#and rules of this magic world completely messed up one more time

[bidisasterevankinard]

Ok, why no one told me that Jeff decided not to stop with one movie, but made at least one more? after such a mixed comments?

[unadulteratedsoulsweets]

A DC X DP IDEA #7 The Summons

Imagine dis…

It is always Danny being summoned by cultists, John Constantine, enemies…etc to the mortal plane that starts a beautiful meeting and adventure between the two fandoms. But what if Danny pulled an uno reverse this time, and shenanigans and misunderstandings ensue?

Danny is getting tired of all types of summoning around the Infinite realms, being King and immortal quickly gets boring after a few couple centuries. As well as the fact he is getting annoyed at the summoning that he kept getting himself into. The monologue is getting less creative and less creative by the day, he was sure that all villain monologues are either copyrighted or even ripped off from the same book and source, as they are either A. offering their world for his liking B. making him do something, or even C. kill a certain someone, and you wouldn’t believe the number of times he was summoned for the sole purpose of killing either Batman or Superman from the dubbed both liked and least liked dimension for Danny. Liked as they have real live aliens in that dimension as well so far begun the exciting one in this dimension, Least because the majority of the uncomfortable summoning's are from that dimension and the majority of the so-called heroes are either messing up the timeline which comes to the headache of both Danny and Clockwork as well kept jumping through the dimensions of their universe.

Today he sat on his throne with all of his eldritch glory when he felt that feeling of being summoned, now when being summoned is like a very annoying ring that you have on this phone on volume that kept on ringing until you answer it. Sighing at his current life, the number of times he summoned in that dimension to the point he can already feel and identify the same ringtone for that dimension. In a spur of a moment as well an ungodly amount of pettiness at that moment for all the times he has summoned as well the headache he and his mentor received he pulled an uno reverse on the heroes and prepared himself to get back at them.

…

Superman, Constantine, Batman, Red Hood, Nightwing, Red Robin, and Robin interfered with yet another cult dedicated to freeing the tyrant Pariah Dark. From what little information they have gathered through the relics and scrolls, Constantine stated that this Pariah Dark will make most of their world-ending fights look like a kid’s squabble due to the vast powers of the Pariah Dark stating that if he wishes though he can destroy this universe in a flick of his hand.

This cult, however, is on a large scale seeing that they were led in a wild goose chase while the other members prepare the runes, sigils, and sacrifices for the necessary ritual.

They managed to stop the cultists from killing their supposed sacrifices when the runes suddenly glowed green, blinding them completely.

The moment they gained consciousness they immediately knew that there is something wrong.

Looking around they noticed that they have been teleported to some sort of forest but looking up to determine the time of the day made them pause.

The sky is painted with endless toxic Lazarus green, and all of the heroes are now on high alert as they assess the situation. They either dimensioned hopped again or they have been dragged by the cultists and transported to wherever this Tyrant ruler is.

Constantine kept reassuring himself that it would be the former but the amount of death magic that flows through the air like oxygen made him think the worse.

Superman tried to fly upwards to have a better view around them but found out that he couldn’t use any of his powers.

As they were navigating this new and dangerous territory Batman kept grilling Constantine for information as every bit of information is now precious as they need to find their way home. Despite Batman drilling for any information that he knew, he knew nothing more other than the following facts.

Pariah Dark is a tyrant that ruled the Infinite realms. Using both fear and his unlimited power to control and dictate the Infinite Realms.

The Infinite Realms have also known as the Ghost zone, in all of the limitless universes and other histories. The Ghost Zone occurs at every feasible and non-feasible moment in time, which means that no matter where or when you are in the Ghost Zone, you are everywhere and every when because it all exists at the same time.

Without the Infinite Realms then there would be the end of their world and reality as they know it.

The residents here are told to be the most powerful ghosts in existence as Deadman could not even measure up to their strengths.

Suddenly the group heard a loud commotion and quickly hid by climbing up the trees for a better view.

There they see a group of large flaming black armored people that covered their entire body and face except for their glowing green eyes. Two of them caught their attention, the larger one has a purple flame surrounding his helmet, carrying a flaming sword as he rides a menacing black horse that has bat-like wings while the other one has a blue flame on top of his head pointing an electrified sword towards the cultists that were teleported differently from them.

From where they at, they were able to hear about the black armored knights that mortals are trespassing around the Infinite Realms. All of the cultists are now screaming and trying to fight off the knights that tried to restrain them, in the end, they were dragged and caged in a metal cage that is connected to a chariot of the skeleton of horses.

They were brought out of their stupor when they heard the continued screaming and begging’s of the cultist in a distant direction and when they heard a child’s giggle below them.

Looking down below them they saw a small child. The child could not be more than 6 with gravity-defying white hair, Lazarus green eyes wearing a simple white cuffed sleeve with brown pants and black shoes.

He pointed at them for being a mortal and looked at them with awe and proceeded to exaggerate the fact that mortals are in the Infinite Realms.

Nightwing being the friendliest face alongside Superman asked who and where they were. The child proceeded to introduce himself as Danny and tell them that they are in the Infinite Realms and that they are trespassing in the land of the dead, being without the High King’s order.

Danny kept gushing at the fact they are living heroes, as well as proceeded to act like a naïve child that will spill information with a few sweet words.

The kid kept asking Nightwing what it’s like to be alive and to eat food that doesn’t attack you.

Of course, that made the heroes grimace seeing that they were reminded that they were in fact in the land of the dead.

Danny next floated towards Superman and excitedly asked about his culture and language as a Kryptonian alien race.

As the ghost child kept asking Superman some questions nobody saw Constantine pale at the moment, they saw the child. As a dark magical user, he can sense the amount of death magic towards a thing or someone. The moment the child appeared in front of them the man Constantine tried to calm his nerves down seeing the abundant concentrated death magic that clings to the child like some parasite.

Batman tried to ask more relevant questions but Danny flew towards Red Hood and Robin exclaiming that they need a doctor, putting on a frown on his face. Batman’s questions kept growing when they heard a siren that seems to echo throughout the realms and the only thing the kid, Danny, said Oh no.

Looking in the direction where Danny looked, they saw a large army of flaming flying horses with black armored knights each of which look like a black sword as the largest one that they have seen before leads them towards their direction the moment they locked eyes on them.

Without thinking of the consequence Red Hood picked up the dead child and proceeded to retreat alongside the rest of the Bat clan, Superman and Constantine.

…

Danny was enjoying this, the soul-whore man was just a bonus. The fact that he owns this poor man’s soul just out of pettiness for tripling the amount of his paperwork for selling his soul to different deities. Once he dies, he is going to embarrass this man to the point he wished he was in hell.

His plan was simple, make them scared at the act of the High King being mad at them. Make them see the horrors of the Infinite Realms and send them home, simple right?

He was about to give them one last scare when he heard an alarm that blared throughout the realms. He just knew that Fright Knight had just pulled the alarm. For the spirit of Halloween, he is serious and zealous about his job. The fact he had forgotten to write a note might be on him.

He was just about to turn around when Red Hood picked him up and carried him like a sack of potatoes. Now in any political sense Red Hood is committing treason, he kept trying to wiggle out of the man’s arms, unable to phase out due to the man’s nature as one of his subjects.

He may be petty but he didn’t mean on making them commit treason, he can do that on his own to piss off the Observants, thank you very much.

Now Danny is panicking about how this prank had railed off course due to his luck.

…

The team of super mortals is now running away from the army approaching them. Using the forest where they have landed to conceal themselves as they think of a way to escape the army of the dead.

Suddenly a green swirling portal opened in front of them, they were about to change direction but Constantine exclaimed loudly that, that portal is the same one that brought them here. So, by that logic that portal will lead them back to their universe.

When they returned to the dark warehouse before they were transported only then they noticed the extra baggage that Red Hood may have brought with him. In fear, Constantine asked why would he bring a ghost child who has extremely protective ghost parents that will hunt them down the moment they realize that he is gone.

Jason argued that ever since Danny appeared the pits quieted down to the moment the ghost child appeared as if he was never been dunked on the Lazarus pits.

As they were arguing Red Robin noticed Danny that he looked worried and kept looking around as if to look for another portal.

…

Newsflash, he was looking for a way to escape the heroes undetected to create his portal.

…

Red Robin was about to ask what was bothering him when all of the heroes present suddenly saw a green outline of a crown and a cape coming from Danny.

Danny asked nervously why were they looking at him funny.

Constantine dropped his cigarette and paled several shades whiter in fear, to the point he was paper.

Batman is now on the verge of a breakdown as well. In a span of a few minutes, they traveled to the land of the dead and saw some ghostly knights and children, and Jason adopting strays in his way. Apparently in the argument the two have and the action, Jason had done in a matter of minutes, his son Jason decided to adopt a ghost child which in return Constantine replied that it is not possible seeing that ghost children in general have protective parents that may hunt us down now that ghost child has a highlight and outline of a crown and cape.

Seeing his look and reaction of Constantine when looked at Danny due to the green highlight outline, Batman demands Constantine's answers as to why and what could be worse news other than Danny’s ghostly parents hunting them down for unintentionally kidnapping their child.

Constantine replied in a small and shaky voice that they didn’t just kidnap an ordinary ghost child, they kidnapped the Crowned Prince of the Infinite Realms.

…

Danny was sure that the cat is out of the bag, but when the sad trench coat man whispered Crowned Prince instead of High King. He can turn this whole situation turn around in his favor, now if only the spandex-wearing men stop harassing him on his so-called “Father-King.”

…

PS: If someone out there wants to continue or make a fic about this you are free to do so don’t forget to tag me though.

[post-apocalyptic-fantasy-au]

Tango's room was... not a cell, exactly. It was comfortable, and he had all the books and trinkets and furniture he wanted. He'd painted the walls himself, in fiery sunrise colours to match him, and the carpet was soft enough that his toes sank into it when he walked around. He even had his own separate bathroom with no cameras in. But the only window was a mirror on his side of the wall, and the door locked from the outside, and cameras near the ceiling monitored his every move, and he was only allowed to leave when one of the many scientists interested in him decided he could, and even then, he never left the lab.

Still, it was all he knew, and he'd learnt as a kid to make do with a little.

Besides, it's not like the scientists were bad to him, not anymore. After 105 years, he'd become a sort of mascot to the palace labs, and it was taboo among the scientists to mistreat him. The tests, while annoying, never hurt, and for the ones that did they provided him with powerful anesthetics that made him loopy and completely numb.

The tests themselves varied. They took cells from all over his body for the geneticists and microbiologists. They took samples from his scalp for the chemists trying to figure out how the fire on his head works. They tested how his body reacted to various types of radiation for the radiologists. The list went on and on, even after 105 years, of things they didn't know about him and wanted to find out.

He'd outlived four kings already, and more scientists than he could count, and they were no closer to discovering how much longer he was suspected to live. He still felt as lively as ever, so the general consensus was that he still had quite a while.

He was sitting at his desk, fiddling with the mess of wires and parts between his hands, when the door opened.

Tango looked up, confused, and saw Cub standing in the door frame.

"More tests?" Tango frowned. He'd already sat through a whole host of tests that morning; he thought he'd be free for the rest of the day.

"No quite," Cub told him.

He was a man on the shorter, rounder side, but you wouldn't notice, not with everything else going on with him. Cub was the lead geneticist in the lab, and often conducted many of his experiments on himself. As such, he had a pair of tattered wings too small to be anything more than decoration, borrowed from the genes of a feathered dragon; a full set of sharp teeth not dissimilar from Tango's own, with which Tango had seen Cub snap a bone in half, borrowed from a mermaid; and pitch black hair and eyes, as well as traces of death magic, from a dark elf. He was the only person Tango knew who was older than him, though no one knew which race Cub had gotten the longevity from. While he was by no means human anymore, he got away with walking freely around the palace without hiding any part of himself by being a perfect mix of friendly, unsettling and indispensable.

It was Cub who had first combined the DNA of a pygmy dragon with that of a human, resulting in an infant with a mix of human and dragon traits, ie, Tango himself.

Cub studied Tango for a second with those almost soulless eyes, before announcing, "The king is dead. The new queen has ordered that all Vis being held against their will in the palace be released."

Tango blinked, reeling. "What?" The king was dead? He'd only been crowned a few years ago - that had to be some kind of record for shortest rule of the era. And the new queen...

