#( the coldest kingdom

[everardentarchived]

tag dump two !!

[sullina]

As y’all probably know, I love dragons and I love nnt (that second one might be more obvious), and occasionally, I just keep thinking about Mel as a human/dragon fusion, like he’s got human parts and dragon parts (dragon parts like some scales in his face, down his back on his arms and legs, you probably know what I’m talking about, he also keeps his tails and wings and horns, scales are green of course) and the situation I’m thinking of is specifically Meliodas, in typical dragons-love-gold fashion, keeping just about every piece of gold from his holy knight salary and making a nest out of it in his room. Or putting it in his nest, which he may have made somewhere else, additionally to the bed. He probably doesn’t use the bed at all.

And he does this until he figures out he can sneak into the royal treasury that’s filled to the BRIM with gold and jewels and just about everything shiny that he can imagine, all gathered in one room. A problem arises when he decides to take the kingdoms funds and treasure as his hoard.

You betcha there was a kingdom wide search party going on that first time he snuck in the treasury until someone got the idea that Mel might be where the most gold is. And there the bastard was, purring on top of the giant pile of gold and jewels, sleeping like he didn’t have a single care in the world. The Sin of Greed might fit him more than Ban.

What I can also absolutely imagine is Meliodas often in his life sneaking into the (abandoned? bc of the seal and stuff) underworld and just gathering the naturally occurring jewels. No one else is using them, there’s no harm in him taking them. And he takes bigger and bigger risks like jumping into an underworld vulcano to get his hands on the fire magic infused rubies that actually give off heat. He also goes to the coldest ice regions for the ice magic infused gems bc they sparkle so much. What I’m saying is, he loves gems and there is very little he won’t do to get his hands on a particularly shiny one.

Also bc dragons are kinda vain, Mel wants gold and bejeweled gold stuff to wear like on his horns and on his tail. He would love some on his wings as well, but that’s a bit harder bc he still needs them to fly and stuff. As for actual clothes, I doubt he wears much, if anything.

[abookishdreamer]

Character Intro: Cocytus (Kingdom of Ichor)

Nicknames- The Wailing God by the people of Olympius

Man of Tears by Dione

Coco by Styx

Age- 50 (immortal)

Location- The Underworld

Personality- Cocytus is very introverted, who's dealing with social anxiety, which is why he keeps his social circle small. He's soft spoken, eloquent, and sensitive to other people's emotions- especially sadness, depression, and misery. He’s single.

His namesake river is the coldest of the Underworld. Its waters are a grayish blue and it's also the one with the calmest currents.  It's also known as the River of Woe and it smells of sulfur.

As the Titan god of wailing and lamentation, his abilities include summoning and controlling Cocytean tin and hydrokinesis (as it pertains to his river). He can instinctively tell when a person is sad and he can create an invisible force field which can bring misery & images of one's deepest regrets to anyone that enters it and he has the ability of a powerful sonic scream.

He lives in a simple log house that's painted grayish blue just off the shores of his river. There’s lots of leather and metal furniture- with many of his personal artwork decorating the walls.

Cocytus is a licensed therapist, mainly dealing with grief counseling. While his main office is in the Underworld, he mostly does video sessions with his patients, to put them at ease.

His go-to drink is an earl grey tea. He also enjoys roasted coffee, whiskey, and pomegranate wine.

Aside from surveying the perimeters of his river, Cocytus has a lot of free time to explore other pursuits. He's an avid fan of yoga. He's also gotten into art- painting and doing portraits specifically. His paintings often deal with dark themes and imagery like pain, anguish, identity, & woe, to name a few. His self portrait titled "The Many Faces of Misery" was so profound that Apollo personally asked if he could showcase it at NOMMA (New Olympus Museum of Modern Art). Cocytus has also gotten into music- transcribing, writing original pieces. He plays a variety of instruments, mainly the piano, cello, & the organ. He even wrote a piece of music for Hades inspired by Rhea, to help him deal with the conflicted feelings he has for her.

He appreciates the friendships he has individually with the other Underworld river gods- Phlegethon (Titan god of fire), Styx (Titaness of hatred), and Lethe (Titaness of forgetfulness, oblivion, & concealment). Cocytus is definitely closer to Acheron (Titan god of pain). The two of them once got drunk and high on a single bottle of black brandy and a joint of highly potent black opium.

He's also friends with Harpocrates (god of silence & discretion), Pathos (god of emotion), Moros (god of doom), Ananke (goddess of inevitability, compulsion, & necessity), Limos (goddess of starvation & famine), Oizys (goddess of anxiety, misery, & depression), and Penia (goddess of poverty). Cocytus has recently developed an online friendship with Ptocheia (goddess of beggary).

Cocytus is currently not looking for a romantic relationship, stating that "misery takes up most of my time." At one point he was made aware of Lethe's feelings for him, but things didn't go further, mostly due to her odd reaction towards him telling her about his asexuality.

His favorite meal is a mixed greens salad (made with lettuce, cabbage, kale, broccoli, chopped carrots, and red onions), added with fresh oranges, topped off with sesame ginger salad dressing. He also likes fried brown rice.

"Misery doesn't prefer company. Sometimes it prefers to fester alone."

[banashee]

I wasn't tagged but @sinister--potato said who feels like it should join in so here I am. 😁

Rules: you can usually tell a lot about a person by the type of music they listen to. put your favourite playlist on shuffle and list the first ten songs then tag ten people!

And once again I'm having too much fun to stop at 10.

Also I'm tagging whoever wants to do this, as well as you Folks (no pressure tho)

@stufenlosregelbar @asamandra @hopelessly-me @lilolilyr @spectralarchers @cruciatusforeplay

1) The Longest Johns - "Ashes"

2) Wardruna - "Helvegen"

4) Lebanon Hanover - "Hard Drugs (Qual Remix)

5) The Last Dance - "Frozen"

6) The Devil and the Universe - "Black Harvest"

7) The Weekend - "Blinding Lights"

8) Boy Harsher - "Pain"

9) Clan of Xymox - "It's all a lie"

10) Bauhaus - "Telegram Sam"

11) The Mechanisms - "Laid in Blood"

12) Lacuna Coil - "End of Time"

13) New Today - "Savior dot com"

14) Frayle - "If you Stay"

15) Lebanon Hanover - "Gallowdance"

16) The Beauty of Gemina - "Trapped"

17) The Mechanisms - "Sigyn"

18) Project Pitchfork - "Drums of Death"

19) The Real McKenzies - "Old Becomes New"

20) The Mechanisms - "Sunrise"

21) Lebanon Hanover - "Dark Hill"

22) Clan of Xymox - "Stranger"

23) Sunrise and the Banshees - "The Killing Jar"

24) The Cure - "Hey You"

25) Faith and the Muse - "Plaguedance"

26) The Sisters of Mercy - "Body and Soul"

27) Lebanon Hanover - "Petals"

28) Lebanon Hanover - "Du Scrollst"

29) Rammstein - "Sonne"

30) Fields of the Nephilim - "Last Exit for the Lost"

31) The Beauty of Gemina - "Kingdom of Cancer"

32) Brandi Carlile - "What can I say"

33) The Wailin' Jennys - "Keep me in your heart"

34) This Cold Night - "Self-deception"

35) Project Pitchfork - "Contract"

36) Bootblacks - "Gone"

37) Murder by Death - "The Big Sleep"

38) Wind Rose - "To Erebor"

39) Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Cities in Dust"

40) Amon Amarth - "Live for the Kill"

41) The Invincible Spirit - "Push!"

42) Clan of Xymox - "Weak in my knees"

43) The Mechanisms - "Pellinore and the beast"

44) Ashbury Heights - "Hollow"

45) Lady Gaga - "Dance in the Dark"

46) Paralysed Age - "Days that are gone"

47) Paradise Lost - "Symbol of Life"

48) The Longest Johns - "Wellerman"

49) Creux Lies - "Virginity"

50) Whispering Sons - "Waste"

51) New Today - "Girl High"

52) Editors - "No Sound but the wind"

53) She Past Away - "Sanri (Clan of Xymox Mix)

54) Xmal Deutschland - "Incubus Succubus II"

55) Project Pitchfork - "Timekiller"

56) Lebanon Hanover - "Hollow Sky"

57) The Last Dance - "Winter"

58) Selofan - "Black Box"

59) Specimen - "Wake the dead"

60) Then Comes Silence - "Animals"

61) The Sisters of Mercy - "Burn"

62) The Beauty of Gemina - "This Time"

63) Depeche Mode - "No More"

64) The Beauty of Gemina - "Haddon Hall"

65) The Devil and the Universe - "Belief Manipulation"

66) Melodicka Bros - "Enjoy the Silence (way too loud)

67) This Cold Night - "Time Bomb"

68) Switchblade Symphony - "Bad Trash"

69) (nice) The Mechanisms - "Rose Red"

70) Faith and the Muse - "Patience Worth (Piano Version)

71) Diva Destruction - "The Broken Ones"

72) Diva Destruction - "Dance Remix of Trees"

73) Lebanon Hanover - "Hall of ice"

74) Generation X - "Dancing with myself"

75) Creux Lies - "Tsavo"

76) Wind Rose - "We were warriors"

77) The Sisters of Mercy - "Dominion/Mother Russia"

78) Faithful Dawn - "She Falls down"

79) The Longest Johns - "Geberal Taylor"

80) The Real McKenzies - "The Ballad of Greyfriars Bobby"

81) Drab Majesty - "Forget Tomorrow"

82) Deine Lakaien - "The Executioner"

83) Clan of Xymox - "Louise"

84) The Last Dance - "Desperately Still"

85) The Cure - "Plainsong"

86) Clan of Xymox - "She is falling in love"

87) Soft Kill - "On the inside"

88) Amon Amarth - "The Hero"

89) Drab Majesty - "Kissing the Ground"

90) Cold Cave - "Life Magazine"

91) The Sisters of Mercy - "Marian"

92) Assemble 23 - "Outsider"

93) Nightwish - "Dead Boys Poem"

94) Dynazty - "The Man and the Elements"

95) The Real McKenzies - "Too Many Fingers"

96) Lebanon Hanover - "Gravity Sucks"

97) Specimen - "Lovers"

98) Jeremy Renner - "Stereo Love"

99) Queen - "Bohemian Rhapsody"

100) Social Station - "All I ask"

101) die ärzte - "Geisterhaus"

102) Social Station - "Endlessly"

103) Kirlian Camera - "Celephias"

104) ES23 - "Only Melodies Remain"

105) Wardruna - "Kvitravn"

106) Volbeat - "The Devils Bleeding Crown"

107) Faith and the Muse - "Rise and Forget"

108) Sopor Aeternus - "Beautiful"

109) Faith and the Muse - "The Woman of the Snow"

110) Wardruna - "Thurs"

111) Sopor Aeternus - "Goodbye"

112) The Sisters of Mercy - "Train"

113) This Cold Night - "Dog"

114) Paradise Lost - "Primal"

115) Danheim - "Hringras"

116) Amon Amarth - "On a sea of blood"

117) Vandal Moon - "Computer Love"

118) Paradox Obscur - "Broken Lies"

119) Paralysed Age - "Your coldest smile"

120) Whispers in the Shadow - "The Rites of Passage"

121) Delphine Coma - "Is this forever"

122) Brandi Carlile - "I'll still be there"

123) She pleasures herself - "The Weeping"

124) The Devil and the Universe - "Elousa"

125) Ashbury Heights - "Cry Havoc"

126) The Beauty of Gemina - "June 2nd"

