#pencil has memory alteration powers

[aricatastrophe]

does anyone still like superhero aus

[writing-for-life]

Morpheus meets Matthew—The Rest Is History…

Swamp Thing: Final Payment (#84, March 1989)—Rick Veitch (writer), Tom Mandrake (penciller) & Alfredo Alcala (inker)

I’ve been itching to share these for our community re-read of “Into the Night” (#15).

Some of you might recognise these panels, but not everyone has read Swamp Thing (or watched the one season they gave us), and this is the first and only time Morpheus appears in it. So for those of you who don’t know and always wondered who Matthew was before he became a raven, here comes a bit of background info (spoilery, so skip if that’s not your thing):

Matthew Cable has been part of Swamp Thing since the very first issue in 1972. He was a government agent assigned to protect scientist Alec Holland and his wife (who were developing a biological formula to end world hunger) but failed to save them. He then mistakenly believed the Swamp Thing was the killer of Holland (the Swamp Thing initially also believed he was an altered form of Alec—all very convoluted, partly retconned at some point, too, but in short: When Alec was killed, his body was drenched with the formula, which affected the plants in the swamp. They basically formed a new organism that held his memory).

Lots of stuff happened in the years in between, and I won’t go into it all here, but suffice it to say that when Matthew the Raven admits he’s not always been a good person, that’s a bit of an understatement.

The Sandman #15, “Into the Night”

In short: He basically lost his mind, but that also gave him powers (to alter reality no less, ha! No wonder he piqued Dream’s interest 🤣). Unfortunately, Matt didn’t exactly use those powers for good (since he could only really access them when drunk or severely distressed, he had “wonderful” ideas like manipulating reality for creations he could have sex with, and those acts got more and more grotesque as time passed). That obviously wasn’t great for his marriage to Abigail Arcane (or rather: Holland at the time he meets Morpheus). Now you know why he got so excited about strip clubs in Brief Lives 🙈.

Matthew then had a car accident while driving under the influence in 1984.

Swamp Thing #84, cover art by John Totleben

Lots of goings on between this point and issue #84, but again long story short: Matthew eventually ended up in a coma, and since he was an organ donor, a corrupt hospital administrator uses him as an organ farm. Enter first Eve in dreams (ha! again) and then Morpheus, who basically advises him to end his life so his ex-wife Abby can exist in peace after all these years (she is pregnant with… something, which Morpheus also cryptically alludes to here. Plus the hospital administration tries to land her with a nearly 3 million dollar bill for all the years Matt has been on life support). Before Abby can unplug said life support herself, Matthew comes to, gathers all his strength for one final time and destroys the machines that keep him alive to spare Abby the guilt. In his final moments, he asks her to forgive him and move on. Also: He quite strictly did not die in his sleep, so how did that work? 🧐 Dream logic 🤣

Morpheus’ cameo had been agreed upon with NG at the time (he is mentioned in the credits). And since issue #84 has been published in March 1989, you can also tell that we’re pretty firmly in Sam Kieth territory, and that Mandrake & Alcala tried to replicate Dream’s look accordingly. Plus: The first issue in which Matthew the Raven appears in The Sandman (“Moving In” of The Doll’s House arc) was published in October 1989. So they had this cooking for a bit.

Oh, John Constantine also makes an appearance in that issue. They worked really hard at the time to tie it all together…

[dinfern0]

izek lore dump!!

since i was waiting for someone to ask for it and @slowtimelove was it!! (tysm :D) plus a raw cooked izek WIP

Lore dump below cut.

(Curse of Strahd Spoilers too!!)

I'm separating it in pre-COS, COS and post-COS, so:

Pre-COS

Canon lore stuff happened with the exception that Ireena is called Mirabel in my campaign, since I wanted one of my players to make their own Tatyana reincarnation.

There's not much alteration here besides that, except that a particular deity did that to his arm but that's unimportant/for later.

COS

Izek found the party, didn't kidnap Mirabel because she chose to talk to him and get him away from Vargis.

He just sort of... Followed them around, they were very friendly and gave him pencils and crayons for him to draw, so he gave them some drawings as thanks :D

(His drawings there, first one is explaining what happened, second one is Willow and Mirabel, third one is a landscape, the last one is a vision he had)

Vargis got disappointed at his crap job of being a spy so he cut his tongue as a warning, left it on the party's house as a message.

Tied Izek on a stake with other npcs to burn at the Smiling Sun festival (that I turned into a ball), they saved him but, well, his tongue couldn't be glued back right <3

He got an actual bed and was treated as an actual human being for at least three weeks

he met Arden, a npc, had a crush on him and drew him portraits from afar (which Arden perceived as threats)

Arden died, Ismark died when they arrived at Ravenloft

Willow had to sacrifice him in exchange for enough power to end Strahd's reincarnation cycle; in reality, signed Izek a contract with Cora, a power-hungry entity.

Strahd used the corpses of the dead to fight the party, Izek's body didn't answer to his commands and instead delivered Cora's message that Strahd's contract was due <33

(more drawings, first one is the bear lady from the past and the second is a drawing of the players + him not knowing what a tiger is, since wolves, crows and bears are all he knows)

post-COS

Izek got the chance to protect Mirabel - now Minadora, that lost all of her memories when she killed Strahd.

He's mute and she's went blind from sunlight, so it was a bit complicated <3

He isn't free, whatsoever. Had to kill for Cora the same way that he had to kill for Vargis, Izek works as a pawn to move Cora towards godhood.

He's ATM at a coliseum, fighting in a giant fighting ring since Cora has nothing for him to do other than watch some people when they get to specific events but doesn't want him to be free either.

The giants keep him there bc they're too scared to let him go so they want someone to kill him and make some coin in the process.

The campaign is set 101 years after COS, in a Storm King's Thunder campaign, so that's that with the viking-looking design.

Also! He got a friend/romantic interest, but I can't talk a lot abt it since some of my players follow me :D

that's pretty much it :^) i'll make some other posts if the players eventually find him again and keep him around

also his first design for comparison :D

[mandyjane-lifedesign]

Painting Memories in Black and White with Charcoal

Charcoal is one of the few mediums in the vast art world to capture the essence of feelings and memories vividly. For generations, artists and audiences have been charmed by the monochrome world of dancing shadows and resonating emotions created by this time-honored medium's delicate brushstrokes. Welcome to the fascinating world of charcoal portraits, where artists give form to memories in black and white by breathing life into paper and canvas. In this article, we'll explore charcoal artwork, where the mundane becomes fantastic, and painters can immortalize their subjects' feelings by painting their likenesses in black and white. The Evolution of the Charcoal Portrait The fascinating and long history of the charcoal portrait may be traced back to the earliest periods when people used this adaptable medium to make rudimentary sketches on cave walls. Charcoal had been used previously, but during the Renaissance it became the medium of choice for artists seeking a more realistic and three-dimensional depiction of the human figure. On the other hand, artists of the 20th century pushed the boundaries of representation as modernism arose. Still, charcoal portraits persisted as a popular option due to their ability to evoke emotion and create a personal connection with viewers. Thanks to the growing interest in traditional art forms, it has had a contemporary renaissance, guaranteeing its ageless appeal survives in the ever-evolving art world. What You'll Need to Create Your First Charcoal Portrait Getting the correct supplies is important before diving into the fascinating art of charcoal portraits. What follows is a rundown of the basics needed to get going: Charcoal Sticks Charcoal sticks, the fundamental medium of charcoal portrait, come in diverse shapes, including compressed, vine, and willow, each with unique texture and hardness. Charcoal Pencils Creating fine details and controlled lines with a charcoal pencil is a breeze. You can alter the shading and roughness of your drawings because of the variety of hardnesses available. Paper Select a fine drawing paper that is ideal for charcoal drawings. Choose a rough-textured paper to capture the charcoal dust better and highlight your portrait. Drafting Board It would help if you worked on a drawing board or another flat, solid surface. It guarantees steadiness and keeps the artwork from shifting or smearing accidentally. Rubber Kneading Eraser In contrast to a hard eraser, a kneaded eraser is supple and easy to work with. Using this tool to improve highlights and make subtle gradations, you can deliberately raise or lighten charcoal marks. Fixative You can keep your charcoal portrait from smudging by spraying it with a fixative. Use it in tiny coats between each sketching step to keep the charcoal dust from blowing around. Blending Tools Blending stumps are soft blending tools that help you easily blend and transition between different parts of your photo. Figure of Reference Select a high-resolution, crystal-clear photograph to use as a portrait reference. Prepare the Lights For a successful charcoal portrait, good lighting is essential. Ensure no deep shadows or jarring contrasts are in your reference image and that your workstation is well-lit. The Benefits of Charcoal Portraiture: Reasons to Try It Here are a few solid reasons for trying your hand at charcoal portrait, whether you're an aspiring artist or just looking for a new creative outlet: Power of Expression Charcoal's flexibility and softness allow painters to produce broad, expressive strokes and nuanced values. It lets you bring your photos to life and inspire strong feelings because it captures the subject's emotional depth and minor details. Closeness and Affection Charcoal drawing encourages a one-of-a-kind rapport between the artist and their creation due to the physical nature of the material. Charcoal provides a sensual experience that is both personal and meditative, allowing the artist to lose themselves in the act of creation. Contrasts that Captivate With charcoal, you can easily blend shades of gray to create startling contrasts that give your portraiture more depth and emotion. These intriguing contrasts between light and dark enhance your work's mystery and attraction. Nature that Forgives Because of its versatility and adaptability, charcoal is ideal for the iterative drawing process. Charcoal marks can be lifted or lightened with the touch of a kneaded eraser, allowing you to experiment and hone your composition freely. Versatility The charcoal portrait medium is flexible enough to support various artistic approaches, from photo realism to abstract expressionism. Charcoal is a versatile media that allows painters of all skill levels to express themselves freely, whether they choose tight, detailed strokes or broad, expressive ones. Timelessness The history of the charcoal portrait may be traced back to ancient cultures, yet this medium has stood the test of time. By embracing charcoal, you can feel a part of a long artistic history even as you inject a modern spirit into your work. Learn the Art of Charcoal Painting and Create Monochrome Recollections The expressive force, adaptability, and close connection to the human spirit of the charcoal portrait make it a time-honored art style that continues to enchant artists and audiences alike. There's no need to stress about finding the time to make your charcoal portrait when you have Memorialize Art. With an enthusiastic team offering the alluring art of the charcoal portrait, prepared to give your most treasured memories a tangible form on paper, whether it's a picture of a dearly departed family member, a beloved pet, or a memorable moment in time, Memorialize Art here to create a work of art that will stir your spirit for years to come. Photo by Goashape on Unsplash Read the full article

[arkham-angel23]

Girl in the Bubble (Arkham Knight!Jason Todd X Reader)

So, I've had this idea from my mind for a while, but I couldn't decide between a Titans!Jason Todd X Reader or an Arkham!Jason Todd X Reader. And yes... Reader has memory powers like Namine from Kingdom Hearts.

I'm still working on 'Scars that Last', it's just taking a while for me due to school, work and the holidays. Hence why I did this oneshot.

Here's Y/N's Outfit:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jason had one mission and one mission only…

Kill Batman…

That was his sole calling when he emerged from Arkham Asylum. That was the only reason he had survived that gunshot the Joker shot him out with. Even though the Clown Prince of Crime, his tormentor, was dead, it still didn’t satisfy his need for salvation… for vengeance… for purpose…

It didn’t chase away the bastard’s laughter…

It didn’t chase away the nightmares…

It only made the scars on his body burn…

He needed that clarity… that relief… and killing the Bat was the way to do it… at least for him…

However, there was one little snag that he didn’t expect…

He wasn’t expecting Scarecrow to bring in precious cargo in the form of a woman in white…

Aka, you…

You were encased in a large metal box, almost the size of one of the stores in the mall they were stationed in. The front of it was mostly composed of bullet-resistant glass. From what he could see, the room looked like an average bedroom, except everything was one single hue of white. A bed with a nightstand and lamp in the back right corner. A wooden walk-in wardrobe in the back left corner. A desk with an easel and art supplies near the right of the window. A bookshelf and beanbag near the left hand side of the glass. The only strange thing in the room was the pod-like contraption in the center that looked like the bud of a flower.

You, however, were an anomaly that he had never seen before. You were dressed in white, much like the room. You sat at the desk in front of the glass, drawing in a sketchbook with colored pencils. You looked like an angel, trapped in a bird cage. You looked really lonely... and afraid... like he was back with Joker in Arkham all those years ago.

"Curious, Knight?" Scarecrow's raspy voice came up from behind him. He hadn't even realized that he was staring at you... until he saw you looking back at him with awestruck eyes through the glass.

“Curiosity isn’t exactly the word I would use.” Jason hissed slightly, his masked gaze still looking at your own. You almost relaxed under his gaze, despite his helmet showing no sign of anything friendly.

“Fascination, then? No need to be ashamed in admitting you have one. She’s quite the unique specimen. Being born with the power to manipulate and see another’s memories is bound to turn a few heads,” the doctor stated, walking up to the chamber.

The Arkham Knight noticed that your demeanor suddenly changed. Your brows were furrowed in anger and your body was tense. He could tell that you were trying your best not to snap the pencil in your balled-up hand. The most glaring detail was that your eyes had turned the color of molten gold upon staring at Scarecrow. It honestly made Jason wonder what might happen if someone pissed you off just enough…

Nothing pretty, he’d imagine…

“You said memory manipulation?” Jason asked, trying to sound uninterested as to not raise suspicion from the criminal doctor.

“Yes. She can alter one’s memory, rearranging it to her liking and even erasing certain memories and putting false ones in their places. She can even amplify the emotionally charged energy of them.”

Jason looked back at you, just as you turned your glance back to him. The gold in your irises slowly faded as you calmed down, returning to their original (e/c). But, he could tell that you weren’t very fond of Scarecrow.

“So, why is she in that box to begin with?” Jason had many questions. But, he still pretended that he wasn’t interested in why you were here… in a soon-to-be war zone. With no warning or notification…

“I simply want to see what kind of emotions can strengthen her power. But, she’s resilient and stubborn. Refusing to show any sign of progress.” The doctor seemed a little amused by your seemingly tough attitude… and not in the good way from what Jason noted.

“Does ‘she’ have a name?” Jason feel like it was dehumanizing to not call someone, especially one who held significance to one of the Gotham supervillains, by their given name. You were still a human being, not a lab rat. Even if Scarecrow currently saw you as the latter.

“(Y/N). She has no surname or known birth certificate. Nothing to match her to a family, other than her blood.”

With that, Scarecrow walked off to God knows where and what. You and Jason continued to be fixated on each other, your hand subconsciously drawing on the paper of your sketchbook. Jason was able to deduce that your artwork and powers were interconnected. As if your sketchbook was a conduit or talisman of sorts to help you better control them. He didn’t know what you were drawing, but he didn’t really have to know.

He had a mission to fulfill...

He had to kill Batman…

With that, he walked off, leaving you with a disturbing image on your canvas…

~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few days had passed since Jason’s first encounter with you. Scarecrow had asked the Knight to deliver some food to you. For what reason in asking him, he didn’t know. All Crane had told him was that you didn’t trust the other villains or any of the soldiers, which was understandable. But it still sounded like a half-assed excuse, coming from the doctor.

Punching in the access code on the door’s keypad, he was able to enter your room. Upon coming in, he saw that you were nowhere to be seen in the room. You weren't in bed, at your desk or sitting in the beanbag near the bookshelf.

He then heard a sudden thud coming from the closet near the door, indicating that you were probably inside, getting changed. He then placed the food on the dining table near the viewing window. He continued to survey the homily cell as the pure white aesthetic made it feel all too surreal. Especially with the strange flowerbud-shaped machine in the center of it.

Jason's eyes then flicked over the wall to the right of your desk, noticing an array of sketches and drawings, taped to the wall. A few of them seemed innocent and child-like at most. However, the most recent ones that were front and center were much darker… and familiar…

Squinting a bit, he realized that the pictures were all his memories. Specifically, his memories of the year he spent, imprisoned by the Joker in Arkham Asylum. All the torture, all the pain he experienced… laid out on multiple canvas…

At this point, Jason didn’t know whether to be angry or confused. Did you draw his memories subconsciously? Is that why you were staring at him when you both first locked eyes? Did you smile because you saw all the good that came before the Joker took him? Or at least, the good moments he thought were happy at the time…

You were definitely a complex case, he had to give you that… but, he wondered… would your powers allow you to access the memories of those in his? Of course, he wasn’t going to make you do anything to Batman or his partners… that was his job. Plus, he knew better than to take advantage of someone who was already being abused… much less, mess with something or someone he didn’t understand…

He learned that lesson the hard way, thanks to the Joker…

An audible gasp sounded from behind him, causing him to whip out one of his pistols and aim it behind the pod. Only for him to realize that the source of the sudden gasp was you…

You were now wearing a white knitted, oversized cardigan over your signature attire, possibly to keep warm. Your (h/c) hair was faintly damp, meaning you have showered hours before he arrived. You were hiding behind the pod in fear as your eyes landed on him with his gun trained at you. He then lowered his gun and put it back in its holster.

“I-I wasn’t expecting you to be here…” you said in a panic, partially hidden behind the door.

“Should've announced myself, then." He apologized, which was very unlike him and he caught himself doing it. He didn't know why, but he felt more human around you... like he wasn't a broken husk of a man...

"You're probably wondering how some of your memories ended up on paper, aren't you?" You slowly came out from the pod, revealing your whole form.

"I am, actually. Cause, to be honest, I don't get how you do it." Jason leaned himself against your desk, arms crossed over his armored chest. You couldn't help but eye him up and down briefly without him noticing. I mean, any woman would if they saw this man walking around in his military uniform.

"I have to look at someone for a certain period of time, in order to see their memories. But, it's only the ones that are most... defining in someone's life. It's kinda a subconscious thing and I can't really control it when it happens. Unfortunately, yours were your time in Arkham Asylum with the Joker..." you tried to speak your words very carefully in hopes of not upsetting or angering him.

“I see. And the drawings?” The Arkham Knight asked, turning to the artwork once more.

“I mainly use it to create a better image of the memory I’m looking at because all I really see are flashes or small glimpses. It also helps when I’m trying to rearrange or rebuild someone’s memory chain. Hell, even delete or remake them. Not that I’ve ever really done that intentionally. I’m actually against it…”

Jason cocked his head in wonder, trying to understand what you meant by that. Who, in their right mind, would make you erase a person’s entire history of their own benefit? ‘No one’, was the answer that he got from the nagging voice of the back of his mind.

“Listen, I… I know you probably don’t want pity or anything like that. Believe me, I’m not pitying you, but…” Before Jason could get a word out, tears were already welling up and falling from your eyes. Your eyes were tinted that golden color from before. The color switch must be triggered by you feeling a strong negative emotion.

“Hey, hey, hey…” The militia leader got up from his position to walk to you and place his hands on your hands. It was an attempt to calm you down, which was odd. Why was he so vulnerable and protective of you suddenly? Maybe, it was because your situation reminded him of his own back in the asylum. Sure, you weren’t being beaten and physically tortured, but he imagined being a prisoner and test subject to Scarecrow was equally horrific.

“I’m sorry, but… you were just a kid. You were only doing what you thought was right. You were trying to help the innocent and those who couldn’t defend themselves, but then… that bastard…” Your eyes were now completely gold and puffy from tears. You were so empathetic… how is it you’ve managed to keep that after all of Scarecrow’s experiments and being locked in a cage.

“Hey, it’s over now. I’m out of that damn place and I’m never going back.”

“I know, but the scars still remain, don’t they?”

He knew that you were right. He was definitely wounded, both inside and outside, physically and mentally. Hell, he felt repulsive with himself, standing next to your perfect form. His heart broken, his soul tainted and wary and his mind in a dark place. Sure, you were no different. No doubt you had seen horrors he could probably see in a horror movie.

But, he has a mission that would mend all the damage to him as Robin…

But, after the plan is accomplished, he planned on freeing you from your shackles…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Needless to say, Jason didn't get his revenge on Batman like he had intended. Within the last moment, he no longer had the desire to kill the man who he believed had left him to die. He realized that all the Joker told him was lies and misinformation, just to get him to do what he wanted in case he died, which he did. It still didn't make him feel better, but he didn't have time for that.

The militia was now under Crane and the other criminals' command. This meant that you were, no doubt, in danger or were more at the mercy of Scarecrow than ever. He knew what he had to do next... he just hoped he wasn't too late...

As he made his way to your containment chamber, he saw an unconscious soldier outside the open door. He began to assume the worst and darted into the room, dodging over unresponsive bodies as he did. Once he was inside, he couldn't find you anywhere. However, upon looking at the soldiers on the ground, he noticed that their eyes were wide open and their mouths agape. As if they were in some kind of catatonic shock...

A soft sobbing came from the pod in the center of the cell. Unfortunately, it was closed and he didn’t know how to get into it. There was no padlock or control panel that could unlock it. So, he went to the next best thing… he knocked a few times on the outer walls of the pod…

A hissing sound came from the machine as two pieces of the shell came down slowly like doors. A white mist came seeping through the opening walls. Jason had to move out of the way to avoid getting hurt or squished. Once the shell is accessible, he saw you curled up in a fetal position, crying. Your head was bowed as your shoulder shook and jumped.

Jason reached out to touch your wrist, being ever so careful as he did. However, you immediately started to freak out, going, “No, stop please!! Please!”

“(Y/N), it’s me!” The familiar, modulated voice was enough to snap you out of it and realized that you weren’t in danger. Instead, you were in the safety of the Arkham Knight, or Red Hood. The grip he had on your wrists suddenly felt less threatening than before and more comforting.

“Knight?”

“It’s actually Red Hood now. But, you can call me Jason. Just not when I’m wearing the mask.” He said, keeping his voice down as to not scare you again. He then lifted you up to your feet, where he noticed that you had a backpack on. Meaning you were planning to make a run for it before he or any of the militia came.

“Got it… Jason…” you smiled ever so slightly, despite your damp cheeks and misty eyes.

“What happened here? Why are these men like this?”

“My powers… they sometimes react, depending on my emotions. When the militia came in by Scarecrow’s order, I got so scared that I froze their minds,” you looked down at one of the mind-bent militia on the ground in shame.

“Why are you upset about this? It was self defense. You were protecting yourself!” Jason asked, slightly aggravated that you were feeling bad for a bunch of corrupt soldiers.

“Because the last time this happened, the person I was protecting myself from lost their memories! I literally gave them permanent amnesia without having to move a finger! Do you even know how sick and messed up that is?!” You yelled, raising your voice for the first time since he met you.

Under the mask, Jason’s eyes widened with disbelief. He knew your powers were capable of erasing memories one by one. But, wiping a person’s memories within a split second out of defense? That was a form of fight-or-flight he had never seen before, nor did he want to feel the unforgiving wrath of firsthand.

“Before Scarecrow, I was an orphan in Gotham’s foster care system. My mother had died after childbirth and my father walked out on us before I was born. I used to get bullied a lot at school by many of the spoiled and rich kids. No one wanted to be my friend or sit next to me at lunch,, either. Having no family or money tends to do that to you. It was only made worse by the fact that no families wanted to take me home with them. According to them, I had this 'quality' about me that made me seem otherworldly to them. I didn't know what they meant by that until later on." Jason could only guess what happened next by the crestfallen look on your face.

"One day at school, I was cornered in the girls' bathroom by the dubbed 'Mean Girls' of the school. They kept picking on me, saying no one wanted me because I was a freak and a nobody. They then started getting more physical, pulling my hair, kicking me, beating me with their bookbags. It got so bad that I can't take it anymore... I screamed the loudest I ever have in my entire life..." You took a shaky deep breath as tears filled your eyes.

"When I opened my eyes, the girls were like these soldiers. Catatonic, wide-eyed, unresponsive... I ran away and never looked back. News about what happened to those girls spread and, apparently, they suffered from permanent memory loss, despite no brain damage being found or seen... Now those girls may have tormented me, but if there's one thing that I would never wish upon, other than Death, it would be being stripped of their identity and life..." You were suddenly filled with rage as you turned to look at Jason, eyes glowing amber. You walked up to him with the intent to set him straight, if he wasn't already. He then backed up in fear, firmly believing that you had snapped.

"You know what that's like, don't you, Jason Todd? The Joker twisted every good memory that Bruce Wayne, the fucking Batman, ever gave you... A home, a family that wasn't dysfunctional and addicted to drugs, a purpose... Until you couldn't even remember why you were so happy to be his sidekick- no, not just his sidekick- his goddamn son anymore! And yet, you don't even give the man the chance to explain himself to you? Why he couldn't find you and bring you home! Maybe you would have learned that Tim Drake, your supposed 'replacement', wanted to be Robin and Bruce had no other choice because he needed more help in finding you! Or maybe that the Joker and Harley had molded you into a failsafe, in case he didn't live long enough to kill Batman himself! So that, even in death, he still gets what he wants! Is that what you wanted, Jason?! To fulfill the wishes of a dead man's darkest and sickest desire?!"

"I didn't kill Bruce, (Y/N)!" Your eyes widened in shock as they reverted back to their original color. After taking a breath to calm down, you choose your next words very methodically and thoughtfully.

"Then, why are you here, wasting your time with me, a girl in a bubble? When you could be out there, saving the day and stopping the reign of the very people you want to destroy? I'm not worth any of your time..." Jason took his time with his answer, trying not to lose his cool again. When the words that he thought up began to fail him, he, once again, did the next best thing…

He pressed the button that releases the front of his helmet...

You had seen his face before in his and the other supervillains' memories. From his time with Bruce and as Robin to his imprisonment and torture at the Joker's hand. However, seeing his scarred face in person was like meeting an intimidated person in a public place.

"Because I don't want you to end up like how I am now... not with Scarecrow" With that, he leaned down and pressed his lips on yours. His right arm holding you up, nearly lifting you off the ground as you fought to keep yourself from collapsing from confusion and bliss. This was your first kiss and the person was someone you feel a strong connection with...

