#peanut the assassin rogue

[vonspe]

Can I ask about your funky lil crow dude's lore

YEAS everyones goth uncle info dump LETS GO

Scipio Luis Arcelay(De Riva) aka Rook

🐦‍⬛ Antivan Crows / City Elf / Rogue(Duelist)

🐦‍⬛ Grew up in the Free Marches with 4 sisters and a massive extended family(has a lot of "cousins" as well), returned to Antiva as a pre teenager. Joined the Crows for money. A lousy assassin, a good alchemist and poison maker. Great at making elaborate bullshit plans. Got the nickname "Rook" from Viago, who still calls him "not quite a crow". Started sabotaging his contracts on purpose to get kicked out(weirdly, it worked).

🐦‍⬛ Well traveled, "knows a guy" for everything. Quick to make acquaintances, very slow to actually trust anyone. Thinks almost every magical or enchanted item is "fugazi".

🐦‍⬛ Solves problems with manipulate and mansplain first, manslaughter second. A little TOO confident. Canonically foolhardy. Debonair but often genuine and surprisingly soft-hearted.

Extremely important tidbits

🥀 Favorite flower is the bleeding heart

🥀 Canonically good at card games based on bluffing. Also good at cheating at cards.

🥀 Okay-ish lute player and singer. Loves music and theater. Cries over a beautiful song or a happy ending.

🥀 Terrified of darkspawn lmao

🥀 Can't stand not seeing the night sky in the Lighthouse

🥀 Always snacking. Shakes peanuts in his hand before eating them like a dad.

🥀 You will never open doors, pull out your own chair or pay for anything in his company. Stands up when someone new joins the dinner table. It's instinctive and he doesn't notice he's doing it.

Some visual notes bc I just have this

Thank u to everyone who sent me nice messages abt this dude 🥰🥰

[nanenna]

Today I remembered that my favorite thing about having so many AUs is to pick up 2 AUs like Barbie dolls and clack their faces together while making smooching noises.

Behold my beloved DCxDP AU amalgamation monster: DeamonTwinAU and PhantomThiefAU (aka: Selina gives Danny a slutty slutty cat suit, good times)

The story vaguely goeth thusly: Danny is a halfa, the Balance, the Bridge Between Worlds, he is....... the Observants' glorified gofer. You see, there are a lot of cursed/enchanted/ghostly artefacts floating around loose in the living Realm and they need Danny to go retrieve them. Danny would rather not, but they just won't leave him alone about it. Can't a guy just live? At least let him poop in peace! Ancients! Fine, he'll do it if it'll get them to shut up. (Spoiler: it does, in fact, not get them to shut up.)

But you see, Danny has a secret: he was raised in an assassin ninja cult (at least for the early years) before getting adopted by the Fentons. Now the killing? Not a fan, no thanks, he's working on not increasing his kill count, thx. But the sneaking? He could use that. Sneaky ninjas are also good thieves, right? So he cobbles together a knock off League of Assassins outfit, buys a cheap portable lock picking set, and decides to make a game of how far can he get without using his powers (much. He's new at this okay?)

Batman is not having fun. There's some (possible?) League assassin running around stealing verified cursed/magical artefacts! Is Talia planning something? Is Ra's planning something? (Isn't he for real dead? Silly reader, no one is ever for real dead in DC.)

Robin is super frustrated. For all the same reasons Batman is but also because he just knows this new rogue is taunting him. Personally. Because he's Damian al Ghul Wayne and the whole world revolves around him, obviously. (And also because he once pointed at Robin and laughed before jumping out a window.)

Selina is intrigued. Who is this kid? How does he know what to go after? How does he keep evading the bats? Luckily she runs into him mid heist (fortunately they had different targets, she's intrigued but not enough to hand over her shinies to him) and oh he's adorable! She has to train him, it would drive Brucie up the wall. But then she sees his face and oh, she knows exactly who he is, even if he seems oblivious.

Because Danny? He's in Gotham for the ecto, for the Thomas Wayne full ride scholarship he managed to snag, and also because for some reason Gotham is full of so many cursed/ghost artefacts. (Lady Gotham is seething, she worked hard to collect all those curses! But this is her beloved dark knight's kid and she kinda wants him home. But she also doesn't want to give up her curses!) Back to the point: Danny doesn't care about ANY of the rich bougie people. The Waynes give out a lot of scholarships? Cool, that's nice and all. They probably also rub elbows with Vlad or Sam's parents. No thanks. Doesn't care. He's got better things to worry about.

Selina has got a plan though! She's gonna teach this boy how to thief properly, starting with better tools (including the slutty, slutty cat burglar outfit). She also knows that she can't let any of the Waynes (in or out of costume) meet Danny (out of costume). So does Lady Gotham. So does the universe apparently (or just Clockwork maybe), because all kinds of unlikely things keep happening to prevent it.

Danny is having so much fun though! He's learning new skills. Selina is giving him an allowance so he's not living off ramen and peanut butter sandwiches, he's doing well in school, he gets to stretch his ghost powers regularly to go above the smog cover and star gaze in peace. Everything's coming up Danny.

Selina decides it's time to flaunt her find in front of Brucie and makes Danny go to a gala as her date, she spends the entire time clinging to his arm and introducing him around to everyone. Including Bruce himself (who just so happens to have Damian in tow). Danny may not recognize Bruce, but he sure recognizes Damian, and Damian recognizes him if his utterly flabbergasted face is anything to go by. But Danny remembers what it was like living in the League. And so far as he knows Damian is still in it, he was the Demon Head's heir after all. Damian made sure of it.

Oh it. Is. ON! Now Danny is on a mission! A sibling rivalry mission! He is going to make Damian's/Robin's a living hell. Selina going on a heist that has no magical artefacts? Danny's there anyway, always have back up. That necklace in the museum has barely any powers and he wasn't even going to bother with it? Too bad, it's back on the list. He has no reason to be out at all but the bats are on patrol? Well so is Danny. Catch him if you can, suckers!

It's good for Danny, it's enrichment!

[ajarofbees]

Banjo's hapless losers (beloved Rooks) (always a work in progress)

you can tell this is a placeholder profile post because of the lack of any actual good screen shots (havent gotten around to playing through the others i'll get there eventually no biggie)

from the top:

Fiore "feefee" Thorne -Elf Grey Warden (he/him) - Warrior (Champion) -primary love interest: lace harding -the endearing little brother figure you didnt know you needed. originally from Wycome, survived a venatori plot to destroy the city and getting a face of red lyrium exploding. -sunshine with a shield he isn't afraid to toss around and bash someone's head in with

Hakiem Laidir -Dwarf Lord of Fortune (he/him) - Rogue (Saboteur) -primary love interest: bellara lutare -a deeply funny combo of isabela and varric's personalities circa da2. goes from heartfelt to bad puns at the drop of a hat. loves rooting around for stuff, especially if its not his and located not where he's supposed to be. -You Call Tossing Dynamite Around A Martial Arts?

Dorothea Ingellvar -Qunari Mourn Watcher (she/her) - Mage (Deathcaller) -primary love interest: lucanis dellamorte -Much like Twilight Sparkle (a comparison i think is endlessly funny), she's on the shy side and a bookworm that is now thrust into running around outside the Necropolis where people don't talk to the dead or inspect corpses or even know how to react to reality sliding to the left. she's, uh, adjusting. -Perhaps a little overly aware of how shes super tall with horns. -Twin sister to Dietlinde.

Dietlinde Ingellvar -Qunari Mourn Watcher (she/her) - Warrior (Reaper) -More upfront and assertive than her sister, and usually backs her up or acts as her shield. -Her favorite pony would be Applejack because she appreciates how she takes care of her family. -you know how in origins if you play as brosca or tabris you try to protect rica/shianni and then have to leave and trust theyll be okay? theres something like that cooking. -twin sister to dorothea

Bacchus de Riva -Human Antivan Crow (he/him) - Mage (Spellblade) -The funny drunk uncle of the Crows, to Viago's constant chagrin. The enthusiastic peanut gallery to whatever state Viago and Teia's relationship is in. The first Crow to show up to work in a hawaiian shirt. -He's here, he's ready to party, he brought his own lampshade to wear on his head.

Vehris Aldwir -Elf Veil Jumper (they/them) - Rogue (Veil Ranger) -As enthusiastic about studying artifacts (and maybe making them blow up) as Bellara, but they're also very quiet and of few words, preferring to listen to everything and then give their own opinion. -had a very cool artifact bracer that could do a lot of fun stuff (whip! grappling shot! charging cord!) but Strife took away when they got kicked out. :(

Cvetka Thorne -Dwarf Grey Warden (she/her) - Warrior (Slayer) -the Cool Big Sister to feefee's Endearing Little Brother. Does not discourage shenanigans but will make sure less fingers are at risk so its all good. Welcome Back, World Famous Broma Brothers. -would also punch the first warden, but at least she would think about it first.

Dionysus de Riva -Elf Antivan Crow (he/him) - Rogue (Duelist) -assassin extraordinaire? more like lame party boy extraordinaire. -brings a guitar to parties. is only passable at playing guitar. -takes to being a Crow pretty well and was very close to stamping out that little bit of morality before being sent away with Varric

[amintyworld]

Peanut: Someone will die.

Noid: Of Fun! :D

[qu1etwolf]

Dating Game

Chapter 11

The next morning your skin still feels grimy even though you showered twice before going to bed. Sleep didn't happen, not for a lack of trying though. You spent half the night in your bed with the soft comforter up to your chin staring at the ceiling before getting up and trying to find ways to keep your brain occupied. You took a third shower, read a little of the latest time waster romance book you had on your nightstand, made a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on toast, and now you can see the sun poking over the top of the buildings outside your window.

"This is Christine Everhart with WHiH Newsfront. It seems gang violence is ramping up on the outskirts of Hell's Kitchen. Police report several bodies recovered from a crime scene this morning…"

You pick up your remote and turn the TV off with a sigh. Maybe if you just pretend none of this ever happened you can go back to your boring life with your quiet routine. No rogue assassins on your doorstep. Only coffee, your morning walk playlists, your quiet job, and your books.

It's difficult to feel anything but numb. Your thoughts are pins and needles and hard to keep ahold of.

A ding blared through the room, a lot louder than it should be. You don't even want to look at it. The thought of facing another person, even digitally, is exhausting.

There's another ding. You look at your phone and realize there was a nearly ten minute gap between the alerts. It felt like seconds.

The screen goes black on your cellphone as you just turn it off instead of checking the messages.

Your feet feel like lead as you walk down the stairs to the door of your restroom. You splash water in your face from the sink, avoiding your own reflection. Last night staring at your tired eyes looking back at you lifted the hairs on the back of your neck. It felt wrong and out of place.