Tango had met her once. Rebecca Argnum. She'd come to the lab the day before she disappeared two and a half months ago, and she'd sworn that she'd help him see the world some day. Tango hadn't put much thought into it - her brother was still young, after all, so by the time he died, he would have children of his own, and Rebecca wouldn't be next in line anymore - but still, it had been an tantalizing prospect ever since. Now that it was suddenly a possibility - not just that, but a reality - he didn't know what to do.

Finally, he managed to get a question out of his brain and into his mouth. "What about Torchy?"

"Last I checked, he's still a Vis, too. He's as free as you are."

"But can he come with me?"

"If he wants to."

"Where is he?"

Cub eyed him up a moment longer, before smiling smugly, pointed teeth on display. "I sent Doc to fetch him. He's on his way."

Relief pulled Tango's shoulders downwards. Torchy, the pygmy dragon that half of his DNA came from, was usually in his room with him, but he'd been taken out earlier that morning for reasons no one would explain to Tango, and hadn't yet returned.

With the first of Tango's questions answered, the rest started spilling out. "Where do I go?"

"Wherever you want."

"Where am I allowed to go?"

"Wherever they'll have you."

"What happened to the king?"

"A group of rebels killed him."

Good.

Before the next question could make itself known, Doc M stepped up behind Cub, a tiny, writhing mass of red-gold scales twisted around his cybernetic arm.

"Torchy!" Tango grinned.

The dragon lifted his head, spotted Tango, and pushed off of Doc's arm, with a happy growl of, "Tongo!" Torchy struggled more with speech than most pygmy dragons, and often his words came out garbled. Most of the time, no one besides Tango had any idea what he was saying.

Torchy reached him and settled on his shoulders, twining happily around his neck.

"Don't use me as your errand boy again," Doc snapped to Cub, though Tango knew he wasn't actually mad.

Doc seemed intimidating to those that didn't know him, because he was abnormally tall, had a resting scowl and held a grudge like a champion, but those who actually knew him knew he was really a big softie. He was the chief engineer in the lab, often working side-by-side with the geneticists, and was almost as strange to look at as Cub. An undercover mountain nymph, he took great care to conceal his the goat-ish parts of him: he wore his dark hair long and hid both it and the goat's horns the hair didn't quite conceal under a cap. His skin was more grey than pink, and he had a goat-like beard growing from his chin. Much of the right side of his body had been replaced by bionics, leaving him with a glowing red eye, an arm rather more "muscular" than the other, and a limp due to his right leg being human-shaped and his left being goat-shaped. No one knew what had happened for him to require the additions, and whenever someone asked, he always refused to explain. Doc was the oldest person in the lab, apart from Cub, and took orders from no one except Cub and the king himself.

Although, it was probably the queen herself now, Tango reasoned.

Everything Tango knew about engineering and electronics, he had learnt from Doc. Everything Tango knew about genetics and biology in general, he had learnt from Cub. In return, Tango didn't put up a fight when they wanted to do any sort of test, even the uncomfortable ones. The three had formed an unlikely crew of mutual benefits and mix-and-match bodies.

Doc held out his flesh arm, a messenger bag swinging from it. "I got you food and some real clothes - you can't wear Cub's old lab coat in public."

Tango looked down at the lab coat he wore. It was scorched from where he'd lost his temper a few times, stained from where he'd spilled seadust on it, and torn from both his and Torchy's claws. Cub had gifted it to him years ago, after the previous lab coat got incinerated due to events entirely unrelated to Tango's flames, he swears it.

"Thanks," he said, accepting the bag from Doc. He flicked it open and peered inside. All he could really identify from the pile of folded clothes was a dark grey vest, though he definitely saw both yellow and red fabric beneath.

"Go get changed, then you can throw some of your things in the bag and we'll walk you out," Cub told him, gesturing at the bathroom door.

"Got it."

*

Half an hour later, Tango was standing at the palace's side gate with Torchy coiled around his arm, Cub on his left and Doc on his right.

He'd filled the messenger bag with books, seadust and seadust-related components, and as much of both his and Torchy's hordes - a small collection of gears and springs for Torchy, and a handful of pieces of wood he carved himself for Tango - as possible.

Tango loved the outfit Doc had picked out for him - though part of it was, of course, due the fact that he had never had real clothes before: in the summer, the lab coat sufficed, and in the winter he burrowed under the blankets and slept most of the time.

But he had real clothes now. The long-sleeved yellow shirt was tight enough to keep wind out and heat in, and the grey vest he wore over it was buttoned all the way down to keep it from flapping around. A pair of thick, baggy trousers made his thin legs look far bigger than they really were, fuzzy grey boots kept his feet warm, and fluffy bands around his wrists kept his hands from freezing off. Without the carefully warmed conditions of his room in the lab keeping him just the right temperature, added measures were a must to ensure he didn't freeze; as such, a long, thick, black coat lined on the inside with blue fur was hung neatly over the bag, ready for when it was needed.

Tango only hoped it was enough.

"Keep walking east," Cub was telling him. "You'll reach the Subsol Woods in about two days, if you make good speed."

"To du?! Toy cu wok to du!" Torchy protested.

"You won't be doing any walking," Tango reminded the little dragon, holding up his arm to look him in the eye. "You'll probably barely even do any flying, for void's sake!"

Doc chuckled, but then sobered up quick. "Just make sure you ration your food and don't eat it all at once. In the woods, you'll find both a faerie and an elf camp, though you'll probably come across the elves first. Tell them Meyer sent you, they'll take care of you."

Right. Tango kept forgetting that "Doc" wasn't the engineer's real name.

"Got it," Tango nodded.

"Good luck," Cub said.

Tango took a deep breath, and took his first step out of the castle gate.

"WAIT!" a voice called before he could take a second.

They all turned to see a young woman - barely more than a girl, really - running towards them. The queen.

"Thank goodness, I was worried I'd missed you," Queen Rebecca panted when she reached them.

She'd been crying; Tango saw the red rings around her pale brown eyes right away. If it weren't for that, though, it would have been impossible to tell. Her red-gold hair still lay in perfect waves, her back was still pencil straight, her head still held high. A queen through and through.

"Your majesty," Cub and Doc said together, bowing.

Wordlessly, Tango copied the motion.

The young queen waved her hand at him. "Ah, no need for that. Once you're outside those gates, you're officially free - you're barely even under my rule anymore."

"Oh," Tango said, because what else was he supposed to say?

"I wanted to give you this before you go." The queen held out a small drawstring pouch.

"What is it?" Tango asked curiously, taking it and weighing it in his hand. It was heavier than he expected, considering how little it seemed to hold.

"Something that'll help you later - trust me, it's saved my life more than once."

Tango started to open the pouch, but the queen hurriedly said, "No, no! Wait until you're alone."

Tango frowned. "Why?"

"It's..." She hesitated. "It's the sort of thing best opened in private."

"Right." Tango nodded, like that made any sense at all.

As he was tucking the pouch into the messenger bag, she went on, "I also wanted to wish you luck. I told you I'd get you out, and I did."

"Thank you," Tango said, and meant it with his whole heart.

Finally, finally he was getting to see the world.

He turned back to the city beyond the gate. He'd have to navigate that before he even reached the plains that stood between here and the Subsol Woods, but he'd memorised many, many maps of the country in his time, including one of the city as it currently stands. He didn't think he'd have much, if any difficulty with it.

After another deep breath, he took his second step out into the world.

And just like that, he was walking, a free male, his best friend on his arm and a mystery pouch in his bag, and Doc's call to "be careful!" in his ears.

He had no idea where he was going or who he would meet, but he was prepared. He was more than prepared - he was ready.

[itsclydebitches]

There's something I find pretty messed up about Little's part of the story. Penny is dead. The story puts focus on this and how it's effecting Ruby and is why Little's death is what breaks Ruby. The volume ends though with Little coming back so it's a happy end, right? Except Penny is still dead and never coming back. And they are going back to a world where people die when they are killed. It's like "Forget about your dead friend cause we got one where your actions don't have consequences."

Yeah, that's an issue with the Ascension arc as a whole. As discussed previously, we're already starting from a place of confusing messages because the world can't decide what Ascension exactly is. Some beings lose all their memories and (arguably as a result) their sense of self. Some just seem to get cool upgrades. Some change in such monumental ways they probably can't go back to their old life even if they wanted to (can Somewhat ever live with the other mice again now that they're like fifty times their size?). And some, Like Ruby, undergo no changes at all except a convenient and ambiguous ~emotional clarity~

So Ascension is a catch-all "Anything could happen" situation where all options, no matter how shady they appear to the audience, are eventually presented as #good by the show... except I'm 100% sure they only come across that way BECAUSE they happen to side characters we're not invested in/are leaving behind. Would people honestly have been happy if Ruby:

Completely forgot who she was (King)

Got some crazy physical upgrade that would fundamentally change the power dynamics of the show/other her in Remnant/imply that she's a faunus to strangers if she got some animal trait (the Caterpillar/Somewhat)

Came away with a new "purpose" and decided she didn't want to be a Huntress anymore (the Paper Pleasers)

There's a reason Ruby did not change except to inexplicably regain her confidence because the show and on some level recognizes that these options are indeed an awful kind of "death," something that would be bad to do to your main character (baring a monumental shift in the show). When we talk about the importance of growth (in real life and in fiction) we're referencing a context in which a person changes slowly over time, adapting to each change in a natural way, all of it a combination of environmental factors and personal agency. To just have some magical tree instantly change you without consent, making you "better" by its own, undefined parameters... that's not wonderful, that's horrifying! But as you say, even if we overlook all that and come at Ascension from a direction the story wants, accepting and praising such an aspect of this world... Team RWBY doesn't live in that world. What did they learn from this then? Yay for people who live in alternate realities because they get to become "better" rather than dying? Good for them, but our friends are still dead and our lives are still on the line.

If RWBY wanted this arc they not only needed to reeeeeally clean up what Ascension is/how it works, but decide on the message they're trying to impart. Because what we got, on a literal level, is Ruby being depressed enough to choose ending (that version of) her life, instead being rewarded for that choice by a pantheon she's kinda fighting against (in a way that both skips her development and ignores every other implied rule of Ascension), and is returning to a world where none of this matters because death is a Permanent Thing That She's Going to Be Seeing a Whole Lot More of Soon.

Penny is dead. Many other allies are dead. Weiss' Kingdom is gone. Salem is set to exterminate the rest of Remnant, and instead of dealing with any of that Volume 9 gave Team RWBY a (literal) fantasy world where everything is just fine, actually. Wouldn't it be cool if no one actually died and whenever it seems like they did they'd just come back as an upgraded version of themselves? Yeah! Too bad that's not the reality they're heading back to.

Honestly, the way to clean up all of Volume 9 for me is to slap a "It was just a dream" disclaimer on it. Volume 10 we learn that Ruby had a crazy, contradictory fever dream post-battle in which the biggest trauma she's ever faced is magically fixed by her subconscious? Yeah, that tracks. More than taking Volume 9 at face value.

[atamascolily]

Going back to the imagery and symbolism of the doppelganger and Gothic Double, I was reminded that not only does PMMM already has a name for a magical girl's shadow self (witch), it also has one specifically for Homura's as well. To be honest, I'm kind of surprised that Homulilly's name hasn't come up more often in the speculation of who the "other" Homura might be, given their established connection.

This might seem like a stretch because the last time we saw Homulilly, she was a giant suicidal skeleton, but hear me out.

Rebellion gives us two examples of magical girls who are also witches: Sayaka and Nagisa. As a general rule, Sayaka and Oktavia appear as two separate entities, allowing Sayaka to fight on her own and have emotional moments with Kyouko while Oktavia clashes directly with Homulilly.

Meanwhile, Nagisa does the complete opposite: she embodies her witch Charlotte (both doll and worm forms), appearing as one or the other instead of both at the same time. In a scene that lives rent-free in my brain, she pulls the witch's clown mask over her face while in magical girl form, thus becoming both at once--but I don't think we ever see her split in the same way that Sayaka does with Oktavia.