With someone who was promising to set you free from your cage...

With someone who was once trapped in a cage of his own...

~~~~~~~~~~~~

[kaypeace21]

Some of your favorite characters are Will’s split personalities (psych/narrative analysis)

This is part 2 of my DID analysis. Part 1 focusing on how the supernatural events of the series correlate to Will’s past with Lonnie. Before, I explain who I believe are alters of Will’s (previously called ‘split personalities’). I think I need to explain a crash course on what Dissociative Identity disorder (DID: previously ‘multiple personality disorder’) entails. And the supernatural manifestation within the show as well- Before explaining which characters I believe are alters of Will’s and why. So let’s begin.

There are 4 hallmarks of a potential dissociative disorder

“Dissociation is when instead of staying present in the face of stress you exit your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations and zone out. . It’s as if your body is a computer that reaches overload for input then just shuts down.’ It’s considered a defense mechanism in psychoanalytic theory.”

‘An individual struggling with dissociation or a dissociative disorder may only experience one of the following or may experience multiple. Each individual’s experience with dissociation can be varied. Symptoms can last just a matter of moments or return at times over the years.” 

1)“Identity confusion and alteration -When an individual forgets who they are or takes on a new personality unlike themselves.” (Aka his possession).

2)Dissociative Amnesia-”The forgetting of a major event, such as a childhood trauma or forgetting (traumatic) things happening in real-time.Many survivors of are able to “forget” until sometime later …when memories are triggered by certain events or when the body and mind are no longer able to conceal the memories.” (Aka Will’s ‘now memories’. The reason he refers to them as “now-memories” is because they are things he’s already experienced (as memories) but he’s only now remembering - because of his “dissociative-amnesia’

3)”Derealization-Feeling like the world is not real or is foggy.” (the upsidedown)

4) “Depersonalization-The sense of not being in control of, or not being connected to, one’s body.”

vocab and definitions (about DID) to keep in mind 

CORE/HOST- “The core is considered by some to be the person first born to the body. The host is the alter who most commonly uses the body (which may or may not be the core).”

ALTERS - “are dissociated self states that can be highly differentiated from each other. They can have unique names, appearances, ages, gender identities, sexualities, memories (pasts), skills, faiths, political views, abilities, and ways of viewing and interacting with the world. Alters can even perceive themselves as different species, inanimate objects, or as members of a different race, gender, age, or ethnicity/race.No one can choose to have alters or what their alters are like. Alters' creation is entirely unconscious. Most alters have their own sense of identity.  A host  cannot actually control the alter.An individual with DID has one brain and one body. Dissociative barriers between alters are not literal boundaries, and knowledge, memories, skills, preferences, and traits may bleed through.Alters usually have a role or multiple roles in a smaller system- these roles may or may not appear contradictory.”

SYSTEM-”A system is a collection of alters within one body.Subsystems are two or more groups of alters that might have developed separately, and they may or may not be aware of the other group.”

INNER WORLDS-”it could be a house, to a city, or multiple locations-where alters go when not in control of the body. The innerworld is where alters can interact with one another and where there physical appearance is how they describe .Communication between alters may happen face-to-face (in each other's respective bodies, via the internal world). Expansive internal worlds can result when highly imaginative or dissociative systems use their inner world to retreat from the outside world and so play out entire stories within their mind. Alters may be perceived as having internal lives when not active in the outside world, and these inner lives may involve travel to other internal locations. Many internal happenings may be metaphorical or highly symbolic of the core’s past. Inners worlds may also have characters  called "NPCs" (taken from the roleplaying term "non-player characters") that can interact with alters but they are more similar to imaginary constructs rather than actual alters (they can’t control the body and some are made consciously unlike alters-although that’s not always the case). These npcs can be background characters to make the world more real, and it’s not uncommon for parents, family members, or friends of alters to be NPCs.They can feel just as real as natural-born people . Different subsystems may reside in different locations in an internal world or may have non-overlapping internal worlds.”

INTEGRATION- This is essentially the closest thing an alter can do to die- but frankly I consider that comparison harsh. It’s “ when an alter permanently combines with the host or another alter.Fusion occurs when identities merge together and become a unified whole (retaining the memories and some traits of both merging identities.)  Integration into a single, individualized identity IS the goal for some in therapy.  But it is not, and does not have to be, for everyone.  It is possible to achieve full healing by processing memories, establishing communication across the whole mind, lowering dissociative barriers, and showing aptitude in everyone working toward a common goal - all without actually integrating.  Others may choose to integrate SOME parts, or "downsize", but still leave a small system to go about their life.”

“They may retain any number of independently acting alters. Reasons for choosing not to fully integrate can include: feeling that full integration is unnecessary; not understanding what integration actually entails and being afraid of "losing" their alters; uncertainty over how to navigate the world as one integrated person; being used to having alters around for company, entertainment, or support; alters having their own unique relationships that they're hesitant to lose; alters wanting to remain separate for their own sakes.”

SWITCHING-”Switching refers to one alter taking control of the body at the expense of another alter who was previously in control of body or ‘fronting’. Switches can be consensual, forced, or triggered.Switches can be slow, quick, or uncontrollably rapid. Switching can take seconds, minutes, or even days to occur.Stress (Will’s anniversary effect) or even a reminder of a trauma, can trigger a switch of alters.  * I’ll talk more about this later

ALTERS DYING-“Even if mock deaths or temporary experiences of alters “dying” from old age (or other means) have been acted out in some systems, they aren’t actually dying. You cannot kill off a collective part of the conscious mind like you can a person. Their thoughts, memories, emotions will all still be there, so they must be as well. The part may have gone into extreme hiding/dormant, been momentarily immobilized, or merged with another part of the mind (integration), but they most assuredly did not and can not disappear entirely or “be killed”.

Next we’re on to the supernatural concept they chose to use for this disorder.

We see in the first episode.  Will mentions x-men 134 which is about the dark phoenix . The show is litered with x men references like Dustin giving cerebro ( a machine belonging to professor x) to Will. Dustin also asks if El was born with powers “like the x-men.” And Mike also says  El channels Will and Dustin once again says “like professor x.” Now- does anyone know who professor x’s son (David) and the ‘shadow phoenix”are ? Well his son is considered the most powerful mutant in the world and has Dissociative identity disorder (DID).At one point some of his alters literally escape his head and enter the real world as tangible people. The ‘shadow phoenix’ is also a sibling to the ‘dark phoenix’.And this ‘shadow phoenix’ (a ‘shadow monster’ if you will)   terrorized David’s alters and forced them to integrate back into 1 personality . 

In ‘scanners’ one psychic mentions how he “opened the door” to the people trapped in his own mind in order for Daryl to be Daryl again.  While in ‘altered states’ the man (who saw flashes of another dimension) met his ‘unborn self in the crack in the void.’Similar to how Mr clarke and Alexi describes the portals of other dimensions being opened as a ‘door’. However, these doors were created before El- we see El created the one at the lab, but that doesn’t take into account the ones in the tree or the cave. There’s more portals we’re unaware of that allowed alters and npcs to escape and become part of the real world even before El opened the gate in s1. And unbeknownst to some of the characters and the audience we’ve already seen other ‘inner worlds’ of Will’s -besides the upsidedown . Which people (not part of the system) have interacted with . As Dustin in s1 said about the other dimensions / vale of shadows , it’s “ A dark reflection or echo of our world ...It’s right next to you and you don’t even know it” . 

We see both mr clarke stab a pencil into a plate and Alexi a straw into a box to illustrate this. What’s interesting is the one other time we see this motion is when Lonnie says “someone should be held accountable” (referring to what happened to Will), as he hammers into the wall and it transitions to Mike mimicking mr clarke. Implying that Lonnie is responsible and will be held accountable in the future.

-There’s also the fact the ‘dark phoenix’ mentioned in the first episode of St is highly associated with fire- having pyrokinesis (like Will the wise) and  who “had able to warp reality on a universal scale” .  It’s like how the show talks about physics often, like in s3/1 (plank’s constant or Hugh Everett’s many worlds interpretations) - and Einstein who believed quantum mechanics wasn’t real said “God does not play dice with the universe."  So since he was wrong , cause quantum mechanics is real , the quote should be “god plays dice with the universe.” Like Will does in the beginning of the first episode.Will is captured by the demogorgan (in the game) so he was captured in real life because he rolled a 7. I talked more about this more in the mf section.

- It’s similar to one of the Duffers admitted biggest inspirations for the series ‘altered states’. Who’s mental illness alters reality . He hallucinates  seeing flashes of another dimension like Will.

We’ll talk about more evidence of this concept  in the character breakdowns (mostly in the mf section). So now on to the alters (and Npcs) who escaped Will’s mind into the real world as tangible people. 

Tr*gger warning now, because of how DID is caused. “The dissociative aspect is thought to be a coping mechanism - the person literally shut off or dissociated themselves from a situation or experience too traumatic, or painful to assimilate with their conscious self.As many as 99% of individuals who develop dissociative disorders have recognized personal histories of recurring, overpowering, and often life-threatening disturbances or traumas at a sensitive developmental stage of childhood (usually before age 6). It cannot form AFTER the ages of 6-9 years of age, aka 10 and up (though, once you have DID you can develop new alters at any time).DID is rarely diagnosed in children (and is usually diagnosed in adulthood or late teens), despite the average age of appearance of the first alter being 5.9 years old . ”

They’ll be brief mentions of dark subjects in this psych/narrative analysis because of this. I’ll also be listing movies said to inspire s4 of st  (according to st writers), or mentioning movies name dropped by  the cast, the Duffers ,  or in the show itself . 

ALTERS

Max Mayfield & Billy Hargrove 

When Max is first introduced - Mr Clark talks about “brain cells working together as one” (while talking next to a brain).  Similarly, dustin/mike mention mr clarke when saying what’s essentialy a did system “A collective consciousness. this is the thing that controls everything. this is the brain.” This concept about Max , is mentioned again when mr. clark discuses phineus Gage saying he had “a total change in personality that even his friends called him no longer gage.” And emphasizes max and Will in this scene- showing one in clear focus, while another is blurry, and as they make eye contact Max turns away . 

Both are poor, their bio dads aren’t around, both like horror films, comics and videogames. Both their bio dads left them . And both use bats in anger when emulating their abusers ,and both are heavily associated with rainbows. On Halloween she dresses up as a character who as a child dressed up as a clown on Halloween (Will’s fear/ what triggered him on Halloween) and whose surname is Myers (Byers?)

 Billy, like Will , have nicknames for their real name-  ‘william’. Both have abusive dads who called them  homophobic slurs, and forced them to play baseball to man-up.  Billy’s old baseball team is even tigers (the mascot of Will’s elementary school and matching Will’s tiger painting in his room in s1-2).The “it was a 7 “ vs “the wave was 7 feet”. Both hit with needles, into rock music , attracted to Wheelers ,and were the main subjects possessed by the mf. At one point the dark phoenix fails to merge with jean so goes to merge with her clone body as the next best thing. In this case the mf went to Will’s second alter William/Billy. And as Will states “another me.”  And both say about the mf “I’m sorry, he made me do it.” 

Neil and Lonnie both push Jon and Billy against a wall. And Jon tells of a time where his dad made him kill a rabbit . And Billy’s last name “Hargrove” means - “grove filled with rabbits" . While, ‘Mad-max’ her nickname is based on the male 80s film character ‘mad max’ a man being terrorized by a r**ist biker gang who attacks both men/women. It’s also possible that Billy’s appearance was based on Will seeing mrs wheeler’s romance novels? 

In the film “don’t breathe’- the reason why the siblings are from California is alluded to in a flashback of  Jon & Will.  The older sibling (with abusive parents) takes care of the younger sibling like a parent and the little sibling says she wants to be a surfer despite living in a land locked state (without an ocean, like Indianna). Older sibling says one day maybe they can live in California together  . And the Older sibling tells a friend about how their dad left them, and how they were thrown in a dark trunk by an abusive parent as kid . Which was alluded to in s1, when Jon checked the trunk to see if Lonnie put Will in there.And we see the mf (who is emulating Lonnie) doing the same thing to heather, and tom (hitting or strangling them and then throwing them in the trunk).

Certain scenes, are alters re-enacting  past scenes of trauma. “The family dynamics will be played out in a variety of ways but will most obviously be noted in the way the survivor splits off their system.Some survivors will internalize their family into their own DID system. Some alters may reenact trauma and ab*se, sometimes reinforcing ab*sers’ lessons to prevent further ab*se but sometimes serving as a permanent component of an internal flashback.“The reason, Billy acts/is racist is because he’s emulating Neil (but more accurately Lonnie) who told Will not be friends with lucas and thus recreates that moment with Max .lonnie in the s4 films is very racist. Another example, is Will has shown a fear of doors opening (in s1-2) shown by how the demogorgan unlocks the door telepathically (like El does often).And the mf opening doors by themselves in the house and arcade. Neil demands Billy opens his door. And right after Max stares at Will-Billy yells to open the door and tells Max “I’ll cut you b*tch” if she doesn’t open the door. This is because Lonnie said and did similar things to Will if he didn’t open the door.

What connects all 3 is that they all have an absent parent and have baseball associated with them mimicking a familial ab*ser. Even the mf is associated with the sport.

Alexi

Some “ alters can even speak a different language than the host. Despite, the host personality not knowing a single word of the language.’

Similar to Will who won the science fair for 4 years in a row- Alexi is a scientist who has a child like disposition . Will has a fear of clowns (a clown even triggered him on Halloween), and we see that after he’s attacked by a lonnie-look alike he dies surrounded by clowns. 

He also sees a friend strangled by the lonnie-look alike  (using 1 hand) and die. throughout the season the mf who emulates lonnie strangle people the exact same way, with one hand (doing this to joyce, el, heather, and jon). probably cause Will either saw Lonnie strangle someone or was strangled in this way. There’s also the fact when we first see Alexi - lights flicker like in s1 (illustrating a supernatural element associated with Will and others).

And stangertheory pointed this one detail out, when watching woody the woodpecker he says “can we watch loonie toons, now?” murray: ‘no’/ “can we play d&d , now? crew:no. 

Also, “woody in the cartoon is terrorized by Andy and PAPA panda. To Woody's surprise, Andy's attempts prevail, and Woody is taken away to the psychiatric hospital— but not before his captors prove to be crazier than he is” (cough s4 spoiler, but that’s a post for another day).We also have a scene where murray compares him to a child bringing shit in and tries touching his junk with a metal detector. And when Alexi says to stop, Murray says he’ll do as he pleases in his house. Probably a re-enactment .  And Murray mistranslates what he says occasionally as being “n*ked or exposed”, “penetrating a hole”. Also ‘alexi’ may also be a reference to Alexy in russian folklore. A clever-minded priest's son (Lonnie is alluded to be a religious zealot in s4 movies) who wins by tricking and outsmarting his foes and defeating a dragon by trickery. This is another connection to Will who is heavily associated with dragons- for a huge spoiler related reason - let’s just say  mf’s can create dragons, Will drew a dragon, has a dragon poster, read a dragon comic in a s1 flashback , was there for the dragon video game, and Dustin mentions a dragon in s3 because of foreshadowing.

**The mindflayer (previously known as ‘Will the wise’) -persecutor alter 

 “A child that is heavily into fantasy might have alters who present as certain fantasy creatures that the child sees as being capable of protecting them from being hurt again.All of the personalities begin as friends and allies…” We see this with Will’s first alter- Will the wise. Who Will described as having fire powers to attack smart bad guys. And who is based off the rules of d&d.

“ Persecutors are alters who purposefully harm the body, system, host, core, or other alters. Most of the literature on the development of these persecutory alters reports that they usually begin life as protectors and then, for some reason, turn on the host, becoming persecutory. Kluft, in 1985, describes the persecutors as initially "taking all the suffering for the others (alters & host). Persecutory personalities originate from the shame and anger related to the traumatic experience and to the perpetrator. “ 

‘It is usually during the transition between childhood to adolescence when childhood protectors becomes a persecutor.” And begin mimicking the ab*ser. We actually may have seen this transition at the end of s1- where WW became the mf. In d&d lore, mindflayers are created by inserting a tadpole into a human- like what we saw at the end of s1 where Will coughed up the slug from the upsidedown. Meaning all that supernatural stuff we saw Will do in s1 was actually Will the wise (ww) before he turned into the mf. While the flashbacks in s1 (and singing in castle byers) were of the Will we saw in s2-3.

Will says WW is a wizard ( writing on a music tape in s3 “will the wise-wizard mix’ and having his password for castle byers be ‘rhadaghast’- a lotr wizard.)The way they describe d&d Wizards matches Will/mf perfectly “Wizards are adepts and magicians . wizards are able to create spells of explosive fire, sparking lightning, subtle deception, and gross mind control. Their magic summons monsters from other planes of existence, predicts the future, and turns defeated enemies into zombies. Their most powerful spells can transform one substance into another, summon meteors from the sky, and open portals to other worlds”.

Nancy even accidentally calls the mf the “mind -flamer” (aka fire powers of ww ). Dustin says the mf “takes over minds using their highly developed psionic powers” (like wizards).We see Will the wise described as having fire/lightning powers and in the first ep we see him leave Mike’s house causing the lights to flicker, turn on his bike light with his mind (before being attacked by the demogorgan), blink once for yes and twice for no to communicate with Joyce, cause lightning to spark out of the phones twice, and be proficient in guns like Lonnie.  We know the mindflayer is also associated with lightning/storms (but that’s only because it’s one of Ww’s abilities). When Hopper sees Joyce’s phone he even says “storm bq-ed this pretty good.“ And in s2 a scientist said the same phrase while in the upside down looking at the burned equipment the mf created. Showing a correlation between Ww and the mindflayer. CAUSE THEY’RE THE SAME PERSON. In the comic we see electricity come out of Ww’s hands. And in s1 he drew his wizard character with lightning (BEFORE) he went to the upside down.  And in s2 WW was drawn with flames on his cloak.

Will in his cannon journal even draws the mind flayer with red lightning, and later  uses red paper to sketch clouds/lightning and pastes a picture of himself on to it. Because deep in his subconscious (along with the memories of his father- he realizes he created the mf/ww). And Joyce even describes the tunnels he draws as “like lightning.” And note in s1 we are told Lonnie taught Will baseball (and this was when Jon told Will not to mimic him)- and suspiciously there is a baseball and baseball-mitt next to the ‘shadow monster’ (mf) drawing and a bat (next to the ww drawing in castle byers). Cause mf= ww.  Will lies and says the mf is just a sketch for a story he’s writing- but even if that’s not exactly true. The mf is still something he unconsciously created.And of course Will is called ‘zombie boy’ and in s3 when Will watches a zombie movie and writes a d&d story about juju zombies- the mf creates zombies and creates a monster resembling the thing (because when Will was writing his d&d story he was next to the ‘the thing’ poster in s3. In s2 Will playing dig dug which is about underground mazes- so the supernatural underground caves are made. And it’s a callback to the s1 d&d game with “troglodytes “ (cave men). And in s3 the Russians had the underground lab too - sort of being the troglodytes in a way.And similar to s1, after Will watches poltergeist Will/ww is thrust into the same scenario as the little girl (being trapped in another dimension- where the mothers can only hear their voices and communicate to them through electronics ). Like how rolling the 7 in d&d caused him to be captured by the demogorgan in the game and real life. Nancy saying: “So this thing is like a brain that’s controlling everything.”Hopper then says “So how do we kill this thing shoot it with fireballs?”And Dustin says “ No, No, fireballs you summon an undead army.”But Mike actually nails it on the head when he says, “If the brain dies the body dies … closing the gate will kill him(referring to Will).Because it’s not the mindflayers’ brain - it’s Will’s brain- that both Will and the mf share!

In the episode after the mindflayer  enters Will - the episode is literally titled “ Will the wise”. Here we see a ‘slow switch’ occur.”Slow switches are when two or more alters (Will and mf) are co-conscious to varying degrees and slowly blending and retreating to allow one alter (mf) to gain prominence .Some indicators that a switch may be about to occur include feeling "spacey.”

In this episode we don’t see A full switch but ‘blending’. “ A full switch is rarely necessary. Instead of an alter switching to front, they can exert passive influence on the alter currently at front (Will) . Passive influence can be described as intrusions from alters that are not currently prominent in the mind or using the body. This may manifest as ego-alien thoughts, knowledge, memories, feelings, emotions, opinions, preferences, urges, abilities, or actions. These intrusions may vary in strength and influence and may result in the fronting alter taking actions or voicing opinions that they can't explain or account for.” 

We see this with Will’s ‘now memories’ the reason he refers to them as “now-memories” is because they are things he’s already experienced (as memories) but he’s only now remembering them- because of his “dissociative-amnesia’ .  An example is  Will fearing the tub, and  yelling at his mom -confused at his own reaction. Because ww is the one afraid of the tub not Will.This is because this is one of the locations abuse often takes place. There’s at least 20 movies where a bad guy tries drowning someone in a tub. In splice, the cell, and the ring  all incorporate an ab*sive father trying to drown his young child. In the cell the father would beat his son, burn him, called him homophobic slurs, and almost drowned him and causing a seizure.When Will tries to take a bath it’s overplayed with Mr Clarke saying (in front of a model of a human brain) -  “Organisms instinctively respond to danger, expose a bacterium to a toxic chemical and it will flee or deploy some other defense mechanism. We’re very much the same.” As a flash of  Will’s “now-memories” occur as he stares at the tub. And we see a zoom in shot of the back of his head (which Will said is associated with memories) . And Mike stares at Will’s empty desk.Meaning, Will’s starting to fear the bath as he’s  starting to remember (subconsciously) what previously occurred there because of WW- Lonnie/tubs being the ‘toxic chemical’ in the analogy. 

WW fully takes control/switches in the following episode ‘Dig dug’ when he wakes up from the nightmare of Hopper being attacked in the cave- this is indicated by zooming in on the drawing of ‘Will the wise’ before he wakes up. And explains his odd behavior- of being oddly quiet . Looking up surprised at all the cave/vine drawings on the walls. It’s common for alters to pretend to be the host when they switch. He displays being able see into the future (like Will describes WW him being able to do in s3-  like when ww in s2 says Hopper will die), and he late tracks Hopper’s location by closing his eyes like the drawing of ww. Mike mentioning he’s a ‘superspy’  right after he finds Hopper- the next episode is even called “the spy” as Mike realizes he’s the mf and says he’s  “the spy”. He initially tried to help until the soldiers burned him (causing a seizure like Lonnie previously caused) and later when they burn him again. He decides to kill them- similar to how El killed 2 men for putting her in solitary confinement multiple times.

However,  I need to point out “ protectors are still and always protectors. What changes is the protective behaviors no longer look obviously protective and in actuality may be harmful and life threatening to the host.” He still acts as a protector saying he got upset when they hurt him/Will. And participating in a supernatural-extreme version of ‘thought snatching’.”thought snatching" (taking away your thoughts) can be caused by the actions of alters.” So he incorrectly tries wiping all of Will’s thoughts/memories to shield the body from past trauma.

Mf is also hinted to be under the category of a ‘ demon alter’- Will being handed the “devil’s baby” firework and in the background is a sticker of a demo(n)-dog  . “Demon alters are often a form of protector known as a persecutor.Some people have alters which are supernatural beings. These are regarded as possession-form identities, if a person is consciously aware of the actions of the alter then the person may describe themselves as feeling "possessed" by an outside person, spirit, deity (god), or demon.”

“Attempts to banish them using religious techniques such as "deliverance" or exorcism do not work permanently, can be harmful and may prolong any internal war between alters and preventing healing .”

“Ignoring them, trying to shut them up or restrain them, punishing them, or any of the various attempts at “getting rid of them” will not only never work (their needs will only become greater and louder), they’ll become more and more traumatized as you confirm to them their every belief about the world. 

“You can’t actually “get rid of them” anyway, so it’s far better to try and understand them. “  

So yeah- our heroes literally did everything wrong to make it worse.And literally mimicked Lonnie who tied him to chairs in his shed (and like Brenner did to joyce/ Russians did to Robin & steve) or to a bed (like brenner to Terry/lonnie to Will) and hurt and burned him (like Lonnie). Also, FYI the person who was calling Joyce at the beginning of s2 and freaked her out, and later called during the excorcism was Lonnie- why WW freaked out over the call.Noah was even told to watch the excorcist for the burning scene at the end of the season. Even the movie implied it was all based on a similar trauma and it was in the girl’s head- she even while possessed had the male voice of the man who was implied to have ab*sed her and said phrases he said in the film. Similar to WW’s deeper non-human voice he used to try and tell them to ‘let him go.’

So in the next season he was worse than ever and wanted revenge on the people who tried to kill him. Because he fears they’ll come after him again and hurt him- similar to Kali who says the people who are still after her ( and burned her with a taser stick/nancy with burning stick) are still after them and will kill them. 

 We also see the mindflayer despite in the show and d&d lore be sensitive to sunlight pick the summer to come back. Now, why is that? The answer is simple it’s when Will started to realize his romantic feelings for Mike. Joyce at the beginning of the season says “You won’t think it’s gross when you fall in love”?But due to his ab*se - WW DOES! And Will just responds to Joyce , unconvincingly, saying  “I’m not going to fall in love.” But he already has! 

“Even non-ab*sive romantic relationships may provoke the protector’s vitriolic reaction if the relationship takes on a meaning which feels threatening. Simply feeling the possibility of closeness to another person may be the trigger because of the protector’s prior learning that trust and dependency lead surely and inevitably to ab*se and hurt.”(Mierendorf, 1993). EX: a persecutor alter who identifies herself only as "Me, Myself" was questioned about her anger  and violence to the host.

