#foreshadowed this ancient group of assassins

[curse-of-dming-strahd]

every time I think I've finally processed all the weird shit in curse of strahd, I remember there's a mirror somewhere in the Baron's mansion that can like SUMMON A GHOST ASSASSIN and if you do this very specific thing that almost no one would ever do unprompted, there's a 50% chance that Strahd will suddenly join your zoom meeting and invite you to dinner.

like, from a design perspective, I don't know how I'm going to get my party to go into this room, let alone interact with this fucking mirror, why did they put so many mechanics here

[ussgallifrey]

(She Moves With) Shameless Wonder | 25

✦ Summary: Your badge clearly said SHIELD consultant, so you weren’t entirely sure where Fury was getting this whole make you an Avenger idea from. But you had a feeling it might have something to do with the recent discovery of an artifact at the bottom of the Arctic Sea.

✦ Pairing: Steve Rogers x Female Reader

✦ Warnings: Canon divergence, dialogue taken directly from Avengers: Age of Ultron, demisexuality on full display, language, mentions of minor character death, baby can you taste the foreshadowing in this chapter?

✦ Word Count: 5.2k

✦ Playlist: Here

✦ Cinematic Soundtrack: Here

[Master List]

Tony has absconded your rotary phone and secluded himself in the living room, calling numerous numbers on a list he keeps waving around in his hand as he paces back and forth. You watch him go, catching only a few words of his rapid-fire conversation before you move to join the others at the back of the house.

The three rooms at the rear of the home had once been an office, a ladies’ parlor, and a dining area. You had them all converted to be one large library. While the archways remained in place, separating the three areas, they looked nearly identical. Emerald wallpaper covered the tiny slivers of walls that weren’t obscured by the floor-to-ceiling bookcases.

Clint is sitting on the chaise lounge with his legs kicked up over the powder blue fabric, his head dangles over the edge. Steve is respectfully listening along to whatever Bruce is working on. The doctor had found an old chalkboard of yours and was currently writing down several things with a small stub of white chalk.

Looking to your left, you see the assassin currently perusing the shelves in the first room - where your oldest items were held. While, ordinarily, you wouldn’t want anyone to be anywhere near those books and scrolls, you knew you could trust the redhead with the precious items. 

Wordlessly, you slide past the archer.

Natasha is hunched slightly as she stares at a framed document on the wall.

“Wow, an MA from Cornell?”

Her eyes flicker up as you move to stand beside her. Crossing your arms, you stare at the old degree.

“Mhmm.”

“It’s a good forgery,” she comments. “Did you get Brandon or Nadia to do it?”

Back in your SHIELD agent days, those two were the best when it came to making forged documents: passports, ID cards, certificates, you name it.

But you merely shake your head, chuckling as you lean your weight down onto the edge of the small wooden desk, “No, that one’s legitimate.”

She’s silent for just a moment before she hums, “That makes sense.” And then she’s turning to look at you, snapping a ball of evergreen gum, “How many more you got hiding around here?”

“Oh,” you smile, easing up from your spot. 

Crossing the room, you bend down to pick up a stack of frames, all lying on the carpet beside an olive-green velvet armchair. You flip through them, old memories pulling up to the surface as you view the degrees for the first time in a long while.

“I have nine here,” you say as you hand them over to Natasha, one by one. “University of Sydney, Art Institute of Chicago, Royal College of Arts, University of London, uh… Bedford - that was my first medical degree, Göttingen, Washington University.”

She smiles that secretive little smile of hers as she inspects each one. Holding up the last frame, she states, “This looks pretty old.”

You snort, “Near ancient really. That was… Cronus, 1794? They started allowing women into their lectures just a few years before that. Actually! My oldest one is from Bologna, in Italy. That was…1431?”

Her brows arch, “They gave women degrees in the 15th century?”

“13th. Professoressa Gozzadini was one of the first to graduate and teach at the university. I sat in for a few of her lectures, but law was never really my interest.”

She lets out a low whistle, “Look at you. Probably the most educated out of the group.”

With a shrug, you take back the frames - returning them to their rightful spot in a pile on the floor, “I’m not the one who went to MIT, I don’t have any degrees in engineering or mathematics. I certainly wouldn’t call myself the most educated.”

She reclines back on the desk across from you, “Why did you bother?”

“Pursuit of knowledge, mostly. And, back then, before a government-appointed forgery artist, you had to have an MA to be a museum curator. I mean, once I started working for SHIELD, I had a few made up just to give me access to other places. It tends to raise a few brows when you show up with a degree marked thirty years older than what you look, you know?”

Natasha offers you a gentle laugh.

“I imagine so.”

“So, even though I have fake degrees from Yale, and Harvard, and U of M, and Cambridge, I’ve only ever actually attended about ten universities?”

“More than me. The KGB didn’t really hand out degrees for… my training.”

Your smile fades as you watch the flicker of something distant dance in her green eyes.

While you had checked in on everyone earlier that afternoon, Natasha had been with Clint when you came in. He had assured you that they were both fine then and she had nodded in agreement. But you could tell, there was far more under the surface than she was willing to let see the light of day.

“You doing okay?” you ask, voice hesitant as you move closer to her.

She glances up, back down, and then up again, “Mhmm.”

“Hey,” you draw closer, enough to gently nudge her arm with your elbow. “It’s honestly no one's business, but… if you did want to talk to someone other than Barton about it… I mean, we’re the only two women here and I imagine, even though you guys are friends, it might be harder to talk about some of these things. I don’t know, I’m not great at the whole friend thing these days.”

She snorts, a smile playing on her lips as she looks over at you.

“You’re doing fine, Seven. And you know, me and Clint aren’t just friends. I can tell him pretty much anything and he’ll listen. Even if he’s got his aids out.”

There’s a nod of understanding as you breathe out, “Yeah, I guess you two have been through a lot together. Budapest and all that, right? Hard to shake a friend like that.”

Natasha pauses, dropping a hand to your wrist as she meets your eyes.

“We’re more than friends. I mean, don’t go… talking about it to everyone. But, wow, I thought we were a little more transparent?”

Your line of thinking pauses, resets, and starts moving again before you’re able to get any words out that sound even remotely coherent.

“Oh… you’re… together?”

She nods, offering a little humming sound.

“I did not know that.”

The redhead laughs, “Well, welcome to the party. Everyone else has been pretty… respectful about it actually.”

You shake your head, “No, I honestly had no idea. That whole… realm? That’s kind of beyond me.”

She blinks.

“Relationships?”

Looking toward the wall of shelves where medieval manuscripts and musty age-worn books reside, you take a steadying breath.

“Romantic relationships. Eros, if you will.”

She lets the words sit for a minute before she says anything further.

“I mean, I didn’t want to perpetuate the virgin goddess stereotype, but…”

“Hey,” you shove her arm. “I got enough of that kind of talk from Sharon. I don’t need you jumping into it too.”

“Carter?”

You hum in reply.

It may have only been a year since you last encountered the blonde agent. But your short time on Olympus with the humans had been cemented in your mind for some time now. You could recall the young woman’s words, her inquiries into your… past love life, or lack thereof.

Humans spoke so freely about that topic these days. But… that was not for you. And though you understood their curiosity when it came to you, they had to know that the way you existed was far different than the way they did when it came to love. 

You knew the worlds of agápē and philia. Even storge, philuatia, and xenia. But eros… that had always remained far from your reach, slipping through your fingers like wispy mist. And that was just the way it was; the way it had always been.

The way it would likely remain.

“Hey.”

The two of you turn to see Clint resting in the doorway.

  “Whatcha talking about?” he grins.

You and the redhead share a look before simultaneously replying:

“College.”

“Relationships.”

Your eyes seek out Natasha’s but she merely winks at you before returning her attention to the archer.

“Right…” he drawls, itching the back of his head for a moment before he continues, ”Stark says he can’t get through to Cho’s lab. He’s trying to get someone on Hill’s team to go look into it, but…” he ends with a vague shrug.

Feeling the pull of the previous conversation fall to the wayside, you blink, “She was working with regenerative tissues, right? Oh, that is so obvious I want to smack myself!”

“Okay?” Clint calls as you breeze past him into the central room of the library.

Steve stands from the lounge as soon as you walk in, moving to stand alongside Banner as you peer over his shoulder at the chalkboard.

“If I was looking to evolve, as an artificial intelligence, why would I need living tissue?”

Bruce nods, juggling the chalk between his hands, “Exactly what I was thinking. Vibranium is more than enough.”

“So, why would you want a humanesque body if you believe you are the superior life form?”

The others circle into the room as the two of you begin to brainstorm.

“Uhm… relatability? You know, a friendly face to the humans you’re trying to protect?”

You shake your head, “No, he’s artificial he can’t care about that. I’d say maybe he’s trying to circumvent the Laws of Robotics in some way, but that seems like a far fetch.”

Steve stands beside Bruce, tilting his head to look down at the current list of theories the doctor had written out.

“Would he be able to convert vibranium to be like a form of skin?” he wonders aloud.

You both let the idea simmer for a moment before reaching the same conclusion.

“Anything’s possible, I suppose,” Bruce admits, looking to you for a differing opinion.

With a nod, you add, “And if anyone could accomplish that, it would be Helen. Her work in the field is above anything else to date.”

“Bet she wouldn’t be doing it willingly,” Natasha points out as she browses through your literary collection.

The supersoldier lets out a breath, realization dawning, “That’s why he needed the scepter.”

“And a million distractions,” Clint huffs.

As the idea rests upon your consciousness, Tony finally makes an appearance. Surveying the gloomy atmosphere, he whistles.

“Wow, brainstorming without me. So… got in touch with my contacts at Nexus. Looks like we were right, someone’s been scrambling the launch codes. Faster than Ultron can figure them out, I might add.”

Natasha perks up, “We have an ally?”

You offer her a look, “Ultron has an enemy. We can’t assume that’s the same thing as an ally. All things considered.”

Your eyes land on Steve and he seems to give a small nod, agreeing with your sentiment.

“So,” Tony begins. “I think I want to head to Oslo, see what’s what.”

Steve crosses his arms, “And Dr. Cho?”

“I think we can safely assume we dropped the ball there as well,” the billionaire gestures a small explosion with his hands.

The supersoldier’s eyes harden.

“We’re not abandoning her.”

“Is that what I said?” Tony clips, squinting at Steve as he moves to cross the room.

Natasha knocks her head back against the bookshelves, “What happened to not splitting up?”