127) Hapax - "A Tank for Alex"

128) Clan of Xymox - "Heroes (Cover)"

129) Faith and the Muse - "A Winter Wassail"

130) Lacuna Coil - "Kill the Light"

131) The Beauty of Gemina - "Suicide Landscape"

132) Bootblacks - "New Lines"

133) Deine Lakaien - "Because Because"

134) Clan of Xymox - "All I ever know"

135) The Beauty of Gemina - "Wonders"

136) Lebanon Hanover - "No one holds hands"

137) The Mechanisms - "Underworld Blues"

138) Faith and the Muse - "Scars Flown Proud"

139) die ärzte - "Der Graf"

140) Faith and the Muse - "Denn die Toten reiten schnell"

141) Whispering Sons - "Fragments"

142) Inkubus Sukkubus - "Memento Mori"

143) Wardruna - "IngwaR"

144) Boy Harsher - "Come Closer"

145) Danheim - "imar"

146) Drab Majesty - "Hath no Form"

147) Echoberyl - "Into the beyond"

148) Inkubus Sukkubus - "Beltaine"

149) Volbeat - "Mr. & Mrs. Ness"

150) Clan of Xymox - "Home sweet home"

151) This Cold Night - "Circuits"

152) Alien Sex Fiend - "Now I'm feeling zombified"

153) Spear of Destiny - "Liberator"

154) The Last Dance - "World Down"

155) Diva Destruction - "Subterfuge"

156) Esoterik - "Set Fire to me"

157) Tribulation - "Cauda Pavonis"

158) Esoterik - "Cup of Life"

159) Leo - "Monstermash (Metal Version)

160) Epica - "Our Destiny"

161) Nightwish - "Wishmaster Live"

162) Lebanon Hanover - "Your Fork Moves"

163) Brotherhood - "Rain"

164) Twin Tribes - "Upir"

165) Kamelot - "Under Grey Skies"

166) Paralysed Age - "Nocturne"

167) She Past Away - "Ritüel"

168) Twin Tribes - "Avalon (Bootblacks Mix)"

169) Bella Morte - "Dead of Night"

170) Drab Majesty - "Entrance and Exits"

171) Pink Turns Blue - "Your Master is calling"

172) Soviet Soviet - "Ecstasy"

173) Suspiria - "Graveyard of the undead"

174) The Cure - Just like heaven

175) Kamelot - "Abandoned (live)"

176) Amon Amarth - "Blood Eagle"

177) The Sisters of Mercy - "1969"

178) Pink Turns Blue - "Walking on both sides"

179) Shad Shadows - "The Grace"

180) Plastique Noir - "Rose of Flesh and Blood"

181) Epica - "Unchain Utopia"

182) Pink Turns Blue - Missing You

183) The Last Dance - "Regret"

184) Rosetta Stone - "Come Hell or high water"

185) Beast in Black - "No Easy Way Out"

186) Bauhaus - "Hollow Hills"

187) Breaking Benjamin - "Breath"

188) Vandal Moon - "We are electric"

189) Lyca - "Drifting"

190) Lebanon Hanover - "Bring your own wine"

191) Saigon Blue Rain - "Pearly Haze"

192) The Other - "Skeletons in the Closet"

193) Eluveitie - "Belenos"

194) Box and the Twins - "Lovesong for a Ghost"

195) Wind Rose - "Diggy Diggy Hole"

196) The Cure - "A Forest"

197) The Other - "Back to the Cemetery"

198) Storm Weather Shanty Choir - "A Hundred Years"

199) Box and the Twins - "Gravity"

200) Ash Code - "Empty Room"

[inkspiots]

and the car door opened and a man stepped out

"You're early," Persephone hissed, eyes lit up with disdain as she watched her husband step from the train car to solid earth. She could almost picture the cracks his feet could cause if he exerted the least bit of force to his steps (he wouldn't, she knew, but she could still picture it). He was early, by at least two months, and they both were well aware of that. Why in the name of hell are you so early, husband? The goddess seethed silently, maybe knowing that she wouldn’t be getting a straight answer in the slightest, no matter what she thought to ask.

"I missed ya," he replied, and held out his hand in what she knew could either take as a plea to come with him or a demand to continue this everlasting arrangement like they were meant to do. She wasn't sure which it was anymore, hadn't been sure about it for at least three hundred years now. When she didn't take a step towards or away from him, when she didn't attempt to close or increase the distance between them, his hand dropped.

She could feel Hermes' eyes, old and tired as her favorite brother was of her always coming and going. She never stayed for long anymore, and she knew without a doubt that it was taking a toll on her friends ; on the mortals with whom she had spent years with, but she also knew that there was nothing she could do about it. Persephone stepped towards her husband with a resigned sigh, and climbed into the train car with all the force of a winter wind.

Her husband said nothing, even as he closed the car door behind them. The ride to their home, to his kingdom, was silent. It was the longest damn train ride of her immortal life.

/

Hades still hadn't said anything, even as they descended the last of the stairs that led into his realm. Then, she asked, with a voice that somehow sounded both curious and annoyed to his ears, "In the coldest time of year, tell me, why is it so hot down here? Hotter than a crucible ; Hades, it ain't right and it ain't natural."

“Lover, you were gone so long, and, Lover, I was lonesome.” He began, and Persephone had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. It wasn't so long ago (to her, at least) that he'd called her by her name, not merely Lover or Wife or something of the sort, but it still seemed like many more years than it really had been. "And so, I built a foundry in the ground beneath your feet."

The Goddess of Spring and The Dead and The Underworld shook her head softly, letting her coat drop to the ground. She didn't think she had it in her to respond without the underlying regrets of years gone by seeping through the cracks.

/

Her office is empty now that all the spirits and shades and the sort have gone back to their working in the mines, and there's a half empty glass of bourbon sitting on her desk, so she shakes off the feeling that there's something she really should be doing to stop this whole damn thing before it inevitably gets worse -- and it will get worse, she knows, because it always, always, does. She opens a desk drawer to refill her glass and instead of copious amounts of alcohol meeting her gaze, Persephone is met with the sight of a younger Hades with eyes brighter than any morning sun she ever saw as a child.

She picks up the photograph with fingers that shake as hard as they did when she was young and in love and the taste of fresh freedom rested in the hollow of her throat. It's a simple picture, really -- her husband isn't doing much in it, just looking to the side at something that she can't see but remembers so clearly it's almost like she's back there, in that back room of their old -- their first, from when they were still newlyweds -- house that she hasn't stepped foot in years. Persephone rests the picture on the surface of her desk like she can't bear to hold it anymore and downs the rest of her drink like she's a woman dying of thirst.

She slams her glass onto the desk with enough force to shatter it, and tries not to remember the sight of her oldest son's face as he died.

/

The twins are their only children to be born in the house of her mother. He comes first ; her son is born silent and she fears for all of a moment that he is dead, but then he takes a breath and the world rights itself on its axis and she remembers that even gods -- even gods that are born of the long dead and the recently deceased and the still dying -- take a moment to really come alive. The first thing her son sees, when he opens his eyes for the very first time, is the soft face of his grandmother before she wraps him in a blanket and lays him gently to the side to welcome his sister in the same way.

The girl is born quiet, too, and she waits until Demeter has set her beside her brother before she starts to cry. The sound seems almost out of place in the small room of her mother’s cottage, and it takes Persephone all of ten minutes to find in herself the strength to sit up and ask her mother if she might hold her children now ( she’s tries to ignore the distinct emptiness of the space beside her, the space that should be taken up by her husband ). Hades wasn’t aware the twins had been born yet, and he shouldn’t be, really ; they weren’t due for another month at least. Her mother gently lays her son in her arms, and Persephone shifts her body weight as though that may help her get a better hold on the sleeping babe she’s cradling. “Hey there, love.”

“What’ll you name ‘em?” Her mother asks, voice soft and Persephone feels the bed dip as Demeter takes a seat on the other end of the mattress, the little girl resting easily in her arms, and it takes the goddess a few moments to answer.

“‘M gonna call him Zagerus,” she begins, and doesn’t take her eyes from the crown of her son’s head. "And her name'll be Melione."

The sight of her mother's smile as she presses a soft kiss to the top of her granddaughter's head does something to ease the crushing phantom weight of feeling in her own chest. "Perfect."

/

When Makaria is all of eleven years old, her stark white hair ( a courtesy of her father, because his hair has always looked like it's dusted in snow and ash no matter what age he appeared ) reaches to her mid - back and she takes a pair of gardening shears that her mother kept in the outdoor cabinet and chops it off to her shoulders. Her older brother laughs at the sight of her uneven locks and pushes her gently towards their father's office, where not a soul does anything to stop her from opening the large oak door. Even the Moirai, who watch her with devastatingly blind stares, say nothing as she uses the full weight of her body to shove the doors open wide enough to get through.

"πατέρας*?" The youngest goddess of the underworld says, even though her father is looking directly at her when she walks up to his desk.

Hades raises a single eyebrow at his youngest child and leans back in his chair without taking his eyes from her. It takes a moment for her to realize that he's laughing before the sound actually leaves his mouth. Then, he breathes, "Lord, child, what have you done to your hair?"

"Well," she starts, and she can feel the heat of a sun that doesn't exist down in her father's place spreading across her face and neck. He can see it, too, she bets. "Mama's always complaining that my hair is too long to mess with, like hers is, so I went and made it shorter. I think Meli likes her hair long, but I don't get why. Long hair doesn't feel nice ; it's too heavy."

And she's taking a million miles a minute like her mother did when she was nervous and Hades reaches a hand over his desk to brush the stray bangs from Makaria's face as she shuts her mouth. "Go on home, girl, and we'll even out your hair when I get back, alright?"

Makaria nods slightly, and when she opens the door to leave, she is met with the sight of Thanatos and Hypnos about to knock against the wood. The boys look down at her ; Hypnos runs a hand through his own white hair and grins at her, but Thanatos just smiles and says, "nice haircut, Maka." 

She's down the steps before the twins step into her father's office, and when her mother comes home a month later, the woman laughs as the sight of her daughter's hair before pulling her into a tight hug.

/

The boy is screaming so loud that he's sure his father can hear him down there, in his place of factories and machines below the soils of the Earth. His uncle's hand is hot against his face, burning his eyes up from the inside out ( that is, of course, what Zeus intended to do ) and when it is removed, Ploutos Adonius, god of the wealth inside the ground and the things that grow up on the soil, finds that the only thing he could see was darkness. "θείος**? θείος, what have you done to me?"

And the Lord Zeus, husband and king and uncle and brother and tyrant, lets out an ever so slight hum, and his hand comes down on Ploutos' shoulder with a sort of weight that wasn't there before ( he does notice, however, that the heat is gone ). "Ploutos Adonius, of the Agricultural Wealth of Earth, you will give out your riches not by the biases of the world clouding your mind, but you will only go by the actions of man."

He says it like it shouldn't be the first thing he went by, like it wasn't going to be the first thing he went by, and Ploutos feels his hands ( his hands, that which are pale from a lack of real sunlight in his childhood home and that which are scarred from a life digging through the roots of his mother's garden filled with thorns ) start shaking. He stills them by sheer power of will, and tilts his head towards the sounds of his uncle's movement. "Ain't no reason to blind me, Uncle." He says, and there's a moment where the throne room of Olympus, where his grandmother sits ten feet away from him and where his father is not allowed, goes absolutely silent.

"Ain't there?"

"I woulda been fair to them mortals, Uncle. I woulda been right, there was no reason to blind me."