" she began becoming interested in boys, and dates, and all that [she trails off], and I hated it and I didn't want any part of it. So I quit, I wasn't going to do any more ... nobody was ever gonna touch me ...And whenever that would happen with Gretchen [the host] it would hurt me and I would hate it and I'd hate her, and I'd hate her for letting that happen . i wanted to k*ll her”

Whenever the Mf is close and Will touches his neck it relates to his romantic feelings for Mike. 1st time it’s on one of their ‘movie dates’, 2nd time when Will is sad when Mike and El walk off together down the hill to make-out, , 3rd time right after he smashed castle byers after Mike says “it’s not my fault you don’t like girls”, 4th time (after the fight with Mike) when Billy is yelling to open the door (a trigger) and confides in Mike, 5th time when Mike asks him to go away so he can talk to El in the hospital waiting area, and 6th time when Mike says he loves El. 

And in s3, Mike says on a rainy day “it’s not my fault you don’t like girls” (and similarly Lonnie called Will a “fag” and a “queer”). Then he leaves Mike’s house, tears-up all his sketches, comics, a pic of mike (things he loves). And uses a bat that Lonnie taught him to use -to destroy castle Byers (which was also built on a rainy day , after his dad left).He uses a bat, despite saying in s1 he doesn’t like baseball. He has a bat in castle byers (next to a WW drawing) and a mitt/ baseball in his room (specifically next to a picture of the mindflayer.) and Will looked at the Will the wise drawing and then destroys castle byers with a bat. Showing WW/mf are the same person and that WW (and even Will to some extent) is still not taking Jon’s advice about not mimicking Lonnie.He uses the bat (lonnie taught him to use) to try to “man-up” and destroy or even taint the things he loves- castle byers & Mike . And after this, he grabs his neck (which in s2 he said he associated with now-memories) and then says “He’s back” (aka Lonnie’s influence/mf). And then everything supernatural begins to escalate.

-“   another ‘threat’ the, the persecutor believes the host may pose in adolescence or adulthood is breaking the silence about the ab*se and/or the multiplicity. We then witness the protector’s desperate attempt to control the client, to “save him” from the expected dire consequences of revealing the secrets.”

“The persecutor frequently protects the host through scare tactics; through fear and intimidation. In order for this scare tactic to work the host must be convinced of the persecutor's capacity and willingness (even desire) to use the utmost in force and destructiveness. The persecutor must, in short, be viewed as Putnam described: "a fearsome, loathsome, deamon-like entity” .When the danger posed comes from outside the system  the persecutor uses the same scare tactics, trying to impress the intruder (in this case the therapist, etc) with his or her ferocity and proclivity to violence.The persecutor therefore becomes increasingly loaded with hostility toward the host, to the point where the original protective function can be lost to their consciousness.Finally, it should be obvious that the persecutor who uses threats of violence to protect the host may be quite worried about either the host or  others uncovering the underlying protective intent of their actions because it disarms the power of their threat.”

EX:” Susan was a 31 year old woman who came in for treatment when she started recovering memories of inc*st which had begun with f*ndling and proceeded to r*pe just prior to adolescence. Susan reported a host of dissociative symptoms as well as feeling as if she had a "monster inside me who wouldn't allow me to heal.”Before the next session the therapist received a letter from an ego state named Shadow. The letter detailed how big and fierce Shadow was and how she was supposed to be feared, have control, and all the power.In the next session Shadow revealed that she had been using fear to prevent Susan from disclosing the ab*se. Shadow firmly believed that Susan's father would kill them if the abuse were disclosed.”

“As Putnam notes, while the persecutor displays “extreme contempt toward the host,” paradoxically, “the dominant emotion of the persecutor may really be love” (1989, p. 207). In fact, it is this very love which propels the persecutor in the harassment of the host -feeling it is a way to protect them from perceived threats. “

“  They are NOT the actual ab*ser.They are just copying behaviors shown to them by bad people, not harboring the intent, sadism or immorality of the actual perpetrators. We understand this change ( from protector to persecutor) and  displaying ab*sive behaviors does not reflect an underlying character structure.Instead we understand the change as demonstrating a past adaptive instrumental use of violence in an attempt to preserve the system in the face of a [perceived] threat.’

**Another words,  for anyone confused- WW went from childhood  protector to teen persecutor because of perceived threats. Will (the host) becoming aware of his romantic feelings for Mike and Will slowly and subconsciously gaining his memories of past ab*se - and WW fearing once he remembers he’ll tell someone. So he wants to prevent this by scaring Will and others .And does this by playing the role/character of a scary monster- mimicking the scariest things he knows Lonnie and the mf from d&d. It’s also possible like some persecutors he’s forgotten his original protective function or like other persecutors he’s simply masking how he’s trying to protect Will (because if anyone knew he cared for Will the threat wouldn’t be affective anymore).

‘Alters "should be treated with equal kindness," despite their behaviors.Persecutors are often  "misguided protectors" which can be negotiated with. With ‘patience, persistence and kindness" they can be allowed to choose a different role once the person is safe from ab*sers. The persecutor can be "turned into a constructive force" (Watkins, 1978, p. 397) and become “one of the therapist’s strongest allies and can play a major role in the healing of the patient” (Putnam, 1991, p. 205) (*I’ll talk more about this in my s4 analysis) .With healing a non-human alter can even turn human again! "I have an alter who was a persecutor for a long time. A lot of people see persecutors as bad and sometimes even the persecutors themselves see themselves as bad. This alter saw herself as an ab*ser and carried an awful lot of self hate, but she wasn't bad really because her motives were to protect us even though she wasn't going about it in a very good way. She thought that if she punished us and scared us into 'keeping in line' then other people wouldn't have to hurt us. Eventually she learnt that hurting us wasn't necessary, so now she is trying to learn how to protect us in more healthy ways."

-Wizard

There’s also important inspirations for the show to mention that support this theory:

Montauk Project’- The original title for Stranger things was “Montauk”- in reference to the Montauk Project. It was about experiments conducted on psychic children, where the scientists would “break” them psychologically to strengthen their powers and to program them. Duncan who could “open portals to other dimensions-  let loose a monster from his subconscious.”

‘A wizard of Eathsea’ (which suzie mentions in s3)- Is about a male wizard Ged (Will) who casts a powerful spell, but the spell goes awry and instead he releases a shadow creature! The new Archmage, Gensher, describes the shadow as an ancient evil that wishes to possess Ged. But the ‘shadow’ turns out  to be a representation of the darkest aspects of his personality. And the only way for the chaos to stop is for ged and the shadow to merge.

‘the dark crystal’ movie poster in Mike’s room is about a race called urSkeks who inadvertently divided themselves into two separate beings; the violent, materialistic Skeksis, and the gentle, contemplative urRu. It was only when they merged back together as one could harmony and peace be restored to the world.

‘Long kiss goodnight’- both (’good’ and supposedly ‘bad’) personalities also integrate into 1 happy personality.

In d&d  “it’s also possible, although rare, for an extremely powerful mind flayer wizard to become a true lich, also known as an illithilich. illithid's last desire upon death was to be rejoined with its elder brain.” ( Will’s mind/ he wants to integrate with Will).

Even the way the mindflayer/ ‘shadow monster’ functions is similar to the ‘shadow phoenix’/how integration in DID works.  “They considered feeding on brains as a euphoric experience as it absorbed its victim's memories, personality, and fears.”

The dark phoenix (referenced in s1ep1)  fails to merge with jean so goes to merge with her clone body as the next best thing. In this case the mf went to Will’s second alter William/Billy. And as Will states “another me”. Later Jean, Phoenix, and madelyn (clone) merge into 1 person- the new-jean now having the memories and personality traits of all 3.

in s1 Mr clarke describes the vale of shadows (later the upsidedown) as being created by “necrotic” (’dead’-zombie boy) and shadow (shadow monster) magic. In d&d the Vale of Shadows, is  as a lush valley hidden in the mountains that holds a sacred pool with the power to make dreams reality. (In this case nightmares representing past ab*se). He even describes his ‘now memories’ as ‘like a dream’.

In ‘never ending story’ referenced in s3 -  the land of Fantasia represents humanity’s imagination and is thus without boundaries. However ‘the Nothing’ (the physical manifestation of darkness) which has taken over Fantasia and it’s inhabitants is a manifestation of the ‘loss of hopes and dreams’.  

Silent hill videogames/movies (duffers cited as inspo):. “The bad guys faked Alessa’s death. Kaufmann prepared a substitute body of alessa;  and performed the fake "autopsy (like Will) .Alessa believed that their current world must be cleansed with fire (WW’s fire powers). Alessa had a very dark, violent, traumatic and ab*sive childhood: r*ped, beaten, tortured, and even burned , all by the age of 7- “it was a 7″). She had supernatural powers and was called a witch. She had precognition (future/intuition) and pyrokinesis (fire) which developed after her ab*sive mother burned her (like ww). It’s  also implied Dahlia her mother would lock Alessa in their house's dark attic for long periods of time for any irreligious behavior (the trunk).Alessa was "always"  sad, and  Alessa only found respite when escaping to other worlds through fantasy to cope with and comfort herself in the face of her harsh reality. At times, Alessa seems to completely withdraw inward, perhaps as a result of years of trauma as there are many instances of her becoming unresponsive when questioned.Because of  all of her ab*se  Allesa’s soul split in 1/2 (becoming Alessa and Cheryl).Selfless at heart, she cared for her second half /reincarnation more than she cared for herself, wanting to spare them the hellish nightmare she endured at the hands of her ab*sive mother and her cult. For seven years (it was a 7), Alessa endured her suffering because she had not wanted to destroy whatever small happiness her other self was able to enjoy, but little by little, it became more than Alessa could bear. Alessa's latent psychic abilities are triggered and she shrouds Silent Hill in fog and an altered reality to prevent her mother's scheme from advancing. Many of the drastic changes that befall the town in the game, such as the horrific creatures that come to inhabit it, are conjured from her imagination and delusions. “ ( personally i think Lonnie went to the house offscreen in s1 and tried to take Ww- why when lonnie is at the byers house they zoom in on a bullet in the tv for some reason with no explanation on how it occurred).  Cheryl and Alessa also later merge again .

mystic river-in the 80s, a young boy who plays baseball is r**ed by 2 men in a cabin in the woods and escapes and runs into the forrest . He  imagines perpetrators as werewolves and vampires as a way to cope. And imagines he’s in a scary world that no one else can see (that disappears when he turns around). And he even has a split personality. He wishes he could turn into a undead monster so he doesn’t have to feel the pain of being human anymore.

other DID movies/show inspirations for St (some realistic /some more supernatural so resemble DID) : prince of tides,primal fear (realistic DID ,caused by childhood se*ual trauma).supernatural/ or non realistic DID:  elfen lied, exorcist, and Audrey rose .

 Now on to the next point- “chronologically, it is the persecutory alter personality who creates the first split. Helper alter personalities constitute the second split, and as such, constitute a defense against the first split. These two successive splits constitute the basic dissociation. Further alter personality formations are only of secondary nature. In order to cope with the first split, the host personality produces companions resembling [him] as a second defense.The alter personalities developing in the second phase originate from the desire of the host personality to regain her previous strength and from her striving to create alter personalities resembling herself who share the same aim with her.”

So to make it simple some alters are more based on Will in order to combat the alters more based on WW/mf (the 1st alter/. protector- persecutor). So let’s talk about other alters based on ww/mf.

Kali Prasad (avenger alter/ different race alter) 

“The avenger holds the rage from the childhood abuse and may attempt to avenge themselves or seek retribution from the ab*ser.”

”Different race alters are generally created for the stereotypic or imagined qualities of that race, as experienced or perceived by the host personality.  Fike gives the example of a Caucasian patient with a Native American alter personality who represented spirituality and other-worldliness. “ we actually see  Kali who is the embodiment of her religious counterpart.Kali is a (Hindu goddess). And Prasad is a holy offering to gods and goddesses in hinduism.

 Kali’s name means “destroyer of all evil forces” and in mythology she was considered “ a divine protector and the one who bestows liberation to her children”. However , the goddess Kali’s iconography is generally associated with death and violence and paradoxically (at the same time) “motherly love”. Kali is sometimes considered the goddess of death but more accurately she “brings the death of ego”. She only kills demons.  She is considered one of “the most compassionate of the gods because she provides liberation to her children”. She is commonly depicted holding a sword and the head of a demon. “A latitude soul sees mother Kali as very sweet, affectionate, and overflowing with incomprehensible love for her children” (the numbers and her gang of misfits).She is called the Divine Mother  & Mother of the Universe. And when talking to El the sign there’s a says ‘spiritual advisor’  behind her.

“ It has been suggested that a male child that is being ab*sed might create a female headmate because he needs a "mother" role in the attempt to soften what might be angry and aggressive behavior on his part as a male DID sufferer. “

we see other evidence of her being an alter as well. Her saying she feels ‘whole’ with EL around. And In the episode before Kali is introduced. Will describes his now memories as “spreading” “growing” and “killing”.  Meanwhile, after this Kali describes her and El’s wounds (caused by their father) in the same fashion. Kali describes how El has to face her trauma or else, like it did with her it will “spread.” Kali later makes a imaginary Brenner to tell El the same words Will said earlier- saying she has to face her trauma or else it will “grow” and “spread “ and “kill” her. in never ending story (reffed in s3) Sebastian who unbeknownst to him created an imaginary mythical world with characters who’d copy phrases their creator  Sebastian said.

She also says everyone sees her and El as monsters because of their powers- something ww/mf feels (literally becoming one because of this and his ab*se).  And Kali and El say that people hurt them -so they should be allowed to kill them. Kali making the distinction (more aligned with the mf) saying the people who hurt her are still after her -so she’s just making the first move and killing them as preemptive self defense. Something the mf also does, saying in s3 El could have killed him, and targeting those that hurt him and said they wanted to “kill” him in s2 . It’s the same logic as Kali. 

And before kali and El talk we see kali look up to el, as they pass by  graphiti that says ‘barbelith” which in the comics ‘the invisibles’- is the connection between humanity and the holographic world that we see. Aka her and Kali interacting in what’s actually the innerworld. Like Dustin said about the upsidedown “it’s a parallel world existing right beside you, without you even knowing it.”

why the tv of Kali’s tormenter (who tased her as a kid) is watching a show about a kid having a nightmare about being held down and having a needle put in her arm that kept getting bigger and bigger. Like how WW was pinned down and forced to take a shot in the arm.

Even the butterfly she creates could be possibly connected to WW- because butterfly decorations are above the byer’s phone (WW electercuted). And similar to Kali’s description the ficitonal russians (npcs) are also very stereotypical based on what an american kid might hear about ‘evil soviets’. They also use the same tasers as Kali’s ab*sers in the lab. In some movies it’s implied Lonnie may have tased his kids so maybe that’s why? And we see like how the gang tied up the mf to a chair, and shot him with a needle needle- the russians do the same to robin & steve.We also see Kali and El attack a man at a gas station -similar to the russian hitman npc from s3.

And Kali rescues a girl (npc) from a mental health hospital -called ‘dottie’ which is a term for being mentally ill. Lucas also claims El may have escaped from a psych hospital. Personally, i think this is foreshadowing of Mike helping Will out of one (like how Dustin and Lucas bring up ‘myers’ escaping one), but I digress.  in Kali’s place grafiitti also says ‘o’bedlam’a poem about neglected mentally ill beggers .  And compares her crew (of npcs) to herself and El- like dottie (mentally ill) because she’s part of a did system.  Axel with his knife (lonnie loves his hunting knives and used to threaten Will with them and thus did so to el). And El and Will share the same stuffed bear- ‘so there’s the care bear’, one of kali’s crew even wears a clown mask, and axel wears the mummy mask seen at Melvald’s where Joyce works. There’s also the connection of the ‘rainbow room’ (with a rainbow drawing) on the door - relating to  Kali & El and Will’s rainbow-ship drawing.And kali also likes rock music like Will/Billy. And when El first sees her-she’s near fire (ww connection).

El  (caretaker & gate keeper alter)

“A gatekeeper is an alter who controls switching or access to front, access to inside or certain areas inside, or access to certain alters or memories. The existence of a gatekeeper is highly stabilizing for a system because gatekeepers can to some extent prevent unwanted switching, failure to switch when necessary, or failure to switch to the correct alter. They can help to prevent traumatic memories from bleeding from the alters who hold them to alters who could not yet handle them. They might police the boundaries between subsystems.These alters help prevent traumatized alters from fronting. This can be important because there is a chance that the trauma holders may want to harm the body.”  In case you haven’t realized ... el is a horrible gate keeper-opening the gate and leaving it open for a year, not sensing it being reopened in s2 or 3 (too busy thinking about mike in s2/ dating him in s3), and thus causing more trauma to Will (who started to remember old confusing and traumatic memories), and causing Billy, and Max to be traumatized.

she’s also most likely a caretaking alter-“Caretaking alters are a type of a protector, they help manage and care for other alters, and sometimes external people (for example children).  “

“They are often motherly, and may be modeled on a real person (WW’s appearance- WW looking like Will except having brown eyes, and El looking like the female equivalent).  “Caretaking alters lack awareness of self-care and become exhausted easy; they only have a limited role and have little capacity for play, exploration or socializing.” El fighting to exhaustion, being isolated for most of her life and being in the cabin for 9 months (s2-3), comforting billy/Will, and again only not abiding by this when Mike is involved -hurting Max out of jealousy.

Her inability to speak well could be from neglect and social isolation, but  ‘Ab*sive groups are known to have created alters which appear either "crazy" or learning disabled, for example training alters to scramble or garble words so they can’t report ab*se.Alters may be disabled when the body is not, for example a mute alter may be created in response to abusers instructions, e.g. "Don't talk.”

El also shows the trait of ‘memory sharing’.

Memory sharing

“We’ve managed to create a system within us. In order to grant access to memories with each other we have to come to know each other and gain each other's trust.  Caroline says “when the memory sharing happens- the best way I can describe it to a non DID person is by asking you to remember/think about a movie with Wizards or characters like from twilight where they have the power to touch you and let you see their visions and/or memories. Sounds crazy I'm sure— but that's as close as I can possibly describe it.The memories literally pour into me exactly like that. “

After Will disappears, El appears to the audience for the first time. Having similar sounding names and having a striking resemblance (and 1 syllable nicknames ending in L) . Troy, Benny, Hopper, and an eyewitness all initally assuming she was a boy. Hopper even tries to track down El, assuming it was Will who’s hair was shaved-  asking “could it be Lonnie’s kid?” and the man responding “could of been the Byers boy”. Mike even says “Do you really think it’s a coincidence we found her in the same place Will disappeared?”The answer being No. The song “Alice” (from alice in wonderland) plays when El is at the restaurant -indicating El has entered a new world (our world). *Also, both Alexi and El are bribed with hamburgers to give the adults info they need.

El is an alter based on WW . Like WW she is afraid of the underwater sensory deprivation tanks her dad made her go into (Lonnie and ww with the tub). in s1 El used the pool/sensory deprivation to contact Will- the episode is even called “the tub” . And she thinks of this idea to talk to Will -after staring at the tub in the byers house and then remembering the deprivation tank. When in the pool or ‘tub’ at school the water slowly becomes dark as she enters the darkness- the void is a connection to the mf/ shadow monster. 

She unlocks doors and it’s framed ominously just like the demogorgan does in the first ep. In d&d lore Mindflayers have “telekinetic abilities akin to mage hand (El was called a mage) and telekinesis.” I still think the mf may now have her telekenesis  (which was originally his to begin with). We also see El fade away with the demogorgan as she and the demogorgan mimic each other’s body language. This was probably supposed to be El most likely integrating with the demogorgan (until the Duffers admitted to changing their minds).  And In s1/2 she has black veins appear while not being possessed. 

Dustin in s2 mentions the mf “doesn’t know it’s true home.” which is illustrated by  El wandering around as Hopper, Becky, and kali try to convince her they’re her home. El saying she’s the monster in s1 is also how the mf aka WW feels about himself.  And Will/ww was thrown in the dark trunk by Lonnie (perhaps after refusing to shoot an animal ) so for El it became Brenner throwing her in a dark room in solitary confinement after refusing to kill a cat. in s1 El draws similar to Will/ww and draws Brenner with a 3rd leg (cause even if brenner didn’t do so to her - the memory bled through from ww).  Benny suspected El has been “ab*sed or something” and she didn’t seem to understand privacy -undressing in front of the boys.

El cries thinking of the time she killed a squirrel (typical hunting game) and eating it and somehow knowing how to make a fire (a Ww skill). El when re-enacting this forgotten experience of WW’s , spots a sketchy ominous hunter and throws a fired projectile at him and runs. Like WW who uses his fireballs to hurt the bad guys- in this case the hunters (Lonnie and his buddies). Similar to the demogorgan who killed 2 hunters in s1. 

When she goes into the void and sees the demogorgan- we even hear a clock ticking in the background indicating this is associated with the past. When Will encounters the mf a similar thing happens- as the clock moves unnaturally. And similar to the mf she attacks her abusers and throws them into a wall (which mf did in s3). Throwing Nancy into a wall after she burned him.

Unfortunately in the ‘long kiss goodnight’ a girl with multiple personalities (Will/ww) was thrown and tied up in a trunk and when the trunk was opened the main villain tried to sell her for... you know . Then she escapes and jumps off a cliff into the water to escape the r**e (quarry flashback?) . This guy later tries to drown her too. While in skyfall, number-tattoos on the wrist were indicative of being sold into the s*x tr*de (El/kali’s tattoos- Will saw something?) . I really hope this isn’t the case - but this is the man who wanted to make money off his son’s death to to pay off his gambling debt. In one movie the bad guy sold his gf for a case of beer and some smokes, while playing a card game. And unfortunately, the fact Will was triggered to see the mf after Mike says “i’m not pr*stituting my sister?” may indicate something from the past as well (maybe Jon saying something ?). Along with El  being chased by “bad men”. It’s possible those 2 hunters were pals with lonnie and got what was coming to them. On to the next point-

El - is the Cannanite (male) god associated with “salt water “ (pool filled with salt in s1) who “dwelled in a tent” (in s1 Mike’s blanket fort) . In s1 El owns a male lion doll and Will has a female lion . The fact El first appeared looking like a boy,  is named after a male god, El in spanish translates to “he”, and she has a male lion toy could symbolize a few things.  In ‘prince of tides’ when the boy cried the dad yelled for him to go put on a dress.In ‘the cell’ the ab*sive father beat his young son with a belt, burned, and drowned him (causing a seizure), threw homophobic slurs at him, and called him a ‘women’ multiple times while beating him. And said “I’ll teach you to be a woman.” Some specialists say one of MANY possible reasons a boy may have a female alter is cause they were “forced to cr*ss dress “ but obviously that’s not the only possible reason. (And no, this doesn’t apply to trans women- making sure no one tries putting words in mouth). I think of the moment where boyish-looking El runs away into the woods, and takes off her wig and screams in anger at the reflection of herself in the water -may be a recreated event from the past). The fact El [is a male god]  and in spanish El (the way it’s spelled in the show means “he’)  is also possibly intentional . In addition to the fact El is the only alter who physically resembles Will and is the only one with a buzzcut , unlike Kali (who in the flashback at Hawkins lab had all her hair) is something to take note. El could be an inverse of Will’s experience. El as a girl was stripped of her femininity from her papa.  Because Will was a boy forced to dress girly cause of his dad . El having a male lion and Will having a female lion being used to symbolize this. WW was the one who went through this abuse and also had brown eyes  like El ( unlike Will)- so in regards to physical appearence she is his ‘girl version’.Since like many ab*sers Lonnie gave Will mixed messages he could never abide by . In mad max furry road the villain named ‘daddy’ forced his sl*ve to shave their head and branded them with a tattoo like El (he also had 3 s*x s**ves)

-in s2 the song ‘don’t mess around with Jim’ plays. Upon character introductions of lyrics “Jim walker” pans to Jim Hopper and “boy named Will-ie Mccoy” (pans to El).

-Hopper in ep1 mention (El)eanor Gilipse-surname of girl in silent hill with powers/DID.

-the never ending story ref also alludes to how El was created by Will similar to another superpowered human (ww).  El is atreyu and Will is sebastian. El is atreyu- who is said to be the chosen one. He falls from a great height and on to the beach shore, and comes across abandoned ruins, and then the villain gmork latches his jaws on to his leg (like El). It’s revealed atreyu isn’t actually the chosen one and everyone was wrong . And it was actually the poor human kid (Sebastian - who has a bowl cut and one parent and secretly had imagination-powers ) .  Atreyu is told to look at the mirror of his ‘true self’ and is shocked to see Sebastian (his unknown creator) looking back at him. “turn around , look at what you see. In her face- the mirror of your dreams.” 

-In the novel Sebastian even temporarily went evil when he lost all his memories  except those of his father- similar to Will/ww. Sebastian created the whole fantasy story and it’s inhabitants (with their own sentience).  So only he had the capability to remove the darkness from the fantasy world they inhabited. The darkness representing the loss of hopes and dreams.

-Elfen lied (another inspo for the series according to the duffers)- has a Super-powered protagonist/anti hero/ and tragic villain.”She has three split personalities due to past trauma . The three are Lucy, Nyu, and Kaede.  Kaede : (childhood love/friend of Kouta) from ‘mapple house’ (cough- ‘mapple street’/ Will). Nyu: is mentally the age of a young child in the body of an adult, who can barely speak, and found by Kouta after she escapes the lab who experimented on her .Nyu is like a very sheltered child and has a very tiny outlook on the actual world and can only speak one word at the start of the anime (El).Lucy:Her violent personality, who has a distaste and hate for humans after humans traumatized her as a child. Although deep down she wants to be human (mf).”