Taken together, these examples imply that there are different ways magical girls and their witches can relate to each other. Though we have not yet seen a witch split from the original magical girl and take on her form at the same time, Homura, being the Devil, might have other abilities that Nagisa and Sayaka lack, or might be an exception to the general rule. (There is also the weirdness that Homulilly has dramatically different forms, depending on whether we're talking about the PSP game/Magia Records vs. Rebellion, which is unusual in and of itself.)

Homura may be the Devil, but she is also unquestionably still a witch. Not only does she still have her Clara Doll familiars, but her earcuff--her equivalent to a soul gem--says "HOMULILLY" now.

Well, actually, it says HOMUL, but you get the point. Props to the animators for hiding an important detail from the ending in the opening credits.

Rebellion makes a big deal of the fact that soul gems in ring form are marked with the magical girl's name in witch runes--and that magical girls ARE their soul gems--so the fact that Devil!Homura appears to identify on some level as "Homulilly" is fascinating. It's unclear if Devil!Homura has the same relationship to her "Dark Orb" (a name I cannot say with a straight face) that a magical girl has to her soul gem, or if it's merely a device or a tool she created to channel for her powers, but either way, Homulilly is still around.

All this could potentially explain why Homulilly would take on Homura's form in Walpurgis no Kaiten--because on some level, they are the same. Homulilly-as-Homura's double/shadow self would also help retroactively explain why their names are so similar--unusually so for a magical girl and witch pair.

And if Homulilly is the doppelganger, then her motive for messing with Homura (whether that entails infiltrating her life, manipulating Madoka and/or destroying the world) is obvious. Because nobody hates Homura as much as Homura hates herself. Nobody would understand how best to get under Homura's skin than she would. Nobody would be able to anticipate and counter everything Homura does than her own reflection. And it would take all of the suicidal imagery from Rebellion and dial it up to eleven.

Because Homulilly is never directly mentioned by name in Rebellion (only getting a brief title card in witch runes), even if I'm right and this other Homura is Homulilly, I'm not sure that any of the characters in Walpurgis no Kaiten would ever refer to her by this name directly. She herself, if pressed, might say some variation on "I'm you" to Homura, where her identity becomes clear in context. Alternately, that name might appear again in runes (anything in runes is for the audience's benefit, not the characters).

But I'd be very surprised if Homulilly didn't turn up in some fashion in Walpurgis no Kaiten--and this other Homura seems like an obvious candidate given what we know thus far.

[umbran6]

An Error In Divine Bureaucracy

It all starts when Odin's scheme backfires. There are disadvantages to going incognito, after all. Taking the role of 'X' (which personally speaking, sounds foul considering Twitter's still trying to fall into that brand) means that although the King of the Gods can view the workings of Hotel Valhalla, he cannot influence how his hotel is run. Sometimes, that makes the battles a bit too bloody. Sometimes, the thanes decide to overreach their authority. And there was one time they all decided to break convention and make a mock high-school Prom (to the death).

One of these slip-ups is more unconventional: Gunilla decides to patrol Long Island when rumors of a deadly conflict behind the shadows spread to Hotel Valhalla. If Odin was, well, Odin, he could've stopped it. However, Odin, acting as X, cannot keep his lone eye on his Valkyrie Captain.

Thanatos is overworked. He needs to catch up on hunting down all the souls that escaped the Greek Underworld. So, despite his best efforts to keep all the Giants and monsters dead, he can't be perfect. He can't be there when Leo is burning to ashes as he and Festus soar ever higher.

Octavian is a bit slower and more hesitant. Maybe Will's words get to the legacy's head for a few precious seconds, or maybe Nico's aura of death puts fear inside his soul before he steels his nerves. So when he fires himself at Leo and Gaea, it is far too late. Leo has enough time to finish the job.

So when Gunilla spots a boy with flames so bright they mimic a second sun riding a bronze dragon and fighting a monstrous earthly hag, Gunilla doesn't hesitate. The second Leo's body crumbles to ashes, she flies his soul to Hotel Valhalla with Festus as both his luggage and the weapon he died holding. Olympus doesn't catch on to what's happening, which is for the better.

Leo, of course, is extremely bewildered. He's heard Percy and Annabeth's story of how they went to the Underworld—the lines of dead waiting to be judged, Cerberus waiting to chew any and all trespassers into his next meal, and Charon's desire for garish Italian suits. He did not expect to be handed a rune stone, given a mini-bar key, and shuffled into a luxury suite that would make his section of the Argo II look like a shady motel room while his body suddenly looked fit AF. If it weren't for the fact that he had read up on some Norse mythology during his time in the streets, he would've been completely clueless. For fun and convenience's sake, I'll put him on Floor 19.

Like Magnus, Leo thinks he's hallucinating. His room is like a mix of Bunker Nine, Charles Beckendorf's room in the Hephaestus Cabin, and his old room in the apartment he and his mom lived in, all smashed together. For a second, he grounds himself in the familiar — playing with the inventions in his tool belt, petting Festus, and cooking himself some food. Only when he inspects Festus and finds the physician's cure fully intact does he realize something has gone horribly wrong.

Odin, of course, is aware of Leo's arrival at Hotel Valhalla. He only really understands the nature of the hotel's newest guest once Leo's heroic feat is displayed in front of everyone. The thanes, Helgi, and Valhalla's warriors cheer Leo's name. Only the Norns and Odin are silent, both realizing just how exactly things have gone FUBAR.

See, here's the thing about pantheons worldwide when they interact with their divine neighbors: They don't. We're talking about beings functioning under several different rules of reality and their own brands of magic and godly firepower that could tear apart continents and perhaps even the world if they get too sloppy. Syncretism and divine fist-fights have sprouted either differing degrees of bad blood and conflict. If a pantheon chooses to mess with another's favorites, you can be assured the rest of the divine mafia will be out to get them.

Though Leo did the feat with support, he single-handedly masterminded the death of a primordial being. In the Greek Pantheon's view, he should enjoy a peaceful life in Elysium or even join the ranks of Olympus. Leo being chosen as an einherjar is like your favorite athlete getting kidnapped and pressed into military service by another country. Though Leo is getting physical upgrades, the Olympians would see this as an attempt to subvert their sovereignty by kidnapping a hero under their noses. And Odin knows that he and the rest of the Norse gods will need as much einherjar as they can get- losing them in a possible war between pantheons would thin out their numbers.

So Odin decides to break the masquerade, albeit in a limited fashion. Using his ravens to summon Leo and Gunilla, he sheds the disguise of X and reveals why he hid himself from Hotel Valhalla and just how exactly things were screwed up. He apologizes to Leo for essentially kidnapping him, explains to Gunilla just why Leo's recruitment shouldn't have happened, and that touching another pantheon's demigods was a tremendous faux pas.

So he proposes two different possibilities - they can send Leo back to the mortal world and pretend nothing is wrong, or he can stay in Hotel Valhalla until they find a way to spin things so Olympus isn't sending out its best and brightest to do their best to merk the rest of Asgard.

And, well, Leo accepts the second choice. Mainly because he has a bit of an agenda. First, he knows he can't precisely break Calypso out of Ogygia in the state he's in. His master plan to simultaneously kill Gaea and help her relied on the fact that he was dead while Festus brought his body to Ogygia's airspace. He knows it's too much of a stretch, but perhaps the Norse pantheon will have a solution to bypass the magic surrounding Ogygia and allow him to free her.

Aside from that, Leo just wants some peace. He worked himself to the bone, building the Argo II and then maintaining it during the entire month and half-voyage. Most of it had been a thankless job with several near-death experiences. The least he could do was treat himself to a vacation despite the constant TO THE DEATH! experiences Hotel Valhalla had to offer. Heck, maybe he could make some friends here.

Thus begins Leo's stay at Hotel Valhalla. Of course, such a start involves him being impaled several times after the rest of the hotel's guests gang up on him after they make it through Festus during battle training. But he gets used to the constant bloodshed and conflict throughout the hotel, using it to sharpen himself in the ways of combat that Camp Half-Blood didn't entirely teach him. He also learns of the runes, which leads to him scheming. If he can learn how to wield the power of the runes, he can begin conjuring a magical solution to circumvent Ogygia's barriers.

So, for the months Leo is in Hotel Valhalla, he learns. He picks up knives as his primary weapon, second to the hammers; he refines his inventions and upgrades Festus. He low-key (lol) pesters Odin in his X form to teach him the runes. Odin, of course, is having none of it. He would have been willing to teach a knowledge seeker a few tricks in a different situation. But he knows that different pantheon's magics either work beautifully or have disastrous results. One need only look at the Serapis Incident.

Of course, he also makes his own friendships within Hotel Valhalla. We learn another side of Gunilla as Leo tries to get along with the Valkyrie Captain (which is expected because of all the pranks he pulls). He makes friends with TJ and Mallory while trying to get on Odin's good side by showing that he can keep up with the Valhallians (I'm punching myself for that pun).

Then, Sword of Summer comes along, and things get interesting because Mimir tells Odin about Magnus's role. He knows that Magnus will need all the help he can get, and though Blitz and Hearthstone are servants that Mimir trusts, he wants to reinforce any and all chances of winning. He can't help directly since he still wants to maintain the façade of X. However, Leo can. An einherjar demigod who has experience in fighting threats larger than him? Already saved the world once? Seems like the perfect candidate to help stop Ragnarok.

So he sends Leo in—of course, it's not without a price tag. Although Odin may be the king of the gods in Valhalla, he's still ordering a demigod from another pantheon to essentially act as his hand. One that could quickly turn tail if things went to crap or become a turncoat if someone tried to give him a strong enough bribe. Or, you know, alerting Olympus the second he steps on Midgard. Odin knows what Leo wants but not why he seeks it. So, he reluctantly offers to teach the demigod how to wield the runes if he aids Magnus Chase.

Leo is more than happy to accept the task, not only because of what he gets out of it but also because Odin is offering him a deal. He's not going about this like the prophecies that demanded attendance or the apocalypse would come about. He even gets a guaranteed reward once the mission is completed.

So Leo, with help from Gunilla, enters Midgard. He easily fits into the clique of homeless people Magnus is a part of—Leo lived on the streets for most of his life when he wasn't in the foster home system, after all. Festus is with him in his suitcase form, slyly hinting to Hearth and Blitz that he is in the know. Leo is essentially turned by Odin into his divine 007 if 007 lived on the streets as a homeless guy.

He does his best to gain Magnus's trust. He befriends him, proving himself reliable without betraying his awareness of the mystical cloaks and daggers behind the scenes. And, well, he connects with Magnus more than he expected. Maybe it's because he understands Magnus's bitterness and cynical outlook on the world - he went through the same thing when he was younger. Leo just hides it better with a smile. Part of him just wants to protect Magnus.

In the meantime, Magnus is a bit shocked that beyond Blitz and Hearth, another guy his age is willing to look out for him and be his friend. This is most likely something Magnus has never had since his mother died. The first thing that we notice is that during the beginning chapters of Sword of Summer, Magnus is alone. Hearth and Blitz have a few moments in which they show up, but Magnus himself has no one close to his age that he can connect with. This means that despite Leo being the one to do the attaching, Magnus is quite happy that they're attached to the hip.

You guys can probably guess the direction I want to take their relationship. I've read The Homeless Demigod Club. It's one of those fics that lowkey made me realize that crossover ships can be magnificent if you are willing to put in the work to make it work and show how two characters can connect. I would've added this as a spiritual successor to that fic. I will link it here so everyone can read it. (Link)

And then the promised day arrives. Annabeth Chase and her father set foot in Boston, and Leo does his best to hide from their presence while helping Magnus. He discourages Magnus from breaking into his uncle's house but is still willing to do so either way. He follows Magnus's decision because he believes that Magnus has been jerked around so many times that he deserves his own sense of agency. So when Magnus decides to follow Randolph, Leo follows Randolph even though the guy has enough red flags to rival the CCP.

Then Magnus calls forth Sumarbrander, Surt appears, and everything happens. Blitz and Hearth try to intervene and are just as quickly curbstomped like canon. Leo watches, forcing himself to stop and examine each action Surt takes. Then, when Surt entirely focuses on Magnus does he step up.

Magnus POV

"You know, Mr. Volcano, I thought you'd just go for the head. I wonder why you're wasting so much time." Leo stepped forward, suitcase in hand.

"Leo, go away. Get in there and get Hearth, but you don't need to get involved." I protested.