A little while later you have curled back up in your bed and wrapped up in several blankets. There's a chill you can't seem to shake that has sunk into your core. Maybe tomorrow things will be different.

You walk through the glass doors of FuturePharm promptly at eight Monday morning after spending an hour trying to hide your dark circles with layers of concealer and foundation. You are pretty sure you failed. The brilliant white lighting in the building is like a knife to the brain almost immediately.

Walking past the planters with fancy exotic tropical plants that they probably paid a fortune for, you nod at the security guard in the corner. The clicking of your heels on the floor is exaggerated in the quiet of the mostly empty lobby. You plop less than gracefully down into the leather chair behind the large front desk. It only takes you a few minutes to get logged into the system.

The sound of the morning shift walking in pollutes the air. The next forty five minutes consists of scanning employee badges before putting their personals in a basket and passing them to security to check as they file through the metal detector beside your desk. It is repetitive and you zone out while asking for badges, purses, watches, and other items repeatedly.

"Badge please?" you say as you hold out your hand without looking up.

"Excuse me?"

"I need your badge, please, sir. Personal belongings go in the box there." You gesture at the basket beside the metal detector.

"I don't think she knows who I am. Do you not know who I am?" The man’s voice echoes loudly in the nearly empty lobby.

It is at that moment you snap out of your brain fog and finally take in the dark haired man standing on the other side of your desk in his dark grey suit and red and black patterned tie. His eyes are hidden behind very expensive looking sunglasses. Your heart threatens to beat itself out of your chest and your eyes widen.

"Mr. Stark, sir," you squeak out, "I wasn't informed we would have a high profile client in the building today. Of course, of course, here's your guest badge. I will just sign you in here -"

"Don't bother. Williams? Call this woman's boss's boss's boss. I'm sure they expect better out of their employees." He gestures pointedly at one of the few men in his entourage before security allows him and his men to walk past them unbothered.

"Shit, " you sigh to yourself.

You pull your messages up on your screen but nope. There isn’t a single one informing you that Tony fucking Stark is going to come in today. You drag your hands down your tired face and then smile brightly at the woman who places her badge down on the counter a few minutes later.

Badge after badge, check in after check in, you force yourself to focus so you don’t make another mistake. The longer the morning goes, the more difficult it gets to keep up your customer service voice.

The computer makes a loud ding. The emblem for the company messaging system is flashing down in the corner of the screen. Your shoulders tense as you stare at it for a few seconds before dragging your mouse pointer over to click on it.

A little box expands onto your screen. The little notification dot is beside your name. There are company wide chats, department wide chats, and personal ones. The personal ones don't get used very often.

Your shift is over after your lunch break as you are clearly ill and need to take some time off. Melissa will cover the rest of your shift.

Terri Jones, HR

Oh, well that wasn't as bad as expected. You can work with that. The adrenaline leaks out of your system as you let out a heavy sigh.

About half an hour later you pack your things, and say hello and goodbye to Melissa all in the same breath. The cheerful redhead got there earlier than you expected. You check your watch just to make sure. Of course she did. You start the walk back to your apartment. Might as well just eat at home if you don't have to head back to your desk.

You hear a small roar of noise as you round a corner between two buildings. The voices are a jumble of chaos to your ears, you can't pick out what they are saying. What you do see are a hundred or more angry faces and signs with anti-superhero slogans.

Who Are They Avenging?

We Are Just Collateral Damage!

No More Heroes!

Murderers!

Babykillers!

The commotion is currently being held back from spilling into the streets by very stressed members of the NYPD, but only barely. A water bottle full of gravel bounces off of a riot shield on the other side of a hastily constructed fence. The shouting from both sides is so loud the words are jumbled and almost unintelligible. What the hell happened while you were at work? These people are going to spill out into the main streets soon. The crowd is pretty small, but it is growing steadily.

Anti-superhero sentiment isn't as uncommon as people would like to believe it is. Turns out people don’t like to feel inferior.

Ducking down an alley to avoid the commotion, your head spins with the chaos of the day. It’s not even lunch and something seriously wrong is just in the hanging air like a heavy fog. It's palpable. A few people shove past you to go join the crowd of protestors.

The rest of the short walk home is for the most part quiet.

As you climb the stairs, walk down your hallway, and go through your door the only thing you can see in your mind is the faces of the crowd twisted in anger. You drop your bag by the door and flop onto your couch before turning the news on.

Your hand flies to your mouth as you see a crater where the center of a town once was on nearly every channel you come across. As you flip through your channels the ticker tape across the bottom of the screen changes only slightly between them but informs you that at some time in the early morning a superhuman exploded with the strength of a large bomb and took half of a neighborhood in Stamford, Connecticut with him. There are few details provided other than the search for survivors and bodies was ongoing, with several superhumans arriving throughout the day to lend their help. On one channel a news reporter was interviewing Steve Rogers himself, the stress of the disaster settling in the lines on his face.

You sink into your couch as you, unfortunately, land on a channel playing the Daily Bugle report. The anchor is waving his hands erratically as he speaks with blind conviction.

"These people are living among you! We don't know what their abilities are! I have it on good authority that the Avengers themselves were behind the vicious attack on Stamford this morning! This is a disgusting perversion of humanity and must be stopped! What else do we need to happen? People are dead and it is clearly the fault of the likes of Captain America, Iron Man, Spiderman, and these men who think they are Gods! Who else has to die before we stop them? This is J. Jonah Jameson for the Daily Bugle. Stay tuned as we continue to cover this atrocity."

You sit staring blankly at your TV completely lost in your thoughts. There is no way that Jameson's assessment of the disaster is correct. It can't be. You know the Avengers are pretty often reckless, but not the kind of reckless to take down an entire neighborhood.

Your cell phone dings and your attention snaps down at the screen. You have a new email. There are also notifications for the text messages that you ignored yesterday. The little notification blip on your screen just reminds you that you have issues you should probably handle.

You check the texts first and the number they originate from isn't one you recognize.

–I'm sure you know who this is. I know everything that happened was probably a shock. Meet me for dinner? - N–

A message from about 10 minutes later follows that one from the same number.

–Okay, you don't wanna talk. I get it. Just text me at this number. I just want to make sure that you're okay. - N–

You let out a sound that is something between a laugh and a sigh. The feelings from the other night come flooding back in. You can taste the fear, see the blood, and feel the pressure of his lips on yours. The smell of the car exhaust and the noise of the city clouds your senses. Eventually, you drift back to yourself still sitting on your couch in your apartment but it feels unfamiliar and strange. You aren't sure if you want to deal with anyone even remotely associated with superheroes again.

You check the email sitting in your inbox that made you pick your phone up in the first place.

Dear valued employee,

Couldn't even be bothered to use your name? Typical.

We regret to inform you that your position with FuturePharm has been terminated. Attached to this email is a document detailing your generous severance package. Please print, sign, and return the document by the end of the week.

Tom Lancaster

President and CEO of FuturePharm

The phone goes flying across the room in a burst of frustration. If they were going to do this all along then why didn’t they just tell you before you left? A series of frustrated grumbles and growls fall out of your mouth at the thought of having to job hunt again. You had been at FuturePharm for more than a few years.

Your feet drag as you walk over to pick the phone up out of the floor. You flip it around in your hands and there's not a crack in sight. Silver linings, you guess.

You text Natasha back and your nails click hard against the screen.

–Well, I don't have anything else to do. Seems like my day just opened up. Where do you want to meet?-

She responds to you with a location of a small noodle shop not far from the usual coffee place almost immediately. Walking again out in that mess wasn’t an option you were willing to take so Uber it is.

You jump in a quick shower and put on the basics - a pair of jeans, a black shirt, and sneakers. You pull your hair back into a low ponytail because doing anything more than that is exhausting.

Once your Uber arrives you step outside your apartment and lock the door. There is a shiny grey sedan parked on the curb and the man inside waves his hand. You open the back, tell the driver hello and give him the address to the noodle shop. He turns to you and gives you a bright smile. His face youthful with dark curls framing his temples.

"Do you mind if I leave the news on? The stuff going on right now is pretty crazy."

"Sure. Just get me there as quickly as you can and there's a good tip in it for you."

"Will do, ma'am!"

He reaches down and presses the button that turns his radio back on. The newscaster's voice is clear as a bell.

"- still on the scene in Stamford where the current death toll has risen to 589, with several more injured. I'm sad to report that most of these were children as one of the buildings closest to the explosion was Westover Ridge Elementary. Westover had just begun classes when the blast occurred. We will keep you up to date as this situation progresses. Back in local news, the Hells Kitchen murders are still eluding investigators. They would like your help. If you have any information, please dial the tip line at 1-800-274-2465 or the non-emergency police line. Back to Paul for the weather -"

You tuned out the driver's commentary and the droning voice of the meteorologist. The glass of the window is cold against your forehead as you watch the city pass by.

The car lurches to a stop. Several of the protestors you have seen on your walk home from work had filed out into the street. NYPD are trying to herd them back up on the sidewalk. It seems as if they are getting more restless and coming to a frightening tipping point. You could breathe the tension into your lungs and feel it sit there heavy and unmoving. The driver honked at the people scattered in the way as if that would make them move faster.

The second the path is clear the car moves forward, the last few people hurriedly stepping out of the way. Your driver, whose name you learn is Marcus, carries on rather chipper as if he is trying to distract you and himself from the chaos that was seeping its way into the city.

You finally pull up in front of the little corner noodle shop whose name you couldn't read above the door. You must be on the edge of Chinatown.

You get out of the sedan after giving Marcus the decent tip you promised him and walk in the door of the restaurant. The smell of Asian spices and fresh noodles overwhelms your senses. It has a lovely bar running through the center of the room and only a handful of tables along the edges of the walls by the windows. You find Natasha sitting at one in the back of the room, a brightly colored bowl in front of her and a second one on the other side of the table.

She pats her hand on the table in front of her as a gesture for you to sit down.

You make your way through the maze of tables to the back and sit in the chair across from the somber looking redhead. You have never seen her look so depressed since the day you met.

"Hey," you say with a softness to your voice. "Are you okay? You seem a little...off."

"I discovered what FuturePharm was doing behind closed doors finally. And why I got asked to keep an eye on the company. I was monitoring their emails and it seems like they let you go?"

"Yeah. I apparently had an off day on the wrong day and offended Stark. Not that that is difficult to do or anything."

"Can I tell you what that company is up to? We, I mean ‐ Buck and I, we might need your help." She speaks quietly as if she is afraid someone, anyone, would overhear what she is saying. She is almost impossible to recognize in her casual clothing so I'm not sure why she would think anyone is listening in, but I guess in her line of work you can never be too careful.

