#as i draw i Can see the similarities. like you know his Al Features

[dilfsuzanneyk]

combatting my same face syndrome by drawing 80s al vs post-lasik al

[sacrilegiious]

hi, my loves ! 4am but we're finally here, intro almost posted. i'm daisy ( she/her ) and this is my bby dawn. i've been playing her for a while now and i'm so excited to get to it again and see how she will interact with all of your lovely muses. dawn is my headstrong, always down to fight, antisocial girl - genuinely an all round asshole but with her heart in the right place i think ? i guess that judgment is yours to make. def looking forward to plotting w all of u okay byyyee ! <;33

꒰⠀⠀⠀⠀shin ryujin.   twenty-one.   cis woman.   she/her.⠀⠀⠀⠀꒱        hold your f*** horses !   ’dawn'  soojin jeong   has just been spotted walking into revolution headquarters. they are best known for being the   drummer   in   rad   and have been signed with the label for   six months.   they share a lot of interesting things about life in the music industry on their social media, so make sure you don’t forget to follow them at   @fuckoffjake.  fans know them for being   ruthless   but i swear they’ve got a   protective   side as well. maybe that explains why they’re always associated with   sleepless nights spent under neon lights, fingers impatiently drumming on a desk, dark eyes that refuse to look away first.   stan twitter even voted them most likely to   overthrow the government.   we’ll see how they live up to that reputation.

basics.

name:  soojin “dawn” jeong.

nicknames:  u can try i guess.

gender:  cis woman

pronouns:  she/her.

age:  21.

date of birth:  march 23rd 2001.

astrological sign: aries

place of birth: seoul, sk

nationality: korean-american

ethnicity: korean

occupation:  drummer at rad / architecture student.

sexual & romantic orientation:  bisexual, biromatic.

longest relationship: like a month probs.

appearance.

height:  1.64m / 5′4″  (as i’m being told)

weight:  50kg / 110lbs.

hair colour:  naturally black (does like dying it though).

hair style:  rn short-ish, almost reaching her shoulders.

eye colour: brown.

clothing style:  tomboy meets goth witch. almost exclusively black.

tattoos:  has several. a little D and a moon on her left hand, a rythmic score on her right ribs, a little black cat on her hip.

piercings:  ear lobes & left ear helix.

defining features:  whisker dimples, mole under left eyebrow.

character.

positive traits:  ambitious, charismatic, intelligent, self-reliant, daring, witty.

negative traits:  controlling, haughty, choleric, abrasive, impatient, judgy.

likes:  rock music, cats, the city at dawn, cool architecture, hot chocolate, asmr.

dislikes:  people (especially cis men), planes, haunted houses, brussels sprouts.

skills & languages.

notable skills: drumming, drawing, good memory, pen / drum stick spinning.

secret talents: lock picking, horseback riding.

languages spoken: Korean, English, Japanese & a bit of French.

biography.

tw: v minor mention of violence

born as jeong soojin in seoul, her life has always been predetermined by her last name, her family. she was the first child of her rather prominent parents, alongside her twin brother and both of them grew up surrounded by wealth, learning a second language by the age they were four and a third one from age nine. generally, their parents tried their best to give them everything you were supposed to give a child in order for it to develop promisingly. if raising a child were similar to a math equation that is. the only thing that they were missing, that no money or good intentions could afford them, was privacy. being one of the children of the ceo of a successful real estate company and a prominent politician meant they were always somewhat in the eye of the public. not enough to constantly be of relevance to the media but enough for any missteps to find an audience. 

making mistakes was never an option. failure not in her vocabulary as she grew up and became the over-achiever her parents had always hoped for. she was on top of her class ever since starting school and later on became not only student body president in her high school but also picked up all the right hobbies. playing the violin, horseback riding, fencing - excelling in apparently everything she touched. all the success came with a price though, the rigorous self-discipline, the complete disregard of her actual nature. inside all she felt was emptiness and that emptiness was only replaced by burning, raging anger. when she was thirteen, her blood absolutely boiling with unbridled rage, she became violent towards a classmate of hers. an incident that didn’t cause a big scandal solely because once she got home, bloody fists and all, her parents immediately paid off both the parents of said classmate as well as the members of the press who had heard of the story. everything was kept under tight wraps but it was clear there was an issue, a problem, with the golden child. therefore, she was brought to therapy, diagnosed with anger management issues and recommended to pick up a hobby that might help her with her situation. among the provided examples was drumming, something soojin would have never been allowed previously but that soon became her favorite thing to do. 

in the end, graduating with stellar results was no issue, if one thing came relatively easy to her it was academic success. still, however, she felt empty inside. felt caged in this life she had never picked yet never really tried to fight either. that was until now, when she could finally convince her parents to let her study abroad. embellishing her arguments with how impressive it would look on her CV and how it would help both her cultural and language education, she was allowed to leave the country and therefore also her parents’ and the press’ watchful eyes. she started her bachelors in architecture at ucla, actually quite passionate about the subject but she also didn’t lose sight of another thing she felt passionate about: drumming. ever since she got to the us, she changed her name to dawn, affording herself further anonymity and has finally become her own person. style, chaotic flatshare, political views and all. together with, what would soon become her two closest friends, she created the band r.a.d. about three years ago.

for a long time they were a small underground group, playing feminist punk rock was after all not truly what would catapult you into a life of stardom, or at least that is what they thought. however, after over two years of playing a lot of dingey bars, one of their songs gained some notoriety on tik tok, becoming what you might call a feminine rage hymn. with that hit song under their belt, they were approached by several record labels. dawn never felt inclined to sign, for her life was easier this way. nobody to tell them what direction to take with their music, absolute freedom. she would simply bankroll them herself. but when revolution records approached them and considering her existence of living in between the two worlds might come with an expiry date, rad agreed to sign. it gave them a sense of financial security, while also preserving their artistic freedom. for revolution, they moved across the country where now dawn is finishing up her bachelors degree mostly online.  

headcanons.

character wise she quite controlling and reckless, which can be difficult for social interactions, especially since she is absolutely unwilling to compromise in her ideals or to admit defeat. has absolutely no issue with telling people just how wrong she thinks they are. on the other hand, she has quite the dry sense of humor, can be incredibly charming if she wishes so.

is having the time of her life ever since she joined rad, she is now dressing completely different than she used to at home.  she has also started expressing her own thoughts and opinions a lot... most would say too much.

very much a destroy the patriarchy, anti-capitalistic, eat the rich, acab kind of babe.

AH YES R.A.D. dawn is the youngest member of the band and their drummer. just like at uni, she’s known exclusively as dawn in this context bc she’s still kinda trying to avoid people back at home finding out eek (hello ms hannah montana lol) - esp since r.a.d.’s specialty is angry feminist punk rock.

studies architecture and actually rlly loves it? like she will def geek out about architecture if you give her the chance.

dawn of justice was funnily enough the name of her first horse back home, so do with that info as you will.

she has the kind of personality that makes her a natural leader even though? she is an introvert? so yeah, she does prefer her solitude most of the time but don’t expect her to keep her mouth shut in social situations.

she sleeps very very little, which only adds to her high-strung personality. most of those sleepless nights are either spent performing with the band or studying.

when speaking she does have a slight korean accent.

wanted connections (wip).

i do have this sort of fun ideak that idek what to call but basically your muse and dawn got into a loud argument outside the building and somebody took pictures or videos and posted them to twitter saying they were having a lover spat. actually, they probably don’t get along great and have been trying to vehemently deny it on their social media, both losing some not so nice words about the other but it was simply interpreted by the netizens as them lovingly teasing each other soo.... that’s where we’re at basically. 

enemies / antagonists   — basically, dawn does tend to be a rude lil dickish so she’d def have quite some people who dislike her. for example that could be somebody she made fun off bc she didn’t like their music (probably called it something like mushy fluff or whatever skdfjsdf).

former hook up   —   this was definitely just casual, especially on her part. clean, no strings attached fun. well, unless maybe it wasn’t for your muse ?!  that could be a fun option as well. open for all genders.

the rare friends   —   this is the exclusive group of people she likes to be friends with asdfahd. it just be like that but ya def hmu and give my antisocial gal some friendss. maybe somebody who she actually connected with through music, or perhaps architecture.

[doctorofmagic]

Defenders #1 Review

Or what I’d like to call “a love letter to Stephen fans.”

We start with Stephen in pink/lilac/lavender pajamas (!!!!) meditating upside down and reading the tarot cards. He gets the Magician, obviously, but it’s reversed. It could mean many things, as Stephen ponders.

Of course, he would brood over his romantic life. Yes, Stephen, you’re resisting love because of guilt smh. But also yes, you missed the fact that the universe is in great danger, we’ll get there.

Masked Raider finally introduces himself, but pointing a gun at the Sorcerer Supreme is definitely not a good idea. The fact that Stephen knows of the Raiders doesn’t help either. They have a tough start.

Stephen thinks as a magician, which is very in character for him. Also a thousand kudos to Javíer and Álvaro López for portraying magic so beautifully.

No, seriously, each panel is a masterpiece. Like this one, in which Stephen has a whole universe in his eyes. POETRY.

Stephen then realizes that the Mask, made of a piece of Eternity’s essence, is hiding the user’s identity, so he decides to summon the cantrips of the Onyx King, a spell that prevents its targets from using borrowed powers (like magic). Also canon confirmation that Stephen has a brown belt. We don’t get to see him engage physical combat that much so this is pretty neat.

This strategy reminded me of one certain spell from The Oath and Doctor Strange v1 #384, but then I checked and it’s called Sands of Nishanti, in which the targets can’t use magic for the next three minutes. Similar, but not quite the same.

Stephen wins the fight and finally settles for a conversation. There’s a little recap from Marvel #1000 so the readers can remember the story behind the Mask. Again, the art is breathtaking.

Masked Raider explains that he found Zota but wasted time for he was distracted by Zota’s experiment that went wrong (Adam-IV, aka Korvac, featured in the pages of the current Iron Man run, which I don’t read, sorry). Zota then decides to “reset” the experiment though magic time travel, the most dangerous kind for it has the power to alter reality. Okay, hear me out on this one because this is really important and I need to know if I’m going crazy but some moots agreed with me. THIS SPELL, THIS SPELL RIGHT HERE. IT HAS THE SAME COLORS FROM THE PAN FLAG. I’M NOT GOING CRAZY, AM I? PLEASE TELL THIS IS TOO MUCH OF A COINCIDENCE.

Imagine if Stephen uses this same spell? THIS IS THE DAY I DIE, MY DEAREST FRENS.

No, really, when I said Al Ewing made all characters LGBTQIA+, I was SO right. It’s not only in Guardians of the Galaxy or Loki.  AND THERE’S MORE!! Just hang in there for a sec.

Back to the story, Masked Raider tells Stephen that he shot the book, cancelling the spell. However, Zota managed to escape in time. Finally, a familar name comes out from Masked Raider’s mouth: the book belonged to Sise-Neg.

Now, if you don’t remember this name, let’s go back to Marvel Premiere #13-14, in which Stephen tries to prevent Mordo from changing history through time travel and also prevent Cagliostro from becoming a time travel god. Long story short, he fails and Cagliostro becomes Sise-neg, and then Genesis. But after he destroys everything, he achieves enlightenment and recreates the universe, leaving Stephen in the middle of an existential crisis.

Afraid of such threat and what Zota could achieve, Stephen decides to act, summoning the Defenders thought the old method he used back in Secret Defenders: the Tarot cards.

Stephen lets fate decide which Defenders will be summoned. It’s also said that he was weaker at that time (which is true for the magic deities forsook him, as seen in Sorcerer Supreme #48). Now, his magic is strong, which only makes things more dangerous. Stephen then draws two cards, The Magician and the Hierophant, both reversed. Curiously enough, Stephen’s card has the same design from the Official Tarot of the Marvel Universe.

The third card is Judgment, reversed, referring to Silver Surfer, and I can finally convince y’all to join the SilverStrange cult since you’re all reading this book, RIGHT? Anyways, I’d just like to point that Norrin calls Stephen by his first name and this is lovely. They do have a deep relationship, even though it’s all off the page.

Forth card is The High Priestess, also reversed: Red Harpy. Stephen confirms that Defenders v4 never actually happened, which is sad in a way because I really loved Betty on the team, but also I hated Stephen’s dog portrayal whispering dirty things to her so she would grow afraid of him. BIG YIKES. Thank you, Al Ewing, for deleting that atrocity. More praises soon. Also, not surprising she would join the team since she’s an essential part of Immortal Hulk. Nothing like promoting your other books, hehe.

The last card, and I can’t stress this enough, is the Lovers, reserved, represented by Cloud. Now. NOW. Let’s recap. Cloud is a sentient nebula who assumed the shape of a girl named Carol Faber and a boy named Danny Milligan. They can assume both forms, but this, my friends, is how Al Ewing is writing them: WITH THEY/THEM PRONOUNS. And yes, my beloved frens. Stephen uses the correct pronouns.

This may seem nothing but it means the whole multiverse to me. Because Al Ewing is really going there, he’s really writing a non-binary/genderfluid character. He did it once with Loki but this is coming out from my favorite character’s mouth. This. I can’t find the proper words to express myself, especially when I, this tired and old fan, am also nonb.

Remember that tiktoker that made that stupid video of Marvel characters reacting to their neutral pronouns? And they said Stephen wouldn’t care? Well, he cares. Abolish MCU tiktok pleaaase (also Stephen he/they because I said so).

Okay, but when Stephen summons a sentient nebula, things get... sloppy. He accidentally ENDS THE WORLD. Just a normal Monday for him, am I right? But then, and this is SO interesting, Al Ewing brings the concept of “magic comes at a cost” through a different perspective, which is BRILLIANT, GENIUS, MAGNIFICENT: Stephen will sacrifice facets of his self. He explains that, in order to become the Sorcerer Supreme, he sacrificed his arrogant self. Now, it’s time to sacrifice his false sense of control, the self who believes magic is his to obey and control. He cannot. Not anymore. He lets it go, he lets fate once more guide them. This? This is beautiful.

It shows that Stephen can sacrifice himself without destroying his own soul and body. It’s a way to offer his bad traits in exchange of growth through magic. THIS IS REALLY A STROKE OF GENIUS, I cannot praise Al Ewing enough, and all the creative team behind this book. SERIOUSLY. Oh, and by the way? I personally believe that these Stephens are also his many facets, like the submissive one from old times, the arrogant one, the depressed one and so on. More kudos to the several arms, we’re going to see this often now since Infinity War, eh? Love to see it.

In any case, he is able to stabilize Cloud, as they assume human form once more. They’re all sent to another place and time, and Norrin - not very happy about the situation - explains that they were sent to Taa, the Sixth Cosmos, birthplace of Galactus. Lastly, they realize they’re against Omnimax, that universe’s devourer. Also there’s a mention about Galactus’ mom? Pretty confused about that haha.

So this is it. A great start. Again, I always said that Al Ewing would be a perfect choice to write Stephen, and he did a good job with his Defenders - The Last Defense. But those were not 616. I wanted to see how he would treat our beloved 616 Stephen, and boi, I was so damn right. He put such care as he developed Stephen’s layers thoroughly and minutely. His fears and resistance to accept love and change, his magic and physical skills, his intelligence, his will to sacrifice himself in order to save the universe, but also that annoying trait of dragging people into his mess. The cost of magic itself as a sign of growth, and not decay.

And the art? The art and colors, gods! This book is definitely a love letter. This is what I’ve been waiting since v4. This. This is my Stephen. We strived for such a long time but I can finally breathe with a huge smile on my face. We’ve been blessed. My eternal thanks to Al Ewing, Javier Rodríguez and Álvaro López. I could feel the passion you all put on this book through each single panel.

Please, PLEASE, do yourself a favor and read this book. It’s a MUST.

[sugadaily]

On tvN’s You Quiz on the Block, SUGA told stories from before his debut. The period of his life when he struggled with how to live off his music. SUGA and BTS have kept going and going for eight years, and now he’s on their grounds, where he can do anything he wants musically. What began with that long journey is the story of SUGA holding his head up higher and staring at the future, reaching for it.

How are you feeling after your shoulder surgery? You’re doing physical therapy in parallel with work. SUGA: I’m all right. I’m keeping up with the physical therapy, too. I had surgery last year because I wanted to be able to go back to work sooner. I have nothing else to do except music.

You said that there’s nothing for you to do other than music in the “BE-hind Story” interview on YouTube, too. SUGA: It’s true. I tried gaming, but I have no talent for it. The people I play with online get so frustrated if I do. I mean, I’m working hard and got some recognition in my life, and yet people bash me so hard in games. (laughs)

I wonder if there’s a game you can do better in than you do in your career. You’re currently at your sixth week at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 [with “Butter, at the time of this interview]. (laughs) How are you feeling these days? SUGA: When we were at number one for two weeks straight, I was like, Wow, this is so amazing! But after the fifth or sixth week, we really started to talk about it between ourselves: I really can’t believe this. Anyway, I feel like I have a responsibility. And I think I’ll end up thinking much, much more when we get ready for the next promotion. Even if I just try to enjoy this situation, it hasn’t sunk in. We can’t leave the country, plus there’s lots of issues in the world right now that are much more important than how well we perform on the charts.

