of Antisepticeye on Halloween 2018 or another Jameson Jackson video

Sean does want to make more ego content and is excited about it. He talked about it during a Reading Your Comments video  late November of 2018

SO OVERALL