We also see both the Will/mf and El called spies, have ptsd, described as ‘quiet’, and had their dads force them to kill animals. El growls like an animal after the mf growls at her first.  And in regards to the supernatural Ww and El both have powers. They both could communicate through different dimensions using electronics. Both of their moms’ had “crazy aunts” . Both  are called “schizos” in s2 because of their powers (did is most commonly misdiagnosed with schizophrenia which i do think that will occur initially- mrs driscoll not being believed about the supernatural because of her being a ‘paranoid schizophrenic’ is foreshadowing). Both Will and her had their brain waves monitored at the lab and their measurements were off the charts, plus they were being unknowingly recorded on video.They both tore through walls (with that pink gunk between the normal world and upside down). El even goes through the entrance covered in goo (like a baby) as a hint she was born from the upsidedown! 

We see in Terry’s place (El’s room) symbols associated with Will- clowns and rabbits ( like how Lonnie made Jon kill rabbits on hunting trips). They even chose white rabbits- like those in Alice in wonderland and earlier associated with El.

El/ww can also both can track others when concentrating -Ww found Hopper, El found Will. Both communicated psychically by transferring their conscious- El to talk to Mike in his basement using the void (in s2) & Will to his mom in the living room (in s1).  Also before Will goes missing , he asks Dustin for his X-men comic- later in reference to El, Dustin asks “Do you think El was born with her powers like the X-men?” And when Mike says El is “channeling him (Will)”. Dustin says “like professor x”-clearly hinting that they were both born with powers, like the X-men.

However, El is how Max described “her own person.” When Dustin says she’s “like a wizard (like ww) Mike corrects him and says “more like yoda.” And the longer she stays in the real world the more differences she has to Will/ww as she evolves into her own person. She doesn’t have many interests in common with Will :d&d, scifi, computers, science, horror movies etc. And like i’ve explained in other posts - she isn’t actually in love with Mike. And her obsession with mike not only inhibits her role as an alter but her own independence/personhood , along with Will’s healing ( which depends on Mike and other’s support).  I think the main reason we never see Will & El interact significantly (despite the parallels) is because they’re growing apart as they develop as people and go on divergent paths. I feel like if someone doesn’t integrate it’s most likely El (and probably Max). While Kali most likely integrates- since she was brought to tears by seeing another alter and said  she feels “complete” with El - hinting she’ll probably desire to integrate into Will/ww in the future. in ‘annihalation’ a poc woman with a 8 tattoo on her arm integrates with others into a god like creature too . EL may eventually go by Elle [in french means ‘she’] when she becomes her own person, and gains independence, perhaps? 

demogorgan (fictional alters or ‘fictive’)

“Fictional introjects specifically are based off of fictional characters. These characters can be from television shows, movies, books, fantasy, and other forms of fiction.They don't have to think, act, look, or feel in the exact same ways that the fictional character does. Some fictional introjects can be ab*sive, and form as a way to continue traumatizing the system.” 

“ One of the main purposes of a father introject is to control your behavior when you are away from the father with the same intensity as if you were right in front of him. The father may have a variety of parts that are loyal to him, his beliefs, his ways, etc.’

 in d&d a demogorgon  is a  “demon from the abyss”. And are also called “the deep father”  , indicating his connection of being based on Lonnie. We even see Lucas hand Will a ‘devil’s baby’ firecracker (and behind will is a sign that says demon-dog) to indicate that Will’s father is the ‘devil’. The demogorgan is also first referred to as “the man without a face” in the show. Steve suggesting he does have a face but he was wearing a mask. And when Lonnie first ‘comes back’ to Hawkins Jon says “mom, did that thing (demogorgan) come back.” And Lonnie cuts him off after the comment saying ‘that’s enough’. Lonnie also mentions to Joyce he explored the woods where Will went missing. And later Jon mentions how the demogorgan only ventures several miles from his house -like lonnie.  Jon also tells Nancy about how his dad forced him to go on hunting trips and in s1 we see the demorgorgan kill a deer (typical game), attack hunters, and capture Will in the shed (which contained the riffle and sleeping bags for camping). We are also told in s1 Lonnie taught Will baseball, and when the demorgorgan knocks the bat out of Jon’s hand he gets on top of him- putting his face close like he was about to kiss him. We even see in s2 - the pic of the mf next to a baseball bat and mitt.  And the demogorgan  on multiple occasions was mistaken for a bear (which Will sketches and El also is into teddy bears) and bears symbolically represent “wisdom” (will the wise).

And Lonnie when closing the hole in the wall says someone has to be blamed for what happened to Will- and it transitions to Mike tearing a hole in paper and explaining what happened to Will with the demogorgan. Lonnie caused the ‘tear’ in Will’s psyche. Lonnie is even the one to mention how people ‘make things up to cope.’And how people in the city are “more real” (possible alter foreshadowing).

 In  d&d demorgorgons also have 2 heads with distinct personalities, one wanting to stay as one and the other wishing to separate (a hint at Will’s DID and the fight between WW wanting to integrate personalities and Will not wanting to do so).

~El ,Kali, and the demogorgon being alters is why we see  the lights flicker when the demogorgan appears , and (sometimes) when El and kali use their powers- cause they’re based off ww who has lightning/electricity powers  which we saw in s1. Causing the lights to flicker at Mike’s place,  turning the bike light on with his mind,  causing sparks of electricity to come out of the phone 2x , using lights telepathically to talk to joyce (blinking ‘once for yes and twice for no’, and using the lights to tell Joyce to “run”).

demodogs/dart (animal alters)

“In some cases, what presents as an animal is really a child alter acting as an animal.  This is found in cases where the abused child was forced to act as an animal, usually a dog.”

 In mad-max the r**ist biker gang - ties up one of their victims on a leash like a dog. In unleashed the adoptive father made his son where a collar and called him ‘his dog’. ‘Orphan’ the girl wore a collar and the bullies pulled on it calling her a ‘doggie’ and she starts screaming and having an episode in school. In s1 Hopper says he likes the book cujo , that one of the guards is reading, and at the end of the book they replace the dog Cujo with a dog named Willie. In ‘the cell’ the villain put dog collars on his m*rder v*ctims cause he wanted to ‘own them’. In ghost Busters, Mike -is Venkman- and Will -is Dana Barret. Dana finds a demon-dog in her fridge, and hires the ghost busters. And right before Venkman goes on a date with her she is possessed by the big-bad, Zuul,  (who controls demo(n)-dogs). The s4 movies also allude to Lonnie possibly k**ling chester his dog cause when he was stalking Will (offscreen) chester would bark at him - like how he barked at  the demogorgan - one of the only other times we hear a dog bark is when we see Lonnie (at his place).

*There’s also the parallels of Dart to El. Dart killed a cat. While El’s papa tried to make her kill a cat (which dogs stereotypically don’t like-Lonnie most likely forced Will to kill a cat. ).Heck the russians even reference cats -linking them to El and the demodog. El/Dart also both have sweet tooths (eggos and 3 muskateers). Both were called traitors and ran away- and initially caused a rift in the group. And dustin and Mike said they made “promises” to El/dart and that  dart/el “trusted them” (mike &Dustin)”. Lucas in s1 also called El a ‘dog’ and El asked, annoyed,  if she was Mike’s “pet”.

Jim hopper  : Introject & adult alters

“System introjects are alters who are replications of a person from the outside world , who often believe they are the actual person (and not the replication).  They may adamantly believe that they are a different person . These parts contain a lot of memories, factual information, emotional realities for how it was like to be near the outside person.Introjects can also be based off of  figures that the dissociative child found strong, courageous, heroic, or otherwise worthy of being emulated and internalized and could theoretically protect them.”Jim even means to “supplant” (replace) or “supresede” (take the place of a person or thing previously in authority or use). Meaning, there was a Jim Hopper (Joyce knew in highschool) and a Jim Hopper alter based on him.

“older adult alters are created to serve a nurturing or parenting role, thus serving as a protector. (*protecting Will/el) . However, sometimes the age is related to taking on the identification of the ab*ser, and can therefore take on any of the other more hostile roles... Introjects which are mimicking ab*sers are trying to "keep you inline" in order to protect you from external ab*sers. They don’t dare relax their vigilance or let you fall away from the OLD RULES that were once so important.They are trying so hard to keep you safe. “

We even see the convo he has with El,  is similar to Neil and his ex wife- a man berating the girl after coming home, calling her a liar, and asking about what man they saw. And El yelling and saying Hopper is “like papa” when he yells at her  (the same season dr owens called him Will’s “pop”.  Would not be surprised if Lonnie would berate Will about seeing Mike. There’s even a physical resemblance- blonde, blue eyes, and similar moustaches to him and Neil.And he also parallels Billy & Max in s3 with the ‘door’ imagery.

“Being an introject is a difficult and thankless task. This member of your system has spent all these years acting out a role that they dislike every bit as much as you do.” *(berating El about the rules- that were most likely initially Lonnie’s. A part of me suspects that cabin wasn’t Hopper’s grandfather’s but Lonnie’s secret cabin where he took Will. And berate Will about seeing Mike. He was shown in s1 fixing the hole in the wall. And Hopper says about the cabin “ A LOT OF HISTORY HERE’ ). 

We see other alter hints too -He taught El morse code (which Will already knew). Murray says Hopper reminds Joyce of a previous “bad relationship” (lonnie). And the russians in order to get info, t*rture steve and threaten to rip out his finger nails , while, Hopper threatens to break the mayor’s fingers for info. 

And when a Russian goes into the carnival game in a room with tigers and clowns,   the speaker says “ if you dare enter the cave of horrors you may never know what you may find around the corner (clown laughs) . Don’t show your fear in the presence of the tiger or you may never escape this cave alive”.As he jumps out the tiger roars in unison with Hopper leaps out to attack.

The song you ‘don’t mess around with jim’ (from s2 and 3 that Jim dances and sings to ) is about a boy named Willie beating up a thug (who wears a hat) named Jim (representing resentment of father figures).  We see Villains have zoom in shots of their cigareete trays- like the h*tman, Billy posessed by the mf, and Hopper before he yells and threatens El in s2.  

In s1 It’s implied Hopper is addicted to pills , was an alcoholic (both him and Lonnie have many beer cans and cigareettes in their house- would not be surprised if Lonnie also had a pill addiction too) .

Introjects “ are NOT the actual ab*ser. They are a victim, a single part within a large beautiful mind, bred from the survivor's essence.They are just copying behaviors shown to them by bad people, not harboring the intent, s*dism or imm*rality of the actual perpetrators.”

“The introject in your system was there to help you when the stakes were very high and their job was deadly serious. It’s difficult for them to let go of that level of urgency. introjects represent how important it was, at one time in your life, to always be vigilant. Danger was always near you and you had to be careful of every move and every word, because your very survival might depend on not doing or saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.”

‘ introjects also represent the desperate hope that, if you could only do everything just right, obey all your ab*ser’s rules and anticipate exactly what was wanted of you, that it might lessen or even prevent some of the ab*se from happening. And gain approval or love from the ab*ser.”

We also see how he’s based on the mf/ww in a few ways: he describes his depression in s3 as being in a “deep dark cave” (the supernatural cave in s2/cave of horrors at the fair) and in s2 he says he thinks of himself as a “black hole” that will destroy everything around him including his daughter (the mf/Lonnie).

Now, cause people will mention it. We can’t take everything David says about Jopper seriously- he filmed s4 in advanced and lied constantly about the duffer’s not contacting him prior to this. I think he bs-es a lot and occasionally throws in hints. Like how in behind stranger things after mentioning Lonnie and Bob he compares jopper- to Jack and Evelyn from china town (who slapped her for lying -like Neil did to his wife. And we see duffers laugh hysterically and shawn  exchange a look with them cause they know David is giving a hint that isn’t positive). And evelyn was also r*ped by her father (there’s at least 30+ st movies the Duffers have cited with that dad plot point, unfortunately . Along with about 6-10 DID movies).  David said in an interview with  total film : “ In terms of Stranger Things, you’ll be able to look back at season one and see a lot of things that happen further down the line that relate to that.I’ve had those discussions with them from the very first season. We were always interested in that idea of the Gandalf resurrection – Gandalf the Grey who fights the Balrog and then becomes Gandalf the White.” Well this is a lothr ref (Which Will is into) but i think it’s also just a Will and ww hint -since in silent Hill when Alessa and cheryl mege back into 1 they become a deity- a serene white-clad figure, even the dragon relates to Will. But,  there’s also the fact David in multiple interviews  describes  Hopper as a ‘little boy’ . After s4 started he said about Hopper with Gold DERBY “  he’s also like a little boy who has been just so traumatized and so hurt that he can’t really have relationships with people that are full and that are honest... it makes it difficult for him to get close to people... all the joyce st-...There’s a lot to be revealed around the complexities of that story . Because when we know the ending you’ll be able to go back and watch it and see what we were planting in s3 , that paid off in s4 and s5. That will make those intimacy issues a lot more understandable.” 

Since Hopper-alter thinks he’s the real-Hopper (Joyce’s old friend/ possible ex) he hits on Joyce.There’s the references to back to the future. Steve incorrectly saying it’s about alex keaton “trying to b*ng his mom.” And stobin’s exchange about the movie alludes to what Jopper actually is  “I think that lady is trying to bang her son/ no, but, they’re the same age?/ He needs to get back to the future ,which is his time, cause he’s stuck in the past (trauma)/ W-What?” 

And the season where Jopper was the most evident we see another alter (Billy) hitting on someone who is old enough to be/ resembles his mom. Her being a wheeler could also represent Will’s repressed feelings for Mike. Along with Illustrating his subconscious issues with parental figures cause of Lonnie. Dianne (Hopper’s ex wife) - even is a roman goddess of hunting.

In s2 Nancy asks Steve how his “grandpa’s time in the war is a metaphor for your life?” And steve compares the mf to the germans in the war. Dr owens mentions Will has ptsd like “ (vietnam) soldiers’, Hopper saying he had buddies like Will . “In the 70s there was a study that compared the post-traumatic stress symptoms in Vietnam veterans and adult survivors of childhood s**ual ab*se. The study revealed that childhood s**ual ab*se is traumatizing and can result in symptoms comparable to symptoms from war-related trauma.” Hopper isn’t actually in Russia -but in one of the innerworlds (after he jumped through the rift of the machine- into Will’s mind). We’ll see flashbacks but also present circumstances of his imprisonment echo Will’s past with Lonnie (if the movies indicate anything)- being starved, guards getting payed in order to let other prisoners  r*pe a gay prisoner (than claim incorrectly because of his sexuality he wanted it) , as well as a gang of sadist men who r**e others and a warden using that as a threat to be compliant , being thrown in a dark room of solitary confinement and starved when they didn’t obey the warden, the warden being religious, etc. And the Anerican soldiers (in Vietnam) in the movies aren’t much better and do similarly horrific acts to civilians like r**e and bragging/ happily k*lling women, children, and the elderly. The drill sergant in vietnam calling them homophobic slurs & women, and chocking one of the soldiers with one hand, slapping one for not believing in christianity. Tying up a soldier in a bed , gagging him, beating him and saying “remember it’s just a dream.” Only praising them when good in fire arms.(movies : fullmetal jacket, papillon, shawshank redemption, platoon, welcome to marwen, etc ) . My assumption is while in solitary he has flashbacks of his life- and it’s more hints about him being an alter -the boxes in the basement are “vietnam” ,“dad”, and “ny” (and these are the memories of his we’ll see). And some of the bad characters in said stories will also parallel Lonnie . For instance in s2, Jonathan mentions Indiana writer Vonnegut- In his book ‘slaughterhouse 5′- Vonnegut begins the story of Billy Pilgrim, a man who has “come unstuck in time”. It accounts of Billy Pilgrim's capture and incarceration by the Germans during the last years of World War II, and scattered throughout the narrative are episodes from Billy's life with his dad, and his own wife and kids.Billy is forced to be part of the war and similar things against his free will. The moments start from his childhood when his father throws him in the water to teach him how to swim. He was unwillingly drafted into the war. Later, he is kidnapped by Tralfamadorians  (aliens that are implied to be caused by his mental health issues/trauma) against his will. Therefore, he realizes that this concept is just an illusion. 

We also see Hopper being violent/aggressive to Mike foreshadowing how Lonnie will treat Mike (difference is it’ll be played completely serious).

Sara : “littles “ also called a child alter (not based on ww)

“Child alters often talk in a child-like way, but unlike a biological child they can normally understand abstract concepts and long words. Some child parts may ...  be playful and fun-living and have only positive memories. A child alter may also be an idealized representation of the "perfect child" from the "perfect" family, for example the "good boy/girl."

we see this in a few ways- Sarah winning the spelling bee (like Will winning the science fair) and Hopper describing her as very intelligent, but not knowing where she gets it from. She in the 1st episode is said to love science like Will (who won the science fair 4x) , and knows how to spell words like ‘odontalgia’.  In s1, Joyce and Hopper pretend with Sara and Will to be a witch and an ogre eating them.And in s1 Will and her both own cat plushies.  she has a tiger plushie (mascot of Will’s school, like with billy’s baseball mascott also being a tiger/ Will’s painting). And her hospital gown has clowns on it (Will’s fear). Hopper even pauses and has a flashback of sarah’s tiger when he sees Will’s lion plushie in the upsidedown .And when Will has a vine  in his mouth imagines sarah with tubes in her mouth.We see despite the fact Hopper didn’t move to Hawkins until after her death- she appears to be at Hawkins lab?

And Holly’s drawing is similar to el’s in s1.And , in s1, like Will she has an episode alluding to her seeing the void as she turns her head scared seeing something no one else can.Then in s2, Hopper says Sarah became obsessed with blackholes - and latter says that blackhole (mf?) got her. It’s possible she saw the void or even the mf and misinterpreted it as a blackhole. And  so she didn’t actually die of cancer - it was probably just symbolic of her integrating into the mf/ww (the blackhole ‘getting her’). Or it’s possible she’s just alive/in stasis in the innerworlds  after her ‘simulated death’

Also can we mention how there’s lions, tigers,and bears (as plushies)- oh my.  Along with the whole “home references”. Wizard of oz is on the movie list, and 2 wizard of oz movies shown in s3.

Robin Buckley

Robin Buckley (possibly an alter?)- Robin discusses with steve the legend of Prometheus , who not only gave human beings the gift of fire, and therefore civilization, but created them, giving them the gift of life. El watches frankenstein in s2 whose novel was titled “the modern prometheus”(another hint WW/Will created El). Steve when looking at Robin even says the biblical verse “let there be light” (the beginning of creation and human beings-i.e Robin).”And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” (wow this doesn’t sound just like the black-watery-void in the upsidedown at all) XD. Robins were also considered holy birds by the God thor (the god of Thunder and lightning).  She’s gay, into comics, rides a bike,  and is afraid of drs just like Will is, and was tied to a chair for info like ww. She references surfing (billy) and has a spy storyline. She’s a smart,  into rock music and wants to fit in . And makes fun of her friends’ love-lives to hide her own insecurities about her own romantic feelings and sexuality (that weren’t accepted at that time). And has feelings for a girl who can’t sing (mike) who pays too much attention to a person who didn’t even like them (Steve/El) . Buckley could be a ref to a ‘buck’ deer (like the one the demogorgan killed in s1/ typical hunting game). And another legend says that the Robins were red because it scorched its bre*st in the fires of Purgatory, mercifully taking drops of water in its beak for the lips of the parched souls in torment( the opposite of devil-lonnie).Robins also feature in the traditional children's tale Babes in the Wood, the birds out of kindness cover the de*d b*dies of the 2 abandoned children found in the woods with strawberry leaves (who had been k*lled by an abusive family member) .  Not sure if mrs driscoll (being a strawberry name is a coincidence to that whole cherry/strawberry/heathers movie ref with alexi? Robin is also a unis*x/male name like most of the other gals on the list. While her crush ‘tammy’ (means ‘twin’. could be a clue about Robin being an alter?).  

the rebuttal could be simply: buckley can mean ‘goat’ which would match her bff’s surname Harrington (’he-goat’). And just be a cute little nod to them.While Robin means ‘bright fame’ just like our fallen super-hero Bob ( since robin and bob are nicknames for Robert)- so could also be a simple nod to him.But her names could be both a nod and a deep ref-  who knows.

Barb

Barb- Barbara means “strange” or “foreign” , while Barb means “stranger”. Her name could also be based on the saint Barbara- who was carefully guarded by her father who kept her locked up in a tower (like Hopper & Brenner to El/Lonnie to Will) in order to preserve her from the outside world . He later tries killing her. However, as punishment, he was struck by lightning on the way home and his body was consumed by flame (connection to ww who likes using fireballs against bad guys and who also has lightning powers). She’s best friends with a wheeler (although pictures show us unlike byler they’re not childhood friends). she may have been queer coded and had feelings for her bff  (moping after Nancy leaves to sleep with Steve) . In a s1 flashback Will specifically watched ‘poltergeist’ with his mom- and is then thrust into the same scenario as the little girl (being trapped in another dimension- where the mothers can only hear their voices and communicate to them through electronics ). And barb’s pool scene echos the pool scene in the movie too-a women being attacked in a pool ( and could be considered similar to being attacked in a tub/sensory deprivation tank). And similar to El , she wakes up in the upsidedown and pukes up a white fluid calling for Wheeler- but gets no help. Unlike Will. For Halloween she also dressed up as a scary clown (Will’s fear) when Nancy dressed up as a bunny (an animal lonnie forced them to kill).  She also is dragged away in a similar way to Billy -down stairs.

Her mom’s first name (Marsha) also has the same meaning as Martin Brenner- ‘war like’. A hint Lonnie is violent or maybe was a vet?

Other npcs

Besides the russians, we also have some of the americans who experimented in Hawkin’s lab: most notably Brenner and becky/terry Ives.

“Some survivors will internalize their family into their own DID system.“

Brenner and Lonnie have similar appearances (and in the original script he was suppose to be unshaved and wear plaid and jeans... prob too obvious to keep) . They forced their kids to kill animals, threw them in a dark places, submerged them into water, and also praised them when violent, and tied people to beds (yes lonnie did that - why mf and terry are both tied up there). Brenner even means- ‘someone who cleared forests by burning (showing his connection to ww with fire, and because forests is where hunting/ab*se took place).His collegue - the blond women’s name , Fraizer means -  “of the forrest men” (the male hunters who terrorized Will/ww most likely).

Terry/ Becky Ives.Becky means “snare-a trap for catching birds or animals”. While Terry (Teressa means “huntress’) .While Ives means-  yew wood (a tree).Terry’s backstory should also raise eyebrows when we see when going to Hawkin’s lab that the Byers’ car is there (a tip off this story isn’t reality but from Will’s subconscious). 

Terry also turns in pain on the bed and sees sunflowers. And Will has a sunflower book next to his bed.

While Terry has an appearance similar to Jon’s (blonde and almond shaped brown eyes and Terry is a unis*x name) and both steal guns and drive a long distance in order to help rescue Will/el. This is the season of ‘mr mom’ after all (where Jon takes pics of Will on Halloween just like the other moms). Becky also compares Terry to Joyce too by saying Hopper would have been her type . And both joyce and terry/becky have a “crazy aunt” and were both deemed as ‘crazy’ when not believed about their children being kidnapped and indeed alive. we also see in El’s room (that Terry decorated) -bunnies (that lonnie forced the boys to kill) and clowns (Will’s fear). Along with fox’s which were in castle byers.  We also see Owl’s in both the byers’ and Ive’s house (which also represent ‘paranomal wisdom’).  And Winona mentioned the movie ‘prince of sands’ in an st interview. In that the psychiatrist interviews the older brother to fill in the memory-gaps of his sister (who has DID so can’t remember) he eventually admits both were r*ped as kids. And also tells a story in therapy about how their mom m*scarried and the dad threw the st*llborne in the freezer over night-so let’s hope throwing the demodog in the freezer and Terry’s miscarriage doesn’t have that traumatizing meaning. It’s also possible Terry isn’t an npc but a type of alter-given how her and El participated in ‘memory sharing’ and Terry’s power’s affected lights.”An alter may be stuck in an eternal flashback or refuse to accept that anything has changed since the period of time during which they experienced trauma“ (Terry being trapped in the time-loop after being tied to the bed/attacked).

Npcs ...but possibly other alters

I believe susie was a npc created because Will felt bad for Dustin - after the max/lucas situation. so he made what he assumed would be the perfect girl for him. She even has the same name as Max’s mom:susie vs susan. He met her from camp ‘Knowhere’ ( she’s from no where). The blonde american spy (who is also an npc) even mentions a science tech camp in s1 that dustin goes to in s3 .She has space related stuff in her room like sarah, wizard of oz poster (referencing Will), and she reads the ‘wizard of Earthsea’ -about a boy-wizard named jed  who realizes the evil ancient shadow he’s been fighting is actually the dark part of his personality -and he needs to merge with it to bring balance. Everyone questions if she’s real or exists- similar to el asking Kali “are you real?”Stranger things instagram posted a fake movie poster- emulating ‘weird science’. A movie about 2 boys creating a ‘perfect women’ from scratch for them and comparing this created gal to susie (they aren’t endgame with this girl in the movie-despite her original programing). Like susie/dustin not being endgame.

Dustin on his canon spotify playlist even has the song ‘weird science’.Her appearance is based off what most boys liked, celeb ‘phoebe kates’. And it may be just a narrative device but in s2 Max lies about mormons at the door, the season before she appears.

And of course her song alludes to what’s happening in the narrative. “Make believe I'm everywhere Given in the light (demogorgan/ lonnie in shed) .dream a dream and what you see will be ( his nightmares based on his ‘memories’)/Rhymes that keep their secrets WILL unfold behind the clouds (mf on his clouds and lightning).And there upon a rainbow (Will/ his powers/ accepting his queer identity and healing) Is the answer to a never ending story.’

Similarly, Heather Holloway is most likely from Will’s mind (my guess an alter)-and her appearence is also based on Phoebe.  In the show , they reference ‘fast times’  where Phoebe wears a red bathing suit just like Heather. Billy also mimics phoebe by slow-mo walking in a red bathing suit to the same song phoebe did in the movie. 

After El and Max see the pic of Heather and her dad the lyric  ‘loving you is a sin’ plays. And she shows an aggression mostly to her father- with her mom she simply dr*gs her but for her father she hits him in the head with a bottle and gags him with a rag and ties him up and throws him in the trunk after she was similarly tied up and thrown in the trunk (unlike the mom who was in the back seat). Billy and Heather were the ones with the most focus during their possessions - and Will said the mf would target “another me” ( another Will). She is str*ngled in the shower and later drowned in a tub into a dark abyss screaming for help before merging with the mf.  Both susie and heather are names symbolizing flowers.Susie- means Lily. While Heather is  also a variety of small shrubs with pink or white flowers which commonly grow in rocky areas.Holloway is a topographic surname, which was given to a person who resided near a physical feature such as a hill, stream, or type of tree. Also her dad (Tom- means ‘twin’ which could be another DID hint.like Tammy Tompson along with their names being associated with the nature/woods where ab*se took place).