As you say, it’s a tough situation, all over the world. How do you feel about releasing “Permission to Dance,” with its positive message, at this point in time? SUGA: It seems like everyone around the world is really tired of this situation dragging out. I wanted to convey a message that tells people to keep hanging on to hope until the very end. Whereas we released the album BE in this situation, seemingly without any certainty, I believe things will slowly get better now. I don’t know if we can go back to the way things were before, but I’m still working with the hope that we can return to a situation that resembles what we had before.

Aren’t you tired of the pandemic being in this prolonged state? SUGA: I look at it as, when you lose one thing, you gain another. I ended up being able to see my family more since I’m in Korea. In that sense, I feel more stable, so I’m not so much tired as hoping each day that things will become okay soon. I keep moving back and forth between work and home, and I’ve started to reflect on parts of myself I didn’t know about before. Like that I feel somewhat comfortable when I start and finish work at a certain time. While I used to have to go to bed at a certain time for work the next day or else I had a hard time getting up early, now I know I’ve figured out what time I should wake up at to make sure I feel good all day. What I pursue in life is emotional stability, and I don’t think there’s really anything too exciting or sad happening these days.

What effect do those emotions have when you work on music? SUGA: They don’t have a big effect on it. I think it affects the way I write lyrics a bit, but I’m not working on any lyrics at the moment. I’ve been making music for a long time, so I think it’s possible for me to express emotions I’m not feeling in the moment. And it’s good that we released “Permission to Dance” in this kind of situation.

You sing rather than rap in “Permission to Dance.” In addition to rapping, you started singing more both before and after BE. What did you learn about your voice? SUGA: “Permission to Dance” was a little bit difficult. I don’t draw a line between singing and rapping or anything, but it was different from our usual style, and the vocals were a bit high, too. So even though it took a while to prepare for it, I worked hard, and even when I asked some older musicians for their opinions, they all said, “It’s good the way you’re doing it. Don’t try to sing better—just sing more.” I think my only option is to sing more, like they suggested.

As far as style goes, you’ve been doing a smoother kind of pop music. Did any differences arise as a result of these changes? SUGA: All things considered, the English was the hardest part. I paid close attention to my pronunciation in “Butter” and “Permission to Dance.” It wasn’t easy to capture that smooth feeling in the songs, so I practiced my pronunciation quite a bit. And I end up breathing a lot when I’m doing an English song, but the rap parts were a bit hard for that reason. There’s a clear difference from Korean songs, since English has so many syllables. But I don’t have any one method I stick with for my vocals yet, so I tend to try lots of different things out.

What do you make of BTS’s achievements over the past year with “Permission to Dance” and “Butter,” as well as the group’s change in style? In the space of a year, you’ve released songs in a style different from MAP OF THE SOUL: 7 or BE. SUGA: As a producer, I think reactions are important to an artist who works within the field of popular music. With that in mind, speaking as a producer, “Dynamite,” “Butter” and “Permission to Dance” were the best choices. And musical tastes are different from country to country, and the cultures are different, too. Given that situation, I think it’s important that we’re a group who can send such a universal message out into the world.

BTS has really grown and changed a lot, starting with “No More Dream” and all the way to “Permission to Dance.” SUGA: I think it’s a natural course of event for those of us who make pop music. Artists mix and match different genres as they grow, and the music develops as the people of its time listen to it. I’ve been listening to a ton of music lately, and thanks to the times we live in, if I listen to a song a few times, they recommend me more songs in a similar style. And after listening to them, I realized the style of hip hop is also changing and is splitting off into different offshoots. Other than hip hop, I also listen to a lot of instrumental music. I’ve always liked Hans Zimmer’s music. There have been many times where a movie I like turns out to have music by Hans Zimmer.

What is it about Hans Zimmer’s music that draws you in? SUGA: I like orchestral music. There’s a lot of pop songs that are under the three-minute mark now, and whereas it’s sort of predetermined that they’re always written with intros that are four bars long, orchestral music can do a lot within its framework.

But, as can be seen in IU’s song “eight,” which you both produced and featured on, you broke out of pop music’s typical composition style and tried out a highly condensed progression. The composition of the chorus is very straightforward. SUGA: Yes. I insisted that the flow be roughly cut in half from that of a typical song, and I expect more pop music will be like that in the future. And maybe even shorter as time goes on. I mean, these days there’s songs that are under two minutes, even.

Regardless, I felt the chorus in “eight” is extremely dramatic with its structure and the melody of the chorus. I thought it was rather grand in scale as well. Would you say that you’re attempting to mix your tastes and things you want to do into the structure of pop music? SUGA: As you know, I love hip hop, so when I was first making music I thought it had to be hip hop no matter what and that I had to take pride in my own ideas and not accept any compromise. But while getting some experience at the forefront of pop music, I figured out that you can keep being stubborn or inflexible because there are people listening to you. There was a time I made music without any listeners before I became a member of BTS. But if someone were to ask if I stopped being stubborn about the music I’m making these days, the answer’s no. As I grew up and became an adult, I came to realize that I have to negotiate between what I want to do and the kind of music the public wants without compromising anything. When I give up on something I wanted to do, I ask myself, What will I get out of this? And conversely, when I want to do something, I ask myself, What can I get out of this? That’s how I keep my balance to make it to where I am now.

You have no choice but to think about those things when you work on other artists’ songs, especially when you’re a producer. SUGA: I’m BTS’s SUGA, and I’m Agust D, and when I’m producing, I go by “by SUGA.” But when it comes to by SUGA, I make perfectly commercial music. I’m the producer for those songs, sure, but the owner is someone else, you know? In that case, they’re commissioning my work. But they wouldn’t think about just leaving it all with SUGA. The artist’s label has to think carefully about whether to commission me for producing and consider my situation, too, and those people must be hoping for something commercial. That’s the most important part of working with outside people. Actually, that kind of work isn’t much of a benefit to me, to be honest. Oh, he can write this kind of song, too. That’s all. The more valuable thing I can get from it is the recognition and records the artist or the company will get with the song instead.

As you noted in your previous Weverse Magazine interview, when you discussed your “interest in the music industry in the US,” you seem to constantly think about the things artists can do within the framework of the music industry. SUGA: I don’t know. It’s just that I’ve become more certain since the pandemic started that I’m the kind of person who always has to be doing music. That much I know for sure, so I want to keep on making good music. And the pop music market is something that came about because there were people listening, and there’s a long history to the US music market, and it possesses the most influential charts in the whole word. So then I thought, Wouldn’t they have gone through all the same things that we have? And really, whenever I talk to other pop stars, the situation is always similar. The US is also more realistic about commercial results than any other country. I wanted an accurate picture of how those people work. Right now, Korean pop music’s spread is in full swing and we need more good artists to keep popping up. From a producer’s standpoint, if that’s going to happen, I think the key is how well we can mix our music and the characteristics of overseas music industries overall.

How did it feel to be in the lineup for the Grammy Awards, one of the icons of the US music industry? SUGA: The feeling was less immediate because we couldn’t be there in person, and it wasn’t a huge distinction, but the performance made me think, This is different, because it’s the Grammys. What changed my view from the first time I went to an American music awards ceremony was, the first time I went, I was really scared of the world’s biggest music market. But when I look back now, I don’t think I had any reason to feel that intimidated. To be honest, I have only now begun to enjoy the awards ceremonies; I wasn’t able to then.

It’s no exaggeration to say that you’ve achieved most of the things that you can as an artist in the music industry. What steps do you think are necessary for the artists who follow after BTS? SUGA: The way artists work seems so difficult. They make an appearance on a different music show every day once the promotional period begins, meaning the exhaustion artists face is enormous, and that fatigue often results in injuries as it adds up. That kind of music show is for promotional purposes, so it’s not like the artists can earn a proper income from them. On top of that, despite all the promoting, there’s no visible outcome, so they inevitably lose morale. If possible, it’d be nice to have one of the performances be really high-quality, even if it’s just the one, but in this environment I’d say that’s pretty difficult. And since our job doesn’t fit the common conception of work, there’s ambiguous boundaries when it comes to issues of legal protection as well. We need a lot of improvements to be made to the industry and its system.

They demand a lot of things as collateral for success, yet success is extremely difficult to attain. SUGA: The great thing about the label I’m with is they listen to the artists’ opinions. I think both we and the label know to a certain degree what kinds of activities would be best commercially speaking. But the question is whether the body can endure it or not. If the fatigue builds up as you continuously do those promotional activities, it’s hard to do them the way you did when you first debuted. In that case, I think the label ought to actively accommodate the artist’s views about what they can and cannot do. An attitude that’s just like, Oh, we made you kids, and as long as you just do what we tell you to it’ll all work out, so just do it—I think that really doesn’t make any sense. Of course, there could still be situations where the label has to be pushy like that, obviously. But I heard there’s been times where a label will just say, Do it, without any explanation to the artist, or, Why are you talking so much? I think that’s the biggest issue and it’s destroying the industry. If you just see the artist as a product, how can they do anything creative? I really think it’s very contradictory to ask the people on stage to put on an enjoyable performance when they’re experiencing neither fun nor enjoyment.

That reminds me of the music video for “Daechwita” somehow. You appear onscreen as both a rebel character and a king, looking as different as your situation when you first debuted with BTS and your situation now. SUGA: There was a lot I wanted to do in “Daechwita,” not just musically but also visually, and a lot of ideas came to me as I came to reflect on who I am as a person while working on the music video. It naturally occurred to me to separate SUGA, by SUGA and Agust D. The character I played in that video who wasn’t the king was a stranger. It takes place during the Joseon era, but then there’s cars and guns, which of course don’t belong in that era. I think we’ve been living our lives that way. Right from our debut, a portion of the hip hop lovers criticized us by saying, They’re idols. But at the same time, we heard things like, They’re not idols. I didn’t know which drumbeat to march to, so I think that’s why each of our albums took a different direction than people were expecting. But I don’t think I can call myself a stranger in this situation anymore. So these days my main goal is to keep going with BTS for a long time. Having a huge audience show up at our concerts is nice, but I think the goal for all of us is to make sure the group can keep making music even as we get older. I think right now we’re thinking a lot about how we can have fun and be happy on stage.

What do you mean when you say fun and happy music? SUGA: I think people are happier the busier I am, so lately I’ve been thinking that I need to focus a little more. I figure we should do as much as we can for ARMY since they feel happy watching us. We’ll continue to try our best, so I hope they believe in BTS and keep their eyes on us.

So that’s why you do music. SUGA: This is the only thing I know how to really do. Other than music and BTS, there’s nothing special about me when I look at this 28-year-old Min Yoongi. That’s why I want to keep doing this.

[imagine-that-100]

The Martini Police

Description: You’re leading yourself down a slippery slope, but thankfully the person that matters most in your life notices and helps you.

Word Count: 1.6k

Warnings: Angst, and drinking issues

A/N: This was requested by an Anon. I hope I did it justice. Angst isn’t really my forte but I gave it a go. Likes and reblogs are always appreciated. Thank you for reading x

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“What happened?” Alex asks, rushing into the kitchen.

You were sitting at the table, head in hands, heels just being kicked off. But that wasn’t what shocked Alex, it was the fact that your tights were all ripped, covered in dried blood, and you had it still trickling down your leg, from your knee which was cut open.

You shake your head and in a pathetic voice, you whisper, “I don’t know.”

Alex rushes to the sink and immediately wets a cloth so he can help clean you up. He was still in his pyjamas, only coming down the stairs because he heard the front door closing a few minutes ago and it worried him when you weren’t in bed beside him.

He knew you’d been on another night out, but he hoped you’d be in bed beside him when he opened his eyes this morning.

As water collects in the material he worriedly asks, “What do you mean ‘you don't know’?”

“I can’t remember.” You say in an exhausted voice, looking up at Alex for a second but you cast your eyes to the ground once more.

You take a few deep breaths before you realise that your mouth has gone dry again. So as Alex comes back over with the wet cloth to try and clean up, you reach for the drink you poured when you came in.

Alex makes his way back over and kneels down in front of you to tend to your injury, but he notices that you half wince at what he thought was the water in your glass. His face falls immediately, and he reaches for the glass you were about to put down, as he asked, “What’s that?”

Your eyes go wide as he takes it from you. “Alex, please don-” You start but it’s too late.

He already brought the glass up to his nose and the stench of vodka filled his senses immediately.

“Is that vodka? At seven in the morning?” Alex asks you with wide eyes, despite knowing it’s a fact.

You watch as he gets up and pours it away, and you just try and defend yourself, “It’s helping take the pain away.”

“You know what else would do that? A paracetamol. Or an ibuprofen.” Alex said distastefully, but it was the shock filtering through his system. “You should not be drinking at this time in the morning.”

You murmured a little, “I know, I know.” as Alex comes back and starts cleaning up your knee. He ended up just ripping the tights open and pulling that leg off, as you didn’t look like you were in a fit state to stand up and take them off yourself.

You don’t protest, feeling bad enough that you’ve obviously upset him by drinking and stumbling home at this time. You’d gone out last night with a few of your older friends that you met when you first moved to London.

You’d been going out with them a lot recently after one of them got back in contact. And most of the time you’d been stumbling back into your home at similar times.

And that wasn’t like you at all.

It worried Alex to no extent. Because he’d seen you around these people. You were different around them compared to how you were with your usual group of friends and both of your friends.

And Alex couldn’t pretend he didn’t see it anymore.

“Y/N…” Alex says softly, drawing your attention to him, as he carries on cleaning up your knee. He says almost hesitantly, “I don't think you should go out with that lot anymore.”

You frown at him, questioning what he meant by that, “What?”

“I don’t trust them.” He tells you honestly, still trying to keep his voice calm. “And I don't think they are good for you.”

Despite his calm tone, you get defensive about what he just said. And it didn’t help that you were still drunk when he was just trying to express his concern for you.

“Do you think this is high school where you can make me feel guilty about who I spend time with?” You ask not comprehending where this was coming from at all.

You saw Alex sigh at that as he got up with the now blood-stained cloth in his hand. When Alex gets a large plaster out of a box, he also gets some painkillers as he hears you scoff, “I didn’t realise we were teenagers getting jealous over friendship groups.”

“I’m not jealous Y/N/N…” Alex shakes his head, and once he’s got your glass of water, he says, “I’m scared for you.” as he kneels back down in front of you.

Your emotions seem to change immediately hearing him say that. You ask with shock clearly on your features, “Why?”

Alex makes you take the painkillers before he tells you what he’s thinking.

“Because this is the sixth time you have stumbled home when the sun’s already coming up and you’ve been hurt. You’ve had bruises on you before and now you’ve cut your knee open.” Alex points out in a pained voice before continuing to tend to your injury.

“That's just me being clumsy.” You sigh, knowing you weren’t the most balanced person when you were like this.

Alex isn’t so convinced, “But is it though?”

“Because I know you know London’s not always a nice place. Someone could have hurt you whilst you’re like this.” Alex says, as he puts the large white plaster over your knee and presses down the sides of it, so it doesn’t come away from your skin.

You shake your head, “Don’t be dramatic.”

“I’m not Y/N/N, I'm scared.” Alex reiterates, emphasising that he was in fact he was worried about you.

Not seeming to get it, you ask, “Why are you scared?”

“I’m scared for you because you can't remember how these things have happened.” Alex tells you; worry is all over his features as he says, “I’m scared that someone is hurting you on purpose or your so called ‘friends’ are putting you in harm's way by letting you get blackout drunk.”

You’re just looking into his brown eyes at this point as he’s looking up at your heavy and tired Y/E/C ones. Your makeup had smudged a little, but that wasn’t a surprise considering you’d been out of the house for over 12 hours.

Alex presses on calmly, trying to make you understand that this wasn’t good for you. “You surely can’t like having no memory of where you’ve been? Or what you’ve done?”

You think about it for a moment and you feel your eyes filling up because even when you thought really hard back to just a few hours ago, you were drawing a blank. And that was starting to scare you.

Especially when you realised you barely had any memory of being around your old friends on the previous nights out, you’d been on too.

So, you look into those gorgeous brown eyes, and shake your head a little as you answer, “No.”

“Then please stop with this Y/N.” Alex begs you in a strained voice. Seeing you get even a little upset hurt him and it felt bad that it was his words causing it. “I worry about you all the time when I’m away now because I don’t trust that those people have your best interests at heart.”

Alex hints at his worries for the future too. Because he’d found an empty glass in the kitchen last week after you’d returned home early from a night out and it stank of stale alcohol.

So Alex has to say, whilst you’re both having this conversation, “I don't want this to get worse for you Y/N. Because we all know what slippery slopes alcohol leads you to.”

“And I love you, so I’m not letting you get to that. Because I need you, and I can't lose you.” Alex continues in a pained voice, trying not to cry.

