#but watching one piece has me adventuring EVERYWHERE in terms of bodys

[fluffyartbl0g]

LITERALLY HANGING ON FOR MY LIFE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO DRAW JINBEI. I’ve been doodling him all over my school books and notes and what not,,, HE’S THE MOST CHARACTER EVER o(；△；)o????!?! I figured out the ultimate tactic to doodlin jinbei,,, which is that he’s a big water balloon with a semi circle at the vry top of his forehead for his hair!!!

[raineydays411]

And the adventure begins

Bruce Banner x daughter!reader 

A/n: yay! Another part out! Finally lol. Now time to work on my Loki fic and ignore this one for two weeks lol💀 jk I’m trying to keep up y’all I promise. Anyway hope you like it💕💕

Masterlist

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Now that you think about it, maybe you shouldn’t have skipped school today. Maybe then you wouldn’t be in this situation. 

....On another planet. Watching Thor be forced to fight some old dudes “Champion”, whatever that means.

Let’s go back to the beginning.

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

Nerves filled your body as you walked to school. You had an audition in the school play today and you were determined to get the part. Tony had offered to take you to school today but you decided to walk as it would give you extra time to learn your lines. As you pushed through the busy streets, occasionally bumping into a random pedestrian, you heard some girls whispering.

“Oh my god is that..”

“Yes! oh my go, he's so handsome”

“Ask him for a selfie”

“No you go ask hm”

At first you rolled your eyes, thinking it was just some youtuber or Tik tok star, you kept walking, eyes down re-reading your script. Then you heard the girls speak again. 

“Thanks Thor, I’m sorry Jane dumped you.” 

Hearing the name, your head swiveled up. You scanned the crowd looking for the blonde man, at first missing him as he wasn’t in his usual outfit of a cape and battle armour. But then you saw him, in a hoodie and some jeans. Picking up the pace, you jog toward the god not noticing the darker clothed man next to him.

“....it was a mutual dumping”

“I didn’t know the renaissance fair was in town” you say, a small smirk making its way on your face at the quip. 

Both Thor and ...Loki?! Turn around in surprise at the sudden voice behind them. Only to see you looking up at them with a arched brow. 

“Lady Y/n! How wonderful it is to see you” Thor boomed as he brought you into a bone crushing hug. Over his shoulder you could see Loki roll his eyes. 

“Honestly, had I known this trip would consist of young woman flocking to you, I would have allowed your hammer to kill me.”

Thor ignored his brother as he put you down. “My how you’ve grown.”

You smile and say, “Well the last time you saw me I was twelve.” Then you eye Loki with distrust. “Um Thor, why’d you bring brother dearest back to New York?” 

Loki looks at you with distaste, “ Who is this child, and why is she conversing with us?”

“Brother” Thor warns and then turns to you, “ Lady Y/n, we are searching for our father, it seems as if my brother” Thor harshly pats Loki on the shoulder, “ Has misplaced him.” 

You look at Loki and then look at the building that has been demolished

, “ Woah, I didn’t know Gods put their parents in nursing homes” You say “ If you want we can go back to the Tower and try to track him down”  

Thor smiles at the suggestion, “ A wonderful idea, tell me, how have my comrades been in my absence?” 

You cringe at the thought of explaining the events of the so called “Civil war”. Then notice a ring of sparks forming around Loki. 

“Uhh Thor” You say as you nod your head

“What’s this..wha.what are you doing?” He asks in alarm. Loki looks confused as the sparks get larger and more erratic.

“ This isn’t me” Loki says in confusion. Then suddenly the ground opens up beneath him and he falls through with an alarmed “Oh!” only leaving behind a business card. You and Thor look at each other, confusion written on both of your faces. 

“Loki” Thor whispers as he nudges the card with his umbrella. You look at him with concern and think to yourself

“Does..does he think the cards Loki?” 

You bend down to pick up the business card and read it out loud. 

“177a Bleeker St” you look at Thor and ask,” Do you know anyone from there?” 

“ No” He says, ‘ i don’t even know where that is.” 

You sigh, looking down at your script and making a decision. “ Well, lets go find your brother.” 

And with that, you turn around and start walking to your destination.

“Oh well, school can wait”

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

You and Thor find yourselves in front of two big black doors. You stand near Thor as he raises his hand to knock. Suddenly, before his hand is able to touch the door, you find yourselves inside the building. 

“What the fuck?” you mutter to yourself as you look around.

“Thor Odinson” a deep voice says. You look up to see a floating figure in the shadows coming towards you both. Thor pushes you behind him as he holds him umbrella threateningly. If you weren’t in potential danger, you would have laughed at the sight. The figure floated into the light and you saw it was a man. 

He was wearing a cloak and some weird robes with yellow gloves. He was relatively handsome, salt and pepper hair that was slicked back, high cheek bones and a goatee. He wasn’t horrible to look at. His deep, baritone voice was soothing.

“God of Thunder” He said looking at Thor. He glanced at the umbrella. “ You can put down the umbrella.” Then his gaze turned to you. 

“Y/n Banner. I wasn’t expecting you here” He said eyes narrowing at you,” Shouldn’t you be in school?”

You chuckled nervously, “ Eh, how can I abandon a friend in need?” 

The man smiles and looks back at Thor and suddenly your in a different room. Looking around in awe you hear Thor start talking.

“So..Earth has wizards now” He says, picking up a dagger from a display on a table, then dropping all of them trying to put them back. You try to hold back a laugh, feeling embarrassed for the god. 

You might have failed though because Thor looked at you with an unimpressed glance. You giggle out loud this time, as you watch him struggle with the knives. Everytime he managed to put one back, another fell. 

“The preferred term is Master of the Mystic arts...” Clank! another knife falls. The man looks very unimpressed, at your giggling and Thor's clumsiness.” You can leave that now.” 

At those words Thor leaves the knifes, trying to regaine his cool, he leans against the table. 

“Alright wizard, who are you and why should I care?” 

“Thor! That’s rude!”  

Ignoring you, their conversation continues, 

“My name is Dr. Stephen Strange and I have some questions for you.”  He says as he eyes you and Thor. “Have a seat”  

Within a second you’re in another room in the building...or least you think it is. The wind blows your hair back as you are suddenly dropped into a chair. You can see Thor look around startled and confused at the sudden setting change. You’re sure your face mirrored his as well.

“Tea?” Dr. Strange asks nonchalantly, a cup of tea appearing in your hands. You look at it in awe, not used to this level of magic, or magic at all. Thor on the other hand looked unimpressed with the cup.

“I don’t drink tea.” He says examining the cup that looked small in his hands. 

“Well what do you drink?”

“Not tea.” Thor says shaking his head. You roll you eyes as you go for a sip of tea, but before you can a large pitcher of beer was in its place. You look up at the two men with a raised eyebrow. 

“I hate to be a bother, but I do drink tea” 

Strange looked at you in amusement as he returns the beer to tea. 

“Jesus made water into wine, you make beer into tea. Interesting..” You say as you sip your tea. It was perfectly brewed of course. Dr. Strange smiled at the comparison

“Well its not exactly like that” Then he turned to Thor, “ So, I keep a watch list of individuals and beings from the realms that may be a threat to this world. Your adopted brother Loki is one of those beings.” 

You scoff and roll your eyes and mutter, “Yeah no kidding.” Then you finish the last sips of tea, as you bring it down, the glass is already refilled

Thor looks up from his glass that he basically chugged,”Thats a worthy inclusion” His beer is refilled as well. He looks at it in astonishment.

“Then why bring him here?” Strange asks leaning forward.

“We’re looking for my father.” 

“So..if I were to tell you where Odin was..all parties concerned would return to Asgard” He then looks at you, “ or upper Manhattan.” 

“Promptly” “Try and keep me away from this place.” 

“Great then I’ll help you...and get to that later” 

You smirk at the doctor, knowing that it’s basically impossible to squash your curiosity once you get started. Then you realized something.

“Wait, if you knew where Odin is, why didn't you tell anyone?”

“Well he was very adamant he was not to be disturbed,” He turned to Thor, “Your father had chosen to remain in exile. Also you don’t have a phone.” 

“Hmm, no I don’t have a..a phone but you could’ve sent an electronic letter. It’s called an email.”

“Thor you don’t have a computer.”

“What for?” 

You lock eyes with Dr. Strange and share a look. 

“Uh huh well, my father is no longer in exile, so if you can tell me where he is, the quicker I can take him home.” Thor then takes a sip of his beer.

“Okay, hes in Norway.” Suddenly your on your feet again standing an a library of some sort. You’re a bit unbalance and catch yourself on the self. Strange is muttering to himself as he looks through a book. Then again, you’re in another room with a shelf. Nearly falling over you cling onto Thor, but he’s in no better shape than you, beer spilling everywhere. 

“Oh we don’t need that” Boom, in another room, this time you do fall and Thor breaks another shelf. He places the glass on a table, shaking the spilled beer of his person. 

“Can you stop doing that?” He asked irritated 

“Please” you add in, looking up from your place on the ground. 

You’re on your feet in a blink of an eye, feeling dizzy at the continuous movement. 

“Can I..I need a piece of your hair.” Strange says looking at Thor. 

“Let me tell you something, my hair is not to be --OW” 

You smile sweetly as you pass the yanked out hair to the Strange. “ Here you go Dr. Wizard.”  He makes a face at the nickname but takes the hair with a nod of thanks. Thor looks at you in betrayal. 

“Don’t be such a drama queen” You say rolling your eyes.  You then walk away from the duo, examining books and artifact that were in the room. You were too caught up in looking at all the cool stuff you didn’t pay attention to the rest of the conversation. Suddenly you were in the front room again. You managed to stay on your feet as Thor tumbled down the stairs. You watched in amazement as Dr. Strange did some hand movements and created a shape in sparks. 

“Could’ve just walked.” Thor muttered as he brushed the dust and wrinkles out off of his clothes. 

“He’s waiting for you.” Then Dr. Strange turned to you,” Would you like to go home Ms. Banner?” 

You looked at him with consideration,” Um Mister Strange, do you think you can help me find my dad?” 

“I’ll see what I can do.” Then he turned to Thor,” Don’t forget your umbrella.

“Oh right.” Thor sticks his arm out like he’s summoning his hammer. You look at him confused. Then you here several bangs and crashes, as if something is being thrown around the rooms. 

“ohhh thats where your hammer went” 

Dr. Strange looks at Thor unimpressed again.

“Sssorry” The umbrella lands in his hands and he brushes the glass off the hammer.” I suppose I need my brother back”

“Oh right”

The a portal appears a few feet off the ground, in comes Loki screaming as he falls and hits the ground. 

He flips his hair back as he catches his breath, “ I have been falling..FOR THIRTY MINUTES” 

You snicker as you go to help the god of mischief up,” Come on reindeer games, lets get you up” 

He doesn’t decline your help but he doesn’t thank you either. You turn to see Thor and Strange shake hands.

“Handle me?!” “Oh boy” “ Who are you?”

“Loki..”

“You think you’re a sorcerer? Don’t think for one minute--”

“Alright bye bye” The portal then is thrown to them as Loki charges with two daggers. 

It’s silent in the room as you whislte,” Well he’s very catty.”

Strange laughs as he nods,” Come on kid lets find your dad.”

You’re then taken back to the library and you give him a piece of your hair. 

“You have had quite the adventure today.” Dr. Strange says as he looks through the books again.

“Ehh, when you live with the Avengers stuff like this is an everyday thing.”

“I could imagine” He says smiling at you. “ Well..it seems like your father is off world”

“Off world?” You question,”why would he be...?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Then a bag appeared in front of you. 

“I have a feeling you won’t stop searching until you find your father.” He nods to the bag. “ Everything you need to survive in Sakkarr is in there, I trust you know how to use knives?” 

“Yeah, Bucky taught me.”

“Perfect, now you must try to get on the grandmasters good side, that’ll give you the resources you need to find your father. Don’t get caught by scavenger or scrapper , you’ll either get eaten or sold into slavery.”

“Slavery?” you ask with an eyebrow raised.

“Sakkarr is known to be the ‘dump’ of the universe. It’s filled with people you must be weary of. The main entertainment are these gladiator type fights the Grandmaster puts on.” He thinks for a bit the conjures up a portal. He pulls a amulet out of it then hands it to you. “If you find your father, or need a quick escape, rub this amule three times t and I’ll make a portal for you to come back home” 

You nod, nervous to go on your personal mission. You look up at Dr.strange and hug him. “ Thanks Dr.Wizard.”

He pats your back uncomfortably,” It’s Stephen.” 

You let go of him and smile,”Well, beam me up Scotty” 

He rolls his eyes and creates a portal, you take a deep breath and look at him. He sends you a reassuring smile and you’re filled with determination. Then you step through.

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

You step through it to see...the steps to some weird looking palace. You look around to see an even weirder looking city. It looks like its built out of scraps of metal or parts. You walk up the steps and into the palace. You look around, astonished at the amount of people?? 

Beings. So many different kinds of aliens. All different colors and shapes. It was like a Star Wars movie. Then you see a familiar face. 

“Loki??” 

He looks up at you in confusion, you speed towards him, happy to see a familiar face. Even if it is Thor's evil brother.

“Ah Thor's child friend. This doesn’t seem like your type of setting.”

“I’m looking for my father, Stephen says he’s here.” 

He scoffs, looking around the room. “It seems everyone is looking for their fathers.” 

“What are you doing here? I thought you were in Norway with Thor and your dad” 

“Well it seems that father dearest has been hiding a secret daughter. Who appeared after my father died. And is destined to destroy Asgard.”

“Well shit” you blurt out. “Are..are you okay?”

Loki looks at you like you’re a puzzle. 

“What.”

“Well..” you start nervously, “it sounds like a traumatic experience, so..are you okay?”

He’s quiet for a few minutes, just staring at you. Suddenly he turns around. “We must see the grandmaster. He’s the only one who can guarantee your protection, and I’m sure you would prefer not to be slaughtered brutally in the competition.”

He walks ahead of you, and you stare after him wondering what just happened. Then after he noticed you’re not following him he turns and says

“Well, come on. I haven’t got all day.”

“Oh right.” You catch up to him and walk by his side. Looking around in wonder.

“Why are you looking around like that?” Loki asks as he makes his way through a crowd of...pink women. They had their hair in very intricate styles and weird metallic unitards. They eyed you as you passed by them.

“I feel like I’m in a Star Wars movie.” You pass by a man, he looked almost reptilian. He had pale yellow skin with green slits as his eyes. He looks like he was gambling or something.

“I don’t know what that is. Why would stars commence in battle? It makes no sense.” Loki scoffs as he turns to look at you. You laugh at his misunderstanding.

“I just..never seen..” you trail off not knowing how to explain. Luckily, Loki seems to get what you were says.

“ I can see this is a bit of a change for you. But..you have seen people from other planets before.”

“ yeah..it’s just a lot to take in.” You smile at Loki, “ I’ll be fine, don’t worry. I can freak out about it after I meet the Grandmaster.”

He nods his head and starts walking again, but this time he’s closer to you. Finally, you reach a large room. It’s filled with guards all wearing different colored armor. They part as Loki walks through them, confident with long strides. You follow him, shrinking under their gaze. Loki leans down to whisper to you

“ when you meet the grandmaster, do not be too meak . And do not mention anything about your father till I tell you. Actually, just follow my lead.”

You look up at him and before you say anything, a large woman appears in the room. She looks normal to you. Stocky, a stern face with white markings. A slicked back bun. She’s wearing yellow armor with black accents. She’s holding a large staff with an orb attached to the end.

“ Didn’t the Grandmaster just see you” she says to Loki, glaring at him. Loki smiles charmingly and says

“Oh yes, but it appears that I have found a...friend.. of mine. She, like I, has arrived here on Sakkarr by accident and is hoping to meet with the Grandmaster.”

Then Loki nudges you in front of him, and into the view of the woman. She looks at you with distaste.

“ Poor child is skin and bones. She’s puny.”

You look in offense, but before you can say anything Loki spoke for you.

“Yes, and that’s why I have decided to take her under my wing.”

“ Can she not speak for herself? You expect the Grandmaster to—“ “ Easy Topaz”

“Loki! How wonderful to see you again, even though it’s been about twenty minutes”

A voice cut through the air. Suddenly everyone in the room stood up straight. Topaz immediately stopped talking and turned. A man came in on a floating throne. He was wearing red, blue, and gold robes. He had a blue line down his chin and blue under eye liner. He...he looked like..

“Jeff Goldblum?”

Loki looked at you like you were insane and the Grandmaster and Topaz just looked confused.

“What did she call me?” He whispered to Topaz, she looked at him in equal bafflement. She then tries to hand him the staff.

“ Why are you handing me the melty stick?! She had a slip of a tounge! That’s not a capital offense”

“What is wrong with you?” “I’m sorry! It just slipped out!” “ Do you want to die” “To be fair, that was the biggest compliment I could have given him. Jeff Goldblum is basically a god of cinema.”

Topaz looked at the Grandmaster, “ apparently this..Jeff.. is a god from her world.”

“Hm, child.”

You and Loki stop your whisper arugument and turn to the Grandmaster.

“Come forward.”

You look at Loki in fear and step up to the floating throne.

“Hm” The man says as he examines you. You suddenly feel self conscious about what you’re wearing. A Jurassic park shirt (ironically) with a turtleneck under, some plaid pants and converse. To be fair you weren’t expecting to end up on a different planet.

“I don’t know what Jurassic park is, but look there’s a big lizard on her shirt” he says to Topaz, “ you like lizards?” He asks you. Your eyes widened at the question not expecting it.

“Oh I think I’ve embarrassed her, it’s okay if you like them. I don’t personally like them, they’re all scales and fast and blegh” the Grandmaster rambles then Topaz chimes in

“ and they can grow back limbs”

“Yes! That’s disgusting”

“ I’m sorry, it’s not a lizard, it’s a dinosaur ” you explain. “ it’s from a movie, it has Jeff Goldblum...”

You trail off as they stare at you.

“ Go on, you keep mentioning this Jeff Goldblum, I’d like to hear more about him.”

So there you were, explaining all the different movies Jeff Goldblum was in. From the Fly to Jurassic Park. Everyone seemed...intrested. The Grandmaster somehow got it in his head that you were this great storyteller. So now you were on his good side, just like Loki.

“ Storyteller, I welcome you to Sakkarr! I have never met a child with such interesting stories!” He turns to Topaz, “ Aren’t they entertaining?! So adventurous!”

“ I think they’re weird.” “ Oh don’t be such a buzzkill”

“ I thank you Grandmaster, for being so gracious with my...ward” Loki says, “I assure you that I will keep her out of trouble.”

“ Yes yes, now go, if she is going to stay here, she’ll need to fit in. Topaz, see if you can find a tailor for the child, she’ll need a change of clothes. You as well Loki”

She nods and gestures for you both to follow her. As you walk through the futuristic castle, you are completely in awe. Even though you live with Tony, this is a different kind of technology. Topaz gives you both a tour. She mentions the fights and the arena, but you don’t pay too much attention. Finally you make it to the tailor. After being fussed over and much debating, you finally come to an agreement.

You end up with a sort of body armor. With a black catsuit made out of a leather like material, there were pieces of armor covering your legs, hips, torso, shoulders and arms. Blue fabric was wrapped around your waist, draping down the front and under the armor there. There was also fabric wrapped around your upper arm and shoulders preventing the straps from rubbing against your skin. Finally, to top it all off, a long blue cape drape down your shoulders. You felt awesome. You took the daggers Stephen gave you out of the bag and attached them to your hips. And the amulet around your neck.

“What do you think?” You asked Loki. He looked at you for a bit.

“Your daggers should be attached to your thighs, that way the hilts are at your fingertips and not your shoulders.” He squints for a bit, “ that cape looks ridiculous.”

“Fuck off man I look awesome.”

Loki just laughs and goes to put his outfit on. “ Such foul language for a child.” Then he comes out fully dressed. With a yellow cape.

“ oh? My cape was ridiculous?”

“Hush.”

You smile, and a silence falls between you both. You sigh and look down, playing with the end of your cape. Loki looks at you, examines your face, then looks away.

“ Why...why did you ask if I was alright?” He questions, “when you first saw me..?”

You looked at him your face scrunched in a puzzled expression, “ because.”

“Because what?” Loki asks, not understanding where your coming from.

“ I don’t know, because like I said, something that traumatic must’ve been shitty. I know I wouldn’t be okay.”

“I do not understand you. Why care about someone you never met? Nevertheless someone like me?”

“Someone like you?” Now you were really confused. What does he mean by that?

“No midgardian would trust me. Especially after...” He stops, hinting about the attack of New York. “ I am not... not a good person. Nor a good influence. Not for a child.”

“That’s bullshit.”

Your words seem to startle him.

“I beg your pardon?”

“ That’s. Bullshit.” You stand to face him.

“Loki, I’ve known you for about six hours. And in that time, you managed to help me gain favor of a ruler, enough for him to give me a room to stay in and new clothes. You also helped me when you could’ve just left me alone. From what I’ve seen, you’re pretty chill.”

“Chill?” He asks quirking an eyebrow.

“A good person.”

He stops and looks at you, “ you think I’m a good person? Even though I nearly destroyed your planet?”

“ Sure. We all make mistakes.”

He stares at you for a while. Smiles briefly and then gets up from where he was leaning.

“ You, my dear, are one odd child.” He walks out of the room. “Come along, I must get you to your room. It’s late and I am certain you e had a long day.”

You follow him to your room, turns out someone was paying attention to the tour. He leads you to your temporary room, shows you how to open the door and lock it, then makes sure your settled.

“Well, it’s time for me to retire. Good night child.”

When he doesn’t get a response he turns around, he sees you’ve fallen asleep on the bed. He chuckles at the sound of you muttering in your sleep.

“ An odd child indeed.”

Then he covers you, turns out the lights and shuts the door. Leaving you to go to his room.

( he promptly freaks out over how quickly he’s grown fond of you.)

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Taglist: @ella-ivanov​

[princess-mei]

Mei 美美 Qin – Character Sheet

it’s like everything you say is a sweet revelation / all i wanna do is get into your head / yeah we could stay alone, you and me and this temptation / sipping on your lips, hanging on by a thread, baby

late night watching television / but how’d we get in this position / it’s way too soon, i know this isn’t love (no) / but i need to tell you something

i really really really really really really like you / and i want you, do you want me, do you want me too?

Archetype — The Explorer Birthday — July 9th, 2002 Zodiac Sign — Year of the Horse, Rising Leo, Sun in Cancer, Moon in Cancer MBTI — ENFP Enneagram — 2, the Helper Temperament — Sanguine Hogwarts House — Gryffindor Moral Alignment — Chaotic Good Primary Vice — Lust Primary Virtue — Charity Element — Water/Fire (she’s a Water Horse, so she definitely identifies with that but in Western tradition she is Fire.)

Overview:

Mother — Tanya Qin Father — Peng Qin Mother’s Occupation — Editor-in-Chief of the San Francisco Chronicle Father’s Occupation — financial diviner Family Finances — wealthy Birth Order — middle Brothers —  none Sisters — Ting-Ting (Gemma Chan, May 13, 1993), Su (January 22, 2003) Other Close Family — close to their mother’s side, father’s side lives in China, but they’ve taken trips to see them once or twice. do not have any cousins/aunts/uncles, but close to their grandparents. Best Friend — Daisy Zanetti, they grew up together. Met in school and were thick as thieves right away. Daisy is a half-fairy, so they both understood the whole “half” background thing. Other Friends — Lots and lots of friends~ Enemies — There was probably like one Mean Girl that Mei was always antagonizing and who was always antagonizing her. Pets — None. Home Life During Childhood — Relatively happy. Has nice, loving parents. Did a lot of Family Activities, since that was important. Mother was busy a lot with work, but her father was around a lot and Ting-Ting was always around (until she went to school.) Town or City Name(s) — San Francisco, CA What Did His or Her Bedroom Look Like — Posters everywhere! Very personalized and customized. Lots of reds and golds. Probably had like one of those net things around her bed. Always very messy, because Mei starts a project and then just jumps to the next. Lots of natural light too probably. Any Sports or Clubs — Dance and Gymnastics. Mei has kept up with both of these throughout the year. Does both ballet and hip hop. Her favorite gymnastics is rhythmics. Favorite Toy or Game — She wouldn’t consider it a toy or game, of course, but loves doing tarot and tea readings. Also enjoys a good board game, is very competitive though. Schooling — Public school. Favorite Subject — Physical Education ?? Maybe literature. Art classes… Popular or Loner — Decently popular. She wasn’t one of the people that everyone knew but she had a wide circle of friends. Important Experiences or Events — Discovering she had divination skills. Deciding her specialization. Moving to Swynlake! Nationality — American Culture — Chinese-American Religion and beliefs — Spiritual, borrowing from a spread of Taoism, Buddhism, Chinese folklore, and Confucianism.