Possible npcs or  alters (BUT possibly just normal people from the real world) : 

Murray Bauman (possibly an npc or alter?)- Between seasons Joyce mentioned going to Chicago with Will for therapy- where murray is from. Similar to Will who has a ‘do not enter” sign . Murray  has a  “keep door closed”. Both are proficient with shotg*ns . Murray drinks and smokes a lot like Hopper/Lonnie. He makes up a story about how what happened to Barb being a chemical leak. And next season the possessed are consuming chemicals and the npc russians are experimenting with chemicals. Hopper lied in s1 about having a friend from the times- and in s2 Murray from the times magically appears. He says Jon is easier to read than Nancy and immediately pegs his issues with his dad. He references Wizard of Oz by saying “people don’t like looking behind the curtain” (in the movie what was behind the curtain was a wizard-Will). He also has cameras everywhere like the american npcs. Also, it’d be pretty funny if he was investigating crazy conspiracies like aliens but never realized he was a part of one all along.

Erica-Not on the inspo list but she could be like Buffy’s sis from buffy the vampire slayer. The memories of Buffy and her associates were altered, along with relevant records, so that they believed Dawn always existed as Buffy's sister. Dawn is, however, a real girl, Buffy's biological sister, and has real memories of her fictional childhood. Erica has rainbows/sunflowers in her room in s2 (connected to Terry). And Erica is a plant that means “HEATHER”.

what all these possible alters /npc’s generally have in common is unlike ‘natural people’ they all have names associated with hunting or the woods (because that’s where a lot of the ab*se most often took place). name meaning : becky - snare (a trap for catching birds or animals). Teressa-huntress. Dianne (Hopper’s ex wife) - is a roman goddess of hunting.  brenner- ‘someone who cleared forests by burning’. the blond women, Brenner worked with,  Fraizer-  “of the forrest men” (the male hunters who terrorized Will most likely). mayfield- open country (field) where madder (mæddre) grows', Hargrove-grove filled with rabbits" , Holland- wood land, Bruce (who was also possessed) - means WILLow lands .ives- yew wood (of tree) ,Bauman: comes from the German word "baum," or "boum" in Middle High and Old German, meaning "tree’. Bauman may have originally been a nickname for someone who lived by a tree. Holloway is a topographic surname, which was given to a person who resided near a physical feature such as a hill, stream, or type of tree. Suzie-  lily flower. Susan (Max’s mom)- means lily, lotus flower or rose.  Heather is also a variety of small shrubs with pink or white flowers which commonly grow in rocky areas.  Neil -cloud. Buckley- buck deer. Rhadaghast (Will’s castle byers password)- is a wizard who protects the forrest and it’s creatures.

or an association with fire/lightning/god: robin- bird of the God Thor , sara- married abraham who tried to k*ll his son for god, barabara- saint who’s ab*sive father tried to k*ll her for not believing in his religion- so he was electrocuted and lit on fire by god. Kali/El are names of gods

the main exceptions being Hopper an interject . Although Hop could be a bunny pun, he even references bunnies in s3. And Jim meaning to “supplant” /“suprecede” ( replace/take the place of a person or thing previously in authority or use) hints at him being an interject.And heather’s dad Tom (who was possessed means ‘twin’) like Robin’s crush  Tammy (’twin’) Thompson (’son of tom’) . And Marsha Holland (barb’s mom) & Martin Brenner both have first names meaning ‘war-like” (a hint at Lonnie being warlike, or being a vietnam vet perhaps?) 

Ok, guys that’s about it- I hope you enjoyed. :)

[alchemiists-archived]

there is nothing that haunts you more than the last words you say to your parents, about your gift, about your ability. unholy. unloved. you take their silverware and turn it into actual silver, slamming your hands against the mahogany table. you are a freak now, no matter the accolades, the hard work that you do. a tainted man, a tainted son. but even that label doesn’t fit anymore, so you find one that does.

What’s your mutant’s ability?

With the mutation of MATTER MANIPULATION, Dante is adept a living transmutation expert, able to change and alter matter, depending on his will and focus. With years to train his ability in secret, as well as the blessings of higher learning, he’s used his power to help defend his homes, whether they be in Texas or in New York.

What’s your mutant’s classification level?

Classified as ALPHA-LEVEL, he is powerful, but not able to use it to its fullest extent, not until he conducts some more research, or his body learns to process his mutation to the peak of its ability.

How old were they when they first discovered their abilities? how did it happen?

Bored during chemistry, he was observing a lecture about carbon, and how its structure can affect its forms. He’d simply wished for a diamond pencil at THIRTEEN and as it so happens, the graphite lead at the tip of his pencil had turned into blinding diamond. It was a one time fluke, until he learned to do it again. Now, he has a couple dozen boxes of pencils turned to diamond. As a backup. Or as keepsakes. Either one.

So, what can your mutant do with their abilities?

Dante can on the fly, MOLD AND SHAPE MATTER with his mind. He can also TRANSFORM MATERIALS from different states of matter to completely transmuting them into different elements. Creating things is also on the table; given time, he can create MATERIALS FROM HIS LIPIDS though it taxes him greatly enough to the point of exhaustion. MOVING INANIMATE OBJECTS is also a power of his, though precision varies depending on how bad his headaches are.

…and what can’t they do (at least, not yet)?

He cannot MANIPULATE PEOPLE’S BODIES, though he’s trying to learn what the hard limits are with his powers still. He also finds that he cannot MANIPULATE OBJECTS WITH PRECISION DURING A HEADACHE as it somehow interferes with his focus and gives him only the approximates.

What’s one thing they hope to learn or are currently trying to learn with their abilities?

A doctorate holder in bioengineering and chemical engineering, Dante has been trying to LEARN HOW TO MOVE ORGANIC MATTER and INTEGRATE INORGANIC MATERIALS to any living person. While he can set the pieces and use them as framework, he has a hard time grafting say, Kevlar onto skin or titanium onto bone, much to his eternal chagrin. 

What is the most powerful thing your mutant can do with their abilities? Do you think they would actually do it?

During the first dire strait he’d gotten himself into, he was cornered by a particularly powerful mutant, with no backup and no way of contacting his group. While it looked extremely dire, he had found sand, as they were fighting in a construction site, and Dante had used it to SUFFOCATE HIS ENEMY from the inside-out. It isn’t one of his best memories, and now, while the Brotherhood and Xavier’s fight, he isn’t going to be foolish enough to say that he won’t do that again.

What are your mutant’s weaknesses?

Chronically ill, Dante gets INTENSE MIGRAINES that at best, leave him unable to use his power and at worst, MAKE HIS POWER ERRATIC to the point of danger. While he hasn’t had one of the worst flare-ups in a while, his migraines make it hard to focus on a day where the pain is at a definite seven, so he avoids patrolling on the days where he feels debilitatingly horrible.

Do they use their abilities in their day-to-day life? In what ways?

DEFINITELY! Dante is a tenured professor at Columbia, and while young for his age, his expertise in several fields and mutation make it easier for him to conduct research and perform in his career. It’s under wraps, of course, but it’s easy to create random chemicals now, if he ever needs it—no stockroom requisitions required!

As a mutant, do they have any goals? Dreams?

As a vigilante, he’s learned not to expect much anymore, that the darkest recesses of anti-mutant sentiment grows and grows and grows even as he tries his hardest to fight back against it. He dreams about JUSTICE to be done to those who had wronged mutants, and those who would use them for their own game, as well as to protect the humans that live under threat of any mutants that would do them harm.

How do they feel about the last 30+ years of mutant history? notably, The Presidential Address of 1983 AND The Essex House?

Dante is hardly happy about anything, but he at least feels as if he has a chance now, that mutants are fighting back, and are at least crafting a response to the violence and monitoring that’s been done to them. EXHAUSTED, Dante still tries to fight for both humans and mutants, trying to keep one side from devouring the other in his own little pocket, but he takes a look at the news and sees how hard it is exactly to do that. Sometimes, he just needs a break.

@c23tasks

[orangedodge]

@dannybagpipesarecalling​ replied to your text post:

I didn't realize those were Destiny's diaries either. If you would be so kind, can you explain how Emma knows? Unfortunately I haven't read enough comics to know this backstory.

I am glad you asked about this, because it gives me an excuse to post about it while hopefully not sounding like a conspiracy blog. I've been slightly obsessed with this idea since Emma first turned up in House of X, so I'm rather excited that “maybe Destiny's Diaries still exist” isn't just my weird crack canon any longer.

Emma was, in short, the last person who can be established to have control over the whereabouts of the diaries. And as one of the top five telepaths in the world, who has expressly defended that secret from the likes of Exodus and Mr. Sinister, she is capable of preventing Professor X from just taking the information from her. So barring new retcons, if Moira has the diaries now, they had to have been obtained directly from Emma.

That's not enough to say that she turned them over to Moira specifically. She could have given them to Charles or Er—okay, no, she wouldn't give them to Charles. There could be a circumstance where she'd trust them to Erik though. But in that contingency, I think there's enough context to support Emma knowing why they'd want them and for who. To be clear though, I would be less confident about making that assertion if Emma hadn't just opened the “Dr. Moira MacTaggert Memorial Public Hospital” expressly to freak out Charles and Erik, and if HoxPox hadn't already linked them by showing Moira to be worried about what Emma was up to.

(This got kind of long so I thought it'd be helpful to say the important part up front before spiraling down the continuity rabbit hole)

The origins and resulting chain of custody for Destiny's Diaries are as follows: One January, decades ago, Destiny began recording visions of the future in a series of diaries. Filling one book per month, she continued writing for thirteen months. This process was described as auto-writing, and Destiny herself did not have a complete memory of what she had written, nor did she understand the meaning of much of what she wrote.

Nonetheless, the July diary contained a recording of the events leading up to the defeat of Apocalypse, and another diary contained information on the life of Hope Summers, so they've been very relevant to the events of the modern era. It's not explicit yet that Krakoa's founding is also in the diaries, but because we know Destiny had at least one separate vision of Krakoa, and because Moira is interested in reading them, it seems fairly likely that whatever Moira, Charles, and Erik have been doing behind the scenes is also in there.

In the decades since Destiny authored them, most of these diaries were lost, except for five that Mystique kept hold of, and a sixth that Irene hid away herself. After Mystique killed 'Moira,' she sent her five diaries to Professor X, hoping that the temptation of using them would consume his life and lead him toward a ruinous fate. Destiny meanwhile had entrusted the sixth diary to Shadowcat (who Destiny met in 1936, while she was time traveling and having an affair with Moira's grandfather don't worry about it), who eventually became so freaked out by something she read in it that she vanished on a mission, let her friends believe her dead for weeks, and had herself deleted from Cerebro, while leaving the diary to Rogue for safekeeping while she was away.

(That last chain of events isn't incredibly important, I just think it becomes kind of lol in light of current canon)

Rogue went on to take that diary and the research that had been done on it to Storm. Storm and Rogue then formed a splinter team of X-Men, to journey the world searching for the lost diaries, believing Professor X could not be trusted. Along the way a seventh book turned up with a treasure hunter named Vargas (don't worry about him), and an eighth was found by Gateway and given to Rogue in a dream. Eventually Storm tried to get Phoenix to collect Professor X's diaries for her, but they discovered that they had already been stolen (Shadowcat did it).

The rest of the diary hunt isn't really important, just that Kitty eventually ended up retrieving the full set, before she rejoined the X-Men, which only happened after Xavier had left Scott and Emma to run the school. This timeline is important for establishing that Xavier has never possessed the full set of diaries himself, and was not involved in collecting the lost books at any point, nor was he present at the time the diaries were brought to the school and fell under Emma's protection. This rules out the possibility that the set of diaries we've previously seen were somehow forged by Xavier.

Xavier would not return to the school until after losing his mutant powers, whereupon he departed for space on an adventure to another galaxy. He was unavailable, therefore, to have undertaken any telepathic shenanigans, so what happens next actually happened, and is not a psychic illusion. While Xavier was gone, Mr. Sinister recruited Exodus and Mystique, and began a campaign of hunting down precognitive psychics, time travelers, and any other sources of information on the future. Scott, Emma, and Kitty meanwhile predicted that they were going to be next, and came up with a bananas plan to keep the books safe.

X-Men volume 2 no. 203 by Mike Carey (Writer), Humberto Ramos (Penciler), Carlos Cuevas (Inker), Studio F’s Edgar Delgado (Colorist), Virtual Calligraphy’s Cory Petit (Letterer), Will Panzo (Assistant Editor), Nick Lowe (Editor), Joe Quesada (Editor in Chief), Dan Buckley (Publisher)

First they hid the diaries somewhere in parts unknown. Emma then altered the minds of “all of us” (everyone who lived at the mansion at that time) to perceive a bunch of decoy books as the real thing. She then erased Kitty's memory, and her own, so that no telepath would be able to extract the information by force, before they gave each other a series of post-hypnotic triggers so they could restore one another's memories if they ever needed the books again. When eventually Exodus attacked the school looking for the books, they restored their memories, and decided to send another team to the hidden location where they'd buried a mystery box. Emma gave this location to Sam and Bobby, who dug up the box, which was never opened, and which was destroyed by Gambit during a firefight with Sinister's forces before anyone could confirm its contents.

This was intended by author Mike Carey to be the end of Destiny's Diaries, a dropped plot from a previous creative run, that was vaguely useful at building up to the Messiah Complex crossover, but was a lot more trouble than it was worth to an author who was writing about the X-Men trying to avert a bad future. But there's a lot of room in the story he wrote for the diaries to have survived after all.

I think it's actually really suspicious that the box was accessible to Bobby and Sam at all. Why not drop it under a mountain? Why not bury it under the ocean? Why not keep it phased in a tree? And it's a big red box with a big red 'X' on it. I know the X-Men love their branding and all, but that's going pretty far.

No one actually opens the box before Gambit blows it up either. It could have contained more decoys, or nothing at all. 

And when talking among themselves, Emma and Kitty never actually say that they're sending the X-Men to retrieve the diaries. They say that they know where the diaries are, and then send the X-Men to a place where they've buried something. The intent of the author is clear, but there's room in the dialogue for a later writer to decide that this just was another plan to keep the books hidden.

So for the entire period of time between assembling the complete collection of thirteen diaries, and their seeming destruction, they are never unaccounted for. Only Emma and Kitty knew the full extent of what they did to hide them, and where they were hidden. If fakes were destroyed instead of the real thing, no one would have known.

We could just be in retcon territory, but I don't think so, because it's fine on its own without any direct changes to canon. And really, faking the destruction of the books to cover up their real location makes a lot more sense than believing Emma Frost actually sent Sam to retrieve the incredibly suspicious looking red box that contained the most important object in the world, while half the super villains on the planet were chasing him.

Believing the diaries weren't really destroyed just requires the reader to accept that Emma would lie to the other X-Men, and keep lying to them for years, and that she'd be willing to put Sam and Bobby's lives at risk to protect that lie. Which she was already doing in that story anyway. She was already lying to everyone when she changed everyone's memories. And she—and Scott and Kitty—was already fine with risking everyone's lives when setting up a decoy trap in a school. So that's why I think this works better as a continuation of the existing, known, story of the diaries, and not a direct retcon to what happened.

In conclusion I think Emma knows about Moira because Moira got the diaries from somewhere, and Emma is the person she could have gotten them from. Nothing proves a direct hand-off in, like, a formal standard of proof or anything, but Emma having access to the diaries for so long, and having been wrapped up in this whole weird plot thread—which involves Moira and most of the Quiet Council—is enough to imply the connection in a story sense.

(ETA - For completion’s sake, there is also a weird story I didn’t go into called Chaos War that was published in 2011 where Moira is resurrected and finds a book in the ruins of the Xavier School that may or may not be one of the diaries, and touching it causes her soul to merge with Destiny’s, who then possesses her and guides her through a quest to destroy an evil god. This was an odd story to place in continuity at the time, and has only gotten stranger, given  1. that couldn’t be the real Moira, 2. Destiny is not merged with her soul. If this is in continuity (it’s been suggested that Moira’s golem was the character in this event), and all of the characters are who they say they are, and if the book in question was actually one of the thirteen diaries (and not some other book that Irene also wrote), then it requires Emma to have deliberately left one of the thirteen books behind for “Moira” to find, which if anything only adds to the likelihood that she knows what’s up)

[helpinghanikan]

Peter Parker A-Z

Peter Parker A-Z NSFW head-cannons

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

“Thank you,” He’ll usually say, lightly panting while laying on his back. Staring at the ceiling while one hand remains on you. Either cupping your breast or just happening to lay against your equally sweaty skin.

You are usually the one to take care of the other. Taking a drink of water before offering him the same glass.

B = Body part (Their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

On you: As a young man it’s assumed his favorite part of you would be your breasts, or ass. Nope, it was instead your hands, for all the sweetest reasons. He loves that he can grab and hold them anywhere he wants. He loves the little secrets that go along with it, like how he can feel your pulse by sliding down a bit. A fact he would never have thought about if Mr. Stark didn’t give him some help.

On himself: He likes his arms. His biceps and muscles are usually hidden by the graphic tees and hoodies. It would draw too much attention if he were to show them off so much. So the only people he can show them off to are Ned, other Avengers, and yourself. And the others weren’t as appreciative as you have proven to be.

C = Cum (Anything to do with cum basically… I’m a disgusting person)

It was only after sleeping together a few times that you became more open with each other. After getting past the awkward ‘what goes where’ and ‘what feels good’ you are talking a little deeper with each other.

“So, the webs don’t actually come from you.” You said, laying side by side with your sweaty man.

“I use the swingers and a web like substance. I make it. I just don’t, like, you know, make it.”

“Oh, okay…”

“Did you think that was coming out of me?” he asks.

“Maybe I thought it would cum out of you?” You said this but he didn’t give you the satisfaction of seeing your ‘do you get it?’ face. Instead he kept looking upwards, her confusion face now in place.

“Is that how spiders work?” he asks, probably himself.

D = Dirty Secret (Pretty self-explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

As you explored with each other Peter has thought about adding a third. Obviously only if you were okay with it; bringing in another guy or a girl, maybe even another hero? Or, maybe anti-hero?

It’s all up to you, though. Too embarrassed to outright ask you, but not enough to stop fantasizing.

E = Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

At his age Peter is as inexperienced as one can get. Every move and touch was followed by either a question or a look asking the same thing. It was cute at first, but after a bit it gets a little annoying. Not to the point that you had snapped at him, but enough that you wouldn’t answer and just give a look.

If you are more experienced there’s a bit of training that happens during your love making. It’s not that you were treating him like a dog, you were just giving suggestions and directions.

F = Favorite Position (This goes without saying. Will probably include a visual)

He likes it when you’re on top. Both for the view, the feeling and just the overall confidence that comes with handing over most of the reins.

With his hands on your hips, and his feet flat on the floor or bed, he can focus on the smaller details against you. Sometimes becoming confident enough to lean forward, kissing your stomach or maybe taking a bite.

G = Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc)

It almost always starts with jokes or tickling when left alone together. Only when a hand is placed somewhere and not removed was when hands would begin to wonder further. The mood peaking when you’d make fun of his expression when seeing your breasts, it was the same look every time.

H = Hair (How well-groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.)

It’s something that he secretly obsesses over; some men shaves it down, so it looks bigger. While others leave it because they don’t care or see a difference. With advice coming from every direction Peter has learned to only barely alter his hair.

The nightmare scenario of cutting himself and needing to call for help. Or worse, that Aunt May could be the one who sees like that. Is better than any other argument could give.

I = Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…) 

Any bit of intimacy Peter had learned from movies and books (all borrowed from Aunt May, of course). So candles and flowers are expected when he tries to go above and beyond. It’s only when you directly explain that want anything different that things change.

The first time you had a discussion of romance was when the candle fell over and there goes your comforter. The entire room might have been in flames if Peter’s radar wasn’t always on.

J = Jack Off (Masturbation headcanon)

Well, he’s young, what do you expect?

K = Kink (One or more of their kinks)

He’s submissive, that’s a simple fact. It’s something that can help him forget about all the stress and tension he has to go through. It’s where he doesn’t have to be in charge, doesn’t have to be the hero and can let the world fade out behind him.

He gets this look when he gets into it. A kind of soft smile from soft lips that can you can only stare at for so long. His eyes demanding you look into them. And, when you do, it’s like love was just discovered by Peter Parker.

L = Location (Favorite places to do the do)

He prefers your place over his. Even when you’re old enough and in college or your apartment, nothing near him feels safe. At his place there’s a symbolic warning light on the door, like, at any moment Aunt May was going to come in and ruin the moment.

It’s only predictable that the one time you convinced him to ‘not worry about it,’ BOOM Hi, Aunt May, how are you?

M = Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

At first it was just holding his hand could get his thoughts racing. After a while things began to get more specific. Coming back to his inner nerdiness and how a pencil or pen to your lips was better than nude.

It was mean, maybe a little patronizing, but your eyebrows coming together in confusion. Trying to figure what it was out with the pen or fingers toying with your face? Yeah, studying can happen later.

N = NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

He doesn’t like pain above a certain level. That level is maybe a few swats on the bare backside but that’s it. Pain is something that’s not fun; it’s connected to villains and failure and crushing and death. It’s not something that belongs with you or anyone he loves.

O = Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

He prefers to giver rather than receive. His eyes looking up at you throughout the entire event, silently asking if what he was doing was correct. Maybe adding a finger or moving a certain way? Looking up after doing so, getting a sound of confirmation and continuing on.

It’s when he’s receiving that he gets loud. His hands almost always flying to his mouth, gasping when being taken in and groaning into those same hands. When his hands are to his mouth he’s grabbing at your hair, groaning while leaning forward, almost bent over when he cums.

P = Pace (Are they fats and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

At first he moved like a rabbit. As if going as quickly as possible was the key to an orgasm from both parties. Placing a hand on his chest, almost pushing him off, was the only way to let him know that he needs to tone it down a bit.

After that he learned to listen to both of your bodies. Now, starting slow before getting faster. It’s only when he’s on the edge that he starts to lose control. When that happens his hair is sweaty, and his mouth is slightly open with moans and little words of thanks. There’s no way you can ask him to slow down then.

Q = Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

It’s actually one of your things to meet up on your roof. Where you’d hang around for a few minutes before being swept off your feet and into the air. Screaming from the excitement rather than anything else.

Other than that it’s really only when at parties that he cares about it. Whether it’s a party party with each other’s friends or something he was invited to because of his connections. Other than that it wasn’t something he really preferred over regular sex.  

R = Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

The closest to risks he takes is the little meetups while on patrol. Even those are only done while on solid ground (or roof, whichever), it’s more of the suit aspect then the risk aspect.

As far as experimenting goes he usually game, so long as it’s not too intense. Not really interested in the kind of stuff that hurts too much. Rather a tie down and tease kind of guy rather then tie up and smack around.

S = Stamina (How many rounds can they go for, how long do they last…)

It’s a combination of his youth and powers that he has much more stamina then most. It’s one of the reasons that he prefers regular, take your time, sex over quickies.

It’s also how he likes to have his own control over you, even while being the more submissive partner. Even with his hands pushed to the bed and you on top, he can take you over the edge again and again. Watch your face and body change from the pleasure from a position where he’s nothing more than a tool. A tool that gets to see your eyes roll back and keep it in memory.

T = Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

You have shared toys of light restraints. There was also a strap you two had gotten on a whim. Truth be told, they’re barely used. Either completely forgotten about when you get together or you bring it up and just aren’t in the mood for that tonight.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

He unintentionally throughout the day. How he holds your hand or leans against you. And his face, his stupid face that smiles at you or looks at you that way. It’s almost frustrating how you can’t grab him right there and then.

He’s mentioned before, trying to be casual while doing so, that he actually likes being the one teased. It preferable that way as he’s still learning the ins and outs.

V = Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

It’s almost another kink that your hands have to cover his mouth sometimes. Even in the privacy of your own apartment or dorm room. Moaning and groaning like a good little boy that wants to be sure you know how great you are.

It’s only when its outside your room that he becomes aware of just how loud he is. Pressing his mouth into your shoulder or putting both hands to his mouth. That extra level of awareness makes his face blush pink from his cheeks to the ears. When you move his hands away you better be quick with a kiss or someone just might hear.

W = Wild Card (Get a random headcanon for the character of your choice)

Although not sexual his favorite part of being with you was the cuddling. Be it clothed or naked, he loves to almost be on your lap, to be the small spoon, and just to be held.

His heart is near bursting when you raise your arm while on the couch or bed. Giving a perfect invitation for him to slide right into. Pressing under your neck and letting the world vanish from the affection he was getting.