And the Lord Zeus laughs, like the concept of being fair and being right is oh - so - foreign to him that he can not tell that Ploutos is being deadly serious. "You're a god, boy," the king of the sky says, and his voice sounds like the beginnings of a storm, "you ain't ever gonna be fair."

/

The door of his office closes at the same moment he shuts the cabinet, and Hades lets out a breath so ragged it’s a damn wonder that he’d held it in so long. The songbird had just walked out of his office with nothing on her mind but the food she was bound to get sometime soon, after her first day’s shift was over and done, and the Lord of the Underground and the King of the Dead could not find it in himself to step away from the window that looked out to his factories and his Wall. He was getting too old for this, wasn’t he?

He drags a hand down his face as he sits back down in his desk chair, bracing his arms against his knees as he leans forward. It’s been one hundred, two hundred, three hundred and more years since the god of the long dead and the still dying has felt like the world is slipping out from under his iron grip, and for half a second of pure self pity, Hades Aidoneus ( first born son of the mother - made Rhea and the tyrant - overthrown Kronos ) wishes for the presence of his wife. He knows, he knows, that he will not get it -- that he will not get it every again, for as long as he may live, from now until forever -- but he wishes for it all the same.

/

When Spring rolls around again, and the poet in the story is all but dead, there is a boy sitting on the ground out by the railroad tracks. His uncle stands guard over him with a hand braced on his shoulder like the comforting weight of a blanket, while his own hands are pressed flat against the soil, listening. "The train's almost here, Unc. The ground's shaking over it."

And Hermes, god of travelers and traders and thieves, starts to laugh. "That it is, boy."

His hand leaves the boy's shoulder as the train chugs right up to the platform and he descends to open up the train car door for the Lady of Spring. The boy on the ground tilts his head back to the sun with his eyes shut tight and listens to the sound of his mother's footsteps still when she sees him, lounging in the dirt.

Ploutos Adionius, god of the riches below the Earth and the crops that grow above it, gives her a smile, and says, "Hey there, Ma."

"Ploutos," Persephone says, and there's a sad sort of smile to her voice when she speaks his name, "Won't you get up off that ground and give your mama a hug, boy?"

He's up on his feet before she gets finished talking, and there's a sort of force to way he barrels into her, arms going around her middle even though he's just as tall as his father now, and ducks his head against her shoulder. She can't tell if his shaking is from tears or laughter, but she suspects it might be a little bit of both.

"Where have you been, up here? I ain't seen you in years, Love." His mother asks him, and it takes another moment of his head tucked against her shoulder before he finds it in himself to step back and focus his sightless eyes on where he thinks her face to be. She tilts his chin down a bit with the tip of her finger.

"I've been a little bit of everywhere, Mama." He says, and he smiles again like he can't really hell himself. When was the last time he'd spoken to any of his family, much less his mother? "'Course, I don't think anyone takes you very seriously when you can't see them. Them mortals some places think just because I can't see them means that I don't know what they say about me.

"I'm blind, Mama, I ain't deaf." And he pauses, like there's something else he's supposed to say in that moment and he doesn't really know what it is. Then, he asks, "how's Da?" and he hears it in the way her breath almost catches and he feels it in the way the fingers resting against his cheek still for the briefest of seconds.

"Your Da's good. He's working." And her son laughs, like he should've known better than to ask. "'Course he is. Ain't he always?"

Hermes appears at their sides, then, slinging an arm over his sister and his nephew and grinning down at the Lady of Summer. "Welcome back to the land of the living, sister. It's been awful quiet without you around."

"Glad to be back, brother." She replies, and wraps her own arm around his shoulders, reaching out to ruffle her son's hair. Ploutos smiles again, and his mother laughs.

/

The ends of her white hair are dusted with red from the seeds the god of Death has been throwing at her for the past five minutes, turning it a sudden shade of light pink, and Makaria can barely stay sitting up with the force of her giggles. She catches one in her mouth, finally, and Thanatos grins at her with teeth white as bone. "Took you long enough, didn't it?"

"Be quiet!" She says, and shoves her hands ( stained red like blood or wine or a mix of the two with juice ) against his chest -- he leans forward, with no regard for the fact that she's getting his shirt dirty, and presses his mouth against her cheek with a laugh of his own. "I'd really rather not, πριγκίπισσα***, if that's alright with you."

She rolls her eyes fondly and pulls him down with one juice coated hand on the back of his neck to kiss him on the mouth. When he leans back against the tree they've set themselves under, she follows him forward on instinct alone.

"You could, at least, do that somewhere you can't see from the window," comes a voice from the garden's gateway, and Makaria leans her head back until she's looking up at her father and he's upside down, and says, "and, you don't, at least, have to watch us."

Thanatos leans his head forward against her shoulder, shaking with barely silent laughter, as the Lord of the Dead looks down at his youngest daughter with almost a smile and a shake of his head, and turns and goes back into his mansion of stone.

Then, the boy rests his chin on her shoulder and says, "Next time, lover, we're going to my house, not yours." The blessed girl lets out a laugh,  and he kisses her again.

/

TRANSLATIONS:

* Father

** Uncle

*** Princess

/

fin.

[alison-anonymous]

♡ loose cannon ♡ pt 1

Warnings: nah man

Requested: I mean, you all were pretty hyped when I talked about this so😉

A/N: here you go, my darlings! This is the first part in a 3+ part fanfic about Hades from Descendants 3. He honestly doesn't get much attention, so I'm trying to fix that! This does contain some Descendants 3 spoilers, so read at your own risk. Please let me know what you thought of it after you read it and LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT ME TO CONTINUE IT! I'll start up the second part just in case😉 here is Part 1 of Alison's Hades X Reader, Loose Cannon...

Goddess of No Control

♡♡♡

Being the daughter of Boreas, the god of Winter, had its ups and downs.

One of those ups included your inheritance of extraordinary ice powers. Ever since you had been born, you had the ability to create the coldest of ice flurries with nothing but your bare hands. However, unlike your siblings who had inherited other abilities, you never really seemed to have gained full control of your abilities. You loved your magic more than anything, and adored anything that had to do with the cold from snowmen to ice cream. But while your brothers and sisters began to excel daily in their wind blasting and snow storm abilities, yours didn't dwindle, but instead grew more out of your control with every day. You tried your hardest to keep it under control through practicing and meditation, fearing that a lot of it stemmed from your emotions.

But none of it worked.

Your father had grown to overlook you compared to your successful siblings, as you were the middle child and frankly were pretty silent for the most part. You had always been a decently happy girl, but as time went on, you began to feel your happiness drain as it became replaced with hopelessness. Despite your best efforts, your powers were growing out of your control and you feared that it had something to do with you.

That something was wrong with you.

There were multiple occassions where you would be sitting by an open window, reading calmly when suddenly the book would freeze solid, the page stuck to your icy fingers. Or when you would be going for a walk, the trail behind you was left frozen, causing many others to slip and fall. Whole rooms would be frozen in the blink of an eye and brutal frostbite would happen to strangers who simply touched you. But it wasn't you, of course. You never wanted to hurt anyone. Once your father found out about the frostbitten people, he was furious. The two of you had a fight that night about the whole situation. He was furious that you hadn't learned how to control your powers yet and you were angry because he didn't seem to understand that you couldn't.

Through your best efforts, you didn't prevail. He forced you to pack up your things and hopped with you into a taxi to Auradon Prep, where King Beast and Queen Belle lived. There, he forced you to tell them all about your chaotic powers and the people you had hurt, despite your efforts to get better. They were very hesitant at first, but after some pushing by your father, they decided to enroll you to Auradon Prep on a transfer program from Olympus to see if they could help you gain control of your powers. You were terrified, as this would be your first time alone without your father and siblings. But wanting to get better more than anything, you agreed.

The program worked well for a while, but you found it hard to make friends. Most people called you the Ice Queen and shunned you because you were different than them, like you were someone from the Isle. Little did they know how right they were about to be...

About a month into the program, you got news that your father had passed up his entitlement as God of Winter to your brother, who had wind powers. Normally, it would make you happy because he was finally stepping down, but it made you furious and even more envious because he had promised the position of Winter to YOU. You were going to be the Goddess of Winter, not your incompetent brother! Boiling with rage, any progress you had gone through before disipated.

You tried walking it off, but once Audrey and her gang of princesses showed up to taunt you, you couldn't contain it anymore. Letting go of all of the anger and jealousy and sadness, you couldn't control your hands as they flew in front of you and an icy blue light flew from your chest and struck the princesses down onto the floor. Their lips turned blue, their skin a pasty white, and a thick layer of frost across their bodies. Not only that, but the whole hallway froze as well. They had hypothermia. Only this time, instead of freaking out, you felt free.

That was what scared you most.

Before you could do any more damage, you forced on a pair of gloves and forced yourself down to Beast and Belle, where you turned yourself in for the hypothermatic princesses and the damage in the halls. You had expected a suspension or a slap on the wrist, but what came next was cruel and unjust. It was what set the ice cold hatred inside your heart for the King and Queen and for everyone inside that fucking kingdom. Before you even knew what was happening, you had two shackles chained around your hands and a power restricting collar snapped onto your neck. Tears began to spill down your cheeks as you attempted to fight the guards dragging you towards the car. You knew where they were taking you. The other fucking dumbass students in the courtyard knew where they were taking you as they sat on their asses and watched as your screaming, thrashing body was shoved into that limo.

And now, you are here.

Standing next to the emotionless guard as he holds onto the chain linking your cuffs like you were a puppy, tear stains on your cheeks, glassy eyes, and a mat of hair on your head. One of the things they never told you about the Isle was how rank it smelled. A foul stench nearly burned your nose hairs as you felt your knees begin to shake. Hatred filled you from head to bottom, especially for the little guard who was barking into his walkie talkie. You knew better than to try and escape of course. In all your years of isolation and reading, you'd learned a long time ago that your powers don't work in the Isle. But of course they kept the bondages on. You felt the brace chafing against your neck, but refused to let it show as the guard turned to your ice cold glare.

You could've sworn you saw him shiver.

"Alright, Icy, since the King and Queen respect your father, they've decided to not just drop you off here to defend for yourself and have chosen someone for you to live with."

You chuckled to yourself, shaking your head. Of course your father would still be mentioned even though he's not God anymore.

"And just who might my lucky partner in crime be?" You snarled. The old you had been drained away as soon as they locked these cuffs on you. Everyone hated you, underestimated you, pitied you. They thought you were crazy, that you were out of control. That you were a villain. And if they wanted you to become a villain, then you were going to be badder than Maleficent herself.

"Hades, God of the Underworld. Found it suiting due to the whole Olympus thing."

You only shrugged your shoulders and cast a gaze towards the wall as the golden bridge finally deteriorated. This was it. You were trapped here.

An uncontrollable ice goddess, being treated like a villain. The envy coursing through your veins was enough to turn you green. One day they'd all pay, you vowed.

One day, they will all pay...

♡♡♡

Many years had passed since you came to the Isle, and needless to say, the second that Hades saw you, it seemed like time had frozen. You were the most gorgeous girl he had ever seen, and he had only been around Isle girls for a while so that was saying something. You only made things even better when you suddenly screamed and kicked the guard who had accompanied you in his special spot, knocking him into the misty underground below Hades place. He even took off his sunglasses to get a better look at you. You had thought living with the god of the Underworld would have been awful, but it turns out... he wasn't so bad. He helped you out of the chains you were in, and throughout your stay, you began to slowly realize that you were falling in love with him. Between the sitting sessions on the couch that gradually turned into cuddling and the constant compliments he would give you, you and the stealer of souls began to grow inseparable. Even his little assistant started to call you his girlfriend, to which he never corrected her. You even had long, late night talks with the God too, varying from anything. Your shared hatred for everyone in Auradon, his daughter Mal, your uncontrollable ice abilities, his ember. It felt like you could talk to him about anything, and you found it interesting how he seemed to be hostile towards everyone but you.