For a second, I was wondering just what all of my homeless friends were smoking because they were suddenly getting all these courageous ideas. Hearth had shot his arrows, Blitz had swung his watch out for ducklings sign. Now Leo - stick thin and somehow not fainting because of the heat - was apparently willing to go mano-a-mano with a guy who was taller than he was.

"Blitz was right, though. It was their mission to protect you. As for me, it's my duty." Leo dropped the suitcase.

I expected it to melt like the cars nearby and the asphalt beneath our feet. But then it grew. Parts started to jut out, panels began to unfold, and Leo's luggage grew despite the laws of physics that were screaming this shouldn't be happening. At first, it was a pure mess, but then a pair of wings sprouted out. A reptilian head somehow appeared from the chaos. Before I knew it, what was once a suitcase my friend dragged around was a bronze dragon that was as tall and wide as a semi truck.

It let out a roar into the sky that made the entire bridge vibrate. Right beneath it, Leo pulled out a pair of knives from that blasted tool belt with an ease that told me he'd done this before. Those brown eyes scanned the entire bridge, and I could feel the air near me dropping a few degrees. If anything, the area around Leo started to blur as if he was absorbing all the heat the 'Black One' radiated.

Surt's gaze turned severe as if satan had dissed one of his takes on fashion. "What are you?"

"You could say I'm a bit like Maggie here — a demigod from a slightly different brand." I was a bit too shocked at the fact that my friend had a mecha dragon to even snark at that.

Leo smiled, but the killing intent it radiated made me want to flinch. "But if you want my full name, you can have it."

Leo beckoned Surt with one of his knives. "I am Leo Valdez. You messed with my friend. Prepare to die."

End POV

The conflict nearly destroys the entire bridge. Leo and Festus's time in Hotel Valhalla has yielded fruit. Though it can be laconically described as a Jujutsu Kaisen-level gang-up, the demigod and his mechanical mount are in sync to the point they can rarely be matched. While Festus is physically stronger than Leo, Leo is faster and has more variety in his attacks, which combine to keep the King of Muspelheim off balance.

However, Leo is still a demigod. No matter the power upgrade being an einherjar and the combat experience he's earned at Hotel Valhalla, he doesn't have the physical might to permanently disable Surt, even with Festus. And although the Jotunn can't burn Leo, Leo can't overcome Surt's own fire and make it non-vice-versa. It is a stalemate until Leo cannot keep up, and Magnus can see that. He awakens Sumarbrander and intervenes, still cutting off Surt's nose. Surt still seizes the chance to kill Magnus, impaling the unknowing son of Freyr with his scimitar. It is only Leo's own reaction that prevents Surt from seizing the sword.

History repeats. Samirah chooses Magnus and brings him to Hotel Valhalla. Blitz and Hearth confer with Mimir on what to do next, while Gunilla returns Leo to the hotel so they can scheme with Odin. When Magnus is fully resurrected, Leo is the familiar face amongst a crowd of strangers, one Magnus can still rely on. Magnus's body is still recovered. Everything seems perfectly in line with canon.

Until it isn't.

Annabeth POV

I've seen my fair share of mortal panic. There was that time at the Gateway Arch during my first quest with Percy (and boy, did part of me want to go back to those days). Then there was the time Kronos and Morpheus broke the chronological sleep bubble that covered all of New York, leading to a human stampede.

So when Dad (I was still getting used to calling him that) got a call from the BPD stating that they found my uncle Randolph in a rabid panic close to ground zero of an explosion, I defied all convenient laws of mortal logic and ran toward the sirens. And the fire truck engines. And probably all emergency services that are known to man.

I will admit that part of me had a raging hatred for my uncle at the moment. It was bad enough that whatever he did had apparently led to the entire mortal side of my family imploding into what was described by my Dad as essentially a nuclear meltdown, with us being split into chunks. Then there was the fact that he somehow hid the death of the only aunt I liked and that the only cousin I trusted was now homeless for two years. And last but not least, the disgraced professor of Harvard called us at midnight saying Magnus was in danger, leading to us getting the closest red-eye flight to Boston.

When we arrived at the scene, I did my best not to pay attention to the people who were hurt. The best I could describe them was that everyone was burnt—some easily mistaken for sunburns, others who would probably need a visit to the hospital. Medics nearby were doing their best to triage the scene while cops were doing their best to get statements out of people who were clearly still shell-shocked from what their eyes may have witnessed.

I quickly spotted Randolph and marched through the chaos, vaguely hearing Dad follow me. He looked physically spared, though a bit shaken up. Which part of me noted was bizarre since, according to Dad, BPD told him a couple of weirdly dressed homeless dudes had dragged him from the epicenter of the explosion.

I had no sympathy, so I got right down to business. "What happened?"

He kept rambling to himself, and I could barely hear his hushed words - sword, black, beast, machine, giant - before I grabbed his shoulder and pinched in a way Chiron taught me would make anyone scream.

"Focus. What the T-" My mind flipped into a Tartarus flashback before I caught myself. "Hell happened?"

Thankfully, Randolph didn't scream, which meant he was either brave or still drunk on adrenaline. But something must have happened because the man's wrinkled face focused on me. "I found Magnus in my home accompanied by another boy. I was bringing him over to you when the meteor struck the bridge-"

My mind was already poking several holes in his discussion - he could've called Dad if he had already found Magnus and the bridge where the explosion took place was farther away from us. Still, I pretended to follow along and nodded.

"What happened to Magnus?" I asked, and Randolph turned pale.

"He - he fell out of the bridge. The meteor hit us head-on. I somehow got lucky, but Magnus got launched out of my car and - "

"Randolph." My father's voice turned deadly serious. "I saw your car in a twenty-minute parking lot. Already ticketed. So if I may speak so frankly, let's cut the bullshit and tell us the truth."

I winced at that. Mainly because my father rarely cursed - he had been giving off an air of wholesomeness when I stayed with him. The fact that he was willing to start cursing showed just how far things had gone wrong.

Randolph surrendered at that and started talking — about Aunt Natalie's death and its supernatural causes and how he thought Magnus was the next in line to die. How he believed Magnus was the son of a Norse god and that his birthright was apparently an all-powerful sword. Then he stated he found Magnus in the Chase mansion with the other boy and how the boy had insisted on sticking with Magnus. He told us how he urged Magnus to claim his birthright and that my cousin had succeeded before a man claiming to be Surt appeared.

Then, I learned how some of Magnus's homeless friends had tried to defend him before the other boy stepped up. "Wait. This guy claimed to be a demigod?"

Randolph nodded at that. "Yes. I didn't believe it either - the kid was so thin I could've folded him into my drawers and still have space for my clothes."

"But he still stood up. He and that blasted suitcase-monster of his. He matched Surt, if only for a while. Then Magnus got involved and he was - and he was -"

Randolph shed a few tears, and I almost had to recoil at his words. Still, I soldiered on. Death had always been part of a demigod's life, whether they were victims, witnesses, or causes. I would have time to mourn for the cousin that my family had failed.

"Can you describe what this guy looked like? He may be able to tell us about his relationship with Magnus. And what he knows about the truth." I asked, doing my best to keep the conversation going.

Randolph vibrated, clearly still shaken up. Yet he kept talking. "Of course. Give me a second. Frederick?"

My dad pulled out a few tissues from the pocket of his suit jacket, which Randolph blew into so strongly it reminded me of an elephant. Disposing the tissues into a nearby trashcan, my uncle looked at us.

"Yes. Very recognizable fellow. He disabled all of the electronic alarms I put in there. Thin, of course. Kind of looked like - what do teenagers call pretty boys these days? Never mind. He looked like one of those. Light brown skin. Curly black hair, brown eyes. Magnus probably had a crush on him, considering how he looked at the boy."

I rolled my eyes. "Clothes?"

"Yes, yes. White shirt with a bit of a collar. A green jacket that was too big for him - probably a woman's? Blue jeans. He also had a tool belt."

Suddenly, I felt like I had taken a dip in the Boston River. I had been willing to dismiss the initial description because anybody could've had a similar face and hair. I would've ruined the search if I just looked for the most likely person. But the tool belt was too much out of left field to ignore.

I seized his jacket lapels, almost tempted to lift him up. I could do it, too. Because there was no way the person Randolph was describing to me could've been in Boston, much less alive.

"What was his name?" I whispered out.

"Pardon?"

"What was his name," I repeated myself, tempted to pull out my knife.

"Oh yes. Thankfully, he was upfront about it. Who the hell quotes The Princess Bride?" Randolph gave a small laugh about it before he looked at me straight in the eyes and flipped my world upside down. "His name was Leo Valdez."

End POV.

The Sword of Summer is also flipped upside down because it is no longer just a mission to stop Fenris Wolf from being unleashed upon the nine worlds. With Annabeth finding the truth about Leo's location, nearly all the members of the Argo II crew (Frank and Hazel can't drop their posts in New Rome after all) do their best to get to Boston ASAP. They had never heard any whispers or truths about Leo's circumstances - you know, because Odin needed to keep everything in the DL. Finding out a guy that they believed was dead for six months was actually chilling with homeless dudes in Boston is a recipe to make your friends both pissed and worried at the same time.

Unfortunately, this also puts a kibosh on any plans to follow canon because Leo is now being hunted by his friends in a situation where staying incognito is vital. Of course, they can't break into Asgard or Valhalla because they don't know how to get there. Any attempts at Iris-Messaging Leo go horribly wrong because Iris needs a cross-dimensional roaming plan for her services to work in this situation. When Leo returns to Midgard to help Magnus, the gloves come off on the search.

Leo's involvement doesn't just add spice; it force-feeds the plot enough Carolina reaper peppers to set its mouth on fire and cause diarrhea that needs its own fallout zone. The crew of the Argo II chases him down when Annabeth meets Magnus, leading them to accidentally stumble across the Nine Realms when Percy tracks Magnus and Sam after their encounter with Jormungand. They each end up getting scattered across the Nine Realms - Jason into Jotunnheim, Piper into Svartalfheim, Annabeth falling into Folkvanger, while Percy gets the short end of the stick and is stuck in Midgard.

The Seven think that Magnus and Co. are holding their friend against his will. Magnus believes it's people from Leo's past who want him dead. Leo can't get a single word about the truth as things erupt too easily into conflict, and Odin's mandate for secrecy stops him from giving the full story. Regardless, he tries to keep the peace as he, Magnus, and the rest of the crew run into each other through the realms.

It all accumulates at Lyngvi. Surt arrives. Fenris Wolf tries to break free. The warriors of Floor 19, alongside the Valkyries, actually join up with Magnus and co because Gunilla has been briefed by Odin as to what exactly is going on. And the crew of the Argo II makes landfall right in the middle of the fight. They're all quick to realize that the fire giants are their opponents, and the tide of battle is turned with the sudden influx of reinforcements, no matter their origin.

Having an additional four out of seven heroes who also had a hand in saving the world? One of them, you know, having powers over the ocean in the middle of a freaking island? That's no longer a battle; that's the opposing side being Amazon-delivered to the closest morgue with same-day shipping.

When things are settled, and everyone is tired from simultaneously kicking Surt to the curb and imprisoning Fenris Wolf, things finally get cleared up. Odin reveals himself early to explain to the Seven what happened to Leo on August 1. Of course, Odin does his best to spin things in the best possible light for the Norse Pantheon and portray himself as doing his best to help Leo recover from the post-death experience. Leo is always welcome to stay at Hotel Valhalla or return to Camp Half-Blood, but he urges the rest of the Seven that they will have to keep their experience secret.

The Seven think Leo will go back to Camp Half-Blood. After all, in their eyes, Camp is the place that Leo is most familiar with. It's the place that he should belong. This is his chance to take a clean break from his stay at Hotel Valhalla and return to Camp Half-Blood. Only Odin knows differently, while everyone on the 19th Floor, alongside Magnus and Co., is wondering if Leo really is going to drop them like a flaming bag of turd.

And Leo declines. In another lifetime, in another set of circumstances, he may have joined the Seven and returned to Camp Half-Blood. But now? Well... he would admit, he has grown to love Hotel Valhalla. Though he gets bodied daily, he feels included compared to the months he spent in Bunker Nine hammering away at the Argo II. He has friends with which he can actually be friends, compared to his time being the only person in a sea of couples. And maybe he's gotten attached to Magnus, but they didn't need to know that.