Tony turns to look at her, “What are we? The Mystery Gang? Zoinks, Scoob, let’s go fetch the metal man.”

“Hey, look,” Clint moves to stand between the two men. “No offense, but as someone who’s been on the other side of that damn scepter, I wish I had someone running to come undo it.”

Beside you, Bruce tugs off his glasses and gives a slight sigh.

Observing the room, watching the team begin to tear themselves apart once again in the span of a single evening, you finally step forward.

“If you - ” you address Tony, “ - head to Oslo and track down this entity or person or whatever, the rest of us can go to Helen and figure out what exactly Ultron might have needed from her.”

“Or, we can trust that Hill and her agents have it in hand and we figure out where the bastard is hiding out,” Tony suggests with a knowing smile.

Before you can even ask why he would consider that option, your landline begins ringing its shrill bell tone. You stare at the billionaire for a moment more before you push your way out of the room to answer the call.

“Hello?” you ask into the receiver.

“It’s Hill,” comes the instant reply. “Stark was right. I’ve got people at the labs right now and she’s still coming out of it. It sounds like Ultron made out with something of hers - hell if I know what, right now. Give me some time and we’ll get an answer out of her. She’s… pretty shaken.”

“But unharmed?” you question, glancing back as you notice someone coming down the hall.

“Luckily, yes.”

There’s a beat of silent static, but you sense there is something more she wants to say.

“What is it?”

“We… uhm, we intercepted an image before it was broadcast to every major news network.”

Tony’s, surprisingly, the one standing beside you. His eyes are wide and imploring, but you merely wave your hand at him.

“What was the picture?”

“Strucker. Dead.”

“His usefulness ran out,” you surmise.

“Pretty graphic stuff, honestly. But we’re keeping it from the airways for now, so.”

It made sense, of course. For the perfect peacekeeper to remove a threat once it was no longer helpful to him.

“Any idea on the location?”

“Funny you should ask,” she says. “It was taken in the mutants’ cells, back at his hideout.”

Now that, was interesting.

“Okay,” you sigh, rubbing your forehead as you glance back over at the billionaire. “Well, I’m going to hand you back to Tony before he forcefully rips this out of my hand.”

Before you can even hear her reply, Tony does in fact take the receiver out of your hand.

“Talk to me,” he says, offering you a wink as you shake your head before he dips into the living room to continue the call.

When you walk back to the library where the others are still conversing, Steve looks toward you with a questioning look.

“Well, I hate to say it,” you huff. “But Stark was right. She’s in good hands right now and yes, she’ll be fine. We might have a location though, for Ultron.”

Bruce’s eyes brighten as he looks over at you, “Where?”

You offer them all a tight smile.

“Sokovia.”

The house is bathed in the hushed tones of evening. The halls are painted with the cool hues of starlight and the feint ambiance of a lone lamp in the library. 

After Maria’s revelation, the team had a quick conversation before it was admitted that they would need at least a few hours of sleep before anyone was in any condition to go anywhere near a robot hell-bent on your collective destruction. So, you bid goodnight to Clint and Natasha - now understanding why the two were sharing a room. As well as Bruce, who was guided up to a room on the third floor.

Tony was determined to head to Oslo as soon as humanly possible. He had taken his suit and decided to fly to the internet hub after his last call with Hill.

That only left…

“Are you just incapable of sleeping?” you ponder as you lean against the wooden archway of the library’s main entrance.

Steve blinks up at you before offering a tired smile, “To be fair, I’m not sure if I could sleep even if I wanted to right now.”

He’s sitting on the blue lounge with a book in his lap. A black-bound story with lettering so faded on the cover you’re not immediately sure which book it is. You take a few steps into the room before you drop down beside him on the chaise.

“From fear of our possible demise or… from that vision?” you ask, tone soft as you begin to tread difficult waters.

The supersoldier’s mouth gapes before he snaps the book closed.

Ah, Treasure Island.

“Little of both?” he answers honestly.

You give him a nod before taking a breath for yourself.

“Do you, uhm, want to talk… about it?”

He looks at you before he drops his gaze to his hands. His silence makes you think you’ve waded out too far into the unknown, but after another stretch of quiet, he says:

“I saw my Ma, actually.”

“Really?”

With a nod, he places the book on the end table beside the lounge. Leaning against the back of the chaise, he entwines his hands into a fist in between his legs. His eyes are locked on the ceiling.

“Everything before that was… hell,” at that, he glances over at you, before almost immediately pulling his gaze away. “And then… I saw her. She looked just like she did before…” he gives a sigh.

“It didn’t feel like the beginning of the vision. That felt like I was completely at the mercy of the nightmare. This part, with her, it was… I don’t know, different.”

Your hand finds purchase on his right forearm, silently imploring him to continue.

“She verbally snapped me out of it, I guess you could say.”

“Must be one powerful woman,” you comment with a small smile.

Steve’s left hand rests comfortably over your own, his thumb rubs at the area just above your wrist. You find yourself leaning into his side, your head coming to rest on his shoulder.

“She was.”

And then, he gives a warm chuckle.

“She, uh, actually used to read me this,” his hand lifts from yours to gently pat the book on the table beside him.

“Oh, such a classic,” you smile.

You can feel him nod, “Honestly got me thinking I was going to grow up to be a pirate one day.”

Pulling back, you fix him with an incredulous expression, “You? Seriously?”

He grins, “What, can’t see it?”

“The rule-breaking and lawlessness? Oh, absolutely. Pillaging and treasure-taking, not so much. You don’t seem the type.”

Steve gives a low-belly laugh.

“I’ll concede to that.”

“Though, now that I think about it,” you pull away just to appraise him. “Captain Rogers does have a certain ring to it if we’re dealing in the realm of piracy.”

He shakes his head, looking down at the book for a long, quiet moment.

“God,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve read this since I was a kid, actually.”

“You want it?”

His head whips back to look at you, an immediate shake of dismissal, “Nah. No, Athena, it’s yours. And it looks, truth be told, older than even me.”

“Well, that’s not much, considering,” you schmooze.

Pushing up from the chaise lounge, you swipe up the book for yourself. The raised leather feels familiar in your hand as you trace your index finger over the embossed green letters.

“It’s a signed copy, you know.”

You flip open the front cover to reveal the signature.

He blinks.

“You’re shitting me.”

“No,” you laugh, collapsing back on the lounge next to him with your legs tucked in under you. Shoving the book in his direction, you point to the dedication.

To Minnie, Wishing you a wonderful adventure. - Robert Louis Stevenson

“I was his nurse for about three months in 1884. Real sweet guy once you got him relaxed and comfortable. I think I have his copy of Jekyll and Hyde around here somewhere…”

Steve’s still staring at the words written in ink, so you carefully deposit the book into his lap. You lean back onto the opposite end of the lounge, waiting for him to say something.

“Minnie?” is the only thing that comes out of his mouth, however.

“Oh, yeah. That.” Rubbing at your arm, you look toward the shelf of books across from you. “Athena’s not too common of a name for most of history. I ended up going by the name the Romans gave me: Minerva. Minerva Polias; Minnie, for short.”

He nods, still a little transfixed.

“Do you still go by that, or…?”

You drop a hand on his arm and he immediately turns his attention toward you with wide blue eyes.

“Steve. Please. Never call me Minnie. I gave you my real name three years ago with the intention that you would use it. There’s no need for aliases between friends.”

He lets out a small breath as a sweet smile comes to his lips.

“Good,” he settles on. “Almost had me worried for a minute there.”

“Hey,” you bump his shoulder with your own. “Can I convince you to try and get some sleep? It’s almost two in the morning and I’d like you to be in top condition if you’re throwing that shield around tomorrow. Don’t need to have you taking off Clint’s head.”

“I wouldn’t - ” he starts to say, but the look on your face settles him. “Okay, fine. You too though.”

“Me too what?” you question with a tilt of your head.

“Sleep. You have to sleep sometime, I’m sure of it.”

With a shrug, you stand from the couch and offer him your hands, “If it’ll get you to try, I’ll do it.”

Steve chuckles, setting the book back down on the table before he pulls the drawstring on the lamp, pulling you both down into the heavy darkness of night.

“Guess it’ll have to,” he says, voice low as the embers of light fade away.

His hands slip into yours and you don’t really have to pull him up, but he allows your fingers to stay entwined all the same. Up the stairs you go, walking slowly to avoid the creaking steps, a hand still held in his.

On the third floor, you can hear the very gentle breaths of Bruce’s snoring from down the hallway. In the sliver of moonlight drifting through the stairwell’s window, you can make out Steve’s features. They’re chiseled like Grecian marble, his eyes are ablaze with the lonely dots of shimmering starlight.

You stop outside of his room, your hand slipping free from his hold.

“It’s a deal then?” you ask in a hushed tone. “You’ll try and sleep if I do the same?”

He nods as he looks down at you. His hands are shoved into his jean pockets.

“Can’t make any promises,” he admits with something somber in his words.

Unable to help yourself, you reach out your hand to cup his cheek. His skin is warm under your touch and you can feel him dip his head down into your palm. Dark eyelashes flutter closed.

You offer the supersoldier a sad smile.

With everything that had happened today and everything that was still to come, it would surprise you if Steve was able to even drift into a light sleep, let alone keep his thoughts at bay long enough to fall asleep.

You’re a little surprised when the man in front of you turns his head ever so slightly. His lips gently press against your open palm before his eyes blink open to look down at your surprised face.

“Get some sleep, Rogers,” you murmur, letting your hand drift back to your side, feeling a ball of tension building in your stomach. “I’m just across the hall.”

His eyes lift from your face to peer at the door directly behind you. A small smile appears on his lips.

Without another word, but several long looks, Steve goes into his guest room and you move across the hall to the room you had long ago claimed as yours. Your door clicks closed first, followed a moment later by the sound of his.

You do not sleep that night.

Your mind is a labyrinth of thoughts, and plans, and ideas that may or may not come to pass. Working through imaginary strategies well into the morning light. You do not feel the draw of exhaustion that you imagine your mortal friends do.

So, as the glimmer of orange and magenta light drifts over the horizon, you take hold of your pendant - still resting comfortably, if not heavily, against your bosom. You offer a silent prayer to whoever wishes to listen before you begin gathering your things.

Coffee is running in the pot for the others, though you have no real food to offer them. You knew Clint and Steve kept a well-stocked snack pouch in their go-bags; mostly granola bars and the like. But it would have to be enough for today.