You felt like you finally had someone in your corner, and he was your other half. Of course, you were the first one to admit your feelings to him. You had been out for one of your walks when it started storming, and you suddenly realized that you had to tell him before he was gone. So, you frantically rushed back home and screeched to a halt in front of his sleeping form, the record player with Cerberus playing in the background, and blurted, "I love you."

No hesitation.

No barriers.

No walls.

Just... you. And your feelings.

Unfortunately, as soon as you managed to caught your breath, fear struck into your heart as you finally realized what you had just confessed. Yes, you had powers to defend yourself, but they didn't work now, stupid! And you just confessed your love to HADES, the Fucking God of the Underworld! What the hell was wrong with you? You had opened your mouth, prepared to take it back when he suddenly rose from the couch and slowly stalked towards you, lowering his sunglasses in such painful slow motion it made your stomach want to crawl up your esophagus and spew out your mouth. But something prompted you to stay, and your icy blue boots refused to leave their position on the boards, so you ended up staying as he stopped only mere inches away from your face.

He was a bit taller than you, so you had to strain your neck a bit to meet his eyes, and what you saw in them scared you even more than your confession. For once, you couldn't read his handsome, piercing gaze. You couldn't tell what emotion was swimming in those beautiful irises. The ones you could get lost in whenever he complimented you...

"What was that?" His voice suddenly snapped you out of your trance, and you frantically hoped you hadn't said any of that out loud.

"W-what?" You couldn't help but stutter.

"Did you say what I think you said?"

"Well, it depends what you think I said," you decided to try to tease your way out of it, knowing he loved to be a jokster. Only this time it seemed like he wasn't having it... weird...

"Come on, Y/n, seriously. Did you say what I think you said or not?"

"You're going to have to be a bit more specific than that, Had."

"You're as infuriating as you are beautiful," a blush coated your cheeks. "Did you say... that... thing that you said?"

Aww, you thought as you tried to surpress your grin. He was afraid to say it.

"The thing that I said? What is this thing that I said that you think that I said?"

"Y/n! For once, this is serious!"

He shook his head at you and stared at you with a look you had never seen on his face before. Desperation. Your heart began to pulse and you slowly reached out out of pure instinct to rest your gloved hand on his arm. He looked at it momentarily, suddenly noticing the intimacy in the action and reverted back to meeting your gaze.

"Hades," you breathed. No avoiding the truth. "I love you."

He stared at you, a look of unsureness coating his face. You were about to step away when a grin suddenly spread onto his face and he let out a deep chuckle, causing you to jump slightly.

"It's about damn time," he swiftly wrapped his arm around your waist and pulled you to him, cupping your cheek with his other gloved one. He never seemed to care about how cold your skin was. And before you knew it, his warm lips were against yours. Fireworks had exploded in your mind as you wrapped your arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. And let's just say that that was just the start of it.

After your confession, life for the two of you was something that fairy tale characters could never live up to. The love you two shared was something like true love, but on sterioids, you know, because of the whole god and goddess thing. When he finally did say those three words back, it was a while later. You had just come back home from a trip to the market, and the fresh snow was still in your hair and your eyelashes. Seeing you looking like you had just walked out of a christmas movie made Hades think about what you might look like on your wedding day... and Gods, you were beautiful. The conversation went a bit like this:

"Had, I'm home!"

"..."

"Hades? Are you oka-"

"I love you too."

You two were even more inseparable than you were before. Everyone on the Isle knew about it, and they knew to stay away from you. Not just for you being Hades girl, but also for your rumored chaotic ice powers and your burning envy and hatred for those in Auradon. You were a loose cannon, they liked to say. You took it as a compliment.

Things were perfect for you. You were finally happy with the love of your life, and had plans to stay with him for the rest of your life, maybe even have kids and sing rock-enhanced duets. The magic didn't matter. Auradon didn't matter. It was just the two of you.

At least until the VKs came along.

TO BE CONTINUED...

♡ a.a.

[talesofsonicasura]

Erase The Future

One of the things I work hard to improve is writing characters established from many different series or genre. Mainly, I focus on characters who are quite difficult to write for new writers due to lack of information about them or the type of personality they have.

This little fic of mine involves one such character, Urizen from Devil May Cry. Warning: Contains minor spoilers!

Summary: Demon King Urizen has crushed every challenger to his hellish throne with pure unmatched power. To him, nothing could stop him from claiming his power and title as the Ruler of All Hell. Until a rift of time and space drops him a little gift... And turns world into a crash course dummy.

Two brothers with hair of snow and eyes of ice. Both separated by tragedy and doomed to face it once more. Cursed to spill their own blood continuous to the floor. When the tree of blood grows is when it begins. The tree's downfall is where their lives would end. Their fate can be challenged to change if intervened. An outside source to show both what they were too blind to see.

This single savior was born of misfortune and death at their first breath. Abandoned for being born inable to see and cast out in the worst of nature's disasters...A dangerous blizzard in the coldest tundra. Through kindness of another let the soul grow strong. A titan of champions is what they become. Though failure to this task was prominent promising a fate far worse than death.

Yet… To the heir of a frozen kingdom, Dyna Crown Fleur, the results were worth a cursed fate. For kindness and mercy, was long overdue for both tragic souls.

Qlipthoth, a demon tree that grows in the Underworld. It feeds on the blood of human life to blossom a single fruit that when eaten, crowns a demon the Ruler of Hell with boundless power. This tree currently rose at the center of Red Grave City and grown vastly from the millions of lives it slaughtered. Deep within the tree and sat on a makeshift throne, was a colossal devil covered in brambles and thorns named Urizen.

Power, absolute power is what this very behemoth sought. Yet, he was about to learn power came in many forms and so did Karma. The vast grove and network of blood filled vines began to shake within the Qlipthoth's center. Amongst the blood pool, the devil covered in deathly gray plant life light flashed immensely confused amongst the multiple hollows on his body. "What is this? This...power I am sensing." A gravelly voice from the devil as he lifted his hand up.

To him, this strange energy was...pure. Unlike the taint familiar with demonic power of all kinds, what he was sensing felt...calming. Not that of angels but of harmony, silence and peace. It was enticing to his senses that the devil couldn't help the urge to tear off the thorns covering his true form just to feel on his own hide. He needed to see what it was.

With a wave of his hand, the pool of blood at his feet began to change forming a mirror reflection of a different part of the Qlipthoth. Bright blue shined when a single line appeared above one of the roots before forming a large emerald tear. A rift in time and space was what the massive devil realized. Yet, what stepped out of it before it closed had him bewildered. It was a human woman.

She stood around 6'2 with forest green hair, skin a soft light peach and eyes a pure clear and crystal aquamarine. The woman wore a thick dark velvet winter dress decorated with elegant gold vine like embroidery and the emblem of a crown wearing animal, a golden wreath around her neck with a small rainbow jewel held at the center and the biggest oddity was the lack of footwear.

While Urizen didn't care for those lower than him, he could see the vast beauty of the human female. What really grew his interest was her walking. With every graceful step she took, plant life from grass to even flowers grew on the Qlipthoth floor. He could feel the blood from those sections fading as if the plants were absorbing and purifying it. They were becoming normal human plant life by the pure energy that was coming from her.

"Very interesting. What are you to purify even the Qlipthoth with mere touch and bewildered me so? Bring her to me." Urizen spoke as vast insect like chittering echoed through the blood tree. The woman only known to herself in this world as Dyna traversed the vast expanse of the blood channeling growths around her. Despite the gruesome and hellish landscape around, she was not afraid.

"A tree...no a grove that feeds on the life essence of others. I can feel the very souls trapped in these brambles cry out in pain. Wallow in sorrow no more with every step I take. Let your souls finally slumber as new life blossoms forth." Her voice soft and sweet like pure honey as more of her vibrant plant life covered the Qlipthoth floor with each step she took.

Her blue eyes caught the vast amount of moving gray around her. Inhuman beasts that held the form of an ant crossed with both spider and human easily in her sight no matter how fast they scurrying or well they hide. Beady red eyes, thorax covered in blood red jewels, jagged pincer like maws and thin scythe like claws. "I know you are there. My eyes are much sharper than others. It'll be better if you show yourself." Dyna spoke stopping as the large insect creature landed in front of from above.

It was a bit larger than her in height and grotesque but she still remain unbothered by her unnatural guest. "You are a worker just like a colony of Combee. Your species must provide substance to this tree. Honestly, it's a poor job considering the many remnants of the souls trapped in your home's woodwork and state of your hierarchy. Judging from you not attacking me, you're here to lead me to whoever rules over this current colony." Dyna questioned as the insect nodded its head.

"Lead the way then please." She said as the creature or Red Empusa guided her to Urizen's throne. The very devil himself was watching her as the insect demon lead her through the tree. He was impressed by what he had seen so far. She easily deduced the Empusa's nature and reason, the Qlipthoth's basic way of growth and remained undeterred by the hell around her. He cleared the image as Dyna walked into the room.

The Empusa immediately scurried off afterwards not wanting to stay anywhere near the tree demon's range. The woman looked up at him as Urizen could see her form far better than from his blood mirror. Those eyes of hers were beautiful up close. Pure uncut aquamarine that even diamonds couldn't hold a candle to the clear hue. Faint accents of gold by the corner of her eyes merely enhanced the elegance. He'll get a better look after seizing her for himself.

"You must be the one who planted the seed for this massive vampiric tree. Quite cheeky to have it bloom in the middle of a human settlement. Urizen, or should I say the Devil of Vergil Sparda?" Dyna questioned as those words had Urizen get onto his feet. The tendrils of his body snapping a bit from the Qlipthoth as blood spilled to the floor while the devil stood at his full height glaring down at her.

"I never gave you my name or my origin. Who are you human?" Urizen hissed in annoyance as if the name burned. Ignoring his hissing, Dyna took out a strange ball from her dress sleeve. It was half red and half white with a button outlined by black stripe. She tossed the sphere in her hand repeatedly as if she was juggling it. She didn't even look away from him still performing the act. "My name is Dyna Crown Fleur. For why I am here… I here to stop this devastating tree from growing any further. Tragedy must come to an end and if it means defeating you…"

Dyna grabbed the sphere out of the air before facing it as Urizen with a glare on her face. "Then I won't hold back." She declared voice firm and strong. The devil chuckled before sitting on his throne easily amused. He produced a blood red crystal in hand before reconnecting his tendrils to the devilish tree. "Very amusing. Dyna Crown Fleur, show me just how you will defeat me." Urizen mocked. The little sphere in her hand was a mere toy to him.

"Your aura is nothing but a phantom cloaked by putrid life of the thorns protecting your body. That blood red crystal merely an extension of dauntless darkness. To throw life and mind at you now will get me nowhere so instead. I'll have my confidant shatter your barrier first!" Her cryptic words had him baffled but...he realized that little ball was NOT a mere plaything.

"Pyros, prepare for battle!" She tossed the ball into the air as a flash of light shot forth. From the light materialized a creature Urizen never seen before. This creature was a bipedal white tiger covered in crimson striped fur, its chest was gray with a white cross like pattern, large tufts of crimson fur around the muzzle, shoulders, legs, a tail with a ring of spikes around it, yellow and verdant green eyes, large fangs and claws and a belt of pure flames around their waist.