“I need you too... I don't wanna get to that Al.” You admit as the tears start gathering more.

“It’s not going to get to that.” Alex cups your face, and he smiles when you lean into his touch. He reminds you, “You’ve got me, yeah?”

Your eyes fill to the brim with unshed tears and when you nod, saying a faint, “Yeah.”

When your tears start spilling Alex gets the first few before he pulls you into a hug. His chest was hurting seeing you like this and yours was just as heavy.

You clutched him like he was your last lifeline and Alex held you tightly as he felt you start crying in his arms. Yours were around him and you were holding onto his pyjama top like it was

“I'm sorry.” You sob into him, needing him to understand just how sorry you were.

You never meant for it to get like this, but everything he said just clicked together and you could see that you were on a dangerous path. These people that you thought were your friends were just leading you down a dark path of needing a drink almost every night and you didn’t want that.

And you didn’t want that. Before they got back in contact 6 months ago, you were fine living your life with Alex barely wanting anything to drink, even when you both did end up going out.

And you wanted that back.

“No, don't be sorry.” Alex shakes his head, as he cradles yours, feeling shaky breaths rattling though you. He admits, “I just need you to be okay.”

After a few minutes, he hears you say when you’ve calmed down, “I love you Alex.”

“I love you too.” He says before proceeding to kiss your head.

And he does help you through it. Because that's what you both signed up for.

For better, for worse, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish.

Always.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

You can add yourself to my Taglists in my Masterlist x

[mobagehelllocal]

i was reading through and i saw you had ranked the twst boys on how horny they are wwww would you consider imparting to us your opinion on who the kinkiest boys are ??

A/N: Oh Anons... you give me too much power wahahahaha. I decided also it won’t be fun if number one is on top, so... we’ll start from number 21. I judged this list based on the thought of “how likely will they suggest new kinks or certain kinks in bed?” It’s... pretty objective and I think it can change too depending on where you are in the relationship but! Hope you enjoy the insight! :o 

all characters featured are depicted as 18+

warning: explicit content below cut!

21. Riddle Rosehearts

Like say anything and he’s red. Sure he might be willing to try a lot of kinks out, but likely chance--you need to coax him to participate. I find it hard to imagine him suggesting anything of his own accord... but that could always change. 

20. Jack Howl 

I think Jack’s the type of person who doesn’t really see the point in doing other things--he’s pretty straightforward and honest. Sure he’ll try things out for you, but he’s not going to suggest much... Might be higher on this list if he’s horny and he’s in a committed relationship. 

19. Sebek Zigvolt

Pretty similar with Jack in that I don’t think he’s very interested in other things aside from the “main event”, but... I think when he realizes the pleasure it could give his lover, he’ll dive right in to research so he can heighten the intimacy you share!

18. Malleus Draconia 

He’s not particularly kinky, but what he is--is an incredibly intense and dedicated lover. You tend to forget what happens on the bed--and all you remove is how tightly he holds onto you--how guttural he growls as he breeds you full... 

17. Deuce Spade

Not very kinky, but when you hit his kinks--his bad boy persona switch will flip on and he’ll be incredibly sexy. More likely to leave bruises--more likely to try different, wilder positions... He’ll blush about it afterwards during the aftercare. 

16. Azul Ashengrotto

A lot like Deuce wherein he’s not the one likely to suggest stuff, and might get embarrassed about it too--he’s willing to hear you out, and he’s willing to get coaxed into certain things. When you hit his specific kinks, his moans get a little louder, and his body stretches before you all the more erotically...

15. Kalim Al-Asim

I mentioned before, it’s not Kalim’s priority to have sex, but that he can be hella good at it. This boy has some of the sweetest smiles and I’m sure every session shared with him is filled with laughter. He’s very skilled and might surprise you with how many things he actually knows... 

14. Vil Schoenheit

Vil, like Kalim, isn’t interested in actively seeking sex out, however--he’s very skilled at manipulating you to fulfil his kinks. In fact, he derives more pleasure in straight up denying you of it. He wants you to get down on your knees and grovel for his touch. 

13. Epel Felmier

He’s very willing and incredibly brave in what he wants to try on the bed. I think there’s little that he’s unwilling to try. He’s a little clumsy, but you bet that boy will do everything in his ability to make sure he pleasures you in ways that you’ll dream about. 

12. Leona Kingscholar

Leona’s a pretty intense lover when he’s in the mood. He strikes me as the type to tease you, to draw it out if he smells how horny you are before finally having sex with you. However, he’s less open to certain kinks--and will refuse you if you suggest things that might question his dominance. (In conclusion, peg Leona)

11. Ace Trappola

He’s a lot like Leona where he likes to tease his lover. Might even be louder in the sense that Ace is willing to sneak up on you in public and whisper all the dirty things he wants to do with you while his hand creeps downwards but--he has certain no-goes that makes him less kinky compared to Ruggie. 

10. Ruggie Bucchi 

He’s very open-minded to trying things out with you, he doesn’t mind really anything--as long as it’s with someone he likes and trusts. Ruggie strikes me as a Switch--he can be dominant or submissive depending on what you want also. There are days he wants to be held and there are days he’ll be insatiable with the need to mark you. 

9. Trey Clover

I feel like Trey is more willing to try out a lot of things--on the same level that Ruggie is. He’s very much like Kalim and Vil in this regard too, where he doesn’t actively seek it out--but when you turn him on, his brows twitch and his lips curl into that smirk and you know... you won’t be able to walk for awhile. 

8. Silver

*breathes* It’s always the quiet ones. I don’t think Silver’s the type to refuse to try out things--especially if he’s devoted to you. In fact, I think you’ll find him suggesting particular things you never thought to try out--but immediately makes your face flush and your thighs clench together... 

7. Floyd Leech

My thing about Floyd, is that he’s more feral than he is kinky. When he’s feeling kinky, he gets incredibly intense about it. The marks he leaves on your skin are darker, jagged--your lips are bruised--you can’t walk for days... And Floyd relishes in all of that. You can try to peg Floyd too, his eyes would glitter at such a challenge--don’t presume he won’t fight you while you do it. 

6. Jamil Viper

When he loves someone--when he trusts someone, Jamil strikes me as the type of person who can play the Switch role. There will be days where he wants to rail you--make you call him Master--but there will be days where he will surrender everything to you, and want nothing more but for his thoughts to be filled of you fucking him. 

5. Jade Leech

This isn’t personal bias at all. But man, one of the things Jade Leech hates is “boredom.” He’s the one who’ll suggest all the interesting new things you can test out together--he’s the one who’ll have to coax you into trying certain things out with him. Jade enjoys excitement, so he’ll be thrilled when you suggest things to him as well... 

4. Cater Diamond

Cater, I feel, is a lot like Jade. He’ll excitedly try out new things with you, and if there’s something that might worry you--he’ll tempt you with soft tender--wet kisses. He’s very good at convincing you to try things with him and rest assured--you can trust Cater to make you enjoy it. 

3. Idia Shroud

He’s an otaku, do I need to say anything else--? He is a little bit of an outlier wherein, unlike the rest who are this high on the list--Idia’s a little shy about suggesting what he wants... However he has a very varied ranged of interest that you’ll need to get him to tell you. As he’s more comfortable he might nervously leave doujinshi around for you to see...

2. Rook Hunt

A lot like Jade and Cater where he’s happy to try about just anything with you. He’s closer to Lilia wherein he’s probably tried out various things--and is willing to play the Switch role as well. He strikes me as less manipulative about it though, and might be more willing to just honestly tell you what he wants--or might simply call you out for what you want to try out.

1. Lilia Vanrouge

Was there any surprise in this? What sets him a part compared to Rook and everyone else is the wealth of experience and knowledge he has... Oh, all the stuff you want to try in bed--Lilia’s both received and given, so he’s more than happy to see the type of faces you make when you receive and give...

[lifeofkaze]

When Stars Ignite - Chapter 15

HPHM Rockstar AU

A/N: Katriona Cassopeia (in mention) belongs to the gorgeous @kc-and-oc, David Willows (in mention) belongs to the wonderful @that-scouse-wizard

General Warning: This whole fic has a general warning of being NSFW / 18+. We will give specific warnings for every chapter in itself, but several adult themes will be more or less present in every chapter, may it be explicitly or in mention. These include sexual topics, drug abuse, (ab)use of alcohol, smoking and a whole lot of cursing.

Specific Warning: language

~~~

Find the masterpost here, the previous chapter here and the next one here. The songs featured before every chapter can be found on this pretty badass playlist here.

~~~

This work is a collaboration with @the-al-chemist

Taglist: @slytherindisaster @carewyncromwell @night-rhea @thatravenpuffwitch

Mm, child, tired of the bullshit Go on, dust your shoulders off and keep it moving Yes, Lord, tryna get some new shit In there, swimwear, going-for-the-pool shit

~ Cold Years - Good As Hell ~

Lizzie frowned as she saw Murphy quickly turning his wheelchair around and getting ready to leave as she approached him and Orion. The blond sound technician nodded to her in passing and she could have sworn he winked at her as well.

She looked after him curiously as she sat down on the deckchair next to Orion, her towel loosely wrapped around her shoulders.

“What’s gotten into him?”

Orion smiled ominously. “Yearning for his one true love.”

“What, basketball?” Lizzie snorted. “Fucking fringe sports.”

Orion had to laugh at her words. “I was talking about Katriona.”

Lizzie shrugged. “Close enough.” She tilted her head to see what Orion had been writing down into his notebook. “How’s the song going?”

He spun the pencil between his fingers, the way Lizzie had shown him with a drumstick. “Slowly; I’ve been a little distracted by more inspirational sights.”

He briefly smiled at her before resting his chin on his arms with his eyes closed.

“Were you now,” Lizzie giggled. She moved a little closer to Orion, pulled her still dripping ponytail over her shoulder and wrung it out over his back. She laughed as he jumped at the cold water hitting his warm skin.

“What was that for?” he called out, playfully trying to shove her away. “You’re a mood of your own, do you know that?”

“As if you don’t love it.”

Orion only snorted and chose not to answer. Expecting another teasing remark from Lizzie, he was surprised when she remained silent. Looking up, Orion saw her attention had shifted from him to the other side of the pool. He followed her eyes to where Artemis was sitting alone on her deckchair, listening to music with her gigantic headphones on while scrolling through her phone.

“You’re still intent on making friends with her, aren’t you?” Orion said. It was more a statement than a question.

Lizzie hummed in response, her eyes not leaving Artemis. “I can’t believe she wants to be alone all of the time.”

“Have you considered that maybe she values her solitude more than she does company?” Orion contemplated softly. “Sometimes we keep from others because we want to protect sides of ourselves we don’t want anyone to see.”

“Like Merula does all the time?”

Orion nodded. “Yes, she and Artemis are more similar than both of them might think.”

“But Merula and I became friends eventually,” Lizzie said stubbornly. “The effort was on another level but we still did. I bet I could make Artemis like me; I don’t want her to be alone all the time. That’s the best part of touring isn’t it? Spending all this time with your friends.”

“It is for us, but not necessarily for her. You can’t force her, Liz; if she wants to remain alone, you’ll have to accept that. Why are you so intent on befriending her anyway,” he wanted to know, “is this about you or about her?”

“It’s not an ego thing, if that’s what you’re going for,” Lizzie answered a little more sharply than she had meant to. She could see that Orion was taken aback by her tone, so she softened her voice a little as she tried to explain.

“I don’t think she’s keeping to herself by choice,” she said. “She’s always on the sidelines, always watching what everyone else is doing. She only started talking to Charlie a few days ago, and God knows how he managed to do that. I don’t think that’s because she doesn’t like us, though. I think she just had really bad experiences in the past.”

“Artemis is not a scared cat. It shows your compassion that you want to include her so badly but just think about all the things you’ve tried already. You tried talking to her many different times, you wanted her to join us for lunch, asked her to go out for drinks after the shows; she declined every single one of your offers. If Artemis wants to tear down her walls, she will do so in her own time and at her own pace.”

Lizzie contemplated Orion’s words; without thinking about it, she placed her hand on the tattoo on Orion’s back. She had seen it up close so many times by now, but she never grew tired of how beautiful it looked. The water beads still glistening on his skin were looking like shiny pearls amongst the black lines.

She was broken out of her thoughts, when Orion moved away from her touch. “What’s wrong?”

He looked at her, one eyebrow raised. “You know I appreciate both the gesture of affection and the thrill of the risk, but I think you’re taking things a little too far.”

Lizzie only chuckled and tried to playfully poke him in the ribs, but Orion moved out of her reach again. A little irritated, she furrowed her brow. “Since when have you become so boring? You didn’t complain about the little extra attention when we had the photoshoot yesterday.”

“I know, but still, it was reckless of you,” Orion replied calmly. “People could start noticing.”

“But they didn’t.”

Orion sighed. “I’m not entirely sure about that.”

Lizzie’s shoulders tensed, all playfulness disappearing from her face. “What do you mean?”

“I think Skye might have seen something. I wasn’t sure because she didn’t say anything so I decided to wait and see. But in any case, it is unwise to draw attention like that.”

Lizzie raised her head, her eyes moving to where Skye was sitting with Erika and Andre. And sure enough, the blue haired bassist was in fact looking their way. Lizzie unconsciously moved a little away from Orion, but when hers and Skye’s eyes met, Skye’s look confirmed what the sinking feeling in Lizzie’s stomach had been telling her all along - she knew.

“That’s not good,” Lizzie whispered, more to herself than Orion.

“It is far from optimal indeed.”

And sure enough, Skye’s frown deepened as quickly as Lizzie’s panic was growing. She watched as her friend said something to Erika before getting out of her chair to come over to them.

Lizzie absolutely didn’t want to be confronted by Skye, and least of all in front of the others. Skye had never been a particularly subtle person; if Lizzie got into an argument with her here, she might as well shout everything from the rooftops.

Before Skye could make her way to them, Lizzie practically jumped out of her seat, trying to look as casual as possible while her heart was racing in her chest.

“Pity you don’t want to join the next round,” she proclaimed just loudly enough for Skye to hear it, “water polo is always more fun with more players.”

She set her eyes on Artemis, who was still sitting on the opposite side of the pool. “I’ll just go and ask Artemis instead.”

“How smooth,” she heard Orion mutter with a mocking tone, but didn’t care. She had wanted to speak to Artemis anyway and if she could bring the whole length of the pool between herself and Skye by doing so, all the better.

Lizzie set off to round the pool in the opposite direction to Skye; much to her relief, she noted that her friend had sat down onto her deckchair again, but she could feel her green eyes boring into her back.

Artemis was slumped deep into her chair when Lizzie approached her. She was slightly nodding her head to the inaudible beat coming from her headphones. The corners of Lizzie’s mouth twitched when she saw the stylised cat face engraved in silver on the speakers; she had the same limited edition.

Artemis was so concentrated on her phone that she didn’t even notice Lizzie’s presence. Lizzie wondered if that was intentional, but when Artemis jumped violently when Lizzie sat down next to her, she instantly felt sorry; she hadn’t wanted to scare her.

She countered Artemis’ hostile stare with an extra cheerful smile, partly because she wanted to start the conversation off right and partly to mask her own jumpy nerves.

“All alone today?”

Artemis sized her up for a moment. “Apparently.”

“Sorry about scaring you, I thought you’d seen me coming.”

The look in Artemis’ eyes grew hard. “I’m not scared.”

“I just thought…”

“I said, I’m not scared,” Artemis repeated stubbornly and Lizzie raised her hands in defence.

“Of course not, sorry.”

She waited for Artemis to show any sign of wanting to continue their conversation but received none, so she tried again. “Do you want to come over and sit with the rest of us? You don’t have to sit alone all of the time.”

Artemis’ eyes flickered to where Everett was basking in the sun. “I don’t think so.”

Lizzie was looking in the same direction. “Whistling after you earlier was shit, sorry about that. Ev takes a lot of getting used to, but he doesn’t really mean it that way.”

Now Artemis’ hazel eyes found hers and Lizzie could see a trace of anger flashing in them. “I think he very much meant it that way.”

Lizzie sighed; actually, Artemis was right but that wasn’t something she could downright tell her and still hope to get her to come. “He can be such an idiot, I know. Just forget about him.”

Artemis indicated her headphones. “That was the plan.”

The faint sound of a guitar was reaching Lizzie’s ears from the music that was still playing, and the voice of the singer was sounding familiar. “What are you listening to?”

Artemis watched her critically, probably contemplating just putting her headphones back on, and be done with it. “Some cover songs from a singer from Liverpool. He’s called David Willows. Have you heard of him?”

Lizzie had to laugh. “You could say I’ve met him once or twice back in the days.”

She immediately regretted laughing when Artemis’ eyes narrowed; she had probably given the impression that she was making fun of her.

It was apparent that the unapproachable pyro tech had no intention of continuing their conversation; she was repeatedly glancing at her phone and her whole body language had turned dismissive. Under usual circumstances Lizzie would have given up at this point but she didn’t want to give Skye another opportunity to talk to her.