"Please tell me. I noticed some things there toward the end that I would love an explanation for," you respond, slightly confused.

She places an average looking manilla folder on the table and pushes it across the table.

You flip open the folder and there are dozens of pages full of formulas and chemistry that you don't understand in the slightest. It just looks like jumbled letters and numbers with shorthand notes seemingly in their own coded language. Pushing aside the pages of formulas, you see dossiers on a handful of people, ones you don't recognize. Names, lists of abilities, backgrounds, photos - they all run together after you flip through six or seven of them. Memos with large black bars of redacted text are next.

"Natasha…what is this?"

"I can't go into detail here." Her eyes shift around the empty restaurant before she scoops up the folder and slides it carefully back in her bag. "Let's finish our food and head back to my place. At least I know it's safer."

After several minutes of silently shoveling noodles into your mouth, you couldn't control the thoughts starting to bounce around your head.

What was Tony fucking Stark making? Bio-weapon? Vaccine? Some kind of virus that only infects Hydra agents? No, that one was dumb.

Thoughts swirl around your mind endlessly. It keeps you in a cloud of confusion as you walk to Natasha's pristine BMW, get in, and begin to flit in and out of traffic with ease.

The bright city lights slowly give way to dark narrow streets, square non-descript buildings, and the occasional safe harbor of a streetlight. The city that, up until recently, you felt safe and at home in twinkles like fireflies before the buildings swallow any evidence that it exists.

Natasha taps a small button on the dash. A delivery bay door on the side of one of the smaller factories rattles open. Beyond the heavy garage door is a sloped passage wide enough for a large vehicle to maneuver down if they were careful and watched their side mirrors.

The small space is mildly claustrophobic after the door slams shut behind you. She looks over at you with a wide grin. "Hold on to your ass."

As soon as the car comes to a stop, the concrete under you gives way and descends further under the building like an elevator. You have no way of knowing how deep you have gone once you finally come to a stop. The room beyond the blast doors that open in front of you is large and has a small handful of vehicles parked in seemingly no order at all.

Natasha pulls the car into the space closest to the door, grabs the files, and gets out.

"Well come on then," she says, impatiently tapping her foot, while your eyes take in the vastness of the garage. Her words focus your attention and you get out of the car to follow her past the heavy metal door into the interior of the complex.

After a short walk down a hallway you step through a door into a very warm apartment. Dark leather and mahogany furniture adorn a space easily twice the size of your own. Matte maroon walls with a grey oak floor, it really is exactly what you would expect Natasha to live in.

She places the folders on a tall kitchen table and waits for you to stop gawking at the apartment.

"FuturePharm was moved here from Austin, Texas after the…fiasco that happened down there. Tony bought the company and its nanotech research. Apparently, they never stopped looking for a way to replicate the serum. Tony is trying to refine the Extremis tech with a synthetic serum. No one but Erskine has ever been able to perfect the formula." Natasha wanders around the brightly lit kitchen as she speaks, gathering glasses and filling one with a honey colored bourbon. "Alcohol or..?"

"Water…water is fine," you say before sliding into the tall bar stool style chair while flipping through the folder again, still unable to grasp most of what is on the pages.

Natasha places a small glass of ice water in front of you before perching on a tall chair opposite you at the table. She takes a sip of her drink before continuing.

"I have a favor to ask. Your login information. Do you still have it? I'm sure they have probably already removed it from the system but it's worth a shot. I need to get into their files and see what they are up to and that would be easier than…well, what I usually do."

"Uh, yeah. I guess. This won't come back on me, will it?"

"What do you think I am, sugar? An amateur? You can stay here for a few days, though, just in case while I keep my ear to the ground and make sure….if you'd like, anyway. We have a guest room."

You sigh heavily. "I didn't pack anything."

"That's fine. I can go get some of your things for you."

"Fine. But I want to go on the record to say that I don't like this plan."

"Your opinion has been noted. Write down your info. The faster I get there the faster the chance they haven't deactivated it yet."

You scribble your information in the small notebook that Natasha hands you. She leans down and kisses you on the temple lightly. "Mi casa es su casa. Help yourself to anything. The guest room is through that door on the left there. I just ask that you stay here in the apartment and don't go poking around the rest of the complex. I don't wanna come home to the emergency systems going haywire because you touched the wrong door."

"Got it. Eat all the food, don't leave, sleep in that room over there. Sounds like I'm in a fancy prison, Tash." You chuckle to yourself. What could be so dangerous down here that you need to stay locked away? Wait. You probably don't want the answer to that question.

"I'll be back as soon as I can. Don't wait up. Feel free to ignore Barnes if he ever actually comes home. I haven't seen him since the bar." She hops off the chair and grabs her things in a rush, bolting out the door.

As soon as the door closes, the room gets deathly quiet. You could hear a pin drop. The mention of Bucky's name brings back all of the wild rollercoaster of emotions from the last few weeks. Part of you wishes that man wasn't such a mess. The tangle of red flags wrapped around broad shoulders, chiseled cheekbones, and steel grey eyes is almost worth digging through to see what you can unearth behind those Fort Knox level walls. Doesn't mean you are any less angry at him for his behavior.

You sigh and decide to try and get comfortable instead of letting your mind wander. You spend the next hour or two exploring the guest room - it's pretty sparse, compared to the rest of the apartment. You fix a meager sandwich with what you can scrounge up in the kitchen. With nothing else to do, you curl up on the couch under a quilt you dragged out of the guest room closet and mindlessly flip through the channels on the television.

Knock knock knock

Your mind slowly resurfaces to the sound, looking around frantically at the unfamiliar surroundings before remembering where you are.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

"Natasha! It's Steve! Open the door!"

You bolt straight up, suddenly fully awake. Should you open the door? What if it's—

"NATASHA! Buck's hurt, come on, open the damn door!"

You scramble over to the door, opening it slightly. The excessively tall blonde on the other side of the door regards you with suspicion.

"You're that Steve? Rogers? Captain fucking America?" you shout somewhere between excited and confused.

He shoves the door wider and reveals one very beat to hell looking James Buchanan Barnes. His clothing is shredded and his skin is mottled with rapidly forming bruises, more than a few deep cuts still oozing blood down skin marred with black smudges and dirt. The one eye that isn't swollen widens a short second before he rasps out "Doll!"

Steve looks from you to Bucky and back again and shakes his head. "One, where is Natasha? Two, who are you? Three, help me get this heavy jerk to the couch."

You wrap an arm around Bucky's waist as he grins lopsided at you. "She's out. I'm…a friend. It's safer for me to be here for a couple days while she chases a lead. What the fuck happened?"

Chapter 12

Dating Game Masterlist

Fic Masterlist

[fridayfirefly]

Lost and Found [Part Two]

Masterlist | Ao3

A/N: I’m super glad everyone liked Part One so much! This part and next part are both from Damian’s PoV. Hope you enjoy!

Damian's favorite thing about living with his Father was that he got to keep his Soulmate's things. In the League of Shadows, Soulmates were considered to be a burden. Under his Mother and Grandfather's watchful eyes, he was forced to discard every bracelet, every pen, every sewing needle, every scrap of fabric. It stung, having to reject his Soulmate like that. The deepest, most instinctual parts of him longed to treasure every piece of her. But he couldn't, not until he moved in with Father.

Now he hoarded her things in a box on the top shelf of his closet. In the seven weeks since he arrived at Wayne Manor, he had found eight pens, three cat-shaped paperclips, two pencils, a tube of cherry chapstick, a set of history notes (written in French), and a shoe (size three and a half, women's). Damian treasured every one of her things.

"Damian, are you patrolling tonight?" Grayson asked from the doorway of Damian's bedroom.

Damian didn’t bother looking up from the book he was reading. "Of course. I don't skip patrols."

Damian could tell that Grayson was frowning without even looking up at him. He knew that Grayson didn't approve of his intense attitude toward his duties as Robin. But Damian wasn't about to disappoint his Father just because Grayson was concerned. "Alright. Be in the Cave in half an hour. We're all going out tonight."

Instantly, Damian’s mood dropped. What Grayson meant by "all" was that Drake and Todd would be patrolling as well tonight. Usually, patrols were made up of Damian, Father, and Grayson, because Drake was too busy with his college courses to go out with them, and Todd was almost always off the grid. Unfortunately, in some fluke of chance, it seemed that Drake's schedule was free and Todd was visiting the Manor.

Damian quickly finished the chapter and set the book down on his desk, right next to an orange highlighter. Traces of his bad mood began to fade away as he got the box out and hid away his newest treasure. Now that he was finally allowed to, he desperately wanted to start losing things for his Soulmate to find. But his fear that she would reject him was too much to overcome. After all, she spent the eleven years that he's been alive having never found anything of his before. Would she take kindly to finding out that her Soulmate does exist? One last conflicted glance into the box of her things, and he put it back into the closet, and left to go to the Batcave.

Two hours later, and Damian's bad mood was even worse. Their patrol had interrupted a drug deal between two of Gotham's most notorious gangs, and of course, things went South from there. Todd went rogue, refusing to follow anyone's orders. Drake and Grayson kept getting in Damian's way, forcing him to improvise every other move. In the middle of disarming a man, Drake managed to get himself cut across the shoulder, which distracted Grayson (who was trying to fight two people at once) enough to get him punched in the face. By the time the last of the gang members were incapacitated, Damian was sore enough that he didn't protest when Batman told them all to go home and let him deal with the police.

As soon as he got back into the Batcave, Damian was stripping his gear off, paying much less attention to where his weapons were going than he usually would. That was his big mistake. When Alfred came to the Cave to distribute snacks (Grayson insisted on hot cocoa and peanut butter crackers after every patrol. Damian would normally call it childish, if it wasn't for the look of profound nostalgia on Grayson's face when he ate them) Damian turned away from his haphazardly placed gear without a second thought. 

When he got back to his gear, he noticed that something was missing. "Drake? Todd?" Damian called out to the older boys. "Did either of you take one of my knives."

"No," replied Drake from across the cave. He was in the middle of cleaning the cut on his shoulder.

Damian turned to Todd, who rolled his eyes, "Why would I take your knives? I have my own."

"Then who took them?" Damian snapped back.

"Maybe you lost it?" Grayson suggested, still rubbing bruise cream on his jaw where he got punched during the fight. 

Damian paled as the realization hit him like a train. His Soulmate got sent the knife. The first thing he ever lost... his Soulmate's first impression of him... was a knife. A sharp, intimidating, dangerous weapon. 