"Incineroar!!!!" The beast howled unleashing a pure shockwave of power from its pure battlecry alone. To Dyna, this creature was her Incineroar Pyros, a Pokemon she grew up with from her homeland to survive. "What kind of creature is this you summoned to dare challenge me!?" Urizen growled clearly thrown off by Pyros' special ability: Intimidate. Intimidate weakened the attack power of every opponent Pyros faced so the fact Urizen felt threatened had proven the ability had work.

"Incineroar, the Heel Pokemon. His species will refuse the orders of those they don't trust with pure nonchalance. However once presented a decent challenge, they are relentless. Pyros, give him a mere taste of your nature with Fire Blast."Dyna ordered. The Heel Pokemon opened his mouth full of flames before hurling a massive star like cross of it at the demon king. A blood red barrier immediately materialized around Urizen but even the demon had to shield himself from the intense flames as it crashed into the shield.

Blueish green lights brighten greatly noticing the large spider web cracking across the surface of the stone and his barrier. "Darkest Lariat." Pyros burst from the flames like a spinning bullet to Urizen's view and hit the barrier with a powerful lariat. The barrier immediately shattered from the brute force of Pyros' attack. Even the crystal supplying the barrier exploded from the immense power the Incineroar unleashed!

'What kind of power is this?!' The devil couldn't help but think. This Incineroar, manifested enough power to overload his barrier but another strike to destroy his magic crystal at the same time. His half breed brother couldn't even crack it unlike this burning beast! Then came insult to injury.

"Fury Swipes." Pyros' claws glowed white as the talons grew into long blades. The Incineroar didn't hesitate to repeatedly tear his claws through Urizen's armored hide and scratching up the devil's exposed mouth like an angry cat. The tree demon roared in pain swatting at Pyros but the Fire/Dark type easily dodged returning back into battle position in front of Dyna with a wild grin on his face. The demon king immediately sat up not caring about snapping off his thorn like tentacles from the tree itself again.

The cat scratches over his face and tears through his hide revealing multiple glaring orange eyes upon her form. He was absolutely furious. This human woman was mocking him in his own throne room. His fury ignited upon the mischievous grin that grew on Dyna's face. It exploded when the woman had the audacity to SING an insult to him.

"I am the tallest of mountains. I am the roughest of waves. I'm the toughest of terrors. I am the darkest of days. I'm the last one that's standing. Don't try to stand in my way. Cause I've been up against better. Just take a look at my face. Causing if you're messing with me, I am a dangerous weapon. I am the sharpest of blades. I'll cut down in a second." Her sweet voice destroying his precious silence with pure sass.

"I see the part that you tried to hide. That you are merely a scared babe behind a monster of a lie. The fact that you aren't as strong as you think on the inside. To remove half of yourself was your folly. Absolute power you say? No, that's the humiliation that made me merry and jolly!" Dyna taunted as Urizen howled in absolute rage.

Multiple tendrils sprout from the Qlipthoth around her slithering like angry snakes around the livid demon. "You've managed to infuriate me more than that damn treacherous spawn I dare call brother. A queen must know to never disrespect their king! I'll tear your summon in half before I claim my first generation with your bloodline, my dear Hell Bride and soon to be Queen of Hell." Urizen declared. He flinched when both trainer and Pokemon merely chuckled.

"Hold back Pyros. I'll take it from here." Dyna spoke as the Incineroar stepped back and she took a step forward with eyes closed. He flinched once more as the woman opened her eyes. "Cause I was born in this pain. It only hurts if you let it." They were a pure glowing cyan as if burning with pure power yet...he thought he saw sadness for a moment.

"So if you think you can take me then you should go and forget it." He lashed out a few of the roots towards her at lightning speed with a snap of his fingers. Cyan light enveloped the attack tendrils before she waved her hand away. Those glowing roots we're slammed into the Qlipthoth wall hard enough for each to snap in half. "After all this time your back for more. I won't stop until THEY know my name. So I'll take what's mine and start this war. I'm coming at you like a tidal wave."

He didn't hesitate sending more roots at her. Yet she continued to cut them down with no effort. She was doing the same thing he did to his half breed brother and every single insect that dared to challenge him. She made him feel helpless.

"When everything you know has come and gone. You are at your lowest and I am rising higher. Only scars remain of who I was. What I find in the ashes, you lose in the fire. When there's no one left to carry on. This is a illusion, open up your eyes and… The pain persists I can't resist. But that's what it takes to be infinite."

That same cyan light snaring him and every Qlipthoth root he was controlling at the moment. "Psychic!" They were immediately slammed into the walls of the throne room with enough brutal force that his tendrils exploded into blood upon impact and Urizen shattered his throne underneath his own body.

The Devil picked himself up and glared heavily with glints of fear now exposed. More of his armored hide had shattered now revealing half of his beastish azure face with multiple piercing eyes, monstrous fangs and short crown of jagged horns. Green eyes going from fear to pure surprise at the soft smile she now held. A smile that held no malice.

"Now I can see some of your beautiful face from that ugly mask you wear. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say. That beauty for me is the person under the shell of armor they use to hide their own weakness. Their true self in many terms." Dyna spoke softly for it was enough for the Devil to blink.

She had immediately disappeared once he did only to reappear right in his face hovering softly in the air. That same cyan light bathing her body as she floated daintly before him. 'Is she part fae? No...not even faes hold such elegance, grace and so much raw power. No, it must be a goddess that stands before me.' Urizen thought as he unconsciously reach his hand out to her.

"So look around you and tell me what you really SEE. You live a lie and that's the difference between you and me. I have the power. Let me show you what it's it all about. It's only me and you- Who is gonna save you now?"

Dyna laid a hand on his crown of horns and everything around him just...stopped. Then came flashes of memories... and the unknown pain to follow. Her eyes reflected those scenes from the human half, half breed brother, weak women that fueled his weapons and the human whelp whose limb was missing but also those he wasn't familiar with. Then these odd sensations slammed into him from every single one. These odd things hurt him somehow with every death or wound that he caused but none scathe his body.

It stopped when a gentle touch pressed his forehead and eyes widened upon the sight. Dyna Fleur Crown had laid a kiss on him. His mind went blank. This woman made no sense. She threatened him, had her beast shatter his barrier and scar him, she brought him down to his knees, searched his memories and forced new ones with this strange pain for each one. Now, she had the audacity to kiss him.

He blinked in response only to see her on the back of her fiery beast Pyros. A soft smile on her face and the same for the Incineroar. "V, Dante, Nero, Trish and Lady. Your human half and the ones you have harmed the most. Urizen, Devil of Vergil Sparda, I will give you a single warning. If you feast on the fruit of this hellish tree, then it will be me you shall face instead of your brother. And unlike him, it won't be a fight. It will be your true downfall. Reflect on the past once more." Was all she said before Pyros burst out of the throne room.

The Incineroar soaring across the tendrils with fire exploding from every pounce and step. She was gone just like that as Urizen could only stand in silence. The woman didn't make a worthless threat. She held the power to back up her declaration not just her beast alone. "Dyna Crown Fleur... could have ended me with a flick of her wrist. Forced these strange irritating sensations onto me even now… Yet spares my life…" Urizen spoke using his tendrils to repair his broken throne in seconds.

Multiple exposed eyes staring at the scars covering his form's broken armor from his throne's blood pool. "Summoner from another plane… Wielding of a beast of intense flame… Eyes that mirror my past… Power far more pure than an archangel… And beauty matched with cryptic knowledge…" He sat on his repaired throne how in thought. "Who are you… Dyna Crown Fleur?"

And that's it! Yes, I crossed this little story with Pokemon to show just how different Dyna and Urizen are. Urizen who only relies on his own power and himself versus Dyna who not only is powerful on her own but works with her Pokemon to overcome any challenge.

For Urizen, the goal of this fic is for him to realize the same that happened to dear old Sparda. To find his own reason to fight for the sake of others, his own justice.

Dyna's origins is related to a Pokemon that will relate and revolve around the Part 2 DLC for Sword and Shield, Calyrex the Crown Pokemon.

Dyna- A term or prefix often use to mean power. Ex: Dynamo, Dynamic, Dynamite

Fleur which is French for Flower.

Dyna Crown Fleur, the Crowned Flower of Strength.

Song used: Infinite from Sonic Forces

[cbilluminati]

Just in time for the movie release, Atomic Blonde makes a comic comeback in a big way. Here’s all the Oni Press Solicits for July 2017.

RICK AND MORTY: POCKET LIKE YOU STOLE IT #1

Retail cover illustrated by Marc Ellerby with Katy Farina

Alternate cover illustrated by Carolyn Main

(W) Tini Howard

(A) Marc Ellerby

(C) Katy Farina

(CA) Marc Ellerby with Katy Farina (retail cover), Carolyn Main (alternate cover)

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/12/17

IN STORES: 7/5/17

AGE RATING: Teen

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Rick and Morty: Pocket Like You Stole It is a new comic book miniseries based on the popular [adult swim] television series and inspired by the Pocket Mortys mobile game! In this five-issue series, Morty is on a quest to free himself (and all the other Mortys) from the clutches of Ricks, who collect Mortys and force them to battle one another for schmeckles and glory. Along the way, he’ll discover the grisly history of Morty battling, the dastardly lengths that Ricks are willing to stoop to in order to win, and perhaps… the strength in himself that’s needed to free the Mortys once and for all?

#gallery-0-10 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-10 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-10 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-10 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

KILL THEM ALL

(W/A/CA) Kyle Starks

(C/CA) Luigi Anderson

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 9/4/17

IN STORES: 9/27/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Humor, Adventure

PRICE: $19.99

PAGE COUNT: 184

The new gonzo graphic novel love letter to 90s action movies by Eisner-nominated cartoonist Kyle Starks (Sexcastle, Rick and Morty).

A betrayed murderess wants revenge. A hard-drinking former cop wants his job back. For either to get what they want, they’re going to have to fight their way through fifteen flights of criminals, assassins, drug lords, murderers, yup, even accountants, and… KILL. THEM. ALL.

KAIJUMAX SEASON 3 #1

(W/A/C/CA) Zander Cannon

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/19/17

IN STORES: 7/12/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

New season! New jumping-on point! Ah, Kaijumax Prison… that cesspool of corruption in the South Pacific! Tensions among the city-destroying convicts have eased after a month-long lockdown and Electrogor’s capture, and now the kaiju gangs have begun vying for power again, all-out-attacking their rivals, trading addictive smog and dioxin, and abusing weaker inmates. The Creature from Devil’s Creek, after a long time as the low mon in the Cryptid hierarchy, stumbles upon some information that makes him think it doesn’t have to be like this. Also: Mind-controlled murders! Pre-smartphone navigation fails! And… some VERY old timey religion?

THE DAMNED #3

(W) Cullen Bunn

(A/CA) Brian Hurtt

(C/CA) Bill Crabtree

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/19/17

IN STORES: 7/12/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Crime, Fantasy

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Sketchy gambler Pauly Bones has slithered into Eddie’s life with an offer—together they can turn the tables on the demon crime families and finally get what they deserve. Eddie and Pauly can’t trust each other, though, and it’s only a matter of time before one double crosses the other. But with a new hired killer in town, they might both be dead before they can make their treacherous plays.