“What I actually wanted to ask,” she tried for the third time, “Charlie and I want to play another round of water polo. Want to join?”

The look in Artemis’ eyes turned contemptuous. “And climb onto some random guys naked back to make a mickey out of myself?” She demonstratively dropped her eyes to her phone. “No thanks, I’m good.”

Lizzie had to stifle a sigh at her stubbornness. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

“I said no,” Artemis replied, a lot more sharply than before.

Lizzie felt a flare of temper. “It’s just water polo, why are you making such a fuss about it?”

Artemis' face darkened considerably and Lizzie feared she might have overstepped her mark. But before Artemis could say something, her eyes shifted from Lizzie to something in her back, only moments before Lizzie felt Charlie’s hand coming to rest on her shoulder.

“There you are, little rockstar. Have you persuaded Artemis to join?”

His tone was easy but the look in his eyes wasn’t lost on Lizzie; he wasn’t happy at all she had disregarded his wish to leave Artemis alone.

“I’m afraid not.” Her tone was brusque; she was pissed with Charlie for stepping in.

Charlie’s mouth twisted into a grin. “Hate to say it, but I told you so.”

His attention turned to Artemis, who was just as unhappy with her company than the rest of them. “Can I talk to you for a sec?”

Artemis sighed deeply. “If you have to.”

She put her phone down and got up and Charlie immediately walked her away from Lizzie. Lizzie’s face darkened and she fought the urge to cross her arms in front of her chest. She was not impressed Charlie had interfered; he was starting to grow overly protective of Artemis, even though she didn’t seem to be the kind of person to need anybody’s protection but her own.

Her thoughts were instantly forgotten, when she suddenly heard Skye’s voice in her back.

“Jameson, you and I, we need to talk.”

Lizzie grimaced before turning around. Skye had her arms crossed and was staring at her accusingly.

“What’s on your mind?” Lizzie sighed.

“You know damn well what’s on my mind,” Skye hissed. “There’s something you need to tell me, right fucking now.”

Lizzie averted her eyes. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You know damn well what I mean,” Skye snorted. “What in the actual fuck is going on with you and Orion? Don’t try to pull the old innocent-trick on me, we’ve lived together and I know you’re as innocent as Merula next to an empty box of cigarettes.”

Her eyes narrowed when Lizzie didn’t answer. “I saw what you did yesterday at the photoshoot and I saw you earlier next to him as well. You’re not even as handsy when it comes to Charlie and a lot of things make a lot more sense to me now. So, gonna ask you again and you better not lie to me; what’s the deal?”

Lizzie muttered something under her breath, making Skye frown. “What’s that?”

Knowing she would have to tell her friend if she liked it or not, Lizzie sighed. “We may potentially have a little thing going on, if you want to call it that,” she said, not meeting Skye’s eyes.

Just as she had feared, Skye’s voice immediately rose in volume. “Are you out of your bloody mind?”

“Keep your voice down,” Lizzie said angrily, “there’s no need to shout.”

Ignoring her words, Skye continued, albeit with a lower voice. “You know the rules! It’s a clear hands off the other band members. What if dad finds out you guys are dating?”

“He won’t find out if you just shut up about it and keep your nose out of things that aren’t your business,” Lizzie responded sharply. “And for the record, we’re not dating. It’s just some fun, nothing of it.”

Skye pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers, clearly exasperated at her friends’ antics. “Can’t believe it, I always thought you were the smart one out of the two of us. How long have you been at it?”

Lizzie fidgeted uncomfortably. “A few months? Maybe?” She faltered under Skye’s withering stare. “Since last August.”

Skye looked at her incredulously. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she groaned. “You’re not saying you’ve been shagging our guitarist longer than my longest relationship lasted and never even thought to tell me? Your best friend?”

“At least I’ll have to tell no one else if you don’t stop shouting,” Lizzie replied wryly. “And sorry to say that but your average relationship duration is not a very high benchmark to reach.”

Despite herself, Skye had to suppress a grin. “Fair game.” The smile faded as quickly as it had come when she continued. “Seriously though, are you sure about what you’re doing? It’s a damn right dangerous game you’re playing at, is all I’m saying. What if something goes wrong?”

They both glanced over to where Orion was now again working on whatever song was floating around in his head. Much to their surprise, Artemis was sitting next to him. When she saw them looking, they quickly turned their heads again.

“Nothing will go wrong,” Lizzie insisted, “if anyone should know shagging a colleague can work just fine, it’s you.”

If Lizzie hadn’t known her so well, she might have missed the slight flush creeping onto Skye’s face. “No idea what you’re on about.”

Lizzie made a dismissive sound. “Oh please. Don’t act as if not the whole fucking crew knows about you and Erika.”

Skye raised her chin defiantly. “Okay fine, maybe being friends with benefits can work, but this is different. She’s part of the crew, Orion’s an actual member of the band, and a damn important one at that. If you guys screw things up, we’re all royally fucked.”

“Stop worrying, everything will be alright. Orion and I are completely on the same page with this.”

Lizzie hesitated for a moment. “You’ll keep this to yourself, right? You won’t tell your dad about this?”

Skye looked at her as if she had gone mad for good. “Do you think I’m bonkers? Dad doesn’t need to know everything. Way too involved in our stuff as it is, if you ask me. But you got to promise me one thing.”

Relieved the immediate catastrophe had been averted, Lizzie nodded. “What?”

“Don’t put me into a position where I need to lie to my dad, alright?” There was nothing of the ever present sparkle in Skye’s eyes; she was dead serious about this. “Don’t get too involved with him. This is about family.”

[studiesinconnoisseurship]

Sicily's Triumph of Death

Triumph of Death – Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo

Palazzo Sclafani, Palermo

The Triumph of Death – il Trionfo della Morte – is a huge fresco filling most of the end wall of a large and lofty hall in Palazzo Abbatellis, the National Gallery of Sicily in Palermo. It was not painted for that room, but for a wall of the courtyard of another palazzo in the city, Palazzo Sclafani, still standing  and still to be seen, though not visited, close to a public garden east of the Cathedral. That palazzo was built in 1330, originally for a Count, Matteo Sclafani, but exactly a hundred years later, in 1440, the City Administration (the Senate), wishing to rationalise its hospital provision and have one big hospital rather than seven small ones, requisitioned the palazzo, by then in a poor state, and set about converting it into the main hospital for the city. This development evidently included commissions for artists, and one of those was given to the painter of the Triumph. It is unfortunate that the commission document has never been found, but we can be thankful that aerial bombardment of Palazzo Sclafani in 1943 did not destroy, only damaged, the fresco, which was soon after removed, restored and displayed where it now is.

Details from Triumph of Death (clockwise from top): Death rides of a skeletal horse; The Fountain of Life; Death’s Victims; Lute Player

The painter’s choice of subject was a natural one for the courtyard of a hospital in those days. Sclafani’s palazzo dated from the time of the Black Death, but in Sicily, as in mainland Italy and the rest of Europe, Death in the form of plague had galloped back into people’s lives unpredictably and most often fatally ever since. Skeletal Death rides his skeletal horse full tilt across the fresco; his victims lie in a heap at the bottom of the picture. There is, however, Life, a Fountain of Life, beside which a harpist plays his silent music. Elegant ladies converse with animated gestures of shared alarm; there are men to the left, young and old, but, one observes, no children. Above the men a menacing wolfhound and another dog strain at the leash. Death, in short, threatens Life, for the mitred as for the unmitred, but Life is there. Memento  Mori, you who enter this place and may not leave it alive; but remember, too, that you have lived, and life, with all its music and conversation, will continue after you.

Such is the general message. I have chosen this work as the focus of my latest Studies in Connoisseurship partly because we are living through a global pandemic. The hospitals of Palermo, as of many other cities in Italy and beyond, have once more been filled with very ill people dying, or threatened with dying, as life outside them struggles to continue.

As a connoisseur my motive is different. The fresco, unsurprisingly, has captivated many visitors and inspired some writers, but the fact that without a surviving contract or other document from the early 1440s we still do not know who painted this work surely plays its part in our fascination: we see it as a unique phenomenon, sui generis. This of course is unreal: someone painted it. Sicilians wonder if he was Sicilian. The last owner of Palazzo Sclafani lived in Spain; could he have proposed a Spanish artist? Some, bizarrely, have suggested that the painter may have come from the Netherlands. If he was Sicilian, did he afterwards leave the island to seek his fortune, like Antonello da Messina, on the mainland? Or did he come from the mainland, invited by the hospital’s rector, Pietro Speciale, or someone else who was commissioning works of art for it? A work like the Triumph of Death does not appear from nowhere; what other works by its creator preceded it?

I cannot answer these questions, but privately I have shared the quest for answers over many years, and I think I can at least contribute to our understanding of this anonymous artist by adding other works that may reasonably be attributed to him. As with all exercises in connoisseurship, what is ‘reasonable’ is what can be argued visually through juxtaposition of  images.

First, a general observation should be made about the work from an aesthetic point of view. Iconographically, the Triumph of Death is well known and quite a lot has been written about antecedent examples of the theme, at the Campo Santo at Pisa, in the work of Orcagna, and elsewhere. In this case, however, the horse and the rider are not enough to pull the composition together, because all around them are disparate groups of figures and animals and objects that relate awkwardly to each other and fail to bond into a coherent whole. Whatever else he was, this artist cannot be said to be a great composer. Seen from a distance – as the fresco can be – it reminds one of some large and similarly incoherent tapestries. This is a serious defect which no doubt excludes it, as a whole, from the very highest rank of artistic achievement.

Details from Triumph of Death (clockwise from top left) – Death’s Horse; The King; a Survivor of Death; Death’s Victims

The words ‘as a whole’ are to be emphasised, though, because as soon as we draw close and our eyes take in the details (as would those of anyone standing or walking under the arcade of that hospital courtyard in 1442), they are everywhere amazed by what they discover in the sphere of draughtsmanship. There the artist excels, both in ‘disegno’, his brilliant invention of representational forms, and in the extraordinary refinement and elegance of his line, whether in the tail of the hound, the head of the horse (like something out of Guernica), in the aristocratic ladies or, most originally of all, in the heads of the dead tumbled together at the bottom. It is the quality of this artist’s drawing, rather than his colour or composition, that makes it less important that all the colour reproductions offered here are of questionable fidelity.

Comparing drawings at the Louvre (top left and top centre) with details of the noble women from Triumph of Death

Comparing the similar hand gesture of the drawing of a Lady (left) and a Survivor of Death (right)

To pick out the draughtsmanship is, I believe, to pick up the key that can unlock the mystery of what else this artist did. Over many years of intermittent study I have kept a look-out for any drawings that might be associated with him by virtue of their extreme linear elegance combined with a certain oddity. Among the drawings in the Vallardi Album at the Louvre are a few that are not by Pisanello, and among these is a pair of profiles, one of a mature Lady, the other of an older Man. The one of the Lady is the more developed and the more remarkable, for the fine lines of the hair and the purity of contour in her profile. Compare this drawing with the depiction of the aristocratic ladies in the Trionfo, especially the one seen in profile who likewise wears an eardrop, and I think a definite similarity is observable. It is confirmed when we turn to the raised left hand of the Lady in the drawing. Artists describe hands and their gestures in such interestingly different ways: this one favours two fingers (first and second) straight, two fingers (third and fourth) bent. Anyone who tries to put their own fingers into the same position will soon realise that it is not natural and not sustainable; but there it is, not only in the drawing but in the Trionfo, exactly in one instance, and to varying degrees of bentness in many more. To anyone acquainted with the history of connoisseurship this could be a textbook illustration of Giovanni Morelli’s ‘method’.

Drawing of a Man with a Fur Collar (Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München) 

Comparing the Louvre Drawing (left) and Munich drawing (right) with faces from Triumph

At the Print Room at Munich (Staatliche Graphische Sammlung) there is another drawing, this time of a Man with a Fur Collar seen close-up, his head turned to our left, his neck emerging from a fur collar encircling it. this is not finished, but those fine lines drawn in long parallel strokes that distinguished the tresses of the Lady in the Vallardi Album are also here, along with a very particular shape given to the eye (upper lid and corner nearest to the nose) and to the ear, philtrum> and lips. These features are most clearly matched in the face of the young man on the extreme left of the Trionfo, and that of his companion.

Portrait of a Lady – Johnson Collection, Philadelphia

Comparing the Drawings from the Louvre (Top Left and Bottom Right) and Munich (Bottom Left) with the Painting of the Lady at Washington

At this point in my quest for drawings by the Trionfo Master the trail goes cold. There is, however, a painting in the Johnson Collection at Philadelphia, attributed, unconvincingly in my view, to Ercole de Roberti, which exhibits exactly the eye-shape, ear-shape, lips and philtrum of the Munich drawing, as well as the sharp, rounded eyebrows of the Vallardi Lady and the ear of the Vallardi Man.The Johnson painting has morphological similarities with the Trionfo, but it seems to belong to a later period, and there is reason for thinking that it does. It may indeed be the link between the Trionfo and a whole body of much later work by this artist, not in Sicily but in Ferrara.

Comparing faces with fresco in Palazzo di Schifanoia of Virgo recumbant with her Decani (bottom panels)

In the Salone dei Mesi of the Palazzo di Schifanoia in Ferrara  it is possible to distinguish fairly clearly the work of Francesco del Cossa, but there is another artist, credited with many of the Months whose identity has always puzzled art historians. He has been called the ‘Maestro di Ercole’ or the ‘Maestro degli Occhi Spalancati’, but these names have not led to much development of an oeuvre for an artist of such weird imagination and invention, a man capable, as Cossa was not, of creating extraordinary images like the figure of Virgo, for August, the giant lobster, for June, or the sign of Libra, for September.

Scenes from the Fresco at Palazzo Schifanoia: Virgo in the Allegory of August (top); The Lobster from the Allegory of June (centre); Libra from the Allegory of September (bottom)

From Palazzo Sclafani to Palazzo Schifanoia is not only a leap of geography; there must also be a gap of many years, perhaps a quarter of a century. It is frustrating and unsatisfactory that there is, as yet, so little to fill that gap. I do believe, nevertheless, that Palermo and Ferrara are connected in the career of this painter. The argument depends as always on a juxtaposition such as this one: the Munich drawing, the Johnson portrait, the heads of Virgo.

Detail of Virgo (top left) to compare with the Lady in Philadelphia (top centre) and the Man in Munich (top right), and comparisons of the horse from Triumph of Death (bottom left) and horses from the Allegory of March (bottom right)

From August we can move to other Months in the astrological zodiac, and discover that the eccentricity manifest at Palermo has not deserted this artist, but it has changed. In the many years that have elapsed he has developed, for example, a bizarre way of representing drapery – like sharply creased paper folded one way and then another – and rocks – like laminated tombstones. Despite the lapse of years there is a horse’s head whose structure can still remind us of the one at Palermo.

The Allegory of August, Triumph of Ceres and representation of Virgo – Palazzo Schifanoia

The Allegory of September (top) and detail of Mars in bed with a Nymph (bottom) – Palazzo Schifanoia

There is also a change of theme. The work at Palermo is dominated, very obviously, by Death, his work at Ferrara quite largely by Sex, especially so in August. The bare-breasted figure of Ceres brandishes the reaped corn and then, recumbent, sprawls luxuriously across three divisions while looking out seductively at the spectator. In September Mars is in bed with a nymph, Ylia, and the figure of Libra is set between two figures of a physique reminiscent of male ballet dancers, their calves developed like athletes on Greek pots. Sex, yes, but also, to complete the trinity, War. There is now a definite martial streak to the artist’s imagination, no doubt fuelled by the idea of ‘triumph’ and expressed in images of Mars, Vulcan’s Forge, armour.

Detail of Vulcan’s Forge from The Allegory of September

His contributions to the Triumph scenes are at least as ill-composed as the Triumph at Palermo, but under them, in the Months, he wisely sets his figures and creatures against plain dark backdrops. We remember them all the better for their standing out pale, even white, against the deep blues and browns. At Palermo this had only begun to happen in the upper left quadrant and behind the horse.

Clearly I and others must look diligently for other works by this artist that will allow us to see how he developed between the two periods of activity and what he was doing before the first one. The drawings that I have proposed as his must belong to the earlier, Palermitan  phase of his career, but how did he draw in later years? His name is more likely to be discovered by historians and archivists. I would like him to be a Sicilian – the island has too few major artists besides Antonello da Messina – but I must declare a doubt that he was. We need the evidence in any case to tell us whether he was brought to Palermo from the mainland or was native to the island at the time of the Sclafani commission. Without the facts we are left in ignorance. If the thesis presented here, of a connection between Palermo and Ferrara, should find acceptance, I hope that it will have armed us with a little more understanding of his character as an artist. He has an abundance of character. As painter, as draughtsman, as inventor of images, he appears to be one of the great eccentrics of European art, and one that can speak to us, of life and death and love, in another dark time.