X = X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words)

Another thing he obsesses over in combination with his grooming. Constantly worrying if he was smaller than average or if something was wrong. It’s not like a doctor can tell him if the spider bite had any effect down there. In reality he was average, maybe thinner then expected but still enjoyable.

Y = Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

He likes to have you before going on patrol or when there is nothing planned for that night. With clashing schedules he can’t exactly track you don’t after classes. Even if he was fantasizing all throughout the day.

On the rare times that you were together, watching a show and cuddling, he’ll get ideas. One of you sliding over the other’s clothes and starting to kiss. Starting to go deeper because, hey, you were alone.

Z = ZZZ (… how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Even after going through the ringer Peter is still pretty squirrelly, either wanting to go again or getting dressed and going about getting food or homework. All the while you try to keep your eyes open, reassuring him that he’s fine. Go and finish whatever, just bring you back a sandwich from wherever

[thewritewolf]

Just Between Us

Set just after the events of Four Times (and the Lucky One), Adrien tries to subtly reveal his identity to Marinette. Unfortunately, obliviousness seems to be contagious...

Reading Four Times isn't necessary, but encouraged. All you need to know is Adrien knows Marinette is Ladybug.

Enjoy!

Read on Ao3.

There were plenty of opportunities to come…

Unfortunately, Marinette was proving just as oblivious as he had been for so, so long. Maybe the universe wasn’t quite done testing him yet, but Adrien couldn't find it in himself to be frustrated. It was almost like a game at this point as he got more and more daring with his hints.

It had started out small, of course…

------

“Hey, Mari,” Adrien said with a smile as he bounded up the steps of the school. He could feel his hair, now messy and free like his alter-ego’s, bouncing along with him.

“Hey, you-” Marinette paused as she turned toward him, her smile flickering for a moment as her eyes drifted to his hair. Her head tilted and she wore a mask of bemusement. “...Trying something different with your hair?”

“Ah, so you did notice.” He held her close and gave her a chaste kiss on the lips. Calling on his Chat Noir charm, he gave her a playful wink. “You see, I’m trying to impress this girl I like…”

“Well I think you’re going to do just fine. I hear she is already head over heels for you.” She tugged his hand as she guided him into the building. Pausing at the lockers, she gently ruffled his hair to make it even messier. “All jokes aside, I like it. The look suits you.”

“...Does it remind you of anyone?” He might be pushing his luck her but…

She snorted. “Yeah - it looks like you had a team of stylists recreate what bedhead must be like for the common folk.”

He gasped in mock offense and while they settled into a familiar banter, he grumbled on the inside. At least he could try again next time.

---------

...But small acts wouldn’t be enough to overcome the magic of the miraculous, would they?

If he was going to succeed, he’d need to be even more daring, even bolder. Something that could tie him to the miraculous, but only because she knew him so well in and out of the mask. For his next attempt, he’d have to play up the cool, badass energy of Chat Noir while still being Adrien. He had just the idea to get Marinette’s attention…

-------

A few days later, Marinette was minding her own business on one of the last days of school before the winter break. As was happening more frequently, the cold had woken her up despite her attempts to cocoon herself in a blanket burrito. Even now, inside the warm school building, there was a chill that had settled into her very bones. She resigned herself to being miserably cold all day, at least until she could get to her space heater in her room. Maybe she could convince Adrien to come over for some snuggling?

As if summoned by her thinking about him, a bright mop of blonde hair pulled her attention up, but after seeing what he was wearing, she was unable to get more than a syllable into her greeting. The rest was lost in a strangled choking sound.

The first word that managed to get through was Leather, followed swiftly by Hot. When she managed coherent thought again, she belatedly realized that Adrien looked good in black leather jackets and… well-fitted black jeans. The fact that no fashion designer had realized this was a tragedy to all humankind. Hell, he could give her partner a run for his money.

...She wondered if Chat Noir would be willing to part with his miraculous for just a little bit. Just to see what Adrien would look like in magical, skin-tight leather.

“Uh… girl?”

Alya’s voice snapped her out of her daydreams. “Hm?”

“Here, you’re going to need this.” Alya passed her a pencil.

Marinette was about to decline before she realized that she was still clutching the snapped remains of her favorite drawing utensil. She pouted at the back of Adrien’s head, eyes narrowing as a plan came to mind. There was a way she could get back at him for this little surprise.

--------

...Of course, Adrien wasn’t the only one who could turn on the charm. He’d thought that he’d had the advantage there, being a model and all. But after what Marinette wore the following day, he was pretty sure she should have been one posing for the camera. Then again, he was more than happy that he got her all to himself.

Even if he couldn’t think straight for the entire rest of that day.

Things got a little desperate, but truth be told…

-------

“So you’ve met Chat Noir, right?”

“I mean, yeah, sure,” Marinette said, as noncommittal as could be. “Most of our class has, you realize.”

Adrien waved that off with a dismissive shake of his hand. “Yeah, yeah, but you two have… met a lot, right?”

Her eyebrows shot up. “And where did you hear that, huh?” She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. “Did Alya put you up to this?”

“No no! I was just-”

A little gasp escaped her. “Adrien… are you jealous?”

The situation was ridiculous, so clearly he laughed. But that wasn’t the right answer, apparently, since Marinette stormed off. It took some apologizing and hugs, but her mood passed and they were back to normal before too long.

------

...Tact was never his strong suit.

In the end, he was left with only one option. It was one that he hadn’t been looking forward too, but not because of any sense of lost romance, or even misguided fear that she would be angry. They were too far along in their relationship to be worried about that.

No, it was the taunting and griping and ‘I-told-you-so’s from Plagg that he’d been dreading. Adrien took the needling and mocking like a champ, though, and before long his kwami was finally willing to transform him.

After all, even Plagg (especially Plagg) wanted to finally finish this.

Which is why Adrien now found himself on top of Marinette’s balcony, steeling himself for what he was about to do. It had been a while since he’d been here as Chat Noir - after slowly reducing the frequency of his visits, they’d sort of petered out after he and Marinette had gotten together. As much as he wanted to spend every moment possible with her, he couldn’t trust himself not to get comfortable with her and he didn’t want to make her feel like she was cheating.

But now?

He tapped at the glass, unsurprised when he saw her bright blue eyes peering up at him. It was late, sure - but he knew his lady well, knew that when she had a project in mind, she would see it through no matter what. Even at the cost of sleep and eating.

Stunned as she was by his sudden appearance, seemed to let unlock the skylight and let him in through muscle memory alone. She also let in a wave of cold air that raised goosebumps on her skin and sent shivers down her spine.

They’re sitting on her bed, like they often did before he found out. The same place where he found himself slowly falling for his everyday Ladybug, until suddenly his everyday Ladybug and his Ladybug became one and the same. The silence stretched for a few moments, Adrien lost in the memories of falling for the same person twice.

“Chat-”

His attention snapped back into focus. “Marinette. There’s something I need to tell you.”

“Chat can this wait until-”

“I know you’re Ladybug.”

Again, silence. But what had been a soft, companionable quiet before was now charged. Tense. Electric.

There were a few false starts, half-formed questions dying on her lips. Eventually she settled with, “How did you…?”

“A few months ago, there was an akuma. I… I was worried about you. And I know that was dumb since it was nowhere near you but… I was still worried. So I came over to make sure you were alright and… well…” He shrugged helplessly. “It’s Tikki, right?”

“Huh?”

“Your kwami. Her name is Tikki?”

“Y-yeah. Yeah…” Her eyes became distant for a moment before hardening. “Chat,” she said with a chastising tone, “why did you wait so long to tell me? This was pretty important information!”

His ears flattened against his head and his tail wrapped around his waist. “I’m sorry. I was worried you’d be upset that I found out. But, in my defense, I have been dropping hints these last few weeks…”

Her stern expression softened and she put a hand to his cheek, “Oh, kitty. You annoy me to pieces sometimes, but I can’t be mad at you over an accident. Especially because it only happened because you were worried about me.” She paused, her brow furrowing in thought. “Wait… hints? I don’t remember any hints in the last few akuma battles.”

He wrung his hands, wishing he’d just dropped his transformation the moment he got here. Now it was too late and he needed to wait for her to ask him to reveal himself. It was only right, after all.

“That’s… that’s because I haven’t been giving you hints as Chat Noir. I’ve been giving them as… me.”

“We know each other?!” She screeched, before throwing her hands over her mouth. They listened in a pregnant silence, waiting for the sounds of either Tom or Sabine to come marching up the stairs. When they failed to materialize, they breathed a sigh of relief.

“We know each other? In our civilian identities?!” She whisper-screamed at him.

He was sure his blush was peeking out from behind his mask as he nodded, thinking of their last make out session. If that didn’t qualify as knowing someone…

She turned away from him and began patting the pillows. “Tikki? Tikki! Can we just drop his transformation now? He already knows who I am! Why can’t I find out about him?”

A kwami in Ladybug’s colors appeared at his girlfriend’s shoulder. She had a thoughtful expression as she looked first into space and then deep into Adrien’s eyes. With a sigh, she replied, “We may as well. The damage is already done, and the imbalance of power could throw you two out of sync.”

Marinette did her best to have a cool and confident exterior, but it was clear she was struggling while she was out of the spots. She waved at Adrien. “W-well. Go ahead. Let’s see… see who you really are.”

“Alright, just…” He had a sudden surge of fear. “Don’t be mad, okay?” He took a deep breath. “Plagg, claws in.”

He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling incredibly exposed without his mask to hide behind. It took him a few moments to gather the courage to look her in the eye. He couldn’t read the emotion there, and all he could tell was that the curiosity from before had been replaced by something else entirely. The silence stretched out and he itched to break it. Just as he was about to, she finally spoke, her voice a whisper.

“It was you all along…” The reverence in her tone faded as her eyes narrowed. “Wait, how long ago did you say you started trying to ask me out?”

“I know what you’re thinking but-”

“Adrien,” she began, clearly putting on a brave face, “tell me the truth - did you start flirting with me just because you knew I was Ladybug?”

“No.” The speed of his reply seemed to catch her unaware. She was still on the back foot when he leaned forward into her space and took her hand in his. “Sure, that’s what made me start, but that was only because I wasn’t torn about who I wanted to pursue anymore. The two most wonderful women in my life… were actually the same person all along.” He planted a kiss to the back of her hand, looking deep into her eyes as he did so.

Unlike when they were in the masks, this time he’d coaxed a fierce blush from her. Maybe it was because it was something he’d only ever done as Chat Noir to Ladybug. He could see the gears turning in her head. Which was why he was surprised when she lunged forward, wrapping her arms around his chest and pressing her lips to his.

He smiles against her and pulls back enough to rest his forehead against hers. “Does this mean I’m forgiven?”

“No. These are disciplinary kisses. Do not take joy from them.”

“Too late.”

She rolled her eyes playfully and kissed his nose. “You’re impossible.”

“Don’t you mean, im-purr-ssible?”

She tilted her head back to groan at the ceiling, then buried her face in his chest, still groaning. “I can’t believe I thought you were cool once.”

“Of course I’m not cool.” He paused for effect, then pulled her close while grinning down at her. “I’m hot.”

“Not to interrupt your grossness or anything, but…” Plagg chimed in from his spot curled up with Tikki. “We could visit whenever now. And you two could do some… nocturnal stuff.”

Marinette’s face went completely red and her pupils shrunk to pinpricks. She squeaked out, “Plagg!”

But Adrien’s mind was flush with possibilities. “That’s an awesome idea, Plagg! We could have movie nights and sleepovers and-”

He was silenced when Marinette put her hands on his cheeks and squished his face. “You are… way too energetic at midnight, kitty.” She pouted in thought. “But a movie night doesn’t sound too bad.”

A few minutes later and they’d built a cuddle nest of pillows around themselves. Marinette’s bed was smaller than his, but that just made it easier to fill with warmth as she rested her head against his chest and the kwamis curled up just above his head.

As the credits rolled on their second movie, Adrien yawned and stretched. As much as he wanted to stay, he’d better go home. A plan which was immediately thwarted by Marinette clamping down on him.

“Bugaboo…”

“It’s too cold out there,” she said in a voice muffled by his shirt. “You’ll get sick. In fact,” she raised her head to peer at a point on the pillow behind him, “I think Plagg already caught something.”

He heard Plagg say, “Wuh? Oh, um… cough cough. Sneeze. Yeah, real sick. You better listen to her, young man. Kwami’s orders.”

“...You literally just said cough and sneeze. You didn’t actually-” He shook his head. “Actually, you know what? You’re right. Plagg’s sick. Can’t go home. I’ll have to spend the night here.”

He settled back into place as Marinette sighed against him.

“Good kitty.”

[mobius-prime]

246. Sonic the Hedgehog #177

Home, New Home

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Jason Jensen

As the Egg Fleet approaches New Mobotropolis, Nicole erects a forcefield-like shield around the entire city, protecting it from the bombardment that Snively, leading the fleet, begins dropping on it. With the shield protecting everyone, however, a slightly more immediate concern reveals itself - namely, the many criminals that have been teleported here along with the actual residents of Knothole, who see an opportunity to not only break free of the justice system, but take a few of the citizens with them.

Amazing speech on your part there, Mogul. Really, it's a wonder everyone didn't immediately fall at your feet. Sonic and Sally are impressed at Nicole's foresight, only to become concerned when her hologram begins flickering and she appears to show signs of pain in response to more shells hitting the city's shield. She tells them that she has to devote most of the city's power supply to keeping the shield up, and reassures Sally that she'll always be nearby even when they can't see her before disappearing. Sally and Elias address the crowd of rescued civilians, telling them that right now they can trust Nicole to keep them safe while they come up with a plan and that for now everyone should find their new homes. Sally stops Sonic, however, and orders him to go get medical attention before he does anything else, something he's predictably a bit grumpy about.

Okay, so this is where we address one of the most controversial things Ian ever included in the comic. It's controversial for good reason. We've already established that one of the major things Ian has been doing for the comic since taking over as head writer is bringing the world of the comics more in line with that of the games, and this includes the various characters and their attitudes. Vector is no longer as insufferable as he was under Kenders, Knuckles is one of Sonic's closest allies now rather than a distant rival, and so on, but this is where the age discrepancy between Charmy from the games and Charmy from the comics becomes a problem. If you'll recall, Charmy is six in the games but sixteen in the comics, and obviously a sixteen-year-old is going to act pretty different from a six-year-old. So how exactly does one take a fairly mature teenager, who's a prince of a lost kingdom and literally engaged to someone else his age, and make him act like a child? Well, I don't have any particularly good ideas myself, but Ian's highly controversial solution was to give him brain damage. From this point on, Charmy suffers from some substantial memory loss, and generally has a much more childlike personality than he once did. There's many problems with this, and others have gone into this topic much more in depth than I care to, but suffice it to say that while giving a character brain damage simply as part of their character arc isn't inherently a bad thing, and can even be a positive if handled right, giving a character brain damage purely as a plot device to make them act more like a child feels incredibly insensitive and insulting. From what I understand, this isn't totally Ian's fault; Sega was pressuring him to make these changes, and I suppose at the time this was all he could think of for the Charmy problem, but I know he has stated later on that he wishes he'd handled this particular issue better, so at least he's acknowledged how bad this whole thing seems. Furthermore, he does appear to treat Charmy as a character with as much respect as possible in future issues, so there's that at least.

Anyway, Saffron is relieved when Charmy happily confirms that he remembers who she is and hugs her, and Dr. Quack moves on from Charmy to take a look at Sonic. It doesn't take him long to confirm his suspicions that indeed, all the magical ring energy Sonic's been exposed to have given him a high resistance to injury as well as apparently an accelerated rate of healing, something which is quite fascinating and I wish would have been expanded upon in this universe's worldbuilding at some point. As Dr. Quack heads off to find his own family, we take a quick look at the Chaos Chamber on Angel Island, where Finitevus appears to be doing some kind of weird ritual with the Master Emerald, reciting Tikal's prayer. Scourge runs up and informs him that Dimitri has run - err, floated off, presumably to contact Knuckles and warn him of Finitevus' treachery. Finitevus, however, merely tells him that this was part of his plan all along, and he isn't concerned, as he'll bring back Enerjak one way or another. Sounds quite ominous indeed…

Hey man, someone needs to remind Antoine that bravery isn't a lack of fear, it's standing up to danger even when you are afraid. Sally becomes lost in thought for a moment, remembering all the times she led the Freedom Fighters into danger in the past, long before she was ever thrust into the role of acting ruler or forced into a disastrous arranged marriage. She suddenly stands up and reminds Bunnie of her old hairdressing ambitions, and asks her for one more favor before they begin their defense against Eggman's attack… Meanwhile up in the sky, Snively continues to try to break through New Mobotropolis' shield, only to become startled when a single, tiny aircraft begins firing onto his flagship. His robots prepare to return fire, but he suddenly orders them to stand down with a look of shock, and contacts the plane… having recognized it as the plane that Hope built. Hope yells at him through the comm when he opens a channel, furious that she took his advice and went to Station Square, but when she tried to return to Knothole, which she still considered home, it was in ruins. She blames him for all of it, too ashamed to show her face to the Mobians again after leaving, and begins to sob.

I absolutely love the way that these comics continue to humanize Snively more and more. I feel so bad for Hope here, especially knowing that none of the Mobians would blame her for what happened, but as for Snively, it's clear that despite his nature, he does value family, and does care about Hope. He's gone from being the cowardly, sniveling, silly minion of the evil Dr. Robotnik to an actual human with flaws, feelings, and attachments. From inside the city shield, Tails watches the bombardment continue with his parents and Merlin, and Amadeus expresses that though the destruction of Knothole was a tragedy, all in all this may actually be a good thing for the populace, as he believes that such a major event will prepare them for "the shift in thinking" that he plans for them. Merlin, however, warns him not to push ahead with any reforms he has in mind too soon, as the monarchy will also be very tense from all this chaos. Rosemary expresses her belief in her husband, and Tails excitedly says he'll support his father no matter what, but the sentiment is interrupted by Eggman's furious screaming from outside the city walls, banging on the shield with his battle suit and yelling for the Freedom Fighters to come out and face him, infuriated that his perfect victory has been stolen from him. Sonic cheerfully interrupts his tantrum, suddenly standing outside the shield, and Eggman is initially pleased, mocking Sonic for not learning from his initial defeat mere hours ago. However, it turns out that Sonic has learned, and with the knowledge that the battle suit was created to counter Sonic and Sonic alone, he and Sally have come up with the perfect plan while Eggman wasn't looking.

The entire Freedom Fighter and Chaotix force descends on Eggman's battle suit, and they're all able to locate weaknesses that Eggman hadn't anticipated in its construction. They tear it apart piece by piece while Sonic gleefully reminds his nemesis that there are more heroes on this planet than just himself, and that anything he can't handle on his own, the others definitely can. In the end, Eggman is left with barely half a shell of his precious armor, furious and humiliated, which leads into perhaps one of my favorite pages of this entire era - perhaps even the entire comic.

Eggman, still unwilling to let victory slip away despite his situation, orders his fleet to fire directly on their location, meaning either he was somehow unaware that this would kill him too, or he was aware, and was more concerned with killing his foes than surviving. Honestly, my bet is on the latter - it seems like something he'd do if angry enough and feeling sufficiently cornered. However, he's forgotten that Nicole has full control over the nanites in the city, and since everything in the city is made of nanites, she's able to stretch the city's wall out to create a wall between everyone out on the field and the bombardment from the Egg Fleet. She projects her form to Eggman and urges him to reconsider his decision, as frankly, Sally is showing him more mercy than he deserves by a long shot. And honestly, she's right - it would be a much better decision to either kill him right there, or, if they're feeling too honorable and whatnot, at least arrest him and shove him in a cell next to Mammoth Mogul…

Well hello there, old haircut! I will say, I did enjoy Sally's long hair while she had it - I thought it looked good on her. But hey, cutting one's hair as a show of maturation is a common fictional trope, and in a way, it's nice to go back to seeing Sally rocking her old look. I will actually note here that while I've mentioned before that Tracy's pencils have standardized the design of a lot of characters, I actually don't care much for his redesign of Sally as a whole. While I appreciate her proportions becoming more like those of every other Mobian - the human body that a lot of other artists gave her looked kind of weird, to be honest - her facial features have actually been significantly altered by his style. She always had a distinctive slanted-back eye shape and a more gentle slope to her nose, but by making her eye shape closer to than of characters like Bunnie and Tails, I feel she's lost some of her unique visual charm. That isn't to say that I think Sally is lesser as a character for this change - she's still one of my top favorites in the series - nor that I disapprove of Tracy's art style as a whole. And in the end, her hairstyle change here marks the beginning of a new era - one where she begins to act once more like her old self and once again joins the others on missions just like old times. She's worked through a lot of the trauma and self-doubt that she's been plagued with ever since Sonic's return to Mobius, and now we can look forward to new adventures with her, in a new location. I mean that "new era" thing literally, by the way. Congratulations, we've reached the end of the comic's fifth era - many of the eras beyond this one are significantly shorter than the ones we've seen previously, but that also means we'll be moving through distinctive arcs a little more quickly, and furthermore, the next era holds some pretty exciting new surprises! Shall we now - how do they say - do it to it?

[katsukikitten]

Majo

A/N the labor of love that was trying to post this thing. Let me know what you think of my first attempt at shy girl.

You stand in the doorway of class 1A, still not used to the move you were forced to make all from a stupid, stupid dare two months ago. You hunch your shoulders, it doesn't matter that you're so early that you're the only soul in the classroom.

It does not ease your racing heart or the intimidation that is class 1A.

Especially since you came from the support class.

"Are you going to enter or block the door all fucking day, extra?" A growl comes from behind you and you startle.

"S..sorry." You blush madly, stepping to the side so he may enter. He sucks his teeth in response and plops himself into his desk.

Deadly jaw sitting in an even deadlier palm. You swallow frustrated with your self and the furious blush that just won't go away.

The blonde is the last person you want to see. You sit in front of him in class and you already feel his candy apple red eyes piercing the back of your head although they currently stare at clouds that float gently across the sky. He sighs heavily and you only now notice the bandages on his cheek and forearms. You frown, was he pushing himself too hard again?

"Whatcha looking at, Y/N-chan?" A purr in your ear has your heart jumps into your throat before a deep chuckle rings out.

"Kiri..Kirishima-san." Your face is red, and you're stammering. Damning your body for flustering so easy, scarlet eyes slide back to you at the door. You look away instantly.

"Please I told you call me Kiri or Eijirou." He says rustling your short hair, before taking his seat. He talks to Bakugou who's eyes haven't left you yet.

You can tell when his eyes linger from the weight of them. Thanks to your quirk you can feel when someone's eyes are on you, it's one of the main reasons you are so shy. Knowing when people are staring AND feeling the heaviness of a gaze can be overwhelming. You've come a long way at learning to block most of them out, having them fade to the background but some people have intense eyes and it often comes to the forefront of your mind whether you like it or not.

And Bakugou Katsuki is one of the few you cannot ignore.

Still you woman up and sit down in front of him. Keeping your posture straight as you add some cliff notes to your notes from yesterday's class.

You no longer feel the burning sensation at the exposed base of your neck as you hear him and Kiri erupt into laughter.

You try not to blush. The rest of 1A floods into the room with plenty of time to talk. You feel thankful to hear the chatter that you've grown used to, their energy feels happy as they all speak.

The sound of a scrapping chair pulls you from your notes. You smile at the strawberry milk skinned girl with matching hair, as she sits closely to you. Elbows resting on your desk. Mina has wormed her way, as with the rest of the girls, into the status of friend.

"Oh do you need to borrow my English notes?" You beam brightly before it sours as you study her face. She wears that devilish grin, you swallow at the thought of trouble.

"I heard a rumor about you." You instantly blush and her smile widens.

"You cant just ask people about their own rumors, its rude!" Ida says, emphasizing his belief with jabs of his left arm.

"So its true by the hue on your cheeks huh?" She teases, you look for Urakaka-chan. Midorya, even Kiri for help but not a soul makes eye contact with you.

"Mina!" Ida chides but you take a deep breath. It was bound to make it to class 1A sooner or later.

"Wha...what rumor?" You whisper as anxiety gnaws at your chest as you worry over how twisted the rumor may have become.

"I heard you influenced two teachers with your quirk." She leans in closely and you try to avoid her gaze, "Midnight and All Might."

The class grows quiet at the mention of his name. You swallow thickly as you're sucked back into the memory.

It was just a fucking dare gone bad.

"Y/N, truth or dare?" What was supposed to be your best friend asked you.

"I..I'm not very good at this game." You said sheepishly but she grinned ear to ear. One of the things about Kiko is that she loooooved to bully you into abusing your power but she defended you from other, more dangerous bullies all through the school years so it was a no brainer to follow her to UA.

"Come on, itll be easy." You deepen in shade but not because of her peer pressure but because you feel those eyes on you again today. You seize, almost frozen from the weight before they seem to glide away, your shoulders relax. You see him across the court yard lazing in the shade of a tree.

"Look Y/N, I'll even give you your options up front." She looks around as she thinks, she spots her target "The dare is to make All Might and Midnight scream 'Fuck you' to one another."

"The truth?" You ask almost timid even after all these years.

"You tell us who you have a crush on." You go to open your mouth but she stops you, "Aina here can make you tell the truth with her quirk if you're lying."