Physical Appearance:

Face Claim — Cheng Xiao Complexion — Fair-skinned Hair Colour — Naturally a dark brown, but she dyes it a lot! Eye Colour — Dark brown. Height — 5’6 Build — Athletic, but slim. Tattoos — None. Piercings — Ears. Common Hairstyle — Likes to braid it or put it in two buns. Does a lot of half-up/half-down hairstyles. Clothing Style — Chic and trendy, lots of colors and patterns. Mannerisms — Very bouncy, doesn’t sit still much. Twirls her hair around her finger a lot. Usual Expression —

Health:

Overall (do they get sick easily)? — Pretty healthy! I’m sure this is due to Ting-Ting constantly balancing her Yin-Yang Physical Ailments — None. Neurological Conditions — None. Allergies — None! Grooming Habits — Rather good. Takes a lot of care with her appearance. Always makes sure to moisturize and exfoliate and change out of sweaty clothes. Sleeping Habits — Average. Eating Habits — Eats a lot because Su is constantly making things, but can forget meals if she is distracted or concentrating. Exercise Habits —  Exercises a lot! Does all sorts of things like pilates and swimming and jogging. Emotional Stability — I give her a 7/10, she loses points for being a stubborn, unreasonable teenager and for her temper, but otherwise is pretty even-keeled. Body Temperature — Average. Sociability — Very social! Loves surrounding herself with people. Addictions — Love? Drug Use — None, we will see. Alcohol Use — Has gone to parties where she’s drank before, but not often.

Your Character’s Character:

Bad Habits — Interrupting people, bouncing from topic to topic, meddling in things that she shouldn’t, talking back, being a general nuisance. Good Habits — Very kind, very caring. Wants to take care of all her people. Strong moral compass. Best Characteristic — Her certainty. Worst Characteristic — Her stubbornness. Worst Memory — Being told she would have to move to Swynlake. Best Memory — When her father told her that he was proud of her for completing her studies for being a sorcerer and accepting an apprenticeship. Proud of — Her magic, her family history, her looks, her sporting ability. Embarrassed by — Not much, probably the fact she isn’t very good at school. Driving Style — Probably was just learning how to drive. A speed demon, but surprisingly a good driver. Strong Points — Her moral center and her big heart. Temperament — Can be explosive, but general soft and sweet. Attitude — Generally positive. Weakness — Not knowing what she wants. Fears — Not knowing what she’s going to do with her life. Phobias — Anything unlucky, though I wouldn’t call it a phobia, more of a cautious regard. Secrets — None really? She doesn’t keep much from people. She’s very “This Is Who I am. Fight Me.” Regrets — Having to leave Swynlake. Feels Vulnerable When — People are angry or upset with her, she’s not following her heart. Pet Peeves — Being told she’s wrong, lol. Conflicts — Duty to Family v Duty to Heart Motivation — Following her heart. Short Term Goals and Hopes — Make friends and something out of her life in Swynlake. Long Term Goals and Hopes — Figure out what she wants to do with her life. Sexuality — As-is she is straight, but this can change. Day or Night Person — Day Introvert or Extrovert — Extrovert. Optimist or Pessimist — Optimist except she can be really sour when things don’t go her way.

Likes and Styles:

Music — Oh, gosh–where to start? Mei loves love songs, of course. Big fan of Elton John, Elvis Presley, Celine Dion, etc etc. She also loves modern stuff, of course. Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen, Ed Sheeran…if she’s really feeling it some Florence and the Machine. Loves KPop too. I’ll let Lauryl tell me who she stans. (Is that the phrase I feel like there is a phrase.) Anyway, anything that is love related, she’ll give it a listen. Books — Doesn’t actually like reading that much, tbh. Doesn’t hold her interest. Magazines — Do people read magazines anymore? Does Buzzfeed count as a magazine? Probably giggles over Cosmopolitan. Foods — Sweets! Chocolate is her favorite, but she likes licorice a lot too. Is one of those weird people that likes black licorice. Also, loves a good rice pudding. That’s probably her favorite dessert. She also loves chicken, any kind of chicken–she doesn’t care what you put it in or what you put on it. Isn’t much of a picky eater. Actually really enjoys being adventurous with her food. Drinks — Green tea, green tea, green tea! Mei loves tea, especially iced. She also surprisingly likes salt soda water–she goes back and forth on sweet and savory. Sometimes, she just really wants salt soda water because it is just crisp and refreshing and wakes her back-up and reorients her yin-yang when she needs it. Animals — Elephants! Mei loves elephants. She’s that girl that has like elephant shirts and an elephant backpack and an elephant stuffed animal probably. They have such a high emotional capacity and Mei really respects them for this. They are also just so cute with their floppy ears and their soft, sweet eyes! Loves birds too as most of them are symbols of good luck and good tidings–besides owls, which are harbingers of death. Sports — Gymnastics and dance. Social Issues — Magick Rights is the biggest one. Also feminism. Also all the “main” issues. Favorite Saying — “Better to light a candle, than to curse the darkness” - Chinese Proverb Color — Golds, yellows, reds, blues are her favourites. She loves gold because it is a Classy color. Most of her jewelry is gold. She loves yellow because it is bright and happy! Red is lucky in Chinese culture and it always reminds her of times like New Year’s! Also, it is the color of passion and love. Blues she likes because they are calming and gentle.  These are her lucky colors. She also loves pink, even though it is technically a color that she should avoid. Really hates white, because she doesn’t like what a blank slate it is. Also, hates brown because it is an icky boring color. As you can see, she has a lot of Opinions on colors. Clothing —Chic and trendy, lots of colors and patterns. Jewelry — Loves it! Wears mostly gold. Probably has a few staple pieces but then exchanges things depending on her mood. Websites — Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter etc etc TV Shows — CW shows and K/Cdramas Movies — All the great love classics: Gone with the Wind, the Titanic, When Harry Met Sally, Roman Holiday, all of Audrey Hepburn probably, the Notebook, Singing in the Rain…I could go on and on. She loves movies that tug at the heart strings and are full of that wild, amazing, passionate kind of love. They always make her swoon and if she is choosing a movie for movie night, you know it’s gonna be a romantic tearjerker. Though, she also likes romcoms. Doesn’t like action movies or horror movies or anything too intense, they freak her out Greatest Want — To figure out what to do with her life. Greatest Need — To grow up and learn things aren’t all about her, lmao.

Where and How Does Your Character Live Now:

Home — A three bedroom apartment with Ting-Ting and Su. Household furnishings — Rather plain at the moment, but will probably grow cozy as they settle in. Favorite Possession — Her pseudogrimoire where she writes down all the signs and stuff that she sees and puzzles out the meaning to. Most Cherished Possession — Her wand, which is a fan that was her mother’s, her mother gave it to her and her father and Ting-Ting help her imbibe it with magic. Neighborhood — Tortuga Place Married Before — No Significant Other Before — Non-serious boyfriends and Serious crushes Children — She iS a child Relationship with Family — Very close with her dad, even though he’s always yelling at her and being disappointed in her. They have a lot in common and she loves him. Her and her mother also get along more or less, she’s less stringent than her dad. Ting-Ting and her probably have the most contentious relationship, but even that hasn’t been that bad really. Mostly Mei being a nosy, annoying little sister. It will get more intense now that Ting-Ting is the authority figure and Mei is pissed about their situation. Su and Mei get along more or less well, they annoy each other, as sisters are wont to do, but Mei would def consider Su one of her best friends. Car — None. Career — Student Dream Career — She doesn’t know !! Dream Life — Married, with children, though she doesn’t know what she wants out of a career. Love Life — Nonexistant, which pisses her off. Talents or Skills — Excellent gymnast and very good with her magic. Intelligence Level — Decently intelligent, has street smarts, tbh. Very sharp in conversation. Finances — Wealthy

[ecofinisher]

The Adventures of Super Nathan 3 - Chap 10

Chapter 10

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23301076/chapters/57155008

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13531960/10/The-Adventures-of-Super-Nathan-3

https://www.wattpad.com/871340254-the-adventures-of-super-nathan-3-chapter-10-the

Two weeks later Lila sat in the waiting room of the Gynecologist looking at her smartphone through her Facestargram profile seeing funny images shared by her former classmates. Above the smartphone screen appeared a dark box with the word Nathy, followed by a heart and the information of the smartphone. You’ve got a new message.

“Which level are you? 2 or 3?”

Lila typed down the number and sent it to her husband, afterward on the entrance to the waiting room the door got opened and it was Nathaniel, which held his smartphone in his hand and placed it back in his jacket. 

“The bus got a bit delayed” Nathaniel explained.

“It’s fine, it’s also taking a little long here” Lila answered watching Nathaniel sit down beside his wife looking at her, which smiled at him and gave him a hug. “Thanks for coming”

“Is it weird for me to feel nervous?” Nathaniel asked feeling Lila plant her lips on his cheek.

“No, I think you’re just excited about the appointment” Lila explained. “Or did something else happened while you got here”

“No, I just stressed myself to get here ASAP”

“That wasn’t necessary” Lila mentioned, then into the waiting room, a woman doctor appeared with a dossier in her hands.

“Lila Kurtzberg?” The doctor asked watching Lila get up along with the redhead, then she accompanied the couple into another room and sat down together.

“Good, you’ve told me you were pregnant for eight weeks, am I right?” The doctor asked earning a nod from the brunette. “Have you felt anything strange as usual?”

“No, I just feel like I’m experiencing the similar pain I feel during the period” Lila explained. “Haven’t felt anything strange yet”

“Okay, so that’s good for now and your pain in the uterus. Is it manageable?”

“It’s okay for now” Lila answered.

“Yes,” The woman responded noticing down the minor piece of information the Italian woman gave her. “In case you feel insupportable intensive cramps around your abdomen I inform you already to pass by the clinic again just to be safe,” “Thank you”

“How do you spot the difference?” Nathaniel asked Lila, which shrugged her shoulder.

“I think it would be obviously more painful” Lila answered making Nathaniel swallow hard. “Come Nathy, you don’t need to worry about this. I’m already doing everything to keep our baby safe,”

“It’s good for your baby to have such a worrying father” The doctor complimented making Nathaniel grin a little embarrassed. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to do the ultra scan sound on you Mrs. Kurtzberg,” The doctor asked earning a nod from Lila, which followed the woman to a room across the bureau and Lila lied down on the chair next to the device, that is used to do the ultrasound scan. The doctor pulled another chair from the other side of the room close to Lila so that Nathaniel could sit down and see at the screen along with his wife.

The doctor grabbed a tube with gel, then pulled up Lila’s shirt to see Lila’s small baby bump and spread the gel all over her belly.

“The other days I feel like it’s not notable, but now I can see it” Nathaniel mentioned gazing down at Lila’s belly making her smile, then held her hand up at the man, which noticed it afterward he widened his eyes as he found out, what she meant and he gave her his hand admiring her.

The doctor placed the ultrasonic transducer on Lila’s belly and moved it over it while observing at the display various shades of gray.

“This kind of inspired me to paint something alike” Nathaniel mentioned exchanging looks with Lila, which gave him a courteous smile.

“Do you see this bean-like shade here?” The woman asked earning a nod from Nathaniel and a more eagerly from the Italian. “Your baby is right here and it is doing well so far” The woman explained making the couple smile and Lila pecked her husband on the lips.

“That’s great” Nathaniel answered, then he remembered to ask something. “Oh, and can we already see the gender?”

“I can’t to 100% tell the right answer, but the only thing I can show you is the heartbeat” The doctor mentioned changing a few options on the screen of the machine and under the image of the interior of the uterus appeared a line with middle-sized waves and a vertical line showed up on the begin moving forward as the sound of the baby heart was played. Lila beamed in excitement followed by Nathaniel, which had a dumbfounded face expression having it hard to believe, what he was listening to.

“That’s…...I…..Lila…...it’s….amazing” Nathaniel babbled, while Lila glowed in love with the sound of the embryo inside her.

“And the heart frequency is also good” The doctor mentioned looking at Lila, which had tears in her eyes, then covered her face getting all emotional with the situation.

“Wow, I haven’t seen her this emotional” Nathaniel mentioned a little surprised. “Are those mood swings?”

“It’s possible” The doctor answered. “The first months she’s going to act a little thin-skinned. She’s going to get sad about every little thing, angry or overly excited. You have to know it’s a little hard to deal with and she can’t stop this by herself. The best thing is just in different situations to act right”

“I try” Nathaniel responded placing his hand on Lila’s shoulder watching her and he leaned his forehead on her head.

  Adrien stood along with Jin, Ettore and Rory in front of the cooling shelf of the supermarket looking for anything to eat for lunch.

“Hey is anyone interested to share the Tiramisu with me?” Ettore asked looking at the guys next to him.

“I think Jara loves Tiramisu, so far I know” Jin mentioned earning a nod from the Canadian.

“Wow there’s Coleslaw Salad,” Rory mentioned taking out a plastic package with the salad.

“Has anyone of you tasted poulet-curry salad?” Ettore asked looking at the group.

“I did two weeks ago and it was good in my opinion,” Adrien answered watching the friend take out the package, which from afar seemed to only contain curry sauce in it. “Looks from here like a lot of sauce,”

“No, I can see a few bits in it” Ettore mentioned. “But I hope it’s worth the five euros”

“I can’t decide between the Olivier Salad and the Pasta salad,” Adrien said looking at the two different salads on the shelf.

“I’ll be heading to the bread section. I think a bun or two with these would be nice” Ettore stated walking away from the group.

Jin widened his eyes and grabbed a pack of cheese rosettes and move a little further on the corridor, where he encountered cold coffees and took a dark-colored cafe latte out leaving Adrien back with Rory.

“Oh, these cheese slices are due tomorrow. I could take this and make a sandwich out of it” Rory mentioned looking at Adrien, which took out the Olivier salad. “With Salami it will be perfect” Rory said doing the chef kiss, making Adrien chuckle.

“Good, I’ve decided to pick this, cause it only had two days of expire date” Adrien mentioned. “One thing less thrown away”

“But I thought it gets donated” Rory mentioned earning a nod from Adrien.

“I think it does, but probably not everywhere or everything”

“I think looking every day for the expire date is hard”

“At least in a large store” Adrien added crossing in the next corridor his way with a tan-skinned man and the same Japanese man he met the other day on the bus.

“Oh, it’s Adrien” The Japanese began. “That’s the guy I talked about”

“We meet again Raiden,” Adrien said. “Weird how suddenly we start crossing our ways”

“It’s a good thing, cause I wanted to ask you at some point if you had thought on my offer” Raiden began watching Adrien think about the chat he had with his girlfriend. “And?”

“Sure” Adrien answered. “I just thought on, if Kagami was home today, maybe you could pass by”

“That would be cool” Raiden agreed rubbing his hands together. “I’m totally sure she would like it, that us two would get along or even the three of us”

“As you say” Adrien answered rolling his eyes, while Raiden smirked at little sardonically. “Give me your phone number in case I need to push this off for another day” Adrien suggested unlocking his smartphone holding it to Raiden, where he saw Adrien’s background picture, which contained himself holding Kagami behind his back and the girl had her arms around his shoulders exchanging looks with the blonde smiling at each other. Raiden growled a little bothered with the image, then Adrien pressed on the green call button and on the plus symbol on the display to add a new contact, then Raiden typed down his smartphone number and added his full name on it and clicked on the green tick to save his phone number.

“Thanks” Adrien answered neutrally and opened his smartphone and sent him a thumb up, making Raiden’s phone beep. “You’re going to see it?”

“I know it’s you” Raiden answered directly making Adrien look not impressed with the man’s attitude.

“So we gotta go. Our friends are waiting for us” Adrien mentioned earning a nod from the raven-haired man and Adrien passed beside Adrien along with Rory, which glanced back noticing Raiden’s body posture during the walk look angered.

“Who is that?” Rory asked watching Adrien look at him a little pissed.

“It’s that one jerk, that beat me in fencing a few years ago by cheating” Adrien explained. “I don’t know, if you remember, I told this about a year ago to all”

“Oh yeah, he was also the one to attack you in the restrooms, right?” Rory asked earning a nod from the blonde. “What is he doing here?”

“Apparently he’s on a language stay here and wants to make amends with me after meeting me on the bus”

“Maybe he really wants to be on good terms, how many years is that ago?” Rory questioned seeing Adrien show the age with his fingers.

“You know…..he wished me luck before our tournament this year…..in a bizarre way….but maybe he’s trying to change”

“Give him a chance and help him out,” Rory told the friend. “It will be the best for you two”

“Sure I try,” Adrien answered watching Rory pat him on the shoulder and move forward leaving Adrien back. Adrien picked up his smartphone to see a message from Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

“Hey Adrien. How are you? I’m inviting you to pass tomorrow evening at Mrs. Couffaine’s houseboat for dinner and cake. I would love to have you and Kagami around. Please answer this until tomorrow night. Greetings, Marinette Dupain-Cheng”

Adrien tapped on the side of his smartphone with his fingers thinking about it, then he typed down a short answer.

“I hope we can make it to it. I need to change a shift with a friend to be able to go there” Adrien sent the message afterward and walked the corridor down following a brown line on the ground, which leads to the bread section.

[kinetic-elaboration]

September 10: The 100 1x06 Fog of War

Mmmm watching another ep and it’s been less than six months since the last one?! * jinxes self *

Bellarke date at the outside cafe. (WHY IS THIS OUTSIDE CAFE NOT IN MORE FICS? WHY IS IT NOT IN MY FICS?)

I don’t always love Clarke’s art tbh but I do love her Mount Weather sketch.

“You won’t be by yourself.” They are canonically Soft with each other.

I have a hard time believing they would wait two days just sitting on their hands, Abby or no Abby. YOU GUYS WERE THE LEADERS. JUST LEAD STUFF.

“We’re at war. We’ve all done things,” is, like, first, beyond the point, because even in war, one doesn’t usually attack civilian villages. (Unless one is a terrorist.) And second, it’s weird that Bellamy would be defending Finn? Not really sure how to read that. Unless his hatred of Grounders is truly that intense, which is possible. And third, are they really still at war? Because after attacking the dropship, the Grounders have done... literally nothing? Like it’s a semi-war scenario.

“Next round’s on me.” Do they have to.... pay for things...? With what lol?

“Salvaged Monty’s still. Now if we could only salvage Monty.” Someone here has a sense of humor. Also lol @ everyone at Camp Jaha using a teenager’s illegal still.

Really, the “pardon for surviving” should not include time on the ground, because pardons aren’t forward looking. Also they bring back the idea of trying Finn later. They just don’t want to deal with Murphy and Finn, and don’t really see the massacre of Grounders as a big deal, which, I am a Sky Person partisan to the last, does not reflect well on them. I think also they still haven’t figured out what tf their judicial system on the ground is, and just don’t want to deal with that yet either. Which isn’t a great excuse but it’s of a piece with how this show deals with society-building questions in general. (By... not.)

And Finn still doesn’t even feel bad.

And Murphy thinks Clarke and Finn are still together...? I guess that makes sense given how long he was away. He’s ALWAYS behind on delinquent gossip.

Clarke to Murphy: “Just because they pardoned you doesn’t mean I have.” Another line that should be iconic.

If Mount Weather is the reason they never heard from any other Ark Stations then they should have heard from more of them after S2 just putting that out there.

Raven is so beautiful.

And I’m sorry but she’s completely in love with Clarke here.

“You and your friends are not soldiers...” Hmmmm except in a certain sense they kind of are. Love this s2 adults versus delinquents conflict though.

Anyway I realize this is just to get them going back to Mount Weather but they were apparently doing this radio mission to get more Guards from other stations, which never happened, which sort of reminds me of Day Trip and the ‘winter supplies’ excursion when apparently winter doesn’t exist in the future anyway.

Literally only now at the credits.... Why am I like this?

So Maya couldn’t survive on the ground, obviously, because blood isn’t good enough, it has to be bone marrow, which, fine, for plot purposes--but what if she could???

“I know the plan was to assimilate them into the gene pool.” COMPLETELY forgot about that. So they did have a reason for being so nice to them. That is a rather long term plan though...

With the delinquent blood, they’ll “live longer and feel better.” I wonder what the sickness rate is, then. What the quality of life is, low vitamin d aside.

“If I agree to harvest those kids, then I won’t deserve to see [the outside] again.”

That Finn is a good tracker is, like, not a retcon in the sense that this was true in season 1, but still a semi retcon in the sense that nothing in the very early episodes implies he’s Mr. Earth Skills. (Unlike, say... Wells.)

Privileged Ark people really do just throw rules around and up and down however they like. Like, Abby clearing her daughter’s friend because “he was trying to save his friends” even though what he did was objectively much worse than pretty much anything the 100 were imprisoned for? Or other people killed for? Hmmm,, yeah, okay.

Jaha’s death wish transformed into a lazy acceptance that he is invincible is truly one of the best character arcs on this show imo. Infuriating but amazing.

“How many times on the Ark did we go two days without water?”

He recognizes the prison as a train station, which is not objectively surprising but I bet the Grounders don’t know what it is. Somehow. Since memory isn’t a thing in the future either.

On the one hand, it’s reasonable to think that Finn’s attack was coordinated from above but on the other hand, these two prisoners literally could not have ordered it, because they have been... imprisoned... the entire time. And I mean truly putting two Sky People who could not themselves have been involved in another Sky Person’s murder spree into some sort of Saw scenario in response to that murder spree really isn’t “justice” in any sense of the word. Like truly the JD in me is just SCREAMING. There is no nexus between the people you have and the person you’re angry at, other than “Sky Person” but the thread is so tangled you’re just.... throwing around bloodshed for lolz. (I know it’s a test and that part isn’t dumb but the scaffolding of the test is DUMB.)

I am still not over that someone gave Jasper a stuffed toy bear as a thank you for giving Maya blood. Also, it looks like... an alarm clock?

I like Dante but every time he says “Jasper” it just creeps me out. Maybe it’s the way he’s, uh, playing him.

It is 100% true that Mount Weather was not meant to last that long. At least not in the sense of ‘as a closed facility.’

Ridiculous as it is to pardon Finn AND take him adventuring AND give him a gun, I like the tension between him and the others, that they have officially forgiven him, and want to still love him, but are wary of him, scared of him, for good reason. For all that people are constantly ‘doing bad things’ and yelling at each other about it, this scenario doesn’t really have a parallel anywhere else in the canon.

“According to Clarke, before the bombs, there were buildings everywhere here. I’m guessing some of the had access to the bunker. So we’re looking for ruins. Anything man-made.”

Bellamy says he and O aren’t under the Guard command. But in a way, aren’t they? Like aren’t the Guard basically in authority over all Arkers? I know I’m overthinking but does he see himself as more delinquent than Arker? Especially with the “our people” are in Mount Weather.

All those mice.... Or rodents....

What a scenario: Clarke and Finn hiding from the acid fog in a weird little personal bunker where they once fucked, and now there’s a dead body in it, and Finn put it there. Not even Olav can top this.

Raven playing with the radio is my kink.

Parking garage as tomb. Who would protect a parking garage with a big-ass steal door that protects cars from radiation? If it does lead to Mount Weather (no recollection if it does) I guess it could be... part of it? Idk. Nice aesthetic though.

Bellamy is very comfortable calling people Sir. Polite young man.

So Clarke’s Dad’s watch returns to Clarke. I can’t remember what ultimately happened to it. Is it basically tainted now?

Monty’s obscene jealousy of Maya just gets me every single time. Makes up for the horrendous second hand embarrassment I’m getting from the rest of this scene.

“Hey, it’s pizza day! Who’s hungry?” uhhhhhhhhhhmmmmm So natural. Cute dress though.

How did she figure out the breach wasn’t an accident? Or that there is surveillance? Anyway now that she knows she was experimented on, and that Jasper was experimented on, one would assume she is pissed. One would assume that’s part of why she shows them the Grounders. Also to stop Jasper perhaps from embroiling his people even more with (her own) untrustworthy people. Because truly it is in part to save them, but it’s also a real risk to herself, admitting this terrible thing she’s been a part of.

“To get you to agree to be her blood brother.” He’s not wrong but that language is sooooo jealous--both revealing the threat he feels (because Jasper is his ‘brother’) and diminishing the JasperMaya relationship (which he knows to be romantic, and is turning familiar.)

Why did the show ever try to top the pure horror of the Grounder Torture Prison?

“What are we supposed to do?” / “Die.” Another Iconic Exchange. This is Monty’s morality: uncompromising. Are the standards he sets for himself hypocritical or consistent? Also, some foreshadowing lol.