[alj4890]

I got an ask? What if we get Liams POV when Riley is with Olivia at the family vault? How did he even know the game doesn’t really tell us anything about how he found out.

A/N Hmmm. Interesting. You're right. How did he know where they went? Olivia took Riley through a secret passageway to avoid bumping into Mira and anyone else lurking in the hallways. Let's try and figure out how Liam did this without the use of x-ray vision or telepathy, LOL!

@krsnlove @gkittylove99  @texaskitten30 @kingliam2019 @yourmajesty09 @mom2000aggie @ofpixelsandscribbles @twinkleallnight @lodberg

Masterlist

Down to the Wire

Lythikos...

Time rarely seemed to be on Liam's side. The more obstacles he encountered, the more he realized that everything he attempted only succeeded at the last possible second. His having to choose Madeleine at the final moment to protect Riley. Riley and their friends finding Tariq right at the moment before all hope to end his engagement was met. Drake diving in front of Riley to save her from being shot. His father pushing him out of the way from being crushed.

Everything in his life came down to a handful of finite seconds that held the very fabric of his fate.

He didn't particularly care that this was how his life would be. He wanted to be able to plan, have time to study every possible scenario and discover a way to combat the problems that could occur. Fate it seemed thought otherwise.

Olivia's festival was in full swing. As he walked around with Riley, it seemed that the horrors that had befallen Cordonia had yet to touch this wintery corner of the country. Madeleine's poisoning the night before wasn't spoken of. The few snatches of conversations he heard from nobles centered around the freezing temperatures and Lythikos ale.

Did no one care what was going on in the shadows?

When Riley left his side to try and draw the enemy out, he had to fight every single aspect of his personality to remain behind. He had come so close so many times in losing her, that the thought of placing her in this type of situation hurt horribly. If something happened to her, he would never forgive himself.

"I'll be fine." Riley had pressed a tender kiss to his lips. "I promise that nothing will keep me from marrying you."

He had hugged her close, almost wishing he could command her to remain in the safety of his embrace. Yet he knew that he never would demand such from her. His love was a brave, intelligent, and independent woman. He didn't want to destroy any part of her personality just to assuage his fears.

"Stay safe for my sake." He pleaded, kissing her once more. He raised a gloved hand to her cheek, eyes tracing the features he adored. "And knock Drake down with a snowball."

She laughed while hugging him tight. He watched her walk off toward the areas where snowy fields awaited those seeking a moment away from the crowd.

If that didn't draw their enemy out, he honestly didn't know what would.

Deciding to walk around alone and enjoy the merchant tents set up, he happened upon a heated conversation between Olivia and Lucretia.

"Humph. Your mother and father would have rather died than bow and simper before the king and court." Lucretia spat.

"They did die for not showing deference." Olivia snapped.

Lucretia glared at her for such a flippant response.

"To think that their only child would roll out the red carpet for our enemies is beyond disgraceful. Where is the Nevarkis blood? Why does it not boil with hatred toward Constantine and his progeny?"

"This Nevarkis blood does boil with hatred toward my enemies." Olivia responded. "Constantine might have been my enemy in the end but Liam never has. He's the best man I have ever known. He earned my respect and devotion years ago. I--"

"Spare me your lovesick musings." Lucretia waived off Olivia's compliments for the new king. "You've allowed this school girl crush to dilute what was once the pride of the Nevarkis name." Her lip curled in disgust. "To think our line depends solely on you."

Olivia's hands fisted over the insults. "Feel free to leave anytime you wish. That's all you've been good for."

Lucretia opened her mouth then paused at the set down she was about to give her niece. A slight smile formed on her thin lips.

"Still too scared to go to the family vault and see what your name, your very makeup, is, aren't you?"

Olivia's brow furrowed somewhat. "What does the vault have to do with--"

Lucretia held her hand up to silence her. She turned around and started to walk away. "The vault is no place for cowards. If I were you, I wouldn't dare step inside."

"I'm not a coward!" Olivia snapped at her aunt's back. Blinking back angry tears, she spun on her heel and disappeared in the opposite direction.

Liam stepped out from behind the tent he had been hidden. His eyebrows drew together as he thought over the unusual turn in their conversation.

What did the vault contain that Lucretia so desperately wanted Olivia to discover?

Wishing Bastien was here, Liam was forced to call Mira.

"Meet me over by the ice sculptures with schematics of Lythikos." He whispered.

***************

Olivia's home...

In an empty room, Liam studied the layout of the bottom level of Lythikos. His jaw clenched at what could be turned into a deadly trap.

"There appears to be only one way in and out of the vault, sir." Mira pointed out.

"Appearances can be deceiving." He told her, eyes narrowing at the lack of secret passageways marked on the blueprint. He knew from his visits here that it was similar to most of the castles in Cordonia. Each one had numerous hidden doors, hallways, and secret rooms.

There had to be at least one that the Nevarkis ruler would have used in the past to reach their treasured possessions.

"We'll watch from here." Liam tapped on an old storage room. "We will be well hidden and can easily see if anyone approaches the door." His eyes narrowed. "If Lucretia tries anything, we can stop her without anyone getting hurt."

"What about Lady Olivia?" Mira asked.

Liam didn't hesitate. "She is not the one attacking Cordonia."

"But, her parents--"

"She is innocent." He snapped. "Olivia has been my friend since she was five years old. She would never betray me."

Mira bowed her head. "Sorry sir."

He wished Bastien was here. He would have at least offered something more than accusations. "Once the court has retired for the night, we will take up our post."

****************

A little after 2 a.m.

It took all of Liam's willpower to not step out of his hiding place.

The sight of Olivia and Riley appearing out of the wall to calmly enter through the locked door leading down to the vault had made his muscles tense in anticipation.

Mira had silently questioned if she should save their future queen. He held his hand up to stop her. He could tell that Riley was not a prisoner. She had come willingly down here, most likely in support of Olivia.

It wasn't long though that he noticed Lucretia with a man that he knew too well.

"Is that--" Mira whispered.

Liam nodded.

He had finally found the link to every attack in the palace: Justin.

****************

"You should have stayed in New York, Riley." Justin said. "Why did you have to accept Liam’s proposal and come back?" His lips twisted in a bitter grimace as he leveled his pistol on her chest.

"Shoot her and get it over with." Lucretia snapped.

"No!" Olivia cried out trying to move in front of Riley.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Liam ordered as he and the King's Guards fanned out as much as possible in the narrow hallway.

Justin shook his head in frustration. "It is my time! I am the king Cordonia needs."

Lucretia maneuvered between Justin and Liam. Her evil smile formed as she pretended to stumble against the stone wall.

"If Olivia will not take her rightful place as queen, then she too must die with the rest of the filth."

Liam heard an ominous click as the entire bottom floor shook. His eyes widened at the charges exploding around the vault.

"Get out of there!" He screamed at Riley and Olivia.

He pushed his way through the guards rushing to stop Justin and Lucretia from escaping through yet another hidden door. His hands reached out towards them, praying he could reach them before they were trapped in the vault.

His mind refused to contemplate them being crushed to death by the heavy stones.

Riley grasped Olivia's hand and pulled her out. She went directly into Liam's arms, closing her eyes tightly as shouts filled the hallway and the floor finally stilled.

Olivia waved her hand through the dust in an attempt to see if they had caught the two who were behind this new wave of treachery.

Lucretia was handcuffed and held down on the floor by a guard while Mira cursed.

"Justin escaped." She told them bitterly.

Liam's arms tightened around Riley when he felt her tremble.

"At least now we know who our enemy is." She said, clutching him to her.

Liam placed a kiss on top of her head. "Yes, and he will never have another chance to harm you again."

Finally, he was given the precious time he needed to set into motion a plan to protect those he loved the most.

[chernobog13]

Another DC hero adapted to cartoon form by Filmation as a “guest star” for The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, Hawkman was the one character who underwent the most changes from his comic book stories.

The Silver Age Hawkman was Katar Hal, a police officer from the planet Thanagar who came to Earth with his wife, Shayera (Hawkgirl, later Hawkwoman), to study police methods.  Katar and Shayera adopted the secret identities of Carter and Shiera Hall, archaeologists and curators of the Midway City Museum.

In the cartoons he is just “Carter Hall, scientific genius from a far-off world” who works in a sprawling lab complex outside Midway City.  Carter shares the lab with Professor Barnes, who is also aware that his co-worker is Hawkman.

There is no mention of Shayera, but in 1967 it was pretty rare for a superhero to be married.  Or maybe the artists at Filmation did not want to draw and animate female characters.  Besides Lois Lane in the Superman cartoons, Lana Lang in Superboy, Wonder Girl in the three Teen Titans cartoons, the occasional appearance of Mera in Aquaman, and a single female villain who faced Green Lantern, I can think of no other female characters appearing at all!

So instead of Hawkgirl, we get a sidekick in the form of Skreal the Hawk to accompany Hawkman on his adventures (and before anyone takes me to task: yes, Hawkgirl/woman is Hawkman’s partner, NOT his sidekick).

Skreal is not your typical hawk: he understands English and obeys Hawkman’s commands (the cartoons never establish that Hawkman can “talk” to birds like Aquaman can “talk” to fish; Skreal is the only bird we ever see), he can smile, and he sounds like a seagull, not a hawk.

Skreal’s handy against enemy aircraft.

I think that gun barrel was stuck on with double-face tape.

Oh, and Skreal is lazy.  Very lazy.

You may notice that half-glove on Hawkman’s right hand.  Unlike the medieval weapons he used in the comics (mace, crossbow, spear, etc.), this al-purpose weapon was created specifically for the cartoons.

Like Space Ghost’s power bands, this claw fired a number of different rays, like the Repello Ray in use above, which was the ray Hawkman used most often.

Additionally, the claws were razor-sharp and able to slice through anything.

I have no idea if this claws influenced the creation of a certain clawed Canadian mutant a few years later.

The half-glove was never given a name itself; Hawkman usually just announced (like Space Ghost) what beam or ray he was going to utilize.  I always thought this was a cool weapon for Hawkman to have, and was surprised that DC never gave a similar weapon to Hawkman in the comics.

It’s only my personal theory, but I believe this half-glove was the influence behind the creation of The Claw of Horus.

The Claw of Horus first appeared in JSA #22 (2003) and saw limited use for the next few years before disappearing from the comics after the Blackest Night crossover event.  It was a weapon created from Nth metal by the sorcerer Nabu and given to Hawkman to use. 

Another weapon that Hawkman had in the cartoons but lacked in the comics is indestructible wings.  He uses the wings several times to protect himself from enemy weapons fire.  Which begs the question: why didn’t he construct a full suit out of the same material as the wings to protect himself?

The cartoons granted Hawkman a power that he did not have in the comics: radar vision.  This was a type of x-ray vision that allowed Hawkman to see through solid objects.

Here Hawkman uses his radar vision in one of the Justice League of America cartoons to locate Superman who is hidden in a room constructed of kryptonite.

One element from the comics that the cartoons kept was Hawkman’s orbiting spaceship.  However, the folks at Filmation greatly improved the sip’s design.

Here’s how it appears in the comics:

Yeah, that’s not a very inspired design.  In fact it looks like Hawkman borrowed this puppy from Green Arrow and just slapped on a new paint job.

Now feast your eyes on the spaceship from the cartoons:

Sleek, elegant, and resembling a bird in flight, this is a much superior design.

I remember as a kid wishing someone would release a model kit or toy of this spaceship.  I still do to this day.

Of course, inside it was little less elegant:

Hawkman is steering the ship with controls that very strongly resemble the differentials that are used to steer tanks and other tracked vehicles.  I should know, because I drove tracked vehicles for 2 1/2 years while working for my Uncle.  Those controls just don’t lend themselves to spaceships.  But hey, that’s how things work in cartoons.

Hawkman was featured in three 7-minute solo cartoons, as well as appearing in the three Justice League of America cartoons.  Filmation had plans for more series featuring additional DC characters (including a Wonder Woman cartoon), as well as continuing the omnibus format of The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure.  However, all those plans went out the window when CBS (the network that was airing the show) acquired the animation rights to Batman in 1968.  Batman was still wildly popular because of the live-action show, so CBS had Filmation drop all their plans and focus on producing Batman cartoons, and we got The Batman/Superman Hour. 

Hawkman wouldn’t be seen on the screen again for 10 years, finally appearing in Super Friends in 1977. 

ADDENDUM: thanks to @roguetelemetry​ for pointing out that the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century television show totally ripped-off Hawkman’s spaceship design for the character Hawk.  

That’s pretty blatant to my eyes.

I never realized this because I never watched the Buck Rogers show.  I tried an episode but it was so bad I was gone by the first commercial break.  Pretty much my reaction to any show produced by Glen A. Larson.  I guess the daily re-runs of Star Trek: The Original Series spoiled me.

The semi-good news is that the is a model kit available of Hawk’s ship available at monster in motion.  The bad news is the kit costs $110.00.  Had I the cash and the skill, I would be inclined to get the kit so that I could modify it into Hawkman’s ship.

But perhaps that’s a project for one of you more enterprising souls out there.

[whereflowersbloom]

Little boost

It had been a hectic day, working on some detailed written reports Batman asked him to investigate and patrolling with Nightwing, Damian was exhausted, more than usual, he could use a strong drink. There were certain things he had to think about, things he had pushed To the back of his mind while working, but there was a constant mental reminder that they were still there, which is exactly why Damian found himself sitting next to a slightly squiffy Dick Grayson, at the rooftop, looking at the stars and passing back a small bottle full of liquid that burned in the right way from his hair to his toenails. The relief his body demanded after a long stressful day. He thought about the bothersome hangover and the way his head would throb the next day as he took his second sip but he shrugged it off. It was nothing he couldn’t handle. Brother bonding, they had been intensely busy to have a casual brother-to-brother chat, out of all his siblings he felt the most comfortable with Grayson. He was lost in deep thoughts when his brother caught him off guard with a question.

“Have you discussed your feelings and intentions with Raven?” There it was the question he was dreading to answer. He had asked himself when he would finally muster the courage to speak with her about these new emotions surging inside him.

Damian’s heart jumped just enough at the mention of her name, nonetheless his familiar unreadable expression didn’t change. After another sip of the drink he felt loose enough that he didn’t hold back the low heartfelt groan, even as his sensibilities reminded him that he didn’t have anything to groan about. He hadn’t made his intentions clear after all this time. A part of him wondered how Dick might know he had feelings for Rave at all, as if the amber and intoxicating liquor was some kind of truth serum that made everything plain as day. Perhaps he had underestimated Grayson’s observation skills, his father trained him after all. He wasn’t Batman’s first son and right hand for nothing.

“She’s an essential component of our team.” Damian muttered lowering his voice as if to make himself sound as sober as possible and convincing. “The Titans wouldn’t be the Titans without her.”

“That’s certainly true, but also...” the older man nodded in agreement and took a mouthful of the amber drink. “I have noticed you two complement each other well, both in battle and out…” Richard gave Damian a playful feline smirk. He didn’t want to pry, he was only concerned for his brother’s unresolved romantic involvement, he can practically feel Damian’s hostile glare on him, studying his intentions silently. Anyone would understand what he was referring to. So he noticed Damian concluded. Richard didn’t ask to gossip with his other siblings about his personal affairs, he knew it. Maybe it was time to trust Grayson. He certainly had earned it after all those years working side by side.

“It’s not what you think, rather complicated.” Damian said quietly into his drink, and though his eyes are elsewhere, he knew Dick was listening to him as a friend and brother. It was something he’d been trying to avoid thinking about, with no help from the dark-haired man sitting to his right. They had something, Dick was absolutely right. And even when Damian had tried to keep his distance at first, the pull to Raven magnetic and frustrating as hell. Unstoppable. He had no control over it. But what was holding him back? The uncertainty? “We’re simply friends, I think.” It wasn’t a lie. Friends who wanted to engaged in rather intimates activities and explore boundaries.

“Teammates.” Grayson whispered remarking the word. Knowing well Damian’s aversion towards it.

“Exactly. Not any different than how I stand with you or any of the other team members.” Damian said with a tint of bitterness gracing his voice. He didn’t have to explain himself to anyone. Not Grayson or his father. His relationship with other teammates could be described as civilized. He cared for them. They were his family too.

“And yet you are intimate with Raven in ways that you aren’t with your other teammates.” A teasing expression crosses his face. Now Grayson had the guts to mess with him. His eyebrows furrowed at the comment, naturally making thin lines appear on his forehead.

“It’s intellectual compatibility, Grayson. We are teammates who have similar interest in common.” Damian remarked with hot anger. He considered taking his frustrations out on his brother. He wanted to punch someone, maybe Dick or Jason. He visualized the face of Conner Kent though, who had touched Raven unnecessarily too many times today with his filthy hands. His green eyes narrowed.