The others emerge at their own pace, starting with Bruce and then Natasha. Followed by Clint and eventually Steve. The plan had been made the night before, when all six of you were still present, that no matter what, the five of you would leave on the quinjet this morning - regardless if Tony got into contact or not.

Which, he did, sometime just around 6:30.

“I found our ally. Had to pick up the pieces and reassemble him back together.”

“JARVIS?” someone had asked.

“He didn’t even know he was in there, that he was fighting back Ultron. He was still following protocols from within.”

“So, what’s the plan?”

“Still working on that,” he had said.

After placing the last coffee mug onto the drying rack, you take one final look around the house. It would be some time until you returned, you were sure of it.

Pallas is perched on the porch rails when you finally close the front door.

“Hey,” you coo with a soft sigh. “It’s gonna be a while till we see each other. I want you to head back home and stay there. Where we’re going is going be no place for you, bud.”

He bites your finger for good measure before he ruffles out his feathers and soars up into the early morning sky. Celestial blue starlight drifts behind him like a fluttering veil before he pops out of existence.

Steve’s waiting for you at the ramp, already dressed in his uniform - free of his helmet and shield for the time being.

“Once we’re twenty miles clear, we’ll open up the channels again,” Clint says, already behind the controls.

Tony had said there was a bag full of intel that Hill was waiting to tell you all. Settling into the seats behind Clint, you watch as the house grows smaller and smaller, and eventually, gives way to a projection of a forest canopy. And then you’re zipping across the landscape, ascending into the cloud coverage.

Only ten minutes out and they get their call from Hill. Steve watches as you begin to pace the length of the jet.

Right now, you were still down two players. Tony was wrapping things up in Oslo and Thor was still… nowhere to be found.

The public’s understanding of the entire situation was about as bad as it could be. Marking the team as the true villains of the day with endless coverage looping clips of the Hulk destroying Johannesburg and the two Gods going blow to blow in a debris-ridden New York street.

There were countless interviews with eyewitnesses and civilians who had been in the crossfire who praised the help they received from the Ultron bots. There was no mention of you or Sam in London, or Tony’s efforts to aid the people in South Africa.

For all the world knew right now, Ultron was their promised savior.

“What else?” you had asked, voice clipped as your head lay heavy in your palm.

Hill reported CCTV footage of the mutants in multiple locations across Sokovia’s capital city - seemingly hiding in alleyways and shadowy areas. As if trying to avoid detection.

“They flip sides?” Clint had questioned with a note of hope in his voice.

“Unknown,” was all Maria could offer you.

At least they had an answer for what Ultron had been seeking from Dr. Cho. For better or worse.

“A living body?”

“Well, that’s fucking terrifying.”

While they had been split across two continents, fighting mindless battles, Ultron had entered South Korea, otherwise undetected. He had used the scepter on not only Helen Cho but her entire team. Her precious cradle had been corrupted for his nefarious means.

She reported that the mutants, Pietro and Wanda she recalled, had left quite suddenly. And that it had been the girl who released Helen from her forced state. Ultron had escaped with the cradle right after. Helen and her team had been left completely unharmed.

As they crossed the Atlantic, only more questions lay heavy in the air. Multiple unknowns for what they might be walking into. While everyone appeared for all the world to be ready to face whatever lay ahead, Steve knew that appearances could be deceiving.

Just getting the wings fixed, Sam had texted him. Give me some coordinates and I’ll be there.

Steve had shown you the message, noticing a look of relief drifting across your features. He had almost forgotten how close of a call it had been at the Tower, thanks to everything else going on at the time. Between his own nightmarish memories and his need to get you and the God of Thunder away from each other before the city was destroyed any further.

“Only the Abomination could destroy something made out of Adamantine,” you had said with a slight shake of your head.

But as they draw closer to the country, Steve can feel the physical tension hanging in the air. So, when Clint calls out an ETA, the supersoldier stands up to address the team. If not to quell the anxiety in them, then perhaps to help with his own.

“Ultron likely knows we’re coming,” he starts, letting his hand fall onto the back of your chair. “Odds are we’ll be riding into heavy fire. And that’s what we signed up for. But the people of Sokovia, they didn’t. So, our priority is getting them out. We find the cradle and we clear the field. Keep the fight between us.”

He pauses for a moment, collecting his thoughts.

“Ultron… he thinks we’re monsters. That we’re what’s wrong with the world. It’s not just about beating him. It’s about whether he’s right.”

His eyes drift over to your face.

They all had been rattled by Bruce’s confession last night. And that, perhaps, was the most terrifying part of it all. He completely understood where the doctor was coming from. They were a rag-tail group of people from supremely different backgrounds who were supposed to be the elite protective force for the entire Earth.

And yet, there they were arguing over dinner, in a helicarrier with a scepter three feet away, in the middle of Manhattan.

Steve wouldn’t deny the fact that the team wasn’t perfect.

But the fact that Ultron propped himself up as the better option. An inhuman supercomputer who could decide the fate of everyone on the planet. No, even with all their imperfections, the Avengers Initiative was the best - the only - true option out there.

You nod, darkened eyes meeting Steve’s. And then a smile twitches at the corner of your lips.

“I’m still not ghostwriting your speeches,” you mouth.

Steve looks down with a chuckle before he grips your shoulder. Staring out the window, he watches as the distant stretch of land peeks past the waves of rolling blue ocean.

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[beautifulterriblequeen]

B2:S - Chapter 5

Much of this series will be about the differences and additions in the novel version, and how they contribute to my understanding of story canon. But there will be character appreciation, the odd theory and headcanon, and suchlike as well.

Here be lots of Viren deets, Best Boy Soren deets, some writing/continuity stuff, worldbuilding appreciation and half of a theory, Detective Rayla, Moon Temple geeking, Claudium and dark magic, and more!

Spoilers for Book Two: Sky below.

(I know for darn sure that I wrote up a post for chapter 4, but I can't find it anywhere so I guess Tumblr ate it and I'll have to redo it at some point, but today is not that day)

Viren, my evil dude, my bad guy, coming in clutch with the worldbuilding and backstory again! If you want to know decades of information, you gotta talk to Viren. Or read his scenes, at least. Here, he seems to not sleep much when he has a big problem to analyze his way through. Solutions trump pretty much everything else in this guy's life, and he's had a really hard week with a lot of new and complicated problems. Of course he's getting sleep-deprived trying to find his way through them all.

Harrow put so much trust in Viren when he made him High Mage! He just threw himself extra hard at that Lady Justice blindfold, didn't he? Didn't really want to see what Viren was doing in his magic study, so he left Viren to his devices. And Viren has a lot of devices.

Also, this is fascinating: Viren made the secret passage to his "less official study" in Katolis Castle! And he was inspired to do so by the way his own mentor kept the Puzzle House. What else could a Puzzle House be, except a place with secret passages? Yay! secret headcanon that "the Puzzle House" is just "Katolis Castle" from Kid Viren's perspective tho

So either Viren built all of those passageways, or at least the ones to his dungeon. Which means he has to have, or know where to get, a stash of those glowing blue Moonshadow crystals. Hmmm.

I can't wait to learn more about Kpp'Ar and young Viren, btw. From this description of Viren and all his literal secret ways, it feels like another parallel between Viren and Runaan, with the whole "secretive paths, members only, insider knowledge" type stuff. Only the really cool members of this cult club get to know the secrets, and guess what, kid, you're cool now but you can never tell anyone, okay? Our secret.

Yeahhh, that'll never backfire in any way for either of them.

Kpp'Ar calling puzzles and secrets "man-made magic," though. Yes sir, knowledge is indeed power.

This chapter mentions Runaan by name, from Viren's perspective. Generally that would imply that Viren knows his name, even though assassins do not share their names, and Runaan didn't seem to give his to Viren in the first book. However, there was a scene in book one where the last paragraph switched perspective from Viren to Runaan - a technique that's very common in visual media like movies and shows and gives you that "ohoho they left the room and didn't notice this, but you do!" vibe. Using Runaan's name there in book one, where Viren couldn't see it but readers could, helps them keep track of the assassin's story arc while maintaining Viren's racism.

So in book two, in which Runaan has no onscreen scenes (alas), using his name in a scene that calls back to the events in book one helps us remember what happened in that dungeon cell. It would be a bit muddier to recall the specifics if Viren kept thinking about Runaan as "Elf." So I'm cool with the perspective nudge because it serves a narrative purpose: clarity. But I'm also enjoying the angst of considering that, somehow, Viren learned Runaan's name either during or after the coining spell. Mwa ha ha haaa. (Obligatory "Keep my pretty name outta your mouth" goes here)

Okay, back to Viren's scheming! He took the mirror because it was human-sized in a dragon lair. He knew it didn't really fit there, and that made it interesting, so he stole it. But he realized it was really powerful when Runaan wouldn't tell him squat about it - the assassin's instinct to protect Xadian secrets from human hands meant that Viren was holding a very powerful Xadian secret. And that just made him want it all the more. Ah, Runaan, if only your relationship with lying was, like, the exact opposite of what it is. Nyx could've spun Viren a believable tale in 2 minutes flat.

Also of interest: Viren considers his cursed coins to be a final fate. He expects Runaan to remain in his coin forever. With the Chekhov's coins still extant in the storyline, we can assume that they'll come up again eventually, but Viren has no current plans to do anything with his elf money except carry it around.

It's worth noting that Viren admits that he got impatient when he trapped Runaan in the coin. Runaan's first fate in Katolis was supposed to be death at Soren's hands, but Claudia "saved" him from that. His next fate was to become spell components, but Viren's frustration with his stubbornness "saved" him from that fate, too. So now he's in a coin, where no one can chop him up at all. Yay? No, boo!

We get one last line about Runaan before Viren shifts gears: he makes a point of noting for us that Runaan's shackles are still locked shut. However much of Runaan made it into that coin - body, soul, hair care products - he was magicked there, pulled right out of his restraints.

The creepy black liquid that Viren pours right into his eyes is the last of a powerful potion he got from Kpp'Ar, and its recipe is ancient! Humans used it back in the age of Elarion to see through the illusions of the world. And we get a delightfully creepy bit of description about the preparation of this serum, which makes it abundantly clear that it's a Moon magic-based concoction, harvested from eyeless vipers on a moonless night, with the threat of irrevocable madness ("madness" by whose definition, though) if it's done wrong-

Hang on. Hold up. This is a Plato's Cave reference. OH MY GOD.