Before Damian could fully process what had just happened, Drake started to laugh. "That's just great," crowed Drake. "I'm sure Demon Spawn's Soulmate has gotten used to getting sent knives by now.

Damian gritted his teeth. "No. She isn't... She's never... I've never lost anything before."

The cave went silent. "You've never lost anything before?" Grayson asked. His tone of voice was devoid of judgment, as though he was worried that he would provoke Damian by being too critical.

"When I lived with the League of Assassins, it was not allowed. Now that I live with Father I am uncertain of how to proceed."

"Christ, Damian. You weren't allowed to lose things." Grayson sounded horrified.

"Mother told me that having a Soulmate was a burden. While I do not believe her words to be true, I saw no advantage in contacting my Soulmate while I was still affiliated with the League."

"Your Mom is one fucked up lady," said Todd.

"Jason!" Grayson hissed, glaring at his brother. Damian didn't care about Todd's words. Todd was just vocalizing what Grayson and Drake were thinking.

Silence crept across the cave, and Damian assumed that their conversation was over. He started putting the rest of his gear away. His cabinet was perfectly organized, designed so that everything would fit into their exact spots, so he didn't risk losing anything. The empty spot where his knife would usually go stood out like a sore thumb. Damian shut the cabinet door, eager to get out of the Cave before Father returned. Damian didn't want to face his Father's judgment yet, not before he had a chance to process it all himself.

The walk back up to his room was dead silent. Grayson, Drake, and Todd didn't follow him out, and Damian assumed it was because they were all going to talk about what they had learned with Bruce. He was angry, but more at himself than at them. Seven weeks living with Father made him careless. He should be - he needed to be - more vigilant, more in control. 

As Damian showered off the dirt and blood from that night’s patrol, his anger faded away into bitterness. Of all the things he could have lost, it was the worst possible thing. And he only had himself to blame. It was his own uncertainty that caused such a terrible first impression.  

Normally, Damian didn’t have trouble falling asleep at night, especially after such a rough patrol. That night he could quiet his mind. He would start to drift off, only to be pulled back by the knowledge of what he had done. Eventually, as the horizon started to show signs of the rising sun, Damian simply gave up on his attempts at sleep. Knowing that he would eventually have to discuss what had happened with Father but not wanting to talk about it yet, Damian slipped down to the Batcave to get a few hours of training in. He hoped that it would help to quiet his mind, at least a little. 

The training dummies had no chance of survival, as Damian’s sword (his preferred weapon) sliced through one after another. Any other day he would hold himself back, stop himself from creating so much damage, but Damian couldn’t seem to stop himself. Once the sword was gripped between his hands he was out of control, channeling all the emotions that he had felt in the past twelve hours into his fighting. All of the anger, the bitterness, the uncertainty, the fear, all of it faded away as his training took over.”

“Damian?” Drake's voice echoed through the cave. “Can we talk for a minute.”

Damian stopped midway through a strike and lowered his sword. He hadn't expected Drake to be the one to confront him about it. "Yes."

Drake opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it. Instead, he picked something small and pink up off the ground and tossing it to Damian. "I think this might be yours."

It was a pink gel pen, well used, based on the amount of ink already used. His Soulmate seemed to lose them at an unprecedented rate. "Did you come here to talk to me about my Soulmate?"

"I wanted to apologize for what I said. I shouldn't have spoken about your Soulmate bond like that," said Drake.

"Is that all." Although Damian could tell that Drake was being genuine, Damian still wasn't in the mood to talk about his Soulmate bond with anyone.

"If you hadn't lost the knife on accident, would you have ever made contact with your Soulmate?"

"Eventually." Damian wasn't lying to Drake, he was lying to himself. Every day he wanted to make contact, but every day he feared that it would somehow push her away. Eventually was what he told himself every day, and every day Damian feared that eventually would never come.

"Are you going to continue contact?" asked Drake.

Damian kept silent for a moment. He knew the answer and he knew that Drake wouldn't like it.

"No."

——————————————————————

It took two months for Damian to fully reconsider his decision. Two months of Grayson's well-intentioned bothering and Father's disapproving looks, neither of which were what made Damian change his mind. Surprisingly, it wasn't a member of his family at all that made him change his mind. It was a villain.

"The view is pretty good from up here, isn't it," said Selena Kyle, sitting down next to Damian. "It almost makes you forget what a terrible city Gotham is."

The view from the top of Wayne Enterprises was the best in the city, but Damian wasn't there for the view. Damian was there to be left alone. "Why are you here, Catwoman." Damian didn't approve of his Father's relationship with the villain known as Catwoman. He never said it to either of their faces, but he was sure that they both already knew.

"Bruce told me about your Soulmate. I heard that you're avoiding contact."

"So Father gossips about me now." 

"He's worried about you. He's worried that you're going to lose something you can never get back... your Soulmate."

"It's complicated."

"Is it?" Selena challenged. "Or are you just scared."

"You don't understand." Damian snapped.

"I understand being scared, Damian. My Soulmate died when I was seventeen years old. We never met in real life, because I was scared. I didn't want him to be disappointed by the real me. And then he was gone forever." Damian watched her expression of grief fade away as she turned to face him. "I can't force you to do anything you don't want to do. It's your choice. Make the right one."

Having given her advice, Selena was gone, creeping away into shadow. Her words had cut through Damian like a knife, exposing everything he didn't want to admit to himself. He was a coward, scared to contact the person he was fated to be with. He was wrong, but he could fix his mistakes. His mind made up, Damian went home.

As soon as Damian put his gear away, he went straight to his desk and grabbed a pen off of it. After all the pens he had gotten from his Soulmate, Damian figured she deserved a replacement. He took the pen (black ballpoint, with his initials engraved on it. Father had given Damian twenty of them on his first day at Gotham Academy and Damian still had every one of them) and brought it outside, to the edge of the Manor grounds, where the forest began. Without giving himself the chance to second-guess himself, Damian tossed the pen into the woods, watching as it disappeared from sight.

A small smile touched Damian's lips, and for once, he allowed himself to feel hope. Hope that he and his Soulmate would be able to be happy together. Hope that it would all work out in the end.

Taglist: @fanboy7794 @mikantsume @hetalia-lover-is-here @howtoshuckatlife @you-will-never-know-how-i-think @redscarlet95 @derpingrainbow  @friedchickening @constancetruggle @melicmusicmagic @beautym3 @kunstner1

[andcontemplation]

Video Store Fridays -- the full list

With the help of @unpredictablybittersweet and @hopbyers98​  I got all VSF off the whiteboard and into a spreadsheet this afternoon (yes that is how bored I am) and I’ve pasted all 274 titles alphabetically below. @unpredictablybittersweet​ and I will be working on getting it organized and searching for patterns & clues 🔍 If there's something you think is notable about any of these movies, hit the reblog and let us know!

<< BE KIND, REWIND <<

300

12 Monkeys

13th Warrior

2001: a Space Odyssey

28 Days Later

47 Meters Down: Uncaged

Ace Ventura Pet Detective

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

Almost Famous

Altered States

Amalie

American Sniper

Analyze This

Annihilation

Aristocats

Armageddon

Arrival

Assassin's Creed Movie

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Babe: Pig in the City

Back Draft

Basketcase

Batman Begins

Batman vs. Superman

Battle of Big Rock

Beauty and the Beast

Beetlejuice

Behind Enemy Lines

Beverly Hills Cop

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

Billy Madison

Black Cauldron

Black Swan

Blade Runner: 2049

Blair Witch Project

Boondock Saints

Borat

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Broken Arrow

Burn After Reading

C.H.U.D.

Cabin in the Woods

Carrie

Casablanca

Castaway

Children of Men

Cider House Rules

Clueless

Conair

Congo

Constantine

Crank

Crimson Tide

Dances With Wolves

Dark Knight

Death to Smoochy

Deep Blue Sea

Die Hard 1 2 & 3

Dogma

Don's Plum

Don't Breathe

Doom

Dreamcatcher

Drop Dead Fred

Dukes of Hazard

Dumb & Dumber

Easter Egg (not a movie??)

Edward ScissorHands

Emma

Enter the Void

Event Horizon

Ex Machina

Fallen

Fargo

Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Final Destination

Fisher King

Forrest Gump

Fugitive

Full Metal Jacket

Get Out

Ghost

Ghostbusters

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Girl, Interrupted

Gladiator (?)

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Good Fellas

Good Will Hunting

Hackers

Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets

Heat

Hell or High Water

Hellraiser (I + II)

Hidden

High Fidelity

High School Musical

Highlander

Home Alone

Hunger Games

Hurt Locker

I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang

I Am Legend

In Cold Blood

Inception

Independence Day

Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark

Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom

Innerspace

Inside Out

Interview with a Vampire

Into the Spiderverse

Island of Dr. Moreau

It Follows

It's a Wonderful Life

Italian Job

James Bond (all)

James Bond: Skyfall

John Carter of Mars

JP (= Jurassic Park?)

Jupiter Ascending

Jurassic World 2: Fallen Kingdom

Karate Kid

Karate Kid

Kingsmen

Knives Out

Labyrinth

Leon: the Professional

Let The Right One In

Little Miss Sunshine

Long Kiss Goodnight

Lord of the Rings: Trilogy

Lord of the Rings: Two Towers

Lost Boys

Mad Max: Fury Road

Magnolia

Mask of Zorro

Men in Black

Mimic

Minority Report

Misery

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

My Cousin Vinny

Mystic River

Never Been Kissed

Nightmare 3: Dream Warriors

No Country for Old Men

North By Northwest

Ocean's 11 + 12

Ocean's 8

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Open Water

Orange County

Ordinary People

Paddington: 2

Pan's Labyrinth

Papillon

Paradise Lost

Peter Jackson's King Kong

Peter Pan

Pineapple Express

Platoon

Predator

Primal Fears

Princess Bride

Prisoners

Pulp Fiction

Ravenous

Reality Bites

Red Dragon

Reservoir Dogs

Robocop

Rushmore

Saving Private Ryan

Scrooged

Se7en

Shape of Water

Shooter

Sicario

Silence of the Lambs

Silver Bullet

Sky High

Society

Source Code

Speed

Splash!