He doesn't say goodbye. With enough time, they can genuinely be friends instead of the coworker dynamic he always felt he had with the rest of the Argo II crew. So, instead, he hands Piper the last invention he made before his world was once again dominated by a quest to save the world. For a second, she thinks it's a remote. And in a way, it is. His name is written on it in ancient Greek. But it only has a single button, with a single rune.

ᛗ

Mannaz (For those more knowledgeable, please excuse me if I'm wrong and correct me) is the rune of humanity as a concept—of society, friendships, individuality, and a person's willingness to help one's fellow human. The intention is clear—he's always a button press away if they ever need help.

With that, the two pantheons go their separate ways. And hopefully, things should be at peace now. Right? Right? ... Right?

But as everyone knows, they aren't. The sun hasn't reached its final verse, Ragnarok still has many triggers, and people scheme to bring everything down behind the shadows. Peace is still a long way off. And Ragnarok will eventually eradicate the world. All everyone is doing is staving off the inevitable.

But then again, isn't that just part of being a demigod?

FIN

P.S. @pjowasmy1stfandom- I've cooked. Hope you enjoy the meal.

[alexrosekey]

Hermione-centric and HP World Building Expansion edition

A late entry from me. Beware that this list is based on my personal preference. If you don't like the ships, remember the rule - don't like don't read. Ship and let ship!

That being said, it has been a while since the last time I've come up with a rec list. But reccing great fanfics has remained one of my greatest passion. Having decided to fully integrated myself into the Harry Potter fandom again, I'm amazed at how creative and talented the authors of this fandom are. There are a plethora of interesting ideas and premises, with various themes and genres along with inquisitive, thoughtful observation regarding the characters and the world building of Harry Potter.

Without further ado, let's dive in to my submission for today's @hprecfest prompt: fics with over 100k+ words. All the fics below are Hermione-centric (one less than the other two but still), with amazing social commentaries on the HP world and impeccable observation on the magical world, which to me are the best aspect of HP fic.

unsphere the stars by @cocoartistwrites (M, 222,827, Hermione Granger/Tom Riddle)

When you can't change time, but you can't go forward, what is left? Hermione learns how to be the protagonist of her own story.

To quote one of the bookmarks: Hermione is more than she ever was. This story is a journey of Hermione to grow, to love and to explore magic and its beauty more than she could ever be. Don't let the pairing deter you, this is no doubt one of the most memorable fanfic reading experience I have in my years of being in fandoms. Hermione and Tom are both portrayed spectacularly and thoughtfully, and the prose are some of the most poetic I've ever seen.

To sum up the whole of my reading experience, I laid on my bed and stared at the ceiling for 30 mins after reading the last chapter, completely shell-shocked.

All I could say is, if you want an astounding character arc for Hermione, with in-depth magical system and immersive world building, plus interesting OCs and breathtaking writing, then this fic is definitely for you!

*This fic could also be placed under the prompt of Day 7: A Canon-Compliant Fic.

2. What's Past is Prologue by ABitofWit (E, 244,611, Hermione Granger/Lucius Malfoy)

It's eight years after the war and Hermione Granger has taken a break from her career at the Ministry of Magic to compile an oral history of the conflict. She's interviewed just about everyone she can get her hands on but she wants to be thorough. And that means getting in contact with a very unwilling Lucius Malfoy.

Listen, I know the pairing is weird as fuck. I know, I had my doubt too before reading it. But the raving bookmarks convinced me to give this a chance. And boy, it was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

This fic is more than just a ship fic, it's about love and what we would do for it, the greyness of life and choices, of redemption and finding one's self worth outside of pre-existing, archaic ideas and values. It's about change and how we're never too old to learn. WPIP is everything I've ever wanted in a fic, emotional, sincere, humorous, gorgeous, sexy, steamy and sweet. Full of heart and soul.

Most of all, the development of and between Hermione and Lucius is so natural and makes a lot of sense, without them being OOC. This fic reminds me that Hermione is not at all flawless (the opposite of the usual Mary-Sue, little-miss-perfect trope that Hermione tends to be portrayed in fics), while successfully humanizes and makes Lucius Malfoy one of the most interesting HP characters in my eyes. (Who would have thought that I've spent years not giving a jot about this guy, only to fall in love with such a mess of a man like him??)

Combine with sharp commentaries and observations on the British Wizarding World, Wizarding politics and a not-canon folder supporting cast, this is no doubt one of the best HP fic, and one of the best fanfic I've ever had the pleasure to read.

*This fic could also be placed under the prompt of Day 2: A Comfort Fic and Day 9: A Rare Pair Fic.

3. Six Pomegranate Seeds by Seselt (E, 185,965, no pairing but implied Theodore Nott/Hermione Granger)

At the end, something happened. Hermione clutches at one fraying thread, uncertain whether she is Arachne or Persephone. What she does know is that she will keep fighting to protect her friends even if she must walk a dark path.

Sooo, this is one very weird fic. One of the oddest fics I've ever encoutered, in fact. I've read it twice, one before I read the book series in full, one after I've finished the books. And let me tell you, SPS is a stunning work.

The odd, floating third-person POV, the dry and sharp, straightforward tone of Hermione. Her competency, her compassion despite all the pain and the emotional repression. This is definitely not your usual time travel fix-it fic.

Most of Hermione's work happened in tandem with the 7 books' main storyline. Hermione's soul is put into the body of a young orphan Pureblood heiress. This gives the fic one of the most interesting spin on the Hermione-is-a-pureblood trope.

Through Hermione, we have a closer look into the background and the context of the main events of the books, plus a deeper understanding of the Pureblood society and a much more sympathetic view into the students Slytherin house. All without whitewashing and offsetting the corruption and the effects of the Purebloods and the Slytherins' stuffy, archaic views on not only the young generation of students but also the British Wizarding world.

I lost count of the amount of time I slapped my knees while reading this work the second time whenever I encountered a particularly sharp line of thought/commentary from Hermione in this fic. I'm also amazed at how much work and research the author has put into SPS, particularly in terms of making up tons of new magical theories and the use of exotic and lesser known vocabulary (seriously, if you decide to read this one, prepare a dictionary next to you, or get ready to regularly stop mid reading in order to look up certain words 😆)

*This fic could also be placed under the prompt of Day 7: A Canon-Compliant Fic.

That being said, thank you for checking out my list! Thank the admins of @hprecfest for holding such a fun activity. Feel free to join in yourself. Happy reading 💋

Day 16: A fic that made you laughed

Day 19: Fic with the hottest smut

Day 22: An unfinished fic (hasn't updated in 10 years or the author stated it has been abandoned)

Day 26: A fic with an ending you can't stop thinking about

[yandere-sins]

Consequences

I’ve been playing with this idea for a while but I wasn’t sure how to properly use it. But it worked well with this prompt!! Enjoy ^-^

Fandom: Twisted Wonderland   Pairings: Yandere!Malleus Draconia x GN!Reader   Warnings: Yandere, Imprisonment, Dependency

Prompt:  @sintember You got yourself into this mess - It is your fault, but did you deserve this? Could anyone?

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Footsteps resounded heavily through the hallways outside the cell you were locked away in. They marched by your door, sometimes hectically in a trot, other times trying to be quiet. You were wringing your hands, stalking back and forth just as nervously as the students outside seemed to be. Everyone in the whole dorm seemed to be on edge after what you did. It was your fault, and they had to clean up your mess, leaving you with a feeling that made your stomach churn.

It had already been two days since you went into hiding, Diasomnia doing you a great service by shielding you from the powers raging outside. All you had wanted to do was take a stroll around the forest, take deep breaths and enjoy your time outdoors. A change of scenery, as some might call it, completely different from your desk and books that you hovered over all week. You had been careless, leaving the trail and scavenging the forest alone. Stumbling into a fairy circle may have been the smallest evil you could have met.

Small in comparison? Yes. Any less bad? No.

With your lungs completely destroyed by the frantic breaths you took as you ran back to NRC and straight through the portal, you immediately collapsed before Malleus, wheezing as you clawed at his pants. You barely managed to voice your problem, everyone staring at you as if you were insane, half alert of your closeness to their housewarden. But when you finally managed to cry out the words, "I stepped into a fairy circle!" Malleus's features grew into knowing concern as he gripped you by the shoulders, picking you up and pulling your shaking legs into the dungeon below the dorm, where he locked you in a cell and took the key with him.

You presumed Malleus was taking care of the matter as you paced nervously. He hadn't spoken to you to tell you the next steps. Though he had handled you gently and taken on the responsibility as it seemed, his concern for you only made you worry more. Not even Lilia slipping you a meal the night before had spoken up about what was happening outside your cell, and you never saw so much seriousness on his face before. Being locked up inside the cell and losing your mind seemed like a small punishment for the trouble you had caused. This island wasn't under Malleus's jurisdiction, and it probably was no small feat convincing the other fae folk ruling here to be merciful to a dumb human who made a mistake. You had to put all your hope into Malleus, even though you were tearing your hair out from not knowing what would happen.

All the horror stories about fairy circles became much too real for you too quickly. You still remembered the pull you felt, the invisible force trying to snatch you from this world and deliver you to your new, temporary home, where you'd dance until your mind or body gave up, much to the amusement of the fairies. Even now, far, far away from the circle, you felt it tug at you. Had the door not been locked, you didn't know what would have happened. What you would have done. It was pathetic for a student of magic not to know better. Not to be more careful! But what happened, happened. You already felt terrible, no scolding could affect you anymore.

Spending the better part of that day alone in your dark, cold cell, eventually, your legs gave out, forcing you to sit down on the wooden plank that was your bed and take a moment to rest. Concentrating on your breathing, you managed to calm down a little. But once you did, you heard the slow and steady steps approaching your cell. Steps unlike the hectic and careful ones of the students, but possessing a graceful and confident stride.

Immediately, you jumped up again on wobbly knees, and your cell door was unlocked only moments later. You briefly saw Silver and Sebek before Malleus brushed by them, entering your small cell and closing the door behind him. The moment of silence was slowly choking you as your eyes met, your expectancy reflected in his. What was he going to say? Would you still have to be sacrificed to the fairies? Was it all over for you?

"I convinced them to leave you alone."

With a shuddering breath, you sank to your knees, tears flooding your eyes and spilling as you buried your face in your palms. You were shaking uncontrollably as you sobbed in relief, and when you felt Malleus's hand fall to your shoulder reassuringly as he took a knee next to you, you subconsciously reached for him, pulling him into a tight hug. He returned it after initial hesitation, brushing his second hand down your back reassuringly while letting you cry into his coat. A great honor for someone normal like you to have the heir comfort you.

"But they had some conditions," he eventually added, ruining the moment as your relief instantly turned into worry. You pushed away from him, apologizing under your breath. Wiping the tears from your eyes, Malleus assisted you, eventually curling his fingers under your chin to pull your head up and face him. Demanding your full attention on what he had to tell you, you gulped, knowing you'd not like to hear these conditions he had to agree on.

"You'll have to write an apology letter to them for stepping into their circle and…" Malleus hesitated, his sharp, green eyes staring right into your soul as he let his gaze drift from one of your eyes to the other. His hesitation did nothing to reassure you. It only made the tension you felt throughout your body all the worse. If there was some grave punishment you had to undergo, you didn't want to start the torture with him prolonging your sentencing.

"Please…" you whispered ruefully, slowly lowering your gaze to not impolitely stare at the housewarden any longer. Even if you had forgotten your position a couple of times while in his presence, there was no reason to disrespect your savior any more than you already had. "I will do it. I accept whatever they want me to do. So, just tell me, Housewarden."

You didn't see how, for a split second, Malleus's features turned surprised before satisfaction spread through him, a smile crossing him so briefly it was already gone by the time you looked up again expectantly. He tried to put up a serious expression, having mastered keeping his composure at all times to not give away what he felt. Inhaling deeply, he nodded, partly in understanding where you were coming from but also in respect for you to accept your punishment without complaints.

Gripping you by your arms again, Malleus pulled you up into a stand. One arm reached around you, steading you on your still-shaking legs. The other one held your hand. Squeezing it in a way your attention would shift from surprise about all these comforting gestures back to focusing on what he had to say, you didn't even register that Malleus was holding your hands in his ever so gently as if to say he wasn't going to leave you alone in this.