“If you hold no claim over Raven, surely you are both able to enjoy the company of others. So to say if Conner wanted to spend some time with her, it wouldn’t bother you. Right?” Richard commented taking another sip of the raw drink. His humorous blue eyes watching Damian’s reaction attentively, the man next to him was his family, his brother, he only wanted the best for him. For fuck’s sake, it was pretty obvious they had a thing going on. Deliberately Provoking him would have the reaction he expected. He just had to mention Conner or Garfield and voila his stubborn little brother would get himself a girlfriend. His job as older brother was to meddle in his ‘personal affairs’. O,us, Damian could use a little push to take the next step.

He thought about it for a whole minute, considered the suggestion Richard made that Raven was available to have a romantic or physical relationship with anyone. Looking into Dick’s ocean eyes, he knew that Dick was so clearly baiting him. Because, of course, Richard was absolutely right. The idea of Raven with anyone else made his blood boil but if they were just friends who were close, friends who were evidently physically attracted to each other but didn’t speak about their attraction or romantic interest, he had no right to demand exclusivity. Deny her the possibility to see someone else. It irritated him. He was her ‘friend’ but who was to say that she couldn’t be close with anyone else, for instance Conner. Tsk. Over his dead body. Not Kent or anyone else. He was irrevocably doomed. What the hell was happening to him? He didn’t want to push Raven asking for more, fearing her answer would dig up the ghosts of his past pains that he’s worked so hard to bury. His mother’s betrayal and he was Ra’s Al Ghul grandson. Did he even have the right?

“Just friends.” Damian repeated with displeasure at the term that defined his relationship with the young woman he loved? Did he love Raven? What did he know about love? It wasn’t a exact science, he could read thousands of books and they wouldn’t give him the answer he was searching for. Just had to look at his own Father, involved with a criminal, on and off. Didn’t have to bring up his mother. The answer lies in your heart, it was as If the cold east wind whistled those words. He didn’t want to see Raven with anyone other man, it made his insides turn and his jaw clench involuntary. He wanted her for himself only. And waves of clarity seem to crash down on him, slowly dissipating the feelings of confusion and helplessness that he’s been plagued with ever since he discovered he had strong feelings for Raven. People used to say that love is like wildflowers, it grows everywhere even through the debris, truthfully he didn’t understand it at first, at the image of Raven’s face clear as a painting in his mind, as the countless hours he has spent drawing her alluring features, he finally understood what they meant by that. That smile, her smile. She had bewitched him.

“Does repeating it enough times make it so?” Dick asked arching a brow at him with a sly smile curving his lips.

“Fuck you, Grayson.” Damian uttered annoyed at his older brother, for being foolish and falling right in his trap. Probably it was the alcohol talking but Dick could take it, Dick’s response was a open throaty chuckle. He wouldn’t admit he was thankful out loud though. Damian smiled instinctively. “Thank you for the overly emotional conversation about my romantic affair.” He mentioned to his brother, looking at him straight in the eye. His eyes silently whispering a ‘thank you, brother.’ He had enough alcohol doe the night and with the first ray of sunlight he was waking up for training. He couldn’t help but imagine it, waking him next to her, soft sheets and even softer skin, inhaling that characteristic lavender smell first with the sunrise. And here he was wasting precious time, getting drunk with Grayson. He shook his head before getting up slowly and marching towards the door of the Titans building.

“Where are you going?” Dick asked curiously, suddenly intrigued what his little brother would do about this situation. At this point he knew how to handle Damian and make him see what he refused to acknowledge. Damian was incredibly smart for his age but at times too obstinate. This required of his assistance. He was growing up fast, too fast for his liking. The snarky, short-tempered kid Bruce brought years ago, was long gone. Richard Grayson thinks it is indeed a privilege to be Damian’s brother and mentor. He was tremendously proud of his younger brother. His job was done and he smiled broadly.

“Hopefully it’s not too late to discuss my emotions and intentions towards a certain lady.” Damian flashed him a confident smirk, only barely aware that he might have slurred the last words, effects of the alcohol no doubt. It wasn’t too late for him, walked a bit unsteadily towards the door, his destination the room of his soon to be girlfriend he hoped. He had to speak with her. This was his last chance. He waved goodnight to Dick before disappearing in the darkness of the night, leaving a pleased Richard drinking on the rooftop alone.

Undoubtedly they would have fun explaining to Batman how his biological son was romantically involved with a half-demon. Dick decided that conversation could wait a few weeks...perhaps months.

Have there a brother bonding moment 💜💜💜💜

@audieoddity @niahti @chromium7sky @deep-in-mind67

[ichabodcranemills]

re: D*rklina

@musical-chick-13 I’m putting this under a read more, because I have additions and, yes, it is long 😂

So, as far as I can tell from what show-watchers have told me, yes, he is definitely worse in the books. And specifically, the general idea in said books seems to be that just because someone is charismatic and attractive and “gets” parts of you doesn’t mean that they’re a good partner or even worth your time, which is a message I have waited FOREVER to see. Beauty (and to a lesser extent, magnetism) does not equal goodness. The Dark/ling (I have no idea if the names will show up in the tags so I’ll put slashes in the middle of them, wow this website’s features need revamping) always seemed…very entitled to Al/ina. There wasn’t any desire for them to become equals (even in a moral sense by dragging her down to his moral level or raising himself up to hers). His behavior and pursuit of her seems much more motivated by the idea of being able to congratulate himself on the fact that he’s “won” her. She’s more of like…a conquest to him? And maybe that’s a huge misread of his character on my part, but the Leigh, the author, HAS said in the past that some of the Dark/ling’s dialogue and actions were written as a way for her to make sense of and deal with an irl toxic relationship she was in during part of the writing period, so I…don’t think it’s a completely unreasonable interpretation? And that’s not to say that power imbalance ships should Never Be Shipped (because they can be genuinely compelling or even fun to watch under the right writer), and Leigh has even said that she Gets The Appeal herself.

But I think the reasons Tho/schei works for me where D*rklina doesn’t are because 1) Tho/schei have genuinely known each other for a long time (and even been on good terms for some of it) but the Dark/ling decides, despite being this all-powerful charismatic force who is hundreds of years old, to get pettily involved in a teenage love triangle in very little time which is a choice that makes absolutely no sense to me at all, 2) The Doctor is an extremely morally grey character, in a way that if they aren’t careful could easily match the destructiveness of The Master. They both are aware of this, and both of them believe themselves (in their own ways) to be “above” morality (The Doctor in the sense of “I know what’s best and my choices are law” and The Master in the sense of “My choices are law and I deserve to cause destruction and have complete control”. There are…not equal, but similar enough levels of moral ambiguity that it makes sense to me that they still Get™ each other. The Doctor also likes Intellectual Challenges and Foiling Grand Plots, to the point where it’s often the Most Important Thing, and The Master not only provides those, but enjoys the conflict as well, and 3) They actually are close to being equals. They’re both very smart, powerful, immortal. Obviously The Doctor has Much More Life Experience and a more extraordinary legacy because of the Timeless Child thing, but Missy’s primary goal was simply “I want my friend back” and Dhawan!Master freaked out because it was impossible to see them as equals anymore. The Doctor, as per Twelve, wants the Master to be good because they’re alike in a way no one else in either of their lives are. They kind of…want the same thing but in different ways, whereas The Dark/ling, while understanding The Burden Of Power, doesn’t actually want the same thing Al/ina does.

And that relationship between D*rklina could still make for a fascinating dynamic, and one that in another life I might even be into myself if not for the whole “reducing it to Good Girl Saves Bad Boy” trope that I keep seeing within a good deal of the fandom. Not that a general fandom reaction or misread should prevent anyone from enjoying something, but I’m so tired that it’s nearly impossible for me to separate them at this point, lol. Ultimately it boils down to the fact that they seem like such fundamentally different people that I don’t personally see how they could ever truly find common ground or genuinely appreciate their similarities. I think the most interesting exploration of a romantic bent to their dynamic would be in a context  where they are so different and recognize that they’re so different, and they might want to focus on their similarities, but it’s not enough. There could be this undeniable pull between them, but what does that really mean when held up against who they are and how they choose to interact with the world? And then having to deal with the necessary antagonism that results. I guess I see the existence of this ship as like…more of a thought exercise than anything I would ever want to happen in any way other than a one-sided attraction on his part, or that could ever truly be narratively justified. But also like…I hate him, so that makes it kind of hard for me to want to explore it in any way at all. Which that’s a personal thing. Other people like this character, and I’m genuinely happy for them that they can see something I don’t.

UGH, I’m sorry this got so long. This is what happens when I have an urge to Share my Thoughts.

I totally understand your feelings and I think the show did a good job on not only humanizing the D*rkling, but also making the relationship more palatable. I, mean, I’m sure we can partially blame Mr. Barnes’ soulful eyes, but I definitely got the impression that, while the D*rkling wants to use Alina for his own gains, he is very drawn to her as THE Sun Summoner, as in “we are linked and will inevitably be the only one for the other”, he basically tells Mal as much.

And I don’t blame you for losing interest in them because of the fandom, it can be very frustrating, especially if one of the characters didn’t appeal to you in the first place (I mean, I’ve been there, hello R*ylo, lmao)

I think I get what you’re saying about how this works out in the books and how what draws me to D*rklina isn’t necessarily textual. And I think I might have went in a little biased when I watched the show, because, before I did, a friend told me she was getting Thoschei vibes from it, but didn’t especify where, So I watched and there it was: M*lina… okay, school best friends, us against the world, but in general, eh, they were too “perfect” (as in, no real conflict between them). And then D*rklina with everything I said on my original post. I mean, I was looking for a thoschei-like dynamic and I found one 😂.

I’ve read some spoilers for the book, so I know my whole “200 years later” fantasy doesn’t happen, so I agree with you, this ship is more of a thought exercise. But I think the show sets it up in a way that is Just My Thing, whereas the book is more straightforward with how incompatible these two are, romantically. But the fandom will ship away, even in kinda blergh ways, it’s how it is 🤷

[soft--dragon]

Home Again

Five is still figuring out how to adjust to his new body and new life, surrounded by real people who cared

In which the Umbrella fam is worried about Five, and Five gets the damn hug he needs

Cursing (I wish I could say it was minor, but this is Five and his chaotic siblings were talking about here)

Don’t really know where this is set, sometime during season 1, I had an idea so I just wrote it (Vanya isn’t in this though she’s every bit deserving to be in the Umbrella Family as the rest of them)

Enjoy

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

Five knew it wasn’t going to be a good day.

It was a feeling that settled in his gut the longer the day dragged on. He jumped from his room to the kitchen, startling Klaus, and probably Ben who Five assumed was close by.

Klaus quickly got over his momentary shock, blinking a few times, taking in the bags under Five’s eyes and slump in his posture.

“You look like shit dude.”

It was a blunt statement from Klaus, one that deserved an equally blunt retort from Five. “Fuck off.”

The smallest of the Umbrella Academy dumped the contents of the coffee pot into a mug, taking a large gulp of the dark, rich liquid. He sighed at the familiar taste, swirling the half of the remainder before downing that too. Klaus visibly recoiled, eyebrows shooting to his hairline.

“Five, you might want to take it easy on the coffee, you’re in a body that isn’t built to hold that much caffeine.”

“That’s rich coming from the guy that’s killing himself with drugs and alcohol” Five bit back, eyes narrowing at his brother.

Klaus quickly raised his hands in surrender, hoping it might relax the riled boy in front of him. “Calm down Five, I was just-”

Five jumped before he could finish the sentence, taking what remained in the coffee pot with him.

“....That...could’ve gone better” Ben said from where he was sitting on the dining table, a contemplative look on his face.

“Yeah no shit genius” Klaus grumbled, crossing his arms firmly. “But at least he didn’t stab me.”

“Diego’s more likely to do that than Five, Klaus.”

“Fair point.”

Ben turned to look at where Five had disappeared, anxiety prickled at his skin. Something wasn’t right with his baby brother.

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

Allison wasn’t phased when she heard a loud thump close to her room. In this household, random noises were entirely normal. This was a mansion with six supernatural people, plus a mom robot and a advanced chimpanzee.

But what sounded like glass breaking and a hissed curse made Allison stand and move to the door. What she found, wasn’t what she expected.

Five was kneeling on the floor, rubbing his head and glaring daggers at the shards of glass surrounding him. The carpet was stained with what smelled like coffee.

“Five?”

The boy’s glare snapped up to Allison who had the sense to not react lest she agitate him further. Five was like a feral cat sometimes, had to be slow and unthreatening for him to give you the slightest sign of trust.

She leaned against the doorway, trying to appear casual. “You alright?”

“Fine.” The reply was curt and rough, like Five was trying not to let too much emotion slip out.

“Need a hand cleaning that up?”

“No, I’m more than capable Allison.”

“I know you are, I was just offering to help-”

Five hissed another curse and with a blink of light, he was gone again. Leaving Allison confused and a little hurt in his wake.

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

It wasn’t a smooth jump.

Five stumbled over his feet, similar to outside Allison’s room where he dropped the coffee pot. He almost face planted, but managed to catch himself on a nearby desk.

“Jesus Christ Five!”

The shout made him start, leaping into a defensive stance, almost snarling like an animal. His gaze fell on Diego lying on his bed. He was clutching his chest and a knife tightly, breathing rapidly. Probably coming down from the momentary adrenaline rush of fright.

“Why the hell are you in my room!?” Diego asked, but there was no real heat behind his words, mostly confusion.

Five didn’t pick up on the lack of venom, instead challenging the question with his own spiteful words.. “I didn’t do it on purpose asshole!” He snapped, gripping the desk tighter when he felt himself tether on his feet.

Diego must’ve seen it cause he sat up, putting the knife down. His usual glare being replaced by raised eyebrows and worried eyes. “Five, you feeling alright?”

“I’m fine! Why does everyone keep asking me that?!”

Diego’s worry disappeared in a split second at the sharp retort. He glared back in response, feeling his anger rise like a wild fire. “Because we care? Don’t know why we bother though, seeing as you piss on every attempt of basic emotion we give you.”

Five flinched back, gritting his teeth to ignore the pain that sentence gave him, but good god did it sting. He blinked away before Diego saw how much that statement hurt. He refused to show weakness.

But Deigo had seen it. Guilt and regret pooled into his stomach, staring at the spot where Five has just been. “Damn it” he hissed to himself, pinching the skin between his eyes.

Five hadn’t had proper company throughout his years in the apocalypse. He was relearning the ropes of socialising with his family. And adjusting to life in general.

Deigo sagged onto his bed, gripping his knife like a life line.

Why did he never think before speaking?

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

Luther was probably the very last person Five wanted to see right now. And to make matters worse, he was accompanied by Pogo and Grace.

The universe seemed to love kicking him when he was down.

The trio looked over when Five blinked into existence, close to falling down again due to his exhaustion of late nights and constant jumping.

“Oh hello sweetie” Grace smiled pleasantly, though concern shone through her robotic features at Five’s state. “Are you al-?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine” Five cut her off, waving a hand in their general direction. He needed to jump again. Away from people for awhile.

“Master Five” Pogo spoke up. “You seem exhausted?”

“Late night Pogo” Five replied shortly, hoping he’d be satisfied with the answer and leave him alone. He went to leave the room when a strong, yet gentle grip caught his upper arm.

It didn’t matter to Five that it was gentle. The fact was, it was still a grip.

He swung round in barely contained panic, throwing a fist. It slammed against Luther’s jaw. Though it barely making the bulkier man shift, the look on his face said everything Five knew Luther was feeling.

Shock, concern, anger, maybe even fear.

He jumped for a fourth time, leaving Luther, Pogo and Grace behind in varying levels of distress.

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

Five hit the ground again, almost screaming every foul word he knew right then and there in frustration. He wasn’t trying to be a dick. Honest to god he wasn’t. But his siblings were just so- so....caring. He wasn’t used to it, he wasn’t used to having others around, except Dolores.

They all wanted to help him. He suspected it was because of his form, he looked so vulnerable that they felt a need to protect and help him any way they could. It was kinda sweet really, but so incredibly forgein to him. He reacted the only way he knew how. With anger.

It was the only emotion he had been feeling these days. Anger at himself for screwing up the equation that got him stuck like this. Anger that he wasn’t able to save his family from the apocalypse. Anger because he wasn’t damn smart enough to figure out how to save the world.

Horror swirled in Five’s gut when his vision became blurred, the tears slipping from his eyes and onto the carpet. He swiped a furious arm across his eyes but it did nothing to stem the flow. He scrambled to his feet, running down the hall. He had to get to his room. If he got there, he could hide, and the others would never know he was crying.

Why couldn’t he jump? His mind was muddled. He couldn’t see. He could barely breathe.

He slammed into something solid. He would’ve fallen to the ground if a tender hold to his arms didn’t stop him. He could hear someone talking, but he couldn’t place them. It was all too much right now. All he could see was ash, taste it on his tongue, feel it on his skin.

He screamed, not knowing what else to do, tears streaming down his face. His heartbeat pounded in his ears, everyhing was too damn loud.

But then he felt...warm? It was like a heavy blanket had been put around his shoulders. He clung into the source of the warmth, desperately to not let it go. To not back to the freak show he’d been forced to live with for 45 years.