I wonder what Monty’s allegiance is to the other kids... Would he have irradiated the Mountain for them if Jasper were safe? Legit question because he defects to his mom’s side pretty fast in S3, and he would 100% leave Mount Weather through the side door just like Clarke, at this point, which Jasper refuses to do even if it were possible. I am intrigued by this scene and the switching of plans/different points of view.

So this is the revelation that the acid fog is a Mount Weather weapon. I always really liked that twist.

Okay so this explains why they didn’t get to the other stations, because they choose to keep the tower up to listen to Mount Weather, but it’s actually not a tough call bc if you defeat Mount Weather and take your people back, then you can get rid of the blocking signal, and then find your other people, so win-win, you just have to go in order and on that note, why did it take 3 months to find only one station??

Is that a....hand crank mp3?? Got a lot of juice from just a little bit of cranking.

There are a hella lot of storylines in this episode. I completely forgot about Jaha and Kane and Lexa.

Kane’s continuing death wish makes him utterly unreasonable. What in a million years makes you think that the Grounders value sacrifice as opposed to just being sadists? I mean, you don’t know. You’re imposing your value system and also your thought processes on them. You’re also assuming that if one of you killed the other, the survivor would actually get something, like a chance to negotiate, which is probably not true--in fact, Gustus basically told you as much with “We’ll hear the terms of your surrender form the survivor.” Winning means nothing except you get to surrender!! And probably die!! They are not coming to you in good faith is what I’m trying to say and having watched the whole season I know I am Right.

“You didn’t order the massacre.” / “Not that one.” Honestly dude get over it lol. Interesting that Jaha, although he has transformed in some ways, keeps to the old lines, about survival, the human race--and our people, if the human race is broader than just the Ark, which it is, and no big deal. So in some ways his morality has not changed at all, at its core.

Look, I’m sorry, not to be that person, but he probably would have been better off killing Lexa there. I mean, I know he’s choosing ‘an innocent’ in his mind but... what a power move to behead the Commander WHILE you’re her prisoner. Good old Jaha, smart and quick and sure of himself.

Just uh not quick enough at murdering I guess.

I’m no Lexa fan but that was an excellent entrance and it remains an excellent entrance. Also while I never thought she was as smart as people said, because name me another tactical decision she made that was actually good, this was a smart ploy. And probably the most subtle thing any Grounder character ever did, even if it does end with her basically beating Jaha up ‘as a message’ as if she were a gangster.

Is this the episode that introduces Blood Must Have Blood? Already Tired of it tbh.

This Clarke and Finn scene is so sad. I realize that they  purposefully made him unredeemable at this point, that this story line was always intended to be the method by which he was written off, and that there’s only so much awkwardness you can write around this scenario, but nevertheless it would have been interesting to see Finn in the long term, in a way. Not redeemed.. I don’t know. Whatever I’m thinking it’s not in the range of this show, though, for sure.

Did Jasper and Monty tell all of the 47 everything? To get them to volunteer? (Answer: No, but they told at least Harper and Miller, maybe a few more.)

“How high are you right now?” We were SO robbed of more intoxicated!Monty scenes.

Jasper and Dante: creepy creepy creepy.

“There’s been a Wallace in this office since the bombs.” So glad to know we immediately reverted to some sort of pseud-monarchy post-nuclear war. That said it’s only been 97 years so that’s like 3 Wallaces tops.

Prioritizing the radio also means of course admitting that getting the 47 out of MW is a priority for Abby/Ark PTB, which wasn’t exactly clear before.

I’ve never been a fan of the “Build a brace for yours” line and I’m still not, because I think conflating physical and mental injuries is not exactly helpful, but I guess I appreciate it as a look into Raven’s mind--Raven, who has never really understood mental scars and never really does--and the soft way she says it is a sort of forgiveness. Not really forgiveness she has the right to offer, and in a way a very brash thing to do, because this was literally a war crime that her best friend committed, but nevertheless.

Jaha: appears. Everyone else: what the absolute fuck.

So on that mission they accomplished... literally nothing they set out to do lol.

What is that random shot of Camp Jaha doing there? They’re not within sight of it. They’re still where they set up tents.

I want to point out that this is the FIRST time the Grounders have demanded that the Sky People “leave” or implied in any way that they consider the Sky People to be on “their” land, and that this was never an issue in Season 1, when their beef seemed to be for things like crossing the river at Mount Weather, accidentally dropping their flares on a Grounder village, and torturing a Grounder spy. But I guess at this point the narrative needed to focus on something because the actual reason for the feud, which is roughly, we accidentally pissed each other off and then kept on retaliating, doesn’t play very well or make the Grounders, who were rehabilitated this season, very sympathetic. (Guess who still has zero sympathy lololol?)

[iveonlyeverseenliketwoanimes]

How Horikoshi treats his female characters (Feat. How his ‘Fans’ treat him): A Rant

Something that has recently been popping up a lot in the BNHA tags, for me at least, is this idea that Hori is a “Lazy/Bad Writer”. It’s a topic that’s genuinely interesting to me and I would love to discuss it! After the reaction i got to my last post on discussing the fandom, i feel like this is a really fun topic for me to look into and i love having an open discussion with people. So just to let you know before we start, everything here is my opinion - feel free to respond with your own thoughts and i’d happily have a conversation with you about anything and everything! If you disagree with me then that's fine, if you agree with me then that's fine too! I'm just a person with a keyboard and an opinion and so are you! :)

So today i would love to discuss how people treat Hori in regards to his female characters and i hope you enjoy this 1500 word essay/ramble i did. (PS if you came from my last lil essay then this one is a lot less sarcastic because its a more serious topic and i don’t want to come across as too rude also i actually got sleep today)

Now, this was actually the first topic I came across when looking into the Hori tags. At first, I was on board with the general theme of what was happening. I saw some lovely artwork of Momo where people had redesigned her costume, they were very creative in how they did it and overall, I had no complaints – if the whole topic of this tag was about how people wanted to be creative and redraw characters in their own design then I’d 100% support it, but the more you look into it, the more…. Nasty is gets.

So, the overall theme of what I gathered from this little tag is that idea that Hori is some sort of [Word I really don’t want to type out but im sure you can guess what it is] because of how he draws his females, most of which are underage. So if you, as a consumer, are, well, consuming something, such as a TV show, film, anime, Manga etc. and you see something that makes you go “This is disgusting – I need to write a Tumblr post about this to warn other people about what's happening here” then I fully support you – please keep on doing what you’re doing. 

However, this isn’t what I see, what I see are posts going “F*CK HORI HE’S A [Nasty word] AND I HOPE HE D*ES – HERE EVERYONE I MADE AN ANTI FLAG, SHARE IT EVERYWHERE AND LET ME KNOW WHERE I CAN SEND MY D*ATH THR*AT TO” Meanwhile, when you go on this same persons page it’s all reposts of the characters and screenshots of the show, posts of them saying “Yo did you guys see the new BNHA episode last night?!?” and overall just very fandom-y stuff. I truly cannot comprehend this type of behaviour – you are so set in this belief that Hori is a [Nasty Word] and yet here you are, on the very same blog you use to slander his name, actively supporting him! Listen, if one of you Anti’s were to sit there and say “I wholeheartedly think Hori is a [Nasty word] and therefore I am no longer going to participate in this fandom or with supporting his creations” then, while I don’t agree with you, I support you in your decision as you have made a clear stance on something with both your words and your actions and I can truly respect that, and hell you would actually get my attention and I might read into what it is you’re talking about. I’m not, however, going to waste my time reading a piece of material written by someone who does all that nasty stuff I previously mentioned and take any of what they say seriously. Let me put it this way; you think Hori is a [Nasty word], you are supporting the show, you are therefore supporting a [nasty word], so why should I take anything you say seriously? I don’t want to see any more of this ‘One minute we love him, one minute we hate him’ attitude because when you hate him the things you are saying are some of the worst things you could possibly say to another person and its childish, disgusting and you’re giving this fandom a bad name.

Now back to the girls, I personally do find certain characters outfits a little distasteful, especially with how they’re done in the anime and how they zoom in on certain body parts, i also dislike how it’s ‘funny’ for characters like Mineta to get away with such disgusting behaviour. I do think that’s the biggest flaw I can find in this show – I don’t however 100% blame Hori for this. Now obviously at the end of the day, it is down to Hori what happens in his show, but can we all stop pretending that it’s just him that does this? When I think of anime the first thing that comes to mind is anime girls and their… attributes. It’s an industry issue and Hori is one of many people that partakes in it – so im not saying he’s not to blame, im just saying some of you are a little dramatic and need to realise if you truly want this behaviour to stop then you need to go after the industry and not just one guy.

Now this next point I want to make is something im sure might be a little confusing for most of you and something I can 100% see the other side of better than some other points ive made. It’s also kinda hard for me to put into words so please bear with me here.

I don’t think its necessary for Hori to develop his female characters as much as their male counterparts – now im sure that’s an odd concept but let me explain. As a child growing up in the age of great TV shows such as Hannah Montana, iCarly, Wizards of Waverly Place etc. I think ive spent a fair amount of time watching TV, my personal favourites as a child were Winx Club, BRATZ and W.I.T.C.H (Im from the UK so apologies if you have no idea what they are). Now all of these shows were ‘for girls’, they all revolve around a group of girls and their adventures in their respective worlds, they learn things along the way, because, even if you don’t realise it, these kids shows have hidden messages in them that are like ‘we should be kind’ ‘we should treat others with respect’ and all that jazz you need to know to be a decent human being. However, the one thing that these shows always lacked was any form of male presence. Now im not saying these shows had no males in them, that would be weird, but what I am saying is that the males in these shows were very one dimensional and they were always the love interest of one of the characters, or you might get the odd parental figure that would show up for one episode to be a motivation for a character. However with BNHA, a show that is specifically aimed at teenage boys, I don’t feel like they do such a disservice to females (AKA the ‘men’ equivalent of my other shows), sure they’re not treated great in certain aspects that I've already discussed, but look at their actual characters, Uraraka is the main girl, sure she very much has the same role as many of the men did in my childhood shows of the ‘love interest’ but her character is more than that and we see it in the sports festival as well as some of the more recent chapters (213-215 to be specific). Her character isn't just some airhead and neither are the other girls, Momo is literally top of the class in terms of written ability and she had her own little mini-arc around gaining confidence (which is still ongoing because guess what – people don’t change overnight), Mina has had some spotlight on her and is seen to be a very confident and skilled fighter, Tsu was literally described as the ‘perfect student with no flaws’ and is shown to be a badass on multiple occasions, Midoriya’s mum is even a character that’s had some form of arc with her learning to believe in her son and she's not some faceless character we hear about every so often when they need a plot device.

Now im not saying the female representation is perfect and it’s certainly not 100% equal to that of the men, but im saying it doesn’t need to be. This is a show for boys, sure girls can watch and enjoy it, but its made for boys in the same way my shows were made for girls, and the average boy isn’t going to want to watch a bunch of fairy princesses run around saving their fluffy little pets like I did (im sure a some of them will – and good for them, in the same way that some girls might want to watch superhero films, it’s not something im saying is bad, its just most people raise children into predetermined stereotypes of what gender roles they should fill and the media caters to that).

So what im saying is that taking a show aimed at boys and comparing it to shows aimed at girls and how each handles the opposite sex (we’re not going into gender here, that’s a whole other topic of diversity), I don’t think BNHA is all that bad. I guess if I want to be a little harsher in my approach, why is it okay to have a near-all female cast and not a near-all male cast? I understand a need for diversity, truly I do, but sometimes having a token character for each ‘type’ of person takes away from what the show is actually trying to convey – and in BNHAs case I think its trying to teach young boys that it’s okay to be emotional or vulnerable when you’re in situations that other shows teach you to ‘man up’ in. Not every show can solve racism, sexism and homophobia, I’m sorry to break it to you, but some shows are a little more basic in their approach to what it is they want to show and I think BNHA is a perfect example of that, it’s showing boys that you can cry, you can go through struggles in life, you can even come back from being a terrible person through growth and development, and I think that’s something boys need. A lot of people in this day and age want men to change (and I agree that there are a lot of things all groups of people can work on) and BNHA is showing boys how to grow up in a way that’s not this ‘tough guy that has no feelings’ and at the end of the day isn’t that something we want?

I do believe there are areas that BNHA really needs to improve in when it comes to it’s female cast, but can we stop with this awful hate? This fandom had such potential to be an amazing community of people who are skilled with art, writing, storytelling, cosplay, etc. but it seems like half of you just want to tear each other down and it’s sad to see such potential wasted because you can’t handle someone having a different opinion or view to you.

[anon-luv]

Heartbeat ❥ONE❥ (Yoongi X Reader)

Pairing: Yoongi X Reader

Genre: Angst/Romance SliceofLIfeAu SingleDadAu

WordCount: 2.K+

POV: 2nd POV. The prologue will be in 3rd.

Trigger Warning: There will be mentions of Adult themes such as depression, death, and smut. This is not a pink and fluffy story. A fair warning to my readers… I cried while making the outline.

Summary: You had accepted you were going to die from a young age. Your weak heart had a timeline, but a second chance in life was given to you as you were given a heart transplant. Along with a new heart came a sense of guilt for the life that was lost as yours was given back.

A new a little family has now arrived in your putting in your path a single father and his young bright daughter. They come with a grief of their own, but for some reason, every moment you spend by their side rids you of your own. You are growing attached and addicted to their company, and you are not quite sure if that is a good or bad thing…

♬ Playlist ♬

♥ Story ♥

❥ Prologue ❥   ❥ ONE❥

Author’s Note: I know this is short, but I promise the next Chapters will be longer. I hope you all enjoy. Leave me feedback and love. Love you guys!

♬ My heart is weak Tear it down piece by piece Leave me to think Deep in my structure, I think I still love her, But I need some sleep You've taken my breath away, Now I want to breathe ♬

You were five years old when you found out you were going to die. Your heart had stopped. Three minutes, according to your parents, your soul had floated away into the heavens only to be brought back by God’s Miracle Workers, in human atheist terms the Medical Staff at your hometown’s hospital.

Your heart was weak. You would die young. It wasn’t pumping blood effectively. Drugs and a restrictive lifestyle were written in your future. Pitying looks were thrown your way constantly as you walked around wired up into a heart monitor as you walked along your school hallways. The winters were lonely, and summers were boring as you were forced to lock yourself within your jail of a house. The ache of being free to do what you ached for growing numb as the years went by. You had accepted your sentence as a refuge to the outside world. Your blue tinted fingernails and unamusing life were an accepted normal now. If you can’t beat it, join it, right?

People fluttered around you as if you were made out of the finest crystal, afraid to touch you but tempted to observe as if you were some intricate piece of artwork. You hated it. Up until today, the questions of how it had felt to die or what you had seen as you walked along the paths of the spirit world dropped around you like rain during a hurricane. It did not affect you though, quite contrary it had become a routine to make up the silliest of stories for your own amusement. Your dark humor that had been established and engraved into your personality, but sadly that was greatly unappreciated by your overly religious parents, and that was what had landed you in endless therapy sessions and group meetings about dealing with depression.

Your life was quite opposite of what your surrounding peers assumed it was, and only your closest friends understood your rants and sarcastic personality.

You were different. You knew it as you were growing up. The adventurous girl within you that longed to go out running and swimming on the creek was silenced by a long array of doctor appointments and experimental treatments. Until the day your mom received the call that would instate a change to your long twenty years of life. There was a match. You were on top of the list. It was finally your turn.

Your mom gleamed with happiness as the fear of change from your reclusive life taunted you.

You had already succumbed to the idea that you would die young, and therefore plans for a future had not been planned out. You had been living day by day without a worry of what tomorrow would bring, and now things were about to change.

You had done it for your family who had not yet let go of their faith. You had done it for them… not you.

It had been four years from when you had received your new heart. The scar brought back memories as your body still felt unbalanced from the lack of weight from the lack of wires and heart monitor you had carried around on the daily. The blue nail polish you wore on your nails was a live by routine, as you were unused to see the pinkish hue within them, you brought it with you everywhere on your mess of a backpack-purse hybrid. An unfinished letter thanking the family of the young girl whose life was stolen too soon laid on your desk where it had been for the past year or so. A young life in her early 20s you had found out. That girl had not welcomed death with arms wide open as you would have had. She had been unprepared for death and ready for her future with most of it probably planned out. She must have had a lot of friends and family waiting for her at home, that had to plan a funeral last minute, unlike your family who knew even what playlist you would like to be played as your body was given back to the earth.

Guilt. All you felt was guilt as you laid on your dead silent bedroom and you could feel your heartbeat beating it your ears. A heartbeat that didn’t belong to you.

“(Y/N), fancy meeting you here again” Denise the team counselor for the grief support group welcomed you.

 “What are you talking about?? I have been coming every Sunday for about 8 years now. Don’t sound surprised…” you replied as you took your usual seat at the farthest section of the circle.

“Your parents would appreciate you going to church with them on Sunday mornings, more than your perfect attendance on these grieving support groups” Denise said throwing a sympathetic smile your way, “(Y/N), what happened to that girl was unfortunate, but she gave you the gift of life and you should cherish that and go forward and enjoy the life that you have been blessed with”

You shook your head and looked down on the floor as your voice dropped to a barely inaudible level, “How am I supposed to grieve a person appropriately when I wasn’t given the opportunity to meet them??”

Denise threw a concern look your way, but before she could answer, a pair walked in looking a bit lost. An unfamiliar man with a young little girl walked in smiling shyly. Denise stood up right away and walked their way with a bright smile on her face, “Welcome” she said in an overly cheerful voice.

“Hi, my name is Yoongi and this is Skyeleen ...Skye for short and we are looking for the grief support group. Little Skye has a few questions, and my mom suggested this group. We are new to town and lately, she has been having questions…” the young man said still a bit shy as he took a peek to his surroundings. He smiled your way and you quickly smiled back and waved at the cute little rosy cheeks girl on his arms. She waved happily your way.

“Go ahead and take a seat, we will begin shortly”, Denise replied as she pointed at the chairs around the room.

Yoongi nodded as he took a seat on the nearest plastic cold chairs, about 3 or 4 chairs away from you. The little girl took a seat and swung her feet playfully as her father now tried to fix her unmatching ponytails. You smiled at the cute moment and wondered how it would be when you had kids, and idea you quickly shut down as the guilt once again started spreading again through your insides.

In a few minutes the room was full with lost looking souls, some smiling and some still with fresh tears running down their eyes.

Each meeting started with a short introduction and an update of everyone’s life. The group’s main goal was to help people move on and throughout the years faces came and went and only 2 people remained loyal. You and Denise. Denise had lost her husband and after that fell on a deep black hole of depression, after overcoming that dark time in her life she decided to form a grief support group to help those in need, and here you were now, with a weird sort of addiction to it. It might not be apparent to many, but you could still see the sadness that would fill her eyes whenever she talked about him. Especially during the holiday seasons.

 A little voice caught your attention, “Hi my name is Skye, and I am 4. I starts the Pre-k school soon and I want to be a ninja when I grow up.” She smiled towards the man you had learned name was Yoongi. He nodded at her encouraging for her to go on, “My daddy tooks me here because I asked questions and sometimes I can tell I makes him sad. I don’t want to make daddy cry, so I said okay. You see… my mommy is an angel, daddy said she got wings when I was born and flew away into the sky, so so so so I never got to see her. I don’t feel sad like daddy does because I never see her, but I want to see her. Daddy says I will one day, but I won’t in a long time. When I meet her I want to watch movies together, but for now daddy will watch them with me. Daddy said he will see her later too, and I hope we can be a family like the ones in the shows. I want to know where my mama is and if it hurts her to grow her wings out...and what color they are. Daddy doesn’t know… but he does know her favorite color was pink… I hope they are pink”

A wet sensation traveled down my cheek as I heard the little girl speak and as I looked around I saw I wasn’t the only one. She hugged her dad tightly and he whispered something in her ear to make her smile as he himself returned the gesture with the most beautiful gummy smile I had ever seen.

It was once again your turn to face the crowd before you, “Hello, my name is (y/n). I know I am not much of a stranger to the most of you. I have been coming here for a few years. I did not lose anyone close to me, so I do not know your pain, but someone had their life taken so I can live a longer life myself. A few years ago I had a heart transplant, and until this day I have had a hard time accepting the fact that I am getting to live because someone else did not. Anyway, enough of the introduction …. I wrote a little more on the letter I have yet to mail. I want to make sure I am not invading their privacy and memory so I also erased some of it. I keep on telling myself I tomorrow I will stamp and send it away, but I have not been able to. I need strength and closure. I want this guilt to go away…”

You looked around the room of strangers to see them nodding, the little girl looked at you, a little smile on her face, “I think the angel that gave you life is happy you are alive”

You smiled back at her unsure of what to say as the rest of the group awwed at her genuine adorable response.

 The meeting finished as quickly as it started, and once again it was time for you to gather your stuff and walk away from where you felt the most comfortable in. The unjudging eyes in the room had been more of a family than your actual family had been lately. The strangers in the room knew more of your secrets and desires than your closest friends did. They knew about the guilt you carried with you everywhere. You had started attending these meetings to try and learn about how the people around you would grieve once you were gone, but after the heart transplant you had surprisingly come back, but this time to learn how to grieve yourself.

You walked outside slowly, the biting cold sensations of the early winter wind had you trembling despite the thick sweater and beanie you had on. You felt a small tug in your hand and you quickly turned to face a small little girl. Skye.

 “Hey, I like your nails. I like blue. How do I make mine blue too??” She asked taking a hold of your hand. An out of breath Yoongi came running towards his daughter. Up close you could notice how handsome he truly was. His dark brown hair fell against his honey like orbs. His cheeks were rosy from the chilly air along with his button nose and lips. His eyebrows furrowed with worry as he inspected his daughter from head to toe, which was quickly replaced by a shy smile your way.

 “Skyleen, what have I told you about running??? One of these days you are going to fall and get such a big owwy.” He scolded the little girl and then turned to face you extremely apologetic, “I am sorry about that”

 “Don’t worry about it” you replied and then turned to face the little girl, “Thank you. I can do your nails blue if you want”

She nodded excitedly, “Yes please ma’am”

“Call me (Y/N)” you replied kneeling down to her level.

“(Y/N)” she replied giving you the widest of smiles.

“Skye we promised grandma we would be back for brunch.” Yoongi reminded her with a small smile.

“That’s true. I am sorry (Y/N) I have to go to Nana’s but can we do it maybe yesterday” she asked excitedly.

“Sounds like a plan” you replied as you saw the little girl jump excitedly in place.

“Thank you and I am so sorry about this” Yoongi replied as he threw one of those melting gummy smiles your way.

“No problem” you replied as they turned away and started walking to what you were assuming was their car.

You waved at the little girl as she turned your way one more time with a bright smile on her face waving both her hands enthusiastically. For the first time in a while, the guilt dissipated almost into nothingness, but as they walked out of view and you looked up at the sky as it gifted the world with the first winter snowfall the stabbing remorse came back tenfold.

[raisingsupergirl]

6 Ways to Enjoy a Caribbean Cruise When You're a Cheap Introvert

The word "vacation" means something a little different to everyone. Pristine ski slopes, powder-white beaches, Amazon jungles, rolling Highlands, a cabin in the woods—the settings are as various as the activities. But in general, the point of vacation is to change your scenery, to recharge, and to reaffirm your appreciation for life. As for me, it doesn't matter where I am so much as what I'm doing. Rather, what I'm not doing, which is anything. Daily life is way too busy already. Vacation shouldn't be. It should be a time when I can sit back, take a deep breath, and forget about all of my worldly stress. Which means, ideally, that the vacation won't cost much money or force me to be around a lot of people since both of these things cause me stress. So why, oh why, did I agree when my wife suggested that we go on a cruise?

To put it simply, she tricked me. "I earned it through Beach Body," she said. "All we have to pay for is our plane tickets," she said. Whoa, a free vacation? As someone who hates spending money on frivolous luxuries, the word "free" is of particular appeal. But I should have known… Nothing's free in Waterworld. And as our departure date neared, I started regretting the decision before I ever stepped foot on the boat. But since we'd already committed, I knew I had to make the most of it. I knew I'd regret it even more if I spent money to be surrounded by strangers if I didn't find a way to enjoy myself. And when I started looking for that silver lining, there was plenty of joy to be found. In fact, by the time we returned home to our screaming, squealing daughters, I was actually happy that we'd made the trip. The reasons for my change of heart are many, but there were six things that really made all the difference, and here they are...