No no I'm fine, this is brilliant. Sorry, sorry, I couldn't figure why there was so much description for a potion prep that Viren didn't even have to perform himself. But now I get it. I see the light. HA. I should make a separate post for this, it's amazing.

Anyway, for reference, the humans who used this serum were called the Oracles of Ophidia, and Ophidia is a taxonomy group that includes all modern snakes. Can you say "creepy ancient snake rites"? I can! Woo!

Viren activates the serum with a spell, but apparently he's never done it before. He's not sure if it's supposed to be hot and bubbly, and he worries that it's been tainted by moonlight.

Oh, I do hope so.

The magic potion hurts, a lot. Viren will do just about anything, to himself or anyone, to do what he believes is necessary. He just risked madness and blindness to find out what this mirror does! Viren. Can you just. Take a nap or something. Have a Snickers.

This chapter gives us a fun clue that I don't remember from the show: when Viren's vision clears and he can see, his reflection has white pupils and the room reflected in the mirror has inverted colors. You know where else has inverted colors?

You know who else got white pupils for a hot second?

Okay, now it makes sense! Viren and Lujanne were both seeing into the realm beyond life and death. Him with his moon magic potion, and her with her moon powers on a full moon night at the Moon Nexus. Which is Very Interesting! Is it a direct hint about Aaravos's location, or just a separate cool detail? Orrr, does it look like a direct hint because Aaravos is actually trapped in the world beyond life and death, but it's actually separate and we'll see something about white pupils again later on?

Viren really does have self-esteem issues, we all picked up on it with his rant at his reflection. He throws a fit when he catches himself wondering if he's actually worthless. In the book version of his tantrum, he shoves the mirror and hurls a candelabra instead of flipping a table. He didn't need to shove the mirror to set the fire, but it's in here. Foreshadowing that perhaps, if push comes to shove, Viren will choose himself over Aaravos? Giving Aaravos time to peek through and see that the coast is clear?

Soren, my boyyyyy. He has a rough night at the Moon Nexus because two sides of him are fighting with each other. He struggles to understand Callum's friendship with Rayla, and he also fantasizes about chopping off Rayla's head. One of these is a pretty ordinary thing to do. The other is Soren's internalization of what he needs to do to gain his father's approval. If he brought his dad a chopped off elf head every week, he'd probably feel a lot more confident because Viren would praise him a lot more.

Okay, okay, omg, is it just me, or does the "Moonshadow Madness" story, as it's told in the book, seem like Soren just doesn't know what a monsterfucker is? He thinks an elf bite puts humans under a spell. But vampires are sexy, and some people want them to do more to them than just bite them. A passionate kiss under the moonlight could look very bitey, especially if one of the participants has horns and you're already culturally trained to hate them. No yeah, I'm already headcanoning an actual human-elf kiss that got misunderstood by an observer long ago.

it's Lujanne isn't it, we all know, because what is a love spell but a sweet soft illusion, I mean how else does she get supplies for her Caldera, I ask you, and also Corvus was totally sent to investigate once and he told Soren at camp what he saw

And then back to magefam angst: Soren pretending that his sister's nose-tapping is stupid, even though he actually thinks it's cool, just because their dad thinks it's stupid. Viren, istg. Let your kids like harmless things. It's so cute that Soren taps his nose back at her, though! Like they have their own sibling code. I hope we get to see the nose tap again, especially now that they've chosen different sides. It could mean so much, that they're not too far apart yet.

Rayla knows what buttery pancakes smell like. I love this. Do Moonshadow elves have butter and pancakes, does Rayla eat a stack of eight giant pancakes in the morning? Orrrr it is just illusion food? I don't care, let Rayla have pancakes! Everyone loves pancakes. Pancakes will save the world. this message brought to you by the fact that I can't eat pancakes rn, send help

I love that Rayla is both sus of the pancakes and hungry, and that combines into a very motivated "I will get to the bottom of this" attitude. She kind of goes into Poirot Mode when she inserts herself into Soren and Ellis's conversation about Ava, explaining about the wolf's illusion leg and segueing into her claim that the pancakes taste sus. Claudia confirms she used dark magic, and Rayla is furious. It's different than the show's version in that it puts Rayla in detective mode, as the only Moonshadow elf in the scene, and boy does she take that role seriously. Also, she doesn't actually swallow the dark magic pancake bite. It ends up on the ground just like Lujanne's grubs from that earlier meal. These poor kids are so nutrient-starved. You guys gotta eat!!

Rayla's determination and prejudices and the fact that she super knows Harrow is dead all dovetail to make her try repeatedly to persuade Callum that Soren and Claudia are Not To Be Trusted. It's nice that the book keeps taking the time to point out that Rayla is Well Intentioned But Flawed, just like Callum and pretty much every other character in the show. No one is Right All The Time, no one Knows More Than Everyone Else.

Callum loving the sound of Claudia's unique voice is so wholesome. When you like someone, it only makes sense that you like all the things about them that they can't change - like the sound of Claudia's voice. Her choices with dark magic, not so much!

Claudia seems to have the same concerns Soren does about Callum's relationship with Rayla, but she comes out and asks him. The inherent possession implied in "your elf" is interesting, though. Elves are not people to Claudia. They're enemies who can be disassembled for the magic inside them. So maybe more like robots than living beings, if she knew what a robot was. Maybe she heard Soren's "Moonshadow Madness" story and realized he totally missed the kissing implications - but she didn't, and now she's genuinely worried that Rayla could kiss Callum under a full moon and enchant him to do her will. Good thing it's only a half moon, then!

Okay, Callum nervously making a puppet hand and then not knowing what to do with his hands and freaking out about itching and moving and pointy elbows is such a ND mood. The sudden stress of knowing that someone else is noticing your existence and maybe you're Not Existing Right, amirite? Ugh, poor Callum.

The Moon Temple! Omg it's so pretty in the description! Made to be beautiful and useful, full of knowledge but also allowing light and life inside (butterflies and vines). Lujanne, when can I move in, please? Also, it's all the more angsty because Lujanne is the only one who gets to see this beautiful place, but it has lots of chairs and shelves and tables, and it was meant to be used by lots of people. :(((

Claudia knows some of the runes on the walls. She isn't in a hurry to copy the rest of them down or anything, either. Her spellwriting is very precise, and she's a skilled mage. Her father would have made sure she was aware of the dangers of drawing sloppy runes, as much as he made her aware of the dangers of doing dark magic wrong. And the whole point of dark magic is that it's easier to learn than primal magic. Claudia supports her dad and their shared knowledge and life path. She's not gonna go nuts over an elf library she can't translate.

Side note: Between Claudia knowing some Moon runes and Viren building a secret passageway and a dungeon and lighting it with the same blue crystals that Lujanne and Ethari use for light--and Claudia exclaiming that she loves ruins--I wonder once more if there are really Moonshadow ruins somewhere in Katolis, which Viren has found and looted. Father-daughter relic hunting trip, maybe while Soren is away at camp? Omgsh that would be so wild!

Callum out here having a Viren moment with his "I feel powerless unless I've got magic that lets me help" vibes. God. I love their complicated mirroring. One of the hard differences between them is that Callum is very sure dark magic is bad because you have to kill stuff and take its power to cast spells, and he doesn't want to be a person who kills and takes like that. The line he walks to be nice to Claudia on their tour of the Cursed Caldera because he likes her, while telling her that he doesn't want to do her magic, like, ever, is so fine that it might as well be a shifting shadow on the ground. It's a very fitting conversation to be having during the half moon, with its tricks and little white lies.

Callum being out of the castle and his comfort zone, having to deal with the fact that the Claudia he loves is not quite the Claudia who's chasing him down across the kingdom, but of the two of them, he's the only one with a problem with this.

They say that if you really want to get to know someone, you should spend time with them outside their comfort zone - in heavy traffic, with a small baby, taking care of a new pet, trying a new skill, following unfamiliar directions, etc. While the castle is familiar territory for them both, Callum's never really found his comfort zone yet, while Claudia is pretty comfortable with her growing skill set. The creepy part starts to kick in when Callum begins to realize that Claudia's comfort zone encompasses a whole bunch of stuff that seems like it should make her uncomfortable... but it doesn't. But that'll be for a future chapter!

[accursedkaleeshi]

Weyla’s Bio

TL:DR The general’s 6th wife a long, thin, dark absolute queen from the south. An old family with old money, Weyla was as well off as Kaleesh get & was definitely way too good for Grievous. Regal, cold, but proud she was a hunt mother that had 3 children. Disappeared under mysterious circumstances a few years after the Clone Wars.

Weyla was another sister of one of the Izvoshra, Kedjat. Kedjat had met Qymaen through the member of the Izvoshra that was a Muja bandit. Kedjat had acted as a sort of ambassador for Kaleeshi resistance in the southeast of continental Kalee based out of the Vudt, the canyon separating the west from the south. (I can feel it, the inevitability of me developing the rest of the Izvoshra.)

Kedjat had already been gathering militia & proved to be an asset throughout the conflict. Kedjat, though, was like that one unhinged crackhead in every friend group, somehow shadier than his bandit friend. That being said, it was a surprise when the war ended & he confided in Grievous that he actually came from an incredibly prominent family. This family had migrated from the north all the way to the southernmost region of the continent. If Taa’yn’s family was ancient & traditionally native, Weyla’s family was ancient & modern.

Kedjat was like “Yo Grievous you are good enough for Sk’ar’s sister but are you good enough for Weyla?” & Grievous was not sold on this, having never met their family. Kedjat was like “Please man, she’s really interested in you & my family is one (1) incident away from disowning me entirely now that the war is over.” Grievous was like “Maybe you shouldn’t be such a fucking spazz then.” But Kedjat had done much for the Kaleeshi resistance & he was literally begging. So, he agreed to meet with his family.

So Grievous had a very formal meeting with the family. It was very high brow. Although Grievous had come from high warrior ranks, he felt very out of place there. This was the closest thing Kalee had to aristocracy. There was a phrase for people like that: “Their children didn’t play in dirt” which was used like “I guess they didn’t go to public school”. Weyla herself was way too good for him. She had a very cold, royal disposition. She was tall with long features, always with her head held high on her slender neck. She was also melanistic & was the darkest Kaleesh Grievous had ever seen. She was strikingly gorgeous by modern Kaleeshi standards.