"They demanded from me to take responsibility for you. As such, you will have to transfer to Diasomnia and study alongside me, effective immediately. You won't be allowed to leave my side so I can supervise you until the fairies' anger at you subsides."

It was a tough pill to swallow, your eyes widening in surprise. One might say it was an honor that Malleus had accepted these conditions involving him. You felt incredibly bad to be burdening him any more, using his goodwill, as some may call it. But at the same time, tending to the housewarden and waiting on him seemed almost as time-consuming as dancing your sanity and life away at the fairies. Your time in this world, at least.

"When… when do you think they'll forgive me?" you asked, wondering if you could possibly take a few semesters off your studies. How else could you possibly manage your own classes and Malleus's at the same time? Accompany him on his trips and whatever he did all day. You didn't even know how much of your time and life he would consume. He had always been so unreachable before it had been hard to truly grasp what his life was like. Even though he had been the one to come to mind in your misery, you didn't really know him at all. And aside from the glances, he seemed to throw at you whenever you met him around the college, he probably didn't know much about you either, much less cared. You must have been a real inconvenience to him, no doubt.

"Ah," he mumbled, taking back one hand to tap his fingers against his lips, eyes closing as he seemed to be deep in thought over your question. "Fairies don't usually forgive someone so easily. It'll probably take a few…"

Days? Weeks? Months?

"Well, what do you say?" he suddenly changed the topic, his expression growing softer as he looked at you with what you could only describe as fondness. Perhaps he wasn't so against the idea of having you around? "I am sure we'll have lots of fun together."

Furrowing your brows, you were quite taken aback by the sudden change. What choice did you really have? If you said no, you had no doubts Malleus had to hand you over to the fairies to keep the peace with them, which would cost you your life. It was a true predicament, but compared to death, Malleus's condition seemed simple and genuinely kind.

"Yes… yes, of course," you agreed, nodding and lowering your head politely. It felt more like you were taking on a job to pay off your debt, but what's done was done. A promise to a fae, even to someone as gracious as Malleus, couldn't be taken lightly either, but you thought it was the right choice.

"So be it!" he declared, sounding exalted. His one hand, still holding yours, squeezed tightly, the door opening behind him as he tugged at your limb, prompting you to follow. Silver and Sebek stood guard outside, and you had no doubt they heard you cry and agree to the promise, which made you both embarrassed and also bound you to your word.

"How long will it take for them to forgive me… what do you think?" you rephrased your question from before as you followed after Malleus, his gait having an unusual spring in his step. "Don't worry about it, Child of Man," he replied dismissively, but catching a glimpse of the side of his face, you saw him smiling uncharacteristically wide from ear to ear. He, at least, didn't seem bothered or disturbed in the slightest, his hand never leaving you.

"Usually, they forgive trespassing in a little less than, let me think…"

Well, compared to you, he was taking it with grace. Maybe you were overthinking it, and things would work out just fine. If Malleus wasn't concerned, then why should you be?

"Mhm, I'm sure a few decades will be enough to repent."

Well, shit.

[emyluwinter]

You know, it seemed strange to me? that in both events with tsums Yuu and Grimm did not appear anywhere.

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe….

While all the students are sleeping peacefully in their cozy soft beds. And only ghosts tirelessly perform their endless and never-ending work. One student can't sleep because of brain fever.

The Onboro dorm. 2 o'clock in the morning. Yuu after 6 cups of coffee and a crazy plan to draw a circle to teleport to their world on pieces from newspapers that they found in the attic. They hadn't slept for three days. They spent so much time in the forbidden sections of the library and read so many confusing lost texts with black and not so much magic that their brains literally boiled with information. Their hands are stained with ink up to the elbows, as if they themselves got out of their overblot. Their hair is so disheveled that a couple of crows definitely already want to rent this "mobile nest" Their bags under their eyes could easily hold the entire stock of apples from the village of Felmer for storage in the winter season.

Finally the formula is complete. Weighed down by insane fatigue and exhaustion, their half-empty eyes follow every line. Praying that their efforts and torments will finally be fulfilled in full.

Portal and the formula works. Grimm watches in horror from his hiding place with the ghosts.

But why does that glow suddenly begin to shine on them from above in the window?Not in the room as they expected and hoped?

Yuu looks out of the window when over the building of their dormitory just at the moment when a hole appears in the sky.

Is this the entrance to their world?!Did they really manage to do it?

-HOLY ICE CREAM. DID IT WORK?! How am I going to jump there now???

Having tasted all the adrenaline from joy, confusion, fear and delight, Yuu see how something penetrates through the hole. Hell no, that's not what they wanted.

Wait a minute.

That wasn't part of the plan.

After looking closely, what kind of creatures are so slowly floating down from the hole. Curiously, the creatures are very similar to NRC students. At least they look charming, but Yuu is not going to go through all the overblots again and have deal not with one harmful ass but with technically two??



Well



This is not a portal to their home. It's not even their dimension or anything like that.



Yuu feel a nervous tic in the eye and eyebrows. All the sleepless nights went to hell, as did their remaining nerves. Now it will definitely be necessary to deal with this as well. Instead of helping themselves, Yuu spread out more rakes on the road and added more small slippery balls on top to make the whole situation EVEN worse.

With a bang and rage, the Prefect closes the window and goes to sleep cursing loudly. Intending to clean up the mess tomorrow morning, rather than dig his grave even deeper.





Attempt number two.

This time Yuu did not sleep for 4 days. 8 cups of coffee drunk. The ghosts introduce a mandatory rule not to give the prefect Coffee and Energy drinks. Never. Under no circumstances. No, it is not allowed during the exams.

"It will definitely work this time." - they purr encouragingly to themselves. A huge canvas of paper glued together with scotch tape and tears filled their entire living room without leaving even a piece for a step. Even Grimm had to be careful not to get his paws and fur dirty in ink or pieces of tape or glue.

Grimm definitely doesn't like the heading - "Fierce crazy experiments with magic and portals from Prefect 2.0"

The portal is triggered again. But again not as planned. Yuu see the light again and look out the window. Another hole in the sky above the building.

-What the hell?!Why is it so high and the same hole???

and

Tsums are falling from the sky again. Now other students. Another headache and worries.

The ghosts had to resort to magic on Yuu to stop them from trying to climb the ladder and get into the hole in the sky above the dormitory. The prefect was wrapped in a soft and fluffy blanket and given hot milk and honey to somehow calm their rage from resentment and disappointment.

…To be continued?

[redd956]

any thoughts about world building medical systems?

Oooo, Medical worldbuilding can be tough, especially in the styles of hard worldbuilding

Think checks, balances, and rules when worldbuilding medical systems and features

Here's some categories you can mess around with, or some good places to start.

Hospitals

Knowing where people go when they're injured or sick can be super important, especially if a story takes place in a hospital a lot.

How available of these medical location?

Are there many different types? (Hospitals vs. Clinics)

What warrants going to the hospital?

What are conditions like here?

How do people get to the hospital?

You can even play with the appearance and layout, especially with fantasy components like magic and technology.

Law

Oh local ethics...

Deciding what are the medical ethics can do wonders on the worldbuilding and what being in recovery looks like.

What are doctors allowed to do?

Do they have a form of HIPPA?

What does medical consent look like?

What is done when someone croaks it?

Think also about how any other form of the world's first responders tie into this

Healing Magic

Healing magic, a worldbuilder's life saver and bane. Healing magic is tough to deal with because its existence completely reconstructs a world in how we see it.

There's the limitation to the healers, the limitation to the magic, and the limitation as to what it can do.

More importantly though, what it can't

How prevalent is healing magic?

How many people have it?

Is there enough people with healing magic to regularly run hospitals? If not are there specialty hospitals where you can find them? Are they so rare that it's nearly impossible to seek their aid?

Potions & Alternative Medicine

Medical also means medicine. We as humans have always had a version of medicine since the dawn of our time.

Think about what medicine are available and how technology/magic affect them.

Are potions added in? What does alternative medicine look like in this world?

Technology

When creating a world high in technology or magic that means technology and magic will find its way in every nook and cranny of life, and that includes medical too

How does technology and/or magic change common injuries, the extent at which one's life can be saved, or the kind of unique injuries magic and technology can cook up?

How do these unique injuries keep up with the world unique medical practices?

What this world has to offer?

Magic, technology, fantasy biomes, fantasy creatures, dimensional travel, diverse species... And more

How do these change the look of people arriving at the hospital?

Here's some examples of medical worldbuilding brought to my Worldbuilding Project: SOA

CW: Blood

Chromatic magic comes in a variety of ways, but the most common way we see it is the damage magic variant. What is life when four year old Jason discovers he shoot magic at the power of automatic rifles out of his fingertips?

It's all fun and games until people cast with lingering intentions. You know a lingering damage magic injury as soon as you see it. Saw a man once stumble into the ER, a bright red glowing wedge etched deep into his thigh. As it continued to pulse with magic it was as if the caster had hit him all over again, and the magic was slowly eating into his muscle.

Blood was everywhere. You could hear it singing into him. It'll keep going until its no longer got a target to cut through or finally it wears off. Unfortunately there's not much you can do. Chromatic healing magic can't uncast a spell.

We just have to wait for the lingering effect to fade away. All us healers can do is give away painkillers like candy, and get to work after it wears off. By Areth I hate damage magic.

[kitkatopinions]

I think it was a mistake to make RWBY a grand epic adventure with relics, maidens, gods, and a supervillain. Keep the show within the simple and fun academy setting with a monster of the week style formula. With the occasional field trip to other places to freshen things up and meet new faces. As bad as the writers are, this would play to their strengths and not their weaknesses. Instead of bloating the cast and inventing new ideas only to never revisit them all while failing basic worldbuilding. Simplifying the story and limiting concepts to dust, aura, and semblances would also save money too. What do you think?

For sure. If we were talking about different writers, I'm actually one of those people that has no problem with the big changes RWBY underwent.

Back when V3 and V4 were new to me, I was totally on board with the changes! A good show can go through a... I don't want to call it a genre shift, but at the very least a plot shift. Things go from 'Ruby Rose and her friends attend a combat school, but there's something brewing under the surface' into 'Team RWBYJNROQ are on a world-saving adventure quest that will take them all over the world searching for magical objects while opposed by an immortal villain.' And to me, that's fine... Except that the writers couldn't handle that strain and couldn't manage to turn one into the other.

They're some weird combination of writers who plan and writers who fly by the seat of their pants, as in it feels like they have some things set that they want to do but never know how they'll get there and then just fumble to do it. This is a pretty bad thing when the show actually relies on things like magic system and world building now. A loose magic system was fine when it was 'Team RWBY has super-powers, they're in school to help them use it to destroy giant robots' but it's not fine when it's 'Team RWBY want to use the magical staff to save Penny and make a magical route to Vacuo and have to use the specific magical rules to do it and then they fall into a magical world that the gods came from.' That requires care and attention and lore-building, all things that the writers aren't good at. And big overarching plots are great, but not when the writers can't seem to actually get anywhere with it, can't seem to remember to have the mains learn and grow in significant ways, can't seem to keep track of who knows what, and can't seem to make their writing choices have any real significant impact.

I say this all the time, but the reason I have so many problems with the writing in RWBY isn't the thing itself, it's the fact that the writers don't understand what they can and can't handle.

This is why if a RWBY rewriter or fixer is like 'here's how I'd handle serious topics like XYZ' or is like 'I still plan to kill Penny/Pyrrha' or 'I'm definitely still including Maidens/Relics/Gods' or even does something like have Oz in Jaune's head or something, I'll caution them to be careful but I have zero problem with it actually because there's very little that I think a skilled and passionate writer can't do well (this is also why I'm never gonna be a 'stop making live actions' girlie.) But as for the RWBY writers we do have, yeah, they really should've stuck to what they were good at, the slightly more low stakes fun with an underlying tension somewhat episodic monster-of-the-week thing about teenagers and their fun little dramas. I'm not even trying to say that badly, I think I would love it! But instead what we got is a hot mess of jumbled half-complete ideas that are badly written at best and actively offensive and harmful at worst.

What a bummer.