1) Understand what you're getting into. You're not going to a resort. You're not going to a hotel on the beach. You're boarding a floating city that will carry you thousands of miles across open, international waters, some of which are over a mile deep. This city is filled with thousands of other people, the majority of whom you've never seen before and will never see again. Once this city leaves land, it has a finite amount of everything. This is hard to remember when you shower with drinkable water and eat so much gourmet food that the mention of chocolate lava cake makes you want to throw up, but if you only bring a 3 oz bottle of contact solution, you will be keeping track of how much you use each day and calculating if you'll have enough to last you until you return home. At least, I did. I'm sure it's different for everyone, but this fact really made the ship's extravagance all the more amazing for me. Especially when I counted over 100 events on ONE day's itinerary list—everything from no-limit Texas Holdem in the casino to competitive rock climbing to fully immersive ice-skating shows, all on that one single boat. My wife and I fell into a rhythm eventually, which allowed us to spend less time wandering aimlessly and more time participating in the things we loved (mostly eating and falling asleep in lounge chairs on the top deck), but it took a while. Which is why I wish someone would have told me this piece of advice before I left—YOUR FIRST DAY WILL BE STRESSFUL. 

Whether you're flying or driving to your port, travel isn't much fun. And when you begin the boarding process at your ship, it just gets worse. It's like TSA security combined with border security, and then you add in the cruise line's private rules and regulations, and you're rushed through the whole thing as fast as humanly possible. And when it's all done, you're shoved onto the floating city and set loose. The experience reminded me of the time when I took a bus into NYC's Union Station, and then walked up the steps and took my first glimpse of Times Square. Trust me, you're going to want to find the nearest chair and just sit for a moment. Even though there will be people running around everywhere, you're in no rush to go anywhere or do anything. Just take a minute (or thirty) to look around, people watch, and breathe. Slowly, you'll start putting the pieces together. Your room and your checked luggage (yes, you have to check your luggage when you board the ship) won't generally be ready for a few hours, so you can grab a bite to eat (once you figure out which restaurants are included and which cost money, but more on that later) or just wander around for a while. It's likely that you'll get lost, but that's okay. Even though it looks like you're in the middle of downtown, you really are on a ship. You can't get that lost. Most importantly, just remember that your first day will be spent learning the rules and settling in. There will be little to no relaxation. As long as you go in knowing that, you'll be much less frustrated and anxious. At least until you start trying to figure out what foods and activities are "complimentary," and which cost extra. Which brings me to my next point…

2) Buy everything ahead of time, or not at all. If you drink alcohol, you have two options—spend a boatload (pun intended) of money or smuggle in your own booze. If you choose the former option, you can go about it two different ways. Either you can pay per drink (which is really only an option if you plan to drink sparingly since they're $10-$15/drink) or purchase a drink package. If you go for the drink package, buy it ahead of time. In our case, it was about $50/day if you purchased it ahead of time and about $80/day if you waited to buy it on the boat. POINT OF CLARIFICATION: You CANNOT buy a drink package for just one or two days. It's all or nothing, so the "per day" breakdown is misleading. Which means you'll be spending $250 on a 5 day cruise (and remember that your first day is pretty much a wash anyway) for all you can drink IF you buy it ahead of time and about $400 if you wait to buy it when you board. MORE CLARIFICATION: You CANNOT buy just one drink package if you are rooming with someone (a spouse or otherwise). The other person also has to buy some form of drink package (the soft drink package was around $200 for the week on our cruise). In short, if you plan to buy the ship's alcohol, save up your money and come to terms with how much you'll be spending on it. Otherwise, it'll just make you mad every time you swipe your card, and then there's really no point in doing it in the first place.

BUT, for those adventurers among you, if you want to partake in some adult beverages but don’t want to take out a second mortgage, you can try your hand at bootlegging. Googling the topic will bring up a host of sneaky options, but basically you pour clear liquor into some different bottle (contact solution, rubbing alcohol, etc) and try to pull a fast one on the x-ray security, or you can do what we did and buy plastic Rumrunner flasks, which are invisible on the x-ray machines. For us, it worked like a charm (be sure to push all the air out if you're flying so they don't expand and leak in your checked baggage), but it was a little stressful. ALSO, many cruise lines allow you to carry on a couple of bottles of wine, so be sure to take advantage of that if you can.

But enough about alcohol. If you plan to buy excursions, be sure to buy those ahead of time also. We didn't do any, so I couldn't tell you if they will be cheaper, but I CAN tell you that it's exasperating watching your room charges continue to climb throughout your trip. A "free" show one night charged $2.50 for a bag of popcorn. Yes, you read that right. I had just eaten a "complimentary" New York strip steak at dinner, and then they wanted me to pay $2.50 for a bag of popcorn thirty minutes later. So the more stuff you can buy ahead of time, the more likely you'll be able to swallow those silly little charges as you rack them up. Either way, realize that unless your cruise is truly all-inclusive, some charges most definitely WILL apply, including tipping your waiters and other helpful staff.

3) Get a room with a view. This is one of those things we sprung for ahead of time, and even though I am cheap, I'm SO glad we paid extra for a balcony. THIS is the primary reason to go on a cruise—falling asleep to the sound of crashing waves (keep your door slightly open at night), waking up to a brilliant sunrise stretching out across thousand miles of sparkling, blue water, and enjoying a glass of smuggled rum (mixed with some orange juice and a pineapple wedge—which were free when we put them in our water bottle during a meal but cost extra otherwise…) as the faint outline of a Haitian island formed on the horizon. It's pretty hard to top that, especially if you're an introvert like me. All of the view. None of the crazies. Also, it helped my wife and me when the boat really got to rocking. We never experienced any seasickness, but there were times when it was nice to see what we were feeling.

4) Exercise. Yes, seriously. The cruise I went on was actually hosted by Beachbody®, the fitness company that my wife works for, so we participated in some fairly insane group workouts every morning (imagine a couple hundred people jumping up and down at the same time across the entire top deck of a ship), but even if it had been a different situation, I would have still exercised ever day. Why? Well, if you haven't noticed how much I've been talking about the copious food and drink stashed away on cruise ships, let me say it again—you will eat and eat until you can't see your toes, and then you will eat some more. And the food is great (we ate in the main dining hall every evening, which didn't cost a dime, even when I ordered two or three appetizers and my wife ordered two or three desserts), but even the best surf 'n turf turns bland when you're putting in twice the amount of calories that you're burning off day after day. So yes, take a minute (or sixty) every day to work up a bit of an appetite. Swim, jog, lift weights, or just use the stairs instead of the elevator when you're exploring your little ship's sixteen floors. The more you get that blood flowing, the better everything will taste, and the better you'll feel when you do lie back and fall asleep in the sun (oh, and remember the sunscreen, especially if you go after a long winter like we did!).

5) Appreciate wherever you make port. This is another big reason to consider a cruise over a resort (along with getting the room with a view overlooking the vast greatness of the ocean). Watching an island slowly appear and unfold before you as you pull into port is magical. And the chance to experience multiple destinations in one trip is undeniably appealing. But don't squander that chance. When you do reach your ports of call, go explore! A beach is a beach. An ocean is an ocean. Yes, the Bahamian waters are the most beautiful I've ever seen, but it's what I found on land that made the trip really worth it. Walk a while and find the locals. Get away from the tourist traps and enjoy the real Caribbean culture. Take in the sights, sounds, and smells of a different world. As much as I don't like crowds, I LOVE new cultures. Earth is a beautiful place, and humanity is so much more interesting and diverse than your hometown. And if you're lucky enough to make port at a smaller island, you'll enjoy it all the more. Our cruise line (Royal Caribbean) owns Labadee, Haiti, and we were able to kayak around to Labadee's actual fishing village, which is ONLY accessible by small boats. It was an experience I'll never forget. 

6) Go again (or don't). Finally one last piece of advice. As I've already mentioned, cruise ships are overwhelming. They're stressful at times when you're inexperienced with their rules and operations. There's so much to see and do that it's hard to fully relax until the cruise is almost over. Ironically, that's why so many people only choose cruises for their vacations—they already put in the work of that first one. After a couple, that first wasted day becomes more enjoyable, and every other day is filled with countless possibilities. Like I said before, it's like being in the middle of NYC… in the middle of a tropical ocean, and you don't have to worry about your wallet getting stolen. I'm still not sure if it's exactly my thing, but it's pretty clear that if I ever do go again, it'll be a more enjoyable experience than the first. And to even suggest that my first time wasn't enjoyable is just silly. It really was magical. Frustrating at times, and not as relaxing as a resort on the whole, but definitely well worth it. Even if I did gain ten pounds in five days. And hopefully my experience will make yours all the more enjoyable. Bon Voyage!

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: REWIND REVIEW: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

(Image: hollywoodreporter.com)

For an occasional new segment, Every Movie Has a Lesson will cover upcoming home media releases combining an “overdue” or “rewind” film review, complete with life lessons, and an unboxed look at special features.

STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

Big as a billboard in some places and as small as a mobile ad in others, the marketing imagery of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker touts the tagline “The Saga Will End.” There’s something to be said for finality, especially with a 42-year-old franchise as venerated and cherished as this one. The virtues of remembrance, culmination, gratification, and other such lofty notions loom so much larger when an entity is billed to be the last of something important. The movie in disc form hits store shelves everywhere today.

LESSON #1: THE DEFINITION OF “FINALITY” — Diving deeper beyond the basic “something that is final” meaning, the dictionary of this galaxy describes “finality” as “conclusiveness,” “decisiveness,” or “an ultimate act, utterance, or belief.” J.J. Abrams’ massive space opera follows his own The Force Awakens and Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi to aim so very badly for those traits. In many peaks of scope and emotion, his movie achieves such finality. In others, overindulgence and disarray put question marks on the value or vindication of all this promised fulfillment.

Going back to the tagline, the key word out of that poster’s sentence becomes “will.” As grand of a finale as The Rise of Skywalker builds itself to be, the likelihood of its stewarding studio turning off this cash cow is zip, zilch, and zero. This saga had an ending already in 1983 and another in 2005. Those had legitimate finality. Time will tell if this one, and its willy-nilly trajectories, will resonate strong enough or long enough to be of honored and revered significance.

ANTICIPATORY SET AND PRIOR KNOWLEDGE:

.Announcing his presence to the galaxy (and to us immediately in the yellow title scroll), a resurrected Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) has elevated the First Order into the Final Order with his Sith influence and the manufactured might of a colossal new fleet of Star Destroyers. His orders to his acolyte, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), are simply to “kill the girl.” That embattled female target remains Rey (Daisy Ridley), who has spent the undetermined amount of time since the Battle of Crait on the sidelines away from Resistance efforts to continue her Jedi training under the tutelage of General Leia Organa (the late Carrie Fisher).

LESSON #2: CONFRONTING FEARS— As she continues to grow in immeasurable power and skill, Rey endures visions abound of possible future fates that hinge on an eventual rubber match with the former Ben Solo. Matching a quintessential Star Wars motif, Rey has become the next emerging hero obligated to stare down the opposition with a will strengthened by summoned bravery. With “never be afraid of who you are” encouragement, Rey’s fears are hefty emotional obstacles made thoroughly compelling by Daisy Ridley’s lead performance, her best in the series. She may not be given the best scripted material (more on that later), but the actress squeezes every drop of rooting vulnerability out of this crucial plight.

Meanwhile, Rey’s supportive comrades and Resistance operatives, including Poe (Oscar Isaac), Finn (John Boyega), and Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), help her stay a step ahead of Kylo Ren and his masked squad of weaponized knights. Flanked by their handy droids, the tight crew zealously join Rey’s pursuit of items and information deemed vital for the fledgling revolutionaries being able to bring the fight to Palpatine instead of awaiting overwhelming decimation. The invisible ticking clock urgency to blow enemies away and prevent “all for nothing” disappointment sets the plot off on numerous (as in too many) busy-bodied and lightspeed races and chases with weakly-presented MacGuffins in the crosshairs.

LESSON #3: THE VALUE OF PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL SUPPORT— Long has Star Wars been about populating a heightened unity in support of influential individuals. Call it amassing an army or the intimate recruitment of trusted friends. For Rey, her verbalized chant is the powerful wish of “be with me.” It is answered with “we have each other.” Whomever stands behind the lead antagonist or comes to the aid of the lead protagonist does so with fervent dedication and multiplying motivation. True to this now ancient battle of dark versus light, not all assistance entering the fray comes in corporeal form.

MY TAKE:

J.J. Abrams has always been more than capable at delivering sheer adventure for the silver screen. His urge for kinetic energy is answered by the polished production teams. Borrowed from good buddy Steven Spielberg, two-time Oscar-winning production designer Rick Carter teamed with VFX concept artist Kevin Jenkins to create otherworldly arenas of flash and flair. J.J.’s trusty cinematographer Dan Mindel (five previous collaborations between them) captured the accelerated action set to every possible hymn, horn, and hurrah from retiring composer legend John Williams. Merging four decades of cues and themes with impeccable placement and push, Williams earned that 52nd career Oscar nomination. Flying through this fantastical world will always remain a rousing treat. The wonderment and magic is there.

That said, no amount of razzle-dazzle filling eyes and ears can cover up the glaring examples of questionable creativity and incomplete development enacted by Abrams and lead screenwriter Chris Terrio. Even in a third film meant to wrap up storylines, The Rise of Skywalker compels itself to introduce even more tangents and swerves. It has characters that answer questions with more questions and moments ringing with vague parables rather than stamping cemented mythology. The arcs for Ridley and Driver fare the best, but the periphery is scattered with superfluous glaze. The isolation elements of The Last Jedi slowed matters down to create tangible suspense. This overpacked trilogy capper favors sprinting set pieces instead. Moving at a rush does not automatically or always create one in return, magic be damned.

To explain more crosses into spoiler territory, but there are downright mistakes here that expose the distance between forming merely a sense of finality, albeit a forcibly telegraphed one, and garnering a true, earned, and fitting consummation. Gauge all of this ambition straight toward the many synonyms of “finality.” Measure this film for “decisiveness,” “totality,” “resolution,” and even “integrity.” You may find its force more thin than thick.

3 STARS

EXTRA CREDIT: 

(Image courtesy of Disney)

For the first time in quite a while (re: see every Marvel disc release in ten years), Disney has finally put out a stellar disc release worthy of full purchase ahead of merely a digital download of the feature itself. All it took was a legitimate and immersive behind-the-scenes documentary that actually showed the full filmmaking process. Little seven to fifteen minute featurettes can’t do that, no matter how many of them you pretend to pack on a second disc, not when half of them feel like sales pitches instead of documentation. 

The Rancor-sized beast feature in question is the feature-length The Skywalker Legacy documentary.  Running a rich 126 minutes, the documentary follows the film’s production process from pillar to post. The access and observational intimacy into the process is phenomenal. Best all, they merge little flashbacks to the making-of footage of the original trilogy, making that “legacy” in the title the perfect term.

Those callbacks are some of the best moments to savor in the documentary because they each pile on a full circle of reflection and completion. For example, to see and hear Anthony Daniels compare walking onto the Tunisian heat with uncertainty in 1976 to stepping off the set in the same costume for the last time over 40 years later as a legend is beyond a treat. It’s a moment of pure satisfaction. Moments and threads like that are echoed and repeated for Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and the memory of Carrie Fisher, especially how this production had to remember here while finding a way to go on without her.

Probably the best legacy moment captured in The Skywalker Legacy is when director J.J. Abrams brought composer John Williams on the set to film a first-time cameo. After Williams finishes shooting his bit, J.J. has the octogenarian look around the “junk” around his character’s workshop table. Each tarnished prop in view was purposely constructed to represent all 51 of Williams’ Oscar-nominated scores. That’s an incredible display of easter eggs that will drop your jaw and just a taste of the complete devotion and keen respect J.J. Abrams operates with the entire shoot.

The figure to watch (and being watched) the most is Abrams. His insistence, no matter the time, resources, and expense, to shoot with as many physical layers of creation and authenticity as possible is extremely commendable. From black bean quicksand and an alien festival to the wild energy of scene-stealing stunt coordindator Eunice Huthart, the massive volume of sets, costumes, vehicle rigs, and puppetry is off the charts.  The armies of people who train and put their heart, soul, and sweat into work that may only be seen mere seconds or minutes on-screen is dizzying. All the while, his skillful focus and constant smile make the pressures and expectations and returns look invisible.

Outside of the feature-length centerpiece, there are few more samples of blockbuster dessert. They come in the form of five smaller featurettes.  Even these still beat the Disney/Marvel entries of talking schills and put their focus on the stories behind the movie. 

One of the best of them is “Aliens on the Desert.” It’s a quick six minutes, but it outlines all of the set-up work in Jordan, where the visiting humans are the foreigners to the rugged vistas, that happens even before the circus-level main unit arrives. The scale of teamwork and practicality from the gear-loaded teams is something not normally shown for behind-the-scenes material that more often loves their headliners. The 14-minute “Pasaana Pursuit” feature is similar in its background focus.

If artistry gets you awestruck, you will enjoy the “Cast of Creatures” featurette. Like their shining moments in The Skywalker Legacy, the merger of makeup, engineering design, and puppetry have long made the fictional living things in Star Wars more tangible than any CGI power. This short is a tribute to the folks underneath the heavy gyros, foam, and rubber shells. The new droid D-O also gets a quick five-minute-and-change video on its character genesis of the more mechanical nature.

The final featurette is “Warwick & Son” and it’s the smile-inducing parting glance to the special features and nine-film saga. This snippet chronicles actor Warwick Davis returning to the Ewok role of Wicket and the chance to bring his aspiring actor son Harrison in to play his Ewok kin. Like the legacy circles earlier, to hear and see Warwick’s journey and sage maturity being celebrated is delightful. This caps a truly fantastic disc of special features.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#867)

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[lesbrarians]

Junkrat/Roadhog: Voyages Ch 13

(A Lot happens in this chapter. Also there are only two chapters left. Thank you for sticking with it so far!)

Title: Voyages

Characters: Junkrat, Roadhog

Rating: R

Summary:  After a rocky start and some ups and downs, Junkrat and Roadhog are officially partners, even if things haven’t progressed quite as far as Junkrat would like. With his treasure at the heart of their grandiose plans, they take their adventures overseas and leave their mark on the world, for better or worse. (Mostly for worse. They’re criminals.) Sequel to “Origins.”

---

Finding the omnic graveyard wasn’t too hard once they knew what to look for, after a bit more digging around. A few of the other triad members who weren’t entirely wary of the two of them spoke English, and Junkrat and Roadhog were able to get its location without arousing too much suspicion.

“This is a graveyard?” Junkrat had said when they staked the place out during the daytime, gesturing at the massive stone building in front of them. “Where’s the gravestones? Who keeps graves inside a building?”

“Robots, apparently,” Roadhog had replied.

Scoping the place out in advance was necessary in order to find an unobtrusive path in and out of the building. Junkrat couldn’t be sure, but he anticipated needing to make return visits to the omnic graveyard, so for once, they actively tried to find a way to enter without leaving behind any traces of their break-in. They focused on the back door, where the custodian took his smoke breaks, and rigged the door so that it wouldn’t automatically lock behind him after his final cigarette of the day. There was still the security cameras to worry about, but causing them to malfunction would only draw more attention to the forced entry. They just had to hope that there was no one on patrol at night, and that no one would bother sitting through the night’s security tapes without any signs of a disturbance to tip them off.

Besides, they were both thoroughly tired of working their way around security cameras.

Once night fell and they made it inside, they picked their way through the staff-only back corridors to the public viewing plots.

Compared to other locations like London, Beijing treated its omnics fairly well: well enough to devote a large, multi-storied building to their deceased, at any rate. It didn’t resemble a traditional graveyard, but then again, an omnic wasn’t a traditional living being. More of a morgue than an actual graveyard, the first floor’s plot was cold and clinical, with polished stacks of steel drawers that lined the walls and formed orderly rows, each with a computer interface mounted at its end. Studying it, Junkrat figured it had to retrieve and lower the drawers that were out of arm’s reach, and a glance upwards at the machinery on the ceiling confirmed his suspicions. It was a fitting final resting place for its metal inhabitants.

In lieu of headstones, plaques were affixed on the exterior of each drawer to identify the body contained within. Many had flowers attached next to them from well-wishers who had come to pay their respects. Junkrat tested out one of the handles on the drawers. It slid open easily, much to his initial surprise -- but then again, when a corpse never rotted, it stood to reason that a mourner would want to be able to continue to gaze upon their loved one’s face.

Junkrat tapped the sheet of glass that served as a barrier between him and the dead omnic within the drawer.

“You gonna tell me what your plan is now?” Roadhog asked.

“Sure thing, mate.” Junkrat balled his metal hand up into a fist. “Hijacking an omnic didn’t work out too well for us last time, now did it? I gotta better idea, this time. You and me, we’re gonna frankenstein together our own host bot for Kajura.” He wound his fist back and shattered the glass, pulling aside shards so he could get to the lifeless omnic. “Just call me Dr. Junkenstein!” He had briefly considered stealing a whole omnic, but he had no way of knowing the circumstances under which the omnic died. If he wanted to be absolutely certain that his project would be 100% functional, he was going to have to assemble it himself.

“What happened to not leaving a trace?” Roadhog watched as Junkrat crunched his way through the broken glass.

“Ah, there weren’t no flowers on this bloke’s grave.” He gestured at the thousands of drawers that surrounded them, stretching from floor to ceiling. “What’re the odds that someone’s gonna come in and visit it anytime soon? We keep all the glass inside the drawer, and no one has to know. Now come on, help me figure out what parts of it are still useful.”

As he’d suspected, many of the robots that they dissected had their own missing internal pieces. It looked like organ donors weren’t exclusive to the black market; omnics that had died in less sketchy conditions and been respectfully interred were legal donors themselves. It was an exercise in perseverance, figuring out which body parts were still functional and which could be successfully spliced together. There was also the aesthetic component of it: Junkrat wanted his construction to be as giant and awe-inspiring as possible, and he had no qualms about passing over a pair of perfectly functional, if rather scrawny, legs.

Time ticked on. The number of graves they robbed and the pile of body parts they were accumulating grew. They cut it close, finally leaving the facility near daybreak, once they’d ensured that there was no immediately apparent evidence of their crime. They had brought the chopper with them, both to transport their bounty and to make a quick getaway, if necessary.

They had just enough time to grab a few winks before they were due to meet Lee for the day’s work. She eyed the two clearly exhausted Junkers, sluggish and yawning, but didn’t press for explanations. They were able to assist in transporting a group of slave labor omnics, and that was all she really cared about.

That night, they began their new project. The room in the underground bunker that they had carved out as their own looked like a mad scientist’s lab, body parts strewn everywhere in a seemingly haphazard fashion. Roadhog tried to rearrange them but stopped when Junkrat snapped at him -- he had a system! It didn’t look like it, but it made sense to him, and as far as he was concerned, his organizational system was the only one that mattered in this operation. He was the brains behind the mechanics of building what essentially amounted to a killer robot. Roadhog was merely his assistant.

It wasn’t his dream workspace by any stretch of the imagination, but he was a flexible kind of guy. You had to be adaptable to survive the irradiated Outback. They got their hands on several portable industrial lights that made the underground room as bright as day, and black plastic tarps served as a makeshift carpet that shielded them and their cannibalised omnics from the ground’s moisture.

They settled into a routine of paying back their dues to the triad during the day and working on their project in their downtime. Junkrat consulted the mechanical handbooks they’d stolen from the library as he slowly grafted together his creation. There was a slight snag that he hadn’t anticipated, however. Roadhog, through no fault of his own, was proving immensely distracting to him.

Junkrat had burned off all his sexual frustration when he was angry over their botched mission in Korea, and again when he was so intensely focused on figuring out their next step. Now that his mind was his own once more, it was starting to creep back. There was just never enough time to do anything about it. By the time he could steal a kiss from Roadhog, they were both tired enough that it never went further than some fruitless groping.

Still, Roadhog kept sneaking into his mind at the most inopportune times.

They had persuaded an omnic to meet with the Boss and were escorting him to the premises. Kidnapped probably would have been the more accurate term, but none of them cared about semantics. Junkrat was supposed to be keeping an eye on the omnic in case it tried to escape from Roadhog’s iron grip, but his gaze kept shifting to the robot’s captor instead.

As he watched Roadhog, his body pulsed with heat that radiated from the centre of his chest. He felt like he was burning up, an unseen flame at the end of a fuse that was moments away from exploding.

“What’s the matter with you?” Lee asked, eyeing him.

“You okay?” Roadhog added, and a rush of affection surged through Junkrat at the concern in his voice.