You feel your skin prickle with worry, your cheeks blossom with embarrassment.

You're not even sure you if you like this person and to have Kiko know his name would be mortifying. You look her in the eyes with your most intense gaze she flinches. She's seen your ability first hand.

"Dare." You almost growl with a new found furry as you plop onto the grass crossing your legs. Normally you would need a mirror to do this but since it is two people you'll need to keep your eyes closed. One person is easy to manipulate but two, almost simultaneously will be difficult. You let the energies of others fade away as your world falls into a black drop. All Might appears and you startle for a moment when you see more than his energy lingering around him, you ignore it and you focus hard on Midnight.

They both appear on the black backdrop, you concentrate on them both until they come into sharp focus, they are closer together in this plane than in real life.

"Her nose is bleeding..." You hear Kiko's friend speak.

"Quiet." She snaps.

"Turn to one another." You whisper both aloud and to them. They do with ease, "You're angry, furious. How could they how could they how could they?!"

You watch their faces distort, pulling on distant memories in them both, altering the who they were furious with into one another.

"Now scream, tell them how you feel. Tell them what you've always wanted to yell at the top of your lungs." You breath in feeling both of their voices mingle together in your throat before you whisper, "Fuck you!"

"FUCK YOU!!!" They shout, pulling you from the plane at lightening speed. You smile proud of your work, that's the first time you've 'worked', as you call it, two people at once. The yard goes quiet as they both fluster, cheeks burning red as they realize what has happened. You wipe your nose at the wrong time catching the eye of Aizawa.

"Earth to Y/N?!" Mina asks. Your heart races before you look her square in the eye.

"Yes, it was me."

She looks shocked before she laughs, "Oh that's so cool!!"

You feel everyone's eyes on you, including a pair of deep red. You try to fight the anxiety but thankfully Aizawa lazily strolls into class with his normal bored look, distracting the class.

All but one.

"Alright class, sit in your seats." He begins the lesson shortly after the scrapping of chairs and desks cease. He starts with a history lesson of Hero's before segueing the conversation into identifying a quirk in moments. Your pencil scratches against paper, eyes fully glued on your handwriting to avoid Sensei's eyes. It's getting to the part of his lecture where he pauses for a question.

"What's the quickest way to identify a quirk, Y/N?" Fear grips you tightly in its inescapable fingers. Your heart clenches, blood rushes to your face and deepens in color on the back of your neck. Sweat collects quickly on your palms as you gulp softly. This is the first time he's called on you and Sensei's eyes feel heavy on the top of your head.

You know this is one of those questions that has several right answers and you know what the best answer is but what if you don't?

What if you say the wrong thing and Aizawa scolds you in front of every one?

What if it isn't the answer he is looking for and the whole class thinks you a fool when he says the most correct answer?

What if you can't speak at all? What if they laugh, shunning you back to the support class where you belong

What feels like ages passes in a matter of seconds. Seconds too long that could seem like stalling.

Oh Kamisama what if Sensei thought you weren't paying attention at all? You want to let your body shake but you clench your fists hard enough that your palm is sure to have bloody half moons. Your lip quivers as you try to force the answer out. Nothing comes and you bite your lip to keep from whimpering in front of the whole class.

Why you? Why did you have to be so fucking scared of the simplest shit?

You feel the burning then, not of the other nineteen students that wait patiently for your answer but of his unforgiving red eyes.

"You watch them." He growls impatiently behind you.

"Very good Bakugou." He says returning to his lecture. Relief and sadness seep into your veins, bringing you down from the rush of adrenaline. Shame hands heavy in your eyes at it threatens to spin. You swallow your disappointment and the sob that threatened to leave your lips.

Class goes on, lunch comes and goes in a blur and before you know it Aizawa is handing out his personal homework assignments. He goes up and down each row as he tells them their nightly task, dismissing them when he is finished. You hear Sensei pause behind you.

"Bakugou, tonight after your normal task I want you to meditate. Relax anyway you know how so you can attempt to keep your temper in check."

"Yea yea." The blonde waves his hand as if to shoo Aizawa before sensei takes a step to you.

"Y/N. How often do you get to practice your quirk?" You face him but keep your eyes on his chest

"I was called a witch growing up. So it wasn't until recently did I start getting the hang of it." You admit shyly. Aizawa thinks for a moment but you're too distracted by the energy that is still present behind you.

"Your file says you can do quite a bit. From spying to your display in the courtyard." You feel petrified as he discusses your quirk, something you've always wanted to keep secret but Kiko convinced you other wise. You swallow thickly wanting to protest but Sensei speaks much faster than you.

"I want you to spy on me from 5pm to 6pm tonight. I want detailed notes on what I've done for that hour. If you can hear my thoughts while you spy I want a select few of those as well." He gives a rare smile as you actually shake, "Let's add something else too. I want you to envoke a feeling in me. Or try to anyway."

"Sensei, you'll be too far..."

"I said try. It's best to try and fail than to fail to try." He grabs his notebook from the lecuturn before leaving you dumbfounded, so much so that you do not even notice that Bakugou is already standing at the door. His back to the class room as he readjusts his bag.

"Oi." He calls, burning eyes peeking over his shoulder, "Get a move on extra. They turn the lights off in less than ten minutes."

You scramble for your items as fear creeps into you once more. Being alone in the dark is how you discovered your quirk in the first place.

Your eyes snapped to his moving figure as he exits the class room.

"W...wait please Bakugo-senpai." That's how fearful you were of a wondering mind in an unfamiliar place. You rush for the hallway bumping into the ash blonde who bares his teeth in response.

Still he walks with you down the winding path to the dorms as the winter sun begins to set early. Once you see the dormitory for class 1A your practically fall into a sprint, almost late to prepare for your difficult assignment.

You slip off your shoes in a hurry, your thigh high socks give no traction on the shining wooden stairs and you slip. Falling up the steps but you have no time for embarrassment. You'll be missing your window of opportunity.

"Slow down!" A growl from the ground floor as the door to the stairwell slams shut. You fumble with your keys before finally swining the door wide open rummaging through your closet for the gift your grandmother gave you when you were a child. The opaque black orb of onyx weighs heavy in your hands as you set it neatly on the low table in your room. You slam your door shut, light candles and turn on your Himalayan salt lamp. You arrange your notebook before doing the math on the distance between you and Aizawa.

Five whole miles.

Was the campus really that large? You try to push down the panic of failing miserably as this would be the furthest you've tried to manipulate a mind

Spying, well spying was easy, you could see anyone anywhere at anytime with just a small compact mirror. But working them?

Well that would prove difficult.

You breath deeply before focusing on the orb before you, letting your eyes lose focus only to refocus in the black backdrop on conciousness. You slowly push away those you do not want to feel or see until you spy Aizawa. Your heart races as you approach him though he cannot see you.

You begin to write details about his apartment as you take it in, the smell of his now finished dinner and the sandlewood candle he has burning.

Most of the hour passes with a bore as he reads his book, a fat cat sleeping soundly on his stomach. Just as you're about to root through his mind for a feeling to alter Mina comes busting in through the door you forgot to LOCK in your haste.

She breaks your concentration as she guides the girls into your room, flustered you begin to lose site of Sensei.

"Oh what have we here?" She asks plopping down on her stomach in front if you snatching at your notebook.

"Hey!" But you can't tear your eyes away yet.

"Wow this is what you see?" Uraraka asks peering over Mina's shoulder.

"Sensei has a cat?" Asks Momo as she sits with her legs crossed.

"Yes and yes. Where is everyone else?" You ask, "Mina if you arent going to give me my notebook back at least take my notes. Please make them legible."

"Practicing still." Momo answers.

"Ah so you do have a bossy side!" Mina says delighted with her pen poised.

"Its not that. I..I just have more confidence when I use my quirk is all." You blush.

"So what is our great sensei doing?"

"Reading the same damn book he has for the past 55 minutes."

"What's he wearing?"

"Mina?!" You all say in unison.

"Please like you all don't want to know too." She gives a pointed look to everyone else around the room. You feel their eyes fall on you in curiosity.

"His hair is tied back. You can see his scar, he looks..." You pause, "Handsome. He's wearing a black t shirt and lounge pants that are loose fitting. He's reading some mindnumbingly boring book."

Five minutes pass with no change.

"Ugh Aizawa is boring. Spy on someone else."

"But..."

"But it will be good practice. Oh I'll let you spy on my crush." It's her turn to have a slight blush.

"You mean Kirishima-san?" You tease and she whines.

"Ah is it that obvious?"

"Yes." A chorus

You find him with ease, grunting as he does his nightly ritual of pushups. His phone in easy reach to change his music should he wish.

"He's sweating." You say softly, "He's almost done with his pushup regime. Mina send him a text. I wanna see something."

"Oh what..what should I say?"

"Some thing you normally would or..do something flirty." She listens and Kiri smiles at his pinging phone falling to his forearms, you relay his actions.

"Heh so cute." You whisper his own thought aloud in his voice. Mina's phone pings back with an extra string of emojis attached.

"aaahhh" she squeals, "Now make him fall in love with me."

You laugh aloud.

"It doesn't work like that. I...I can." You struggle to explain it, "If I fabricate the feeling he will find out eventually before getting extremely paranoid. I could do it if he's felt it before and just change who he feels that way about. But that's tricky love is much harder than hate."

They all stare at you astonished before chiming in with their crushes. You blush before Momo assumes her normal motherly roll.

"Let's not pressure her into doing something she doesn't want to do." She places her arm around you as if to protect you. You see how happy Mina seems to be so you decide to give in.

"But it would be good practice." You smile and now all the girls are sitting giving you their full attention, "Momo you first.

"T..todoroki." She admits more shyly this time and you let your eyes lose focus on the onyx orb.

"He's sitting at the katsu in his very traditional dorm room, idly scrolling through Insta as he maps out his outline for an upcoming paper. He's come across a picture from Momo. The selfie of you and your Russian doll 'BFFs'. He's smirking, like actual smile." You creep into his mind as he likes the photo. You relay how your chest feels a little warm and tight before adding in the smallest Todoroki whisper. 'Cute caption.'

Mina inhales sharply.

"I TOLD YOU HE'D LIKE THE SELFIE!! YOU'RE WELCOME FOR THE IDEA AND CAPTION." She gushes as Momo's cheeks deepen a shade.

"Midorya?" You ask U-chan who nods furiously. You laugh when you find him in the black plane of consciousness before you step into his room.

"What?" Uraraka asks nervously.

"He's staring up at his phone in his hands, lying on his back. He's thinking as he's staring at a blank message to a Uraraka in his phone. He's retyped a message four times that just says hey."

You giggle before saying, "Uraraka send him a text."

She does and you feel your heart burst when he reads the text. His palms sweat as he types out his request for a date that's not a date before he gives up and sticks with a how are you?

U-chan blushes and Mina laughs. You peer into the lives of a few others in class 1A as they call out suggestions. Jirou and Kaminari sit closely on the couch, Kaminari is sweating and scared she will notice. Sero snickers to himself as he plans a prank for Kiri later, mineta sleeps under a pile of huge blankets. Mina suddenly snaps up

"Oooh you know who I would love to see when they think no one is watching?" She asks having the full attention of the room, "Bakugou Katsuki."

Your blush goes into a shade of red so deep you almost feel light headed.

"Oh no. Let's uh...let's not look at him." You stammer but Mina bites onto it like a rabid dog.

"Come oooonnn. Aren't you curious too?" She has a point. You are curious if that hothead is angry all the time, "or do you have a crush on him?"

"It is not that." You snap before focusing on finding him.

He is by far the easiest to find, what with his intense energy. He might as well be a beacon.

You walk slowly through the endless black, stalling a bit before you approach the steam. Which should have been your first hint as you walk through the fog

"Ooooh!" You flush fiercely as you realize he is taking a bath. In water so hot it must be scalding.

"What?" They ask, leaning closer to the orb as if they could see.

You stand there in the bathroom with him as he groans outwardly sinking deeper into the bath his head leaning back against the tub. Your heart races, you don't need to reach into his mind as you feel a sense of calm surround you.

"He's in the bath." You whisper and they stare at your zoned out face though it is red. You go to pull away but you almost can't and the girls do not protest.

"He feels...calm. Relaxed. Warm. Hes so muscular and they ache. He's replaying fights in his head subconsciously. He's hurt."

"Where?" They breathe.

"Forearms mostly. Pushing his quirk pretty hard." You say nearing his skin, your fingers trace along the small burns before a shiver runs down his spine. You startle. No one has ever reacted to your presence before. You chalk it up to it being your own imagination

"He's got a text from Kiri-san. He mentions Mina, he's teasing him for..." you lean closer to read, before seeing your name on the screen. His body reacts to your name with such violence it causes fat tears to spill from your delicate eyes.

"Hey..."

"Quiet." You snap, you need to sort this knotted feeling he has. His stomach flips as he reads it, heart no longer calm and eyes no longer distracted by replays.

Your nose begins to bleed as you keep yourself from plunging into his thoughts. He sucks his teeth with a snarl, his mind is open and he projects across the small bathroom the sight of you. Blushing, from your first day in 1A to the deep hue you carried today in class.

"Asshole Aizawa." He mutters before slamming his phone down. Not even bothering to reply to Kirishima's text. 'I saw you walking home with Y/N today 😏"

The girls gasp as you relay the feelings, the encounter and text.

"I don't want to invade his mind too much. He's very open which means I could get lose in the call of my quirk." You admit and the girls nod.

"Oh no." You whisper shout as he begins to stand. You turn frantic as he reaches for a towel to wrap around his waist. The girls blush but demand every detail that you so painstakingly give them.

"I didnt see uh... but his back..." you start following him like a shadow as he makes his way to the mirror, "His back is chiseled like the gods. He isnt as scrawny as he seems. His shoulders broad and his eyes. Shit his eyes are looking right at me."

After that you go silent as the event unfolds before you.

You panic as you see them squint in the mirror at your reflection before a cocky grin disarms you.

"Spying on me are you, little enchantress." He says darkly and you suddenly feel stuck in the bathroom, struggling to return to your mind. It's rare but you've heard of people with your quirk before getting caught or being so close to someone they can be seen.

Why did you have to spy on Bakugo Katsuki?

You blush furiously at the intimacy. You cannot tell if you're feeling your own heart race or his as you stand in place struck dumb by that immobilizing gaze. He turns around closing the distance as you phase in and out of his vision. He grips your chin and you feel stunned.

To touch you? To feel you in the tunnel of your minds is astonishing. You gasp for air.

"Taking Aizawa's lesson a bit far aren't you?" He smirks, dark eyes piercing into your soul and suddenly you feel naked. He chuckles before adding, "Like what you see?"

You swallow your desire, of both him and to manipulate him here and now. It would be easy you can feel even at the fringes of his mind that he has wanted someone before.

It would be easy to make it you.

"Y/N?!" The girls shout but they sound far away, more blood seeps from your nose and even your eyes as you fight against yourself.

"You're pushing too hard." He bites out wiping away the blood with the pad of his thumb, explosions dance along his forearms in anger.

"It's time you leave little enchantress." He says pushing against your third eye chakra, you fall backward in slow motion before you slam into the floor that shatters the room and his mind into shards. You fall through the layer of darkness before inhaling deeply in your own body. The girls fuss over you with tissues but you are, for one of the first times in your life, angry.

Seething.

You hear the door to the boys bathroom slam and you stand, livid to be caught by him of all people.

How dare he

How dare he catch you

How dare he touch you

How dare he overcome your quirk.

Before you realize it you're standing in front of the hot headed boy's dorm, slamming your fist in a quick percussion.

You do not hear your friends follow your angry wake.

He swings the door open, only having had enough time to replace his towel with black boxers. His eyes are narrowed and mouth snarled

"What the fuck do you want?" A growl so low that suddenly you realize what you're doing.

It's much different staring into his hot red gaze in person than in the security of your own mind. You swallow as you feel everything rush around you. How could you be so stupid? He probably doesn't remember, he may have thought it all was a dream. Stupid stupid.

Fucking STUPID.

You begin to shake as the high of your very brief rage dies. Like a flame snuffed out of existance. You feel feverish, the hall spins and your vision begins to blur. You had pushed yourself too hard, spying and feeling people's emotions for hours was taking its toll. Your knees buckle beneath your slim frame but strong hands catch you before you fall to the hardwood. You're pulled into his dorm and sat on the edge of his bed. Your breath comes too quickly, what with the combination of the heat of his touch, the weight of his gaze, the lingering smell of his body wash and the fresh linen of his sheets. You're over stimulated and not in the good way. If you aren't careful you'll begin to dissociate and then your mind will wander on it's own. Panic continues to plague you as you try to swallow down air.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? You're shaking like one of those bitch chihuahua dogs." He snaps and with that fat tears fall from your eyes. How could you ever have had a chance with this strong, confident boy when you couldn't even face him after an almost imaginary confrontation?

"Why the fuck are you crying!?" A half yell.

"Its...its called a...a..." you stuttered before screaming, so frustrated with yourself and this infuriating dumbass, "IT'S CALLED A PANIC ATTACK YOU INSENSITIVE ASS!!"

Well if he didn't like you before he sure as hell doesn't now. You choke on a sob, slender hands flying to cover your deep crimson face.

How could you be so caught up in wanting to please your new, genuine, friends that its come to this? Sitting in front of an unrelinquished crush showing him the ugliest most valnurable side of yourself.

Because you're a selfish bitch, that's why.

"YOU BITCH! I TOLD YOU TO STOP WORKING ME! I'M YOUR FATHER FOR CHRISTS SAKE."

"YOU EVIL WITCH YOU MADE YOUR MOTHER LEAVE!"

A slap rings in your ears as you struggle to breath. The voices get louder and louder before you bend over, cradling your head with you elbows as your hands claw at the nape of your neck and upper back

Anything to make his voice go away.

Cool liquid collects under your nails and only then does the pain begin to drown it out. You dig deeper.

"Stop." A low threat with a tug of your arms has you facing the ash blonde, his hands tighten on your wrists. Only worry laces his bright candy apple eyes but all you see is disgust. You look away, eyes squeezed shut as you bite your lip.

"Oi..." You've never heard Bakugo speak so softly, "Y/N..."

You heart pounds against your ribs desperately trying to escape. He stands between your legs, letting go of one of your wrists, he places his cell phone in your hand. You blink away blurry tears as you stare down at his phone.

"I want you to describe what this feels like." His voice is gruff.

"Wha..what?" You struggle to speak, throat tightening.

"Go on." Is all he says, eyes watching yours. You swallow hard, hoping this isn't a trick question.

"Like a phone." You try.

"No, tell me what it's like. As if I've never held these things. As if I cannot feel." He sounds impatient but his eyes are anything but.

"Uhhhm smooth like glass. A good fit for your strong palm. It feels big in mine. Has a little bit of weight to it but not heavy." You say slowly, studying the phone.

He takes the phone and places a water bottle to your hand.

"Hard plastic, cold to the touch and smooth but different than the phone."

"Now this." He bites, shoving the closest thing to him which happens to be his favorite black *BOOM* shirt.

"Soft, like cotton soft. Warm. Smells like linen and you." You smile, fingering the shirt. Your thoughts fade as you are immersed in using your senses.

"Like me?" He prompts, voice getting lighter, "Well I can't smell or feel. What do I smell like."You laugh as you try to think.

"That's hard." A lingering giggle, "Um like..like sweat, a little spicy. Nutmeg, cinnamon. But not the bad kind of sweat. Clean if that makes sense."

You begin folding the shirt slowly forgetting what little remains of your panic attack. You let loose a shaky sigh, eyes focused on the warm fabric. Suddenly you feel a warm and sturdy body between your legs before your cheek meets an even warmer chest. You freeze, his skin is smooth, tantalizing and so so soothing.

"I want you to describe what this feels like." His voice ever soft as he rests his head atop of yours

"Wha..what?" You still struggle to speak, although now your throat has loosened.

"I want you to describe what this feels like." He repeats, voice so even and calm you almost wonder if this is Katsuki holding you. Your cheeks somehow blush deeper as you stammer.

"Wa...warm. Calming and yet my hair stands on end. Like..." You close your eyes to think, "Like just before a big summer storm. But instead if a huge storm it slowly turns into lying on the beach in the sun."

Time passes as you snuggle deeper into his chest sighing slowly before he starts to pull back. Cupping your tear stained cheeks with his deadly hands. His crimson eyes are level with yours before a devilish smirk crosses his lips.He kisses you so softly that it takes you a moment to realize it. When he pulls away he chuckles at your reddened cheeks. Admiring them with his thumbs.

"No more pushing yourself so hard my little enchantress."

[kaypeace21]

Hey I'm sorry to bother you, but I was putting together a post about david harbour's cryptic instagram posts and one in specific where it is explained how rainbows work and then randomly "a pale stuffed yellow lion" is mentioned and I remember you had a post where you mention the lion symbolism in stranger things. I know we shouldn't put too much faith in what actors say about there shows, just wondering what your thoughts were

@helloitisiamazing messages/questions are never a bother, so don’t worry about it :)

 I don’t have instagram, so I didn’t know about this … 

But i think this relates to my DiD theory (about Will).Please read theory first to avoid confusion.

The prequel novel established Psychics hallucinate rainbows when they use their powers.

In the prequel novel “Suspicious Minds” Both Alice and Terry when using their powers had hallucinations of a rainbow, Kali also formed a visual-allusion of sunflowers and a rainbow (implying all 3 have seen this rainbow, as well, when using their powers). And when Will was very young- he drew that ‘rainbow ship’-implying he has powers .

-Terry: “Spots bloomed behind her eyelids. Every color … as the sunlight turned to rainbows” ( p44-45), “The rainbow stayed with Terry for a long while, but eventually it faded and in its place: darkness. A pit.”(p. 48).  “streaks of rainbow appeared (p47)”, “Wavy rainbows seemed to radiate from her hand even once she stilled it. (p. 88). “Her eyelids drifted shut, rainbows and sparks flying behind them. (p. 89).

-Alice: (who sees visions of the future) : “Snarling, snapping monsters, rainbow lights playing in the air around them (p. 121).

-Kali using her powers: “field of yellow sunflowers grew up around them. A rainbow arcing over the golden tops.” (p. 139).  “He noticed she’d (Kali) drawn up there, a rainbow with her colored pencils.” Maybe he’d suggest that for the playroom” (the rainbow room we see in s2) (p. 298) 

In the show, Terry also saw sunflowers and would chant “sunflower, rainbow” over and over -and in s2 Will had a sunflower book. And we were told Will drew a rainbow ship.

As far as Lions:

Will in s1 had a stuffed female lion and El had a male lion.

“Chinese guardian lions-are lion statues that are common guardians of villages (*Hawkins) and even private homes (*Castle Byers and El’s bed room).  These lions can be a sign of protection of an individual or family. These lions are always depicted in pairs consisting of a male and a female, the female representing yin and the male yang. The ever-changing relationship between them is responsible for the constant flux of the universe. When, there is too great an imbalance between Yin and Yang, catastrophes can occur.”

I think this explains a very significant aspect of the show. When El was in great distress, she opened the gate- causing the disasters that later occurred in Hawkins. And after Will disappears, El appears to the audience for the first time. Hopper even tries to track down El, assuming it was Will who’s hair was shaved- because a witness said the kid with the buzzcut “could of been the Byers boy”. Mike even says “Do you really think it’s a coincidence we found her in the same place Will disappeared?”

The answer being ‘no’, it wasn’t a coincidence. We see as the show goes on, El who has never had a normal life, slowly gain normalcy in it. However, Will, at the same time, who was born into a relatively normal circumstances, has had his life become stranger and more entrenched in the supernatural. And as of the first 3 seasons, they’ve barely interacted (let alone bonded/are in balance)!They are imbalanced and because of this (symbolically)… catastrophe after catastrophe continue to occur!

When either Yin or Yang falls out of balance, they affect each other. That means they change their proportion and relationship to one another to achieve a new balance. There is normally a harmonious balance of Yin and Yang. However, they weaken — or consume — one another when they fall out of balance.”

“As an increase in one brings a corresponding decrease in the other, a correct balance between the two poles must be reached in order to achieve harmony”. “yin-yang represents the coherent fabric of nature and the mind (control of their psychic powers/ Will’s did & alters), and the interactions between the waxing and waning of the cosmic and human realms, and its harmonization (the real world vs the upside down/innerworlds)”

- Also…“Yin represents femininity, and water. While Yang represents masculinity and fire.”

The water and fire analogy is a consistent theme in the show. Will is always referenced with fire in both the comic and show . He drew his wizard character shooting fireballs in s1 and in the first ep he rolled the dice and yelled “fireball”, he had the ‘shadow monster ‘ exorcised out of him with fire, and in the comic he shoots a demogorgan and yells “fireball”. El’s element or ‘substance would be the opposite of fire, “water” - the sensory deprivation tanks are filled with water, the void floor is covered in water, she escaped the lab through a drainage pipe, was found by the gang in rain, looked at a reflection of herself in a puddle and cased ripples in it using her powers,  in s3 is shown sinking in water /using goggles.

*When Hopper saw Will’s lion plushie in the upsidedown he had a flashback of sarah with her tiger plushie.

Will even has a tiger poster (shown in s1 &2) which is associated with both Sara Hopper & Kali. 

Kali’s fav animal in the prequel novels is tigers. And Sara has a stuffed tiger (similar to El & Will’s stuffed felines).

In chinese mythology/culture: “The tiger is personified by the constellation Orion (interesting given Sara’s interest in space/blackholes). The tiger represents protection over human life (hmm?). Tiger charms were used to keep away evil and disease (that’s awful ironic if she died in the manner she did). In Buddhism, wearing tiger skins during meditations was believed to bring protection from spiritual interference and potential harm while exploring astral dimensions.”

Kali in ‘Suspicious Minds’ says…

“I was named after a goddess. She wore a tiger skin and was fierce in battle.”

Then Kali says to Alice (a women who can see future visions): “I love you, Alice. We can be tigers together.”

This parallel (in relation to Alice) is fascinating because Kali actually uses her powers to fake Alice’s death- and to trick Dr. Brenner, and allow Alice to escape. The allusion was so realistic, that Terry could even touch the ‘dead’ Alice. 

So the tiger symbolism could be a HUGE hint- that Sarah’s death was simulated and she’ll come back and travel the innerworlds/alternate dimensions of Will’s mind (as Hopper’s guide). Hopper about sarah “galaxies the universe-she always understood that stuff.”