Splice

Spy Kids

Star Wars

Star Wars: Rogue One

Starship Troopers

Step Up 2: Step Up 2 Tha Streets

Stoker

Superbad

Swept Away 

Swingers

Sword in the Stone

Swordfish

Tangled

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Terminator 2

Terminator: Dark Fate

The A-Team

The Birdcage

The Birds

The Book of Henry

The Cell

The Craft

The Crazies

The Crow

The Descent

The Devil's Advocate

The Fifth Element

The Fly

The Good Son

The Goofy Movie

The Graduate

The Green Mile

The Guardian

The Guest

The Hobbit: I, II, II

The Lighthouse

The Matrix

The Mist

The Mummy

The Natural

The Neverending Story

The Orphan

The Peanut Butter Solution

The Perfect Storm

The Prestige

The Raid

The Revenant

The Ring

The Rock

The Shining

The Terminal

The Visit

Thor: Ragnarok

Timeline

Titanic

To Kill a Mockingbird

Tombstone

Total Recall

Toy Story 4

True Lies

True Romance

Truman Show

Twister

Unbreakable

Unforgiven

Unleashed

Very Bad Things

Wanted

War Dogs

War Games

Wayne's World

Wedding Crashers

Weird Science

Welcome to Marwen

Welcome to the Dollhouse

Wet Hot American Summer

What Dreams May Come

What Lies Beneath

What Women Want

What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Willow

Wizard of Oz

You've Got Mail

Young Sherlock Holmes

Zodiac

Zoolander

[abrahamshipwreck]

Ever amazing ever fabulous Ryker @hustleboness tagged me for my Top 10 Niche Interests. Going to have to whittle that down to jus 10 I guess!

Uncanny Valley. Dolls, mannequins, automatons/animatronics. Puppets. I love them all. I love even Reborn dolls and realistic sex dolls for the reason that I just find them so fascinating. Movement in the motionless. The amount of detail and craftsmanship and skill and love that goes into making them. Cant get enough! ADDITIONAL -Rankin Bass studios. Started off with the stop motion films. Guess this is a bonus one but ties in to no. 1.

Clowns. Clowns are funny, all they want to do is make people laugh, make them happy. Its such a pure form of entertainment and the culture surrounding professional clowns is amazing. I wanted to be a professional clown for a long time but I dont have the physical skill for it. I eat up clowncore like curcus peanuts.

Taxidermy. I guess this goes hand in hand with the Uncanny Valley- life in the lifeless. A creature that was once alive is given new energy with the skill and care of one person. Even rogue taxidermy fascinates me. The world of taxidermy has opened up so much since the advent of the internet and once closed trade secrets are open for all to learn from.

Cryptozoology. My ultra niche is probably the canidae- Beast of Gevaudan is my bread and butter to be honest. This leaks into Ufology but not to such a strong degree. Someday I want to go to the Bigfoot Convention in Kentucky, visit famous sites of Cryptid sightings, Roswell for the UFO convention. Places I can info dump and get new perspectives from.

Conspiracy theories. Miss me with that Illuminati reptoid shit an give me Princess Diana assassinations, government cover ups, I dodge the thinly veiled Anti-Semetic shit and dig for the real good ones.

Possums. I just love these funky lil dudes,m8

Extreme Survivalism. Even as a kid (I attribute a good hunk of this to "the Hatchet" and some childrens book about a kid making his own culture around a strange plant I cant recall the name to for this) I always wanted to do the whole "throw me out into the woods and see if I die". Im too chicken for it, but the thought of full self reliance and being separated from the world has fascinated me.

Americana Gothic. From Southwest desert bars seemingly abandoned by time to folkish beliefs of the hollers of Appalachia, this is an aesthetic I hold dear. No idea why.

Bonnebell Chapsticks (Lipsmackers). Still hands down the best flavors and I still hate that they frequently retire old flavors to repackage as Disney TsumTsum or some bullshit. Been collecting on and off since I was a wee lil kid and is still an addiction of mine.

90s Childhood Nostalgia/SFW Age Regression. Perhaps its because of some mental illness but I love collecting things I recall from childhood and getting use from them. Old Aladdin thermoses, backpacks of 90s Disney cartoons, Garfield school supplies, even things meant for very young children. Does this count as Age Regression? No idea, but it brings me great comfort to feel and use. Even things meant for children for myself and probably is a big reason I am afraid to gain weight because many of these things have small weight limits/sizes. This is the only thing I was hesitant to list given how toxic the community can be. Watch as I lose a ton of followers. But there you have it.

I have plenty more but these I feel fit more in the "weird niche" catagory than things like Horror or Musical Instruments or werewolves. We aint here to list the obvious.

I tag whoever wants to do it. Too scared to tag people bc of no 10 LOL

[jakkoftreyde]

This man is my whole world at this point. My absolute right-hand man! He is becoming the yin to my yang! The peanut butter to my jelly. The assassin to my rogue...Wait, what!?! Anywho... Oh, dollface...it’s about to be a whole new world (Get it? No?......... Okay, let’s move on!) 

[witchesalleyway]

Hello again! (Honestly, at some point you will be tired of seeing my bee icon, but hopefully, not today!) In the Keeper Applications, you ask for our alignment, light/gray/dark. I've seen different definitions of each of them, so could you talk a bit about how you ( and the shop, consequently) define each alignment? :)

I never thought of that! That’s a good idea to tag under my Keeper Applications in case other’s are curious! (First, I gotta figure out how to do all this on my laptop!)

Light Arts: To me Light Arts always seemed like it was used to typically help others. Usually a Light Arts wielder tries to benefit the world, or other people. When you think “healers” I think Light Art users.I’d consider them the “less dangerous” side of magic. But I could still see them cast hexes, but not curses.They’d excel at protection spells, redirecting evil eyes, and nature aligned magics. 

Gray Arts: A balance of both. Doing spells for themselves and for others. The peanut butter to the two slices of bread. Slipping on the edge of “bad boy” while still doing “good girl” things. 

Dark Arts: More for the benefit of one-self and it seems to me like it flows best with people that are a bit more moody, or cynical in personality traits! If I had to define them as an RPG class I’d think the Assassins and the Rogues. They are the more “dark and alluring” types. Doing curses and working with blood magicks. 

Now obviously this is just my opinion on the matter! I’m sure others from my company (such as my spirit companions) would disagree!!  

[authenticparanoidghosts]

I went through your entire Alex and Bee tag being entirely unfamiliar with the characters and when it was over I was already missing them... please tell us more about them... I'm content deprived

omg…….how about the very basics of their story?

Alex (full name: Alejandro “Alex” Park) - bike messenger, part-time soccer ref, and aspiring hitman - was hired to kill Bee (full name: Baldassario “Bee” Anthony Ayers) - a first-year law student, fresh out of undergrad

he kind of fucked it up pretty bad

(like really hilariously awfully)

((he maybe asked Bee out on a date in order to get close to him))

(((it may have been the worst date in history)))

so Bee (and Alex) survive the attempted murder and Bee (who has known Alex for MAYBE two weeks) reveals that he’s also a reckless idiot and instead of calling the police, he uses the whole incident as blackmail material

that’s right

he blackmails Alex, the guy who is being paid to kill him, into pretending to be the perfect boyfriend just so he can prove a point to his friends and family

the point being “Bee is capable of maintaining an adult relationship with a respectable and mature person”

Bee, who is FAKE DATING HIS HITMAN, is absolutely not capable of this, but goddammit, he can’t let his family know that they’re right

they kind of gave up on him after an ex tried to steal his dog

or maybe after he dated the girl who got into a knife fight with his landlord

Bee is not known for his sense of self-preservation

Alex, who wants money but wants to not be in jail infinitely more, agrees to this arrangement pretty easily

he just kinda……stops checking in with the people who hired him.  and starts hanging out with Bee, like, all the time.

it turns out that they get along like a house on fire

you know, when no one is trying to secretly kill the other

they have shockingly compatible personalities

the fake boyfriend thing turns out to be SUPER easy to pull off

the people who hired Alex are NOT pleased that he’s (as far as they can tell by all the pictures their target has been posting online) abandoned the job in favor of dating the shit out of Bee

so they hire a second hitman

gotta tie up loose ends

they need Bee dead and now Alex has gone rogue (and knows too much, despite everything he actually knows boiling down to “someone hired me to kill Bee”), so he’s slated to get the axe too

it doesn’t take long for Alex and Bee to realize someone else is trying to kill them

like it really only takes one incident for it to become crystal fucking clear that someone really, really wants them dead

but they can’t go to the police at this point bc A) Alex would get arrested, and B) it would absolutely destroy the fiction they’ve worked so hard to create about Bee’s love life being totally not made-up or insane, and C) what if the police laugh at them?

so they’re just running around trying very, very hard not to die (and escaping assassination attempts in incredibly comedic and cartoonish ways)

thus begins the mystery: Who Is Trying To Kill Bee Ayers?

additional mysteries include: Is That Another Hitman Or Just My New Neighbor? and Is There Anything Bee Won’t Eat (Besides Peanuts Because He’s Allergic)?

and that’s…like….the first arc of the story.  the following arcs have themes like:

Oh Shit, An Evil (?) Twin Plot?

Why Is Bee’s Name Like That (Did His Parents Hate Him?)

How To Stop Your Brother From Killing Your Boyfriend, Despite His Concerns Being Totally Valid

Why Isn’t Beck’s Name Like That (WTF @ Bee’s Parents)

Alex And Bee Make A New Friend

Alex And Bee Make Poorly Timed Puns

What’s The Return Policy On Family Members You Didn’t Realize You Had (Store Credit Is Fine, Just Get Them Out Of My Life)

Everyone Is Definitely Going To Jail Forever

How To Assert Dominance Over Your Siblings

How To Fake Your Death And Move To China

How To Get Your Fake Boyfriend To Be Your Real Boyfriend (Please Help)

@komodoclassic has co-custody of Alex and Bee and their story, so feel free to hit her up for additional info/a second perspective!

[impactcomicscbr]

Bestsellers for 2016

The imps have finished crunching the numbers and come up with the lists of the best sellers for 2016 – It really is the age of Image Comics!