HEARTTHROB SEASON TWO #2

(W) Christopher Sebela

(A/CA) Robert Wilson IV

(C/CA) Nick Filardi

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/12/17

IN STORES: 7/5/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Crime

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Absence makes the heart grow fonder and after spending the last several months avoiding her criminal past to try and build a normal life, Callie is fonder than ever. Forced to set her normal existence aside and break her anarchist pals out of a Canadian jail, Callie finds herself head over heels for her old life. When this one-time dalliance threatens to turn into a full-blown crime spree, Callie turns to the only person who will understand: Mercer.

LETTER 44 #35

(W) Charles Soule

(A/CA) Alberto Jiménez Alburquerque

(C) Dan Jackson

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/26/17

IN STORES: 7/19/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

THE END IS HERE. The final installment that will bring the award-winning series to a close.

KIM REAPER #4

(W/A/C/CA) Sarah Graley

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/19/17

IN STORES: 7/12/17

AGE RATING: Teen

GENRE: Humor, Adventure

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Kim is suspended from her job as a Grim Reaper and is working in a bakery with Becka—a welcomed change of scenery, until a zombie rolls up to the counter. Animated corpses are the last straw, gosh darnit, so the pair decide to take matters into their own hands and venture down into the Underworld. And if they end up kicking some ghoulish booty on the way, that’s fine with them!

RICK AND MORTY #28

Retail cover illustrated by

CJ Cannon with Katy Farina

Alternate cover illustrated by

Jenn St-Onge

(W/A) Kyle Starks

(A) Andy Hirsch

(A/C) Marc Ellerby

(C) Katy Farina

(CA) CJ Cannon with Katy Farina (retail cover), Jenn St-Onge (alternate cover)

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 7/3/17

IN STORES: 7/26/17

AGE RATING: Teen

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

OH MY GOD IT’S INTERDIMENSIONAL CABLE TIME! Rick and Morty are wanted fugitives in an alien dimension, so until the heat dies down, there’s not much to do but watch interdimensional cable! Can you even believe it? A special one-shot issue drawn by writer Kyle Starks (with a special cameo by Andy Hirsch)! Meanwhile, Jerry learns a painful lesson in film history in this issue’s back-up comic drawn by Marc Ellerby!

#gallery-0-11 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-11 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-11 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-11 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

INVADER ZIM #22

Retail cover illustrated by Warren Wucinich with Fred C. Stresing

Alternate cover illustrated by

Jon Vermilyea

(W) Eric Trueheart

(A) Warren Wucinich

(C) Fred C. Stresing

(CA) Warren Wucinich (retail cover), Jon Vermilyea (alternate cover)

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 7/3/17

IN STORES: 7/26/17

AGE RATING: All Ages

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

WELCOME TO ZIM’S GREATEST PLAN YET! Earth will soon be his! (Maybe!) Unfortunately, there’s something wrong with GIR—ASIDE from the usual list of things. For one, he’s intentionally trying to kill ZIM. And for two, he’s doing it at the worst possible times. Is ZIM’s greatest plan destined for failure (like it usually is)? Part one of a four-part story!

#gallery-0-12 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-12 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-12 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-12 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

REDLINE #5

(W) Neal Holman

(A/CA) Clayton McCormack

(C) Kelly Fitzpatrick

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/12/17

IN STORES: 7/5/17

AGE RATING: Mature

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Everybody’s dead and everything basically sucks, so it’s a good time for Superintendent Coyle to start actually getting some leads into just whatever the hell is going on on Mars. Plus a robot armor guy fights a limousine. Plus some answers to questions you may have been wondering about. Plus shenanigans. HOOORAY!

INVADER ZIM, VOLUME 4

(W) Jhonen Vasquez, Eric Trueheart, Danielle Koenig, Aaron Alexovich

(A) Warren Wucinich, Aaron Alexovich

(C) Fred C. Stresing, Cassie Kelly

(CA) Warren Wucnich

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 7/10/17

IN STORES: 8/2/17

AGE RATING: All Ages

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $19.99

PAGE COUNT: 128

ZIM has plans to take over planet Earth. Schemes! Designs! Machinations! Uh… other words that mean “plans”! And in the fourth volume of the critically acclaimed comic series, these “plans” are plentiful, horrifying, and only half as terrible as usual!

From taking over a local restaurant to proving to Dib that he’s the master of fear, will rule the world, one way or another! Or not at all. Or only on Tuesdays? COLLECTS INVADER ZIM ISSUES 16-20!

JEFF STEINBERG: CHAMPION OF EARTH

(W) Joshua Hale Fialkov

(W/A/CA) Tony Fleecs

(C/CA) Luigi Anderson

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 7/28/17

IN STORES: 9/20/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $19.99

PAGE COUNT: 176

Have you ever wondered what could have been if Kevin Smith directed Men in Black? Us either because that’s kind of a dumb thing to wonder. Besides, why obsess about “What ifs?” when you could be reading the defining sci-fi-rom-com-dram-actioner of our time! From the writer of The Bunker and the artist of My Little Pony—wait really? Okay, I guess we’ll go with it—comes an alien invasion the likes of which have never before been seen by human eyes.

The space invaders are real. They’re here. They’re mean. And they’re standing in judgement over the citizens of Earth. The human race’s final exam. They’ve chosen a single champion to test and, unfortunately for us, it’s none other than Jeff Steinberg. Romantically challenged idiot, video store clerk, constipated, confused, distractible. In other words, the planet is totally doomed.

MERMIN, BOOK THREE: DEEP DIVE (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

(W/A/C/CA) Joey Weiser

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 8/21/17

IN STORES: 9/13/17

AGE RATING: All Ages

GENRE: Adventure, Humor

PRICE: $12.99

PAGE COUNT: 152

The third book in Joey Weiser’s Eisner Award-nominated series is now in PAPERBACK! No one knows much about Mer, the underwater kingdom where Mermin the merman was born, but due to a rising conflict with the people of Atlantis, Mermin needs to get back home immediately. Which means his human friends get to accompany him and see all the aquatic wonders of Mer.

But once again, Mermin is tight-lipped about his past—even when it’s swimming right in front of him. And there are enemies lurking in the seedier depths of Mer, who’ve got their sights set not only on Mermin, but on Pete and his friends!

ATOMIC BLONDE: THE COLDEST CITY (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

(W) Antony Johnston

(A) Sam Hart

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 4/17/17

IN STORES: 5/10/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Crime

PRICE: $14.99

PAGE COUNT: 176

NOVEMBER 1989. MI6 spy Lorraine Broughton was sent to Berlin to investigate the death of another agent, and the disappearance of a list revealing every spy working there. She found a powder keg of mistrust, assassinations and bad defections that ended with the murder of MI6’s top officer, as the Berlin Wall was torn down. Now Lorraine has returned from the Cold War’s coldest city, to tell her story. And nothing is what it seems.

THE COLDEST WINTER: ATOMIC BLONDE (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

(W) Antony Johnston

(A) Steven Perkins

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 4/17/17 ​

IN STORES: 5/10/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Crime

PRICE: $14.99

PAGE COUNT: 184

EIGHT YEARS BEFORE “ATOMIC BLONDE” …BERLIN FROZE. After a string of botched assignments for MI6 in Berlin, David Perceval is being sent home. Even his final mission before leaving—the defection of a Soviet scientist—goes badly wrong, as the coldest winter for 30 years descends on Europe.

With transport out of Berlin impossible, and the KGB searching everywhere for their lost scientist, Perceval must improvise a deadly game of cat and mouse through the frozen city to keep the Russians at bay, and deliver his own unique brand of revenge!

FAUNS & FAIRIES: THE ADULT FANTASY COLORING BOOK

(W/A/CA) Trungles

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 8/28/17

IN STORES: 9/20/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Erotica, Fantasy

PRICE: $11.99

PAGE COUNT: 88

Fauns & Fairies: The Adult Fantasy Coloring Book is an erotic coloring book for adults, offering a steamy interpretation of traditional fantasy characters. From succubi to knights to pixies, the beautiful art nouveau-inspired illustrations show classic characters in sensuous poses sure to please. The delicate and detailed artwork is ideal for adult coloring book enthusiasts!

via Oni Press

Atomic Blonde is Back in the Oni Press Solicits for July 2017

Just in time for the movie release, Atomic Blonde makes a comic comeback in a big way.

Atomic Blonde is Back in the Oni Press Solicits for July 2017 Just in time for the movie release, Atomic Blonde makes a comic comeback in a big way.

[sinpersonified-blog]

BACKGROUND:

Aiden had always wondered why his eyes had two different colors—his left eye being red, and his right eye being hazel brown. It was something that had always puzzled him ever since he was a kid. Why he had to hide his red eye under an eye patch, he didn’t know. He had asked his parents, the King and Queen of the Alstreim Kingdom, about it one night and they gave him a very simple answer: that he was a special one.

Aiden wanted to know more, but his parents only shook their heads and left him to his thoughts.

He was always told to never take off his eye patch, wherever he was. However one day while he was at the forest with one of his playmates, they got into a fight and the other kid tried to take his eye patch off and succeeded.

Aiden didn’t know how it happened. All he knew was that he was mad at his playmate for what he did, and suddenly, the other kid was engulfed in blue flames, burning him alive. The kid fell on the ground, screaming at the prince for help but the latter was too horrified at what he was seeing. The kid ran away but before he could go far, he was soon turned to ashes. Not a trace of him was left. Just a pile of ashes that was then blown away by the wind.

The young prince didn’t tell anyone about what happened, even when the authorities asked him about the missing kid. He just kept silent.

Although there are some who were still suspicious about his involvement in the incident, everything went well afterwards, until one day at his coming-of-age ceremony, an unexpected visitor came for him in the kingdom. It was the King of Gehenna, or Hell himself, claiming that he had come to take the blood-eyed prince to the underworld.

Dumbfounded and very confused, Aiden asked his parents what it means. The King and Queen couldn’t answer him, and it was Satan who explained his true identity: that he was a demon, the Prince of Gehenna and his only heir. That his mother had died right after he was born. That he was unable to take care of him because he was devastated at the loss of his wife, so he had sent him to the humans to be taken care of and reared and finally when he comes of age, he will then be taken back to the underworld.

Aiden tried to protest saying that it was all lies, but Satan said it was true, and his red eye and ability to use blue fire are the proofs. The prince turned again to his “parents” for help, but they only shook their heads and told him to go. He asked them how could they do that to their son, and the King said coldly: “You are not our son, and will never be. We didn’t love you as we did to our other children. It was all just a play.”

Aiden was so sad and heartbroken. He knew he had no other choice, so with a heavy heart he left the kingdom that he once called his home, and went with his true father to the underworld.

——

His life in Hell didn’t turn out to be as bad as he thought, apparently. He was given everything he asked for. His father also taught him on how to control his power, which was said to be triggered by extreme emotions.

At one point in his life, he was bethroted to a prince named Cecil, from the Lunaria Kingdom. He was such a rare beauty, possibly the most beautiful human that Aiden had ever encountered with. The said prince had raven-black hair and the coldest blue eyes that seemed to pierce right through the demon’s soul. He was captivated; so much that he immediately decided to make him his. They were married shortly after Cecil’s visit.

But their union didn’t last long. During the four years that they have spent together, Aiden was unable to control his emotions. He got easily jealous all the time, grew increasingly possessive of his bethroted. He was always in fits of anger that prompted him to hurt the other male.

It was already too late when he had come to realize the pain that he had incurred. His husband ran away from their home, more specifically from him. It left him so heartbroken, that he spent so much of his days and nights crying in their now empty bedroom. Eventually, he started a search for him, but the demon’s pursuit was all a failure.