“...ive! Five you’re okay, please just breathe for me, breathe you can do it.”

He knew that voice, he knew it. It wasn’t Dolores, it couldn’t have been Reginald he was dead-

“Five please, please just breathe.”

Five complied, trying to draw in air but coughing when he couldn’t get in a full breath.

“That’s it buddy, you’re doing so good, come on, in and out.”

Five tried again, fingers digging into a soft material.

“You’ve got it, you’re doing great Five.”

Five drew in another breath, feeling his head clear. He pitched forward heavily, being caught by a sturdy figure.

“Good job Five” a soft voice murmured praisingly. “I’m proud of you.”

Five blinked a few times, the tears in his eyes not fully receding. Above him was black hair, kind eyes and a soft smile.

“B-Ben?”

The ghost smiled wider, gently squeezing Five’s arms in confirmation. “Yeah, feel better now bud? Got it out of your system?”

Five’s hesitated then his head fell against his brother’s collarbone, sniffing. “Yeah...”

“You wanna tell me what triggered it?”

Five’s fist clenched Ben’s jacket tighter. “Memories” he mumbled.

Ben nodded his understanding. They stayed like that for awhile, Ben holding his little brother tightly to his chest, rubbing his back comfortingly. It felt nice, but Five’s anxiety wouldn’t stop spiking.

“I’m scared Ben...”

The small, unsure voice that spoke broke Ben’s heart. He squeezed Five tighter to him. Wishing he could take away all the pain and fear Five had to deal with during his time in the apocalypse. Take that away and give him his childhood back. See the boy laugh with a sparkle in his eye like he used to when they were all young. He dropped a kiss into Five’s hair, resting his head atop his smaller brother’s.

“I know” he murmured, “and I’m sorry you had to be alone for so long. I’m so sorry Five.”

The pair stood, arms wrapped around each other for a long time. Ben lost track of the minutes that went by. Though he did notice Five was getting steadily heavier in his arms. When he looked down, the boy was out.

Ben shook his head fondly, lifting Five into his arms. He paused for a moment. Had he always been this light? Ben couldn’t remember Five ever feeling so...small.

He shook off the surprise, carrying his sibling to Five’s room, gently easing him onto the bed. He sat on the edge, watching Five sleep, taking in how young he looked, but aware of how old he was. Having seen death and destruction at every turn. Years spent in solitude, forced to survive in a barren wasteland for years. It was horrid of think about.

Ben’s hand phased out of reality for a moment as he brushed it through his brother’s hair. Five nuzzled into the touch, eyebrows finally relaxing and giving him a look of peace.

“Sleep well Five” Ben murmured. “Your family will be here when you wake up, I promise.”

[arolla-pine]

I, Marinette - p.5

(5) – The Musketeers

The lunch break was about to end soon. I managed to get the idea of Marinette’s schedule, I riffled “The three musketeers” and I ate lunch without any blunder. I agreed with Tikki a plan that she would pinch me every time I acted not like the character I embodied.

Before I went back to school I asked my kwami if we should inform Plagg about these temporary inconvenience, but Tikki decided not to. In her opinion that would make the situation even more complicated. Personally, I had rather positive opinion on Plagg but I thought that Tikki had known him for a few thousand years longer than me…

I entered the school at the moment of school bell ringing. This time it was planned – just to avoid chatting with my friends. It was too risky for my real identity.

“So? Have you managed to read the book?” Alya asked me while we were heading to the staircase.

“I riffled through. I’ll try to stay invisible…” I muttered.

“I like the book so much!” Adrien joined us. “Such a lively plot, so many surprises…”

“You must be joking! That was terrible! Those descriptions…” Nino commented. “I was bored to death…”

“Impossible!” Adrien disagreed. “So many plot twists, duels, chases…”

“Love affairs…” I added under my breath.

“Love affairs, yes…” my ex-almost-boyfriend nodded. “Right… There were some…” he chuckled uncomfortable and ruffled his hair.

“I think that morality wasn’t their strong suit.” I  blurted before I bit my tongue. There still was more Lena than Marinette in my behaviour.

“Why do you think so?” Alya laughed.

“Look at d’Artagnan…” I continued, because if I started I should finish. “First, he fell in love with someone else’s wife. OK, I get it, heart wants what it wants… But her… She reciprocated despite the fact she’d already been married!”

“With an old guy!” Alya exclaimed.

“But she married him, didn’t she?”

“Constance wasn’t a musketeer.” Adrien cut in.

“Right.” I nodded. “But I was talking about d’Artagnan. He was so in love with Constance, yet it didn’t stop him from an affair with Milady…”

“Femme fatale…” Adrien muttered.

I smiled to myself when I thought what would happen if he blurted out Cat Noir’s famous ‘M’Lady’… He must have had strong self-control not to reveal his superhero-self.

“When I’m listening you guys, I’m starting thinking if we’ve read the same book…” Nino commented.

Alya and I began laughing. The situation was hilarious, indeed, and it only showed how differently we experienced the novel. And that was something I loved so much in reading!

“I’m so happy you haven’t found there those love affairs!” Alya winked at her boyfriend. “Who knows what would inspire you or…”

“Never!” Nino denied immediately and glared at her.

“Good!” she summed up the discussion and hugged him, but I could bet that she wanted to kiss him.

I felt uncomfortable. I remembered from the show that AlyaNino was only mentioned sometimes. I loved all subtle hints about their relationship like this one with Nino invited for a family diner with the Cesaires. I appreciated the moment when Alya took Nino’s hand – I found it so meaningful but still delicate. Now, I had an impression that they would start making out if they weren’t in the classroom… That didn’t fit my image of their relationship.

My thinking about AlyaNino was interrupted by Caline Bustier who finally appeared and after short apologising for being late, she began the lesson. We sat down and took out books and tablets.

“I hope everyone has read the book…” the teacher said, and I caught Alya’s concerned glance. “If there’s anyone who hasn’t, please tell me now. Otherwise you won’t be able to fulfil the task for today lesson.”

I heard my colleagues’ whispers. Everyone was unsure what the teacher meant.

“Calm down!” Miss Bustier smiled. “It’s nothing stressful. I planned a group project for today. Please sit in groups of up to four!”

Chloe Bourgeois snorted and started complaining to Sabrina about how unfair this plan was. She was in a group with Sabrina, Mylène and Alix, but I was sure she wanted Adrien instead. And only Adrien, excluding Nino…

The boys sitting in front of my desk turned around, as if creating our group of four was as simple as possible. I ignored green flashes in Adrien’s eyes, trying to focus on the teacher. I waited for details of what we were going to do.

“Now, basing of the book you’ll decide on which character suits you the most.” Caline Bustier instructed us, and when all students began exchanging ideas, she added loudly: “Remember! You don’t choose for yourself. The character for you will be chosen by your partners in the group! Try to fit the personality of a musketeer to your colleague’s features.”

Wow, that sounded great! I liked analysing people’s minds…

“Anyone has an idea, what’s to do?” Nino asked.

“Should we choose from the short list of four main characters?” I wondered quietly.

“I guess so…” Alya wasn’t sure.

“Ma’am, should we choose only between the four musketeers?” Adrien asked aloud.

“Yes, Adrien.” The teacher answered. “You choose only between those four. But… Who did you want to consider?”

“Uhm…” The blond stopped and looked at me. Right, I was the author of that question.

“Milady de Winter or Constance?” I mumbled.

“You would have a candidate for Milady de Winter?” Caline Bustier smiled.

I was so close to blurt out that Chloe would be a good one. Or rather Lila! Yeah, she would be even better!

“So, who’s first?” Nino started.

“Let’s take Marinette!” Alya suggested with a malicious grin. ‘Et tu, Brute, contra me?’ I wanted to say, but bit my tongue.

“Great…” I muttered. “You’re going to deal with that or you need my help?”

“Oh, it’s so easy, Marinette! You’re a perfect d’Artagnan!” My friend laughed. “Nobody else is so unlucky to get in trouble! Besides, d’Artagnan was as clumsy as you are…”

“You’re a straight arrow, you know?” I winced.

“I don’t think Marinette is clumsy!” Adrien said. Well, well… Adrien-she’s-just-a-friend had spoken! Oh, poor blind boy…

“Besides, d’Artagnan was a perfect fencer. How could he be clumsy?” Nino added.

“He was in trouble because he offended by mistake some people or he associated with wrong people…” Alya was trying to defend her idea. “He was naïve. Remember how he believed in Milady’s lies?”

Honestly, while I was listening this description, I could find some similarities to Adrien. But I remembered to be more like Marinette instead of Lena. So I stayed quiet.

“Should I be so amorous too?” I asked sarcastically, and my friend burst out laughing.

“Great idea, girl!”

“You have fun I can see…” Caline Bustier appeared above our heads.

“We’re sorry…” we all mumbled.

“I’ve thought that you get into characters so well!” Our teacher joked. “For a moment I felt like I was in a tavern…”

Then Mme Bustier moved to another group, and we exchanged glances.

“I assume that now Porthos and Aramis should start fighting and Athos should start drinking…” I commented, and the boys chuckled.

“You’d drown your sorrows too if you had such a life!” Alya said.

“Sorrows can swim…” I recalled a phrase I’d heard ages ago.

I kept ignoring Adrien’s flashes, but when Alya and Nino exchanged their meaningful glances, I felt alarmed. Besides, Tikki was drilling in my hip. Too much of Lena, too little of Marinette!

“Who’s next?” I asked, just to draw my friends’ attention to the play.

“Maybe Adrien?” Alya decided.

“You’re a boss like Athos!” I commented.

“You’re right, Marinette!” Nino agreed in an amused voice.

“Do you want to be Milady de Winter?!” Alya glared at her boyfriend.

It was just on a tip of my tongue – the thought that Milady had an affair with d’Artagnan. But Tikki kept drilling and that helped me in staying quiet. However, it was quite possible that the thought dawned upon Adrien, because I noticed his glance at Nino, then at me, and then back at Nino. Wow… It looked like the golden boy started thinking!

“Miss Bustier said that we should choose among the four musketeers only.” He reminded, and I smiled to myself. Definitely this dummy started thinking! But why now?! Couldn’t he do this yesterday?!

“I can be Athos.” Alya agreed. “Who’s next?”

“We have Porthos and Aramis left.” I noted. “An honest strongman vs. an ambitious swordsman.”

“It’s easy.” Alya shrugged. “Nino will be Porthos and Adrien will be Aramis.”

“You’re bossy again, Al…” Nino reminded. “Wasn’t Porthos a dumb one?”

“Less educated maybe. But not dumb.” I muttered. “And he gets married eventually. And Aramis… uhm…”

“Was a womaniser.” Alya finished.

“Hello!” Adrien cut in.

“I wanted to say that he was rather popular among women…” I explained uncomfortable. But I knew Alya was right, because Aramis not only was popular but did like women’s company. A lot.

“I’ve read that book, Marinette…” Adrien replied, looking me in the eye. “I know you’re trying to be politically correct, but Alya’s right.”

“OK, but admit that Aramis knew some foreign languages and was a perfect fencer. Seems to me that it suits you.”

“Thank you, Marinette. You’re very kind.” Adrien bowed in my direction like a real musketeer. He needed only a feathered hat.

“You’re welcome.” I bowed in reply.

“Geez, you both look like you were playing a part in ‘The three musketeers’!” Nino summed up. “If Mme Bustier thought that we were in a tavern before, I’d say now that you look like at Louis XIII ball…”

I chuckled, and soon my friends joined me. At the same moment our teacher clapped and laugh died in our mouths. At first I thought we were too loudly, but soon it was obvious that she wanted to draw the attention of the whole class.

“I can see that you’ve had a lot of fun with playing roles of the main four musketeers. For Monday you’ll write a paper with the characters’ description. Of all four musketeers!”

I heard some whines behind my back. That was a second paper to be prepared for Monday – the first one was about a planet for professor Mendeleiev. Thankfully, I didn’t have to write at least that one. I needed to go back to Marinette’s home and to start looking for a way back to my real life.

If my intuition was right, there was an akuma behind this and a supervillain would show up soon, because Hawkmoth would claim fulfilling their deal. In exchange for superpowers he always wanted the same – the Miraculouses of Ladybug and Cat Noir.

---

I, Marinette - p.4  <-  Previous part  |  Next part ->  I, Marinette - p.6

Read the story from the beginning

[miss-choco-chips]

Good influence, bad influence.

Tim is one of those, and he gets the other one. Guess which is which. Ft a murder kitten, two oblivious birds, a divorce-preventing baby and a murderous mother.

(Thanks to @the-quiet-carrotcake who helped me think this through on chat and gave me ideas (THANKS BABE), and tagging @animemangasoul because they understand my need to ALWAYS include Kon when writting about Tim.

This sat on my wips for so long now, so I’m not even proofreading it. Just take it away, please)

-----.-----

-Are you sure I can’t just stab her?

-Really sure.

-How much?

-Like, 100% sure.

-You told me once it’s impossible to ever/

-...be 100% sure of something, I know. Which is how you know I mean it now.

Damian puffed his cheeks. Tim was sure that, in his mind’s eye, he looked dignifiedly annoyed. In reality, it was adorable. But since Damian currently held his right hand hostage, and was probably holding onto his dagger inside his pocket with the other one, he didn’t want to risk pointing it out. He just tugged him away, swimming through the masses, as Damian had called them upon entering the ballroom.

-But why not? 

It was as close to a whine a sound as the kid could make, which upped his adorable factor another notch. 

-You’d get blood on your suit, for one. And then, my mom would kill you.

A little shudder at the mention of Janet Drake, though the kid composed himself quickly- I wouldn’t let a single drop fall on me, cousin. I’m not an amateur.

Since Damian would have used another, more offensive word not so long ago, Tim ignored the pointed look he got when he said ‘amateur’. Also, the use of modern slang was something he was painstakingly drilling into him, so he was quiet proud when it bore fruits.

-Also, you’d draw attention to ourselves. And that woman didn’t even do anything worthy of such a reaction.

-She dared touch me! Treated me like, like… like a kid!

Pointing out that he, in fact, was one wouldn’t go well, so Tim’s mind offered an alternative route. 

-You don’t know? -he blurted out, feigning surprise. Damian looked up at him, eyes squinting suspiciously, and there, very well hidden (but not enough he didn’t notice) a little hesitancy.

-Know what?

Tim let go of the little, calloused hand, and placed both of his on the slimmer shoulders, bending down a bit to be face to face with his charge for the night. The blond wig and round glasses weren’t enough to hide Damian’s almost aristocratic features, but they sure managed to misdirect someone about his bloodline. No one would be able to tell he was Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul’s son, which was kinda the idea.

It had been a chore, to put the disguise in the proud boy, but Tim had been the one to achieve it when he dressed it as a training exercise: they had to make it through the party without its host, Mr Wayne, recognizing him.

Easy peasy, or so he had told mother when he assured her she could go make business with aunt Nicole and leave them be. He hadn’t calculated… well, other people.

-About Mrs Stingdom’s homeland.

Damian was too dignified to look over his shoulder at the lady in question, but Tim could see he wanted to.

-She’s a gothamite -he pointed out, because as Tim had suggested, he did his homework about who was attending to the party. A bit, at least. The story of so many boring socialites was too much to bear.

-She married a gothamite -he explained, doing his best to look stern about Damian’s apparent misinformation-. She’s actually from another land, which is why she pinched your checks. In her culture, it’s a sign of utmost respect towards people under ten years old who are still considered to be superiors, despite their age.

It sounded far fetched, even to his own ears, but he was playing into Damian’s social incompetency and his arrogance at believing himself above all others, which is why the kid nodded slowly after a few seconds, eating the whole lie in one bite.

His bespectacled eyes bore into his, brows furrowed. His hands went to Tim’s, still on his shoulders, a little unsure.

-Should I expect more of this… cultural difference? So I won’t be underprepared, should anyone else wish to pay me their respects in a new manner?

Sensing a chance to prevent a future stabbing, Tim was quick to nod. Mom was going to be so proud!

----.----

A little later that night, a new issue arose. Since Tim was pretty busy handling the seven year old, he had to forgo his usual Wayne-party routine, which was basically to find one of the sons and hide with them for the rest of the night.

Of course, neurotic bastards like them wouldn’t take a change in routine go like that. Because Bruce has instilled paranoia and curiosity on them like Alfred did with manners, and sadly, the last one’s teachings rarely showed up.

-Timmy! Here you are. I was worried, since you never approached us. Aww, who’s this kid? You made a friend?

He groaned internally. Dick, and behind him he could spot Jason, eyebrow arched at the novelty of Tim not looking for them immediately. He wanted to, thrived in the chance to spend even a few minutes with his idols, but duty calls, and his mind didn’t like the possibles outcomes would Damian and the Waynes meet.

-Hey, Dick… Jay. Good evening -he smiled politely, hand clutching tighter Damian’s. Don’t notice, don’t notice, please don’t notice.