Manga

Others

Bestselling Graphic Volumes

1 SAGA TP VOL 06 2 SAGA TP VOL 01 3 PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 01 4 SAGA TP VOL 05 5 BATMAN The KILLING JOKE 6 WALKING DEAD VOL 25 7 SAGA TP VOL 02 8 SAGA TP VOL 04 9 LUMBERJANES TP VOL 01 10 SAGA TP VOL 03 11 WICKED & DIVINE TP VOL 03 12 WALKING DEAD VOL 01 13 CIVIL WAR TP 14 WALKING DEAD VOL 26 15 BATMAN (N52) TP VOL 01 THE COURT OF OWLS 16 WATCHMEN TP 17 DC SUPER HERO GIRLS TP VOL 01 FINALS CRISIS 18 STAR WARS DARTH VADER TP VOL 01 19 BONE COLOR ED SC VOL 01 OUT FROM BONEVILLE 20 LUMBERJANES TP VOL 02 21 PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 02 22 LUMBERJANES TP VOL 03 23 STAR WARS DARTH VADER TP VOL 02 24 FLASH (N52) TP VOL 01 MOVE FORWARD 25 HARLEY QUINN TP VOL 01 HOT IN THE CITY 26 BATMAN DARK KNIGHT RETURNS TP 27 STAR WARS TP VOL 02 28 NIMONA GN 29 SANDMAN VOL 01 PRELUDES & NOCTURNES 30 SUICIDE SQUAD TP VOL 01 31 WICKED & DIVINE TP VOL 01 32 DEADPOOL TP VOL 01 DEAD PRESIDENTS 33 EAST OF WEST TP VOL 05 34 STAR WARS TP VOL 01 35 WICKED & DIVINE TP VOL 04 36 WOLVERINE OLD MAN LOGAN TP 37 BATMAN (N52) TP VOL 02 THE CITY OF OWLS 38 BATMAN YEAR ONE DELUXE SC 39 DEADPOOL KILLS MARVEL UNIVERSE TP 40 WALKING DEAD VOL 02 41 BATMAN (N52) TP VOL 07 ENDGAME 42 BATMAN (N52) TP VOL 03 DEATH OF THE FAMILY 43 INVADER ZIM TP VOL 01 44 JUSTICE LEAGUE (N52) TP VOL 01 45 STAR WARS TP VADER DOWN 46 JOKER DEATH Of The FAMILY TP (N52) 47 RAT QUEENS TP VOL 03 DEMONS 48 WICKED & DIVINE TP VOL 02 49 LUMBERJANES TP VOL 04 50 BATMAN (N52) TP VOL 06 GRAVEYARD SHIFT 51 DEADPOOL BY DANIEL WAY COMPLETE COLL TP VOL 01 52 SEX CRIMINALS TP VOL 01 53 Y THE LAST MAN TP BOOK 01 54 EAST OF WEST TP VOL 06 55 MONSTRESS TP 56 FABLES VOL 01 LEGENDS IN EXILE 57 NEW SUICIDE SQUAD TP VOL 01 PURE INSANITY 58 PREACHER TP BOOK 01 59 STAR WARS SHATTERED EMPIRE TP 60 BATMAN HUSH – COMPLETE TP 61 FLASH REBIRTH TP 62 SEX CRIMINALS TP VOL 03 63 BATMAN (N52) TP VOL 04 ZERO YEAR SECRET CITY 64 EAST OF WEST TP VOL 01 65 HARLEY QUINN TP VOL 02 POWER OUTAGE 66 RICK & MORTY TP VOL 01 67 STAR WARS TP VOL 03 REBEL JAIL 68 AMULET SC VOL 07 FIRELIGHT 69 BATMAN (N52) TP VOL 05 ZERO YEAR DARK CITY 70 INJUSTICE GODS AMONG US YEAR 1 TP VOL 02 71 RAT QUEENS TP VOL 01 72 SUICIDE SQUAD TP VOL 02 BASILISK RISING 73 WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM TP VOL 01 74 WALKING DEAD VOL 03 75 WALKING DEAD VOL 04 76 WONDER WOMAN EARTH ONE HC VOL 01 77 FLASHPOINT TP 78 MARVEL 1602 TP 79 PREACHER TP BOOK 02 80 SANDMAN VOL 02 THE DOLLS HOUSE 81 STEVEN UNIVERSE TP VOL 01 82 DEADPOOL VOL 01 SECRET INVASION TP 83 DESCENDER TP VOL 01 TIN STARS 84 LOW TP VOL 01 85 STAR WARS DARTH VADER TP VOL 03 86 AMULET SC VOL 01 STONEKEEPER 87 AVATAR LAST AIRBENDER TP VOL 12 SMOKE & SHADOW PART 3 88 BATMAN (N52) HC VOL 08 SUPERHEAVY 89 BITCH PLANET TP VOL 01 90 DEADPOOL TP VOL 02 SOUL HUNTER 91 FIGHT CLUB 2 HC 92 FLASH TP VOL 02 ROGUES REVOLUTION 93 INJUSTICE GODS AMONG US YEAR 1 TP VOL 01 94 SUICIDE SQUAD TP VOL 03 DEATH IS FOR SUCKERS 95 UMBRELLA ACADEMY TP VOL 01 96 GOTHAM ACADEMY TP VOL 01 97 HARLEY QUINN’S GREATEST HITS TP 98 JUSTICE LEAGUE (N52) TP VOL 03 99 MS MARVEL TP VOL 01 NO NORMAL 100 WAYWARD TP VOL 01

  Manga

Others

The imps have finished crunching the numbers and come up with the lists of the best sellers for 2016 – Is there anyone who doesn’t like One Punch Man?

Graphic Novels

Others

Bestselling manga volumes

1 ONE PUNCH MAN GN VOL 01 2 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 01 3 FAIRY TAIL GN VOL 01 4 ONE PUNCH MAN GN VOL 02 5 TOKYO GHOUL GN VOL 01 6 ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM GN VOL 01 7 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 02 8 ONE PIECE TP VOL 01 9 ONE PUNCH MAN GN VOL 04 10 SAILOR MOON TP VOL 01 11 TOKYO GHOUL GN VOL 02 12 ONE PUNCH MAN GN VOL 06 13 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 17 14 ONE PUNCH MAN GN VOL 03 15 ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM GN VOL 02 16 BLACK BUTLER TP VOL 01 17 DEATH NOTE TP VOL 01 18 NARUTO VOL 72 19 ONE PUNCH MAN GN VOL 05 20 ALL YOU NEED IS KILL 2in1 GN 21 ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM GN VOL 03 22 DEATH NOTE BLACK ED TP V0L 01 23 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST 3in1 ED VOL 01 24 MY HERO ACADEMIA GN VOL 01 25 ONE PUNCH MAN GN VOL 07 26 YO-KAI WATCH GN VOL 01 27 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 03 28 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 04 29 HAIKYU GN VOL 01 30 LONE WOLF & CUB OMNIBUS TP VOL 01 31 MASTER KEATON GN VOL 01 32 ONE PIECE 3in1 TP VOL 01 33 POKEMON ADVENTURES TP VOL 02 34 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 18 35 DRAGON BALL 3in1 TP VOL 01 36 NARUTO 3in1 ED TP VOL 01 37 NARUTO VOL 01 38 ONE PIECE TP VOL 02 39 TOKYO GHOUL GN VOL 03 40 TOKYO GHOUL GN VOL 04 41 TOKYO GHOUL GN VOL 05 42 ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM GN VOL 04 43 BLEACH 3in1 ED VOL 01 44 BLEACH VOL 66 45 DEATH NOTE TP VOL 02 46 FAIRY TAIL GN VOL 02 47 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST TP VOL 01 48 ONE PUNCH MAN GN VOL 08 49 TOKYO GHOUL GN VOL 06 50 AKIRA GN VOL 01 51 ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM GN VOL 08 52 BERSERK TP VOL 01 53 BLACK BUTLER TP VOL 02 54 FAIRY TAIL GN VOL 03 55 POKEMON ADVENTURES TP VOL 03 56 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 05 57 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 19 58 DEADMAN WONDERLAND GN VOL 01 59 LEGEND OF ZELDA GN VOL 01 OCARINA OF TIME PT 1 60 TOKYO GHOUL GN VOL 07 61 ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM GN VOL 07 62 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 09 63 DEATH NOTE BLACK ED TP VOL 02 64 FOOD WARS SHOKUGEKI NO SOMA GN VOL 01 65 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST 3in1 ED VOL 02 66 LEGEND OF ZELDA GN VOL 02 OCARINA OF TIME PT 2 67 LOVE STAGE GN VOL 01 68 MONSTER MUSUME GN VOL 08 69 MY HERO ACADEMIA GN VOL 02 70 MY HERO ACADEMIA GN VOL 03 71 NARUTO VOL 02 72 NEW LONE WOLF AND CUB TP VOL 01 73 ONE PIECE 3in1 TP VOL 02 74 ONE PIECE TP VOL 03 75 POKEMON ADVENTURES TP VOL 04 76 RUROUNI KENSHIN VIZ BIG ED GN VOL 01 77 SAILOR MOON TP VOL 02 78 ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM GN VOL 06 79 ASTRO BOY OMNIBUS TP VOL 01 80 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 10 81 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 11 82 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 12 83 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 13 84 BAKUMAN TP VOL 01 85 BIOMEGA GN VOL 01 86 BLUE EXORCIST GN VOL 01 87 CARDCAPTOR SAKURA OMNIBUS TP VOL 01 88 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST TP VOL 02 89 INU YASHA VIZBIG ED GN VOL 01 90 JOJOS BIZARRE ADV PHANTOM BLOOD HC VOL 01 91 MAGICAL GIRL APOCALYPSE GN VOL 01 92 NEON GENESIS EVANGELION 3IN1 TP VOL 01 93 NGE SHINJI IKARI RAISING PROJECT TP VOL 15 94 ONE PUNCH MAN GN VOL 09 95 POKEMON ADVENTURES TP VOL 06 96 USAGI YOJIMBO SAGA TP VOL 01 97 YO-KAI WATCH GN VOL 03 98 AKAME GA KILL GN VOL 05 99 AKAME GA KILL GN VOL 06 100 ATTACK ON TITAN BEFORE THE FALL GN VOL 01

Graphic Novels

Others

The imps have finished crunching the numbers and come up with the lists of the best sellers for 2016 – Even comics fans love a good colouring book!