The two went on a walk around the grounds of the estate. Weyla told him she was very interested in him. She heard he was a demigod fraternizing with her asshole brother. She was impressed that he fiercely led so many different Kaleesh to one purpose. He replied that he was merely using the children of Kalee to fight for her (the planet, always referred to with female pronouns). At this Weyla let slip the severe resting expression of judgement she wore & actually smiled. Grievous was like “oh no.” They then bonded over diversity & ranged weapons, as Weyla was a traditionally trained Kaleeshi archer.

Grievous married Weyla at the start of 35 BBY alongside his 7th wife (who was Weyla’s opposite in many ways, which she found delightful). The other wives were concerned about the clear class difference & didn’t want her to feel too alienated. She assured them it was nothing to worry about but damn if she didn’t have a presence. She got along well enough with everyone.

Jyada liked to try & get a rise out of her because their hunt masks were skulls from the same species of animal. Of course, Weyla’s was bigger & ornate & her wardrobe was worth more money than had ever passed through Jyada’s hands in her life. She would keep doing this despite no one ever getting a rise out of Weyla. Such poise, much grace.

Weyla bore three children & was the penultimate hunt mother. She was Weyla’ma to the kids & they found her kind of scary but incredibly badass. There was often competition to impress her. The kids liked to start rumors that she could shoot better than Grievous with hopes it would end in a demonstration & they’d get to watch their parents shoot things.

Weyla was injured in 25 BBY when Salean (wife #8) was killed in a hunting incident. Spoiler, I know. She ended up losing her left foot at the ankle. Like a number of things that his benevolent employer did not actually help with, the Banking Clan did not offer assistance despite him working with their funding development of advanced cybernetic prosthetics (ominous foreshadowing music). Grievous made her a prosthetic himself. This & the lack of aid or understanding about the Huk on Oben were the last in a line of things that led Grievous to ultimately tell San Hill to fuck right off since, obviously, he had to do everything himself. He was obliterated the next year.

Weyla lived beyond Grievous. In 15 BBY she left to make a trip south to settle something with her privkliin (her first family, or family of origin). This was something she had done before but this time she straight disappeared in transit. It is largely believed she was assassinated by some shady southern shit aligning with the system’s Imperial outpost. She often worked with the capital as her family funded much in the political welfare of the people. Weyla was very prominent & the public would refer to her as the Queen of Grievous & the Empire was like shut that shit down, you savages are going nowhere. These same Imperials, in charge of shutting up former Separatist planets, tried assassinating Bryaru as well but the chateau de Sheelal is well fortified as you might imagine. The disappearance of Weyla really fucked with Bryaru & led her to leave the planet with a band of followers to inconvenience the Empire at every given opportunity.

[borgesperovago]

YuGiOh!: Dogmatika/Tribrigade lore rant.

Ok, first time I do something like this, so bear with me.

Dogmatika is doubtlessly the best archetype of Phantom Rage, and Tribrigade is not trash by any means. I really enjoy playing the former (I am big on control decks) and the artwork in both is marvelous, but because of practical reasons, I will only include those with particular symbolisms. So, without further ado, let’s start with the lore:

So far, from the 7 Dogma monsters, Ecclessia, Fleur-de-Lis and Hashashiyan are the more releveants.

Though Ecclessia’s name doesn’t seem to hold big symbolism, the other two very much do; Fleur de Lis means literally “the flower of Lis”, a symbol of humility, diligence and noblety, the virtues of a catholic knight. Whereas Hashashinyan resembles more the name Hashashin, an ancient religious group that became infamous for their assassinations of multiple knights during the crusades (something the Machiavellian artwork of the card reinforces). It seems to me as inconsistent with the rest of the Dogmatika monster’s name, and makes me think it may be foreshadowing of the traitorous nature of Hashshashinyan and his army towards the Dogmatika (more on that later).

They live in a seemingly hyerochratic country (Dogmatika Nation) and they are suddenly attacked by some sort of magic (disciple of Nadir)

This is an attack from the Tribrigade, a group of beast-humans accompanied by Fallen of Albaz.Fleur-de-Lis single handed defeats the dragon Titanklad the Ash Dragon (Dogmatika Punishment) and proceeds to confront Shrike the Wicked Wings, this time at the disadvantage (Tribrigade Airborne).

Meanwhile Ecclessia is facing the rest of the enemies on the ground. She faces off Fallen (and seemingly defeats him) and they seem to have some sort of exchange of words (Dogmatika Encounter).

The Tribrigade congregates with the apparent intention of aiding Fallen of Albaz, at the same time Hashashinyan and his army appear ready finish them off. Ecclessia tried to stop him as she holds the Fallen (Tribrigade Line)

Now this one is tricky; I think that in Dogmatikatism Hashashinyan tries to attack Ecclessia and Fallen of Albaz uses the same magic as seen in Diciple of Nadir to protect her (the same black and purple diamond appears in both)

It can also be interpreted as if maybe Ecclessia awakened a similar power, like a kin of the Fallen. Regardless, it is obvious that Hashashinyan is desperate to destroy the Tribrigade and silence Ecclessia; it could be mere fanatism (“how dare you even consider to forgive them?!” Sort of thing) but I don’t think so. After World Legacy, I know Konami does investigate throughly the names they give, and it would be weird to give a catholic-like archetype a monster with a name very anti-catholic. Fleur-de-Lis is the champion of the Dogmatika, and he seems to care about Ecclessia, being totally consistent with his name. Hashashinyan is a traitor of some kind, that is my opinion.

After that, the Tribrigade takes an unconscious Ecclessia (Tribrigade Revolt) and retreat to safety where they seem to discuss among themselves as they take care of Ecclessia (Tribrigade Oath).

And so far, that’s it. I love good lore in YuGiOh! and this one is really interesting so far. It also reassured me that there is more support on the way (the story isn’t finished, after all).

Please, if you disagree, comment your interpretation; I will pay it good attention. Thanks for making it this far.

[creative-type]

Chapter 218 is Amazing and Here’s Why (Continued)

So I had intended to finish my analysis of chapter 218 of One Piece in one post, but things were starting to run a little long and I split it in two. Here’s Part 1 for those who are interested. For the rest of you, let’s jump in where we left off

I know I say this a lot, but I really like that panel. For one thing, Usopp is using a desk lamp. Knowing him, he probably invented it himself just for the occasion. 

On a more serious note, the entire feel of this scene is completely different than the last time the Straw Hats as a group interacted with Robin. I wrote extensively on chapter 114 here, but what I want to draw attention to now is how the tables have (supposedly) turned. Remember how Robin held all the power and was seated above the Straw Hats while tossing them around like a bunch of punks?

Yeah, that’s no longer the case. Robin is surrounded by Usopp, Zoro, and Nami, the three Straw Hats who distrust her most. And while Usopp’s too much of a chicken to be intimidating, there’s no mistaking Zoro and Nami’s body language. They’re closed off, guarded, and Zoro at least has his weapons close at hand. 

At the same time, the way the speech bubbles are placed draw attention to Chopper and Luffy. You can barely make out a hand, and one might assume it’s Sanji’s, as he’s the only Straw Hat not visible. 

Which, of course, it’s not

This set up is the impetuous for three hilarious pages where Robin one by one wins over the Straw Hats (except Zoro, because he’s a killjoy). I recommend reading the entire sequence to get the full effect. It’s classic Oda humor from start to finish that makes me smile every time I read it

(especially this)

Now going back a bit, Robin tells Usopp that she’s an archaeologist from a long line of archaeologists and has been on the run for twenty years. Never once in this entire “interview” does she lie. In fact, I can’t recall Robin ever  lying in the entire series, except for when she didn’t give Crocodile Pluton’s location. 

There are a couple of different reasons for this. For one, it’s convenient for the narrative if the audience doesn’t have to second-guess everything the main characters say. On the whole the Straw Hats are pretty honest people - Usopp being the obvious exception. (Nami is also a bit of a wheeler and a dealer, but since Arlong Park is more prone to using her good looks and force of will to get her way over straight-up lying. That, or stealing what she wants outright.)

Secondly, Robin has had a bounty on her head for a long time. The Ohara incident was publicized around the world. There’s no reason to hide certain aspects of her backstory when it’s essentially public knowledge. 

Still, it’s interesting to note that the one Straw Hat who is known world-wide as a demon who has betrayed every group she’s joined tells the truth here. It’s obvious that in addition to winning the Straw Hats over, Robin is using her ability to direct the attention away from herself. One might even suggest that Robin tells Usopp she’s an assassin to rattle him enough to avoid more personal questions. She does a masterful job of using each of the Straw Hat’s weaknesses against them. 

It becomes more apparent later on that Robin is an incredibly private person. When Chopper and Sanji are looking for her on Water 7 they don’t know where to even to start, because there are no ancient ruins about, and that’s the only place they can think of where she would go. 

Now, this falls more into the realm of theories and head canons, but since Robin’s whole dream focuses around finding The Truth and since her whole life has been ruined by vicious slander and falsehoods, I would imagine that Robin hates lying more than the average person. She will misdirect, avoid questions, or tell bits and pieces of well-known information without giving context, but she won’t lie.

Moving on, Robin uses the same intelligence and playful nature that was established in chapter 114 to avoid any more of Usopp’s questions (consistent characterization, gotta love it) before having a private word with Zoro. I like how Robin doesn’t even try the same tricks she used with the rest, because I think she knows it won’t work. Instead she addresses him more or less as an equal.

Assuming this is a nuanced and accurate translation, when Robin says “This isn’t that bad” we can make the assumption that she thought it would be bad. It’s understandable that she would think this way - the Straw Hats were her enemies not too long ago - but it brings up the point that Robin willingly stowed away on a ship she knew she wouldn’t be welcome because she had no place else to go. When Zoro affirms that the Straw Hats are basically a bunch of dorks, Robin smiles.

Now Robin smiles an awful lot for someone who wants to die. It’s basically her default expression, and it’s nothing but a front to hide her real feelings. She even smiles when she’s just been stabbed and is about to be buried alive after living a miserable, meaningless life without accomplishing anything she’s ever set out to do. That’s one deeply-rooted defense mechanism.

This is the first time we see Robin really be happy, and her surprise at learning that the Straw Hat Pirates are fun-loving and cheerful even when traveling with a former enemy is the kick-start to Robin’s character arc.

Because make no mistake, the Robin who joined the Straw Hat Pirates was the same Robin who joined Crocodile. All the stuff at the beginning of the chapter helps flesh her out into a fully-realized character instead of a cardboard Vivi replacement, but at this moment Robin’s beliefs about the Straw Hat Pirates are challenged, and a character can’t change if they aren’t challenged. 