[tanglepelt]

Run Ghost Run - 14

prev master ao3

John Talks to Lady Gotham. Jason talks to Bruce. They have varying levels of success.

John was over the bat.

He just walked in silence. Com clicking away. No response after no response. Yet the man stayed silent. Looming in the shadows. Hell. It was annoying.

Not to mention Gotham as a whole. How he despised this city. He was very over Gotham, this town really stunk. Curses ran a mock in this city. Death gets trapped and corrupted here.

Only reason they didn’t run amock was due to the city's resident ecto-being lady Gotham. She managed to either absorb those stuck or shoo them out to be others’ problems. Lady Gotham was obsessed with protecting this city.

By all right. Should be in the realm herself.

But no. She got bloody obsessed with Gotham, that was a pain ta realize. Claimed the bloody city as if it was her own. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say she was obsessed with the bats.

The bat.

He could live without him. You can only take so much of the brooding and the arguments about science vs magic. Why did the being have ta choose Gotham? Desperation despair, just why here of all places.

Bloody hell. She don’t even let other entities here. More than one odd fight here and there. Ghost disputes. Ain’t cause damage as she kept the lot from causing any.

She ain’t let squat through. So why come to Gotham of all places? Maybe this guy felt Lady Gotham's presence. Or maybe she reached out to him? Or just completely dumb luck?

Wherever the kid was Lady Gotham would know. Knowin' her got a deal out of it or something.

Granted. Gotham was the ideal place for these entities to hide. Factoring in he could be hiding out. The stench of Gotham would by the time he supposes. Wouldn’t be the first time something tried to hide out here.

 As much as the bat disliked the occult, his entire city was crawling with the stuff. Just had to get the kid hope he ain’t dead and go from there. Just had to stop the infinite realm from going all out.

Bloody hell. Yeas. This was just peachy.

“Where’s the kid?”

A grunt. That’s the response he got. He was typing away again. If the world wasn’t on the line he’d be amused. Of all the times for the cold shoulder. It sure wasn’t bloody today. Who knows what condition the entity would be in? Blood blossoms aren't a joke.

The US government. Well, they were a joke. God bless England, it ain’t condemning the world to an apocalypse. He didn’t want to think of the other possibilities they could do. Just had to mess with an entire dimension.

 Whoever had the supposed kid was still not responsive.

You’d think at a certain point he’d stop calling. Didn’t he have trackers on everyone or something? Like he’s a detective and all. Trackers just for him.

Hell, he couldn’t even sense any ego signature in the city, well minus Lady Gotham’s. Her ectoplasm was stretched all throughout the town. She was also directing her essence directed at him. Couldn’t feel jack cause of it.

Clearly, not a fan he was in her city.

If anything is here, he wouldn’t know.

Same ain’t true outside of Gotham. Before entering the city boundaries. He felt it, something coming this way. A newly formed ecto entity less than a year old, one beelining it.

It wasn’t a baby ancient or even a world ending in strength. Maybe a scout? That didn’t feel quite right either. Still too young to have any proper training. If it were possible, he’d say it was just forming a core. Which didn’t track.

Those things came premade. They pop into existence with them. No forming happens. A life moved on to the afterlife, not ready to give up or it's somehow too powerful for a normal afterlife. Instantly knew the rules for the realm.  Instantly knew their powers.

Then deal with the other beings. Fighting to learn their powers all to help the younger ones use them properly. This didn’t track.

That young of a being ain’t supposed to be out and about.

Well, whatever it was would be on Gotham’s doorstep soon.

Time was not their friend. When was it?

Lady Gotham decided to push more of her ectoplasm toward him. Great.

Bloody hell. He was gonna have to deal with Lady Gotham. The only way to find this entity. Hell. Maybe he’ll get lucky, and she’ll spill.

She didn’t like him, and he didn’t like her.

Having all your thoughts shared made it awfully tricky to get a loophole in any deal. Ugh. Oh well. He’d figure it out. If the bat was no help. He’d just go around the guy. Unless he finally got an answer.

Another failed call.

Screw it.

He wasn’t bound to the bat.

“I’m out. Follow my own hunch. Pester lady Gotham. She got ta be hiding him.”

Only a grunt. The guy must be stuck in his phone. Whoever had the kid aint talking? He won't waste time waiting. Best to go hunt down Lady Gotham. He knows her tricks and knows better than to make any deals. He should be able to get at least something out of her, joint feelings and all. Just had to use that to his advantage.

He’s done it before.

Now to deal with Lady Gotham. Great. Well… she agreed to meet with him. Even before he sent out a request to her. Her ecto signature hit him like a brick of walls. He allowed the void to take him.

What business do you have here John could feel her anger.

Let an ecto being here anytime recently.

Protectiveness hit him.

What business do you have with the prince?

Dread filled the channel between them.

F*ck

What business do you have with the prince?

Blood blossoms were injected into him. He needs help don’t he?

He Is with my favorite knight. Any human in possession of these blossoms will be dealt with. No more will be permitted within his presence. He is under my protection now.

Gotta be affecting him. If the kids a royal and I can’t feel it. It’s bad. Not even you could hide his signature alone.

There was some form of discomfort creeping in between them.

Kid needs help.

As long as you are working with Batman. You arrived with him. Unlike normal. I will not help. The deal I have stricken will remain unbroken. That holds the prince to remain under my protection. Until Gotham is unsafe he is suck. I shan’t lead my knight to him.

I’ll ditch the bat. That ain’t a problem.

Then we shall strike our own deal

****

The kid was out. No time like the present to deal with Bruce.

“What”. Bruce was lucky Jason could go outside via the window. He would not risk waking that kid up. Only reason he was willing to talk. Well. Willing was a strong word. He just needs information, to find out what is going on. Maybe get the kid's parents' name out of the conversation.

Purely for educational reasons, no other reason.

Wouldn’t know how much he’d get until he dealt with the man.

Bruce was just as stubborn as him.

Might as well make this as quick as he could.

“I just got that kid into a bed. Dealt with his injuries. Kids lucky he didn’t bleed out jumping off a roof. Might I remind you to avoid you guys? Whatever you need, make it quick.”?

“This is serio-“

“Kid was vivisected. Know that? Parents no less. If you have info about his health or well-being I’ll take it, show up here and we bounce. Kid and I quote specifically said no cops or those weird vigilantes. I’ll take my chances.”

“He was poisoned by something called blood blossoms; Constantine says they're deadly to ecto-entities.”

“You have a cure” Bruce better have some solutions or something. He will not let this kid die on him.

“Constantine said he’d have to look” Bruce’s voice was more frustrated than normal. Most of been trying to deal with this for a while.

The kid needed treatment and the blood blossom thing had to be a recent discovery. None of the attempts to contact him had been as separate as the last few.

“That ain’t gonna work, that kids running if someone shows up here. I’ve managed to get him some help by being his best option. We’re both guilty of crimes ya know.”

“He needs help you can’t give”.

“I’ve done more than your merry band. They scared him off a roof. That could have been fatal” from what he’d gathered. It was the “blood” son who caused that mess. Dick just got stuck with the blame.

“Danny is a teen who is terrified. Having someone come around ain’t gonna help.

That kid certainly won’t trust a drunk in a trench coat. He doesn’t even trust me; he just knows I ain’t turning him in. I only know what I know cause he accidentally spilled when I was patching the kid up. Not very tight-lipped when pretending he is fine.

I’ve barely managed to get him any medical treatment. It’s not a pretty sight. If that kid bolts and these stitches pop again, he very well could bleed out. Blood blossoms aside.

No way you’ll be able to convince him to go with you willingly nor let anyone near him. Couldn’t John just use his magic or whatnot to work just close by”?

“Hm”

“Did Constantine ditch the big bad bay?” Jason could find the humor in that even given the situation. So they had to figure out some way to get this handled.

Getting him to agree to let a British English man come over. That ain’t happening. Not like that. Not when the kid likely has some of his powers back.

But.

Maybe. Instead of a random British man, he could bring up an older British man. John would have to figure out lurking from a distance, he could lurk around while Alfred was in the apartment. Kid clocked him when he was on the roof. Couldn’t just have John show up to sneak about. What if he got sensed out as well?

Bruce and them were a no-go. Too public or too suspicious.

Use Alfred. Lie and say he knows a guy. Not a doctor just an older man who offered help. More luck with him then the drunk. Then he’d at least get better medical attention. He could handle this stuff with no problem. He was most certainly not on Alfred’s level.

“Just maybe I could convince him to let Agent A stop by.

Not ideal. But just maybe it could work. Have John show up at the same time. Let him feel around.

The ectoplasm in the vial seemed to help the kid out. Have one of the bats come and grab it. They can pass that off to John for now.

That’s the only way any of this will work. The kid has powers and all. For now, it’s my only offer.”

Crash bang

That was coming from inside the apartment. Oh no. It’s been like 8 minutes did he wake up? Did he hear any of this? Was it actually super hearing?

“What was tha-“

“Gotta go”

“Don’t-“ Jason hung up mid-sentence. He had to see what’s up. Maybe the kid just tried to leave again and failed. Knocked over the side table or something.

Getting back into the apartment Just in time to see Danny's panic and fear evident in his eye bolting. Once again going intangible right before his eyes. Backpack in hand.

F*ck.

[iwantjellyfsh]

Crossover Fics I would die happy if were created.

TGCF x DC Universe - Mu Qing gets into DC universe somehow and becomes either becomes a League of Assassins' servant (Damian's personal one) or Alfred adopts him. Either way exploring what Mu Qing feels being a servant to the wealthy again. Or in the Damian one, Mu Qing comes to Gotham with Damian because like hell is he letting this literal child go alone (he's getting Hong Honger flashbacks). And the batfamily just wonders why tf Damian is so not a little demon brat to Mu Qing. (there has to be some symbolism with blue, like if he wears it bc that's what he wore during the Xian Le servant era)

DC Universe x Class of 09 - Kind of like a Magic & Mystery situation with Tim Drake infuriating the school. It could be a trafficking ring because of how many p3doph!les there are or smt. Either Tim interacting with the absolute insanity that is (I think the game location is georgetown?) highschool. Or him coming back messed up to bits like "Miss. I'm a sociopath" is coming back with a bang. The ending with prison maybe Timcole can see Joker? And manipulate him? Either joins the rouges or manipulates them.

MDZS x DC Universe - Lan Wangji as Damian Wayne makes so much sense to me. Emotionless, rule following, animal lovers. Would Lan Zhan find comfort in the LOA? Following their rules and training? It's just really interesting... does he find Wei Wuxian (ship of choice)? Lan Xichen (definitely Dick Greyson)?

TGCF x DC Universe - Hua Cheng / Tim going crazy trying to find Xie Lian. Becomes a rouge and breaks into bat cave cutely. Batfamily or the Sirens start finding the little stalker cute. Maybe Xie Lian just doesn't exist in this world and Ra's tries to grab the little psycho. Maybe he becomes batman when Bruce get's lost in the time stream?

Black Butler x DC Universe - Ciel Phantomhive as Bruce Wayne. Sebastian Michaels as Alfred Pennyworth... Unlocked after Bruces parents die? Alfred always knew????

Angels of Death x DC Universe - I want Rachel at the ending to attempt self delete but she like fails (Zack is still gone (maybe)) and decides to run away to the states. I want Rachel to attempt to be like Zach and for Jason to find her. Like he's doing his shtik at the LOA and he find Tichel either getting hurt or murdering someone. Or Tichel is still Red Robin somehow but they imprint on each other when Jason goes to kill them. I want family feels luving !!!

Bungo Stray Dog's x DC Universe - Rampo dies super sad but BUT he comes back as Damian Wayne and can you imagine this 26 year old man who's never run a mile in his life do assasin training? LOA doesn't give good vibes and Ramian makes that everyones problem. Also he completely shows up Tim Drake and Bruce Wayne "Smartest Detective Duo" This is his PRIDE on the line ppl! Does he do vigilante things or sneak in the background because violence is boring snacks are life?

Genshin Impact x JJK - Imagine Kaebedo as Satosugu. Does Albedo take the Gojo Clans whole thing laying down? Imagine calm Gojo I think canon would combust. Kaeya stays mostly the same in my opinion...