Graphic Novels

Manga

Bestselling books that aren’t comics

1 COLOUR YOUR OWN CIVIL WAR TP 2 WORLD OF WARCRAFT CHRONICLE HC VOL 01 3 THING EXPLAINER 4 COLOUR YOUR OWN DEADPOOL TP 5 STAR WARS JEDI ACADEMY 6 STAR WARS VADER’S LITTLE PRINCESS 7 STAR WARS JEDI ACADEMY YR PHANTOM BULLY 8 BEDTIME FOR BATMAN – PICTURE BOOK 9 BEHIND THE LINES – THE YEAR’S BEST CARTOONS 2016 10 DOCTOR WHO: TRAVELS IN TIME COLOURING BOOK 11 MAKING COMICS STORYTELLING SECRETS OF COMICS MANGA & GN 12 BEST AUSTRALIAN POLITICAL CARTOONS 2016 13 DOCTOR WHO: TWELVE DOCTORS OF CHRISTMAS 14 FOOTROT FLATS – WISDOM OF DOG 15 LEGEND OF ZELDA HYRULE HISTORIA HC 16 STAR WARS JEDI ACADEMY YR RETURN OF THE PADAWAN 17 ART OF FIRE EMBLEM AWAKENING HC 18 ART OF MIYAZAKI’S MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO 19 DC SUPER FRIENDS BIG HEROES! LITTL GOLDEN BOOK 20 ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM – SKYRIM LIBRARY Vol 1 HISTORIES 21 FIREFLY A CELEBRATION ANNIVERSARY ED 22 LADYBIRD BOOK OF THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE 23 MISS PEREGRINES HOME PECULIAR CHILDREN TP FILM TIE IN 24 POKEMON DELUXE ESSENTIAL HANDBOOK 25 SINGING BONES BY SHAUN TAN 26 STAR WARS CROCHET 27 GARFIELD FAT CAT 3 PACK VOL 01 28 LEGEND Of KORRA ART ANIMATED SERIES BOOK 01 AIR HC 29 LEGO STAR WARS YODA CHRONICLES 30 MARVEL ENCYCLOPEDIA HC 31 PEANUTS (Charles M SCHULZ) SC 32 STAR WARS – GOODNIGHT DARTH VADER 33 STAR WARS ART – CONCEPT HC 34 UNDERSTANDING COMICS TP 35 WONDER WOMAN I AM WONDER WOMAN – I CAN READ BOOK 36 ALIEN – OUT OF THE SHADOWS 37 ARCHER – HOW TO ARCHER 38 ART OF MIYAZAKI’S HOWLS MOVING CASTLE 39 ART OF PRINCESS MONONOKE HC 40 ART OF UNCHARTED 4 HC A THIEFS END 41 CYANIDE & HAPPINESS STAB FACTORY TP 42 DC COMICS STICKER COLLECTION 43 DIABLO III BOOK OF TYRAEL Hardcover 44 HAYAO MIYAZAKI STARTING POINT 1979-1996 SC 45 STAR WARS CHARACTER ENCYCLOPEDIA 46 ART OF MIYAZAKI’S NAUSICAä Of The VALLEY OF THE WIND Watercolor 47 ART OF THE MASS EFFECT UNIVERSE 48 BOBS BURGERS BURGER BOOK HC 49 CBLDF PRESENTS SHE CHANGED COMICS 50 COLOURING DC HARLEY QUINN & THE SUICIDE SQUAD 51 DC COMICS ENCYCLOPEDIA HC 52 DC COMICS ULTIMATE CHARACTER GUIDE 53 WONDER WOMAN ABCs BOARD BOOK 54 DOCTOR WHO ESSENTIAL GUIDE 55 DRAGON AGE – LAST FLIGHT NOVEL 56 ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM  – SKYRIM LIBRARY Vol 2 MAN, MER & BEAST 57 ERIC – SHAUN TAN 58 FIREFLY Gorramn Shiniest DICTIONARY & PHRASEBOOK in the ‘Verse HC 59 FOOTROT FLATS – ESSENTIAL 60 LEGEND OF KORRA ART ANIMATED SERIES HC BOOK 04 BALANCE 61 MARVEL AVENGERS CAPTAIN AMERICA ULTIMATE GUIDE 62 MARVEL AVENGERS: ADVENTURES OF S… 63 MARVELS Captain America 3: CIVIL… 64 MY LITTLE PONY – ART OF EQUESTRI… 65 PEANUTS – GOOD GRIEF,  MORE PEAN… 66 PEANUTS – MORE PEANUTS! (Charles… 67 PONYO PICTURE BOOK 68 PRINCESS MONONOKE FIRST STORY HC 69 SMALL GODS (Terry PRATCHETT) 70 STAR WARS LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK I A… 71 STAR WARS LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK I A… 72 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S STAR WARS:… 73 WORLD OF THE WITCHER HC 74 LEGO DC COMICS SUPER HEROES: BATMAN’S MISSIONS (DK READER L3) 75 MANGA DRAWING CLASS

Graphic Novels

Manga

[aion-rsa]

Daredevil: Who is Bullseye?

https://ift.tt/2OyHT6i

The big Daredevil season 3 villain has a crazy Marvel history. Here's everything you need to know about Bullseye.

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Feature Marc Buxton

Marvel

Oct 18, 2018

Netflix

Daredevil

Daredevil Season 3

Things are about to get deadly on the mean streets of Marvel because Bullseye is coming to Netflix’s Daredevil season 3. Fans have been awaiting Bullseye’s arrival since the first season, and with good reason. Over the years, many writers and artists have done their creative best to make Bullseye one of the most fearsome foes in the Marvel Universe. So let us go back in time and discover the deadly secrets of Bullseye, the man who never misses. Be warned though, as we travel back and find these greatest Bullseye stories, the journey is littered with the corpses of men and women (and thus, potential spoilers) who crossed Bullseye. Victims punctured with playing cards, pierced with paper clips, and penetrated by ninja weapons. 

The first character known as Bulls-Eye (not Bullseye) appeared in Nick Fury: Agent Of SHIELD #15 (1969) by Gary Friedrich and artist Herb Trimpe. This Bulls-Eye attempted to kill Nick Fury but was taken out by Dum Dum Dugan. Bulls-Eye was packed away into Marvel obscurity and seemingly has no connection with the Daredevil baddie, but when a villain possessing the moniker returned, the Marvel Universe would become a much more dangerous place.

It’s hard to imagine that Bullseye has become such a major force of evil in the Marvel Universe considering the assassin has no powers. He is highly trained in martial arts and has perfect aim. Bullseye used to be a pitcher in the major leagues but was banned and prosecuted for killing a batter with a bean ball. From there, Bullseye trained himself to kill with any object from office supplies, to peanuts, to playing cards. 

With all that being said, let’s get to our reading list/history...

The Bullseye we all love to hate first appeared in Daredevil #131 (1976) and was created by Marv Wolfman and John Romita Sr. Now, you guys have to understand one thing about Daredevil’s rogues gallery circa 1976: it was not very good. It was fun and some characters like Kilgrave the Purple Man (you know, from Jessica Jones), Gladiator (good ol' Melvin Potter, who keeps popping up on the Daredevil Netflix series), and, of course, Wilson Fisk, have all gone on to star in some phenomenal tales, but this era of DD villains was before the days of Typhoid Mary and Elektra, so when Wolfman and company first introduced Bullseye, he seemed like another one-and-done DD baddie.

Admittedly, in this first appearance of Bullseye, the villain had a bit more of an edge to him compared to, let’s say, Matador or Stilt-Man (but let’s face it, a potato has more of an edge than Matador). In Bullseye’s first battle with Daredevil, he sets up a series of exhortation and murder plots and even publicizes himself in an interview with the Daily Bugle. Bullseye actually defeats Daredevil but soon, Matt pulls himself together, and for the first time, lays the smack down on Bullseye. Wolfman told a tight yarn and Bullseye was daringly different, but the master assassin could have just been another forgettable entry in the Daredevil rogues gallery...if it wasn’t for Frank Miller.

Frank Miller

When Bullseye would next appear, it was an issue drawn by the creator that would fully unleash Bullseye on the Marvel Universe: Frank Miller. Don't forget about writer Roger McKenzie who penned the story that first unleashed the full brunt of Bullseye on Marvel. In Daredevil #160-161 (1979), Bullseye desperately wants revenge on DD for his previous defeat, so he kidnaps Daredevil’s than true love the Black Widow and forces Matt Murdock into a brutal confrontation. McKenzie writes a tight, brutal tale while Miller finds frenetic visual language to bring Bullseye to life. The master assassin must have struck a chord in Miller, because when the iconic creator had full creative control of the book, he put Bullseye front and center.

In Daredevil #169 (1981), both written and drawn by Miller, the full horror of Bullseye is unleashed. In this issue, Bullseye finds himself with a brain tumor. The villain is so obsessed with Daredevil, that now everyone he sees resembles the Man Without Fear. So Bullseye goes on an epic killing spree. By issue’s end, Daredevil stops Bullseye’s reign of terror, but with this single issue, Bullseye basically became Marvel’s Joker, an unstoppable force of insanity.

Read Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson on Amazon

In Daredevil #171-172 (1981) by Miller, Bullseye becomes the hired assassin of Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. This is Kingpin at his most driven and violent because he just had to bury his beloved wife Vanessa. Kingpin wanted to burn the world and Bullseye would be his match. This unholy alliance would define both villains for decades to come. Which brings us to a moment that would solidify Bullseye as one of Marvel’s most heinous villains forevermore...

The Death of Elektra

“…You’re pretty good. But me…I’m magic.” With those words in Miller’s Daredevil #181 (1982), Bullseye slits Elektra’s throat with a playing card and plunges her own Sai into her chest. You see, at that point, Kingpin had replaced Bullseye with Elektra and the psycho killer that never misses had something to prove. Of course, Elektra was also Matt Murdock’s lover so her death sent shockwaves through the world of comics. It was a watershed moment as the seemingly unstoppable Elektra was systematically dismantled and murdered by Bullseye and became one of the first truly unforgettable Marvel moment of the 1980s.

Bullseye paid for his actions when Daredevil tossed the killer off a rooftop, shattering his spine. Bullseye was paralyzed and things took an even darker turn when Daredevil visits Bullseye in the hospital in Daredevil #191(1983). As Bullseye lay immobile, Daredevil plays a faux game of Russian roulette with the prone killer. It was the darkest moment of Miller’s run on Daredevil and may have been the darkest moment in the history of Marvel. A hero pressing a gun to the temple of a killer that robbed him of his great love. Damn.

Read Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Vol. 2 on Amazon

Elektra was not the last love Bullseye would take from Matt Murdock...

The Death of Karen Page

The coming of Bullseye to Netflix could mean horrible things for one Karen Page. Because in the famed Guardian Devil (1999) storyline by writer Kevin Smith (snootches) and artist Joe Quesada, Bullseye is hired by the Spider-Man villain Mysterio to kidnap an infant. During the case, Bullseye uses Daredevil’s own billy club to kill Daredevil’s other great love Karen Page. Page had been Matt Murdock’s constant since Daredevil #1 and now, like Elektra, she was dead because of Bullseye. 

Read Daredevil: Guardian Devil on Amazon

Hardcore

When Brian Michael Bendis took over Daredevil in the late 90s, fans knew the writer had a killer Bullseye story ready and waiting. After all, Bendis is and was a master of hardcore crime sagas and dark noir. Fans were not disappointed when Bendis presented the storylines “Lowlife” and “Hardcore” in which Matt Murdock’s identity as Daredevil is revealed to the world.