There’s a cute Zoro-pouty face to that ends this scene, and our focus swings back to the Straw Hats as a whole. An undetermined amount of time has passed because now they’re talking about the weather and Zoro is back to lifting weights

I don’t know if you can have foreshadowing that’s paid off in one panel, but Oda doesn’t waste a beat with the little clacks of wood against wood. For the second chapter in a row there’s an amazing twist at the end that no one could have seen coming. I already shown this spread in my last post, but it’s so epic it deserves a second viewing

I can’t remember if this is the only time Oda has used a real life quote in One Piece, but if not, it’s one of very few. And honestly, what could be more appropriate for a series like One Piece? The whole composition of this page is beautiful, and all the little details take my breath away. I really don’t get it when people say Oda’s art is ugly, because they’re wrong. 

Anyway, things get crazy for a couple of pages while the Straw Hats try not to capsize. Oda has this thing he does when he uses square or rectangular panels for his dialogue and uneven shapes like trapezoids for action scenes. I think that’s pretty standard procedure for comics (I’m by no means an expert) but here Oda helps sell the chaos by composing his pages so it feels like the panels are tilting with the ship

There’s also a nice gag with Usopp that doubles as a character moment. Instead of grabbing hold for dear life Usopp sits and closes his eyes to pray, completely ignoring the problem in hopes that it goes away. It’s funny here when he gets a skeleton to the face, but it highlights a huge flaw that finally comes to a head during the Water 7/Enies Lobby arcs.

After that we get this sequence of panels

Please forgive my horrendous edit, but I wanted to show how the speech bubble fits into curve of the wave in the second panel and leads the eye through the rest of the sequence even though the individual images don’t really relate to one another. Oda constructs this scene in such a way that we feel the chaos, but he does so in an orderly fashion. Each panel gets smaller and smaller - similar to the “fade to black” technique I talked about previously, and it leads directly the last splash panel on the page

The chaos ends just as abruptly as it began. The Straw Hats are mystified, and, honestly, Oda could have ended the chapter here. It’s such a high note, a good dose of Grand Line craziness after so much focus on the crew. But Oda isn’t satisfied with stopping here. He ends the chapter with what I believe to be one of the best story hooks in the series, tied only with Zou for sheer “WTF, the Straw Hats are going where?” moments in all of One Piece.

Skypea isn’t my favorite arc in the series. A lot of people say the same. But if you can pretend that you’d never read/seen what was coming next and take the end of 218 for what it is - and that’s pure hype - then you’ve got to admit that Oda has done his job.

So that concludes our look into chapter 218 “The Log Pose and Why It Is Round”. To summarize my thoughts on the chapter and why it’s amazing

Ships fall from the sky

Oda never forgets 

But he does lure us into thinking he does

Ships fall from the sky

Robin is established as a “protagonist” without necessarily being a “good guy”

Symbolism

Excellent page composition

Gags that reveal character

Consistent characterization with hints of further development to come

and last but not least

      10. Ships falling from the sky

(Thanks to everyone who has the patience to read this far. Next I’ll continue my Nico Robin study with chapter 253, specifically looking at Robin’s place in the Skypea arc and how Oda prefers stealth development over big character moments. See you next time!)

[lievbios]

Angel || Spike

Name: Spike

Age:

Relationship: Single [Verse depending]

Sexuality: Pansexual

Job:

Faceclaims: James Marsters

Spike (born William Pratt) was a famous and widely-feared vampire turned in 1880. He was well-known among both humans and demons for having faced and killed two Slayers during his unlife, and his history of torturing his victims with railroad spikes (which is rumored the moniker of “Spike” is derived from). His reputation for evil and bloodshed was second only to that of his grandsire Angelus.[1] In his human life, William was an unsuccessful and unappreciated romantic poet known as William the Bloody, for his “bloody awful” poetry, though after he became a vampire, that moniker was re-purposed to imply he was very violent. After being sired by Drusilla, he reinvented himself and terrorized Europe alongside Drusilla, Angel and Darla throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Spike first traveled to Sunnydale in 1997, accompanied by Drusilla. He quickly established himself as one of Buffy Summers’ most dangerous enemies, but was eventually forced into a series of uneasy alliances with her and her team, the Scooby Gang, after being captured by the Initiative and implanted with a cerebral microchip that rendered him unable to harm humans. Eventually, Spike realized that he had fallen in love with Buffy and officially joined the Scooby Gang, later being motivated by his love for her to successfully fight to regain his soul.

Spike sacrificed his life in battle against the First Evil, both defeating its army of Turok-Han and permanently closing the Hellmouth, as well as destroying the town of Sunnydale. However, bound to an ancient amulet, Spike became an incorporeal entity haunting the halls of the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram & Hart, then under the management of Team Angel. After becoming corporeal again, Spike struggled to find a place in the world, only to join Angel in his battle against the Senior Partners and become a Champion in his own right.

William Pratt[2] was born circa 1850 to 1853 in London, England to Anne Pratt and her unidentified husband. Anne often sang him an old folk song called “Early One Morning” throughout his infancy and childhood.[3] By 1880, William had grown into a sentimental, and ineffectual gentleman who lived alone with his ill mother. He was a poet, and enjoyed a certain level of economic comfort. Struggling to make a place for himself in London’s high society, he attended parties, and was nicknamed “William the Bloody” because his poetry was so “bloody awful.” This moniker, with far deadlier connotations, followed him into his future as a vampire.

While he moved within elite circles, William found little in common with his contemporaries, who often made him the butt of their jokes. Still, he showed a strong capacity for loyalty and was highly devoted to the idea of love, two traits that remained with him long after his siring. After his romantic overtures were rejected by the aristocrat Cecily Addams, a despondent William literally collided with Angelus, Darla and Drusilla, who had been terrorizing London. Drusilla followed him into an alley, where she found him in tears. She desired a playmate — a “knight” —, whom she could make hers forever. After a brief talk with the young poet, Drusilla seduced him and turned him into a vampire.[4]

After Drusilla sired William, she buried him and allowed him to be reborn as a vampire; he crawled from the depths of his own make-shift grave.[5] The pair partied for several days afterward, both draining human victims and drinking alcohol. They eventually decided to go back to William’s mother’s residence, where a live-in servant ignorantly invited them inside.

After staking his mother, William began a new existence with Drusilla. Euphoric with his new-found vampiric abilities, he abandoned the genteel hypocrisy and morals of Victorian life but still remained emotionally sensitive. He was eventually introduced to Drusilla’s sire, Angelus, who initially embraced him by expressing an interested in killing with another man. At first, the innocent William idolized Angelus, but was still quick to disagree when he insulted Drusilla in his presence. He preferred to think of her as childish rather than insane, and treated her with undying loyalty.

William was urged to give up his last drop of aristocracy, and became a rebel, adopting a working class North London accent and embracing impulsiveness and violence. He took on the nom de guerre “Spike”, inspired by a detractor from his human days who had exclaimed he would rather “have a railroad spike driven through his head“ than listen to William’s poetry. It was even indicated that he was involved in criminal activities, as Spike later remarked that he spent “the better part of a century” in delinquency. In the company of Drusilla, Darla and Angelus, Spike tyrannized Europe and Asia for the better part of two decades under the banner of the Whirlwind.

1890: Spike, Drusilla, Angelus, and Darla attended the ballet Giselle, in St Petersburg, Russia.[10]

October 1898: Spike & Dru were in Borsa, Romania with Angelus and Darla. Spike, however was oblivious that Angelus had regained his soul due to being cursed by gypsies. But he joined in the massacre of the gypsy clan Kalderash.[12]

June 18, 1900: in Beijing, China, Spike killed Slayer Xin Rong during the Boxer Rebellion. During the fight, in which she used a sword and Spike was unarmed, the Slayer gave him the scar on his left eyebrow, which he still had over a century later. Once again, Drusilla and Spike’s attraction to each other was heightened by chaos and bloodshed, as they immediately become intimate after Spike has murdered Xin Rong.[4]

1953: Back in Rome with Drusilla, Spike had apparently caused a Black Widower demon to be in debt to him. The demon had avoided repaying his debt however, and Spike catches up to him when he’s just had sex with then 18-year-old half-demon Pearl, and was about to eat her, while her brother Nash had been knocked out. In attempt to collect his debt, Spike became an accidental hero, decapitating the demon and inadvertently rescuing Pearl. She became fascinated by the vampire that she considered her hero.[14]

1969: Spike attended Woodstock, where he drank blood from a flower child, and spent the next several hours watching his hand move; a side effect from the psychoactive drugs in their bloodstream.[9]

July 13, 1977: He fought and killed Nikki Wood, a Slayer in New York City aboard a subway train, and stole her black leather duster, which he continued to wear even decades later.[4] At some point he met British punk rocker Billy Idol, who was inspired by Spike’s look and copied it.

Spike first appeared in Sunnydale accompanied by his longtime lover Drusilla, who had recently been wounded by an angry mob in Prague. He was a devoted caretaker to Drusilla in her weakened condition, and initially hoped the Hellmouth’s powerful energy would help to restore her strength. The presence of a Slayer made the town an even more attractive retreat to Spike. He tracked Buffy Summers down at the Bronze and observed her from afar. His interest in her immediately seemed more perverse than homicidal.

Eventually, Spike discovered that Drusilla could only be healed by the blood of her sire; he was more than happy to kill Angel to restore her, and kidnapped him with the help of Willy the Snitch. He subsequently hired the Order of Taraka to assassinate Buffy, though he ultimately cancelled the bounty when she defeated the three assassins who had been sent.[17] With the help of Kendra Young, a second Slayer activated when Buffy drowned the previous year, Buffy tracked down Spike and Drusilla to the church where the were going to perform the ritual to heal Drusilla. The ensuing fight ended when Spike was crushed under a collapsing pipe organ; he was left paralyzed from the waist down for several months. Though Angel was saved, Spike’s ritual succeeded, and Drusilla was restored to perfect health.[18]

It was later revealed that Spike and Drusilla traveled to Brazil, where she remained horrified by his alliance with the Slayer. Drusilla’s abilities caused her to sense that Spike would come to develop romantic feelings for Buffy; she rejected him and cheated on him with a Chaos Demon,[4] which sent the lovelorn Spike into a long drunken depression.