Danny Phantom x Class of 09 - Nicole dies then just decides to sonder off to the most haunted place ever™. She could become Danni (clone) somehow or be Phantom... Ghost King Nicole is my Roman Empire she'd burn the place to the ground.

TGCF x Naruto - Can go Kakashi as Xie Lian or Xie Lian as Kakashi, either way is about to come more traumatized than anyone barganed for. Obito / Hua Cheng can come too because the obsessiveness. Make Hua Cheng / Obito a little more crazy and he wants infinate Tsukoyomi so Xie Lian / Kakashi will quit being traumatized !!! Codependency is key and they could both join Akatsuki for shits and giggles.

Demon Slayer x Angels of Death - Muichiro with Rachel Gardener personality is curious... how much would be different?

[yuurei20]

Twisted Wonderland, the Novel: Malleus Draconia Talk

It is the night before the duel between Ace, Deuce and Riddle, and no one is able to fall asleep. The three begin discussing the events of the day, and the topic turns to the mysterious Malleus Draconia.

--

"Though he has been lying still for some time, sleep does not come easily to Yuuya. It seems to be the same for Ace and Deuce, as he can hear them tossing and turning nearby. There is simply too much to worry about.

'Trey-senpai looked depressed,' Yuuya whispers into the dark.

Yuuya remembers how Trey had looked when he returned, alone, to Heartslabyul. He had seemed so worn down on his way to the Hall of Mirrors. Yuuya wonders what he must be doing now.

‘Because Ace had to go and open his big mouth.’

‘What’s your problem? Everything I said was 100% the truth.’

‘But I think—I don’t know, but I feel like I understand a little about how Housewarden Rosehearts turned out the way he did, after hearing all that from Clover-senpai. Well I don’t really understand, but I think that’s part of it. I’ve never been forced to study every day, to always be top of the class, to always live up to my family’s expectations.’

‘Nah, that’s got nothing to do with it. Whether he’s got his reasons or not, that fanaticism is overkill. It’s so stupid.’ Ace gives a snort of laughter. ‘I heard THE Malleus Draconia is at the school. And Housewarden of Diasomnia? That could have something to do with it, too.’

Malleus Draconia. Yuuya could swear he has heard that name somewhere before.

‘Is he famous?’

‘You’ve never heard of…oh, right. Yuu wouldn’t know.’ Ace chuckles again. ‘Okay, so, there’s this famous mage called Malleus Draconia. He’s a faerie, and some prince of somewhere. He is stupidly powerful, and they say he’s even one of the top five mages in the world.’

‘Ah—the one everyone was talking about at the opening ceremony!’

That’s right. At the ceremony, the vice Housewarden of Diasomnia had said that name. And then everyone around them had started to whisper it as well. While just a few days ago, to Yuuya it feels like an ancient memory.

Lying alongside Yuuya in their bed, Grim scrunches up his nose with a sound of disapproval.

’That guy, does he really stand out that much? I don’t like thinkin’ about people payin’ more attention to just some guy than they do to me.’

‘I’m telling you right now, you don’t want to mess with Malleus Draconia. You’re not even a fly in his ear to him.’

‘That sounds right. I’ve heard about Draconia-senpai, too. They say he’s always escorted by bodyguards, and is almost never seen in public.’

‘Bodyguards? It’s impossible to get close to even the normal Diasomnia students. They say that place is full of people with the strongest magic, and I heard from guys in class that they always act all sophisticated and elite. Add bodyguards to the mix and I would never try to talk to someone like that.’

‘And that’s not all. That Draconia-senpai, I heard there was a time he came to Heartslabyul on some kind of errand. And suddenly…all the flowers in the rose maze died in a frost.’

Yuuya impression of Heartslabyul’s rose maze is of a vast, sprawling expanse of flowers that seems to stretch on forever beneath a bright blue sky. What kind of powerful, terrifying magic had been used in order to kill them all at once?

Grim shudders at Yuuya’s side.

‘Now that’s scary,’ exclaims Ace. ‘You just know that was a warning, too. He was saying, ‘and this is what I’m gonna do to you all, the next time’!’

‘It’s just a rumor that I heard—I don’t know the details. But what does Draconia-senpai being here have to do with Housewarden Rosehearts’…enthusiasm?’

‘Look at the Housewardens we’ve got right now—they’re basically on par with monsters, right? That’s gonna attract some attention from both inside and outside of campus. I think that’s part of what has got him so worked up. He’s a complete narcissist.’

‘I dunno. We were told he’s been like this about rules before he even came here. Even without a reason like that, I think Housewarden Rosehearts would be real strict.’

‘And that’s how we ended up like this.’

Deuce and Ace’s conversation fills Yuuya with anxiety. 

Riddle of Heartslabyul.

Leona of Savanaclaw.

Both of the Housewardens that Yuuya has met thus far had an air of dignity that made him stand up straighter the moment he laid eyes on them.

There is no doubt that Diasomnia’s Malleus must be the same.

A person of such overwhelming power and presence that he commands respect from even the roughest students at Night Raven College.

And he is only one of seven Housewardens at the school—that is the kind of person that Ace and Deuce are going to fight.

‘Be careful not to get hurt, tomorrow.’

‘We know!’ They reply lightheartedly, in unison. It is the exact response that Yuuya had been expecting, but he simply had to say it.

’Speaking of, who is going to go first? We haven’t worked that out yet.’

‘You can go ahead first, Deuce.’

‘You don’t mind? Since it’s you, I had thought you’d say like, ‘I am the one who first called for a duel, so I have the right to the first fight!’, or something.’

‘Well, even if it’s only you, I figure the Housewarden might get a little tired out. Beating him down afterwards is the smarter move.’

‘…what? You tryin’ to say that I’m gonna lose!?’

In the exact same atmosphere as the night before, Ace and Deuce begin to bicker. No matter how lively their argument becomes, however, Yuuya’s uneasiness is unmoved. 

Grim gives a wide yawn at his side and Yuuya follows his lead, closing his eyes to fall asleep."

[kranagok0]

Now I'm looking at what character I create to make a romance with Aunt Astrid.

I mean, I already have a plot made and everything.

He has already seen and met the trio of strange friends that are mainly Hilda, David and Frida. However, I have seen one or another publication putting Kaisa, the bell ringer, and Johana as another trio of friends who did their crazy things in Trollberg.

So I think the ideal would be to put Astrid with two other people just as crazy as her. I know I was with Phinium and Layra, but I would like to experiment a little using other characters, like Tildy.

Just imagine the chaos they would have made when they were young. Although I still don't know who to put as the third friend, if I don't find anyone I'll have to make an OC for that. What I care about is making a plot about Astrid's life when she was young, more or less at the age of 15-19.

I still think that Astrid and Pilkvist were very chaotic when they were young. They went wherever they wanted and left a mess like a force of nature.

How is the basic idea of each trio of friends would be divided into a way of how they were when they were young.

Johana and Hilda: *the friend who does dangerous things without thinking twice.

*At some point they had a weapon and will not hesitate to use it for self-defense

*Their friends are very important to them, you literally have to expect anything from them if you threaten their loved ones (even immolating at any moment)

*They are part magical creatures and they don't know it.

*Adventure is his daily bread

Frida and Kaisa: *they are witches, and very good at what they do

*If you have doubts about something, look it up and read it until you memorize each paragraph (even the footnote)

*They have their unbridled side when the situation warrants it (or when the influence of the group's adventurer manages to reach them)

*Normally they don't use magic unless it's an emergency…. But sometimes there are fun exceptions and others for pleasure.

*Before they followed the rules But now they break them.

*They would both kill for a book when they have gone at least 8 hours without seeing one.

David and the Bellcamper: *they are the most normal of the group, although they also have certain characteristics that make them stand out.

*[Insert Billy and Mandy song against the bogeyman here. You know which one].

*After several traumas with their new friends, they now enjoy life better and are more relaxed…. At least when they are not on an 'adventure' as their friends like to call their many crazy trips.

*They may not have powers, but do not doubt them when jumping into action to help their friends

An extra point is that, at some point in their lives, they have committed a terrorist act for the greater good.

And don't deny it to me. We all know that the destruction of the bell mechanism was not as subtle as they expected.

Astrid fits the criteria of being the chaotic adventurer who wants to explore this vast new unknown world. However, he does not know anything about it and that gives him problems when arriving at small towns or cities like Trollberg or Tofoten the first time he arrives.

Matilda Pilkvist, a young woman with a promising future but with a great hunger for knowledge and wanting to live unique experiences while experimenting with creating spells or finding some that have been lost over time. To do this, I would travel the world in search of many places whose culture has almost completely disappeared.

The third friend should be someone normal. Or at least less powerful than the other two girls. Someone to be the rational mind in all this chaos. I mean, we have to admit that Tildy and Astrid possibly lived life to the fullest when they were young, so much so that they ended up banned from some towns.

If I don't find someone elderly who meets those characteristics, then I will have to create an OC for this story. I'm even talking to a friend about this to find out how to proceed.

When I have my session on AO3 I will upload several one-shots and some original fanfic. It's gonna take long. Obviously I don't know how to use AO3 But over time that gets fixed.

[kisuminight]

Can Blades be Corporeal without a Driver?

Short answer is no. Longer answer is yes, but things get weird and they are not quite considered a Blade anymore. XC 2 calls these Blades flesh eaters. This AU will call them Heartstealers because that is dramatic and also relevant.

Heartstealers are Blades that have incorporated enough cells (data, in this AU) from their Driver that their core crystal has assimilated them and grown a copy of the Driver’s heart and now the Blade is in Resonance with themselves. Ways to become a Heartstealer:

Fight past their own instinctual love and protectiveness for their Driver, rip out their Driver’s heart, and implant it in themselves. This usually only happens if the Blade is very desperate and the Blade-Driver relationship very bad.

Somone is doing inhumane experiments involving strapping down Blade-Driver pairs and surgically removing pieces of the Driver that are then implanted in the Blade

A Driver is killed practically on top of their Blade in a brutal enough manner (shredded, exploded) that the Blade’s fading bodying incorporates enough pieces of them to hit the assimilation point.

Of these, scenario 2 is most typical. For the Heartstealer process to take, there must be enough mystical “weight” behind the sacrifice from the Driver. Just trying to move a kidney or chunk of liver from the Driver to the Blade will just mean the Driver has lost and organ and the Blade’s body rejects it. In more general terms, if a Blade becomes a Heartstealer, the Driver is dead.

Scenario 1 is the least likely to happen, but it is the one everyone ascribes to Heartstealers. Social perception is Player-centric, so default reaction is to assume the Blade is Scary and Evil rather than that they may have been a victim, grieving survivor, or very, very desperate.

The thing about the Driver being dead? Yeah, that sticks true even in a MC AU. In XC 2, which is real world-ish, the Driver is expected to die. In MC, we have Respawns—and they do not work in this case. Even on a server such as Hypixel (infinite respawns) or DSMP (multiple canon lives), the Blade becoming a Heartstealer completely removes the Driver from the equation.

For an in-universe explanation: what the Blade does is rip out and assimilate chunks of data from the Driver. They are stealing and absorbing the code that makes a Player a Player. The remaining personal data of the Driver is just a jumbled mess of junk that cannot be read by the server and is disposed of. Straight to the void, no Limbo for you, even if this happened on the DSMP server.

Heartstealers now count as a Player. They can get sick. They can die. They now adhere to the life system of whichever server they are taking residence on. They don’t forget when they die. However, they cannot return to core crystal form due to the foreign/non-magical Player code they contain.

This non-magical code can make a Heartstealer’s power fluctuate. Usually, they end up weaker than they were as a Blade. They bleed now. It’s horrible, and they have less control of their aether. Even though Heartstealers count as Players, they still have enough Blade-based magic to being in Resonance with another Player (if they trust them) or another Blade. A Heartstealer can be on either the Blade side or the Player side of a Resonance. Sometimes even both at the same time.

~

c!Technoblade is a Heartstealer. What's his origin scenario? Bruh, no one but Phil gets to know that. Yes, they are in Resonance.

c!Skeppy is almost this in this AU? He and Bad did a demon ritual that required Bad losing his heart and Skeppy giving up chunks of his core crystal. Their situation is the exception that proves the rule, and it is the basis for lore where Bad has infinite lives as long as Skeppy is around, even on limited life/respawn servers like the DSMP.