“Yeah, m’all good, don’t worry about it!” He must have looked every bit as lovesick as he felt. He really needed to work this primal urge out of his system. He kept getting too far into his head, too deep into graphic fantasies about Roadhog, too consumed by that white hot need for intimate physical contact, and all of his unconsummated attraction was beginning to affect him to the point where it was outwardly visible. He was, as always, too easily swayed by his own emotions.

They led their quarry to the Boss. The triad members had cobbled together his makeshift throne out of odds and ends found on the streets and around their repurposed warehouse: long legs made out of wire spools and cinderblocks, a seat that looked like it had been ripped straight from a subway train, arms fashioned out of metal pipes. It was every bit as unnatural as the omnic that perched on it, one leg crossed over the other in a manner that was too human for Junkrat’s comfort.

Lee motioned for Roadhog to deposit their prisoner at the Boss’s feet. The two omnics looked at each other, but not as equals.

The sound of the Boss’s fans whirring was eerily similar to a sigh. “I suppose you know why you’re here, don’t you, Wire?”

“Boss, I-- Please, I just need a little more time,” Wire pleaded, his hands clasped earnestly in front of him.

“Two months, Wire. That was the deal.”

“Yes, yes, of course, I know--”

“It has been two months, Wire.”

“Please, just one more week, I’ll come into some money next Friday, I can pay it off then!”

The Boss shook his head, emitting a clicking noise of disapproval. “We gave you those ocular units in good faith, Wire. You do remember the terms of your contract, don’t you?”

If Wire had been a human, Junkrat was certain he would have been sweating bullets. “Y-yes, but Boss, I promise...”

“Your two months are up, Wire, and your debt is still unpaid. I’m sure you must understand, there’s really no other option but to repossess them.”

“No, no, Boss, I can get you the money! I need these eyes, I can’t function without them!”

“You leave me with no other choice, Wire. I can only be so generous, you see. I have a business to think about.”

Wire’s head darted back and forth, seeking an escape route as he panicked. Lee had already brandished her knife, fully prepared to pry off his faceplate and repossess his ocular units.

But Wire was bold, or perhaps just stupid; he tried to make a break for it regardless. Without even rising to his feet, the Boss raised his hand, and an arc of electricity zapped the escapee. The frame of Wire’s body shook violently before it went rigid and fell to the floor with a clank.

Junkrat and Roadhog glanced at each other, impressed in spite of themselves.

“A shame,” the Boss said, with another of those mechanical sighs. “I did hope that we’d be able to resolve this without a fuss, but no one ever wishes to cooperate, do they? Lee, if you’ll just take what we’re owed....”

---

“Alright, I’ll admit it,” Junkrat said once they had retired to their hideout for the night. “Some omnics got their uses.” He held up the central processing unit he had excised from the omnic skull he was bent over. “‘Sides from being spare parts, I mean. I can see that whole… zap thing bein’ useful.” He blew some dust out of the robotic brain and examined it. It looked sturdy and didn’t have any dings or dents like the one Lee had extracted earlier.

They had made significant progress on their project. With its mismatched parts and the Junkers’ aesthetic modifications (spikes, everything could use more spikes on it), it cut an imposing silhouette. Junkrat wasn’t quite ready to attempt to reanimate it, but he felt that it was time to assess the functionality of the brain they had acquired from the graveyard. He expected to be able to make it whirr to life in his hands, but try as he might, he couldn’t seem to activate it. Finally, he cracked the brain open to peek at its inner workings, only to find that it had corroded from lack of use -- and he had been sure to choose a recently deceased omnic as his brain donor. Apparently they deteriorated at an extremely rapid rate.

Junkrat swore and sat back on his haunches. “Change of plans, ‘Hog,” he said. “Looks like we’re gonna need to get our brain from a live omnic, so it’s all fresh and juiced and ready to go when we put it in Junkenstein.”

“I thought you were Dr. Junkenstein,” Roadhog said.

“I am!”

“So it’s Junkenstein’s Monster, not Junkenstein.”

“Mate, I’m makin’ it. It’s mine. I can call it whatever the fuck I want, and I want it to have my name. Its name is Junkenstein, my name is Junkenstein, case closed.”

“I’m not calling you Junkenstein.”

“Fair enough.” He admired his handiwork. “Still, just look at this thing, it’s a beaut. And they said I’d never amount to anything! Anyway, real live omnic brain. Where’re we gonna get that?”

“Think I might got a contender.” Junkrat waited for Roadhog to elaborate. “Who were we just talking about?”

Junkrat had to think about it. “Junkenstein?” He wrinkled his brow in confusion before comprehension dawned on him. With a wicked grin, he mimed zapping Roadhog with the outstretched palm of his hand. “The Boss!”

“The Boss,” Roadhog agreed.

---

Of all the criminal things Junkrat and Roadhog had done together, planning an assassination was a first. It was something new. Different. Exciting.

“Okay, but the freak’s got all his goons swarmin’ the place, can’t exactly just waltz on in all casually. Pretty sure that’d attract some attention -- he’d be gone by the time we took out everyone on the way to him.”

“We need the element of surprise,” Roadhog said.

Junkrat grinned at him. “We’re good at that.” Subtlety may not have been their strong suit, but they were very good at scaring people with unexpected assaults. They liked to enter with a bang, an expression which Junkrat took literally more often than not. It made a statement.

They camped out on the rooftop of the warehouse. The view was a little dingy from the permanent layer of filth that had accumulated on the skylight windows, but they were still able to easily see everything that occurred below.

“Wish we had some kinda mic,” Junkrat said. He pressed his hands and the tip of his nose to the dirty pane of glass, as if flattening himself against the window would help him hear better.

“Wouldn’t be able to understand them even if we did,” Roadhog said.

Junkrat turned his head to look at him, his long nose smudged with dirt. “Good point.” He looked back down at the scene unfolding below them, with the Boss addressing what must have been fifty triad members circled around him. “They gotta be wrappin’ it up soonish, don’t they? Not like they all sleep here. Just some of them, by the looks of it.” As far as he could tell, the Boss rarely left the room to visit the rest of the warehouse, but there were a handful of sleeping bags near the makeshift throne that likely belonged to the more devout followers.

There was a visible commotion below that made both Junkrat and Roadhog perk up with interest. Apparently one of those followers had said something the Boss didn’t agree with. The omnic grabbed the hapless gang member by the scruff of his collar, the palm of its other hand already sparking with electricity.

The Boss was tall, significantly taller than the vast majority of his gang. To drag the offending man close to his face in a sufficiently intimidating fashion, he had to very nearly bend over double.

He promptly dropped the man and straightened up with alarming alacrity. In one swift jerk that would have broken any organic being’s neck, his head snapped back at an unnatural angle to stare at the ceiling -- directly at Junkrat and Roadhog.

“Eyes in the back of his head! Eyes in the back of his head!” Junkrat scrambled away from the skylight, caught off guard.

There was a bang as one of the triad members shot at them, and one of the panes of glass shattered. Junkrat peered over the edge. Only a few of the gang members had guns, not expecting to be ambushed in the safety of their own hideout.

“So much for the element of surprise,” Roadhog murmured.

“Eh, it was worth a shot.” He climbed to his feet and hefted his grenade launcher. “Now’s my time to shine!” He cackled maniacally as he stood near the edge of the broken windowpane and let loose with an erratic barrage of grenades. He was a lousy shot, but who needed to aim when you had bouncing projectiles? Besides, his rooftop position meant that he had a leg up on the opposition -- well, maybe just one.

He popped the rack off the frag launcher to reload, and if he hadn’t been high on adrenaline, he would have thought to step back from the ledge and out of view. But he was careless and out of his mind, a still target for the Boss, whose electrifying ability reached farther than Junkrat had anticipated.

The bolt of electricity arced skyward and shocked him. His every muscle locked in place as the current coursed through him, lighting every nerve in his body on fire. The white hot pain ended as suddenly as it struck him, leaving behind the smell of singed flesh where the bolt of electricity had burned a hole in his shorts -- he was gonna need another patch -- and an intense buzzing sensation, as if his very being was trying to vibrate onto another plane of existence. “Hah!” he managed to spit out once he recovered enough to speak, stumbling forward. He was barely conscious of his moving limbs, which felt strangely disconnected from his body, both flesh and prosthetic alike. “Takes more than a shock to stop m--” He staggered off the lip of the skylight and tumbled to the ground.

It wasn’t the first time he’d fallen from such a height; their fleeting moment of going legit swiftly came to mind. It was the first time he’d been so disoriented during the plummet downward, however, and he landed less gracefully than usual. He tested his limbs. Nothing broken. Good. There was a resounding thud behind him and a faint noise of pain.

“You okay?” Roadhog said, having immediately jumped after him, consequences be damned.

Junkrat turned to look at him. “Never been better!” he said, giving Roadhog his sunniest smile. It wasn’t a complete lie: he was still smarting with pain and he was sure his extremities were going to be tingling for days, but he was still feeling remarkably upbeat about their current situation. Which was good, given the group of incensed triad members advancing on them.

“Good.” Hook in one hand and scrap gun in the other, Roadhog charged in front of him, his artillery spray tearing a hole in the crowd of gang members. One of them made the fatal mistake of going in for close quarters combat. Roadhog lashed out with a left hook that stunned his victim, then snagged him by the neck with the actual hook that was still clenched in his fist. He flung the man to the ground and snapped his neck with one vicious stomp.

“Hot,” Junkrat muttered to himself, hand drifting to the front of his shorts to palm himself.

Something whizzed past his head while he was zoned out, and he forced himself back to reality. He could touch himself all he wanted later -- although he would have preferred it if Roadhog was the one doing the touching. Right now, he needed to shake off his persistent desire for Roadhog long enough to get their prize.

He pulled his RIP-tire off his back and planted it on the ground, steadying it with one foot. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he announced, “my greatest creation!” No one in his impromptu audience seemed to hear him, let alone bothered to respond. Junkrat frowned. “What a bunch of inconsiderate wankers.” He revved up his RIP-tire and sent it careening into the crowd. They had no time to scatter before it exploded, sending limbs and chunks of flesh flying while the considerably more intact tire bounced away unscathed.

Junkrat ran to retrieve his tire, then joined up with Roadhog, grenade launcher at the ready. Chaos ran supreme in the warehouse, which was filled with the sounds of gunfire, small explosions, and the unintelligible Mandarin of the Boss’s shouting. Junkrat laughed and gave a whoop of delight. “I feel so alive!” he shouted over the kabooms of another volley of grenades.

He didn’t notice the Boss’s hand sparking with electricity again until Roadhog yanked him out of the line of fire. “You won’t be alive if you don’t pay attention!”

“Roight, roight, sorry!” Even as he focused on repelling the gang members, Junkrat kept one eye on the Boss. He still felt not completely present in his skin, although that sensation was fading with every minute that passed. Still, he’d prefer to not relive the experience of being electrocuted. Once was enough for him.

It became apparent that the Boss needed to recharge after each electrical discharge, which bought them some time to thin out the horde further.

“Get him,” Roadhog grunted, yanking a man close with the chain of his hook and blowing his head off, “after the next one.”

Junkrat eyed the Boss. He wasn’t entirely confident in his abilities to bring down an omnic of that size with his own hands. “Might need yer help takin’ him down, big guy. Give me a nudge when I say so?”

Junkrat turned his attentions to the Boss himself, a direct challenge. Roadhog could handle the rest of the mob by himself for the time being; he’d come equipped with a few cans of hogdrogen, and they’d eliminated the gang members who had been wielding guns. He focused on closing the distance between him and the Boss as much as possible, and when the omnic raised his right hand, Junkrat shouted, “Now, ‘Hog!”

Roadhog whipped his hook at the Boss’s leg just as his hand began to spark and jerked the length of chain backwards. The omnic’s leg flew out from under him, and his hand whirled back to steady himself. The bolt of electricity shot to the ceiling.

It was enough to knock him off-kilter, and that was all Junkrat needed. He was on top of the omnic in a matter of seconds, a jackal ready to devour a carcass. He grinned down at the Boss, eyes wild.

Junkrat wasn’t a physical fighter. He had never won a fistfight in his life and did everything in his power to weasel out of them when he pissed off the wrong people. He was scrawny and malnourished, and even with all of his height, he was easily outweighed and overpowered by the other Junkers. He’d learned from an early age to fight with his smarts, with clever contraptions and homemade projectiles that he could launch from afar. He planted traps, he set explosives, he fired long-range grenades, anything to keep his distance from physically stronger adversaries. He’d only started venturing closer since joining forces with his bodyguard. He was comfortable with the knowledge that Roadhog would protect him, and that emboldened him when it came to approaching people who could very well snap him in half.

He wasn’t a physical fighter. Sure, he had freaked out and thrown a panicked punch before, but he never expected to actually hurt his opponent. He never planned to lash out physically: whenever he struck out his fist, the intention was always to get someone away from him. It was a haphazard form of self-preservation, a last-ditch attempt to put some distance between him and people who wanted to see him dead.

He wasn’t a physical fighter.

He’d had no idea it could feel so good. There was a certain heady rush that came with bashing in someone’s jaw with the full force of your metal arm. It felt good to be on top.

“What-- do you want?” The Boss’s voice was venomous but stilted and staticky, and Junkrat took a perverse pleasure in the realisation that he had likely damaged its voice box.

“Yer not gettin’ me monologuing, if that’s what yer tryin’ to do,” he said with a snort of laughter. “I might be an evil Australian bomber, but that ain’t me style.” He pulled out the crowbar he had hung off his belt in preparation for this moment. “Don’t mind me, just borrowin’ yer brain for a li’l pet project of mine.” He began prising up the Boss’s face plate.

“That-- I believe the human term for that is-- ‘fucked up.’”

“Probably,” Junkrat agreed. “Don’t care.” He wrenched the omnic’s face off. He could see its eyeballs moving and he shivered. “Now, that’s fucked up.”

A horrific sound came from the Boss’s voice box.

“Shut up and hold still, yer makin’ this harder than it has to be.” Junkrat had practised on one of the omnic skulls from the graveyard. He knew exactly how to extract the central processing unit from the omnic’s skull. It was just considerably more difficult to do it with his test subject groaning and attempting to escape. The Boss’s metal frame didn’t have the dexterity necessary to buck Junkrat off of its chest, and its shattered jaw was affecting its ability to function. “Hooley dooley, yer a feisty one.” He dug his elbow into the Boss’s throat, further restricting its movement and vocalisations.

He paused in the middle of unscrewing a component, contemplating. “Can ya even function without a brain? Like if I take this out, do ya die, or what? I mean, I’m killin’ ya anyway, just wanna know if I gotta do more work after this.”

All that came out of the Boss’s voice box was the discordant crackle of static as it was slowly crushed by the weight of Junkrat’s elbow. Junkrat shrugged and went back to work. It was a delicate process and he had more important things to worry about than the Boss’s fate. Once Junkrat’s dirty work was done, it was likely that the core in its chest wouldn’t be able to keep pistoning for much longer, with no central processing unit to send directives to the rest of its body.

He held the extracted brain up in the air with a triumphant “hah!” A green light still glowed on the top of it; as long as they installed it within the next few days, they would be golden. Project Junkenstein would be a tremendous success.

“Got it?” Roadhog said.

“Yeah, I--” Junkrat looked up at Roadhog. The front of his sweater and half of his gas mask was spattered with blood, and his chest heaved with exertion. That same surge of lust swelled over him, and he faltered as his breath hitched in his chest.

Another gunshot rang out, and Junkrat was jerked aside so sharply that he could feel his brain knocking around his skull. A straggler had found one of her dead friends’ guns and was emptying the magazine in their general direction, her hand unsteady as she clutched at a gaping wound in her side.

“Let’s go,” Roadhog said. He sucked down a breath of hogdrogen and flung his hook at the woman. The gunfire ceased.

Junkrat nodded and sprang to his feet. “Got what we came for, no use stickin’ around.” He looked down at the Boss’s corpse and its mangled head. It didn’t seem right to leave the rest of his body in such pristine condition. “Hang on, got one last thing to do.” He used the tip of his screwdriver to carve a crude smiley face on the Boss’s chest. He thought the X’d out eyes really drove the whole dead point home. “Beautiful,” he said, grinning every bit as wide as the face he had just etched out. “Alright, I’m done, we can go now.”

They left the warehouse through the front door, leaving a bloody massacre in their wake.

[justsomebucky]

Flashes (Part 1)

Summary: Soulmate AU. “The fault, dear Brutus is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” - William Shakespeare (Julius Caesar)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader

Word Count: 1,783

Warnings: language, fluff, wishful thinking, angst, sadness, borderline depression, sarcasm, did I mention language? might be hard to read for lonely hearts like me.

A/N: Well, I did it…at least I tried. The lovely @minervaem challenged me (sort of) to do an angsty story, so here we go. I’m warning you now, it’s not gonna be pretty. Anyways, it’s only four parts, so only pre-existing permanent tags will be added to this story. Reminder: If you want to be removed from the permanent tag list you need to msg me! Sorry in advance. There’s four parts to this story.

Part 1 - 2 - 3 - 4

Your eyes widened as you stared at your best friend, Natasha Romanoff. You could tell she was having another flash, and that this one was making her very happy. She stared, unseeing, with eyes glazed over just a bit. A smile formed on her pretty face.

Natasha blinked once, twice, then was back with you, back from wherever she’d been in the vision.

That’s what flashes were – visions.

You’d never had one personally, but from what you could tell, it was like having virtual reality goggles. You could see, feel, and fully experience the entire thing as if you were there.

The fact that everyone else around you had already had at least one flash in their lives made you feel like an odd ball, even more than your personality already did.

Natasha had a vision at least once a week. Sometimes they made her sad because she still didn’t know who her mystery soulmate was, but mostly, she got to experience new adventures, or feel elated for a minute or so.

Today had been your first day off from work in a while, so the two of you were laying on the floor of her apartment, just being lazy. Rain battered the window pane, but you didn’t mind. You always liked the rain.

“That was…awesome,” she breathed out, her smile still present. “This time I was at an archery competition. I’m pretty sure it was the Olympic trials or something, because the logo was everywhere. That means my soulmate is a professional athlete!”

The only thing that would have made her happier was if he was a professional billionaire.

So anyways, they tell you growing up that three things were proven facts regarding these visions.

The first is that every person on earth has one, and only one, soulmate, and when your visions start, you will see glimpses of that person that will help lead you to each other. It could be street names, logos like Natasha saw, or even a tattoo or unique birthmark.

The second is that not every person’s soulmate is guaranteed to survive long enough to meet them.

The third is that this bond cannot be broken, except by death.

Since you never had a vision in your entire life, you concluded that your soulmate had died a long time ago, before the visions would have been able to start. It’s different for everyone, but like puberty, they usually start in happening your teenage years.

Everyone around you would tell you to cheer up, that it wasn’t certain, that they could still start, but you didn’t really put any faith or hope into the idea.

No, you were sure you were meant to lead a solitary life.

A soulmate passing away before one could meet them wasn’t all that uncommon. Your own aunt had flashes, but one day they had suddenly stopped. She’d been able to piece together enough clues, only to track her soulmate down at his actual funeral. They had to lock her in a mental hospital after that.

Not everyone takes the news as well as you have.

“That’s great,” you replied, nudging Nat’s arm gently. “Archery is cool. I bet his arms are really muscular.”

“I bet his whole body is,” she giggled. “I bet he’s just a freaking dream.”

You were waiting for it, for the moment she remembers you don’t have a soulmate. It happened every time someone decided to pity you, and it only got worse the older you got. You cringed slightly.

There it was.

Natasha’s bright grin fell, and she sat up a little to look at you. “Oh, Y/N, I’m so sorry. I don’t mean to go on about it. I…I never know what to say to you when this happens.”

“Say anything but you’re sorry,” you told her, forcing a smile to your face. “I promise, I’ve come to terms with it, Nat. I want you to be happy. It’s exciting to see it happen, to see your reactions. It’s like I’m living vicariously through you. If your soulmate’s out there, we’re gonna find him, okay?”

“Okay.” She offered you another one of her brilliant smiles, and this time, you didn’t have to fake your own…hers were that contagious.

“So, let’s think about the clues from your visions so far. Male, blond hair, archery, Olympic trials…I bet you could find a list of the competitors on the internet and narrow it down.”

“You’re so right!” Nat stood up, reaching her hand down to haul you to your feet, too. “Come on. I’m dying to see if I can figure this out tonight!”

Once you were on your feet, she dragged you over to her desk and flopped down in front of her laptop.

It took a couple of hours, but Natasha managed to narrow down her archer soulmate’s identity to one of three people, two of which were from this country and one from overseas.

While you hadn’t been lying earlier, and you really did like seeing her happy, this stuff still weighed down on you, and you could feel yourself slipping again. You told her gently that you needed to get home.

Though, really, what did you have to go home to? An empty apartment, and the reminder that you were alone in this world.

Greeaaattt…

Besides, while you were standing over Nat’s shoulder watching her research her future husband on her laptop, you had an idea.

Maybe there was someone out there, who, like you, hadn’t gotten the flashes when they should have started. Maybe, maybe, maybe there was hope for you yet, sitting out on the internet in a nice, neat little article. You wanted to search this out on your own, though, just in case what you found wasn’t what you were looking for.

You went back to your apartment and sat down on the couch, pulling a pillow over your lap and setting your open laptop down. You immediately pulled up Google in your browser.

Soulmate flashes after teenage years

Over 8 million results, none of which looked helpful. Maybe if you tried re-wording it.

Haven’t had soulmate flashes yet

This resulted in page after page of sob stories about soulmates that died, or people who were forever alone. Yeah, you knew that already, Google. You backspaced that one, too.

Late start to soulmate flashes

Ah, this looked a little better. You leaned up a little, reading through the summaries of each link. At the bottom of page one, you saw a link that said ‘Haven’t had your flashes yet? There could be a good reason.’

“Try me,” you muttered, clicking the link.

A new page opened up which, much to your relief, didn’t look like the homepage of a wackadoo. At the top was a collage of people hugging – just some stock photos that were poorly photoshopped. That wasn’t a warning sign just yet.

Your eyes wandered further down the page. Apparently, there was a man in New York City who called himself Vision (Yes, that was his actual legal name now), and he was claiming that he could help someone with their delayed flashes. Okay, so the name was a little bananas, but maybe it was just a business title. Bozo the Clown wasn’t that guy’s real name, either.

“The number one reason why someone may not have had flashes yet is obvious and painful,” you read aloud. “One’s soulmate might have died or become incapacitated before a flash-receiving age was reached. Since one-half of the connection is now gone, the other will never experience the flashes.”

Well, no shit. You knew that. Everyone knew that. Even Google knew that, about eight million times over.

“But, another reason exists for delayed flashes,” you continued, your voice echoing around your apartment. “There is a stigma surrounding this theory. Many suggest that it is wrong to get one’s hopes up with so little chance at success. However, as someone who experienced delayed flashes firsthand, I can assure you that the theory is valid.”

You scoffed. “Great. A theory is valid? How can a theory be valid? Wouldn’t that push it into the factual category? Maybe he is a wackadoo.”

The next section on the website instructed visitors to watch a short video of Vision explaining his so-called valid theory. You clicked play, expecting to see him, but he only did a voiceover while you watched stock footage of happy couples. He was really getting on your nerves with this Sandals resort-type crap at this point.

“Are you one of the one-percenters? Are you one of lonely few who have yet to realize the probability of a soulmate? If so, you have come to the correct website.”

“Wackadoo,” you muttered.

“While some might consider you to be abnormal, or look down on you with pity, there is still a chance for you, past the normal flash age, to realize your soulmate if they are still alive.”

“That’s a hell of an ‘if’ there, buddy.” This guy was unbelievable. Was he just preying on the lonely, the desperate?

“I, myself, had not experienced my own soulmate flashes until later in life. My darling soulmate, whose name is Wanda, first came to me in my dreams. Then one day, while I was having breakfast, I experienced my first flash. It was as if I was really there with her. I saw her red hair and her leather jacket first. Then her hand reached for mine, and I saw a unique tattoo on her skin. From that one flash, I was able to identify my soulmate.”

Well, then maybe there was a smidgen of hope for you yet…

“How did I get myself to that point? I simply wanted it so much that it happened. I willed it into existence. I went through some exercises in my mind, ones that I can teach you, free of charge. You simply have to be brave enough to experience them, embrace the unknown, and come to terms with what fate does or does not offer in the end. If you are brave enough, if you are open-minded enough, come meet with me in my office in midtown, and I can help you.”

The video ended, and you were left feeling slightly winded somehow. Could you contact a nutball like him and still look at yourself in the mirror?

What if you got your hopes up, like literally everyone had warned sternly against, and ended up even more depressed about it?

Wasn’t it worth the risk, though? If you didn’t take a chance, you’d never know for sure.