* so yes… Sara will come back. Since alters can have simulated ‘deaths’ and then resurrect later.

Also… a little of topic, but there’s a lot of animal symbolism in the series

- the fox, the owl, and the bear. We see this in El’s room (in Terry’s house) and castle Byers/ the byers house (in s1).Will has a bear and fox illustration in castle byers and a stuffed teddy bear in his room (in s1) and a stuffed owl (in s2). While El has multiple stuffed bear plushies (in s2-3) . And Terry (in El’s room, in s1-2) had fox and owl drawings on El’s bedroom wall.

Foxes, bears, and owls are all associated with wisdom - aka ‘Will the wise’.

*El’s room at Terry’s house also has bunnies (a ref to how Lonnie made Jonathan-and prob Will kill bunnies on hunting trips). The white rabbit is also a ‘alice and wonderland ‘ ref (when El was at Benny’s an alice and wonderland song played called -white rabbit).

* Also the first time we see butterflies (associated with kali) is actually in s1e1 cause there’s a butterfly painting above the phone Will electrocuted.

blue butterflies usually represents many things- love, change or rebirth, passage of time, or  a malicious or vindictive spirit. These examples are prob the most applicable. Given that Kali is a goddess paradoxically associated with motherly love and violence ,giving freedom to children, and only killing demons in folklore.cough like those working at the Hawkins lab.

I Updated/revised this old post because i think it’s another solid did hint I wanted to talk about. David is (probably) showing us how his character is an alter of Will’s similar to Kali, El, Terry,and Sarah.Why he brings up the sunflowers/rainbows which are both connected to Will and the others I mentioned. I think it’s very possible sarah comes back -and Hopper while exploring the various ‘innerworlds’ of Will’s minds (like the Russian one, the memory scapes , etc ) reunites/ finds Sarah .And Sarah helps him . look at some of the season 4 movies:  In ‘what dreams may come” a guy with his dead kid explore a heaven like world influenced by a painter’s emotions.We also have the movie ‘inside out’ -which involves “memory islands” (distinct worlds based on a child’s memories) which are influenced negatively by the kid being depressed since she moved to California. The characters traveling to these memory islands are constructs of  kid’s mind -and 1 of them also has a guide helping them explore the ‘memory islands’.in  Inception a guy says he’s a construct of a guy’s mind and needs to help/protect him escape the many different Ievels of the dream world.Hopper about sarah says “galaxies the universe-she always understood that stuff.” And sarah being associated with ‘tigers which are supposed to be used for protection while exploring astral dimensions (could foreshadow this).” I kind of assume movies like inception, matrix, Truman show, total recall, the cell, enter the void, wizard of oz, Peter Pan , hellraiser 2, dreamwarriors, bill & ted’s bogus journey, and  welcome to marwen ,  also allude to this: because they involve entering simulated abstract worlds usually created from happy& traumatic memories / fears . And bladerunner 2044/total recall has the theme of false implanted memories… relating to hopper realizing he’s an alter and not in “actual Russia.” Before seeing the other segments of the innerworlds. Like in total recall- the bad ass spy is told all his memories:his wife/ years of marriage ,even his name, are just implanted memories. And she says “you’re life is a dream.” . And she says “you’re life is a dream.” Meanwhile (in assasain’s creed) an evil psychiatrist tells a character trapped at the facility -who can explore memories of another person (and who’s dad killed their mom-aka sort of like papa/terry ) that the reason she can go into a person’s memories is cause it’s her past life (aka El’s an alter). So I think that will play out in s4-5 somehow.

This hint also reminds me of when David played d&d and made his character  a fireweilding wizard (who’s powers appeared at 14),  has a ‘special connection’ to fin’s paladin, and doesn’t know who his dad is.

[biggoonie]

COSMIC GHOST RIDER DESTROYS MARVEL HISTORY TPB

Written by PAUL SCHEER & NICK GIOVANNETTI Penciled by GERARDO SANDOVAL, TODD NAUCK & NATHAN STOCKMAN Cover by GERALDO ZAFFINO Prepare to have your childhood memories destroyed! Frank Castle’s future self, once the Punisher and now the twisted Cosmic Ghost Rider, is stuck in the past! So he might as well have some fun with the origins of the Marvel Universe, right?! After going back in time and trying to kill Thanos as a baby, Castle has sworn off trying to alter history. But when he arrives in Earth’s past at the birth of the Fantastic Four, how can he resist jumping in on the fun? And once he derails Spider-Man’s origin, will he take up the mantle himself? With great power, there must also come total irresponsibility! Plus: More drastic interventions on events you thought you knew, including World War II and a certain fateful day in a park. Collecting COSMIC GHOST RIDER DESTROYS MARVEL HISTORY #1-6. 136 PGS./Parental Advisory …$17.99 ISBN: 978-1-302-91745-6

[chromium7sky]

Damirae week day 1: Amnesia| You got me (crazy)

He was devastated.  

It was only 1 month before his wedding with Raven but things doesn't go as they plan, his fíancee where having her ultimate showdown battle with her father,  he almost lost her.  Lost in time and space.

She's trapped in forgotten dimension,  and thank god he has done some research to get her back with the help of other superheroes including John Constantine but....

Something went wrong. When he retrieve her back, the time and space travel were having difficulties due to the interference of her brothers who are still alive. Raven, who is now inherit her father's crown and title as Queen of the Under Realm used almost all of her power to prevent the assault but  whiplash happens when the power hit the barrier of time tunnel and almost hit Damian. Raven quickly shield him by wrapping her arm around her fíance and whisper to him that she loves him.

The shock from that whiplash made them stumbled and landed at the timeline just after Damian departure to fetch Raven from the ruin of Azarath.

The rest of the heroes who just watch him departure now puzzling as he comeback like it was a short distance walk journey. As Damian regain his senses, he quickly ask for medical team to take care of Raven who are now limping in his arm as she was heavily injured by the blow of her own power.

"I know Raven could heal herself in a miracle way but this damage on her head causing concussion,  perhaps it may lead to memory loss. Let us hope that it wasn't a big blow. " said Cyborg as he analyze the Mistress of Magic at the sick bay.

Damian Wayne who is now disgruntled with a twist felt in his stomach by the memory of seeing Raven being hit by the whiplash played over and over inside his head although they already in their safe haven. When Cyborg said hoping it wasn't a big blow,  he mentally frown. It is a BIG one.

Its been three days she's in coma,  he patiently waited by her side though, sometimes Bruce and his other Bat fam come and asked Damian to come home to get some rest and filling his stomach with some food. As he watch his fíanceè who is now unconcious on a clean white bed with bottle of IV punctured in her arms and the beeping sound of pulse monitor counting her pulse rate as well as her blood pressure,  the sight itself has killed his appetite somehow,  there is a long sofa nearby, so he decided to rest his tired shamrock eyes with a power nap.

Damian drifted  to sleep eventually,  Dick silently put a wooly nightwing-ish design blanket on his brother for comfort, thus, he and Kory took their turn to keep their eyes on Raven.

******** Damian's dream were unpleasant which he end up awake with heavy sweats and panting and he thought, perhaps, it  was the effect from the time and space travel. As he looked at Raven's bed, her face seems peacefully sleep despite all the beeping sound, machine were made.

Slowly he approach the bed and and sit on the chair has been recently placed there,  perhaps either by Dick or Kory. He rest his arm and his head at the edge of the bed while his finger tracing her palm and slowly wrap around her finger, then kiss her knuckle.

He sighed as he stared at her  that shown tranquility and peace. Seems like the sleepiness hasn't deserted him yet leading to few noded then he slowly land his head in the palm of unconcious Raven.

In a sudden, something awoken him. A twitch. He open his eyes as he seen her hands. Yes,  more responds!

He grab it with both of his hands discreetly and placed on his cheek as he observed her eyelashes begun to fluttered. His heart almost jumped as he seen her eyes opened. With all the hope and excitement, he take his breath and about to say something until...

"Who are you? And why are you hold my hand? "

*******

It's been months.

Raven now hang out at the justice hall after she's awaken is a good sign but the only thing that bothers him,  she... Doesn't remember about their relationship and their engagement.

She knew him,  the 'Damian Wayne' for his infamous brat attitude but what she didn't know that, both of them were suppose to be married two months ago and damn, he's a mess.

Sometimes she caught him staring at her while shes reading at the library,  sometimes when she walk in the garden.

Did they strike a conversation? Well, he tried but something kept holding him back like his father emergency meeting in Gotham,  Jon's calling from space mission. An ordinary person might throw their tantrum about it but Damian Wayne accept that now its not their time to have a deeper conversation. Yet.

******

She felt peaceful as she taking a stroll at the garden.  The flowers, trees, grass,  all of them seems like in heavenly. She remember something new today. A showdown. Something like that. She's fighting with something big.

It does ignite her magic and alter her appearance into the damn Queen of Darkness. She still wonder,  how did she end up on earth if she's already seal the dimension for good? She sighed and took a few step ahead and there, she saw him. A guy with complex aura surrounding him. Some of them are dark, some are sad, and the rest are bittersweet.

She's been wondering why she always bumped into him. Is he stalking her? Could it be, since he's the son of Batman. Maybe it's in their blood, she mentally chuckled.

"Hey, you! "

He look at her then slightly sneered.  "I have a name."

"Uh, Sorry, Mr. Damian Wayne. "

"It doesn't have to be THAT formal. "

Raven accidentally let out her snort. Quickly, she cover her mouth. She'd be damned if he heard... What? Is that a smile?

Before she's about to say,  his face change to his usual sour expression within nano second. "State your business then. " his stern voiced heard after a long silence.

"Oh uh... " she caught off guard.

"Well, nothing. Just wondering..." then her eyes caught up with a book he was holding that has pencil scribbled, more like doodling. "What are you doing?" she casually walk to him,  invading his personal space.

She could feel the intensity of his eyes as he gaze at her then shifted to the tree view. "Some research. " he blurted out automatically.

"Oh? " She was curious though. Everytime when she meet him, it feels like her body drawn to him like almost wanted to embrace every single of his being. She quickly discarded the thought. 'Damn twilight,' she cursed under her breath for reading cheesy supernatural novel.

"You seems tense?" Damian close the book and tidy up his tools.

"I don't know. I kind of trying to put up some missing puzzle of my memory. " Raven rubbed her chin as she stared blankly at Damian's shirt. Unintentionally.

Damian, uncomfortable of being stared, cleared his throat that made Raven jumped abit from her short daydream.

"You need help?" Damian, volunteer himself.

"You want to help me? " Raven in disbelief as the Son of Batman offered himself. This is rare.

"I could help to sketch out by the description, who knows, it might help you remember something," said the dark hair man as he casually dust off his pant and shirt.

"Well... Let's go! " Raven,  unconciously take his hand. She realise with sudden unusual movement as her eyes went wide just a second and slowly let go of him. "I'm sorry. I... Don't know what is happening. But it seems we kinda really close before I've lost my memory," she tried to laugh. Trying to make it less awkward.

When she saw his face, She saw something in his eyes; a melancholic, sad, and heavy gaze, of wanting to be acceptance.

"Perhaps. "

He turn his back on her, "Follow me."

Raven, bit her lips to keep her from being nervous, followed him as they making their way to Damian's specialize facility. A laboratory.

When both of them enter the building,  everything seems familiar to her. All the passage, the door,  the interior design; It feels like home. Damian put his sketch tool on work bench nearby the super computer and pulled out the chair and offer Raven to sit.

"I'm just gonna go fresh up abit,  then we'll start the session. "

"Got it."

"And... " Damian paused as he tried to remember something.

"Don't touch anything on that table. " he point out an area where it filled with microscope and some are advance machinery. Is that a laser?

"I am not a child, Damian Wayne. " Raven pouted.

"Then act like an adult. " Damian huffed and disappear into his room.

"Jerk." as the young lady fold her hand and sit on the chair quietly.

***** Its been 20 minutes, she looks at the clock then at the room where Damian disappear. She's rocking her chair back and forth while her eyes roaming everywhere.

Suddenly, she saw the sketch book on the table where Damian left earlier. The dark color seems intriguing for her to open its content. To reveal the mystery.

'I hate being curious cat but.... Why not take a little peek? ' her heart begging her to see. Raven take a deep breath then slowly she lean on the table to take a closer look on Damian's sketch book.

Slowly she open those black leather cover, and she almost fell off from her chair! The first drawing who greet her is her own potrait. Realistic and detail drawing of her face.

Her heart is pounding fast. 'What did I do to this guy? ' then she open up the next page. There were several person she could recognise like Dick,  Kory,  Mari,  some old man,  his other brothers and Bruce.

When she flip for more she saw her again,  this time she was hanging out with a creature,  a fluffy beast with batwing and ring on his nose.

As she flip,  she saw her,  sketches of her in simple line,  sometimes in complex mesh and shade. Different expression, even with dialogue. 'Did i ever said some of these line? ' as she read it because some of them are cheesy and romantic.

After almost all pages, her shaky hands close the book. 'Who is this guy to me? ' Raven feeling confused and nervous and her eyes looked at his door. This time,  she need to see inside for some answers.

She trust her instinct as she walked to his door. She gently knock but... No answer. Her hand slowly twisted the door knob and open the door.

She actually went into Damian Wayne's room. This is crazy, and her body made its own decision as if she's done it thousands time. She'll definitely in big trouble.

******** She's in his room. HIS ROOM!! Carefully she walking around, she saw a potrait of her hanging on the wall opposite to his bed. It was really her, in precise color. She felt her heart jump a little. "I don't think we're bestfriend. This is much more.... " her whisper trailed off as she mesmerized with his work.

"Are kidding me? What are you doing in my room?!"

Raven wince when she heard it.

"Look,  I'm sorry. I know i'm kinda bit annoying but your work did took my breaaaaaAAAAA!!!! "she quickly close her eyes.

Oh, dear.  Damian is in towel stood in front of her as he just come out from his shower.  Ah, no wonder he took a long time.

"What part you don't understand about..."

"Well, I didn't touch anything on that table. " Raven defend herself as she keep her eyes closed.

She could heard him sighed. "I did say 'act like an adult.'"

"Well,  Damian Wayne. Try to elaborate what act like adult means!" Raven then turn around from looking at him.

"Like talk to me like a person.  Not like a GODDAMN idiot who didn't look at me."

"I am not an idiot! " as she's annoyed as she facing him.

"Good. "

However, she tried not to focus on him,  his wet hair, those intense green eyes and his uncovered torso. Damn...

Damian crossed his arm. Amnesia or not, she has violated his personal space, not that Damian would care but still!

"I have so many question to ask. " Raven almost whispers.  "About the picture,  the sketch,  this familiar building. I... " she rub her arm as she try to sort out her mixture feeling. Embarassed, confused, happy, excited. What's with all of this whenever she's with him?

Damian arched his brow as he listen attentively. Tt, Of course she has seen his sketches.

"I feel... Happy whenever i see you. I feel like i want to hug you, some sort... Ugh this is sound insane." she closed her face with her palm. Damian definitely gonna call her pervert especially in this situation.

Damian slightly amused,  it was like listening to her first confession 8 years ago. Slowly he sit on his chair nearby.

"Why don't you take a seat? " Damian point out the chair in front of him.

"Uh... " Raven still feel nervous about it. Damian, in his towel. Sitting on that chair with arm and leg crossed.

"I won't bite."

She sneered then sighed as she landed on the leathered chair. "This chair is making me nervous. As i was saying..." she put her hands on her chest.

"I don't think you and I were bestfriend,  Mr. Wayne. I think its likely more than that. "

Did she Friendzone me? Damian's mind irritated by her statement. How dare she -

"I was so wrong about this, this miscomunication. Maybe I've interpreted it wrong. Maybe I didn't trust my intuition enough. I..I should have trust it but I'm afraid seeing you in sour expression and your cold atittude,  i'm afraid that i might only have one-side feeling. "

Yep. Definitely like the first confession, he mentally noted.

"Have you ever heard about don't judge a book by its cover? " Damian leaned on his desk as he close up to her. Seeing her red wine eyes sparkles against the light in his room. Her soft lavender color hair.  Her red ruby lip which he missed so much.

"Yeah, i know. But still,  who am I to you?" as she dared to look into his shamrock green eyes. Hoping to find the answers.

"I'm afraid I can't answer that, Miss Roth." Damian still exhibit his seriousness.  Raven hold up her emotion because something inside her like about to burst open and hell, she felt like she wants to give that jerk a thousand kiss on his face.

"But..."

"Uh?" Raven jumped a bit as Damian held his hand to her.

"You're an empath, right? I want you to feel it." She could feel heavy emotion behind his gaze. Slowly she reached out her hand towards him.

Damian,  grab her hand and begun to exhaled.

Raven were drowning.

Drowning with his emotion. Those heavy burden, sadness, bitter and anger hit her like  waterfall! After the intense wave, she suddenly felt butterfly in her stomach. This is so warm. This center feeling.

It feels like she wraping herself in a blanket on the cold night,  comforting and safe.

When she open her eyes she saw his vulnerable expression. She never seen him in that face before. A longing.

Then, she realise the scar that marked horizontally on his stomach. She touched it, unintentionally. "Home..."

"Home? " Damian almost lose out his emotion in his voice.

"Home is when you go there... " Raven remember the line.

"They have to take you in." Damian continue the quote from his favourite poet.

"This scars... I remember Hell, the titans, YOU. " as she squeeze out her memory.

"I was suppose to stay there,  to watch my father but why I'm... " Raven bit her lips. "Why? Why i'm here, Damian? I had to seal the dimension so that they could not harm the other dimension. " her tears start to blooming. "That is not your home. You deserve more than that hellish place, Raven. " Damian took his courage as he caressed her cheek, wiped out the tears.

"You doesn't seem content with the place. That is not your home. " both of his hand now on both of her cheek while he gaze into her eyes.

"Sometimes Home has a heartbeat, two arms and a soul. " he smiled. "It doesn't have to be a place. " he added.

"I... I.. " Raven getting choked up.

Tears start to rolled on her cheeks and without any hesitate,  Damian give her a kiss. Long and still.

She felt everything connected,  her memories, his emotion. Eureka!

Things in his room starts to float like its in zero gravity due to the intense emotion she felt. The bliss that makes her wants to reach for the stars.

Both of them withdrawn each other and placing their forehead together, savouring it. "I remember. " she whispers and yet she still cried.

Damian chuckled as he tug her hair behind her ears. He looked at her beneath his long lashes which made her heart fluttered.

"I am home with you. " she repeat her words during their depature from ruin of Azarath before their time travel goes wrong.

"All you need is a kiss to remember? " she can hear his giggle in his words. "A true love kiss. " as he peck her cheek.

"Since when Damian Wayne being cheesy romantic? " she teased him.

"Just come here. " as his arm wide open waiting for her. "I miss you. "

Raven scoffed then gloomped at the young man. "I'm home," she whisper as she bury her face at his collar,  inhaled his freshly after shower scent,  imprinting in her memory.

"Welcome back. " Damian wrap his arm on her body, it feels perfect. How he miss her so much! He give a kiss and landed his cheek on her hair.

Bonus:

[x5red]

Supergirl: Where to start reading her older comic series?

With the Melissa Beniost’s Supergirl show about to relaunch for its fourth season, it seems an apt time to revisit the oft asked question: Which of the old Supergirl comicbook series is the best starting point if you’re a fan of the show..?

It’s an interesting question. Many tv fans have some familiarity with Kara’s most recent comicbook adventures -- Sterling Gates, etc. -- but they harbour a desire to explore beyond the most immediate decade, into the murky misty depths of the classic Kara Zor-El and Matrix eras. But where to begin..?

Detailed below, for your rumination and delectation, are the four classic titular Supergirl series -- Supergirl Volumes 1 to 4 -- ranked by merit from best to worst, with particular regard to accessibility by the modern tv/comic audience.

So, without further ado, let’s begin...

1st - Supergirl Vol. 2, aka The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl: (Nov 1982 -- Sep 1984, 23 issues)

The bright micro-chip fuelled optimism of the early 1980s was the backdrop for Supergirl’s second eponymous title. Linda Danvers makes a new home as a mature student studying Psychology in Chicago, where she hopes she can find a balance between her superhero duties and her personal life. She immerses herself into student life, immediately acquiring a collection of enthusiastic friends and a hectic social calendar. It isn’t long, however, before criminal elements in the city require the attention of her alter ego, Supergirl.

Writer Paul Kupperberg gives us a Supergirl for the 1980s, clearly aimed at the more mature audience that was starting to dominate comicbook sales thanks to the direct market of specialist stores. Kupperberg’s Linda Danvers is sassy, intelligent, confident, and witty, while her costumed alter ego is strong but compassionate. For the first time Kara Zor-El is allowed to have a proper boyfriend, and (shock!) actually go to bed with him. The story lines devote equal time to Kara’s heroic and everyday identities, surrounding her with a diverse cast of supporting characters.

The book’s adventures largely constrain themselves to Chicago, with a parade of monsters and supervillians showing up each issue to challenge the Girl of Steel, but there’s still plenty of variation between stories, and some particularly bold ideas towards the latter part of the series’ run.

Pros: Equal prominence is given to Linda Danvers and Supergirl, and the series is all the better for it. Giving Kara a life outside of her Supergirl antics rounds her character, a device used 30 years later by the tv show. Paul Kupperberg’s scripts are intelligent, imaginative, and not afraid to sometimes tackle tough subjects. Industry legend, Carmine Infantino, pencils almost every issue, and captures the 80s fashions well.

Cons: The comic’s witty and headstrong Linda Danvers is a radical departure from Benoist’s often goofy and adorkable portrayal, which may be off-putting to some tv fans.

Conclusion: This is a nice set of uncomplicated stories with a basic structure that has many parallels to the tv show (sans DEO.) Highly recommended.

2nd - Supergirl Vol. 4: (Sep 1996 -- May 2003, 81 issues + 2 annuals)

Peter (Allen) David, usually known in fan circles as PAD, took control of Supergirl after her misguided Matrix run, and immediately morphed the character into something more interesting. In an act of supreme selflessness, the Matrix Supergirl merges with satanic cult member, Linda Danvers, saving Linda’s life by becoming a hybrid made up of Linda’s memories and feelings coupled with Matrix’s protomatter shape-shifting superpowers. Such is the starting point for Supergirl’s fourth volume of adventures.

Early stories deal with Linda haphazard attempts to cope with her new status as superhero, but pretty quickly it becomes apparent that her transformation is part of a bigger tale involving battling satanic and angelic forces. The series mixes superhero action with occult and religious symbolism, playfully referencing Old Testament lore and even writing God in as a supporting character. PAD’s storytelling doesn’t shy away from examining matters of belief head on, with subplots examining how faith can be lost and restored, but also misguided and abused. Other themes include the ethics of free speech, and the power of unintended consequences.

After fifty issues the series was soft-rebooted, with Matrix being un-merged from Linda Danvers and captured by dark satanic forces, and 'God’ teaming Linda up with a reforming demon to help find and rescue her. A second reboot (#75, Dec 2002) saw a youthful Pre-Crisis Supergirl take an unplanned detour into the Post-Crisis universe during her trip from Argo City to Earth.

Overall the series holds to classic old-fashioned good-versus-evil storytelling, told with humour and quirkiness.

Pros: The series has a good balance of humour, drama, and superheroics. The main characters are well defined, often quirky, and immediately likeable, with a healthy mix of darkness and light in the main cast, which leads to some engaging interactions. The spiritual elements are mostly well handled, and never pander or proselytise.

Cons: The heavy use of lore and mythology, plus occasional course-altering soft reboots, make the main plot arcs more than a little convoluted. There’s not much variety in the types of story told: it’s angels versus demons pretty much every issue. The series was initially conceived in a world before 9/11, before The God Delusion, before Catholic priest scandals, before the overt linking of evangelical Christianity with neo-conservatism -- as such its benign treatment of organised religion may seem a little naive and dated to some.

Conclusion: Enthusiastically told and funny, although occasionally a bit of a slog, PAD’s fusing of superheroes and the celestial provides for novel storytelling.

3rd - Supergirl Vol. 1: (Nov 1972 -- Sep 1974, 10 issues)

The early 1970s were an era of student politics and campus sit-ins, so it’s no surprise that Supergirl’s first self-titled series is set in the heart of academia. Linda Danvers heads off to San Francisco to study Drama at Vandyne University, and gets involved in all manner of adventures typically involving college life and romance. Stories vary in style from issue to issue, sometimes spooky supernatural, sometimes B-movie sci-fi, sometimes inner city gang violence -- but there’s invariably a square-jawed hunk involved for Kara to swoon over and rescue.

The initial issue was edited by Dorothy Woolfolk, but issue two saw Robert Kanigher take up editing duties. In the 1950s Kanigher had transformed William Marston’s feminist Wonder Woman into a lovelorn heroine who spent much of her time fretting over Steve Trevor. But thankfully by the early 70s Supergirl’s inevitable romantic adventures are complimented by her exasperation at the male chauvinism all around her. Although affairs of the heart are prominent, the Maid of Might is always shown as being as tough as any male superhero -- this is girl power... just a version of girl power that happens to include lipstick and hot pants.

Pros: The stories are certainly fun, even if they lack depth or complexity. The artwork has a certain quaint charm, and the groovy mod fashions of the time add to the curiosity value.

Cons: There’s a lot of repetition: almost every issue has Linda Danvers falling for a different campus heartthrob, who ultimately requires the help of her super powered alter ego.

Conclusion: Very much of-its-time, innocent and fun, but the heady 1970s mix of pulp romance and cartoon feminism may be way too dated for some modern readers.

4th - Supergirl Vol. 3: (Feb 1994 -- May 1994, 4 issues)

When Supergirl was re-introduced after Crisis on Infinite Earths, she took the form of a shape-shifting protomatter blob named Matrix, originally from a pocket universe. The Lex Luthor of her home universe had been a hero, so when the innocent Matrix encounters the regular Lex Luthor (nemesis of Superman), her confused and child-like mind instinctively trusts him, and she becomes his female companion. Lex, of course, is only interested in learning the secret of his girlfriend’s protomatter powers.

This four part series finally, slowly, sees Matrix wake up to the fact that Lex Luthor has been using her. It’s a slow build towards the final chapter, that meanders through a lot of self-denial before it gets to its inevitable finale. The ending is clearly signposted from the start, but the plot does a decent job of stretching out the journey across four episodes.

Pros: The idea of the hero playing the role of so-called useful idiot is a novelty, as least within the annals of American comicbooks.

Cons: This is a lacklustre story which brings to an end one of the more regrettable periods in Supergirl’s history -- despite often displaying immense courage, the Matrix Supergirl became nothing more than a plaything for Lex Luthor, and a pawn in his game against Superman.

Conclusion: There’s apparently a giant pit out in a desert somewhere filled with unsold Atari E.T. game cartridges -- if we can find it, maybe we can add every issue of the Matrix Supergirl run(?) Avoid!!