Over time he had learned to numb the pain he had felt in his chest, but then after more than a hundred years of staying in his home, the blood-eyed prince grew bored and decided to go back to live along with the humans, as well as to also pursue his dream of attending a university and making a living of his own, maybe even start another search for his missing husband. So he told his father about it who reluctantly agreed.

He ends up settling in the heart of a bustling city, went to the university and graduated with a degree in education. Though he had already passed and got his license to be a teacher, he never pushed through his practice, instead opting to offer private tutorial lessons about anything to people who are in need of them.

He currently lives in a manor of his own, in an estate surrounded by trees and flowers, tended by a pair of demon servants named Riff and Ralf, and takes care of a gray cat named Olive.

[outright-geekery]

Just in time for the movie release, Atomic Blonde makes a comic comeback in a big way. Here’s all the Oni Press Solicits for July 2017.

RICK AND MORTY: POCKET LIKE YOU STOLE IT #1

Retail cover illustrated by Marc Ellerby with Katy Farina

Alternate cover illustrated by Carolyn Main

(W) Tini Howard

(A) Marc Ellerby

(C) Katy Farina

(CA) Marc Ellerby with Katy Farina (retail cover), Carolyn Main (alternate cover)

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/12/17

IN STORES: 7/5/17

AGE RATING: Teen

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Rick and Morty: Pocket Like You Stole It is a new comic book miniseries based on the popular [adult swim] television series and inspired by the Pocket Mortys mobile game! In this five-issue series, Morty is on a quest to free himself (and all the other Mortys) from the clutches of Ricks, who collect Mortys and force them to battle one another for schmeckles and glory. Along the way, he’ll discover the grisly history of Morty battling, the dastardly lengths that Ricks are willing to stoop to in order to win, and perhaps… the strength in himself that’s needed to free the Mortys once and for all?

#gallery-0-10 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-10 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-10 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-10 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

KILL THEM ALL

(W/A/CA) Kyle Starks

(C/CA) Luigi Anderson

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 9/4/17

IN STORES: 9/27/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Humor, Adventure

PRICE: $19.99

PAGE COUNT: 184

The new gonzo graphic novel love letter to 90s action movies by Eisner-nominated cartoonist Kyle Starks (Sexcastle, Rick and Morty).

A betrayed murderess wants revenge. A hard-drinking former cop wants his job back. For either to get what they want, they’re going to have to fight their way through fifteen flights of criminals, assassins, drug lords, murderers, yup, even accountants, and… KILL. THEM. ALL.

KAIJUMAX SEASON 3 #1

(W/A/C/CA) Zander Cannon

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/19/17

IN STORES: 7/12/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

New season! New jumping-on point! Ah, Kaijumax Prison… that cesspool of corruption in the South Pacific! Tensions among the city-destroying convicts have eased after a month-long lockdown and Electrogor’s capture, and now the kaiju gangs have begun vying for power again, all-out-attacking their rivals, trading addictive smog and dioxin, and abusing weaker inmates. The Creature from Devil’s Creek, after a long time as the low mon in the Cryptid hierarchy, stumbles upon some information that makes him think it doesn’t have to be like this. Also: Mind-controlled murders! Pre-smartphone navigation fails! And… some VERY old timey religion?

THE DAMNED #3

(W) Cullen Bunn

(A/CA) Brian Hurtt

(C/CA) Bill Crabtree

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/19/17

IN STORES: 7/12/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Crime, Fantasy

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Sketchy gambler Pauly Bones has slithered into Eddie’s life with an offer—together they can turn the tables on the demon crime families and finally get what they deserve. Eddie and Pauly can’t trust each other, though, and it’s only a matter of time before one double crosses the other. But with a new hired killer in town, they might both be dead before they can make their treacherous plays.

HEARTTHROB SEASON TWO #2

(W) Christopher Sebela

(A/CA) Robert Wilson IV

(C/CA) Nick Filardi

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/12/17

IN STORES: 7/5/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Crime

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Absence makes the heart grow fonder and after spending the last several months avoiding her criminal past to try and build a normal life, Callie is fonder than ever. Forced to set her normal existence aside and break her anarchist pals out of a Canadian jail, Callie finds herself head over heels for her old life. When this one-time dalliance threatens to turn into a full-blown crime spree, Callie turns to the only person who will understand: Mercer.

LETTER 44 #35

(W) Charles Soule

(A/CA) Alberto Jiménez Alburquerque

(C) Dan Jackson

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/26/17

IN STORES: 7/19/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

THE END IS HERE. The final installment that will bring the award-winning series to a close.

KIM REAPER #4

(W/A/C/CA) Sarah Graley

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/19/17

IN STORES: 7/12/17

AGE RATING: Teen

GENRE: Humor, Adventure

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Kim is suspended from her job as a Grim Reaper and is working in a bakery with Becka—a welcomed change of scenery, until a zombie rolls up to the counter. Animated corpses are the last straw, gosh darnit, so the pair decide to take matters into their own hands and venture down into the Underworld. And if they end up kicking some ghoulish booty on the way, that’s fine with them!

RICK AND MORTY #28

Retail cover illustrated by

CJ Cannon with Katy Farina

Alternate cover illustrated by

Jenn St-Onge

(W/A) Kyle Starks

(A) Andy Hirsch

(A/C) Marc Ellerby

(C) Katy Farina

(CA) CJ Cannon with Katy Farina (retail cover), Jenn St-Onge (alternate cover)

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 7/3/17

IN STORES: 7/26/17

AGE RATING: Teen

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

OH MY GOD IT’S INTERDIMENSIONAL CABLE TIME! Rick and Morty are wanted fugitives in an alien dimension, so until the heat dies down, there’s not much to do but watch interdimensional cable! Can you even believe it? A special one-shot issue drawn by writer Kyle Starks (with a special cameo by Andy Hirsch)! Meanwhile, Jerry learns a painful lesson in film history in this issue’s back-up comic drawn by Marc Ellerby!

#gallery-0-11 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-11 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-11 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-11 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

INVADER ZIM #22

Retail cover illustrated by Warren Wucinich with Fred C. Stresing

Alternate cover illustrated by

Jon Vermilyea

(W) Eric Trueheart

(A) Warren Wucinich

(C) Fred C. Stresing

(CA) Warren Wucinich (retail cover), Jon Vermilyea (alternate cover)

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 7/3/17

IN STORES: 7/26/17

AGE RATING: All Ages

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

WELCOME TO ZIM’S GREATEST PLAN YET! Earth will soon be his! (Maybe!) Unfortunately, there’s something wrong with GIR—ASIDE from the usual list of things. For one, he’s intentionally trying to kill ZIM. And for two, he’s doing it at the worst possible times. Is ZIM’s greatest plan destined for failure (like it usually is)? Part one of a four-part story!

#gallery-0-12 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-12 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-12 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-12 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

REDLINE #5

(W) Neal Holman

(A/CA) Clayton McCormack

(C) Kelly Fitzpatrick

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/12/17

IN STORES: 7/5/17

AGE RATING: Mature

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Everybody’s dead and everything basically sucks, so it’s a good time for Superintendent Coyle to start actually getting some leads into just whatever the hell is going on on Mars. Plus a robot armor guy fights a limousine. Plus some answers to questions you may have been wondering about. Plus shenanigans. HOOORAY!

INVADER ZIM, VOLUME 4

(W) Jhonen Vasquez, Eric Trueheart, Danielle Koenig, Aaron Alexovich

(A) Warren Wucinich, Aaron Alexovich

(C) Fred C. Stresing, Cassie Kelly

(CA) Warren Wucnich

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 7/10/17

IN STORES: 8/2/17

AGE RATING: All Ages

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $19.99

PAGE COUNT: 128

ZIM has plans to take over planet Earth. Schemes! Designs! Machinations! Uh… other words that mean “plans”! And in the fourth volume of the critically acclaimed comic series, these “plans” are plentiful, horrifying, and only half as terrible as usual!

From taking over a local restaurant to proving to Dib that he’s the master of fear, will rule the world, one way or another! Or not at all. Or only on Tuesdays? COLLECTS INVADER ZIM ISSUES 16-20!

JEFF STEINBERG: CHAMPION OF EARTH

(W) Joshua Hale Fialkov

(W/A/CA) Tony Fleecs

(C/CA) Luigi Anderson

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 7/28/17

IN STORES: 9/20/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $19.99

PAGE COUNT: 176

Have you ever wondered what could have been if Kevin Smith directed Men in Black? Us either because that’s kind of a dumb thing to wonder. Besides, why obsess about “What ifs?” when you could be reading the defining sci-fi-rom-com-dram-actioner of our time! From the writer of The Bunker and the artist of My Little Pony—wait really? Okay, I guess we’ll go with it—comes an alien invasion the likes of which have never before been seen by human eyes.

The space invaders are real. They’re here. They’re mean. And they’re standing in judgement over the citizens of Earth. The human race’s final exam. They’ve chosen a single champion to test and, unfortunately for us, it’s none other than Jeff Steinberg. Romantically challenged idiot, video store clerk, constipated, confused, distractible. In other words, the planet is totally doomed.

MERMIN, BOOK THREE: DEEP DIVE (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

(W/A/C/CA) Joey Weiser

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 8/21/17

IN STORES: 9/13/17

AGE RATING: All Ages

GENRE: Adventure, Humor

PRICE: $12.99

PAGE COUNT: 152

The third book in Joey Weiser’s Eisner Award-nominated series is now in PAPERBACK! No one knows much about Mer, the underwater kingdom where Mermin the merman was born, but due to a rising conflict with the people of Atlantis, Mermin needs to get back home immediately. Which means his human friends get to accompany him and see all the aquatic wonders of Mer.

But once again, Mermin is tight-lipped about his past—even when it’s swimming right in front of him. And there are enemies lurking in the seedier depths of Mer, who’ve got their sights set not only on Mermin, but on Pete and his friends!

ATOMIC BLONDE: THE COLDEST CITY (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

(W) Antony Johnston

(A) Sam Hart

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 4/17/17

IN STORES: 5/10/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Crime

PRICE: $14.99

PAGE COUNT: 176

NOVEMBER 1989. MI6 spy Lorraine Broughton was sent to Berlin to investigate the death of another agent, and the disappearance of a list revealing every spy working there. She found a powder keg of mistrust, assassinations and bad defections that ended with the murder of MI6’s top officer, as the Berlin Wall was torn down. Now Lorraine has returned from the Cold War’s coldest city, to tell her story. And nothing is what it seems.

THE COLDEST WINTER: ATOMIC BLONDE (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

(W) Antony Johnston

(A) Steven Perkins

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 4/17/17 ​

IN STORES: 5/10/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Crime

PRICE: $14.99

PAGE COUNT: 184

EIGHT YEARS BEFORE “ATOMIC BLONDE” …BERLIN FROZE. After a string of botched assignments for MI6 in Berlin, David Perceval is being sent home. Even his final mission before leaving—the defection of a Soviet scientist—goes badly wrong, as the coldest winter for 30 years descends on Europe.

With transport out of Berlin impossible, and the KGB searching everywhere for their lost scientist, Perceval must improvise a deadly game of cat and mouse through the frozen city to keep the Russians at bay, and deliver his own unique brand of revenge!