The thought of finally, finally belonging to someone…it sent chills down your spine just thinking about it.

You were gonna do this.

Part 1 - 2 - 3 - 4

perma tags (not currently adding for this story): @sprinkleofhappinessuniverse @minaphobia @amrita31199 @aenna-4 @ailynalonso15 @psingh97 @sofiadiaz04 @mirkwood—princess @lilasiannerd @coffeeismylife28 @capdanrogers @melissalovesmusicyay @hollycornish @northscorpio @gallifreyansass @ancchor @vaisabu @alurea-actually @hailey-a-s @buckyswinterchildren @cleanslates @minervaem @blackcoffeeandgreenteaforme @winterboobaer @kjs-s @hardcorehippos @jay-birdbitchez @rchlnwtn @seeyainanotherlifebrotha @aeillo @whyisbuckyso @crownie-sr @neverbeforgotten @givemethatgold @notsoprettykitty @punk-rock-princess-626 @dracsgirl @giannastoico @cosmic-avenger @rockintensse @angelicshinigami @heytherepartner @simplyme8308 @ria132love @dolthiac @feelmyroarrrr @assbutt-son-of-a-bitch @johnmurphys-sass @wishingtobelost @nolaimagines

Story tags: None this time. (It’s so short! Sorry!)

[jillmckenzie1]

A Man of Focus

Let’s begin with something that’s indisputable. On April 1, 2009, Alfonso Hernandez and Michael Edmonds thought it would be funny to shoot a dog dead. Why? All cruelty has ever needed to flourish is an opportunity. In this case, Hernandez and Edmonds saw a yellow Labrador puppy outside a home. They shot the dog with a .357 Magnum pistol, then stood over her body, laughing.

In addition to being evil, this was a seriously dumb move. The puppy’s name was Dasy. Her guardian was Marcus Luttrell, a SEAL team member awarded the Navy Cross for heroism in combat while serving in Afghanistan. He was the only survivor of a particularly vicious firefight. Dasy was given to Luttrell to help with the healing process. Her name is an acronym for the names of the men Luttrell served alongside.

Armed with a pistol, Luttrell snuck up on Hernandez and Edmonds. He took aim. They saw him, hopped in their car, and fled. Undeterred, Luttrell pursued them in his pickup. Across three counties. For 40 miles at speeds approaching 100 miles per hour. During the chase, Luttrell was on the phone with a 911 operator, and he was quoted as saying, “You need to get someone out here because if I catch them, I’m going to kill them.”*

Does that sound a little familiar? This is how myths are born. A real event happens. A storyteller takes the core event and runs with it. Yet a great deal of our modern mythology is found in movies, and it doesn’t all have to do with the Avengers. One of the latest additions to American film mythology, 2014’s John Wick, told the story of a grieving widower who received a preposterously cute puppy as the last gift from his wife. Assorted scumbags kill the puppy and take the widower’s car. Did I mention that the widower is a legendarily lethal assassin? The film wasn’t just a hit—it cemented itself as a benchmark, a necessary addition to action cinema. Now, the maybe-or-maybe-not conclusion of the trilogy, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, has arrived. Holy hell, has it ever.

All three films are tightly plotted together, and in order to understand what the heck has happened, you need to either have seen the preceding two films or read this handy recap.

In the first film, Wick (Keanu Reeves) was able to get revenge for the death of his puppy Daisy by killing a lot of bad people. When John Wick: Chapter Two gets going, Wick is immediately dealing with the theft of his car. He’s also reluctantly drawn into a plot by Santino (Riccardo Scamarcio), a crook with dreams of ascending to the High Table, the ruling council of a global criminal syndicate. Things went sideways. Wick ended up killing the hell out of Santino. Unfortunately, he did this at The Continental, a hotel for assassins and safe ground. “Conducting business” is a no-no at The Continental, and Wick conducted business extremely enthusiastically.

So, does Wick get a slap on the wrist and a stern lecture from Winston (Ian McShane), the manager of The Continental? He does not. Instead, Wick has been declared excommunicado. There’s a $14 million price on his head, and every killer is crawling out of the woodwork just to take their shot.** This is where Chapter Three begins. Wick is a pretty sharp cookie, and he has both a short-term and long-term plan.

The short-term plan is to brutally kill anyone who comes after him, and he does so hilariously at the New York Public Library. The long-term plan is to head for Casablanca, track down The Elder—the head of the High Table, and make amends. To do that, he’ll need to first ask The Director (Anjelica Huston) for help getting him out of the United States. Next, he’ll need to find Sofia (Halle Berry), a disgruntled former associate, and ask for her help. Sounds like a cakewalk, right?

While all of Wick’s globetrotting and head smashing is going on, the High Table is making its own moves. They have sent out The Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) to punish everyone involved with helping Wick in the past. Both Winston and The Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) are informed they have seven days to relinquish control of their empires. The Adjudicator has the muscle to enforce this, as she’s brought along Zero (Mark Dacascos), a sushi chef/ninja who’s also a massive fan and rival of John Wick.

These days, action/adventure movies can be broadly separated into two categories. The first is FX heavy, consisting of your MCU and Star Wars films. By utilizing CGI, filmmakers can bring us everything from Daisy Ridley jumping over a TIE fighter to Josh Brolin throwing a moon at Robert Downey Jr. There’s an artistry to CGI that, when utilized by the right people, the results can be spectacular. Equally spectacular is the second category, films that lean hard into stunt choreography. These films are like a dance, requiring intense precision and training.

John Wick: Chapter 3 is directed by Chad Stahelski, one of the most talented and innovative stunt professionals working today. Watch how he shoots action sequences. Instead of dizzying edits, we can see long takes and appreciate the extensive training his cast and crew went through. His decades of experience brought us well-shot and innovative action scenes involving gunplay, knife fights, horse-fu, motorcycle chases, death by book, and a dog running up a wall to maul a luckless henchman.*** There is an exhausting amount of action here. Stahelski has also made a genuinely gorgeous-looking film. He’s got a knack for arresting imagery, everything from neon reflected in rainy streets to golden sand dunes. It all comes together to feel operatic, bigger than a regular action movie. I loved it, and my only criticism with his direction is that the pacing occasionally feels a little sluggish.

Returning writer Derek Kolstad, along with co-writers Shay Hatten, Chris Collins, and Marc Abrams, have delivered unto us a good news/bad news scenario. The good news is that Parabellum very nearly hits the sweet spot between the intensity of the first film and the fascinating world-building of the second. We learn more about the Continental, the High Table, and even a little of the origins of Wick himself. The script also feels like a meditation on fame and how it feels. Everywhere Wick goes, people recognize him and want a piece of him, and in the end, he just wants people to leave him the hell alone so he can grieve for his wife and play with his dog.

The bad news is that as much as we learn more about the world of John Wick, we don’t learn as much about how Wick and the other characters feel about it. During the first film, Keanu Reeves digs into a meaty performance—one of the best of his career. Ever had a loved one pass away, and while you’re trying to deal with their loss, the world keeps intruding? That’s what the first film is really about—a genuinely evil man who’s given a possibly unearned chance to redeem himself, and how that redemption falls apart. At this point in the series, so much has been taken away from John Wick. If an action scene had been trimmed and a bit more time had been devoted to emotional combat, we might have had a film that delivered an even bigger impact.

There’s never a moment with the cast where I was disappointed. Laurence Fishburne’s booming hamminess. Ian McShane’s worn-out elegance. Mark Dacascos’ nerdy enthusiasm. It’s all delightful. Anjelica Huston shows up for a minute as the sly head of a school for killers, and improv legend Jason Mantzoukas even appears briefly. I thoroughly enjoyed Halle Berry as Sofia, and she’s able to bring something real to a role that was a little smaller than I would have liked. Despite having won an Academy Award, I think Berry has never quite gotten the respect she deserves as a performer. Here, she’s put in serious tactical training, dog training, and on top of all that, she delivers an emotionally touching moment.

If the John Wick franchise is an ever-expanding wheel of bizarre rituals and crazy characters, Keanu Reeves is the still center. I’d love to get a look at the script, as I suspect he has no more than 200 lines of dialogue. It’s unfortunate that the kind of acting that Reeves is doing here will go largely unappreciated. Other actors would be tempted to go big. Reeves keeps things locked down, and his legendary blankness is actually a mask of professionalism hiding a grieving man in search of a little order. Consider an early scene located at the library. Wick has gone there to retrieve some necessary supplies hidden in a book, along with a photo of his wife. An assassin takes a shot at him. They fight, and Wick uses the book as a viciously effective weapon. Once the combat has finished, Wick takes the time to put the book back exactly where it goes. That moment tells you everything you need to know, and Reeves sells it perfectly.

Is the character of John Wick really based on Marcus Luttrell and the horrific night of April 1, 2009? I don’t know. While I’ve read in some places that he was an inspiration, I suspect it doesn’t really matter. What matters in a myth isn’t necessarily its origins. Strip away the guns, blades, and mayhem, and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum feels like an opera, myth, or folk tale. Heightened themes, a story told through violence, and a man forced to confront what he truly is.

    *As a fast side note, Hernandez and Edmonds both pled guilty to animal cruelty. Hernandez got two years in state prison with a $1000 fine. They went a little easier on Edmonds, as he testified against his buddy and was sentenced to five years of felony probation.

**One of my favorite things about this franchise is the idea that New York alone is home to something like 600,000 professional killers. Think about that next time you stiff your server on the tip.

***This may look like a CGI pooch, but trust me when I tell you it ain’t. Click here to learn more about the stunt and the Very Good Boy who handled it.

from Blog https://ondenver.com/a-man-of-focus/

[hoursandwitheringflowersinspo]

APPLICATION FOR: LILY EVANS, 6TH YEAR GRYFFINDOR

full name: Lily Marie Evans, although her mother was incredibly keen on naming her Lily Kathleen, which her father wasn’t particularly happy about (as he’d had a neighbour called Kathleen growing up, who wasn’t a very nice woman). After a lot of arguing, they settled on Marie, as it was sweet and simple like their oldest daughter’s name: Petunia Jane.

nationality: British.

birthplace: Lily was born in St. Mary’s Hospital, in Manchester, after a 13 hour labor. Unlike most children, who are born before they reach full-term, Lily was born two weeks after her mother’s due date and was actually supposed to have been delivered at home, like her sister had been. Unfortunately, Violet Evans’ midwife was away when the woman went into labor and the safest alternative was to go to the hospital.

resides: Currently, the Evans family lives in Cokeworth, something that Lily absolutely despises because of what happened last year. Knowing that Severus is within walking distance of her is something that makes the ginger uncomfortable, mostly because she can’t bring herself to speak to him anymore, even if she misses the Slytherin more than she’ll ever admit. They resided in Manchester until Lily turned five, after which they moved because of Violet’s job as a primary school teacher.

wand: 10¼” Willow, Phoenix Tail Feather, Swishy, Good for Charms.

“Willow is an uncommon wand wood with healing power, and I have noted that the ideal owner for a willow wand often has some (usually unwarranted) insecurity, however well they may try and hide it. While many confident customers insist on trying a willow wand (attracted by their handsome appearance and well-founded reputation for enabling advanced, non-verbal magic) my willow wands have consistently selected those of greatest potential, rather than those who feel they have little to learn”.

That, to me makes complete sense and I love that Lily’s canon wand wood fits with some of the headcanons I have for her. I absolutely adore the idea that she was this hurricane of a girl but, deep down, it would be illogical to assume that she has no insecurities because here she is, a teenager who has worked her butt off so she could be the best witch she could be, and people around her judge her abilities because of who her parents are. The boy who was supposed to be her best friend insulted her in the worst way possible. So, of course, Lily will have insecurities, and major ones at that, but heaven forbid she voices her concerns — in her mind, Lily needs to set the example and show everyone that she has earned her place in the Wizarding World.

"This is the rarest core type. Phoenix feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike."

I hope my choice for core doesn’t sound a bit cliché but, again, it fits what I believe to be my Lily beautifully. A girl with a strong personality, the ginger has a tendency to do whatever she very well pleases and generally dislikes it when people don’t do what she expects them to, so how ironic would it be that her wand was just like her? This wasn’t what I’d first envisioned for Lily’s wand core but now I can’t shake off the image of this little ginger trying to transfigure a goblet and her wand not quite seeing eye-to-eye with her, marking the beginning of a very amusing love/hate relationship between miss Evans and her wand.

socioeconomic status: Middle-Class. There were times, however, when life wasn’t all that easy for the Evans’ and that has greatly affected Lily’s views on money and how to properly spend it — Violet worked as a teacher, Harry as a struggling writer and when you have two little girls to feed, money was tight. Having witnessed her parents’ worries, Lily now believes that only the essential should be bought and while she does allow herself to go a little crazy on occasion (birthdays, both hers and her friends’ and Christmas), she most definitely is the type of girl to count her knuts.

        H O G W A R T S

owl results: Charms: O Defence Against the Dark Arts: O Herbology: E Potions: O Transfiguration: E Muggle Studies: O Care of Magical Creatures: E current classes: Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Transfiguration.

student functions: Charms Club, Prefect, Slug Club.

familiars: When she first visited Diagon Alley, Lily fell in love with an ugly little toad that she very loudly exclaimed was adorable; a frail, ill-looking being, but one she adored regardless. For weeks, the ginger carried the toad, named Rosie, everywhere but a few days before boarding the Hogwarts Express for the first time, Lily got into an argument with Petunia and the poor pet jumped out of the second-floor window (where the bedrooms were located) out of fear of the loud childish squeals on the Evans girls.

Needless to say, it didn’t survive its improvised trip and Lily was absolutely devastated. Seeing their little girl so sad, Harry and Violet offered to buy her something else come next school year. And that’s the story of how Lily Evans owns a moody cat named Lovely, a mix between a Ragdoll and a Somali, whose fur is a strange shade (that some could compare to vomit), eyes are an adorable blue, and who has a terrible tendency to bite anyone whose hair isn’t ginger. Since the animal is half-blind and can’t smell properly, Lily’s bright red hair is the only thing it uses to tell its owner apart.

        P E R S O N A L I T Y

patronus:

Footsteps echoed on the stone floor as she paced back and forth, the silence of the bathroom disturbed only by her movements and her occasional huffs; green eyes glaring at the Willow wand in her hand as if it were an enemy rather than a mere piece of wood. It was the end of her fifth year and Lily Evans had yet to produce a corporeal Patronus. To most, that would have been perfectly fine; they’d get it eventually and, ultimately, there was no point in rushing to master what many deemed a complex charm — in time, they’d get there. To the Gryffindor prefect, however, failure wasn’t an option and she was going to do it. Tonight. There was no doubt about it, she wasn’t simply going to let herself be behind the other people in her year: she was a brilliant, talented witch and there was no reason for her to not be as successful as her classmates.

Of course, hiding out in the prefect bathroom after curfew wasn’t exactly the classiest of options, nor was it the one that made her more comfortable (what would people think if they saw her in the hallways after dark?), but she was desperate. Grumbling to herself, teeth grazing gently over her bottom lip, Lily took the deepest of breaths, so deep that she felt dizzy, and lifted her wand. The tricky bit, she pondered as she gathered the courage to go ahead and cast the charm, was finding a suitable memory.

Life was filled with meaningless seconds, little bits of time that meant nothing, and they often made one forget about the moments that truly counted, the ones that were blissfully perfect. And even though she knew (of thought she knew) herself, Lily had no idea when she’d been her happiest.

Then, thinking back on times before potions, owls and magic, it struck her like lightning; almost forcing the young woman to close her eyes and watch as a scene unravelled behind her eyelids, leaving a taste of sweetness on her tongue and a warmth she’d forgotten she enjoyed inside her chest. Petunia.

Little toddler legs wobbled as she climbed onto a taller bed, gripping bedsheets to pull herself up; red locks of long hair falling over her eyes. A giggle pushed past Lily’s lips while the ginger prepared herself, leaning in to grip her slumbering sister’s shoulders and, fully aware that the older girl wouldn’t be pleased, shake her awake. It was the first hours of morning of December 24th 1964 and, as always, that meant that the Evans girls had an adventure planned: finding the Christmas presents their parents usually wrapped the evening before. Three year old Lily, all chubby arms and gleeful smiles, jumped slowly on her sister’s bed; being pushed down by Petunia whom wanted nothing but a few more minutes of peace, skillfully pinning the electric girl down and pulling her closer to her, forcing the youngest girl to lie her head on the pillow.

Still giggling, Lily turned to bury her face on Petunia’s blonde curls; voice barely a whisper as tiny fingers poked her sister’s stomach, hoping that the tickles would allow her to squirm away and tiptoe her way downstairs. With a loud laugh, the blonde shifted, beginning to tickle Lily and before they knew it, both girls were laughing at the top of their lungs, ignoring the creaking door and the head of auburn hair that peaked in, Violet too grinning at her daughters.

The traditional adventure was forgotten, but it didn’t matter because sleep soon took over the small bedroom; moonlight shining in through the window and casting a silver glow over the pale faces of the two little flowers who slept soundly, curled up in each other’s arms.

"Expectro Patronum!" Her voice was firm, her hand didn’t shake; something inside the young witch was strong, stronger than before, it didn’t matter that the memory left a weight in her chest that she couldn’t ignore — it was what she needed to force the light from the tip of her wand, a doe forming amongst silver smoke, tall and proud. Who would have known that happiness, to Lily, was times she couldn’t get back and a sister that she would always love? But the philosophical discussion that she knew she’d have later, after she went back to her dormitory and everyone slept around her, was quickly cast aside.

The doe had stopped before her, looking at the witch as if she stared in a mirror; something in the silvery animal’s body urged Lily forward, hand stretched out so she could stroke what she had produced. Yet, as pale skin moved to touch what was nothing but light, the doe vanished, leaving nothing but a dark bathroom and an amazed girl who wasn’t sure what to think.

Does are animals of grace and innocence; sweet and poised with big brown eyes that make one wish to approach them and yet it takes time for such an animal to allow you to move towards them. Lily, while she has the heart of a lioness and the fierceness of a mother bear protecting its cubs, is someone whose Patronus would surely be a nearly perfect portrayal of the person holding the wand. With a vague distrust of most individuals — one that comes only from being hurt over and over again by those who she held closest - and a knack for finding herself superior to everyone else, even if subconsciously, the redhead is so much like the female deer that her steps often mimic that light gracefulness that only does possess.

boggart:

All she could do was mentally curse herself, hand wrapped tightly around her wand as she prepared herself for what was to come. Damn her need to be an example, her eagerness to learn, her desire to see new things first hand! Sure, it wasn’t a problem most of the time but here she stood, weak-kneed and trying not to shake, about to come face-to-face (could she even call it that?) with a bloody boggart, having volunteered to go first. Honestly, Lily wasn’t afraid of the shape it would take as she was sure it’d be a giant butterfly or crashing waves – she could deal with that – but what if it were something else? These things were magic and magic wasn’t always predictable; she didn’t know what the outcome would be, had no way of properly controlling it. That thought alone forced Lily to take a deep breath, lips grazing her bottom lip compulsively as her free hand moved up to brush an irritating lock of red hair away from her face. She had to be concentrated, had to be sure of herself. Lily Evans wasn’t about to just embarrass herself in front of her friends and classmates. Not at all.

When the professor asked her if she was ready, all the witch could do was nod, trying to keep panic away from her pale face, clutching her wand tighter, arm already stretched out to immediately cast the charm that would end this experience, one she was ready to end before it’d even begun. The boggart, trapped inside a trunk, was released and suddenly all breath was drawn from her lungs and Lily couldn’t think, couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything but stare at the shocking image that transformed before her. There stood herself, a perfect copy of herself, or at least something keen to it. This Lily’s eyes were sad yet cold, her body was thin – dangerously so – and around her was nothing unusual. Still, the witch understood what it meant – this Lily wasn’t surrounded by her friends, the look in emerald-green eyes was one of pure and utter loneliness. Boggart Lily had no one. She was alone. And being so had broken something inside her, for she no longer laughed. There was nothing inside her, she was hollow. That was the scariest thing the redhead had ever seen in her sixteen years of life.

But oh, she wasn’t about to just let this image defeat her! Because she wasn’t this strange version of herself, no. She had people who loved her, she loved people, they were always there for her and she was always there for them – this wasn’t real and it would never, ever happen. Lily wouldn’t let it become a reality.

It took all her strength but, after what felt like an eternity, the Gryffindor managed to yell the ‘‘Riddikulus’ charm – voice wavering but wrapped in a sort of ferocity she didn’t know she had in her – watching the boggart transform into a clown version of the Prefect; a silly, amusing sight that managed to draw the softest of chuckles from swelling lips. Someone else, she wasn’t sure whom, took her place and Lily found herself sweating, hands shaking, vision blurry. Suddenly, everything made sense but she couldn’t bring herself to think about it, wishing only to ignore all that had happened. Lily Evans wasn’t alone and she wasn’t weak. She would never become what the boggart had showed her.

And yet the question rose in the back of her mind, nagging and cruel, almost mocking the witch as she asked the professor if she could be excused to use the restroom. What if?

Lily has never feared death as she has always known that pain in all of its many forms is only forced upon the living and she has never feared the departure of others — not truly — because she knows, in her heart, that they would be better off, in a twisted way. What she has always been scared off deep down, one of her biggest shames, is being alone. And that is her Boggart — herself, all alone.

It wasn’t always that, not at all, but after losing some of the people who were supposed to love her and never leave her? After her sister turned her back on her just because she was different? She’s felt loneliness, and it’s not something she wants in her future. It’s unthinkable to the ginger, mostly unknown and uncharted territory. The thought of having to live a life where there is no comfort, no one to lean on, no one to rely on… it terrifies Lily, petrifies her. The fact that she believes it to be a childish fear doesn’t help either, makes her embarrassed for how can someone like her, a good witch and a good person, be so deeply timorous of something that shouldn’t matter.

amortentia:

Lime ▬ for all the times she smelt it in her nan’s home → Johanne Evans passed away years ago but never has her granddaughter been able to erase the light smell of lime that was characteristic to her tiny cottage; a sweet home for a sweet woman who, having been a pediatric nurse for over forty years, had a knack for making children laugh. Always there for her girls no matter what, never once did she judge Lily when she spoke horribly of what James had done by the lake, or when she moaned about cheating during her Transfiguration O.W.L — she never stopped the redhead from complaining about her parents or crying over Petunia. Having been gone for about three years now, Lily can’t seem to shake off the grief and the longing for that very same shoulder she shed tears over so many times. And yet, even after losing her “rock”, her Amortentia is proof that Lily has and will always love the woman who placed her in her mother’s arms.

Basil ▬ for childhood summers spent with hands in dirt → It was never a coincidence that Violet Evans chose to name her daughters Petunia and Lily, she too having been named by her mother, Rose, who in turned was named by her own mother, Poppy. It’s not really known exactly where the tradition started but it always instilled a love for all things botanic in the Morrison family women - a love that was passed onto a certain green-eyed ginger. When she was young and carefree, Lily loved going outside with her mummy and help her take care of the little herb garden on their backyard — the smell of basil, her mum’s favourite, always remaining one she always recalled with a feeling of fondness and melancholy.

Bergamot Orange ▬ for a love that cannot die → Lily always thought of herself as the lesser of the two Evans girls; her big sister was pretty and graceful, quiet and poised while she looked like a joke - all red and green - and, in all honesty, had the posture of an ape. Even as years went by and they grew apart, Petunia out of scorn and the ginger out of sheer acceptance of unfortunate events she could not change, never once did Lily forget how a hug from one of the people she loved most in the whole of existence felt like - warm and loving and with a light smell of bergamot orange, Petunia’s favourite shampoo. To this day, the smell brings tears to her eyes but she cannot make herself not love it as it is branded deeply into her mind.

Pumpkin Juice ▬ for a place she calls her home → Nothing screams Hogwarts to the sixth year like the sweet smell of pumpkin juice, a beverage she took some warming up to, no doubt about it, but that is now one of her favourites. It triggers memories in her mind: laughter and happiness, growing up and learning how to be a better person, becoming the best witch she could be; those moments were lived with a pumpkin juice cup in her hand. During the summer, when she’s stuck at home, trying (and often failing) to not perform even the tiniest of spells, all the girl has to do is find herself a jug of the familiar drink and suddenly she’s back at Hogwarts, where she feels the happiest.

what is your greatest ambition? ”My greatest ambition? You’re asking like that’s the easiest question in the world… Honestly, I don’t know. I mean, I do know, but it’s just a tad bit embarrassing, really, a fantasy more than anything. I think… my greatest ambition is to change the world. Hey, don’t laugh! I told you it wasn’t the brightest answer. With the War beginning to grow? I want to be a part of making a difference, of creating a better tomorrow for children like me. Why should we be judged just because of our blood?