He returned to Sunnydale, where he kidnapped Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris and attempted to force Willow to cast a love spell on Drusilla. While in town he visited Buffy’s mother, Joyce Summers, who listened sympathetically to his heartache, and recruited Buffy and Angel to help him gather ingredients for the spell. However, Mayor Wilkins, knowing that Spike’s mere presence in Sunnydale posed a threat to his plans, quickly organized a “welcoming committee” consisting of Spike’s own former minions to deal with him. After fighting them off, Spike cheerfully abandoned the idea of enchanting Drusilla, resolving instead to win her back by torturing her until she loved him again and told the Slayer where to find her two missing friends. He also told Buffy and Angel that no matter what happened, they would never be friends because of their eternal love for one another. Buffy later remarked to Angel “I can fool Giles, and I can fool my friends, but I can’t fool myself — or Spike, for some reason.” This final quote foreshadowed the pivotal role Spike would someday come to play in Buffy’s group.[20]

Spike’s existence took a pivotal turn when he was captured by the the Initiative, a secret demon-fighting government organization, the members of which implanted him with a cerebral microchip that rendered him unable to willingly harm or attempt to harm humans without experiencing crippling pain.[23] This chip became Spike’s surrogate soul, as it forced him to consider moral consequences of harming others, with the literal punishment of physical pain looming over his head if he ever went against it. Unable to hunt for blood, and still pursued by the Initiative, he reluctantly made the decision to turn to the Scooby Gang for help.[24]

Spike became ecstatic when Xander warned him of an upcoming apocalypse because he wanted the world to end. He nonetheless managed to cheer himself up by viciously tearing down Willow and Xander emotionally, remarking that they were both useless to Buffy, who as a Slayer, would be better off if she didn’t have to constantly watch out for both of them. Willow and Xander were forced to think of his words despite their mutual denial.[28]

Spike came to discover that the chip did not prevent him from hurting demons, much to his joy, allowing him to be more independent of the Scoobies and move out to a crypt.[29] He subsequently became a reluctant ally of the Gang and provided them with assistance in exchange for cash or brawls. At this point, Spike was still interested in his own selfish well-being, and reminded the Scoobies of this constantly with one of his many catchphrases: “I’m Evil!” Upon learning that the unstable Slayer Faith was on the loose, he proclaimed that he would find her and tell her the Scoobies’ exact whereabouts, and gleefully watch while she tore them apart.[30]

When Adam discovered that Spike had failed to split up the Scoobies, he made an attempt to kill him, but Spike managed to escape. After Buffy slew Adam, Spike saved Willow, Giles and Xander from an attacking demon in hope that they wouldn’t kill him for his actions; indeed, they agreed to spare him out of fatigue and gratitude. Spike then helped the Scoobies and Riley Finn battle the rampaging demon hordes within the Initiative’s complex, rescuing most of the soldiers. The Initiative was then shut down by the U.S. government, as it had proved an unsuccessful operation.[31]

Following the fall of the Initiative, Spike began offering more and more assistance to Buffy and the Scoobies. He told Riley about his old rivalry with Dracula,[21] and later punched Tara to prove that her father’s claims about her being a demon were untrue, as his chip caused him pain when he struck her, thus confirming that she was purely human.[21]

His story revealed his fixation with Slayers to Buffy, who had him replay his battles with the two Slayers in great detail, fights he related to “dances.” Buffy was disgusted by his desire to “dance” with her, and pushed him to the ground. Spike was visibly hurt when she told him that he was beneath her, as this was first said to him when he was turned down by Cecily Addams as a human. Equipped with a shotgun, he went to her house with the goal of killing her, but upon finding her on her back porch in tears about her mother’s illness, cast aside his feelings of anger and humiliation and comforted her for the first time.[21]

Buffy’s trust in Spike grew immensely from there; a prime example being when she left Dawn with him in his crypt after Glory “brain-sucked” Tara. While there, Dawn tearfully blamed herself for Glory’s attacks on her friends (including Spike’s torture at Glory’s hands) and believed herself a lightning rod for pain. Spike consoled her as best he could, telling her that as a vampire, he knew a thing or two about evil, and she wasn’t it. When Buffy later joined them, believing that she had managed to talk Willow down from taking vengeance on Glory, Spike quickly pointed out that Willow, being a very powerful and angry witch, would not be so easily reasoned with regarding someone she loved being hurt, causing Buffy to immediately rush to her rescue.[37]

Spike remained unaware of the Scoobies’ plan to resurrect Buffy until after the event; he returned to the Summers’ residence in search of Dawn, only to discover Buffy alive-and-well 148 days after her death.[5] He, like a few of the others, considered the possible drawbacks of such an extreme act, but later expressed that, had the spell gone wrong, he wouldn’t have let the others destroy the result if it had retained even the slightest part of the real Buffy. Unable to confide in her friends about being torn from Heaven due to guilt, Buffy began to go to Spike for comfort, who willingly accepted both the best and worst of her emotions.

With the returning of Spike’s soul came a conscience filled with guilt, both for the sins he had committed throughout his life and his more recent attack on Buffy. He couldn’t bring himself to see her for some time, and took shelter in the basement of the newly constructed Sunnydale High School, where he presumably lived on rats. There, he was tormented by both the the First Evil and his soul, and appeared to be losing his mind; he forced Buffy to leave when she discovered him, and sadly showed her that he had tried to cut out his own heart in self-contempt.

Buffy went to him and pleaded that he accompany her to the surface, telling him that he had done more than enough, but Spike remained true to his desire to die for “love, honor and all the right reasons”. He told her that he could feel his soul within him, and Buffy, saddened but accepting of his resolve, locked fingers with him in order to feel it too. She told him that she loved him, moving Spike. He, however, did not believe her and said “No you don’t, but thanks for saying it.” He forced Buffy to leave his side then, and was slowly incinerated by the sunlight. As he burned and crumbled to dust, Spike reveled in the destruction before him, glad to be able to see the fight to its end. He died closing the Hellmouth and saving the world.[53]

Spike appeared in Los Angeles 19 days after his apparent death in Sunnydale. The amulet he’d worn during the battle against the First had mysteriously been mailed to Wolfram & Hart in a parcel. When Angel opened the package, the amulet fell out and Spike materialized from a cloud of dust. Confused and afraid, he immediately attempted to attack Angel, but found that he could no longer touch anything, and had become incorporeal. At first, he complained about being brought back, stating dramatically: “Can’t a man die in peace without some high almighty deciding it’s not his time?”[54] He intended to leave Los Angeles and travel to Europe to reunite with Buffy, who was gathering Slayers there, but discovered that he was mystically bound to the city and was unable to leave its limits. He opted to stay at Wolfram & Hart in order to find a way to regain his body, and to haunt Angel, whom he still hated with fervency.

Just as Spike began to grow accustomed to his ghostly nature, a mysterious package arrived for him in the mail; upon opening it, a flash of light restored his body. Chaos concurrently erupted at Wolfram & Hart. Eve soon arrived with an addition to the Shanshu Prophecy that stated that the existence of two corporeal ensouled vampires would complicate the outcome of the prophecy, and perhaps even destroy the fabric of reality. She told Angel and Spike that an extended translation of the text revealed that, in order to restore balance, the two must compete to drink from the Cup of Perpetual Torment. The winner would be bestowed with great responsibilities and pain before ultimately having his past washed clean, allowing him to live as a human again.

Angel’s old enemy Lindsey McDonald subsequently chose to take advantage of Spike’s desire to do good by pretending to be the late half-demon Doyle and persuading him that he is destined, like Angel before him, to “help the helpless.” Alienated by Angel’s corporate, bureaucratic approach to fighting evil, Spike willingly stepped into his shoes as a hero for the people. While in business, he took on Dana, a psychotic Slayer who had escaped from a mental institution. As a Slayer, Dana was burdened by dreams and memories that were not her own, and mistakenly believed Spike to have killed her family (she was confusing other Slayers’ memories with her own). She captured and drugged Spike, and cut off his hands. The experience caused Spike to more deeply examine the nature of the evil within him; he later told Angel about Dana’s misconception that he had murdered her family, and said: “And I’m supposed to do, what, complain, ’cause hers wasn’t one of the hundreds of families I did kill?” Spike expressed to Angel that there was little hope for Dana, who had become a monster like them, but Angel responded that she was an innocent victim. Spike then pointed out that he and Angel were innocent victims too, “once upon a time.” Spike’s hands were reattached at Wolfram & Hart, after which he was instructed to play video games for physical therapy, including Donkey Kong and Crash Bandicoot.

After the Fall of Los Angeles into a hell dimension, Spike and Illyria were separated from Angel and began watching over a group of human and demon survivors. One such civilian, Jeremy Johns — despite Spike’s resistance — became Spike’s right hand man and friend. In hell Illyria soon began randomly changing back into her Fred form which left her confused and vulnerable, and Spike was forced to urge her to remain as Illyria in order to protect her. During this time he briefly considered the prospect that he had developed feelings for Fred.

While wandering the city, Spike encountered a dragon, and considered killing it until it telepathically told him that he should mount it. The dragon took Spike to the ruins of Wolfram & Hart, where he found a figure suspended inside a field of energy, writing in pain. Meanwhile, in Spike’s absence, the civilians were kidnapped by a group of strange demon warrior women. After leaving the law firm, Spike encountered one of the women, and commandeered her truck in order to rescue the hostages. He tried to run down the leader of the group, who threw Illyria (who had transformed into Fred once more) into the front of the truck; she reverted to Illyria on impact.

Spike eventually adjusted to Los Angeles’ new status as a literal hell on Earth.[57] He and Illyria both served together as demon Lords of Beverly hills, during which time it appeared as though both of them had returned to their evil roots. It was eventually revealed that their position was a facade; Spike and Illyria were secretly rescuing humans and benevolent demons and evacuating them into the care of Connor, Nina Ash, Kate Lockley and Gwen Raiden. Spike was given the opportunity to return to the side of evil again, but as always he remained loyal to the good fight, and helped Angel to bring down the other Lords’ champions when he challenged them for control of LA. Spike rallied with the rest of the gang against the machinations of Charles Gunn, who had unfortunately become a self-hating and deluded soulless vampire, and was unknowingly working under visions from the Senior Partners. He also struggled to control Illyria’s increasingly unstable powers in the hell dimension; she had continued to periodically revert to Fred’s form and gentle personality, leaving Spike with the duty of protecting her.