Bullseye uses this new revelation to attack Murdock’s life and attempts to murder DD”s current lover Milla Donovan. Murdock is having none of it and confronts Bullseye. With the rage of the loss of Elektra and Karen, Daredevil beats Bullseye almost to death and carves a bullseye symbol into the killer’s head. Yeah, it was a response to the best-forgotten Daredevil movie of the late 90s, but it was a moment of pure vengeance as Daredevil finally made Bullseye pay for all the pain he caused.

Read Daredevil: Hardcore on Amazon

Thunderbolts

The next time Bullseye would appear would finally be separate from the world of Daredevil. Bullseye joined the Thunderbolts team led by Norman Osborn. Bullseye operated as Osborn’s most secret of weapons and was only unleashed on the most dangerous of missions. So let that sink in, Bullseye is so deadly, even Norman Osborn was wary of the master killer. As a member of the Thunderbolts, Bullseye helped fight Spider-Man, the Skrulls, and was even paralyzed again by the Native American hero known as American Eagle. Bullseye’s time with the Thunderbolts hit like a bolt of lightning in 2007 and was presented by Warren Ellis and Mike Deodoto.

Read Thunderbolts: Ultimate Collection on Amazon

Things got even sicker when Osborn transformed his Thunderbolts into the Dark Avengers. Bullseye adopted the identity of Hawkeye and seeing the man who had killed Elektra and Karen Page profaning the iconic heroic identity of Clint Barton was truly twisted. Dark Hawkeye marked Bendis’ return to the character in the 2009 Dark Avengers series. Bullseye/Hawkeye also starred in a bloody and twisted mini-series in 2009 by Andy Diggle and Tom Raney.

The Magic Returns

After his time as Hawkeye, Bullseye was killed in the Shadowland crossover. At this time, a new assassin named Lady Bullseye became a major player in the New York underworld. Lady Bullseye brought Bullseye’s corpse to the Hand and had the killer resurrected. Sicker than ever, Bullseye was confined to an iron lung and did what he does best: make Matt Murdock’s life a living hell. Bullseye sends many adversaries to weaken Daredevil during Mark Waid and Chris Samnee’s superb 2013 run on Daredevil until he was once again defeated by the Man Without Fear.

Daredevil season 3 arrives on Netflix on October 19.

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

from Books https://ift.tt/2J3L1RV

[amintyworld]

Dungeons and Dragons Masterpost!

(Each story is based in a campaign I DM)

*TRIGGER WARNINGS ARE AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH STORY!*

One-Shots:

Baby Mine - (PC Origin Story) Scepter has lived a life of anger and resentment toward his mother’s abandonment. No matter what, he was never good enough - his brother was better, so he stayed up above while Scepter lived down on Earth. He always thought his celestial family never wanted him; little did he know how wrong he was. - Angst

Noid’s Entrance - (Prequel to ‘Monster’ - coming soon!) Noid used to think her life was simple living in the forest. She had her cave home, and peaceful days playing with the animals and living off what the forest provided. She had no idea of any life other than the one she had, no memory of it. Little did she know the real truth of it all. - Angst

[sorrow-mismana-blog]

sacarin violet infiltrator . (honju city )

this sacarin ranta third elemental variation , Shadow assassin , also known as violet infiltrator . in this form sacarin gain the ability to clone him self using his shadow , his stealth ability and strength is highly increased in dark area , and he is especially strong under the light of the UpperCut moon . in this scene sacarin ranta is trying to infiltrate teken's labatory with his Hunter team mate ( at the moment sacarin is in the Hunter organization , not in the peanut butter .) but he was stopped by 3 koiga's security drone . which then get knocked down by sacarin's drone's AMP ( sacarin's drone name is HR-Stalker btw ) ( this drawing is based on a korean town ) series : ( Cold Wind : a world of rogue )

[amintyworld]

Okay, so a bit of background (This is gonna be a long one, buckle up folks!):

(TW: Death, Talks of murder, alcohol.)

I've been working really hard on this climax in the plot where the PCs go to this party forcefully by this Evil King called Ayren (He's also PC Prince Drive's and his NPC Princess Naris's Uncle, adding extra drama here). They got separated for a bit in getting there due to this "Safety" shield he put up around the kingdom that kinda messes up memories if you fail ur Wisdom Save.

A Dragonborn Rogue PC named Peanut got split up from the others and kinda babysat the party's quirky collection of NPCs (I'll expand on them more if you want later) except for Naris ofc, who stayed with Drive and the final and third PC an Asimaar Monk/Wizard named Scepter in this rebel bunker and got to the kingdom through a secret tunnel (Turns out it wasn't so secret). In the tunnel they were escourted by Rebel Leader Lyn (Who's their biggest Fan-) and what seemed to be a new recruited healer to the rebellion, a woman named Dianara (Ik it's spelled weird, but it's based off the greek name from that Hercules myth). Dianara and Drive slowly begin to develop feelings with each other, getting closer and becoming something like friends. Too bad she turned out to be one of the King's posse they previously killed, Vivica the Sorcerer. Anyway, after Drive and Vivica reconnect again and smooth things over.

Drive's been trying to find his cousin Elizabeth, Ayren's daughter because he thinks she'll help them. He soon realizes something happened between them he doesn't remember and resolves to find her anyway to at the very least figure out what he did and what happened. He doesn't remember any of his time in the kingdom, barely remembers her except for the few memories that float to the surface as he wanders around Ayren's palace. He also realized a LONG, LOOONG while ago that his father, King Aster, "got crazy" after finding this gem to bring back their dead Mom and has been angry at and put pressure on Naris for three years without him knowing. They find evidence he had been possessed by someone with incredible magic power. Naris and he talked, and she told him that she wanted revenge on the people who really did this to her Dad.

NOW, ONTO THE SESSION!

After getting forced to put on these fancy outfits the King made for them, they get down to the ballroom - tons of innocents from the kingdom with their number branding on their wrists (A attempt to keep out rebels), food, and drink, as well as music. Drive and Naris stay together until Drive spots Vivica in this fancy black dress, gets kinda flustered, and goes over to talk to her. Naris, who is nine/ten btw, gets confused at her brother and goes into the crowd to go meet up with the others and figure out some kind of plan.

The two are ofc a little awkward, and then Drive notices Vivica being a little distant. She says that she has to do this "thing" at midnight that she can't tell him about. He tries his best to reassure her and they dance. Vivica keeps acting a little more tense than usual, but Drive keeps shrugging it off. When they're done dancing, Vivica sees something in the distance. She quickly and sternly says "I have to go. Now." and leaves. Oddly enough, afterward, he spots Vivica rushing out the door at the end of the ballroom, terrified. He meets up with Peanut and talks with her, who had gotten some ale from the bar and just stored it in her inventory for later (She often uses it for wounds). Peanut spots what looks to be her dead girlfriend dancing, and takes Drive to meet her. She's strangely giddy for someone like Holly, and the two teases Drive for a bit on his crush on Vivica before he goes after the sorcerer toward the garden.

Holly after Drive leaves claims that the King brought her back to life, and now they could run away together like they always wanted to (It's something with her backstory). Regretfully, Peanut says she'll think about it, sensing that maybe that's not really Holly, and moves to go after Drive. She finds Naris, who claims she just talked to Vivica a while ago who was looking for Drive. They both realized he got tricked and Naris rushes after him. When she hears her friend Ashley in trouble, she sighs and turns to go after her and out the other end of the ballroom.

Drive slowly follows behind Vivica in the hedge garden before Vivica is tackled by... ANOTHER VIVICA?! Drive realizes he got tricked and quickly casts his Guardian of Faith (he's a paladin), as well as his Zone of Truth. The actual player was having a hard time thinking of what question to ask after a couple failed until the player playing Peanut said to ask a misleading question, which it did and the fake was quickly revealed. The zone of truth hurt both Drive and the Fake a little bit - Drive lied in the question, after all - and eventually they get cornered. The Fake changes into one of the King's posse, the leader of the Cloaked, Boss. She goes on to say how stupid Drive was to falling for all that in the first place, calling Vivica a traitor and that she can't hide forever from the King, and then, she says bye and runs off. Drive is quick to chase after. Vivica stayed behind, shocked and scared at being found out.

Back to Peanut - she busts down the door, which is quickly locked behind her. Darkroom. One light on a table with her knife that she lost on it, and a note. The note claims if she's a "worthy adversary" she'll make the right choice. One is a friend, the other is a foe. She realizes Ashley and Holly are both tied up, two people who she doesn't fully trust (Ashley got possessed a bit ago and kind of stabbed her in a past session). The player had the hardest time deciding who to kill since the note claimed if she did nothing she'd die. Regretfully, she chooses Holly and uses her Breath Weapon.

Except. That doesn't seem to kill her. "Holly" gets up from her chair. shifting into one of the King's assassin posse as well as Peanut and Ashley's former commander, second-in-command to the Boss - the Undertaker. Peanut tries setting her on fire with the booze and it doesn't work, since she's flame retardant apparently. She quickly frees Ashley and the two face down the Undertaker together.

Back to Drive - he eventually chases her all the way to a room he's visited before. Elizabeth's former room. She tells Drive who she really is - Elizabeth herself. Years ago, after an argument went wrong, Drive accidentally pushed her off the balcony, killing her. After her own mother was exposed as a traitor and then being betrayed by her cousin, she swore to kill him and get revenge for what he did.

Drive bows his head to die, but Elizabeth just smiles. ("Oh Drive, this trap wasn't for you.")

Cue Naris rushing in, pulling out her fire gem (Gem needed to save the universe, Naris and all PCs have one.) and drawing quick to defend her brother from Elizabeth. Elizabeth just smiles and eggs her on, as Guards enter the room followed by King Ayren himself. As the King taunts her, he reveals that he was the one to possess Aster to do all that to her all that time ago. Drive tries to talk some sense into her but it's no use. She gets so angry she begins to glow like fire, claiming she'll kill him as she makes a strike just as it turns midnight. Immediately, the King using his power turns the force around on her, holding her in a chokehold and claiming they'll kill both him and her and everyone in the castle if Drive tries to attack. Regretfully, he stands down. "Let her go."

Elizabeth gives him two options - they could kill her right here right now, or... he could take her place and get executed at dawn. Naris tries to scream no, tries to tell him not to do it, he does it anyway and gives them the condition that all his friends would be safe. They agree, and Naris gets dragged, kicking and screaming and crying from the room, and Elizabeth uses a bit of magic to knock Drive out.

And... that's where that session ended.

I'm just really proud that the choices put both the Players as well as the characters in a tough spot. Makes me feel like a good DM.

Anyway, what do you think? I'd be happy to talk more about it or answer any questions.

Do you ever just have a DND session that goes really well?!

My last one did, and I’ve been gushing thinking about it since yesterday. 😅