Yeah, I want to be the girl who’s going to chance this, the one to end it. But that’s obviously not going to happen, so I think I’m going to settle for the easiest answer I can give you. My greatest ambition? Not failing Transfiguration. Granted, that was my New Year’s resolution… but I think it still stands. It’s a wonder Professor McGonagall even let me be in her class this year, said that I could be great at it if I applied myself. Wouldn’t want to prove her wrong, even if I don’t really see why transfiguring a rat into a goblet will help me in the future.”

where do you feel most comfortable? “I don’t know, really. I think I could say home but at home there’s Tuney and Severus and no magic… I guess I have to be a walking, talking, teenage witch cliché and say Hogwarts. Because while I love mum and dad, there’s always something missing during the holidays, and I don’t just mean my friends. I’m used to changing staircases and owls and spells and… home is ordinary. Boring, really.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of my heritage and I think being muggleborn gives you enough perspective to see the bigger picture in life, but living without magic? I don’t think I could anymore. God, even spending a whole summer without it is torture. So, Hogwarts is where I feel most comfortable these days. I just… don’t know how things will be this year, because of Sev. I mean, Snape. Because of Snape.”

personality description: Those who truly know Lily can tell you that there are many layers to the redhead; some good, some bad and some that one simply gets used to after a while. People who know the witch to a shallower extent are not aware of how complex the girl can be; they see simply a kind, fair young woman who is extremely invested in her education and cannot stand for injustice. In reality, Lily is as intelligent as she is stubborn, as fair as she is curious and as determined as she is hot-tempered,  a temper that matches her fiery hair and passionate views on life. To miss Evans, a bird chirping outside her bedroom window or a sunny day after weeks of rain is not something to be taken lightly; she sees immense beauty in things that most overlook, the tiniest thing can cause her to burst into sincere laughter.

Usually a cheery, electric girl, it does not take much to send her into a fit of rage either and, when she does get upset you might as well run, hide and wait for her to calm down. Her personality is one of extremes, something that she absolutely detests about herself; she loves completely, hates passionately, trusts blindly and, when she gets hurt, the girl suffers like no other — her world seems to crash and crumble, leaving behind but broken promises and shattered dreams. While Lily often overlooks the sad side of life, she sometimes just stops her hectic routine to think about anything and everything; her past, her present, her future and what she feels about those around her. Often do those thoughts bring tears to her emerald eyes, a few melancholic laughs cutting through the thick silence that she submerges herself in — nothing but her own mind to trouble her.

Ultimately, the witch isn’t the easiest person to get along with but, once you do, you’ll be surprised at how loyal she becomes; standing next to those she loves regardless of what she’s told or whom opposes the connection: for years, she dealt with the people closest to her questioning her connection to Severus and she never, not even once, wavered. Why would she? Unless you give her a reason to, Lily will believe in those she loves until the end because, in her opinion, people are made of choices and that’s the only thing you care truly judge: she never cared about Severus’ home life or the house he was sorted into, that didn’t affect how she saw him. She never found it fair to judge a book by its cover and that is exactly what the redhead is: fair. Perhaps one of the reasons that she adores being a Prefect so much is that, between rolling at her eyes at young couples snogging after curfew and catching the Marauders doing something wrong (as usual), she can make a change, even if a small one. For the past years, Lily has tried to ignore the war but now, and especially since she’s sure Severus is bound to join Voldemort’s side, there’s no denying that it’s real and that it’ll just keep getting worse until someone stops it. She might be a mere sixth year, she might not count for much but she’s a muggleborn who was made Prefect, one of the best witches in her year, and if anyone can set the example and try to change something, anything really, that’s her.

Truthfully, to say that the Prefect is a simple little thing would be one of the biggest mistakes of one’s life for the girl is not simple nor little — a strong, independent, defiant woman who is slowly learning not to allow others to walk over her and how to impose the respect that she, with her ego and a feeling selfishness often stirring inside her chest, believes she deserves.  Because no matter what Lily might have said about others (as she usually did, and occasionally still does, about Sirius Black and James Potter) she was always more like them than she thought; her ego might just be larger that James’ and her temper as bad as Sirius’. There’s no denying that another reason she enjoys being a Prefect so much is that she actually got it — there were plenty of students to choose from, some even with magical families and lineages that went back hundreds of years, but instead she was chosen: she, Lily Evans, whose parents are muggles. Not a drop of magical blood in her and, through her own merit only, she was granted such an honour. Ultimately, it was a matter of pride, something of which she has a great deal.

Lily’s quick temper often causes the redhead to make unjustified claims about someone or something, jumping to conclusions without listening to said person’s point of view or explanation and, most specially, believing that she is the one who’s right — for she believes herself to be quite the role model when it comes to most subjects. That does not, however, cause her to follow her own advice because she rarely does so; she might tell you what she thinks you should do, might lecture you for hours about what’s right (not really understanding that “what’s right” is often subjective), but when it’s time to make decisions? She’ll flail and fret as if it were the end of the world, often forgetting that she’s given people advice on to get out of an identical situation. So, slightly hypocritical and unaware of her pretentiousness, Lily does not truly know just how many flaws she has — flaws which, in all honesty — are not enough to erase all the other wonderful traits she possesses.

As far as canon is concerned, we know very little about Lily and, most specifically, who she was as a person. We’re told that she’s kind, talented and brave, that she yelled at James Potter after ‘Snape’s Worst Nightmare’, and that (at least to me) only shows that she had quite the temper. The thing is, characters are more than a couple of traits in a book and I’ve always tried to really develop Lily as a person — she’s this great person, sure, but she’s also a hormonal teenager who, let’s be honest, wasn’t a saint. She laughed and cried and lied and cheated and was, as we all are, a mixture of the good and the bad of the human race.

        H I S T O R Y

parents:

Violet Anne Evans (née Morrison) ▬ 39, born on August 4th 1937. Currently a primary school teacher. A petite redhead with a flair for the dramatic, it’s not hard to see where Lily gets her personality or her looks, for mother and daughter are extremely alike. While they quite enjoy each other’s company, things aren’t exactly the easiest in the Evans household, as similar personalities and stubborn heads often lead to arguments and words better left unsaid but that’s okay. When they need to, mother and daughter can be closer than anything, gossiping about their neighbours (even if Lily denies every doing such a thing) or simply watching the telly, cuddled up with a nice mug of tea. Still, Violet always held a soft spot in her heart for her first born, something that has always made Lily jealous.

Harry William Evans ▬ 38, born on December 19th 1937. Having always been a dreamer, it wasn’t hard for the blonde man to decide that what he wanted to do in life was write. Novels, poems, cake recipes, grocery lists written in rhyme, it never really mattered what he wrote, only that he was doing so. A man of words and other worlds, it wasn’t unusual that he was the exact opposite from his stressed wife: Harry is relaxed and laid back, always with a smile spread on his lips and a horrible joke ready to cheer up even the saddest of souls. Still, his gentle demeanor made him a brilliant father and a wonderful husband, a man ready to jump to his feet at any second to pull the women he loves so dearly apart (which has happened often in the last few years).  When things go south, Harry steps in; it’s always been like that. Unlike his wife, however, Mr. Evans connects better with his youngest child and it’s because of that that, when she needs to, Lily is the first to turn to her dad.

sibling(s):

Petunia Jane Evans ▬ 17, born on June 7th 1958. Currently still a student and working a part-time job as an assistant at Grunnings, a drill firm. As stubborn as her mother and sister, and also just as opinionated, Petunia was never an easy girl to deal with; she was always the sort of person to hold petty grudges and question anything and everything. Through the years, the older girl has tried to make herself as different from her sister as possible — Petunia didn’t need magic powers and pointy hats to be amazing, she had her brains and her skills, that was enough. Still, when combined  with her jealously and aggressiveness towards Lily (not that the ginger is innocent, because she’s just as bitter towards her older sister), it all adds up to the two not getting along in the slightest, ever. There’s love between them, there’s no doubt about it, and they care deeply about each other but being as proud as they are, it’s unlikely that the dynamic between the two will change anytime soon.

other:

Johanne Leena Evans (née Harper) ▬ 76, (January 13th, 1900 – July 4th 1976).  Having worked for most of her life as a pediatric nurse, Lily’s grandmother knew just how to raise children, always loved by every single one of them, her red-haired granddaughter especially. Lily had a passion for the elderly woman, so much like her in so many ways and yet so calm, so experienced, so beautiful – most girls see their mothers as role-models but, for the little witch, Johanne was her biggest one. They got along beautifully, shared secrets and stories, swore to never tell each other’s secrets to anyone else; Lily relied on her nan, trusted her more than she trusted anyone else in the whole wide world. The small house the older woman lived in was heaven, the tiny kitchen where she learn to cook a cloud of happiness and love – everything about Johanne screamed peace, passion, a safe haven like no other. Having died only a few months ago, often does the ginger forget that she’s gone; sometimes starting a letter with the words ‘Dear gran,’ or stopping to think, “I have to tell nan about this”. It pains Lily greatly to not have that shoulder to cry on anymore but she’s learnt to live with the pain, often ignoring the facts and pretending that come the summer of 1977 they’ll meet again.

Remus Lupin ▬ 16, born on Marth 10th 1960. Her fellow Prefect and close friend, Remus is one of Lily’s biggest confidants at Hogwarts: a calm, extremely nice guys, Lily finds him to be amongst the best people to walk aged stone floors. In reality, they’ve been friends ever since first year when Lily, chubby legged and short with a head of extremely curly hair, sat next to the thin, weak-looking boy and they had a very nice conversation about Potions. After that, and while one couldn’t consider them exactly inseparable, they only grew closer and closer – they got along beautifully, their friendship was easy and precious to Lily, who hadn’t been the most sociable of girls back home. On New Year’s eve of their fourth year, when Lily told her parents that she wasn’t a baby anymore and could very well stay at school during the holidays, they found themselves at midnight with no one to kiss and, red-cheeked and embarrassed, the witch pressed a chaste kiss of the boy’s lips (who soon grew red too). He was her first kiss and she was his and, to Lily, that means quite a lot. They moved past it, of course, and it didn’t change a single thing in their friendship but Lily holds that moment, as well as Remus, very close to her heart.

James Potter ▬ 16, born on March 27th 1960. She’ll never forget the first time she properly met James Potter, having been late to Potions and, rushing down the suddenly changing staircase, tripped over her own feet – falling down the last steps, books and quills flying everywhere. The black-haired boy had been late too and helped her up, all hands in his pockets and unruly hair, smiling at her in a way she wasn’t particularly fond of. Still, he was sweet enough and Lily found herself wanting to be her friend – that was, of course, until he hexed her during dinner, after which she poured her glass of pumpkin juice over his head (not knowing that he was allergic, at the time). After that, their relationship was a mixture of sarcastic remarks (hers) and self-centered replies (his), often resulting in Lily wanting to throw herself off of the Astronomy Tower. She never hated him, God no, but she was utterly annoyed at how he was so bloody good at everything – from class, to flying, to the way he looked, James Potter was an example and that made Lily’s skin itch, wanting to be the best at absolutely everything. When he asked her out, a couple of times to Hogsmeade over their fifth year, she figured he was messing with her which only made her even more of a passive-aggressive little thing; full of bitterness and rage. It wasn’t the boy’s fault, never having done anything wrong but she couldn’t quite help it. After what happened last year, however, her yelling at him during the “accident” by the lake, Lily feels ashamed. She should never have done that (even if the bloody prick deserved it) and if she wasn’t so proud, she would probably apologize. The best she could do was, having sat on an empty train compartment, allowing him to sit with her on the ride to Hogwarts. For the first time in six years, the pair actually shared a nice conversation – they talked about his family, her family, what they did during the summer; about anything and everything, like proper friends. While they aren’t that just yet, Lily was left with the impression that maybe, James Potter isn’t half as bad as she’d imagined him to be. Not bad at all.

Severus Snape ▬ 16, born on January 9th 1960. Lily’s oldest and closest friend for what felt like forever, Severus Snape was everything to the redhaired girl. Always gentle and enthusiastic towards her, it was him who told her about the Wizarding World, him to told her about magic and the future she could one day have – the ginger had always been a dreamer but after she met Severus, she learnt that maybe fantasies weren’t so bad, that maybe wishes upon stars actually came true and grown-ups had just lost hope. Together they played all day and together they walked into the Great Hall, both secretly hoping that they’d be sorted into the same House. That wasn’t the case and even though it wasn’t easy being friends with a Slytherin, preconceptions and hypocrisy (or so she thought) making those around her dislike her best friend. Lily often told them off, sticking by Sev’s side as she knew he stuck by hers – sure, it wasn’t easy, but they were friends and nothing would ever change that. That was, of course, until the Dark Arts spoke louder and the boy began to slip from Lily’s grasp. She didn’t realize it soon enough, didn’t pay enough attention to what was going on around her, refused to see the truth in her friend’s actions. When reality hit her like a slap on a sunny afternoon, the word ‘mudblood’ slipping from his lips, it was too late. Suddenly, the people who’d warned her were right and Lily did the only thing she could do: she severed ties with the aspiring Death Eater, turned her back on him like she’d promised to never do so. Now that she doesn’t have him by his side, Lily feels lost – the summer, while pleasant and fun, wasn’t what she’d expected for she truly missed Severus and their conversations; he was one of the people she held closest to her heart and, just as Petunia had done, he’d closed the door between them. Sure, she’d turned the key but this wasn’t her fault. It would never be her fault. All she can do now is turn to the people who are still by her side, Molly, Dorcas and Marlene – her sisters, her friends, her everything now that she’s alone. She’s still very much unsure of what her life will be like from now on but, and even if she feels as if she’ll never recover from the blow to her heart, Lily is sure she’ll find her way, with a little help from her friends.

I was going to write about Molly, Marlene and Dorcas as well, because after reading the bios I thought Lily would have most likely gotten along with them but since I haven’t spoken to the players (or potential players) I wasn’t too comfortable writing something in the app that might not be a reality if I get accepted. I hope that’s alright, but I didn’t find it very respectful for the people who applied for them and chose to leave it like this, touching only a few of the people I felt like I had to write about.

do you have any regrets? “Doesn’t everyone? I never understood the whole ‘I have no regrets’ thing people usually say when asked this. I do have regrets, maybe not a lot and none very serious but yes, I have them. Would I go back and change things if I could… I don’t know. Probably.

I regret not trying harder when it came to Tuney and her dislike for me and all things magical, because I think that maybe if I’d included her more in this fun, new chapter of my life, she wouldn’t have been so bitter. I don’t think we’d ever really get along but I’d like to at least have tried, instead of just ignoring the issues until they slapped me full-force on the face, like I did. It’s hard to see that other people aren’t happy when you’re over the moon, y’know? And it kills me that I just… didn’t bother as much as I should’ve. Petunia’s my sister and I just don’t think things should be like this, that’s not how life should go. And I regret the way things are.

Can’t not regret what happened with Severus, can I? Merlin, I just… when did he get like that? Maybe if I’d paid more attention to him, if I’d driven him away from the people he was getting involved with, maybe he would have understood what he was getting himself into. The ‘what if’ is the hardest part, I think. And that’s the bit I wish I could change, because even if it hurts me (and it does) I don’t regret cutting him from my life. Severus made his choice, one that I don’t agree with, and I know I’m doing the right thing.”

what is your fondest memory? “My fondest memory… Well, that’s difficult. I mean, I’m sixteen, which means I have sixteen years of nice memories I want to remember forever and tell my grandkids about when I’m old so choosing one isn’t the easiest thing in the world. You have a knack for asking tricky questions, has anyone ever told you that before? Merlin. I guess… there was this one time years ago, around Christmas. My sister and I used to have this tradition where we snuck downstairs after our parents were sleeping to see if they’d left any present unwrapped and, when we couldn’t find them, we’d search through the whole house. The first one to find something won and got to pick one of the other’s gifts for herself. It was stupid, really, but we were young and there wasn’t all that much to do. God, I was so small that Tuney had to grip my hand when we went down the stairs. It took us ages to get to the final step, let me tell you, and I think we might have woken mum and dad up about five times, though they never came to ruin our fun.

That night I crawled into bed with Tuney to wake her up and she just started tickling me like crazy, I couldn’t even breathe! She loved doing that, reckon she had a passion for seeing me squirming and begging for mercy, ‘cause she tickled me on a daily basis and I hated it. I don’t really remember much after she started bloody torturing me, but I do know we fell asleep eventually. I… I think about it when things get hard. I don’t know why, but it just makes me proper happy – those were good times, y’know? I was small, she was small… everything was easy and carefree and we had nothing to do but play all day. Guess I miss that. And her. But… life’s life and we can’t cling onto the past, yeah? That isn’t healthy. But yes, that’s my fondest memory. Maybe one day I’ll find one to replace it.”

character’s story: Born in the beginning of 1960, Lily was welcomed into an average muggle family. The girl grew up alongside her big sister, Petunia, her role-model and best friend, for the girls were truly inseparable — always walking hand-in-hand and laughing at jokes that Violet, a primary school teacher, and Harry, a writer, were not allowed to understand.There was never a flower without the other, they were merely an extension of the other, the year of difference they had from each other meant nothing. Petunia and Lily were two of a kind and they loved it.

Enrolled at the school where her mother worked, Lily’s life was a bed of roses — no worries or too much responsibility weighing the child down except for what she was going to play the following morning; a few worksheets worth of homework being the only thing that turned sunny days slightly grey. It was not until Lily was nine years old that she learnt that, perhaps, her life was not as average as it appeared. Ever since she could remember, she had done things that most children couldn’t but she hadn’t paid much attention to it — she couldn’t do a handstand like a girl in her grade, so why should she worry that other little girls did not know how to change the colour of flower petals? A dreamer, she never once questioned her abilities, often being too distracted to even bother to notice them: she’d always been different and being so didn’t scare her – Lily was who she was and as long as she wasn’t deprived of her free afternoons, what was the problem is she could float right off her swing? It didn’t matter. Until one day, as she was playing alone, changing a flower’s appearance, Lily met a black-haired boy named Severus who told her that she was a witch; that the things she could do were not simply skills — they were magic.

As any other little girl, she was ecstatic. Magic. She had always believed in fairies and spells, in the tales her gran had told her about before she merrily drifted off to sleep, but being a witch had not once been something the redhead had considered and yet it made sense. Severus fascinated her, taught her about a world she would someday be a part of, became a shoulder she could lean on and a friend she adored – Petunia was pushed into the background, somewhat forgotten amongst afternoons of listening to the Snape boy talk about spells, charms and potions, of castles and villages filled with wizards. It wasn’t her intention, Lily never wanted to push her sister away, and when Tuney began to grow cold and cruel, bitter even, the ginger didn’t understand nor accept her actions. A stubborn person by nature, Lily too began to treat her sister as she was treated and all Hell broke loose in the Evans household. Suddenly there was yelling and hair-pulling when once there had been laughter and hugging. The girls’ parents didn’t understand. But like many things before, they weren’t meant to.

The red-haired girl received her Hogwarts acceptance letter mere months before her twelfth birthday and she was as excited to learn more about magic as she was to leave home — wanting to get away from Tuney and her unjustified hatred. In her young mind, Lily couldn’t possibly understand why her sister had so quickly grown to despise her and, stubborn as usual, she couldn’t bring herself to even ask why. So, come September 1st, the young miss Evans was sorted into the house of one Godric Gryffindor and she soon forgot all about how great Severus said that Slytherin was.

In Gryffindor, the girl felt at home; like she belonged but even though she made plenty of good friends, never once did she ignore Sev in front of them — he knew her like no one else did. She was always loyal to the core, never wavering, never giving up, even when Severus began getting involved with people she knew were no good, even when his “friends” whispered ‘mudblood’ as she walked by, it didn’t matter because it wasn’t Sev – sure, she would have loved it if he hadn’t joined those aspiring Death Eaters, but she ignored the truth. It was unthinkable for her best friend to be one of them, to want to join Voldemort in his fight for blood purity. It was hard for Lily not to see the best in everyone. And that was her mistake.

Fifth year proved to be a big one for the ginger. She was made Prefect, something that made her as proud as anyone can be – she, a muggleborn, was granted such an honour, one she’d secretly wished for but never really voice out loud. A person fond of fairness and justice, nothing made Lily happier than to be able to do what she believes is right: those who deserved to be punished, the people who insulted her under their breaths when she walked by and tormented first years, mere babies compared to their abusers, were soon given what they deserved; the people who helped the poor, scared children and respected the rules were rewarded, even if only with a warm smile and a nice conversation. Order was always something the witch found most important and now she could make sure it was a constant in the halls of Hogwarts. Of course, she too enjoyed the power that came with it, the feeling that she was important, that she mattered. Insults have a way of sticking with you and while she ignored them, feeling as if she was a valuable asset to the Wizarding World. The world was bright and Lily was over the moon.

Everything changed, however, when called Lily a “mudblood”; showing the redhead just how much he’d changed since they were nine years old, how lost his soul had become. There was no point in forgiving him, no matter how much she wanted to do so, for she knew deep in her heart that he was hopeless – that afternoon, Severus Snape showed her his true colours and Lily? She didn’t like them, not by a long shot. Their friendship ended that day, and her annoyance at the Marauders (a feeling she’d had since stepping into the castle, some five years prior, though never really acted on) grew even more. In the back of her mind, and though she no longer speaks to him, Lily still subconsciously believes that it was because of James and Sirius that she couldn’t save Severus and pull him away from dark magic. It’s a ridiculous thought and one that she regrets for while they are many things, the boys share her views but, as most things in life, it’s hard to admit a mistake. Too proud to admit that she shouldn’t have exploded on James Potter’s face the way she did, Lily can’t help but feel a tad bit guilty. Just a tad bit, of course.

Having had all summer to mule over what happened, the ginger is now determined to stay away from her former friend, though she is still unsure as to how she’ll be able to do that — a person who despises change, it’s difficult for Lily to shake off her want to speak to Severus. But every time she thinks of doing so, she reminds herself that the Slytherin is dedicated to a cause whose purpose is denying people like her their right to having a life in the Wizarding World and forgiveness washes away from her mind. It pains her to leave a friend behind, feeling almost as if she betrayed him and the promises they’d made but, alas, there is no way she can ignore just how deeply Sev has gotten himself into the Dark Arts – he’s chosen his way, she’s chosen hers. There is no point in thinking about what could have been.

This year isn’t going to be easy, not at all, but as long as she stays true to herself (something she too is still trying to figure out), she knows she’ll make it. Now, if only Transfiguration was as easy as making life-changing decisions, she’d be good to go. Lily has yet to understand just how on earth she managed to get an E on her O.W.L, managed to really surprise herself, and she isn’t just going to let Professor McGonagall down – she’s a prefect, she’s smart and by God, she’s going to master all the spells she finds utterly pointless (why would anyone want to transfigure goblets and rats?) if it’s the last thing she does.

        O P T I O N A L  I N F O R M A T I O N

allergies:

CHOCOLATE ▬ At the age of five, Lily would have been more than happy to life off of peas and chocolate cookies. In fact, all things chocolate made the girl squeal in delight; never having been one to ask for dolls or games, if anyone were to give the girl some chocolate, she would have been ecstatic, thanking whomever gave it to her as they quickly became her favourite person. It wasn’t long, however, before she began to have problems breathing, air not filling her lungs properly and driving the child into full-blown panic attacks, the hospital becoming somewhat of a second home for a month. Soon, the answer was given and Lily wasn’t all that pleased. Her asthma attacks were actually an allergic reaction and, after a lot of testing, the doctors proudly told Mrs. and Mr. Evans that their youngest daughter couldn’t eat chocolate.

This pained the girl a great deal but there was nothing she could do, for the heavenly sweet disappeared from her household and, in time, she had to learn to live with the prohibition. When she went to school, things changed drastically and in her carefree mind, a few experiments couldn’t possibly do any harm, eating chocolate behind her parents’ back any chance she got. Like most allergies, it lessened as the years went by, and even though she has yet to cut it from her life, when she eats too much of it the ginger has to deal with another attack, something she can handle perfectly but is extremely uncomfortable.

This is one of the few truly irresponsible acts that Lily allows herself and even though she knows she should keep herself away from cake and hot cocoa, cookies and chocolate frogs, it seems to be most impossible. These days, Lily eats it only when she’s very happy or downright upset, saving the risk for special occasions and trying to not make eating it a routine.