Spike relocated to Las Vegas with his associates, the telepathic fish Betta George and pyrokinetic Beck, where he attempted to create “Team Spike”. While there, Spike learned about Wolfram & Hart’s presence in the city, but his attempts to stop them were hampered by a confrontation with the now resurrected Jeremy Johns, who had been possessed by the liaison to the Senior Partners in Las Vegas, and a man called John. John had become romantically involved with Spike’s sire and ex-lover Drusilla, and was convinced that Spike had “stolen” his soul. He was thrown from a window, and rescued by Groosalug and his dragon, subsequently contacting Willow for additional assistance (Reasoning that his enemies would be expecting him to contact one of Angel’s team). Much to Spike’s surprise Willow was thrilled to see him and proud of his personal growth.

Wanting to come to terms with himself, Spike left San Francisco and the Slayer residing there behind and underwent an interval of highly uncharacteristic brooding. He drowned his sorrows in alcohol, and sat alone in the dark for prolonged periods of time. He even travelled to the literal “dark side” of the moon on his ship. His bugs began to worry that in such a state, he was unfit to be their master, and repeatedly tried to cheer him up. They decided that he had been spending too much time in the dark, and opted to bring him into the solarium he had built to be Buffy’s “light place”, where they had set up an artificial beach inspired by the pictures from a magazine. They also replaced the solarium skylights with necro-tempered glass that blocked the rays dangerous to vampires, allowing Spike to sit in the sunlight without being harmed.

Spike, welcoming a distraction from his constant thoughts about Buffy, agreed to meet Angel and arrived at Alasdair Coames’ place in London to discuss a strategy to defeat Eyghon the Sleepwalker and recover the body of Rupert Giles that the demon had possessed. Spike was vital to the operation because as a vampire he would be less likely to fall under the control of Eyghon. After some petty bickering with Angel, and a brief attempt to catch-up with Faith, the group which includes several London slayers are attacked by Eyghon and his zombies. Angel and Spike worked together in an attempt to capture and defeat the demon. They came very close to apprehending him, but Eyghon now more powerful in his true form overcame the demon within Spike and managed to possess him. While Eyghon failed to corrupt Angel because of the three spirits inside of him (Giles, Angelus and himself), Giles briefly dominated and managed to kill Eyghon, releasing his control over the zombies. Having regained his composure, Spike, along with Faith, noticed that Angel had become completely erratic with multiple beings with him. With the final piece of Giles’s soul, Spike and Faith were forced to come up with a new plan, considering Angel was the only person who had any clue how to restore Giles’ body.[72]

Spike can be seen as something of a paradox amongst vampires; pre-soul he exhibits many characteristics that separate him from his soulless brethren, and he very often challenges his kinds’ supposed emotional and physical limitations. He embraces certain elements of humanity, most notably love, and is exceptionally loyal. Both love and loyalty would be considered too “human” to other vampires, and would therefore be offensive. His humanity and ability to love are detected and ridiculed by the Judge when they resurrect the demon to battle Buffy. While Spike could be seen as a largely selfish individual, he has a capacity for extreme acts of selflessness and loyalty to people he truly loved and cared for even while soulless. With or without one, he displays a strong sense of honor and devotion: he doted on Drusilla for over a century, kept his promise briefly to Buffy to leave Sunnydale with Drusilla after helping her to defeat Angelus[20] (which he later broke),[21] left anonymous flowers to show his respect for Joyce Summers after her death,[81] endured intense torture at the hands of Glorificus in order to protect Dawn for Buffy’s sake,[82] continued to aid the Scooby Gang even after Buffy’s death to honor her memory, assisted Willow and Tara to raise Dawn due to his promise to Buffy,[83] chose to remain in Los Angeles with Angel’s crew after Fred Burkle’s death because he knew she would have wanted him to,[84] agreed to accompany Buffy to the abortion clinic when she believed herself pregnant,[65] and refused to leave Dawn’s side when she began to fade due to the end of magic despite Buffy venturing to the Deeper Well.[75]

Although Spike’s love for mindless destruction might suggest otherwise, he is highly intelligent and educated. He has displayed excellent skills of insight and analysis, particularly in regards to relationships, and makes regular references to literary works. He’s also demonstrated an impressive knowledge of magic rituals and items. He was easily able to discern romantic undertones in Willow’s “friendship” with Tara before her other companions, and he used his deep understanding of Riley Finn’s anxieties about Buffy to undermine him.[94] Ironically, he was often delusional about his own relationship with Drusilla, and refused to acknowledge her repeated acts of infidelity.

Spike has a punk look which strongly resembles that of English rock musician Billy Idol. His hair is platinum blonde and combed back, although previously it was a natural medium brown (unstyled) as well as dyed black in the 40s. Spike received a scar on his eyebrow from the sword of the Slayer he killed in 1900. Angel once sarcastically asked him “What color is your hair? Radioactive?”, and he has been called “Captain Peroxide” by both Xander and Angel. His nails are often painted black.

Spike usually wears long black leather coats. The first coat belonged to a Nazi officer he killed and briefly wore it. His signature leather duster was the one he took as a trophy from Nikki Wood, the second Slayer he killed. He wore the Slayer’s black duster for over twenty-five years. When the coat was destroyed by a bomb planted by the Immortal in Italy, Spike heartbrokenly declared it to be irreplaceable. However, the Italy branch of Wolfram & Hart quickly supplied him with a whole wardrobe of new, nearly identical ones which he happily began wearing.

Powers

Enhanced vampire abilities: Spike had the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire; he was immortal, regenerated damage, possessed superhuman physical attributes, and had heightened senses, able to track people by scent alone. He was also vulnerable to holy items and sunlight, could be killed by decapitation and a stake to the heart, needed to regularly ingest mammal blood to maintain his vitality, and could not enter the residence of a living human without being invited by a resident. Due to his advanced age, however, he was considerably more powerful than an average vampire; he could flip over a car when angered [111], punch through an opponent’s torso [112], drain and hide the bodies of two fully grown men in a few seconds without alerting the girl they were walking with, block an oncoming blade from hitting his back by grabbing his foe and swinging her 90 degrees to the path of the blade before it could finish traveling[113], and survive a bomb explosion[114] Also, he was more resistant to sunlight and holy items than most vampires, once using a large cross as a bludgeoning weapon against Angel and withstanding the pain despite it burning his hands[115].

Advanced combat: Spike was famous for having killed two Slayers. Buffy even once went as far as referring to him as the strongest fighter the Scoobies have during their fight against the First. Spike was a highly skilled and versatile fighter in both armed and unarmed combat. For example, he was able to briefly overcome Illyria during a testing of her abilities when she is at the height of her powers; however he had been training with her for months and had adapted to her abilities so others could have achieved this as well if given the time Spike had. Illyria criticizes his (and others’) ability to adapt, calling it “compromise.”

Much like Angel, Spike was proficient in various forms of martial arts, and his typical fighting style blends Judo, Karate, Kung-Fu, and others. It’s also likely he would have knowledge of Taekwondo and Brazilian jujitsu, being able to discern them both as the fighting styles that Illyria had proficiency in, as well as Street-fighting and Boxing.

Intelligence: Spike often displayed insight and skills in perception and observation, especially with regard to relationships and personalities, so long as the relationship in question doesn’t concern him personally. This ability allows him to wield powerful psychological weapons as easily and effectively as physical ones. For example, when he wants to create disharmony among the Scoobies, Spike divides-and-conquers by exploiting tensions that exist under the surface to turn Buffy and her friends against each other.[116] He explains to Buffy that he was able to defeat two Slayers because he sensed and exploited their secret desires to be free of their burden. Spike’s skills of analysis allowed him to be the first to see through Tara’s abusive and controlling family, forced Buffy and Angel to admit that they were more than “just friends,” and identify when and why some relationships, such as that between Buffy and Riley, are not meant to last, feeding Riley’s insecurities in an effort to sabotage his relationship with Buffy so that Spike can pursue her. His analytical skills also help him in battle from time to time; for example, he identified Illyria’s fighting style as a Tae Kwon Do/Brazilian Ninjitsu hybrid.[117]

Although capable of developing sound battle strategies, Spike (particularly in the days before receiving his chip and being ensouled) often loses patience with anything more complicated than outright attack:

He is also impatient to fight the Slayer upon his initial arrival in Sunnydale; the attack is supposed to coincide with the Night of Saint Vigeous, but he “couldn’t wait” to go after the Slayer and attacks the night before, which results in the deaths of many vampires of the Order of Aurelius. However, Spike did exercise patience when he was confined to a wheelchair after a brutal battle with the Scoobies left him paraplegic for several months. Feigning weakness, he endured tortuous weeks watching Angelus sexually pursue Drusilla as he waited for the right time to strike against his rival.

Much like Angel, Spike, presumably due to his long lifetime, often displays in-depth knowledge of different demon species and other supernatural beings, being aware of Rack and surprised at Willow’s trips to his place[118] and also knowing that Wolfram & Hart represents “the worst evil in the universe.”[1] Spike has also proven to be far more intelligent than others give him credit for; for example, he quickly realizes that Angel and Twilight are one and the same.

Spike’s “vampire constitution” provides him with an extremely high tolerance for alcohol (which he regularly consumes in copious quantities).

Technical skills:Spike has shown to be significantly more competent and comfortable with modern technology than Angel; his knowledge allowed him to turn an old crypt in a Sunnydale cemetery into a comfortable home with electricity and cable television.

Criminal and motorist skills: Due to his experience in criminal activities, he is skilled at picking locks, hotwiring cars, and pick-pocketing. He is also capable of easily operating various vehicles, such as various cars, a Harley Davidson motorcycle,[5][45][119] and a Winnebago.[38]

He has also been shown using video game systems and a computer, treating injuries, and playing poker and pool.

Multilingualism: Spike is also seen speaking Latin, Luganda (a language of Uganda, where he meets the demon shaman), and the language of Fyarl Demons.

Former Powers

When Spike was transformed into a ghost-like intangible state following the destruction of Sunnydale and the Hellmouth and his subsequent materialization at Wolfram & Hart, he was capable of walking through solid objects. He was initially unable to make contact with objects around him until he learned how to focus his abilities through desire, allowing him to make brief contact with people and things if he concentrated enough. However, this ability was relatively useless in a fight, as he was unable to pick up a wooden bar to hit the demon Tezcatcatl,[120] and required a few moments to properly punch a cyborg that was strangling Gunn.[121]

VERSES