To his immense relief, none of them seemed to find anything noteworthy in Damian’s face, which… was also kinda disappointing, despite him wishing for it. Like, yeah, the wig and glasses were good misdirect, but really? He would have noticed the similarities with Bruce despite them, and those two were supposedly detectives…

-Stop being so formal, kid -grumbled Jason, big hand making a mess of Tim’s styled hair. He would have complained, but… Jason’s voice and hand, okay? He was a weak teenager. Don’t judge him- Know ya since y’were  half that heigh, and lighter than my jacket.

Tim’s hormones ignored the comment on him being small, and  focused on the mental image of the mentioned jacket, most likely leather and well worn. 

…This was so not the time for  fantasizing. 

A tiny, calloused hand slapped Jason’s away, which promptly changed the mood.

-Don’t touch my cousin, you/

But Tim had prepared for this outcome, so his own hand rose just as quickly to cover Damian’s mouth.

At the word ‘cousin’, both heroes looked very interested. Tim was under no delusions, well aware Bruce and each of his adopted children had made their own background checks on him and his entire family, so they would know Damian’s claim to familiarity to be a lie, but they also couldn't really call them out on it without making it obvious they investigated him.

His head was already hurting for all the social maneuvering he had to do to keep out of trouble, and now, adding two concerned birds and one murderous kitten, it was even worse.

This was going to be a very, very long night. But both mom and Nicole had asked him, so he wouldn’t try to get out of being a (as) good (as possible) role model.

---------------.----------

Tim winced, muscles locking in a poor attempt at not showing it. From the look Conner gave him, at the other side of the room where he was being chewed out by Lex, he failed miserably at hiding his pain; which, in turn, enraged his mom even more.

-What. Did. You. DO?!

The hand not currently held by his mother went to his ear, protecting it from the almost demonic screech. He could see Auntie Nicole doing the same, sitting with Damian on the couch, sharing tea and cookies as they watched the whole show. The nine year old showed a surprising amount of sympathy towards Tim’s injuries, for someone who had been harshly trained since birth and had recently begun a career as vigilante (not that Tim was supposed to know about it, though). Or was it pity because of mom’s rage?

-You told me no tights and spandex! Never said anything about a mask and a hoodie, and Conner and the guys really needed my help with strategizing -he defended himself, because even if he shouldn't know about the waynes being heroes, he had been Conner’s friend since he found and subsequently freed him from Lex’s secret lab, which in turn warranted mom’s rule against heroing that he had just broke-. And don’t yell at me, I can hear you perfectly fine.

-I’M NOT YELLING! -she lied, tightening the bandage, scowl growing in power-, AND MASKS WERE IMPLIED AS A NO! Also, what are those if not thighs?

-Skinny jeans!

-They are indecent, that’s what they are!

On the other side of the room, Kon seemed to be having a less exhausting time than Tim. Lucky bastard, Luthor had less experience in parenthood, hadn’t yet reached the Scolding Mastery level.

-Hey! Auntie Nicole dresses like that -he points to the woman, who raises an eyebrow- and you don’t tell her anything! Look at her cleavage, you can almost see her bellybutton! 

-Leave me out of this -asked the woman, taking the teapot to refill Damian’s cup; he, in turn, handed her the cookies platter.

Ignoring her best friend, Janet snapped again- NICOLE ISN’T MY STUPID FOURTEEN YEAR OLD SON, WHO IS NEVER SEEING THE LIGHT OF DAY AGAIN!

-What light of day? This is Gotham, we don’t have sunlight anyway. And I’m not stupid, my IQ is higher than everyone’s in this room.

-IT SURELY LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE FROM WHERE I’M STANDING, HERE, RE-BANDAGING YOUR ARM!

Tim sighed, locking eyes with Conner in solidarity; or he wanted to, but the smug bastard’s scolding was over and he and Luthor had joined the Al Ghuls in their tea party.

-Come on, mom. This’ but a scratch.

-YOU GOT SEVEN STITCHES!!!! I can’t believe this.

She barely got her son out of vigilantism by monitoring his Wayne-Interaction and threats of boarding school and then he went and befriended a group of teen heroes and threw all her hard work straight to the trash. No, he skipped that part, he went directly to the dumpster and burried her good intentions under a pile of shit.

But really, she couldn’t very well make him entirely responsible of this, not when he got carried away by Conner’s ‘do the right thing’ speech. And Conner had came into their lives because of…

In blind rage, she finished her patch job on her son’s arm and turned in a flash to face Lex, whose face went quickly from amused to scared.

-WHY DID YOU THINK IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO HAVE A KID WITH SUPERMAN?

Sensing she was done with him, Tim went to sit by Kon, who moved a bit on his individual couch so they could share it, though it was a very tight fit.

-Clone -he corrected helpfully, TTK bringing Tim his coffee cup closer.

-Did I stutter? And I wasn’t talking to you, was I?

Nicole seemed like she was having the time of her life right now- So hey, listen, between you and LITERAL SUPERMAN, who was the one on the receiving end when you pictured yourself having a kid with him? Like, who was getting it? Because, pal, odds aren’t in your favor, you know.

-Don’t be stupid, dear -huffed Janet, looking at her friend’s green eyes and calming don infinitesimally- If he was actually getting it, he wouldn't have resorted to having his kid to get his attention.

-IT’S A CLONE, AND I ABSOLUTELY DIDN’T MAKE HIM TO GET THAT ALIEN’S ATTENTION! He’s my enemy, not my lover, what is wrong with you people.

-Am I a divorce-preventing baby? -asked Kon to Tim, raising an eyebrow. The other kid just shrugged.

-Looks like it. Not like Uncle Lex had any other way to keep Superman from leaving him…

-I’m right here.

-I know, Uncle Lex. I love you, but you need to rethink your choices. If the man wants to go, let him go. Kon doesn’t need any brothers. I can’t deal with more of him, one is more than enough.

[akimmito]

Heroes are made by the path they choose

First | Previous | AO3 | Next

Master List

Chapter 14

Silent Hill: Something happened, I'll take someone over for Marie to judge

Needle: Ah, what was missing

It’s a Nara: Don't sleep, there is an Akuma

It’s a Nara: Who is Available?

Almost Pretty: This Akuma itself is causing disaster

Needle: There goes the national library

It's a Nara: Who is Available?

Perfect Crime: We are at the airport, we can escape to the bathroom. Just tell us, Kanté

It’s a Nara: Perfect

Aithusa: I'm ready, Max.

Wild goat: I'll go! I'm available

Olive: You have communications, don't be ridiculous

Almost Pretty: I can't escape the Bourbon Palace for this, we are being evacuated to the basement

------

Ateliade, Jade Shield, LadyNoir and Rakkīgāru are on the ruins of the national library, the last place that al Akuma ruthlessly destroyed. Observing the damage and trying to understand how he did it, the cameras failed to capture the attack, they just watched as the building collapsed on its own. A troublesome situation.

"Rakkīgāru, use the Lucky Charm."

Kagami obeys immediately, the Lucky Charm delivers a candle similar to the ones she has placed in the meditation room. The four heroes look at the object with curiosity, its function is totally unknown to them, but somehow they understand that what they need at the moment is in the MT.

"We need a more thorough evaluation. Mures?"

"Yes, LadyNoir?"

"Come here, we will use the mouse to try to identify your abilities from all possible angles. "

"Ok."

"Maybe that's what the Lucky Charm was referring to." Ateliade offers her opinion on this, looking at the candle. After all, Marc is on the MT, but neither Kagami nor Marinette feel that is the case. Surely they will need the specific abilities of some Kwami that is not being used, their instincts are screaming at them.

Before long, Mures appears in all his nervous figure. It's the first time that he will go out into the field like the mouse, he's more used to his vigilante suit, but he's confident that everything will turn out well.

"Let's follow the Akuma."

At Jade Shield's words, the five heroes move to follow the Akuma's trail of destruction. When they see the purple Dolphin flying over The Turkish Consulate General and they are suddenly aware that they are now in District XVII where most Embassies and Consulates are. That could be a problem if it reaches international ears, endangering citizens of other countries. They can already hear Chloe yelling at them for speeding up, they don't want anyone from outside sticking their noses into something they don't understand.

"Multitude. "Marc activates its power and divides himself into five copies of himself, remaining in a size similar to that of a child. Each duplicate goes in different directions, each hero follows a different one while the main one remains in place to serve as backup.

Marc can see from their different perspectives the way power works, there is no way they can get closer without perishing like buildings. The others don't fully understand him, but he does.

The Akuma seems to detonate its powers through a form of echo location, similar to what bats do, only instead of just directing it around the place, it also causes perfectly directed destruction, if they get close they will be hit and probably killed. It's inconspicuous from the directions you see, but it's enough.

If there was ever any doubt that the new villain wanted them dead, this new Akuma victim is proof that this is the case.

"We need one of two, someone who can demonstrate directly in front of the Akuma or someone in armor to withstand the impact of the echo location."

"Is that?"

"It's the closest I could discern."

"We need Tunin." Kagami suggests, it's better not to trust again and the Dragon's abilities are easily used over long distances, they wouldn't even be exposing the child.

"Yes…"

"It's done. Equuleus, bring Tunin to the field. ”Felix smiles, sure Damian will be ecstatic with the news. Since the first attack Akuma has wanted to leave and although there have only been two before that, they had not wanted to risk it yet.

Quickly, the boy appears next to LadyNoir and when he sees his mother, he feels guilty. Running away to find Constantine doesn't count as betraying her trust, does it? He may think that even she should have considered it, although perhaps what should bothers her is that he blackmailed Plagg.

"Something happens?"Marinette asks her little boy, who doesn't seem fully prepared, although his amber eyes seem to reflect something else.

"No mother. What should I do?"

"Can you simulate a storm, baby dragon?" Ateliade questions, if they can confuse the echo location (as Mures calls it) she can release her power and allow them to attack to obtain the Akumatized item, although it cannot be seen which one. Guessing is not much fun.

"Something happens?"Marinette asks her little boy, who doesn't seem fully prepared, although his amber eyes seem to reflect something else.

"No mother. What should I do?"

"Can you simulate a storm, baby dragon?" Ateliade questions, if they can confuse the echo location (as Mures calls it) she can release her power and allow them to attack to obtain the Akumatized item, although it cannot be seen which one. Guessing is not much fun.

"Yes, two of the abilities are combined. It's harder, but if I just have to do that, it'll be fine.”He says with conviction.

Jade Shield moves to take people out of the Akuma's path, who cannot fully escape. Rakkīgāru unites to help, as long as they are not sure that their little plan works, they should avoid casualties as best they can.

Damian draws his sword and begins to move in parallel with the Akuma, at a good distance while concentrating on the two abilities he wants to activate at the same time. He can do it only because he's stubborn and his mother was helping him with every step, he wanted to be able to be a real help to fight alongside miraculous adult users and for that he needed to make an effort. As he tries to muster his energies for that, he better understands why his mother insisted so much that not yet, but done or not, it's his time.

"Tunin! Now or never."

He growls at Ateliade's words, but activates his powers.

"Dragon of Air and Lightning. "

Damian disappears to make way for a thick black cloud of storm that spreads around the Akuma, the lightning moves through the clouds and attacks the Violet Dolphin, which he barely dodges due to the interferences that the sound makes in his abilities... In addition to the poor vision that it has is frustrated by the intense light intervals that the rushing rays generate.

It really is a storm.

-----

Bruce Wayne is Batman

I can jump from eighth floor and survive: Paris has strange creatures.

Hell rejected me: What kind of strange creatures? Metas?

I can jump from eight floor and survive: No... it's a bat-winged dolphin that destroys everything in its path. And there are the heroes they mentioned!

I'll rest when I die: Is it real?

I can read your mind with a single glance: Are they the heroes and not the vigilantes?

I can ump from eight floor and survive: Yup, it's the heroes. Although they are still while talking.

I’m not Batman: I want a report.

I'll rest when I die: Your interest in our safety is flattering

-----

"Oh God! The boy just turned into a storm! How?! Where's the point in all of this?!"Dick almost has the jaw in the ground when seeing how the hero boy vanishes in a black cloud that begins to flash and cover the strange creature.

Everything is being televised with drones, according to the presenter. It also features the new hero, who is registered as part of the Team.

"Tunin is the current owner of the Miraculous Dragon, it was entered into the official register two months ago. His abilities are much more polished than previous Miraculous user Ryukko, demonstrating much more training. Despite his young age in relation to other heroes, we can be sure that he's trustworthy. He has already demonstrated this by displaying new skills and a great mastery of his powers. "

Tim watches with too worrying ease, still holding his cup of coffee, but he seems to pay little attention to what the newscaster has said.

He doesn't blame him, the situation seems to come out of a dream, with the same little sense.

He doesn't lose attention to what happens, they are far enough so that what happens is only barely visible through the window, but the view from the drone is very accurate. Soon another hero, the presenter calls her Ateliade, activates another power and a dragon stuffed toy falls into her hands, she and LadyNoir (the leader, according to what they said) put themselves in position taking advantage of the fact that the Akuma is too busy dealing with the cloud storm.

"It seems we managed to capture Rakkīgāru and Jade Shield as well, helping civilians to get out of the Akuma's path." Indeed, the two heroes move through the streets picking up people from the probable routes of the Giant Dolphin. "Mures remains on the sidelines, he seems to be fulfilling the role of watchman. Like Tunin, it's his first appearance. He has been registered as an official part of the team for six years, he's the second user of the Miraculous Mouse, after Multimouse with a single appearance ten years ago. "

Dick is surprised to learn that information, ten years ago? Since when is Paris dealing with this villain? Maybe he should go to the prosecution and the KanTech offices to find out the information required to know the matter.

"Dick..."

"Hmm?"

"Am I dreaming?"

"No."

"I'll leave the caffeine." Tim puts the cup on the table in front of him and takes his computer to start investigating, having his location in Paris, the information about the Akuma begin to appear. "Eleven years ago Hawkmoth first appeared and with him two heroes: Ladybug and Chat Noir. As time went by more heroes appeared and rotated, before Gabriel Agreste was arrested for being Hawkmoth, Paris was left alone with three heroes: Ladybug, Chat Noir and Vulpes. Chat Noir turned out to be the son of the villain, who was devastated and gave up being a hero... "

"What?" Dick stops watching television, missing the exact moment the Akuma goes crazy and its echo location loses the destructive effect because he can't focus enough for it.

"This is a summary of what happened seven years ago. The Butterfly Miraculous was stolen by the killer of Nathalie Sancour, the previous user of the Peacock. That Miraculous returned to the hands of Ladybug... Graham de Vanely spearheaded the lawsuit against Gabriel Agreste and Adrien was forced to marry Lila Rossi to keep his mother alive, as the heroes investigate a cure for the magical coma..."

"How did they manage to hide ALL THAT from the world?"

"Magic." Tim growls, that's the main reason, then with the joint efforts of different government bodies they became self-sufficient in it, making laws that allowed Parisian heroes and vigilantes to run freely making them an official identity within the country, but without being linked to it. How did it evolve to that point? Not even in the United States, with the acceptance of the heroes in the country, have they managed to do something like this... Will the French be more intelligent or are they much more paranoid? Because there is a complete security protocol so that the information does not come out.

They are so in jail just for mentioning all that to their family.

"We can't give that report to B... or come out as Robin and Nightwing."

"Should we register?" "Tim nods, but as far as he knows, only the MT can register heroes or vigilantes and for that they would need to contact them and give a good excuse for their visit." Everything is very well detailed, the theme of the vigilantes is not super secret like heroes. It's illegal to mention them on social networks outside the jurisdiction of France and word of mouth would not be credible because there is no information available. "

"Rakkigaru launches the cure!" The television distracts them again and they are surprised, again, to see how all the damage begins to repair itself and return to its original state.

"W-What…?

"It's one of the Miraculous Ladybug powers... it's one of the few skills that are publicly known and accurately described. The rest appear as: doubtful or not precise. "

"Do you think they are handling it well?"

"Yes... according to what Felix Graham de Vanely said, half of the evidence he presented was offered by the heroes of Paris and was, precisely, the most incriminating. Seven years have passed and they have the support of the MT, which have cleaned up the country's organized crime very well and have followed several very difficult cases that they have managed to manage... They have a more brilliant list of achievements than ours. You know, the Joker escaping Arkham every month is a stain on our record. ”Tim laughs a little when he says it. He would like to know their methods, although he suspects that they must have a network of informants, something that they have not used much because in Gotham it's unlikely to find trustworthy people, only Jason got several informants, but they have not reached more than that.

"Then let's just say hello."

"And let's seek to join that information network."

Tim sets that goal, to be part of that vigilant circle to which the MT belongs.

-----

Vivian @ LadyLuck_08

I loved Tunin's debut, will his hair be naturally long?

Leonor @Scar_FullMLeo

Did you see Mures? He's so cute

Ladybug comeback @ LadybugHero_89

It took a round hour to stop the Akuma. New record.

Chloe B. @BourgeoisQueen

Finally! I hate the basement. Who was the smart one who decided that it would be a good Akuma refuge?