FAUNS & FAIRIES: THE ADULT FANTASY COLORING BOOK

(W/A/CA) Trungles

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 8/28/17

IN STORES: 9/20/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Erotica, Fantasy

PRICE: $11.99

PAGE COUNT: 88

Fauns & Fairies: The Adult Fantasy Coloring Book is an erotic coloring book for adults, offering a steamy interpretation of traditional fantasy characters. From succubi to knights to pixies, the beautiful art nouveau-inspired illustrations show classic characters in sensuous poses sure to please. The delicate and detailed artwork is ideal for adult coloring book enthusiasts!

via Oni Press

Atomic Blonde is Back in the Oni Press Solicits for July 2017 Just in time for the movie release, Atomic Blonde makes a comic comeback in a big way.

[aion-rsa]

Oni Press’ Solicitations for July 2017

Oni Press has provided CBR News with the exclusive first look at covers and solicit information for products shipping July 2017. When you’re through checking out these solicitations, be sure to visit CBR’s Indie Comics Forum and discuss these Oni Press releases with fellow readers.

Oni Press Solicitations – Last Six Months

Product shipping June 2017

Product shipping May 2017

Product shipping April 2017

Product shipping March 2017

Product shipping February 2017

Product shipping January 2017

RICK AND MORTY: POCKET LIKE YOU STOLE IT #1 (OF 5)

TINI HOWARD (W) • MARC ELLERBY (A/CA) • KATY FARINA (C/CA)

ALTERNATE COVER ILLUSTRATED BY CAROLYN MAIN

Rick and Morty: Pocket Like You Stole It is a new comic book miniseries based on the popular [adult swim] television series and inspired by the Pocket Mortys mobile game! In this five-issue series, Morty is on a quest to free himself (and all the other Mortys) from the clutches of Ricks, who collect Mortys and force them to battle one another for schmeckles and glory. Along the way, he’ll discover the grisly history of Morty battling, the dastardly lengths that Ricks are willing to stoop to in order to win, and perhaps… the strength in himself that’s needed to free the Mortys once and for all?

JULY 5 / 32 Pages / Teen / Humor, Sci-fi / $3.99

KILL THEM ALL

KYLE STARKS (W/A/CA) • LUIGI ANDERSON (C/CA)

The new gonzo graphic novel love letter to 90s action movies by Eisner-nominated cartoonist Kyle Starks (Sexcastle, Rick and Morty). A betrayed murderess wants revenge. A hard-drinking former cop wants his job back. For either to get what they want, they’re going to have to fight their way through fifteen flights of criminals, assassins, drug lords, murderers, yup, even accountants, and… KILL. THEM. ALL.

SEPTEMBER 27 / 184 Pages / Mature / Humor, Action / $19.99

KAIJUMAX SEASON THREE #1

ZANDER CANNON (W/A/C/CA)

New season! New jumping-on point! Ah, Kaijumax Prison… that cesspool of corruption in the South Pacific! Tensions among the city-destroying convicts have eased after a month-long lockdown and Electrogor’s capture, and now the kaiju gangs have begun vying for power again, all-out-attacking their rivals, trading addictive smog and dioxin, and abusing weaker inmates. The Creature from Devil’s Creek, after a long time as the low mon in the Cryptid hierarchy, stumbles upon some information that makes him think it doesn’t have to be like this. Also: Mind-controlled murders! Pre-smartphone navigation fails! And… some VERY old timey religion?

JULY 12 / 32 Pages / Mature / Sci-fi / $3.99

THE DAMNED #3

CULLEN BUNN (W) • BRIAN HURTT (A/CA) • BILL CRABTREE (C/CA)

Sketchy gambler Pauly Bones has slithered into Eddie’s life with an offer—together they can turn the tables on the demon crime families and finally get what they deserve. Eddie and Pauly can’t trust each other, though, and it’s only a matter of time before one double crosses the other. But with a new hired killer in town, they might both be dead before they can make their treacherous plays.

JULY 12 / 32 Pages / Mature / Crime, Fantasy / $3.99

HEARTTHROB SEASON TWO #2

CHRISTOPHER SEBELA (W) • ROBERT WILSON IV (A/CA) • NICK FILARDI (C/CA)

Absence makes the heart grow fonder and after spending the last several months avoiding her criminal past to try and build a normal life, Callie is fonder than ever. Forced to set her normal existence aside and break her anarchist pals out of a Canadian jail, Callie finds herself head over heels for her old life. When this one-time dalliance threatens to turn into a full-blown crime spree, Callie turns to the only person who will understand: Mercer.

JULY 5 / 32 Pages / Mature / Crime / $3.99

LETTER 44 #35

CHARLES SOULE (W) • ALBERTO JIMÉNEZ ALBURQUERQUE (A) • DAN JACKSON (C)

THE END IS HERE. The final installment that will bring the award-winning series to a close.

JULY 19 / 32 Pages / Mature / Sci-fi / $3.99

KIM REAPER #4

SARAH GRALEY (W/A/C/CA)

Kim is suspended from her job as a Grim Reaper and is working in a bakery with Becka—a welcomed change of scenery, until a zombie rolls up to the counter. Animated corpses are the last straw, gosh darnit, so the pair decide to take matters into their own hands and venture down into the Underworld. And if they end up kicking some ghoulish booty on the way, that’s fine with them!

JULY 12 / 32 Pages / Teen / Humor, Adventure / $3.99

RICK AND MORTY #28

KYLE STARKS (W/A) • ANDY HIRSCH (A) • MARC ELLERBY (A/C) • KATY FARINA (C/CA) • CJ CANNON (CA)

ALTERNATE COVER ILLUSTRATED BY JENN ST-ONGE

OH MY GOD IT’S INTERDIMENSIONAL CABLE TIME! Rick and Morty are wanted fugitives in an alien dimension, so until the heat dies down, there’s not much to do but watch interdimensional cable! Can you even believe it? A special one-shot issue drawn by writer Kyle Starks (with a special cameo by Andy Hirsch)! Meanwhile, Jerry learns a painful lesson in film history in this issue’s back-up comic drawn by Marc Ellerby!

JULY 26 / 32 Pages / Teen / Humor, Sci-fi / $3.99

INVADER ZIM #22

ERIC TRUEHEART (W) • WARREN WUCINICH (A/CA) • FRED C. STRESING (C/CA)

ALTERNATE COVER ILLUSTRATED BY JON VERMILYEA

WELCOME TO ZIM’S GREATEST PLAN YET! Earth will soon be his! (Maybe!) Unfortunately, there’s something wrong with GIR—ASIDE from the usual list of things. For one, he’s intentionally trying to kill ZIM. And for two, he’s doing it at the worst possible times. Is ZIM’s greatest plan destined for failure (like it usually is)? Part one of a four-part story!

JULY 26 / 32 Pages / All Ages / Humor, Sci-fi / $3.99

REDLINE #5

NEAL HOLMAN (W) • CLAYTON MCCORMACK (A/CA) • KELLY FITZPATRICK (C/CA)

Everybody’s dead and everything basically sucks, so it’s a good time for Superintendent Coyle to start actually getting some leads into just whatever the hell is going on on Mars. Plus a robot armor guy fights a limousine. Plus some answers to questions you may have been wondering about. Plus shenanigans. HOOORAY!

JULY 5 / 32 Pages / Mature / Sci-fi / $3.99

INVADER ZIM, VOLUME 4

JHONEN VASQUEZ, ERIC TRUEHEART, DANIELLE KOENIG (W) • AARON ALEXOVICH (W/A) • WARREN WUCINICH (A/CA) • FRED C. STRESING, CASSIE KELLY (C)

ZIM has plans to take over planet Earth. Schemes! Designs! Machinations! Uh… other words that mean “plans”! And in the fourth volume of the critically acclaimed comic series, these “plans” are plentiful, horrifying, and only half as terrible as usual! From taking over a local restaurant to proving to Dib that he’s the master of fear, ZIM will rule the world, one way or another! Or not at all. Or only on Tuesdays? COLLECTS INVADER ZIM ISSUES 16-20!

AUGUST 2 / 128 Pages / All Ages / Humor, Sci-fi / $19.99

JEFF STEINBERG: CHAMPION OF EARTH

JOSHUA HALE FIALKOV (W) • TONY FLEECS (W/A/CA) • LUIGI ANDERSON (C/CA)

Have you ever wondered what could have been if Kevin Smith directed Men in Black? Us either because that’s kind of a dumb thing to wonder. Besides, why obsess about “What ifs?” when you could be reading the defining sci-fi-rom-com-dram-actioner of our time! From the writer of The Bunker and the artist of My Little Pony—wait, really? Okay, I guess we’ll go with it—comes an alien invasion the likes of which have never before been seen by human eyes.

The space invaders are real. They’re here. They’re mean. And they’re standing in judgement over the citizens of Earth. The human race’s final exam. They’ve chosen a single champion to test and, unfortunately for us, it’s none other than Jeff Steinberg. Romantically challenged idiot, video store clerk, constipated, confused, distractible. In other words, the planet is totally doomed.

SEPTEMBER 20 / 176 Pages / Mature / Humor, Sci-fi / $19.99

MERMIN, BOOK THREE: DEEP DIVE (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

JOEY WEISER (W/A/C/CA)

The third book in Joey Weiser’s Eisner Award-nominated series is now in PAPERBACK! No one knows much about Mer, the underwater kingdom where Mermin the merman was born, but due to a rising conflict with the people of Atlantis, Mermin needs to get back home immediately. Which means his human friends get to accompany him and see all the aquatic wonders of Mer. But once again, Mermin is tight-lipped about his past—even when it’s swimming right in front of him. And there are enemies lurking in the seedier depths of Mer, who’ve got their sights set not only on Mermin, but on Pete and his friends!

SEPTEMBER 13 / 152 Pages / All Ages / Adventure, Humor / $12.99

ATOMIC BLONDE: THE COLDEST CITY (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

ANTONY JOHNSTON (W) • SAM HART (A)

NOVEMBER 1989. MI6 spy Lorraine Broughton was sent to Berlin to investigate the death of another agent, and the disappearance of a list revealing every spy working there. She found a powder keg of mistrust, assassinations and bad defections that ended with the murder of MI6’s top officer, as the Berlin Wall was torn down. Now Lorraine has returned from the Cold War’s coldest city, to tell her story. And nothing is what it seems.

MAY 10 / 176 Pages / Mature / Crime / $14.99

THE COLDEST WINTER: ATOMIC BLONDE (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

ANTONY JOHNSTON (W) • STEVEN PERKINS (A)

EIGHT YEARS BEFORE “ATOMIC BLONDE” …BERLIN FROZE. After a string of botched assignments for MI6 in Berlin, David Perceval is being sent home. Even his final mission before leaving—the defection of a Soviet scientist—goes badly wrong, as the coldest winter for 30 years descends on Europe.

With transport out of Berlin impossible, and the KGB searching everywhere for their lost scientist, Perceval must improvise a deadly game of cat and mouse through the frozen city to keep the Russians at bay, and deliver his own unique brand of revenge!

MAY 10 / 184 Pages / Mature / Crime / $14.99

FAUNS & FAIRIES: THE ADULT FANTASY COLORING BOOK

TRUNGLES (W/A/CA)

Fauns & Fairies: The Adult Fantasy Coloring Book is an erotic coloring book for adults, offering a steamy interpretation of traditional fantasy characters. From succubi to knights to pixies, the beautiful art nouveau-inspired illustrations show classic characters in sensuous poses sure to please. The delicate and detailed artwork is ideal for adult coloring book enthusiasts!

SEPTEMBER 20 / 88 Pages / Mature / Fantasy, Erotica / $11.99

The post Oni Press’ Solicitations for July 2017 appeared first on CBR.

http://ift.tt/2oPUioy

[allbestnet]

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