SEAFOOD ▬ Something about food that tastes and smells like the sea has always made Lily feel doubtful, her fear of water not helping in the slightest which is why she was already eight years old when, after a lot of convincing, she finally tasted seafood for the first time. A favourite in the Evans household, it was only a matter of time before Violet placed a plate of shrimp in front of her youngest daughter and waited patiently for her to at least try it. That would soon prove to be a mistake, as everything happened surprisingly quickly after Lily forced herself to take the first bite.

Lightheadedness and a pain in her chest were the first symptoms and she can’t quite say she remembers the rest as, when the swelling began, the redhead was already passed out cold and being driven as quickly as possible to the nearest hospital; a panicking mother, shaking father and crying sister (even if Petunia would never admit it today) in tow. It was a matter of luck and impeccable timing that saved Lily’s life; the anaphylactic shock she suffered was severe and most children with asthma who experienced it often died before anything could be done. The recovery was quick and painless, not remembering what happened making it much easier for the child to embrace the idea that she could have lost her life over a small bite of shrimp, but that doesn’t mean that she wasn’t affected.

To this day, any mentions of seafood make the witch sick and, unlike chocolate, she hasn’t dared touch a bit since; not wanting to risk something that would most likely lead her to the grave.

GRASS ▬ Quite possibly what she deems as the stupidest allergy one could be faced with, Lily was (as she so ironically calls it) blessed with an allergy to grass. Normal, everyday, fluffy green grass. It went unnoticed for years, as kids run around all day and are always bound to be bitten by bugs or spiders; little rashes were never a concern for her parents or Lily. Sure, sometimes after playing all day her legs got incredibly itchy but why would a young girl question that? If she said something, her mum could keep her from rolling around outside and so, with a stubbornness most characteristic, the redhead kept her mouth shut, suffering in silence in fear of the consequences.

That was, of course, until Violet noticed the rash that had taken over Lily’s legs; quickly dragging the whole family to the hospital and very dramatically proclaiming that she didn’t want her baby to lose her legs. As expected, that wasn’t the case for some medicine would fix the problem but the diagnosis was out there: Lily Evans was allergic to grass. Grass! Still, it proved to be an easier problem than chocolate, as years of habit taught the girl how to play and fall and live without ever having bare skin touching the grass. It still is an inconvenient from time to time but Lily has come to terms with the fact that she doesn’t have much choice in the matter, having only to obey what her body demands.

illnesses: Apart from her more serious allergic reactions, Lily has never been one to get ill: she had the chickenpox when she was six and usually has the flu once a year, around December, but other than that she’s quite the healthy girl.

vices:

DRINKING ▬ Never having been one to drink, last summer Lily did some experimenting and has come to the conclusion that if she did drink on a regular basis, she’d probably die at a very, very young age. After what happened with Severus, the witch decided that she’d hang out with the kids back home, finally making more than a couple of friends on her street, accompanying them to parties and gatherings that, as is customary in teenage encounters, were well stocked up on every muggle drink in the book. Some bottles were nicked at the gas station, others stolen from old cabinets that their parents thought safe, or even bought by the eldest of the group – the point is, Lily finally learnt that she enjoyed alcohol and yet couldn’t handle it at all. If she gets distracted, which she normally did, the girl will sip glass after glass without even realizing it but the thing is, her body has no problems with Firewhiskey or muggle drinks like Vodka; she’ll keep drinking and drinking after all others have collapsed. When it comes to traditionally lighter drinks, however, like beer or wine, it only takes a few small glasses for the redhead to claim the floor as her bed, knowing full well she’ll wake up with a terrible headache.

So, to keep things safe, Lily would rather not drink, especially not while at Hogwarts (even if yes, she’ll allow herself a glass or two when the Marauders throw a party), for she is a Prefect and she shouldn’t be doing things that are unsuitable for anyone in her position. Mostly, she simply doesn’t want to make a complete idiot out of herself in front of her whole house like some girls do, preferring sobriety over being inebriated any day.

SMOKING ▬ Lily’s “wild” summer didn’t only make her start enjoying the occasional drink. Most of her newfound friends had been smoking for years, always surrounded by a cloud of smoke anywhere they went; cigarettes dangling off lips and being passed around as if it were nothing. Soon, she too had a fag stuck between her lips and before she could realize it, she had fallen into a routine, lighting cigarette after cigarette as conversations progressed well into the night, sometimes into the first hours of sunshine. It was a habit she took on quickly and has no intention of quitting: it helps her calm down when she’s nervous, she likes the tarry taste it leaves on her lips and something about the grey smoke against a darkened sky makes her smile, the patterns beautiful and haunting. She does know, however, that she can’t do it at Hogwarts which is why (and she does feel quite guilty about it) the witch has been saving packs since July, hiding them in the bottom of her trunk along with a silver lighter she nicked from her dad.

The plan is to find places to smoke her fags in peace and quiet without being caught and while she knows that’s not going to be easy in the slightest, Lily Evans is a woman with a vice and, stubborn as she is, she won’t just quit because society tells her that nice girls should do so – it she ever decides to leave cigarettes behind, it’ll be her own choice, not something imposed to her by a male-dominated society.

fears:

BUTTERFLIES ▬ While she considers it one of the stupidest fears a girl could ever have, Lily is afraid of butterflies. When she was young, her sister trapped one in a jar and the ginger was ecstatic – its wings were beautiful, their patterns colourful and cheery – before running to tell mummy that the insect was the prettiest thing she’d ever seen in her four year old life. That was, of course, until the poor thing died and Tuney found it hilarious to lay in on her sister’s forehead; upon waking up, Lily sat up to find a dead butterfly falling onto her lap, and her screams could be heard three houses down. Some might call it a trauma, others mere idiocy but that doesn’t change the fact that if one of those disgusting beasts (as she kindly refers to “them”) comes anywhere near her, Lily – sweet, caring Lily – won’t hesitate to hit it. Repeatedly. Until it dies.

Not to mention that their faces, with those huge eyes and that strange nose thing, make her skin crawl – she has long stopped noticing the amazing designs on their wings, for now that face is the first thing that comes to mind. That little prank is one of the few things Lily knows she won’t forgive Petunia about and when they get into one of their fights, hot-headed and spewing nonsense, the redhead will most likely mention it bitterly.

WATER ▬ Everyone has some fears that they can’t explain and Lily’s fear of water is just that – inexplicable, something her subconscious never accepted and still doesn’t. When her father told six year old Lily that it was time she learnt to swim, the little ginger wasn’t opposed to the idea: it seemed fun enough and, if daddy was there, completely safe. But the night before their big family trip to her grandmother’s pool, Lily had a nightmare she would never forget, one that’s grown to be recurring over the years. The first time, beach was full of people – families, children laughing – and the girl would take a few steps into the ocean, would feel the sand beneath her feet and the cold water hit her toes; hear the waves crashing. Then, a wave would knock her down and before she knew it, the girl was submerged, struggling to get back on her feet but never quite being able to do so. People would stare down at her, ignore her, pretend she wasn’t there drowning. It faded to black, slowly, and Lily woke up breathless and blue-lipped.

After that, the witch would panic at any mentions of the sea, learning to ignore the way her legs begin to shake when she thinks back on her dream over the years but never truly bringing herself to overcome her dread – the nightmare returns every once in a while and the scenery has always changed, though its ending remains the same. Sometimes it’s daytime, others night, on occasion the beach is empty and cold and others warm and bursting with people. No matter what, it’s terrifying, and Lily is sure it must mean something. What exactly? She has no idea.

habits/quirks:

LIP BITING ▬ It’s rare that one finds Lily Evans thinking without having her bottom lip safely tucked between her lips, tongue running over sensitive skin, often nibbling on her own flesh, deep in thought. It’s a habit she doesn’t quite know when she picked up, but it soon became yet another part of her – it’s a comfort mechanism, like the stuffed animal she stopped totting around years ago, something she uses to soothe herself. When she’s hurt or upset, one is bound to find her teeth grazing her lips, having drawn blood only a few times in her sixteen years of life. Somehow, she can’t keep herself from doing it, her subconscious ordering her to do so before she can stop her body.

It’s not a very scandalous habit, mind you, and often are the times that the redhead ponders on it, thinking that it might maybe make her look mysterious and overall sexy – not that it matters, of course, for she was always the chubby ginger with incredibly curly hair and being attractive was never really an option. And while she isn’t vain, not in the slightest, there’s always that little voice in the back of her head that whispers in her ear every time she finds herself biting her lip – you look good. More often than not, she merely ignores it.

SITTING ▬ For years, Lily hasn’t been able to sit like a lady, with her legs properly down and ankles crossed. Violet always tried to teach their girls to act as a woman should, but only Petunia picked up certain habits for Lily hates the feeling of sitting on a tough wooden chair as one normally would. Instead, she traps a leg beneath the other or pulls them both up, crossing them behind her desk. It was always far more comfortable to sit like that and while her mum nags her when Lily finally goes back home, there’s not fixing something that (according to the redhead) is perfectly fine – why would the way she sits be anyone’s concern apart from her own? There’s no reason for one to be uncomfortable just to fit in with all the other posh women; it makes no sense to her sixteen year old mind.

Even if she’s just relaxing on an armchair or a couch, the witch will pull her legs onto the fabric, shifting them slightly to the side and crossing her feet; a bundle of arms and legs curled up into a ball, a book often resting on her knees. The last thing on her mind is what people might think of her odd position and, if anyone were to comment on it (which they don’t because why would a Prefect’s sitting habits be motive of loud whispers?), she would have loudly proclaimed that it was none of their business.

NAILS ▬ When she doesn’t find herself with her lips between her teeth, it’s because her fingers have replaced it, as Lily has the terrible habit of biting her nails and the skin around them. She adores painting them and having feminine hands but stress and boredom often leads to the witch looking down to find cracked varnish and chipped nails, something that the ginger finds particularly irritating. Still, she can’t really help herself for she feels a need to keep her hands busy – when they aren’t in her mouth, Lily often taps her fingers against tables or gently scratches her thumb with her ring finger, all signs that she is beyond bored.

As most of Lily’s habits, this is a good indicator of what her mood is like that day: she bites her lip when she’s upset or day-dreaming, bites her nails when she’s stressed and scratches her thumb when she’s complete and utterly bored (a habit she surely picked up during History Of Magic, a subject she was never particularly fond of, even though she first found it fascinating). Still, and like everything else, she isn’t harming anyone and when her friends tell her to put her hands down, she’ll merely roll her eyes at them, sticking her tongue out playfully and continuing about her day.

EYE ROLLING ▬ Usually a friendly person, some might feel uncomfortable at Lily’s habit of constantly rolling her eyes at anything and everything. She doesn’t really mean to do so but sometimes her subconscious speaks louder, forcing the girl to show that she honestly doesn’t care about what someone is saying – listening out of politeness or (most of the times) because she knows she might hear some gossip. She doesn’t go around telling people someone else’s secrets, mind you, but she won’t deny that she likes listening to the occasional rumour, whispering to her friends as they try to figure out if it is as true as it’s claimed to be.

When something isn’t of particular interest, however, of when it simply annoys her, Lily will most definitely roll her green eyes at you; a raised eyebrow often following before she goes back to pretending she actually gives a damn. This happens mostly with strangers, people she’s only met once or twice, because when it comes to her friends, they could very well be speaking of the weather or apples and she’d be concentrated on their words, as she nurturer by nature who mothers everyone around her without even realizing it.

hobbies:

COOKING / BAKING ▬ Every child has their chores and, unfortunately, Lily was never fond of those she was assigned with. Be it dusting or doing the dishes, it all sounded horrible to the girl who always tried to trade with Petunia – why did she have to be stuck with such boring tasks? She’s much rather clean the floor or fold clothes, something other than the bloody dishes. That was, of course, until she went to spend a few weeks with her maternal grandmother and the elderly lady introduced her to cooking. After that, there was no going back. Something about being in the kitchen warms Lily’s heart; she spent years learning how to make anything and everything, soon pushing her mum away and trying to cook dinner alone (which ended in a few accidents, such as a couple of bad cuts or a flaming frying pan). It was just for fun at first but as time went by, there was no denying that Lily had a knack for metaphorically flying around the kitchen, wooden spoon in one hand and an ingredient in the other.

More than a hobby, cooking turned into something that she finds therapeutic; the one thing that keeps her busy enough when the rest of the world crumbles around her. Last year, after she parted ways with Severus, the redhead decided that simply making lunch and dinner was enough, taking her first steps into baking – for days, it was all she did, batches and batches of cookies on the counters until she managed to make the perfect ones; cakes of various kinds left on tables. She quickly learnt that there was nothing better to cure a broken heart than a full oven, nothing that smelt more of home and comfort than a freshly baked scone. Slowly but surely, Lily has found one of the greatest passions in her life and, if all goes well, she would love to own a restaurant one day. Or maybe a bakery. Or both! She isn’t sure yet.

GARDENING ▬ Gardening was never Lily’s greatest talent but from a young age, she could be found alongside her mother and sister, trying to help mummy in any way she could, often doing more harm than good. Still, Violet Evans taught their girls everything that had been passed down to her by her own mother, who’d learnt from her mother, and so on – working with flowers, helping them grow into their beauty, was always a Morrison women tradition and marriage didn’t change that. Lily grew up seeing her mother with her hands in the dirt and, to this day, plants remind her of home – something about gardening makes her feel warm inside and it is what she do finds herself doing when she’s at home, calm and relaxed, often before she’s spent any large amount of time with Petunia.

In all honesty, most of what the witch tries to grow on her own withers and dies but that doesn’t keep her from trying; a persistent being who doesn’t take no for an answer, Lily will persevere. Still, more than doing her own gardening, the redhead still always prefers to help her mum when she’s at home as it is a way of her feeling better – she has never felt guilty about being at Hogwarts but she can’t shake off the feeling that she hasn’t been there for Violet, hasn’t been a good daughter, like Petunia. So, this also works as her way of trying to make up for time lost; not much, she knows, but it’s one of the few things Lily can do with her mum without them ending up yelling at each other.

PHOTOGRAPHY ▬ An emotional person who cherishes even the smallest of memories, it wasn’t surprising that Lily found photography to be one of her favourite things to do, even if she isn’t particularly good at it. Be it the sun rise or the sunset, a friend or a bird, the clouds or a rainy field, the witch will use her new Polaroid camera to take a picture; often blurry images that are far too bright or far too dark but still make the redhead feel proud, for she will never forget that moment, even after she’s old and her memory fails her. She finds it that even the most common of pictures can be breathtaking if one sees the hidden beauty in it, knows that it might tell a story we aren’t aware of, or inspire artists and poets.

While baking and gardening hold emotional value to the Gryffindor, photography is just something she enjoys doing – simple, fun, carefree; it doesn’t remind her of years lost or heartbreak past, doesn’t make her feel melancholic in the slightest, which is why the witch tots that camera everywhere; constantly taking pictures of anything, everything and everyone. Over the years, she’s put together a rather heavy scrapbook that she will show her friends come Seventh Year, a goodbye present she hopes they’ll treasure as much as she does.

FLYING ▬ For years, when she was a little girl, Lily used to pretend she could fly like the birds above; she’d stretch out her arms and try her hardest, sometimes hovering a little over the ground, yes, but never floating away, free and beautiful. She soon came to terms with the fact that she’d never grow a pair of wings and fly away but, when Severus began to tell her about the fairytale-like Wizarding World, a spark of hope shun in the horizon as witches had broomsticks. And broomsticks could fly. It was a childish dream, of course, riding a broom across the open air but Lily never stopped thinking about it.

When the first years took their first flying lesson, however, the redhead froze, suddenly afraid that she’d fall or embarrass herself – most of the students knew all about this or at least a little, while the only mean of transportation she was familiar with was her bike or dad’s car. The notion of climbing onto that damned broomstick seemed preposterous and so she pretended she couldn’t even raise it off the ground, not even trying to do so. Somewhere along the years, however, Lily found ways to borrow a broomstick here and there, slowly teaching herself to fly without having anyone there to laugh at her. As expected, it became one of her favourite things to do and while she isn’t anywhere as good as anyone on the Quidditch teams, she does finds herself to be quite decent.

sleeping habits: Lily’s sleeping habits change quite regularly over the years, for different circumstances and different places affect the girl in many ways and sleep (especially sleeping patterns) is definitely the part of her that is most influenced by that. When she’s at home during the holidays, she can’t help but curl herself into a ball, clutching her pillow and sleeping with her head on the hard mattress, needing to hold something for comfort. When she was a child, she had a stuffed bunny she absolutely adored and couldn’t fall asleep without, always hugging him so he wouldn’t be afraid of the dark like she (even if she never spoke of it out loud, not wanting to sound like a baby) was. Old habits are hard to break, her childhood bedroom always reminding her of Pig, her pillow a substitute for the toy that was lost in the summer of 1968.

When she’s at Hogwarts, however, she prefers to sleep on her stomach, a leg pulled up over the bed covers and an arm safety under her head; resting on it rather than on the fluffy pillow she’s gotten used to over the years. Something about sharing a room with a handful of other girls comforts Lily which is why, even when everyone else is already sound asleep, she has no problem walking around and grumbling over whatever happened that day, not afraid of the shadows and what hides in them. Truthfully, Lily has overgrown her fear of the dark but it she still finds it eerie, preferring to stay in a place where there’s light and she can see her surroundings perfectly. That’s also why the witch can’t sleep without a window wide open, allowing moonlight to shine into the bedroom – she needs to be able to see where she is and what’s happening around her, or sleep takes hours to settle in. She’s practically soundless while sleeping, but there isn’t a night where Lily doesn’t wake up with drool on her arm and the covers on the floor, having tossed and turned around enough to sometimes even wake up with her feet on her pillow.

As far as sleeping patterns are concerned, that’s where things change. When she’s happy and at peace with herself and others, Lily has no problem merrily drifting off; succumbing to exhaustion the second she lays down, sometimes even feeling the need to take a nap during the day. When she’s stressed, however, and no matter how hard she tries, the redhead will take hours to fall asleep, sometimes staying up until dawn and spending the remainder of the week yawning into her pumpkin juice, thoughts and concerns swimming in her mind, haunting her and leaving her to try and find solutions to her problems, solutions that rarely make sense. It is, all in all, something she now sees as routine – during her O.W.Ls, the witch spent days on end without sleep, what happened with Severus pushing her off the edge as pulling all-nighter after all-nighter didn’t quite help her already fiery temper.  Long story short, when she isn’t at the top of her game, Lily stops sleeping. When Lily stops sleeping, she gets rather jumpy. When she gets jumpy, she yells. And after she yells at someone, she gets even more stressed, not being able to sleep for the following night and thus creating a vicious cycle she should know better than to get herself into.

Still, the summer months spent away from school and Severus helped the witch calm down and re-evaluate her life, so much so that she has started dreaming again, something she stopped doing towards the end of her fifth year at Hogwarts. Now, nights are peaceful and quiet, and she can only hope they stay the same for the rest of the school year, for she is actually quite ashamed at how she blew up in Potter’s face and would rather that experience didn’t have any repeats.

eating habits: If you ask her, Lily will surely tell you that she has the eating habits of any girl her age but, in reality, she eats as much as any sixteen year old boy. A lover of all sorts of food, from grilled fish to a nice, big steak, the redhead isn’t exactly picky, which is why she spent the last seven years of her life being considered a chubby little thing – short in height, any weight she put on was immediately noticeable and even if she didn’t really care about it, there was no denying that she ate enough for two, something she stopped doing over the summer. Running around with newfound friends and stopping only to grab a sandwich or an apple, as well as having grown some inches (only three, but that’s more than enough for Lily), caused the girl to lose quite a bit of weight, something she hasn’t really stopped to notice yet. One thing’s for sure, her appetite has gone down tremendously, but that doesn’t stop her from stuffing her face every now and then.

Peas remain Lily’s favourite thing in the whole wide world; those little green balls fascinated her when she was younger and the fixation stuck, for be them in rice, in pasta or just boiled in a bowl, the ginger will devour them, having developed the habit of force feeding them to her friends when they wrinkle her nose at her. Another food she’s very fond of is tuna pasta, something that she eats when she doesn’t feel too good, like some girls who eat ice-cream or chocolate. A nice, warm plate of pasta does it for her, the best comfort food anyone could ever have thought about. Food, for Lily, is more than just food – it’s art, it’s life, it’s something to be appreciated and cherished, not just eaten as an obligation.

Still, some traditions must be kept and while she loves a full dish, it’s rare that Lily mixes her food – she eats it all in order, one picked when she finishes serving. It might touch, that’s absolutely fine, but she can’t really eat meat, rice and salad in one bite: they must be eaten separately. A slow eater who stops to chat every five seconds, Lily’s plate might be half-empty after an hour, but her drink will be left untouched – that, as everything else, has an order – until she’s properly finished.

how do they behave under pressure? To say that Lily does well under pressure is an understatement, as the girl functions like a well oiled machine – sure, she might hold off on sleep for a few days (until she passes out on her bed fully clothed) but for the most part, the redhead will surely be running around, getting everything she needs done and on time; everything else but the task at hand forgotten, pushed to the back of her mind until she can go back to relaxing. This doesn’t mean that Lily enjoys pressure, Merlin no, but at least she knows that if she has to be faced with it, she won’t crash and burn like so many of her classmates – getting essays done? Easy. Studying for her O.W.Ls? Sure, no problem. But when it comes to pressure within her family circle? That’s when things get trickier, for while school isn’t all that hard for Lily, when it comes to the social dynamic in her family she is often unsure of what to say or how to act, looking like a fish out of water.

Perhaps it was the years she has spent at Hogwarts, maybe the new culture she now finds herself submerged in or the difference between the people she deals with on a daily basis and the people who share her blood, but one thing is certain: when it comes to holidays, family dinners or even small situations, like meeting Petunia’s brand new boyfriend, Lily is clueless. She’ll feel awkward, with her curly red hair and nails tapping on wooden tables, not knowing what to say or do – a word out of place and she could let it slip that she’s a witch. So, all in all, the girl is amazing under pressure, unless it comes from her family. Then, she might just spend hours eating, not speaking as she fears her comments might embarrass those around her.

how do they express their emotions? While the Evans were a warm family, affection was never shown through touching; words, kind gestures and her parents’ constant fussing over both her and Petunia were what showed Lily she wasn’t alone and that she was loved. That, however, wasn’t satisfying for the girl who was always snuggled up against her mum or constantly hugging her dad. From a very young age, Lily proved to be an extremely tactile individual and that only grew with age: when she loves and trusts someone, the ginger touches them. Any sort of physical contact comes naturally to her, be it a gentle nudge with her hip or a kiss on the cheek, holding hands with her friends or crawling into bed with them, Lily can’t help herself – to her, one must show people that they were loved and, in a time where people just aren’t kind enough, a soft touch seems comforting. Perhaps she was just born to mother everyone, wanting the people around her to be at their best, but she just can’t help but touch the people she cares about.

Still, Lily is a person of extremes and while she can be the gentlest of girls at times, when she’s angry she is definitely not someone you would want as an enemy. The witch’s temper is as fiery as her hair, and once she gets upset you might as well run, hide and wait for her to calm down. It takes quite a while for someone to get Lily completely furious, very few ever driving her to the breaking point, but when she does, things will fly, cities will burn, empires will crumble and you will hear cats hissing for hours like in comedy TV shows. Those closest to her aren’t safe from being hit on the back of the head or slapped across the arm, for her being tactile goes both ways and she is most definitely not afraid to hit people when they deserve it. After all, she’s not that strong… ish.

Ultimately, Lily tries to show her love to those she cares about in any way she can, be it by listening to them when they need someone, giving them advice even if it’s harsh and cold, hugging them when they need a shoulder and hitting them when they’re behaving like idiots – love, she has come to realize, comes in many ways and if one must be cruel in order to guide someone in the right direction then so be it. Lily isn’t afraid of calling things by their proper names; if people dislike her for that, so be it. At least she knows she’s doing the right thing and helping the people she holds closest to her heart, even if they don’t notice it straight away. Of course, most of this is the redhead believing that she knows better than most but that has never stopped her from doing what she believes she should do. And, at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.

        O U T  O F  C H A R A C T E R

name: Oswin age: 18 timezone: GMT contact information: You can find me on greeneyedwriting, my personal Tumblr blog where I’m on at least once a day, on Skype as deathatwinterquay and/or on KIK as somebodysaylily. pronouns: She / Her

Hello, there! I didn’t know where to add this so I’ll just mention it here. While Eleanor is absolutely beautiful, I can’t really say she’s my vision of Lily and that makes me a little uncomfortable, which is why I wish to request a change to Jenna Thiam, a French actress you can find here [ x , x , x ]. She, along with Karen Gillan, are two faceclaims I particularly enjoy for Lily and Jenna, with her curly dark red hair, is exactly what I envisioned while writing the app. Thank you so much!